Diary of an new MSP Part2

The Scottish Greens’ Alison Johnstone on homophobes at Holyrood, the Green Investment Bank, the Scotland Bill, and other circus acts....

With every week that passes I’m getting a better sense of exactly how broad and diverse this job is going to be, and the settling-in process is well under way. As you might hope, six weeks after the election. Our lovely new offices have a new partition to keep us away from Labour, or vice versa. We even have whiteboards, mostly for our head of media to scrawl on incessantly.

For many people, all MSPs do is speak in the chamber, but that really is the tip of the iceberg. Having said that, I no longer feel awed by the size of the chamber, just more excited by the opportunity I have. I’ve now spoken in two more debates; on bringing the Green Investment Bank (is it Green? Is it a bank?) to Edinburgh, and the possibility of banning wild animals from Scotland’s circuses, which as you’d expect I’m thoroughly in favour of, and not just because acrobatics and juggling are better entertainment anyway. There could hardly be more diverse topics, yet both are core business for the Greens.

Both were “Members’ Business” debates, after voting finishes for the day, and widely disparaged by the media here as a mere shameless hook for a press release.
In fact,
the less confrontational atmosphere can lead to some good contributions, and each debate is closed by the relevant Minister: it’s almost more like a cross-party round table meeting to make the case than a traditional parliamentary debate, and no bad thing for that.

We’ve also been challenging chamber business itself. The President of the Mormon-run Brigham Young University was invited to address parliament as our regular weekly speaker at “Time For Reflection”, loosely modelled on the morning radio’s Thought For The Day. His university administration is properly homophobic - you can be expelled just for a same-sex kiss - and my colleague Patrick quite rightly decided to draw some attention to this. I just hope the Presiding Officer Tricia Marwick, who made invited him to speak, won’t hold it against us.

The other major part of Parliamentary business is Holyrood’s Committee system, and I’ve landed myself a corker - the Scotland Bill Committee, to consider the UK Government’s proposals to devolve more powers to Scotland. I’ve taken receipt of the substantial papers for the first meeting of the Committee, and, more usefully, had a first-class briefing from the Committee’s well-informed Clerk. I’m discovering that the Clerks are Parliament’s unsung heroes, making the whole Committee system run so smoothly that you can hardly imagine how it could go wrong.

This temporary Committee will be a fascinating experience, I think. We’ll be examining the Scotland Bill while the House of Lords do so too, and covering a wide range of areas where Holyrood could win new powers. A perfect introduction to raw politics, the tussle between two Governments, and what the implementation of constitutional principles looks like.

But I’m getting the fact that it’s always going to be much more diverse in here.
Last week, for example, I found myself walking blindfolded around Parliament with a guide dog as part of the Guide Dogs visit to Parliament. ‘Yula’ led me in and out of several ground level and vertical obstacles, giving me a vague idea of the mobility these wonderful dogs provide to their owners, and also of the trust owners must place in their dogs.

I’ve also been continuing our support for anti-plastic bag campaigns, and had great fun on the Fred Macaulay show where the contrast was drawn between Congo and Scotland. The Congolese may be suffering through civil conflict but they still managed to ban plastic bags while we’re still pussyfooting around discussing a - shock! horror! - small tax on the blasted things.