Chamber and committees

I am afraid that that is just not good enough. The First Minister takes all the credit for recruiting 3,500 extra teachers but is nowhere to be seen when their terms and conditions turn out to be shoddy.

In an open letter that was written this week, 2,000 temporary teachers say that they are having to take extra jobs just to put food on the table. One in 10 teachers is now on a short-term contract, bobbing from one precarious job to the next for years on end. That is no way to treat those who are responsible for educating the next generation. We all know that if the money is temporary, the teachers will be temporary. If the Scottish Government makes the money permanent, the teachers will be permanent.

Will the First Minister fix that and treat those teachers with respect and decency, for a change?

To ask the First Minister, in light of the growth in short-term teaching contracts, how many of the 3,500 teaching and classroom assistant posts that the Scottish Government has committed to creating will be given permanent contracts. (S6F-00095)

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take in response to reports of Danish and Swedish boats intensively fishing for sand eels just off the Firth of Forth. (S6O-00016)

That is very good news. The kittiwake population has been cut in half in the past 50 years, partly as a result of industrial sand eel fishing. In the past month, more than 20 Swedish and Danish boats spent days off the Fife coast hoovering up tonnes of sand eels for pig meal. Local fishermen and RSPB Scotland are very concerned about the impact on seabirds. A previous Government took action at Wee Bankie, and we need action now. I want the minister to think of the puffins and to set out the urgent action that will be taken on sand eels.

It is carers week, but 72 per cent of unpaid carers have not had a break since the pandemic began. Last week, I asked the First Minister to reopen day services for adults with special needs. In response, the relevant minister issued a new letter today, but with a link to the old guidance, so nothing has really changed in the past week. It makes no difference what level someone lives in—the barriers to reopening are just the same. People are getting desperate, so will the Government issue new guidance to give local authorities the clarity that they need to get those services open again?

That is typical of this Government. At the time, they blow it up and say, “We’ve saved 1,500 jobs at BiFab and we will create an additional 2,000 jobs at Lochaber,” but what happens is quite the opposite: the money is lost, the jobs do not return, the workers are let down and the Government’s reputation is tarnished. [Interruption.] I cannot take another intervention just now; I have just taken one.

We have been here before with the Ferguson Marine shipyard. The ferries are still not ready, at twice the cost. In recent weeks, we have heard about the disaster to do with ferries to the islands: people and communities in the islands have been let down because of the Government’s failure to deliver on its industrial strategy. Prestwick is another example, and then there was Sinofortune and the £10 billion deal five years ago that turned out to be nothing, with the company ending up owning just a pub in Oxford.

This Government’s reputation on industrial strategy and relations is in tatters. The Government needs to change. It still believes that jobs will come to Lochaber, despite the fact that GFG Alliance is trying to sell its plants in the West Midlands, Teesside, Essex, Rotherham, Scunthorpe and Wales. All those companies are being sold off, yet the Government still tries to convince us that the jobs are coming.

The Government’s strategy needs a major reworking and rebranding. We need a proper industrial strategy, not more talking shops such as were announced today. [Interruption.] I will not take an intervention just now.

We need proper co-operation with the UK Government. The Scottish Government should stop treating the UK Government as the enemy and start treating it as an ally; then it might get the co-operation and change that is needed if we are to deliver a strategy for creating jobs in this country.

The member is making a good point, which is worth repeating. Does he support the proposed initiative to have Government-backed insurance for the events sector, to ensure that the sector can have the confidence to plan events and proceed? If events have to be called off now, they will never happen.

It will be very quick. Where are the 2,000 jobs?

What can the finance secretary say to my constituents involved in the tourism and golf sectors who are dependent on international visitors from countries such as China and America? The businesses in those sectors might be allowed to reopen under the current restrictions, but the fact is that those visitors are not coming. Will those businesses continue to get support until international travel is encouraged once again?

I congratulate Lorna Slater on her passionate speech, and I welcome the other party spokespeople to their positions. I also congratulate the cabinet secretary on her enhanced role. It is worth mentioning Fiona Hyslop and Fergus Ewing, too, and the contributions that they made. I enjoyed working with them. We did not always agree, but I appreciated their openness, participation and willingness to listen when I raised concerns with them.

Deputy Presiding Officer, you know that I like a good photo opportunity. We also know that the Government likes a good photo opportunity. The difference is that mine cost a few pounds, whereas the Government’s cost millions and that is a cost to the taxpayer. If we look at a company such as BiFab, that photo opportunity cost £38 million for 1,500 jobs, and what has happened to BiFab? It has collapsed and we have lost that money. We do not know how much of it we will get back, and those jobs have disappeared. There is also the Lochaber aluminium smelter, where there has been £575 million of financial backing on the promise of 2,000 extra jobs, none of which have appeared.

The cabinet secretary made no mention of those two issues in her opening remarks, which was disappointing because they are major and important issues as part of our economic and industrial strategy. I have been asking parliamentary questions about that, some of which Ivan McKee answered today. The 2,000 jobs that were initially promised from the GFG Alliance tie-up have now been reduced to 70 jobs.