:00:00. > :00:00.make sure this works. A huge part of the economy is the construction
:00:00. > :00:00.industry. Making sure the supply meets demand is something we are
:00:00. > :00:14.absolutely committed to. Thank you. Tonight, on Newsnight Scotland: A
:00:15. > :00:19.year from today, the powers of the new Scotland Act will start to kick
:00:20. > :00:29.in. But in the race to offer new levers, can anyone remember what
:00:30. > :00:33.these ones are about? And... Says two is changing the law so that cars
:00:34. > :00:41.in Scotland drive on the right... And what's so funny about Scottish
:00:42. > :00:43.Independence? All the London-based broadsheets had April fools about
:00:44. > :00:46.the referendum. Janey Godley and Quentin Letts will discuss why they
:00:47. > :00:49.find it so amusing. Good evening. The Calman Commission
:00:50. > :00:52.may be long gone and unlamented, but its plans for more powers for the
:00:53. > :00:56.Scottish Parliament start to come into effect a year from today. All
:00:57. > :00:59.the parties are now offering either independence or further devolution.
:01:00. > :01:03.So what will these new powers mean? Our economics correspondent,
:01:04. > :01:07.Colletta Smith, reports. Politicians are always talking about
:01:08. > :01:14.economic levers, and the big question they are interested in is
:01:15. > :01:19.who has got control of them. Here at the Bowness and Camille Railway, all
:01:20. > :01:24.the power is held here in the signal box. These control whether the
:01:25. > :01:27.trains can stop or go and which direction they can go. He in
:01:28. > :01:32.Scotland next year, we will get control of some more of those levers
:01:33. > :01:39.controlling the economy. The powers in the Scotland Axe kick in from the
:01:40. > :01:42.1st of April 2015, and when they were initially announced they were
:01:43. > :01:46.trumpeted as allowing more control of Scotland's own finances. Scotland
:01:47. > :01:56.will have control of stamp duty, to be replaced by a different tax.
:01:57. > :02:00.There is also landfill tax. And extra borrowing powers, but ?2.2
:02:01. > :02:07.billion for infrastructure projects. They will also be able to very rude
:02:08. > :02:13.the rate of income tax by 10p, -- vary the rate of income tax by 10p,
:02:14. > :02:17.but not until two years' time. Just been in charge of the leaders does
:02:18. > :02:20.not mean you have to move them. The Scottish Government may decide to
:02:21. > :02:24.keep the level of property tax the same, or may decide not to borrow
:02:25. > :02:28.any money, but those in the breath use sector are confident Holly Ruud
:02:29. > :02:36.will up the landfill tax, because those are the overtones they have
:02:37. > :02:42.been making already. This is creating a green economy in
:02:43. > :02:45.Scotland. It already has threw food legislation and I think it will
:02:46. > :02:50.continue to have a positive effect on our business. But with one year
:02:51. > :02:54.to go until this economic levers are to be in Scotland's pounds, hardly
:02:55. > :03:00.anyone seems content with them. People have their eyes on other
:03:01. > :03:15.leaders, either through TiVo Macs or independence. I was never impressed
:03:16. > :03:22.-- DevoMax. They just pooh-poohed anything we wanted to do in the
:03:23. > :03:25.Scotland Bill to make a difference. Not so say those who made the
:03:26. > :03:34.recommendations for the Scotland Act. We did not look beyond the
:03:35. > :03:38.Scotland Act 2012. We chose the taxes we did because they met the
:03:39. > :03:42.terms of reference at the time. We could have gone further and actually
:03:43. > :03:47.the evidence presented to as suggested these were the most
:03:48. > :03:51.appropriate taxes. One of the criticisms of the Scotland act is
:03:52. > :03:56.that it does not go far enough in terms of power. Could real economic
:03:57. > :04:01.changes take place because of the changes brought in? There will be
:04:02. > :04:05.undoubtedly some bureaucracy and cost. That is inevitable and if more
:04:06. > :04:09.devolution is to take place in the future, the costs of doing that will
:04:10. > :04:14.increase, but hopefully the benefits will come through as well. Whatever
:04:15. > :04:19.Scotland decides in September and whatever promises are made about
:04:20. > :04:23.further devolution, the Scotland Act powers are rolling down the track
:04:24. > :04:28.and even if they only apply to a small area, changing control of the
:04:29. > :04:32.Scottish leaders could alter the economy.
