Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay has hit out at First Minister John Swinney after rejecting his invitation to attend his anti far-right summit.The summit, set to take place at Bute House, was announced in February with the aim of uniting Scotland against what Swinney called the "increasingly extreme far-right".FULL STORY HERE.
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00:00Well, nobody's exactly sure what John Swinney is talking about, frankly.
00:05He initially said his summit was to oppose polarising forces in politics.
00:11And I wrote to him to say, well, you are the party of polarisation.
00:16You spent your entire life trying to break up the United Kingdom and vilifying those who want to preserve our country.
00:22You spent the past few years pushing radical gender ideology in people to the detriment of women's rights.
00:29It's polarising society yet further.
00:31And you leave a government that spends its time being dishonest with the public and being opposed to transparency.
00:39So my call to John Swinney was, if you want me to attend this event, why not commit to addressing those four issues, those three or four issues?
00:49And he wrote back to me.
00:51He didn't even attempt to address them, which left me to conclude that this summit was exactly what people suspected it was.
00:58And that was a stunt created by John Swinney in order to deflect from his own miserable failed record of government.
01:0818 miserable years in which Scotland has been let down.
01:12Now, Russell, one of the issues that you've highlighted that you believe John Swinney should be tackling is the rising gang violence in Glasgow.
01:19Can you tell us a little bit about what's happening in Glasgow and to some extent Edinburgh?
01:23Yeah, well, this summit, there's so much that could be spoken about.
01:27We could speak about what people care about, which is the broken Scottish education system, which has been trashed by the SNP.
01:34Or we could speak about the record waiting times in the NHS.
01:37Yes, or indeed, the burden facing businesses, record numbers of which, especially in hospitality, are going under because of SNP policies.
01:46But also right now, across the central belt of Scotland, between Glasgow and Edinburgh, there is a continuation of a drugs war, a turf war that's been taking place now for the best part of a quarter of a century.
02:01Actually, prior to becoming a politician, I investigated and reported on organised tribe in Scotland.
02:07And these gangs are utterly despicable, parasitical and cowardly.
02:14And the latest outbreak of violence has seen a child stabbed in her own home, aged 12.
02:22An OAP similarly attacked homes of people firebombed.
02:26And frankly, it's a miracle that no one has yet died.
02:30There have been multiple deaths as a result of this drugs war, which involves two of the largest organised crime groups in Scotland.
02:38So I'd perhaps suggest John Swinney's time would be better served, addressing this disgraceful and dangerous drugs war that's taking place across Scotland.
02:48And so on.