Chamber and committees

Will the minister say who agreed to pay £9 million to hire a ferry for nine months?

I thank Pauline McNeill for bringing this really important debate to the chamber. When I was driving into Glasgow earlier this week, I saw a rather depressing sight. As I drove along the M77, there were massive roadside signs advertising the fact that the low-emission zone will come into effect in June, so it seems that there is no turning back—this is going to happen.

Pauline McNeill rightly described taxis as part of our public transport system. That is how we need to view them, particularly in a city such as Glasgow—Edinburgh is the same. In Glasgow, we have become used to having lots of black cabs around; we have been able to just stick out a thumb and get one. There were so many black cabs that, when my wife and I got married, a long time ago, we invited guests to just stick out their thumb, get a black cab and go to where we were having our celebratory meal. That is how good they have been.

I fear—as do Pauline McNeill and the members of Unite the union with whom I have been working—that we will lose hundreds and hundreds of black cabs in Glasgow. That, as people have pointed out, will affect women—I know that the minister feels that strongly—and, as Pam Duncan-Glancy said, disabled people who need to get home, particularly late at night. Black cabs provide a service that cannot be provided by anyone else.

Glasgow City Council knows the issues and should understand the trade. I will explain the black cab trade to you, Deputy Presiding Officer. In Glasgow—in fact, across Scotland—our taxi drivers tend to buy second-hand vehicles, many of which come from the London market, so they have to wait for those vehicles to appear in the second-hand market. They are asking for extra time because those vehicles are just not in that market yet.

Glasgow faces a cliff edge in June, when we will lose taxis. That is a fact. The city will suffer. Not only the city but people who live near the city and people who go into it will suffer. I refer to people who live in places such as East Kilbride, where I am from. Glasgow is a regional centre, so the issue is not just for the people of Glasgow but for people who come into Glasgow.

Glasgow City Council can and will introduce the low-emission zone, but it can still be flexible. It could exempt taxis for the year in which taxi drivers are asking for an exemption. It is not too late. I say to the minister that, if she speaks to her colleagues in Glasgow City Council, she should tell them that the low-emission zone meter can and should be paused. That would benefit women, disabled people and children, it would benefit members of the public who need taxis and it would benefit the taxi trade. It would make sense.

James Close has mentioned the Skidmore report a couple of times. It is detailed and around 300 pages long, I think, with lots of good recommendations. It mentions that we should be taking a place-based approach, which of course is what we are looking at here. Interestingly, it says that Governments often get in the way of progress. Given that Chris Skidmore and his committee have done all this work, do you know what is happening with that report? Is it going anywhere? Will it lead to anything?

I have woken him from his slumber, so that is good. I wish him well; he has always been good to deal with. He is great to spar with and I find him hugely entertaining. However, speaking of wellbeing, I have worried about his wellbeing on occasion, particularly when he is roaring with laughter at one of the First Minister’s quips—he throws his arms and head back and guffaws with gusto—or when he is affecting anger at the Opposition. We saw a great example of that last week during questioning about ferries—

We have already discovered that, a bit like a just transition, a wellbeing economy is one of those phrases that is very hard to define and can mean different things to different people. However, here is how the Scottish Government defines it:

“Wellbeing is at the heart of our national purpose as a country, underpinning our National Performance Framework and reflected in our national outcomes and indicators. Economic activity should serve that purpose as a means to deliver improved health and wellbeing.

Our vision for Scotland is to create a wellbeing economy—an economic system that places the wellbeing of current and future generations at its core. Scotland is already leading the way on this work as a founding member of the international Wellbeing Economy Governments network”.

Deputy Presiding Officer, are we any the wiser? I thought not.

However, helpfully, we have the wellbeing economy monitor, which Kate Forbes launched last year. According to the Scottish Government, that

“will complement traditional metrics like ... GDP and include measures such as child poverty, levels of greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity, and fair work indicators to consider Scotland’s economic success.”

At the time, Ms Forbes said:

“Our vision for Scotland’s economy is to create a system which prioritises the collective wellbeing of current and future generations. While traditional economic metrics, such as GDP, will remain important measures of Scotland’s economic success, this new monitor will ensure we are tracking how to build a fairer, healthier and greener economy.”

That is all right then. Liz Smith is looking suitably confused.

There is a wellbeing economy toolkit as well, just in case people are stuck. We also have a strategy—a 10-year one. The national strategy for economic transformation, published last year, aims to deliver that wellbeing economy.

Not yet.

How are we doing? The Wellbeing Economy Alliance Scotland has pointed out some areas where we are not doing so well. It is right to say that too many people live in cold homes. Decent housing is surely a human right, but what do we have here? A housing crisis, not helped by insane Green policies that are driving landlords out of the rental market, meaning that there are fewer homes for rent, which will ultimately drive up those rents.

What about transport? A wellbeing economy would have world-leading and affordable public transport, including ferries. Instead, we have NatRail, a disjointed bus system, ferries that do not sail and roads that would not look out of place on the moon.

Then we have the deposit return scheme, which is meant to increase recycling but will not, and which, as Fergus Ewing has rightly said, transfers money from the poor to the rich. Is that a wellbeing economy?

I will.

Speaking about deaths, what about the drug deaths record that is the shame of Europe? That is not a wellbeing economy. Neither are record waiting lists in accident and emergency, and patients struggling to get appointments to see their general practitioner or dentist.

As Liz Smith said, there is a scandalous attainment gap in our schools. That is not a wellbeing economy. Councils being unable to deliver the basics, such as decent roads, because of years of SNP cuts—that is not a wellbeing economy.

It is all very well bandying about such phrases but, at the root of it—again, we get common sense from Liz Smith—we need a strong and growing economy to deliver first-class public services. Kate Forbes seems to get that, but does anyone else in the SNP? Maybe Michelle Thomson does.

Liz Cameron of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce put it very well in her letter to the three people who are vying to be First Minister. She said:

“Scotland needs a credible economic growth plan which must be a top priority for every department in the Scottish Government. That can only be delivered if the next First Minister makes economic growth its driving mission”.

She is quite right.

This debate is the Deputy First Minister’s swan song in that role. I look forward to seeing him on the back benches and to possibly being on a committee with him. He is going to find it difficult to perform in quite the theatrical way that we have become accustomed to seeing.

I was, of course, interrupted by Mr Swinney.

I will miss him, and I wish him well for the good of his own wellbeing.

I do wish him well. [Interruption.] There he goes. I have always found him—