Melding: Creating a viable future for seaside towns

Speech to the National Assembly for Wales.

"Wales has a magnificent coastline and marine environment. I hope that this debate will be part of a process to celebrate it. Towns such as Llandudno and Tenby demonstrate what jewels seaside towns can be.

It is important that we acknowledge the success ...

Melding: Creating a vibrant, strong Welsh economy

Speech to the National Assembly for Wales.

"We believe that it is important that we lay out our principles and views on the knowledge economy and the need for a world-class skills base. I think that we can all share this fundamental aim, as there is no great doubt about ...

Melding: Holding the Labour-Plaid coalition to account

Speech to the National Assembly for Wales.

"It has to be said, Presiding Officer, that, from the start, the Welsh Assembly Government has been sloppy with our new powers. We have just had an instance of that, which was unexpected as far as I was concerned, but not untypical, regarding ...

Melding: Protecting vulnerable children

Speech to the National Assembly for Wales.

"I will start by saying what has been agreed in this process, because the Welsh Assembly Government, in fairness, has an excellent vision for advocacy services, and that is important. We have a Government that wants to a see a system of universal ...

Melding: A fair deal for small businesses in Wales

Speech to the National Assembly for Wales.

"I will take this opportunity—my first as the Welsh Conservative Party spokesman on economic development—to look at the areas in which there is genuine agreement. It seems to me that, as an Assembly, we need to focus on the areas on ...

Melding: Supporting mental health patients in Wales

Speech to the National Assembly for Wales.

"I thank everyone who has taken part in this debate, although I am being very generous in thanking Dai Lloyd for his intervention. Interventions are a skilled art and, when done well, are perfect cameos that add something to a debate.

However, I ...

Melding: Public services plan lacks substance

Speech to the National Assembly for Wales.

"Minister, forgive me, but I think that your statement has a very retro feel about it. I quite like retro, but I did not expect you to engage it with such enthusiasm. Let us look at the local service boards.

I am confident ...

Melding: A vision for local government in Wales

Speech to the National Assembly for Wales.

"I also thank Sir Jeremy Beecham and his team. I apologise that I was not able to attend yesterday's function due to a more pressing one here in the Assembly, but 'Beyond Boundaries' will be regarded as a seminal report. It is ...

Melding: Welsh NHS not meeting needs of the 21st century

Speech to the National Assembly for Wales.

"I hope to make some non-partisan remarks. It is six months since I left the Health and Social Services Committee. I have listened to the debate, and many of the facts that have been quoted do not fully illustrate the state of the ...

Melding: Labour's free school breakfasts deception

Speech to the National Assembly for Wales.

"The Mike German award for mixed metaphors goes to Janet this afternoon; I congratulate her on that startling image. I want to return to the issue of free school breakfasts. I try never to miss breakfast, because it is an important meal that ...

Melding: Labour's plans for Wales lack coherence

Speech to the National Assembly for Wales.

"The First Minister has given one of his more grumpy performances today. I watched him this afternoon. He had his eyes down and he rarely looked up. He glanced once or twice at his Cabinet colleagues but, overall, he seemed about as happy ...

Melding: Government of Wales Bill is a recipe for confusion

Speech to the National Assembly for Wales.

"The Minister left us with an incredible vision that, down in the saloon bar of the 'Dog and Order in Council', they talk of nothing but the Government of Wales Bill and how the Labour Party has found the centre of gravity on ...

Melding: Labour's 'partisan' plans for Welsh devolution

Speech to the National Assembly for Wales.

"We have the right to ask whether the Government of Wales Bill is, in essence, a partisan measure. I think that we have to conclude that it is. It is not a piece of legislation based on the work of an independent commission ...

Melding: Improvements in Welsh mental health services 'essential'

Speech to the National Assembly for Wales.

"I am honoured to propose the motion on behalf of the committee, which took the subject to be important in general. The need to improve mental health services is widely recognised, but there has always been a difficulty in ensuring that user and ...

Melding: Supporting mental health services in Wales

Speech to the National Assembly for Wales.

"It is most apposite in the week in which we celebrated World Mental Health Day and have seen the publication of the auditor general's report on adult mental health services.

I remind the Chamber that the condition of child and adolescent psychiatry ...

Melding: Labour lacks confidence for Welsh political change

Speech to the National Assembly for Wales.

"The Conservative group set out its concerns and reservations in the amendments listed in annex D of the report, and I will not trouble the Assembly by repeating them here, but I will emphasise some things.

I am grateful to my colleagues on ...

Melding: Labour 'papering over the cracks' of failure

Speech to the National Assembly for Wales.

