Welsh Liberal Democrats' Kirsty Williams

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:00:00. > :00:12.It's about your lives, your families, your Wales. People in

:00:13. > :00:25.Aberystwyth are ready to ask the leader.

:00:26. > :00:42.Well, Wales votes in just three weeks and we are alive at the

:00:43. > :00:48.National library in Aberystwyth for the third in our Ask The Leader

:00:49. > :00:54.debates. The audience is a mixture of undecided voters and party

:00:55. > :00:57.supporters. Join the debate, #Wales 2016. Welcome the leader of the

:00:58. > :01:01.Welsh Liberal Democrats, Kirsty Williams.

:01:02. > :01:17.APPLAUSE Our first question tonight comes

:01:18. > :01:21.from Doctor Sue Fish. I'm a doctor working in the local area. Doctor

:01:22. > :01:23.and nurse recruitment is becoming increasingly difficult, particularly

:01:24. > :01:29.in areas like this with many posts unfilled. There is also a move to

:01:30. > :01:35.centralise hospital services to the urban centres. What are you going to

:01:36. > :01:39.do to ensure that there is a high-quality role health service in

:01:40. > :01:46.Wales? That's a great question and one that is of personal interest to

:01:47. > :01:51.me and my family because we too live in a rural area. What do we need to

:01:52. > :01:55.do? Winnie to make sure the Welsh NHS is an attractive place for

:01:56. > :01:58.doctors, nurses, physios and occupational therapists to come and

:01:59. > :02:02.do their work and we do that by making sure it is well resourced.

:02:03. > :02:06.That is why we want to ensure that money that has been promised by

:02:07. > :02:10.Westminster will be spent on the health service in Wales. We also

:02:11. > :02:13.know that many people leave the service because they find they are

:02:14. > :02:17.working in circumstances that make it impossible for them to do their

:02:18. > :02:21.job, and often they would rather leave than give substandard care.

:02:22. > :02:25.That's why I'm absolutely committed and over the last five years I have

:02:26. > :02:28.campaigned tirelessly to make sure that we have changed the law to

:02:29. > :02:31.ensure there is enough nurses in our hospital wards.

:02:32. > :02:37.APPLAUSE We know from international

:02:38. > :02:41.experience where countries have done that it has brought nurses back into

:02:42. > :02:45.our hospitals. We want to do that further in the next term, we want to

:02:46. > :02:48.do it in our community, in mental health wards and maternity wards.

:02:49. > :02:53.With doctors we need to look at ensuring that we get the best use

:02:54. > :02:57.out of that precious, precious resource. That means really focusing

:02:58. > :03:01.on primary care. If we can get primary care right we know that that

:03:02. > :03:05.will take pressure off our hospitals. So incentives for newly

:03:06. > :03:10.qualified GPs to command work on some of our difficult to recruit

:03:11. > :03:12.areas, allowing GPs to develop a specialism so they can work in

:03:13. > :03:17.general practice but also do their mitts on in a strict General

:03:18. > :03:21.hospitals. There is so much to do, so much potential but making the

:03:22. > :03:26.Welsh NHS an attractive place for people to come and work is

:03:27. > :03:30.absolutely crucial. And recruitment is the thrust of this question. You

:03:31. > :03:34.said incentives. What incentives would the Lib Dems offer to get GPs

:03:35. > :03:40.to mid-Wales, for example? When GPs are training many of them at

:03:41. > :03:42.undergraduate level do not get exposure to general practice. They

:03:43. > :03:47.certainly do not get exposure to the challenge of doing general practice

:03:48. > :03:51.in a rural area. You would know better than me that being a GP in a

:03:52. > :03:54.rural area, when you cannot sensibly to a hospital, is ever a extensive

:03:55. > :03:59.range of practice and exposing somebody like that and seeing what

:04:00. > :04:07.it is like in a rural area but we don't do enough of that. A question

:04:08. > :04:10.from the gentleman up their. You mentioned working in the community,

:04:11. > :04:15.are you talking about community support nurses that work in the

:04:16. > :04:19.local community. I'd like to know how you will combat the

:04:20. > :04:22.centralisation? What we need to do, to be honest with people about what

