The Scotsman Bulletin Thursday September 12 2024 #Politics
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00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Bulletin for Thursday. I'm Alan Young, I'm
00:04editor of the Scotsman and I'm joined by our deputy political editor David Bald to take
00:09a look at some of the main headlines. Hi David.
00:13Morning Alan.
00:15Let's have a look at the front page first. And you can see why David is here. We read
00:22today on his report from the Scottish Parliament yesterday which saw the Scottish Government
00:28defeated twice. Firstly over their plans not to extend free school meals to primary
00:36six and seven and also the scrapping of the FAIRS trial. So David, just talk us through
00:46what happened yesterday. I understand the Government's defeated and that's very embarrassing
00:50for them. It doesn't actually change anything.
00:53No, so it can be a bit confusing without being in the Hollywood bubble because you would
00:57assume two defeats on these two quite contentious issues would lead to some sort of change from
01:02the Scottish Government. But they're not binding. It just is the kind of the will of Parliament
01:06has said you should rethink these things. And the Scottish Government won't be changing
01:11its course. These are down to funding and money and they don't have another option.
01:18But it is, like I said, highly embarrassing for the Scottish Government to have these
01:21two defeats. And it kind of highlights the position John Swinney's maybe in, which is
01:26quite a difficult one to be leading that minority government since the SNP sort of ended the
01:31Bute House agreement with the Greens and all the fireworks that created. But when we get
01:36back to it, they don't have a majority and that can cause problems and it will cause
01:41problems for his legislation and his budget. Last week, I spoke to Lorna Slater who said
01:47the Greens wouldn't be supporting the budget as things stand. They just don't have the
01:51assurances that what they want will come through. And they have in previous years propped
01:57up the Scottish Government in the Bute House agreement. And when they haven't been in
02:03government, have been in opposition, they've still supported them. But that sort of good
02:06will seems to have ebbed away. And it really does pose the question where will John Swinney
02:12get any support to pass his budget is the first real hurdle that we'll see when sort
02:18of towards the end of the year.
02:19Yeah, and there's a long way to go. Obviously, there's a UK government budget in between
02:27as well, which may change the picture. But in theory, if the Scottish Government can't
02:35pass its budget, because it doesn't have the numbers, it would need at least some on the
02:42opposition benches to vote with it. And if it can't pass it, are we then looking at a
02:49snap election?
02:50It could potentially lead to that. Yeah, I mean, John Swinney did kind of hint at that
02:55sort of last week. It is just the process that would happen if the budget isn't passed
02:59and it comes back and MSPs cannot agree on it, then that would be the process. And it's
03:07quite a nice thing for John Swinney to have as kind of a threat that it's like, if you
03:10don't pass, this will happen. Because some of those parties, the Tories, maybe the Lib
03:16Dems would quite like an election, but they're probably not in a place where they would get
03:19a maximum benefit out of it. So to some parties, it would be quite impossible, but none more
03:24so than the SNP. So that is a real possibility if we do get to that point. Like you said,
03:30there's a long way to go yet. But if Parliament cannot agree a budget and pass a spending
03:35plan for a year, then yeah, that is where the road will lead to.
03:41Indeed, really interesting times ahead, clearly. Talk us through what we're expecting at Parliament
03:50today. FMQs?
03:52Yes, we've got FMQs, which John Swinney will basically be facing probably a bit more backlash
03:59over those two votes that they lost yesterday. Labour may be going on something slightly
04:04different. We might have some breaking news they may be sort of pitching towards. We'll
04:11have to wait and see. But it's going to be more of the same probably from John Swinney
04:16and Douglas Ross, who came back to Parliament probably dreading being at FMQs, given he's
04:22on his way out and it's just taken too long to replace him. We'll be breathing a bit of
04:26a sigh of relief, to be honest, because the pressure's all been on the SNP and the Scottish
04:31Government's plans. And so for now, at least he can kind of take it easy a little bit and
04:35kind of just move into the background.
04:39Thanks for that, David. We'll keep a close eye on things today and we'll have all the very
04:42latest as ever at Scotsman.com. If you can, please do subscribe, then you can read and
04:48watch absolutely everything we do. And if you're out and about today as ever, do pick up a
04:52copy of the paper from me, from David. Bye for now.