Diolch. Oh, Adam, Adam, Adam, I must say, I enjoyed your speech a little bit more than the motion itself. You did at least get to the glimmer of light at the end, which made it worth while me getting up in the morning, I suppose, and coming to work, and you did mention the budget at the end.

Look, referring to the motion itself, I do like to be positive about some aspects of motions and there wasn't much that was positive in this motion, to be fair. I don't think this UK Government would proclaim to be the best thing since sliced bread, but I do think it does deserve a little bit more credit than you gave it there, at least, and in this motion.

It's not my job to come here and defend the UK Government, even though it's my party that is in power there. It's my job to come here and represent my constituents in the National Assembly for Wales and to talk about what we can do here in this Chamber. And that's why I was a little disappointed by the tone of this motion, because I do think it rather dwells on the negative and doesn't talk about the positive: what we can do. [Interruption.]

If we can just turn to our amendments, we wish to note the £1.2 billion—[Interruption.] You'll get a mention in a bit, Simon, don't worry. We wish to note the £1.2 billion increase in the Welsh budget over four years as a result of this budget. Now, I know I'm going to anticipate the finance Secretary's response later in saying that a proportion of that money is financial transaction capital. This was mentioned by the Chair of the Finance Committee in the session we had earlier. It's a term that's reared its head and I'm not sure it is the talk of breakfast tables up and down Wales, but as the finance Secretary will probably tell us, it does make it more difficult to deploy. But, as I’m sure the finance Secretary would recognise, it is at least more money coming to us than we had before, and that’s key to this budget: there is additional money coming to Wales, so it is not all doom and gloom.

We must, of course, welcome the proportion of that additional finance that is coming to Wales as a direct result of the hard-fought fiscal framework negotiated between the Welsh Government and the UK Government. As the Cabinet Secretary has said, very fairly, it’s not an enormous sum of money in terms of the Welsh budget as a whole, but it is additional money that would not have happened without this agreement, and I pay credit to him in those negotiations, and indeed the UK Government. I’m pleased that I had a small role as well, along the way, in helping with that process.

I’m not even saying we should shut the door on future Barnett reform. I think there is still a case, which we don’t tend to talk about anymore, but there is still a long-term case, I think, to review the mechanisms that fund Wales overall. Perhaps that can be done in conjunction with the fiscal framework, because I think all of us here would want to have the best deal for Wales possible, and over time, financing mechanisms do become out of date. So, hopefully that can be discussed in future when we’re looking at the UK’s budget allocations.

Of course, our amendment also notes progress that has been made with the north Wales growth deal. We’ve called for that for a long time. It’s in this budget, so it’s good news. I didn’t hear it get a mention—I might have missed it. It didn’t seem to get a mention in Adam Price’s comments. It didn’t seem to be mentioned in the motion, either. How many times do Members in this Chamber, particularly Members from the north of Wales, stand up and say in debates that we don’t think that there’s enough going to the north of the country, and that there’s not enough going to rural parts of Wales? So, here is an example where there is a focus on a part of Wales. Adam Price is quite right, parts of Wales have been neglected in the past, and here there is an attempt, at least, to in some way rectify that.

I heard what you said on the progress, or lack of progress as you saw it, with the Swansea bay tidal lagoon, and we will continue to call for that. We believe that the tidal lagoon is a very important piece of infrastructure for the Welsh economy. Okay, it might not have been prevalent in this budget, but it is well-known that we are still calling for that tidal lagoon—and not just this party, of course, but the party opposite and the party of government. It’s very close to Mike Hedges’s heart as well, I know, so we will continue to look for progress on that.

Of course, we are getting electrification of the Great Western Railway line—to Cardiff, I admit, before you jump up. The Severn tolls are being scrapped. How long have we been calling for that? That’s good news, isn’t it? So, that’s another glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel, or at the end of the bridge, if you pardon the pun. So, that’s a commitment from the UK Government that’s going to happen. Also, of course, there’s the commitment of the UK Government to fund the future maintenance of that bridge, without that cost falling solely upon us here in Wales. So, that’s good as well. Let’s acknowledge the positives.

If I can just mention the Welsh Government amendment very briefly, I was rather bemused that it deletes point 4 of the motion and then reinstates it in a reworded format that basically says the same thing, but tries to blame the UK Government instead of blaming the Welsh Government. But I won’t intervene in private grief between Plaid and Labour on that.

Adam Price, you made some very good points—as you always do, to be fair—but I do think you could have been a little bit more upbeat about the prospects for our economy. I’m grateful you didn’t mention the 'B' word, because I think we’ve all had enough of that being mentioned over the last few weeks. But there is more than a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel, and let’s all of us in this Assembly work together to send a positive message to the UK Government: yes, give us more support in the future, but at least we’re getting somewhere.