Mr Neil Hamilton: I'm deeply shocked by these amendments. The enthusiasm with which Llyr Gruffydd advocated them reminds us of the ministries of propaganda and public enlightenment in former eras. Education should be about teaching children to question, think and use their judgment, and yet what we're invited to do here is to impose some kind of received truth upon children, whereas there is in fact hotly...
Mr Neil Hamilton: In so many other areas as well, the Welsh Government has been devoting itself to the destruction of the wealth-producing economy in Wales, just as the UK Government has on the other side of the border as well. The COVID pandemic has just exacerbated the squeeze. But that's as nothing—I'll just finish with this last remark, Llywydd—to the squeeze that is to come, because you ain't seen...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. I fully agree with the indictment that we just heard from Alun Davies of both the Welsh Government and, indeed, the United Kingdom Government for the limitations that we are faced with in this debate. It's a bit like a debate about moving the deckchairs on the Titanic as the Welsh economy hurtles towards the iceberg, and that's for two reasons. First of all, the...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Will the First Minister outline the extent to which the Education Act 1996 has influenced Welsh Government policy in the fifth Senedd?
Mr Neil Hamilton: The staff, similarly, have declined in numbers from 290 to 224, so it's vitally important that we support the national library, and I'm pleased that the Government has done so for the next two years, but this needs to be made permanent. I'd like to finish with the motto of the University College of Wales at Aberystwyth, Nid Byd, Byd Heb Wybodaeth, but also, for me, Nid Byd, Byd Heb Lyfrgell...
Mr Neil Hamilton: It should hardly be necessary to have a debate calling for adequate funding for a national library. It's regrettable that we got to this point, but like others I should like to thank the Minister for his role in ensuring that the funding package announced today has actually been brought forth. The National Library of Wales has played an important part in my life. In fact, I spent several...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Will the First Minister agree with me that the best way that Governments could support airports throughout the United Kingdom and, indeed—[Inaudible.]—is to abolish air passenger duty, which is a tax on flying and a massive disincentive to people to use airports? It adds £78 to every short-haul ticket and can end up being—[Inaudible.]—total ticket price. But this, of course, would be...
Mr Neil Hamilton: So, 50 years ago, Edward Heath said that we would not join the EEC unless we had the full-hearted consent of both Parliament and the people. There was never the consent of the British people; it was never sought. It didn't have the full-hearted consent of our Parliament because the Bill that took us in had a majority of only eight in a thoroughly whipped vote 50 years ago. The 2016 referendum...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Well, the rather sour and dystopian speeches that we heard earlier on in this debate, from the First Minister and from the leader of Plaid Cymru, confirm them as the enemies of democracy, because neither of them has actually ever accepted the result of the referendum in 2016, when the people of Wales, as well as the people of the United Kingdom, voted to leave the EU. And they've done...
Mr Neil Hamilton: I'm just winding up. We have to come to terms with our heritage and so I hope that this debate will be an opportunity whereby we can start this process of assimilating our past in a way that we can be proud of, but without disguising those parts of it that need to be known about and that we would no longer find acceptable today.
Mr Neil Hamilton: The Welsh Government has also targeted Winston Churchill as somebody perhaps who is problematic—the man who fought against racism and fascism in the form of Nazism and whose great speeches in 1940 and afterwards inspired the nation to ultimate success and the destruction of Nazism. Lord Nelson, also. He's in the firing line, even though he had no meaningful links with slavery and paralysed...
Mr Neil Hamilton: His valour at Waterloo was matched in the preceding years, because he played a pivotal part in the road to Waterloo, through Spain, in the Peninsular war. And he was, I think, a very significant element in forcing the French out of Spain, where of course Napoleon had installed his brother as the king. And the battles in which Picton played such an important part are commemorated on the...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Thank you, acting Presiding Officer, and I'm delighted to be back in the Chamber for the first time since March, although I apologise to my old parliamentary colleague, the Minister, for detaining him so late in the day. But I'm delighted to see him, and I can't think of anybody better to answer this debate. This debate arises, as I'm sure everybody realises, from the politically motivated...
Mr Neil Hamilton: We're debating this afternoon a control plan. Well, it's certainly a plan, but what is uncertain is whether we will actually control anything very much. We saw with the firebreak, as indeed I predicted when it was debated, that the numbers might come down for a short period but, as soon as the restrictions were lifted, that they would start to rise again. So, unless we're prepared, as the...
Mr Neil Hamilton: The Counsel General is so transparent. He never wanted Brexit, he's done everything he possibly could in the last four and a half years to sabotage it, he just failed to give David Rowlands an answer to his question. It's perfectly clear from his statement that his idea of a negotiation is for us simply to accept meekly whatever demands, however absurd or unreasonable, Monsieur Barnier...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Thank you, Llywydd. I believe that if regulations are to be introduced, they ought to have some sound statistical basis, and therefore, it is incumbent upon the Government to publish that. And because I believe there is no such basis—
Mr Neil Hamilton: And on that basis, I'll be voting against these regulations.
Mr Neil Hamilton: And the pubs and restaurants have spent thousands and thousands of pounds on trying to make their businesses COVID compliant, and now all that money has been wasted. And if they have to wait for months in order to get any kind of financial compensation, then that is going to maximise the number that will go out of business. Pubs on the border, or within reasonable distance of the border...
Mr Neil Hamilton: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Well, these one-size-fits-all restrictions are plainly irrational and not supported by any credible statistical evidence. The Government has made many, many policy mistakes in the last eight months, and the predictions that I made when I criticised them all have all come true. The firebreak didn't work, nor could it work—all it could do was delay the...
Mr Neil Hamilton: The Counsel General will know that, since the Labour Government in 2004 opened the floodgates to mass migration, we've been adding nearly a third of a million people to the UK population every single year. This has had a depressing effect upon wages, particularly for those in low-paid, unskilled jobs, and it's also exacerbating the very real housing shortage that we've got throughout the...
