News / Five talking points from SNP in conversation event with John Swinney
FIRST minister John Swinney was back in front of the Shetland public last night (Monday), for an in conversation event at Mareel.
Chaired by journalist Jane Moncrieff, and with SNP election candidate Hannah Mary Goodlad completing the trio, the event focused this time on the people behind the politics.
Stretching from school to social media, and from saunas to sweet treats, the wide-ranging talk covered a lot of ground. Here Shetland News examines the key takeaways from the night.
Social media slammed
The big talking point was a critical takedown of social media, and the people using it to abuse politicians.
Asked if she was prepared what could be coming her way if elected in May, Goodlad responded: “I really don’t know”.
She told the Mareel crowd that she had received “hate mail” and “suggestive mail” from people outside Shetland, and pointed to the negative experience female politicians experience.
Goodlad said that both she and Liberal Democrat candidate Emma Macdonald had been criticised for their appearances online.
“Male candidates are not being attacked for their looks,” she said.
“I have absolutely zero time for bullies, and there are bullies out there.”
Goodlad pledged to call out hate online, whether it was against her or any of her fellow candidates.
She admitted to reading comments under her posts, which led Swinney to repeatedly tell her – and the wider audience – “don’t look at the comments”.
The first minister said he coped with the online firestorm “by paying very little attention to it”.
However he said that political colleagues were leaving their roles because “they can’t face it any longer”.
Swinney said the lack of regulation for social media companies “really troubles me”, adding he believed it was a “threat to democracy”.
Goodlad said that while she did not have a thick skin, she would continue to stand tall in the face of online abuse.
Goodlad’s entrepreneurial streak
The SNP election candidate was one half of local company Haar Sauna, which opened an initial horse box sauna at St Ninian’s Isle in 2023, until she stepped down to lead her campaign.
Goodlad revealed her dad, John, was not a fan of the idea at first.
“Dad said, ‘you’re never going to get folk throwing themselves in the North Sea half naked’,” she told the room.
Despite his vote of confidence, Haar Sauna has grown to two saunas in Bigton, one in Lerwick and another which visits various locations around the isles.
Swinney was similarly surprised by the success of Haar Sauna in Shetland’s climate, asking for an audience show of hands to see how many people had ventured into the North Sea after a sauna visit.
He said he was more of a running fanatic, saying his biggest claim to fame was not completing the Rome marathon but the Bressay parkrun instead.
The first minister said his “greatest weakness” was cake, and the spread at Bressay was a “home baking extravaganza” which was “like nothing I’ve ever experienced”.
Goodlad’s entrepreneurial streak was revealed in two anecdotes she told.
Once, as a child on holiday in Pennan, she charged tourists 50p at a time to view an “aquarium” of marine animals she had plucked from the sea.
And years later, Goodlad said her and a friend spent “a few hard months” gathering enough bags of whelks to sell to McNab’s in order to buy a Tamagotchi toy.
Tunnel talks
In questions at the end of the talk, the first minister was asked what more tunnel groups and people in Shetland need to do to ensure fixed links become a reality.
Swinney did not commit the Scottish Government to anything concrete on tunnels, but said they were “working closely” with Shetland Islands Council.
He said there were several potential elements to fixed links – a core business case would need to prove it could be justified, practical surveys should show it can work and the finances need to make sense.
“The government will be as flexible as it possibly can be,” he told the Mareel audience.
“The key point to take away is that the government is a willing partner in trying to make this happen.”
War memorabilia
Moncrieff revealed in a conversation with Swinney that his uncle had been awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest medal in the British decoration system, after his death.
Swinney explained that his uncle, a Royal Marine, had been killed protecting his troops in Italy just months before the end of World War Two.
He said he found the medal around 25 years after his uncle’s death, and that his grandmother had told him the story – but had “looked like a woman who had just been told her son had died” as she did so.
The medal was later donated to a Royal Marine museum, with Swinney adding that it did not bring his grandmother “any comfort”.
Taking over as first minister
Moncrieff also suggested that Swinney was initially “reluctant” to take over as first minister.
Many expected Swinney to replace Nicola Sturgeon when she resigned in February 2023, but instead he stood down as her deputy and moved to the backbenches.
However in April 2024 the SNP was searching for a new leader overnight after Humza Yousaf was forced to resign.
Swinney said that “everybody in the SNP basically turned up at my door and said you have to stand”.
He said that, after getting the permission from his wife, he decided to go for it.
And he added that he believed the SNP “would have had even more challenges and difficulties” if he had not stood.
Asked by Moncrieff if he was enjoying it, Swinney replied: “I’m not enjoying it, I’m loving it.”
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