Mr Neil Hamilton: I thank the Cabinet Secretary for that reply. Will she agree with me that, although there is no easy answer or simple solution to the eradication of TB in cattle, one promising way forward is a greater concentration upon genetics? The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board has put together a genetic index; it is funded by UK farmers, of course, to undertake research and development on...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I'm surprised to hear the Cabinet Secretary criticise the UK Government for lack of openness and transparency in this respect, because researchers from my office on 13 October made a similar request to the Welsh Government—to the First Minister—to publish documents relating to the Welsh Government's understanding of the impact of Brexit upon Wales, and the response that we got was this:...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, I think the leader of Plaid Cymru in her winding up in her speech got to the nub of the issue. The Government may use its majority in the Chamber of those who are present today to frustrate the desire for transparency that exists not just in this Assembly but also outside it, it may win the vote here today, but it certainly will not win the vote in the court of public opinion outside,...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Let's listen to Leighton Andrews's own words—and they weren't just off-the-cuff comments; they were written by him in a blog, so he knew what he was doing. He said: 'there had been deliberate personal undermining of Carl Sargeant from within the Welsh Labour Government over several years. I am not going to name names today'— but let's hope he'll do so in due course— 'But I made a...
Mr Neil Hamilton: [Inaudible.]—on this point?
Mr Neil Hamilton: She seems to me to be making an argument for the dissolution of the Standards of Conduct Committee, because it could be said that all her criticisms of what is being proposed here would apply to that committee too.
Mr Neil Hamilton: We've listened to a number of very powerful speeches illustrating the catastrophe that is the Betsi Cadwaladr health board, over which the current Cabinet Secretary, and the previous one who's temporarily left the Chamber, presided. Now, for many, many years, the Labour Party has been accustomed to saying that the national health service is the envy of the world. Well, as far as Betsi...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Now, we all know, of course, that areas like Blaenau Ffestiniog and its surrounding district pose problems. There's always going to be a tension with the provision of health services in sparsely populated rural areas, but the models that have been chosen are more related to what is appropriate for urban areas rather than rural areas. In urban settings, of course, the tendency is, for very...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I'm afraid I think I'm at the end of my speech and the Deputy Presiding Officer would not allow me to accept an intervention, although I would have been otherwise delighted to do so. So, I'm afraid that this catalogue of disaster continues, and I believe that, until we change the Government of this country, it is likely to continue further.
Mr Neil Hamilton: The only thing we've learned out of the fiasco of the weekend is that Theresa May isn't terribly good at politics, which we knew anyway from the last general election result. It would be inconceivable for the DUP ever to countenance the kind of deal that we read about, whereby there would be a special deal for Northern Ireland on trade, because that would compromise the integrity of the...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. On 13 November, Adam Price tabled a written question, which asked the First Minister if 'he continues to be responsible for "staffing including the terms and conditions of Special Advisers'. The answer came 10 days later: 'I retain a close interest in staffing but responsibility rests with the Permanent Secretary.' But the code of conduct for special advisers says...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Conduct.
Mr Neil Hamilton: Good. In which case, can the First Minister then confirm that the inquiry that is being undertaken, one of many—another day, another inquiry today—by James Hamilton will involve, also, an inquiry into the conduct of special advisers, because they are specifically responsible to him, the First Minister, ultimately, for their political conduct?
Mr Neil Hamilton: So, is the First Minister saying that the conduct of special advisers will not be part of the terms of the inquiry of James Hamilton?
Mr Neil Hamilton: I welcome the Labour-Plaid Cymru budget, and Steffan Lewis gave a list of the changes that he says are due to the influence of Plaid Cymru. The DUP in Northern Ireland has got an extra £1 billion for Northern Ireland out of their support for the Government at Westminster, and Plaid Cymru has managed to redirect £500 million out of the £15 billion that the Labour Government here has to...
Mr Neil Hamilton: We need to know much more about the Government's priorities and how they conform to the spending plans that they've announced. In this context, I would like to thank the Chairman of the Finance Committee—who speaks for me in this respect if in no other—for the exemplary way in which he's chaired the committee, and indeed the unfailing courtesy of the finance Secretary in his appearances...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I think, if the Member examines the record, he will find that, under the first Blair Government, they reduced the proportion of debt in GDP up to 2001, and from 2001 to 2010 it rose steadily every year until the explosion after 2008. I haven't got the figures with me today, but I'm happy to send them. He'll find them in the House of Commons library research paper, which gives them. So,...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Will the First Minister make a statement on the appointment of Welsh Government advisers?
Mr Neil Hamilton: Diolch yn fawr iawn, Llywydd. I'm sure the Cabinet Secretary will agree with me that, for the foreseeable future, the resources available to the Welsh Government depend crucially upon the health of the UK economy and economic growth, and we need to increase the national UK growth rate. He said to me in a debate in this Chamber a few weeks ago that there's no evidence in general that lower...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I'm sorry that the Cabinet Secretary doesn't seem to think that the reality of what's going on in the rest of the world is something that should be at the forefront of his mind when he's designing a tax system for the United Kingdom or for Wales, because the way to end up at the bottom is certainly to carry on thinking along those lines. To revert to the experimental tax case that Suzy...
