Norway's Centenary Celebrations
The final item of business today is a members' business debate on motion S2M-2647, in the name of Rob Gibson, on Norway's centenary celebrations. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament congratulates the Government and people of Norway on their celebrations of the centenary since the union of Norway and Sweden was dissolved by peaceful means; welcomes the international centennial programme in 2005 whose three main themes are Norway—a partner in peace and development, Norway—a nation rich in resources and Norway—a modern cultural and knowledge nation; applauds the aim to enhance Norway's visibility, update Norway's image, celebrate 100 years of close ties with key partner countries and promote Norway as a deeply-committed participant in the international community, both in 2005 and in the years to come; considers that Scots should be encouraged to share in the centenary independence celebrations including the successful Edvard Grieg exhibition, Art and Identity, which closes on 16 April 2005 in the City Art Centre, Edinburgh, and believes that the Scottish Executive should promote participation by Scots in understanding the success of Norway's story.
Of our continental neighbours, Norway is the closest nation to Scotland. While it is only 470km from Peterhead to Stavanger and 350km from Bergen to Lerwick, Berwick-upon-Tweed is 550km from the Netherlands. So it is fitting that we understand the celebrations of the centenary of Norwegian independence and encourage Scottish participation in the programme that the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has designed to enhance Norway's international visibility, update her image and celebrate her close ties with key partners, such as us Scots.
As Nikolai Skeie, a former consul in Edinburgh put it:
"Scotland and Norway have long enjoyed a close relationship with each other and our history as two small countries on the north-west fringes of Europe has much in common."
Those words were written in 1993, as part of the foreword to "Norway and Scotland: a study in land use". That eye-opening study drew many lessons from a study visit that Scots made to west Norway, when they visited islands and fjords in Hordaland and Bergen, which is Norway's second city and its oil capital. As it happens, Bergen is also the birthplace of Edvard Grieg, Norway's national composer, who had Scottish forebears and who contributed so much to Norwegian cultural confidence in the latter part of the 19th century.
In understanding the success of Norway's story we should not forget some key facts. In the 19th century, only Ireland lost a greater percentage of her people through emigration while, decade by decade, Norway and Scotland were alternately second. In 1905, an independent seat at the top table in the reparations and recovery from world war one gave neutral Norway some leverage to replace the lost tonnage in her shipping fleet. Later, further reparations followed the destructive occupation of Norway by the Nazis. However, by 1920, Norway had fewer people—2.65 million—and a lower gross domestic product than the Irish Free State did.
Norway did not lose her language and heritage in her trading relations with Britain and other partners, however. Her sea-going prowess, which was built on the technical skills that were seen in the Viking ships, remains today in her huge tanker fleet, which demonstrates Norway's flair for running shipping services both along the length of her coast and across the world's oceans.
Of particular note to Scots is the fledgling Norwegian state's historic commitment to its farmer-foresters and fisher folk that, wherever they live in a land of great travel difficulty, they have the full support of the nation to let their communities flourish. Today, great tax advantages accrue to those who live in the Arctic north, for example.
The allodial act was written into the Norwegian constitution to guarantee small land owners a locally regulated land market that was organised at county level. It also guaranteed the ownership of Norway's extensive and diverse forest resources for many of those farmers and underpinned the marketing of their produce from land and sea.
Many of the hydroelectric schemes that were built in the early 20th century produce electricity worth millions of kroner a year. Today, local communities sell their surplus production to the grid and earn a huge income from this renewable resource. The discovery of off-shore hydrocarbons in the 1970s utterly transformed Norwegian wealth. Oil and gas were developed on behalf of all Norwegians by Statoil and—with children and the future in mind—the Government created an oil fund for future generations, the Government petroleum fund. Today, through careful investment, the fund far outweighs the value of hydrocarbon production in the Norwegian sector.
