 Rydw i'n gweithio'r cyfnodau, a'r next item of business is one that we would all prefer not to be holding—a motion of condolence following the death of our former Presiding Officer and colleague Sir Alex Ferguson. Alex and I started together both of us enjoying the privilege of being elected to Parliament as part of the first intake of MSPs in 1999. He came to this place having lived a life outside of politics and he never lost that real world take on the issues before us. Alex was both impassioned and knowledgeable on matters relating to rural Scotland and, in particular, on issues affecting the south-west of this country. Allied to his natural good humour, his intelligence and approachability, when Alex spoke, people listened. That is still a relatively young Parliament, but when we look back at events of significance in its development, among them will undoubtedly be Alex's election as Presiding Officer in 2007. It was a year when the people of Scotland decided to elect our first-ever minority Government, a situation that gave rise to new political challenges to match that changing political dynamic. In those unchartered waters, the Parliament needed someone who could be trusted, who was fair and balanced, someone who was liked and respected across the parties and, of course, we turned to Alex. However, as I alluded to earlier, Alex was not a career politician. He did not seek high office. He got into politics later than most out of a sense of duty and service and gave voice to the issues and causes that he believed in. At Westminster, MPs play out a little scene on the election of their chosen speaker when the successful candidate is dragged reluctantly from the green benches to the speaker's chair. With Alex, that was no metaphorical enactment or political playlet, but the reality of his sense of duty winning out over his own political priorities. With Parliament at an impasse, Alex agreed to accept the role of Presiding Officer thrust upon him. As the evidence of the time in office reveals, the Parliament demonstrated its wisdom in electing him. It takes a special talent, after all, to navigate the Parliament's first minority Government, to vote down a £33 billion budget bill, to notoriously mix up a football semifinal cup draw, and to constantly break the disappointing news to uninformed correspondence that he was not responsible for picking the Manchester United First team. Many of us not only admired Alex's many qualities and talents. We would be proud to emulate his example and end up leaving this place with more friends than when we were first elected. When news came of Alex's untimely death, I was struck not only by the kind words of fellow MSPs but by the fondness with which he was remembered by the parliamentary staff. From those who worked alongside him in private office, to the clerks, researchers, IT and other support staff, it was apparent that the feelings of shock and sadness were not exclusive. Kind words for a man who always had a kind word to those whom he met—a true gentleman. In saying goodbye to Alex, Parliament is saying goodbye to a good friend who made a great mark on this place. Our thoughts and prayers are very much with his wife, Meryn, and the wider family who we are honoured to have with us in the public gallery today. Goodbye, Presiding Officer. Goodbye, Alex. Thank you very much for your service and friendship. I will call on Ruth Davidson to move the motion of condolence. Thank you, Presiding Officer. In August memorial service for Sir Alex Ferguson that you attended along with your predecessors, the Deputy First Minister and many others here today, we came together to commemorate a life well lived, a life of public service, of duty and of profound decency. Today we come together again and it is right and fitting that this Parliament meets to remember one of its own. Our third Presiding Officer, the first that we have lost, a politician who served here for 17 years and I think it is fair to say he was not just respected but loved too. That remarkable memorial service in Kecwbry Parish Church six weeks ago, it was impossible not to be so moved by the stories that came flooding forward from those whose lives had been touched by Alex. From David Mundell, the Scottish Secretary, who described him as the most thoroughly decent man that he had the good fortune to meet, to befriend and to have instruct him in the way of sheep farming. From Alex's brother John, whose wonderful eulogy captured not just the panic of Manchester United fans on social media at the announcement of Alex's passing but also all the humour and the humanity and the truly terrible driving habits of the man. We heard from Alex himself telling us in his own words to belt out the hymns that he had chosen for the service and how in his final days he was without regret or bitterness. He had gone but his humanity breathed on on that day gloriously. For me the most telling contribution was the comment that was relayed from one of Alex's medical staff who said that they'd watched the family around him in his final days and what a closeness and a love he saw between them. What a legacy. We are so pleased today to be able to welcome his wife Meryn, his mother Oriole, brother JG, sister Henrietta and youngest son Christopher to the Parliament. We thank you for lending Alex to us even for a short time. It was time well spent. For the Scottish Conservatives, Alex's death has left a huge hole but it is right to say today that he was first and foremost a parliamentarian and it is this Parliament which mourns him together today. It's fitting too that today we welcome 60 pupils from Dalbeetie High School in Alex's patch. As a champion of the region and of young people's interest in politics, he would have loved to have seen you all here. Alex