11. 10. Welsh Conservatives Debate: The Welsh Government’s National Strategy

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:01 pm on 27 September 2017.

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Photo of Carwyn Jones Carwyn Jones Labour 5:01, 27 September 2017

No. If you look—. [Interruption.] If you compare the figures on a like-by-like basis, they’re clearly not. If you compare them with the days before 1999 when around about 38 per cent of Welsh pupils got five A* to C grades, that figure is now well beyond that—well beyond that—and that’s a result of what we have done in terms of education delivery. So, no, what we are seeing in education is better delivery, we’re seeing better results. If you look at A-levels, for example, in A-levels we are often—not that it should be a competition, but people compare us—better than England in many, many subjects and that’s as a result of the work that’s been put in by the current education Secretary, of course, building on the work that’s gone on in previous years.

So, I think we need to be positive about our country. We deliver against a background of extreme austerity. We know that there are still £3.5 billion-worth of cuts across the UK that are not yet even allocated by the current UK Government. We don’t know where those cuts will lie. And so, yes, we’d like to deliver more—we’d like to do the things that the Conservatives call upon us to do, even though we haven’t got the money to do it. We’d like to hear more from the Conservatives about what their ideas are. One thing I noticed in the speeches was that they criticised, which is their right; not one positive idea was put forward as to what they’d do differently—not one. So, they are still in the position where they’re unable to offer the people of Wales anything, unable to offer the people of Wales a positive way forward, unable to offer the people of Wales any kind of hope for the future. We will continue to do that, the people of Wales understand that, that’s why we saw the result that we did in June, and that’s why, of course, we’ll continue to work for the people of Wales. We will join with others who want to work with us in delivering the best future for our country, based on fairness, on justice, on opportunity and on prosperity for all. [Interruption.]