Browse content similar to 03/03/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Good morning and welcome to the Sunday politics. The Prime Minister | :00:43. | :00:49. | |
has returned to fight back after the disappointment at the Eastleigh | :00:49. | :00:56. | |
by-election. How is it going down with his fellow ministers? We will | :00:56. | :01:01. | |
ask business secretary Vince Cable whether the government can carry on | :01:01. | :01:10. | |
cutting and stimulate growth. He is our Sunday interview. | :01:10. | :01:16. | |
This is deep Celtic diet. And are the plans of Michael Gove | :01:16. | :01:19. | |
for teaching history a horror bought bought just what the doctor | :01:19. | :01:26. | |
ordered it? We will have a debate on the plans. | :01:26. | :01:29. | |
And coming up on Sunday Politics Scotland: we will be asking, has | :01:29. | :01:31. | |
the Scottish Catholic Church lost its moral authority after the | :01:31. | :01:41. | |
:01:41. | :01:45. | ||
events of the past week involving All that and a political Dannatt | :01:45. | :01:49. | |
offering more fun and excitement then you will find this side of a | :01:49. | :01:59. | |
:01:59. | :01:59. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 1969 seconds | :01:59. | :34:49. | |
post by-election pub crawl around The new curriculum assessed that | :34:49. | :34:53. | |
children at I have to learn the unique evil of the Holocaust. There | :34:53. | :34:59. | |
are several problems with that. First it is a moral lot ahistorical | :34:59. | :35:09. | |
approach. Secondly the uniqueness The that is exactly what is going | :35:09. | :35:15. | |
on now. I have never heard 88 about the Holocaust in a school. It is | :35:15. | :35:23. | |
taught as a moral issue. We are green on this. | :35:23. | :35:27. | |
How can you understand a Holocaust without understanding something | :35:27. | :35:31. | |
about anti-Semitism or understanding Germany? Germany does | :35:31. | :35:36. | |
not appear in this curriculum at all. | :35:36. | :35:43. | |
I'll take you at your word. You say you dislike myths and hero worship. | :35:43. | :35:52. | |
Why is Mary C Cole there? Have you looked at the text on her. She is | :35:52. | :35:59. | |
designs to be the antecedent. Did you hear about by an hour but going | :35:59. | :36:04. | |
on about blond-haired blue-eyed nurses in the NHS. We want good | :36:04. | :36:10. | |
Jamaican nurses. She is being invented as the heroine and patron | :36:10. | :36:19. | |
of those nurses. This is dominated by current political concerns. | :36:19. | :36:25. | |
There I am in agreement with you. People need to be taught to look at | :36:25. | :36:28. | |
someone like her and asked some difficult and awkward questions. | :36:28. | :36:33. | |
The new curriculum does not combine historical skills on one hand with | :36:33. | :36:39. | |
the fact. It just has the facts. So are we now agreeing that the | :36:39. | :36:45. | |
current curriculum has fundamental problems. They give need. I have | :36:45. | :36:48. | |
never seen any evidence in the teaching materials then there is | :36:48. | :36:53. | |
any debate on this at all. A you get the final word as he gets | :36:53. | :36:59. | |
it a lot. The current curriculum does the | :36:59. | :37:03. | |
narrative of the British history from the age of 11 to the age of 14. | :37:03. | :37:11. | |
There is another bunch of problems about post 14 education. The | :37:11. | :37:15. | |
curriculum is centred on a narrative of British history with | :37:15. | :37:22. | |
some wild and the European history. The current one is missing that. -- | :37:22. | :37:29. | |
song world and European history. A one final point. It really is | :37:29. | :37:33. | |
wrong. The campaign for the retention of Mary C Cole in the | :37:33. | :37:40. | |
current curriculum was headed by a list of signatories. It is | :37:40. | :37:43. | |
politically and left wing at skewed. It is a product of the last | :37:43. | :37:47. | |
government and needs demolishing now. | :37:47. | :37:52. | |
We will see how many of our viewers have never heard of her as well. | :37:52. | :37:59. | |
You both get 100 lines for overrunning. It is approaching | :37:59. | :38:06. | |
11:40am. You are watching Sunday Good morning and welcome to Sunday | :38:06. | :38:09. | |
Politics Scotland. Coming up: One of the priests who | :38:09. | :38:11. | |
complained about Cardinal O'Brien's behaviour claims he feared the | :38:11. | :38:15. | |
Vatican would crush him if they could. A church crisis of historic | :38:15. | :38:18. | |
proportions which shows no sign of abating. Brace yourself. | :38:18. | :38:21. | |
The under occupancy benefit cut will start next month. Is everyone | :38:21. | :38:29. | |
ready for the introduction of this welfare reform? Canny Scottish | :38:29. | :38:36. | |
government help those affected? -- can be Scottish Government. | :38:36. | :38:40. | |
And what does a no vote in 2014 mean? What are you being offered at | :38:40. | :38:46. | |
the moment? What would a Scotland that stays within the UK look like? | :38:46. | :38:48. | |
Speaking truth to power. A key figure behind the allegations | :38:49. | :38:51. | |
against Cardinal Keith O'Brien says he may need counselling after a | :38:51. | :38:57. | |
traumatic week. The former priest says he fears the Vatican would | :38:57. | :39:01. | |
crush him if they could. He and three other men complained about | :39:01. | :39:11. | |
inappropriate behaviour. Keith O'Brien contests the allegations. | :39:11. | :39:15. | |
The fall-out from last weekend's allegations surrounding Cardinal | :39:15. | :39:20. | |
Keith O'Brien show little sign of dying down. The story once again | :39:20. | :39:24. | |
dominates this morning's paper. The Observer, which broke the story | :39:24. | :39:30. | |
last week, gives more details about why the former priest made the | :39:30. | :39:37. | |
allegations of public. He says he was a seminarian when the priest | :39:37. | :39:41. | |
acted inappropriately towards him. He and three others reported the | :39:41. | :39:47. | |
incidents dating back to the 1980s to the Vatican in February. The | :39:47. | :39:52. | |
priest told the newspaper that since going public he has | :39:52. | :39:56. | |
experienced the cold disapproval of the Church hierarchy for breaking | :39:56. | :40:01. | |
ranks. He describes the trauma of speaking true to power. He said he | :40:01. | :40:06. | |
thought it best that churchgoers knew what had been going on. He | :40:07. | :40:16. | |
:40:17. | :40:20. | ||
According to the paper, the former cleric said he feared the matter | :40:20. | :40:24. | |
might be swept under the carpet. He added that when they came forward | :40:24. | :40:29. | |
they will warns that were the allegations known they could cause | :40:29. | :40:34. | |
immense damage to the church. Cardinal Keith O'Brien says the | :40:34. | :40:38. | |
contests all allegations made against him and is seeking legal | :40:38. | :40:44. | |
advice. Despite that he resigned as Archbishop on Monday last week. He | :40:44. | :40:49. | |
was the most senior Roman Catholic cleric in Britain. He was due to | :40:49. | :40:54. | |
retire later this month when he turned 75. He will not take part in | :40:54. | :40:59. | |
the conclave to elect the new Pope. The Vatican is investigating the | :40:59. | :41:03. | |
allegations against him. There has been no response from the | :41:03. | :41:06. | |
Scottish Catholic Church this morning. For more analysis, we can | :41:06. | :41:09. | |
now talk to the journalist Catherine Deveney, who broke the | :41:09. | :41:12. | |
