Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:12 pm on 11 June 2024.
Rhianon Passmore
Labour
2:12,
11 June 2024
First Minister, the Welsh Labour Government was resoundingly re-elected by the people of Wales in 2021, to deliver a stronger, fairer and greener Wales. First Minister, as you contemplate your first legislative statement, which you're due to deliver to the Senedd before the summer recess, on behalf of my constituents in Islwyn, can I ask you to consider how the Welsh Labour Government can best legislate to improve their lives? The proposed bus reform Bill is critical and crucial to improving public transport throughout Islwyn, but in particular to the surrounding communities of Pontllanfraith and Blackwood, served only by bus. This is to be placed firmly at the doors of the policy of the UK Government. The utterly failed Thatcherite system of deregulation from the 1980s must be consigned to the scrapheap by this Welsh Parliament.
The coal tip safety Bill is a positive step forward in addressing those industrial scars on our environmental landscape, albeit still at present totally unsupported by the UK Tory Government. However, as we have seen in communities like Ynysddu in Islwyn, with very strong concerns around the Bedwas tip proposals, coal tip remediation cannot be done at any cost. So, First Minister, with both the bus Bill and the coal tip safety Bill, what dialogue will your Government have with progressive authorities throughout the rest of the United Kingdom, including the new UK Government, after this critical General Election? Thank you.
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.
In a general election, each constituency chooses an MP to represent it by process of election. The party who wins the most seats in parliament is in power, with its leader becoming Prime Minister and its Ministers/Shadow Ministers making up the new Cabinet. If no party has a majority, this is known as a hung Parliament. The next general election will take place on or before 3rd June 2010.
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.
