Meeting of the Parliament 20 March 2024
They may well not receive such prominence, but there are campaigns against procurement from Myanmar and from China because of the Uyghur situation. The situation in Israel-Palestine receives a lot more attention, but it is incorrect to say that it is the only situation that receives that attention.
More importantly, although I agree with the Government’s motion, the issue goes much further, because it is about stifling local government. We need to remind ourselves that local government has a long-standing, historic role—dare I say a constitutional role, given that that was mentioned by Mr Fraser?—in this country. It is because of local government that we have seen much social progress through municipal socialism developing healthcare and welfare systems that we would not have had otherwise.
Likewise, the position that local government has taken on key global issues has been important. In 1981, Glasgow District Council gave the freedom of the city to Nelson Mandela. Subsequent to that, the campaigns that were undertaken by local government were instrumental at a time when the national Government did not want to concede the issues regarding South Africa.