| Allan Wilson:
I will be brief
because the debate has been lengthy, and properly so. Parliament is now
approaching a point where it must make a decision. Creating a new criminal
offence is not something that any Parliament should do lightly. Any dispassionate
observer—if there are any left—would agree that some 23 months of discussion
and deliberation cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be described
as either cursory or superficial. The members of the Rural Development
Committee are to be commended for the thorough and professional job that
they have done.
The bill has
come in for criticism from some quarters in the chamber today; members
have suggested that it will not be workable or that it will be unenforceable.
I believe that to be untrue. Although the bill was not constructed in the
way that it would have been if it had been an Executive bill, as Richard
Lochhead rightly pointed out, it has been amended at stage 2 and now at
stage 3. If the majority of MSPs vote in favour of the bill, it will pass
into law.
Phil Gallie:
Will the minister give way?
Allan Wilson:
I put it to the chamber, and to Phil Gallie, that that is what Parliamentary
democracy is all about. It is a measure of the Parliament's strength that
it can address difficult and contentious issues in a mature manner.
Members are
now free to vote as they choose on the fate of the bill as amended. I encourage
members to consider not only today's debate, but all the evidence that
they have read or listened to since they voted in favour of the principles
of the bill on 19 September 2001.
To
read this debate in full, click here
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