:00:47. > :00:50.Fake Good morning. From the rose garden to a tractor factory. The
:00:50. > :00:57.Prime Minister promises a new focus on the economy but will the
:00:57. > :01:00.relaunch of the Queen's Speech make a difference? Eric Pickles joins us
:01:00. > :01:08.for the Sunday interview. Is there an alternative blueprint
:01:08. > :01:13.that would get the economy moving again? The two big economic ideas
:01:13. > :01:17.of the age or head-to-head. The pressure is on Jeremy Hunt and
:01:17. > :01:23.the Tory party after Rebekah Brooks appeared at the Leveson Inquiry.
:01:23. > :01:33.She revealed a cosy relationship between new Labour and News
:01:33. > :01:40.
:01:40. > :01:47.International. If we bring you the latest on the
:01:48. > :01:57.deal by a Rangers football club. Air accident publish their findings
:01:58. > :01:58.
:01:58. > :03:03.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 65 seconds
:03:03. > :03:09.want helicopters stitching. The body of another child was found
:03:09. > :03:13.The body of another child was found at a late on Saturday night.
:03:13. > :03:23.Workers have been bent over in tears. You do not see that very
:03:23. > :03:23.
:03:23. > :29:06.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 65 seconds
:29:06. > :29:12.often. We are feeling for the We have a crater in the economy.
:29:12. > :29:20.There is a great big hole as a result of the a financial crisis.
:29:20. > :29:23.It is nothing to do with government. Deprive right -- the private
:29:23. > :29:28.finance sector crashed and the government had to take on the
:29:28. > :29:38.liabilities. The government is saying it is nothing to do with
:29:38. > :29:40.
:29:40. > :29:47.them. It is the equivalent of appeasement. They are sitting there,
:29:47. > :29:56.leaving this great creator of unemployment, inactivity. How would
:29:57. > :30:01.you fill that hole? The fact is that the business sector does not
:30:01. > :30:11.have confidence. They are afraid, they can see the economy
:30:11. > :30:14.
:30:14. > :30:23.contracting. Public investment. big programme of public investment.
:30:24. > :30:30.In housing and also in... What is wrong with that? It goes to what
:30:30. > :30:38.Liam Fox said in the package. Did the Labour government not spend
:30:38. > :30:46.enough? We have tested this policy to destruction. Austerity, really
:30:46. > :30:50.means living within your means, balancing the books. Having a
:30:50. > :30:57.stable environment helps you to make reforms are to help the
:30:57. > :31:07.business economy. I think that Eric Pickles was rather feeble in what
:31:07. > :31:11.
:31:11. > :31:16.the coalition has damn to help this does. -- has done. The reason the
:31:16. > :31:26.collision cannot do anything is because it is paralysed by ideology.
:31:26. > :31:27.
:31:27. > :31:34.And you are repeating that. Seeing we have to balance the books.
:31:34. > :31:40.not know about years, but the government has already borrowed a
:31:40. > :31:48.trillion pounds. Under current spending plans, that will rise to
:31:48. > :31:55.1.5 trillion bike 2016. And you want to borrow even more? Yes. The
:31:55. > :32:04.government is not like you. You cannot go to the Bank of England,
:32:04. > :32:09.but the government can. And when the government... When you spend,
:32:10. > :32:19.you do not get money back again. When the government spends, it get
:32:20. > :32:21.
:32:21. > :32:26.tax revenues. This is fantasy. we do? -- what would you do? I what
:32:26. > :32:34.the Government to do much more on red tape. Irrelevant. It is not
:32:34. > :32:44.irrelevant. The costs faced by the start-up of a new accompany are
:32:44. > :32:45.
:32:45. > :32:55.extremely high. Should it be easier to fire people? Yes. That is
:32:55. > :32:58.
:32:58. > :33:04.austerity. You would have more people working. We have the lowest
:33:04. > :33:14.taxes across the whole of OECD. We pay much lower unemployment benefit.
:33:14. > :33:15.
:33:15. > :33:19.We have much less protection for our workers. If you look at what
:33:19. > :33:26.Germany has done over the last 10 years, it has liberalised its
:33:26. > :33:36.employment laws enormously. It allows companies to take on people
:33:36. > :33:37.
:33:37. > :33:45.as consultants for four years, no questions asked, no legal
:33:45. > :33:49.requirements. Germany went down a road of liberalisation.
