 The first item of business is consideration of business motion 11152, in the name of Joe Fitzpatrick, on behalf of the parliamentary bureau. Setting out a stage three timetable for the UK withdrawal from the European Union legal continuity at Scotland Bill. I would ask any member who wishes to speak against the motion to press the request to speak button. I call on Joe Fitzpatrick to move motion 11152. No member has asked to speak against the motion. Therefore, the question is that motion 11152 be agreed. Are we all agreed? The motion is therefore agreed. The next item of business is members' business debate on motion 10173, in the name of Fulton MacGregor, on UN international day for the elimination of racial discrimination. This debate will be concluded without any questions being put. Would those members who wish to speak in the debate please press the request to speak buttons? I call on Fulton MacGregor to open the debate for around seven minutes, please. I thank colleagues from across the chamber for supporting the motion that allowed this important topic to be brought to the chamber today. It is worthwhile putting on record my disappointment that the debate has been brought forward. I know that it needs must and such is impact of Brexit on everything, because I know for a fact that the amount of people who spoke to me about the debate prior to the change does not reflect the current amount of people in the chamber. I have had the pleasure of chairing the cross-party group in racial equality since it was reformed after the election in 2016. During that time, I have had the privilege of meeting and speaking with many people from throughout Scotland about the issues that are faced in a day-to-day basis by people from BEM communities. I particularly like to thank the coalition for racial equality and rights for their support with the cross-party group and for their help in pursuing and securing this debate. I am delighted to note that the many representatives from the cross-party group are in the gallery again, I think, affected by the change in timings, but I think that some have still managed to come along and witness this issue being discussed in Scotland's Parliament. Today marks the 52nd anniversary of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, established by the United Nations following the massacre of 69 people, shot and killed by police at a peaceful demonstration against apartheid laws in Sharpeville, South Africa. Since the ratification of the international convention for the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination in 1965, the UK, among 87 other nations, signed and committed to recognising the human rights and personal freedoms of all people regardless of race, nationality or ethnicity. There have been major steps taken in the fight against racial discrimination since then, but how sad is it that, more than 50 years later, the problem has not been eradicated from our streets and workplaces? Despite good progress, there is still a huge amount of work to be done to rid ourselves of racism completely, and particularly casual racism, even among senior public figures, including politicians. In 2016, the council on the elimination of racial discrimination called upon Scotland to strengthen its commitments to those very ideals. The council recommended that the Scottish Government take steps to prevent hate crimes and racist bullying in schools, increase access to legal aid, improve the curriculum on the history of the British Empire and colonialism, particularly in regards to slavery, and to review the stop and search powers of law enforcement. As a result, the Scottish Government recently published the race equality action plan, outlining the steps that the Scottish Government tends to take to promote racial equality in Scotland in a wide range of areas, from employment to housing to community cohesion and safety, to name a few. I was grateful to the cabinet secretary for coming along to her most recent meeting with the cross-party group to update members on the plan. Recognising racism and establishing a national approach to eliminating racism in our society is a momentous step that I am sure we can all stand behind. That is also at a time when Lord Bracadale is undertaking a review and to hate crime legislation in Scotland. In recent weeks, we have seen significant coverage of the racism experienced by elected officials in Scotland, calling us to consider the reality of racism in not only our political system but in wider Scottish society as well. If this is the sort of racist abuse that is faced by elected members, then what must other members of ethnic and culture minority communities be facing? For example, a report from the Crown Office in Procurate of Fiscal Service shows that racial crimes were the most commonly reported hate crime in the past year, with 3,349 charges reported. While it would be easy to congratulate ourselves for having the lowest number of reported hate crimes in over 10 years, I would say that it is 3,349 charges too many. As elected representatives for a wide diversity of people, it is important for us to recognise that those are not only issues faced by members of minority ethnic communities. The CPG on racial equality in Scotland has also focused its attention on matters such as discrimination faced by gypsy travellers and poverty. Of course, over recent weeks, there has been much discussion in this chamber about sectarianism in Scotland and how we should best tackle that. However, there is much more to this picture. We need to look beyond to understand the inherent structures that perpetuate racism and prejudice in our society. A publication examining the link between ethnicity and poverty in Scotland found that overall poverty is higher among ethnic minority groups than within the majority white population, and that there is a lack of inclusive services, including childcare, which take into account cultural and religious differences. To quote a report from the Quality and Human Rights Commission, if you are born into an ethnic minority household today, you are nearly