11/05/2017

Download Subtitles

Transcript

:00:00. > :00:16.Welcome to Question Time, which tonight comes from Edinburgh.

:00:17. > :00:18.With us on our panel, the Conservative Home Office

:00:19. > :00:24.The SNP Home Affairs spokesperson, Joanna Cherry.

:00:25. > :00:28.Labour's Shadow Foreign Secretary, Emily Thornberry.

:00:29. > :00:30.The Financial Times columnist and editor of MoneyWeek Magazine,

:00:31. > :00:36.And the actor who campaigned for Scottish independence

:00:37. > :00:57.And just remember at home, you've got Twitter and

:00:58. > :01:02.You can follow us by searching for BBC Question Time.

:01:03. > :01:09.Press the red button to see what others are saying.

:01:10. > :01:15.Our first question from Eric Holford, please.

:01:16. > :01:19.Is the leaked Labour manifesto an attempt to drag Britain back

:01:20. > :01:29.I think that this manifesto is one which is about

:01:30. > :01:33.It's about the 21st-century, it's not looking backwards.

:01:34. > :01:37.It's actually looking at what options do we want.

:01:38. > :01:39.We have a choice now with this general election.

:01:40. > :01:44.We can be a country where we don't need to have nurses going

:01:45. > :01:46.to food banks any more, where we have a National Health

:01:47. > :01:50.Service that has sufficient funds, where elderly women have a visitor

:01:51. > :01:53.in the morning from social care that will get them up at breakfast

:01:54. > :01:56.time instead of having to wait until lunchtime.

:01:57. > :01:59.We will not have young people who will unnecessarily be saddled

:02:00. > :02:02.with debt because they've been to university.

:02:03. > :02:05.We will have chances for young people to be able to move out

:02:06. > :02:08.of their parents' homes and to be able to move into their

:02:09. > :02:13.We will have a world where if you get a job in the City,

:02:14. > :02:16.you're not afraid of having to pay all that money that you are having

:02:17. > :02:18.to pay at the moment to private train companies,

:02:19. > :02:20.frankly quite often owned by other countries.

:02:21. > :02:23.And we will have a train service which is owned by Britain instead.

:02:24. > :02:25.There is a choice, there is another way,

:02:26. > :02:28.and the question is, in this election, do we want to do

:02:29. > :02:31.that, or do we want to carry on with the tired old Tory party

:02:32. > :02:35.that has run out of ideas completely?

:02:36. > :02:43.I take it from what you say, that it was accurate,

:02:44. > :02:49.What it was was that it was an earlier draft.

:02:50. > :02:57.The leak was a couple of earlier drafts.

:02:58. > :03:01.It had been changed quite a lot before we went to the meeting today.

:03:02. > :03:04.So there are things that we don't know that are in it?

:03:05. > :03:10.We are not like Theresa May who will go into a locked room

:03:11. > :03:12.with some friends and draft the manifesto themselves

:03:13. > :03:21.I'm just trying to check the veracity of what we've read.

:03:22. > :03:23.All I'm saying is that we are a democratic party

:03:24. > :03:26.and in those circumstances, when you consult a lot of people,

:03:27. > :03:28.you might get somebody who for whatever reason thinks that

:03:29. > :03:31.it's somehow clever to draft some sort of early, leak some sort

:03:32. > :03:36.I'm not saying it's 100 miles away from the manifesto

:03:37. > :03:47.We were costing it today and there's still more work being done

:03:48. > :03:53.Well, if we put aside the sort of chaotic way that a government

:03:54. > :03:55.in waiting sort of handle the manifesto launch,

:03:56. > :04:01.or the non-launch, if we put aside the fact that the leader doesn't

:04:02. > :04:03.actually agree with some of the issues in it,

:04:04. > :04:06.such as nuclear Trident, and we put aside the background that

:04:07. > :04:10.actually the Government and the country is still living

:04:11. > :04:19.We've brought it down from 157 billion.

:04:20. > :04:23.And we have to remain on course to start living within our means.

:04:24. > :04:27.If we put all of those aside and ask ourselves whether this manifesto

:04:28. > :04:31.is affordable and whether this manifesto would actually deliver

:04:32. > :04:35.the stability and the economy that this country needs to get

:04:36. > :04:40.through the next five years, I think the answer is a resounding no.

:04:41. > :04:45.Some of the commitments in the manifesto will put out

:04:46. > :04:48.of work the thousands of aerospace workers in my constituency,

:04:49. > :04:53.and indeed in the west of Scotland, by the clear antipathy

:04:54. > :04:58.towards aerospace and our manufacturing industry that it is.

:04:59. > :05:06.Yes, you are, you're going to ban it to Saudi Arabia.

:05:07. > :05:14.Jeremy Corbyn has a strong, long-held antipathy

:05:15. > :05:17.towards the aerospace industry and it is absolutely clear that

:05:18. > :05:27.Emily talks about there's some more work being done.

:05:28. > :05:31.They are busy out growing the money tree to try and make up the money.

:05:32. > :05:35.And I think we are in a position where if this manifesto goes ahead

:05:36. > :05:38.and if Labour won the next election, we would find our economy

:05:39. > :05:42.would crash, we would go back to the state of the 1970s,

:05:43. > :05:45.the trade unions would be in the front door.

:05:46. > :05:47.Emily talks about whether the Prime Minister makes up

:05:48. > :05:49.the manifesto with a few friends behind closed doors.

:05:50. > :05:52.The trade union barons have been in, writing the checks and getting

:05:53. > :05:55.what they want in this manifesto, and it risks enterprise,

:05:56. > :05:58.risks business and risks aspiration of people in this country

:05:59. > :06:02.who are trying to make our economy stronger.

:06:03. > :06:09.When the Labour Party came out last week and announced one of the first

:06:10. > :06:12.of their initiatives which was let's give everyone four

:06:13. > :06:14.bank holidays per year, my reaction was,

:06:15. > :06:20.that is not going to set the heather on fire.

:06:21. > :06:22.I genuinely welcome this initiative by the Labour Party.

:06:23. > :06:24.It has put the cat among the pigeons.

:06:25. > :06:27.I think it's genuinely exciting because it's going to give

:06:28. > :06:30.the people of the United Kingdom a proper choice.

:06:31. > :06:38.I get the feeling the questioner is against it.

:06:39. > :06:41.He said he does not want to go back to the 70s.

:06:42. > :06:44.Let us not forget that every single one of us in this room,

:06:45. > :06:46.our parents, our grandparents, our taxes paid for the construction

:06:47. > :06:52.They paid for the electricity grid, for the gas supplies.

:06:53. > :06:58.Suddenly, Margaret Thatcher comes along in the 80s and said,

:06:59. > :07:03.So she sold them all to her friends, who made an absolute fortune

:07:04. > :07:09.And it's about time we brought it back into our management.

:07:10. > :07:12.If Holland can do it, and Germany and France and Spain,

:07:13. > :07:14.if other countries in Europe can run their own systems,

:07:15. > :07:30.I'm old enough to remember the 70s, just.

:07:31. > :07:34.I remember when we had trains that were dirty,

:07:35. > :07:37.smelly and could not run on time at all.

:07:38. > :07:41.I remember the times when we had unions that would bring

:07:42. > :07:43.down our government, our democratically

:07:44. > :07:48.I remember the winter of discontent, the three-day weeks, the power

:07:49. > :07:52.And I don't want to see us go back into that.

