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Donate to our crowdfunderJohn Scott: ..., concerns are growing. The cabinet secretary is well aware of the concerns of the sheep industry and Quality Meat Scotland about the future viability of sheep farming in Scotland’s LFAs post-Brexit, given the massive cuts to LFASS that the cabinet secretary is proposing. Given the lack of alternatives to sheep farming in much of Scotland’s LFAs, what additional special measures does...
John Scott: ...that he and his SNP colleagues have raised today are in his and their grasp to resolve, but he and they choose not to do so. By that I mean that the many fears that he raises over a no-deal Brexit could be resolved by voting for the Brexit deal that the UK Government has negotiated with the EU.
John Scott: As our Governments approach the Brexit negotiations, what discussions has Mr Russell had with secretary of state David Mundell about developing a joint approach to representing Scotland’s position? If he has held such discussions, what matters were agreed?
John Scott: The cabinet secretary said that the first step must be to rule out a no-deal Brexit. Given that the cabinet secretary also objects to the deal that would do that, what mechanism does he propose to ensure that that could not happen?
John Scott: Most of, if not all, the problems that the minister has outlined are happening on her watch. This is nothing to do with Brexit; those things are happening on the minister’s watch, now. She should answer that.
John Scott: I begin by declaring an interest as a hill farmer and food producer. I, too, welcome this debate on the future of our Scottish environment post Brexit. None of you will be surprised to know that I have been allocated the slot in the debate dealing with land use, excluding forestry, which has already been elegantly discussed by my colleague Alexander Burnett. Notwithstanding the fact that I...
John Scott: ...highlighted today. We on the Conservative benches realise and, certainly, people in rural Scotland fully understand that the SNP wants to sow only divisions and discord with a view to using Brexit to break up the United Kingdom.
John Scott: ...the cabinet secretary the spectre, which was raised by last week’s The Sunday Times and by Gail Ross, of 9 million lambs in the UK being unsaleable into the EU market this year with or without a Brexit deal, with sheep farmers facing potential losses of about £100 per head. What plans does the cabinet secretary have to deal with that problem on behalf of the many sheep farmers in...
John Scott: ...demonstrated by this year’s total income from farming figures—historic TIFF figures, I would say—which might come as a surprise to Mairi Gougeon and Gail Ross. That is happening now, before Brexit. The Government continues to make life harder for the people who are trying to make a living. This week, it laid a statutory instrument to introduce beavers as part of its project to create...
John Scott: ...and the Scottish Chambers of Commerce have backed the deal, as have individual companies such as Diageo. Scottish fishermen back the deal. Scottish salmon producers do not want a no-deal Brexit, which is apparently almost advocated today by the SNP. History will remember and judge this SNP Government’s unwillingness to compromise and work with the UK Government to find solutions or offer...
John Scott: ...of the means by which collaborative working would be put in place to achieve them.” For me, it is quite clear what the future should be, and it can be summed up in two words—working landscapes. Brexit offers us a much needed opportunity to reset our priorities, and indeed it will be a driver for that. Although we welcome the land use strategy that was laid before Parliament on 22...
John Scott: I declare interests as a farmer and food producer, and as a member of the NFUS. I welcome the debate on post-Brexit Scottish agriculture. I recognise that, for the first time in my lifetime, we in Scotland have a blank sheet of paper on which to consider how to shape a bespoke policy for Scottish land use in general, and agriculture in particular. Some of the known parameters are the...
John Scott: ...hydrology to achieve that is still at least part of the solution to the growing need, and land managers should continue to be encouraged to help with that as an identifiable public good in a post-Brexit Scotland. Also on that subject, the illegal release of beavers in the Tay catchment area only makes a difficult situation much worse. Managed landscapes and managed hydrology will perhaps...