 The business this afternoon is the continuation of the debate on taking Scotland forward. Can I invite members who intend to speak this afternoon to press their request to speak buttons now? Can I invite the Cabinet Secretary for Education, Mr Swinney, to start off? Welcoming you to your post as the Presiding Officer and to your two deputies. Presiding Officer, there can be no greater responsibility than to ensure that each and every child and young person has a fair chance to succeed in our country. Fulfilling that responsibility will drive every moment of my term and office as Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills. Bluntly, we must get it right for every child in Scotland. We have great schools and great teachers right across Scotland. As education secretary, I will support the development of education in Scotland, publicly controlled and operating for the good of everyone in our country. For too many children in Scotland, the ability to succeed in life is determined by where you live rather than how hard you work. This Government is determined to bring that tragedy to an end. I will be focused on delivering three key priorities, each of them essential, to ensure the potential of every young person in Scotland that is fulfilled. Firstly, to ensure that our children and young people get the best start in life, I will focus on transforming early learning and childcare with a doubling of provision, the deployment of flexibility to help parents, particularly mothers, to return to work and an insistence on educational input to close the attainment gap before it begins to have profound impact. Secondly, by empowering teachers, parents and communities, by reducing workload, by ensuring funding reaches schools to meet local needs, by focusing on what works and by being relentless in our efforts to raise standards for all children, I will work to close the attainment gap for good. Thirdly, by widening opportunities to hire further and vocational education, I will ensure that every child has the same chance to progress. I will do everything in my power to break down the barriers that prevent young people from deprived backgrounds, progressing to the same levels as their more affluent peers. Closing the attainment gap and improving attainment across education in Scotland, in other words, the pursuit of equity and excellence will be the driving purpose of my tenure as education secretary. I believe that that aspiration is widely shared across this Parliament and across this country. My challenge is to bring the numerous and varied voices involved in this debate together to ensure that the pursuit of equity and excellence is translated into concrete actions that transform the life chances of young people in Scotland. That is why the summit on education, announced yesterday by the First Minister, is essential. It will focus on the actions that we need to take collectively to realise our ambition of closing the attainment gap and raising standards for all children in Scotland. It will inform the delivery plan that I intend to publish before the summer recess, a delivery plan anchored in the national improvement framework that was published in January, that will develop and set clear, precise and meaningful milestones on the road to closing the attainment gap. The summit on education is part of my commitment to listen, to listen to the views and the concerns that affect the performance of the education system in Scotland. One of the significant concerns that I have heard is about teacher workload as a consequence of change within the education system. I am going to act today to reduce that workload as my first step to improving performance in Scotland's schools. I am publishing the first report of the assessment and national qualifications group and implementing its recommended actions in full. Those commit the Scottish qualifications authority to reduce teacher workloads in 2016-17, by streamlining their requirements for unit assessment and simplifying verification for 2016-17. The SQA has published subject reviews that will further reduce teacher workload next year and beyond and is also publishing its evaluation reports that inform this process today. I have met the chief examiner for Scotland to press her to further reduce the burden of assessment and examination. She has advised me that the changes that I am announcing today go as far as it is safe to go at this stage in the process. To go further would reduce the value and damage the integrity of our national qualifications that could create risks to the secure delivery of the results and the system. I cannot jeopardise the ability of young people to obtain the qualifications to which they are properly entitled. However, I will ensure that the SQA continues to take all the actions that it can to achieve reductions in the workload and will meet with the chief examiner on a monthly basis to ensure that progress that is promised is progress delivered. I have also met the chief inspector of education and insisted that Education Scotland sets out clear national expectations around qualifications and assessment that will further reduce unnecessary workload for teachers and provide clarity where it is required on the curriculum. The chief inspector of education is writing to all schools with that statement this afternoon. I hope that there will be a recognition that within my first week in office I have acted firmly and decisively to address issues in front of me to reduce teacher workload and strengthen Scottish education. They are first steps in a journey to provide clarity and confidence within the education system, to reduce the workload of teachers and to enable teachers to do what they must always be doing and which they must be liberated to do, and that is to concentrate on delivering the educational potential of our young people in Scotland. Rising to the challenge set by the First Minister to make significant progress in closing the attainment gap within the lifetime of this Parliament and to substantially eliminate it within a decade falls on all of our shoulders. This will not be an easy challenge, but it is one to which I am absolutely dedicated. I hope that we can all be united in our efforts to deliver on this ambition, to build equity and excellence in Scottish education. We owe that to every child and young person in our country today. John Mason to be followed by Murdo Fraser. John Mason Thank you, Presiding Officer. Can I take this opportunity of congratulating you on your achievement of this position, which I think is very well deserved? I can also, following the previous speech, congratulate John Swinney on his move to the education post. I have to say that I am somewhat disappointed at the same time that he is leaving finance and I realise that Derek Mackay has a huge challenge to follow. Anyway, the main points that I would like to make are on a few topics, and the first one I would like to touch on is housing, which is very important for my constituency in Glasgow-Shetleston. I certainly want to welcome very much the commitments that are being made by this SNP Government and especially the 50,000 affordable homes that are to be an absolute key part of this. As has been said before, when we improve our housing stock, not only are we improving the housing itself, but we are dealing with health problems, where people have been living in cold and damp housing, we are helping with education so that kids get a better place to study in and we are helping with household budgets as energy costs come down. Of course, there are still challenges in the housing sector, not least in the private rented sector, and I welcome the moves forward that have already been made in this field, but I think that there is a feeling amongst many of us that this is not a completed task. There is also the problem with owner-occupied stock, especially tenants, with owners not being able or sometimes not being willing to properly maintain them. Members who have been here before will not be surprised if I mentioned the Bellgrove hotel under the subject of housing. That is effectively a homeless hostel for 140 men in my constituency and is subject to virtually no regulation whatsoever. I have mentioned it over the last five years and I plan to continue mentioning it in the coming five years. I know that if that could be sorted, I and many local constituents would be very happy. On health, I think that we want to welcome the record funding commitment and protection from cuts that very few other sectors of the budget are getting, but that does not mean that there is no pressure on the health budget. With more people living longer and often with complex conditions, meeting demand is definitely going to be a challenge. I also very much welcome the commitment that the share being dedicated to mental health and to primary and community care is to increase each year. The previous finance committee emphasised preventive spending and, frankly, I would like to see more emphasis on GPs and perhaps less on hospitals. On mental health, I welcome the plan for specialised link workers in GP practices and deprived areas. People come to see me about housing, anti-social behaviour and many other issues, but often I suspect that there can be a mental health problem in there as well. From speaking to other organisations and the constituency, I think that they have the same experience. It seems to me that the more we can treat people as whole human beings and not separate out the physical and mental into silos, the more likely it is that we are going to achieve healthier individuals. The profile of mental health was definitely raised over the last five years, and I think that we should pay tribute to Jim Hulme, among others, for really emphasising that. My feeling, indeed, my hope is that over the next five years, the subject will continue to have a high profile. On local government, I do very much welcome a review of local authorities, and especially the suggestion that functions should be decentralised. There are a host of reasons why council boundaries are as they are, with incredible differences between Clackmannanshire, the islands and larger cities like Glasgow. The regions of Scotland are very different, and we should not try to impose arbitrary uniformity on the councils. However, I feel that Glasgow as a city is far too centralised. There are big differences between the west and east of the city, between the south and the north, so local authorities may well be given increased remits, for example, on health, but I would argue that they should also be prepared to devolve power down to much more of a community level. It is probably appropriate, therefore, to mention community councils at this stage. As their name suggests, they are part of our system, closest to our local communities. However, I do fear some of them, especially in an area such as Mine in the City, are struggling and are kept together by a small band of older people. That is a subject that we need to look at over the next five years. On rail, I only started one cross-party group in the last Parliament, and that was on rail. That is the kind of subject where MSPs across the parties can join together in an area of common interest and work to see what we can do on that. Projects near my area, such as Glasgow Crossrail, would be great to see them moving forward. We have seen, over the past few years—especiall even last winter—how important it is to have back-up rail routes in place. With the problems of the Lamington Viaduct and currently with the Queen Street high-level tunnel closed, that would be an important issue to push forward. The First Minister and her speech yesterday mentioned the word controversy. Even if we are a minority administration, we should not shy away from controversial subjects at times, so I would like just to mention two of those. First, the named person. I fully support this policy. It helps vulnerable families, perhaps especially in constituencies such as mine, know where to go from help. In the past, people have been passed from pillar to post, and I accept that, in the better off areas that the Tories are emphasising, there is maybe not so much need for a named person and for that kind of help. However, a lot of ordinary folk in my constituency are not confident challenging professionals, and this scheme should help them when they look for help. Secondly, offensive behaviour at football. Like all legislation, that is not perfect, but in Glasgow in the west of Scotland we continue to have a problem with sectarianism, anti-Catholicism and anti-Irish racism. If better legislation can be introduced, I am personally very open to that, but we should not repeat the mistake of the past and not talk about sectarianism in the hope that it goes away. It has not gone away and we need to tackle it and the danger of repealing this act would be that it would leave a vacuum. I am very much looking forward to the next five years. We have party political issues and we will all line up in our tribes at times, but I hope that we can also have sensible and balanced debates and look at some subjects on their own merits. Thank you, Mr Mason. I call Murdo Fraser to be followed by Stuart Stevenson. Thank you. I start by welcoming you to your office and congratulating you on your election. I have considerable experience in losing elections personally, so I will not hold against you the fact that you managed to defeat me. I am sure that you will undertake the duties of your office with great distinction, and I welcome to your deputies being appointed. I also welcome and congratulate the Deputy First Minister on his new appointment as education secretary. I listened with great interest to what he had to say just a few moments ago, particularly around teacher workload. He will, I think, be gratified here that Mrs Fraser will be delighted that teacher's workload is likely to be reduced under his tenure. It is encouraging to hear the Scottish Government talking about the need to seek consensus around education. We on this side of the chamber are bursting with ideas on education, and I hope that the Scottish Government will be prepared to take some of those at least on board. It is perhaps a little curious that a party that has been in power for nine years is only now looking for cross-party consensus on how to improve education, but, nevertheless, in the spirit to which the offer is made, we will respond with enthusiasm, and later my colleague Elizabeth Smith will set out in more detail some of our ideas to improve education in Scotland. I want to concentrate on what is the Scottish Government's other priority, which is the future of the Scottish economy, because I think that the greatest challenge facing Scotland today and the Scottish Government is how to improve our economic performance. Something essential in itself, as a strong economy, underpins everything else that we do. It provides the well-paid jobs that people need, it provides the homes for people to live in and the transport links that they need to travel on. Crucially, it also provides the tax revenue that the Scottish Government needs to fund its spending, because that will be the first Scottish Parliament, where a substantial proportion of the money that we spend has to be raised right here in Scotland. If the Scottish economy underperforms, then there is less tax revenue and less money to spend, so our economic performance is absolutely vital to everything else that we do here. The sad fact is that the Scotland's economy is not performing as well as it should be. Just last week, the economist John McLaren produced a new report entitled challenges facing the new economic secretary with regards to Scotland's economic performance, and it does not make happy reading. According to the report, Scotland's economy did not perform well in 2015 and prospect to 2016 and beyond our gloomy. The construction sector is likely to stall or even fall back after a record-breaking performance in 2015, and the downturn in North Sea activity is likely to be on-going for some years to come. 2015 saw a record trade imbalance for Scotland with a fall in Scottish exports to the rest of the UK. The latest report backs up a series of recent data, also raising concern. Our unemployment rate is now substantially higher than the rest of the UK, and the gap is growing. GDP growth lags behind the rest of the UK. Retail sales are showing a downward trend, and business confidence is low and far behind the UK as a whole. When Scotland's economic performance was relatively better than the rest of the UK, Scottish ministers were very quick to claim credit for that. Now that the position is reversed, they have to take at least some of their responsibility. They can no longer hide behind the mantra that they do not have enough powers, given the extensive control over taxation that this Parliament already enjoys. However, it is perhaps in the area of industry and manufacturing that we have not seen the greatest concern. A series of closures in recent months and years have decimated the sector. Tullis Russell in Fife, the Karen Phoenix plant in Falkirk, with a history going back hundreds of years. Longannock Power Station in Fife, Texas Instruments in Greenock, Tannoy and Coatbridge, which Richard Leonard referred to yesterday. Polaroid Eyewear in Western Bartonshire is a question mark over the future of the aluminium smelter in Fort William. The well-publicised decline in oil and gas, the well-notified decline in oil and gas and job losses in the North Sea. The de-industrialisation of Scotland is upon us at a far more rapid pace than we have seen in the past. I will take an intervention now from Mr Ewing. I thank you for allowing me to intervene, but would Mr Fraser not allow me to temper the doom and gloom of this litany of negativity by pointing out that, amongst recent successes, the Scottish Government has played its part in saving the Scottish steel industry and that, just this week, we have seen the announcement for the umpteenth year in succession that, when it comes to inward investment, Scotland has outperformed just about every other part of the UK and delivered a record of 115 inward investments. My point is this. Should Mr Fraser not allow some of the positive facts to enter his speech? It is very interesting that the comments on foreign direct investment, the number of projects has indeed gone up on 2014. We might reflect why they had gone down so much in the run-up to 2014. It might have been something to do with the constitutional uncertainty created by Mr Ewing and his party. Of course, we do not know what the value of those foreign direct investment jobs and projects is. We know that the number of projects has gone up, but we do not know what the value of them is and we do not have a proper comparison. I welcome any good news. Tell me the value, please do. Mr Ewing. The value of one of Norbord is spending £95 million and building a new plant near Inverness, which is going to serve the community in over 35 years. I hope that you will give me some time back. Yes, I will do Mr Fraser. I will. Thank you. I notice that Mr Ewing could not answer my questions about the value of those projects. However, what needs to be done is determined to be an effective and constructive opposition. We will not be shy in coming forward with practical suggestions for the direction of Scottish Government policy. We have a full debate next week on the economy. I will set out in more detail what we would do, but business rates is one policy area that has been fully devolved since 1999. What has been the SNP's response in government to treat the business community as a cash cow and a high business rates by 42 per cent in nine years, at the same time as householders have enjoyed a council tax freeze? In its most recent budget, the former finance secretary went even further, doubling the supplement for large businesses and removing the exemption for industrial properties for empty property rates. All those measures are going in entirely in the wrong direction. Little wonder has been denounced by leading figures in the business community who have expressed great concern, as Brian Buckin of Scottish Engineering put it, that the imposition of an additional levy on business rates is a burden that an already struggling manufacturing and engineering sector can ill afford. I will say much more next week about what we would do differently in relation to the Scottish economy. We need to see investment in skills. We need to see a reversal of the SNP's swinging cuts to our colleges, taking away from young people the opportunity to learn the skills that they need to improve their ability to compete in the workforce, and we need proper investment in infrastructure, not least broadband. Scotland's economic performance needs to be turned around. We need a Government with ambition to make that happen. If the SNP Government is prepared to step up to the plate, it will have our support, but we will not be shy of coming forward with concrete proposals as a higher economy can be improved. Thank you, Mr Fraser. I call Stuart Stevenson to be followed by Mark Griffin. