Chamber and committees

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on banning the use of Prestwick airport by the US military. (S7O-00047)

The US Government’s partner in this aggression is, of course, the Israeli Government, which has already been banned from using publicly owned Scottish infrastructure, including Prestwick airport. During the previous parliamentary session, the Parliament passed a motion calling for boycott, divestment and sanctions in relation to Israel. We later found out that the Government has not even started work on that proposal. When might we see that package of measures coming forward?

We need to do more work at the national level to promote Scottish football, particularly in the Scottish Professional Football League, outside Scotland, in order to generate more money from TV rights.

Falkirk is already selling away tickets for £25. Other clubs could look at its model and consider adopting that approach themselves.

A £25 away ticket price could also serve as a starting point for the conversation. There is potential to reach a level that clubs are comfortable with, while, crucially, ensuring that fans are not priced out of the game. However, we should work with clubs and supporters’ organisations to drive that forward.

The First Minister said in January that he would be happy to consider the issue. Now that the minister for sport is back in place, I hope that she will join me in making calls to cap away ticket prices.

The summer of sport is an opportunity to break down some of the barriers to sport and physical activity. I am pleased that the motion mentions the provision of

“opportunities for children and young people to take part in free and low-cost activities”.

We should be using those opportunities for young people to get parents, grandparents or whichever adults accompany those young people back into sport, too.

However, to secure the legacy of the Commonwealth games, we must get the basics right. Across my region, a number of publicly owned sport and leisure venues are under threat of closure or are coming towards the end of their lifespan.

I have backed calls from constituents who are rightly concerned about the proposals to close Aquatec Motherwell. That leisure facility has been a vital part of the community for decades. It is one of the only accessible venues with good public transport connections and has been a lifeline for residents seeking a place to exercise, socialise and enjoy a healthy lifestyle.

Venues such as the Aquatec, and many similar facilities across Scotland, are important not just for fitness but for community cohesion. If we want to improve the mental and physical health of the nation, we must invest in local facilities where friendships are built and people come together to support one another.

We need to ensure that the next generation of elite athletes, coaches and lifelong sports enthusiasts have local and accessible places to go to.

We must also make sure that people can walk, wheel and cycle in their local areas and that having access to a car is not necessary for them to take part in sport. We rightly provide exercise referrals to allow people to improve their health with cheap or free access to exercise. Those people are less likely to drive, so local facilities are vital. That is not to say that regional or national facilities are not important, but, realistically, a velodrome will not be accessed by as many people as a green space that is suitable for cycling.

The summer of sport has to be the catalyst to get people involved, but the investment must keep up to ensure that the summer of sport lasts longer than a Scottish summer usually does.

We believe that sport should be about the joy of taking part in physical activity and not about huge profits for industries that harm our health and extract wealth from sporting achievements. That is why we want sport to take place in an environment that promotes health and is free from sponsorship by industries that would harm it. It is disappointing, therefore, that two of the partners involved in the Commonwealth games are Coca-Cola and Jubel Beer. I cannot see how that is not at odds with an event that is meant to be about promoting healthy lifestyles through sport and physical activity. I would be grateful if the minister could advise members what conversations she has had with organisers about alcohol sponsorship of the games and what message that sends, particularly given that there is a focus on the participation of children and young people.

The summer of sport is an opportunity to spread the joy of taking part in sport to people all over Scotland. It is a truly worthwhile investment that has the potential to improve Scotland’s health and wellbeing immeasurably. On behalf of the Scottish Greens, I wish all those taking part the very best, and I hope that the next debate that we have on sport is about celebrating their success.

I move amendment S7M-00208.3, to insert at end:

“and believes that to maintain participation in the long term, measures such as a £25 ticket cap for away football fans and support for local authorities to keep local sports venues open, including Aquatec Motherwell, are essential.”

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We all know the evidence about the benefits of physical activity in helping to prevent and manage conditions such as cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes and reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety. The benefits to overall wellbeing, including tackling loneliness and enhancing brain health, are not referred to as often but are just as important. Sport can reinvigorate communities and give people purpose and somewhere to go when other spaces put barriers in their way.

