Week beginning
Monday 23rd May
A clear diary for
Monday – hurrah! Catch-up time, and boy oh boy did I do catch-up. Left
the office of Monday evening feeling really virtuous after a day on my
own, locked door with no interruptions. Parliamentary Question time –
it was so long since I’d sorted out my PQs, cross-checked them and
considered supplementaries. Parliamentary Questions are an art in
themselves you know – the Civil Service (on behalf of Ministers) are
masters at only answering EXACTLY what’s been asked, so sometimes they
manage to bodyswerve the obvious issue and you end up having to ask
three or four questions to get the tiny nugget of information
required. This takes time of course – they have to answer within 14
days but often that’s a holding answer: “I
shall reply to the member as soon as possible”
– and then you can wait weeks. Of course there’s an exception to every
rule – this answer I got recently certainly gives more information
than asked for!
S2W-15650 - Linda
Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP)
: To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question
S2W-8744 by Peter Peacock on 16 June 2004, whether the target of
achieving an average pupil to modern computer ratio of 7.5:1 for
primary schools has now been met.
Answered by Peter Peacock (26 April 2005):
The latest information shows that the pupil: modern computer ratio in
primary schools has remained steady at 9:1 in 2002, 2003 and 2004. In
1988 the ratio was 34:1
Well, I don’t know
about you, but I don’t remember computers being particularly
common-place in 1988 – in fact that was round about when I first
encountered one in my place of work and a cumbersome beast it was. So,
if the Scottish Executive is using 1988 as the benchmark for
improvement then they’re bound to look good! Maybe they could go
further back to slide-rules or an abacus and look even better.
I realised during my PQ
Audit that since May 2003 I’ve asked and had answered 752 questions –
I always was a nosy so-and-so.
Tuesday and I managed
to attend some of the Kirk’s Church and Nation Committee deliberations
at the General Assembly. I always try to attend some of this every
year as it’s always so interesting – I managed to catch the sessions
on The Republic of Sudan, Identity Cards, and The Impact of Oil. The
proceedings are always very constructive and well-mannered and the
standards of submitted reports excellent. Talking of ‘constructive and
well-mannered’ I was delighted to end up sitting beside my old friend
and colleague, Colin Campbell. Colin of course was a fellow
Nationalist MSP from 1999 to 2003 and we shared an office for some
time. We went for coffee and I realised afresh just how much I miss
him. Colin was such a gent, always calm, reasoned and balanced – not
that the likes of Adam, Kenny, John et al are not gentlemanly of
course, and I’m sure all my male colleagues are particularly
well-balanced, but I think I’ll abandon this train of thought before I
get in any deeper.
Quick stint on the
radio during Tuesday, about Sexual Health and Teenage Pregnancy. I was
so impressed by the quality of contribution of two teenage girls who
were in the Glasgow studio. I hardly got a word in edgeways, but that
didn’t bother me at all because they spoke with such honesty and sense
that they were far more worth listening to than the likes of me. We
should listen more often to those who are living the situations we try
to legislate for or regulate. Of course with such a subject there are
views from all sides of the argument – real sensitivities around, and
that’s understandable, but one old chestnut came up again – “single
parents are bad”. My feathers always get ruffled by that one; I’ve met
screwed-up kids from two-parent families, screwed-up kids from
one-parent families, and perfectly reasonable kids from either!
Tuesday evening and
Morag and I hosted a visit from a Strathaven couple and their guest
from the Curtin University of Technology in Perth, Western Australia.
Martin, who is an architect himself, took loads of photographs of the
complex to take home to Oz and show to his colleagues. He really loved
it, with some reservations about the external view. We rounded the
evening off with dinner in the Parliament Restaurant – the restaurant
just gets better and better, super food and wonderful service (of
course the Hospitality Manager is from Strathaven!).
Now Wednesday was one
of these very strange parliamentary days. Started off with Communities
Committee in the morning of course and final session with the Minister
on the proposed Private Sector Housing Bill. I was pleased to realise
that the Minister had obviously listened carefully to some of the
Committee’s concerns and was willing to consider his position. We’ll
await the outcome of his deliberations!
It was lunchtime that
was strange!
I was delighted to wave
off the Jubilee 2005 Cyclists who are cycling to Kenya and Tanzania
(well, flying to Africa, cycling there, back to London and then
cycling to Edinburgh in time for the Make Poverty history rally on 2nd
July) to raise awareness of the need for debt cancellation. Good on
them! Managed to get the Parliament to donate around 500 pencils as
tokens to children (it’s difficult to get much more in the
saddlebags!), so thank you to Mr. Grice (Parliament Chief Executive)
for that. There was a suggestion that I ride one of the bicycles
myself for a photo-shoot, but point-blank refusal from me – there’s
nothing surer than that I would fall headfirst into one of the ponds
with my embarrassment filmed on the BBC for posterity. So, no way, as
they say – the last time I rode a bike for any distance was one of
those ones with the big basket in front, around Rothesay; these racing
contraptions look far too dangerous.
The Carrier Bag's got the
pencils in!
I moved from cyclists
to Romans – yes Romans. I know I told readers before about the
Perthshire based Antonine Guard who work to preserve Roman
archaeological heritage. Well, they presented their Public Petition to
Parliament – “… … … … to
enact new legislation to strengthen protective measures to prevent
further degradation … … … to reconfirm its support for the application
of the Antonine Wall and Gask ridge as World heritage sites … …”
I didn't even flinch!
