And as First Minister of scotland when his party faced the latest in a series of crises. John swinney, welcome to political thinking. Lovely to be with you, thank you. It has been something of a rollercoaster six months, havent it . You retire from Front Line politics, then the First Minister of scotland is forced from office and you decide to come back into Front Line politics, come to your partys rescue. Then Rishi Sunak calls a surprise early election in the summer, then you have a bit of a kick in the general election, the westminster election. Has it all been very stomach churning . Its been absolutely a whirlwind. A whirlwind, i think is the best way to describe it, because i quite literally, in the days before Humza Yousaf resigned as First Minister, was making further plans about what would be my gentle scaling down of political activity. And i was actually on the day that he resigned, giving a reflective speech about 25 years of devolution in scotland down here in london. And
and peter murrell the husband of scotland s former first minister nicola sturgeon has been arrested as part of a police investigtion into the finances of the scottish national party. 58 year old peter murrell was the snp s chief executive until he quite last month. in a statement, police scotland said they had taken a 58 year old man into custory for questionining over the party s funding and financing. the investigation was launched into donations raised by the party which was ostensibly to campaign for and hold a second independence referendum. it is alleged that money instead was used to help with the party s day running costs. in a short statement, the police had a 58 year old man has today, wednesday the 5th of april, been arrested. as part of an investigation into the funding of the scottish national party. he is being questioned by detectives. officers are also carrying out searches at a number of addresses as part of the investigation. they said i report will be s
the first elections to the scottish parliament. at that time the snp were still a relatively small party, so he was chief executive through that whole period when the snp grew in status and stature, eventually becoming the government of scotland and finding themselves in a position where they were able to bring about a referendum on scottish independence. so he was at the helm through that spectacular rise in the fortunes of the snp. but not somebody who was greatly well known to the general public, although very well known within political he was never an mp or an msp. he never sought high office as such, he was very much that power behind the throne. , ., very much that power behind the throne. , . , ., ., ,., throne. jamie, tell us more about how the scottish throne. jamie, tell us more about how the scottish justice throne. jamie, tell us more about how the scottish justice system . how the scottish justice system work. he has been arrested. there aren t any charges. how do you
teachers pay for next year isn t settled. head teachers are also waiting to find out the pay rise for support staff, which will come out of school budgets. we do have a teaching assistant per classroom here, and they do a phenomenaljob. wouldn t want to lose any of them, but there is no infinite pot of money. now another teachers union has rejected the pay offer, a £1000 one off cash payment on top of 5% this year. for next year, 4.3% for most teachers, plus a £30,000 starting salary. the government says it is fair and reasonable. this head teachers union told me it is not good enough. we ask members to say, is it affordable in your school? and overwhelmingly they told us it is not. the government needs to understand that, whatever money it thinks it
to their leader. how do you feel about the fact that so many people think you re running a cult? we re not running a cult, because they don t know what a cult is. if you ask them, what s the difference with a cult and a community that supports people? they wouldn t be able to tell you. why do you think so many people say it? because they re slurring us, they re smearing us, that s exactly what they do. are you going to carry on? yes, we are carrying on. thank you. we ve had enough. no comment. catrin nye, bbc news. in the uk. teacher strikes are likely to continue in england until the end of the school year after the national association of headteachers also voted overwhelmingly against the uk government s pay offer. the union, which mainly represents primary headteachers, says it will now consider whether to ballot members over industrial action. it s the third union to reject the offer, with two days of strikes already planned by a classroom teachers union as our education editor