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Meeting of the Parliament 31 May 2012

31 May 2012 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Scotland’s Future

Salmond, Alex SNP Aberdeenshire East Watch on SPTV

I will abide by your strictures, Presiding Officer.

I have just come back from launching Scotland’s climate justice fund with the former Irish President, Mary Robinson, as I mentioned earlier that I would be doing. The Scottish Government is providing some £3 million for the fund. I know from the debate on 1 March that the initiative is supported unanimously across the chamber. It is therefore interesting to think for a second about how this Parliament came to be in charge of climate change and now of climate justice. As I understand the position, when in 1997 the rules were drawn up for devolution under the Scotland Bill, they specified which areas were to be reserved. At that stage, climate change was not on anyone’s radar as one of the key issues, so it was not specified in the bill and therefore was not reserved. As a result, one of the most important issues on a planetary scale was devolved to this Parliament.

This Parliament has taken forward that responsibility incredibly well. We unanimously passed the climate change targets, and we are one of the few Parliaments in the world that have managed to do that. This year, we have gone further and established a pioneering climate justice fund to bring about some equity in the distribution of the impact of climate change. I think that every single party and parliamentarian can take pride in that. The question that I ask is this: if this Parliament can seize the initiative on one of the most profound environmental, economic and moral issues that the world faces, is it not ridiculous that we cannot take decisions on full taxation, defence or welfare spending?

When this Parliament met on 12 May 1999, Winnie Ewing famously reconvened the first session of the Scottish Parliament after 292 years in abeyance. That day was a milestone in Scotland’s journey, and the motion that is before us today marks another. Today, for the first time since the beginning of the political union, the elected representatives of the Scottish people who are gathered here today in this Parliament will be asked by a Scottish Government to agree that Scotland should become an independent country that will stand alongside the other nations of these islands in a situation of equality.

Today, the members of this Parliament will be heard as the elected representatives of the people of Scotland. The people who by definition know most and care most about our country, and who are best placed to determine the nation’s future, are the people of Scotland.

I believe that the Parliament has achieved a great deal in its short lifespan. The smoking ban, the world-leading Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 and the new legislation to help to tackle Scotland’s relationship with alcohol are just a few of the many, many advances.

However, this Parliament is not yet able to make many of the key decisions that affect the lives of our fellow countrymen and women. Since devolution, we as a Parliament and we as a people have shown that we can make a success of running our own health service, schools, local government, police, courts and much else besides. Indeed, Dennis Canavan has made that very point. His vast experience across two Parliaments—26 years as a member of Parliament at Westminster and a further eight years as a member of this Parliament—has led him to conclude as a convert that Scotland’s future lies as an independent nation.

The point is that if we are capable of doing all those things responsibly and successfully for ourselves, why on earth should we not run our economy and our pensions, and represent ourselves on the world stage? Why should we not be able to make the decision to rid Scotland of the obscenity of nuclear weapons?

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Meeting of the Parliament 31 May 2012

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