Mike MacKenzie: I might take one shortly. Before we hear calls for more money, I hope that our Tory and Labour friends will tell us where they would find it. Which other budgets would they cut to provide it? What services and capital projects would they cut? Anybody can ask for more money. I am disinclined to take lessons from the Tories on housing. That party sold off our public sector housing stock for far...
Mike MacKenzie: Not at the moment. I will explain why a little further on. I am equally disinclined to take lessons on housing from the Labour Party, which knowingly helped to pump up property prices, believing Gordon Brown’s proud boast to have ended boom and bust. It even considered allowing self-invested pensions—SIPs—to include domestic property to further inflate the property bubble. That bubble,...
Mike MacKenzie: That is one of many innovative schemes that have come forward recently, and yes, of course, all innovation is welcome. I will take no lessons from the likes of Alex Johnstone, criticising our ministers for wearing hard hats. I will not take lessons from Alex Johnstone or any member of the Opposition who has never laid a block, cut a rafter or nailed a slate on to a roof. I will take no...
Mike MacKenzie: No, I will not. [Laughter.]
Mike MacKenzie: Over the last three years, we have built 25,000 affordable houses—the largest number of houses built since the 1980s. Over the next five years, we will build 30,000 affordable houses and 5,000 council houses. That is what the SNP Government will achieve by working in partnership with councils, housing associations and builders in new and innovative ways, playing to Scotland’s great...
Mike MacKenzie: Will the member take an intervention?
Mike MacKenzie: Will the member give way?
Mike MacKenzie: Will the member take an intervention?
Mike MacKenzie: I congratulate Jenny Marra on securing the debate, as fuel poverty is one of the most significant problems of this era. Unfortunately, we are losing the battle against fuel poverty at the moment, in the face of exorbitant increases in energy costs and decreases in real incomes, especially for the most vulnerable people in our society. However, I am disappointed in Jenny Marra and her...
Mike MacKenzie: No, I am just beginning. I am disappointed that they do not show some humility in that respect and in respect of the fact that, across that period, the indices of inequality, in every measure, increased rather than decreased. That is a badge of shame for the Labour Party. I thought that I heard a Tory member speak earlier in the debate, but he seems to have gone, and there are no Liberal...
Mike MacKenzie: No, thank you. The Scottish Government has increased the funds for those measures in this coming year by 32 per cent, in the face of Westminster capital cuts of almost 40 per cent. By contrast, the Westminster Government is failing to properly regulate the energy suppliers. Recently, a Lib Dem MP, Alan Reid—members might not have heard of him—proudly told me that his Government was taking...
Mike MacKenzie: I am also appalled at the lack of understanding about the true scale of the problem and the expenditure that it would take to solve it. I put it to Jenny Marra that it is far more than another £50 million or so a year. I would be happy to speak to her about that in detail later, but I must continue. It is also a fact that fuel poverty is significantly worse in Scotland than it is in England....
Mike MacKenzie: Will the member take an intervention?
Mike MacKenzie: 6. To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to raise the educational attainment level of young people in rural areas. (S4O-00313)
Mike MacKenzie: Will the cabinet secretary comment on the progress made by the commission on the delivery of rural education, particularly as regards recognising the importance of rural schools in the preservation, support and development of the communities they serve? Does he recognise that in order to safeguard the future of threatened rural schools, a range of interventions might have to be made, such as...
Mike MacKenzie: I draw members’ attention to my entry in the register of members’ interests. It is difficult to overstate the importance of the subject matter of this debate. Architecture is the most public of our arts. It cannot be ignored. It affects the way in which we live, how we feel and our sense of identity. We can escape from Picasso if we want. We can escape from Da Vinci—perhaps even from...
Mike MacKenzie: Given that the costs that are implicit in preserving and repairing our listed and historic buildings still attract VAT, will Jamie McGrigor give an undertaking that he will put his kilt on, go down and twist the arm of David Cameron and ask him to zero-rate—or at least reduce—VAT on repairs?
Mike MacKenzie: I spoke in the chamber in June in a members’ business debate on this issue. I spoke then about my experience of being rescued by the coastguard following the loss of our boat in storm conditions one dark night in September 1977. I owe my life to the coastguard service, which co-ordinated the search and rescue that ended successfully when I was airlifted off a wave-swept, tiny rock at 8...
Mike MacKenzie: Does the member agree that he might have taken an entirely different view of the matter if the Shetland station had not been saved?
Mike MacKenzie: How will the member know that the proposed new system is robust? If lives are lost at sea in future, how will he reconcile that with his conscience?
