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This week, I received an email from a distraught son, who said that his father had shielded for seven months—his family had stayed away from him for seven months and he could not see his children and grandchildren—after which he went to hospital for a heart scan, caught Covid in hospital and died.
Some of those that have been required to close because restrictions mean that trading conditions are simply impossible will never reopen. As the son of a hotelier, the sector is close to my heart, and I feel deeply for it.
Thank you again for inviting me. It is an honour for me, as the son of somebody who came from Glasgow to Germany in the 1950s, to talk to representatives of the Scottish Parliament.
In my constituency, Scotland’s largest producer of alcohol-based sanitising gel, TR Bonnyman, Son & Company, has seen the price of alcohol that is supplied to it rocket from £500 per tonne to £3,500 per tonne.
We do ourselves and our pupils and teachers a disservice if we look only at the numbers. For example, my son, who has just graduated in music, was not able to do advanced higher music at his school, because it was not available on the curriculum.
Just before the debate, Willie Rennie told me that, last week, the nursery in Cowdenbeath that his son attended before he went to school closed, also citing the challenges of losing staff to the council nursery.
The process of leaving the EU means not just walking away from valuable things but forgoing opportunities that would continue to be valuable, and the digital single market provides a classic example of that. I declare an interest, as my son is involved in the flourishing tech sector in Edinburgh.
I find it difficult to find the right words when parents come to me, having lost their children, asking why their son was turned away from Carseview, why he was not admitted and why they could not make contact with any services that weekend.
I was very impressed by the cabinet secretary, and I remember saying to him, “You’ll go far, son.” I am sorry that I did not keep a record or a minute of the meeting.