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Scotsman Politics FMQs Roundup Thursday March 20 2025 #FMQs
The Scotsman
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20/03/2025
Scotsman Politics FMQs Roundup Thursday March 20 2025 #FMQs
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00:00
Welcome to the Scotsman's Politics Show.
00:03
We're here to wrap up First Minister's questions for another week.
00:07
And perhaps fittingly, given the ferry saga has dominated FMQs,
00:12
David, Fergus and Maureen, just in the hour before FMQs announced
00:16
they'd appointed a new chief executive.
00:19
Details of that are at Scotsman.com.
00:22
But Swinney was was peppered about stories around the ferry in the back of this.
00:27
Yeah, it all relates to a story earlier in the week that we've covered extensively in The Scotsman
00:31
that Ferguson's missed out on a key contract for some small vessels
00:35
that went to a yard in Poland.
00:38
There's obviously a lot of hopes about the future of Ferguson's
00:40
that it was able to win these contracts and kind of make it a bit more sustainable.
00:45
So quite obviously, Russell Finlay and Anna Sower both went on this line.
00:50
Basically, Russell Finlay telling John Swinney that the ferries could and should have been built in Scotland.
00:56
He also accused Russell Finlay of kind of rigging the process
00:59
and signing off corrupt processes to award these contracts,
01:03
given that they were nationalised by the Scottish government.
01:07
Pointing, of course, that we always hear that these are seven years late,
01:10
at least these two vessels that they are currently building.
01:13
One is obviously finished now and 400 million over budget.
01:18
And John Swinney, once again, going for that line,
01:20
we hear from the Scottish government repeatedly that they acted to save the yard
01:24
and safeguard those kind of jobs.
01:28
We still don't know, though, what the future holds for Ferguson's
01:31
once these two contracts are gone and what will make that yard sustainable in the future.
01:37
John Swinney got a bit annoyed at Russell Finlay.
01:40
In fact, he got told off for, in the exchange of Anna Sower,
01:43
for describing what Anna Sower was saying as guff.
01:46
So he was a bit rattled, to be perfectly honest,
01:49
and was basically accusing the opposition parties of talking down Ferguson's Marine,
01:54
a line we've heard before.
01:56
But obviously, they need to be scrutinised because it's a publicly run shipyard.
02:02
So we didn't really learn much from FMQs, but certainly making ferries,
02:06
once again, a big political potato in Holyrood.
02:11
John Swinney has seemed in control, really,
02:13
in proceedings across his skin so far as First Minister.
02:17
So interesting that they got under his skin a little bit on this one.
02:22
Just on ferries, Alistair Dalton's written a bit about this.
02:26
This week, he did an opinion column on what this means for Ferguson Marine,
02:32
which is still bidding for some other small ferries contracts.
02:36
And Alistair, interestingly, explained that Ferguson's may not have been in a position
02:41
to take on this contract yet anyway, if it had won.
02:44
So interesting circumstances.
02:47
And Glenn Rosa, the new Chief Executive, has said is his first job to make sure
02:52
that that is delivered on time and on budget.
02:56
I know there was a bit about misogyny in the Netflix program Adolescence.
03:01
If anyone hasn't read that yet, sorry, watched that yet, please do.
03:06
It is a fascinating bit of TV.
03:09
But away from that, David, I wanted to get your opinion.
03:12
Steven Gethin's the SNP MP, he's only nine to 10 months into his role at Westminster,
03:19
but he's saying, well, he's been vetted and he would like to take Shona Robison's seat next year.
03:25
It's an interesting one.
03:26
Yeah, I mean, the SNP selection process is going to be quite interesting.
03:30
There's a lot of different people from different perspectives coming in.
03:33
Obviously, Steven Gethin has only been, although he was previously an MP in this current run,
03:39
he's only been there nine or 10 months and he's already signalling that he wants to jump ship to Holyrood.
03:44
And I don't know what his constituents must think about that,
03:48
who elected him on the basis that he would be there for the whole parliamentary term.
03:52
And there's a lot of politicians from Westminster, former and current,
03:56
who are obviously toying or announcing bids to come to Holyrood.
04:01
We might see something from Stephen Flynn in the coming days about whether he will actually give it a second go
04:07
and trying to make his way to Holyrood.
04:10
And it's going to be a bit of a bun fight.
04:12
We've seen our exclusive story today about Ben Macpherson, a former SNP minister,
04:17
who's now facing the challenge for his seat from former SNP council leader.
04:22
So there's going to be lots of these battles to come before we even get named on the list for the constituents to vote for.
04:29
It comes at an interesting time, David.
04:31
We know that the SNP have improved the bidding polls and there was a poll out early this week
04:36
that John Sweeney was still relatively satisfied with,
04:40
although he said it was something to build on because it still did have the SNP as comfortably the biggest party
04:46
come the back end of the Holyrood election next year.
04:49
David, thank you for joining us and bringing us up to speed.
04:53
You can read all the latest on Scottish politics at Scotsman.com.
04:56
Follow us on all social media channels and pick up a copy of the paper tomorrow for your full wrap.
05:03
Thank you for joining us.
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