Lee Waters: If I can just finish my sentence, I will. [Assembly Members: ‘Oh.’] Let’s think imaginatively and let’s put the burden on corporate companies, not on scarce and hard-pushed taxpayers.
Lee Waters: I’ll take one from Caroline, yes.
Lee Waters: They were in my eyeline.
Lee Waters: Well, again, this is policy making by anecdote, and the evidence doesn’t bear that out. Now, Sian Gwenllian said that we need to level the playing field with out-of-town developments. So, let’s do that; let’s think outside the box. Rather than saying, ‘Let’s increase the subsidy for in-town car parking’, let’s put the burden on the multinational companies that have been...
Lee Waters: Diolch, Ddirprwy Lywydd. I think there’s some common ground with the motion that Plaid Cymru have put down. There is no doubt that the face of retail has changed dramatically over the last 20 years and we don’t want town centres just to be a place of shops. We want them to be more than that; we want them to be hubs of the community. On that, I think we can all agree. What I found...
Lee Waters: What measures are the Welsh Government taking to address the pressure on child and adolescent mental health services?
Lee Waters: Clearly, Minister, there is anxiety in the sector, and that anxiety does seem to have spilled over into Members’ e-mail inboxes. Would the Minister make sure, when he’s reflecting on the independent recommendations of a report by a former Liberal Democrat Minister, and reflecting on the report of an independent steering group that he has set up, that he puts the interests of the users at...
Lee Waters: I’m pleased to follow a typically thoughtful contribution from Suzy Davies on this. I think this is a significant moment for devolution because the BBC charter covers an area that is not devolved to this Assembly, and the Wales Bill currently goes out of its way to remind us of that—a little gratuitously, in my view. But, nonetheless, it does show how we are able to work past those...
Lee Waters: Will the Minister give way?
Lee Waters: Given what you’ve just said, which I wholly agree with, about the importance of increasing the role of this National Assembly in holding the BBC to account, and now that the Welsh Government will have a direct role in the appointment of the BBC board member, would you agree with me that it would be desirable for the Assembly’s culture committee to have a direct role in holding hearings on...
Lee Waters: I share his scepticism, but let’s give them the space to prove that what they said they could deliver, they will deliver.
Lee Waters: If I have time, I’m happy to.
Lee Waters: Well, I’m happy to clarify. Of course, that is not—not that I make up Welsh Labour policy. My point is that I’m trying to explain the First Minister’s position, which is that he’s acutely aware of the message our voters sent, in contrast to the message we gave them. They listened to the lies of the leave campaign that Brexit would deliver a different approach to immigration and...
Lee Waters: I think it’s worth just repeating that we didn’t want to leave the EU, but the majority of the people of Wales disagreed, and much as I sympathise with Simon Thomas’s motion for Plaid Cymru, noting the importance of membership of the European single market, which has been enormously important to the Welsh economy, the referendum result was clear. And the only way that we can be members...
Lee Waters: Thank you, Minister, for your statement and for the personal commitment that both you and the Cabinet Secretary for the economy have shown for this agenda. In many ways, passing the legislation is the easy bit in this project. This is an ambitious and generational project to try and change attitudes and behaviours, and even though, through the existence of the Act, we have some very...
Lee Waters: First Minister, there’s been considerable progress in harnessing the power of the public pound, but there’s still more to do. Professor Kevin Morgan, who’s one of Europe’s leading experts on sustainable food, has pointed to a skills gap as a major challenge ahead of us. He’s made suggestions about recruiting a dozen skilled professionals to be able to give the Welsh public sector...
Lee Waters: It is slightly alarming listening to the anecdote that we are having in place of evidence when we face such severe economic challenges. Paul Johnson, who is the highly respected head of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said that our economy will be significantly smaller as a result of Brexit. So, let’s talk about facts and serious opinion, rather than anecdote.
Lee Waters: I’ll intervene again. Caroline Jones gave a speech based on some businesses she had met, and this is somehow a substantive response to all of the economists saying our economy is going to decline. And you’re telling us about effluent coming from car washes. So, that’s anecdote.
Lee Waters: Would you give way?
Lee Waters: Will you take an intervention?
