Engagements
Later today I will be taking part in a conference call with the directors of Outplay Entertainment, Richard and Douglas Hare, who have announced today that they will be returning home from California to locate their new games company in the city of Dundee, creating 150 new jobs. The entire Parliament will welcome that announcement, which is a significant boost to the games industry in Scotland.
New jobs are always welcome, but we are losing jobs all over Scotland, too. Two months ago, I told the First Minister that the Scottish National Party in Renfrewshire was planning to sack 60 teachers and to replace them with unqualified staff for part of the school week. He had no idea then what his SNP colleagues were up to. He thought that it might be a mistake or a misapprehension on my part. It was not. Renfrewshire Council now plans to implement that proposal in all primary schools in August. Does he support replacing teachers with unqualified staff, and is this the thin end of the wedge?
As Iain Gray well knows, the proposal is not to replace teachers, but to have various instructors, for physical education and a variety of other areas, come into the school classroom. He will welcome the announced intention of Renfrewshire Council to ask Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education to examine the matter and to confirm that it is fully in line with education guidelines.
I am glad that the First Minister has brought up North Ayrshire. I know that he has had his spin doctors out, trying to whip up the story. Perhaps he should have checked first. I have with me an e-mail from the leader of North Ayrshire Council, which says:
Unfortunately for Iain Gray, I heard the interview with the leader of North Ayrshire Council after his phone call with Iain Gray. He said that he was withdrawing the proposal for a four-day week, and introduced a new proposal to start formal education at the age of six. I have the transcript. The only problem with starting formal education at the age of six—apart from the fact that it would be illegal—is that the phone call that took place between Iain Gray and the council leader needs further explanation. Did Iain Gray say to the leader of North Ayrshire Council that he should withdraw his proposal for a four-day week and instead start education at six? Did he give him an indication that the Labour Party would seek to make it legal not to have education starting below the age of five, or was the phone call a one-way conversation, with Iain Gray refusing to listen to his North Ayrshire leader’s daft ideas? Presumably we can now resolve that North Ayrshire Council ain’t intending to impose a four-day week and ain’t intending to start school at the age of six.
I did not just speak to the leader of North Ayrshire Council about what was happening there, which is not a four-day week. When I asked Alex Salmond about Renfrewshire back in December, he did not know what was going on: he looked frantically through his big book, but he could not find an answer. So I thought that I would go to Paisley and find out what is happening by asking local parents to come and tell me. Five hundred of them turned up, and they told me what Renfrewshire Council is planning. It is planning to take people off the long-term unemployment register, pay them £11 an hour as sessional workers and use them to replace 60 fully qualified teachers. They think that that is an outrage, and they are right. Why will Alex Salmond not call a halt to that crazy plan right now?
I support Renfrewshire Council’s decision to call in Her Majesty’s independent inspectorate to confirm that what it is doing is in line with teaching regulations.
Order. Order.
If even David Miliband is trusted to come in and teach A-level students in England, cannot people come in to teach physical education and other aspects outwith the curriculum and be trusted with the children of Renfrewshire, or is David Miliband in a better position than the people who come into the schools in Renfrewshire?
If I was the First Minister of Scotland, and I was asked about what was happening in schools in Renfrewshire for which I am responsible, and I gave an answer that was about David Miliband’s career plans, I would be embarrassed.
No, actually, it is because I trust the independence of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education to look at the proposal and confirm that it is in line with the law. I do not think that we need it to look at the North Ayrshire Council proposal, which is obviously and clearly illegal.
Order.
I will tell members what the continuing thread is and why Iain Gray did not ask me about Megrahi or the budget today. [Interruption.]
Order, order. First Minister, your microphone is off. I am sorry, but it is entirely up to Mr Gray what he asks about.
I am pointing out that Iain Gray did not ask about the budget or Megrahi and does not want to hear about David Miliband south of the border because, from top to bottom, the Labour Party in Scotland is an example of organised hypocrisy.
I apologise to the First Minister that I did not ask him the question that he wanted. [Interruption.]
