Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:49 pm on 27 June 2017.
The First Minister’s opening speech was full of unconscious humour and he did at least have the good grace, I think, to chuckle whilst he was talking about it being unfair, wrong and corrosive, this deal, as though it would be any different if it was Labour that had the larger number of seats and was doing a similar kind of deal with the DUP. I’m old enough to remember, as I’m not sure whether it was Lynne Neagle or Ken Skates pointed out earlier in the day, what politics was like in the 1970s. I remember the negotiations between the Wilson Government and the Callaghan Governments with Northern Irish Members, and I remember the day when the Labour Government was brought down by Frank Maguire coming over and being plied with drink in the Strangers’ bar only then to abstain in person so that the Government lost a vote of no confidence. So, this is power politics. We’ve seen it all before and no doubt we’ll see it again. I congratulate the DUP on the deal that they’ve done with the Government. In fact, they’re such good negotiators, I think they should be in charge of the Brexit negotiations on behalf of the United Kingdom. [Interruption.] But for the First Minister to complain about this—