STEPHEN DAISLEY: A grown up debate graces Holyrood... for all of eight minutes

Daily Mail​

05-06-2025

Organised crime and its policing were the talking points at First Minister's Questions. With everything else in disarray, it's reassuring to hear that Scotland's criminals remain well-organised.
During his years in journalism, Russell Findlay made a name for himself as a crusading crime reporter, throwing sunlight on the shady activities of the underworld. He was eventually subjected to a doorstep acid attack for his trouble.
As Tory leader, he's cranked up the pressure, and did so again yesterday in a masterclass in parliamentary interrogation.
Findlay referred to the fatal shootings of two Scots in Spain and what he called 'a turf war on Scotland's streets' that had been raging for a quarter century. Drug gangs were 'parasites', 'cowards', and 'thugs'. They 'grow rich by preying on society's most vulnerable' and spread 'terror and death with guns, knives and firebombs'.
He invited John Swinney to echo his view that Holyrood had not done enough to suppress this societal blight.
The First Minister admitted there was 'an awful lot in what Mr Findlay said with which I agree', but he ultimately rejected his conclusion because Police Scotland were 'relentlessly' pursuing the kingpins.
Not actively enough for Findlay. He complained that organised crime 'has rarely been on the agenda' and wasn't even mentioned in the government's five-year justice strategy.
He reiterated his reason for entering politics: 'I could not understand why politicians do not talk about the malevolent reach and devastating harm of organised crime.'
(There's a very good reason for that: they have an aversion to waking up at 3am to find the family home on fire.)
Swinney rounded on the 'flaws' in Findlay's question. He said a 'very high number' of underworld baddies were 'currently incarcerated for a very long time'.
As for inaction, the SNP set up the Scottish Crime Campus, an internationally respected crime-fighting centre, and brought forward the 2022 Serious Organised Crime Strategy.
This was far from the liveliest exchanges seen in the parliament. Few if any viral clips will come out of it. But it was two men who usually talk past each other to their core voters choosing instead to have a solemn, grown-up conversation about a grave matter.
They see matters very differently, but they share a goal of loosening organised crime's grip. Shared goals are becoming a rarity at Holyrood and they made for a serious, substantive conversation.
A conversation that lasted all of eight minutes. Things came undone when Findlay said crime gangs were recruiting under 25s because they faced a reduced risk of doing prison time.
Swinney harrumphed that it was 'misleading' to say there were 'no consequences' for youngsters who commit crime. A mildly baffled Findlay replied: 'John Swinney appears to be hearing things. I said no such thing.'
The Tory leader wants to make it easier for the authorities to go after the proceeds of crime. Successive governments talked this up but underworld bosses had learned how to hide their ill-gotten gains.
Elsewhere, Alex Cole-Hamilton reproached the SNP government for the state of Scotland's rivers and waterways, which he branded 'absolutely honking'.
Fans of parliamentary linguistics will be interested to know that this was only the second time the phrase has been uttered at Holyrood to mean extremely malodorous.
The late John Swinburne, of the (also late) Scottish Senior Citizens Unity Party, introduced the term in a chamber debate on smoking in 2004.
He recounted his experience of a visit to the Holyrood smoking room, describing it as 'absolutely honking', which he defined to mean 'very unpleasant and smelly'. He contrasted this with the better-ventilated smoking room at the BBC in Glasgow, which he considered to be 'less polluted than the air in Sauchiehall Street'.
For younger readers struggling to fathom the concept of a smoking room in the Scottish Parliament, or the BBC, or indeed the 21st century, I assure you that it's all true. The past is a foreign, and much smellier, country.