Meeting of the Parliament 05 March 2025
It was with genuine disappointment that I read the motion that we have been asked to discuss. That said, I agreed with almost every word in the first half of the minister’s opening speech. There is huge potential in the Scottish economy, whether in the vast opportunities in innovation or the strength of many of the institutions in our university sector and the knowledge that is learned there, although, at the moment, too many of those institutions have been weakened by the 22 per cent real-terms cut in funding for Scottish students and the financial situation that they continue to find themselves in.
However, the second half of the minister’s speech was far below par in that regard. It was a sad indication of a lack of a change of mindset on the part of the governing party, members of which have frequently told me that they have seen a transformation in the attitude of the UK Government over recent months with regard to its ability and willingness to work with the Scottish Government. When I speak to members of the UK Cabinet, they say to me that they simply think that they are doing their jobs. The comparison there is with their predecessors, who, frankly, were not doing their jobs. We need to work together and make sure that we have the best interests of Scotland ahead of us.
Last July, the whole of Scotland voted to put years of grievance and division behind us. It rejected the symbiotes of shared grievance, who are invested in mutual failure and rancour. I suggest that today’s debate is timely, because it gives a very good example of what can be done. In the past two hours, the UK Labour Government has announced a major investment of more than £55 million in the port of Cromarty Firth. That will drive growth and create hundreds of jobs in floating offshore wind. The expansion of that port will make it the first port in the UK that is able to make floating offshore wind turbines on site and at scale. That is exactly the kind of first-mover advantage that the minister said that Scotland should be securing as a country and as an economy.