:00:13. > :00:15.that seems to be a lot of trouble. On tonight's programme, it is about
:00:15. > :00:23.Bobby's, not boundaries. The Justice Secretary continues his
:00:23. > :00:28.tour of the country tried to convince everybody it is... No
:00:28. > :00:36.fears about fewer bobbies on the beach. And our reputation impaired
:00:36. > :00:40.Bank's report considerable profit but continued to cut jobs. We will
:00:40. > :00:45.discuss the matters with Scotland's leading financial institutions.
:00:45. > :00:49.If it is too many, how many is enough? The Justice Secretary Kenny
:00:49. > :00:53.MacAskill has been touring police forces to assess the future of
:00:53. > :00:56.policing in Scotland. It was Strathclyde's turn to do, and Mr
:00:56. > :01:04.MacAskill says the status quo is wasteful and speculation is
:01:04. > :01:14.mounting that we may be about to have a single national police force.
:01:14. > :01:16.
:01:16. > :01:20.First, Kenneth Macdonald has this There's been a murder or more than
:01:20. > :01:30.one, but not more than there used to be. Crime has been falling for
:01:30. > :01:31.
:01:31. > :01:39.That has not stopped the just a secretary from pounding a bit about
:01:39. > :01:46.Scotland's police forces. The shape of Scottish police forces must
:01:46. > :01:55.change. Local policing that we have to preserve and protect ensuring
:01:55. > :01:57.that we have national resources that we are consulting about. I am
:01:57. > :02:01.missing and learning but we recognise that the challenge in
:02:01. > :02:05.Scotland is to maintain a visible police presence and in the face of
:02:05. > :02:10.huge cuts from London, the only way to do that is to make sure it is
:02:10. > :02:13.the boundaries that go, not the policeman on the beat. Scotland
:02:13. > :02:17.currently has eight territorial police forces. It is eight sets of
:02:17. > :02:21.back office functions like personnel and payroll. Those it
:02:21. > :02:25.forces could be amalgamated into just one Scottish national force.
:02:25. > :02:28.Some of the service are in favour of that. We believe that we have to
:02:28. > :02:33.provide local policing services first and then look at the
:02:33. > :02:39.management there after. With costs, that is where the cost savings can
:02:39. > :02:43.be made. It is also about the distribution to make sure that
:02:43. > :02:48.every community has the same support available and that there is
:02:48. > :02:51.a level playing field. The theory is that collapsing eight forces
:02:51. > :02:55.into three or even just one will save millions of overheads which
:02:55. > :02:59.will be put back into frontline policing. Critics say it would cost
:02:59. > :03:03.millions to reorganise and other crime figures suggest that where it
:03:03. > :03:10.matters, the situation is not broken. Reports suggest that
:03:10. > :03:18.Scotland is safer now than for almost 40 years. Adjusted --
:03:18. > :03:22.unadjusted figures show that by this year, the figure was below
:03:22. > :03:26.324,000. We currently have the most
:03:26. > :03:32.effective policing that Scotland has seen in the time I have been in
:03:32. > :03:36.the service and that has been by evolution, working with the
:03:36. > :03:38.Department and partnership and doing exactly what people say we do
:03:38. > :03:44.not do, collaborating and using resources carefully across
:03:44. > :03:52.boundaries. I over the past six years, police officers have risen
:03:52. > :04:01.markedly in numbers. It was a shade over 15,000 in 2005. There was well
:04:01. > :04:11.over 70,000 this year, a rise of 8%. The thinking is that shrinking the
:04:11. > :04:11.
:04:11. > :04:16.force... Might create the biggest saving of all. Creating too much
:04:16. > :04:20.pressure for a person in charge is seen as a problem. When I took the
:04:20. > :04:25.post, I made it clear that I would never willingly allow this story to
:04:25. > :04:31.be about me, the leader as opposed to what the people who work for me
:04:31. > :04:38.and what I'd do. I saw the destruction this can cause other
:04:38. > :04:43.thing that is wrong. A lot can be read into Mr MacAskill's visit to
:04:43. > :04:53.the Strathclyde force. It covers Scotland's biggest city and some of
:04:53. > :04:55.
