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Meeting of the Parliament 17 March 2011

17 Mar 2011 · S3 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Private Rented Housing (Scotland) Bill

Brocklebank, Ted Con Mid Scotland and Fife Watch on SPTV

Absolutely, as the minister will discover if he checks the register of landlords.

However, there have been problems. Pauline McNeill and Patricia Ferguson alluded to some of them, and I mentioned particular problems in relation to the overconcentration of HMOs in some areas and the apparent lack of courage of certain local authorities to use existing legislation to resolve those problems. At least as a result of today’s business—and we leave it very much up to the local authorities—there will be no excuse that they didnae ken: it is there in the text of the bill.

Following the housing minister’s personal endorsement, I firmly believe that new section 131A of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006, which comes into effect in August and will give local authorities the power to end ghettos of HMOs in our towns and cities, will be referred to by future generations as the Brocklebank amendment, much as John Sewel gave his name to Sewel motions and Joel Barnett gave his to his famous formula, with its consequentials et al. For once, if only in my home town, I may at last be regarded as not a total waste of space.

I crave your indulgence, Presiding Officer, and wonder if I might make a few valedictory remarks. I offer genuine thanks to colleagues from all parties who supported my amendment today, and who have made my time in this place such a genuinely pleasurable experience.

Dammit, I’ve enjoyed learning about public transport in Lower Westphalia from Chris Harvie; Stewart Stevenson has enthralled me with the load of learned lumber contained in that remarkable head of his; and when it comes to plucking on the heartstrings, nobody does it better than the coal miner’s daughter, Helen Eadie. But there are also some fairly impressive performers in this place—mostly, I have to say, on the benches around me, as members would imagine, but also from other parties. They know who they are, and I am going to miss them.

As a born poacher rather than a gamekeeper, it will be good to shake off the shackles and the whips and speak my mind again, not least on such subjects as the common fisheries policy, on which my views have changed not one iota in eight years, the future of the media in Scotland and—particularly close to my heart these days—that warmest of sub-Saharan African countries, Malawi.

Since he believes that I never give him the credit that he is due, I pay a final and public tribute to my loyal chief of staff—that is his chosen job title—Dominic Heslop. His name will appear in the Official Report at long last.

In what is likely to be my final utterance in this place, I venture the hope—to paraphrase Fu Manchu—that the wider world of Scottish politics may not yet have heard the last of me. But that is for another day. In whatever capacity I find myself after next Tuesday, I will continue to take a very close and personal interest in this place.

Thanks for the memories—it’s been a ball. [Applause.]

16:37

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Meeting of the Parliament 17 March 2011

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