:33:49. > :33:54.deregulated the labour market. as much as we have done. It is much
:33:54. > :34:04.more expensive to hire a German worker, the taxes that they pay and
:34:04. > :34:10.are paid on them, than a British worker. I do not think you are
:34:10. > :34:16.offering much more than blood, sweat and tears. My we would get
:34:16. > :34:24.colossal numbers of unemployed young people into work. -- a my
:34:24. > :34:29.method. You want to act on the demand side, increased demand. You
:34:29. > :34:33.are acting on the supply side to try to make the supply side more
:34:33. > :34:40.efficient. Why don't you get together and do both? We do not
:34:40. > :34:46.need to do the supply side. We could improve our productivity in
:34:46. > :34:51.Wareham best -- if we invested more in our businesses. There is already
:34:51. > :34:56.a fiscal stimulus. We will add another �500 billion to the
:34:56. > :35:06.national debt. Why do we not try to solve the problem from the other
:35:06. > :35:09.
:35:09. > :35:17.Good morning and welcome to Sunday Politics Scotland. Coming up on the
:35:17. > :35:20.programme. At last, it is done. Rangers have
:35:20. > :35:22.agreed a deal with the former Sheffield United Chief Executive
:35:22. > :35:24.Charles Green. We will be live in Aberdeen as the
:35:24. > :35:26.AAIB initial investigation into Thursday's helicopter ditching
:35:26. > :35:29.finds a failure occurred in the main gear box.
:35:29. > :35:33.And as coalition deals are struck across local councils, we ask, can
:35:33. > :35:36.you shake hands and hold your nose at the same time?
:35:36. > :35:39.A trip to Quebec, a Canadian province that has played the
:35:39. > :35:49.referendum game before. And finally, a plea to recognise
:35:49. > :35:51.
:35:51. > :35:56.the Scottish veterans who braved On the day of the final Rangers
:35:56. > :35:59.match of the season, the former Sheffield United chief-executive
:35:59. > :36:04.Charles Green has come to an arrangement with which he hopes to
:36:04. > :36:11.buy the team. There has been a press conference this morning. What
:36:11. > :36:15.do we know this morning? Charles Green is fronting the
:36:15. > :36:21.consortium that has made a bed that has been accepted to purchase
:36:21. > :36:25.Rangers. The administrators are saying that this is a vocal ball
:36:25. > :36:35.agreement to buy the club. He will try it a CVA initially to try to
:36:35. > :36:36.
:36:36. > :36:39.bring the club out of administration. They will try to
:36:39. > :36:49.appease their debts owed to HMRC and Ticketus. If that does not
:36:49. > :36:57.succeed, a newco company will be set up, owned by Charles Green.
:36:57. > :37:06.That will kick them if a CVA is not accepted by creditors. But that CVA
:37:06. > :37:11.is their preferred option. If this goes ahead, what does it
:37:11. > :37:15.mean in terms of the sort of team at Rangers will be able to put up?
:37:15. > :37:19.It is very difficult to predict that until we see the full details
:37:19. > :37:25.of what Charles Green is proposing. He did say that not every decision
:37:25. > :37:31.that will be taken will be a comfortable one, or an easy one.
:37:31. > :37:41.That suggests there will be decisions taken under his ownership,
:37:41. > :37:42.
:37:42. > :37:46.under the consortium. It is difficult to predict what it means
:37:46. > :37:52.in terms of the team that they might be able to put on the park
:37:52. > :37:55.next season. It is a reasonable to assume that it will be a
:37:55. > :38:02.streamlined squad that will not be able to pay the sort of wages and
:38:02. > :38:12.type of players that have been brought it to Ibrox in the past.
:38:12. > :38:16.
:38:16. > :38:21.But a lot remains to be decided. Here is our economic commentator.
:38:21. > :38:25.Do you think it is a done deal? Yesterday, Charles Green was
:38:25. > :38:33.talking about himself as the new preferred bidder for the club. From
:38:33. > :38:41.what I have heard so far, there are 20 different strands of money going
:38:41. > :38:47.into the pot from different families and groups. Whether that
:38:47. > :38:54.is a done deal or not, and will be delivered to the administrators,
:38:54. > :39:01.remains to be seen. This CVA, whether or not it goes
:39:01. > :39:07.ahead, how will it work in practice?
