Mr Neil Hamilton: Thank you, Llywydd. I was rather staggered to hear the health Secretary's response to Rhun ap Iorwerth's questions in today's session. Effectively, what the health Secretary did was to dismiss Professor McClelland's views as along the lines of not being able to see the wood for the trees or, perhaps, magnifying her own personal experience and universalising it unfairly to the health service...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the provision of adult education?
Mr Neil Hamilton: I would like to raise the question of the effect of the way much of this money has been spent over the years. As Darren Millar pointed out, in fact in Wales we've gone backwards in the last 20 years in terms of relative prosperity. In 1998, the average gross value added in Wales was 74.8 per cent of the UK average, and in 2016 it was 72.7 per cent, so we've actually, relatively speaking, gone...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Can I extend my support for the finance Secretary in much of what he says in his statement? I don't think it's at all unreasonable for him to say that it would be unacceptable for Wales to be a penny worse off as a result of the Brexit settlement, whatever that might be, although I disagree with him saying 'as promised during the referendum campaign'. The only people who could promise that...
Mr Neil Hamilton: These are not zero-sum games; it's not one or the other—we can have both, in my opinion, and that's what I'm interested in exploring further. The Bangor study suggests that taxpayer growth in Wales is going to decline from an increase of 0.007 per cent in 2019-20 to -0.11 per cent in 2023, so the prospects for the future under things as they are now—even bearing in mind all forecasts are...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Perhaps I can help the Cabinet Secretary by instructing my officials to do that, and sending him the results of their labours in due course. But I would like to draw the Cabinet Secretary's attention to the statement on page 56 of the Welsh tax policy report, which summarises the effects of the numerous studies that are mentioned in the footnotes, which says that 'These have tended to show...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. The Cabinet Secretary is well aware that I'm keen to explore the possibility that by cutting tax rates in Wales we can create a tax advantage compared with England and grow the Welsh economy, and, therefore, increase the size of the tax base. We had a productive exchange, I thought, in the Finance Committee a few days ago, where I was pleased to see that...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, it would be surprising if any Government didn't have anything to boast about as a result of 12 years of activity, and I acknowledge that there's been progress on numerous fronts in the course of the last year. Obviously, we all welcome such things as the new treatment fund, the tax cuts that have taken place for small businesses and so on, which are laid out in the foreword to this...
Mr Neil Hamilton: In the course of my speech, I read out from the document that the Government sent to every single household in the country, and it explicitly states in here, in effect, that we would be leaving the single market: 'Losing our full access to the EU's Single Market would make exporting to Europe harder and increase costs.' There were arguments on both sides. We've heard a load of them today,...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I gave way to you.
Mr Neil Hamilton: Can I finish this point? It was a most important contribution in his intervention, where he asked what damage this would do to the fabric of democracy of this country if this decision were now to be reversed. I give way to Mick Antoniw.
Mr Neil Hamilton: Oh, certainly it is, yes. I never had any great confidence that the EU would negotiate a deal with us in the first place because—[Interruption.] The EU is a political project first and foremost, and we are talking here in terms of an economic relationship with the EU in the years to come. I would much rather leave, as Theresa May used to say, with no deal than a bad deal. I believe that the...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. I move our amendment to this motion. I was disappointed by the speech of the new leader of Plaid Cymru, who I welcome to his position, for its pessimism, its faintheartedness, its gloom, its utter lack of confidence in the people of Wales and the people of the United Kingdom to make a success of the great opportunities that becoming once again a sovereign, independent...
Mr Neil Hamilton: If, as the Minister says, shooting is unethical on public land, it must surely be unethical on private land as well. So, it's quite clear what the direction of Welsh Government policy is here, and all anglers, all shooters, anybody in country sports generally, now can regard the Welsh Government as their determined enemy. This is the thin end of the wedge; they are all in the Welsh...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I think the public at large will regard that as a laughable explanation of the decision because, although it's correct that you said last week: 'the Welsh Government's position is a matter for NRW's ongoing consideration and did not bind them to accept and follow our position', the acting chairman of NRW, Dr Madeleine Havard, said Welsh Government had 'given a clear steer' on the direction...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. I've complimented the Cabinet Secretary many times on her open-minded approach to her job and her determination to rely upon evidence as the foundation of the policies of the Government. Does the Minister therefore accept my disappointment that this approach has been rejected by her in relation to shooting on public land, and the reversal of Natural Resources Wales's...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the support provided by the Welsh Government to veterans?
Mr Neil Hamilton: I also think that the Cabinet Secretary has done a good job in coping with the reduction of 1 per cent, the cash reduction, in the RSG to 2019-20, and managing to reduce the gap by £28 million to only £15 million. That remaining £15 million is obviously going to lead to problems to deal with, but, nonetheless, I do think that the Cabinet Secretary's ability to try to square the circle that...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I'm grateful to the Cabinet Secretary for giving me advance sight of the main details of the budget. The Cabinet Secretary is a safe pair of hands, but that may largely be because he's constrained by the straitjacket of the block grant on the one hand, and by the limited nature of tax devolution to Wales and his own personal abnegation in failing to use the income tax powers for reasons that...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Will the First Minister provide an update on the Welsh Government's bovine TB eradication programme?
