 The final item of business is a member's business debate on motion 4154, in the name of Clare Adamson, on RB Cunningham Graham and Scotland party, prose and political aesthetic. The debate will be concluded without any questions being put. I invite anybody who wishes to participate in the debate to press the request-to-speak buttons now or as soon as possible. I call on Clare Adamson to open the debate for around seven minutes, Ms Adamson. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer, and thank you to all my colleagues who supported the debate and those who are speaking, those who have stayed to listen this evening. Presiding Officer, I'd like to welcome, along with the man himself, friends and colleagues of Dr Lachlan Monroe, members of the Cunningham Graham family and members of the Cunningham Graham Society of which I'm a founding member, along with our dear former colleague Rob Gibson, who led the last member's debate in tribute to Cunningham Graham in 2012. This week marks 170 years since its birth. Drs Monroe's fabulous book with this iconic picture, Newpick painting of Cunningham Graham on the front, with the minds of Lanarkshire in the background, it's entitled RB Cunningham Graham and Scotland, party, prose and political aesthetic. It's a labour of love and I was honoured to attend its launch in the village of Gartmore just a few short weeks ago. Now, Labour councillor, Julie Elected, Jeremy Garvey, is also with us this evening in the gallery and he hosted and launched a packed village hall with eventment livestreamed to viewers in Argentina and Peru. In his review of the book, in the Scottish Left review, Jeremy Garvey captures the questions that this book seeks to answer. RB Cunningham Graham is, after all, an enigma and trying to define his life is like trying to pin down jelly as many aspects were contradictions. Cunningham Graham's own memorial at Castle Hill and Dunbarton reads famous author, traveller and horseman, patriotic Scott and citizen of the world. He died in Argentina, he was a master of life and a king among men. Dr Monroe describes him as the most contentious, controversial and contradictory Scott of his generation. Of his contemporaries, D.K. Chesterton proclaimed Cunningham Graham to be the prince of the preface writers and famously declared in his autobiography that although Cunningham Graham would never be allowed to be Prime Minister, he instead achieved the adventure of being Cunningham Graham, which George Bernard Shaw, in turn, described as an achievement so fantastic that it would never be believed in a romance. So why is he so little remembered today? Hugh McDermott described Graham as potentially the greatest Scotsman of his generation and in 1927, the Sunday portion of art, there are few men nowadays so well known as Mr R.B. Cunningham Graham. I would argue that his influence has a reach that will have touched many Scots even without them realising. Philan Buffs may have seen the Oscar-winning period drama The Mission, which tells the true tale of 18th century Jesuit missionaries who died defending Gurrani Indians from Portuguese slavery in the South American jungle, I will. Does the member outline many of Cunningham Graham's fine qualities? I am sure that she may be coming to this, but will she acknowledge that he is remembered rightly as a great writer in his own right and that he, in his short stories, has captured many people's imaginations around the world. I will reflect on his writing in this speech this evening. This film was inspired by Cunningham Graham's works and his travels in South America. Also visitors to Kelvin Grove art gallery may have seen John Laverie's exceptional portrait of Graham in a typically thumb-point pose, or indeed Epstein's bust of him in Aberdeen art gallery. Such was his image, influence and notoriety among the greatest arters and writers of his time. Image was very important to the stall-striking red-haired figure, who, I believe that it is safe to say, had quite a conceit of himself. Visitors to Buenos Aires may have stalled down the street named after him. Indeed, when Cunningham Graham died, he lain state in Casa del Teatro and was received a country-wide tribute led by the President of the Republic, before his body was shipped home to be buried beside his beloved wife in the ruined Augustine Priory on the island of Inchmahome in the lake of Monteith. Thousands lined the streets of Buenos Aires to accompany his body to set sail home. At school, some people may have studied the goldfish. I am so glad that Dr Allen intervened because I have with me one of my favourite books, The Devil and the Gyro, collated by Carl McDougall, which was once a school text after my time at school. Nonetheless, it may have influenced some teachers, such as my husband John, who is in the gallery, to have taught the goldfish. When examining his bravado adventure and romance, it is easy to forget the sheer beauty of his writing. If he undoes me, I am going to read the introductory paragraph of the goldfish. Outside the little straw-thatched cafe in a small courtyard trellised with vines before a miniature table painted in red and blue and upon which stood a dome-shaped cuta teapot and painted glass half filled with mint, sat amarabot, resting and smoking