With your permission, Presiding Officer, I have tabled a programme of proposals that the partnership Government intends to place before the National Assembly between now and the end of July 2001. The programme for government was made available yesterday. We are providing information to the Assembly and the country in a way that has not been done before. The aim is to enhance the profile of Plenary proceedings, and to encourage scrutiny and debate of the Government’s intentions. A month or more ago, we formed a Government with the committed support of the Labour group and the Liberal Democrat group. We did so because we recognised the Assembly’s responsibility to deliver for all the people of Wales. This partnership Government is based on the aim of enhancing social justice. That aim is part of the long tradition of both political groups.

The partnership Government was formed to create a stable government. However, this will be stability for a radical purpose. We mean to deliver a levelling up in health, education, skills and social development by targeting the less well-off and the more socially excluded areas in Wales. The need for innovative and effective government is great. The next decade will mark a further acceleration in the changing circumstances for Wales. The aim is to relate what we do in health, education, the environment and economic development to each other. We will transform Wales, its economy and society, so that we become leaders in the knowledge economy, in health gain and in educational achievements. In responding to this need, the opportunities for Wales are substantial.

The recent comprehensive spending review, delivered by the Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer for the whole of the United Kingdom, provides us with the opportunity of real and sustained growth in public expenditure for the first time in a generation. The proposed budget, which is being considered by this Assembly, is evidence of that opportunity. The opportunities for economic regeneration through European Union Objective 1 funding are there for the taking if the Assembly takes the lead, and all others fulfil their responsibilities. The opportunity of devolved self-government, offered by this Assembly, needs to be valued by the people of Wales. It will be valued when we prove our ability to deliver. It is because we have a responsibility to respond to these needs and take advantage of these opportunities that we formed the partnership Government. Our partnership agreement sets out our many shared policies and objectives. The business programme now tabled by the partnership Government shows this Government’s urgent intentions. Within six weeks of our creation, we have tabled a programme of over 70 proposals, which we commit to bringing before you in the next eight months.

The three-year partnership agreement and the annual business programme are milestones in our Assembly’s maturation. They represent the partnership Government’s radical response to the challenges facing Wales. Until now, without a majority government, the Assembly has been prey to the politics of pettiness, trapped between an administration unable to bring forward a programme with the confidence that it could be achieved, and an opposition becoming addicted to the frivolous and the destructive. This programme represents a coming of age for this Assembly. It is a programme of purpose and direction, proposed by a partnership Government confident of its ability to deliver the specific actions and broad directions that Wales needs. A commitment to social justice is at the heart of our programme. The highest priority of this programme must be to address the poverty and the inequalities in health, lifestyle and life chances that are endemic in Wales.

Twenty years ago, a government alien to Wales, but with unfettered power over it, began a programme of action that unashamedly celebrated inequality. The theory was that if wealth, power and opportunity were sufficiently concentrated among the few, the benefits of their opulence would trickle down to all those communities that had been deliberately and wantonly dispossessed. Wales is a living repudiation of the trickle-down theory. At the heart of our programme for action is a commitment to target our efforts at empowering the poorest people and communities. We do that in the knowledge that when the poorest are equipped to maximise their contribution to life in Wales, we will all be the richer. We will bring forward proposals entitled Communities First, which will be our lead proposals for achieving the empowerment of the most disadvantaged communities in Wales.

The main themes in all our proposals for education, health, economic and rural development, housing and transport, are to increase and equalise opportunity, releasing the energies of the poorest and making all communities in Wales sustainable. In tackling the material poverty that scars Wales, it is also the Assembly’s destiny to remedy the poverty of ambition that has for so long limited the development of Wales. This first annual programme is a step on the road to putting confidence and ambition into the heart of Wales. Our proposals for education aim to extend ever further the advantages of learning in all its diverse forms to all people in Wales, regardless of age or class. We recognise the primary importance of a foundation of quality education for everyone and of developing the basis upon which learning and continuous development can become an experience that all people in Wales have throughout their lives.

We recognise a substantial deficit in the knowledge and skills that we now bring to the workplace. That deficit must be removed quickly if we are to compete successfully in the diverse, high-value economic activities that are our way into global markets.

We will bring into being the new National Council for Education and Training for Wales, which will bring to fruition the work that Tom Middlehurst and many others undertook over a substantial period. That initiative has been made in Wales and then emulated by other parts of the United Kingdom. Its effect will be that the various forms of post-16 learning in schools, colleges and in the work place will be co-ordinated into well-planned, well-funded learning opportunities for all. It is a significant initiative.

Progress in education requires that a foundation of high-quality, early years education be in place. We will bring forward proposals for extending nursery education and supporting smaller primary schools. Our objective will be the best early years education possible, achieved through diverse means and tailored to local circumstances.

