9. 8. UKIP Wales Debate: Brexit and Rural Communities

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:00 pm on 19 July 2017.

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Photo of Mr Simon Thomas Mr Simon Thomas Plaid Cymru 5:00, 19 July 2017

(Translated)

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I move the amendment. It is the end of term, but there’s no excuse for groundhog day once again. I have to say, we have been around these issues a number of times over the year and twice this week, so I will be very succinct and I won’t reiterate too much of what I said yesterday.

It is quite simple, Plaid Cymru is clearly of the view that the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill, whatever the correct title in Welsh is, is a Bill that rolls back powers from Wales, from the people of Wales, the Assembly and the Parliament, which incorporates the sovereignty of Wales. Of course, I will have an entirely different perspective on this to UKIP. UKIP believes in the sovereignty of Westminster. UKIP believes in the sovereignty of the UK being over and above the sovereignty of the people of Wales. We as a party don’t accept that. We don’t accept that as the party for independence for Wales.

We also see this as an entirely cynical move by the Tory party—that they are using a vote in one referendum to overturn the decision that they didn’t like in another referendum. In 2011, there was a referendum result that wasn’t 52 to 48 per cent, but was 66 to 67 per cent, at least, in favour of this Parliament legislating in fisheries, agriculture, environment, health and education, and so on, too. The fact that this Bill now and the fact that the Conservative Government in Westminster now wishes to use the excuse of Brexit to hold the devolution process back is one of the most cynical things that I have seen recently, certainly since 2011. If there was any doubt—if there was any doubt—that the Conservatives weren’t willing to do this, and if we could join Neil Hamilton in believing the fine words of Theresa May, we saw just last night, with the trade union Bill, that it was the Conservatives’ intention to overturn any Bill passed here that they don’t agree with or aren’t content with. It is utterly antidemocratic and it clearly shows that they are using the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill in that same way.

I have listened very carefully, for over a year, to Neil Hamilton and I’ve been waiting for the florid rhetoric to disappear and for some ideas to be brought forward as to what the future of agriculture is after Brexit and after we have left the European Union—but not only the European Union, but according to his aspiration, the single market and the customs union too. So, what is the vision? I have seen nothing of that vision, just a pipe dream. That’s all I’ve seen.

Today, we were given some insight into that nightmare: the lands of Wales washed with chemicals, polluted, contaminated and totally overused. The only thing he’s proposed is the use of herbicide to kill ferns on our hillsides. There is not any sort of future for the marketing of lambs who eat on the hillside, no sort of future for the farmers who depend on suckler cows, and no sort of future for the farmers who depend on a market worth millions of pounds. It’s no sort of vision at all.

I can go to the Royal Welsh Show in Llanelwedd next week and speak with some sort of credibility, but I wish him luck if he tries to do that. I will stick to my views as an Assembly Member who represents the same region as him, but also as an Assembly Member for Plaid Cymru. We believe most strongly that we need to retain that relationship with the single market for farmers, retain that relationship with the customs union and, more importantly, that we need to safeguard the environment that we have—the clean environment that supports food of the highest quality and animal welfare of the highest standards. That is what is special about Wales and the Welsh language is part of that too. Anything that UKIP portrays here is going to destroy the nation as we know it, and I’m not content with that. That’s why we entirely reject the motion before us today in the name of UKIP and have put an alternative amendment in its place.

The last thing I will say is that we truly need to see the continuity Bill from the Government. It is too late in the day now to hope—as the First Minister said yesterday—that amendments will be tabled in Westminster. We cannot trust the Conservatives or Westminster on this. I know that in your hearts, Labour Members, you know that you can’t trust the Conservatives on this. So, bring forward a continuity Bill and stand up for the rights of the Welsh Parliament.