Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:11 pm on 1 February 2022.
Vaughan Gething
Labour
5:11,
1 February 2022
Well, you may have seen that the Financial Times today, again—not noted for being common travellers with the Labour Party—have done their own investigation into what's been happening with replacement European Union funds. There was a very clear pledge in the 2019 Conservative manifesto—I think it was page 44—that the nations of the UK would have at least as much in replacement funds as when we were part of the European Union. That promise has been broken, has been broken in plain sight, and you're right that the overall total, when taking into account the loss of farm and agricultural income as well, is about £1 billion over the next few years.
It's bad news for Wales. It's also bad news for the UK, because regions in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland that were previously reliant on this money are also going to lose out significantly. Bad news for jobs, bad news for skills, bad news for research and development, and the worst part of this is, there is not a whimper of protest from a single Welsh Conservative in the Senedd about £1 billion being hijacked from Wales. It is a disgrace that this has happened—a plain broken promise, and worse than useless from the Welsh Conservatives who still demand that we accept, not just accept but cheerlead, having that money sucked out of Wales. I think the only way to get something done properly is for either the UK Tory Government to accept that they have to one another promise and they have to work properly and directly with the Welsh Government to ensure that those funding promises are met, and if that doesn't happen, then I think it's very plain that what we need is a new United Kingdom Government, and I look forward to the next election campaign to make sure that does happen.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
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.
The Conservatives are a centre-right political party in the UK, founded in the 1830s. They are also known as the Tory party.
With a lower-case ‘c’, ‘conservative’ is an adjective which implies a dislike of change, and a preference for traditional values.
