Scotsman deputy editor Alan Young looks back on the week in Scottish politics with political correspondent Rachel Amery
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00:10 >> Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Built-in for Friday.
00:14 It's Friday, it's been a long week.
00:17 It's not quite over yet.
00:18 I'm Alan Young, I am Deputy Editor of the Scotsman and
00:21 joined today by our political correspondent, Rachel Aimery,
00:25 who is no doubt pleased it's almost the end of the week.
00:27 Hi, Rachel.
00:28 >> Good morning.
00:30 >> Dramatic developments again.
00:33 Let's take a look at the front page.
00:35 We splashed today with John Swinney, the man who looks like he is going to be
00:43 the next SNP leader and first minister.
00:47 This could happen as soon as early next week.
00:50 And as I'm sure you all know now, it comes after Kate Forbes,
00:56 who was seen as his main, if only, leadership arrival,
01:01 announced that she would not be running and would be backing Mr. Swinney instead.
01:07 So, Rachel, it's back to the future for the SNP.
01:11 >> That is exactly what the Conservatives have been using in their
01:15 messaging over the past day, actually, yes.
01:18 Obviously, he was previously SNP leader, Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon,
01:23 described as the right hand man of Alex Salmond.
01:25 So, yes, very much somebody who's been at the heart of the SNP for decades, really.
01:31 And it does look like he is pretty certain to be first minister.
01:34 Of course, the ballot for SNP leader does close in midday on Monday,
01:41 but we are very much expecting nobody else at this point to put themselves forward.
01:46 If you look at what other people in the SNP have been saying over the past day,
01:49 they are very pleased to see John Swinney standing and
01:53 they're also very pleased to see him reach out to Kate Forbes and
01:55 offer her a very senior position within his cabinet.
01:58 So it seems like everybody has been, everyone's been sort of placated by this decision.
02:03 And so I imagine there won't be anybody else at this point who puts their hat in the ring.
02:07 >> And I imagine the SNP hierarchy were very keen to avoid another brutal leadership contest.
02:16 >> Yes, if you remember under Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP was just an election powerhouse, really.
02:21 The polls just seemed nothing could dent them under Nicola Sturgeon.
02:25 And yet when we had this leadership contest last year, some divisions got exposed,
02:29 some rifts got exposed.
02:31 There was some quite bitter back and forth between the candidates as well.
02:35 And that really hasn't been fixed in the past year.
02:38 There are still this camp of Kate Forbes supporters on the back benches in
02:42 Holyrood that kind of have just been a bit of a thorn in the back of Hamza Yusuf.
02:47 Whereas hopefully for the SNP, this will be sort of fixed by having the two
02:53 candidates come together in this contest.
02:57 >> Very much, I guess.
02:59 Hamza Yusuf was seen as a continuity candidate after Nicola Sturgeon.
03:05 John Swinney's really continuity 3.0, really.
03:09 Have we got any sense at all that he's going to do things differently to bring the party together?
03:16 >> That's a very good point.
03:17 I think somebody pointed out yesterday that if he does win the leadership contest,
03:21 it will mean the SNP has only had four different leaders since 1990.
03:26 So very much, yes, a continuity person who was seen as very close to former leaders,
03:31 Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond as well.
03:36 His speech yesterday, where he launched his leadership bid, was very much focused on
03:40 sort of steadying the ship, sort of bringing the party back together and
03:44 focusing on sort of the bread and butter politics.
03:46 Which I think as a former finance secretary, you'd expect him to do.
03:50 And you'd expect him to sort of maybe go back to, I suppose,
03:53 boring politics of just getting on with the job.
03:56 And I think as much as people will have said that they want to change,
03:59 I think they also want to see a return to, well, as Ash Vagan put it,
04:04 a return to competent government.
04:06 So I think people want to see that as well.
04:09 And obviously, we'll need to wait and see how much that happens.
04:13 But I think given the cost of living crisis, given the NHS crisis as well,
04:17 I think people want to see those issues fixed first and foremost.
04:21 And the big question, I guess, if everything goes as we're expecting it,
04:26 is what job is Kate Forbes doing again in a Sweeney cabinet?
04:31 Any intelligence around that at all?
04:34 There's lots of talk about that at the moment.
04:36 She is going to be offered a significant role within the cabinet.
04:41 But I think if I was her having stepped aside to allow John Sweeney to be coronated,
04:45 I would be demanding a deputy first minister and finance secretary, to be honest.
04:51 And previously, when I've spoken to John Sweeney about the appointment of Shona Robison,
04:55 the current deputy first minister and finance secretary,
04:58 he praised that decision, saying it was a good idea to have one person doing both jobs
05:03 because both of those jobs require you to be over all the different portfolios in government.
05:08 He, of course, himself held both jobs at once, too.
05:11 So I think we will keep those two jobs to one person and give that to Kate Forbes.
05:16 That's my opinion.
05:18 We'll see what transpires.
05:19 Thanks very much for that, Rachel.
05:21 I'm sure another busy day ahead.
05:22 Please keep an eye on Scotsman.com throughout the day.
05:25 We'll have all the very latest updates.
05:28 If you can, do subscribe, then you'll be able to read and watch everything on our website.
05:33 And if you're out and about today, please do pick up a copy of the paper from me and from Rachel.
05:38 So bye for now.
05:39 Goodbye.
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