Mr Neil Hamilton: Llywydd, I agree absolutely 100 per cent with everything that the leader of Plaid Cymru has just said—[Interruption.] There are occasions when UKIP can be ecumenical. In the interests of the Welsh people, this is one of them, and it’s something that, perhaps, we can follow up in the Public Accounts Committee, if not in a public inquiry, if that be not granted. But I want to ask about the...
Mr Neil Hamilton: The First Minister’s obfuscating here. He knows perfectly well that the aim of the UK Government is the same as the aim of the Welsh Government, and that is to achieve the maximum possible degree of free trade between the UK and the EU. But this is a reciprocal process. If we are not granted free trade to Europe, we will not grant the EU free trade with us, and, given that they have a trade...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, I’ve made my point on that, but the EU comprises another 27 member states. With almost all of them, we have a trade deficit. In Germany’s case, for example, we have a trade deficit that amounts to £25 billion a year. One in 10 of every car made in Germany is exported to the United Kingdom. There is a massive interest in Germany in retaining the maximum possible free trade with...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I would like to give a warm welcome to this report as well, and the general approach that the Minister has brought to this. This is a series of measured and practical steps, I think, to go towards achieving the ultimate ambition of 1 million Welsh speakers by 2050, but I’d also like to commend him on the eloquence with which he concluded his statement about the reasons for supporting the...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Diolch, Llywydd. When I was in school, the best part of 100 years ago, the policy was that everybody learnt at least one foreign language up to the age of 16. Things are radically different now, and I’m pleased to hear the figures that the Cabinet Secretary announced a moment ago and the emphasis that the Welsh Government is placing upon learning modern foreign languages. But one of the big...
Mr Neil Hamilton: It is of course the case that the United Kingdom is the signatory of the 1964 treaty, and therefore it is the UK Minister who will take the decision to withdraw from it, but I do agree with the implication of Simon Thomas’s question, that as fishing is a devolved matter, there ought to have been some consideration for the views of this Assembly and the Welsh Government. But I do hope that...
Mr Neil Hamilton: As I understand it, the Labour Party is committed to withdrawal from the European Union, pursuant to the decision of the British people in the referendum last year. So, isn’t this question a bit like those medieval questions, which concerned how many angels could dance on the head of a pin?
Mr Neil Hamilton: When the Minister meets the UK Minister tomorrow, she’ll be able to say that she has the united support of all the Assembly Members for Mid and West Wales, and indeed from my party as well as Plaid Cymru, in what she says. She’s absolutely right, of course, in relation to west Wales—one of the poorest parts not just of the United Kingdom, but in fact western Europe. It’s quite wrong...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on university tuition fees in Wales?
Mr Neil Hamilton: Diolch, Llywydd. The First Minister will know that the Welsh economy is worth about £60 billion a year, and, of that, £38 billion is accounted for by public expenditure, between the UK Government and the Welsh Government—about two thirds of the total. Does he agree with me that there is an urgent need for greater diversification? We do need to get more private capital into Wales, to...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, the technology park will just deliver a set of empty buildings. There is no interest in those buildings that the First Minister can point to that gives any guarantee that they’ll be occupied for any automotive firm, or any other firm, actually, whereas, at least with a world-class race track, in the light of decisions that might be made in Silverstone, where formula 1 could move away,...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, of course, it has been said by the developers all along that the great advantage of this facility was to be the centre of a much larger collection of firms that would generate jobs in the real economy of manufacturing for many, many years to come. Those jobs are now more speculative than before, but instead of a Government guarantee, which might never be called upon, we now have an...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Diolch Llywydd. The First Minister frequently says that he accepts the referendum result, but, of course, he doesn’t really. He’s like those Japanese soldiers who used occasionally to be found in the Borneo jungles years after 1945 still fighting the war as though it had never been ended. This is another opportunity for the First Minister to grandstand on an issue where the Welsh people...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I’m afraid I can’t. I’m over the time already and I have to sit down. So, what I would say to the First Minister—
Mr Neil Hamilton: Yes, what I would say to the First Minister—in conclusion, Llywydd. What I would say to the First Minister, in conclusion, is: get with this, rather than trying to fight against it, because you will not be taken seriously if you carry on trying to resist a process that is inexorable and that the Welsh people themselves have voted for.
Mr Neil Hamilton: It’s a pleasure to follow two combative speakers in comparison with which I can be made to look moderate and consensual. [Laughter.] It’s a curiously retrogressive Bill, this, because one of the policies that made Labour unelectable in the 1980s was its determined opposition to the introduction of the right to buy. Of course, the numbers are very different now so possibly it may not have...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Yes.
Mr Neil Hamilton: It’s true, over the time period involved. Yes, 139,000. In the same—[Interruption.] In the same period, the number of houses or flats that are rented privately has risen by 110,000. So, the market changes and there is a housing crisis for the reason that David Melding pointed out. We have a perfect storm in a sense because we have very significant restrictions on building through the...
Mr Neil Hamilton: 6. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the current provision of general practices in Wales? OAQ(5)0202(HWS)
Mr Neil Hamilton: I’m grateful for that reply, but the Cabinet Secretary will know that the national survey for Wales found that 39 per cent of respondents find it difficult to make a convenient appointment to see a GP, and 62 per cent overall were not satisfied with the service provided by the NHS in Wales. Since 2004, as a proportion of NHS funding, general practice has declined from 10 per cent of the...
