Summary
Finger pointing begins as Labour claim they found a "black hole" in public finances. On Monday, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced changes to the Winter Fuel Payment and later said the new government would have to raise taxes due to the discovery of a £22bn "black hole" in the public finances from the last Government, which former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt strongly denies. Is this political theatre or was it a genuine surprise to the incoming government and related public finance bodies like the OBR? Is this austerity, as some opposition parties have claimed, or are the government actually spending more than previously? And what does this mean for the money coming to Scotland? Before Podlitical breaks for recess, the team untangle this week's news, and look ahead to what we can expect in September and beyond when the Parliaments return.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds |
| 0:02.4 | You're listening to BBC Scotland |
| 0:09.5 | Hi, you're listening to Podlitical BBC Scotland's podcast |
| 0:15.5 | That brings you the biggest stories coming out of Hollywood and Westminster |
| 0:18.9 | It is seven minutes past ten on Wednesday the 31st of July. |
| 0:23.9 | I'm Lucy White, a journalist based in Glasgow. |
| 0:26.5 | And today I'm joined by. |
| 0:27.7 | I'm Phil Sim, a journalist based at the Scottish Parliament. |
| 0:30.4 | And I'm Raj Sipundu, a journalist usually in Westminster, |
| 0:33.4 | but currently working from home, given all the politicians that left the building. |
| 0:37.0 | Yes, so people sitting in empty parliaments, we've got one of those still, Phil, is that you? |
| 0:42.3 | How are things looking? |
| 0:43.6 | Still pretty quiet at Holyrood, oddly enough, given where now, pretty much halfway through recess. |
| 0:49.0 | But nice to know Westminster has now joined us in the summer off. |
| 0:53.8 | So it's officially summer holiday time for Westminster. |
| 0:58.0 | It's kind of weird saying that now because I feel like we're so far into our summer holidays here in Scotland, |
| 1:03.7 | particularly when you do it in terms of school summer holidays. |
| 1:06.2 | The kids are almost back. |
| 1:07.7 | But, yeah, Westminster, that is them heading off on their break. And it's our last poll. Let's go for a few weeks. We will be back. But yeah, Westminster, that is them heading off on their break. And it's our last |
| 1:13.0 | political for a few weeks. We will be back again after the summer. But we're going to take a |
| 1:18.0 | break too, because I'm sure, as always happens, whenever we like to take a break, whether that |
| 1:22.7 | be for a week or several weeks, nothing will happen in politics that will require us to... |
... |
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