Meeting of the Parliament 11 December 2024
I welcome any opportunity to talk about the draft budget, but there is one particular aspect of the Conservative motion that I think it is incumbent on us all to condemn. I know that there are members on the Conservative benches who deeply value all the communities that they represent and will deplore the terms of the Tory motion. Knowing those individuals, I do not believe for one moment that they condone the Farage-esque dog-whistle attack on asylum seekers that is at the rotten core of the Tory motion or Craig Hoy’s description of our important equality work as “woke”. It is, frankly, embarrassing. I suspect that it is more likely that they agree with the joint call from the Church of Scotland and the Scottish Catholic church today that, as a Parliament, we must
“resist attempts to divide our society, and instead show support to people who have come to Scotland seeking sanctuary and new beginnings.”
I could not agree more.
I welcomed the discussions with all parties represented in this Parliament, and with organisations beyond it, as we prepared the draft budget. Along with Ivan McKee, I look forward to those discussions continuing as we approach the next stage of the budget process. The budget that we presented last week is a product of that engagement and is focused on delivering progress and hope. Our approach to economic growth, the social contract and progressive taxation is fundamental to achieving that.
Scotland’s economy is one of—