Chamber
Plenary, 29 Mar 2007
29 Mar 2007 · S2 · Plenary
Item of business
The Future of Scotland
I am happy to confirm that the Liberal Democrats support the abolition of the unfair council tax and that we support a genuine local income tax, which is not like the national tax that the nationalists have announced. We will fund local services properly.
The first session of Parliament showed that we can invest in higher education without tuition fees and without higher and higher top-up fees, which we see in the rest of the United Kingdom. The Parliament also gave dignity and security to our pensioners in their old age. In our second session, we helped to lead the world with a smoking ban, which celebrated its anniversary on Monday. We provided free eye and dental checks for all, as well as major new railway projects that were delivered on time, preceding a successful switch to greater investment in public transport.
My aim is to have a nation and economy that every talented, creative, innovative person, and every young person in the world, wants to be part of. We are already starting to see people being attracted to Scotland, and that gives our people in Scotland the drive, ambition and dynamism to create world-class and world-beating ideas. They need the support to turn those ideas into business reality, so I hope that the Parliament will soon endorse plans to create a new innovation agency based on an idea that I saw in Finland, where business investment is many times greater than in Scotland. Finland, I was pleased to note, already has a liberal Prime Minister, who was re-elected last week. An innovation agency will ensure that the brightest and best ideas in Scotland can have the biggest impact on business and the economy.
We are not short of great ideas in Scotland. A few weeks ago, I was pleased to announce that Ocean Power Delivery and Scottish Power, with the support of the Executive, will use their Pelamis wave machines in Scottish waters this year as part of the biggest wave power project in the world. It is great news that we have already met our 2010 renewable energy target years ahead of time, but I believe that we need to push on with bold plans. That is why the Liberal Democrats support 100 per cent renewable electricity in Scotland by 2050.
Renewable energy industries are not the only industries of the future in Scotland. We also have life sciences industries in the new Royal infirmary of Edinburgh development and the nearby school of medicine, centre for biomedical research and science park development. All of that adds up to £1 billion of investment that will create one of the top five life sciences centres in the entire world.
The first session of Parliament showed that we can invest in higher education without tuition fees and without higher and higher top-up fees, which we see in the rest of the United Kingdom. The Parliament also gave dignity and security to our pensioners in their old age. In our second session, we helped to lead the world with a smoking ban, which celebrated its anniversary on Monday. We provided free eye and dental checks for all, as well as major new railway projects that were delivered on time, preceding a successful switch to greater investment in public transport.
My aim is to have a nation and economy that every talented, creative, innovative person, and every young person in the world, wants to be part of. We are already starting to see people being attracted to Scotland, and that gives our people in Scotland the drive, ambition and dynamism to create world-class and world-beating ideas. They need the support to turn those ideas into business reality, so I hope that the Parliament will soon endorse plans to create a new innovation agency based on an idea that I saw in Finland, where business investment is many times greater than in Scotland. Finland, I was pleased to note, already has a liberal Prime Minister, who was re-elected last week. An innovation agency will ensure that the brightest and best ideas in Scotland can have the biggest impact on business and the economy.
We are not short of great ideas in Scotland. A few weeks ago, I was pleased to announce that Ocean Power Delivery and Scottish Power, with the support of the Executive, will use their Pelamis wave machines in Scottish waters this year as part of the biggest wave power project in the world. It is great news that we have already met our 2010 renewable energy target years ahead of time, but I believe that we need to push on with bold plans. That is why the Liberal Democrats support 100 per cent renewable electricity in Scotland by 2050.
Renewable energy industries are not the only industries of the future in Scotland. We also have life sciences industries in the new Royal infirmary of Edinburgh development and the nearby school of medicine, centre for biomedical research and science park development. All of that adds up to £1 billion of investment that will create one of the top five life sciences centres in the entire world.
In the same item of business
The Presiding Officer (Mr George Reid):
NPA
Good morning. The first item of business is a debate on the future of Scotland.
The First Minister (Mr Jack McConnell):
Lab
There is a particular resonance to debating the future of a nation when one is that nation's First Minister. Like every Scot, I grew up proud of my country—o...
Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP):
SNP
On a point of order, Presiding Order. Is Mr McConnell speaking as the First Minister or as the leader of the Labour Party? He has been billed to speak as the...
