Mr Neil Hamilton: I thank the Minister for that reply. I'd like to raise with him a constituency case that he might have seen. A constituent of mine was travelling by train from Birmingham to Aberystwyth, had to get out at Shrewsbury because of a single failure on the line from Shrewsbury to Welshpool, but the bus replacement missed the connection for the train at Welshpool and then had to continue the whole...
Mr Neil Hamilton: 8. Will the Minister provide an update on the Welsh Government's TB eradication programme? OAQ55003
Mr Neil Hamilton: I thank the Minister for that reply. In the 12 months to October 2019, 12,742 cattle were slaughtered. That's the highest figure on record; it compares with only 917 back in 1996. I heard the First Minister, a few days ago, claiming that this increase in slaughter was actually a sign that the Government's policy was being successful. I don't, myself, see the highlighting of past failures as...
Mr Neil Hamilton: —was introduced in spite of the results of the Government's own consultation. So, my question to the Minister is: how can rural Wales have any faith in this Government that it will actually base its policy on evidence when all the evidence that we have is that it does the opposite?
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, I rise to support the motion so rumbustiously moved by Darren Millar this afternoon. And, for me, Friday will be the culmination of a lifetime's work, as I joined the Anti Common Market League in July 1967 as a schoolboy in Ammanford, and it has been the skein that has run through my whole political life, which has, as Members know, taken often some surprising turns, perhaps not least...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Yes.
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, I'm afraid the Member is—[Interruption.] I'm afraid the Member is very sadly mistaken, because although I was at the time a Government whip, I spent so much time trying to persuade Teresa Gorman to vote for the Government that I actually missed the division itself. [Laughter.] And so I was the only member of the Government who did not vote for the Maastricht treaty. So, I'm grateful...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, the United States Government obviously has to look out for itself, and it will, but our interests do happen to coincide in this particular instance. Our hand will be stronger with the EU if we've done a deal with the United States, and there are plenty of other countries that are lining up to do those deals as well. I'm therefore rather disappointed that Boris Johnson's Government...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, we've just heard the usual fantasy economics tirade from the Labour Party as though the financial—[Interruption.] Well, I think I should get to at least five sentences before we have an intervention. [Interruption.] I now need to make some progress.
Mr Neil Hamilton: It's as though the financial crisis of 2010-11 had never happened. In one sense, Members are right, of course, that the NHS is underfunded everywhere. It does have to compete, given that it is a nationalised monolith, every year, when there's the budget and Government spending round. It has to compete with all the other spending priorities that Governments have. Therefore, it is bound to be...
Mr Neil Hamilton: No, I want to make this point first before I give way. I will give way, but I want to make this point first. Yes, Wales does badly out of the Barnett formula. I fully accept that. And if it were based on needs, Wales would have a lot more money and we'd have more money to put into the health service. But the idea that a Tory Government at Westminster is ever going to give more money to a...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, obviously, if we had more money then we'd be able to do more things. Of course, I fully accept that. But the idea that the UK Government could just ignore the financial inheritance that it had from the Labour Government in 2010 is absurd. Just look at the figures. Since Gordon Brown took the brakes off public spending in 2001, everything went haywire. The Labour Government failed to...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I'm not here to defend the Conservative Government. I'm not a Conservative Member of this Assembly. I want to stick to the health service. Health absorbs half the Welsh Government budget, and it's growing, and it's bound to grow because the needs are growing faster than the means of dealing with them, and that's true of the population as a whole throughout the United Kingdom. So, we have to...
Mr Neil Hamilton: 7. What discussions has the First Minister had regarding Wales's constitutional status within the United Kingdom? OAQ55041
Mr Neil Hamilton: Is it not clear from the questions we've had today, from all parts of the House, that devolution over the last 20 years of Labour Government has comprehensively failed, and that this is a message that has percolated through to the Welsh people, because there's been a substantial increase in support in the latest YouGov poll, both for full independence on the one hand, and also, for abolishing...
Mr Neil Hamilton: 7. Will the Minister provide an update on how the Welsh Government is promoting international trade? OAQ55036
Mr Neil Hamilton: I thank the Minister for that reply. Taking my cue from Dai Lloyd's question earlier on, will the Minister acknowledge the vital importance of doing an early trade deal with the United States, where we have a pro-Brexit Government that is keen to help us as a country, in stark contrast to Monsieur Barnier, who maintains a policy of intransigence and seems to want us, for the indefinite...
Mr Neil Hamilton: 2. What assessment has the First Minister made of improvements to the health service over the past year? OAQ55089
Mr Neil Hamilton: I thank the First Minister for that reply, but I think most fair-minded people would say that that's a very partial answer to the question. The reality is that, in many respects, performance in the health service has got dramatically worse in the last 12 months. As far as Betsi Cadwaladr is concerned, a third of patients are now waiting over four hours for accident and emergency, compared...
Mr Neil Hamilton: 7. Will the Minister provide an update on relationship teaching in schools? OAQ55087
