Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 22 June 2022
What I say, I say with the utmost respect for you, Presiding Officer, and for the office of Presiding Officer.
At last week’s Parliamentary Bureau meeting, the Minister for Parliamentary Business said, in essence, that the Scottish National Party Government will do as it pleases in relation to Parliament. It does and it will for as long as the Greens vote through its every decision.
It is important that people who are watching Parliament’s proceedings know that its business is not decided by the bureau but, instead, is dictated to the Parliament by Nicola Sturgeon and her Cabinet. That can be seen in the frequent last-minute changes to the business programme after Cabinet meetings—such as today’s utterly pointless statement from Angus Robertson—which trump the bureau’s previously agreed plans. Even the bureau’s business programme papers come with a stamp at the bottom of each page that reads, “Agreed at Cabinet”.
Sadly—I mean “sadly”—I have concluded that Parliament is set up in such a way as to protect the Executive and not scrutinise it. The Cabinet’s business motion adds an hour-long statement on an unwanted independence referendum on Tuesday, which pushes back consideration of the highly contentious Covid power grab bill until even later in the day. Then, on Wednesday, there is to be a 90-minute debate on reserved matters. That time could have been used to improve services for the people of Scotland using the many powers that are available to us in Parliament.
My amendment seeks to remove the grievance-mongering and would insert statements on important matters. Moreover, after weeks of avoidable late finishes, it would bring some consistency to decision time for MSPs with younger families. What happened to the lessons that were learned from MSPs standing down in 2021, citing the incompatibility of balancing Parliament with a family life? I refer to Gail Ross, Ruth Davidson and Jenny Marra, to name but a few. [Interruption.]