Scottish Register of Tartans Bill
The next item of business is a debate on motion S3M-2656, in the name of Jamie McGrigor, on the Scottish Register of Tartans Bill.
I very much welcome this stage 3 debate and it gives me great pleasure to present my bill on a Scottish register of tartans for its final round of parliamentary scrutiny.
I welcomed the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee's detailed and thoughtful scrutiny of the bill. Members will have gleaned from Mr Whitton's eloquent and incisive remarks when he moved amendment 1 that debates in the committee were lively, thoughtful and informed. In particular, the debate about tartan's importance from the perspectives of wovenists, modernists and pragmatists caught the attention of not only the committee, but the Parliament during the stage 1 debate and during the debate on the stage 3 amendment.
The committee's input helped to shape, improve and enhance the bill. I can say with confidence that the support of members of all parties has helped to improve what was already a good bill. In that spirit, I welcomed Mr Whitton's stage 3 amendment, although the committee and I opposed the amendments that Mr Whitton lodged on the matter at stage 2. It is nice that David Whitton has returned from his previously elitist stance to embrace good, old-fashioned egalitarianism. I thank him.
I wanted to introduce the best possible bill for a statutory Scottish register of tartans that would be most useful to Scotland, the tartan industry and ancestral tourism. I said from the outset that I wanted my bill to encourage and promote interest in tartan, to take tartan to a national level and to make tartan accessible in ways that have not been possible in the past.
Today we stand on the brink of achieving those aspirations. We have the opportunity to deliver a tartans register on a statutory and sustainable basis. There will be the first ever statutory definition of tartan. The National Archives of Scotland will oversee the register and facilitate public access to it. A range of stringent criteria and quality assurance measures will be applied before a new tartan can be included. I hope that the keeper of the records of Scotland, George MacKenzie, will be the new keeper of tartans. He will be a referee for the register.
The register will help to raise interest in and awareness of tartan and will become a focal point for tartan and tartan research. Over time, it will become the authoritative source on one of Scotland's definitive products.
The register will have practical and effective linkages to the Scottish tartan industry, with the dual benefit of helping the Scottish industry both to capitalise on the increased interest in tartan that the register will bring and to pursue new commercial opportunities from questions about where and by whom in Scotland tartan can be designed, woven or produced.
I have long believed that it is inherently right that we should have a publicly held, statutory register of tartans in Scotland to preserve and promote one of our national iconic products. I also believe that it is inherently right that the register should be independent, publicly held, accessible and sustainable—established permanently and in perpetuity for the Scottish nation.
The register will create and preserve a unique archive of tartan designs and, in doing so, preserve an important part of Scotland's national identity and cultural architecture. It will embed that unique archive in Scotland's national archive and open up access to tartan records in ways that were previously not possible while also removing any risk that access to tartan records will be lost or restricted. It will also raise interest in tartan, helping to keep tartan alive and vibrant and to build economic value from what has been a latent brand to date. It will also, I hope, provide a focus for academic, family and genealogical research. I know that the National Archives of Scotland is keen to encourage academic research into tartan and is exploring ways of doing that.
The bill is the culmination of long and assiduous work by many in the tartan industry in Scotland and among tartan experts and enthusiasts. I am grateful to them all for their splendid efforts. It will help to promote and preserve tartan as an iconic Scottish product, deeply interwoven with our proud national identity.
I move,
That the Parliament agrees that the Scottish Register of Tartans Bill be passed.
I am pleased to welcome the final parliamentary stage of Jamie McGrigor's bill for a Scottish register of tartans. It is a particular delight to see a member of clan Gregor do the right thing by all tartans when others in previous generations have done the wrong thing by his clan, his name and his tartan.
When the possibility of a register was first discussed by the Parliament in February 2007, it was no surprise that my colleague, now the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, spoke with his usual accurate foresight of the need to build consensus to ensure that practical action resulted from the thinking about a register. That has now happened. Throughout the work on developing a register, I have been genuinely impressed by the joint working among tartan experts and the tartan industry on the way forward. We stand today with a consensus delivered and a shared determination in the tartan industry to continue to work collectively.
Scotland's tartan experts will work with the keeper of the tartans to enhance, inform and guide the register. The Lord Lyon also stands ready to play a role, and I understand that the standing council of clan chiefs is willing to add its unique expertise to the register, thereby further increasing its standing.
That depth of knowledge, the experience that those views will bring, the expertise of the National Archives of Scotland in preserving and promoting Scotland's historical and cultural archives, and the standing of the Lord Lyon will all help to augment the credibility of the Scottish register of tartans. We welcome that. The register's credibility will come from its status as the definitive Scottish register, and it can become the spiritual home of one of Scotland's iconic products, thereby elevating the relevance, awareness and commercial potential of tartan.
We are uniquely placed to deliver a register that is undeniably Scottish, and we are able to draw on some of Scotland's longest-standing, most respected and expert sources. We alone can ensure that the register becomes a valuable asset in working to promote one of Scotland's iconic products and in leveraging the enormous latent commercial advantage for our tartan industry.
