It’s been another busy week for Team National.
We’ve been digging into what SNP president Mike Russell has described as a “crisis” for his party, reporting on the auditor challenges and the difficult situation the new First Minister has found himself in.
However, much space has already been given to these issues in the paper over the past few days – so I’m going to focus on issues relating to independence in this week’s newsletter. That’s exactly what the rest of the media don’t want to talk about.
Our reporter Ross Hunter was in Leith earlier this week to ask Humza Yousaf about his plans for regional assemblies on independence. This was one of the SNP leader’s big proposals during the contest, and something I grilled him on myself during the campaign.
We asked the First Minister about his campaign pledge to set up regional assemblies to discuss the way forward for independence 👇 pic.twitter.com/72dQXxzY6D
— The National (@ScotNational) April 11, 2023
Yousaf had been hoping to “kickstart” the Yes campaign upon becoming leader, and told us that these regional assemblies would be set up in his “first week” in the job. Other events seem to have gotten in the way of that. But he told Ross that he remains committed to the assemblies and is “really keen” to get going.
Yousaf also wrote for us this week, encouraging members to stick with the party and focus on the shared goal of independence. His former competitor Kate Forbes did much the same. When Forbes took on the columnist role, some critics suggested she would use the platform to be a bit of a thorn in Yousaf’s side. In reality, her passionate plea for party unity had a strikingly similar message to Yousaf’s from the day prior.
With Holyrood in recess, none of the reporters have been at the Parliament this week. But we will be out and about in Edinburgh over the next couple of days, because we’ve been working with the Young Scots for Independence to put on an international conference focusing on bringing young Europeans to our capital to build the case for independence across the continent. This is real, effective action which showcases Scotland’s place in Europe.
I’ll be speaking at a panel on Saturday night with my political reporting colleague Xander Elliards, discussing the challenges of operating a pro-independence newspaper in an antiquated UK media landscape as well as the pros and cons of being young journalists. In case you didn’t know, most of our reporting team is 30 and under – this is most certainly not the norm in Scotland’s print press, and while there are great benefits to it there are also challenges to overcome. I’m sure I can dedicate an entire newsletter in the future to some of the wild things people have said to me as not only the youngest national paper editor in the UK, but a woman as well …
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