:07:53. > :07:55.It's a Tory government that brought us out of that and gave

:07:56. > :08:16.Privatisation, rail fares, I believe, roughly

:08:17. > :08:26.My daughter is a nurse, she earns 50% over the national average wage.

:08:27. > :08:31.She is in a perfectly good profession if she well managed.

:08:32. > :08:40.Yes, she works hard, does a good job, cares for people

:08:41. > :08:42.but she gets well paid for doing it as well.

:08:43. > :08:48.She lives in a nice flat with a nice little car, lives a nice life.

:08:49. > :08:50.And every nurse is the same, are they?

:08:51. > :09:09.I think it's a real shame the Labour manifesto has been leaked in this

:09:10. > :09:12.way because it has enabled the media to focus relentlessly

:09:13. > :09:14.on the Labour manifesto for the whole day, rather

:09:15. > :09:18.than the real issue in this election which should be

:09:19. > :09:20.the record of the Tory government at Westminster.

:09:21. > :09:22.What this election should be about is whether you want a hard

:09:23. > :09:24.Brexit that Theresa May is going to deliver,

:09:25. > :09:27.and the effect that will have on jobs and the economy.

:09:28. > :09:29.And this election should also be about the Tory

:09:30. > :09:31.record on austerity, the fact that, as people

:09:32. > :09:34.in the audience have already said, low income families are having

:09:35. > :09:38.Disabled people are having their mobility cars taken away from them.

:09:39. > :09:40.And hard-working, low income families now have to cope

:09:41. > :09:51.Can you address the question, which was whether the Labour

:09:52. > :09:52.manifesto, specifically, is dragging Britain

:09:53. > :09:55.There are many things in this manifesto which I welcome

:09:56. > :09:58.because they reflect SNP policies which are in place in Scotland,

:09:59. > :10:02.such as no tuition fees, free school meals and votes

:10:03. > :10:07.And I agree with David, if other countries in Europe can

:10:08. > :10:10.have their rail systems nationalised and can run efficiently,

:10:11. > :10:13.as all of us have experienced when we travel on the continent,

:10:14. > :10:18.But I think the big issue about this leak is that somebody

:10:19. > :10:21.inside the Labour Party has done this, and it shows how divided

:10:22. > :10:27.Many of the MPs don't support the policies that

:10:28. > :10:34.Hang on, what do you think the motive is,

:10:35. > :10:39.I suspect the motive is by somebody on the right of the Labour Party

:10:40. > :10:44.But in fact it's drawn attention to it, hasn't it?

:10:45. > :10:47.The reality is that many of the policies in this

:10:48. > :10:49.manifesto are not supported by the Parliamentary Labour Party.

:10:50. > :10:54.Equally, Trident renewal is in the manifesto.

:10:55. > :10:56.Emily doesn't support Trident renewal, and the Scottish Labour

:10:57. > :11:02.So what this illustrates is the chaos and division

:11:03. > :11:08.I just wanted to make the point about the railways,

:11:09. > :11:11.in terms of my understanding is that railway companies, the private ones,

:11:12. > :11:14.receive four times as much funding as British Rail did

:11:15. > :11:21.And these private companies receive that subsidy and then a lot of these

:11:22. > :11:28.You want the railways renationalised.

:11:29. > :11:31.Absolutely, and joined up, so when you buy a ticket in one

:11:32. > :11:33.place, you can get to get right through, not different prices.

:11:34. > :11:37.Is that the most popular policy in what has come out today, for you?

:11:38. > :11:38.Well, actually, the main policy about protecting

:11:39. > :11:41.the most vulnerable people, because the UN has identified

:11:42. > :11:44.that the welfare policies are an aggressive policy that takes

:11:45. > :11:58.Well, Emily's vision of the future is absolutely gorgeous

:11:59. > :12:01.and what I like most about what was said this morning

:12:02. > :12:06.is more in this manifesto, because this list is so long,

:12:07. > :12:09.tens and tens and tens of things, all of which are incredibly

:12:10. > :12:12.expensive, and all of which are things that most people would like.

:12:13. > :12:15.Everybody would like everybody to be rich, everybody

:12:16. > :12:17.would like everybody to be happy, everybody would like everybody to go

:12:18. > :12:20.to university for free, and everybody would like everyone

:12:21. > :12:22.to have a gorgeous NHS that treated everyone on the most

:12:23. > :12:27.However, the slight problem is the money.

:12:28. > :12:30.We still have an enormous national debt, 1.8 trillion.

:12:31. > :12:33.We are adding to it to the tune of over a billion a week.

:12:34. > :12:37.We have a deficit that is still running at 4%.

:12:38. > :12:41.We ran up this debt, and constantly it keeps growing.

:12:42. > :12:43.We are not anywhere near balancing the books.

:12:44. > :12:46.What we have here is billions and billions of extra spending

:12:47. > :12:52.I can't for the life of me imagine how, given that on the way

:12:53. > :12:55.the country runs at the moment we are running a deficit.

:12:56. > :12:57.How this could be costed, I can't imagine.

:12:58. > :12:59.The few bits that have come out so far, we will pay

:13:00. > :13:01.for free school meals, one of the examples,

:13:02. > :13:05.which will be paid for by VAT on private school fees.

:13:06. > :13:08.That may work, but what you don't know is how many people will stop

:13:09. > :13:11.sending their children to private school when they have to pay VAT.

:13:12. > :13:14.So these things are very difficult to cost, and looking

:13:15. > :13:16.round the audience I think we are all old enough

:13:17. > :13:19.to have seen quite a few political cycles come and go,

:13:20. > :13:21.and we've seen what happens when politicians cost things.

:13:22. > :13:23.It never ever works out, the deficit goes up and up.

:13:24. > :13:26.So at some point, someone has to say, everything on this list has

:13:27. > :13:29.to be paid for and almost none of it is affordable.

:13:30. > :13:32.One more thing I will pick up on, the free tuition business.

:13:33. > :13:39.We do have free university tuition in Scotland for Scottish and EU

:13:40. > :13:41.students, obviously not English but Scottish and EU.

:13:42. > :13:44.And we have found here that it doesn't work in the way

:13:45. > :13:48.It doesn't reduce educational inequality.

:13:49. > :13:52.So if you come from a wealthy family in Scotland, you are 3.5 times more

:13:53. > :13:55.likely to apply to university through the UCAS system than

:13:56. > :14:00.So you are suggesting we reintroduce tuition fees...

:14:01. > :14:02.I am still talking, Joanna, I am still talking.

:14:03. > :14:06.I am in the middle of a sentence, David.

:14:07. > :14:09.She is picking you up on what you are saying.

:14:10. > :14:12.I haven't finished my sentence, which is that in England it is 2.5

:14:13. > :14:24.You are 2.5 times more likely to apply if you

:14:25. > :14:27.are wealthy in the UK, in England, than disadvantaged.

:14:28. > :14:32.So what we are seeing here is that the policy

:14:33. > :14:34.of free tuition has not had the desired result.

:14:35. > :15:21.Even afford the aircraft to go on them. If we scrap Trident, would

:15:22. > :15:25.that paved for what Emily Thornberry has been describing? Half of it

:15:26. > :15:30.won't even come close. One of the pledges is to nationalise National

:15:31. > :15:35.Grid. -- National Grid. The UK proportion of that is valued at ?23

:15:36. > :15:40.billion. This is the bankruptcy of this manifesto, the longest P 45

:15:41. > :15:46.issued in history. I can pick up a lot more places I would spend ?23

:15:47. > :15:55.billion than an ideological crusade to re-nationalise National Grid.

