Leading the debate for the SNP backbenchers today Anne McLaughlin MSP for the Glasgow Region slammed the opposition parties for blocking minimum pricing. Research carried out at the University of Sheffield showed that an estimated 50 lives would be saved each year with a minimum price of 45p, and there would be 1200 fewer hospital admissions. Ms McLaughlin used her speech to quote Edwin Morgan’s challenge to the Scottish Parliament to be bold, and not 'a nest of fearties.'

Anne McLaughlin said: “Today the opposition parties have shamed the Scottish Parliament. They have utterly failed utterly to act as a responsible opposition. Alcohol abuse is recognised across the parties as one of major challenges we as a country face. For the opposition to hide behind their party banners rather than support the government’s measures to address the issue is completely immoral.

“The list of experts who support minimum pricing and have made their support public, on top of the firm evidence base for the measure, makes it plain that only short-term political gain has been considered. The evidence in favour of minimum pricing was far and away stronger than that for the Labour amendments today.

“Edwin Morgan challenged this parliament when its new building opened in 2004 to not be a ‘nest of fearties’- today we’ve seen just how many fearties and obstructionists there are in Holyrood.

Notes:

1. For the effects of minimum pricing ‘Model-Based Appraisal of Alcohol Minimum Pricing and Off-Licensed Trade Discount Bans in Scotland: A Scottish adaptation of the Sheffield Alcohol Policy Model’.

2. Full text of the Edwin Morgan poem, written for the opening of the Scottish Parliament Building in 2004.