Meeting of the Parliament 28 May 2025
It is nice to see you back in the chair, Presiding Officer. We have had a good debate. The frustrating thing about it is that we all seem to be agreeing with one another. I know that that can happen in a Scottish Parliament debate, but everyone is also expressing frustration about what is not happening and what should happen.
I thank the Liberal Democrats for this debate, and the previous one. It is a terrible shame that the Government cannot use the hours of its debating time to allow such subjects to be properly addressed in a full-scale debate. The Government runs away from these issues.
I have to say from the off that, although Alex Cole-Hamilton gave a brilliant summary of the problems, I felt that Marie Todd’s contribution was too self-congratulatory. There was not enough self-awareness or a realisation that the SNP is the Government—it has been sitting where it sits for 18 years and we are still talking about a problem that is worsening rather than improving.
When Sandesh Gulhane talked about there being a postcode lottery, he combined that with anecdotal evidence from his experience as a GP in dealing with some of the emotional issues that arise in his surgery as families express their frustration about the lack of care that they are getting.
I come back to the point that Paul Sweeney made so well in a simple phrase. Ministers, he said, are “washing their hands” of the issue. All too often, Scottish ministers wash their hands of issues for which they have full accountability—to this chamber and to the people of Scotland.
Willie Rennie gave an excellent speech about the human cost of the lack of action in this area. He also specifically highlighted the economic cost, and the statistic that he shared about economic inactivity among 16 to 64-year-olds ought to make us all stop and think very deeply about what our priorities are in this Parliament and what the Scottish Government’s priorities ought to be to get this country working.
When Willie Rennie told the story about his visit to the ADHD support group in St Andrews, he said that the situation of the young man whose story he shared was “a crying shame”. I would use a stronger phrase: I think that it is a scandal. It is a scandal that, even though we live in one of the richest countries in the world, we cannot give that sort of support to people who need help. That is beyond a crying shame; it is a scandal.
It is hard to disagree with Elena Whitham. She said—I hope that I am not misquoting her; I am sure that she will correct me if I am—that we “cannot shy away” from the fact that too many people are being let down, and that people
“should not have to lodge petitions to get access to healthcare.”
I think that that says it all.
If this debate does anything, it should serve to call us to action—not just to share words and sentiments and sympathy but to see that something is done to change the situation.