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer, and let me join others in welcoming you to the post. I hope for a favourable disposition from all your decisions. When I became a minister in 2007, one of the first events that I recall was the whole ministerial team sitting in Bute House listening to the chief medical officer, Harry Burns. Harry Burns was talking to us about the effect of poverty on very young children and how that would blight their existence for their whole life. In his opening remarks, the new cabinet secretary, John Swinney, putting early learning at the heart of what he wanted to say to us, chimed absolutely with what Harry Burns said to the ministerial team in 2007 and resonates with me to this day. If we do not get it right at the beginning, we sure as heck will get it wrong at the end. I very much welcome all the initiatives that will be supporting mothers back to work, supporting children before they get to school and increasing the investments in communities where there are particular needs due to social and economic circumstances. I, like John Mason, will pursue one or two of my obsessions. I will continue from time to time to suggest to any education minister that the Trachtemburg system for mental arithmetic is worthy of further consideration. I myself was a pretty indifferent student at all levels of my studying. Fortunately, I was brought up in a house filled with books and, essentially, I am an autoded act self-taught. I therefore have no one to blame for my shortcomings but myself. I represent an area with substantial rural communities and it is interesting to go around the schools and see how different they are from the schools in urban communities. The relationships between teachers and pupils are quite different, more intimate and more knowledge on both parties of what is going on. The response that I get from one of my standard questions that I ask when I am at a rural primary school is that I ask everyone who has driven the tractor to put their hand up. The really good news is that in the majority of cases these days there are more of the young girls in the rural schools who have put their hand up to having driven the tractor than the young men. If that tells us anything about some of the things that are changing in society, that is good. I have a longer run experience of rural schools. My grandfather started teaching in a rural school in 1881 as a pupil teacher, ending his career in 1926 in Peddison school in the Black Isle. The world was very different. There was a single teacher school, even though there were over 20 pupils. My grandmother made soup for the pupils from the vegetables that the pupils brought to the school. The infrastructure was very limited. Today, schools are resourced in a very different way and work in very different buildings. Education is not now simply face-to-face. It can be online as well. That is important for rural communities and for tertiary education in those communities. That is why it is important that we get rural broadband up to the speeds that we require. I very much welcome the commitment that the Government has made to provide 100 per cent of premises in Scotland with rural broadband by the end of this parliamentary session. My wife in particular is looking forward to that as she reported to me yesterday that broadband was running at 50 kilobits per second. Of course, it is also worth thinking how important communication is more generally for rural communities. The Romans were a much more successful empire than the Greeks because they had an effective system of communication. The Greeks did not. The Romans could get a message from Londinium to Roma in 24 hours by a system of hilltop signalling. Thankfully, we have moved on a little bit from that. However, let us remember that as recently as 1957, the very first speech call was made across the Atlantic. That was something in my living memory. I remember my father having to make a call across the Atlantic in 1958 in relation to a patient that he had. In my constituency, tertiary education is at a lower level. The lower proportion of my constituents have a tertiary qualification than most of the constituencies in Scotland. That has been for a good reason historically because lots of school leavers have been able to go straight into employment. The world in future is going to be more difficult and education is going to play an important role in helping people into new jobs, into new long-term employment. That is why I particularly welcome the substantial investment that has been in the North East College in Fraserborough. The campus there is gleaming and efficient and ready for the 21st century. The number of apprentices—I am in my last minute, Mr Johnson—has risen dramatically. That is because we are focusing on the tertiary sector delivering people that are fit to work. That helps the economy, but it helps individuals. A rural area like mine particularly benefits from the policies of this Government, please keep it up, Education Secretary. Thank you, Mr Stevenson. I call on Mark Griffin to be followed by Sandra White. I think that to take Scotland forward, we first need to take a look at the jobs and industries that will take us there. Those will be the highly skilled, high-paid jobs and science, engineering and technology. There just is not a future for Scotland as a low-skill, low-wage economy. There is not a future competing with developing countries for those jobs and how we give our young people or people who want to retrain the education skills they need to get a job in a high-tech industry will play a massive part in how we take Scotland forward. There is a big prize to aim for there. According to research, over 7 million jobs in the UK will depend on science skills by 2030. Those STEM jobs are exactly the kind of jobs that we need high-quality, highly-skilled and highly-paid jobs that other emerging economies will struggle to compete with us for. I think that there are three big challenges for the Government in that area. There is a stubborn attainment gap that has to be wiped out. The barriers to women in science need to be removed and college cuts should be reversed to allow them to return to being places of lifelong learning for people who need a second chance at education or to retrain. I see that the Deputy First Minister's title is Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills. That is a change from the previous Cabinet Secretary who was for education and lifelong learning. I say gently that, while accepting that lifelong learning is being dropped as simply a change in name, it seems to match the emphasis that the Government has placed on education, where adult learners have been disproportionately affected by cuts to college budgets and places. Colleges used to be valued for their roles in communities for lifelong learning, and that is something that the Government should return to so that people have the ability to retrain for the opportunities and industries of the future. I studied mechanical engineering at university, a key source of skills and graduates for our growing and changing energy sector, among others, and a course that provides fantastic opportunities for high-skilled, high-paid work. There were 120 students on my course, and four of them were women. That is four women out of 120, studying one of the top courses in the country for highly-paid, highly-skilled work. When I spoke to graduates and undergraduates recently, things have not changed much since I was there. How this Government opens up careers in science and technology to half of our population will determine how successful they are in taking the country forward. A career in science and technology should be attainable for every child who starts school this August. Too many young people will not get the right qualifications to train for a highly skilled job in the sector because of their background rather than their ability. Educational inequality is a symptom of a deeper problem of poverty, which we need to address. The focused nature of any programme is vital. I live in Cumbernauld, and the variation in educational attainment across that one town is massive. In the council ward of Cumbernauld North, the child poverty level is 8 per cent—a level that is far too high. However, we just need to cross the footbridge. Two minutes over the M80, where child poverty jumps to a staggering 23 per cent, and the difference in child poverty impacts on the educational attainment of young people, which can stop them breaking out of that vicious cycle of poverty. The measures that the Government takes forward to tackle the attainment gap must be focused on the most deprived communities and children from the most deprived backgrounds. There has been a massive increase in the use of private tutors in recent years, and welfare families have the ability to give their children an extra boost compared with children and families who cannot afford it. It is used when a child is struggling on a particular subject or to help in their run-up to exams and in itself is not a bad thing. Where is the support for the people from the poorer background when they are struggling or need that support during exam time? Wealthier families also use the placing request system to move their children out of a seemingly low-performing school to one with a better reputation, because they can afford to pay the transport costs by reinforcing the attainment gap rather than reversing it. Those are the things that parents do to ensure that their kids have the best chance to succeed, but the Government has to level the playing field and make sure that all kids have those opportunities. Wraparound care such as breakfast or homework clubs support study sessions outwith school hours during exam times, which do not just rely on the goodwill of our overstretched teachers. Education cuts reversed at an increased attainment fund, focused at the individual children who need it most, paid for through progressive taxation. The Government will have our support in taking Scotland forward if it is willing to be bold to stop the cuts, to increase investment in education or to rely on support from the other side of the chamber to do the opposite. Thank you, Mr Griffin. I call Sandra White to be followed by Mark Ruskell. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. May I also congratulate yourself and your deputies on your election and wish you well in your role? I am sure that you will have no difficulty whatsoever in keeping order in the chamber, and I do not look over at any particular person or bench, but I am sure that you will have no difficulty whatsoever in keeping order in the chamber. I also want to welcome the classes of 2016, both returning and new members, all of which I am sure will serve their constituents well in the Scottish Parliament. To members who are not returned or retired, I thank them all for their service to the Scottish people, and I wish them every success for their future. Yesterday, the First Minister set out the Government's priorities for this Parliament term, and one phrase that stood out for me in particular was that of equality of opportunity, something that I have strived for throughout my political life, whether it be here in Scotland nationally or internationally, and I am very proud to be part of a Government that has put that at the very heart of its agenda. I welcome the Cabinet Secretary's education opening remarks and statements as someone who came into further education in my thirties—not that long ago, I will say. I do know and value our education system, and I am very pleased that the First Minister has put education as a defining mission of this Government, recognising that a good education is paramount if every child is to have a fair start in life. More important than that, however, is the recognition that the years before and after school years are very crucial in any child's life. In fact, it is the defining of that fair start, that equality of opportunity. I do welcome the baby box, the introduction of maternity and early years allowances, which gives financial support to low-income parents and the expansion of the attainment fund. I think that that is very important for the early years start as well. Additional apprenticeships, widening access to university, helping young people to work through college places, skills and training, and I look forward to the publication of the draft delivery plan, which involves parents, teachers, local authorities and trade unions. The involvement of all those groups is key to the success of further attainment for all our children before and after school. That leads me on very neatly to an area that is very close to my heart, community involvement and community empowerment. As a constituency MSP, Glasgow-Kelvin, I have worked very closely with the local groups in my area, and the issue that is most often raised with them is the lack of community involvement by all groups and areas in regard to that. In my opinion, giving local people greater decisions that affect them and their communities is really so important from health boards to community planning partnerships. That is one thing that I would ask the cabinet secretary, the First Minister, and I think that that is really important. It has been raised with me numerous occasions, and I sincerely hope that that will lead to members of the public being able to be members of health boards and community planning partnerships. For too often, one of the areas that has been raised with me, and I am sure others as well, is that only professionals who are on those boards and organisations are not necessarily patients or members of the public. I sincerely hope that we will look at that to ensure that members of the public are able to sit on those boards or organisations as well. To become fully involved in community empowerment act, local communities really need to know exactly what it stands for. They need to be fully involved in the actual legislation as well. I know that they were when it first was a tear to and put out for consultation, but too many members of the communities that I represent and others also are not too sure sometimes exactly what it means about community empowerment and what the act actually stands for. We can stand here and say that it means that we are involved, but what does it mean to them? That is why I took the liberty today by approaching the cabinet secretary, Angela Constance, to seek a meeting in relation to organising seminars for groups and local people within my constituency, so that we can have local meetings throughout Kelvin with local groups and actually let them know exactly what it means for local empowerment I think that it is very important. People have some great ideas that they want to get involved, but sometimes the legislation is a wee bit frightened about approaching not just local representatives but Parliament as well and the legislation which that involves. I hope that I will have a meeting shortly with the cabinet secretary and we can set these seminars as I would call them up after September when we come back to Parliament. Presiding Officer, I am very proud to be a member of this Government, a member of, I would say, the team. I may not be a minister or a cabinet secretary, but I am a long-standing supporter of what our party stands for and what this Government actually stands for. For many, many years I have often said that, and I say it all the time, it is not from the top down, it works from the bottom up. I think that this Government has got exactly right when it goes to local communities, asks local people what it is that they want. It is the only way that we are going to get anywhere and make this a better country by asking the people what it is that they want and by action to have consultation, meaningful consultation, with the people of this country. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Thank you, Ms White. I call Mark Ruskell to be followed by Ivan McKee. Thank you Presiding Officer and I would like to declare an interest, understanding orders. I still remain as a councillor at Stirling Council, might not be forever, but I also congratulate you on your position within this Parliament as well. It has been nine years since I last stood here in this chamber as an MSP representing communities across Mid Scotland and Fife. I am delighted and humbled to be given this role for the second time. My old office from 2004 on the garden level suits me just fine. I would like to thank the Parliament staff for the welcome that I have had over the last few weeks and the kind words from many members. Listening to this debate over the last two days, I sense that this is a Parliament that has some of the freshness of that first session in 1999, particularly given the large influx of new members. There is also much of the political diversity that flavour the rainbow Parliament of the second session, and it was good to hear Labour members, for example Richard Lennon and Mark Griffin, dig deep into their party's socialist roots and find resonance in the struggles facing workers and communities today. It was also interesting to hear from the big tent of unusual suspects that has popped up over there on the right, from Maurice Golden to Annie Wells. I wish Mr Golden had got a job perhaps as Moto Fraser's speechwriter, but I thank him instead for announcing that the Tories are opposed to waste incineration in Scotland. Interesting news. There is also some of the finely balanced parliamentary maths of the third session that I hope will deliver a listening Government with the strongest constructively critical Parliament to date. In that vein, I welcome, along with Rhoda Grant, the meeting that the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport, Fergus Ewing, convened yesterday, focused on delivering an immediate solution to the cat payments fiasco, while respecting that this Parliament will want to forensically pick over the lessons learned when the time is right. I welcome again the First Minister's commitments, as Patrick has already done, to the green proposals for supporting young carers and the result of this Parliament to deliver, as Christine McKelvie described yesterday, a welfare system that delivers dignity, not disdain. There is much that unites us across this chamber and much cross-party work to do, from extending childcare to mental health to providing new affordable housing to supporting small business. However, there are fault lines in the chamber, and the rot of austerity that has been creeping through local government in recent years must be halted. As Nicola Sturgeon said yesterday, we need to put local communities more in charge of decisions. However, the hollowing out of capacity in local government that I have seen over the last four years has been devastating. Yes, there has been efficiency savings that makes sense. Digital service delivery is one area, integration of health and social care but there have also been cuts that are borne down particularly on women and the vulnerable, which are inexcusable. Let me take the central theme of this debate, school education. While Jenny Gilruth gave a compelling first speech in this chamber, most teachers in Scotland would not recognise the picture that she painted. While funding for teacher numbers is protected and there has been a consensus on delivering targeted attainment funds, the Government has to recognise that council cuts, where education makes up to 40 per cent of revenue budgets, are biting hard. With rising class sizes, cuts to additional support and specialists, cuts to teacher training and resource budgets, the ability of schools and nurseries to drive attainment is being stretched to breaking point. Do not even mention national testing to primary teachers with class sizes of 32 who are taking 100 jotters home to mark every night. I welcome the fact that cabinet secretary has come to this chamber here today, announcing the work that he is undertaking with SQA. However, if there is a crisis in education, it does not come from the implementation of child protection laws, as Ruth Davidson would have us believe. It comes from the austerity that council education departments are facing and the erosion of core resources and specialist support. Patrick Harvie reflected on Nicola Sturgeon's commitment to participatory budgeting, and most councils are moving towards budget consultations, but it is all about choices over cuts. Would you rather see school music tuition or rural bus services go, or have head teachers split between three schools or road maintenance budgets cut? Ruth Crawford wonders