Hansard

I am extremely jealous of the thistle card travel scheme. It has worked as democracy should work but usually does not. The people at the sharp end have worked out what was wanted and spoken to other people who helped them. They have evolved and put in place a good system to which the Executive has responded.

It might be a defect of mine, but when I operate in a similar manner, I tend to meet a brick wall or a sponge or something, and I do not get anything done. Jackie Baillie obviously has secrets to teach me. This is a good example of how we should be doing things.

I am not sure about Fergus Ewing's single card proposal, because some people need the thistle card and others will qualify for the concessionary card. I am sure that the minister has given thought to how the thistle card scheme will integrate with the national concessionary travel card. Perhaps there has been progress on this front of which I am not aware, but although the thistle card is meant to enable people to go on the buses with confidence and to get the help they want, some people need more help. I hope that whatever concessionary systems we use will cover carers or helpers to enable those with more serious difficulties to travel.

To be strictly personal, I was hoping that I could get a card that I could give to my motor car, because it is programmed to go on certain routes. I sometimes find that I am driving along one of them when I am supposed to be going somewhere else and I have to say to the car, "Come on, this is wrong." If I had a thistle card, I could give it to the car and it would know to ask me whether I really wanted to go to A rather than to B, so I hope I can get hold of one.

I hope that the thistle travel card scheme can be extended to trains. If we get some of those famous trams, it might even extend to them. The idea behind the scheme is excellent. It would be helpful to implement the points that Jackie Baillie made and those that are made in the briefing paper from Enable, especially those on evaluation. We do not evaluate enough. We have excellent schemes, but nobody ever discovers whether they deliver what they are meant to deliver. Studying the scheme to find out how it delivers would help the minister to evolve similar schemes knowing what worked and what did not work.

Today is a good news day, and I hope that we can do even better in future.