Mike MacKenzie: Does the member agree that, although rural healthcare presents particular challenges, they can be at least partly addressed through the use of allied health professionals? If so, I will be extremely pleased, because it will mean that we agree on two issues this afternoon.
Mike MacKenzie: 4. To ask the Scottish Government what assistance it is providing to increase affordable housing in rural and remote areas. (S4O-04327)
Mike MacKenzie: Following the lifting of the moratorium on rural school closures, we have seen a number of local authorities across the Highlands and Islands rush to close rural schools. Does the minister agree that local planning departments need to take a more proactive approach to maintaining sustainability of rural communities, and a more enlightened approach to delivery of housing in those areas?
Mike MacKenzie: As the person—I think—who trained the first female joiner in Argyll well over 20 years ago, I note, as I am sure Liam McArthur will confirm, that Orkney Islands Council now employs a female stonemason as a young apprentice. Is there an opportunity for employers to realise that there are significant benefits in introducing women into their workforce?
Mike MacKenzie: I am pleased to speak in the debate because it was my good fortune, in more than 30 years of running a business, to have the opportunity to employ and work with a number of armed forces veterans. Some of them were among the very best people I have ever worked with. All of them brought valuable qualities to our workforce. Part of that was a healthy and intelligent attitude to work; part of it...
Mike MacKenzie: In our previous debate on food and drink, Alex Fergusson expressed the concern that, as we had debated the subject on a number of occasions, there was a danger of us repeating ourselves. I assure Mr Fergusson that I will not repeat myself on this occasion. Presiding Officer, I also assure you that I will not repeat the offer that I made to the Presiding Officer in the previous debate,...
Mike MacKenzie: 5. To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing in this year of food and drink to encourage local authorities and national health service boards to promote Scottish food. (S4O-04228)
Mike MacKenzie: Does the cabinet secretary believe that there is even greater scope for local authorities and NHS boards to lead by example and, whenever possible, procure local food for their use and ensure that there are no irrational barriers to the purchase of local produce in their procurement processes? Is he aware of any local authorities or health boards that are following good practice and could be...
Mike MacKenzie: Will the member take an intervention?
Mike MacKenzie: I wonder whether the IFS calculation that the member has laid out has taken into account the potential outcomes of the forthcoming UK election and how it has figured that into the calculation.
Mike MacKenzie: Gavin Brown’s motion and the Labour amendment are nothing other than a restatement of the same old arguments that we have heard from the Tories and their Labour friends for many years. Their central and only proposition is that we are too wee, too poor and too stupid to manage our own affairs. The argument that we are too wee has long since been dismissed by reference to a great number of...
Mike MacKenzie: As the cabinet secretary has already outlined, the IFS predictions take no account of the significant opportunities that would arise if Scotland’s finances were in the capable hands of John Swinney instead of the incapable hands of George Osborne. We have all the ingredients for success, and if Gavin Brown believes that we are too poor we have to ask him—and I hope that he will tell us...
Mike MacKenzie: In a second or two. We have to ask Gavin Brown why he is so complacent about his dismal prospectus.
Mike MacKenzie: If Gavin Brown believes that that is correct, we have to ask him why, as a Tory who presumably does not believe in a dependency culture, he believes that we should be forever dependent on the rest of the UK. We have to ask Gavin Brown why, as a Tory who presumably believes in self-sufficiency, we in Scotland should not be self-sufficient. We have to ask him why, as a unionist and a Tory, he...
Mike MacKenzie: Is what the member said not just another way of saying that we are too poor?
Mike MacKenzie: Will the member take an intervention?
Mike MacKenzie: Earlier in his speech, the member called for a Scottish Government analysis of a fiscal position that, as Mr Swinney explained quite reasonably, would not come about for some years—although I hope that it would be sooner than six years. Given that Gordon Brown did not see the credit crunch coming until it happened, I wonder whether the Tories and the Labour Party—
Mike MacKenzie: —have some kind of crystal ball that allows them to predict the future with that degree of precision. Perhaps—
Mike MacKenzie: Will the member give way?
Mike MacKenzie: Does the member share my disappointment that we are almost at the end of a debate entitled “Scotland’s economy and finances”, and we have not heard one positive thing from the UK party about Scotland’s economy or what its hopes and plans for that, and improving it, might be.
