00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin for this Monday.
00:05My name is Dale Miller.
00:06I'm Deputy Editor of the Scotsman and I'm joined by political correspondent
00:09Rachel Amery.
00:11Rachel, we've got a tremendous looking weekend story in terms of the weather,
00:15but there is plenty happening still on the news agenda despite recess here
00:20at Holyrood.
00:21Just to pull up the front page of today's paper, and we led on a story,
00:26the 999 response times hit by savage cuts to the fire service.
00:31Criticism of S&P cuts in relation to this story, but effectively over the past decade,
00:38figures showing that the response time for emergencies from the fire service
00:43has been gradually creeping up from just over six minutes in 2014 to just over eight minutes
00:50or about eight and a half minutes as the median.
00:53Concern about those delays and what it means in terms of the critical risk to life
00:59and obviously the damage that can be caused by any delays in getting firefighters out
01:05to major blazers and other incidents.
01:08You can read that story at scotsman.com and a terrific photo there of Cam Norrie
01:13who pushed into the quarterfinals with a terrific five-set win, albeit he plays
01:19against Carlos Alcoraz in the next round, which is going to be an incredibly difficult match-up.
01:26Rachel, you've been reporting on another political story this morning,
01:32UK Health Minister or Health Secretary, West Street, and taking a bit of a pop at John Swinn.
01:37Yes, it's always one of these things where we get to recess.
01:40We start to see a lot more of these sort of spats happening
01:43because we're obviously trying to fill the news agenda at the moment.
01:48So this is all down to the NHS app.
01:50So there is an app coming in Scotland.
01:52It's coming at the end of the year, but it's going to be very limited.
01:55It's going to be limited to dermatology patients in Lanarkshire only,
01:58and the app will pretty much only be to check up on their appointments,
02:01get notifications about their appointments, that kind of thing.
02:03So it's quite limited and restricted in scope.
02:06Now, if you look at NHS England, for example, they have had an app for a number of years.
02:09I think about 35 million people use this app in England.
02:13And recently, the UK government has said that they have big plans to basically increase it a bit more,
02:19give more advice on the app, have more ability to book and check appointments on the app, for example.
02:24So if you look at the two apps separately, there is a wee bit of a difference there.
02:27And this is what West Streeting, the UK Health Secretary, is trying to point out.
02:31And the criticism that he is having is that John Swinney is an analogue politician in a digital age.
02:37That is something that Scottish Labour has accused John Swinney and the SNP government of before.
02:42And West Streeting in his complaints was having a bit of a reference back to that,
02:46saying that we should be trusting Scottish Labour leader Anna Sarbar to replace him in the next Scottish Parliament election.
02:52So, yes, it's an argument about NHS apps, it's an argument between different governments,
02:56but ultimately it is a chance for the Labour government in Westminster to showcase why Scots should vote Labour at a holiday election next year.
03:05So it's all down to electioneering, really, when you look down at it properly.
03:09Right, Joel, on a practical term, though, comparing the apps, and we've covered this a little bit before,
03:14so a lot of people watching this will be familiar with it.
03:17It hits 8.30, you need to get on the phone or even go in person to your health service or your GP to try and get a booking on the day.
03:26It can be incredibly difficult.
03:28You can have to call multiple times, whereas the app in England is getting to the point where you've got the functionality
03:34where you can book GP appointments via the app, which seems attractive on paper.
03:39Now, does the UK Labour government have a point here because that functionality in the app is not going to be here when it launches?
03:49I think when you look at both apps, they probably are quite far behind what we're seeing technology-wise in the private sector.
03:56Even just looking at simple things like banking apps, for example, they can become very sophisticated.
04:00So you're seeing a lot of things lagging behind.
04:02There's been complaints as well about local authority services, for example, should there be more technology used there?
04:08So I think it's an across-the-board kind of thing, and it's probably something that both governments need to really be on top of at the moment,
04:15particularly with the rise of AI.
04:16So the UK government, for example, is saying that they're wanting to try and use AI in their app, for example, moving forward.
04:22So lots of questions right now about what both governments do.
04:25But I think both governments have a problem with slightly falling behind the private sector when it comes to technology here.
04:31And talking about electioneering, you've been doing a bit of forward-looking ahead to next year's election.
04:39It's never too early for these things because we're starting to get an idea of who the likely candidates for constituencies will be.