hemp. He was of those whom Alla and his Mercy, or because men in Bad Alla had made no railways, has ordained to run. Set up on the road to his shoes pulled up and his waistband tightened, his hand a staff, a palm leaf wallet at his back and in it bred some hemp, a match or two, known to him as Elspidotus, a letter to take anywhere. Crossing the plains, fording the streams, struggling along the mountain path, sleeping but fitfully, a burning rope steeped in salt Peter fastened his foot. He trotted day and night, untiring as a camel and faithful as a dog. It is a fascinating story. I hope that people will turn to it and read it after this debate. Cunningham Graeme was elected as the Liberal MP for North West Lanarkshire, the Old Monklands area of the modern council, and he was the first self-declared socialist MP. As a key friend and colleague of Clare Hardy, over many years, he became the co-founders of the independent Labour Party, which became the modern day Labour Party. When their founding principle of home rule did not progress quickly enough for him in 1928, Cunningham Graeme founded the National Party of Scotland and, as it evolved, became the first SNP president in 1934. With all his political and literary fame and influence, why do we not acknowledge him as we do Byron or Shaw or Conrad? There is the enigma, the contradiction. An aristocat from wealth and privilege became the miners' MP, championing the eight-hour day and banning child labour. A justice of the peace, he was arrested and jailed for causing a riot in Trafalgar Square, protesting against unemployment. An estate and landowner, he championed the cause of crofters and land reform. An adventurer, traveller and rebel, who enrolled in the army in the First World War in his sixties. Dr Monroe's labour of love tells the story of love, the story of Don Roberto's love of horses, a thread that runs through his childhood, his many travels and adventures, to his task of securing horses for the war effort. It's a story of love for his bright Gabriela. It's about Don Roberto's love for the dignity of the working man and the poor and any society or culture. And, of course, the love for the Gouchos that he worked with in Argentina earning him the Monica Don Roberto. Love of the causes, he championed vehemently, anti-slavery, anti-imperialist, anti-racist. I've mentioned Gerranny Endings, he also championed the cause of the zoo, the Turks, the Persians and the Moors. He loved humanity and he recognised and embraced the values of cultures different from Western norms. At home, he argued for the abolition of the House of Lords, for universal suffrage, for nationalisation of land mines and other industries and for free school meals. Those concepts were perceived as radical at the time but, of no doubt, he would rage at us here at the lack of progress in some of these areas to this day. And his last piece of writing was in praise of a Jewish lady who'd campaigned for a war memorial for the horses injured and killed in the war. I often think of his friendship, admiration and curiosity about the culture of others as much like Hamish Henderson's interest in the travelling communities of Scotland. They both had a humanity that extended across cultural difference, reaching a hand of friendship. He was undoubtedly an enigma and a frequent contradiction, but perhaps he's one of the greatest humanitarian of our recent history. Hamish Henderson posed a question a few years after his death, who remembers Cunningham Gary Graham? I urge everyone in the chamber to follow who's followed our debate to remember him by reading about the man in the books, like Dr Monroe's, just recently launched. You do need to wind up now, Ms Adamson. Incredible volumes collected stories and listening to BBC's series about him from Billy Key. Be part of that adventure that is Cunningham Graham. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Thank you, Ms Adamson. Congratulations on the legitimate use of a prop during a speech there. I call Jenny Minto to be followed by Stephen Kerr for around four minutes, Ms Minto. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I would like to congratulate Claire Adamson in securing this debate on one of the most colourful and patriotic of Scots. I, too, have my husband to thank for my knowledge about Don Roberto, and if I can uned famously plug his programme that was made for BBC Scotland called The Adventures of Don Roberto. If you visited my office here in Parliament alongside paintings and artwork depicting the beauty of my Argyll and Bute constituency, you will find a Stuart Brenner indyprint of Robert Bontein Cunningham Graham. Born on the eve of the Crimean War, he died as Europe lurched towards fascism. His 83 years were crammed with enough adventure and endeavour for several lifetimes. For a start, he was a traveller, the wild gout show horseman of the Argentine Pampas, where he lived when he was young and named him Don Roberto, a name that stuck with him all his life. In Texas, he witnessed the last of the Old Wild West surviving encounters with gunslingers and hostile apaches. Even though being harrow educated, Cunningham Graham was a lifelong radical and outspoken champion of the underdog. Whether they were Native American Indians, Scottish