:00:02. > :00:12.boadsheet and tabloid, which amused me. I'll be interested to see what
:00:12. > :00:16.
:00:16. > :00:20.Tonight on Newsnight Scotland - with youth unemployment at a high,
:00:20. > :00:25.could we be creating a new lost generation? And the Supreme Court
:00:25. > :00:28.may have given the Government the decision it wanted over asbestos
:00:28. > :00:33.compensation, but did they leave a stinging rebuke for ministers
:00:33. > :00:36.hidden in the small print? Good evening. Maybe plan McB is
:00:37. > :00:40.working or maybe the Scottish economy is lagging the UK, but the
:00:40. > :00:43.unemployment figures aren't as bad here as south of the border. That
:00:43. > :00:46.will be little comfort to the thousands of young people finding
:00:46. > :00:50.the search for a job particularly hard. Youth unemployment is so high
:00:50. > :00:56.there are fears of a lost generation, comparable to that
:00:56. > :01:01.created in the recession of the 1980s.
:01:01. > :01:07.I thought it would be a lot of jobs going, but there's near enough
:01:07. > :01:12.nothing going. I thought it would be easier. I got out of school with
:01:12. > :01:15.some highers. But it's hard. I've had quite a few interviews for
:01:15. > :01:20.apprenticeships, but after the interview, just not been successful.
:01:20. > :01:24.I thought it would be pretty easy to find a job. I wasn't used to way
:01:24. > :01:29.it is in the real worldment last time the real world was this
:01:29. > :01:34.tough for young people was in the 1980s, though official records on
:01:34. > :01:37.unemployment for 16 to 24-year-olds only started in 1992. Some
:01:37. > :01:47.eeconomists are now reviving a word from those days to describe the
:01:47. > :01:54.
:01:54. > :01:58.If you haven't entered the labour market and you don't get a job for
:01:58. > :02:02.a significant period of time, then you won't develop the basic skills,
:02:02. > :02:06.the basic character skills, the basic go to work skills that
:02:06. > :02:11.everyone takes for granted. That means that you might never properly
:02:11. > :02:16.get into the labour market. While the Scottish Government says
:02:16. > :02:21.Scotland is outperforming the rest of the UK, the figures are up 7,000,
:02:21. > :02:25.with 7.9% of the population in Scotland out of work. The worst
:02:25. > :02:28.affected areas by local authority are north Ayrshire, west
:02:29. > :02:31.Dunbartonshire, as well as the cities of Glasgow and Dundee. Both
:02:31. > :02:40.the Scottish Government and the Scotland office say tackling youth
:02:40. > :02:44.unemployment is a top priority. This Dundee engineering firm has
:02:44. > :02:49.helped some young people by offering apprenticeships. I thought
:02:49. > :02:53.it would be not all that hard. When I left in fifth year, applied for
:02:53. > :02:58.jobs, got to the final stages of some, but again, other people got
:02:58. > :03:01.the job. Then the following year, again, before I started college, I
:03:01. > :03:04.applied again and still not having any luck. After I went to college,
:03:04. > :03:09.once people seen that you had a qualification in that area, they
:03:09. > :03:15.were a lot more willing to take on. For me, being on the machine all
:03:15. > :03:22.the time learning all the different materials, that was really a big
:03:22. > :03:25.experience for me. Having the people who work here as well, 20,
:03:25. > :03:32.30 years experience giving me their knowledge was a big factor in me
:03:32. > :03:36.learning. NGA engineering say they could do with more help. It's
:03:36. > :03:40.difficult, aye. It's a struggle. You don't get much financial help.
