Scotsman Bulletin Friday 24 May
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00:00 [MUSIC]
00:07 Hello, welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Bulletin for Friday.
00:10 I'm Alan Young, I'm Deputy Editor of the Scotsman.
00:12 I'm joined today by our political correspondent,
00:16 Rachel Emery, to talk about what else but the election.
00:19 Hi, Rachel.
00:21 Good morning. Let's have a look at the front page.
00:27 We picture on the front there,
00:28 Rishi Sunak arriving in Scotland yesterday on his whistle-stop,
00:33 rather, tour of the UK nations.
00:37 Hasn't all been plain sailing so far,
00:40 fair to say, for Mr. Sunak,
00:42 nor for SNP leader Don Swinney,
00:46 who launched his party's campaign yesterday,
00:48 but it was completely dominated by events at Holyrood,
00:54 with former Health Secretary Michael Matheson,
00:57 facing a 27-day suspension from the Scottish Parliament.
01:02 Mr. Swinney has criticised the process,
01:06 which led to that recommendation,
01:08 and the story is set to rumble on into next week.
01:13 But, Rachel, turning back to the election trail,
01:18 you were up in the Highlands yesterday
01:21 for the Prime Minister visiting.
01:25 We've got Keir Starmer in Glasgow today,
01:28 launching the Scottish Labour campaign.
01:31 We're not even two days into it yet.
01:34 Feels pretty frantic.
01:36 Yes, it's already all systems go.
01:39 As you were saying yesterday,
01:40 Rishi Sunak was in the Highlands yesterday at the port of Nigg,
01:45 where he was there speaking to journalists
01:47 with Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross.
01:50 Very much keen to say that he's done well on the union,
01:53 for example, and trying to say
01:56 that he's still got a good chance at the election,
01:58 particularly when it comes to Scotland.
02:00 We did, of course, ask him about the election date.
02:02 There's been a lot of talk about how it's during
02:04 the Scottish school holidays.
02:05 Not all Scottish councils are off that week,
02:08 but most of them are.
02:10 Basically refusing to apologise,
02:11 saying it is the right time for this election to be held.
02:14 So, unfortunately, no good news there
02:16 if you've got a holiday booked that first week in July.
02:19 But as you were saying, it's Sir Keir Starmer's turn today.
02:22 He is right now probably talking to our Deputy Political Leader
02:24 Sir David Ball in Glasgow,
02:27 where he is setting out his priorities for Scotland.
02:30 He's expected to say that he would bring Scotland
02:32 into the heart of a Labour government
02:34 and that there is no Labour Party without Scotland involved.
02:37 So that's what we're expecting to hear from him today.
02:39 But you'll see more on the Scotsman's website
02:41 throughout the day with whatever David gets from him today.
02:44 But it's not just Labour that are out and about today.
02:47 We've got the Scottish Lib Dems there
02:49 out with their campaign in Glasgow today.
02:51 Patrick Harvie and the Scottish Greens are out in Glasgow today.
02:56 And up north in Inverness,
02:58 you've got Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes
02:59 doing some campaigning out for the SNP.
03:02 I believe the Conservatives are in the north-east Aberdeenshire area
03:05 as well today.
03:06 So yeah, it's all corners of the country today as well again.
03:11 And a difficult start,
03:13 I think it's fair to say, for John Swinney yesterday.
03:17 He was looking at an uphill task really,
03:22 according to the polls,
03:24 but it just didn't go as well as he might have hoped.
03:29 Yes, of course, he's only just in the door,
03:31 of course, and not great timing for the SNP.
03:34 But as we're seeing with the latest polls that we saw at the start of the week
03:37 from YouGov, put the SNP down to just 11 seats.
03:41 They're on 43 just now, so that's quite a big dip,
03:44 if that is what plays out there.
03:46 So he's really got to get off the starting blocks pretty quickly.
03:50 And yesterday perhaps wasn't the best start for him.
03:53 I think because at first when he was asked questions,
03:55 it was dominated by Michael Matheson and whether he should resign as an MSP on the back of this sanction against him.
04:03 A quick recap, I'm sure you know, he was breached,
04:07 he found breached two parts of the MSP code of conduct after wrongly clearing £11,000 on his day to roaming charges on his expenses.
04:15 And as you were saying, he's been recommended to be suspended for 27 days and to have his salary withdrawn for 54 days.
04:22 And at first when he was questioned, John Swinney very much wanting to defend Michael Matheson.
04:26 Of course, the two of them do go back a long way.
04:28 They are good friends. John Swinney very quick to admit that as well yesterday,
04:32 basically trying to say that the procedure that's gone through was prejudiced.
04:37 He doesn't believe that the people making that decision were fair minded when it came to this.
04:41 So that's opened a whole can of worms there as well.
04:44 It's dominated the coverage of the SNP conference.
04:47 It was mentioned as well during Rishi Sunak's visit as well in the Highlands yesterday.
04:51 So it's an issue that's not going to go away anytime soon for the SNP.
04:56 Indeed, and there's a long way to go.
04:59 We've still got another six weeks of campaigning. Thanks very much for that, Rachel.
05:02 Please keep an eye on Scotsman website throughout the day.
05:06 We will have all the very latest news and analysis if you can.
05:09 Please do subscribe. Then you'll be able to read and watch absolutely everything.
05:14 And if you're out and about today, take a brawley.
05:16 But do pick up a paper for me and for Rachel.
05:20 It's bye for now. Goodbye.
05:22 [MUSIC]