minors, women, zulus or English iron workers, he was a true Scottish internationalist. As Clare Anderson has said, he was elected to Westminster as a home rule liberal—home rule for Ireland, that is. However, he was constantly espousing more radical policies in the House. He was the first MP to declare himself a socialist and he was the first MP to swear in Parliament. As Clare said, while as an MP he was badly beaten up and then arrested during an unemployment demonstration Trafalgar Square, spending six weeks in Pentonville prison. In 1888, he and Keir Hardy formed the Scottish Labour Party, while he continued to argue for Scottish independence. Cunningham Graham was handsome and debonair. Walking in Hyde Park one day, he met George Bernard Shaw and Shaw's mother. He and Shaw greeted each other, and as they went their separate ways, Shaw's mother asked her son who it was they had just met. That was Cunningham Graham, Shaw told his mother. Nonsense, she replied, Cunningham Graham is a socialist. That man was a gentleman. After six years as an MP, Cunningham Graham became disillusioned with Westminster, believing that nothing could be done for Scotland or for the English poor there. He described it as an asylum for incapable. In 1894, he refused to stand for the Labour Party in Aberdeen. He criticised the party in those words. The same voices, voibles and failings, which has taken the wigs and tories many generations to become perfect in, the labourists and socialists have brought to perfection and with apparent ease in six years. Yet his own reforming zeal was undiminished. He wrote more than 30 books and a torrent of passionate and radical journalism, and he hadn't given up on party politics to become the joint president of the SNP when it was created in 1934. He remained a radical and progressive all his life and wrote, without nationalism, we cannot have any true internationalism. Cunningham Graham, as we've heard, travelled widely and thought deeply. He was friends with many of the great figures of his time. The aforementioned Keir Hardy, Bernard Shaw, Joseph Conrad, Oscar Wilson and my favourite, Buffalo Bill, who he met in the Glasgow Art Club. Robert Bontean Cunningham Graham lies buried on the island of Inchma Home on the lake of Menteith. A year after his death, a memorial stone to him was unveiled on land that he had given to the National Trust for Scotland near Dunbarton. It reads, Famous author, traveller and horseman, patriotic Scott and a citizen of the world, he was a master of life and king among men. I would like to end by returning to the print of Robert Bontean Cunningham Graham in my office. It is emblazoned with Cunningham Graham's own observation and one that I live and breathe. So long as my strength lasts, I shall continue to advocate for an independent Scotland. Can I congratulate Clare Adamson on bringing this motion to the chamber in this debate? That I, a Scottish Conservative Unionist, rise today to pay tribute to such a man as Robert Bontean Cunningham Graham is perhaps to some a tad ironic. This is a man who was a radical liberal, who was a founder of the Scottish Labour Party and then went on to help found the Scottish National Party. He spoke about the wiles of invertebrate Tory democracy at his selection meeting in Airdrie and he spoke regularly of his republicanism and his socialism. He spoke about and gave support to causes. Like many in this chamber do things that, frankly, I find quite disagreeable, but looking at his writings, however, we can see that he did so with an eloquence that perhaps we could all learn from in this chamber. It would probably be hard-pushed to emulate. He is really not a natural fit for someone of my political persuasion or belief. I thank the cabinet secretary for his endorsement of my sentiment. I am for once being understated. However, he is also a man very much of his time. His writings, especially laterally, were peppered with words, phrases and views that were very much out of keeping with how we would expect public figures to behave today. However, it is in his role as a defender of freedom of speech that Graham is, in my view, to be commended and held up. He spoke vigorously of the need for men and women to be able to express their viewpoint without fear of oppression, either from the state or from the excoriation of others. He certainly did so and was at one point up to the outbreak of the First World War, thought of as a man who had delivered more speeches than any other man living and accolade, Deputy Presiding Officer, that many in his chamber are striving for. It is a mark of the character of the man that he spoke vociferously on the issue of peace and how we should avoid war and indeed how those seeking war were guilty of acting solely with their self-interest in mind and in profiteering. However, then, in December, a few months after the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, he was dispatched enthusiastically to Montevideo to purchase horses for the war office and for the war effort. His relationship with the horse breeders of South America was to be of great use to this country during the Great War. Which of us is willing to put aside our beliefs and convictions when asked to help defend our country? The difference here is