The Scotsman: FMQs unpicked Thursday May 16 2024 #FMQs
The Scotsman: FMQs unpicked Thursday May 16 2024 #FMQs Dale Miller and Rachel Amery discuss the details of First Ministers Questions in the Scottish Parliament
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Politics Show.
00:12 We're here to wrap up First Minister's Questions,
00:15 the second featuring John Swinney in the leadership role.
00:19 My name's Dale Miller, I'm Head of News at the Scotsman,
00:21 and I'm joined by political correspondent, Rachel Aymory.
00:25 Rachel, welcome, it was a slightly less fiery,
00:30 could I say, First Minister's Questions for John Swinney
00:33 than the first one, but just as fascinating.
00:36 And it felt like a bit of a blast from the past
00:38 with health back dominating the agenda.
00:41 We saw health questions, I think,
00:43 so many weeks during Humza Yousaf's initial months as FM,
00:47 and it was firmly back on the agenda today.
00:49 Can you talk us through what was discussed?
00:53 - Yes, perhaps we should be a bit expectant,
00:55 because of course, John Swinney said he wanted
00:56 to get back to bread and butter politics.
00:58 So of course, that does mean that health care
01:01 is probably the biggest one there.
01:03 So yes, I think Scottish Conservative leader, Douglas Stross
01:05 and Scottish Lib Dem leader, Alex Cole-Hamilton,
01:09 both went on rural health care,
01:11 particularly because of what happened at the weekend
01:14 on the Isle of Skye.
01:15 There's women who died at a music festival
01:18 on Skye at the weekend, and there's also women in Portree
01:21 who had an anaphylactic allergic reaction
01:24 and couldn't get to Portree Hospital,
01:26 even though she was outside because it's closed.
01:28 So lots of back and forth of why the hospital
01:30 doesn't have emergency care,
01:32 what sort of provision there is on the islands,
01:34 and basically sort of trying to highlight
01:35 how much of an issue that this is.
01:37 So I think so much when we talk about health care,
01:39 we're talking about bigger, larger issues,
01:41 such as waiting lists, for example.
01:43 But I suppose if you're looking at these sort of smaller,
01:46 sort of geographical issues, it's a big problem
01:49 in terms of rural and highland areas in health care.
01:53 - Rachel, obviously, our condolences to the family
01:57 of the person who passed away in this circumstance.
02:01 But I thought as much as it's a critical health issue
02:03 to discuss, it was fascinating to see John Swinney's
02:06 approach to the issue.
02:08 Now, he was very much admitting that there was a problem
02:12 and admitting that it had been six months,
02:15 sorry, six years since the issue of hospital access,
02:20 et cetera, had been raised and was reviewed
02:23 by the government.
02:24 So he was accepting the problems and saying
02:26 they needed to do more.
02:27 That sort of upfront admission approach,
02:30 do you think that's gonna be something we're gonna see
02:32 more on the Swinney and his incarnation
02:36 of the Scottish leadership?
02:38 - Yeah, it was quite interesting to me.
02:40 He actually apologized for what had happened
02:42 at the weekend over in Portree.
02:44 So that was quite interesting to see
02:45 that not only was accepting that things were not right
02:48 and things hadn't gone as it should,
02:49 he also apologized to those two families as well.
02:53 So I think he wanted to see more of this.
02:55 He did say he wanted to be honest and upfront
02:57 with the public and more open about the challenges
02:59 government is facing.
03:00 I think this is probably the start
03:02 of what we're going to see there.
03:03 He was very open today, very open to admitting
03:06 things have gone wrong with the government
03:08 and it hasn't gone as well as it should.
03:09 So I think we'll have to wait and see how well
03:12 that sort of plays out.
03:13 So of course, if things don't get better
03:15 on the back of these apologies,
03:17 that will just cause more fodder for the opposition parties.
03:20 But it did seem to go down quite well
03:22 that he took this very serious tone
03:23 in replying to these questions about healthcare
03:26 in rural areas and particularly
03:28 with that apology that he made.
03:30 - Rachel, our viewers and readers will know
03:32 the context of John Swinney's involvement
03:35 in the COVID inquiry and the WhatsApp messages
03:37 has been a lot of questions about transparency
03:40 with this government.
03:41 So it will be very interesting to see
03:42 whether this honest approach extends
03:45 across all areas of government under John Swinney as well.
03:48 I want to ask you about another issue
03:49 that came up in the back end of FMQs, rural housing.
03:53 Obviously we're highlighting rural affairs
03:56 and coverage from around all parts of Scotland
03:58 as part of Hay's Way.
04:00 You can follow Catherine Hay online at scotsman.com.
04:04 We've got a dedicated slab to everything she's saying
04:07 on her journey working around Scotland.
04:09 But rural housing was also discussed
04:11 in quite a bit of detail.
04:12 Can you talk us through that?
04:14 - Yeah, absolutely amazing to see what Catherine's been doing
04:16 on her Hay's Way journey through Scotland at the moment.
04:18 It's amazing to see what she's been up to.
04:21 But yes, at the back end of FMQs today, Rhoda Grant,
04:23 she is a Labour MSP for the Highlands and Islands
04:26 who's raising the question of rural housing.
04:28 She was saying that issues with trying to retain
04:31 and recruit healthcare workers,
04:33 one of the big issues there is they get a job
04:34 but there's nowhere for them to stay.
04:36 So then they have problems with trying to get them
04:38 to actually get to their jobs on time.
04:40 So that's the issue she was trying to raise.
04:42 And in response, John Swinney was saying
04:44 that there's been a good record with the SNP government
04:46 when it comes to house building,
04:48 pointing to the fact that 40% more affordable homes
04:50 being built in Scotland than we have in England
04:52 and 70% more than in Wales.
04:54 But that of course caused a lot of noise
04:58 across the rest of the chamber.
05:00 Somebody on the microphone has picked up saying
05:01 that's great to try and reach that point in the chamber.
05:04 I think that's referring to the fact
05:05 there's been 200 million pounds cut from the housing budget
05:08 in the last Scottish budget,
05:10 including quite a big chunk taken
05:12 out of the affordable housing budget as well.
05:15 So that was quite interesting to see how that played out.
05:17 John Swinney was very firm saying
05:19 that his government has a good record here.
05:22 Opposition party is very much shaking their heads
05:24 in disbelief at the response that he got there.
05:27 - Yes, we know housing has been top of the agenda as well.
05:30 The Scottish government declaring a housing emergency
05:34 effectively as part of the debate on Wednesday.
05:36 But will there be more funding and more support?
05:39 That's certainly what the stakeholder groups
05:41 were crying out for in the wake of that debate
05:44 and in the lead up that yesterday.
05:46 If you want to read the blow by blow
05:48 from First Minister's questions,
05:51 Rachel was running our blog.
05:53 You can go back and read that in full on the site.
05:55 And please follow all our political coverage
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06:07 And of course, by going out and buying a copy
06:10 of "The Scotsman" in print time.
06:12 Rachel, thanks for joining us.
06:14 Thanks to all our viewers as well.
06:16 - Bye-bye.
06:17 (upbeat music)
06:20 (upbeat music)