The First Minister:
Lab
The Scottish National Party calls for debates, but it does not like them when they happen.We will make leaving school at the ages of 16 and 17 conditional on...
Mr John Swinney (North Tayside) (SNP):
SNP
The First Minister mentioned the child poverty statistics and his ambition to relieve child poverty by 2020. Has the journey towards achieving that ambition ...
The First Minister:
Lab
The child poverty figures that were published this week should encourage us to redouble our efforts. Tackling child poverty should be a priority for the Scot...
Phil Gallie (South of Scotland) (Con):
Con
On independence, will the First Minister join me in congratulating the organisers of last Saturday's march for the union in Edinburgh? Some 12,000 people mar...
The First Minister:
Lab
It might be unwise for me to comment on the entire occasion, but I welcome the fact that there was no trouble, for which I congratulate the organisers of the...
Nicola Sturgeon (Glasgow) (SNP):
SNP
Jack McConnell makes cheap jibes about Alex Salmond, but when Alex Salmond is First Minister, no one will forget his name. We relish the debate about Scotlan...
Mr Brian Monteith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Ind):
Ind
If the SNP is so committed to reducing business rates, why, on the two occasions on which I sought an annulment of the increase in business rates, did the SN...
Nicola Sturgeon:
SNP
The SNP's commitment not only to cutting business rates but to abolishing them for 120,000 small businesses is well known and will make a huge difference. Th...
Karen Gillon (Clydesdale) (Lab):
Lab
If the SNP wins the election, we will have a referendum in 2010. What happens if the people of Scotland say no?
Nicola Sturgeon:
SNP
The difference between Karen Gillon and me is that I want to give the Scottish people the right to choose and she wants to deny them that right. If she wants...
Miss Annabel Goldie (West of Scotland) (Con):
Con
The future of Scotland is indeed now in the hands of the Scottish people. There are two stark choices: devolution or isolation. Those are the only two games ...
Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD):
LD
Miss Goldie has repeatedly said that, under the Conservatives, people would serve the entire length of their sentence. Why is it that, under Conservative par...
Miss Goldie:
Con
It is predictable that Mr Purvis, a representative of the desperately failed pact that has presided for eight years over the disintegration of our criminal j...
Mike Rumbles (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (LD):
LD
Will the member take an intervention on that point?
Miss Goldie:
Con
I want to make progress.The Executive has also failed in its stewardship of the economy and our transport infrastructure. I cannot help noticing that those t...
Mike Rumbles rose—
LD
Miss Goldie:
Con
My party has a comprehensive manifesto of fully costed proposals to revitalise the economy, including an imaginative and positive scheme for business rates r...
Nicola Sturgeon:
SNP
No, I said that we should not just judge a party by the sum of its policies.
Miss Goldie:
Con
Ah well—a revised view from the SNP benches. Either way, the SNP's sums still do not add up, and there is nothing it can do to hide that. People in Scotland ...
The Deputy First Minister and Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning (Nicol Stephen):
LD
It has been an interesting debate thus far. As I look around the chamber, I wonder who the floating voters are whom we are trying to influence. It is more a ...
Phil Gallie:
Con
Following Nicol Stephen's comments about the collapse of the eastern bloc, will he join me in congratulating Margaret Thatcher and her Governments on playing...
Nicol Stephen:
LD
I congratulate those nations and peoples on the success and power of their democracies for the future of those countries.Scotland's past has not been as desp...
Malcolm Chisholm (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab):
Lab
I congratulate Nicol Stephen on not setting a rate of local income tax of 3p in the pound, which would result in devastating cuts in local government service...
Nicol Stephen:
LD
I am happy to confirm that the Liberal Democrats support the abolition of the unfair council tax and that we support a genuine local income tax, which is not...
Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP):
SNP
In his party capacity, the Deputy First Minister has said that the Lib Dems are committed to scrapping red tape. Can he explain why representatives of his pa...
Nicol Stephen:
LD
The more important question is why the Scottish National Party voted to introduce a third-party right of appeal. Why did the SNP want to place that burden on...
Mr Mark Ruskell (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Green):
Green
Will the minister give way on that point?