Scottish Ministers will enter structured talks with the Scottish Green Party, supported by the civil service, with a view to reaching a formal Co-operation Agreement.
The initiative is part of a refreshed pledge to change politics in Scotland for the better by working with opposition parties to find the best solutions to the toughest of problems, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said.
In the weeks leading up to the next Parliamentary Recess talks will be ongoing and focus on agreeing policy areas which the government and the Scottish Green Party will co-operate on.
During a statement to Parliament this afternoon the First Minister told the Chamber that she is committed to compromise and constructive conversations as she extended an open offer to collaborate with all of the elected parties.
A cross-party steering group on Covid Recovery has already been established by the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Covid Recovery to welcome all contributions to secure a strong recovery from the pandemic.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “In Scotland and across the world we have massive challenges to confront and overcome: a global pandemic, the climate emergency, and the need to build an economic recovery that is strong, sustainable and fair.
“In the face of all of that, people across Scotland expect – indeed, demand – a grown-up and co-operative approach to politics that puts the interests of the country first.
“We want to reach out and find the best solutions to the toughest of problems. Our duty is to co-operate and not to find the lowest common denominator, but as a way of raising the bar higher.
“I can confirm that the Scottish Government and the Scottish Green Party will enter structured talks, supported by the civil service, with a view to reaching, if we can, a formal Co-operation Agreement.
“Exactly what the content, extent and scope of any Agreement will be is what the talks will focus on but what we hope to achieve is potentially groundbreaking.
“The key point for today is that we are both agreeing to come out of our comfort zones to find new ways of working for the common good to change the dynamic of our politics for the better, and give meaning to the founding principles of our Parliament.
“What we are embarking on will require compromise on both sides but it will also require us to be bold and given the challenges we face, that is a good thing, in fact it is the whole point. By working together we can help build a better future for Scotland.”
Responding, Scottish Greens Co-Leader Lorna Slater MSP said: “Scotland desperately needs a green recovery from the pandemic that leaves no-one behind, while time is running out for meaningful action on the climate emergency.
“The Scottish Greens have always worked constructively with other parties, delivering meaningful change like free bus travel for young people, and earlier this month the public returned the largest ever Green group to parliament to take that work further and faster. We hope that through these talks we can deliver real change.”
The Greens have drawn from the experience of their colleagues in Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, and have held discussions between the two-parties’ Co-Leaders in recent weeks.
Patrick Harvie MSP said: “Politics does not have to be about point-scoring and short-termism. Green parties across Europe and in countries like New Zealand have in recent years rolled up their sleeves and worked with other parties to deliver a better future.
“But they have also shown that there is more than one way for government and opposition parties to work together, without losing the ability to challenge one another. We believe the people of Scotland want to see grown-up politics like this, and will approach the forthcoming talks in this spirit”
Talks between the Scottish Government and the Scottish Green Party are expected to conclude before the next Parliamentary Recess.
Lothian MSP, Miles Briggs, said:“These figures show the devastating affect that Covid-19 has had on Care Homes in Scotland.
“My thoughts are with all the families whose loved ones have died from Covid-19 throughout the last year.
“SNP Ministers were completely unprepared for Covid-19, with a lack of PPE and unclear guidance for care homes.
“The decision by SNP Ministers to move Covid-19 positive hospital patients to care homes, without being tested, is the single biggest failure throughout the pandemic.
“The Scottish Conservatives have called for a full public inquiry into care home deaths in Scotland and these figures reinforce the need for that inquiry.”
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has announced her new Cabinet line-up following the recent election.
Following the reappointment yesterday (18 May) of John Swinney as Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Covid Recovery, taking responsibility for driving cross-government action on Covid Recovery, the rest of the top tier ministerial appointments have been confirmed.
The First Minister said: “I’m delighted to announce the Scottish Government’s new Cabinet team. Scotland needs a serious Government for the serious times we face as a nation, and in the top level ministerial line-up I have announced today we have exactly that.
“It is a Government which will drive Scotland forward, as we look to build a just, fair and sustainable recovery from the Covid pandemic.
“My Cabinet team combines experience with new arrivals and fresh faces, giving us the range and depth of talent we need to tackle the pressing issues we need to tackle, from covid to climate change.