:04:23. > :04:26.can be done locally and what does need to be done at a specialist

:04:27. > :04:31.centre. There are some services where we know that patients do

:04:32. > :04:34.better if services are centralised. If you think in South Wales they

:04:35. > :04:38.have recently centralised the upper gastrointestinal service and

:04:39. > :04:44.outcomes for cancer patients are improving all the time. But there is

:04:45. > :04:48.no reason why people in rural areas should travel many miles, for

:04:49. > :04:52.instance, for chemotherapy. We could be delivering chemotherapy...

:04:53. > :04:57.APPLAUSE We could deliver chemotherapy on the

:04:58. > :05:00.network of community hospitals, we could be delivering chemotherapy in

:05:01. > :05:04.people's homes but to do that we need to have the right number of

:05:05. > :05:09.nurses in the community. The gentleman in the spectacles. Hello.

:05:10. > :05:16.In Aberystwyth, though waiting time for counselling services on the NHS

:05:17. > :05:22.currently is about three or four months. I know from some people that

:05:23. > :05:27.they have had to wait up to nine months. For somebody who's life is

:05:28. > :05:29.starting to fall apart and on the verge of breakdown that's completely

:05:30. > :05:39.unacceptable to them. APPLAUSE

:05:40. > :05:45.It is unacceptable to me too. We all need to remember that one in four of

:05:46. > :05:48.us in any one year will suffer a mental health problem. It is no

:05:49. > :05:53.respect of class, gender and what you do for a living, one in four of

:05:54. > :05:56.us. Yet too many people find themselves in a position of not

:05:57. > :06:00.getting the help they need. That is why my party is committed to

:06:01. > :06:04.ensuring that we have in law parity between physical and mental health

:06:05. > :06:09.and setting real targets for access to talking therapies. Kirsty

:06:10. > :06:13.Williams, if I could come in here, because you've criticised for a very

:06:14. > :06:17.long time the Labour government and yet as a party you have all is

:06:18. > :06:22.backed them in terms of getting their budget through, especially

:06:23. > :06:25.recently. You have not had many compromises on health specifically.

:06:26. > :06:28.Yes, on education but you do bang on about health but it hasn't been at

:06:29. > :06:35.the top of your list in terms of negotiation with the Labour Party.

:06:36. > :06:38.When you have backed them. Out of our budget negotiations what is

:06:39. > :06:42.important is we were able to secure direct investment to rebuild some

:06:43. > :06:45.community hospitals in mid-Wales, we were able to prioritise the

:06:46. > :06:49.intimidation of integrated care fund. For those people that work in

:06:50. > :06:52.the service they know that often hospital beds are taken up by

:06:53. > :06:55.patients who have ended up in hospital because there was not a

:06:56. > :06:59.care in the community to stop them going into hospital or getting home

:07:00. > :07:03.when they are well. We have done that and we have also persuaded the

:07:04. > :07:06.Welsh government to introduce a health technologies fund because we

:07:07. > :07:09.knew that Welsh patients were not having access to the top forms of

:07:10. > :07:13.radiotherapy and those machines are going into our hospitals, Welsh

:07:14. > :07:17.patients can get what they would get if they were in England. A couple of

:07:18. > :07:21.points on health before we move on, the gentleman at the back and then

:07:22. > :07:27.the lady at the front. On the health theme with regard to Aberystwyth,

:07:28. > :07:33.I'm a local councillor in Aberystwyth. The Welsh government is

:07:34. > :07:38.able to oversee local government, county council level, with regard to

:07:39. > :07:41.statutory and non-statutory requirement, with regard to care in

:07:42. > :07:46.the community the statutory requirement is all well and good but

:07:47. > :07:50.the statutory falls into attacking the vulnerable and elderly. Two

:07:51. > :07:55.things have taken place, the day centre has been destroyed and now

:07:56. > :07:58.they are attacking homes with regards to that requirement. The

:07:59. > :08:02.Welsh government oversees this. What would you do in the next term if you

