I'll say first of all that I do support the devolution of air passenger duty, but I am wary about what the Welsh Government will do with it. Labour like nothing more than to spend other people's money and they think they know better how to spend other people's money than people do themselves. Recently, we heard that, across the border, Welsh Labour's fellow travellers and ideological soulmates in the Westminster Labour Party plan to tax the gifts parents give their children via a brand new lifetime gifts tax. It's yet another example of the Labour Party that works on the principle that if it can be taxed it must be taxed, never mind what the consequences are.

Of course, devolving air passenger duty to Wales will be an opportunity for Wales to reduce the tax to benefit families using Welsh airports, but there's no reason to suspect that, given the chance, Welsh Labour won't follow their Westminster heroes' lead and increase it once they have control of it, or create brand new taxes if they have the powers to do so. I'm not hearing any guarantee from the Welsh Government that if the tax is devolved they won't try to use it as a cash cow. Perhaps in this debate they will be willing to give that guarantee to families and businesses who would use Welsh airports. I doubt it, though.

What must be surprising for anyone who thinks Labour stand for the low paid is that they even want to be responsible for a regressive tax like air passenger duty in the first place. The tax forces a low-paid family who has taken a year or more to save for a holiday to pay the exact same amount of tax as a wealthier family who can go on holiday at the drop of a hat. It completely and deliberately ignores income or ability to pay. So, how has a party that says it's on the side of struggling families come to want responsibility for a regressive tax on the much-deserved holidays of those who work the longest hours in Wales? Well, because this Labour Government supports other regressive taxes when it suits them and their political ideology, of course. Just look at VAT.

Although it's not devolved yet, this Labour Government try to fool us that they're doing all they can to beat period poverty, while saying that we should keep our EU membership, which stops us removing VAT from sanitary towels and tampons because the EU classes them as luxury items. Now, it's one thing to say that you're prepared to tax the low paid the exact same money for a holiday abroad as you charge the super rich, but surely it's immoral to say that you'll continue to charge a single mum for vital sanitary towels or tampons. The same thing goes for the so-called 'fat tax'.

Let's be realistic: Labour are unlikely to want air passenger duty devolved so that they can lower it or abolish it. They want it devolved so they can raise it and use it as they think fit. Even the simple understanding of economics that Labour has should tell them that raising it too much will see people opt for flights that take off and land at nearby English airports, such as Bristol instead of Cardiff.