Holyrood Project

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at 4:20 pm on 5 April 2000.

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Photo of Mike Watson Mike Watson Labour 4:20, 5 April 2000

Yes, I have seen the designs, and I am aware that it is not just the Royal High School building. I am also aware that we would need to build a brand new chamber for the Parliament. What would happen to the civil servants based at St Andrew's House and the other buildings that they occupy?

We have to inject a dose of realism into the debate and stop the point scoring that we have had so far. Donald Dewar has been criticised for having made a decision on where the building should be sited when he was Secretary of State for Scotland. That decision was made in an attempt to ensure that, in the first session of this Parliament, we would have a new building to move into. He would have been hammered if he had not made that decision in his role as Secretary of State for Scotland and we had come here on day one with nowhere to go.

As Sir David Steel said, the building that we are in was taken on for two years. I have a great deal of time for Donald Gorrie and Margo MacDonald. I know that they are not trying to score party political points, but they have two things in common. One is that they both support Donald Gorrie's amendment and the other is that they have been categorically and implacably opposed to Holyrood from day one. That is where they are coming from, albeit from an acceptably non-political standpoint.

If we are to move ahead on the project, we must do so now. It would be intolerable to go through the whole first session of the Scottish Parliament without moving into the new building. We can still do that. Of course nobody can absolutely guarantee that the final figure will be £195 million—what project can honestly be absolutely guaranteed?—but Gordon Jackson's amendment puts the emphasis clearly on those continuing with the project to stick within the parameters and the time scale. That is why the amendment in the name of Gordon Jackson is worthy of support.