:04:55. > :05:03.the rural communities as well Scott and is a bear raids country
:05:03. > :05:12.and that is why I am in a Strathclyde today -- Scotland is a
:05:12. > :05:17.The Justice Secretary says he is still listening and only the status
:05:17. > :05:26.quo has been ruled out. He will announce his plans next month, it
:05:26. > :05:33.Joining me now from Edinburgh is the leader of the Scottish Liberal
:05:33. > :05:37.Democrats, Willie Rennie and in Inverness is the best MP MSP, John
:05:37. > :05:43.Finnie, also a member of the justice committee and is a former
:05:43. > :05:48.policeman -- SNP MSP. We know that one of the Chief Constables thinks
:05:48. > :05:51.that a single police force would be a bad idea for local communities,
:05:51. > :05:56.the Northern Police Board agree, and the majority of rank-and-file
:05:56. > :06:00.police officers agree. What is your opinion? My opinion is that we need
:06:00. > :06:06.to consider all options and the status quo is not an option. As the
:06:06. > :06:10.justice minister said, it is facing �1.3 billion of cuts and it is
:06:10. > :06:17.inconceivable that the police service will not play their part in
:06:18. > :06:25.these cuts. The reality is that what we need is police officers,
:06:25. > :06:31.not boundaries. There is a very visible police presence and it is
:06:31. > :06:38.important to maintain that. 1,000 officers will not be lost on the
:06:38. > :06:41.streets, and I I don't think people will mind as much if back office
:06:41. > :06:49.staff go. Do you think Scotland could support a single police
:06:49. > :06:53.force? Having the issue, that is delivering service on the ground.
:06:53. > :07:03.The Scottish Government does not invest in 1,000 additional offices
:07:03. > :07:03.
:07:03. > :07:08.to see them drift away. We need to maintain that. A 40 year low crime
:07:08. > :07:14.rate, and we need to maintain that. If he were to move to one Chief
:07:14. > :07:16.Constable, you would see a saving of several million pounds. Your own
:07:16. > :07:21.Chief Constable is one who disputes that he would need to make savings
:07:21. > :07:26.anything like that. Before we move on from this, the lessons we have
:07:26. > :07:29.learned from what is happening with the met Police, one single police
:07:29. > :07:34.Chief Constable with a very powerful force can become a very
:07:34. > :07:37.politicised animal. You could say that if you were to have a single
:07:37. > :07:42.police constable, they would never be out of the Justice Secretary's
:07:42. > :07:48.office. That would be something causing concern? To a think there
:07:48. > :07:56.are legitimate concerns about accountability. The irony is that
:07:56. > :08:00.we can improve accountability. In normal can start Billy --
:08:00. > :08:05.Constabulary has four constituent parts. We can enhance the
:08:05. > :08:13.accountability. The issue of separation between the political
:08:13. > :08:16.and operation is hugely important. We have that in the Northern
:08:16. > :08:20.Ireland police force. Arrangements there have a clear separation
:08:20. > :08:26.between operational and political, that can be replicated. It happens
:08:26. > :08:30.in other countries. Willie Rennie, is the brutal fact here not that
:08:30. > :08:34.your government in Westminster is imposing massive public spending
:08:35. > :08:38.cuts and savings have to be made in the police budget? And the way
:08:38. > :08:42.forces are stricter at the moment, there is duplication? If you don't
:08:42. > :08:49.agree with a single police force or reduced police forces, how will you
:08:49. > :08:55.make savings? They have made significant improvements over the
:08:55. > :08:59.years. You do not do these big bang game of fantasy boundaries to get
:08:59. > :09:06.efficiencies. Top down changes like this will not deliver changes that
:09:06. > :09:11.are necessary, it is evolution, working on the ground. I think it
:09:12. > :09:16.would be a retrograde step to put the centre of the Justice Secretary.
:09:16. > :09:20.How do you make the savings? Through collaborations, and
:09:20. > :09:26.trusting the police on the ground to make the savings as we have
:09:26. > :09:30.already done. This is thanks to the good work of the police. To clarify,
:09:30. > :09:32.you what police officers on the ground to vote for fewer police
:09:32. > :09:42.officers? How would this but in practice was make it is about
:09:42. > :09:46.making sure that to provide the right support. You have a community
:09:46. > :09:50.initiative, working with local policeman, working for an area.