:03:40. > :03:44.It's a way forward. There's nobody training apprentices. We have to
:03:44. > :03:48.bring apresents through here. thankless task of working out your
:03:48. > :03:54.strengths and weaknesses and filling in forms can be soul
:03:54. > :03:58.destroying. But it has to be done. This company helps young people to
:03:58. > :04:01.aim high, but realistically. A lot of young people want to move into
:04:01. > :04:06.the trades, we have to be real with them about what the expectation
:04:06. > :04:09.should be in terms of what jobs are out there and trying to look at
:04:09. > :04:13.transferable skills for things like a call centre industry, hospitality,
:04:13. > :04:17.retail, places where there's real jobs for them to move into. It's
:04:17. > :04:23.hard trying to find work, there's so many people unemployed these
:04:23. > :04:27.days. So many people are going for the same job. There's usually
:04:27. > :04:33.someone better than you for a job. It's hard to get a job. I'm looking
:04:33. > :04:41.for an apprenticeship for a mechanic. I've just applied for one
:04:41. > :04:45.for the council. If you don't get an interview... It's disappointing,
:04:45. > :04:50.it is. Because there's nothing going on. You're just sitting about
:04:50. > :04:53.looking for jobs, sitting on the computer looking for jobs, out
:04:53. > :04:58.handing CVs, filling in application forms. You get no replies quite a
:04:58. > :05:03.lot. You feel like you're on your own. You feel like giving up.
:05:03. > :05:07.riots in England show the dainkwher a young population feel it's has no
:05:07. > :05:11.stake in mainstream society, nothing to gain from playing by the
:05:11. > :05:15.rules and therefore nothing nouch lose either. Some economists are
:05:15. > :05:18.warning there's a potential disconnect in Scotland in terms of
:05:18. > :05:22.job creation, that job creation alone isn't the whole story. Have
:05:22. > :05:26.you to factor in the availability of labour, for example, matching
:05:26. > :05:30.jobs to people. That's particularly important when it comes to youth
:05:30. > :05:36.unemployment. The working population is rising. Job creation
:05:36. > :05:39.is not keeping up with that growth in working population. The labour
:05:40. > :05:43.supply is increasing and this means there's effectively going to be
:05:43. > :05:48.increasing competition for jobs. That means that what you might call
:05:48. > :05:53.more marginal workers, those workers without the skills or
:05:53. > :05:58.recently into the labour market, are more likely to be squeezed out.
:05:58. > :06:05.It's hard to get a job. I thought there would be a lot of jobs going.
:06:05. > :06:08.But there's near enough nothing going.
:06:08. > :06:12.I'm joined by Professor David Bell and by Ronnie Knox, who is
:06:12. > :06:17.principal of North Glasgow College. Professor David Bell, we don't have
:06:17. > :06:22.the detailed figures on youth unemployment specifically for
:06:22. > :06:28.Scotland. Nrlly a million across the UK, are we getting into the
:06:28. > :06:31.kind of territory we were in in the 1980s? We are, we know that's true
:06:31. > :06:38.in some areas like north Ayrshire where prospects are really very,
:06:38. > :06:42.very poor for the young. Then you get into this long-term scarring
:06:42. > :06:46.effect, where not managing to get into the jobs market early on
:06:46. > :06:51.actually has a bad effect on you almost throughout the rest of your
:06:51. > :06:56.working life. We have traced people who started in the 1980s and are
:06:56. > :07:01.able to show they have higher unemployment, lower incomes and
:07:01. > :07:07.also, other social factors like poorer health and so on. And the
:07:07. > :07:13.risk of this becoming, as it did in the past, multigenerational, in the
:07:13. > :07:17.long-term? Indeed that's so. We're a little better now I think at
:07:17. > :07:21.designing schemes for them to help them make themselves more
:07:21. > :07:26.approachable for employers, but on the other hand, there just aren't
:07:26. > :07:29.many jobs out there. Ronnie Knox, you're trying to train people up
:07:29. > :07:32.for jobs. Is it getting more difficult? Are you measuring
:07:32. > :07:37.whether the people are going through your courses are, what
:07:37. > :07:40.happens at the end of it? I think this is the issue now. We are
:07:40. > :07:45.training. We're training well. Scotland's colleges deliver, we
:07:45. > :07:49.believe, a product suitable for industry. The difficulty is there's
:07:49. > :07:55.an infinity number of people coming through the programmes and a finite
:07:55. > :08:00.number of jobs. There's potentially some answers. One being that
:08:00. > :08:04.perhaps considering that Scotland's big driver now is small to medium
:08:04. > :08:10.sized enterprises. In that area we need to spend more time encouraging
:08:10. > :08:15.these small businesses to try and deliver more programmes on former
:08:15. > :08:19.traditional type of apprenticeships. Realistically, given that they are
:08:19. > :08:22.themselves struggling at the moment, there would have to be Government
:08:22. > :08:26.money. There would have to be incentives to allow that happen.
