Seòmar agus comataidhean

I absolutely agree and note that, in St Andrews, where the member and I were both educated, a portrait of Elsie Inglis was etched on the beach as part of Scotland’s world war 100 commemorations.

In Thea Laurie’s words,

“Elsie’s inspirational story is not just set on the battlefields of world war one. Her battles included the fight to become a doctor and surgeon. She fought for votes for women and helped establish the Scottish suffrage movement. The philanthropic side to Elsie was her concern for the women and children from the poorest parts of Edinburgh for whom she set up a hospital on the High Street. It is now time for Edinburgh to say thank you to Elsie Inglis.”

As part of Scotland’s world war 100 commemorations, I attended, on 29 November 2017, a service at St Giles marking 100 years since Elsie’s funeral. It was a celebration of her life. St Giles was filled with the joyous “Hallelujah” chorus, as it had been a century before. It was a thanksgiving with triumph and hope.

I will begin at the beginning. Elsie was born in the Indian Himalayas in 1864. Her father, John Inglis, worked for the East India Company, but when he disagreed with the ruthless way the company was run he lost his post and the family returned to Edinburgh.

Elsie finished her schooling in the city and then in Paris, always determined to become a doctor and supported to achieve that ambition by her progressive father. After qualifying at both the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh and at the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, she worked in women’s hospitals in London and Dublin. When her beloved father was dying, she returned to Edinburgh to nurse him, later acknowledging

“Whatever I am, whatever I have done—I owe it all to my father.”

Elsie’s deep concern for the way that medical services treated women led her to establish hospitals and maternity facilities for Edinburgh’s poor, but she also recognised that the only way women would gain true equality was through the vote. She tirelessly campaigned for votes for women.

Elsie was 50 when world war one broke out. She knew that women could play an important role. She inquired at the War Office whether woman doctors and surgeons would be permitted to serve in front-line hospitals. It was then that the infamous words were uttered to her:

“My good lady, go home and sit still.”

Elsie went home, but she did not sit still. Instead, she offered all-female units to the Belgians, French and Serbs, who all gladly accepted. Working with her friends in the suffrage movement, Elsie formed the Scottish Women’s Hospitals for Foreign Service, starting a massive fundraising campaign that was to run throughout the war. Writing to Millicent Fawcett, Elsie said:

“We get these expert women doctors, nurses, and ambulance workers organised. We send our units wherever they are wanted. Once these units are out, the work is bound to grow. The need is there, and too terrible to allow any haggling about who does the work ... And when one hears of the awful need, one can hardly sit still till they are ready.”

Individuals, communities, companies and countries all contributed beds, blankets, tents, ambulances, surgical equipment and X-ray machines—everything that a field hospital required.

When women came back from serving in hospitals at the front, they often then went on to help raise more money by giving talks about the wonderful work that they and their fellow women were doing. Mary Struthers Drummond and Miss Lang Anderson from Appin, Nurse Green and Nurse Mary Lamont Ritchie Thomson from Tobermory are just four of the many women from Argyll and Bute who served. I know that members across the chamber will be able to share the names of more of the compassionate and brave women who joined the Scottish women’s hospitals or nursed at the front.

Elsie Inglis was not content to manage the hospitals from afar. She wanted to be in the thick of things. She travelled extensively across Europe from 1914 to 1917, visiting the hospitals. However, it was in Serbia that Elsie expended her main effort and where she served both in the operating theatre and in directing improvements in general treatment. She wrote:

“The Serbian Division is superb; we are proud to be attached to it.”

The book “Dr Elsie Inglis” by Lady Frances Balfour includes a letter sent by Elsie in January 1917 to her niece Amy McLaren, in which she writes:

“I don’t think the children in these parts are doing many lessons during the war, and that will be a great handicap for their countries afterwards. Perhaps, however, they are learning other lessons ... We saw the crowds of refugees on their carts, with the things they had been able to save, and all the little children packed in among the furniture and pots and pans and pigs.”

That letter was written on an ambulance train near Odessa 105 years ago. Sadly, those words are mirrored by journalists today.

On Sunday night, Channel 4 news showed a maternity ward in Kyiv. In the basement lay a Ukrainian mother with her newborn daughter. Her father liked the name Victoria, or victory; the mother, Nadiya, or hope. I was struck by the similarity of that scene to those that Elsie must have experienced in Edinburgh and Serbia more than 100 years ago. Seeing the horror of war unfolding again but also the outpouring of aid and support for the people of Ukraine, I found myself wondering what Elsie would have said.

There is a story that, after Elsie Inglis visited her first field hospital in France, she went to the cathedral of Notre Dame. She suddenly felt as if there were a living presence behind her. She turned and realised that she had been sitting just in front of the statue of Joan of Arc. Afterwards, she commented:

“I should like to know what Joan wanted to say to me.”

