Fergus Presides

Today's formal Royal Opening of the Fifth Session of the Scottish Parliament was a wonderful day out for everyone, including the members.

The actual event in the chamber was the best yet and left me very proud to be a member of a parliament that celebrates its great occasions with poetry, song, music and performance.  The new Jackie Kay poem " Threshold" was wonderfully and movingly  declaimed (there is no other word) by her and some young actors and the first performance of Piano Quintet No1 by the very young Tom Aitken (still in school in fact)  revealed  a lyrical but sharp reflection on the  building  and its purpose. 

Outside the "Riding of the Parliament " (an old Scottish tradition made new by Holyrood)  was vibrant and thrilling with so many different groups all of which eventually gathered in the Parliament grounds for a picnic.  

My local hero (each member invites one from their own constituency) was Dorothy MacDonald from Achievement Bute and the young people from Bute who were with her made a great contribution to the procession  with their mascot Fergus.  

After taking Dorothy and her husband Peter on a wee tour of the building we met up with the Achievement Bute group and went up to the Parliament Chamber which was a buzz of activity.   Eventually we got Fergus up into the Presiding Officer's chair and that was the image of the day for me.  

it was a joy  to see every part of the building open and accessible and being used with such obvious pleasure by so many and that went on all afternoon.  Indeed as Cathleen and I left there was an enormous queue for the "Open The Doors" events that were taking place until 6.00pm .

As an added bonus when we got to Royal Terrace to pick up the car at the flat we got caught up in the "Pride" march which was equally vibrant , colourful and loud.

What a great day and what an antidote to the  depressing political news and actions south of the border. 

I have some more pictures of the day on my Flickr site .