I would absolutely recognise everything that Mike Hedges has said in terms of the economic impact of the statement. I think that it’s been well reported now that the view generally is that the Chancellor has just taken a huge gamble on the nation's finances, and I think a good piece of advice for everyone, really, is never gamble more than you can afford to lose. But, unfortunately, the Chancellor’s gambling with more than just his own life, his own chances; he’s gambling with those of everybody in this country, and people who can't afford to lose. So, I think that that has been a really important observation as well. Mike Hedges's points are completely right in terms of the unnecessary risks that are being taken with public finances. Obviously, we've seen that it's unnerved investors. The Financial Times noted parallels with the 1972 and 1973 budgets, which it described as

'the worst pieces of short-term economic management in Britain since the second world war', and the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows that the new Government's policies are likely to put debt on an 'ever-rising path'.

Mike Hedges also talked about the impact on sterling, and the lack of confidence in the UK Government's management of the economy and public finances has seen sterling weaken, which will result in rising consumer prices here at home and disturbingly sharp increases in the interest rate on Government debt. So, a whole range of negative responses to the UK Government's budget of last week.

I think the point about standing charges is an important one, and we will absolutely find ways to raise that with the UK Government. It makes that wider point, doesn't it, that it costs more to be poor in Wales and in the UK at the moment, because of a whole range of reasons, including the fact that your shopping choices are often much more limited if you don't have a car, you have to pay for things on hire-purchase, which end up costing much more, and a depressing fact that I heard at a constituency event over the last week was that it actually costs more to run an empty fridge than it does to run a full one. I just think that is such a horrible and ironic characterisation of the challenges that people are facing at the moment.