Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 27 January 2021
I agree with colleagues’ comments about the sad deaths of more than 100,000 UK citizens as a result of Covid. With every death, families mourn and communities hurt. I, too, offer my condolences to them.
It is therefore important that we pull together across the chamber, across the four nations, across the European continent and globally to deliver the vaccines to help to get society back to a better place. That will certainly help the economy as well, notwithstanding the hard Brexit that we are now dealing with.
I believe that independence will be part of the recovery from Covid and Brexit. I also believe that it is right that a referendum is held, so that we can make Scotland the country that we want it to be. Now that Labour and the Lib Dems have signed up fully to Brexit and have rejected rejoining the European Union, along with their Tory colleagues, it is clear that economic recovery lies with independence and rejoining the EU.
Sadly, it has not taken long for the Tories to bring the constitution into the vaccine roll-out. Daily, and for months, the First Minister has stood in front of the media corps and rejected constitutional questions—and quite rightly so. Sadly, this week, the Tory Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock, could not do likewise. Previously, there was the nonsense about putting a union flag on the Oxford-AstraZeneca boxes. I did not see any campaigning to get the Turkish, the German or the Belgian flag on the Pfizer boxes, nor should there be any such campaigning.
Brian Whittle touched on the First Minister’s comments in her daily briefings. He was correct to say that she has focused on Covid, not on an independence referendum, and I am pleased that he recognises that.
Covid is a global pandemic, and any narrow nationalism that is offered by the UK Government is unwarranted and, quite frankly, appalling. Countries should be working together, and, in the main, that has been the case so far. That must continue. That is why I welcome the fact that all four nations in the UK are working to the same target of completing the vaccination of JCVI priority groups 1 and 2 and, by mid-February, groups 1 to 4. By early May, everybody on the JCVI priority list, including those who are over 50 and younger people with underlying health conditions, will have been vaccinated.
The Scottish Government has provided Parliament with regular updates, and that will continue. That is the correct course of action. One thing is certain, though—we might be going about it in a slightly different order, but we are all following the same targets. It is astounding to think that, today, the Tories are trying to place false differences between the four nations of the UK. They really should consider their actions.
I believe that it is important to highlight the scale of what is going on in the vaccination programme. I will touch on just a few of the things that are happening. The JCVI has advised that an age-based programme will likely result in faster delivery and better uptake among those who are at the highest risk, and the Scottish Government’s aim is to have 400,000 vaccinations taking place in Scotland every week from the end of February.
The Scottish Government aims to vaccinate people who are aged 70 or over by the middle of February. Those who are aged over 65 and those who are clinically extremely vulnerable will receive their first doses by the beginning of March. That period covers priority groups 1 to 5 on the JCVI list, which represents just over 1.4 million people.
There are many other aspects, but I will make just one final point on the vaccination programme. Large centres will be capable of delivering over 20,000 vaccinations per week. The task is clearly on a mammoth scale, and I support all the actions of everyone who is delivering the programme day in, day out, as well as the organisation behind it.
On the issue of a referendum, it is up to the people of Scotland to decide our future. Discussions about a referendum are clearly important, but what is absolutely not for discussion is the fact that, if Scotland votes on 6 May for a legal referendum, that is what it will get. I firmly believe that Scotland’s referendum must be beyond any legal challenge in order to ensure legitimacy and acceptance both at home and abroad. That is surely the best way to become an independent country.
That is why, in May, the SNP is going to seek the authority of the Scottish people to hold a legal referendum—after the pandemic, crucially, but in the first part of the next session of Parliament—in order to give the people of Scotland a right to choose a better future. Fundamentally, it is not about what Boris Johnson wants; it is about what the people of Scotland want, and the increasing evidence is that they want independence.
Opposition parties clearly have a right to oppose independence, but they certainly do not have a right to deny the people of Scotland the chance to determine their own future. The Tories are clearly utterly terrified of the verdict of the people of Scotland, but the Scottish electorate will not accept this Trump-like attempt to deny the results of a free and fair election. It is astonishing that what is left of the anti-independence campaign is still peddling some of the nonsense and is backtracking at every turn, even after its list of broken promises and whoppers has been laid bare for all to see.
Day in, day out, MSPs rightly ask this Scottish Government what it is going to do on a wide range of issues. It is therefore quite embarrassing that some politicians do not want the SNP Government to undertake that activity. In fact, we have had 20 opinion polls that have highlighted support for independence.