Alexander Brown talks to SNP MP Amy Callaghan
at Westminster
at Westminster
Category
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Hello, my name is Alexander Brown. I'm the Scotsman's Westminster Correspondent and I'm very lucky now to be joined by Amy Callaghan, the SNP.
00:06 How are you doing?
00:08 Hi, Alex. I'm doing fine, thank you. Just in the middle of a busy day here at Westminster.
00:12 So we are now walking just around Westminster, which you can see behind us.
00:16 I'm holding a camera stand incredibly ungracefully.
00:20 So are you happy in Westminster? What are your times like? What are your days like at the moment?
00:25 Happy at Westminster is not a phrase I would use, but I think, you know, doing what we can to stand up for people of East Dunbartonshire and for people right across Scotland.
00:34 That's a very serious answer.
00:35 That's a very serious answer, yes.
00:37 But I'm a very serious politician.
00:39 It's obviously interspersed with a lot of breakdowns and stress, but you know, we're trying our best. That's the gist of it.
00:46 And so obviously lots of MPs live near Westminster. You live on the other side of the bridge.
00:53 What's your commute like? Obviously, you don't live here in London. You live in Scotland proudly.
00:58 But what is a typical day like for you on your journey in?
01:02 A very frustrating walk across Westminster Bridge where tourists stop to take photos and you have to give them their wee space to take their photo or you're asked to take their photo for them.
01:12 So it should be a five minute, seven minute commute at most, but it ends up taking anywhere between sort of 10 to 15 minutes to walk across the bridge.
01:20 And have you ever, and also, I mean, you might not know, lots of stalls in this area where people are selling nuts or they're doing that three cup game.
01:26 Have you bought any of those awful looking nuts?
01:29 No, I haven't. But I used to stay in the hotel at the other end of Westminster Bridge and every Monday night I would meet Jim Shannon at check-in and he would tell me that he just bought his nuts from the wee vendor at the end of the bridge.
01:39 So there's some MPs that keep them in business week in, week out eating those disgusting looking little nuts.
01:45 That is disgusting.
01:47 I write about politicians doing bad things for a living and that's one of the worst things I've ever heard.
01:51 So this is the most Jim Shannon thing ever. See when that little man at the nut stall was off with ill health, Jim Shannon looked after the nut stall for him.
01:58 So he was in Westminster every minute of the day and then when Westminster wasn't sitting he was selling nuts at that wee guy's stall.
02:07 Was he declaring that? Should I be investigating whether the MP was declaring?
02:11 How random is that? Like, I don't know.
02:15 Possibly the most Jim Shannon thing I've ever heard.
02:17 So in your time in Westminster, or being based closer to it, have you found any parts of London that you do like?
02:23 Where do MPs tend to socialise? Do you stay in the parliamentary estate or do you find cool spots outside?
02:29 I mean it literally just depends how much time there is. The entire time I've been elected I've stayed down in London for two weekends.
02:36 So I can't say I've particularly spent an awful lot of time in London but the two weekends that I've spent,
02:42 one went to see Bruce Springsteen and the second time I went to take Modern and to Battersea Power Station.
02:49 I got the Uber boat to Battersea Power Station. So I can't say I'm particularly well versed in London.
02:54 People seem to think this is quite a glamorous lifestyle but I see one end of Westminster Bridge and the other, that's about it usually.
03:00 For those of you who don't know, the Uber boat is the boat that goes across the Thames. I've never been on it.
03:04 That sounds quite cool.
03:05 It was actually quite cool, yeah, I enjoyed it. I got it from the London Eye to, well, from Embankment to Battersea Power Station and that was really nice.
03:15 So basically when I get time off I want to go make-up shopping, so that was what I did at Battersea Power Station.
03:20 So in the evenings you're not like, 'Oh, I'm going to go into Soho tonight and get a pizza' or 'I've heard there's a really cool ramen spot' or 'there's a musical I want to go and see'.
03:28 I mean, there's scope for that but there's just very little time for it, that's the unfortunate part.
03:33 So I'll see things on TikTok saying 'Amazing London brunch spot' or 'Amazing whatever' but I never get to do it.
03:40 It's your 'Amazing London brunch spot' or PCH, the parliamentary county going to Lords if there's a…
03:45 That's it, yeah, that's about as far reaching as I get to go unfortunately.
03:49 And not to make this incredibly specific to Westminster, but there's a hierarchy of food places to eat, right?
03:55 Oh, absolutely.
03:56 So you've picked a favourite, so there's Debate, there is the Lords, there's Terrace, or Bellamy's, Bellamy's is like the healthy one in theory, they've got fish and chips on a Friday.
04:07 What me and my staffer, as we do every day, is we look at the menus and then we assess which canteen we're going to go to.
04:12 My office is in PCH so the reality is I should probably go to Debate but say there's something really nice at the Terrace canteen, like the jerk chicken, that's my favourite.
04:21 If it's like jerk pork somewhere else or some sort of veggie curry, then we'll go across to Terrace and then bring that back across to the office.
04:29 There's definitely an elite of Westminster options and it just depends which canteen is serving it.
04:35 Why is the jerk chicken so popular? I mean jerk chicken is one of those things that it had its own Twitter account, so MPs know when it's happening.
04:42 I have seen political editors run out of room hearing 'jerk chicken' because they're worried it will run out.
04:48 Why is it so good?
04:50 I think it's so good because everything else is so bad.
04:53 It's like when you've got so many terrible lunch options, the one that's absolutely dino is going to seem even better.
05:02 I quite like the PCF, the breakfast BAP, which is like a hash brown, sausage, beans, egg.
05:12 Some of my staff get that actually most, some days.
05:15 But I tend to just go in and get a wee yoghurt or I get a pastry en route. I've not been big on getting the breakfast wrap actually.
05:22 And not a pastry from Gail's either.
05:24 No, not a pastry from Gail's because we're boycotting Gail's.
05:27 That is a public service announcement, we're boycotting Gail's.
05:31 The Gail's owner has some views that maybe some people might disagree with.
05:35 He might be a climate denier.
05:37 He might be. Legally we can't say that he is, but he might be.
05:40 There's some tweets which suggest that he might be a climate denier.
05:43 So we're now just going on to where it's being renovated because obviously Parliament is falling apart.
05:48 Do you ever see that? I mean are there drips everywhere that you work?
05:51 Oh yeah, yeah. I mean I'm quite lucky that my office is in Portcullis House, which is the newest building on the Parliamentary Estate.
05:58 But yeah, I mean there's mice and rats everywhere. It's genuinely quite a disgusting place to work.
06:03 The first thing I do every morning when I get into my office is anti-vac my entire desk.
06:08 Because if I'm going to sit there most of the day, or at least a chunk of the day, then I want to make sure it's clean.
06:14 I can just imagine there being mice running all across it over the course of an evening.
06:18 So you have to clean every time you get in?
06:20 Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's the first thing I do every day. It genuinely repulses me.
06:24 It's good you're not making your staffers do that.
06:27 I mean I can't pretend that they don't tidy up my office for me from time to time when it gets in a total mess.
06:34 Sorry mum, but she's always moaning at me as well for this day at my office.
06:39 So they'll tidy it, but I can't ask them to anti-vac my desk for me.
06:44 Okay, right. Well I think we've reached the park, so it's probably time to have a sit down and then maybe we can head back into Parliament.
06:50 So thank you so much for your time. I think we both deserve a cup of tea.
06:54 Absolutely. Although I'll take a coffee.
06:57 Thank you.
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