Browse content similar to 17/10/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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choice for our family and for the Tonight on Newsnight Scotland, the | 0:00:05 | 0:00:10 | |
former Rangers owner Craig Whyte, silent for months, speaks out on | 0:00:10 | 0:00:12 | |
why the club collapsed, who was to blame and why they did not pay | 0:00:12 | 0:00:19 | |
their taxes. And the grim economic figures. The economy is shrinking | 0:00:19 | 0:00:24 | |
and the unemployment rate rises while the UK average falls. Why? | 0:00:24 | 0:00:30 | |
Good evening. He bought the club for �1 and then they went into | 0:00:30 | 0:00:33 | |
administration. Much of the downfall of the club has been | 0:00:33 | 0:00:39 | |
levelled at Craig Whyte. He has given the BBC's version of events | 0:00:39 | 0:00:47 | |
in a exclusive interview. Before we see Craig Whyte, I am sure a lot of | 0:00:47 | 0:00:51 | |
viewers when they watch this, they will think that it looks rather odd | 0:00:51 | 0:00:57 | |
like he had just seen a ghost. Is that just him rather than this | 0:00:57 | 0:01:02 | |
interview? He is an interesting character. He is not comfortable | 0:01:02 | 0:01:07 | |
talking to the media and to a television camera. We will see that | 0:01:07 | 0:01:12 | |
in the interview. Probably it is an indication of how desperate he was | 0:01:12 | 0:01:17 | |
to get his message across. He will come across like that and people | 0:01:17 | 0:01:23 | |
will be surprised. Sometimes he looks surprised and even shifty. He | 0:01:23 | 0:01:27 | |
is not comfortable talking to the media, or talking to television | 0:01:27 | 0:01:32 | |
cameras. But it is an indication of perhaps how desperate he was, to | 0:01:32 | 0:01:39 | |
say what he had to save. What do you think he was trying to achieve? | 0:01:39 | 0:01:45 | |
I am not saying he achieved it but what do you think? I genuinely | 0:01:45 | 0:01:48 | |
think that Craig Whyte thinks that he will go down in the history | 0:01:48 | 0:01:54 | |
books as the bogeyman of Rangers. People will point to him as the man | 0:01:54 | 0:01:58 | |
that brought them to their knees. He is keen to put the record | 0:01:58 | 0:02:02 | |
straight. Will he be convincing? Has he done enough? We can take a | 0:02:02 | 0:02:12 | |
0:02:12 | 0:02:18 | ||
Very exciting, yes. I am pleased with the match today. Craig Whyte | 0:02:18 | 0:02:23 | |
marched down Edmondson drive to a hero's welcome after months of | 0:02:23 | 0:02:27 | |
uncertainty and the troubled club had finally got a buyer. But the | 0:02:27 | 0:02:37 | |
0:02:37 | 0:02:38 | ||
euphoria did not last long. It is now a better fight... In February, | 0:02:38 | 0:02:43 | |
administration. What happened. Time for an explanation. We can start | 0:02:43 | 0:02:50 | |
with the over funding. He had been assured that the cash was not | 0:02:51 | 0:02:58 | |
coming from season ticket revenue. We were selling tickets... Is there | 0:02:58 | 0:03:03 | |
not something morally wrong with selling on tickets that have not | 0:03:03 | 0:03:08 | |
yet been bought in order to fund the takeover of the club when he | 0:03:08 | 0:03:12 | |
will not willing to put your money in? That would be like me saying | 0:03:12 | 0:03:19 | |
that I want to buy Rangers, would it not? You could have done that if | 0:03:19 | 0:03:25 | |
you had been interested. But there is not any difference between an | 0:03:25 | 0:03:33 | |
overdraft and loans. I am using a method, like Ticketus. But is that | 0:03:33 | 0:03:40 | |
