Join Dale and Alistair as they dissect the most pressing issues shaping Scotland's political landscape. From debates in Holyrood to the impact of Westminster decisions, gain valuable insights into the forces influencing the nation.
This in-depth discussion explores key policy debates and the evolving dynamics between different political factions. Understand the nuances of recent legislative changes and their potential consequences for Scottish citizens.
Explore the critical perspectives shaping the future of Scotland. Tune in for expert analysis and informed commentary.
00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's video bulletin for this Tuesday.
00:04My name's Dale Miller.
00:05I'm Deputy Editor of the Scotsman and I'm joined by our political editor, Alistair Grant.
00:11Alistair, we're going to talk about the front page of today's Scotsman, which features your splash.
00:18A third of Scots believe local crime is up amid fears over police resources and also obviously Wimbledon in action there.
00:27Unfortunately, Jacob Fearnley not making it through the first round, but a lot of other Brits, including Emma Raducanu and Katie Bolter, winning through on a good day more widely for British players.
00:39You can see our full coverage in sports.
00:44Alistair, I want to talk to you about this crime rates story.
00:50Perhaps a surprise, perhaps not, but the poll reflects public concern around crime rates in the area.
00:57Yeah, it's almost more about perception than it is about anything else.
01:01This is a poll carried out for Survation, by Survation, sorry, for 1919 magazine, which is funded by the Scottish Police Federation, effectively the police union for ranking file officers.
01:14And it effectively found that more than a third of Scots believe the crime rate has increased in their local community.
01:20There's also widespread concerns about the police having sufficient resources.
01:25So to just kind of quote some of the figures, it was 13% of people in Scotland said crime had risen a lot in the past two years in their local area.
01:32A further 21% said it had gone up a little bit.
01:35Only 11% believed that the rate had fallen.
01:38So clearly some concern there about the kind of crime level in people's local areas.
01:43And at the same time, most Scots felt that police officers in the local area didn't have the necessary resources to prevent crime happening in the first place.
01:51Albeit there was more confidence in the force actually being able to solve crimes that have already been committed.
01:57But effectively the Scottish Police Federation saying that this sort of shows that the concern that people have, that the police aren't properly resourced.
02:07And that saying that the Scottish Government, if they are genuinely concerned about policing, about the electorate's perception of crime, then they should take heed of what these kind of findings of the poll are saying.
02:17And arguing that operational police officers are hamstrung because they're carrying out all sorts of different functions and that the SPF arguing that policing needs to be a greater priority for the government.
02:30So we've heard a lot of these arguments before.
02:32And as I say, it's mostly about the perception that people have.
02:35Albeit we also saw recently with crime figures that things like crimes involving sex crimes really as a kind of broad category are at the highest level they've been for 50 years.
02:47I think since 1971, effectively since records began.
02:50So there is some concern about that.
02:53But this is about people's perception, how safe they feel in their local communities and how they feel about police visibility in their local area.
03:01That's something that comes up a lot in Holyrood.
03:03People just say they don't see police officers out and about in local communities in the way they used to do.
03:09The Scottish Police Federation, the SPF, would say that that's because there are fewer police officers, they're more stretched, they're trying to do more things.
03:17So it's an ongoing political row, really.
03:20And it's quite interesting to see how some of the opposition parties responded to this, particularly Scottish Tories.
03:27Justice is a very big issue for them.
03:30They always talk about what they call the soft-touch justice system in Scotland.
03:33And they were saying that the SNP has consistently cut police resource, they've left police officers unable to investigate certain crimes, and they were pointing out that law-abiding Scots have clearly lost trust in the system.
03:47So I guess if you're the Scottish Government, there'd be some concern over these perceptions.
03:52And the SNP Justice Secretary, Angela Constance, was saying that she was concerned that if people have a perception that the police are under-resourced and not as visible as people would want them to be.
04:03Alistair, the Scottish Government's dealing with a lot of issues at the moment, you know, pressure over the health system, pressure over getting education right as well.
04:15How big a concern do you think this is?
04:19It does come on the back of a story.
04:21We ran for Monday as well about the mental health absences for Police Scotland.
04:26There's also been reports over the last couple of days about the sheer amount of overtime hours worked by police.
04:32Are we at any sort of political tipping point here?