that Graham was able to separate the men who ran the country from the country itself and the people of the country. That might be a concept that is often too alien to many of us. The personality of a country's leader is different from the country itself. Like Britannia or Caledonia, we have personified our nations too much in leaders. The idea that one person can be representative in the entire country eliminates the dissenting view or the nuanced opinion. National leaders have grown up, like Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, to become bogeymen or national heroes to too many people. For men like Cunningham Graham, it was the debate around the substance of the issue that was important. The people were wrong, they were venal, they were invertebrate, but it was the need for reform that was far more important to him than the beating of the other man. He knew that reform could only be achieved by engaging with the substance of issues in an intelligent and capable way. I think that this new book is to be welcomed, highlighting R.B. Cunningham Graham, not least for his championing of freedom of speech. The book is worthwhile and therefore I am stintingly support the motion. I think that our former colleague Stuart Stevenson would have had something to say about Cunningham Graham's claim to the greatest number of speeches, but it was that. Kenneth Graham, to be followed by Christine Grahame. The tears right to rename. Kenneth Gibson, for up to four minutes please. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I do not think that R.B. Cunningham Graham will have counted his speeches quite the way that Stuart Stevenson did, but it does give me great pleasure to speak in this debate tonight in the life of Robert Bontean Cunningham Graham, the Scottish politician, orator, writer, patriot and adventurer. I congratulate my colleague Claire Adamson for securing the debate and indeed for our excellent speech and indeed the two speeches which followed it, which were also excellent. Cunningham Graham's very full life began in London in 1852 and ended in Buenos Aires 84 years later. He was educated at Harrow and in Brussels and grew up privileged on his family's estate. Gaushow, gold prospector, friend of Buffalo Bill and fencing instructor in Mexico. He helped found both the Labour Party and 46 years later became the first president of the newly formed SNP in 1934. Elected, as we have heard, as a liberal in 1886 for North West Lanarkshire, Cunningham Graham was a socialist the first at Westminster. He was also the first MP to be suspended from the comments for swearing, albeit mildly, by today's standards, although you yourself, Presiding Officer, may be somewhat shocked by the word that you used, which I shall not repeat. But Cunningham Graham believed in universal suffrage that government should help deliver equality of opportunity by providing services such as free school meals. Even in his early years he argued that Scotland should be able to run its own affairs, famous for having quipped in the 1880s that I prefer Scotland had its own and I quote, national parliament with the pleasure of knowing that the taxes were wasted in Edinburgh instead of London. It's encouraging to see some Labour colleagues here willing to recognise a man who's effectively been removed from the Labour pantheon for the crime of changing his mind about what is best for Scotland and our place in the world. But one wonders what would have transpired if Robert Cunningham Graham hadn't recruited and encouraged Cair Hardie to help found and then lead the Labour Party. Buried at Enshamill Home primary, the monument built to Cunningham Graham in 1837 includes the epitaph, famous author, traveller and horseman. Patriotic Scotland is citizens of the world, as be token by the stones above. Died in Argentina, in Terdynas, my home, he was a massive life, a king among men. But when he was alive he was convinced that capital should be distributed among classes as evenly as possible and minus should be able to become MPs and that the holy, anachronistic and unelected body of the House of Lords should be abolished. In 1892 Cunningham Graham stood in Camlachie as an independent Labour candidate and lost this ending his time at Westminster. I find fascinating how ubiquitous he was, both in the political spectrum and on the planet. He seems to have been in so many places, met so many people and have done so much in just one lifetime. Thinking about him begs the question, how much can one person do in one lifespan of 84 years? The political party's sitting motion by Cunningham Graham means it's impossible to overstate the impact he's had on Scottish and UK politics. While he was an early vice president of the Scottish Home Rule Association in 1886, he was also president of the new Scottish Home Rule Association in 1927. There is a portrait on his monument of his famous horse, Pampa, an ardentine mustang, which he rescued from pulling trams in Glasgow and rode for some 20 years, and it has the inscription to Pampa, my black ardentine who I rode for 20 years without a fall. May the earth be light upon him as lightly as he trod upon its face? Don Roberto. One of Pampa's hooves is buried beneath the monument, which was subsequently moved to the village