Mr Neil Hamilton: The First Minister’s opening speech was full of unconscious humour and he did at least have the good grace, I think, to chuckle whilst he was talking about it being unfair, wrong and corrosive, this deal, as though it would be any different if it was Labour that had the larger number of seats and was doing a similar kind of deal with the DUP. I’m old enough to remember, as I’m not sure...
Mr Neil Hamilton: [Continues.]—in an extended display of sour grapes, I think, and is quite—I give way to Dafydd.
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, the DUP are obviously better negotiators than their counterparts in those days. We have to remember that the Barnett formula itself, of course, is a product of those negotiations, something that is inherently unfair to Wales, quite regardless of these negotiations, because, on a per capita basis, of course, Wales, as the leader of Plaid Cymru very rightly pointed out, gets a very raw...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Indeed. Well, for once, my former colleague talks sense—[Laughter.]—as he always used to. But that is exactly the—. We are in the era of power politics. There’s no good complaining about unfairness—life is unfair, as we know. Goodness knows, I’ve been on the receiving end of so much unfairness in the course of my life and I make no complaint about that, of course. I must be a...
Mr Neil Hamilton: 7. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the security of the Welsh fishing industry post-Brexit? OAQ(5)0160(ERA)
Mr Neil Hamilton: Thank you, Llywydd. Last time I questioned the Cabinet Secretary on agriculture a few weeks ago, we were discussing regulations applying to agriculture post Brexit. The burden of my question was that we should reassess all regulations to see if we could reduce them where there was no substantial diminution of public benefit. Part of the Cabinet Secretary’s answer seems to have caused a...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Thank you, Cabinet Secretary, for that reply. I’m afraid my reading list is not quite as extensive as hers; it does not extend to Conservative press releases. But—[Interruption.] But can I raise a related issue? At the moment, the European Union is considering reducing permitted levels of zinc oxide, which is an important chemical in the post-weaning of pigs to reduce problems with...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I’ll be happy to write to the Cabinet Secretary, if she would appreciate that. At the current time, a lot of uncertainty obviously exists in rural communities about the impact of Brexit, and this uncertainty is likely to continue for some time. I think it’s very important that we keep things in perspective. We all hope, of course, there will be a deal at the end of the day that will,...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I thank the Cabinet Secretary for that reply. Most people, I think, believe that the common fisheries policy has been a total economic, environmental and social disaster, and has caused catastrophic damage to our marine ecology. [Interruption.] Only somebody who doesn’t have a coastline to his constituency could be as ignorant as the Member for Blaenau Gwent in this respect. We’ve also...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I’m very pleased to take part in this debate and to congratulate Mike Hedges on his emergence—as Tory leaders used to before elections—as Chairman of the committee. I know we didn’t have an election, but I can say that if there had been one and he was a candidate, he would have had my enthusiastic support, because I’ve seen the way that he has worked in the Public Accounts...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Diolch, Llywydd. I’d like to continue this line of questioning with the First Minister, if I may. Is it not a tragedy that the Circuit of Wales project appears to have been strangled not because of any credible doubts about the viability of the racetrack project—because there was nothing in the Cabinet Secretary’s statement to that effect—but because of a technical internal accounting...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I fully understand that point and that, of course, was included in the original statement. But the idea that, for a project that would be funded privately to the tune of £375 million, a guarantee on the part of the Welsh Government that would cover less than half of that could be put on the Welsh Government’s books as entirely a public sector project is self-evidently ridiculous. And...
Mr Neil Hamilton: But not too high, apparently, to conjure up £100 million out of the back pocket as a reaction to this failure. And, if it’s possible to find £100 million upfront, effectively, now, why is it impossible to find £8 million a year, in three years’ time, for the following 30 years? Surely—I repeat the question—with an ounce of imagination, there must be a way through this. And the...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, the Cabinet Secretary for finance is always beguilingly reasonable in what he says. I’m, perhaps, going to take a rather different tack in my speech from others who have participated in this debate, because, generally speaking, I’m not in favour of introducing new taxes, although I’m strongly in favour of having the maximum sensible devolution of taxes. We have a problem in Wales,...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I’m sure he’s coming my way. [Laughter.] But as pointed out in relation to corporation tax, certainly, the Irish example is a very interesting one. I’m sorry that my attempts to move the Cabinet Secretary in that direction in the past have met with rebuff. When we had the tax policy framework statement just a few weeks ago, I’m afraid he didn’t prove to be very susceptible to those...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, that is, perhaps, true, within the European Union, and this is the position that Luxembourg finds itself in, of course, presided over so successfully by Mr Juncker for so many years. It’s rather, perhaps, paradoxical that the EU Commission wants to wipe out the opportunities of that kind for the rest of Europe. But outside the EU, we do have the opportunity to be internationally...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I don’t think that I could improve upon the devastating demolition that Adam Price conducted of the Government’s case on this, so I shan’t even attempt to do that, but I hope I’ll be able to add to it. This is, in addition, a devastating blow to industrial confidence in Wales and I can’t think that any potential investor in the future could rely upon the word of a Government...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I can supplement that further with another statement that occurred in the Cabinet Secretary’s most recent statement to this Assembly, where he said also that the level of financial risk borne by the private sector being less than 50 per cent, he explained: This is because the £210 million underwriting element would carry a higher risk than other parts of the financial package’, which...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd.There is a great deal in Plaid Cymru’s motion that we can agree with, and the reason why we put ‘delete all’ in our amendment is because that’s what Plaid Cymru always does when it tries to amend our motions. So, I’m afraid that we are just repaying them in kind. But we have never yet succeeded in having an amendment passed, so, therefore, I think this is a...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. I’m very pleased to have this opportunity to introduce an important short debate. In 14 years in the House of Commons, I never took advantage of the opportunity to have an adjournment debate at the end of the day, but they tended to be perhaps rather later in the day than short debates take place in the more enlightened atmosphere of the National Assembly. We hear...
