Meeting of the Parliament 05 December 2023
The aim captured in the Government’s motion is that all disabled people should have freedom, dignity, choice and control over their lives. I hope that all of us can unite in agreeing that those are extremely laudable aims and objectives, and that they are essential. We can also use those objectives to test the reality for many disabled people in Scotland today.
I want to start by making a key point, which I think is the source of everything else that we might debate today. Human rights are based on the concept that everybody is equal, and true equality is rooted in the inherent dignity and worth of every human being, irrespective of who they are, how they contribute, where they live or whether they conform to some sort of nonsensical, invented societal norm. Quite obviously, nobody in this chamber can speak fully for others, which is why it is so important that we hear directly from those who live with disabilities. They should be at the heart of policy making and of critiquing and feeding back on where we are falling short and where we are getting it right.
I am delighted to speak for those who cannot speak, including fellow citizens such as my uncle, who was born in the 1960s with Down’s syndrome and was not expected to live for very long. Despite that, he will be celebrating his 58th birthday in February. His MSP is John Swinney, and the first time that I ever met the Conservative MSP, Alexander Stewart, was at my uncle’s 50th birthday party, which was probably one of the most exciting birthday parties that I had ever been at.
My grandmother had to fight tooth and nail over decades to give my uncle the very objectives that this debate calls for. She wanted him to have freedom, which required education facilities to invest in teaching him, giving him skills and ensuring that his educational experience was of the same standard and offered him the same dignity as the experience of those who did not have a disability. Having been equipped with those skills, he would then go on to have greater freedom throughout life.
My grandmother also cared about my uncle having control over his life and being able to work in any job, do sports and pursue hobbies. He must be one of the biggest St Johnstone fans whom I have ever met—which was unfortunate, as all his family were required to join him for dinner at the St Johnstone stadium. We would meet various team members, and not really knowing terribly much about St Johnstone at the time—although I obviously have improved my knowledge since then—meant that we had to hide our ignorance.
My grandmother also wanted my uncle to have dignity, not just in how he saw himself but in how other people treated him. She wanted him to be treated as an equal, not patronised. So often, our discussions and debates about disabled people are full of patronising language, as though we must ensure that they are protected and so on; we do not realise that they have far more to teach us and to equip us with than the other way around.