Mr Gwynfor Evans: A week ago the position of my two colleagues in Plaid Cymru and myself was that we would vote in the earliest motion of confidence against the Government and for the Opposition. We had very good reasons and had drafted our own motion of censure which we intended setting down following that of the SNP. We wanted then, and still want, to place on record our disgust with the way in which the...
Mr Gwynfor Evans: A body must be set up to supervise the recommendations when they are implemented and to start a new wave of sympathy and support for the language in Wales. This is a matter of basic importance for the future of our society and community. In communications, Wales lags badly behind both Scotland and England in the quality of its principal roads which are so necessary to balanced industrial...
Mr Gwynfor Evans: Despite a pretence of an equalisation of water charges between Wales and England, water rates in Wales still remain 58 per cent. higher. [HON. MEMBERS: "Disgraceful."] The inequitable system of charging for water on the basis of rateable value remains. The Government have consistently disallowed to Wales the right that she should enjoy of selling the water that flows from Wales to English...
Mr Gwynfor Evans: A statement was made by the Government that a Bill would be introduced. The Government did not approach us directly. Whatever the electoral cost that we may have to bear, we believe that we must obtain the best possible scheme. The Government have produced that scheme. We wish to achieve the earliest possible compensation for the sufferers, widows and dependants. We take the view that every...
Mr Gwynfor Evans: I should like to correct one point in the hon. Gentleman's speech. Five hundred years ago we were very near the Glyndwr wars and Wales had not been incorporated into England. Therefore, there were no Welsh MPs in this House.
Mr Gwynfor Evans: Will the Secretary of State name a Labour constituency party which worked hard for the Assembly in the campaign? Will be tell us the number of Labour constituency parties in Wales which worked against the Assembly in the campaign?
Mr Gwynfor Evans: asked the Secretary of State for Wales if he will give his assessment of the acreage of marginal land in Wales.
Mr Gwynfor Evans: Can the Minister say whether what the hon. Member for Bedwellty (Mr. Kinnock) described as the "vast sum of money" to be spent on the Welsh Assembly will now be transferred to the cost of maintaining the hospitals? In any case, will be bear in mind that in the West Wales hospital, one of the biggest that we have in the South—
Mr Gwynfor Evans: What has the expenditure been on schemes for the electrification of Welsh railways during the past decade?
Mr Gwynfor Evans: Will the Prime Minister in his broadcast tonight explain to the people why he made no ministerial broadcast during the campaigns for Assemblies in Wales and Scotland? Will he explain why the Government made no effort to explain the measure to the people who are utterly bewildered by it? Will he also explain why the Labour Party in the constituencies in Wales took virtually no part in the...
Mr Gwynfor Evans: Is the Minister aware that nearly 600,000 acres of Welsh land are planted with trees, which often take over the best pasture land, mixed farms and even arable land? Is he aware that, in spite of all that timber, there is not one major industry which is based on the timber that we produce?
Mr Gwynfor Evans: Is the hon. Gentleman aware of the growing unhappiness of old-age pensioners about their ability to travel by public transport when they have no private transport available? In many places in my constituency they can do no more than go to the chemist four or five times a year because that uses up their allocation. Can this matter be reconsidered?
Mr Gwynfor Evans: asked the Secretary of State for Wales what increase has occurred in the capital cost of the buildings and the services for the Welsh Assembly since the original estimate was made.
Mr Gwynfor Evans: Is the Minister aware that some hon. Members have been unscrupulously misleading the Welsh public by asserting that impoverishment would be caused to them by the imposition of £20 million on them as a result of the Assembly? Will the Minister confirm the parliamentary answer which I received which said that the cost to the people of Wales and other parts of the United Kingdom would be about...
Mr Gwynfor Evans: How much do these quangos cost annually? To whom are they democratically accountable, and to what extent?
Mr Gwynfor Evans: Is the Lord President aware that a BBC poll published on Friday night showed that many of the people of Wales do not think that the Government are in favour of an Assembly for Wales and that many people in Wales do not know what is the Government's attitude? I absolve the Lord President from responsibility for that, but does he not think that those findings reflect sadly upon the inactivity...
Mr Gwynfor Evans: Will the Minister and his right hon. Friend give every possible assistance to building abattoirs of EEC standards in the areas where the animals are produced, so avoiding the necessity for long transport trips?
Mr Gwynfor Evans: Is the Minister aware that in Wales we have national parks where almost all the land is improvable? I have part of such a park in my constituency. The most improvable land in different parts of Britain is marginal land, and much marginal land will fall into the category of moorland or heath. We are, therefore, awaiting a statement by the Minister of Agriculture—we have been waiting for a...
Mr Gwynfor Evans: Is the Minister aware that it is from marginal land that the greatest return may be obtained in production for the smallest investment? What is needed in the first place is investment in drainage of the land. Without that preparation it is useless to apply fertilisers and lime, for example, which are leeched away. Will the Minister give attention to that need?
Mr Gwynfor Evans: I want to concentrate on the injustice which is being done through the distribution of the rate support grant and particularly the needs element in the two western counties of Wales—Dyfed and Gwynedd. They should not really be called counties because they are big enough to be provinces and cover in area almost halt the territory of Wales. We know that the grants discriminate against...