Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:26 pm on 10 May 2017.
Debt is an important part, an important fiscal tool, and we have been in debt. But you go back to the 1990s, when the deficit was running around £20 billion, and you look at when the Labour Party left power in 2010, and it’s running at well over £150 billion. So, clearly, it has been an upward trajectory and that needs to be controlled. As Plaid Cymru have entered this debate, can I just say—? I don’t have much time, but I’ll just say this: Adam Price, you spoke passionately but you seemed eager to hang all the problems of Wales on the Conservative party. Well, Adam, it hasn’t been the Conservative party dominating Welsh politics for 100 years. And you know that in your heart of hearts. It wasn’t the Conservatives dominating Britain from 1997 to 2010, when so much of this debt was generated in the first place and left us in this position. And it hasn’t been my party here, my group here, dominating Welsh politics and dominating this Assembly since the advent of devolution in 1997. It’s been the other parties who have been presiding over this. So, if you’ve got problems with the way Wales is looking today—and I understand you have—then don’t look over this side of the Chamber for the problem. Look here for the solutions, but not the problem, because I know where that lies.