The Scotsman Bulletin Monday September 18 2023
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00:00 Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Bulletin for Monday. I'm Alan Young, I am
00:10 Deputy Editor of the Scotsman and delighted to be joined today by our Head of News, Dale
00:15 Miller, to take a look at some of the main headlines. Hi Dale.
00:18 Morning Alan, a couple of big headlines to talk through this morning. Education back
00:23 on the front of the Scotsman.
00:25 Yeah, let's have a look at the front page. And as Dale mentioned there, we lead today
00:30 with an exclusive from our education correspondent Callum Ross. Now he has been all over the
00:38 RAC concrete scandal and the latest story today reveals that Scottish Government officials
00:45 were meeting over RAC at least six months ago. This has led opposition politicians to
00:54 demand answers on what was being talked about because minutes of the meeting do not seem
01:00 to exist. We'll speak to Dale about that in just a minute. Also pictured there on the
01:06 front page, lovely picture from the Kilt Walk in Edinburgh yesterday. It was a record-breaking
01:11 Kilt Walk. 7,000 walkers took part, supporting 710 charities. At the top of the page there
01:19 we have the Fagerson brothers talking about the Rugby World Cup. Obviously that is in
01:26 the lead up to the next Scotland game. And we also cover off on the front page there
01:33 the latest surrounding the allegations against Russell Brand. So it's a jam-packed edition
01:39 today. But Dale, just talk us through quickly what Callum has revealed today.
01:44 Yeah, look, Callum's been following the RAC issue closely and a lot of it's focused on
01:50 secondary and primary schools. We know such as up in Murray there have been some enforced
01:56 closures. We've got around 40 schools in total that we know have RAC. Some of those investigations
02:04 are continuing. But these meetings, there was four of them with the Scottish Funding
02:09 Council. They traced back six months ago. And as you said, Alan, three of the four meetings
02:15 had no agenda, no minutes, no paperwork at all to come out of them. The Scottish Liberal
02:21 Democrats have helped to uncover this via Freedom of Information. And essentially they're
02:27 asking the question about why the Scottish Government didn't do something sooner. It's
02:31 a subject that I've written about on page three of the Scotsman in print today. But
02:37 it is a key question that I don't think the government has quite answered yet. There's
02:42 been criticism of the panic, for want of a better word, caused down south by the UK government
02:49 closing far more schools. It's been much more controlled, calm sort of messaging from the
02:55 Scottish Government here. But details of these meetings going back, and this involves principally
03:00 universities and colleges, not just the secondary and primary school sector, I think will be
03:06 of concern. We still don't know the full extent, I think, of how many buildings in the higher
03:11 education sector have RAC. Some of those buildings have been confirmed. And Alan, we know it's
03:17 spreading to lots of other buildings. We had the Motherwell Theatre confirmation nearly
03:21 closed last week. And you sort of feel that we don't know the full extent of the problem
03:26 just yet and that will continue to come out. So I think that this story is not one that's
03:32 going to go away over the coming weeks and months.
03:34 No, indeed, it's going to continue to run and run. Obviously, we had last week as well,
03:39 Forest Academy, a closing, closing completely for a while. And so it gives this impression
03:47 that the problem has come out of the blue when we know today that it's not. It's been
03:52 going on for months, perhaps years.
03:55 And Callum had written about previously the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service more than
03:59 a year ago. It contacted both the Scottish Government and local councils and issued,
04:05 I guess, a warning of sorts about the issue. I think from memory, there's 14 fire stations
04:10 across Scotland that have the crumbling concrete. And in some cases, they've actually taken
04:16 just precautionary measures where they've increased the loading in some areas around
04:20 the fire stations, but have said they don't actually have the funds to fix the issues
04:26 in the short term. Now, this comes against a bigger backdrop for the fire service as
04:30 well. We had them talking last week about budget cuts, the fact that they could be unable
04:37 to put fire appliances out or actually man them due to shortages in staffing. And we
04:43 know the police service, Alan, we splashed on the front of the Scotsman one day last
04:48 week, are also looking to cut up to 800 staff, 600 officers and 200 backroom staff within
04:56 that. So concerning times across the emergency services sector as well.
05:01 It is. And it is also all adding to the topper on First Minister Hamza Yousaf, clearly, who
05:09 I guess has escaped it somewhat. He's in New York today. Can you tell us what he's up to?
05:16 Yeah, he's across there for Global Climate Week. He will be speaking via a live stream
05:23 if anyone's interested in watching just before 5pm today. He's got some key business meetings
05:29 over there. He will not be at First Minister's Questions this week. We'll see Shona Robison
05:33 in action for the first time. Curious timing, Alan. I wonder whether any political hay will
05:39 be made of the fact that Hamza won't be around for the gender court case this week, which
05:44 starts tomorrow and is going to be a big one and is going to run for three days. So expect
05:49 some images, quotes and some stories to come in from Hamza being over in New York over
05:55 the next couple of days.
05:56 Indeed. Busy day, busy week ahead. Thanks very much, Dale. Please keep an eye on scotsman.com
06:01 throughout the day. If you can, do subscribe so you don't miss a thing. And if you're out
06:05 and about today, please do also pick up a copy of the paper from me and from Dale. Bye
06:10 for now.
06:11 Cheers.
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