Holyrood warms to green debate

By John Knox
Political reporter, BBC Scotland

The famous "green thread" ran through the tartan of Scottish politics this week.

It began with the Liberal Democrats suggesting that all of Scotland's electricity should be produced from renewable sources by 2050.

Jack McConnell said Scotland may not need new nuclear stations

It continued with the Conservatives praising Al Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth" and leading a debate on climate change.

And on Thursday at question time the First Minister Jack McConnell said he now didn't expect new nuclear power stations would be needed in Scotland after all.

"I suspect we have the capacity in Scotland to deliver the energy needs that we have from a massive increase in renewable sources, " said Mr McConnell.

The executive already has a target of 40% of electricity from renewables by 2020.

The SNP's Nicola Sturgeon said Mr McConnell was still "sitting on the fence" over nuclear power because he refused to rule it out altogether.

"He's scared to jump one way or the other, for fear of offending either Tony Blair or his own backbenchers," she said.

Climate debate

The climate change debate on Thursday morning took place as the winds from Hurricane Gordon were whistling around the building.

The Conservative leader Annabel Goldie said the seasons were changing. She remembered brambling in September not August. The polar ice is melting.

"We are contemplating a Firth of Forth where the Isle of May could disappear, " she said.

More firms are making biodegradable packaging

Households had a moral obligation to switch off. Businesses like Sainsbury's were now using biodegradable packaging. And governments had a responsibility to act.

The Conservatives, she said, would introduce an Eco-Bonus Scheme which would double to 60% the grants households, communities and small businesses could get to install solar panels, or wind turbines or better insulation.

The other parties mocked the late conversion of the Tories to green policies.

The Eco-Bonus Scheme was only going to be worth £12m in total, they said, compared with the hundreds of millions of pounds they were prepared to spend on the M74 extension.

The Green Party, for its part, launched a bill this week to set new building standards which would require the executive to improve the thermal efficiency of the housing stock, both old and new, by 20% by 2011 and 40% by 2020.

The Greens say they're delighted the other parties are now bringing the electoral battle onto their territory.

Rail link

Is the rail link to Edinburgh airport a green policy? Not according to the Green Party. " It does not represent value for money," said the Green MSP Mark Ballard, "there are several cheaper alternatives".

The SNP agreed. The Conservatives were sceptical and abstained. But the bill, paving the way for the new line, went through its first stage by 69 votes to 30.

The new line and station will cost £550m and is due for completion by 2011.

On Wednesday afternoon MSPs debated a health committee report into the policy of "free personal care".

Figures obtained by the committee showed that 24 out of Scotland's 32 councils had waiting lists for old people applying for help with washing, dressing and feeding.

Waiting times varied from 5 days to 7 weeks. They showed that councils in total were spending £78m more on the service than they received from the Scottish Executive.

Elderly people are facing waiting lists for free personal care

But the minister Lewis Macdonald insisted the councils were being given all they asked for, £162m this year, and there should be no waiting lists.

He did agree however, that there were "implementation issues" and a review is under way.

On Tuesday, we had the remarkable sight of the Minister for Parliament Margaret Curran turning out to greet a 300 strong anti-Trident demonstration.

Nuclear weapons are not the responsibility of the Scottish Parliament but she promised to pass on the protestors' feelings to Westminster.

"It's right that you are making your voice heard," she told the rain-soaked demonstrators, some of whom had walked all of the 85 miles from the Faslane nuclear submarine base on the Clyde.

"We want to encourage a national debate over whether Britain should renew its nuclear deterrent," she said.

One had the feeling though that Mrs Curran would not have bothered to appear if the demonstration had not been led by a cardinal, a bishop and a moderator.

Over-fishing

In the committee rooms this week we were treated to a little practical politics.

Petitioners from the island of Arran came to the environment committee to ask for a "no fishing zone" in Lamlash Bay.

They said it was being over-fished and fish, crabs, lobsters, prawns and scallops were in danger of being wiped out altogether.

The Clyde Fishermen's Association said a "no fishing zone" in so small an area had no scientific merit.

But in between the questioning by MSPs, both sides were brought together by Scottish Natural Heritage and reached a compromise there and then.

A "no fishing zone" aims to allow Lamlash Bay sea bed to regenerate

It appears there will be a "no fishing zone" in the bay, and an area were angling and creels would be allowed and an additional area where scallops could be harvested.

There are no lines on charts yet but a plan, agreeable to all, is in the making and the minister Ross Finnie, also at the meeting, agreed to consider it carefully, with a view to making it legally binding and to providing funds for a scientific study into whether it would actually lead to a recovery of fish stocks.

It may then be a model for other marine protected areas along the west coast.

Regular readers will remember that last week the finance committee called for a halt to the number of tsars being created by the parliament.

There are already five "commissioners" and another five are proposed, covering everything from freedom of information to holes in the road.

Older people

But the SNP's Alex Neil is not deterred. This week he presented a bill to parliament calling for an older person's commissioner who will champion the rights of pensioners to better health services, life long learning, transport, employment, freedom from abuse and poverty etc.

"Remember that very soon, half the Scottish population are going to be pensioners," said Mr Neil.

It was hard to believe that when a few minutes later on Thursday I found myself in committee room one listening to children from Balmerino Primary School in Fife singing to MSPs and sounding as if they would never grow old.

They were there to mark the UN's International Peace Day.

European Commissioner Danuta Hubner met Jack McConnell

A floor or two above us meanwhile, the first minister was meeting the European commissioner for regional policy, the Polish politician Danuta Huber.

Mr McConnell mused that devolved countries like Scotland should one day be allowed more direct contact with the European Union.

Perhaps it would resolve little matters like the £20m the EU is trying to claw back from regional aid given to Scotland in the 1990s.

Finally, we learnt this week that Ms Huber will not be the last commissioner or tsar to visit the Scottish Parliament in the next few months.

The Microsoft Government Leaders Forum is to be held at Holyrood in January 2007.

It will bring together prime ministers, EU commissioners, education and business leaders from across Europe and, of course, Bill Gates himself.

I wonder what he will make of the green thread running through his tartan rug.