05/06/2017 Reporting Scotland

Good evening on Election Reporting Scotland.

We are into the last week of campaigning,

as Nicola Sturgeon and Tim Farron answer questions from

And the row over policing following the London attacks.

The final week of the election and, from nowhere, it

Following the weekend terror attack in London,

arguments about security dominated today on the campaign trail.

The subject also featured in a special election edition

of Question Time from Edinburgh tonight, featuring SNP

leader Nicola Surgeon and the Lib Dem's Tim Farron.

Our political reporter Andrew Kerr watched the debate

and it started, Andrew, with the issue of terrorism and security?

That is correct. It is the issue everyone is wanting to talk about

today. It dominated the campaign today. The Labour Party leader said

that Theresa May should resign over police cuts. And at the leaders

special, Tim Farron and so the question when it came up regarding

the extra powers the police should maybe be given. He had a different

response. What they want more than anything is the resources to catch

people. But what do the terrorists want others to do? They want us to

turn in on herself and divide ourselves. They want us to give up

our freedoms and we will not do the otherwise the bill have one.

And Nicola Surgeon again faced questions from an audience

The special took place in Edinburgh. Security was uppermost in everyone's

moaned but she did not want a knee jerk response that undermine the

liberties and freedoms we currently have. On an independence referendum,

she was criticised for pushing it by some people. And on her track

record, very critical questions from the audience, particularly around

the question of education. When we come to contest the next Scottish

parliament questions, if I am asking people to vote for me again, I

expect to be judged on that. It is legitimate to be asked that

question. But this week, we are not choosing a Scottish Government, we

are choosing MPs to go to Westminster, and that will determine

whether the funding for schools and education goes up or down.

And one other development tonight, more confusion for Labour,

this time involving the party in Wales?

The Welsh Labour Party did not appear to be singing from the same

song sheet. It is all about the Barnett formula, the formulae used

to distribute money to Scotland, Ireland and whales. They want to

move to evenly spaced formula and the Labour leader in whales says

that there should be a different formula. We put that to the Scottish

Labour Party. They said that our manifesto costings are based on the

Barnett formula and we will not scrap it. The Labour Party singing

from a different song sheet in different parts of the United

Kingdom. Last week, Jeremy Corbyn was seeing very different things

about a second independence referendum than what the leadership

of the Scottish Labour Party were seeing. More too, that I am sure.

More from the election campaign coming up, but first,

the rest of the day's news from Sally McNair.

People in the island communities of Barra and Vatersay came together

today for the funeral of teenager Eilidh MacLeod, one of the victims

Friends and family heard how Eilidh packed "a lot of life"

into her 14 years. Cameron Buttle reports.

A small honour guard walked her to the hearse that

took her home, for one last night, her family.

The McLeod family live in the shadow of the Church

The family gently carried up the hill.

The piper played a well-known Gaelic song, a song that

praises the beauty of a fair-haired Barra girl.

Outside, mourners perched wherever they could.

Added extra ferries and flights to bring people here.

Police estimate that around 1,000 came to pay their respects.

Inside, Eilidh's great-uncle paid tribute.

In contrast to the hate that took her life,

Eilidh's life was, and now stands as,

a testament forever to the world of love, of innocence,

goodness, generosity, kindness and faith.

The priest who led the service said it was important to

remember that Eilidh was a happy girl who

had 14 happy years, and the last few were the happiest

Eilidh was a bubbly, fun-loving girl, a talented girl.

When I met her, I sensed a positive, loving, happy girl.

People were there to remember the tragic part of the decade that

were cut away from a life, many felt, and so that the family could

see that fellow feeling that everybody had, not just in the

island, but in other islands and the mainland.

As the cortege wound round the island, Eilidh was taken over

the causeway to Vatersay, where she moved to back years ago.

It is perhaps best ended with the words her family.

A Fatal Accident Inquiry into the death of a 12-year-old girl

who died when a school wall collapsed, has begun in Edinburgh.

Keane Wallis-Bennett suffered fatal crushing injuries in April 2014,

when a wall in the PE changing room at Liberton High fell on top of her.

