Scotsman Politics FMQs Roundup Thursday March 20 2025 #FMQs
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00:00Welcome to the Scotsman's Politics Show.
00:03We're here to wrap up First Minister's questions for another week.
00:07And perhaps fittingly, given the ferry saga has dominated FMQs,
00:12David, Fergus and Maureen, just in the hour before FMQs announced
00:16they'd appointed a new chief executive.
00:19Details of that are at Scotsman.com.
00:22But Swinney was was peppered about stories around the ferry in the back of this.
00:27Yeah, it all relates to a story earlier in the week that we've covered extensively in The Scotsman
00:31that Ferguson's missed out on a key contract for some small vessels
00:35that went to a yard in Poland.
00:38There's obviously a lot of hopes about the future of Ferguson's
00:40that it was able to win these contracts and kind of make it a bit more sustainable.
00:45So quite obviously, Russell Finlay and Anna Sower both went on this line.
00:50Basically, Russell Finlay telling John Swinney that the ferries could and should have been built in Scotland.
00:56He also accused Russell Finlay of kind of rigging the process
00:59and signing off corrupt processes to award these contracts,
01:03given that they were nationalised by the Scottish government.
01:07Pointing, of course, that we always hear that these are seven years late,
01:10at least these two vessels that they are currently building.
01:13One is obviously finished now and 400 million over budget.
01:18And John Swinney, once again, going for that line,
01:20we hear from the Scottish government repeatedly that they acted to save the yard
01:24and safeguard those kind of jobs.
01:28We still don't know, though, what the future holds for Ferguson's
01:31once these two contracts are gone and what will make that yard sustainable in the future.
01:37John Swinney got a bit annoyed at Russell Finlay.
01:40In fact, he got told off for, in the exchange of Anna Sower,
01:43for describing what Anna Sower was saying as guff.
01:46So he was a bit rattled, to be perfectly honest,
01:49and was basically accusing the opposition parties of talking down Ferguson's Marine,
01:54a line we've heard before.
01:56But obviously, they need to be scrutinised because it's a publicly run shipyard.
02:02So we didn't really learn much from FMQs, but certainly making ferries,
02:06once again, a big political potato in Holyrood.
02:11John Swinney has seemed in control, really,
02:13in proceedings across his skin so far as First Minister.
02:17So interesting that they got under his skin a little bit on this one.
02:22Just on ferries, Alistair Dalton's written a bit about this.
02:26This week, he did an opinion column on what this means for Ferguson Marine,
02:32which is still bidding for some other small ferries contracts.
02:36And Alistair, interestingly, explained that Ferguson's may not have been in a position
02:41to take on this contract yet anyway, if it had won.
02:44So interesting circumstances.
02:47And Glenn Rosa, the new Chief Executive, has said is his first job to make sure
02:52that that is delivered on time and on budget.
02:56I know there was a bit about misogyny in the Netflix program Adolescence.
03:01If anyone hasn't read that yet, sorry, watched that yet, please do.
03:06It is a fascinating bit of TV.
03:09But away from that, David, I wanted to get your opinion.
03:12Steven Gethin's the SNP MP, he's only nine to 10 months into his role at Westminster,
03:19but he's saying, well, he's been vetted and he would like to take Shona Robison's seat next year.
03:25It's an interesting one.
03:26Yeah, I mean, the SNP selection process is going to be quite interesting.
03:30There's a lot of different people from different perspectives coming in.
03:33Obviously, Steven Gethin has only been, although he was previously an MP in this current run,
03:39he's only been there nine or 10 months and he's already signalling that he wants to jump ship to Holyrood.
03:44And I don't know what his constituents must think about that,
03:48who elected him on the basis that he would be there for the whole parliamentary term.
03:52And there's a lot of politicians from Westminster, former and current,
03:56who are obviously toying or announcing bids to come to Holyrood.
04:01We might see something from Stephen Flynn in the coming days about whether he will actually give it a second go
04:07and trying to make his way to Holyrood.
04:10And it's going to be a bit of a bun fight.
04:12We've seen our exclusive story today about Ben Macpherson, a former SNP minister,
04:17who's now facing the challenge for his seat from former SNP council leader.
04:22So there's going to be lots of these battles to come before we even get named on the list for the constituents to vote for.
04:29It comes at an interesting time, David.
04:31We know that the SNP have improved the bidding polls and there was a poll out early this week
04:36that John Sweeney was still relatively satisfied with,
04:40although he said it was something to build on because it still did have the SNP as comfortably the biggest party
04:46come the back end of the Holyrood election next year.
04:49David, thank you for joining us and bringing us up to speed.
04:53You can read all the latest on Scottish politics at Scotsman.com.
04:56Follow us on all social media channels and pick up a copy of the paper tomorrow for your full wrap.
05:03Thank you for joining us.