FMQs - Political Editor Alistair Grant sums up proceeedings
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Hello, and welcome to the Scotsman's Politics Show.
00:09 We're here to do a roundup of First Minister's questions.
00:13 I'm Dale Miller, I'm Head of News at the Scotsman.
00:15 I'm joined by our political editor, Alistair Grant.
00:19 Alistair, at least some of FMQs was entertaining,
00:24 but police cuts, which is pretty serious business,
00:26 led things off.
00:28 - Yeah, so both the Conservatives and Labour
00:31 went in on police cuts, issues around police, crime.
00:35 It's just one of those days where they both
00:37 have to go in on the exact same topic.
00:39 I think Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader,
00:41 maybe had a bit more impact in terms of what he was saying,
00:43 just some of the language around it.
00:45 Very much drawing attention to fears
00:47 around officer numbers in Scotland,
00:49 the number of officers out on the beat,
00:52 police station closures,
00:53 issues that are quite Tory issues,
00:57 stuff they've brought up before in FMQs.
01:00 It's ground they're quite comfortable on.
01:02 And also bringing up that pilot that's going on
01:05 in the North East of Scotland,
01:06 where the police have essentially said
01:07 they won't investigate some crimes anymore.
01:10 So crimes where there's no immediate threats,
01:12 where there's no prospect of them,
01:15 where there's no fresh leads.
01:16 And very much saying, I suppose these would be minor crimes,
01:20 but Douglas Ross was trying to get Humza Yousaf
01:22 to identify what crimes the police
01:25 would no longer be investigating.
01:27 And I think there's some quite memorable language
01:29 used by Douglas Ross.
01:30 We accused Humza Yousaf of being a criminal's dream.
01:34 He accused him of being sly, sleeket, secretive.
01:38 And Humza Yousaf very much hitting back at that,
01:41 listing off a bunch of what he would say are facts
01:43 and figures, lines he's very fond of
01:46 whenever justice issues come up
01:48 in First Minister's questions,
01:50 pointing out there's more police officers per head
01:52 in Scotland than there is in Tory-run England
01:56 or Labour-run Wales.
01:57 It's a statistic he brought up repeatedly today, actually.
02:00 I think it was mentioned about five or six times by him.
02:03 And also talking about that general fall
02:05 in crimes in Scotland.
02:07 So very much defending his record there.
02:10 But also accusing Douglas Ross of telling lies
02:13 about the police service.
02:14 Now, if you follow parliamentary politics
02:17 in Hollywood or Westminster,
02:19 you'll know that accusing an opposition member
02:21 of lying is a big no.
02:22 It's not accepted.
02:24 You're just not meant to do it.
02:26 So the Presiding Officer, Alison Johnson,
02:28 stepping in there and asking Humza Yousaf to apologise.
02:31 We had a moment that very much felt
02:32 like being back at school.
02:34 It felt a little bit childish.
02:36 Humza Yousaf standing up repeatedly
02:38 and sort of apologising,
02:39 but putting in a little dig at the end at the Tories,
02:42 making it clear that he wasn't really sorry.
02:46 And Alison Johnson repeatedly asking him to do it again
02:48 and basically apologise better.
02:50 It all felt a bit childish, to be honest.
02:53 So I know Douglas Ross,
02:55 despite having three or four or five jobs,
02:57 I've lost count, Presiding Officer,
02:58 was down at the Conservative Party conference this week,
03:02 or as others have rightly dubbed it,
03:03 the conspiracy party conference.
03:06 His post truth, his lies about the police service
03:10 simply will not wash here in Scotland, Presiding Officer.
03:15 (audience applauding)
03:21 - First Minister, as all members are aware,
03:24 it is wholly inappropriate to suggest
03:26 that another member of this Parliament has lied.
03:28 And I would be grateful, First Minister,
03:30 if you might apologise.
03:32 - I'm happy to call it a deliberate inaccuracy,
03:35 Presiding Officer, because that's clearly what it is.
03:38 - First Minister, I must ask that you apologise, please.
03:42 - Happy to apologise to anybody who's been offended
03:45 by the post truths that have come from the Conservative Party
03:47 and anyone that has been offended by my remarks,
03:50 Presiding Officer.
03:51 - First Minister, I would ask that you apologise
03:53 to myself and to this chamber.
