13/05/2012 Sunday Politics Scotland


13/05/2012

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Fake Good morning. From the rose garden to a tractor factory. The

:00:47.:00:50.

Prime Minister promises a new focus on the economy but will the

:00:50.:00:57.

relaunch of the Queen's Speech make a difference? Eric Pickles joins us

:00:57.:01:00.

for the Sunday interview. Is there an alternative blueprint

:01:00.:01:08.

that would get the economy moving again? The two big economic ideas

:01:08.:01:13.

of the age or head-to-head. The pressure is on Jeremy Hunt and

:01:13.:01:17.

the Tory party after Rebekah Brooks appeared at the Leveson Inquiry.

:01:17.:01:23.

She revealed a cosy relationship between new Labour and News

:01:23.:01:33.
:01:33.:01:40.

International. If we bring you the latest on the

:01:40.:01:47.

deal by a Rangers football club. Air accident publish their findings

:01:48.:01:57.
:01:58.:01:58.

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 65 seconds

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want helicopters stitching. The body of another child was found

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The body of another child was found at a late on Saturday night.

:03:09.:03:13.

Workers have been bent over in tears. You do not see that very

:03:13.:03:23.
:03:23.:03:23.

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 65 seconds

:03:23.:29:06.

often. We are feeling for the We have a crater in the economy.

:29:06.:29:12.

There is a great big hole as a result of the a financial crisis.

:29:12.:29:20.

It is nothing to do with government. Deprive right -- the private

:29:20.:29:23.

finance sector crashed and the government had to take on the

:29:23.:29:28.

liabilities. The government is saying it is nothing to do with

:29:28.:29:38.
:29:38.:29:40.

them. It is the equivalent of appeasement. They are sitting there,

:29:40.:29:47.

leaving this great creator of unemployment, inactivity. How would

:29:47.:29:56.

you fill that hole? The fact is that the business sector does not

:29:57.:30:01.

have confidence. They are afraid, they can see the economy

:30:01.:30:11.
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contracting. Public investment. big programme of public investment.

:30:14.:30:23.

In housing and also in... What is wrong with that? It goes to what

:30:24.:30:30.

Liam Fox said in the package. Did the Labour government not spend

:30:30.:30:38.

enough? We have tested this policy to destruction. Austerity, really

:30:38.:30:46.

means living within your means, balancing the books. Having a

:30:46.:30:50.

stable environment helps you to make reforms are to help the

:30:50.:30:57.

business economy. I think that Eric Pickles was rather feeble in what

:30:57.:31:07.
:31:07.:31:11.

the coalition has damn to help this does. -- has done. The reason the

:31:11.:31:16.

collision cannot do anything is because it is paralysed by ideology.

:31:16.:31:26.
:31:26.:31:27.

And you are repeating that. Seeing we have to balance the books.

:31:27.:31:34.

not know about years, but the government has already borrowed a

:31:34.:31:40.

trillion pounds. Under current spending plans, that will rise to

:31:40.:31:48.

1.5 trillion bike 2016. And you want to borrow even more? Yes. The

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government is not like you. You cannot go to the Bank of England,

:31:55.:32:04.

but the government can. And when the government... When you spend,

:32:04.:32:09.

you do not get money back again. When the government spends, it get

:32:10.:32:19.
:32:20.:32:21.

tax revenues. This is fantasy. we do? -- what would you do? I what

:32:21.:32:26.

the Government to do much more on red tape. Irrelevant. It is not

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irrelevant. The costs faced by the start-up of a new accompany are

:32:34.:32:44.
:32:44.:32:45.

extremely high. Should it be easier to fire people? Yes. That is

:32:45.:32:55.
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austerity. You would have more people working. We have the lowest

:32:58.:33:04.

taxes across the whole of OECD. We pay much lower unemployment benefit.

:33:04.:33:14.
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We have much less protection for our workers. If you look at what

:33:15.:33:19.

Germany has done over the last 10 years, it has liberalised its

:33:19.:33:26.

employment laws enormously. It allows companies to take on people

:33:26.:33:36.
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as consultants for four years, no questions asked, no legal

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requirements. Germany went down a road of liberalisation.

