03/10/2016 Scotland 2016

At the Conservative party conference, the new Chancellor

sets his own course for the UK economy, through the

Phillip Hammond tells delegates he's committed to tackling the deficit,

but drops his predecessor's target for getting Britain back

In Hungary, government calls to reject EU

but with too low a turnout to be valid.

And we find out what Scotland is doing to help

There was a sense of down with the old regime

Philip Hammond certainly has a different style to George Osborne,

but it seems he's intent on junking a fair bit of his

The new Chancellor will axe plans to balance the books by 2020

to help guard Britain against Brexit turbulence.

And he said that it was common sense to invest

But he nonetheless emphasised that the deficit is still too large

and will need to be tackled. Graham Stewart reports.

Fixing a roof when the sun is shining, reducing the deficit, that

is how you deliver lasting economic security for working people.

Long-term economic plan on course to prosperity. You can look get George

Osborne's greatest hits? The catchphrases well worn the hard hat.

A familiar sight on those photocalls at the nearest building site. The

talk was of balancing books and administering a good dose of

austerity. In the light of Brexit, a new Chancellor with a new song. The

fiscal policies that your jawbone set out with a rate once for that

time, but when times change, we must change with them. We will no longer

target a surplus at the end of this Parliament, but make no mistake, the

past of fiscal consolidation must continue. The Chancellor's Priory

dessert invest in new homes and transport. Trying to balance the

books he says can wait. Opposition parties have been calling for this

in the financial crash. Housing and transport are devolved issues, but

some believe it could present the Scottish Government with an

opportunity. They may well get more to spend on investment projects, but

it is likely there will be consequential is coming about as a

result of increased spending on housing. They may have to borrow

less themselves. That was their intention, to build up Scotland's

infrastructure. It may be qualified good news. The Chancellor sought to

reassure businesses with plans were pragmatic and measured. This MP said

that in the later Brexit, the Chancellor was set preside over an

act of economic vandalism. One of the UK Government's most committed

Brexiteer is told the conference that Britain can more than prosper

on its own. We have a skilled workforce, low levels of industrial

disc at the back destruction, some of the best universities, we speak

English, a strong research base, the right time zone for a global

trading. Why would anyone not want invest in this country?

APPLAUSE Delegates elected in the upbeat

message, but its success of the Government's new economic strategy

fringes on the Thames Britain byes exit from the European Union. We are

still waiting France's on that. We are still waiting

France's on that. Well, yesterday was dominated

by a row over Scotland's role in the UK's negotiations

to leave the EU. The Scottish Government's Brexit

minister, Mike Russell, suggested the Scottish Parliament

might reject the bill designed to repatriate laws

from the EU to the UK. And he questioned the Prime

Minister's commitment to involving the devolved nations,

after she referred to divisive Our Westminster correspondent

Nick Eardley has been asking the Scottish Secretary David Mundell

how big a role each government The UK Government is going to

establish the position that we take into those negotiations and

obviously were going to take forward the views, the issues, the concerns

of Scotland in relation to issues like agriculture, like fisheries,

but across the hall read of other issues, like business requirements

and may need to contribute to trade with the European market by example.

We want to make absolutely sure that we have a constructive and good

relationship with the Scottish Government. In fact, behind the

scenes, behind the politics, I think that is happening. At the number of

good meetings with Mike Russell who has met with David Davis. Officials

are in daily contact info patient and developing these are gauche

Asians. I want to be any constructive relationship. I'm not

looking for issues and problems at every stage. I want us to come

together in a team UK approach to get the best possible deal for

Scotland and the whole of the UK. You mentioned Mike Russell, he

thinks that the Scottish parliament will have to give legislative

consent for your great repeal act, because it will impact on areas of

demolition. Is he right? We have did see the terms of the act as

published. I don't think is automatically the case that it would

have to be required on Scottish parliament, but the war come forward

with level of detail on that. I think what Mike Russell and others

accept is that the Scottish parliament doesn't the UK weaving

the EU. Obviously we have a say, debates and votes, too. We do not

have a veto on the process. I want them to be fully engaged and that's

why I'm going to appear before the Scottish parliament. We want to

proceed on the basis of partnership. We are looking to work together, we

are not looking for confrontation or unnecessary arguments are rows stop

do you still think that Scotland should remain a member of the single

market? I think what's important is that Scottish businesses should be

able to trade in the EU without barriers are tariffs. I don't think

that as we go forward, it's a good thing of the Prime Minister said, to

get bogged down in definitions that have been bandied about in the past.

Britain is going to have a unique deal. It's not going to be the

normally deal, the Canada deal, reversed Greenlands, reverse Brexit

are hard Brexit. It's going to be a unique deal and the important thing

for Scotland and its businesses is that they have access to the EU

market and there are no targets are barriers against their businesses.