four times more likely to be in a household that is overcrowded and up to twice as likely to be living in poverty and experiencing unemployment. Not only that, but people from ethnic minority communities communities with qualifications equal to their majority white counterparts face greater barriers to finding work that matches their qualifications. That is a waste of talent and it is completely unfair on the individuals concerned. Those inherent biases and injustices do nothing but hurt our society. As I have mentioned in this chamber before, I am dealing with a constituent case just now where that would seem to be the case. At the end of the day, we are all the Scottish people with various cultural and racial backgrounds. We are part of the grand tapestry of Scotland. Everyone is part of our inclusive national identity. We are all equal citizens, united through our common shared national identity. As members of Parliament, we must use our privilege as the voice of our constituents, towns, villages, cities and communities in Scotland as a whole to champion our nation as an international leader in challenging racial discrimination and progressing racial equality. Scotland is a proud history of challenging racial discrimination and we must share the honourable responsibility of carrying that forward. The Scottish Parliament strived to be a leading international voice in reinforcing the support of our institutions to a world that is found in justice, equality and human rights. I am pleased that we are taking steps to do that through the bold policies and legislation of this Government and the formation of various cross-party groups, including the newly formed tackling Islamophobia, chaired by anasarwa MSP. One of my main hopes in life is that generations of followers are looking at those matters during discussions in history, not in the present and future. However, I would love my kids to be at school thinking why they did not even think that this was ever an issue. However, policies, legislation and cross-party groups will never be enough on their own to make that dream a reality. We all need to do our bit. In an ever-changing world, where world leaders run campaigns about building barriers and walls and hear the threat of Brexit, threatens migration to our country, I will finish them with the motto of BEMIS, which is a motto that I believe we should all adopt. There is only one race—the human race—diverse in its glorious nature. We move to the open debate. I have speeches of around four minutes, please. I call Annie Wells to be followed by Tom Arthur. Thank you to Fulton MacGregor for bringing this important topic to the chamber today. I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak today on the UN international day for elimination of racial discrimination. I am looking at this year's theme of promoting tolerance, unity and respect for diversity. I would like to echo the sentiments of Fulton MacGregor by insisting that we must continue to fight for true racial equality. Around one in eight people in this country are from Scotland's ethnic and cultural minority communities. Despite being part and parcel of the country's make-up, however, gross inequalities still exist. Politically, for example, just 1.2 per cent of our councillors are from an ethnic minority community, and economically, we know that those from these communities remain clustered into lower-paid, part-time jobs. Culturally, as we have seen with very recent high-profile cases, Scotland is not immune from everyday racism that we so desperately need to stamp out, from the personal attacks online to the ignorant comments made in everyday conversation. In addressing those inequalities, I suggest that we must go back to basics, first and foremost with understanding exactly where we are in terms of racial equality. In December last year, I spoke in the debate on the Scottish Government's racial equality action plan, during which I highlighted the need for vastly improved data collection in Scotland. Currently, we are behind the curve with gaps across the board. Due to time, I am not able to name them all just now, but a few examples include voter registration figures by ethnicity, ethnicity of homicide victims, nationwide data on racist incidents in schools, ethnicity pay gap figures and data on the uptake of mental health services based on ethnicity. If Scotland is not to take part in the UK race disparity audit, then I wish to renew my call for robust approach to improve Scottish specific data and call on the Scottish Government for regular updates on how its equality evidence finder is progressing. Knowing what the statistics and being honest about our current stalemate will shine a light on the disparities that exist and drive progress. Racial discrimination transcends the bread and butter issues of life, education, employment and justice, which is why I wish to make a second point that societal and cultural attitudes also require our undivided attention. Discrimination can be embedded in our language through all-way comments, passed off as jokes, and through as simple a thing as we are seeing on the big screen. As we see in the wording of the international convention, the definition of racial discrimination extends to include restriction, distinction and exclusion from the cultural and social spheres, creating an abundance of scenarios where racial discrimination can be missed. Just to give a brief idea of where we could focus on, education is key to creating a positive example of how children from an early age can embrace an inclusive national identity. I am pleased that BEMIS is working with Education Scotland to embrace race equality resources in the curriculum, and, as highlighted in the organisation, it is important that that extends beyond schools with large ethnic and cultural minority communities. Language 2 is paramount, which is why, in preparation for today, I have reflected in my own use of the phrases such as BME and questioned whether such abstract groupings can inadvertently create the impression of distance and other. It is important that we have such