Darren Millar: Will the Minister make a statement on the performance of regional education consortia in Wales?
Darren Millar: Diolch, Llywydd. Tomorrow marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of D-day. On the morning of 6 June 1944, the largest armada in history anchored off northern France preparing to disembark thousands of allied troops onto the shores of Normandy. What followed resulted in one of the bloodiest episodes of the second world war and marked a pivotal moment in the campaign against Hitler. Waiting in the...
Darren Millar: Formally.
Darren Millar: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. As others have said in this Chamber, it's a very sad day, actually, that we're standing here four years after the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board was put into special measures, yet still this organisation has not made sufficient progress to come out of them. As has been said, a quarter of the population in Wales is served by this particular...
Darren Millar: Thank you, Presiding Officer. I have to say, it feels a little bit like groundhog day every time I get up in here for one of these debates, because, yet again, we are discussing a Plaid Cymru motion that is seeking to have another vote in order to overturn the outcome of the first one. But let's not forget that 17.4 million people in the UK, the biggest mandate for anything in British...
Darren Millar: —and all of us to get on with it. Yes, I'll happily take an intervention.
Darren Millar: I'll come to that now. Let's not forget this: 32.5 per cent gives Brexit bigger legitimacy than this Welsh Government, which was elected in 2016 with just 31.5 per cent of the vote in Wales. But, as we've heard from you and from other people, coming first in an election apparently doesn't count for very much because, when you add up the combined votes of all those who lost those elections,...
Darren Millar: —but that is your logic. Yes, I'll happily take the intervention.
Darren Millar: Yes. He's a former Member, of course. I was talking about existing Members. Now, there are some—. Let's follow the logic again: there are some Members in this Chamber who I want to congratulate on having celebrated 20 continuous years of service in this National Assembly, the longest of any of us here, but, of course, when you add up the combined service of the other Assembly Members,...
Darren Millar: You're making a mockery of democracy. We gave the people of Wales and the rest of the United Kingdom the opportunity to have their say. They were told it was a once-in-a-generation opportunity to have their say on whether they wanted to stay or leave the European Union. They were told explicitly by the remain campaign—. They were given all sorts of 'facts'. They were told that the stock...
Darren Millar: I have never called for a second referendum. [Interruption.] I have never called for a second referendum, and the reality is—[Interruption.] And the reality is that this National Assembly's referendum on its establishment was implemented, quite rightly, by the Government of the day. And, of course, we all accepted—we all accepted—the result of our own referendum on law-making powers...
Darren Millar: Will you take an intervention?
Darren Millar: I heard the argument that was posited by Llyr Gruffydd, and he's quite right, there are all sorts of different forms of Brexit, but one thing that the people have rejected is to remain. That was on the ballot paper and it was rejected. Why do you want to put remain on a ballot paper again in a future referendum?
Darren Millar: It's very clear to me that the ability to control immigration was something that was on many people's minds when they voted to leave the European Union in June 2016. And even amongst those who voted to remain, there were still many people who had concerns about what they perceive to be unsustainable levels of immigration coming into the UK, and, of course, the people of Wales also held some...
Darren Millar: And one final question, if I may. One of the reasons that we have gaps in some of our public service professions, particularly healthcare and teaching is, frankly, a failure to plan for the workforce needs of our public services over the years. And, of course, the responsibility for planning for the workforce and making sure that we've got sufficient numbers of teachers, doctors and nurses...
Darren Millar: Will you take an intervention?
Darren Millar: Thank you. You made reference to the evidence—would you accept that the evidence about the way that your Government has carved up the spending of public resources in Wales is also very much wanting? If you look at the local authority settlements, for example, across this country over the past decade, you'll find that north Wales has lost out significantly when compared to local authorities...
Darren Millar: Thank you, Presiding Officer. Will the Minister make a statement on the Welsh Government's strategy for its discussions with the European Commission today?
Darren Millar: Thank you for that answer. I have to say I do find it astonishing that Welsh Labour Ministers seem to be more interested in chauffeur-driven cars than they do in the real issue of the day. I am sure that the Welsh Government would not want to allow its resources to be used to support activities that undermine its policy objectives either, and I think Ministers frankly should grow up and...
Darren Millar: Isn't the reality, Minister, that you're still playing politics with Brexit? There was a clear manifesto commitment from the Labour Party in 2017 to deliver Brexit and it's quite clear now to the people of Wales that Labour cannot be trusted to deliver on that particular manifesto commitment. Now, you've already done a u-turn in terms of your position on a second referendum, and you've said...
