Adam Price: The citizens of Wales need to hear those answers.
Adam Price: Well, I’m sorry, but I have to say to the Minister that it isn’t good enough just to reread a script that has been given to you. This follows numerous questions that have been asked, mainly by Suzy Davies, and we haven’t received answers to the majority of those questions. Suzy and others have had to use freedom of information requests in order to find out that Pinewood is no longer a...
Adam Price: Well, I’m confused by that response, because I understand that the change of ownership that happened with the Pinewood group two years ago means that they have withdrawn from the business of providing advisory services with regard to investment, and the Minister referred to that. But that doesn’t explain why they no longer pay rent, nor why they are no longer a tenant for the studio....
Adam Price: Thank you very much, Llywydd. I’d like to return, if I may, to the matter of the Government’s support to the film and television industry, which is a very important and significant sector of our economy and our culture. Last month, the Government confirmed in the freedom of information request that the Pinewood company no longer pays rent or is a tenant at the Wentloog studio that they...
Adam Price: Will the Cabinet Secretary take an intervention?
Adam Price: The Valleys strategy published 12 years ago by another A. Davies had a price tag of £1 billion a year. When will we have figures from the Cabinet Secretary as to the additional investment that will be attached to this strategy to deliver on the objectives?
Adam Price: Will the Member give way?
Adam Price: I didn't want to break across his flow, and I'm totally in agreement with him, but can I also urge him to reprise the excellent idea that he wrote about five years ago with Mark Barry, which was creating a circle line for the Valleys, which really should be the first priority for the metro, rather than this emphasis, unfortunately, on connection with Cardiff?
Adam Price: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. May I say at the beginning, in responding to the Cabinet Secretary, that I do wish him well in implementing the laudable aims of this strategy? I don’t doubt his sincerity and his personal commitment to that task. However, where there is disagreement between us is the degree to which we can expect this strategy to be realised, because one thing that is...
Adam Price: It can be that, but there is a tension. For example, in the versions and the discussion that I've heard, the emphasis almost always seems to be on basically—to simplify it, but essentially—to use it as a commuter service to get people from the hinterland to work in jobs in Cardiff. That makes no economic sense for us. It will not be delivered. I agree with the Member that, actually, a...
Adam Price: Transport has tended to be, in Wales, something that's done to us, not for us and certainly not for ourselves. Our transport infrastructure has often reflected the prevailing power dynamics, the prevailing economics, rather than being used in the way that I think Lee Waters was suggesting and, indeed, Jenny Rathbone—as a creative tool, if you like, for reinventing our country and our...
Adam Price: At the time of the Assembly election, the Labour manifesto promised, 'We will offer a tax cut to all small businesses in Wales'. I presume that this is the policy announcement that is designed to give effect to that pledge. Now, that could have been achieved through a variety of means—by raising the lower and upper thresholds for relief and increasing the rate, introducing a split...
Adam Price: The Cabinet Secretary will probably be aware of Coleg Elidyr, which is a specialist further education college in my constituency. I was wondering if the Cabinet Secretary would be prepared to look again at amending the terminology used in the draft code to describe institutions like Coleg Elidyr, which is more in line with that which the sector would prefer but also Estyn as well. I'm happy...
Adam Price: 3. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the introduction of a permanent small business rates relief scheme for Wales, following its announcement today through a written statement? 93
Adam Price: It's always a pleasure to have statements from the Cabinet Secretary, but—there is a 'but' here—I have to say I'm confused here and slightly disappointed, because what we had from the Cabinet Secretary—correct me if I'm wrong, by all means—was a statement about a one-policy-position statement that he has made today, Welsh transport appraisal guidance that he's going to publish...
Adam Price: There are some aspects of this economic action plan that are to be welcomed—the new focus on the foundational economy and decarbonisation, for example. But, in stepping back and looking at the economic strategy as a whole, I think it's important to benchmark it against the three key ingredients that we know, from across the world, make up successful economic strategies. A strategy needs to...
Adam Price: First Minister, the economic action plan that's just been published says that Government will be able to 'utilise the regional approach as a glue to bring together and integrate the interventions of the Valleys Taskforce and City Deals.' Now, what that says to me is that the singular focus on the unique problems and opportunities of the Valleys will be lost. The Valleys taskforce has been...
Adam Price: It is true to say, isn’t it, First Minister, that the Welsh Government also has to show more ambition? Given the figures that he’s just quoted, if we compare those with the corresponding figure for Scotland, they have just doubled their investment in active travel—that is, walking and cycling—from £40 million—which was far higher than our figure in the first place—up to £80...
Adam Price: Maybe he's going to come to this, but could he tell us what is his view and the view of the Conservative Party on the fact that it must be unprecedented that we have democratically elected members of a Government imprisoned on a charge of sedition in a western European democracy?
Adam Price: I was in Barcelona on 1 October when the independence referendum was held. It was a horrific and inspiring experience by equal measure. I never thought I would see in a western democracy a position where—. I was in a polling station, and people, ordinary citizens, were forming human chains in order to prevent the Policia Nacional and the Guardia Civil from breaking into that polling station...
