Seòmar agus comataidhean

Okay, thank you. I have nothing else to ask.

There is no smoking gun, but there is a trigger moment. How did you not reach the point at which you knew that it was not right and was not going the right way sooner? You are an experienced individual and have been there a long time.

Dr McGeorge, with the greatest respect, you nearly tanked one of the oldest universities in Scotland. I do not understand how people like you can get yourselves into that position with all the checks and mechanisms that there are. Surely there is something that you are not telling us that was the issue.

Despite all the time that goes into constant negotiation, whatever deal is eventually reached will not even be the second best deal—it will be the third or fourth best. As someone who was involved in negotiation when I worked in the real world, I find the way in which the UK is going about this bizarre. To me, it feels like continually hitting yourself in the head with a baseball bat.

Good morning, cabinet secretary. I get very frustrated by this debate—I got frustrated when we went on our visit to Brussels last year and when we went down to London last week. When we were a member of the EU, we had influence and could do something about things. Brexit is the political equivalent of hitting yourself in the head with a baseball bat for half an hour, because we now need to negotiate all the time.

I am trying to bring an everyman view to the issue, because the view of members of the public in Scotland is, “Surely we were better off when we were in the European Union. Surely it is complete and utter madness that we find ourselves trying to renegotiate something that we already had when we were a member.” That is the frustrating issue for me.

When we go to Brussels, people talk about having a Switzerland-type deal, but we have already been told by Brussels that nobody is getting a Swiss deal. That is off the table. The only option is to be a member. When we go through all this, does that not show—this is not even a political argument; it is a sensible argument—that being in the European Union was a lot better than the madness that is Brexit?

For the record, I am not happy with the idea. I find it farcical that you would even think that you could actually do that online from the other side of the world.

To be fair, this is the best behaved you have been in the past couple of weeks, so perhaps being online suits you, and not actually meeting people in person is maybe your best way forward.

Your aggressive manner and the lack of respect that you have shown to people who have come to the committee in the past has made the Parliament look bad. I want to put that on the record, because we have tried on numerous occasions to talk to you, take you aside and ask you to do the right thing, but you continue with your behaviour, and quite frankly, I think that it makes you look small and pathetic.

My question is for the cabinet secretary and it is about the UK Child Poverty Action Group. The group has recently spoken about the increasing costs of the school day, which is something that we have been hearing about for some time now.

I have also heard that Keir Starmer is seeking to copy some of the Scottish Government’s good ideas about free school meals. Can you tell me where the Scottish Government is with its ideas to help to reduce the cost of the school day? In a cost of living crisis, parents and families will be finding that an extra burden.

You made a point about local government. You and I come from almost the exact same background in local government, and we come from the same place. You know that local leadership and ownership make a difference to issues and projects such as this. The committee has seen that some councils are proactive, and the idea behind the Promise is part of the very ethos of their work, but that others are less like that. Arguments can be made about the significance of their size, in that smaller councils can react a lot more quickly than larger ones, but we are talking about changing the whole culture. How are we ensuring that local councils take that culture change on board, develop it and make it part of their on-going work in their day-to-day business?

The extra time programme is an example of on-going projects that I, for one, have been very supportive of in all my time in the Parliament and, before that, as a councillor. The approaches of teams such as St Mirren Football Club, and the great work that Gayle Brannigan, the St Mirren FC Charitable Foundation chief executive, does in our area, show how our national game can be used to make a difference in young people’s lives.

Instead of talking about the negative aspects of our national game in the Parliament, should we not talk about the good work that our national sport can help to deliver? I remember that, years ago, a chairman of St Mirren FC asked when social workers would be seconded to the club. It seemed a silly idea, but the more people thought about it the more they realised that social workers going in wearing St Mirren polo shirts instead ones with the Renfrewshire Council logo on the back would make a big difference to the attitude of the people they were dealing with. It is almost a third sector ideal. That was my very long-winded way of asking whether there is scope for us to look at the matter and develop it further.

Thank you, convener. Before I ask my questions, I would just like to say a few words with regard to you convening this meeting from a tropical island on the other side of the world.

Finally, I have a question for the Minister for Higher and Further Education. I have the advantage of sitting in sunny Paisley, where I can watch various computers to see what is happening in the news. I have just seen that there has been talk from the UK Government about funding for the Turing scheme being cut from £110 million to £78 million. We have been hearing how wonderful the scheme is, how it will make a difference and how it could be almost a better version of Erasmus+. What is the minister’s attitude to the cut? I have just seen the headline, and I am a bit concerned about it.