:15:56. > :16:03.It's not as Tony Blair said, the protests. The priority is getting

:16:04. > :16:10.Outcomes for the people of the UK, making sure they get access to the

:16:11. > :16:16.universities if they apply. The SNP had to cover the cost by cutting

:16:17. > :16:22.157,000 places, by the way, in colleges across Scotland. Not true.

:16:23. > :16:26.It is. And it's your own statisticic. It's about delivering

:16:27. > :16:29.for people of this country. This manifesto is about Jeremy Corbyn

:16:30. > :16:36.indulging in ideaology no matter what the cost. I will come to you in

:16:37. > :16:41.a moment. Emily Thornberry? I don't really know where to start. You have

:16:42. > :16:46.the manifesto. Eric's question is, dragging Britain back to the 70s?

:16:47. > :16:49.There has been lots of wild allegations made. The last general

:16:50. > :16:52.election, what we said to the Conservatives because they kind of

:16:53. > :16:59.said the same thing then before they adopted a lot of our policies, they

:17:00. > :17:02.said it isn't affordable. So they adopted your policies, so they're

:17:03. > :17:06.pro-Labour are they? Sometimes. If you look at the energy one and

:17:07. > :17:09.compare it with what Ed Miliband was saying, you would think, what is the

:17:10. > :17:15.difference here. So you don't have a problem with the Tories? We've gone

:17:16. > :17:22.further. What we are saying now is that we won't cap it. We'll set up

:17:23. > :17:26.an alternative energy company in each region, that will make them be

:17:27. > :17:29.able to challenge the companies. What we said at the last general

:17:30. > :17:33.election, we said, you are saying that we can't afford it, there is

:17:34. > :17:36.this organisation called the Office for Budget Responsibility, they are

:17:37. > :17:39.independent and we want you to give them your manifesto and our

:17:40. > :17:43.manifesto and they're independent and they can see whose sums add up.

:17:44. > :17:47.Do you know what, the Tories said no. This time around we have said,

:17:48. > :17:54.I'll tell you what, we are going to say the same, you know, rid louse

:17:55. > :17:58.allegations, let us -- liddic rows allegations, let us give your our

:17:59. > :18:01.manifesto, you give in your manifesto and let the Office for

:18:02. > :18:04.Budget Responsibility look at them. You are going to carry on saying

:18:05. > :18:07.these things. We want an independent Booed write to look at your

:18:08. > :18:11.manifesto, our manifesto and look at the sums. Why are you saying no?

:18:12. > :18:19.Emily... Well why? APPLAUSE.

:18:20. > :18:23.Unless I'm wrong, there are other organisations like the Institute for

:18:24. > :18:27.Fiscal Studies who have looked at your costings and you say for

:18:28. > :18:31.instance you will raise less revenue by putting corporation tax up in the

:18:32. > :18:35.long run because people won't invest. People will look at what you

:18:36. > :18:40.say? The question about corporation tax, the Tory Government want to cut

:18:41. > :18:44.it. We already have one of the lowest corporation tax rates of the

:18:45. > :18:48.G 67. We are saying we'll not have that cut and we'll raise it. We

:18:49. > :18:53.won't be making it any higher than any other countries in the Gp area.

:18:54. > :18:58.That will raise a large amount of money, we can pay for a national

:18:59. > :19:02.education service -- G7. They'll have better qualified for more

:19:03. > :19:08.productive staff as a result. I want to go to our audience. You, there?

:19:09. > :19:11.There seems to be a myth about national debt and GDP, somehow the

:19:12. > :19:22.Labour programme is unaffordable. After the Second World War, the

:19:23. > :19:28.national debt of GDP was over 200%, it's under 100% now. If Atlee could

:19:29. > :19:32.afford it, Corbyn's Labour Government is can afford to build

:19:33. > :19:40.the council houses and afford to create the National Bank.

:19:41. > :19:43.APPLAUSE. The question of the national debt

:19:44. > :19:47.after the Second World War is an important and interesting one. That

:19:48. > :19:52.is the last time we had our national debt at a level equivalent to where

:19:53. > :19:55.we are now. Try to remember how we ran that debt up, by having a vast

:19:56. > :19:59.war and killing a lot of people. Once you stop killing people, you

:20:00. > :20:03.can run the debt down. At the moment we have an enormous debt, likely

:20:04. > :20:08.because you spend a lot of money on keeping people alye. We don't want

:20:09. > :20:13.to stop doing that, do we? No, but he says if you can run the debt...

:20:14. > :20:17.8% of our tax revenue at the moment is spent on services our debt.

:20:18. > :20:21.Anything wrong with that? Well, it's not spent on anything else. But you

:20:22. > :20:25.get the money from the debt. People are out there working paying taxes

:20:26. > :20:28.but the large percentage of what they pay goes straight into paying

:20:29. > :20:33.debt every year. Are you from in favour of the national debt going up

:20:34. > :20:37.or down? The point the gentleman makes is an interesting one but what

:20:38. > :20:42.we need to remember is there is this myth drawn up that in some way the

:20:43. > :20:46.Tories can be drawn on the economy. They've missed their own targets on

:20:47. > :20:51.the debt, deficit and borrowing and Emily makes a good point when she

:20:52. > :20:55.says the Tories won't have their figures looked at by the office of

:20:56. > :20:58.budget responsibility. I can tell you why, their manifesto is going to

:20:59. > :21:03.revolve around their plans for a hard Brexit and we know that they've

:21:04. > :21:06.made absolutely no economic assessment whatsoever of the

:21:07. > :21:07.consequences of a hard Brexit. We know that because David Davis told

:21:08. > :21:16.us. APPLAUSE.

:21:17. > :21:20.OK. The man in the checked shirt on the edge? Is Germany stuck in the

:21:21. > :21:25.1970s, because this manifesto doesn't seem to be pushing to the

:21:26. > :21:30.left of Germany, it remains to the right of Germany? So how is Germany

:21:31. > :21:35.stuck in the '70s? Ben, can you take that point? I think Germany doesn't

:21:36. > :21:39.carry the weight of debt or deficit that we do and we should all be

:21:40. > :21:47.concerned that we should continue the direction of living within our

:21:48. > :21:50.means. And giving it away to billionaires and not collecting

:21:51. > :21:55.taxes from national corporations. After things like the NHS and

:21:56. > :21:59.pensions, the fifth biggest expenditure, it's not education,

:22:00. > :22:04.it's not transport, it's not the police, it's debt interest on the

:22:05. > :22:08.national debt. It's ?46 billion of money I can't spend or nor can

:22:09. > :22:11.anybody else spend on all those goodies that some people think are

:22:12. > :22:15.in the Labour manifesto. We have to live within our means and we have to

:22:16. > :22:20.continue to do that. I'm afraid to say, you know, that the Government's

:22:21. > :22:25.record on the economy is strong, the Government's record has created...

:22:26. > :22:30.LAUGHTER. You might laugh, it's ?2.8 million.

