Chamber and committees

It is always good to hear positive examples but, clearly, services are under pressure, with a crisis in dental provision, challenges in the provision of primary care and worrying delays to hospital discharge. One patient in Dumfries and Galloway has been stuck in hospital for 916 days.

Although I accept that such cases can be complicated, surely the cabinet secretary agrees that that is unacceptable and that it drives growing fears among elderly constituents that if they go into hospital, they might not get back out again. What is the Scottish Government doing to investigate such cases, which are prevalent across Scotland? What is it doing to address the growing challenges around delayed discharge?

It has been reported that the former Pinneys site in Annan has been broken into 12 times in the past year, and the factory has been ransacked. It is coming up for seven years since the factory’s closure was announced, and there is no sign of life at the site, let alone the 120 jobs that were promised by the Scottish Government at the time, when Scottish Enterprise sourced a buyer for the site and pledged to invest almost £2 million of taxpayers’ money.

Recent events have left my constituents wondering what has gone so badly wrong. Will the First Minister commit to an investigation of the deal with Bhagat Holdings Ltd, and will he publish a timeline of the involvement of the Scottish Government and its agencies at the site since 2018?

Will the member take an intervention?

Before we move on to Ayrshire too quickly, I wonder whether we could get on the record the Scottish Government’s absolute commitment to finding stage 2 funding to realise the vision of Ellisland.

As people at home and around the world prepare to celebrate Burns night, it seems only fitting to mark Burns’s legacy here, in the heart of our debating chamber. In yet another coup for Dumfries and Galloway, when the Presiding Officer hosts her Burns supper in the Parliament tonight, my constituent, the much-accomplished young Burnsian Ella McTeir from Sanquhar, will deliver the address to the haggis.

Having listened, at the opening of the new Scottish Parliament in 1999, to Sheena Wellington’s rendition of “A Man’s a Man for a’ That”—which, by the end, was accompanied by Christine Grahame and by many others in the public gallery—I often wonder what Burns would have made of this place.

“O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
An’ foolish notion:”

Would he have seen a people’s Parliament or something altogether different? I suspect that many aspects of Holyrood and its inhabitants would have fuelled his rich political satire. Over the years, his views and politics have, of course, been hotly debated and applied to many issues of the day. So, too, has his identity. Does Burns belong to Ayrshire, or does he belong to Dumfries and Galloway, where he remains to this day?

This year, the hot take at Burns suppers and in homes across Dumfries and Galloway is whether Burns would have been for or against a new national park. Would he have lined up with his fellow farmers or stood in solidarity with the “wee ... cowrin, tim’rous beastie”?

Such debates get a lot of attention, but I believe that it would be wrong to dwell on where Burns divides. Instead, in a world that often seems more divided and tribal than ever, the enduring appeal of Burns is that he offers something for everyone. His universal appeal and his ability as a poet to reach beyond simplistic points of view are arguably his greatest gifts.

We have only to look at research from the University of Glasgow’s centre for Robert Burns studies to see how that translates into the real world, the influence that Burns has and—dare I say it—the commercial value that he offers to Scotland. The Pittock report is a great place to start for anyone who is doubtful of the potential in that regard.

Anyone who, like me, has a school-age child will know the reach of Burns at this time of year and his importance, for Scots more generally, as a focal point in schools, where interest in him is broadened and our many words and stories are kept alive. I am very proud of my eldest daughter, Isla, who has volunteered to recite a Scots poem at her school assembly on Friday. Listening to her practise and learn the words of J K Annand’s “Mince and Tatties” has brought me joy, and it has sparked an interest in her that I hope will last a lifetime. It also brings back fond memories of my introduction to Scots-language poetry, and to Burns himself, as I sat at the kitchen table with my mum.

In what I hope is the only negative point in this speech, it is therefore sad to note that Burns has been downgraded in the higher English curriculum this year. I am not sure what that says about us as a nation and what we believe is valuable to hand on to future generations, but, for me, it certainly raises serious questions about how we see ourselves. If we cannot learn from Burns the man and Burns the poet—if we cannot understand him as a creature of his time and one with a vision beyond it—what does that say about our country?