Norway—this north-west peripheral maritime nation—now has the highest income per head of population of any state. Its population is increasing to a figure that approaches that of Scotland. As colleagues will mention in the debate, Norway is a major player in world affairs, not least in contributing 1 per cent of her gross domestic product to the United Nations for the relief of poverty.
I hope that many more Scots can be encouraged to join the many celebrations in the Norway events programme. Earlier in the year, I was particularly impressed by the exhibition "Edvard Grieg: Art and Identity" at the City Art Centre. I am told that it will be staged again this month in Orkney under the auspices of the St Magnus festival.
Grieg and his fellow artists dug deep into Norwegian folk culture and built a modern national confidence after the country's so-called "400 years' sleep" under Danish rule. From 1814 to 1905, when Sweden controlled Norway as joint countries under one monarch, Norwegian nation building through this cultural reawakening gave her people and politicians the courage to insist on setting up her own consulates to promote her own trade abroad. In turn, that became the tipping point towards outright Norwegian independence.
Edvard Grieg called himself a national European. He was an outward-looking Norwegian—Norwegians increasingly have become an outward-looking nation—who through his music, which was inspired by Norwegian folk art, contributed to the nation-building process. He recalled late in life:
"Composers like Bach and Beethoven mastered the heights and built churches and temples. As Ibsen expressed it in his dramas, I wanted to build homes where people could feel at home and be happy."
Tonight's debate takes place a hundred years after the Norwegian Storting—the Parliament—resolved on 7 June 1905 to dissolve the union between Sweden and Norway. Common sense prevailed and the Swedish army stood down, and neither country has looked back since. We wish Norway well and will be glad to celebrate its brand of social democracy in a 21st century that has much need of its common purpose.
I am aware of various strands of co-operation between Scots and Norwegians, such as the north of Scotland and Sogn og Fjordane in west Norway initiative that is developing this year. I ask the Scottish Executive to ensure that many more Scots can understand the success of Norway's story by setting in place many more partnerships in friendship between our two countries.
A considerable number of members wish to speak. Speeches will be of three minutes.
I declare an interest, in that my wife is of Norwegian descent.
We have a lot in common with the Norwegians. We suffer some of the same defects and have some of the same virtues. History shows that we did not always see eye to eye. The Norwegians defeated a large contingent of Scots who were marching through Norway to join the army of Gustavus Adolphus in the 30 years' war, but Norway is not to blame for that. If 10,000 Norwegians had marched through Scotland, we would probably have attacked them.
In another capacity, I recently helped a gentleman who had become prominent in Scottish public life but who, at the end of the second world war, did a good cloak-and-dagger job of getting the German occupation force in Norway to surrender peacefully. We then rearmed that force against the Russians, who were threatening to march in, so we have helped Norway in other ways more recently.
We have a lot to learn from the Norwegians. I know that the Scottish National Party will take particular pleasure in the fact that Norway peacefully severed itself from Sweden. There are lessons to be learned from that.
We can enjoy our relationship with Norway as it is. Some of us discussed the matter yesterday. The Parliament has the capacity more vigorously to develop youth exchanges, school exchanges, sport exchanges and cultural exchanges. We learn from each other in that way. However, as the ambassador pointed out, we have to get to each others' countries. We should try to develop further the fledgling direct flights from Norway to Scotland. In addition, we hope that there may be some prospect of ship services.
We can work to develop real friendship between two countries that are similar in outlook. We can learn a lot from each other and enjoy each other's company and scenery. I hope that we can make progress.
I congratulate my friend and colleague Rob Gibson on securing the debate. I agree that we should manifestly celebrate Norwegian independence. We should congratulate the Norwegian politicians and people of 1905 on their unilateral ending of the union with Sweden, especially given that, in 1905, Norway was relatively poor, although it was a proud nation with a strong sense of identity. The Norwegians were conscious of the need to protect and project that identity and of the benefit that would accrue from doing so. Their strong vision of what Norway and Norwegians could be was subsequently vindicated. We should also congratulate the Swedish politicians of 1905 who withdrew 40,000 troops from the border in spite of some fairly gung-ho generals. We should congratulate the Swedes of that era on their pragmatism and restraint and on the subsequent positive benefits that have accrued to both countries.