We will review the curriculum in secondary schools, building on Curriculum 2000 and testing the advantage of a broad and diverse baccalaureate-type approach to post-16 learning. The review will focus on the demands of young people and the needs of the Welsh economy in future decades. We will report progress on our strategy for higher education and our proposals for extending access through reducing financial disincentives to participation in higher education by those from less well-off families. We will bring forward the results of the independent investigation into student hardship and funding in Wales, and make proposals that will encourage wider and more equal participation in higher and further education.

We will bring forward proposals to support and develop the teaching profession in Wales, recognising that our many objectives in education require innovative, enthusiastic, well-trained and well-rewarded teachers.

Our proposals for health and social care aim to address health inequalities and begin to make Wales a healthier place in which to grow up and grow old. We will continue to make progress on the important objective of achieving an efficient, well-resourced health service that responds quickly and effectively to patients’ needs. However, we must also answer the questions about why we have such high levels, and such geographical concentrations, of ill-health in Wales. In large part the answer to our health problems will lie in my initial theme of making Wales a country where access to wealth and power is far more equally shared.

We will bring forward the NHS Wales strategy and consult on proposals for the re-allocation of resources within the health service in order to respond better to health inequalities. We will legislate for local health groups to co-ordinate better local health and social care. As a first step to a general review of how to ensure greater equality of access to health services, we will bring forward proposals to freeze prescription charges in Wales in 2001.

We are committed to creating a modern economy that can, through skills and enterprise, develop and market its own high quality products, developing a Wales with an increasingly high stake in the knowledge economy. When our economic foundations in knowledge, quality, innovation, research and design capabilities are in place, we will be far less prey to the vagaries of exchange rates and competition based solely on labour costs.

We will publish a new national economic development strategy that will provide clear direction for the Welsh economy and ensure that we can combine the advantages of indigenous development with the contribution of inward investment. We will take forward the review of business support services, ensuring that those firms that have the potential to grow have well-co-ordinated and accessible support systems. We will report on our progress in realising the potential of the European structural fund programmes. The priority given to the Objective 1 areas will be reinforced by the higher levels of regional selective assistance available in full development areas, and 65 per cent of the population of Wales is in the full development area

We will bring forward proposals to ensure that the rural communities of Wales can take full advantage of the modernisation and diversification of the Welsh economy. We will assist in developing the branding and marketing of Welsh food, taking steps to identify that brand with quality and food safety. Our proposed budget has provided greater support for diversification in hill farming, Tir Gofal, organic production and an enhanced business support service. Lloyd George observed that there is no greater eloquence than action, and our intended actions in support of rural Wales have been made clear for all to see.

The economic and social success of Wales requires that we bring forward proposals that maintain and enhance the quality of our environment. We will propose a new spatial planning framework. That will relate to our vision of a modern economy and an integrated approach to our transport needs. Our proposed legislation for travel concessions will ensure that people with disabilities and older people will have greater opportunities to travel.

We will introduce legislation on housing specifically aimed at protecting the most disadvantaged in our communities. The national housing strategy will propose the means for enhancing housing opportunities for all, in owner-occupation, the private rented sector or in social and council housing.

We shall bring forward legislation aimed at extending the application of the Welsh Language Act 1993, which will increase the number of public organisations required to adopt Welsh language schemes.

We will bring forward proposals for improving the process of government and democracy in Wales. There will be legislation on the modernisation of political leadership and accountability in local government, building on the many innovations in place in Welsh councils. We will report on the progress of our review of the Assembly’s quangos. We will review the work of our officials in the Government of Wales, seeking to ensure that their capacity to contribute to distinctive policy development in Wales is enhanced, while remaining part of the British home civil service.

We will proceed with the review of the Assembly’s own procedures. I am determined that the Plenary sessions of this Assembly become the key forum for the democratic expression of all interests in Wales—the place where Government explains and justifies its purpose and is rigorously held to account for its delivery. I fear that, in the last year, the circumstance of a minority administration constrained the operation of the Assembly Plenary. There was an incentive to be timid, to propose only that which could not be contested. Hence, the perception of paint drying.

This programme shows the intention and ability of this partnership Government to be bold. We will invite public debate, wide contribution to and scrutiny of important policies as they are being developed. This is a programme that will deliver and capture the imagination of the people of Wales. There are those who profess that this Assembly is in some way ill-fitted for the purpose of meeting the needs of Wales. Such scepticism may either be based on some variant of English imperialism or Welsh nationalism. This partnership Government is steering a course for the Welsh ship of state which is based on enhancing democratic government and delivering Welsh responses, made in Wales, for the needs of Wales.

The programme put before the Assembly by its partnership Government is a testament to our determination and our capacity to deliver. This is a partnership Government with a programme and a radical purpose. I commend this programme to the National Assembly for Wales.

Given that you put your failure to govern effectively for the last 18 months down to the lack of a majority, now that you have that majority, were we not entitled to expect a programme containing a comprehensive package of measures and big ideas for Wales? Is it not surprising that, of the 70 measures announced, over 40 are commitments either to report on progress—whatever that means—to hold debates, or to follow-up plans already in the pipeline? Will you assure us that we will have a full debate on this statement so that we can examine it in detail and put forward alternative proposals?

