00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Politic Show. We'll be able to unwrap and unpick First Ministers' Questions.
00:07It was the first First Ministers' Questions since we resumed from summer recess
00:13and it came on the back of John Skinner making an announcement or a statement of speech this morning on independence.
00:22Alistair, probably no surprise that the opposition went hard over this.
00:28Yeah, as you say, this is the first First Ministers' Questions back after the summer recess.
00:33There's been lots going on in Scottish politics, but it sort of feels like we're just entering this extremely long election campaign.
00:40There's a Holyrood election due to take place in May next year
00:43and it's fair to say the First Ministers' Questions had both eyes really on that.
00:47As you say, John Swinney was making a speech in Leith in Edinburgh this morning about independence,
00:52talking about the fact that independence has never been more important, more urgent.
00:57He was again bringing up that sort of slightly new strategy he's got that relies on the S&P winning a majority of that election next year.
01:05He said he's determined to see the S&P win a majority of seats in next May's election.
01:09That, he says, would be the precedent.
01:12So that is the precedent that we've seen in the past.
01:15He always points to the fact in 2011 the S&P won that majority and then we saw the independence referendum take place in 2014 as a direct result of that.
01:24So he's effectively saying, or the S&P is effectively saying that a majority of pro-independence parties at Holyrood is still a mandate as far as they're concerned.
01:32That's still a democratic mandate for another independence referendum.
01:35But if you want to ensure that it happens, you've got to look at that precedent that was set in 2011 and vote for the S&P and to ensure that there's a majority of S&P MSPs.
01:47And that that would, they say, guarantee that a secondary independence referendum takes place.
01:51And it's no surprise that both Russell Finlay, the Scottish Conservative leader, and Anna Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, were really laying into John Swinney over this.
01:59Russell Finlay was accusing John Swinney of cynically trying to shift the focus away from the S&P's dismal record.
02:05Anna Sarwar was pointing to problems within the NHS, NHS waiting lists.
02:10He was pointing to the fact that Health Secretary Neil Gray apparently rolled back on a promise that by March 2026, no one will have to wait more than a year for NHS treatment.
02:21That was a promise that was made.
02:23Neil Gray the other day referred to it as an aspiration.
02:26That's a clear downgrading, obviously.
02:29So very much saying that John Swinney is out of touch with the priorities of the people.
02:35They don't want to be talking about independence.
02:36They don't want to be talking about the constitution.
02:38They want to be dealing with the fact that public services in Scotland are not where they would like them to be.
02:43Anna Sarwar hitting out of what he called a knackered government and saying that the NHS wouldn't survive a third decade of S&P government control.
02:52So very much, as I say, our First Minister's questions focus on those election soundbites and those arguments being put forward by all three of the main political parties.
03:02I think we should expect to hear a lot more of in the coming months.
03:05Unfortunately, we may all be incredibly bored by it by the time the election rolls around.
03:10The Deputy Political Editor David Bowles written on that NHS road back as well, the description of that promise or that pledge made instead as an aspiration.
03:21You can read that at scotsman.com.
03:23Alistair, during the summer we've had a change in Greens co-leaders and Ross Greer had his first chance to impress tonight.
03:31How did he go?
03:32Yeah, so Ross Greer was elected as the Scottish Greens co-leader alongside Julian Mackay.
03:38Obviously, he used to be Lorna Slater and Patrick Harvey.
03:41Lorna Slater put himself forward again, but wasn't chosen by the membership.
03:44Ross Greer today, I think it's a fairly solid performance.
03:47He went in on initially, at least anyway, on council tax debt.
03:52Ross Greer is quite a confident parliamentary performer in Holyrood, so I think he'll be fairly happy with how that went.
03:59Albeit, it's not really something that's going to lead to any big headlines tomorrow given what else is going on in Holyrood and in Scotland across politics.
04:07But yeah, fairly confident performance.
04:10I think the Greens see themselves as in a reasonably good position approaching that Holyrood election next year.
04:15Their polling is not too shabby at all.
04:18They're on course to increase their number of MSPs by a little bit.
04:22Albeit, they might be a little bit worried about the potential for a new left-wing party under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.
04:30And the effects that might have on Scotland, I think if you speak to kind of pollsters like John Curtis, like Mark Diffley, they will always say the kind of voting public in Scotland is a little bit more left-wing than down south.
04:41So there might be inroads that a party led by Jeremy Corbyn could make into Scotland.
04:45And that, you'd think, could be a problem for the Greens, because that's exactly the territory that they try to appeal to in Scotland.
04:51But the Greens are in a fairly good position, I think.
04:54And just lastly, Alistair, in the build-up to proceedings in the chamber today, there was a protest outside the new person.
05:04Yeah, so four women Scotland campaign group protesting outside Holyrood today, asking the government to implement that Supreme Court judgment,
05:11the landmark Supreme Court judgment that we had back in April, I think,
05:15that basically ruled that a woman is defined by biological sex under the Equality Act.
05:23And that's expected to have wide-ranging implications for services, public services, for the government in Scotland, for things like schools, for hospitals,
05:32when it comes to single-sex spaces, such as toilets and changing rooms.
05:35And four women Scotland, who won against the Scottish government, they brought that court case,
05:40are effectively asking the Scottish government to implement this now.
05:43They're saying that the Scottish government is dragging its feet over this.
05:46Tess White, the Scottish Tory MSP, brought this up in Holyrood.
05:50John Swinney effectively saying that the government's position is the same, that it's working on this behind the scenes,
05:56is awaiting, I think, the kind of updated final guidance from the EHRC.
06:01And so the position remains sort of the same, but it was quite a large protest outside Holyrood, actually.
06:07And quite loud, the media tower is directly over that kind of section of the front of Holyrood.
06:13And yeah, they were really making their voices heard.
06:16You can read stories on a range of things that we've discussed here on the bulletin at scotsman.com.
06:23As I said, David Bowles brought you the story on the NHS aspiration,
06:30and there'll be coverage from Alistair Grant around the independence debate today on the site to read shortly.
06:36Please follow us on all social media channels, and if you want a full wrap,
06:40including what Sir Keir Starmer had to say about the vandalism of Angela Rayner's property,
06:49we know she's under a lot of pressure around her position over failing to pay appropriate stamp duty on that property.
06:56You can pick up a copy of tomorrow's Scotsman to read about that info.
07:00Alistair, thanks to you for bringing us up to speed, and thanks to everyone else for tuning in.
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