Chamber and committees

I recognise some of what you described with regard to bus services. The consul raised that with us.

I will move on to a couple of other things that the consul said to us. He mentioned on a couple of occasions working with the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain, which I believe has branches in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee. I would be interested to know what work the witnesses have been able to do with AUGB.

How do we ensure that the children of the Ukrainian families who are here do not lose contact with their Ukrainian roots? The consul described children as being like sponges and quickly taking on English as their first language. I am interested to know what the different areas are doing on that.

Thank you, consul, for coming along and for—as my colleagues have said—being so honest and giving us so many clear examples of where issues have arisen.

I underline what the convener said in her introduction. We are all elected to the Parliament to represent the people who live in our constituencies or regions. I know that, in my constituency of Argyll and Bute, my councillor colleagues have been very supportive and are very willing to help Ukrainians who are living in that region. We can give you the message to pass on to your fellow countrypeople that they have as much support from people like us sitting around this table as our own Scottish constituents do.

I am interested in culture, and I have asked some of your compatriots about that. How do we ensure that the children who are now living in Scotland—I hope that they enjoy living here, and that they get home very soon—are given opportunities to keep their important and strong links with Ukrainian culture? I know that you touched on that subject, but perhaps you could expand on it a little.

It is fair to say that people are people the world over, and understanding how different communities operate is part of how we can understand and respect differences. Thank you very much for your honesty.

Partly.

I do, yes. I represent the constituency of Argyll and Bute.

I would be very happy to be involved. I am very upset to hear what you have told me. Please contact my office, and I will provide whatever support I can. Thank you for raising that issue. I am very happy to provide support in whatever way I can.

I also asked specifically about culture and how we can help you to ensure that Ukrainian children do not lose cultural ties with their homeland.

As you will know, we heard from the ambassador for Sweden in our previous session today. I was struck by one line from her. She said:

“culture is what keeps things together.”

We need to remember that when we are looking at budgets and thinking about the importance of culture to the rest of the economy.

I want to follow up on the point that my colleague Mark Ruskell made about creative people coming up with different ideas in a difficult time. I think that it was Sir John Leighton who said that culture is the answer—it is a solution and an asset that needs to be exploited. Chris Sherrington suggested levies for tickets, but he also talked about—as you have touched on today, cabinet secretary—not only the importance, but the expense, of buildings. There are ideas coming up in England and Wales about owning our own venues, with communities raising funds for community benefit. Could you expand on that? You have talked about the round-table sessions in which the Scottish Government and your officials discuss with creative organisations how they can become part of the solution. Which of the ideas that you are thinking about could we run with?

Thank you for coming to the Scottish Parliament, and welcome to Scotland. You have commented several times on partnership and being like-minded. We are in the process of moving towards a new Scottish agriculture bill, and I noticed that agriculture is one of the priorities for your six-month term. Will you expand on where you see agriculture and food production moving?

At the committee’s round-table session last week, I asked about the impact of the difficult decisions that have had to be made with regard to the culture budget, and particularly the impact on Scotland’s international standing. Sir John Leighton said in a previous evidence session that every piece of art or artefact that is loaned

“is a mini ambassador for Scottish culture.”—[Official Report, Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee, 29 September 2022; c 23.]

Last week, we heard evidence that touched on the importance of Scottish culture through tourism and international partnerships, and also more generally as soft power. Moira Jeffrey talked about being at the Venice biennale and about artistic collaborations.

I am interested in hearing what work the Scottish Government is doing in the light of the budget reductions to ensure that Scotland’s cultural standing is not lost from an international perspective.

Thank you very much for that offer. Your response emphasises the connectedness between Europe, the partners and the rest of the world. I was reflecting on connections between Sweden and Scotland. I suggest that Scotland is very much a southern Nordic nation.

Mr Golden asked about how we are moving forward with new technologies. If we think back to engineering and canals, we see that Thomas Telford was involved in the canal between Gothenburg and Stockholm, so the connections go back a long time—in fact, they go further back than that.

In your role as ambassador for Sweden, will you make some comments about how you see the Nordic Council going forward, how that ties into Sweden’s role with the EU and how Scotland can be involved in that?