I have previously referenced in the chamber the wonderful work that the community trusts at both Motherwell and Falkirk football clubs in my region do week in, week out. For me, that is an example of the biggest takeaway from the debate: although big, set-piece sporting events should be a catalyst for participation, we need to make sure that promotion and, crucially, funding keep sport accessible for the long term. I am pleased that the minister has recognised that that is essential, and that her examples extend to a diverse range of sports.

The Scottish Greens believe that universal access to sport and physical activity is a right, not a privilege, because it is necessary to support the health of the nation. Unfortunately, however, too many barriers still remain.

Taking part in sport and attending sporting events as a spectator can be prohibitively expensive, whether because of the cost of tickets, uniforms, equipment or membership of clubs. Watching sport can be a gateway to people getting involved in it, whether playing or volunteering. That is why the Scottish Greens want to work with Scottish Professional Football League clubs to introduce a price cap of £25 for tickets for travelling away fans. That would widen access and ensure that fewer people were priced out of Scotland’s national game.

A cap has been in place in England for more than a decade that means that travelling fans do not pay more than £30 for a ticket. In March, it was announced that the £30 price cap on away tickets has been extended for a further two seasons, and clubs voted unanimously to keep the cap in place until the end of the 2027-28 season.

In the United States, just two months ago, in order to tackle persistent concerns about sky-high ticket prices for the 2026 world cup, New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, proudly announced a deal that would allow residents in New York to buy 1,000 world cup tickets for $50 each.

I appreciate that response from the First Minister and, in a second, I will come on to an idea about how we can deliver more from the public sector. I am sure that the new Cabinet Secretary for Public Service Reform will have plenty of difficult decisions to make. However, as the First Minister reflected, it is crucial that those decisions are not just about looking for cuts that can be dressed up as efficiencies but are about how we continue to build on the work that the public sector is doing to drive up productivity and wellbeing so that workers feel valued and are able to do their jobs well.

In the previous session, the Scottish Greens secured a pioneering trial of a four-day working week in the public sector, which resulted in a 25 per cent drop in mental health sick days and no loss of service delivery or productivity. Although our finances remain stretched, rolling out a four-day week would help to transform public sector work at no extra cost to the public purse. Will the First Minister commit to expanding the four-day week in the public sector?

If it is a wee bit early for cast-iron commitments, the First Minister might not enjoy my next question.

The Scottish Greens have already shown that we can work constructively and creatively to raise more money for public services. Income tax changes that have been driven by Green MSPs over the past decade mean that our public services are now better off to the tune of £1.8 billion each year. However, we cannot fix Scotland’s public finances without fixing how we fund our local councils. For too long, the claim that we need a consensus to replace the council tax has been used as an excuse not to take action. If the First Minister wants to scrap the council tax to fund public services, the Scottish Greens will work with him—that would be a parliamentary majority for change. Will the First Minister work with us to scrap the council tax in this parliamentary session?

The Scottish Greens were the only party at the election to say that we need to use our full taxation powers to raise more money, particularly from the wealth of the super-rich.

Today, the Tax Justice Scotland coalition wrote to the First Minister calling for a post-election reality check of Scotland’s public finances. In its words,

“if we want a fairer and greener country, we need to invest in it. You can’t promise a better Scotland and avoid paying for it.”

We know that public sector reform is badly needed, but trade unions in particular are rightly concerned that reform is usually a euphemism for slashing budgets and cutting jobs. Does the First Minister agree with the Scottish Greens and Tax Justice Scotland that we should explore all options for taxing wealth before cutting public sector jobs?

The response to the debate from some members has been predictable. There was not only the earliest mention of Paisley ever from George Adam, but we heard the usual old clichés about independence. For anyone who had their bingo card out, there were seven mentions of division and five mentions of us having an obsession, and we were called separatists at least five times. As Rachael Hamilton has just shown us, the unionist parties are in severe need of new patter, as well as credible arguments.

Many members across the chamber have mentioned really serious issues on which we need to work together: the NHS, schools and the cost of living crisis. We absolutely need to see the NHS put on a sustainable footing in order to ensure that patients have the appointments that they need and that we look after our staff. We need to introduce more additional support needs teachers and support staff to our schools, reduce class sizes, improve teacher wellbeing and tackle teacher workload. We need to ensure that we insulate homes, move to using sustainable ways to heat our homes and support those who live in fuel poverty.

