Scotsman Politics: FMQs Review - Thursday January 11 2024
Scotsman Politics: FMQs Review - Thursday January 11 2024
Scotsman Head of News Dale Miller and Political Editor Alistair Grant look back on FMQs
Scotsman Head of News Dale Miller and Political Editor Alistair Grant look back on FMQs
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NewsTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Politics Show.
00:10 We're doing a wrap of First Minister's Questions.
00:14 The 1st of 2024, it's gonna be a general election year
00:18 and we can look forward to some fiery ones ahead.
00:21 Alistair, it was no surprise
00:24 that the Post Office Horizon scandal was leading FMQs,
00:29 but something that caught my attention
00:31 right towards the end was an update on XL Bully Dogs.
00:34 - Yeah, so this was Humza Yousaf
00:38 essentially confirming that Scotland
00:39 will follow England and Wales
00:41 and introducing restrictions on XL Bully Dogs,
00:44 an effective ban on the breeds.
00:46 Obviously people can still own them
00:48 if they apply for this kind of licensing scheme
00:50 and walk them with a muzzle and a lead,
00:52 but a ban for all intents and purposes,
00:55 for headline purposes, he's following
00:57 the kind of England and Wales measures on this.
01:00 And I think it's particularly notable
01:01 that it's taken the Scottish government
01:03 quite a bit of time to get to this position,
01:06 despite the fact that it seemed almost inevitable
01:08 for people looking on,
01:10 and I think even speaking to people
01:11 behind the scenes in government,
01:12 there was an acceptance that they would need
01:14 to do something about this
01:16 when England and Wales introduced their own measures.
01:19 I think it was at the start of January.
01:21 Ever since that time, we've had stories
01:23 of XL Bully Dogs being brought across the border
01:26 into Scotland, we've had an acceptance
01:28 in the government that they had seen an influx
01:29 in the breed, there's been all sorts of concerns
01:31 about the impact that might have,
01:34 both in terms of safety of the children,
01:38 perhaps, and families that are taking these dogs
01:40 into their home, but also on the treatment
01:42 of the dogs themselves when they come to Scotland,
01:45 where they're going, who's purchasing them.
01:50 There was just, it was almost inevitable
01:51 that the Scottish government would need to act.
01:53 And even as recently as Friday last week,
01:56 Humza Yousaf was saying that he didn't think
01:59 there was a need for a ban in Scotland
02:00 because there was already a strict regime in place,
02:04 but now they've clearly gone back in that
02:06 and they have realised that they had to do something
02:08 and the inevitable has happened
02:10 and they've followed England and Wales.
02:12 - Just on that, Alistair, 'cause I wanna pick a bit at it
02:15 because we had it on the front page of Saturday Scotsman,
02:18 Humza Yousaf said later on Friday,
02:22 "Look, we have no intention at this stage."
02:24 Then six days later, he's saying,
02:27 "We're gonna go ahead with the ban."
02:29 It doesn't seem like a great look
02:31 for the Scottish government,
02:32 and it's maybe not the first time in recent weeks
02:34 where they've lost out, for want of a better word,
02:37 to the direction of the UK government.
02:39 Do you think it's an issue?
02:40 - I mean, as I say, I think he just had the sense
02:44 of inevitability about it.
02:45 You're right, I'm afraid he was saying,
02:47 I mean, he was saying that they were keeping this
02:48 under review and he was saying it wasn't
02:49 the kind of final position, but he was saying
02:51 he didn't think there'd be a need for a ban.
02:53 We've obviously gone back in that.
02:54 Their position has always been that you've got groups
02:57 like the SSPCA, you've got groups that deal
03:00 with animal welfare that don't like the idea of a ban,
03:03 that are against it for various reasons,
03:06 not least kind of welfare issues.
03:08 There's obviously a lot of problems a ban creates,
03:11 particularly when it's introduced in the way
03:12 that it has been introduced.
03:14 But I think when you've got a situation
03:16 where people can easily just cross the border
03:18 into Scotland, and there was this kind of narrative
03:20 developing that Scotland was, you know,
03:22 quote unquote, a safe haven for exiled bully dogs,
03:25 whether or not that was the case,
03:27 it was just clear the Scottish government
03:28 is going to have to do something.