:39:08. > :39:12.There are two choices. The company a voluntary arrangement. That is an
:39:12. > :39:18.arrangement an insolvent company has with his creditors. It has to
:39:18. > :39:22.get their agreement. That is the arrangement that will come together.
:39:22. > :39:30.To put some kind of figure on how much they will get out of the pot
:39:30. > :39:37.of money. We do not know what the liabilities are yet because we have
:39:37. > :39:47.not had the result of the big tax cases that are still outstanding.
:39:47. > :39:47.
:39:47. > :39:57.We do not actually know what the extent of the debt is and what this
:39:57. > :39:58.
:39:58. > :40:08.asset that is being created to pay it off, how big it will be. If HMRC
:40:08. > :40:09.
:40:09. > :40:16.does not say yes to as the -- does not say yes to this CVA, Rangers
:40:16. > :40:20.will have to be liquidated and a new Company will be created. The
:40:20. > :40:30.club will come ten-year, but the decks and will be left behind in
:40:30. > :40:35.
:40:35. > :40:43.the old company. -- debts. We do not know the full extent of
:40:43. > :40:47.the debt. What would happen to them under the new company arrangement?
:40:47. > :40:51.The creditors would get what ever they could out of the liquidated
:40:51. > :40:56.old company. That would depend what assets were left in the liquidated
:40:56. > :41:03.old company. HMRC have not been comfortable
:41:03. > :41:09.about that in the past. The track record of HMRC in dealing
:41:09. > :41:19.with the sort of CVAs, they have tended lot to be players in that
:41:19. > :41:24.
:41:24. > :41:30.CVAs. ---10 did not have to be. -- tended not to be. I know a lot of
:41:30. > :41:36.lawyers and accountants who have a lot of expertise in this area, and
:41:36. > :41:43.all of them have said to me that it will never go to CVA, it will end
:41:43. > :41:51.up in liquidation. Whether that is the case or not, it is not nice for
:41:51. > :41:55.the Rangers supporter, the like to have the heritage and the history,
:41:55. > :42:00.but in terms of where we are this morning, we are just at the
:42:00. > :42:05.beginning of another part of the journey. We still have to find the
:42:05. > :42:09.outcome of it. Thank you very much indeed.
:42:09. > :42:13.An initial investigation into Thursday's helicopter are ditching
:42:13. > :42:18.in the North Sea has found that a failure occurred in the function of
:42:18. > :42:22.the main gearbox. The 14 people on board escaped after the pilot
:42:22. > :42:27.carried out a textbook controlled landing. There have been
:42:27. > :42:37.developments at this morning. Yes, a lot of development at this
:42:37. > :42:42.morning. The air accident investigation branch had issued a
:42:42. > :42:48.special bulletin this morning. This often takes in weeks or months, but
:42:48. > :42:54.they have done that within a few days. It follows the ditching last
:42:54. > :43:02.week of this helicopter about 30 miles off the coast of Aberdeen.
:43:02. > :43:07.What they have found is a 360 degree crack around the vertical
:43:07. > :43:13.shaft of the media box. That was near a previous Weld, a
:43:13. > :43:18.manufacturing world. That caused interference to the oil supply to
:43:18. > :43:22.the gearbox. A morning alight went on and the crew immediately took
:43:22. > :43:31.action and ditched the helicopter. This is a serious finding for the
:43:31. > :43:40.entire flight. They honours have announced that other helicopters
:43:40. > :43:50.have been grounded. They have also a grounded -- are grounded another
:43:50. > :43:56.
:43:56. > :44:03.360 what happens from now on to establish what the problem was and
:44:03. > :44:11.when the fleet may be flying again? We were expecting to be attending a
:44:11. > :44:17.press conference this morning. That was called off. The report was
:44:17. > :44:22.expected last night but we heard there were technical difficulties.
:44:22. > :44:27.Bond will be at -- outlining what they will do in detail. I suspect
:44:27. > :44:37.they will go round the entire fleet. Deraa two other helicopter
:44:37. > :44:45.companies operating out of Aberdeen. They have not taking any action yet.
:44:45. > :44:49.They have found no problems so far. There could be a safety directive
:44:49. > :44:55.given at some point which may result in that. We're not expecting
:44:55. > :45:04.that at the moment. We will hear later on this afternoon. There are
:45:04. > :45:08.big implications here from the thousands of workers.
