Worldly wisdom on family affairs

By John Knox
BBC Scotland political reporter

After six years of hesitation and heart searching, the Scottish Parliament this week passed the most liberal divorce laws in the United Kingdom.

"Sometimes we just have to do what is right," said the man who drove the changes through, Deputy Justice Minister Hugh Henry.

The period for an uncontested divorce comes down from two years to one year, and for a contested divorce from five years to two years.

The Family Law Bill was backed by MSPs

"We have to legislate for Scotland as we find it," said Mr Henry, "not for the society we grew up in or the church we belong to."

The issue divided the parliament and the parties. But when the votes came, they were decisive, 91 to 34 for the one year divorce and 93 to 31 for the two year contested divorce.

It went against a recommendation from the justice committee, which had tried to seek a compromise of 18 months for uncontested divorce and three years for contested divorce.

The Liberal Democrats insisted that the coalition stick by its agreement to bring the divorce period down to the lower figures.

Only a handful of Labour MSPs rebelled - Karen Gillon, Michael McMahon, Alasdair Morrison and Mary Mulligan.

Parental rights

John Farquhar Munro was the only Liberal Democrat to vote against the shorter periods. The other parties had a free vote.

Of course, the Family Law Bill is about more than just divorce.

It gives parental rights to unmarried fathers, provided their name appears on their child's birth certificate.

It gives co-habiting couples more rights over shared property and household goods and expenses.

How many more murders have to be committed before this block-headed administration faces the inevitable? Annabel Goldie Scottish Tory leader

And it ends the legal discrimination against "illegitimate" children.

Not directly under the bill, but in parallel with it, there is to be a code of practice to give grandparents a bigger role in the bringing up of children.

And there is to be an extra £300,000 a year for family conciliation and mediation services. All the changes come into effect early in the new year.

Presiding Officer George Reid remarked at the end of the day's work that the debates had been "tolerant, compassionate and well argued". Certainly it was parliament at its best.

Brian Adam, Fergus Ewing, Mary Mulligan and Murdo Fraser argued well for the longer divorce times, saying quickie divorces "chipped away at the pillars of marriage".

The G8 summit took place at Gleneagles in July

Jim Wallace and Christine Grahame argued that marriages are over long before separation and the law had to help people move on and protect the children from protracted pain.

What impressed me most was that all these people, and many others, were talking from personal experience, as lawyers seeing couples divorce, or as MSPs who had tried to help constituents caught in unhappy marriages, or simply as people who had experienced marriage and, in some cases, divorce themselves.

There was an element of worldly wisdom about the debate.

In the end the Family Law Bill was passed by 104 votes to 12, with six abstentions.

All of this was briefly interrupted on Thursday by first minister's question time. The issues here were very different.

'Pie in the sky'

The Scottish National Party seized on a report from the finance committee which predicted that council tax would have to rise by an average of 6.6% next year unless there were extraordinary savings through efficiencies.

Nicola Sturgeon said that made the Scottish Executive's target of 2.5% "pie in the sky". It was time that First Minister Jack McConnell "took his head out of the sand".

But Mr McConnell was not for turning. "It is absolutely essential that councils keep their tax rises to a minimum," he said, adding that some may even be below the target.

The Conservative leader, Annabel Goldie, asked again when the executive would get around to abolishing automatic early release from prison. It had been promised for years.

Derek Ferguson got life for the murder of Steven Pettigrew

"How many more murders have to be committed before this block-headed administration faces the inevitable?" she asked.

She was speaking as 23-year-old Derek Ferguson was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a teenager Steven Pettigrew, who he knifed to death in a school playground in Airdrie last April. Ferguson had been released early from prison.

And figures were published this week showing 137 people were murdered in Scotland last year, a 10-year high.

The first minister said: "This administration will end automatic early release. We will do so not in the cack-handed way the Tories tried to do. We will do so properly."

He is waiting for a report due imminently from the Sentencing Commission.

G8 costs

The Socialists chose to embarrass Mr McConnell over the defeat in Edinburgh for his policy of transferring council houses to housing associations. Tenants voted by 53% against transfer.

"It's tragic," said Mr McConnell. "As a socialist all my life, I believe in people having more control over their own affairs."

He also pointed out they would lose out on £2bn of new investment.

The SNP then tried to embarrass him over the costs of staging the G8 summit at Gleneagles in July.

The SNP claim they want a place at the top table but they don't want the top table to come anywhere near us Jack McConnell First Minister

They dismissed a report from consultants that the summit had made a profit as a "delusion".

Roseanna Cunningham said: "It's the Scottish taxpayer who is picking up the cost for a party to which they were effectively not invited."

Mr McConnell said the summit was about more than Scotland's profit or loss. "The SNP claim they want a place at the top table but they don't want the top table to come anywhere near us," he said.

The report from consultants SWQ concluded that the summit had cost the Scottish Executive £60m. But £65m had come back into the economy from spending by delegates, journalists, protestors and the overtime payments made to the police.

Finally, talking of payments, the parliament has responded to requests under the Freedom of Information Act and published MSPs' expenses claims in full, all 700 pages of them.

Unfair coverage

We learn that the annual expenses of the 129 MSPs amount to £9.5m. The biggest claim came from the Liberal Democrat George Lyon, £67,355, which he put down to an exceptional refurbishment of his office in far flung Argyll and Bute.

The smallest claim came from the independent Lothian member Margo MacDonald, who spent £3,466.

MSPs spent most of Wednesday afternoon complaining they get unfair coverage in the media for such matters.

They were debating the new members' interests bill which obliges them to register any financial or non-financial interests that could be seen by a reasonable outsider to have an influence on their decisions.

The parliament was seen working "at its best"

It means that from the next parliament in 2007, MSPs will have to declare membership of organisations such as the freemasons and holidays with influential people, as well as gifts of more than £250.

The first minister will be glad to hear this does not cover gifts from a member of the family.

Last year Mr McConnell received, amid much publicity, a Christmas present from his wife of a painting of his old homestead on the Isle of Arran.

If MSPs want better media coverage, they can always give up setting fire to the curtains, taking parliamentary taxis on private business and wasting £100m on new buildings.

Instead they should debate issues as well as they debated the Family Law Bill.