21/04/2016 Scotland 2016

So how might they be used to improve life for the disabled?

A million Scots live with disability or chronic illness.

What difference could new Holyrood powers make to their

And the Salvador Dali painting that's helping scientists crack

The next five years at Holyrood will present an opportunity

for whoever is elected to create quite a different welfare system.

The Scottish Government will get control of 11 welfare benefits,

from Personal Independence Payments to Carer's Allowance.

It could choose to top some up or create new benefits.

If it does, of course, money will have to be raised

In the second of his films for Scotland 2016, Ian Hamilton

speaks to disabled voters in rural communities to find out

what they want when these new powers arrive.

1 million people in Scotland have a long-term health condition or

disability. Many of them live in a rural areas, which present a range

of challenges. Following the independence referendum, one of the

oh times of the Smith Commission was to transfer some welfare

responsibilities from Westminster to Holyrood. Joy is blind. She lives

with her guide dog velvet in having more -- Tab won. She is one of

83,000 people in receipt of disability living allowance. She

would like the Scottish Government to take a different approach. It is

a very demeaning process. All disabilities are not the same. Even

visual impairment is not the same. If you have arthritis Sundays during

able to do things, other days not and all of these things have to

taken into consideration. The Scottish Government will get control

over 11 benefits including the disability living allowance,

Personal Independence Payments, the spare room subsidy and Carer's

Allowance. These will have a direct impact on people living here in

Scotland. I would love to hear politicians talking about and

enabling, progressive welfare system that supports people with a

disability to integrate and live independently in society. That is

very different to the narrative we hear from UK politicians and I think

that is the sort of conversations that disabled people in Scotland

want to hear. Not only will the next Scottish Government be taking over

existing benefits, they will be able to top these up and create new ones.

But they will have to find money to pay for these. We left Aviemore and

headed to the stand to meet Morag. She is a a leading disability

campaigner. For the next Scottish Government, what would you like them

to do? I would like them to listen and I think a disabled person should

be on any committee they have with these decisions are being made. The

Scottish Government itself a number of years ago said there is no

substitute for the real-world knowledge of the service user. I

wish they would take that on board and have disabled people in the

earliest stages of decision-making so that they can have input and

influence. They should make what they're more acceptable. Evan has

two part-time jobs totalling ten hours a week. They would like to

work more, but says there are limited opportunities for employment

in training locally -- and training. He would like a different approach

from a future Scottish Government with his long-term Scottish

disability isn't being continually assessed. I don't suppose you made a

screen to change quickly. At no point is going to improve it is grim

to be a lifetime thing, so once they have realised that, they should not

have took the test it. -- it is going. There are expectations that

the Scottish Government will fall back some of the controversial

welfare changes but one expert says there may be little room to do so.

They will have a limited sum of money and it will have two manage

that money anyway they have never done before. The way that it works

for the most part for the Scottish Government is that they get a

certain sum of money, divided according to what they want to send

it on -- spend. Benefits aren't like that, they are driven by the numbers

of people in need. The second problem is that you can't make

anybody better off without making somebody else worse off somewhere

else unless you're to spend more money and often a lot more money.

Disabled people like Joy saved when the Scottish Government get control

of welfare benefits, they would like them to stop continually reassessing

them, particularly when they have lifelong conditions and instead take

account of their geography and a variable nature of the disability.

The question is, in five years' time, could the welfare's systems

north and south of the border be different east 's? -- beasts.

Joining me now to talk about all that here in the studio

In Edinburgh for Scottish Labour is Ian Murray,

and from the Liberal Democrats, Alex Cole-Hamilton.

