Image source, ANDREW COWAN

That's all from Holyrood Live on Wednesday 4 September 2019.

MSPs debated the Programme for Government this afternoon, which was delivered by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon yesterday.

The first minister came under fire for focusing on Scottish independence, with Tory MSP Murdo Fraser suggesting it was the "only thing this government cares about".

But Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham criticised the UK government for "propelling us towards a harmful no-deal exit" from the EU.

The steps to be taken on climate change were broadly welcomed by opposition MSPs, though Green MSPs urged the Scottish government to take forward a Green New Deal.

Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop highlights the number of events arranged around the centenary of Hamish Henderson's birth.

She says the poet changed Scottish culture forever in the way the country thinks of itself.

"He was a visionary, a revivalist, an activist and a folk hero."

The Scottish government will be providing £30,000 a School of Scottish Studies project, the cabinet secretary confirms.

Image source, Jean Mohr

Poet and folklorist Hamish Henderson was best known for his efforts to promote Scottish culture but he had more international interests too.

11 years after his death, a collection of more than 10,000 letters and diaries revealed that the man dubbed the father of Scottish folk music smuggled Jews out of Nazi Germany and wrote songs for the anti-apartheid movement.

The collection went on show at Edinburgh University's school of Scottish studies, a department he co-founded.

Click here to watch video.

Ms McAlpine cites a "flurry of events to celebrate Hamish Henderson's centenary".

The SNP MSP says his work is "unsurpassed" and inspired a range of artists, including a young Bob Dylan.

She praises the war poet and folksinger who died in 2002 and says he was crucial to the folk revival in Scotland.

Ms McAlpine tells the chamber he wrote the song Men of Rivonia in the 1960s in support of Nelson Mandela and the South African freedom fighters.

When Mandela came to Glasgow it was Hamish who he embraced on stage, she explains.

She says it is right for the Scottish Parliament to honour Hamish Henderson today in this way.

James (Hamish) Scott Henderson was born on 11 November, 1919, in Blairgowrie to a single mother who introduced him to folksong and brought him up to speak Gaelic.

Because of the great importance of Hamish Henderson’s academic work in the field of folksong, it was perhaps easy to overlook his own poetry, and his Collected Poems and Songs did not reach publication till 2000.

Nevertheless, several of his songs, such as ‘The Freedom Come-All-Ye’ and ‘The John Maclean March’, are already classics, possibly sometimes sung as folksongs by people who do not realise they are Henderson’s own compositions.

Read more here.

SNP MSP Joan McAlpine is leading a debate to mark 100 years since the birth of Hamish Henderson.

Here is her motion...

Image source, Scottish Parliament

Deputy First Minister John Swinney contrasts the PfG with the "dire" events happening at Westminster.

He says the attainment gap is closing and he welcomes the extension of the attainment fund until 2022.

I am delighted we have been able to remove the age limit on the care experience student bursary, he adds.

Calm, considered and consensual leadership are the attributes we will take forward to deliver a fairer and more prosperous Scotland, the DFM states

Tory MSP Dean Lockhart says we are now in the 13th year of this SNP government and what a difference the SNP has made for Scotland.

Mr Lockhart argues the Scottish government has produced:

• declining education standards
• the NHS in crisis
• a low wage, low growth, low productivity economy
• dysfunctional transport policy

Image source, bbc

"Not a record to be proud of as the first minister claimed yesterday, but a record to be ashamed of," says the Tory MSP.

He insists this PfG will change nothing.

Labour Iain Gray says there are some welcome parts of the PfG, such as the recommendations from the care review being accepted.

But he says he is not convinced the climate emergency announcements constitute an emergency response.

The government has "failed to grasp the nettle" of public ownership of buses and railways, Mr Gray states.

The Labour MSP says there was no new money announced for dealing with the attainment gap and he accuses the government of removing any meaningful measures of progress on it.

He concludes by criticising the government's continued focus on independence.

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Green MSP John Finnie welcomes the distance travelled since MSPs voted down his party's declaration of a climate emergency.

Mr Finnie warns against increasing tax breaks for the oil and gas industry, who have just stressed the need for maximum extraction.

The Green MSP says the programme outlined by the first minister is not the Green New Deal, rather "grand rhetoric".

A new deal should see the redirection of massive investment into the transport infrastructure and he calls on the Scottish government to be bolder.

On the buses, he calls for fully free services on these to be made available and he says the PfG does not read like the response to the declared climate change emergency.

Lib Dem MSP Liam McArthur welcomes the ambition to decarbonise flights to the Highlands and islands, though warns against this negatively impacting these lifeline links.

He calls for the delivery of the various transport measures discussed during the recent Shetland by-election campaign.

On justice, Mr McArthur calls for more funding to ensure people are kept out of the criminal justice system and for rehabilitation.

Image source, bbc

SNP MSP Alex Neil says there is much to welcome in the PfG, in particular the £500m investment in buses in Scotland.

Mr Neil stresses the importance of rural bus services and calls for some of the cash to put towards subsidising them.

Image source, bbc

Image source, bbc

Sarah Boyack makes her first speech in the chamber since replacing Kezia Dugdale as Labour list MSP for the Lothians region.

The former transport minister says she is delighted to have the opportunity to serve in this parliament again and pays tribute to Ms Dugdale and her outgoing colleague Neil Findlay.

She stresses the need for affordable social housing and involving tenants in shaping their communities.

Tackling fuel poverty must be made a priority, argues the returning MSP, who points out a household is made homeless every 18 minutes.

Lib Dem MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton describes the SNP's push for independence as "erroneous".

He says finance figures published last week showed Scotland has a deficit of over 7% of GDP but countries cannot join the EU if the deficit is more than 3%.

I am tired of this first minister and this government misappropriating my vote to remain as justification for another divisive independence referendum, he states.

The Lib Dem MSP goes on to attack over missed mental health waiting time targets, drug death rates and operation waits.

Stopping Brexit should be the alpha and the omega of the constitutional debate right now, he insists.

Image source, bbc

Green MSP Mark Ruskell says he broadly welcomes this PfG and contrasts it with the "utter chaos and dysfunction of Westminster".

Mr Ruskell also welcomes the adoption of the language of the Green New Deal, arguing we are getting into a better place to debate the future of the environment.

However the PfG does not contain the real Green New Deal which needs to be transformational, he adds.

He says a Scottish Green New Deal must be the engine of a just transition from the oil and gas industry.

The Green MSP calls on the government to adopt the measures in the Scottish Green New Deal , externalpublished by his party last week.