 The next item of business is a member's business debate on motion 11389, in the name of Richard Leonard, on recognising the contribution of Michael McMcGahey. This debate will be concluded without any questions being put, and I would ask those members who would wish to speak in the debate to please press the request to speak buttons and I call on Richard Leonard to open the debate. Mick McGahey represents everything which is good about the working class and labour movements. An underground miner who was a political visionary, a leader who earned the respect not just of the miners but of the entire labour movement. An inspiring orator who turned his words into action. As Mick himself said, he was a product of his class and his movement, and he remained fiercely loyal to both. Thanks to Melissa and Joshua Ben and Ruth Winstone, we can read a touching diary entry where Tony Ben, at the 1980 miners' gala, records the following. I sat between Mick and his wife, who were absolutely delighted by their seven-month-old grandchild. They had brought her along, and Mick's face was creased with smiles. I thought, if only the press could see him, as a father and grandfather, the image would be so different. To Elaine and Caroline, who join us in Parliament tonight, to young make, to the miners, their families, the communists, the socialists, the trade unionists, the tribunes of labour, all here in the public gallery, comrades all, we say that without you, there would be no Mick McGahy. This great man was only so great because he represented great people and a great cause and had the greatest love and support of his family. Today is especially poignant. It marks to the day, the 25th anniversary of his death. Last year, we will celebrate the centenary of his birth. Mick McGahy was born in shots just a year before the general strike. His father, Jimmy, was jailed, sacked, evicted, blacklisted during that bitter dispute. So the family was forced to move over 400 miles away to the Kent Coalfield in search of work. It was not until the 1930s that they moved back north to Canberr Slang. In 1939, at the age of 14, Mick left school and went down the pit. By the age of 18, he was leading the miners at the gateside colliery on strike in defiance of the wartime ban on industrial action. He was sacked and he had to leave home to find work. In the coming years, the Labour Government nationalised the coal industry. Mick became an NUM branch delegate. By the 1950s, he was chairing the Union's Scottish Youth Committee advocating for international peace and disarmament. By the 1960s, he was moving anti-polaris motions at the STUC. In 1967, the year he was elected as the president of the NUM Scottish area, nine miners tragically and needlessly lost their lives, poisoned by fumes caused by an underground fire at the Michael Colliery in Fife. However, his unerring principle, agitation and determination in the wake of that tragedy led to every miner in every coalfield being fitted with self-rescuing breathing equipment as standard. The following year, Mick McGarhey made history at the Scottish TUC. Involking the spirit of Bob Smiley, of Keir Hardy, he called for the establishment of a Scottish Parliament to bring power closer to the people. Scotland was a nation, he said in that seminal speech, not a region of Britain, but he rejected completely any theory of a classless Scotland, citing the common bonds of the Scottish miners with the Durham miners, the Sheffield engineers and the London dockers. Defeated in his campaign to become NUN national president in 1971, in 1973, he was elected as national vice president, helping to lead the miners to victory in 1974. Like John McLean before him, he was accused by the establishment of sedition. He was bugged by the secret services, phones tapped, vilified in the tabloids, denounced by the Labour right, which hunted by the Tories, but he never hid his politics and his lifelong membership over the Communist Party. He spoke out on the crimes of Chile, the injustices of South Africa, but he also led the miners from Scotland down to the picket line at Grunwick, an act of solidarity never forgotten by those migrant predominantly women workers in north-west London led by the fearless Jaya Ben Dessai. Today we mark the 25th anniversary of Mick Magahy's death, but 2024 is also the 40th anniversary of the miners' strike, without doubt the most significant industrial dispute since 1926. Mick prophetically warned of the decimation of the Scottish Coalfield if the Thatcher Government had its way. It was a strike not about wages, but about jobs, about pits, about communities, or even the very way of life in those communities itself. It was a turning point, and as Mick often said, if we stop running they will not chase us, stand firm and fight. After the strike he was literally bruised, battered, but unbowed. He never wavered in his demand for the reinstatement of the victimised miners. Are we walking away? He challenged the Scottish TUC from the Congress rostrum in 1985. From those boys who did one thing wrong in their life they fought for their jobs, they fought for the right to work. Two years after the strike Mick