Meeting of the Parliament 02 March 2016
I recognise and thank national health service staff up and down this country for the tireless and professional job that they do in caring for our sick and vulnerable people in communities, surgeries and hospitals the length and breadth of Scotland. That is the way in which we should start every health debate, because, as we know, those staff are the backbone of the NHS. We are proud of them, we support them and we thank them for their work.
However, NHS staff need more than thanks and appreciation. They need the resources to allow them to deliver the high-quality local services that people expect and demand, which is where we politicians enter the fray. While our NHS staff and other public servants work tirelessly, we are today debating the funding challenges, the fiscal options and the political decisions that can enable or inhibit them in doing their job. With the fiscal framework for the new tax powers now agreed, we know that the powers that we have long anticipated will soon be transferred and that, with a good financial deal behind them, we have the potential to truly bring about change.
Nevertheless, there are serious questions for us about what kind of nation we want to be. Do we want to be one that rightly demands better public services and that is prepared to pay for them, or one that rightly demands better public services but finds excuses not to pay for or deliver them? Today, a consensus has emerged among the Scottish political parties, which only the Conservatives break from. With Nicola Sturgeon’s announcement on the council tax, we now all agree that, if we want better public services, we need to be brave enough to ask people to pay for them.