Seòmar agus comataidhean

Will the member take an intervention?

I like the word “generous”—thank you, Presiding Officer.

First, I thank the former miners and families whom I had the privilege of meeting earlier today. Unfortunately, I probably talked too much, as usual.

My interest in the matter stems not only from my memories of 40 years ago and the images of police on horseback charging into lines of demonstrating miners, but from having the National Mining Museum Scotland in my constituency. It is in Newtongrange, which has neat lines of miners’ cottages on First Street, Second Street, Third Street and so on. My constituency also includes Gorebridge, which has a memorial to miners who lost their lives in the pits over the years, and the Shottstown miners welfare club in Penicuik.

All that means that the landscape and sense of community of Scotland’s mining past are literally never out of my sight. I also think of my mother, a Derbyshire woman and the daughter of a Welsh miner who died prematurely of an injury sustained in the pit. My mother never let us forget the hardships of the job, and the fact that he left behind 10 orphaned children, including her.

I also witnessed the events of 1984-85 in daily news bulletins. I saw the severity of Thatcher’s assaults on the mining communities and the union leadership taking on the Tory Government when coal was stockpiled high. None of that prepared me for mass policing and the sight of police charging on horseback into men and women who were defending their communities and livelihoods. Those officers were often shipped in from outside the community, because the police dared not use local officers.

During the strike, 1,300 or more people were charged and more than 400 were convicted, usually of breach of the peace or obstructing the police. As has been said, those convictions stand to this day, so the bill is much to be welcomed. However, a pardon does not remove the note of a conviction from the record. I will come to that later. I absolutely agree with a symbolic and collective blanket pardon. I note others’ comments that the Scottish Government should try to identify surviving individuals or family members to let them know that miners might qualify. We need a publicity campaign to ensure that they are aware of their rights, which the Government is doing partly through the NUM.

I note that the Government has recognised that miners’ wives and families who were directly involved in the dispute may also have received convictions and should perhaps be encompassed by the bill. I am glad that that door is open.

I note that there is currently a limit on the locus. The issue of the locus is extremely difficult. The Law Society has said that the current definition, which uses the wording “other similar gathering”, is difficult. Thompsons Solicitors has suggested that the phrase should be

“activities connected with the miners’ strike”,

but that is quite broad. That issue has to be teased out. I am listening carefully to the idea that the locus should be limited to the picket line and travel to picket lines.

I certainly agree that the UK must hold an inquiry into all that took place and, in particular, into whether there was political interference in policing and the judiciary.

I am hugely sympathetic to what Labour members have said on compensation. However, the problem is that, if we provide compensation from our budget, that would come out of the budgets that keep our health service and education and justice systems going. I note that £4.4 billion has been taken from the miners’ pension fund by the UK Government, which has not put in a penny. We must not let the UK Government off the hook, either for that or for the responsibility to pay out for something that was its fault.

I am with the member much of the way, but I am reluctant, not because the miners do not deserve compensation or should not get it but because we would have to take money from the budgets that deliver our health and education services to pay for something that was wholly the political fault of the UK Government. The issue that I have is that the money would come from other ordinary people’s pockets and services.

I will finish shortly, because you have been very generous, Presiding Officer. I note that the Historical Sexual Offences (Pardons and Disregards) (Scotland) Act 2018 had similar policy objectives, although it was about something that was once illegal becoming legal. However, there was a second condition in that act that is not in the bill. The 2018 act put in place a scheme to enable a person who had been convicted of a historical sexual offence to apply to have that conviction disregarded, so that it would never be disclosed as, for example, part of an enhanced disclosure check.

That brings me to the observations of the Law Society in that regard. It noted:

“the Bill specifically stresses that a pardon will not affect any conviction or sentence, nor will it give rise to any right or entitlement or liability.”

There is an issue there. People think that, by being granted this omnipresent pardon, their conviction will be expunged from their record, but it will not. I ask the Scottish Government, if the bill does not expunge the conviction, as it managed in the 2018 act with a similar pardon, why can we not put something in the bill so that miners have on their record a note that shows that they have been granted a pardon?

Further to that answer, what difference have the 20mph speed limit and dedicated cycle lanes had on road traffic accidents in areas such as my constituency?

