Britain in the World

Patrick Grady Excerpts

Monday 1st June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Patrick Grady (Glasgow North) (SNP)]

Peace to this House. On the day I was selected as the candidate for Glasgow North and on the day of the Queen’s Speech last week, the Gospel reading at Mass was from a passage of Luke which said:

“Whatever house you go into, let your first words be, ‘Peace to this house.’”

It seems entirely appropriate to make my maiden speech now, and I am very grateful to have been able to catch your eye, Mr Deputy Speaker.

During a debate on Britain in the world, peace seems an entirely appropriate starting point. Peace, as many great thinkers have said, is not just the absence of war but the work of justice. Indeed, the Scottish National party’s constitution states clearly that the independent Parliament that we ultimately seek will be bound only by the sovereign will of the people of Scotland, and such agreements as it may enter into with other nations for the protection of the environment and the pursuit of world peace.

The aims of the SNP also encompass the furtherance of all Scotland’s interests, and it was on that basis that so many of our candidates were elected on 7 May. It is the greatest honour for me to represent the people of Glasgow North in this House. Glasgow has been my home for nearly half my life, and Glasgow North can quite fairly be described as the city in miniature. It stretches from the banks of the River Kelvin in the west end, through the ancient university, the cosmopolitan Byres Road, and north to Firhill, home of the mighty Partick Thistle. Nearby is the Stockline Plastics factory, where we remember those killed in the explosion 11 years ago. It stretches west to the Forth and Clyde Canal, past the Wyndford—site of the old city barracks—to Ruchill and Summerston, and out to some of the only farmland in Glasgow, including a stretch of the Antonine Wall. Glasgow North contains every aspect of city life: high-density social housing, transient student populations, mature residential areas, supermarkets, business parks and rows of independent traders. I hope to represent all that diversity to the best of my ability.

The seat is home to many musicians, including, for now, despite the efforts of the Home Office, Dr Steve Forman, and artists, perhaps most notably Alasdair Gray, who popularised the saying that has resonated across Scotland in recent years:

“Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation.”

It is for that better nation that I look forward to working with my colleagues who represent areas of Glasgow North in the Scottish Parliament: Bob Doris, Bill Kidd, Sandra White and Humza Yousaf. Of course I pay tribute to my predecessor, Ann McKechin, who represented the constituency diligently and well for 14 years, and I know that she was respected by colleagues in this House and by her constituents. She was committed to international development. Last year, she and my hon. Friend the Member for Moray (Angus Robertson) were part of a delegation that visited Srebrenica. It is 20 years since that massacre, which should give us all pause to reflect on the progress that has been made towards a world of justice and peace. If the role of Britain in the world is not ultimately the achievement of deep and lasting peace, then what is it?

Our global economy and our environment are too fragile and too precarious to take the shocks that come from military adventurism and old-school projection of power. That is to say nothing of the obscene and obsolete maintenance and renewal of weapons of mass destruction on the Clyde.

My journey to the SNP began when I first saw my right hon. Friend the Member for Gordon (Alex Salmond)—he represented Banff and Buchan at the time—at a conference as part of a school trip organised by my modern studies teacher at the Inverness Royal Academy. At that point, I was already a member—I still am—of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, but it became clear to me that the SNP had the right priorities for Scotland and the world. Nuclear weapons represent everything that is wrong about the policy and spending priorities of successive UK Governments, and that is why I am proud to represent a party, and I believe a constituency, that supports bairns not bombs, nurses not nukes, teachers not Trident.

This year, at three world summits we have the opportunity to promote a distinctive, progressive and, I hope, Scottish voice in favour of a more just world. I hope that the Minister will find common cause with our colleagues in the Scottish Government on that cause.

The tie I am wearing today is the Malawi Scotland tartan. It symbolises the friendship and solidarity between our two countries. Solidarity should be the mark of relationships between human beings and the basis on which we can end the scandal of poverty around the world and promote world peace.