Rural Affairs

Chris Kane Excerpts

Monday 11th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Chris Kane (Stirling and Strathallan) (Lab)]

It is a great honour to be called to make my first contribution in this place as the Member of Parliament for the new constituency of Stirling and Strathallan. My constituency is the geographic heart of Scotland, and what a beautiful part of the world I am lucky enough to represent! At just under 2,500 sq km, it is predominantly a rural constituency—from its farming villages, including Drymen, Buchlyvie, Callander and Killin, to its former coalmining villages of Bannockburn, Fallin, Plean and Cowie; from the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond to the mountains of the Trossachs and the valleys carved by the rivers Forth, Endrick, Teith and Allan. It has the city of Stirling, with its majestic castle defending a royal burgh that became a royal city in 2002, and the city of Dunblane, with its magnificent medieval cathedral.

Politically, I follow in the footsteps of a daunting list of constituency representation that includes one Prime Minister, the father of a Prime Minister, two Secretaries of State for Scotland, a Secretary of State for War, a Father of the House of Commons and a Leader of the House of Lords. In my lifetime, we have had Harry Ewing, the godfather of devolution; Michael Forsyth, who brought the Stone of Destiny back to Scotland; and Dame Anne McGuire, who as Minister for disabled people signed the first human rights charter of the 21st century on behalf of the United Kingdom at the United Nations. Steven Paterson and Stephen Kerr bring us to my predecessor, Alyn Smith. Alyn represented Stirling in the previous Parliament, but prior to that, he represented Scotland with distinction as a Member of the European Parliament. He cares deeply for Scotland and has public service at his heart. I wish him well for the future and thank him for his service.

The coalfields of central Scotland transformed the landscape of the southern end of my constituency over the past 150 years. My great-grandfather, William Kane, was a miner, and while working at the coalface in 1914, a large rock dislodged from the ceiling and crushed him. William died from his injuries. His son, my grandfather Frank, was 12 years old, and had to leave school to earn money—not to take the family out of poverty, but to keep them alive. Everything that troubles me about that story has been improved by the Labour party and the trade union movement, with their relentless focus on improving workplace conditions and workers’ rights over the past 100 years.

“We feel that something should be done. We have the idea that one of the functions of the Government of this country is to see to it that there should be equality, equity, and fairplay between the parties, that the weak should be protected from any outrage by the strong…It is the business of the Government to see to it that there should be equity and fairplay between all conditions of people in the State.”—[Official Report, 13 December 1922; Vol. 159, c. 3011.]

Those are not my words, but those of my grandfather Frank’s uncle, Hugh Murnin, who was also a miner. They were spoken by Hugh in this place, in his maiden speech, after he became the MP for Stirling in 1922. Reading all of Mr Murnin’s speech, I was struck by how much has changed from his description of work, and how much has stayed the same. There is still much to do to delivery dignity and fair play, which is why I am proud that this Government are raising the national living wage and, through the Employment Rights Bill, will update the UK’s outdated employment laws and turn the page on an economy blighted by insecurity, poor productivity and low pay.

I should say that 12-year-old Frank, my grandfather, became a grocer’s apprentice. He developed an entrepreneurial spark that took off when the BBC began broadcasting in Scotland in the 1920s. He opened Bannockburn’s Radio Music Store to supply radio sets and constantly recharge the large lead-acid batteries on which they depended. That business prospered under my parents, Bill and Diane, and my brother Michael runs the business today—shop local when you can.

Along with coal, the rivers and lochs of my constituency bring with them nutrients that are vital for farming. The flat floodplain of the Forth is 16 miles long and 4 miles wide, and is filled with farms that today produce everything from beef to dairy and from sheep to pumpkins. For many years, the River Forth was Europe’s premier oyster fishery. Over 30 million oysters were harvested each year in the early 19th century, but overfishing caused a collapse and the Forth oyster was declared extinct in 1957. Issues such as overfishing and sustainability are studied in great depth at the University of Stirling’s international centre for aquaculture, the largest of its kind in the world. It is leading the way in research to tackle the global problems of food security, hunger and sustainability through the world’s rivers and seas. It was also a researcher from the institute of aquaculture who discovered in 2014 that the Forth oyster was still alive, with two of them growing in the river.

When the railway arrived in my constituency in 1848, it brought with it an entrepreneurial spirit that saw Scotland’s first oil refinery open in Riverside in Stirling. Until the Forth bridge opened in 1890, the bridges at Stirling carried most of Scotland’s goods to and from the highlands. Scotland’s first heavier-than-air flight took place in Stirling when the Barnwell brothers built and flew an aircraft in the shadow of Stirling castle. That entrepreneurial spirit lives on in the likes of Highland Spring, a fantastic family business in Blackford that neighbours Gleneagles, one of the world’s premier hotels and golf courses. In Stirling, a £20 million investment has recently been announced to create a film and TV studio that will be the largest in Scotland. Stirling was the first gigabit internet city in the United Kingdom, and one of the first in the world to digitally map its city to create an augmented reality smartphone experience.

We are a growing base for life sciences, manufacturing and, of course, tourism. My constituency offers some of the best outdoor activities in the country, from salmon fishing to hillwalking, with lots of family-friendly activities along the way. If history and heritage are your thing, we have castles, monuments, battlegrounds and the only working church other than Westminster Abbey to have hosted a coronation. For those who like sport, Stirling was showcased to the world in 2023 with the time trials of the Union Cycliste Internationale’s cycling world championships. Scotland’s national swimming academy is at Stirling University and has produced Olympic medallists including Duncan Scott and Robbie Renwick. The UK’s national curling academy is also in Stirling, and I cannot mention sport without referencing Judy, Jamie and Andy Murray, whose success, resilience and mindset have forever linked tennis with the city of Dunblane.

Stirling and Strathallan is not in the heart of Scotland: it is the heart of Scotland. Much of the modern sense of Scottish cultural identity originated in my constituency, from the battles of Wallace and Bruce at Stirling bridge and Bannockburn over 700 years ago to the reinvention of tartan at the mills of William Wilson—also in Bannockburn—in the 1800s. A much more subtle sense of my constituency is found here in this place and in the UK identity, because it was a Stirling resident, a weel-kent local face called King James VI, who united the kingdoms of England and Scotland in 1603. I have walked about this place wondering which of our traditions have their origins in the traditions of the court of King James at Stirling castle.

Stirling is celebrating its 900th anniversary this year—900 years since King David granted a small settlement on the River Forth burgh status. Stirling and Strathallan has gone on to give much to Scotland, the United Kingdom and the world over the past 900 years, and there is much more to come. Stirling and Strathallan is proud of its past and ambitious for its future, and I am hugely honoured and privileged to represent my home here in this place.