Meeting of the Parliament 07 August 2014
I want to add my voice to those who have said that they consider the games to have been a huge success. I do not know whether it is because of my personal make-up, but I did not share Drew Smith’s confidence that everything would work. I wondered whether we could fill the venues for some of the minor sports, what the weather would be like, whether an external event would disrupt the games and whether it was wise to have the thanksgiving service in the cathedral before the games had happened. However, I am glad to say that all those concerns were unfounded and that things clearly went extremely well.
I could list a range of things that could have gone better—I will mention one or two of them as I go—but I think that we have to keep any such comments in perspective. The games were enormously successful, and hiccups or blips are always going to happen along the way. However, we have to remember that they are just that: pretty minor issues in the scheme of things.
On legacy, one of the biggest issues has to be that we have the ability, the experience and, now, the confidence to run such large events in Glasgow and the rest of Scotland. That is linked to the image of Glasgow and Scotland in the wider world. That process has been going on for quite some time. We had the city of culture, we had the garden festival and we had the champions league final. We want that process to continue, now that we have shown what we can do.
Would we do things differently in the future? Of course. We always want to be learning and doing things better. For example, was the £90 million for security a bit over the top? We had a lot of police, a lot of military and a lot of private security personnel. Were there too many?
I guess that that is a question to which there can never be a right answer. A lot of high-profile individuals, some of them potentially unpopular, attended the games and something could have gone wrong. I am extremely grateful that nothing did. For example, I was working at the gymnastics in the Hydro when members of the royal family came in and watched the sport. That seemed to be handled in an appropriate, low-key and relaxed way, although I am sure that more was going on behind the scenes.
Patricia Ferguson and I volunteered at the games. I do not know whether we were representatives of the Parliament, but I like to think that we were. I enjoyed the experience. My duties included things such as checking people’s tickets, guiding folk around the Hydro and using a megaphone and a large green foam hand in Finnieston Street to direct visitors to the events. That gave me a certain feeling of power, which let me understand the power that you have, Presiding Officer.