We heard evidence on the economy committee a few days ago that our economy will never be the same. Some jobs will never return, and some jobs will not return in the same way. We can use this as a positive opportunity to refocus. We could look at the businesses that we have that can be reskilled and repurposed. If our aerospace industry doesn't recover quickly enough, could we use some of those skills and some of those technologies to build renewable energy projects, for example?

And of course, there are Welsh Government programmes that we can build on. But, we will again need to be more ambitious, and we will need wider and more radical action. Perhaps, for example, we could give individual citizens a cash sum of £5,000 and enable them to choose, with that funding, how they choose to reskill themselves for a new economy that it's impossible to chart at the moment.

Of course, none of this is entirely new, and it accords with a lot of what others are saying. The Future Generations Commissioner for Wales has been saying the same things. We saw the new body Restart Wales putting forward some similar proposals yesterday. And, of course, the Trades Union Congress at the UK level and in Scotland and here in Wales is saying similar things.

Now, Llywydd, this of course will have to be paid for. As we say in Welsh, 'Diwedd y gân yw'r geiniog'. At the end of every song, there's the penny to pay. There are three areas that I want to briefly touch on here. The first is to return to the question of Barnett, and I was able to touch on this in questions to the economy Minister earlier. Research from the Centre for Towns shows that, of the 20 worst affected communities in England and Wales, 10 of those communities are going to be in Wales. I would suggest to this virtual Chamber that that doesn't say very much for the UK-wide solidarity that we often our First Minister speak about. It doesn't appear to have served us terribly well so far, and we can tell that to my constituents in Llanelli and people across south and north-east Wales.

But, be that as it may, we know that the formula was never fair. We know that it's never served us well. And in terms of bringing resources from the UK Government into our response to this crisis, it is imperative that the formula by which those resources come is now based on need and not on historical numbers and not on a simple formula. We really need to make that case again, and in this context—those  20 towns, with 10 of the worst affected in Wales, and much other evidence that shows how difficult it will be for our economy to recover or, as I would argue, to transform—those resources will be needed.

But I'm not sanguine, Llywydd. We have asked this of Governments of the UK of many colours over many years, and we've always got the same answer. So, what are the other options? Well, in the paper that we've produced to support this debate, we are advocating strongly once again the need for borrowing, and I know that this is something that the Welsh Government supports. It has never been cheaper to borrow to invest. All economists would tell us that this is going to be the case for many years to come.

So, we make the case for a £20 billion bond to be repaid over 30 years, and the repayment of that is affordable. I won't detain the Senedd this afternoon, but the paper is published—people can look at the evidence there. It is affordable, and that is the scale of investment that we will need because the scale of the challenge that we face is so enormous. I might ask, perhaps, Conservative colleagues in this Chamber to use what influence they may have with the UK Government to allow Welsh Government to borrow on this scale. It is essential. We recovered from the last crisis on this scale after the second world war by borrowing and investing.

Now, there's another question to be asked, and that is: is it time to have a grown-up conversation about tax? It is certainly true to say that we cannot hope to have Scandinavian-style public services and a United States of America-style taxation system. I'm not necessarily talking here about income tax, for example. We might look at wealth taxes. We might look at property taxes. That, of course, is for the longer term. But I do believe, Llywydd, that we have, through this crisis, overcome the decades-old Thatcherite idea that public spending is a bad thing. You will not find, I think, many people across the UK who are not glad for the scale of investment that has gone into protecting our economy and our public services, and now perhaps is the time to have those discussions. 

I will refer briefly now, if I may, Llywydd, to the amendments. We can't accept the Government amendment. There is a slight sense in it of, 'This is fine, we've got it, it's okay.' Well, they can't have. Nobody has. We need more ideas. We need to think differently. We welcome much, of course, of what is set out in the Government amendment. We welcome the work that the Counsel General is doing. I'm not entirely sure why he's seeking the advice of Gordon Brown, who, for the best part of a decade as Chancellor and then as Prime Minister, refused to reform the Barnett formula, which would have been very helpful to us. But be that as it may, this isn't a time for party political points. We welcome the consultation through the social partnership, but that isn't enough in itself, which again is why we're advocating for a citizen's assembly, and I'm a bit disappointed the Government hasn't seen fit. We need more urgency and ambition.

Very briefly, to the Conservative amendments, we can't accept amendment 2. While apprenticeships will be important, they will not be sufficient. We are happy to accept amendment 3 as a useful addition, and I've explained our position, of course, about amendment 4. Amendment 5, to us, lacks ambition and scope. Now, with regard to amendment 6, we are able to support some elements of what the Member is suggesting, but I think it would be too optimistic to think, for example, that the food and drink industry alone will be able to lead us out of this mess. So, we will abstain on that amendment.

To draw my remarks to a close, Llywydd, this is a time to work together. This is a time for ambition. This is an opportunity, as I've heard the Minister say, to build, I think, not just a fairer, greener economy but a fair, green economy, and for that to happen we need to be taking action now while we look for the longer way ahead. I commend our motion with the one amendment to the Senedd.