A Week in Parliament

Ayrshire Growth Deal

In order to make the Ayrshire Growth Deal work better, the 3 Ayrshire Councils have requested that the UK Government provide their funding share over 10 years instead of 15. The Scottish Government have committed to this. I submitted a written question to the Scottish Secretary asking what discussions he has had with the Chancellor on the matter. “Lots” was his answer. When I pinned it down in a follow up question, it turns out be a huge co-incidence that he actually wrote to the Chancellor the very day he answered my previous question! It shouldn’t take my questions to make the Scottish Secretary write to the Chancellor, but hopefully this means there will be a good outcome.

Chagos Islands

Approximately 50 years ago, the UK forcibly evicted the population of the Chagos Islands off their lands to make way for a US naval base. Not only was this illegal – and arguably genocide with regards forced removal – it has been confirmed that as the UK de-colonised the Chagos Island ownership was actually part of Mauritius. This has been confirmed once more by a ruling from the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, a United Nations Body. The UK response? They refuse to recognise it. Yet again, the UK instead of being “Global Britain” looks set to be an international lawbreaker again.

Tory Cronyism

The UK Government has no shame when it comes to appointments. Another role – Chair of the Office for Students has went to a former Tory MP. Hardly likely to be too critical of the Government then. No wonder, following some of the disgraceful direct awards of PPE contracts to friends and donors that one of my colleagues has introduced the Ministerial Interest (Emergency Powers) Bill to try and curb their powers.

One example was a £30 million contract awarded to a former neighbour of Health Secretary Matt Hancock following an initial conversation over WhatsApp. Three of the biggest contracts were awarded to a Florida-based jewellery company with no experience of supplying PPE, a tiny vermin-control operation called PestFix valued at just £19,000, and an opaque family office owned through a tax haven. Some people at least do well out of a catastrophe.

Not Campaigning on Independence

As more powers transfer to the Scottish Parliament, by definition, the Scottish Office at Westminster should shrink. Yet the number of employees and spend on propaganda goes up year on year. Communication spend has trebled and overall expenditure is up 75%. The UK Government have also created a “Union Unit” with 50 new posts. Imagine, the Tories are now taking our tax money to hire more people to tell us how good the Union really is.

BEIS Committee

The committee I am on is now holding an enquiry into heat decarbonisation – how we change from using methane gas in our central heating to other technologies. It is fascinating, and a real eye opener that it is expected to cost £250bn. This cost probably explains why the UK Government has had its head in the sand on the subject.