Former Independent MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife
The Parliament is not going away—that is an important statement for me to make, given my background before coming to here—but it requires reform. Politicians who do not raise the money that they spend suffer from complacency and arrogance in the selection of their priorities. Politicians who do not use the powers that they already have, but ask for more, show contempt for the electorate's...
I understand what the member is saying, but the real growth has been in the public sector. Whether it then engages the private sector in some cases is neither here nor there. It is my belief that, if public sector spending was not growing so much, the private sector would be growing far faster and would make up the difference. Indeed, the economic evidence points to that, even just comparing...
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 SNP vote against those attempts?
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. Further to the point of order that Mike Rumbles raised last Wednesday about the Standards and Public Appointments Committee's conduct in respect of the right of members to have a hearing before it, I beg your brief indulgence by allowing me to raise a point of order that, due to my temporary suspension, I was unable to raise at that time. I seek further...
Three minutes? Thank you, Presiding Officer. I oppose the Standards and Public Appointments Committee motion for three reasons. First, I was denied natural justice in this process. Secondly, I did not disregard the Glasgow Airport Rail Link Bill Committee, as the standards commissioner and the Standards and Public Appointments Committee allege. Thirdly, the penalty that will be imposed,...
No, I will not.
I have worked in the media for 16 years. I understand what an embargo means. To give a member a statement that has an embargo on it means that the statement is in the public domain—the press have the information, but it should not be used. My third reason for opposing the motion is that the penalty for the alleged breach is disproportionate and should be rejected. If members read the...
I have another example of a situation in which teachers and head teachers welcome inspection reports. When a report identifies that a school building is letting the pupils down, the head teacher can use it to argue for greater investment in the school infrastructure from the local authority.
