YouSaid · the spoken record

John Swinney

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73
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2025-12-15
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2025-12-15
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  1. “No, no. She was able to find, and in the 1853 Paris Register of the Parish of Tong in Lewis, a handwritten entry by the parish minister in the most beautiful handwriting tribute to Scottish education, Alistair, the entry of Mary MacLeod's grandparents' marriage in that parish record. So we got that copied and presented to President Trump to mark his visit to Scotland and that's before compulsory registration took place within Scotland. So this is a really unique record in the fact that in national records of Scotland hold on to as many of the parish records as they have access to. So the Church of Scotland records pre Being a system put these to national records, and there it was. And I'm told it was very much appreciated.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “Whether the world would be a better place. Donald Trump. Lots of things have happened in the intervening years which you and I can do nothing, Alistair. But when President Trump came to Scotland in the summer, I asked the Registrar General of Scotland if she could find anything in our national records that would be of unique significance to Donald Trump. And the Russia General was able to find...”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “Well, I understand that Miriam MacLeod regularly returned to Tong in the Western Isles in Lewis as many, many, many Hebrideans do come back home. And so I'm not surprised that Mary MacLeod was any different. And why wouldn't she want to come back to the majesty of the...”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “Don't bother about me. Just get on with it. And so I'm very conscious of Elizabeth's circumstances, but equally profoundly grateful to her that she just basically tells me to get on it.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “Having spent my entire adult life trying to build up the arguments for Scottish independence and build up the Scottish National Party, I just couldn't walk on by. And I discussed it with my wife. And, you know, Elizabeth was just as magnificent as she's about absolutely everything. And she just said to me, You know what you've got to do. And I will, you know, when I became First Minister, I expressed my forever gratitude. For the sacrifices she's prepared to make to allow me to do what I'm doing. But I can't Disguise the fact that I'm constantly thinking about Elizabeth's well-being and her husband. Of course I will be thinking about Molly's well-being all the time, but she would also be saying to me, Get on with it”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “But sometimes I kind of think look, she could do with you being around the house a bit more just physically to be there to meet life a bit easier. And that was one of the factors that weighed in my mind when Nicholas Sturgeon stood down as First Minister, I had a cure of people saying to me, you must stand. And I said, no, I've done this for a long time. It's time to give my family priority, particularly my wife. I decided not to I would have become the first minister if I'd stood at that stage. There's no doubt about that in my mind. But I actively decided not to do so. Things didn't work out for my party. We faced an existential threat to our survival as a party, I think, and I felt”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “Yeah, I tried when I was a government minister to step down a couple of times. My wife has multiple sclerosis. She's an incredible woman. She's determined, despite the constraints that multiple sclerosis creates for her to not allow that to get in the way of her living a full and active life. And she does unbelievably well. I can't adequately express just my admiration for how resolute she is.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “So, if I want to succeed in eradicating child poverty, I don't think I'll have done it by May of next year. I think I'll have made significant progress in that direction. It will be substantially lower than the rest of the United Kingdom, but it will not be accomplished. But by setting out to people the progress that we've made by collaboration and cooperation with others is for me a powerful message to share with the wider public in Scotland.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “I think we've had different parliamentary formations as a government. We started off very much as a minority. We had a period as a majority government for five years. We've had two periods of minority government, one of which is also involved a coalition agreement with the Greens. And I think the importance I would attach to bringing people together in politics cannot be overstated. So I think actually reaching out beyond your party to try to create common ground with others is a key ingredient in political success. And I think that also helps in addressing, I think what underlies your question, Rory, which is we face some really big challenges and sometimes you need longer than a one parliamentary term to succeed in that endeavour.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “That I'm First Minister of Scotland, that I've got to try to bring people together. And if I give you an example of that, immediately before my acceptance speech as First Minister in May of 2024, the Liberal Democrat leader made a speech in which he said the votes of his party were available to bring down the government if everybody else wanted to do so. And then I spoke to accept office. Nine months later, The Liberal Democrats voted for the government's budget. And I took enormous personal satisfaction out of that because I felt we had engaged properly. They didn't have to do that. They were under no obligation to do it. But because we had acted properly and effectively with a generosity of spirit, we managed to bring people to a point of agreement. And I think that's what you have to do when in politics and it's particularly acute when you're leading a minority government. You've got to bring people together.