Mr Simon Thomas: I’m pleased to follow David Melding, who made the most coherent attempt to set out any justification for the situation we’re in, and I’ll certainly join with him in saying we must now stand up for Wales. But let’s examine the position we’re in. By negotiating this deal, we have a Conservative-led administration in Westminster that has, in effect, exactly the majority that it had...
Mr Simon Thomas: I don’t suppose this Bill is the talk of bars and clubs up and down the land, but, if I ever get to a bar and meet a landfill operator, I will be able to talk with him or her for several hours now on landfill and the operations of it. And that’s very much a learning process that I went through on the committee, but I think the Government went through as well, because there were several...
Mr Simon Thomas: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I’m pleased to move our amendments, which certainly are intended to improve the original motion and to make a contribution towards the public debate that the Cabinet Secretary has outlined. May I start with the two Conservative amendments first of all, and to say, although I understand fully the intention behind the two amendments, the first, I...
Mr Simon Thomas: Will the Member give way?
Mr Simon Thomas: I’m grateful to the Member, and I understand the point he’s making, but of course we know that this new Government that he’s referred to—he referred to the Westminster Government—has a confidence and supply agreement with the Democratic Unionist Party, who are climate change deniers. The confidence and supply agreement relates to financial budgeting but not to carbon budgeting. Does...
Mr Simon Thomas: Generally speaking, I welcome the legislative statement today—as Leanne Wood has already outlined, most of it emerges from Plaid Cymru ideas originally, therefore of course we welcome that. It’s interesting to note that it’s the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the One Wales Government, where many of these ideas emerged and have been discussed since that point onwards,...
Mr Simon Thomas: Thank you, First Minister. Although you say that gambling itself isn’t devolved, the impacts certainly are devolved—in health, mental health and the economy—and run into tens of millions of pounds in terms of their impact in Wales annually. There is some devolution happening around the fixed-odds machines, and there will be more demand for the Welsh Government to respond to this...
Mr Simon Thomas: This week, Dyfed-Powys Police and Aberystwyth University are carrying out a study of rural crime to try to gather evidence, because we believe that rural crime costs more than some of the figures quoted to date. Would you join with me in encouraging farmers to contribute to that study, and in congratulating Dyfed-Powys Police on using sheep DNA for the first time ever to ensure that someone...
Mr Simon Thomas: 4. What discussions has the Welsh Government had regarding reducing the escalating problem of excessive gambling? OAQ(5)0688(FM)[W]
Mr Simon Thomas: You’ve got plenty of time.
Mr Simon Thomas: That’s a different answer.
Mr Simon Thomas: Will the Member give way?
Mr Simon Thomas: I understand the point he’s trying to make, but could he explain, from his perspective, why it is that Germany has had higher immigration but has succeeded in having higher wages?
Mr Simon Thomas: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer, and thank you to the Cabinet Secretary for closing the debate in a consensual manner, and I will return to some of his points in a few moments’ time. But the purpose of the Plaid Cymru debate today was to ensure that we keep a focus here in Wales on what is crucially important for Wales, for Wales’s economy and for our communities. We do that...
Mr Simon Thomas: Will the Cabinet Secretary give way?
Mr Simon Thomas: Just at this point I’d like to intervene rather than reply, because I think this point is important. He’s talked about the relationship between himself and his Government and the other Governments in the United Kingdom, and how that might be re-established. Can he give some assurances that there is any sign from Westminster at the moment that they are re-engaging with Welsh Government...
Mr Simon Thomas: Just on that point, does she share my concern that the sentence in the Queen’s Speech that says that powers won’t be withdrawn from the Assembly isn’t any kind of solution to what will come from those powers that are now at the European level, and should come directly to this Assembly in the wake of Brexit?
Mr Simon Thomas: Thank you, Presiding Officer, and I’m pleased to move this motion and speak to both motions, and to explain that the passing of the Standing Orders and the associated protocol in Plenary today is the culmination of work that was started in the Finance Committee in the fourth Assembly. The devolution of fiscal powers has required a change to the budget process, which means that we as an...
Mr Simon Thomas: I just want to express my thanks as Chair of the Finance Committee on behalf of the whole of Finance Committee for the Cabinet Secretary’s willingness to work with us on this Bill. I do think that the Bill is improved by the scrutiny that it went through at committee stages, but I think there is an element of joint legislation in this Bill. As we look at the possibilities for new taxation...
Mr Simon Thomas: When you get one.
