{"id":12466,"date":"2020-11-15T12:40:50","date_gmt":"2020-11-15T12:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/?p=12466"},"modified":"2020-11-21T19:00:07","modified_gmt":"2020-11-21T19:00:07","slug":"testing-times-for-scottish-parliament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/2020\/11\/testing-times-for-scottish-parliament\/","title":{"rendered":"Testing times for Scottish Parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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With much of Scotland in semi-lockdown, there\u2019s no live entertainment for around four million of us. No theatres, no cinemas, no concert halls, no basement gigs. But there is Scottish Parliament TV<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not a packed house \u2013 Covid requirements leave many chamber seats unfilled, and no-one in the public gallery. But nicely filmed, streamed live to your living room and (perhaps even better) archived for later viewing with sub titles @ScotParl is worth watching. It\u2019s an eye-opener to an often unreported world.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Scottish media attention is mostly fixed on the First Minister\u2019s daily briefing, which means much else goes unheard and unseen. So this weekend\u2019s Sceptical \u2018podcast pick\u2019 chooses extracts from last week\u2019s parliamentary debates on testing<\/a> and the Covid crisis in the hospitality industry<\/a> \u2013 plus a fascinating insight into what business really thinks of the Scottish Government support thanks to the latest Fraser of Allander podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Test and Protect\u2026whom?<\/h2>\n

First: testing. With Greater Glasgow and points west on the brink of full lockdown, this is an acutely sensitive political issue. A debate on testing (Wednesday 11 November) ended with Jackie Baillie\u2019s \u2018urgent question\u2019 to health secretary Jeane Freeman: \u2018To ask the Scottish Government when it was informed that errors had been made in the publicly reported contact tracing performance of Test and Protect.\u2019<\/p>\n

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\"This<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
Click HERE<\/a> to view urgent question \u2013 and urgent answer<\/div>\n
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Unexpectedly, Presiding Officer, Ken Macintosh, began with a courteous rebuke to the cabinet secretary: He would have preferred to take Ms Baillie\u2019s urgent question before the Labour party debate, earlier that day, on testing for all health and social care workers. But he\u2019d gathered from the Scottish Government that wasn\u2019t possible because of the cabinet secretary\u2019s time commitments \u2026so he was surprised to see the cabinet secretary giving an interview to journalists in the Garden lobby instead.<\/p>\n

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\u201cCan I restate my strong expectation that ministers making themselves available to answer parliamentary questions in the chamber should take precedence over media interviews or briefings\u201d [applause<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

What followed is a combative performance by a politician under media spotlight. Jeane Freeman has to defend Scotland\u2019s Test and Protect after the Sun newspaper<\/a> broke its exclusive story about coding errors in contact tracing. Her appeal to partisan applause would not look out of place in the adversarial House of Commons. Holyrood’s debating chamber is supposedly designed to encourage consensus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As Jackie Baillie (Labour\u2019s deputy leader) presses for answers on \u2018truly staggering errors\u2019, the health secretary repeatedly insists the error has been corrected without significant damage, the Scottish system is not only functioning properly it more than meets the WHO standards. \u201cThe facts are the facts are the facts\u201d she reiterates emphatically to applause in a clip shared on Twitter the following day when The Ferret exclusive breaks: \u201cScottish health secretary wanted to stop freedom of information during Covid-19.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fear of mass unemployment<\/h2>\n

Second: Scotland\u2019s hospitality industry in crisis \u2013 an interesting cross-party debate arises from the Labour motion posed by Labour leader Richard Leonard calling for Additional Support for Scotland\u2019s Tourism and Hospitality Sectors During the COVID-19 Pandemic<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a chance, says Leonard \u2013 with cross-party support \u2013 for parliament to come in on the side of businesses under devastating pressure. The government has issued rule after confusing rule with no clear exit strategy and no evidence for their decisions as new restrictions force closures. \u2018Businesses can\u2019t be turned on and off like a tap.\u2019<\/p>\n

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\"This<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
Click HERE<\/a> to view cross-party call for additional support\u00a0<\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Different speakers from different parties add to evidence of suffering, ask for unallocated spending to be redirected where it is most needed and urge government to involve business and unions in decisions.<\/p>\n

SNP cabinet secretary for rural economy and connectivity, Fergus Ewing<\/strong>, says he recognises the scale of devastation. He doubts anyone has spent more time reaching out to those impacted. The Scottish Government understands\u2026he knows their support has been truly appreciated by business.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

And businesses say?\u00a0\u00a0<\/h2>\n

Cut to latest Fraser of Allander podcast<\/a> where Mairi Spowage, Emma Congreave and James Black discuss findings of the Scottish Business Monitor. This 18 minute FAI podcast deserves careful listening but in the context of the Scottish parliament debate, the Sceptical listener might pay particular attention at around 11.10.<\/p>\n

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\"\"\\<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Click HERE<\/a> for the full podcast…after fastforwarding to 11:10\u00a0<\/p>\n

At this point Mairi Spowage describes how businesses are generally more positive about SG\u2019s handling of public health measures. But when it comes to handling businesses affairs, the UK government get much better rating.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s worth saying that on the measure of understanding the challenges that businesses face, a significant proportion of business gave the Scottish government a rating of zero out of ten<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo there is obviously a lot of feeling out there\u2026and that was quite a stark finding for us\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Which opens an interesting question, says Marie Spowage, for the forthcoming Scottish budget. A lot of Scottish businesses will be looking to see what plans the Scottish government has for supporting recovery.<\/p>\n

Questions. Questions.\u00a0 A mature democracy must pay more attention to what happens in its parliament. Testing time for @ScotParl.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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