Hello, welcome to Coffee House Shots. I'm James Heel and I'm joined today by Russell Finley, who's the leader of the Scottish Conservative since 24 and as a member of the Scottish Parliament since 2021.

Now, Russell, I think first of all we come on to Scotland specifically, we've had the news overnight that there's going to be another partial U-turn of labour policy this time on mandatory ID cards and so I just wondered how has

the kind of collapse of labour's maybe sort of authority in office and public support influence in Scotland

and what's the view from hollyrood well let's start with the U-turn. Great news. It was a ridiculous idea. And Kirstarmer, I saw the clip this morning of him when he announced it in his robotic fashion. This was going to happen, no doubts about that whatsoever. And here we are yet another U-turn. They're going round and round in circles are doing so many U-turns. But in respect of the Scottish Parliament election, which is just less than four months from now,

this is having a profound effect. When Labour came into power, the loveless landslide of summer

2024, they did so with a huge number of Labour MPs north of the border. And the catastrophic

conduct of Keir Starmour and Rachel Reeves has seen Labour's

support in Scotland decimated, plummeting rapidly and Arasarwar, the leader in Scotland went from

looking like someone who was just waiting for someone to hand him the keys to Butte House

now looks like a man lost because of

the conduct of the UK Labour Government. And I've got no sympathy for him. I'm used to growing up

in Glasgow, spending my entire life in Scotland, I know the hubris and arrogance of Scottish labour.

They have always believed that they are destined or entitled to rule Scotland.

And the era of the SNP was some kind of aberration, some kind of hiccup,

and normal service would be resumed.

And that's why it's never been more important than it is now

to have a strong, credible Scottish Conservative voice in Parliament.

We talk about the credibility there. I mean, the downside for your party is that you haven't

been the beneficiary of that kind of collapse of Labour support. Why do you think the Scottish

Conservatives are having maybe some trouble cutting through? Well, look, life's not fair. Politics

is even less fair. If people in Scotland looked the Scottish Conservative record in Hollywood for

the past decade plus, they would see the only credible, consistent, strong opposition to an out-of-control,

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