:08:26. > :08:29.That's most definite. Do you have any numbers? Have you investigated
:08:29. > :08:35.say the last cohort of people who went through your apprenticeship
:08:35. > :08:40.programmes, how many of them have got jobs yet? There's a couple of
:08:40. > :08:44.pathways here. One is the ones that's gone through the traditional
:08:44. > :08:50.apprenticeship route, which tends to be quite successful in Scotland.
:08:50. > :08:56.People in refrigeration, automobile engineering... They get jobs?
:08:56. > :08:59.do. In some cases they are in employment when they come for the
:08:59. > :09:03.apprenticeship programme. It's the other people seeking to enter the
:09:03. > :09:07.market and there's a finite number of places. So it's people with
:09:07. > :09:10.perhaps no skills or particular background. They are coming into
:09:10. > :09:15.college because they have an interest in a particular programme.
:09:15. > :09:19.The job that colleges have got and often the big challenge is we get
:09:19. > :09:22.them in. We're training them through traditional programmes,
:09:22. > :09:26.both practical and theoretical. But they need work experience, even
:09:26. > :09:30.during that time. Whilst it's not a formal apprenticeship, per se,
:09:30. > :09:34.we're still trying to link with industry and it's quite successful
:09:34. > :09:38.in many aspects. There are other areas where it's extremely
:09:38. > :09:44.difficult. Extremely difficult because presumably there's a
:09:44. > :09:49.squeeze downwards. Once up get, as anecdotally we're told graduates
:09:49. > :09:52.can't get jobs. They end up working in bars and cafes. So the people
:09:52. > :09:57.who would normally work in bars and cafes, perhaps younger, less
:09:57. > :10:03.skilled people, are not getting the jobs and they get nothing. Yes,
:10:03. > :10:07.I've done work on this and it's certainly true since 2008 that the
:10:08. > :10:12.better qualified are trading down in occupational ladder, which makes
:10:12. > :10:16.it tougher for those at the bottom. You've done research in this. So
:10:16. > :10:23.what extent? Is it true you have well qualified graduates doing what
:10:23. > :10:26.effectively would have been thought of as service labour? Yes. I think
:10:26. > :10:32.that's true. We have found substantial effects since the
:10:32. > :10:36.beginning of 2008 indicating that that's the case. And where does
:10:37. > :10:40.that leave us? We put so much effort and energy, over the past
:10:40. > :10:44.ten years, in this idea that we want to get as many people as
:10:44. > :10:49.possible into further education. We have almost half of young people
:10:49. > :10:52.going into further education. They must be feeling a bit betrayed
:10:52. > :10:58.after all the rhetoric that they come out the other end and there's
:10:58. > :11:03.nothing for them. Yes. One of the things here is self-esteem and the
:11:03. > :11:09.idea that frapz you do get a lost generation, if people are
:11:09. > :11:13.repeatedly applying for jobs and getting nowhere. They gradually get
:11:13. > :11:17.discouraged. Is that what happens? Yeah I think it is. The other
:11:17. > :11:24.problem is that the other youths which are looking at these people
:11:24. > :11:32.going through that's not an interesting role model. As they
:11:32. > :11:36.watch their friends coming out the other end they're disincentivised.
:11:36. > :11:38.We know in developing countries the issue of the knowledge economy is
:11:39. > :11:42.extremely important. That's another angle to look at now is making sure
:11:42. > :11:47.that the youth of this country, the young people are actually getting
:11:47. > :11:52.the opportunity to see the benefits of education at the other end.
:11:52. > :11:59.are they telling you? If you are someone now who is in the other
:11:59. > :12:04.half of the population, who leaves school at 16, and maybe has a few
:12:04. > :12:09.GCSEs, but that's it, the prospects must be pretty awful, aren't they?
:12:09. > :12:14.Well, the ability to enter further education, that's not a stumbling
:12:14. > :12:18.block. They're taken in at various levels. Even people with low
:12:18. > :12:22.performance, on some cases, no school qualifications, particularly
:12:22. > :12:25.in the North East of the city, that's a big, big problem. But
:12:26. > :12:31.we're still open to taking people in with little or no skills and
:12:31. > :12:36.developing that. Actually it doesn't matter at that level
:12:36. > :12:40.whether it's a particular discipline. It may not meet the
:12:40. > :12:45.immediate employment. It's about social skills. Of course it is.
