Good afternoon. The first item of business is time for reflection. Our time for reflection leader today is Mr Ian McGregor, who is the chief executive of Poppyscotland.
Presiding Officer, members of the Scottish Parliament: I am very honoured to address you on this, the first remembrance day during the four and a half years in which Scotland will commemorate the centenary of the first world war.
The war had a cataclysmic, catastrophic and transformational effect on Scotland and on the world. I had one grandfather who served at Gallipoli and in Palestine. Conversely, my other grandfather was a conscientious objector in Glasgow. I am equally proud of them both, although I confess that I know little of what they went through.
My step-grandfather, whom I knew well, was wounded three times and was finally invalided out of the trenches to limp in discomfort until his death over 60 years later. Both my wife’s maternal great-grandfathers were killed in action; the body of one was never recovered. Her grandmother recalled seeing, as a child, her father’s sword—not a lot of use against shrapnel and machine guns—being sharpened at war’s outbreak. Most families will have similar histories to relate.
Commemoration between now and 2019 will not mean that we forget the sacrifices of that generation, although I hope that it may help to place them properly and—who knows?—perhaps finally, at rest.
In 1918, support and care for veterans and their families left much to be desired. We have come a long way since then, although even in the very recent past there have been glaring shortcomings to address. The Scottish Parliament has, in its relatively short life, been both consistent and resolute in seeking to do the right thing by our servicemen and women, and their dependants, who have suffered as a consequence of their service in all our names. I can but commend and thank the Parliament for that, and I hope and urge that members will ensure that the Parliament persists in the pursuit of basic decency.
The very best way never to lose that resolve is, I feel, summed up perfectly in the closing lines of a short poem by John Pudney. It refers to an aviator, but applies equally to those on land and sea. It is called, very simply, “For Johnny”.
Do not despair
For Johnny-head-in-air;
He sleeps as sound
As Johnny underground.
Fetch out no shroud
For Johnny-in-the-cloud;
And keep your tears
For him in after years.
Better by far
For Johnny-the-bright-star,
To keep your head,
And see his children fed.