Yng nghfel y gefnogi ar presentsa ride yn diwylliannol pwy flyf, 5-4-3-8 yn y diemddaniau deunio ddim yn funud cabinets ac mae'r Coronavirusiau nimu yng ngyfeldd o swyddedig, os amooh, roi'n battu fewn arni.  Felly mae'n tredu a ddod cael ei gaelig i gaelig i'ch Mercedes-Benz a fyddai canfydau fod yn teimlo'r ff�io ar y llefydd. Mae'n fyddo chi'n gwybod hwnnwdon niw. Felly, mae'n ei mwynh 봐fod i gaelig a chi'n cael eu prydau. Y prydau joinr, yn gennym Nesaf, yn ymgwriaethach Oedden ac mae'n Scottish Labour. Mae mewn naziad ddiweddol ar gaelig. Mae gweld eu gaelig i unrhyw busu. Ymgwriaeth on rents, protection for tense eviction, all dismissed and then adopted again by UK and Scottish Governments. Clare Adamson. Can you explain to me where in the Scotland Act, windfall taxes and energy companies is in the gift of this Scottish Government? Mark Griffin. I didn't say it was in the gift of this Scottish Government. I set out a series of policies that have been dismissed and then adopted by UK and Scottish Governments. I should point out that they were dismissed by SNP MPs and then supported by SNP MPs at Westminster, but perhaps that escaped the member. For months now, people who were managing find themselves pushed to the brink with repeated financial shocks, food, heat and bills, fuel costs, spiralling, rents and now mortgages just keep going in one direction and that's up. Our plan detailed interventions which would make a real difference to families in Scotland, so we're turning to the chamber to call on the Scottish Government to take further action, but I do want to be clear that it's the unprecedented chaos unleashed on the UK from the Tories at a time when we need stability most, and that means that this winter will be longer and harder than any of us expected when we put forward that cost 11 plan in August. It's the Conservatives disastrous mini-budget that has crashed the pound and accelerated the costs families are having to bear. The Food and Drink Federation put food ingredient inflation at 30% and because imports are often traded in dollars, none EU imports have become much more expensive. Even today the reality of the situation, including vital information about the rate at which pensioners and people on benefits will have their payments upgraded by now won't be known until the 17th of November, but the Deputy First Minister, who's not here, recently tweeted that he would not have had to recalculate his budget review because he never expected the mini-budget Barnett consequentials to ever materialise. If that's the case that there was no recalculation required, then the Government should bring their own statement forward. Our motion today returns to the cost 11 plan to help those in need, calling for cancelling of school meals debt, increased funding for money advice services and a top-up to the welfare fund, all within this Parliament's gift to the interests of those who have a concern about what this Parliament and this Government can do. Those are firmly in the gift of this Government and could have a real and substantial impact on people's lives. I'm very obliged. I mean, these are all worthy, but can you give us a costing for these, please, and where the funding will come from? Mark Griffin? We've come to the chamber again and again to give policy suggestions of income the Government could bring in to fund these. Only in June we all voted, Labour and SNP members voted in favour to claw back the £400 energy supplement to second homes, particularly to target on cost 11 measures. That's something the Government agree to do. That's something all-back Benchars supported, but we've seen nothing. No action on that £400 supplement that's going to second home owners that could be gone into the pockets of those who need it most. No action at all. We have come again and again with suggestions. Minister Tom Arthur? I'm just sure he'll want to correct the record, because Mr Griffin did write to me and I did confirm to him that we had written to COSLA. They're engaged as they will appreciate. While the aspiration is one that is venerable and worth of respect, the actual capacity to implement it is a lot more complicated than the members' rhetoric would suggest. Mark Griffin? When I speak to council leaders, all they say to me is, we heard about this. We've heard nothing more from Government about how we implement it. They're desperate to get on with the job. They're desperate to take in this extra money that could be gone into the pockets of those who need it most and are just waiting for Government to tell them how to. As I was saying, we have set out areas that we think the Government should step up on cancelling school meals debt, on topping up the welfare fund and support for advice payments. We've regularly come to this Parliament to talk about how they could be funded through better income generation and cutting out the waste that this Government seem to grow more than any support to those who need it most. People are absolutely sick of the chaos that they see going on in the UK Government. They're sick of seeing that pushing their bills only one way, and that's up and up and up. They want to see more action. There is action that can be taken within the gift of this Government. People want that reassurance and they want it now. I move amendment 6438.2 up to five minutes, please. I thank Mr Johnson and Mr Griffin for bringing this motion to Parliament. This is a very timely motion and it is exactly the issue that our constituents would expect us to be debating, and indeed the cost of living crisis exacerbated by the continuing fallout from Brexit and recent chaos that the UK Government has unleashed on our economy, people, communities and businesses, means that they are facing soaring inflation, rising costs and spiralling energy bills. This severe economic shock that everyone is facing is leading to cases of hardship and poverty. The Scottish budget is not immune to the rising costs and budget pressures. As the Deputy First Minister has set out, our budget is now worth around £1.7 billion less than it was when it was set in December because of increasing inflation. The Welsh Government is in the same position that we saw recently when the First Minister, Mark Drakeford, pointed out to the Tory Prime Minister when he indicated that the Welsh Government's budget is worth up to £4 billion less in real terms than it was when the three-year funding settlement was set last year. The reality is that the decisions that are facing us are stark. Every additional pound that we spend in one area means that a pound less has to be spent in another area. We have already taken action with £500 million of savings that we announced last month and have been clear that that was just the beginning of the hard choices that will be required to ensure that we can balance our budget, while also supporting those in greatest need and providing fair and affordable public sector pay awards. I understand the difficulties in providing budget updates given the chaos from the Tory Government at the UK. There are non-fiscal, non-spending parts of that, such as a review of regulation that does not require spending and could be brought forward now. Could the Minister provide an update of where that regulation review is? Certainly, the member will be aware that that was something that was a commitment and undertaking that it was given when the First Minister set out the initial savings back in September, September 6, September 7, for a member. We will establish an intention to bring forward an emergency budget review, but the member will appreciate that we were anticipating a fiscal statement on Monday from the UK Government. That has now been pushed back until the 17th of November, and as a consequence of that, we are facing even more uncertainty. The reality is that we are in a situation where we will do all that we can. We will set out what we will do with regards to looking at regulations. On the fiscal matters pertaining to the ABR, we are in a situation of increased uncertainty because of a decision that was taken by the UK Government to delay the fiscal statement. Bob Doris? I thank the minister for giving way. Does the minister have any indication whatsoever how many millions of pounds he has ripped from this place's budget following the new budget that will take place on the 17th of November? We do not know, and that is the reality. I already highlighted the amount that we have lost in inflation. As members will appreciate, we do not know what our finalised budget picture is until the end of the year because of supplementary estimates. Indeed, there is always the risk of negative consequentials, so that makes any of your budget management extremely challenging. One thing that we cannot have from the UK Government statement is further austerity inflicted in Scotland as a result of the mess that it has caused. We cannot have the triple lock for pensions removed again. We cannot have benefits not increased in line with inflation. We cannot have people not being helped or for energy bills as they continue to soar. As the First Minister made clear to the Prime Minister last night, the UK Government holds levers over energy, the majority of tax, the bulk of benefits, along with business support and regulation that could help address this crisis. They also have borrowing powers and the ability to deploy financial instruments that can transform household and business budgets. A strengthening windfall tax, for example, should be an important source of funding for this support rather than borrowing and spending cuts. That would help to meet the costs of providing additional help for households and businesses, rather than increase borrowing and cuts to public expending that would exacerbate the existing situation. We estimate around £9.3 billion could be raised by broadening, for example, the energy profits levy and by removing the investment allowance. There must also be an inflationary uplift to this year's budget to enable the Scottish Government to take further steps to support people with the cost of living, provide fair public sector pay-up lifts and support public services, giving the fiscal constraints on devolution. That is the way that we can continue to take action to support people at this very challenging time. That is how we can build on the support that the Scottish Government has already provided. Almost £3 billion of support that we have provided in this year, including £1 billion of support, is only available to households in Scotland. This is an extremely challenging period. I look forward to contributions from members across the chamber. I hope that those are informed, pragmatic and considered contributions that take cognisance of the limited powers of this Parliament and the extremely challenging fiscal and economic situation that we face. I now call on Jamie Halcro Johnston to speak to and move amendment 6438.1 up to four minutes, please, Mr Halcro Johnston. