Margaret Curran: I am sorry, Mr Presiding Officer, but members in this area still cannot hear you properly. [Interruption.]
Margaret Curran: It is slightly better.
Margaret Curran: Will the member give way?
Margaret Curran: Disgraceful. Shame.
Margaret Curran: Will Mr Young give way?
Margaret Curran: There has been much comment recently about the level of debate in the chamber, some of which has been mean-spirited and has created an atmosphere that does not offer much encouragement to those who wish to make a contribution. It has been argued that that is part of a backlash-a way of intimidating and silencing women. Let me give notice to all: we are not so easily silenced. None the less, I...
Margaret Curran: As Mr Monteith knows well, Mr McAllion's comment was made in a particular context. I wish to address such abuse of interventions. In a scurrilous article in a recent edition of a Glasgow newspaper, Duncan Hamilton presented the SNP with a terrible dilemma. If the SNP does not condemn his ill-informed, inaccurate and prejudiced comments, we can conclude only that it endorses arrogant,...
Margaret Curran: I wonder how much money was made from Mr Hamilton's utterances. In this Parliament, it is time to insist on mature behaviour and good manners. We should be driven by our commitment to the communities that we are here to represent, their needs and the measures that need to be put in place to address them, not by the conventions of a debating chamber. In the legislative programme that Donald...
Margaret Curran: Nicola should bear with me; the problem with all these interventions is that members sometimes cannot follow the logic of a speech. I made it clear that we do not need a raft of legislation, and I will go on to talk about the committees. We need to consider the Government's overall strategy. This is the first time that I have spoken in this debate and I am here to speak on those issues; that...
Margaret Curran: rose-
Margaret Curran: rose -
Margaret Curran: I think that Mr MacAskill knows what I was referring to this morning. Does he disassociate himself from Mr Hamilton's article in the Glasgow Evening Times ?
Margaret Curran: I suggest that Mr MacAskill does so. It makes very interesting reading.
Margaret Curran: I am very flattered by that remark.
Margaret Curran: On a point of order. I am not clear about what is happening. We cannot hear from here.
Margaret Curran: To ask the Scottish Executive what its plans are for consultation on the proposed level of fees for cattle passports.
Margaret Curran: To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish the key performance targets it has set Historic Scotland for 1999-2000.
Margaret Curran: To ask the Scottish Executive what arrangements have been made regarding its Next Steps Agencies.
Margaret Curran: To ask the Scottish Executive when the Twelfth Annual Report of the Committee for Monitoring Agreements on Tobacco Advertising and Sponsorship will be published.
Margaret Curran: To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to amend the list of courts attracting a £50 addition to the core payment prescribed in the Criminal Legal Aid (Fixed Payments (Scotland)) Regulations 1999.
