Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:13 pm on 30 April 2024.
Vaughan Gething
Labour
2:13,
30 April 2024
The second point, of course, is that rail infrastructure is not devolved. The challenge that the Member faces is on the one hand regretting and complaining about the challenges that a lack of investment in rail infrastructure causes, without willing the means for that to happen. I'd have a deal more respect for the Member if he was prepared to stand up and call out the fact that the UK Government has not invested in rail infrastructure in equitable terms, and it is the rail infrastructure that is a direct cause of the challenges that the Member points to on this part of the rail network. I'd have a great deal more respect if he was prepared to call that out. I look forward to a UK Labour Government that will invest in rail infrastructure. I look forward to making and winning the case for real investment in rail infrastructure here in Wales. I hope the Member will then recognise that in the future, even if he is not prepared to call out the shameful Tory failure to invest in our rail infrastructure in Wales.
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.
