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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.

129
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415
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14
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2,096,228
Hansard contributions
1999–2026
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Official Report

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Showing 60 of 2,096,228 contributions. Latest 30 days: 3,758. Coverage: 12 May 1999 — 11 Jun 2026.
Dr Ewing: SNP Chamber
27 Mar 2003
First Minister's Question Time · British Sign Language (Interpreters)
That was an encouraging answer.I am proud to be asking the last question in the Parliament. Since my members' business debate on the subject, during which the public galleries were packed with deaf people, the Executive has taken quite a lot of steps on the issue, such as the ...
6. Dr Winnie Ewing (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): SNP Chamber
27 Mar 2003
First Minister's Question Time · British Sign Language (Interpreters)
To ask the First Minister whether, in the light of Her Majesty's Government's decision to give official recognition to British Sign Language as a language in its own right, the Scottish Executive will fund a long-term training programme for more sign language interpreters. (S1...
Dr Winnie Ewing (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): SNP Chamber
26 Mar 2003
Island Transport
In my past life in the European Parliament, there was tremendous agreement among the Irish MEPs from the north and south and from all parties and people like myself that a port in the Republic of Ireland should be added to the Campbeltown route, which would thereby attract cro...
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
Convener's Report
You have been courteous to all the petitioners and courteous to—and patient with—all the committee members, who have sometimes been unruly. The Public Petitions Committee has been one of the hallmarks of the Parliament. It will go down in history as the jewel of the committees.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
Convener's Report
There is one more thing to be said. We must thank the chair. I have been on countless committees in three Parliaments and you have been one of the best chairmen I have ever encountered.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
Convener's Report
Outstanding.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
Current Petitions
A number of members were involved.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
Current Petitions
A copy should be sent to Dennis Canavan and Fergus Ewing, because they sought a meeting with the minister.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
Current Petitions
That is a disgrace.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
Current Petitions
So the authorities have discretion to do something, but they will not do it.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
Current Petitions
What will be done about the widows?
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
Current Petitions
I think that my son Fergus argued that widows of claimants should be given the right to claim. If I recollect correctly, the committee shared that view, but now there is no mention of the widows.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
Current Petitions
SNH seems to have peremptorily ignored points that have been made. People who know about finding hedgehogs say that it is difficult for one person to radio-track more than about 15 hedgehogs, yet SNH has given a figure of 40 hedgehogs. It is imposing unreasonable restrictions ...
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
Current Petitions
There can be no further action in view of the review in 2006.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
Current Petitions
It is a flaw in the system and quite an irresponsible example.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
Current Petitions
In the letter from Friends of the Earth Scotland, Ken Collins is quoted as saying:"At no time has Sepa given permission for this plant to be built."He is referring to the incinerator in the east end of Glasgow. The quotation continues:"We were asked if the plant can operate wi...
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
Current Petitions
Am I on to the next one? I am sorry. I am getting ahead of myself.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
Current Petitions
I would like to point to the letter from Siobhan Samson of Friends of the Earth Scotland and the amazing quote from Ken Collins, head of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
Current Petitions
We have got somewhere, anyway.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
Current Petitions
It may have been recommended, but it is still voluntary. We will still see navy blue, bright blue, pale blue and so on. I do not want to upset anyone's finances by making a rule that would come into force right away but, if the flag of every other country has a fixed colour, t...
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
Current Petitions
According to Gil Paterson, whose business it is to deal with paint colours, the flags of all other European Union states have a fixed colour, which is recognised as statutory.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
Current Petitions
I agree with Dorothy-Grace Elder: the same could not happen even with the most miserable little will.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
Current Petitions
Speaking as a lawyer, I say that it is absolutely contrary to any law that I know that an assignation that is not signed or dated, and which is not probative, can be regarded seriously.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
Current Petitions
We are going to vote.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
Current Petitions
Come and take part in the vote please, Dorothy.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
Current Petitions
Dorothy-Grace Elder is in the room, too.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
Current Petitions
I agree with that.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
Current Petitions
They have been brushed under the carpet.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
Current Petitions
My expert friend agrees with me. As far as the people of Skye are concerned, the whole business has been dealt with dreadfully badly.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
Current Petitions
My memory goes back to the beginning of this business. I have evidence in writing from the then Secretary of State for Scotland that the contract was awarded to Miller before the public inquiry was held in Portree.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
Current Petitions
That is not the petitioners' fault.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
Current Petitions
I am puzzled by the Statutory Instruments Reference Committee's view that the instrument is a local instrument. I understand that the word "local" applies to a small stretch of road, but we are talking about a life-link to an island—one that affects all of the island's busines...
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
Current Petitions
It was my cynical laughter that you heard.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
Current Petitions
There is a case before the Court of Session about radioactive substances on the beach beside Dounreay.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
New Petitions
One could argue the same about Hitler's Germany. Mr Gallie takes the dangerous line that we have a right to stifle free speech—we should not take such a line.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
New Petitions
You were right to do so, convener.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
New Petitions
We have a law officer of our own; can we not also ask him?
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
New Petitions
What is also predictable about nuclear energy is the impossibility of getting rid of the waste that it produces, which is not very green.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
New Petitions
Is that the way in which Denmark deals with the situation?
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
New Petitions
As one who goes to Orkney regularly, I suggest that the windmills there are a tourist attraction.Will you give me an explanation of the phrase"The use of the CCL fund in this way is harming the development of less commercial (but genuinely ‘green') renewable sources"?What are ...
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
New Petitions
Perth.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
New Petitions
When we write, could we include a copy of the leaflet to which Gráinne Smith referred and of the statistics, which show how serious the situation is?
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
New Petitions
My second and last question is about self-awareness. Your daughter knew what she was doing to herself by not eating, but did she fully understand what she was doing?
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
New Petitions
How long did it take?
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
New Petitions
Was she anorexic by the time that she came to you, at the end of the marriage?
Dr Winnie Ewing (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): SNP Committee
25 Mar 2003
New Petitions
How long does it take someone to develop anorexia? Let us start with your daughter's case. You said that she had a bad marriage.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
18 Mar 2003
New Petitions
I have to go to another meeting for a short time.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
18 Mar 2003
New Petitions
I do not agree.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
18 Mar 2003
New Petitions
A sheriff would not grant a delay unless the solicitor had justification for asking for one, or the sheriff was simply rotten.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
18 Mar 2003
New Petitions
I do not understand those criticisms. Solicitors do not get paid extra money unless they are doing something specific.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
18 Mar 2003
New Petitions
This man has already petitioned us seven times. He has an obsession with lawyers and it is absolutely ridiculous that we are allowing his allegations to waste the Lord Advocate's time. He is a vexatious petitioner.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
18 Mar 2003
New Petitions
I think that he is paid for that, because it is a legitimate reason for prolonging the case. He might need to contact a witness who has suddenly disappeared, but he must still go to the court to keep himself in order.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
18 Mar 2003
New Petitions
I would like to make a remark about that. Prolonging the length of a case does not add a penny to the fee that is paid by the Scottish Legal Aid Board, from which payments must be justified on a time and line basis. There are very few exceptions to that. There might be excepti...
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
18 Mar 2003
New Petitions
It is a new word to me.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
18 Mar 2003
New Petitions
What does malversation mean?
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
18 Mar 2003
New Petitions
I do not think that we can blame the EU for the problem. During my sojourn in France, Germany and Belgium—where I spent a lot of my time—there were no such things as pharmacies in supermarkets. After all, Andrew Hughes's profession is one that is recognised by the other chemis...
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
18 Mar 2003
New Petitions
No—
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
18 Mar 2003
New Petitions
I am totally opposed to supermarkets trying to pretend that they are the same as pharmacists. I would like to illustrate what I mean. As members probably know, my husband was ill in the last period of his life. I collected pills for him regularly. Because of the demands of my ...
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
18 Mar 2003
New Petitions
It is a separate question.
Dr Ewing: SNP Committee
18 Mar 2003
New Petitions
We can highlight the urgency, because many people are dying.
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Chamber