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deregulated the labour market. as much as we have done. It is much

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more expensive to hire a German worker, the taxes that they pay and

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are paid on them, than a British worker. I do not think you are

:34:04.:34:10.

offering much more than blood, sweat and tears. My we would get

:34:10.:34:16.

colossal numbers of unemployed young people into work. -- a my

:34:16.:34:24.

method. You want to act on the demand side, increased demand. You

:34:24.:34:29.

are acting on the supply side to try to make the supply side more

:34:29.:34:33.

efficient. Why don't you get together and do both? We do not

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need to do the supply side. We could improve our productivity in

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Wareham best -- if we invested more in our businesses. There is already

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a fiscal stimulus. We will add another �500 billion to the

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national debt. Why do we not try to solve the problem from the other

:34:56.:35:06.
:35:06.:35:09.

Good morning and welcome to Sunday Politics Scotland. Coming up on the

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programme. At last, it is done. Rangers have

:35:17.:35:20.

agreed a deal with the former Sheffield United Chief Executive

:35:20.:35:22.

Charles Green. We will be live in Aberdeen as the

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AAIB initial investigation into Thursday's helicopter ditching

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finds a failure occurred in the main gear box.

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And as coalition deals are struck across local councils, we ask, can

:35:29.:35:33.

you shake hands and hold your nose at the same time?

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A trip to Quebec, a Canadian province that has played the

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referendum game before. And finally, a plea to recognise

:35:39.:35:49.
:35:49.:35:51.

the Scottish veterans who braved On the day of the final Rangers

:35:51.:35:56.

match of the season, the former Sheffield United chief-executive

:35:56.:35:59.

Charles Green has come to an arrangement with which he hopes to

:35:59.:36:04.

buy the team. There has been a press conference this morning. What

:36:04.:36:11.

do we know this morning? Charles Green is fronting the

:36:11.:36:15.

consortium that has made a bed that has been accepted to purchase

:36:15.:36:21.

Rangers. The administrators are saying that this is a vocal ball

:36:21.:36:25.

agreement to buy the club. He will try it a CVA initially to try to

:36:25.:36:35.
:36:35.:36:36.

bring the club out of administration. They will try to

:36:36.:36:39.

appease their debts owed to HMRC and Ticketus. If that does not

:36:39.:36:49.

succeed, a newco company will be set up, owned by Charles Green.

:36:49.:36:57.

That will kick them if a CVA is not accepted by creditors. But that CVA

:36:57.:37:06.

is their preferred option. If this goes ahead, what does it

:37:06.:37:11.

mean in terms of the sort of team at Rangers will be able to put up?

:37:11.:37:15.

It is very difficult to predict that until we see the full details

:37:15.:37:19.

of what Charles Green is proposing. He did say that not every decision

:37:19.:37:25.

that will be taken will be a comfortable one, or an easy one.

:37:25.:37:31.

That suggests there will be decisions taken under his ownership,

:37:31.:37:41.
:37:41.:37:42.

under the consortium. It is difficult to predict what it means

:37:42.:37:46.

in terms of the team that they might be able to put on the park

:37:46.:37:52.

next season. It is a reasonable to assume that it will be a

:37:52.:37:55.

streamlined squad that will not be able to pay the sort of wages and

:37:55.:38:02.

type of players that have been brought it to Ibrox in the past.

:38:02.:38:12.
:38:12.:38:16.

But a lot remains to be decided. Here is our economic commentator.

:38:16.:38:21.

Do you think it is a done deal? Yesterday, Charles Green was

:38:21.:38:25.

talking about himself as the new preferred bidder for the club. From

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what I have heard so far, there are 20 different strands of money going

:38:33.:38:41.

into the pot from different families and groups. Whether that

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is a done deal or not, and will be delivered to the administrators,

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remains to be seen. This CVA, whether or not it goes

:38:54.:39:01.

ahead, how will it work in practice?

:39:01.:39:07.

There are two choices. The company a voluntary arrangement. That is an

:39:08.:39:12.

arrangement an insolvent company has with his creditors. It has to

:39:12.:39:18.

get their agreement. That is the arrangement that will come together.

:39:18.:39:22.

To put some kind of figure on how much they will get out of the pot

:39:22.:39:30.

of money. We do not know what the liabilities are yet because we have

:39:30.:39:37.

not had the result of the big tax cases that are still outstanding.