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “I suppose I have reflected, and I said this in my acceptance speech as first minute, I think I would have been viewed as being a pretty bullish minister on the government benches and certainly a pretty bullish backbencher when I spent a year in the backbenches after I left office. And this struck me during my time out of government where I actually spent more time talking to members of other parties than I had for a long time. You're very busy when you're in government. You don't always have time to talk to lots of other people in other parties and I had that time when I was on the back benches and I said to Parliament that I recognised in leading a minority government I was going to have to build bridges with people and I was going to have to bring people together and I've consciously so that is an element of my approach which I think is different now.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “I think, and this goes back to the role of the Secretary of State for Scotland pre devolution, and it was always a subject of great debate. Is the Secretary of State for Scotland Scotland's man in the Cabinet or the Cabinet's man in Scotland? And invariably, with the exception of one individual, I think it's always been a man, if I'm correct about that. I think that's what it comes down to. Are you trying to fix things on Scotland's behalf or are you trying to fix Scotland? And I think we're now in a mode of trying to fix Scotland and the electorate will decide on that in May and as opposed to trying to fix Scotland's interests in the Cabinet.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “Well, I think I saw much of those similarities once the Stalmart government came into office. So I think for most of the time the Stammard government, I would equate that way of working to be similar to the way of working of the Carmen Clegg government. And indeed, I can think of a couple of tangible and practical examples where good collaborative working between the Scottish and United Kingdom governments has got some issues that were very, very tricky sorted out. And I welcome that and applaud that. I think that climate feels less likely just now. I think there's been a noticeable change in the language and the approach and the interaction. I think quite a lot of it goes back to the Change of Secretary of State for Scotland, if I'm blunt about it. And I think that's where the tonal shift has come from and I think that's something we have to do.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “Yeah, oh, yeah, definitely. Terrible. And the conduct of the then Secretary of State for Scotland was deeply damaging to intergovernmental relations. And you're right. Look, I signalled to the now Prime Minister during the election campaign. We met at one of the DD commemoration events and I made it clear to Keir Stammer that if he was to be successful, which I thought he would be, he could rely on a professional cooperative collaborative relationship again accepting that you can't agree on everything your different priorities, different issues, but we'd engage substantively. And that's broadly been the experience that I've had, although I think that's changing just now. I think that's changing because we've got an election in May, is why it's changing.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “I always felt that there was a productive way of working with the Brown government, the Cameron Clegg government, the Teresa May government, which was recently, I never felt disrespected in those discussions. I might not have got what I wanted, but I didn't feel disrespected as a representative of a different government. I felt disrespected by the Boris Johnson. Liz Truss wasn't around for very long, and Sunat governments.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “Yes, all right. Well, actually, I'll give y'all off. I was sitting on a conference call with the then chief sitting of the Treasury, with other finance ministers across the United Kingdom on the day she resigned. And the meeting was at one o'clock. And we're on, it was a virtual meeting. And we're talking away. And I got this flash on my phone saying Prime Minister to make a statement at 1.30. And I thought, hmm, interesting. And then the treasury were talking away about issues in the public finances. Then suddenly the treasury went mute, camera went off, and the chief said to come and said, I think we'll have to stop the meeting. And that was the meeting over. And then she was out by half past one. So I witnessed it all. And then the SUNAC government.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “My experience obviously I dealt with a number of UK governments not for very long the Blair government but the Brown government in the Cameron Clyde government the Cameron on his own government the May government the Johnson government”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “None of that euphoria would be changed by independence. But what I'm talking about, Rory, is a vision of a Scotland that's actually outward-looking, that is reaching out to other communities, is establishing partnerships with Europe. That's what I'm talking about. That's what I want to make sure is the Scotland of the future, an outward-looking, compassionate country. And as I look at the United Kingdom, as I look at the prevailing political direction, and I don't see anything that is interrupting this. I don't see any direction to travel in the rest of the United Kingdom that is swimming against this particular tide because the Labour Party, the Conservatives, and Farage are all largely in the same direction of travel. And I think Scotland wants a different outlook, and that's what I'm going to give Scotland the chance to take that opportunity in the elections in May next year.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “I would set out this goes back to really the very early points that we talked about with Rory about the political position of the SNP. The S&P is a moderate left-of-centre civic political party that believes in welcoming individuals into our society, believes in the cohesion of our communities, believes in activities. None a lot is what Nigel Farage believes in none of it whatsoever. So we're the antithesis of reform and we'll continue to say that.