:45:08. > :45:13.A week on and wheeler-dealing in council chambers across the country
:45:13. > :45:22.is still going on. We have seen unexpected alliances but what is
:45:22. > :45:28.behind the collisions? -- collisions.
:45:28. > :45:34.Labour won overall control in Glasgow and three other areas. The
:45:34. > :45:41.same is true for the SNP in Dundee and Angus where it has formed a
:45:41. > :45:51.majority administrations. In a hung councils, there are all sorts of
:45:51. > :45:51.
:45:51. > :45:57.wonderful alliances. Take a look at Aberdeenshire. It has all types of
:45:57. > :46:07.different councillors in charge. In the Highlands, it is similar. In
:46:07. > :46:08.
:46:08. > :46:16.eastern Martin Show, there is a Labour, Lib Dem, Tory deal. While
:46:16. > :46:21.an egg and borough, Labour-run BSN p have joined forces, in some
:46:21. > :46:31.places, it looks like both parties have gone out of their way to
:46:31. > :46:33.
:46:33. > :46:37.freeze the other lot out of power - - Edinburgh Mac. In Stirling,
:46:37. > :46:45.Labour-run the Conservatives have a power-sharing pact in what had been
:46:45. > :46:50.an SNP run council. There is a tendency of the Labour Party to
:46:50. > :46:59.going to coalition with the Tories. I am not sure how you Scotland will
:46:59. > :47:03.see a repeat of collisions. I think that is white people vote Labour.
:47:03. > :47:07.Labour says it is working with friends and four was across the
:47:07. > :47:14.political spectrum. A There is an issue of how they have overstated
:47:14. > :47:22.how well they're doing. You can put a big question mark over the
:47:22. > :47:32.momentum. We have made steady progress, we have reconnected with
:47:32. > :47:37.the electorate. Boss Labour-run BSN peak made election gains. In terms
:47:37. > :47:44.of the larger number of councillors which the SNP achieved, the large
:47:44. > :47:49.number again that we achieved. We have a councillor in virtually
:47:49. > :47:56.every ward across this country. If you want to keep celebrating
:47:56. > :48:02.Stallingborough party defeats, that is fine by the SNP. Her BSN p now
:48:02. > :48:06.has a national army of counsellors likely to be tasked with winning
:48:06. > :48:12.the independence referendum and the ward they represent. By definition,
:48:12. > :48:16.pro-union parties of councillors in all parts of Scotland 2. They could
:48:16. > :48:26.deploy them as local leaders in their campaign to keep Scotland as
:48:26. > :48:36.part of the UK. With me, Anas Sarwar and for the
:48:36. > :48:39.
:48:39. > :48:44.SNP, Kenneth Gibson. The alliance in Edinburgh, a good idea? I don't
:48:44. > :48:49.see why not. It seems sensible for both of them to work together for
:48:49. > :48:57.the good of the city. We would like to have seen more such alliances.
:48:57. > :49:02.If you look at what has happened, where the run all Labour or
:49:02. > :49:11.Conservative councillors, Labour have a coalition in the eight of
:49:11. > :49:15.those areas. Labour seem to prefer to work with conservative. I think
:49:15. > :49:21.he is rattled because the SNP are beatable and Alex Salmond is not
:49:22. > :49:27.invincible. You have seen across the country, the Labour Party
:49:27. > :49:37.working constructively with parties of all political lines. To that is
:49:37. > :49:39.
:49:39. > :49:44.why use all Labour, SNP packed. You have seen other administrations. We
:49:44. > :49:50.are not focusing around what positions people are in, but where
:49:50. > :49:59.we can deliver Labour Party values. At the moment, we have 13 Labour-
:49:59. > :50:06.led councils compared to eight SNP councils. He were not simply having
:50:06. > :50:12.Unionist alliances to block out the SNP? If you take the example of
:50:12. > :50:16.Edinburgh, we have constructively worked with the SNP to form an
:50:16. > :50:25.administration. We work with whatever party we need to work
:50:26. > :50:35.within the best interests of that city. Some council leaders were
:50:35. > :50:41.saying, SNP leaders, there is little in terms of social policy
:50:41. > :50:48.between Labour and get the SNP. It made sense to work together. Why do
:50:48. > :50:54.you think it has not happened? think it is the issue of Unionism.
