Meeting of the Parliament 23 November 2023
When I first became a member of Parliament for Dunfermline, I met the parents involved in something called the Diamond Association. They were the most ferocious group of parents I have ever met, and they had to be. They had to be ferocious because they had to fight every single day to get those who are now disabled adults—the parents were increasingly elderly—the rights that they deserved. That has stuck with me for ever, because they should not have had to fight so hard to get what they were entitled to.
However, the Scottish Liberal Democrats are not going to support the bill, because the evidence that the committee heard was overwhelming.
Members may ask: who would not want to support a bill that would improve the life chances of the people at the Diamond Association in Dunfermline, who I have just been talking about? That is why the committee went out of its way—probably quite unusually—to spend a lot of time trying to get the member and the Government to reach some kind of compromise on a way ahead.
Who would not want to support such a bill? It does not look good that we are rejecting, on the basis that I have outlined, a bill that is trying to improve the rights of disabled people through transition. Nevertheless, it is an embarrassment that it has taken so long for the Government to understand that the current system is not adequate. I know that the minister is new to her post, so the legacy is not really her responsibility, but this situation has been going on for years. It should not have taken Pam Duncan-Glancy introducing a bill to Parliament to get the Government to start producing a strategy, which might not come until the end of next year. That is a long time, and it should have been done before now.
It is shameful that we are in this position. To be honest, I am also embarrassed that the Parliament has not, until now, stepped up and done more.