CAN I first thank the people of the South East Wales Region for putting their faith in UKIP and electing two candidates to the Welsh Assembly.

There is no doubt that the party has already made its mark in the Assembly by helping force Carwyn Jones to seek the support of Kirsty Williams in order to secure the position as First Minister.

This, of course, had the secondary effect of proving to the Labour party that it no longer had Carte blanch when it came to legislation in Wales. We have also caused a little controversy when Neil Hamilton referred to Kirsty Williams and Leanne Wood as being the concubines of The First Minister, met with gasps of disapproval from the other Assembly Members. If, however he had said they were “getting into bed “with the Minister, would anyone have complained, probably not, as this is a phrase commonplace in Political circles. The point of this is that Neil was simply reinforcing UKIP’s policy of refusing to be gagged by political correctness. Political correctness is the tool used by many oppressive regimes to eliminate free speech.

So what do we UKIP Assembly Members believe our role to be over the next five years of this Assembly session. Well first of all, we will not be seeking to go into coalition or make deals with any of the other parties of the Assembly. UKIP is a distinct and very different party from all the others in the Senedd. We intend to remain that way. We shall simply support any legislation or proposal put forward by any party, or coalition of parties, which we feel will be to the benefit of the people of Wales.

We are determined to be a party of scrutiny, where we will seek to alleviate and control spending which we see as wasteful and unnecessary, especially where we feel it is being used to extend the influence of the Labour party, rather than to the benefit of the Welsh people.

There are far too many “quangos” whose very existence is questionable, let alone what, if any, discernible contribution they make to the enhancement of the lives of the people of Wales.

We want to bring to this Assembly the realisation that the money it spends is taxpayers’ money and not some nefarious pot that can be used to further its political agenda.