The Norwegian independence of 1905 is worthy of study. The grounds were interesting. The Norwegians wanted clear, direct overseas representation with the rest of the world. They understood clearly that keeping their light under a bushel was not a good idea and that it would have condemned them and future generations to underperform in a second division or junior partnership role. They were also aware of the benefits that would accrue from engendering a real sense of enlightened self-interest, projecting it to the world and building a permanent and proper relationship with the rest of the world. The great thing was that, to the enormous credit of the Storting of the time, the decision on independence was unanimous and was subsequently ratified in a referendum, at the insistence of the Swedes. In the referendum, in which there was an 84.5 per cent turnout, about 368,000 Norwegians voted in favour of breaking the union, while 184 were against—a seemly result.
A case can be made for much more interaction between Scotland and Norway, built on the fact that we understand that such separations are not a zero-sum game. It is time for us to get closer and to understand what works well in that great country. It is time for us to share with the Norwegians our excitement about and plans for creating a new Scotland with a bigger role in their back yard. It is also time to salute those in Scotland who see the case for full emulation of the Norwegians. I do that now and I wish Norway well.
I congratulate Rob Gibson on the motion and on the way in which he spoke to it. He must have been tempted to make political points, but he refrained from doing so and presented a positive and complimentary view of our near neighbour Norway.
Over the years—in fact, going back 1,000 years—there have been close links between Scotland, Britain and Norway, although, as Donald Gorrie suggested, the relationship has not always been friendly, especially if we go back to Viking times and the battle of Largs, which is a town in Ayrshire just north of the constituencies that I represent.
Nevertheless, friendships have been maintained over the years. My links with Norway go back to my involvement in the maritime industry in the 1960s, when I met many Norwegians. Today, Norwegians' alcoholic intake is among the lowest worldwide, but I must say that that does not accord with my memory of the 1960s—although perhaps seamen have a way of their own.
Donald Gorrie referred to present-day links, particularly air links. I draw attention to the successful Prestwick to Torp link, which provides two-way movement of people between Norway and Scotland, particularly Ayrshire.
Throughout the past century, there have been all kinds of linkages. Perhaps the most important was established between 1940 and 1945 when the Norwegian Government and monarch moved to London and Vidkun Quisling established his Government in Norway. Perhaps controversially, I should point out that the United Kingdom and Norway are both monarchies, which creates a stability that, although it might not be the recipe for all countries, seems to suit them.
Jim Mather drew attention to 1905, when Norway split from its union with Sweden. I wonder whether, given the verdict of the French and Dutch people on the European constitution, 2005 will have a similar resonance in a few years' time.
I congratulate Rob Gibson on securing the debate and the ambassador and the Norwegian people on celebrating 100 years of independence. I look forward to Scotland joining that family of independent nations in not too many years' time. I should also apologise for the main Government party's display of ignorance in not putting anyone up in the debate to acknowledge the great achievements of the Norwegian nation and people.
Scotland and Norway have much in common. We each have a population of about 5 million people; we are on the geographic periphery of Europe; we share many of the same industrial structures; and we are both oil nations. However, the comparison tends to stop there because, although we discovered oil at the same time as the Norwegians did, we have become relatively poorer in the past 30 years while Norway has become very rich indeed. Rob Gibson mentioned the petroleum fund, which is now worth £90 billion and will secure the future of the Norwegian economy and people not just for 20, 30 or 40 years but probably for hundreds of years to come. It has been so successful that the Norwegians are using not only the interest on the capital but the interest on the interest on the capital to invest in their economy.