not morally wrong? You are using other people's money. But how do | 0:03:40 | 0:03:46 | |
you service debt? It is like servicing an overdraft and a loan. | 0:03:46 | 0:03:49 | |
It is money coming in from ticket sales and their is nothing wrong | 0:03:49 | 0:03:55 | |
whatsoever. By its these tickets have not yet been sold. That was | 0:03:55 | 0:03:58 | |
cash in the pockets of supporters that have not yet bought their | 0:03:58 | 0:04:03 | |
season tickets. You are assuming that they were going to buy these | 0:04:03 | 0:04:09 | |
tickets. You are using cash still in their pockets to buy the club. | 0:04:09 | 0:04:16 | |
That is like a bank with a debt facility. The club and Craig Whyte | 0:04:16 | 0:04:20 | |
succumbed to administration when he failed to pay PAYE and VAT. But | 0:04:20 | 0:04:29 | |
why? What happened? In September, October, when the club were out of | 0:04:29 | 0:04:34 | |
the European competitions, we had been banking on the Europa League | 0:04:34 | 0:04:38 | |
for part of our income. In September and October we realised | 0:04:38 | 0:04:43 | |
that we were going to run out of cash. And again if you go back to | 0:04:43 | 0:04:49 | |
that time, look at the outcome at a roundabout October and November, | 0:04:49 | 0:04:55 | |
which at the same time was up until January, it was impossible to put | 0:04:55 | 0:05:01 | |
more money into the club and raise more money from any sources. Yes, | 0:05:01 | 0:05:05 | |
fine but let's wait and see what the outcome of the case is but it | 0:05:05 | 0:05:11 | |
was impossible to raise any more money. That was a factor? | 0:05:11 | 0:05:18 | |
decision that I was facing in October was to raise money from | 0:05:18 | 0:05:26 | |
somewhere and who is going to lend and a back-up company? That was the | 0:05:26 | 0:05:31 | |
first choice and the tax was going up. The tax bill was going up. If | 0:05:31 | 0:05:36 | |
you're not paying PAYE and VAT, how are you expecting to be an | 0:05:36 | 0:05:44 | |
attractive prospect if that is going up? The club had no money. | 0:05:44 | 0:05:51 | |
tax paid and a bigger tax bill, the big tax case, from the club's | 0:05:51 | 0:05:56 | |
controversial tax avoidance scheme in the 1990s. The case was so big | 0:05:56 | 0:06:00 | |
in fact that Craig Whyte said that those at the very top did their | 0:06:00 | 0:06:07 | |
best to plead their case. Worst case scenario, they said, �50 | 0:06:07 | 0:06:11 | |
million and 10 years to pay it. Then at Rangers would not give in | 0:06:11 | 0:06:16 | |
to administration. That was a conversation HMRC were not prepared | 0:06:16 | 0:06:22 | |
to have and I tried everything to get them to do that. Even to the | 0:06:22 | 0:06:25 | |
extent of getting prominent politicians involved to speak to | 0:06:25 | 0:06:32 | |
them at the highest level. Which politicians? Alex Salmond tried to | 0:06:32 | 0:06:42 | |
speak to HMRC early on and we spoke to the head guy at HMRC but they | 0:06:42 | 0:06:45 | |
would not come to any arrangement. Alex Salmond was pleading the | 0:06:45 | 0:06:52 | |
ranges case? As other people were. They said that he was duped? Was | 0:06:52 | 0:07:01 | |
he? He was not. I am not quite sure what he thinks he was duped about. | 0:07:01 | 0:07:05 | |
But the agreement mentioned season- ticket funding. It mentioned the | 0:07:05 | 0:07:10 | |
use of third-party funding. It goes into great detail about insolvency | 0:07:10 | 0:07:13 | |
events and starting a new company and everything that would happen | 0:07:13 | 0:07:20 | |
when it was set up. I did not quite understand why he said that. And to | 0:07:20 | 0:07:24 | |
