Chamber and committees

The issue of the Scotch whisky definition being changed as a result of the proposal for a definition of English whisky concerns me as well. Will the cabinet secretary confirm her understanding of what the proposal is?

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, for allowing me to finagle wi ma keyboard to make sure that it will actually stand up to the debate.

I thank Clare Adamson for securing the debate. She has articulated very well in her motion and in her speech the importance of Brownsbank cottage and the work that is being done by the trustees and volunteers on what is, though it may be an underappreciated corner of Scotland’s literary tradition, a shining star in 20th century history. I am proud to be an MSP for the area. Clare Adamson has welcomed everybody to chamber, and I masel will welcome everyyin tae the chamber the nicht, tae.

MacDiarmid was born and schooled in Langholm, also known as the muckle toon and pairt o my South Scotland region. For the first 60 years of his life, however, his home is hard to pin down, although his formative years appear again and again in his work, with large sections of “A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle” referring back to his youth in Langholm.

After leaving Langholm academy, he wound up in Edinburgh, followed by Ebbw Vale in Wales, Clydebank, Forfar and Montrose; then—in the space of a little over a decade—came London, Liverpool, West Sussex and Whalsay in Shetland, where visitors today can stay in the hoose he made his hame for nine years; and then Glasgow, Dungavel and finally, too, Brownsbank.

It may have been his last home, but it was his longest lasting, and its preservation is a tribute to his wife Valda, who he predeceased, and to the trustees and volunteers who have worked so hard over the years to maintain and promote Brownsbank as a memorial to the man and his body of work.

MacDiarmid’s role in the use of the Scots language and its written form cannae be overestimated, and colleagues will shairly ken how important the Scots leid is tae me in the chamber. Hugh MacDiarmid wance said of the Scots leid:

“One of the most distinctive characteristics of the Vernacular, part of its very essence, is its insistent recognition of the body, the senses ... This explains the unique blend of the lyrical and the ludicrous”.

He demonstrated that through his own body of work: always lyrical and frequently ludicrous, surreal and moving. His publishing in Scots gave credence to the language at a time when received wisdom and the dominant establishment view was that Scots was the language of the gutter or of the undereducated.

Reading again through “A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle” for today’s debate, I think that his love and admiration for another Scots poet, Robert Burns, shines through, although perhaps not his admiration for some who hing their pegs on his poetry while missing the human meaning behind it. Both poets shared a lowland Scots upbringing and a sense that Scotland and its people needed recorded and shared with others, but in a multiplicity of ways, with the diversity of our land at the heart of what they wrote—or, as MacDiarmid himself said:

“Scotland small? Our multiform, our infinite Scotland small?”

No doubt Burns would have smiled as MacDiarmid scrieved that oot.

Next year, MacDiarmid’s “The Bonnie Broukit Bairn” will be added to the higher English set text list. It is a tribute to his body of work and to the impact that he has had on our nation’s sense of its literary self and the language that we use day after day, that tens o thoosans o weans an bairns will hae the chance tae study his verse in the same context as Burns, Stevenson and John Byrne. In the same way, the work of Brownsbank is keeping alive MacDiarmid’s legacy and life fur oor generation and future generations, celebrating a body o work that has stood, and will stand, the test o time as the work o one o oor great poets and writers.

[Applause.]

I do not think that I have time. I normally take interventions, but the time remaining is short and I want to cover the many notes that I made during other members’ speeches.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Arla Foods gave a massive vote of confidence to the Dumfriesshire economy, with the news that it will create up to 90 jobs at its Lockerbie dairy processing facility as it expands for the future. Dumfries and Galloway is the core of Scotland’s dairy industry. As the Minister for Agriculture and Connectivity told me at portfolio question time the other week, the Scottish Government is helping to support Arla’s continued success.

The events in Ukraine over the past three years have shown the perils of our relying so heavily on food imports. Before the war, 50 per cent of world sunflower oil production happened in Ukraine, and 18 per cent of barley and 12 per cent of wheat came from Ukraine. The Russian invasion has meant that prices for those basic foodstuffs have shot through the roof and at times obtaining supplies has been precarious. Food security is absolutely a concern, so it is good to hear the cabinet secretary mention that. We need a strong and vibrant food and drink sector domestically, not only because it supports tens of thousands of rural jobs but because it reduces our reliance on overseas imports that, as we have seen, can stop or slow down at the whim of a dictator such as President Putin.

We have a booming food and drink sector in Scotland, despite the weight of Brexit hanging around the necks of the whole industry. Members should be clear that restored membership of the EU and the customs union, in line with the express will of the people of Scotland, is, in both the short and the long term, in the best interests of our economy. It is to the shame of the main parties at Westminster that they are simply not interested in carrying out the will of the people of Scotland.

Those who campaigned to tear Scotland out of the EU should apologise to every farmer, every agriculture business and every food and drink producer in the land for the increased costs and the red tape that their disastrous kamikaze Brexit has imposed. As President Trump rampages across international trade and tariff policies, the UK is now uniquely exposed to his irrational wrath, unlike the EU, which is able to work collectively to protect its food production agri-industries.

