Part of 1. 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 1:56 pm on 22 June 2016.
Can I introduce you to some facts, Minister? Can I refer you to an article in the ‘Agricultural History Review’, entitled ‘Measuring Regional Variation in Farm Support: Wales and the UK, 1947-72’? The conclusion of this article was this: previous pre-EU farm subsidies penalised Wales when farm size was smaller on average than in the UK as a whole. The fact is that the Welsh farmer has more in common with farmers throughout the rest of the EU than he or she has with a bunch of right-wing privatising Tories who are only interested in self-aggrandisement and their own self-promotion. It is better for the Welsh farmer to stay in the EU. That is the conclusion from the president of the National Farmers Union today, here in this Assembly, and also the Farmers Union of Wales. I hope that we, in the last 24 hours, will work hard to provide the assurances that the farming community needs that we will look after their interests, but as part of a reformed European Union.