Scottish Parliament is a success story under Home Rule - Robert Brown MSP

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 3rd Jul 2009

Glasgow Liberal Democrat MSP Robert Brown attended the 10th anniversary celebrations for the Scottish Parliament and heard the Queen address the Parliament.

Robert Brown, who was amongst the first MSPs elected back in 1999, said:

"The Scottish Parliament, as the Calman Commission said, has been a great success story. The idea that Scotland should have a Home Rule Parliament for domestic issues whilst remaining a full part of the United Kingdom for issues which concern the whole of Britain has worked well. No one can now imagine not having a Scottish Parliament.

"It was great to see over 100 children born at that time come to the birthday celebrations in Edinburgh and celebrate their birthdays with the Parliament.

"They are the first generation in 300 years to grow up with a Scottish Parliament and will benefit from the many great things we have achieved.

"From scrapping tuition fees to introducing the smoking ban, from opening up public bodies to freedom of information requests from the public to major improvements in schools, from free bus travel for older people to better heating systems for families who need it, the Scottish Parliament has many solid achievements to its credit.

However the big challenge now is to help people through the biggest economic and financial crisis in modern times. There is still a great deal to do."

Ends.