05/10/2016 Scotland 2016

"No more Nasty Party" as the Prime Minister tells the rich

Theresa May sets out her stall as Prime Minister,

saying the Conservatives are the party of ordinary

After an 18-year wait for justice, what lessons can be

learned from the case of Surjit Singh Chhokar?

And the Glasgow College building in the running

for one of architecure's most prestigious prizes.

The rich and powerful, the privileged elite,

That was the stirring, and somehwat unexpected,

message as the Prime Minister laid out her vision for a Britain

Speaking to the party faithful on the final day

of the Conservative Party conference, Theresa May said

she wanted a Britain "where everyone plays by the same rules"

and is "given the chance to be all they want to be".

Meanwhile Scottish Conservatives leader Ruth Davidson got a rousing

response when she urged the First Minister to rule out

One area in which Ruth Davidson wants to define herself is support

for the European Union. She took that up again in relation to the

impending Brexit. You all know where I stood in June for the referendum.

I did not vote remain to see my vote co-opted into a fresh independence

referendum. She challenged the SNP on its record on mental health and

poverty. The once broad church of the Labour Party had shrunk to a

single rickety pew. The remaining true believers were belting out the

hymns of yesterday, higher taxes, renationalisation, finding more ways

to spend other people's money. But they were only preaching to the

choir, because labour are a party that once spoke to the hopes of a

nation, and now speaks to an ever smaller fraction of itself. In many

way, the Scottish leader's speech was similar to the Prime Minister's

later. Both positioning themselves in the centre ground, and both

ridiculing Cammack labour. Let us have no more of labour's absurd

belief that they have a monopoly on compassion. Let's put an end to

their sanctimonious pretence of moral superiority. But there are

differences between the two women. Ruth Davidson wanted Scotland to

keep access to the EU single market after Brexit. The Prime Minister has

ruled that out, and they differ over grammar schools. Tellingly, the

centrepiece of speech of the entire conference contained only one

reference to Scotland. We are one United Kingdom. England, Scotland,

Wales and Northern Ireland, and I will always fight to preserve our

proud, historic union, and will never let divisive

the strong reaction is very noticeable, that the strong reaction

has been from the conservatives' opponents in Scotland to the

comments that Theresa May made. Nicola Sturgeon said that the words

were the ugly side of the Brexit argument. Kezia Dugdale, Labour

leader in Scotland, has accused the Tories of morphing into Ukip. It

will be interesting to see how that particular debate develops over the

weeks and months. Much of Theresa May's speech today was her trying to

introduce herself, not only to the audience but to the wider

electorate. She said she wanted a meritocratic society and wanted to

reclaim the new centre ground in British politics. She knows her

premiership will be defined by Brexit, and she made it pretty plain

to the audience here in Birmingham that as far as she was concerned, in

the weeks, months and even years to come, there is going to be a lot of

tough and complex negotiations about Brexit, and there could be some

bumps in the road. As the representative leave Birmingham here

today, they know Brexit will be the defining issue of British politics

for weeks, months and possibly years to come.

Shortly before coming on air, I spoke with PR man Andy Maciver,

a former head of communications for the Scottish Tories,

and the political commentator Ian Macwhirter.

Theresa May called her vision today a shift to the new centre ground.

Where exactly do you think that is? It is almost the centre ground. It

is the centre left. A strange speech for a conservative. She is talking

about putting the power of the state at the service of ordinary working

class people. She kept going back to the phrase "Working class people" in

a way we have not heard from the Conservatives in a long time. Labour

use the euphemism "Hard-working families". She was bringing together

a lot of big state, Socialist Democratic rhetoric, and some people

are worried about what that combination means. It sounds very

like Marine Le Pen, the leader of the French National Front. It is

also sounding like winding down globalisation, helping families

whilst keeping foreigners out, which sounds a bit like Donald Trump.

How'd you think some of that anti-immigration rhetoric will go

down in Scotland? Immigration has not been such an issue in Scotland

as in England. It has been an issue in parts, but not as big as in

England. The reason Theresa May is able to make a speech like today's

is because of the vacuum that's been left by the Labour Party. The centre

ground is wide open because Jeremy Corbyn has gone so far to the left.

There has not been such a left Labour leader for a long time. The

sensible thing to do is to try to capture the vote that is available.