:50:54. > :51:00.Him the election literature, it was about stopping Tory cuts but they
:51:00. > :51:08.have dealt with the Tories. I must take issue with what he has said
:51:08. > :51:15.about the election result. We made two gains -- 62 games which
:51:15. > :51:19.extended the Leeds -- lead across the country. If that is Labour
:51:19. > :51:24.stalling her momentum, we could do with more days like that. With all
:51:24. > :51:31.the massive cuts coming down the line, you do not want to be the one
:51:31. > :51:40.in control of the council -- councils? The reason the Labour --
:51:40. > :51:50.labour wants to have councillors in charge for... Who you are in
:51:50. > :51:52.
:51:52. > :51:55.coalition with the representatives... The reality of
:51:55. > :52:02.the electoral system is that you must work with political parties to
:52:02. > :52:10.form administrations. He gives the example of Stirling. It is part of
:52:10. > :52:15.that deal we are delivering the range for workers in Stirling.
:52:15. > :52:23.we cut through the layers, the pragmatic thing is that you're
:52:23. > :52:33.going to have to deliver deals with people, you were blaming the Tories
:52:33. > :52:34.
:52:34. > :52:38.for cuts, but these will be your partners in Council. Take the
:52:39. > :52:48.example of the last Scottish Parliament. The SNP were seeing
:52:48. > :52:52.Wright late that we're there -- that we were getting cuts. Through
:52:52. > :53:01.that parliamentary term, they are playing double games here. This is
:53:01. > :53:05.not a conspiracy. We fought for local communities up and down the
:53:05. > :53:10.country. The reason the SNP is negative is that they realise the
:53:11. > :53:20.momentum has stalled. The realised the Labour Party is taking a
:53:20. > :53:24.positive step. It is a matter of fact that when it went through in
:53:24. > :53:34.Holyrood, you relied on the Tories to get that through. Everyone does
:53:34. > :53:41.those deals. That is not true. The still voted against it. But reverse
:53:41. > :53:51.a lot of the policies, council tax freeze, small business baldness.
:53:51. > :53:59.They have down -- now done a second U-turn. We have not had any
:53:59. > :54:04.agreements with the Conservatives. Sometimes, it seems poisonous. That
:54:04. > :54:08.filters down to the detriment of local democracy. Both it is the
:54:08. > :54:16.fact that Labour feel they have used up their birthright. If we do
:54:16. > :54:26.not feel as bad about them as they seem to feel about us. I have been
:54:26. > :54:27.
:54:27. > :54:32.in the SNP 33 years. It is not personal. Thank you.
:54:32. > :54:42.Colebeck the province of Canada which held at second referendum in
:54:42. > :54:43.
:54:43. > :54:53.1995. They had a federal government. The Quebec nationalists came close
:54:53. > :55:06.
:55:06. > :55:15.A night in Canada, the most popular show in Candida. We have a diverse
:55:15. > :55:22.country. The game brings us together. I grew up, Irish Catholic,
:55:22. > :55:32.he is Jewish. We have these other walks of life. When you get too
:55:32. > :55:32.
:55:33. > :55:39.cocky, it is all forgotten. Ottawa, the heart of federal politics. He
:55:39. > :55:46.and the most recent elections, the Tories won a large majority. In
:55:46. > :55:52.Quebec, the supported the centre- left. But won the majority in the
:55:52. > :56:02.province. It is a partnership. It is the case between what a wire and
:56:02. > :56:03.
:56:03. > :56:08.all the provinces. We have our debates and agreements. Politics
:56:08. > :56:13.and can a Dutch is still dominated by public spending cuts. Quebec
:56:13. > :56:23.separatist Slav state in the federal elections last year. In the
:56:23. > :56:28.1990s, they held power in Quebec. For the nearly one their referendum
:56:28. > :56:37.on sovereignty. If the TV screen had red and blue on the bottom and
:56:37. > :56:42.it was wavering all night. In 1995, we had a federal government very
:56:43. > :56:49.like the British government now. It was concerned with cuts, changing
:56:49. > :56:54.the symbols of Canada. Quebec nationalists when arguing they were
:56:54. > :57:04.the ones who were standing up for the collectivist, more left-wing
:57:04. > :57:05.
:57:05. > :57:10.view of the company -- country. home rule with independence beat
:57:10. > :57:17.Tory rule from Westminster any time and any day.