“This term of office is unquestionably the most important one the nation has faced since devolution, more than 20 years ago. We are dealing with the joint challenges of a global pandemic and recovery from it, the ongoing tests posed by Brexit and the urgent, pressing need to take forward our net zero agenda as part of the global efforts to secure a greener future.
“The magnitude of these challenges is clear, but now is not a moment to shirk from those tasks but to embrace them. In the next five years, we have a chance to shape Scotland permanently for the better, creating a healthier, happier, fairer, more prosperous and more sustainable country for everyone who calls Scotland home, establishing a positive legacy for future generations.
“The immediate challenge is the focus on recovery and the part that all policy portfolios can play in that. But, as I have made clear, when the crisis is over and the time is right, Scotland must and will have the chance to choose its future in line with the unquestionable democratic mandate for that choice.”
Kate Forbes takes on an expanded brief as Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy, including responsibility for the Scottish Budget, fiscal policy and taxation, economic strategy, the wellbeing economy, trade and inward investment, city and regional growth deals, enterprise and the digital economy.
Humza Yousaf becomes Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, with responsibility for the NHS, including ongoing health service remobilisation as we move out of the pandemic. Mr Yousaf’s portfolio will also cover the establishment of the National Care Service.
Shirley-Anne Somerville becomes Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, taking forward work on Covid recovery within the education system, as well as continuing the Government’s mission to further close the attainment gap.
Michael Matheson takes on a new role as Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport. The portfolio brings together cross government responsibility for coordination of Net Zero policy, encompassing transport, environmental protection, energy and COP26 delivery.
Keith Brown becomes the new Cabinet Secretary for Justice, with responsibility for reform of the justice system as well as work to reduce reoffending.
Shona Robison is appointed as Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government, tasked with reducing child poverty as well as work to deliver 100,000 affordable homes.
Mairi Gougeon becomes Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Islands. The post includes responsibility for agriculture, food and drink policy, fisheries and aquaculture as well as cross-government coordination of policies for island communities.
Angus Robertson is appointed as Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture. The portfolio covers constitutional policy, cross-government coordination of European and wider external relations, including post-Brexit relations.
The First Minister completed the line-up of the refreshed Government team when appointments to junior ministerial roles were announced.
The remaining junior appointments were as follows:
Richard Lochhead, who was minister for further and higher education, is minister for just transition, employment and fair work
Maree Todd, who was children’s minister, becomes minister for public health, women’s health and sport
Kevin Stewart is moved from housing to minister for mental wellbeing and social care
Clare Haughey, previously mental health minister, is minister for children and young people
Jamie Hepburn is moved from business minister to further and higher education
Graeme Dey, who had been veterans minister and parliamentary business minister, is transport minister
Ben MacPherson, who was rural affairs and environment minister, is social security and local government
Angela Constance remains as drugs minister
Ivan McKee remains as trade minister
Ash Denham remains community safety minister
Christina McKelvie remains minister for equalities and older people
Jenny Gilruth remains minister for Europe and international development.
Holyrood’s MSPs are set to elect a First Minister for the sixth session of the Scottish Parliament today (Tuesday 18 May 2021). Under the Scotland Act 1998, a new First Minister must be elected within the first 28 days of the election, or another Scottish Election must be held.
The election process will take place at 2pm, with the new Presiding Officer announcing, in alphabetical order, the names of the nominations received.
Each nominee will then speak for five minutes in support of their candidacy before the voting process begins via the Parliament’s digital voting system.
After a candidate is selected, each party leader will be invited to speak for five minutes each, taken in party size (largest party first) with the successful candidate being called to speak last.
The approximate timings are as follows:
9.30 am: nomination period opens
1.30 pm: nomination period closes
2.00 pm: Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, Alison Johnstone MSP, presides over the election of a First Minister.
While Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie has thrown his hat into the ring, it would be a shock of cataclysmic proportions should anyone other than the SNP’s Nicola Sturgeon be announced as the victor! The SNP won 64 of the 129 seats in the parliament at the election on 6 May.
The newly re-elected MSP for Edinburgh Western, Alex Cole-Hamilton, has been sworn in to Parliament, following a record breaking victory in last week’s election.
