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The Scotsman Bulletin Thursday July 10 2025 #Politics
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The Scotsman Bulletin Thursday July 10 2025 #Politics
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00:00
Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin for this Thursday.
00:06
I'm Dale Miller, I'm Deputy Editor of the Scotsman and I'm joined by our political correspondent
00:10
Rachel Amory.
00:12
Rachel, despite Holyrood currently being in recess, there is plenty happening on the
00:17
politics front.
00:18
We'll talk about the front page of today's Scotsman firstly, and we'll let on police
00:23
gearing up for Donald Trump to visit Scotland.
00:25
A lot of talk that it'll be the final week of this month and that he will visit potentially
00:32
several of his golf courses here in Scotland.
00:35
Certainly police are preparing for that outcome.
00:38
There's still a lot of the fine details up in the air, which would be mindful that could
00:42
still change depending on global events and where Trump needs to be as well.
00:47
But certainly a lot of preparations confirm taking place in the background around that
00:53
expected visit.
00:55
Also Wimbledon continues, it's semifinals, Ladies' Day today, and also it's the first
01:01
day of the Scottish Open with Robert Bob McIntyre out on the course, hoping to obviously defend
01:08
what he did in the competition last year.
01:13
Rachel, let's touch on a couple of things.
01:16
Firstly, the Greens, Scottish Greens, this is a leadership process, is well underway.
01:22
We know Patrick Harvey's standing down.
01:25
We know Lorna Slater is not, that she would like to stay on again as a leader.
01:32
But can you talk us through just the process and who's putting up their hand so far to try
01:37
and lead the party beyond this year?
01:39
Yeah, so the Scottish Greens have quite a different democratic system than a lot of political parties.
01:45
They have regular leadership contests.
01:48
So even if Patrick Harvey hadn't decided to stand down, we would still be seeing this leadership
01:52
contest regardless.
01:54
And that means that both co-leadership positions are up for grabs.
01:58
Now, Lorna Slater, the current co-leader and former government minister, she is keen to
02:01
stay in that position.
02:02
So she has put her name forward.
02:04
But there are two others that we need to look at as well.
02:06
One is the central MSP, Gillian Mackay.
02:10
She's been quite vocal in recent years, particularly around abortion buffer zones and free to view
02:15
football on TV.
02:17
She has declared that she wants to stand as well.
02:20
The third person we think about is the West of Scotland MSP, Ross Greer.
02:24
You might know him best from the Save Loch Lomond campaign with Flamingoland plans there.
02:30
Now, he is very much expected to announce that he will be standing.
02:34
We've heard a lot of sort of rumours around the newspapers that, yes, that is happening.
02:38
And in fact, our political editor, Alistair Grant, is actually en route to Glasgow as we
02:42
speak to hear him make an announcement, which we're pretty certain is him announcing that
02:46
he is also going to be standing for leadership.
02:48
So there's two positions up for grabs.
02:49
And so far, it looks like there's three big names all looking to get one of those positions.
02:54
She also mentioned, though, that the way that the system works in the Green Party is
02:57
quite interesting.
02:58
Anybody can stand.
03:00
So you might very well find that there's somebody who's not an elected member running for leadership
03:05
as well.
03:06
Lorna Slater, for example, was co-leader before she became an MSP in Hollywood.
03:10
So that could happen as well.
03:11
So lots to keep an eye out for in this leadership contest.
03:15
Rachel, am I right in thinking, correct me if I'm wrong, that Ross Greer and Gillian Mackay
03:20
sit in one camp of the party.
03:22
But there is another camp that has been perhaps unhappy with the direction running under Patrick
03:28
Arby and some of the current leadership.
03:31
Are we expecting anyone from that cohort of the Greens to actually put their name up while
03:36
the window is open?
03:37
It could be quite interesting to see if that will happen.
03:39
There's certainly a group within the Green Party who are not part of the elected MSPs in
03:45
Hollywood.
03:45
But they feel that that group of MSPs in Hollywood has become a bit detached from the rest of
03:50
the party.
03:51
And it's perhaps being not institutionalised, but it's been a bit too focused on Hollywood,
03:56
not as much on what's happening elsewhere.
03:58
Often the Green Party in Hollywood are called extremists by some who like to criticise them.
04:02
But I think some within the Green Party think they're not extreme enough, which is quite
04:06
an interesting balance of opinions there.
04:09
So there is this group within the party who are wanting to make sure that certain names
04:13
who are in Holyrood are not at the top of the regional lists when it comes to next year's
04:18
election.
04:18
There is certainly a growing movement within the party of that.
