Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:20 pm on 30 January 2024.
Rhianon Passmore
Labour
2:20,
30 January 2024
Thank you, First Minister. The Welsh Government's and indeed this Senedd Cymru Welsh Parliament's ability to deliver and oversee vital public services is predicated on the finances it receives from the UK Tory Government in Westminster. The Welsh health Minister has informed the Senedd that the Welsh Government has escalated Intervention at the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board. This is welcome oversight in an incredibly challenging environment. I also welcome the news of the announcement, as the First Minister said, that Welsh Government has made an additional £14 million available to expand and reconfigure parts of the Grange University Hospital. The Grange has been an important new facility for the people of Gwent as healthcare demands have soared, and it is vital that the Grange improves, as it has become a key centre of healthcare in Gwent. First Minister, what principles and actions guide the Welsh Government in protecting and enhancing the national health service in Gwent, whilst public services have been so roughly damaged by the UK Tory Government now entering its final death spiral?
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.
An intervention is when the MP making a speech is interrupted by another MP and asked to 'give way' to allow the other MP to intervene on the speech to ask a question or comment on what has just been said.
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.
