13/12/2011 Newsnight Scotland

Tonight in Newsnight Scotland, as the fall-out from David Cameron's

veto continues, we will ask the Scottish Secretary if the decision

is an early Christmas present for Alex Salmond. And it has raised the

hackles in the capital, now the United Nations are called in to

examine the Edinburgh trams product. -- project.

Before I ever -- fall-out from David Cameron's decision rumbles on.

But what about the relationship between Scotland and the rest of

Complicated things, relationships. David Cameron cut a lonely figure

in Europe. There were no cases they him. And back home, the welcome was

not much warmer. Officially, they may have kissed and made up, but

Nick Clegg's face said it all as he headed for Number 10 today. And it

may come as no surprise to find there were no plans on the back

from Alex Salmond either. It is totally irresponsible. He has

isolated himself from the rest of Europe just from we need help, and

we need to help Europe. Because it is 45% of our exports, we are

affected by it regardless of whether we are in it or not.

At least David Cameron has pleased some people. Tory Euro-sceptics are

delighted. His motivation is entirely about

internal politics. He is worried about Boris Johnson taking his job,

so he is sacrificing the lights and jobs of thousands of people for

this. -- livelihoods. The coalition may be patching up

his differences, but what about the relationship between Holyrood and

Westminster? This is not going to cause a break-

up of the UK. What it does do is it emphasises yet again a gulf between

a Scottish self-perception of and the way the UK sees the mistake --

sees the state as a whole. It gives another example where you could say

the UK has served Scotland's interest badly.

Alex Salmond shows -- says David Cameron's decision shows a lack of

respect. There are protocols, and he is

meant to consult the leaders of Scotland, Wales and Northern

Ireland about events in Europe. He did not do this. He did not even

consult his own deputy! He tour of the protocols in the UK. As yet he

demands them from the rest of Europe. The case is now

overwhelming for Scotland to find his own way to the heart of Europe.

Winner cannot be part of some little Englander mentality.

The union between the UK has been a long and sometimes fraught. But

will this week be the one that causes it to James?

I think 2000 11 has now seen these two very important moments, the SNP

victory in the Scottish parliament, a triumph that the architect of the

parliament had deemed impossible when it was set up, and Britain's

All England's detachment from Europe, and I think if you put

those two things together, you can see historians looking back and

seeing this as the year that began the break-up of a two unions.

So as Alex Salmond unveiled his Christmas card today, he may have

been wondering if David Cameron had already given him an early

Christmas present. I enjoyed by the Scottish secretary

Michael Moore. Does Alex Salmond have a case that he should have

been consulted before David Cameron exercise his veto?

The Scottish government has regular contacts with lots of different

departments of the UK government. On all matters in Europe, as there

is also institutional machinery where governments can come and talk

to one another. On this one, I believe that it was well trailed in

advance where this was likely to end up, where we were going to

discuss the key issues of financial services and the future of the

single market, so it would have been slightly uncharacteristic of

the First Minister did not set out in advance any concerns he had. It

has been interesting that hit it took him two or three days to set

out his particular concerns, and he did not actually say whether the

safeguards that the Prime Minister was seeking, which we in the

Liberal Democrats believes were perfectly reasonable, were the

right ones, not least because there are over 100,000 jobs in financial

services in Scotland, which we are determined to protect. We have said

this was the wrong outcome, and we are determined at have to make a

real effort to make sure we are not isolated. That is not good for

Britain, not good for Scotland. We will make sure that we work harder

a coalition partners and we are at every council meeting fighting

Scotland and the UK's case. You are saying Alex Salmond had

every opportunity to make his views known it because it was known that

David Cameron was going to raise these issues about financial

services, and it was likely that we he would end up exercising a veto?

Far from that being the case, Nick Clegg did not know he would

exercise a veto! I need to pick that but apart. The

safeguards that the Prime Minister had agreed with Nick Clegg, which

were to look at the impact of closer fiscal union are and what it

would have on the single market, which is hugely important as the

first minister said in his club there, 45% of UK exports go to the

eurozone. I cannot make any sense at all of what you have just said.

