Hansard

I thank business managers across the chamber for agreeing not only that we should schedule this business but that we should have a motion to which we could all agree supporting these two very important bids. That is important, and both bid teams will be grateful for the contributions from across the chamber.

The debate has been very good. I think that Alex Cole-Hamilton said earlier that it shows the Parliament at its best when we come together in the way we have today. It is clear that there is a shared appreciation and passion for the bids of Paisley and Dundee, and the ambitions that they represent. It is great to hear the consensus around the chamber for the range of cultural, economic and social benefits that the bids will bring not just to Paisley, Dundee and their surrounding areas, but to individuals, communities and organisations across Scotland, the UK and Europe. I thank members for the quality and depth of today’s debate. For anyone who did not manage to sit through all today’s debate, the passion and enthusiasm were such that it is worth going back and having a look. I am not just talking about George Adam’s passion for Dundee.

I did not actually have to pay George Adam to agree to mention Dundee in his speech. We had a discussion and I promised that I would mention Paisley in my speech. The important thing is that the bids are not competing; they are complementary and the two bid teams are looking to learn from each other. Dundee has some experience from its bid to be UK city of culture in 2017. It was narrowly pipped at the post, unfortunately, but it learned a lot of lessons from the bid that it has been sharing that with Paisley.

Liam Kerr talked a bit about the connection between culture and history and about their importance to tourism. However, I say to him that—and I will be as gentle as I can—when we are talking about football, perhaps some history is best forgotten.

Neil Bibby talked about his pride in the work that has been done in bringing the Paisley bid together. The tributes that he paid to the bid team were well made, and the Dundee bid team has also put in a huge amount of work. Paisley is further down the line and the effort that has been put in there is immense. I know that the bid teams in Paisley and Dundee will be grateful to hear that recognised in the Scottish Parliament.

Ross Greer somehow managed to weave in Karl Marx and radical politics to highlight the rich tapestry of Paisley’s culture and he also mentioned the important of winning the bid and the process of making the bid. In Dundee, we did not just learn a lot about the process of applying to be the UK city of culture 2017, we gained a lot as we went on that journey. I am sure that that will also be the case for Paisley, although, as Neil Bibby said, Paisley is in it to win it.

Alex Cole-Hamilton talked about crossing the Tay in his youth. He might have noticed in his recent journeys that the lemons are back. They were certainly an important part of any journey that I made from Dundee to Fife. The lemons represent, to some extent, the circle of how history and culture move forward and remind us just how far Dundee has come in its cultural revival. It is remarkable what has happened there. It was remarkable to hear from their speeches that Alex Cole-Hamilton and Maurice Golden were hitting the same clubs in Dundee. They were not the clubs that I attended—I did not attend any sticky-carpet clubs with them.

As expected, George Adam waxed lyrical about Paisley but he also talked about how similar Paisley and Dundee are. It has been said by a few members that Paisley is not an official city but it is about the size of most cities. Although Dundee has always been recognised to be a city, Paisley and Dundee are two of Scotland’s biggest villages, in that everybody kens everybody. That is one of the biggest benefits of these two places. The connections that that allows are important for taking forward the bids. Paisley’s bid is strengthened by the fact that people can work across the community and across party-political lines. Neil Bibby made the point that the bid was originally started by a Labour council administration with the support of an SNP opposition and is now being carried forward by an SNP council administration with the support of a Labour opposition.

We have seen something similar in Dundee as well: every time we have talked about Dundee’s culture, we have had support from right across the political spectrum. That goes right back to the development of the waterfront plan, which Graeme Dey mentioned. In 2001, when I was a councillor in opposition in Dundee, everyone in the council came together to draw up that fantastic waterfront plan with the aim of taking Dundee forward. It is because we were able to set aside the party politics that, through all the changes in the administration—starting with a Labour administration, moving to a Labour-Conservative alliance and then moving to an SNP administration—we have all been able to ensure that we are doing the best for Dundee.