Meeting of the Parliament 10 January 2023
I completely agree with Bob Doris—parenting is a work in progress. We learn all the time from our children—and, in my case, grandchildren—about how to be better parents and grandparents.
In principle, any statist attempt to categorise families or to homogenise families is at odds with the reality of family life in all its varieties. A Government that believes that the answer to everything is to increase its own powers is a Government that is in denial of the nature of the root causes of many of the problems that we face, as a society. When more government is the answer, it is always worth looking to see whether it was the Government that caused the problem in the first place.
We must recognise that a one-size-fits-all out-of-the-box solution, such as the state often reaches for, rarely works. We must not always reach for the power of the state as if it were the only response available to us, because it is not—as is illustrated by the motion. That is why the Scottish Conservatives reject the idea of the state empowering itself at the expense of parents. That is not an ideological position; it is one that acknowledges that love is the key ingredient in all our lives, especially the lives of children. Ideally, love is added through a family, and the family is best supported when the state works to enable parents and lets families live their lives and pursue happiness in their own way.
19:18