the new guy, Charles Green's consortium is in charge, brought in | 0:07:24 | 0:07:30 | |
by the administrators. Or were they? I went out and found the | 0:07:30 | 0:07:39 | |
buyer. You did? I found be by myself and nobody was coming | 0:07:39 | 0:07:45 | |
forward and we went out and used our contacts in the City to put it | 0:07:45 | 0:07:50 | |
across. You got Charles Green to the table? Absolutely right, yes. | 0:07:50 | 0:07:54 | |
As you would expect, the administrators have hit back. They | 0:07:54 | 0:07:58 | |
said the allegations are false, malicious and without foundation. | 0:07:58 | 0:08:02 | |
Charles Green has released a statement saying that it had no | 0:08:02 | 0:08:05 | |
previous association with Craig Whyte and it was misleading to | 0:08:05 | 0:08:11 | |
suggest that he brought us in. Glasgow Rangers, founded in 1872 | 0:08:11 | 0:08:15 | |
and taken to the brink in 2012. The most troubling period in the club's | 0:08:15 | 0:08:23 | |
history. Who is to blame? You have got to look at where the problems | 0:08:23 | 0:08:29 | |
started. What caused this chain of events. The cause of this was the | 0:08:29 | 0:08:34 | |
ruinous scheme which was in operation for 10 years. If it had | 0:08:34 | 0:08:39 | |
not been all that, then the club would not have been sold for �1. | 0:08:39 | 0:08:43 | |
The club would have been able to get proper funding. Even looking | 0:08:43 | 0:08:47 | |
back to the previous board before I was involved, they could have | 0:08:48 | 0:08:52 | |
battened down the hatches. They could have got rid of the debt | 0:08:52 | 0:08:56 | |
themselves. They could have built up a surplus of cash to deal with | 0:08:56 | 0:09:00 | |
the tax issues and beaches not to do that and buried their heads in | 0:09:00 | 0:09:05 | |
the sand and did not deal with them. You think that is to blame? And the | 0:09:05 | 0:09:11 | |
previous board. What part did he play in his downfall? I did not | 0:09:11 | 0:09:14 | |
think I... I was, if you like driving the train when it crashed | 0:09:14 | 0:09:21 | |
but I was not the one that set it on its path. But he made mistakes? | 0:09:21 | 0:09:29 | |
Foreshore. You like? Might would not say that I lied. I certainly | 0:09:29 | 0:09:37 | |
made mistakes. I would not necessarily say that I lied. I | 0:09:37 | 0:09:41 | |
should have been more open about the funding arrangements and how | 0:09:41 | 0:09:47 | |
dire things work. I deeply regret not being more open about that. | 0:09:47 | 0:09:53 | |
am joined by the associate editor of the Daily Record, Jim Traynor. | 0:09:53 | 0:09:58 | |
Does that improve your opinion of Craig Whyte? If you while on a | 0:09:58 | 0:10:04 | |
train make sure he is not driving it, I think. I have no idea why he | 0:10:04 | 0:10:09 | |
has broken cover and put himself back in the spotlight. Because | 0:10:09 | 0:10:14 | |
people were not exactly forgetting about him. But now he is back in | 0:10:14 | 0:10:17 | |
the headlines and the papers will be full of things after this | 0:10:17 | 0:10:23 | |
programme. I do not understand. You have to ask what his agenda is. Why | 0:10:23 | 0:10:31 | |
is he coming back into prominence at this time? I find it astonishing. | 0:10:32 | 0:10:36 | |
Some of the things he said, the ABT era comes down to David Murray. But | 0:10:36 | 0:10:42 | |
it was not that and the use of that scheme that closed Rangers. It was | 0:10:42 | 0:10:48 | |
because Craig Whyte had a fraudulent -- flawed business plan. | 0:10:48 | 0:10:56 | |
That is why they had to be put into administration. The argument was | 0:10:56 | 0:11:01 | |
