Meeting of the Parliament 03 October 2023
Our constituents elect us to this chamber to discuss, debate and scrutinise legislation and to assist them with their problems, whether they be ordinary or exceptional. Fundamentally, we are here to improve the lives of the people we represent.
Today, sadly, we do none of that. Instead, we stand here today debating one of the Scottish National Party Government’s favourite fantasies, namely that the powers of this Parliament are in peril and are being undermined by the UK Government. I know that the real reason for this debate is to distract attention from the current travails of the SNP. Plainly, all is not happy in its ranks. It is a divided, fragmented party, so it is doing anything to deflect.
Of course, as has been mentioned, we already had a debate on this subject in May, in a members’ business debate led by Keith Brown. That was not a particularly enlightening debate, but it contained a vast amount of hyperbole. We heard that Holyrood is
“under attack”
and that some
“within these walls ... are complicit in that attack”.
One SNP MSP said that we are being
“subsumed back into the pre-devolution years”,
and another accused the UK Government of deploying
“dictatorial tactics”.—[Official Report, 30 May 2023; c 79, 85, 92.]
I am afraid that nothing that we have heard from the minister today deflects from that.