Meeting of the Parliament 11 September 2025
Pass.
However, times have moved on, and I saw hardly anyone hitching when I drove in the Highlands and Islands this summer.
As for some of the specifics in the Youth Parliament paper, I agree that the under-22s bus travel scheme should be maintained. Expanding it to 26 or to cover trains, too, would certainly come at a cost, but perhaps there is room for compromise, for example by making the young person’s railcard more attractive.
Safety in public transport is definitely an issue, and not just for young people. We could do with ScotRail staff being a bit more proactive in managing passenger behaviour on trains, not just referring everyone to the British Transport Police, who, clearly, are not present on many trains at all.
We are considering transport today, but I would also mention the Scottish Youth Parliament’s recently published manifesto for 2026 to 2031, which contains 31 policies. In this debate, we are focusing on society policies 4 and 5, but I was particularly intrigued by education policy 2, which is on financial education.
Some policies, such as listening more to young people, should be happening anyway and should come at minimal cost. Others, such as reduced or free train fares, will clearly cost money. Again, that brings up the question of taxation and the kind of country that we want to live in. Do we want to be a low-tax country with poor public services, including poor public transport for younger people, or are we willing to pay more tax on income, property, savings and so on so that our young people get a better deal and a better quality of life?
Those questions are primarily for our young people to decide on. It is all very well for me, aged 68, to say that I want higher taxes and quality public services; however, it is for our young people to make those choices for the future, and they should absolutely be listened to right now.
Part of what we need has to be increased financial education. Actually, I would say that the whole population—including, perhaps, some MSPs—needs that, but if we focus on young people to start with, we will not go far wrong.
I congratulate the Scottish Youth Parliament on all its work, particularly on the subject of transport, and I look forward to continuing engagement with it.