The Scotsman Bulletin Monday May 20 2024
Scotsman Deputy Editor Alan Young talks with Political Editor Alistair Grant about the Scottish Parliament findings of a pilot programme over abuse levelled at MSPs including Lib Dem leader, Alex Cole-Hamilton experiences.
Scotsman Deputy Editor Alan Young talks with Political Editor Alistair Grant about the Scottish Parliament findings of a pilot programme over abuse levelled at MSPs including Lib Dem leader, Alex Cole-Hamilton experiences.
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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 Hello, and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily
00:08 Bulletin for Monday.
00:09 I'm Alan Young.
00:10 I'm deputy editor of the Scotsman.
00:11 I'm joined today by our political editor, Alistair
00:14 Grant, to take a look at some of the main headlines.
00:16 Hi, Alistair.
00:17 Hello.
00:18 How's it going?
00:19 Good.
00:19 Let's have a look at the front page today.
00:23 And we lead today on, like many of the papers,
00:26 really across the country on the upcoming report
00:30 from the Infected Blood Inquiry.
00:33 This is clearly a massive scandal.
00:37 It's been a decades-long fight by victims,
00:40 as we have said in the headline there.
00:43 We may finally get detail on compensation,
00:47 very large compensation payments, later on today.
00:50 The report, I believe, is out around lunchtime,
00:53 and we're expecting a statement from Rishi Sunak in the Commons
00:58 a bit later on today as well.
01:01 If I can draw your attention to the wing column there,
01:04 we have Alistair Grant's story with Alex Cole-Hamilton,
01:09 the Scottish Lib Dem leader, talking about the level of abuse
01:14 that he experiences as an MSP.
01:17 And this is a bit of a theme, Alistair,
01:19 because we had a report on Friday,
01:22 I think it was, which detailed hundreds of cases against MSPs
01:27 where they've been targeted with abusive communications
01:31 which have been alleged to be criminal,
01:33 who've been so serious.
01:35 But bring us up to date with what Alex was saying yesterday.
01:41 -Yeah, so just to give a bit of background on this,
01:43 I mean, the Scottish Parliament initiated a review
01:45 of security provision on the back of the death
01:48 of Sir David Amess, the Conservative MP
01:51 who was stabbed multiple times as constituency secretary in 2021.
01:56 And this led to a trial programme,
01:58 which you referenced there,
02:00 that looked at online threats against MSPs.
02:03 It was set up last year, involved 38 MSPs
02:06 from across the political parties in Holyrood,
02:08 and it identified 7,661 abusive comments,
02:12 of which 461 were deemed to be potentially criminal
02:16 and were referred to Police Scotland.
02:18 So it's quite an eye-opening volume, I guess,
02:21 of abusive comments that MSPs are dealing with
02:24 on a near daily basis.
02:26 And Alex Cole-Hamilton yesterday was on BBC Scotland's Sunday show,
02:30 and he was asked about an interview he'd given
02:32 to a rival Sunday paper
02:35 where he talked about, essentially,
02:37 his experiences of online abuse.
02:39 But he'd mentioned the fact that he had been getting therapy
02:42 for the last couple of years,
02:43 I think the last two and a bit years.
02:45 He'd been seeing a counsellor about the kind of stresses
02:48 and strains of the job.
02:50 Part of that was to do with the abuse that politicians face.
02:53 And it's something that we've heard a lot of in recent years,
02:57 concerns around the abuse that MSPs have to deal with
03:00 just for being in the public eye.
03:02 Social media, obviously, playing into that in quite a big way.
03:05 And also, the stresses and strains of the job, I guess,
03:09 and how they've affected people.
03:11 I mean, Humza Yousaf spoke quite openly
03:12 about receiving therapy himself
03:14 when he was transport minister, I think, a number of years ago,
03:17 and spoke about potentially doing it again
03:19 when he was in Bute House.
03:21 He's obviously not first minister anymore,
03:22 but he was quite open about his own experiences.
03:24 So I think it's something that there is a lot of concern about.
