The Scottish parliament witnessed one of the saddest moments in its short second term as Holyrood’s Tory leader tried to use the Dunblane massacre in order to make political capital….
The Scottish parliament witnessed one of the saddest moments in it’s short second term as Holyrood’s Tory leader tried to use the Dunblane massacre in order to make political capital.
Annabelle Goldie used the dreadful event in order to suggest inconsistency in an answer that Alex Salmond had given during an election debate broadcast on SKY in which the First Minister had referred to the Al-Megrahi release.
In response to the accusations by Annabelle Goldie, Mr Salmond pointed out that in his opinion it was unlikely that Thomas Hamilton would have passed the first hurdle in any application for release, citing that any applicant has to be considered of no danger to the public and unlikely to re-offend.
The Q/A session saw Labour’s Iain Gray accuse the First Minister of breaking every promise he has made and of supporting the Tories at Westminster by siding with them on 70% of the occasions he has voted.
However the First Minister countered by highlighting the £25 billion of cuts that Labour in London has already planned. Mr Gray was also left looking foolish when the First Minister pointed out that Mr Gray has himself voted with the Tories no less than 75% of the time.
Mr Gray also made a rather bizarre claim that the First Minister had made more cuts than any other politician in British history – this is one that may in fact come back to haunt Mr Gray, time will tell.
The exchange ended with the Labour benches being reprimanded by the Presiding Officer.
The LibDems focused on a lack of lending to businesses by banks and received support from the FM for calls to ensure that lending continues to small businesses.
Concerns over Curriculum for Excellence were also raised and the FM again acknowledged that there were indeed worries. Pointing out that 58% of teachers felt that their school was prepared for the changes he added that individual teachers did have concerns and that a 10 point plan had been agreed and would seek to address those concerns.
Minimum pricing was also attacked by Labour and Tories. However these attacks were dealt with comfortably by the First Minister who focused on the benefits to Scottish society and pointed out that Labour in England were in favour of such measures – shouts of ‘devolution’ could be heard from opposition benches.