What David Cameron doesn’t want you to know about the Welsh Government

If you regularly watch David Cameron at the despatch box you’re probably getting used to him taking pot shots the Welsh Labour Government. It’s a depressingly cynical tactic; make something up, say it enough times and it becomes the truth.

According to Cameron, the Welsh NHS is a disaster zone and on the verge of collapsing like a house of cards on Labour’s watch.

This apocalyptic nightmare is of course nonsense, and while it’s true we are currently in the midst of a hugely challenging reconfiguration programme, patients in Wales are better off being treated here than across Offa’s Dyke; there is no great NHS sell-off like in England, no tents springing up outside A&E departments and we spend more money per head on cancer treatments than anywhere else in the UK.

As Welsh Labour leader Carwyn Jones has said, “It is time the facts about the NHS in Wales were allowed to cut through the political smog and distortion peddled so strongly by its opponents.”

This week, Labour’s Finance Minister Jane Hutt unveiled her draft budget for 2014-15. Without doubt it’s the toughest budget we’ve faced since devolution considering the grim settlement and added complication of having to satisfy opposition minority parties (the Welsh Lib Dems and Plaid Cymru) as Labour has exactly half the seats in the National Assembly.

But despite that stark backdrop, the Welsh Labour Government has produced a budget that is both fair and just.

So Labour’s much-lauded Jobs Growth Wales scheme gets a welcome one year extension. There is increased funding for universal benefits – free prescriptions, free school breakfasts and milk, free swimming and concessionary fares. And grabbing most of the headlines is an increase in the health budget of £570m over three years, in part to respond to the findings of the Francis Inquiry into the failings at Stafford Hospital.

Like any budget in this Tory age of austerity, there are portfolios that face cuts, and our 22 local authorities will have some difficult decisions to make in the near future. But they will work with the Welsh Labour Government and try and thrash out a way that reduces the impact on the most vulnerable in our communities.

In the meantime, the Welsh Conservatives continue to peddle myths and lies about the state of the economy and the NHS in Wales. They conveniently forget our budget has been decimated by their London counterparts and to a large degree Labour’s hands are tied.

I’m waiting for David Cameron to admit that fact next time he takes Prime Minister’s Questions. But I’m not holding my breath. And neither should you.

Rebecca Evans is Labour’sWelsh Assembly Member for Mid and West Wales