04:46We know some of the battles, like Fergus Ewing, will be involved as an independent.
04:51But you've been looking at smallest and biggest majorities, effectively.
04:55Just tell us about a couple of the interesting seats that we can keep it on.
05:00Yeah, if you look at the largest majority, it's probably not surprising because most of the constituency MSPs in Holyrood are SNP.
05:08So it's not a surprise that when you look at the largest majorities, they are all people who won as SNP candidates.
05:15Kate Forbes, now she has the largest majority up in Skylchabr and Badenoch.
05:18And the Lib Dems are saying that they want to win this seat.
05:22They are quite confident they have a historic fan base in that area.
05:26But we look at Kate Forbes' majority, it's over 15,000.
05:30It's a massive majority.
05:32So unlikely that the Lib Dems are going to be able to make much of a dent in there.
05:36So other big majorities as well.
05:38You've seen Jenny Gilruth down in Fife, for example.
05:40She is a very large majority.
05:42Both Dundee seats for the SNP have large majorities too.
05:45So quite interesting to look at that.
05:46Perhaps what's more interesting is the smallest majorities.
05:50The smallest majority is only 170, and that is in Ayr.
05:55So this is the Community Safety Minister, Siobhan Brown.
05:58She only has a very, very, very tight majority.
06:01So going into this next election, Ayr is probably one of the seats you want to keep a very close eye on.
06:06The other one with a very small majority is the Banff on Buckingham Coast.
06:09Karen Adam has got, I can't remember exactly how many it is, but it is a three-figure majority.
06:14It is very, very small.
06:16And what's quite interesting is Gordon and Buckingham in the Westminster election last year went to the Conservatives, one of the very few seats in Scotland to do so.
06:24So those two seats in particular are ones that I think people will really want to keep an eye on to see what happens when it comes to majorities.
06:30But a few other seats are interesting too.
06:34Both Dundee seats I think will be interesting because you've got Joe Fitzpatrick and Shona Robinson, two huge figures in the SNP who are standing down from Hollywood after many, many years.
06:43Both have massive majorities.
06:45Dundee, of course, is Yes City.
06:46It's one of the few places to vote Yes in the 2014 independence referendum.
06:50So whatever happens there is going to be very, very interesting, I think.
06:53You mentioned Fergus Hewing there, Inverness and Nairn, a very interesting seat to watch as well.
06:59The SNP have got Emma Roddick as their candidate.
07:01Now she is currently an MSP for the Highlands and Islands, has previously been a government minister as well.
07:07And she's already putting out a lot of pieces in newspapers about why people should vote for her rather than Fergus Hewing.
07:13That's because Fergus Hewing has announced that he will be standing in that constituency again, albeit as an independent candidate.
07:20So he's got a very comfortable majority.
07:22He's been in that seat for years and years and years.
07:26Can he hold on to it without the SNP name behind him?
07:28That's going to be a really interesting one to watch as well.
07:31And Rachel, am I right in saying Jackie Bailey, the Labour deputy, a Scottish Labour deputy later, doesn't have a massive majority either?
07:38Yeah, it's not a massive majority. It's only about 1000 and something.
07:42So it is quite small on the grand scale of things.
07:44When you look at Kate Forbes on 15 and it's odd, you see Jackie Bailey, the equivalent in her party as deputy leader is a bit smaller, of course.
07:55She has been the MSP in Dumbarton.
07:58I want to say since devolution, it's certainly been a very, very long time.
08:02So she does have that staying power, which she will have behind her.
08:05She's a very well-known name. Same time, though, as a very small majority, anything could happen moving forward.
08:11So that is probably another one to keep an eye out for.
08:15And let's just remember that in 2021, Labour only won two constituency seats.
08:20Jackie Bailey was one of them.
08:22And we're very keen to make sure they can hold on to that when it comes to 2026.
08:25You can read the packages that Rachel's done around smallest and biggest majorities at scotsman.com.
08:32If you ever can't find any of the coverage, just look for the politics tab in the navigation bar.
08:38You can read the story about the row between West Streeting and John Sweeney, certainly in one direction at the moment at scotsman.com as well.
08:47So, Rachel, thank you for joining us.
08:50For everyone else, pick up a copy of the Scotsman in Print tomorrow, and you'll get all the latest politics here in Scotland, more widely broad in the UK and beyond.
08:59Thanks for joining us.
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