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Welsh Affairs

I will not, because I am short of time, as I am sure the hon. Gentleman will understand. Those who claim that we in Wales are so different from those in England that our future must be as an independent country in Europe often point to Ireland, Belgium, and Holland, but they are misguided. They fail to remind us that those independent countries are now part of a greater Europe, sharing decision making and law making, and common goals and objectives. Countries such as Ireland, Belgium and Holland want to be part of an ever-growing Union; they do not want to secede from one. There is no logic in having Wales leave the United Kingdom, one of the big players on the European stage, to stand alone as a minor player with very little voice and even less bargaining power. That would be tantamount to the emasculation of Wales. The separatists would have Wales end its long marriage with England only to enter a polygamous marriage with half of Europe in a Union that would include England. Are they really serious? If this were an Alan Bennett play or a Brian Rix farce, the men in white coats would be coming on stage now. I am proud to be Welsh, but separatism is nonsense. I want a Wales that is at the heart of Britain and a Britain that is at the heart of Europe. Wales can and should have the ambition to be an economic powerhouse within the Union of Great Britain. However, to achieve that ambition we must face up to the challenge of creating a work force who are trained and equipped with all the skills necessary to compete on the global stage. No one who leaves education today, in Wales or anywhere else in Britain, can expect to have a job for life. Everyone will have to retrain and reskill throughout their working lives. No one should be left at home, existing on benefits, if they can work, retrain and upskill to get a job. The bread and butter issues facing us in Wales and throughout Britain do not involve constitutional tinkering. The bread and butter issues are the economy, jobs, education, training, health, pensions and transport. Those are the issues that concern the people who send us to Westminster. Skills are the key to those issues. If we want the money to invest in education, training and so on, we must first get the jobs. To get the jobs, we have to invest in upskilling our people. Then they will get the jobs to pay the taxes and we will be able to invest in all the good public services that we want in our country. A highly skilled, highly paid work force will close the income gap and objective 1 will then be a resounding success. The challenge facing the Government, as they work in partnership with our friends and colleagues in the National Assembly for Wales, is to ensure that every penny of objective 1 money and transitional funding currently left unspent is dedicated entirely to upskilling our people and providing them with new skills and new training. That is the challenge that we face. My plea to those on the Treasury Bench is simply this: do not let us down.