:00:03. > :00:13.think they want to know? No, there is a lot of ignorance out there, a
:00:13. > :00:18.
:00:18. > :00:21.MSPs skip off on their holidays this evening, but what have they achieved
:00:21. > :00:29.this year? In fact, what has the Scottish parliament ever done for
:00:29. > :00:35.you? And the sorry tale of what happened when this Himalayan bird
:00:35. > :00:42.met a Hebridean wind turbine. Good evening. No watching videos for the
:00:42. > :00:48.MSPs on their last day of term. However, this year's legislative
:00:48. > :00:52.programme has been, well, a little thin. Alex Salmond has said that
:00:52. > :00:57.even the independence campaign is still in its phoney war phase. So,
:00:57. > :01:03.what do your MSPs do for you? Andrew Black looks back on the year in
:01:03. > :01:13.Parliament. It has been an eventful term at Hollywood and in Scottish
:01:13. > :01:16.
:01:16. > :01:21.politics. Here are a few of the more memorable events. -- Holyrood.
:01:21. > :01:27.Joanne Lamont questions how universal benefits can be paid for
:01:27. > :01:37.in the current climate... I will not tolerate a country where the poorest
:01:37. > :01:38.
:01:38. > :01:48.pay for the tax breaks of the rich. The Edinburgh agreement, setting out
:01:48. > :01:49.
:01:49. > :01:51.the terms of the 2014 independence referendum, was signed. Ireland
:01:51. > :01:55.Chile Europe minister said an independent Scotland would he
:01:55. > :02:01.welcomed into the EE you with open arms, but warned that the process
:02:01. > :02:11.may take time. Scotland would have to apply for membership, and that
:02:11. > :02:18.can be a lengthy process. Legislation to cut Scotland's's
:02:18. > :02:23.legal aid bill was passed, but provoked anger from lawyers.
:02:23. > :02:31.profession will be left to recover these contributions from the poorest
:02:31. > :02:35.people in society. The spending watchdog raised concern about the
:02:35. > :02:44.NHS waiting time system, after one authority was caught fiddling the
:02:44. > :02:47.figures. The Government said action was being taken. I am not saying
:02:47. > :02:53.there is no problem, what I am saying is, the problems identified
:02:53. > :02:58.are all being addressed. The Conservative leader, Ruth Davidson,
:02:58. > :03:02.who once true a line in the sand on the Scottish parliament's powers,
:03:02. > :03:06.gave her support to further devolution. A Parliament with the
:03:06. > :03:15.full responsibility for raising the money spends will never have the
:03:15. > :03:22.authority of the people of Scotland. MSPs passed laws on hedge
:03:22. > :03:26.rage, to tackle disputes on overgrown evergreens. Scotland's new
:03:26. > :03:29.national police force went on the beat, and despite a power struggle
:03:29. > :03:39.between its chief constable and the police authority, ministers said
:03:39. > :03:43.crime was at a record low. And some of the UK government's welfare
:03:43. > :03:50.reforms kick in. Westminster ministers said they were fair, but
:03:50. > :03:55.there were protests on the streets. The SNP government's vision for a
:03:55. > :04:00.tobacco free Scotland took another step forward, with the introduction
:04:00. > :04:10.of a display than in large shops. The Scotch Whisky Association
:04:10. > :04:11.
:04:11. > :04:19.launched a legal bid to block minimum alcohol pricing. Mark
:04:19. > :04:24.McDonald, Scottish National party... The SNP's Markworth. Won the
:04:24. > :04:34.Aberdeen by-election. The Justice committee voted in favour of court
:04:34. > :04:36.
:04:36. > :04:39.closures. Ministers said modernisation was vital. I have
:04:39. > :04:45.failed to change the mind of the Cabinet Secretary, as to the closure
:04:45. > :04:50.of the court. I regret that. Can I ask why you voted to close your
:04:50. > :04:56.local court case today, the Government brought forward a bill to
:04:56. > :05:03.introduce gay marriage, and MSPs past legislation allowing 16- and
:05:03. > :05:06.17-year-olds to vote in next year's independence referendum. I am very
:05:06. > :05:11.confident that for young people on their own personal journey to
:05:11. > :05:14.independence, the argument that Scotland should take responsibility
:05:14. > :05:22.for the decisions which will allow us to build a country which is
:05:23. > :05:25.wealthier and fairer, a country which can speak with its own voice
:05:25. > :05:28.in the world, will have enormous appeal to young people, and to the
:05:28. > :05:35.population generally. It is the argument that I believe will win the
:05:35. > :05:40.day. So, it gives me great pleasure now to ask for support of the motion
:05:40. > :05:50.today, to approve the Scottish independence Referendum Franchise
:05:50. > :05:55.
