Chamber
Meeting of the Parliament 22 March 2011
22 Mar 2011 · S3 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
First Minister’s Question Time
Job Creation
Yes, I agree with that. [Laughter.] We should all welcome eight months of rising employment in Scotland, as we should welcome the considerable number of positive and major jobs announcements.
As the Parliament and our society look to the future, we should be able to demonstrate, from the position that Scotland now has in some of the cutting-edge technologies that will generate the 21st century’s energy future, that the nation is well placed across a range of those activities. I hope the Parliament will increasingly unite behind getting the financial and economic powers that will allow us, as a lucky country with huge natural resources and a talented people, to maximise that great opportunity.
As the Parliament and our society look to the future, we should be able to demonstrate, from the position that Scotland now has in some of the cutting-edge technologies that will generate the 21st century’s energy future, that the nation is well placed across a range of those activities. I hope the Parliament will increasingly unite behind getting the financial and economic powers that will allow us, as a lucky country with huge natural resources and a talented people, to maximise that great opportunity.
In the same item of business
Kenneth Gibson (Cunninghame North) (SNP)
SNP
4. To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government has done to support job creation over the last four years. (S3F-2982)
The First Minister (Alex Salmond)
SNP
We have taken a range of measures because job creation and employment are at the forefront of our policy programme. I point in particular to the 300,000 trai...
Kenneth Gibson
SNP
According to Scottish Enterprise, between May 2005 and May 2007, 1,733 jobs were lost in North Ayrshire through 28 major redundancies. During that time, Cunn...
The Presiding Officer
NPA
Order. Please come to a question, Mr Gibson.
Kenneth Gibson
SNP
Does the First Minister agree that that litany of Labour economic incompetence shows that Scotland’s economy is not safe in the Labour Party’s hands and that...
The First Minister
SNP
Yes, I agree with that. Laughter. We should all welcome eight months of rising employment in Scotland, as we should welcome the considerable number of positi...
John Scott (Ayr) (Con)
Con
The First Minister recognises the need for job creation in Ayrshire. Nowhere is that more important than at Prestwick airport in my constituency. Does he agr...
The First Minister
SNP
John Scott knows my interest in Prestwick airport and that I visited recently. Vital though the airport is, we should think of it not only as an airport but ...
Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD)
LD
Three of the jobs that have been created in the past four years have been the highest paid in the public sector. I refer to three top bosses of Government bo...
The First Minister
SNP
Jeremy Purvis well knows the measures that John Swinney has announced to freeze the pay of top civil servants and people throughout the public sector. I hope...