@TheScotsman Caging? @jackiebmsp. The PO statement said staff at times felt intimidated by the press so are you just dismissing their feelings? Surely the SPJA & PO need to take the heat out of this, talk to each other and find a commonsense resolution.
@AnasSarwar I genuinely remain puzzled that you are attacking the victims of a crime. Trust in politics is not enhanced by this To voters like me, it's just seems like the usual political mudslinging while ignoring real voter issues, energy costs, rising prices, low pay, i.e. the day job.
@kmckenna63 Would agree that Parliament needs its journalists and journalists need Parliament but the media area has just been moved a bit back. If it’s because staff feel intimidated by journalist behaviour, that needs addressed.
@ChrisMusson Chris, the press area has simply been moved a bit back, not outside the building. If the PO has legitimate concerns for staff then engage with him, get the pen removed and move forward.
@nmcintosh The journalist area has been moved a bit further back so not as if MSPs can’t be questioned. But maybe reflect that staff feel intimidated, surely that should be addressed by journalists.
@alistairkgrant Seriously? Employees have described feeling intimidated by the behaviour of journalists and you just dismiss it as OTT. Maybe instead journalists should reflect on how staff feel, engage with them and amend behaviour.
@ProfJMitchell Media still have access to MSPs it’s just that area they have is now slightly further back. The bigger issue surely is that staff felt intimidated by journalists behaviour and the authorities had a duty of care to protect employees.
@MarkMcLaugh1in It isn’t a good look for you to simply dismiss how staff feel about their experiences of behaviour by journalists. Surely you should want to reflect on that and address why Parliamentary staff feel intimidated or fearful by media behaviour.
@euanmccolm This gives context to the decision and confirms it is temporary. The call for some reflection by journalists on their impact on staff in the building isn’t some draconian or excessive demand. This should be easily resolved by a bit of common sense dialogue.
Presiding Officer responds to letter from Scottish Parliamentary Journalists’ Association, which represents reporters at Holyrood.
Says pen is temporary and decision was made after ‘concerns raised from MSPs, staff and other building users who have found [media huddles] difficult and, at times, intimidating to walk past, or through’.
What the administration is doing here investigating “The View” is so fucking wrong. Too many Americans look at headlines like this and yawn. This is the President of the United States attacking a free press, trying to silence speech. This is utterly un-American. It’s fascism.👇
Starmer’s been a poor PM, but the vitriol and hatred towards him is just weird. It comes from both the far left and far right. It’s contrived by people whose motives are deeply suspect. Part of me wants him to survive just to spite them.
Exclusive: Andy Burnham is being urged by business leaders to rejoin the European Union as new economic modelling reveals it could add at least £92bn to the economy and boost growth by at least 3.6 per cent - helping to fund the changes he is promising.
The study, commissioned by campaign group Best for Britain and carried out by Frontier Economics, a consultancy chaired by Dame Sharon White, the former chair of John Lewis, models the key benefits of EU membership and finds the prize dwarfs every other option on the table.
The report suggests that the UK would recover up to 90 per cent of Brexit’s economic hit to UK GDP - which the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has calculated at minus 4 per cent by 2030 - far eclipsing value of a customs union or all post-Brexit trade deals combined.
Crucially for a would-be Prime Minister who built his name as the champion of the North, the gains would be felt most strongly - outside London - in Britain’s former industrial and manufacturing heartlands in the East and West Midlands, Yorkshire and the North - due to an “outsized” boost to trade in goods.
https://t.co/6s2lguD1p2
10 years since the EU referendum, majorities in England, Scotland and Wales believe Britain was wrong to vote to leave the EU
Scotland
Wrong: 75%
Right: 16%
Wales
Wrong: 61%
Right: 29%
England
Wrong: 56%
Right: 31%