David Bol on this morning's visit of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to launch the Scottish Conservative Manifestowith Scottish Tory Leader Douglas Ross at The Apex Hotel in The Grassmarket, Edinburgh
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00:00Hello, I'm David Bowle, the Scotsman's Deputy Political Editor. I'm at the Glassmarket in
00:08Edinburgh where Douglas Ross and Rishi Sunak have been launching the Scottish Conservatives
00:13manifesto for the election. Just over a week out from the general election, it's very late
00:18to be launching a manifesto. The document itself was a lot of devolved issues that really
00:24aren't on the ballot paper at the general election. Stuff about improving roads, although
00:28the Conservatives at Westminster have kind of moved to try and improve some roads, even
00:34though they're devolved, as part of the levelling up strategy. There was things committing to
00:38improving the NHS and schools and police officers, all things that are really the responsibility
00:45of the Scottish Government at Holyrood and won't really be on the agenda or have any
00:50influence in changing until the 2026 election, which we know Douglas Ross is stepping down
00:56after the Westminster election. There was talk about independence, basically saying
01:02that sending a message to the SNP and reducing their number of MPs at Westminster would basically
01:08put the independence question to bed for a generation, was the word that was used. We've
01:12heard that generation before and it's obviously not stuck with the independence campaign,
01:17but that is what the Tories are pitching, is to vote for the Tories and the Conservative
01:22candidates to kind of shut out the SNP and to end this obsession, as they would call
01:27it, with independence. Rishi Sunak talked to journalists after the launch of the manifesto
01:34and was basically not saying very much about his future, very much saying he would like
01:39to carry on and he's very keen to carry on, he's up for the fight essentially, but if
01:46we look at the polling it's looking pretty dismal for Rishi Sunak and the Tories. Douglas
01:51Ross is obviously standing in that North East constituency and the Scottish Tories
01:54are putting a lot of effort and energy into that seat. We're just more than a week, less
02:01than two weeks away from polling day and it'll be interesting to see if that manifesto has
02:06any influence on people, many of whom have probably made up their mind already.