:08:03. > :08:06.were elected with regards to that point, to make these particular

:08:07. > :08:09.issues statutory requirements was Mac before you take that, Kirsty,

:08:10. > :08:17.this lady on the front and then we must move on. Thinking about

:08:18. > :08:21.psychological therapies in Wales, in feathery 2016 400 people were survey

:08:22. > :08:24.in Wales who were quested psychological therapies in the last

:08:25. > :08:30.three years and some of the findings were really shocking. Almost half of

:08:31. > :08:35.those people, 48%, had to request psychological therapies rather than

:08:36. > :08:38.being offered therapy. 70% of people were not offered any choice at all

:08:39. > :08:42.in the type of therapy they received. What exactly do you intend

:08:43. > :08:49.to do to ensure that all people in Wales experiencing these problems

:08:50. > :08:57.are offered the full range of psychological therapies in a timely

:08:58. > :09:00.fashion within 28 days. As quickly as I can, we would introduce a law

:09:01. > :09:04.so that people suffering from mental health would be treated in the same

:09:05. > :09:07.way as many suffering from a physical health problem. We know

:09:08. > :09:11.because we survey every single GP in the last six months in Wales and

:09:12. > :09:15.many reported that they want extra training in the issue of mental

:09:16. > :09:19.health. I'd like to give budgets to GP surgeries to employ their own

:09:20. > :09:22.counsellors within their GP surgery because many problems they are

:09:23. > :09:26.dealing with are in the mental health nature so we need to do that

:09:27. > :09:29.and make sure those talking therapies are available, not just

:09:30. > :09:34.prescription drugs, which is often what GPs feel they can give. With

:09:35. > :09:37.regard to the services for the elderly, I'm very worried that the

:09:38. > :09:40.new social services act that came into being this month will make it

:09:41. > :09:46.harder to actually maintain those kind of services in the first place.

:09:47. > :09:52.We need to recognise that health and social care go together, and we need

:09:53. > :09:55.to treat that holistically. If we skip on those support services in

:09:56. > :09:58.the community that keep people well, keep people talking to their

:09:59. > :10:02.neighbours, keep them in their own homes, they will only end up having

:10:03. > :10:07.to go to a District General Hospital which costs more. Investing in those

:10:08. > :10:09.services saves money on the 1-run. Thank you very much.

:10:10. > :10:14.APPLAUSE It is a huge topic and I'm sorry we

:10:15. > :10:19.have to move on to question two, which comes from Greg Thomas. If the

:10:20. > :10:23.Liberal Democrats would be part of the next Welsh government, what

:10:24. > :10:25.would they do to ensure a strong rural economy and ensure that

:10:26. > :10:32.spending doesn't just go to south Wales?

:10:33. > :10:35.APPLAUSE Greg, I share your frustration as

:10:36. > :10:38.someone who campaigned for the creation of the National Assembly, I

:10:39. > :10:41.thought that bringing decision-making from London to

:10:42. > :10:45.Cardiff would mean we would get better decisions for the whole of

:10:46. > :10:49.Wales. But for many people living in a rare area Cardiff is equally as

:10:50. > :10:56.remote and non-understanding of their problems as London ever was.

:10:57. > :10:59.APPLAUSE Kirsty Williams, you've been in

:11:00. > :11:04.power in a coalition, not for long but you've been there, you have been

:11:05. > :11:08.an AM, what have you delivered for mid-Wales? When we were in the

:11:09. > :11:14.coalition for instance we introduced the small schools grant to be able

:11:15. > :11:19.to put additional money into rural schools so that we could keep them

:11:20. > :11:23.open. What we would do in terms of finance is we would reform the local

:11:24. > :11:26.government formula, egging into better consideration the costs of

:11:27. > :11:30.delivering services in a rural area. If we are going to get the rural

:11:31. > :11:33.economy really working we need to make sure their job opportunities

:11:34. > :11:36.for people which comes from building up small businesses which are the

:11:37. > :11:40.backbone of the river at the colony, we need to get farming up off its

