Meeting of the Parliament 10 February 2026 [Draft]
I thank my good friend and colleague Finlay Carson for securing this important debate. It really is a shame that the issue is never debated in Government time—it is always down to members to seek to debate it during members’ business debates or for it to be covered in Opposition debates.
This key issue fills my inbox, surgeries and doorstep conversations. Communities throughout our beautiful north-east are telling me, time and time again, that the overindustrialisation of our countryside is not welcome. The cabinet secretary might hear that if she spent any time meeting those constituents who are concerned about the issues—but, no, she is too busy meeting the companies that are intent on destroying our countryside, riding roughshod over our communities and carpet bombing our countryside with monster pylons to line the pockets of energy transmission companies that use every greenwashing tactic in the book to hide the fact that this is all about increasing their share price at the expense of our communities.
Time and time again, this Scottish National Party Government has shafted the people of rural Scotland—whether we are talking about help with storm damage, wood-burning stoves, ferry links or pylons, it seems to be tone deaf when it comes to rural communities.
The Government does not understand the anger, because it is unwilling to listen to it. We heard an example of that from Brian Whittle. The energy consents unit launched a new online portal and, at the same time, it removed the ability for residents to email in an objection. People must fill in a web form or send a letter by post instead.