Chamber and committees

I have one final question that I will also direct to you, Rae. Can you explain, for the record, the difference between annex 1 and annex 2 geese?

Thank you.

I thank Rae McKenzie and Morag Milne for joining us. Like Alasdair Allan, I have a constituency that is impacted by geese, as Islay and Tiree are part of it. Rae and I often meet on Kilchoman beach while walking our dogs. I can attest to the number of seabirds that were, sadly, washed up on Islay’s shores as a result of bird flu.

Morag Milne, in your answers to my colleague Rachael Hamilton, you have gone into some of the issues that I was hoping to ask about. As both witnesses have mentioned, not every situation is the same in the four pilot areas. What are the major differences between them? What have you and the communities learned from the work that is being done?

Yes, exactly. They are here and they are the cultural ambassadors of 10 or 20 years’ time, so how do we ensure that they hold on to that?

Before I was elected to the Parliament, I managed a small museum on Islay. Its disaster recovery plan really considered only flooding and wind damage—it certainly did not cover war damage. I am interested in hearing about Historic Environment Scotland’s breadth of knowledge in that area and how you can support building or rebuilding—you said “building back better”—in Ukraine.

I also want to touch on the fact that culture includes our natural environment. I represent Argyll and Bute, which is a very rural area but one that has lots of small towns. Twinning could go further than just involving the big cities. How do we move twinning on to include smaller towns in Ukraine? It has the wonderful beech forests, and we have the Celtic rainforests in Argyll and Bute. Can we make connections in the natural cultural world?

Two ladies in Lochgilphead have been doing amazing work in filling lorries to send to Ukraine. They are currently trying to fill one with Christmas presents so that the children can have a recognisable Christmas. They have said to me that they would love to twin with such-and-such an area because they have already started that relationship. That is positive.

Thank you all for coming. I looked at the Ukrainian Institute website today and read some of the heartbreaking stories on the site. I was struck by a number of the photographs that show Ukrainian people in front of important cultural buildings. There was a photograph of an older lady who had spoken about her memories of being in a church, which has now been damaged. I was struck by the beauty of the buildings and the amazing artwork and the songs and the dances that had all been highlighted. We have many Ukrainian families staying in Scotland, so I am interested in how we can help to ensure that your culture, stories, traditions and music are kept going among the young children who are now here. Daria Bondarenko, do you want to talk about that?

That is a really strong point, because positive relationships are those that start from the people.

Back in 2016, supporters of Brexit said that it was all about taking back control. I might argue that, as we can see, what that meant was Westminster taking back control from Scotland.

I am also a member of the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee, which took evidence on the subject of frameworks from a variety of people, including Professor Nicola McEwen and colleagues. Professor McEwen suggested:

“common framework agreements could commit the Scottish Government to shared or minimal standards and rules, potentially limiting the scope for action of the Scottish Parliament.”

In what areas do you think that our devolved settlement could be impacted?

I am interested in how the newly established Environment Standards Scotland will be able to scrutinise decision making within the common frameworks processes or feed in to their development.