Mike MacKenzie: No, thank you. No, thank you. There is a need to reform and to refocus our further education sector and to address those pressing problems, because it is fundamentally wrong to deny our young people—
Mike MacKenzie: No, thank you. It is fundamentally wrong to deny our young people the opportunity of meaningful careers. It is also wrong because it deprives us of the ability to fully realise our economic opportunities.
Mike MacKenzie: The buildings in our further education estate are not all capable of accommodating the necessary reforms, so large amounts of capital investment are required to facilitate the reforms. The Scottish Government has provided that investment partially through the non-profit-distributing mechanism. That is why, in this period of reform, it is misleading and entirely false to consider only revenue...
Mike MacKenzie: Under those circumstances, it is only proper that colleges contribute to the costs of the reforms, which, by and large, they support. The cabinet secretary has been carrying out the reforms—
Mike MacKenzie: He has been carrying them out under difficult circumstances.
Mike MacKenzie: 14. To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how the number of applications to Scottish universities compares with the rest of the United Kingdom. (S4O-01539)
Mike MacKenzie: Does the cabinet secretary agree that higher education should be based on the ability to learn, and not on the ability to pay?
Mike MacKenzie: Does the minister agree that, if followed properly, the policy of no compulsory redundancies and the aim to meet seasonal demand from local and temporary labour could benefit the communities of Orkney and Shetland by providing more locally generated employment?
Mike MacKenzie: I think that everyone in Scotland was proud when the Climate Change (Scotland) 2009 was passed—here was another area in which Scotland could be a world leader. The targets are ambitious and achievable and, most important, they are set at a level at which unintended consequences can be minimised. Although some members might like us to make even faster progress, we must always exercise...
Mike MacKenzie: I congratulate Rob Gibson on securing this debate on an issue that is important not just for the Pentland Firth and Scotland’s islands but for all Scotland and indeed for the UK. It is estimated that the Pentland Firth accounts for about 50 per cent of the UK’s tidal resource, and tidal energy is the most reliable of renewable energy resources. Perhaps the most useful Christmas present...
Mike MacKenzie: Does the member agree that the reason for the inflationary increases in cable costs has a lot to do with the prevarication in getting those cables in place and that, if that had been done two or three years ago, a lot of those costs could have been avoided?
Mike MacKenzie: James Kelly said “finally”, which leads me to believe that that was the end of his list. Does he accept that not one item in his long list represents a criticism of the budget?
Mike MacKenzie: I am pleased to be able to speak in the debate, although I am not a member of the Finance Committee. I commend the committee for its work in producing such a comprehensive report, which I have had the benefit of reading. The report correctly identifies the context for the draft budget as one that is as challenging as any that a Scottish finance secretary has ever had to deal with. It is...
Mike MacKenzie: I do not have those figures to hand, but I think that the member is missing the point. The UK will possibly lose the AAA rating because of poor fiscal and economic policy. The chancellor has no answer except the promise of more austerity. What is perhaps more disappointing is that neither in London nor in Scotland does the Labour Party have any answer either, except perhaps from Johann...
Mike MacKenzie: I think that the clue is in the term “non-profit-distributing”. It is tempting to assume that the thread of economic illiteracy runs through all the Opposition parties in the chamber but, from reading the committee report, I know that that is not the case. Opposition members have the same good grasp of economics as we have, which is perhaps why I see so little genuine criticism of the...
Mike MacKenzie: Will the member give way?
Mike MacKenzie: I am struck by the thought that Opposition members in the chamber this afternoon seem to have come down with a very dismal dose of January blues. First, Rhoda Grant was wringing her hands about health and safety issues, when in reality the health and safety record of the oil and gas industry is better than that of construction, farming and fishing, and—as we have heard in the...
Mike MacKenzie: I have ground to cover.
Mike MacKenzie: Okay.
Mike MacKenzie: Yes—and as good as the safety record is, we should of course all strive to improve it. We also heard from Mary Scanlon about when she was a slip of a lass and oil was $3 a barrel; it is now $100—or well over $100—a barrel. I am afraid that I just cannot follow the logic of the assumption that, somehow or other, oil prices will drop away and be as unreliable as she seems to suggest.
