Torcuil Crichton MP: speeches 2024

Speeches

• 12 Dec 2024 · Business of the House · Hansard source

  More

  I do not know if the Leader of the House has been caught up in the wild swimming trend, which we in the Western Isles just call “swimming in the sea”. One of my constituents has taken that to the limit: Colin S. Macleod, charity fundraiser extraordinaire, has been swimming a mile’s length of the beach every day this year, and he will have raised £8,000 for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution this Saturday when he completes his 1,000-mile Land’s End to Shetland charity swim. Would the Leader of the House join me in congratulating Colin, find time for a debate on open-water swimming, and perhaps join Colin for a dip?

• 12 Dec 2024 · LGBT Veterans: Etherton Review · Hansard source

  More

  I am grateful for your forbearance, Madam Deputy Speaker. I very much welcome the announcement made by the Secretary of State today, although its arrival is almost as late as my own arrival in the Chamber this afternoon, for which I apologise. The ban on LGBT people serving in the armed forces until 2000 was a failure of the state; the delay in announcing reparations is another failure, which is in danger of eroding the public’s faith in politics to deliver for people. I see no point in in blaming the previous Government. In fact, I commend the work of the previous Government and of Lord Etherton, and of our own Government in bringing forward this scheme so swiftly. However, just as we saw with the Hillsborough scandal, the infected blood scandal and the Post Office Horizon scandal, we must move more quickly to compensate people. I concur with the hon. Members for Dumfries and Galloway (John Cooper) and for Aberdeen North (Kirsty Blackman), who emphasised that the scheme must be delivered swiftly and in a measured way. A long delay simply prolongs the agony of the many veterans who have waited decades for an apology and for the formal financial reparations announced today. I have a constituent, Janice MacIver, who served in the British Army and was caught up in this dark period of our history in the 1990s, some 30 years ago. From 1992 to 1994, Ms MacIver served with the Army Intelligence Corps in Hong Kong and England. There was nothing wrong with her work or her service to the country, but, on 30 June 1994, she was unceremoniously and dreadfully kicked out of the British Army and sent back from Hong Kong simply because of who she was. Many veterans affected by this scandal have lost their homes, health and peace of mind because of the awful treatment meted out to them. Ms MacIver is a resilient individual, as islanders tend to be, and she managed to get herself back on her feet. She served her country in another way, as a police officer, with a career of public service spanning two decades. However, as we have heard today, some people never made it that far. What was done to Janice MacIver happened 30 years ago, but she was one of the first over the threshold of my Stornoway constituency office when I was elected. What happened to her still stings, still hurts. She did get a letter of apology from the head of the Army, which she appreciates, and a new beret, and the Intelligence Corps are to welcome her back to base in a ceremony next month. It is fantastic that Janice’s sister is flying from Australia to be with her and support her at that event. The new levels of compensation are very welcome, but for Janice and many other veterans, it is not just about the money; it is about having proper acknowledgment and acceptance that what was done to her—the way she was treated by her country after serving her country—was wrong. This announcement, I hope, will go some way to repairing the damage done. I hope that with this, that sad episode will be done and dusted, but it ought to be recorded and acknowledged in Army records and museums. It belongs in the past. What happened to Janice and to thousands of other veterans was wrong, which is so evident. It is widely acknowledged, and it is a shame it has taken so many years to put it right. However, I am glad of today’s announcement, and hope that LGBT service personnel and veterans can now say, finally, that they have served with pride.

• 6 Dec 2024 · European Union (Withdrawal Arrangements) Bill · Hansard source

  More

  I commend the hon. and learned Gentleman’s passion, but his problems are not unique. Anywhere in the highlands and islands of Scotland, or even in peripheral parts of England, has the same delivery problems as he does.

• 5 Dec 2024 · Business of the House · Hansard source

  More

  Will the Leader of the House join me in congratulating all the winners of the Saltires, Scotland’s national book awards, particularly Jen Stout for her courageous and compassionate dispatches from the frontline in Ukraine? On a lighter note, I congratulate all the Gaelic singers and musicians who triumphed at the Trads in Inverness at the weekend. Will she find Government time for a debate on the Scottish arts, so as to encourage Creative Scotland and the Scottish Government to carry on funding events such as the Eilean Dorcha festival and HebCelt and the dynamic galleries of An Lanntair and Taigh Chearsabhagh in my constituency?

