Margo MacDonald: Will the cabinet secretary give way?
Margo MacDonald: Will the cabinet secretary give way?
Margo MacDonald: Will the cabinet secretary take an intervention?
Margo MacDonald: I ask the minister—urge him, even—to let Mr Rennie explain why not.
Margo MacDonald: Will the minister give way?
Margo MacDonald: Does Mr Swinney expect that, after the election, the incoming Westminster Government will cut a bit more?
Margo MacDonald: I take everything that the member said about Slovakia and the Czech Republic, but has he checked on the position now?
Margo MacDonald: I am very interested in and am trying to follow what Mr Brown is saying, so I ask this question most sincerely. Does the Opposition on the benches where he sits expect to see a different outturn from the economic measures that are taken on either side of the border, or does it expect events to bring forth the same ends?
Margo MacDonald: Has work been done recently on the success of shared jobs? I have found that women are more likely to share jobs and are quite happy to do that, but I do not know whether that is included in the plans.
Margo MacDonald: Does “bugs” include spiders?
Margo MacDonald: Will the member give way?
Margo MacDonald: I put it gently to Willie Rennie that he, too, is somewhat paradoxical. He talks about the improvement to the UK economy when we are borrowing at a rate of £3,200 per minute.
Margo MacDonald: I am interested in what Richard Baker is saying and I am glad that he, and everyone else, is taking the subject seriously this afternoon. How could we fine tune the Scottish economy in the way that was described by Joan McAlpine and Alison Johnstone, when they talked about women’s employment and the creation of more women’s employment, if we do not have the fundamental lever of power that...
Margo MacDonald: The member will be too young to remember it, but the Scottish Development Agency was meant to provide the capital for such upcoming companies. Who is doing that now?
Margo MacDonald: Will Murdo Fraser give way?
Margo MacDonald: We have talked a great deal about the powers that we have and the powers that we might or might not have, but is not it the case that we need the sheer dynamic that is created by people working and setting up wee businesses? That is why I referred to the old Scottish Development Agency, which I think had greater risk capital at its disposal than Scottish Enterprise has, and which encouraged...
Margo MacDonald: I wonder whether Ruth Davidson is aware that there are fewer men under arms in the British army and other services now than there were at the start of the battle of Waterloo. In a recent news story about Syria, it was reported that the American fifth fleet had been moved into the Persian gulf and the sixth fleet had been moved up to the eastern Mediterranean, while the British had a submarine...
Margo MacDonald: On the matter of campaigning 40 years ago, I was there. A report then that found that one child in 10 was born to fail.
Margo MacDonald: As every speech has shown, there are alternatives. So why independence? Because we’re worth it. [Laughter.] Of course independence will also make Scotland better off, though not perhaps by the 500 quid promised by The Scotsman. I think that we could get them down to 450, but that is another story. We will be more entrepreneurial, we will be bolder and we will be doing just as every other...
Margo MacDonald: No, you cannot. You are an existentialist. [Laughter.]