03:28 I think the job of being a politician,
03:30 you know, people are rightly sometimes critical of politicians
03:34 and keen to scrutinise them,
03:37 but they obviously do a very difficult job.
03:40 That sense of not being able to switch off,
03:43 being a 24/7 role, very long hours,
03:46 often away from family for long periods of time,
03:49 it does take a toll.
03:51 And social media has played a part
03:52 in that kind of constant stream of commentary
03:56 and sometimes abuse that MSPs have to deal with.
04:00 And I think it's probably a good thing
04:01 that politicians are being open about the impact that has.
04:05 And I think a lot of people will understand
04:06 that these things have a cumulative effect
04:09 and they do start to kind of eat into your perception of yourself,
04:13 I guess.
04:14 - Indeed. And we of course know that politics in Scotland
04:17 in particular has been particularly toxic in recent years.
04:21 And John Swinney has obviously taken over as first minister now
04:25 and has made reference to that on several occasions
04:28 and on doing things differently.
04:30 I guess there must be a fear
04:34 that if the current level of abuse continued,
04:37 it's going to stop people putting off,
04:40 it's going to put people off rather,
04:44 becoming politicians in the first place.
04:47 - Yeah, I mean, if you speak to the people behind the scenes
04:49 in political parties from across the political spectrum
04:52 in Holyrood, they'll tell you that that's already the case,
04:54 that potential parliamentary candidates are put off
04:56 going into frontline politics
04:57 because of the sheer level of public scrutiny that involves,
05:01 not from them, it's not always about them,
05:03 it's to do with their families as well.
05:06 And people will talk about the abuse
05:08 of some of their family members,
05:09 members of SNIV just because they are in public spotlight.
05:13 So it is a real concern about putting off people
05:16 who potentially have a lot to offer to public life.
05:18 But choosing to go into frontline politics now
05:20 is a very different thing
05:21 from what it was a couple of decades ago,
05:24 this particular year.
05:25 As I say, that kind of 24/7 nature of it,
05:27 you just can't really switch off.
05:29 You've got this smartphone in your pocket
05:31 that's constantly keeping you updated
05:33 with exactly what people think about you.
05:35 It's quite easy to say that people should just switch off
05:38 from that and people should treat online commentary
05:41 with a pinch of salt.
05:44 I think that's sometimes easier said than done
05:46 for some people.
05:47 People have obviously different thresholds
05:49 of what they're willing to put up with.
05:51 And if comments are directed towards family members,
05:53 it becomes a very different thing again.
05:55 So yeah, it's already having an impact.
05:58 As you say, Scotland has been quite divisive
06:01 in terms of its politics,
06:02 certainly over the last 10 years
06:04 since the independence referendum
06:06 and the constitutional question.
06:09 And people like John Swinney obviously came in
06:12 as the new first minister
06:13 and has talked about the toxic nature of politics.
06:15 And I was actually at an event
06:17 in which Nicola Sturgeon was speaking at last week,
06:20 at the end of last week,
06:21 in which she said that the culture in politics
06:24 is now downright toxic, to use her words, at times.
06:27 And she was accepting that she played a role in that.
06:30 I think some of our critics would say
06:31 that she played a very big part in that.
06:35 But John Swinney as well accepting
06:37 that he's also played a role in that.
06:39 I think going forward,
06:41 I'm slightly cynical about the chances of politics changing
06:46 in any major way.
06:47 I think it's sort of where we are now.
06:50 Social media is not going anywhere.
06:52 The nature of political debate is what it is.
06:54 But yeah, it's a concern going forward.
06:56 And I think it's something
06:57 that people do need to grapple with.
06:59 - Thanks for that, Alistair.
07:01 Fascinating story today,
07:02 and you can read it in today's paper
07:04 and online at scotsman.com.
07:07 Please do keep an eye on the site throughout the day
07:09 where we'll have all the very latest news and analysis.
07:12 If you can, please do subscribe
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07:16 And if you're writing about today,
07:17 please do also pick up a copy of the paper
07:19 from me and from Alistair.
07:20 Bye for now.
07:21 (upbeat music)
07:24 (upbeat music)