Holyrood, made browsable

Hansard

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
Current MSPs
415
MSPs ever elected
14
Parties on record
2,096,833
Hansard contributions
1999–2026
Coverage span
Official Report

Search Hansard contributions

Showing 60 of 2,096,833 contributions. Latest 30 days: 2,655. Coverage: 12 May 1999 — 09 Jun 2026.
Colin Fox: SSP Chamber
29 Mar 2007
The Future of Scotland
I am sorry; I do not have time.I have no doubt that Scotland would be better off economically, socially, culturally and politically if we were independent in a modern democratic republic.Jack McConnell ended his May 2006 speech by saying that he wanted a Scotland that offers e...
Colin Fox (Lothians) (SSP): SSP Chamber
29 Mar 2007
The Future of Scotland
On 23 May 2006, at the University of Stirling, the First Minister gave a lecture called "Scotland's Future: Thinking for the Long Term". I came across his speech while I was tidying up my office. Among other things, he said:"It is crystal clear to me, though, the greatest chan...
Colin Fox: SSP Chamber
22 Mar 2007
Scotland in the United Kingdom
Of course they were a nightmare, but they were brought about by the failure of the previous Labour Government, which redistributed wealth to the rich. That is why Thatcher got in.I am confident that, as Campbell Martin said, the demographics are in favour of those who support ...
Colin Fox: SSP Chamber
22 Mar 2007
Scotland in the United Kingdom
I am happy to give way now that Labour members have remembered the cake.
Colin Fox: SSP Chamber
22 Mar 2007
Scotland in the United Kingdom
I knew that it would come back to Labour members, now that I have mentioned it. They have remembered that there was a cake. The icing sugar was on the top and the cake was underneath.
Colin Fox: SSP Chamber
22 Mar 2007
Scotland in the United Kingdom
Yes, of course, but it is typical of Labour members to see the hundreds and thousands but not the cake. The fact is that the Labour Government of 1974 to 1979—I am sure that Bristow Muldoon and Charlie Gordon reflect on this in their saner moments—redistributed wealth from the...
Colin Fox: SSP Chamber
22 Mar 2007
Scotland in the United Kingdom
Last night, Margo MacDonald and I shared a platform at the Edinburgh Tenants Federation hustings. It was a very nice event with eight speakers. A Labour member of the audience pressed Tricia Marwick to say whether, if the SNP won a majority in May, the party would press Gordon...
Colin Fox: SSP Chamber
22 Mar 2007
Scotland in the United Kingdom
The debate has been interesting—perhaps even memorable. Like other Labour members, the minister claimed in her opening remarks that all Scotland's achievements in the past 300 years were products of the Act of Union 1707. The mind boggles when we think of John Logie Baird, Ale...
Colin Fox: SSP Chamber
22 Mar 2007
Scotland in the United Kingdom
Will the member give way?
Colin Fox (Lothians) (SSP): SSP Chamber
22 Mar 2007
Scotland in the United Kingdom
The Executive's case for the union consists of three elements, essentially. It says that the union provides political stability, security for Scotland in an uncertain world and continuing economic prosperity. I want to consider those three elements, which the minister has ment...
Colin Fox: SSP Chamber
21 Mar 2007
Park-and-Ride Sites (South Edinburgh)
I was just coming to that point. I am not against congestion charges in principle. I lived in London for 10 years—the scheme there is fair. People in London had the alternative of using existing services—the tube, the train or the bus. If we offer people a better alternative, ...
Colin Fox: SSP Chamber
21 Mar 2007
Park-and-Ride Sites (South Edinburgh)
In a second.The scheme failed, but we still have to address the problem, which is worsening. We cannot expect the problem to go away just because of a referendum result.I think that that was Mark Ballard's cue.
Colin Fox (Lothians) (SSP): SSP Chamber
21 Mar 2007
Park-and-Ride Sites (South Edinburgh)
