Chamber
Meeting of the Parliament 04 December 2019
04 Dec 2019 · S5 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
Achieving a Fairer Scotland
I would prefer to develop my point for a moment.
Let me start with education, which we all agree is the key to enabling young people, and especially those who live in poverty, to move out of challenging situations and have fresh opportunities. However, only yesterday, we heard again how the Scottish Government’s education policy is failing all our children. In maths, our children’s achievements are behind those of their counterparts in England and Northern Ireland—and in science they are notably so. In reading, they are also behind their English counterparts.
In today’s papers, Professor Lindsay Paterson gives a damning reflection on where we are with our education policy and why so many young people in Scotland are failing, and yet the Scottish Government simply will not listen to experts, parents or teachers on what we should be doing instead.
I will give way to Ms Ewing.
In the same item of business
The Deputy Presiding Officer (Christine Grahame)
SNP
The next item of business is a debate on motion S5M-20110, in the name of Aileen Campbell, on achieving a fairer Scotland. I ask members who wish to speak in...
The Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Local Government (Aileen Campbell)
SNP
Presiding Officer, thank you—Deputy Presiding Officer, I should say. Laughter.
The Deputy Presiding Officer
SNP
At least your mistake was going in the right direction.
Aileen Campbell
SNP
It is the season of good will, but that will probably be where the good will begins and ends today. The debate provides an opportunity to focus on our aims ...
Jeremy Balfour (Lothian) (Con)
Con
When I first read the title of the debate last week, I was genuinely excited by the thought that we might have a constructive discussion about where we want ...
Annabelle Ewing (Cowdenbeath) (SNP)
SNP
Will the member take an intervention on that point?
Jeremy Balfour
Con
I would prefer to develop my point for a moment. Let me start with education, which we all agree is the key to enabling young people, and especially those w...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
SNP
Mr Balfour, I will let you talk about education in this debate to a degree, but you do not mention it in your amendment. Keep to your amendment and keep to a...
Annabelle Ewing (Cowdenbeath) (SNP)
SNP
I am grateful to Jeremy Balfour for giving way. He might want to read the programme for international student assessment—PISA—statistics again, because what ...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
SNP
There is plenty of time in hand, so you will get your time back, Mr Balfour.
Jeremy Balfour
Con
That is a classic example of what the SNP Government and its back benchers do. They look at the statistics on education and then ignore them. They say that e...
The Cabinet Secretary for Social Security and Older People (Shirley-Anne Somerville)
SNP
Next year, accountability and the powers for social security will come to this Parliament. The timetable has been laid out for a safe and secure transition. ...
Jeremy Balfour
Con
The first thing that I would change is that I would not make promises that I could not keep. Secondly, I say with due respect to the cabinet secretary that I...
The Deputy Presiding Officer
SNP
Cabinet secretary, please do not have a dialogue across the chamber—please ask to make an intervention through the chair, as is the procedure. The member sho...
Shirley-Anne Somerville
SNP
I am grateful to Jeremy Balfour for taking a second intervention. The stakeholders are working with us to develop the regulations, which will be further dev...
Jeremy Balfour
Con
As a party, we would have delivered all the benefits by 2021, as the SNP promised—in fact, it promised that it could do it all in 18 months, which it has sim...
Aileen Campbell
SNP
Will the member take an intervention?
Jeremy Balfour
Con
I need to make some progress. Many people who want to establish what their benefits are face a lack of certainty. This Government simply wants to tax peopl...
Pauline McNeill (Glasgow) (Lab)
Lab
Anyone who is out knocking on doors in this general election—and that is probably all of us, although not today—cannot have failed to notice the striking gap...
Alison Johnstone (Lothian) (Green)
Green
The motion rightly notes that, by 2020, around £3.7 billion of social security spending will be cut from Scotland as a result of UK welfare reforms. The inte...
Alex Cole-Hamilton (Edinburgh Western) (LD)
LD
I am grateful to the Government for lodging the motion for debate today. As always, there is much common ground between our parties on this issue. Liberal De...
The Deputy Presiding Officer (Linda Fabiani)
SNP
We move to the open debate, with speeches of six minutes. I have some time in hand and can allow extra time for interventions. 15:24
Annabelle Ewing (Cowdenbeath) (SNP)
SNP
I am pleased to speak in this important Scottish Government debate on achieving a fairer Scotland. As the MSP for the Cowdenbeath constituency, I say at the ...
Alison Harris (Central Scotland) (Con)
Con
I welcome the progress report on the fairer Scotland action plan and I am happy to be speaking today, having spoken in the plan’s introductory debate back in...
Aileen Campbell
SNP
Will the member give way?
Alison Harris
Con
I am about to finish. As we look ahead to the remaining years of the action plan and the future beyond that, I hope that we can all acknowledge the barriers...
Stuart McMillan (Greenock and Inverclyde) (SNP)
SNP
The words “punitive, mean-spirited and often callous” are damning, to say the least, as is a reference to “unnecessarily” inflicting “great misery”. Those...
Gil Paterson (Clydebank and Milngavie) (SNP)
SNP
For many years, with the impact of the UK Government’s actions and policy directions, poverty levels and inequalities in Scotland have increased dramatically...
Claudia Beamish (South Scotland) (Lab)
Lab
I welcome the chance to discuss our vision for a fairer Scotland. I recognise that a number of positive developments have been taken forward in the current s...
Aileen Campbell
SNP
We always take on board ideas from other political parties, and we are happy to engage on that. We take rural poverty very seriously. We also hold and engage...