Meeting of the Parliament 11 March 2025
I am pleased to follow Liz Smith. Although I did not agree with everything that she said in her speech—as colleagues might have guessed—I think that she made some important and serious points, as she always does in her speeches. I believe that she will be missed when she leaves the Parliament at the election next year. This is the first opportunity that I have had to say that to Liz Smith, so I want to put that on the record as we begin the debate this afternoon.
A lot of what Liz Smith said about the seriousness of the debate and the seriousness of the issues is important and pertinent. There can be no more important issue that we debate in the chamber than the cost of living crisis and the pressure that it puts on the people we all seek to represent.
So, I am slightly disappointed that the tone of the Government’s motion seems to be somewhat unserious in many respects. In recent weeks, there has been a return to the sort of grudge-and-grievance politics and debates in the chamber that we were all too familiar with in the earlier years of this parliamentary session. When the new UK Labour Government came to power last summer, we made it very clear that we did not want to play our part in those grudge-and-grievance politics and squabbling. It was about coming together and trying to work together to further improve the lives of the people of Scotland. There have been very positive steps in that regard, particularly in the field of energy and energy security, with Governments working together to tackle the challenges of energy prices. I want to make it clear that I welcome the opportunity to discuss what more we can do across the UK and in the Parliament to ensure that we support our constituents as they struggle through the cost of living crisis.
We cannot get away from the context in which we meet this afternoon. We know that many of the shocks that the energy market has experienced result from the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the challenges that exist therein, as has been outlined, including the volatile reaction of world leaders—not least President Trump—and the on-going issues that the Prime Minister and others are having to deal with on an international scale.