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Every contribution to the Official Report — chamber and committee — searchable in one place. Pulled from data.parliament.scot, indexed for full-text search, linked through to every MSP.

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415
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2,096,228
Hansard contributions
1999–2026
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Showing 60 of 2,096,228 contributions. Latest 30 days: 3,758. Coverage: 12 May 1999 — 11 Jun 2026.
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
11 Dec 2013
Finance
Is it true that the credit rating portrays what everybody else values a currency and economy at, and that the UK’s credit rating has not reached again the AAA rating that it used to have?
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
11 Dec 2013
Finance
I have a very basic question, for the benefit of people who might not understand all the high-flown economics. How can we be experiencing growth without the debt getting bigger if we are borrowing more?
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
11 Dec 2013
Finance
Much as I appreciate hearing the detail that is comprising the debate at this precise moment, I cannot help but think that the Opposition has to come up with an answer to the question that is being asked elsewhere in the United Kingdom: what are we going to do about the cost o...
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
11 Dec 2013
Finance
Will the member give way?
Margo MacDonald (Lothian) (Ind) Ind Chamber
11 Dec 2013
Finance
Will the member give way?
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
10 Dec 2013
Youth Sport Strategy
Will the minister take on an even more fundamental issue and look at the idea of incorporating specialist PE colleges into universities? That was the position when I trained, but I fear that there is now far too much classroom work in the approach adopted.
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
10 Dec 2013
Youth Sport Strategy
The member has given an excellent example of a sport that has far too much underfunding, but so much potential.
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
10 Dec 2013
Youth Sport Strategy
Will the member take an intervention?
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
10 Dec 2013
Youth Sport Strategy
I thank Mark McDonald for giving way. That is not the point that he thought I might make. The council is providing a top-class quality facility, and all the clubs—there are a lot of clubs in the Grampian area—will want to use it. My message to the council would be, “Don’t put ...
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
10 Dec 2013
Youth Sport Strategy
Will the member give way?
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
10 Dec 2013
Youth Sport Strategy
Does the member have an answer to the question about why there has been that drop in the percentage of young people who are taking part in sport?
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
10 Dec 2013
Youth Sport Strategy
I have said my piece. Thank you, Presiding Officer.
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
10 Dec 2013
Youth Sport Strategy
Obviously, I am pleased to hear that.We have not yet identified a strategic way to develop sports that suit Scotland. The figures show that fewer young people are taking part in sport of their own volition, and that cannot all be explained by the PC-in-the-bedroom generation, ...
Margo MacDonald (Lothian) (Ind) Ind Chamber
10 Dec 2013
Youth Sport Strategy
I have an interest to declare—I am the Parliament’s one qualified specialist PE teacher. I might have two sticks these days, but I would not even be going around on two sticks if I had not qualified in PE.Although I greatly appreciate the work that the minister has done in pro...
Margo MacDonald (Lothian) (Ind) Ind Chamber
26 Nov 2013
Independence White Paper
I congratulate the Government on producing a very workmanlike document, which I hope will start many of the debates that we should have in Scotland. I also gently say that Nicola Sturgeon should not dismiss what Malcolm Chisholm said, because a lot of us feel that this looks t...
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
20 Nov 2013
Defence Industry
Will the member give way?
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
20 Nov 2013
Defence Industry
It is a case of putting our minds to ensuring that things happen in a logical, planned fashion
Margo MacDonald (Lothian) (Ind) Ind Chamber
20 Nov 2013
Defence Industry
Ooh! Thank you, Presiding Officer.I cannot make too many points, but I will say that I am absolutely in solidarity with Duncan McNeil, because his ambitions are the same as mine were and still are. Chic Brodie made the same sort of point, which is that, at the end of the day, ...
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
20 Nov 2013
Defence Industry
Will the member give way?
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
20 Nov 2013
Defence Industry
Will the member give way?
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
20 Nov 2013
Defence Industry
I hope that Stuart McMillan thinks that it strengthens his argument to recall that Jimmy Reid decided that independence was the way forward.
