 Fel ai'n rhoi unig gan hynny, rydw i'n gwybod i dda i chi'n ddweud eu cynnigol i ddweud eu cymryd a'i cymryd wedi rhoi ei ddweud, ond mae'n gweithiau i ddweud o phas y lleiwgwyfo ar y cyfyrdd. Mae'n gweld ei ddatblygu i gyda ni'n ei ddweud i gweld eich ddweud o phas a ddweud ei ddweud i gweithredu llinwyr i ddweud. Mae'n gweld ei ddweud eu gofynu hynny i ddweud i ddweud, a o wnawn i chi ddweud i ddweud o'r ddatblygu'r eich cyngniaw hwyl. Felly, coleg chi'n brys Crawford i gael i ffiddiwethaf i niw Anabell Ewing. Mae gennynni Crawford yw 7 maen nhw, felly rae maen nhw? Rai, yn cymryd ddim yn fwy ffordd rai i gabi yn bryd i Anabell Ewing rwy'r pryd i'r ministeriaeth i commandeis ystyried y gallwn ymdyn nhw. Be iawn i ddodol i'r gweithio, a ddod o'r ddodol i gael i'r ddodol, those who have turned up to debate at this moment, but also to thank Annabelle Ewing for creating opportunity for me to lead the debate on celebrating St Andrew's Day. In my contribution, I particularly want to reflect on Scotland's place in the world. A stated in a motion, St Andrew's himself was a man who touched many countries. Of course, the obvious countries with which Scotland has links lies with our friends in the commonwealth countries across the world. It was in the commonwealth countries that many of our forebears chose to make new lies for themselves and the more recent past and, of course, vice versa. But Scotland also has centuries-old relationships with our Scandinavian neighbours, with Poland, Germany and the Netherlands. Scotland emigrated in numbers to these countries mainly in search of economic or military careers. Many, as we know from those countries, settled here. Again, it was the same for our neighbouring countries across these islands. Again, it was vice versa. Similarly across the world, in more contemporary times, in the first maritime and air travel, we have witnessed Scotland take her place as part of a smaller and more independent world. We know that in more recent times there have been people come to enrich your society, whether that has been the Italians and the Poles of the past or people from Pakistan and India, etc. In developing our place in the modern world, as a result of the many links that we have around the globe, we have become a much more ethnically rich and diverse country. That has helped us retain, I believe, a unique and outward-looking culture. I think that everyone would agree, and it goes without saying, that 2014 has been a year-like no other to celebrate all that is good about Scotland. Our referendum was a magnificent renewal of Scotland's national democracy with an enormous turnout and truly incredible levels of democratic engagement from our citizens. I happened to be in Fort William earlier on this week with the Further Devolution Powers Committee, and we had the chance to speak to many 16 and 17-year-olds who were involved in that democratic process. There is no doubt in my mind that what we have heard from the Smith commission for example this week and from all the parties in Parliament now that we recognise and value that the young people's contribution is part of the referendum process. I am glad that everyone is committed now to giving 16 and 17-year-olds a vote in our country. That referendum was a spectacle. It was watched in awe across the world. This week, the journalist Jack Wright wrote in his view from Scotland's column for the excellent addition to Scotland's new daily newspaper titles, The National, that our brand is stronger than ever in the United States, as he commented on the new-found interest in Scotland and our politics. It is more than just that, of course. We have welcomed visitors in the second year of home coming from all over the world. I met many of them at the Banachburn event myself, succeeded in organising and delivering the best common world games ever, as well as the magnificent spectacle that was the World Cup. Of course, we have had a wide range of culture events in which to reflect on and commemorate this year for Scotland. For instance, the historical heritage of our country included the hugely successful marking of the 700th anniversary of the Battle of Banachburn. However, the common world games in particular presented a golden opportunity to celebrate the diversity of family of nations and what the common world represents and the diversity that we found now in modern Scotland. Indeed, the former First Minister's description of the diversity of modern Scotland put it elegantly. There are many different colours and threads woven in to the Scottish tartan and we celebrate them all. I wholeheartedly agreed with those sentiments. As the richness of that tartan is reflected in the analysis work done for the 2011 census, Dr Andrew Smith, the senior lecturer in sociology at University of Glasgow, said that what our research in the centre on dynamics of ethnicity reveals is a picture of growing diversity within Scotland and of diversity