Kaukab Stewart: ...to hear, particularly in Scotland, where, in 2016, 62 per cent of people voted to remain in the EU, which was a much higher proportion than the 51.8 per cent across the UK who voted to leave. In Glasgow, 66 per cent of people voted to remain in the EU, and, as recently as August last year, a Panelbase poll for The Times newspaper found that 72 per cent of voters in Scotland would now vote...
Elizabeth Smith: ...to make repairs and improvements, the Government has failed to acknowledge that private landlords face exactly the same challenges. A few months ago, we had the ridiculous situation in which the University of Glasgow told students that they would be best not to enrol for their courses until they had found accommodation, because of the difficulty of obtaining suitable rented property. That...
Lord Soley: ...from construction work to offices to factories, was that my “pay”, which was the word used, was always told to me in hourly or weekly arrangements. Much later, in my twenties, I went to university, and when I left, when I was about 28 or 29—at some distant point in time, I am not sure when—all of a sudden, the word “pay” was no longer used. The word “salary” was used, and...
Pam Gosal: I have been raising the case of Ellie Wilson, who was a victim of rape while she was studying at the University of Glasgow. Ellie survived that ordeal but was shocked to discover that the perpetrator had been allowed to transfer to another university, despite being under investigation for rape at the time. It has since been discovered that there is no national guidance for how universities...
Russell Findlay: I begin by informing members that I have a commitment to attend an event at Glasgow airport this afternoon, which means that I am unable to stay for the duration of Maggie Chapman’s important debate. I mean her no disrespect, and I am grateful to the Presiding Officer for agreeing to my request to leave after the opening speeches. The issues that the debate raises are extremely serious. The...
Kevin Hollinrake: It is a pleasure to speak with you in the Chair, Ms Ali. I congratulate the hon. Member for Jarrow (Kate Osborne) on securing this really important debate about Royal Mail and the future of the universal postal service, and I very much appreciate her experience and expertise, and what she is able to add to this very important debate. She talked about the changes at the top of Royal Mail, as...
Brendan O'Hara: ...: “Moving away from the hijab means a retreat of the Islamic Republic”. That explains why Professor Azadeh Kian, the French-Iranian director of the centre for gender and feminist studies at the University of Paris, said: “What these women are doing in Iran is a revolution, at least a cultural revolution”. It seems now that it is not just the women of Iran who cannot take it...
Douglas Ross: 1. Last night, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde cancelled thousands of procedures. We know that the Scottish National Party’s flagship Queen Elizabeth university hospital is already the worst performing in the country, and this morning there are reports of nurses at the hospital working 24-hour shifts. It is disgraceful to put national health service staff in that situation and, despite their...
Nicola Sturgeon: ...to, I am actually quite gobsmacked that that question has been put in that way by a Labour member of Parliament. Let me first give these facts: a record number of young people secured places at university in this latest Universities and Colleges Admissions Service cycle, and a record number of 18-year-old Scots have secured a university place. That number has gone up by 20 per cent since...
Stephen Kerr: ...the least disputed of any economic theory: it drives out private landlords and drives up homelessness. I will give a case in point, and I would like the minister to respond. Last September, the University of Glasgow, under the threat of rent controls, told students, “Postpone your courses—don’t turn up,” because of the shrinkage in the capacity of the Glasgow rental housing market.
Siobhian Brown: ...members have done in their contributions, I will focus on the view that we can tackle drug deaths by ending stigma and taking a public health approach. In 2005, the World Health Organization dubbed Glasgow the murder capital of Europe. In the previous year there had been?83 murders?in the city, where gangs were known for their crime culture. Police in Glasgow decided to rethink their...
Angus Robertson: ...widely and is, sadly, not unique to gaming. A recent paper entitled “Scotland’s Games Ecosystem—The State of Play: challenges and opportunities”, which was written by academics from the University of Glasgow and the University of Stirling in collaboration with the Scottish Games Network and InGAME, makes similar points in calling for the collection and publication of metrics that...
Penny Mordaunt: ...ever increase in the national living wage for 2 million workers. I hope that the hon. Member for Lewisham East (Janet Daby) is able to appreciate the modernisation of the welfare system that universal credit has brought. Without it, I think legacy systems would have collapsed during the pandemic. The wishes of the hon. Member for Nottingham South—that the ghost of Christmas future would...
Marion Fellows: ...else. In 2017, NHS Education for Scotland carried out an independent review of low vision service provision across Scotland. In contrast to England and Wales, the Scottish Government provide free, universal, NHS-funded eye examinations, which is really important, especially given the cost of living. Universal access to healthcare is one of the Scottish Government’s key priorities, which...
Kenny MacAskill: I congratulate the hon. Member for Glasgow North East (Anne McLaughlin) and others who have contributed to the debate. I agree entirely with their comments and sentiments. I want to comment on two aspects: “self-disconnection” and prepayment meters. I am a child of the ’60s. Families of that era will all remember, because they were universal, the strictures to switch off lights and the...
John Swinney: ...most. That builds on our on-going expansion of free school meals to all primary 6 and 7 pupils who are in receipt of the Scottish child payment, and is the next step in fulfilling our commitment to universal provision in primary schools from August 2024. We recognise that some of the children in poverty whose life chances face the greatest challenges are those who have experience of care....
Tom Arthur: ...relevant authorities—to establish and support annual reporting processes, including by developing an annual reporting template to capture the necessary data. We also commissioned researchers at Glasgow Caledonian University to carry out an evaluation of the first three years of asset transfer activity, which reported in July 2020. We set up a national asset transfer action group of...
David Linden: ...for Salford and Eccles (Rebecca Long Bailey), I want to pay tribute to organisations in my constituency, such as the Scottish Pantry Network and the Children’s Holiday Food Programme, funded by Glasgow City Council. This is a cross-party issue, too— the hon. Member for Broxbourne (Sir Charles Walker) is chair of the Country Food Trust, and his organisation donated 400 food pouches to a...
Alison Thewliss: ...to do that. I thank him very much for doing that; it is incredibly powerful. I also thank my hon. Friends the Members for Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East (Stuart C. McDonald) and for Glasgow North East (Anne McLaughlin), who fulfilled this portfolio role with great ability over the past couple of years. I am honoured to take it up following them; I have large shoes to fill. I...
Humza Yousaf: .... The scale of the challenges that we face has never been greater. The truth is that inequality has been exacerbated by years of austerity imposed by the UK Government. Recent evidence from the Glasgow Centre for Population Health and the University of Glasgow showed that a decade of cuts has damaged lives, made our communities more vulnerable and led to many dying before their time. Our...