Meeting of the Parliament 03 May 2023
At the outset, I will say that I was taken aback by the call that I was on yesterday afternoon with many MSPs. On that call, we were asked for our opinions on HPMAs, which is a bit late, and I am not sure that it actually followed the advice that had been given. It was disturbing—and must have been disturbing for the cabinet secretary—to hear from nearly all the MSPs on the call that the level of responses, and the pure venom in some of those responses, had not been experienced by those parliamentarians before.
Presiding Officer, you will know, as I do, that many songs and folk songs that we hear are written about either heroes or villains. In this case, a folk song, “The Clearances Again”, has been written. It is not about heroes; it is about villains. That is the way that the islanders view it.
If we consider all the Highlands and Islands MSPs, there is no doubt that the Conservatives understand the issue. I know that Labour understands it, and I know that the Liberal Democrats get it. I am pretty sure that the Greens do not get it. I am also pretty sure that some SNP members get it. We listened to Fergus Ewing’s members’ business speech last night—he gets it. I will come back to that later. I think that Kate Forbes gets it, too.
However, it is clear that the other two Highlands and Islands MSPs, Maree Todd and Emma Roddick, do not get it. In fact, I do not even see them in the chamber. Perhaps that is because they have taken the Government’s shilling and they do not have to respond or take part in this debate. However, there is no doubt that they will pay for that at the next election.