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
at least six mountaineers were killed and eight others injured when parts of a glacier collapsed, sending snow, ice and rock cascading down the slopes of marmolada. now on bbc news, political thinking with nick robinson. hello and welcome to political thinking. how do we live with a resurgent russia? do we need to confront or cooperate with china? can the uk repair its relations with the eu post brexit? foreign policy matters again. my guest on political thinking this week hopes to be our next foreign secretary, the first labour foreign secretary for many, many years. it s a dramatic change for david lammy, who for years used his powerful voice in the back benches to argue for justice for the people in his constituency in his home of tottenham in north london. david lammy, welcome to political thinking. thank you, nice to be back. when you were last on this programme, you talked to me about how pleased you were to be on the backbenches. i m very satisfied, you said. i feel
when you were last on this programme, you talked to me about how pleased you were to be on the backbenches. i m very satisfied, you said. i feel free, i feel liberated. i mean, at the time, you were making those passionate speeches that you did on grenfell, on windrush and all the rest of it, does that now mean you feel sort of caged? not quite. i loved being on the backbenches, you know, i really did. i loved being in government, to the extent that you actually did something. i suppose i am now in the third act. i don t know how many acts there are going to be. but what would i say this time? i have been in parliament 22 years, i m 50 in a couple of weeks time. so i suppose i ve got to come to terms with the sort of seniority in parliament, and, you know, parliament is generous if you have been there a long time, this is notjust your own party, it is the opposition as well. parliament quite likes specialisms and i ve, you know, there are some issues that i feel i have retur
now on bbc news. nick robinson in conversation with people who influence our political thinking about what has shaped theirs. hello and welcome to political thinking. how do we live with a resurgent russia? do we need to confront or cooperate with china? can the uk repair its relations with the eu post brexit? foreign policy matters again. my guest on political thinking this week hopes to be our next foreign secretary, the first labour foreign secretary for many, many years. it s a dramatic change for david lammy, who for years used his powerful voice in the back benches to argue forjustice for the people in his constituency in his home of tottenham in north london. david lammy, welcome to political thinking. thank you, nice to be back. when you were last on this programme, you talked to me about how pleased you were to be on the backbenches. i m very satisfied, you said. i feel free, i feel liberated. i mean, at the time, you were making those passionate speeches that you di
David Lammy - who voted with half the Shadow Cabinet against renewing Trident in 2016 - had previously opposed the policy on the grounds of his Christian faith.