discussions and think more broadly about how we go about creating an inclusive national identity, one that genuinely embraces the cultural characteristics of everyone, from language to music, to create a positive picture of what diversity is. In doing so, we will shine a light on hidden discrimination and hopefully bring about real societal change. I wholeheartedly wish to work together as MSPs and parties to achieve that. Again, I thank Fulton MacGregor for bringing forward this debate today. I thank my colleague, Fulton MacGregor, for securing this debate. I echo his frustration that perhaps we were not able to have it in the evening, but it is important that it goes ahead. As Fulton outlined, the history of why we have UN international day for elimination of racial discrimination is well known. On 21 March 1960, the sharp bill massacre was a massacre of protesters protesting against the egregious and horrific past laws that were fundamental to the apartheid system in South Africa. I think that it is a very apropos well that we should be having this debate, because 2018 is, of course, the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but it is also the centenary year of the birth of Nelson Mandela. Indeed, it is the 25th anniversary of Mandela's visit to Glasgow. I want to add my support to the Nelson Mandela Scottish Memorial Foundation, which is campaigning under the auspices of the legendary Brang filling, a consul for South Africa and a giant of the Scottish anti-apartheid movement. I want to lend my support to that campaign. It is incredibly important that we recognise Mandela's contribution, because one of the great actions that we have taken in Scotland in challenging apartheid was the renaming of the St George's Place to Nelson Mandela. Of course, the South African consulate was located. What that speaks to a broader issue is Fulton mentioned about the structures of racism, but we are still the literal physical structures. If anyone who walks through Glasgow, Buchanan after Andrew Buchanan, Glastford after John Glastford, the very magnificent properties that we see were financed from the most egregious form of exploitation through slavery, the most egregious racist system that has ever existed. We must take cognisance of that and recognise Scotland's colonial history. We can sometimes be rather prone to slapping ourselves in the back and saying that we are all Jack Tamsons' bairns, but the legacy is hardwired into our own architecture, our own history. I am certainly within my constituency of Renfisher South, Millican Park after James Millican, the McDowellers of Castle Semple and Lachawinor, the Houston family, all with prominent connections to the slave trade. I think that the lack of awareness of that and the lack of awareness of Scotland's history and connection among so many people is something that we have to address. There is a specific point that I want to pick up from Fulton's motion and that is on the race equality action plan. Section 3 of that plan makes reference to health, and I think that that is very important, and specifically with improving the uptake of HIV testing, especially in the African community. As a co-convener of the cross-party group on blood-borne viruses and sexual health, we have met representatives and community workers from the African community who are doing tremendous work. I would also just want to highlight the importance of hepatitis C. That is a particular issue for our South Asian community. The Hepatitis C trust suggests that the prevalence of hepatitis C in the South Asian community in the UK is 24 per cent, which is four to eight times higher than the rest of the population. That is, again, an important issue to take into consideration. It is something that I will certainly be highlighting, and I will be hosting a member's debate later this year on HCV. The final point that I want to make is that, having looked to the past and considered Scotland's past in regards to colonialism and racism, I think that we have to realise that this is the present issue that my colleague comes in use of. Anas Sarwar has been subjected to horrific abuse in slurs and statements. I stand united with Anas Sarwar and Humza Yousaf, and everyone in opposing and deploring that means actions in those words. In the environment that we are in, we are looking forward in the age of a very sort of vitriolic populism in politics, right across the globe, where we are seeing many communities and migrant communities being targeted and being attributed blame for economic inequality. We must redouble our efforts to eliminate racism and to eliminate it at its root cause. I thank Anas Sarwar for his work with the cross-party group on anti-racism. It is work that I look forward to continuing to do with him, both part of the anti-racism CPG but also through the CPG on tackling Islamophobia. Can I take this opportunity to say in the message of solidarity to all our diverse communities here in Scotland and, indeed, to all our communities right across the world who are victims of everyday prejudice, bias or abuse? The reality is that, if we accept that everyday sexism and everyday homophobia exist in our country—which it does—we must accept that everyday racism, everyday anti-semitism and everyday Islamophobia is real, too. In the vast majority of those cases, it is not something criminal, it is not something that you can report to the police, it is not something that someone can be charged for, but it still impacts on life chances, life opportunities and life outcomes. That is why we have to look at ourselves in terms of our own individual behaviour but also ourselves as parliaments, as local authorities and, indeed, our institutions to see what more we can do to challenge everyday prejudice in all its forms. As has been said by other speakers before, we cannot leave those fights to individual communities themselves. We cannot leave the fight for gender equality to women, we cannot leave the fight on LGBT rights to the LGBT community and, just the same way, we cannot leave the fight against anti-semitism, racism or Islamophobia