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “I set out some of our responses on those questions just a few weeks ago as I marshalled how we need to argue the case for Scottish independence which I think is now an ever greater urgency for Scotland because of analysis of the comparative economic performance of the United Kingdom United Kingdom standards of living have not increased in 15 years. They're flat as a pancake and they've been made worse by the decision on the European Union. I want to address that. I want to improve people's standards of living. That's what we're supposed to be in politics to do and becoming a member of the European Union would help us in that respect and that argument has got to be advanced. So there are opportunities that come out of that cooperation with the European Union that will be strong for Scotland as an independent member.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “Migration about economic opportunity about economic collaboration, all of which will be beneficial for Scotland. And I cannot fathom how the Labour Party doesn't just face up to the reality and say, this has been a disaster.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “What I said in relation to the stance that the Home Secretary has taken, the discussion around about ECHR, I can't believe the Labour Party is embracing what they're saying about the European Convention on Human Rights. And then, of course, the other issue, and this is about the positive arguments for independence, I want to see us, I am open and recognizing that the decision to leave the European Union has been catastrophic for the United Kingdom and its damage continues to be done. And the Labour Party is imprisoned by not being able to say what needs to be said about Brexit and its disaster because of its fear of being consumed by reform. And the sooner Scotland can be a member of the European Union, from my point of view, the better because it will help us to address all sorts of issues about”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “Well, I think what we've seen, we're having this conversation a few days after the Home Secretary has gone to the House of Commons and set out a very different way of thinking in relation to asylum and immigration. That's one example I think some of the positioning of the Labour Party in England barely recognise what the Labour Party in England is talking about because they are echoing and reinforcing the language of Farage and I think if you go on to that territory as Labour found out in the Carfilly by-election if you go into that territory if you don't confront reform you'll be consumed by reform. Give us an example.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “And where reform are in England are emphatically going in a direction to the right. And I don't think Scotland will be support for some of these aspirations in Scotland, but not nearly the prevailing political direction which is happening in England. And Scotland is now, I think, on a very different journey because we are not going along with the drift to the right that is now happening in England.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “No, because if you look at polls so objectively, polls essentially show that Scotland, it oscillates, but it's often a majority in favour of independence by a margin of perhaps 4% to 6% and sometimes it's the other way around. So it's about 50-50 in Scotland, which of course is stronger than it was in 2014. And the second factor which makes me think that the independence question is very much central to the debates that Scotland now has is the fact that it is very obvious that Scotland and England are moving in very different political directions in the current context. So where the United Kingdom government, the Labour government is, where the Conservatives are in England,”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “Well, obviously, we rely on a shipyard ferguson shipyard to build ferries. One of them has been commissioned and is in service. The next one will be ready in 2026. Story, it's had its difficulties. It's a long running story. But there's also, but we've also commissioned four other large vessels, the first of which is coming to us very shortly, and that will allow your island crossings to be more straightforward.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  27. “I think we have also to be candid, and I think people's lives in Scotland are better as a consequence of the exercise of self-government and also the exercise of S&P government. So there are aspects of people's lives that are better because of decisions that were taken by my predecessors. So, for example, Scotland was the first part of the United Kingdom to ban smoking in public places. And that was undertaken by the Labour Liberal Executive. I supported it as an opposition member in 2006, and I think people's lives in Scotland are better as a consequence. Public health is better because of that as a measure. So that's an example of self-government making a difference. In relation to the exercise of power by the SNP government, well, for example, young people in Scotland are able to go to university in Scotland without having to pay tuition fees. We've got a lower level of child poverty now than in the rest of the United Kingdom.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  28. “Yeah, and obviously we've got a limited scope for the exercise of responsibilities because we have to, if we wanted, for example, to develop a new tax, we'd have to get the consent of the UK government to enable us to do that. We can vary elements of the income tax system. We've got a certain amount of control over property taxation through the equivalent of stamp duty land tax, but there are limitations on our powers. But to undoubtedly there is scope for that debate to be taken forward and for these issues to be considered. And what I would like to see us being in a position to act in relation to wealth taxation, but we've got to be confident that we could act in a sustainable way in taking forward such decisions.