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Welsh Affairs

The hon. Gentleman makes a valid point. On an optimistic note, I recently had the great pleasure of visiting GE Healthcare just outside Cardiff. I hope that the Secretary of State will make time to visit that facility. Its headquarters is in my constituency in England, so I have a direct link with it. I was thrilled by its education project, which takes young people from schools into a laboratory to see how things work there. Unless we can enthuse people about maths, science, English and education generally, we will not have the skilled work force in Wales that we need to keep good companies of high worth with highly skilled jobs such as GE Healthcare. Wales is a fantastic country for natural resources for energy and for producing highly valuable energy. I hope that the Under-Secretary will reaffirm in his winding-up speech the attitude of the Wales Office to the plans for the Severn barrage. The right hon. Member for Neath was keen on the Severn barrage project and I tried to get him interested in tidal pools and lagoons. I hope that the Under-Secretary will take the opportunity to let us know whether the thinking and overwhelming support for the project remain the same because I want a slight shift of emphasis in the Department's policy. I congratulate Transco—I flew along the pipeline to see the completion of 115 miles of gas pipeline from the liquefied natural gas terminal in Milford Haven, in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Preseli Pembrokeshire (Mr. Crabb). The project was delivered on time and on budget. To revert to an earlier subject, that company is also doing tremendous work to rehabilitate prisoners and has reduced reoffending rates in the groups of prisoners that it has helped into work from more than 70 per cent. to 7 per cent. I commend its work to the Secretary of State. Our land in Wales is vital and our farmers are the natural guardians of our countryside. This year has been a tough year for farming, with the threat of foot and mouth and bluetongue hanging over many farmers. We have a proud agricultural tradition that needs Government support. It also needs the respect of Government, not the sort of cynical betrayal that resulted in a leaked copy of a Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Minister's speech, which promised compensation to Welsh farmers when there was a prospect of an imminent election, only for it to be withdrawn. Will the Secretary of State meet me to discuss what we can do jointly to push for clearance for a product of sheep meat called ““smokies””? There is a treatment of sheep meat called ““smokies”” that could make a real difference to the income of our sheep farmers, but the process of legalising it seems to be long and laborious. The Farmers Union of Wales has told me that the process could and should be speeded up, so that Welsh farmers wanting to earn a legitimate income will not lose out to illegal and possibly dangerous imports from overseas.