21/02/2012 Newsnight Scotland

Tonight on Newsnight Scotland, in a dramatic development in the Rangers

saga, it emerges Craig Whyte used money from advance season-ticket

sales in his takeover of the club. He claims he has done nothing

illegal, and says he will not resign as chairman. Where does it

leave Rangers and previous claims from Mr Whyte about how he bought

the club? Tonight, there is more clarity on

what has been going on for Rangers. Since the club went into

administration, a chorus of voices have been demanding to know what

happened to millions of pounds raised by selling the rights to

future season tickets to a country -- a company called Ticketus. Both

Craig Whyte and the administrators said it was used as part of the

takeover. There is some flash photography in this piece.

In a statement issued this afternoon, Mr Whyte says the deal

with Ticketus was initially made to provide working funds to keep

Rangers going. But it then says the Ticketus deal was used to complete

the takeover. He says he, not the club, is on the line for the money.

I gave ticket as personal and Minutes later, they stayed banned

from the administrators suggested the Ticketus money was used to pay

The administrators added that they were still trying to find that what

happened to the best of the money. -- find out. Mr Whyte also gave his

take on the non-payment of taxes, which appears to have prompted the

tax authorities to appoint an He goes on to add that in the so-

called big tax case, with potential liabilities in excess of �50

million, he also offered HMRC �2.5 million a year payment. Again, he

says this has been rejected. Craig Whyte also suggests he would

consider handing most of its shares And he says whatever happens, his

So, some clarity, but, as with so much of this, today's developments

will raise as many questions as answers will stop our correspondent

Mark Daly has reported extensively on this.

He is with us to give his take. The plot thickens. Hot on the heels

of the state than from Craig Whyte, which seemed to depose moors

questions than it answered, Rangers administrators delivered the

bombshell. The Ticketus money was used to pay the debt to Lloyds

Banking Group. Mr Whyte says he secured this deal personally, and

fans would not lose out. But Ticketus say they own large amounts

of future ticket sales, and if the club avoids of the list -- avoid

liquidation, the money will come to them, making Rangers less

attractive to a buyer. Craig Whyte says he had -- says he wishes he

had been more transparent. But three weeks ago, given that the

opportunity to respond to claims he had used the Ticketus of money to

But Mr Whyte only paid a nominal fee of �1 for the club. He would

hire -- he would hardly need the Ticketus money for that. It but his

purchase was conditional on acquiring that �80 million of debt,

which was immediate be paid off. So today's disclosure means it was

effectively the fans that paid off the debt, which allowed the deal to

go through. It was this issue that prompted former chairman Alastair

Johnson to ask the Insolvency Service to investigate whether

company law was broken. Mr Wei's angry denial appears to be

in grave doubt. -- Mr Whyte's. We now await the next announcement

from the administrators, for whom the Craig Whyte fought hard to have

appointed. By their own admission, their staff have been involved with

Rangers before the takeover, so why did they not already know of this

arrangement before today? Joining me his Jim Traynor from the

Daily Record, and in our Edinburgh studio, Stephen Morrow.

I am sure many people will think that the phrase you could not make

this stuff up was invented for this?

I do not think anybody expected Craig Whyte to issue a statement. I

think it was a bit naive and a bit desperate. The it did not say a lot,

apart from the fact that he is admitting he used the Ticketus

money, something he had been denying all along, to fund the club.

I think he was badly advised to issued a statement, I think he

should have been looking at what the administrators are doing, what

they are recovering, because their statement is saying that legally,

he used the Ticketus money to fund the club. They may be a bridge of

the law here, and I think that is what financial and corporate

experts will be looking at. It really is very strange. To say

things like I will give to the fans the shares, my shareholding, they

own them anyway, because apparently they have paid for them! That is

what some others have argued all along. Nothing Craig Whyte says

today changes that. Stephen, are you satisfied that if

we put together Craig Whyte's statement with the statement from

the administrators, it is clear now that the Ticketus money was used as

part of the takeover? There is no doubt about that. The

administrators are pretty expensive on that. It does not need to say

very much on that. -- pretty explicit.

Dennis not necessarily anything illegal in that. Apart from the

fact it is not what they were saying before.

Yes, it is completely inconsistent, but we know that other football

clubs do deals of this nature, sell their season ticket in advance when

they are trading normally, so there is nothing wrong with doing that,

but I think the issue is one of transparency at the extent to what

state this information was withheld. I think there is a problem.

Normally these deals would be for �5 million to tide you over till

the end of the season. But to to do it over three or four years because

you cannot repay the first one, and apart from that, for the next three

seasons after this one, Ticketus will have a the first 60% of all

Rangers' season tickets. Normally it is only 25%.

For a lot of fans will be watching this. Let's try get some answers.

How do we explain the fact that Craig Whyte says that he has got

guarantees for �27.5 million. What is the difference between that and

the income plus VAT? Is that a commissioner that Ticketus would

have earned? One would assume so, because they

are lending money up front, and there is a risk associated with

that. The other thing is that when he

says, and I quote, that he gave Ticketus a personal and corporate

guarantees, and then he later says he is on the line for 27. Million -

- �27.5 million it guarantees that cash, what does that mean?

