Meeting of the Parliament 29 January 2020
Neil Findlay has a more respectable position on the issue than many of his colleagues, but he either accepts Scotland’s right to choose our own future or he does not. It is not conditional on what he thinks the choice should be. That is the principle at the heart of the debate.
As I was saying, other consequences will become clearer as the trade negotiations get under way. Contrary to what we hear, and as Neil Findlay just said, Brexit is not yet done. However, the trade negotiations are about to be led by a United Kingdom Government that is completely deaf to Scotland’s interests, needs and voice. At no point in the three and a half years since the Brexit vote has any effort whatsoever been made to understand Scotland’s different views or to accommodate our interests in any way.
Indeed, as recently as Monday, when the Scottish Government published practical proposals on migration, which are backed by businesses and civic Scotland and are designed to work within the current constitutional arrangements, the response of the UK Government was to dismiss them out of hand, with no consideration whatsoever. That is the reality that Scotland faces as part of the Westminster system, and it is not good enough.