9. 9. UKIP Wales Debate: The Foreign Aid Budget

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:47 pm on 17 May 2017.

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Photo of Joyce Watson Joyce Watson Labour 6:47, 17 May 2017

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I promise not to take my full five minutes.

I want to start first of all by saying that I’ve been in this Chamber for 10 years, and I have never heard the like of what I heard in this Chamber being espoused, like we’ve heard this afternoon from the UKIP benches. It actually would serve them well, I think, to go and visit, collectively, the Wales PEN Cymru project that has given a voice to refugees at events on the Llyn peninsula; Sector 39 from Powys, sharing their expertise in permaculture with partners in Uganda and Kenya; Dolen Ffermio in Powys; Märit Olsson and Get Set Wales, both in Machynlleth—[Interruption.] No; I’ve heard enough from you. And also, more crucially and importantly, for the mover and opener of this debate to go to Coleg Sir Gâr to meet the students from Carmarthenshire who’ve been involved in the Care for Uganda project, whose lives were changed—and I’ve spoken, by the way, to those young people whose lives were changed, who helped to build a hospital there, and who came back better people.

If we’d had this movement that they would like today in the name of UKIP to abandon everybody, not only would the people who really need the help be denied it, but those people who actually benefit from delivering it would also be denied opportunities. So, I suggest to the UKIP Members that it would be a very good lesson for them indeed if they actually did take any time whatsoever to educate themselves about what it actually means to help and support people, instead of coming here and quoting from things like the ‘Daily Mail’ or ‘The Times’ and actually choosing selective little bits and pieces of information. I know that they called themselves the guard dogs of Brexit, and I know that they are actually looking for a way forward, but let me just tell you, by behaving here this afternoon like rabid dogs, it isn’t going to help your cause.