Chamber and committees

Before Mr Rennie reflects on the lessons of this particular weather incident, would he agree with me that part of what we have to understand is the enormous power and severity of the weather? I know that it has affected the coastal communities of his constituency very dramatically in scenes that some of us never thought we would experience. Understanding the severity and impact is critical to recognising the scale of the challenge that we face.

I would like to follow up on the point that Sarah Boyack raised. I make a plea that in the work that SEPA is undertaking to examine future forecasting levels—I am certain that this will be the case—it takes into account the dramatically different set of circumstances that we have all experienced in the past few weeks. Storm Babet cannot be written off as an isolated incident. Circumstances have to be reflected in future policy on a variety of aspects—flooding preparations and planning, for example—or we will simply be turning a blind eye to a significant change in circumstances that has affected our country.

Yes, it is.

There is a startling contrast between Maurice Golden’s considered contribution that opened the debate, which has been a thoughtful rehearsing of serious issues, and the type of commentary that we have just heard from Stephen Kerr, who said that nothing ever happens. In 2002, when I had the privilege to represent the people of the city of Brechin, I walked along River Street and experienced the sorrow and hardship that those individuals had faced, as I have experienced in other parts of the constituencies that I have had the privilege to represent over the years. What happened as a response to that flood? The SNP Government put up the money to build the flood defences in Brechin, so Mr Kerr has just been demonstrated to talk palpable nonsense to the Parliament.

To make the miserable political speech about the issues that Mr Kerr has just made does no service to the people whose lives are turned upside down by flooding. In my experience, flooding is the most upsetting and distressing thing to happen in people’s lives, other than bereavement, because it affects everything. I have walked into houses where wedding photos have been positioned in frames on the floor and they have been ruined. Those are moments that people never forget. It inflicts trauma on them. To present them in the fashion that Mr Kerr has is, in my view, wholly unacceptable.

In the course of these events, I have seen significant impacts in my constituency, including the flooding of homes in Invergowrie and in the city of Perth. On Monday, I visited two families who live at the confluence of the River Isla and the River Ericht and who have been flooded on countless occasions in recent years when very robust flood banks that have been in place for many years have been overtopped by the severity and extremity of the watercourses that we are now experiencing.

I have stood with farmers—I agree very much with the point that Willie Rennie made—who are trying their level best to grow crops in land that has always been able to be cultivated right up until December, but who found that that was not the case this year, when they have lost crops. The other day, I was in a field at Dowally with the president of the NFU Scotland and saw that 42 acres had been utterly destroyed by flood water, with huge financial implications for that farmer.

There are new and more extreme circumstances. On Friday, I visited another farm at Ballinloan near Trochry, by Dunkeld, and saw that the Ballinloan Burn, which is usually the most meandering little trickle down from the hills, is now a monster, with huge land erosion. I will appeal to the Scottish Environment Protection Agency for some pragmatic thinking about how that farmer can restore the land on his farm, to enable him to service his livestock and other projects on the farm, which is a necessity. I would be grateful if the minister would encourage SEPA to engage pragmatically on those questions.

Resilience is everybody’s business. A flood incident is not just the responsibility of individuals, a council, the Government or the responder agencies; it is everybody’s business. That is why I am so grateful to resilience groups in Alyth and Aberfeldy in my constituency, which have had their fair share of flooding problems in the past. The communities have responded to those flooding incidents by developing the capacity and capability to withstand them. In very difficult conditions, Aberfeldy and Alyth were largely able to be protected by the diligence, activity and energy of local volunteer groups. I pay warm tribute to the groups—I am sure that Christine Grahame will be familiar with such kinds of groups in her Borders constituency—and I ask the Government to consider whether modest sums of money could be made available to support more of those community groups to establish more of that resilience capability, so that we can address those issues.

This afternoon, members have talked about the extremity of the climate change issues that we face, and I have made my contribution in that regard. That is why it was absolutely correct for my friend and colleague Karen Adam to make the blunt point to the Conservatives that it is all very well having a debate about flooding and coming here with complaints, but we all know that the flooding that we are experiencing is a result of climate change, so we have to do something about it and we must not put obstacles in the way of the measures that are necessary to tackle that.

I am appreciating the contents of Mr Golden’s speech. As part of what he is advocating, does he see there being a role for community resilience groups to be strengthened and supported to ensure that they have a formidable presence on the ground in all communities and that they can work collaboratively with public sector organisations in the event of such incidents?

Will the member take an intervention?

Will the cabinet secretary give way?

What I would say to Mr Kerr is that there is a process of agreeing schemes between local authorities and the Government, agreed through COSLA, and Mr Kerr knows that as well as I do.

I will close my speech by returning helpfully to the question of money. In today’s debate, the Conservatives have called for more money for local government, fire and police. They have to wake up and smell the coffee. There is not a limitless sum of money—not since the destruction of the public finances by the Conservative Party. Hard choices have to be made. The Government is prepared to make them, but we know that the Conservatives are incapable of doing any of that on any occasion.

I am grateful to Mr Kerr for giving way. I do not want in any way to sour the tone of the debate, but I might end up doing so. Mr Kerr indicated that he believes that there is a necessity for action. Will Parliament forgive me for pointing out that, when the Government brings forward measures to tackle climate change, Mr Kerr and his colleagues resist them? There is no need for Mr Kerr to shake his head. I would rather that he addressed the point that I am making.

I wonder whether Ms Adam noticed as much as I did that, in the intervention from Mr Golden, not a single solution was offered to the challenge that she posed. Does she think that that is a matter of regret?