Mr Cole-Hamilton held his seat with a majority of 54.7%, up from 41.9% in 2016. In the process Mr Cole-Hamilton received 25,578 votes, which is the highest amount of votes ever received by a candidate in the history of the Scottish Parliament.
Alex Cole-Hamilton said yesterday:“It is a huge privilege to be returned to Scottish Parliament for the constituency that I love and that has been my home for the last ten years.
“My constituents have been and always will be my first consideration in this job.
“Five years ago the people of West Edinburgh put their trust in me to serve them in parliament, last week, they restated that trust in a truly remarkable way. It is a responsibility that I take extremely seriously and I will not them down.”
Dealing with the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, tackling the climate emergency and the post-Brexit devolution settlement will feature heavily in the work of the new Scottish Parliament, according to a new paper by the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe).
Published as our new MSPs return to Holyrood, the Key Issues for Session 6 paper outlines the challenges facing MSPs as they confront the scale of the COVID-19 recovery, with researchers stressing a balancing act is required to promote recovery while keeping new variants at bay.
Following Brexit, MSPs will also have to contend with the new constitutional arrangements and the impact on the powers of the Scottish Parliament. SPICe also highlight the ‘twin crisis’ of climate change and biodiversity loss, with significant changes expected in coming years to tackle this emergency across all sectors of the economy and society – raising the challenge of how Parliaments can best engage with and scrutinise disruptive change.
The briefing explores 26 key issues alongside the three themes, covering each major area of devolved policy – from mental health provision and changes in family law, to the business base in Scotland and changing car use.
Speaking as the briefing was published, Clerk and Chief Executive of the Scottish Parliament David McGill said: “The Key Issues for Session 6 briefing is an example of the vital work that SPICe produces for parliamentarians. It outlines the key subjects likely to be of particular interest for the new Parliament with tailored, impartial analysis of the issues that matter to MSPs.
“While the new Session will deal with a range of issues over the next five years, SPICe has identified the broad themes likely to feature heavily in the work of the Parliament as well as the key issues from across all areas of devolved policy.
“This briefing can either be read from cover to cover or readers can dip into whichever issues interest them the most. I hope it proves to be both a thought provoking and useful reference tool in the months and years ahead.”
Alison Johnstone MSP has been elected as the Scottish Parliament’s sixth Presiding Officer. Ms Johnstone is the first Green MSP to be elected to the role.
In her acceptance speech the new Presiding Officer thanked her colleagues for electing her to the position in what she called an “opportunity and a privilege”.
She later added: “I am so proud to have been elected as the Parliament’s sixth Presiding Officer.
“This is an incredibly important time for the country and I want to ensure that the Parliament is a place of open debate but we do that in an environment of mutual tolerance and respect.
This afternoon, MSPs elected @AlisonJohnstone as Presiding Officer of @ScotParl for Session 6 of the Parliament.
“The Parliament is such an important place for not just me, but for people across Scotland. This is our most diverse Parliament yet, but there is still more to do, and I want to make sure that the Parliament is representative of all the people it serves.
“There is no doubt that we face some major challenges ahead including the pandemic and of course climate change. I want to ensure this Parliament and all its Members have the opportunity to work together to address these vital issues.”
The election took place following a secret ballot of newly elected Members. Ms Johnstone was the only nomination for the post.
Alison Johnstone was first elected to represent the Lothians Region in 2011, and was a Councillor on City of Edinburgh Council before her election as an MSP.
She is a qualified athletics coach and previously held the East of Scotland titles for the 800m and 1500m.
Edinburgh Green branch has congratulated Alison Johnstone MSP on her election as the Scottish Parliament’s first Green Presiding Officer.
Although Alison will now have to suspend party affiliation for the parliamentary term, she will continue to represent people throughout Lothian and manage casework.
Her election comes on top of a record result for the Greens in both Scotland and Lothian last week and is a further sign of how central Green politics now is to Scottish political debate.
Newly-elected Green MSP for Lothian Lorna Slater said: “I congratulate Alison on her election, and I know that she will be an even-handed moderator as Parliament addresses the pressing challenges that Scotland faces over the next five years.
“As only the second woman Presiding Officer, Alison is also well-placed to break new ground in defining the role of a PO in this more diverse parliament. I am confident that she will use it to increase the reach of Parliament and make it even more welcoming for people of all backgrounds.
