Mr Neil Hamilton: So, I’m going to ask the First Minister: what further progress has been made, particularly with the payments agency in England, to get these problems sorted out?
Mr Neil Hamilton: I fully agree with what the First Minister says, but it’s quite extraordinary that two Government agencies can’t find the means by which to talk to each other electronically whereas this happens quite naturally in the private sector and, indeed, in our private lives. So, I wonder what he can do to try to integrate the administrative arrangements between England and Wales in this respect,...
Mr Neil Hamilton: There is another big problem that needs to be addressed, of course, and that’s with the growth of bovine TB. In fact, in my region, in Carmarthenshire, cases of cattle slaughtered as a result of bovine TB are up by 87 per cent this year and in Pembrokeshire up by 78 per cent. With the non-availability of vaccine, the preferred option isn’t available to us. So, what can the Welsh...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I thank the First Minister for that reply, but is he aware of the problems that have been faced by The Union pub in Tremadog in north Wales in my region where, having been closed for several months on account of flooding, over the bank holiday weekend, the landlady decided, because it was sunny, to put out tables and chairs for drinkers to drink outside, which was very successful....
Mr Neil Hamilton: I’d like to ask the leader of the house about a point of practice about the issuing of statements to opposition parties in advance of their being read out in this Chamber. I appreciate the courtesy that this is, and it is important, I think, that debate and scrutiny should be informed, for that debate and scrutiny to be best. Today, I received copies of these statements at 13:20, so that...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Thank you, Presiding Officer. I’ve already had the opportunity to congratulate the Cabinet Secretary on his appointment, but you can’t have too much of a good thing, so I’ll congratulate him again today and express the hope that, under his guidance, the Welsh economy will really get its skates on—boom, boom. [Laughter.] According to the opinion polls, it looks very much as though...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, I think it’ll come as a surprise to the people of Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal and France that Europe represents hope, and I certainly take issue with the Cabinet Secretary on his rosy-tinted view. Of course, there can be no guarantees about the future; there’s no guarantee that any of us will be alive this time next week. But, nevertheless, it’s reasonable to assume that Wales...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, leaving the EU would, of course, not compromise steel jobs at all. We would have the freedom to do what the United States has done and slap a 522 per cent duty on cold-rolled steel as opposed to the 24 per cent duty that the EU has proposed. But I wonder can the Cabinet Secretary explain to me why the EU would want to put up any trade barriers against the UK when the figures announced...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Labour Members don’t seem to have caught up with the news that project fear isn’t working. Look at the opinion polls. The public don’t believe you any longer. Of course, the truth of the matter is that every single penny that is spent by the EU on all these great projects that we’ve heard catalogued this afternoon is our money. And, on top of that, we’re sending £10 billion a year...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, this just goes to show how far Labour is living in the past—doesn’t it—that we’re arguing today about what happened 30-odd years ago rather than what’s happening in the world today. But, what I note is that the Labour Government for, I think, the last 30 years, did nothing to repeal any of the measures that that Tory Government of the 1980s introduced. So, so much for that...
Mr Neil Hamilton: What is the Welsh Government doing to improve broadband speed in Mid and West Wales?
Mr Neil Hamilton: I would like to associate myself and my party with everything that has been said here today. Like Andrew Davies, I didn’t know Jo Cox; she was clearly a very remarkable person on the threshold of what I’m sure would have been a very successful political career. The impact of her tragic death would not have achieved the huge publicity that it has but for the nature of her personality, and...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Diolch yn fawr iawn, Lywydd. Last night’s result shows that small countries can take on much bigger ones in the world and succeed, if they approach a task in the right spirit. I’m sure that Ken Skates will be an advantage to Wales whenever it’s playing around the world, if he can produce results like last night’s. But, reverting to the question that was asked by the leader of the...
Mr Neil Hamilton: The First Minister seems to be denying that adding a city the size of Cardiff to our national population every year has no impact on wages. I have to tell him that the Bank of England disagrees with that. In a report that was published at the end of last year, the Bank of England said that a 10 per cent increase in immigration leads to a 2 per cent fall in wages for unskilled and semi-skilled...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, I think the First Minister has his head in the clouds on that, and huge numbers of ex-Labour voters take the same view. But it’s not just about immigration bearing down on the living standards of ordinary people. There are many other ways in which the EU does this as well—the cost of the common agricultural policy, for example, which probably adds up to £500 a year on the household...
Mr Neil Hamilton: 6. Will the Minister make a statement on the importance of public subsidies to Welsh farmers? OAQ(5)0009(ERA)
Mr Neil Hamilton: Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Bydd Ysgrifennydd y Cabinet yn ymwybodol mai un o’r problemau mawr mewn ardaloedd gwledig ac yn fy rhanbarth helaeth a gwasgaredig i yng Nghanolbarth a Gorllewin Cymru yn arbennig yw’r cwestiwn dadleuol ynglŷn â chyflymder lawrlwytho band eang. Mae gennyf etholwyr sydd wedi ysgrifennu ataf gyda chyfraddau nodweddiadol o 1 Mbps, o gymharu â 15...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Forgive me for observing, Cabinet Secretary, that that was rather short on detail in that response. What we are dealing with here are long-term cases of promises that have not been kept by the companies involved. I have a constituent who’s written to me from Abergorlech, in the Carmarthen East and Dinefwr constituency, who was promised an upgrade to fibre broadband in 2015; it didn’t...
Mr Neil Hamilton: One of the big problems here is that Openreach has effectively got a stranglehold on the infrastructure, and I suppose that this all goes back ultimately to the way British Telecom was privatised many years ago. [Interruption.]
Mr Neil Hamilton: I think the honourable Member should be gracious in accepting my mea culpa. But, of course, 30 years ago, we couldn’t predict the future with the certainty that Members have today about the future of the European Union. But, nevertheless, where there was a mistake all those years ago, perhaps we should now reconsider those options, and I wonder if the Welsh Government would take that on...
