<p>Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders</p>

Part of 2. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:52 pm on 3 October 2017.

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Photo of Carwyn Jones Carwyn Jones Labour 1:52, 3 October 2017

All Governments have to borrow. Well, there are very few Governments that don’t have to borrow—usually those that are oil rich. The reality is you borrow to invest. What we’re seeing at the moment is a Government that is bumping the British economy off the ground. We know that, as far as injections of money are concerned, that’s not happening. The economy is not being stimulated. Now, he doesn’t want me to lecture him on economic history—I will, and recent economic history, which he will remember. Because he seemed to suggest that Gordon Brown was responsible for the world financial crash in 2008. The reality is the crash was caused by irresponsible banks selling financial products to people who they knew full well would not be able to repay them. Then they bundled those debts and sold them onto other banks, infecting the entire system. That’s what happened. We are still living with the consequences of that. It’s quite clear to me, then, that the old ways of doing things cannot be followed in the future. We need a Keynesian injection of cash into the economy in order to make sure that we create more employment, that we put more money in peoples’ pockets, and stimulate the economy in that way. Because it’s quite clear that, over the past seven years, what’s been done isn’t working.