why he puts education as being weaponised? The top question that I have asked at every participatory budget meeting is why cannot we raise more money to protect local public services? That is the question that this Government must answer if it is serious about empowerment. The Scottish Government must apply the same principles of fiscal autonomy and a fair fiscal framework between Holyrood and Westminster to the relationship between Scottish local government and Holyrood. I am pleased that the First Minister has agreed to implement in full her poverty advisers report, but she will note that a key recommendation was to be bold on tax. As Alex Rowley said, we cannot deliver Scandinavian levels of public services with American levels of taxation. It is time for action to create bold, progressive reform of our tax system, one that lowers the burden on those who cannot afford to pay more while ensuring that those with broader shoulders, including MSPs and the many public sector executives earning over £150,000 a year in Scotland, pay more. I will turn briefly to climate change. We have a moral obligation to set the most ambitious climate targets that reflect our position as a renewable rich country, but there is much that we can gain too. We can create jobs, we can tackle fuel poverty, we can tackle the chronic obesity crisis that we have in our communities, we can link communities that are disconnected from the rail network by investing our infrastructure in low-carbon infrastructure for the future. There is much to talk about in this chamber, and I am sure that we will get on to many other of those topics next week. From the green benches, we will challenge, we will provide ideas, we will provide ambition and boldness in this climate. We will be constructively critical in our scrutiny. I look forward to all of us playing that role in the next five years. In Alexander Park, in my constituency, there is a wrot iron fountain, a proud and iconic symbol of that part of the estends that many would recognise. It is manufactured in the Saracen Foundry for the 1901 Great Exhibition, a reminder of our great industrial heritage. A heritage that is dismantled by the misguided policies of successive UK Governments is symbolic of the decline of this part of Glasgow from industrial powerhouse to a buy-word for underachieving and disadvantaged communities. I want to talk to you today about ambition, about opportunity and about how this Scottish Government's programme to take Scotland forward is designed to deliver for the people of Scotland and the people of Glasgow province. First, I want to thank my predecessor, Paul Martin, for his 23 years of public service to the people of this part of Glasgow. I wish Paul every success and whatever he chooses to do next. There is life after politics, as well as before it, as I know. In my previous life, I worked all over the world building businesses and creating jobs. Witnessing how countries with far fewer natural resources and human potential in Scotland have built fairer and more prosperous societies than we have enjoyed. The value of a strategic focus on supporting innovation in building an industrial base. Scotland under this SNP Government is making good progress. Continued growth and inward investment, 50 per cent up on last year. Scotland now with higher average wages in the UK, but we are still far too many left behind. Our historical productivity gap with the rest of the UK now almost wiped out. Scotland benefiting from higher profile internationally and increased confidence at home, but there is still so much more to do. Presiding Officer, this is my first speech in this Parliament and I want to use this time to talk about my constituency of Glasgow province. I want to talk about young people with ideas. Maiream Alloy and George Smith here today in the gallery. Two young people from Provind with ambition starting their own unique businesses in the premium retail sector and in the music business, both helped by Connick's Enterprise initiative, run by Johnny Walker here today as well. Thank you very much for coming along and listening to the debate today. I want to talk about the steps that the Scottish Government is taking to create opportunities for young people. 30,000 modern apprenticeships are increasingly focused on technology. The opportunities for all programme are offering a place in learning or training to every 16 to 19-year-olds. The STEM strategy to inspire young people to engage with technology and the jobs grant supporting young people into employment policies to deliver this Government's target to reduce youth unemployment by 40 per cent in the lifetime of this coming Parliament. I want to talk about entrepreneurs with established businesses from across my constituency who come to me with great ideas for new processes and new technologies, new ways to expand and create jobs, driving innovation, the lifeblood of new business and a strong economy. Something that I understand from my experience of growing and exporting business from scratch and something that the SNP Government understands is focusing on the enterprise agencies to support innovation for start-up businesses. I want to talk about the countless small businesses across Proven who have benefited significantly from the small business bonus and about established East End businesses with great plans to grow. Locally on Totspots, a UK market leader in their sector, with a largely female workforce designing and manufacturing environmentally friendly baby products supplying the finished baby box and ready to supply her own Scottish baby box, creating jobs locally. Soapworks, originally part of Anita Roddy's body shop, now locally owned and still maintaining her legacy of ethical business after 30 years in the East End. I urge members to support motions that I will have circulating in support of both of those businesses in the next day or so. And about what this Scottish Government is doing to help businesses, particularly those who seek to expand into new markets, reviewing the business rate system to ensure it supports economic growth and job creation, maintaining the most competitive business tax environment in the UK, ensuring 100 per cent access to super-fast broadband, pressurising the UK Government to adopt the prompt payment codes so that small businesses do not have to wait for their cash, creating new international investment hubs, trebling the number of export advisers committing to massive infrastructure investment, £5 billion in rail alone in the coming Parliament, and reducing the burden of APD facilitating more direct flights to the markets that we need to expand into. I want to talk about the jobs fairs that we are running in my constituency and local communities across Proven, working with Anne McLaughlin MP and her team, linking up those seeking employment with local businesses, looking for skilled people and the range of support services available, practical help at a local level, building confidence and building aspiration. The economic development is about more than just the bottom line. It is about the proud record that the Scottish Government has leading the way internationally on inclusive growth, not only because it is the right thing to do but because we know that tackling inequality boosts productivity. The women and enterprise action framework, the 10-year strategy to grow and develop social enterprises, the partnership for change campaign supporting gender balance and the business pledge encouraging progressive practices in the workplace. For too long, we have accepted the lack of ambition, the lack of aspiration. This Government's programme is focused on being able to do Scotland, and that message is nowhere more important than the areas that I represent. To build a fairer Scotland, a more prosperous Scotland, this SNP Government is taking Scotland forward. First, I am told that I need to say for the register of interests at the time of Aberdeenshire Farmer. As I stand here before you to make my first speech in our Parliament, I am thinking to myself, crikey, how on earth did this happen? I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those voters who have put their faith in me. I know from the conversations that I had with voters across the north-east that they want us to do a job. They want us to hold the Government to account, provide the strong opposition that has been lacking over the last five years and stand up against the second referendum. That we will do. I have the great privilege to be representing a large and diverse area, whether that is Dundee's vibrant gaming industry, the great smokies of our broth, the energy capital of Europe in Aberdeen, or my own corner of the bochen coast, famous for farming and fishing. I am looking forward to representing all of my constituents, no matter who they voted for or if indeed they voted. My role is to ensure that they have a strong voice in me, and that is something I take incredibly seriously. Of course, I also have an important role in helping Ruth and the rest of the Shadow Cabinet in focusing on rural economy and connectivity. I look forward to working closely with the Minister on fixing the mistakes of his predecessor and ensuring that farmers and fishermen have someone they can work with effectively, someone they can trust, and someone they can rely on to help tackle their challenges. I campaigned on a wide variety of issues, from improving the road network in my corner, revitalising our town centres, addressing the shortage of local GPs, or ensuring that school leavers have the option of attending good quality colleges. Closest to my heart are those on rural affairs. While a great many issues came up through the campaign, what became obvious to me very quickly was that rural communities feel badly let down by their Government. Farmers across the country are still waiting their full CAP payments. Despite the fact that the SNP promised that at least 70 per cent of payments would be made by last December, this mess needs to be cleared up and the remaining money is paid out as quickly as possible. If that process is not 95 per cent completed by the 30th of June, then EU fines of up to £125 million may be imposed. Most recently, the EU has poised to withdraw licences for glyphosate, which is better known as roundup. Despite the European Parliament having approved an extension, we may lose it. We across this chamber must do everything we can to ensure that farmers are able to do their jobs and that more vital crop products are not lost. It is time for the Scottish Government to face up to the fact that rural communities need support, not spend. Farmers need to know that this Government will stand up for them no matter what. Not leave farmers and the rural economies that they contribute so much to twisting in the wind. The rural economy is not just found in farmers' fields, it is also found in the fishing ports up and down Scotland, whether on the west coast or at my local towns of Fraserborough and Peterhead. Fishing has long been a vital part of our country's economy and food security, and fishermen face enormous challenges. Challenges that we must take seriously and take action on if we want to safeguard this vital industry for the future. We need to be standing up for our fishermen on issues such as the discard ban, making sure that measures used to enforce the ban are universal across the EU and do not aggressively target our fishermen. When I visited the fish market in Peterhead, which is incidentally the biggest white fish market in Europe, with Ian Duncan and MEP last year, I saw firsthand the incredible work that our fishermen do. 8,000 boxes of fish on the market floor is a sight to see. Fishermen need confidence that their Government is fighting for them, and I hope to assist in ensuring that the Scottish Government keeps their eye on the ball when it comes to their issues. To ensure the continued success of our rural businesses and allow them to grow, we need to make sure that they have the right infrastructure, whether that is high-speed broadband and rural settlements across the country, or expanded mobile phone coverage for farmers in their fields, or improving vital road links, such as the A90, to get fishermen's products from the key side to shops' shelves. Connecting our country beyond the central belt must be a priority for this Government. More and more, we have seen the Scottish Government pursue an agenda that brings power to Edinburgh and strips away the ability to make decisions at local level. Increasingly, we can see the Government taking away power and responsibility, not just from councils, but from families and parents. Essentially, the SNP does not trust individuals to take decisions for their own areas, and they do not trust parents to look after their children without a named person looking over their shoulder. I look forward to standing up for not just my corner of the north-east, but the whole of rural Scotland, and everyone who needs a strong voice in the Scottish Parliament. Thank you, Mr Chapman. I call Ash Denham to be followed by Claire Baker. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I would like to start by recognising the substantial contribution made by my predecessor, Kenny MacAskill. He served his constituents ably and moved the Scottish justice agenda forward considerably during his time as Cabinet Secretary. I am privileged to represent the constituency just outside this building, Edinburgh Eastern. It encompasses people from a wide variety of backgrounds. It has vibrant communities, but despite that, it also faces many challenges. During the last few months, I have spoken with many of my constituents, and I promised them that I would carry their concerns with me into this chamber. For as long as I represent Edinburgh Eastern, I will fulfil that promise. During my time with a progressive think tank, I had many meetings here in Parliament to discuss policy ideas for Scotland. I look forward to being able to engage just as constructively with a third sector now, but I am on the other side. I intend to listen to and act on ideas that have the potential to move Scotland forward. I would like to reflect on the changing nature of Scotland using the experience of two women from my own family—my mother and my grandmother. My grandmother was abandoned by her father. She was married in a borrowed dress. She took on cleaning jobs in the evening, as it was the only work that fitted around the demands of a young family. In later life, both her and my mother went on to run successful small businesses. My mother, who despite passing her 11 plus and attending a senior secondary, left school at just 15 with no qualifications. She felt that further education was not relevant for her, not relevant for a working-class girl from a city centre tenement with no indoor toilet. Now, thanks to the commitment to widening access, this is not the case. Young people from backgrounds like my mother are more likely to feel that university is relevant to them and free tuition makes that step towards fulfilling their dreams easier. While I was receiving my university conditional offers through the post a while ago now, my mother, who was then just newly widowed, was struggling with soaring interest rates to keep a roof over our head. I actually went to university in England and it was at that time free. I looked it up last night just to check and my old university now charges the full £9,000 a year. That is a staggering £27,000 for a three-year course, and that is just for tuition. I believe that, with my family's circumstances at the time, the thought of getting into so much debt would have scared me off and I would not have gone and I would have missed out on that opportunity. I reserve a particular disdain for those who have benefited from a free university education themselves only to turn around and seek to deny it to those coming after them. That is why I commend this Government's continuing commitment to free tuition. Right there, that is the difference that the SNP has made. In England, a young person will rack up huge debts to study at university, and in Scotland they won't. According to the OECD's recent survey on education, England now has the highest tuition fees in the industrialised world. On the other side of this chamber, parties disparage the gain that is made by the Government. So keen are they to say that Scotland must not become the highest tax part of the UK, yet what are tuition fees but a tax on education, a tax on aspiration and a tax on social mobility? It is the creeping commoditisation of everything. I subscribe to the idea that education is not a commodity to be bought or sold like a tin of beans or a loaf of bread, but rather an expression of society's belief in learning for its own sake, a wider benefit to all of society. After all, today's children may end up working in jobs or in sectors that do not exist yet. We can only imagine what the world of work will look like 20 years from now. Many of today's start-ups are coming straight out of our universities. Does it make sense to invest in them? Does it make sense to invest in the future of Scotland to invest in young people from backgrounds like that of my mothers? What is happening in England is a travesty, and I am proud that it is different here in Scotland. A Scotland that prioritises education, high skills and innovation now will be well prepared to succeed into that future. Educational opportunity and social mobility must be protected. Universal benefits are a principle worth fighting for, for they define the future of Scotland—the Scotland that we and our children will live in. I want to make sure that any child—a child maybe from my constituency, with a similar background to my mother—will have the full opportunity to achieve their dreams. That is why I am here. I look forward to the next five years. I look forward to making the case for progressive policies, and I look forward to debating them in this chamber. I welcome the Government's many steps to move Scotland forward, and I believe that, during this Parliament, we will do so. I thank you. I call Claire Baker to be followed by Ben Macpherson. In my new role as justice spokesperson, I would like to focus my comments on the early priorities of this Parliament. We are listening to a few first speeches this week, and I remember my very first speech in here was on justice when I talked about the issue of antisocial behaviour. An area that I still believe needs greater action. I was happy to work with the justice team in the last Parliament on the issue of antisocial behaviour on quad bikes. I would like to first recognise the contribution of my predecessor in this role. Graham Pearson dedicated his whole career to public service from serving in the police for 38 years to becoming deputy chief constable of Strathclyde police and then director general of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency before making an important contribution to this Parliament. He did not leave us empty-handed, though, and the Pearson review of policing in Scotland, which he published in November, is an important document as we look to establishing trust and accountability in our police force that meets local needs. I welcome the commitment from the First Minister yesterday to protect the police budget in real terms. However, Police Scotland does face a funding gap of almost £8 million and must find savings of £1.3 billion by 2026. That will be a significant challenge, and we should be considering how to best use our powers in this Parliament to invest in our public services. This Parliament can also make progress on addressing re-offending. As figures released last week show, those who receive prison sentences of six months or less are reconvicted twice as often as those who are given community payback orders. The presumption against short-term prison sentences is working. Our justice system should pursue sentences that deliver proper rehabilitation, and short sentences under six months are shown to be particularly ineffective, and we believe in extending the presumption against sentences of less than three months to six months. I appreciate that the Government has already consulted on that, and I note that the Scottish Government will be publishing a formal response to its consultation in due course. I look forward to making the case that was in our manifesto that the presumption should be extended to six months. A key priority of this Parliament must be to make progress on improving the treatment of women offenders and delivering on the Angelini commission recommendations. I also welcome plans that were announced this week to legislate for a new offence of domestic abuse. That was a commitment in Labour's manifesto, and I look forward to working to achieve that, along with pushing the Scottish Government to consider Labour's calls for specific domestic