Meeting of the Parliament 03 June 2026 [Draft]
I pay tribute to the previous speaker, Mr Green, and associate myself with his words that referenced the spirit in which Jim Wallace both legislated and served as a member of the Scottish Parliament. It is a test for us all as we come to this new parliamentary session.
I remember, in 1995, as a primary 1 pupil at Milncroft primary in Cranhill, standing and looking up at the Cranhill water tower, which remains the only square water tower in Europe. If I had been asked back then whether I expected the Scottish Parliament to have its powers over health, education and justice, it would certainly have been a surprise to find out that it would. It would have been even more of a surprise to know that, some 30 years on, I would have the privilege, the pleasure and the honour of representing my friends, my family, my neighbours and my constituents. I take that role very seriously, particularly in the light of the public service that Mr Green just spoke about.
It is customary in a maiden speech for members to make reference to their predecessor. This is the second time that I have given a maiden speech—or, in this case, a first speech. I find myself in the unusual and invidious position of following a predecessor who started life as an SNP parliamentarian only for the whip to be withdrawn. I do not know whether that means that I have some sort of reverse Midas touch, but, in all seriousness and without being flippant about it, I pay tribute to John Mason. As much as I might have disagreed with certain views that he held, he was without doubt a very committed constituency representative. He served the people of the east end of Glasgow for the best part of 30 years as a councillor, an MP and an MSP. You would struggle to find people, particularly in the Garrowhill area of my constituency, who do not have a nice word to say about John for his commitment. On behalf of everybody in the Parliament, I send him every good wish for his retirement. [Applause.]
Having made reference to the rather unusual Cranhill water tower, I cannot necessarily claim to have the rolling hills and scenic landscapes that Mr Melville, Ms Minto and others have in their constituencies, but I have, without any doubt, a real sense of community spirit among my constituents, who are absolutely unbeatable and unmatchable when it comes to putting their shoulder to the wheel to do things for their community. There is a tradition of people working together to help one another, and that is very much the spirit in which I come to this Parliament.
I know that ministers on the front bench—whom I congratulate on their appointment—will also seek to serve Scotland. Ministers who have taken up or are returning to post in the health department have certainly inherited an inbox to deal with. However, it would be fair to say that there has been significant progress, particularly in recent months, when there has been, for example, a reduction in long waits and a record number of knee and hip operations. I pay tribute to the outgoing ministers in the health department who ensured that. I know that ministers in the health department are aware that there are some challenges for them to deal with, which I plan to talk about.
As we come out of the first quarter century of devolution and move into the second, the Scottish Parliament can be incredibly proud of the achievements that it has made on health, whether that is in relation to tackling smoking, with the ban on smoking in public places, or the introduction of minimum unit pricing. The Scottish Parliament has a great story to tell about its control over health policy, and that is something that I will seek to build on.
My constituency unashamedly got £67 million from the Scottish Government for the new Parkhead health hub, which was opened by the First Minister in December. That is a fantastic example of co-location of services, which is the model that we now need to move towards, and it is something that I will come back to in the course of this speech. I also welcome the Scottish Government’s commitment to walk-in GP clinics. I would be keen to see one in the east end of Glasgow, and I am sure that the cabinet secretary will not be surprised to see me beat a path to her door to make the case for that.
I will raise an issue in that context, which is in the spirit of Glasgow being incredibly proud to be a city of sanctuary for asylum seekers and refugees, which I am also very proud of. From speaking to a lot of doctors locally, I know that they feel that there is a moral mission to respond to that context. However, there is undoubtedly a challenge that comes with it, by the nature of the fact that people require extra translation services, so appointments need to be longer, and, for cultural reasons, more people might come to an appointment. In the past, the health board has been given extra funding in recognition of that high asylum dispersal load. In working with the Scottish Government, I hope that we can make that point to the health board, so that my local health centre can receive such support as well.
There are challenges that the Government is well aware of in relation to drug deaths. In particular, I pay tribute to Alison Thewliss, who I know did such a huge amount of work to campaign for the introduction of the Thistle medical facility, which is making a massive difference. It was a risk to go out and call for that facility in the face of populist newspaper writers using inflammatory language, but we are now seeing—and, going forward, we will continue to see—that it is making a difference and starting to save lives. It is now time to start looking at rolling that model out.
Scotland has a challenging relationship with alcohol, which I will speak more about over the course of this parliamentary session. There are some additional things that we need to look at, such as uprating minimum unit pricing. It also strikes me as being ridiculous that there are more labelling requirements on a bottle of orange juice than there are on a can or bottle of alcohol. That is something that I will seek to raise with the minister.
I will raise a couple of other issues, one of which follows on from a point that was made by Ms Baillie on the provision of thrombectomy services, which I support being moved to a 24/7 service. The Scottish Government has already given the best part of £50 million to thrombectomy services, and there is a commitment in the SNP manifesto for another £25 million. However, we need to hold the health boards’ feet to the fire to ensure that we roll out life-saving and life-changing thrombectomy support. I hope that I can count on the cabinet secretary’s support on that.
Another issue that I want to talk about—I might seem like an unlikely advocate for this—is the provision of adaptations for disabled women who present for cervical screenings. Far too few NHS facilities in Scotland have accessible tables or hoists in place for examinations. I look forward to working with Ms Kinross-O’Neill on that, to ensure that we rectify what I consider to be an issue of social justice for women who are disabled.
I was pleased to see a commitment in the SNP manifesto to making use of emerging technology in areas such as the rolling out of digital prescribing. Several members of the community nursing team in Shettleston, particularly Marc Morris, have been lobbying me on that point. It was also something that was raised during a visit with Community Pharmacy Scotland in the course of the election campaign. We need to consider how prescribing is done and, frankly, bring it into the 21st century.
That brings me to my penultimate point, which is about the cabinet secretary appointment of another predecessor in my constituency: Mr McKee, who now serves as the MSP for Glasgow Easterhouse and Springburn. Members on the Conservative benches have been fond of giving him a new nickname, but I genuinely think that his professional track record on issues of reform is to be highly respected. In this parliamentary session, I will certainly question why we have ended up in a situation where we have 14 territorial health boards and seven special health boards. Although such conversations are difficult, it is incumbent on us to have them as we seek to enter into a spirit of reform and renewal.
I will close—I thank the Deputy Presiding Officer for her forbearance. I thank the people of Glasgow Baillieston and Shettleston for giving me the honour to serve here, and I look forward to making a strong contribution during my time on the back benches and ensuring that I stand up for my constituents, just as I did at Westminster.