Scottish Parliament committee structure a 'joke' and debate quality 'woeful' - Alex Cole-Hamilton

Alex Cole-Hamilton accused backbenchers from other parties of "machine-gunning out speeches they are clearly reading for the first time because they were handed it when they walked in".

He made the remarks during an event held by the think-tank Enlighten, formerly Reform Scotland, in Edinburgh earlier this week.

Speaking to Enlighten’s director Chris Deerin, Mr Cole-Hamilton said the Scottish Parliament needed reform.

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"I think the committee structure is a joke,” the Lib Dem leader said. “I mean, we are a unicameral legislature with no revising chamber, and the idea that members of committees hand in their political party allegiance at the door as they go into every morning meeting is for the birds. It's nonsense.

"And it's why we have bad legislation passed, particularly bad legislation passed in the period of SNP majority, with the Offensive Behaviour at Football [Act] being the perfect example, because the government was marking its own homework in the committee. So we need to reform the committee structure."

The Offensive Behaviour at Football Act, which aimed to crack down on sectarianism, was repealed in 2018 amid concerns it treated football fans as "second-class citizens".

Mr Cole-Hamilton also took aim at the quality of debate in Holyrood. "I think the calibre of public debate is woeful,” he told the event.

“I hear - and it's not just government backbenchers, it's backbenchers from other parties, machine-gunning out speeches they are clearly reading for the first time because they were handed it when they walked in."

He added: “It’s clear that we’re not inspiring people. And that’s a vicious cycle, because I just don’t think that attracts the thought leaders, the business leaders, the entrepreneurs, the cross section of society that we would like to stand for Parliament.”

There have long been calls for Holyrood’s committee system to be reformed, with a widespread perception they are weaker than those in Westminster.

Elsewhere, Mr Cole-Hamilton, who has spoken of receiving therapy to cope with the stresses and strains of his job, said deleting nearly all his social media accounts from his devices was the best thing he had ever done for his mental health.

READ MORE: Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton opens up about receiving therapy to cope with strain of job

"The best thing I've done for my mental wellbeing, perhaps in my entire life, was deleting all my social media accounts, bar friends and family Facebook, which is locked and nobody sees and nobody bad comments on,” he told the event.

“Of course there are accounts still in my name and I will send stuff to my comms guys to put up on those accounts. But I never look at it and it has been transformative.

“I'm so much more productive. I'm not ending up with slightly tipsy drunken brawls with online Twitter trolls. It's so, so liberating to be free of that."

Mr Cole-Hamilton said he sees a resilience coach. “This guy is not a therapist as you would recognise a therapist,” he said. “He is a two-tour Afghan vet with the paratroopers, but he is a resilience coach, and actually I was struggling a lot with the abuse that was coming in. I’m not unique, lots of parliamentarians do. And I still see him, actually. It’s a very helpful release valve.”