Plenary, 27 Mar 2003

27 Mar 2003 · S1 · Plenary
Item of business
First Minister's Question Time
British Sign Language (Interpreters)
Ewing, Dr Winnie SNP Highlands and Islands Watch on SPTV
That was an encouraging answer.

I am proud to be asking the last question in the Parliament. Since my members' business debate on the subject, during which the public galleries were packed with deaf people, the Executive has taken quite a lot of steps on the issue, such as the type-talk scheme, interpretation for visitors, the BSL video, leaflets and the £10 million for audiological assistance. I am happy to congratulate the Executive on those developments, but is the First Minister aware that the core problems remain? Those problems are the need for formal recognition of BSL, which is an ancient, sophisticated and evolving language, and the emergency shortage of interpreters, which has been referred to.

There are now 39 interpreters; at the time of my members' business debate there were 32. However, Finland has 350 interpreters. There are fifteen BSL students on the go, but because they are part time, they receive no funding. I suggest the practical step of making the Heriot-Watt University course a degree course, which would attract more students and allow them funding as full-time students. That would speed up the process for the many people who would like to be interpreters. The deaf also wish a centre for deaf studies, which could perhaps be considered by whomever succeeds the First Minister—I am optimistic about that.

In yesterday's debate on children, Jackie Baillie said that we want a Scotland where every child matters; I ask that it should be a Scotland where every deaf child matters.

In the same item of business

The Presiding Officer (Sir David Steel): NPA
It is appropriate that the last question in this session of Parliament should be asked by the person who uttered the first words in the Parliament.
6. Dr Winnie Ewing (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): SNP
To ask the First Minister whether, in the light of Her Majesty's Government's decision to give official recognition to British Sign Language as a language in...
The First Minister (Mr Jack McConnell): Lab
As a start, I believe that we should double the number of British Sign Language interpreters in Scotland and I have asked officials to prepare plans for how ...
Dr Ewing: SNP
That was an encouraging answer.I am proud to be asking the last question in the Parliament. Since my members' business debate on the subject, during which th...
The First Minister: Lab
I share Winnie Ewing's commitment to British Sign Language. As a child, I learned basic BSL from my father. It is not only important that we have enough inte...