Elsie Inglis is a living presence who deserves recognition. I congratulate again the team in the public galleries on the work that they are doing to ensure that we never forget what Dr Elsie Inglis achieved. I hope that they, too, will be able to stand beside Elsie’s statue, feel her warmth—

The radiance of the legacy of Dr Elsie Maud Inglis shines across the world in women’s health, in women’s rights and in humanity. My motion pays tribute to that inspiring woman—a surgeon, philanthropist and patriot—and to the amazing group of women and girls, some of whom join us this evening in Parliament, who, like Elsie, did not “sit still” but have worked tirelessly to ensure that Edinburgh and Scotland do not forget one of our most important women. I thank them for the amazing work that they are doing and thank those who provided my colleagues and me with so many Elsie stories as we prepared for the debate. I thank colleagues for supporting my motion and the Minister for Public Health, Women’s Health and Sport, Maree Todd, for responding on behalf of the Scottish Government.

It may seem odd that I, representing Argyll and Bute, am leading a members’ business debate arguing that we should honour and recognise the achievements of Dr Elsie Inglis with a statue in Edinburgh, but Scotland is a village and, as I have said, Elsie’s influence reaches far and wide—even to the beaches of Islay. It was because of a chance meeting with Thea Laurie on Kilchoman beach that I was drawn into the important project to remember Dr Elsie Inglis.

To ask the Scottish Government how decisions are made regarding the location of dialysis units. (S6O-00825)

Gerda Stevenson wrote:

“where, in sun and moonlit flash of gunfire”—

Last Friday, I visited the recently opened dialysis unit in Rothesay on the Isle of Bute. I pay tribute to my constituent Hamish Kirk, who worked tirelessly with others to ensure that the unit was set up, following a donation. Sadly, Hamish died last month, having benefited from the new unit for only a matter of weeks.

Does the cabinet secretary agree that it is important that health and social care partnerships work with local groups and individuals to ensure that units such as the one on Bute can be established?

I hope that the team will be able to feel her warmth and wonder what Elsie wanted to say to them.

I will sign off with the beautiful words penned by Scottish poet Gerda Stevenson for the commemoration service in 2017.

As someone who eagerly desires to see Scotland become a good food nation and whose constituency is rich in some of the best produce that we could hope to find anywhere, I wonder whether the cabinet secretary shares my view that we must engage with that subject very carefully, in order to ensure that we do not undermine public confidence in the high standards of Scotland’s agricultural sector and the quality of our produce.

Public service broadcasting, as the motion states, has a “valuable role in society” especially, as many members have said, given the horrific events in Ukraine and the robust but compassionate journalism from Channel 4 News and the BBC. The Scottish Parliament’s role in BBC charter renewal must be respected.

I spent 18 years working at BBC Scotland, supporting talented and creative programme makers in radio and television to produce programming that reflected public service broadcasting purposes across Radio Scotland, Radio nan Gàidheal, Gaelic television, education and the BBC Scottish symphony orchestra. Those were all departments of BBC Scotland whose clear remit was to inform, educate and entertain and to reflect Scotland’s cultural identity.

I thank Ealasaid MacDonald and Jeff Zycinski for sharing some of their thoughts on the importance of public sector broadcasting with me as I prepared for this debate.

One of my proudest moments at BBC Scotland was something that has been mentioned by others: the launch of BBC Alba. It was the accomplishment of many years of hard work and one that fulfilled the obligation to Gaelic television under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Gaelic broadcasting through BBC Alba and Radio nan Gàidheal is a public service broadcasting triumph. As Sarah Boyack said, it deserves the parity that is given to S4C.

The partnership between MG Alba and the BBC gives BBC Alba a prominence in access and status, which are powerful tools in revitalising the Gaelic language. It makes programmes such as “Dè a-nis?”, “Bannan”, “An Là” and “Eòrpa”. It is an important part of the Scottish broadcast ecology and commissions a large proportion of its output from independent production companies across Scotland.

My constituency of Argyll and Bute has provided the inspiration for many programmes. The wee picture house in Campbeltown played a starring role in “Cinema Gadelica”, which showcased films shot in iconic Scottish locations. That applies not only to the Gaelic language. Inveraray played a starring role in the BBC’s “A Very British Scandal” and, almost 60 years ago, was the location for Walt Disney’s film “The Three Lives of Thomasina”.

Gaelic language television output is complemented and enhanced by Radio nan Gàidheal, which provides a comprehensive news, speech and music service and is a voice to and for communities across the Gàidhealtachd.