03:30 It has been a bit of a surprise that it's taken them
03:32 this long to get to this stage.
03:34 I think particularly when you've got Siobhan Brown,
03:37 the community safety minister in the Scottish government,
03:40 who I think was tweeting things last week
03:43 or in recent times anyway, basically against the idea
03:47 of banning a breed.
03:48 So, they've had a kind of confusing narrative around this.
03:51 And as I say, it's not a surprise
03:53 that they have eventually ended up in this position.
03:55 - Alistair, on the post office we had late yesterday,
04:00 Hamza Yousaf confirmed in a letter
04:02 to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak,
04:04 that basically all those sub postmasters
04:08 committed in Scotland would be cleared.
04:10 But the direction of travel today,
04:12 and it's slightly complex,
04:14 if our listeners want to know more about it,
04:17 please read Alex Brown's explainer
04:20 on the post office scandal at scotsman.com.
04:23 But effectively, the Crown Office was used to prosecute
04:26 here in Scotland.
04:27 Now that was picked at a bit today in FMQs
04:30 and there were calls for the Lord Advocate
04:33 to stand up and answer questions.
04:34 Can you explain a little bit about what that was about?
04:38 - Yeah, so obviously this is on the,
04:39 all of this kind of post office arising scandal
04:41 has been bubbling away in the background
04:43 for a number of years,
04:45 but it's kind of been thrown back into the limelight
04:47 on the back of this ITV drama,
04:49 which has very much humanized the issue
04:50 and made it into a huge political issue.
04:53 And we obviously saw Rishi Sunak coming out and saying,
04:55 well, they were going to introduce primary legislation
04:57 to effectively exonerate people involved in this.
05:01 Hamza Yousaf keen that Scotland follows suit,
05:04 but as you say, it's quite complicated this,
05:08 because obviously Scotland has a separate legal system.
05:11 While the post office was prosecuting itself
05:14 then in England and Wales,
05:15 in Scotland those prosecutions were being led
05:17 by the Crown Office.
05:18 And so it was Douglas Ross,
05:20 Scottish Conservative leader,
05:21 Anna Sarwar, Scottish Labour leader,
05:23 both going on this today,
05:24 they're picking apart different aspects of it.
05:27 Douglas Ross, basically trying to get to the bottom
05:29 of what the Crown Office knew and when.
05:31 So they were obviously,
05:33 and there's been stories very recently about this idea
05:36 that they had kind of been told
05:38 that there were potential problems
05:39 with the horizon system in 2013.
05:42 And prosecutions, I think I understand,
05:44 still went on after that,
05:46 but the Crown Office is saying that effectively
05:48 they were not prosecutions,
05:50 the horizon was part of the key evidence.
05:52 It's a very complicated situation.
05:54 And MSPs, the two party leaders effectively calling
05:57 for the Lord Advocate, Dorothy Bain, to come before MSPs.
06:01 She's obviously Scotland's top law officer
06:03 to answer questions on this.
06:05 I think it seems like she is willing to do that.
06:08 So I think we should expect that to happen.
06:11 But Douglas Ross, there are serious questions to answer
06:14 for the Crown Office.
06:15 And it's effectively, she's going to run and run.
06:18 - Alistair, I do think it's incredible.
06:23 You've seen the airing of the documentary
06:25 and by effectively Wednesday of this week,
06:28 commitments to clear all the people prosecuted
06:31 in these cases, a clear indication
06:33 of when there's political impetus behind an issue
06:36 about how quickly you can get a result.
06:39 Look, you can read all about the developments from FMQs.
06:43 We ran a lot of blog that's available at scotsman.com
06:46 and all the latest will be at the politics tab.
06:50 You'll find it in the navigation bar on the homepage.
06:53 Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter,
06:55 and you can read the very latest
06:57 in our print edition of the Scotsman Tonight.
07:00 Thanks to you, Alistair,
07:01 and thanks to all our listeners for joining us.
07:04 (upbeat music)
07:08 (upbeat music)
07:10 you