Chamber and committees

The member knows fine well that we have the highest number of teachers that we have had for many years—since at least 2019, I believe.

Turning to our higher and further education sector—

I will continue.

The policies include attainment challenge funding of more than £1 billion over this parliamentary session; 1,140 hours of quality early learning and childcare; the roll-out of digital devices for every schoolchild; the expansion of free school meal provision; an increase in school clothing grants; and investment in the school estate. [Interruption.]

On the day that this year’s exam results were published, I read a tweet from my colleague, Michael Marra, who wrote:

“Congratulations to all young people receiving results today. Whether celebrating or slightly down at heart please know that there are endless possibilities out there for you.”

He went on to say:

“Your achievements are also masking real problems in our education system.”

I would suggest that young people’s achievements, far from masking problems, reflect their own efforts, the quality of our education system and all those who work within it. I would further suggest to Mr Marra that the “endless possibilities” that he refers to reflect the Scottish Government’s commitment to making higher education free for young people, supporting our colleges sector and delivering foundation and modern apprenticeships.

I am going to crack on for a little bit.

Education—in Scotland and the UK—is facing huge challenges, which have been made worse by soaring inequalities, the continuing effect of the pandemic, the appalling state of the UK economy and the devastating effect of inflation on Scottish Government budgets. No government can or should evade responsibility for delivering for its citizens but to ignore the context that a government is operating in, or the success that is being achieved in the face of it, is unacceptable.

The OECD values the Scottish education system highly, describing the curriculum for excellence as

“a holistic, coherent, and future-oriented approach to learning”.

Other countries are adopting that approach because of the value that it delivers. We must also remember that, across the board, exam pass rates have increased this year compared with the most recent exam diet in 2019, including A-grade passes; skills-based qualifications are close to the highest-ever figure; positive destinations for school leavers stand at 93.2 per cent; and nine out of 10 headteachers agree that improvements have been made in closing the poverty-related attainment gap despite the impact of the pandemic.

I recognise that the poverty-related attainment gap is incredibly stubborn and requires measures that consider poverty as a whole, with social policy and health policy working with education.

I make no apology for listing policies that the Scottish Government has implemented to mitigate the effects of Tory austerity on education—

I do not want to finish without pointing out that I sympathise with teaching unions in their pursuit of a pay claim. I know that nobody wants to strike, and I urge all parties to work to find a compromise that is sustainable and fair.

I offer the Scottish Government—

As the cabinet secretary rightly said, those figures are heartbreaking, and my thoughts are very much with everyone who has lost a loved one.

In addition to the measures that have already been outlined, could the cabinet secretary provide further detail on the legislative measures that the Scottish Government is taking to tackle homelessness, such as, in particular, the suspension of the local connection test that came into force this week, and measures in the forthcoming housing bill?

The rallying cry of Iran’s protest movement,

“women, life, freedom”,

is simple, yet powerful.

Ignited by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in September, just days after her arrest for letting too much hair show from under her headscarf, the uprising has been compounded by decades of anger and repression. Even the widespread execution of protesters has failed to diminish the resolve of those who are fighting for justice, and it is not just women who have found themselves on the front line.

Among the protesters this month, journalist Scott Peterson reported on a team of three middle-aged men who embark on night-time missions. One drives, another films and the third sprays anti-regime slogans and the names of those killed on the walls of militia, Government, and religious centres. Wishing to remain anonymous, they said,

“We are all like drops, but we will become rivers and then oceans once we are united.”

Those men have witnessed the state-sanctioned oppression of women for years, and they understand that real change requires everyone to play their part.

In every corner of the world, to varying degrees, women and girls still find themselves at a shamefully high risk of experiencing gender-based violence. I thank the cabinet secretary and the minister for today’s debate—which recognises the crucial role that men must play in its eradication—during this global 16 days of activism against gender-based violence.

The statistics that we have heard from the United Nations are chilling, and they merit repeating: more than one in three women will experience gender-based violence in their lifetime, and more than five are killed every hour by someone in their own family. From the beginning of this debate to the end of this debate, 10 women will have been killed.

As a Pakistani woman, I am not blinkered to issues in my own communities. I take this opportunity to highlight the important work of charities here in Scotland, including in Glasgow, such as Amina, the Muslim Women’s Resource Centre. That award-winning organisation has been recognised by black and minority ethnic and Muslim communities for its pioneering and responsive approach to addressing the issues and needs of BME and Muslim women.

Amina’s focus recently has been on raising awareness around honour-based abuse that is perpetrated against a woman who is perceived—usually by men—to have brought shame on her family. Last year, during the 16 days of activism, Amina held a vigil to commemorate the lives of BME and Muslim women who had lost their lives as a result of such abuse. I attended that vigil and stood alongside men, imams and women as I read out the names of the women who had lost their lives. Change is happening, but not fast enough, as we know.

Anita Gindha from Glasgow was killed in 2003, aged just 22. Anita had refused to follow through with a forced marriage, and fled to London to rebuild her life and marry the man she loved. Thinking that she had escaped, Anita was brutally killed two years later—she was strangled in front of her 18-month-old son while she was eight and a half months pregnant.

