A little debate and a lot of awards

By John Knox
BBC Scotland political correspondent

John Swinney hit out over the health service

"There is a general feeling amongst the public that we have not delivered."

So did the SNP's Alex Neil sum up a debate on the Scottish Parliament's founding principles this week.

And a row over NHS waiting times, which dominated the week here, was a good illustration. The average wait for in-patients has gone up to 40 days.

"That's 10 days longer than in 1999, " said the SNP leader John Swinney.

"It's a week longer than in February 2002 - when the government changed the target from waiting lists to waiting times - and it's the longest wait since records began."

First Minister Jack McConnell told him: "That's because we have been concentrating on what matters most, heart and cancer patients and those who have waited the longest.

"Meanwhile, the number of nurses are up, doctors are up and the numbers in training are up. That's how we will increase the capacity of the health service in the longer term."

He then had some fun, as a former maths teacher, pointing out to Mr Swinney that when the longest waits are eliminated, the "median" wait, which is actually what the figures are measuring, goes up. Everyone seemed puzzled.

And that is why the waiting times are such a good example of the new parliament and new executive "not delivering".

The Scottish Tory leader congratulated the cabinet

It looks bad, because the work is still in progress. The same, literally, applies to the new parliament building. We cannot be sure whether we're building a useless monstrosity or a national treasure until the work is complete.

So we don't yet know whether the 129 MSPs are worth their salaries or not. But at least we did learn this week that the number will remain at 129 and will not be reduced to 108, as it should be with the changes in the boundaries to the Westminster constituencies.

The Queen's Speech in London made it clear that the government is going to alter the Devolution Act so that although the number of constituencies in Scotland will drop, from 72 to 59, Holyrood will continue to have 129 MSPs.

Conservative leader David McLetchie congratulated the Scottish cabinet, "the self preservation society", on winning that battle with London and keeping Holyrood at "a wholly unnecessary and overblown 129".

So what did the 129 achieve this week? Well, there was a thoughtful debate on Thursday morning on violence against women. 36,000 incidents of domestic violence are reported each year to the police, not to mention the increasing number of rapes and other sexual assaults.

MSPs spent a long time wondering how to counter a traditional "culture of violence" in Scotland, in which even women themselves somehow accepted that what went on in the home was purely a private matter.

Other factors were also at play... drink, drugs, the role of the police and the courts, and the effect domestic violence had on children, turning some of them into abusers too.

Margaret Curran was the champion for womens' issues

The minister Margaret Curran said the executive was doing a lot to combat violence against women. £10m was being spent providing refuge houses, there was £3m more for council projects, some 55 of them.

There was a new £1m fund to give rape victims special advice and support.

The government's domestic abuse helpline was being opened 24 hours a day over Christmas and the New Year period.

There were debates too on health and physical exercise, World Aids Day, and next June's European elections.

There was also a long debate on the founding principles of the parliament.

It was this last which prompted Alex Neil's philosophical outburst on "delivery".

Everyone agreed that the cost of the Holyrood Building was the biggest disappointment.

John Home Robertson, the Labour MSP who chairs the special steering group on the project, even went so far as to claim that when members move into the new building, their work will improve.

The procedures committee report, which formed the basis for the debate, found that the new parliament had performed well on its first two principles, access and equal opportunities, but less well on the other two, accountability and power-sharing.

"Power sharing", said the committee's spokesman Ken Mackintosh," is a difficult concept for both people and politicians."

Take backbench Labour MSPs, for instance.

Election worry

They have to share power with the Liberal Democrats. Yet this week, they had to swallow hard when the executive published its bill to introduce proportional representation for local council elections.

Under the bill, the single transferable vote system will be introduced for the next local elections in May 2007.

Three or four wards will be merged into larger wards and three or four councillors will be elected from each.

Voters will rank candidates, 1,2,3,4,etc and each will be elected according to their proportion of the vote.

There are even suggestions within the Labour Party that, with the change to the Westminster boundaries, 2007 might be the time for Holyrood to move to the STV system too.

Then there would be no need for two different boundaries for Holyrood and Westminster. But all that lies in the future.

George Reid claimed a few rare headlines for his role

Finally, this week STV and the Herald newspaper handed out the prizes for the "politicians of the year".

The overall winner was George Reid, the parliament's presiding officer.

He has done three remarkable things: won his marginal Ochil seat at the election, taken over smoothly from Sir David Steel as presiding officer and taken at least a measure of control of the Holyrood building.

Other prizes were: debater of the year David McLetchie, campaigner of the year Margo Macdonald, election performance of the year the Greens, free spirit of the year John Farquhar Munro, politician to watch Rosie Kane and the committee award went to Michael McMahon and John McAllion of the petitions committee.

I want to add one other award, if I may. Clerk of the year is Steve Farrell, who leaves the petitions committee for promotion to the equal opportunities committee.

He has been the driving force behind the pioneering work of the petitions committee for the last four and half years, bringing strange and wonderful people into parliament and helping them have their day in court.