There was a bit of that right wing populist vote available from Ukip,

but it was about grabbing that centrist Labour vote, the centrist -

left Labour vote is what she is looking for. It is perhaps a bit

groggy to try to be all things to all men. A lot of the

anti-immigration stuff was quite distasteful, especially Amber Rudd's

stuff. But this was a clever speech that will capture a lot of people

who don't currently vote for the Conservatives. Ruth Davidson looked

a bit uncomfortable when questioned earlier about the anti-immigration

rhetoric in the speech, in Theresa May's speech. Will that pose

problems for her on how to position herself on this? Guess. Brexit will

be a massive problem for the Conservatives in Scotland and for

Ruth Davidson in Scotland. She was very much a remainer. She was

talking today in her speech, and struck a very strange note about

naming and shaming companies, demonising foreign doctors, and

reducing the number of international students coming to British

universities, which is an extraordinary policy for any Prime

Minister to be advocating. It is a serious problem for the Tories, and

north of the border. Ruth Davidson is very popular in Scotland, but she

isn't really seen as a Tory, so the Gulf will that even deeper. Ruth

Davidson did get a warm reception today, but do you think she had

anything new to say, when you come per her speech to Theresa May's? I

don't think she would make a speech like Theresa May. A lot of the

blue-collar conservatism is up Ruth Davidson's Street, but you would not

see her giving the anti-immigration messages that Theresa May and Amber

Rudd had. Ruth Davidson has changed the way that people view the

Scottish Conservative Party over the last five or so years. Not

massively, but enough to make an impact. People are now voting for

the Scottish Tories largely because of her. It was not new for the

Scottish Tory party to have to clear up a bit after a UK party

conference, as that's been happening for years. Often the messages coming

from the conferences aren't great for Scotland. People are generally

voting in Scotland for her, rather than looking to London for the

employees on that. How long will she have to keep talking about

immigration, about selective schools, when that is what is

dominating the agenda in the rest of the UK, when she would prefer not to

talk about these things? She is not going to talk about selective

education and grammar schools. It is not going to happen in Scotland. A

lot of, such is the extent of devolution now, a lot of what will

happen in terms of domestic policy will be irrelevant in Scotland. But

hovering above all of this is the problem of Brexit. And Scotland

being detached from Europe. You could hear very clearly from Mrs

May's speech today, when she said that under no circumstances is

anyone going to dictate migration policy to the UK, no safer the

European Court of Justice. That means clearly we are not going to be

in the single market. That is going to be extremely difficult for the

Conservatives north of the border to reconcile that with Scotland's

interests, which are being articulated by Nicola Sturgeon, who

will be very pleased with what happened. This Tory conference has

been a wonderful warm up act for the SNP conference next week. How are

the Scottish Conservatives going to deal with the hard Brexit issue over

the coming months? If you were advising them, what would your

advice be? I think we will stop using the phrase is hard Brexit and

soft Brexit, because they will come redundant. The Brexit negotiated

will be something in the middle. It will be outside the single market. E

it will be outside the membership of it, but that isn't the same thing.

The key point when it comes to separation... You will not have the

same membership. It is clear that the biggest potential issue for both

the UK party and their relationship with the Scottish party over the

next few years is obviously Brexit and the type of deal the UK ends up

with will be the biggest sticking point. Ruth Davidson has been

clearer than many of the Cabinet than what sort of Brexit we have,

and that could cause her some problems with the party in London,

but it is so unclear at this point what Brexit means, so who knows what

the difference will be in Ruth Davidson's wish and what is actually

delivered after article 50 is triggered. Thank you both very much.

It's taken 18 years and three trials, but today a man was finally

convicted of the murder of Indian waiter Surjit Singh Chhokar.

The case resulted in wide-ranging changes to the police

and prosecution service, after mistakes were made

by the Crown Office and there was found to be institutional

racism within the police - particularly in how they dealt

This is what his sister told the BBC.

He knows he did it. After stabbing my brother, he was the one who said

to the other two, run. What does that mean, I have done the job, so

you too run. Here with me now is the Chhokar

family's lawyer, Aamer Anwar. Good evening. It was a majority

verdict in the end and took the juror 's three days to reach the

decision. Did you fear this conviction might never happen?

