Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 19 April 2022
My amendment to the business motion should not be controversial. It simply reinstates a debate on long Covid that the Scottish Government proposed only three weeks ago, when the Parliamentary Bureau last met. That debate should not have been cancelled at the last minute.
My colleague Dr Sandesh Gulhane has been calling for a long Covid strategy since before he was elected. He knows what he is talking about. He has seen what is—[Interruption.] I am surprised to hear dissent from members of the Scottish National Party to the idea that Dr Sandesh Gulhane knows what he is talking about, because he does. He has seen at first hand what is happening in the lives of thousands of people who are suffering from long Covid. He also knows what is being done elsewhere in the United Kingdom and what is working.
Before the recess, I believed that Thursday’s debate was a promising start. I believed that it was a recognition that there was a problem, a recognition that the SNP Government has failed and the start of addressing that failure. Perhaps I should say, “More fool me.”
Perhaps because there is an election in a couple of weeks’ time, there is to be an embargo on any criticism of the SNP Scottish Government in the Scottish Parliament. Perhaps our Scottish Parliament is to be sent into slumber without any controversy for fear that the SNP policy might be exposed for what it is.
The Minister for Parliamentary Business, George Adam, says that a debate will happen when the Government has something to say. I conclude that the Government has nothing to say on long Covid—or, as Mr Adam may wish to put it, the Government is not ready to say anything on long Covid. Ministerial statements are for Government announcements.