Hansard

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak, and I thank David Torrance for securing the debate. First, I give a huge welcome to the showpeople from across Europe who have gathered in Edinburgh this week for their 43rd national congress. I am looking forward to meeting more folk individually at the reception this evening.

In previous debates on the topic, many of us have recounted—as David Torrance has done, once again, tonight—how going to the shows near our homes was an annual highlight. In my case, it was the shows at Overtoun park in Rutherglen, which sadly ended when land was taken from the park and built on. That highlights one of the problems that I know showpeople are facing in Scotland—namely, finding alternative sites both for living and for the fairs when traditional locations are lost.

I represent Glasgow Shettleston, which I understand is one of the constituencies in Scotland with the most showpeople living there.

As David Torrance mentioned, he chairs the Scottish Showmen’s Guild cross-party group, which was previously headed by Richard Lyle, the former MSP and some people’s friend—[Laughter.]—and mine. Like a lot of cross-party groups, our group does not have huge attendance by MSPs. However, I believe that the group is very important, and I attend as many meetings as I can.

For anyone who may be less familiar with cross-party groups, I note that they are forums on particular subjects in which MSPs and interested individuals and organisations from outside Parliament can meet and talk through relevant issues. At our Showmen’s Guild CPG, for example, we often discuss issues such as licences for fairs and how the cost, the amount of paperwork and the level of inflexibility can vary substantially from one local authority area to another.

We have to accept that there can also be prejudice and discrimination against showpeople. In Scotland, we believe that we are a reasonably welcoming society, both for existing minority groups and for incomers. However, we need to accept that we have not got it all right and that there is still prejudice and discrimination, which we should not accept but must challenge.

If a planning application goes in with a surname that is clearly that of a showman, we can expect a reaction in the local community. Sometimes, it is just people being thoughtless and not taking into account that different groups of people live their lives in different ways. For example, during Covid, it was decided that grants would be given to the landlord of each site, with it apparently having been forgotten that multiple families could live on the site. More recently, my office has dealt with issues that have been raised by showpeople who are finding it difficult to access the warm homes Scotland scheme.

However, there are positives along the way, too. When we attend the annual Showmen’s Guild lunch each year, one table is always filled with pupils from Thorntree primary school. The school is in Greenfield, in Ivan McKee’s constituency, which is the neighbouring constituency to mine, and pupils from the showpeople community in his constituency and mine attend that school. Over the years, the school has made a real effort to build a strong relationship with the community, and I know that that is appreciated by both sides. At this point, I will mention Maureen McKenna, who was previously the director of education in Glasgow and had a particularly strong commitment to the education of children of showpeople. In this day and age, with so much advanced technology being available, it should be perfectly possible for a child to spend part of the year in one school and other parts of the year in other schools.

In conclusion, I very much welcome the congress to Scotland. As visitors from the rest of Europe might know, there is a certain rivalry between Glasgow and Edinburgh. I accept that Edinburgh is possibly the prettier city if you just want to have your photo taken. However, Glasgow is definitely the friendlier city and is the home of many showpeople, so I hope that at least some of those who are attending the congress will be able to come and visit us, just about 70km along the road.