Deputy Editor Alan Young and Political Correspondent Rachel Amery discuss the stories of the day
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00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Bulletin for Monday. I'm Alan Young, I'm Deputy
00:09Editor of the Scotsman. I'm joined today by our political correspondent Rachel Emery to take a
00:15look at the main headlines. Hi Rachel. Good morning. Let's have a look, if we can, at the
00:22front page first. And there you go, we lead on the new Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on a visit
00:30to Scotland just days after being elected and he is pictured there with First Minister John Swinney.
00:38As you can see our headline is he is vowing to reset the relationship with Holyrood. There's a
00:46lot to do, however, and the SNP doesn't have its troubles to seek after Friday's election and that
00:55I think, Rachel, is where I want to start. So we've heard growing discontent, I think it's fair
01:03to say, over the weekend following the SNP's near wipeout at Westminster. This leaves John
01:11Swinney clearly in a really difficult position. So my question to you, and it's a big one, where
01:18now for the SNP? I know exactly where now. This was a disastrous election for the SNP. Even the worst
01:26polling I don't think was quite as bad as it actually was in the end. Only nine seats reduced
01:33from this massive majority that they had down to single figures was almost unthinkable
01:40not that long ago for the SNP. Also completely wiped out in the central belt, Glasgow, Edinburgh,
01:46no SNP MPs left in those areas which is also quite surprising. So the question is now what happens
01:52next? Now John Swinney in a certain sense kind of has a bit of a get-out clause. He was only SNP
01:57leader and First Minister for I think about two weeks before this campaign was called. So he kind
02:03of does have a bit of a bit of wriggle room there in trying to say that he's just in the door,
02:08he didn't have a lot, there was a lot to do and all the rest of it. So he does have a bit of a
02:12get-out clause there. He was at the Perth count which is what I was at over election night and
02:16he said that he's not going to resign as SNP leader. He's going to continue leading the party
02:22further on to the next couple of years and into the 2026 Holyrood election as well. So he's keen
02:28to stay put and stay in place. The problem then comes is I think it's probably the independence
02:33strategy that hasn't worked here. Their independence strategy was they have a mandate
02:39for independence if they win the most seats at this election which of course they were
02:42not even close to winning at this election. So I think the question for them now is how do they now
02:48fix this idea of their independence strategy? What do they have to do? Because that is what's
02:54falling down and falling around them just now and so that's what they're going to need to fix
02:58first and foremost. You mentioned SNP being wiped out in Glasgow, which was a big moment,
03:05but also in Edinburgh one of the most high-profile MPs in the party lost her seat, Joanna Cherry,
03:12and she was particularly vocal about what she sees as the reasons for the party's position.
03:22Yes, Joanna Cherry lost her Edinburgh South West seat, I think to Scott Arthur, I think his name
03:26is from the Labour Party, one of the Edinburgh councillors, and yeah one of the biggest names
03:31I think on the list of SNP casualties at this election. Now probably as expected she's not been
03:37very quiet about this, she's very outspoken on a lot of things and she did obviously have a rather
03:43fractured relationship with the former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and she is very much
03:48placing the blame on her. She says that Nicola Sturgeon needs to apologise to the former MPs
03:53like herself who lost their seats at this election. She says she is entirely to blame
03:58because of this confusion over the independent strategy and lack of competency is what she's
04:04said as well in the leadership of the Scottish Government over the past few years. So definitely
04:08pulling out a few punches already with what she thinks has gone wrong and definitely isn't saying
04:14that it's herself, she thinks it's others within the party that have caused these issues. There'll
04:19be other names as well coming out and saying what they have to say on the back of all of this
04:23because of course there's now a lot of out-of-work SNP MPs and what do they do next because yes we
04:31have the Scottish elections in two years time but there's already a lot of SNP members in Holyrood
04:38so it's going to be really interesting to see what all these very experienced and often quite
04:43well-known figures, what's they going to do now, what does their future hold for them, where do
04:48they go from here. It's a loss of people at once in one party to be out of work. I don't think this
04:53is something the SNP has ever experienced before. It's going to be quite interesting to see how the
04:58SNP handles having all these out-of-work high-profile members now. Indeed and what they say
05:06as well because as Joanna Cherry proved they're not going to be quiet even. Thanks very much
05:12for that. Rachael please keep an eye on customer.com throughout the day for all the very latest news
05:18and analysis. If you can do subscribe then you'll be able to read and watch absolutely everything we
05:23do and if you're out and about today as ever please do pick up a copy of the paper.
05:28But from me and from Rachael it's bye for now. Bye-bye.