The Scotsman Bulletin Wednesday 27 March
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00:00 Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Bulletin for Wednesday. I'm Alan Young, I'm
00:10 Deputy Editor of the Scotsman and I'm joined today by our Political Editor from Holyrood,
00:13 Alistair Grant. How's it going Alistair? I'm very well thanks, how are you? Not bad, let's
00:19 have a look at the front page first. And we lead today on the latest twist I guess in
00:28 Scotland's ferry fiasco and this is the Chief of Ferguson Marine being sacked yesterday.
00:36 It was a surprising move, I think it pretty much caught everyone out. Suggestion though
00:43 is that further delays to the Glen Sannachs, the first of the two ferries to be built,
00:52 are now on the horizon as well as associated cost rises. Our Transport Correspondent Alistair
00:58 Dalton has the full story. We're also expecting more on that today as questions are likely
01:04 to be asked in Parliament. If you can bear it, up the top of the page there, Scotland's
01:09 defeat against Northern Ireland, not the ideal warm up to the Euros this summer. And we also
01:18 have a comment piece there from Ewan McComb looking at Hamza Yousaf's first year and that
01:24 is what I want to speak to Alistair about today. So today Alistair, we are expecting
01:30 Hamza Yousaf to be quizzed by a Holyrood committee but he is also on the eve of one year as First
01:40 Minister. Yeah, so you can mark this anniversary in different ways I suppose. You could say
01:46 that you could mark it today, I think he was elected SNP leader on the 27th which is today.
01:53 You could mark it tomorrow when he was elected First Minister in Holyrood or you could mark
01:57 it on Friday when he was formally sworn in as First Minister a year ago on that day.
02:02 So essentially it's this week is marking the anniversary of his first year in charge. I
02:07 think everyone would accept it's been a very difficult year. Some of the reasons outweigh
02:11 his control. Foremost among that is the fact that within days of him being elected First
02:18 Minister we saw police descend on the house shared by Nicola Sturgeon and her husband
02:22 Peter Murrell and those scenes of the blue CSI style, blue evidence tent being erected
02:28 outside their quiet suburban home which I think will be seared into Hamza Yousaf's nightmares
02:33 for probably the rest of his life. Obviously that police investigation, still ongoing,
02:39 still casting a bit of a shadow over the party. We also had Hamza Yousaf quite quickly ditching
02:45 some of Nicola Sturgeon's policy agenda when he got in charge, things like highly protected
02:48 marine areas, that consultation that people might remember on alcohol advertising which
02:53 was very controversial at the time. He had a lot of difficulty with the deposit return
02:58 scheme which eventually was chucked into the long grass as well. The gender reforms as
03:03 well, it was a legacy of the Nicola Sturgeon era which obviously ended up in the courts
03:08 and ended up again being kind of rolled back on, put in the back burner. So he's not had
03:15 any difficulties to seek, he's had a very difficult year. I think his supporters would
03:19 point to the fact that he, by moving away from some of Nicola Sturgeon's policies, including
03:24 her strategy on independence it should be said, he's become his own man. They would
03:29 point to the fact that he's much more collegiate, he tries to have a more approachable form
03:36 of government, he's much more, certainly making more effort to open doors with the business
03:43 community. I think the SNP are doing a business dinner actually in May, he's tried to make
03:48 some connections there, not without controversy, we obviously had some stories around Brian
03:52 Souter and then kind of opening channels to Brian Souter again, a controversial figure
03:56 among many in the political scene in Scotland. And he's also, I suppose, he's got a perception
04:04 of being quite open to the media. He famously, during the start of his time as First Minister,
04:10 would often stop when journalists were questioning him as he exited the Holyrood chamber, and
04:15 would often say things actually that would lead to headlines that weren't any help to
04:18 him. But I think it has been a difficult year for him, as you say he'll be grilled today
04:24 at the Holyrood Conveners Committee, which is where all the conveners of the various
04:28 Holyrood committees come together for this special committee. They can ask Hans and Yusuf
04:32 questions on anything they want, you can probably expect some questions on topical issues like
04:36 the hate crime legislation, some stuff on the budget probably, there's a new housing
04:42 bill that's out today, the Scottish Government's come under quite a lot of criticism for housing.
04:46 But it really is an opportunity for those Holyrood conveners to ask anything they want,
04:51 anything can come out of it, so it should be a fascinating watch this afternoon.
04:55 Indeed, and how do you think Hans and Yusuf will be feeling today? I mean, some may see
05:01 it as an achievement that he's still there, in post a year later, given the circumstances
05:06 that he walked into, as you know. Looking ahead, though, we've got a very difficult
05:15 general election campaign coming up in the next few months.
05:19 Yeah, I mean, I won't pretend to have insight into how he's feeling, I imagine he'd be pleased
05:25 to be here a year later. I mean, he's always talked about how the role is a privilege,
05:29 and it absolutely is. The fact he's got there in the first place is an achievement.
05:34 I don't think there would have been any expectation that he would have immediately been knocked
05:38 out of the post, just because of the way it kind of works. I think this general election
05:43 will be difficult for them, and I think if the SNP come out of that with a result that
05:46 is perceived to be a bad result, you know, if they lose a significant number of seats
05:51 in Scotland, which many polls suggest they will, I think there'll be hard questions for
05:55 Hans and Yusuf, there might be calls for him to step down as leader.
05:59 I think, you know, one of the problems there would be who would replace him. A lot of people
06:03 point to Kate Forbes, the former finance secretary has a potential there. I think she would have
06:10 a divisive effect among aspects of the party, but it's obviously a very capable politician
06:14 and certainly has supporters in the party who really look to her as the future. Some
06:20 other people point to Stephen Flynn, the SNP Westminster leader, but of course he's in
06:24 Westminster, he's not in Holyrood, so that would potentially cause its own problems.
06:29 But other than those two, there really aren't any other names that are discussed seriously
06:34 at the moment. So yeah, it's hard to tell what the future will bring. I think the general
06:38 election will be a crunch moment for the SNP, and certainly after that they're then looking
06:43 ahead to the 2026 Holyrood election, and that election, you know, really could see, if Labour
06:50 win the general election this year, you'll have Anas Sarwar in Scotland and Scottish
06:53 Labour looking ahead to that election and thinking that they could have a serious shot
06:57 of Newthouse themselves, and Anas Sarwar could be thinking that he is, you know, seriously
07:02 in for a shot of becoming First Minister. And that's a position that would have been
07:05 unthinkable a couple of years ago.
07:07 Indeed. Interesting times. Thanks very much for that, Alistair. Please keep an eye on
07:12 Scotsman.com throughout the day, where we'll have all the very latest, including Hamza
07:17 Musaf before that, conveners committee. If you can, please do subscribe and then you
07:23 will not miss a thing. And if you're out and about today as ever, please pick up a copy
07:26 of the paper from me and from Alistair. Bye for now.
07:30 [Music]