8. Plaid Cymru debate: The UK Government Budget and Wales

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 7:32 pm on 29 November 2017.

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Photo of Adam Price Adam Price Plaid Cymru 7:32, 29 November 2017

I think this debate has been very useful in that it has pointed up some of the dividing lines on the economic policy questions of our time. Clearly, we have the various versions of the irrational optimism that we heard on the opposite benches. We can quote any number of think tanks. The IFS was quoted on the Tory benches. The IFS is saying that we won't return to the pre-crisis level of national debt as a proportion of income until the 2060s. Productivity is at its worst level in terms of its trend since the early 1800s. How much pessimism are you going to deny? The figures speak for themselves, quite frankly. If you think the OBR is unduly negative, the OECD has got an even lower forecast. Morgan Stanley—scions of the capitalist system—they're about half the level that the OBR are forecasting for 2019. That's the reality, the economic reality that we're facing.

There are other dividing lines. It's an interesting time that we are living in when Andy Haldane from the Bank of England says that the question of our time is labour's share in the economy, almost sounding like an old-school Marxian economist. That is the fundamental question. Globally, labour's share in the economy is falling, and that's why I would appeal to those on the Labour benches. You need to focus on this question. Obviously, we're not going to be able to solve this problem ourselves alone—we're not arguing that—but there's a leadership opportunity for us in Wales here. The question of the falling share of wages in the economy has to be addressed, and you could actually catalyse that wider debate, as the Scottish Government are doing, by looking at how we can raise the cap here in Wales. There are some practical suggestions—others are available—about how that could be done. I do urge you on the Labour benches to look again at this question. [Interruption.] Yes, certainly.