abuse courts within our sheriff courts to ensure that those serious crimes are dealt with as a priority. We know the Conservative Government at Westminster intent on trying to force through a British Bill of Rights. However, this Parliament has been steadfast in our commitment to the convention on human rights. The Human Rights Act protects our basic rights, the right to a free trial, the right to life and the right to privacy. I am proud that that was an act that was introduced by a Labour Government, and we at Holyrood and at Westminster stand fully opposed to any attempts to weaken human rights law. There is a responsibility on this Parliament over the next five years to defend the act and resist attempts to remove it. During the recent election, I, along with many others in the chamber, received emails from concerns solicitors regarding legal aid. Legal aid is a lifeline for so many people who need help in accessing justice, particularly women, in family law cases. We, as a Parliament, must be committed to ensuring that affordability is never a barrier to justice. We must ensure that our legal aid system will work for all, not just those who have means. In an earlier speech, John Mason mentioned the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act, and with James Kelly's commitment to a private member's bill to repeal the act, I hope that we can have a reasonable debate on the legislation, and that the Government will demonstrate its commitment to be in listening modes. Presiding Officer, in the last Parliament, I pushed the cabinet secretary for a review into deaths in custody. As many people in the chamber are aware, there was a very high-profile instance of such a death in my region, and I have been working closely with the family to ensure that they receive the full facts relating to that death. That is the first priority, but the case also raised questions about how we investigate deaths in custody and the outcomes that we get. The UK Government's Home Secretary has established an independent review into deaths and serious incidents in police custody, and I strongly believe that the Scottish Government should seriously look at doing the same. I also support Neil Finlay's efforts to extend the Pitchford inquiry into undercover policing into Scotland, and if the UK Government does not agree to that, to have the Scottish Government take up the need for an inquiry and do an inquiry under the same career remit as what is happening at the UK level. The First Minister yesterday focused her comments on tackling inequality, and one of the clear consequences of inequality is a society that is invulnable to crime and lives that are damaged and too often destroyed. The recommendation of Elisha Angelini's commission on minimum offenders ends with a clear recognition. It states, Finally, the evidence is now overwhelming that intervening in the early years of life will have significantly more impact on rates of re-offending than intervening later in life, and I think that that is relevant to the focus that has been this afternoon around education and early intervention into young people's lives. I do not intend to see justice as isolated from other objectives, but I recognise that there is a need for a holistic approach if we are to flexibly address some of the deep-rooted and complex issues within our justice system. For my generation, the conception and realisation of this institution, our Scottish Parliament, heralded the beginning of a more positive era for our country and an exciting new chapter in our nation's story. I feel honoured and inspired to speak for the first time in this magnificent chamber and to succeed an exemplary public servant like Malcolm Chisholm. I am sure that I speak for all of us here when I wish Malcolm all the very best in his retirement and thank him sincerely for all that he did as an MSP and for the benefit of other people. Presiding Officer, as well as feeling grateful and privileged to be here, I also feel determined to deliver for my constituency and for the people of Edinburgh Northern and Leith and determined to speak up for the common cause of the common good. Like many people in our country, I believe in social justice and I believe in it as an ambition to be achieved, not just as an aspiration. That is why the Scottish Government's bold priorities matter to us all, from measures to close the attainment gap in education to record investment in our health service, from plans to build 50,000 more affordable homes to using new tax and welfare powers progressively and responsibly, the Scottish Government's priorities will benefit the whole of Scotland. Presiding Officer, with reform, leadership and initiative, we can build a fairer society and also a stronger, more equal economy, a Scotland where we remember that sharing the rewards rewards us all and that success is succeeding together. We can build a country where we get past the misleading divide between the public and the private sectors and instead remember that, with collaboration, innovation and creativity, we can live in a nation that is not only more productive and competitive but also more just. That is why we should embrace the Scottish Government's commitment not only to invest in our country's physical infrastructure but also to increase childcare provision. We should endorse the Government's determination not only to enhance support for small businesses and support public services but also to promote fair work. Presiding Officer, I welcome the Scottish Government's priorities and their determination to use all the powers of this Parliament to make a positive and lasting difference. Presiding Officer, let me also be clear about something else. While I certainly welcome using all the current and new powers of this Parliament, at every appropriate opportunity I will also passionately and purposefully state the truth on the constitution that, as I and many others see it, the truth that more powers and ultimately full powers for Scotland are the keys that we need to achieve the greater end of social justice and to enhance economic progress. They are the tools that we require to shape our future and they are the passport to an equal voice in the modern world. In saying that, however, and this is important, I have always believed that the differing views on independence that we have in our country and in this chamber must not distract us from the unifying hope of a better Scotland. As MSPs and as a society, there is so much that binds us and we should build on that consensus. From addressing inexcusable man-made poverty in our communities to tackling the global threat of climate change, from measures to confront the social economic difficulties of our time to realising more of our country's human potential, let us focus over the next five years on the hopes that we share and harness that collective aspiration to deliver for those who sent us to this place. What we do in this remarkable building, in this important chapter for modern Scotland, will have impact and meaning throughout our country, and every word and action will make a difference. In that spirit, let us take our democracy forward as well as our country. With so many new MSPs and so much new energy, let us consistently demonstrate the good work of this institution and the good will of our nation in the proceedings of this chamber. Let us move beyond the tribalism, the exaggerated language, the unnecessary amplification of conflict, and let us move beyond the bad habits of the past that put so many people off politics. In the months and years ahead, let us always remember that our role here is not to entertain the press or the twitter sphere as important as they may be, but instead our responsibility is to inspire the people, our constituents, who in the vast majority of cases want us to debate with respect and consideration and in a constructive manner. Too much and too often, particularly at First Minister's Questions, this chamber, this shop window to our democracy has fallen short of the public's expectations. We should recognise that and change it. In this new Parliament, I sincerely hope that all of us can seize this chance, this fresh start, to embrace a more constructive style of political dialogue, which in my experience is the vast majority of people who passionately want to see. I make that play particularly strongly to the Opposition leaders who will set the tone for First Minister's Questions. As we debate and inevitably disagree in this chamber in the months and years ahead, let us always bear in mind the guiding principles set out at the conception of this Parliament, this institution, those of wisdom, justice, compassion and integrity. Let us reflect those values in the style of our arguments and the choice of our words. Let us work together to take our country forward and our democracy too. I call Mike Rumbles. We are followed by Fulton MacGregor. Mr Rumbles. Well, it's a great pleasure and a real privilege to be back in this chamber after an absence of some five years. Oh, I'm appreciated by some. I know that, I know that. Over the last couple of weeks, it's been an interesting experience being treated as a new boy in some ways and as an old hand in others. I don't think that I'm betraying any confidences, but in the business bureau this week, the Presiding Officer, while reminding business managers of the convention of not intervening on new members giving their first speech, he pointed to me and said, not you though, Mike. So, at an appropriate moment, feel free, at an appropriate moment, I'm happy to give way to anybody who wishes. I have to say, turning to the serious business of the First Minister's speech, that I had an enormous feeling of deja vu. It was full of generalities and a huge amount of rhetoric. Other members have made their comments on the speech, and I want to address a few of the issues that struck me. Now, I'm a great believer in the phrase, by their actions, you shall know them. This applies to the SNP government in power for the last nine years. And don't we know it? We don't have to wait to find out if their actions match their rhetoric. We have their record to match what they themselves said nine years ago. So, what did Nicola Sturgeon say in his speech a few points here? I quote, I want to talk today about democratic accountability. We will devolve power to local communities. Sounds good, doesn't it? Just what they said at the general election. Until you see what the government has done, it's removed democratic accountability by disbanding our local boards when they centralised our police and they centralised our fire services. I'm looking at John Swinney at the moment. Her Government has dictated to local authorities about the fact that she wasn't allowing them, if they wished, to raise the council tax in their areas if they wanted to, nine years of a freeze hitting our local services. Of course. I wanted to take you up on his offer. Would you accept that the ending of ring fencing around a lot of funds to local authorities has been an important move towards decentralisation? Mr Rumbles? You can't just look at that example. The most important thing—well, it's a fair point, but you can't take it in isolation. The most important thing about this is the Scottish Government's determination to control everything that goes on in local Government in Scotland. There are local authorities that wanted to increase the council tax, and Mr Swinney did everything that he could possibly do to stop them. I will, in a minute. I've just answered that one. Give me a second to move on. I think that you're going to regret your invitation. I was happy to give it, but not to everybody all at once. She said that we will create new and more testing climate change targets, and that's because, of course, she's failed to meet every year the ones that she's already got. The First Minister said that we're determined to extend the opportunities— I'm sorry to interrupt you, but if you could name the minister, not use the term she because the report won't know what you're talking about. Absolutely. The First Minister said that we're determined to extend the opportunities open to young people in later life. What has the First Minister done over the last few years? He axed 150,000 college places at colleges of further education. I have to say, though, that one of the biggest promises in the speech was the commitment to widen access to university the way she outlined. Is she seriously saying that resources will be directed to ensure that, within 14 years, 20 per cent of Scottish domicile university entrants will come from the 20 per cent most deprived communities? They give me for saying so, Deputy Presiding Officer, but I believe that Nicola Sturgeon will be long gone by 2030 and this particular pledge with it. There is no why because there's no commitment to fund the target, and therefore it must be seen for what it is, an impossible target, to achieve within the timescale set with no resources. But, as I say, the timescale is suitably helpful to the First Minister because it cannot be said to be breached until another 14 years goes by. I must say that it reminded me of her predecessor's commitment to dump the student debt, and we all know what happened to that. There are so many other statements made by the First Minister of Speech which, on reflection, do not seem to be all they have been made out to be. Let's take the statement on funding of our health service. Over this Parliament, revenue spending on the NHS will rise by £500 million more than inflation. That means, by the next election, the NHS revenue budget will be almost £2 billion higher than it is now. What she didn't say is that she'll pass on all the funding that the NHS receives from the UK Government. I point this out because, according to the respected Institute for Physical Studies, the Scottish Government has consistently failed to do this over the last nine years. I attended a briefing yesterday given by Fergus Ewing on the issue of cap payments because the crisis is really important. He said that this was his number one priority. He sought out the mess left to him to make sure that our farmers receive the payments they're due, which should have been paid nearly five months ago. However, an official at the same briefing said that they hadn't yet given up making the payments by the end of June, and we are close to receiving a huge financial penalty from Europe. I don't doubt Fergus Ewing's integrity, and he says it's his top priority, but it had one line in a 30-minute speech from the First Minister yesterday. So, absolutely high on rhetoric, running out of time, short on detail. I said at the very beginning of my contribution that I'm a firm believer in the phrase, by the actions you shall know them. We shouldn't have long to wait until we see what action comes from this speech. I, for one, am not holding my breath. Thank you, Alice. Very good of you. I call Fulton MacGregor to be followed by Douglas Ross, please. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I take this opportunity as well to congratulate you and the other Presiding Officer for your recent appointment. It's a great privilege to be delivering my first speech as a new member for Co-Bridge and Criesan. As you can all see, I'm not wearing my coat today. After hearing that I'd made the dizzying heights of the daily mail, I thought I'd better just stick to a suit for parliamentary business. I was pleased, however, that the local paper in Co-Bridge, the Co-Bridge and Airdry advertiser, did run a very nice article and had spoke to people on the streets who found wearing the coat very tasteful. In all seriousness, I'm proud to be here as the representative of the constituency in my family, have lived and worked for generations upon generations. A constituency, I'm proud to say, if the chamber don't mind me indulging for a minute, voted yes by a majority in 2014. I'm only the second MSP to represent this constituency and I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to my predecessor, Elaine Smith, who now serves Central Scotland. While I didn't always agree with the position she took, particularly around the constitution, I know that she took the decisions that she felt were best for the constituency. I looked over there to say that she's not here, but what I would like to say is that I thank her for her commitment to the people of Co-Bridge and Crescent, and that I can reassure her that the constituency is left in good hands. I know that there will be lots of opportunities to work with Elaine Smith over the coming years, and on that note I would like to welcome yesterday's input from her central list colleague, Richard Leonard, who was today followed up by Murdo Fraser when he mentioned in his speeches the proposed closure of Tannall and Co-Bridge. I can confirm to both members that I have been in touch with the chief executive of the company, outlining my concerns, and if either are happy to speak to me about how we might work together to best mitigate the impact of the proposed closure, I would be more than happy to do that. I am genuinely honoured, as I say, to have been elected to represent Co-Bridge and Crescent, and I'll never tire for working for the people of this constituency. I was born and went to school in Co-Bridge, spending my early years in one of the towers in the town centre before my family moved to where my mum and dad still live, just behind the stadium of her local football club, Albin Rovers. I can't mention Albin Rovers without recording my congratulations to the team on a great season narrowly missing out on the championship players, which would have been a fantastic achievement for a part-time club. Of course, Co-Bridge is other sporting heroes, and I'm sure that everyone in the chamber will join me in wishing former boxing world champion Ricky Burns well for his contest on Saturday night. Let's just hope that he finishes his bout with Les Bruises, then I received during the recent election campaign. Moving back to the job at hand, there is a lot to be done, but when I look back at the hard work of the many volunteers across the constituency, I see the impact they have on the people who need support, and I know that it's all worthwhile. For example, I would like to highlight the work of Katie from the Shining Stars charity, an excellent local organisation that supports children with additional needs. Her commitment is an example of the dedication sown by so many across my constituency. My time as a social worker, as well as being a local councillor, I feel has given me a unique insight into the needs of the constituency. I was delighted to hear the First Minister highlight the issue of affordable homes yesterday, as a commitment to build tens of thousands of new social homes in addition. In a modern civilised Scotland, there should be no need for charities, like the Coatbridge night shelter that was set up last year to give homelessness people a hot meal in somewhere to rest for the night. One of my many names as a member of this Parliament is to tackle the issue of homelessness head on throughout Scotland. That said, I want to pay tribute to Caroline Vicky Lee and her team, who do a fantastic work locally through the night shelter in Coatbridge. As a father myself, I was also pleased to hear the First Minister and the new education secretary's ambitious targets for education and their plans to encourage those from the poorest backgrounds into university. My constituency has some of the most deprived areas in central Scotland, and it looks forward to helping to get young people from those areas into university, college and apprenticeships. As I mentioned, my career up until a few weeks ago had been in social work, and in my 12 years doing that job as a social worker, I specialised initially for eight years in child protection before moving into community justice over the last four. The Scottish Government, I believe, has already made many inroads in the last Parliament in terms of reducing re-offending, tackling issues relating to youth offending and domestic abuse, and I am pleased that there is going to be a continued commitment in this area throughout this Parliament with the announcement of new legislation. I welcome also the announcement of the baby box for every child, as well as the grant for low-income families at the three key stages of a child's early years. I also fully support the name person's legislation, which I believe has been subject to blatant political point scoring. Child protection should be the priority for everyone across this chamber, and in a society as a whole, and having worked on the front line of this service, I am certain that this act will help to protect the most vulnerable children in our country, and will in actual fact lead to less intervention by the state, contrary to claims made by its critics. There are many other items in the programme for government that I have not had time to mention, but it is testament to the aspirations that the First Minister has set for this country that she has laid out such a challenging but constructive programme, and I look forward to being part of taking Scotland forward. After a long, often difficult campaign for me, my family and my team, I intend to fulfil the promise that I made to be a strong local voice for the people of Cotebridge and Criesan. