:00:00. > :00:00.International Trade Secretary Liam Fox says Brexit is a "golden
:00:00. > :00:00.opportunity" to forge new trade links.
:00:07. > :00:08.The Remain camp has described that as "delusional".
:00:09. > :00:33.Whatever the final details of Brexit, how might Scotland be
:00:34. > :00:36.placed to trade in a different international environment?
:00:37. > :00:38.The Scottish Government plans to expand early learning
:00:39. > :00:43.Will the plans work for parents and children?
:00:44. > :00:46.Oil prices have risen after Opec outlined plans for
:00:47. > :00:58.Will it mean a boost for the industry in Scotland?
:00:59. > :01:00.It's now more than three months since the UK voted
:01:01. > :01:06.In that time we've been told that "Brexit means Brexit" -
:01:07. > :01:08.but does anyone in Government really know what our relationship
:01:09. > :01:10.with the EU will look like in the future?
:01:11. > :01:13.Today the International Trade Secretary Liam Fox
:01:14. > :01:38.laid out his vision - as John McManus reports.
:01:39. > :03:37.The prospects for UK industry are key to what happens next. The head
:03:38. > :03:42.of Germany equivalent to the CBI favours a hard Brexit. That is
:03:43. > :03:47.complete withdrawal from the common market. Heat disagrees with Liam Fox
:03:48. > :03:52.that European businesses will want to do a deal. As much as we would
:03:53. > :03:56.like to uphold good relationships with British customers, it is
:03:57. > :04:03.extremely important for us not to lose or alienate other European
:04:04. > :04:07.markets. So whether the UK retains a foothold in the single market in
:04:08. > :04:12.return for freedom of movement is another option. The Italian prime
:04:13. > :04:19.minister says the referendum decision must be respected but there
:04:20. > :04:23.cannot be any favours. The British people and government will decide to
:04:24. > :04:32.open article 50. I think we will work as soon as possible. Even if
:04:33. > :04:40.only one way to solve our problem but it will be impossible to give to
:04:41. > :04:45.British people more rights than the older people out of the EU. Next
:04:46. > :04:50.week our Prime Minister is expected to address the subject of Brexit at
:04:51. > :04:52.the Conservative Party conference. Eyes will be peeled for any signs of
:04:53. > :04:55.a road map for the future. We're joined from Edinburgh
:04:56. > :04:57.by the chief executive of the Scotch Whisky Association David
:04:58. > :04:59.Frost. He's also a former ambassador,
:05:00. > :05:02.and has in the past been responsible for UK trade policy,
:05:03. > :05:15.working closely with Good evening. Do you think we're any
:05:16. > :05:20.further forward about what Brexit might mean after the speech? I think
:05:21. > :05:25.we are further forward in one area, one thing which was clear was that
:05:26. > :05:32.the government intends -- will maintain an open trade policy. They
:05:33. > :05:39.are clear that free trade means more prosperity and that is strongly
:05:40. > :05:43.proven as a proposition. It is very important for exporting industries
:05:44. > :05:48.like whisky that we maintain an open trade policy. Are we any closer on
:05:49. > :05:52.the future relationship with the EU? Like Norway or Switzerland or
:05:53. > :05:58.Canada, I am not sure we are further forward on that but it is a big
:05:59. > :06:02.decision and requires a lot of hard thought. Has he been presumptive
:06:03. > :06:09.that nothing will change on free trade? In the end country's trade
:06:10. > :06:16.policy is it's own fear. We can run a liberal free trade policy. We can
:06:17. > :06:21.have few barriers for trade the UK. His example about North and south
:06:22. > :06:26.clear shows that but of course we still have to negotiate open
:06:27. > :06:31.barriers with other countries. -- south Korea. But if you are doing
:06:32. > :06:37.that from the principle of free trade, it becomes much easier. You
:06:38. > :06:41.are accustomed in the whisky industry of having different tariffs
:06:42. > :06:48.for different countries, India being one of the highest. We have enjoyed
:06:49. > :06:51.the relationships we have had through the European union, what are
