Lee Waters MS

A tribute to Nick Powell, former Head of Politics ITV Wales , delivered at a memorial hosted by NUJ Cymru at the Senedd's Pierhead building on February 12th 2025 The first time I remember meeting Nick was in a bar, and the last time I saw him was in a bar. Nick was shy, and could be awkward in conversation, but over a beer and wine would open up. He could be very funny. Dry. Waspish. Wicked. I honestly couldn’t count the hours we spent together in the pubs of Cardiff, Llandudno, Blackpool. Brighton, Bournemouth and Westminster, gossiping, laughing, and generally nerding out about all sorts of facts and trivia about politics in all its forms. The first time I met him was in December 1998, after one of the famous House of Commons HTV Christmas parties, when we retired to the Strangers Bar. He and David WIlliams were going through the interview process to head up the new Political Unit that was being established in advance of the new Assembly. And they were both doing their very best...

Speech in the Senedd on 12th February 2025 The Universal Free School Meals policy is a progressive policy we can be proud of. As well as feeding children, how can we leverage it to develop the Welsh food system? This is a key opportunity for foundational economy thinking. How do we harness our spending on wellbeing critical goods of services to also benefit local grounded firms? Only about 6% of the fruit and veg used by the Welsh public sector is made up of products grown in Wales. We’re buying and transporting food from other countries. Schoolchildren and hospital patients are routinely eating apples from France, tomatoes from Spain, courgettes from Chile. What’s stopping us from supporting Welsh farmers and buying local? Well we don’t grow enough veg for a start. We talk a lot about lamb but not about veg. There’s an opportunity for farmers to embrace horticulture to create new sources of income. There’s also a challenge of what’s called aggregating demand. The Fresh Local Produce...