As for any lessons that Scotland needs to learn, we have only to consider Norway's success. We have been told that we should not have control of the oil because its price varies daily and weekly—tell that to the Norwegian people and their £90 billion fund. Jim Mather alluded to the worldwide network of embassies. We have been told that embassies are a bad thing, but I do not think that many people in Norway would agree with that. Norway has no external debt, whereas the UK is massively in debt. Finally, Norway's contributions to the developing world already exceed the United Nations target of 0.7 per cent of gross national product.
Despite the ignorance of Labour members, the message from the chamber should be loud and clear. We send our greetings to the Norwegian people and express our pride in their achievements. We must learn lessons from them and, just like they did, go for our independence and freedom.
I am pleased to speak in this debate, which looks beyond Scotland to our nearest neighbour. I was also pleased yesterday to meet several Norwegians and other Scandinavian representatives, because I learned a lot from the meeting. I thought that I knew some European history, but I had to be reminded of the history of Norway before 1905. For example, I learned that, in 1814, Norway transferred from Danish to Swedish possession, and that, in the post-Napoleonic war period, Sweden wanted Finland instead of Norway.
I regret to say that I have never visited Scandinavia. However, from pictures that I have seen, it is clear that it is a beautiful land that anyone would want to possess, especially the Norwegians. As a result, I am delighted to share in their centenary celebrations of doing just that.
I said that I have never been to Scandinavia, but I hope to remedy that this September, when I intend to go to a health conference in Tromsø. That will be a follow-up to an excellent conference that was held two years ago in St Andrews, when health professionals and others from the Highlands and Islands and the north of Norway compared experiences of and solutions to the problems of delivering health care in remote and rural areas. Of course, the Norwegians have to deal with more extreme weather—being up in the Arctic circle—and greater distances than we do but, not being in the European Union, they do not have to deal with some of the constraints that we face, such as the European working time directive. However, we share a great deal with our near neighbours and kin and that conference was a really excellent and valuable experience.
Another area in which we can compare experiences with and learn from Norway is land use. In the late 1980s, my party produced a rural manifesto for the Highlands. The information that was used to compile that also formed the basis of the Scotland-Norway study that Rob Gibson mentioned, which came out a year or two later. That study contrasted the emptiness of many Scottish Highland glens, in which there are few, if any, trees or people and only a scattering of sheep on the hills, with the same sort of terrain in Norway, which has thickly wooded hills, livestock in fields down in the valley and, crucially, many people. The contrast is stark but I believed then, and still believe today, that we can move much further towards a Norwegian pattern and repopulate our empty glens, as the Norwegians have repopulated theirs.
Our historic and cultural connections to Norway are well known and I am happy that the links are still strong and that we can still meet with, learn from and socialise with our Norwegian cousins.
Rob Gibson mentioned Peterhead's proximity to Stavanger, noting that it is only 470km away. However, Peterhead is a great deal closer to Norway than that. Peterhead is twinned with Ålesund, Peterhead Academy has regular exchange visits with Norwegian schools and my office is four minutes' walk from the Norwegian Government's office in Peterhead.
Inevitably, personal recollections dominate my view of Norway. My wife and I took the first ever flight of our lives from Aberdeen to Stavanger on 4 August 1969 and experienced the excellent Norwegian public transport when we took the hydrofoil from Stavanger up the coast to Haugesund, where we spend our honeymoon. The Norwegians have lessons for us in how to deal with remote rural communities that are connected by the sea.
We had asparagus soup and cream every day, there being a glut of asparagus in Norway that year, and had reindeer steaks on several occasions—yum, yum. I remember that every house that we passed displayed the national flag, which showed that people took a justifiable pride in being Norwegian.
We share a great deal with the Norwegians. We share the North sea, whose bounty over the past few years has already been referred to. The bounty of fish is a continuing one. I venture to say that the Norwegians are a great deal cleverer in negotiating for their special interests with regard to fish than we are, and we might well have something to learn from them.