:06:52. > :06:58.your concerns going forward about how difficult it may be to negotiate
:06:59. > :07:04.different tariffs? Yes, we exported into virtually every market in the
:07:05. > :07:09.world. Some are easy and some are difficult. India is a good example
:07:10. > :07:15.of one which is difficult, it has a tariff of 150% just to get into the
:07:16. > :07:22.market. The EU has been negotiating a trade deal with India for the last
:07:23. > :07:26.ten years and has not made huge progress. It is difficult because
:07:27. > :07:29.they have lots of different constituents to satisfy. We will
:07:30. > :07:35.have to say if the UK can do better. Maybe it will be easier for one
:07:36. > :07:39.country to do it rather than a group of countries. If Liam Fox could do
:07:40. > :07:44.that, that would make a huge difference to the Scotch whisky
:07:45. > :07:50.industry. We have 1% of the Indian market for spirits so just small
:07:51. > :07:53.change would make a huge difference for us. You are confident that there
:07:54. > :07:59.could be optimism and you could end up with better deals then? There are
:08:00. > :08:04.definitely some opportunities there. It would not be straightforward, we
:08:05. > :08:08.would have to grab attention. Doing lots of trade negotiations at the
:08:09. > :08:15.same time will be difficult, we will have to prioritise and get people to
:08:16. > :08:20.do it but it is an opportunity. When the EU negotiators have to satisfy
:08:21. > :08:24.French farmers, German car-makers and so on, it is easier in some ways
:08:25. > :08:31.to do your own trade negotiations. You only have to satisfy yourself
:08:32. > :08:35.about the deal. The experience you have in trade negotiations is quite
:08:36. > :08:41.unique, how long can they take and how conjugated can they be? They can
:08:42. > :08:45.be really complex. That is the challenge for the UK. The EU has a
:08:46. > :08:51.lot of experience in doing trade deals. It has some very skilled
:08:52. > :08:55.people in doing it. We will be picking up from scratch. I have
:08:56. > :09:00.great confidence in the system and the ministers and officials doing
:09:01. > :09:04.it. They have more experience than people sometimes think. If you do a
:09:05. > :09:10.trade deal in three years, you are doing really well. Most take longer
:09:11. > :09:17.than that. Most have time to ratify and get approved by parliament since
:09:18. > :09:22.all so it can take time. With the UK trade deals, we will not have to
:09:23. > :09:28.spend one year translating them into Portuguese or whatever like the EU
:09:29. > :09:34.do. We will be able to get on and perhaps speed up ratification. Are
:09:35. > :09:38.you confident that Scotland's role within the UK will develop,
:09:39. > :09:45.especially for such an industry like Scotch whisky? We certainly are
:09:46. > :09:51.doing everything we can to get good healing and we are getting it. We
:09:52. > :09:56.are talking to all the senior ministers in London. They are all
:09:57. > :10:02.well aware of our concerns and opportunities and challenges.
:10:03. > :10:06.Obviously there is a policy-making process going on within government.
:10:07. > :10:12.The Scottish government is trying to influence that. So our industries in
:10:13. > :10:18.Scotland. It is too early to say how that will play out but certainly I
:10:19. > :10:25.feel that the Scottish boys for us and others is pretty well understood
:10:26. > :10:28.at the moment. Thank you very much for joining us.
:10:29. > :10:31.More than a ?100 million given to councils to pay for free
:10:32. > :10:33.childcare has not been spent on funding the programme.
:10:34. > :10:35.That's according to a new government report.
:10:36. > :10:37.But the local authority umbrella body COSLA says the report
:10:38. > :10:40.is a "crude assessment that doesn't reflect the reality".
:10:41. > :10:43.And the group said it should not detract from the "overriding
:10:44. > :10:46.success story" of councils delivering free childcare.
:10:47. > :10:50.The row comes on the day of a key debate on the expansion of childcare
:10:51. > :11:06.provision in the Scottish Parliament.
