Thank you for that. I think you cannot divorce that from the fact that, since 2010, there has been an £850 million cut to Wales. This is strategic, this is long term, and we know that there is more to come unless there is a general election, and there’s quite a simple fact here: if your coat is too tight, you will get wet.

I met with elected members of Caerphilly County Borough Council last week—[Interruption.] Well, let me just explain my comment: if you do not have enough money coming in, you will not be able to deliver the services that your people need. I called the leader of council to the Assembly, because I’m very concerned about the status of local government per se across the UK, with me for frank discussions about the challenges that councils face and the prudent use of reserves, but the fact is that councils are scared when they look across the water at England. The South Wales Argus stated on 12 November that, since 2008, cuts of £89 million have been made by the authority. A further £60 million will have to be found over the next five years. And I know that no Labour politician has ever spoken to me about coming into public life to cut public services. These are the lifelines of the community. No Labour politician that I know has ever stated that that’s why they came into local government.

It is a fact that local government provides services that directly benefit and impact on the very poorest in our society. It is local government that pays for respite, care, music, sport and non-statutory support services for our people, and I applaud the determination of Welsh Labour councillors and our citizens, who continue to speak up loudly for the need to fight back against Conservative austerity.

It is thanks to the Welsh Labour Government and our local authorities in Wales that they will have to manage cuts of not more than 0.5 per cent. And this is in stark contrast—[Interruption.]—if I wish to continue, and I do if I can—. This is in stark contrast to the situation in England, where council budgets have been decimated. And I would take more truck from the party opposite if, where they are in Government, they had not got the travesty of cuts to local government that England has. Research by the Local Government Association has found local government in England, under the Tories, will face an almost £8 billion funding gap—that is the reality—by 2025. It cannot be right that the Conservatives opposite call for more money whilst cutting, over time, strategically, the Welsh budget. It is disingenuous at most and farcical.

The Tories' cuts to local government in England are deeply unfair. They hit some of the councils with the greatest need the hardest. The top-10—[Interruption.] If you would just let me finish. The top-10 most deprived councils in England are set to see cuts higher than the national average, with nine on course for cuts more than three times higher than the national average. So, where is the Conservative compassion there for the poorest in our society, where you govern?

I know that Welsh people are better served by Welsh Labour councils, governed by the Welsh Labour Government, and I suggest, finally, Deputy Llywydd, that the Tories opposite shake that magic money tree that they found for Northern Ireland—the £1 billion that you gave to them—and give it back to Wales. Thank you.