story in the Observer last week. She is in our Inverness studio. And | :41:12. | :41:15. | |
here with me, the leading Scottish historian from Edinburgh University, | :41:15. | :41:25. | |
:41:25. | :41:28. | ||
Bersted Catherine, this man sounds like he has been under immense | :41:28. | :41:33. | |
pressure. -- first to Catherine. I think he has been from the media | :41:33. | :41:38. | |
and people who want to out him. There is a real danger when we call | :41:38. | :41:43. | |
for people to be named but we assume that people who have | :41:43. | :41:49. | |
experienced dramatic at bents are somehow public property. -- | :41:49. | :41:54. | |
traumatic events. It is worth noting that these people are not | :41:54. | :42:00. | |
anonymous. They have given a signed and sworn statements to the Vatican, | :42:00. | :42:04. | |
exactly as they were asked to do by the church. It was only the | :42:04. | :42:08. | |
reaction of the Church to those complaints that made them fear they | :42:08. | :42:12. | |
would not be dealt with properly and it was at that point that they | :42:12. | :42:18. | |
went public. They are telling a story that is in the public | :42:18. | :42:24. | |
interest. That does not mean to say they lose all their rights as | :42:24. | :42:26. | |
individuals. Tom, initially you were calling for | :42:26. | :42:30. | |
the men to come forward and make themselves known. Hearing what we | :42:30. | :42:36. | |
have heard there, is it best that they stick in the sidelines? | :42:36. | :42:42. | |
The thing has moved on rapidly now. My initial reaction was based on | :42:42. | :42:50. | |
the day the news came out. I can quite understand the point that | :42:50. | :42:55. | |
Catherine has made. I think that is water under the bridge now. The | :42:55. | :43:00. | |
process in Rome, which seems to have been activated very speedily | :43:00. | :43:07. | |
indeed, ought to be allowed to take its course. My concern, obviously, | :43:07. | :43:11. | |
is deep concern for they individuals involved and that | :43:11. | :43:15. | |
includes the cardinal. That is the issue of natural justice and that | :43:15. | :43:21. | |
these allegations were anonymous. These are issues in the past. We | :43:21. | :43:26. | |
need to move forward. There is a conclave about to start so these | :43:26. | :43:30. | |
things will not happen quickly. Eventually an appropriate judgment | :43:30. | :43:35. | |
must come from the Vatican. You are right to point out that the | :43:35. | :43:40. | |
Cardinal does contest these allegations. Catherine, how do you | :43:40. | :43:46. | |
think the Scottish Catholic Church has handled the allegations? | :43:46. | :43:51. | |
I have been very disappointed by the way they have handled the | :43:51. | :43:54. | |
allegations. They say they do not know the specifics of the | :43:54. | :43:59. | |
allegations and that is simply not true. I was asked to the day before | :43:59. | :44:03. | |
the story broke in the Observer to put the allegations in writing to | :44:04. | :44:10. | |
the Catholic Church. I did so. They had many specific allegations from | :44:10. | :44:14. | |
the four individuals concerned but, more than that, my e-mail ended | :44:14. | :44:21. | |
with a direct question. I said, is its truth that the Cardinal has | :44:21. | :44:26. | |
broken his vow of celibacy? You could not get a more specific | :44:26. | :44:31. | |
allegation of anything than that. For the Church to say they did not | :44:31. | :44:35. | |
know what he was being accused of were simply not true. It is very | :44:35. | :44:38. | |
disappointing that they took that line. | :44:38. | :44:46. | |
Now let us pick up on that point. I think we're talking here not | :44:46. | :44:50. | |
about the Church but about the media operation of the church. The | :44:50. | :44:55. | |
Catholic Media Office often speaks out very quickly and often without | :44:55. | :45:00. | |
a degree of cautious restraint. But it has been virtually silent on | :45:00. | :45:06. | |
this issue. There has been an almost media hire a toss. | :45:06. | :45:13. | |
We have tried to contact the Catholic Media Office today. Where | :45:13. | :45:19. | |
does this leave the moral authority of the Catholic Church in Scotland? | :45:19. | :45:25. | |
Before the ordinary Catholic in the pew, this has been devastating and | :45:25. | :45:30. | |
a shop but in the long run what is important to people is that actual | :45:30. | :45:35. | |
fate. The number of mass attenders will not go down because of this | :45:35. | :45:39. | |
but the public reputation of the Church has been affected. This is | :45:39. | :45:43. | |
why the process has to happen speedily and effectively so that | :45:43. | :45:47. | |
eventually it will come into the public and the main exactly what | :45:47. | :45:56. | |
has happened. -- the public domain. The Church has got to be seen to be | :45:56. | :46:01. | |
doing this effectively and thoroughly and not in any way | :46:01. | :46:08. | |
obfuscating. Or, as has been stated by Catherine, misleading the media. | :46:08. | :46:12. | |
This has been the biggest crisis for the Catholic Church since the | :46:12. | :46:17. | |
Reformation? So as the prominent Catholics on | :46:17. | :46:22. | |
Newsnight rejected this view. The Catholic Church has been through | :46:22. | :46:26. | |
major tribulations since the Reformation in Scotland but this | :46:26. | :46:30. | |
has been an internal scandal. This has happened because of | :46:30. | :46:35. | |
developments within the church, or lead to difficulties within the | :46:35. | :46:39. | |
Church. All the other things that happens to the Roman Catholic faith | :46:39. | :46:43. | |
since the Reformation have been because of external forces. This is | :46:43. | :46:49. | |
why this problem has gone global. Every major newspaper in the world | :46:49. | :46:54. | |
has a story on this. It has put Scotland on the front pages of the | :46:54. | :46:58. | |
world's media. Katharine, Scotland at the | :46:58. | :47:04. | |
forefront of this debacle. The Catholic Church has emerged from | :47:04. | :47:08. | |
the sidelines recently and become quite active politically, taking | :47:08. | :47:12. | |
part in discussions on equal marriage and so on. One may still | :47:12. | :47:18. | |
be able to do that now? A lot of rehabilitation has to go | :47:18. | :47:23. | |
on for the Catholic Church. If you have a voice in society you have to | :47:23. | :47:27. | |
earn that voice and have moral authority. The church is excellent | :47:27. | :47:32. | |
where it speaks out on matters of justice and peace and for the poor | :47:32. | :47:38. | |
and oppressed but unfortunately the territory the Church has chosen to | :47:38. | :47:42. | |
inhabit publicly are all matters of sexual morality and we have seen | :47:42. | :47:47. | |
that it is in sexual morality that the Church should not be speaking | :47:47. | :47:51. | |
publicly. I would like to see them have more humility and less | :47:51. | :47:55. | |
arrogance in the way that they try other people -- the way they tell | :47:55. | :48:00. | |
other people to live their lives while choosing to live in a | :48:00. | :48:05. | |
different way privately themselves. That is the issue here. No one | :48:05. | :48:09. | |
enjoys seeing a man brought down so publicly as the cardinal but this | :48:09. | :48:13. | |
was not about personal weakness but hypocrisy. | :48:13. | :48:19. | |
Tom, has the Church been wrong to focus so much on sexual morality as | :48:19. | :48:24. | |