:11:07. > :11:20.This could -- it is also why we have described and will continue to
:11:21. > :11:25.describe this policy as are most transformative in superstructure
:11:26. > :11:30.project. This has the potential to change the lives of children and
:11:31. > :11:34.their families in the short and long-term. The Scottish government
:11:35. > :11:41.had a laudable aim to deliver 600 of free childcare but that provision
:11:42. > :11:45.places remains a problem. There are serious pressures within provision
:11:46. > :11:50.which despite the government commitment to increase the number of
:11:51. > :11:54.hours are actually putting barriers in the way of flexible access for
:11:55. > :12:00.parents to choose a place for their child so the net result is that both
:12:01. > :12:10.choice and flexibility are heavily constrained. What impact is it's
:12:11. > :12:14.having on families? We hear that parents cannot access Birch funded
:12:15. > :12:17.childcare places because they are provided on a half-day basis which
:12:18. > :12:22.means that you might have a place between nine o'clock and ten past 12
:12:23. > :12:29.but you cannot peter had your child there before nine o'clock or after
:12:30. > :12:34.the session. For most working parents that is completely unusable.
:12:35. > :12:38.COSLA said they needed time to get some establishments up and running
:12:39. > :12:42.and get suitable staff but they are working farm -- forward to working
:12:43. > :12:49.with partner providers in the future.
:12:50. > :12:52.Joining me now is Professor of Social Policy at the University
:12:53. > :13:04.Coming on for four hours a day is not working well for most patients.
:13:05. > :13:10.It is. It has come because they're trying to achieve two things at
:13:11. > :13:14.once. Firstly high-quality preschool learning for children and also
:13:15. > :13:21.trying to provide flexible childcare provision. We do know that actually
:13:22. > :13:24.you can do both of these things but the date of the childcare which is
:13:25. > :13:28.about providing a learning environment only needs to be about
:13:29. > :13:35.20 hours or so weak which is why the level is set at that. It needs to be
:13:36. > :13:45.of high quality with institutional care rather than home care setting.
:13:46. > :13:49.We do know as your respondents said that that is useless for working
:13:50. > :13:53.parents unless you work very close to the nursery and can move your
:13:54. > :14:00.child yourself to another childcare place. It does not work at all.
:14:01. > :14:06.Investing in childcare is important for long-term growth and incredibly
:14:07. > :14:12.important for getting women into work and getting lone parents into
:14:13. > :14:15.work. Without that kind of free investment in childcare it is
:14:16. > :14:22.impossible for them to work. As well as benefits for the wider economy,
:14:23. > :14:27.you are addressing poverty. We know we need to get that investment in
:14:28. > :14:32.before children start school aged five up to six tissue unaffected
:14:33. > :14:37.outcome. We also know that getting low income children into that
:14:38. > :14:43.structured preparation for school makes a huge difference and can be
:14:44. > :14:49.helpful in narrowing the attainment gap later on. Nothing else post five
:14:50. > :14:53.years old can do this. It is important to get women into work and
:14:54. > :14:58.get paid and into work because that is the key to addressing child
:14:59. > :15:04.poverty and family poverty as well. We know if you invest pounds in
:15:05. > :15:08.childcare you get ?5 back in terms of the social and economic benefits
:15:09. > :15:19.to wider society so these -- this needs to be implemented properly to
:15:20. > :15:24.enable working parents to work. Has there been too much emphasis placed
:15:25. > :15:27.on trying to increase hours rather than trying to revolutionise
:15:28. > :15:31.childcare so that there is wraparound available for everybody?