:11:41. > :11:44.knees, and farmers getting a decent price for their stock and

:11:45. > :11:48.infrastructure. Recently I sat in the gym of a high school and watched

:11:49. > :11:52.people talk to Tim Peake in the space station. If I had stepped

:11:53. > :11:57.outside I could barely have got a mobile phone signal. I'm sure many

:11:58. > :12:02.of you can relate to that problem. We need the in rural areas to allow

:12:03. > :12:08.businesses to thrive. The gentleman wants to speak. Any points on what

:12:09. > :12:11.you feel are the rural issues, the problems and frustrations. It has

:12:12. > :12:15.got to be seen in the context of the fact you've been an Assembly Member

:12:16. > :12:18.of a rule area for 17 years and got into bed with the Labour Party and

:12:19. > :12:22.given us budgets that have betrayed rural areas. We have school

:12:23. > :12:31.closures, high council tax levels and poor services. That is the

:12:32. > :12:34.legacy of 17 years of the Labour Party with the Liberal Democrat

:12:35. > :12:40.representation in mid-Wales. Kirsty Williams, before you come in... Yes.

:12:41. > :12:44.My party believes in changing the local government funding formula so

:12:45. > :12:49.it's not just based on government... I'm not in the government, I believe

:12:50. > :12:54.absolutely we need a fairer deal for rural Wales and when the latest

:12:55. > :12:57.local government settlement came out and county councils set me the

:12:58. > :13:03.challenge of getting more resources for them we went back to Cardiff, we

:13:04. > :13:11.argued the case, we got more money. APPLAUSE

:13:12. > :13:17.We got more money for Palace -- Powys. The point he made was you

:13:18. > :13:20.have not been in power but enabled the Labour government to do some of

:13:21. > :13:27.these cuts because you backed the budgets. What we have done is had to

:13:28. > :13:30.deal with a very serious situation with a shrinking Welsh government

:13:31. > :13:40.budget and had to set ourselves priorities. In helping Labour as

:13:41. > :13:43.those budgets we have delivered an additional 260,000 for education for

:13:44. > :13:47.our poorest children and I'm proud of that. Is about time people in

:13:48. > :13:50.Wales realised what coalition is all about who are attacking Kirsty now.

:13:51. > :13:54.Until the grasp what Coalition Government is about we are going to

:13:55. > :13:58.get Coalition Government because that is the way it is, we will have

:13:59. > :14:07.to make compromises so these attacks are unfair. Let's go back to the

:14:08. > :14:12.rural affairs use. Where will people live? Burrell economy has been

:14:13. > :14:17.decimated. There is a meeting tonight to talk about how people can

:14:18. > :14:22.afford it. The least affordable county in Wales for first-time

:14:23. > :14:25.buyers. It has decimated rural housing, no small properties, your

:14:26. > :14:36.Coalition Government in the UK bedroom tax destroyed this local

:14:37. > :14:40.economy. The evidence is all there! Let me answer the question, you are

:14:41. > :14:49.absolutely right to say that we have a high -- housing crisis in Wales.

:14:50. > :14:52.Instead of spending ?1 billion, all of the borrowing power the Welsh

:14:53. > :14:56.government will have on future come on building a small section of road,

:14:57. > :14:59.we will prioritise building additional affordable homes, giving

:15:00. > :15:05.housing associations a social housing grant to build those homes,

:15:06. > :15:09.and additional 20,000. The bedroom tax has caused more than what you

:15:10. > :15:13.have created. Let's take a point from this gentleman who has waited

:15:14. > :15:17.patiently. I don't have the power to change the bedroom tax, if I'm part

:15:18. > :15:20.of an assembly government I have the power to build more affordable homes

:15:21. > :15:28.and I have committed to doing that. In addition to the problems aired

:15:29. > :15:35.here, some areas are only open for four or five months of the year and

:15:36. > :15:40.we are -- haemorrhaging young people to other parts. What would you do to

:15:41. > :15:44.remedy that? Your analysis is correct, we jobs for people,

:15:45. > :15:48.stimulate the rural economy by helping small businesses and taking