“With the COP26 global climate summit coming to Scotland later in the year it will be good to have someone with strong Green credentials representing our parliament. Throw into the mix the forthcoming independence referendum and it’s clearly going to be a challenging role at a challenging time.”
The first meeting of the sixth session of the Scottish Parliament will take place on Thursday 13 May.
Writing to party leaders following the weekend election count, the Parliament’s Presiding Officer, the Rt Hon Ken Macintosh, has announced that newly elected MSPs will be sworn in on Thursday 13 May. The elections for the Parliament’s new Presiding Officer will also take place that day.
The Presiding Officer has the power to set the date under the Scottish General Election (Coronavirus) Act 2021. In deciding on the date the Parliament will first sit, the Presiding Officer consulted with both the Electoral Commission and Electoral Management Board.
Further details of the Parliament’s first days will be issued early this week.
TEXT OF LETTER FROM PRESIDING OFFICER TO PARTY LEADERS
I am writing in relation to my role under Section 9 of the Scottish General Election (Coronavirus) Act 2021 to “fix the day on which the Parliament is first to meet after the poll for the 2021 election”.
Following consultation with the Electoral Commission and Electoral Management Board, as required under the Act, I am pleased to announce that I am now able to fix the date of the first meeting of Parliament as Thursday 13 May, when newly elected Members will be sworn in and elect a new Presiding Officer.
Colleagues can expect to receive further information on the arrangements for both items of business from the Parliamentary Business Team in the coming days.
This date will now be made public and announced in the Business Bulletin.
I understand that this is a time of mixed emotions and fortunes for your parties and candidates. I would however like to take the opportunity to thank you for your support and co-operation throughout the last session and to also pass on my best wishes for whatever the next five years hold for you and your parties and for the Parliament.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has invited leaders of the UK’s devolved governments to a summit meeting to discuss joint working to ‘build back better’.
The invitation is a response to a remarkable Holyrood election result which saw the SNP come within one seat of outright victory. Despite just failing to secure an overall majority, the election of eight pro-independence Scottish Green MSPs ensures that a majority of MSPs will support a second independence referendum.
The PM is expected to telephone Nicola Sturgeon later today.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson made this statement in the House of Commons yesterday
Mr Speaker, I beg to move:
That an Humble Address be presented to Her Majesty expressing the deepest sympathies of this House on the death of His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and the heartfelt thanks of this House and this nation for his unfailing dedication to this Country and the Commonwealth, exemplified in his distinguished service in the Royal Navy in the Second World War; his commitment to young people in setting up The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, a scheme which has touched the lives of millions across the globe; his early, passionate commitment to the environment; and his unstinting support to Your Majesty throughout his life.
Mr Speaker, it is fitting that on Saturday His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh will be conveyed to his final resting place in a Land Rover, which Prince Philip had designed himself, with a long wheel base and a capacious rear cabin, because that vehicle’s unique and idiosyncratic silhouette reminds the world that he was above all a practical man, who could take something very traditional – whether a machine or indeed a great national institution – and find a way by his own ingenuity to improve it, to adapt it for the 20th or the 21st century.
That gift for innovation was apparent from his earliest career in the Navy. When he served in the second world war, he was mentioned in despatches for his “alertness and appreciation of the situation” during the Battle of Cape Matapan, and he played a crucial role in helping to sink two enemy cruisers. But it was later, during the invasion of Sicily, that he was especially remembered by his crewmates for what he did to save their own ship.
In a moment of high danger, at night, when HMS Wallace was vulnerable to being blown up by enemy planes, he improvised a floating decoy – complete with fires to make it look like a stricken British vessel – so that the Wallace was able to slip away, and the enemy took out the decoy.
He was there at Tokyo Bay in 1945, barely 200 yards away from the Japanese surrender on the deck of USS Missouri; but he wasn’t content just to watch history through his binoculars. It seems that he used the lull to get on with repainting the hull of HMS Whelp; and throughout his life – a life that was by necessity wrapped from such a young age in symbol and ceremony – one can see that same instinct, to look for what was most useful, and most practical, and for what would take things forward.
He was one of the first people in this country to use a mobile phone. In the 1970s, he was driving an electric taxi on the streets of London – the fore-runner of the modern low-carbon fleet, and, again, a vehicle of his own specifications. He wasn’t content just to be a carriage driver. He played a large part in pioneering and codifying the sport of competitive carriage driving.
