The Scotsman Politics: FMQs Roundup Thursday November 07 2024
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00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Politics Show. We're here to unpick First
00:04Minister's questions from today. My name is Dale Miller, I'm Deputy Editor of the
00:09Scotsman and I'm joined by our Political Editor Alastair Grant. Alastair, in the
00:14wake of the Donald Trump news, expected things could get a bit fiery in the
00:19chamber but it actually took until Patrick Harvey for it to actually come up.
00:24Yes, so Patrick Harvey, the co-leader of the Scottish Greens, launched a bit of a
00:28tirade against Donald Trump. He called him a misogynist, a racist, brought up the
00:34far-right, talked about the fact he tried to overturn the Democratic vote,
00:37obviously referring to the previous US election when we saw those scenes, the
00:41kind of storming of the Capitol. But yeah, I mean he essentially asked John
00:47Swinney on it in the context of John Swinney as First Minister yesterday
00:51tweeting his congratulations to Donald Trump on his election as the 47th US
00:56President and Patrick Harvey essentially saying how can you do
01:01that, how can you welcome this man to the White House given his track records,
01:05given the people of, vulnerable people, minorities, people, Patrick Harvey
01:12saying that might be worried about their situation essentially and John
01:17Swinney saying that he has a duty as a First Minister, he's got to kind of
01:21act on behalf of Scotland. His statement yesterday made reference to the
01:25cultural and social ties between the US and Scotland and John Swinney was saying
01:30you know no matter who the President of the US is, those ties will exist and I
01:34have to kind of put forward Scotland's interests. But you're right, it
01:38didn't come up at all in the questions by Douglas Ross, the Scottish Tory
01:43leader, or Anna Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader. I thought, sorry,
01:48Russell Finlay, the Scottish Tory leader, I'm getting that wrong, he's taken over as
01:52Scottish Tory leader. I thought Russell Finlay might mention it just in the, just
01:57after his comments yesterday, where he kind of had a go at John Swinney for
01:59backing Kamala Harris and run-ups the US election and had called it a
02:03cat-candid intervention, had basically said that he shouldn't have been getting
02:06involved really, shouldn't have been expressing a preference in another
02:09country's election. John Swinney yesterday, when he was speaking to
02:13journalists, was essentially saying he was asked a question and kind of was
02:17giving his view on it, that's what he thinks politicians should do. So I
02:20thought Russell Finlay might mention it in that context, but he didn't at all
02:24actually. I didn't think Anna Sarwar would really want to get into it, given
02:28obviously Keir Starmer, the UK Labour leader, is Prime Minister and also has to
02:32have a relationship with Donald Trump. So yeah, Patrick Harvey very much going
02:37in on it and people might remember, if they've got long memories, that Patrick
02:40Harvey has previous with Donald Trump from way back in the day, before he was
02:44President previously, when he was, you know, just a kind of millionaire
02:49businessman with business interests in Scotland and he appeared before a
02:53Holyrood committee and I think in the aftermath of that ended up accusing
02:56Patrick Harvey of blasphemy. People might want to Google that, I can't remember the
03:00full background to it, but they have previous, so it's not a surprise that
03:04Patrick Harvey would go after him in this way. I know Patrick Harvey as well
03:08has been pushing for the unexplained wealth order to be enacted in and around
03:14Donald Trump for a period of a couple of years now, so we've written about that a
03:18couple of times for Scotsman.com. Alice, I'll just quickly get your assessment.
