Mr Neil Hamilton: I’m sure the Minister will agree with me that subsidy has been an important element in farmers’ incomes throughout my entire lifetime, both before we went into the common market, as we then called it, and of course since, and that if the country votes tomorrow to leave, then public subsidies will continue at least at their present level because we pay in £2 to get only £1 back. We had a...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Diolch yn fawr iawn, Lywydd. I think, to begin with, it would be fair to acknowledge that this referendum would not be taking place at all but for my party, and my party would not exist but for the upswell of feeling against the European Union, which has existed for quite some time. When we joined the European Community, as it then was, in 1973, anybody would think, from what we’ve heard...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I’m completely confident that there will be no tariffs on motor car components because—. [Interruption.] Well, let me just give you the facts. We import from Germany 820,000 vehicles a year and we have a deficit in motor car trade with Germany amounting to £10 billion a year. I don’t think that Chancellor Merkel, going into an election in Germany next year, is going to advance the...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Yes, we do like experts. The future is inherently unpredictable—I know that—but common sense tells us that Germany will not want a trade war with Britain when it would hurt them far more than it hurts us [Interruption.] The Treasury—. There’s a limit to how many times I can give way. The Treasury’s Armageddon forecast of just a few weeks ago forecast the worst that George Osborne...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I’m afraid I can’t take an intervention.
Mr Neil Hamilton: Again, we would be outside the whole state aid rules of the EU, which preclude us from giving help to industries such as the steel industry in Port Talbot. We would be able to take control of our indirect taxes. The Labour Government, in 1997, was unable to abolish the VAT on domestic heating fuel, so we now have a 5 per cent charge on everybody’s heating bills, and that’s because the EU...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Unfortunately, I have only a minute to reply, so I can’t—I’ll be available afterwards to continue the discussion. But, I’m amazed at the other Members in this house who take a different view from me of the European Union. Their defeatism and their pessimism about the spirit and character of the Welsh people—that, somehow or other, they’re incapable of making their way in the...
Mr Neil Hamilton: First Minister, I don’t expect you greeted the result of the referendum last Thursday with as much enthusiasm as I did, but Wales did vote decisively to leave the EU, and indeed a majority both in Bridgend and in the Rhondda voted to leave the EU, but the Welsh political establishment—Labour, Plaid and the Liberal Democrats—were uniformly in favour of remaining, and all the AMs in those...
Mr Neil Hamilton: The First Minister, I’m sure, will agree with me that this now offers great opportunities for Wales. I appreciate that he concentrated upon the risks and the uncertainties before the referendum campaign, but now that we have the great opportunities that freedom of action gives us, we must capitalise on them and sell Wales in the wider world on that basis. It also offers us—and here I...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Will the First Minister join me today also in condemning our Chancellor, George Osborne, who seems not to have realised that the referendum is over and is still carrying on with project fear, and who has announced today there’ll be spending cuts and tax increases in the autumn because we’ve got to live within our means, and that this comes ill from the mouth of Britain’s worst...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Last Thursday’s vote gives us something that I would have thought Plaid Cymru would welcome—it’s called national independence; they seem to be somewhat afraid of this. But, now we have the opportunity to make decisions for ourselves. The EU funding that has been referred to so many times in this Chamber today can now be returned to us, whether it be to the Parliament of Westminster or...
Mr Neil Hamilton: No, no. The whole point of the anti-dumping legislation, which you can use under the World Trade Organization rules, is it’s only where steel is exported to your country below cost on the world market, which is not the case with steel produced in the European Union, but it is the case with steel produced in China, which is the cause of all the problems—[Interruption]. I didn’t vote...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Like Andrew R.T. Davies and, indeed, Simon Thomas, in relation to the autism Bill, UKIP supports that, so there is a true cross-party consensus in this Assembly on that at least. I can’t say the same for everything else in the statement that the First Minister has made this afternoon. As regards the devolution of taxation, personally I’m not opposed to that; there is a difference of view...
Mr Neil Hamilton: 4. What is the Welsh Government doing to support library services in Mid and West Wales? OAQ(5)0092(FM)
Mr Neil Hamilton: I’m sure the First Minister is aware that there is no question of EU citizens currently living or working in the United Kingdom being used as bargaining chips in any renegotiation, because their rights are fully protected under the 1969 Vienna convention. Can the First Minister confirm to me that that is the case?
Mr Neil Hamilton: Turning away from EU matters, the First Minister has rightly mentioned the prospects for employment in Wales following our leaving the EU, and he will be aware that the Welsh Government’s currently sitting on a decision in relation to the circuit of Wales. There was a problem in relation to this over the size of the guarantee that would be required for funding the project. Now I understand...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Oh, right. Well, I’m delighted to hear that, because it is vitally important for the whole of south-east Wales and, indeed, far beyond. This is the biggest regeneration project that we’ve seen in many, many years—£380 million—and I don’t expect that the First Minister can anticipate the Cabinet Secretary’s forthcoming announcement, but I hope he will accept from me that it is...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I don't know whether the First Minister is aware that Powys County Council plans £0.25 million in cuts to the library budget between now and 2019, which will involve cutting half the local running costs of the library service and the possible closure of 11 branch libraries. Will the First Minister join me in regretting this sense of priorities, because libraries must surely be regarded as a...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Like everybody else, I welcome this debate, although I wonder, amongst the public at large, whether they might regard it as a bit of kind of pretentious navel-gazing and they’re not too bothered about what we call ourselves—as far as I can tell, they’re highly critical of what we do in this place. But, several of us, of course, have been Members of Parliament in another place, and I...
Mr Neil Hamilton: 1. Will the Minister make a statement on the shortage of school places in Wales? OAQ(5)0011(EDU)
