10/06/2013 Newsnight Scotland

and the like? It has only just begun, it is the merchants of

shopping and people like shopping. Great numbers of children

Tonight on Newsnight Scotland: Iain Banks begins his journey on The Crow

Road. We remember the author who sparked new life into the Scottish

book scene, crisscrossing the traditional literary boundaries.

And for how long will Edinburgh's saunas continue to ply their trade?

There's concern that if police embark on a crackdown, prostitutes

will be forced on to the streets. The news that Iain Banks was

terminally ill shocked and saddened his fans. They expected news of his

death, one day, but not this soon. Unlike many great artists, he was

able to appreciate the loyalty and love expressed by his book lovers

before he died. They now wonder what else might he have penned? Andrew

Black looks at his life and work. I am getting all this love and

admiration now. It has been great to appreciate that I'm still alive.

Iain Banks was one of the countries most best loved novelists. His brand

of gritty fiction gripped readers for decades. Born in Dunfermline in

February 1954, he broke onto the writing scene 30 years later with

his debut novel. It told the story of a teenage multiple murderer and

was met with a mixture of critical acclaim and controversy. But other

Iain Banks novels were more accessible. In 1987, he released the

story of a burnt out rockstar set in a very real working-class area of

Paisley. I don't know where my part in all of this begins. It could have

been any one a dozen moments. But just for the sake of argument is, it

was the day my grandmother exploded. The author also enjoyed success on

screen. One of its hit novels was adapted for television by the BBC.

He was not just a good Scottish writer, he was one of the best Young

British novelists at one point. Among Scottish writers, he was seen

as one of our leading writers. It is clear to me that a novel like the

bridge is one of the most significant Scottish novels. He

started doing things with the Scottish vernacular. I can think of

many Scottish writers which haven't been influenced by his works.

often drew on personal experience. Usually with my mail Central

characters, they will be me but taller, more handsome and younger!

And more successful with the ladies! But Iain Banks didn't just write

tales of Scottish life, he also had a parallel career as a science

fiction author writing under the name Iain M Banks. Timmy -- to me,

that is a freedom in science fiction. A lot of the things that

are constants in mainstream suddenly become variables in science fiction.

The author 's contemporaries said it was this variety which made his

works were appealing. Iain Banks did so much. He did straight novels,

science-fiction novels, he and a fantastic imagination. They were

full of wonder and imagination. Each book was different, that was the

thrilling thing. Would it be a bizarre book about a young kid

growing up in Scotland? Would the fans -- fun to see? Would it be

science-fiction? Away from his books, Iain Banks also got involved

in politics and supported Scottish independence and campaigned against

the invasion of Iraq. This is me putting my face with my mouth has

been. In the end, it is about democracy. But it was his writing

which gave the author his highest profile. Throughout his life, Iain

Banks established himself not only as an original writer of Scottish

fiction but also muddle of Britain's celebrated authors,

achieving that thing that all artists strive for, mass-market

appeal and critical acclaim. Fans will hope that success continues

with his forthcoming final novel, the quarry, which happens to reflect

on the trauma of dealing with cancer. In April this year, fans

were shocked when using 2 billion Banks style black humour the author

announced on his blog he was dying of cancer, writing he was officially

very poorly and that he had asked his long-term partner to do the

honour of being his widow. At the weekend, came the news in a more

sombre tone that he had died calmly and without paying. In a BBC

interview shortly before his death the right to look back at his

achievements. I have had a brilliant life, basically. Including the News

of the cancer, I have been more lucky than unlucky. I have written

29 bucks and I'm leaving a substantial body of work behind me.

-- box. News of his passing at the age of 59 prompted fans to take

social media sites as they raised a glass to one of the country's most

revered writers of modern times. I'm joined now from Edinburgh by

science fiction author and close friend of Iain Banks, Ken MacLeod.

You treated last night that you had lost your oldest friend. You must

have been terribly shocked with the news of his death? I saw him as

recently as last Wednesday. Although he was exhausted, he was very keen

to talk. He discussed his writing and his continuing wish to write

more. We talked with him until he felt too tired to continue but he

was confident or at least he hoped he would pull out of it and he did

not. I did not know how severely ill you was and continues came out of

the blue. When you look back at his life, when did you first meet him?