:05:55. > :05:59.Bill. We issue or a good recess and I now close this meeting. I am
:05:59. > :06:05.joined by the four-month Lord Provost of Glasgow Michael Kelly,
:06:05. > :06:08.and in Edinburgh, by the Scotsman commentator, and once a member of
:06:08. > :06:11.the Scottish Constitutional Convention, Joyce McMillan. Joyce
:06:11. > :06:16.McMillan, do you get the impression that people are impressed by what
:06:16. > :06:18.the Scottish Parliament gets up to? Not really, but I think you would be
:06:18. > :06:22.struggling to find a country in the Western world at the moment where
:06:22. > :06:26.people are very impressed with what they're Parliament gets up to.
:06:27. > :06:30.Obviously, the Scottish Parliament has its issues, but I think if you
:06:30. > :06:32.are looking for a point of comparison, then it is actually not
:06:32. > :06:37.looking too bad compared with Westminster at the moment, which
:06:37. > :06:42.increasingly seems to me to be a Parliament existing in a bubble,
:06:42. > :06:46.largely unaware of the needs of 99% of the population. So, it is not a
:06:46. > :06:49.vintage era for representative democracy, but on the whole, I think
:06:49. > :06:52.you would be hard pushed to argue that the Scottish parliament is much
:06:52. > :06:55.worse than most of the other parliaments in the Western world,
:06:55. > :07:01.and in some respects, it is better. Of its legislation is
:07:01. > :07:06.forward-looking, some of its procedures are quite enlightened, it
:07:06. > :07:10.is not besmirched by the same amount of alleged corruption and influence
:07:10. > :07:17.peddling as Westminster is. So, I think, on the whole, it is doing not
:07:17. > :07:19.too badly in what are very difficult times, given the looming referendum
:07:19. > :07:27.question and the difficulty of proceeding with any other policies
:07:27. > :07:32.until that is resolved. What do you make of it? I think that basically,
:07:32. > :07:37.we have got government on hold here, because the SNP have got one
:07:37. > :07:40.priority, which is to try and get a yes vote. So, when Alex Salmond came
:07:40. > :07:44.in with a minority, he wanted to convert it to a majority, and he
:07:44. > :07:48.thought the best thing to do what to do nothing. And he did nothing, he
:07:48. > :07:53.did it very well, using his personality, rather than the law. He
:07:53. > :07:56.secured his majority, then, the mistake he made was to push the
:07:56. > :08:02.referendum until the very end of the term, which has made that everything
:08:02. > :08:08.else has had to be tailored to suit what is coming. It is not as if what
:08:08. > :08:10.the Scarlet Parliament did -- what the Scottish Parliament had when the
:08:10. > :08:19.Liberal Democrats and Labour were running it had the approval of the
:08:19. > :08:24.whole population? No, but now you have a party which wants to replace
:08:24. > :08:27.the current system with a different system, so that nothing can happen.
:08:27. > :08:32.The last piece of dramatic legislation they introduced last
:08:32. > :08:36.year was to ban singing at football matches, if we remember that, which
:08:36. > :08:41.is a blatant attack on civil rights. That has now been thrown out by the
:08:41. > :08:44.courts. So, when the SNP government have made legislation, they have
:08:44. > :08:49.made a mess of it, and I think they are learning the lesson, so they are
:08:49. > :08:53.not going to do very much. Party political points now made, you can
:08:53. > :08:57.now move on. But my point about when Labour and the Liberal Democrats
:08:57. > :08:59.were running things, there has always been an issue that when
:08:59. > :09:06.people think of the government, they would look to the Scottish
:09:06. > :09:09.Parliament, or would they look to Westminster? Joyce McMillan clearly
:09:09. > :09:14.thinks that to some extent, they are looking to the Scottish parliament -
:09:14. > :09:18.do you think that is the case Wanstead -- do you think that is the
:09:18. > :09:24.case? I do not think so. The big, important decisions are still at
:09:24. > :09:28.Westminster. Budgetary control, for example. It is a fundamental thing.