:09:50. > :09:55.That is cutting the amount of crime in each community. If you do more
:09:55. > :10:00.of that work, you can save and improve the efficiency. By cutting
:10:00. > :10:04.crime and cost. Do you accept that this was a central message you are
:10:04. > :10:08.trying to get out to the Lib Dems in the last election saying it is
:10:08. > :10:13.important to everybody and local communities must be aware? And once
:10:13. > :10:21.the forces go they never come back? The public could not have cared
:10:21. > :10:25.less? Are a thing people do you care and we heard strongly -- I
:10:25. > :10:31.think people do care. We heard that people were particularly concerned.
:10:31. > :10:36.I it was not reflected in the boat to attracted in the election, given
:10:36. > :10:43.that he made that a central boat issue. He you know it there was a
:10:43. > :10:50.halt float of issues. Police did not dominate but that did not make
:10:50. > :10:54.it a less important issue. What do you make of the right and file
:10:55. > :10:57.officers and their real concern for example in the Highlands that the
:10:57. > :11:05.issue would change fundamentally and were you to have a centralised
:11:05. > :11:09.police cuttable in Glasgow, people would say that is not a priority
:11:09. > :11:19.for me in the Highlands and Islands, that local communities would lose
:11:19. > :11:20.
:11:20. > :11:25.The reality is garage any one concerns. The President for this is
:11:25. > :11:30.in the mid- 1970s. Northern Constabulary is an amalgam of many
:11:30. > :11:36.county forces, and has more than 300 officers more now than it had
:11:36. > :11:42.in 1975. I think there is a lot of scaremongering here. And
:11:42. > :11:45.disappointingly, a lack of realism -- realism on the financial reality.
:11:45. > :11:50.Cuts from London will not be addressed by having community
:11:50. > :11:54.initiatives, they will be addressed by radical change. Not change on
:11:54. > :11:58.the front line, the public have made it very clear they are greatly
:11:58. > :12:05.reassured by the presence of frontline police full staff we will
:12:05. > :12:11.maintain these officers. We will not maintain the IT sections, the
:12:11. > :12:15.chauffeur-driven chief constables. But the concern must be... The
:12:15. > :12:19.concern must be that if you take officers out of the backroom, you
:12:19. > :12:28.then have to transfer officers back on to the work that they have been
:12:28. > :12:32.doing. What is required here is robust management. We had over
:12:32. > :12:37.7,000 support staff, they are very valuable. The reality is that with
:12:37. > :12:41.these numbers, you have people retiring and leaving. There is an
:12:41. > :12:45.opportunity for robust management that maintains the front line.
:12:45. > :12:51.your figures do not make any sense in the real world. They will not
:12:51. > :12:56.come through with any significant savings. This will actually cost
:12:56. > :13:01.more, it will cost about �230 million to make the change, injured
:13:01. > :13:06.will only deliver a 2 % efficiency here. That is hardly a significant
:13:06. > :13:13.change that will deal with the deficit. We need serious reforms,
:13:13. > :13:16.not fantasy boundary changes. you think that relevant local
:13:16. > :13:20.policing can only be delivered by a small forces, the logic of that
:13:20. > :13:24.argument is actually that Strathclyde, which takes in half
:13:24. > :13:29.the population of Scotland, should be broken up. Would you advocate
:13:29. > :13:33.that? I am arguing we should be focusing on making sure there is
:13:33. > :13:39.real innovation at a local level. Changing the boundaries will not
:13:39. > :13:42.make any difference. Thank you both very much.
:13:42. > :13:48.It is half-year reporting season for those great engines of the
:13:48. > :13:52.British economy, the bank's. Expect opaque jargon and numbers swirling
:13:52. > :13:56.around, including the staggering number of job losses they are
:13:56. > :14:00.putting through their work forces. With two of the four sets of
:14:00. > :14:04.results and the other two due at the end of the week, a pattern is
:14:04. > :14:14.emerging. Put simply, do not hold your breath waiting for this lot to
:14:14. > :14:15.