:15:32. > :15:34.There has been and I think there is a certain investment that has to be
:15:35. > :15:38.made in the infrastructure. It has to be able to fund the building is
:15:39. > :15:43.that the facilities and particularly the trained staff because it is the
:15:44. > :15:49.actual training of the staff that reaches the educational outcomes for
:15:50. > :15:52.children. Attainment is very low for children who are not in local
:15:53. > :15:56.authorities. Absolutely. And you do not want to have a situation where
:15:57. > :15:59.low paid and low skilled workers are providing what is essentially a very
:16:00. > :16:04.high skilled level of care for children. But at the same time,
:16:05. > :16:07.there does need to be that kind of flexibility. Other countries and
:16:08. > :16:10.other areas have managed and even some local authorities within
:16:11. > :16:14.Scotland have managed it, but what this report shows today is that they
:16:15. > :16:18.have not managed it consistently across local authorities so some
:16:19. > :16:19.parents, some working parents and children are losing out. Thank you
:16:20. > :16:20.very much for coming in. The price of Brent crude oil has
:16:21. > :16:24.surged over the last 24 hours after the oil producers cartel Opec
:16:25. > :16:26.agreed a preliminary deal to cut production for the first
:16:27. > :16:29.time in eight years. The major oil exporting nations
:16:30. > :16:33.agreed the deal last night, to ease oversupply, which has been
:16:34. > :16:36.keeping prices low. To discuss what this might mean
:16:37. > :16:40.for the North Sea oil industry, we're joined by Mike Tholen,
:16:41. > :17:01.who's upstream director A very good evening to you. Good
:17:02. > :17:03.evening to you too. It is hard to know whether at the moment this
:17:04. > :17:06.definitely will happen and then if it does happen whether it will lead
:17:07. > :17:09.to a rise in the oil price, but let's assume that will happen and we
:17:10. > :17:12.might start to see Brent crude going up. It already has in the last day.
:17:13. > :17:15.What will the North Sea be doing to prepare for that? Hasn't already
:17:16. > :17:18.been preparing for that? I think it has been preparing for the current
:17:19. > :17:22.low prices in many ways. It would be nice to see oil sitting above $50
:17:23. > :17:27.rather than below it. But the industry is not picking its future
:17:28. > :17:31.on what the oil price does now. It has to become more competitive. That
:17:32. > :17:35.will do well at a whole range of prices in the years ahead. And in
:17:36. > :17:38.terms of jobs, do you think we could start to see a slowdown in the
:17:39. > :17:42.number of job losses we have been seeing? I certainly hope so. I think
:17:43. > :17:45.of the industry can get confidence that it knows what they all prices
:17:46. > :17:49.doing and it starts to stabilise rather than being as volatile as it
:17:50. > :17:52.has been over the past year or so, then many companies can start to
:17:53. > :17:57.have a little more positivity about the future. The whole issue is how
:17:58. > :18:04.we get companies to begin to drive investment again. In a industry that
:18:05. > :18:08.is becoming increasingly competitive. And do you think
:18:09. > :18:12.exploration might be one of the key benefactors of this it the price
:18:13. > :18:15.starts to certainly climb again? Because people will be blocked in to
:18:16. > :18:20.spend the money exploring unless they are sure they will get a decent
:18:21. > :18:23.return. Indeed, and I think exploration will very gently feel
:18:24. > :18:30.the benefits. A lot of other things are going on in exploration so it
:18:31. > :18:34.means that the rice -- that companies have a little more cash to
:18:35. > :18:39.spend. But it will take time to get that confidence and to be
:18:40. > :18:43.comfortable. The shock of the fall. It was so rapid. How well is the
:18:44. > :18:48.industry now adjusting to that? And how much harder has been to plan
:18:49. > :18:51.ahead? Well, what we have seen many times before is that oil prices have
:18:52. > :18:58.fallen. Certainly it has fallen as fast as it ever has. Probably the
:18:59. > :19:00.biggest problem is the length of the downturn. Companies have moved from
:19:01. > :19:04.just beginning to adjust to price changes to really starting to build
:19:05. > :19:07.a different business to cope with a much more competitive environment.
