Summary
Ian Blackford has announced he will stand down as leader of the SNP Westminster group, but why now, and what does this tell us about divisions within the SNP? The team discuss the news, who might take over, as well as the thorny issues in PMQs and FMQs from housing stock to a National Care Service. Are party leaders placing policy 'tanks on lawns' ahead of the next General Election, and what does it tell us about the potential future 'battlefields' of politics?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds |
| 0:02.4 | You're listening to BBC Scotland |
| 0:09.8 | Hi, you're listening to Podlitical BBC Scotland's podcast that brings you an inside look at the big stories coming out of Holyrood and Westminster. |
| 0:21.0 | It's 11 minutes to 2 on Thursday the 1st of December. |
| 0:26.3 | I'm Lucy White, a journalist based in Glasgow. |
| 0:28.2 | Today I'm joined by... |
| 0:29.7 | I'm Raj Sheepson, a journalist based in Westminster. |
| 0:33.1 | And I'm Phil Sim, a journalist based at the Scottish Parliament. |
| 0:36.2 | So, full disclosure, we thought it was going to be a quiet week. |
| 0:39.6 | We jinxed it. |
| 0:40.4 | We thought, what a great chance to just talk about all the other things that are happening in politics. |
| 0:45.1 | And then I guess for once the podlitical jinx didn't happen |
| 0:49.7 | because the breaking news happened just before we started recording |
| 0:53.4 | rather than just afterwards. |
| 0:55.0 | So that's something, at least this week, you have to say. |
| 0:58.7 | Yeah. |
| 0:59.3 | Ian Blackford has said that he's going to step down as leader of the SNP group at Westminster. |
| 1:07.5 | Now, that happened just a what, a couple of hours ago now. I think it was some time before 11 because I was trying to switch buses as this was going on right at all anyway was I've just done lunchtime live on a on BBC Radio Scotland so that started at 12 and it wasn't too long before we went on air when we found out that that was happening. So yeah, exciting news. |
| 1:28.1 | We know forward to the fact check where we nail down exactly what time this happened. That's the |
| 1:31.6 | important thing for the audience right now. But it's, okay, I'm on it. I'm on it. All this to say, |
| 1:36.8 | it's been a bit of a busy, a busy couple of hours for all three of us, hasn't it? Phil, what's it been like in Hollywood where you are? Yeah, well, obviously, |
| 1:45.6 | well, Rajee looks up the email to find out exactly what time we found out with this. I got at 1137 for |
... |
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