Well, it takes me back to economic lectures on endogenous growth curves, but I won't go into that at the moment.

Mark Reckless talked about the difference in definition between GVA—the value of goods and services produces per head of population—and wages and prosperity, because GVA captures where value in goods and services is generated and not necessarily where people commute from. So, we have to look at the picture in the whole.

Neil Hamilton talked of the need to raise income levels generally. He said that Wales doesn't have all the economic levers available to Ireland, for example, but, of course, Wales is still lagging behind the other nations and regions where the same UK policies apply. And then he emitted his thoughts on emissions, and we have to look forward to more of that, I gather, in the future. He concluded by saying we need to get Governments off the backs of business and the people.

Siân Gwenllian talked about economic collaboration between the councils of the west, but, of course, councils in north-west Wales are already prudently signed up to the north Wales growth deal and, clearly, co-operation and collaboration across all regions is good as long as that's not compromised, and she rightly highlighted the need for economic and linguistic prosperity in west Wales.

Nick Ramsay talked about the promises made at the dawn of devolution with Welsh Government in charge of economic levers, but we need to spend the next 20 years delivering what we failed to do during the first 20. We need to boost the economic fortunes of Wales's poorest areas, but there's no quick fix, especially after the last two decades. The need to support small and medium enterprises, transport, and digital networks in urban and rural areas, and he talked about the need to use new tax and borrowing powers to generate the wealth that can then be taxed and spent on public services.

Ken Skates referred to how his economic action plan will reach other parts that Labour-led Welsh Government has failed to reach during its first two decades in charge. He talked about good work at the regional level, including city and growth deals, about his regional indicative budgets being developed. He agreed with Russell George that we need to grow wealth and reduce inequalities and he said we need to move wealth from the south-east of England to Wales. But I understood that it was the taxes paid in the south-east of England that are currently plugging the gap between the amount that Wales was paying in and the amount it was currently receiving. 

Tragically, Wales remains the least productive of the 12 UK nations and regions. Even more shockingly, for the value of goods and services produced per head in Wales, growth has been slower than Scotland, Northern Ireland and England once again. The only particular positive that I can see was that the highest growth in Wales had been in Flintshire and Wrexham, but that was still below pre-devolution levels. Frankly, it's a betrayal that regional inequality in Wales is as it is, with successive Labour Governments failing to close the gap between the richest and poorest parts of the country. 

I'll conclude by quoting WalesOnline's article yesterday when they interviewed people in Ebbw Vale. They reported responses from residents, business owners, councillors, business forum chair and others being all the same: that they'd had a lovely statue, a lovely glass canopy to replace the old one, a mechanical lift that connects one part of town to the other, a leisure centre had been replaced, a college had been replaced, but despite millions spent on regional regeneration projects, it hadn't done what they needed—bringing jobs and bringing businesses in.