retired, but he was far from done he helped establish the Scottish Pensioners Forum. He was always a great teacher who understood the importance of political education. He was a man of principle and integrity, of honesty, of humour and of culture. This man who left school at the age of 14 could draw extensively on Marx and Morris, on Gallacher and McLean, on Burns and Grassett Gibbon to prosecute his argument, but he could deploy wit too. The only time I have ever heard of a wage explosion, he declared, is if you burst into your employer's office on a Friday morning and blow the safe with jellignite, because trade unions did not simply exist to fight the annual wages battle but to end the wages battle by the redistribution of national wealth. He recognised the central role of women in the struggle. Have you ever seen a plain fly with half a wing, he used to say? An intellectual, an internationalist, Mick McGarhey truly was a working-class hero. That is why, in conclusion, it is important that he is properly commemorated and immortalised in this Parliament that he did so much to create where his ashes were scattered by his family, where his spirit will always be. Mick used to say, we are a movement, not a monument, but no one should underestimate the impact of that speech to the STUC in Aberdeen in 1968, not just because of what was said but because of who was saying it. He reignited the radical tradition of the Scottish Labour movement. This was his first political priority in his first year as the new leader of the Scottish miners. In so doing, he changed the course of history, so to let us make sure that the people of Scotland are reminded of that in this Parliament building so that they and we can pay our enduring thanks to him. Let us turn our words into action so that his values, his principles will continue to echo down the ages so that his legacy lives on, the monumental, the glorious legacy of Mick McGarhey. I say to our visitors in the gallery this evening that all of you are most welcome here tonight to observe our proceedings in this debate, but I have to advise you that that does not include participation, which in turn precludes applauding. I hope that you will bear with us with that observance of that rule this evening, but you are most very welcome to be here. I call Clare Haughey to be followed by Alec Riley. I want to congratulate Richard Leonard for securing this member's debate on Mick McGarhey on the 25th anniversary of his death. As a proud trade unionist the whole of my working life, I am delighted to be able to speak today, and all the more so, given my Rutherglen constituency is so steeped in mining history. I refer members to my register of interests in that I am a member of unison. Like much of Lanarkshire pits in Rutherglen, Cambuslang and Blantyre were key sources of employment, but sadly they were blighted with the history of disaster and the loss of life that has been forgotten to many over the years. Scotland's worst mining disaster took place in Blantyre in 1877, and it claimed the lives of almost 6 per cent of the total population of the town. This catastrophe for the town and its surrounding area is commemorated by a memorial, an obelisk, and a new memorial unveiled on 4 February last year. In September I was pleased to attend the unveiling of a new miners memorial on Rutherglen main street, which stands as a fitting reminder to all who worked in Rutherglen's coal mines from the 1500s through to the 1930s. Whilst my constituency has a proud mining history over the centuries, one of the key local figures of the past 100 years was undoubtedly Mick MacGahey. The Cambuslang miners memorial will bear in inscription dedicated to the man himself. Presiding Officer, as we have heard in Richard Leonard's speech, he was initially born in shots and then moved to England with his family before settling in Cambuslang in my constituency, where he spent his formative years. He attended a local school, and I understand he left school on a Friday at the age of 14, and then by the time the Monday morning came round he was working in Cambuslang's gateside colliery, the same pit as his father. Just four years on from Mick MacGahey's starting work at gateside colliery, he became a union branch secretary at the age of just 18. Growing up in a family of miners shaped his outlook in his life and his politics. His work, his trade unionism and his political beliefs went hand in hand. Mick MacGahey was a giant in the trade union movement, serving as vice president of the NUM for a period, and as we have also heard, a lifelong member of the Communist Party. He was a man who dedicated his life to improving the working conditions for his membership, and, of course, he played a key role in the formation of this Parliament. At the 1968 Scottish Trade Union Congress, he moved a motion trying to shift the Labour movement's constitutional position to one in support of devolution, and, although not immediately successful, he did play his part in changing minds and policy. Although he was not alive to see our Scottish Parliament reconvened, I shoot the views of Richard Leonard and the NUM that there should be a