Order.
It is Friday night tomorrow night. I will get those 500 parents in Paisley back. Will the First Minister come with me, look them in the eye and tell them that the council’s proposal is a good idea for their schools?
I will trust the independent judgment of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education. This Friday, I will be seeking to persuade people in Scotland that 25,000 modern apprenticeships is not only a fantastic deal for young people in this country but the reason why Iain Gray does not want to talk about the budget. The number is 60 per cent more than we inherited from the Labour Party. That is why the budget is good for young people all over Scotland.
Secretary of State for Scotland (Meetings)
I may well meet the Secretary of State for Scotland this coming Monday.
The former United Kingdom Secretary of State for Justice, Jack Straw, claims that Kenny MacAskill tried to do a deal linking progress on airguns and slopping out with moves that could have paved the way for Mr al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, to return to Libya. Did Kenny MacAskill act alone or was the First Minister complicit with him in trying to cut that odious deal?
Neither. If Annabel Goldie examines the documents from the Cabinet Secretary for Justice, she will see that that dispute is about 2007. In 2007, no one—not even Jack Straw—was attempting to return Mr Megrahi to Libya. The position then was that Jack Straw was trying to persuade the Scottish Government to accept a veto on prisoner transfer, as opposed to the exclusion clause that we wanted.
Let us get this straight: the First Minister is telling us that it was a huge confusion and just a great big muddle. With all the conversations, correspondence, minutes, memos and meetings, he is saying that everyone else has got it wrong. That does not wash.
We had the American Government’s view and the Libyan Government’s view and submissions and indications from a range of people, but we did not have in public the United Kingdom Government’s view. I say “in public” because the UK Government’s policy changed in October 2008 to facilitate the return of Mr al-Megrahi to Libya, as the cabinet secretary’s papers indicate. That occurred in every level of government and every relevant Government department. I knew that at the time; indeed, I have said a number of times that that was the UK Government’s position. As we now know, there was a change this week, and we have things on the public record. It is extraordinary—even as extraordinary as Richard Baker’s remarkable interview on “Newsnight” on Monday—that the Labour Party in Scotland did not know that that was the United Kingdom Labour Government’s policy.
Cabinet (Meetings)
Issues of importance to the people of Scotland will be discussed at the next meeting of the Cabinet.
The national centre for excellence in traditional music, which is based at Plockton high school, provides many talented children with an opportunity to build a national and, indeed, international career in music. It is surely the embodiment of Scotland’s education system and the curriculum for excellence. It builds young people’s talents and skills and their belief that they are Scotland’s future. The centre opened in 2000 with direct Government funding, which was initially continued in 2007. A year later, Highland Council had to assume complete financial responsibility, and it now faces agonising budget decisions. Will the First Minister consider how best to fund the national centre for all? We all want to secure its future.
Resources were, of course, transferred to the local government settlement for Highland Council to use. In case there is any misapprehension, there are, of course, Liberal Democrats in the Highland Council administration.
It is a big step for a 14-year-old to leave home, live in the Plockton school hostel and attend classes in a new place. Young people who make that decision show their commitment to Scotland’s traditional music. The First Minister’s Government is assisting in other local authority areas. For example, travel to the new Burns museum in Ayrshire is being supported by the Government, not just the local council, and Stirling Council, rightly, is not expected to pick up the cost of a makeover of the battle of Bannockburn site.
I repeat that the money was put into the local government settlement. There is an obvious difference between that and the provision for local authorities across Scotland to allow them to ensure that every young Scot will—I hope—at some time in their school days be able to visit the marvellous new Robert Burns museum in Alloway, or the provision for the national resource project involving Historic Scotland and the National Trust for Scotland to ensure that we have a magnificent new visitor centre in time for the 700th anniversary of the battle of Bannockburn in 2014.
I will take a supplementary from Richard Baker.
Thank you. I will not dwell on the irony of this First Minister making allegations of hypocrisy.
Mr Baker, at this stage, a supplementary really should just stick to the question.
