00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin. We're here for Program for Government
00:06Day. It's a big day in Scottish politics, an important day for John Swinney and his government
00:12as they set out their legislative plan for the next 12 months. I'm joined by Rachel Amory,
00:18our political correspondent coming to us from the halls of Holyrood. Rachel, we're going to get into
00:23the PFG shortly, but I firstly just wanted to touch on the front page of today's Scotsman.
00:30And we're led with an incredibly striking image from the VE Day commemorations that took place
00:37down in London yesterday. The red arrows flying across Buckingham Palace, that inset photo of the
00:44Royals, which was an absolute cracker as well, just watching the display. You can see all of the best
00:51pictures from the event at the Scotsman website. Also led on a really important story, I think,
00:59questions about a deeply alarming rise, a third more rape cases reported in the past year as opposed to
01:09about three or four years ago. And some of the political parties as well as Victim Support Scotland,
01:16just addressing the potential reasons for that. But certainly there are concerns about
01:20whether the cases are increasing, not just the actual willingness to report them as well.
01:26You'll be able to read that story at scotsman.com. And just almost buried there in the wing on the
01:32front page, Rachel was a bit of a preview line for the program for government. But can you talk the
01:38listeners through why this is important? It's not a budget, we know it's not the allocation of funding,
01:44but in some ways, this is just as crucial a guide for the Scottish government.
01:50Yeah, so this is John Swinney's chance to set out what his government are going to do
01:54over the next year. So think of it as kind of similar to the King's speech down in Westminster.
01:59It's basically all the promises that they are going to do over the next 12 months. Now,
02:03normally, this would come in September after the summer recess. But this has been brought forward
02:08to me this time for two reasons. And one is that it is a year since John Swinney became First Minister.
02:14So it does give him a chance to perhaps go over the successes of the past year. The other reason
02:20is because it's also one year to go until the 2026 Hollywood election. So exactly 12 months and
02:26exactly what is going to be done in time for the next election, which is probably one of the most
02:30crucial points of why it is now being held in May. So there's lots of things that are potentially
02:35going to be covered. One thing we do know that's been trailed so far is John Swinney's pledging to
02:40end the ATM rush for GP appointments. Quite an easy one to get people on board with because I think
02:46everyone can agree that's one of the worst sort of annoyances in the morning if you're wanting to get
02:51a GP appointment is trying to fight everyone else off on the phones. But at the same time,
02:55it's how deliverable is that? So that's where the next problem form going down further in the list.
03:00In terms of what we can expect to see today from the program of government, it's probably going to
03:04be going back to sort of the basics of what John Swinney wants to see from his government,
03:08which would be public services and radical child poverty. He's dubbed this as a very radical
03:14program for government. But of course, whether John Swinney is radical and other people's radical
03:19are the same things, of course, is yet to be seen. But I think we'll go back to the basics of what
03:23John Swinney wants to see from his government over the next 12 months.
03:26Now, Rachel, if I put my cynical hat on, you said it's normally in September,
03:31it's been brought forward to now. Not coincidentally, probably, it's exactly 12 months and gives the
03:37lead into the Holyrood election last year. What's your view on this? Has it been done purely for
03:45political reasons? And is it to give John Swinney and his government that time to
03:49point towards come the final months leading into the election last year about what they've done
03:55to help try to win seats effectively next year?
03:58Yeah, I mean, there's some sort of practical elements to it. If he was to wait until the
04:03September date, that obviously is cutting down how much time he has left in government down quite
04:08significantly, because you'd miss out the whole summer then, and you'll have a few months left to
04:12deliver the rest of these programs. So in terms of practical terms, it's probably more sensible to give
04:17yourself the full year. But at the same time, yes, there probably is a lot of political goings-on
04:22here as to why it's been right now, particularly because it's a chance for him to say, this is
04:26what's happened the past year, here's what's going to happen in the next year, and really sort of
04:30kickstart the sort of the hard, the hard grafts that the party's going to have to do in the
04:34electioning for the next year's general election. So a bit of both, I think.