permanent memorial installed here in Mick MacGahey's memory. In addition to the plaque on Cambus Langminer's wheel that I have already mentioned, there is also a street in the Whitla Burnett area in my constituency, Mick MacGahey Drive, which I understand is named after him, too. He must count as one of the most influential people to come from my constituency in recent times. A lot has changed in the 25 years since Mick MacGahey passed away, not least the formation of the Scottish Parliament, and the closure of the last deep coal mine in Longannock. However, what has not changed is the tax on workers' rights, their terms and conditions, and, tragically, as we remember every year on workers' memorial day, people being killed in accidents at work. The need for strong trade union voices and representation is just as important today as it was in the past. On the anniversary of Mick MacGahey's death, I can see that there is no more fitting tribute than the creation of a memorial to him here in Parliament, and I am proud to add my name in support of such calls. I want to speak in support of Richard Leonard's motion here tonight, and in particular my support for the belief that the Parliament should engage with the NUM to erect a bust of Michael MacGahey within the Scottish Parliament. I say this because Mick MacGahey, throughout his leadership of the National Union of Mine Workers in Scotland, had a profound impact on the lives of the Scottish people for over half a century. Ewan Gibbs has written an excellent essay that charts Mick MacGahey's life, his politics and his activism that I would recommend to anyone with an interest in Scottish history. For me, it is the impact of the National Union of Mine Workers under Mick MacGahey's leadership, the impact on Scottish life that merits the recognition being called for in this motion. Others will speak of his impact on health and safety for miners, which, when Mick MacGahey took over, was appalling the leadership that fought for better working conditions and facilities like being able to get washing facilities and the fight against poverty wages, and rightly so. My focus is on the improvements to the lives of the mining communities for miners, their wives, their children and for all working people. It is reported that Mick MacGahey left school with little formal education and was self-educated to become absorbed into a culture that regarded books as treasures. That thirst for knowledge and education he drove throughout his lifetime, throughout the NUM and into the mining communities of Scotland. Miners became more aware of the importance of reading and writing and education, not just for them but more important for their children to succeed in life. The evidence of that can be found in the progressive role that Scottish local government played throughout the second half of the 20th century, driving up education for the masses, driving the agenda for decent housing, access to health, to the arts and culture and so much more for working-class communities up and down Scotland. For those councils driving and delivering such change, they were full of councillors that were miners, miners that fought for social justice, for their class driven by the encouragement and support that they gained from the trade union, the national union of mine workers under the leadership of Mick MacGahey, through highly skilled and educated pit delegates, NUM social committees that work well beyond the pits into the communities and into miners' homes. When I grew up in the mining village of Kelty, my dad a miner, my grandad's miners, I knew the name Mick MacGahey from a very early age. The miners' union was part of our lives. The pit galas in the summer, the Christmas parties in the winter, the funding for the pipe band that I played in, the welfare funds for those struggling in my community and in communities across Scotland. I heard McGahey speak at many miners galas in Edinburgh, in the strikes in the 70s and on the picket lines in the 80s, but my greatest honour was to share a platform with Mick MacGahey when he along with Gordon Brown in 1997 unveiled the Kelty miners memorial in front of many hundreds of people in my home village of Kelty. I therefore hope that this Parliament will agree to give the recognition and the honour and memory of Scotland's 20th century working class pioneer. Thank you Mr Riley. I now call Rona Mackay to be followed by Maggie Chapman. Can I thank Richard Leonard for bringing this debate to the chamber and congratulate him for his passionate and heartfelt speech? I'm very pleased to be speaking in this debate. I come from a family where four uncles were Lanarkshire miners and I, like many others of my generation, have a vivid memory of that destructive years in the 80s when she decimated mines and industry throughout the UK. Mick MacGahey was, as Richard Leonard says, a working class hero. Born and shot since 1925, he died of emphysema in 1999. Emphysema is, of course, a disease of the lungs and one to which miners were particularly prone due to the hazardous nature of their daily work. He started work as a miner at the Gateside colliery at the age of 14, a child, and