Does Starmer need Scotland to win the general election?
Radical with Amol Rajan
BBC
4.5 • 919 Ratings
🗓️ 18 January 2024
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Does the route to a Labour election victory at the next general election run through Scotland?
With Nick in Glasgow this week we turn our attention to the role Scotland will play in deciding who takes the keys to No 10. Will it be a referendum on 14 years of Conservative UK government or 17 years of the SNP in Holyrood? Has Labour historically had to rely on winning big in Scotland to get a majority across the UK?
Amol and Nick hear from polling guru Prof Sir John Curtice and former leader of the Scottish Conservatives Ruth Davidson, now in the House of Lords and a political commentator.
Also – we hear the inside story from Amol after a University Challenge question went viral and led to a remix craze.
Episodes of The Today Podcast land every Thursday and watch out for bonus episodes. Subscribe on BBC Sounds to get Amol and Nick's take on the biggest stories of the week, with insights from behind the scenes at the UK's most influential radio news programme.
If you would like a question answering, get in touch by sending us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 4346 or email us Today@bbc.co.uk
The Today Podcast is hosted by Amol Rajan and Nick Robinson, both presenters of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the UK’s most influential radio news programme. Amol was the BBC’s media editor for six years and is the former editor of the Independent, he’s also the current presenter of University Challenge. Nick has presented the Today programme since 2015, he was the BBC’s political editor for ten years before that and also previously worked as ITV’s political editor.
The senior producer is Tom Smithard, the producer is Hazel Morgan. The editors are Jonathan Aspinwall and Louisa Lewis. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths. Technical production from Matt Hewitt.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:04.8 | I don't know about you, but I'm already sick of that phrase red wall, |
| 0:08.1 | and we're only at the start of election year. |
| 0:10.4 | I fear there will be no escape from it. |
| 0:13.3 | We might even occasionally hear from that other less talked about concept, |
| 0:18.2 | the blue wall. |
| 0:20.0 | But I want us today to focus on another wall, the tartan wall. We've got so many walls in our politics. We've got, we've got Trump's wall, we've got a red wall, a blue wall. We've got Hadrian's wall, which is a different kind of politics. This is your bid for infamy, isn't it, by coming up with a new phrase that's going to penetrate our politics. What is the Robinson Tartan Wall? It's the wall of seats the SMP have controlled. |
| 0:42.4 | Pretty much... isn't it, by coming up with a new phrase it's going to penetrate our politics. What is the Robinson Tartan Wall? It's the wall of seats the SMP have controlled pretty much since their landslide result back in the general election of 2015. And Labour, I argue, needs to break through it if it's to get |
| 0:49.7 | to power. This is such an interesting question. If you are a voter in Scotland and you're called to vote in a general election, are you voting on 14 years of Conservatives in power in Westminster or are you voting on 17 years in which the SMP have been in power? |
| 1:06.4 | To give you a sense of how long it is, A fact I was reminded of the other day. |
| 1:11.7 | 2007, what happened then? |
| 1:14.1 | That was the year a fantastic new gadget was invented. |
| 1:18.0 | You might not have heard of it yet, Amol. |
| 1:19.9 | It's called the iPhone. |
| 1:21.4 | Now now, Nicholas, enough of this intergenerational badinage. |
| 1:24.3 | We're asking today, does Stama need Scotland to win? |
| 1:29.4 | Let's do it. |
| 1:43.9 | It's Amol here in the Today podcast studio in London. |
| 1:45.0 | And it's Nick at the Pacific Key Studios, the BBC Studios in Glasgow. |
| 1:49.5 | I think, Nick, it was, was it me? |
| 1:51.9 | Or maybe it was you who may have mentioned that there is another excellent political podcast on BBC Sounds called Political Thinking, |
| 1:58.3 | presented by one Nick Robinson. |
... |
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