:00:00. > :00:00.It was a blatant lie to further his own electoral
:00:00. > :00:08.interests but not enough to cost Alistair Carmichael his
:00:09. > :00:32.Former Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael
:00:33. > :00:35.survives a legal challenge to oust him as MP...but at what cost
:00:36. > :00:42.to the reputation of him and his party?
:00:43. > :00:44.And the leader of Labour's In Campaign comes north
:00:45. > :00:46.to explain why he thinks Britain is better together
:00:47. > :01:00.It's irrelevant in the sense that the referendum won't be
:01:01. > :01:04.about the package that Cameron is negotiating.
:01:05. > :01:07.It'll be do you want to stay in or come out.
:01:08. > :01:10.Two learned judges agreed that Alistair Carmichael told a "blatant
:01:11. > :01:12.lie", his behaviour was "at best disingenuous, at worse
:01:13. > :01:20.Not the sort of stuff you'd want on your CV.
:01:21. > :01:25.But in the end they ruled he broke no laws when he misled voters,
:01:26. > :01:27.saying he was not the source of a damaging leak against
:01:28. > :01:32.the First Minister, when all along he knew that he was.
:01:33. > :01:34.In a moment, we'll discuss where this leaves Mr Carmichael.
:01:35. > :01:46.This is the moment Alistair Carmichael learned he would not be
:01:47. > :01:53.losing his job as the Orkney and Shetland MP. The judges have
:01:54. > :01:58.determined that the petition be dismissed and have certified that
:01:59. > :02:04.the honourable member for that constituency was duly returned at
:02:05. > :02:07.the said election. The judges heard evidence in the three-day court
:02:08. > :02:12.hearing about a month ago and today they delivered their findings. They
:02:13. > :02:17.concluded while he had not broken election law, he had told what they
:02:18. > :02:21.describe as a blatant but simple lie when asked by a Channel 4 programme
:02:22. > :02:26.about his knowledge of the leak. This is on public record, I received
:02:27. > :02:30.a phone call on Friday afternoon from a journalist making it. The
:02:31. > :02:37.judges said Mr Carmichael s response judges said Mr Carmichael's response
:02:38. > :02:40.to the enquiry was at best disingenuous and at worst evasive
:02:41. > :02:43.and self-serving. Although Mr Khan Michael keeps his job, the
:02:44. > :02:49.petitioners do not see the ruling as a failure for them. We held our
:02:50. > :02:54.representative to account in open court he has accounted for his
:02:55. > :02:58.actions. The verdict isn't a vindication of Alistair Carmichael.
:02:59. > :03:03.He has been described as evasive and self-serving. He may have won but it
:03:04. > :03:10.is not a victory with much honour. The reaction has been mixed. To me,
:03:11. > :03:16.the fuss was from the SNP hoping to become SNP up here and it backfired.
:03:17. > :03:21.It is a mistake, he should have resigned. I am pleased on a personal
:03:22. > :03:27.front for him but it is a shame he lied in the first place. I am
:03:28. > :03:33.delighted. I think he has done a lot for Shetland. He is a proven liar,
:03:34. > :03:37.he admitted it. He has permission to carry on lying until the next
:03:38. > :03:43.election. Despite criticism from judges, he says he is happy with the
:03:44. > :03:46.outcome. I was confident we would win, that has been the basis we
:03:47. > :03:51.approach this but despite that it has been a difficult and stressful
:03:52. > :03:57.and expensive few months for me and my family and I have been cleared
:03:58. > :03:59.today of the breach of the Representation of the People Act
:04:00. > :04:04.that was put against me by nationalists who brought what has
:04:05. > :04:11.been a highly politically motivated case. The SNP feels differently. The
:04:12. > :04:16.only politically inspired acts in this as admitted by Mr Carmichael
:04:17. > :04:20.who was leaking a memo he knew to be false in order somehow to try to
:04:21. > :04:24.attack the Scottish National Party. Other politicians play despite the
:04:25. > :04:28.ruling, Carmichael should go. I would like to see the people of
:04:29. > :04:33.Orkney and Shetland voice judgment on Mr Carmichael, I asked him to
:04:34. > :04:38.consider his position. The question now is what should the Lib Dems do?
