The Scotsman Bulletin Wednesday September 27 2023 #Rosebank

The Scotsman

The Scotsman Bulletin Wednesday September 27 2023 #Rosebank 59

Transcript

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

00:13 Editor of the Scotsman. I'm joined today by our political correspondent Rachel Emery to

00:17 take a look at some of the main headlines. Hi Rachel.

00:20 Morning.

00:21 Let's have a look at the front page first. We lead today on the new statistics out yesterday

00:27 that showed that Scotland's life expectancy has fallen for the third time in a row. Really

00:33 worrying stats there and we pick it apart in today's edition on online at scotsman.com.

00:40 Up at the top of the page I also want to highlight a fascinating feature inside the Queensferry

00:45 crossing. Our transport correspondent Alistair Dalton and photographer Lisa Ferguson got

00:49 a special look inside where they discovered a secret monorail. It really is a great read.

00:57 We also have our golf correspondent Martin Dempster taking a trip to Oban, Bob McIntyre's

01:03 home town ahead of him, appearing in the Ryder Cup later in the week. But huge breaking news

01:11 this morning that you can read at scotsman.com and that is the go ahead for the controversial,

01:17 highly controversial Rosebank oilfield. Rachel can you bring us up to date with the latest

01:23 firstly?

01:24 Yes, this is an oilfield that's off the coast of Shetland. It's been one that's been contemplated

01:30 for quite a while now. There's been a huge sort of climate change campaign called Stop

01:34 Rosebank from those wanting to not see this oilfield developed. But we got the news this

01:39 morning that it has in fact now been given approval for development of this field. As

01:46 I'm sure you can imagine, the Greens for example, climate campaigners are really angry about

01:51 this, saying that it's going to be catastrophic for the environment. And it's also saying

01:56 it's not going to do very much for those energy bills either. And I think throughout the day,

01:59 we're now going to see a bit more of a fallout from what's happened this morning on this

02:03 oilfield.

02:04 Yeah, perhaps not a huge surprise given Rishi Sunak's comments yesterday and the watering

02:11 down of the net zero targets. This was a decision that was very much on the cards. And we do

02:18 know that Labour are going to stick with it if they form the next government. They've

02:22 already said they won't reverse a decision that's already been made. But what kind of

02:27 reaction have we had from the Scottish government?

02:30 So at the moment, we're still getting drips and jabs through because it's still quite

02:34 breaking news at the moment. We have had both hums of use of the First Minister and the

02:38 Wellbeing Economy Secretary, Neil Gray, saying that the news is disappointing. And we have

02:43 also heard from the former First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, as well, slightly more hard

02:49 line on it, saying that it's not going to help oil and gas workers or help the just

02:52 transition either. So while we haven't had a full government statement on this yet, we're

02:56 starting to get drips and jabs from some of the major players here from it. And of course,

03:00 we need to remember that the Scottish Greens are in government here as well in Scotland.

03:03 And they, of course, are going a lot more hard on this approach, which is unsurprising

03:07 given their manifesto pledges. So they're saying things like it's utterly reckless,

03:13 morally obscene and a climate catastrophe as well. So we are getting drips and jabs

03:18 through at the moment, but not a full government statement yet. Unsurprisingly, we've got support

03:24 from the Scottish Conservatives, Douglas Lumsden, their energy security spokesman, saying it

03:27 is good news. We've also had the Scottish Secretary, Alistair Jack, praising the decision

03:32 as well, saying it's going to be good for energy security and it's going to help people's

03:35 bills going forward as well.

03:38 And there's already an early suggestion of legal action to challenge this decision.

03:44 Yes, this is Uplift. This is the group that sort of coordinated the Stop Rosebank campaign.

03:51 One of the sort of directors there, Tessa Cann, she's also a climate lawyer, and she

03:56 has said this morning that they're looking very closely at the details of how they got

03:59 to this decision because they believe it's unlawful. And they said they're going to try

04:03 and see if it is possible to take the UK government to court over this. So we definitely hope

04:08 this is not going to last for a day and be forgotten about tomorrow. It's definitely

04:12 a story that's going to keep on running and keep on running, particularly as we move into

04:15 the next general election, and particularly if we do then see legal action coming forward.

04:19 So it'll be interesting to see what happens from here.

04:21 Indeed, it's going to develop throughout the day and in the coming weeks, you would think.

04:26 Just a quick mention, it's a busy, really busy day at Hullerhood today. We've got Humza

04:33 Yousaf appearing before committee this afternoon, and then potentially a big decision on a member

04:40 of the SNP later on.

04:41 Yeah, we do. So you can't obviously tell from the background here, but I am in Hullerhood

04:44 right now. At lunchtime, we are expecting Humza Yousaf to appear for the conveners groups.

04:49 This is the conveners of each of Hullerhood's committees. They get together and they can

04:52 question the First Minister. Now, it is due to be about the programme for government,

04:57 which was announced a few weeks ago. But I can imagine Rosebank will probably get brought

05:01 up now, given that announcement this morning. So I'll be watching that meeting to see what

05:05 happens there.

05:06 As I said, this evening, we're going to get a decision on whether or not Fergus Ewing

05:10 will be suspended from the SNP, which might seem strange to some because the Ewing name

05:15 is obviously so synonymous with the SNP. But he has broken ranks one too many times, and

05:21 now the MSPs from the SNP group in Hullerhood will meet to decide what to do with him.

05:27 And our Deputy Political Editor, Conor Matchett, will be watching that meeting this evening

05:30 to see what happens.

05:31 Thanks very much for that, Rachel. Really busy day. I'll let you get back to it. Please

05:36 keep an eye on Scotsman.com throughout the day, where we'll have all the very latest

05:41 news and analysis. If you can, please do subscribe and then you will not miss a thing. And if

05:47 you're out and about today, as ever, please do pick up a copy of the paper from me and

05:53 from Rachel. It's bye for now.

05:55 Bye bye.

05:57 [Music]

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