Serving a 'privilege and honour'

On 1 July, Scottish devolution will celebrate its 10th birthday.

In the latest of a series of articles for the BBC news website by Holyrood veterans, Nationalist MSP and former culture minister Linda Fabiani reflects on some of her personal highlights over the past decade.

From the moment in 1999 when Winnie Ewing declared, 'The Scottish Parliament is hereby reconvened', Scotland began to reassert itself, within the UK, within Europe and the world.

Scots now believe we have a parliament and a government that can and will act in our best interests - and it's ours.

We have a general agreement that we have what it takes to go further, bring more power home, make our country stronger, make our own decisions.

We don't need someone else to tell us what to do, and we're beginning to realise as a nation that those who have been privileged to have been in charge for so long have not always acted in our best interests.

Holyrood isn't some distant place like Westminster - MSPs are out and about in their communities, much more accessible and accountable and, most important of all, listening.

That's why free personal care was introduced, why prescription charges are on the way out, why we've seen council tax levels frozen over the last two years and why the Scottish Government has been able to put in place measures to help businesses face current economic challenges.

We've had visitors from all over the world to our parliament - wonderful memories of the Dalai Lama walking hand-in-hand with our presiding officer, George Reid, parliament's chamber hosting the G8 International Parliamentarians' Conference on Development in Africa, Ireland's former president, Mary Robinson, addressing visitors to the festival of politics.

Our parliament should be a gathering place of the people, whether they want to share in an event or pebble us wi stanes

Over the last two years particularly, there has been a resurgence of national awareness and a recognition that we have so much to offer the world - our Gaelic and Scots languages and traditions, our acceptance of other cultures to strengthen our own, our renowned national performing companies and collections, our history and our heritage, our research and technology skills.

We should celebrate our achievements, recognise and capitalise on our strengths.

This year of homecoming, the Bard's 250th birthday, is a showcase for Scotland and an opportunity for us all to show Burns' 'sense of worth' to our visitors.

Having been first elected in 1999 and now looking forward to the parliament's anniversary celebrations on 1 July, it's hard to fathom that it really has been 10 years - that will come home to us, though, when we see the parliament complex full of Scotland's 10-year-olds that day.

They have grown with us and will continue to grow with us - a great joy to me is to see week on week, schoolchildren visiting to learn how they can have a say in the future of their country, visitors of all ages, from all over Scotland, dropping in to see what we're up to, all sorts of groups or individuals demonstrating about the things that matter to them.

Our parliament should be a gathering place of the people, whether they want to share in an event, put their case at the petitions committee, call in for a chat, or pebble us wi stanes.

Being an MSP is a privilege and an honour.

We've been lucky enough to be at the heart of some big changes in our country and I think we'll be right at the heart of some more soon.

Yes, Scotland has changed since 1999 - we've made laws and we've changed laws - but the real big change has been in the way Scots see their parliament and their nation.