The Scotsman Bulletin Wednesday September 13 2023 #STL
The Scotsman Bulletin Wednesday September 13 2023 #STL
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00:00 Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Bulletin for Wednesday. I'm Alan Young, Deputy
00:08 Editor of the Scotsman. I'm joined today by our political correspondent Rachel Emery to
00:12 take a look ahead to the day in Holyrood. Hi Rachel.
00:17 Morning.
00:18 Let's have a look at the front page first. And we lead today on the drugs deaths again.
00:26 There were new figures out yesterday that showed that suspected drugs deaths were actually
00:33 on the rise again, running at 100 a month. And that is while there's a continuing debate
00:40 around the idea of a safe drug consumption room pilot in Glasgow, we picture on the front
00:48 there the dejected Andy Robertson after England's win at Hampden last night. We don't need to
00:55 say any more on that, I don't think. So Rachel, let's look ahead right away to what's coming
01:01 up at Holyrood and should be another big day with the thorny issue of short term lets on
01:09 the agenda.
01:10 Yes, it's the debate that the Scottish Conservatives are bringing forward this afternoon. Our Deputy
01:16 Political Editor, Clare Matchett, will actually be at Parliament today to sit in on that debate
01:20 and hear what actually happens. But basically, this is a new scheme the government's introduced
01:25 where everyone who has a holiday let, whether it's a full property or just a spare room
01:30 they have on Airbnb, for example, they have to have a licence for that. And the deadline
01:34 to apply for that licence is coming up soon on the 1st of October. Now, those who want
01:40 this scheme in the government say that not only will it help to regulate this industry,
01:45 but it will also help to maybe free up some housing as well, because we know that there's
01:49 a bit of a problem, particularly in areas like Edinburgh and the Highlands, where there
01:53 is just such a saturation of these holiday lets, it becomes difficult to rent or buy
01:58 a house if you actually live there. So those on that side say that's going to help. On
02:03 the other side of things, though people are warning it could have a really negative impact
02:07 on the tourism industry, I think the Association of Self-Caterers, they've said that two thirds
02:12 of businesses could shut down as a result of this as well. So that's kind of the two
02:16 sides of the debate at the moment. Should there be a licence or should there not? Now,
02:20 the debate this afternoon from the Conservatives is asking for the scheme to be paused. So
02:24 not necessarily thrown out altogether, but paused because there's so much sort of complaints
02:28 about it and so much sort of unrest between those in the industry. It was also quite interesting
02:34 last week, there was a demonstration outside the Scottish Parliament from those campaigning
02:40 against this legislation being brought in, people who had holiday lets and things like
02:44 that. I saw a few of them outside, quite a lot of anger there. I think a lot of them
02:50 were sort of going a bit far as well with their messaging saying that it shows that
02:53 Holland's a pogrom parliament and things like that. So I'm not sure that messaging is particularly
02:58 helpful to their cause, but that happened last week as well.
03:01 Yeah, but, you know, despite the anger, and there's clearly a lot of anger in the industry,
03:08 I've seen reports of this is the end of the B&Bs, for instance, which may be an exaggeration,
03:16 but it clearly demonstrates the amount of feeling there is in the industry. The Scottish
03:23 government, though, have been pretty firm on it and not showing any sign that they're
03:28 going to budge.
03:29 Yeah, so I've spoken to people in the SNP and sort of in the government at Holyrood,
03:34 they're very much saying that this is just regulation, this is just a licence, this is
03:38 not anything more than that. So they're very much just saying, look, it's not going to
03:42 change very much at all, it's just going to provide a bit more regulation and a bit more
03:46 sort of security in the housing market. So they're very firm on that point, yes.
03:50 So we expect the Tory debate this afternoon and subsequent vote to fail, clearly, because
03:57 the SNP and Greens have the numbers, but there will be quite a lot of interest in it, and
04:04 particularly what one SNP rebel does.
04:07 Yes, this is Fergus Ewing here, very well known names in the SNP movement and the MSP
04:14 for Inverness and Nairn. And he's very recently, in recent months, got this sort of title of
04:19 rebel backbencher, because he has spoken out on a number of government policies recently,
04:25 including short-term lets. Now, the reason that we're wanting to watch this one quite
04:28 carefully is, I don't know if you remember, back in June, there was a vote of no confidence
04:32 in the Green minister, Lorna Slater. And in that vote, Fergus Ewing voted against the
04:37 government and went with the Conservatives instead, which, I mean, that's really not
04:42 the right thing to do. It has been described as a very serious matter by the first minister.
04:46 At that point, there was widespread speculation that he would be suspended from the SNP for
04:51 doing that. Now, that didn't happen at the time, we think probably because his mother,
04:56 Winnie Ewing, ended up dying very shortly after that vote took place.
05:01 So we're now a few months down the line, and we're still in a situation where he's not
05:05 been suspended, but there's still the speculation that he will, and that's been ramped up in
05:08 the last few days. Now, the reason that we're quite interested in this debate is because
05:13 he has spoken out against short-term let licensing before. We're kind of expecting him to do
05:17 that again today, which will be another example of him speaking out against the government,
05:22 and surely will just add fuel to the fire of those who are calling for him to be suspended
05:26 from the SNP. So it'll be really interesting to see what he does in this debate and what
05:31 the fallout of what he does will be as well.
05:34 Indeed, and that debate happens this afternoon?
05:37 Yes, this afternoon.
05:39 Great. Please do follow it live at scotsman.com throughout the day. If you are on the site,
05:46 please also subscribe if you can, and then you will not miss a thing. If you're out and
05:51 about today, please do also pick up a copy of the paper, despite the result last night
05:56 from me and from Rachel Edds. Bye for now.
05:59 Bye bye.
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