:19:08. > :19:11.We are seeing costs come down and the industry, partly because of tax
:19:12. > :19:14.changes, partly because of cost changes, is any much more
:19:15. > :19:20.competitive position. And on the subject of decommissioning, that
:19:21. > :19:25.continues and provides work and some revenue as well. We also reported
:19:26. > :19:28.today about this new Masters course in decommissioning at Aberdeen
:19:29. > :19:34.University. Is this another sign of the abolition of the industry? Is it
:19:35. > :19:39.adjusting to the changes? I think to a measure it is. Exploration is the
:19:40. > :19:45.start of things in decommissioning a laugh in many ways is the end of
:19:46. > :19:48.things. And if we can get a specialism across the full
:19:49. > :19:51.life-cycle, all of those skills are highly exportable for Scottish
:19:52. > :19:54.companies all around the world. We do not already that is really good
:19:55. > :20:00.in terms of managing and operating assets. If we get good at
:20:01. > :20:03.decommissioning, that is a whole new opportunity for us. We have been
:20:04. > :20:08.accustomed to Opec being slow to make any changes and decisions. Does
:20:09. > :20:12.the industry does tend to be trying to continue to do something and
:20:13. > :20:18.trying to maybe insulated itself a bit from that big world picture? I
:20:19. > :20:23.think you shouldn't let your business be dependent on the future
:20:24. > :20:27.oil prices. Everyone knows that. Higher prices are probably better
:20:28. > :20:30.for us but the whole course of the last 18 months has met the industry
:20:31. > :20:35.has got a lot fitter. It is keen to not that fitness, even if the price
:20:36. > :20:38.rises in little. No one is expecting prices to soar. No one is expecting
:20:39. > :20:41.prices to be what they were 18 months ago. Mike, thank you for
:20:42. > :20:43.joining us this evening. What were the hot topics
:20:44. > :20:45.at First Ministers Questions today? Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale
:20:46. > :20:47.focussed on plans to That follows a vote on the issue
:20:48. > :20:51.earlier this week, resulting For Conservatives, Ruth Davidson
:20:52. > :21:02.chose the topic of fracking, and accused the First Minister
:21:03. > :21:11.of turning a blind eye to shale gas It is quite possible that shale Gas
:21:12. > :21:14.from the rest of the UK will get the go-ahead soon if local communities
:21:15. > :21:18.back it, and if it does, providers say that much of that Gas will go to
:21:19. > :21:22.Grangemouth and will end up in a National Grid powering many Scottish
:21:23. > :21:27.homes. So we could end up with a ban on Scottish but with Scottish homes
:21:28. > :21:34.reliant on in this Gas to keep the pipes warm. Is the First Minister
:21:35. > :21:39.entirely comfortable with that? Well, I know the Scottish
:21:40. > :21:42.Conservatives are a party controlled by London but in the era of
:21:43. > :21:46.devolution, I think it is right that we take the decisions about fracking
:21:47. > :21:52.in Scotland here in Scotland and in our national parliament and that is
:21:53. > :21:55.what we will continue to do. Before the election, the SNP told people
:21:56. > :21:59.their local services were safe. Even the First Minister did it on the
:22:00. > :22:04.front of the Greenock Telegraph. If the vote of this Parliament elected
:22:05. > :22:09.by the people of Scotland doesn't make the First Minister keep our
:22:10. > :22:14.promises, just what will? Week after week, we have the Labour Party
:22:15. > :22:18.accusing the Government of overriding local decision-making.
:22:19. > :22:21.Today, what they want to do is override local decision-making. We
:22:22. > :22:25.will do the right thing and it is because of this Government, let's
:22:26. > :22:28.never forget this. It is because of this SNP Government that we still
:22:29. > :22:29.have an accident and emergency in Monklands, we still have an A
:22:30. > :22:41.service in error. -- in Ayr. And with me this evening to talk
:22:42. > :22:46.about some of the day's news is the former Labour adviser
:22:47. > :22:54.Paul Sinclair and from Oxfam UK - We will begin with the fracking top
:22:55. > :22:59.today. We covered this earlier this week, the arrival of shale Gas to
:23:00. > :23:03.Grangemouth. Is there a level of hypocrisy in this arrival? We do not
:23:04. > :23:07.want to extract it ourselves but we are happy to bring it in and use it.
