Mark Reckless: If the company he’s speaking to is Ford, is he not aware that Ford had a plant in this country—at least in the UK, which was in Southampton—that went instead, that closed down in Southampton and moved, to Turkey, paid for with European Union money, paid with our own taxpayers?
Mark Reckless: Will you give way?
Mark Reckless: Thank you, Presiding Officer. I understand no-one has ever objected, previously, in the history of the Assembly to the establishment of the committees. However, UKIP are not beholden by that prior consensus. We intend to vote today against the establishment of the policy and legislative committees on the basis agreed by the other business managers. The reason we do this is that equality, 4:4,...
Mark Reckless: Will the Member give way?
Mark Reckless: D'Hondt wouldn’t have meant anything of the sort. Even on a committee of seven, UKIP would have had one member according to D'Hondt.
Mark Reckless: Will the Member give way again?
Mark Reckless: I’m grateful to the Cabinet Secretary for his statement. As he says, these matters are inherently complex, and legislation is inevitably technical. This was brought home to me, at least with respect to this Assembly, should it be necessary, when seeking to familiarise myself with the procedures, at least to a degree. I watched, on the Parliament channel, his predecessor ably introducing the...
Mark Reckless: I’ve no questions on this occasion.
Mark Reckless: Will the Member give way?
Mark Reckless: Does the Member recognise that, since the Brexit vote, the level of the pound has now declined by some 10 per cent and will that not flow through into significantly improved competitiveness for the Welsh and UK steel industry?
Mark Reckless: Will the Member give way?
Mark Reckless: I’m surprised by his comment about pension funds. France and the US have been downgraded from AAA—there are very few AAA economies out there. Surely, the one thing we do know is that exports from these plants are now 10 per cent cheaper than they were two weeks ago. We heard from Bethan that there are two and a half times more exports than imports. Surely, that’s already improved...
Mark Reckless: Will you give way?
Mark Reckless: On the contrary, I think it was the most extraordinary moment, which I’ve always called ‘White Wednesday’ rather than ‘Black Wednesday’. However, unlike then, on the latest data, we have a current account deficit of 7 per cent of gross domestic product. His boss has gone on about how the high pound has handicapped steel production. Surely, in order to become more competitive, we...
Mark Reckless: I welcome the new allocation of money in the Welsh Government’s supplementary budget to the Monmouthshire and Brecon canal and would like to ask the First Minister whether this fits into any wider economic development strategy for integrating our waterways into the infrastructure of south-east Wales.
Mark Reckless: I’m grateful to the Minister for his statement and support the sensible devolution of this franchise to the Assembly and to the Welsh Government. I note, though, there has been 18 months of negotiations, and I wonder if the Minister could update on why those negotiations have yet to come to fruition. He compared Transport for Wales to Transport for London and mentioned some of the...
Mark Reckless: We do not propose to object to this budget and we are grateful to the Cabinet Secretary for the participative approach taken with the Finance Committee, and beyond, on it. I would like to raise just a few points around the capital allocations: the £2.5 million for the Brecon and Monmouthshire canal, which I welcomed in my question to the First Minister earlier. I just wonder whether this is...
Mark Reckless: I move the motion formally on behalf of the Business Committee.
Mark Reckless: I move the motions.
Mark Reckless: To date, though, agriculture has been devolved legally to Wales, but, in practice, most of what happens in that area has been set at EU level. The First Minister rightly observes there will be a massive difference between a Barnett formula share of agriculture spending and what we’ve received under the CAP. Given that, is it wise for him to set himself against a CAP-type policy on a UK...
