Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:31 pm on 24 January 2017.
Lee Waters
Labour
5:31,
24 January 2017
Cabinet Secretary, I do find the criticisms of the lack of an evidence base coming from Plaid Cymru rather ironic when they’ve used the budget process to insist on £50 million for a road scheme with very low benefit to cost ratios to shore up their political base. Any concerns I had about this policy have been assuaged by the changes you’ve made, and I very much welcome the extra targeting that you put in place, and I warmly welcome extra funding for schools. In my Constituency, schools have been having to make redundancies last year, and again this year; a £3.7 million cut by the Plaid Cymru council, and a potential 135 members of staff losing their jobs. So, what safeguards can you put in place to make sure that the money that’s going to be targeted at class size reduction isn’t swallowed up by softening the blow of Plaid cuts in Llanelli?
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
In a general election, each Constituency chooses an MP to represent them. MPs have a responsibility to represnt the views of the Constituency in the House of Commons. There are 650 Constituencies, and thus 650 MPs. A citizen of a Constituency is known as a Constituent