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  29. “Us to afford measures such as the Scottish Child Payment, which is a direct measure to tackle inequality, which is about lifting children out of poverty.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  30. “Things I'm not hearing you talk about as much as I would say that you talked about 20, 30 years ago is inequality. Think if we look at the way in which you framed things back 20, 30 years ago, you would have been talking more about what we would now see as the gap between the top 1% and the rest and between rich people and you would have been more focused on making sure that wealthier people are paying more tax and that there's more equality in society. Why are we not hearing so much? Essentially because that's what we are doing it's in our program. So higher earners will pay more in taxation living in Scotland than they would if they were living in England and that's been a conscious policy decision again using powers that we acquired in the aftermath of the 2014 referendum. So that is one of our means of generating more revenue which then allows”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  31. “Well, again, that's part of the overall working relation to the population health framework where we've got to be encouraging and motivating people to lead healthier lifestyles in terms of what they consume, but there is, as we say, a role for regulation. And we've gone into some of that space on regulation already. And we have to consider whether more needs to be done.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  32. “Services to support that person to recover from their drug addiction. But we've got to also concentrate on trying to avoid that happening in the first place by the nature of our earlier intervention.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  33. “They are both significant issues, Alistair, and we set out just earlier in the summer a population health framework which is all about trying to make progress on getting people essentially to lead healthier lives. So that's about trying to shift many of our services into earlier intervention so that we are trying to get people to exercise more where they are leading a more active life, where weight is under control, where people have got purpose in their lives, so we are actively supporting them to avoid becoming involved in drugs. And various measures of that type. from the reactive interventions, which I accept we have got to make. If somebody has got a drug addiction, we have got to put in place reaction.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  34. “And that's where I think we've got the long term transformation of the country comes from on issues like health, for example. I told people I would deliver improvements in the National Health Service and we are seeing those improvements being delivered, long waits for treatment, which are a product of the post-COVID environment. They are coming down steadily within Scotland. We're seeing a rising number of GPs to expand capacity. All of that is underway, but some of the underlying challenges are those in relation to poverty, which I'm trying to...”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  35. “I think we've obviously got recurring challenges about poverty and about economic activity. So those underlying challenges in Scottish society. So hence my biggest priority as First Minister is to eradicate child poverty because I'm trying to essentially avoid repeating what has happened for quite some time in Scotland where there is a proportion of our population that is born into poverty and that simply is perpetuated through life. And I'm trying my level best and it's building on some really good work undertaken by my predecessors, principally Nicholas Sturgeon who presided over the introduction of the Scottish Child Payment which is a direct payment which was only possible because of powers that we negotiated in the aftermath of the independence referendum.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  36. “Got a thing called the National Performance Framework in Scotland, which has been in place for, I introduced it in 2007, and it's a set of essentially objective indicators about how is Scotland getting on? And are we progressing? Are we retrenching? Where is that all heading? We tried to take that forward on a broad parliamentary basis and actually there's been a lot of engagement across parliament about our committees in parliament take a close interest in this because it is an attempt to try to make available to people if they wish to some information that they could look at and see well how is the country getting on and could consider that now I accept that you know you'd have to go onto the government website to look at it and you'd have to interrogate the indicators and all the rest of it but it is an attempt to try to inform the debate with some of that quality information you're talking about”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  37. “I wouldn't see that because there were certain measures of, you know, people often talk about the PISA scores, the measures of literacy and numeracy that go with the PISA scores. But when I look at the most recent exam results that we had in Scotland, that's a very high performing diet from young people in Scotland. As an example of performance, the assessments we do of literacy and numeracy levels in Scottish education demonstrate that young people are reaching record levels of literacy and numeracy. So there's a lot of achievements being delivered in Scottish education. And then crucially, young people are going on to much better outcomes than would have been the case when I was leaving school all those years ago.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  38. “I would contest that Alistair, to be honest, I spend a lot of time engaging with Scottish education and seeing the fruits of our education system. And on all sorts of different measures, I think our education system is strong. So young people leave school now to go on to much better outcomes than when young people are leaving school.