The Scotsman Bulletin Tuesday March 11 2025 #Politics

The Scotsman

Transcript

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

00:05My name is Dale Miller.

00:06I'm Deputy Editor of the Scotsman, and I'm joined by our political correspondent, Rachel

00:11Armory, coming to us from the halls of the Scottish Parliament.

00:15Rachel, we'll get to talking about all things politics, because it's going to be another

00:19busy week, as it always is.

00:23But firstly, front page of today's Scotsman, it was hard to go past the all-spill fears,

00:29the collision that has taken place in the North Sea.

00:33There are some initial images emerging of the damage to the vessels involved this morning,

00:40but fears about the extent of the contamination that will come from the incident and the environmental

00:46damage it could cause.

00:48You'll read more about that at the Scotsman website throughout the day, so please stay

00:53tuned.

00:54Rachel, I want to talk to you about a story that's on the wing of that front page today.

00:58It's John Swinney.

01:00It's same-sex spaces.

01:01It's an issue that perhaps he would like to go away.

01:04It's not going away any time soon.

01:06What's he going to be asked about later this week?

01:09Yeah, again, another topic the SNP want to avoid at all costs, but it is going to come

01:13up back again in Holyrood.

01:15That's because tomorrow, the Scottish Conservatives have an Opposition Day debate.

01:19They can choose whatever subject they want to have a debate amongst the whole Parliament

01:23on, and they have chosen to go on single-sex spaces, particularly the Scottish Government's

01:28guidance to public bodies on single-sex spaces.

01:31This comes on the back of the employment tribunal that's ongoing between the nurse, Sandy Peggy,

01:36and Dr Beth Upton in NHS Fife.

01:39The Conservatives are arguing that this has happened because there was a lack of clear

01:42guidance from the Government on what health boards should do when it comes to single-sex

01:46spaces, such as changing rooms and toilets.

01:49So we're going to have this debate tomorrow.

01:51The Conservatives are going to accuse the Government of allowing this to happen and

01:55of not going far enough, and saying that we need to really come up with some clear

01:59guidance and lay down the law on exactly what these public bodies should do.

02:03The only thing is, with this debate, we're probably likely to not get any further in

02:07this issue.

02:08With this debate, it's probably going to be a case of the Conservatives repeating what

02:12they've already said, and the Government Ministers repeating what they have already said, and

02:16going round in circles a little bit.

02:17So it's a very interesting debate to watch, but I think we can already know the doubt

02:21because of the debate.

02:22I think we already know what's going to be said and what's going to happen over the next

02:26bit.

02:27Rachel, is this the Scottish Government and John Swinney included have stuck to this line

02:31that because there's an ongoing tribunal hearing happening that they won't comment on it?

02:38Now, we know that that's not going to resume until the summer, which remains a considerable

02:43distance away, yet the UK watchdog has asked for more information from the Scottish Government

02:48and NHS Fife around this.

02:53It feels to me that that no-comment position can't hold, but do you think that they'll

02:57try and stick to it?

02:58Yeah, I think there will be a will to stick with it, particularly because, as you said,

03:02this employment tribunal isn't going to be heard now again until I think it's July time,

03:06I think.

03:07It's certainly months away.

03:08So we are going to see this going on and on and on for months, which is why I'm thinking

03:12that this debate tomorrow probably won't go anywhere.

03:15We're probably going to see those same lines coming back from the government ministers

03:18saying that they expect public bodies to adhere to the Equality Act, but also to respect both

03:25single-sex spaces and spaces for trans people as well.

03:29So unlikely we're going to see much development over the next few days, but you never know.

03:32We'll be watching the debate regardless to see what happens.

03:35Rachel, I'd be fascinated to see some polling as we go over the coming months and just see

03:41how much this resonates with voters about whether it is something that upsets them towards

03:48the Scottish government or whether they're actually quite supportive of the process or

03:52otherwise. That'll be one to watch out for.

03:54Look, also, and I'd like to talk about the steamy newsletter, it's something you produce

04:00every morning. Please talk us through it because people can go on and sign up.

04:05But you were talking about labour criticism of labour around welfare cuts today.

04:10Yeah, this is a newsletter that we have every single morning.

04:13It goes out around 7.45am each morning, basically setting up the day in Scottish politics.

04:20So if you want to sign up for it, just look at the newsletters tab on Scotsman's website.

04:23You'll find all the details how to do that.

04:25And today, though, we've been talking about what's happening in Westminster rather than

04:28Holyrood today. Just because we're looking at potentially having welfare cuts down the

04:34pipeline. The Fraser of Allander Institute based at Strathclyde University, they were

04:38talking about this weekend. They're basically saying that this is what they're expecting

04:41to happen. So if you remember, it probably wasn't last weekend, it was probably two weeks

04:45ago, I think, that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced that defence spending was

04:49going to be increased from 2.3% of GDP to 2.5%.

04:53Doesn't sound like a lot, but it's actually about 16 billion pounds worth.

04:56It's a huge amount of money we're talking about if we're talking about defence spending.

05:00That is just short of what the Scotland pays of the full of the NHS, just to put that in

05:04context. It's a huge amount of money.

05:06So where's the money going to come from?

05:07There's now suggestions it's going to come from cuts to the welfare budget, particularly

05:11because Labour have been trailing quite a lot of speeches recently about how they want

05:15to get more people off long term sick benefits and back into work.

05:19So while that's a very good thing to be doing, getting people back into work, better for

05:23the NHS, better for the economy, it does mean that there's obviously then going to be less

05:27sick and welfare benefits.

05:29So it sort of adds in there, too.

05:31Problem is, it's now going to be like a rebellion in the back benches.

05:33So looking at 80 MPs in Labour potentially voting against this, if it does come to that,

05:39that includes some Scottish MPs, our Westminster correspondent Alexander Brown has been

05:44contributing about this, and Hume Doll has been in the paper today.

05:47But yeah, it looks like there's going to be a rebellion on the Labour benches over this

05:50potential cut to welfare budgets.

05:53I would love to be sitting inside the Labour camp just hearing the discussions about this,

05:58Rachel, because since the election, they've looked at areas like winter fuel payments

06:03now potentially welfare areas.

06:06They've also been quite strict on things like the two child cap.

06:10So a lot of issues that are maybe hitting some of those areas we typically thought might

06:17have been Labour voting areas of the public.

06:20So fascinating them talking this through and how they're reaching the decisions.

06:25I would love to be a fly on the wall inside those.

06:29Rachel, thanks for bringing us all the very latest.

06:31You can read the stories on what we've discussed there.

06:33At Scotsman.com, if you're ever looking for our politics coverage, just go to the politics

06:38tab in the navigation bar.

06:41Please follow us on social channels and pick up a copy of the Scotsman tomorrow for all

06:45the latest. Thanks, Rachel.

06:47Thanks to everyone else.

06:48Bye bye.

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