Mike MacKenzie: I am pleased to speak in the debate, because I have first-hand experience of the importance of broadband for people who live in rural and remote rural areas, as I have lived in a remote area for most of my life. The thing that has changed my life and that of my neighbours more than anything in the past 30 years has been the arrival of broadband. Initially, dial-up connections offered limited...
Mike MacKenzie: I certainly welcome that. I do not know whether it is technically possible or feasible for everyone to access that but, if it were, of course I would support that. The renewables revolution is already under way in rural areas, which are set to become the economic powerhouses of Scotland. A vital ingredient of that will be the availability of next-generation broadband in those areas. I...
Mike MacKenzie: Will the member take an intervention on that point?
Mike MacKenzie: What percentage of people would be denied broadband coverage under the Conservatives’ proposals, and whereabouts would they live?
Mike MacKenzie: Will the member take an intervention?
Mike MacKenzie: I am pleased to be able to speak in this debate, because I have lived on an island for more than 30 years, so I have an appreciation of ferries that is sometimes lost on mainlanders. The ferry that serves the small island on which I live is an overgrown rowing boat, which has an engine that works most of the time. In the old days, the ferryman used to row the boat, but nowadays he is a wee...
Mike MacKenzie: Will the member take an intervention?
Mike MacKenzie: I am sure that the member welcomes, as I do, the extension of the length limit, to include transit vans, for example, so that the absurd practice of local carriers having to have the length of vans chopped down will finally come to an end after years.
Mike MacKenzie: To ask the Scottish Executive what advice it can give to local authorities in the Highlands and Islands—
Mike MacKenzie: 3. To ask the Scottish Government what advice it can give to local authorities in the Highlands and Islands region to assist them in achieving sustainable economic growth. (S4O-00699)
Mike MacKenzie: Is the cabinet secretary aware that Argyll and Bute has the highest unemployment rate and the lowest rate of growth in the Highlands and Islands region? What advice can he give Argyll and Bute Council to help it to tackle the problem?
Mike MacKenzie: Is it the Labour Party’s position that only companies or individuals who are resident and domiciled in Scotland should be able to buy land in Scotland?
Mike MacKenzie: I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak in the debate. Although I am what Murdo Fraser has described as “a non-lawyer”—I wonder whether that is a Latin legal term—in my previous career I had various practical experiences of the difficulties that are sometimes presented by our system of conveyancing and land registration. I compliment my colleagues on the Economy, Energy and...
Mike MacKenzie: I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak in this debate because, as an islander, I know how important ferry services are and how emotive the issue can be. I welcome the Labour Party motion, but I think that the Labour Party has already forgotten that it was Labour’s own Gordon Brown who was first mate and then captain at the helm of the United Kingdom ship of state when it crashed on...
Mike MacKenzie: No. I have only four minutes, at most. In the face of this economic storm and the most savage of cuts to our budget, the Scottish Government is due great credit for sticking to its promised plans for the most wholesale improvements to our ferry network in living memory. It is entirely right that the ferries review should start with proper consultation, so it is interesting that it appears...
Mike MacKenzie: Those actions are all much more about petty political posturing than about a genuine attempt to help our islands. I am delighted that cooler heads prevail in Scotland these days, that the ferries review represents a fair, methodical and consistent approach to improving ferry services for all our islanders, that the Scottish Government has given a commitment to listen to all our communities...
Mike MacKenzie: How will the changes ensure that we have the right balance between speeding up planning applications and ensuring that the views and requirements of communities are taken on board?
Mike MacKenzie: Will Willie Rennie give way?
Mike MacKenzie: A few years ago, I was lucky enough to be invited to a community conference on the island of Gigha, just after the people there had switched on their three wind turbines—the dancing ladies of Gigha—which are Scotland’s first community-owned wind turbines. We were taken out to see the turbines on a warm sunny day, with a few puffy white clouds lazily floating across a blue sky. Cattle...
Mike MacKenzie: No, I have only four minutes. Little Scotland can, by becoming the world’s laboratory, make an unparalleled contribution to mankind in solving the problem of our renewable energy supply and exporting the technology and the knowledge across the planet. However, we will not achieve that through the narrow-minded exclusion of big business, because business excels at innovation—
