Meeting of the Parliament 09 January 2025
That is absolutely true. I raised that case at First Minister’s question time. We need to make Scotland attractive, and that means improving our public services. However, the Conservative Government cut the NHS off at the knees with the hardest of Brexits, which has meant that many people in the dental profession and in the wider healthcare force now have to relocate back to Europe because they can no longer live here.
It is not only Scotland that has its own specific needs—the same can be said for the other devolved nations and the regions of England. To that end, the Lib Dems want the UK Government to extend the participation of all devolved Administrations and the development of the evidence base for a UK-wide policy on work permits and student visas.
I feel duty bound to turn to some of the events of recent days. It has become increasingly clear that immigration is a new fault line in our political discourse and, increasingly, in our society. It is once again being used as a wedge by the far right to demonise large groups of people, many of whom have called the UK home for decades. That tactic is straight out of an old playbook, in which the actions of a tiny minority are used to stigmatise an entire group of people and inspire fear. Doing that has been on the rise in our politics for years, and now it feels dangerously normal, but we must never lose sight of how damaging it can be, and we must never be frightened to call it out. In fact, it is incumbent on all of us to call it out, wherever we see it.
I was so disheartened—but not surprised—to see in recent days that senior members of the Conservative Party, including the leader of the Opposition in London, have utterly failed to do so. Indeed, Robert Jenrick’s attempt to use the appalling actions of Rotherham grooming gangs for his own political gain, and referring to, in his words, immigrants from “alien cultures” was particularly shameful.
We have also become accustomed to the steady drumbeat of toxicity that is being fed to us via social media. All that is having a corrosive effect on our society and on how welcome or otherwise our migrants are made to feel. Not only is that type of politics disgusting, it is inaccurate, because this country is made up of different cultures that have come together during centuries and made this country the great place it is to live.