to those individual communities. We have to see this as a collective fight for all of us if we are generally to eradicate it from our communities. How does it impact? I have mentioned it in terms of criminality, but more of the impact is on access to education, educational outcomes, employment, pursuing the career pathway and promotion of work access to public services. That is why, following the setting up of the cross-party group on tackling Islamophobia, after speaking about some of my own experiences, I have set detailed proposals to the First Minister that I look forward to getting the response to. That is an issue that goes way beyond party politics. That is not an issue where we are going to pick a fight with each other about our party colours. That is an issue that we have to be absolutely united as one on and speak out against. I want to raise an issue that has come up in the past 24 hours. It is important that we say directly to all our institutions across Scotland, including political parties, my own political party and the national local government, to all our public services and those institutions and, indeed, other organisations. Wake up. Wake up. Every day racism is real. It is impacting on people every single day. None of us are immune to it. In the past 24 hours, we have seen reports of a Clyde FC footballer who made racial comments against anathletic footballer in the beginning of January. His club has put a statement in the last 24 hours about what his punishment is going to be. I want to repeat that. I apologise for the language that I am going to use, Deputy Presiding Officer. Please do not swear. You can metaphorically bleep. I will metaphorically bleep then, but let me just repeat what was said. At the start of this match, Ali Love, a Clyde FC footballer, said to Rabin Amin, a Dutch-born Iraqi Kurdish footballer. Before the game started, he asked him whether he was black or white. During the game, he called him a Pb. You can probably guess what I am referring to. When he was challenged during the match, he replied back to say, what will it be, you or I, after the game, or will you bring your P pals with you? The referee heard those comments. Other players heard those comments. It was included in the match report. An investigation took place, and the SFA took the decision to suspend them for five games. Managers get suspended for five games when they argue for their referee and are sent to the stand. That is a much more severe incident than just being suspended for five games. In the last 24 hours, Clyde FC has said that they have conducted their own investigation and their punishment. They will be sending Ali Love on diversity training. I am sick to death of hearing diversity training being used as some kind of excuse or punishment. Diversity training should be mainstream for every single one of us. Ali Love should be suspended by his club if not expelled altogether. We have to send a message, particularly to our young people who will see these footballers as role models, that the time for hateful views to be said in the open is up and, indeed, to express them privately is up as well. The time is up for all those people with those hateful views. I owe it to my children to make sure that they do not grow up in a Scotland where racism exists. We owe it to all our children to create a Scotland free of any form of hate or prejudice. Patrick Harvie to be followed by Maurice Corry. I begin by commending the speech that was just heard from Anna Sarwar. As well as the powerful later part of his speech, he began by saying that we should express our solidarity and our good wishes to the diverse communities of Scotland. It is today's Naraus Kurdish new year. I would like to offer a special good wishes to Scotland's Kurdish community in particular. I also commend Fulton for bringing this debate to the chamber, for gaining cross-party support for it and for giving us the opportunity to have a debate on this topic. I acknowledge the work that is happening. The motion mentions the action plan and the framework and so on. The work that the Government and the minister, no doubt, will want to speak about that, the work that the Government is taking forward. As well as some of the work that is being done on a cross-party basis here, the cross-party group on racial equality and Anna Sarwar also mentioned the cross-party group on Islamophobia that he has just initiated. Welcome addition to the cross-party work that happens. As several of us in the chamber are also members of the cross-party group on Governhill, it is worth reflecting on the level of community activism, such as the celebration of the Roma community on an annual basis throughout the year in places such as Governhill. It is absolutely vital that vibrant community activism, not just politics, not just government and public services, local community leadership is part of the response to the rising tide of racism and intolerance in our society, and it has a rising tide regrettably. Fulton MacGregor also mentioned that Brexit impacts on everything that we do these days. I think that it is worth saying very clearly that not for everybody who voted leave, because there are some who are delusional enough to think that there is an economic argument in favour of that project. For others, the Brexit project has been fundamentally a racist project, predicated on hostility to immigrants or people that perceived to be immigrants, even if they were born here, intolerance towards migrant labour, intolerance towards asylum seekers and refugees. It has come on the back of years of racist rhetoric in parts of our press around those issues and against those people. We know that the referendum result itself provoked and triggered an increase in hate crime and in particular in racist hate crime. I fear that we have to acknowledge the same thing is likely to happen when the Brexit project itself is completed and then again when UK Governments attempt to impose more hostile, more anti-immigrant policies at a UK level. While most of us, I think, would oppose that policy direction, we also need to