Douglas Ross: Can the new Scottish Conservative leader preserve the UK?
The Interview
BBC
4.3 • 537 Ratings
🗓️ 13 September 2020
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces momentous challenges. The coronavirus pandemic, an economic slump and a looming moment of truth for Britain’s relations with the EU. In the midst of this turbulence the future of the United Kingdom itself looks uncertain. Polls suggest increasing numbers of Scots want out of the Union. HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to the new leader of the Scottish Conservative party, Douglas Ross. Are events playing into the hands of the Scottish nationalists?
(Photo: Douglas Ross, newly announced Scottish Conservative leader, talks to media in Forres, Scotland, Britain 5 August, 2020. Credit: Russell Cheyne/Reuters)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker. My guest today began his working |
| 0:06.8 | life as a dairy farmer in the north of Scotland. Only Douglas Ross himself will know whether herding cows |
| 0:14.7 | gave him useful skills for his current job, leading the Scottish Conservative Party and trying to persuade reluctant Scots to |
| 0:22.7 | back the UK government led by Boris Johnson. On the face of it, it is a tough task. The Scottish |
| 0:30.6 | Nationalist Party committed to the cause of an independent Scotland is the dominant political force |
| 0:36.5 | in Scotland. |
| 0:37.9 | Scottish people voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU, |
| 0:41.9 | and polls suggest they still are adamantly opposed to Boris Johnson's handling of Brexit |
| 0:48.9 | and the UK's future relationship with Brussels. |
| 0:52.2 | Add to that, coronavirus and questions about the London government's |
| 0:56.7 | handling of the pandemic, and you've got a recipe for strong Scottish support for another |
| 1:02.9 | independence referendum, six years after the last one. Is separation inevitable? Well, Douglas Ross joins me now. |
| 1:12.8 | Welcome to Hard Talk. |
| 1:14.1 | Do you think your party leader and the Prime Minister Boris Johnson fully appreciates the depth of discontent with him that currently exists in Scotland? |
| 1:27.3 | I think personalities are always going to prove to be popular or otherwise, whether you're a |
| 1:33.3 | UK party leader, a Scottish party leader, and I understand people's concerns about opinion |
| 1:38.9 | polls, which suggests his favourability ratings are not as high as other politicians in Scotland. |
| 1:44.1 | Let us be clear about that, because it is interesting, you've read the polls just like me. |
| 1:47.8 | He has an approval rating of minus 50. |
| 1:51.0 | Nicholas Sturgeon, the leader of the Scottish government. |
| 1:54.4 | She has an approval rating of plus 50. |
| 1:57.5 | Couldn't be more stark. |
... |
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