The judge in the fraud trial of the former owner

of Rangers Football Club, Craig Whyte, has urged the jury

to "keep cool heads" and take a long, hard look

Mr Whyte is accused of acquiring Rangers by fraud in May 2011.

He denies the charge and a second charge under the Companies Act.

Now back to Stephen. Thanks, Sally.

Rolling coverage of the London terror attacks led to last-minute

Sunday Politics Scotland was supposed to be showing the

last of its leader interviews with Willie Rennie from

Instead, we are screening the interview which Gordon

Jeremy Corbyn has called for the Prime Minister to resign. He says

she has presided over cuts in policing. What do you make of that?

I think it is a rather odd point in the middle of an election campaign

deciding who will be the new Prime Minister. But the central point is

fear. She was Home Secretary for seven years and know she is trying

to find solutions to a problem she has presided over. The cuts in

policing, specifically recently, have been a particular problem,

especially when the terror threat has increased. But we also have

other issues. We are also pursuing mass surveillance. It is costly and

ineffective and does not target based on evidence and that is why I

think there is a valid case that Jeremy Corbyn has made, although

rather odd that he has needed during a general election campaign. She

should go? I would expect the voters to make that decision. You mentioned

mass surveillance. Even the speech that was made yesterday Theresa May

by, are you preparing to support some sort of crackdown which could

be announced over the next couple of days, perhaps even before the

election. Or are you more concerned about civil liberties? We do need to

have a bit of caution at this time. People are very angry and frustrated

and fearful. We need to make sure we protect the cherished Civil

Liberties we all want to keep. Seeing enough is enough is tough,

but what does it actually mean? A lot of people up and down the

country will think, she is right, not enough has been done. If it

means bringing in new rules about detaining suspects for longer by the

police than they can do at the moment. We need to be that on

evidence. But people will say, you can now have evidence. Look at what

happened in Manchester. What you need to have is the solid evidence

that it actually works. This would not last naturally build long-term

solutions. And it could cost something like ?1 billion. I would

rather ?1 billion was spent on keeping us safe rather than having a

fast data stored on the Internet. I do not think that is necessarily the

best way to go about it. We have to think about national security, but

also about civil liberties. The general election, the Liberal

Democrats are going to do very well. Across the United Kingdom, your

claim was you wanted to become the main opposition Party. The manifesto

starts off by assuming, perhaps wrongly, that Theresa May was going

to do much better than she is doing and that the Labour Party would beat

rubbish as an opposition. But it is just not happening at the moment.

You are down at 8% in the opinion polls. Just look at Brexit. What

type of opposition did Jeremy Corbyn provided. He voted with Theresa May

an Nigel Farage. We will see what happens on Thursday. They accept

politicians think that is only one opinion poll that matters, but to

get the Liberal Democrats vote wrong between 8-10%, the opinion polls

would have to be wrong than any opinion poll ever in world history.

I guarantee that no matter how many Liberal Democrat MPs are elected,

they will provide strong opposition. What I am suggesting is that it just

is not working. I doubt if I have ever read a Party manifesto which

gets so drawn in its opening paragraph that we are an election is

going to go. You assumed the Conservative Party were going to win

and that Jeremy Corbyn would be terrible. Neither of these things

have happened. I can tell you it in the key seats in Scotland, we will

do exceptionally well. You said you would be the main opposition to

Theresa May. We will be a robust and effective opposition in the

parliament. We will have more MPs. We will provide the challenge on

Brexit, investment in public services and having available

liberal approach to government. I would like is to be a force in the

House of Commons. I would like that to be as big as possible, but that

is up to the voting public. You have lost your unique selling point in

this election. If you do not want the Conservative Party to get back,

people will vote Labour. If your main issue is that you want to stay

in Europe, it is an awful lot more likely that the Scottish National

Party could have another independence referendum and keep the

country in Europe than the Liberal Democrats winning the election and

having another European referendum. We speak for the majority of people

in this country who oppose a second referendum, who want to have the

second Sea on Brexit, the opportunity to reject a bad deal,

but investing in public services. But the original evidence that

people want a second referendum on Europe. No matter what we think,

when we see the final deal, the British people should have the final

say. It should not be left to just who is in government. We need to

British people to have the opportunity to reject a deal. I

believe we will grow. I have been in many key seats when it is a simple

choice between the Scottish National Party and the Liberal Democrats.