opposed to poverty? I would generally agree with that. | :48:24. | :48:28. | |
The Church has rules and there are certain things it does not allow. | :48:28. | :48:35. | |
My concern on the sexual morality issue is that the Church teaches to | :48:35. | :48:41. | |
love the sinner but to reject the sin. Now, that has not been clear | :48:41. | :48:46. | |
in some of these pronouncements. The other dimension which is | :48:46. | :48:49. | |
important is that the Church, historically, has been an enormous | :48:49. | :48:54. | |
force for human good but none of this is coming out. In other words, | :48:54. | :48:58. | |
a horrible caricature or Catholicism has emerged in the | :48:58. | :49:02. | |
media over the last two or three weeks and that is why a again the | :49:02. | :49:07. | |
message coming from the Church in Scotland should from now on be | :49:07. | :49:12. | |
positive, faith driven and should not immediately jump into the | :49:12. | :49:16. | |
public domain. Journalists love the Catholic Church because they | :49:16. | :49:21. | |
immediately get an opinion from them. There should be much more | :49:21. | :49:25. | |
consideration and the statements made should be nuanced and more, of | :49:25. | :49:31. | |
blacks and they have been in the past. -- more complex. | :49:32. | :49:37. | |
Katharine, we have the election of the new Pope in the next 10 days or | :49:37. | :49:42. | |
so. It is almost incredible that the O'Brien revelations have come | :49:43. | :49:48. | |
at this time. The story has been overtaken by | :49:48. | :49:53. | |
events. The men at complains because it -- before the Pope | :49:53. | :50:00. | |
announced his resignation. I think Tom is correct that there should be | :50:00. | :50:03. | |
a more positive view of the Church alongside this but there will be a | :50:03. | :50:09. | |
more positive view when the Church start behaving in a more positive | :50:09. | :50:14. | |
way. The cover ups the Church have been involved in in the pass, every | :50:14. | :50:19. | |
time they do that, they tell the people involved that they do not | :50:19. | :50:23. | |
matter as much as the public face of the institution. They have to | :50:23. | :50:29. | |
start protecting the people. We are still awaiting a statement | :50:29. | :50:32. | |
from Cardinal Keith O'Brien on the allegations. Thank you both for a | :50:32. | :50:36. | |
much for joining me. The under-occupancy charge, or so- | :50:36. | :50:38. | |
called bedroom tax, will start next month. Government estimates this | :50:38. | :50:41. | |
week suggest over 100,000 households in Scotland will lose | :50:41. | :50:43. | |
out. It is a politically charged issue with many case studies | :50:43. | :50:46. | |
affecting vulnerable people. Laura Bicker has been looking at the | :50:46. | :50:56. | |
:50:56. | :51:05. | ||
He is telling them about changes to their benefits, which will take | :51:05. | :51:10. | |
effect next month. Are there any specific things that you have seen | :51:10. | :51:18. | |
that are of concern to you? This bedroom tax, it is a nightmare. I | :51:19. | :51:27. | |
have got two at extra rooms. With my husband having Alzheimer's, I | :51:27. | :51:36. | |
need at my daughter to come, three or four days a week, to give me a | :51:36. | :51:42. | |
break. My proposed course of action will be to fill in an exemption | :51:42. | :51:48. | |
form, because you need separate rooms. She could have her housing | :51:48. | :51:53. | |
benefit cut by a quarter and less she gets an exemption. Craig knows | :51:53. | :51:58. | |
dozens of tenants just like her. But informing those in need is just | :51:58. | :52:03. | |
part of this battle. The Scottish government has branded the so- | :52:03. | :52:08. | |
called bedroomed tax unfair. But could it and should it be doing it | :52:08. | :52:15. | |
more? It is disappointed and that they have not raised this with the | :52:15. | :52:19. | |
UK Government in any detail. They need to do that urgently. Shelter | :52:19. | :52:24. | |
has decided upon a three-point plan to take to Holyrood. Nobody should | :52:24. | :52:30. | |
be made homeless because of this, anybody who ends up losing their | :52:30. | :52:36. | |
home will be treated as being unintentionally homeless, and that | :52:36. | :52:43. | |
a fund is put in place to protect social landlords from bankruptcy. | :52:43. | :52:47. | |
Elsewhere, in Edinburgh, one councillor has put forward a plan | :52:47. | :52:51. | |
to prevent those who get into debt being thrown out of their homes. | :52:51. | :52:56. | |
You have to pay the whole rent, including the bedroom tax element. | :52:56. | :53:00. | |
If you are struggling with that element, we will not affect you and | :53:00. | :53:05. | |
make you homeless. The council will pick up the tab for homelessness, | :53:05. | :53:09. | |
bed and breakfast accommodation, it does not make sense. Others would | :53:10. | :53:13. | |
like the Scottish government to put more money into a discretionary | :53:13. | :53:18. | |
fund to help those in larger houses who cannot move. We are concerned | :53:19. | :53:23. | |
about people looking to downsize, and we do not have the properties | :53:23. | :53:28. | |
to give them up. That gives a concern, because people will be | :53:28. | :53:32. | |
stuck in a house with too many rooms, and it will not be their | :53:32. | :53:36. | |
fault, and they will be penalised. We need assistance from the | :53:36. | :53:45. | |
Scottish government. We are not getting enough. In some areas of | :53:45. | :53:51. | |
England, councils have reclassified some homes, putting it in their | :53:51. | :53:56. | |
books as a one-bedroom as an office. We should be looking at every | :53:56. | :54:00. | |
option, and whether that means the classifying what a bedroom is, for | :54:00. | :54:05. | |
the purposes of this process, or looking at other options, to | :54:05. | :54:10. | |
getting housing associations to work together, to Port their | :54:10. | :54:16. | |
waiting lists. All of these are just ideas for now, and the clock | :54:16. | :54:21. | |
is ticking. Craig knows his part, and he intends to speak to every | :54:21. | :54:26. | |
one of his tenants, in letting them know about the changes on the way. | :54:26. | :54:31. | |
With me to discuss this, the Scottish government minister for | :54:31. | :54:37. | |
housing and welfare, Margaret Burgess, and the Conservative MP | :54:37. | :54:46. | |
for Penrith and the border, Rory Stewart. There is age huge | :54:46. | :54:51. | |
controversy about this bedroom tax, but it is coming in in four weeks. | :54:51. | :54:56. | |
How will we deal with it? How will the UK government help the | :54:56. | :55:02. | |
vulnerable people? You had an excellent report there. It has been | :55:02. | :55:06. | |
on the box for two years. People have been preparing. There are | :55:06. | :55:11. | |
different ways of dealing with different situations, you can get | :55:11. | :55:15. | |
exemptions, there is transition funding, councils that have houses | :55:15. | :55:19. | |
where some of the bedrooms are too small are reclassified. Everybody | :55:19. | :55:24. | |
agrees that we need to make the transition, but we need to make it | :55:24. | :55:30. | |
as fair and just and flexible as possible. On the face of it, this | :55:30. | :55:35. | |
looks like an unfair penalty for people, and things like funds being | :55:35. | :55:40. | |
put in place to help people out, they are not sufficient for the | :55:40. | :55:44. | |
long term. There has got to be a transition, because we are dealing | :55:44. | :55:49. | |