However, I am a bit sad that many members are so lacking in ambition that they do not think that we can do more than one thing at once. As Ross Greer said, the mental gymnastics have been incredible. The issue of mandates would have been amusing had the arguments not been so duplicitous. Labour said that its 2024 mandate was against a referendum because of its vote share, but it is happy to ignore mandates here. From what I followed of Lord Offord’s contribution, he tried to break down the numbers from the indyref. His former party took Scotland out of Europe against its will. What was the mandate for that? On a turnout of 72.2 per cent of registered voters, 51.9 per cent voted leave and 48.1 per cent voted remain. By his logic, that means that only 37.3 per cent of people voted for Brexit, so there was no mandate for it at all, even by his standards.

We have not heard from any party that is opposed to independence how Scotland gets to have its say. The youngest people who voted in the 2014 referendum are now in their late 20s. I hate to break it to some of the new MSPs, but people in their late 20s are hardly young any more—I say that as a formerly young person. Hundreds of thousands of young people have never had their say on the direction of the country, despite some having been able to vote in three Holyrood elections and three Westminster elections. How much longer do members want to deny democracy to those young people? How many more years do they have to wait before they get to have their say?

We have not heard that level of honesty from those who oppose independence. Too often, the phrase “once in a generation” is thrown around. It would have been the very oldest of those in generation Z who got to vote in 2014, and the very oldest of those in generation alpha were able to vote for the first time this year. That is literally a generation. That does not include the thousands of people like me who voted no in 2014 but have since changed their minds.

If opponents of independence are not willing to say how long is long enough between expressions of democracy, surely they cannot deny that the circumstances in which we find ourselves now are so different compared with those in 2014. We have had Brexit, which Scotland did not vote for and has materially impacted life for everyone in this country. We have had a merry-go-round of Prime Ministers—which does not look as though it is going to stop any time soon—and a series of UK Governments that could not have had Scotland any further down their priority list, and that is not to mention the looming danger of a far-right Government in the UK. In any one of those scenarios—let alone if they were combined—a nation in a so-called voluntary union would want a say on its future outside of that union.

However, for me and for the Scottish Greens, it is not just about what we would be leaving behind; it is about the Scotland that we want to build and the Scotland that we could be. Independence should be a mechanism to deliver a fairer, greener and more equal society. It should be the mechanism that we use to rejoin the EU and put us back where we should have always been. It would stop us having to work around policies and decisions that we can and should be taking by ourselves.

We have a pro-independence majority in the chamber, and I think that we are no longer in a situation in which it is a case of if there is another referendum—it is a case of when. We cannot sit back, though. As a movement, we have to prove to the people of Scotland why those decisions would be better in our hands, using the powers that we have to make Scotland a fairer and more prosperous place by tackling child poverty, making childcare fit for how families live now, tackling the cost of living crisis and being an open and welcoming society that recognises the value of all Scots alike.

We have to take that fight to the UK Government. Let us test the boundaries of devolution and venture into those grey areas to achieve our aims. Let us do things that any Labour Government that was still holding true to its values would find difficult to take to court and challenge. This is a fight that we have to win, and we have to work here with that in mind.

I congratulate you on your appointment, Presiding Officer.

First, I acknowledge that, unless something dramatic happens, I should get 15 votes, so I doubt that I will become First Minister this afternoon. Despite that, there is something to be hopeful about. The electorate has returned not only the biggest-ever independence-supporting majority but the biggest-ever majority for parties that are socially progressive. Those who lost in numbers at the election were the ones chasing votes to the right, and that must inform what we do in this parliamentary session.

We acknowledge that the SNP won the election and should have the right to form a Government, and we will work with it on issues to make Scotland a fairer, greener and independent country. However, we will also hold that Government to account to ensure that ambition matches delivery. We want a debate on the future of Scotland as an independent nation, and I hope that the First Minister will keep his promise to bring that forward as soon as possible.

We have seen how badly Westminster has let Scotland down, making things much more difficult not just for the Parliament but for the people of Scotland. We were promised big things in the wake of 2014, but what followed was Brexit, a decade of Westminster failure, a merry-go-round of Prime Ministers and an ongoing climate breakdown. People’s lives have got materially worse, and Scotland must have our chance to choose differently.