:04:39. > :04:44.They are moving on anyway. For Alistair Carmichael it is a simple
:04:45. > :04:48.case of get your heads down and work hard and reconnect with your
:04:49. > :04:51.constituents and prove you deserve to be re-elected. This has been a
:04:52. > :04:55.rare use of what has in the past been an obscure piece of
:04:56. > :05:02.legislation. Legal observers say it is significant. The ruling is
:05:03. > :05:05.important because it establishes the law can apply to statements by a
:05:06. > :05:12.candidate about himself and politically because as a judgment it
:05:13. > :05:16.puts him in a bad light. He came close to losing his seat.
:05:17. > :05:20.Politically it is embarrassing but he does not have to face real
:05:21. > :05:25.election for a few years. The majority in the May election fell
:05:26. > :05:29.from 10,002 under 900. He has avoided a loss of his job today but
:05:30. > :05:33.he is still being investigated by the Parliamentary Commissioner for
:05:34. > :05:36.standards. Tonight he says he looks forward to the next 4.5 years
:05:37. > :05:41.Joining me now to chew this all over is the Scotland Editor
:05:42. > :05:52.You sat through a lot of the evidence in court, can you
:05:53. > :05:58.understand having listened to that why the judges came to the
:05:59. > :06:03.conclusion they did? Yes, I can because when Carmichael stood in the
:06:04. > :06:07.dock, he was basically flogged in public by the petitioners s QC, he
:06:08. > :06:12.public by the petitioners's QC, he had a series of devastating
:06:13. > :06:18.disclosures to making court about how systematically and persistently
:06:19. > :06:23.Carmichael had evaded and blocked and lied over his precise role in
:06:24. > :06:26.leaking the memo in the run-up to the election. It was not a pretty
:06:27. > :06:31.sight. Alistair Carmichael knew he would be in for a rough ride and I
:06:32. > :06:35.think his decision at that stage was he had to accept the public flogging
:06:36. > :06:43.as part of penance and the process of accepting he miscalculated. The
:06:44. > :06:48.judgment seems to accept that leaking against rivals is a normal
:06:49. > :06:51.part of political life, that lying about the leak would only have
:06:52. > :06:53.breached the law had Alistair Carmichael set himself up as
:06:54. > :06:59.somebody who would never have indulged in that sort of behaviour.
:07:00. > :07:06.It is not so much for standards we expect. Well, I found a lot of the
:07:07. > :07:08.way the judges set back case out to be disingenuous and naive with
:07:09. > :07:15.respect because what they were doing was setting out a set of moral
:07:16. > :07:19.standards which they, having known politics is never observed, had to
:07:20. > :07:23.be applied in the case. The practice of leaking is something all
:07:24. > :07:28.political parties do, lots of politicians have got into power to
:07:29. > :07:34.artful and diligent leaking, the difficulty for Carmichael was what
:07:35. > :07:39.he did was so mishandled in a technical sense, there are better
:07:40. > :07:43.ways and more intelligent ways to leak, his aide leaked the document
:07:44. > :07:46.using a government phone so it was obvious to find out who made the
:07:47. > :07:54.call in the first place. But the issue about the wider, the
:07:55. > :07:58.particular specific legal point about why Carmichael was able to
:07:59. > :08:03.evade this piece of legislation is down to the act itself. The act has
:08:04. > :08:08.a particular reading and understanding of what it is a
:08:09. > :08:15.candidate is an election has to do to run foul of this legal
:08:16. > :08:21.prohibition against maligning your opponents or by acting in some way
:08:22. > :08:25.which pretends you are a type of person that you're not. That is the
:08:26. > :08:32.key test of the judges had to satisfy. We have heard Alistair
:08:33. > :08:35.Carmichael complain the case brought against him was highly politically
:08:36. > :08:44.motivated, is that which given what the judges said about his own
:08:45. > :08:50.motivation? Well, this particular process is of itself a peculiar