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. After a period of historically low inflation and of low interest rates, we find ourselves in the middle of an economic crisis, where rising costs of living have hit this country as well as many others across a range of goods and services. That presents a real challenge to Governments at all levels. As Members of this Parliament, we are seeing the consequences first hand to our constituents and regions. We all know from the correspondence we receive and the people we meet that families and businesses are facing tough conditions and feeling the impact of circumstances beyond their control. In his September letter, the Governor of the Bank of England sets out some of the factors at play behind this rise, in particular the role of Vladimir Putin's appalling act of aggression against Ukraine and its disastrous consequences, coming at a key moment in our recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. These are not abnormal economic forces, in many ways they are unprecedented, but there is at least some cause for optimism. We have seen global wholesale gas prices fall and we have seen Europe move towards greater energy security and resilience. I am very grateful to the Member for Giving Way. In his long list of factors, he failed to mention the decisions made in the mini-budget by September, which sent gilts up in the highest one-day increase since Black Wednesday. Would he acknowledge, as the Prime Minister has, that errors were made? Jamie Halcro Johnson I thank the Member for the Intervention, and as the Prime Minister did, I do. But there is at least some cause for optimism. We have seen global wholesale gas prices fall and we have seen Europe move towards greater energy security and resilience. If prices can be stabilised, then the positive impact on the very worst medium-term projections for energy costs will be considerable. But the hard reality is that, in the immediate term, the underlying problems will not go away. That underlie our economic decision-making well into next year. At this stage, it is a vital role of government to use its best efforts to reduce the impact and support people through this winter. The UK Government acted quickly and decisively to bring about £37 billion worth of intervention to help people with energy bills. Many parts of this package have been targeted specifically to help those who are most vulnerable, whether that is low-income families or pensioner households who are on fixed incomes. That is the right approach, and that will be of immense help to people the length and breadth of the UK. We should not forget that this support comes on the back of the extraordinary assistance provided through furlough and other schemes during the worst part of the Covid pandemic. We were able to draw on the resources of government to keep people in jobs, to avoid the sort of mass scale unemployment and business closures that could very easily have resulted. The UK Government has gone further and faster than many would have expected, while the costs borne by the Treasury have been eye-watering. We can only imagine the cost of not acting. What I feel is most absent from Labour's motion is consideration of the impact on business—the additional cost they are facing, the disruption to supply chains, the wider questions over their future. I was open to my calls for action to help business tackle, in particular the hike in energy bills, which threaten the survival of so many. I was delighted when this support was brought forward by the UK Government. That has undoubtedly saved jobs and livelihoods in my region and beyond. Where we agree with Labour is that both Governments should be responsive and should be working with a shared common purpose of helping and supporting our constituents through this period. There is undoubtedly more that will need to be done, which is why it is particularly galling to see the Scottish Government use their time and their resource to call for more division. To pretend Scotland without a proper central bank or control over its currency is good or even viable idea, to try and wrench us away from billions of pounds of fiscal sharing within the United Kingdom, the idea that this is a time for their constitutional obsession to be pursued is ridiculous, and that they would plan to take it forward under the calamitous and discredited economic prospectus that the First Minister outlined only weeks ago. Proposals described as utter pitch by one leading nationalist, and so bad they would make another vote. No, it is an insult to Scottish voters. We cannot underestimate the seriousness of the cost of living crisis. It is hitting hard at those who are already some of the most disadvantaged in our country. This is a time where Scotland's Governments must step up, work together and to ensure that their actions are well targeted, and that families and businesses are protective. I move the amendment in my name. Thank you, Mr Halcro Johnston. I now call on Willie Rennie up to four minutes, please, Mr Rennie. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Last week, I visited the food bank in Anstrother. For those who are familiar with Anstrother in the East Newark, they may be surprised that there even is one, but it is now an essential part of the fabric of that community. I was informed by the food bank organiser Richard Weems about the real impact of inflation. He told me that the cost of a basket of 16 goods had increased from £7 to £14.10, and that is just compared with the pre-Covid pandemic period. Those are not luxury items, they are basic essential goods and saver options from Lidl. That is the reality for people on the front line facing the cost of living crisis. Nationally, soaring prices for food and drink were the biggest driver behind the latest inflation rise of 10.1 per cent. There has been an annual rise of almost 15 per cent in the price of bread, cereals, meat, milk, cheese and eggs. That is the fastest annual jump since April 1980. It is quite staggering. It is not right to say that the cost of living crisis is solely the responsibility of the Conservative Government. We all know that Putin, the knock-on effects from the pandemic, are significant reasons for the increase. We also know that the US interest rates are a factor as well. It is also wrong to say that the Conservative Government have not made the crisis a whole lot deeper.  The damage that our many budget has caused cannot simply be reversed. Those mortgage agreements will not be renegotiated, the increased cost of government borrowing will not be recouped and the steps taken to recover the economic reputation of the Government are set to be incredibly harsh. By failing to actimiously earlier on this year with the energy package, when the energy prices were announced that they were to be increased, caused immense anxiety for those who were struggling already to pay their energy bills. By refusing to introduce a comprehensive energy package of measures to cover off-grid fuel users in rural areas, leaves them in dire straits, £100 for off-grid oil users is just simply an insult. By refusing to guarantee that benefits would rise with inflation, means that this Government is contemplating, inflicting an even harsher, darker, colder winter on some of the most vulnerable people in this country. It is just very briefly. I wonder if the UK Government should also be guaranteeing that in its budget of November of the 17th it does not rip money away from this place's budget so that we can do all we can to support those most vulnerable in households right across Scotland during the curse of living crisis. I do not think that I would disagree with that, but it is not all about this place. There is so much that needs to be done across the United Kingdom. That kind of safety and security that the United Kingdom provides is essential. That is why also today the lack of guarantees on the pension triple lock being under threat is incredible. I want to see action on benefits and pensions on the rural energy users and also making sure that we drive down inflation, the cost of borrowing and the cost of mortgages. There is one specific area in addition that I want to see, and that is in the area of carers allowance. 3.1 per cent is simply not enough. It means only 30 pence a day extra that increase. With the 10 per cent inflation rise, that means that the carers allowance is now 6.4 per cent lower in real terms compared to last year. We need to take action across the UK to help people who are vulnerable at this incredibly difficult time. We will support Labour's motion today and the measures that are proposed within it. Before calling the first speaker in the open debate, I would make a plea to all members to ensure that they have pressed their request to speak button if they are seeking to speak in the debate. I call Sarah Boyack to be followed by Paul McLennan. Speeches of up to four minutes, please, Ms Boyack. The cost of living crisis is having a massive impact on people's lives. Mortgages are rocketing and inflation is massively increasing people's food costs, and it is those in the lowest incomes who are hit the hardest. In Edinburgh, around six in 10 people say that they fear that they will not be able to pay their energy bills. Four out of 10 are worried that they will not be able to afford their rent or mortgage. Up to a quarter fear that they could be made homeless. Up to 30 per cent say that they might have to resort to food banks. A couple of days ago, Homeless Project Scotland shared a picture that really brought home the shocking reality of many of our constituents who will be facing this winter. It is a picture of people standing in the cold waiting to receive a hot soup, sandwiches and a coffee. The project said, we need a building to bring people indoors this winter. Glasgow City Council, Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish Government have the power to help. But the problem is that our Governments are failing people. In Scotland, we have a Government that avoids responsibility in action. We have heard it today driven by their independence of possession and in the UK, our third Tory Prime Minister this year, leading the party that caused the chaos now hitting people and damaging our economy. SNP and green MSPs will say that their hands are tied because Scotland is not independence. But as we debate the need for action, I want to say that I am disappointed and angry about the lack of forward thinking and priority given to insulating our homes, building community heat and power networks. That would have given our communities more investment and more protection for people from the cost-of-living crisis that we are now in. 15 years in power and none of the political leadership to deliver the warm, energy-efficient, low-carbon homes that we