As is traditional on these occasions I, too, congratulate Mike Pringle on securing the debate. His motion raises important issues that many of my constituents—not just residents of south Edinburgh, but commuters into the city from further afield—have raised with me. The issue ...
Colin Fox: SSP Committee
20 Mar 2007
Legacy Paper
It seems fine.
Colin Fox: SSP Committee
20 Mar 2007
Legacy Paper
That is in keeping with the assurance that we were given.
Colin Fox (Lothians) (SSP): SSP Committee
20 Mar 2007
Legacy Paper
You will remember that when we considered the Legal Profession and Legal Aid (Scotland) Bill, we asked the Scottish Executive when it was prepared to commence sections 25 to 29 of the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Scotland) Act 1990. The Executive assured us that it i...
Colin Fox (Lothians) (SSP): SSP Chamber
15 Mar 2007
Custodial Sentences and Weapons (Scotland) Bill
At First Minister's question time today, the First Minister said that the bill will end the Tories' provisions on the automatic early release of prisoners. Of course, it will do no such thing, because it will replace those provisions with Labour's provisions on the automatic e...
Colin Fox: SSP Chamber
15 Mar 2007
SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE · Prescription Charges
Four years ago, the Executive promised to review national health service prescription charges for those who suffer from long-term conditions. The charges have since risen year on year and are now £6.85 for each medicine. The unfairness of the system, like the number of suffere...
6. Colin Fox (Lothians) (SSP): SSP Chamber
15 Mar 2007
SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE · Prescription Charges
To ask the Scottish Executive what impact the recent increase in the cost of prescriptions will have on patients with chronic conditions. (S2O-12390)
Colin Fox: SSP Chamber
15 Mar 2007
Custodial Sentences and Weapons (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3
I am grateful for the support that a hanging man gets from a rope.The minister's fundamental objection to an independent report was the same as Bill Aitken's caveat, which is interesting. I was struck by the minister's sanguine attitude to the potential expenditure of £250 mil...
Colin Fox: SSP Chamber
15 Mar 2007
Custodial Sentences and Weapons (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3
I am struck by the fact that the minister has not disputed any of the possible consequences or costs that I outlined in my initial remarks. She rightly talks about listening to the many people in our constituencies who suffer daily as a result of the current system. I advise h...
Colin Fox: SSP Chamber
15 Mar 2007
Custodial Sentences and Weapons (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3
It is amendment 44, Presiding Officer.In the course of the evidence taking, it became clear to the Justice 2 Committee that there could be serious consequences for the criminal justice system from the implementation of the bill, such as: the possible addition of 1,100 prisoner...
Colin Fox: SSP Chamber
15 Mar 2007
Custodial Sentences and Weapons (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3
Those members who argue that the current system is in disrepute are absolutely correct. That is what the bill seeks to address. However, the passage of the part of the bill that seeks to make people who are serving 14-day sentences serve even longer than they do now would brin...
Colin Fox (Lothians) (SSP): SSP Chamber
15 Mar 2007
Custodial Sentences and Weapons (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3
The purpose of the amendments is to address what has been widely accepted as an anomaly in the bill—the fact that offenders who receive 14-day sentences serve longer in custody than those who are sentenced to periods of 28 days. The bill insists that those who receive sentence...
Colin Fox: SSP Chamber
08 Mar 2007
SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE · Whistleblowing
I am sure that the minister will agree that the case raises some serious questions about the effectiveness of the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998, in particular the protection of those who seek to act as good citizens and bring problems to a council's attention.Mr Travers,...
