Chamber and committees

During the Covid-19 pandemic, we saw innovative community-led activity to support community resilience. That worked particularly well in Argyll and Bute’s rural and island communities, where people have a strong sense of community spirit and social capital. For example, they know their neighbours and who might be vulnerable or at risk. The community planning structures provided a framework for mobilising that support, but much learning can be gained from putting power into local communities. How can the role and power of communities be strengthened for future community resilience?

As the minister knows, every cancelled sailing impacts our island communities. As the minister said, second-hand tonnage has a key role to play here. CMAL recently told the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee that it had looked at a substantial number of vessels. Can the minister therefore set out some of the particular challenges of specification and suitability when it comes to trying to acquire additional tonnage for our ferry routes?

I am interested in the definition of “EU law”, because all these laws were looked at by the Parliaments of the United Kingdom during the time of our membership and so are, in fact, included on our statute. It could therefore be argued that they are already UK and Scottish law and so on.

Will the member give way?

The Czech writer Milan Kundera, in “The Book of Laughter and Forgetting”, wrote:

“The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have someone write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long the nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was. The world around it will forget even faster”.

The international community must not allow that to happen to Ukraine.

I thank every member who has supported my motion and those who will speak in the debate. I highlight the work that my colleague Stewart McDonald MP has done, and continues to do, for Ukraine.

The motion supports

“the calls for the establishment of an ad hoc special tribunal with a mandate to investigate and prosecute the crime of aggression allegedly committed by the political and military leadership of the Russian Federation”

in their illegal and despicable invasion of Ukraine.

I am proud to note that Scotland and its Government and Parliament have already sought to step up to the mark in this Europe-wide crisis, with the limited powers at their disposal, by welcoming more than 23,000 displaced Ukrainians, largely through the supersponsor scheme; supplying millions in humanitarian, medical and military aid; and providing a platform for Ukrainian culture.

One year on from the time when Russian planes were in the air over Kyiv and Russian tanks invaded a sovereign state in an act of aggression, I hope that the Scottish Parliament will add Scotland’s voice to those of the European Parliament and others by supporting the motion.

Watching the news on Monday evening and seeing President Biden walking in step with President Zelenskyy across the cobbles in Kyiv was something to behold. It has been compared with the speeches from both Kennedy and Reagan at the Berlin wall. Biden said:

“one year later, Kyiv stands and Ukraine stands. Democracy stands”.

Like several MSPs, I visited the MS Victoria in Leith, and one memory stands out to me. On my phone, I have a photo of a picture that was drawn by one of the young people on the ship. It depicts a beautiful young woman in a pink gown and high heels, dressed as though she is ready to go to a party, but instead of a handbag she is carrying an assault rifle, which is firing at a Russian tank emblazoned with a “Z”.

In Crimea, hundreds of Ukrainian children aged between six and 16 from the Kharkiv region have been stuck in Russian camps for weeks or, in some cases, months. In videos, children can be seen in a school playground in Crimea singing the Russian national anthem. Most appear not to know the words.

In Kherson, a large lime-green cuddly toy marks the spot where a child was killed by Russian shelling while walking along the road. In Scotland, children are safe, but they have been torn out of their homes, their communities and their country. In Crimea, children have been forcibly separated from their families and are being taught the history and customs of another state. In Ukraine, countless children have been killed.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference last week, the US Vice-President, Kamala Harris, said:

“In the case of Russia’s actions in Ukraine, we have examined the evidence, we know the legal standards, and there is no doubt: these are crimes against humanity.”

She went on to say:

“And I say to all those who have perpetrated these crimes, and to their superiors who are complicit in those crimes—you will be held to account”.

A crime of aggression is the planning, initiation or execution of a large-scale and serious act of aggression using state military force. Crimes against humanity are considered to be among the most serious offences under the rules of war. Those laws ban attacks on civilians, or infrastructure vital to their survival, and are set out in international treaties. For example, in Ukraine, numerous missile and drone attacks in October and November deprived millions of citizens of at least temporary access to electricity, water, heat and related vital services ahead of the cold winter months.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, attacks on 23 November killed or injured more than 30 civilians and interrupted access to power for millions throughout Ukraine. The UN said that the entire population of Kyiv had no access to water for the day and that parts of the Kyiv, Lviv, and Odesa regions were completely disconnected from electricity.

Yulia Gorbunova, senior Ukraine researcher at Human Rights Watch, said:

“By repeatedly targeting critical energy infrastructure knowing this will deprive civilians of access to water, heat, and health services, Russia appears to be seeking unlawfully to create terror among civilians and make life unsustainable for them”.

She went on to say:

“With the coldest winter temperatures yet to come, conditions will become more life-threatening while Russia seems intent on making life untenable for as many Ukrainian civilians as possible.”

Since the beginning of the invasion, the World Health Organization has reported more than 600 attacks on healthcare facilities, personnel and transport in Ukraine, which have killed at least 100 people. In one of the most notorious attacks, Russian bombs destroyed a children’s and maternity hospital in Mariupol on 9 March 2022, injuring dozens of people and killing four, including a pregnant woman and her baby. That attack was justified by the Russians as the hospital had a supposed presence of Ukrainian armed forces, but the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe concluded, in a fact-finding report, that the air strike was a war crime. Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, said of that attack:

“Horrible pain. We will never forget and never forgive”.