:22:31. > :22:34.Unless Emily wants us to cut the debt even faster, we have reduced

:22:35. > :22:40.it. I want you to give up on the politics of austerity. That's what I

:22:41. > :22:46.want you to do. Well, if you want to live... One at a time, please. All

:22:47. > :22:49.I'm saying is that I want you to stop the politics of austerity where

:22:50. > :22:52.ordinary working people have to continue to have their services cut

:22:53. > :22:55.in order to be able to pay the debt and guess what's happening to the

:22:56. > :22:59.debt, it continues to go up because we have to borrow to invest in order

:23:00. > :23:03.to get our economy going. That's the point. We can't just go on like

:23:04. > :23:08.this, we are flatlining. She wants us to go back to the days when Denis

:23:09. > :23:14.Haley gets called back from the airport to balance the books because

:23:15. > :23:21.the relationship with debt is... Nothing to do with Denis Healey.

:23:22. > :23:27.That is the reality. The woman at the back? We need to raise

:23:28. > :23:31.corporation taxes and all parties say we'll raise higher taxes for

:23:32. > :23:37.people who're on ?80,000 or more. That's not going to get anywhere

:23:38. > :23:44.close. Half of us don't earn ?20,000 odd, never mind ?80,000, we need to

:23:45. > :23:48.raise taxes for people earning ?35,000, ?40,000, never mind

:23:49. > :23:52.?80,000. You want more? Yes, as long as it goes back into certain things

:23:53. > :23:57.like the NHS and things like that. We'd pay more taxes but saying that

:23:58. > :24:02.we are going to raise taxes of ?80,000 or more...

:24:03. > :24:07.You, Sir, in the third row? I find it curious, whenever anybody

:24:08. > :24:09.announces any policies that are remotely competitive, the right

:24:10. > :24:13.always say, where is the money coming from. But I find it

:24:14. > :24:19.hypocritical that the money's always found to bail out the banks, it's

:24:20. > :24:22.always found to start wars and it's...

:24:23. > :24:26.APPLAUSE. And it's always found to give tax

:24:27. > :24:32.breaks and start illegal wars abroad. That's when the coffers

:24:33. > :24:37.spill open but don't let's feed poor children with free school meals.

:24:38. > :24:43.APPLAUSE. I want to move on. I'll come back to

:24:44. > :24:48.you, Eric, you asked the question. I'll say one last thing. You talked

:24:49. > :24:53.about free tuition in university, that's great. Back in the 1970s,

:24:54. > :24:58.tuition was free and you got a nice healthy grant. We only have 5% of

:24:59. > :25:02.children going to university. Now our aspiration is for at least ten

:25:03. > :25:07.times that proportion and in Scotland we find it's limited by the

:25:08. > :25:10.number of free places that are available and they'll now have to

:25:11. > :25:13.bring in foreign students and English students who'll pay the fees

:25:14. > :25:23.in order to keep the universities open. In the meantime, we lose more

:25:24. > :25:24.places in colleges than we have in total than Scottish students in

:25:25. > :25:32.university. OK. We have given the Labour

:25:33. > :25:36.manifesto an airing - the leak of the Labour manifesto. We'll go into

:25:37. > :25:42.the costings later on. Before we go on to another question. We are in

:25:43. > :25:46.Norwich next week and the week after that in Belfast. And then I

:25:47. > :25:52.particularly want to draw attention to two special Question Times. The

:25:53. > :25:55.first is in York on Friday, not the usual Thursday, Friday 2nd June

:25:56. > :26:01.where a Question Time audience will put questions to the Prime Minister

:26:02. > :26:08.and to Jeremy Corbyn, not however at the same time. And then on Sunday

:26:09. > :26:12.4th June, Nicola Sturgeon of the SNP and Tim Farron for the Liberal

:26:13. > :26:18.Democrats. That will be here in Edinburgh. So two extra programmes

:26:19. > :26:23.on the Friday and the Sunday, 2nd and 4th June. The details are on the

:26:24. > :26:28.screen and I'll give them at the end in more detail. Another question

:26:29. > :26:32.now, this one from Paul Goodall, please? Will a Conservative advance

:26:33. > :26:35.across Scotland halt a second independence referendum.

:26:36. > :26:41.Conservative advance across Scotland which we saw in the local elections,

:26:42. > :26:45.will it halt a second independence referendum by halting the SNP? David

:26:46. > :26:49.Hayman, what do you make of the local elections and the effect on

:26:50. > :26:54.Scotland if it's carried on through into a local election? Last week was

:26:55. > :26:57.extraordinary. The people in Scotland were laughing themselves

:26:58. > :27:02.silly. The fact is, SNP increased their vote by something like 108,000

:27:03. > :27:07.people. They increased their seats by six. They're now the largest

:27:08. > :27:11.party in four of the largest cities and they won Glasgow. For a

:27:12. > :27:14.Government that's been in power for ten years, that's an extraordinary

:27:15. > :27:14.statement coming from the people of Scotland.

:27:15. > :27:23.APPLAUSE. But, if you read any of the unionist

:27:24. > :27:26.press, it was like a landslide for the Tories and the nail was firmly

:27:27. > :27:42.in the coffin of independence. The Conservatives did... The

:27:43. > :27:46.Conservative... They gained 164 seats didn't they? Yes, but they

:27:47. > :27:50.took them from Labour. The overall numbers between Labour and the

:27:51. > :27:53.Tories stayed much the same. The overall numbers for the SNP have

:27:54. > :27:59.risen, so they've lost them from Labour. Seven seats, the SNP. We

:28:00. > :28:02.gained six. The SNP gained six? Gained six. There is a dispute about

:28:03. > :28:18.it apparently. Merryn Somerset Webb. I am still not

:28:19. > :28:21.sure there will be another independence referendum. It is a

:28:22. > :28:25.long time before we get to the end of the Brexit debate and it may be

:28:26. > :28:29.that Scotland decides that it doesn't want to do that, so it is

:28:30. > :28:34.not a given. But what is interesting about the research is of the Tories

:28:35. > :28:38.in Scotland is that it is partly about the Tory party, partly about

:28:39. > :28:42.having a good leader, but partly about the fact that Scottish

:28:43. > :28:45.politics has become something unpleasant, a division between

:28:46. > :28:51.people who are unionists and who are not. So we have people voting for

:28:52. > :28:55.the SNP who are anti-union, and we have people who are now coalescing

:28:56. > :29:01.around the Tories as the unionist party. This is a terribly sad

:29:02. > :29:04.situation because you have people not necessarily voting for party

:29:05. > :29:09.policy but voting on constitutional issues. We see this in the Scottish

:29:10. > :29:13.parliament where so much time is devoted to constitutional issues and

:29:14. > :29:19.not enough voted to other things... APPLAUSE

:29:20. > :29:27.And I think it has become a very sad thing.

:29:28. > :29:32.I know that Joanna and David very much want independence and I assume

:29:33. > :29:37.because other SNP politicians say they wanted, they must. But if I was

:29:38. > :29:41.an SNP leader I would be trying to build a great country, great place,

:29:42. > :29:45.so that people would want to have the thing that I am offering. I

:29:46. > :29:48.would build it and wait for them to come, rather than go on about it

:29:49. > :29:49.relentlessly and try and kick them into coming along with me.

