First, I welcome Neil Gray to his position as Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care. He is one of the strongest members of the Government and it is one of the most difficult posts, so best of luck to him.

I also welcome Tim Eagle to the Parliament. I hope that I will have the same convivial relationship with him as I have with his colleagues. I ask him to pass on my best regards to Donald Cameron, who left suddenly. We worked together on the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee, and I always found him to be a courteous and considered individual.

What we heard from Alex Cole-Hamilton raises real issues but, in my view, the contribution is entirely fatuous, because it seeks to ignore some of the big determinants of what we are discussing. First, we get groans from some parts of the chamber when comparisons are made with other parts of the UK—unless it is a comparison that those members want to make—but the amount of resources that come to Scotland is determined by spending decisions that are made in London. The UK Government rightly bases those decisions on what it believes the need to be, but Scotland just falls into place, as does Wales. If we ignore the extent to which resources, including the capital cut to the NHS budget, derive from Westminster, this is not a real debate.

Another thing that is disregarded and ignored in the debate is that Covid seems to be a justifiable reason to give for some of the issues in the NHS in England—as happened this week in the House of Commons—and in Wales, but it is not seen as justifiable here in Scotland.