04:37Now they say sometimes there's no shame in picking out and going with good ideas. We knew John Swinney
04:47and his government had allocated a significant amount of funding in the budget going back to
04:51the end of the last year, but he's now being accused of plagiarism over the GP appointments
04:58commitment. Can you just talk us through that? Yes, this is a claim from the Scottish Labour Party.
05:03They've had a look at some of the things that have been trailed for this program for government,
05:06and some of the things that they're expecting to see happen, and they're basically saying,
05:11this is what we said we were going to do if we won the election. These are the promises that we said
05:16that we were going to put out at the Scottish Labour Conference earlier this year. In fact,
05:19just as before we went on air here, one of the Labour MSPs walked past and was asking how they were
05:24feeling about the proper government, and that's exactly what they said. It's just going to be a rehash of
05:28what we already said. So Scottish Labour are not particularly happy at the moment. I'm sure when we get to the
05:34debate on the proper government this afternoon, we will hear Anna Sarwar making that point himself.
05:39It's a bit of a sort of political stage gag as well. The Labour Party has written to
05:45the Scottish Qualifications Authority, they are of course the ones that run all the exams in Scotland,
05:50to point out blatant plagiarism they have said of their own manifesto promises that are going to be
05:56seen in this proper government. So a bit of fun there as well. I'm sure we'll hear more
06:00on that from the Scottish Labour Party when it gets to the debate on the program for government.
06:04It's always a lot of weighing up for political parties not in government about
06:09when do you announce your policy positions, how far out from an election, because it does leave a window
06:15for a party such as the SNP to run with some of the best ideas. It's all part of that manoeuvring,
06:22so Scottish Labour must have been aware that this circumstance could happen. Rachel, just lastly,
06:29I wanted to touch on, it sort of ties in the program for government, but you're just back
06:34from a trip to Switzerland. It's always interesting comparing infrastructure and services in some
06:41nations just across the channel, how they operate, how it compares to Scotland. You had an immediate
06:48compare and contrast. What did you sort of bring back from that when you arrived back on home soil?
06:53Yeah, when I was on my trip it was very obvious just how much smoother some things ran, how much more
07:00reliable some set of things were as well, and other things such as like cleanliness and homelessness as
07:05well. And so I got back home and I thought it's maybe just my perception as a tourist, let's have a look
07:10at it properly. When we actually look down into the figures there are some big differences. I think the most stark one was the differences in homelessness for example. I saw very few people
07:19sleeping on the streets when I was on holiday and when I looked at the actual figures it was really
07:24night and day between what's happening in Scotland and what's happening over there. Same with things
07:28such as water quality and reliability of public transport and the cost of public transport as well.
07:34So I've read about this in today's paper just sort of comparing the two and pointing out that perhaps
07:39the SAP government could take a look at some of the how things are being done elsewhere in Europe for
07:43inspiration of what needs to get done better here in Scotland.
07:48Rachel and the point that you do make in that piece is there was a tourist tax that you paid while you're in Switzerland as well and we know
07:54that tourist tax is coming for Edinburgh in particular. So it will be interesting to see how those funds are applied.
08:02For me re-arriving back in Scotland it's always the potholes coming out of Edinburgh airport that sticks with me
08:10as opposed to the condition of the roads in some other places that I've visited throughout Europe.
08:15Rachel thanks for setting us all up for the program for government today. You'll be able to get all the very
08:22latest on that. We'll be running a blog throughout this afternoon. Westminster correspondent Alexander Brown will be
08:28anchoring that and we'll bring you the blow by blow of what is announced and set out in the PFG. There'll
08:34also be pieces on key points and analysis of what this all means politically as well. You can read all
08:42the latest at the Scotsman. If you ever can't find the coverage just head to the politics tab in the
08:47navigation bar. Thanks to you Rachel and thanks to everyone else for joining us.