:39:37.:39:47.
:39:47.:39:47.

We do not actually know what the extent of the debt is and what this

:39:47.:39:57.
:39:57.:39:58.

asset that is being created to pay it off, how big it will be. If HMRC

:39:58.:40:08.
:40:08.:40:09.

does not say yes to as the -- does not say yes to this CVA, Rangers

:40:09.:40:16.

will have to be liquidated and a new Company will be created. The

:40:16.:40:20.

club will come ten-year, but the decks and will be left behind in

:40:20.:40:30.
:40:30.:40:35.

the old company. -- debts. We do not know the full extent of

:40:35.:40:43.

the debt. What would happen to them under the new company arrangement?

:40:43.:40:47.

The creditors would get what ever they could out of the liquidated

:40:47.:40:51.

old company. That would depend what assets were left in the liquidated

:40:51.:40:56.

old company. HMRC have not been comfortable

:40:56.:41:03.

about that in the past. The track record of HMRC in dealing

:41:03.:41:09.

with the sort of CVAs, they have tended lot to be players in that

:41:09.:41:19.
:41:19.:41:24.

CVAs. ---10 did not have to be. -- tended not to be. I know a lot of

:41:24.:41:30.

lawyers and accountants who have a lot of expertise in this area, and

:41:30.:41:36.

all of them have said to me that it will never go to CVA, it will end

:41:36.:41:43.

up in liquidation. Whether that is the case or not, it is not nice for

:41:43.:41:51.

the Rangers supporter, the like to have the heritage and the history,

:41:51.:41:55.

but in terms of where we are this morning, we are just at the

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beginning of another part of the journey. We still have to find the

:42:00.:42:05.

outcome of it. Thank you very much indeed.

:42:05.:42:09.

An initial investigation into Thursday's helicopter are ditching

:42:09.:42:13.

in the North Sea has found that a failure occurred in the function of

:42:13.:42:18.

the main gearbox. The 14 people on board escaped after the pilot

:42:18.:42:22.

carried out a textbook controlled landing. There have been

:42:22.:42:27.

developments at this morning. Yes, a lot of development at this

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morning. The air accident investigation branch had issued a

:42:37.:42:42.

special bulletin this morning. This often takes in weeks or months, but

:42:42.:42:48.

they have done that within a few days. It follows the ditching last

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week of this helicopter about 30 miles off the coast of Aberdeen.

:42:54.:43:02.

What they have found is a 360 degree crack around the vertical

:43:02.:43:07.

shaft of the media box. That was near a previous Weld, a

:43:07.:43:13.

manufacturing world. That caused interference to the oil supply to

:43:13.:43:18.

the gearbox. A morning alight went on and the crew immediately took

:43:18.:43:22.

action and ditched the helicopter. This is a serious finding for the

:43:22.:43:31.

entire flight. They honours have announced that other helicopters

:43:31.:43:40.

have been grounded. They have also a grounded -- are grounded another

:43:40.:43:50.
:43:50.:43:56.

360 what happens from now on to establish what the problem was and

:43:56.:44:03.

when the fleet may be flying again? We were expecting to be attending a

:44:03.:44:11.

press conference this morning. That was called off. The report was

:44:11.:44:17.

expected last night but we heard there were technical difficulties.

:44:17.:44:22.

Bond will be at -- outlining what they will do in detail. I suspect

:44:22.:44:27.

they will go round the entire fleet. Deraa two other helicopter

:44:27.:44:37.

companies operating out of Aberdeen. They have not taking any action yet.

:44:37.:44:45.

They have found no problems so far. There could be a safety directive

:44:45.:44:49.

given at some point which may result in that. We're not expecting

:44:49.:44:55.

that at the moment. We will hear later on this afternoon. There are

:44:55.:45:04.

big implications here from the thousands of workers.

:45:04.:45:08.

A week on and wheeler-dealing in council chambers across the country

:45:08.:45:13.

is still going on. We have seen unexpected alliances but what is

:45:13.:45:22.

behind the collisions? -- collisions.

:45:22.:45:28.