• 28 Nov 2024 · Fishing Industry · Hansard source

  More

  That is true. Our problems are not uniquely island problems, nor are they uniquely Scottish problems: they are demographic, economic and social problems for coastal communities around the whole UK. I know that that is not entirely the responsibility of the Minister. Having risked the ire of the Home Office, rather than the Minister, I will carry on and risk the anger of my hon. Friends the Members for Truro and Falmouth (Jayne Kirkham) and for South East Cornwall (Anna Gelderd), and possibly of the hon. Member for St Ives (Andrew George). I am after their tuna, or rather our tuna. One quota for which the Minister does have responsibility is the bluefin tuna stocks, which have increased significantly. Thanks to climate change, bluefin tuna are roaming far north and wild in the Atlantic. There has been a great decade-long catch-and-release scheme around the British coast. The catch is by rod and line, so the catches are selective, of good quality and of the same stock as those caught in other regions of the UK. They have the potential to be a great home market and export market. The UK was allocated something like 39 tonnes of bluefin tuna in 2023, but so far none of those commercial licences has been granted to a Scottish boat. All 13 were granted to the south-west of England; none of them has come to Scotland, far less to the Hebrides, where operators have set themselves up not just as rod-and-line operators, but potentially as smokers and exporters to the domestic and international markets. For all the quota to be allocated to one area seems very odd. It is not what we would expect. We might expect weight to be placed on geography and on socioeconomic impacts: a bluefin tuna fishery in the Western Isles would be economically significant. For rod-and-line operators and others who have prepared themselves to turn commercial, it is deeply frustrating to be turned off in that way.

• 28 Nov 2024 · Fishing Industry · Hansard source

  More

  You can say the Western Isles.

• 28 Nov 2024 · Fishing Industry · Hansard source

  More

  I will turn my attention to GB Energy in a moment. First, I make another appeal to the Minister that from next year onwards the UK ought to allocate commercial bluefin tuna licences not on a “first come, first served” basis, or however the system works, but on a geographic and socioeconomic basis. While I have the Minister’s ear and we are talking about quotas, let me make an appeal for spurdog fishery, which is managed by the UK Government and allocated on a monthly quota basis to all vessels. Due to the introduction of a management measure banning the landing of individual fish over 100 cm in length, fishermen have been unable to develop a market. All buyers who show an interest in spurdog indicate that they would far rather have spurdog over 100 cm. As a result of the measure, local fishermen end up dumping large fish, which could secure—and, prior to the ban, did secure—higher prices. Some relaxation on the question of permitting the landing of spurdog over 100 cm would at least open a limited marketing opportunity for fishermen on those vessels. I do not want to wade into the big debate on quotas, on total catch allowances and on 2026—or perhaps I do. I will just wish the Minister well and ask him to consider some of the ideas that my hon. Friend the Member for that famous fishing port Brent West highlighted in his contribution. The quota should belong to no one. It should not be used to enrich those who are already rich from our seas; it should be treated as a national resource and a socioeconomic asset to be distributed according to port, postcode and socioeconomic need. As I say, there should also be a system of community quota, whereby excess quota or new quota is allocated to municipalities or regional development agencies to ensure that it is attached to landing ports and that it creates local jobs in coastal communities. There has been a lot of talk about GB Energy, spatial squeeze and the conflict between the fishing industry and the new offshore wind farm industry. I understand why the conflict exists. The developments are somewhat controversial, but they would be less controversial if the offshore industry, like the onshore industry, were forced to provide a community benefit or community share or to pay more to the Crown Estate Commission for permission to make wealth from wind, which should, of course, belong to no one. If those funds were allocated regionally and locally, we could address the data deficiency to which the right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland and my hon. Friend the Member for Brent West referred. We could create our own marine research centres in our coastal communities—not necessarily run by the Government, but certainly run by those communities—so that in the competition for data and in arguments with environmentalists and with Governments, we can have the science, we can tell what is in the waters around us and we can tell how the environment is shaping up. These are leaps of the imagination, perhaps, for the quota system, but they should be considered seriously by the Government and by the fishing industry itself, if fishing is to have a future as well as a past.

