Mr Neil Hamilton: The First Minister will know that the Ford Motor Company recently cancelled a £1.6 billion proposed investment in Mexico, and decided instead to increase investment in its plant in Michigan by $700 million. This is partly, they say, a vote of confidence in the Trump administration’s policy. One thousand, eight hundred and fifty jobs in Ford in Bridgend depend upon that company, despite...
Mr Neil Hamilton: My point is the importance of a continued prospering trade relationship with the United States, which will, to an extent, depend upon having a positive relationship with the United States Government. Now, I appreciate that there will be different views around the Chamber on the domestic policies of the United States Government and, indeed, President Trump’s apparent views on world trade....
Mr Neil Hamilton: Theresa May, of course, has given friendly criticism to President Trump already in various ways, and I’m not against being candid with our allies, but there is a difference in diplomacy between candid criticism given in a polite and private way and the kind of megaphone diplomacy that is more concerned with grandstanding and virtue signalling, in this country, for domestic political gain.
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, the First Minister makes some fair points, but will he accept that the restrictions that have recently been introduced are temporary, pending the introduction of enhanced vetting procedures, and that the immigration and security policies adopted by the American administration must be a matter for them and for the American people? We wouldn’t want them interfering in our immigration...
Mr Neil Hamilton: 2. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the impact of Brexit on the Welsh fishing industry? OAQ(5)0097(ERA)
Mr Neil Hamilton: I’m delighted with the answer that the Cabinet Secretary has provided. Does she accept that the opportunities that will be available for Welsh fishermen and women will be very significant, that the last 43 years have seen a plundering of our seas through the common fisheries policy, the devastation of fish stocks, which have taken many, many years to begin to correct, and that by taking...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Diolch, Lywydd. If I can pick up the gauntlet flung down at me by Simon Thomas in relation to King Canute, King Canute, of course, was the wise man who showed his fawning courtiers that there were limitations on the power of royal authority and government, and he couldn’t hold back the tide, so I feel he would probably have been a man-made global warming sceptic if he were alive today....
Mr Neil Hamilton: I thank the Cabinet Secretary for that helpful reply. The Welsh Government is committed to clean, healthy, safe, productive and biologically diverse seas, and there has been good progress made on designation. But, I’m not sure that the same progress has been made on improved management of marine protected areas. In 2012, the Countryside Council for Wales, which is now, of course, Natural...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I thank the Cabinet Secretary for that. In the strategic action plan that the Government published in November 2013 for Wales on marine and fisheries, paragraph 12 referred to the report of the Environment and Sustainability Committee of the Assembly in the last Assembly, in January 2013, and a commitment was made, following that, to six-monthly ministerial statements updating on progress....
Mr Neil Hamilton: Diolch yn fawr, Lywydd. The First Minister will know that I’m a strong supporter of the Welsh Government’s policy of achieving 1 million Welsh speakers by 2050, and I’m a great admirer of the Minister for lifelong learning, who brings his legendary diplomatic and leadership skills to the achievement of that objective. In particular, I approve of the basic principle of tolerance and...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, the Welsh-medium education strategy says that Wales should be a country where people may choose to live their lives through the medium of either, or both, Welsh or English, and I think that’s a very reasonable objective. Here we’ve had a consultation process in Llangennech, 18 months after the decision was actually made, in which five people have opposed the proposal for every one...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I agree that that is the constitutional position, but the Welsh Government—because this is a Welsh Government policy for improving the condition of the Welsh language in Wales, and maximising its appeal and its reach—must have a persuasive influence here. There is a practical solution to this problem, because at the moment there are three Welsh-medium schools in Llanelli with 170 surplus...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I commend the Cabinet Secretary for the speed with which he’s going to decide this matter. Will you accept from me that there is cross-party support for this venture and that we all, in this Assembly, accept that south-west Wales has lagged way behind most of Wales in recent years in terms of income? Adam Price has done a signal service, I think, to us in bringing this to our attention, not...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I appreciated the First Minister’s joke about not putting our eggs in one Brexit, but I fear comedy isn’t his strongest suit because he’s so melodramatic in these debates. The doom and gloom that comes out of his mouth is really quite extraordinary, and he is, I think, modelling himself more on Private Frazer in ‘Dad’s Army’—‘We’re doomed, we’re doomed’. His colleague...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Yes, of course.
Mr Neil Hamilton: Yes, well, I will come on to this in a moment in this speech. How on earth could moving to WTO rules from single market rules, where there would be an average tariff of less than 3.5 per cent, possibly produce a fall in the size of our national income by 10 per cent, given that our total exports to the EU are only 12 per cent of gross domestic product? This is absolutely economically...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Of course different markets and different products will be affected by exiting the EU unless we continue the trading arrangements that we have at the moment. That’s why it is of course right that the Welsh Government should feed into the negotiating process. But the Welsh Government is not interested, actually, in feeding into this negotiating process, because they start from the opposite...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Dafydd Elis-Thomas’s hill farmers are the same as my hill farmers. I’m not actually—[Interruption.] Well, Mid and West Wales, if the honourable lady hasn’t discovered it, does include Dwyfor Meirionnydd and therefore—
Mr Neil Hamilton: Llywydd, I think that is the quote of the decade, and I’m duly admonished. Of course, that wasn’t a sensible suggestion, I was merely taking the argument to the absurd extreme. All I’m saying is that we will have the freedom to make rules and regulations to decide our internal policies for ourselves. If we choose to give some form of assistance to one sector rather than another, that is...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Yes. And that is because as part of a unitary state, albeit with devolved Parliaments and Assemblies, we have to accept that the United Kingdom negotiates on behalf of the entire country. But Wales has everything to hope for, I think, and everything to gain from a positive attitude towards the Brexit negotiations and the opportunities that are available in the wider world.
