Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:52 pm on 16 October 2018.

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Photo of Carwyn Jones Carwyn Jones Labour 1:52, 16 October 2018

Yes, because—. Well, let me see if I can explain it. Wood comes from trees, and trees grow. [Laughter.] And trees—. You can plant trees, they will grow, and they are replaceable in the way that coal, for example, as a fossil fuel, isn't. And I come back to the point I made earlier on—well, a few weeks ago in this Chamber: it's because of the EU that the UK cleaned up its act. The UK was one of the worst polluters in Europe. There was a river—I believe it was the River Irwell in Salford—that would catch alight if a lit match was thrown into it. Air quality was bad. We contributed hugely to acid rain. Our beaches were filthy. All those things have changed because European regulations have cleaned up Britain, and the last thing I'd want to see is us going back to those dark days in the 1980s where, for example, the River Ogmore in Bridgend used to run different colours according to what had been put into it upriver. I saw it run green, red, black—take your pick, really. The level of pollution was horrendous. Those days can never return.