:12:45. > :12:49.Thank you both very much. Now, the Supreme Court giveth and
:12:50. > :12:57.they taketh away. The SNP government was cock ahoop today
:12:57. > :13:01.when the court ruled in its favour over asbestos related pleural
:13:01. > :13:05.plaques. It said that Holyrood can make social laws as it wishes
:13:05. > :13:09.within reason. But there was a sting in the tail. A warning this a
:13:09. > :13:13.danger of a majority government at Holyrood might decide to legislate
:13:13. > :13:19.to remove judges' rights to review sledge slaigs and said that wonts
:13:19. > :13:23.be acceptable. In the UK's Supreme Court, seven
:13:23. > :13:28.justices have been considering a case about the ability of Scots to
:13:28. > :13:33.claim compensation for an asbestos- related condition. Pleural plaques
:13:33. > :13:37.are scarring to the lining of the lungs, which indicate earlier
:13:37. > :13:40.exposure to asbestos, in themselves they're not a disease, but
:13:40. > :13:49.sufferers fear they can lead to more serious conditions. Judgment
:13:49. > :13:55.in the appeal... The court ruled workers could sue their former
:13:56. > :13:59.employers, but the case had much wider implications. Could the court
:13:59. > :14:03.effectively strike down an act of the devolves Parliament? In issues
:14:03. > :14:07.involving questions of social policy, which this case is, the
:14:07. > :14:13.court should respect the judgment of the elected body as to what is
:14:13. > :14:17.in the public interest unless that jiplt is -- judgment is manifestoly
:14:17. > :14:20.without reasonable foundation. sovereignty of Holyrood is
:14:20. > :14:24.apparently guaranteed. That's welcomed by ministers who claimed
:14:24. > :14:30.in earlier spats with the Supreme Court over police interviews with
:14:30. > :14:36.suspects and in the Gnat Fraser case, that the independence of
:14:36. > :14:42.Scots law was being threatened. But Lord Hope still have a warning for
:14:42. > :14:46.the Government. It is not entirely unthinkable that the Government
:14:46. > :14:49.might seek to use this power to abolish judicial review or diminish
:14:49. > :14:53.the role of the courts in protecting the interests of the
:14:53. > :14:57.individual, whether this is likely to happen isn't the point. It's
:14:57. > :15:02.enough that it might conceivably do so. He went on, the rule of law
:15:02. > :15:05.require that's judges must retain the power to insist that
:15:05. > :15:10.legislation of that extreme kind is not law, which the courts will
:15:10. > :15:16.recognise. So the Supreme Court will continue
:15:16. > :15:20.to monitor the laws passed by MSPs. Lord Hope has indicated it won't be
:15:20. > :15:27.cowed by criticism of its decisions, even by elected politicians.
:15:27. > :15:31.I'm joined by the editor of the firm magazine, Steven Raeburn. The
:15:31. > :15:36.main thing was this judgment was good news for people with pleural
:15:36. > :15:41.plaques. But there is a sting in the tail. Explain to us what the
:15:41. > :15:45.significance is. In many ways, it firmly for the first time, explains
:15:45. > :15:48.the clarity aware the Scottish Parliament sits in the framework of
:15:48. > :15:51.the power structure of the UK. It states clearly there's a
:15:51. > :15:55.Westminster Parliament, the mother of all parliments, then the courts
:15:55. > :15:59.and then the Holyrood Parliament. That harks back very much to the
:15:59. > :16:05.arguments over the Supreme Court in the summertime, where the Justice
:16:05. > :16:09.Minister and the First Minister Alex Salmond which made remarks
:16:09. > :16:14.about the framework of the rule of law. And did the Supreme Court even
:16:14. > :16:19.have these powers. The language today was very interesting. Lord
:16:19. > :16:24.Hope who was the recipient of the criticism in the summer time, gave
:16:24. > :16:30.the judgment today. They made it clear that sort of talk won't be
:16:30. > :16:34.tolerated by the court. argument is that while Westminster
:16:34. > :16:40.is a sovereign body and that the courts, he seems to say the courts
:16:40. > :16:43.may or may not have powers over Westminster in certain
:16:43. > :16:50.circumstances. He's adamant in saying the Scottish Parliament was
:16:50. > :16:56.set up by an act of the Westminster Parliament. That's the key
:16:56. > :16:59.distinction there. It really has perhaps settled the debate which
:16:59. > :17:03.really caught fire over the summertime between the judiciary,
:17:03. > :17:07.the operation of the rule of law, whether the separation of powers
:17:07. > :17:13.was a reality. The political interference in the courts was
:17:13. > :17:16.alarming. It provoked very, very real joint statement from the Dean
:17:16. > :17:19.of the Faculty of Advocates and the President of the law society who
:17:19. > :17:24.said this dialogue is sort of political involvement in the rule
:17:24. > :17:28.of law and it couldn't be tolerated. They warned of the danger of that.