:09:28. > :09:31.If you do not control that, you can only make marginal decisions. But
:09:31. > :09:35.even in the distribution of the money which is coming to Scotland,
:09:35. > :09:44.vocal government, for example, which understands local needs very well,
:09:44. > :09:52.has been starved of funds. You were on the Scottish Constitutional
:09:52. > :09:56.Convention - I was listening to a radio programme this afternoon about
:09:56. > :10:01.this chap, a British Indian chap from Walsall, born in a village in
:10:01. > :10:07.India, and he decided to walk from Walsall to his village in India,
:10:07. > :10:12.10,000 miles, it took him 19 months, and he said, when he got there, he
:10:12. > :10:14.sat down on the step and thought, was that it? Could that be a
:10:14. > :10:21.metaphor for the Scottish parliament, really? Actually, I do
:10:21. > :10:26.not think so. I might be a bit partisan, in a sense, because I was
:10:26. > :10:29.part of the campaign for a Scottish parliament. At the time, it was
:10:30. > :10:34.envisaged as a Scottish parliament within the UK, but times have
:10:34. > :10:38.changed. Nobody ever thought the SNP would win such a massive majority in
:10:39. > :10:42.the Scottish Parliament, but it had, so Alex Salmond had no option but to
:10:42. > :10:47.bring forward this referendum. I never thought in my lifetime that I
:10:47. > :10:49.would see a government passing a bill at Westminster which amounts to
:10:49. > :10:56.the near privatisation of the National Health Service, with very
:10:56. > :11:02.little objection from the people south of the border. Times change.
:11:02. > :11:08.You are both making party political points. I am not. I am object into
:11:08. > :11:10.the fact that at Westminster, we now have three parties well to the right
:11:11. > :11:16.of centre, to the right of the International monetary fund, which
:11:16. > :11:21.is saying that we were not doing the austerity correctly. It seems to me
:11:21. > :11:24.that if you have a Parliament at Westminster which is not offering an
:11:24. > :11:28.alternative, then that changes the political landscape quite radically.
:11:28. > :11:32.So, I am glad that we have a Scottish parliament. Its members are
:11:32. > :11:34.not always terrific at what they do, but nonetheless it represents a
:11:34. > :11:38.certain level of democratic safeguard for the people of
:11:39. > :11:43.Scotland, if they want to use it, and it is up to the Scottish people
:11:43. > :11:46.how it is used, who dominates it, who they vote for, and what kind of
:11:46. > :11:53.a presenter takes they have, but at least we now have that kind of
:11:53. > :11:58.democracy. -- what kind of representatives they have. What
:11:59. > :12:02.could they do to get you excited? Of course you are right in saying that
:12:02. > :12:06.many of the macro economic levers are not in the hands of the Scottish
:12:06. > :12:12.Parliament. But they do have control over things like the National Health
:12:13. > :12:19.Service, for example. Some big programme of reform here, would that
:12:19. > :12:23.get you excited? One thing which has worked since devolution, and I would
:12:23. > :12:28.come meant all parties on that, is preventative medicine, the attempt
:12:28. > :12:33.to control alcohol, a well thought out programme on obesity, things
:12:33. > :12:37.like that. I think those have worked. I think the intention of the
:12:37. > :12:41.parliament was that it would be cross-party. The whole point of the
:12:41. > :12:44.electoral system was that no party could win overall control. Alex
:12:44. > :12:50.Salmond turned that around with a brilliant election campaign, and now
:12:50. > :12:54.we have got a party which does not want the parliament, but wants to
:12:54. > :12:58.focus on another issue altogether. In a sense, the last four or five
:12:58. > :13:04.years have not been a proper test of devolution. It is only once we
:13:04. > :13:11.resolve this question of yes or no, and devolution is established as the
:13:11. > :13:15.permanent Way forward in Scotland, and I think it will work better.
:13:15. > :13:20.Write the way through, it has not really established this cross-party
:13:20. > :13:26.working, there was so much idealism about, it has been pretty much the
:13:26. > :13:32.Westminster system transferred to Edinburgh, hasn't it? I certainly
:13:32. > :13:35.think it has slid towards that over the years, just as it has begun to
:13:35. > :13:40.slide a bit in other areas, including the representation of
:13:40. > :13:44.women, actually. So, yes, in that respect, the Scottish Parliament has
:13:44. > :13:48.been a bit of a disappointment to those who campaign for it. But that
:13:48. > :13:53.is not the same as saying that it should not be there. I do not think
:13:53. > :13:56.anybody is saying that. One contradiction is that in the opinion
:13:56. > :14:00.poles, people say it should be there, in fact, they want more
:14:01. > :14:05.powers for it, but then sometimes do not quite know what it is
:14:05. > :14:08.responsible for, compared to Westminster, and the rest of it.
