Mr Neil Hamilton: I recognise that this is a subject in which the Minister has taken a considerable interest, and I do find that reassuring, but I think we're still a long way from being reassured that this is going to produce any practical results. The auditor general also said in this report that 'The Welsh Government has not put in place systems and processes to produce information for publicly reporting on...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I'm not entirely satisfied that we're making any great deal of progress as yet from that answer, regarding it as work in progress. But the auditor general's recommendations concerning Welsh Government risk management are also important. He says that 'the Welsh Government’s Sectors and Business Team only assesses risk for individual projects in isolation and does not have a defined risk...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. I've been looking at the Minister's list of responsibilities and they include, amongst many other things, strategic direction and management of Welsh Government resources, strategic investment, financial accounting and audit, and value for money and effectiveness. The Wales Audit Office has recently published a report called 'Welsh Government Financial Support for...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Those were not my words; those were written by somebody else. I never saw them until they appeared in The Independent and I deny absolutely using the words that have just been used.
Mr Neil Hamilton: But let's go back to before the referendum in 2016 and look at the document that the Government sent, at our expense, to every single household in the country, this document that conjured up all sorts of horrors of leaving the EU at all, which was designed to try to frighten people into voting in the referendum to stay in. On one page, under the headline, 'Once in a generation decision'—a...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. I beg to move the amendment standing in the name of Gareth Bennett. I think the Counsel General was fundamentally misconceived in his speech in treating seriously some of the things that the Prime Minister has said. I don't believe that she has ever wanted a 'no deal'; I don't think she's ever actually wanted to leave the EU in any meaningful sense at all, and all...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, Deputy Presiding Officer, I think in all the years that I've been in public life, I've never felt more inadequate in rising to my feet to take part in a debate, following that powerful speech from Jack Sargeant, because none of us can, of course, compare in experience or knowledge with him—tragic as it is that I have to say that. I've been touched by suicide tangentially, but never...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Stick to the facts.
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, it's fanciful for the Minister to try to link this to Brexit, because Honda are closing their production line in Turkey, which is inside the customs union. So, this has absolutely nothing whatever to do with Brexit, as the company itself has said. It has everything to do with the EU's policy and the UK Government's policy and the Welsh Government's policy on phasing out diesel. Because...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, I'm very pleased to hear that, and this is the sort of positive talk that we want to hear across the Chamber, but the reality is that, whether there is a deal or no deal is not actually in our hands but we have to prepare for the consequences if there is one. And what I say is that there are massive opportunities as well as, obviously, the difficulties that that would pose for...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Diolch, Llywydd. Has the Minister seen the panicked letter that was written by the major European agricultural food and drink organisations to Michel Barnier on 6 February? It says: 'on behalf of the entire EU agri-food chain'— I'm reading from the letter itself, pointing out that 'In 2017, EU-27 agri-food exports to the UK amounted to €41 billion', whilst the UK sells only €17...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, in that case then she's flying from reality because that is the view of the people in Europe who are most concerned about the impact of this. But let's look at this in a positive light. There is going to be a massive opportunity for British farmers and food producers generally after 29 March, if there's no deal. Just let's look at the figures. In beef, let's take beef: we export £450...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, I welcome the statement, and of course I'm entirely in favour of the Warm Homes programme. I'm delighted that the Government has invested £248 million in it over a period of years. It is undoubtedly a very cost-effective investment in keeping people's homes warm. As Llyr Gruffydd pointed out earlier on, failing to do this effectively in new homes will have effects that go on maybe for...
Mr Neil Hamilton: The language in the statement doesn't help, of course— 'fanatical insistince of hardline Brexiteers that no deal is an acceptable outcome.' Of course, there's the fanatical insistence of hardline remainers that we should do everything possible to undermine the referendum result. That sort of language doesn't really get us anywhere, but the reason why we have these fanatical insisters on...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I’m always happy to debate the issues of Brexit in this Chamber, but it would have been quite easy for the First Minister to come today and make a much shorter statement than the one he did. He could simply have said, ‘There have been no developments in the last few months’, and that is because, I agree with him, we’re no closer to a solution, and that’s because the Prime Minister...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. We've had an interesting debate, and I think it's been measured and temperate, as it should be. It's an important issue for democracy, but it's also, beyond that, as Alun Davies pointed out in his speech, which I thought was an extremely good speech, about the way in which we treat people even though they are incarcerated and outside the scope of...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I strongly agree with the latter point that Jenny Rathbone makes. If I thought, as I started out by saying, that there was any worthwhile rehabilitative value in giving prisoners the right to vote, I would support doing that. I don't, in fact, think that there is, and I do believe that it should be open to society to express its revulsion at criminal offences by removing the right to vote...
Mr Neil Hamilton: They don't have the sovereignty to make the decision that anybody serving a custodial sentence should not have the right to vote, and I think it's perfectly proper in a democratic country that the elected representatives of the people should be able to make that choice if they think it's in the best interests of their own people. Because the European convention does of course give the right...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. I beg to move the motion standing in the name of Gareth Bennett on the agenda today. I'd like to say right at the start of this debate that I very strongly believe in rehabilitation of prisoners and in prison reform. As a member of the bar for 40 years, I've many times in the past represented as an advocate pro bono prisoners sometimes convicted of very serious...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, I take issue with the Counsel General on much of what he has just said, because, effectively, the basis of the deal that the EU has extorted from the Government is Britain's membership of the customs union and, indeed, the single market in effect because regulatory alignment is part and parcel of it, and there is no end date. So, in those circumstances, then the EU has no incentive to...
