Hansard

I rise on behalf of the Scottish Labour Party to oppose the business motion in the name of Joe FitzPatrick. The motion refers to a Scottish Government debate next Tuesday entitled “10 Years on from the Invasion of Iraq” and, on the Wednesday, a debate on Trident. The proposed programme is designed to stifle debate on the real issues that face families throughout Scotland and to turn the Parliament into a university debating society.

Why are we not debating the many unanswered questions about hidden waiting lists throughout Scotland or the reasons for accident and emergency waiting time targets not being met for more than three years? There remain many unanswered questions that the Government could bring to the Parliament for debate. Those include why the number of college students has reduced since 2008 by more than 120,000, and why the Government does not introduce legislation, which it does not seem keen on.

The Scottish Government wants to avoid debating the real issues that face families throughout Scotland. Our elected position as members of the Scottish Parliament affords us the opportunity to debate, legislate and take forward issues on behalf of our constituents. It is our responsibility to the Parliament to take those issues seriously and not to allow the Parliament to be used as a talking shop by the majority Government.

We on the Labour benches call on the Government, even at this late stage, to provide us with real vision for the future of Scotland and to take responsibility for the issues for which it has responsibility rather than being concerned about those for which it does not have responsibility. We oppose the business motion in the name of Joe FitzPatrick.