1. Colin Fox (Lothians) (SSP): SSP Chamber
08 Mar 2007
SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE · Whistleblowing
To ask the Scottish Executive what lessons have been learned from the experience of John Travers, who used whistleblowing procedures to make allegations about a possible financial irregularity in the City of Edinburgh Council accounts and who was subsequently the subject of di...
Colin Fox (Lothians) (SSP): SSP Chamber
07 Mar 2007
Christmas Day and New Year's Day Trading (Scotland) Bill
Like other members, I congratulate Karen Whitefield on her bill and on raising important issues in the Parliament in the past couple of years. We are discussing the bill today because our biggest department stores have for the past three years opened on new year's day—because ...
Colin Fox (Lothians) (SSP): SSP Chamber
07 Mar 2007
Christmas Day and New Year's Day Trading (Scotland) Bill:<br />Stage 3
The Executive is in an utter mess over the bill. The minister told us that the bill is important in that it will prevent trading on Christmas day. She said that she has no desire for there to be general trading on new year's day and that she broadly agrees with the purpose of ...
Colin Fox: SSP Chamber
01 Mar 2007
Illegal Moneylenders
Perhaps Bill Aitken will unravel the great 21st century mystery of how the banks make their money. They lend at one rate and borrow at another. Is not that what banking is? Is not that why their profits are so huge? They have borrowed at one rate and loaned at another—their pr...
Colin Fox: SSP Chamber
01 Mar 2007
Illegal Moneylenders
Mr Stone also mentioned it, but he underplayed it, too. I will tell members why.Today, the Royal Bank of Scotland declared profits of £9.7 billion and, yesterday, HBOS—the Halifax and Bank of Scotland—declared profits of £5.7 billion. In each case, profits were up about 15 per...
Colin Fox (Lothians) (SSP): SSP Chamber
01 Mar 2007
Illegal Moneylenders
I wonder whether the minister is familiar with the lines that Woody Guthrie sang:"Some will rob you with a six-gunAnd some with a fountain pen."In the motion that is before the Parliament, the Executive is right to condemn the activities of illegal moneylenders; I am sure that...
Colin Fox: SSP Committee
27 Feb 2007
Custodial Sentences and Weapons (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
I am happy to give credit to the Executive for the present state of affairs, whereby for the first time—I think I am right in saying—there are more non-custodial disposals than custodial disposals. The Executive deserves credit for that and I am happy to give it because it is ...
Colin Fox: SSP Committee
27 Feb 2007
Custodial Sentences and Weapons (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
The part of the bill that talks about community sentences is welcome and progressive. For my money, it is a step in the right direction. It deals with the additional resources that the necessary level of thorough supervision would require. The figures that I quoted from the AD...
Colin Fox (Lothians) (SSP): SSP Committee
27 Feb 2007
Custodial Sentences and Weapons (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Amendments 83 and 82 seek to amend section 50 in relation to part 2 of the bill, on the confinement and release of prisoners. The amendments seek to ensure that that part of the bill is implemented only after ministers have presented to Parliament a report compiled by independ...
Colin Fox: SSP Chamber
22 Feb 2007
SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE · Prescription Charges (Long-term Conditions)
I am disgusted by the minister's answer. Four years ago, the Executive promised to review NHS prescription charges because it accepted that the current exemption arrangements are not fit for purpose. Thirteen months ago, the minister asked Parliament to reject the Abolition of...
3. Colin Fox (Lothians) (SSP): SSP Chamber
22 Feb 2007
SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE · Prescription Charges (Long-term Conditions)
