Scotsman Politics: FMQs unpicked Thursday December 12 2024

The Scotsman

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome to FMQs on PIC today. I'm Jane Bradley, Assistant Editor at the Scotsman

00:07and I'm going to be speaking to Alistair Grant, our Political Editor who has been in Holyrood

00:12at FMQs today. Good afternoon Alistair.

00:15Hello, how's it going?

00:19Can you hear me okay there? I know there's quite a lot going on behind you. There was

00:23a dog in Parliament earlier I believe.

00:27Yeah, no, I can hear you. It's quite busy in the Garden Lobby. I'm just in the Garden Lobby

00:30straight after First Minister's questions, but no, I can hear you loud and clear.

00:35Perfect. Yeah, so just if we can talk a little bit about what happened in First

00:39Minister's questions today. I know there was quite a sort of educational theme to

00:44the questions that were asked, so if you can just maybe fill us in a little bit on that.

00:49Yeah, so both the Scottish Tory leader, Russell Findlay, and the Scottish Labour leader,

00:53Anna Sarwar, went on themes of education. So Russell Findlay raising concerns about

00:58falling teacher numbers and talking about the kind of general issues that creates in

01:03the classroom, basically saying that fewer teachers are being left to do more work and

01:08having to deal with rising issues of discipline in the classroom. Now this is something we've

01:12written about a lot at the Scotsman. Callum Ross, our Education Correspondent, has been

01:16all over this issue. The issue of pupil behaviour is something that the teaching unions have been

01:21very strong on as well. John Swinney effectively saying that, pointing to the Scottish Government

01:27putting money into education, saying that he wants there to be more teachers. He was

01:32pointing to things like the rising attainment in literacy and numeracy, pointing to the fact

01:38that the attainment gap, that's the gap between the richest and poorest pupils, is narrowing.

01:43And also saying that more pupils are managing to achieve place at universities, including

01:49a record number of pupils from poorer backgrounds. So very much defending the Scottish Government's

01:54records. Anna Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, raising the issue of pupils with additional

01:58support needs. I think there's a record number of pupils, I think it's around 40% of Scottish

02:03pupils now who have an additional support need. Raising that issue and the support that's in

02:09place for them, and also raising things like access to mental health support for pupils.

02:14This again is something that has come up before in First Minister's questions. But then Anna

02:19Sarwar kind of using this as a launchpad into a more general attack of the Scottish Government's

02:25record. Talking about things like problems of GPs, rising NHS waiting lists, talking about

02:31the comparisons between Scotland and England when it comes to NHS waiting lists, and effectively

02:36saying that Scotland needs change. Now this is something that has been Anna Sarwar's big message

02:43at First Minister's questions for a while now. Of course UK Labour had a message of change going

02:48into the general election. I think we should expect Scottish Labour to very much go down that

02:53route as we approach the next Holyrood election in 2026. Arguing that Scotland needs change,

02:59and effectively Labour is that change they would say. But very much an education theme from both

03:05Labour and the Tories today. Excellent, thank you. And moving on from education,

03:12the Scottish Green Party did raise an issue with John Swinney about a phone call that had taken

03:17place with the newly elected President to be Donald Trump, and further raised concerns of

03:24the Scottish Government's relationship with Trump as things go forward, and as Trump actually

03:31gets into power again in the US. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

03:35Yes, this was Lorna Slater, the co-leader of the Scottish Greens, standing up and effectively

03:40raising the fact that John Swinney had a telephone call with Donald Trump. She's saying

03:45how can you have a relationship with this man? The Scottish political, the Greens would argue

03:51anyway, the Scottish political scene is welcoming. She would say that it stands for things that

03:56Donald Trump is against. John Swinney very much saying that he is First Minister, he leads the

04:02Scottish Government, he's defending a policy platform, he has to have some kind of relationship

04:07with America. He was saying that during that phone call he raised things like trade, he raised

04:12things like the importance of the whisky sector in Scotland. People might remember that last time

04:17Donald Trump was US President, he introduced very damaging tariffs that had a huge impact on the

04:24whisky industry. I think over the, I think it was the 18 month period or something like that that

04:29they were in force, the Scottish whisky sector lost about 600 million pounds because of those

04:34tariffs. So it had a huge impact and whisky is one of the biggest exports that Scotland has.

04:40America is a huge market for that. So there are real concerns within the whisky industry about

04:45Donald Trump coming back into power and potentially putting in place tariffs. He said that's something

04:50that he wants to do. He's talked about it a lot in the run-up during the US presidential election.

04:55So I think the whisky industry would want John Swinney to be raising these issues and John Swinney

05:00himself is saying that, you know, he has his own platform, what he stands for in politics is

05:07obviously not what Donald Trump stands for. There are differences between them but he needs to have

05:11that relationship. So I think this kind of uncomfortable balancing act is something that

05:16we'll see a lot of when Donald Trump actually comes into the White House and I think particularly to

05:20keep an eye on when he inevitably visits Scotland, which he's fully expected to do given that one of

05:26his golf courses, well sorry, his business interest in Scotland and the fact he's going to be opening

05:31a new golf course, I think, next year. So we fully expect a visit from him and I think how

05:37Scottish politicians deal with that will be very interesting. Yeah, absolutely. We don't have a

05:44date for Trump's planned visit to Scotland yet, do we? But it is definitely expected to be on the

05:48cards at some point in the fairly near future. Yeah, exactly. We don't have a date but it's

05:54fully expected to take place and I think Donald Trump himself has expressed an interest coming

05:59back to Scotland. He's obviously got a sentimental attachment to Scotland so yeah, we should expect

06:03that. And just quickly, finally, another issue that was raised in First Minister's questions

06:09today by female MSPs from across the parties. Yeah, so this was Michelle Thompson, an SNP

06:17MSP, raising it first, followed by Tess White, a Tory MSP, and then Claire Baker, a Labour MSP,

06:22and it's the issue of non-fatal strangulation. So it's sexual strangulation and the kind of rising,

06:28the increasing number of incidents of this and they were effectively, or Michelle Thompson,

06:32firstly anyway, was effectively arguing that the Scottish Government should give serious

06:36consideration to creating a standalone offence for this kind of offence so that it can be

06:43prosecuted more easily, so that data can be collected on it. John Swinney saying that

06:48it's already an offence, I think under assault, it could potentially carry up to life in prison,

06:54but he will, I think he did say actually in Holyrood, that he will give serious consideration

07:00to what they're saying. Campaign groups have been asking for this, so I think this is

07:05an area to watch and it's something that has been covered in the media more widely recently,

07:09it's something that there are kind of rising concerns about, so yeah, definitely one to watch.

07:14Brilliant, well thank you so much Alistair and thank you for watching and please follow

07:19all the latest information from First Minister's Questions at scotsman.com

07:24and follow us on our social media channels on X, on Facebook and on Blue Sky. Thank you very much.

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