Labour won overall control in Glasgow and three other areas. The

:45:28.:45:34.

same is true for the SNP in Dundee and Angus where it has formed a

:45:34.:45:41.

majority administrations. In a hung councils, there are all sorts of

:45:41.:45:51.
:45:51.:45:51.

wonderful alliances. Take a look at Aberdeenshire. It has all types of

:45:51.:45:57.

different councillors in charge. In the Highlands, it is similar. In

:45:57.:46:07.
:46:07.:46:08.

eastern Martin Show, there is a Labour, Lib Dem, Tory deal. While

:46:08.:46:16.

an egg and borough, Labour-run BSN p have joined forces, in some

:46:16.:46:21.

places, it looks like both parties have gone out of their way to

:46:21.:46:31.
:46:31.:46:33.

freeze the other lot out of power - - Edinburgh Mac. In Stirling,

:46:33.:46:37.

Labour-run the Conservatives have a power-sharing pact in what had been

:46:37.:46:45.

an SNP run council. There is a tendency of the Labour Party to

:46:45.:46:50.

going to coalition with the Tories. I am not sure how you Scotland will

:46:50.:46:59.

see a repeat of collisions. I think that is white people vote Labour.

:46:59.:47:03.

Labour says it is working with friends and four was across the

:47:03.:47:07.

political spectrum. A There is an issue of how they have overstated

:47:07.:47:14.

how well they're doing. You can put a big question mark over the

:47:14.:47:22.

momentum. We have made steady progress, we have reconnected with

:47:22.:47:32.

the electorate. Boss Labour-run BSN peak made election gains. In terms

:47:32.:47:37.

of the larger number of councillors which the SNP achieved, the large

:47:37.:47:44.

number again that we achieved. We have a councillor in virtually

:47:44.:47:49.

every ward across this country. If you want to keep celebrating

:47:49.:47:56.

Stallingborough party defeats, that is fine by the SNP. Her BSN p now

:47:56.:48:02.

has a national army of counsellors likely to be tasked with winning

:48:02.:48:06.

the independence referendum and the ward they represent. By definition,

:48:06.:48:12.

pro-union parties of councillors in all parts of Scotland 2. They could

:48:12.:48:16.

deploy them as local leaders in their campaign to keep Scotland as

:48:16.:48:26.

part of the UK. With me, Anas Sarwar and for the

:48:26.:48:36.
:48:36.:48:39.

SNP, Kenneth Gibson. The alliance in Edinburgh, a good idea? I don't

:48:39.:48:44.

see why not. It seems sensible for both of them to work together for

:48:44.:48:49.

the good of the city. We would like to have seen more such alliances.

:48:49.:48:57.

If you look at what has happened, where the run all Labour or

:48:57.:49:02.

Conservative councillors, Labour have a coalition in the eight of

:49:02.:49:11.

those areas. Labour seem to prefer to work with conservative. I think

:49:11.:49:15.

he is rattled because the SNP are beatable and Alex Salmond is not

:49:15.:49:21.

invincible. You have seen across the country, the Labour Party

:49:22.:49:27.

working constructively with parties of all political lines. To that is

:49:27.:49:37.
:49:37.:49:39.

why use all Labour, SNP packed. You have seen other administrations. We

:49:39.:49:44.

are not focusing around what positions people are in, but where

:49:44.:49:50.

we can deliver Labour Party values. At the moment, we have 13 Labour-

:49:50.:49:59.

led councils compared to eight SNP councils. He were not simply having

:49:59.:50:06.

Unionist alliances to block out the SNP? If you take the example of

:50:06.:50:12.

Edinburgh, we have constructively worked with the SNP to form an

:50:12.:50:16.

administration. We work with whatever party we need to work

:50:16.:50:25.

within the best interests of that city. Some council leaders were

:50:26.:50:35.

saying, SNP leaders, there is little in terms of social policy

:50:35.:50:41.

between Labour and get the SNP. It made sense to work together. Why do

:50:41.:50:48.

you think it has not happened? think it is the issue of Unionism.

:50:48.:50:54.

