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Welsh Affairs

I thank the hon. Member for Ynys Môn (Albert Owen) for his very kind remarks, and I wish him well personally—although I hope he will not put that in his election address. This might be one of the briefest valedictory speeches in history, but I have felt compelled to respond to some of the kind words Members have said about me and about other Members who are retiring from the House; I almost felt as if I was participating in a living funeral at one point. I particularly want to pay tribute, in return, to the right hon. Member for Islwyn (Mr. Touhig). We have crossed metaphorical swords at times, and listening to him reminds me of a famous remark once made about Saunders Lewis: that even though it was possible at times to disagree with every word that he said, somehow it was a pleasure disagreeing with him. Such is the courtesy and generosity of spirit that has always marked the right hon. Gentleman's contributions, and his personal dealings with me and my hon. Friends. The right hon. Gentleman referred, characteristically mischievously, to the small add-ons my party managed to insert into the "One Wales" agreement. I have one of them in my hand. The Secretary of State referred to it in his remarks. It is the letter responding to the First Minister on the referendum, in which the Secretary of State says:""I have instructed Wales Office officials to take forward the preparatory work on the legal instruments required for holding the referendum"." My party says "Hear, hear" to that. The right hon. Member for Islwyn referred to the economic problems facing Iceland and Ireland. I am sure that he would accept—some of my forebears came from Cork, and the same is true of the right hon. Member for Torfaen (Mr. Murphy)—that the Irish are a resilient people and one should never underestimate them. I am sure that despite their current difficulties, they will bounce back. That is part of a core truth about small countries everywhere, irrespective of whether they are independent: small countries have to be resilient, and sometimes they have to be agile too. Wales has also had its fair share of difficult times, but we should have resources of hope, as one Welshman from Gwent famously said. That is because through, those difficult times, we can retain our optimism that the future will be better than the past, as Idris Davies said. One can turn around the argument about whether Wales is too poor to be independent. I could say, as indeed the former permanent secretary at the Welsh Assembly Government recently said, that perhaps Wales is too poor because it has been run from outside. My view is that no country has ever ruled another well—that is my philosophical position. I respect the sincerity of the right hon. Member for Islwyn, and all I would say to him is that this interesting debate will continue for many years to come. In the meantime, this debate has touched upon the central problem of Welsh politics: the relative economic underdevelopment of Wales, which spans generations. One can trace this back to the 1920s and the collapse of the coal price; it has been with us that long. All hon. Members from all parties have to find a resolution to that problem. Of course, it was not always thus. Wales was once the engine room of the world economy. At one point, two thirds of the tonnage of all UK exports left from one Welsh port—Cardiff. So we have had better times and there will be better times in our future too. Where was the first £1 million cheque signed? It was signed in Cardiff. Wales has been more prosperous in the past and it will find a more prosperous future. A number of Members have put their finger on the nub of this matter by saying that at this critical time there are opportunities. Part of the reason for the relative underdevelopment in Wales is that the UK economy, from the early years of the 20th century, has started to specialise away from manufacturing and into financial services. That is the core of the problem that the UK economy is facing, and we hope that we are seeing that economy being restored to a more healthy balance. Wales is well poised because manufacturing is still a more important part of its economy than it is in the rest of the UK's economy. So Wales needs to grasp these important opportunities, because the economic statistics at the moment are depressing. Wales is the UK region with the lowest gross value-added per head; it is 10th out of 12 on research and development expenditure; and it is the lowest on private equity and venture capital. Before the shadow Secretary of State claims that that is all the fault of the Welsh Assembly Government or even this Westminster Government, I should say that Wales has lain in that position for generations; this is a deep structural problem in the Welsh and the UK economy. However, that does not mean that we should accept it. Wales is a small country that needs a big idea. The hon. Member for Carmarthen, West and South Pembrokeshire (Nick Ainger), my neighbour, has put his finger on it by saying that need to put manufacturing, science, technology and innovation at the heart of our economic future. I wish to see, in the UK in general and in Wales in particular, a decade in which we do that; we should have a decade for innovation, manufacturing and science to build the foundation for the 21st century. At the culmination of that decade, I would like the World Expo—the world fair—to come back to the UK for the first time in about 150 years. It started in this country in 1851 and has been going ever since, but it has not been back to the UK since 1862. Does the fact that we have not invited back the World Expo— the biggest international event after the Olympic games and the FIFA World cup—not say something about priorities? The World Expo came to Dublin in 1907, when Ireland was still in the UK. Why not bring it to Wales? Why not have the Wales World Expo? Wales, which fired the industrial revolution, could host the biggest and most important world event for the new industrial revolution—the knowledge revolution that was referred to by the right hon. Member for Islwyn. Yes, it will require investment, just as the London Olympics have required investment. As we know, Wales has contributed heavily to that, paying about £436 million. Surely, just as the UK Government have supported the successful Olympic bid and the FIFA World cup bid, which would also be mostly based in London, they could support with central Government expenditure a bid for the Expo made on behalf of the whole UK, but based in Wales. The Expo could have a transformational effect. The last two—in Hanover in Germany in 2000 and in Japan in 2005—had 25 million visitors. Imagine the transformative effect that the event could have on the image and the reality of Wales. It would be a catalyst that would transform our economic prospects and would put Wales on the world map, as it was so clearly 100 years ago. The bidding round will start soon—it will open next year. Here is a challenge to the Front Benchers from both leading parties: will they back a Wales bid for the World Expo? I am speaking as an ordinary Back-Bench Member of Plaid Cymru, so this is also a challenge to my own party. If I were here after the next elections, in any discussions with either of the two Front-Bench teams, I would seek to make the proposal one of our red lines. Wales deserves this. Generations of my family and those of most other hon. Members in the Chamber contributed with their sweat and too often with their blood to making this state of the United Kingdom the great world economic power that it was. We are not asking for charity but for something that I think that we deserve. We are asking for help so that we can help ourselves. We are asking for a foundation for a new economy. Whatever our political position on the constitutional question, none of us want Wales to be holding a begging bowl for the rest of this century. We do not want to go cap in hand to anyone, however we see Wales's political future. We want Wales to be able to stand up proud and tall. We have the human capital to do it—the most precious resource that we have is the skills and ability of our people—but we need investment. Let us have that investment in a decade of manufacturing and science. Let us not inspire engineers to go into the City of London, as they have for the past 20 years, to use their mathematics to sell more and more arcane financial products. Let us inspire engineers—Welsh sons and daughters—to do engineering when they come out of university by showing that there can be a productive future for them in manufacturing. I am optimistic, too—we have to be, do we not, in a small country? As I shall be leaving these shores soon, I want to end by paraphrasing the famous phrase used by the late Robert Kennedy. Some people look at Wales and the world as they are and ask, "Why?" The challenge is to look at Wales and the world as they could be and ask, "Why not?"