Hansard

It is a great pleasure to follow Jenni Minto’s beautiful speech. All the speeches have been first class. I congratulate my good friend and neighbour Meghan Gallacher on securing this debate about Scotland’s war memorials. It is a timely debate for the people of Falkirk, with the unveiling of the Bainsford war memorial on Friday last week and the rededication of the Grangemouth war memorial on Saturday.

Scotland’s war memorials must be defended. As the motion sets out, there has been an increase in targeted vandalism on war memorials across Scotland. Those are shameless attacks not only on the physical memorials but on what those memorials represent. Millions across our United Kingdom and across Scotland made the ultimate sacrifice so that we can enjoy the liberties that are part of our everyday lives. We must defend that legacy.

When Flanders was mentioned, memories came back to me of a family trip to Ypres to visit the graves of our fallen, which are tended by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and the Menin Gate. Everyone should see the Menin Gate, which displays the names of tens of thousands of young men—they were very young—who were lost and whose bodies were never found. Such memorials, whether in Belgium, northern France, or across all our communities in Scotland must be conserved. Members will not be surprised to hear a Conservative ask for something to be conserved.

Everyone across Scotland must have a local war memorial of which they can be proud. I live in the small community of Bridge of Allan, where the war memorial is the focus of our remembrance, across all parties and all types of people from across the town every remembrance Sunday.

At the remembrance day events in Grangemouth last year, several members of the public came up to me to express their sadness about the growing moss on the war memorial. Sharing the concern, I wrote to numerous bodies to ask them what could be done to remove the moss. I found out that a professional clean to remove moss and bacteria growth was last undertaken in 2017, but that moss was once again visible within 18 months. Although I was assured that the low-level removal of moss growth can be undertaken by park staff and by volunteers after appropriate training, I was disappointed to read that Falkirk Council had concluded that

“re-commissioning this cleaning work on a sufficiently regular basis for the memorial to appear clear of biological growth is not affordable within our current budgets.”

I do not wish to stray into party-political territory, but Falkirk Council has suffered cuts, and I fear for the future of budgets that exist to conserve Scotland’s war memorials.

When preparing for the debate, I was struck by a quote from one of my political heroes, Winston Churchill, who said:

“We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.”

I reflect on that. I know that war memorials are not buildings, but they certainly shape us. I will never forget the impression that the war memorials of Belgium and northern France made on our children. Regardless of where we are in our United Kingdom, when we walk past a war memorial, we can only remember the duty that was shown by our fellow countrymen and the sacrifices that they made.

As we in this chamber, and those across our United Kingdom, look forward to the future, we must ground ourselves by remembering all those who have come before us, the sacrifices that they made and the lessons that they continue to teach us. Our war memorials allow us to do that daily, and that is why we must be united and defend them.