:14:08. > :14:12.Generally speaking, people appear to think that it would be more
:14:13. > :14:15.interesting if it was responsible for more. I just wish that we had a
:14:15. > :14:19.situation where we could have a referendum on much greater powers
:14:19. > :14:24.for the Scottish Parliament, on which 80% of Scottish voters could
:14:24. > :14:30.agree, and then we could have a serious discussion about policy,
:14:30. > :14:33.rather than this very divisive discussion about independence. I
:14:33. > :14:37.think it was inevitable after Alex Salmond got such a large majority,
:14:38. > :14:40.so we should not blame him, but nonetheless, it is not helping the
:14:40. > :14:44.quality of political debate in Scotland. There are things that
:14:44. > :14:47.could be done to improve the working of the Scottish Parliament, to make
:14:47. > :14:57.it more interesting and to give it more powers, but as Michael says,
:14:57. > :15:00.
:15:00. > :15:03.went out earlier this week that a Himalayan bird rarely seen in the UK
:15:03. > :15:07.had been sighted in the Western Isles. Birders descended on the Isle
:15:07. > :15:11.of Harris to see the bird, only to witness it fly into a wind turbine
:15:11. > :15:16.and die. This is the text-white-throated needletail, a
:15:16. > :15:20.member of the swift family, it is the fastest bird in the world,
:15:20. > :15:26.supposedly, capable of reaching speeds of 70 miles per hour.
:15:26. > :15:32.Unfortunately hitting a wind turbine at that sort of speed proved fatal.
:15:32. > :15:38.We were watching the bird at the time through the telescopes. It was
:15:38. > :15:48.mostly a silhouette, you could see it pass you and see its colours and
:15:48. > :15:54.
:15:54. > :15:56.everyone was happy. It flew past the wind turbine and it hit it. Fellow
:15:56. > :15:59.birdwatcher James Hanlon also witnessed the white-throated
:15:59. > :16:05.needletail's tragic demise. A short while ago I asked him to describe
:16:05. > :16:10.what he saw. A fwhub of us had travelled to the western isles to
:16:10. > :16:13.witness this occurrence. It is an extremely rare bird, only seen
:16:13. > :16:20.around ten times before in Britain. We travelled from all parts of the
:16:20. > :16:25.country. We were watching it yet on and off for quite son time, it was
:16:25. > :16:30.wheeling around quickly over the moorland. At one point it flew
:16:30. > :16:35.around a wind turbine. At the time I was giving a commentary to the guy
:16:35. > :16:40.next to me, telling me where it was, as it was hard to follow at speed.
:16:40. > :16:47.As it flew around the turbine it seemed to disappear behind it and
:16:47. > :16:51.suddenly fell limply to the ground. There was a crowd of 12-15 people,
:16:51. > :16:56.maybe half of whom were watching the bird at the time. As you can
:16:56. > :17:03.imagine, it was a shock to witness it hit a turbine and fall to the
:17:03. > :17:09.ground. Do you know if it hit the turbine's body or whether it hit a
:17:09. > :17:15.blade of the turbine? To my eyes it seemed to head towards the centre of
:17:15. > :17:20.the turbine rather than the edge of the blades. I can't imagine that it
:17:20. > :17:24.did fly into the wind turbine body. It must have been hit by a blade. I
:17:24. > :17:28.certainly got the impression it was at the base of one of the blades
:17:28. > :17:34.rather than near the tip. What makes the incident seem so bizarre is that
:17:34. > :17:38.when you see pictures of the area it is not as if this was a big wind
:17:38. > :17:42.farm. There was one turbine and nothing else in the whole area?
:17:42. > :17:47.is quite incredible. It was one turbine, a small one at that. It
:17:47. > :17:55.serves the local community. It is not part of a large wind farm. Many
:17:55. > :17:59.of which are in the area. It was small turbine. The bird flew by and
:17:59. > :18:03.it seemed to collide with the blade and fall limply to the ground.
:18:03. > :18:08.Absolutely shocking to see. I've never seen anything like it. I know
:18:08. > :18:13.birds do get hit by wind turbines, especially large birds of prey. I
:18:13. > :18:18.have seen it on the internet, but to see it happen in front of us was
:18:18. > :18:22.shocking. We have to put it down to some extent to a freak, it doesn't
:18:22. > :18:27.tell us anything more general about wind turbines if this was a little
:18:27. > :18:32.one stuck in the middle of nowhere? We know bird strikes do happen,
:18:32. > :18:35.especially with large birds of prey. They are not always killed. They do
:18:35. > :18:39.sometimes survive. I think what this does, because it has happened in
:18:39. > :18:48.such a prominent way, with such a rare bird, in front of an audience,
:18:48. > :18:53.I think it really brings to the for the arguments here that these bird
:18:53. > :18:58.strikes do have to be considered when evaluating wind farm sites.
