Holyrood opens its doors

The public can tour the Scottish Parliament

By John Knox BBC Scotland political reporter

Saturday is open day at Holyrood. In common with public buildings across Europe, the doors of the old and new parliament buildings are being opened to admit the shareholders.

As they run their fingers over the dusty pews, they may be wondering - where have all the workers gone?

This has been a week of poor attendances at Holyrood.

Many of the Scottish National Party members have been away at their conference in Inverness planning the colour scheme for independence, while the Liberal Democrats have been off in Brighton planning more tax powers for the Scottish Parliament.

We need to show ourselves as a welcoming nation, without prejudice or racism

First Minister Jack McConnell

At question time, the SNP's Kenny MacAskill stood in for his leader.

Perhaps anticipating his own flight to Inverness, he asked First Minister Jack McConnell why it was that airport charges at Inverness were the highest in Europe?

"There is only one shareholder at Inverness, the first minister. So this is your airport, these are your charges, this is your responsibility," he said.

Mr McConnell welcomed Mr MacAskill to his responsibility but was taking no lessons on transport.

"While we want to attract low cost airlines to Scotland they should pay their fair share for the use of our airports," he replied.

Proportional representation

Conservative leader David McLetchie tried to squeeze a commitment out of Mr McConnell on increasing police numbers in the light of their increased responsibilities.

But the first minister was not for squeezing.

Conservative MSP Keith Harding then tried again, this time on PR.

"Would the introduction of a proportional system of voting for local government elections improve the governance of councils?" he asked.

An anti-racism campaign has been launched

"Some may say that," said Mr McConnell to uneasy laughter on the Labour backbenches, "and some may not."

His deputy, Liberal Democrat leader Jim Wallace, was meanwhile telling his UK conference in Brighton that he had won a bill to introduce PR for local government in Scotland.

Indeed he has, but the first minister has said he won't be telling us whether he will vote for it until after the Scottish Parliament elections in May. Such are the contortions a subtle politician must get used to.

There was no compromise, however, over racism.

A survey published by the Scottish Executive this week showed that 25% of Scots admit to some sort of racial prejudice.

Racism debate

A £1m publicity campaign has been launched to combat the problem and the first minister was keen to demonstrate his support for the campaign during question time.

"We need to show ourselves as a welcoming nation, without prejudice or racism," he said.

MSPs went on to debate the issue of racism later on Thursday afternoon.

Although ethnic minorities constitute less than 2% of the Scottish population, the number of racist incidents reported by the police is growing and now stands at 3,000 a year.

We are delighted to satisfy people's curiosity and help them understand how Scotland's Parliament works

Presiding officer Sir David Steel

There was unanimous support for the executive's anti-racist campaign. The Conservatives went so far as to withdraw an amendment which had branded it as "tokenism".

The Thursday morning debates were chosen by the Tories.

Agriculture spokesman Alex Fergusson said the first Scottish Parliament had left people living in the countryside disillusioned. It had ignored the collapse of farming, forestry, fishing and tourism and instead was passing laws on fox hunting, tenancy rights and the right to roam.

In a debate on transport, David Mundell mocked the stream of plans, proposals and strategies coming from the executive.

"When will the first rail be laid on the Glasgow rail link? When will the first sod be dug on the M8 at Newhouse? When will the first passenger travel on the re-opened line to the Borders?" he asked.

Children's rights

On Wednesday afternoon, MSPs approved the idea of appointing an independent commissioner for children, the so-called Children's Tsar.

The Conservatives abstained, saying they were not convinced a separate post was needed to champion the rights of children.

But the education committee is now to prepare a detailed job description to prevent duplicating the work of other agencies. It will place a bill before parliament next year.

Ross Finnie came under fire over water

Environment minister Ross Finnie was given a hosing down on Wednesday morning by MSPs studying his water quality bill.

The finance committee has already criticised the lack of clarity over the costs and who will pay them.

The hoary-headed Bruce Millan, Labour Secretary of State for Scotland in the 1970s, came to parliament this week to warn MSPs that the new bill to reform mental health care was flawed.

It did not reflect his expert committee's special safeguards over compulsory treatment, he told them.

The health committee also found time to publish a devastating survey of health boards and their various schemes for dealing with chronic pain.

Gaelic development

It found that 21,000 people attended pain clinics last year, most of them for back and neck pain.

Yet there are only 47 staff throughout Scotland working full time on chronic pain. The average waiting time is 16 weeks and at one hospital, the Southern General in Glasgow, patients wait for 55 weeks.

The petitions committee spent its first hour listening - to its shame, on headphones - to a plea in Gaelic for ministers to get on with establishing its long-promised Gaelic Development Board.

It went on to hear from a Sean Connery look-alike, complete with kilt, who wanted more support for women alcoholics and their families.

Satisfy curiosity

Iain Robinson from Perth said plenty seems to be done for drug addicts but little is done for the much larger number of alcoholics.

Finally, back to the open day.

Presiding officer Sir David Steel said: "We are delighted to satisfy people's curiosity and help them understand how Scotland's Parliament works."

Can I suggest you begin your visit in the canteen.