• 28 Nov 2024 · Fishing Industry · Hansard source

  More

  indicated assent.

• 28 Nov 2024 · Fishing Industry · Hansard source

  More

  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Huq. I thank the Backbench Business Committee and the right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael) for this important debate. I particularly thank the right hon. Gentleman for the tribute he paid to our fishermen who face dangers at sea each day—“For those in peril on the sea”. The hon. Member for Dumfries and Galloway (John Cooper) referred to the loss of the Solway Harvester; I well remember covering that tragedy as a journalist, and the shadow it cast on the Isle of Whithorn and Kirkcudbrightshire. My fishing community and the other communities I represent are quite different from those constituencies. The Western Isles account for 22% of the inshore waters in what is mostly an inshore fishery, although that might well have been 0% of Scotland’s inshore fishing grounds if the SNP-Green coalition had got away with its ludicrous plans for highly protected marine areas, which the hon. Member for Gordon and Buchan (Harriet Cross) highlighted. Although those plans were defeated, pushed away by a rebellion across Scotland’s coast and the songwriting power of Skipinnish, and have been put away for now, they have created a high level of uncertainty, which means that some fishermen are deciding whether to stay or leave the industry. In the Western Isles, the picture is mixed and somewhat rosy. We have had some £12 million-worth of tonnage landed in the past couple of years—something like 3,000 tonnes, of which almost 90% is shellfish and only 11% is white fish. Marine Scotland shows that there are 215 registered fishing vessels—small fishing vessels, like those for which my hon. Friend the Member for Brent West (Barry Gardiner) has just made the case—and something like 290 fishers, or about 7% of Scotland’s national total. The industry faces many different challenges in different constituencies, but we have a lot in common. I will give some attention to one of the biggest challenges facing the industry and the associated processing sector in the Western Isles. It was a pleasure to go to the annual general meeting of the Western Isles Fishermen’s Association a couple of weeks ago and see so many young faces among the attendees. There are young entrants to the industry, helped by locally administered schemes that encourage entrants. One such scheme is community quotas, which the Western Isles council, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, has bought and which it licenses from quota to new entrants. That all helps people into the fishing industry and has a significant impact. That glimmer of hope should not mask something that is a problem for the islands’ industry, the Scottish industry and the UK industry: the lack of skilled crews. The demographics in the Western Isles are not good. Although I have talked about young entrants, the working-age population has dropped by 12% over the past 10 years, and there has been a 26% rise in the elderly population. All employers are competing for a reduced number of school leavers, and virtually all sectors are dependent on sourcing migrant labour to grow their business. The most important ask from the Western Isles fishing industry is that the Minister recognise that there has to be some flexibility in immigration policy to allow the needs and demands of rural and island areas to be accepted. The current sponsored employment scheme seems to have been based on city and urban salaries; it ignores the variation in wages in rural and island communities, which of course are lower and are coupled with increased food, energy and transport costs. I suspect that the £70,000 salary for a processor that my hon. Friend the Member for Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes (Melanie Onn) mentioned has as much to do with the lack of skilled people as it does with the skills involved in doing the job. Only this week, I had some correspondence from the Isle of Barra. Barratlantic is one of the large seafood processors on our island chain. Christina MacNeil, the general manager, tells me that in 35 years of working in the seafood industry, things have never been more difficult. There is huge demand for langoustine and scallop, but supplying customers is becoming increasingly difficult because of the lack of staff. We can imagine how difficult it is on a small island. She has four Filipino workers, who have been employed there since April 2023; they came through the sponsorship scheme, but given the nature of the work and the lack of available staff, the company needs some flexibility in order to retain them. It can just about manage the salaries now, but if they increased to £38,000 a year the operation would be impossible. The company has been in operation for 50 years, but its future is in the balance because of restrictive immigration schemes. It is the same for fishermen. It is impossible to employ UK crews, as we know, so they must look overseas. Once again, cost is a criterion, but so too is the visa system. Crews need an English qualification at a very high level, which means that they are almost barred from entry. That creates huge difficulties for fishing boat owners and processors in my constituency. My plea to the Minister—it is echoed by others such as the hon. Member for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East (Seamus Logan), who is no longer in his place, as well as the Migration Advisory Council and almost every coastal community—is that there be flexibility in the visa system. We do not need a separate visa system, as some Scottish colleagues might argue. There is no need to replicate the system: we just need enough flex to take into account the needs of island and rural areas.