In the stage 1 debate, I mentioned Professor Michael Porter's description of Scotland as one of the 15 or 16 countries on the planet with a truly vivid national brand—I think that he found that 98 per cent of the planet had an awareness of the brand. Tartan is an inextricable and important part of the brand: high quality, unique, evocative, warm, compelling and recognisable throughout the world.
I also mentioned Simon Anholt, who runs the nations brand index and is an authority on national brands. He highlights the psychological and economic importance of national image to a country and talks about the value of the national brand and all that it conveys. He also suggests that development of the brand needs new projects and innovations that are consistent with what has gone on in the past but are also new and interesting—he says that we cannot hang on the coat tails of our predecessors.
Our textile and tartan industries, and the designers who work within and with them, have a track record of innovation, quality and interesting new variants on traditional themes. We welcome that and believe that the register of tartans can help them to develop it by making tartan more widely accessible; helping to raise awareness of, and interest in, tartan; and getting more people involved.
The register can also help in the wider branding and promotion of Scotland by encouraging interest in the country from people from outside it who have an affinity with our proud nation, even if it is only a latent affinity at the moment. Scotland's diaspora is among the best resources that we have and provides a great reservoir of potential ambassadors for Scotland. We are working to develop communications with diaspora Scots on areas of common interest and for mutual benefit—we have been involved in that activity just this week. We should not underestimate the potential of that: Ancestral Scotland estimates that as many as 100 million people around the world could claim Scottish ancestry. The potential from ancestral tourism is huge and the market is captive and unique. People with Scottish roots all have a latent or active desire to return to Scotland and to wear tartan. We should encourage that, and the bill will take that encouragement to another level.
We are also experiencing exponential growth in family history research, as Mr McGrigor and I saw when we were at the General Registers of Scotland earlier today. The ScotlandsPeople phenomenon is moving on at great pace. We can build on that genealogical archive and use it to draw more people to Scotland. We can make much more of that.
That recognition is timely because, next year, we have the year of homecoming and the potential to invite people to the biggest possible celebration of our common roots, whether they simply love Scotland, have an ancestral connection or simply like wearing tartan. That special year for us will create a huge opportunity to ensure that Mr McGrigor's bill will help people to come back to Scotland wrapped in the tartan plaid.
I am pleased to confirm that the Government will support Mr McGrigor's motion that the bill be agreed to. I urge members to do likewise to show Scotland's Parliament united in supporting tartan, the register of tartans and our heritage.
I am delighted to take part in the debate and to support the motion on the bill to establish a national register of tartans. It is, indeed, a good day to be Scottish. I congratulate Jamie McGrigor on his determination, patience and perseverance in getting his bill to this stage. Apart from anything else, it has educated me about the origins of tartan, which is as iconic to Scotland as haggis, whisky and golf.
As an experiment, I typed the single word "tartan" into an internet search engine this morning. Some colourful results came up. According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia, tartan
"is a pattern consisting of criss-crossed horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours".
That is a bit different from the description in the bill, and Mr McGrigor may want to send his definition to Wikipedia to update it.
Here we stray into the now famous wovenist versus modernist debate that we have enjoyed on several occasions. Wovenists believe tartan is a woven cloth; modernists believe it to be a pattern or design. I pay tribute to Keith Lumsden of the Scottish Tartans World Register, who is the de facto leader of the wovenist tradition, and Brian Wilton of the Scottish Tartans Authority, who is an unashamed modernist. I am pleased to see that both men are in the public gallery. They both deserve Parliament's gratitude for keeping the flame of a register of tartans alive. The STWR has a register of some 3,000-plus designs, and the STA has a register of around 3,500. Both organisations have provided, and continue to provide, excellent and valuable databases of tartan designs. Their records will be at the heart of the new national register. Both gentlemen and their organisations are to be congratulated on setting aside their differences in the national interest, to co-operate with Mr McGrigor's bill.
Since I have become involved with the bill, pursuing various amendments, people have asked me why it is so important. To quote a well-known phrase—not a book, as Mr Mather would have it—"It's the economy, stupid." We have heard from various parts of the tartan industry that there are 7,000-plus jobs in the industry—about 0.5 per cent of all employment in Scotland. That figure may be small but it is significant because it equates to 3 per cent of manufacturing jobs—the type of jobs that all economies want. The industry makes a contribution to Scottish gross domestic product of £350 million. In these troubled times, anything that can be done to boost the Scottish economy, especially in manufacturing jobs, is to be welcomed. Like Mr McGrigor, I believe that the new national register will do just that. It will give authenticity to tartans and, as we discussed when Parliament agreed to my amendment, it will also give a boost to the weaving industry, I hope. I believe firmly that if someone goes to the length of having a tartan designed, they will eventually want to see it turned into the real thing, in the shape of a tie, a shawl, a kilt or, dare I say it, even a miniskirt.