was not a career politician. He was a farmer taking over management of the family farm in Bar and Carrick in 1971. He was soon getting involved in life beyond the farm gate. As the former MSP Murray Tosh, his close colleague and friend, has observed, he felt that his own beloved south-west of Scotland had its own distinct interests, which needed to be represented more effectively. It was from his own lived experience that his political career began. Characteristically for us Scottish Conservatives, his first attempt to get into politics failed. When he stood for the South Carrick ward in 1995, but he had got the bug and when, in 1997, the devolution referendum was passed, he decided to stand for this new Parliament. He was always a committed devolutionist, something that he was to pursue all his career, including as a member of the Party Strathclyde commission, which in 2014 recommended a series of wide-ranging increases in the Parliament's powers. In the 1999 election, he did not win his constituency, but he was elected on the party list. As one of 129 new MSPs, he soon stood out. The Scotsman Dyrus drab McNeill coined him Hercules, thanks to his fine public bearing and his star turn alongside Alex Johnson in the annual tug of war. The ribbing was always affectionate, and when Alex retired in 2016, Rob was to declare, it's a great shame that he's retiring, because for a Tory, he came heavily disguised as a human being, and I couldn't possibly comment. But Alex stood out in other ways, too. He didn't go in for personal attacks and had fine relations with Alasdair Morgan, the SNP MSP, who'd beaten him to the Galloway and Upper Nithsdale constituency. People soon learned not to mistake his personal courtesy for weakness. On the issues that mattered to him, he was tough and uncompromising. As David Mundell said last month, when Foot and Mouth hit in 2001, Alex emerged as the most dogged and best informed challenger of the Scottish executive's handling of the crisis. That was because, in private, he was every day speaking to individual farmers and businesses from all over Scotland, listening to their concerns, offering support and connecting them to people in power. In 2003, that hard work paid off when he won the Galloway and Upper Nithsdale seat, and four years later, after another term, putting the interests of his constituents first, he increased his majority from 99 to 3,333. In 2007, the SNP had just won the election by a single seat, and neither SNP nor Labour were able to give up an MSP for the vacant post of Presiding Officer, so Alex was sounded out. His first concern was whether, in that job, he would still be able to represent his constituents, having been assured that that was the case, he took it on. Faced with the unprecedented nature of minority government, his courtesy, his wise judgment and steeliness were to stand him in good stead. Whether in reprimanding the former Labour MSP George Fawkes for unparlamentary behaviour, because there are always small pleasures in politics, or in dealing with SNP ministers to ensure that the business of government kept going. He was a fine representative of Parliament outside of it, too. In 2009, he took a delegation of MSPs to New Zealand. During the visit, the group was informed that they were due to go to Amari, which is a sacred place in Maori culture, where it is a standard practice for the Maori host to sing to their guests and for the guests to respond in turn. As a man of music and a folk singer of some renown, Alex was not going to let that challenge go missing. I am told that he therefore hustled Ted Brocklebank, Ross Finney, Rhoda Grant and Sandra White into a kind of Scotland's Got Talent outfit, with Alex demanding that they spent the entire evening practising how to sing Sam 23, because he always did like a shepherd. I am told that the Scottish Parliament's choirs rendition the following day was indeed spectacular. Typically, Alex did not see the role of Presiding Officer as a full stop, so in 2011 he insisted on staying on as a constituency MSP. It was his personal connection and affinity with the south-west, which assured that in an election when the SNP swept the board, Alex was re-elected for a third time. A former head of the Blackface Sheepreaders Association, he was appointed as president of the Royal Highland Agricultural Society in 2012, something that I know he took immense pride in. Two years ago, fittingly, he was knighted in the Queen's birthday honours for a life of unceasing public service. Even as he was falling ill earlier this summer, that service continued. As a patron of the Galloway National Park Association, he continued to campaign for Scotland's third national park, and I hope very much that, with the campaign continuing, the creation of such a park in Galloway may just be a legacy for him. Three weeks before he died, he was still commentating when two of our Scottish Conservative group wrote a joint piece from opposite sides of the debate, backing a compromise deal on Brexit, Alex took to Twitter to declare what a welcome and sensible dose of straight-up no-nonsense common sense, more pleas. He knew full well at that point that he wouldn't see Brexit negotiations conclude, but he was still engaged, still passionate, still urging the practical, realistic way forward. And my words couldn't be due with more Alex Ferguson's right now. For all his titles and honours and appointments, Alex was simply a good man, a lover of sport, of music, of burns, of a decent meal of a glass of wine and a whiskey, of family and of friends of his community. A man who knew that we are nothing unless we uphold the ties that bind us, who understood that common courtesy is important, that passionate debate is vital, that politics is about service to others and not