:29:50. > :30:02.APPLAUSE I think we have come to a sad state

:30:03. > :30:05.in Scottish politics and I am glad to see a unionist research and

:30:06. > :30:08.reflected in the Tory party but I wish it did not have to happen this

:30:09. > :30:12.way. -- I am glad to see a unionist

:30:13. > :30:14.research is. I think, as David has

:30:15. > :30:17.already eloquently said, rumours of a huge Tory revival have

:30:18. > :30:19.been greatly exaggerated. The real story of last week's local

:30:20. > :30:22.elections was that Scotland was the only place in the UK

:30:23. > :30:25.where the Tories were firmly beaten But it's clear that the Tories

:30:26. > :30:28.are replacing Labour But as I go out on the doorsteps

:30:29. > :30:35.of Edinburgh South West I come across an interesting phenomenon

:30:36. > :30:37.whereby former Labour voters are saying that they want to lend me

:30:38. > :30:40.their vote to stop the Tories Because what this election is really

:30:41. > :30:45.about is about who will stand up Who will be a strong voice

:30:46. > :30:48.for Scotland at Westminster? And what voters in Scotland

:30:49. > :30:54.have to decide is, do they want a strong voice,

:30:55. > :30:57.such as that provided by me and my colleagues

:30:58. > :31:00.over the last two years, or do they want just another Tory

:31:01. > :31:04.backbencher who will simply rubber-stamp all of Theresa May's

:31:05. > :31:08.plans for austerity But to take the independence

:31:09. > :31:12.question on the chin, this general election is not

:31:13. > :31:16.about whether there will be a second Of course it's important that people

:31:17. > :31:23.in Scotland have a choice at the end of the 18-month period

:31:24. > :31:26.after the triggering of Article 50, a choice between a hard Brexit

:31:27. > :31:30.and an independent Scotland. And the Scottish Parliament has

:31:31. > :31:32.already voted that people in Scotland should have that choice,

:31:33. > :31:36.and polling shows that people in Scotland believe it should be up

:31:37. > :31:39.to the Scottish Parliament whether or not we have a second

:31:40. > :31:43.independence referendum. This second independence referendum

:31:44. > :31:46.hasn't just come out of a void. It's come as a result of Scotland

:31:47. > :31:50.facing being dragged out of the European Union

:31:51. > :31:53.against her will. People like Merryn, who were active

:31:54. > :31:57.in the No campaign during the last general election made a promise

:31:58. > :32:01.to Scotland that the only way to guarantee our EU citizenship

:32:02. > :32:04.was to vote to remain part So of course Scots should be given

:32:05. > :32:12.a choice, when the time is right. But of course, the issue in this

:32:13. > :32:15.general election is, do you want to give Theresa May

:32:16. > :32:18.a thumping majority, so she can do whatever she likes

:32:19. > :32:21.without any scrutiny, or do you want strong voices that

:32:22. > :32:25.will stand up, and in Scotland those strong voices that will stand up

:32:26. > :32:31.against Theresa May are the SNP. The woman in

:32:32. > :32:45.the middle with spectacles. I would just like to disagree

:32:46. > :32:48.with what Merryn said about politics I think there's a massive thirst

:32:49. > :32:52.for social justice here. And for the Labour Party manifesto,

:32:53. > :32:58.I think it's very, very welcome. I would be interested to know

:32:59. > :33:00.what you think about this Emily. Unfortunately, the Labour Party has

:33:01. > :33:04.positioned itself in Scotland as a vote for Labour

:33:05. > :33:08.being a vote against independence. I'd love to vote for Labour

:33:09. > :33:14.but I really don't know what to do. But you want to vote

:33:15. > :33:19.for independence? Well, I'm afraid I have

:33:20. > :33:23.to be straight with you. A vote for Labour is not

:33:24. > :33:26.a vote for independence. We believe in a United Kingdom

:33:27. > :33:29.and we don't think that it's in the interests of Scottish people

:33:30. > :33:31.to become independent. We think that you will end

:33:32. > :33:33.up with supercharged We think it is to the advantage

:33:34. > :33:39.of all of us to remain united, and we think that a vote for Labour

:33:40. > :33:42.is a vote against austerity. You will either get

:33:43. > :33:44.a Labour government There is no alternative

:33:45. > :33:48.to those two. And if you want to stand up

:33:49. > :33:51.to the Tories, if you want to fight And we get some Labour MPs

:33:52. > :33:56.from Scotland in Parliament, Alternatively, being part

:33:57. > :34:01.of a Labour government. And the SNP want to place

:34:02. > :34:05.themselves as the only alternative to the Tories,

:34:06. > :34:07.but that simply isn't true. And a vote for Labour is a vote

:34:08. > :34:10.to stopping the divisive politics. Stopping the divisive politics

:34:11. > :34:13.in Scotland and stopping divisive politics across the whole

:34:14. > :34:18.of the United Kingdom. I feel like you're missing my point,

:34:19. > :34:24.which is that I feel like my vote for Labour would be hijacked

:34:25. > :34:27.as a vote against another It's a vote for Labour,

:34:28. > :34:32.for the Labour Party manifesto, Why can't you vote for the SNP,

:34:33. > :34:38.if you want independence? The SNP is not the party

:34:39. > :34:43.I would like to vote for. I find the Labour Party's manifesto,

:34:44. > :34:47.from what I've heard of it so far, is more radical,

:34:48. > :34:54.it gives me more hope. The SNP policy appears to be,

:34:55. > :35:00.let's have a vote and vote again, and vote again, until we get,

:35:01. > :35:03.until they get the result What happens if it's a 50%

:35:04. > :35:14.plus one in a future Do we get a chance to vote

:35:15. > :35:20.the other way again? The politics of referenda

:35:21. > :35:23.are just so divisive and it It has divided families,

:35:24. > :35:32.divided communities, The politicians are elected to take

:35:33. > :35:40.decisions on our behalf and they hand it back to us,

:35:41. > :35:44.and we've made a bit We've just divided ourselves

:35:45. > :35:52.against ourselves. I was elected to the Scottish

:35:53. > :35:55.Parliament in 1999. You can imagine what it was like

:35:56. > :35:58.being a Tory in 1999 Scotland. One of the reasons they've changed,

:35:59. > :36:05.the Scottish Parliament was an exciting, dynamic place,

:36:06. > :36:07.the Labour Party, the SNP, the Greens, Donald Dewar

:36:08. > :36:11.was the First Minister, It was full of ideas

:36:12. > :36:17.for how to run Scotland, how to fix social issues,

:36:18. > :36:19.make some difference And I think what I'm disappointed

:36:20. > :36:26.by is that has transitioned away from that under Nicola Sturgeon,

:36:27. > :36:30.to an obsession about It's about not

:36:31. > :36:42.doing the day job. It's all about how can we manoeuvre

:36:43. > :36:45.for another referendum. You know, my father came from Fife,

:36:46. > :36:48.a Labour stronghold, where it stood for social justice,

:36:49. > :36:53.for social mobility and education. Education is what Scotland is known

:36:54. > :36:58.around the world for. Well, I'm afraid under

:36:59. > :37:01.Nicola Sturgeon we saw the literacy It has been a disaster,

:37:02. > :37:07.because Nicola Sturgeon can only And whatever your politics are,