• 26 Nov 2024 · Coastal Infrastructure: Scotland · Hansard source

  More

  I congratulate my hon. Friend on obtaining his second Adjournment debate. Does he agree that in the transition away from industrial ports and towards tourism, both the UK and Scottish Governments must invest to avoid the pressure of tourism hotspots? We must use the full force of both Governments, and of capital, to invest in and change our ports to make them fit for the green transition to renewables. Given the challenge of climate change, does he agree that we must defend our coastal communities and invest in causeways such as the Baleshare causeway in my constituency, and in ports and harbours all around the coast, to makes sure that they are defended from rising tides and the effects of climate change?

• 26 Nov 2024 · Project Gigabit · Hansard source

  More

  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dowd. I thank the hon. Member for Farnham and Bordon (Gregory Stafford) for raising this important issue today. However, I wonder if he could come with me for a few seconds, away from Surrey, to Diracleit on the Isle of Harris, where I stood a few weeks ago. It is a small settlement, with only a few houses and a few social houses on the main road, but it is an internet desert. There are three tourism businesses in that settlement that know they are losing money, losing paying guests and losing their minds with frustration because of slow internet connections. Despite superfast broadband fibre running along the main spine of the Western Isles, and many success stories—people can work for software companies in California from Lewis, and for insurance companies and accountancy firms in Glasgow and London—to be a few hundred metres off the beaten track is to remain in an internet desert. In Harris, 10% of households are unable to get decent broadband, and the same is true across the rest of the Western Isles: 10% of households cannot get speeds over 10 megabits per second. Some of us are living life in the slow lane. Diracleit, small as it is, is not hard to reach; it is only one mile from the streetlights and sophistication of Tarbert in Harris—the ferry port and the centre of the Harris universe—and there are many other places in the Western Isles and rural Scotland just like Diracleit. Scotland has a scheme similar to the UK gigabit voucher scheme: the Scottish broadband voucher scheme. Theoretically, that scheme would provide £5,000 to premises with speeds of less than 30 megabits per second and, theoretically, it was meant to be completed in 2021. However, it is still in the procurement stage. In response to a recent freedom of information request, the Scottish Government revealed that they expect the roll-out of superfast broadband through the R100, or Reaching 100%, scheme to reach everywhere by 2028. I do not know how many megabits per second there are until 2028 but, even in Scotland, the SNP manages to build ferries faster than that. There are some successes. For example, the holy island of Iona has received superfast broadband. That is very good for Columba’s monks, who can now put down their quills and pick up their keyboards, but in the Western Isles, we feel we are waiting a long time. People and businesses in Diracleit and dozens of other single-track road settlements are staring at that never-connecting wheel of death. I know the Minister is under pressure to deliver for rural England, but I urge him to have words with Ministers in Scotland, who have let down the Western Isles and many other parts of rural Scotland. I hope he can press them to connect us—perhaps he could send them an email.

• 21 Nov 2024 · Business of the House · Hansard source

  More

  I echo and add my condolences to the family of the late Lord John Prescott: one man, two Jags, three election wins. While COP29 in faraway Baku may make environmental problems seem far away too, climate change is very real: rising tides mean the legendry beach runway on the isle of Barra now has limited use; storm surges regularly cut off Baleshare from neighbouring North Uist; and crofters in my constituency now over-winter their stock on the mainland. Will the Leader of the House find some Government time for a debate on how climate change affects our coastal communities?

• 13 Nov 2024 · Future of the Post Office · Hansard source

  More

  I welcome the Minister’s comments on the Horizon scandal, which affected sub-postmasters in every constituency, including mine. However, I must express concern about Stornoway post office being on the list of the 115 possible closures. The loss of the main post office would be a dreadful blow for the town, so I urge the Minister and the Post Office to ensure that islanders have full physical access to Crown post office services. All options must be considered—except closure.

• 12 Nov 2024 · House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill · Hansard source

  More

  Although the hon. Gentleman wants to get rid of the hereditaries, his party seems to want to create a hereditary system by allowing the right hon. Member for Aberdeen South (Stephen Flynn) to stand for the Scottish Parliament.

