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. “Well, he was a formidable communicator, and he obviously had an acute sense of tactical and strategic judgment about how to interact. What would be so an example of that would be he wanted the SNP to be in a supportive position of...”

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

  2. “He was a fairly significant figure, and he obviously was engaged at that time very actively in trying to make sure that the legislation that came forward post 1997 would actually establish, as we all were trying to do, the most powerful Parliament we could. Established.”

    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, there are just now there's probably about maybe 10 or 11 something like that. And then after the election, I think there's only three of us proposing to stand at the forthcoming election. So, you know, time moves on.”

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

  4. “We probably were way back then, but it was legislated for it. I voted for it. So, you know, you can go and check the record. I voted for it. And then, of course, we legislated for the Scotland Act. So I'm probably now, I think I'll be the only serving elected parliamentarian from Scotland who voted for the Scotland Act 1998.”

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

  5. “It was vividly felt on the ground. Yeah, of course it was The Blair government was coming in with a commitment to legislate for the establishment of a Scottish Parliament. And I saw that as a step in the right direction. I thought that would be a good thing for Scotland, even though it wasn't the summit of my ambitions. I thought it would be a good thing. So therefore, there was a really substantial opportunity to engage on an issue in the House of Commons that had relevance, because almost immediately we legislated for the referendum legislation in Scotland for September.”

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

  6. “I suppose it's the tide, and I think that's something that we should all just remember, that there's always a thing called the tide.”

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

  7. “So it was Christopher Leslie. So, in a sense, that is just a little moment that I remember vividly, which symbolized a changing of the order.”

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

  8. “I remember coming into the House of Commons at that time, and there was a euphoric mood in the place. Obviously, there had been a vast turnaround, so there had been huge reduction in the number of Conservative MPs. I remember when I became an MP, I was doing an interview on College Green, and Sir Marcus Fox was doing an interview just beside me, MP for Shipley, who had been beaten by a very young man whose name I can't remember. And I remember Marcus Fox was saying, you know, my family have lived in Shipley all our days. We've gone to everything. We've served people. But when the tide goes against you, the tide goes against you. And he was very philosophical about it. But I just remember that moment because it was almost symbolic, because he'd been chairman of the 1922.”

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

  9. “Continually pressed him, and he would say to me, Well, it's for me in the ballables. And that's the position. My dad's 93, he'll be 94 in December. And he maintains that robust position.”

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

  10. “Points that I would say I remembered most about my upbringing was my mum's excitement that the Wilson government had made, they'd established comprehensive education and she thought that was a real gift and therefore education had to be taken deadly seriously. So of all the things that I, as I said to you a moment ago, my dad worked hard, worked very, very hard, he worked hard to provide for us. I realised what work ethic was for my dad. And my mum had this absolutely passionate determination to encourage us in our education and to make the most of that.”

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

  11. “Well, I wouldn't be quite as presumptuous as that, Alistair. But that's just what my guy has said to me. That's for me in the ballot box. And my mum, she very much admired Harold Wilson. So I remember my dad buying my mum, Harold Wilson's memoirs, which must have been published after he left office as Prime Minister 1976. And one 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

  12. “I still don't know how my dad votes. I don't know how of course I've asked him, but he refuses to tell me, says that's between me and the ballot box.”

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

  13. “It took time for that to be accomplished. But essentially the establishment of that clear identity was a key part of the positioning of the party.”

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

  14. “I think it wasn't a clear identity, Rory. I don't think some of the policy positions necessarily changed because if you take, for example, attitudes towards questions such as the National Health Service, I don't think our attitude would have changed from the 1960s to the 1990s. But what that was grouped around was a policy and a philosophical identity that was anchored in the modern left or centre of politics. And I think that was perhaps part of a strategic move that Alec took forward where he was trying to position the party to do what it ultimately has been able to do, which is replace the Labour Party as the principal leadership within political leadership in Scotland on the left. So that journey, that was a strategic move and obviously a”

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

  15. “Fundamentally, the party took up an ideological and philosophical position, I think is what I would say. So the party developed a policy identity that was fundamentally on the moderate left-of-centre of Scottish politics”

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

  16. “And stark contrast to the football atmosphere last night. Widespread disappointment. And I was disappointed by that. I'd become captivated by the idea of Scotland running our own affairs. And I thought to myself in all the disappointment of that period, if you care about this issue, you should do something about it. So I joined the I said, P at the age of 15.”

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

  17. “No, I don't think she would have made it in politics, but fundamentally she had a generosity of spirit about her. And actually, I sometimes challenge myself about, would your mother think that you're deploying that generosity of spirit towards other people? So I tried to do that in all that I take forward. So at a very ordinary background, in my teenage years, there was a very, this is in the 1970s, a very vibrant debate about whether Scotland should have an assembly within the United Kingdom, as it was talked about at that time. The SNP had risen spectacularly in the early 1970s. So I was watching all this as a teenager absorbing it all. And then in 1979, there's a referendum about whether we should establish a Scottish Assembly, more people voted in favour than against, but not enough. So it never happened. And there was widespread disappointment.”

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

  18. “But then she also, the other great gift that I experienced so horribly she was a completely non-judgmental woman, so she never gossiped, she never talked about other ill of other people.”

    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 grew up in a fairly ordinary background in the west of Edinburgh. I've reflected on this just recently. I find in political leadership increasingly having to reflect on and talk about these aspects of my life. I grew up in a very loving household. I had a very, very hardworking father who's bequeathed his work ethic to his younger son and his other son. And I had a deeply serious mother who was a loving woman. She wanted the best for her sons. She was a very bright person. But as with many women of her generation, she had to leave school at 14 to go and work. She did not complete her education. So she wanted her sons to have a good education. So that was a real fundamental of her outlook towards David and I.”

    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'm feeling I think lots of people would be surprised if I was being brought onto a rest as football commentary, to be honest, Roni. But Alistair's right, it does bring a feeling of joy.”

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

  21. “I think it makes people feel good. These are sporting occasions like this, and particularly great successes like that, 4-2-1 against Denmark, particularly after a performance on Saturday night in Greece, which left the challenge there to be accomplished last night. So, of course, I think everyone went into it with a sense of anticipation or perhaps anxiety about it. But I agree with you about, you know, just I've come down this morning from Edinburgh and just in the course of being at Waverley Station at half past five this morning people were talking to me about the game last night and staff on the train and just looking at what people are saying and talking about the game and what it means for people it's just that it's a source of enormous joy and it opens up the prospect of participating in the World Cup which we haven't done since well somebody said”

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

  22. “I go from Scott McTomney right at the very beginning, which I thought, oh, that's us. You know, we just need to sit tight for the remainder and we'll be fine. Of course it then ebbed and flowed and it came and it went. And then when Kieran Tierney put us ahead in extra time, it was, oh my goodness, this is really going to happen. And then when Kenny McLean scored a goal from the halfway line right into the back of the net, I thought Hamden Park was just literally going to erupt. It was, well, they did adopt, but it was a glorious spectacle. So I'm full of joy and praise for the Scotland team. They've worked so incredibly hard and they were magnificent last night.”

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

  23. “I did, and it was magnificent being there, and it was a complete contrast to the game in Munich, where I think your valiant efforts on the bagpipes were designed to spur on the Scotland team as well. I might have put off Victor Orban as well, but it was designed to get some oomph into the Scotland team because it was not a good night that night. The day of celebration in the city centre in Munich had been absolutely joyful and wonderful until the first ball was kicked and then it was not great thereafter. But last night was epic. I've really can think of an occasion that rivaled that scale of emotional excitement that went on and then to think, and it was a sort of familiar Scotland experience that you thought”

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