Scotsman Bulletin Tuesday 21 January
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00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's daily video bulletin for this Tuesday. My name is
00:13Dale Miller. I'm Deputy Editor of the Scotsman and I'm joined by our Westminster correspondent,
00:17Alexander Brown. Alex, we're going to get to talking about Southport firstly, but it's
00:23pretty hard to go past Donald Trump, the front page of today's Scotsman, dominated by a figure
00:30that we will see a lot over the next four years. Obviously him swearing, being sworn
00:37into office there on the main image, our headline world holds its breath. It was a pretty remarkable
00:43inauguration and opening press conference in which Trump ranged from commitments to
00:49travel to Mars to put the stars and stripes into the red planet, to announcing and signing
00:57executive orders around the wall that will block Mexico and tighter immigration controls.
01:05It's going to be an event for four years. You can tune into every blow of what happens
01:10under Trump and how it impacts the UK and Scotland here at Scotsman.com. Alex, we will
01:17get to talking about Trump. I don't think we can avoid it. But Keir Starmer has given
01:22a press conference or a statement about Southport this morning. What have we learned out of that?
01:28So we already knew that there would be an inquiry into essentially how the perpetrator
01:34of the Southport attack was able to do so, given they were referred to, I think, three
01:39times the anti-extremist group. So that doesn't look good for the government. He said that
01:44basically there's been a series of state failures. So they jumped off the page. And a review
01:49of all counterterrorism measures is not off the table. They'll be looking at everything
01:54to find a way to stop this sort of attack happening again. He also talked, I think,
01:59quite interestingly about the way that oxygen, the oxygen given to conspiracy theories. There
02:04were some questions about whether or not he knew about elements of this case, because
02:08I think previously it was said this wasn't terrorism. And the prime minister said, well,
02:12I was told these things. But if I do say that, it risks collapsing a trial,
02:17which is a completely valid point. I was a court reporter for a couple of years.
02:20If he did know anything about it and he had said it, that could then prejudice the trial,
02:24which meant these people would never have had justice, because how would you possibly have a
02:27jury do that? I think it was also interesting in that he said, essentially, the way that
02:33terrorism works as an addition to a murder charge, I think if it's just murder and you're
02:38under 18, you can't get life. I think he wants to maybe look at changing it so that terrorism
02:42can be applied to more cases, in which case there can be longer sentences handed out. So
02:48it was a really interesting and very grim start to the day.
02:54Alex, there's going to be an inquiry. Do you think we've already learnt anything out of
02:59Southport, though? We know that it was an incident that then triggered unrest,
03:04that basically, you know, it was linked into Tommy Robinson as well, but we've had incidents
03:10around the country. We know the issue of immigration has been a hot topic for a
03:15number of years here in the UK. Have we learnt anything immediately outside of this case?
03:22Well, the Prime Minister did say that there were a number of reasons why
03:25this sort of thing might have happened. He mentioned that sometimes there's issues of a
03:29lack of integration, but that was not the thrust of it. It was more that the state had felt that
03:35the way that Whitehall works, the way Westminster works, sometimes it does not look at things
03:41in the way that it should be doing. It can be inefficient or it can pass issues around, and
03:45there would be a review of that, because it's not just a review of prevent, it's going to be
03:49a review of the whole way the government looks at terrorism and functions. And he also, I think,
03:55more concerningly going forward, suggested that this could be an issue long term. He talked about
04:00the problems arising from social media, and we know the government has issues with social media
04:05and has had issues with Elon Musk, but he made the point that you can watch videos of brutal attacks
04:10online, and often these videos never come down. He said it cannot be right that a child can access
04:17terrible footage online and on social media and it not be taken down. Something has to be done
04:23to prevent that. At one point he compared it to going to cinema. He said, you go to cinema,
04:28there's film ratings there, people know what's going to be in there, and the idea that a child
04:32can see something on social media and be radicalised by it, that's something the government needs to
04:35take steps on it. So we don't know any of the details of this review, because it's a new
04:40inquiry and it's a new review into the whole way the government handles things,
04:43but it sounded pretty sweeping. He was talking about government, he was talking about external
04:49bodies, and he was talking about the way that we kind of treat integration. So it sounds quite
04:53sweeping, and I think it's going to be led by one of the country's top lawyers. So, you know,
04:58read that where you will. Just circling back, I said we wouldn't discuss Trump. I know you wrote
05:04about, late yesterday, a series of things that the UK and Scottish governments had to be prepared for
05:10across key areas. There's talk that Sir Keith Starmer will see Donald Trump over the coming
05:17weeks or the next few weeks. It was, you know, notable that there wasn't a direct invite there,
05:24I think, for him, as far as we're aware, to the inauguration. What are your key takeaways about
05:32Trump coming in, the executive orders that were initially signed, and the mood music and what it'll
05:37mean for both the UK and Scottish governments? Well, I think, initially, to slightly pull you
05:42up on something about the idea that the Prime Minister wasn't invited to the inauguration,
05:46that was portrayed in some newspapers as a massive snub. But no Prime Minister has been
05:50invited to inauguration. I think even, like, since before Churchill, it's not something that happens.