• 11 Nov 2024 · Poverty · Hansard source

  More

  5. What steps she is taking to help reduce levels of poverty.

• 11 Nov 2024 · Poverty · Hansard source

  More

  I thank the Minister for that answer and the assurance from the Dispatch Box that the maximum level of debt repayment from a household’s universal credit is to be reduced from 25% to 15% each month. That is great news for Scottish families, who could benefit by an average of £420 a year. Much of that debt management is carried out at the DWP centre in Stornoway in my constituency, and some 65 of the 80 staff there are involved in responding to calls nationally. That is a good example of job dispersal, and their service is high quality and is now involved in reducing poverty. I encourage the Minister to come and meet the staff there, to meet clients and to see the operation for herself.

• 6 Nov 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

  More

  Q14. I echo the Prime Minister’s sentiments towards that other son of Lewis—although I wish that I had woken up today in the Isle of Harris. My constituents there face long delays, cancellations and loss of service because of the SNP’s incompetent handling of ferry procurement. In last week’s Budget the Scottish Government received a record settlement. May I urge the Prime Minister to tell Scottish Ministers to use that to improve public services in Scotland, to invest in the NHS in Na h-Eileanan an Iar, to build schools in places such as Barra and finally to fix the ferry fiasco?

• 5 Nov 2024 · Scotland’s Architectural Heritage · Hansard source

  More

  I thank my hon. Friend for the point that Glasgow is a cultural lighthouse and a beacon, although much decayed in present days, as he has noted. Its buildings do speak to the world, and hopefully will again when the Mack is restored. Winston Churchill said: “We shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us.” —[ Official Report , 28 October 1943; Vol. 393, c. 403.] The Mack and Glasgow School of Art has certainly done that. It is a 20th century dynamo that has produced some of the most talented British artistic practitioners we have seen. Doctor Who went to Glasgow School of Art in the shape of Peter Capaldi, who is my favourite Doctor. Coincidentally, my good friend Annie Grace, a piper who was also at Glasgow School of Art, is sharing the stage with another Doctor, David Tennant, in the west end production of “Macbeth”. It is not just the previous students we have to think about.

• 5 Nov 2024 · Scotland’s Architectural Heritage · Hansard source

  More

  I thank the hon. Lady for that intervention and I will say later what is or is not considered an act of God.

• 5 Nov 2024 · Scotland’s Architectural Heritage · Hansard source

  More

  I heartily agree: the links across the Irish sea between Scotland and Northern Ireland are well known, and the influence of Scottish architecture, as I will go on to demonstrate, is worldwide. Hon. Members have talked about other stories, but above Sauchiehall Street, wrapped in a white plastic shroud, is the burnt-out shell of the Mack. The site is sealed, like a sarcophagus, against the elements. The art school board, the engineers, the architects and the firefighters have all done their utmost and the walls are still standing, but there is no sign of a phoenix rising from these ashes. The architectural value of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s masterpiece is recognised all over the world. It was built in two phases, from 1897 to 1899 and again from 1907 to 1909. There has never been a building like it, whether in Scotland, the UK or the world. It is the inspired design of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. He was only 29 when he started work on it, which is quite humbling. Of course he did not do it on his own and he did not spring from nowhere. Not far from here, in west Kensington, the inspiration for a young Mackintosh can be found in the work of another Scottish architect, James M MacLaren. His towers and delicate spires find an echo in the masterpiece on Garnethill, which contains strands of Japanese design, modernism, art nouveau and sheer genius. It was by combining three elements—imagination, engineering and art; as good a definition of good architecture as one can get—that the Mack was created. Unlike many of our other monumental buildings, it actually worked. For over a century, the Mackintosh building performed the purpose for which it was designed, combining exquisite craftmanship and design while producing an incredible production line of talent. I never attended art school, but I was a citizen of Glasgow for many years and I did live next door to the Mack for a time. The second city was my second home, and I have many lifelong friends who are graduates of Glasgow School of Art. As the song goes, “the art school dance goes on forever”. The Mack runs through our personal lives as much as it does through the life of the nation. In my constituency, I have many friends who are alumni of the Mack, such as my good friend Calum Angus Mackay, a photographer, painter and TV producer, who only recently produced a retrospective of 40 years of work since he left the Mack; Roddy Murray, the director of An Lanntair art gallery, ex-Dreamboy, local hero, actor and writer; his cousin, Ishbel Murray, and her brother Kenneth, who are both teachers and fine artists; Maggie Smith, a Harris tweed designer; Kenneth Burns, a landscape painter who has chronicled Glasgow and his native islands; Christine Davidson; and many others. Outwith the islands, there is Andy Scott, the internationally renowned figurative sculpture of the Kelpies, and my friend David Pratt, a photojournalist and war correspondent, who turned his unflinching lens on the flames of the art school as it was consumed a second time. The impact and influence of the art school has been profound on all our lives—not just on those who were lucky enough to pass through its doors. Its structure is integral to Scotland’s identity and central to the image of brand Scotland we want to portray, and an asset to the UK on the world stage.