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I congratulate Fulton MacGregor on his maiden speech and say all the best for the future. For me, it is a huge honour to be representing my home area of Murray as part of the wider islands and islands region. I was born and murry, educated there, have worked there my entire life, and I am now delighted to live in such a beautiful part of the country. I would like to start with some thanks. I am grateful to my constituents in Fockeber's land bride who, back in 2007, put their faith in a young farm worker and elected him as one of their local councillors. That election started me on a path to where I am today, standing in front of you all, making my first speech as a member of the Scottish Parliament. The Highlands and Islands is as diverse as it is big, stretching from Shetland to Argyll, from the Western Isles to Murray, and encompassing everything in between. Like other new members and all returning members, I pledge to work hard for everyone in my region who has returned me here and to be a strong voice for them in Edinburgh. It is customary in a maiden speech to make mention of your predecessors, and as a Scottish Conservative for the Highlands and Islands, I want to acknowledge the work done by three MSPs who have come here before me. The late Dave Petrie served in this chamber for only a short period of time, but he was highly regarded and well respected. Jamie McGregor was passionate about his home area of Argyll and Bute, about farming, fishing, crofting, tarting and so much more. Jamie is undoubtedly one of life's great characters and I know he will be missed from this chamber. Mary Scanlon was an extremely hardworking MSP, often taking on cases where other politicians had failed to find a solution. Her work on mental health in particular was commendable, and she did it long before it became common for politicians to champion this cause. Mary and Jamie were great servants to the Scottish Conservatives and the Highlands and Islands, and we wish them well for the future. Keeping our communities safe must be a priority for any Government, and that is why I want to focus my speech today on police officers. The extra police officers in Scotland that were delivered with Scottish Conservative votes should be doing that job. Instead, many are filling back-office vacancies created because of the cost-cutting drive by the Scottish National Party Government and its centralised service. Across the Highlands and Islands, people raise concerns about a single police force and, sadly, they are now coming to fruition. Front offices have closed. National plans are prioritised over local initiatives. Experienced officers have left in significant numbers, and new recruits are now often mentored by people who are only just themselves out of their probationary period, or indeed our probationers still. Morale is at an all-time low, and all that has happened on the SNP's watch. When officers feel the need to target more, to meet their targets rather than the communities that they hope to serve, something has gone wrong. I know how hard-working, professional and dedicated our police officers are in Scotland, but I also know that they need our support to do the job that they signed up for. It is quite clear. If we want a police force that is capable of safeguarding us, we have to safeguard our police force. 800 officers have resigned since the inception of Police Scotland. 800. Every time a police officer leaves, it is felt by the force. We do not just lose that individual officer, we lose their experience, their knowledge and their skill. We lose the mentors that help the new recruits, and we lose the people that are keeping Scotland safe. Losing 800 police officers is not a single failure, it is a culmination of 800 failures, and it is completely unacceptable. Last year, a third of all staff said that they planned to leave the force in the next three years, and only 15 per cent of officers said that they would recommend Police Scotland as a job for the future. That is not what I want for our police officers and staff in Scotland. Our officers should be proud every time they put on their uniform, proud every time they go into their communities and proud every time they are called to help. They should be proud, but unfortunately that seems to be more of an aspiration than a reality for many of our officers and staff, and we have to address that. The Government will have the support on those benches if it wants to strengthen local policing, if it wants to restore the link between local communities and their local officers, and if it wants to put police men and women back on the street rather than in back offices. I would like to start where I began today with a note of thanks. Like Mark Ruskell, I would like to put on record my appreciation to each and every member of the Parliament staff who have made the first few daunting weeks as a new MSP and part of that group of 51 a little bit easier. From Leanne, who took me round this building on my first day here, to Kirsty, who offers a friendly chat as she prepares the coffees, to Robert and Jimmy, who deliver copious amounts of mail but always in a jovial mood which cheers up the office, and to Stephen, one of the Parliament's committee clerks, who stood just behind where I am today when we took our oath on the first day and the first sitting in this Parliament. As I walked towards Stephen, he extended his hand and welcomed me and congratulated me on being elected to this great chamber. He told me how to do the job of preparing the oath and repeating the oath, and that reassurance was appreciated by me and I know many other members. That is to name just a few of the Parliament staff who have been on hand to assist. I am in absolutely no doubt that the pride each and every one of us have at being elected to this building is shared by each and every member of staff, and I hope that they realise how appreciated they are. It is because of their professionalism that we are able to do our jobs to the best of our abilities. This debate is titled, Taking Scotland Forward. Let us see the SNP minority Government and see what it will do in the next five years that it has been unable to do in its last nine years in office. Let us see it use the powers of this Parliament to make the lives better for people throughout Scotland. Let us see a Parliament that meets the aspirations of the people who send us here, where there is grown-up debate, sensible policy making and effective scrutiny of the Government. I spend a great deal of my time waxing lyrical about how my patch of Aberdeenshire is the best-kept secret in Scotland. Now that the people of Aberdeenshire have put their trust in me to represent them, I will make a point of doing that in Parliament whenever possible. I spend a lot of my time working with my constituents to put our beautiful corner of Scotland on the map. I have long said that we need to shout louder about our unspoilt coastline, the tremendous and varied wildlife that populate it, and our fishing rivers like the Devlin, the Ywgate and the Ithon. Members' first speech often references local persons of note, be they from history, literature or otherwise. Of course, you all know that Scotland International, in Mintlaw's own, Kim Little, was recently announced as BBC Women's Footballer of the Year. She's ours. In our patch, we've also got a few links to some very significant literary figures, like Bram Stoker, for whom Slane's castle in Crude and Bay was the inspiration for Dracula's castle. Don't let anyone tell you different. Lord Byron was born in Gecht near Methwick, and then there's Flora Gary, the Bucking Poetess, who was a new dear quine. For me, it's not so much the historical figures that will tempt visitors to Aberdeenshire East, but the landscape, the wildlife and the Afafine folk have abide there. Since we're looking to the future in this debate, I'd like to think that a future member for the constituency making their first speech in this chamber, maybe someone yet to be born, might lead their speech by making a rather big deal about Aberdeenshire East's most important political figure, a person whose links to the area might warrant visits from hordes of tourists to stricken perhaps. Of course, I'm talking about my predecessor, the former MSP for Aberdeenshire East and former First Minister for Scotland, Alex Salmond MP. If I can make a small prediction that a future MSP for Aberdeenshire East might evenly claim to him being one of the premier architects of the independent Scotland that they now enjoy, this independence might be the only state of affairs that this future representative has ever known, and they might marvel that this was not the case back in 2016 when his constituency was handed over to a certain Gillian Martin. Well, here's hoping so anyway. So it's to my constituency in my home of Aberdeenshire East that I look to imagine the future as we take Scotland forward. Already within our programme of government, I see areas of development that will make enormous changes for the betterment of the lives of my constituents not in decades but within this parliamentary session. My area is set to be one of a fair few rural communities that will see their business, educational and leisure life immeasurably enhanced by the provision of the promised 100 per cent broadband provision across Scotland. That, I hope, will mean the expansion of existing businesses, new enterprises and a subject close to my heart as a working mother and the increase in work flexibility and moves to different and more efficient ways of working, more family-friendly ways of working. Aberdeenshire East is also going to be benefiting hugely from the completion of another key connectivity and infrastructure project, the Aberdeen western peripheral route. At last, we've waited so long for it. Travelling across the constituency, I see massive progress on this day on day, progress not made whilst this was put into legal limbo during a Labour and Lib Dem Scottish Government. The completion of the AWPR will cut those commuting journeys that we struggle with considerably and open up our corner to a world of commercial possibilities. I also look forward immensely to Aberdeenshire East families enjoying their doubled free childcare provision. A quick peer into this crystal ball that I appear to have might see a new macker family that looks a bit like mine when my kids were wee, but differs in that. Unlike me and my husband at the start of the millennium, they don't have to struggle financially to be able to afford childcare so that mum can go back to work. I'm reminded of an interview that I read with the former Norwegian Prime Minister. He was asked, what is the secret to Norway's economic success? The journalist was no doubt expecting an answer that featured oil and gas, but he got this response. It's our women in the workforce. The Norwegian Premier went on to explain the secret to Norway's economic success was the fact that free childcare allowed so many women back to work after maternity leave and that their economic contribution made Norway as affluent as it is. I also look forward to seeing our largest town in Vourouri opening the biggest new health centre in Scotland and a new state of the art in Vourouri academy campus being built under the schools for the future project. The same project that saw the fabulous New Ellen academy being opened last year a school that will not forgive me if I don't mention them since I'm a former pupil. I look forward to an Aberdeensia East with more affordable housing and other initiatives that can attract public sector workers to live and work in our great towns such as Tareff, Old Meldrum, Nubirah, Balmeddy, Favey and others. With our First Minister outlining further action in the recruitment of GPs and diversifying and widening primary care services, we are addressing issues that can send my constituents directly. With the recruitment of the skilled workers from out with our area, I'd also confidently like to predict that once they arrive in our incredible Aberdeensia East that they will never want to live anywhere else and they, like me, will be laxing lyrical about it too. Thank you. I call Anna Sarwar followed by Stuart McMillan. I apologise, Mr Sarwar, for pronouncing your name incorrectly first. I saw you wince. I call you now, Mr Sarwar. I want to start by thanking the great people of Glasgow who have the immense honour and privilege of representing in this Parliament. I promise to always make it my top priority to fight for the city that I am proud to call home. I also pay tribute to my immediate predecessors, Hans Lamalloch, Anne McTaggart and Drew Smith, and I thank each of them for their services to this Parliament, Glasgow and the Labour Party. As I start my new role in Holyrood, I reflect that it's a journey of big figures in Scottish politics and in this place have travelled before me. Donald Jure, Sam Galbraith, Alex Salmond and Winnie Ewing to name but a few. On election night, Jackson Carlaw described me on the BBC as one of the old and tired faces of the Labour Party. Can I respectfully take this opportunity to remind the comparatively young, fresh face whippersnapper on the Tory benches that, at 33, I'd actually prefer to call me the youngest veteran in politics? In Donald Jure's speech on the opening day of this Parliament in 1999, he said, the past is part of us, but today there is a new voice in the land, the voice of a democratic Parliament, a voice to shape Scotland, a voice for the future. I'd like to think that the make-up of this Parliament would be how he envisages it, a Parliament of minorities, no single party able to whip through decisions, agreement reached through debate and compromise, and, dare I say it, consensus. I welcome consensus, but consensus does not mean no debates, no arguments and no passion. What it should mean is finding common cause and common ground. As a member of the devolution generation, I've grown knowing only the existence of a Scottish Parliament, but I reflect on those words that Donald spoke on that day. They serve as a reminder that this Parliament was not created to be a voice for disaffection. It wasn't designed so that we could have a place where we could all come just to say what is wrong in Scotland. It wasn't created to be an echo chamber for grievance and unhappiness. It was created to be a vehicle of change. It was created to give new and fresh opportunities not just for my generation but for every generation. The history of this Parliament shows that, when we find places of common interest, we can achieve great things. The smoking ban is perhaps the single most important piece of public health policy for a generation. Land reform for so long ignored now not just an issue to be debated but a real progress and a recognition that we still have more to do. The arithmetic of this Parliament means that, where we have the will to be bold, we also have the ability to deliver real and lasting progressive change. Progressive change to our taxation system is where we choose to have fair redistribution of wealth. Progressive change to our social security system is where we choose to redistribute that wealth to those who need it most. We repeatedly make the point that we aspire to create a Scotland where the only limit to a young person's ambition should be their imagination. Will I say to all colleagues across this Parliament, from all political parties, so to for us, every one of us, the only limit to this Parliament's ambition is our collective imagination? The people of Scotland are right to call out what is wrong in Scotland and demand action from their Parliament and their Parliamentarians. It is Scotland's shame that, in some parts of my city, Glasgow, more young people go on to prison than go on to university. That is why we are in this Parliament. The chronic levels of poverty, unemployment and poor health in parts of Glasgow are not just a problem for Glasgow, it is a problem for the whole of Scotland. That is why we stood for elected office. How can anyone accept that, for too many young people, your postcode decides not only your life chances but your life expectancy? That inequality is what I hope brought each and every one of us into politics in the first place. Speaking up for those who need our support, speaking up for those who need our voice, because, as Donald said, we are their voice. Today, we are the new voice in the land. We are the new voice to shape Scotland. We are that voice for the future that he spoke so eloquently about. To repeat a famous phrase, if not us, then who? If not now, then when? We have the powers in this Parliament to transform Scotland. We must now get serious about using it and get on with the work of transforming our wonderful country. I am delighted to be asked by Kez Dugdale to lead for Labour on health. There is nothing more important and no greater a labour achievement than our national health service. Having spent quite a bit of time around hospitals in the past few weeks for both happy and sad reasons, I recognise two things. Firstly, the amazing dedication of our NHS staff, who always go above and beyond, and secondly, that the NHS today would be unrecognisable to Ngai Bevan. The advancements in medicine have not been matched by a similar reduction in health inequality. Our job is to address that. Because there are individuals, families and communities across this country crying out for hope. To conclude, we have an opportunity—I would say a responsibility in this Parliament—to give not the illusion of hope but the realisation of hope, to use the powers of this Parliament to fight inequality, create opportunity and tackle injustice wherever it exists. I thank you, Stuart McMillan, for being followed by Donald Cameron, Mr McMillan. