What it was like to be a journalist on day of drama Lucy Jackson
Our reporter on the atmosphere at Bute House during the FM’s press conference
WHEN I packed my things to go to Holyrood yesterday morning, I had no idea that I would end up in Bute House as the First Minister announced the end of the Bute House Agreement.
To use Humza Yousaf’s exact words, the deal was “terminated” with “immediate effect”. Ouch.
It wasn’t too long ago that Yousaf told The National that the SNP’s coalition with the Scottish Greens was “worth its weight in gold”. Now, the deal has reached its “natural conclusion”.
This rather dramatic shift in language was the centre of attention at today’s press conference, with journalists intent on determining Yousaf’s future as leader of the SNP.
When I arrived, I got a good sense of how the day would play out as journalists were imagining the scene which must have played out only an hour earlier between Yousaf and the Scottish Greens co-leaders.
“Watch out for any broken plates that might have been chucked out of the window,” one person joked.
As a journalist, it can be exciting to report on news like this. There’s a certain thrill to hearing what party insiders have to say, to speculating about how the “divorce” – as one journalist put it – had really gone down.
The First Minister also leaned into these jokes. When asked if it was better to break up a relationship than be the one broken up with, he replied: “I wouldn’t know.”
Yet the comedy act ended here, as it became clear that everyone in that room was interested in finding out only one thing: Would Yousaf be stepping down as First Minister?
Journalists took turns to ask what was essentially the same question, worded in a slightly different way with various dramatic iterations of “hopeless” and “useless” flung around.
And each time, Yousaf would respond with the same answer, arguing that his decision to end the agreement showed his ability to lead. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the importance of determining Yousaf’s future as First
Minister, but they’re missing the point by playing verbal ping-pong.
Everyone seemed fixated on finding the next headline, without considering what the end of the Bute House Agreement actually means for people living in Scotland.
Press conferences are quite literally where news is made, and the room was filled with journalists who get to decide how that news is conveyed to the public. It’s both an enormous privilege and a huge responsibility to be there – so why were they all asking him the same question?
All I could think about was how Yousaf’s decisions – and the way in which journalists report on them – have very real consequences for people in Scotland, particularly those who want independence and who trusted the SNP to deliver that.
So, I didn’t ask him why he hasn’t resigned yet. Instead, I asked him how losing a pro-independence majority government would impact the independence movement.
Yousaf remained defiant, telling me that despite being a minority government, support for