Adam Price: [Inaudible.]—agree with you now, David. So, you know, celebrate a victory; they actually agree with UKIP policy.
Adam Price: Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. This one-line motion has a very simple goal: it’s to bring some clarity to the current position in terms of the Government’s policy on Brexit. We’ve seen a policy that is confused, chaotic and completely lacking in any credibility. That obviously has incredibly detrimental consequences for the interests of the people of Wales as we face probably one of the...
Adam Price: I warmly welcome the statement itself and the constitutional innovation that it represents, which also reflects the development of this institution as a parliament and takes us to the core of the statement: the need to review and amend the process of agreeing the budget, which, in comparison with many other Parliaments in the world, gives far too much power to the Executive and too little to...
Adam Price: I’ll try my best with this one then: following the revaluation of business rates by the Valuation Office Agency, which comes into effect on 1 April next year, current predictions by the retail sector and other businesses are showing that the projected rate poundage for Wales could jump by a staggering 10 per cent, making Wales the highest taxed and least attractive place to do business in...
Adam Price: I’m not sure whether this is Orwellian or Kafkaesque, but it doesn’t make any sense to me. You’re paying exactly the same taxes; it’s only a tax cut in Wales apparently now. There are other things that you as Cabinet Secretary could have done to support businesses in terms of rates. You could have indexed the business rate multiplier to the consumer prices index rather than the retail...
Adam Price: Last week, Cabinet Secretary, you announced that the business rate relief scheme currently in place in Wales will now be extended for 2017-18. Perhaps in an attempt to conceal rowing back from one of your top manifesto pledges in the recent election, this was presented as a tax cut for small businesses in Wales. Now, surely continuing with the current rate relief, whether it’s making it...
Adam Price: As Plaid Cymru’s been calling for a development bank since the 1970s, we’re very grateful to see that it’s finally happening. But the question to the Cabinet Secretary is this, really: from the Government statement, the annual lending that’s aimed at eventually is around £80 million. That’s less than a fifth of the £500 million funding gap that the Government’s own feasibility...
Adam Price: I think that import substitution is probably going to become even more imperative, economically, to us as a result possibly of the clumsy and confusing approach to single market access that we’re currently seeing from this Government, but can the First Minister tell us if the kind of advice and direction given to local authorities currently by the Welsh Government includes positive support...
Adam Price: But in terms of the Cabinet Secretary, I’ve a great deal of respect for him, but I was disappointed that we didn’t get more clarity on the policy and view of Government. I do sense that he isn’t to blame for that. I do think that the policy is being made on the hoof, unfortunately. There is no accountability to the Cabinet, seemingly, to date, and certainly not to this Chamber, and...
Adam Price: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. May I thank everyone who contributed to that most useful debate? Other than thanking you for your contributions, I have very little time to do much else. There was an element of an agreement across the parties. It was good to see Nick Ramsay supporting the need for an infrastructure commission. I agree with Jeremy Miles on the importance of the...
Adam Price: Will the Cabinet Secretary give way? He’s been very generous—
Adam Price: Yes, I’m very grateful to him. But, on the specific point raised by the leader of the Conservative group yesterday, the Welsh Government, in setting out its six key principles following the Brexit vote—not before, but following—said that freedom of movement was a key principle, a core principle. When did that change?
Adam Price: Diolch, Lywydd. This debate, in the name of Plaid Cymru, focuses on probably, I think, one of the key challenges—the central challenge—for this Assembly, which is meeting the demands of the new economic topography, if you like, of the post-Brexit landscape. The first pre-requisite for good policy is a common understanding: we’re all on the same page. I think that that is part of the...
Adam Price: And finally, I think the Government needs a massive injection of creativity, some big ideas that can inspire Wales. We saw over the summer the cancellation of the Wales bid for the Commonwealth Games, but what have we put in there to replace it that will actually inspire our country and create the foundations for a different economy? About the same time as the economy Secretary was announcing...
Adam Price: First of all, I’d like to thank the finance Secretary for his statement and for sharing it with us prior to making that statement. There’s been a great deal of talk over the past few days, and some excitement, even—at least amongst some—about the historic nature of this Bill that will, along with the Tax Collection and Management (Wales) Act 2016 and the Bill on landfill disposals...
Adam Price: I was hoping that the position of the Welsh Government would be clarified, but I’m more confused than ever now. The First Minister seemed to be adopting the policy of UKIP wholesale, leapfrogging the Conservatives and coming out in favour of a free trade agreement, because membership of the European Economic Area would require freedom of movement. That doesn’t sound like leadership; that...
Adam Price: Thank you, madam deputy speaker. As the tectonic plates are shifting around us, I wonder whether this is an opportunity for a paradigm shift in our thinking as well. It is absolutely right—and there is broad consensus, clearly—that Wales should not be further impoverished by the decision made through the referendum. But I think it’s also true that, while ensuring that we receive the...
Adam Price: I have to ask the Cabinet Secretary: if he believes that there is a high probability of this project failing, why has he even been having the conversation for five years in any case? And, isn’t it true that his own Government’s due diligence shows there is almost a negligible scenario where the guarantee will be called in? Because it’s a strong project; that’s why. There is a strong...
Adam Price: The Cabinet Secretary has twice said that the Circuit of Wales now accept his 50/50 split in terms of the guarantee. Can I invite him to say a little more explicitly if they have agreed to a 50/50 split immediately, or whether they have agreed to work towards reducing the exposure of the public sector to that 50 per cent level over time? Can I ask him this as well? He’s said, of course,...
Adam Price: I’m grateful to the Cabinet Secretary for placing that on the record. Following on from the question from Russell George, the Welsh Government, in response to the feasibility study in 2015 on the development bank, said that its preferred approach was one that specifically prescribed a management and organisational structure different to that currently managed by Finance Wales, i.e. not...
