:00:36. > :00:40.Morning, folks. Welcome to the Sunday Politics. First some
:00:41. > :00:46.Sunday-morning cheer, if you're an MP that is. You're set to get an 11%
:00:47. > :00:49.pay rise! But what does this man deserve? The Chancellor's gone from
:00:50. > :00:53.zero to hero for some, who credit him for turning the economy around.
:00:54. > :01:07.We'll be taking a fine tooth comb to his Autumn statement.
:01:08. > :01:10.Should this man get an 11% pay rise? Ed Balls was certainly working very
:01:11. > :01:14.hard to be heard last Thursday. We'll be reviewing his performance.
:01:15. > :01:17.And what about this man? We'll be joined by England's Chief Inspector
:01:18. > :01:22.of Schools. He's been writing his annual report this week. Will the
:01:23. > :01:25.Government achieve an A star? And coming up on Sunday Politics
:01:26. > :01:30.Scotland, join us for our end-of-year review.
:01:31. > :01:54.they achieved a C+. But they are all we could afford and there will be no
:01:55. > :01:57.pay rise for them. They will be glued to an electronic device
:01:58. > :02:03.throughout the programme and if we are lucky they might stop there
:02:04. > :02:07.internet shopping and tweet something intelligent. But don't
:02:08. > :02:12.hold your breath. Janan Ganesh, Helen Lewis and Nick Watt. Last
:02:13. > :02:15.week, storms were battering Britain, the East Coast was hit by the worst
:02:16. > :02:19.tidal surge in more than a century, thousands of people had to be
:02:20. > :02:24.evacuated and Nelson Mandela died. The downed the news agenda was the
:02:25. > :02:30.small matter of George Osborne's Autumn Statement. His giveaways, his
:02:31. > :02:38.takeaways and his first opportunity to announce some economic cheer.
:02:39. > :02:49.It might be winter outside, but in the studios it is awesome. Autumn
:02:50. > :02:53.Statement time. -- autumn. This is a moment of TV history. Normally when
:02:54. > :02:56.the Chancellor delivers these statements, he has to say the
:02:57. > :03:01.economy is actually a lot worse than everyone predicted. This time, he
:03:02. > :03:02.can stand up and say the economy is better than everybody predicted. A
:03:03. > :03:11.lot better. Britain is currently growing faster
:03:12. > :03:18.than any other major advanced economy. Faster than France, which
:03:19. > :03:24.is contracting, faster than Germany, faster even than America. At this
:03:25. > :03:28.Autumn Statement last year, there were repeated predictions that
:03:29. > :03:32.borrowing would go up. Instead, borrowing is down, and down
:03:33. > :03:35.significantly more than forecast. But George Osborne said the good
:03:36. > :03:41.numbers still mean more tough decisions. We will not give up in
:03:42. > :03:45.giving in our country's debts. We will not spend the money from lower
:03:46. > :03:53.borrowing. We will not squander the harder and games of the British
:03:54. > :03:56.people. -- hard earned gains. In other news, further cuts to
:03:57. > :04:02.government departments. The state pension age will increase in the
:04:03. > :04:08.2040s, affecting people in their 40s now. There were some goodies, like
:04:09. > :04:11.discounted business rates for small businesses, free school meals for
:04:12. > :04:16.infants, favoured by the Lib Dems, and those marriage tax breaks below
:04:17. > :04:18.that by the Tories. But, as with all big fiscal events, it takes a while
:04:19. > :04:26.for the details to sink in. The marriage tax allowance is a
:04:27. > :04:29.long-standing commitment that he could not abandon. It does help
:04:30. > :04:35.those families were only one goes out to work. It does not go to
:04:36. > :04:40.higher rate taxpayers, I don't think. Perhaps it does, I can't
:04:41. > :04:45.remember. It makes me feel guilty, I am taking them very seriously,
:04:46. > :04:48.but... Shall I give you them? There is the Autumn Statement. Have that,
:04:49. > :04:52.a free gift from the Sunday Politics. Is there no limit to the
:04:53. > :05:02.generosity of the BBC? In the meantime, Twitter was awash
:05:03. > :05:06.with unflattering pictures of a red-faced Ed Balls giving his
:05:07. > :05:12.response. Some pictures were more than flattering than others. Is Ed
:05:13. > :05:16.Balls OK? Should we be worrying about him? He looks very stressed.
:05:17. > :05:20.There is nothing to worry about in terms of Ed balls and his analysis.
:05:21. > :05:28.He and Ed Miliband have been setting the pace in terms of the focus on
:05:29. > :05:31.the living standards crisis. It was very telling that there was not a
:05:32. > :05:36.mention of living standards last time, we got 12 mentions this time.