spread across different areas of the country. He added that what the analysis also reveals is that Scotland's growing diversity is not producing polarised islands of different groups but a mosaic of differently mixed areas. Those findings are very reassuring in modern Scotland, but there is no room for complacency in this chamber or indeed in Scottish society in a wider general sense. We must always strive to ensure that a diversity of the society is celebrated and never something to divide us. As well as modern Scotland being about those from elsewhere who made their home here in our country, Scots have left the shores for opportunity and have made a huge contribution to the modern world. The USA and Canada are off-sighted examples where millions can lead claim to Scottish ancestry. Indeed, it is estimated that from this wee country of ours, between 28 and 48 million people may be able to claim Scottish descent. I was intrigued to discover recently that 80,000 people in Chile claim Scottish descent. I could not understand that number. It is more than many other European countries put together, but I discovered that it was mostly about sheep and about an admiral who went to Chile to create the Chilean navy from Scotland. Forgive me, I cannot remember his name. John Mason is now going to tell me his name. John Mason? When he mentions other countries, I was wondering whether he would comment or if he realises the connection with Jamaica, which also has a saltire in its flag. Scots were involved there and there is a huge number of Scottish names in Jamaica. I recognise that although it is a yellow saltire that goes through the flag of Jamaica, it goes further south. We also come into places like Guinea, where lots of Scots went along during the times of the sugar plantation. Scots have a significant contribution in that part of the world. It is a pity that the bobslayers from Jamaica are better than our bobslayers. I was reminded yesterday by my American Indian Heidi Brown that Thanksgiving Day is being celebrated in the United States as we speak. This national holiday gives families a day off to rejoice in the co-operation between Native Americans and the pilgrims during that period. Americans mark this day by feasting, as they did after their first successful harvest in 1621, as well as giving thanks to the continued tradition of accessing gratitude to Native Americans. I want to therefore conclude my remarks by wishing Americans here in Scotland a happy Thanksgiving Day on their national holiday. The motion to which I speak also advocates the celebration of St Andrew's Day as a national holiday. I have no doubt that it is not beyond our wit to designate St Andrew's Day a national holiday and rearrange our calendar of public holidays to reflect that if that is what we choose. As I close, if there was ever a good reason to celebrate St Andrew's with a public holiday, it would celebrate Scotland's contribution to the world, but even more importantly, to celebrate and to raise a toast from all around the planet who has chosen Scotland as their home, enriching our culture and our daily lives. I congratulate Bruce Crawford on congratulating Annabelle Ewing in this debate, celebrating St Andrew's Day and our patron saint in Scotland, not just of Jamaica, but of Greece, Romania, Russia and some others. I am good to see Jamie McGrigor in the chamber. I know that he will be speaking later, speaking from the Conservative benches, but I have to say, Deputy Presiding Officer, I have to remark on the fact that there is nobody in the Labour benches, nobody on the Liberal benches to speak to the motion celebrating Scotland's national day, pretty disgraceful. Raising the profile of our national day is undoubtedly due in this part to this Parliament reconvening some 15 years ago, and not least to Dennis Canavan's act, the St Andrew's Day bank holiday Scotland act of 2007, though it is not a full national holiday, as Bruce Crawford alluded to, and not as celebrated yet as, for example, Burns night. Google, at one time, displayed the saltire on its homepage on St Andrew's Day. I hope it does it this year. I would suggest that those members who are not in the chamber and that's most of them will pay attention and suggest to Google that the St Andrew's flag is on the Google page on 30 November. It's good business for Scotland and it's appropriate. St Andrew gave us the saltire and flags are at the beating heart of a nation. It is symbols of nationhoods such as our patron saint and the flag emblematic of his crucifixion that have carried the heart and the hopes of Scots in good and bad from the confrontations and football pitches to those on battlefields. When is that symbol of our patron saint more distinct than in our flag the saltire, which was inspired by the vision that Athos Stamford in 832 AD, where King Angus, Angus is my oldest son's name, there's DNA for you, Angus led the Scots in battle to defeat