was a member of the Communist Party and the National Union of Mine workers all his life. A monument to Mick stands in Camposlang, as we've heard, where he and his family moved while his father was in search of work. Among many memorable quotes he made during his lifetime, this one is particularly apt, and it's the one that Richard Leonard mentioned. He said, we are a movement, not a monument. However, I would definitely support a monument to Mick MacGahey here in Parliament. This was a man who never lost touch with his working-class shoots and socialist values. To this day, I still find it astonishing that miners had to fight for every penny that they received for doing such a dirty and dangerous job and then had to fight for those jobs. I recall several of my uncles having what was termed as a miner's mark on their heads due to falling coal and rock. Why would society seek to begrudge these men a decent living wage? I also recall Mick and Arthur Scargal, who fought long and hard for the mining industry, being demonised by the media, referred to them as loony lefties. They were humiliated on shows such as Spitting Image and laughed at simply for trying to better the lives of people who kept our homes warm, kept the lights on and food on the table. During the bitter 80s miners' strike, I stood in solidarity on the picket line at Polkemic Collery with West Lothian, being blinded by flashlights designed to intimidate and distress us. It was a huge learning curve for me to experience the lengths that the establishment would go to to keep the workers in their place to avoid giving them respect and a decent wage. I rattled a can in Glasgow's Maryhill Road and found great support coming from people most of whom had little to spare themselves. I realised then that the media slurs and misinformation don't always cut it with the Scottish public who do have a social conscience and understand the motivation of a greedy corporate establishment. Mick McGahie will be remembered along with other legendary union leaders and socialists such as John McLean, Jimmy Reid, Mary Barber and many others. I just don't have enough time to mention. I often wonder what they would think of the society that we are in today with zero-hours contracts and unpaid work trials prevailing. Actually, I'm sure that I know what they would think. Working-class hero and man of the people are overused phrases, but not in the case of Mick McGahie, who demonstrated his passion and commitment to the working man throughout his life. It's a tragedy that miners had to fight for dignity and respect throughout their hard-working lives, and it's a dark stain on the British establishment to this day. We should have learned from those dark days, but I'm afraid that the jury is out on that one. I now call Mackie Chapman to be followed by Katie Clark. I thank Richard Leonard for securing this important debate today. There are a number of things that we could say about the life of Mick McGahie and his contributions to our politics and civic life, but I want to focus on his contribution to democracy. One thing that I share with Mick is that I am a member of Democratic Left Scotland, an organisation of which he was also a member for many years. At the heart of Mick McGahie's politics and Democratic Left Scotland is a commitment to freedom, the freedom from exploitative wage labour, the freedom from apartheid, the freedom from Pinochet's terror and the freedom to govern ourselves. For him, that makes Scotland having democracy, and it's important to note how that conception of democracy might differ from what we have today. It wasn't democracy in the narrow sense that is about parliaments or assemblies or other institutions. It was something much, much more radical. It was about defending the interests of the Scottish working class and the institutions could follow. Because, as with many people in his tradition in the 60s and 70s, he understood what was coming. There's a mistake that people have made, it's easy to do, and that is to confuse centralisation with solidarity. In that famous speech to the STUC in 1968, Mick reiterated his commitment to workers in England. He understood that we can choose solidarity even if we don't have the same Government. When the STUC eventually adopted devolution as its policy in the mid 1970s, it was in defence of Scottish industry and Scottish workers. Some at Westminster made that mistake and amended the bill for Scottish devolution so that it required a qualified vote. In 1979, Scotland was denied a devolved assembly by that Government, and Scotland was denied devolution and its own voice at a vital time. For Mick, as for many advocates of devolution at the time, a Scottish Assembly would stand up to any future Conservative Government and its attempts to destroy Scottish industry and, with it, the Scottish working class. A Scottish Assembly could have been a bastion against thaturism, but centralisation gives opportunities for people like the Conservatives to wield their destructive acts against the working class. As we commemorate the 40th anniversary of the minor strike and consider the future of steel production on these islands, it