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
20 Nov 2013
Defence Industry
Let us get back to shipbuilding on the Clyde. Can the member explain why it should still be in the same perilous state that it was in 40 years ago, when I represented the constituency? It has been hanging on by its fingernails for 40 years. Does the member agree that it would ...
Margo MacDonald (Lothian) (Ind) Ind Chamber
20 Nov 2013
Defence Industry
Is the member concerned in any way that we should be concentrating on defence work for the Clyde when we know that the Ministry of Defence will cut back the size of the navy even more?
Margo MacDonald (Lothian) (Ind) Ind Chamber
20 Nov 2013
Motion of Condolence
The paths of my family and Helen Eadie’s family crossed a long time ago, when Alex Eadie was a candidate in Ayr and my husband, Jim, was his election agent—that is a team, if members can imagine it. When Jim was elected to Westminster, he went to live with Helen, which is some...
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
14 Nov 2013
Scottish Independence Referendum Bill
Will the member give way?
Margo MacDonald (Lothian) (Ind) Ind Chamber
14 Nov 2013
Scottish Independence Referendum Bill
The Deputy First Minister said that the bill is large and complex. That is fair enough—but who cares about that? What we care about is the bill’s central core, which is the opportunity for Scots to face and to answer the core question that runs through all our politics. The bi...
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
14 Nov 2013
Scottish Independence Referendum Bill
The point intrigues me. The member claims that he has the best of both worlds. Does that mean by implication that the part of the British isles that left the British state has the worst of all worlds? Has Ireland got the worst of it?
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
14 Nov 2013
Scottish Independence Referendum Bill
I am doing Malcolm Chisholm a good turn. Because I respect him so much, I must ask him the following question. He used the phrase “once and for all” again. Does he believe that it is ever possible to settle any principled question once and for all?
Margo MacDonald (Lothian) (Ind) Ind Chamber
14 Nov 2013
Scottish Independence Referendum Bill
I may have missed this—I apologise if that is the case—but does Labour have a strategy or policy on shipbuilding on the Clyde? Is its intention that the Clyde should deal only with military orders? If so, who will pay for those, given that the UK is just about bankrupt and can...
Margo MacDonald (Lothian) (Ind) Ind Chamber
07 Nov 2013
First Minister’s Question Time · University Students (Grants)
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. You said that a good number of back benchers were interested in putting questions on and debating the position of the shipyards. I was elected to represent Govan 40 years ago today. The trouble then was the shortage of orders after the c...
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
30 Oct 2013
Portfolio Question Time · Sauna Licensing (Edinburgh)
I thank the minister for his reply, but I am a bit puzzled, as the Scottish Government promotes the safer sex message. It is an odd contradiction to ask saunas not to have any condoms in them. Where was that policy made? Is it an operational matter, or should it be overridden ...
Margo MacDonald (Lothian) (Ind) Ind Chamber
30 Oct 2013
Portfolio Question Time · Sauna Licensing (Edinburgh)
6. To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on Police Scotland’s reported decision to ask the City of Edinburgh Council to grant licences for saunas only on the condition that items of a sexual nature are not allowed on the premises. (S4O-02507)
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
01 Oct 2013
Rehabilitation of Offenders
On the point that I made earlier, how do we shape up against other countries, and to what extent does poverty determine the outcome of rehabilitation?
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
01 Oct 2013
Rehabilitation of Offenders
I greatly appreciate the amount of work that Elaine Murray has done and the statistical information that she has provided. Were the stats for the better times—the period before the recession—the same? Has she considered doing that comparison?
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
01 Oct 2013
Rehabilitation of Offenders
Employers should also be encouraged to provide some of the training in prisons, because the cabinet secretary will have a hard job persuading folk during a time of recession that they should put their money where we are saying their mouths should be.
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
01 Oct 2013
Rehabilitation of Offenders
Let me ask a quickie. Does the member think that what crime prisoners have committed makes a difference to how they are received and are able to rejoin society?
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
01 Oct 2013
Rehabilitation of Offenders
Will the member give way?