To ask the Scottish Executive what the latest position is on its review of national health service prescription charges for patients with long-term conditions and on what date it expects to present the outcome of the review. (S2O-12124)
Colin Fox: SSP Committee
20 Feb 2007
Serious Crime Bill
I would be grateful for a note, at least for myself. If the minister wanted to send it to the whole committee, I would not object. We could easily introduce a prevention of violent crime order or any number of orders to prevent behaviour, and such orders could have conditions ...
Colin Fox: SSP Committee
20 Feb 2007
Serious Crime Bill
I will broaden Bill Butler's line of questioning slightly. I have no wish to put the officials on the spot; if they require to write to us, I am perfectly happy with that. We have antisocial behaviour orders, serious crime prevention orders and risk of sexual harm orders and w...
Colin Fox: SSP Committee
20 Feb 2007
Serious Crime Bill
Will the provision apply specifically to police action in relation to confiscation in money-laundering cases?
Colin Fox: SSP Committee
20 Feb 2007
Serious Crime Bill
What is not beyond doubt?
Colin Fox: SSP Committee
20 Feb 2007
Serious Crime Bill
Minister, the third provision that you mentioned in your introduction was the power to use force in executing a search warrant. I listened to what you said, particularly about money laundering and confiscation in relation to drug offences, which are reserved matters. It seems ...
Colin Fox: SSP Committee
20 Feb 2007
Serious Crime Bill
I will approach the matter in two questions. I take the point that we will not have serious crime prevention orders in Scotland but, if they are used elsewhere and somebody who is subject to an order comes to Scotland, the bill affords us a power that allows us to act if the o...
Colin Fox: SSP Committee
20 Feb 2007
Custodial Sentences and Weapons (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
For the second week running, Bill Aitken's amendment has not been considered.
Colin Fox: SSP Committee
20 Feb 2007
Custodial Sentences and Weapons (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
I hope that, in the same spirit in which the minister finished her remarks, she will listen to the committee's helpful comments. As she knows, throughout the bill process my mind has been focused on an anomaly to which we keep returning, which is that people who have been sent...
Colin Fox (Lothians) (SSP): SSP Committee
20 Feb 2007
Custodial Sentences and Weapons (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Will the amendments be taken in the order that is shown on the marshalled list?
Colin Fox: SSP Committee
13 Feb 2007
Custodial Sentences and Weapons (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
I must confess that, despite the fact that our amendments are at variance with one another, we are all unanimous in saying that the current system is discredited. The question is how we make it credible. The minister has outlined the Executive's position. That position is not ...
Colin Fox: SSP Committee
13 Feb 2007
Custodial Sentences and Weapons (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
No—he is nearer to you than he is to me.I highlight the fact that the bill puts greater faith in community sentences. That commitment is welcome and it will put the right emphasis on an area in which we can reasonably expect progress in reducing reoffending. However, if the co...
Colin Fox: SSP Committee
13 Feb 2007
Custodial Sentences and Weapons (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Amendment 46 seeks to address two issues that came up in stage 1. I did not see the other amendments in the group until after I had lodged amendments 46 and 49. I am struck by the distance between my approach and Mr Aitken's and I take comfort in the fact that they are diametr...
Colin Fox: SSP Committee
13 Feb 2007
Custodial Sentences and Weapons (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Perhaps you could remind me of the intention.
Colin Fox: SSP Committee
13 Feb 2007
Custodial Sentences and Weapons (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
