Meeting of the Parliament 02 November 2023
I will proceed or we will get stuck in a cul-de-sac.
Information is all and we must know what the ideas are. People in this chamber and across Scotland—professionals, parents and our young people—have a lot to contribute so that we can bring about the exceptional life that children truly deserve from us. We could have been having that debate, which might have been the start of a debate on those ideas. We will certainly have to return to this.
One challenge that I find, and which I raised in connection with evidence on the bill to incorporate the United Nations Convention on the Right of the Child into Scots law, is that so much time is wasted. That may be less important to an adult than to a child. We heard during First Ministers’ questions today that a child may have left high school before there is an appropriate transition in place for them. We are letting down generation after generation and that is unfair on them, because they are looking to us and they expect more.
I realise that time is particularly tight this afternoon, Presiding Officer, so I am going to finish with a great point that will, no doubt, cause utter controversy across the chamber. It is worth remembering that the last Labour Government reduced by 2 million the number of children who were growing up in poverty in the United Kingdom—that is 200,000 children in Scotland. Despite all of the offerings from the SNP-Green Government to improve that, we are in a worse position now than we were then, and that disappoints.
15:50