Him the election literature, it was about stopping Tory cuts but they

:50:54.:51:00.

have dealt with the Tories. I must take issue with what he has said

:51:00.:51:08.

about the election result. We made two gains -- 62 games which

:51:08.:51:15.

extended the Leeds -- lead across the country. If that is Labour

:51:15.:51:19.

stalling her momentum, we could do with more days like that. With all

:51:19.:51:24.

the massive cuts coming down the line, you do not want to be the one

:51:24.:51:31.

in control of the council -- councils? The reason the Labour --

:51:31.:51:40.

labour wants to have councillors in charge for... Who you are in

:51:40.:51:50.
:51:50.:51:52.

coalition with the representatives... The reality of

:51:52.:51:55.

the electoral system is that you must work with political parties to

:51:55.:52:02.

form administrations. He gives the example of Stirling. It is part of

:52:02.:52:10.

that deal we are delivering the range for workers in Stirling.

:52:10.:52:15.

we cut through the layers, the pragmatic thing is that you're

:52:15.:52:23.

going to have to deliver deals with people, you were blaming the Tories

:52:23.:52:33.
:52:33.:52:34.

for cuts, but these will be your partners in Council. Take the

:52:34.:52:38.

example of the last Scottish Parliament. The SNP were seeing

:52:39.:52:48.

Wright late that we're there -- that we were getting cuts. Through

:52:48.:52:52.

that parliamentary term, they are playing double games here. This is

:52:52.:53:01.

not a conspiracy. We fought for local communities up and down the

:53:01.:53:05.

country. The reason the SNP is negative is that they realise the

:53:05.:53:10.

momentum has stalled. The realised the Labour Party is taking a

:53:11.:53:20.

positive step. It is a matter of fact that when it went through in

:53:20.:53:24.

Holyrood, you relied on the Tories to get that through. Everyone does

:53:24.:53:34.

those deals. That is not true. The still voted against it. But reverse

:53:34.:53:41.

a lot of the policies, council tax freeze, small business baldness.

:53:41.:53:51.

They have down -- now done a second U-turn. We have not had any

:53:51.:53:59.

agreements with the Conservatives. Sometimes, it seems poisonous. That

:53:59.:54:04.

filters down to the detriment of local democracy. Both it is the

:54:04.:54:08.

fact that Labour feel they have used up their birthright. If we do

:54:08.:54:16.

not feel as bad about them as they seem to feel about us. I have been

:54:16.:54:26.
:54:26.:54:27.

in the SNP 33 years. It is not personal. Thank you.

:54:27.:54:32.

Colebeck the province of Canada which held at second referendum in

:54:32.:54:42.
:54:42.:54:43.

1995. They had a federal government. The Quebec nationalists came close

:54:43.:54:53.
:54:53.:55:06.

A night in Canada, the most popular show in Candida. We have a diverse

:55:06.:55:15.

country. The game brings us together. I grew up, Irish Catholic,

:55:15.:55:22.

he is Jewish. We have these other walks of life. When you get too

:55:22.:55:32.
:55:32.:55:32.

cocky, it is all forgotten. Ottawa, the heart of federal politics. He

:55:33.:55:39.

and the most recent elections, the Tories won a large majority. In

:55:39.:55:46.

Quebec, the supported the centre- left. But won the majority in the

:55:46.:55:52.

province. It is a partnership. It is the case between what a wire and

:55:52.:56:02.
:56:02.:56:03.

all the provinces. We have our debates and agreements. Politics

:56:03.:56:08.

and can a Dutch is still dominated by public spending cuts. Quebec

:56:08.:56:13.

separatist Slav state in the federal elections last year. In the

:56:13.:56:23.

1990s, they held power in Quebec. For the nearly one their referendum

:56:23.:56:28.

on sovereignty. If the TV screen had red and blue on the bottom and

:56:28.:56:37.

it was wavering all night. In 1995, we had a federal government very

:56:37.:56:42.

like the British government now. It was concerned with cuts, changing

:56:43.:56:49.

the symbols of Canada. Quebec nationalists when arguing they were

:56:49.:56:54.

the ones who were standing up for the collectivist, more left-wing

:56:54.:57:04.
:57:04.:57:05.

view of the company -- country. home rule with independence beat

:57:05.:57:10.

Tory rule from Westminster any time and any day.

:57:10.:57:17.

Canadian federal politicians warned it does not make sense to vote.

