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Welsh Liberal Democrats slammed Labour and their Plaid Cymru helpers for cutting schools budgets, and leaving universities short of cash.
In a fiery debate at the National Assembly for Wales yesterday, AMs queued up to accuse the unlikely partners of selling out on education.
Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Mike German said: "Let me make our position clear. Schools are going to suffer. Schools and universities will be the big losers.
"The party that promised us Education, Education, Education has borrowed an R from the Party of Wales and given us Reduction, Reduction, Reduction.
"By working together the opposition parties had been able to achieve significant improvements to the budget. Working alone, Plaid Cymru have secured an additional £300,000.
"Together we were looking for money equivalent to the salaries of 200 teachers. Plaid Cymru have caved in for 10 teachers. That's not good enough."
He highlighted successes achieved by the united opposition. This includes extra money for our
ambulance service, support for the rail link between Wrexham and London, extra cash for disabled play, some extra funding for universities, firefighters pensions and hospices.
Mr German added that Plaid would go into the 2007 Assembly elections as "Labour's little helpers".
2 comments:
Exactly where have school budgets been cut? It is my understanding that they will receive increased funding again this time around.
Indeed, the question has to be asked as to why the Lib Dems ended up voting against more money for the ambulance service, rail links, disabled play etc when according to your post it was something you championed.
You were fully able to put forward an alternative budget, clearly stating where the money for your priorities was coming from in terms of cutting other funding areas, but decided not to.
Hardly responsible opposition.
Most of the increases claimed by Plaid had been obtained through hard negotiation by the combined opposition. Liberal Democrats were certain that more could be squeezed out of the government for education in particular, and I believe that the Conservatives shared this view.
Voting down the entire budget (which presumably includes WA ministers' salaries as well as the public services you mention) would have concentrated the government's minds wonderfully.
- Frank Little
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