that actually David Murray and his mates set the train in motion. If | 0:11:01 | 0:11:04 | |
they had not known something was wrong it would not have been sold | 0:11:04 | 0:11:10 | |
to him for �1. The bank will tonight and David Murray will do | 0:11:10 | 0:11:13 | |
night but I did not think that there was much doubt that there was | 0:11:13 | 0:11:18 | |
pressure to sell but he did not have to sell. David Murray is | 0:11:18 | 0:11:22 | |
culpable if the tax case was against Rangers. It would not | 0:11:22 | 0:11:26 | |
matter in the end anyway because that company does not exist and the | 0:11:26 | 0:11:29 | |
Inland Revenue will not get any money anyway because that company | 0:11:29 | 0:11:35 | |
has closed. The ranges debt was down for about �18 million at the | 0:11:35 | 0:11:40 | |
time it was given to Craig Whyte. - - Rangers Football Club debt. They | 0:11:40 | 0:11:46 | |
were comfortable with that debt. Craig Whyte immediately, the debt | 0:11:46 | 0:11:49 | |
started to go back up and David Murray of course is comfortable | 0:11:49 | 0:11:59 | |
0:11:59 | 0:12:01 | ||
with ABT. -- culpable. There has been a lot of speculation about the | 0:12:01 | 0:12:08 | |
tendencies... I think that has been... By but he did get an easy | 0:12:08 | 0:12:14 | |
ride. David Murray was criticised. I think that there is a myth | 0:12:14 | 0:12:19 | |
suggesting he was never criticise. He went through a period where he | 0:12:19 | 0:12:23 | |
would not speak to people and in my case for four years when I was | 0:12:23 | 0:12:26 | |
previously at the Herald because I had written something he did not | 0:12:26 | 0:12:33 | |
like. At not get an easy ride. Quite a lot of fans are quite happy | 0:12:33 | 0:12:37 | |
to say that nobody bothered Rangers football club. It is actually a | 0:12:37 | 0:12:43 | |
myth. David Murray was criticised. You could criticise him as well for | 0:12:43 | 0:12:49 | |
12 years for running out of debt. That was ridiculous. �12 million | 0:12:49 | 0:12:55 | |
for one player. Absolute scandal. But that debt was reduced to �80 | 0:12:55 | 0:13:05 | |
0:13:05 | 0:13:13 | ||
Lying and misleading people? It's strange, I asked Craig several | 0:13:13 | 0:13:18 | |
times about the ticket deal. Denied it. I asked him several times about | 0:13:18 | 0:13:23 | |
not paying PAYE, denied. It everything was fine. So, I mean, | 0:13:23 | 0:13:27 | |
Craig would probably deny I asked him these questions. I'm sure I | 0:13:27 | 0:13:32 | |
wasn't the only one. I just find it... It's difficult to, you know, | 0:13:32 | 0:13:36 | |
you listen to Craig, you talk to him, he is plausible. He always has | 0:13:36 | 0:13:42 | |
an answer. But, you know, you think - why on earth would you buy a club | 0:13:42 | 0:13:47 | |
that no-one else is touching because of the potential tax | 0:13:47 | 0:13:53 | |
liability. Why would you buy it and not have enough money to run it. | 0:13:53 | 0:13:59 | |
want your view on the other claim by Craig Whyte that he introduced | 0:13:59 | 0:14:04 | |
Mr Greene to the club, Mr Greene is telling everyone that it is not | 0:14:04 | 0:14:08 | |
true. It certainly isn't a fair representation of what happened? | 0:14:08 | 0:14:15 | |
is saying that, Charles Greene is saying his capital came to him and | 0:14:15 | 0:14:19 | |
Ahmad came to him and said, would you get the deal through, run the | 0:14:19 | 0:14:23 | |
club and get it stable again. He says that. Craig Whyte is saying, | 0:14:23 | 0:14:29 | |
no, he introduced him to Duff and Phelps. Where he is slightly | 0:14:29 | 0:14:33 | |
