A Week in Parliament

Climate Assembly

A citizens’ assembly was formed to allow the views of normal people to be discussed and collated about climate change and how it should be tackled. People were selected completely at random from all over the UK and included people who were cynical or didn’t know much about it. Their findings are fascinating. In my role as SNP Spokesperson for Energy and Climate Change I was delighted to chair a stakeholder briefing session.

One finding from the assembly was that they are against nuclear energy because of the high costs; safety concerns the long-term storage of nuclear waste. I will be chasing the UK Government on this matter – their nuclear strategy is in tatters, yet they continue to try and foist this on us.

Power Grab?

From an SNP perspective the new UK Internal Market Bill represents a clear power grab. The Tories in the chamber says it gives new powers to the Scottish Parliament. Who is right? What is telling is that the Tory MP who is chair of the Public Administration and Constitutional Committee wrote to the Cabinet Secretary as and pointed out that the Internal Market Bill “creates new powers of reservations”. In layman’s terms, this confirms Westminster is taking more powers. It gives Westminster powers to spend money in Scotland without the consent of Scottish Ministers on matters they have responsibility. This means Westminster could choose to cut the budget to the Scottish Parliament. They can then decide to spend money on projects they want to and in locations that suits them for political gain.  This takes power away from the Scottish Parliament as an institution, not just the current SNP Government. It gives more power to a Tory Government we did not vote for and one that dances to the tune of an unelected bureaucrat, Dominic Cummings.

UK Rogue State

An indicator of the law-breaking aspect of the Internal Market Bill is shown by the resignation of the Tory Lord who was their advocate general for Scotland. He confirmed what they are doing is not compatible with the law and they are breaking the Ministerial Code. This is why we are arguing the UK Government is behaving like a rogue state. A Tory MP said it was a mistake to sign the Withdrawal Agreement, so it is only right to break conditions they don’t like. I observed that in principle this means that for any international treaty a country can argue they made a mistake on some terms and so rightly should break it, i.e. the rule of law becomes arbitrary. It is a disgraceful position.

Ed Milliband

How can Boris Johnson negotiate a deal, tell all it’s a great deal - particularly for Northern Ireland - and then argue that the provisions are rubbish? That the EU are terrible for wanting to uphold the conditions of the treaty? The best speech on the debate for this was delivered by Ed Miliband of Labour. He destroyed Boris Johnson. Strange how leadership just doesn’t work for some even although there are many other aspects they seem to excel at.