Is it not true that, of the programme’s few legislative proposals, the majority are concerned with implementing the Westminster programme in Wales on the one hand, and matters on which the Assembly has already agreed on the other? We welcome and support the initiatives on prescription charges, eye tests and free school milk. However, do you expect us to accept that this is a programme for government in Wales? What has happened to your plans to pilot a Welsh baccalaureate? Why has it been removed from your agenda? Is it not the case that this programme bears the hallmark of a Government that has simply drifted into power as a result of the Lib-Lab deal? Does not this Government have anything to offer Wales other than more of the same programme of the past 18 months of debate? What part of the programme will tackle real issues in Wales, such as inequalities in the health and education services? Is this not a major disappointment and a missed opportunity for the Government of Wales? Does it not show that the Government’s real handicap is not the lack of a majority, but the lack of vision?

I am not sure whether that was ritual oppositionism or a variant on Welsh nationalism, to be followed in five minutes’ time by a variant of English imperialism. When Ieuan says that there is no reference to the Welsh baccalaureate, he cannot have been listening—

He did not say that.

How often do you have to hear the word baccalaureate before you clock that it was included in what I have just read out? I am sorry if you did not want to pay attention to that before you got up to speak. There is no withdrawing from the commitment to pilot that scheme. That is as plain as a pikestaff on the end of your nose. What more can I do? You say that many of the 70 points that have been made are aspirational or are references to debates that we will have. This is a work programme for the Assembly and an attempt to predict the work that the Assembly will undertake through legislation and executive actions that are sufficiently important to justify bringing them to Plenary, or aspirational matters that require debate so that we can steer a course with the approval of as many Assembly Members as possible. That is the normal practice of parliamentary assemblies in any country in the world. You include missions, visions and aspirations for debate and then you have the issue of executive actions, which require approval, and then you have legislation. There is a mixture of all three here.

To start doing 40 out of 70 is to mistake quantity for quality. The issue is how well wrapped up together must they be to begin the transformation of a poor society such as Wales, which is 20 per cent behind in terms of gross domestic product per capita. Do we commence the restoration of Welsh education across the board to reachieve what was once regarded as the best education system in the UK and regain the admiration of families in Wales? What will we do to prevent the tail of people without educational qualifications? How appropriate are those educational qualifications to the knowledge economy? How quickly can we get into the knowledge economy and where does that leave the health gain strategy in terms of health promotion? Are those themes relevant and are they wrapped up together? Can we get more bang for the buck by dovetailing those issues together to produce a healthier, wealthier and smarter Wales? That is our vision and I challenge you to follow it or to produce something better, rather than continuing with the narrow nit-picking nationalism that you have displayed once again, Ieuan.

Rarely have I heard such a partisan diatribe as the one that we have had from the First Minister today. It has been deeply disappointing. He stated that he thought that he would hear something from English colonialism, but I am afraid I am going to disappoint him. The only part of the speech that made any sense at all was the quotation from Lloyd George that ‘the finest eloquence is that which gets things done’. I agree with that. I disagree with much of the remainder. Lloyd George must be spinning in his grave, seeing the sell-out six part of your sorry administration.

Would your action be different?

When we take over, you will see our action. We will return to this point, but it was disappointing that we first heard this Queen’s Speech, mission statement, or whatever you chose to call it, on the Waterfront programme this weekend. It had not been discussed in Business Committee last week—it was only discussed this morning—but it was trailed by the Labour administration over the weekend. That is no way to treat this National Assembly and I hope that you will condemn that when you have an opportunity to deal with some of the salient points that we have not heard so far.

I turn to some of the specific areas. On education, the Welsh baccalaureate is mentioned, but you failed to mention that the pilot scheme will start in September 2003. That, by anybody’s calculation, is after the next National Assembly elections.

That should not worry you; you will not be here.

Are you anticipating still being in alliance with this sorry bunch thereafter or do you want to ditch them in advance of that? On tuition fees, do you condemn with us, as the Liberal Democrats probably do privately, the tuition fees that deter people from poorer backgrounds from studying? All the evidence is that they deter them and also people from ethnic minorities. You claimed that this was all about dealing with poverty, so perhaps you will deal with that.

I hope that all the people who are on the growing waiting lists listened to your comments on poverty. Those lists grow monthly. Do you stand by the target set by the Minister for Health and Social Services to reduce waiting lists by 15,000 by the spring? That would still be a sorry total, given the Government’s commitment to reducing waiting lists as a first act after coming into government. This Government programme is long on words, but short on the action that matters to people in Wales. They are not as concerned about the Welsh baccalaureate as they are about the waiting list position.

Why are you raising it?

I am raising the waiting list position because it is important. I make no apology for that. On economic development—

The latter, I suspect—he may answer.