:57:17.:57:21.

you bought for your government, and to elect a government, with a close

:57:21.:57:27.

margin, it is not the end of the world because four years later, you

:57:27.:57:35.

will water again. If you destroy the country, it is for yourself and

:57:35.:57:41.

the next generation. Does my Quebec experience give us a taste of what

:57:41.:57:47.

is to come and lessons for nationalists and Unionists parties?

:57:47.:57:52.

When the welfare state is reduced, when social programmes are under

:57:52.:57:58.

threat, as we saw in Canada, that can offer opportunities for those

:57:58.:58:04.

campaigning for constitutional change to make the independence

:58:04.:58:07.

project seem attractive. Potentially, the most difficult

:58:07.:58:17.
:58:17.:58:23.

After the referendum, the federal government adopted a lot

:58:23.:58:30.

recognising Quebec as a distinct society. -- a law. A new generation

:58:30.:58:38.

of Quebecois have a strong sense of identity. I feel more Quebecois

:58:38.:58:48.
:58:48.:58:50.

than comedian. -- Canadian. But I am still from Canada. My country

:58:50.:59:00.
:59:00.:59:04.

for me is not cannot up but Quebec. -- not Canada. A do-nothing

:59:04.:59:11.

independence will change anything. But for Canadians, the referendum

:59:11.:59:21.

had a lasting impact. No one wants it to lose the third referendum ll.

:59:21.:59:31.
:59:31.:59:34.

I think we will win the third one. Politics it may still divide them,

:59:34.:59:44.
:59:44.:59:49.

We are now joined live from Ottawa by the political correspondent for

:59:49.:59:57.

the Vancouver Sun, Peter O'Neil. What in Canada did you find was the

:59:57.:00:02.

impact of what was perceived to be an imposed austerity programme on

:00:02.:00:08.

the independence debate? It was interesting. My first day in Quebec

:00:08.:00:18.
:00:18.:00:22.

when I was covering the referendum, I arrived at their Quebecois bus.

:00:22.:00:32.
:00:32.:00:32.

There was austerity, but not exactly a feast. -- exactly Greece.

:00:33.:00:39.

The bus was covered in multi- coloured signs. There was a huge

:00:39.:00:49.
:00:49.:00:51.

contrast to the rest of the debate. They were saying we can escape this

:00:51.:00:59.

austerity, which was not exactly honest but effective. He is the

:00:59.:01:03.

lesson that the campaign, its tone and message, is critically

:01:03.:01:12.

important? It is critically important if you are unprepared and

:01:12.:01:16.

underestimate your opposition. That is what the federalist forces were

:01:16.:01:26.

guilty of. They were not united and assumed they would lose. They made

:01:26.:01:30.

some huge mistakes in terms of exaggerating the dangers. The went

:01:30.:01:40.

too far with that. Campaigns matter. But I have to say that I cannot

:01:40.:01:47.

imagine Alex Salmond could replicate the leadership of their

:01:47.:01:52.

Quebecois. It was a Christ-like resurrection that galvanised of the

:01:52.:02:02.
:02:02.:02:03.

population. What are the key messages if you look at the

:02:03.:02:08.

Canadian experience for both sides embers? The key message for the

:02:08.:02:16.

unionists would be clarity. They have to spell out exactly what this

:02:16.:02:22.

means, especially the negatives of it. But it would be dangerous to

:02:22.:02:32.
:02:32.:02:32.

frighten people. It went on in Canada. In Quebec, are a very

:02:32.:02:41.

respected finance minister gave a speech and said that one-third of

:02:41.:02:46.

people in Quebec would lose their jobs. People assumed he was

:02:46.:02:55.

exaggerating and everything he said then was have ridiculed. They have

:02:55.:03:01.

to be a sober and United. On the SNP side, you are dealing with a

:03:01.:03:07.

sensible people, it is not as emotional as in Quebec. They have

:03:07.:03:16.

to be statesmanlike, project an idea of strong administration.

:03:16.:03:23.

Scotland tomorrow, we are expecting it and an announcement -- expecting

:03:23.:03:28.

an announcement on minimum pricing for alcohol. In Canada, you have

:03:28.:03:38.

had this for years, does it work? For the last four years, I have

:03:38.:03:42.

just come back from Paris, I used to come over to the United Kingdom

:03:42.:03:47.

and I have to say that you really do have a problem in the United

:03:47.:03:52.

