Mr Neil Hamilton: Diolch, Llywydd. It’s in the interests of businesses in Wales that export to make progress in the future trading relationships between Britain and the rest of the European Union. Is it not disappointing, therefore, that in a vote on this in the European Parliament last week, Wales’s Labour MEP and Plaid MEP voted for the Commission’s position not to negotiate further because we’ve...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, it’s not for me, of course, and UKIP to defend the way the UK Conservative Government has embarked on this negotiation, but if he has read Mr Yanis Varoufakis’s account of his negotiations with the EU, he will see there what is playing out. The EU has no serious intention of entering into negotiations with Britain for the future, because their interests are to keep the remaining...
Mr Neil Hamilton: We indeed know what the EU’s position is—they don’t want to do a deal, therefore the whole process is a waste of time. Of course, he’s quite wrong—we didn’t say in UKIP last year that the Germans would do a deal; we said it was in their economic interest to do so. And indeed, given that they have this year a €42 billion trade surplus with Britain, if they don’t support a free...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, very appropriately for the land of song, we’re all singing in harmony on this, if not entirely in unison. I do commend the Minister for the energy and leadership that he has shown on this groundbreaking policy. I do endorse the approach that he mentioned in his earlier response to Darren Millar about building bridges and bringing people along by persuasion, rather than compulsion....
Mr Neil Hamilton: 6. What are the implications for Wales of adopting a distinctive justice system which is truly representative of Welsh needs? (OAQ51154)
Mr Neil Hamilton: I thank the Counsel General for that answer. I know it’s the ambition of the Welsh Government to have a separate justice system in Wales. Wales has been incorporated into a fused jurisdiction for 600 years, and its history is very different, therefore, from Scotland and Ireland, including Northern Ireland. And, whilst there may come a time when there are significant divergences between the...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Diolch, Cadeirydd. I’m delighted to follow Simon Thomas, whose speeches are always informative and interesting, and today’s has been no exception. I warmly endorse what he said about the opportunity for free ports that leaving the customs union will give us. I’m grateful to Eluned Morgan not just for the extra publicity by mentioning my name in her speech, but also for bringing the...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Diolch yn fawr iawn, Llywydd. Well, I’m grateful to those who’ve taken part in this debate today, and UKIP seems to have achieved something that people don’t normally associate with us: the ability to bring about consensus and unity, at least on the non-Government side of the house. I find myself in a position where I could have voted, actually, for the Conservative amendment or for the...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Yes, I will, sure.
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, it is true that all business taxes, actually, are ultimately borne by consumers or other taxpayers than the businesses who are the conduit through which they are paid, because, if a business doesn’t have the money that it’s going to give to the taxing authorities in its own bank account, to spend either on investment within the business or developing its business or, indeed, to...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Yes, of course.
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, in the spirit of consensus in which I started my speech, I welcome Rhianon Passmore into my big tent, if that’s not too frightening and gruesome a prospect. But, yes, of course I acknowledge that the Government has applied several bits of sticking plaster to the existing system, but what we want is not sticking-plaster solutions. We want, for the longer term, at any rate, a solution...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Diolch yn fawr iawn, Llywydd. The Welsh Government and, indeed, the Labour Party generally have been very critical of zero-hours contracts, and also firms like Uber, who they say use their terms and conditions to exploit workers. Well, aren’t supply teachers in Wales often in the same situation? There’s a case that was quoted on the BBC website this week of Angela Sandles, who’s a...
Mr Neil Hamilton: As the First Minister will probably know, supply teachers in England on average are paid about £130 a day, but in Cardiff that’s on average £90 to £95 a day, and in west Wales it’s as low as £80 a day. Agencies are charging schools above the rate for teachers on main scale 1-4, and teachers with 20 years’ experience, therefore, can be paid less than a newly qualified teacher who’s...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Schools come under the regulation of local authorities—the responsibility of local authorities at any rate—and, of course, the Welsh Government is responsible for funding those schools and has great persuasive authority, even if it doesn’t have the legal authority. Amongst other deficiencies of the current situation for lots of agency teachers is they’ve got no access to the...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I think we should start this debate by saying what is true: that we live in a much less prejudiced society today than 50 years ago, when I was young, and that’s a very good thing. I approve of the Government’s strategy on hate crime and I appreciate the tone in which the Cabinet Secretary started off this debate. But one thing that does concern me about debates on hate crime is that we...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I thank the Cabinet Secretary for giving way. We could all trade stories of this time. We know all about some of the anti-Jewish things that have been said by members of the Labour Party. There is prejudice in all parties. Don’t ask me to defend that poster—I had nothing to do with it. It certainly does not represent the kind of approach that UKIP wants to bring to the immigration debate.
Mr Neil Hamilton: The Cabinet Secretary will be attending NFU Cymru’s conference in two weeks’ time, and I’m sure she’ll have seen the advance press release from John Mercer, the director of NFU Cymru, in which he says that ‘The Union firmly believes that we can make a success of Brexit if our collective focus is centred on supporting our industry to meet the challenge of feeding a growing world...
Mr Neil Hamilton: It’s 2 November.
Mr Neil Hamilton: I fully understand that. No-one underestimates the vast scale of this project, but it is vitally important to us and the UK Government in the context of the current negotiations going on in Brussels also, because, if we are to get the best possible deal that is available out of the EU, they need to know that we are fully prepared for no deal. And the more, therefore, that we can make public...