Well, it wouldn't be a party conference without its press pack

and I've been speaking to two of its members - the political

editor of the Courier, Kieran Andrews and the editor

This was a first party conference speech from a new Chancellor Philip

Hammond. Kevin Schofield, what did you think today about the clarity of

his economic plan? It's interesting that this time last year, before the

last election, where the Conservatives won on a platform of

having a long-term economic plan. We heard that repeatedly during the

election campaign and then won the Tories won it it seemed to do the

trick for them. That long-term economic plan seems to have been

quite short term. It has now been ripped up. George Osborne's aim of

eradicating the deficit by 2020 has been ripped up by Philip Hammond,

and is now acknowledging the hardest public spending that George Osborne

wanted to pursue is counter-productive. He wants to give

the economy a bit more leeway with Government spending, borrowing to

invest. On the back of the Brexit result, Brexit really has changed

the whole political landscape. Is this in any way a slight to George

Osborne? Or is he just be more practical and taking pressure off

himself and this new Government? Yes, he did mention that it's a job

back for the Government to, every month when the borrowing figures

come out, if there are not good, he wants to give himself leeway so that

when those figures come out he can say he isn't borrowing up or down.

Everything isn't measured against this target of eradicating the

deficit. What is interesting is that how everything in the Conservative

Party has changed. The Cameron project has now gone. David Cameron

has departed and George Osborne has been sacked. The waters have been

closed of the Cameron project. Michael Gove lives another David

Cameron ally is no longer any power. It's remarkable how things have

shifted so quickly. Keirin Andrews, how comfortable were the people in

the whole do you think that this change of direction today? It was

interesting that yesterday, before Theresa May two to the stage, there

is a fool video praising David Cameron talking up everything that

he had done for the Conservative Party. As Kevin says, they are now

new series. They are comfortable with that. The atmosphere in the

call is a bit like May herself. It is quite reserved and cam. I'm not

sure it's entirely knows what it's doing, but it certainly gives the

impression that it does to the outside world. In terms of the plan

the mentioned in terms of investing in housing and transport, there

wasn't much more specific detail, was, Ciaran? No, there wasn't. It

was a speech that was light on detail, but big the vision. Again,

that big, brutal break from George Osborne and his priorities. You just

get the feeling that with Brexit, with the new Government, there is a

bit of making it up as they go along from the Conservatives are right

now. It is understandable to a good degree, but that can only carry on

for a short period of time, before they start getting called out if an

official decides to present itself at Westminster. We heard from Liam

Fox today for the second time in a week documentary post Brexit, but

again not much detail. No, it's almost as if number ten had ordered

the Cabinet ministers, don't create news. There is not a great deal of

news stories. Journalists want to news stories to get their teeth into

in each speech. The urbane light on the detail. Everything is gearing up

for Theresa May's speech on Wednesday. That is going to be the

big news event as far as this conference is concerned. Everything

is geared towards that. You are a race, the Liam Fox speech was

low-key. What was noticeable was that the hall itself was have to

empty for a Liam Fox. He was pitched as the hero of the right, the man

who helped bring about Brexit. It was quite a pride thing. I am sure

that he did not like it very much himself coming back to you, Theresa

May has now given a indication of the timeline for Brexit four minus

17. The financial markets today, the pound was down once again to a role

matching up to its till July low. Is the concern within the Conservative

ranks about the lack of future direction and clarity that they

have? Anything that comes back in a big way to the Chancellor's pitch

today and one of the reasons Phil Hammond, as I am looking to take a

difficult political direction to George Osborne for ideological

reasons, there is a big practical reason there and that is, you know,

we are in financially uncertain waters. The pound has been all over

the place, mainly dipping. For the Conservative Party, they want to

give themselves as much breathing space as possible in the economy, so

that they can try and figure out what is going on. You get the

impression that they will think they have the nub of something there, but

who knows how that is going to play out. Again, just those bits of

detail, how those trade arrangements will work. There was nothing from

Liam Fox on that today. It feels that there is a step to go and I

think people are acknowledging that. Just quickly, how did you assess the

mood today generally exist yet been there at the conference? It is quite

a marked departure from last week. We were both in Liverpool for the

Labour conference and it was pretty chaotic. There is a lot of

infighting. Labour is at war with itself. This was a conservative by

contrast, a fairly united party. They got what they wanted in terms

of Brexit. Marriage is about how it plays out and what things are going

to look like. To May is fond of saying, Brexit means Brexit. It is a

much more united and professional party this week. It is in marked

contrast from the Labour conference. Thank you both.

In Hungary, a referendum has been held on whether to take part

in the EU scheme to relocate refugees who have already

The Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, declared victory today -

after 98% of those who took part supported his call

But only 43% of the electorate voted,

less than the 50% needed for the vote to be valid.

