Electioneering

Many of the Scottish Parliament’s journalists have decamped to follow candidates around the country. And the MSPs who have not gone to boost the election hopes of their southern colleagues are walking on eggshells lest they inadvertently create some hostage to political fortune that will hurt their party at the ballot box.
So we are actually having some rather good debates on issues where a measure of agreement can be seen.
Paradoxically that means government backbench members can challenge their own ministers because they are not having defend their colleagues against fierce attacks from opposition benches.
At precisely the time one might expect political conflict to increase, we see an outbreak of consensus and constructive debate.
This week I have had the opportunity to speak in three good debates – on Women in Prison, on Nuclear Waste, on Skills – and in each case to get a fair hearing from ministers.
Female Offenders
The previous Chief Inspector of Prisons, Clive Fairweather, wrote after visiting Cornton Vale – our only specialist prison for women in Scotland – that it contained “the bad, the sad and the mad”.
Certainly the majority of inmates have had or have mental health problems. Similarly many come in as drug abusers who prostitute themselves to pay for their habit, cannot pay fines and serve a short sentence to “pay them off”.
In March this year 26 women went into Cornton Vale for not paying their fines but as only 2 resident currently fit this category of prisoner, it is clear that the sentences are extremely short.
So what can the Scottish Prison Service do to reform and re-habilitate someone they have for a week? Nothing – nothing whatsoever.
It does not even work as punishment. Many of these sad cases – and I have spoken to quite a few female offenders – find a week in prison a respite from abusive partners or from other men who prey off them while they “work the streets” of our cities.
There was cross-party agreement that it is pointless to lock up women for short sentences and leave their behaviour unchanged, their circumstances no better, their drug addictions un-addressed.
But there are some very bad women in prison too. It is the right place for the 16 lifers currently in Cornton Vale for example, although one speaker from a minor party thought – even when challenged – that no women at all should be kept in jail!
Women are more than five times less likely than men to go to prison – 10 per 100,000 of our population as against 53 men – and need different treatment and specialised support.
Parliament will continue to seek ways of achieving that.
Nuclear Waste
Our civil nuclear industry now has a Cross-Party Group in the Scottish Parliament looking at its activities. The group, like all good groups contains a wide range of opinions ranging from enthusiastic supporters of new nuclear power stations to implacable opponents.
But we – and I am a member – all share a desire to be better informed and argue from facts not myths.
The areas of disagreement emerged during the debate on the subject sponsored this week by my party.
But where there was common agreement was that the problem of nuclear waste remained our shared challenge.
Whatever political party runs Scotland, whatever its attitude to nuclear power stations, the government of the day will have to deal with the legacy of waste built up over the last fifty years. And with the decommissioning of a nuclear station projected to take 90 years, it is an issue that many future generations of Scots and Scottish politicians will continue to wrestle with.
But Scotland has one ace in a rather poor hand.
At Douneray in North Caithness, we have the skills to develop techniques that will make the best of this extremely difficult task. And not just for Scotland. We should make a business of training, advising, supporting other countries around the world to tackle their problems. Making a useful living while we do so.
Skills
Which neatly brings me briefly to my last speech of the week.
Our basic industries continue to decline. So we will have to rely on our ingenuity, knowledge and skills to earn a living in the modern world.
But although we have about half of our youngsters continuing education after school, we still have too many unskilled and unemployable in the modern world.
Once again agreement across the Parliament that we must invest even more in training and education. Differences about how – but that is healthy debate.
The other topic of the week was council tax. The debate we also sponsored this week showed that pensioners – leading the charge for change on this subject – have got through to politicians of all persuasions. Perhaps the election will help show which politicians pensioners think have been listening.