A hundred years ago, Norway's population was less than half that of Scotland. Today, our populations are eeksie-peeksie and ours is heading in the wrong direction. Norway has a lot to teach us.
Jeg snakker ikke norsk. As far as I recall, that might mean that I do not speak Norwegian. However, I think Norwegian, which is much more important. For example, I believe in independence and I am not aware of any campaign to re-merge Norway with Sweden. Further, I believe in contributing to the world, and the very first United Nations Secretary-General was a Norwegian.
Norway is an example to us all and one that we should be emulating. Norway is always in my heart and will remain ever so.
I thank Rob Gibson for bringing the matter to the Parliament's attention. I reassure Phil Gallie that far from being non-political, like the SNP, I still think that debates in the chamber are about scoring political points, so I advise members to listen to the politics.
I refer to my good friend Donald Gorrie's comments. He said that we can learn a great deal from Norway and that the Parliament could put into effect many of the measures that we would hear about if we debated, for example, many of the aspects of the economy that we have in common. I wonder how we are going to do that without a single Labour member being present—not a single member of the Executive thinks that they can learn anything from Norway. Earlier, the chamber was packed with members who thought that they could learn something from countries in Africa. I wonder what is so different about a successful north European country that it does not interest Labour members at all.
Rob Gibson said something interesting. He said that when the Storting moved towards independence, the Norwegians became independent of, equal to and still friendly with the Swedes. Unfortunately, in Scotland and in the Parliament, a fault line runs through politics, between those who believe in sovereignty and those who do not believe that the SNP is any good—I ask members to note that there is no equality on either side of the equation. That is something that the SNP has to work out for itself. It will be the Parliament that does the business as regards establishing sovereignty—that will no longer fall to only one party. That requires a leap of imagination on the part of the SNP. It would also require the Labour Party to get rid of its ultra-unionism and its Pavlovian response to any mention of nationalism. It is because of those attitudes that no Labour members are here tonight.
I believe that the Deputy Minister for Finance and Public Service Reform is far too intelligent to believe the brief that he is ready to deliver, to tell us about the benefits of not being sovereign and to tell us—
Ms MacDonald, you are intelligent enough to stick to the subject of the motion.
Because the motion talks about the successful economy and nationhood of Norway, I decided to talk about the—by comparison—unsuccessful sovereignty and nationhood of Scotland.
Be very, very careful.
I hope that you will bear with me, Presiding Officer. I am asking the minister simply to ditch the brief that he has been given. I do not believe that he believes a word of it, and it would be good to hear, for once, some innovative thinking.
One minute.
I will not use all my time, so that the minister has more time in which to be innovative.
I congratulate Rob Gibson on securing this debate and I offer my congratulations to the people of Norway and the Norwegian Government as they celebrate 100 years of independence. I know that they will celebrate well, because I am a graduate of the University of Stirling, and, when I was younger, I had the opportunity to meet many Norwegians as that is one of the universities in Scotland that many Norwegians attend. They were reputed to have the best parties on the campus; I suspect that part of the reason for that is that they were celebrating the alcohol prices in Scotland, which are cheaper than back home in Norway.
As many have members said, Norway offers a good model for Scotland because there are many similarities, such as the size of our countries and our natural resources. Unfortunately, as Alex Neil said, that is where some of the similarities end, because while Norway has made the most of its natural resources, we have not done that here in Scotland. Although, as a devolved Parliament, we have limited powers, we can still use them to improve the quality of life in Scotland by learning what we can from Norway and other Scandinavian countries. In the league tables of standards of living in European countries, Norway always comes at the top and Scotland always comes much further down.
Does the member agree that that is because Norway is not a member of the European Union?
Phil Gallie will be delighted to hear that I am about to move on to that subject.
Norway offers a good model to Scotland because it shows the advantages of being a small country. A small country can be highly organised and can have a common purpose. Everyone knows one another, so in achieving that common purpose, a small country can be flexible. However, as Norway has demonstrated, small countries must have full powers if they are to make the most of their natural resources and their luck in terms of their natural bounty.