correct. He probably introduced to one of the joint administrators. By | 0:14:33 | 0:14:38 | |
then Charles Greene was already in place. We will have to leave it | 0:14:38 | 0:14:42 | |
there. Thank you very much. Today has seen dismal news on the economy. | 0:14:42 | 0:14:45 | |
There has been a slew of bag figures, unemployment is up, | 0:14:45 | 0:14:50 | |
employment is down, Scotland is still in reetion. Scottish | 0:14:50 | 0:14:53 | |
unemployment has been running close to the same levels as the rest of | 0:14:53 | 0:14:57 | |
the UK. But over the summer the number of Scots seeking work rose | 0:14:57 | 0:15:02 | |
by 7,000 over the three months to the end of August. That is 8.2%. | 0:15:02 | 0:15:07 | |
The rest of the UK has faired better. 50,000 fewer people are | 0:15:07 | 0:15:13 | |
looking for work. That is a rate of 7.9%. Scotland's economic woes have | 0:15:13 | 0:15:17 | |
largely matched those of the wider UK. In the first quarter of this | 0:15:17 | 0:15:23 | |
year, GDP fell 0.2%. While new figures from April to June show it | 0:15:23 | 0:15:29 | |
fell by 0.4%. So in the four quarters from the middle of last | 0:15:29 | 0:15:37 | |
year to now Scotland's economy stood still. I'm joined now by the | 0:15:37 | 0:15:40 | |
economist Professor David Bell of Stirling University. Something is | 0:15:40 | 0:15:46 | |
happening here, isn't it? Frankly, none of it looks good? Doesn't look | 0:15:46 | 0:15:51 | |
that good. I hope it's temporary. It may be something to do with | 0:15:51 | 0:15:54 | |
something likelet Olympics. That the rest of the UK seems to have | 0:15:55 | 0:15:59 | |
moved ahead a little bit over the summer because we are comparing - | 0:16:00 | 0:16:03 | |
When you look at the regional figures, what struck me, actually | 0:16:03 | 0:16:07 | |
the biggest falls in unemployment were in places like the north-west | 0:16:07 | 0:16:14 | |
of England, Yorkshire, it wasn't London? Yes. It isn't London. The | 0:16:14 | 0:16:18 | |
start of the recession since 2008 Scotland did relatively well for | 0:16:18 | 0:16:25 | |
three years. It's starting to look as though it's dragging its... Many | 0:16:25 | 0:16:29 | |
of the indicators are looking that little bit worse than the rest of | 0:16:29 | 0:16:33 | |
the UK. That was my next question. In one of tomorrow's newspapers you | 0:16:33 | 0:16:38 | |
argue that the unemployment rate in Scotland and the UK is starting to | 0:16:38 | 0:16:43 | |
diverge. I wonder if we have enough data to say that for sure? I mean | 0:16:44 | 0:16:47 | |
unemployment now has been high here for a couple of months, it was | 0:16:47 | 0:16:54 | |
lower here for four or five months and above before that. Have we got | 0:16:54 | 0:16:59 | |
enough data to say it's a trend? I think this is a tentative | 0:16:59 | 0:17:04 | |
conclusion at the moment. For six months, or just the last few months, | 0:17:04 | 0:17:08 | |
isn't enough to establish whether this is the way we are going. It | 0:17:08 | 0:17:12 | |
doesn't look particularly good because, as I say, early on in the | 0:17:12 | 0:17:16 | |
recession, Scotland did establish quite a margin of lower | 0:17:16 | 0:17:21 | |
unemployment rate than the UK as a whole. Right. I also... I'm curious, | 0:17:21 | 0:17:26 | |
I always do rather question this idea, comparing Scotland to the UK | 0:17:26 | 0:17:32 | |
average, it seems to me, is it the argument more informative to look, | 0:17:32 | 0:17:35 | |
without saying Scotland isn't a nation, look at it compared with | 0:17:35 | 0:17:40 | |
other regions of the UK? If you do that, you find that the rate of | 0:17:40 | 0:17:47 | |