Whether people agree with is not, they do not want a divisive second

independence referendum. But we cannot have a referendum but we want

another European Union referendum? We did have the white paper. All we

had were slogans. Can they reduce something. This is Mr Carmichael,

the Secretary of State for Scotland. He says of the white Paper, people

will draw their own conclusions that the Scottish Pullman have sought to

ignore the uncertainties over independence. We are expected to

believe everything will be perfect after we leave the United Kingdom.

We are told there will be all right on the night. You said about the

independence White Paper that you said about the Brexit one. You said

there was no detail. We rejected that three years ago. I think we

have the opportunity to reject the detail when it is forthcoming on

Brexit. We need to have the final say. We have no detail. The

government did not expect to lose, so there was no detailed plans. The

problem you have is that you are meant to be Liberal Democrats. The

Scottish National Party have the mandate in the manifesto, the

Scottish Parliament has voted to have another referendum. Your link

is even harder than the Conservative Party. You see your MPs would vote

against any section 30 order to have another referendum. That is

anti-democratic. How can you claim the Scottish National Party have no

manifesto? How can be anti-democratic for the Liberal

Democrats to fall through the promise the manifesto. They won the

election, unlike you. They did not win. They lost their majority. If

that happened in the House of Commons, even Tony Blair did not

have a majority in that sense. The Green Party said you would have to

have 1 million signatures on a petition before you could have

another referendum. I think that is why it is quite clear. Liberal

Democrat should follow the manifesto commitment and reject any talk of

the second independence referendum. The talk about Brexit, but any

excuse coming along would be an excuse for the Scottish National

Party. If you had something in your manifesto, you claim you the mandate

to influence things. You could regret that down the road. That is

the mandate that we were given in all the seats we won in the

election. We give a commitment. That is what we are going to do. We will

not go back on a warrant. It has been a depressing tough couple of

days for everyone. We know that if Tim Farron wins this election,

everyone can have a split to celebrate! When you win the next

election, will you legalise cannabis in Scotland? We do not have the

specific ports on cannabis. I will use my position to argue that an

approach to deal with the drugs problem in this country, which is

feeling at the moment. Now, Theresa May has been

campaigning in Scotland today, with security issues central

to the campaign. The Prime Minister has been

defending her record on policing, after Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn

called on her to resign I am articulating what is a deep

anger over 20,000 police officers losing their jobs, firefighters

losing their jobs, ambulance crews being unable to cope under pressure.

We need to look at what she did this Home Secretary.

We predicting overall police budgets in England and Wales and also

ensuring that the police and security services have the powers

they need to be able to deal with the terrorists. So, we have enhanced

the powers available to them. Jeremy Corbin, by contrast, has boasted

that he has opposed every piece of anti-terror legislation since he has

been in Parliament. The Prime Minister speaking in Edinburgh

today. Our nightly panel of

pundits join me now. Tonight, Angela Haggerty,

editor of the Common Space website, security expert

Professor Peter Jackson from Glasgow University

and Michael Blackley, the Political Editor

of the Scottish Daily Mail. The terror attacks in three months,

how big an issue is this likely to be for reporters on Thursday? I

think it will be a bigger issue than it has ever been before. I do not

remember an election where there has been this level of terror, even

during the height of the troubles in Northern Ireland. This close to an

election, this kind of intensity of terrorist atrocities, it is kind of

unprecedented. I think, both parties are urging people to reflect on

which party, both major parties in the UK, which party will keep you

safe. This is going to be playing on people's minds when they cast their

vote. Let's just look at the parties. March 2016, the SNP

abstained from a vote on the so-called snoopers Charter, which

Theresa May said at the time would give our law enforcement and

intelligence agencies the powers they need to keep us safe. Is it

time for the SNP to rethink their position on legislation like this?

