Hansard

The Minister for Transport and the Environment (Sarah Boyack): Lab

Environmental and sustainable policies are at the heart of everything that our Executive stands for. In moving this motion, I want to keep sustainable develo...

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): SNP

I am grateful for the tenor and spirit of the minister's speech. It may come as a surprise to some in this chamber and elsewhere that I do not seek to take i...

Mr Murray Tosh (South of Scotland) (Con): Con

I thought at times during Kenny MacAskill's speech that I had strayed into time for reflection or thought for the day. In his generally consensual and constr...

Sarah Boyack: Lab

It is my intention to communicate the thrust of what we are discussing in the ministerial group on sustainable Scotland. I am looking at how we might do that...

Mr Tosh: Con

I thank the minister for that very positive statement, which allows us to conclude in a tone of considerable, broad agreement. We have only one, limited plan...

Tavish Scott (Shetland) (LD): LD

Today I have found out two things—that rhetoric can be at different levels and that it can be both consensual and aggressive. The contrast between the mornin...

Helen Eadie (Dunfermline East) (Lab): Lab

I support the minister. One of the difficulties that I had in preparing for this debate was that the minister is making such rapid progress on all these issu...

Mr MacAskill: SNP

Can Helen Eadie assure this chamber that fuel prices will not escalate in next month's budget? We may have to face a fuel duty escalator with a different nam...

Helen Eadie: Lab

We have already announced modifications to the fuel duty escalator, as Kenny MacAskill knows. It will continue to be used to develop public transport, which ...

Mr Tosh: Con

Coming to a debate on sustainability when we had heard nothing from the minister on planning issues and other issues related to development, it was impossibl...

Helen Eadie: Lab

Thank you.The magnitude of the work that we have ahead of us is such that, despite the best will of all of us, we have to commit to it absolutely, because ne...

Irene McGugan (North-East Scotland) (SNP): SNP

The Government development strategy document states that "the overall aim of all our policies for rural Scotland is to foster and enable the sustainable deve...

Robin Harper (Lothians) (Green): Green

It is a great shame that there are not more people here for the first debate on sustainability in this Parliament. I welcome the tone and content of Sarah Bo...

Dr Sylvia Jackson (Stirling) (Lab): Lab

If sustainable development began to rank as a key issue in the late 1990s, it is clear that, as we go into the new millennium, global survival depends on eac...

Mr John Munro (Ross, Skye and Inverness West) (LD): LD

As I came in, I picked up the little booklet "Scotland the sustainable?" and one item caught my eye: "If sustainable development is so sensible, why is more ...

Richard Lochhead (North-East Scotland) (SNP): SNP

I am delighted to contribute to this important debate, which I hope—unlike many debates on subjects such as sustainable development and other environmental m...

Dr Jackson: Lab

I inquired into why we had only just received the recycling bins and I gather that the contract had to go out to tender. I do not know whether Mr Lochhead wa...

Richard Lochhead: SNP

Thank you for that intervention. It says quite a lot about the Government's policy. This country has an abundance of natural resources, and hundreds of thous...

Sarah Boyack: Lab

Does Mr Lochhead think that there was a problem with Westminster because it is in London, or because of the political priorities of the Government at the time?

Richard Lochhead: SNP

Well, both. I am sure that the minister will not be surprised to know that I am about to come on to the difficulty with Westminster. Although the SNP will su...

Sarah Boyack: Lab

Will Richard Lochhead give way?

Richard Lochhead: SNP

No, I have already taken two interventions. Surely it would be much more productive and valuable for Scotland to have a seat at the United Nations and to pla...

The Deputy Presiding Officer (Patricia Ferguson): Lab

Before I call Maureen Macmillan, I should tell Parliament that recycling is a matter for the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body and that the Presiding Off...

Maureen Macmillan (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): Lab

I thank John Farquhar Munro for his speech on transport in the Highlands. Perhaps we in the Highlands and Islands have a different perspective on sustainable...

Robin Harper: Green

Does Maureen Macmillan agree that it is astonishing that the Executive said that the land reform bill had nothing to do with the environment? Does she think ...

Maureen Macmillan: Lab

I am talking about sustainable development. When communities can own their own land, we will see such development. We are looking for balance. Debates in the...

Euan Robson (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (LD): LD

The debate has been very welcome, and many members have made good, fundamental points. I was pleased to hear that the minister's priorities will be to cut wa...

Dr Winnie Ewing (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): SNP

I am sure that the member would be as thrilled as I was on a recent visit to Shetland to see the incinerator programme there. All waste from Shetland and mos...

Euan Robson: LD

I agree with the member. More could also be done to use recycled building waste in construction. I welcome the minister's comments on sustainable travel. She...

Mr David Davidson (North-East Scotland) (Con): Con

I had the pleasure of being the inaugural chairman of the Association of Scottish Community Councils. One of the first things that we managed to do, in consu...