And if it is true that carriage-driving is not a mass-participation sport – not yet – he had other novel ideas that touched the lives of millions, developed their character and confidence, their teamwork and self-reliance. It was amazing and instructive, to listen on Friday to the Cabinet’s tributes to the Duke, and to hear how many were proud to say that they, or their children, had benefited from taking part in his Duke of Edinburgh Award schemes.
I will leave it to the House to speculate as to who claimed to have got a gold award, and who got a bronze. But I believe those ministers spoke for millions of people – across this country and around the world – who felt that the Duke had in some way touched their lives, people whose work he supported in the course of an astonishing 22,219 public engagements, people he encouraged, and, yes, he amused.
It is true that he occasionally drove a coach and horses through the finer points of diplomatic protocol, and he coined a new word – dontopedalogy – for the experience of putting your foot in your mouth.
And it is also true that among his more parliamentary expressions he commented adversely on the French concept of breakfast, and told a British student in Papua New Guinea that he was lucky not to be eaten, and that the people of the Cayman Islands were descended from pirates, and that he would like to go to Russia except that, as he put it, “the bastards murdered half my family”.
But the world did not hold it against him, Mr Speaker. On the contrary, they overwhelmingly understood that he was trying to break the ice, to get things moving, to get people laughing and forget their nerves; and to this day there is a community in the Pacific islands that venerates Prince Philip as a god, or volcano spirit – a conviction that was actually strengthened when a group came to London to have tea with him in person.
When he spoke so feelingly about the problems of overpopulation, and humanity’s relentless incursion on the natural world, and the consequent destruction of habitat and species, he contrived to be at once politically incorrect and also ahead of his time.
In a quite unparalleled career of advice and encouragement and support, he provided one particular service that I believe the House will know in our hearts was the very greatest of all. In the constant love he gave to Her Majesty the Queen – as her liege man of life and limb, in the words he spoke at the Coronation – he sustained her throughout this extraordinary second Elizabethan age, now the longest reign of any monarch in our history.
It was typical of him that in wooing Her Majesty – famously not short of a jewel or two – he offered jewellery of his own design. He dispensed with the footmen in powdered wigs. He introduced television cameras, and at family picnics in Balmoral he would barbecue the sausages on a large metal contraption that all Prime Ministers must have goggled at for decades, complete with rotisserie and compartments for the sauces, that was – once again, Mr Speaker – a product of his own invention and creation.
Indeed as an advocate of skills and craft and science and technology this country has had no royal champion to match him since Prince Albert, and I know that in due course the House and the country will want to consider a suitable memorial to Prince Philip.
It is with that same spirit of innovation that as co-gerent of the Royal Family, he shaped and protected the monarchy, through all the vicissitudes of the last seven decades, and helped to modernise and continually to adapt an institution that is above politics, that incarnates our history, and that is indisputably vital to the balance and happiness of our national life.
By his unstinting service to The Queen, the Commonwealth, the armed forces, the environment, to millions of people young and not so young around the world, and to countless other causes, he gave us and he gives us all a model of selflessness, and of putting others before ourselves.
And though I expect Mr Speaker, he might be embarrassed or even exasperated to receive these tributes, he made this country a better place, and for that he will be remembered with gratitude and with fondness for generations to come.
AND AT HOLYROOD:
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon moved the following motion at The Scottish Parliament yesterday:
Motion of Condolence following the death of His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh: First Minister’s statement – 12 April, 2021
Presiding Officer,
The tributes paid to the Duke of Edinburgh over these last three days show the affection in which he was held – here in Scotland, across the United Kingdom, and indeed around the world.
On behalf of the people of Scotland, I express my deepest sympathy to Her Majesty the Queen – who is grieving the loss of her ‘strength and stay’, her husband of almost 74 years – and also to the Duke’s children, and to the wider Royal Family.
Of course, before he became the public figure so familiar to all of us today, the Duke of Edinburgh had already led a life of distinction.
Like so many of his generation, he endured difficulties and faced dangers that generations since can barely comprehend.
As a naval officer in World War Two, he was mentioned in dispatches for his part in the Battle of Matapan.