the Angles. The night before battle, St Andrew appeared before King Angus assuring him of victory and in the morning a white saltire against a blue sky appeared to both sides. It scared the Angles to pitch their lost confidence and were defeated and that has been our image ever since. The saltire was also used in the nation's coinage when it was introduced by King David I in the 13th century. It therefore has an ancient and noble lineage. On St Andrew's day in our capital city, however, there is the opportunity to fly the St Andrew's flag prominent position over the castle. Why not? Why is it not flying over the castle? There is a false argument that the castle is an army garrison. It is not. It seems to be a garrison in 1920, and the army is now there largely in a ceremonial capacity. I'm thankful that Historic Scotland saw the light last year and didn't put Olympic rings on it, but I have a suggestion. Why not project a large saltire on the ramparts of the castle for November 30th? In commemoration of St Andrew's day, his flag may fly over Edinburgh Castle, it may or may not, but not in pole position, as I've said. However, the British Government, on behalf of the Ministry of Defence, designated it as an official flag-flying station. The union flag therefore takes precedence yet by the Scotland Act 1998, and by agreement between the Crown, the state, commissioners and the Scottish Office, ownership of Edinburgh Castle and other historic buildings, transferred from the Crown to the Secretary of State for Scotland and hence to the Scottish ministers. The transfer of 26 properties took place in 1999, in fact. It included inter alia Edinburgh Castle, the Government through its ministers, now the owners, and therefore the landlords to the MOD. The MOD is merely our tenant. It's time for the landlords, on behalf of the Scottish people, to tell the tenants to take down the union flag and fly the saltire in its place, not only because it symbolises our nation and its patron saint, but because, frankly, if it's good enough for recruiting Scots to fight in the legal wars, it's good enough to fly all the year round. We know that, despite the narrow mis of independence, or perhaps because of it, because of those 1.6 million Scots who voted yes in the face of a unionist tsunami of negativity and the now baby steps taken under the Smith commission and substantial and cohesive and home rule have all been redefined, and we now know the definition of a vow. We all know, wherever side you are in this Parliament, that Scotland's story has not yet been told, that ending remains unwritten, and then the saltire will fly everywhere. Many thanks. Nercle and Jamie McGregor to be after which moved the closing speech to the minister. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Referring to Christine Graham's remarks earlier, I'm too astonished as nobody from the Labour benches. Oddly enough, there was nobody during the Ukrainian debate the other day, which I thought was rather odd. Perhaps they've all been rendered speechless by something. And I congratulate Annabelle Ewing on securing today's debate, and I'm very glad to take part in it because it's important. Christine told the story of the Scottish saltire and the legend of St Andrew, which I was about to tell you, so that's taken away some of my speech. But I have to say, I was very glad to learn that it was St Andrew whose dream inspired the saltire. It's a beautiful flag owned by all the Scottish people, and of course it's part of the Union Jack as well. Quite why St Andrew's was considered to be the end of the earth, where St Rul was instructed to take St Andrew's remains, is a mystery to me, as I was considered in a very fine town with a great university and a marvellous golf course. But perhaps St Rul arrived on a bad day, which was made worse by a har or something like that. But he was lucky to get away with his life, unlike the Hussites who arrived at this one stage from the Czechoslovakia who were burnt at the stake in St Andrew's. But anyway, what celebrations St Andrew has inspired worldwide, particularly in Australia and Canada and in China, the Canadian Society of Beijing of which my brother was a previous chairman, holds a St Andrew's ball where an enormous amount of Scotch whisky is consumed. The Czech Republic, where the Hussites I spoke of recently came from, amazingly hold a St Andrew's night as well, which is very forgiving of them, I think. And in Saudi Arabia, they hold a St Andrew's night ball in Jeddah, but I don't think quite so much whisky is drunk at that one. Turning to, I suppose, slightly more serious matters, during my time as an MSP, I've spoken in many debates on St Andrew's Day and I argued before our position on making the day a full national holiday has been consistent and clear. And we've always been supportive of the desire to have St Andrew's Day as a bank holiday, but in exchange for another day, and not in