It is a tribute to the tenacity, ingenuity and hard work of those food and drink businesses that they are maintaining their high quality, but we all know that Brexit has prevented them from being able to go that extra mile and ramp things up to the next level. I am grateful that we have a Scottish Government that has done its level best, within the straitjacket of Westminster diktat, to minimise the harms that Brexit has caused and to stand up for the food and drink industry in Scotland and especially in the south of our country.

I welcome the motion from the cabinet secretary, and the opportunity to highlight how the south of Scotland is in the premier league when it comes to food and drink in Scotland and the world. The south of Scotland has some of the best produce in the world, which is prepared by some of the best chefs and kitchen staff into some of the finest food and drink in the world.

I have spoken about many of the wonderful producers and restaurants in previous debates in the chamber. We also make whisky in the south of Scotland: at Bladnoch distillery near Wigtown, Annandale distillery at Annan, and the Borders distillery at Hawick, and now also at the Crafty distillery at Newton Stewart and, of course, Moffat distillery. They all produce some very fine whiskies, with an increasingly positive global reputation.

However, that reputation was—and maybe still is—in danger of being harmed through the unfathomable actions of the UK Government recently, with its proposals to create a geographical indication for English whisky and slip in changes to the malt whisky definition through the back door. The Scotch Whisky Association has slammed that proposal—thank goodness that it was spotted and called out. Single malt means product from one distillery, both mashing and distillation—not just mashing it anywhere and then bringing it in and distilling it in one place.

Just last week, we saw a slew of nominations for south of Scotland agribusinesses at the Scottish Countryside Alliance awards. Rachael Hamilton mentioned some of them already, such as Scott’s of Kelso. I will add: Five Kingdoms Brewery from the Isle of Whithorn, the Ship Inn at Drummore, and the Selkirk Arms Hotel in Kirkcudbright, among others. They were all nominated for awards.

I also could not miss the opportunity to plug the Stranraer oyster festival, which will take place this September. It was first held in 2017 and now attracts more than 20,000 visitors every year. It is a huge boon to the local economy, and a tribute to the hard work of the Stranraer Development Trust and its partners in developing such a successful event. I know that the cabinet secretary is familiar with oysters and the oyster festival and has visited it on a number of occasions. The oyster festival shows the kind of innovation that takes place in our food and drink sector across the south, with support from the Scottish Government and South of Scotland Enterprise and other agencies.

I acknowledge the work of Richard Lochhead, in shaping the Government’s direction towards promoting the high end of the food and drink markets. During his tenure as Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Food and Environment, he saw the huge potential in ensuring that Scotland’s leading rural food and drink sector was recognised globally for its quality. A decade on, those efforts are now being led by the current cabinet secretary, who is sitting in front of me. I am pleased that it is demonstrably clear that Scotland’s food and drink sector is a global leader.

However, it is not only at the high-rolling end of the market that the south of Scotland is doing well.

Ahead of lambing season this year, what is the Scottish Government doing to raise awareness, including in Dumfries and Galloway and in the Borders, of the consequences for owners whose out-of-control dogs chase, attack and kill—or worry—livestock when accessing the countryside, given the Dogs (Protection of Livestock) (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2021, which updated and strengthened the previous law?

Sandesh Gulhane mentioned James Blackwood and AI. I understand that he came here to give a presentation at a briefing organised by the Scottish Parliament information centre and is now engaging with NHS Dumfries and Galloway to look at rolling out some of the techniques and sharing his knowledge, so progress is being made. Would you not agree that the fact that he is now working with NHS Dumfries and Galloway shows that progress is being made?

It is welcome that the Scottish Government acted quickly and established NHS Scotland assure to improve how we manage risk in the healthcare built environment across Scotland. Can the cabinet secretary expand on how NHS Scotland assure works with boards to provide a co-ordinated approach to risk management across the NHS estate, as set out in his statement?

What is the reason for the reduction in beef cattle? The climate emergency was declared in Scotland in April 2019, but you say that the reduction in beef cattle has been happening for 20 years. Is there more than one reason why the number of beef cattle has been reduced? Is it a global thing, or is it just local to Scotland? What is going on?

Cover crops such as oats can help to improve conditions for ground-nesting birds—black grouse, for instance.

Sitting here, listening to talk about co-production, co-design, co-delivery and co-involvement, is really similar to the experience I had when we were looking at the national care service and talking about co-design, lived experience and engaging folk. When I was a nurse educator, I had to get to the nurses on the ground so that they knew what was coming doon the line. Jonnie Hall says that farmers are saying, “Just tell me what you want me to do,” but that is engagement, not co-design. It is complicated and difficult.

I am thinking about how we deliver healthcare change. We talk aboot it being like moving a giant oil tanker to get healthcare embedded in our national health service. I am thinking back to what Pete Ritchie said at the beginning about how education should be the priority on the wedding cake and should be the first thing that we deal with. I am thinking about that—