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  39. “So, commuters and glass going from Edinburgh to Glasgow, for example, at peak real times, their cost to travel has been halved by the actions of my government. So they feel our First Minister and his government are actually doing something tangible that is helping us with the costs that we're all wrestling with.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  40. “It is, and I'd be surprised, Rory, to do this on my own terms. I set myself out as somebody that people can rely on to do what's necessary to lead the country, to give people a better life, a better prospects and better hope about the future. And a lot of that is anchored around how I engage with people and with issues, with Parliament, and then also what we deliver, what we actually turn into reality. So when I say to people, my top priority is to eradicate child poverty, and we see child poverty falling in Scotland compared to the rest of the UK where it's rising. People will think, well, actually John Swinney is doing what he said he would do. And when we say to people in May of this year, we're going to get rid of peak rail fares to help people with the cost of living, and we'll do that by September. By September, we get rid of peak rail fares in Scotland so that people...”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  41. “So out of that, Delivery and hope. So trust is about rebuilding the relationship between the SNP and the public in Scotland. Delivery is about actually making a difference in people's lives and improving their lives with the exercise of power and government in hope is about inspiring people about a better future. And I have essentially every day of the week since then reflected on how much am I doing and what steps am I taking to rebuild that relationship with the public, to focus on delivering substantive progress and to inspire people about what our country could be like if we had greater control over our own affairs.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  42. “Absolutely terrible. And I spoke to all of my colleagues who lost. It was incredibly painful. But I think in retrospect, if I hadn't come in, I think we would have been probably routed in that election. Labour went down to one seat in Scotland. I think we could easily have gone down to one seat as well.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  43. “And then as the D unfolded, I thought, wait a minute. I'm delivering a statement to Parliament. Literally, you can picture the scene, you know, I'm delivering a statement to Parliament about my priorities for government. And as people around me are saying, it's looking even more likely that he's going to announce an election. And I'm thinking, well, this is all completely pointless because by five o'clock, the whole shebang will have moved on. So the election gets called two weeks into my leadership, so I've got literally no opportunity to try to rebuild things. I think actually in retrospect, I think I probably saved us from an absolute routing. So we've got nine seats. We had 48”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  44. “Why would Richuna do that? You and I wrote it in exactly the same place. So I was kind of I've got enough on my plate today. I've got things to deal with. I've got a statement department. Why has my time been taken up with this nonsense”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  45. “Obviously, I inherited a very difficult situation, and we faced, I was First Minister, I remember coming into the office the day that Rishi Sunak called the UK election. And I came in, and my private secretary said to me, your chief of staff wants to speak to you because there's talk about an election being called today. And my words were, don't be ridiculous, that's not going to happen.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  46. “And I feel I've laid that restoration of the SP's fortunes, which I think demonstrably the evidence supports that position.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  47. “I think it's a matter of public record, Alster, and the fact that I'm sitting here when I didn't really expect to have a second stint as SNP leader, and I certainly didn't expect to be First Minister of Scotland. I'm here because we ran into difficulties. But I think those are behind us.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  48. “Certainly nothing more I could have drawn to public attention, no. And I think these events have been well documented and well chartered. I don't think I've got. Anything more to add to what's been said about these things. But, you know, Alec was a significant and commanding public figure.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  49. “Could move on to become an independent parliament, so DUR would use language such as the Scottish Parliament is not a destination, it's a place and a journey or language like that. And that was designed for Alec to then say to the party, well look, this is not the end of the road, this is a good staging post and how can we turn down a good staging post? And that was then the argument that he used to persuade the party which it did enthusiastically support the referendum in 1997. So there'd be judgments like that that would be formulated.”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  50. “Voting yes in the referendum in 1997 and supporting the establishment of the Scottish Parliament, but he had to be mindful that he had a party that had been burnt by supporting devolution in the 1970s. So he had to essentially win an argument. So he and I worked together to make sure the party would be supportive of that position. And some of how he put that together was in some choreography with Donald Dewar who was then the Secretary of State for Scotland about exchanges they would have in the House of Commons as both the referendum legislation and the Scotland Act were going through where they would be, you know, I don't know if I knew exactly how much choreography had gone into it but looking back on it I suspect there was a lot of choreography about the fact that the Parliament”

    2025-12-15 · The Rest Is Politics: Leading · 166. John Swinney: Identity, Independence, and The Future of Scotland · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source