:37:08. > :37:16.Ruth Davidson is providing No one knows what Labour stands

:37:17. > :37:21.for any more in Scotland, and it's either the SNP,

:37:22. > :37:24.or it's Ruth Davidson, and she has done a fantastic job

:37:25. > :37:27.in making sure... You may laugh, but the people

:37:28. > :37:30.of Scotland are already showing that they agree,

:37:31. > :37:32.that they want to put people in Parliament

:37:33. > :37:34.and the Scottish Parliament to deliver policies that make

:37:35. > :37:36.a difference to their lives every Why was the Tory leaflet put

:37:37. > :37:44.through my door on last week's local government elections

:37:45. > :37:47.all about independence or not? It was all about the

:37:48. > :37:49.constitutional issues. Nothing at all with

:37:50. > :37:54.local government. And yet the leaflet from the SNP had

:37:55. > :37:56.a detailed programme of what they wanted to do

:37:57. > :38:00.in local government. I wasn't out canvassing

:38:01. > :38:02.in the local governments But I think, you know,

:38:03. > :38:07.the choice is clear. The SNP, the Scottish Parliament

:38:08. > :38:12.have had a lot of extra powers They can use them in all sorts

:38:13. > :38:16.of ways, imaginatively, They could put up the taxes,

:38:17. > :38:21.as some people would like, if they wanted to, but it's

:38:22. > :38:23.not about that. I'm afraid it's about independence,

:38:24. > :38:27.and all of us can go hang. How can the Conservative Party tell

:38:28. > :38:33.Nicola Sturgeon she's not getting on with the day job

:38:34. > :38:35.when they themselves aren't getting the day job done,

:38:36. > :38:37.when they're calling In response to what Emily said,

:38:38. > :38:52.this lady voiced her concerns about the Labour Party and why

:38:53. > :38:56.she can't support them. And your answer was, to paraphrase,

:38:57. > :38:58.we think that it's wrong I'd like to say that that's exactly

:38:59. > :39:04.the kind of attitude that's got you into the sorry state of affairs

:39:05. > :39:09.that you are in now in Scotland. I want a question from

:39:10. > :39:17.Amelia Dole, please. As a young person, why should I find

:39:18. > :39:20.the UK an attractive place As a student I'm quite worried

:39:21. > :39:30.about university and how universities are funded,

:39:31. > :39:32.and also schemes like You are worried about the way

:39:33. > :39:38.that the vote went. I speak to a lot of students

:39:39. > :39:46.who are worried about all sorts of things I suspect they shouldn't

:39:47. > :39:49.be worried about. Because we've got a long time now,

:39:50. > :39:53.one, two, maybe three, four, five years ahead of us to arrange

:39:54. > :39:56.how we will be leaving the European Union and make

:39:57. > :40:00.transition arrangements. I suspect most of the things

:40:01. > :40:03.you are worried about won't change at all during that period

:40:04. > :40:05.and probably won't change beyond it. We had arrangements

:40:06. > :40:07.with universities in Europe long Things like Erasmus,

:40:08. > :40:14.etc, may well continue. You will still be able to study

:40:15. > :40:18.abroad in exactly the same way, in the same way that my mother went

:40:19. > :40:21.to university in France in the 60s, and that was before

:40:22. > :40:23.the European Union. I don't imagine there will be any

:40:24. > :40:27.difference in terms of freedom If you are working, there will be

:40:28. > :40:31.differences that will come under... A young person becomes middle-aged,

:40:32. > :40:33.becomes an older person, and she will become an older person,

:40:34. > :40:36.a middle-aged person, I think one of the things that's

:40:37. > :40:44.attractive, it's going to, I hope, make the UK a much more successful

:40:45. > :40:47.economy in the long term. It makes us much more

:40:48. > :40:48.outward looking. It makes us able to make free trade

:40:49. > :40:52.arrangements around the world. It allows us to take a leadership

:40:53. > :40:54.role in global free trade, We'll be able to sit on the WTO

:40:55. > :41:01.and talk about global free trade in a way that we can't inside

:41:02. > :41:04.the European Union because it's But also something quite interesting

:41:05. > :41:07.about European politics. Over the last year or so there has

:41:08. > :41:11.been a sense of relief in Europe because the so-called populists

:41:12. > :41:12.haven't gained control in any countries, haven't

:41:13. > :41:16.won any elections. So I quite often hear people saying,

:41:17. > :41:19.the UK has become a place I don't want to live,

:41:20. > :41:21.it's anti-immigration, fascist, this, that,

:41:22. > :41:23.because it's changed I don't think this is true,

:41:24. > :41:29.and if you look across to Europe you see dynamics that

:41:30. > :41:31.are maybe more frightening. Can you have imagined 34%

:41:32. > :41:34.of the UK voting for Ukip? You saw 34% of France

:41:35. > :41:39.voting for Le Pen. The same in Holland

:41:40. > :41:41.and in Austria where... So, you know, I think

:41:42. > :42:00.that in political terms, the UK is just as liberal

:42:01. > :42:03.and pleasant a place to live And I think that in economic terms

:42:04. > :42:07.and in global freedom terms, you will find that your life unfolds

:42:08. > :42:10.in a pretty good way. Emily Thornberry, do you think

:42:11. > :42:14.the UK will be as attractive a place I think that it all depends

:42:15. > :42:20.on how we do the deal. I think that there are many,

:42:21. > :42:23.many choices that we need to make and I don't think that it starts

:42:24. > :42:26.well if you begin by having just come back from seeing the Queen

:42:27. > :42:29.and standing on the steps of Number Ten Downing St

:42:30. > :42:31.and accusing those who you are supposed to be coming

:42:32. > :42:34.to an agreement with of plotting against Britain and wanting

:42:35. > :42:37.to bring down the government Once you say those things,

:42:38. > :42:43.they cannot be unsaid. And what concerns me

:42:44. > :42:45.is that at the moment we seem to be arguing

:42:46. > :42:48.about what it is that we are This is ten months

:42:49. > :42:51.after the referendum. I'm very worried that this

:42:52. > :42:53.Prime Minister does not seem to understand that the first

:42:54. > :42:56.priority for any government is the The second priority

:42:57. > :43:00.must be the economy. Particularly those who are just

:43:01. > :43:02.starting out in life, have been well educated,

:43:03. > :43:05.have done their best at school, who are setting out in life

:43:06. > :43:10.and the world turns around and says, not at the moment, we are going

:43:11. > :43:13.to Brexit, there aren't any That really frightens me,

:43:14. > :43:19.and we should be thinking, every Prime Minister until now has

:43:20. > :43:22.put the economy as a priority and yet our current Prime Minister

:43:23. > :43:25.seems to be more interested in whether we're leaving

:43:26. > :43:27.the European Court of Justice or not, and how much she can insult

:43:28. > :43:31.the people who we are supposed to be negotiating with,

:43:32. > :43:33.instead of looking after our economy Do you have an answer

:43:34. > :43:37.to the question Jeremy Corbyn Under Labour, would we

:43:38. > :43:40.inevitably leave the EU? Listen, we've had a referendum,

:43:41. > :43:44.and the referendum We went out and we said

:43:45. > :43:48.to people, look, think The question is, would we, under

:43:49. > :43:56.Labour, inevitably leave the EU? Given that we had a referendum

:43:57. > :43:59.and the public have told us that they want to leave,

:44:00. > :44:01.then we have to leave. And the question then is,

:44:02. > :44:04.how do we do it and what kind of continuing relationship do

:44:05. > :44:07.we have, and how close do we remain to the European Union,

:44:08. > :44:10.in order to make sure that we look The way we are going at the moment,

:44:11. > :44:32.we will have either no Joanna Cherry. 62% of people in

:44:33. > :44:38.Scotland voted to remain part of the European Union. It's the United

:44:39. > :44:42.Kingdom. So what is your answer? My answer to the question is that I

:44:43. > :44:45.don't think the United Kingdom will be an attractive place for a young

:44:46. > :44:50.person to live after Brexit. I'll tell you why. Let's start with the

:44:51. > :44:55.universities. I've got two major universities in my constituency. Her

:44:56. > :45:00.yet watt has already announced redundancies and cuts citing Brexit

:45:01. > :45:05.and the effect of the Tory policies. I speak to students at the two

:45:06. > :45:10.Universities, they tell me they are deeply worried about research

:45:11. > :45:17.funding, erazz news and students not wanting to come to study in Scotland

:45:18. > :45:19.and the UK and they are worried about academics turning down job

:45:20. > :45:25.offers because they are worried about the position of EU nationals.

