Hansard

I, too, congratulate Willie Coffey on securing the debate and thank everyone who has contributed for their interesting, supportive and personal remarks.

Two members are making their final speeches to the Parliament today. I join James Kelly in acknowledging the contribution of Cathy Jamieson who, as a minister and a member of this Parliament, has always been courteous and thoughtful. The chamber will miss her.

It will also miss my colleague, Christopher Harvie, an academic, clear thinker and author—“No Gods and Precious Few Heroes” was the book that turned me on to what has happened in Scotland over the years and is the real reason why I am here.

The Fenwick weavers were my kind of heroes—ordinary folk who did extraordinary things and just happened to change the world. They made a fantastic contribution not just to the co-operative movement but to Scotland’s history and the rich historical legacy of Ayrshire—their co-operative society fits well among the other jewels in Ayrshire’s crown.

The society is of global significance. I take Jim Hume’s point that somebody will have to break the news to Rochdale, which is not just a day late and a dollar short but 83 years short. If the 16 weavers of Fenwick who signed the original charter that set up the Fenwick Weavers Society in March 1761—83 years before 1844—could see how the co-operative movement has developed and grown in the subsequent 250 years into the movement that it has now become, with a billion members worldwide, I am sure that they would be amazed and justifiably proud of their vision. Once they engaged with that, they would see the audit trail and understand why the movement was an unstoppable phenomenon.

As we have heard, the phenomenon is alive and well and is growing, whether that is shown by the shop in Straiton or the new book by David Erdal, which reminds us all of the movement’s potential and which goes into detail on the Mondragon Corporation, which Rob Gibson talked to me about when I first entered the Parliament in 2003 and had mentioned before then. His enthusiasm has been vindicated by the current momentum.

I regret that, because of other commitments such as attending the convention of the Highlands and Islands, I cannot attend the ceremony in Fenwick on Monday to mark the 250th anniversary of the charter’s signing. However, I am delighted that Adam Ingram, who was in the chamber earlier and who is an Ayrshire man, will be there to represent the Scottish Government.

I was privileged to have the opportunity today to sign the new charter, which acknowledges the Fenwick weavers’ place in the co-op movement’s history. The First Minister’s name is on that charter, which has been well photographed and which I am sure will be broadcast to break the news to Rochdale, perhaps even before Jim Hume gets to people there.

The early beginnings of the co-op movement and the co-op values and principles were wonderful. The principles are honesty, fairness, decision making, frugality, working in the common good and a sense of common purpose. The pendulum is swinging back to those fundamental principles, which work. The generation that includes the gentleman who tried to privatise the co-op movement will find itself tsunamied away by the movement returning and claiming ethics. John McFadzean and John Smith remind us of and allow us to rediscover the movement’s roots. That gives us the common proof that adds weight to the fact that current authors such as David Erdal are beginning to rediscover, capture and reload into the psyche the clear guidelines for emulating our predecessors.

In the modern day, I am delighted to acknowledge that co-operative principles underlie the purpose of “The Government Economic Strategy”, which seeks a successful Scotland that all can share and in which all can flourish. The co-op sector is an important contributor to helping us to achieve those goals and particularly our growth aspirations for the economy.

The co-op sector in Scotland is thriving and growing—Scotland has about 430 enterprises that are commercial co-operatives, co-owned or mutuals. I noticed that the number of co-operatives in one little part of Spain was 256. As part of the computer fraternity—like my good friend Stewart Stevenson—I know that that is a binary number. The next numbers are 512, 1,024 and 2,048. The potential for such development in Scotland is valid, as the pendulum is swinging back in that direction.

John Lewis’s results, which are in the papers today, show that the partners in that company are all benefiting from success. There are organisations such as First Milk, Tullis Russell and the Arup engineering group, but also newer co-operatives such as Boyndie Wind Farm Co-operative, which was set up in Banffshire in 2005; the Edinburgh Community Energy Co-operative, which was formed in 2007; and the more recent East-Kilbride based Clansman Dynamics, which was bought out by 30 employees and which has a turnover of £7 million. In 2010, a new co-op was formed—Scottish Bee Services, which involves a Perthshire consortium of beekeepers. So, we have lots to which we can look forward. On top of that, in Co-operative Development Scotland, we have the basis to help more co-ops to come through to fruition.

I want to focus in on the issue that worked its way through the debate from John Scott’s contribution and into Christopher Harvie’s speech: collaboration and the co-operative work that generates new co-operatives. David Erdal has also described that. We need to do this work in a solid way while also ensuring sound constitutions so that co-operatives last and keep fresh so that they can help future generations. We want co-operatives to be the powerful new mutuals in all areas of endeavour, including finance. I am thinking of Hovis banking, which Christopher Harvie and I believe has a genuine place in all this.

In Scotland, we have the ability to write books that say that there are “No Gods and Precious Few Heroes”, but we do not have to look far back in time to find ordinary folk who have stepped up to being just that. Scotland can contaminate the world with contagious ideas. The weavers of Fenwick did that. We can look forward to more of that happening in Scotland as more contagious ideas go forward.

Meeting closed at 17:51.