desperately need across Scotland. So we need action now. No, I am very short. Labour-led Edinburgh Council is now proposing to use libraries and community centres this winter as spaces where people can come together and stay warm during the difficult months ahead. So we need out-of-the-box thinking. Many of our organisations and our arts and culture sector are now on the brink of collapse, so the Scottish Government must explore creative solutions, utilise our culture spaces to provide the multiple benefits for our communities. I have spoken with many arts and culture organisations, and the general consensus is that there is a gap between what is said about the value of culture and the action that is required to support the sector now. Covid led to people being isolated and not being able to access culture. As we build Covid recovery this winter, there are still people who are nervous or who cannot afford to access venues, so those who work in the culture sector need support now. Trade union equity is clear that precarious employment and low salaries are seeing people leave the sector. Scotland's workshop said that many of our staff are finding that they are deeply affected by the cost of living crisis. With sub-average salaries common in the sector and many people working part-time hours. The quote is that 27 per cent of creative workers aged under 25 left creative occupations after lockdown in 2020, compared with 14 per cent of workers aged 25 and over. If that continues it will be catastrophic for Scotland's culture, with the impact cutting across generations to come, our tourism, our incomes, our economy, our communities and who we are. We need action not just in the culture sector but right across the public and private sectors to give people decent work, decent salaries and an end to precarious and short-term employment. In the last debate, Paul O'Kane spoke powerfully about the need for fair pay for our carers. I joined CWU Postees yesterday protesting against the 2 per cent pay rise that they are expected to live on. It is not acceptable. We have a cost of living crisis. People need support now, not warm words for our Government. That is why this debate is so important. Seven weeks ago Liz Truss was ready to become Prime Minister. She was backed overwhelmingly by the Tory party membership. Who can forget the Scottish Tory party graphic from many Tory MSPs sitting just over there in Liz Truss? That went well, didn't it? Disaster's impact for the many budget cannot be understated. The pound at an all-time low inflation soaring, pension funds being bailed out, future interest rates projections trebling and withdrawal of mortgage offers overnight. Fault economics in the party that cannot promise anounce of stability has sent mortgage rates to the roof and hardworking families deeper into poverty. The impact of Brexit on the cost living crisis cannot go unnoticed. Prices are soaring. Labour shortages are consequences of a decision that we in Scotland did not make. Resolution foundation estimated £870 cost of living increase due to the currency fluctuations, a 6 per cent increase in food costs. Ireland's economic and social institute reported that trade from the UK to the EU dropped 16 per cent in 2021. Peter Norris, the Virgin Group chair and convener of the Brexit monitoring group, the UK Trade and Business Commission said that recovering lost trade with Europe should be top priority as the country enters a recession. This is a Labour debate. Unbelievably, Keir Stam on his own word says, we want to make Brexit work. Brexit doesn't work. It won't work. There are no Brexit opportunities and I'll give this chance to any Labour MSP who wants to stand up and give me one benefit of Brexit. I didn't think anybody would stand up. Brexit impacts cost and viability of businesses. As we enter a recession, Brexit is adding to business worries. I've only got four minutes, so I'm conscious of time. We need to rejoin the EU at the earliest opportunity. The only way to do so is through independence. You would expect an anti-U stance from the Tories, but Labour and the Lib Dems, really? Many times we've heard Willie Rennie stand up and support the EU. Now he doesn't because he can't. Over the last couple of months, I've been meeting businesses up and down the slow line that have been suffering from rising energy prices and Brexit. My office carried out an extensive survey over the past four months. Over a third of businesses that I have spoken to are considering them to make redundancies. Over a half have affected training plans and three quarters of them have said that rising energy costs were affecting the viability of their business. Similar pictures have been painted by my constituents, and many families were already struggling to get on on stagnant incomes. Polls conducted this month found that 72% of East London residents polled fear of not being able to pay their energy bills. In context, that is 70,000 people. 43% fear of not being able to pay their rent on mortgage, and a quarter would be worried about homelessness. In August, East London Food Bank reported that the number of people using a county charity to have food on the table has jumped up by 77% compared to last year. Whether it is heating homes or ensuring that people have enough to eat, the UK Government is failing. That is the price of a broken UK financial system. Risu Sunak called the mini-budget a mistake, and although he called us out on the Tory leadership, the list trust's cabinet endorsed the moves. Indeed, we heard chorus after chorus from including Liz Smith, who is sitting there just now, of Tory MSPs demanding the Scottish Government following the Tory party tax cuts. Imagine if John Swinney had listened to those demands. All of this is imposed by a Government that we did not vote for. Surely Labour agrees that taking democratic decisions here in Scotland is our only hope. Decisions made by the people of Scotland for the people of Scotland. This is an important debate today, as many of our constituents are facing a winter of worry and concern. Bills are growing up, food prices increasing and interest rates on the rise, and I am contacted every day by people who are looking for help and assistance. The UK Government has been quick to offer us to support, including help with energy bills for the most vulnerable, a cap on energy prices until April next year, and cutting national insurance contributions, and I am sure that more support will be offered as the crisis develops. The war in Ukraine has pushed up energy prices and also the price of many everyday commodities, pushing inflation to higher levels than we have seen in many years. It was reported just yesterday by the ONS that the rates of which many of our everyday food prices, as Willie Rennie mentioned, are increasing at an eye-watering rate. I am grateful to the member for taking the intervention. I absolutely acknowledge the impact that Russia's invasion on Ukraine has had on the global economy. I am just wondering if he has any idea why the UK has the highest rate of inflation of any advanced economy on earth. Dr Slumson? If he looks into that further, he will see that the inflation rates and interest rates in Germany are just as high as the UK. Surely that cannot be blamed on a Conservative Government, because the problems that we are facing are not unique. They are being faced by countries across the globe, and our UK Government will address them in the best interests of us all. That is the difference between our two Governments. We have one Government, who are helping people, and we have another Government, who try to use every opportunity to repeat their nationalist call for separation. They want to act in their own self-interest rather than the people's, by constantly talking about independence as the answer to all and any woes. The lasting our nation needs is further instability and a hard border with our closest and largest trading partner would give us just that. It is a disgrace that this devolved Government continually bangs that drum rather than focus on the day job of bringing economic growth to this country. It is the UK Government that are pushing ahead with free ports that will bring economic growth to our communities, with levelling up that even SNP councils have welcomed. Investment zones that will bring benefits for businesses that want to grow, develop and provide employment in our cities.  The UK Government is providing £650 cost-of-living payments for every household on means-tested benefits, £300 extra cost-of-living payments to pensioners in receipt of winterfuel payment, £150 extra disability cost-of-living payment, £400 cash grant to every household for energy via energy suppliers and the National Insurance Cup will save £2.3 million scots, an average of £285 per year. The list goes on, putting money back into people's pockets when they need it most. The SNP will tell you that they have no money, even though they have the biggest core settlement ever. Of course, setting a budget is about priorities. The SNP has plenty of money for the things that they really care about, a couple of £100,000 in our court case to push a divisive referendum, £20 million in the coffers for the pretendy referendum itself. The people of Scotland need both Governments to work together to tackle this crisis. We need a laser focus on how we help vulnerable families and communities and grow our economy. What we do not need is the SNP Green Coalition of Chaos constant focus on division and a breakup of the United Kingdom that would cause untold economic harm and SNP austerity, as we have never witnessed before. The SNP has no plan on the Scottish economy except independence. It has no credibility in this area and has no idea how economic stability would be achieved. In closing, I want to again point to the assistance that has been given by our UK Government to Scots during this crisis, with more promised over the winter. 