The Scotsman Bulletin Monday October 02 2023 #Conference
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00:00 Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Bulletin for Monday. I'm Alan Young, I'm
00:11 Deputy Editor of The Scotsman. I'm joined today by our Westminster correspondent out
00:16 of location, Alex Bryan at the Tory conference. Hi Alex.
00:21 Hi.
00:23 Let's have a look at the front page first. We lead today on a really sobering report
00:29 from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Half a million Scots now in very deep poverty.
00:35 They won full coverage in today's paper. A picture of a celebration of Bob McIntyre
00:40 after the Europe's Ryder Cup victory yesterday. Also full coverage of that inside.
00:45 And at the top of the page, while we're on sport, the big breaking sport news last night
00:51 was the departure of Michael Beale from Rangers. In the wing column, you might just be able
00:56 to see it there, is Douglas Ross's comment to the Tory party conference yesterday, which
01:04 Alex was at. And Alex wants to firstly, I think, go over what's on the agenda today.
01:12 So today there's several speeches happening in the main conference centre, which I'm stood
01:16 in front of now. You may be able to hear loud protesters shouting "Tories out, Tories out"
01:21 from the other side. There's perhaps more of them than there are people inside. So there's
01:25 going to be a speech from Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, who is only speaking for 15 minutes
01:31 and ahead of the statement. It's probably unlikely there's going to be any real policy
01:34 in this, which tends to be the theme of how things are going. I think it'll also be something
01:39 from the Transport Secretary, who again, you know, yesterday managed to go to a meeting
01:44 with industry bodies in transport and face an hour of questions about HS2 and say, you
01:49 know, it's not for me to say when he's a Transport Secretary. So it's an incredibly strange atmosphere
01:55 here at Tory Party Conference in Manchester.
01:58 I was going to ask a little bit about the atmosphere. I've seen a lot of comments about
02:02 the number of people there and half empty hall, for example, when James Cleverley was
02:07 speaking. How does it compare to previous conferences you've been at?
02:13 I think what's really interesting is look at what's happening here and what it used
02:16 to be like at Labour under Corbyn. There, there were very few stalls inside. There were
02:21 booths of different companies trying to lobby and get MPs to take interest and then promote
02:25 them or help legislate in their own interests. This year, much like those Corbyn years, they're
02:30 not to that level. There are a lot less stalls, there are a lot less people. The atmosphere
02:34 is, it's not what it was. I mean, last year, at Liz's Trust, people were here, but they
02:38 were miserable. Some MPs stayed away, but those that came were miserable. Here, there
02:42 is almost a resignation. They will not win the next election. There are less people.
02:47 And the stalls, they're using less of the conference centre this year. So I would say
02:51 there's less funding, less investment from companies hoping to lobby the government,
02:55 less MPs have come. I had one tell me that they would rather be tortured than a sedentary
02:59 conference this year. So the atmosphere, I would say, is poor and there's not been a
03:04 lot of policy to talk about.
03:06 And of course, it is in Manchester and it's being completely dominated by the HS2 debate.
03:13 It couldn't be in a worse place, really.
03:16 No, I was, I mean, it's funny. I think it's very funny that the government who are refusing
03:22 to commit to whether HS2 will go to Manchester are now holding their party conference in
03:28 Manchester in a venue that used to be the hub of the city's transport. Rishi Sunak
03:33 has refused to answer questions about it. The transport secretary has refused to answer
03:37 questions about it. And they keep saying, you know, I want to talk about roads. I want
03:40 to talk about, you know, reducing speed limits. I want to talk about potholes. When the reality
03:45 is everyone in Manchester wants to talk about HS2. All the professionals here, all the journalists
03:49 and many of the MPs here want to talk about HS2. But the government is not playing along.
03:54 So let's turn to Scottish matters. You're caught up, I'm sure, already with the Scottish
04:00 contingent down there. What is the mood like in the Scottish Tory party? Is it different
04:07 to the National Party?
04:09 Yeah, I would say it's a lot more upbeat. I was speaking to Douglas Ross only earlier
04:13 who said that he thought things are going a lot better for the Scottish Tory party.
04:18 And I think it's easy to forget that not so long ago, there was talk of maybe a leadership
04:22 challenge and maybe unhappiness with his leadership. But I think MPs, even those who are, you know,
04:27 and MSPs who were perhaps unhappy, have kind of come together. I was at a packed Conservative
04:32 fringe yesterday for the Scottish Tories where he delivered a speech where he talked about
04:36 improving transport. He talked about helping police. And he was greeted with loud applause.
04:40 And there weren't usually these things as critical questions. There weren't. He was
04:44 treated with rapturous applause. And I thought it was also very interesting to hear him talk
04:49 about drug policy. Now, we know the traditional Conservative Party policy, especially, you
04:55 know, in Westminster, is say drugs are bad. The only way to stop them is police and increased
04:59 policing. That's been the message from the Home Secretary. But here, much like Alistair
05:03 Jack, he said, well, he didn't agree with the SNP that it would save as many lives as
05:06 they hope. And he didn't support it necessarily. He didn't want to act against it because in
05:10 the interest of research, Scotland has to find a way to change its heart to having the
05:14 highest rate of drug related deaths in Europe. So I thought it was really interesting that,
05:19 you know, the case seems to be the case that the Scottish Conservatives remain the slightly
05:22 more progressive wing of the party and a lot more upbeat.
05:26 Just quickly, when can we expect to hear from the Prime Minister?
05:31 The Prime Minister will speak at some point on Wednesday, probably early afternoon. And
05:36 it cannot go worse than Liz Truss's speech last year, where there was a U-turn from the
05:40 speech that had been briefed. It was interrupted by protesters. I think she was gone a couple
05:44 of weeks later. So the pressure is somewhat off the Prime Minister, though, given the
05:49 polling and given the mood among delegates and members here, there is a lot of pressure
05:53 to deliver a speech that can make his MPs and if not the public believe he can win the
05:57 next general election.
05:58 Thanks very much for that. Alex, I'll let you get back to it. Please keep an eye on
06:03 Scotstoun.com throughout the day where we'll have all the very latest from the Tory party
06:06 conference and everything else. If you can do subscribe then you will not miss a thing.
06:11 And if you're out and about today, please do pick up a copy of the paper from me and
06:15 from Alex. Bye for now.
06:19 [Music]