Radio should not be viewed as a Cinderella service. The merger of commercial radio stations has arguably reduced the localness of the service that they provide. With those stations’ focus on music and news bulletins, there are gaps in comedy, drama, documentaries, sport and the arts and culture that public service radio can fill.

Radio Scotland has the brilliant “Off the Ball”, which bookends “Sportsound” and became a key message point during the Covid pandemic. I challenge what Mr Kerr said about Radio Scotland’s output regarding this Parliament. There is a podcast called “Podlitical” that covers output from this Parliament. “The Afternoon Show” covers all things arts in Scotland and the “Young Traditional Musician of the Year” promotes the wealth of talent in our traditional music scene.

Radio can be many things: a nursery for developing formats, writers and performers; a service that keeps us company on long journeys; a less intrusive way of getting personal stories told. Community radio stations also play a role here. Perhaps building in a defined public service remit with funding would help them to flourish. We must remember the important resource that they provided during the pandemic.

Within its charter, the BBC has a public purpose to invest in the creative economies of the United Kingdom’s nations and regions. I have raised this here before, but it is so important that it deserves to be highlighted again: there is no requirement for the BBC to invest to the same extent in each of the UK nations or regions. In the year 2020-21, £101 million of the licence fee raised in Scotland was spent by the BBC elsewhere in the UK. Scotland and its creative economy are consistently being short-changed.

The Scottish film, radio and television industry is booming. We have skilled and talented people who are building the foundations of an independent Scotland’s public broadcasting service. We should build on that success and be even more ambitious for the sector. Defending public service broadcasting is absolutely essential to supporting our creative industries.

Will Foysol Choudhury take an intervention?

Women taking up weapons, women confronting Russian soldiers, women caring for their loved ones—they are upholding the fundamental rights of not just women and girls, but everyone, and I dedicate this speech to them.

Conflict often makes us think in different ways, to find solutions to life changed out of recognition. Persuading girl guides, sea scouts and schoolchildren to collect sacks full of curly red seaweed on Scottish beaches might not be the most obvious wartime activity, but the knowledge of marine biologist Sheina Marshall was to prove vital to British medical research during the second world war. Marshall and her colleagues identified that seaweed as the best home-grown source of agar, a jelly-like substance that was vital for growing bacteria in laboratories and the development of vaccines. Japan was the world’s main supplier of agar, but when it entered world war 2, it became essential to find other sources.

As a child on the Isle of Bute, Sheina suffered from rheumatic fever. While she was recovering, she immersed herself in the writings of Charles Darwin. After graduating with a degree in zoology from the University of Glasgow, she made her life’s work the study of plankton in marine food chains and the examination of the effect of fertilizers on marine productivity. The west of Scotland’s coastline was her laboratory, and her pioneering work served her country through the war and beyond. Today, students at the Scottish Association for Marine Science in Oban study in a building named in Sheina Marshall’s memory.

In 1934, Bessie Williamson started a summer job as a secretary at Laphroaig distillery on Islay. She was to have profound impact on the whisky industry. After owner Ian Hunter suffered a stroke in 1938, her managerial skills ensured that the distillery remained in good working order throughout world war two. After the war, she noticed that newspapers were giving increasing coverage to the merits of Scotch whisky’s peaty notes. Instead of wasting Laphroaig’s peaty punch in blends, Bessie began to market Laphroaig single malt, driving higher prices for a luxury product.

Her efforts were noticed by the Scotch Whisky Association, and she took on the role of US spokesperson, travelling across America promoting all Scotch whisky, but particularly single malts. So influential was Bessie Williamson that she became known as the first lady of Laphroaig, and she was awarded the title of woman of the year in the 1950s.

In 1987, Ray Michie fought and won, at her third attempt, the Westminster constituency of Argyll and Bute. Politics was in her blood. As a teenager, at meetings in the far-flung constituency of Inverness, she supported her father as holding speaker until he arrived from previous meetings. As members will have heard me say, Argyll and Bute is diverse and contains 23 inhabited islands, which Ray visited regularly. She often turned her ferry trips into impromptu surgeries, which is something that I recognise.

Ray’s two main aims at Westminster were Scottish self-government and the development of the Gaelic language. She was therefore delighted by the creation of her long-fought-for Scottish Parliament. I am sure that she would be delighted to see the increased representation of women in this session.

Those women—a scientist, a distiller and a politician—played an extraordinary role in the history of Scotland and the wider world.

To finish, I will quote from the international women’s day website. This is particularly poignant with regard to what we are seeing in the independent country of Ukraine:

“Imagine a gender equal world. A world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination. A world that’s diverse, equitable, and inclusive. A world where difference is valued and celebrated. Together we can forge women’s equality. Collectively we can all #BreakTheBias.”