On economic development, what about the sorry chaos of Objective 1? This is now roundly seen throughout Wales as a disaster. That could have made a difference to poverty throughout Wales, particularly in the Valleys and in west Wales, but people of all political backgrounds or no political background say that it is not working. What about the rural poor? There was little mention of agriculture and rural affairs in the statement. What about a commitment to clear labelling now, rather than sometime in the future? What about something on import restrictions so that we have concern for consumer safety in Wales? Peter Rogers raised that point eloquently earlier, only to be dismissed as xenophobic. Are you concerned about that and, if so, what are we going to do to ensure that Wales’s high hygiene standards are applied throughout the United Kingdom? What about making representations on post offices, the right to roam, fuel costs and country pursuits to Westminster? Those are the issues that matter to the rural poor.

On the environment, what about a commitment, given the flood situation, that funding for flood defences will not drop, but increase, annually? That budget has decreased. What about an undertaking not to build on the flood plains, pending a review, so that we do not face the situation that we faced during the past year.

On an integrated transport policy, the only action that we have seen is the unedifying sight of the Deputy First Minister in a hot air balloon and a helicopter. Could we have something a little more constructive on transport policy for the people who do not have those happy alternatives, and who use the car or public transport?

There is little to commend in this statement. We recognise that there has been a commitment to the arts and culture. We are happy to have trailed the need for a Minister for Culture, Sport and the Welsh Language, and we were glad that it has been recognised at last. Will you say something about a national art gallery for Wales and about the tourism potential of putting money into the arts?

In conclusion, we have had ‘Betterwales.com’, we have had partnership agreements à gogo, we have this and we had David Lloyd George’s statement, with which I agree. Is it not time that he got down to some action after nine months, rather than just presenting words?

Lloyd George was very much in favour of action and put forward the people’s budget in 1910. It was Winston Churchill who left the Liberal Party for the Conservatives. I think that Nick may have got confused between the two.

Nick Bourne is right that various newspapers indicated the intention to bring forward a work programme for the Assembly for a 12-month period, in principle, although this starts later and is a seven-month programme. However, the issue that we promoted in advance is that we wanted to give shape and structure to how the Assembly works, as a consequence of having a majority-based government. I do not think that anybody has accused us so far of revealing improperly any of the contents of this statement, but people have simply wondered what is its purpose and intent. The intent is clear: it is to give us shape and structure and a format for a work programme that is then available for scrutiny by opposition parties like Nick’s and by the public and those who take an interest in politics in Wales.

On the Welsh baccalaureate, I am glad that Nick helped to correct Ieuan Wyn Jones’s belief that it is absent from this statement. The issue about the Welsh baccalaureate being introduced in September 2003 arises from its original promoters. They said that it would take two to three years to build up the curriculum to sufficient industrial quality strength that you could offer it to schools, saying that it is no way likely to dilute the chances of a child who undertakes it getting into university, compared with the international baccalaureate or A-levels. They gave that statement, not us. If the people who invented the concept believe that it would take two to three years before you could introduce it officially in schools, then it is rich of Nick Bourne to moan about us taking the same view.

He mentioned this question of hardship and tuition fees: of course we are having an investigation into the way that access to higher and further education may be restricted by things like tuition fees, or by all the alternative factors. We want to target people from the communities and kinds of families who have traditionally not availed themselves of the huge opportunities of further or higher education. We hope to bring in the higher education review that is being carried out in the Education and Lifelong Learning Committee, but we hope to be able to report faster than that on this issue of access and hardship in higher education. We hope to do so over the next 12 months.

The comments that he made about waiting lists shows that he is not up-to-date with his reading on this matter. It was a bit rich because we have been able to announce a fall in waiting lists today, and Jane Hutt and I, and the whole of the Assembly, will welcome the fact that we have had a fall in hospital waiting lists. I hope that he will withdraw his inane comment on that subject.

On economic development, he falls into Alun Cairns’s trap of continuing to repeat the rubbish about Objective 1, and somehow repeated rubbish becomes truth, just through constant repetition. The money from Objective 1 is now going quickly out of the doors, and the programme complement for Wales was accepted by the European Community faster than that of Merseyside, so he is not looking across the board at any of the other areas that have got Objective 1 programmes in the UK. He automatically assumes, because of the noises that come from Alun Cairns behind him that—because he cannot think of anything else to say—what he says must be true. I can certify that Alun Cairns’s constant parrot-like cries about problems in Objective 1 are frequently-repeated rubbish.

As regards clear labelling and consumer safety, such individual issues are not mentioned here because they are too detailed. This is not a programme that includes absolutely everything that we expect to do in the next seven months; it includes the main issues that we can anticipate being brought before the Assembly. No doubt, there are matters that will arise and that we will bring before the Assembly, but this is the main and strategic thrust of what we intend to do, the links between the different elements, the themes and vision that they fit into, and how we intend to start transforming the country.

After all, Wales is a poor country with poor health and with, as yet, a small stake in the knowledge economy. However, I am sure that Nick will welcome, with me, the recent announcements by Lloyds TSB, General Motors and Unilever—and you cannot get three bigger names than those—all in the internet and knowledge economy, and all involving a minimum of 400 jobs in each of those projects.