1,650 to the most vulnerable in our society delivered because we are part of the United Kingdom, with the resources and economic ability to provide this kind of support. We hope that both Governments will work together to tackle this crisis. I call Paul Sweeney, who will be followed by Ross Greer, up to four minutes please. As others have said, and as we all know, we are in the midst of a cost of living crisis, a cost of living crisis that affects us all. One that will see people and families who would ordinarily class themselves is comfortable getting by facing economic hardship for the first time. Indeed, in eight out of the 14 years since 2009, real wages have actually fallen in this country, and next year we will almost certainly join that list. This is an unprecedented long-term decline in living standards. It is now a crisis of equivalent scale to the Covid pandemic, and we now need a response, similar to if not greater than the response we saw then. The problems, of course, are not helped by the ongoing drama that we see in Westminster as the Tory party implode daily, damaging the economy and finances of families across the country as they go. We have seen the impact of bad policy over a decade compounded in recent months. The pound now at its lowest value against the dollar since its exchange rate was freely floated in 1971. The mortgage deals we are tied into increasing due to a Tory incompetence premium, and the certainty once provided by the two-year energy price guarantee eroded as the policy was reduced to just six months because of Tory indecision and incompetence. That indecision and incompetence was on show again this morning as the delayed fiscal statement due on the 31st of this month was delayed once again until the 17th of November. What is it that the Tories do not understand about the impact that their indecision has on financial markets and the knock-on impact that it then has on people's household finances? Why is it that they do not realise that this is not some parlor game for millionaires, and when is it that they will realise that more of the same austerity economics simply does not work? The richest man to ever sit in the House of Commons has been coronated as Prime Minister. No one voted for him apart from Tory MPs. He has no mandate and right. Now he has no plan. I find it utterly absurd that the Tories believe that someone with such vast personal wealth, someone whose family uses non-dom tax status and someone who doesn't know how to pay for his own petrol could identify or sympathise with the challenges facing working families across this country. The answer isn't more of the same. The answer is that we need a change. The kind of change that only comes with a general election and the election of a progressive Labour Government with compassion and a clear understanding of what is needed to restore our national prosperity. I accept that we are unlikely to see that anytime soon, Deputy Presiding Officer. We all know after all that the Tories don't vote for an early Christmas, but it is for that exact reason that we need to see more action from the Scottish Government. I accept the uncertain financial position. I accept that the economic situation facing Scotland is far from perfect. I accept that the uncertainty and Tory dysfunction means that the Scottish Government's job is made only ever harder. None of that is an excuse for failing to do more to help Scots today. There are tangible measures that we can take in this Parliament that will improve people's lives, particularly around targeting support to those most in need and addressing our underlying inability to defend against the inflationary effects in our economy due to our historically poor productivity. Indeed, the decline in our trading competitiveness is a hit to real incomes. Raising real incomes to offset this requires productivity to increase. It's as simple as that. This is much more important than growth per se. Raising nominal incomes without productivity improvements will simply fuel more inflation. Sarah Boyack made that important point about key to this investment in efficiency. We must stop this vicious cycle of disinvestment by justifying cuts, which simply leads to economic stagnation and falling living standards. We've done this for a decade—it hasn't worked. The Labour motion sets out some potential solutions, and I urge the Government to see the proposals for what they are—constructive ways to improve people's lives, to ensure that families can make it through the winter and ensure that no-one is left behind.  Fundamentally, we need to put fairness at the heart of our response. I have absolutely no faith whatsoever that the Tories are capable of such fairness. History proves that to be the case, and that is why, for the good of our country, we need a general election and we need one now. I am grateful to the Labour Party for giving us this opportunity to debate the stunning economic incompetence of the UK's Conservative Government and the damage that it has done to people and businesses across Scotland. The UK is experiencing a rate of inflation higher than that of any other advanced economy, as I said a few moments ago. There is a range of drivers behind that, most being entirely self-inflicted on the part of the UK Government, or at the very least entirely avoidable. One of the biggest drivers is the rising cost of food, again something that most countries are experiencing, but which is far worse in the UK than elsewhere. The reason for that is simple—it is Brexit. We import just under half of our food, and most of those imports come from the European Union. Liz Truss may have made the situation dramatically worse in a remarkably short period of time, but so much of that predates her and even Boris Johnson's time in Downing Street. It is a crisis caused by the actions of consecutive Conservative administrations. We should not for a second minimise the impact of Truss's disastrous mini-budget. The numbers vary given ongoing market instability, but the last figures I saw for UK annual debt interest payments was £10 billion—a huge increase—as a result of this self-inflicted reputational damage. The Tory has been heavily on the instability of the global economy, as we have already seen this afternoon and the effects of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, to claim that what is now happening is simply outwith their control. However, taking energy prices as an example, it is a failure of domestic UK energy policy that the bill's households pay are subject to such poor regulation and are so vulnerable to global market shocks. Daniel Johnson is very grateful to the member for giving way. I wonder if he would agree with me that he found it interesting with some economic commentators pointing out that the rising gilts across the world was precipitated by the UK, rather than just being part of the global trend. I agree absolutely. I am grateful to Mr Johnson for that intervention. The cost to the UK's reputation in the global financial market is going to be felt for years to come by exactly the kind of potential trading partners that the Conservatives have been soaking to talk up as the post-Brexit future for a global trading Britain. Returning to that example of the price of energy and failure to regulate that market, decoupling the cost of electricity generated by renewables from that generated by gas, would have significantly protected consumers and undoubtedly sped up the transition away from fossil fuels. A long-term serious effort to decarbonise our heat networks would have been even better. The UK is more than capable of self-sufficiency in electricity. Scotland already more or less is. If the past decade had been spent investing in decarbonisation rather than cutting capital budgets, it would have been to the benefit of families, our economy as a whole and to our national energy security. The Scottish Government is now taking a much more ambitious approach here, but it is hugely constrained by a lack of capital borrowing powers and the 10 per cent cut to the capital budget that it receives from Westminster. I welcome what I am interpreting as a shift in tone in the Labour motion, where Mr Griffin and his colleagues normally come to the chamber demanding billions of pounds of additional spending, almost all of which I agree with in principle. They have a little track record when it comes to explaining how that would be funded, either through savings elsewhere or through tax rises. The proposals included in today's motion are considerably more modest. As the MSP who first brought the issue of school meal debt into the public domain, I am really happy to see other parties picking up on it. But given the scale of that debt, I am unclear as to why the Scottish Government, rather than councils themselves, should be responsible for cancelling it. Indeed, following our publication of the debt levels for every council and further pressure from Aberlure, a number of councils have already cancelled the debts owed by families in their areas, including Edinburgh, Murray and South Lanarkshire. The expansion of family income maximisation services is another proposal that I strongly agree with, but it is one that the Scottish Government is already committed to in progressing. The Butehouse agreement commits to a £10 million expansion of those services. All of us want that to happen as quickly as possible, but as the Deputy First Minister's statement earlier this month demonstrated, any increased spending this winter means a consequential cut somewhere else, and it is hard to see somewhere that that could come from without serious consequences. I hope that Labour will take those ideas forward to the budget process, though, and match them with saving or revenue-raising proposals, because I agree absolutely with their statement that tackling the cost of living crisis should be a priority for government at every level. I now call Christine Grahame to be followed by Alexander Stewart, up to four minutes, please, Ms Grahame. Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. First to the Tory amendment, which tests the definition of brass neck, deleting any reference to the economic vandalism of the List Trust mini-budget, crashing the economy when the Bank of England had to buy government bonds to prevent us losing international borrowing, which has been sustaining the UK economy for decades, all to prevent us plummeting into a death spiral of the economy. Policies in which the Tories in here urged the Scottish Government to adopt. As it is, the damage is done. Interest rates zoomed to 10 per cent plus. What was already a bad situation under the former Chancellor of Russia sooner got worse. He refused to return the £20 per week universal credit additional, and, by the way, 38,000 veterans and 3,000 serving in the forces are in universal credit. He helped to commit to the triple lock in pensions to ensure benefits rise of inflation as day at PMQs refused again, claiming that he will be compassionate, but I am not holding my breath. I asked the Tories to write to the most recent Prime Minister to commit to the state pension triple lock, upgrade benefits in line with inflation, restore the £20 cuts from universal credit and, as a grand finale, cap bankers' bonuses, and, while they are see-seeing in the Chancellor, see see me in two. Now to the Labour motion, which, like the Cure It's Egg, is good in parts, recognising the folly and fallout from Trusonomics. However, let's consider the calls in that motion for more action that could be taken by the Scottish Government. I did ask for costings of Mark Griffin, which he cited. The cancellation of school meals debt—these are all good things. What funding will be required? Increased funding for money advice services? How much? A top-up to the welfare fund? How much? Then we can add the