15/12/2011 Newsnight Scotland

struggle, with politics and arms, and perhaps even the break-up of

Tonight, this year has seen the SNP win a majority at Holyrood and the

UK government at loggerheads with Europe, so how have the events of

this year reshaped Scotland's relationship with the rest of the

UK and beyond? We have been to London to see the

charity Mark King 400 years of helping Scottish people are indeed

in the big smoke. 2011 has seen the political

landscape in Scotland transformed, few could have foreseen the scale

of the SNP's victory in the Holyrood elections. When the UK's

relations with Europe took a nosedive, did it mark the end of

the deer were Scotland's relations with Europe and beyond changed?

You might think it is easy, sitting there at home, to fill 20 minutes

of Newsnight, four days a week. Sometimes it is. For example, what

else could we do on the day the SNP won an overall majority of

Holyrood? What did we do for Our jaws dropped at the scale of

victory. Although not everybody was overwhelmed. We watched as the

Labour Party and Liberal Democrat defences fell one by one, and some

fell from view. No Tory cuts! Others wished they could disappear

from sight. That is not the real subway, it is a sandwich shop! The

election was the highlight of the year. It rewrote the rules of our

politics. It was reported around the world. The First Minister has

been giving the impression of being a head of state ever since. That is

him on the left! The surge of the nationalists have pulled the

support of other parties, and left them frustrated that it is Alex

Salmond who commands events. Hence the lobbying to fast-track the

referendum, because Unionists think they might win. The year ends with

profound questions hanging over the future shape of Scotland's

relationship with London and, increasingly, with Brussels. If the

SNP had been on a journey, that is more than can be said for the

Edinburgh trams. They stuttered and spluttered, and went into a series

of sidings named Dead End, illegal in past and, I will just take a

taxi. There was a coalition Kasper Schmeichel coalition when the

Supreme Court overruled the Scottish judicial system on the

rights of detainees. The Justice Minister blew his top. But he found

the scales weighted against them. But there was a kind of Scottish

schadenfreude when riots broke out in English cities. That allowed the

SNP to point out that did not happen here. Unkind critics said

that was because we had nothing left to burn. Throughout the year,

we lived in the shadow of sectarianism, with death threats,

letter bombs and attacks. But there is an attempt to bring people

together. A consultation on same- sex marriage, as opposed to civil

partnership. It portrayed the government as liberal and modern.

Until eight United religious based counter-attacked took fire and

still looms. There was what the protesters would call a proper day,

when Zara Phillips married the England rugby captain. What really

a highlight?! There was something approaching a good-news story, as

two pandas touchdown in Edinburgh as gifts from the Chinese

government. They showed they were up to speed with their new

environment by asking, have they finished the transit? -- trams yet?

Something of significance did not happen, again. Despite terminal

cancer and the country's revolution, the Lockerbie bomber remains alive

this Christmas. We were promised evidence of Libya's role in the

bombing, but so far, nothing new has emerged. We await a new Labour

leader this weekend. But the year ahead will be defined by how well

Alex Salmond retains his grip and convinces Scottish people that the

only way out of the cold of war austerity is a Yes in the

With me, Lorraine Davidson and Joyce and alone. -- Joyce McMillan.

There has been great excitement, trying to connect Alex Salmond's

desire for independence, and David Cameron's stance over Europe.

are right to be excited, the events of last Friday, what David Cameron

set in motion, potentially, has the capability of changing the nature

of the constitutional debate in Scotland. If you are one of the

two-thirds of Scottish people on convinced of the merits of

independence, the chances are that is based on the belief that you

like being part of the UK, you like the bigger firepower of the UK, the

status, won the European stage. If suddenly you find that the UK it is

Englander mentality, who is going to Brussels and sitting on the

sidelines, that does not seem like such an attractive proposition.

This has presented Alex Salmond... People who understand Europe, they

think it is a great opportunity for Alex Salmond. I am not sure if Alex

Salmond has grasped this, but it is one of his big challenges. Do you

think it was such a big thing? Maybe the practical implications

are not as big as some people are arguing, because any country which

is interested in having to its own sovereignty and its own way of

doing things is going to have difficulties with the face that

Europe is probably moving into, there has to be a much tighter

political and fiscal union, but I do think that it shows up a kind of

culture gap between Scotland and the Tory dominated England but we

are currently seeing reflected in the House of Commons. The attitudes

on the Tory backbenches in Westminster are, they are so

instinctively you refer bit and viscerally pleased to see the

European project running into trouble. Most Scottish people do

not have that kind of emotional negativity about it that a lot of

people in the Conservative Party in England seem to have a. It does

emphasise a culture gap between Scotland and England, and Alex

Salmond, if he is up to his game, he should be able to exploit it.