04:21
So it's going to be really interesting to keep an eye on that and see what happens and
04:24
see if names like Patrick Harvey, Laura Slater, Gillian Mackay and Ross Greer, will they
04:31
be the top of their list when it comes to the election next year or will they be falling
04:34
down in the list in preference for somebody else?
04:38
Just on the wider national scale, talks are ongoing, although I think reaching towards
04:44
their conclusion between Starmer and Emmanuel Macron, the UK and France.
04:48
Where are we at there?
04:50
Yes, this is the third and last day of Emmanuel Macron's visit to the UK.
04:54
It's a three-day visit and there's been plenty of photographs and speeches that have been
04:58
made in the days that he has been here.
05:01
Now, I believe he's at Downing Street, probably around about right now, actually, where him
05:05
and Keir Starmer are talking about a deal on migrants crossing on small boats.
05:11
There's been over 21,000 migrants who have crossed the channel on small boats this year
05:15
so far, which is I think about a 56% increase on what it was last year.
05:19
So quite significant numbers that we are talking about here.
05:22
We're understanding this deal is going to be a sort of a one-in-one-out kind of deal.
05:25
So for every one migrant who crossed the channel that is then returned to France, France will
05:31
then give the UK one asylum seeker, probably somebody who has some sort of connection to
05:37
the UK already and has, I suppose, a legitimate reason, if you want to put it that way, of
05:42
why they need to come to the UK.
05:44
Now, we're still not sure of the details because it hasn't been confirmed yet, but we're thinking
05:48
there'll be a trial of about 50 people that will be initially in this pilot of this scheme.
05:54
So we're expecting that announcement to come quite soon from down the street.
05:58
You can keep an eye at scotsman.com for all the latest on that.
06:02
Rachel, just lastly, you've been looking at MPs of Westminster.
06:06
When they ask questions, how often, et cetera, we'll have a piece on the site very shortly.
06:12
What's it thrown up that's of interest?
06:15
Yeah, so the MPs have all now been in place for a year.
06:19
So it's quite interesting to you.
06:20
He'll look back and see what they've been up to in Westminster.
06:22
So we have taken a look at every single Scottish MP.
06:25
How many times have they voted in the past year?
06:27
How many times have they spoken in debates in the past year?
06:30
And also how many early day motions and how many written questions they have asked of the
06:34
government as well.
06:35
And some very varying degrees of how much people are doing and are not.
06:41
Should say at this point that a high number of something and a low number of something here
06:45
doesn't necessarily equate to how much work they are actually doing.
06:48
But it is quite interesting to look at the numbers anyway.
06:51
So those who have been voting the most are actually the Labour MPs, Chris Kane and Brian
06:56
Leishman.
06:56
They are the two that voted the most, I believe, 225 times in the past year.
07:02
By contrast, the person who's voted the least is actually the SNP's Westminster leader,
07:06
Stephen Flynn, who's only voted 66 times.
07:09
I should point out, though, that the SNP do have quite a long-standing policy of not voting
07:14
on something if it doesn't directly affect Scotland.
07:17
So, for example, this is just a dying vote.
07:19
The SNP MPs all abstain from that because it only applies to England and Wales.
07:24
So that's probably going to be skewing the SNP numbers there quite a bit.
07:28
But if you look generally, sort of MPs like Christine Jardine, she's the Lib Dem MSP for
07:33
Edinburgh West.
07:33
She is doing so much.
07:35
When you look at the numbers here, she's been asking loads of questions, supporting loads of
07:38
motions.
07:39
She's also spoken the most time in debates, I believe, over 320 times that she has spoken
07:43
in debates in the past year.
07:45
If you compare that to a lot of the new Labour MPs that have come in the door, they have
07:50
not been quite so active in terms of speaking in debates and asking questions.
07:54
There's quite a few who haven't supported any motions or submitted any questions and have
07:59
spoken in the chamber 10 times or less as well.
08:03
So quite a varying degree of what's been happening there.
08:06
But it's quite an interesting way to look at what everyone's been up to for the past
08:09
year.
08:10
And you mentioned Brian Leishman there.
08:12
Our political editor, Alistair Grant, sat down with him for an extended interview last
08:17
week.
08:17
You can read that full interview piece at scotsman.com.
08:20
Just follow or head to our politics tab in the navigation bar on the main site to find
08:26
it.
08:27
You can get all the very latest through our social channels or just going directly to the
08:32
site and please pick up a copy of the Scotsman in print tomorrow.
08:35
Rachel, thanks to you and thanks to everyone else for joining us.
08:39
Bye-bye.
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