:45:26. > :45:32.That is the most important is it? No, it's jobs and the economy. An

:45:33. > :45:36.institute told us if there is a hard Brexit, Scotland will over the next

:45:37. > :45:41.decade lose 80,000 jobs and on average our wages will be ?2,000

:45:42. > :45:45.lower per annum. Again, not attractive for a young person.

:45:46. > :45:49.Emily, you are absolutely right, there are other pars of the UK that

:45:50. > :45:54.voted to leave the European Union. The UK as a whole voted to leave the

:45:55. > :45:57.European Union, that is the point. And we are democrats at the end of

:45:58. > :46:02.the day and a United Kingdom's made a decision and we should abide by

:46:03. > :46:06.the instructions. If you let me develop the point. The compromised

:46:07. > :46:11.proposal would have benefitted the whole of the UK and it was that the

:46:12. > :46:14.UK should stay in the single market. It wasn't clear around the debate of

:46:15. > :46:18.the referendum that all leaves wanted to leave the single market.

:46:19. > :46:24.We advocated the whole of the UK should stay in the single market.

:46:25. > :46:29.Those proposals, despite having support across-the-board in Europe

:46:30. > :46:34.and support from leading academics such as the former European Court of

:46:35. > :46:40.Justice judge, they were binned by the Tories without being considered

:46:41. > :46:46.at all. Ben Wallace, you were in favour of remain? I'm in favour of

:46:47. > :46:50.free movement of people and barrier free trade with our partners of

:46:51. > :46:56.England. That's why I'm a unionist in the United Kingdom. Look,

:46:57. > :46:59.pre-Brexit and post-Brexit the UK will be a great place to live

:47:00. > :47:03.because it's a wonderful country. APPLAUSE.

:47:04. > :47:08.It's full of diverse, different cultures. It's a powerful economy,

:47:09. > :47:13.whatever way you cut it in the world. We live, all of us in some of

:47:14. > :47:20.the highest living standards on earth compared to many other people.

:47:21. > :47:25.We are a civilised, educated, multilingual often nowadays country

:47:26. > :47:31.and I'm proud to live in it. Joanna Cherry says Scottish people will

:47:32. > :47:36.lose 80,000 jobs and people will be ?2,000 worse off. We need to see the

:47:37. > :47:41.outcome of the negotiations. Joanna Cherry forgets that a million people

:47:42. > :47:45.voted for Brexit in Scotland. There is a large number of people that

:47:46. > :47:49.voted remain, they were not nationalists, they were unionists

:47:50. > :47:53.and the number of people that voted Brexit were actually nationalists,

:47:54. > :47:58.one of her own MSPs voted for Brexit. The reality is the UK has

:47:59. > :48:02.wonderful opportunities. We'll be able to work I think in many parts

:48:03. > :48:07.of Europe and the rest of the world. There'll be other opportunities and

:48:08. > :48:11.will come along if others don't, in other parts of the world, because

:48:12. > :48:16.we'll be freer in some areas we haven't been in the past. I think we

:48:17. > :48:20.have a great future and Britain has the power and the people to make a

:48:21. > :48:23.great future for this country. So I don't think anyone should worry and

:48:24. > :48:27.I definitely don't think people should talk down this country,

:48:28. > :48:31.Emily, about whether or not it's going to be a disaster. It's going

:48:32. > :48:37.to be OK, we are going to get there, and in the long-term... How do you

:48:38. > :48:41.know? We hear this... I believe in the British people. The man on the

:48:42. > :48:44.corner there? Yes. I worry that the arrogance coming out of Ben Wallace

:48:45. > :48:49.and the Conservative Party might actually cost the UK dearly. There's

:48:50. > :48:53.no guarantee that we will be better off outside the European Union. The

:48:54. > :48:58.UK may be a prosperous country now, but that may not necessarily

:48:59. > :49:03.continue to exist. It's worth remembering Glasgow was once the

:49:04. > :49:06.second city of the empire, now 40% of people live below the poverty

:49:07. > :49:09.line there. Why do you think the Tories in

:49:10. > :49:12.Government will be held responsible for that because whoever is in

:49:13. > :49:16.Government, according to Emily Thornberry, would be negotiating

:49:17. > :49:21.Brexit, because that's what the referendum decided? Yes, true. But I

:49:22. > :49:24.think the discourse coming out of the Conservative Party has been

:49:25. > :49:27.leaning much further to a hard Brexit than what Keir Starmer is

:49:28. > :49:32.talking about, for example, and there has to be a point at which you

:49:33. > :49:36.say the cost of leaving the European Union is greater than the potential

:49:37. > :49:41.- yes, the cost of leaving is not as good as the benefits we have if we

:49:42. > :49:44.were to stay. David Hayman? I'm really glad that a young person

:49:45. > :49:46.asked this question. I think my generation have made a mess of this

:49:47. > :49:54.world. APPLAUSE.

:49:55. > :49:59.And the future... The future no longer belongs to us, the future is

:50:00. > :50:02.yours. You have a vision. It's interesting that 76% of retired

:50:03. > :50:07.people in Scotland voted against independence. The majority of people

:50:08. > :50:12.who voted for Brexit are elderly people. You voted not to leave

:50:13. > :50:15.Europe because you are internationalists. We currently have

:50:16. > :50:19.something like just under four million young people in this country

:50:20. > :50:24.living below the poverty line. If that's how it is at the moment, it's

:50:25. > :50:27.going to be a hell of a lot worse after we've left Europe all together

:50:28. > :50:34.because the conditions will not be to your advantage in any way at all.

:50:35. > :50:38.Now, I run a humanitarian organisation and I work with

:50:39. > :50:42.projects in some of the poorest countries like Palestine, Malawi and

:50:43. > :50:49.Afghanistan. We are feeding people, educating kids and setting up

:50:50. > :50:55.women's workshops. They say to me, you live in the sixth richest

:50:56. > :51:00.country in the world, you must see no desperation. I laugh and say, we

:51:01. > :51:04.have four million people below the poverty line. That means they'll go

:51:05. > :51:08.to sleep with nothing in their bellies, never get a birthday

:51:09. > :51:12.present, never get a Christmas present, no-one will ever buy them

:51:13. > :51:15.an ice-cream, no-one will ever take them to see Star Wars, there is a

:51:16. > :51:18.poverty of opportunity for young people in this country and because

:51:19. > :51:20.of Brexit, it's going to get a hell of a lot worse.

:51:21. > :51:28.APPLAUSE. OK. I'll come to you and then you.