Absolutely. In 2012, when we went to see the Lord Advocate, we

appreciated that it was an uphill struggle and then needed to be

evidence to bring this case forward to be reopened. But when the courts

decided the application for only one individual would be granted, we were

concerned, because we knew it meant a rerun of the first trial. Ronnie

Colton was blamed, and there was a real possibility he could be

acquitted, because the jury had to be convinced beyond reasonable --

reasonable doubt that he carried the knife and stabbed Surjit Singh

Chhokar. Why did it take so long to get to this particular day? 18 years

is a very long time. It is. At the end of the collapse of the second

trial, when the two other men were acquitted, I stood on the steps of

the court and accused the Crown Office, the justice system, of

acting like a gentleman's Colonial club, of being incompetent, it in

sensitive and institutionally racist. And you took a lot of stick

for that at the time. I did, but it has subsequently be found that they

got it wrong. It has been accepted that all three men should have been

indicted and trial together. Huge change take -- has taken place as a

result of that. It was called the Scottish Stephen Lawrence, and lots

of people argued against that. We were talking about the treatment of

the family by the Crown Office. The police did their job and arrested

the three men. It was the Crown that let two of them back on the street

and put only one man on trial, and let him walk free. The Crown Office

the Police Scotland the Procurator Fiscal had shown an unwavering

commitment to justice. They left no stone unturned in order to get

justice for the family and that is a real change that took play the a

direct result of the struggle that family waged simply to get what was

a human rights justice dignity respect.

When Sir Anthony Campbell wrote his report into there is none one, he as

you said concluded that all three men should have been invited to. But

he said he found no evidence of racism. What role do you think race

played in this? There was to inquiries. There

was the Raj Jandu inquiry, which was to look racism. We boycotted the

Campbell and and also the Raj Jandu inquiry because they wanted a public

one it was like sending the corporal in to investigate the generals. We

knew that it was going to be a whitewash. You could imagine the

Stephen Lawrence inquiry weather the family never gave evidence or the

lawyers never gave evidence it would have been a whitewash because that

would have been the Metropolitan Police woman. But there was good

points that came out of it and whilst there Anthony Campbell could

not find racism but the commission for racial equality at the time

criticised at the time and said it should be one inquiry and not to

separate and you'd need people with experience who will be sat, as the

William MacPherson had to individuals that I said and teams of

people. They never got to the root of the matter and the bottom line

was that every institution in this country stood up at the time and

said the police crime other than fiscal service said we accept we

were in racist and I said at the time you just need to count on one

hand how many black prosecutors they have. How many black judges today

have how many people on the top do they have? It was in zero every that

pointed not pointed towards traditional racism. They have no

experience and did not know how to treat families like this but for me

it did not matter if the family were black or white no experience and did

not know how to treat families like that but for me it did not matter if

the family were black or white, red to never again be treated like that

family. They have a right to justice and a right to demand it and they

showed exactly what is possible because today the crowd office were

perfection. Obviously important if you you and

the family. Thank you for coming in. Now, The City of Glasgow

College's Riverside Campus, which specialises in engineering

and maritime training, is among the six finalists

for the prestigious Stirling Prize The winner of which will be

announced tomorrow night. It's impossible to predict

which project will win, as the judges only decide shortly

before the announcement, but the ?66 million

Riverside Campus has already picked The Riverside Campus of training and

engineering and maritime skills to students or come not only from

Scotland but from all over the world to get hands-on experience with

things like Bridge and engine room simulator is leaving the shore. It

does not mean there is no contact with the water however as part of

the building extends over the Clyde offering training and things like

docking and evacuation methods from ships and oil platforms.

As you enter from the Riverside through the revolving door into the

large atrium there is a feeling of space and openness. The grand Hall

is light and airy with balconies going up seven floors. The second

building offering student accommodation linked by a cloistered

garden. But what is it that has attracted the attention of the Royal

Institute of British architects making this Riverside Campus if

finalist for the coveted Stirling prize? It works completely because

it has been designed with the students and staff in mind. They

worked closely with the architects and local community. To me this

celebrates the heritage of Glasgow. It marine engineering heritage. But

it works because of pays tribute to that heritage whilst at the same

time heralding a new era of college education 20 education, super

college. It seeks to inspire it seeks to innovate and represents the

excellence that you have your in Glasgow. Whether it is training to

cut and shaped metal to get it just right or discover the art of

navigation, the college says it aimed to commission a building which

would aid building even down to a real working engine room.

Two Scottish architectural companies came together to design the college.

They have already picked up a number of Scottish based awards for the

Riverside Campus as well as being nominated for a UK ones. I think it

is really important that the city and college sets side-by-side and

the visual connection between both is really really a key part of the

design tool. I think being able to look out for lots of students that

are not from Glasgow to find their marker of the city and find a key

orientation point is a really useful tool, because the college itself as

a that follow students from all around the world. Here we have

exposed all of pipes wires this link are there aren't painted uncovered

whereas in most other buildings they are there aren't painted, uncovered,

whereas in most other buildings the architects do their damnedest to

hide all that away. This is an engineering College we want to

expose law that and use the building as a learning and teaching tool.