Aggression is one of the core crimes in international criminal law, alongside genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. In 1946, the International Military Tribunal ruled that aggression was

“the supreme international crime”

because

“it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.”

A crime of aggression is a crime against peace.

In 1991, Ukrainians voted overwhelmingly for independence. Ukraine, as its national anthem proclaims, did not die. The international community cannot stand aside to let the aggressor win.

Slava Ukraini! [Applause.]

Can the minister provide any update regarding the Scottish Government’s latest engagement with the United Kingdom Government regarding the funding available to deliver its project gigabit commitment?

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. My app did not connect. I would have voted yes.

I congratulate my colleague and friend Paul McLennan on securing this members’ business debate, and I associate myself with his praise for the British Heart Foundation Scotland and for Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland.

As Paul said, February is heart month. The heart is one of the most recognised symbols in the world, from the Greek philosophers, to I “heart” New York, to video games. The heart represents our strongest emotions, both positive and negative, and our needs: it represents love, fear, pain, health, lives.

The heart is our body’s power supply—without it nothing works. Electric pulses that are created by your heart supply energy to every organ in your body. If that power is switched off—if the heart stops—blood and oxygen no longer flow and the person starts to die.

Everyone in this chamber, I am sure, will have experienced the loss of a family member, friend or colleague due to cardiac arrest. Many of us, too, will know the relief of having a loved one survive. It is those experiences that lead us to try to make a difference, and to help more people to survive.

That is exactly what Mull and Iona Community Trust has done by investing in defibrillators. It has secured funding, sited defibrillators at strategic locations on the islands and appointed volunteer guardians, of whom there are 37, to check them monthly.

Research suggests that there should be one defibrillator per 1,000 people in rural areas. That equates to three defibrillators on Mull. However, the area of Mull is five times that of Glasgow, where a defibrillator every 200m is suggested, and it has around 600,000 visitors a year.

The survival rate for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests—of which there are around 3,200 in Scotland every year—is only 10 per cent. To put it starkly, every minute without cardiopulmonary resuscitation and defibrillation reduces the chance of survival by 10 per cent. With such statistics, members can understand why the Mull and Iona communities have worked so hard to increase the number of defibs on their islands.

To create such a network requires a lot of funding. People have raised money, and businesses in Argyll and Bute have worked with community councils to enhance the network of defibrillators. For example, Scottish Sea Farms has installed accessible defibs at its facilities and, when Cruachan’s iconic dam and underground power station played a starring role in the television series “Andor”, the Drax Group provided funds to help to create a rural defibrillator network.

However, something very simple could be done to boost the number of defibs across the country and ensure that our rural areas and less-affluent areas have access to them. It is, simply, to remove VAT from them. I have written twice to the Chancellor of the Exchequer to request that that modest proposal be considered. I very much appreciate the cross-party support for that request, and the support from a number of organisations, including St John Ambulance and community councils throughout Scotland. I hope that Westminster takes note of the Irish Government’s decision to remove the 23 per cent VAT levy from defibs on 1 January this year. The Irish Heart Foundation described that as

“a victory for common sense”.

I hope that the chancellor can have a heart and do the same.

I and others will not be giving up; the issue is simply too important. However, in the meantime, as Paul said, the British Heart Foundation Scotland is asking us to do two things: first, to ensure that defibs in our areas are all in the Circuit—that is, the national network of defibs that has been created by the BHF with the ambulance services for quick access to help to save lives—and, as Paul explained, to learn CPR with the BHF’s new free online tool RevivR.

This February, I urge everyone to think of hearts not just on Valentine’s day but all month; in fact, I urge everyone to think of hearts all year.

I found a haiku by the American writer Eric Overby that feels like the appropriate way to conclude my contribution:

“My heart beats with you,
Love runs red throughout my veins,
Making me alive”

The retained EU law bill gives some powers. However, it is the whole impact of that legislation, which throws us off a cliff edge at the end of this year, that raises the biggest concerns.

I started my contribution by suggesting that the benefits of Brexit that the vote leave campaign promoted were simply an illusion. However, sadly, those myths continue to be perpetrated.

When he signed the Brexit trade deal, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared that Britain would be “prosperous, dynamic and contented”. In reality, Brexit has crippled the economy of the UK—the only member of the G7, as has been said, whose economy is smaller than it was before the Covid pandemic. Business investment has been damaged; the pound has been devalued, making imports more expensive and stoking inflation; trade barriers have reduced investment; and the ending of free movement has resulted in labour shortages in key sectors, including food production, lorry driving and hospitality.

The downward trend is set to continue. The principal economist at the Confederation of British Industry, Martin Sartorius, said in a statement:

“Businesses continue to face a number of headwinds, with rising costs, labour shortages, and weakening demand contributing to a gloomy outlook for next year.”

Stanley Kubrick said:

“If you can talk brilliantly about a problem, it can create the consoling illusion that it has been mastered.”?

That is what the Westminster Government is doing. The UK economy is, fundamentally, on the wrong path. Even though the Scottish Government has clearly stated its concerns, the Tory Brexit ideology continues to drive the retained EU law bill and the reduction of workers’ rights, as opposed to safeguarding the best interests of our citizens and businesses. Only independence offers Scotland our escape from that illusion.

I am interested to know how Sandra Dowey expects the Scottish Government to work with the UK Government when the UK Government treats the Scottish Government with such visible contempt.