Part of 2. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:49 pm on 3 October 2017.
Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. This afternoon—[Interruption.] I knew that the Chamber was circular, Llywydd; I didn’t realise it revolved as well. This afternoon, we shall hear the outline budget from the finance Secretary, but his room for manoeuvre is obviously limited by the nature of the funding of the Welsh Government. Ninety-two per cent of the money that Welsh Government spends currently comes from the United Kingdom Government by block grant. So, the success of the Welsh economy and the ability of the Welsh Government to spend depends crucially upon the health of the UK economy, which, in turn, depends crucially upon the economic policies of the Government at Westminster. Does he think that the consequences for Wales of the kind of spending plans that Jeremy Corbyn outlined last week in Brighton would, in the long term, benefit the Welsh economy? They’ve been added up to about £312 billion. It must be one of the most expensive speeches in human history. That’s £4.15 billion per minute, £69.3 million per second. Such a speech programme would actually bankrupt the UK economy, and that can be nothing less than disastrous for Wales.