Chamber and committees

Unreservedly. There is a very strong affinity with the Polish community in the area of Perthshire that I represent—indeed, there is a Polish cemetery in the city of Perth. Of course, in subsequent generations that has led to a very welcoming environment for the Polish community to come to, where, thankfully, they are able to contribute to our schools, local communities, churches and community activities. That is all very welcome, and it is based on the deep roots that Mr Cole-Hamilton has cited.

In the past few days and weeks, I have been mindful of a sequence of events that took place in my family’s life, which rather illustrates the mixed feelings that would have been in evidence on VE day in 1945. I had not really thought about this point until the events of the past few weeks.

On 3 April this year, I attended a memorial event down at Ocean Terminal, where a memorial to my late uncle, Corporal Thomas Hunter, has stood for many years. Here we are today, only 35 days later, marking VE day. That has made me realise that, on 3 April 1945, my mother’s family was devastated by the news of the loss of my uncle, yet, only 35 days later, the streets were full of people jubilantly celebrating the end of the war—quite understandably, of course, because there was an enormous sense of relief.

What has struck me is the level of contrast that there must have been between my grandmother’s and grandfather’s household, where people were nursing unbearable grief—which I saw in later stages of my life, when I became conscious of my family’s experience and understood the gravity of the loss that they felt—and the jubilation outside their front door. I leave that observation with members simply so that they will recognise that, although there was great relief on 8 May 1945, a lot of suffering was still going on in households the length and breadth of the country. We should never forget that contrast, which highlights the sense of loss that many individuals experienced.

Today, the Deputy First Minister has attended, on my behalf, a commemoration event in the city of Glasgow, and the Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture has represented the Government at the national commemorative service at Westminster abbey.

—but they have not been prepared to put the money in to support people in the communities of Scotland.

The Government engages with health boards around the country, and local authorities have their own decisions to make as part of the IJB structures. We will engage constructively in any way that we can to help on those issues.

Mr Balfour is another one who comes here and asks me to invest in local services, when his party leader wants me to cut public expenditure by £1 billion. How will that help IJBs around the country?

I will not tire of pointing out the total and utter hypocrisy of the people who come here asking for tax cuts and wanting me to spend more money. It is hypocrisy on stilts.

The programme for government has set out the steps that we are taking to expand capacity within the health service to meet the demand for appointments with GPs. It will include the delivery of 100,000 additional appointments, which will be available through GPs, to examine particular high-risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity and smoking, but there will also be an expansion of the availability of the pharmacy first service, which is designed to meet the healthcare needs of individuals where it is relevant to their circumstances. It also includes the expansion of the availability of island health practitioners in front-line healthcare services, with a commitment to expand the funding available to primary care services as a greater proportion of new national health service funding. The combination of those factors will make an impact on access to GP services in Scotland.

There are a range of provisions in statute and under existing arrangements to protect tenants. There are protections around evictions, and there have been protections around winter evictions. Support is in place through discretionary housing payments to assist tenants. A range of measures to protect tenants have been put in place by the Scottish Government over the years.

I welcome the fact that we are in agreement with Mr Harvie on the question of the housing legislation that is in front of Parliament, which the Parliament has passed at stage 1 and is considering at stage 2. We will introduce a system of rent controls, and I look forward to further parliamentary scrutiny on that issue.

SEPA’s latest report highlighted that 17 out of 47 areas in Scotland are in alert status for water scarcity, and that most of the rest of the country is in early warning status. An update on that position will be published by the regulator SEPA later on this afternoon. SEPA has contacted those who abstract water, including businesses and farmers, in the affected areas, and has provided them with advice. Public drinking water supply in those areas is not affected.

We are working closely with SEPA, Scottish Water and others to ensure that water supply is monitored and supported in line with Scotland’s national water scarcity plan. Climate change is driving more extreme conditions, and we all need to adapt to that reality. I urge businesses, organisations and individuals to do their part to plan ahead and use water wisely.

I share those concerns. At the present moment, in early May, the water scarcity map makes quite difficult reading, because we face acute challenges that we would never ordinarily face at this time of the year. That illustration of climate change requires us to take the necessary action that Mr Stewart has suggested. That is why it is central to the Government’s programme.

Presiding Officer, on this, the 80th anniversary of victory in Europe day, Scotland pays tribute to our second world war generation. We express our gratitude to the 57,000 individuals from Scotland who lost their lives in military conflict during the second world war and to the many civilians who were killed or injured at home. They gave of themselves so that we could enjoy freedom today.

We will all naturally think about how the lives of our own families were affected. I think of my uncle, Thomas Hunter, who was killed in Italy protecting his comrades 35 days before the end of the war and who was posthumously awarded the Victoria cross by King George VI. An inscription on the bible that was given to my grandmother in his memory has the words of St John:

“Greater love has no one than this to lay down their life for their friends.”

The lessons and the suffering of the second world war must be remembered today, so that we all act to protect the freedom and the democracy that we have enjoyed as a result. Together, we give thanks and dedicate ourselves to building a better, safer and more peaceful world.

I happily give that commitment to Emma Roddick. I know that the past few weeks have been particularly challenging for members of the LGBTQ+ community. I recognise that, and I want to assure Emma Roddick of the Government’s commitment to address the concerns that have been expressed. I have set out in my statement the rationale for the steps that we are taking on ending conversion practices by collaborating with the UK Government, which has indicated that it intends to take forward the agenda, and by ensuring that we provide funding support to organisations that will work to promote equality in Scotland in the forthcoming financial year. I give Emma Roddick the assurance that those commitments will lie at the heart of the programme for government.

Mr Kerr will be familiar with the fact that the Government has to live within the resources that are available to it. We have had to deal with the significant pressure in the past two financial years of hyperinflation arising from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has fuelled public sector pay deals to levels that were not conceived of when we were setting the Government’s budget. Therefore, we have had to make changes. What the Government has done is put forward a budget that has now been supported by the Parliament—although not by Mr Kerr or the Conservatives, so I do not quite know why he is complaining about anything financial to me. He was not willing to press the button to vote for the Government’s budget; he was just prepared to sit over there, complain, not suggest any alternatives and fail to support the delivery of finances to support our public services. That is a capitulation with regard to the responsibilities of a member of Parliament.