Scottish Parliament (Constituencies and Regions) Order 2010

My Lords, I speak to underline the comments made earlier about the sense of identity and community. When I entered this House I took the title Alcluith, which is the Gaelic name for Dumbarton. Literally translated it means rock on the Clyde. It comprises the towns of Helensburgh, Dumbarton, Vale of Leven and Clydebank—all proud of their heritage of shipbuilding, and all having a sense of community with the past. Those areas were encapsulated in the county of Dumbarton. That stretched quite a bit in our area. The county of Dumbarton, going way back to the 1960s and earlier, had a sense of identity. Someone who was on the council in the county of Dumbarton is now the provost of the new Argyll area, Provost Billy Petrie. I have known Billy for many years. He was a fine politician who has been there for 40 years. He has served throughout that time. I mention his name because, as my noble friend Lord McAvoy said, with the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, the Minister Allan Stewart, another fine individual with whom I have had very positive relationships in opposition and government while engaging in the political process, decided to take Helensburgh and the lochside area of Luss out of the area of Dumbarton and put it into Argyll. I base my comments on conversations that I had with him. The simple reason for that was that a number of local Conservative politicians in Helensburgh got a bit fed up with the obtuse attitude of a number of Labour councillors in the local area. I had sympathy for that attitude at the time, but I told them not to throw the baby out with the bathwater and that if they put that area into Argyll they would mix two areas with very little in common. All the economic interests from Helensburgh are eastwards and engage with Dumbarton, not northwards up to Argyll. Nevertheless, they went ahead with the change, all because of a short-term conflict, but with no long-term strategic consideration. I suggest to this House that that amalgamation made no sense. As a Member of Parliament in that area representing Helensburgh, if I wanted any interest to be looked at, I had to take my flask and sandwiches and make my way up to Lochgilphead with the rest and be thankful. I had to get engaged in the discussions on the special islands needs allowance, because there were 26 islands in that new authority. That did not make sense. Now the people of Helensburgh are saying that economically the change was not in their interests, as they have the biggest town and feel that they are supporting other areas, while the other areas in the north feel that their interests are not being served by the dominance of Helensburgh. That is a good template for the Minister to consider the issue of community and community identity. I was speaking to his colleague, Alan Reid, who represents the Helensburgh area well. I do not want to put words into Alan’s mouth, but in a conversation that I had with him the other day as we came down on the plane he acknowledged, as does everyone else, that this is a numbers game. The only place that he can go to to make up his numbers is further into the Dumbarton area, taking in the Vale of Leven. That makes no sense whatever. The local identity element will certainly be destroyed as a result of that, and local identity and community cohesion are extremely important. This Parliament has decided to embark on a cuts programme, which will mean that we have to take the public with us as much as possible, at a time when we have failed to take them with us. They have become more disenchanted with Parliament. I suggest that if we proceed with this measure, it will be a slap in the face for that community cohesion and identity. The homogeneity of communities must be at the core of our thinking. The concept of solidarity, community interest and pride in local areas, as a number of my local colleagues have mentioned, is extremely important. At this time it would be folly to ride roughshod over that concept.