:04:33. > :04:35.I'm joined now from Edinburgh by Professor Jim Gallagher, who was
:04:36. > :04:38.director general for devolution in the UK civil service from 2007 until
:04:39. > :04:41.2010, and was secretary of the Calman Commission. He's speaking on
:04:42. > :04:44.behalf of Better Together. And here in Glasgow is the Chairman of Yes
:04:45. > :04:47.Scotland, Dennis Canavan, who was also involved in the Constitutional
:04:48. > :04:49.Convention which designed the blueprint for the Scottish
:04:50. > :04:53.Parliament. Jim, assuming for the sake of the
:04:54. > :04:58.odd bit that these new powers actually come into effect next
:04:59. > :05:05.year, -- the sake of the argument, why should anyone be excited by it?
:05:06. > :05:09.The league transfer of tax power, fiscal power and borrowing power to
:05:10. > :05:21.the Scottish Parliament. -- be logged transfer. -- the large
:05:22. > :05:28.transfer. We have limited tax power was just now and when the Act comes
:05:29. > :05:32.into place that will be increased. It is pretty important. Do you think
:05:33. > :05:38.it is important? There has been this argument that there is no
:05:39. > :05:43.representation without taxation, that the Scottish parliament was
:05:44. > :05:50.almost structurally encouraged to be irresponsible because it was not
:05:51. > :05:53.responsible for raising the money. I accept that but I honestly cannot
:05:54. > :05:56.see the people of Scotland dancing in the streets when they are told
:05:57. > :06:02.that these proposals are maybe going to be incremented in 12 months'
:06:03. > :06:08.time. They are far too little and far too late. What is the most
:06:09. > :06:12.conspicuous about this legislation is the powers that are not devolved.
:06:13. > :06:19.There is nothing about foreign affairs, defence, welfare... So the
:06:20. > :06:23.Scottish parliament will remain impotent in terms of things like
:06:24. > :06:28.trying to abolish the bedroom tax, or trying to get rid of Trident, or
:06:29. > :06:32.trying to bring about a really radical progressive system of
:06:33. > :06:39.taxation, to redistribute wealth in favour of those who are most in
:06:40. > :06:43.need. June, apart from that, one of the most noticeable things about it
:06:44. > :06:47.is that if you increase control over income tax, I can see the document
:06:48. > :06:52.that the Scottish parliament has to make a tax determination each year
:06:53. > :06:56.and in that sense is accountable but as far as I'm aware, none of the
:06:57. > :07:00.political parties have any plans to make an income tax rate which is any
:07:01. > :07:04.different from the rest of the UK. So it is hardly surprising if people
:07:05. > :07:10.in Scotland to not get very excited about this. First, let's wait and
:07:11. > :07:12.see what they do, not just in the next Scottish parliament elections
:07:13. > :07:16.but in the ones after that. They will have to make the tax decision.
:07:17. > :07:26.At the moment if they do not do anything, the money still flows. Now
:07:27. > :07:29.the Scottish parliament will be faced with a choice. People often
:07:30. > :07:32.say they want to increase spending but they seldom say that they want
:07:33. > :07:43.to increase tax. What the Scotland Act will do is mean that it takes
:07:44. > :07:49.responsibility. But they haven't used the full taxation powers that
:07:50. > :07:54.they have had since the last century. They have never been
:07:55. > :08:04.obliged to use them. If a Parliament sits on its hands with independents,
:08:05. > :08:08.there will be no tax at all. That is what the Parliament has to do, make
:08:09. > :08:14.a grown-up decision about what to do with tax. That is the core of
:08:15. > :08:20.political accountability. What this act does is give that to the
:08:21. > :08:23.Scottish Parliament. It also gives substantial borrowing powers. That
:08:24. > :08:29.isn't new, even if no one changes the tax rate, it remains the same as
:08:30. > :08:37.the UK, it does give the Scottish Government substantial borrowing
:08:38. > :08:47.power. It is a bit late in the day. I remember arguing for borrowing
:08:48. > :08:54.powers in the 1980s, even before the Scottish Constitutional Convention
:08:55. > :08:59.was set up. No one listened to me. Far too little, far too late. It is
:09:00. > :09:05.only by the full powers of independents that the people of
:09:06. > :09:12.Scotland are going to be in power and that representatives elected
:09:13. > :09:18.through the Scottish column -- Parliament will have full power.
