Chamber and committees

The Faculty of Advocates was very insistent on that, and I was also struggling to understand. That is why I am keen to ask for both your views.

Sheriff Cubie, do you have a view on that?

I assume that that is not a road that you would want to go down if we could get the balance right with what you consider to be a fair jury size.

So, in the new court, it would not be mandatory and people could choose not to submit pre-recorded evidence.

Do you have concerns about any perception that a sexual offences court would be downgraded, because it would be less—shall we say—sombre and serious than a High Court, which, traditionally, has dealt with rape and murder cases?

Good morning, Lord Advocate. To follow on from John Swinney’s line of questioning, I note that, in your previous evidence to the committee, you said that only 20 per cent of single-complainer rape cases resulted in convictions. Setting aside corroboration, as it is not in the bill, do you think that the removal of the not proven verdict would improve that situation?

That is fine. I just wanted to clarify that.

That is great.

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its funding for humanitarian assistance in Gaza. (S6O-03024)

As convener of the cross-party group on men’s violence against women and children, I wrote to the UK Government and the British Medical Association to request urgent aid for the thousands of women and children, including pregnant women, who have been disproportionately affected by this horrendous war. I have yet to receive a reply from either. Does the minister agree that an urgent ceasefire is the only way in which lives can now be saved?

I thank Richard Leonard for bringing the debate to the chamber and I congratulate him on his passionate and heartfelt speech.

I am very pleased to be speaking in the debate. I come from a family where four uncles were Lanarkshire miners. Like many others of my generation, I have a vivid memory of Thatcher’s destructive years in the 1980s, when she decimated mines and industry throughout the United Kingdom.

As Richard Leonard says, Mick McGahey was a working-class hero. He was born in Shotts in 1925 and he died of emphysema in 1999. Emphysema is, of course, a disease of the lungs to which miners were particularly prone, due to the hazardous nature of their daily work. He started work as a miner at the Gateside colliery at the age of 14—a child—and was a member of the Communist Party and the National Union of Mineworkers all his life. As we have heard, a monument to Mick stands in Cambuslang, where he and his family moved when his father was in search of work.

Among the many memorable things that Mick McGahey said during his lifetime, the quote that Richard Leonard mentioned is particularly apt. He said:

“We are a movement, not a monument.”

However, I would definitely support a monument to Mick McGahey here, in the Parliament.

He was a man who never lost touch with his working-class roots and socialist values. To this day, I still find it astonishing that miners had to fight for every penny that they received for doing such a dirty and dangerous job—and then had to fight for those jobs. I recall that several of my uncles had what was termed a “miner’s mark” on their heads, due to falling coal and rock. Why would society seek to begrudge those men a decent living wage?

I also recall Mick and Arthur Scargill, who fought long and hard for the mining industry, being demonised by the media, which referred to them as “loony lefties”. They were humiliated on shows such as “Spitting Image” and were laughed at simply for trying to better the lives of people who kept our homes warm, kept the lights on and put food on the table.

During the bitter miners strike of the 1980s, I stood in solidarity on the picket line at Polkemmet colliery in West Lothian, blinded by flashlights that were designed to intimidate and distress us. It was a huge learning curve for me to experience the lengths that the establishment would go to in order to keep the workers in their place and to avoid giving them respect and a decent wage.

I rattled a can on Glasgow’s Maryhill Road, and I found great support from people, most of whom had little to spare themselves. I realised then that the media slurs and misinformation do not always cut it with the Scottish public, who have a social conscience and understand the motivation of a greedy, corporate establishment.

Mick McGahey will be remembered, along with other legendary union leaders and socialists such as John Maclean, Jimmy Reid, Mary Barbour and many others I do not have enough time to mention. I often wonder what they would think of the society that we are in today, with zero-hours contracts and unpaid work trials prevailing—actually, I know exactly what they would think.

“Working-class hero” and “man of the people” are overused phrases, but not in the case of Mick McGahey, who demonstrated his passion and commitment to the working man throughout his life. It is a tragedy that miners had to fight for dignity and respect throughout their hard-working lives. That is a dark stain on the British establishment to this day. We should have learned from those dark days, but I am afraid that the jury is out on that.