We can learn lessons from the similarities between the natural resources of Scotland and those of Norway. I speak as a representative of the north-east, where the oil industry is important. When the Norwegians discovered oil, they set up Statoil, which is a nationalised company that runs the Norwegian oil industry. Much of the hardware in the Norwegian sector of the North sea is owned by the Norwegians, but the hardware in the Scottish sector of the North sea is owned by foreign companies. Norway also has an oil fund, which has been mentioned, whereas we squander our oil resources.
As for sea fisheries, the Norwegians have rightly stayed out of the EU, partly—if not wholly—because of the common fisheries policy. That shows that good conservation of fish stocks can be achieved with full control of those stocks. Countries do not have to be part of the EU to do that.
Despite the fact that we are the biggest aquaculture producer in the EU, our aquaculture sector is owned by the Dutch and the Norwegians, whereas companies in the Scottish sector own no one else around Europe. The thriving rural communities in Norway are not matched by our rural communities in Scotland. In Scotland, some people cannot afford even one house, whereas the norm in many parts of Norway is to have a second house in a rural area.
I read a speech that the Norwegian environment minister made just a few months ago about carbon capture in the Norwegian sector of the North sea oilfields. Norway will lead the way on capturing all the carbon that is emitted throughout Europe. Scotland had the same opportunity, but as we do not have full powers, we are yet again not taking advantage of an opportunity.
Finally—
No—you must finish now.
The Parliament should consider joint initiatives with Norway, so that we can work together and learn from each other.
I congratulate Rob Gibson on securing the debate to celebrate 100 years of Norwegian independence and the history that connects our two nations. The Scottish-Norwegian roots run deep. In 1615, Andrew Christie boarded a ship in the port of Montrose, which is in my constituency of Angus, and emigrated to Norway. In 1984, as provost of Angus, I welcomed his descendants, the Christie family, who returned to rediscover their Scottish origins.
Over the centuries, the Christie family have contributed positively to Norwegian life. They have been eminent in academic achievement, government and the Norwegian resistance movement during world war two. When the family returned to Montrose, the Norwegian flag was flown from the town house. In officially welcoming them, I said that the reason that my wife and I were present was that we had a baby-sitter—Mabel Christie. The family are truly Norwegian but are based on strong Scottish roots. It is clear that sharing Viking DNA has—happily—been a two-way process.
I commend to Parliament my motion to remember the special relationship between Norway and Scotland—especially the town of Montrose. During the dark days of world war two, the minesweeper Thorodd was based in Montrose, and its captain brought with him a St Bernard dog named Bamse. That giant of a dog became a great favourite with local people and was a mascot for the Norwegian armed forces. Bamse was given a bus pass and bus drivers would stop to let him take his seat on the top deck. He saved the life of an officer, was befriended by the children of Montrose and became the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals allied forces mascot, as well as having various other adventures.
When Captain Hafto was posted elsewhere, he wanted—naturally—to take his dog with him, only to be told that the crew would probably not return to the ship if he did that. In Norway, even mutinies are highly civilised and to good-humoured purpose. Bamse remained with the Thorodd until his much-lamented death in 1944.
Montrose Heritage Trust now has a project to create a statue in memory of that remarkable dog and of the international friendship that he engendered. Today, a Scottish champion St Bernard called Murphy came to our Parliament to support the commemoration of those wartime links between Scotland and Norway.
Well may our Norwegian friends celebrate their 100 years of independence. They chose the path of freedom to be themselves and to participate in the wider world as part of the international family of nations. We are small neighbouring countries that are still linked by a sea-going past through trade, emigration, immigration, education and a common belief in democracy and in the worth of every citizen, all of which should be the hallmark of small free nations. Thank you, Norway, and long may the Scottish-Norwegian connection continue to grow and to prosper.
