Senedd update: Tension over HS2 and 20mph
We’re hearing from our politicians at the Senedd, where party leaders all have their chances to take shots at one another, and with party conference season well underway, there’s plenty of ammunition from all sides, and who’d have thought it eh, weeks later and we’re still there. The 20 miles per hour speed limit is still divisive and still causing issues.
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00:00 and ultimately is not supporting the policy that you have promoted over the last six months
00:06 and implemented it here in Wales from the middle of September.
00:09 Llywydd, I am used to some flights of fantasy by the Leader of the Opposition, but this
00:16 afternoon he has become completely unmoored from any sense of reality on this matter.
00:22 Of course, of course, slower speed limits prevent accidents.
00:28 There's evidence from absolutely around that there is...
00:32 I think, Llywydd, the Leader of the Opposition has ample opportunity to put his questions
00:36 without needing to interrupt me immediately.
00:38 I start to correct him for his many, many errors on this matter.
00:43 With party conference season in full swing, Andrew R.T.
00:45 Davies and Mark Grigford wasted no time in taking jabs at one another.
00:49 And with all predictions that Labour are the favourites for the next general election,
00:53 attention has been paid to Wales and how Labour have governed here.
00:57 But Sir Keir Starmer has refused to call Welsh Labour a blueprint for power.
01:02 Before the conference season kicked in, Keir Starmer used to say, for what we would do
01:06 in government in Westminster, look to Wales as a blueprint.
01:09 Last week he was unable to say that in his interview on BBC.
01:12 There's never been any love lost between those two, and of this there's been no difference.
01:17 Who knew house building policy could be such a divisive issue?
01:20 Their inability to put a roof over their head, leave alone the Transport Minister's ban
01:24 on road building projects here in Wales to develop the economy.
01:28 So how on earth can the Labour leader in London call them the party of the house builder,
01:36 when here in Wales, if you take your blueprint, you fail to deliver even half the number of
01:40 houses that are required?
01:43 Well, Llywydd, for a man who began with a reference to healing, his contribution is
01:50 hardly designed, is it, to bring people together and to make people feel that they are part
01:56 of a single United Kingdom.
01:58 I will not follow him down his road of trying always to split people off.
02:03 Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth took his opportunity to bring up HS2 and the massive
02:07 issues it's currently causing between the Welsh and UK governments, particularly in
02:11 funding, and said that if the First Minister was going to all out to force a Conservative
02:16 government to pay up, then the same should be for a Labour government.
02:20 The FM himself says that Wales is being cheated over this issue, but Labour won't take action.
02:27 When the boss of Unite accused Labour of being too timid, I wonder if the First Minister
02:32 believes that she was referencing Labour's attitude towards HS2 in Wales.
02:37 Well, first of all, Llywydd, let me say again, it is the view of the Welsh Government, as
02:44 it is the view of parties across this chamber, that Wales deserves our share of the funding
02:51 that has been invested in HS2.
02:54 So of course, at the moment, we can't have a Senate session without HS2 and the 20mph
02:57 limits nowadays, but maybe things will come to a change at some point.
03:01 James Peach, Watkins, Local TV.
03:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]