is sobering to think of the impact that Scottish devolution could have had in facing down the brutal and inhumane Thatcher Government's attacks on Scotland. We could have had a just transition for the miners and for the coal industry, and we could have had control over our own steel, a cornerstone or the green transition that we now need to make. Democracy is not a distraction from the interests of workers. It is not something that you do instead of solidarity. It is absolutely at the heart of building a better world. Indeed, it is a cruel irony that someone so associated with democracy was undemocratically maneuvered out of the opportunity to be general secretary of the NUM. Again, we must consider how differently the minor strike could have ended had Mick been at the helm. Mick is quite literally here with us, and it is in his commitment to Scottish industry and to devolution that is not about narrow politics of institutions, but about exercising power through and on behalf of the people. As a member of the Smith commission, I argued for the devolution of trade union laws to Scotland. I am glad that this is now a more widely shared position, but I am sad that we have not been able to resist the latest anti-worker legislation foisted on Scotland from Westminster. We need a democracy that can rebuild our industry for the climate crisis that is approaching, and we need to understand that this democracy will reinforce our solidarity with others around the world, not diminish it. That would be, alongside a tribute in this building, a fitting monument to Mick's memory. I congratulate my colleague Richard Leonard for securing this debate and speaking in favour of the motion. Like many others, my main recollection of Mick McGaghey is from the 1984-1985 minor strike, and the many interventions and many rallies and meetings that he spoke at. This year is, of course, the 40th anniversary of the commencement of that strike. I hope that this Parliament will consider again the impact that that dispute had for Scotland later this year, because there are many lessons that need to be learned from that dispute for those who wish to see the empowerment of working-class communities. That dispute shows us again the need for unity and the need for solidarity. The miners and their families suffered terrible financial hardship during that dispute and did so because they understood the significance of the dispute for their communities and for future generations. I believe that history has proved that what they said was correct. Mick McGaghey was, of course, a significant trade unionist and working-class leader in Scotland over many decades. Like his father, Jimmy, he was both a Lanetshire minor and a member of the Communist Party. He worked in the pits from the age of 14 and by the age of 18 was already chair of his NUM union branch, and he was an active member of his union throughout his life. His family's story of being blacklisted and having to move for work is shared by many families. Of course, as a trade unionist, most of his time was on the fight for pay, for health and safety and indeed for compensation for those injured, but he gained prominence in the 1972 and 1974 minor strikes. Much like we see today and indeed since the creation of the trade union movement, as Rona Mackay has already said, Mick McGaghey and other trade union leaders were monstered by the press and by their political opponents. Prime Minister Edward Heath singled him out in his 1974 election campaign as a leader of a small group of unelected communists who wanted to run written. That strike of course ended with a 35% pay increase for minors. The timing of the 1984-1985 strike was of course not decided by the minors, but by the then Conservative Government who had a vision of both closing the pits and smashing the minors union and the organised working class. As was said repeatedly in that dispute, if you closed a pit you killed a community. Of course, the experience of working class communities is that when there are closures, those jobs are not replaced. Even now, communities across Scotland have not recovered from the defeat in the 1984-1985 strike and the subsequent pit closures. As was also said at the time, if the minors were defeated then it would be more difficult for every struggle and every dispute that came afterwards. The motion today is for recognition of Mick Magahey with a bust in this Parliament. When Mick Magahey died, his ashes were placed beneath the grounds of this Parliament. He fought for this Parliament. He fought for a working class Parliament and I believe that it would be fitting if there was a commemoration in this building for his life. Thank you. Thank you, Ms Lark. I now call Christine Graham to be followed by Caroline Mock. I thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I add my congratulations to Richard Leonard for securing this debate and welcoming his family here. I am not only pleased to speak to commemorate this extraordinary individual because I have mining areas in my constituency of Midlothian in Penigoot, Gorbridge and, of course, Newton Grange with the National Mining Museum, but because my mum was the