Full petition and
associated details can be seen on
www.theantonineguard.org.uk
Back to reality and
Chamber in the afternoon – Statement on the National Health Service,
the ‘Kerr’ Report which was commissioned by the Executive to inform
the future direction of the Health Service. Lots of stooshie because
the Executive are refusing a debate on the report before the summer
recess. The reason given is apparently that the Health Minister wants
to “discuss matters with GPs,
doctors, consultants, communities, those with long-term chronic
conditions and people in our communities”.
I thought that the authors of the Report had been commissioned by the
Health Minister to do just that – silly me!
The debate of the
afternoon was about the Youth Congress which is to be held in August
in Stirling – young folk from 120 countries coming to discuss issues
following the G8 in Gleneagles. I’m particularly pleased that a couple
of delegates from East Timor will be there – the young people in East
Timor have suffered so much and are now at the forefront of rebuilding
their country, so their experiences will be invaluable.
The debate was good,
but I think I offended some of my MSP colleagues by my own opening
remarks:
Linda Fabiani
(Central Scotland) (SNP): A
short while ago, I looked up to see that the youngsters who had been
sitting in the gallery were leaving. No harm to any of us, but I
thought, "There was the youth of our country and they must have been
bored witless sitting up there listening to us talking."
Seriously – I think
some were offended! I stick by it though, and I include myself in the
castigation!
Rounded off the evening
with a quick informal dinner to discuss the future of the Scottish
Civic Forum. We’re no further forward with this as the Parliament’s
Corporate Body have not yet had the discussion. We’ve written to all
Party Leaders looking for support for my call that the Forum, as one
of the institutions of the new political settlement in Scotland,
should be core-funded by the Parliament direct. Waiting for responses.
Thursday morning in
Chamber and Fiona Hyslop leading the debate on behalf of the SNP,
discussing Student and Graduate debt. Fiona highlighted that, this
year alone, Scots graduates will be carrying a total debt of around
£731 million, and called on the Executive to take action, at the very
least to agree specific research into the subject. Scotland’s
graduates are the people most likely to leave Scotland, according to
the registrar general for Scotland, so Fiona’s concerns are valid. As
she says:“Scotland's fresh
talent off to make another country smart and successful”.
We need our own fresh talent as well as that from other places!
Talking of the Fresh
Talent Initiative– some of the PQ answers I got back were interesting.
I had asked about the Parliament’s recruitment policy with regard to
nationality, and similarly about the Scottish Executive. It seems that
the Parliament has no nationality requirement if someone has the right
to work in Scotland, but the Executive is bound by UK Civil Service
rules which say that an employee must be a citizen of the European
Union or a country of the Commonwealth. It doesn’t just apply to the
Civil Service per se, but also to the Executive agencies – the
Forestry Commission, the Prison Service, Communities Scotland etc.
etc. Jack McConnell can’t even deliver jobs for Fresh Talent
applicants in those workplaces he directly controls! Stymied before
it’s started. No applicants from the entire American Continent except
for Guyana, Belize or Canada no applicants from China, Indonesia or
Egypt. There are experts within their fields from all of these
countries – for example, forestry experts from South America – that
Executive agencies can’t even consider. Time we had our own rules, and
our own Civil Service. Time we had independence in fact!
Friday afternoon in
Chamber saw the passing of the legislation for the Prohibition of
Female Genital Mutilation. Unanimously agreed.
Some of us attended the
Theatre at lunchtime – that is the theatre attended us. The 7:84
Theatre Company has a particular project ongoing – ‘Voices’ – and the
Group performs plays written by and performed by those who are, or
have been homeless. Two powerful short plays followed by a discussion
session. Again, like I said earlier about the two teenage girls in the
radio discussion about sexual health, you can learn so much from those
who live the reality. Ending up homeless can happen to anyone, for a
myriad of circumstances, and without resources or appropriate help,
the spiral can become a downward one, at a heck of a speed. The
Homelessness legislation that has been passed by this Parliament is
certainly well-intentioned, but as I’ve said before, it’s about more
than just passing legislation – there’s resource issues in terms of
both finance and appropriate staff levels, social issues, differing
strategies required for categories of those affected – a young and
vulnerable man may need a different kind of help than a family, or an
elderly lady for example. I don’t believe we can ever totally
eradicate homelessness, but we’ve still a long way to go in
alleviation measures.
Friday, and my local
appointments were cancelled earlier in the week when everyone realised
it was a public holiday! So the Parliament is really quiet and down to
deskwork and computer work again. A great clearing up week! Lots of
constituency mail this week, much of it related to Disability Living
Allowance and Occupational Pensions, as well as housing, planning,
school and hospital matters. It’s a difficult path to steer sometimes
as an MSP – housing, planning and schools for example are generally
the remit of Local Authorities, and whilst they act within their
powers, there is nothing an MSP can do except make queries and find
out information. Sometimes, constituents think that the Parliament is
almost like an ‘Appeal Body’ that they can come to – the Public
Petitions Committee often has to inform petitioners that the Petition
is not valid because it’s a Local Authority matter rather than a
Parliament one. I suppose the reality is that the Parliament sets the
framework and the Local Authorities act within that framework. The
Public Services Ombudsman is there should someone believe that their
Council has acted wrongly, contrary to their agreed policies. Problem
is that folk think you’re trying to ‘pass the buck’ sometimes when
they wish you to act on a specific case rather than the general issue.
So, late home on Friday
for the rest of the holiday weekend. Campaigning in Cumbernauld on
Saturday though – sadly, a local authority by-election caused by the
untimely death of the doughty Councillor Margaret Murray. I remember
a long time ago working in the by-election at which she became a
Councillor. She’ll be missed.
Linda Fabiani
30th May 2005
