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00:03 Hello, and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Bulletin
00:08 for Monday.
00:09 I'm Alan Young.
00:10 I'm Deputy Editor of the Scotsman.
00:11 I'm joined by our political correspondent, Rachel Emery,
00:14 to take a look ahead to the big events.
00:17 Hi, Rachel.
00:18 Good morning.
00:18 Let's have a quick look at the front page first.
00:22 And we splash today on the latest from the election
00:27 campaign trail, and specifically the indication
00:30 that John Swinney has given that the party could move away
00:36 from the presumption against new oil and gas licenses.
00:40 Why is that important?
00:41 It's important because of Labour's position,
00:45 which the SNP claim will cost 100,000 jobs in the Northeast.
00:50 Much more inside today.
00:51 We'll also have a look ahead, top of the page
00:53 there, to the Scotland-friendly against Gibraltar,
00:57 the first of two games in the run-up to the Euros.
01:02 The big news, obviously, is the absence of Lyndon Dykes
01:05 and what Steve Clarke does.
01:08 So, Rachel, 11 days into the election campaign now,
01:15 but it feels like today is potentially
01:17 the first big moment as leaders go head to head in Scotland.
01:22 Yes, that's because tonight we've
01:23 got the first televised TV debate,
01:25 and it's going to be on STV.
01:28 So it's the Scottish party leaders
01:29 that are going to be taking part in this.
01:31 So John Swinney from the SNP, Douglas Ross
01:33 from the Scottish Conservatives, Anna Sarwar from Scottish
01:36 Labour, and Alex Cole-Hamilton from the Scottish Lib Dems.
01:39 Now, there has been a bit of argument over this
01:42 because the Scottish Greens have not
01:44 been invited to take part in this.
01:46 They are saying that's outrageous, not only
01:48 because they're a big party within Scotland,
01:50 but also because they're the only party
01:52 with a female leader as well.
01:54 However, they're not going to be taking part in this event
01:57 tonight.
01:58 But yes, I can imagine lots of sparks flying tonight,
02:00 lots of more definite policies, maybe what each party actually
02:05 is standing for might get revealed a bit more tonight.
02:09 But of course, the only person--
02:11 none of these people are actually
02:12 standing for election in this election for Westminster.
02:16 So again, it's quite interesting to see how
02:18 that dynamic plays out as well.
02:21 Indeed, and also how confrontational
02:24 the debate may be will be very, very interesting,
02:27 given what John Swinney has been saying for weeks now
02:33 about a less confrontational, less toxic politics in Scotland.
02:42 It's really difficult not to be confrontational in a TV debate,
02:45 I guess.
02:47 Yeah, you're very much being pitted against each other here.
02:49 And I don't think it will take very much for the gloves
02:52 to come off tonight.
02:53 I think the intentions to be nice and calm
02:56 and be not confrontational will be there at the start.
03:01 But I think it will very, very quickly unravel
03:02 when you get to this TV debate.
03:05 Although it will-- so I imagine that is
03:07 what will happen tonight.
03:09 But as you said, yes, there is this promise
03:11 to try and be a bit more civilized with this.
03:14 But I can imagine that won't be what plays out this evening.
03:17 But of course, we need to obviously look as well
03:19 as to how much this could impact on the campaign as well.
03:23 If you look at the S&P leadership contest last year,
03:26 the televised debate there saw a lot of divisions
03:28 getting sprung up between Kate Forbes and Humza Yousaf.
03:31 And that has plagued the S&P ever since.
03:34 So there could be long-term impacts
03:36 between too much confrontation being exposed at this debate.
03:40 Indeed.
03:40 So elsewhere on the campaign trail
03:42 before we get to that debate this evening,
03:45 what's happening?
03:47 Well, the big sort of announcement this morning
03:49 comes from Rishi Sunak and the UK Conservative Party.
03:51 They say that if they win the election,
03:53 they will alter the Equality Act so that it is--
03:57 so to clarify, when it says protected characteristic sex,
04:01 they mean biological sex.
04:03 So essentially, not those who are classed as trans.
04:07 Already a bit of confusion because it's quite--
04:10 it's not very clear as to what that actually means.
04:12 I've tried to ask the party what that means in practice
04:15 and how it would be policed.
04:16 And they're very much saying, you know,
04:18 it's more about clarifying the law as opposed
04:20 to altering the law.
04:21 And also, it's more about giving guidance to service providers
04:24 as opposed to them enacting anything in particular.
04:27 And so it is a bit confused at the moment
04:29 as to what exactly it means.
04:31 Given the polls, the Conservatives
04:32 are very unlikely to win this election.
04:34 So that's probably why there's little detail,
04:37 because they don't need to provide detail.
04:39 It won't ever happen.
04:41 But it will force Scottish Labour, the S&P, for example,
04:44 it will force them to maybe firm up their positions
04:47 on gender reform.
04:48 But yes, the announcement from the Conservatives
04:50 is quite interesting.
04:51 I think it's very much to try and appeal
04:53 to the right wing of the party that might move across
04:55 to reform at this election, trying
04:56 to get that core voter base back on side.
05:00 And it's quite interesting as well,
05:01 the language that's being used.
05:02 A lot of this has come from Kenny Badenoch, the Women
05:05 and Equalities Minister for the Conservatives.
05:07 And she was very much sort of referring to trans women
05:10 as men in her statement.
05:12 So that's quite interesting thing
05:14 to look at too when she's trying to sort of push
05:16 this policy out.
05:19 Like you say, it's clearly been launched by Rishi Sunak,
05:23 much like the National Service policy,
05:26 to attract their older, more traditional voters.
05:30 But this one, you feel, may well reignite a debate in Scotland.
05:36 We may hear this in the leaders debate.
05:41 Absolutely, yes.
05:42 Because as you would say with National Service,
05:44 it's quite easy for the other parties
05:45 to just dismiss it because it's not
05:47 been something that's happened in the UK for so, so long.
05:51 Very few people are alive that can probably
05:53 remember that being a thing.
05:54 So it's very easy just to dismiss that policy.
05:57 Not so much for this one because, of course,
05:58 we have the gender reform debate in Scotland that was passed
06:02 and then was blocked by the UK government as well.
06:06 John Swinney, when he first became first minister,
06:08 was asked to try and define trans women and women,
06:11 for example, as well.
06:13 So it will play more of a part in the debate.
06:16 And I imagine it will come up at the televised debate
06:18 this evening.
06:20 Great.
06:21 We will watch with interest.
06:22 Thanks very much, Rachel.
06:23 Please keep an eye on scottsman.com
06:25 throughout the day for all the very latest news and analysis.
06:28 If you can, do subscribe.
06:29 Then you'll be able to read and watch absolutely everything
06:32 on our site.
06:33 And if you're out and about today,
06:34 please do pick up a copy of the paper from me
06:36 and from Rachel.
06:37 Goodbye for now.
06:38 Goodbye.
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06:42 (upbeat music)
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