• 5 Nov 2024 · Scotland’s Architectural Heritage · Hansard source

  More

  My hon. Friend echoes the bare bones, or the Z shape, of Glasgow School of Art board’s economic case—that the Glasgow School of Art, and the Mack building, is the anchor for that whole zone of development in Glasgow city centre, because it is such an important landmark, one of national importance, of which we are all collectively the custodians. It should fall on us as a nation to restore the building to its glory. This Government should be willing and ready to engage with the Glasgow School of Art board in that project. It is no less than what Glasgow, Scotland and the legacy of Charles Rennie Mackintosh deserve. When Notre Dame was consumed by flames, the French Government threw the entire strength of the state into the effort of restoration—whatever it took, whatever it cost. Calling on talents from all over the world, they rebuilt that symbol of the nation in record time. I am not questioning the ability or the experience of the architects and engineers involved in the restoration project in Glasgow, or the commitment of Glasgow School of Art to return the Mack into a working undergraduate school, but I am calling on the UK Government to be ready and willing to help. Some have argued that the responsibility for restoring Mackintosh’s masterpiece should be taken out of the hands of the arts school and placed in an independent body, such as a specialist board of trustees or an Olympic-style delivery system. There are templates for that that have worked before, but it would need careful consideration and talks between all parties. The aim is the same—everyone has the same destination, and that destination is restoration. I am not calling on the Department to bigfoot the art school or trample on the duties of the Scottish Government. I am just calling for positive engagement from the UK Government, for them to roll up their sleeves and find a solution for what everyone wants—the restoration of the Mack. It can be done; I am sure it will be done. Evidence for what can be done is not far from us, in the Chamber of the House of Commons. Bombed out in 1941, faithfully restored after the war, it is still working its political alchemy on us all. That is what we want for the Mackintosh building, too—for it to rise from the rubble, to work its artistic magic on students, on Glasgow, on Scotland and the world.

• 5 Nov 2024 · Scotland’s Architectural Heritage · Hansard source

  More

  I beg to move, That this House has considered Government support for Scotland’s architectural heritage. It is a pleasure to serve again under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. Given my constituency, Mr Efford, you and the Minister might expect me to use this debate to make an appeal for the continued restoration of Kisimul castle, which is the jewel of Castlebay on the isle of Barra, or to talk about the lottery funded virtues of the restored Lews castle on Stornoway. Worthy as both those projects are, time is short, so I will move directly to my main subject, which is the role that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the UK Government could play in responding to what is not a local or Scottish issue but a national and international tragedy: the restoration of Glasgow School of Art’s Mackintosh building. I make a direct appeal to the Minister and to the Government to reach out and help with the complete restoration of the Mack. It is a full 10 years since fire first broke out at the Mackintosh building, as students prepared for their final degree show. Scotland wept—we all wept—as the news broke and the fire spread through the building, destroying the Mack’s library, which was one of the most famous examples of art nouveau design in the world. The situation was grave, but a £35-million restoration was nearly complete in June 2018 when a second fire ripped through the building, engulfed the whole site and left a burnt-out shell of what should be a grade I listed building—the crowning achievement of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Scotland is still grieving and Glasgow is still in trauma over the loss of the Mack. The pall of it still hangs over the city and the tang of burnt timbers could still be smelt on Garnethill when I walked up to the art school last week. I think that is mostly because of the demolition of the neighbouring ABC building, which continues apace. The fire that damaged that building also took with it Charles McNair’s art deco entrance, so that portico has also been lost to the city. Indeed, much of Glasgow’s incredible built heritage is in danger of falling, either to the elements, to neglect, to lack of funding or to simple malicious demolition.

