Hansard

I fully take that on board.

For newcomers to the debate, the usual form is for speakers—before getting down to the economic nuts and bolts of St Andrew's day celebrations—to trot out the Fife town's historic links with the apostle Andrew. Those links are tenuous, in that they seek to validate Andrew as Scotland's patron saint on the basis that some of his finger bones and a tooth might—it is a dubious "might"—have been brought to the Celtic settlement of Culrivie, which is now known as St Andrews.

For a change, I will offer an alternative to the Andrew legend. St Andrews—or Culrivie or Mucross, in earlier derivations—was a holy place thousands of years before Christianity. South of St Andrews is Dunino Den, which has interesting pagan carvings and was a noted druidic place of worship. Most likely because of the druidic connection, Coinneach—or Kenneth—who was a disciple of Columba in the sixth century, established a monastic community on the site of an ancient Celtic well at Culrivie. That well can still be seen in the graveyard to the south of St Andrews cathedral. Kenneth's monastery predates the Andrew legend by at least a few centuries.

It is clear that the story of Andrew's relics added to the lustre of Culrivie as a holy place, but had Kenneth from Donegal not been outranked by Andrew of Galilee, we might well be debating St Kenneth's day rather than St Andrew's day, and my home town might have been called St Kenneths or—I apologise to Tricia Marwick—Kennoway. Interestingly, since Kenneth's saint's day is 11 October, that might have been more suitable as a national day. The November date comes in winter and in the middle of the school and university terms.

As we know, tomorrow will be a well-deserved holiday for parliamentary staff, but St Andrew's day does not yet seem to have gained national acceptance as a holiday in the way that Parliament might have hoped. Scotland's big companies—including the banks and insurance groups—and even public sector bodies such as the councils themselves, apparently have not seen an upsurge of employees claiming St Andrew's day as a holiday. As members will recall, Dennis Canavan's bill won the right for employees to swap any of their public holidays for a day off on 30 November.

On this side of the chamber, we fully support a national holiday on St Andrew's day. We believe that employers and employees should be encouraged to swap one of their public holidays in favour of a holiday on 30 November, and we are delighted that the other parties seem to have fallen in line with our thinking. What we opposed was an extra public holiday, on the ground that it could cost the Scottish economy up to £200 million a year. However, we accept that celebrating St Andrew's day could eventually be as powerful an economic driver as St Patrick's day is worldwide.

In that connection, our amendment stresses the international context of St Andrew's day. Of course, that will be even more important during the year of homecoming in 2009. St Andrew's day must always look outwards as well as inwards.

From a tourism perspective, 30 November is of course a great launch date for a season of winter festivals throughout Scotland. On a personal note, I would like to praise the excellent efforts of the local committee that organises a varied week of events in St Andrews around the patron saint's day. The events range from performances by the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, the University of St Andrews symphony orchestra and the Scots Fiddle Group, to less esoteric events such as family stovie suppers and whisky tasting—indeed, I look forward to doing some of that tomorrow night in the town hall, and to attending a beating of the retreat in St Andrews. I pay tribute to the efforts of Waid academy in its sponsored walk to St Andrews.

What do we do about helping to achieve Dennis Canavan's vision of a widely supported national holiday on our patron saint's day? The problem seems to be that existing holidays are so well entrenched that it will take time before a moveable holiday like 30 November will be widely observed. Even if the holiday had been the nearest Monday to 30 November, that might have helped. Perhaps the councils and schools hold a partial key to making the patron saint's day work. If schoolchildren were off, their parents might be encouraged to take the day off in lieu of one of the existing holidays. Also, the Scottish Government clearly has a role in encouraging employers in both the private and public sectors to consider 30 November as an alternative holiday. As part of that, the Government should ensure that there is a programme of events following fast on St Andrew's day.

Despite the First Minister's rhetoric this morning about putting finishing touches to excellent winter festival arrangements, from where I am sitting that looks a bit like wishful thinking. Tomorrow's national St Andrew's day celebrations look a bit isolated as there is no apparent linkage to other events happening later in December. That appears to me to be missing a marketing opportunity. I urge Linda Fabiani to take that on board. Whether the Government has the will—or, more important, the financial wherewithal—to make such a festival a reality is another matter. That is why we have addressed the issue in our amendment.

Finally, as a good unionist, I recognise and accept that Gordon Brown believes that, in a multicultural society, the time has perhaps come to observe a British national day holiday. Although our priority today is a Scottish national day, I would have no objection to a British national day—but, again, only if, like the St Andrews day holiday, it replaced an existing holiday.

I move amendment S3M-946.2, to leave out from "to both celebrate" to end and insert:

"both to celebrate what it means to be Scottish in the 21st century and to promote a fair and inclusive society; notes the Scottish Government's proactive support of a programme of events throughout the country and all of Scotland's cities, including the cathedral city of St Andrews itself and urges it to build on St Andrew's day as a launch pad for a winter tourist season; commends the work of schools and community groups across Scotland in teaching our young people about St Andrew's day and its importance in a national as well as an international context and promoting diversity through their celebrations, and furthermore thanks the St Andrew's societies, Caledonian societies, Scottish Development International, Globalscots, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and all the other overseas organisations who have planned over 100 wide-ranging celebrations in countries around the world."