to oneself. And at that wonderful memorial service in August, we were all reminded too that he was a family man who was so proud of his three sons and the wider family, a family who gave him a send-off to remember. The example on the humanity of Sir Alex Ferguson will stay in our hearts for some time to come. We offer his family our deepest condolences and their loss, and I move the motion in my name. Thank you, and I now call the First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon. On behalf of the SNP and the Scottish Government, let me join in supporting the motion from Ruth Davidson. Like all of us across this Parliament, I was so very saddened to hear of Sir Alex Ferguson's passing, and I'm very glad that his family are able to join us today to hear us pay tribute to a very special human being. As we've heard already, Frontline politics did come to Alex relatively late in his life before his election. He had a long, distinguished and successful career as a farmer, and that experience of farming and land issues undoubtedly contributed to his decision to enter politics. In 1999, he of course became one of the initial intake of MSPs to the Scottish Parliament. Those of us who were privileged to be elected to that first Parliament were all acutely aware that whatever our differing political views, we had a duty to ensure that we helped to create a Parliament that lived up to the expectations of all those who had campaigned for it, but also a Parliament that was able to prove the sceptics wrong. A few members of that first Scottish Parliament, in my view, embodied that spirit better than Alex. My personal memories of Alex, when I first got to know him, were of someone who was just as concerned about upholding the reputation of this Parliament as he was about advancing his own political beliefs. He had the particular gift of being able to argue his own case with rigor, and he did argue it with rigor, while remaining on the friendliest of terms with political opponents across the chamber. That of course served him extremely well during the early years of the Parliament when he was a distinguished convener of the Rural Development Committee. His period as chair of that committee coincided with the aftermath of the Food and Mouth outbreak in 2001 and the passage of the protection of wild mammals act on hunting. It says a huge amount that his handling of those and other sensitive issues only served to enhance his reputation. Colleagues on the committee recall how he was always willing to take on and off his political hat, reminding different parties of the bigger picture and highlighting to MSPs that being political opponents did not have to mean becoming political enemies. Perhaps all of us would do well to remember that in the times that we live in today. Those traits received fitting recognition in 2007, when Alex became the Scottish Parliament's third Presiding Officer. At the time of his election, his predecessor George Reid said that, and I quote, you have just elected a decent and honourable man to head this house. George's remark was borne out completely by Alex's time in office. Alex, of course, as you have noted, was the first Presiding Officer to serve during a period of minority government. As I am sure you recognise, that is not always a straightforward task. However, he was highly effective in his role. Those on the SNP benches who sat in the Parliament's business bureau during those years talked about the important role that Alex played, banging heads together behind the scenes when that was necessary. Above all, he fostered trust between the party's business managers, enabling them in turn to chart a way forward in which everyone had a voice. In public in this chamber, Alex always chaired proceedings with calm authority and scrupulous fairness. That meant that, even in circumstances that could have been contentious—for example, when he used his casting vote to defeat a budget bill—all sides understood and respected the reasons for his decision. Even if I may say that it might have taken the then finance secretary some time to realise that he understood and respected the decision of the Presiding Officer. However, that approach that Alex took was a major factor in the success of that third Parliament. Alex also ensured that back benches were given as much of a voice in proceedings as possible, and he was not afraid to put his foot down when that was needed. I am sure that I am not the only front-bencher here today who can remember developing a strange sixth sense if I had perhaps gone on a bit too long in my answer, which of course I rarely do, that Alex was peering over his glasses at me and telling me to get on with it. Alex was also a fine ambassador for Scotland, as Ruth Davidson has noted. For example, playing a really important role in supporting and strengthening this Parliament's relationship with the Malawi Parliament. In Alex's final speech in this chamber, he said that being Presiding Officer was a privilege and an honour. I am quoting him here when he said that it came close to that of serving the people first of the south of Scotland, then of Galloway and Upper Nitsdale and laterally of Galloway and West Dumfries. The order of priorities there is telling. Alex's sense of duty to his constituents ran right throughout his parliamentary career. In 2011, he of course became the first Presiding Officer to stand for re-election, and the fact that he won the redraw on Galloway and West Dumfries constituency says so much about the effectiveness with which he served as constituents and about the affection and respect that he earned as a result. Of course, even after stepping down from this Parliament, Alex continued to campaign on issues such as creating a new national park in the Galloway forest. Sir Alex