SNP politician criticises ‘pomp’ of King’s speech amid cost of living crisis

SNP politician criticises 'pomp' of King's Speech amid cost of living crisisBBC

Transcript

00:00 I'm not going to say a but, I'm just going to say people are sitting at home unable to

00:03 pay their electricity bills, you know, they're sitting at home trying to work out how they're

00:06 going to get to the end of the next week. And then you see all of this pomp and ceremony,

00:11 you hear about these sapphires and rubies and things, and it just feels so far removed

00:15 from daily lives and the daily struggles that so many people are going through. I get that

00:19 tradition is important, I'm not trying to say tradition is not important, but right

00:23 now, I'm not sure that this is the right image that anybody wants to be seeing, because actually,

00:28 they are so worried about how to get to the end of next week, you know, and this is just

00:33 –

00:34 It's a horrifyingly terrifying world at the moment, and a lot of people will hear exactly

00:40 what you're saying, but others will say, look, in the terrifying climate, this is actually

00:46 a reminder of stability and of permanence.

00:50 If people want to be happy and enjoy this ceremony, absolutely, I'm quite happy for

00:54 them to do so. What I'm worried about is the fact that an awful lot of people will

00:57 be thinking, Parliament doesn't understand us, Parliament is really far removed from

01:02 our daily lives, and this doesn't do anything to help that image.