To celebrate this event, I am wearing my city of Dundee tartan tie. I could just as easily have worn a tartan of the MacGregor of MacGregor clan; it may come as a surprise to Jamie McGrigor, but I am connected to the clan on my mother's side. I could also have worn the tartan of MacDonald of Clanranald, which is my wife's clan. It is worth noting that the naming and registration of clan tartans did not begin until 1815, when the Highland Society of London wrote to all clan chiefs asking them to send it a piece of tartan showing the pattern of their tartan and to authenticate that by attaching the tartan to a card bearing the chief's coat of arms. That sounded to me very like the application for our new national register, although I do not think that today we would have cases such as that of Alexander Macdonald, the second Baron Macdonald of Slate, who wrote to the society to confess that he did not know what his tartan looked like and to ask it to provide him with a pattern to which he could put his name.
I have good news for members who do not think they have a tartan: there are a number of general tartans that it is acceptable for all to wear, including the Black Watch tartan, the Stewart hunting tartan and the Royal Stewart tartan, which is the one that people are most likely to find on boxes of shortbread.
I would like to finish on a unionist note. Queen Anne affirmed that she was the clan chief of all Britons, be they Scots, Welsh, English or Irish, and that they could display allegiance to her by wearing the clan tartan of the United Kingdom—the Royal Stewart.
I, too, congratulate Jamie McGrigor on getting the bill to stage 3 and, I hope, on seeing it passed at decision time tonight, so that for the first time we will have an authoritative register of tartans.
It was an enjoyable experience to be a member of the committee that considered the bill, both before the stage 1 debate and at stage 2. All members of the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee learned a great deal about the history of tartan and the debates about it. The bill was very good to begin with but, as Mr McGrigor said, it has become even better during its passage.
The debate has been interesting so far. We seem to have brought together the modernists and the wovenists, which is no mean feat. We have had a couple of new book references from the minister, which always goes down well. I sense that this is the beginning of a blossoming friendship between Jamie McGrigor and David Whitton, which may continue long after the day is finished. It is possibly the best example of cross-party co-operation and the bringing together of two sides that I have seen since I saw James Douglas-Hamilton walking down the Royal Mile with Tommy Sheridan a number of years ago.
I will focus on a number of things that the bill can do for Scotland. First, there are the tourism possibilities that it creates. The study of family history has been popular for some time and is growing more popular by the year. The bill presents us with a great opportunity to accelerate that process. We heard from the minister that in the region of 100 million people around the world may have some claim to Scottish ancestry. It is important that we get them to Scotland: an officially sanctioned register of tartans could help enormously with that. Tartan is very popular and iconic across the world, particularly in countries where large numbers of our tourists come from. If we discount tourists from south of the border, more tourists come to Scotland from the United States than from any other country. The bill presents us with an opportunity at a great time. It is apposite that it is being passed this year, given that next year is the year of homecoming 2009.
We had an interesting debate at stage 2, when Mr McGrigor, quite rightly, made changes to the definition of tartan. Although it was probably implicit before, adding the phrase "capable of being woven" sent to the industry and others who were watching the right message about what we were doing. The committee appreciated that, because it was the right thing to do.
The amendment that was passed today without division strengthens the bill, without adding in the element of compulsion, with which one or two committee members had difficulties.
A broad analysis shows that 20 per cent of the industry is non-woven. Therefore, the suggestion that Mr Whitton made today was right and it will satisfy both groups.
The bill gives us great opportunities from a tourism point of view. There are also great economic opportunities and ideas for what the sub-sector of tartan can do. At least 200 businesses in Scotland are what we might call tartan-oriented businesses and a whole lot more are involved in the supply chain.
Tartan is probably worth in the region of £500 million to the Scottish economy, which I think equates to about 0.5 per cent of gross domestic product. The bill will give the industry a boost. It will help us lift it to the higher end of the spectrum. It can be an excellent marketing tool for the industry in Scotland and outside Scotland. I commend the bill to Parliament.
I apologise for standing up too soon earlier on, having pushed my button a little sooner than I should have.
I support the bill. I apologise to John Farquhar Munro for what I am about to say. I was taught the little Gaelic that I know by the late John McIntyre from the island of Eriskay and one of the very first expressions he ever taught me was "Tha mi ag iarraidh briogais tartain", which is the Gaelic for "I would like a pair of tartan trousers." That does not get one hugely far in a bar in Stornoway, but at least it makes the connection.
As the minister said, tartan was proscribed after the 1745 rebellion. In 1788, when Jane Maxwell, the Duchess of Gordon, decided to try to end the feud between the Jacobite and Whig clan chiefs, she formed a society, which still exists today, called the Northern Meeting, a society for innocent pleasure and amusement. When the society got together in Inverness for its first meeting—it held a ball—nobody wore the kilt. In those days, they wore powdered wigs and tailcoats. By 1788, the use of the kilt had pretty well vanished under the rule of law.