This year's prize could be these others...

Or maybe it might just turn out to be the Riverside Campus on the Clyde

in the heart of Glasgow. Now, joining me to discuss the day's

big stories are Scottish political editor of the Times,

Lindsay McIntosh, and David Let's go back to the Conservative

party conference. To May's big speech and a chance to find out what

she is all about. What did you make of it first of all her delivery was

very good very accomplished to her first Conservative Party conference

speech as PM. I think the messages we can take from it, firstly she is

shifting to the centre shifting them the centre in in terms of talking

about a meritocracy that works for working people. She was sitting out

at unscrupulous big business things like that that will chime with

fought off disaffected voters. Centre-left actually to a lot of

people. Those sorts of messages. Bother we do not know that detail

about she will deliver on these messages it is just words at the

moment. The other big thing obviously the emigration issue and

Brexit which points to a rather different Conservative Party, that I

think some of the party will be on with. And what about in Scotland

Ruth Davidson sounded a little but uncomfortable with the

anti-rhetoric? Do you think that would play well in Scotland we have

figured in Scotland as well let's be honest. It is not that long ago six

years ago when another Prime Minister referred to somebody seeing

two different things to what is this current policy. You may remember

Gillian Duffy and the way she spoke, Auden Brown referring to her as that

bigoted woman. There are people in Scotland are quite those messages.

And we see tonight apparently reports that the French far right

leader has actually praise one part of Theresa May's speech. I wonder if

that will seem helpful. I think we can guess which party she is

pressing. Well, apparently, if you believe you are a citizen of the

world you are a citizen of nowhere and she said," ."

What they think -- she said Exactement. What do you think about

Ruth Davidson saying that she was the defender of the union and trying

to rule it second independence referendum I think it is really

interesting that Ruth Davidson keeps telling the SNP to stop talking

about a second XMP referendum whereas she lost talking about the

union because it is one of her big selling points. As thought it was

interesting wishes is separated herself from Theresa May on

immigration saying that EU citizens in the UK should be guaranteed a

continued welcome here. And what did you make of Ruth Davidson's speech

she is others are trying to consider a different figure them out of the

Prime Minister on these things. She has got to be different as opposed.

We have seen these interesting divergence between the Tories in

Scotland and in England. I do not know whether that will work. It

seems to be working for her just now. Is it going to be more

difficult to Theresa May is billing the party towards the centre-left?

Where is your pulling the party some of her rhetoric is a centre-left and

some appears to be almost far right. I do not think we know. I think most

of the people, the pundits out there do not know where we are pretty

Conservative Party any more. I think Chris is going to change issues we

she differentiates itself. Another example is the grammar schools. One

of Theresa May's big policies is to be introduced that Ruth Davidson

thing that we have a very different education system in Scotland and did

not work for as here. And all of this talk of the spreading

prosperity. We did not get very much detail on how she would do that.

Everything that is going to be the test. She did say so but it liked

about tackling tax evasions and tax Avoidance which resonates strongly

in Scotland and elsewhere. The assembled things that Conservative

government could do to tackle this issue. Not just on Scotland but

across the world. The UK has a gigantic industry providing brass

plates for nefarious activities all over the world. Could you put a stop

to that and put her money, or other people's money where her motives and

just before we go this evening another political story Nigel Farage

is back as you could after Diane James quit after just 18 days into

the job. That is pretty embarrassing is it not for Ukip it is another

embarrassment for Ukip. Is it in fighting or should we take at her

word that it is more to do with personal personal issues? I think

she was a reluctant leader to start with. I do not think she signed up

to it particularly willingly and I think that she has had a very tough

time since she has been in there and just thought she really did not need

this in her life and has given it back to Nigel Farage for the third

time now he has returned. Although he doesn't and says that he has no

intention of staying. Do you believe in I do not know. I generally do not

as a role which is good advice. The departing leader of Ukip is the poor

woman who had to scrub when there's man gets we all and where do you

think their sleeves Ukip? That's Theresa May's made of the

Conservative party do you think they have got much of a future you have

to wonder what you can buy for at the moment. The raison d' tre taking

the moment. The raison d'etre taking the UK out of Europe that has been

achieved. Do they return to some kind of pressure group less of a

political party than they are at the moment I do not know. OK, Lindsay,

good to see you again. And that is it for tonight. Thank you very much

for watching. Laura will be back tomorrow night at the usual time. Do

please join her if you can. Goodbye.