On Monday this week, I held my Cost of Living event in Grangemouth Town Hall. We had a fantastic range of third-sector organisations ready to provide support on issues relating to the increasing cost of living. Thank you to those who came along to the event, and I hope you were able to access some useful information. It was also lovely to see so many groups using the opportunity to network with each other!
The Cross Party Group on Music met this week, and as Convenor I was delighted to lead discussions around Creative Scotland’s Multi-Year Funding, the threats and opportunities of AI in Music, and local authority cuts to Instrumental music services.
Following the music theme, I also sponsored the Forget Me Notes Project performance in the Scottish Parliament. Building a sense of community and tackling isolation, the project uses music and dementia-friendly values, but is open to anyone. The Project held a small reception for MSPs before their performance in the Parliament’s Garden Lobby. I was heartened by many reactions to the performance. You can find out more about the Project here: https://www.forgetmenotes.org.uk/
At General Questions, I asked the Acting Minister for Climate Action, Alasdair Allan MSP about what further engagement the Scottish Government has had with Ineos, following recent reports of additional redundancies related to the closure of the refinery. Providing assurances that workers of Ineos Olefins & Polymers UK would be supported in the event of redundancies, the Minister also confirmed that next week will see the much-anticipated publication of Project Willow. You can watch the clip of my contribution on my previous post, or watch the full debate at: https://www.scottishparliament.tv/.../meeting-of-the...
Finally, the Finance & Public Administration Committee which I am a member of, took evidence this week from Douglas Ross MSP as he introduced the Financial Memorandum of his proposed Right to Addiction Recovery (Scotland) Bill. Currently at Stage 1 in the process, the Bill aims to establish a right in law to treatment for addiction for anyone in Scotland who is addicted to either alcohol, or drugs or both. You can watch the Committee, including my questions, at https://www.scottishparliament.tv/.../finance-and-public.... While still a long way to go, I will watch with interest as to the progress of this Bill in due course