I take on board entirely the points about 1815. In 1822, Sir Walter Scott persuaded George IV to come to Edinburgh where, as we all know, he wore a magnificent kilt. In his portrait, they toned the colours down, because they were perhaps a little strong. George IV also wore pink tights, because he was a little worried about the chilly breezes in Edinburgh. People fell over themselves to get invitations to the party for George IV and to get Highland dress to wear to it. Many a wee Highland—or perhaps lowland—laird tried to get a kilt made in double-quick time. Not only did Ebenezer Scroggie, the man who got the catering contract—and who was the inspiration for Dickens's Ebenezer Scrooge—make money; all the tailors and kilt makers did extremely well out of it.
Doubt has been expressed in certain clans about the authenticity of their tartan—there is a certain vagueness. We heard the story about Macdonald of Slate. Some of the perhaps not-so-authentic tartans might have arisen through undue haste by the tailors who were making the wee lairdies' kilts in 1822.
However, I do not think that it matters one wee bit. Tartan is iconic and represents an image of Scotland that the entire world understands. We are deeply fortunate to have such a wonderful image. I represent a Highland seat and I often say that the word "Highland" is synonymous with clean air and a lovely environment. The word "tartan" is certainly synonymous with Scotland, believe you me.
I understand that our illustrious neighbour across the road, the Duke of Rothesay—as he likes to be known in Scotland—found a wee bit of tartan in an old press when he was scurrying about in Balmoral. Apparently, it had been designed by Prince Albert. It has recently been rewoven by Johnstons of Elgin. That, we might argue, is a new tartan.
This debate is about a celebration of Scotland, and I absolutely endorse the idea that tartan is part of our image. It sells Scotland, and it is about the homecoming, the Highland diaspora and the Scottish diaspora taking pride in and celebrating our culture. Mr McGrigor is to be complimented on his bill. I have no trouble whatever supporting it, as is true for all my party. I conclude where I began: Tha mi ag iarraidh briogais tartain. I would love a pair of tartan trousers—except for the fact that they are rather expensive these days.
Having spoken at stage 1, I am pleased that the bill will probably pass its final stage today, leaving a positive legacy for future generations in Scotland. Parliaments do not always leave positive legacies—I can think of quite a few examples—but the Scottish Register of Tartans Bill will certainly help to preserve a section of Scottish heritage and culture for the benefit of the nation.
Parliament owes Jamie McGrigor its gratitude for pursuing the bill, both before and after the Scottish National Party came to power. I am delighted that the SNP Government has been happy to support him and his bill. As a proud Scot and a piper, I am keen to see a future secured for this part of our well-recognised national heritage.
Tartan has a massive global significance, and it is synonymous with Scotland. That being the case, I was surprised that there was no national register of tartan in the first place. I am sure that many members were not previously aware that there was none. I find it surprising that previous Governments, pre and post devolution, did not rectify that. Passing the bill and establishing the public repository of tartan rectifies the previous position. The benefits of a single national tartans register are clear for all to see. It will bring economic benefits and enhance tourism. In the future, members of the public will be able to access it with ease.
Tartan provides more than 7,000 jobs and about £350 million for Scotland's economy. It is a major Scottish industry with a global appeal and we should be proud of it. During the stage 1 debate—as well as today—the Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism highlighted the claims of the management consultant, Professor Michael Porter. As the minister said previously,
"Professor Michael Porter … noted that Scotland is one of only 15 or 16 countries on the planet that has a truly vivid national brand and a high standing that it owes, in great part, to tartan. Along with whisky and golf, tartan accounts for the fact that Scotland means something to 98 per cent of the world's population."—[Official Report, 19 June 2008; c 10059.]
As a piper, I politely suggest to the minister and Professor Porter that the great Highland bagpipe has been omitted from that 98 per cent. The great Highland bagpipe is also a fantastic global and national brand. We have some wonderful global brands for a country of just 5 million people, but we have not fully exploited them across the world. Tartan, piping, whisky, golf and—dare I say—the delicacy that is haggis are five brands that highlight Scottishness.
At another time, I will argue for sailing and the vast input into the Scottish economy that it brings. I would like sailing to be a global Scottish brand. It brings around £250 million into Scotland—£80 million from the Clyde alone. However, I will take that up another day.
The introduction of the new role of the keeper of the Scottish register of tartans to oversee the register is a positive aspect of the bill. The keeper will provide a single focal point for tartan, which will enhance the marketing of tartan globally. That can only be beneficial to the industry. An official definition of tartan, together with a keeper who will consider new designs against a range of criteria, will help to deepen people's knowledge of tartan and encourage innovation in design.
I am sure that the bill will prove to be beneficial not just to tartan and to Scotland but to the Scottish global brand. I am only too delighted to support the bill.
I am delighted to congratulate Jamie McGrigor on his persistence in seeing the bill through and achieving consensus among those who are involved in the two existing registers of tartans. I congratulate, too, my colleague David Whitton on strengthening the link between the new register and the actual process of making tartan.
I was born in the Isle of Lewis and my father's people are, and have been for generations, workers on land and sea in the Western Isles of Scotland. Like most crofting families in the Highlands and Islands, they have been, and remain, familiar with the crafts of spinning and weaving, and all the other processes that go into the production of homespun cloth.
