indicate no increased appetite for it despite his popularity. “Yes I do and we are in a substantially better place to appeal to people’s view on that than we ever have been before. We have an enormous thing to our credit in Scotland which I haven’t talked about too much but is something we should be very proud of and that is; with all the debate about Home Rule, a Scottish Parliament, self-government and independence, which has been pursued seriously for almost a century, no one has had as much as a nosebleed. Tat fight has been pursued as a democratic civilised argument and that is the right and proper thing and will always be pursued in that way but there is a contract in this in which people have the ability to progress their aim through a democratic process and there can’t be anything more democratic than a referendum and it is insulting for the Lib Dems to be promoting a referendum on AV which is no one’s policy, while denying a referendum on independence for Scotland or for fiscal responsibility as well which is the policy of parties including their own. It is insulting and I resent it.” Isn’t it just a symptom of minority
government? “Don’t get me wrong, I like minority
government but I was deeply, deeply annoyed about minimum pricing because I think the Parliament ducked a challenge and I was very, very upset about the referendum because I thought and believed for a long time that allowing people to have the referendum would be seen by the other parties as a
“My preference is 1, 2, 3; majority, minority and then coalition”
reasonable thing to do. “I didn’t mind the budget negotiations
because when you are in a minority government, why shouldn’t other people have the ability to negotiate their position? I didn’t mind when the Greens got the insulation places and I thought it was a perfectly reasonable thing for the Greens to want to do. I didn’t mind when the Tories wanted the emphasis on the small business scheme, which was our policy anyway, and so
you don’t mind being pushed on your own policies. I don’t mind the Lib-Dem issue on bursaries which I think we would want to do and the only reason we ran out of bursaries in the first place was because we had so many college places, so we have addressed that and I didn’t mind that. I don’t need to get my own way all the time. I only mind when it’s stupid so I mind the minimum pricing issue because it was the right thing to do for Scotland and I mind the referendum because every country should have the democratic ability to exercise their right. “But if there is any doubt, I like minority
government but obviously, we could handle a majority very well, thank you. I am not ruling out coalition because it will be the people’s preference but my preference is 1, 2, 3; majority, minority and then coalition. “My message to party conference will be ‘be
positive’. One of the maxims I have in politics is that in any campaign if you have two negative campaigns then the most negative campaign will win but if you have a positive campaign against a negative campaign then the positive one will always win, which is why we will always stay positive and why we will win.”
The Adolescent and Children’s trust (TACT) is the UK’s largest charity provider of fostering and adoption services. Operating from our Edinburgh office, we provide fostering placements for children in the care of local authorities across Scotland.
As a children’s charity TACT is also committed to campaigning on behalf of children and young people in care. Looked after children experience systemic discrimination though childhood and beyond. We will be working to persuade politicians, journalists and policy makers of the importance of positive care policies.
Issues such as child protection, kinship care, the age of leaving care and the role of the voluntary sector in service provision have particular perspectives in Scotland. An organisation committed to providing high quality services will be an invaluable source of information and advice to Scottish politicians and policy makers.
TACT’s charitable ethos goes to the heart of our work. Any surplus generated is reinvested into ensuring that carers and the young people they look after get all the support they need. Our recorded outcomes show
that our polices and practices help looked after children achieve more highly than their peers. We believe that such practices adopted more widely could have a huge impact upon the life chances of children in care across Scotland.
If you are interested in finding out more about TACT’s work in Scotland, call 0131 445 4488 or email
scotlandenquiries@tactcare.org.uk
Visit
www.tactcare.org.uk
28 February 2011 Holyrood 33
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