Scotsman Daily Bulletin_ July 2

The Scotsman

Alan Young and Rachel Amery with the latest from the election campaign

Transcript

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

00:10Deputy Editor of the Scotsman. I'm joined today by our political correspondent Rachel

00:14Emery for all the latest from the campaign trail. Hi Rachel. Good morning. Let's, as

00:19ever though, have a look at the front page first. And you can see we leaked today a non-election

00:27story and its concern over the number of police officers in Scotland that are on sick

00:34leave as a result of assaults during their work. The number has actually gone up quite

00:41a staggering amount, 32% in the last year and this comes at a time of concern over the

00:48delays to the roll-out of body-worn cameras. Much more on that in today's paper. But, Rachel,

01:01let's talk election. We're two days out now. Maybe start with the ongoing fury over missing

01:09postal votes. Bring us up to date with where we are. I know, Alastair, it's such a long

01:14election campaign it does feel quite strange to think that it is now only two days away

01:18until the polls open. So that is quite exciting to think that we are so close to the finish

01:22line now on knowing who the next government is going to be. But yes, there has been a

01:26lot of upset around postal votes, particularly because the election was called on the first

01:31week of the school holidays in Scotland. Not the whole of Scotland, but the majority of

01:34Scotland are now on holiday for the summer. So many are just off on holiday, they're now

01:38no longer in the country, or at least no longer at home. So many have had to apply for postal

01:43votes. I think around a quarter of Scots are on postal votes for this election. But unfortunately,

01:49not all postal votes arrived in time. There are still some who are without postal votes,

01:55still some who are looking to see how they can vote on Thursday when they can't do so

01:59in person. Now, the latest that's happened is that Rishi Sunak has sort of dismissed

02:04this as a concern, saying it's not so big a concern at the moment, it's not as big a

02:08problem as it's being made out to be. And John Swinney, the First Minister, has of course

02:12responded to this, basically saying it's a disgrace for the Prime Minister to dismiss

02:16these concerns, which are particularly affecting Scotland at this election. So a bit of a spat

02:21there between the Prime Minister and the First Minister over how important the postal vote

02:25issue is at the moment. Of course, many local authorities, including Edinburgh and Fife,

02:30for example, have had to set up emergency centres to try and get those who have applied

02:34for a postal vote but not received it, trying to get that process as quickly as they can

02:38for Thursday. And while it's perhaps a bigger problem in Scotland because of the holidays

02:46starting earlier than in England, it's also potentially an issue because of the number

02:51of seats in Scotland that are on a knife edge. Absolutely, especially if you look back to the

02:562017 election. The constituency of Perth in North Perthshire, which was my constituency,

03:03the SNP's Pete Wishart won that by only 21 votes. Just along the coast of it in North East Fife,

03:09Stephen Gethins for the SNP won that election by two votes. So yes, every single vote does

03:14genuinely matter at elections. Sometimes it can be difficult when you see huge majorities being

03:20won and lost, but there are times when it is that close and that is going to be the case for a lot

03:25of seats in this election, particularly around the central belt, particularly in Edinburgh and

03:28Glasgow as well. Those are the areas where each vote is really going to matter at this election.

03:34So yes, of course, a big issue that needs to be sorted before Thursday. I should say though,

03:39if you have received your postal vote and you haven't had time to post it back, because it has

03:44to be back with the election team by 10pm on Thursday, if you think that's not going to happen

03:49because of delays to the postal service, you can actually hand in your postal vote to a polling

03:54station. I know, for example, I'm handing my parents' polling cards, postal votes, sorry,

03:59into the polling station for them on Thursday, for example. Most polling stations will allow

04:04that to happen as long as you fill in a form when you do it. Good advice. So just bring us up to

04:10date with what's happening in the last couple of days of campaigning in Scotland. Yes, all the

04:16parties are really ramping up their campaign because there are still a lot of undecided voters

04:20at this election and also still a lot of voters who aren't even sure if they're going to go to

04:25the polling station on Thursday. I think that's probably one of the bigger concerns actually

04:29for the candidates and the parties, is trying to actually get people outdoor and into the

04:34polling station on Thursday, because so many are just feeling a lot of apathy about this election

04:41there. So that's going to be the main focus, I think, for the next few days. It has been a rather

04:46dull, boring election campaign so far. No one wants to rock the boat too much, particularly

04:51from the Labour Party. So I can't imagine we're going to see any sort of big announcements

04:56or anything that's really going to change the course of the election over the next 48 hours.

04:59It's going to remain calm and steady, I would imagine. The SNP, they're out in the Highlands

05:04today. I think it's going to be a major tour of the Highlands. It seems to be every

05:09Highland constituency is planning to visit today, so he'll be very busy doing that.

05:14The Conservatives, they are in Ayrshire today, and of course the other parties are out

05:18campaigning as well today, and they will be tomorrow as well, I'm sure, in some of the key

05:22seats that they're looking to either hold on to or win on Thursday. Great, thanks Rachel. Not long to

05:28go at all. Please keep an eye on Scotsman.com for all the very latest from the election campaign

05:34and absolutely everything else. If you can, do subscribe, then you'll be able to read and watch

05:40everything that we do, and if you're out and about today, please do pick up a copy of the paper.

05:46From me and from Rachel, it's bye for now. Goodbye.

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