Lewis and Harris are, of course, more widely known today for tweeds than for tartan plaids. It is nonetheless important to all the rural craft workers of Scotland that the creation of a Scottish register of tartans should reflect the simple fact, which David Whitton has pursued so vigorously, that tartan is a distinctive pattern produced in the weaving of cloth.
The tartan that I am proud to wear today is that of the Macdonalds of the Isles. The register of tartans will protect and enhance the status of the tartans of the clans and districts of Scotland, whether they reflect patterns that can be found in early portraits of clan chiefs, as my tartan tie does, or are of more recent vintage.
For me and many other people of Highland descent in Scotland and beyond, it is important to assert that the heritage of clanship and kinship is not the property of clan chiefs and their closest relatives alone. For those who were cleared, as well as those who did the clearing, the badges of clanship are symbols of the common people's ancient rights as possessors of the land, which were marvellously restored in many places thanks to the land reform legislation that was passed in the early days of the modern Scottish Parliament.
Earlier this year, my family and I were able to travel on the direct air service from Glasgow to Halifax—sadly, it has since been grounded—to visit Atlantic Canada. We discovered in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island a Highland diaspora that still cherishes its links to home, holds the Gaelic language in the highest regard and remembers the story of how so many common people of the MacDonalds, MacLeods and MacNeills were forced to leave their home islands and cross the seas.
We met people from Glengarry County in Ontario and people from Toronto, British Columbia and the United States who share that same heritage. We visited St Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, the Highland Village at Iona and the Gaelic College at St Ann's. Wherever we went, we were reminded that the Scottish Highland heritage, of which tartan is such an important part, is the rightful inheritance not of Scotland alone but of millions of people of Highland descent around the world.
That is why today is, indeed, a day to celebrate. The amendment to the bill that was accepted today reflects the questions that we, as members of the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee, raised during earlier stages of the bill. Labour members challenged the notion of tartan as unwoven design not out of elitism or, indeed, anti-modernism, but to ensure that the tartan brand continues to remain unchallengeable and that its links with the weaver's craft are undiminished. I believe that the bill as it now stands achieves all those things, and I very much look forward to voting for it later tonight.
I speak as the deputy convener of the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee and on behalf of the convener, Iain Smith, who cannot be with us. It is important at this stage to thank all the people who have been involved in getting us to the point at which we can pass this excellent bill. Further, we must pay tribute to the people from the previous Administration who sought the proper means of achieving the creation of a tartans register. Of course, the election got in the way, but the current Scottish Government carried on the work.
Discussion on the bill included many of the different bodies who are involved in tartan. For example, the Scottish Tartans Authority, the Scottish Tartans World Register, the Lord Lyon and the Registers of Scotland brought harmony to the subject that made it worthwhile for the previous Administration and the current one to create a bill that we can all agree will have a positive and beneficial effect.
We must also thank the clerks of the committees, the civil servants who helped to find information and the bill drafters and so on who helped Jamie McGrigor get to this stage. I also thank all the other supportive groups that gave evidence to the committee and I thank members who supported the bill. Having spoken in debates on the bill in the previous parliamentary session and at each of the bill's previous stages, I am now—as it happens—a member of the committee that dealt with most of the work. However, we owe thanks to the committee's previous members for allowing the bill to make the headway that it has.
I was interested in the debate on amendment 1. Further to the references to Harris and Lewis, I point out that, for the creation of Harris tweed, an act of Parliament in London ensures that the weaving of Harris tweed takes place in Harris and Lewis. Although amendment 1 does not stipulate that tartan must be woven in Scotland, the amendment attempts to encourage the industry to do that. Over the months that we have considered the bill, we have received evidence that quite a lot of tartan is woven in other countries. Indeed, after David Whitton cited the example of Mulbuie primary school, whose tartan ties had to be woven in the north of England, I was prompted to find out about that when—so that I could continue to wear it for another good number of years—I had to get my father's kilt repaired, turned round and washed and so on. Many companies in the north of England are much better geared up to providing tartan because they have a more diverse output. We should note that, if we want the industry to be to the fore in Scotland, we need to ensure that the companies that produce authentic Scottish woven tartans are given every support to diversify to make that possible. We should encourage weaving in Scotland of the "woven textile samples" that are mentioned in the amendment. Although the word "may" was the means whereby amendment 1 was accepted, we all accept that that is a good principle to adopt.
With those few words, I fully support the bill and I thank all the people whom I mentioned earlier. In allowing the debate to commence, the bill is a step forward. It is great to see the Scottish Parliament doing something for what Stuart McMillan called an iconic brand of Scotland which I, too, wear—and not just in the form of a tie.
