A GLASGOW hospitality mogul has appeared on Liz Truss's podcast, and claimed that Scotland is "worse off" under the SNP.
The former Tory prime minister, who only lasted 49 days in Number 10, interviewed Garage and Cathouse nightclub owner Donald MacLeod for her YouTube show.
MacLeod told the podcast that Scotland was a “worse place” under the SNP, but was complimentary of former SNP first minister Alex Salmond’s tenure.
Truss infamously threw the UK economy into crisis with her "mini-budget" during her short tenure as prime minister.
On The Liz Truss Show, MacLeod said that Scotland was going in the "wrong direction" but it was hard to say if it was worse than England because of the UK Government being a Labour administration.
"I’d say we’re worse off because from the nightclub perspective and employment we were hit with the employers National Insurance rise and then over the top inflation rises with the living wage and the minimum wage and in Scotland we were hit by higher rates, no relief from the SNP," MacLeod said.
"And when you look at say Glasgow in particular with the LEZ, Low Emission Zone, coupled with a massive programme of road destruction and vandalism as they put in bus gates called the avenues project and cycle lanes, and reduce the car parking spaces available.
"Glasgow is and has been over three years a broken mess at the moment and it’s stopped a lot of people coming into the city. Now we’re seeing that replicated in Aberdeen and Dundee so I would say Scotland is in a worse place."
Truss also asked if people in Scotland were “beginning to wake up to the fact the country is going down the drain?”
"No,” MacLeod said.
“The spin machine is huge in Scotland and for many nationalists they'll just say we just want independence, so they are willing to forgive Sturgeon."
Truss replied: "The campervan that she didn't see? The espresso machines. What about the hairdryer? I thought the hairdryer was the funniest of them all."
The former prime minister and now right-wing commentator was referencing Peter Murrell’s embezzlement of £400,000 from the SNP. Sturgeon’s estranged husband bought many luxury items during his 12-year crime spree with party funds.
“It's polarised, those on the nationalist side they want an independent Scotland at any cost, but it's not their cost.
“For most of them, they're getting free buses, free prescriptions, life is easy for them. But for a lot of people it's awful."
Truss then asked for MacLeod’s view on Nicola Sturgeon living in London after leaving politics. He said: “That’s a laugh isn’t it? See the irony there.”
MacLeod added: “Nico-liar. She puts up our taxes and then comes down here and benefits from cheaper taxes, it's laughable.
“But to Nicola there’s nothing wrong with that, she’s always liked England – come on.”
He added that what “really got me this week” is Sturgeon “turning on John Swinney” in the new foreword to her memoir.
MacLeod said he had not bought a copy, adding: “The biggest supporter of Nicola has been John Swinney, all through her trials and tribulations, all through her many years of promising this never ending referendum. Every year we’re going to get another referendum and never delivering.
“He was the biggest advocate and she’s turned on him saying he lacks, he’s got no big ideas.
"What’s her big idea; bankrupt the country and then flee while her husband rots in jail for crimes that I am sure she is party to?
“Is it a good place? No.”
Later in the podcast, the conversation turned to the Scottish civil service, with Truss asking if it had been “captured” by the SNP.
MacLeod said he believed so as “things just go through very easily”, adding: “I think they’ve taken the Scottish civil service along with them, they’ve taken the Scottish education service along with them, all these quangos for god sake, bonfire of the quangos is required without a doubt.”
He added: “I’m a rebel, but I fight injustice.
“What the SNP has done to Scotland is one of the greatest crimes and one of the greatest injustices of all in recent years.”
Truss then said it was “terrible” and claimed that Scottish education results are worse than in England, adding: “It’s been captured by the lefty progressives, that’s what they’ve done with this thing called curriculum for excellence in Scotland, it’s the same nutters who in the 1960s said you don’t need to know anything, those people captured Scotland.”
MacLeod said he believed the issue was because people working in the Scottish Government across education and transport “don’t have the skills” and “don’t understand business”.
Truss added: “Don’t you think it's even worse than that, I think some of these people are deliberately destructive, they’re anti-Britain, they’re anti the success we’ve had as a country, they’re not proud of our history, they just, they want to destroy things.”
MacLeod added: “There is that there but I think the majority of people just don’t have the skills.”