with a situation where housing benefit has gone from 11 billion to | :55:49. | :55:54. | |
�20 billion. We are in a financial hole. Something has to be done over | :55:54. | :55:58. | |
the medium term to get it under control. We have been working hard | :55:58. | :56:04. | |
to get the measures in place. It is tough, nobody likes this kind of | :56:04. | :56:08. | |
cutting up, but there are many people struggle end, and the | :56:08. | :56:16. | |
transitional arrangements are a help towards that. We have a Tory | :56:16. | :56:19. | |
councillor complained that he does not have enough money to sort it | :56:19. | :56:26. | |
out in Aberdeenshire. It is very tough. Many people in the private | :56:26. | :56:31. | |
rented sector are struggling to have enough room, we have people in | :56:31. | :56:36. | |
social housing who have two spare bedrooms, and we need to get our | :56:36. | :56:40. | |
housing stock more rationalised, and print the expenditure under | :56:40. | :56:46. | |
control. It is very tough. How can the Scottish government help | :56:46. | :56:52. | |
mitigate against the effects of this? The first thing, the Scottish | :56:52. | :56:56. | |
government do not agree with this penalty, and we are still trying to | :56:56. | :57:02. | |
get the UK government to abandon it. It is unfair, it is not workable, | :57:02. | :57:07. | |
and the impact it will have in Scotland is governed to be far | :57:07. | :57:13. | |
outweighing any benefit there would be. The Scottish government has | :57:13. | :57:18. | |
already done and a number of things to mitigate welfare reform, and in | :57:18. | :57:21. | |
particular the bedroom tax, we are looking at all of the options that | :57:21. | :57:27. | |
have been discussed by the previous people, we are looking at all of | :57:27. | :57:31. | |
those things, we have already talked up the Scottish Welfare Fund | :57:31. | :57:36. | |
to help those poorest in the society, we have given money to | :57:36. | :57:42. | |
advice agencies to assist people who are struggling, and we have | :57:42. | :57:45. | |
also given money to housing associations, to look at how they | :57:45. | :57:50. | |
can address the problems they are going to face. What is the point of | :57:50. | :57:55. | |
looking at it when it is coming in? There is a petition to make sure | :57:55. | :58:04. | |
that people who are not pay and will not be evicted. It is UK | :58:04. | :58:07. | |
legislation, not legislation from Scotland. We are looking at what | :58:07. | :58:11. | |
has been said, but there are difficulties in terms of the | :58:11. | :58:15. | |
petition, we have to address that when it comes forward. There are | :58:15. | :58:21. | |
loads of other issues, about how you can identify a why somebody has | :58:21. | :58:26. | |
rent arrears. Is it because of this, or are there other reasons? Are | :58:27. | :58:31. | |
there other groups of people that we should exempt from eviction | :58:31. | :58:35. | |
because of other circumstances, unemployment, loss of income? We | :58:35. | :58:42. | |
will the cap every landlord, every housing association, and I do not | :58:42. | :58:46. | |
think there is an appetite to evict people because of this. You are | :58:46. | :58:52. | |
complaining that, but when did you speak to the UK government? I wrote | :58:52. | :58:56. | |
to Iain Duncan Smith last week, and I wrote two weeks ago to Lord Freud, | :58:56. | :59:01. | |
I have spoken to the Housing Minister in December, the Deputy | :59:01. | :59:05. | |
First Minister has raised it in every meeting she has had with UK | :59:05. | :59:09. | |
politicians, and I hope to raise it again next week in London. There | :59:09. | :59:13. | |
seems to be a lot of meetings covering on, the Scottish | :59:13. | :59:16. | |
government putting their case to do, but not enough money, and north of | :59:16. | :59:24. | |
the border. This is not a policy about either side of the border, it | :59:24. | :59:30. | |
is a British policy. We are failing to see a serious strategy from the | :59:30. | :59:35. | |
SNP on how to deal with a massive financial problem. We are spending | :59:35. | :59:39. | |
�20 billion a year on housing benefit, nearly twice the figure 10 | :59:39. | :59:45. | |
years ago, more than we spend on all of the university's and | :59:45. | :59:48. | |
policing in the whole country combined. We need to be serious | :59:48. | :59:53. | |
about the long-term public finances. It makes a lot of sense to discuss | :59:53. | :59:57. | |
transition, to ask for flexibility, but what does not make sense is to | :59:57. | :00:02. | |
hear the SNP fighting against every attempt to get the public finances | :00:02. | :00:08. | |
under control. How can the fight against it when you here that this | :00:08. | :00:16. | |
has doubled over the past 10 years, housing benefit has doubled? Will | :00:16. | :00:21. | |
this be abolished in an independent Scotland? It has not doubled in | :00:21. | :00:26. | |
Scotland over the last 10 years, the increase has been 14%. We do | :00:26. | :00:31. | |
not have the same problems as we do in the rest of the UK. In an | :00:31. | :00:34. | |
independent Scotland, we would reverse it, because it costs more | :00:34. | :00:38. | |
to have it going and it has to do away with it. You do not have the | :00:38. | :00:44. | |
money, though. We spend less of our GDP on social protection than they | :00:44. | :00:50. | |
do in the rest of the UK, 15%, they spend 16%. We will have the money | :00:50. | :01:00. | |
:01:00. | :01:04. | ||
You are watching Sunday Politics Scotland. We are coming up to the | :01:04. | :01:09. | |
news. After that, we will speak to Douglas Alexander about his idea | :01:09. | :01:12. | |
for a national convention, getting his thoughts on the strategies at | :01:13. | :01:17. | |
play on the referendum debate. The latest national and | :01:17. | :01:20. | |
international news. See you in a moment. | :01:20. | :01:25. | |
Good afternoon. Further assistance for the Syrian rebels will be | :01:25. | :01:31. | |
announced in Parliament this week. Speaking to the BBC, William Hague | :01:31. | :01:35. | |
dismissed the criticism of British policy. He described President | :01:35. | :01:42. | |
Assad's remarks aspirational. The shelling and shooting continues | :01:42. | :01:49. | |
in Syria. Tearing apart a state in which 70,000 have died since the | :01:49. | :01:56. | |
uprising began almost two years ago. But the President has accused the | :01:56. | :02:00. | |
British government of trying to militarised the conflict in his | :02:00. | :02:06. | |
remarks to the Sunday Times today. This government is acting in a | :02:06. | :02:10. | |
naive, confused and unrealistic manner. William Hague described the | :02:10. | :02:15. | |
interview as pollution off. This is a man presiding over this slaughter, | :02:15. | :02:20. | |
and the message to him is that we are the people sending food and | :02:20. | :02:24. | |
shelter and blankets to help people driven from their homes and | :02:24. | :02:28. | |
families in his name. We are sending medical supplies to try to | :02:28. | :02:32. | |
look after people injured and abused by the soldiers working for | :02:32. | :02:39. | |
this man. William Hague said that, faced with the extreme humanitarian | :02:39. | :02:44. | |
distress of the civilians, Britain could not just sit it out. Though | :02:44. | :02:48. | |
Almond the rebels push back rebels is not yet British policy, he would | :02:48. | :02:53. | |