Members will be relieved to hear that I intend to make only a brief speech. As someone who has supported the bill at every stage through two parliamentary sessions, I feel obliged formally to add my congratulations to Jamie McGrigor and everyone involved in shaping and framing the bill. From my knowledge not just of the political path that the bill has followed but of my own member's bill on an entirely unrelated subject, I am aware how difficult it is for an individual MSP to promote legislation. Therefore, I thank not only Jamie McGrigor but the Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism, Jim Mather; the previous minister, Allan Wilson; the keeper of the records of Scotland, Mr George MacKenzie; and—of course—Deirdre Kinloch Anderson. They are just some of the many individuals whose contribution has led to today's successful outcome.
As some members will know, Deirdre Kinloch Anderson is my mother-in-law but, for information, I should note that I have no commercial links to what is now a sixth-generation family kilt-making business. I say that I have no links, but I once discovered—about eight years ago now—a photograph of Claire and me on our wedding day that appeared in the magazine Scottish Field above the headline "What the well-dressed groom is wearing". However, that was a while back now.
What I have found fascinating about the bill is the way in which the Scottish Parliament has been able to respond to and accommodate a specific request from a discrete part of the Scottish business community. Make no mistake about it: the bill would not have been passed at Westminster, where I doubt that it would have been given debating time.
We should take pride in supporting the bill, but we should also be aware that the bill is only a step in the right direction. I hope that the minister will continue to work with those in retail, tourism and genealogy as well as in Scotland's much put-upon textile industry. At a time of economic uncertainty, it is up to us in the Scottish Parliament to take practical measures to support our indigenous business and industry. The bill is just such a practical measure, to which I am happy to give my support.
We move to winding-up speeches.
I will be very brief. I have enjoyed the debate enormously; it has been informative. I say again that we have a national treasure on which we can build and which, as has been said already, will ultimately add to that most precious of objectives: commercial sales putting money in Scottish pockets—perhaps I should say sporrans. I commend Jamie McGrigor for having brought the bill before us today.
The Scottish register of tartans will clearly form an important part of our heritage and culture in the future. It will be held publicly, which means that all will be able to see it at any time. It is utterly transparent. Because it will be publicly held, it will not rely on one or two operators to keep it going; the public can keep it going for generations. The two commercial registers that currently exist have done an outstanding job, but a publicly held repository is the safest way to protect our brand and heritage. There will be an authentic guarantee that any tartan that is held on the register has been processed by the keeper, which will provide the register with a degree of safety and maintain the strong brand that tartan has had for a long time.
The application process strikes the right balance between its being too easy and too hard to get on to the register. Because of the guidance that the keeper will issue, we will not have any vexatious people applying who ought not to be applying to register a tartan. That was an important point for the committee.
There are strong economic, tourism and cultural reasons for the register. That is why I hope that the bill will be passed this afternoon without division. If it is, the Parliament will show that it is behind the register and will send out the right message about how important tartan is to Scotland today and, more significantly, how important it will be to Scotland tomorrow.
As I suspected it would be, this has been an enjoyable debate and we have heard some good speeches. I got rid of the stigma of being labelled "elitist" by Mr McGrigor the last time we spoke about the bill—a baron who owns a large chunk of Scotland calling me "elitist" is taking a bit of a liberty. I was therefore relieved to hear his new description of me as "eloquent and incisive". I now have a new slogan for my election leaflets well before we get to 2011, and I thank Mr McGrigor for that.
We also had an interesting speech from Jamie Stone. I would be really interested to know why he was asking for a pair of tartan trousers in Gaelic in a bar on Eriskay, but perhaps that is a story for another day.
We also heard a nice historical contribution from Lewis Macdonald that reminded us of the history of Scotland and added to what the minister said in his opening speech about the importance of tartan to Scotland at home and around the world wherever the Scots diaspora has spread. It is probably true to say that anyone who lives in Australia, Canada, America or wherever else that Scots have been sent or have gone over the centuries might have a stronger affinity with all things Scottish than we do here. Sometimes we take some of these things for granted and, if nothing else, Mr Stone's bill has served to remind us—[Interruption.] I am sorry; I meant to say Mr McGrigor—it was the thought of Jamie Stone in tartan trousers that put me off. Mr McGrigor's bill has reminded us how important these things are.
People have mentioned the background to the bill and how we got to where we are today. We have learned a lot from taking part in the debates on the bill, and the Scottish Parliament information centre provided a helpful briefing, which caused much amusement. However, I was intrigued to read in it that the first tartan that was discovered in Scotland dates from some time between the second and third centuries: the Falkirk tartan, or the Falkirk sett, as it is known, was discovered near the Antonine wall. It is interesting to note that my constituency has parts of the Antonine wall running through it, so Strathkelvin and Bearsden is quite near to where the original tartan was found.
We have heard that tartan is strongly associated with Scottish clans and Highland culture. The SPICe briefing states:
"Various testimonies from the 16th Century … identify tartan as a fighting uniform of that era".
What caused me most amusement was reading a description of
"several wild Scots following … the Scottish army … naked except for stained shirts, and a certain light covering made of various colours."
I hesitate to suggest that that might happen on Saturday when Scotland play Norway but, given our weather, I suggest that any members of the tartan army should put on a blue shirt along with their light covering made of various colours.
