I will come on to what I think about the Government's position in a moment. Rhianon Passmore obviously referred to the equitable distribution of wealth, and I think, for those of us who are socialists, that's a fundamental point for all of us: fairer distribution of wealth.

Jenny Rathbone and Huw Irranca-Davies both talked about the impact of food poverty. Huw Irranca particularly talked about the Co-op campaign around food justice and Jenny highlighted the problems of the lack of good daily nutrition and holiday hunger, when children are going without school meals.

I think the impacts of poverty are very clear in every community. Here are some of the headlines from a local newspaper in my own constituency, the Caerphillly Observer: on 23 May, the headline was, 'Benefit caps hit hundreds in Caerphilly County Borough', and underneath the next headline was the increase in the number of emergency supplies from food banks.

Poverty is now an everyday reality in too many lives, and yet the UK Chancellor only this week continues to be in denial about the link between the policy of austerity and those many suffering in poverty. That was referenced by John Griffiths when he referred to Professor Philip Alston's report earlier on. It seems that the Chancellor rejects the evidence of his own official statistics, but is now apparently admitting that the economy is not working as it should. Well, looking at the food bank figures that John referred to earlier on, it's clearly time that the Chancellor woke up and smelled the coffee, because that is a major problem for the country. 

I recognise that in recent years the Welsh Government has made poverty a cross-cutting issue for the Cabinet, and tackling poverty is therefore a responsibility of every Minister, and that's to be welcomed. I thank the Minister for setting out the Government's positions and policies for seeking to address poverty in his response to the debate. But it does also mean, in my view, that those with a specific passion in the issues around tackling poverty don't always find the focus that is required. And while it is true, as John Griffiths has said, that Welsh Government doesn't hold all the key economic levers required to tackle poverty, not least the UK's responsibility for welfare, some of us do believe that we do require a sharper focus, and that sharper focus would also allow us to prepare for the time when we see the return of a UK Government that is more willing to work in partnership to help tackle poverty.

Many of us recall the record during the period of the last UK Labour Government: children lifted out of poverty—