Neil Findlay: ...for health services growing. I wish that we were hearing from the Government on those important issues rather than witnessing this pathetic knockabout today. Does the cabinet secretary accept that Brexit is nothing compared to the complexity and upheaval of unravelling 300 years of social, economic and political integration with our friends and neighbours across the UK, and that what would...
Neil Findlay: .... I am pleased that the Scottish Government engaged in that initiative and I hope that we will work closely with our colleagues in Wales on other issues, as well as continuing to work with them on Brexit. Will the cabinet secretary have a word in the First Minister’s ear to ask her to stop using the Welsh Government as one of her regular diversionary shields when she is in trouble at...
Neil Findlay: ..., the crisis in social care, the butchering of local government and the failings in our transport system. Week after week, we have had a debate speculating about the EU, the single market and how Brexit might impact on everything from holidays in Magaluf to the price of an iceberg lettuce. However, the SNP scrupulously avoids debating its record on health, education, transport and other...
Neil Findlay: ...the will of this Parliament on fracking, on NHS closures, on council budgets, on Highlands and Islands Enterprise and on the football act, and she ploughs on regardless. We can have a choice after Brexit: it is called a general election, when we can elect Jeremy Corbyn to lead a Labour Government and to change this country. That day cannot come soon enough for me. Does the First Minister...
Neil Findlay: Okay, I withdraw it. This Parliament is not representative of Scotland in relation to Brexit—and I say that as someone who voted to remain. I say to all members of this Parliament and the UK Parliament that we all knew the rules of the referendum before a single vote was cast: there was no Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish veto; and there was no separate Scottish vote. There was one...
Neil Findlay: I t hank the cabinet secretary for his statement and offer my apologies for my appalling keyboard skills—mea culpa. The Government’s handling of the whole Brexit process has been shambolic from the beginning. The latest development lies squarely with the failure of David Mundell and Ruth Davidson, as the Scottish Tory leader, to deliver on commitments that were given to resolve issues...
Neil Findlay: ...it—some of them undermining their previously stated position. All the while, they caused bad blood, further undermined trust and good will and played into the hands of those who want to use Brexit as an excuse to open up other debates. What explanation did Mr Fraser get from the Secretary of State for Scotland about why Tory MPs refused to support Labour’s amendment to the clause,...
Neil Findlay: ...misery. He has contributed nothing during our debates over this period. Over the past two years, the Prime Minister has completely failed to engage in any discussion to build unity or a majority on Brexit. There has been no discussion with the leader of the Opposition or the shadow secretary of state, no involvement of the Scottish or Welsh Parliaments and no attempt to bring together...
Neil Findlay: ...businesses in our areas, local authorities or constituents, who are writing to us in their droves on a number of issues. I make a plea to the First Minister. During consideration of emergency Brexit legislation, we were able to do things quickly in the Parliament, which allowed proper scrutiny. We cannot go on as we are at the moment, with things being imposed without scrutiny. [...
Neil Findlay: On a point of order, Presiding Officer. Yesterday the United Kingdom Parliament voted unanimously to instruct the UK Government to release in full 58 sectoral papers on Brexit and the impact assessments that accompany them. It now appears that the Tory Government will either refuse to do that or will release the papers heavily redacted, thus holding Parliament in contempt. It is my...
Neil Findlay: ...to vote on at the end of the talking. Mr Dornan was probably not even aware of that. The mess has been created by the Tory party and exploited by the SNP. If we look at what is happening in the Brexit process, we see that Theresa May has been pushed by Labour to change her position on the customs union, and she changes it by the day. She is also moving on single market alignment. She is...
Neil Findlay: ...criminals, while Stuart Donaldson MP said that we would not be able to watch Netflix and that young people would be deterred from having a holiday in Magaluf or Zante. It would take much more than Brexit to deter the young people I know from going on holiday. We have heard that there will be a jobs crisis, a housing crisis and an investment—
Neil Findlay: ...for workers in a range of sectors. Our NHS and our social care system have major skills shortages. If we combine the failings of workforce planning with a further drain of people because of Brexit, we will have an even greater problem on our hands. Graeme Dey and others mentioned the agriculture and food sectors. Pauline McNeill mentioned academia. The construction industry was mentioned,...
Neil Findlay: Its plan would subject our public services to more job losses, more cuts and greater decline. The Scottish Labour Party is serious about the challenges that we face in a post-Brexit world. Part of the solution is to bring economic power into the hands of people in communities. We need commonsense ownership and we need power to be decentralised. It should be up to the City of Edinburgh Council...
Neil Findlay: ..., all of which are causing economic concern. If the Government’s population growth targets are to be met, we need to rely on net inward migration of something like 9,000 people a year. With Brexit approaching—or here—such a level might be difficult to maintain if there is no clear understanding of the system that will replace the existing arrangements. As the negotiations head for...
Neil Findlay: I thank the cabinet secretary for providing advance sight of his statement. The Conservative Party’s handling of Brexit has been a disaster. We are now just a matter of months from the date that the UK is due to leave the EU and yet no one is any clearer on what has been proposed. The Prime Minister was humiliated in Salzburg and has been repeatedly humiliated by her own party. The Chequers...
Neil Findlay: ...the situation in a general election that blew up right in her face? With less than a month to go, we are no clearer on the way forward, with the UK Parliament in deadlock. We are told that no-deal Brexit has to stay on the table as a negotiating strategy. I ask the Tories across the chamber: how would they assess the success of that strategy when they see Honda leaving Swindon, Nissan...
Neil Findlay: All through this process, Scottish Labour has worked with others to bring about a resolution to the disagreements around the devolution of powers after Brexit, because we believe in devolution. In the House of Commons, Lesley Laird tabled amendments that would have resolved the situation but, disgracefully, Tory MPs were whipped to oppose them. Early on in the process, we proposed stand-still...
Neil Findlay: Okay. Amendment 14A seeks to amend the Tory wrecking amendment. It is our view that any Brexit legislation must take account, and meet the needs, of the different nations and regions of the UK, and it must respect the devolution settlement. As such, it is of great importance that any steps to protect the UK’s domestic market are not seen to be at the expense of devolution, or incompatible...
Neil Findlay: ...FirstBus withdrew their bus services; they want a bus that takes them to work and keeps them in a job. I mean the businesses and workers who have real concerns about their jobs and futures in post-Brexit Britain; they want reassurances and confidence so that they can plan the way forward. I mean the people in East Calder and Mid Calder who want a new health centre, those in Midlothian who...