"I was always told as a small child that self-praise was no recommendation, but this does not seem to have been an axiom in the Morgan household. We have the usual litany of, 'We have said this' and 'We have done that', and ...

Melding: Better healthcare for Wales

Speech to the National Assembly for Wales.

"First, I welcome the fact that we will be investing more in NHS capital; it is right that we now prioritise this area.

Whatever the Minister says, or however he plans to spin the issue, it has not been the highest priority to ...

Melding: Welsh devolution is a halfway house

Speech to the National Assembly for Wales.

"I welcome the Secretary of State to the Assembly, and I congratulate him on breaking the world record for mentioning John Redwood the most times in our proceedings.

John Redwood seems to play the same role in the Assembly's history as Mary ...

Melding: Free personal care for the elderly in Wales

Speech to the National Assembly for Wales.

"The trouble is that the Labour Party has an army of people who think that they are rather clever — I was going to say that they are young, but they are not necessarily young—special advisers and researchers and the like, and they ...

Melding: Labour confusion over Welsh health policy

Speech to the National Assembly for Wales.

"I congratulate the Minister on his first performance, and we wish him well in his presentation and delivery of the Government's vision. It is our job to criticise as appropriate, and I assure the Minister that that is what we will do ...

Melding: Easier access to public information in Wales

Speech to the National Assembly for Wales.

"I welcome the code—it is an advance on the earlier code, and it would be churlish not to welcome it. However, as several Members commented, the procedures that are used in the Assembly can spike the use of effective information.

Many of ...

Melding: Welsh NHS leaves patients in despair

Speech to the National Assembly for Wales.

"I am delighted that the Liberal Democrats' policies have developed as well as our own, although I acknowledge that we did not protect elective care aggressively enough. We now know that that is how we need to protect the slots for in-patients that ...

Melding: Labour stifles scrutiny in the Welsh Assembly

Speech to the National Assembly for Wales.

"I have observed three things in this rather sad spectacle over the last 20 minutes. First, a review does not have to review anything. It can just review your earlier commitment to have the review.

If the review is such that you believe ...

Melding: Welsh health service lags behind England

Speech to the National Assembly for Wales.

"My main criticism of the Government is that it lacks imagination and has failed to adopt properly innovative procedures. It is crass, of course, to say that it has failed in every respect and to exaggerate our criticisms. Much of what has happened ...

Melding: Commissioner's work important for the children of Wales

Speech to the National Assembly for Wales

"I congratulate the children's commissioner and his team for an excellent report, and commend their outstanding work on behalf of Wales's children.

I also put on record my gratitude to the Minister for Health and Social Services for the decisions that ...

Melding: Welsh government rides roughshod over democracy

Speech to the National Assembly for Wales

"One of the Labour Members in this debate said that the opposition parties were just trying to 'do politics' in the Assembly.

Well, yes, I think that that is just about the sum of it, because, after all, this is the political arena ...

Melding: Health checks for the learning disabled in Wales

Speech to the National Assembly for Wales

"This motion would modify the general medical services contract, the GP contract, to allow for an annual health review for people with learning disabilities.

I will start with some of the evidence that can be used to back up this motion, the volume ...

Melding: Challenges ahead on Richard Commission response

Speech to the National Assembly for Wales

"It says much for the robustness and coherence of the Richard commission report that all parties, to some extent, find parts of it challenging.

It could perhaps be said that not all are meeting that challenge. However, one proposal has absolute agreement, namely ...

Melding: Labour is destroying the Welsh Assembly's reputation

Welsh Conservatives condemn move to cut committee meetings.

"It is time that the Labour Party took stock of the damage that it has done to the Assembly's reputation.

In limiting the amount of committee work being carried out, it has reduced the effectiveness of this national body.

That cannot ...

Melding: Re-think fundamentals for NHS in Wales

Speech to the Welsh Assembly

"The Government has given a predictable response, stating that the direction of travel is correct—that is the correct response as far as the Government is concerned.

I wonder what would have happened had Jane Hutt been in charge of the inquiry into the sinking ...

Melding: Conservatives care about the NHS in Wales

Speech to the National Assembly for Wales

"Until we have genuine achievement from the Labour Government, we will hear backbencher after Labour backbencher coming out with ridiculous parodies of Conservative policies and making up all sorts of accusations about our record.

It began with the Member for Llanelli saying that ...

Melding: North-south air links are vital for Wales

Speech to the National Assembly for Wales

"I am in the strange position of wanting to offer the Minister some defence. He has formed some reasonable proposals, which will now be investigated further.

I do not share the feelings of some opposition Assembly Members that this is an environmental outrage ...