Ferguson made a major contribution to Scotland as a whole, but there is no doubt that he was a particular champion of the south-west. It is often said that political parties are like big extended families. That is certainly how I feel about my own. In that spirit, we all recognise that those in the Scottish Conservative benches today have lost one of their most revered and respected family members. Across the chamber, we have all lost a colleague and a friend, someone who will be noted in future years as having played a pivotal role in the early period of the Scottish Parliament. No one will feel his loss more than his family. Today, as we mourn Alex Passing and as we mark his many achievements, we also offer our condolences to Meryn, Ian, Dougal and Christopher and, of course, to Alex's mother and brother who join us today. I hope that the tributes that they hear today from across the chamber will give them not only some comfort but also a justifiable feeling of immense pride. I rise on behalf of the Scottish Labour Party to pay tribute to Sir Alex Ferguson and to support this motion. A son of the man, he made his mark in the first days of this Parliament by moving a motion to introduce a time for reflection. I went back to look at his inaugural speech in that debate. I strongly believe, he said, that with the new Parliament we have a new beginning. I see no reason why we should not have a new all-embracing form of contemplative thought or prayer as part of our parliamentary procedure. The Ferguson motion was duly passed by 69 votes to 37 with 15 abstentions. He began in Parliament as he meant to go on, making a great impression and making a great difference. On 24 November, in that first year of Parliament, upon the mound in a debate on land reform, he began by declaring four interests. I am a landowner, a landlord, a farmer and a member of the Scottish Landowners Federation. Extraordinarily, he then went on to agree with a young, radical extra-parliamentary land reformer called Andy Wightman, who had condemned the proposed legislation for not going far enough. In that same speech, Alex went on to disagree profoundly with one, Roseanna Cunningham, who has assertioned the year before in the House of Commons that what was needed was, and I quote, the ultimate ownership of land by and for the people of Scotland was lampooned by Alex. That system, he said, was tried by the communists and look what happened to them. I also read his final contribution to Parliament, which was on 16 March 2016, in the debate on stage 3 of the land reform bill, now the act, in which he said that he supported, and I quote him, greater openness and transparency to land ownership. I reflect that a few days after Alex Ferguson's death, Colin Smyth and I visited the Mull of Galloway. It was a beautiful day, and we went to the Mull of Galloway experience, climbing up the lighthouse with its magnificent views of Ireland, the Isle of Man, but also back over the rinds of Galloway. That land is now in community ownership, which has brought with it a new energy and a new purpose. I couldn't help thinking the fact that it had transferred to community ownership from state ownership, which was formally owned by the Northern Lighthouse Board, would no doubt have pleased Alex. He was a greatly respected member of this Parliament, demonstrated by the widespread support that he received when he put his name forward for the position of Presiding Officer. A position, as others have said, he did not covet but took on out of a sense of public duty. In fact, when Holyrood magazine asked about why he wanted to become Presiding Officer, he replied and I quote, I didn't. I had gone into the election in 2007, defending a majority of 99 against a strong SNP challenge. Having taken myself off the list, I was just relieved to be returned to Parliament with a significantly increased majority. I had no thoughts of anything other than being the MSP for Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, so the role of Presiding Officer came and found me, not the other way around. In that same interview, he noted that he didn't find it difficult to put to one side his party politics in taking up the role of Presiding Officer. In fact, he said that not attending party conferences was, for me, one of the bonuses of the role. Of all the Labour MSPs, I've asked past and present, they all say the same. He was good-humoured. He was a gentleman, decent. If you were under fire from the media, which occasionally happens, he would offer words of encouragement and support. If he thought that you had made a good speech, he would make a point of saying so, and he was described by one former MSP as collegiate. One told me that, to some on the left of the Labour Party in those early days of the Parliament, the idea of joining a cross-party group founded by an old Etonian Tory was not an immediately obvious move to make, but as the new Parliament settled down, that cross-party approach gained in preeminence and remains a feature of this Parliament today. Since leaving Parliament in 2016, he kept himself busy, including being the president of the Scottish campaign for national parks. He was particularly excited to be involved in making Galloway, Scotland's next national park, and, Presiding Officer, a Galloway national park would be a fitting legacy to Alex Ferguson. His retirement was too short-lived. There was much more he wanted to do, much more that he could have done, but this was a life well lived. On behalf of the whole Scottish Labour Party, I extend our deepest condolences to his wife, Meryn, his three sons Ian Doogle and Christopher and their families, his mother, Oriel, his sister, Henrietta, his brother John and, to them, we say, thank you for sharing this gentle man with us. Thank