I personally have no objection to fracking in principle. It is actually a low-carbon way of producing power. But, of course, there are fears in local communities about the disruption caused, and those must be taken fully into account, in the same way as we are saying in this motion about the objections of people in communities like Manmoel—an area that I know, because, in my very early years, my grandparents lived nearby and I lived with them. These vast arrays of solar panels—we see them all around the country as we travel around on motorways—they are springing up as the most profitable crop that farmers can grow.

We had a debate from Plaid Cymru not long ago about pylons and power lines being buried underground, and I put the point there that is there not a contradiction between their policy on pylons and power lines, which we fully support in UKIP on the one hand—and yet they are not worried about desecrating the hills of mid Wales and elsewhere with great forests of windmills? So, what I’m suggesting here is that, for almost no diminution in global emissions of carbon dioxide, we’re being asked to pay a vast price. Even in the climate change Act cost assessment in 2008, it was stated to be £720 billion—that’s six years’ expenditure on the national health service. And so, to expect an 80 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050 is going to impose a massive cost on particularly the poor and the disadvantaged in countries like Wales—and we are one of the poorest parts of Western Europe. So, it's on that basis alone that we say this policy is not in the interests of the Welsh people.