Scotsman Politics: FMQs Roundup with Dale Miller and Rachel Amery #DouglasRoss #FlamingoLand

The Scotsman

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00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Politics Show. My name's Dale Miller, I'm Deputy Editor

00:04of the Scotsman. I'm joined by our political correspondent Rachel Amery. Coming to us live

00:10from Holyrood, we're here to unpick First Minister's questions for another week. And

00:16Rachel, it wasn't really the questions that was the focus of the attention early, but

00:21someone getting booted from the Chamber. Can you talk us through it?

00:25Yeah, a little more fiery FMQs this week than we've seen in recent weeks, which has been

00:28quite entertaining to watch, certainly from the press gallery, if nothing else. Yes,

00:33this was Douglas Ross, the former Conservative leader in Scotland, who had been shouting

00:38at the First Minister during his response to Russell Finlay's questioning. And the planning

00:43officer basically said, nope, you've had a chance, out you go. And he was forced to get

00:49up and get his bags and leave the Chamber. So let's take a little look at the video now.

00:54I can tell Parliament what was not reassuring to farmers was the Brexit that Mr Finlay supported

01:00that has damaged the economic opportunities. Let's hear one another.

01:05Mr. Ross, Mr. Ross, you have persistently refused to abide by our standing orders. And I would

01:18ask you to leave this Chamber and you are excluded for the rest of the day. First Minister.

01:24Presenting officer, the issue of...

01:28Sorry, excuse me, First Minister. Mr. Ross, I have asked you to leave the Chamber. Please

01:32do so.

01:39Rachel, Douglas Ross...

01:40No, since that, leading the Chamber, Douglas Ross has said that him and the party are going

01:46to be looking at putting in a complaint against the presiding officer. So we've had a conservative

01:53spokesperson tell us, the presiding officer has shown a consistent pattern to favour certain

01:55parties at the expense of others. We will be seeking discussions to reiterate that the presiding

02:01officer should not show blatant bias. He also said that the presiding officer has shown a consistent

02:05pattern to favour certain parties at the expense of others. We will be seeking discussions to reiterate

02:12that the presiding officer should not show blatant bias. He also spoke to the BBC afterwards as well, where he

02:17reiterated that and said, and Douglas Ross said that he feels the presiding officer is not able to be neutral

02:22in all circumstances. He also points to the fact that she was elected as a Green MSP. She had to give up that party

02:27affiliation to take on this mutual job. But he believes that she allows SNP and Green MSP to behave in a way that does not

02:34extend to conservative MSPs. So there's going to be more to come on this story. I'm certainly sure to see that. It's

02:40really interesting to see what response to Australia Ross gets from the presiding officer on the back of that.

02:45Rachel, Douglas Ross very much cutting the image of a naughty schoolboy there as he had to leave the Chamber. Is it fair to say this

02:53isn't an isolated incident that Douglas Ross has interjected at First Minister's questions before and perhaps why

03:00that's why the action was taken to that?

03:03Well, the Conservatives right now are saying that they're unhappy that there was no warning given, particularly

03:08because when this happened, it was a straight out go. There was no sort of you need to calm down, you need to stop

03:13doing this. It was straight out the door. However, if you look back at the last few weeks, particularly at

03:18the presiding officer has had to consistently sort of scold Douglas Ross for speaking and out of turn and shouting

03:25at other people during the Chamber. So while today's incident, it was a straight out the door, if you look at the

03:30sort of last few weeks, there have been a lot of incidences between the presiding officer and Douglas Ross.

03:34It's probably why she was so quick to go straight out the Chamber today.

03:38And Rachel, separate too, there was some action outside of the Scottish Parliament today as well, and that bled into a question

03:45from Scottish Greens co-convener Patrick Harvey as well. And it's about a development that there's significant

03:52opposition to. Can you talk us through?

03:55Yes, this is against the proposals for a Flamingoland mega resort on the banks of Loch Lomond.

04:00This is a resort that was rejected by the National Park Authority in Loch Lomond and also had, I think,

04:06about 150 odd thousand signatures against it as well. However, I think it was only last week

04:13the Scottish Government reporter decided to overturn that decision and approve the plans for this resort

04:18in Loch Lomond, which obviously caused a lot of upset between the groups that have been trying to stop this

04:23happening for years. So quite a few of them came to Scottish Parliament today to protest outside the

04:29Parliament ahead of First Minister's questions. And this is because the Greens were asking about it during

04:33the FNPC Day. So let's have a look at some of the protesters outside.

04:38Now, during the questioning from the First Minister, I did defend the government's decision to approve the

05:07resort here. So I'm sure there will be plenty more of that to come. And there will be more of that to come as

05:11well in the Scotsman. So if you have a look at our website, you'll see some of the coverage of what we've been

05:15writing on Flamingoland recently.

05:17As Rachel says, we've got stories on the homepage on both Douglas Ross and his

05:24ejection from the Chamber today, as well as the situation with Flamingoland as there continues to be

05:30significant opposition to it. You can read all the latest on the politics front, including later today what

05:36Donald Trump's had to say about a US court blocking his tariff scheme at Scotsman.com.

05:42Thanks to everyone for tuning in. Thanks to you, Rachel, for bringing us the very latest.

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