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I too wish to congratulate the two new deputies, Presiding Officers, the new ministers and new members to this Parliament. I also particularly want to congratulate the new members who have made their first speeches over the course of the last couple of days. There have certainly been some excellent contributions so far, and I am looking forward to the others in the coming weeks. Today is my first speech as constituency MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde. As I said in my acceptance speech, becoming the constituency MSP is the honour of my life. I aim to serve all of my constituents and serve Greenock and Inverclyde with pride, passion and determination to promote and highlight the many, many positives that we have, as well as work to address the challenges that we face. My predecessor, Duncan McNeill, retired at the election. Duncan had been the constituency MSP since 1999. We did not have too many crosswords in here, apart from one debate on the regeneration strategy in 2011. However, I believe that the electorate actually wanted and referred that approach as compared to seeing politicians bickering all the time. Duncan worked tremendously hard for his constituents, and I know that he is well thought of and I wish him well, and I also wish him to have a long and happy retirement. This session of parliament will once again be groundbreaking. A Parliament once again of minorities produces a different chamber and one where even greater dialogue between the parties is required. The First Minister's statement yesterday and also the comments from the Deputy First Minister today highlighted that ambition for Scotland and also for Scotland's education system. Education is a priority for the Scottish Government, and closing the attainment gap is something that across the chamber we can all agree on. I welcome, therefore, the attainment challenge funding and also welcome Inverclyde being a recipient of the first tranche of funding from the Scottish Government. The issue of attainment arose a number of times throughout the recent election campaign, and there was an appreciation that Inverclyde actually was in receipt of this additional funding. Ensuring that this resource is being invested well is one of the tasks that myself and others certainly need to continue the challenge both in the Scottish Government but also in Inverclyde Council. The First Minister stated yesterday that we must grow an economy that is strong, sustainable, fair and inclusive. The comments from Murdo Fraser when he was challenging for some examples of Scottish Government action, I am going to provide just two at the moment. The work in Inverclyde has already started. Orders worth £120 million for three new sea mill ferries was placed in Ferguson Marine in Port Glasgow. This has led to over 200 people being in employment and also 150 new apprentices to be trained and also a multimillion pounds investment programme to bring that yard up to being amongst the best in the world, securing the future of shipbuilding on the lower Clyde. Then only last week we had the fabulous announcement that CalMac has secured the preferred bidder status to undertake the Clyde Inhibiti's ferry services for the next eight years. That was Derek Mackay's last act as transport minister and it certainly was one that was hugely welcomed in Greenock and Inverclyde. I am also led to believe that the cafes and bars of Gwyrwch did a roaring trade last week with the CalMac HQ being based in the town. Maintaining the HQ in Gwyrwch provides a stability and sustainability for the town in the years ahead. This week Inverclyde has also had a double boost in terms of tourism. Greenock's ocean terminal is receiving six cruise liners in four days and this week alone and also was reported in the Greenock Telegraph yesterday that Gwyrwch has seen a 200% increase in interest in people asking about breaks to the town. This information has been provided by Holiday Lettings, a trip adviser company. Inverclyde has not always been considered to be a destination for tourists but we have a huge amount to offer. Our location also lends itself to Inverclyde being in the best place possible, whether it is to visit the abundance of things and activities in the area or if visitors actually want to go elsewhere, maybe down to Burns country, over to Cowell or even up to the city. Our location is perfect for any of these activities. My constituency also is a perfect example as to why marine tourism and other recreational boating activities can play an even greater part in local economies. Scotland's rivers, lochs and waterways play a huge part in our sustainable economy and they can also do so much more. We have the river Clyde on our doorstep to marinas and numerous boating clubs who do taster sessions. I want to raise two issues that I have campaigned on for some time. Firstly, that of flooding and its environmental and economic effects. There has been investment in flood prevention in Inverclyde in recent years and the Scottish Government has contributed to that. However, one of the biggest challenges that we face every year and have done so for over 70 years is that of flooding on the A8 corridor. Clearly, if there were a simple solution, it would have happened decades ago. The annual event on multiple occasions can have a detrimental effect upon the local economy, the safety of patients who have been transferred to hospitals outwith Inverclyde, not to mention the environmental effect. That is an issue that I will pursue to attempt to find a long-term solution and a sustainable solution. I have also written to the Cabinet Secretary for Transport about it. Secondly, as members certainly from the past session will know, I have campaigned on the issue of fixed-sods betting terminals. As of this week, this Parliament now possesses a low-limited, very limited powers to try to help and deal with the proliferation of those machines in our high streets. In January of this year, there were 71 fob tees in Inverclyde. That is down from January 2015. That was in 18 betting shops. Almost £60 million was gambled in the year on those machines to January 2016. Thankfully, that is down, but I welcome the reduction. However, there is still an issue with those machines and that this Parliament now has to look at and try to address. I will certainly help to remember Clyde and all of Scotland. I, too, have written to the First Minister on that issue. The next five years will present a tremendous amount of opportunities and challenges for the Government and Parliament. As Bruce Crawford said yesterday, we have a window of opportunity to deliver. I am confident that this Government and every member in this chamber can do just that. I am sure that everyone will play their part. I thank you at call Donald Cameron, who is followed by Emma Harper, Mr Cameron. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Though I am an advocate by profession, as an undergraduate, I studied history. I would like to begin this speech with a brief foray into the past. Edinburgh has seen many invasions, as occupying forces have swept in and out of this city. One such invasion famously occurred in the autumn of 1745, when a Highland army, led by Bonnie Prince Charlie, briefly captured the city, with the prince taking up residence in the palace of Holyrood house just across from where we sit today, with the Highland clans, including the Camerons, having the run of the city. Despite the ultimate failure of the Jacobite Rising, that event serves as a metaphor for what I want to achieve as an MSP for the Highlands and Islands. I want to occupy Holyrood once again, this time on behalf of those that I represent. I want to remind this Parliament of the world beyond the Highland line and the daily challenges faced by those who live on Bute or on Barra, in Lochaber or in Llerwick. Those challenges are many, the lack of broadband and mobile coverage, the state of road infrastructure, the requirement for reliable and robust ferry connections and, above all, the urgent need to revitalise the rural economy so that we retain our young people and provide the jobs and security to allow them to live and thrive in the Highlands and Islands. I would also like to echo the words of my colleague Peter Chapman in support of our beleaguered farming communities, our crofting communities and the fishing industry, all hugely important in the West Highlands in particular. Last week I was given the task of shadowing the health secretary and I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Shona Robison on her reappointment in this role. I look forward to working together and attempting to find common ground where we can. I know I follow in the footsteps of Mary Scanlon, Nanette Milne and Lateline for the longest period, Jackson Carlaw, and I pay tribute to all that they have achieved in the field of health. Of course, as Mary Scanlon in particular is a former Highlands and Islands MSP, we will appreciate health policy and the needs of rural communities inevitably coincide, not least when it comes to the provision of health services to remote areas. For example, the difficulties currently being experienced on Mal where there is only one ambulance for the whole island, or the fact that obtaining a pregnancy scan for someone who lives in Arden and Merkin involves an eight-hour round trip to Inverness, because since 2013, Fort Williams Belford hospital has been without scanning facilities. My guiding principle in the next five years will be to campaign tirelessly for those who live in the far-flung parts of the Highlands and Islands, so that in every glen and on every island, my constituents feel entirely connected to and part of our joint efforts. This morning, there was much talk of unions, but John Dunne perhaps put it best in the 17th century in his famous line, No man is an island, entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. I take this to mean that however remote the lives of those who inhabit the periphery of Scotland are as important as the lives of those in the towns and cities of central Scotland. In this objective, I would like to emulate two friends, both Highland politicians, one from my party and another from a different political tradition. The first is Jamie McGrigor, latterly of this parish, and the second is the late great Charles Kennedy. Both men shared many attributes, a dogged independence of mind, a deep sense of integrity and always a self-deprecating sense of humour reminding all of us involved in politics, never ever to take ourselves too seriously. I think that everyone in this chamber will remember the time when they first became inspired to enter politics. For me, it was the general election of 1987. I was 10 years old and I recall watching my uncle, Michael Ankrum, then a Scottish office minister being interviewed on election night after he lost his seat in Edinburgh South. I remember his grace in defeat as he faced the end of his political career in Scotland and I knew at that very moment I wanted to follow him into the political fray. It is no secret that the 1987 election marked the beginning of many years in the wilderness for my party in Scotland. Well, Deputy Presiding Officer, it has been a long time coming, but three weeks ago a resurgence Scottish Conservative party achieved an historic result, supplanting Labour as the principal party of opposition. The tide has truly turned and almost 30 years on from 1987, that 10-year-old boy is now honoured to be a member of this Parliament and honoured to sit here amongst colleagues who hail from all walks of life. On these benches, we are farmers, we are lawyers, we are soldiers, we are counsellors, we are academics, we are business women, we are retail workers to name but a few. Deputy Presiding Officer, I began with the past. Let me finish with the future. Those of us who are new here from whatever party will be part of a political generation that will not necessarily be defined by recent constitutional events, be it the first evolution settlement or even the independence referendum. This is a new era, a Scottish Parliament with new powers, which can secure a strong Scotland within a prosperous UK. Let us look forward, not back. I want to leave my children a better country than the one that we inherited. In the coming five years, I look forward to playing my part in that great endeavour. I would like to offer my congratulations on your new post. I am delighted to be called to give my first speech in this chamber, and I look forward to making many more contributions over the parliamentary session. I remember watching the opening of the Parliament in 1999 from 6,000 miles away when I worked with the theatre trauma team at a Los Angeles hospital. There, I was an immigrant, I worked with immigrants and I was welcomed as an immigrant. Indeed, healthcare across the world depends on immigrants. Today, I will focus on my region, the south of Scotland, but particularly an area that I am very familiar with—Bonnie Galloway—because I grew up in Stranraer. Before I continue, I would like to begin by recognising the significant contribution of former South of Scotland MSP and Government Minister Aileen McLeod. Aileen worked hard for the people that she represented, and in government she was a driving force behind the land reform bill and a proponent of climate change reform. I would also like to wish former constituency MSP for Galloway and West Dumfries Alec Ferguson well in his retirement. I shared a stage with former presiding officer at a couple of different burn suppers last year. We were invited to the same village halls. Indeed, the village hall burn suppers are often demonstrating what great local talent we have for reciting the portrait of our national bard. Robert Burns lived, worked and died in the town that I now live in, Dumfries, where the 400-year-old pub, The Globe Inn, was known by Burns as his favourite house. The plan for Scotland's future laid out in the First Minister's manifesto is wide-ranging and ambitious in its approach to building on nine years of competent government by the SNP. Education is a clear focus, and I look forward to the cabinet secretary presenting further plans for addressing the attainment gap. My own background is in healthcare. I am a proud nurse with over 30 years of experience. In fact, it was my passion for protecting and nurturing the NHS, which made my political career lead me to this place. Too often, it is claimed by political opponents that the south of Scotland and Dumfries and Galloway is neglected by the Scottish Government. I would like to refute that myth. The Scottish Government is spending £270 million on a new state-of-the-art hospital for the region for Dumfries and Galloway. In 2012, almost £30 million was spent on an acute mental health unit at Mid Park hospital in Dumfries. Additionally, we have a new ambulance station at Lockerbie, satellite dialysis unit at Carcubrie cottage hospital, and £6 million has been invested for Lockfield primary care centre in North West Dumfries, which was opened in 2013. Other investment has been made in Dunsger and Dalbyty health centres also, and that is just health investment. Like most of you across this chamber, I hold our NHS dear. I know that the First Minister and her Government do too. The prescriptions, the medications that many of us depend on, are part of our healthcare and are rightly free. The SNP's continued commitment to the NHS is reflected in the fact that, by the end of this Parliament, the health service budget is set to increase by almost £2 billion. The First Minister has promised to make healthcare fit for the future by increasing the number of students in Scotland's medical schools and widening access to medical education. The Scottish health secretary, unlike her UK counterpart, has made it clear that the SNP is steadfastly committed to maintaining a nursing bursary and keeping nursing tuition free. There will be a 5.6 per cent increase in student nurse intake this year and a fund of at least £1 million for nursing and midwifery students' experience in financial hardship. As a former clinical educator in NHS and Freeson Galloway, I am all too aware of the importance of those measures. There are particular healthcare challenges that are faced by the communities that I represent. For example, in the south-west we have a greater elderly population compared to other areas of Scotland, and older people are a great asset to any community. An individual's specific needs must be met so that they can continue to live a dignified and comfortable life. As many of you may be aware, next week is Dementia Awareness week. Last week, I attended an awareness-raising event organised by former colleagues who both work at NHS Freeson Galloway Royal Infirmary. Linda Shaw and Lindsay Johnstone gathered experts whose work is aimed at educating families and the wider public about how people with dementia are affected by this disease. I learned a lot. This Parliament will also oversee the most significant reform in health and social care in Scotland since the creation of the NHS in 1948. The integration process is already advancing in air, for example. There, the health and social care partnerships are delivering co-ordinated care. I look forward to further success stories as our local government and national health service groups work together. I would like to draw a close to my first speech by thanking the people of the south of Scotland who placed their trust in me to help to take the region forward. The Galloway last will represent you all in the south of Scotland no matter what party, if any, you support. I will listen, I will work hard and I will represent you. I am pleased to have the chance to speak in this important debate today. I will use my time to focus on some concerns that present and possible future cuts will inevitably affect and then highlight some opportunities that I believe this new Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government should grasp. As a co-convener of the cross-party group for carers in the last Parliament, I worry about the cost of some of the commitments and expectations that have been raised through the carers Scotland bill. Also, during the election campaign, my first meeting was with a group of parents of children on the autism spectrum. They identified concerns about the slow pace of school support post-referral and the failure to provide a parental out-of-school group in the village such as Lesmahego. Again, a cost issue. In colleges such as Dumfries College, funding worries about the part-time day release courses for many including plumbers learning to install solar roofing, which I met at a parliamentary event. That is also a concern. The analysis of the IPPR Scotland has shown that the Scottish Labour's tax plan would raise more than £1 billion of additional revenue in real terms annually by 2020 to 2021. The SNP plans to freeze income tax and the failure to tax the richest would raise only £300 million, meaning huge cuts to the Scottish budget. Scottish Labour will go on trying to convince the Scottish Government that it is necessary to be brave and bring in tax raises for those who can afford to pay a little more to protect services and to prevent further cuts in the future. That would indeed be progressive. To some opportunities, the melee of urgent everyday concerns and issues can push longer-term structural development lower down the list in our Parliament. Those need prioritising and taking forward if there is to be action on them. In the last Parliament, I detected some consensus on some of those issues. The first is support for behaviour change in relation to biodiversity and climate change. The climate challenge fund has empowered many communities to contribute to lower emissions while also, importantly, improving the quality of their life. That must continue, and I hope that the funding will be expanded for it. The second, which is closely connected, is the necessity, in my view, for the continuation of the Scottish public sector climate leaders forum. Not only did that bring forward in a more inclusive way the need for mandatory reporting on climate change action, but it enabled mutual support by facing the challenges involved in addressing this in a range of organisations of varying sizes. Some of them were further along the way than others. As a representative of the Racky Committee in the last Parliament, I observed how opportunities and expectations were crystallised by this forum. The third is my strong belief that the Scotland performs round table, set up by the Deputy First Minister when finance was his brief, should be re-established. This group was tasked, as it was then, with taking forward analysis of the development of the national performance framework and related issues and setting a tone for the underpinning of policy beyond the political cycle. Composed as it was of members of each political party NGOs and wider civic Scotland, I am clear that the group made a significant contribution to the development of connections with marginalised communities. That was not leased through the contribution of the Carnegie Trust and Oxfam. I would ask the new Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Derek Mackay, to consider acting early in this Parliament to set up a similar group. Intimately connected with that is the chance for the Scottish Government to pilot complements to GDP. The people of Scotland deserve to have measures of Scotland's progress reported on, which are more relevant to their everyday lives and the challenges that they face than GDP itself. Some such measures that could be considered are the length of time in employment, wage levels, access to the outdoors, to name but three. While I acknowledge that it is a complex issue, particularly the more qualitative measures that slip into definitions of wellbeing, I ask the new Cabinet Secretary to opt for one or two of those measures as a pilot and announce them and give them a similar status to those of the GDP figures. If the pilot measures need to be tweaked, altered or even totally changed, so be it, but let's give it a try. I believe that that would better connect people who have an interest in how Scotland is thriving and would also be valuable to representatives at all levels. Finally, I ask the Scottish Government that it considers assessing whether the Scottish index of multiple deprivation is fit for purpose in relation to the assessment of poverty in rural Scotland. The Scottish Government has stated that it allows effective targeting of policies and funding where the aim is to wholly or partly tackle or take account of area concentrations of multiple deprivation. I know from my own region of South Scotland that there are small pockets of serious poverty where people are struggling and are in need of support, which would be forthcoming if they were in a larger geographical area of deprivation. That was drawn to the attention of the Racky Committee in the last Parliament by taking evidence, especially from the Scottish rural colleges, so I hope that this is something that the Scottish Government will consider. So please let's be progressive in bringing more opportunities to our communities and let's be sure that across this chamber we join to take forward adventurous initiatives for the sake of the people of Scotland. As we move to the last of the contributions in the open debate, may I remind those who have spoken in this debate over the last two days that they should be in the chamber for their closing speeches? Willie Coffey. