Hansard

The Presiding Officer (Tricia Marwick) NPA

The next item of business is a debate on motion S4M-04340, in the name of Johann Lamont, on Scotland’s future. I remind members that the debate is heavily ov...

Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab) Lab

Presiding Officer, I note what you say about the debate being oversubscribed. It is our aspiration that this be a serious debate for the whole of Scotland. T...

John Mason (Glasgow Shettleston) (SNP) SNP

Does the member accept that the real people in my constituency, which is one of the neediest in the country, are very positive about no tuition fees, free pr...

Johann Lamont Lab

I would hazard a guess that some of the women I met in Glasgow come from Mr Mason’s constituency. It is no comfort to them to tell them that things are fanta...

Fiona McLeod (Strathkelvin and Bearsden) (SNP) SNP

On that point, I wonder whether Ms Lamont would like to tell us how she would reply to NUS Scotland, which said in an e-mail to us all this morning that it i...

Johann Lamont Lab

I would ask the NUS: is it right that students who cannot get a place in a further education college are to pay the price of Mike Russell’s policies? We do n...

The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning (Michael Russell) SNP

I thank the member for raising my sales again. I am more than prepared to say today that my experience of the recession and of the loss of 25,000 university ...

The Presiding Officer NPA

Order.

Michael Russell SNP

That is the generous contribution to the debate that I will make. Will Ms Lamont now admit that she is wrong to victimise Scotland’s young people?

Johann Lamont Lab

I think that the real difference is that Mr Russell opposed Alex Salmond when he wrote the book but now relies on his patronage. It is illogical to say that ...

The Presiding Officer NPA

Order.

Johann Lamont Lab

Unlike Mike Russell, I am not against universality. I just want to know how we are going to pay for it. We know that such concerns exist at the heart of the ...

Bruce Crawford (Stirling) (SNP) SNP

Johann Lamont has said:“Scotland cannot be the only something for nothing country in the world”.To which people in Scotland was she referring?

Johann Lamont Lab

The fact is that the people whom I described who are living with the consequence of SNP cuts are paying the price for the SNP’s pretence that everything is d...

Kevin Stewart (Aberdeen Central) (SNP) SNP

Will the member give way?

The Presiding Officer NPA

The member is in her last 30 seconds.

Johann Lamont Lab

The reality is that the SNP does not have a basic understanding of fairness. In my remaining time, I can give only one example. Is it fair that a mother has ...

The Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Investment and Cities (Nicola Sturgeon) SNP

It is always good to start on a consensual note, so let me kick off with something on which I agree with Johann Lamont. We have big questions to ask and answ...

Johann Lamont Lab

First, does the cabinet secretary think that Campbell Christie was a Tory? Secondly, the responsibility of Government, regardless of the size of the cake, is...

Nicola Sturgeon SNP

I will come on to the choices that we should be able to make, but let us first remind ourselves about how Johann Lamont described policies designed to take p...

Rhoda Grant (Highlands and Islands) (Lab) Lab

Is it dignified to lie in a hospital bed without a blanket?

Nicola Sturgeon SNP

Labour is arguing that we should remove free personal care from our elderly. I take no lessons in dignity from anybody on the Labour side of the chamber.Here...

Drew Smith (Glasgow) (Lab) Lab

The cabinet secretary used two examples—elderly people and the services that they rely on, and a young person going to university. What is her answer to the ...

Nicola Sturgeon SNP

It is that this Parliament should have power to grow the economy and to increase revenues and should not be forced to choose between one student and another....

The Deputy Presiding Officer (Elaine Smith) Lab

Order. We cannot hear the cabinet secretary.

Nicola Sturgeon SNP

Those on the Tory benches would have been quick to put their hands up to my questions, because all the people that I talk about are people that Labour thinks...

Margo MacDonald (Lothian) (Ind) Ind

I think that it was a mistake right enough, but I think that I am the only one here old enough to have a bus pass.Members: No.

Margo MacDonald Ind

The cabinet secretary gave the example of her constituent’s elderly sister in Inverness. My sister will kill me for saying that she is elderly but, although ...

Nicola Sturgeon SNP

Stewart Stevenson might take issue with the member’s claim to be the only person in the Parliament who qualifies for a bus pass.We hear lots of examples cite...

The Deputy Presiding Officer Lab

Order.