Bill Secures Anti-Bigotry Plan
On 25th June, I was able to use the last First Minister’s Question Time of the Parliamentary year to ensure that Alec Salmond kept his promise to bring forward a national action plan to combat sectarianism.
Last September, Mr Salmond gave Parliament a commitment that he would bring forward a national strategy for tackling sectarianism. This was reaffirmed in October in response to a written parliamentary question.
However, no announcement had been made and as the end of the Parliamentary year loomed I wanted to keep up the pressure on the First Minister to act.
I pressed the First Minister to set a date for the plan to be laid before Parliament. He responded that he would announce his new strategy in October 2009.
Whilst I am disappointed that it will have taken over a year from his original commitment being made before any plan is presented to MSPs, I do welcome the start of some movement on this issue.
Since 2007 there’s been a sharp fall in the number of twinning initiatives in schools and the axing of a £100k fund to support them. Not a penny has been committed from the Race, Religion and Refugee Integration Fund to anti-sectarianism projects.
And yet, hundreds of people have been convicted of sectarian offences. Sectarianism remains a stain on Scottish society. I will continue to push for a national rehabilitation programme to be rolled out for anyone convicted of sectarian behaviour. I will also press the Government to return to promoting and supporting twinning projects in schools.
For more information on this story please follow the link below:
http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/display.var.2516650.0.new_strategy_is_planned_to_beat_bigotry.php