addition to existing days, this was the approach adopted in the 2007 act, and we remain supportive of that. St Andrew's Day is correctly a voluntary public holiday, and this is what has happened. It is also what our Parliament does. Strangely enough, Eaton College celebrates St Andrew's Day as a holiday and has done so for hundreds of years. We didn't support the argument that St Andrew's Day must be a compulsory national holiday, as the cost of this inevitably falls on businesses, especially small businesses, and the taxpayer. CBI Scotland has in the past stated that more and more firms are moving away from closing on specified days towards a system where employees have an annual leave entitlement and decide for themselves in agreement with their employer when to take a holiday. We would be happy for employees to engage with their employers to discuss taking St Andrew's Day off instead of another holiday if this was appropriate, as it might be the case if the employer's spouse or partner or children have St Andrew's Day off. I just thought that the retail sector might benefit from a holiday at this time of year because it could boost sales leading up to Christmas. That is a good point. I agree with the motion that St Andrew's Day is a great opportunity to celebrate the diversity of our cultures and faith. We also recognise that tourism businesses can need extra promotion during the winter months, which is what my friend was talking about. We want to see a continued focus to boost winter tourism in Scotland. I am pleased that Historic Scotland offered free tickets to many of its properties on St Andrew's Day, and I paid tribute to all those enterprise businesses, shops and tourism enterprises in my region of the Highlands and Islands that seek to use St Andrew's Day to boost the trade. As a keen angler, I have always thought that it was very appropriate that our Scottish patron, St Andrew, was a fisherman from Galilee. I wish all those who have Friday off at St Andrew's Day that they have an enjoyable day and hope that some of them will do a spot of fishing or even enjoy some of our flesh-class shellfish in Scotland. We now move the closing speech from the minister. I want to congratulate Annabelle Ewing for bringing this forward, and then I want to congratulate her ministerial appointment as a colleague in government. I also want to congratulate Bruce Crawford for taking up the mantle somewhat last minute. I could think of no MSP more appropriate to have done so. I am delighted to be winding up this debate on behalf of the Government. I, too, am surprised at the lack of some opposition members here. Nonetheless, today's members' debate about St Andrew's Day being celebrated widely as a national holiday is incredibly important for a number of different reasons. However, I particularly want to pick up the point that Bruce Crawford and latterly Jamie McGregor mentioned about this being an opportunity to celebrate Scotland as an outward-looking nation that where Scots have travelled the world over, sometimes for good reasons, sometimes I would suggest when it comes to Jamaica probably not for particularly great reasons, but also a country that has opened itself up to migrants and been a welcoming country in that regard. St Andrew was the patron saint, as was alluded to by Jamie McGregor, of fishermen, fish mongers. I am certainly not looking at any members of this chamber, particularly behind me at all when I say that he was also the patron saint of singers, of spinsters, of maidens, of old maids, of women wishing to become mothers and perhaps a good thing for politicians, the patron saint for sore throats as well. Since then, it has been seven years since the Scottish Parliament approved the bill to have a national holiday on or around St Andrew's Day. As you know, since then, as has been mentioned, Scottish Government and public sector organisations such as Visit Scotland observe that holiday. Many local authorities do, but we hope more will take up that challenge. Indeed, the opportunity, as John Mason said, to take that holiday. You will also be pleased to hear that we have gathered some encouraging evidence that suggests that St Andrew's Day celebration is a gathering momentum. For example, in 2013-14, the Scottish Winter Festival's events recorded a total footfall of 257,884. That is an 8 per cent increase on the footfall the year before. The number of private sector organisations offering free or discounted entry on St Andrew's Day has increased 140 per cent between 2012 and 2013. Going back to Bruce Crawford's remarks about the global Scottish diaspora, it reminded me of a saying that you will have heard many a time. I am sure that there are two types of people in the world—Scots and those who wish that they were Scottish. It is estimated that, in that vein, there are 50 million people across the globe who claim Scottish ancestry. Many of those Scots and Scots at heart, wherever they