English daughter of a Welsh miner who mined in the Derby pits, he died in his late 40s following a pitprop, falling on him, causing a severe head injury from which he never recovered, leaving behind a large family of orphans, including my mother. She was there for all her days a formidable advocate for the miners and their communities and never more so during the miners' strike 1984-85, which I witnessed. I saw the charges by mounted police and the miners, the women banning barricades at picket lines, collecting for their communities, with communities and indeed families sometimes torn apart. I listened to Arthur Scargal and Mick Maggi in those days and there was a world of difference between the capabilities, and I suspect the strategy of both men in disputes with the UK Government. Thatcher was out to avenge the demise of her predecessor Edward Heath, who took on the miners with the resultant three-day week and failed and lost an election. That brought in a minority Labour Government under Wilson. Thatcher then came in and she was hell bent on emasculating unions, starting with the miners. To some extent, in my view, it was given to her on a plate. Why strike in the summer when the coal was piled high? The voice of Mick Maggi during that long strike for me was more measured than Arthur Scargal, although, right to the end, Mick Maggi insisted that the 1984 strike was unavoidable and that the union's tactics had been correct under the circumstances. I understand, however, that there was a failed attempt to solve the dispute involving secret talks between Lord Whitelaw, the Tory deputy leader, Mick Maggi facilitated by Bill Keyes, the leader of the print workers union. The negotiations that began over a bottle of shabli in the House of Lords, my goodness, are revealed in the hitherto unpublished diaries by the late Keyes. The initiative collapsed when Arthur Scargal ruled out the deal because it would lead to pit closures. Maybe he was right, maybe not. How history for me might have changed if Mick Maggi had led the charge. Instead, as a result of that devastating route of the miners, trade union legislation has made it tougher for all workers, legislation that has not been repealed during successive Conservative and Labour Governments. I cannot see Sir Keir reversing any of that, can you? I suspect he would agrave that Mick Maggi would be burling in it, but, as we know, his ashes are scattered beneath this very building, which is very fitting for a Democrat, supported long and hard devolution. It is therefore appropriate that it was this Government, this Parliament, that granted those convicted wrongly during that strike of pardon, the first part of the UK. Richard Leonard along with myself and others have also long campaigned for UK reform of the mine workers pension scheme, a rip-off, which has seen the UK Government with no contribution benefit while miners receive a pittance. Mick Maggi was a bright, brave and colourful man, orator, eloquent and educated, but, with his thick, lankisher accent, lannockshire accent, utterly confused the boffins at MI5 trying to eavesdrop on what he was up to. I love that. Most of all, he was a man of integrity and genuinely a man of his people. We could do with more folk of that ilk. Comrades in the gallery and members in the chamber, we have heard today that there are few people in our recent history that have made themselves heard on the national stage and truly altered the course of history. People that we can call titans of the working class, but Mick Maggi is certainly one of them. To this day, Maggi remains a respected figure across the political left and a feared adversary across that political right. He was a man who stood against injustice, exploitation and corruption wherever it was evident across the world. He was a lifelong communist, proud Scot and trade union leader that worked with everyone he could to achieve tangible improvements in his class. He remains an inspiration to the many that have followed along the path of socialism since. I never met him, but people in my hometown of Malklin and surrounding area and villages certainly did. His socialism is a path that many from my own area have followed or hold a lot of respect for. Only recently, I was speaking to former miners in Cumnock, who did meet him and who were out on those picket lines with him. Many of them said to me that they may not always have agreed with Maggi's line in the disputes of old, but they still possess tremendous respect for a man who always remained consistent and steadfast in his defence of them, an important part of our working class history, and we should commemorate him in this place. I shudder to think what he would have to say about the egregious attacks by the Tory Government on the rights of workers to defend themselves from exploitation going on today, but I imagine he would have said, stand firm and fight. He was a man who not only stood for what he believed in, he advocated passionately for those worse off than him and committed his entire life to giving voice to the voiceless and resisting the vested interests of those at the top. I can think of few figures more fitting for a