You have helped each other with your books as well. That is right. Our

pass first crossed in high school. We first met at the age of 16. When

we did our double act on our platform at a book festival or a

science-fiction convention, we used to amuse ourselves and hopefully the

audience by giving incompatible versions of how we met. We found

very quickly that we had interests in common and became close friends

from then on. What was his impact on the Scottish boxing? You wrote that

he smuggled truckloads of science fiction past the border guards of

the literary establishment. first novel was written by bringing

a sense of science-fiction imagination into an everyday story

with extremely bizarre countryfolk. The character in that, Frank, has

himself a science-fiction imagination. His second and third

novels brought in elements of fantasy and of the fantastic. These

did not escape the attention of science-fiction fans who took him to

their bosom. He had been a weary outsider of the community of science

fiction -- science-fiction but he took to it like a duck to water. He

used to urge me to go along to these occasions where you could sit in a

hotel bar and talk half the night and all you had to do was go

upstairs and fall asleep and do it all again the next day. He

thoroughly enjoyed that. He says he left a body of work but if he had

lived longer, do you think he still could have come up with some real

gems? Absolutely. His idea of his long-term future before his cancer

diagnosis was eminently realistic. He expected he would write more

slowly as he got older but that he would still keep on writing and his

-- his imagination was fertile. He was in no danger of running out of

ideas for science-fiction or mainstream literary novels. We will

have to leave it there. Thank you for joining us.

And you can see more of that final interview with Iain Banks in 'Iain

Banks: Raw Spirit' on BBC Two Scotland on Wednesday at 9:00pm.

Saunas and massage parlours were raided by Police Scotland across

Edinburgh last week. Money and drugs were seized and 30 women questioned

in relation to prostitution. The city's had a more lenient attitude

to selling sex and the council has licensed premises. As these raids

are the first to take place under the unified, single force, there's

now concern they signal a change in policy.

Glasgow and Edinburgh, neighbours with plenty of differences. One has

prostitution. Glasgow has taken a zero tolerance approach and

Edinburgh has been more lenient. Since the 1980s, the council has

licensed saunas. The police largely turning a blind eye to the

activities taking place inside. Some proponents say that protect the

health of sex workers. But last week police Scotland carried out raids on

saunas in the capital including this one. 150 officers were involved, 30

women were interviewed. Three people were charged with drugs offences and

assets worth more than half �1 million were seized. To some who

backed Edinburgh 's light touch approach it looked like a dramatic

change and they wondered whether the reorganisation of Scotland's police

and who single force was to blame. You can have the same strategic

objective and that is to minimise prostitution or to manage

prostitution but you cannot abolish it. That aside, I am fed up that the

new police force in its first show of difference should show itself to

be insensitive to local policing in this matter. But a spokesman for

police Scotland said the raid did not reflect a change in policy or

approach. The force says it is dedicated to tackling organised

crime and protecting people from harm.

I'm joined now in the studio by Laura Lee, who is an independent

escort and sex workers' rights campaigner, and from Aberdeen by

Councillor Martin Greig, who chairs Aberdeen Community Safety

Firstly, Laura, how concerned are you about the raids? The police say

they are not as safe haven for workers, they denied that there has

been a change in policy. There has been a huge change in policy,

actually. If you look around the country, in Glasgow, the result is

zero tolerance. In Edinburgh, there has been a tolerance in the saunas.