of Gatmore where until 1900 Gatmore house had been the home of the Cunningham Graham family. The monument is currently in the care of the National Trust for Scotland, restored in time for the 160th anniversary of Cunningham Graham's birth a decade ago. Not everything Cunningham Graham had wished for Scotland has played out just yet, but let me conclude by highlighting something that has. He understood earlier that the so-called class you are born into should not impede your ability to participate in public decision making whereas an elector or an unelected representative. And while still a factor, particularly Westminster, if Robert Bontein Cunningham Graham were here in the gallery today, he would see a Scottish Parliament filled with representatives of every socioeconomic background and a great diversity of skills character and the lived experience that enriches our representation. He would also see many women in our Parliament and ethnic minority parliamentarians there being none in his day. The work is not finished, but I believe that he would be proud to see how far we have come. Thank you very much, Mr Gibson. I now call on Christine Graham to be followed by Richard Leonard for around four minutes, Ms Graham. Thank you very much. Firstly, of all depth, I congratulate my colleague on bringing this motion to the Scottish Parliamentary date and the passion with which she delivered it and welcomed members of the society and of the family. Unashamedly, and not just because of the fundamental contribution that he made to the cause of Scottish independence and because of his colourful indeed flamboyant life, brave and reforming zeal, I claim him as a distant relative to our shared surname. I forgive the missing E, as I am sure we all came from the same stock. What a life! Well worthy of the Hollywood touch are the very least a documentary on television. From his exotic family background, his exploits in Argentina, meeting with Buffalo Bill, I know there's a picture somewhere, but there is. I want to see it. His fencing, his horse riding and so on, you would not have anticipated this as a man who would convert from Scottish Labour, which he founded with Keir Harbour, to the cause of Scottish independence, close to my own heart these past 50 years. As far back as 1886, he helped to establish the Scottish Home Rule Association, and while in the House of Commons, on one occasion, Graeme joked that he wanted, in quotes, a national parliament with the pleasure of knowing that the taxes were wasted in Edinburgh instead of London, close quotes. Yes, let's make our own mistakes, and with them on that. We can't do worse than the current UK Government. Sorry about that, Mr Keir. His support for independence for Scotland led to him being the first ordinary president of the party in 1934. He was decades ahead of his time, not just in the independence cause but in his determination and commitment to social justice. His main concerns in the House of Commons were the plight of the unemployed and the preservation of civil liberties. He did more than just talk, he walked the walk. He attended the protest demonstration in Trafalgar Square on 13 November 1887. Those broken up by the police came known as Bloody Sunday and was badly beaten during his arrest and taken to Bow Street Police Station. He was found guilty for his involvement in the demonstration and sentenced to six weeks imprisonment and sent to Pintonville prison. What a man! Released, he continued his campaign to improve the rights of working people and to curb their economic exploitation. He was suspended from the House of Commons and began to like this man more and more in December 1888 for protesting about the working conditions of chain makers. His response to Speaker of the House when we book for using the word in quotes, dam, close quotes. I never withdraw close quotes. It was later used by George Bernard Shaw in Arms on the Man. This man was even too radical for the French, and that's saying something. Just after making a speech at Calais, he was actually shut out of going back to France ever again. He was anti-imperialist and he despised British dingoism, so many things I share without being arrogant. I share these values with him. The abolition of the House of Lords, every box ticked, universal suffrage, the nationalisation of landmines and other industries, preschool meals and republicanism. There we go. I think that he's great. What a man! I'm so glad he lived well into his activities. If you were to ask me who I'd like to meet from the past, well, he's right at the top, but you must ask yourself as others have done. Where does he feature in standard Scottish history books? How many of our school children and, indeed, Scottish people know of this extremely difficult and extremely exciting man, and why not? I commend Dr Monroe on this biography. Let's hope that it's on some people's reading lists, and again, I congratulate the member and Dr Monroe collectively for bringing this debate. It's been a pleasure to take part and I've enjoyed every minute. I thank Clare Adamson for securing this debate to coincide with the 170th anniversary of the birth of Robert Bontein Cunningham Graham. As we mark the life of R.B. Cunningham Graham, we do so not to look wistfully