MORNING SERIAL
FIRST Minister Mark Drakeford said: “This week has been one of the stops in the stop-start process.
“Last week in the run-up to the announcements [on lockdown changes] we had good meetings on four out of five days.
“But now a whole week has gone by without any meeting of that sort.
“One out of three weeks has now gone by without any contact of that sort.
“We don’t want to see a sudden splurge of contact in the days before a decision has got to be made.”
Considering we were facing perhaps the UK’s biggest-ever peacetime threat, Drakeford revealed that many of the meetings on very serious topics were bizarrely “called together at very short notice, often to discuss things of very great importance”.
The First Minister seemed all the more annoyed that the UK Government had seemingly reneged on a pledge to make these dialogues more regular and reliable.
He also said in his press conference: “When we had the last COBRA meeting I felt there was a commitment there to have these discussions on a more regular and predictable basis.
“I immediately followed that up by communicating with the UK Government, hoping to see that in place this week.
“It is a disappointment to me that that rhythm has not been established.
“The reason I am disappointed is simply because I am committed to a fournation approach.
“Getting a four-nation approach becomes more complicated and challenging as we move out of lockdown.
“Therefore you need more conversations, more opportunities to share information, share perspectives, share ideas and hammer out a common way ahead.
“Without the opportunities to have those conversations, I think that becomes more difficult.”
Lockdown Wales by Will Hayward £9.99 www.serenbooks.com/ productdisplay/lockdown-wales ISBN 9781781726013
CONTINUES TOMORROW