:08:51. > :08:56.process. In a sense, it is not a proper judicial process, much of the
:08:57. > :09:01.evidence entered was the kind that would never have run in a proper
:09:02. > :09:04.criminal Court, we did not hear from the principal actors apart from
:09:05. > :09:10.Carmichael, we did not hear from the civil servant or the French consul
:09:11. > :09:15.general who gave the briefing, we did not even see any of the original
:09:16. > :09:23.primary documentary evidence, what this was was a democratic expression
:09:24. > :09:29.of people s right to challenge their MP. It was interesting the litigants
:09:30. > :09:33.raised their money through crowd sourcing and I imagine very large
:09:34. > :09:37.chunk came from people that were not affected directly by this, by people
:09:38. > :09:43.who are not constituents in Orkney and Shetland. The process is very
:09:44. > :09:48.odd. When I watched in court and listened to Jonathan Mitchell, the
:09:49. > :09:53.QC for the petitioners, it became quite bizarre, very politicised the
:09:54. > :09:59.way he presented himself. Jonathan Mitchell himself is a lawyer who is
:10:00. > :10:05.part of the pro-independence campaign, he has acted in the past
:10:06. > :10:09.on behalf of the SNP. You got the sense that it was a political event
:10:10. > :10:12.and there were things he was saying about Simon Johnson at the Telegraph
:10:13. > :10:18.which were highly political judgments. And this isn't over yet
:10:19. > :10:23.for Alistair Carmichael. The Parliamentary standards Commissioner
:10:24. > :10:30.is still investigating. Yes, this is going to be another area of pain for
:10:31. > :10:34.Carmichael. She can make a series of recommendations, some of the
:10:35. > :10:39.outcomes can be quite soft, an apology or she might clear him and
:10:40. > :10:45.say he has not breached the code of conduct but at worst she could refer
:10:46. > :10:48.his case and say she feels he has breached the code of conduct, refer
:10:49. > :10:54.it to the standards committee in the House of Commons which would then
:10:55. > :10:58.hear evidence again and they could suspend him from the house. Now, I
:10:59. > :11:06.don't think the offences for which he is being tried or examined upon
:11:07. > :11:10.are as serious as other MPs transgressed in -- transgressions in
:11:11. > :11:14.the past. He has apologised and forgone his ministerial severance
:11:15. > :11:18.pay and has been humiliated by the judgment and he has had severe
:11:19. > :11:21.damage to his political career. I suspect they may ask him to
:11:22. > :11:26.apologise to the house. It is humiliating. OK, we must leave it
:11:27. > :11:27.there. Thank you for coming in. The Prime Minister continues his
:11:28. > :11:31.push for a reformed European Union this month, as the campaigns
:11:32. > :11:33.for Britain to leave and remain Last month David Cameron set
:11:34. > :11:37.out his proposals for changes in the UK's relationship
:11:38. > :11:40.with the EU. Those have been met with resistance
:11:41. > :11:43.in Brussels and have been criticised for a lack of ambition
:11:44. > :11:47.by anti-EU groups at home. Plenty for him to do then
:11:48. > :11:56.as another referendum looms. We are now two years at most for my
:11:57. > :12:02.vote on Britain s future in the vote on Britain's future in the
:12:03. > :12:06.European project and David Cameron has not ruled out campaigning for
:12:07. > :12:11.Britain to leave altogether. That is if his demands for a new settlements
:12:12. > :12:15.with his partners are not met. Top of the wish list, restricting EU
:12:16. > :12:20.migrants access to in work benefits such as tax credits. That is one the
:12:21. > :12:24.PM has won a few points on the political right at home but it has
:12:25. > :12:28.not gone down well with those he is trying to persuade. This week, the
:12:29. > :12:32.president of the European Council said there were substantial
:12:33. > :12:37.political differences over curbing welfare for thousands of workers
:12:38. > :13:13.coming to the UK from other EU countries. And Donald