Stories like Anita’s are horrific and uncomfortable to listen to, but we must use the momentum that has been built by those global campaigns to push for the required behavioural shift that will end systemic violence against women.

As we have acknowledged, it is the responsibility of men to address and control their behaviour, to be positive role models for younger generations, and to challenge systems and attitudes around masculinity that normalise gender inequality. Nevertheless, we have a collective role to play, and I join the minister and the cabinet secretary in applauding Police Scotland’s “Don’t be that guy” campaign, which brings those issues to the fore and has helped to stimulate important conversations.

I am also pleased that the Scottish Government remains committed to the continued evaluation and development of its equally safe strategy to eradicate violence against women, with £9.5 million being provided to 121 projects in just its first six months.

Early intervention and preventative measures are critical factors in the success of that strategy. As my colleagues have mentioned, the equally safe at school strategy is being developed by a number of organisations, including Rape Crisis Scotland, and the University of Glasgow, which is in my constituency. That encourages secondary schools to take a holistic approach to preventing gender-based violence, with student voices at the forefront. I welcome that preventative approach, and that education on building and maintaining healthy relationships and on the meaning of consent.

It is also important that we MSPs continue to engage with our schools and local authorities to encourage leadership in that area and that we lead by example in the way that we conduct ourselves. We have around 70 men elected to this Parliament. I thank all the men who are currently in the chamber and those who were here previously.

In the words of the former secretary general of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon,

“Violence against women is never acceptable, never excusable and never tolerable.”

If we want women and girls in Scotland to grow up with equal opportunities in a truly equal society, nobody can afford to sit on the sidelines, especially not men.

I make no apology for starting my speech by expressing my on-going dismay and anger at the position that Scotland finds itself in with regard to EU membership. We have made it crystal clear at every poll and election before and since 2016 that we choose to be an EU nation. Brexit must surely rank as one of the most deceitful and self-destructive policies ever to be visited on the population of a country.

Of course, it does not matter whether people voted for it or against it. The on-going and worsening consequences of withdrawing from the world’s most successful trading block with nothing to replace it were entirely predictable. Pursuing Brexit at all costs was a feckless and dishonest thing to do, but pursuing the hardest of Brexits, as Tory Government after Tory Government has done, is an on-going scandal.

What of Labour? I do not agree that Labour and the Tories are two sides of the same coin on every policy and debate that is brought to this Parliament. However, on Brexit, Labour seems to have no more interest than the Tories in representing Scotland’s democratically expressed choice.

Whether or not we have given up on Scotland being a European nation, as the pro-Brexit Tories, Labour and the Lib Dems have, we should all be deeply concerned by what the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill would mean for workers, employers, consumers and the viability of businesses around the country.

With this disastrous bill moving through Westminster despite the concerns of experts, the Welsh Senedd and the Scottish Parliament, I wonder whether Alex Rowley agrees that there is simply no way to make Brexit work.

I will return to where I was in my speech. Bear with me, Presiding Officer. I will try to find my place.

The union Unison describes the bill as having

“set a fast-moving conveyor belt in motion, which will see all protections for workers and UK citizens that come from EU law fall off a cliff in December 2023, unless the government decides to produce new and equivalent UK laws.”

I reiterate that the bill would impact about 2,400 regulations. So far, 2,000 pieces of retained EU law have not been amended, repealed or replaced. We should make no mistake—there is huge upheaval and disruption ahead, and there is the potential for massive loss of rights and protections if the bill proceeds.

The cost of doing business with the EU, and the amount of bureaucracy that is about to be set in train, will rise to unsustainable levels for many businesses. For business and employment, the bill spells disaster—as does Brexit itself.

Recent statistics from the Federation of Small Businesses continue to show my constituency of Glasgow Kelvin as having the second-largest business population in Scotland, with over 10,000 local businesses. For local businesses, Brexit has already taken its toll—on recruitment and on the cost and administrative hassle of trading with EU countries. Now, with the latest mitigating measure in the shape of the EU retained law bill, we are being asked to accept a real bonfire of the vanities when it comes to workers’ rights, consumer protection, food standards, animal welfare and literally hundreds of other quality assurance measures that we benefited from as members of the EU.

However, we should be extremely concerned about what the bill means at its heart—at its very core—for Scottish democracy. It will drive a coach and horses through Scotland’s devolved settlement and—make no mistake—it is fully intended that it should do so. If it becomes law, it will return to Westminster the responsibility for legislation in vast areas of currently devolved decision making. Coupling that with the disgraceful and undemocratic United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020 will mean that Scotland’s political voice is silenced and overridden on issue after issue.

The Conservatives’ amendment to the motion refers to parliamentary scrutiny. The bottom line is that, if we do not stop the bill, there will be no scrutiny of many areas of policy that the Scottish Parliament currently has responsibility for. A massive Westminster power grab may be what Conservative MSPs want and are working for, but it is not what Scotland wants.

I support the Government’s motion, which calls on the UK Government to scrap the bill completely—in the interests of good governance, public protection and, most significantly, democracy for Scotland.

It has been quite helpful to get that context, given the concern that there is not enough evidence. It sounds as though the scope of the research is quite wide, but are you confident that the research itself and the method of deployment will be enough to give you the evidence that you need? If you do not get enough evidence, is your mind open to gathering more?