The Scotsman Bulletin Wednesday September 20 2023 #Inflation
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Hello, and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin
00:10 for September the 20th.
00:11 My name's Dale Miller, I'm Head of News at the Scotsman,
00:14 and I'm joined from London by our Westminster correspondent,
00:17 Alexander Brown.
00:18 Good morning, Alex.
00:19 - Good morning.
00:21 - We're on to talk about the front page
00:23 of the Scotsman firstly,
00:24 and we led on, it was impossible not to,
00:28 the Tram's Inquiry Report, which was released on Tuesday.
00:33 It described a litany of avoidable failures.
00:35 We expected it to go hard at Ty, the council's tram company.
00:39 We expected it to go hard at the City Council,
00:42 but a bit surprisingly, perhaps it went very hard
00:45 after John Swinney, the former Deputy First Minister.
00:50 Lord Hardy criticised him quite extensively,
00:54 questioned his integrity,
00:56 and questioned his role in actually withdrawing
00:58 some of the support from the Transport Scotland arm
01:01 of the Scottish government to the actual project,
01:04 and said it contributed towards some of the failures.
01:06 Now, that view was strongly rebuttaled by Swinney himself.
01:11 You can see his quotes in the piece from Alistair Dalton,
01:14 which is online at scotsman.com.
01:16 And also Murray McCallum, the Transport Secretary,
01:19 said that some of the findings did not stack up
01:22 with the evidence.
01:24 It was not a universally welcome reception
01:28 from a report that we've been waiting for for nine years.
01:30 Expect some of the fallout of that to continue this week.
01:33 Alex, there's more fallout taking place.
01:36 We've got Humza Yousaf in New York City for Climate Week,
01:40 but there's a slightly different mood here
01:42 coming out of Downing Street.
01:45 - Yeah, I mean, I feel like for a long time,
01:47 there have been rumours that the UK government
01:49 was considering rowing back on its climate policies,
01:53 and that now does appear to be the case.
01:55 Despite just weeks ago, the Prime Minister saying
01:57 the UK government remains committed to the ban
02:01 on any new petrol diesel cars by 2030,
02:04 we now expect there to be a speech on Friday
02:06 where he confirms actually that will indeed be delayed.
02:10 Other measures such as delaying the 2026 ban
02:13 on off-grid boilers,
02:14 and also things such as the energy efficiency rules,
02:17 which would have seen landlords in England
02:20 have to make houses more livable, more affordable
02:22 by insulating them, stop the tenants having to pay more,
02:26 that's gonna go as well.
02:27 So that burden will then be passed on to the tenants.
02:29 But this is a huge row back now expected
02:32 from a government that has made COP26 a cornerstone
02:35 of what it wanted to be,
02:36 and has repeatedly stressed its green credentials.
02:40 - Alex, what's the motivation behind this?
02:42 Because there's a lot of people out there
02:44 concerned about climate change.
02:45 You can see the news events that happened
02:47 with the wildfires in Europe across the summer.
02:51 Why is Rishi actually doing this?
02:53 - I mean, I think it's nothing but politics.
02:56 There is no argument for the long-term future of Britain
03:01 or perhaps the world to change climate policy.
03:04 But with Labour having things,
03:06 measures such as this, you know, GB energy announcement,
03:10 it's an attempt to maybe create a wedge issue.
03:12 Tory MPs I spoke to this morning
03:14 weren't necessarily pleased with the policy,
03:16 but were pleased that it would show a dividing line
03:18 between them and the Labour Party.
03:21 Following you, Les, and the way that that hit
03:22 the Labour Party in the Uxbridge
03:25 and South Royce-Lip by-election,
03:26 there is a feeling among ministers
03:28 that they can make the environment a really big issue,
03:31 and one that they'll get support
03:32 from right-wing newspapers on.
03:33 It's something that they can create this idea
03:35 that, you know, Labour are gonna charge you more,
03:38 they're going too far, too fast,
03:39 and it's gonna really hit you in the wallet.
03:41 We're gonna phase things out.
03:43 We care about the environment, but we'll do it slowly.
03:45 It's all part of a new approach,
03:46 as, you know, the prime minister has yet another reboot
03:50 of what his big vision for Britain is.
03:53 - Alex, I did say at least one national newspaper
03:55 celebrating the move on the front page.
03:58 So clearly there's gonna be a mixed reception to this
04:01 and whether wider agencies get behind it or not.
04:05 Up here in Scotland,
04:06 we've got our own climate targets, of course,
04:08 but there are implications regardless, aren't there?
04:10 Because I think Ford has issued a furious statement
04:13 about this because they're trying to build
04:15 a lot of electric cars at one.
04:17 - Yeah, I mean, and this speaks to,
04:19 I mean, you and I, and we've written before in Scotsman
04:21 about the way the government has changed its ministers
04:24 or changed its prime ministers and changed its goals.
04:27 And when the UK government has told companies now
04:30 for five, 10 years by its long-term energy commitments,
04:34 they have then invested money.
04:35 Ford issued a statement saying they have invested,
04:37 I think, hundreds of millions of pounds
04:39 in moving towards greener cars.
04:42 And they said basically, you know,
04:44 what they want to see from the government
04:46 is commitment, a clear plan, enthusiasm,
04:49 and essentially this hasn't shown any of those three things.
04:52 So that's absolutely scathing complaint
04:55 and businesses will be furious.
04:57 - Alex, just away from this,
04:59 inflation is something that affects us all,
05:02 whether it's your mortgage, whether it's your rent,
05:05 whether it's your food going up every week
05:07 when you're saying they go back to the supermarket.
05:09 There was some welcome news, at least for the government,
05:12 that I could see.
05:13 - Yeah, I mean, inflation has fallen,
05:16 but I think it's worth remembering that, you know,
05:19 reducing the next promise to half inflation,
05:21 that isn't happening anytime soon.
05:24 And the expectation is even if it does fall
05:26 and stay at this level,
05:27 people will still be paying so much more.
05:29 And with energy bills that's go up in winter,
05:31 this is welcome news.
05:32 But I mean, I spoke to several Tory MPs
05:34 and SNP MPs actually yesterday,
05:36 who were saying that, you know,
05:38 even if inflation falls a bit more,
05:40 this winter is going to be absolutely brutal
05:42 because it's not falling to where it was.
05:44 I mean, if it was 5%, you know,
05:46 a few years ago, we'd be going,
05:47 this is dreadful, but it's still so high.
05:49 So welcome news, but the bigger picture
05:53 is still very, very difficult
05:54 for the general public and the government.
05:56 - The 6.7% rate announced,
05:59 some thought it would go up over 7%.
06:01 You can read Scott Reid's analysis
06:04 on our business tab of inflation
06:06 and what it could mean leading into tomorrow
06:08 with the Bank of England to meet
06:09 and discuss whether they hike rate rises
06:12 for what I think is the 15th successive time.
06:15 Alex, thanks very much for joining us.
06:18 You can read all of Alex's coverage
06:20 on the politics tab at scottsman.com.
06:22 Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
06:24 You can go out and buy a copy of a paper tomorrow.
06:26 There'll be plenty to read.
06:28 Thanks very much.
06:28 (upbeat music)
06:32 (upbeat music)