Meeting of the Parliament

Meeting date: Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Official Report 655KB pdf

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Time for Reflection

Good afternoon. Our first item of business is time for reflection, and our time for reflection leader today is Janet Fenton from the Edinburgh peace and justice resource centre.

First, I wish to thank you for the opportunity to speak here in our Parliament, and to say how happy and proud it makes me that devolution has given us a more accessible Parliament and has significantly improved the representation of women in our democracy.

Edwin Morgan expressed a hope for this place when he wrote:

“Dear friends, dear lawgivers, dear parliamentarians, you are picking up a thread of pride and self-esteem that has been almost but not quite, oh no not quite, not ever broken or forgotten.”

I wish to talk to you about one strand in that thread: the idea of covenant, in particular Scotland’s peace covenant, which I have brought with me today.

Today, covenanters might be regarded as prejudiced or religiously intolerant, but they represent a strong strand in our history. The point is about the anger that was felt by people who were being dictated to on a matter of conscience. That was unacceptable, and the democratic deficit was unacceptable, so people chose to witness their resistance. The need to commit to something better was paramount, and the right to hope for something better was irresistible.

The covenant, as promise and witness, goes back as far as Scottish history itself—witnessing, through signatures, when people are gathered in a common cause.

More than 1,000 people have been happy to sign this “Scotland’s for Peace” covenant. The First Minister, along with a moderator and Scottish church leaders, participated in a signing here in the Parliament. The covenant has attracted signatures at rock concerts, film screenings, public rallies, small focus groups and christenings. Those events all have in common the commitment not just to opposing a violent image of our country, but to raising our eyes to the vision of the kind of country that we want to be part of.

Scotland’s peace covenant is no commitment to any particular group or political party—just to our kind of Scotland. Alasdair Gray has produced inspiring and beautiful artwork, which resonates with our history, for the covenant books. We collect signatures at churches and workplaces, at mosques and museums. People from all walks of life can and do sign the Scottish peace covenant.

I hope that our MSPs not only sign it but enjoy, as I do, sharing the words and the aspiration that

“We desire that Scotland should be known for its contribution to peace and justice rather than for waging war”.