memorial in this place, a place that he did so much to build and create a sustainable foundation for Scotland. Maggi and others who knew him were always knew that this was never going to be a simple day where victory occurred and progress took hold. He understood that it was a process of struggle and conflict, which led to brighter days ahead for his class. Part of that was securing the right of the Scottish Parliament, to devolve powers and a Parliament of its own. It was to be a working class Parliament. We owe his generation a great deal for holding fast in that pursuit and for holding this reality. I very much doubt that he would be a great fan of some of the sort of self-congratulatory and endlessly delay that goes on now here in this place, but he would be proud none the last that voices and opinions of a varied and experienced mixture of society flourishes within this building. Part of his legacy as a result of what he fought for and championed as democracy and particularly a democracy that reflected the unique views of the working class people in Scotland. I thank Richard Leonard for bringing this debate to the chamber and thank members for their participation in the debate. I hope that we will see the likes of Mick McGahey again. I would like to begin by extending my thanks to Richard Leonard not only for lodging this motion, but of course for his passionate and heartfelt contribution and introduction, and of course for reminding the chamber that Mick McGahey was a leader or a campaigner, but also a much-loved family man as well. I also note the contributions, heartfelt contributions and passion across the chamber and members giving their own considered and thoughtful insights as well. Of course I should say to Alec Rowley that we wish to send me a copy of that essay referred to. I'd be very, very interested in reading that as well. Let me also take a moment to welcome Mick McGahey's former mining colleagues, his friends and his family who have joined us here today in the chamber of the Scottish Parliament. I should say at the outset that I had never had the opportunity to personally meet Mick McGahey, but as a teenager in Scotland during the miner strike, I can often remember the horrific scenes on our television screens and the regular interviews with Mick McGahey and his unmistakable voice, but a voice full of convictions and a voice full of authenticity and I have vivid memories of Mick McGahey from those days in particular. I should also say to the chamber that as someone whose great-great-grandmother lost her father, lost her husband and lost her son in separate mining accidents that I agree with Richard Leonard that we owe a debt of gratitude to Mick McGahey and others who fought so hard for the welfare of our mining communities and health and safety as well. I should also say that speaking to an official today, one of the planning officials who was at a meeting I was at and I explained I was closing tonight's debate and he said, ah, in my home village there's a street named after Mick McGahey, which is of course a former mining village, so others mentioned that in their own communities as well, and that's a reminder that he was much loved and is remembered across Scotland in many of our communities today as well. So it is entirely appropriate that we take time to celebrate him and remember his contributions on the 25th anniversary of his passing. Colleagues have highlighted some of the many achievements of Mick who I understand was known as Michael to those closest to him, including his principal trade unionism and advocacy for a devolved Scottish Parliament and again it's very fitting we're debating his legacy here in the Scottish Parliament today that he fought for and campaigned for but of course there was much more to him than that, more than just a militant is how the Glasgow Times put it in 2014 while the Herald wrote about his grit and intellect and of course that wasn't an accident like many other Scots he was a voracious reader with a passion for poetry including a love for the works of Burns and Shakespeare he was as comfortable advocating for his union members as he was debating the novels I'm told of Lewis Grasic Gibbon or other working class poets of the time like many born into the coal and steel towns of shots Mick was introduced to trade unionism and the minds that would define his life and other members have referred to that through their speeches by 14 he had left school although as we know not his education behind and followed his father into the pits also later following his political footsteps by joining the communist party of Great Britain at just 18 years old he had already risen to become union branch secretary at Gateside colliery later becoming president of the national union of minors Scottish association and vice president to the UK national minors union as well years later in 1968 before many of the current generation of MSPs were born Mick made the case for devolution as Richard Leonard and others said by moving a motion in support for a Scottish Parliament during his address to the sdc and was a key figure in pushing the sdc to support the campaign for its creation