Welcome to the Margo MacDonald Parliamentary Website

Before my suntan had started to fade, I was back into the groove with Peter and Mary in the office. This year promises to be as fun-filled as you might wish. With the big battalions blaring at each other  about  the legal niceties of whether an independent, oil -producing and contributory Scotland would be welcome among the financially embarrassed other states in the EU and the Euro, it’s going to be a difficult time to concentrate on matters nearer to reality.

The consultation on my second attempt to establish legally assisted suicide attracted a widespread response. That in turn made for unusual holiday reading, but has enabled us to collect the required signatures from MSPs and formally lodge the Bill. When we have completed the fine details with the Non-Government Bills Unit, it’ll be full-on campaigning to seek support for what we think is a very good Bill. Having had the Bill’s aims compared to those of Nazi doctors who experimented on vulnerable groups, before the Bill has been written, we’re prepared for a thoroughly misleading and unpleasant campaign from the Bill’s opponents.

I’ve also placed a Motion to alter a small clause in Scots Law to make illegal the waging of aggressive war. This wasn’t done lightly. Archbishop Tutu’s call for Bush and Blair indictment resonated across the world, but too many people, including politicians, take up an “If only....” position. I hope I can persuade more MSPs to sign because even if this isn’t the best way to bring the war criminals to justice, it still demonstrates that every leader guilty of war crimes will be brought to justice and will be treated equally by the international courts, not just African or Arab leaders found guilty of such crimes, in what can look like victors’ justice.

Amongst the old favourites, another thoroughly decent, pleasant MSP has picked up the fixation of abolishing prostitution, noticeable amongst a group of Labour women members, in the last parliament. She plans to lodge a bill making the purchase of sex illegal. Expect to hear a load of old guff about Sweden, where such a measure was successful for one year. Things in Sweden have returned to much the same as they were, given that as in other countries, the WEB and mobile phones mean that  fewer people sell sex on the street.

As always, we will offer helpful workable and tolerant alternatives for non-incriminating measures.

Work continues in the cross-party group on sport; we’ve changed the format to include mini seminars some evening. A very respectable number of MSPs have joined so we can anticipate any good ideas generated will not go to waste.

As for the Referendum, I’ll do my best to persuade people that there’s no conflict in being a member of a party, and believing that its policies would be more effective in Scotland if they were custom made. We can only achieve a win in the Referendum if Scots who think of themselves as Labour, Conservative or LibDem all vote yes.

Right now a game that only party leaders want to play is preventing scrutiny of whether Scotland should be in or out of the EU. Discussion is all about tit for tat legal opinions repeated by the two sides in the campaign with the British Government quietly working to undermine the SNP and thus create instability and uncertainty on the part of voters. 

With the resources available to an independent Scotland, why would anyone choose to shackle their children to the most debt-laden, financially inequitable country in Europe?