Mr Orban said he would change Hungary's constitution to make

I've been speaking to Edward Lucas - who is a senior editor

at The Economist and an expert on Eastern European politics.

It is the real setback for Victor Orban who has had a charmed life

since he won the Hungarian election. He has had no opposition and has

been popular. This time he has tripped up because only 43% of the

votes were valid. -- 43% voted. The Hungarian public is no longer

prepared to be marched onto the stage. There does seem to be the

division in that those who were against it were willing to turn out

and vote and the plan that would see only 1300 asylum seekers go to

Hungary is not a large amount but obviously something that people feel

strongly against. He has put this up. And the even more right-wing

party, Jobbik, they have made it into being bossed around by

Brussels, but it is a small number and the overwhelming majority of

migrants do not want to move to Hungary because the language is

difficult and living standards are low. They want to move to the richer

countries of Western and northern Europe. He is maybe using that as a

bogeyman to scare the public and the result of the referendum shows that

did not work. As he and the voters who voted to dry to send that

message to Brussels? He was to send a message to Brussels that he does

not want to be bossed around because there are other things that he wants

to do on the economy and politics which run up against European laws

and values and so on. I think he thought this was a good opportunity

to stick up for national sovereignty in a Brexit we although he does not

want Hungary to leave the EU. That was the plan, the migrant issue was

just an excuse to have a bit of a scrap with Brussels, and now he has

fallen flat on his face. Hungary is not alone in this. The Slovak and

Czech leaders have both expressed concern about this. They want more

robust borders and also the anti-immigration party in Germany

doing well last month in elections. Is this a bubbling problem? There is

certainly a lot of concern amongst the public all over Europe about the

idea of uncontrolled migration and the idea that the EU does not have a

proper border. What we are seeing is that the Visa free passport free

zone in Europe is turning into a type of country. That is going to

survive with three travel within that Sony has got to do a better job

of policing and protecting border. That is a new country taking ship

before our eyes. There is a huge push for that from Germany, not

least, and what the Czechs and Slovaks think is neither here nor

there. There is something quite repellent about countries that have

had such a dramatic history themselves being invaded and

occupied, having Soviet troops coming in and crushing the

democratic experiments, and they have fled in their tens of thousands

on repeated occasions to Western Europe, and were received with open

arms, so they know what it is like for civilians and other people who

are fleeing these terrible things, so I think it is deplorable that

they do not show more solidarity with them. How much is this about

xenophobia given that you mention Hungary has tended to be more of a

transit state for migrants rather than somewhere where they would want

to settle? There is a myth in these countries that they are ethnically

homogenous countries with no tradition of having any sort of

foreigners therefore it is a terrible shock to them in a way that

a multicultural society like Germany or France is quite different, it can

absorb lots of migrants. That is rubbish. There are large ethnic

minorities in Hungary and Slovakia and also the fact that they have

fewer ethnic minorities than they did as the result of Hitler and

Stalin. Stalin killing all the Jews, -- Hitler killing all the Jews. The

idea that these are temples of ethnic purity that had to be

preserved from foreigners is a myth that is just conjured up by cynical

opportunistic nationalistic politicians. Thank you.

Parts of southern and eastern Africa are experiencing their worst famine

It's been estimated that more than 30 million people will be

short of food by the end of the year.

Already in Malawi, almost half of under-five-year-olds are

If they survive, and that's a big if, the after effects

Aid agencies have launched emergency appeals.

And the Scottish Government has re-committed itself to help

with development funding - offering more money

Drought is baiting in Zimbabwe and in Ethiopia. Oxfam Scotland are in

Malawi to see for themselves the situation. 6.5 million people here

are facing food insecurity. And in recent years Malawi has faced

floods followed by drought which both presumably are equally

devastating. Malawi is one of four countries the

Scottish Government is committed to support but why isn't Scotland's job

to fund international development? There has been a long-standing

belief that Scotland should do the right thing and in a modestly have

projects in the developing world. It is part of our long tradition that

goes back 150 years to missionary and other work that Scotland has

supported and it is right to be do that in the future. Aid agencies

have been encouraging the Scottish Government to continue development

funding, even a time of hostility. We cannot

ignore the people in our midst, but at the same time the levels of

poverty, the type of poverty we see in the countries where we are

working is really very different. We are talking about governments that

are not able to cope with that poverty or response to those people

in any way that we would recognise as being a sufficient level. We do

have to look after people and balance that with global

responsibility. Money from Scotland meet immediate needs and builds up

capacity to cope with future shocks. This builds the resilience of the

people. What difference does it make to have

support from Oxfam Scotland and also from the Scottish Government?