He raised issues about the right to roam, the Post Office, and his view of the rural poor. His views are different to those of the administration. He mentioned flood protection. There are issues that are dealt with as part of the budget process rather than the work programme budget. This is not overtaking the budget process; the budget process is going on in parallel, so his mention of wanting more money to be put into flood protection will be taken forward as part of the budget process. On the issue of the flood protection crisis that we have seen over the past three or four weeks in many parts of Wales, but particularly in the north-east, Sue Essex, Edwina Hart and I will examine it once we have information from the Environment Agency and the three local authorities that were most affected. That is also not included here. You cannot include the response to the recent floods in the north-east, a response that needs to be short, medium and long-term.

Again, I found what he said about transport policy a bit rich. This includes provision for all pensioners, and those who have disabilities, to have free bus transport from 1 April 2002. Yet he says that there is no reference here to integrated public transport policy. What is his definition of integrated public transport policy?

Finally he mentioned a national art gallery. No, that is not mentioned here. There are some issues where he and we would differ. I must tell you, Nick, that I would have been disappointed had you expressed yourself pleased with this programme of work for the Assembly over the next year. It was not intended to please you, Nick.

The Liberal Democrats have always wanted a programme of business that will bring stability and, above all, credibility to the Assembly. After 18 months, because of the courage and determination of two parties, we have a clear agenda—[ASSEMBLY MEMBERS: ‘Oh.’]

We have a clear agenda for positive action. I agree that the theme for this action has to be the motto of the great Liberal, Lloyd George:

‘the finest eloquence is that which gets things done.’

At last, we have an agenda that will get things done for the sake of the people of Wales, not for individual egos, not for playing games with people’s livelihoods nor for petty whingeing to grab the headlines, but a forward-looking new agenda of social justice and sustainable development. I have heard criticism of the agriculture and rural affairs section of this document. I ask those people, who abolished the free advisory service to assist farmers? Who cut 25 per cent from the farmers’ payments? Those are the ones who caused the damage. I know that there are enough Members here who share the commitment to make this agenda work. For those who oppose it, search your souls and ask what you are doing for Wales.

First Minister, do you agree that this agenda is born from a shared desire to raise the prosperity and quality of life of the people of Wales and that it is high time that we lost the whingeing image of Wales?

We share a vision that, somehow or other, we have to commence the transformation of the Welsh economy and society to a point whereby, in 10 years time, we can cease to hold the begging bowl and cease to have the begging bowl mentality because we will have achieved equality of standard of living or GDP per head, health, education, skill and qualification standards that you would expect in a normal, average part of western Europe or the UK. We are currently 20 per cent behind; somehow we have to make good that 20 per cent. Objective 1 will give us a kick-start. We must use it so that, by the time the eastern European countries enter the European Community and the question of European structural funds is reviewed in 2007, we will not need Objective 1 again, but, if we do, we will fight for it. However, I hope that, by then, we will be well on the way to having transformed ourselves into an average wealthy, well-qualified and healthy society. We are not that at the moment. We must get to grips with that problem and commence the transformation of Wales into a healthier, wealthier and smarter society.

I am sure that Her Majesty will be eternally grateful to the First Minister for standing in for her, thereby saving her the embarrassment of reading out Rhodri’s ramblings.

I take it, Llywydd, that the First Minister’s sentence

‘Wales is a living repudiation of the trickle-down theory’

is a reference to the First Minister’s verbal diarrhoea, because that is what we get in this appalling statement. I do not know who wrote it, but if he or she were working for me, they would be down the road tomorrow. This statement shows a complete absence of leadership by the First Minister in this Assembly. He has been discussing Objective 1 and criticising other Members here. Let me read out to him what he just read out to the nation:

‘the opportunities for economic regeneration through European Union Objective 1 funding are there for the taking if the Assembly takes the lead.’

‘If the Assembly takes the lead.’ Where has he been for the last nine months—gestating? He is the leader in this Assembly; when he takes the lead, people will take the possibilities of Objective 1 money seriously. His statement was appalling and he should be ashamed of it. Some weeks ago, he appeased the German; today he stands in this Assembly, waves a piece of paper and says ‘stability in our time’.

‘Stability for a radical purpose’ is what I actually said, Rod. I am sorry if the words ‘for a radical purpose’ escaped you or hit a button in your brain that rejected them. I am also sorry about the level of synthetic anger that you managed to generate when you stood up to attack the statement. I am not sure what you were trying to say. I hope that you were not trying to say that you agreed with the content of my statement because, given your party affiliations, and my comments on what happened to Wales during 18 years of Conservative Government, I would have been disappointed had you accepted the bulk of what I said. We are trying to put right a great deal of the damage caused by the Conservatives and go further by looking forward to 2010, when we hope to have completed the job that we are starting with this radical programme of transforming a society that is lagging behind in educational skills and qualifications, and in health and economic development. We must get into the knowledge economy. In order to do so, we must have a different set of educational skills and qualifications. We must put right the lagging areas of Wales in terms of social development through the Communities First programme and by targeting health expenditure to those areas that need it most.

