David Rowlands: Okay. I understand that a petition has been handed to the Secretary from local constituents demanding some movement by the Government. Can the Cabinet Secretary comment on this?
David Rowlands: Given that his hugely exciting project was first promulgated some eight years ago, does the Cabinet Secretary not agree with me that constituents across the whole of the Heads of the Valleys region are fully justified in venting their frustration, given that far from the construction actually commencing, a final decision on the go-ahead for this project has still yet to made?
David Rowlands: Diolch, Lywydd. Will the Cabinet Secretary update us on the latest position with regard to the Circuit of Wales project?
David Rowlands: Given this commitment to 1 million Welsh speakers by 2050, and a universal acknowledgement that bilingualism is best achieved by immersing children in a second language as early as possible, what arrangements have been made by the Government to implement Welsh learning in preschool classrooms?
David Rowlands: Will the Member give way?
David Rowlands: Thank you. If the comprehensive system has been so wonderful, and has worked so well, why are we now talking—? Every time I hear anybody talking about education in this Chamber, it’s to change things, to alter things; that things have to be done better. Why is it now, after 50 years of the comprehensive system, you are suddenly waking up to the fact that vocational and academic...
David Rowlands: Will you take an intervention?
David Rowlands: Absolutely. This was all about your abilities, and taking each and every pupil by his distinct abilities. The advent, unfortunately, of comprehensive schools with as many as 1,500 pupils has seen an abandonment of those pupils who are given practical skills rather than academic. Apart from an over-concentration of IT education, practical subjects have all but disappeared from the school...
David Rowlands: Yes, of course.
David Rowlands: At the risk of offending certain AMs with regard to anecdotal evidence—I see that Lee Waters has just left the Chamber—I would like to say that I may indeed be the only AM present who actually experienced both a secondary modern and a grammar school education, in that I first attended—[Interruption.] I’ll give a pass to my colleague there, who may also have done that. I first attended...
David Rowlands: Thank you. [Interruption.] By all means, but that does not cover the fact that you are ignoring the will of the Welsh people, which was given to you in a democratic vote.
David Rowlands: Yes.
David Rowlands: Well, yet again we see Plaid Cymru wanting to ignore the wishes of the Welsh electorate. Is this because Plaid Cymru does not believe the proletariat has the intelligence to make an informed decision? One of the key reasons we heard time after time on the doorstep was ‘No free movement of peoples.’ When will Plaid Cymru listen to the people?
David Rowlands: Following on from this discussion of bus services in a specific area, I understand that there’s been a preliminary assessment of the reintroduction of a railway line from Carmarthen to Aberystwyth. Can the First Minister inform us as to any future plans to institute a full feasibility study and, if so, when?
David Rowlands: I did not say that migrants shouldn’t be coming here to wash our cars. What I said was we are giving migrant workers no protection as to how they’re being exploited. The reason for that is that there is a huge over-supply of cheap labour in the market, and if anybody knows anything about economics, they know that an over-supply of a product means that the price of the product goes down....
David Rowlands: Yes, of course.
David Rowlands: I do. I honestly believe that the benefits they’ll get from coming out of the European Union, instead of subsidising inefficient French, German, Italian and Greek farmers, can be used to subsidise our farmers to a far greater degree. But I do agree with this: that we all have to work, cross-party, in this Assembly to make sure that the UK Government does deliver the bonus that we have from...
David Rowlands: Yes.
David Rowlands: Anecdote? So, the anecdote is that thousands of people can work in this country under appalling working conditions, and you call it an anecdote.
David Rowlands: That doesn’t matter? That has no influence on how we keep this country clean? Well, it does matter. I want to take up another point, anyway, with the other AM who talked about a farmer getting £68,000 under the CAP payments. Well, there are farmers in England who get £1 million a year under the CAP payments for not growing products, and many of our farmers in Wales are—in fact, most of...