legitimate calls for quite understandable wage increases across the public sector to meet that 10 per cent plus inflation rate. Health, police, justice and education, all following the catastrophic rise in interest rates, fuel costs and food inflation. Costed? No doubt in the winding up, these figures will be produced, and where the funding is to be taken from and whether it will be a recurring cost. Because, unless I have missed something, the Scottish Government has a fixed budget, extremely limited borrowing powers, limited taxation powers and its fixed budget was allocated when interest rates were around 5 per cent. You have the winding up. So the Labour Party simply cannot come here and, in order to mitigate Tory policies, make uncosted demands and mislead the public as to what can and cannot be done by a devolved Government without plundering the existing and allocated budgets for our public services. Already, as the Minister has said, this Government has taken unprecedented steps to help the most vulnerable, rent-free child payment, free school meals, P1, P5, free bus travel for under 22s and over 60s, free prescriptions, free personal care and so on. Finally, I am reminded of the wonderful Mark Drakeford's reply to the Tory leader in the Senate criticising the state of the Welsh NHS. Addressing Mr Davis with trembling of anger and I quote he said, it is shocking, it is absolutely shocking to me that you think you can turn up here this afternoon with the mess that your party has made to the budgets of this country, to the reputation of this country around the world, that you promised those people that there will be no more to come and you think you can turn up here this afternoon and claim some sort of moral high ground, what sort of world do you belong in? End of quote. I couldn't say better myself and I said to Labour opposite, what sort of world do you live in? Stop demanding this Government clean up a Tory mess. What are you thinking? Mitigating Tory policies may be good enough for Labour, but it's not good enough for me and not good enough for Scotland. Thank you, Ms Gwyn. I now call Alexander Stewart to be followed by Stephanie Callaghan up to four minutes. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I am pleased to be able to contribute to this debate in support of the amendment in the name of Jamie Halcro Johnston. Along with my colleagues on these benches, I have been clear about the difficulties that an increasing cost of living has created for so many people. With the winter months quickly approaching, these difficulties are now becoming even more clear, Presiding Officer. The Labour motion speaks about the challenges created by high inflation, and there is no doubt that, as many other countries, rising food and rising energy prices are taking their toll. While prices at the pumps are thankfully well down on the summer peak, because due to the five pence cut in fuel duty, they still remain 15 per cent higher than they were a year ago. As far as this year is concerned, the UK Government has taken action in response to the rising cost of living. Notably, we have seen a package of financial support worth more than £37 billion, which includes support for every household in the United Kingdom, worth more than £1,600 with the most deprived households. I have a lot to cover in a short time, thank you. That includes many older people on pension credits who will also benefit. Those individuals will be as concerned as anyone about their heating bills over the coming months, which is why I welcome the energy price guarantee, which ensures that energy bills will not exceed £2,500 for the average householder. While the support is guaranteed until April 23, we know that targeted support is still to be delivered in the new financial year, and targeted support is crucial for that. It is important for the most vulnerable to remain protected from significant energy prices while ensuring that value is maintained for part of a sustainable budget. However, the UK Government decides to tackle the cost of living will depend on ensuring that a strong economy is supported during this time. Economic stability is therefore the key to tackling this crisis. I know that the new Prime Minister has made some priorities and promises today, and I look forward to him continuing to do that. I can assure you that, from those benches and from me, that will be a priority. The scale of the current crisis means that both Governments—the Scottish Government and the United Kingdom Government—must tackle. The Scottish Government has levers of power at its disposal to create approaches and tackle issues in the area. That includes, for example, the increase to the single-person council tax discount of 35 per cent, which we have called for previously on those benches. The other areas that we are looking at and have been looked at are, for example, the financial assistance such as school clothing grants that are being received for everyone who is eligible. The grants can be a great help, and that is asset to families who are reaching to support their schools. However, we have found that five out of the 32 local authorities only carry that funding for the next financial year. Therefore, support for this needs to be looked at so that we do not have this apparent postcode lottery that is developed across Scotland. In conclusion, we have already seen urgent action to address the cost of living, but it is clear that further steps will be needed and required in order to provide long-term sustainability security for householders across the country. As we have heard in the winter months, the Scottish public will quite rightly expect both of their Governments to work together effectively and consulting to produce bold action to protect the most vulnerable in this crisis. The cost of living crisis will continue to have a massive impact on our constituents and our communities, but it is up to both Governments and us in this chamber and in other places to work together to secure the goal for the communities that we represent. I now call Stephanie Callaghan, who will be the last speaker in the open debate, up to four minutes. This debate is a welcome opportunity to speak about the gravity of the cost of living crisis, and we have heard today about the heart-breaking impact on Scotland's people. First, I join colleagues in condemning the disastrous money budget. However, there has been no time to celebrate its reversal, with the imminent prospect of austerity 2.0 being forced upon us as the alternative. The very last thing that Scotland needs is another Tory Prime Minister we did not vote for, let alone an austerity-driven Brexit year, who is intent on squeezing the wages and benefits of working people, while slashing taxes and bonus caps for the wealthy. After a decade of Tory cuts in Brexit damage, the UK already had the biggest and fastest ever increase in millionaire and billionaire wealth, yet the UK is still choosing finance over industry, austerity over investment and a closed economy over openness to the world. For years, our entire economy has been established, for the accumulation of key assets such as housing and energy ownership are extracting wealth from ordinary people. Right now, we have seen the most basic supermarket items that are rocketing in price, some by two thirds, and the reality for many is escalating to a cost of surviving crisis. As many saw on channel 4 last night, the struggle to put food on the table seems to be driving a 21 per cent increase in shoplifting, mostly down to first-time offenders such as parents needing essentials for their children. People are desperate. Small businesses are selling essentials and tick. Food banks are reporting a tenfold increase in first-time users. Energy suppliers are reportedly refusing to take on new customers. People are living in freezing temperatures when pre-payment metres run out. Where will this end? This is the reality for so many people as we prepare for a winter like no other. I am absolutely gobspacked by the Tory party amendment framing this crisis as a global issue and applauding the UK Government on its inadequate support, taking no responsibility whatsoever. Even the energy price cap, now cut short and leaving households in unimaginable uncertainty from April, is another enormous transfer of money from the public purse, this time to private oil and gas companies, further exacerbating wealth inequality in the name of profit. There is a reason why the crisis is so much worse here in the UK. We are a poor country with some very rich people and a Tory party governing in their interests. Cutting UK budgets for public services that have been brought to the knees since 2010 will mean more jobs lost, wages falling, inflation rising further and a loss of the very most basic living standards. The Barnett consequentials will affect us here too if there is cuts to education, healthcare and more coming down the line. At this Scottish Parliament, we have a duty to come together and oppose these cruel UK policies as well as pressing the Scottish Government to continue mitigating as much of this damage as possible. Putting money into the pockets of those at the bottom end of income scale and supporting families who are struggling the most must remain our priority, but it can only be done within our fixed budget. Others have detailed the £3 billion allocated to support households, a billion of which support only available in Scotland and even the harshest critics of the Scottish Government are commending these efforts. I join my colleagues and urge the UK Government to step up, to rule out austerity, create a windfall tax, reinstate the pension triple lock, raise benefits in line with inflation, uplift this year's Scottish Government budget in line with inflation and generally to find an ounce of compassion and end their callous threats to our basic rights and freedoms. Scotland did not vote for this crisis, Scotland can do better and Scotland needs independence like never before. We will now move to closing speeches and I call on Liz Smith on behalf of the Scottish Conservatives. