The Scotsman Bulletin Wednesday September 20 2023 #Inflation

The Scotsman

Transcript

00:00 (upbeat music)

00:02 - Hello, and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin

00:10 for September the 20th.

00:11 My name's Dale Miller, I'm Head of News at the Scotsman,

00:14 and I'm joined from London by our Westminster correspondent,

00:17 Alexander Brown.

00:18 Good morning, Alex.

00:19 - Good morning.

00:21 - We're on to talk about the front page

00:23 of the Scotsman firstly,

00:24 and we led on, it was impossible not to,

00:28 the Tram's Inquiry Report, which was released on Tuesday.

00:33 It described a litany of avoidable failures.

00:35 We expected it to go hard at Ty, the council's tram company.

00:39 We expected it to go hard at the City Council,

00:42 but a bit surprisingly, perhaps it went very hard

00:45 after John Swinney, the former Deputy First Minister.

00:50 Lord Hardy criticised him quite extensively,

00:54 questioned his integrity,

00:56 and questioned his role in actually withdrawing

00:58 some of the support from the Transport Scotland arm

01:01 of the Scottish government to the actual project,

01:04 and said it contributed towards some of the failures.

01:06 Now, that view was strongly rebuttaled by Swinney himself.

01:11 You can see his quotes in the piece from Alistair Dalton,

01:14 which is online at scotsman.com.

01:16 And also Murray McCallum, the Transport Secretary,

01:19 said that some of the findings did not stack up

01:22 with the evidence.

01:24 It was not a universally welcome reception

01:28 from a report that we've been waiting for for nine years.

01:30 Expect some of the fallout of that to continue this week.

01:33 Alex, there's more fallout taking place.

01:36 We've got Humza Yousaf in New York City for Climate Week,

01:40 but there's a slightly different mood here

01:42 coming out of Downing Street.

01:45 - Yeah, I mean, I feel like for a long time,

01:47 there have been rumours that the UK government

01:49 was considering rowing back on its climate policies,

01:53 and that now does appear to be the case.

01:55 Despite just weeks ago, the Prime Minister saying

01:57 the UK government remains committed to the ban

02:01 on any new petrol diesel cars by 2030,

02:04 we now expect there to be a speech on Friday

02:06 where he confirms actually that will indeed be delayed.

02:10 Other measures such as delaying the 2026 ban

02:13 on off-grid boilers,

02:14 and also things such as the energy efficiency rules,

02:17 which would have seen landlords in England

02:20 have to make houses more livable, more affordable

02:22 by insulating them, stop the tenants having to pay more,

02:26 that's gonna go as well.

02:27 So that burden will then be passed on to the tenants.

02:29 But this is a huge row back now expected

02:32 from a government that has made COP26 a cornerstone

02:35 of what it wanted to be,

02:36 and has repeatedly stressed its green credentials.

02:40 - Alex, what's the motivation behind this?

02:42 Because there's a lot of people out there

02:44 concerned about climate change.

02:45 You can see the news events that happened

02:47 with the wildfires in Europe across the summer.

02:51 Why is Rishi actually doing this?

02:53 - I mean, I think it's nothing but politics.

02:56 There is no argument for the long-term future of Britain

03:01 or perhaps the world to change climate policy.

03:04 But with Labour having things,

03:06 measures such as this, you know, GB energy announcement,

03:10 it's an attempt to maybe create a wedge issue.

03:12 Tory MPs I spoke to this morning

03:14 weren't necessarily pleased with the policy,

03:16 but were pleased that it would show a dividing line

03:18 between them and the Labour Party.

03:21 Following you, Les, and the way that that hit

03:22 the Labour Party in the Uxbridge

03:25 and South Royce-Lip by-election,

03:26 there is a feeling among ministers

03:28 that they can make the environment a really big issue,

03:31 and one that they'll get support

03:32 from right-wing newspapers on.

03:33 It's something that they can create this idea

03:35 that, you know, Labour are gonna charge you more,

03:38 they're going too far, too fast,

03:39 and it's gonna really hit you in the wallet.

03:41 We're gonna phase things out.

03:43 We care about the environment, but we'll do it slowly.

03:45 It's all part of a new approach,

03:46 as, you know, the prime minister has yet another reboot

03:50 of what his big vision for Britain is.

03:53 - Alex, I did say at least one national newspaper

03:55 celebrating the move on the front page.

03:58 So clearly there's gonna be a mixed reception to this

04:01 and whether wider agencies get behind it or not.

04:05 Up here in Scotland,

04:06 we've got our own climate targets, of course,

04:08 but there are implications regardless, aren't there?

04:10 Because I think Ford has issued a furious statement

04:13 about this because they're trying to build

04:15 a lot of electric cars at one.

04:17 - Yeah, I mean, and this speaks to,

04:19 I mean, you and I, and we've written before in Scotsman

04:21 about the way the government has changed its ministers

04:24 or changed its prime ministers and changed its goals.

04:27 And when the UK government has told companies now

04:30 for five, 10 years by its long-term energy commitments,

04:34 they have then invested money.

04:35 Ford issued a statement saying they have invested,

04:37 I think, hundreds of millions of pounds

04:39 in moving towards greener cars.

04:42 And they said basically, you know,

04:44 what they want to see from the government

04:46 is commitment, a clear plan, enthusiasm,

04:49 and essentially this hasn't shown any of those three things.

04:52 So that's absolutely scathing complaint

04:55 and businesses will be furious.

04:57 - Alex, just away from this,

04:59 inflation is something that affects us all,

05:02 whether it's your mortgage, whether it's your rent,

05:05 whether it's your food going up every week

05:07 when you're saying they go back to the supermarket.

05:09 There was some welcome news, at least for the government,

05:12 that I could see.

05:13 - Yeah, I mean, inflation has fallen,

05:16 but I think it's worth remembering that, you know,

05:19 reducing the next promise to half inflation,

05:21 that isn't happening anytime soon.

05:24 And the expectation is even if it does fall

05:26 and stay at this level,

05:27 people will still be paying so much more.

05:29 And with energy bills that's go up in winter,

05:31 this is welcome news.

05:32 But I mean, I spoke to several Tory MPs

05:34 and SNP MPs actually yesterday,

05:36 who were saying that, you know,

05:38 even if inflation falls a bit more,

05:40 this winter is going to be absolutely brutal

05:42 because it's not falling to where it was.

05:44 I mean, if it was 5%, you know,

05:46 a few years ago, we'd be going,

05:47 this is dreadful, but it's still so high.

05:49 So welcome news, but the bigger picture

05:53 is still very, very difficult

05:54 for the general public and the government.

05:56 - The 6.7% rate announced,

05:59 some thought it would go up over 7%.

06:01 You can read Scott Reid's analysis

06:04 on our business tab of inflation

06:06 and what it could mean leading into tomorrow

06:08 with the Bank of England to meet

06:09 and discuss whether they hike rate rises

06:12 for what I think is the 15th successive time.

06:15 Alex, thanks very much for joining us.

06:18 You can read all of Alex's coverage

06:20 on the politics tab at scottsman.com.

06:22 Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

06:24 You can go out and buy a copy of a paper tomorrow.

06:26 There'll be plenty to read.

06:28 Thanks very much.

06:28 (upbeat music)

06:32 (upbeat music)

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