backwards, but to find hope and inspiration for today and for the future. For here was a campaigner who championed the gout shows of South America, the Native Indians of North America, the crofters of the Highlands and Islands and the miners of the Central Lowlands in their battles for justice. I'm also pleased that we're joined in the public gallery by my very old comrade and very new Labour councillor, Gerry Macgarvey, by Lackey Monroe, family descendants and by others appreciative of Cunningham Graham's political, literary and historical contribution. As Lackey Monroe writes in his important new book, Party, Pros and Aesthetic, although a renowned speech maker and literary polemicist, he was fundamentally a man of action. So, as an MP, he eschewed Parliament as, in his words, the national gasworks. He travelled round the country addressing miners in struggle, agitating for the cause of socialism at factory gates and railing against injustice at public meetings in town and village halls. On November 13, 1887, by then the member of Parliament for North West Lanarkshire, he was beaten up by the police before being arrested at an unemployment demonstration in Trafalgar Square. In what became known as Bloody Sunday, along with the radical trade unionist John Burns, he was charged with unlawful assembly and sentenced to six weeks hard labour in Pentonville. By then, he had joined forces with William Morris, who, E.P. Thompson, later declared to be England's greatest communist intellectual, and with, as well, his fellow socialist leaders, Eleanor Marks, Edward Avling and Peter Kropotkin, as Morris preached his gospel, that it was the business of socialists to make socialists. With James Keir Hardius, he became the honorary president of the Scottish Labour Party in 1888, as the Labour candidate for Camlaki at the 1892 general election. He abandoned his own campaign in the final week to help to secure Keir Hardius' historic election as the first ever Labour MP. He observed poignantly of the impoverished working-class constituency of West Ham South, which Hardy won, that there was, in his words, on one side lines of endless docks and on the other, lines of endless misery. Hardius' son-in-law, Emry's Hughes, many years later, told of an unruly public meeting in Camlaki, at which Cunningham Graham produced a dummy six-shooter pistol that he'd found lying backstage, with which he brandished to quiet and a riotous audience, being for Irish home rule. It worked. Exactly 40 years on, from establishing the Scottish Labour Party and with a huge body of literature and essays behind him, he helped found the National Party of Scotland, and two years before his death, he became the president of the new Scottish National Party. However, he was no narrow nationalist. As the monument in the village of Gartmore spells out, he truly was a citizen of the world, a real cosmopolitan, born in London, died in Buenos Aires. Like many of those pioneers, he made the case and fought for transformational change, knowing full well that he would almost certainly not live to see it, but believing that it was right. Lackey Monroe describes this rare spirit as an eloquent, disquieted, principled, fervid moralist and contrarian. Here was an aristocrat who wanted a social revolution. Here was a man who took part in anti-war meetings with Keir Hardy but then joined up. Here was a member of the landed classes who stood on a platform of land nationalisation. It is right that the Scottish Parliament honours him, that we remember him, his place in our history, his place in our culture and the enduring relevance of his life, his ideas, his causes to this Parliament and to all of us, all of us privileged to be elected to it. Thank you very much indeed, Mr Leonard. I am sorry to hear that Councillor Mcgarvey's dreams of achieving elected office in Orkney appear to have been extinguished, but I congratulate him nonetheless. The final speaker in the open debate will be Paul McClennan for around four minutes. I thank Clare Adamson for bringing forward this motion tonight into privilege to speak in this debate. As we have heard, Robert Boynton Cunningham was born 170 years ago today, on 24 May 1852, and he died in March 1936. I have also heard that he was a Liberal member of the Parliament, the first ever socialist member of the Parliament of the UK. I found her in the First President of the Scottish Labour Party, I found the National Party of Scotland and of course the First President of the SNP in 1934. His background is incredible. He came from a family with a strong military background. His father, Major William Boynton, was of the entry of militia and his mother was a daughter of an admiral and a Spanish noble woman. He was also well educated at Harrow Public School in England, and he finished his education in Brussels in Belgium. He moved to Argentina, as we have heard, to make his fortune in Caledonia, and he loved his adventure travelling to Morocco, Spain and Texas in Mexico City. Amongst others, in 1883 he returned to the UK and became interested in politics, and he converted to socialism. As he attended socialist meetings, that is where he heard and met Keir Hardy. He was converted to socialism and began to speak at public meetings. Although he was a Liberal Party