The Scotsman Bulletin Friday August 09 2024 #ElonMusk
Scotsman deputy editor Alan Young speaks to Rachel Amery about the latest goings on in the world of politics
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00:00Hello, welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Bulletin for Friday. I'm Alan Young, I am Deputy Editor
00:14of the Scotsman and I'm joined by our political correspondent Rachel Emery to take a look
00:19at some of the top stories today. Hi Rachel. Good morning. Let's have a look at the front
00:24page today. And we leaned on the comments from the former First Minister Humza Yousaf.
00:31He was appearing at a fringe event yesterday where he covered a range of topics, it's fair
00:38to say, but the one quote we've picked out is the one which is making a lot of the headlines.
00:45He describes the ex-owner Elon Musk as one of the most dangerous men on the planet and
00:52that comes in the wake of the disorder which we've seen across the UK in the last week.
01:00We also report on the front there, the prospect of more rail strikes after RMT members at
01:08ScotRail and the Caledonian Sleeper voted for action and we have got a jam-packed festival
01:15offering after week one today. As you can see, a 16-page festival pull-out. We've also
01:22got a first look inside the book festival which kicks off from tomorrow. But Rachel,
01:28I want to start, if I can, with another story, strike-related. Potentially some good news
01:35coming today regarding the threat of strikes for next week. Yes, so at the moment, strikes,
01:43I think in 26 of Scotland's 32 local authorities are set to go ahead from Wednesday morning.
01:48Now obviously a big problem across the whole country but I think a lot of the concern is
01:53about Edinburgh because obviously thousands of tourists, thousands of Scottish people
01:57as well are in the capital right now for the fringe festival and as you were saying, the
02:02book festival and others as well. So that's one of the main concerns just now. That is
02:07because a 3.2% pay offer has been put on the table and that has been rejected by the trade
02:12unions. Now, multiple times the government has said there is no more cash. However, late last
02:18night, the finance secretary, Shona Robison, says that she has now found some more funding but has
02:24emphasised this is the very, very, very last of the money. There is literally nothing left after
02:30this. So I think COSLA, the umbrella body for the councils and the trade unions and all the
02:36rest of it are going to be going at the table today to discuss this new pay offer. So hopefully
02:41we'll find out pretty soon if that offer is accepted and if the strike will be going ahead or
02:46not. So we don't yet know what any new offer might be or indeed how much money has been
02:54found and I guess that's quite interesting because given the state of finances at the moment, you
03:00would think that any substantial amount of money will result in a cut somewhere else. Yes, it's
03:08interesting that the general message from the government has been there is no more money and
03:12all of a sudden, at the last minute, some more money has been found. So as to how much it is, we don't know.
03:17I assume it will be more than 3.2% but we don't know much beyond that. But yes, of course, it will
03:22sort of raise other issues. I mean, there'll be other people in the public sector looking for pay
03:26rises as well. Teachers, for example, they've been in negotiations recently too. They
03:32might be looking at this and seeing, well, what does that have an impact on us? I think others
03:36in the private sector have perhaps been as well looking at saying that they're wanting to stay in
03:41line with public sector pay rises. If that alters what they've got as well, we could then see more
03:45strikes there. So it's interesting to see how much of an impact this might have wider beyond
03:50just sort of those working in those sort of areas of the council. Indeed, and more
03:56trouble ahead as we report today potentially as well around the Caledonian Sleeper and
04:02ScotRail, which are both publicly owned, let's not forget. So lots to be worked out.
04:09The other big story obviously at the moment is the continuing disorder, which thankfully
04:15seems to have quietened down in recent days. But we know from what Hamza Yousaf was saying
04:23yesterday that he is quite clearly putting the blame at the door of the social media giants,
04:30or much of the blame I should say. And there is some news from John Swinney today as well
04:38regarding that. Yes, so it looks like these sort of riots and unrest that we see in England and
04:43Northern Ireland have calmed down a bit. There is a lot of talk on social media about it
04:49potentially spilling over into Scotland this weekend, so we'll have to wait and see as to
04:53what happens there. But regardless, I think that what has happened in England has caused a lot of
04:58fear and concern in Scotland. We had the Scottish Refugee Council, for example, earlier this week
05:04saying that those who are asylum seekers, for example, living in hotels in Scotland are now
05:10afraid to go out because of what they've seen down south. Interestingly enough this morning as well,
05:14I live quite close to two hotels housing asylum seekers, and when I walked past this morning,
05:20they actually had security guards on their doors. So there is clearly a concern for safety and
05:25protection of these vulnerable people at the moment. But as you were saying, Hamza Yusuf has
05:30been speaking about this at the Fringe yesterday. The former First Minister was saying that Elon Musk,
05:35the owner of X, is one of the most dangerous men on the planet because of the lack of doing
05:41anything about it in spite of misinformation. And on John Swinney as well, the First Minister
05:46has previously said that social media companies are not doing enough to uphold their duty when it
05:51comes to tackling misinformation. Ofcom, the regulator, has previously had to remind these
05:57companies of their obligation to tackle misinformation, and Mr Swinney believes
06:01that that's not being done. This morning the First Minister has actually written to Meta,
06:07X and TikTok basically asking them to do more because of how out of hand the situation has got
06:14in recent days in the UK. As to whether he gets a response from any of them, that's another question,
06:20but interesting to see that this letter has not been sent from the First Minister to these companies.
06:24Indeed, and we'll keep a very close eye on developments, like you say, throughout the day.
06:30Please keep an eye on Scotsman.com for all the very latest news and analysis. If you can, do subscribe
06:36and you can read and watch everything we do. And if you're out and about today as ever, please do
06:42pick up a copy of the paper from me and from Rachel. It's bye for now. Goodbye.