Alex Forsyth

Hello, it's Alex in her makeshift home election car studio.

Yeah, we were in Edinburgh actually for the programme last week, which was really interesting because like you say, we just do the programme every week regardless.

And then when it comes around to this time of year, when you've got elections going on, you find yourself in the middle, particularly in Scotland, of a really kind of fiercely fought election campaign.

And that's because I think for this Scottish election, there does feel like there is quite a lot at stake.

And I think that's where you get to kind of the politics of it all.

So it's interesting because when we were talking about the election that's taking place in Wales, and of course there are elections in England as well, we've mentioned how there are kind of echoes or themes, as you put it, Adam, or issues that just keep cropping up again and again, no matter where you are.

in the country so it is things like the cost of living it is the nhs and the state of public services it is immigration even though in scotland for example that's an issue that's reserved to westminster it's still an issue that voters are talking about it is that kind of sense of the state of the world so they're the things that people care about and then where the politics comes in is about who is persuading or convincing people that they've got the answers to those particular issues and i think in scotland right now if you just think about it politically

As James said, the SNP has been in power in Scotland for a long time.

So they are now the ones in Scotland who are voting the incumbency factor in Scotland.

But then you've got Labour, who were not so long ago widely deemed politically to be in with a good chance of ousting the SNP from power.

Now, since the general election, they're in a situation where they are fighting the incumbency factor in Westminster and then still trying to deliver a message of change for Scotland.

So that's kind of shifted things on its head a bit and made the politics fascinating.

And at the same time, where we've seen what some people call the insurgency of Reform UK, that is having an impact in this Scottish election as well.

And that's before we get to the other three parties who are standing there, the Liberal Democrats, the Greens and, of course, the Conservatives.

So it is a really fascinating battle.

And even though we were doing our regular Any Questions programme, was there any lots of politics in that programme?

Did you know you're in the middle of an election campaign?

Absolutely, you did.

Yeah, well, it's particularly acute in Scotland and in this Scottish election campaign, I think, for exactly that reason.

I mean, it's an issue that everybody's talking about at the moment because, of course, the war in Iran and the impact that that's had on international shipping lanes with all of the knock-on effect that then that has on energy prices across the board.