Chamber and committees

No—I will make progress, as there is very little time.

Even on recent primary school visits, HPMAs have been the first thing that many pupils have wanted to ask me about.

My own consultation response details many of the concerns that constituents have expressed to me about the potential ramifications of the proposals locally, and so I shall not attempt to cover those in detail in the little time that I have available.

The key question is this: in the case of a local HPMA designation, what would that mean economically to the coastal communities that are so affected? On the west coast, many fishing vessels are too small to be able, realistically, to work further afield. Even if they did so, creelers would face the task of re-establishing grounds in which to work, and fish processing would be unlikely to have a future in any community where fishing and aquaculture had, potentially, effectively come to an end.

If the measures are implemented, they would, I believe, disproportionately punish low-impact and more sustainable forms of fishing. As sites are not due to be selected for another two years, I am afraid that the issue will be hanging over each and every coastal community between now and when those decisions are taken.

Fishers and others who rely on the sea to make their living fully recognise the need to tackle biodiversity loss, and that loss is certainly real, but nobody with whom I have spoken in the islands believes that a blunt approach is the best way to go. I question how any such approach would, in the end, be compatible with the Scottish Government’s commendable drive to tackle rural depopulation, as well as with the overall aims and commitments that are set out in “The National Islands Plan”.

When officials finish processing the responses to the HPMA consultation, they will—I believe, although I cannot prove it—find that islanders from all walks of life and all political persuasions are, in the Western Isles in any case, fairly united in their opposition to the proposals as they currently stand.

I know that the First Minister gets that, as does the cabinet secretary, and I am very grateful for their commitment that HPMAs will not be imposed on communities that do not want them. We all know that the consultation responses will show anger and opposition, but they will also show our coastal communities’ passion and positive ideas for growth and sustainability in the islands. We can have that conversation, with the starting point being the Government’s welcome commitment not to impose HPMAs on communities that view them as an existential threat.

Clearly, you are all doing very creditable work on two fronts: the first is to ensure that harder-to-reach groups are being reached and that people are overcoming their threshold anxiety, if they have it, to come to events; and the second is to try to get around the country. How do you combine the two things to make sure that, when you visit different parts of the country, you are not just meeting similar people? What are you doing to make sure that, when you get to different parts of the country, you are reaching as widely into that community as you can?

I should say that my constituency does have electricity.

I am interested in the point that Alistair Mackie made about co-operation between the NHS and the world of culture, and the benefits that that can have for each of them. This is a theme that the committee has gone to again and again. You feel that the initiative is one way. Does any kind of clearing house, if you like, exist to promote that kind of contact, or is it an ad hoc exercise that you all have to invent over and over again?

If you will permit me, deputy convener, I will get on to my familiar hobby horse with my question.

We do not always talk about books and literature in the context of culture. In the past, I have asked officials from cultural organisations in Scotland about promoting literature, and I have stumped them, although I am sure that I will not stump you. Perhaps one of the most liberating things that an individual or a community can discover, if we are talking about place-based culture, is that their community has produced writers and literature, whether that be James Hogg in the Borders, Irvine Welsh in Leith or George Mackay Brown in Orkney. In the past, we have assumed that schools will deal with that, but, of course, they have not. There is an interest in what literature and books your community has produced, but, as a country, are we meeting that interest and that demand in communities?

I will pick up a point about haulage capacity. Do any of you want to say anything about where things stand? Concerns have been expressed in recent years about the availability of lorry drivers from other European countries, the difficulties of port crossings into Europe and more generally a labour shortage in that sector. Could you say anything about how that impacts on agriculture or whether there are any other factors around haulage that are relevant?

Testing does not—

You mentioned uncertainty and the UK Government; they are often mentioned in the same sentence. As organisations, are you making representations to the UK Government about preparing for geopolitical shocks in the future? Would it be useful if some of the relevant powers were exercised here? That is a hopeful last question, but I will put it anyway.

Mr Brignal, do you have any comment on that for your own track?

In talking about future geopolitical risks that we face, everybody quite rightly points to the shock to the agricultural economy worldwide that the illegal invasion of Ukraine has represented, but we have to be prepared for other potential shocks in the future. Despite the fact that, regrettably, this Parliament cannot legislate on some of the problems that we have been talking about, can you say a bit more about how resilient Scotland is to future shocks, what those shocks might look like and where the role of the labour shortage is in being resilient to future shocks?