not rule that out in future. The Prime Minister is insisting | :02:53. | :02:56. | |
there will be no pledge to the right by the Conservatives | :02:56. | :03:00. | |
following their defeat in bit Eastleigh by-election. Writing in | :03:00. | :03:03. | |
the Sunday Telegraph, he said he would stick to the course that the | :03:03. | :03:12. | |
government is on. Following two days of negative | :03:12. | :03:15. | |
headlines after the Conservatives'' bruising defeat, David Cameron has | :03:15. | :03:19. | |
chosen to fight back. He says the battle for Britain will not be won | :03:20. | :03:23. | |
by lurching to the right wing it, but by appealing to the common | :03:23. | :03:28. | |
ground. In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, he pledges to do | :03:28. | :03:37. | |
that by controlling immigration... That the leader of UKIP, which came | :03:37. | :03:41. | |
second, forcing the Conservatives into third place, says they should | :03:41. | :03:45. | |
be focusing on addressing concerns now, not making pledges for beyond | :03:45. | :03:51. | |
the next election. Jam tomorrow, that is what we keep hearing from | :03:51. | :03:56. | |
them, promises of what they might do if they win the next general a | :03:56. | :04:01. | |
election. Meanwhile, the Justice Secretary has said he would expect | :04:01. | :04:05. | |
a future Conservative government to scrap the Human Rights Act. His | :04:05. | :04:08. | |
remarks and those of the Prime Minister will be seen as an attempt | :04:08. | :04:13. | |
to appease some on the backbenches who crave what they see as a more | :04:13. | :04:19. | |
muscular Conservative is that while broadening their appeal with voters. | :04:19. | :04:29. | |
:04:29. | :04:29. | ||
That is the news for now, there will be more and BBC One at 6:35pm. | :04:29. | :04:33. | |
Good afternoon. A former priest who made claims | :04:33. | :04:37. | |
against Cardinal O'Brien has told the Observer newspaper he would | :04:37. | :04:41. | |
public despite being warned he could damage the Church's | :04:41. | :04:46. | |
reputation. He is one of four men who have accused the Cardinal of | :04:46. | :04:49. | |
inappropriate behaviour in the 1980s Dannatt allegations he | :04:49. | :04:55. | |
contests. The Cardinal was signed last week. The journalist two broke | :04:55. | :04:58. | |
the story told us the Catholic Church was aware of what he was | :04:58. | :05:08. | |
:05:08. | :05:16. | ||
accused of because she had e-mailed And up I asked them if it was true | :05:16. | :05:22. | |
that the cardinal had broken his foul of celibacy. For them to claim | :05:22. | :05:26. | |
that they did not know what he was accused of simply is not true. It | :05:27. | :05:30. | |
is very disappointing that they took that line. | :05:30. | :05:33. | |
Limiting the amount of water available for use by whisky | :05:33. | :05:35. | |
distilleries could harm long-term plans, according to industry | :05:35. | :05:38. | |
representatives. The limit, which has been agreed in legislation | :05:38. | :05:40. | |
passed at the Scottish Parliament, prevents firms from taking more | :05:40. | :05:43. | |
than ten million litres of water each day. The Scotch Whisky | :05:43. | :05:46. | |
Association said not being exempt could limit its expansion. | :05:46. | :05:48. | |
In football there are two Scottish Cup ties later, including | :05:48. | :05:54. | |
Kilmarnock against Hibernian live on BBC 1 Scotland from 2:40pm. | :05:54. | :05:56. | |
Yesterday, Celtic beat St Mirren in their quarter-final, Anthony Stokes | :05:56. | :05:59. | |
heading the winner, while Falkirk are also through to the semi-finals | :05:59. | :06:01. | |
after overcoming Hamilton. Here is the weather now with Judith | :06:01. | :06:11. | |
:06:11. | :06:32. | ||
The a outlook is brightness morning. There will be some cloud in the | :06:32. | :06:34. | |
north Highlands and drizzle. Temperatures 10 or 11 degrees | :06:34. | :06:39. | |
Celsius which is good for the time of year. It will stay dry for most | :06:39. | :06:43. | |
of us overnight with clear spells in the south. | :06:43. | :06:53. | |
:06:53. | :06:55. | ||
Thanks, Alastair. Now, in a speech a couple of days ago, the shadow | :06:55. | :06:58. | |
foreign secretary Douglas Alexander tried to reclaim the idea of change | :06:58. | :07:02. | |
and attach its significance to a no vote. He also floated the idea of a | :07:02. | :07:04. | |
national convention post-2014 to focus on the type of society | :07:04. | :07:14. | |
:07:14. | :07:16. | ||
Scotland could become if it remains It is almost three decades since | :07:16. | :07:22. | |
voters first went to the polls to decide on the future of Scotland. | :07:22. | :07:27. | |
It took another 20 years before Scotland achieved a parliament. | :07:27. | :07:32. | |
This time around, Douglas Alexander wants to quash any notion that a No | :07:32. | :07:36. | |
vote means nothing will change. He was to create space for what he | :07:36. | :07:42. | |
calls a new kind of politics, by gathering politicians and Civic | :07:42. | :07:48. | |
Society to discuss future priorities. It is based loosely on | :07:48. | :07:52. | |
the constitutional Convention which developed plans for the parliament | :07:52. | :07:57. | |
at Holyrood. He asks whether we could gather together a national | :07:57. | :08:01. | |
convention, to chart a new vision from old nation for the next | :08:01. | :08:06. | |
decade? Gathering 25 years on from the conclusion of the | :08:06. | :08:10. | |
constitutional Convention, this national convention will look | :08:10. | :08:15. | |
beyond an agenda of constitutional change. His call comes ahead of | :08:15. | :08:19. | |
Labour's devolution commission reporting its findings later this | :08:19. | :08:24. | |
month. It was founded last year to can't sit there the balance of | :08:24. | :08:29. | |
power between Westminster and Holyrood. -- consider. | :08:29. | :08:32. | |
And the Labour strategist and MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South, | :08:32. | :08:41. | |
Douglas Alexander, joins me now. Your suggestion there for a ten- | :08:41. | :08:48. | |
year long national convention, is it a big talking shop? | :08:48. | :08:52. | |
One had the paradoxical truth about Scotland at the moment is that | :08:52. | :08:56. | |
Scotland wants change but it does not want the change that the SNP is | :08:56. | :09:02. | |
offering, a separate sovereign state. We need to look belongs 2014 | :09:02. | :09:08. | |
where I believe Scots will reject the choice of a separate sovereign | :09:08. | :09:12. | |
state and stay in the United Kingdom. They may need to say, what | :09:12. | :09:17. | |
has changed look like in terms of our economy and society. So much of | :09:18. | :09:22. | |
the conversation about the nation we could become has been crowded | :09:22. | :09:26. | |
out by an almost exclusive conversation about constitutional | :09:26. | :09:31. | |
change. A is this enough that people? Won a | :09:31. | :09:37. | |
nationalist said that you were offering shiny beads to the natives | :09:37. | :09:43. | |
then a serious debate. I am trying to get away from be he | :09:43. | :09:49. | |
said she said politics which all too often characterises this debate. | :09:49. | :09:52. | |
Surely any king comes together after the vote and have a | :09:52. | :09:56. | |
conversation about the fact there are more than 200,000 people out of | :09:56. | :10:02. | |
work in Scotland. How do we improve the quality of Ireland and rural | :10:02. | :10:09. | |
communities in Scotland? There are hail whole range of issues. I think | :10:09. | :10:14. | |
