Perhaps it was his height, but Donald Dewar seemed to see more than the rest of us.

From way up there Donald seemed to glimpse the Scotland he wanted for us all.

(more…)

As the opening speaker on the Labour side this afternoon, I do not want to start with the details of the motion but to go back to first principles. 

What have we learned in recent years about how we all learn.   

(more…)

Can I start by thanking you for this invitation to open your proceedings this morning.

The Scottish Parliament may be a remote and unfamiliar body to most of you but it is one that has responsibility for presiding over the nurturing of Scottish higher education and I hope you take away this week some interesting insights about how we are evolving up here.

(more…)

Donald Dewar, Scotland’s first First Minister

click on the link below:

Donald Dewar, Scotland’s first First Minister

“Follow that,” as one of my colleagues has just said.

I will follow the trend and begin by adding my welcome for Nicol Stephen to his new post.

I am rather glad to be here myself.

Someone in the whip’s office rather mischievously asked me whether I should not now be featuring in our debates on strong and healthy families, to which my response was, “Not yet.”

(more…)

Today is the last day of term.

Decades on, most of us remember the last day of the school term, which had about it a certain predictability: we could turn up in our own clothes; we could bring a game; if there were any speeches, they were about what we were doing during the holidays; and we got away at lunch time.

As members who are concentrating will know, our strike rate is one out of four-we are allowed to turn up in our own clothes.

There was, of course, another given about the last day of term: even if one had the most Calvinisitic heidie in Scotland, one would not be expected to do any mental arithmetic.

However, today’s debate is really about a clever piece of mental arithmetic concerning whether we are putting our money where our mouth is.

It will relieve the front-bench team to learn that, with a mere 180 seconds left to me this morning, I will focus on just one statistic from the report.

One in three Scots now lives in rural Scotland-although I suspect that, the day after tomorrow, that number will be a little higher.

However, that part of Scotland benefits from two thirds of the total economic development spend.

That is an interesting statistic.

(more…)

Five years ago, section 2a – known variously as Clause 28 or Section 28 in England and Wales – was finally removed from the law of Scotland, thus concluding a very difficult legislative process for the fledgling Scottish parliament.

(more…)

New Wealth for Old Nations: Scotland’s economic prospects

New Wealth for Old Nations

Thank you I am delighted to be here in Dubai to participate in this the third day of our conference.

Scotland, as some of you may know, is a small nation, part of the Britain.

Indeed Scotland’s position as part of Britain is not so different from Dubai’s position as part of the Emirates.

(more…)

One of the occupational hazards of politics is the charge - “that we are all the same”. It’s the ultimate put-down.

But of course it is economic policy debate that explodes that muddled myth.

(more…)