Chamber and committees

Young people are exponentially more likely to be victims of antisocial behaviour than to be perpetrators of it. Having worked for YouthLink for four years and having been a volunteer youth worker for nearly 20 years, I have seen the transformative effect that detached and sessional youth work can have on young people in our communities.

Martin Whitfield is absolutely right that the sector has been decimated by £20 million-worth of cuts by the Government. There is a double-edged sword, too. The reduction in workforce caused by our not training community education workers any more and the decline in volunteering since lockdown have had a massive impact on the sector. What more can the Government do to encourage people into youth work in the first place?

I offer my apologies for my slightly late arrival.

The agreement is a first step and Liberal Democrats welcome it, but we hope that it is just a first step and that there will be still further closer integration.

I was surprised to hear the cabinet secretary claim that his Government has lobbied the UK Government to reassociate with Erasmus+. Within 18 months of Brexit, a Liberal Democrat Minister for Education in Wales had a replacement scheme up and running. Ever since then, we have daily tried to get the Scottish Government to do likewise, yet it is dangerously close to being lapped by the UK Government in the pages of the agreement. Will the cabinet secretary now take the opportunity to apologise to young Scots who have missed out on five years’ worth of vital exchange opportunities?

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. My app would not connect. I would have voted no.

The Liberal Democrats will support today’s Government motion. The cabinet secretary is right to refer to the European Coal and Steel Community, the establishment of which meant that the nations of Europe could never again build a war machine without others being aware of that. Does he recognise that, in the straitened times in which we find ourselves, with global strife, the threat of war and an existing war in continental Europe, our relationship with Europe has never been more important?

The cabinet secretary kindly invited me to intervene at this stage in his remarks, and I am gratified to hear that a number of the clauses that were in the Liberal Democrat amendment—which was not selected for debate—on a youth mobility scheme, a comprehensive defence pact and the removal of red lines that prevent us from getting back into the customs union are all part of his Government’s priorities.

As an ardent European, it gives me great pleasure to speak in any such debate, and I am grateful to the Government for making time for it.

As we have heard, last Friday marked Europe day, when European nations across the continent marked and, indeed, celebrated the legacy of a Europe that was rebuilt from the ashes of the second world war—not through rivalry or conquest, but through co-operation, solidarity and, of course, peace.

The cabinet secretary was absolutely right to reference the Schuman declaration—a bold, hopeful vision for a future in which countries work together to solve common challenges. That was particularly profound in a part of the world that had been ravaged by war for centuries, and a continent that, until then, had, all too often, been defined by those conflicts.

It was right that the first treaty of the European Union established the European Coal and Steel Community, which gave a collective assurance that no member country of—or signatory country to—that treaty could ever again build a war machine, and the signs of rearmament that led to the second world war could never again be manifest.

That legacy is now all the more important in the context of the tragic situation that has been unfolding in Ukraine since the full-scale invasion in 2022—indeed, since the initial invasion in 2014. War has returned to continental Europe. It is a reality that has been brought home to me in visceral clarity, not just in the testimony of the Ukrainian refugee who shared our home for nine months, but in the convoy that it was my privilege to take part in with Paul Sweeney over the Easter break, when we drove five ambulances to Lviv. In downtown Lviv, there is a city park that is not dissimilar to Princes Street gardens—or at least it was until the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022. It is now known as the field of Mars and is a cemetery for the glorious defenders of Ukraine. City officials hold funerals there every day, and there were three on the morning of our arrival alone. That speaks to the reality that war is never far away. The Treaty on European Union has kept this continent safe, but we need to safeguard it in other ways, too. That war—the Ukrainian defence of Ukraine—is just three tanks of diesel away.

The member speaks the minds of many members in the chamber. In many ways, we face an existential threat to the freedoms that we enjoy. In the teeth of such a threat, we should not be playing politics with other aspects of state interests or multistate interests. I have some sympathy with his remarks on that. We have yet to see the exact detail of such proposals, but I would take a dim view—as, I am sure, would other ardent Europeans—if security co-operation were to be linked to other side-show issues, as important as those may be.

The Liberal Democrats are internationalists and unapologetically pro-European to our fingertips. The advent of Brexit and the Brexit referendum nine years ago causes us pain to this day. We believe in a Scotland that is at the heart of Britain and a Britain that is at the heart of Europe. We consider the four freedoms that were first espoused in the treaty of Rome—the free movement of goods, people, capital and services—as underpinning the most important charter for freedom that the world has ever seen. Brexit was a body blow to that vision—there is no question about that.

Let us be honest about the consequences that we all still face as a result of Brexit. The trade and co-operation agreement has now been in force for four years. It removed tariffs and quotas but left enormous friction in the form of red tape and bureaucracy, which is holding back our exporters, artists and service industries and is stifling growth in our economy. Our young people have lost the opportunities to live, learn and work across Europe, experiences that were so formative to those of us who benefited from them in our youth.

I welcome the UK Government’s commitment to reset our relationship with Europe. However, words alone are not enough. We need a tangible youth mobility scheme; our young people are still missing out on the EU Erasmus scheme. That scheme could not only provide experiences that are sometimes life-changing and formative for our young people, giving them the opportunity to live, study and work in Europe; it could also benefit our economy and enrich our academic institutions, particularly in areas such as the hospitality sector.

There is low-hanging fruit and little steps that would mutually benefit us and our European neighbours, such as mutual recognition of professional qualifications to open up labour markets or participation in EU research programmes.

The cabinet secretary speaks my mind. One of the untold tragedies of Brexit is the massive impact that it has had on our creative sector. I absolutely support his remarks and I associate myself with them.

Liberal Democrats also want those first baby steps to be steps towards tangibly rejoining the single market and the customs union, as part of a longer road map back to our future with Europe. We are not naive; we know that it cannot happen tomorrow or overnight. However, by taking those steps now, closer integration can be achieved.

We are stronger when we work together in this Parliament, across this island of nations and with our closest European neighbours. Patrick Harvie was right: we can depend less on the United States today than we perhaps could as little as three months ago. In that reality and realignment of national alliances, we must look to our nearest European neighbours.

The UK’s place is in Europe; it is part of Europe. That is the Liberal Democrat vision, and it is one that we will continue to fight and work for in chambers such as this.

It is not just people such as Nino who are being denied precious time with their loved ones, because, on any given night, 2,000 Scots are stuck in hospital in this country. They are well enough to leave but they cannot. Why? It is because there is no care home place to receive them or care package to help them to go home. That means that hospitals are overwhelmed, people are not getting operations and ambulances are stacking up outside our accident and emergency departments.

Will the First Minister commit to building new care homes in areas such as the west Highlands, delivering key worker housing and boosting salaries to make social care a profession of choice—and to doing those things with urgency?

On a note of consensus, I absolutely agree that some of the best care in our country is provided by care workers who have chosen to settle here from overseas. I also agree with the Government that not excluding social care providers from the national insurance contribution increase is a hammer blow. However, does the minister recognise that the actions that have been taken by her own Government, especially in relation to the failure to supply affordable housing to care workers and the massive gap in funding for social care, fall squarely at her feet and are causing the closure of homes, particularly in the Highlands, in communities such as those that she represents?