recognise that this is being done now and we need to gear ourselves up with the courage and the commitment to oppose what is likely to be a very challenging time, a time in which we will continue to see a rising tide, because it is not only the Brexit situation, the Brexit crisis that has emboldened those who take this view and who wish to propagate racism, but globally the impact of the Trump presidency has also emboldened those and given some form of perceived permission to those who want to propagate racism, white supremacy and intolerant attitudes and ideas. We see this not only in social media, we see it quite, as has been quite clearly and correctly stated in this debate, in people's communities, in people's lives on a daily basis and I fear that it's going to get worse in the coming years ahead. I welcome the fact that we have the Bracadale review, the hate crime review that should have happened several years ago, is now under way and hopefully coming toward a conclusion and some recommendations. I hope—and I have argued to Lord Bracadale—that we should be open to the question of whether far right language and imagery itself needs to be recognised in terms of hate crime. I want to finish by endorsing the comments that were made at the end of Anna Sarwar's speech that political parties as well as other institutions in our society are not only—I know that there's been recent high-profile discussion about the Labour Party—it is by no means an issue that is predicated only on one political party. It's across our political spectrum, it's across our society and our political landscape, but every political party has a responsibility to take a zero-tolerance attitude, not only in reaction to specific incidents but also proactively in making sure that we do not recruit as candidates people who need to be disciplined for these basic matters of decency and civility. The last of the open debate contributions is from Maurice Corry. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Let me begin by thanking Fulton MacGregor for bringing in today's members' debates so that we could have the opportunity to properly mark the UN International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. I think that it would also be a well-timed debate as well, because we've only got to look to the recent high-profile case that we've all heard of involving one of our colleagues, Humza Usaf, who is facing the Islamic phobic comments from elected councillor. Humza Usaf and Anna Sarwar here today spoke very powerfully on the BBC at the weekend about the issues of racism and Islamic phobia and the threats and abuse that they receive personally as public figures due to their race and religion. Injustice is that no one should ever have to face at all today. It does show that we still have some distance to travel before we are finally able to say that Scotland is free from this despicable form of discrimination. Back to the UN Day itself today. Today has been marked by the UN since 1966. The date has already been mentioned on 21 March, which was chosen because of that day in 1960. Police opened fire and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration against the apartheid laws in Sharfield, South Africa. Proclaiming the day in 1966, the UN General Assembly called on the international community to redouble its efforts to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination. It is appropriate that this day is still marked in South Africa as human rights days, which is a public holiday. I am sure that everyone in this chamber would offer our support to them as they commemorate their lives that were lost so sadly during their long struggle for democracy, freedom and equal human rights in their country during the apartheid regime. Since then, the UN has created the Durban Declaration, the programme of action to address and track instances of discrimination around the world. Under this act, measures have been put in place for nations to report on the state of equality and holding nations accountable to address issues that are evident. In April 2009, the Durban review conference has held to look into how effective the act was performing. Individuals and organisations had the opportunity to speak about the state of racial and religious equality in their countries. Nevertheless, examples of racial discrimination do exist throughout the Commonwealth. For instance, during a conference, Khaled Hussein, a Bahari from Bangladesh, discussed discrimination that he has faced as part of this community. The Bahari are not recognised by the public as citizens and face discrimination in schools and employment opportunities and have been living in camps throughout Bangladesh since the partition of Pakistan in 1971. Hussein, like many Baharis, are denied entry into the public school system and, after primary school, forcing them to go to public school, which most Baharis cannot afford. While attending private school, Hussein and his Bahari classmates were bullied and marginalised in the classroom. Nevertheless, Hussein was lucky enough to get an education while many of his peers were unable to do so, placing limits on the jobs that he can hold. While discrimination continues, hope was gained in 2003 when Bahari living in the camps were officially deemed Bangladeshi by the High Court, forcing the Electoral Commission to give them voting rights. That is just one of the numerous accounts of racial or religious discrimination faced by citizens of the Commonwealth every day. Last week, we celebrated the Commonwealth day and reflected on the progress that has been made while recognising the progress that is still left to be made. In the case of racial discrimination, we must continue to work towards a fairer society throughout Scotland, the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth as a whole, including the United Nations. An inclusion debt, Presiding Officer, promoting tolerance, inclusion, unity and respect for diversity, is the focus of international day for the elimination of racial discrimination this year. Globally, there is still much progress to be