Lorne Community Association’s MELANIE WEIGANG (below, right) shares her experience of Saturday’s opening of parliament and Big Day Out:
What a day, undoubtedly one of the best days in my life! Being nominated as Local Hero by our MSP Ben Macpherson for Edinburgh Northern and Leith on behalf of the Lorne Community Association (LCA) was already overwhelming but being invited to the Opening of the 5th Session of the Scottish Parliament was certainly a huge honour and thoroughly enjoyable.
My neighbour and fellow LCA committee member Joy Rentoul joined me yesterday on the ‘Big Day Out’ and certainly that’s what it was.
When we arrived at the Parliament in the morning we got to watch the arrival of the Queen in a designated area on big TV screens. Following the Opening Ceremony all Local Heroes then went to view the Queen departing the Scottish Parliament and while she and the Duke of Edinburgh were walking by they were talking to some of us and being part of it was very overwhelming.
Once the Presiding Officer, the First Minister and the leaders of the other parties bade farewell to the Queen it was ‘selfie time’ with Nicola Sturgeon (above) and the other party leaders, while the First Minster was in demand like a rock star and she wholeheartedly gave in to all requests!
After that Ben, Joy and I joined the Riding on the Royal Mile which was an amazing parade with many wonderful organisations participating. We walked down to the front of the Parliament from where we continued to enjoy watching the rest of the Riding passing by and Joy managed to catch a selfie with Scots Makar, Jackie Kay.
We then moved on to the park for lunch. While in the park we managed to catch up with Green MSP Andy Wightman, who is another great supporter of our community and then Ben introduced us to Cabinet Secretary for Communities, Social Security and Equalities, Angela Constance and it was a pleasure to meet her.
After lunch we went back inside the Parliament to enjoy an afternoon full of wonderful entertainment. We enjoyed lots of different live music celebrating Scottish and international culture.
Ben then took us to the Parliamentary Chamber where we took more selfies sitting in the Presiding Officer’s and the First Minister’s seat.
Before we left we went for another coffee downstairs at the café where we bumped into Minister for International Development and Europe, Alasdair Allan who is currently doing a great job at reassuring EU nationals like myself that we are welcome here and had a wee chat with him.
Luckily we also got a chance to thank Kevin Stewart, Minister for Local Government and Housing for his amazing support for our community before we bid farewell to our wonderful host Ben Macpherson. Thank you, Ben for an unforgettable day!
MELANIE WEIGANG
The First Minister’s Speech for the Official Opening of the Scottish Parliament:
Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, Presiding Officer, fellow members of Parliament and distinguished guests.
Today is a day to celebrate our strength, our ambition and our unity.
This is a day to come together.
A day to look forward with hope.
Your Majesty, first and foremost, we want to thank you most sincerely for affording us the honour of opening the fifth session of our Parliament, and for your thoughtful address.
On behalf of everyone in this Chamber – and indeed on behalf of all of the people of Scotland – I would also like to wish your Majesty a very happy 90th birthday year.
Your Majesty, your lifetime of service to others, to your country and the Commonwealth; your deep sense of duty, dignity and respect; and your firm and constant support and affection for Scotland are an inspiration to all of us – and we thank you for it.
Today marks the formal opening of this, the fifth term of our national parliament.
All of us elected to this magnificent chamber feel a deep sense of honour in the trust that the people of Scotland have placed in us.
We come from a diverse variety of backgrounds, but all of us have been given the precious opportunity to contribute to building a better country.
And build it we will.
To do so, we must be bold and ambitious. We must show courage and determination.
Our collective commitment to the people of Scotland today is that we will not shy away from any challenge we face – no matter how difficult or deep-rooted.
We must seek to extend opportunity for everyone, at every stage of their lives.
And as parliamentarians, we must always remember our duty to lead by example – with open, honest and good-spirited debate and discussion; our duty to be a voice for all the people of our country.
When Scotland’s first First Minister, the late Donald Dewar addressed this Parliament at its opening 17 years ago, he delivered one of the finest speeches of our times. He said then that a Scottish Parliament ‘is about more than our politics and our laws. This is about who we are, how we carry ourselves.’
So allow me to reflect on who we are in Scotland today.
We are more than five million men and women – adults, young people and children – each with our own life stories, family histories and our own hopes and dreams.
We are the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the thousands who came from Ireland to work in our shipyards and our factories.
We are the 80,000 Polish people, the 8,000 Lithuanians, the 7,000 each from France, Spain, Germany, Italy and Latvia, who are among the many from countries beyond our shores that we are so privileged to have living here amongst us.
We are the more than half a million people born in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, who have chosen to live in Scotland.
We are the thousands of European students studying at our universities and colleges.
And we are the doctors and nurses from all across our continent and beyond who care for us daily in our National Health Service.
Whether we have lived here for generations or are new Scots, from Europe, India, Pakistan, Africa and countries across the globe, we are all of this, and more.
We are so much stronger for the diversity that shapes us.
We are one Scotland and we are simply home to all those who choose to live here.
That is who and what we are.
And how do we carry ourselves?
We carry ourselves with dignity. We treat others with respect. We celebrate our differences. We are not perfect – far from it – and we make mistakes. But every day – especially in adversity or sadness – we should seek to offer a hand to our neighbour.
A few weeks ago, all of Scotland – including leaders from across this Chamber – stood in solidarity with the victims of the Orlando massacre.
And, today, we fly the Rainbow flag outside our Parliament. We do so with poignancy, but also with great pride – it is yet another vivid illustration and powerful symbol of the open and inclusive nation we are.
The open and inclusive nation we are determined to remain.
This is the Scotland we represent – a country we should never take for granted but instead work hard each and every day to protect and to strengthen.
This Parliament now has the weighty responsibility of taking forward the will of our people in the name and in the spirit of our people.
So let us lead with hope and determination and make this resolution.
We will work every day to achieve greater equality at home and to enhance, and never diminish, our precious place in the world.
We have just heard the inspiring words of our wonderful new Makar, Jackie Kay.
Let me now finish with the words of her predecessor, Liz Lochhead. These words are from ‘Connecting Cultures’, a poem written by Liz to celebrate Commonwealth Day.
These words resonate powerfully, as we think about who we are and as we reflect on our place in the European Union and in the wider world:
Remembering how hard fellow feeling is to summon
When Wealth is what we do not have in Common,
May every individual
And all the peoples in each nation
Work and hope and
Strive for true communication —
Only by a shift and sharing is there any chance
For the Welfare of all our people and Good Governance.
So today, as we celebrate this new beginning, let us look forward with hope and a shared determination to work tirelessly for the good of all of Scotland’s people – and in doing so, to play our part in a stronger Europe and a better world.
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