he could establish a different kind of dialogue, having resolved to the | :10:14. | :10:18. | |
constitutional issue. We could a look ahead to a richer and deeper | :10:18. | :10:22. | |
conversation about what kind of nation we want to be and what kind | :10:22. | :10:26. | |
of Scots we want to be. The devolution Commission are | :10:26. | :10:32. | |
looking at this. Do you think what you are offering is enough? Well | :10:32. | :10:38. | |
the devolution Commission put any more meat on the bones? | :10:38. | :10:44. | |
Scottish Labour off the devolution. We have argued for decades for a | :10:44. | :10:48. | |
Scottish Parliament. After the SNP won the their historic victory, I | :10:48. | :10:54. | |
said we should be open minded about improving the devolution settlement. | :10:54. | :11:00. | |
No people said this was a tactical response. It was a considered | :11:00. | :11:06. | |
judgment. We need to look at how to improve the constitutional | :11:06. | :11:11. | |
settlement. That is a different destination to what the SNP are | :11:11. | :11:17. | |
offering. The that speech was a considered judgement and quite a | :11:17. | :11:22. | |
critical judgment, you said Labour were not reconnecting and were in | :11:22. | :11:27. | |
opposition for its own sake. I Labour delivering now, 18 months | :11:27. | :11:31. | |
ahead of the referendum? Were the are making real progress. | :11:31. | :11:38. | |
A couple of years later -- a couple of months later we elected a new | :11:38. | :11:42. | |
leader. The SNP have been under some pressure that they have not | :11:42. | :11:47. | |
been under for some time. Our job is not just a critique of the | :11:47. | :11:50. | |
Scottish National Party but to create a vision of the kind of | :11:50. | :11:56. | |
nation we want to lead. There is a big agenda here that has been | :11:56. | :12:01. | |
crowded out the Scottish Labour needs to give voice to. | :12:01. | :12:06. | |
How can you claim new art reconnected when you are coming 4th | :12:06. | :12:10. | |
in by-elections? Scottish Labour did not take part | :12:10. | :12:17. | |
in the by-election this week. We have had some long -- some strong | :12:17. | :12:21. | |
local government results in by- elections. We are working hard to | :12:21. | :12:27. | |
come back. In terms of the vote last week, that it is not exactly a | :12:27. | :12:33. | |
Labour heartland. We were not in a position to contest what was are | :12:33. | :12:41. | |
too much and 57th target seats. We would have had so to win a match | :12:41. | :12:48. | |
seat if we wanted to get a majority well in excess of 300! And many of | :12:48. | :12:52. | |
us did not expect us to have John O'Farrell as a parliamentary | :12:52. | :12:57. | |
colleague this week. Why we all Labour colleagues in | :12:57. | :13:01. | |
skull and not coming up with his philosophical concepts like this? I | :13:01. | :13:06. | |
you the thinking man of Scottish Labour who has to come up from | :13:06. | :13:12. | |
London to make these statements? Are we are one party. We are led by | :13:12. | :13:20. | |
Johann Lamont. On others have a role to play. Robin Cook was a | :13:20. | :13:25. | |
great influence on the. Renewal of the party is a job for all of this | :13:25. | :13:30. | |
is something he used to say. We all need to come together, whether | :13:30. | :13:33. | |
representing constituents in a local council, Holyrood of | :13:33. | :13:40. | |
Westminster. We all have a job to Would you echoed the statements | :13:40. | :13:46. | |
Johann Lamont has been making about the something for nothing culture? | :13:46. | :13:50. | |
I fear we had an echo of that conversation in the last debate you | :13:50. | :13:55. | |
had, where the Scottish Parliament was supposed to ensure the politics | :13:55. | :14:00. | |
of responsibility. With hindsight, they could have been changes to the | :14:00. | :14:06. | |
tax powers at an earlier stage. Those are coming in the future. | :14:06. | :14:11. | |
There is a particularly depressing -- depressing strain to nationalist | :14:11. | :14:16. | |
thinking, saying Westminster is to blame for everything. On something | :14:16. | :14:20. | |
like the bedroom tax there are practical steps the Scottish | :14:20. | :14:24. | |
Parliament could take but it should not be seen as a campaigning | :14:24. | :14:27. | |
opportunity by the Scottish government but to get down to work | :14:27. | :14:32. | |
and see what practical changes can be made here. | :14:32. | :14:39. | |
We are also looking at the Human Rights Bill today. Chris Grayling | :14:39. | :14:42. | |
has claimed that a Scottish government would scrap the Human | :14:42. | :14:49. | |
Rights Act. Vince Cable said this was speculation. What would be your | :14:49. | :14:52. | |
reaction to that? Burst of for a future Tory | :14:52. | :14:57. | |
government is not the plan. David Cameron said it would be wrong | :14:57. | :15:02. | |
after that by-election to lurch to the right. But at the same time | :15:02. | :15:08. | |
Chris Grayling was briefing another newspaper about getting rid of the | :15:08. | :15:12. | |
Human Rights Act. The Conservatives are letting the country down and | :15:12. | :15:17. | |
stagnating. That is why they are doing badly in the opinion polls, | :15:17. | :15:24. | |
not what it is at the Sisi in Europe. | :15:24. | :15:27. | |
The nationalists say we're very different in Scotland and have very | :15:27. | :15:33. | |
different opinions on things like that proposal. You do not go along | :15:33. | :15:36. | |
with that. You say we are all brothers and sisters together | :15:36. | :15:42. | |
across the UK. I do not think it is an altar | :15:42. | :15:50. | |
stereotypes -- and old stereotype. To suggest that everyone south of | :15:50. | :15:58. | |
the border is right wing is unfair. We have a huge responsibility to | :15:58. | :16:02. | |
deliver to the Scottish Parliament the kind of changes we want to see. | :16:03. | :16:07. | |
Not just a more united and equal Scotland but a more enterprising | :16:07. | :16:11. | |
Scotland as well. That is what I hope the national convention will | :16:11. | :16:16. | |
look at. Thank you for coming to speak to us. | :16:16. | :16:18. | |
Well, the Spring party political conference season is fast | :16:18. | :16:20. | |
approaching and that is usually where significant policy | :16:20. | :16:23. | |
announcements are trumpeted. And with politicians and the electorate | :16:23. | :16:26. | |
calling for the debate to get past the process and on to the substance, | :16:26. | :16:30. | |
we decided to take a look at what a no vote in 2014 would mean. | :16:30. | :16:37. | |
Christine Macleod has been trying to find out. | :16:37. | :16:41. | |
On one of the Prime Minister's visit to Scotland last year, he | :16:41. | :16:46. | |
hinted he may be open to allowing Scotland more powers if Scots | :16:46. | :16:50. | |
rejected independence. But are we any clearer on what Scotland would | :16:50. | :16:57. | |
look like after a no vote. Scotland's -- Scottish Labour at | :16:58. | :17:02. | |
talking about a national convention to plan the future. They will also | :17:02. | :17:06. | |
reveal the findings of bed devolution Commission at their | :17:06. | :17:09. | |
April conference. We are looking at where power | :17:09. | :17:15. | |
should lie. It is about local government as well. We want to look | :17:15. | :17:20. | |
at the best place for up power to set. It is about where it is most | :17:20. | :17:23. | |
