Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government – in the Senedd at 1:59 pm on 15 March 2017.
So, £7,500, approximately, per head is raised in tax in Wales, compared to £10,000 across the UK as a whole. I’m glad to hear the Cabinet Secretary’s restatement and clarification that his party, at least, and the Government he leads, is a devolutionist one, because, in many of the actions of this Government, agreement is sought with a certain party opposite—and I’m never quite clear whether they are in opposition or supporting the Government, but their signature policy of independence for Wales is supported by a mere 6 per cent of people living in Wales. Now, the Cabinet Secretary spoke earlier about a quadrilateral meeting, and the First Minister has put great emphasis on the Joint Ministerial Committee sort of structure, but are we not in a very different situation? Not only did Wales, as England, vote for leaving the European Union, and did so by more than the UK as a whole, the situation we face is that Northern Ireland has no government, and it’s not clear when they will have a government, while the Scottish Government will, for the foreseeable future, be agitating for independence, seeking pretext for dispute, rather than trying to make the UK work. In that situation, should the Welsh Government not put a greater emphasis on bilateral meetings and negotiation with the UK Government to get the best result for Wales, as the Cabinet Secretary sought to do with the fiscal framework?