candidate in 1886, he stood as a Liberal Party candidate at North West Lanarkshire. His election programme was extremely radical and called for policies such as the abolition of House of Lords, as we have heard, to free school meals, Scottish Home Row and the establishment of an eight-hour working day. He was the first ever MP to be suspended from the House of Commons, so we are swearing an unnot going to mention the word. His main concerns at the House of Commons were the plight of the unemployed and the preservation of civil liberties. He complained about attempts in 1886 and 1887 by the police to prevent public meetings and free speech. As we have heard, he was found guilty of his involvement in the demonstration and he was sentenced to six weeks imprisonment. As we have heard, he was a strong supporter of Scottish independence. In 1886, he helped to establish the Scottish Home Row Association. In 1888, he attended the SHA conference at Anderson's Hotel in Fleet Street, and he passed a motion. It said that in the opinion of this conference, the interests of Scotland demand the establishment of a Scotch national parliament and an executive government having control over or exclusively Scottish affairs. What a visionary demand was even in 1888. While in the House of Commons, he became increasingly more radical and went on to found the Scottish Labour Party with Keir Hardie. He left the other party in 1892 to contest the general election and new constituency as a Labour candidate. As we have heard, he played an active part in the establishment of the national party of Scotland and, of course, was elected on a re-president of the new SNP in 1934. Between 1888 and 1892, Graham was a prolific contributor to small-circulation socialist journals. There is a seat dedicated to Cunningham Graham in the Scottish Storytelling Centre and Edinburgh's inscription, R.B. Don Roberto. Cunningham Graham of Gartmore and Ardog, 1852 to 1936. He is a great storyteller. It is great to see Jerry McGarvey here. I have read a review of the book that he has mentioned. Jerry quotes R.B. Cunningham Graham will always and remains the greatest in England of Scottish politics. He went on to say, and this is an incredible story when he listened to the man. He was a quarter Spanish cowboy in South America, a large Scottish landowner who was the first declared socialist MP in Westminster, and the justice for the piece that was so badly beaten by the police in jail to a leading right and to a valgar square in Mafflin and employed. Graham was also anarys de Rathic elitist and the Miner's MP, who was expelled from Parliament on three occasions, an anti-racist and anti-imperialist. At the age of 62, he volunteered for military service and was appointed a colonel during World War I. He was a friend of the rich and famous who supported Irish and Scottish home rule. The greatest enigma, however, was that he quickly disappeared from my public consciousness. In 1926, Hugh McDermid described Graham as potentially the greatest Scotsman of his generation. Graham was the most contentious and controversial and contradictory Scotsman of his generation. That sturdid research book is the first attempt to untangle a Graham legend, both with a rabble-rousing politician and as a prolific author. In conclusion, I will close with his most famous quote, which I know will divide the opinion. The enemies of Scottish nationalism are not the English, for they were ever a great and generous folk. Quick to respond to injustice calls, are real enemies that are among us, born without imagination. I am extremely grateful to Clare Adamson for bringing forward this motion and securing the debate today. It is right that we celebrate the life and legacy of Robert Bontein, Cunningham Graham and Mark, the recent publication and research by Dr Lathlan Monroe, which confirms the extraordinary man's place in Scotland's history for modern readers. I would like to thank the various speakers for their passionate and interesting contributions right across the chamber. Jenny Minto, Stephen Kerr, Kenneth Gibson, Christine Grahame, Richard Leonard and Paul MacLennan. It is a rare thing indeed that there is such unanimity in any Parliament, particularly about a man with so many facets to see that there has been such unanimity in respect of the mark of his lifetime. It is important that this Parliament remembers how the significant achievements of R.B. Cunningham Graham in campaigning for social and political change in the late 19th and early 20th centuries have influenced and shaped Scotland and still do today. This is the second time that R.B. Cunningham Graham has been the focus of debate in this Parliament. We recorded our appreciation of his devotion to justice in Scotland on 20 June 2012, on the occasion of the publication of a then-new collection of his writings by Alan McGilvery and John C Macintyre. Dr Monroe's thorough analysis of R.B. Cunningham Graham's contribution to Scotland's political and cultural history is a hugely welcome addition to research available on this most interesting man. Describing R.B. Cunningham Graham as, and we've heard this, the most contentious, controversial and contradictory Scott of his generation, Dr Monroe seeks to understand him both as an outstanding