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government anticipates the impact will be of the register of persons holding a controlled interest in land, which will launch on 1 April. (S6F-00968)

Following on much the same strain, does the First Minister agree that Douglas Ross should remember that we wear face coverings not just for ourselves but mainly to protect the stranger next to us on the bus or in the supermarket who might be, for example, undergoing cancer treatment and be immunodeficient without us knowing and who needs us to wear our masks so that they can at least go out and shop?

Absolutely. It is not a pre-condition that a country was part of the empire. It is a voluntary arrangement.

Our connections with the Commonwealth are also through family and friends. There was a spate of emigration in the 1950s, and I recall working-class neighbours on all sides seeking a better life, ironically. They took advantage of assisted passages and left for Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Like many people, I have Grahame family members in all those countries. Indeed, one of my sons has just emigrated with his family to Nova Scotia. It was not a family fall-out, by the way; it was a friendly departure.

We have inherited and, rightly, must acknowledge the bad and good of the once empire. We must hope that the Commonwealth, in its many and continuing transitions, and with its goals of promoting human rights, equality before the law and so on, continues in one form or another. I fully support the relationships that this Parliament has with the Commonwealth family of nations, which, like any family, will have its disagreements but has more in common with its aspirations. We must all work together now, particularly as we look at the challenges of poverty, climate change, the rights of women and, of course, Covid.

I congratulate Sarah Boyack on securing the debate.

I recall my early years at primary school, many decades ago, when school atlases had huge areas denoted in orangey red showing all the countries that then comprised the British empire. Over the years, countries of the empire won their independence. For example, India won its independence in 1947, but it was partitioned, forming Pakistan, with that division resulting in a huge number of conflicts.

There is no doubt that the legacy of the British empire is hard to avoid, and it is with us here and now, as the recent uncomfortable visit of the royal couple to Jamaica demonstrates. Memories remain fresh there of the capture and shipping, in horrific conditions, of slaves, many of whom died to provide cheap and expendable labour for the profitable sugar market.

The merchant city in Glasgow, one of our main cities, has fine buildings that are memorials to the riches of assets that were plundered from the empire and enforced slavery. The merchants of Glasgow traded in slave-grown produce. In effect, they cut out the Africa leg of what was known as the triangular trade, buying slaves in Africa with exported goods, shipping them in horrific conditions to the likes of the West Indies and further enslaving them as forced labour. They went instead directly to the plantations. Plantations were given Scottish names such as Hampden, Montrose and Dumbarton. Many slaves were given the surnames of their masters: Buchanan, Dundas and so on, which are names that people carry to this day. Buchanan Street in Glasgow was named after Andrew Buchanan, a plantation owner from Virginia who was believed to have owned more than 300 slaves.

Why do I say that? Like all empires, the British empire’s reach declined as it collapsed from within when nation after nation demanded self-determination. However, British influence was kept with the formation of the British Commonwealth of Nations with five members; it is now known as the Commonwealth of Nations. This is better. Members have common values and goals, including democracy, human rights, good governance, the rule of law, individual liberty, equality before the law, free trade, multilateralism and world peace. Those are still promoted through multilateral projects and meetings, the most obvious being the Commonwealth games, which are held every four years.

As other members have said, the Commonwealth now has 54 members and is a voluntary association with no legal obligations. All members are of equal status and are linked by their historical use of English and historical ties that I have already mentioned. The Queen is retained as head of the Commonwealth countries but, for most of them, she is not monarch. However, even that is under challenge, not just in Jamaica but, for example, in Canada. It will be interesting to see whether, once Charles succeeds, the final few remaining retain her as a titular monarch.

All is not lost for the Commonwealth, which has had its up and downs, with countries being expelled and allowed back in—South Africa—and others suspended, including Fiji, Nigeria, Pakistan and Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe, of course, is still out of the Commonwealth.

I put on record my support and thanks to all the small retailers in Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale for coming through the terrible challenges of Covid. Given the vital contribution that small business retailers in my constituency make to the wellbeing of our town centres and the local economies in Melrose, Galashiels, Peebles and Penicuik, for example, how can they contribute to Scottish Government thinking and the strategy?

Constituents have contacted me because they were unsure what was meant by Scots in the question on how and when they use Scots. The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body recognises that Scots includes Doric and Lallans as well as Glaswegian, Shetland, Orcadian and so on. Does the cabinet secretary share my concern that the data may not be accurate because people wrongly believe that they do not use Scots?