It is not at all clear. You think some of that is still secured

Against part of the company, but he also says that is not the case, and

he talks about his personal guarantee and cash. It is very

unclear. For what he talks in a statement about being more

transparent, this statement itself is not very transparent. It raises

more questions than answers. There is one area, at least where I

understand it, the Craig Whyte statement is not consistent with

the administrators. He seems to imply that any of the Ticketus not

used to pay off debt was used for working capital, whereas the

administrators say the money that was not given to Lloyds Bank to pay

off the debt, they seem to imply they do not know what happened to

I think that is right. They have not qualified that, possibly

because they have not had time to go through all the transactions, or

maybe because that money is not available to them, they do not have

transparency on that. We know that working capital means that it

allows a completed continued to trade on a day-to-day basis, but it

can mean different things... Jim, there has been a certain

congruence between this and what Craig Whyte has been saying so

far... Many of the administrators that Craig Whyte wanted to break in

-- bring into a minister this process, there seems to be this

difference of opinion, and it will not be a surprise to discover that

the administrators are obliged to pass on some of the findings to the

police authorities. Because their needs now to be an investigation.

Stephen, there needs to be -- the other issue was the current tax

bill, not the big tribunal case, but tax owed over the previous

period. Craig Whyte seems outraged by the fact that HMIC would not do

a deal, but would you normally been a situation where you are business,

and you are is expected to hand over PAYE that you have collected,

would you normally think we can do a deal with this rather than for

the tax authorities to say, no, you pay this as a matter of course?

Affect normal process would be that you pay those obligations...

Otherwise we would all be trying this! Yes, it is on the when one

gets into financial difficulties, one is that the position of

thinking about doing deals. But I think it is not quite clear,

because some part of the comments made last week when there was talk

about going into administration, and then when they were put into

administration, there is not consistency around what Mr Whyte is

saying about any of this. Also you have to remember that age MIC

offered by deal, and Craig Whyte except the �4 million tax bill

would have been... Jim, what do you make of this idea

that he would hand his shares to some corporate,... It probably

strikes the right note with the supporters, but I think it will not

happen. They own the shares anyway because they pay for them. Stephen?

I am not sure what the technical position is, whether he is able to

do that? The focus is of course on the creditor, but if you think

about the real asset, is the right to play football, and that remains

with the owners of the shares. But it strikes me that his -- he is

almost like, surprised by the reaction to what has gone on. And

it is some sort of sop to that supporters, who will be looking at

this and thinking it is a number of years' season tickets.

Thank you very much indeed. There are major concerns that the

standard of Scottish education is falling behind other education

systems in the world. No one knows why, but most experts agree reform

is needed. The quality of teacher training is one issue policy makers

are trying to tackle, and Glasgow University have decided to try

something new. They have paired up with a high school in Ayrshire to

test a new way of training the next generation of teachers. Critics

worry it will bring even more stress into an already stressed

education system. It is not just pupils were a

learned here at Irvine Royal Academy. This class is being run by

a student teacher, and forms part of her teacher training. This is

part of a new pilot, which on the face of it is not hugely different

to how it has been done before. But look more closely, walk -- looking

on are more student teachers. Gone are the lecture halls and short

practical placements - these students are going back to school

for their entire training here. many years we have been saying we

should maximise the time students have in schools learning the craft

of teaching. We welcome the impact of the -- the input of the

academics in the building, but teachers have been saying for a

long time, let us maximise the skin's' experience, and this model

will do that. There will be 35 student teachers and two lecturers

based here. The Education Minister Mike Russell visited them in their

lecture theatre. They will be told the theory here and applied -- and

they will apply it in their classrooms. The advantage is having

regular contract with other departments. Now I have contact

with other students who are teaching other things. I learn

about their experiences with other students. I think definitely you

can have a seminar then go and reflect on it and then put it into

practice. If you are at university, it is often four weeks before you

go into placement. If all of this sounds familiar, it is not that

different to how things used to be. The old Irvine Royal Academy --

Jordan held teaching college is just a stone's throw from the

college were the students got their practical experiences. But the

unions are still voicing concerns. The EIS worries what will happen to

the pupils and its members. It is also concerned about the stress put

on schools having to deal with so many student teachers. The way the

model works is, each department will only have one or two students,

and that will be the normal model under the old system. The

difference is they have lots to do at the same time, and therefore

from the point of view of the teacher and the Department and the

school, their money is no difference.

Irvine Royal Academy is the first to become an official part the

scheme with a Glasgow University, but the Education Minister believes

this is a model that can be adopted throughout Scotland. I have no

doubt we will see this across Scotland at some stage in the near

future. It is harder to get the critical mass, I think did you hear

is that the critical mass is about 35 students. It will be harder in

rural areas, but I think it can be done.

The idea comes from America, and Dustin averse to hopes it will

improve the quality of teacher training and make students better

equipped for the classroom. Early pilots in Glasgow have been deemed

a success. There are things we need to work on and develop, but by and

large the students like it, the local authorities like it, the

pupils like it, and everybody seems to think it is a better model than

the one we had before. It will be some time before anyone

can measure what effect this new model of teacher training has on

education standards, but if this planet goes well, there is every

chance are the Scottish universities could follow Glasgow's

lead. A look at tomorrow's headlines.

White has promised to step aside and handling just over two fans

"ludicrous". I will be back tomorrow. Until then,

Good evening. Turning wet macro across the UK in the morning. The

wettest will be Northern Scotland and the Cumbrian fells, 50 to 100

mm of rain. Fast-flowing rivers as well. There will still be some

patchy night rain or drizzle, gusty winds, 50 miles an hour. The South

East and East Anglia stay dry, but a cool day to come. Temperatures

only nine or ten Celsius. After a reasonably dry Stark, the south-

west and Wales will seek rain. Northern Ireland, rain on and off.

Heaviest in the morning, patchy and light in the afternoon. 12-13

Celsius still possible, and even across Scotland 12-14 is likely.

The North East should get a little bit drier and brighter. Thursday,

not as wet across parts of north- west England and Scotland and

Northern Ireland, but generally cloud did on hills. England and