The Scotsman Bulletin Wednesday 08 May 2024 #JohnSwinney
The Scotsman Bulletin Wednesday 08 May 2024 #JohnSwinney
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00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Built-in for Wednesday. I'm Alan Young, I'm
00:15Deputy Editor of the Scotsman and I'm joined today on another big day, yet another big
00:20day for Scottish politics by our Deputy Political Editor David Ball. Hi David. Morning Alan.
00:26Let's have a look at the front page first. No surprise what story we're leading on and
00:33that is John Swinney, First Minister-elect as he was in that picture, who was voted through
00:42in Parliament yesterday. He's pictured there with his predecessors Nicola Sturgeon and
00:47Humza Yousaf and in his first speech in the chamber he called for a change in the way
00:55that the Parliament does politics to make it less combative and more collaborative with
01:01other parties. We will see how that goes, David, today, no doubt, and the first big
01:09events will be Mr Swinney appointing his Cabinet. Yeah, that's right, he's getting sworn in
01:16this morning as the formality at the Court of Session to become First Minister officially
01:20and then we're expecting him to name his Cabinet. We're not sure how many changes he'll
01:26make, we're expecting it to be a smaller ministerial team, a lot of those junior ministers may
01:30be whittled down a little bit and obviously we're expecting Kate Forbes to be given a
01:36big job, it was part of his pitch to her to step aside. But yeah, we should get an idea
01:42of what his top team is going to look like by the middle of this afternoon. And that
01:48can also give us an indication of what policies he's likely to place the most importance on.
01:56We would expect, I would imagine, certain more controversial policies not to be pursued
02:04in this minority government and perhaps a change in focus. Yeah, I mean he made quite
02:10clear yesterday that the only way he's going to get things done is if opposition MSPs agree
02:15with him essentially, he needs their support to do anything now. So we will probably see
02:21a little bit of that, he can choose what his Cabinet Secretaries are responsible for. Humza
02:25Yousaf got a bit of criticism for initially not having a Transport Secretary, for example,
02:31before he kind of bumped Fiona Hislop's job up to a full Cabinet Secretary. So it'll be
02:36interesting to see what roles he has in his actual Cabinet. Those two Green ministers
02:40obviously were not replaced by Humza Yousaf, although he didn't have much time to really
02:44do anything with those jobs, but they've kind of been swallowed up by existing Cabinet
02:48Secretaries. So it'll be interesting to see not just his Cabinet Secretaries, but who
02:52he thinks he needs a dedicated minister for and basically set out what his priorities
02:57will be in the coming years.
02:58Indeed, and all eyes on Kate Forbes, obviously, and what job she walks into. We've got no
03:06idea other than it's going to be high profile, perhaps Deputy First Minister even.
03:12Yeah, there's been some speculation that it could be a Deputy First Minister, the role
03:16for her, even as a sort of a big show to that side of the party that Swinney means business
03:23by uniting the party. But obviously, someone will have to come out from that if that happens.
03:28Shona Robison, we're not really sure what the future lies for her, I guess. She was
03:33not at Mr. Swinney's sort of campaign launch. There was a bit of speculation. Was that a
03:38sign that maybe she was going to step aside for Kate Forbes to take sort of her dual role
03:44as Finance Secretary, which Kate Forbes has obviously done before, and that Deputy First
03:48Minister. But we really don't know. She may just get shuffled about or she may be taking
03:53a step back. We'll just kind of have to wait and see what John Swinney decides.
03:59Just a word on yesterday. It was quite notable, I think, the atmosphere in Parliament. Did
04:08it change? Certainly to an outsider watching on. With John Swinney going heavy on the idea
04:19of collaborating with other parties, he made a point after his speech of crossing the floor
04:25and shaking the hands of the opposition leaders. How has that gone down? And how long will
04:31it last?
04:33Well, that's a good question. I mean, John Swinney admitted himself, he was one of the
04:37key architects of the sort of hostile politics we've seen. And a man who's been in Hollywood
04:44for 20 years now asking for change. I don't know how seriously people will take it. And
04:49Asawa said off the bat, he was a bit sceptical that it would last. And obviously, he still
04:54brought up independence and the sort of divisions we've seen. Although he did make a point of
04:59saying that this has got to be done on both sides have kind of a right to say what they
05:05want. We'll have to wait and see how long it lasts, because it maybe won't take long
05:09for the opposition to wind John Swinney up. And we'll just have to see how he reacts.
05:13And if that willingness really is there, if he wants to get things done, he wants to achieve
05:17stuff, he's gonna have to reach out to somebody in that chamber that's not his party. So it's
05:23really down to him to kind of manage that and see where we get to. But yeah, you're
05:27right, straight off the bat, he is trying to plead with his opponents to come together
05:32a bit more and work a bit more sensibly and grown up, really.
05:37Indeed. And once we have the new cabinet in place, I guess we will then be looking ahead
05:44to tomorrow. And it seems incredible, but that will be his first First Minister's question.
05:49Yeah, I mean, this week has flown by like last week, and it's just been a bit hectic
05:56in Scottish politics. But yeah, tomorrow, we'll actually get some sort of normality,
06:00I guess, and what we can expect to see at First Minister's questions from John Swinney
06:04and Douglas Ross. It doesn't look like they particularly get on. We've seen a couple of
06:10clashes recently. Douglas Ross winding him up quite easily, to be perfectly honest, about
06:16the sort of Honest John sort of label. So it's gonna be a big test for John Swinney
06:21to kind of keep his calm and keep his head when Douglas Ross probably will wind him up
06:25a little bit and see if he is going to react as we would expect him to in the years gone by.
06:31Indeed. We'll watch with interest. Thanks very much for all that, David. Please keep
06:35an eye on scottsman.com throughout the day where we'll have all the very latest updates
06:40and we'll also have a live blog running on that cabinet reshuffle. If you can, do subscribe
06:45to our site and then you'll be able to read and watch absolutely everything. And if you're
06:50out and about today as ever, please do pick up a copy of the paper from me and from David.
06:54Bye for now.