:13:14. > :13:16.Tusk has written to EU leaders warning the uncertainty over
:13:17. > :13:18.Britain s place in Europe was destabilising. They will get the
:13:19. > :13:21.chance to talk about it in person next week at a summit of the
:13:22. > :13:23.European Council. It is unlikely any agreement will be reached in the
:13:24. > :13:26.meeting but the Prime minister is confident his voice is being heard
:13:27. > :13:27.in Europe. And he might take encouragement from history. In the
:13:28. > :13:29.negot 1970s a Tory Prime minister negot
:13:30. > :13:32.The former Home Secretary and leader of Labour's pro-EU campaign,
:13:33. > :13:35.Has he learned lessons from last year's Better Together referendum
:13:36. > :13:39.I began by asking him why Labour wasn't campaigning alongside pro-EU
:13:40. > :13:42.iated a reduction in Britain's contributions. Like Margaret
:13:43. > :13:44.Thatcher, David Cameron s task is to Thatcher, David Cameron's task is to
:13:45. > :13:47.win over sceptics at home and make friends abroad. Dosh we are a labour
:13:48. > :13:49.campaign, we believe there was a place for a Labour Party message. A
:13:50. > :13:52.distinctive message about the social dimension dosh we are a Labour
:13:53. > :13:54.campaign, we believe there is a place for a Labour Party message. A
:13:55. > :13:57.distinctive message about the social dimension right for part-timers to
:13:58. > :14:00.be paid the same as full-time as, the protection of workers rights
:14:01. > :14:02.that have come through Europe. In terms of paternity leave, maternity
:14:03. > :14:08.leave, the right to paid holidays, the right for part-timers to be paid
:14:09. > :14:11.the same as an short-term contracts to be protected. Those emanate from
:14:12. > :14:13.a desire in Europe that there is a single market but a market with
:14:14. > :14:16.protections for workers and a market and the environment. That dimension,
:14:17. > :14:20.that social dimension is very much what Labour is all about. And I wish
:14:21. > :14:22.the and the environment. That dimension, that social dimension is
:14:23. > :14:25.very much what Labour is all about. And I wish the umbrella but the
:14:26. > :14:28.their branches nothave instructed their branches not to get involved
:14:29. > :14:33.in the campaign at all so we are the only national party of significance
:14:34. > :14:42.arguing unequivocally for Britain to remain in the European Union.
:14:43. > :14:52.You have been emphasising the security of following the Paris
:14:53. > :14:57.attacks. If you believe in solidarity it has to be more than an
:14:58. > :15:05.expression. You have to work with other countries on the continent.
:15:06. > :15:09.The anti-organised crime dimensional is important. The European Arrest
:15:10. > :15:20.Warrant only applies in European countries. Organised crime will go
:15:21. > :15:25.to where they think they are safest from retribution and if you are a
:15:26. > :15:30.country outside the European Union you stand a better chance of
:15:31. > :15:36.organised crime organising in the UK. So there is a security dimension
:15:37. > :15:45.to this. A survey in a few weeks ago for The Daily Mail showed 41%
:15:46. > :15:52.thought we were safer in Europe as against 29%. What about in work
:15:53. > :16:01.benefits for EU migrants? What is your position? This negotiation that
:16:02. > :16:05.is going on is a sideshow. It is irrelevant in the sense that the
:16:06. > :16:11.referendum will not be about the package that David Cameron is
:16:12. > :16:16.because shooting. Is this an issue that the electorate in Scotland is
:16:17. > :16:20.concerned about? The European Union needs reform. There is not an
:16:21. > :16:28.institution any fear that does not need reform. At the last election we
:16:29. > :16:38.said habitual residence should be two years, not four years. The EU
:16:39. > :16:41.reform is a process. It is through being committed and building
:16:42. > :16:49.alliances, not by standing next to the exit door and issuing threats.
:16:50. > :16:55.Is there anything that needs reform? There are reforms that can be made.