For the Scottish Greens, independence is not an end goal in itself; it is a tool that we can use to make Scotland better, where democracy and decision making are closer to people. That is why, alongside that push for a referendum, we must use all the powers that we already have to make Scotland a better place to live in right now.

We all heard during the election campaign about the immediate and real impact that the cost of living crisis is having on people’s lives. There are a host of solutions that not only put money back into people’s pockets but help to tackle the climate emergency at the same time. Providing everyone with free bus travel would put money back into people’s pockets while moving more people on to public transport. We have seen the success of free bus travel for under-22s. Making sure that people, particularly those commuting, could leave the car at home would help to tackle transport emissions, which we have historically struggled to make a dent in. Other countries have taken that step in recent months, and we should absolutely be doing the same.

A large portion of families’ income is taken up by childcare costs. Unfortunately, we no longer live in a time where families can survive on one income, so good-quality, affordable childcare is a must. That, for us, has to be a universal offering, giving every child the same start and, crucially, making sure that the funding follows the child. Supporting families, particularly women, to be able to work with good-quality, reliable childcare will absolutely help to tackle child poverty.

It is crucial that we look at our tax system and how we tax wealth in particular, in order to make sure that we can afford the measures that will support many people across society. We need to make sure that everyone can have a home to call their own, that they can heat that home, that we have good-quality public services, that nurses and teachers are paid well and that we deliver that fairer society. Tax is how we fund those things, which are for the common good, and those with the most should contribute the most.

It is clear that the hopeful vision that the Scottish Greens put forward at the election resonates with the hundreds of thousands of Scots who voted for us. Above all else, perhaps, what people want to see now are actions that make Scotland a fairer, kinder and more welcoming country. Not only do we have a large pro-independence majority in this chamber, but we have a pro-Europe majority and a pro-immigration majority. This is a Parliament that not only recognises the contribution of all Scots, old and new, but says that Scotland’s future is one that looks outwards to our neighbours and friends across seas and borders.

The people of Scotland need this Parliament to work collaboratively in the face of unprecedented crises so as to make people’s lives better both here and around the world. The Scottish Greens are ready to do that. Scotland is ready, so let us make that happen.

14:15

On behalf of the Scottish Greens, I congratulate John Swinney on his election as First Minister. It is a remarkable achievement to win a fifth term in office for the SNP. I think that it is safe to say that this is probably not the role that the First Minister anticipated this time last session and, on behalf of my party, I acknowledge the sacrifices that both he and his family have made to allow him to serve Scotland.

The Scottish Greens will work with his Government to deliver on our priorities and deliver for the people of Scotland. The Opposition parties that took that constructive approach in the previous session of Parliament have grown in their numbers, and it is clear that that is what the public expect us to do. To put it simply, our constituents expect us to co-operate where we genuinely share values, even if we do not agree on every detail of policy.

That does not mean that this Government will have an easy time of it from the Greens. We will hold the Government to account and ask difficult questions. We need to see work quickly on childcare and free bus travel in particular, but other public services need support and reform, too. We will push for this Government to go further and faster, especially when it comes to tackling child poverty and the climate crisis.

In the first 100 days, this Government could fix some of the issues with childcare that we raised before dissolution. Ensuring that childcare is truly free at three would put hundreds of pounds back into families’ pockets before we move to expand free hours to include two-year-olds on what we would like to be a universal basis. The 1,140-hour entitlement is a national policy, but some families have had to move their children twice due to changes made by local authorities. Working with councils to ensure that cross-boundary placements can happen would support families’ choices.

We need to work together to put the NHS on a sustainable footing, we need to talk about how we support councils to deliver the services that they want to deliver, and we have to—finally—scrap and replace the council tax.

Ultimately, in the first 100 days of this Government, we need to see tangible work to deliver on the cost of living crisis and make people’s lives cheaper for the long term, to support the climate, and to make Scotland more welcoming and outward looking. The Scottish Greens will not shy away from holding the new Government to account, but we look forward to working with the First Minister to deliver for the people of Scotland.

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