The Scotsman Bulletin Wednesday April 30 2025 #Grangemouth

The Scotsman

Transcript

00:00hello and welcome to the scotsman's daily video bulletin for this wednesday my name's dale miller

00:05i'm deputy editor of the scotsman and i'm joined by our westminster correspondent alexander brown

00:10who's looking far more literate than me with all those books in the background

00:16firstly the front page of today's scotsman and we lead on sheku

00:21a bio the probe the chair effectively in this case lord bracadale has been criticized by the police

00:31federation effectively over they haven't used the word bias but fairness having met with the family

00:39a number of times they have concerns about whether the chair has properly weighted the concerns and

00:48thoughts and positions of both the family and the police officers involved in this case they've

00:54raised questions of fairness uh there will be some sort of hearing review around this and

01:00the understanding is that lord bracadale is considering his position as chair moving forward

01:04this could have significant implications in a very long-running case if uh if the former high

01:11court judge was to step aside and it could mean further delays to getting an outcome from

01:16um this so it is one to watch it was a significant story that broke yesterday we also had details

01:22there on the book festival confirm that nicholas sturgeon will unveil her memoir at this year's

01:28edinburgh international book festival in august but there's plenty of other big names there if you're

01:33thinking of going check out um some of those who will be speaking and talking all things books uh

01:40also writing a mention alex on the front page there's grange mouth we knew this day was coming

01:46it was confirmed yesterday that it had stopped processing crude oil um regardless of the fact

01:52that we knew this day was going to come very soon and that was coming this spring that's still a bit

01:58of a shocking moment for scotland yeah and i think it's it's really interesting the way the blame game

02:06has played out uh the smp have tried to portray this as a damning labor failure and a failure of the uk

02:12government and in one sense it kind of is right we had during the election they said only a little

02:18bit of investment was needed they said they would categorically be saving grange mouth they'd be

02:21protecting workers and that hasn't happened but if you've watched any of westminster pmqs uh i mean

02:28for the past few months brian neishman the areas mp has said repeatedly we need to be doing more on this

02:33issue um which you know the smp have then repeated his comments uh and he's been increasingly frustrated

02:39and feels like his party have broken promises i think that was language he used they have lied to

02:44voters but on the other side you know the smp have been calling for nationalization saying we should

02:49have nationalized it we should have treated it the same way uh as the uh plant in scunthorpe and and

02:55the labor response to that would be well what does that look like in practice and why was that never

03:00mentioned ministers in uk government think that who have had regular meetings basically every week with

03:04scotch government say nationalization had never come up in any of these meetings uh and it only

03:10came up when basically it was too late uh an attempt to kind of weaponize it uh as a point to criticize

03:15labor government with as if the smp have a plan um and i think the key thing here is when the unions

03:22were responding to this they did not say this is on labor they did not say this on the smp they said

03:27that both governments have failed scotland and failed the workers the grange mouth and i think it's

03:31really damning on both administrations despite the spin this is on both of them i mean alex uh petronius

03:39um they haven't been quiet in the fact that this day was coming even before they announced that

03:46it would close and it would end you know in its current form of existence anyway um but there'd

03:52been warnings in the lead up as well is is the view within the political sphere and around the bounce that

03:59the lack of action to actually take on and deal with something that was going to be coming at some

04:04stage is the problem i'm not sure if that's the recognition i think it's more or maybe there's a

04:11recognition that this is always going to happen and then maybe a dispute over what the plan of what

04:17happens next looks like uh i think ed miller bands are those 200 million set aside for the region so even

04:22if that's not saving grange mouth that's money to create the skilled workers of the future i think

04:27there are 70 people will stay on at grange mouth um which is not you know that many people but it's

04:34a few and that the money is set aside to create these new skilled workers to help people retrain

04:40and find something to help that community there is that intention from the labor government but

04:45obviously it's it's not really it's not really enough and you can't suddenly be retrained uh and

04:50re-skilled immediately and that hasn't happened before it's closed it's happening after and i think

04:56this is a bit this is a shining example of one of the key crystals of people who are against net zero

05:02or maybe have an issue with a plan for net zero who maybe support the principle is that part of the

05:07green transition people will get left behind right when we talk about the north sea we say well hold on

05:12laborers gb energy is going to massively invest and there's going to be this huge change and push

05:17for green energy and then that will create loads of jobs create those workers but if you get to the edge

05:22if you get to the cliff edge first and then say like if you jump now and then i'll give you a parachute

05:27halfway down that's not it's not the same thing people are still being left behind by it so it's it's a

05:32really difficult day and and i think it was noticeable that both uh the mp and snp msp were absolutely

05:38furious so it was passed beyond political political rhetoric there was genuine fury of what's happened

05:44to french pass alex and just lastly you had an exclusive story on the weekend from the think

05:50tank ippr they were saying the program for government which will be announced uh by john swinney and well

05:57he's relevant ministers um tuesday next week needed to contain actual commitments to a green industrial

06:05strategy it had to show that rather than just talking about it as an option um so in the wake

06:11of grange mouth how important is that going to be on tuesday next week that there is maybe some detail

06:17economically about how the scottish government are going to tackle this issue i mean i think it's

06:21absolutely vital and i think even if grange mouth hadn't happened even if grange mouth was still

06:25functioning and had months to go or six months or a year to go i think it would still be absolutely

06:30crucial because as part of the green transition you need to have this green industrial plan and

06:36strategy so that workers are protected i mean we all remember or at least maybe for some of us

06:40we have read about what happened to the miners in the 80s and the way that those industrial

06:44communities were hollowed out and we risked the same thing happening again i think it was notable that

06:49last week one of the uh snp mps had a westminster hall debate and westminster hall debates are generally

06:56not that important they're a sounding off board and they were talking about their concerns about

07:01the green transition and it was interesting that the tories were standing up to thank the snp for the

07:06speech labor people were standing up to raise concerns uh and as as mps who are not from scotland

07:12because they're just concerned about it it's this problem that everyone recognizes but there has yet to be

07:18this big plan to address to address it and i recall i think maybe even before he was no longer leader

07:25smp westminster ian blackford doing interviews with me and talking about the need for a green

07:29industrial strategy and saying he really wanted that to be an area for the scottish government

07:33to focus and how he was going to try to push humza yousef to have this big strategy because it was so

07:38important and i mean that feels like it was a decade a decade ago and i mean it wasn't that long ago but

07:45nothing has really changed since then there still isn't that plan so it's absolutely crucial on

07:49tuesday that if not the details then the framework the structure the parameters of what an industrial

07:56plan could look like for scotland is set out otherwise any sort of trade deal is going to be

08:01meaningless workers will not have any uh any hope really they won't have any plan or idea of what's

08:07going to come next to them now alex you and i are speaking ahead of a ministerial statement on

08:12grangemouth which is due to take place approximately 2 50 pm in hollywood today there will be more

08:18details post that statement at scotsman.com follow us for all the very latest around grangemouth and

08:25other political news you'll find a politics tab navigation bar that will take you to the latest

08:30coverage from alex and the rest of our politics team and please go and pick up a copy of the paper

08:36tomorrow for a full wrap of all your news from scotland and beyond thanks to you alex and thanks

08:43everyone else for tuning in

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