Chamber and committees

The Brunton Theatre Trust recently announced its new programme of events, but the closure and proposed demolition of the actual theatre building, which is due to the presence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, means that patrons inside and outside Musselburgh will not have the same experience. Given that the Scottish Government awarded significant money to help to redevelop the King’s theatre, as the cabinet secretary said, how will he work to ensure that smaller theatres, such as the Brunton theatre in Musselburgh, can be similarly redeveloped?

No pressure, then, Presiding Officer.

As we have heard, the SNP Government, through its budget, continues its 17 years of failure. Unsurprisingly, Scottish Labour has fully endorsed that high-tax, low-income failure by agreeing to abstain on the budget, which I say to Mr Marra is the cheapest deal in devolution’s history. That is even before we were taken by complete surprise by the Lib Dems and Greens, who have fallen in behind to support the budget, too.

The failures of the SNP are endless, from a failing economy to a decline in education standards, missed A and E targets and the highest drug death rates in Europe. Furthermore, the cost of SNP bureaucracy has risen by £42 million in the past two years, with more than 2,700 civil servants now employed in the highest pay bands. It beggars belief.

The staggering rise in the cost of Government demonstrates the SNP’s staggering hypocrisy. While everyone else is being asked to tighten their belts, the SNP can always find more money—taxpayers’ money—to spend on Government. We urgently need a commonsense approach that will address the bloated Government payroll, cut out excess spending and lower the tax burden on ordinary Scots.

People in Scotland pay the highest rate of taxes in the UK, yet a poll has shown that half of Scots do not think that the higher levels of personal tax that they pay are helping to deliver better public services.

We believe that Scotland’s Parliament should be focused on what matters to Scotland’s people. Transport is key to tackling inequalities across our country. Good transport links connect communities to schools, colleges, GPs, dentists, shops, leisure facilities and their jobs. I say to Karen Adam that it even delivers the library books to our libraries.

Whether we are talking about ferries, trains, roads, potholes or public transport, it is clear that the SNP is failing to deliver on key services that are vital not only for the people of Scotland but for our economy.

We have made the point many times about the need for infrastructure and transport. The SNP’s promises to dual the A9 and the A96 have been broken time and time again. I do not know what more we can say. Transport is key to this economy and for growing and making our communities connect and work.

I want to go back to ferries, because here is an area in which we could have saved a little bit of money. Repairs for the ageing CalMac Ferries fleet reached almost £100 million over a decade, the MV Glen Sannox will have less capacity than was agreed to and the future of Ardrossan harbour remains in limbo.

Our roads are in a state of disrepair, with almost half a billion pounds being spent fixing potholes since 2022. Despite that, more than £4 million has been paid out by local authorities for pothole damage since 2019. Edinburgh is the pothole capital of Scotland, which will come as no surprise to anyone who, like me, lives here and drives on the roads. Is there a capital city anywhere else that can boast such an accolade?

The need for investment has been glaring for years, although the improvement of roads such as the A9, A96, A77 and A75 is essential for sustainable economic growth as well as the protection of communities on those routes. Transport Scotland continues to reject plans to speed up dualling of the A9, which I think that we all agree is a vital project. However, the Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Fiona Hyslop, has said that the current timetable for the project was “robust and practical”.

Thankfully, the Government said in a recent letter to the City of Edinburgh Council that it will not fund the drawing up of a business case for the Edinburgh north-south tram proposal.

The SNP has made a mess of Scotland’s train service, made a disaster of our ferry network by mismanaging state-run Ferguson Marine, and left our roads in a state of crumbling disrepair. Its record on transport is disgraceful and, frankly, embarrassing. As usual, the Scottish Conservatives want to be the party of common sense. I implore MSPs to back our budget proposals to cut taxes for workers and businesses.

I welcome those comments, Mr Sweeney. I will touch on that later on, if time permits.

Every community across Scotland deserves affordable and reliable bus services, yet the Scottish Government has failed to make the public transport network cleaner, smarter and more accessible than ever before, which was the stated aim of its Transport (Scotland) Act 2019.

The SNP’s nationalisation of ScotRail has been an abject failure by any and every measure. Nicola Sturgeon promised passengers that Scotland’s rail service would improve with Government ownership, yet things are manifestly worse than they were under Abellio. Taxpayer subsidies, ticket prices and complaints have all soared, while the number of services and passengers using them have plummeted.

More locally, simple improvements to rail infrastructure would bring obvious benefits, such as building the train station at Winchburgh, which would put a booming town of more than 3,400 new homes on the main Edinburgh to Glasgow line, and building the short Almond chord rail link, which would turn the Edinburgh Gateway station from a white elephant into a hub for the new west town, as it connects to Haymarket.

The SNP’s record on ferries is no better.

I am pretty sure that an intervention from me was expected, given that I was mentioned in the member’s opening sentence. Constituents of mine are sick-fed up of potholes. They want them to be fixed and filled, and they want the money to get to local authorities to enable them do so.

Obviously, those have changed.

In your opening remarks, you mentioned your diversity programme and things that you are looking at doing in that programme in relation to the code of practice. How is the implementation of the 2022 code of practice impacting the fairness and openness of the public appointments process?

Thank you. I have no doubt that the convener will discuss your suggestion with us later.

I am probably not on the same page as Joe. He spoke of the existing overlap, and there are a lot of other opportunities for the organisations that he mentioned, whether it be EDF, VINCI or others in that area, to work with other cross-party groups.

I am concerned that the timing and closeness to our red line mean that the group will not be substantive, and Daniel Johnson spoke a lot about making it more viable in the next session. Therefore, I am sorry, but I am not in a place where I can support its establishment.

Okay. Thank you.