Mark Reckless: I welcome the new allocation of money in the Welsh Government’s supplementary budget to the Monmouthshire and Brecon canal and would like to ask the First Minister whether this fits into any wider economic development strategy for integrating our waterways into the infrastructure of south-east Wales.
Mark Reckless: Will you give way?
Mark Reckless: On the contrary, I think it was the most extraordinary moment, which I’ve always called ‘White Wednesday’ rather than ‘Black Wednesday’. However, unlike then, on the latest data, we have a current account deficit of 7 per cent of gross domestic product. His boss has gone on about how the high pound has handicapped steel production. Surely, in order to become more competitive, we...
Mark Reckless: Will the Member give way?
Mark Reckless: I’m surprised by his comment about pension funds. France and the US have been downgraded from AAA—there are very few AAA economies out there. Surely, the one thing we do know is that exports from these plants are now 10 per cent cheaper than they were two weeks ago. We heard from Bethan that there are two and a half times more exports than imports. Surely, that’s already improved...
Mark Reckless: Will the Member give way?
Mark Reckless: Does the Member recognise that, since the Brexit vote, the level of the pound has now declined by some 10 per cent and will that not flow through into significantly improved competitiveness for the Welsh and UK steel industry?
Mark Reckless: I’ve no questions on this occasion.
Mark Reckless: I’m grateful to the Cabinet Secretary for his statement. As he says, these matters are inherently complex, and legislation is inevitably technical. This was brought home to me, at least with respect to this Assembly, should it be necessary, when seeking to familiarise myself with the procedures, at least to a degree. I watched, on the Parliament channel, his predecessor ably introducing the...
Mark Reckless: Will the Member give way?
Mark Reckless: D'Hondt wouldn’t have meant anything of the sort. Even on a committee of seven, UKIP would have had one member according to D'Hondt.
Mark Reckless: Will the Member give way again?
Mark Reckless: Thank you, Presiding Officer. I understand no-one has ever objected, previously, in the history of the Assembly to the establishment of the committees. However, UKIP are not beholden by that prior consensus. We intend to vote today against the establishment of the policy and legislative committees on the basis agreed by the other business managers. The reason we do this is that equality, 4:4,...
Mark Reckless: Will you give way?
Mark Reckless: Will the Member give way?
Mark Reckless: If the company he’s speaking to is Ford, is he not aware that Ford had a plant in this country—at least in the UK, which was in Southampton—that went instead, that closed down in Southampton and moved, to Turkey, paid for with European Union money, paid with our own taxpayers?
Mark Reckless: And on the projects that the Minister speaks of—community regeneration and beyond— where we’re told how wonderful this European money is, it often comes with strings and restrictions. I just wonder, are there any of those projects where the Minister believes that were the Welsh Government to be unfettered in its spending of those funds, it could do a better job?
Mark Reckless: I am a Welsh resident. I’m slightly concerned with the Minister not being aware about what the First Minister plans in this field. He’s waxed lyrical about European Union funds and community regeneration, but it seems that he and his Government seem to be going more down a separatist route through this joint working with Plaid Cymru. I just wonder, would he not be better deployed working...
Mark Reckless: Diolch, Lywydd. On his visit to Cardiff City Stadium yesterday, the First Minister said that, following a ‘leave’ vote, the Welsh Government would develop its own separate relationship with the European Union. Does the Minister know what he meant, or how this will affect his portfolio?
Mark Reckless: I was particularly struck by two justifications when reading the Welsh Government’s supporting papers for the black route. First, that it is already a trans-European network, and those papers stated that a new road was required to bring it up to the required standards. So, isn’t that, therefore, a cost of EU membership? Second, that reclassification of the existing M4 could allow it to be...