Given that we are discussing section 6, which deals with setting the custody or punishment part of a sentence, I hope that the convener will indulge me in my asking about the amendment that the Executive has lodged under which it will be possible for the court to seek to exten...
Colin Fox: SSP Committee
13 Feb 2007
Custodial Sentences and Weapons (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
That is fine. My third question relates to amendment 13. I want to ask for the minister's view of the conundrum—which I would describe as a nonsense—that the committee has previously considered, that someone who is sentenced to 14 days will serve longer in jail than someone wh...
Colin Fox: SSP Committee
13 Feb 2007
Custodial Sentences and Weapons (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
I have a couple of questions for the minister. I presume that she accepts that most of the witnesses who gave evidence to the committee anticipated that the bill would have an inevitable impact on the time that offenders serve. Does the minister accept—notwithstanding her comm...
Colin Fox: SSP Committee
13 Feb 2007
Custodial Sentences and Weapons (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
I agree with the minister that the current system is discredited. Amendment 43 would replace it with a better one that would have the faith and the trust of the public. My fear about the bill is that we are offering the public pie in the sky and that, based on the available pr...
Colin Fox (Lothians) (SSP): SSP Committee
13 Feb 2007
Custodial Sentences and Weapons (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
The purpose of amendment 43, on short-term prisoners, is to apply the specific provisions on risk assessment and the licensing supervision requirements of the community part of the sentences where they would do the most good. In other words, the amendment would change the thre...
Colin Fox: SSP Chamber
08 Feb 2007
Forth and Tay Bridges Tolls
I respect TRANSform Scotland's work, but it goes over the top when it says that those who want to abolish the tolls are undermining the nation's attempts to reduce climate change emissions. Under its logic, we would still have a £7 toll on the Skye bridge and tolls on the Ersk...
Colin Fox (Lothians) (SSP): SSP Chamber
08 Feb 2007
Forth and Tay Bridges Tolls
Having considered all the issues before us, the Scottish Socialist Party is opposed to tolls on bridges, motorways and trunk roads and supports the motion for three key reasons. First, to my mind—and the mind of the SSP—it is the Government's responsibility to build, maintain ...
Colin Fox: SSP Chamber
25 Jan 2007
Royal Hospital for Sick Children Edinburgh (Fair Parking)
I am happy to acknowledge the minister's earlier intervention. The SPICe briefing does indeed say that three quarters of UK hospitals charge patients for parking. Given what the minister has just said, am I right in thinking that the Executive takes no view on whether there sh...
Colin Fox: SSP Chamber
25 Jan 2007
Royal Hospital for Sick Children Edinburgh (Fair Parking)
I am happy to say that I got that figure from SPICe. Perhaps it refers to the whole of Britain. However, if there are charges in five boards, that is five boards too many.A £10 daily charge is clearly a problem for residents in the local schemes who, like me, find it difficult...
Colin Fox (Lothians) (SSP): SSP Chamber
25 Jan 2007
Royal Hospital for Sick Children Edinburgh (Fair Parking)
I add my congratulations to Mike Pringle on securing the debate. One year ago today, the Parliament held the stage 1 debate on my bill to abolish prescription charges—so I had better button up my coat. Today, we are debating the case for other charges for accessing the health ...
Colin Fox (Lothians) (SSP): SSP Chamber
18 Jan 2007
Criminal Proceedings etc (Reform) (Scotland) Bill
Time permits me to raise only two issues in this debate.First, I accept the bill's policy objectives of reforming the summary justice system. As we have discussed two or three times in the chamber, the system needs to be made more efficient and speedier. I have read and accept...
← Back to list
Chamber

