Meeting of the Parliament 20 January 2026
I agree with Pam Duncan-Glancy’s points.
To stick with this issue for a little longer, I say to Jackie Dunbar that she should be less concerned about the motives or background of those who are opposing the bill and more concerned about those who are supporting it. I say this with all due respect, but the Liberal Democrats support the bill even though their spokesperson has given a long list of reasons why it is “terrible”. He said that the Liberal Democrats “reluctantly” support the bill and are hoping that it works. The Government has cobbled together enough MSPs to back the bill, but that is not a ringing endorsement of what is contained in what should be a very important piece of legislation. The Government should reflect on that.
There are many reasons why I remain unconvinced about the bill, and I think that the minister would have been well served to withdraw it. I am not standing for election in a few months’ time, but I am not sure that anyone who is standing will knock on a door and find someone embracing them with a hug to say, “Thank you for getting the tertiary education bill through Parliament. Thank you for costing the taxpayer £15.1 million”—although it could be as high as £28 million. If there is anyone who thinks that, we should have got them into the committee, because we did not find any enthusiasm for the bill at the committee.
I will again quote Willie Rennie. I think that, at one point, he said that the reaction was, “Meh”—it was a shrug of the shoulders. We struggled to find people who said, “In the limited parliamentary time that you have available as elected members, go for this. This is the priority that the education committee should be taking forward.” We have missed an opportunity to get the bill correct and to get something more important on the statute book.