Meeting of the Parliament 26 May 2016
I spend a great deal of my time waxing lyrical about how my patch of Aberdeenshire is the best-kept secret in Scotland. Now that the people of Aberdeenshire East have put their trust in me to represent them, I will make a point of doing that in Parliament whenever possible. I aim to spend a lot of my time working with my constituents to put our beautiful corner of Scotland on the map. I have long said that we need to shout louder about our unspoilt coastline, the tremendous and varied wildlife that populates it, and our fishing rivers, such as the Deveron, the Ugie and the Ythan.
Members’ first speeches often reference local persons of note, be they from history, literature or otherwise. Members will all know that Scottish international, Mintlaw’s own Kim Little, was recently announced as the BBC women’s footballer of the year. She is ours. In our patch, we also have links to some significant literary figures, including Bram Stoker, for whom Slains castle in Cruden Bay was the inspiration for Dracula’s castle—do not let anyone tell you different. Lord Byron was born in Gight near Methlick, and then there is Flora Garry, “the Buchan poetess”, who was a New Deer quine. For me, though, it is not so much the historical figures that will tempt visitors to Aberdeenshire East but the landscape, the wildlife and the affa fine folk fa bide there.
However, since we are looking to the future in this debate, I would like to think that a future member for the constituency, making their first speech in this chamber—maybe someone yet to be born—might lead their speech by making a rather big deal about Aberdeenshire East’s most important political figure. It is a person whose links to the area might warrant visits from hordes of tourists—to Strichen, perhaps. Of course, I am talking about my predecessor, the former MSP for Aberdeenshire East and former First Minister for Scotland, Alex Salmond MP.
If I could make a small prediction, a future MSP for Aberdeenshire East might even lay claim to Alex Salmond’s being one of the premier architects of the independent Scotland that they enjoy. That independence might be the only state of affairs that that future representative has ever known, and they might marvel that such was not the case back in 2016, when Mr Salmond’s constituency was handed over to a certain Gillian Martin. Well, here’s hoping so, anyway.
It is to my constituency and my home of Aberdeenshire East that I look and imagine the future as we take Scotland forward. Already within our programme for government I see areas of development that will make enormous changes for the betterment of the lives of my constituents—not in decades, but in this parliamentary session.
My area is set to be one of a fair few rural communities that will see their business, education and leisure lives immeasurably enhanced by the promised 100 per cent broadband provision across Scotland. I hope that that will mean the expansion of existing businesses, new enterprises and—this subject is close to my heart, as a working mother—an increase in work flexibility and moves to different and more efficient ways of working and to more family-friendly ways of working.
Aberdeenshire East will also benefit hugely from the completion of a key connectivity and infrastructure project—the Aberdeen western peripheral route. At last! We have waited so long for it. Travelling across the constituency, I see on the route massive progress day on day—progress that was not made while it was put into legal limbo during a Labour-Lib Dem Scottish Government. The completion of the AWPR will considerably cut the commuting journeys that we struggle with and open up our corner of Scotland to a world of commercial possibilities.
I also look forward immensely to Aberdeenshire East families enjoying their doubled free childcare provision. A quick peer into the crystal ball that I appear to have might reveal a Newmachar family that looks a bit like mine when my kids were wee, but which is different because they do not—unlike me and my husband at the start of the millennium—have to struggle financially to afford childcare so that mum can go back to work.
I am reminded of an interview that I read with the former Norwegian Prime Minister. He was asked, “What is the secret of Norway’s economic success?” The journalist was no doubt expecting an answer that featured oil and gas, but he got this response: “It’s our women in the workforce”. The Norwegian premier went on to explain that the secret to Norway’s economic success was the fact that free childcare allowed many women to go back to work after maternity leave, and that it was their economic contribution that had made Norway as affluent as it is.
I also look forward to my constituency’s largest town, Inverurie, opening the biggest new health centre in Scotland, and to a new state-of-the-art Inverurie academy campus being built under the schools for the future project, which is the project that saw the fabulous new Ellon academy being opened last year—a school that will not forgive me if I do not mention it, because I am a former pupil.
I also look forward to an Aberdeenshire East that has more affordable housing and which has other initiatives that can attract public sector workers to live and work in our great towns including Turriff, Oldmeldrum, Newburgh, Balmedie and Fyvie. With our First Minister outlining further action on the recruitment of general practitioners and on the diversification and widening of primary care services, we are addressing issues that concern my constituents directly. I confidently predict that, once those newly recruited skilled workers from outwith our area arrive in our incredible Aberdeenshire East, they will never want to live anywhere else and that they, like me, will wax lyrical about it, too. [Applause.]