03:55 - I'm happy to apologise to the chamber
03:57 for any offence, Cosplaying Officer.
03:59 (audience laughing)
04:02 - I think three times she asked him
04:04 and she sort of looked a bit dissatisfied
04:06 even after the third answer as well.
04:09 - Yeah, it felt like some kind of cheeky kid
04:11 standing up in a classroom
04:12 and just not being willing to kind of play ball in a way.
04:16 So moments like that,
04:18 probably not the faintest moments in Hollywood.
04:20 - And Alastair, the police cuts discussion
04:23 comes on the back of the Scottish Police Federation
04:26 earlier this week as well,
04:27 warning that people are gonna die if the cuts go ahead,
04:32 which is up to 600 officers by April,
04:36 which is certainly scary language.
04:39 Can you talk to us a little bit about,
04:41 on the other side of the country,
04:42 we've got the Rutherglen election happening
04:45 and that had some sort of impact to that?
04:47 - Yes, so the Holyrood chamber was actually a lot quieter
04:50 than it normally is.
04:51 So there's a lot of seats missing on the SNP side,
04:53 a lot of seats empty on the Labour side as well.
04:56 Because of this by-election happening today,
04:58 I'm sure people watching this will be aware of it.
05:01 Rutherglen and Hamilton West,
05:02 probably the most important by-election in Scotland
05:05 for decades, certainly since maybe Glasgow East in 1998.
05:09 Very much a two-way fight between the SNP and Labour.
05:14 The expectation is, I think among political insiders,
05:17 is that Labour will win it.
05:18 The question is just what their majority is.
05:21 But this is obviously the first electoral test
05:23 that Hamza Yousaf has faced in his time as First Minister.
05:26 So it'll be an important one for him.
05:28 I think the SNP behind the scenes
05:30 are probably prepared to lose it,
05:31 but it's how they lose it I think will be important.
05:33 And what that says about the kind of narrative
05:36 that's building in Scotland.
05:37 There's this narrative across the UK
05:40 that Labour have momentum, that they're on the up.
05:43 It's something that's very important to them,
05:44 going into that expected general election next year.
05:48 So they will want to have,
05:50 they won't want to win by the skin of their teeth.
05:51 They'll want to win by a fair amount.
05:54 They'll want there to be a fair swing to Labour,
05:56 'cause they'll want to demonstrate
05:57 that they're back in action in Scotland.
05:59 And I think if they lose, or they just win by,
06:02 as I say, just a slight fraction,
06:04 that whole narrative that they are relying on
06:06 will be cast in some doubt.
06:09 - Alistair, do you get the feeling, before we wrap up,
06:12 that the loser is gonna potentially use turnout
06:16 as an issue, because we know it's a,
06:18 you don't have to vote in it.
06:19 Turnout might be low, it's a by-election.
06:21 Do you think the loser will focus
06:24 on things like that ultimately?
06:26 - I think that's probably true to some degree.
06:30 I think turnout in by-elections is usually lower
06:33 than you'd expect in, for example, a general election.
06:35 I think the expectation is for this,
06:36 that turnout will be low.
06:38 I think the SNP might be worried about that
06:40 if you've got dissatisfied supporters
06:43 who just simply won't turn out in the day.
06:45 They might not vote Labour,
06:46 but they certainly won't come out and vote SNP.
06:49 They will be concerned about that.
06:50 And yeah, those issues will come into play.
06:52 And I think actually if turnout is low,
06:54 that also makes it difficult to kind of extrapolate
06:58 any national trends from a by-election.
07:00 By-elections can be unusual,
07:02 but they are a way to take the temperature
07:03 of how things are going,
07:05 particularly in a by-election like this,
07:07 which has just become such a kind of political hot topic
07:10 in the last few months.
07:12 And so, yeah, turnout will definitely be one to watch.
07:15 - Our political correspondent, Rachel Armour,
07:18 is at the count, which will happen overnight.
07:21 We'd expect the result sometime around one o'clock,
07:24 potentially on Friday morning.
07:26 You'll be able to get all the latest at scotsman.com.
07:29 And please go ahead and sign up
07:31 to our politics newsletter as well.
07:33 That will be delivered in October 6th morning
07:35 with a bit of a breakdown
07:37 about the highlights from the count.
07:38 So look out for that one.
07:41 Alistair, thanks very much for joining us.
07:43 - Thanks.
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