Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:01 pm on 30 November 2021.
Well, Llywydd, the leader of Plaid Cymru had an opportunity to go to Llanelwedd today. I spent Friday evening in the company of Clwb Cinio Caerfyrddin, and a very fine evening it was too. I was surrounded by people who work in the farming industry, and what Adam Price said was absolutely what was reflected to me. These are people who feel very, very badly let down by the promises that were made to them—[Interruption.] I can assure the Member that nitrate vulnerable zones were not mentioned to me once, but what was mentioned to me repeatedly were the promises that they felt were made to them in the run-up to the referendum in 2016. Plenty of people on those benches were very willing to make those promises in those days. You remember them: 'Not a penny less', 'An absolute guarantee'—£137 million taken away from the Welsh rural economy by your party this year alone, and more cuts to come in every year, every single year, of the comprehensive spending review. Where was the 'absolute guarantee' of 'not a penny less' that those people heard from you then? No wonder—. No wonder, no wonder—[Interruption.] I think the—[Interruption.] I can't hear the Member, Llywydd, but he appears to be impersonating a traffic policeman. This may be another ambition on those benches.
What I am pointing to, Llywydd, is what the leader of Plaid Cymru said, the anger that is felt—[Interruption.]—the anger that is felt in rural communities at the promises that were made to them and the way in which they have been let down ever since—money taken away from them; trade deals struck in other parts of the world with no regard whatsoever about the impact that they will have on the rural economy here in Wales. No wonder—[Interruption.]—no wonder that, when you meet people from those communities, they go out of their way to tell you their anger and their disappointment at the Conservative Party here in Wales.