are from in the world, from Beijing to Rio to Toronto to Brisbane, will be remembering and marking the national day. As they do, Hogmanay, as they do, burns night every year. People are quite correct to mention that St Andrew is also the patient saint of many other countries—Grease, Russia, Romania—and indeed, apparently, Barbados, which is fantastic. Although external affairs still comes into my remit, if the members of the chamber would want me to, and if I have to submit myself to the country to go on a fact-finding mission to Barbados in this regard, I am more than happy to do that. We are very much also working with our partners across the world to try to establish St Andrew's day as an important day to mark. I was delighted that we were working closely with the FCO, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, to promote the celebration of St Andrew's day. I was having a Twitter exchange with the High Commissioner of Zambia, James Thornton, who was at the Caledonian ball to celebrate St Andrew's day just this week. Many examples, given by Jamie McGregor, were delighted that they are doing all that they can, and we are doing all that we can across the world to promote St Andrew's day. As well as members here who will be celebrating in their local constituencies. As the motion for this debate states, St Andrew's day is also an opportunity to celebrate the diversity of cultures, faiths and ethnic origins of this small country. I thought that Bruce Crawford made that point throughout his speech extraordinarily well. During this year, in particular, through all the events that we have had, including, of course, the Commonwealth Games, we have managed to bring those communities of Scotland closer together. St Andrew himself was an immigrant. He immigrated and travelled to many different countries—Ukrain, Romania, Russia, Greece and Turkey—amongst just a few. However, one of the programme of events that helps to celebrate that ethnic diversity on St Andrew's day this year is a fantastic event that is called the Multicultural Homecoming, which is being organised by Bemis Scotland, headed by Dr Rami Ousta and his team. That homecoming celebration is the finale of that homecoming celebration on St Andrew's night. The Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs will be representing the Scottish Government. I myself will be that day celebrating St Andrew's day with our vibrant Sikh community in Scotland. As we enter that winter festival season, it is important to remember that St Andrew's day is not the only celebration of these winter months. We have a fantastic programme where we will have Hogmanay a month later and then, as I say, Burns as well. I thought some of the ideas that came from the chamber on how we can celebrate it further and give St Andrew's day more prominence were very good ideas indeed. I think that Christine Graham has managed to volunteer herself with the saltire in her teeth to climb the ramparts of Edinburgh Castle to attach it on there. She says that if I get her the flag, she will do it, so I will certainly get her the flag, but I will also get a photographer on-site to capture that moment. On a very serious note on her point, I know that when I was in Stirling Castle most recently, the former First Minister had managed to secure the lion rampant flying for that for only the second time in 400 years. I am more than happy to explore the idea that she suggests and, indeed, even the idea with Google to find out if she will be advocating the saltire on her page. I am more than happy to ensure that we do that. It is my hope that our 2015 year of food and drink will sustain and build on the momentum generated by this year's homecoming and that all the chamber will be impelled to take part, helping to inspire the people of Scotland and our visitors to celebrate Scotland's outstanding natural lardar, to further develop Scotland's ever-growing reputation as a land of food and drink, and to promote and celebrate our nation's culinary achievements, not just on St Andrew's day but throughout the year. Perhaps the last thing that I would say is that there is a lesson in St Andrew's story for every single one of us. He was a man of great humility, as demonstrated even in death and persecution when he refused to be crucified in the same cross as Christ, so there are many lessons that we can learn in St Andrew's, but I think that the best lesson, as was said by Bruce Crawford, is that this is the national day that should be celebrated by all of Scotland's communities, but also all Scots who have chosen to make other parts of the globe their home. I hope that in that spirit of unity, in that spirit of diversity and that spirit of tolerance that each and every one of us has a very happy and enjoyable and festive St Andrew's day indeed. Thank you Minister, that ends members business. As the parties were so advised, we are moving straight on to the continuation of the