In 1943, his courage and quick-thinking helped save HMS Wallace from attack in the Mediterranean.
And during a two year spell at Rosyth, he was responsible for escorting merchant vessels on a route known as “E-boat alley”, because of the frequency of the attacks from German vessels.
For these contributions alone, he – like all of our veterans – is owed a significant debt of gratitude.
The Second World War was, however, just the beginning of the Duke of Edinburgh’s life of public service.
From 1947, he was the Queen’s constant companion.
And from 1952, he was her consort.
As has been much noted in recent days, he became the longest serving consort in British history.
That role, in a constitutional monarchy, cannot be an easy one – particularly, perhaps, for someone who is spirited and energetic by temperament.
And of course, he faced the additional challenge of being the husband of a powerful woman – at a time when that was even more of an exception than it is today.
That reversal of the more traditional dynamic was highly unusual in the 1940s, 50s and 60s – and even now, isn’t as common as it might be.
Yet the Duke of Edinburgh was devoted to supporting the Queen. They were a true partnership.
Indeed, like First Ministers before me, I got to witness the strength of that partnership at close quarters during annual stays at Balmoral.
I always enjoyed my conversations with the Duke of Edinburgh on these visits – indeed on all of the occasions that I met him – and I was struck by how different he was in private to the way he was sometimes characterised in public.
He was a thoughtful man, deeply interesting and fiercely intelligent. He was also a serious bookworm, which I am too, so talking about the books we were reading was often, for me, a real highlight of our conversations.
Prince Philip was without doubt a devoted consort to the Queen – but of course he also carved out a distinctive individual role.
He took a particular interest in industry and science, and he was far-sighted in his early support for conservation. Indeed, as far back as 1969, in a speech here in Edinburgh, he warned of the risks of “virtually indestructible plastics”.
And of course, in 1956 he founded The Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme, which now every year provides opportunity, hope and inspiration to more than 1 million young people in more than 100 different countries across the world.
In addition, the Duke of Edinburgh was patron of more than 800 charities. At the time of his retirement from Royal duties, he had completed well over 20,000 engagements.
Many of these engagements were of course here in Scotland – a country that he loved from a very early age.
He was educated in Moray, taught to sail by a Scottish trawler skipper, and as has been mentioned already, was based at Rosyth for two years during the war.
When the Duke received the Freedom of the City of Edinburgh in 1949, he spoke then of the “numberless benefits” that Scotland had given him.
Some of his very first duties with the Royal Household were undertaken here in Scotland.
In July 1947 – just a week after the announcement of his engagement to the then Princess Elizabeth – the couple travelled here to Edinburgh.
And in the years since, the Duke has been present at many of the key moments of our modern history – including, of course, the official openings of our Scottish Parliament.
He has served many Scottish charities and organisations – indeed, he was Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh for more than 50 years.
Throughout all of that time, the public has held him in great affection.
On that first Royal Visit to Edinburgh in 1947, people gathered just across the street, in the forecourt of Holyrood Palace, and celebrated the Royal engagement with country dancing.
More than 70 years later – shortly after he had announced his retirement from public life – I witnessed the warmth of the reception he received as he accompanied the Queen to the opening of the Queensferry Crossing.
This is an event I had known he was determined to attend – he was fascinated and deeply impressed by the feats of engineering that each of the three Forth Bridges represent.
Presiding Officer,
One of the Duke of Edinburgh’s early engagements in Scotland, shortly after the Queen’s Coronation, was to plant a cherry tree in the grounds of Canongate Kirk, just across the road from here.
It stands directly opposite the tree planted by the Queen a year previously.
These trees are just about to bloom, as I am sure they will do each spring for decades to come.
I am equally sure that – not just in the weeks ahead – but many years from now, people will think fondly of the Duke of Edinburgh as they pass Canongate Kirk and look across to Holyrood Palace.
It is right that our Parliament pays tribute to him today.
In doing so, we mourn his passing and we extend our deepest sympathy to Her Majesty The Queen and her family.
We reflect on his distinguished wartime record; his love and support for the Queen; and his decades of public service to Scotland, the United Kingdom, and the Commonwealth.
Above all, Presiding Officer, we celebrate – and we honour – an extraordinary life. I move the motion in my name.