We asked the Scottish Conservatives to take part, but they told us

Humza Yousaf, if the S is re-elected, will be see a very

different welfare system to England in five years' time? -- SNP. It will

be different. We don't have all the welfare powers the SNP would like to

have but there will be fundamental differences, one of the most

important what is a new Social Security agency to take a new

approach. It would be the language of scroungers and spongers, it will

be dignity and respect, but when it comes to practicalities, we will

abolish the bed and tax when we can, the 84 day rule so that disabled or

ill children will not have their carer allowance taken off them. We

will not cut disability allowance and there a lot of other things we

have set out in our manifesto and a fundamental is about dignity and

respect. I'm not surprised nor Conservative has turned up, they're

probably hiding from disastrous decisions that they have made have

really affected people were your studio is in the heart of Govan. I'm

not surprised they have chosen not to turn up. Ian Murray, what would

Scottish Labour do that is radically different from now? Someone in your

package said we should involve disabled people and I think that is

the best way of going forward to design a new system when these

powers are transferred but it's not just the 11 powers that are actually

on the face of the bill, but we were successful in getting amendments

adopted by the Government that allows the adoption of a new benefit

in a devolved area and to top up reserve benefits. For example, we

will make sure that Carer's Allowance is paid at the level of

jobseeker's allowance and that the Scottish welfare fund will allow

payment in cash and kind and as Humza Yousaf had said we will make

sure the bedroom tax is no longer in place in Scotland. Their animal host

of things that can be done and this gives us a real opportunity for that

change and I think one of the most important aspect of this whole

debate is getting away from the rhetoric that the Conservatives have

been using. We have fallen into the ability of talking about welfare

when we should be talking about Social Security, so a new engagement

with disabled people, he knew of Ettrick and compassion that we want

for ourselves and families -- rhetoric. We also need to make sure

that assessment is that are done with disability living allowance are

done with compassion because someone who is blind is not going to get any

less blind and deaf or when their assessment is done they should be on

that benefit for the remainder of their lives unless they can

miraculously reading their site but alongside that kind of example is

ensuring that people who want to go into work, and the vast majority of

disabled people as they can work, they desperately want to work, the

new powers allow us to design a new work system that would support them

back into the workplace and employment. Alex Cole-Hamilton, we

had complaints in the film about the lack of employment opportunities,

particularly in rural areas. Disabled people and already more

than twice as likely to be unemployed as able-bodied people. Is

there anything the Liberal Democrats would do to address that? I think

the scale of that problem is horrific. A local authority plan to

get 200 young people with disabilities back into employment

and had only succeeded in 11 the following year. There are range of

inhibitions in that. I later, these programmes and complain about SNP

policy but there is broad consensus across the parties represented on

this programme tonight about what the package of new powers to be used

for -- could be used for and I think we need to increase the Carer's

Allowance to the level of jobseeker's allowance. Due to go

further than that. It is not just about welfare powers, it is about

the existing powers we have now. We passed an act of Parliament in the

last session, the self-directed support act which is about

disability empowerment so that people with disabilities can direct

out that budget is spent. That is working well in some places but

there isn't just the service provision necessary to make that

dream a reality. We need to do more to address that. The broad consensus

across the parties on how we should use the welfare powers. Broad

consensus but you had the professor in that package saying you can't

make anyone better off without making someone worse off, so Humza

Yousaf, if you improve disability benefits, who will be worse off? I

suppose in one respect, the highest earners in Scotland will be paying

more than those south of the border. We will make sure that the tax cut

that Tories are giving to highest earners will not be happening in

Scotland so those entering the most will not -- will be paying. You made

a lot of other financial promises. Sure but our manifesto is fully

costed. Secondly, we be balancing the books for nine years with John

Swinney every year. I certainly got faith in a finance minister lay John

Swinney but these are difficult decisions to make. I would like to

do it with a full set of financial levers to be able to do that. It

will be challenging but I have no doubt that the changes to be made

will not only improve disabled people's lives but we managed in the

budget. Ian Murray, there are difficult decisions ahead for

Holyrood. Would you actually be able, with the tax increases your

suggesting, to fund promises to disabled people? Humza Yousaf said

he wanted to use the power of taxation to raise more money but is

refusing to use them, particularly the introduction of the 50p tax rate

for those earning ?150,000 per year. What is critical when it comes to

disability benefits and the most vulnerable in society who need all

support the social cutesy system that they rely on public services --

Social Security, and if we go down the road of not using the powers,

we're just going into another five years of cuts. If we continue to cut

public services and not invest in the future, it is the vulnerable and

disabled in rural areas that will lose out the most. If we continue to

cut college education, which is a vital way for disabled people to get

back into the workplace, you can't do that on the cheap and the SNP are

offering no additional resources to be able to do that. Alex

Cole-Hamilton, how would a Liberal Democrats pay for their pledges you

are making to replace the work programme and double the help for

people with mental health problems? Will an extra penny in taxpayer for

that? The penny earned taxes for education. We would significantly

read profile the health budget. I would like to address a fundamental

mistake. There is a suggestion that money given to people with

disabilities is just dead money. It's not. It's an investment in

helping them to realise their potential and get them economic

reactive so it is not just a money pit, it is something that will make

them more active participants in community and economic producers.