If the measure taken by the police was to protect people from harm,

then to pull sex workers and their clients out onto the streets where

there were press photographers, if that is purportedly protecting wing

from harm, then I am confused. -- women from harm. Part of these

buildings were unsafe, they were condemned by environmental health,

are they really safe for these women to be working there? They are much

safer than the street. The women can support each other there. It is

amounting to hooded abolition. Martin Greig, what is your position

on the raid and on prostitution in general, because Aberdeen had their

own tolerance zone until a change in the law meant they had to get rid of

it. Yes, I assume that police Scotland are relying on intelligence

which they have received about misbehaviour or criminal activity at

these premises in Edinburgh. That is the best way to deal with these

kinds of problems. If there are women who are being trafficked or if

there are serious suspicions about people whose lives or livelihoods or

well-being is at risk, then naturally, the police should be

involved and take an important role in protecting these victims. I think

there is also being raised by this current debate, genuine concerns

about the policy and the strategy for dealing with prostitution across

Scotland. I think it is right that each local authority area should

have their own approach and their own solution. In Aberdeen, Grampian

police introduced a management zone which enables the women involved in

prostitution, working on the streets, to be in a relatively safe

place, where they would not be harassed and for the police and

relevant social workers could keep an eye on them. I think local

solutions should still be applicable. The police say there

hasn't been a change in policy, but do you suspect there has been? What

is going on? I suspect there has been a change in policy. Police

Scotland have nationwide policing priorities. They have a campaign

against violence which is being rolled out across Scotland. Even

though violence is a priority crime more suited to the Glasgow area and

Strathclyde police area, rather than to other areas of Scotland. I am

concerned that there is some kind of standardisation going on where local

solutions and local problems are not finding customised policing

solutions, and that is a genuine worry. Laura, if there is

standardisation going on, does that worry you, does the Edinburgh sauna

work? It is probably safer for these women to be in the sauna than on the

streets? The Edinburgh system does work will stop the sex workers work

with the police rather than with them, so the police will go into the

saunas once a month to find out if they are happy with what they are

doing, as they are being made to do anything that they do not want to do

will stop we know that intolerance fax this system. -- effects this

system. There's the women on the street, is that too dangerous?

they are evading the police, then it is very dangerous on the street. If

in Aberdeen, the police are there to assist the women and not persecute

them, then it can work. Martin Greig, you were against the

unification of the police forces, but a single police force can have a

national priority, can have national priorities, is it's not welcoming to

have expertise and intelligence being shared? They were being shared

already through various means of mutual aid, there were many ways

that the existing regional police forces were collaborating in any

case. I think the important point is that there have been different

solutions in different areas and Glasgow did lead the way with its

zero tolerance policy. But that is not necessarily going to work

elsewhere. When we had the management zone in Aberdeen which

was set up by the ambient police, that worked quite effectively to

help provide the women who were very vulnerable likely to become victims,

they were able to work with the police and social workers and

others. -- set-up by Grampian police. That was able to protect

them. Obviously, the introduction of new legislation meant the management

zone could no longer continue because of the criminal attribution

of nuisance caused by sexual services. Laura, these support

services for these women are very important, so if there was a change

in policy, these services would need to be tailored? Yes, there would

need to be effective exit strategies also. I spoke to some of these sex

workers after the raid and they were petrified. They had money and mobile

phones taken from them, and that is simply unacceptable in modern

society. Martin Greig, listening to the experience of these women in

Edinburgh last Friday, do you feel that police Scotland is

accountable? This was one of your bugbears when they changed the

service. The police force is accountable to the Scottish police

authority. In the days of regional police forces, the councillors did

have a role in formulating policing priorities and in holding the chief

constable and the forced to account, so I and my colleagues in local

authorities no longer have a role in the governance of the police, so

unfortunately, people like me cannot ask questions about specific

campaigns and operations run by police Scotland. These are now

matters for the Scottish parliament and for the Scottish police

authority. To be fair to the police, they said that local policing is at

the heart of the police service. You would dispute that and say it is at

the heart of the police service. You would dispute that fate of a

nationalised system? No, I am very comfortable that we still have a

local policing, but the home of local policing is now in the

divisions. But bear in mind all of the key decisions on policing

priorities and allocation of resources are made by the Chief

Constable and by an unelected quango. We have to leave it there.

Thank you both. A quick look at the newspapers, and on the Scotsman,

made threat that Scots might not tonight, Gordon is back tomorrow on

the programme. From everyone here, little rain in the last week, but

the dry spell is coming to an end. Rain arriving in the west overnight

and spreading slowly to the East high Tuesday. A difference Day

across Northern Ireland. A wet morning, attach brighter. The reins

breading across Scotland. -- the rain spreading across. England

having a great, damp day. There are moral not be very heavy. Many areas

will be dry. -- the rain will not be very heavy. The West Midlands, parts

of Southwest England, that will brighten up nicely. Wet in the

morning but the afternoon well bring some sunshine and some warmth.

Temperatures reaching 20 degrees bred there is some late sunshine. By

Wednesday, more weather systems approaching the UK. Some sunny

spells in between, but some outbreaks of rain. Some uncertainty

about the forecast on Wednesday. We are confident there will be a