Meeting of the Parliament 18 January 2024
I welcome the debate and the opportunity to speak on behalf of the Scottish Liberal Democrats. First, I express my disappointment at not being able to join members in the chamber. I had hoped to meet with some of the youth delegates who are in the Parliament, too, but Arctic weather conditions have defeated me and Ellie Ratter from Shetland, who had also hoped to be present.
Our rural and island areas can often feel distant from Holyrood and even distant from bigger settlements where local decisions are often made. We should not allow such a feeling to arise from the entrenched means of conducting politics and decision making. The Scottish Liberal Democrats fundamentally believe that decision making should be done as close to the people as possible, empowering communities and individuals. The Scottish Rural and Islands Parliament and the Scottish rural and islands youth parliament are a great means of allowing direct contact between rural and island community members and the Scottish Government, supplementing more traditional mechanisms of contact. The fact that they are the only projects of their kind in Scotland reflects the unique challenges of Scotland’s geography.
Those who have involved themselves in the Scottish rural and islands youth parliament are particularly to be commended. To those delegates, I say that in giving up your time you are helping others in the best civic tradition. I hope that the experience will encourage you to continue to engage—after all, it is those who turn up who make the decisions.
The rural and islands youth parliaments fly in the face of popular opinion that young people do not want to be involved, or have no interest, in politics. Rural and island areas have their own needs and challenges, but, ultimately, residents want a good life with reliable services and connections.
That makes the asks of the Scottish rural and islands youth parliament not unexpected. Those are: long-term thinking to protect nature and the environment; sustainable transport that takes people where they want to go; a focus on sustainable food, reducing food miles and carbon costs while promoting Scottish produce and our high animal welfare standards; a desire for greater community empowerment in local housing sectors, which others have highlighted; youth-led reform of education with the freedom to choose, incorporating life and work experience; out-of-school support for young carers; and accessible mental health support with empathetic interventions.
We find ourselves in a world of spreadsheets and algorithms that cannot estimate the dramatic difference that long-term investment can make for smaller communities. Young people do not want that model to govern their lives; they want long-term compassionate thinking as the road map to change. I hope that the voices of the Scottish rural and islands youth parliament will continue to steer the Scottish Government in such a direction.
Before I conclude, I will highlight the work of other grass-roots movements that are attempting to steer Government policy. It is no secret that I am a long-term advocate of short subsea tunnels to connect islands in Shetland. At the end of last year, I brought the wider debate on that idea to the chamber. We heard in that debate about the transport connections of rural and island Scotland and about local residents’ appetite to have their voices heard. The island tunnel action groups that have been set up in Shetland highlight that appetite. I hope that their engagement with Shetland Islands Council, local representatives and the Scottish and UK Governments will result in the investment that they are pursuing. Tunnels would reinvigorate the local economies of Shetland’s islands and present opportunities for a more prosperous future for the young people of those communities and a reversal of depopulation in our islands.
The young people who are getting involved in the youth parliament and their contemporaries are our future. Investment in them and their communities is an investment in all our futures.