Scientists at Glasgow University have established a world first

by cracking the communication code of our brains.

The pioneers in the world of cognitive neuroimaging have

examined how brains process what we see.

And as our science correspondent Kenneth Macdonald reports,

they've done it with more than a little help from Voltaire -

If you are and how Salvador Dali's mind work is a matter of conjecture.

This helps a lot how our minds work, or how our brains see. Our main

interest was studying how the brain works as an information-processing

machine. It is quite difficult to do because we observe brain signals but

it is difficult to know what they do. Do the get information from the

visual world, do they not? If so, how? To be sent information from one

region to the brain, if so, how? Misses were Salvador Dali comes in

and 40. In 1940 Dali painted slave market. That is Voltaire, or is it?

You can see here to faces. The colour of the dress and the dress.

If you default is a bit and step away from the image or take off your

glasses, you will see the bust of Voltaire with the two faces of the

nuns become to eyes. Techniques like these have made it possible to open

our heads to cognitive neuroimaging. We can find early on amongst the

early seconds of processing that the brain processes very specific

features, such as the left eye or the right eye, a corner of the nose

or mouth. With this at about 200 million seconds, we also find the

brain transfers features across the two hemispheres in order to

construct a fool representation. It has taken 15 years and funding from

the Wellcome trust for the Glasgow research to be able to track the

brain 's processes, measured in 1000th of a second. We asked people,

what do you see here? Do you see Voltaire? Or do you see the nuns? Or

do you not know what you are seeing? After many such trials, with

mathematical techniques, we can reveal what features the brain is

using for each perception. For the nuns, it would be primarily the two

heads and for a volunteer, which are seeing right here, which is a more

global view of this face. It makes Glasgow University and kind of

Bletchley Park of the brain. Able not just a monitor signals, like

Alan Turing and his colleagues, actually crack the code they

contain. It is very important because prior to this research,

people would know to brain regions communicate as they knew what the

Germans were doing in World War II, they were communicating with each

other. Likewise, prior to the enigma of cheering, people did not know

what they working indicating about. -- Turing. What else is it for?

Elsewhere it hot people to see and sort fabrics. Understanding why our

brains do this could help machines work better in the future. Robots

could just be the beginning. In able to track very finely where, when and

how the information is processed in the brain, not only will inform

brain science in terms of understanding fundamental mechanisms

of information-processing, also clinical science in terms of

understanding where, when and how we can have systematic distortions

information-processing, some information pathways being

disrupted, by strokes for example. So far, researchers have cracked the

code but how do our brains decide that is Voltaire or two nuns? More

research is needed before we can answer that one. Indeed, some people

think one of the nuns is a beard. Maybe the two Dutch merchants.

Whatever you think, it's your decision. Science is getting closer

to working out how you made it. Fascinating stuff there

from Kenneth Macdonald reporting from Glasgow's

Bletchley Park of the Brain. Now, in a fortnight's time

the polls will have closed And while one party leader may be

getting the royal treatment, we'll have to wait till then

to see who reigns supreme. The SNP launched their manifesto

yesterday. Make no mistake, unlikely manifestos of other parties, this

manifesto is the programme for Government. And, to be honest, it

looks as though despite the obvious candidate waiting in the wings to

replace higher and the people who think her regime has too much power

in the land, she will continue to reign over us at least for the next

few years. Yes, in case you missed any of the coverage, today is the

Queen's 90th birthday. Celebrated with patriotic fervour across the

country. Although, not everyone joined in. Apart from that, what

else has been setting the heather alight this week in the Holyrood

campaign? To be honest, not much. Shall I put the soil in? There has

been a succession of photo opportunities. Some more bizarre

than others. Ruth Davidson has been making mud pies and promising that

ending the council tax freeze would allow local authorities to spend

more on schools. I am not sliding down it, I can guarantee. For the

Lib Dems, Willie Rennie was blinded by the light. He is calling for the

immediate publication of a national survey of skills attainment in

Scotland. And Patrick Harvie of the Greens has been out enjoying the

sunshine. Ukip brushed off more claims two claims that the party is

dysfunctional. And Labour's Kezia Dugdale played nicely. Before

challenging the SNP to match her pledge to protect education budgets

from cuts. Meanwhile, back at the SNP manifesto launch, there was a

commitment to baby boxes for appearance of all newborns. A

promise to close the attainment gap in education, a pledge to use tax

and social security powers to lift people out of poverty, and ambitious

targets to tackle climate change. That is all the party manifestos

published them. Apart from labours. That is not out until Wednesday of

next week. We go to the polls a week today.

