The Scotsman Morning Bulletin Wednesday December 18th 2024#Politics

The Scotsman

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin for this Wednesday.

00:04My name's Dale Miller.

00:05I'm Deputy Editor of the Scotsman and I'm joined by Political Correspondent Rachel Amory.

00:11Rachel, there, as always, is a lot to talk about in politics.

00:15We're only a week out from Christmas, but things are still happening and they're not

00:19all good news for Sir Keir Starmer and the UK Labor Government, as we see, talking about

00:25the front page of today's Scotsman.

00:27And Rachel, it's your story, Labor being slated for betrayal over pension compensation.

00:33This is what's been known as the WASPy women, effectively, being denied pension compensation

00:42or payouts.

00:43Rachel, you've covered this full story in the past 24 hours.

00:49Can you talk a little bit through why people have been so critical of the stance taken

00:53by Sir Keir Starmer and the Labor Government?

00:56Yeah, I think there was an expectation that there was going to be some kind of compensation

01:01for these WASPy women.

01:02There was a parliamentary group who had actually recommended that £10,000 should be paid.

01:08There was an ombudsman that looked into it who said there should be an apology and between

01:13£1,000 and £2,950 paid out to these women.

01:17So given that there were these two recommendations with cash values attached to them, I think

01:21there was quite a lot of surprise when the Labor Party yesterday announced that in fact

01:25there'll be no compensation at all going to these women.

01:28I think a lot of women in particular are quite angry because Labor, while in opposition,

01:35when they were not in government, were very supportive of the WASPy women, saying they

01:39would help to bring justice.

01:41Scottish Labor leader Anna Sarwar, for example, very keen to say that he would bring justice

01:46to the WASPy women if he was the First Minister.

01:49So that is why we're now seeing these claims of it being a betrayal, because there were

01:54these promises from Labor, there were these recommendations from various ombudsmen and

01:58various reports, and that has now all been backtracked on by the Labor government.

02:03I actually spoke to one of the WASPy women last night from the Glasgow branch of the

02:08WASPy group, saying that they've had the winter fuel payments cut this winter and now not

02:13getting this compensation that they thought they should be entitled to.

02:16So it's kind of a double whammy, all into pensioners and older women, and they do feel

02:22that they've been let down by the Labor Party, they were promised something, and they have

02:26now not got it.

02:28Remember, Labor's only been in power for a few months now.

02:30So that's two very big things that this group of women are feeling they've been really hard

02:34on by for.

02:36I mean, I know, look, you know, we're still arguably in the midst of a cost of living

02:41crisis. People are dealing with high bills, high energy, etc.

02:45But this almost Scrooge-like mentality that's being pinned against the UK Labor, fair or

02:50not, it is a reflection of decisions being taken that, you know, they're being targeted

02:57with this. It's become a massive problem, hasn't it, for Starmer and Labor, because

03:03Labor are meant to be a party that looks after people like pensioners.

03:07Exactly, yes. So when Chancellor Rachel Levese first managed to get into her position back

03:12in July, she immediately said there was a 22 billion pound black hole in the public

03:16finances. As a lot of the decisions that are being made, which are affecting people

03:21in their everyday lives, the justification is, well, we need to get the economy back

03:25on track. We need to clear this budget black hole as well.

03:29But of course, for individual people who are perhaps struggling and are perhaps thinking

03:35about whether to put their heating on, are looking at their pension pot, thinking that

03:38there should have been more than there is when they've had to work all their lives.

03:41The rationale of we need to start the economy is probably not going to be a great

03:47reason for them when they're looking at their own purse and seeing how little money

03:50there is left at them. So, yeah, I think that's one of the biggest reasons why there's

03:54such an outcry today is, yes, of course, the news that there will be no money.

03:58But I think the fact that there was so much support from Labor prior to them being in

04:02government and now they seem to have gone back on that promise.