I say that Alex Salmond was consulted, should have been

consulted? To be frank, the issue is where the

UK as a whole is in relation to Europe. I still don't know whether

you think it Scottish government, as a federalist, did you not think

that having a slightly more consultative approach to these

matters would be as a matter of principle rather a good thing?

On key issues, on fisheries, which will be discussed this week, the

Scottish Fisheries Minister has been in very close discussions.

are not talking about fish. We're talking about a new treaty in the

European Union. The picture that is being presented is that the

Scottish government has got no way of making his views known to the UK

government. That is simply not the case. On the specifics here, the

First Minister has still not made it clear his position on whether or

not be safeguards for financial- services were ones that he wanted

himself. We have made it clear as Liberal Democrat we are not happy

with the outcome, but as we discussed in Cabinet today, what we

are making clear to everybody across government is that it is

even more important now that we work hard in the different beatings

across Europe to protect British and Scottish jobs. I was say it

again because it is absolutely vitally important for us that we do

not get isolated, because we are stronger together. We are stronger

together rather than apart from Europe. That would apply to

Scotland as well. The First Minister has not said how he will

answer the currency questions or indeed how he will negotiate his

way into the European Union, which will now have much tighter

requirements on currency and on spending. We have yet to see the

detail from him. Do you think the 26 members of the

European Union who have agreed to come up with some form of new Pat,

stability pact, should be allowed to use the institutions of the

European Union to negotiate and implement that?

Nick Clegg and the rest of us have said that if we -- it would be

wrong to suggest you could not use that. That is what David Cameron

has suggested. Let's see how that evolves. My own view is that it

will be a pragmatic requirements that those institutions are used.

Bear in mind, those institutions, the European institutions, are on

behalf of all members, including ourselves. That will keep Britain

in those discussions in a small way, it is important that we understand

what is going on. But more broadly, in all the other meetings, whether

it is fisheries or single market concerns next week. Britain has to

be strongly represented. That is You appear to be saying the outcome

of the summit was bad for Britain. That you as Liberal Democrats don't

agree that David Cameron should have wielded his veto in the way he

did and left Britain isolated, but the main problem is that this

Government of Scotland and indeed the Welsh Government has echoed

Alex Salmond's concern, shouldn't have been consulted even though you

are a federalist, and you think there should be a more consul

Taytive proprocess going on. You don't agree with what David Cameron

did but you don't like Alex Salmond disagreeing with it. That is not

what I was saying. Not at all what I suggested in my earlier remarks.

What I am saying is the First Minister has not been short of

opportunities to make his own views clear in advance of any summit of

what believes are important from his perspective of the Scottish

Government, as the Scottish Secretary in the UK Government,

that is also my responsibility, all of us across Government need to

look out for Scotland and the UK's interests, and we are... We are

running out of time. We continue to work with the Scottish Government

on important matters such as fisheries. What do you think David

Cameron should have done in Brussels? Our view was that he, the

veto should not have been wielded. We should not have walked away, we

should have kept at the table and kept talking. OK. Sorry. I am not

sure any cabinet ministers said that apart from yourself. We will

have to leave it there. Thank you Michael Moore. Now, the Edinburgh

trams project has been a source of controversy but few perhaps could

have foreseen the United Nations being called in to mediate. A

committee will sit down in Geneva to pick over the council's hand

ofrlg the scheme the case has been brought by campaigners who means it

has brought higher pollution levels in residential areas. Here is our

transport correspondent. The kam campaigners argue the new tram line

has pushed traffic away from the capital's streets which were

designed to carry the highest volume of lorries and cars. Princes

Street and Haymarket among them. They say thousands of extra

vehicles are using residential streets instead. Pollution levels

in central Edinburgh are closely monitored by the City Council, but

some residents fear their health is at risk. They argue their concerns

simply haven't been taken seriously enough by the city's authorities.

You can see we are monitoring continuously the inner two levels.

The parts per million. campaigners have little faith in

the council's statistics. They have installled their own equipment to

assess the impact diverting traffic away from the tram Ruth and into

residential areas. They are not just worried about increased

pollution, they are worried about more noise pollution too. We can

core late the noise of traffic with the pollution and the traffic type.

