Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:53 pm on 20 October 2020.
Whether it's COVID or Brexit, being wedded to Westminster is having disastrous consequences for Wales. The health Secretary in England is overseeing a calamitous lighthouse lab system hampering the Welsh COVID response, while the Chancellor turns a blind eye to the struggle of Welsh businesses, workers and the self-employed. Compare our situation with that of New Zealand. I'm sure, First Minister, you will want to join me in congratulating Jacinda Ardern on her stunning victory. Here is a Labour politician, in a country not much bigger than Wales in its population, who has presided over one of the most successful COVID responses anywhere in the world. Not only is New Zealand COVID free, it is also free from the British state, its blustering Prime Minister and his Cabinet of calamities. The Prime Minister is 'utterly shambolic', whose 'indifference to Wales borders on contempt'. Your words, First Minister, not mine, but with which I nevertheless agree. Given how Westminster is wreaking havoc on Wales, are you not remotely tempted by the notion of Wales joining New Zealand as an independent nation—small, successful and progressive?