and political allegiances aside I think if Mick was here today again many members have made this including this point including Claire Hawking others he would value the relationship that Scottish Government has with the trade unions we're very proud of our collaborative approach and recognition of the vital role that trade unions play in society today together we are forging a society that thrives and shares prosperity embraces equality fosters opportunity and values community fair work as we often debate in this parliament is central to this and trade unions play a key role in the delivery of that and although not captured in these same terms back then and in the very different labour market I'm sure that he would still have been a strong advocate for fair work given his campaigns for workplace improvements health and safety pain conditions and preserving economic security through resisting pick closures sure Paul Sweeney I thank the minister for going away and making a fine speech but we do recognize that one of the things that Mick MacGahy stood for was a more active industrial policy and certainly that was what he his hope was invested in the devolution process that it would defend against industrial closures and we see the records of closures such as the string burn railway works and the Clydebridge steelworks that we could do much more in this country to safeguard high skilled manufacturing industrial employment in this country minister yes he also refers to the legacy of Mick MacGahy and others in terms of resisting some of those closures over the decades but I'm proud of the fact that Scotland now is looking at creating many more of manufacturing jobs in this country at the moment and hopefully reinventing a lot of that industrial heritage fit for the purpose in the 21st century I should also say that as many of others have noted he also saw value in community mobilisation and support he campaigned throughout Britain to politicise miners and to power them off their knees as he said and fight against the industrialisation which Mr Sweeney just mentioned and what he saw as a struggle to save Scotland's economy so again as many members have echoed he would surely be appalled today by the persistent erosion of workers rights by consecutive conservative governments at Westminster and of course back in 2016 we saw the introduction of the abhorrent trade union act and in 2022 attempting to change the rules to allow agency workers during strikes for instance and now we have the unnecessary unwanted and effective strikes act so I think as again has been echoed Mick MacGahy today would agree it's time for a change in terms of those attacks and workers rights he also rightly fought hard for the retention of the mining workforce and of course his legacy continues this government very much recognises the importance of the right to strike and also of an effective workers voice voices paramount and valued not just in the workplace but also in shaping our future as we strive to become a fairer economy and it behoves us all to ensure that we use our incredibly rich resources to build that well-being economy that benefits all of our communities all of our people as well as meeting the 21st century challenges like our net zero targets that we want to see and although Mick fought very hard for the coal industry in his day we can collectively recognise today the need for a just transition which didn't happen when the coal community the mining communities were closed by Thatcher in the Tories in the 80s so that we can provide good green jobs for people in future generations Christine Grahame Minister of the Parliament be kind enough to acknowledge the position of the deputy Presiding Officer who is unable to take part in this but often speaks in debates in support of mining communities I'm not getting involved in that I can't answer that absolutely I'm quickly trying to work out the protocols in my head but I'll just say that Annabelle Ewing MSP has got a very good track record speaking up for those issues in this chamber so in conclusion as the motion rightly notes we should absolutely recognise the impact that the Mick Mcahy Mick Mcahy has had in the trade union movement particularly of course in Scotland I'm confident that his integrity and commitment would transcend party politics his influence continues through the legacy of his work with the NMU and the STUC again as was said Mick never got to see this Parliament open sadly passing away just months before but his advocacy for the working classes and the trade union movement continues to inspire many as we've heard in the chamber today and it's poignant his ashes are buried within the foundations of this Parliament and it's fitting that we recognise his contribution with a bus within the Scottish Parliament a place that is founded in the very principles of accountability citizen participation perishing and equal opportunities if others so choose that as something to deliver so I very much welcome this debate today and call in Parliament to of course support the sentiments of Richard Leonard's motion thank you minister that concludes the debate and I close this meeting