:05:37. > :05:43.Never mind what he was saying, by now everybody has a copy of the
:05:44. > :05:45.all-important paperwork. Time to hand over to number cruncher
:05:46. > :05:50.extraordinaire Paul Johnson from the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Of
:05:51. > :05:53.course it means that things are significantly better this year and
:05:54. > :05:57.next than we thought they would be just nine months ago. That has got
:05:58. > :06:01.to be good news. But it is also worth looking at the growth figures
:06:02. > :06:09.a few years out. They have been revised down a little bit. The
:06:10. > :06:12.reason is, the view of the office of budget response ability is that the
:06:13. > :06:16.long run has not really changed very much. We are getting a bit more
:06:17. > :06:19.growth now, but their view is that it is at the cost of a little bit of
:06:20. > :06:24.the growth we will expect in the years after the next general
:06:25. > :06:28.election. As the day draws to a close, the one place there has
:06:29. > :06:36.definitely been no growth is the graphics budget of my colleague,
:06:37. > :06:40.Robert Preston. It's as good as it gets these days, I don't think the
:06:41. > :06:48.viewers will mind. It's very Sunday Politics, if I might say. That is
:06:49. > :06:53.very worrying. Was this a watershed for George
:06:54. > :06:57.Osborne? Was it a watershed for Ed Balls? We can all make the case that
:06:58. > :07:01.it is the wrong sort of recovery, a consumer led recovery. People are
:07:02. > :07:05.spending money they don't have. At the end of the day, it for George
:07:06. > :07:10.Osborne, it is growth, the first time he has been able to talk about
:07:11. > :07:14.growth. It allows him to control the baseline, the fiscal debate for the
:07:15. > :07:18.next generation. For Ed Balls, nearly not a good performance. But
:07:19. > :07:22.don't write this man off. Judging by Twitter, Iain Dale, no friend of it
:07:23. > :07:31.all is, said he did a good interview this morning on a rival TV channel.
:07:32. > :07:34.I feel the fact that the Tories hate Ed Balls so passionately is probably
:07:35. > :07:41.a good reason that they should hang onto him, in that Labour sends his
:07:42. > :07:47.effectiveness. May be the Tories hope that they hold on to him as
:07:48. > :07:50.well? A lot of people shouting at someone and mocking their speech
:07:51. > :07:53.impediment, that is politics that doesn't make me want to engage. The
:07:54. > :07:59.takeaway will be lots of people thinking that none of these people
:08:00. > :08:02.are people they like. Who is the main heckler on the Labour front
:08:03. > :08:07.bench West remarked I suppose he can't cast any stones. It would be
:08:08. > :08:10.easier to sympathise with him, if it were not that David Cameron went
:08:11. > :08:16.through a similar situation and John Bercow did not step in to stop the
:08:17. > :08:24.wall of noise. It was guaranteed a good happen to a Labour politician.
:08:25. > :08:31.It's painful to remove him because he had a Parliamentary following and
:08:32. > :08:36.he will kick up a fuss. I think he's much more pragmatic on issues like
:08:37. > :08:42.business than Ed Miliband. I'm told he wasn't keen on the energy price
:08:43. > :08:46.freeze. The problem with Ed Balls, to have the first words that you
:08:47. > :08:51.say, the Chancellor is in denial, after he is presiding over growth,
:08:52. > :08:55.it means nobody is listening to you. Who would replace him? Certainly not
:08:56. > :08:59.Alistair Darling, the side of the referendum and even afterwards. Ed
:09:00. > :09:02.Balls did get a roasting in the press and on Twitter. He seemed to
:09:03. > :09:06.disappear from public view following the Autumn Statement. But a little
:09:07. > :09:09.bird tells me he managed one interview this morning before he
:09:10. > :09:14.went off to an all-important piano recital this afternoon. Watch out,
:09:15. > :09:17.Jools Holland, he could be after your job. How bad was his
:09:18. > :09:24.performance on Thursday? Here is the Shadow Chancellor in action. The
:09:25. > :09:29.Chancellor is incomplete denial about the central facts that are
:09:30. > :09:40.defining this government in office. He used to say he would balance the
:09:41. > :09:45.books in 2015. Now he wants us to congratulate him for saying he will
:09:46. > :09:52.do it in 2019, Mr Speaker. With this government, it is clearly not just
:09:53. > :09:59.the badgers that move the goalposts. No mention of the universal credit
:10:00. > :10:09.in the statement. IDS, in deep shambles, Mr Speaker. Chris Leslie
:10:10. > :10:15.is the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. He is Ed Balls's deputy,
:10:16. > :10:21.in other words. Why do more and more of your Labour colleagues think that
:10:22. > :10:24.your boss is below the water line? I'm not sure I accept the premise of
:10:25. > :10:30.your suggestion. I don't think my colleagues believe that George
:10:31. > :10:33.Osborne has a superior argument. I think Ed Balls will certainly trying
:10:34. > :10:37.his best, loud and clear, to make the case there is a cost of living
:10:38. > :10:40.crisis in this country and the Chancellor doesn't understand this.
:10:41. > :10:46.That was essentially the heat of the debate on the Autumn Statement day.
