Party leaders joust over jobless

Unemployment figures were the focus of debate

By BBC Scotland political correspondent Elizabeth Quigley

The weekly jousting match that is First Minister's Questions started with the missing thousands.

More than 70,000 people to be more precise - those who seemed to disappear completely from the ranks of the unemployed in Scotland according to figures from the parliament's information centre.

Almost 50% of those whose names left the unemployed register last year did not find a job. Some went abroad, some went into training or full-time education - but 20% just disappeared.

The First Minister Henry McLeish stressed he headed an administration which targeted full employment - and that today Scotland enjoyed low levels of unemployment.

Mr Swinney was unimpressed.

Measured tones

"Couldn't the First Minister come up with something better than second hand excuses from a previous administration?" he said, comparing Mr McLeish to previous Tory Scottish secretaries like Malcolm Rifkind and Ian Lang.

The Labour leader spoke in very measured tones about the recent progress on getting Scots into jobs and said he would be happy to look at any piece of research Mr Swinney had on employment.

Just a few minutes before First Minister's Questions, the social justice minister Jackie Baillie had been on her feet during the MSPs' opportunity to grill the executive's ministers.

Henry McLeish: Full employment target

She had declared that the government's priority was getting people back to work.

Mr Swinney then implored the first minister to ensure that in the policy review that was currently under way urgent attention was turned to the people missing from the unemployed statistics.

Mr McLeish appeared not to be aware of the statistics compiled by the Scottish Parliament's Information Centre, but he was well aware of the topics raised next by the Tory leader David McLetchie.

He turned to what he called the legacies of the Scotland Act - he was concerned about a possible reduction in the number of members of the Scottish Parliament if the number of MPs at Westminster is reduced.

McLeish mocked

And he also raised the question of the pay-outs that MSPs who are also MPs will receive when they retire from Westminster.

That was hardly a problem the Conservatives would have to wrestle with, mocked Mr McLeish.

John Swinney: SNP leader

After being wiped out in Scotland in the '97 election, there weren't any Tory MPs in Scottish seats so there are no dual MP/MSPs facing this dilemma.

But, although the Tories raised this issue in the parliament's chamber on Thursday, there's really no appetite for the subject from any of the parties.

A certain former Westminster MP Phil Gallie, sitting right behind the Tory leader in the chamber, looked more than a little uncomfortable.

As did Lord James Douglas Hamilton, another former Westminster MP rejected by the electorate in 1997 and now sitting in the Scottish Parliament.

There may not be any dual Tory MP MSPs - but I don't recall any of the Tory MPs who lost their seats in Scotland at the '97 election having any problem with accepting their pay-offs at the time.