Here now to talk about that and some of the day's other news

is the journalist Cal Flyn and businessman

Kevin, it would be fair to say you are no fan of the SNP. Do you think

this manifesto is a programme for Government, as Nicola Sturgeon says?

A programme for Government... It's a triumph, is what it is. A triumph of

form over function. It is glossy and big but timid. Maybe that meditate

is because it is a programme for Government but what it is in effect

is a programme of in action. Isn't it more realistic than the other

parties? They would never have to input lament the policies of the

polls are to be believed. I think the idea of raising ?1 billion of

tax in the Scottish economy would be unrealistic as narrow thinking,

particularly if you look at the SNP RE party who have talked about

social justice and the mentioned austerity once. The mentioned social

justice zero times. The party that says they want to offer an

alternative to Tory austerity and yet do almost nothing on tax, that

is in action, I think. That is timid. Cal Flyn do you think that

that have worked out where the centre of that goal opinion truly

is? Is that what we are seeing in this manifesto? Yes, I think when we

look at the policies that come from all across the spectrum. We have a

Scandinavian style with the baby boxes and on the other style we have

the money going directly into the hands of head teachers. This is like

the Academy programme down south. Saying that, what you see here is

you look for total domination. They are not looking for the traditional

left footers, they are looking for the centre as well. It is rich with

the unionist parties to be looking at the SNP and criticising them for

not using tax powers that we only have because of the yes movement and

the SNP. We have those tax powers, fought for them and do not use them.

That is weird. We are going into an election and... They have powers but

they do not want to use them. I think they do not want to not use

them but it would be a bad time to bring it up. Anybody else having a

good campaign this week? I think Willie Rennie had a stroke of genius

with an amusing photo call. I think a lot of people have been talking

about. It is taking the same line that has brought Ruth Davidson into

the spotlight. Somebody who's not afraid to laugh at themselves. It

can backfire terribly but it is nice to see a sense of fun in the

Scottish politics at the moment. Let's move on, you might have

noticed it is the Queen's 90th birthday today. Lots going on to

mark the day. Do you think, Kevin, Scots care as much as the rest of

the UK about the monarchy? Whether it's as much as the rest of the

UK... They clearly do, you just have to look at the referendum and the

yes campaign argued for the Queen to remain as monarch. So, that is

really an affection for the Royal family. Whether there is an

affection for the hereditary village, which some of us struggle

with, is another question. -- privilege. We might be against the

principle but the Queen seems like a good egg. We saw Prince William

talking yesterday about how the Royal family as to modernise and

stay relevant. That's it challenge for him. Can they do that? I do not

know if they monarchy can be modern. The print seems to be at a loss as

to whether that is possible. -- the Prince. Nobody is willing to take on

this huge constitutional question. Maybe after Queen Elizabeth that is

a time when that question is going to arise. Barack Obama flew into

London this evening and he is going to make an appeal for the unity

kingdom to remain within the European Union. How is that going to

go down, do you think? Obviously the outcome pain will hate it but it

will be interesting to see how many did not scream foul when he

expressed an opinion on the Scottish referendum. How did that go down? Is

that helpful when somebody like home intervenes on domestic issues? On

the UK level, it is. He still has star dust about him. The sheen might

have come off in his own country but he is respected worldwide. It would

help the campaign with somebody of his credibility express an opinion,

which he is entitled to. We saw eight former Treasury Secretary is

writing from America. We have many voices from across Europe as well.

If it is not Obama alone then require people from overseas telling

us the same message, perhaps that will have a good effect. It is

hypocritical, Boris Johnson says, for a US president. Why should she

be advocating the UK sovereignty... Has it got point? No, I do not think

he does. If you are watching a friend doing something you think is

stupid, you should tell them. Maybe that, really he is watching someone

with whom he has a special relationship with a decision which

is a bad idea. Is this about Britain or self interest? I think self

interest. This is a bridge from America to Europe. If the UK is up

there, the do not have the same influence in Europe. If the UK is

outside Europe, it could have a domino effect. Sweden could be next.

I think itself interest. Thank you both very much.

That's it for tonight and for this week.

With news of the untimely death of one of the world's most

influential musicians, Prince, we'd like to leave you with one

of his tracks that I know means a lot to me, and I'm sure

# I only wanted to you laughing in the purple rain.

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