I am indebted to Mr Gibson for reminding me that the tartan for the primary school that he mentioned was made in the north of England. Like him, I hope that when we agree to the passing of the bill—like Gavin Brown, I sincerely hope that the decision is unanimous—it acts as an incentive for the weaving industry here in Scotland. However, as a unionist, I believe that if someone in the north of England can produce a tartan, they should bid for the business. I am sure that the bill will boost the industry in Scotland, and I urge its passing to be supported.
I have greatly enjoyed the debate, which has proved that there is always something fresh to say about tartan. I welcome the warm cross-party support for the bill and the industry-wide collaboration that has brought us to this stage. I acknowledge the fine work that has been done in committee and by civil servants to get us here.
I want to focus briefly on why we have asked the National Archives of Scotland to help to preserve Scotland's tartan heritage. I doubt that any member would disagree that our national identity and cultural heritage are important and help to define Scotland, our sense of history and our sense of self. In that context, the National Archives of Scotland has three practical and important qualifications for running the new register.
First and foremost, as well as being a guardian of our collective memory and our historic and cultural sense of who we are, it is a vital permanent repository for what is important in our past. That is exactly what we need to underpin the tartan register. Secondly, the National Archives is about storing information and making it publicly and universally available, which is precisely what the tartan register will do. Thirdly, the National Archives is about running online systems that connect databases with web access. The tartan register will do that, too.
The National Archives is therefore well placed to take on its new role. It has the skills, the expertise and the infrastructure to set up and run the register. It is important that, by using existing public sector expertise, we are minimising the cost of establishing and running the register from Scotland.
There is another important reason why the fit between the new tartan register and the National Archives is a particularly good one. The National Archives has been working with the registrar general and the Lord Lyon to create a new service for family history, ScotlandsPeople, which I mentioned earlier. That web service has been fully operational for a year and the new centre in Register house, which opened its doors last month and will be fully operational by St Andrew's day, is already proving to be a big attraction, as Jamie McGrigor and I saw today—all the available desks were occupied by people who were working away. I am sure that if we had stopped to talk to those people, we would have been answered either in Gaelic or in a Canadian accent—on which subject, I recognise Lewis Macdonald's useful speech.
ScotlandsPeople feeds the hunger of many people in Scotland, elsewhere in the UK and abroad to find out about their ancestors, and it connects generations. It is big business. I have checked the number and there are now some 650,000—two thirds of a million—registered users of the paying web service. The potential to reach an even bigger number is huge.
In the run-up to the year of homecoming in 2009, ScotlandsPeople will become even more important. Many thousands of customers of ScotlandsPeople will also be interested in finding out about the tartans that their ancestors or their families wore and what the tradition was. They will be able to speak as well as members have done today on the provenance of their own tartans. That will lead to commercial opportunities, as the growing ancestry market is a natural market for tourism in Scotland and for tartan.
The message is clear. We want more and more people around the world to search for their ancestors, walk in their footsteps, visit the places that were important to them and find out more about their family and clan tartan. The thread is clear and strong. It is the thread of identity at an individual family and community level. It is a thread that proves the resilience of Highland culture, in particular, the resilience of Scotland and the resilience of the Scottish brand and the positive values that we cherish still.
The bill will add to the array of public services that are geared towards helping all of what I have been talking about to happen. The economic case for working to support and promote Scotland's tartan industry has been well made in the chamber and in the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee. In the wider sense, the bill will also help to promote Scotland on the world stage. I look forward to that happening in the months and years to come.
This is an important piece of legislation. The Government is proud and pleased to support Mr McGrigor and his bill.
I am grateful to members for their speeches, the scope and quality of which have shown just how strongly we Scots feel about tartan. Love them or loathe them, the plaid and the philabeg always provoke debate and, often, argument, and long may they do so. I should say that I consider praise from David Whitton to be of great quality.
I have worked with the tartan experts on the options for a Scottish register of tartans since 2001, and the road has indeed been a long and winding one. It has also been educational and, on occasion, extremely rocky. Now, at last, we stand on the cusp of achieving the shared and long-held ambition of tartan experts, enthusiasts and the tartan industry of taking tartan to a new national level for the benefit of all. I therefore urge members to support my bill at stage 3, including Mr Whitton's helpful late addition.
I am delighted that the Scottish Government will link the register to its wider plans for the homecoming in 2009, which will mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of one of the greatest Scots, Robert Burns. I understand that the homecoming year will not only celebrate the work of Burns and Scotland's impressive heritage but look to the future, taking pride in the creativity and energy of modern Scotland.
Of course, although he was a lowlander, Burns made references to tartan in poems such as, "My Nanie, O", "Highland laddie" and "The Jolly Beggars". In the last of those, Burns writes:
"With his Philabeg an' tartan Plaid,
An' guid claymore down by his side,
The ladies' hearts he did trepan,
My gallant, braw John Highlandman."