appropriately used and put into place and what they can deliver for | :17:23. | :17:27. | |
people in Scotland. The Scottish Conservative leader | :17:28. | :17:31. | |
once said she would draw a line in the sand when it came to more | :17:31. | :17:37. | |
powers for Scotland but recently she has suggested looking at more | :17:37. | :17:42. | |
powers after 2014. Her party will also be setting out its | :17:42. | :17:46. | |
constitutional stall for the 2014 general election ahead of the | :17:46. | :17:51. | |
referendum vote. We will bring in a concrete | :17:51. | :17:57. | |
proposals ahead of the referendum in the terms of what we expect | :17:57. | :18:01. | |
after the referendum. People in Scotland do want to see more | :18:01. | :18:04. | |
responsibility taken in Holyrood for the decisions that are made | :18:04. | :18:09. | |
here. That is something we have to reflect on. | :18:09. | :18:13. | |
Liberal Democrats support Marholm role. They would like all the | :18:13. | :18:19. | |
parties to come together and agreed to which powers they should have | :18:19. | :18:28. | |
their in the event as a No vote. -- more home rule. | :18:29. | :18:33. | |
It is important that when the voters go to the polls they | :18:33. | :18:37. | |
understand that all the political parties in Scotland want more | :18:37. | :18:43. | |
powers for Scotland. They expect the SNP, hopefully after they | :18:43. | :18:48. | |
defeated in the referendum, to join that consensus. | :18:48. | :18:53. | |
Once the SNP back such a plan if it lost the referendum? | :18:53. | :18:58. | |
The SNP has always campaigned for more powers and will always do that | :18:58. | :19:04. | |
until we are independent. The other parties must say what more powers | :19:04. | :19:07. | |
they want the Scottish Parliament to have and how they can guarantee | :19:07. | :19:12. | |
that those powers will be delivered by a Westminster government because | :19:12. | :19:18. | |
past experience says that unless the SNP and the campaign for | :19:18. | :19:25. | |
independence are providing a momentum, they do not deliver. | :19:25. | :19:27. | |
Pressure is on the Unionist parties to come up with their own | :19:27. | :19:32. | |
manifestos setting out their plans for Scotland's constitution. Should | :19:32. | :19:38. | |
they include for more powers for Scotland? | :19:38. | :19:43. | |
I do not think they need to panic at all. They do not need suit broke | :19:43. | :19:48. | |
promises of more powers at the voters. Two-thirds of voters are | :19:48. | :19:54. | |
quite happy. The essential question, yes or No to the union, that is the | :19:54. | :19:59. | |
one we need to settle in the referendum. Nothing else. | :19:59. | :20:03. | |
While there may at the moment be a majority in Scotland for remaining | :20:03. | :20:10. | |
in the union, there is also clearly a majority in favour of devolution. | :20:10. | :20:19. | |
-- of more devolution. There is an attempt to cement the loyalty of | :20:19. | :20:23. | |
existing voters by giving a clear indication of what Scotland might | :20:23. | :20:30. | |
be given in the way of more devolution in the wake of a No vote. | :20:30. | :20:35. | |
So, to introduce more powers on not to introduce more powers? The real | :20:35. | :20:39. | |
question is, what is the best strategy for Unionist parties if | :20:39. | :20:44. | |
they are to win a no votes? With me in the the studio is the | :20:44. | :20:46. | |
former Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP and leader of the Devo Plus | :20:46. | :20:54. | |
group Jeremy Purvis. You are celebrating the first | :20:54. | :20:59. | |
birthday of Devo Plus. You showed that this flowcharts this week | :20:59. | :21:05. | |
which seems to appear with everyone moving into the middle ground. The | :21:05. | :21:11. | |
SNP even appear to be looking from been delighted Devo Max. | :21:12. | :21:15. | |
Before these proposals were launched last year there was | :21:15. | :21:20. | |
uncertainty about whether or not the parties would move. Labour have | :21:20. | :21:23. | |
established their commission and the latest speech by Ruth Davidson | :21:23. | :21:30. | |
is very positive. They have shown movements but, one year on from the | :21:30. | :21:35. | |
launch, we want to offer a challenge to the parties. We | :21:35. | :21:42. | |
believe most people in Scotland's accept that the parties enable | :21:42. | :21:45. | |
women to come together. We want to understand what will happen in the | :21:45. | :21:50. | |
event of a No vote. We are suggesting a form of agreement, and | :21:50. | :21:53. | |
equivalent to the Edinburgh agreement signed between the two | :21:53. | :21:59. | |
governments to show that the two party leaders can show a unified | :21:59. | :22:03. | |
proposition of what would happen in the event of a No vote. | :22:03. | :22:07. | |
So that would be a funny unified opposition from the three main | :22:07. | :22:13. | |
opposition parties? Is that not overly optimistic? | :22:13. | :22:18. | |
The proposals have shown we can take forward powers. It can be done | :22:18. | :22:22. | |
in a stable, proper way that can strengthen the parliament and also | :22:22. | :22:27. | |
mean that we still gain from the United Kingdom. There is a | :22:27. | :22:32. | |
consensus growing there. A Glasgow agreement which showed that a | :22:32. | :22:35. | |
statement of intent by the parties would be addressing what many in | :22:35. | :22:39. | |
Scotland are wanting to know, addressing what will happen in the | :22:39. | :22:44. | |
event of a No vote and outlining the leadership from the parties to | :22:44. | :22:47. | |
show that. We did it with the establishment of the parliament in | :22:47. | :22:52. | |
the first place, we did it with the Calman Commission, said there is a | :22:52. | :22:59. | |
clear precedent. Isn't the strongest way forward, | :22:59. | :23:03. | |
are perhaps better, if we have three different ideologies coming | :23:03. | :23:08. | |
forward? Perhaps if you have won this shed strategy it is less of a | :23:08. | :23:18. | |
:23:18. | :23:20. | ||
moving target for the SNP -- one shed strategy? | :23:20. | :23:23. | |
There was a convention between Labour and Liberal Democrats when | :23:23. | :23:30. | |
we had the Edinburgh agreement. The Calman Commission are clarified the | :23:30. | :23:35. | |
powers. It is up to the parties to use those powers and argue for the | :23:35. | :23:41. | |
policies in the context of more accountability. We cannot conflicts | :23:41. | :23:44. | |
what party policies are but people are hungry to know what the | :23:44. | :23:50. | |
consequences of a No vote would be. We need a Glasgow agreements, a | :23:50. | :23:55. | |
Statesman's intense -- a statement of intent of what would happen. The | :23:55. | :24:01. | |
parliament is permanent, here to stay. That starts to give up a | :24:01. | :24:08. | |
common ground that could be cut out. It does not stop Labour, the | :24:08. | :24:10. | |
Liberal Democrats or the Conservatives from saying what | :24:10. | :24:14. | |
their party policies are. Many people are hungry for clarity on | :24:14. | :24:19. | |
the constitution. If there is in no fate any do not | :24:19. | :24:23. | |
get this agreement, with these three disparate groups, I your | :24:23. | :24:28. | |
concerns that further powers for Scotland might fall down of the | :24:28. | :24:31. | |
Westminster agenda after the referendum? | :24:32. | :24:39. | |
Also Melly, what we hope is to have a natural destination to this | :24:39. | :24:44. | |
