1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance – in the Senedd at on 6 December 2017.
Dawn Bowden
Labour
4. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the impact of the UK Government's financial austerity policies on Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney? OAQ51421
Mark Drakeford
Labour
2:08,
6 December 2017
Llywydd, Welsh Government research demonstrates that the changes to benefits and tax credits alone are removing over £900 million each year from the least well-off households in Wales. Residents of Merthyr and Rhymney are amongst those worst affected.
Dawn Bowden
Labour
Thank you for that answer, Cabinet Secretary. I'm sure you will recall that in 2011, the then Tory Chancellor said that his budget was
'about doing what we can to help families with the cost of living'.
He added:
'we have already asked the British people for what is needed, and today we do not need to ask for more'.
Well, six years later, many people in our communities are still paying the price of those austerity politics, and on many occasions, Cabinet Secretary, you've stressed your concerns at the impact of austerity. So, can you confirm that, unlike the policies of the Tory Government in Westminster, the policies and investments made by this Welsh Labour Government will continue to support people living in areas like my own Constituency of Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney?
Mark Drakeford
Labour
2:09,
6 December 2017
Well, Llywydd, the Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney, I think, has made a very important contribution on the floor of the Assembly over many months now, when she has made the case for investment in what she has called the social fabric of our communities—ways in which we can try to help to keep the safety net on which those families that I described so much depend.
Let me give just two examples of what the Welsh Government is trying to do to assist people in the Merthyr and Rhymney areas. We have maintained our council tax reduction scheme here in Wales. That means that those families that are having their benefits frozen or cut and their tax credits reduced in Wales don't find themselves at the same time having to put their hands in their pockets to pay the council tax. That's costing £224 million across the whole of Wales, but it puts £5.7 million directly into the pockets of those families in Merthyr, and it puts £13.6 million directly into the household incomes of the poorest households in Caerphilly.
At the same time, 1,592 children in Merthyr and 2,925 children in Caerphilly have benefited from our Flying Start programmes last year. These are just two practical examples of the way in which the social fabric of our communities is being defended and advanced by the Welsh Government, even at a time when the assaults on their well-being and their incomes are so severe from the UK Government.
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.
The Chancellor - also known as "Chancellor of the Exchequer" is responsible as a Minister for the treasury, and for the country's economy. For Example, the Chancellor set taxes and tax rates. The Chancellor is the only MP allowed to drink Alcohol in the House of Commons; s/he is permitted an alcoholic drink while delivering the budget.
The political party system in the English-speaking world evolved in the 17th century, during the fight over the ascension of James the Second to the Throne. James was a Catholic and a Stuart. Those who argued for Parliamentary supremacy were called Whigs, after a Scottish word whiggamore, meaning "horse-driver," applied to Protestant rebels. It was meant as an insult.
They were opposed by Tories, from the Irish word toraidhe (literally, "pursuer," but commonly applied to highwaymen and cow thieves). It was used — obviously derisively — to refer to those who supported the Crown.
By the mid 1700s, the words Tory and Whig were commonly used to describe two political groupings. Tories supported the Church of England, the Crown, and the country gentry, while Whigs supported the rights of religious dissent and the rising industrial bourgeoisie. In the 19th century, Whigs became Liberals; Tories became Conservatives.
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
