Hansard

This is my last speech to Parliament as a member, after 10 years. As a back bencher and a front bencher, as a party leader and a committee convener, I have always tried to speak out not only for the labour and trade union movement who sent me here, but for all of those oppressed, denied justice, exploited, voiceless—and so, for those seasonal migrant workers, toiling on our farms; for the miners, still demanding justice; and for our crofters, whose historic land rights and security of tenure this Parliament must not merely defend but must advance, and so let flourish.

It feels right to make my final speech in a debate led for Labour by Rhoda Grant, whose unswerving, loyal support to me in Parliament I have valued above all others’, and in a debate which, at its very essence, is about power, is about wealth, is about control and its ugly, unequal distribution. It is a debate, as well, on this distinctively Scottish landholding system, and so a debate which reminds us of the very reason why so many of us fought so hard, for so long, for this Parliament to be created.

Although, I am bound to say that this Crofting and Scottish Land Court Bill is another example of a Government bereft of ambition. When we needed radical reform, we find timidity and mediocrity. Eight years in the making, the Government has come up with a largely technical bill, which we will vote for, but it is the same formula that the Government has been habitually serving up—on the broader question of land reform, on a national care service, on community wealth building. When we need real change, we are presented with a tepid continuity, with the result that too much power still rests in too few hands, from the commanding heights of our economy to the ownership of our land, where the old aristocracy and the new billionaire class—too often, absentees both—remain in charge. And yet we still hear calls, even during this stage 3 debate, in this, the third decade of the 21st century, in this Parliament, for the entitled voice of the laird and the privileged status of the landlord to be afforded their due place, as if they were a silent—they were an underrepresented—class in our society. If only they were.

I have always believed that we make our own history, and we have seen glimpses of what is possible, from the abolition of feudalism in the first parliamentary session, to public ownership of the railways in this—reminders that we can be ambitious, that we can have vision, that we can give people hope, that we can redistribute power and wealth. So I do not despair. My head is not bowed. I remain optimistic that we can return to radical reform, including of crofting, in the next session of Parliament.

Before I finish, before I leave for the very last time, I want to thank the outstanding people who have worked with me over the last 10 years: Billy McCauley, Thomas Mulvey, Craig Miller, Lesley Brennan, Lauren Harper, Linda Shevlin, Rich Simcox, and the one person who has been there from the very first to the very last, Mike Holmes. I thank my family, without whose love and support I would never have been here, never been able to lead the Scottish Labour Party, never been able to fight the good fight. Let me thank especially my wife Karen, who has been with me day and night, through the ups and downs of a life in front-line politics. I do not know where I would be without her.

So let me finish where it all began: two years after the very first crofters holdings act was passed, in direct response to the land raids, the forced Highland clearances, the battles against eviction—resistance often led by the women of the crofts—it was the crofters, led by their MP, Dr G B Clark, and the miners, led by Keir Hardie, who came together with the Scottish Home Rule Association in 1888 to found the Scottish Labour Party. It was a turning point in history. So let my closing words in this Parliament be the closing words of James Keir Hardie in “From Serfdom to Socialism”. They speak across the centuries. They echo down the ages. Let this be my parting hymn:

“Socialism with its promise of freedom, its larger hope for humanity, its triumph of peace over war, its binding of the races of the earth into one all-embracing brotherhood, must”—

must, must—

“prevail.”

17:41