:15:49. > :15:52.extra people on. We need to be able to then have affordable places for

:15:53. > :15:55.people to live in the economy. We need to be able to have the

:15:56. > :16:00.infrastructure I talked about, with broadband, good mobile telephony,

:16:01. > :16:05.and we need to have the ability for communities to gain some power back,

:16:06. > :16:08.the community right to bid, to save their village shop, or their village

:16:09. > :16:13.pub, so that the infrastructure, the fabric of our rural lives are

:16:14. > :16:15.maintained. Those laws and those programmes are what I'm committed to

:16:16. > :16:18.delivering should I have the chance to in the next five years. A point

:16:19. > :16:29.from the front. One of the biggest problems for the

:16:30. > :16:34.rural economy is in mid Wales, a lot of the money that seems to come

:16:35. > :16:38.seems to go just to the south-east, then any extra goes to the north,

:16:39. > :16:44.but there is a big area in the middle of Wales called mid Wales,

:16:45. > :16:50.and on the map I am sure is written here be dragons, and we are the

:16:51. > :16:54.dragons of mid Wales. To be quite frank, nothing seems to happen here.

:16:55. > :16:59.All the services seem to be decanting from it. Jobs, when you

:17:00. > :17:05.talk about doctors, the reason doctors will not come is because

:17:06. > :17:10.most doctors tends to have partners. If they are female doctors they have

:17:11. > :17:19.male partners who need a job and vice versa. If they are a male

:17:20. > :17:21.doctor their female partner needs a job. If you could just finish on

:17:22. > :17:24.this point please? I could not agree with you more. The jobs are

:17:25. > :17:30.absolutely crucial in the rural area. We know many companies in

:17:31. > :17:34.rural areas are small businesses. We need to create a small business

:17:35. > :17:39.Administration that combines financial support and advice for

:17:40. > :17:42.businesses, helps to develop new markets for those businesses, and

:17:43. > :17:45.helps to ensure that there are skills and training available to be

:17:46. > :17:51.able to grow that economy. We also need be in the structure around

:17:52. > :17:58.that. That means homes. Thank you, let's move on. I am sorry, we must

:17:59. > :18:08.move on. Question three. Stefanie Stratton. How do you intend to make

:18:09. > :18:13.higher education more accessible for individuals from poorer backgrounds?

:18:14. > :18:17.That is a really good question. There are two aspects to that which

:18:18. > :18:22.we need to tackle. First of all, we do know that pupils from a poorer

:18:23. > :18:26.background tend not to achieve as well as their richer counterparts in

:18:27. > :18:29.GCSE and A-level. We need to make sure that those pupils from poorer

:18:30. > :18:33.backgrounds are getting the grades they need so they can get onto

:18:34. > :18:41.higher education. That is why in the last five years my party has

:18:42. > :18:44.persuaded the Welsh Government to introduce the pupil depravation

:18:45. > :18:47.grant. Why did you scrap tuition fees at the UK level? I knew I would

:18:48. > :18:51.not be able to get out of here without talking about tuition fees.

:18:52. > :18:55.We have invested in poorer children's' education and it is

:18:56. > :19:00.working. For the first time ever, it has been reported that the gap

:19:01. > :19:03.between rich and poor is closing. On to higher education, we want to

:19:04. > :19:06.ensure that people have an opportunity to get on, having

:19:07. > :19:12.listened very carefully to the pressures student or under and to

:19:13. > :19:17.the NUS, we recognise it as the upfront living costs which are often

:19:18. > :19:21.the barrier to people to go into university. That is why if we have

:19:22. > :19:26.the opportunity, my party will introduce student living grant of

:19:27. > :19:32.?2500 a year, given to that student to spend on whatever they need,

:19:33. > :19:37.rent... That is a big cut from what they are getting now. Let's be

:19:38. > :19:40.honest. That is a big cut from what the Conservatives are offering.

:19:41. > :19:52.Let's be absolutely honest and tell the students here, it would be a big

:19:53. > :19:54.cut. It is a different situation to the student support we have now.