:09:19. > :09:21.People want a ferret Scotland, and there are not adequately that in
:09:22. > :09:26.this legislation to achieve that. The only way you can achieve that is
:09:27. > :09:32.through full independence. But a lot of people would say, actually, this
:09:33. > :09:36.is precisely what we want. A gradual increase in hours. We might like a
:09:37. > :09:40.bit more further down the line but it doesn't risk anything that
:09:41. > :09:45.independence risks. We shall see whether the referendum comes... We
:09:46. > :09:51.are already closing the gap. We are very optimistic. I am not being
:09:52. > :09:54.complacent at this stage but I am confident that there are a lot of
:09:55. > :09:58.people out there that can be persuaded that all these tinkering
:09:59. > :10:02.around with the British constitution, because that is all
:10:03. > :10:07.this is, all this tinkering around will produce less than half a loaf.
:10:08. > :10:12.The people of Scotland deserve the full loaf and it is only by voting
:10:13. > :10:20.Yes in this referendum that they will get that. Tinkering around? If
:10:21. > :10:27.nothing fundamental changes? Of course, nothing will ever satisfy
:10:28. > :10:33.Dennis. No powers given to the Scottish parliament will satisfy
:10:34. > :10:36.him. But the striking thing is that all the parties in support of the
:10:37. > :10:42.Calman Commission are now either committed to powers which go further
:10:43. > :10:45.than the powers you recommended, and which come into force next year, or
:10:46. > :10:51.in the case of the Conservatives, are pledged to come up with more
:10:52. > :10:55.powers. Yes, and the commission itself said that the set of powers
:10:56. > :10:59.it recommended were not necessarily the final step. What I am pretty
:11:00. > :11:10.sure will happen, assuming the parties -- Scottish people vote to
:11:11. > :11:15.stay inside the UK, there will be more powers after the referendum.
:11:16. > :11:18.That is doing this step by step and carefully to get us to the place
:11:19. > :11:22.where, as you say, most people want to be. They want to have a strong
:11:23. > :11:27.Scottish parliament with more powers but also the security and stability
:11:28. > :11:32.of being in the UK. But there is nothing you can point to, Dennis
:11:33. > :11:37.mentioned getting rid of the bedroom tax... That is the one thing which
:11:38. > :11:40.the Scottish Parliament has already managed to do under its present
:11:41. > :11:46.powers. It has the capacity to do that. But the point is, a big issue
:11:47. > :11:52.that after next year the Scottish Parliament will do this that it
:11:53. > :12:01.couldn't do before. You cannot say that. It is all fairly technical
:12:02. > :12:06.stuff to do with tax issues. Well, if you think it is all technical,
:12:07. > :12:09.white until the Government takes a decision that you do not like. The
:12:10. > :12:19.power to tax is the single biggest power of a Government. This is a big
:12:20. > :12:25.step towards a much more powerful Parliament. It will have to take a
:12:26. > :12:30.much more grown-up set of decisions. On the other side, I am not aware of
:12:31. > :12:38.any proposals from the Yes campaign to change tax powers. The Yes
:12:39. > :12:45.campaign is not a political party. It is not our job to define every
:12:46. > :12:50.single policy. There is a consensus around certain issues. What unites
:12:51. > :12:54.us is that we believe that the only way you will get more powers for the
:12:55. > :12:58.Scottish Parliament is by voting Yes in the referendum. The point I'm
:12:59. > :13:04.making, assuming it ever, these limited powers come in and note
:13:05. > :13:09.political party in Scotland, including the SNP as of now, has a
:13:10. > :13:13.proposals to actually use them. That remains to be seen, but I think
:13:14. > :13:16.there will be a consensus in an independent Scotland for the use of
:13:17. > :13:21.all the economic levers at its disposal to bring about a more
:13:22. > :13:25.prosperous Scotland. You didn't have to hunt very hard
:13:26. > :13:28.for jokes in the papers today. The London based ones almost all based
:13:29. > :13:31.their buffoonery on the prospect of Scottish independence. We'll talk in
:13:32. > :13:34.a moment about why the metropolitan chattering classes think that's
:13:35. > :13:42.funny. But first, a summary of what you may have missed, from Huw
:13:43. > :13:46.Williams. The Guardian said an independent
:13:47. > :13:53.Scotland would shake up the road network, starting with new signs. A
:13:54. > :13:58.new typeface replaces the English equivalent. Phase two is changing
:13:59. > :14:02.the laws that the cars in Scotland drive on the right, and that is the
:14:03. > :14:09.issue phase three seeks to answer. What happens at the border between
:14:10. > :14:13.England and Scotland? Well, meet the spiral interchange, what is hoped to
:14:14. > :14:16.be an elegant, ecological friendly way of transitioning traffic from
:14:17. > :14:25.left to right and vice versa, at multiple locations. The times
:14:26. > :14:31.cleaned the house of Windsor could be ditched if Scotland vote yes and
:14:32. > :14:33.replace them with a living Duke of Saxony who claims descent from the
:14:34. > :14:39.house of Stuart. The in-depth -- the Independent said
:14:40. > :14:42.the UN is drawing up plans for a peacekeeping mission in case a Yes
:14:43. > :14:50.vote result in cross-border tensions or even economic migrants.