:17:28. > :17:34.I think Lord Hope is carefully and calmly and precisely had the last
:17:34. > :17:38.laugh here and delivered the last words. In this judgment, the
:17:38. > :17:43.Supreme Court has set out for good where the Assembly sits in the
:17:44. > :17:47.framework. There is north side to this. One of the effects of the
:17:47. > :17:49.specific decision on pleural plaques is it was couched in
:17:49. > :17:53.language which basically said the Scottish Parliament can make
:17:54. > :18:00.decisions on things that are broadly within its competence and
:18:00. > :18:04.unless these are clearly unreasonable or ultra- varies
:18:04. > :18:10.decision like we'll decide to do something with say, foreign affairs,
:18:10. > :18:13.but which is not in their remit, maybe in grey areas we'll give them
:18:13. > :18:18.the benefit of the doubt. It's drawn a large circle for the
:18:18. > :18:23.Parliament to play in. The act only lifted a few exemptss about what
:18:23. > :18:26.the Scottish Parliament would not be able to legislate for and left
:18:26. > :18:32.it open. This has drawn the boundaries extremely widely and
:18:32. > :18:36.they're far reaching. The judgment made it clear. I imagine while
:18:36. > :18:41.obviously the Scottish Nationalists might not like some of the language,
:18:41. > :18:46.this idea of a reasonable test, they might rather welcome. There's
:18:46. > :18:50.something in this which they might not welcome though. It can't be co-
:18:50. > :18:55.incidental that this evening, the Scottish affairs committee in
:18:55. > :18:58.Westminster has issued two inquiries of its own about the
:18:58. > :19:03.referendum on independence. There's a line in there as well. We have to
:19:03. > :19:13.leave it there. We don't have time for the papers tonight. That's all
:19:13. > :19:15.
:19:15. > :19:19.Hello there. We have a residue of cold air in Scotland and north-east
:19:19. > :19:23.England. A bit chilly here first thing. But milder elsewhere under
:19:23. > :19:27.the cloud. For most of us it is a grey start. The cloud tends to lift
:19:27. > :19:31.and thin. Any rain and drizzle petering out. Some of us seeing
:19:31. > :19:36.sunshine. It looks like it will be cloudy across northern England, but
:19:36. > :19:39.drier in the afternoon. Not as chilly as it was today. Brightening
:19:39. > :19:41.aup cross East Anglia. Not much sunshine through the Midlands or
:19:41. > :19:44.the south-east. Through the West Country that could be a favoured
:19:44. > :19:49.spot to see sunshine in the afternoon. For most of the day
:19:49. > :19:52.Devon and Cornwall could be cloudy. Drizzle for a while over the moors.
:19:52. > :19:56.For Wales, the north coast and maybe the marches could see
:19:56. > :19:59.sunshine during the afternoon. It should be dry as well. It's been a
:19:59. > :20:03.better day in Northern Ireland. Again, it should be dry tomorrow
:20:03. > :20:08.with some sunshine, especially near the north coast. Some of the
:20:08. > :20:12.sunniest weather around the Murray Firth and Aberdeenshire. Generally
:20:12. > :20:16.cloud yay cross Scotland, but not as cold as it has been.
:20:16. > :20:20.Temperatures rising over the next few days to 17 degrees.
:20:20. > :20:24.Further south, we will see a lot of cloud on Thursday. Not much
:20:24. > :20:28.sunshine. Better chance of seeing sunshine on Friday. As the cloud
:20:28. > :20:32.breaks up as we introduce drier continental air. Sunshine