Meeting of the Parliament 24 March 2026 [Draft]
I thank Brian Whittle for giving me the opportunity to give my final speech in this august place on a subject that is very close to my heart. I was involved in amateur and juvenile football for many years, first as a very mediocre player and then as a more successful coach and manager, and I enjoyed almost every minute of it.
Two things never leave me about the importance of sport, and particularly team sports. One is the camaraderie that sport fosters, often among people from widely varying backgrounds, who become lifelong friends through the trials and tribulations of sport and, hopefully, that feeling of joy when you win a trophy or feel that you have played particularly well. I will come on to how one club in my constituency, through hard work and determination, along with the buy-in of the local community, helped to change the lives of hundreds of young kids, both male and female, through the power of sport.
The other thing that sport gives you is confidence. For example, it is through football that I got the confidence to speak in public. Before I got involved, I was—as I am sure members will not be surprised to hear—very opinionated, but I had a dread of speaking to even a small number of people in an official setting. That was because of imposter syndrome, I think. That was until my dearest friend, Sandy Fraser, who is no longer with us, told me that he wanted me to give a team talk at football. The only advice that he gave me, which I give to others even now, was to concentrate on one individual if I felt nervous and to speak as if they were the only person I was addressing. Since that day, people have not been able to shut me up.
Before I go on to the substance of my speech, I will take the opportunity to speak for a few moments about my time as a member of the Scottish Parliament. There is no doubt that being an MSP, particularly for my home constituency of Glasgow Cathcart, has been the proudest achievement of my life. To have won that seat three times, with an ever-increasing majority, leaves me with a sense of personal pride. However, I am even prouder of the fact that I, and my office, have helped hundreds upon hundreds of individuals and families and, with the assistance of some of the finest organisations in the country, have been able to reach out to those who are most disadvantaged.
I will briefly mention two charities. Home-Start Glasgow South has assisted countless families through the most difficult of times, and it continues to do so. The Daisy Project is a charity that works with women and families who have been victims, or survivors, of domestic abuse, invariably by men, and is an inspiration that is now looked on as a shining example of how best to support such families. I might be leaving the Parliament, but I will always be there for them.
In Castlemilk, we have a facility that had been left to rot, having been run down over a number of years by the previous operators. When Covid came along, the place was shut down, with the goalposts chained away and the gates locked, apparently never to be reopened. Then along came John Harkins and his team, who started a “Save our pitches” campaign that got the support of local clubs and people. Two years later, they got the keys to the pitches, built their own changing rooms in a shipping container and used that for seven months before they persuaded the authorities to give them the keys to an existing run-down pavilion and a licence to operate it. A year later, they completed a 25-year lease on the pavilion. Anyone who has been to see it will understand the changes that they have made to the pitches, the surrounding area and the whole of Castlemilk.
There are now more than 1,000 people training or playing on the pitches every week. The team created a brand-new Castlemilk community football club, with walking football for the over-50s. Around 24 local families per week benefit from the Scottish Government and Scottish Football Association-supported extra time programme, which allows parents to work for longer before collecting their kids. Additional holiday programmes provide breakfast and a free hot lunch, and the club employs local people and has local volunteers who help to maintain the facility, manage the car park and provide space for all ages to congregate to combat isolation.
Due to time factors today, I cannot go into everything else that the club does. I am sure that he will not like me saying so, but John and the others who run the Barlia pitches are true community heroes. They are an example that should, and could, be followed in every area of Glasgow—and other cities—that suffers from the same levels of deprivation as many in Castlemilk have had to face over the years and the decades. That example perfectly shows how sport can be a positive force for good for both individuals and communities.
I again thank Brian Whittle for lodging his excellent motion and for giving me one final opportunity to talk so positively about my beloved Cathcart and some of the real heroes within it. I hope that I did okay for them.