The Scotsman Bulletin Wednesday September 06 2023

The Scotsman

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00:00 Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Bulletin for Wednesday. I'm Alan Young, I'm

00:09 Deb Teddis of the Scotsman, I'm joined by our political correspondent Rachel Emery to

00:13 take a look at some of the headlines. Hi Rachel.

00:15 Morning.

00:16 Let's have a look at the front page before we discover where Rachel is. We lead obviously

00:22 on the big day in Holyrood yesterday as Honza Yusuf set out his programme for government,

00:29 a key theme of the speech was tackling poverty, the scourge of poverty as he put it. And there's

00:36 been a mixed reaction I think it's fair to say to that with as you can see from the main

00:40 headline there, charities calling it a timid step forward. First Minister also hinted at

00:47 tax hikes to come. We'll get into all that in a minute with Rachel. A big plug at the

00:54 top of the page you can see there is the build up continuing to the Rugby World Cup Scotland

00:59 play on Sunday against South Africa and South Africa are very worried about Finn Russell.

01:06 And in the wing column you can just about make out on your screen fresh warnings around

01:12 the NHS and whether there are enough beds to cope this winter. But Rachel you're out

01:20 and about today, we're expecting the First Minister at an event.

01:24 Yes, I'm at the Thistle Foundation in Craigmillar in Edinburgh where Honza Yusuf and the Health

01:30 Secretary Michael Matheson are due to be appearing to discuss more about their programme for

01:34 government that we heard yesterday. The programme for government very much focused on tackling

01:38 poverty, so measures to expand free childcare for example, measures to expand free school

01:43 meals too, lots of other sort of social justice issues being covered in the programme for

01:48 government yesterday. Opposition parties have criticised it saying there's not enough detail

01:52 in it, particularly when it comes to things about business and taxes for example, there's

01:56 still a few unanswered questions. But perhaps we can get those questions answered this morning

02:01 during the Honza Yusuf visit here.

02:04 You would think even though his position on higher taxes hasn't really changed, he pretty

02:11 much restated yesterday what's been said before, you would think that is one thing that people

02:17 are going to really zero in on today.

02:20 I would imagine so, there was a lot of criticism from opposition parties saying that there

02:24 wasn't anything new in this programme for government. Something Honza Yusuf says is

02:27 not correct, he's on the radio this morning saying in fact there's actually lots of new

02:30 things in the programme for government. But a lot of the opposition saying nothing new,

02:34 it's a lot of old policies that have been long standing for the SNP and for this government,

02:38 A9 dualling for example would be one of those key points for example. I think Douglas Joss

02:43 also said that the programme for government was a tribute act for Nicola Sturgeon, trying

02:47 to say that it hasn't moved on at all with the change of leadership there. So that's

02:51 an interesting point to make, absolutely.

02:56 I think while comparisons to Nicola Sturgeon's agenda may well be fair, and we know that

03:02 Honza Yusuf was the continuity candidate, let's remember, there was a distinct change

03:09 in tone yesterday towards a more pro-business agenda. So how has that gone down within the

03:19 business world?

03:20 So yeah, there was a bit of a different tone, a bit of a change. I think Honza Yusuf was

03:24 trying to show more of him as a person and trying to get us to learn a bit more about

03:27 who he is beyond the politician. So he spoke a lot about his own family, he started off

03:32 talking about his grandfather for example, and towards the end of his speech he spoke

03:35 about the miscarriages that he and his wife Nadia had experienced. So a lot more personal

03:40 touches to his speech. I feel like it was quite thin on the ground when it comes to

03:43 the business side of things. In the lead up to the programme for government he was talking

03:48 a lot about when it comes to business, see what I've got to say in the programme for

03:51 government. I think if you were a business owner waiting to see what the recognition

03:56 was, you might have been disappointed and left a bit short there.

04:01 As ever with these things, I guess the detail comes out really in the days after and we're

04:09 now into several days of debate in Holyrood around this.

04:15 Yes, I think day two for us today in Holyrood. We'll all be there of course watching to see

04:20 what happens and bringing you all the latest news on the Scotsman's website.

04:24 Thanks very much for that Rachel. I'll let you get away to go and see the First Minister.

04:29 As Rachel says, keep an eye on Scotsman.com throughout the day where we'll have all the

04:34 very latest news and analysis around the programme for government and everything else, including

04:41 the ongoing developments in the concrete scandal. If you're out and about today, please do also

04:51 pick up a copy of the paper. But from me and from Rachel, it's bye for now.

04:55 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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