:57:17. > :57:21.Canadian federal politicians warned it does not make sense to vote.
:57:21. > :57:27.you bought for your government, and to elect a government, with a close
:57:27. > :57:35.margin, it is not the end of the world because four years later, you
:57:35. > :57:41.will water again. If you destroy the country, it is for yourself and
:57:41. > :57:47.the next generation. Does my Quebec experience give us a taste of what
:57:47. > :57:52.is to come and lessons for nationalists and Unionists parties?
:57:52. > :57:58.When the welfare state is reduced, when social programmes are under
:57:58. > :58:04.threat, as we saw in Canada, that can offer opportunities for those
:58:04. > :58:07.campaigning for constitutional change to make the independence
:58:07. > :58:17.project seem attractive. Potentially, the most difficult
:58:17. > :58:23.
:58:23. > :58:30.After the referendum, the federal government adopted a lot
:58:30. > :58:38.recognising Quebec as a distinct society. -- a law. A new generation
:58:38. > :58:48.of Quebecois have a strong sense of identity. I feel more Quebecois
:58:48. > :58:50.
:58:50. > :59:00.than comedian. -- Canadian. But I am still from Canada. My country
:59:00. > :59:04.
:59:04. > :59:11.for me is not cannot up but Quebec. -- not Canada. A do-nothing
:59:11. > :59:21.independence will change anything. But for Canadians, the referendum
:59:21. > :59:31.had a lasting impact. No one wants it to lose the third referendum ll.
:59:31. > :59:34.
:59:34. > :59:44.I think we will win the third one. Politics it may still divide them,
:59:44. > :59:49.
:59:49. > :59:57.We are now joined live from Ottawa by the political correspondent for
:59:57. > :00:02.the Vancouver Sun, Peter O'Neil. What in Canada did you find was the
:00:02. > :00:08.impact of what was perceived to be an imposed austerity programme on
:00:08. > :00:18.the independence debate? It was interesting. My first day in Quebec
:00:18. > :00:22.
:00:22. > :00:32.when I was covering the referendum, I arrived at their Quebecois bus.
:00:32. > :00:32.
:00:33. > :00:39.There was austerity, but not exactly a feast. -- exactly Greece.
:00:39. > :00:49.The bus was covered in multi- coloured signs. There was a huge
:00:49. > :00:51.
:00:51. > :00:59.contrast to the rest of the debate. They were saying we can escape this
:00:59. > :01:03.austerity, which was not exactly honest but effective. He is the
:01:03. > :01:12.lesson that the campaign, its tone and message, is critically
:01:12. > :01:16.important? It is critically important if you are unprepared and
:01:16. > :01:26.underestimate your opposition. That is what the federalist forces were
:01:26. > :01:30.guilty of. They were not united and assumed they would lose. They made
:01:30. > :01:40.some huge mistakes in terms of exaggerating the dangers. The went
:01:40. > :01:47.too far with that. Campaigns matter. But I have to say that I cannot
:01:47. > :01:52.imagine Alex Salmond could replicate the leadership of their
:01:52. > :02:02.Quebecois. It was a Christ-like resurrection that galvanised of the
:02:02. > :02:03.
:02:03. > :02:08.population. What are the key messages if you look at the
:02:08. > :02:16.Canadian experience for both sides embers? The key message for the
:02:16. > :02:22.unionists would be clarity. They have to spell out exactly what this
:02:22. > :02:32.means, especially the negatives of it. But it would be dangerous to
:02:32. > :02:32.
:02:32. > :02:41.frighten people. It went on in Canada. In Quebec, are a very
:02:41. > :02:46.respected finance minister gave a speech and said that one-third of
:02:46. > :02:55.people in Quebec would lose their jobs. People assumed he was
:02:55. > :03:01.exaggerating and everything he said then was have ridiculed. They have
:03:01. > :03:07.to be a sober and United. On the SNP side, you are dealing with a
:03:07. > :03:16.sensible people, it is not as emotional as in Quebec. They have
:03:16. > :03:23.to be statesmanlike, project an idea of strong administration.