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Two members reminded us this afternoon that it is just six weeks ago that we debated this Parliament's very deep-seated concern about the cost of living challenge that is facing both of Scotland's Governments, not just in terms of addressing the very significant economic problems that we are grappling with as a result of rampant inflation, but just as importantly the resulting social and personal costs within our communities in this afternoon. We have heard that concern amplified and re-emphasised. We were also reminded that enough a lot has happened in that space of time. Two Prime Ministers, three Chancellor's of the Exchequer and what was an uncosted mini-budget, which has served only to increase the concerns. My party, as Mr Halcro, Johnson said, has to acknowledge anti-responsibility that all this did increase instability and uncertainty and put at risk the UK's financial credibility on the markets. That said, we should not forget that the largest part and the most expensive part of the mini-budget, which was announced on the 23 September, was the package of direct support to help families and businesses with their energy bills on top of the measures previously put in place. I hope that the other parties in this chamber, despite their justified criticism, will accept that that part of the mini-budget was warmly welcomed by the public and by businesses across Scotland. I will, in a minute, many businesses that have been on the brink and which matter so much to our economic recovery, and it was also welcomed, I may say, by the different political parties in this chamber. I thank Liz Smith for giving me a minute. I thank her for her candour, because I think it is very important, but she also acknowledged that that very support package that she is pointing to is in doubt. The commentary is that it is under review and we are yet to see whether it will come through, because she is absolutely right that there is a cost of emergencies for people and for businesses. I think that it is very clear, Mr Johnson, that what has been the already above level of support from the pandemic style of support is not enough. I think that that is very clear. What both the very new Prime Minister and the new Chancellor have said today is that they are looking very specifically at what has to be done to target more support to those most in need, because I think that that is a critical difference to the Government that is now in place in comparison with Liz Trussie's Government. That is very important that that is directed at those most in support. I know that people are complaining about the budget being put back to the 17th of November, but again what is absolutely vital is that we get the right data this time, because the critical problem about the mini budget was not so much about the principles behind it, which I fully support, I may say, but because it was so uncosted it didn't have the credibility of any OBR statistics behind it, nor did it have any credibility because there was no costing to the borrowing. That is what went wrong, that is what swooped the markets. Mr Johnson makes a good point in that, but it is absolutely critical that we understand that what didn't happen and should have happened and why we made mistakes has to happen now, where it is properly evidenced. I urge all of us to accept that circumstance. It is very true that many of the commentators and economic analysts have said that the central analysis of the actual mini budget was not wrong, namely that the UK economy has been far too long, very reliant on cheap money and not sufficiently focused on improving productivity and economic growth. How true that is, Mr Johnson, sits on the finance committee just as I do, and we know that from the statistics that the Scottish Fiscal Commission has sent into our evidence. Mervyn King said very firmly at the weekend that there are too many countries across the world who have been enduring a very damaging period of far too low interest rates for too long a period and with an increase in the supply of money chasing too few goods. That's part of the international problems that Mr Rennie spoke about, because that's meant inflationary situation right across the world. Ms Smith is about to conclude her remark. That's where I think we have to accept that there is a very important international dimension to this, so I'm very happy to support the amendment in the name of Jamie Halcro Johnston. Thank you, Ms Smith. I now call on Tom Arthur Minister to wind up on behalf of the Scottish Government up to four minutes please, minister. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and let me begin by thanking those colleagues who made constructive contributions. I would want to recognise at the outset that we do face a unique combination of global circumstances, Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, the energy shock that is created, backfeeding through to inflation, the end of an era of money when central banks across the globe were beginning to tighten monetary policy, but that was all clearly understood when Liz Truss became Prime Minister and it really does. It is staggering to think that in that context, with that set of circumstances, with those prevailing economic headwinds, the decision was taken to proceed in such a reckless, uncostied way with what I can only describe as a crackpot libertarian experiment in discredited economics. That has had material consequences because the support for households and energy that has originally been guaranteed for two years is now to come to an end in April. Further creating inflationary pressures, further reducing aggregate demand, furthering the risk of an extended recession. Now, the reality is that we find ourselves in a situation where all of the mood music coming from the UK Government is another round of austerity. That is a failed prescription. We cannot go back and make these mistakes again. Stephanie Callaghan described the UK as a poor country with very rich people. I think that it would be well understood by most mainstream economists that the UK is a fairly average economy overall with a concentration of wealth in a particular part of the country and in a particular sector in financial services. That has been the prevailing model for decades and it is something that we have to get beyond. Paul Sweeney touched on the issue of long-term decline. The reality is that we cannot cut our way to increase productivity. We cannot cut our way to increase growth. That requires investment. When I think of the money that was squandered as a result of the money budget, it is heartbreaking. Imagine what that resource could have achieved had it been deployed in skills in net zero or even in the here and now targeted at the most vulnerable to assist people getting through the winter. That has been the election of duty of the UK Government. I will give way to Liz Smith and to Daniel Johnson. I am grateful to the minister for giving way. I am not sure that I will take any lessons about squandering money. If he looks at the record of the SNP Government, he might have to think again. What he is saying is that he accepts that a lot of the analysts across the world are very much focused on the problem that we have had in lots of countries, including the UK, where we have persistently had a very low growth and high tax economy, which has caused lots of problems and productivity problems. The minister knows exactly the difficulties that the Scottish Government is facing over that. Does he accept that that is an analysis that goes on an international basis, not just a UK one? Minister, you are now at 3 minutes 30. I recognise the point that Liz Smith has become. We will take Daniel Johnson's intervention and we will respond to both. We will have a very brief intervention, Mr Johnson. Would the minister acknowledge that Scotland's productivity has stalled since 2015, and that it has reversed the trend for our productivity gap had been narrowing for the decades up until that point? Is that not worth looking at? Minister, you need to wind up. Both members' written is a broader trend, but the route out of that is through investment. The point that I want to conclude on—this is absolutely paramount—when we have that autumn statement on 17 November, presuming that it remains on 17 November, it absolutely must not be a return to austerity. I now call Daniel Johnson to wind up on behalf of Scottish Labour up to 5 minutes, Mr Johnson. Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. Mistakes were made. Let's just return to that phrase in a few moments, because let's remember the context that Labour hind the last few weeks. Indeed, as Tom Arthur was pointing out, a world economy that was recovering from a global pandemic, the lights of which we hadn't seen for 100 years, was just withdrawn from a deeply integrated political and economic union. Introducing borders despite the claims of electronic means of getting around them have introduced new complexity. On top of that, we saw the invasion of Ukraine, which has sent grain and oil prices around the world soaring. Against that context, this was the moment that the UK Government decided to embark upon a reckless project of what can only described as discredited raganomics, borrowing in order to fund tax cuts—£45 billion worth of uncosted, as Liz Smith, I think, very graciously and astutely observers—an uncosted budget. Prioritising tax cuts for bankers, for millionaires, reducing that top rate of tax. And what were the consequences of that? I've already heard from Paul McClellan and others about the pound plumeting, but it's much more fundamental in that guilt jumped in a single day by the biggest amount since he had since Black Wednesday. That is the historical comparison, but the difference between Black Wednesday, was that something that happened as a result of other global economic trends? What happened seven weeks ago was a direct result of active decisions that the UK Government made. I have to say that I found the debate today slightly bizarre. In fact, we've always been having three parallel debates, because if you were to listen to most of the speakers from the bench's opposite bar—the last one—you would think that it was nothing to do with them, it was just global calamity, nothing to do with that uncosted budget. To say that mistakes were made, I have to say that that is one of the biggest understatements that I have heard in politics in my lifetime, almost as big as describing it as a mini-budget, a mini-budget that led to a major economic catastrophe, because that is the truth of it. And there is much that I can agree with Mr Arthur, and indeed I thought he summarised that context quite well. I think that this has placed a huge degree of pressure on the Government and the decisions that it has, but let's also be clear that, in those circumstances, we need honesty, we need straightforwardness and to describe that the Scottish Government's response to the cost of living emergency has been a £3 billion package, when spice themselves can only identify £490 million worth of additional spending. Apart from many things, I think that it just detracts from the measures that the Scottish Government introduced, things like the extension of school meals, like the increase in the child payment. To use the £3 billion figure, I think that it just undermines its own efforts to include things like the funding of 1140 hours.  