Meeting of the Parliament 24 March 2026 [Draft]
I am pleased to speak in Brian Whittle’s members’ business debate. When I saw the motion, I thought, “That’s the one I’ll make my final speech as an MSP in.” I know, from serving on committees with Brian over the past 10 years since he entered Parliament, that sport is an issue that he has consistently highlighted. I always remember a conversation that I had with him about Allan Wells, whose wife came from Kelty. When Allan Wells won the gold medal, his wife’s dad, Jock Wilkie, took the medal around schools to enthuse people about athletics and running. The energy that Brian Whittle has brought to the promotion of sport in the Parliament has been welcome.
I am a kind of glass-half-full type of person, and I believe that progress has been made over the 12 years for which I have been an MSP, although it is true that we need to do a lot more. One of the keys to that is getting people to work together. When it comes to sport in the area that I come from—Fife—I see loads of volunteers. Tim Eagle spoke about the role of volunteers. I see all the mums and dads and grandparents who are involved in sport at grass-roots level. The more we can support those people, the more chance we have of delivering sport across the country.
I live near a public park in Kelty. During the summer months, it is an absolute delight to see the number of children playing there. That is a result of the investment that Fife Council made in the park in 2012-13, including in an astroturf pitch that Kelty Hearts now play on. That is there for the public—it is a public park. Alongside that, there is a big new community centre. We can see the value of that.
Most of those activities are run by volunteers. We need to enhance that, which will involve local government, the Scottish Government and local communities working together. I am a passionate believer in devolution. If it was up to me, I would have far greater devolution to the Scottish Parliament. I also believe that there needs to be far greater devolution to local authorities.
We have had eight parliamentary debates on sport in this session since 2021—I checked that yesterday with the Scottish Parliament information centre; we have four cross-party groups in the Parliament that look at different aspects of sport; and we have a whole host of strategies. We have got that bit right, but we need to start implementing these things instead of just talking about them in places such as this.
Physical activity comes in many forms. My general practitioner used to tell me that the bus pass scheme for pensioners had done more for their health and wellbeing than his surgery could ever do, because it made those using the buses physically active. Indeed, I know, as someone who now regularly uses buses, that having to walk to get them makes me physically active.
I will finish on this story. Many years ago, when I was a councillor in Kelty, the local community came together to save a park, and it raised a whack of money—about £800,000 in total—for a play park. Way back then, there was a lady in Kelty called Mrs Gillespie, who was 100 years old, and we asked her to come and open the park, because we felt that it was symbolic to have the oldest person in Kelty open a park for the town’s children. I remember Jim Leishman coming up—this was before he became a councillor; at the time, he was a famous sportsperson who lived in Kelty—and there was a photo of him sitting on a swing with Mrs Gillespie on his knee and all the children round about. Every time I go past that park and see all the children playing in it, I think of how much of a success it has been.
That shows that we do not need massive investments—much can be done with small investments. The lesson is that if we can work and pull together, we can achieve so much.