:51:29. > :51:34.What is the assumption that brex sit bad and should be held up, Scottish

:51:35. > :51:40.independence is good because it brings lots of benefits. If we voted

:51:41. > :51:45.for Scottish independence and it was held up by people like some on the

:51:46. > :51:53.panel here, what would you think of that, Joanna? People saying, well,

:51:54. > :51:57.we didn't really want independence, if it went 52-48, if they didn't

:51:58. > :52:00.want independence it should have been scrutinised by the Scottish

:52:01. > :52:06.Parliament, it should be debated by all parties... Well, this comes

:52:07. > :52:10.back... I'll come back to what I said earlier. Scottish Government

:52:11. > :52:16.proposed a compromise which would have united some of the people who

:52:17. > :52:20.voted to leave with those who voted to remain by proposing staying in

:52:21. > :52:26.the single market. That's never been seriously looked at. Keir Starmer,

:52:27. > :52:29.for whom I have a degree of admiration, produced six red lines

:52:30. > :52:33.which are tantamount the staying in the single market. I'm afraid it was

:52:34. > :52:35.closing the stable door after the horse bolted because the Labour

:52:36. > :52:40.Party voted to trigger Article 50. Now, the issues around the

:52:41. > :52:47.implications of leaving the European Union were not properly debated

:52:48. > :52:53.during the EU referendum. Many lies were told... You can't have it both

:52:54. > :52:58.ways, can you? Many lies were told by members of the leave campaign

:52:59. > :53:01.who're now Cabinet Ministers. This general election is all about

:53:02. > :53:06.scrutinising. Do you want to rerun the referendum? No, I don't want a

:53:07. > :53:09.rerun of the referendum. I want the British Government to respect the

:53:10. > :53:14.fact that people in Scotland voted to remain and, at the very least, to

:53:15. > :53:17.look at the compromised proposal put forward, rather than treating it

:53:18. > :53:22.with the derision with which it has been met. You, Sir? I must take

:53:23. > :53:24.issue with Ben claiming that after Brexit Britain's going to be OK.

:53:25. > :53:39.When did OK just become enough? There is this assumption that those

:53:40. > :53:43.people within Europe is automatically going to be better

:53:44. > :53:47.off. If you are a young Spanish person under 25 facing nearly 50%

:53:48. > :53:49.unemployment, you may be asking yourself actually whether the

:53:50. > :53:54.European Union is working for you. If you are a Greek who is finding it

:53:55. > :53:59.particularly hard to get through life, you may be asking yourself

:54:00. > :54:03.whether the European Union is all it's up to be for them and there's

:54:04. > :54:07.this assumption that by leaving, somehow we are automatically going

:54:08. > :54:09.to be worse off and that it's guaranteed that if you stay in the

:54:10. > :54:14.European Union everything's going to be fine. There's poverty in the

:54:15. > :54:17.European Union, there's poverty in nearly every country. It doesn't

:54:18. > :54:22.disappear if you join the EU. Can you answer the point that Joanna

:54:23. > :54:26.Cherry made, why is nobody giving serious thought to the idea of

:54:27. > :54:36.remaining in the single market? Well, I think... I can answer that.

:54:37. > :54:41.Why should she answer it? Because I'm Shadow Foreign Secretary. We've

:54:42. > :54:49.looked at this very carefully in the Labour Party and the difficulty is,

:54:50. > :54:53.is that because we are not Spain, we are not Greece, we have a highly

:54:54. > :54:57.developed complicated large economy and there's great difficulty in us

:54:58. > :55:01.remaining in the single market and leaving the European Union because

:55:02. > :55:03.our economy is so complex. We need to have our own Free Trade

:55:04. > :55:07.Agreement. Nothing else will work. We have looked into this and it's to

:55:08. > :55:10.the advantage of Britain therefore to have a Free Trade Agreement but

:55:11. > :55:15.one that works for our economy first and foremost. Can I just say this.

:55:16. > :55:20.I'm fed up of Conservatives telling us that because we are worried about

:55:21. > :55:24.the way in which they're proceeding with these so-called negotiations,

:55:25. > :55:28.that we are somehow or other not patriotic. How dare they. We are

:55:29. > :55:32.really worried about this country and we want to make sure we get the

:55:33. > :55:35.best deal. That means the best deal for our economy so youngsters get a

:55:36. > :55:40.chance. You, Sir, up there on the gangway? I

:55:41. > :55:52.wanted to pick up on something that David Hayman was saying. I don't

:55:53. > :56:01.doubt doubt the sincerity of what you said and I'm 27, I don't know if

:56:02. > :56:07.that means I'm the lower generation than you. I resent the fact that you

:56:08. > :56:11.said we are not outward looking. The world isn't just Europe. We are

:56:12. > :56:15.stagnating. There's austerity being imposed on people far beyond

:56:16. > :56:19.Westminster, there are parts of the world, Commonwealth, India, New

:56:20. > :56:23.Zealand, that we abandoned at the creation of the European Union that

:56:24. > :56:27.we should be engaging with and there are horizons on the edge of Europe

:56:28. > :56:29.and some of us on the leave side, thank you very much, are

:56:30. > :56:33.internationalists and outward looking. I can't invite you to

:56:34. > :56:38.answer because our time is up, I'm afraid. Unless you want to answer.

:56:39. > :56:42.I'm told you can because we have a bit more time than we thought.

:56:43. > :56:47.David? It came into my head. A quote from one of my great heroes no

:56:48. > :56:52.longer with us, a spiritual, moral and political leader, Nelson

:56:53. > :56:57.Mandela. He said two things. They always ring true with me. He said,

:56:58. > :57:01.what counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived, but the

:57:02. > :57:07.difference we make to the lives of others. The second thing he said

:57:08. > :57:09.was, overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, it's an act of

:57:10. > :57:18.justice. APPLAUSE.

:57:19. > :57:27.Does that answer your point? That wasn't a direct answer. Fair enough.

:57:28. > :57:30.That's admirable and I haven't seen anything that disagrees with that.

:57:31. > :57:36.We have to stop, I'm afraid. Our time is up. Norwich next week for

:57:37. > :57:42.Question Time, Belfast the week after that. Remember those special

:57:43. > :57:45.programmes I mentioned earlier. Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn

:57:46. > :57:50.separately with a Question Time audience in York on Friday 2nd June,

:57:51. > :57:54.chance to question the Prime Minister and Leader of the

:57:55. > :58:00.Opposition and then Nicola Sturgeon and Tim Farron, Sunday 4th June here

:58:01. > :58:03.in Edinburgh. So if you want to quiz the party leaders, details of how to

:58:04. > :58:09.apply are there on the screen now. You can go to our website or you can

:58:10. > :58:12.call the number on the screen. If you are listening on Five Live,

:58:13. > :58:18.the debate goes on on Question Time extra time. My thanks to this panel

:58:19. > :58:21.and to all of you from Edinburgh who came here to take part. Until then

:58:22. > :58:48.from Question Time, good night. The race is on to complete

:58:49. > :58:51.London's most ambitious railway. I don't think we've seen anything

:58:52. > :58:54.to this scale and complexity before. It gets the nerves going,

:58:55. > :58:58.the adrenaline pumping. This is one of the busiest

:58:59. > :59:04.roads in London. We've got to get the track in,

:59:05. > :59:07.we've got to get the platform, and then we've got to get out of

:59:08. > :59:11.the way cos the trains are coming.