Meeting of the Parliament 02 September 2025
Let us talk about this Parliament and what it can do—or, rather, what it is not doing because of this Government. It does not look at the interests of those who are aspirational or ambitious, nor at the priorities of workers and businesses, nor at the priorities of—frankly—anyone in mainstream Scotland who just wants politicians to show some basic common sense.
Since becoming an MSP in 2021, I have been struck by how disconnected this place is from the real world. I became a politician to get things done and to try to make a difference to people’s lives, but if we asked the average person what Holyrood has done to help them in the past four years, I do not think that we would get a positive answer. We should pose that question to small business owners in Perth or Peebles who are struggling to stay afloat; to high-street workers in Dumfriesshire or Ayrshire who are trying to get a mortgage; to families in Glasgow and Edinburgh who work around the clock to make ends meet while others stay idle only to get things handed to them on a plate; to oil and gas workers in the north-east, where I was this morning, and those at Grangemouth who think that this Government would rather that they lost their jobs; and to young people leaving school across Scotland who despair at the lack of opportunity.