Meeting of the Parliament 26 May 2016
Thank you, Presiding Officer. I congratulate you on your recent appointment—I congratulate the other Presiding Officers, too.
It is a great privilege to be delivering my first speech as the new member for Coatbridge and Chryston. As members can see, I am not wearing my kilt today—after hearing that I had made the dizzying heights of the Daily Mail for wearing it at the oath-taking ceremony, I thought that I had better just stick to a suit for parliamentary business. However, I was pleased that the local paper in Coatbridge—the Airdrie and Coatbridge Advertiser—ran a very nice article and spoke to people on the streets who found my wearing the kilt very tasteful.
In all seriousness, I am proud to be here as the representative of the constituency where my family have lived and worked for generation upon generation, and which, I am proud to say—if the chamber will indulge me in doing so—voted yes by a majority in 2014.
I am only the second MSP to represent the constituency, and I would like to pay tribute to my predecessor, Elaine Smith, who now serves Central Scotland. Although I did not always agree with the positions that she took, particularly on the constitution, I know that she made decisions that she felt were best for constituents. As I look across to the Labour members, I see that she is not here. However, I thank her for her commitment to the people of Coatbridge and Chryston and assure her that the constituency has been left in good hands. I know that there will be lots of opportunities to work with her over the coming years.
On that note, I welcome yesterday’s speech from Elaine Smith’s Central Scotland list colleague Richard Leonard, which Murdo Fraser followed up today. They both mentioned the proposed closure of Tannoy in Coatbridge, and I can confirm to both members that I have been in touch with the company’s chief executive to outline my concerns. If either is happy to speak to me about how we might work together to best mitigate the impact of the proposed closure, I would be more than happy to speak to them.
As I have said, I am genuinely honoured to have been elected to represent Coatbridge and Chryston, and I will never tire of working for the people of the constituency. I was born in and went to school in Coatbridge, and I spent my early years in one of the towers in the town centre before my family moved to where my mum and dad still live, just behind the stadium of our local football club, Albion Rovers. I cannot mention Albion Rovers without recording my congratulations to the team on a great season. It narrowly missed out on the Championship play-offs. Reaching the play-offs would have been a fantastic achievement for a part-time club.
Coatbridge has other sporting heroes, of course. I am sure that everyone in the chamber will join me in wishing the former boxing world champion, Ricky Burns, well in his contest on Saturday night. Let us hope that he finishes his bout with fewer bruises than I received during the recent election campaign.
On the job at hand, there is a lot to be done, but when I look back at the hard work of the many volunteers across the constituency, I see the impact that they have on the people who need support, and I know that it is all worth while. I highlight the work of Katie Slavin from the shining stars group, which is an excellent local organisation that supports children with additional needs. Her commitment is an example of the dedication that is shown by many across my constituency.
My time as a social worker as well as a local councillor has given me a unique insight into the needs of the constituency. Yesterday, I was delighted to hear the First Minister highlight affordable homes and the commitment to build tens of thousands of new social homes. In a modern, civilised Scotland, there should be no need for charities such as the Coatbridge night shelter, which was set up last year to give homeless people a hot meal and somewhere to rest for the night. One of my main aims as a member of the Scottish Parliament will be to tackle head-on the issue of homelessness throughout Scotland. That said, I pay tribute to Caroline Ferguson and Vickylee McGlade and their team, who do fantastic work locally through the night shelter in Coatbridge.
As a father, I was pleased to hear the ambitious targets for education from the First Minister and the new education secretary and their plans to encourage those from the poorest backgrounds into university. My constituency has some of the most deprived areas in central Scotland. I look forward to helping young people from those areas get into university, college and apprenticeships.
As I mentioned, my career up until a few weeks ago was in social work. In the first eight of my 12 years as a social worker, I specialised in child protection, before moving into community justice for the past four years. In the previous session, the Scottish Government made many inroads into reducing reoffending and tackling issues that relate to youth offending and domestic abuse. Following the announcement of new legislation, I am pleased that there is a continued commitment in that area throughout this session.
I welcome the announcement of the baby box for every child as well as the grant for low-income families at the three key stages of a child’s early years. I also fully support the named person legislation, which has been subjected to blatant political point scoring. Child protection should be a priority for everyone in the chamber and for society as a whole. Having worked on the front line of the child protection service, I am certain that that legislation will help to protect the most vulnerable children in our country and will, in fact, lead to less intervention by the state, contrary to claims that its critics have made.
There are many other items that I have not had time to mention, but it is testament to the aspirations that the First Minister has set for the country that she has laid out such a challenging but constructive programme. I look forward to being part of taking Scotland forward. After a long and often difficult campaign for me, my family and my team, I intend to fulfil the promise that I made to be a strong local voice for the people of Coatbridge and Chryston. [Applause.]
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