:16:56. > :17:00.There are reforms in terms of the employers that take over people from
:17:01. > :17:05.Eastern Europe when they could be using people from the UK and
:17:06. > :17:08.sometimes they do that by distorting the agency workers directive which
:17:09. > :17:13.we would like to clear up those loopholes in that elective. That is
:17:14. > :17:18.not on the agenda of David Cameron but I think it is an important
:17:19. > :17:22.aspect of this. At the entire approach, what David Cameron is
:17:23. > :17:27.doing is about the future of the Conservative Party, not the future
:17:28. > :17:30.of the country. This campaign is not waiting for him to come back from
:17:31. > :17:36.his the course uses. We are out there now. That has nothing to do
:17:37. > :17:41.with the package of David Cameron. How helpful is that your party is
:17:42. > :17:46.led by someone who is at best lukewarm towards Europe. He is not
:17:47. > :17:57.stopping got a leader of our campaign who committed. Jeremy
:17:58. > :18:01.Corbyn said he is proud to support the Labour campaign to stay part of
:18:02. > :18:07.the European Union and he has been saying that ever since he asked me
:18:08. > :18:12.to carry on reading the campaign. 215 of the 231 Labour MPs including
:18:13. > :18:16.the entire front bench are signed up to Britain remaining in the European
:18:17. > :18:21.Union. There is only a handful of our colleagues who take a different
:18:22. > :18:27.view. This is very much the Labour Party campaign, not a fringe group
:18:28. > :18:30.of the Labour Party. That is the Labour Party I doing right across
:18:31. > :18:32.the UK including in Northern Ireland for a button to stay in the European
:18:33. > :18:34.Union. Well representing the flipside
:18:35. > :18:40.of the EU referendum debate in our London studio is former
:18:41. > :18:54.Labour MP Nigel Griffiths You would have heard Alan Johnson
:18:55. > :18:57.saying his in campaign will focus on protection of workers rights. U2
:18:58. > :19:01.used to stand alongside each other in that regard. Do you think the
:19:02. > :19:11.rights of workers would be better protected outside the EU? Zero hours
:19:12. > :19:15.contracts have been promoted. In the countries that have suffered the
:19:16. > :19:20.problems of the euro, Greece, Portugal, part of the settlement has
:19:21. > :19:24.been the virtual suspension of collective bargaining by trade
:19:25. > :19:28.unions. I am afraid Alan is out of date on this. He was leaving the
:19:29. > :19:33.European Union improve workers rights and conditions? We would
:19:34. > :19:39.reject zero hour contracts. We would ensure that collective bargaining is
:19:40. > :19:43.still enshrined. We would not let the European Union and Brussels
:19:44. > :19:47.dictate to us eat weakening of workers rights on behalf of big
:19:48. > :19:51.business and other vested interests. A lot of the people who want to
:19:52. > :19:57.leave the European Union wants to leave for a very different reasons.
:19:58. > :20:01.They want to make it much easier to cut what they would call red tape
:20:02. > :20:09.for workers. That may be the case that we want to make sure on the
:20:10. > :20:14.Labour side which I represent in Scotland that we can protect
:20:15. > :20:18.workers, for instance in the steel industry, by ensuring that we can
:20:19. > :20:22.provide Government help where it is needed. And also that we can
:20:23. > :20:27.effectively block dumping from other countries. These are things that
:20:28. > :20:33.again Brussels has left as badly exposed to. One of the lessons that
:20:34. > :20:37.was learned from last year's referendum campaign is that it is
:20:38. > :20:44.much easier to argue for the status quo. You have got your work cut out.