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I, like many colleagues who have spoken in the debate, not only welcome you and the other Presiding Officers, but I also pay tribute to my opponents who campaigned in my constituency of Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley to Mr David Meakin from Labour and Mr Brian Whittle from Ruth Davidson's party, who has found his way into Parliament through our complicated list system. I do not see him in the chamber at the moment, but he is nonetheless very welcome. Of course, to thank my constituents for electing me to this place for a third time, it is indeed an honour to be here. The First Minister set out yesterday her vision for equality of opportunity for all through our education system by tackling the problem that young people, with talent and ability from less well-off communities in Scotland, are not achieving their full potential. Through our investment in childcare, which not only gives youngsters the best start in life but also liberates parents to be more active in the economy, and through our new powers in social security and welfare to help not harang people who are disabled and disadvantaged and to treat all with dignity and respect. The coming five years, Presiding Officer, gives all of us and all of the parties in the Parliament the chance to make a positive contribution towards this and to see that transformational change taking place in Scotland that the First Minister referred to. The challenge to close the educational attainment gap is the most crucial of all. If we succeed, we will see for the first time in Scotland a country that makes sure that equality of access and opportunity is the right of every young person, that ability counts far more than wealth or disadvantage and ability becomes the key to that brighter future. What a task we have in front of us. £750 million of extra money is a huge commitment to make and will make such a difference if we spend it wisely. When we debated this in January, we considered the OECD report's perspective on where we currently are. It was a positive report pointing to the potential for Scotland to be a world leader in education. The new systems and processes of assessment through the national improvement framework are important because they give us the information that we need to help us to make those decisions. However, they in themselves or new money do not guarantee ultimate success. They are enablers and it is people or teachers who will make that real difference. The report suggested that success lies in what it described as this middle area of networking and collaboration, the engagement amongst professionals up and down the country to bring about these transformational changes. We will rely heavily on our teaching profession to drive us forward, but if successful, Scotland will be leading the world in this area. I also mentioned the case of a young woman in Pawsall Park and my colleague Bob Doris's Glasgow constituency, who had achieved all the qualifications for medical school, but she did not get into any of Scotland's universities. That is a different issue, Presiding Officer, and it is about equality of access even when you attain the qualifications that are required. Closing the attainment gap is at the target, but ensuring equality of access immediately after that is essential for students like that young woman from Pawsall Park and any other similar communities like it. Hopefully, our new commissioner for fair access will take a close look at this. To support the whole effort on attainment, we have to start earlier than school, and the Government's proposals for 30 hours per week free childcare for every three and four-year-old and those vulnerable two-year-olds is vital. There are those who say that, by the time many youngsters are in early primary school, the battle for attainment parity at secondary school has already been lost. We know the reasons why deprivation, family instability, access to resources, encouragement and support all make it very difficult for youngsters to keep pace with some of their peers. That intervention will be helpful in providing that essential nature and support, getting that good start. It has the benefit to freeing up parents to get back into work, so important in the success of the Norwegian economy that was mentioned by my new colleague, Gillian Martin. The third crucial area for me, Presiding Officer, is in relation to our new powers and social security and welfare. For too long now, we have heard story after story about the disgraceful and inhumane treatment that is meted out to those people who are disadvantaged or have disabilities. A country's social security system is meant to protect people from further disadvantage in poverty, not to set out to make it worse and to add punishment and further injury to people's self-esteem. I am delighted that the Scottish Government will abolish the bedroom tax, surely the most graceful of public policies to have been introduced by the UK Government in recent years, although there are several other candidates for that accolade. At the end of this session, what progress do we expect to see and to have been achieved? Educational attainment across Scotland is pretty much even. Access and opportunity are balanced, and young people from every community in Scotland are looking forward to fulfilling their dreams, whatever they may be. Youngsters get enough to a great start in life and not being left behind as a result of poverty. It is a tall order, but with the support and hard work of everyone in this chamber, I am sure that we can make that happen and take Scotland forward to a better place. We now move to closing speeches, and I call on Ian Gray for around nine minutes, Mr Gray. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Like every other speaker, I want you to know that I can hardly contain my admiration for you and your colleagues and will be seeking your forbearance regularly in return. Those taking Scotland forward debates are a regular parliamentary occurrence, but this one has certainly been unique in the number of first speeches that we have heard. Let me begin by congratulating all those new colleagues who have chosen to dive in at the deep end yesterday and today. There have been too many to list, and it is a bit invidious to pick one or two out, but I will do that anyway. I thought that Richard Leonard yesterday gave a tremendous first speech—pride in place, passion and politics—all that a first speech should have, although I did lose the sweepstake on how long it would take him to, quote, cure hard day. He got there even quicker than I thought he would. Rona Mackay and Fulton MacGregor, I think, were brave enough to make substantive and important contributions on a very controversial issue, the named person. From the Tory benches, there was Annie Wells, not just a maiden speech, an M&S maiden speech. That was particularly moved when she spoke of her dream coming true in Glasgow. I had that same experience, too, around 4.45 last Saturday afternoon. I have to say, though, it was lovely to hear some of the old lags back to living down to our expectations, as usual. From Stuart Stevenson, Otto Diedat extraordinaire, to Mr Adam, who gave his maiden speech singing the praises of Paisley, the maiden speech has been given continuously for the past five years, with occasional breaks for sleep sustenance and re-election, so someone must be listening to you, Mr Adam. That is the thing about taking Scotland forward debates, of course. They follow and reflect an election. I have fought a lot of elections and I am still surprised by the way in which somehow the electorate, through their individual acts of democracy, seems to get what they collectively wanted. The wisdom of crowds, perhaps, does not always suit me, though. The people have spoken, as that American senator famously said, the bastards. I cannot deny that the electorate— Mr Ray, I can see why you asked for forbearance, but that is it used up. I do apologise. I cannot deny that the electorate a few weeks ago wanted Nicola Sturgeon to be First Minister, but nor can she ignore that they quite deliberately removed her majority in this Parliament. Her manifesto may have been, as she said, a successful job application, but it cannot simply become, as she claimed, the blueprint for delivery. I know that the First Minister tried to demonstrate that she has taken ideas from other parties, a Minister for Mental Health, from the Lib Dems, young carers allowance, from the Greens, a warm homes act from us, but Mr Rennie was right yesterday when he said that that is not enough. The First Minister should not mistake policy kleptomania for political consensus building. That is about behaving differently every day of the next five years, not about half an hour spent cutting and pasting from other manifestos. The trouble is that we have heard consensus talk before. Even five years ago, firming a majority Government, her predecessor assured us that he had no monopoly of wisdom. Alas, that turned out to be simply a flourish of his speechwriters—pen, not a change of heart at all. This First Minister must do better, and she should start with austerity and the cuts. A year ago, Nicola Sturgeon was all about stopping austerity cuts. As Kezia Dugdale pointed out, her MPs in Westminster are still all about stopping austerity cuts. The First Minister did say that there is cross-party opposition in this Parliament to unfair or regressive Westminster policies such as continued austerity. In this Parliament, too, there is a progressive alliance against continued austerity cuts. The First Minister made no mention of that because she is not part of it. She remains a founder member of the new taxpayers' alliance with the Tories. The First Minister may have ignored the cuts, but others did not. Neil Findlay and Alex Rowley spoke powerfully of the impact on councils, staff and communities that they serve. Others spoke of the 4,000 fewer teachers, 152,000 fewer college students and the shortfall of GPs. We cannot ignore that reality. The First Minister won applause from her colleagues when she talked about seizing the precious opportunity to make real improvements for this and future generations. The new power of this Parliament to stop the cuts is that opportunity, and she has not seized it but rather sidestepped it. We agree with all the fine words that the First Minister and others said about education as her number one priority. Kezia Dugdale quoted GFK on that. Let me quote Malala Yousafzai if she knows something about the importance of education. She said, There are many problems, but I think that there is a solution to all those problems. It is just one and it is education. However, the words that the First Minister had to say and did not are, we will protect education budgets and reverse the cuts of the past five years. I review if I education resources are directed might be welcome. Even Joe McAlpine admitted that the attainment challenge funding has been misdirected, but it cannot be a substitute for making sure that there are enough resources in the budget in the first place. A council of education advisers, a council of education advisers meeting in Bute House might be an interesting and worthwhile idea, but it is no substitute for more teachers in our schools. A major summit on raising attainment will be an interesting day, I am sure, but it will be no substitute for certain the problems that we have right now with new national exams, teacher shortages or excessive teacher workload, which I am afraid Mr Swinney's announcement today has not convinced teachers. I am grateful to Mr Gray for giving me a week. Mr Gray has marsaled an argument whereby the Government has got to engage and listen, and we accept that. He has then criticised us for having a summit on education in which we intend to engage and listen. Can Mr Gray give us some hope that he may have learned some lessons from the election before he concludes his speech? Ian Gray Perhaps Mr Swinney could learn the lesson that to say that a summit is not the answer or a substitute for addressing other problems is not to criticise it and perhaps he indeed should demonstrate that he intends to listen. I am from Edinburgh, and in Edinburgh we have or used to have a saying that starts off our quote. It then turns quite unparliamentary, but it warns against focusing on appearance while neglecting the fundamentals. That is why Willie Rennie was right yesterday when he criticised the First Minister's statement for being full of framework summits, strategies, reviews, plans and consultations, but short on the fundamentals. In truth, the statement had the feel of a Government groping to discern a way to take Scotland forward in the darkness left by previous Governments, as if they had not been the Government for the past nine years. It should have the courage, the boldness, to grasp the way forward. It is right here around them, a Parliament with the power to end austerity, to reinvest in our future again to get those fundamentals right. A real progressive alliance to create the education system that we all want, the health service that we all need, the welfare system that dignity of our citizens does deserve. To really transform Scotland, not just talk about it, meet about it or plan about it, but to do it, as Anas Sarwar quoted, if not now, when? I add my congratulations to the Presiding Officer's team and to congratulate all the new members of Parliament right across the political spectrum for excellent speeches and that Mr Gray has eloquently described some of their content. It is good to see Mr Gray back in the education role, but I have to say that the view is much better from those benches than it was from the winds over there. When opening the debate yesterday, the First Minister said that she wanted to build progressive alliances with other parties so that the greater good of Scotland can benefit from good ideas across the chamber. Likewise, in announcing her commission of experts on international education, she said that she wants policies that have a proven track record. As Ruth Davidson said in her speech, we intend to hold the First Minister to do just that. Indeed, many political commentators, when writing about the recent election, said that the most successful message that had come from the Scottish Conservatives was the desire in Scotland to have a strong opposition—an opposition that is forensic in its scrutiny of government policy, supporting where there is a clear advantage for Scotland's welfare and opposing where the Government has clearly got things wrong, because the voters did send out a very clear message that they want better quality opposition, and they expect that opposition to be based on two things—good quality facts and evidence—and on constructive, credible and coherent policy alternatives. I hope that the Scottish National Party's actions will match the First Minister's words, because much of political history shows that Governments are often at their best when there is effective opposition, and maybe not just opposition from opposition parties, but within their own party, too. In terms of scrutiny, might I say something about that process in this Parliament? It is very clear that there is a growing consensus in the Parliament, most especially that the committee system is not functioning as well as it should be. Indeed, there is an argument that it makes for lazy politics. In the last Parliament, too often the debate preceding a committee or a chamber vote was sterile because the outcome of that vote was already predetermined. There was diminished incentive to prepare properly and to expose Government failings because the exercise was deemed to be pointless. That is surely not good for democracy, and it is not good for Government. I know that, Presiding Officers, you take that matter very seriously. It is important not just because of a good Government, but because all of us who have been elected to be in this place have more powers at our disposal than ever before. We are no longer simply in the business of debating how to spend the money that we are given, but now we must debate how it is raised as well. With that comes greater accountability, but also with much greater responsibility, and that is a good thing. The key priority must surely be how we deliver economic growth within Scotland. As Ruth Davidson rightly said, that will be the defining test within the finance and economy briefs, support for the Scottish Government when their policies are clearly designed to bring jobs and investment, economies of scale and tax policies that will encourage rather than deter people to do business in Scotland, but opposition when we believe that SNP policies will threaten growth. My colleague Murdo Fraser set out the key policies, a competitive tax system that ensures that Scotland does not find itself facing higher tax rates than the rest of the UK. Competitive business rates, which mean that there are incentives rather than barriers put in the way of people who want to invest in our high streets and our rural communities, and well-planned infrastructure projects that will deliver better economic integration and connectivity about which there is still much to be done. With that comes the responsibility to free up creativity and enterprise, not by attacking rural communities with punitive land reform or spending millions on an IT system that leaves our farmers struggling for their livelihood, not by attacking local authorities when they will not do the Scottish Government's bidding, and not by attacking our universities with new governance legislation that threatens their autonomy and their ability to attract cutting-edge research and development, because all of those are so detrimental to Scotland's best interests. Scotland can benefit so much from key industries when this Parliament works together to create a sound economy. In that respect, I am pleased that the Westminster Government is now showing a real willingness to listen to what we all believe is a compelling case for the reintroduction of post-study work visas. I hope that progress will be quick so that the work that is undertaken by Humza Yousaf and his cross-party committee can bear the fruit that is so desired by employers, colleges and universities. Despite the good news this week about inward investment, there are warnings from economic groups such as the Scottish Chambers of Commerce and the Federation of Small Businesses about employment and about Scotland's growth rate lagging behind that of the rest of the UK. There are warnings, too, that politicians must not get mired in ideological warfare as they debate their tax policies but be fully focused on what works. We must always remind ourselves that it is not in this place where we create the jobs and investment, but it is here that we create the right economic circumstances for others to do so. It is so important that economic growth is on a base that is supporting our public services in the face of very significant demographic changes, which put huge pressures on welfare, on health and social care and, of course, on education. That is where I turn to now. May I warmly congratulate John Swinney on his appointment as Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, a man who has already a very strong proven track record both at Holyrood and in Westminster, a man who has a reputation for honesty, top-class debating skills and considered dialogue, such a distinguished reputation that I had when I heard about his appointment to make a quick phone call to my former colleague Gavin Brown, who is much more experienced at me than dealing with Swinneyism. Here is what I was told. Liz, he said, is a very good appointment. He is easy to work with, he listens, he is generous in his praise, he is amusing, he is down to earth, and you will always know what is exactly in his budget, because the only thing you have to do is phone George Osborne. He is, said Mr Brown, a class act. Mr Swinney, you will have to be a class act if you are going to sort out the education brief. I hope that you really are listening today, and let me divide my comments on education into three parts. First, on what the priorities should be. Of course, that means putting the main focus on policies that will narrow the attainment gap. For us on this side of the chamber, we believe that nothing is more important than a better grounding in the three hours. That is why we have made a recommendation that more time has to be allocated to that in teacher training. Part of that equation is the early years, absolutely critical in terms of a child's development, but also in terms of affording everyone a better chance. We welcome the First Minister's comments in that respect, because this is not just