Now, I turn to the positives. Members from across the chamber who have sat here in years gone by could be forgiven for falling off their chairs at what I am about to say. I want to take a few moments to sing the praises of Joan McAlpine. Many Burns songs would fit the bill here, but the Presiding Officer will be pleased to hear that I will not do any actual singing. If I were to do so, there would be a real danger of repeating an incident involving Burns himself, in which he ended up snowed in at a pub in, of all places, Ecclefechan, which is known locally as the Fechan. In the letter, he described the pain of listening to a barmaid sing as being like that of hearing an old sow meeting the butcher’s knife. He said that, in that moment, he could not decide which fate was worse: freezing to death in the Fechan cold or spending the rest of the evening listening to the Fechan barmaid. [Laughter.]

With that, let us go back to Joan McAlpine. She has not only shown me that there is life beyond politics but done something truly special, which goes beyond the achievements that many of us in the chamber could hope for. She has saved anew for the nation one of the most important and significant parts of Burns’s legacy: the home of “Auld Lang Syne”, his farm at Ellisland, which he helped to build and where he wrote some of his best-known works, including that song.

Joan McAlpine would be the first to point out that that has not been achieved single-handedly; it has been a real team effort. Special mention should be made of the distinguished and varied board of voluntary trustees, many of whom are in the public gallery tonight, who have given up their time to take the project to its next stage. However, there is no doubt in my mind that, without Joan’s passion and drive, the moment would have been missed and the project, which had fallen on hard times, would have simply withered and been lost.

Instead, there is now an ambitious initiative that aims to breathe new life into Burns’s legacy and create a world-class visitor destination that, when realised, will be a game changer for the regional economy across Dumfries and Galloway and will deliver a Burns trail in south-west Scotland that is worthy of his name. I hope that the Scottish Government will continue to support the project, through its agencies and its influence with wider stakeholders, to build on the initial funding and backing from South of Scotland Enterprise, the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Holywood Trust, among others.

The Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture is not in the chamber, but I am sure that Jamie Hepburn would be willing to sign him up to visit the project and see more of what Dumfriesshire has to offer. One such offering, which would have been right up Burns’s street—and, I am sure, the cabinet secretary’s—would be the chance to sample the newly matured 10-year-old Man O’Words whisky, named in Burns’s honour, from Annandale Distillery, which itself celebrates its 10th birthday this year. The whisky is served in Burns’s favourite howff, the Globe Inn in Dumfries.

The whole of Dumfries and Galloway owes a great debt of gratitude to Professor David Thomson and Theresa Church for their vision in realising those projects. We look forward to seeing what they have planned for the proposed new Burns quarter in Dumfries.

Of course, I could mention endless other projects and events relating to Burns, but I want to leave the final word with the Big Burns Supper in Dumfries, which has been revived this year after some funding challenges. Putting on that spectacle seems the very least that we can do for a man who continues to inspire and who has done more to promote Dumfries and Scotland than anyone else.

A Scotland without Burns would be less colourful, less rich and more divided. We ignore his literary works and his social, cultural and economic value at our peril.

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to prevent the emergence of a franchise model of GP provision. (S6O-04132)

I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. However, some GP partners are clearly abusing the system by putting themselves forward in multiple practices, not seeing patients, not being involved in patient care and certainly not being present on site. There is one such example in my constituency, in Upper Nithsdale. I have raised the issue with the health board, and the health board pointed back to the contract. However, I do not think that the contract is sufficiently robust to ensure that patients are safe.

I am confused about how the member thinks that family farms being forced to sell up will solve that. If they do so and they put more land on the market, who exactly does he think is going to be buying it?

Will the member take an intervention on that point?

Clearly, it is a huge undertaking for a community group to put in place a bridge at significant expense. Following the First Minister’s visit and the Scottish Government’s welcome funding, will the minister commit to convening a meeting of stakeholders, including the local authority, South of Scotland Enterprise and other potential funders, to drive the project forward?