:14:51. > :14:55.The Daily Telegraph had mocked up a pound coin showing the face of the
:14:56. > :15:02.Queen replaced with that of Alex Salmond. The Sun said the Queen will
:15:03. > :15:09.allow fracking in Buckingham Palace grounds. It claimed nationalist --
:15:10. > :15:14.nationalists wanted to beam a giant Batman style beam into the sky. The
:15:15. > :15:18.Daily Mail said it had got meat details of what the rest of the
:15:19. > :15:21.UK's flag would look like if Scotland votes for independence. It
:15:22. > :15:26.said it had snatched photograph of paperwork being carried by a
:15:27. > :15:32.ministerial aide, which showed the effect of taking the sole tyre out
:15:33. > :15:35.of the union Jack. -- the saltire. I'm joined in the studio by the
:15:36. > :15:38.comedian Janey Godley, who has made a documentary about humour and the
:15:39. > :15:41.referendum, which goes out tomorrow on Radio Scotland. And in London is
:15:42. > :15:44.the Mail's columnist and parliamentary sketch-writer, Quentin
:15:45. > :15:52.Letts. Janey, are you delighted, offended,
:15:53. > :15:55.whatever, by the fact all the broadsheets chose to make April
:15:56. > :15:59.Fools out of the Scottish independence campaign? I am not
:16:00. > :16:03.offended, because we do not have that big an ego that it can be
:16:04. > :16:09.broken by a couple of English newspapers. We are bigger than that.
:16:10. > :16:13.It is comedy. Comedy is meant to hold and -- hold a mirror up to
:16:14. > :16:18.society. They should be able to make fun of the referendum. Nobody has
:16:19. > :16:22.sat and cried in Scotland, we were too busy checking out how many oil
:16:23. > :16:26.barrels we had. Quentin, one major criticism you could make about these
:16:27. > :16:33.is that none of them were very funny. That is possibly accurate.
:16:34. > :16:37.They have become a terrible journalistic terror and eight, April
:16:38. > :16:42.Fools, almost from the start of March, editors are scowling, try to
:16:43. > :16:48.think of something funny. So, now it is over for another year. The daily
:16:49. > :16:51.Mirror had one about the pop group one direction going to North Korea
:16:52. > :16:54.and being told they had to get haircuts just like the North Korean
:16:55. > :17:03.dictator. The Sun had one about fracking... That was hilarious. The
:17:04. > :17:11.good old Daily Mail. The one in the Daily Mail quoted a government
:17:12. > :17:17.spokesman. These things have become a little bit of a tyranny, but one
:17:18. > :17:22.can sometimes accused the British press of being too relentlessly
:17:23. > :17:28.mirthless, so give them a break on April one. Why did they choose the
:17:29. > :17:35.referendum campaign? Is it just that it is all a bit exotic down their?
:17:36. > :17:40.It is, at that. Donald Rumsfeld once spoke about unknown unknowns. The
:17:41. > :17:44.Scots referendum is taking us, possibly, into unfamiliar territory.
