The Scotsman Bulletin Thursday September 05 2024 #FMQs
Scotsman editor Alan Young catches up with Rachel Amery as the politics team prepare for the return of First Ministers Questions at the Scottish Parliament
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00:00Hello, welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Bulletin for Thursday. I'm Alan Young, I am editor
00:06of the Scotsman and I'm joined today on her way to the Scottish Parliament by our political
00:11co-sponsor, Rachael Emery. Hi Rachael. Good morning. Let's have a quick look at the front
00:16page first. And there you see it, we splash on the big event in Scotland yesterday, which
00:23was John Swinney outlining the programme for government, a scale back programme for government
00:27is fair to stay given the financial situation, the £500 million worth of cuts that were
00:33announced earlier in the week. Our top line there is the fact that the pledge to roll
00:38out free school meals to every primary school pupil has been shelved. We also have extensive
00:45coverage in today of the Grenfell Tower final report, all 72 deaths were voidable. So Rachael,
00:55another big day today at Holyrood. We've got FMQs after a really busy time. Yes, this
01:03is the First Minister's questions after recess, of course, after general election as well.
01:08But primarily because on Tuesday, we had those £500 million cuts and amounts of spending
01:13controls. And of course, yesterday, the programme for government, which is still being debated,
01:17still being mulled over. We're still trying to get all the facts and figures out of this
01:21programme for government through. So that's likely to be what there's focus on today when
01:25it comes to First Minister's questions.
01:28What do you think the main target for the opposition is going to be? I've seen a lot
01:32of coverage this morning about the lack of ideas from the SNP after 17 years in government.
01:40Yes, a lot of the cuts to funding are going to focus highly, I think particularly because
01:45John Swinney has said that his government wants to focus on eradicating child poverty.
01:48But as you said there, this pledge from the SNP to roll out free school meals to all primary
01:53school children hasn't been, it's been shelved basically. So I'm guessing that's going to
01:57focus quite heavily there. When it comes to the Green Party, they're likely to focus on
02:01a lot of the environmental measures. Millions of pounds have been cut from active travel,
02:06from biodiversity, from net zero projects in these cuts. And so I can imagine the Green
02:11Party will want to go quite heavily on those kind of measures too. And of course, the Labour
02:15Party will want to have a good chance to say that they would do better with money, seeing
02:19as they are now in power in Westminster. And obviously, a lot of the money is going to
02:23be depended on what Chancellor Rachel Leaves says in her October statement. So it'll be
02:27quite interesting to see what all the different parties go on when it comes to First Minister's
02:30questions today.
02:31You say the debate continues over the programme for government. Does that reach a vote at
02:38any stage?
02:39Well, it's still going on today. I think today the programme for government will be debated
02:43with Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth leading that debate actually, rather than John Swinney.
02:48So there certainly will be more today that we will see on individuals within the Parliament
02:52trying to get their say on what's going on in the programme for government. So yes, we'll
02:56see more of that today as well.
02:58Great. Look, I'll let you get on and get down to Hull. Thanks very much for making the time
03:05to speak to us. Please keep an eye on Scotsman.com throughout the day where we'll have all the
03:09very latest news and reaction. If you can do subscribe, then you can read and watch
03:13everything that we do. And if you're out and about today, please do pick up a copy of the
03:17paper. But from me and from Rachel, it's bye for now.
03:20Goodbye.
03:22Goodbye.