do not want to put a dampener on it, but there are a couple of obvious

things to say. That was a big story last week, in the mind of most

people in Britain, I wonder... The Euro-sceptics will try to campaign

for a referendum, and that could come to dominate the political

debate, but David Cameron walking out of Europe, will that be in

people's minds three weeks from now, never mind in a couple of years,

when there is a referendum on independence? Yes,... The practical

effects need not necessarily be that big. Britain is a major

country, we have had Angela Merkel... All it needs is fishing...

Of editing the impact of Scottish interests in Europe, we are not

seen to be building alliances. It looked as though David Cameron was

lost, he did not know what to do, he did not know how the mechanics

work, and it increases demands for Scottish ministers to be leading in

delegations, to be consulted Farmoor, for the GMC to be meeting

on Europe, but Alex Salmond also has to decide, is he going to go

for this debate right now, when the euro appears to be imploding and

Europe is a hard sell? Tony Blair was instinctively pro-European and

he balked at it. Does he hand back and lose this opportunity? He

should go for it, and he should be pushing to get meetings in Brussels,

to be at the forefront of this debate, but he also has these

inconsistencies. He wants to attack David Cameron for repatriating

powers, but he wants to do the same on fishing, he wants to argue

against a fiscal union in the UK, but getting involved in one in

Europe. He has got lots of fun on a loose -- lots of anomalies to sort

End a few weeks, it will be probable but what will be

dominating the news is another crisis in the eurozone rather than

a David Cameron keeping Britain out of a new treaty. You may be right

that Alex Salmond can develop and narrative, but it will not be

difficult for his opponents to develop and narrative to say that

small countries in Europe should not be aspiring to European Union.

Alex Salmond's opponents have not been developing any narratives.

the sake of an argument, what happens if they develop one? I do

not see much sign of that. The problems surrounding the eurozone

are so profound and so difficult to handle, there is not going to be

anybody who has a particularly clever answer to them. The debate

will be much more about the mood music. We will have to leave it

there. Thank you. When King James VI took the high

road to London and the English throne as James I, he began a long

tradition of Scots heading south. But then as now, not all of them

were able to find fortune in the English capital. That is why a

charity is marking 400 years of helping Scottish people in need in

London. Set up by Scots for Scots, it has enjoyed centuries of Royal

patronage and it is still at work today. From London, our

correspondent Kenneth Macdonald 75 years ago, it was easy to see

why the Calder the smoke -- why they called it ate the smoke. This

woman came to London from Blair are full in 1936. They used to go up to

Piccadilly Circus on New Year's Eve and have a whale of a time. Hail

fellow well met. Some Scots. For centuries, the lure of London has

proved irresistible. Many of them do well, but for the rest, who do

they turn to? ScotsCare is its modern name, but previously it was

called Royal Scottish Corporation. This is a Scots box, it dates back

to 16 at 11 and the foundation of the charity. -- Today's by 26011.

James VI brought many people down with them. Some of them fell on

hard times. The wealthier ones would contribute to this box.

corporation has picked up three will charities down the centuries.

It helps with people who are first and second generation Scots. I used

to be an addict. I wanted to put back into society at help the

community. I needed to get funding for the job I was going for.

Because I fitted all the criteria, we applied to ScotsCare and the

replied and gave me a home visit and gave me help. What were they

able to do for you? They have given me funding for an intensive driving

course. It means I can drive and get employment. I have actually got

a job. ScotsCare gave me the financial help I needed. Last year,

ScotsCare helped 1800 Scots. Perhaps in the past we created a

dependency culture. But we have started to shift from that. We are

now looking at individuals and saying, we want to help you back

into work or education. That is what we do now which is different

from the past. If somebody on a pension needs help, we might help

by giving them an element. And it lives in a cosy flat in London at

run by ScotsCare, or Royal Scottish Corporation as it was. When I lost

my husband, I had unhappy times with the flat I was in. And the

corporation gave the this lovely flat. I never thought that I would

need help. It was just the word there. And I knew that they would

have helped. But I never needed it. And when I needed to get, they

jumped to immediately. Happy, happy, happy. I want to be here and I want

to end my days in my own flat. I do not want to go to hospital or

anything. I know the man above it will grant be that. This is one

corner of a London police which is truly Scottish. But in this society,