Scotsman Politics FMQs Roundup Thursday March 20 2025 #FMQs

The Scotsman

Transcript

00:00Welcome to the Scotsman's Politics Show.

00:03We're here to wrap up First Minister's questions for another week.

00:07And perhaps fittingly, given the ferry saga has dominated FMQs,

00:12David, Fergus and Maureen, just in the hour before FMQs announced

00:16they'd appointed a new chief executive.

00:19Details of that are at Scotsman.com.

00:22But Swinney was was peppered about stories around the ferry in the back of this.

00:27Yeah, it all relates to a story earlier in the week that we've covered extensively in The Scotsman

00:31that Ferguson's missed out on a key contract for some small vessels

00:35that went to a yard in Poland.

00:38There's obviously a lot of hopes about the future of Ferguson's

00:40that it was able to win these contracts and kind of make it a bit more sustainable.

00:45So quite obviously, Russell Finlay and Anna Sower both went on this line.

00:50Basically, Russell Finlay telling John Swinney that the ferries could and should have been built in Scotland.

00:56He also accused Russell Finlay of kind of rigging the process

00:59and signing off corrupt processes to award these contracts,

01:03given that they were nationalised by the Scottish government.

01:07Pointing, of course, that we always hear that these are seven years late,

01:10at least these two vessels that they are currently building.

01:13One is obviously finished now and 400 million over budget.

01:18And John Swinney, once again, going for that line,

01:20we hear from the Scottish government repeatedly that they acted to save the yard

01:24and safeguard those kind of jobs.

01:28We still don't know, though, what the future holds for Ferguson's

01:31once these two contracts are gone and what will make that yard sustainable in the future.

01:37John Swinney got a bit annoyed at Russell Finlay.

01:40In fact, he got told off for, in the exchange of Anna Sower,

01:43for describing what Anna Sower was saying as guff.

01:46So he was a bit rattled, to be perfectly honest,

01:49and was basically accusing the opposition parties of talking down Ferguson's Marine,

01:54a line we've heard before.

01:56But obviously, they need to be scrutinised because it's a publicly run shipyard.

02:02So we didn't really learn much from FMQs, but certainly making ferries,

02:06once again, a big political potato in Holyrood.

02:11John Swinney has seemed in control, really,

02:13in proceedings across his skin so far as First Minister.

02:17So interesting that they got under his skin a little bit on this one.

02:22Just on ferries, Alistair Dalton's written a bit about this.

02:26This week, he did an opinion column on what this means for Ferguson Marine,

02:32which is still bidding for some other small ferries contracts.

02:36And Alistair, interestingly, explained that Ferguson's may not have been in a position

02:41to take on this contract yet anyway, if it had won.

02:44So interesting circumstances.

02:47And Glenn Rosa, the new Chief Executive, has said is his first job to make sure

02:52that that is delivered on time and on budget.

02:56I know there was a bit about misogyny in the Netflix program Adolescence.

03:01If anyone hasn't read that yet, sorry, watched that yet, please do.

03:06It is a fascinating bit of TV.

03:09But away from that, David, I wanted to get your opinion.

03:12Steven Gethin's the SNP MP, he's only nine to 10 months into his role at Westminster,

03:19but he's saying, well, he's been vetted and he would like to take Shona Robison's seat next year.

03:25It's an interesting one.

03:26Yeah, I mean, the SNP selection process is going to be quite interesting.

03:30There's a lot of different people from different perspectives coming in.

03:33Obviously, Steven Gethin has only been, although he was previously an MP in this current run,

03:39he's only been there nine or 10 months and he's already signalling that he wants to jump ship to Holyrood.

03:44And I don't know what his constituents must think about that,

03:48who elected him on the basis that he would be there for the whole parliamentary term.

03:52And there's a lot of politicians from Westminster, former and current,

03:56who are obviously toying or announcing bids to come to Holyrood.

04:01We might see something from Stephen Flynn in the coming days about whether he will actually give it a second go

04:07and trying to make his way to Holyrood.

04:10And it's going to be a bit of a bun fight.

04:12We've seen our exclusive story today about Ben Macpherson, a former SNP minister,

04:17who's now facing the challenge for his seat from former SNP council leader.

04:22So 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.

04:29It comes at an interesting time, David.

04:31We know that the SNP have improved the bidding polls and there was a poll out early this week

04:36that John Sweeney was still relatively satisfied with,

04:40although he said it was something to build on because it still did have the SNP as comfortably the biggest party

04:46come the back end of the Holyrood election next year.

04:49David, thank you for joining us and bringing us up to speed.

04:53You can read all the latest on Scottish politics at Scotsman.com.

04:56Follow us on all social media channels and pick up a copy of the paper tomorrow for your full wrap.

05:03Thank you for joining us.

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