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I make a serious point: I do not understand why MSPs have never been sent on a crash course on the budget—that is one of the first things that should happen to MSPs after they are elected to the Parliament.The rural budget is complicated for two reasons.
Unfortunately, despite the fact that I was the first MSP to call for such a meeting, non-coalition parties are not allowed into this afternoon's meeting.
I also think—the convener will correct me if I am wrong—that the meeting to which Mr Munro referred was a meeting of MSPs, many of whom had an interest in rural affairs, rather than a meeting of the Rural Affairs Committee.
To be fair, the concern that I expressed was not the fact that an individual had submitted a petition, but the fact that MSPs had signed up to it. I do not know how we can change the rules once we have started, because people may have submitted petitions with only one signatory.
The so-called Highlands and Islands MSP Rob Gibson refused to support Western Isles fishermen and their families, and Fergus Ewing turned up to support him.
As Donald Gorrie said, we also wanted the bill to cover MSPs, but we realise that we have a Standards Committee, which will consider the standards for MSPs in the light of the standards that will apply to councillors if the bill is passed today.