Cairns shows contempt for his own constituents

ALUN CAIRNS is purported to be Secretary of State FOR Wales.

After his shocking performance in the House of Commons on September 4 he has shown what contempt he has not only for the Welsh Assembly but also his constituents whom he is supposed to represent. “FOR” is otiose.

He was questioned about the possibility of Air Passenger Duty (APD) being devolved to the Assembly. Firstly, he gave an incomprehensible excuse why the airport should not be made profitable. It beggars belief that he should be against boosting trade and welcoming income to the Vale. Secondly, he showed how he has utter contempt for the Assembly.

This is how he answered (verbatim): “...this is one aviation market and therefore we cannot act in one way that would benefit one and destroy another and I have feared that the Welsh Government would increase air passenger duty in Cardiff and make the airport even more uncompetitive” (sits down with big grin of satisfaction). In Shakespearean terms “what chop logic!”. The question asked was that the APD be reduced to make the airport more profitable and the answer was “no because you will increase the APD”. So the secretary of state does not want the airport to be profitable even though he is its representative as it lies within his constituency.

The implication, therefore, is that he is in favour of Bristol having the upper hand in continuing to take away thousands of Welsh passengers because their APD is lower. And on that subject, Bristol whinges that they want a “level playing field” as quoted by the airport director some time ago when APD at Cardiff was discussed. Bring it on!

In broad commercial terms it is argued by Bristol that they would lose thousands of passengers. Let me tell Bristol: they will not be lost, they will be returned to their rightful place at Cardiff from which you have taken them.

And as Ken Skates said “there is no reason for it to be denied”.

The only reason for it being denied is our own secretary of state’s objection to it.

It seems to me Mr Cairns felt he had to keep up with the big boys, being on the front bench between Jacob Rees-Mogg and Boris Johnson – and that he had to give similar crass answers. I noticed each time Boris gave one of his all-too-frequent convoluted non-answers, Mr Cairns looked up at him with a huge grin in admiration.

In the forthcoming general election I don’t think Mr Cairns will be on my wish list having proved his contempt for us and for our assembly. Raymond K Hawkins

Barry

It seems to me Mr Cairns felt he had to keep up with the big boys on the front bench Raymond K Hawkins