Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:52 pm on 16 October 2018.
Yes, you're using your well-worn anecdote about the River Irwell in Salford again. Well, we don't have to go as far away as the River Irwell—you also cite the River Ogmore. We had two rivers in Cardiff that would also change colour, so I'm not disagreeing with you on that—the Taff would turn black with coal dust; the Ely would change into various bright colours as it passed Ely papermill, depending on which colour dye had just been flushed into the river. But, going back to the River Irwell, I'd quote from a recent Cardiff University paper that referenced the recent addition of the journal Nature Geoscience. I quote, 'But a recent analysis of the Irwell system in the north-west of England found the highest concentration of plastic recorded in any river in the world.' End quote. So, even with all of these wonderful EU regulations, the river is still apparently suffering from some fairly major pollution.
Now, I think there are a couple of points to be made here. One is that you talk about my party, UKIP, wanting the UK to leave the EU as though we don't want any environmental regulations. And you speak as if, the moment the UK does leave the EU, all of the environmental regulations will disappear overnight. Clearly, this is nonsense and you're merely scaremongering. There is a continuity Bill that will ensure that all of the environmental regulations—every single one of them— will be preserved in UK law until such time as the UK Parliament has had time to assess that regulation and determine whether or not to keep it, to amend it, or to dispose of it. That process will take some time, obviously, because the legislators will have thousands of EU regulations to examine.
But another point I would like to make is this—[Interruption.]