Meeting of the Parliament 08 May 2025
I agree with Mr Kerr’s point. His example of his mother’s experience resonates with that of my mother-in-law, who was also removed from a tenement block that was bombed in Birmingham, in exactly the same era.
That is an illustration of how people were affected, but there is a substantial point in what Mr Kerr says. If I think back to when I started my parliamentary life, 28 years ago, I would say, anecdotally, that attendance at remembrance events was perhaps beginning to dwindle. Then, in the aftermath of conflict at the start of this century, I saw attendance at remembrance events grow. That is an indication that, sadly, there have been reminders of conflict and loss, which are matters of regret. However, they reinforce Mr Kerr’s point that we cannot, for a moment, allow ourselves to forget the suffering and the after-effects of conflict. I agree very much with Mr Kerr’s point.
Scotland owes a debt of gratitude to everybody who played a part in the efforts to defeat fascism. We live in an environment in which we still witness conflicts that have a profound effect on us all, brought to us by the images that we see, whether of the unbearable suffering in Gaza, which followed the terrorist atrocity by Hamas, or of the on-going suffering of the people of Ukraine in all that they wrestle with. In reflecting on those conflicts, Scotland remembers the sacrifices that were made by so many individuals in the efforts that were undertaken.
Europe day is celebrated tomorrow, when we commemorate the signing of the Schuman declaration and the beginning of what is now called the European Union—which, of course, happened only five short years after the end of world war two. Those steps were taken by France and Germany to ensure that war was
“not merely unthinkable, but materially impossible.”
We think back to the founding values of that dialogue to overcome conflict, yet, in continental Europe, we still have conflict in Ukraine.