A Week in Parliament

Glasgow Incident

The incident at the Park Inn hotel in Glasgow was a tragedy. We are lucky there wasn’t more loss of life. The police did a fantastic job, to be on the scene so quickly and deal with the suspect. It is another reminder of the bravery of the police, illustrated by Constable David Whyte, running towards the armed suspect to grapple with him, getting stabbed in the process. I wish him a speedy recovery.

A depressing spin off aspect is politicians of the far right using this incident to stoke up tensions about “illegal immigrants”. They were asylum seekers, which under international law is a recognised process for people to flee persecution and claim protection in another country.

It also brings into sharp focus into how these asylum seekers have been treated – they were living in temporary accommodation, but for some reason, Mears Group decided to move them into hotel accommodation at the start of the lockdown. This means for months they have been stuck in hotel rooms, and with no wider support network such as churches due to the lockdown then it must be a hard way to live. That said, nothing makes an excuse for someone to run amok with a knife stabbing random innocent people. Two hotel workers were also stabbed – that’s two workers effectively helping look after the asylum seekers stabbed while going about their daily business. It is unfathomable to me, but there does need to be a review of the way asylum seekers are housed; what mental health support services there are and importantly risk assessments of the likelihood of violence. My colleague, Chris Stephens MP had raised a number of concerns with the Home Office but as usual, they were deaf to what he was saying.

Robert Jenrick

Incredibly the Secretary of State , Jenrick, who had to quash is own unlawful planning decision is still in place – despite it being confirmed he sat next to the developer at a Tory fundraising dinner; saw a promotional video of the development and that the developer texted him to stress the importance of a decision that would save him £45m. There is also something ironic that the developer “only” donated £12k to the Tory Party. You would have thought saving £45m would have made him more generous! It is a disgraceful state of affairs.

Covid-19 Update

It is clear we are moving in the right direction regards Covid-19. However, it means we still need to stick to the advice. Daily cases in Scotland are now less than 30, and sometimes much lower, which means the test trace and contact process can be enacted. Yet, when you hear the opposition in Scotland, they refuse to acknowledge this. Yet in England, they have a failed system that still isn’t operating. When we do a lessons learned review, I hope the same politicians acknowledge where the UK Government failed and in Scotland we did our best to manage within the framework of powers available to the Scottish Government.