Malcolm Offord

First Minister.

It's really quite remarkable that Malcolm Offord, who seems to think he knows the views of the people of Scotland better, having lost the election, when I've, in fact, won the election, is, seems to be in a very agitated state about the prospect of Scottish independence.

It suggests that he knows he's got something to fear, that the prospect of being able to take our own decisions on the economy, being able to use the energy wealth of Scotland to lower the bills for the people of our country, to make sure that we could have good trading relationships with Europe, which Malcolm Offord and his ilk have absolutely sabotaged.

That is perhaps an illustration of why the people of Scotland, in increasing numbers, as demonstrated by recent opinion polls, support the concept of Scottish independence and why people in Scotland want that choice.

And I'm gonna make sure the people of Scotland have that choice in this parliamentary term.

So why is his constitutional obsession more important than fixing Scotland's broken public services?

First Minister.

It's really interesting that today Russell Findlay has pursued the same line of questioning as Malcolm Offord.

You know, reform has proved to be utterly ineffective.

Malcolm Offord is not the world's greatest parliamentary debate or even established.

So really, they need to get to grips with that because, you know, John Swinney, he's been around a long time.

He does this very well.

If people wish it, they can have it.

And Malcolm Offord's also said that this doesn't

sound unreasonable.

If people want something, they're allowed to say they want it.

Reform UK's Holyrood communications boss has been told off after apparently trying to impersonate a top Scottish Parliament official.

Tony Maguire, a former GB News reporter who is now director of comms for Malcolm Offord's MSP Group, seems to have been trying to pass himself off as the Scottish Parliament's Director of Communications, who is a neutral public servant.

And we can show you a screenshot of his ex-biography, which says simply, Director of Communications, Scottish Parliament views my own.

And there's no reference at all to Reform UK.

Now, Presiding Officer, I accept the outcome of the PISA assessments, but there are a m- uh, but the PISA assessments- ... are one part of the data set that looks at Scottish education.

If we look at the achievement of Curriculum Ex- for Excellence levels data, which is produced by the teachers of Scotland, who Malcolm Offord has just insulted, shows that the proportions of S3 pupils achieving third level or better in literacy or numeracy are at their highest level ever.

We have the highest level of young people leaving school going to positive destinations at 93.5%.

We have record levels of young people in Scotland going to university for the first time, including record numbers of young people from deprived backgrounds according to UCAS.

At national five, higher pass rate and higher pass rates were, uh, both up compared to last year and pre-pandemic, and the poverty related attainment gap narrowed for national five higher and advanced higher.

That is the full report card on Scottish education, and I'm proud of Scottish education.

[clapping] Malcolm Offord.

So, Presiding Officer, let's talk about the attainment gap.

That isn't what someone who isn't listening looks like.

Malcolm Offord, the leader of reform in Scotland, coming on, asked, is that credible? And he was like, well, I can see why you wouldn't be listening.

He looked disengaged.

I mean, surely you

it wound me up so much.

Because

Malcolm Offord was trying to claim that asylum seekers, well, they're not asylum seekers anymore, which is another issue.

These people don't understand the issues to the point they don't even understand the differences.

They have thrown their lot in.

This time last year, they were all, apart from Danny Kruger, all Conservative members of Parliament, standing Conservative conference, people like Malcolm Offord.

One wonders what they are thinking.

And we shall see over the next week or so how tight that circle is at the top of reform, because there are a lot of unhappy people right now And I suspect that Dan Dukes, who in the course of political battles has made some enemies, he is going to have his opponents out there right now trying to finish him off.

We now move to party leaders questions, and question one will be from Malcolm Offord.

Presiding Officer, it just emerged, uh, that last year, that the Labour-run, uh, Edinburgh City Council froze all social housing applications of homeless Scots.

Their applications were shelved while the council's housing stock was provided instead and in priority to asylum applicants.

So it is really important, at a time when our country is being affected by the type of disinformation that is put forward and has just been put forward to Parliament, that we have clear and authoritative information put to Parliament.

Because what I'm seeking to do, Presiding Officer, is to bring this country together, and Lord Offord is trying to drive this country apart.

Malcolm Offord.

Well, if the First Minister doesn't want to engage on Edinburgh, let's just move, uh, through to Glasgow.

The outgoing-