All of this is totally foreign to Rod. His party has been in charge, and it took Wales the other way. Therefore, I would expect him to express strong ‘anti’ views on the programme’s content. I do not expect Rod to agree with it, but I hope that he will have to live with it and that he will still be in politics when we achieve our aims and when Wales is transformed into a society that is unlike the one that his party left behind—not a country that is falling further behind the British average in health and economic development, but one that has caught up with the rest of Britain and that is hopefully overtaking it in terms of its standard of living and educational qualifications and health, as with the Irish Republic.

I welcome the statement and I hope that you agree that there is little in it that does not consolidate the work of the previous Cabinet. I take great pride in saying that because I think that we achieved a great deal in the first 17 months of this Assembly. It is difficult to accept criticisms from Ieuan Wyn Jones and others because their criticisms have little foundation. The fact is that there is much on which we can be judged fairly and positively.

We must also recognise that, as a consequence of the largesse of the Labour Government in Westminster, we are now able to deliver a positive agenda for Wales, which I welcome. Working in partnership with the Government in Westminster will ensure that we deliver a meaningful agenda for the people of Wales. I suggest that it is not the partnership in this Assembly that will be crucial in raising the standards and the quality of life for the people of Wales, but the partnership with local government, with our colleges and universities, with the business community and the voluntary sector. They are our agents, with whom we must work to ensure that we deliver this ambitious agenda for Wales. It is ambitious, and I hope that you will accept that, if we are to succeed, we must strengthen those partnerships and I urge you to consider how we will achieve those objectives.

I am grateful for Tom’s words, which are reflected in the section on local government and housing of the document that was provided with my statement to the Assembly. In the document, we refer to the start of a new partnership approach to providing quality services for the people of Wales jointly with local government. I agree entirely with Tom. The voluntary sector is very important to Wales, possibly because we have never had our own Assembly before. Our voluntary sector is strong and is an important partner. Similarly, local government has had to work hard to try to combat the worst deprivations of 18 years of Tory Government and, therefore, has an active equality agenda with which we can work easily and develop in partnership. I look forward to doing that.

I also look forward to working closely with the Labour Government in Westminster, as I said in my answer to Ann Jones’s question earlier. Being able to work on correcting inequalities is a matter for central Government because it deals with pensions, social security and taxation and for us because we deal with health, education, transport, the environment and many of the other frontline services that are supplied sometimes jointly with local government. It is a partnership issue. We can do much more in partnership than we can if we work separately.

I will ask about a few points in this document that seem to me to reflect a shift in emphasis from that in ‘Betterwales.com’. In both cases, I hope that I am wrong in that. First, why is the reference to the Children’s Commissioner for Wales made under the health and social care heading, implying that it is a social care matter rather than a corporate commitment? I was concerned by that, given the emphasis that we have placed again and again on this commissioner being a commissioner for all the children of Wales.

If the First Minister looks carefully at the wording of the commitment—if it is one—does it imply that the Government of Wales is not expecting full powers for the commissioner in the Queen’s Speech? Again it is placed under the social care heading and it refers, presumably, to legislation on initial powers. I would be grateful, First Minister, if you could unpack that, not only for me but for the voluntary organisations that work with children, which will be concerned about that possible emphasis in the document.

Is your colleague, the Minister for Finance, Local Government and Communities content with the one limited reference to equal opportunities matters in this document? We welcome the commitment to implementing the Stephen Lawrence report, but in ‘Betterwales.com’ and in various other documents that we have had before us, equality was supposed to be a major cross-cutting theme. That does not seem to be the message of this document. What is the Minister for Finance, Local Government and Communities’ view? Does the First Minister know? Does the Minister for Finance, Local Government and Communities share my disappointment at what seems to be a step back from a full commitment to mainstreaming equality into all aspects of this Government’s programme? I hope that that is not a matter on which the former Labour Cabinet has been badly influenced by its new friends and acquaintances.

Two thoughtful points, as I would expect. There is nothing behind any change of emphasis that you have observed on the Children’s Commissioner or on equality of opportunity. The placing of the Children’s Commissioner in the health and social care section simply reflects the fact that Jane Hutt is the Minister with overall responsibility for children and also the Minister with overall responsibility for health and social services. We must be careful about making any commitments that anticipate the results of the Queen’s Speech, the content of which we have not been able to see. It is one of the difficulties posed by presenting this programme two or three weeks before the Queen’s Speech rather than just after it. Neither we nor any Government department in Westminster can give any commitment about the content of the Queen’s Speech, because it is always subject to last minute changes and adjustments. We cannot say what will be in the Queen’s Speech. We have merely stated the position as it is today. That is all, and you should not read anything into that as regards the acquisition that we hope will come on 6 December. However, we cannot say anything more than that.