:23:08. > :23:10.I think there is a thing about becoming slightly hysterical about
:23:11. > :23:15.fracking. If fracking is safe, then we should do it. If it is not, then
:23:16. > :23:19.we should not. Somehow, it has become demonised. We live in a
:23:20. > :23:20.strange country where our biggest industrial complexes actually
:23:21. > :23:25.Faslane, although we are anti-nuclear weapons. Our second is
:23:26. > :23:33.Grangemouth, although we are anti-fracking, but it keeps alive on
:23:34. > :23:36.fracked Gas coming from the United States. It is in the critical. I
:23:37. > :23:40.think we need to take a step back and stop using it as a slogan and
:23:41. > :23:45.work out whether fracking is good or not and if it is it could be a very
:23:46. > :23:48.good thing for the Scottish economy. We are awaiting the results of those
:23:49. > :23:52.ports in the Scottish Government is waiting for them. In the meantime,
:23:53. > :23:56.is it hard to have a rational discussion about it? Without it
:23:57. > :24:01.becoming political. The thing is, it is all about the politics of 129 M
:24:02. > :24:08.is he's in Hollywood. It is seen that there is a slither of greener
:24:09. > :24:11.people who would be against fracked, which bought the SNP and the Labour
:24:12. > :24:17.Party would like to go against. It is not about what is best for the
:24:18. > :24:20.Scottish economy. It shouldn't be about the politics when the science
:24:21. > :24:24.is so incredibly clear. The science tells us that we need about 80% of
:24:25. > :24:28.existing reserves of fossil fuels to stay in the ground and that includes
:24:29. > :24:34.Gas. So if all we are doing is by using natural Gas and shale Gas is
:24:35. > :24:37.taking the count down the road, but it is doing it in a destructive way.
:24:38. > :24:41.What we need to do is get on the front foot and embrace renewable.
:24:42. > :24:44.You said earlier that the master 's degree in decommissioning in just a
:24:45. > :24:47.fantastic example of the North Sea industries and the academics up
:24:48. > :24:51.there in press in the ship to a low carbon economy that we need to get
:24:52. > :24:54.on the front foot with so very quickly because the science is
:24:55. > :24:57.damning. We can't keep taking these issues down the road and playing
:24:58. > :25:05.politics with them. There is no ties. The science is clear. At
:25:06. > :25:14.religious art carbon emissions, the aim of being deniable honour -- the
:25:15. > :25:20.aim of being reliable on renewables in 2020, we are not far away from
:25:21. > :25:23.that. Now, and it is great to see businesses such as Aberdeen
:25:24. > :25:27.University embracing the economic opportunities that will come with
:25:28. > :25:31.the two missing -- with decommissioning. I just wish there
:25:32. > :25:38.were more of them. Let's go on to Brexit. What did you make of that? I
:25:39. > :25:42.thought it was an appalling speech. I thought is opening line about the
:25:43. > :25:48.date in the 18th-century where Adam Smith published the Wealth of
:25:49. > :25:52.Nations was complete nonsense. I thought it was delusional. I would
:25:53. > :25:58.agree with Nick on that, Nick Clegg. But my biggest distress is that I
:25:59. > :26:02.found out that actually I expected it to be slammed down by number ten
:26:03. > :26:05.but never ten agreed with that. I think there are any horrible
:26:06. > :26:08.situation and I do not want to bring up the referendum in 2014 but one of
:26:09. > :26:11.the things I fear about the referendum in one of the reasons I
:26:12. > :26:18.bolted Noel was that we would be into the unknown and a lot of the
:26:19. > :26:23.promises we made will not happen. We are finding that it is real now. I
:26:24. > :26:28.am there to take the result on the chin and make the best of it, but
:26:29. > :26:31.they are still coming up with delusional nonsense, and that I
:26:32. > :26:36.think is very fearful and that is a big problem for Theresa May going
:26:37. > :26:40.forward. What did you think of what Liam Fox had to say? It remains
:26:41. > :26:45.quite general. We are still lacking in detail. And I think that is the
:26:46. > :26:49.challenge that we are in this zombie no man's land where everyone knows
:26:50. > :26:52.there is a massive change coming but no one knows what it will look like
:26:53. > :26:55.or how to prepare for it or how to get ready for it and I think that is
:26:56. > :27:00.very unnerving, the longer it goes on, and also the differences of
:27:01. > :27:04.opinion even amongst the three key ministers in the Brexit team. They
:27:05. > :27:08.are very diverse in what they are putting on the table. What worries
:27:09. > :27:12.me is that in this debate around trade and whether it is a soft or a
:27:13. > :27:17.hard Brexit is that what gets squeezed out of that conversation is
:27:18. > :27:21.that some of the root causes are ignored. We know that the UK is one
:27:22. > :27:24.of the most unequal of all of the developed countries and we are
:27:25. > :27:27.seeing just so many people feeling that the current economic system is
:27:28. > :27:31.not delivering for them and until we again get on the front foot and
:27:32. > :27:35.start debating those issues and start to doc about an economic
:27:36. > :27:39.system that the needs of the people who are not feeling well served by
:27:40. > :27:42.the current situation, then we will just be going around in circles and
:27:43. > :27:47.back to where we started from. I think that is one of the problems
:27:48. > :27:50.with the referendum. People end up not voting actually on the issue.
