Meeting of the Parliament 10 February 2026 [Draft]
Yes, the good food nation and all that stuff—excellent.
However, my point is about the gap between rhetoric—in which we specialise—and reality. Such a gap is the danger with virtue-signalling legislation. If community wealth building does not change decisions such as the one in my example, if it does not alter procurement behaviour, and if it does not make it easier and more attractive for local businesses to supply local services, what exactly will we have achieved?
We now have freedoms that we did not have before: freedoms to shape procurement rules in ways that support local enterprise; freedoms to encourage small businesses to start up and scale up; and freedoms to ensure that public money raised in taxes is recycled back into local economies wherever possible. If we are not using those freedoms, passing another bill and declaring success is, to be frank, meaningless. My fear is that, unless the Government changes its attitude, the bill will simply become another beautiful bureaucratic exercise—it will just be like other strategies, plans and reports that sit unread and make no tangible difference to the lives of the people whom we represent.
As this Parliament completes stage 3 of the Community Wealth Building (Scotland) Bill, we should step back and ask a simple but important question: what do we think we are doing when we pass acts of Parliament in this place? Legislation is not theatre, it is not virtue signalling and it is not box ticking. The laws that we pass are meant to mean something—they are meant to change behaviour, shape incentives and improve outcomes for the people whom we represent. When they do not, we exist largely to allow ministers to say, “Job done.” That is not a harmless failure but a serious one. It wastes parliamentary time, costs taxpayers money and corrodes trust in the whole legislative process.
In recent years, there has been a tendency towards introducing what I can only describe as performative legislation. We see symbolic action—we have announcements that sound good, bills that photograph well and strategies that generate press releases—followed by a general shrug when little changes on the ground. We have seen all that before. We saw it in the debate about becoming a so-called good food nation, as was mentioned earlier. Those are fine words and worthy aspirations, but there is little evidence that procurement, production or outcomes have shifted in any meaningful way.
That brings me to community wealth building. Let me be absolutely clear: I am not opposed to the idea—quite the opposite. The Scottish Conservatives believe deeply in wealth creation. We believe in local enterprise, local jobs and strong communities. We believe in businesses of all kinds being able to start up, scale up and succeed. We believe in the money that is raised through taxation being used intelligently and being reinvested in the communities from which it comes.
I see that I am out of time. [Interruption.] Oh—am I not out of time, Presiding Officer?
Members: Aw!