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
01 Oct 2013
Rehabilitation of Offenders
I am sure that the member will be able to help me with this. It is a laudable objective to have people reclaimed—to have new people walk out of the prison gates—but recidivism in Scotland, we are told, is extremely high. How does Scotland compare with other countries? Do other...
Margo MacDonald (Lothian) (Ind) Ind Chamber
01 Oct 2013
Rehabilitation of Offenders
Can the member give me some information?
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
25 Sep 2013
Corroboration
Will the cabinet secretary take an intervention?
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
25 Sep 2013
Corroboration
Will the cabinet secretary give way?
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
25 Sep 2013
Corroboration
Will the cabinet secretary give way?
Margo MacDonald (Lothian) (Ind) Ind Chamber
25 Sep 2013
Corroboration
Would it be possible to find out whether everyone who speaks agrees with going to a new set of verdicts—proven and not proven?
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
19 Sep 2013
Scottish Economy
We have talked a great deal about the powers that we have and the powers that we might or might not have, but is not it the case that we need the sheer dynamic that is created by people working and setting up wee businesses? That is why I referred to the old Scottish Developme...
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
19 Sep 2013
Scottish Economy
Will Murdo Fraser give way?
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
19 Sep 2013
Scottish Economy
The member will be too young to remember it, but the Scottish Development Agency was meant to provide the capital for such upcoming companies. Who is doing that now?
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
19 Sep 2013
Scottish Economy
I am interested in what Richard Baker is saying and I am glad that he, and everyone else, is taking the subject seriously this afternoon. How could we fine tune the Scottish economy in the way that was described by Joan McAlpine and Alison Johnstone, when they talked about wom...
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
19 Sep 2013
Scottish Economy
I put it gently to Willie Rennie that he, too, is somewhat paradoxical. He talks about the improvement to the UK economy when we are borrowing at a rate of £3,200 per minute.
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
19 Sep 2013
Scottish Economy
Will the member give way?
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
19 Sep 2013
Scottish Economy
Does “bugs” include spiders?
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
19 Sep 2013
Scottish Economy
Has work been done recently on the success of shared jobs? I have found that women are more likely to share jobs and are quite happy to do that, but I do not know whether that is included in the plans.
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
19 Sep 2013
Scottish Economy
I am very interested in and am trying to follow what Mr Brown is saying, so I ask this question most sincerely. Does the Opposition on the benches where he sits expect to see a different outturn from the economic measures that are taken on either side of the border, or does it...
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
19 Sep 2013
Scottish Economy
I take everything that the member said about Slovakia and the Czech Republic, but has he checked on the position now?
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
19 Sep 2013
Scottish Economy
Does Mr Swinney expect that, after the election, the incoming Westminster Government will cut a bit more?
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
19 Sep 2013
Scottish Economy
Will the minister give way?
Margo MacDonald (Lothian) (Ind) Ind Chamber
19 Sep 2013
Scottish Economy
I ask the minister—urge him, even—to let Mr Rennie explain why not.
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
18 Sep 2013
Scotland’s Future
If the people are demanding information about independence—and I agree that they are—I think that they are also demanding information about the alternative, which is the union.
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
18 Sep 2013
Scotland’s Future
It is not fashionable to be a nationalist, as far as I am concerned. It has been a while since I worked out that the best way to look after people in Scotland as well as we can do is to do it for ourselves. I will vote in favour of the independence proposition that is before u...
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
18 Sep 2013
Scotland’s Future
I apologise, Presiding Officer. She is making me laugh.I talked about the men without boots and so on, but what about the aircraft carriers without planes? How can we defend when we are spending all our money on aircraft carriers with no planes?What about the social wage? Is i...
Margo MacDonald Ind Chamber
18 Sep 2013
Scotland’s Future
No, you cannot. You are an existentialist. Laughter.
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Chamber

Meeting of the Parliament 11 December 2013

11 Dec 2013 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
Finance
MacDonald, Margo Ind Lothian Watch on SPTV

Is it true that the credit rating portrays what everybody else values a currency and economy at, and that the UK’s credit rating has not reached again the AAA rating that it used to have?