:20:45. > :20:47.There is no status quo in Europe. There has been creeping
:20:48. > :20:51.bureaucratisation. I am pleased to see that in the opinion poll on the
:20:52. > :21:01.27th of November that was publicised by The Independent and money week
:21:02. > :21:04.the leave campaign had a 53% rating. That is the first time there have
:21:05. > :21:11.been more people wanting to leave than to stay. The momentum is with
:21:12. > :21:14.us. What about in Scotland? The trend is similar in Scotland. There
:21:15. > :21:20.is a gap but it is not unimportant or significant one. There are issues
:21:21. > :21:24.in Scotland, in the farming community, the fishing community,
:21:25. > :21:30.steel and manufacturing community, I do not know anyone Scotland who
:21:31. > :21:33.wants to join the euro. Last year at the Yes campaign faced pressure to
:21:34. > :21:37.describe in great detail what an independent Scotland would look
:21:38. > :21:42.like. You know what you do not want. Do you have a clear enough vision of
:21:43. > :21:48.how Britain would look outside of the European Union? Very clear. For
:21:49. > :21:51.the last 20 years are exported to the European Union have been
:21:52. > :21:56.following compares to exports to the rest of the world and now we have a
:21:57. > :22:01.?68 billion deficit with Europe and not a great deficit with the rest of
:22:02. > :22:04.the world saw the drive for exports is being led outside Europe. While
:22:05. > :22:09.he that is an important market the European Union has got cheat
:22:10. > :22:12.agreements with 43 countries that are outside Europe. There is no
:22:13. > :22:18.reason why they cannot have one with us also. There we must leave it for
:22:19. > :22:20.tonight. I know this will rumble on. Thank you.
:22:21. > :22:23.And with me in the studio this evening is Ewan Crawford who's
:22:24. > :22:25.a former SNP advisor, and Pauline McNeil, the former
:22:26. > :22:36.Europe was on the agenda at Prime Minister's Questions which were
:22:37. > :22:42.taken by George Osborne and shadow defence barrister Angela Eagle. In
:22:43. > :22:44.my co-leader she is in favour of Trident, voted in favour of air
:22:45. > :22:49.strikes. Let us take a look at how she got
:22:50. > :22:53.on. Mr Speaker I say that the Prime Minister cannot be with us to answer
:22:54. > :22:57.questions because he is visiting Poland and Romania on the latest leg
:22:58. > :23:08.of his seemingly endless European renegotiation tour. He has been
:23:09. > :23:14.jetting all over the place. No wonder we had to buy him his own
:23:15. > :23:29.aeroplane. Can the Chancellor tell us please, how is it all going?
:23:30. > :23:34.The good news is... The good news is we have a party leader who is
:23:35. > :23:40.respected abroad. It looked rather like they were back
:23:41. > :23:43.to the old politics there. Is this a return to the old-style Prime
:23:44. > :23:48.Minister's Questions? I did not think it was. I think it was quite a
:23:49. > :23:52.clever exchange. I have always thought that Angela Eagle has been a
:23:53. > :23:56.secret weapon of the Labour Party. Her delivery is impeccable. She is
:23:57. > :24:01.hitting the Tories on the issue of the European referendum which will
:24:02. > :24:07.stretch them to breaking point. It was a very clever attack but she
:24:08. > :24:14.needs to do. I think she will be an overnight star because of it. She
:24:15. > :24:19.has tackled the issue. I did not see it as an all style exchange. There
:24:20. > :24:24.was some comedy, a lot of comedy. She has managed to Unite the Labour
:24:25. > :24:31.benches. And a couple of voices were laughing hysterically. On both
:24:32. > :24:38.sides. And George Osborne came back. Is it showing Jeremy Corbyn up? It
:24:39. > :24:41.shows a different style and to be fair Jeremy Corbyn and Tom Watson
:24:42. > :24:47.promoted Angela Eagle because they recognised the talents that she has.
:24:48. > :24:51.Who came off best? It was like the MPs were having their Christmas do.
