I am travelling to Edinburgh this morning. I am scheduled to be on Debate Night, BBC Scotland's equivalent of Question Time, this evening. That does not mean I will be: the last time this happened, I got as far as Newcastle before turning back, having been cancelled. But, fingers crossed.
You can see the programme at 10.30 pm in Scotland or on iPlayer if you are elsewhere.
In anticipation, what will the questions be? My guesses include:
- Gaza (half the programme)
- Inflation
- Wages
- The SNP's plans
- Public services and cuts
- Green plans
Any others? All sensible suggestions are welcome.
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My guess is they will be trying to attack Humza Yousaf for support of the residents of Gaza; they will try to conflict that with support for Hamas terrorism.
They will also be looking for which issues from the recent SNP conference.
I imagine they will try to paint the SNP as a high tax, high spending party to imply people will need to be taxed more to implement their policies and so discourage support for independence
But almost half the audience will be pro SNP, I suspect
Hmm, don’t over-estimate the BBC’s audience selection policies in these parts. If they follow polling then you could expect around 50% to be pro Indy, of which a portion, well short of all of them, may be pro SNP. More likely to be a pro Tory audience, or at best an anti Indy gathering. The BBC have form in these parts. Faces get recognised, connections made.
Humza was unequivocal in his condemnation of the Hamas attack. His concern is for innocent people on both sides.
Danny Dorling was speaking at the LSE on Monday. He was very good on how broken our country had become, but also with some ideas for making things less bad.
https://www.lse.ac.uk/Events/2023/10/202310161830/nation
If you have time I think the video is available although the sound was a bit low.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ODQDNRtOmro
Specifically he was very positive about the £25 weekly payment for each child in Scotland in a family claiming any benefit. In a cost of living crisis, where people are skipping meals and bathing in cold water, this is the sort of direct measure you need. What can be more important than investing in the well-being of our children?
Pity that Labour appears to lack the ambition to do things like this because they are afraid of missing an open goal. If Starmer was Labour leader in 1948, would he have founded the NHS and the welfare state? I don’t think so.
Thanks
If you can work in a mention of what Danny Dorling says about the £25 payment, that would be great. I suspect most Scots don’t know about the payment, let alone Dorling’s assessment of the potential impact.
“If Starmer was Labour leader in 1948, would he have founded the NHS and the welfare state? I don’t think so.”
Good comparison! The difference between then and now Attlee wasn’t a Monetarist like Starmer!
Council Tax freeze (The FM’s announcement in his speech yesterday). The spin surrounds the longer term threat of the freeze on Council services, and their funding (which may or not cover the shortfall; which is itself ‘the length of a piece of string’ since nobody knows what the Councils would have raised the tax).
The real story is twofold. first the fact that everybody knows the basis of the local tax requires profound reform. Nobody; not a single political party has the guts to tackle it. The politics is just to difficult in the sewer of misinformation our press/media/politics has become.
Second, the real problem that nobody even wants to acknowledge exists is the problem of localism. Even the Conservatives love localism. the truth is the whole thing is another complete mess. We extol localism. Then when it is applied by local authorities the first time there is an obvious problem from its application; the political spin becomes the crisis of the ‘postcode lottery’. The postcode lottery is an inevitable consequence of localism. The chumpism that passes for politics is too difficult to face the contradictions innate to politics. We do hysteria, not politics in Britain.
Best of luck, Richard.
Thanks
Add to the pro Union faction the recent R&HW by election, with tactical voting there, and the possible impact on GE2024; Starmer’s crowing on a very poor turnout after the Indy voters stayed at home, for Reasons…
Thinking practically, did you go by train, because some trains are stopping at York because of the weather in Scotland.
Hope you got there safely.
I got here and t the moment they are saying I will get back
It’s been recorded now
Went ok, I think (famous last words)
I thought it went very well, congratulations. Hope you got home safe.
Thanks
Getting home is this morning’s task- with trains cancelled
Time you were on Question Time.
They have the same production company