:14:15. > :14:21.begin stimulating the economy. Yesterday, HSBC, while announcing a
:14:21. > :14:26.higher than expected profit of 11.5 billion, also took the town to
:14:26. > :14:33.slash 30,000 jobs worldwide. Today, it was the turn of Barclays. Again,
:14:33. > :14:41.they posted higher than predicted profits, although that is down one
:14:41. > :14:45.third. Bob Diamond is next -- insisting that their position is
:14:45. > :14:49.rock solid. Less rock solid are there for 200 jobs they have cut
:14:49. > :14:59.this year, with another 3,000 on the way before Christmas -- 1,400
:14:59. > :15:03.
:15:03. > :15:10.Next up on Thursday, Lloyd's. Owner of the Bank of Scotland amongst
:15:10. > :15:17.other things, and the set is bent complete on Friday with RBS. There
:15:17. > :15:22.are widespread -- set expectations for drops with both of these
:15:22. > :15:29.companies. Lloyds' shares are down 30 % in the last six months. RBS
:15:29. > :15:33.have taken a 70 % -- 17 % hit in the same period. Over the last two
:15:33. > :15:42.years, both bands have -- banks have shared between them over
:15:42. > :15:50.50,000 jobs. As a sector that took a series of seismic kids, there
:15:50. > :15:54.seems little evidence that the aftershocks have stopped.
:15:54. > :15:58.The Executive editor of the Scotsman, Bill Jamieson, is with me
:15:58. > :16:03.now. Thank you for coming in. On the evidence we have so far, what
:16:03. > :16:08.you make of the health of our banks? Not good I would say, if you
:16:08. > :16:12.were trying to measure the pulse of our banks. That pulse is still very
:16:12. > :16:17.faint, and we seem to be more than ever further away from the recovery
:16:17. > :16:23.that everybody has been very keenly awaiting. It is like a mirage, it
:16:23. > :16:26.disappears over the horizon every six Mac months was -- six months.
:16:26. > :16:32.And there are huge worries about what is happening in the euro-zone,
:16:33. > :16:37.huge worries about the US economy. And that critical thing is really
:16:37. > :16:41.business confidence. And I suspected it is this lack of
:16:41. > :16:48.business confidence that is hitting the investment banking results and
:16:48. > :16:51.profits, and causing further staff shedding by the banks. Why is there
:16:51. > :16:55.business confidence solo? Is it anything related to their not
:16:55. > :16:59.getting proper rates at about? is a combination of things. First
:16:59. > :17:05.of all, there is a stream of any negative news about the economy
:17:05. > :17:09.both here and in America. Me that all the surveys that were coming
:17:09. > :17:14.out, they do point to a slowing pace of recovery. That is the main
:17:14. > :17:19.thing. The second point I would make is that there are some sectors
:17:19. > :17:22.such as untroubled, like retail for example, here in the UK, but I
:17:22. > :17:28.suspect many troubles are deeply troubled in the retail sector and
:17:28. > :17:37.just do not have the confidence to go to their banks and ask for more
:17:37. > :17:40.money or an extension of their loan, for fear of being told to know.
:17:40. > :17:44.That is interesting in terms of what our causing the problems now.
:17:44. > :17:48.How much of this is about what is happening in the economy right now,
:17:48. > :17:53.and looking to the future, and how much of it is the residual effect
:17:54. > :17:57.of what the banks when three in the crashed? There is no doubt that the
:17:57. > :18:03.amount they have to lend is still very constrained. And that was a
:18:03. > :18:07.big story up until a few months ago. But my suspicion it is the
:18:07. > :18:14.confidence -- is that it is a confidence thing, and many
:18:14. > :18:17.companies preferring to sit on cash. It is not as if our largest
:18:18. > :18:22.companies are a short of cash. They are not, they have the money,
:18:22. > :18:27.they're just making the decision not to invest, not to expand, not
:18:27. > :18:31.to take on more staff until they see a clearer way through what is
:18:31. > :18:36.happening in the euro-zone, what is happening in the UK economy and
:18:36. > :18:41.what is happening in America have. If we let them at Lloyd's and RBS
:18:41. > :18:46.in this bigger picture, we are seeing this rush to shed jobs. What
:18:46. > :18:50.is the implication for Scotland? The impression I get is that there
:18:50. > :18:56.is not all that dramatic labour shedding here in Scotland, either
:18:56. > :19:00.for Lloyds or RBS. Yes, there may be some technical changes, as bred
:19:00. > :19:04.to internet banking means that we do not have quite so many branch
:19:04. > :19:09.staff and she needed a couple of years ago. But I do not think that
:19:09. > :19:17.is a significant factor here. It is just this dearth of gross in the
:19:17. > :19:23.economy, that is the worry. So we have seen in the results from
:19:23. > :19:27.Barclays, and in HSBC, a slowing down in their domestic profits.