:24:52. > :24:56.This seems to be enjoying themselves. Even though I am one of
:24:57. > :25:04.the biggest political obsessives around, even I was left a little but
:25:05. > :25:09.called by this because they were all having a good time, enjoying
:25:10. > :25:12.themselves, great comic timing from Angela Eagle, but if you are looking
:25:13. > :25:17.at this from the outside you would be bemused by all the shouting and
:25:18. > :25:23.laughing. A lot of in jokes but it did not amount to very much. George
:25:24. > :25:27.Osborne took the opportunity to use some comments from Tony Blair that
:25:28. > :25:31.were reported to the on the current state of the Labour Party, called
:25:32. > :25:35.get a tragedy. Is that a helpful intervention by Tony Blair was to
:25:36. > :25:39.Mac she came right back at him on that. It is a reference to an
:25:40. > :25:44.article that he wrote in the Spectator that is actually quite
:25:45. > :25:47.profound. What Tony Blair has not recognised is that Jeremy Corbyn is
:25:48. > :25:52.a leader in a different age than from when he was leader. After the
:25:53. > :25:56.financial crisis people think and thought differently. The fact that
:25:57. > :26:00.we do have Jeremy Corbyn is an indication that the world has
:26:01. > :26:04.changed. It would have been more helpful if he had included some of
:26:05. > :26:07.the bad behaviour that Jeremy Corbyn has had to put up with, not to
:26:08. > :26:14.mention the cheats and he has had from the media. That would have been
:26:15. > :26:18.more balanced. Let us move on. What a difference 24-hour scan me, we
:26:19. > :26:28.were talking about Donald Trump last night. He has now been stripped of
:26:29. > :26:33.his honorary degree. He has been stripped of his title as business
:26:34. > :26:38.ambassador for Scotland. In terms of the reaction to the comments that he
:26:39. > :26:42.has made this week just how offended, and rightly offended,
:26:43. > :26:47.people are. My judgment as he is not the kind of person suitable to
:26:48. > :26:51.represent Scotland that is why I have taken the decision. Donald
:26:52. > :26:54.Trump has a making offensive statements as part of his
:26:55. > :26:59.presidential campaign for months. When he was saying things about
:27:00. > :27:04.Mexican people I did not see the first cluster at then. What do you
:27:05. > :27:11.make of this? Was the action of the First Minister overdue? It probably
:27:12. > :27:15.was overdue. Thankfully he is no longer a global ambassador for
:27:16. > :27:19.Scotland but I think the remarks he made this week were even more
:27:20. > :27:24.extreme than some of their accent he has made before. Absolutely
:27:25. > :27:26.shocking. Clearly if he was going to be a global business ambassador for
:27:27. > :27:34.Scotland that was an embarrassment to fire. It is embarrassing that he
:27:35. > :27:39.has been an ambassador for so long? He was appointed in 2006. I did not
:27:40. > :27:48.realise that until tonight. Nicola Sturgeon made the right decision. He
:27:49. > :27:56.has offended 1.6 billion people across the world at a time where the
:27:57. > :28:00.world is divided enough. It is quite clear there will be a bit more of
:28:01. > :28:07.this in the weeks and months to come.
:28:08. > :28:11.Angela Merkel has been made person of the year by Time magazine. She
:28:12. > :28:17.has been named the most influential person of the year. Well deserved?
:28:18. > :28:20.Yes, it is quite a turnaround. Not so long ago people were talking
:28:21. > :28:26.about the fact there had been a coup in Greece and the Germans had forced
:28:27. > :28:30.a change of Government. She has shown some moral leadership in terms
:28:31. > :28:34.of the refugee crisis. Almost 1 million people have claimed asylum
:28:35. > :28:38.in Germany this year. Letters to her credit that she has led that
:28:39. > :28:44.particular issue. Some other unusual decisions by Time magazine. The
:28:45. > :28:50.leader of Islamic was named runner-up and third place went to
:28:51. > :28:59.Donald Trump. -- the leader of Islamic State was named runner-up.
:29:00. > :29:08.When I first read it I thought, what good influence people to put the
:29:09. > :29:12.Isis leader as number two but the question people were asked was who
:29:13. > :29:20.has influenced the world so I guess that is why you got that and serve.
:29:21. > :29:23.It does not attract from Angela Merkel's number one slot. She
:29:24. > :29:36.deserves recognition for the right decisions she has taken. A popular
:29:37. > :29:41.decision in Europe, do you think? Yes. She has always been the leader
:29:42. > :29:44.of the European Union on many issues so I'm sure that would be the case.
:29:45. > :29:48.Andrew will be here same time tomorrow night.
:29:49. > :30:08.'From the industrial heart of Scotland...' Puff.
:30:09. > :30:10.'..to the remotest corners of the Hebrides...'
:30:11. > :30:14.'..the Clyde puffers were the workhorses of our coastal trade.'
:30:15. > :30:18.And it's a story that's almost been forgotten.