Thank you, Presiding Officer.
Where do I start with Mr Richard Baker? I might start with the fact that the highest court in Scotland ruled, by a majority of seven to nil, that Scottish justice was compliant in these matters. I do not know whether Richard Baker is saying that the Lord Advocate should have acted against a ruling of seven Scottish judges in the highest court in our land. When every party in the Parliament supported the emergency legislation that was necessary, it was recognised that the Crown Office and the justice secretary had dealt expeditiously with the extraordinarily difficult position that we had been presented with.
Schools (Four-day Week)
As has been indicated, the Scottish Government does not support a move to a four-day week in schools. We now know that Iain Gray had to order his councillors in North Ayrshire to fall into line over the phone.
The SNP asked for it.
—would have had a significant impact on pupils, their families and staff, not least of which would have been the difficulties and costs for parents of arranging one day of child care per week. The council has offered no explanation of why it thought that that was a good idea, but given that the Labour council leader quickly dumped the plan after it became public we might have thought that he did not need a desperate phone call from Iain Gray.
A four-day school week has no educational merit whatever. Contrary to the insinuation from Mr Gray, the SNP group was not aware of the Labour proposal before it hit the media—[Interruption.]
Order.
The First Minister is aware that Labour-controlled North Ayrshire Council’s grant will fall by £5.5 million in the year that begins in April. The council said that the cut would be £64 million, which caused widespread consternation among staff and service users. Given that the council’s general services budget will still be more than £340 million and that there is an underspend of £5.4 million, does the First Minister share my concern that, although difficult decisions have to be taken, North Ayrshire Council and other Labour councils are scaring parents, playing politics with children’s education and worrying staff, by overplaying budget reductions for their perceived electoral advantage?
I got the account of David O’Neill’s interview on BBC Radio Scotland’s “Good Morning Scotland” on 7 February. The Labour leader of North Ayrshire Council confirmed that the council had had a proposal to cut an entire year from school education by increasing the school age to six years old and keeping children in nursery for longer. He does not seem to have divulged in public the information that he divulged to Iain Gray.
Local Government Expenditure
As John Park knows, our priorities were to protect 1,000 extra policemen on the streets, the council tax freeze, which has saved families more than £300, free personal care and small class sizes. We did that in agreement with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, which took as its main objective the retention of local councils’ share of the public sector cake. COSLA also wanted as much protection for local councils as possible, without denying councils the opportunity to take their own local view on the proposals.
When the First Minister announced the establishment of the Christie commission on the future delivery of public services, he said:
The member should bear in mind that local councils must make decisions that are based on the budget and local priorities. I repeat:
Forestry (Public Ownership)
Roseanna Cunningham and Scottish Government officials regularly meet Forestry Commission Scotland to discuss a range of issues. The Scottish Government has made it very clear that, although there may be plans to take forests out of public ownership by the Lib Dem-Conservative Administration at Westminster, the Scottish Government has no such plans. Unlike the Con-Dem Administration, the Scottish Government recognises the enormous economic, social and environmental benefits that our forests and woodlands deliver.
We are talking about Scottish issues. Everybody knows that it was the Scottish Lib Dems who forced the Scottish National Party Government into a U-turn on its plan to sell off our Scottish forests to the bankers. Since then, the Government has stated that it is against the privatisation of our forest estate. Now, we hear from a Government adviser that Scottish forests are
The revenue is going to purchase better-value land, which is being planted by the Forestry Commission. The plan is to increase forest cover in Scotland from 17 per cent of the area of our country to 25 per cent. We are on target to have 100 million more trees planted in Scotland over the next few years.
On a point of order, Presiding Officer. In his answer to John Park, the First Minister admitted that local authorities have full responsibility for policy making in their areas. With the greatest of respect, I question why the leader of the Opposition and the First Minister were allowed to hurl insults at each other about what local authorities should or should not do. I ask you to call together the leaders of the parties and remind them of the standing orders.
That is not a point of order for me, and whom I decide to meet is a matter entirely for me.