Scotsman deputy editor Dale Miller speaks to Rachel Amery about changes in the Minimum Unit Price of Alcohol and Scotrail peak time fares
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00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's video bulletin for this Monday.
00:04My name's Dale Miller.
00:05I'm Deputy Editor of the Scotsman and I'm joined by political correspondent,
00:09Rachel Amory.
00:10Rachel, good morning to you on this slightly wet and windy Monday.
00:16We are almost into October and we're going to talk in a second about prices
00:21going up, but firstly, the front page of today's Scotsman.
00:26And we're led on an exclusive interview carried out by our
00:29education correspondent, Callum Ross, with Edinburgh Academy.
00:33The Chief Operating Officer was opened up on the shock and horror over abuse
00:38claims, essentially the legacy left for the current pupils, how they're going
00:43about dealing with it and addressing the situation as a school.
00:48The head of Edinburgh Academy also speaks about the issue of VAT,
00:54which is going to be a big one impacting on private schools on the back of
00:57Labor's change in policy over the next couple of months.
01:02Want to watch the space on that.
01:05Rachel, we're almost, we're a day out from October, but today is the day that
01:12we get a number of price rises effectively, MUP going up across the board
01:18for alcohol and the return of ScotRail peak fares.
01:21We'll talk about MUP first.
01:23For those that don't understand, and maybe just head to the shops later
01:27today to get a bottle of wine or otherwise, what should they expect?
01:31Yeah, so back in 2018, the Scottish government introduced minimum unit
01:35pricing, so basically 50p at least for each unit of alcohol purchased.
01:39So that did immediately see a lot of, particularly alcohol on the lower end
01:43of the market scale, going up in price.
01:45And it was pitched as being a good thing for public health.
01:49Since 2018, that hasn't actually risen and until today, it's now going up by 30%
01:55to 65p per unit, and the government says this is because of inflation,
01:59it's to take account of the rising prices of inflation.
02:03So I've got some prices here just written next to me.
02:05So a bottle of wine, for example, will now be at least Ā£6.09.
02:10A can of lager Ā£1.30.
02:12I think one of the biggest jumps is going to be a bottle of vodka,
02:15that now goes up to Ā£17.06.
02:18So the cheapest bottle of vodka is now around about Ā£5 more expensive in Scotland
02:23than it is in England as of today.
02:25So that is one of the bigger sort of price jumps that we're seeing because of this
02:28minimum unit pricing that's being introduced today.
02:31So, Rachel, there seems to be two arguments around this.
02:36One is the alcohol deaths figures we know continue to be bad news.
02:41And the suggestion is that the MUP needed to go up to 65p to keep range with inflation,
02:47effectively making it slightly more difficult in practice to buy too much cheaper alcohol.
02:55But then on the retail side, I know there's a fair bit of angst about this
02:58because prices are going to go up.
03:01There was even warnings across the weekend about shopkeepers being subject to abuse
03:06due to the price rises.
03:08There's clearly two different camps here.
03:10It is a complex issue, isn't it?
03:13Yes, I think it's affecting more smaller retailers, perhaps your local corner shop,
03:18for example, as opposed to the big supermarket brands that are sort of speaking out,
03:22saying that they're quite concerned about how this is going to impact on their business.
03:26Of course, they have gone through this previously in 2018 when it was first introduced.
03:29But of course, people have had time to get used to it.
03:32People now recognise that this is now something that's been in place for a few years.
03:36It's going to be interesting to see how that changes when it goes up today.
03:40But as you were saying, a lot of people say it's a very good thing for public health.
03:43There's been studies showing that it does make a difference.
03:46And Scotland, of course, does have some issues and challenges when it comes to tackling alcohol misuse.
03:52Quite interestingly, over the weekend, there was an event at the Scottish Parliament to celebrate 25 years of devolution.
03:59And First Minister John Swinney, when he did his speech, went through some of the highlights of the government of 25 years.
04:07And one of the things that he did say as a highlight was introducing this measure.
04:10He was saying that this was a huge thing the government had introduced in 2018.
04:14And it's one of these milestones that needs to be recognised as the Parliament turns 25.
04:17So definitely some two different views there.
04:20But on the government side of things, they're very pleased with the effects of this and how well it's doing for public health.
04:28And on ScotRail, peak rail fares, they were suspended for 12 months.
04:32It cost about 40 million.
04:34The suggestion from Transport Scotland and the Scottish government side of things was that I think peak time travel went up.
04:41It was somewhere between 6 and 7 per cent.
04:44But they needed it to be at least 10 per cent for the measure to be sustainable, i.e. to pay for itself in terms of the uplift in ticket prices or tickets bought.
04:56So we've got peak fares being reintroduced today.
04:58So a return ticket can be up over 30 pounds now, where it was reduced for peak periods.
05:07It's a real political football, though, isn't it?
05:10This one, Rachel, one that both unions and opposition parties have seized on.
05:15Yes, I don't think anyone's particularly pleased with this peak rail fare being brought back into force.
05:21And for me in particular, my rail card runs out tomorrow.
05:24So that's sort of double for me.
05:26So I'm sure it's going to be interesting when I go to the train station tomorrow to buy my ticket to work.
05:31One thing is it's not going down well with anybody.
05:34A lot of people say that it was good for the environment, it was good for people's pockets.
05:38And as somebody who was being interviewed on the radio this morning said, if that's when you go to work, it's when you go to work.
05:44You can't choose to wait until it's the off-peak times.
05:47That's when you have to travel.
05:49And so it's not going to affect the numbers of people who are commuting.
05:53It's just going to enforce them to pay more money, essentially.
05:56So it's definitely not a popular policy.
05:59It's not going down well at all.
06:01And it's going to be, yeah, it's just going to sort of rumble on until something more happens.
06:05ScotRail and the Scottish government are very keen to point out that they are offering different discounts on flexi passes and on season tickets, for example.
06:14So for those who are using the trains regularly enough for those tickets, there are still options out there.
06:20For those using the trains every now and again, there's nothing really available.
06:25It's just pay the peak fare or don't travel at peak time.
06:27Rachel, it is that question, this was meant to be a policy to try and get people, more people back on the public transport.
06:36So there has been criticism about how the Scottish government will deliver on the vision for an affordable green rail system and getting more people off the road without measures such as this.
06:48Although we know times are tight and there will be potentially more savings coming over the next couple of months with both the UK and the Scottish budgets.
06:57Rachel, thank you very much for joining us.
07:00You'll be able to read all the latest politics news at Scotsman.com today.
07:05Rachel will be visiting and hearing from John Swinney later today.
07:09Please visit the website to get all the very latest from him.
07:12Rachel, thank you to you and thank you to everyone else for joining us.
07:15Great.