politician and as a keen writer. For the first time, this research examines his political influences, which included William Morris, Engels and Marx. It examines contemporary newspaper reports at R.B. Cunningham Graham's speeches, his socialist journalism, as well as the memoirs of those who knew him, including his early socialist and later nationalist colleagues. The book reveals R.B. Cunningham Graham's close relationship with Keir Hardy and argues that it was R.B. Cunningham Graham, inspired by William Morris, who first saw the need for a party for working people. R.B. Cunningham Graham and Hardy's support for Scottish home rule is explored, as are R.B. Cunningham Graham's evocative Scottish writings, which Dr Monroe contends were also deeply political. It also explores the early Labour movement in Scotland, which turned into the National Party and then the Scottish National Party. R.B. Cunningham Graham felt that the establishment of a Scottish Parliament with full control over all Scottish affairs was essential. A firm belief the chamber will not be surprised to hear, I wholeheartedly share. I'm delighted that Dr Monroe's analysis includes R.B. Cunningham Graham's nearly 30 books, including 200 short stories and sketches, history and travel books, which draws upon as many travels and adventures in Scotland and in his beloved South America as inspiration. Cunningham Graham has long been Scotland's forgotten personality, politician and writer, and Dr Monroe explores the complex reasons for his eclipse from public attention, despite Cunningham Graham being one of the most famous and controversial Scots of his generation, whose career in the public eye spanned over 50 years and saw him move from aristocratic beginnings to being a radical part of the British political establishment to a figure loved by people from every class in society. In this fresh appraisal, Dr Monroe challenges previous accounts of R.B. Cunningham Graham as a romantic idealist and an adventurer, acknowledging the apparent contradictions in his life. Dr Monroe shows that R.B. Cunningham Graham's political activities, as well as his writing, were fuelled by his deeply felt moral outrage. As Dr Monroe says, R.B. Cunningham Graham was seen not solely as a politician nor an author, but as an eloquent, disquieted, principled, fervid, moralist and contrarian. As we've heard in the debate, R.B. Cunningham Graham lived a fascinating life, born in London, with Spanish heritage, educated at Harrow, an adventurer in Morocco, a cowboy, a long rider in the Americas. Throughout all of this, he was a Scot, and his influence on modern Scottish political life cannot be underestimated. As we heard, he entered the House of Commons in 1886 as a liberal MP for Lanarkshire and left in 1892 as that Parliament's first sitting socialist member. Radigal at the time, but familiar now, his electoral platform included universal suffrage, free school meals, free education, an eight-hour working day, home rule for Scotland and the abolition of the House of Lords. As the motion states, R.B. Cunningham Graham was also known as the miners' MP fighting to end the poverty and hardship faced by mining communities in Lanarkshire. He'd be pleased, I'm sure, by the action being taken right now by the Scottish Government to ease the wounds of division and bitterness inflicted on Scotland's mining communities during the minor strike of 1984-85. I'm speaking, of course, about the minor strike pardon Scotland bill, which is currently making its way through Parliament. The bill seeks to secure a pardon for miners and their households for certain offences committed during that strike, the most bitter and divisive industrial dispute in living memory. The pardon will help to restore dignity to miners and mining communities by removing the stigma of criminal conviction and by offering a pardon to the Scottish Government that is doing what it can within its powers to bring some comfort to miners and others convicted in relation to the strike. I am confident that R.B. Cunningham Graham would have approved. Today's debate will help set the record straight. It celebrates the achievements of this reformer who fought so hard for the people of Scotland and their home rule. It's important that he's remembered as one of modern Scotland's founding fathers. I want to add my warm congratulations to Dr Munro on the fruits of his work over a number of years, which has led to the publication by University of Edinburgh Press of this assessment of R.B. Cunningham Graham in one volume. This fitting testimony to R.B. Cunningham Graham's literary and political achievements will give modern readers the opportunity to assess and to enjoy the remarkable range of his work. It also goes some way to explain why R.B. Cunningham Graham has received so little serious attention in the 86 years since his death. R.B. Cunningham Graham's commitment to social justice for all, to Scotland and to literature has left a remarkable legacy for us today. I congratulate everyone who took part in the debate this afternoon. I commend this new book to everybody with an interest in our political history, which continues to shape us to this day. Thank you, cabinet secretary. That concludes the debate, and I close this meeting of Parliament.