about more hours of childcare for those who are most in need, but about taking up the call from parents and campaigners, such as fair funding for our kids, for much more radical reform so that there is more flexible and better quality childcare and a system that responds positively to parental choice. Another part of the equation in the early years is ensuring that there is better and proper support for teachers rather than cutting their numbers, including qualified nursery teachers—so it was good to hear yesterday that the First Minister will seek to reverse the cuts that our Government made previously. However, I also suggest that the same needs to be done for teachers who assist pupils with additional support needs. If that is done properly, we will address literacy and numeracy in the early years, and we will not have the same worries about widening access to college and university, because by that time it is too late. The Scottish Government made the point two days ago that we have much to learn from international education. I really hope that that genuinely means listening and acting upon what works best. One of the most interesting trends in international education is that success comes best when educational institutions have genuine autonomy and trust the professionals to lead and to get on with the job in hand. We are well aware that the First Minister has on her desk requests from some parents to have more diversity within the state sector, not forced or imposed but responsive to parental demand. If that means a desire to operate within the state sector, but not necessarily within local authority control, then so be it. The Scottish Conservatives want to see genuine devolution of power, not a national education service or a new network of quangos, so we look forward very much to participating in the summit on school reform, because there is undoubtedly a case for greater diversity in state education based on what works. When it comes to colleges and universities, I think that the challenge is as great as it is anywhere in education. The reports out this week that look at research funding, innovation and burst-free support and all the aspects of access do not actually paint a very happy picture. They all make plain the fact that significant injections of cash are required to sustain both our further and higher education sectors and whether the SNP likes it or not, that debate is going to happen in this Parliament and rightly so. Scotland can boast excellence in those sectors, but that will not continue unless there is more cash. It comes down to a stark choice between raising taxes, which some in this chamber want to do, but which we believe would seriously be detrimental to the rest of the economy, or raiding other budgets, which is exactly what has happened to colleges and which we will not find acceptable at all, or a graduate contribution. If universities are to be told that they must take 20 per cent of their intake from the most disadvantaged backgrounds without restricting access to other students, that means providing more places and much higher bursary support than is currently the case. May I finish my comments on fairness in education? Again, I mantra for the First Minister. I give you just three examples of where there isn't that fairness. Around half of Scotland's two-and-three-year-olds do not get the same level of nursery provision because their birthday happens to be in their own month. There is much weaker bursary support in Scotland. There might be a slight improvement, but we are still well beyond what is happening in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. There is increasing concern about subject choice and when some pupils have access to fewer examination courses in comparison to the rest of their peers. We believe that we have to be very bold. Radical in our approach to the earliest years, focus on the three Rs and the simpler, better and standardised testing, though not in primary one, Mr Swinney. It needs more financial support for teachers, especially those in early years and in support areas. It needs a reduction in the unnecessary paperwork burden on teachers so that they can get on with the job that they want to do. Yes, it means getting rid of the awful name person policy, which is not only deeply unpopular but increasingly unworkable—I think that I am in my last minute—it is unworkable in the mandatory basis that the SNP clearly is struggling to defend. Several new MSPs have said that this new parliament will be defined by whether it is able to get on and do the job that has been asked to do by the voters in Scotland. To do that, the First Minister will have to ensure that her actions match her rhetoric, and the Scottish Conservatives must keep our promise to the voters in Scotland to hold her to her word. Let's get on with the job in hand. I call John Swinney to pose the debate at Deputy First Minister if he could take us to five o'clock. It is a pleasure to be called on this debate by you, Deputy First Minister, and I welcome you to your post. Let me draw this debate to a conclusion with some reflections on the varied and excellent contributions that we have had in the debate. Some of the comments about first-time speeches were made yesterday by Derek Mackay. I won't repeat them today, but I will address some issues that arose in yesterday's debate, which I want to give clarity about today. First of all, to my colleague John McAlpine, I want to make clear that I will chair the South of Scotland Transport Summit. I will be there to keep a very close eye on Humza Yousaf in all that he is getting up to, but it will continue my association with the South of Scotland Alliance, which I look forward to that opportunity to taking forward. I comment on Jenny Gilruth's speech yesterday, which, from my portfolio point of view, was a tremendous speech to hear of an individual who has come through the education system in Scotland and has made an outstanding contribution to the education profession and demonstrated in her speech yesterday that she will make an outstanding contribution to Parliament. I look forward to being on the receiving end of that wisdom about the education system from an experienced practitioner on my own party's benches in Parliament in the course of the next parliamentary term. I say to Ash Denham that the issues that she raised today about widening access are central to the Government's agenda and our determination to ensure that we expand educational opportunity and enable young people to make a full and proper contribution to our society as a consequence of the investment that we get right in their educational experience. I also say to Ivan McKee, who made another outstanding first-time speech today, that the way in which he wove together the arguments about investing in education and skills with the necessity of ensuring that that supports the economic and business development agenda of the country was a very refreshing way of looking at the important challenges that we face about linking up important questions that will exist between different portfolios within Government and, of course, the tackling of inequality that Mr McKee talked about is central to the agenda of delivering higher economic growth within Scotland. Peter Chapman made a wide-ranging speech about issues in relation to the rural economy. I can assure him that Fergus Ewing will be looking very carefully at and engaging very closely with Mr Chapman and others on the issues in relation to the delivery of the common agricultural policy payment system and to ensure that we do everything that we can to support the interests of the farming community. However, I make the point gently to Mr Chapman that our efforts to protect the interests of the fishing and the farming communities of Scotland are not always greatly assisted by the actions and interventions of the United Kingdom Government. It will be helpful if Mr Chapman is going to perform a role in supporting the Scottish Government, as Richard Lochhead has done consistently for nine years and which I know Fergus Ewing will do in the years to come, to protect and to assert the interests of the farming and fishing communities within our wider discussions, which will be an important part of the agenda that we take forward. We had a large number of first-time speeches to Parliament today and I am not quite sure what is the correct terminology for the speech that Mike Rumbles delivered. Mike Rumbles is, of course, a member who has been in Parliament before. My dear late friend and colleague Margaret Ewing introduced her return speech to the House of Commons in 1987 as the speech—not a maiden speech but a retread speech. There certainly was a lot of retread about Mike Rumbles' speech. I realised, as I listened to Mr Rumbles, that his sense of self-awareness has not in any way improved in the years of his absence from Parliament. He funded to the Government front bench by his actions shall you know then. Without any sense that, by the actions of the Liberal Democrats in propping up a Conservative Government hell-bent on austerity, the Liberal Democrats might suffer as a consequence. I would be absolutely delighted to take that. Mike Rumbles would not agree that you have a record, a nine-year record to defend. That is not a new Government starting from scratch. However, you have a record that is pretty abysmal, as far as the farming community is concerned, a farmer's local government is concerned, and you need to change your tune. John Swinney? I am glad that I have demonstrated some generosity of spirit to Mr Rumbles in taking an intervention from him, which he refused to take from me earlier on. However, that will allow me to say to Mr Rumbles, because, as he thundered to me about by your actions shall you know then, Mr Rumbles made the point that, apparently, I had been taking a centralising agenda with local government, despite the fact that, when I came to office as the finance minister nine years ago, I liberated local government of £2 billion worth of ring fencing that was put in place by the Liberal Democrats when they were propping up the Labour Party. I simply also point out to Mr Rumbles that there has been an election that all the issues that he is raising have been tested on the hustings. The election result resulted in this party, the Scottish National Party, commanding a higher share of the vote than we commanded in the constituency ballot in 2011. I am well aware of the electoral arithmetic, and I will be coming on to the question of consensus in a moment. However, what I want to say to Mr Rumbles very directly is that he has to respect the fact that this Government has been elected with a mandate to govern, and that is precisely what we are going to do. There were a number of other contributions from Donald Cameron, who made the point about broadband and mobile, and that was made also by Rhoda Grant yesterday in the debate. Broadband connectivity is really a central commitment of the Scottish Government, and if we had left it all to the market, the precious market that the Conservative Party loves, the level of broadband connectivity in Scotland would have reached about 60 per cent, but under this Government's investment, the level of connectivity will get to 95 per cent. We are absolutely determined to increase the level of connectivity. We have given a commitment that that will be 100 per cent over the course of this parliamentary term, but we have to also, if we are accepting the lines of argument that are put forward to support the Government's proposition, accept them. The Conservative Party must accept that we have had to intervene to address the failures and the weaknesses of the market to enable us to deliver on that commitment to the people of Scotland, and that is an important part of our on-going commitment to the rural economy. Let me make a couple of remarks about the issues that have been raised on educational issues. I set out in my opening remarks specific steps that I have taken to reduce the workload of teachers. I have also published today a letter from the chief examiner of Scotland that makes it clear that if I had gone further in the changes that are proposed to be made today, I would have jeopardised the integrity of qualifications that are available to young people in Scotland. That is a piece of evidence that I have put in front of Parliament to ask Parliament and the wider community to accept that the Government is going to move as far and as fast as we possibly can do, but we cannot, in any circumstance, jeopardise the ability of young people to receive certificated qualifications. That would be folly if we were to go down that route. The second point that I want to make on education is on the point that Liz Smith made about the funding of higher education. Liz Smith made the point that the option was to raise tax or to ask for a graduate contribution, if there was any difference between those two particular propositions. The Conservatives are the brass neck to go around talking about low tax, but they want to increase the costs on individuals by graduate contributions prescription charges. That is not a low tax agenda, that is a misleading agenda that the Conservative party is putting on. Liz Smith. The cabinet secretary is confusing a very important point here. If you are going to raise the general level of taxation, that has a hugely detrimental effect on the entire economy. A graduate contribution is necessary to provide the additional funding into higher education and further education to allow Mr Swinney to do what he wants to do in terms of providing widened access and insist that colleges and universities have 20 per cent from the disadvantaged community. Liz Smith makes my point that there is no difference between a graduate tax and the issue of raising the general part of taxation, and the Government set out its agenda in that respect. A number of colleagues, Fulton MacGregor and Rona Mackay in particular on the Government side, Peter Chapman on the Conservative side have raised the issue of the named person. I want to thank Fulton MacGregor and Rona Mackay for the considered way in which they set out the arguments around the named person proposition. Liz Smith said in her contribution that the named person proposal was unworkable. That is not the case, because today it is working and working satisfactorily in various parts of Scotland, including in South Ayrshire, which is a council led by the Conservative Party. I simply put those points on the record to encourage us to have a more considered debate about the issue. We live in a country today where all of us are signed up to an agenda, which is about making sure that we do everything that we possibly can do to protect the wellbeing of our most vulnerable citizens in our country. That is absolutely central to this Government's agenda. That is why we believe that the named person proposition is the right way to proceed to ensure that we protect the interests of the most vulnerable citizens. I praise those same contributions that he has just mentioned in exactly the same terms. He also knows that, in taking the legislation through the named person policy, he was one in which those benches supported. Will he accept, though, that something has happened that many parents across Scotland have lost confidence in the implementation of that policy and that some measure has to be taken in order to try to redress that and to restore that confidence in a policy that we both supported at the time of legislation? John Swinney? I think that what has happened is that a very good idea with a very broad level of support in Parliament, widely supported in Parliament and enormously supported in the community, has been utterly misrepresented by the debate of the last few weeks. Where I agree with Mr Gray is that it is important to rebuild confidence in that concept, and I give him the assurance that one of my early priorities will be to do exactly that, because I believe in the policy and I believe that it is right and proper for the young people of Scotland, and I will do everything that I can to rebuild that confidence as we proceed in this debate. The other part of the debate related to the condition of the Scottish economy, and in this respect, the tone of the afternoon was set by Murdo Fraser. At one moment, I thought that Murdo Fraser was actually auditioning for a part in Dad's army to play his namesake, Private Fraser. We're all doomed. In the way in which Mr Fraser went through all of the issues about the—as my colleague Fergus Ewing, the rural economy secretary, made clear, there was not a glimmer of positivity or optimism in the contribution made by Murdo Fraser. He also had the nerve to suggest that the level of deindustrialisation taking place in Scotland today was unprecedented. Has he not forgotten that deindustrialisation presided over by the miserable Conservative Party in the 1980s? My colleague Ivan McKee made reference to the tremendous industrial heritage in his own constituency, the work of the Saracen foundry. However, the whole issue was brought to modern life by the contributions of Stuart McMillan in relation to the work that was done to protect and to enhance or to recover the Fergus Ewing's yard from closure, which is now thriving, restoring the tradition of shipbuilding to the lower Clyde, and the comments of the rural economy secretary in his intervention to Murdo Fraser about the saving of jobs in motherwell in the steel industry and the opening up of the prospect of a new future for the steel industry in Scotland. Richard Leonard made this point yesterday about industrial strategy. The Government has, at the heart of its economic strategy, the determination to deliver an industrial strategy that invests in the fabric of Scotland and in the employment and economic opportunities that flow as a consequence. I want to conclude my remarks by referring to three contributions that have been made today that, for me, capture the same and very significant point. There are contributions made by Mr Sawa, Ben Macpherson and Bruce Crawford. In his speech yesterday in Bruce Crawford, the first backbend speech in the debate yesterday, Bruce Crawford appealed to Parliament to think beyond the parameters of the election, to come into this Parliament in a spirit of goodwill and to try to find areas of common interest to advance, particularly as is relevant to my policy responsibilities, the future of Scottish education. That was echoed by Mr Sawa's comments today of the necessity—of us not—and I paraphrase Mr Sawa, but he essentially said, we do not just come here to complain, we come here to find common interest and solutions. People are perfectly entitled to come here to complain, but we also must work together to find common solutions and common successes. Ben Macpherson used the remarks of saying to Parliament that we came here, all of us, with a unifying hope of a better Scotland to be created. Those three contributions sum up what I think is a really important point for Parliament to reflect on as we consider the First Minister's policy programme as she outlined yesterday. As we look forward to how that can be delivered in the Scottish Parliament in the next five years, it is a challenge for us to recognise that the election has happened. The Parliament has been elected on the distribution of votes and seats that it has been elected upon. We recognise that we have to reach out beyond the 63 fine individuals that are on those benches—wonderful though they are—to find support in other benches to deliver the Government's programme, and we will do that. However, we also need the Opposition to engage constructively in a fashion determined to create a better Scotland, to look for areas in which we can create opportunities for people in Scotland to succeed, and that is no greater than in the challenges that I face in education, to close the attainment gap, to deliver equity and excellence for every one of the young people in Scotland. That is the driving mission and the definition of this parliamentary term, and the Government looks forward to taking forward its programme with energy and enthusiasm to deliver on that vision. I thank the cabinet secretary that concluded the debate on taking Scotland forward. We now move to the next item of business and its decision time. There is one question to be put as a result of today's business. The question is that motion 190, in the name of Fiona Hyslop, on Scotland's future in the European Union, be agreed. Are we all agreed? Yes. We're not agreed. Can I first of all act make sure that all members have their cards inserted, please? The Parliament is not agreed, therefore we will move to a vote. Members should cast their vote now. The result of the vote is as follows. Yes, 106. No, 8. There were three abstentions. The motion is therefore agreed. That concludes decision time.