Meeting of the Parliament 24 June 2026 [Draft]
On Saturday I attended a food festival in my constituency, as part of the inaugural Hebridean refugee week. Families from Ukraine, Syria and Afghanistan shared their food in a packed Stornoway town hall. It was a wonderful event that showed our community at its best—welcoming and open.
Now to the motion. There is no doubt that there is much in Scotland that could be better, and it must be better, but the populist approach that we have heard from Reform relies on simple solutions to complex issues and blames others for our problems. It is right that we debate where we can do better, but that should not be done through division.
One benefit of the Reform motion is that it covers so much ground that I can talk about just about anything in my speech. It will be no surprise that, as the member for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, I approach a debate on what is not working in Scotland today by focusing on the issue that dominates daily life for many of my constituents: the ferry service, which we have already heard about from Tim Eagle.
For island communities, ferries are not a luxury but a lifeline service. Yet, since January 2023, more than 10,000 CalMac sailings have been cancelled because of technical faults. Families, patients, businesses and visitors have all paid the price for a system that has too often failed to provide the certainty and reliability that island communities deserve.
My colleague Daniel Johnson spoke about public bodies, and it is increasingly clear that the governance arrangements that sit behind our ferry service are not working. The tripartite model of Transport Scotland, CMAL and CalMac is failing islanders. A lack of clear lines of accountability, the organisations pointing the finger at one another when things go wrong and, ultimately, an unsatisfactory service being delivered all point to a need for reform of governance. Last week, at the Scottish Affairs Committee in Westminster, CalMac’s chief executive officer Duncan Mackison indicated that he thought that a merger of CalMac and CMAL would be possible. I urge Ivan McKee to look closely at ferry governance as he considers public service reform.
Now that I have got my need to talk about ferries out of the way, I will turn to some of the speeches that we have heard. I associate myself with the comments made earlier by the Minister for Business and Fair Work, and by others around the chamber, who have condemned recent violence on our streets. We must call that out for what it is.
I welcome the speech by Willie Rennie. He talked about migrant workers in our social care sector. It is important that, when we are talking about that, we value the contributions that those people make to our social care services.
I acknowledge the contribution from Jenny Young, who spoke powerfully about the need for political parties to work together and to reject the politics of hate, division and violence. That message is particularly important in an era when political discourse can too easily become toxic. Her remarks were a timely reminder that disagreement must never become dehumanisation.
Along with members from across the chamber, I joined Jenny Young in marking the 10th anniversary of the murder of Jo Cox. Jo Cox’s belief that there is more that unites us than divides us remains as relevant today as it was when she first said it. If there is a common thread running through the debate, it is that people expect better from us. They expect reliable infrastructure, effective public services and a politics that delivers solutions, rather than division.
For the people of our islands, that must begin with fixing our ferry service, but the wider challenges facing all of us are to ensure that Government works better, that public bodies work smarter and that politics works in the interests of those we represent. That is a responsibility that we share, and it is the challenge that we must all meet.