New Petitions

We now move to the second and final new petition for consideration. PE1826 calls for the introduction of a new national emblem of Scotland and is by Catherine Cooper. The petition calls for the Scottish Government to facilitate a national conversation to identify and adopt an additional official emblem for Scotland. The Scottish Government’s submission states:

“Scottish Ministers believe that consideration of any further national emblems should be arrived at informally as need dictates and should not be led by the Scottish Government or by any political party.”

The petitioner’s submission recognises the Scottish Government’s stance, but argues that her petition is not about party politics; it intends to align people “behind a common cause” and develop

“a shared cultural vision for Scotland.”

I am now looking for comments on the petition. My observation is that I am not sure that there is any means by which it is possible to develop a shared cultural vision for Scotland. People will have their own versions of what their society should aspire to.

I was interested in the commentary from the petitioner, which seemed to be much more about dealing with difficult times and how people pull together in difficult times. I respect that, but it does not feel to me to be about emblems and symbols; it was about how tough things are and how we can find a common endeavour, which is important in local communities. During the pandemic there have been good examples of people pulling together, so in my head I have separated the petitioner’s very interesting commentary from the aim of the petition, which is to establish a new national symbol.

There is a consensus recognising that what lies behind the petition is quite different from the debate about a national symbol, and a number of colleagues made the point that if the Government conducted such a conversation, there would be a degree of suspicion about it. It feels to me that it is something that should emerge from communities, rather than being done to communities.

As I said, I think that we respect the motivation behind the petition, but I think that we are agreeing that we will close the petition under rule 15.7 of the standing orders, on the basis that the Scottish Government does not support the action called for in the petition and that we think that it is not the role of the Scottish Government to lead that conversation. However, we thank the petitioner very much for submitting the petition and we remind them that there is an opportunity to revisit the petition in a year’s time if they feel that that would be worth while. We thank them for raising the matter for our consideration.