04:36I'm not sure about on this particular issue, but I think it does tie into a wider perception that public services in Scotland are not where they need to be.
04:44Health service, education, like you say, policing, all coming under that kind of umbrella category of people just feeling dissatisfied about the state of public services and feeling that they're not good enough.
04:53There's concern about a sort of crumbling sense of society that people have.
05:00And I think that is a problem for the SNP government.
05:03They've obviously been in power for almost two decades in Scotland.
05:07And when we go into that Hollywood election next year, as we've spoken about before in these videos,
05:13Labour, who obviously want to get into power in Scotland, will try and make much of the fact that the SNP have been in power for almost two decades.
05:22Their stewardship of public services hasn't been good enough.
05:25And that's what Labour will want to fight the election on.
05:27So these kind of things are potentially a problem for the Scottish government.
05:31I think particularly when you look at a couple of months ago, we had the Scottish Social Attitudes Survey showing that trust in the Scottish government,
05:38satisfaction of public services has fallen.
05:40That kind of thing is a problem for SNP ministers.
05:44Speaking of problems, Sir Keir Starmer faces a rebellion.
05:52The scale of it, we're going to find out later today because there is a vote to take place at Westminster on the UK welfare reforms.
06:00We know that two Scottish Labour MPs in Brian Leishman and Maureen Burke appears set to vote for an amendment effectively against the cuts that have been set out.
06:13Our staff has already had to roll back to a degree and it's created problems around messaging perhaps for Anasawa, the Scottish Labour leader as well.
06:23He's speaking again today, Alistair.
06:26How much of a sticky wicket is he on?
06:29How does he, I guess, keep the Scottish voting public on side while still sticking with the government?
06:35Yeah, I think this kind of thing is really problematic for Anasawa.
06:40I mean, the welfare reforms that are happening, that are being voted on in Westminster don't directly affect Scotland's personal independence payment,
06:47but they do reflect the amount of money that comes to Scotland for the Scottish equivalent adult disability payments.
06:53And you've just seen that, you know, Anasawa, I remember he'd been asked about this in Holyrood,
06:57has been very reluctant to kind of give a, to talk about it, to give a firm view on this, these rebellions that we've seen down south.
07:04He effectively says that reform needs to happen, but it's got to be fair.
07:08He's spoken about the fact that, I mean, this is when he was talking last week about this,
07:12the fact that conversations and discussions were ongoing with those MPs who don't support these reforms,
07:20and effectively sort of saying, yeah, that we kind of, it has to be fair, but reform needs to happen.
07:27And I think it ties into a problem that Anasawa has as a Scottish Labour leader in that the UK government under Keir Starmer
07:33has been implementing policies that have turned out to be quite unpopular,
07:37stuff like the winter fuel payment we know all about, we've spoken about lots.
07:41There's various tax measures as well with national insurance that there's been a backlash for.
07:47And it just creates a bit of a headache for Anasawa.
07:50And I think it's probably part of the reason that, well, much of the reason that Labour have been suffering in the polls in Scotland.
07:57And, you know, they had a good by-election result recently, but John Curtis, the polling guru,
08:02would point out that that result wouldn't be enough if it was transferred into a nationwide level to get them into power in Holyrood next year.
08:08So these kind of things are really difficult for Anasawa.
08:12Any kind of rebellions, dissatisfaction in the UK Labour Party has a knock-on impact on Scottish Labour
08:18and will have a direct impact on his chances of getting into Butte House as First Minister next year.
08:23And I saw some quotes from SNB Westminster Leader Stephen Flynn today just agitating a bit,
08:29saying if all the Scottish Labour MPs that had originally indicated they were against the welfare reforms voted against the bill,
08:37that it wouldn't get up.
08:38So there's a lot of dialogue ahead of what takes place later today.
08:42You can read all the latest across politics, Scottish and the UK more widely, at scotsman.com.
08:50There's a politics tab in the navigation bar where you'll always be able to find all the latest
08:54and we'll bring you the result from the vote later tonight.
08:58Please follow us on social media channels and go out and buy a copy of the Scotsman in print tomorrow,
09:04where we'll carry some of the best pictures from the royals in Scotland,
09:08including the King and Queen, at various events in Edinburgh today and then beyond into Fife tomorrow.
