Meeting of the Parliament 21 January 2025
I congratulate my good friend David Torrance on securing tonight’s debate. I, too, welcome all the showpeople representatives who are in the public gallery. It is fantastic to see the weight and glitter of their sparkling chains. I love the showpeople for all sorts of reasons, not least because they run family businesses—second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh or eighth-generation family businesses in many instances. They have contributed so much to public life and the entertainment of so many over a great many years.
Who does not remember, as a child, experiencing the thrill and excitement of the fair or the carnival that they went to, wherever it was? In Glasgow, it was the Kelvin hall carnival when I was young. Whether it was the big dipper, the ghost train, the waltzer or any other rides, scooping up rubber ducks or shooting at unpopular people, it was a thrill. I remember one particular occasion on the dodgems, when my mother was wearing a wig. We crashed into her and her wig went flying off her head and landed somewhere on the concourse. Nobody was very helpful in retrieving it. In fact, every time I got near it, somebody flung it further away. It was a very sad-looking wig by the end of the occasion.
We are all full of memories, are we not? Even as adults, when we pass by a funfair or carnival, nostalgia enthuses us. As David Torrance said, it is not just the sights; it is the sounds, the smells and everything that went with the occasion that we very much enjoyed.