:18:58. > :19:03.They obviously are having an impact on our birdlife. Obviously this was
:19:03. > :19:06.a tragedy for this particular need need but it is not -- for this
:19:06. > :19:11.particular white-throated needletail, but in general these
:19:11. > :19:13.aren't endangered birds are they? No, they are not endangered at all.
:19:14. > :19:19.The white-throated needletail I think has been seen ten times in
:19:19. > :19:25.Britain. They are native to Asia. I think I've seen one in Australia
:19:25. > :19:30.years ago. Obviously the species is not at risk, but what it does show
:19:30. > :19:35.is that wind turbines can be a threat to birds. In the area we are
:19:35. > :19:42.talking about it is a very important area for large birds of prey like
:19:42. > :19:46.golden Eagles and white-tailed Eagles. In your capacity as bird
:19:46. > :19:52.expert, how on earth would a little bird like this, I know swallows, it
:19:52. > :19:59.is like a swallow isn't it? They go to Africa over winter and come back
:19:59. > :20:07.here, but how on earth would a bird that winters in Asia and Australasia
:20:07. > :20:11.end up in the western isle? Birds arrive here from all corners. We get
:20:11. > :20:18.large numbers of birds from across Asia. We get overshoots from the
:20:18. > :20:24.south, from Africa. No-one knows fully why they arrive here. There
:20:24. > :20:28.are various ideas, such as reverse migration, where young birds go the
:20:28. > :20:34.wrong way and head off in the wrong direction. But every spring and
:20:34. > :20:39.autumn we are inundated with rare birds from very far afield. It is
:20:39. > :20:46.not that often we get ones from as far afield as where white-throated
:20:46. > :20:51.needletail come from. I'm curious as to what motivates people like you,
:20:51. > :20:56.called twitch ers in the trade I believe, to travel all these
:20:56. > :21:01.distances when if someone spots a bird and people would immediately,
:21:01. > :21:07.within a day's notice, fly to somewhere like Thailand to spot a
:21:07. > :21:15.bird. What's the motivation for doing that? That's a hard question
:21:15. > :21:22.to answer. I've had a fascination with birds since I was a young kid.
:21:22. > :21:28.I've always had an interest in rare birds. I find them fascinating. I
:21:28. > :21:32.want to travel... When did you find out this bird was there? That would
:21:32. > :21:37.have been, the last two days have been a blur really. We are still on
:21:37. > :21:42.our way south a London on a very long trip. We've been on the road
:21:42. > :21:45.two days. I think I found out about it Tuesday afternoon. We set off at
:21:45. > :21:50.midnight on Tuesday. Right, so basically you just dropped
:21:50. > :21:55.everything and went up there? I had a window of a couple of days
:21:55. > :21:59.where I could do it. I won't get in until about 3. 00am tomorrow and
:21:59. > :22:02.then I'm off on holiday with the family, so I would say it is a
:22:02. > :22:07.pretty tight window. I was working the evening before we left as well.
:22:07. > :22:13.It is a tight window. We had a couple of days. We've squeezed a
:22:13. > :22:19.trip in, but yeah, it is not easy to drop everything and shoot offer
:22:19. > :22:28.especially when like me you have a family. A quick look at tomorrow's
:22:28. > :22:33.family. A quick look at tomorrow's Millions face higher taxes to cut
:22:33. > :22:43.the deficit. That's all we have time for. We'll be back next week.
:22:43. > :23:00.
:23:00. > :23:03.If we get sunshine in Northern Ireland it will be late in the day.
:23:03. > :23:08.Drizzly rain for most of it. Sunshine in the afternoon in
:23:08. > :23:13.Scotland. A fresher feel in the afternoon after the rain. We could
:23:13. > :23:16.get 20 degrees possibly in Dundee. The rainband sinks south in the
:23:16. > :23:22.afternoon into northern England. For a while in eastern England the rain
:23:22. > :23:25.could be heavy. This rain could affect Wimbledon early on. That
:23:25. > :23:29.pushes away and we get sunshine. Humid air across the south, through
:23:29. > :23:36.the Midlands and Wales. If the sunshine does come out, temperatures
:23:36. > :23:41.could get as high as 22 or 23 Celsius.
:23:41. > :23:44.The city forecasts for Friday and the weekend. Manchester becomes
:23:44. > :23:48.drier and warmer on Saturday. Belfast, always pretty cloudy over
:23:48. > :23:52.the coming few days, with rain not far away. Sunshine lifting
:23:52. > :23:56.temperatures in London. Brightening up in Birmingham.
:23:56. > :24:01.The picture for Saturday. We've got rain coming into Northern Ireland,