Hansard

As other members have done, I welcome the debate and congratulate Susan Deacon on bringing it to the chamber. The debate springs from a discussion that we had at Musselburgh races about how we could utilise the Parliament effectively to focus on matters on which we did not have the chance to focus in previous political structures. We also felt that a debate would allow us consider the particularities of the industry in Scotland, some of which are unique and could therefore be more adversely affected by the OFT report.

It is interesting that members from across the political divide—Conservative, SSP, SNP, Liberal Democrat and Labour—have contributed to the debate. The Tory contribution is probably based on the noble philosophy that racing is the sport of kings and that it is therefore quite right and proper for the Conservatives to stick up for the sport. We also heard from one of the members of the further left parties, which indicates that the sport is also for the common man. It is a unique all-party coalition. Even the free-marketeers among the Conservatives, such as Brian Monteith and Murdo Fraser, have done nothing other than to agree with the broad consensus on the potential implications of the OFT report.

Alex Neil, who was here earlier, mentioned a day at the races. Given my all-encompassing portfolio, which includes culture, I initially thought that he was referring to the film by the Marx brothers. I never thought that Marx and the OFT would be mentioned in the same sentence.

I have a sense of déjà vu, because we are debating an issue that is partly reserved but which has an impact on Scotland because of the OFT implications. In a previous ministerial post, when I dealt with the health portfolio, I had to deal with the issue of pharmacies. I hope that we can have reasonable success with the issue that we are debating tonight, just as we did with pharmacies. As Susan Deacon and other members have said, more than just the technicalities of competition law must be taken into account.

I visited Musselburgh, but I will not confess to having led a dissolute lifestyle such as Colin Fox says he had, traipsing round racecourses across Scotland. I was a very quiet, shy and unassuming child, as one can imagine from the contributions that I have made in the chamber as an adult. However, the work that has been done over the past 10 years, and which I have seen in Musselburgh, has resulted in a fine establishment at the racecourse there.

That has been achieved thanks to the vision of East Lothian Council, and I see Norman Murray from the council in the public gallery this evening, along with Pat O'Brien and many others who took the brave decision to use the council's role as a key investor to bring that work to fruition, when perhaps it would have been easier to make other decisions. What they saw is what many members have acknowledged as important this evening—that it is not just about racing per se, but about the economic and wider social benefits that racing brings to the broader communities that racecourses serve, not just in their own localities but across Scotland. Many members, quite rightly, have identified the ways in which we need to use that economic case powerfully as part of the debate that we wish to hold with the OFT.

I recognise the work that John Home Robertson highlighted with regard to the planned Scottish horse racing academy. Where I can, I shall give support to the development of an economic infrastructure to develop that and, if he can furnish me with further details, I shall raise the issue with the local enterprise company and with Scottish Enterprise to see whether we can open up some avenues to allow substantial developments to take place.