Scotland’s Foreign Policy Footprint — House of Commons, 2018-12-03
Topic: International Affairs
David Melvyn Linden (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): It is a real pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for North East Fife (Stephen Gethins), whom I congratulate most sincerely on securing this debate. I do not want to hold up the Minister this evening. I know that he, too, will be keen to rise to his feet, but I will keep him back for a little bit yet It was only when I was listening to my hon. Friend that I was brought to think a little bit more about the debate he has secured. If you will allow me, Madam Deputy Speaker, I want to mention one or two local groups, because I believe that when we talk about Scotland’s foreign policy footprint, it is not necessarily about diplomats or those in the Foreign Office in Whitehall, but in fact about our constituents who go all the way across the world and make such a valid contribution to our relationship with our friends across the world If I may, I want to refer to some conversations that I had fairly recently with school pupils in my constituency. First, I pay tribute to my alma mater, Bannerman High School. I visited it only this morning to present an early-day motion recognising the immense generosity of the east end of Glasgow, which has been fundraising for the Beatson. Bannerman High School has a long-standing relationship with Malawi. That point was raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow North (Patrick Grady), and I want to touch on that later in my remarks The school pupil I want to mention is a fine young lady, Keira Cameron, from the Baillieston area of my constituency. My first interaction with her was about a visit she was undertaking on behalf of her high school—St Ambrose High School—which is in the constituency of the hon. Member for Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill (Hugh Gaffney). I think a third of the children in my constituency go to it because it is the local Roman Catholic high school. Keira’s family contacted me because she had some difficulties with her passport. Through the good offices of the Immigration Minister, we managed to get that ironed out and she was able to travel to Bangalore, from which she came back with a number of suggestions for me One of the issues I want to touch on is that of visas—not visas for, or migration by, people leaving the United Kingdom, but visas for people coming to the United Kingdom, specifically in relation to Malawi. I think my first ever debate in this House was on the relationship between Scotland and Malawi. It was quite fitting that my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow North raised that, because there is an issue of equality. Frankly, we send lots of our young school students off to Malawi—they can go and do wonderful work there, and they often do—but there is an issue about students from Malawi being able to come here as well While on visas, I want to touch on an issue that I dealt with only last week. It relates to one of the fine churches in my constituency—there are a great many of them. Parkhead Nazarene church is led by my good friend Pastor Ian Wills. He hosted an international conference in Glasgow this week, and once again he came up against the issue of the UK Government denying visas or conducting the process in a way that was not fitting. Again, through the good offices of the Immigration Minister, we managed to iron that out. I guess my fundamental point is that the way we treat people, particularly when they are coming to this country, sends a message about what kind of country we are.