You cannot describe a policy that was first proposed in 2014 as being in response to the cost of living emergency. That is a nonsense. So, if there is a lesson to be drawn from both the calamities and the mistakes made by the party opposite in the UK, it is that we need straightforwardness, we need honesty and we need clarity of planning. Now, I think that the Scottish Government should think very carefully about those lessons indeed when it brings forward and presents its plans. Tom Arthur. I am grateful to the member for giving way the point that I am making and has been made by my colleagues. That is support for households. The reality is that £3 billion has to be offered in the annual budget process, something that the Labour Party did not support. Does he recognise that that is money back from the Scottish Government, passed by this Parliament, that is going to support households across Scotland? Daniel Johnson. That is my point. It detracts from the good that both those pre-existing policies and the new ones might have done. It is a bit like describing that the work that the doctors are undertaking in A and E is the emergency response to the person who has just broken their leg. Actually, what they need is not what is happening in A and E, but an ambulance to be sent out. The ambulance bits, the additional bits, is the emergency response, not the stuff that you are already doing. It is just, frankly, its dishonest politics. I thought that Willie Rennie was absolutely right to put this into context in terms of the broad range of costs going up, because I think that there are a number of people who are going to find themselves in crisis that will not be expecting it. Likewise, I noticed the time, so I am going to rush through this. I think that the cost of doing business is absolutely part of the cost of living emergency. I was just speaking with businesses today. Business is facing a sixfold increase in their energy bill. In summary, we need an emergency response. I have not got the time to go through the detail that I would want to for Christchurch, but we published costings for all of this. Let me just leave at this last point. In next year's budget and the year off, the Government are planning to carry forward budget from the previous year into the next. Our proposals that were mentioned today would cost around £20 million, and there are others that we put published in the summer. That is well within the envelope of what the Scottish Government could do if it chose to engage and look at what it has in front of it and the flexibilities it might have with its own budget. Thank you very much. Thank you. That concludes the debate on the cost of living. It is now time to move on to the next item of business. I will allow a moment until members are organised in seats.


Hey everybody. So today we're talking about SAS, S-A-A-S, not any of the other SAS's in the world, and WordPress. So SAS is software as a service. It's a way of delivering applications over the web as a service. Instead of installing and maintaining software on your clients on their machine, they can access the software over the internet. So it frees them from having to manage software updates and hardware requirements. That's the big thing, hardware requirements. With WordPress you do have some need to manage the software side just because if you're integrating with WordPress there's going to be plug-in updates and they're going to have to click the update button. But usually it's just a matter of clicking the update button. And of course dealing with WordPress which is software in itself. And SAS is all about feeling needs. So here's some examples of SAS solutions that fill needs. iThemesync which is the project that I am lead developer on right now for iThemes. It's kind of like managed WP or any of those managed solutions. You can manage multiple sites from one dashboard from iThemesync. And so that's instead of installing WP and having to manage that software you just go to sync.iThemes.com. And you can manage up to right now you can manage up to ten WordPress sites for free with iThemesync. Excuse me Lou. Yes. Would you mind speaking up to us a little bit? Sure. Is this better? Yeah. Lou, here's another example. It's actually a project that I wrote like five years ago. I wrote it as a way to publish my content to Twitter automatically. So whenever I publish a post it would publish to Twitter which expanded to Facebook and Google Buzz but then Google Buzz died and LinkedIn. So it's not very well known plug-in. I've got like 2,000 users which is pretty cool. But it's just an easy way for people to manage their social networks without having to go to each one and post their links for their content. OptinMonster, it used to be a plug-in that you installed on WordPress and everything was just there. And then they moved over to a SaaS solution. So all the OptinMonster stuff is actually managed in the cloud and then it integrates through their plug-in to WordPress.  And it's a way to kind of get them to come back to your site. And apparently it is really successful for keeping customers engaged on your site. Stash is another iThemes product. It's a way to store your backups. And we've recently with BackupBuddy integrated BackupBuddy live with Stash. So it does incremental like every five minutes database checks to see if anything's changed, copies those small changes and then does whole snapshots every day. And you can change that in the settings. But it's like another way of handling something that people don't want to do by themselves. This is the service we're offering and you don't have to worry about managing the software on your own sites. So today I really want to talk about two things, how to communicate with WordPress sites and then a little bit of how WordPress sites to communicate with your servers. There are three generally accepted ways to communicate with WordPress. You can build your own REST API, which we'll talk about. You can use the WP API and we'll talk about that. We're not going to talk about XML RPC because I've never really used it and I don't know anyone who really uses it that much. But it is a way to communicate with WordPress and it's kind of like a built-in API that has some basic functionality. So building a custom RESTful API. What is RESTful? What is a RESTful API? When I started LinkMe, I had no idea what REST was.  You're accepting input. You can accept it with post, with get, put, and delete. And that's called crud. Post is generally accepted to create content on the API. Get is to retrieve content, put is update. Most people use post to update as well. They're kind of interchangeable and delete is generally accepted to delete stuff. Again, I think most people just use post and get. But those are the accepted norms. So you would add functionality to a plugin or a theme for your cloud server to communicate with WordPress. I recommend using the init action or WP action to watch for your API endpoint.  And for some reason, the Google doc isn't showing the last line, which is add action init WP underscore API underscore endpoint. And so what it's doing here is basically checking to see if the get for my API endpoint is empty. If it's not, then it checks to see what action you want to do. Here is an example of what that looks like. So on my website, which is no longer there, so you can't get this information. I added this code into an MU-plugin file. And I ran work camp at Atlanta 2016 equals get users. And this is the output I came up with, which is JSON output. This is the source code. I think I can pull it up. Whoops. All these slides are online somewhere. So add action init work camp Atlanta 2016 API. It checks to see if that variable is set in the get request, which is the variable in the URL. It checks to see if it's a get user. And then it responds with this function call. And this is just built in WordPress code, get users. And then I do a response. My response is just a way that I format the output as JSON. So it creates an array, HTTP code, and a body with the user array. In my request, I get the response. I send the response to another function, which outputs JSON and exits so that it no longer stops processing in WordPress. So that source is on GitHub and just, and it's going to be available forever. And so this would be a similar code for adding a user. This right here is not the code. This is actually a curl command line in Unix or Linux, or you could probably do it in Windows. I don't really use Windows. So it's a curl command. And it's saying to use post, the dash D is the data descent. So I'm sending a user name, test user, password one is password, password two is password. Don't ever use the word password as password. Email is just a bogus email. And then my endpoint is the WC-ATL 2016 equals add user. And again, in that code, it's the same code as above. I have a case. If WC-ATL equals add user, then I want to run the create user command function. And so it gets the input, which is the post data. It checks to see if the username is set. And then it gets the username. It checks to see if the first password is set, if the second password is set, if the passwords are equal. And then it says the password. It checks to see if the email is set, if it's an actual email address, and it sets the email. And then I check to see if the username is taken. Check to see if the email is taken because you need to have a unique username and email in WordPress. And if those both pass, then I create the user.  Got to have that output. But I've got a user created on the bottom there. So that command returned user created. So my server creates a user on your WordPress site using that code as a plug-in, basically. And that's just a basic overview of how to communicate to WordPress using a endpoint, building your own REST API. Now, if you wanted to use the WPAPI, it's a little bit different.  