:27:51. > :27:53.They bought about something that is upsetting them a great deal but the
:27:54. > :27:56.one thing that we can take from Liam Fox today is that when anybody
:27:57. > :28:01.starts a speech by telling you we are on the brink of the Golden age,
:28:02. > :28:05.they are talking nonsense. Let's move on to childcare, because that
:28:06. > :28:07.was the subject of a long debate in the Scottish Parliament today. We
:28:08. > :28:12.have been hearing about issues with the funding that is being given to
:28:13. > :28:15.local authorities. What concerned me about the way it was being reported
:28:16. > :28:20.and I looked at that report that came out from the Scottish
:28:21. > :28:24.Government is that actually I think the way it was reported missed the
:28:25. > :28:30.bigger story. There was a factor in there saying that 80% of third-party
:28:31. > :28:33.employees, so employees delivering childcare through partner services,
:28:34. > :28:38.80% of those front line staff are paid less than the living wage. That
:28:39. > :28:40.is deeply problematic. We are any country that understands the
:28:41. > :28:44.importance of the living wage and we have a Government that understands
:28:45. > :28:47.the importance of it and most local authorities are signed up as living
:28:48. > :28:50.wage employers and then 80% of people who are looking after and
:28:51. > :28:54.nurturing and educating our children are paid poverty wages, and that is
:28:55. > :28:57.not acceptable. I was really disappointed that that was not the
:28:58. > :29:02.biggest Tory in this debate today. Yes, there is a real double standard
:29:03. > :29:08.going on. -- that was not the biggest story. It is one of the
:29:09. > :29:11.biggest failures in politics. As whether it is childcare or the nub
:29:12. > :29:18.of nurses, the nub of doctors or the number of policemen, we have this
:29:19. > :29:23.option, one party offering a certain amount of hours, but actually what
:29:24. > :29:26.you heard in pockets of today Bosman debate where people saying that this
:29:27. > :29:32.was not practical for what people actually need and is kind of... Take
:29:33. > :29:37.the constitutional question out of it. We do not have a terribly far
:29:38. > :29:41.right Tory party. We do not have a terribly far left Labour Party and
:29:42. > :29:44.we have an SNP with lots of different views. Why can we not come
:29:45. > :29:48.to a consensus about something that would actually work? Rather than
:29:49. > :29:52.making it some kind of option in debate that we have to have between
:29:53. > :29:58.the parties. It has to be more radical. Absolutely. And more
:29:59. > :30:02.flexible, to deal with the way that working lives are today. It is not
:30:03. > :30:06.just about kids being in primary school but so that it understands
:30:07. > :30:07.shiftwork, for example. Which is becoming more and more common.
:30:08. > :30:08.Indeed. I'm back on Monday
:30:09. > :30:12.at the usual time. So do please join me then,
:30:13. > :30:23.bye bye.