When someone believes that their nation should be free, they examine free nations in their continent and further afield. Like many people in the SNP, I decided some time ago that Norway was the kind of nation that I wanted Scotland to be. Norway is independent, humanitarian and its citizens are respected throughout the world, often by the least advantaged people and communities. When I was in East Timor in 1999, I found that Norway and the other Scandinavian countries were much respected by the people there. Unlike the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia and other countries, Norway was not seen as part of the problem—Norwegians were seen as helping East Timor to attain its freedom and justice for its people. Therefore, I hugely admire Norway.
In particular, I admire Norway's international development work. For the past 50 years, it has been a prime mover in international development co-operation and a major donor. Alex Neil mentioned the fact that Norway's contributions as a proportion of its gross national product already exceed the UN's recommendation. As a result, it is unlike Scotland which, as part of the UK—John Swinney mentioned this earlier—is nowhere near meeting the UN's recommendation. In fact, we have short-changed the developing world over the past 35 years by £76 billion and the figure will rise until we match the recommendation.
Norway introduced duty-free and quota-free access to its domestic market for all goods—except weapons—from the least developed countries. It has an active debt relief policy and there is the Norwegian Investment Fund for Developing Countries. The Norwegian Government considers it important that Norwegian policy does not hamper efforts to reduce poverty in developing countries and it regularly undertakes reviews of all its policies so that they can be adjusted, if necessary. I want my nation to aspire to that and match such efforts.
Norway makes a major contribution to UN operations, particularly on peacekeeping. We have all heard of the Oslo accords and Norway's work on the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. It has continued with that work despite the many setbacks that there have been in that region. Norway and her Scandinavian partners have also developed the concept of a civilian peace force, which I would dearly love to be developed in Scotland. Civilian rather than military input to mediation and conflict resolution has much to offer.
As I said, I want Scotland to be a nation like Norway. I salute the example that has been set by a small nation that contributes way above its weight in world relations. I thank the ambassador and ask him to take our thanks back to Norway for the example that it sets.
I hope that Alex Neil will forgive me for what I am going to say about oil. Some years ago, Winnie Ewing stood in a hostelry in Lerwick and regaled the assembled company with comments on who the oil belonged to. A large Shetland fishing skipper tapped her on the shoulder and said, "Winnie, it's no your oil; it's wur oil." I am sure that Mr Neil will be careful with his arguments about oil boundaries and boundaries for other utility substances.
I, too, congratulate Rob Gibson on securing the debate, which is an opportunity to celebrate Scottish and Norwegian cultural, political and economic connections, traditions and opportunities. Despite what some members have unfairly said, the connections are real, positive and growing. The suggestion that none of us on the Executive benches takes any interest in Norway is untrue and I wish that members had not said that.
Like Rob Gibson, I enjoyed the Grieg exhibition at the City Art Centre earlier this year. Sadly, the exhibition is now closed, but I encourage all Scots to become involved in other aspects of the wider Norwegian celebrations, such as concerts, exhibitions and literature readings, to name just a few. I welcome the opportunity to participate in the celebrations in Scotland—where the devolved Government will sponsor the forthcoming Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra concert—and in Norway.
I want to mention not only the celebrations to mark the centenary of Norwegian independence but those to mark the 60th anniversary of the Shetland bus, which is an event of great significance for both our countries. During the second world war, many Norwegians escaped across the North sea to Shetland in small boats and joined military units that were based in Shetland. Those units harried the German occupiers of their country. The heroic—and in some cases incredible—tales of men who ran the Shetland bus from Scalloway in the west of Shetland and Vidlin in the east of Shetland right across to the coast of Norway are justifiably well known. They are memorably described in David Howarth's book "The Shetland Bus". However, those were not the only Norwegian units to be based in Shetland and, when the war ended, many Norwegians took Shetland wives home to Norway with them. Others have since put down roots in the constituency that I am honoured to represent.
