The Scotsman Bulletin Tuesday March 11 2025 #Politics
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00:00Hello, and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin for this Tuesday.
00:05My name is Dale Miller.
00:06I'm Deputy Editor of the Scotsman, and I'm joined by our political correspondent, Rachel
00:11Armory, coming to us from the halls of the Scottish Parliament.
00:15Rachel, we'll get to talking about all things politics, because it's going to be another
00:19busy week, as it always is.
00:23But firstly, front page of today's Scotsman, it was hard to go past the all-spill fears,
00:29the collision that has taken place in the North Sea.
00:33There are some initial images emerging of the damage to the vessels involved this morning,
00:40but fears about the extent of the contamination that will come from the incident and the environmental
00:46damage it could cause.
00:48You'll read more about that at the Scotsman website throughout the day, so please stay
00:53tuned.
00:54Rachel, I want to talk to you about a story that's on the wing of that front page today.
00:58It's John Swinney.
01:00It's same-sex spaces.
01:01It's an issue that perhaps he would like to go away.
01:04It's not going away any time soon.
01:06What's he going to be asked about later this week?
01:09Yeah, again, another topic the SNP want to avoid at all costs, but it is going to come
01:13up back again in Holyrood.
01:15That's because tomorrow, the Scottish Conservatives have an Opposition Day debate.
01:19They can choose whatever subject they want to have a debate amongst the whole Parliament
01:23on, and they have chosen to go on single-sex spaces, particularly the Scottish Government's
01:28guidance to public bodies on single-sex spaces.
01:31This comes on the back of the employment tribunal that's ongoing between the nurse, Sandy Peggy,
01:36and Dr Beth Upton in NHS Fife.
01:39The Conservatives are arguing that this has happened because there was a lack of clear
01:42guidance from the Government on what health boards should do when it comes to single-sex
01:46spaces, such as changing rooms and toilets.
01:49So we're going to have this debate tomorrow.
01:51The Conservatives are going to accuse the Government of allowing this to happen and
01:55of not going far enough, and saying that we need to really come up with some clear
01:59guidance and lay down the law on exactly what these public bodies should do.
02:03The only thing is, with this debate, we're probably likely to not get any further in
02:07this issue.
02:08With this debate, it's probably going to be a case of the Conservatives repeating what
02:12they've already said, and the Government Ministers repeating what they have already said, and
02:16going round in circles a little bit.
02:17So it's a very interesting debate to watch, but I think we can already know the doubt
02:21because of the debate.
02:22I think we already know what's going to be said and what's going to happen over the next
02:26bit.
02:27Rachel, is this the Scottish Government and John Swinney included have stuck to this line
02:31that because there's an ongoing tribunal hearing happening that they won't comment on it?
02:38Now, we know that that's not going to resume until the summer, which remains a considerable
02:43distance away, yet the UK watchdog has asked for more information from the Scottish Government
02:48and NHS Fife around this.
02:53It feels to me that that no-comment position can't hold, but do you think that they'll
02:57try and stick to it?
02:58Yeah, I think there will be a will to stick with it, particularly because, as you said,
03:02this employment tribunal isn't going to be heard now again until I think it's July time,
03:06I think.
03:07It's certainly months away.
03:08So we are going to see this going on and on and on for months, which is why I'm thinking
03:12that this debate tomorrow probably won't go anywhere.
03:15We're probably going to see those same lines coming back from the government ministers
03:18saying that they expect public bodies to adhere to the Equality Act, but also to respect both
03:25single-sex spaces and spaces for trans people as well.
03:29So unlikely we're going to see much development over the next few days, but you never know.
03:32We'll be watching the debate regardless to see what happens.
03:35Rachel, I'd be fascinated to see some polling as we go over the coming months and just see
03:41how much this resonates with voters about whether it is something that upsets them towards
03:48the Scottish government or whether they're actually quite supportive of the process or
03:52otherwise. That'll be one to watch out for.
03:54Look, also, and I'd like to talk about the steamy newsletter, it's something you produce
04:00every morning. Please talk us through it because people can go on and sign up.
04:05But you were talking about labour criticism of labour around welfare cuts today.
04:10Yeah, this is a newsletter that we have every single morning.
04:13It goes out around 7.45am each morning, basically setting up the day in Scottish politics.
04:20So if you want to sign up for it, just look at the newsletters tab on Scotsman's website.
04:23You'll find all the details how to do that.
04:25And today, though, we've been talking about what's happening in Westminster rather than
04:28Holyrood today. Just because we're looking at potentially having welfare cuts down the
04:34pipeline. The Fraser of Allander Institute based at Strathclyde University, they were
04:38talking about this weekend. They're basically saying that this is what they're expecting
04:41to happen. So if you remember, it probably wasn't last weekend, it was probably two weeks
04:45ago, I think, that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced that defence spending was
04:49going to be increased from 2.3% of GDP to 2.5%.
04:53Doesn't sound like a lot, but it's actually about 16 billion pounds worth.
04:56It's a huge amount of money we're talking about if we're talking about defence spending.
05:00That is just short of what the Scotland pays of the full of the NHS, just to put that in
05:04context. It's a huge amount of money.
05:06So where's the money going to come from?
05:07There's now suggestions it's going to come from cuts to the welfare budget, particularly
05:11because Labour have been trailing quite a lot of speeches recently about how they want
05:15to get more people off long term sick benefits and back into work.
05:19So while that's a very good thing to be doing, getting people back into work, better for
05:23the NHS, better for the economy, it does mean that there's obviously then going to be less
05:27sick and welfare benefits.
05:29So it sort of adds in there, too.
05:31Problem is, it's now going to be like a rebellion in the back benches.
05:33So looking at 80 MPs in Labour potentially voting against this, if it does come to that,
05:39that includes some Scottish MPs, our Westminster correspondent Alexander Brown has been
05:44contributing about this, and Hume Doll has been in the paper today.
05:47But yeah, it looks like there's going to be a rebellion on the Labour benches over this
05:50potential cut to welfare budgets.
05:53I would love to be sitting inside the Labour camp just hearing the discussions about this,
05:58Rachel, because since the election, they've looked at areas like winter fuel payments
06:03now potentially welfare areas.
06:06They've also been quite strict on things like the two child cap.
06:10So a lot of issues that are maybe hitting some of those areas we typically thought might
06:17have been Labour voting areas of the public.
06:20So fascinating them talking this through and how they're reaching the decisions.
06:25I would love to be a fly on the wall inside those.
06:29Rachel, thanks for bringing us all the very latest.
06:31You can read the stories on what we've discussed there.
06:33At Scotsman.com, if you're ever looking for our politics coverage, just go to the politics
06:38tab in the navigation bar.
06:41Please follow us on social channels and pick up a copy of the Scotsman tomorrow for all
06:45the latest. Thanks, Rachel.
06:47Thanks to everyone else.
06:48Bye bye.