5. Debate: COVID19 — Unlocking our Society and Economy: Continuing the Conversation

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:20 pm on 20 May 2020.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 5:20, 20 May 2020

I did agree, however, very much with what Adam Price said about the joint biosecurity centre and its ability for us to look for local-level actions. I agree with what he said about the potential for that and we will want to maximise our ability to draw on that potential. 

I listened carefully to what Nick Ramsay said. He asked me to spend money on local authorities, on universities, on the discretionary assistance fund, on tourism and a number of other entirely deserving purposes. He asked me for financial clarity. Let me say: it's not more clarity we need; it's more money. And in order to be able to attend to the many demands that there are there to meet the circumstances we face in Wales, we will need a UK Government capable of acting, not by re-imposing austerity, but by injecting demand into the economy, by offering us the stimulus—the fiscal stimulus—that we will need in order to attend to the many things that Nick Ramsay referred to.

I want to end by just drawing together a couple of contributions from Lynne Neagle and from Joyce Watson. Let me just say how much I agreed with three of the key principles that Lynne Neagle set out. Equality: it is just desperate that wealth is the best shield against this virus. I thought Joyce Watson made an outstanding contribution to the debate this afternoon in drawing attention to the practical ways in which people's lives, which are hard enough in the first place, are now being made additionally difficult by the onset of this disease. And this Government has put equality at the front of the lens that we will use as we plot a path out of coronavirus together.

And when I say 'together', I'm drawing attention to the second of the principles that Lynne outlined, that of partnership. And the strength of local government really has come to the fore in this crisis. And I pay tribute to the leader of Torfaen County Borough Council—the community that Lynne represents in the Assembly—for everything that he has done with other leaders to turn the power of local government and their presence on the ground in communities across Wales to the benefit of those local populations and especially to those who have needed that help the most.

And finally, can I just share in what Lynne said about the positives of the experience and to draw some hope out of everything we have gone through? Last night, Llywydd, I took part in a virtual Iftar, drawing together people of all different faiths from across Wales in a very moving ceremony, attended by my colleague Jane Hutt and others. In that event, the voice of what was described as an ordinary community member in the centre here in Cardiff was given an opportunity to talk to us about what it was like to live in a densely populated inner-city area in a small house with three teenaged sons and a husband all trying to live under the same roof, and she was absolutely inspirational in focusing on the positive things that that family and that community have drawn out of this experience.

And that's where I find the hope—that's where I find the hope—in those experiences that Welsh citizens have had, how they have found ways of drawing closer to one another inside the home and with those who live around them, and the determination that was expressed there to build on the calm and considered way this Government is determined to find a way out of coronavirus, to be diligent, to be detailed in the way that we attend to decision making here in Wales, and then to draw on that strength, that key strength, that gives us solidarity—the solidarity of knowing that we share those experiences, we find the positives in them and together we act to find a way beyond coronavirus that attends to those whose needs are greatest, whose contribution has been the most and on whose requirements the future needs to be based.