The Scotsman: FMQs unpicked Thursday May 16 2024 #FMQs

The Scotsman

The Scotsman: FMQs unpicked Thursday May 16 2024 #FMQs Dale Miller and Rachel Amery discuss the details of First Ministers Questions in the Scottish Parliament

Transcript

00:00 (upbeat music)

00:02 - Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Politics Show.

00:12 We're here to wrap up First Minister's Questions,

00:15 the second featuring John Swinney in the leadership role.

00:19 My name's Dale Miller, I'm Head of News at the Scotsman,

00:21 and I'm joined by political correspondent, Rachel Aymory.

00:25 Rachel, welcome, it was a slightly less fiery,

00:30 could I say, First Minister's Questions for John Swinney

00:33 than the first one, but just as fascinating.

00:36 And it felt like a bit of a blast from the past

00:38 with health back dominating the agenda.

00:41 We saw health questions, I think,

00:43 so many weeks during Humza Yousaf's initial months as FM,

00:47 and it was firmly back on the agenda today.

00:49 Can you talk us through what was discussed?

00:53 - Yes, perhaps we should be a bit expectant,

00:55 because of course, John Swinney said he wanted

00:56 to get back to bread and butter politics.

00:58 So of course, that does mean that health care

01:01 is probably the biggest one there.

01:03 So yes, I think Scottish Conservative leader, Douglas Stross

01:05 and Scottish Lib Dem leader, Alex Cole-Hamilton,

01:09 both went on rural health care,

01:11 particularly because of what happened at the weekend

01:14 on the Isle of Skye.

01:15 There's women who died at a music festival

01:18 on Skye at the weekend, and there's also women in Portree

01:21 who had an anaphylactic allergic reaction

01:24 and couldn't get to Portree Hospital,

01:26 even though she was outside because it's closed.

01:28 So lots of back and forth of why the hospital

01:30 doesn't have emergency care,

01:32 what sort of provision there is on the islands,

01:34 and basically sort of trying to highlight

01:35 how much of an issue that this is.

01:37 So I think so much when we talk about health care,

01:39 we're talking about bigger, larger issues,

01:41 such as waiting lists, for example.

01:43 But I suppose if you're looking at these sort of smaller,

01:46 sort of geographical issues, it's a big problem

01:49 in terms of rural and highland areas in health care.

01:53 - Rachel, obviously, our condolences to the family

01:57 of the person who passed away in this circumstance.

02:01 But I thought as much as it's a critical health issue

02:03 to discuss, it was fascinating to see John Swinney's

02:06 approach to the issue.

02:08 Now, he was very much admitting that there was a problem

02:12 and admitting that it had been six months,

02:15 sorry, six years since the issue of hospital access,

02:20 et cetera, had been raised and was reviewed

02:23 by the government.

02:24 So he was accepting the problems and saying

02:26 they needed to do more.

02:27 That sort of upfront admission approach,

02:30 do you think that's gonna be something we're gonna see

02:32 more on the Swinney and his incarnation

02:36 of the Scottish leadership?

02:38 - Yeah, it was quite interesting to me.

02:40 He actually apologized for what had happened

02:42 at the weekend over in Portree.

02:44 So that was quite interesting to see

02:45 that not only was accepting that things were not right

02:48 and things hadn't gone as it should,

02:49 he also apologized to those two families as well.

02:53 So I think he wanted to see more of this.

02:55 He did say he wanted to be honest and upfront

02:57 with the public and more open about the challenges

02:59 government is facing.

03:00 I think this is probably the start

03:02 of what we're going to see there.

03:03 He was very open today, very open to admitting

03:06 things have gone wrong with the government

03:08 and it hasn't gone as well as it should.

03:09 So I think we'll have to wait and see how well

03:12 that sort of plays out.

03:13 So of course, if things don't get better

03:15 on the back of these apologies,

03:17 that will just cause more fodder for the opposition parties.

03:20 But it did seem to go down quite well

03:22 that he took this very serious tone

03:23 in replying to these questions about healthcare

03:26 in rural areas and particularly

03:28 with that apology that he made.

03:30 - Rachel, our viewers and readers will know

03:32 the context of John Swinney's involvement

03:35 in the COVID inquiry and the WhatsApp messages

03:37 has been a lot of questions about transparency

03:40 with this government.

03:41 So it will be very interesting to see

03:42 whether this honest approach extends

03:45 across all areas of government under John Swinney as well.

03:48 I want to ask you about another issue

03:49 that came up in the back end of FMQs, rural housing.

03:53 Obviously we're highlighting rural affairs

03:56 and coverage from around all parts of Scotland

03:58 as part of Hay's Way.

04:00 You can follow Catherine Hay online at scotsman.com.

04:04 We've got a dedicated slab to everything she's saying

04:07 on her journey working around Scotland.

04:09 But rural housing was also discussed

04:11 in quite a bit of detail.

04:12 Can you talk us through that?

04:14 - Yeah, absolutely amazing to see what Catherine's been doing

04:16 on her Hay's Way journey through Scotland at the moment.

04:18 It's amazing to see what she's been up to.

04:21 But yes, at the back end of FMQs today, Rhoda Grant,

04:23 she is a Labour MSP for the Highlands and Islands

04:26 who's raising the question of rural housing.

04:28 She was saying that issues with trying to retain

04:31 and recruit healthcare workers,

04:33 one of the big issues there is they get a job

04:34 but there's nowhere for them to stay.

04:36 So then they have problems with trying to get them

04:38 to actually get to their jobs on time.

04:40 So that's the issue she was trying to raise.

04:42 And in response, John Swinney was saying

04:44 that there's been a good record with the SNP government

04:46 when it comes to house building,

04:48 pointing to the fact that 40% more affordable homes

04:50 being built in Scotland than we have in England

04:52 and 70% more than in Wales.

04:54 But that of course caused a lot of noise

04:58 across the rest of the chamber.

05:00 Somebody on the microphone has picked up saying

05:01 that's great to try and reach that point in the chamber.

05:04 I think that's referring to the fact

05:05 there's been 200 million pounds cut from the housing budget

05:08 in the last Scottish budget,

05:10 including quite a big chunk taken

05:12 out of the affordable housing budget as well.

05:15 So that was quite interesting to see how that played out.

05:17 John Swinney was very firm saying

05:19 that his government has a good record here.

05:22 Opposition party is very much shaking their heads

05:24 in disbelief at the response that he got there.

05:27 - Yes, we know housing has been top of the agenda as well.

05:30 The Scottish government declaring a housing emergency

05:34 effectively as part of the debate on Wednesday.

05:36 But will there be more funding and more support?

05:39 That's certainly what the stakeholder groups

05:41 were crying out for in the wake of that debate

05:44 and in the lead up that yesterday.

05:46 If you want to read the blow by blow

05:48 from First Minister's questions,

05:51 Rachel was running our blog.

05:53 You can go back and read that in full on the site.

05:55 And please follow all our political coverage

05:58 by navigating to the politics tab

06:01 on the navigation bar of our homepage.

06:04 And you can follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

06:07 And of course, by going out and buying a copy

06:10 of "The Scotsman" in print time.

06:12 Rachel, thanks for joining us.

06:14 Thanks to all our viewers as well.

06:16 - Bye-bye.

06:17 (upbeat music)

06:20 (upbeat music)

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