made, even with acts such as the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which nearly has global ratification. So many individual communities still face systematic discrimination based on their race and religion. With global co-operation, sharing tactics that have worked in individual countries and making a true effort to end racial and religious discrimination, then true progress can be made today. I thank all members for their very considerd and insightful contributions to the debate, and I thank Fulton MacGregor particularly for bringing the motion to Parliament today. It is fitting that we are discussing those matters on the international day for the elimination of racial discrimination. The Scottish Government, like the Scottish Parliament, is determined that Scotland should be doing all that it can to be advancing race equality, tackling racism and addressing the barriers that prevent people from minority ethnic communities from realising their fullest potential. It is with that in mind that the race equality action plan, which will be published in December, restates our commitment to race equality and outlines the actions that we will take over the lifetime of this Parliament to realise the ambitions that were set out in the race equality framework for Scotland that was published in March 2016. Following the recommendation of Calianne Lyle, the independent race equality adviser, we are establishing a senior-level programme board that will meet quarterly to oversee the implementation of that action plan. It is worth saying, too, that this year is, of course, the year of young people and a group of minority ethnic young people have been working with the Scottish Government since April 2017, supported by YoungScot, to co-design a fairer future for minority ethnic young people in Scotland. They published their report, creating a fairer future in November. Most of the panel members had experienced some form of discrimination based on their ethnic background. It is worth us reflecting on that in the midst of talking about Government policy, that the Government policy exists because of personal human experiences of unjustifiable discrimination, experiences that limit people's opportunities in their lives in our country. All that has a terrible impact on people and on families. We live in a time when, as Patrick Harvey observed, some people feel that casual racism has been given political permission from some quarters, whether it is here or in other countries. We need all of us as politicians in all parties to tackle that head on. As we heard today, part of that involves examining our past. Part of that involves examining the history of the British empire in a way that perhaps we do not often and, indeed, the role of Scots in the slave trade, as Tom Arthur alluded to, even if that means merely looking about us and learning the story behind some of our street names. As my colleague, the Cabinet Secretary for Communities, Social Security and Equalities, announced earlier today, one of our partners in the work that we do, Bemis, will be delivering a programme of local and national events aimed at involving minority ethnic young people in the year of young people. Bemis, who have delivered strongly on previous themed years, will receive around £70,000 for that project. That is in addition to the £2.6 million of funding that we are providing to tackle racism and racial discrimination. We are also providing £500,000 for a new workplace equality fund that will support innovative projects aimed at reducing barriers to employment for minority ethnic people, women, disabled people and older people. The Race Equality Adviser's report, Race Equality in Scotland, moving forward, highlighted that research shows that one particular community, if I can draw attention to them, faces particular discrimination. That is Scotland's Gypsy Travellers community. That is why, in December 2017, the Cabinet Secretary for Communities, Social Security and Equalities announced that she was going to establish a ministerial working group on Gypsy Travellers specifically, which she would share and which would be attended by the ministers for local government and housing, childcare and early years, employability and training and public health and sport. The cabinet secretary and the ministers on the working group have been visiting Gypsy Traveller sites and meeting members of that community. Engagement with the community will continue over the lifespan of the working group, not simply to ask what the problems are. We have probably done that already, but to check out with them the viability of solutions to those problems at which the working group develops. The actions more generally that we need to eradicate racism are, of course, not just for the Scottish Government alone. As Anas Sarwar rightly said, every individual and every organisation in Scotland needs to play their role in creating a fair and equal Scotland that protects and includes people from all backgrounds, whatever their ethnicity may be. As Annie Wells and others observed, we cannot be complacent in Scotland just because we have not seen some of the issues that have been evident in other parts of the UK. As recent incidents have shown, Scotland is not immune from the phenomenon of public figures in our communities saying moronic things. Members of this Parliament have been subjected to offensive comments and much worse because of their race or because of their religion. Strong action needs to be taken against all offenders and all political parties—all of us in this Parliament—need to adopt a zero-tolerance approach to those examples of racist hate crime. Let me finish with a quote from Audre Lorde, the American writer and civil rights activist. It is not our differences that divide us, it is our inability to recognise, accept and celebrate those differences. We may look, sound, live differently, but we are all people. We are all, as Fulton MacGregor said, Scots. We all live in this community together and we all deserve the same opportunities and to be able to make the same contribution as anyone else.