As regards equal opportunities, as you know, Edwina is not the sort of person to hide her light under a bushel. If she was unhappy about an absence of adequate commitments to equal opportunities, she would say so. You must remember, Helen Mary, that this is a work programme for a seven-month period whereas ‘Betterwales.com’ was a corporate plan intended to run for much longer than that. The fact that a matter is not seen as being likely to require a Plenary debate either because of an Executive action, legislation or because we want to bring forward some other mission, vision or issue over the next seven months, does not mean that it has lost its crucial importance as a cross-cutting issue to which we are all committed.

It is disappointing and discouraging—[OPPOSITION MEMBERS: ‘Hear, hear.’]

—to have to put up with the continuing negativity and rubbish that we have heard from the opposition parties. Wales has a serious image of trying to get its act together and move forward. The stuff that we have heard from the opposition does us no credit whatsoever. The opposition said that we are not tackling inequality. Ieuan Wyn Jones happened not to notice the reference to the Welsh baccalaureate in the document. Equally, I do not suppose that he knows about the health inequalities fund. That has passed him by. We know that Plaid Cymru has voted against the new formula on local government allocation, which will give more money to the most hard-pressed local authorities in Wales. We know that we are moving forward on the new health formula and we are introducing the Communities First programme from April of next year. I have just received a message on what is happening in Cornwall on Objective 1. The message is that they will be giving out the money soon. We are at it already. It is a sign of the negativity in the opposition parties that, when we achieve things in Wales, they continually knock us rather than congratulate us. [PLAID CYMRU MEMBERS: ‘Ask a question.’]—

Does Rhodri agree that in the Objective 1 area, Wales is outperforming the other regions in the United Kingdom in terms of distributing the money, and is outperforming the Irish Republic in terms of getting its complement document approved?

You are correct to draw to the attention of the parties that have either chosen to miss, or have genuinely missed, the reference to health inequalities being covered by the new health resource allocation formula. Work is continuing on that and we hope to be able present a document to the Assembly for consideration in the spring. That will be an important document on directing health expenditure where it needs to be directed. As regards Objective 1, my understanding is that Brian is correct. In comparison to other Objective 1 areas, we are ahead of the field, despite the constant repetition of this claim that it is a disaster area or chaos or whatever Alun Cairns feels like saying it is on any particular day. In comparison to other British Objective 1 areas and the Irish Republic Objective 1 areas, we are outperforming. What Brian said is correct.

I noticed that in response to the Leader of the Welsh Conservative Party, the First Minister poured scorn on and rejected with embarrassment the view that there has been a missed opportunity in Objective 1 which has alienated and frustrated the public, private and voluntary sectors. Does the First Minister agree with the Deputy First Minister, who admitted in the Economic Development Committee last week that there is united anxiety over the handling of Objective 1? If he does not agree with his deputy, I suggest that his head is in the sand.

We have always accepted—I have said it time and time again—that there is a problem with the structure of Objective 1. I have said that from the beginning and I will say it again now. There is no obvious way of deciding the allocation of priority between local and regional funding schemes under Objective 1. Putting together a team of consumers, main players and strategists to consider again how best to arbitrate between the claims of the local partnerships and the regional Objective 1 partnerships is a sensible way forward. I know most of the individuals involved, though not all. To set up a task and finish group of this kind is sensible. I believe that it will report to Christine Chapman as Chair of the Programme Monitoring Committee. I have no problem at all with that. If we can crack this problem that has existed from the start, of confusion as to whether local partnerships will be overrun by regional partnerships, or vice versa, then a great deal of the anxiety about either side of the local regional divide having too much of the resources will be resolved. It is a weakness in the structure. I look forward to the outcome of the task and finish group.

I will ask Rhodri two simple questions. When you devote so much of your life to improving the quality of life for the people in Wales, how do you continue to cope with the negative, boorish, backbiting, bullying and mind-blowingly pathetic comments of the opposition? [OPPOSITION MEMBERS: ‘Oh.’] How do you keep your patience? The second question—[Interruption.]

I make my case well. How do you also cope with the fact that the opposition has reneged on this Assembly’s promise to alleviate the yah-boo politics that are so despised by the public?

On the content of the opposition parties’ contributions this afternoon, I never expected that any of the material before the Assembly today would appear in Conservative or Plaid Cymru manifestos. This is a programme for the partnership Government of the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats. It is not there to help the Conservatives write their manifesto for the next general election or the next Assembly elections in 2003. No doubt they will abide by that encouragement to take a different view, otherwise they would be denying their own existence and what they did during their 18 years in charge in Wales from 1979 to 1997.

On the issue of behaviour, that is not a matter for me, but there is a lot of lower-third behaviour going on. I am as bad as anybody about it when sitting down, so I can hardly criticise it when standing up. I even occasionally permit myself to behave like that when standing up. You can sort of blame it on 13 years in the House of Commons, although that is not really an excuse.

