Cole-Hamilton: For ten years the SNP have picked at the scab of their defeat

Speaking in the SNP government’s debate in the Scottish Parliament this afternoon, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said:

“There are so many topics crying out for this parliament’s attention and for parliamentary time.

“For things like the crisis in accessing primary care and GP appointments at the first time of asking. The lack of dentists providing NHS care in our constituencies. The sewage flowing into our rivers from the government-owned water company. The mental health crisis which sees young people, suspected ADHD, waiting on a waiting list for seven years. The missed climate targets, the drug deaths emergency, the 170,000 Scots currently battling Long Covid.

“This is how Liberal Democrats would choose to influence government time.

“But the SNP have spent the last ten years picking at the scab of their defeat; it colours everything we do in this place.

“We’ll hear a lot about Brexit. But the SNP were latent converts to that cause, to the cause of European unity. And in fact, the SNP spent more losing the Shetland by-election to the Liberal Democrats than they did on the entirety of the Remain campaign in 2019.

“Lib Dems believe in togetherness, in internationalism, in Scotland’s place in a reformed and federal United Kingdom.

“I am glad that ten years ago we voted to remain in this family of nations. Let this time, this afternoon we indulge this failing government in its obsession and in its fanaticism be the very last one we do in this chamber.”