Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, I thank the First Minister for his reply. As he will know, since 2004, the percentage of NHS funding in Wales that has been spent on GPs has gone down from over 10 per cent to just over 7.5 per cent. In the same time, consultation rates have increased by more than 20 per cent, so GPs are being more hard pressed in their daily work. Does he agree with me that the independent contractor...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I agree with some of what the First Minister said, but I’d like to reiterate some of the points that have already been made by other questioners today in relation to the autism Bill. Does he understand the widespread anger and, indeed, incomprehension amongst the public at large that Labour AMs were whipped last week to vote against the motion for an autism Bill, which wasn’t actually a...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Like Simon Thomas and Paul Davies, I welcome this statement today. There’s a lot in it with which we can all agree. I particularly commend the Cabinet Secretary for the work that she’s doing in respect of biosecurity, and that’s undoubtedly had a significant impact on containing the spread of this disease. I’m not quite as sanguine as she is about the extent of her successes...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I echo everything that Suzy Davies has just said and I welcome this report. I would also, actually, like to commend the Minister for the drive and vision that he brings to his role and the contribution that he’s made to our committee. I don’t suppose I’d be able to say that to many Ministers in this Government, but that’s a genuine compliment that I pay him. The report of the Welsh...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Aberfan: 50 years ago today, an obscure pit village barely known beyond its physical horizons, but within 48 hours known throughout the world for the dreadful cataclysm that engulfed the village school and rendered its name immortal. The tip slide not only crushed the bodies of 116 children and 28 adults but temporarily crushed the heart of our nation too and it touches yet the heart of...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Can the Cabinet Secretary confirm that there is no official Treasury forecast of a £66 billion deficit from Brexit, and that this figure came from one briefing paper amongst many by one anonymous Treasury civil servant, and may well have been written in order to be leaked in the first place? The £66 billion shortfall in tax revenue, which is what it referred to, would imply a 9.5 per cent...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I’m delighted to take part in this debate and to commend Darren Millar for all the work that he has done for many years in promoting this project and, indeed, if I may say so, to Lynne Neagle, whose attractive and intelligent speech this afternoon fully justifies the vote that I gave her for the chairmanship of her committee. [Laughter.] Of course, youth, for me, is an increasingly distant...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, I will come to that point in a moment. It is important to engage more young people in the civic life of our country, and I think a youth parliament would be one way of achieving that. It is an unfortunate truth that we are the only country in Europe not to have an independent youth forum of some kind. I know that we used to have one in Wales in the form of Funky Dragon, which has been...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Will the First Minister provide an update on the proposed reopening of the railway line between Aberystwyth and Carmarthen?
Mr Neil Hamilton: Diolch yn fawr, Lywydd. Is the First Minister feeling a bit more cheerful after our week in recess, because we’ve had three very good pieces of news for the UK economy, and hence the Welsh economy as well, in the meantime? Nissan has approved a plant for 600,000 cars a year to be made in the north-east of England; the French insurance giant, Axa, has, after having put on ice its building of...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, it’s not surprising that the Prime Minister is not going to reveal her negotiating strategy to the First Minister of the Welsh Government, who is a member of another party. [Interruption.] It is not for me to speak for Theresa May—[Interruption.]
Mr Neil Hamilton: But what this does show, does it not, is that Brexit offers an opportunity, as well as a challenge, and that if we approach the negotiations in the spirit of optimism and positivity, then we are likely to achieve a great deal more? The trouble with the First Minister is that he’s a moaning Minnie. He only sees the problems. He doesn’t see the opportunities. As regards steel and the other...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, as it happens, we do have a free trade agreement with Mexico. That’s one of the two agreements they have managed to negotiate in the last 50 years. So, that rather invalidates the First Minister’s point, doesn’t it? But, there was another interesting event that happened during the course of the last week. I don’t know if the First Minister saw the election result in Lithuania...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Whilst there is a role for renewable energy at the margins, does the First Minister agree that an even greater reliance upon renewable energy than we currently have is likely only to impose prohibitive costs upon people? Between 2014 and 2020 already it’s estimated that the average cost of green subsidies and carbon taxes is £3,500 per household, and whilst hydro schemes and possibly even...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Why is the First Minister still talking the language of Armageddon? This statement refers to a collapse in European trade being a possibility. Even if we don’t actually tie up any deal with the EU, it’s impossible for there to be a collapse in world trade. Can the First Minister confirm to me that, last year, the UK exported to the EU £135 billion in goods and £89 billion in services?...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, as a fellow regional Member for this area, I’d like to express my personal sympathy with those who are now living with a massive uncertainty about their futures. Simon Thomas has just asked, I think, a very pertinent question, and I’m sure that the Public Accounts Committee will want to look at this grant in due course—not in any spirit of animosity towards the Cabinet Secretary,...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Will the Counsel General confirm that triggering article 50 merely begins the process of negotiation with the EU about the terms upon which we’ll continue to trade with them or have other inter-governmental relationships? It doesn’t really have anything to do with devolution at all, except that the process of withdrawal from the EU is in itself a giant devolution process because we’ll...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I commend the Welsh Conservatives for bringing this motion before the Assembly today. Russell George I think set out very neatly the problems that we’ve faced in the past and the limitations of what the Government has on offer for us for the future. UKIP will support the motion and, indeed, the Plaid Cymru amendments to it, and I hope that they will commend themselves to the majority of...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Sorry. Well, in that case, I apologise and I congratulate the Government on following Scotland. [Laughter.] I should’ve been a diplomat, really. But the regional and constituency variations, of course, are disguised within that global figure. If we take my region of Mid and West Wales, against the Welsh average of 89.4 per cent for 24 Mbps, it goes down, for Ceredigion, to 58 per cent;...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I hope everybody will agree that this debate has been conducted in as non-partisan a way as we possibly could. That was the spirit in which UKIP has put this motion on the order paper today and the way in which my honourable friend, Caroline Jones, opened with in her speech. I regret the fact that the Government has put down an amendment that seeks to...