you. I now call on Patrick Harvie. Thank you, Presiding Officer. There have been a number of these occasions over the years when we gather together to discuss a motion of condolence for one of our members, one of our colleagues who we've lost. These are always sad moments, but I think that they are also moments of warmth, and they certainly should be because they recognise, ultimately, at the end of the day, that we are all human beings. Alex Ferguson was someone whose humanity and warmth were always evident in the way that he did the job. Hostility, tribal point scoring, those were simply never his style. However, there is also a particular meaning for us as we gather together to mark the death of a former Presiding Officer. It is the first time that has happened. The role of Presiding Officer is a particular service to the whole of Parliament and a service that I think was probably enhanced in Alex Ferguson's case because he hadn't craved the role. Every session of Parliament has been different. The beginnings of devolution and coalition, a rainbow Parliament, a minority Government, a majority single party Government are now a session dominated by constitutional change. The challenges for the person in that chair, the challenges for the Presiding Officer, are different on every occasion—new dynamics, new expectations. However, what is the same each time is the requirement for one of our number to set aside their political commitments and make that wider contribution to politics, that wider service to Parliament as a whole. Alex Ferguson faced those challenges in the first minority Government session. As a result, one of the most powerful memories that I will have of this place, one of the moments that I will never forget, is one that I suspect that he never forgot either. As has already been remarked by others, perhaps the most dramatic moment handled by our Presiding Officer sitting in the chair your end today, Presiding Officer, because it might be that, back in 2009, some had made the assumption that inter-party negotiations would all be stitched up in advance and the debates in the chamber were mere performance. However, when the budget votes that year were tied, a perfect draw, and Alex Ferguson sitting there, where you are today, Presiding Officer, forced to place the casting vote to strike down the budget, I saw the colour drain several shades from his face and a moment that I think neither of us will ever have forgotten. I want to thank him therefore for his service to Parliament, but more than anything I want to hope for goodness that he forgave me for the palpitations that I caused him that day. I give, on behalf of the Scottish Green Party, my deepest condolences to Alex Ferguson's family, friends and community. Alex Ferguson was a Conservative of that, there is no doubt. He was also a one nation Conservative, a caring Conservative, a Conservative who really believed in devolution. On those benches, we saw a Conservative as close to featherism as it was possible to be. We think that he was ahead of his time. Alex was in 1999, like most new MSPs, new to front-line politics too. As Dave Mundell endearingly described at his memorial service, the press release was a new phenomenon for Alex, but he took well to political life. For him, the cheerful discussion about the news of politics, the travails of a Government or the scrapes of a political friend were all part of what made him special. He was a servant to his constituents. In those earlier terms, first as a regional representative and then as a constituency MSP, he put rural issues on the front page. He was a voice for farmers at the height of that tragedy that was foot and mouth. Few in rural Scotland, especially in the south of the country, were not affected. He pressed the then rural affairs minister, my colleague, Ross Finlay, on measures that the Government must take at the most difficult times. As a Presiding Officer, he was a champion when farmers needed champions. As a Presiding Officer, he was an ambassador not just for this Parliament but for Scotland too. Wherever Alex led overseas, Scotland benefited with his immaculate manners, his personal skills and his sense of humour. Perhaps his fondest visit was when he returned to New Zealand with a delegation returning to a country where he once lived and worked. He stayed close to colleagues of all persuasions, as Presiding Officer. He said that his time was all the richer for the deeper friendships that were built during that time. He was conscious in 2007-11 that the Parliament was no majority, so all the more need to take the mood of members good, bad or indifferent. Alex was a force of stability for the Parliament, at least at that time, of great political instability. He ensured that, even when the opposition did not like what had happened, they might do so with a little smile on their face. He loved cricket, and who would be better than a former Presiding Officer to umpire the MSPs versus press cricket match? Like all good umpires and Presiding Officers, he was not above the observation of the quality of the MSP attack. When he retired as Presiding Officer, he won his seat again, the first time any Presiding Officer had done so. No mean achievement after four years of having to be impartial. In a world where too many take themselves all too seriously, a sense of humour is a notable asset, an ability to poke fun at each other, laugh at one's own misfortune and at one's party. Alex had won, and many of the reasons to mourn his passing above all else are what we will really miss. Our thoughts are with Alex's family. He was one of us, but much more than that, he was yours, and we were just lucky to know him. Thank you very much colleagues. Before moving on to the next business, we'll just take a short pause.