Anne McTaggart: I am glad that I have the opportunity to speak in the debate. As I said in the childcare debate last week, I am a working mother of three children and know how essential childcare is to parents and children. The opportunity to discuss its importance again is extremely welcome. I have spoken to countless parents in Glasgow, which I represent—and, for that matter, to parents throughout the...
Anne McTaggart: 1. To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to invest in cycling infrastructure to improve take-up rates of active travel. (S4O-00829)
Anne McTaggart: The minister will have read Transport Scotland’s report on transport emissions, which concluded that the Government’s transport policies could lead to an additional 17 kilotonnes entering the atmosphere by 2022. Does he agree that the report makes it even more essential to have the infrastructure in place to encourage increased take-up of sustainable means of travel such as cycling?
Anne McTaggart: We learned last week that the going rate for an audience with the Prime Minister is £250,000, a sum which Boris Johnson once described as “chicken feed.” That gives a startling insight into just how out of touch the Westminster Government is, so we should not really be surprised by the contents of last week’s budget. The budget pillaged the pockets of the elderly, the unemployed, the...
Anne McTaggart: I am sorry, no. We know what the chancellor's budget does for those in society who are more than just better off. What about those who need some extra support in these difficult times? The Institute for Fiscal Studies has shown that the Con-Dem coalition’s policies will see an increase of 100,000 a year in the number of people in poverty across the UK. Only last month, we heard about more...
Anne McTaggart: I am sorry, but I have not got time. What is more, the Tory budget failed to help out those hard-working families by not tackling the rise in the price of fuel—a move that could have helped small businesses. I find it all the more galling that the chancellor billed his budget as one that rewards work when, as the Scottish Trades Union Congress stated in its budget submission, “it is now...
Anne McTaggart: I welcome the debate. I think that my fellow members will agree that the existing charging regimes are neither compatible with the needs and desires of ordinary people nor in the interests of delivering an affordable and sustainable energy future. In modern society, few issues are more pressing than global warming. Some might even go so far as to say that, for the future of the planet, it is...
Anne McTaggart: I applaud the Government’s work in creating the climate challenge fund. How much of the fund will be spent on plugging the gap that was created by the cuts to the active travel budget?
Anne McTaggart: I welcome the opportunity to speak in the debate, which is extremely timely. As colleagues have mentioned, only a fortnight ago, we learned that the UK has officially entered a double-dip recession. Unemployment in Scotland is at an alarming level, and youth unemployment in particular is reaching record levels. Recent statistics show that, since 2007, Scotland’s long-term youth unemployment...
Anne McTaggart: I have been led to believe that I was not here and did not—[Interruption.]
Anne McTaggart: I will carry on. It is not enough simply to repeat the 25,000 modern apprenticeships mantra, as the Scottish Government has been in the habit of doing. What do those apprenticeships consist of? What skills are taught? How long do they last? Crucially, where do they lead? Young people and their parents have raised those queries on the doorstep over the past months. Organisations such as...
Anne McTaggart: I am always glad to have the opportunity to discuss how we can improve the lives of children and young people in Scotland, and today is no different. However, it would perhaps have been more useful to have the opportunity to debate an actual parenting strategy rather than just a motion that welcomes its development. When we have a UK Government attacking public services and delivering...
Anne McTaggart: The importance of the early years to a person’s development is now more apparent than ever. That should be reflected by action to improve children’s start in life. The SNP’s commitment to increase nursery education to 600 hours could have been part of that. However, just as with the parenting strategy, parents and children are still waiting on its delivery. That commitment could have...
Anne McTaggart: My Labour colleagues in Glasgow—
Anne McTaggart: —will also extend the vulnerable twos programme, which offers support to vulnerable children across the city and will focus resources on parenting support for people with children in the early years. Furthermore, another 10 family learning centres will open across the city over the next five years. All those actions will support children and young people as well as the adults who look after...
Anne McTaggart: The Welfare Reform Act 2012 was described by the Prime Minister as a revolutionary piece of legislation that would make work pay and protect the vulnerable. We were also told that the reform would help to clamp down on benefit fraudsters who take from the state what they are not entitled to. Yet, the same coalition Government has made no attempt to tackle the tax-evading companies that fail...
Anne McTaggart: 5. To ask the Scottish Executive what funding and leadership it provides to protect and maintain Charles Rennie Mackintosh buildings. (S4O-01053)
Anne McTaggart: Given that it is the 144th anniversary of Rennie Mackintosh’s birth next month, does the cabinet secretary agree that the Scottish Government has a significant role to play in leading the various owners of the buildings to ensure that neither the legacy nor the constructions of one of Scotland’s most cherished architects are left to crumble?
Anne McTaggart: I declare at the outset that I am a member of the Local Government and Regeneration Committee, which is in the latter stages of producing its report on the Local Government Finance (Unoccupied Properties etc) (Scotland) Bill—to give it its Sunday title. We all want our towns and city centres to thrive, to be full of businesses and to provide jobs and opportunities for local people. However,...
Anne McTaggart: People in town centres are worried about this issue. Despite the fact that groups such as the Confederation of British Industry and Scottish Chambers of Commerce have indicated that, for the most part, commercial properties are not left empty deliberately, no account has been taken of the current economic climate, which has put further barriers in the way of filling such properties. Indeed,...
