Oct 8, 2026 · 29 min · 10 segments
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Lynsey BewsHost
Phil SimHost
Chris McCallGuest
Last week, going back to last week, when the First Minister uttered his now infamous words, "We're going to lose our pensions."
Now we know in 2026 that pensions are under at- attack from a Westminster Labour government.
It demonstrates that the, it demonstrates that what the people of Scotland were told in 2014 was a lot of absolute rubbish.
We're now gonna lose our pensions.
Did your ears prick up immediately and did you kind of think, "Oh, I don't know if you should have said that"?
They absolutely did prick up, um, as did the ears of every other reporter in the press gallery and I think many of the backbenchers in Holyrood.
He, he maybe slightly regrets it now, that exact choice of words, but I think the, I think the FM had a point that he wanted to make, uh, the kind of thing that he wanted to get out there to kind of grab attention and I think on that level it certainly worked.
He wanted people to be thinking about maybe there are negative implications of what Andy Burnham is suggesting.
Obviously there has been some extremely, uh, fierce pushback from opposition parties on it.
Phil, that pushback we'll come onto 'cause this has become a bit of a, a process row really, hasn't it? Just give us a very quick run through.
The state pension will continue to rise every year at least by prices or 2.5%.
And it will hold its value relative to earnings over time so that pensioners will always share in the rising prosperity of the nation.
John Swinney's seized on that, but now it's become this, this big row over what he should and shouldn't be saying in Parliament.
Last week, going back to last week, when the First Minister uttered his now infamous words, "We're going to lose our pensions."
Now we know in 2026 that pensions are under at- attack from a Westminster Labour government.
It demonstrates that the, it demonstrates that what the people of Scotland were told in 2014 was a lot of absolute rubbish.
We're now gonna lose our pensions.
Did your ears prick up immediately and did you kind of think, "Oh, I don't know if you should have said that"?
They absolutely did prick up, um, as did the ears of every other reporter in the press gallery and I think many of the backbenchers in Holyrood.
He, he maybe slightly regrets it now, that exact choice of words, but I think the, I think the FM had a point that he wanted to make, uh, the kind of thing that he wanted to get out there to kind of grab attention and I think on that level it certainly worked.
He wanted people to be thinking about maybe there are negative implications of what Andy Burnham is suggesting.
Obviously there has been some extremely, uh, fierce pushback from opposition parties on it.
Phil, that pushback we'll come onto 'cause this has become a bit of a, a process row really, hasn't it? Just give us a very quick run through.
The state pension will continue to rise every year at least by prices or 2.5%.
And it will hold its value relative to earnings over time so that pensioners will always share in the rising prosperity of the nation.
John Swinney's seized on that, but now it's become this, this big row over what he should and shouldn't be saying in Parliament.
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