Scotsman Daily Bulletin Thursday 27 July

The Scotsman

Transcript

00:00 Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's daily video bulletin for Thursday, July the 27th. My name's

00:05 Dale Miller. I'm head of news at the Scotsman and I'm joined by political correspondent Rachel

00:11 Amory. Rachel, before we get talking about all things independence, which is back on the agenda

00:17 today, we'll just highlight the front page of the Scotsman today. We led on the latest with

00:23 Nat West. There was an extraordinary development that happened in the early hours of the morning

00:29 on Wednesday where via the Nat West board a statement was issued saying that Alison Rose

00:38 was no longer in the role anymore. Obviously we know that she has been confirmed as connected to

00:44 the leak to the BBC around Nigel Farage. There's lots of questions both politically and about

00:51 regulation of the banks going forward that have stemmed from this particular case. Don't expect

00:57 that to go away as a story. You can read all the latest on it at scotsman.com. Also the tragic

01:04 news of Sinead O'Connor passing away. I think we all remember her music, particularly her

01:10 breakthrough hits. So you can read about her passing and tributes to her again at scotsman.com.

01:17 Rachel, I've got you on, asked you to join because there's a new independence paper out today.

01:23 We know Humza Yousaf is still to speak about it, but can you talk us through just what we know so

01:29 far following the publication of the paper? Yes, well as we're recording this, Humza Yousaf is

01:34 probably actually speaking to journalists about this right now over in Edinburgh. So this is the

01:40 fifth in a paper of setting out what an independent Scotland would look like and what sort of rules and

01:45 regulations we can expect to see. And this one focuses on citizenship. So basically what makes

01:51 you a Scottish citizen if the country is independent? And they're wanting to follow the

01:55 Irish government's model, which is basically if one of your parents is Scottish, then you

02:00 automatically become a Scottish citizen yourself. There's also some more bits and pieces about trying

02:05 to make it easier to come from overseas. I feel that's going to be a bit of a dig at the UK

02:10 government's immigration policy there. So things like that as well. Humza Yousaf himself has said

02:15 he finds this personally really important. He obviously has Scottish and Pakistani heritage

02:21 and is very proud of that. And you'll see that in some of the way that he dresses for formal events.

02:25 And when he was sworn into parliament, for example, he did it in two languages. He's very keen to

02:30 promote that for himself. So I think you can see some of those themes in this new paper that's

02:34 being announced today. Rachel, as someone from an Australian background as well, I do take extra

02:39 interest in things being streamlined and made easier around these processes. I want to circle

02:44 back around to Fergus Ewing as well. We were sort of talking three or four weeks ago about him

02:50 potentially being suspended from the SNP. We know the sad news about his mother Winnie passing away

02:56 and certainly things have quietened down since then. But he's been speaking again in the past 24

03:01 hours and talking about how he views the situation within the SNP. Can you talk us through where

03:07 things are at there? Yes, at the end of June, we were sort of getting mutterings that he might be

03:12 getting suspended from the SNP. And this is because he's spoken on a number of key SNP policies in the

03:18 past year or so. I'm just thinking of gender reform, the return scheme, the choosing of the A9.

03:26 He's been very outspoken on all of those issues and causing quite a bit of trouble for the

03:29 leadership within the SNP. That did kind of die down a little bit, as you said, with the death of

03:34 his mother, Winnie Ewing. But in the past few hours, a new podcast from Hollywood Sources has

03:39 been published online. That's an interview with Fergus Ewing. And he's saying that there is a

03:43 toxic culture within the SNP party at Holyrood, which is obviously not going to sit well with

03:50 the party, especially considering they've been trying to highlight the toxicity within Westminster.

03:54 So they won't like to have that turned on themselves at this point in time either.

03:58 He's also criticised Nicola Sturgeon for sort of criticising the Conservatives as being

04:04 reprehensible. That was quite a big sort of tactic for Nicola Sturgeon. And I think for

04:08 Hansi as well, to sort of go on the attack when it comes to the Conservatives. And Fergus Ewing

04:13 was very much criticising that as well today. And not necessarily a new thing. We know that he

04:18 doesn't like this policy, but he was very much saying that he disagrees with the Greens coming

04:23 into government, saying that sort of climate change and biodiversity is now taking precedence

04:28 over the Scottish people. It seems the relationship and the coalition agreement with the Greens

04:34 is an issue that keeps coming up again and again for the SNP and something that Hums has got to

04:40 navigate through over the coming months. Also, Rachel, I know you're covering some of the

04:46 political reaction to British Gas. Some extraordinary profit figures out today and

04:51 people aren't happy about it. No, absolutely not. So we'll have a bit more on the website in the

04:59 next few hours or so. But yeah, massive profits for British Gas. I think an all time high,

05:04 actually. And there's some different reasons why. A lot of it's to do with the energy price cap.

05:09 It's quite technical as to why the profits have been there. But as you can see, very few people

05:14 will be happy to hear that news this morning when their gas and energy bills are going up so much.

05:19 So plenty of reaction to come on that one as well today. You can read all the latest, follow our

05:25 politics tab. You can find it on the navigation bar at scotsman.com. You can follow us on Facebook,

05:32 Instagram, Twitter, all the relevant platforms, threads as well now if you're a member of that

05:38 new community. And please go out and buy a copy of the paper tomorrow, support local journalism.

05:43 Thanks very much for joining us.

05:44 Thanks.

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