Byddwch yn ymwybodol bod miloedd, os nad cannoedd o filoedd, o bobl yng Nghymru yn disgwyl rhywbeth mawr oddi wrth y Cynulliad Cenedlaethol. Yn arbennig, yr oedd y rhieni a fu’n ymdrechu am ddegawdau i gael chwarae teg i addysg drwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg yn disgwyl i’r Cynulliad—yn enwedig pan ddaethoch chi yn Brif Weinidog—wneud rhywbeth am hyn. Fodd bynnag, pan edrychwn ar y ddogfen hon, beth a welwn? Nodir y byddwch yn chwilio am fwy o ddeddfwriaeth i sicrhau bod cwmnïau fel BT, sydd eisoes yn gweithredu’n ddwyieithog, yn gorfod gwneud hynny o dan y ddeddf. Fodd bynnag, nid yw’r bobl hyn eisiau mwy o fiwrocratiaeth. Mae arnynt eisiau’r hawl i gael darpariaeth addysg cyfrwng Cymraeg i’w plant heb ymdrechu.

Yn ystod y 50 mlynedd diwethaf, ers agor yr ysgol Gymraeg gyntaf yng Nghaerdydd, nid yw’r ymdrechu wedi peidio o flwyddyn i flwyddyn. Mae rhywun yn rhywle yn ymdrechu yng Nghymru ar y funud hon. Yng Ngwlad y Basg yn ystod yr 20 mlynedd ddiwethaf—yr wyf yn dod at y cwestiwn, mae hwn yn bwnc pwysig—

Yng Ngwlad y Basg yn ystod yr 20 mlynedd ddiwethaf, maent wedi sicrhau bod nifer y plant sydd yn derbyn addysg drwy gyfrwng y Fasgeg wedi codi i 60 y cant. Yng Nghymru, ar ôl 50 mlynedd, 20 y cant yw’r ffigur. Nid yw hynny oherwydd nad yw pobl eisiau addysg drwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg, ond oherwydd nad oes darpariaeth i sicrhau y bydd hynny’n digwydd. Beth ydych chi am ei wneud am hyn yn ystod y flwyddyn nesaf, oherwydd nid oes angen deddfwriaeth i wneud hyn?

Yr oeddwn yn disgwyl cael fy nghwestiynu ar y ddogfen y prynhawn yma, ond yr ydych wedi codi mater pwysig i rieni a phlant yng Nghymru sydd yn awyddus i dderbyn addysg drwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg. Nid oes modd rhoi popeth mewn dogfen fel hon a chredaf fod Owen John yn derbyn hynny. Yr ydym yn disgwyl trafod materion deddfwriaethol, gweithredol neu weledigaethol. Yr ydym yn ceisio cadw cydbwysedd rhwng y ddarpariaeth a’r galw. Weithiau mae’r ddarpariaeth yn mynd o flaen y galw, ac i’r gwrthwyneb.

Ni wn am broblem na allwn ei datrys yn y modd confensiynol, drwy siarad â’r awdurdodau lleol. Mae’n rhan o’r bartneriaeth gydag awdurdodau lleol ar ddarparu ar gyfer y rheini sydd yn awyddus i gael addysg drwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg i’w plant. Os cyfyd problemau yn ystod y flwyddyn, megis awdurdod lleol yn benderfynol o beidio â chynnig darpariaeth i rieni sydd yn awyddus i sicrhau addysg drwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg, gallwn gynnal dadleuon, ac yn y blaen, yn y Cynulliad. Ni chredaf fod hynny’n wall neu’n dwll yn y ddogfen hon na bod ein hymateb ni i addysg drwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg yn warthus.

Do you agree that, aside from some thoughtful points from Helen Mary Jones, we have heard a raucous chorus of whine and whinge from the parties of Conservatism this afternoon, from the people who could not, would not and did not deliver for Wales for 18 long, dark years?

Like Richard, I was surprised that Helen Mary Jones made the only statesmanlike contribution on behalf of the opposition parties today, by actually reading the document. However, I do not want to damage her political career, if I can call it that. Reading such documents and asking perceptive questions, such as whether something will lead to an upgrading or downgrading of a subject, in a calm and statesmanlike way is what the Assembly should be about. That also relates perhaps to Alison Halford’s earlier question. I do not want to damage her political career either, as she has a reputation for being quite rumbustious, to which she will no doubt return at the right moment. There are times to be serious and statesmanlike, today being one of those times.

We are becoming used to government by leak. However, is it not rich to criticise the opposition for not knowing about the leak in advance? Will you apologise to my colleague, Nick Bourne, for accusing him of not knowing about today’s waiting list figures? Those figures will, in fact, be published tomorrow. Will you answer his question on whether you are committed to reducing waiting lists by 15,000 by March, which is the policy that you stated earlier this year?

I will return to you after discussions with Jane Hutt on that matter, which will take account of the latest information available following the recent fall in waiting list figures.