05:55And again, because people want something to bash the government over, it's become this weird
05:59talking point when no one goes. It's perverse. As for what Trump's done so far, he's going to
06:06pull America out of the climate accord. He is going to go after what he would describe as gender
06:14ideology, banning it in all sorts of schools. He's going to, I mean, drill baby drillers back.
06:22It's going to boost businesses, or at least, you know, the oil and gas body there. And there will
06:28be tariffs. He said tariffs are going to happen, which is obviously could be a potentially huge
06:34blow to Scotland and Scotch whisky. Now, I don't know what these tariffs are. And I think there is
06:40a train of thought or an argument held in some circles of UK and Scottish government that
06:46Trump says something slightly mad. And then by the time it gets to a certain stage,
06:51it's been diluted. And it's not quite as bad. I think that's probably what government are hoping.
06:56And also on immigration, he wants to change it so that if illegal immigrants come to
07:02America, and they have children, their children do not get immediate citizenship.
07:06This is a fallacy. This will never, ever happen. It's in the I think it's in the 14th Amendment,
07:11there's no way that can go. You cannot be a patriot and then rewrite the Constitution,
07:16as a Republican said so many times, even just on a purely practical level, there's not a court battle
07:22that he cannot win. So he's had lots of things, some of the possible some of them on, we don't
07:27know what he's going to do on Ukraine yet. There wasn't much on that. But he did famously say that
07:31he got in the conflict within 24 hours. So I'm looking forward to peace and prosperity and the
07:35return of a sovereign Ukraine. Alex, just last I'm interested in how the UK and Syracuse stammer
07:41in particular responds to talk of takeovers. Effectively, we've got the Gulf of Mexico being
07:47renamed to the Gulf of America based on executive order. We've got Trump talking about Panama and
07:53control of the Panama Canal, whether completely unrealistic or not, but also about Canada,
08:01Greenland, Greenland. How given that the UK government has been so critical of say,
08:09and not to draw ridiculous comparisons with Russia, looking to take over sections of Ukraine,
08:16how does the UK government actually respond to what Trump is saying here, which is
08:21effectively expanding areas of US control? Yeah, I mean, that's exactly what he said.
08:27That's the problem with listening to Trump yesterday. He said so many mad things,
08:30it's impossible to just get them all together. He talked about expanding territory. As for the UK
08:34government stance on that. I think it's really hard for a UK government say you can or can't
08:39do this. We have seen historically that where America goes often the UK has to follow,
08:44even if it doesn't like that. I mean, we saw that with the withdrawal from Afghanistan,
08:47something that was left over from the Trump administration. And Biden followed through with
08:52UK didn't want to do had horrible consequences and continues to do so. But the UK did it anyway.
08:58I think we are going to expect closer ties with the EU. I think you're going to see
09:02the UK administration seek stronger relations, and even close ties, not just on trading, but on
09:12policy, I think with the European bloc, and with this NATO partners, because it has to be a way to
09:17combat Trump and a way to make a collective argument against him. It's not it's not going
09:22to be enough to just be one country or one ally arguing, it's going to have to be a collective.
09:28And I think you'll see your defence spending rise as a result of that. Trump has repeatedly said,
09:34defence has to rise, America is always doing too much, we shouldn't be the only ones doing it,
09:38and demanded NATO allies increase. I think you'll probably see that to go look, we've done this,
09:44we're keeping the border secure. You cannot invade Greenland, you cannot expand into Canada.
09:51I mean, that's it. We've not even talked about Elon Musk and his little salute at the end of
09:55his speech. I mean, what an unbelievable night. America.
10:02Alex, as when you were talking closer EU ties is obviously that thorny issue of Brexit to work
10:08around as well. So look, it's going to be a fascinating period ahead, you can have
10:13track all the latest on that at scotsman.com. And please visit the site and read our extensive
10:20Trump coverage led by Martin McLaughlin and Alex as well. Please follow us on Facebook,
10:26Instagram, Blue Sky, and go out and buy a copy of the paper tomorrow for all the latest.
10:32Thanks to you, Alex. Thanks, everyone else for joining us.