Well, thank you very much, Llywydd. I’m pleased to be able to contribute to this debate, although I am slightly confused, if truth be told, because it’s not often that I stand to speak on a subject that has nothing to do with us here in Wales. We are talking about an infrastructure project that is an England-only infrastructure project. That’s what HS2 is. Of course, if it’s agreed, we will all be paying for it, but we are not making the decision here. The decision will be taken at another place. So, I am rather confused, if I may say.

What I would say, though, is that if this HS2 project does proceed, then we in Wales should have the Barnett consequential that reflects that, because there are so many major projects, including rail projects, that have happened in England and we haven’t received that consequential funding through Barnett, such as the Jubilee line and Crossrail. Nothing has been passed down as Barnett consequentials of those schemes. If this project does proceed, then our hope in Plaid Cymru is that we would receive significant funding—significant in Welsh terms, certainly—as Barnett consequentials.

Fundamentally, someone once said that if you want to travel from London to Birmingham and arrive 20 minutes earlier, then catch an earlier train. You don’t need to spend millions of pounds on such a rail line. Having said that, we do need funding to invest in improving links here in Wales. I will take this opportunity to mention that because our role in this place is to talk about the impact of projects on Wales. It has become pertinently obvious that we need to improve links between north and south Wales. There are many projects in the pipeline. Of course, we’re also mentioning the need to electrify the main line to Swansea. That is currently under threat following the Brexit vote. There are a number of proposals to improve north-south and south-north road links as well as to improve rail links between north and south, and they need investment now. I would also want to see the line between Carmarthen and Aberystwyth reopened, for example, so that we can discuss projects that are likely to happen within the borders of Wales, because those are the issues that we should be discussing in this place and we should be doing that regularly.

People will always say, ‘Well, from where would you get that money?’ Well, if HS2 is to be built, as I’ve already said, then we would insist on Barnett consequentials, because that doesn’t always happen, not by a long shot. That’s why, this week, we launched NICW—our NICW, that is. Our national infrastructure commission for Wales, which will be a body that will allow borrowing on an extensive scale; borrowing when it is cheap to do so, as it is now; and will be an arm’s-length body to attract huge investment so that we can achieve some of the aspirations that we have. There are some £40 billion infrastructure projects in the pipeline here in Wales, and there’s no prospect of any of them seeing the light of day at the moment. We must think far more broadly and be far more innovative in our thinking in terms of how we deal with the need to improve our infrastructure.

In drawing my comments to a close, we’ve had a debate tabled by UKIP on grammar schools, which exist in England and not in Wales, and we are today discussing HS2, which is an England-only infrastructure project, not a Welsh project. What next? What will be the next topic chosen for a UKIP debate in this place? A debate on the Wiltshire RDP, perhaps? Who knows? Thank you.