Part of 4. Questions to the Counsel General and Minister for European Transition (in respect of his European Transition Minister responsibilities) – in the Senedd at 12:35 pm on 15 July 2020.
You say that you've had a more cautious approach for health reasons, but I've just cited at least two examples where there hasn't been a cautious approach, certainly on face coverings and when it came to the testing of care home residents and staff. So, it's not true to say that you've had a more cautious approach, certainly in respect of those two things.
And I ask you again: what assessment has the Welsh Government made of the longer term impact on people's health as a result of your longer lockdown? Because we all know that poorer nations tend to have poorer outcomes in terms of the health of their populations, and I fear that you're making a mess of the economic recovery that could be because of your longer lockdown.
Now, I accept, I fully accept, that you've got to strike the right balance between health concerns and economic concerns, but I'm afraid there hasn't been any balance so far, and certainly not when it comes to your expert panel here in Wales. The membership of your panel, of course, consists of Gordon Brown, the former Chancellor and Prime Minister responsible for putting the country into the worst possible position during the 2008 economic downturn, only hobbling on then to a recovery after almost bankrupting the country; a former adviser to Ed Miliband, who was the brainchild behind the 'Ed stone', or 'the tombstone' as it came to be known, who now leads a left-leaning think tank; and, of course, the leader of a hard-left socialist think tank that has advocated a 21-hour working week, scrapping the measurement of GDP in terms of economic growth, and in fact has said that economic growth isn't actually possible. So, we've got a former Prime Minister and Chancellor responsible for the biggest boom and bust that our country had ever seen, a former special adviser, and a socialist who doesn't even believe in economic growth. How on earth is that going to help this country bounce back in the way that my party wants to see it bounce back as a result of this pandemic?