• 5 Nov 2024 · Scotland’s Architectural Heritage · Hansard source

  More

  I think my hon. Friend was referring to Charles McNair’s portico in the ABC cinema, which has sadly been demolished. She spoke of generations of art students, past and present. It is for the educational experience of future students and those currently undergoing their studies at Glasgow School of Art that we should take cognisance of what is happening. They should not be overlooked. In the years following the fire and in the absence of the Mack—the beating heart of the school—students were dispersed across the campus estate to workshops and exhibition spaces. That removed them from the concentrated network of experience that makes art education so enriching. It is essential that the building is restored so that generations more artists and students can feel the vibrancy and alchemy of Mackintosh’s masterpiece. Despite a global outpouring of support and donations after the first fire, the restoration project following the second fire suffered a series of setbacks, and those setbacks only fuel the anger, pain and frustration of all those who love the Mack. A report by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service published two years ago concluded that the 2018 blaze was so fierce and all-consuming that the cause might never be known. Earlier this year, the art school, which is frustrated, as is everyone who loves the Mack, initiated an arbitration process with the insurers over what the hon. Member for North East Fife (Wendy Chamberlain) might describe as an act of God. It is a complex case and a complex claim. It does not take in the whole insurable cost of the building, but it has been slow and has brought the restoration to a halt until the case is resolved. In 2023, the art school management also had to abandon its search for an architect to lead the restoration. The meter, of course, is running on that restoration because of a flaw in the procurement process, but thankfully, the GSA board is working on a fresh business case, which will consider the economic and cultural impact of the art school not just on Glasgow but on the rest of Britain and on the world. It will also take into account the pressures of the modern era—the rising cost of living, the pandemic and wars—and the effects they have on the cost of construction and particularly the cost of heritage reconstruction. I am told that revised costs and completion dates will not be available until early 2025. Leading architects, politicians—such as my good friend Paul Sweeney MSP, formerly of this House—and heritage experts have expressed dismay at the lack of progress. They fear, as do many others who have the best interests of the art school at heart, that the project is faltering. The Mack is a landmark of national importance, and we are all collectively the custodians of it.

• 5 Nov 2024 · Future of Fishing · Hansard source

  More

  rose—

• 5 Nov 2024 · Future of Fishing · Hansard source

  More

  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. I thank the hon. Member for Great Yarmouth (Rupert Lowe) for staging this important debate. As he would not take an intervention, I am forced on to my feet to make a speech, if only to ask him whether he is aware that two thirds of the UK’s fishing quota is owned by just 25 businesses, and that 80% of England’s fishing quota is in the hands of foreign owners or families who appear on the Sunday Times rich list each year. How we will resolve that foreign ownership of the fleet and the quota is a question that he must answer in his conclusion. I come here fresh from the annual general meeting of the Western Isles Fishermen’s Association in my constituency. While fishing quotas are devolved to another Parliament, I think the principles that I will address—on which I might find common ground with the hon. Member —are points worth making. The Western Isles Fishermen’s Association looks on Brexit, as many of us do, as having just one glimmer of hope, and that is the return of fishing quota to the UK Government. It has led to additional fishing quota being available, at least for the next two years, and the distribution of that quota is devolved among all different Governments. The Western Isles Fishermen’s Association argues, as I do, that that is a national resource and should be distributed in a system that is fair, and that takes into account, as the hon. Member says, the economic linkage between quotas, fragile coastal communities, and those that are adjacent to quotas. If the quota is distributed according to historical catching patterns, it will simply go to those on the Sunday Times rich list and the foreign shipping owners he so deplores. On the historical track record, the distribution of quota would not give any opportunity to our coastal communities. The system has to be rethought, it has to be linked, and additional quota has to be given to municipal or local authorities in order that they can share or lease that quota to locally based boats and build up—as the hon. Member wants too—from very small beginnings a new pelagic fleet, new processing and a new future.