7. Plaid Cymru Debate: M4 Corridor Decision

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:14 pm on 28 November 2018.

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Photo of Mr Neil Hamilton Mr Neil Hamilton UKIP 4:14, 28 November 2018

I admire the Member for Cardiff Central for her independence of mind, and I frequently agree with what she says. There is a serious argument about which is the best solution to the problems that we all know about. I stood for election, as did my colleagues, in support of the blue route rather than the black route, although I did say about two years ago that the black route would be better than no route. We can't go on endlessly in limbo as we have been for the last 20 years. But this is undoubtedly going to be the biggest capital spending decision that has been made since devolution 20 years ago, and I think that the importance of it does require, as Rhun ap Iorwerth said in his opening speech, that the decision should be owned by the new First Minister. I know that there's collective responsibility, of course, and all members of the Cabinet who are involved in taking this decision, ultimately, who survive the reshuffle, will, therefore, be able to be made accountable. But I do think that as a matter of practice it should be the new Cabinet, under the leadership of the new First Minister, that ought to take this decision, especially as we're not talking of—Rhun ap Iorwerth said just a few moments ago—immense delay. It's just a couple of weeks before the new First Minister is in place. There can surely be no argument for rushing this in the course of the next few hours, in effect, given that we've been waiting for it for such an immense length of time.

It is a decision on which, I think, party lines may become blurred, and a good thing too, in my opinion. We should take into account the variety of different interests that have contributed, and are still contributing, as we know from our postbags, each and every one of us, to the decision that has to be made. So, it does seem to me that there's an unanswerable case for what Rhun ap Iorwerth set out and is set out in this motion, and I shall be supporting it today.