Dale speaks to feature writer Janet Christie about her Strictly Come Dancing interview and coverage of our Christmas campaign with the Cyrenians
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00:00Hello, and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin for this Friday.
00:04My name is Dale Miller.
00:05I'm the Deputy Editor of the Scotsman, and I'm joined by Janet Christie,
00:10our award-winning Features Specialist Writer.
00:13Janet, I'm going to talk to you about a couple of things that you've been
00:16working on shortly, but firstly, front page of today's Scotsman.
00:23And we let on teachers again.
00:25There is a breakthrough deal to restore teacher numbers confirmation earlier
00:29this week. 621 posts were cut.
00:33The Scottish Government has effectively offered money back to councils,
00:37including some that have been withheld around teacher numbers.
00:40But as Calum Ross, our Education Correspondent writes, this deal is
00:44already at risk of unravelling.
00:48You can read that full story at scotsman.com.
00:51A bit to play out there.
00:53It's been a week where we've heard lots of concerns about the state of
00:57the education system as well.
01:00The fact that the numbers of additional support needs students as well has
01:04hit a record, obviously requiring additional staffing, etc.
01:09to cater for those children across the system as well.
01:14Janet, firstly, we're heading into the weekend.
01:19A lot of our viewers would know it's strictly final time on Saturday, and
01:24you were lucky enough to sit down with one of the contestants from this
01:27year to talk through all things about the show.
01:31Yes, Dale, that's right.
01:32We spoke to Dr Poonam Krishan, the Glasgow GP, who's danced out of her
01:36kitchen and onto the Strictly Dance Floor, Scotland's own dancing queen.
01:40So she was able to give us a sneak peek into behind the scenes at Strictly
01:45and what it's really like away from the cameras.
01:49And she also told us about how it fitted into being a GP.
01:53And what she took from being a GP onto the dance floor and what she took from
01:58the dance floor back into being a GP.
02:00So some of the behind the scenes stuff was really interesting, like all the
02:05sparkles and glitter and sequins in between the dances when they're up
02:10talking to Claudia.
02:11There are giant hoovers that come down and other things.
02:16I don't want to spoil it all, but they're Strictly snacks.
02:19So you can find out what those are.
02:21And she got a special souvenir to take home.
02:24And also her tips for the final, which is six o'clock tomorrow.
02:28Her favourites are Chris McCausland and Sarah Hadland, who were her
02:34pals on the show.
02:35And they used to sit and have cups of tea and say, how are we really doing?
02:39And, you know, are we really awful?
02:41Are we really coping?
02:43So that was interesting.
02:45It was good.
02:45She was good to speak to.
02:47And also the fact she talked about how she did the first Bollywood number,
02:52which sort of broadened it out from traditional Strictly dances and dance
02:57to the Bolly, you know, the song and the film is Cabby Cushy Cabby Gam.
03:03Hope I said that right.
03:04And the number is Bolly Chudier, the song.
03:06So she was really excited to do that.
03:08And it just gives it a wider appeal.
03:12Janet, Chris, the runaway bookie's favourite for the weekend.
03:16So it will be interesting to see if he gets up, has done some amazing
03:21dances throughout the series.
03:23Just away from that, you have also been out on the streets in Edinburgh.
03:29We are running a Christmas campaign.
03:31I've spoken about this previously on the bulletin in conjunction with
03:34the Serenians.
03:36It's basically to help support those who are homeless on our streets,
03:39heading into Christmas and the festive period to try and give them
03:42whatever support is possible.
03:45Janet, you talked to some people that are involved on the ground
03:48effectively trying to help some of these people.
03:51Can you talk me through that?
03:53Yeah, we went out on the streets.
03:54We went on the streets of Edinburgh with Nick Harold and Mark Diver,
03:58who are Serenians homeless navigators.
04:01And what they do is walk the streets.
04:04They know where people are, where they're spending their days and
04:08their nights.
04:08And what they're trying to do in Serenians is trying to do is help
04:13people access the services that they can get to help them get off
04:17the streets and to deal with the problem in the first place.
04:21Because the numbers are increasing.
04:23Anybody that walks around Edinburgh or any of our cities in Scotland
04:26and towns will see that the numbers of people sleeping rough and
04:31also who are also the numbers of homeless as well, not just rough
04:34sleepers, but are increasing.
04:36And they're trying to deal with that because they make the point
04:39that homeless people don't exist in the bubble.
04:41They're part of society.
04:43And, you know, we all need to be doing something to help deal with
04:48it.
04:49So they very much see that homelessness is a much bigger problem
04:54than rough sleeping.
04:55But that is the sharp end and that's where they're dealing with
04:59it on the streets.
05:01And the figures, as we previously reported earlier in the campaign
05:06for Edinburgh, it's a particular problem area in the capital, which
05:10has seen a significant spike in homelessness.
05:13The figures are up across the country, but certainly the problem
05:18in Edinburgh is particularly acute and something that Serenians
05:21and their staff and volunteers on the ground are trying to help
05:25with. If you can at all, I would encourage you to donate that
05:29cause to try and help people that won't have it as well across
05:33the Christmas and the festive period.
05:35You can read Janet's piece as well as watch a video from her
05:39interviews as well at Scotsman.com.
05:42You can also read other pieces in the campaign and we'll be
05:46running a big Strictly interview on the website from Saturday.
05:50You can also find it in your Scotsman magazine running in
05:54Saturday's paper as well.
05:56Janet, thank you very much for joining us.
05:59Thank you to everyone else for watching at home and come to us
06:02for all the very latest in news.
06:05Thanks.
06:09Bye.