Meeting of the Parliament 18 January 2024
Evelyn Tweed hit the nail on the head in her last couple of sentences. It is not good enough to produce lots of plans and strategies and have lots of talk and not actually implement anything.
I welcome the Scottish rural and islands youth parliament to the Scottish Parliament. I do not think that I will be very controversial in saying that it is absolutely vital that we, as parliamentarians, are committed to engaging with our young people. We need to give our young people reasons to trust and have faith in our democracy and democratic institutions. It is also important that we do everything within our power to foster aspiration among our young people.
I hope that we will have generations of young Scots, like the generations of young Scots before them, who want to change the world for the better, who believe in equal opportunity, justice for all and freedom of choice. Those are the things that have imbued this country with the energy that we have needed through our long history to make progress. So much rests on the shoulders of the rising generations.
I say gently but directly to the cabinet secretary that lots of talk about listening is not the same as delivery. Lots of talking about talking is not the same as delivery. The making of announcements does not presuppose that the thing that is being announced has suddenly happened. If only there were an Olympic sport for speaking, making announcements, issuing strategies, having reviews and talking about setting up this body and the next body—my goodness!
This Scottish National Party Government has created a clutter of public bodies in Scotland in the past 17 years. None of that adds up to delivery. It is not the same thing. We must not patronise our young people by talking to them and engaging with them and pretending that that somehow automatically brings through a bunch of implementation or delivery. Audit Scotland has repeatedly pointed out to the Cabinet that, although it is great at producing strategies, lots of paper and lots of consultations, those things do not actually deliver, and it is very hard to measure anything as delivered.
I have great concerns, as I am sure the young people of Scotland do, particularly those who live in our rural areas and on the islands, about depopulation. We have to give young people who live in rural Scotland and on the islands the real belief that their future can be lived out in the places that they are growing up in. Currently, too many of them make plans on the basis that they will not be in the place that they are growing up in.
That is why I welcome the important priorities that the Scottish rural and islands youth parliament has come up with, which are published on its website. It is talking about the right things. We have already mentioned issues to do with housing. I believe that it is a good thing to inculcate into every young person that it is a good thing to desire to own their own home.