:19:55. > :19:57.What they will have is upfront some resources to help them go to

:19:58. > :20:02.university now which does mean they will be paying later on for their

:20:03. > :20:08.tuition. We are the only party in this election which is emitted to

:20:09. > :20:18.ring-fencing the higher education budget. We want to give ?2500 do you

:20:19. > :20:24.want to know how much you would get? Is any young person or student in

:20:25. > :20:32.Wales going to believe any claim you make about protecting education

:20:33. > :20:37.after what happened? You are right to raise that question. I cannot get

:20:38. > :20:42.away from the terrible mistake my party made in the coalition in

:20:43. > :20:48.Westminster. We made a promise which we could not keep and that let

:20:49. > :20:52.people down. It did not matter that Labour had introduced fees, they

:20:53. > :20:56.raised them, Plaid Cymru raised them in the assembly. Our wrong did not

:20:57. > :21:01.make those wrongs right. We can do now is the very clear and upfront

:21:02. > :21:06.about what is affordable. I can stand here and say that is fine, we

:21:07. > :21:11.can carry on paying these student fee grants for years and years and

:21:12. > :21:15.years, when the reality is, I cannot make that promise. I do things

:21:16. > :21:20.differently in my party in Wales. I do not want to make those same

:21:21. > :21:32.states. We are offering a policy which we believe is affordable. It

:21:33. > :21:34.would be a huge cut. It is a different system. People go into

:21:35. > :21:42.university here would be about ?2000 worse off here. At the moment most

:21:43. > :21:46.didn't get that support upfront. ... What we know is Welsh institutions,

:21:47. > :21:52.and here in Aberystwyth, you would know that better than anything. We

:21:53. > :21:59.need a balance between supporting individual students going to

:22:00. > :22:02.university and making sure the universities here are first class

:22:03. > :22:05.and at the moment we are slashing the teaching budgets, we are

:22:06. > :22:14.slashing investment and that is not good for Wells or our economy. You

:22:15. > :22:20.said the UK party made a mistake, would you rule out working with the

:22:21. > :22:23.Tories in Wales? What I am ruling out is going into a situation where

:22:24. > :22:31.I cannot deliver on the promises I made. My party has had to learn...

:22:32. > :22:37.Would you rule out working with the Tories. That is why you lost votes

:22:38. > :22:43.in the UK? I do think it is who you do a deal with. What is important is

:22:44. > :22:46.what you are able to deliver. There may be a coalition and there may

:22:47. > :22:50.not. What my party has demonstrated is you do not need to be in the

:22:51. > :22:57.coalition to make a difference. You can deliver for the people in Wales.

:22:58. > :23:04.We did have a question which was exactly that. I will ask Julie to

:23:05. > :23:09.bring her question and your thoughts about a future coalition? That was

:23:10. > :23:12.my question! Would you be prepared to enter a coalition government with

:23:13. > :23:16.the Welsh Conservatives given what happened in 2010 and the horror I

:23:17. > :23:22.felt personally at having voted for the Lib Dems, to find I was enabling

:23:23. > :23:32.a Conservative government in Westminster? As you can imagine,

:23:33. > :23:37.after our last experience of the last five years, I am not very keen

:23:38. > :23:41.in rushing into a coalition with anybody after the election, after

:23:42. > :23:48.the experience my party has been through. What I have learned is you

:23:49. > :23:51.have to be absolutely clear in going into a coalition is what you are

:23:52. > :23:53.going to get as a result of it. I have been very clear. I cannot

:23:54. > :23:58.predict what the people of Wales will do. The people of Wales will

:23:59. > :24:02.decide the politicians they send to the National Assembly. Would you

:24:03. > :24:09.rule out working with the Conservative Party? You described

:24:10. > :24:15.working with them as a terrible mistake. Why not say, I would not

:24:16. > :24:19.touch them with a barge pole. Tim Farron had something similar. You

:24:20. > :24:22.would be honest with the voters. As I said, I'm not in a hurry to get

:24:23. > :24:30.into a formal coalition with anybody, because of the experience.

