The Scotsman Bulletin Monday May 13 2024 #Poloitics #Sarwar
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00:00 [Music]
00:06 Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Bulletin for Monday. I'm Alan Young, I am Deputy Editor
00:14 of the Scotsman and I am joined today by our Deputy Political Editor David Ball,
00:20 and David's in a very noisy Glasgow.
00:25 Let's take a look at the front page of the horse. And we splash today on comments by the
00:34 Police Scotland Chief Constable Jo Farrell, a wide-ranging interview in today, but she
00:41 really zeroes in on delays in Scotland's courts and calls them very inefficient in comparison
00:48 to the courts in England. She was of course formerly Chief of Durham Constabulary and
00:54 highlights the amount of time officers are left sitting around and an overtime bill of
01:02 £3 million in the last year alone. With the picture on the front there, Lorraine Kelly
01:08 picking up a special award at the BAFTAs last night. We've got full coverage of this
01:13 irony in today's paper and we're running at scotsman.com. And in the wing column there,
01:19 we have John Swinney talking about economic growth and how he will dedicate every fibre
01:26 of his being to growing Scotland's economy. That is a very interesting line and perhaps
01:34 a signal on where John Swinney is taking his government. And David, you're in Glasgow
01:41 today with the Labour leader. Has he addressed these comments at all?
01:48 A little bit. I think he acknowledged that John Swinney was maybe, he was asked if he
01:54 was more right-wing than his predecessors and he hinted that maybe he was, but maybe
01:58 John Swinney would be quite okay with that. It means he's seen as looking after the economy
02:04 a bit more and bringing the SNP back in the middle. So this economy pitch from John Swinney,
02:10 with Kate Forbes obviously with her background as being quite an ally of business, is quite
02:16 an important one for the SNP. Anas Sarwar is very much pointing out, as you would expect,
02:21 that the SNP has kind of let Scotland down. He was talking on 25 years after the start
02:26 of devolution and saying that the SNP has kind of squandered that opportunity for Scotland
02:31 to have its own voice in the Scottish Parliament.
02:34 Obviously Labour riding high in the polls. Indeed, our own poll last week showed them
02:45 commanding a majority both in the general election and potentially at Holyrood. So
02:52 is this today really Anas Sarwar setting out his stall for government?
02:57 Yeah, I think we're going to see a lot more of this from Anas as we go through and into the
03:02 election campaign, both at Westminster and Holyrood. Labour are very much wanting to point
03:07 the finger at themselves and say we're ready to take over, pointing out to governments in their
03:13 eyes that have let Scotland down and willing to fill the void in both senses there. So I think
03:18 we are seeing Labour kind of position itself as a government in waiting in both of Scotland's
03:24 parliaments. If he's addressing 25 years of devolution and how the SNP have failed in his
03:35 eyes to take advantage of the opportunities, what has he said about what Labour might do differently?
03:42 Well, it sounds so simple, but he basically says that they'll look after national infrastructure
03:47 and services in a better way than the SNP. I mean, it's obviously not going to be as easy as that,
03:53 but they claim that the SNP have been distracted too much with the constitution and they should
03:58 focus on the things that really matter to people in their eyes. But obviously with a lack of funding,
04:03 there's not so much more they can do other than say, well, we'll be more competent here.
04:08 In terms of devolution, he was focusing on sort of elected mayors that we have in England to
04:13 kind of empower communities a bit more, but that's obviously not going to bring about the big
04:17 changes that Anas Sarwar would be the first to criticise John Swinney and the Scottish
04:21 government for. So they've got limited positioning to do anything different. Keir Starmer as well
04:29 doesn't say very much about what he will do at the moment. We just kind of know he's in a very
04:34 easy position to criticise the UK government. So we'll just have to wait till we get near the
04:38 election to find out their concrete plans. Indeed. Thanks very much for that, David. I'll
04:43 let you go now and we'll be able to read your story very soon at scotsman.com. I'm sure. Please
04:50 keep an eye on the site throughout the day for all the latest breaking news and sport. If you can,
04:57 do subscribe and then you will be able to read and watch absolutely everything. Hannah,
05:02 if you're out and about today as ever, please do pick up a copy of the paper from me and from David.
05:06 It's bye for now.