Hansard

The Presiding Officer (Tricia Marwick) NPA

Good afternoon. The first item of business is a debate on motion S4M-07734, in the name of John Swinney, on Scotland’s economy.

The Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth (John Swinney) SNP

It is now five years since Lehman Brothers collapsed and the United Kingdom, along with much of Europe, tipped into recession. No one should underestimate ju...

Willie Rennie (Mid Scotland and Fife) (LD) LD

I am glad to see that the cabinet secretary made it back from Culloden. The cabinet secretary has made a lot of play of the difference between the economic s...

John Swinney SNP

The outcomes are not the same. As I just said to Parliament, Scotland’s GDP grew by 1.2 per cent in the four quarters to quarter 1 in 2013, while UK growth w...

Margo MacDonald (Lothian) (Ind) Ind

I ask the minister—urge him, even—to let Mr Rennie explain why not.

John Swinney SNP

Mr Rennie has made his contribution and I am sure that we will hear from him later.Willie Rennie rose—

John Swinney SNP

Let us have another intervention from him now.

Willie Rennie LD

How does Mr Swinney explain last month’s rise in unemployment? How does that tie in with his improvement in Scotland?

John Swinney SNP

Month-by-month factors clearly affect the employment rate, which is why the Office for National Statistics suggests that it is valuable to compare annual sta...

Margo MacDonald Ind

Will the minister give way?

John Swinney SNP

I will give way one more time.

Margo MacDonald Ind

Does Mr Swinney expect that, after the election, the incoming Westminster Government will cut a bit more?

John Swinney SNP

We have heard that suggestion from the Office for Budget Responsibility and the UK Government, which gave clear indications during the spending round at the ...

Gavin Brown (Lothian) (Con) Con

Given the figures that the cabinet secretary has and those that he has published, does he think that we will be in a stronger position over the next five years?

John Swinney SNP

The debate around that point was reflected in the various scenarios in this morning’s report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies. The analysis that the IFS...

Ken Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab) Lab

Is control of interest rates one of the levers that Mr Swinney is talking about?

John Swinney SNP

As Mr Macintosh well knows, no country that Scotland would compare itself to as a developed western European economy has interest rates that are under politi...

The Presiding Officer NPA

I now call Iain Gray to speak to and move amendment S4M-07734.1. Mr Gray, you have 10 minutes.14:45

Iain Gray (East Lothian) (Lab) Lab

Thank you, Presiding Officer.What could be more timely than a debate on the economy? After all, a recent opinion poll told us that the majority of Scots thin...

Patrick Harvie (Glasgow) (Green) Green

Given that glowing list of attributes that we enjoy in the current climate, what on earth has been going wrong all these years—even before the recession—with...

Iain Gray Lab

Mr Harvie’s question is really a question about political will. Interruption.

The Presiding Officer NPA

Order.

Iain Gray Lab

If Mr Harvie looks at the poverty statistics, he will see that the gap reduced between 1997 and 2007 but has now stopped reducing. It is political will that ...

Margo MacDonald Ind

I take everything that the member said about Slovakia and the Czech Republic, but has he checked on the position now?

Iain Gray Lab

I certainly checked on the facts that I have just given. Those are the things that happened when those countries separated.Even renewable energy—the SNP’s pa...

The Presiding Officer NPA

Order.

Iain Gray Lab

I even believe in our capacity to listen to other people’s ideas. I believe that we are good enough and smart enough and should be determined enough to seize...

The Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism (Fergus Ewing) SNP

Will the member take an intervention?

Iain Gray Lab

I am sorry; I think that I have taken enough.We have the best of both worlds, and our obligation is to make the most of it. That is what the Scottish people ...

Fergus Ewing SNP

Will the member give way?