In the same item of business

The Presiding Officer (Tricia Marwick) NPA
The next item of business is a Conservative debate on motion S4M-08551, in the name of Gavin Brown, on finance. Mr Brown, you have 14 minutes. 15:12
Gavin Brown (Lothian) (Con) Con
There is a long way to go and there will be many difficult decisions still to make and no doubt a number of setbacks along the way, too. However, I think tha...
Kenneth Gibson (Cunninghame North) (SNP) SNP
Page 96 of this week’s edition of The Economist, which I am holding up, lists 42 economies. Some of them are pretty major, such as those of Japan, Canada and...
Gavin Brown Con
We can always rely on Mr Gibson to bring a sense of doom to the action and to ignore the central forecasts of the independent Office for Budget Responsibility.
Jamie Hepburn (Cumbernauld and Kilsyth) (SNP) SNP
Will the member give way?
Gavin Brown Con
In a few moments. We also saw important news on employment. Members throughout the chamber will agree that unemployment is still far too high, but the numbe...
Jamie Hepburn SNP
Will the member give way?
Roderick Campbell (North East Fife) (SNP) SNP
Will the member give way?
Margo MacDonald (Lothian) (Ind) Ind
Will the member give way?
Gavin Brown Con
In a few minutes. There was positive news, too, in relation to borrowing. When the coalition Government came to power, the deficit was 11 per cent of gross ...
Kevin Stewart (Aberdeen Central) (SNP) SNP
Will the member give way on that point?
Gavin Brown Con
I think that the member needs to have his microphone turned on, Presiding Officer. I happily give way to Mr Stewart.
Kevin Stewart SNP
Mr Brown trumpets those things, but the UK Government’s welfare reforms risk putting a further 50,000 children in Scotland into poverty by 2020 and will take...
The Presiding Officer NPA
Is this a speech or an intervention, Mr Stewart?
Kevin Stewart SNP
Will the member comment on that?
Gavin Brown Con
I was about to intervene on the member’s intervention. It is simply incorrect to say that the welfare budget is being cut. It rises year on year. What is hap...
Margo MacDonald Ind
Will the member give way?
Gavin Brown Con
Not at this time, I am afraid. There were positive announcements last week on fuel duty. The planned rise for September has been scrapped and there will be ...
Margo MacDonald Ind
Much as I appreciate hearing the detail that is comprising the debate at this precise moment, I cannot help but think that the Opposition has to come up with...
Gavin Brown Con
The member needs to read the green book that goes with last week’s autumn statement, because it contains policy upon policy relating to the cost of living. K...
Mark McDonald (Aberdeen Donside) (SNP) SNP
Will the member outline to the chamber what impact he thinks his Government’s 20 per cent VAT rate has had on that hard-pressed retail sector?
Gavin Brown Con
I refer Mr McDonald to the growth rates that were announced just last week—enormous increases in projected growth for this year, next year and the years that...
The Deputy Presiding Officer (Elaine Smith) Lab
Time is extremely tight. If members could take less than their six minutes, that would be incredibly helpful. Cabinet secretary, you have a maximum of 10 min...
The Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth (John Swinney) SNP
The Conservative Party motion invites us today to welcome last week’s autumn statement. As the Conservative Party will know, I am always generous in my prais...
Gavin Brown Con
Surely the cabinet secretary has to take into account the meltdown of the euro and the consequences of that, which were not predicted in 2010.
John Swinney SNP
I am simply putting into context the information that Mr Brown shared with Parliament. I am just trying to be helpful to Parliament by sharing objective stat...
Margo MacDonald Ind
I have a very basic question, for the benefit of people who might not understand all the high-flown economics. How can we be experiencing growth without the ...
Alex Johnstone (North East Scotland) (Con) Con
We are borrowing less.
John Swinney SNP
Mr Johnstone says that we are borrowing less. I thought that Mr Johnstone did not like it the first time that I went through the figures, but I will go throu...
Gavin Brown Con
Answering straight, will the cabinet secretary say whether, had the chancellor announced last week that business rates would rise next year by 3.2 per cent, ...