03:23Is the Scottish Government, in your view, going to have to play very softly,
03:27softly around the US and Donald Trump because the language is going to be an
03:32issue for, it's going to be an authority for the next four years. Do you think
03:38they're going to tell a pretty careful line on, you know, working with him but
03:43not endorsing him at the same time? I think ultimately they'll be led by the UK
03:47government. I mean, it's the UK government that's going to be having the
03:50majority of the dealings with Donald Trump. When he comes over on a state
03:54visit, it will be the UK government, or a visit anyway, it'll be the UK government
03:57that primarily deals with that. That's what happened last time. I think it
04:01is interesting that John Swinney was immediately out the traps, you know,
04:04congratulating Donald Trump on his election. I think when you look at it
04:09in the kind of cold light of day, the kind of cold analysis of this, you know,
04:13Donald Trump is someone that both the UK and Scottish governments are going to
04:17have to deal with. Last time he was president, we had that kind of
04:21trade war that people might remember. It's to do with aerospace, a kind of aerospace
04:26dispute, but it essentially led to a 25% tariff on Scotch whisky. It was in
04:32place for, I think I'm right in saying 18 months, and cost the Scotch whisky
04:36industry £600 million in that time. And that was paused in 2021 for a
04:43five-year period. It's due at the moment to come back into force in June next
04:47year. And Donald Trump is also in the run-up to this election, being talking
04:51about tariffs of up to 20% on all US imports. So that's going to be extremely
04:58worrying for the Scotch whisky sector. America is a big market for them. Scotch
05:01whisky is an iconic Scottish produce. It's one of the main Scottish exports. So
05:06I think when you've got that background, you just have to, you have to deal with
05:10them. You know, you have to deal with America, you have to deal with the
05:12President of America. And it's also worth saying that there could be a cynical
05:16argument, and I'm not saying I advance this, but there could be a cynical
05:19argument that you could make overtures to Donald Trump in the kind of soft
05:25power that Scotland has, because Donald Trump is someone who obviously has a
05:29kind of sentimental relationship with Scotland. He's spoken before about how
05:32beautiful Scotland is. He's spoken before about how much he likes the Scottish
05:35people. His mum came from Lewes in the Western Isles, as everyone probably
05:40knows. He's got his business interests over here, his golf courses. He is
05:44someone who has a relationship with Scotland, and you could indeed try to
05:48exploit that. And they might view that as, you know, some people might view
05:53that as a good route to go down. I don't think the Scottish government are going
05:55to be doing anything like that. I think they're just going to be trying to,
05:58again, take their lead from the UK government, probably not really try and
06:01get involved in any way, shape or form, but obviously sticking up for the
06:06interests of sectors like Scotch whisky and any other sectors that might get
06:10hit in a trade war, if that is the road that Donald Trump goes down.
06:14And we know the Scotch whisky association is just dealing with the
06:19duty increasing again, which was confirmed at the UK budget, which
06:22they're not particularly happy about. Just quickly to wrap up, it was sort of
06:27tried and trusted areas for both the Tories and Labor today in terms of their
06:30questions.
06:32Yeah, Russell Finlay, the Scottish Tory leader going in on tax, both the general
06:36tax as an issue, but also business rates, and essentially, accusing John
06:41Swinney of seeking to stifle growth. And John Swinney saying that he was going
06:45down the route where they have their tax policies in place, also pointing out
06:50that a lot of the tax rates in Scotland is done at a UK level. Anna Sarwar, the
06:54Scottish Labour leader going in on health, who does this a lot in First
06:57Minister's questions, bringing up things like A&E waiting lists, and also
07:01bringing up the extra money that's coming to Scotland in Barnett
07:04consequentials as a result of the UK government budget, that 3.4 billion
07:09pounds extra that Scotland will get for its budget next year. Anna Sarwar was
07:13naming a figure, I can't remember off the top of my head, it was over 1
07:16billion pounds of that is NHS consequentials. And he was saying to
07:19John Swinney, effectively, you've been given this money, can you say to us
07:23right now that you will pump that into frontline NHS services in Scotland? And
07:28John Swinney was saying to Anna Sarwar, well, if you want this money to be
07:31spent in Scotland, then you should support the Scottish budget because the
07:35SNP are a minority government, they need the support of another party in
07:39Holyrood. And he was saying to Anna Sarwar, you know, if you want money to
07:42be spent, support the Scottish budget, allow it to be passed in Holyrood. So
07:46very much tried and tested issues, very much issues that both parties, both the
07:50Tories and Labour are going to keep hammering in the run up to the
07:53Holyrood election. I mean, Russell Finlay, the Scottish Tory leader, he's
07:57a new leader, he's only been in place for a few weeks, but he's already
08:00trying to hammer the Scottish government on issues like tax and on
08:05issues that he thinks the Scottish government have strayed away from what
08:07he calls the common sense views of middle Scotland. So I think these issues
08:12will come up again in the FMQs in future.
08:15Can expect between now and the Scottish budget on December the 4th that we will
08:19continue to hear a lot of conjecture about tax, what's happening with council
08:23tax, what's happening with income tax, will there be a change, won't there and
08:27what it means for finances. You'll be able to get all the latest around that
08:31and the big political issues, including the latest on Donald Trump at
08:35Scotsman.com throughout today and coming days. Alistair, thanks very much for
08:41joining us from Holyrood and thanks to everyone watching in.