Kingdom in terms of social drinking and binge drinking. This is one

:03:52.:04:00.

component of it. We saw with smoking, when the government raised

:04:00.:04:05.

the taxes on smoking, people stopped. We are used to this in

:04:05.:04:10.

Canada. If you have a social drinking problem, and you can go to

:04:10.:04:17.

the liquor store and get cheap wine, that will get it worse. Thank you

:04:17.:04:27.
:04:27.:04:27.

for joining us this morning. And now here's the lunchtime news with

:04:27.:04:32.

Andrew Kerr. Good afternoon. The former Sheffield United chief

:04:32.:04:35.

executive Charles Green has agreed a deal to buy Rangers. It was

:04:35.:04:38.

announced at the club's training base at Murray Park. Mr Green wants

:04:38.:04:40.

to form a Company Voluntary Arrangement and he's backed with

:04:40.:04:47.

finance from Singapore businessmen. More helicopter flights have been

:04:47.:04:51.

grounded after a helicopter ditched in the North Sea. The Super Puma

:04:51.:04:58.

came down last Thursday. An interim report discovered a crack in the

:04:58.:05:03.

main gearbox was to blame. The operators had already suspended

:05:03.:05:12.

flights of the same type of aircraft.

:05:12.:05:15.

Two men have died after an incident involving a microlight plane on a

:05:15.:05:18.

mountain range in Crianlarich. It is understood the plane went down

:05:18.:05:27.

near the summit of Ben More in Good afternoon. Some very wet and

:05:27.:05:32.

windy weather coming our way. Difficult driving conditions as

:05:32.:05:39.

well. That rain is already affecting much of western Scotland.

:05:39.:05:45.

Heavy in the north-west, Argyll, extending eastwards. Temperatures

:05:45.:05:54.

up to 12 or 13 Celsius at best. But feeling colder him that wind. Our

:05:54.:06:04.
:06:04.:06:08.

Winston Churchill called it the worst journey in the world, the

:06:08.:06:13.

North Atlantic convoys would to a vital supplies to Soviet allies in

:06:13.:06:16.

the Second World War. The men is shared out of Scottish Power was to

:06:16.:06:21.

face you bought and air attacks on freezing says. More than 3000 men

:06:22.:06:28.

were killed. The survivors have been denied the official mark of

:06:28.:06:32.

recognition and respect, and dedicated campaign medal. The

:06:32.:06:39.

Scottish government is among those who feel this is unacceptable. In

:06:39.:06:44.

the studio with me is Keith Brown MSP, the Veterans Minister.

:06:44.:06:49.

What are you saying to the government about this? The summer

:06:49.:06:52.

months ago, I wrote to the Government asking them to proceed

:06:52.:06:58.

as quickly as possible with this. These young men had a very

:06:58.:07:03.

dangerous mission. By and large, they were not trained in military

:07:03.:07:11.

warfare. The under to go the most dangerous of missions. Had they not

:07:11.:07:16.

done so, it could have changed the whole outcome of the war. For

:07:16.:07:20.

Winston Churchill to recognise their value, rethink that the

:07:20.:07:25.

current Tory government should be recognising them as well.

:07:25.:07:29.

offence of it was the comment from one of the defence ministers that

:07:29.:07:39.
:07:39.:07:39.

they could have the Atlantic Star? That was offensive to the veterans.

:07:39.:07:49.
:07:49.:07:54.

You cannot compare these extremely brave... He subsequently apologised.

:07:54.:08:03.

They are extremely a brave people and there are very few of them left.

:08:04.:08:08.

Sometime a goal in Edinburgh, there was a medals ceremony by the

:08:08.:08:12.

Russian government for these men. A lot of them were very young men at

:08:12.:08:19.

the time, even ones at the boats were going out, they still kept

:08:19.:08:25.

going. They knew what they were sailing into. The Germans very

:08:25.:08:31.

quickly twigged to what was going on. They made it a very hazardous

:08:31.:08:40.

trip. These men were essentially civilians, not trained to do this.

:08:40.:08:44.

But be made sure that supplies got through to Murmansk and Archangel,

:08:45.:08:51.

it was extremely important. We will give you more news on that campaign.

:08:51.:08:54.

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