Extracts from Scottish Parliament proceedings - Sep 11
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Extract from Scottish Parliament - Topical Question
Time: Livestock (Exports) The Minister for Rural Affairs and
the Natural Environment (Mairi Gougeon):...This Government
recognises, as does the dairy sector and NFU Scotland,
that the issue of male dairy calves is very complex. The situation
is not black and white. Such calves are of no real productive value
in this country, so they end up either being slaughtered at birth
or exported to other countries, including those...Request free trial
Extract from Scottish
Parliament - Topical Question Time: Livestock
(Exports)
The Minister for Rural Affairs and the Natural Environment (Mairi Gougeon):...This Government recognises, as does the dairy sector and NFU Scotland, that the issue of male dairy calves is very complex. The situation is not black and white. Such calves are of no real productive value in this country, so they end up either being slaughtered at birth or exported to other countries, including those in continental Europe. No one is very comfortable with that situation, so we will work with the sector to look at other options. I am pleased that this Government is supporting the ethical dairy, which is taking a different approach to dairy cows and their calves... ...Other members have probably received the briefing from the NFUS today, which says that the Scottish dairy industry is actively working to reduce the number of animals that are transported, and to find alternative home markets. I endorse and support that work. That is what we are keen to do....
Emma Harper
(South Scotland) (SNP): I have listened carefully to
Christine Grahame’s questions as well
as to the minister’s responses. I would be happy to introduce the
minister to David and Wilma Finlay on a visit to the south-west.
I am interested to know whether the minister supports NFU Scotland’s call for sound science and existing standards to be the basis of discussions prior to any changes to live export regulation. Mairi Gougeon: I have spoken about the Scottish Government project that is currently under way: I reference it again. Being able to get the scientific evidence and the data is exactly why we are undertaking that work, to see what improvements we need to make, if any.
I also gratefully accept Emma
Harper’s invitation to visit the ethical dairy project,
which I am keen to do, as I am keen to look at alternative
solutions. Extracts from Scottish Parliament statement on European Union Exit Preparations
Adam Tomkins (Glasgow) (Con): I
thank the minister for early sight of his statement.
“It is important that politicians of all parties put their shoulder to the wheel and secure something as close to the Chequers agreement as possible. If we step away from that, it will be detrimental to UK and Scotland.” Those are not my words; they are the words of NFU Scotland, just yesterday. NFU Scotland is right. Why does the minister not agree? What we need from Scottish ministers is not more empty posturing on Brexit, which is all that we have been treated to by Mike Russell, but constructive engagement in the work of co-operating with the UK Government to secure the best possible Brexit deal for Scotland and all the UK. On one level, we have to feel sorry for Mike Russell. He is desperate to be the herald of doom, but he is today contradicted over and again by Michel Barnier, no less. The EU’s chief negotiator said yesterday that it is perfectly possible to reach a deal on Brexit in the next six to eight weeks. That is good news, but the Scottish National Party does not want to hear it. Everything that it says about Brexit is negative. The only thing that is being stockpiled here is ministerial grievance and tired political cliché. If the outlook is so gloomy, why does the Institute of Chartered Accountants report today that business confidence in the economy is so high? As NFU Scotland and countless others have rightly said, let us get behind Chequers and support the UK Government in its negotiations with the EU, drop the nationalist scaremongering, seize the opportunities for economic growth that Brexit presents and get on with the job of securing the best possible Brexit deal for Scotland. The Cabinet Secretary for Government Business and Constitutional Relations (Michael Russell): I echo the words of Brian Taylor who, on the radio this morning, commended the Tories for their brass neck—we have just heard more of that brass neck. In a party that is literally tearing itself apart over Brexit, all that Adam Tomkins can do is to try to create a smokescreen to avoid the chaos that lies ahead. I will quote somebody who said in this Parliament on 28 June: “To my mind, leave should mean that we retain full access to the EU’s single market ... leaving the EU’s political institutions does not mean that we have to leave the single market, for there are several countries, including Norway” that have “just such an arrangement.”—[Official Report, 28 June 2016; c 26.] That person was Adam Tomkins. [Interruption.] Indeed, let me quote somebody else, who said on 30 June: “Retaining our place in the single market should be the overriding priority.”—[Official Report, 30 June 2016; c 24.] That was Ruth Davidson.
The reality is that the only
acceptable alternative—and it is not as good—to staying in
the EU is staying in the single market and the customs union.
Unfortunately, that was what Adam Tomkins, Ruth Davidson and everybody else knew
two years ago. The Tories’ requirement to have slavish
loyalty to their leader—apart from Boris, Rees-Mogg, Redwood
and all the others, of course, for whom it depends who the
leader is—is putting Adam Tomkins in a ludicrous position.
[Interruption.] The more he shouts, the more ludicrous it
becomes...
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