Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:52 pm on 23 May 2018.
I'll go now to revert back to recommendation 2, and I quote directly from the report:
'We recommend that the Welsh Government in its engagement with the UK Government calls on them to ensure that the interests of the farming, fishing and food industries are safeguarded during the withdrawal process.'
Well, good luck with that I say, because that recommendation is going to be a challenge for Welsh Government now, because, following the legislative consent vote on clause 11 amendments, Welsh Government has conceded control of that agenda, conceded leverage, as powers in these devolved fields will be frozen for seven years and can be changed without our consent here in Wales. As the Assembly's own legal advice states, and I quote directly, the EU withdrawal Bill
'as amended will still allow the Assembly’s competence to be restricted without its consent, and the inter-governmental agreement does not provide watertight assurance that this will not happen.'
As the agricultural expert Professor Tim Lang stated in this week's external affairs committee in response to a question from Jenny Rathbone, referring to the legislative consent vote here on 15 May, whilst Scotland stood firm Wales is now, and I quote, 'assumed to be steamrollable', end of quote—steamrollable indeed, and marginalised.