They SNP abstained, but there were also a lot of camping goods, civil

liberties groups, warning that this snoopers charter was going to be a

massive clamp-down on civil liberties. -- a lot of campaign

groups. Joanna Cherry did quite a lot of work on this at Westminster

and warned, actually, about the authoritarianism of that bill and

some of the potential risks. I think the SNP has made it quite clear,

Joanna Cherry made it quite clear that there were some things about

the bill that were useful but the whole thing should not necessarily

be thrown out as an idea, there were certainly things within it that

would need to be looked out. The SNP's position should not change on

that. The voters realise that when it comes to security in this

election, they are probably going to be looking at who is your next Prime

Minister, which party will be in government? They are looking to them

for the answers and security, so this has become a massive election

issue suddenly right at the very last minute, but I do not think

necessarily that people are looking towards the SNP's stands on security

as being the big motivating factor for voters in Scotland. The Prime

Minister is difficult ground with those on the home security. As Home

Secretary, she presided over cuts to policing of almost 20,000. The only

place in Britain where police numbers have been maintained is

right here in Scotland under the SNP. She did this quite a lot of

significant questions today from members of the media about police

number cuts, and of course it is an important issue. However, even the

Chief Constable of Police Scotland says that it is old-fashioned to

judge policing just by police numbers. It looks like Police

Scotland will no longer have a commitment to maintain police

numbers. Nicola Sturgeon seems to accept now that it is about how you

deal with the threat, not necessarily about bobbies on the

beat any more. I do not think you can judge the previous Home

Secretary's performance just by police numbers alone. Peter Jackson,

a distributor Kerry for all the parties. Jeremy Corbyn has voted

against anti-terror legislation on 17 different occasions down the

years. Diane Abbott could not even work out how much extra policing was

going to cost. Labour has some questions to answer, no doubt. They

are playing up the cuts, 19,000 whatever, cuts in police numbers as

a way of saying that Theresa May has serious questions to ask. In order

for that action to -- argument to gain traction, it is quite important

that they show that community policing does gather intelligence is

vaulted counter-terrorism. That is an important argument, but it does

come at the last minute and the public will not be able to judge

very clearly on whether or not, you know, the Conservative government is

right that it is the resources you give and powers you give to security

and intelligence and police, or in fact, you know, bobbies on the beat.

Is that important as a source of community intelligence gathering, to

get a feel for communities, gain the trust of communities and to be

someone to which communities can turn if they have concerns? Karim

Angela, final question Time debate tonight from Edinburgh, Tim Farron

and Nicola Sturgeon, two days to go, any major developments for you? It

was like a game off 2/2, the debate. Tim Farron find it very difficult to

justify one referendum on Brexit and opposing one on Scottish

independence. When Nicola Sturgeon came out, she faced opposition from

the audience about the idea of a second referendum. It did highlight

how blurred the lines have become between devolved and Westminster

issues. I think that is going to be an issue for us going forward.

Especially with a live audience! Tomorrow on the campaign trail,

it is all about oil and gas, Join us again tomorrow night

for all that and more. It will stay with you for a good

part of the next 24 hours. It is going to stay cloudy and wet pretty

much across the board. A lot of the drive towards the west coast and

more like showers for the Hebrides. Quite windy on the west and

south-west coast from a northerly direction. That rain straight into

part of the North of England, down towards East Anglia, to the southern

flank. Really high winds down to Manchester down to the Midlands.

Deal for such times. Across Wales under five, showers rather than

rain. Breezy here and certainly, a windy day as well as a wet one.

Quite a cool feeling day. 13, 14 Celsius. It will not feel like that,

especially with the cloud. The rain and the wind. It slowly moves away

and, come Wednesday, it is a brighter day for many of us. Still

quite cloudy and dam across the far north and north-east, but,

elsewhere, dry and bread. Some sunshine and the wind lighter. There

's dry, but there is more rain in the forecast. As we have those the

afternoon, in It was an industry

bursting at the seams. We exported thread

to the whole world.