It is claimed a detailed picture eis merging which shows there is

real cause for concern. The centre is a small place and people live

and work close together what this policy does is take the commercial

traffic from the centre where it is often trying to deliver and puts it

through residential areas, that is more noise, more pollution. This

retired engineer has convinced the UN committee to examine the

council's handling of the project, under the terms of the

convenshurpbgs designed to strengthen the public's voice on

environmental matters. Our message is we haven't been fairly treated.

We haven't been given the opportunity to present case to a

third party, and independent third party with the council are acting

as judge and jury. In a statement, The tram project is at last making

progress. After the contract eventual dispute which brought work

to a stand-still was resolved. Trams are being tested on the

stretch of track at the network's depot near the airport. But on

Thursday, the focus will be on the Palace of justice in Geneva, where

the hearing will take place. A reminder if it were needed of the

strong feelings still aroused by this controversial project. I am

joined by Dr Ashley Lloyd. He is one of those who will present the

case at the committee in Geneva on Thursday. Let us say you go there

and make a terrific case, what are you hoping to achieve by this?

perhaps it is worth pointing out some of the things you said in your

film aren't disputed. There has been a displacement of traffic,

there has been an increase in pollution levels in residential

area, and in fact the current position of the council is to built

the entire line, and the analysis of that by the council's own

reports has been that some 139 500 households would be affected by

worse air and noise pollution, so this is not really disputed, we are

not disputing there is displacement. We are not disputing there will be

worse air pollution and noise, we are disputing how much that is

going to be. But I come back to this point. If you make a good case,

what can this UN committee do that would help your case? Well the UN

committee recognises that in environmental matterers it is

important to engage with the communities directly affected. This

is true about everything from building a river, a road, to

building a nuclear power station. The particular pillars of the

convention are about freedom of access to information, about real

participation and decision making and access to justice. In this

particular case, what we are struggling with is access to

information. I think that has been something that has bedevilled the

project from the beginning, it is hard to get access to what the

underlying assumptions are about the business case, what the

assumptions are about the impact in other communities and exposing that

and making that access to believe the general public to understand it

in terms of what is going to happen. Can you see the other side of this?

A lot of people say this is getting ludicrous, a council diverts

traffic down your street you don't want it, it edsr ends up at the

United Nations, think of the imply care, every decision a council

takes, every decision about building a new road as you have

said, dualing the A9, whatever, we could end up spending lots of

public money having cases at a UN committee in Geneva. I have to say

it is not ant one street. It is about 139, 500 households. That is

not small this is not a small issue. The underlying prince pelpl is we

have more openness we can be involved in improving the design of

this system. One of the problems has been simply we haven't had

access to those models. The traffic models so we have had to work hard

to build the data ourselves. will have to leave it there. Thank

you for joining us. A look at tomorrow's front-pages. Scotsman

leads on more economic woes. High street woe as retail sales suffer

record slump. Europe and some of the other papers. The Thymes say

Cameron faces new Euro revolt o euro volt in weeks. Then on the

right James Murdoch was sent e-mail on hacks. Cracks I merge in the EU

Treaty agreement, warnings come from several Governments. And again,

a News of the World story on the front of the independent. That is

all we have time for. I will be back tomorrow, until then, from all

Some pretty serious weather in the forecast, particularly come the end

of the week. Overnight tonight it is cold, it is showery in some

places and that will be the theme as we go through the day. Some of

the showers falling as snow. Not just over the high ground in the

north. Anywhere could encounter a flake of snow as we go through the

day. Some place also see a lot of sunshine mid afternoon but others

will see one or two lively showers. Some wintry showers too, maybe down

to low levels but southern coastal areas are most prone to seeing

heavy thundery showers. Some hail and a gusty bind. Even in the

south-west we could see snow up over the Moors. It will feel cold

everywhere. Some places will see sunshine, temperatures round 5C,

when the showers come along they will fall away. It is not all bad

news. For Northern Ireland there will be plenty of sunshine. Some

showers affecting some northern and western parts of Scotland, but the

further south and east after a showery start things will tend to

dry out. On Thursday some sunshine for a time. The rain clouds will be

gathering in the south-west there is a lot of uncertainty about what

happens after that, because the low pressure system winding itself up

down to the south-west is not sure which way to go, and there is the

potential for very very nasty weather. We could well see severe