Oxfam Scotland say the rate aid could make a real difference.

The rains are due to start any time soon. How much Falls could be more

crucial this year than for the past 30 years.

Now joining me to discuss the day's big stories

from The Herald and Zara Kitson who's an activist with the Scottish

We are going to talk about Philip Hammond's warning to the

Conservative Party conference. He was talking about a post-Brexit

roller-coaster for the economy and the idea of ending the aim of

cutting the deficit by 2020. Did this give us a good setup ahead of

his Autumn Statement in November? I think he left are great deal, it is

all waiting for the Autumn Statement, Innocenti did not tell us

a great deal about how we will tackle the problems he outlined. He

made it clear that the clear economic water since the Brexit will

is not likely to continue but he also talked about problems like

productivity and inequality, although he was talking about

regional inequality, without any prescription for who he is going to

approach any of these things. Did you get any sense of a slowing down

of hostility? It was an attempt to appear to be in control of the

situation at the moment. The uncertainty that we are facing with

the economy, with the triggering of Article 50, facing Brexit, that is a

situation that it was an attempt to look like he was in control and he

knows what he is doing and to try to reassure people, but I think some of

that reassures us too little too late especially when the impact of

hostility has been deeply felt across the UK and Scotland. He said

more investment in housing and in transport but what does that mean in

real terms? What does that mean here in Scotland when they are both

devolved issues as well? That uncertainty still remains. We do not

know what it means for the budget setting process. We are still in the

same situation in Scotland where it is pushing our budget process back

to the point where it will make scrutiny very difficult. That is

something that we have been pushing on, Patrick Harvie has tables to the

Scottish Parliament to ask the Scottish Parliament to at least put

forward some scenario planning because we need some of that robust

scrutiny to enable equalities groups and others to hold governments to

account for that Scottish and national Government level. We need

to see more coming in uncertain times. Moving to Hungarian politics.

We were talking about it a few minutes ago. This vote there about

the EU migrant quarters. It was a low turnout, below 50%, not actually

valid, but the huge support to Fort against. What can be read into that?

A depressingly high vote against the EU migrant quarters. I say

depressingly high because plainly he campaigned very hard for this. One

in four of billboards in Hungary were carrying this message about

voting no. It an extraordinary campaign. What we seem to lack in

Europe, real leadership from politicians and others in the sense

that we do not have a politician of the calibre of Gandhi or Martin

Luther King or Nelson Mandela, who is explaining the case for accepting

people who are fleeing from desperate circumstances, the common

humanity. We seem to have conceded the point that these people are

deeds human eyes and they are a problem and needs to shut our

borders and we need some leadership. Do you think there is a sense of

intolerance growing and extremism? We also had the big protests in

Poland today about the very strict abortion rules which they are trying

to bring in. Yes, so there was the protests which loads of women were

on strike in Poland, thousands of women, to stand up against plans to

bring an outright ban to abortion, which would criminalise women and

criminalise abortion, including abortion in the case of rape or

incest. It is unfathomable that that type of human rights violation is

happening but it is heartening and we are seeing these trends across

Europe and it is very disturbing. We are seeing it in our own country, an

attack on disabled people rights through austerity, an attack on

women's rights in Poland, an attack on humanitarian rights in terms of

the asylum crisis and we are seeing continuous attack on workers' rights

in terms of the challenges that we are facing in the economy and the

lack of leadership that has been shown there. There is a lot of these

worrying trends. What is most worrying is that this kind of right

wing rhetoric seems to just have three room at the moment and the

media is perpetrating it and the public are there and getting behind

it and it is causing real concerns in terms of conflicts and tensions

between ordinary people, who are just going with the mass media that

is being fuelled by those extreme right-wing agendas and that is a

huge concern and something that we need to be talking about more, the

direct implications. That is why I was supporting the woman in Poland

today by wearing black and taking a picture and support because I think

in this country if there is a violation happening to any other

woman or any other person or human it is our duty to stand up and fight

to protect those rights. The survey about worklife balance today was

interesting. There seems to be some unhappiness and Scotland according

to this research from the family friendly working Scotland campaign.

Game on the back of a childcare debate last week. I wrote about this

I interviewed the SNP MSP who was reprimanded for having her children

in a committee meeting in Westminster and she said employers

could do a lot more simply by telling people their shifts in

advance or enabling people to swap shifts. We are that a low ebb in

Britain in terms of employers looking out for the welfare of their

workers. We see that with zero hours contracts and that kind of thing.

There are simple things that could be done to improve people's worklife

balance as the will was there. Very quickly. Yes, it's also points to a

much wider problem. We have an economy that does not work

for people and that does not care for people in that economy. That is

a huge problem. Human beings are the most valuable resource we will ever

have. Bringing up children is the most