debate. We do not want to be perpetually talking about the | :24:44. | :24:48. | |
constitution. We wanted to be clear in a referendum that there will be | :24:48. | :24:53. | |
a yes proposition of what independence will look like and | :24:53. | :24:57. | |
also it will be clear what will be the consequence of the process of | :24:57. | :25:04. | |
the week that took place -- the process of the work there will take | :25:04. | :25:10. | |
place in the event of a No vote. Without that it is harder to find a | :25:10. | :25:14. | |
destination to this debate on devolution and I fear Scotland will | :25:14. | :25:17. | |
be hobbled by a perpetual debate on the constitution when there are | :25:17. | :25:23. | |
other areas we need to focus on. Well, it has been a busy old week | :25:23. | :25:26. | |
in the political arena. Let us take a look back in The Week In 60 | :25:26. | :25:36. | |
:25:36. | :25:38. | ||
New proposals for regulatory bodies have been announced if Scotland | :25:38. | :25:44. | |
becomes independent. The finance secretary says consumers will | :25:44. | :25:49. | |
benefit by merging many regulators into one or two bodies. The Defence | :25:49. | :25:54. | |
Secretary warned of further significant cuts to the armed | :25:54. | :25:57. | |
forces harming military capability. He suggested savings should come | :25:57. | :26:04. | |
from the welfare budget. A deal was struck to end the controversial | :26:04. | :26:11. | |
practice of throwing discarded fish back into the sea. A third European | :26:11. | :26:15. | |
foreign minister has said an independent Scotland would have to | :26:15. | :26:20. | |
apply for EU membership. That fear's the minister said Scotland | :26:20. | :26:25. | |
would be considered as a new country. And the Scottish Health | :26:25. | :26:31. | |
Secretary had to leave an operating better after feeling fate while | :26:31. | :26:34. | |
watching a kidney transplant operation in Edinburgh's Royal | :26:34. | :26:44. | |
:26:44. | :26:50. | ||
So that was the week that was. Let I am joined by the SNP blogger Kate | :26:50. | :26:54. | |
Higgins, who writes under the name of BurdsEyeVoew. Alongside her, | :26:54. | :27:01. | |
Labour cyber commentator, the lawyer Ian Smart. | :27:01. | :27:09. | |
Let us look at the top stories this week. What are you make of the | :27:09. | :27:12. | |
statement from the former priest who said he was scared to speak | :27:12. | :27:16. | |
out? I think the whole thing is very | :27:16. | :27:21. | |
difficult now. I do not have a huge interest in the sex life of | :27:21. | :27:26. | |
Cardinal Keith O'Brien. To some of the detail that is coming out now | :27:26. | :27:32. | |
seems to be moving into the realms of the prurience, shall we say? It | :27:32. | :27:36. | |
is a terrible crisis for the Catholic Church but it will survive | :27:36. | :27:41. | |
that crisis. Kate Higgins, we are discussing the | :27:41. | :27:46. | |
moral authority of the church. They have been very involved in equal | :27:46. | :27:56. | |
:27:56. | :27:56. | ||
marriage to date. Where does this leave their moral authority? | :27:56. | :28:00. | |
They will lose that authority if they continue to choose to focus | :28:00. | :28:03. | |
their energies and attention on sexual morality issues. The | :28:03. | :28:09. | |
Catholic Church has handled this pretty badly. Abuse scandals, if | :28:09. | :28:14. | |
you like, and allegations can go one of two ways. We can try and to | :28:14. | :28:17. | |
shut it down and put it back in the cupboards and hope it does not come | :28:17. | :28:21. | |
out again or you can take an Open and as transparent approach and | :28:22. | :28:27. | |
that is what the Church needs to do. It needs to acknowledge things may | :28:27. | :28:30. | |
not have been right in the past and give the opportunity to other | :28:30. | :28:36. | |
victims to come forward. Let us turn to the bedroom tax. An | :28:36. | :28:42. | |
interesting comment from you this week, hitting out at all the main | :28:42. | :28:45. | |
parties. Whenever the reasons we campaign | :28:45. | :28:49. | |
for a Scottish Parliament was of that it would protect Scotland's in | :28:49. | :28:54. | |
the eventuality of a Tory government in Westminster. They | :28:54. | :28:59. | |
have the power to undermine this bedroom tax. We need money made | :28:59. | :29:03. | |
available to the people who will lose their housing benefit. The | :29:03. | :29:09. | |
Scottish Parliament could do that and are choosing not to. It is a | :29:09. | :29:15. | |
cause of a lack of political well, not caused by a lack of power. | :29:15. | :29:20. | |
What is your view on that? I Commons Road this morning to | :29:20. | :29:28. | |
carry forward that argument. I agree it is a lack of political | :29:29. | :29:37. | |
will -- political will. This should have been sorted out last year to | :29:37. | :29:41. | |
get is pushed out of the Welfare Reform Bill. Councils in the last | :29:41. | :29:47. | |
two months, led by Labour and the SNP, have increased rent by huge | :29:47. | :29:51. | |
margins and pushed further hardship on to tenants when they had the | :29:51. | :29:56. | |
opportunity to freeze rents and enable people to afford what will | :29:56. | :30:03. | |
come down the line in bedroom tax. We actually just need the parties | :30:03. | :30:08. | |
to use the powers they have ants to work creatively and unite on this. | :30:09. | :30:15. | |
We cannot have this as a party political issue. It is to be as | :30:15. | :30:25. | |
:30:25. | :30:33. | ||
If you look at what Douglas Alexander said, he talks about | :30:33. | :30:37. | |
powers for the Scottish Parliament, but he is also talking about what | :30:37. | :30:43. | |
kind of Scotland we want. We seem to have gone through the whole | :30:43. | :30:48. | |
period of devolution, first, the Labour administration wanted to do | :30:48. | :30:54. | |
as little as possible different. Then, and SNP administration | :30:54. | :30:59. | |
obsessed with, we want a fully independent Scotland. Nobody has | :30:59. | :31:03. | |
said, these are the powers of the Scottish Parliament, these are the | :31:03. | :31:08. | |
problems, these are how we applied these powers to these problems. | :31:08. | :31:13. | |
Sunday Herald had alienation, Nicola Sturgeon speaking about how | :31:13. | :31:23. | |
:31:23. | :31:26. | ||
the UK government is changing how things are done south of the border. | :31:26. | :31:31. | |
Douglas Alexander's speech was fantastic, with huge quotable | :31:31. | :31:37. | |
chunks. I disagreed with three- quarters of it, but it was great. | :31:37. | :31:41. | |
Two things of note, it sets out a blueprint for the Labour Party if | :31:41. | :31:47. | |
they choose to follow, if they want to have a chance of winning at the | :31:47. | :31:50. | |
2016 elections, but what is eliminating it is the non-committal | :31:50. | :31:56. | |
approach and response from them to date. But there is a lot of | :31:56. | :32:01. | |
presumption that Scotland will not move towards a yes vote in 2000 of | :32:01. | :32:06. | |
14, and it is just for the Unionist parties to carp at the future and | :32:06. | :32:11. | |
to start that process now. From his speech about the change in Scotland, | :32:11. | :32:15. | |
what was remarkable to me was how similar he and Nicola Sturgeon | :32:15. | :32:23. | |
sound. If we can find a way forward, there is hope. But I agree, it is | :32:23. | :32:28. | |
reassuring to hear parties to the starting to think about how they | :32:28. | :32:33. | |
want to create Scotland in the future. | :32:33. | :32:39. |