:17:45. > :17:50.When you have unfamiliar territory, you have all sorts of theories are
:17:51. > :17:53.rising, that is why this may be fertile territory. I think it is a
:17:54. > :17:58.big story and the papers were leaping on it. It is unusual, the
:17:59. > :18:02.Daily Mail! Normally they have lots of jokes about immigrants. They must
:18:03. > :18:09.have been stuck. There is not a lot of humour up here, is their? There
:18:10. > :18:18.is lots of humour in the referendum. We have people call summoned and
:18:19. > :18:21.sturgeon. -- salmon and sturgeon. The politicians... We have more
:18:22. > :18:27.pandas than Tories, which is the oldest joke ever. I was listening
:18:28. > :18:32.earlier to the documentary you made, one of the points that one of your
:18:33. > :18:37.colleagues makes in that is that she raised this issue in a comedy club,
:18:38. > :18:44.and she said she thought it felt rather tense. Why was that? She
:18:45. > :18:49.raised it with her family. Somebody did say there was tension. Because
:18:50. > :18:54.people still feel that they are not... You have to remember, in
:18:55. > :18:58.Glasgow, you are either a Catholic or Protestant, now you have to be a
:18:59. > :19:03.yes or no. It is like the old days when you're a child and you went out
:19:04. > :19:07.to play and you knocked on the door and their mother said, you are
:19:08. > :19:11.either out or you are in. There is tension, the result was tension, but
:19:12. > :19:19.white can't you have comedy about the best tension? Northern Ireland
:19:20. > :19:23.had amazing comedy. She seemed to be suggesting that this issue in
:19:24. > :19:27.particular, and a lot of supporters of Rangers and Celtic have a laugh
:19:28. > :19:32.together... Well, more than perhaps in the old days. But this seems to
:19:33. > :19:39.be... Why do you think there is a particular issue here? Is it just
:19:40. > :19:43.that people think it is important? I am a comedian, I go on stage and I
:19:44. > :19:47.talk about the referendum, and we do jokes there are lots of comedians
:19:48. > :19:51.who have been joking about the referendum for ages. And nobody is
:19:52. > :19:56.really having that... I did it in Nottingham, I have stood on stage in
:19:57. > :19:59.Los Angeles and spoken about Scottish independence. Folk are into
:20:00. > :20:04.it but there is a small minority of people saying you cannot talk about
:20:05. > :20:09.it or that it may cause tension. No, it doesn't. We can talk about
:20:10. > :20:15.anything. Every joke in its essence is effective -- offensive to start
:20:16. > :20:19.with. People can decide what they feel offended about. The bemusement
:20:20. > :20:25.you were talking about, Quentin, will that continue, do you think?
:20:26. > :20:34.The coverage down they are of what is happening here does seem to be
:20:35. > :20:38.increasing very rapidly. As the decision gets closer, there is more
:20:39. > :20:42.coverage. But I would not say that it is an obsession down here yet.
:20:43. > :20:46.That might happen and a couple of weeks before the referendum, but
:20:47. > :20:53.there is not any idea yet of the urgency. I sit watching politicians
:20:54. > :21:01.all day long. There was something magnificent about the coin. With
:21:02. > :21:15.Alex Salmond on the coin. He looked a bit like Tito on an old-fashioned
:21:16. > :21:22.Yugoslav coin. The lifted chin. There was nothing Tito about it! I
:21:23. > :21:29.think there should be... He looked rather magnificently, sort of
:21:30. > :21:33.Doughty. I think he looked like Frank Sonata. I think they should be
:21:34. > :21:38.more to the referendum, it should not just be yes or no, we hope
:21:39. > :21:44.should have a third option like, can we just go? Go to Finland and give
:21:45. > :21:53.hand-outs so that Vladimir Putin can't get in. Can Quentin, as well?
:21:54. > :21:57.No, because then there would be two Tories and that would frighten the
:21:58. > :22:02.pandas. Perhaps we should be taking more notice of what is going on, but
:22:03. > :22:06.you do not get the sense that it is gripping anyone down here, perhaps
:22:07. > :22:08.that is a pity. We will have to leave it there, thank you both very
:22:09. > :22:12.much. Now a quick look at tomorrow's front
:22:13. > :22:15.pages. Many of them leading with the tragic
:22:16. > :22:25.case of Keane Wallis-Bennett, who was killed by a crumbling wall at
:22:26. > :22:33.her school in Edinburgh. In the Scotsman, the same story. Health and
:22:34. > :22:41.safety probe into tragedy. The Guardian, Tories plan new attack on
:22:42. > :22:43.wind farms. That is all we have time for. I will be back tomorrow. Until
:22:44. > :22:59.then, good night. Good evening. Some of us will need
:23:00. > :23:03.umbrellas during the course of Wednesday, particularly if you live
:23:04. > :23:07.across the West of the country. From the tip of Cornwall all the way to
:23:08. > :23:13.Bristol, through Wales, around the North West and certainly, Northern
:23:14. > :23:16.Ireland and Scotland. It looks as though the clouds will gather and
:23:17. > :23:18.there will be some ad breaks of rain. For the North of