Plenary, 29 Mar 2007

29 Mar 2007 · S2 · Plenary
Item of business
The Future of Scotland
Fox, Colin SSP Lothians Watch on SPTV
I am sorry; I do not have time.

I have no doubt that Scotland would be better off economically, socially, culturally and politically if we were independent in a modern democratic republic.

Jack McConnell ended his May 2006 speech by saying that he wanted a Scotland that offers everyone the chance to become the best that they can be. That chance has been denied them. He wanted every child and grandchild across the country to be proud to call Scotland home, but millions are ashamed to call this country home because of our reputation for warmongering, arms manufacturing, nuclear threats, and soldiers in other countries.

I want Scotland to have an alternative, radical and different future, and the Scottish Socialist Party will present just such a manifesto to the country in May.

In the same item of business

The Presiding Officer (Mr George Reid): NPA
Good morning. The first item of business is a debate on the future of Scotland.
The First Minister (Mr Jack McConnell): Lab
There is a particular resonance to debating the future of a nation when one is that nation's First Minister. Like every Scot, I grew up proud of my country—o...
Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): SNP
On a point of order, Presiding Order. Is Mr McConnell speaking as the First Minister or as the leader of the Labour Party? He has been billed to speak as the...
The First Minister: Lab
The Scottish National Party calls for debates, but it does not like them when they happen.We will make leaving school at the ages of 16 and 17 conditional on...
Mr John Swinney (North Tayside) (SNP): SNP
The First Minister mentioned the child poverty statistics and his ambition to relieve child poverty by 2020. Has the journey towards achieving that ambition ...
The First Minister: Lab
The child poverty figures that were published this week should encourage us to redouble our efforts. Tackling child poverty should be a priority for the Scot...
Phil Gallie (South of Scotland) (Con): Con
On independence, will the First Minister join me in congratulating the organisers of last Saturday's march for the union in Edinburgh? Some 12,000 people mar...
The First Minister: Lab
It might be unwise for me to comment on the entire occasion, but I welcome the fact that there was no trouble, for which I congratulate the organisers of the...
Nicola Sturgeon (Glasgow) (SNP): SNP
Jack McConnell makes cheap jibes about Alex Salmond, but when Alex Salmond is First Minister, no one will forget his name. We relish the debate about Scotlan...
Mr Brian Monteith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Ind): Ind
If the SNP is so committed to reducing business rates, why, on the two occasions on which I sought an annulment of the increase in business rates, did the SN...
Nicola Sturgeon: SNP
The SNP's commitment not only to cutting business rates but to abolishing them for 120,000 small businesses is well known and will make a huge difference. Th...
Karen Gillon (Clydesdale) (Lab): Lab
If the SNP wins the election, we will have a referendum in 2010. What happens if the people of Scotland say no?
Nicola Sturgeon: SNP
The difference between Karen Gillon and me is that I want to give the Scottish people the right to choose and she wants to deny them that right. If she wants...
Miss Annabel Goldie (West of Scotland) (Con): Con
The future of Scotland is indeed now in the hands of the Scottish people. There are two stark choices: devolution or isolation. Those are the only two games ...
Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD): LD
Miss Goldie has repeatedly said that, under the Conservatives, people would serve the entire length of their sentence. Why is it that, under Conservative par...
Miss Goldie: Con
It is predictable that Mr Purvis, a representative of the desperately failed pact that has presided for eight years over the disintegration of our criminal j...
Mike Rumbles (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (LD): LD
Will the member take an intervention on that point?
Miss Goldie: Con
I want to make progress.The Executive has also failed in its stewardship of the economy and our transport infrastructure. I cannot help noticing that those t...
Mike Rumbles rose— LD
Miss Goldie: Con
My party has a comprehensive manifesto of fully costed proposals to revitalise the economy, including an imaginative and positive scheme for business rates r...
Nicola Sturgeon: SNP
No, I said that we should not just judge a party by the sum of its policies.
Miss Goldie: Con
Ah well—a revised view from the SNP benches. Either way, the SNP's sums still do not add up, and there is nothing it can do to hide that. People in Scotland ...
The Deputy First Minister and Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning (Nicol Stephen): LD
It has been an interesting debate thus far. As I look around the chamber, I wonder who the floating voters are whom we are trying to influence. It is more a ...
Phil Gallie: Con
Following Nicol Stephen's comments about the collapse of the eastern bloc, will he join me in congratulating Margaret Thatcher and her Governments on playing...
Nicol Stephen: LD
I congratulate those nations and peoples on the success and power of their democracies for the future of those countries.Scotland's past has not been as desp...
Malcolm Chisholm (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab): Lab
I congratulate Nicol Stephen on not setting a rate of local income tax of 3p in the pound, which would result in devastating cuts in local government service...
Nicol Stephen: LD
I am happy to confirm that the Liberal Democrats support the abolition of the unfair council tax and that we support a genuine local income tax, which is not...
Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): SNP
In his party capacity, the Deputy First Minister has said that the Lib Dems are committed to scrapping red tape. Can he explain why representatives of his pa...
Nicol Stephen: LD
The more important question is why the Scottish National Party voted to introduce a third-party right of appeal. Why did the SNP want to place that burden on...
Mr Mark Ruskell (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Green): Green
Will the minister give way on that point?