04:06And Rachel, just for Anasawa, if you were him, would you have been picking up the phone

04:12and dialing an angry phone call down the Sir Keir Starmer or whoever he could get on

04:16the phone? Because not for the first time, he'd come out and said that he would seek

04:22justice if he became first minister.

04:24But this makes him look a little bit silly.

04:26It's embarrassing, isn't it?

04:27It is a little bit, yes.

04:28He's made no secret of the fact that he wants to be first minister in the 2026

04:34Holyrood election. But so much of that is going to depend on how people view the Labor

04:38party in Westminster. The more things they're seeing hitting their own purses and their

04:43own pockets, the more they're going to look at Anasawa and think maybe you're not going

04:47to be the change that people want to see in Scotland on the back of this.

04:51So, yes, it's not great for Anasawa particularly when this was a promise he said that he would

04:56bring in Scotland.

04:58In terms of the rest of Scottish Labour, we haven't heard very much from them so far on

05:02this issue. One person that we have heard from, though, is Brian Leishman.

05:06He is the MP for Alloa and Grangemouth.

05:09Now, he has spoken out against the Labour government quite a lot since he became elected

05:13in June on the Grangemouth oil refinery and the jobs that are being lost here.

05:18He also, again, spoke out yesterday saying that he was quite appalled by the decision

05:24taken by Labour because he, of course, has been out campaigning with Wall Street women

05:28and has been telling Wall Street women that things are going to get justice.

05:31And so he doesn't then want to look bad himself, particularly when he obviously believes

05:36that they should have had compensation.

05:37So he's probably the only person in Scottish Labour that has been quite vocal about this

05:41since then. So, yeah, it's not a great look for Anasawa at the moment.

05:45Just lastly, Rachel, like I said, it's been still a busy time in politics.

05:49It's funny how this final week before Christmas is often busy for politics.

05:54It seems like announcements are crammed out before people break.

05:58But WhatsApp has now officially been banned for government business of the Scottish

06:04government. This is, I guess, a bit of a culmination of a story in an area that the

06:09Scotsman's led on over the past couple of years, looking at accusations of secrecy and

06:14cover up in and around the Scottish government.

06:16We know it came up during the COVID inquiry.

06:19How significant do you think this move is?

06:22Yes, well, when people are winding down for Christmas, it does seem to still be really busy

06:27in politics because the government will have said we will do this by the end of the year.

06:32But all of a sudden, it is the end of the year, which is why you start to see quite a few big

06:36announcements coming in the last two weeks before the Christmas holidays.

06:39So, yes, this was the big announcement yesterday by the Deputy First Minister, Kate Forbes,

06:43saying that all informal messaging apps like WhatsApp are going to be banned from the spring.

06:49And even if the ministers are tempted to use WhatsApp, they won't be able to because the apps are

06:53going to be completely removed from these devices.

06:55And this is after a long, ongoing review on the back of the UK COVID-19 inquiry.

07:02And during that inquiry, it was found that many senior ministers, including Nicola Sturgeon,

07:07John Swinney and the former clinical director, Professor Jason Leitch, had all deleted their

07:12WhatsApp messages from the pandemic.

07:15And there's lots of outcry about how the lack of transparency, people couldn't see how decisions

07:19were being made during the pandemic that had really big impacts on life as well.

07:23So this was a review carried out on the back of those criticisms.

07:27The review said that it would be very much recommended to stop the use of WhatsApp and that is now

07:32what is going to happen.

07:33So from the spring, there'll be no more WhatsApp messages for government business.

07:38Rachel, that one from Professor Jason Leitch, deleting WhatsApps is a pre-bed ritual from the

07:43pandemic that I think will stick with me and a lot of people watching this.

07:48Rachel, thank you for joining us to talk through everything happening on politics.

07:52You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Blue Sky and please go out and buy a copy of the

07:58paper tomorrow. Thanks, everyone, for joining us.

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