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The Parliament may well remember that, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown sold more than 600 properties that were occupied by the Government's tax collectors to Mapeley Estates, a company that uses tax havens such as Guernsey and Bermuda to avoid paying United Kingdom taxes.
Once the money has been spent on installing the infrastructure, we will benefit from efficiencies without having to count the cost every year. I am sure that Mr Brown will approve of that prudential investment.
However, we have joint and several responsibility for performance. Gavin Brown would do well to focus on the massive progress that has been made and on the credit that is due for the restructuring and streamlining of governance that has taken place.
When it comes to verbal smoke and mirrors, Alex Salmond and Gordon Brown are two peas out of the same pod—one promises to send home troops who are already back home and the other pledges more police officers by recycling those who are already recruited.
I ask members to ensure that any mobile phones, pagers and BlackBerrys are turned off—I heard all those little trills that usually suggest that they are being throttled somewhere. Gavin Brown is unable to be present and has sent his apologies.Agenda item 1 is members' declarations of interests.
The cost that was presented by Glasgow was taken into account in working out the figure of £176. In your answer to Mr Brown, you agreed that, because Glasgow is bigger, that would have pulled the average up a bit.
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-29609 by Robert Brown on 17 November 2006, whether actual costings are now available and, if so, what these are.
Questions and Answers
Date answered:
31 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to be part of National Year of Reading 2008 launched by Prime Minister, Gordon Brown MP, on 8 January 2008 and what the reasons are for its position on the matter.