Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:55 pm on 15 November 2022.
I look forward to the First Minister allowing us to go through the books with him. Will he organise a briefing when we can actually look, line by line, at where we can reprioritise the budget in a progressive, socialist way?
Now, can the First Minister clarify one thing? You referred to discussions. Are you willing to enter into negotiations with the health unions in the pay dispute, and indeed with all the public sector unions that are balloting for strike action? The Labour Party in Westminster routinely calls on the Government there to get around the table in situations such as this. The Labour Party in Scotland is making that point as well. Are you prepared to get around the table? The Royal College of Nursing has told us that the health Minister has declined to negotiate with the Welsh Partnership Forum, a body comprised of trade unions, NHS leaders and Welsh Government representatives, which, according to the RCN, has a long history of productive social partnership on matters related to pay. Why are you refusing to meet with them, when social partnership is meant to be a core principle to you, and you are literally the Labour Party? I mean, is that what success after 100 years now looks like?