9. Debate: The Second Anniversary of the EU Referendum

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:38 pm on 19 June 2018.

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Photo of Carwyn Jones Carwyn Jones Labour 6:38, 19 June 2018

Can I say quite simply this to him? He will remember, as I will, although not everybody in this Chamber will, the series Fawlty Towers. There comes a point where the Major in Fawlty Towers makes the mistake of looking for Germans and Basil Fawlty has to say to him, 'War's over.' And the war is over. The EU is not a hostile power. The EU is not sitting there in Calais looking at the cliffs of Dover with malign intent. The EU is our partner and we need to make sure that we negotiate with them as a partner and not as a hostile power, as he put it. 

It would be remarkable if the EU didn't export more in value to the UK than the UK exported back to the EU. Quite simply, the EU is much bigger than the UK, of course it's going to do that. But the percentage of exports from the EU to the UK is much smaller than the percentage of exports that goes from the UK to the EU. That's the difference. It's not the actual volume; it's the percentage that is important. 

Again he makes the point that if he'd have been in charge we'd all be done. Well, Nigel Farage said we'd have a deal with the US in 48 hours. All right, he was saying it with tongue in cheek—well, you could never tell with him if it was tongue in cheek. In a debate he made it up as he went along; you couldn't contradict it. But the reality is, is he really saying that the US is waiting there to do a deal with the UK on terms that are favourable to the UK? I don't believe that. The rhetoric, surely, of the US President shows otherwise. 

I listened to what Leanne Wood said. I'll just remind her that she and I, on this issue, are on the same side. She reminds me of somebody playing on a rugby team who runs around the pitch trying to tackle members of her own side, rather than focusing on the opposition over there. They are the opposition over there. They are the people who are trying to deny a sensible Brexit to the people of Wales. [Interruption.] In a second, I'll let you in. In a second, okay. 

I said to her at the time I thought it was naive to have a cross-party campaign in the middle of an election. We spent all our time knocking lumps out of each other as part of the democratic process. The electorate weren't going to buy it a week later that we were suddenly all friends again. It doesn't work that way. The timing was wrong. She is right, I said to David Cameron, 'Don't have the referendum in June—