Now, WPAPI is specific to WordPress functions and functionality. If you wanted custom functions and custom functionality, you could extend the WPAPI or, again, build your own REST API. Documentation is available at v2.wp-api.org. v2 stands for version two because they're on version two. And so this is an example of how you get users with WPAPI. They use like a permanent structure in their plug-in. So on my site, if this plug-in was activated, it would be loaya.com.wp-json.wp.v2.users. And that's what the output would look like. Now, it's different from this output because I was just outputting the getUser function. They actually clean it up a little bit and they don't pass like, in mine, I passed the password hash. Probably not a great idea to pass the password hash. So they remove the password hash altogether when you get the users because it's no real reason to get that. And then it gets other things like the avatar URL and it just formats it the way that they think you would want it. But again, you can extend it if you needed more information or even less information. And then they allow you to add a user as well. So this is an example of, again, post is for adding content. So you're adding a username, which is content. So username-d is the content of the post. Username equals test user, password equals password, email equals test at domain.tld is supposed to say. And then that's the end point. It's the same endpoint as before. wp-json slash wp slash v2 slash users. So instead of what I was using, which was worth looking at in 2016 equals getUser or addUser. They have the same endpoint and then they just look to see, oh, it's a post action on this endpoint. That's for adding users. With WPAPI, if you're performing this action, you do need an authentication method. There's several different ways to authenticate. You can do OAuth, OAuth version two. There's basic HTTP auth, and there's plugins available to enable that for you. So this right here, if I ran this code right now, wouldn't work because I'm not adding any authentication credentials to it. But it did work because I set up authentication when I was writing these slides. And again, so if you want to build a SaaS server to communicate with WordPress, there's basically two things you can do. You can roll your own, or you can use WordPress as your server that talks to another WordPress client. There's pros and cons in both, of course. iThemes sync is we roll our own. We're not using WordPress as the framework. Link me, I am using WordPress as the framework. You get full control when you roll your own basically. You can do whatever you want, however you want. You can add all the functionality you need. With WordPress, you get the preexisting and robust framework that already exists. WordPress has built in extensibility. With link me, I needed to handle members. So I added a membership plugin at the time. And so instead of having to write code that communicated with WordPress and handle members and handle payments, it was just a matter of adding a plugin. And of course, WordPress is popular. The cons of rolling your own is onboarding with a custom framework. If you hire a developer, they're not going to have any idea what your code does. It's going to take them a month, two, maybe three to get used to that code. When I was put on the iThemes sync project, it was completely new to me. I had been developing a WordPress for years. And then here's this new system that has smarty templates, which I hate, and all sorts of them. Composer, which I wasn't used to. So it's just new and it takes them onboarding. It's a lot easier to find a developer who works with WordPress than it is to find a developer who's never worked with your brand use product. Another con of rolling your own is the testing footprint is smaller. If you make a change, the only people testing it are you and the people using your product. When WordPress makes a change, there's hundreds, thousands of people testing it before that change even goes live. A con of WordPress is that it's possibly overkill. There's too many features. You don't need categories or taxonomies or whatever WordPress adds to it that you're using it for. And there's a little bit of lack of control over the code. It is open source so you can do what you want. But if you want to stay within WordPress and get the updates, then you're kind of stuck with the code that the community agrees with. Which is fine. I mean, both solutions are great. So to communicate to your SaaS back in from WordPress, you basically need to do the exact opposite of what we did before. I'd love to take advantage of the MU plugins directory. It's basically creating a plugin that must use the MU stands for. And you're simply creating a new REST API. So an example of sending a notification to a SaaS back in whenever someone publishes a new post, which is what I said, link me does. See, this one linked and the other one didn't. I must have broke something. So in link me, this isn't exactly the code in link me. But when somebody publishes a new post, it sends that data formatted to the link me API, link me then translates that data and sends it to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, depending on the client's settings. So add action, transition post status. If there's a transition in a post status from say draft to publish or scheduled to publish that action is run. I call my function. And these are the variables that have passed. I only want to do think I don't want to do updated posts. So you need to say, if the new status is published, yeah, and the old status is not published, then I'm going to do JSON output encodes JSON with post ID. And then I'm going to do remote post call and wordpress to my API URL, which is luad.com slash word camper line equals one. And there's several ways to do it. And link me, I actually do permalinks. I have a page with a template with a page template that's custom that has just one function call on it that runs everything. And then the SAS source, what, what the server side would look like. If you're in wordpress again, you do action in it and your function and then get so I was doing WC atl for my SAS server. And if it's not empty, so I said it was equal to one. I thought there was a code error in here. I get the input here. Check to see if the post ID is empty. If it isn't empty, then I log an error on my thing. It says new post publish here. Of course, you'd want to do something more significant than just log something happening, in most cases, at least. But that's the basic callback to your SAS server. And that's it, really. That's a basic overview of how SAS works. Are there any questions or thoughts? All the codes available on Git, all the slides are available. I'm not really sure where they're putting the slides, but. What is the Git that goes where you can get that code? Does anybody know where the WordCamp is putting the slides? Does WordCamp have a Git? What's that? Does WordCamp have a Git? The link to the Git is on the slides. The slides themselves are being stored in some central area. I don't know where. As far as I know, they're going to post them up, but it's also nice if you do it with slide share or something. It gets a little weird. They're shared. Not with slide share. I'll post the link to the slide channel. In fact, I'll do that right now. I used Google Slides. And you can actually publish them to the web. And I have Slides installed. So if you go to the channel, that's the presentation. And it's public. And the link to your Git makes a good part of it. They're in the slides. Yeah. I think you can also go to gist.github.com. You can see all my gists. Are there any other questions? Yeah? The example you showed about creating a Wordpress user. Yes. Right, they're trading a Wordpress user. So this is all about integrating Wordpress with your SaaS solution. And even Wordpress SaaS solution with a Wordpress client. What is Sync using to authenticate? Actually, I don't really know. I haven't really spent much time in that code. I'm pretty sure they're using, if it's available, OpenSSL keys. I spent some time working on some code to auto log you into wv-admin. It's not public. But that's what I was doing as proof of concept. And the previous developer told me that they had some code already that was using OpenSSL. Imagine that's why. Yeah? What's the thing of the SaaS side of Sync? What was the biggest hurdle you personally worked with in getting it set up to work with Wordpress? I don't know. The biggest hurdle? Of course, something developers should look for when they're doing something similar. Probably the biggest hurdle, depending on how you're integrating with it, is the admin side of Wordpress, which is not available, unless you're logged in as admin. So there are ways, like, in Sync, we set isAdmin to true for certain calls so we can get access to certain things that are only available in Admin. And is, actually, WP underscore admin is a constant. And if you set that true early enough, then Wordpress will load admin functions. It's not a huge hurdle, because I just told you a really easy workaround. But the biggest, I guess, the hardest thing to do is formatting your content and getting it out in an expected way. We had an issue where our API request is iThemes-sync-request. And there's a couple of web hosts out there who, like, Carblanche rejects any request to your website that has the word request in it. And so we had to find a way to work around that, because that's how the plugin works. And I wasn't part of it, but the guy who was working on that thing figured out that if you use %72 for the R in the get request, it worked. So I got to that code, and I was like, why the heck is there %72 here? And I changed it to R, because it was annoying me. And I was like, before I commit this, let me ask him. I was like, why did you do this? And he told me that. And I was like, oh, that's annoying. So the hurdle is dealing with hosts who do weird things. And you run into those. With LinkMe, I run into hosts that don't allow your website to make any outside API requests. And so they would try to hook their API up with LinkMe and then get an error. I'm like, well, it's working for me. And then after some work, we discovered that they have like this built-in C-panel firewall. And you need to allow the IP address, which is annoying, because then if you ever change your IP address, then they have to change their settings as well. Another thing, too, is along those lines, hosts sometimes don't allow fsock open calls, which even the remote API uses in WordPress. But they'll disable curl, disable fsock open, all that stuff. And so making those requests become impossible for the client. And that kind of breaks the whole SAS model because they're then having to deal with the software part of your solution. But the service that you're offering, hopefully, is once they get those couple of small things fixed, they don't even need to think about it anymore. Any other questions? Just that WordPress developer to find myself and have a good knowledge of HTTP and HTML and CSS, but not REST API or just good WordPress. Where would you say would be a good place to look and learn more about how to integrate that into your websites and things like that? Or would you like to look at? Probably the best thing I would recommend is find something you want to do and then just try doing it. That's what I do to link me. I had no idea. Like I said, I had no idea what REST was. And I was like, well, how do they communicate from here to here? And then I did a couple of Google searches and I saw the word REST and I was like, what is REST? And then I saw like, oh my gosh, this is so confusing. REST? Oh gosh, this is awful. And I was like, post. I was like, I've seen post before when I'm processing a form input. I've seen get before. And I was like, oh, this is literally just processing form input without the UI of a form. So just really find a project you want to experiment with and try and just do it. That's the best recommendation I have. Anything else? Great, thanks.


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