This is an austerity budget. Twice over, all of us can see the impact of the Tory UK Government's austerity agenda, which has depleted the overall spending power of Welsh Government significantly, and no Darren Millar smoke and mirrors will hide the reality of that callous Tory Government at Westminster. But the double whammy in this budget, of course, is the fact that Labour has made political decisions here that deepen the effect of long-term UK Government cuts, especially in the context of local government budget allocations. And this in the context of an increase, actually, in the overall budget for next year.

Now, yes, there's been a tweak since the publishing of the first draft budget, with the allocation of new UK budget consequentials that does slightly loosen the stranglehold on Welsh councils, but it's still a stranglehold, nonetheless, and this budget was an opportunity to put a fresh injection of resource into local services that could have knock-on benefits for public services more widely, and I regret that that opportunity hasn't been taken.

Of course, this Government commands a majority, now, so our powers, as opposition parties, are limited. That's the reality; we're collectively not in a position to vote it down, and the way we vote on these benches has no bearing, sadly, on the overall ability of the Government to pass its budget. We're bound, with a budget agreement that is nearing its end, to abstain today, but as much as we consider a budget agreement to be something to be taken very seriously indeed, I must say that we are under intense pressure, including from Labour colleagues of the finance Minister, to vote against. But my hope is that, in the spirit of the positive dialogue that there has been between the finance Minister and me and my predecessors, as Plaid Cymru finance spokespeople—and I do thank him for the mature and constructive manner in which discussions have taken place—he does give further thought between now and the publication of the final budget to giving local government a break. We can't continue with the real-term cuts that have a direct impact on education spending and on social services, leading to damaging indirect impacts on health budgets. Your room for manoeuvre is limited—I understand that—but what that means is that the manoeuvring you do do has to be with pinpoint accuracy, and, unfortunately, local services are taking a hard knock, as it stands.