:19:27. > :19:31.people who do not understand how this industry works, they Macie, we
:19:31. > :19:37.are seeing the banks making profits, why do they need to leave staff?
:19:37. > :19:42.Why cannot they just keep their staffing levels? I think in the
:19:42. > :19:48.case of HSBC, they have a big worry about their costs, their cost ratio
:19:48. > :19:52.is much higher than the field -- they feel it should be. And I think
:19:52. > :19:55.also they are looking at the world and they find that, actually, they
:19:56. > :20:03.are to over-exposed in those areas which are going to show very little
:20:03. > :20:08.growth, and it was very interesting that a lot of there job cuts over
:20:08. > :20:13.the next few years are going to come in America and Europe, and at
:20:13. > :20:17.the same time they are expanding 10,000 new jobs in Asia and the
:20:17. > :20:22.Pacific, and emerging economies. That tells you volumes about what
:20:22. > :20:28.is happening with the shift of economic power. Do you think all of
:20:28. > :20:33.this feeds into the prospect of future regulations here in the UK,
:20:33. > :20:37.with the beggars committee reports coming out? This is very
:20:37. > :20:39.interesting, we are waiting to hear from the Independent Banking
:20:40. > :20:44.Commission at the end of September as to whether they will go the
:20:44. > :20:49.whole hog and insist on a split between retail and investment
:20:49. > :20:58.banking. My gut instinct is that they will not do that, they will go
:20:58. > :21:03.for a halfway house. But the impression we get from, for example
:21:03. > :21:07.HSBC is that, if they go for a halfway house, they will retain
:21:07. > :21:11.more jobs in the UK than would otherwise be the case. They are not
:21:11. > :21:16.happy about the idea of a total split. Thank you very much for
:21:16. > :21:21.coming in. A quick look at some of the papers.
:21:21. > :21:30.The Herald is leading with the story, legalised the sale of human
:21:30. > :21:37.kidneys. The Scotsman is also going with this, debt hits student is
:21:37. > :21:44.their take on it. A furious Scottish academic calling for an
:21:45. > :21:50.organ straight to be made legal. The Scottish Daily Mail is going
:21:50. > :21:57.with a health warning. And in the sun, a threat to tycoon's goal,
:21:57. > :22:07.this is the reward from Duncan Bannatyne. That is it from tonight
:22:07. > :22:09.
:22:09. > :22:15.-- for tonight. We are back A muggy night, a few thunderstorms
:22:15. > :22:20.in eastern England. But Wednesday will be fairly dry. Temperatures
:22:20. > :22:24.rising through the day, and quite a humid day in store. Some
:22:24. > :22:34.thunderstorms in eastern parts. North West England and the messed
:22:34. > :22:35.
:22:35. > :22:42.Midlands should be largely dry. A little fresher along the coast,
:22:42. > :22:48.only a bit though. Mostly dry, sunshine hazy through the afternoon.
:22:48. > :22:55.Temperatures into the low twenties, but still quite humid especially in
:22:55. > :22:59.the sun. One or two eyes alighted light showers. -- isolated. Across
:22:59. > :23:05.Scotland, and drier and brighter day compared to what we saw today,
:23:05. > :23:09.especially in the east. Accordingly, it will feel a bit warmer. But it
:23:09. > :23:14.is the changeover from Wednesday to Thursday. Temperatures staying
:23:14. > :23:17.about the same in the north, but heavy rain developing. But
:23:17. > :23:20.temperatures take a big drop in the side. And torrential rain will work
:23:20. > :23:27.its way across parts of the Midlands, southern England and