unemployment here is actually still lower than many other areas, | 0:17:47 | 0:17:51 | |
including London? Yes. Central London has a high unemployment rate. | 0:17:51 | 0:17:54 | |
Scotland is on many indicators around the middle. About bang on | 0:17:55 | 0:18:01 | |
the average, isn't it? It is. That is correct. It has been for some | 0:18:01 | 0:18:06 | |
time. Right. The other worrying thing though, I wonder if the GDP | 0:18:07 | 0:18:11 | |
figures tend to get to that as well, if there is a trend being | 0:18:11 | 0:18:16 | |
established here, it's might be that Scotland is recovering less | 0:18:16 | 0:18:21 | |
quickly? Yes. Yeah. What seems to be happening, in terms of output, | 0:18:21 | 0:18:27 | |
is that Scotland hasn't been hit as hard since the start of the | 0:18:27 | 0:18:33 | |
recession in production, in construction, but has been hit | 0:18:33 | 0:18:37 | |
particularly hard in the service sector and the finance services. | 0:18:37 | 0:18:42 | |
Scotland seems to have done relatively badly in terms of its | 0:18:42 | 0:18:47 | |
"government" output, which has hardly changed since the beginning | 0:18:47 | 0:18:54 | |
of the recession, but in the UK, as a whole, apparently it's grown by | 0:18:54 | 0:18:58 | |
around 5%. Which I find just difficult to believe. Right. There | 0:18:58 | 0:19:01 | |
is no obvious statistical thing like bfrts are included in the | 0:19:01 | 0:19:06 | |
figures for the UK, but not in Scotland? What they are trying to | 0:19:06 | 0:19:10 | |
measure is the output of the government sector and looking at | 0:19:10 | 0:19:15 | |
things like through put in the health service, the quality and | 0:19:15 | 0:19:18 | |
quantity of qualifications coming through schools. It's not | 0:19:18 | 0:19:22 | |
absolutely clear to me that England has established a huge advantage | 0:19:22 | 0:19:26 | |
relative to Scotland. You think there might be something wrong than | 0:19:26 | 0:19:30 | |
the figures? I'm a little concerned that might be part of the | 0:19:30 | 0:19:32 | |
explanation why apparently Scotland's output has fallen more | 0:19:32 | 0:19:37 | |
than the rest of the UK. Why should there be this particular problem? | 0:19:37 | 0:19:41 | |
We should stress here that, in the manufacturing industry production | 0:19:41 | 0:19:45 | |
has fallen, your argue tuplet has fallen by about the same across the | 0:19:45 | 0:19:51 | |
UK? Yes. Not particular about here, what is particular about here is | 0:19:51 | 0:19:56 | |
this business of services. Is there an explanation about that? In the | 0:19:56 | 0:19:59 | |
first instance the financial services sector, particularly | 0:19:59 | 0:20:04 | |
banking, was hit harder here and has recovered in London, in | 0:20:04 | 0:20:10 | |
particular, quite strongly since. That clearly is one driver of | 0:20:10 | 0:20:14 | |
better performance in the service sector than the rest of the UK. | 0:20:14 | 0:20:20 | |
There is this anomaly, I think, with government, which constitutes | 0:20:20 | 0:20:24 | |
22% of total output. It's very important. Thank you very much. A | 0:20:24 | 0:20:28 | |
important. Thank you very much. A look at tomorrow's front pages: the | 0:20:28 | 0:20:34 | |
Scotsman. Call for SNP to put off divisive NATO vote at its | 0:20:34 | 0:20:40 | |
conference. Leading MSP wants a party referendum on it, it says. | 0:20:40 | 0:20:45 | |
The Scottish Daily Mail. 100 Scots dumped on jobs junkpile every day, | 0:20:45 | 0:20:51 | |
that is its take on the unemployment figures. The Daily | 0:20:51 | 0:20:57 |