The ties that were forged in war remain strong in peace. The museum in Scalloway—the base that was used by the Shetland bus for most of its operational life—has an impressive display on the operations of the Shetland bus and is visited by most Norwegian visitors to Shetland. The bus vessel named the Hitra received a warm Scalloway welcome when she returned there with many veterans soon after she was found and restored by Norwegian volunteers.
As Stewart Stevenson, Richard Lochhead and other members have said, the sea is an obvious connection between our two countries in relation to fishing, but it also provides a tourism connection, in Peterhead as well as in my part of Scotland. Norwegians come across on the ferry from Bergen and sail here in their own boats. In summer, the Lerwick Boating Club bar is often thronged with Norwegians—much to the benefit of the club's accounts—and Lerwick harbour is brightened by their moored vessels, not least during the annual Shetland race from Bergen to Lerwick and back. One effect of Shetland hospitality is that the return leg of that race is not always sailed quite as competitively as the first leg.
On the subject of ties old and new, Phil Gallie mentioned the battle of Largs. In my part of the world, the two countries come together in the Up-Helly-Aa festival. I suspect that the historical basis of the festival may be doubtful—the Viking suits that are worn by the jarl squad might have taken the Vikings of old by surprise—but the toast to the festival, which is drunk each year in Lerwick town hall on the morning of Up-Helly-Aa, is drunk from a silver galley that was presented to Lerwick by its Norwegian twin town, Måløy. I was taken with Andrew Welsh's illustration of the connections between Montrose and parts of Norway. The twinning between Kirkwall, in Orkney, and Hordaland, in Norway, was celebrated at a service in St Magnus cathedral last night.
Norway is an important historic partner of Scotland and it is our nearest neighbour. Shetland became part of Scotland only about 500 years ago. Norway is also our oldest twinning partner; indeed, the twinning partnership between Burntisland and Flekkefjord may prove to be the oldest formal twinning partnership in the world.
Our connections are rooted not only in past links but in links present and future through trade and culture. Norway is Scotland's 10th most important export destination. A Scottish trade mission has just returned from Norway, and the next is planned for the autumn. That demonstrates that, despite what may have been said, our connections are real, live, thriving and growing. As the motion notes, Norway, like Scotland, is a modern, dynamic nation that is committed to a knowledge economy and that is seeking to update its international image. Like Scotland, it is also rich in resources. Scotland, like Norway, has demonstrated its keenness to play its part in the international community—for example, in our forthcoming work in Malawi.
Very soon, the Nobel Peace Centre will open in Oslo. I was taken with Linda Fabiani's remarks about that. I have some experience of the movement towards peace in Sri Lanka, where the Norwegian facilitators played an immensely important role. What they achieved is an admirable legacy to the world around us.
Our two nations continue to enjoy frequent interchange, building on our current commonalities. An estimated 2,000 to 3,000 Norwegians live in Scotland. The days of raiding are over, but Scottish and Norwegian ministers are no strangers. Indeed, my colleague Ross Finnie will be in Tromsø shortly to meet his fisheries counterpart, Svein Ludvigsen, and I—along with other colleagues—have today been delighted to meet and welcome the Norwegian ambassador. We work closely with Norway through the Scottish-Nordic action plan, which is delivering concrete projects of mutual benefit, and the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe, which is part of the European Union's arrangements. There are also many bilateral contacts.
I welcome the motion, which celebrates the centenary of Norwegian independence and, particularly, 100 years of ties between our countries. Our ties with Norway are, of course, far older and pre-date the earlier union between Norway and Sweden. Many would argue that there are 1,000 years of ties between Scotland and Norway, which situates us clearly as a key and continuing partner nation. I encourage all Scots to learn more about Norway and to participate in the celebrations. I also congratulate the Norwegian Government and its people on behalf of the devolved Government in Scotland.
Meeting closed at 17:55.