I am convinced that the tartan register can add value to the wider effort that is being undertaken with regard to the year of homecoming by helping to preserve an important part of our historic and cultural identity while working to promote tartan and our tartan industry in today's Scotland.
When the first version of the bill was debated in February 2007, I indicated to the Parliament that an industry steering group had approached me some years before about such a bill. That group involved key players who have helped me to get the bill to this point. They are still working with us, and I am glad to see that some of them are in the public gallery today, monitoring the bill's progress—they are not prepared to leave me alone. They are the holders of the existing private registers. In particular, mention needs to be made of Brian Wilton, of the Scottish Tartans Authority, and Keith Lumsden, of the Scottish Tartans World Register, who have shared their tartan records with the new register. Those gentlemen, and others with them, are owed a debt of gratitude for their vision and their generosity of spirit. They have donated their life's work for the public good, and I thank them.
I must also thank the former Lord Lyon King of Arms, Robin Blair, who has passed the heraldic torch to the current Lord Lyon King of Arms, David Sellar, both of whom have provided invaluable support for the register proposals along with Alistair Campbell of Airds, the previous Unicorn Pursuivant.
There has been immense and constant support from representatives of the Scottish tartan industry, particularly from Deirdre Kinloch Anderson of Kinloch Anderson of Leith and Nick Fiddes of Scotweb. I thank the Urquharts and the late James Scarlett for their contributions, and my wife, Emma, my mother, Mary, and my former assistant, Joanna Mowat, for their research.
In my first attempt at a bill, I was ably helped by David Cullum, Rodger Evans and Alison Wilson of the Parliament's non-Executive bills unit. Latterly, I have received outstanding support from Mike McElhinney, who is a remarkable civil servant. He is head of the Scottish Government's manufacturing policy branch; he used to be private secretary to the previous First Minister, Jack McConnell. Is he not lucky to have spent such a productive spell with the Conservatives? That will certainly have done him a lot of good; his work certainly did me a lot of good. It is an achievement that his gift for diplomacy has helped to produce a Conservative member's bill that will, I hope, achieve the support not only of the Government but of all the other parties that are represented in the Parliament.
I also thank the former Deputy Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning, Allan Wilson, of the Labour Party, without whom the bill might never have happened, and, of course, the Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism, Jim Mather, who has been utterly supportive from the outset and throughout the process; he has made a lot possible for me. I am sure that I have missed out many other people who have been supportive, but they are too numerous to mention. They know who they are.
We had long discussions about the bill. Sometimes those discussions were animated, but they were always informed and reasoned. I was struck by the genuine willingness of the people involved to work through issues in order to find common ground and to set out a workable set of proposals for a register. That is where we stand now. I am grateful to them for supporting my bill. The collective efforts of those individuals and others are the foundations on which the register will be built. The collective input of so many people will help the register to become a definitive repository of expertise and knowledge on, and a focal point for, tartan.
I have said before that tartan belongs to Scotland. Its roots are in Scotland, but its branches spread worldwide. Scotland is the Mecca for tartan, and the bill will keep it so. Tartan is an immediately recognisable symbol of identity—it is the sort of symbol for which any other country would give its eye teeth. We must not—indeed, I believe that we will not—underestimate the importance of tartan as our Scottish brand.
However, we cannot and must not stop at that. If members agree to pass my bill, as I hope they will, we will have given the industry the very thing that it has wished for for so long. Parliament will have done its bit, and public sector partners in the National Archives of Scotland stand ready to do their bit. The challenge now is for the Scottish tartan industry to do its bit—to seize the opportunities that the register will create to promote Scottish tartans and to market tartans that are designed, produced and owned in Scotland as authentic, high-quality products.
Our tartan heritage rightly instils great pride. Many people have died for their tartans in bloody battles in clan wars and the two world wars in recent times. The magnificence and splendour and the colour and grace of Highland dress make me grateful to characters of the past such as Sir Walter Scott, who recognised the importance of tartan and promoted it at a crucial time. The bill is another chapter in the Scottish tartan story. I hope that there will be many spin-offs, including perhaps a world-class tartan museum with tartan artefacts and manuscripts, of which there are many. Amusingly, one of them is the tartan underwear that was worn by Queen Victoria's famous consort, John Brown—known as John Brown's underpants—which I believe are now in Keith.
I will again quote the words that are written in the excellent tartan section of the Kelvingrove art gallery and museum:
"When you see tartan, you immediately think of Scotland. It's a powerful symbol for the Scots—so powerful that Government"—
a Whig Government—
"once banned people from wearing tartan. Tartan is now a huge success story. It graces the catwalks of London and Paris, finding its way into the hearts (and the carrier bags) of most visitors to Scotland."
I hope that, today, the Parliament will go some way towards rectifying the banning of tartan by a Westminster Whig Government. Perhaps we will dress tomorrow with a slightly different perspective.
As we have reached the end of the debate before the time that is set out in the business programme for the next item of business, under rule 7.4.1(d), I suspend the meeting until 5 o'clock.
Meeting suspended.