Work Programme

The next item is consideration of a paper from the clerk on our work programme. Members will note the arrangements for our external meeting on 27 January. I say to new members that part of their inheritance is a commitment to get out and about in Scotland. First, I thank members who attended the meeting in Duns in Berwickshire in challenging weather conditions. The meeting was a good one. I also say well done to the driver for overcoming the brief period of engine failure on the high-quality jalopy that the big-spending Scottish Parliament gave us for the journey.

Mrs Cochrane was bolting the door as he said that.I return to the paper from the clerk on the work programme and the arrangements for the meeting on 27 January. Do members have any comment on the proposal, or are they happy with it?

Obviously, I am happy with the proposal, although Mr Don and I might have a problem in attending the meeting, as it clashes with a meeting of the Justice Committee.

That is the nature of these things. If we do externals, we often find that members have prior commitments because of the failure of their business manager to understand members' schedules. They should do better at allocating things.

You may say that, but I could not possibly comment. I put that into the Official Report for my business manager to see.

My business manager is a very good business manager. I had better put that on the record, too.

You should stop digging there.

We need to take that on board for our meeting in January at the John Wheatley College's Easterhouse campus. A good community engagement strategy is evolving in the east end of Glasgow. A substantial number of young people have become involved. A good health summit has already been held. Last Monday evening, a summit was held to consider elements of the petition on knife crime at which I was asked to lead a workshop. There are folk out there who will work hard to get people to engage more effectively with us.I share John Wilson's concern that a lot of work went into notifying people about the meeting in Duns, but to very limited effect. I qualify that by saying that the weather was pretty awful. That said, we want to get more return for the endeavour by attracting more people to attend external meetings. We need to deal with that.

Okay. We can do that. We have done some of those things, but we need to keep working on such suggestions. Matching the hospitality of the clerk, I say that my office is a just over a mile away from the college. If we suffer any mechanical problems on the day, a cup of tea will be available there.

Perhaps we could, but if we really want to be outrageous, we could occupy Margaret Curran's office round the corner. I can see members' eyes lighting up in anticipation.