8. Statement by the First Minister: Coronavirus — December Restrictions

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:06 pm on 1 December 2020.

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Photo of Mark Reckless Mark Reckless Conservative 6:06, 1 December 2020

Good. Now, First Minister, you said, 'If only we do this, we can get through to Christmas', but that's what you said about the firebreak, and it didn't work, did it? And there's been a little too much self-congratulation about that firebreak: bring it in, a stitch in time, comparing Wales to England over the operation of that, but it doesn't quite look like that now, does it? You keep on going on about tier 3 in England, but along the whole of our border, except for south Gloucestershire and the two motorway bridges, it is tier 2, and pubs are reopening and they're going to be serving alcohol. And, unfortunately, because of this 'it's Wales, therefore, pubs can't serve alcohol', it brings the whole policy into disrepute, and when people, whether they're on the Conservative or the Plaid benches tell you, 'Actually, there's a risk people will go and have house parties, rather than be in a regulated environment', they're not encouraging people to break the law, they're just making a sensible observation. Closing pubs after 6 p.m. but saying, ' You can open before, but you can't serve alcohol', is like telling butchers they can open but they can't serve meat.

Now, what went wrong? When we came out of that firebreak, you had to have a Wales-wide approach. State building first, public health second. You allowed people from high-incidence areas—from Merthyr Tydfil, in my region, to go to Monmouth, where incidence was low, but you insisted on enforcing a border between Wales and England. That is the problem that you've had, and you keep on having measures that just have to be a bit different because it's in Wales, and people no longer want to follow the measures. You lost the Conservative support on the firebreak, you've lost Plaid support now, you're even hearing a measure of opposition from your backbenchers.