18th July 2022: A Week in Parliament

Financial Redress for Foetal Anticonvulsant Syndrome 

I have lodged an Early Day Motion calling on the UK Government to pay compensation to sufferers of Foetal Anticonvulsant Syndrome, caused by womb exposure to sodium valproate (a drug that affected babies in the womb). This was a key recommendation of an independent review set up by the UK Government, yet ignored to date by the UK Government. I have a constituent affected by this and it is high time she gets the redress she deserves. 

Labour 

They acknowledge the damage of Brexit but say they “will make Brexit work” while confirming they won’t join the single market or customs union, nor allow free movement of people. Therefore, they won’t be changing anything to somehow “make it work”. There will be the same customs checks issues and businesses are still going to be left not being able to fill vacancies, stopping them from growing and importantly means reduced tax takes for the Government creating a double whammy. They refuse to work with the SNP; say they will refuse a referendum and indeed a labour MP bragged about Scottish Labour punishing two councillors for not voting for the Tories to come into power in Edinburgh and preferring to continue working with the SNP. They say they will balance the books; keep complaining about Tory tax rises, thereby encouraging tax cuts and calling for billions to be spent on new nuclear. So, for every major policy decision, Keir Starmer’s Labour is no different to the Tories. It is pathetic. 

PSH/Renewable Energy 

At BEIS Committee I had asked the Secretary of State about support for pumped storage hydro. There are two schemes ready to be constructed in Scotland. All that is required is an agreement on a minimum electricity price for selling onto the grid. A price that will be way below the current sky-high wholesale prices. Eventually, the Secretary blurted that “It should be stressed that it is a very specific technology to Scotland. Obviously, we are looking at renewable energy across the UK”. so there you have it, a proven technology that works well with intermittent renewables, ignored because it is seen as a Scottish technology. 

SNP “Yellow Wall” 

One Tory candidate, Penny Maurdant says if she is Prime Minister she will smash down the “SNP Yellow Wall”. This shows how out of touch she is – the whole Labour “red wall” terminology was associated with seats which had always been Labour held. To see the current SNP MPs in the same light shows how little she knows – most SNP MPs held seats only came to fruition in 2015. Some quickly changed hands again in 2017. We know we cannot take holding seats for granted which is what happened to Labour and what is now happening in some Tory seats. There never should be a “safe seat”. Such things stifle democracy and lead to elected representatives not working as hard as they should. This is also why I believe independence provides more democracy – the Scottish public will always get the government that reflects the largest number of votes cast and will always be able to vote politicians out if they decide to do so.