I am well aware of what the referendum result is, but I’m also aware of the chaos that we are heading towards, especially with a hard Brexit.

With Groucho’s famous quote and our future in Europe in mind, who in all honesty would want to be part of a club that would have those three as members?

In the midst of this Tory chaos we must still make a budget. Amidst the shambles, the Welsh Government must champion good government. Amidst constant attack from Whitehall, we must show the people of Wales our determination to stand for a decent public realm to protect the most vulnerable and, despite everything this UK Government throws at us, lay the groundwork for a better Wales. This, the Welsh Government has done.

Through this budget, we have shown that our values chime with the values of the people of Wales. Just look at the contrasts. While the NHS in England struggles to soak up the consequences of starving social care, we in Wales invest in social care and commit an extra £0.25 billion to the NHS. While the English school system fragments into academies, free schools and now grammar schools, with all the waste that that entails, we keep our nerve and will continue to invest in school standards and school buildings. We must not be thrown off course in the scramble for a quick headline. Raising standards in schools takes time. The OECD agrees that we have the right strategies in place. I hope that we can still, even at this stage, see a re-commitment from the Welsh Government to Schools Challenge Cymru as the detail of this budget unfolds.

Whilst local government in England is throttled year after year, in Wales we recognise the pressure they are under, value the job that they have done in hugely difficult times, and do our best to protect local services. We do, indeed, live in uncertain times, perhaps even in dangerous times, Mark Reckless. If this bunch of comedians in Whitehall lands us with a hard Brexit, then dangerous times they will be. Industry will stay or move abroad based on hard figures, not rhetoric from the Marx brothers. Regeneration will crumble as structural funds evaporate, and Welsh farming will face an existential threat.

At the dawn of dangerous times in his own country, W.B. Yeats wrote,

‘Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world /… The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.’

Now, in the present, we see and hear that passionate intensity from the worst—the rampant xenophobia, the online hatred—but at least here, in Wales, the best do not lack all conviction, and this budget proves it. Whilst the Whitehall farce continues, the Welsh Government budgets for investment and to look after our people. In uncertain times it’s what the best should do.