:03:23. > :03:28.Scotland tomorrow, we are expecting it and an announcement -- expecting
:03:28. > :03:38.an announcement on minimum pricing for alcohol. In Canada, you have
:03:38. > :03:42.had this for years, does it work? For the last four years, I have
:03:42. > :03:47.just come back from Paris, I used to come over to the United Kingdom
:03:47. > :03:52.and I have to say that you really do have a problem in the United
:03:52. > :04:00.Kingdom in terms of social drinking and binge drinking. This is one
:04:00. > :04:05.component of it. We saw with smoking, when the government raised
:04:05. > :04:10.the taxes on smoking, people stopped. We are used to this in
:04:10. > :04:17.Canada. If you have a social drinking problem, and you can go to
:04:17. > :04:27.the liquor store and get cheap wine, that will get it worse. Thank you
:04:27. > :04:27.
:04:27. > :04:32.for joining us this morning. And now here's the lunchtime news with
:04:32. > :04:35.Andrew Kerr. Good afternoon. The former Sheffield United chief
:04:35. > :04:38.executive Charles Green has agreed a deal to buy Rangers. It was
:04:38. > :04:40.announced at the club's training base at Murray Park. Mr Green wants
:04:40. > :04:47.to form a Company Voluntary Arrangement and he's backed with
:04:47. > :04:51.finance from Singapore businessmen. More helicopter flights have been
:04:51. > :04:58.grounded after a helicopter ditched in the North Sea. The Super Puma
:04:58. > :05:03.came down last Thursday. An interim report discovered a crack in the
:05:03. > :05:12.main gearbox was to blame. The operators had already suspended
:05:12. > :05:15.flights of the same type of aircraft.
:05:15. > :05:18.Two men have died after an incident involving a microlight plane on a
:05:18. > :05:27.mountain range in Crianlarich. It is understood the plane went down
:05:27. > :05:32.near the summit of Ben More in Good afternoon. Some very wet and
:05:32. > :05:39.windy weather coming our way. Difficult driving conditions as
:05:39. > :05:45.well. That rain is already affecting much of western Scotland.
:05:45. > :05:54.Heavy in the north-west, Argyll, extending eastwards. Temperatures
:05:54. > :06:04.up to 12 or 13 Celsius at best. But feeling colder him that wind. Our
:06:04. > :06:08.
:06:08. > :06:13.Winston Churchill called it the worst journey in the world, the
:06:13. > :06:16.North Atlantic convoys would to a vital supplies to Soviet allies in
:06:16. > :06:21.the Second World War. The men is shared out of Scottish Power was to
:06:22. > :06:28.face you bought and air attacks on freezing says. More than 3000 men
:06:28. > :06:32.were killed. The survivors have been denied the official mark of
:06:32. > :06:39.recognition and respect, and dedicated campaign medal. The
:06:39. > :06:44.Scottish government is among those who feel this is unacceptable. In
:06:44. > :06:49.the studio with me is Keith Brown MSP, the Veterans Minister.
:06:49. > :06:52.What are you saying to the government about this? The summer
:06:52. > :06:58.months ago, I wrote to the Government asking them to proceed
:06:58. > :07:03.as quickly as possible with this. These young men had a very
:07:03. > :07:11.dangerous mission. By and large, they were not trained in military
:07:11. > :07:16.warfare. The under to go the most dangerous of missions. Had they not
:07:16. > :07:20.done so, it could have changed the whole outcome of the war. For
:07:20. > :07:25.Winston Churchill to recognise their value, rethink that the
:07:25. > :07:29.current Tory government should be recognising them as well.
:07:29. > :07:39.offence of it was the comment from one of the defence ministers that
:07:39. > :07:39.
:07:39. > :07:49.they could have the Atlantic Star? That was offensive to the veterans.
:07:49. > :07:54.
:07:54. > :08:03.You cannot compare these extremely brave... He subsequently apologised.
:08:04. > :08:08.They are extremely a brave people and there are very few of them left.
:08:08. > :08:12.Sometime a goal in Edinburgh, there was a medals ceremony by the
:08:12. > :08:19.Russian government for these men. A lot of them were very young men at
:08:19. > :08:25.the time, even ones at the boats were going out, they still kept
:08:25. > :08:31.going. They knew what they were sailing into. The Germans very
:08:31. > :08:40.quickly twigged to what was going on. They made it a very hazardous
:08:40. > :08:44.trip. These men were essentially civilians, not trained to do this.
:08:45. > :08:51.But be made sure that supplies got through to Murmansk and Archangel,
:08:51. > :08:54.it was extremely important. We will give you more news on that campaign.