Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 30 December 2020
There is not such a difference. The proposition before us in this Parliament is different from the proposition in front of MPs in Westminster. I will say a bit more about that shortly.
It is because of the economic shock of the proposed change that we ask in our amendment that the Scottish Government urgently and immediately applies the Barnett consequential funding that it has not allocated to businesses so far. We are still dealing with uncertainty and, therefore, fear. When I speak, as I do, to union representatives in factories such as Alexander Dennis in Falkirk, I find that they do not know yet how they will be affected by the rules of origin requirements announced last week and whether tariffs will be triggered. That is a sign of the scale of the economic, political and democratic crisis that we are dealing with. There was no co-production here, no engagement with industry and certainly no engagement with trade unions.
What is ironic is that one of the great criticisms of the European Union is that it lacks transparency and its democracy is diffuse and flawed. However, in place of the European Court of Justice that meets in public will be a dispute and arbitration council that will meet in private. The terms of our leaving the EU—and therefore the terms of the most important treaty entered into in 50 years—are being rushed through with the force of Crown prerogative, crushing debate and guillotining democratic scrutiny. It is a democratic outrage.
The motion before this Parliament rightly says that a no-deal outcome “must be avoided” at all costs, so I have to say this: to vote against the proposition at Westminster today is to risk the chaos and damage of a no-deal outcome. When SNP MPs vote against the proposition today, they cannot say, “That wasn’t what we meant”, because that is what will happen. Labour MPs will reluctantly vote for the deal, because the alternative would be chaos.
There is no reason why even an initial ratification could not be subject to the scrutiny that it merits in both our parliamentary democracy—including this Parliament, the Welsh Senedd and the Northern Ireland Assembly—and outside in the country. There are other things that concern me and that ought to concern us all. For example, fewer than one in five large businesses in Scotland is Scottish owned and 82 per cent are not. Over half of all businesses’ turnover in Scotland is now generated by businesses that have their ultimate base outside Scotland. Over a third of all workers are employed in those firms—that is nearly 700,000 jobs.