:24:31. > :24:33.The bar which was already very high has been set higher. We have to work

:24:34. > :24:39.with what the people of Wales give us. What I am absolutely clear

:24:40. > :24:43.about, what I am absolutely clear about is if the Welsh Liberal

:24:44. > :24:46.Democrats are part of a coalition or the Welsh Liberal Democrats have an

:24:47. > :24:52.influence on a minority government, the things we will do. We will

:24:53. > :24:56.ensure that there are more nurseries in Wales... Those are your policies

:24:57. > :25:00.but please, on the coalition, wherever we go in Wales, people want

:25:01. > :25:05.clarity, especially given your history. You have cooperated with

:25:06. > :25:09.Labour in Cardiff Bay, the Conservatives in Westminster, voters

:25:10. > :25:14.will put a tick by the Lib Dems, they want to know by default would

:25:15. > :25:21.they be putting one of them in power or would you say no, we won't? Know,

:25:22. > :25:23.if people put a tick by the Welsh Liberal Democrats, they will be

:25:24. > :25:27.electing politicians who are absolutely clear about what they

:25:28. > :25:33.want to achieve for the people of Wales. Those priorities are,

:25:34. > :25:38.ensuring that we improve access to GPs, cutting class sizes in our

:25:39. > :25:43.schools, it is about creating an opportunity economy for everybody to

:25:44. > :25:48.get on in life. If people vote for Liberal Democrats, if we are part of

:25:49. > :25:51.a coalition or not, we will steadfastly campaign on those issues

:25:52. > :25:55.because that is what we have done over the last five years. I said

:25:56. > :25:59.last election we would invest more in schools for poorest pupils and

:26:00. > :26:09.that is what we have done. Thank you, two points here. Hello. Looking

:26:10. > :26:14.back on the last election, we didn't have the government, we had to have

:26:15. > :26:18.a coalition which ever way it went, and by looking at what happened with

:26:19. > :26:23.the Liberals in London, at least I look at it as an undecided voter,

:26:24. > :26:30.that they were an anchor, at least they held the Conservative Party

:26:31. > :26:37.back. They did hold them back. They brought in ?11,000 tax, -- they

:26:38. > :26:40.brought in the ?11,000 tax allowance, and until we get the

:26:41. > :26:45.election, we do not know what will happen but all I pray for is we have

:26:46. > :26:54.had a Labour Party for so many years, and we have seen Wales go

:26:55. > :26:57.down and down and down, if we have to have a coalition... Do you want:

:26:58. > :27:09.David-macro clarity that yes, they might go into a coalition... I

:27:10. > :27:17.cannot be any clearer. Is everything on the table? Ukip? If you are going

:27:18. > :27:22.to create a coalition you have to have at least an inkling of a shared

:27:23. > :27:37.goal and I cannot see anything in this election that I could work with

:27:38. > :27:41.them. A point there. You have been constantly slighted, at least Kirsty

:27:42. > :27:48.talked to the government, Plaid Cymru did not have a single meeting

:27:49. > :27:54.with Labour to deliver, they did not meet up at all. Thank you, you can

:27:55. > :27:57.carry on after the programme. That aside, I still think we have a

:27:58. > :28:02.problem in understanding that the voting pattern for women's do is not

:28:03. > :28:13.the voting pattern which exists in Wales. -- the voting pattern for

:28:14. > :28:18.Westminster. We need to get the mindset changed. Thank you, the

:28:19. > :28:24.final word to Kirsty Williams. Where do you see yourself in five years'

:28:25. > :28:27.time? I would love to be sitting down with this gentleman talking

:28:28. > :28:36.about delivering more houses. I would like to be talking to you

:28:37. > :28:40.about a renaissance in our community hospitals and bringing services back

:28:41. > :28:46.to rural areas. Thank you, Kirsty Williams, thank you to our audience.

:28:47. > :28:50.Tomorrow, we are back here in Aberystwyth when Plaid Cymru leader

:28:51. > :28:54.Leanne Wood will be here to ask Tony-macro face the questions. Do

:28:55. > :28:59.join us then. Are goodbye.