Hansard

This is my last speech here, and I would like to say a few words about my time in the Parliament.

I joined the Parliament following a sad event—the untimely passing of Alex Johnstone—and I leave it following the untimely passing of my wife, Helen, last October. It has been an honour and a privilege to serve here, but I will always have bittersweet memories because of those two events.

When I came to this chamber, I was surprised and disappointed to find that not enough attention was paid by Government to parts of my region such as Dundee, Scotland’s fourth-largest city, and Angus, the people of which sometimes feel as though they get only scraps from Holyrood’s table, so I have done my best to represent those people in this place. That was made possible only on the back of a strong Conservative vote.

It has been my privilege to raise constituents’ issues, which I hope has led to real change for some people. I am sure that all my colleagues will agree that casework runs the gamut from the everyday to vast multiagency efforts that take months to resolve, if they can be resolved at all.

There are a number of things that I am proud to have raised—limited only by my recollection and by the time available. They include the issues surrounding “Do not resuscitate” notices and end-of-life care for people during the pandemic; hospital parking, which is still not resolved in Dundee, despite many claims to the contrary; difficulties faced by the erosion of general practice across my region and the centralisation of local services; a child and adult mental health crisis that emerged long before Covid-19; various wrong-headed moves by Dundee City Council, including the so-called shower tax, if members can believe that, and cuts to municipal swimming lessons; the need for Angus Council to keep its recycling centres open, which I pressed the council on; advocacy for pensioners and the need for there to be an understanding of funeral costs for families who may not be able to rely on savings that some take for granted; and the need to make the Scottish Government treat the spiralling incidence of drug deaths as an emergency—I count my work on that as a positive, although it fills me with sorrow to do so.

In my five years in the Parliament, I served first on the Economy, Energy and Fair Work Committee, under the convenership of my colleague Gordon Lindhurst. I then moved to the Public Audit and Post-legislative Scrutiny Committee, convened by Jenny Marra, with stand-in parts for Jackie Baillie and Anas Sarwar when she was on maternity leave.

I also served as deputy convener of the Scottish Commission for Public Audit, a body that is probably not so well known to many. As the Parliament’s link to Audit Scotland, the commission gave me an interesting insight into how the body that carries out the work of the Auditor General for Scotland functions.

Finally, I was appointed convener of the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee. This is a body that is not a headline grabber, but it fulfils a vital function by examining all the powers in a bill that have been delegated to ministers, ensuring that, where strong powers are delegated, strong scrutiny by the Parliament is included. It does so not by telling others what to do, but by influencing by suggestion. It brought about important changes to the recent Covid legislation, and I encourage my successor, whoever that is, to continue the consensual approach that has been so successful up until now.

Since you are in the chair, Deputy Presiding Officer, I should mention that I was also on the committee chaired by you that considered the Solicitors in the Supreme Courts of Scotland (Amendment) Bill, a private bill, which I actually found very interesting—perhaps not everyone did; I see that John Mason is here.

Getting out and about in the North East region to visit organisations and meet constituents was a very rewarding aspect of the job. That is particularly the case when we can help them with the issues that they raise. Those issues tend to involve health boards or councils and, unfortunately, it can take a member of the Parliament’s involvement to find a resolution—but that is now for others to resolve.

The Parliament these days is nothing like the one that I joined. The pandemic has virtually emptied this place. I am concerned about how new members will take to the system if it remains so slimmed down. I am sure that that is being considered by parliamentary authorities, but it means that current members who return will have, in my view, an even greater obligation to help bring new members on board in what is a much more virtual Parliament these days.

I thank all the staff I have worked with: my own staff here in Holyrood, my constituency staff, the staff in the Parliament—those who look after our facilities and security and those who work with us in committees and in the chamber. Thank you.

I will briefly say something about the topic of this debate. Although we are disappointed in the settlement, we will support it. With the Scottish budget last week, the Scottish National Party had the chance to put Scotland’s recovery first. Unsurprisingly, however, it chose to prioritise another independence referendum. It had the chance to agree a fair funding deal for cash-strapped councils, awarding them a set proportion of the Scottish Government budget, which was one of the Scottish Conservatives’ demands. Instead, Scotland’s councils are set to receive a finance settlement uplift of less than 1.5 per cent in 2021-22—