Jeane Freeman: Inside The Pandemic
Podlitical
BBC
4.6 • 157 Ratings
🗓️ 2 December 2021
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
An in-depth conversation with former Scottish Health Secretary Jeane Freeman. She shares the mood inside the cabinet during the first months of the Covid-19 Pandemic in 2020, her regrets over care homes, and the difficult decisions made on restrictions over Christmas. Freeman also discusses the ongoing public inquiry into safety at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, and a second independence referendum in 2023.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds |
| 0:02.4 | You're listening to BBC Scotland |
| 0:09.7 | Hi, you're listening to Podlitical, BBC Scotland's broadcast |
| 0:16.0 | That brings you an inside look at the biggest stories coming out of Hollywood and Westminster. |
| 0:24.6 | It is four minutes past two on Thursday the 2nd of December. I'm Lucy White, a journalist based in Glasgow. |
| 0:27.6 | Today I'm joined by. |
| 0:29.6 | I'm Lindsay Bews, a political correspondent based at Hollywood. |
| 0:33.6 | Nick Erdley, normally at Westminster, but I'm in Edinburgh just now, very cold Edinburgh. |
| 0:39.2 | So things have been going in the right direction, haven't they? COVID-wise, it feels like. |
| 0:43.4 | But just in the past week, I've had this awful feeling of deja vu, |
| 0:47.6 | and it feels like we've been here before with the emergence of this new COVID variant, |
| 0:53.2 | and we're in the run up to Christmas, |
| 0:54.9 | and it's seeming very much like it was last year in some ways. |
| 0:58.4 | But obviously the big difference this year is we've got the vaccine, |
| 1:01.5 | and we're all waiting to see how it plays out this year. |
| 1:04.4 | Fingers crossed. |
| 1:05.4 | But someone who was in the room where the decisions were made through the worst of the pandemic last year |
| 1:11.3 | was the former Scottish Health Secretary Jean Freeman and she is joining us on the podcast |
| 1:17.0 | today. Welcome, Jean. Thank you so much for joining us. Hi, Jean, welcome. Not at all. It's a pleasure. |
| 1:23.3 | Jean, what's it been like particularly this week to watch from the sidelines with this new variant emerging? |
| 1:30.4 | Are you relieved not to be health secretary right now? |
| 1:33.9 | I think it's probably a bit mixed. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.