Lee Waters: No, I’d like to make some progress, if I can—there are lots of points I want to cover in a short period of time. There are some genuine concerns in the village of Llangennech about the way this has been implemented. For Simon Thomas to say that there’s no room to question the decision I think is wrong headed. The process he set out is an incomplete one, because the one thing we’re...
Lee Waters: Give me a chance to develop my argument and I’ll happily address that, but I simply don’t accept the idea that people who are concerned about the way that this policy is being implemented in Carmarthenshire are opposed to this policy. One of the things I deeply resented in the debate over the last couple of months is that people who are raising genuine concerns about the practical...
Lee Waters: Well, I challenge Leanne Wood to give me an example of what I’ve done to intensify this debate. I did find it really unhelpful of Neil Hamilton to turn up and join a picket line in Llangennech, which I found to be deeply disrespectful to the village, the school, the teachers and the pupils of that village. There’s been—
Lee Waters: Leanne Wood, I’d be happy to take an intervention, but I’m afraid I can’t hear you.
Lee Waters: I rise in support of the Government amendment and in support of the ambition of the policy of creating a million Welsh speakers. I applaud the ambition, in particular, of the Welsh Government’s policy, and we should be under no illusion about what a radical policy this is. We’ve had a decline in the Welsh language for a century or more, and we are proposing, within the next 30 years, not...
Lee Waters: Before I start with my remarks, can I just express my condolences and thoughts with our colleagues in Westminster this afternoon, where the incident is being treated as a terrorist one for now and our solidarity and best wishes are with them all? May I congratulate Jeremy Miles for bringing forward this debate? I think these individual Member debates are proving to be a very useful device...
Lee Waters: Thank you, Minister. The most recent annual report by the chief inspector of schools showed there was far too much variation in standards of teaching, learning and leadership in schools across Wales. Given that, is the Minister concerned that Estyn is not planning or inspecting local education authorities in the next inspection round? Instead, it plans to focus on the regional consortia.
Lee Waters: 4. What discussions has the Cabinet Secretary had with Estyn about the next inspection round? OAQ(5)0093(EDU)
Lee Waters: Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. I attended, with other Members, the lobby lunchtime of park home residents and recognise their anxiety, as many residents are on low incomes, have retired, that they would like action on these charges, and I strongly welcome your suggestion that you are minded to either reduce or remove the charge. Clearly, a balanced judgment needs to be made, and I strongly...
Lee Waters: Sadly, I’m out of time.
Lee Waters: Getting an exemption—. As it happens, Dai Lloyd, I’ve given way to Adam Price more times than he’s given way to me.
Lee Waters: Absolutely. An exemption was granted for the Llandeilo bypass so it wouldn’t need to be looked at by the independent commission, knowing full well that, on the basis of a £1.16 return on investment, it wouldn’t pass muster. I do find that breathtakingly cynical when he’s then demanding that other schemes have to pass a similar test. We’ve all signed up to tackling climate change. We...
Lee Waters: It’s a pleasure to follow my friend Jeremy Miles, and to echo his call for free thinkers to engage with the debate around our future infrastructure needs. I do have some hesitation about the emphasis on the importance of infrastructure. As we’ve discussed previously in this Chamber, the future economic pressures we face demand a more agile and rapid iterative response rather than focusing...
Lee Waters: Will the Member give way?
Lee Waters: I recognise the points that you make. Isn’t that an argument, though, for better enforcement, and for working with families to help them to change their behaviour, rather than simply saying we should abandon the push for greater recycling?
Lee Waters: Thank you, Minister. The BBC, in their reporting of Dr Carol Bell as the preferred candidate of the UK Government, has quoted a UK Government source as saying that the Welsh Government had ‘seen fit to veto the secretary of state’s choice of candidate’. Could you explain to the National Assembly the Welsh Government’s role in the process of having a BBC board member for Wales? Was it...
Lee Waters: Will the Minister make a statement on the failure to appoint a Welsh representative on the BBC board? EAQ(5)0095(EDU)
Lee Waters: Diolch, Lywydd. As we were reminded last week by the speculation about the future of Ford in Bridgend, and the month before by the debate around the future of Tata Steel, our economy is profoundly vulnerable—vulnerable to the decisions of foreign-owned multinational corporations, vulnerable to external shocks like Brexit or oil price fluctuation, and vulnerable, like all modern economies,...
Lee Waters: We’ve been trying a variation on the same theme in Welsh economic policy now for several generations, and we are running to stand still. Our national wealth level, or gross value added per head, has barely shifted in 20 years since we promised that the creation of a National Assembly would create an economic powerhouse for Wales. Two decades on, and we continue to search for a magic...
Lee Waters: Until about 10 years ago, I used to get paid to stand in the street and stop people and ask their opinions on the issues of the day. Some people would stop, some would shout abuse. In fact, when you think about it, my life hasn’t changed that much at all. I’m pretty confident that, if I were to do a vox pop today and ask people which they were most concerned about, the PISA report or the...
