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Meeting of the Parliament 01 June 2011

01 Jun 2011 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

Taking Scotland Forward: Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth

Findlay, Neil Lab Lothian Watch on SPTV

Like many new members, I begin by saying that it is a great honour and privilege to serve in our national Parliament, representing such a vibrant and diverse region as the Lothians, which—from the warmth and solidarity of the people in the ex-mining communities of West Lothian and Midlothian to the beauty and splendour of Edinburgh—is a fantastic place to live and work.

Like the First Minister, I come from West Lothian, and I follow in the footsteps of some very notable Labour people who have represented my party at a national level: Mary Mulligan, who represented the Linlithgow constituency with great dignity and humility for 12 years; George Foulkes, my predecessor as a Lothians MSP; and two political giants of the Westminster scene, Robin Cook and my great friend and mentor, Tam Dalyell, a man for whom the phrase “independent minded”—not “independence minded”, I hasten to add—was invented.

I am an unwavering supporter of our public services. Over the past 18 years of my life, as a housing official, a teacher and a councillor, I have witnessed the vital role that good public services play in maintaining and developing a civilised and caring society. Today, the public services that we know and treasure, and which we often take for granted, are in imminent danger as a result of the bankers’ recklessness and greed. Spending cuts are attacking living standards, leaving our most vulnerable people at risk, causing widespread unemployment and damaging educational opportunities.

I know that I do not look it, but I am old enough to remember the impact of the last Tory Westminster Government. In my home area of West Lothian, following the closure of Polkemmet pit and British Leyland, there were places where unemployment reached 26 per cent—what a shocking and scandalous waste of human talent. Communities were victimised and torn apart as the Tories took revenge on the National Union of Mineworkers and closed steel plants, car factories and the bulk of our manufacturing sector.

Twenty-five years later, our young people are in the firing line again. They are being denied access to training, apprenticeships and real jobs. West Lothian currently languishes near the bottom end of the national scale in providing positive destinations for our school leavers. We have to do better—we have to give people hope. That will happen, but it can do so only if we invest in our communities, our public services and those young people.

Earlier this year, I joined a million people in London at the Trades Union Congress march against the coalition’s cuts. With my colleagues in the West Lothian TUC, I have been active in driving forward the Scottish Trades Union Congress’s there is a better way campaign. I fully intend to continue that campaign inside and outside Parliament. [Interruption.] I suggest to the Scottish Government that if it genuinely wants to work in the interests of the Scottish people and create a consensus around a sound future for our economy and social justice in our society, it should take a lead from that campaign. [Interruption.] For example, we should stop bleeding the public sector. It is public servants, teachers, nurses, classroom assistants and refuse collectors who deliver the essential public services that make our society a decent one. How can the Scottish Government defend public services when it is committed to a five-year council tax freeze with no prospect of reform of that tax on the horizon? I was amused by Mr Swinney’s phrase

“the success of the Scottish Futures Trust”

—not really words that should be in the same sentence.

We should introduce a living wage of £7.15 per hour, not just in the Scottish Government but in local government, just as Glasgow City Council has done, and we should be evangelical about convincing the private sector to do similar.

We should highlight Scottish companies that are involved in the global scandal of corporate tax evasion. We should support the proposal for a Robin Hood tax on useless speculation and we should promote regulation for the public good.

We should have a genuine national investment bank that is able to support job creation and not here-today-gone-tomorrow chancers. We should promote workers’ rights and trade union reforms and stop union derecognition such as that which is happening in the higher education sector.

We need to make social and economic equality an objective of government and have independent monitoring of progress towards that aim.

We should invest in the green economy—not just renewables but all the other opportunities that are presented by that agenda—and we should have a high wage commission to consider excessive pay and the big bonus culture that has destroyed the reputation of our once-respected financial institutions.

The debate is called “Taking Scotland Forward”. I, for one, sign up to that sentiment 100 per cent. I am a socialist, and no one can be a socialist and a pessimist. Therefore, I am optimistic that we can take Scotland forward. However, that will not happen with an agenda that cuts our valued public services and accepts privatisation—the public bad, private good argument—and does nothing to address poverty pay, poor working conditions and the lack of opportunities for our young people.

To take Scotland forward, the Parliament must defend our vitally important public services.

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Meeting of the Parliament 01 June 2011

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