:10:47. > :10:48.One leading Labour MPs said to me that Ed Balls is always looking
:10:49. > :10:54.back, fixated with the rear-view mirror, that was the exact quote. A
:10:55. > :10:58.Labour MP told Sky News, Labour has a strong argument to make,
:10:59. > :11:07.unfortunately it was not made well in the chamber today. Quoting the
:11:08. > :11:12.Daily Mail, this is two poor performances. A quote that I can't
:11:13. > :11:17.use because it uses too many four letter words. Baroness Armstrong,
:11:18. > :11:22.speaking at Progress, a former Labour Cabinet minister, we are not
:11:23. > :11:25.sufficiently concerned about public spending, how we would pay for what
:11:26. > :11:29.we are talking about. Quite a battering? There were two sets of
:11:30. > :11:35.quotes you were giving. The couple were about the strategy for tackling
:11:36. > :11:41.public expenditure. I think it's fair that we talk about that. The
:11:42. > :11:52.rest were pretty unattributed, nameless sources. You have never
:11:53. > :11:56.given and of the record briefing? We have conversations off camera, but I
:11:57. > :12:01.don't think you have a wealth of evidence to say that somehow Ed
:12:02. > :12:05.Balls's arguments were wrong. He was making the point that, ultimately,
:12:06. > :12:10.it is a government that does not have its finger on the pulse about
:12:11. > :12:13.what most of your viewers are concerned about, that wages are
:12:14. > :12:17.being squeezed and prices are getting higher and higher. You have
:12:18. > :12:24.had time to study the Autumn Statement. What part of it does
:12:25. > :12:30.Labour disagree with? It is a very big question. I think the overall
:12:31. > :12:33.strategy the Autumn Statement is setting out does not deal with the
:12:34. > :12:38.fundamental problems in the economy. What measures do you disagree with?
:12:39. > :12:41.A lot of it is the absence of measures we would have put in if we
:12:42. > :12:45.were doing the Autumn Statement. If you are going to deal with the cost
:12:46. > :12:48.of living crisis, you have got to get productivity levels up in our
:12:49. > :12:53.society. One of the best ways of doing that is on infrastructure. We
:12:54. > :12:57.believe in bringing forward 's investment and housing, getting some
:12:58. > :13:05.of the fundamentals right in our economy. By planting, the business
:13:06. > :13:14.lending we have to do. We have seen a lamentable failing. There are big
:13:15. > :13:17.structural reforms that we need. Ultimately, the public are concerned
:13:18. > :13:22.about the cost of living crisis. That has got to be childcare help, a
:13:23. > :13:26.10p starting rate of tax. Above all, and energy price freeze, which
:13:27. > :13:31.still this government are refusing to do. On Friday, you told me you
:13:32. > :13:37.supported the principle of a welfare cap. But you change bling claim the
:13:38. > :13:41.Chancellor's cap included pensions. You have now seen the figures, and
:13:42. > :13:46.it does not include pensions, correct? We do want a welfare cap.
:13:47. > :13:52.The government have said they are going to put more detail on this in
:13:53. > :13:56.the March budget. But it does not include pensions? We think they have
:13:57. > :14:02.a short term approach to the welfare cap. They put in some pension
:14:03. > :14:05.benefits. The state pension is not in the short-term plan because, as
:14:06. > :14:11.we believe, a triple lock is a good idea. In the longer term, if you are
:14:12. > :14:14.talking about structural welfare issues, you do have to think about
:14:15. > :14:16.pensions because they have to be sustainable if we are living
:14:17. > :14:22.longer. I think that is about the careful management. Let me show you
:14:23. > :14:28.what Ed Balls said on this programme at the start of the summer. As for
:14:29. > :14:31.pensioners, I think this is a real question. George Osborne is going to
:14:32. > :14:35.announce his cap in two weeks time. I don't know if he will exclude
:14:36. > :14:39.pension spending or including. Our plan is to include it. Pension
:14:40. > :14:45.spending would be included in the welfare cap? That is our plan,
:14:46. > :14:48.exactly what I just said. Over the long-term, if you have a serious
:14:49. > :14:54.welfare cap structural welfare issues, over 20, 30, 40 year
:14:55. > :14:59.period, you can't say that we will not work and pensions as part of
:15:00. > :15:06.that. Pensions would be part of the Labour cap? In the longer term. What
:15:07. > :15:12.is the longer term? If you win 2015? We want to stick with the triple
:15:13. > :15:16.lock on the pension, that is the Government approach to their
:15:17. > :15:20.short-term welfare cap. In the longer term, for example, on the
:15:21. > :15:26.winter fuel allowance, we should not necessarily be... There are lots of
:15:27. > :15:29.benefits... I understand that, I am talking about the basic state
:15:30. > :15:36.pension, is that part of your welfare cap or not? In a 20, 30, 40
:15:37. > :15:46.year frame... Even you will not be around in government, then. You are
:15:47. > :15:49.writing me off already. You have to focus on welfare changes, pensions
:15:50. > :15:53.have to be affordable as part of that. It's dangerous to say, well,
:15:54. > :15:56.if you are going to have a serious welfare cap, we should not look at
:15:57. > :16:04.pensions cost. It would be irresponsible. Will pensions be part
:16:05. > :16:08.of the cap from 2015 until 2020 if Labour is in power? In our long-term
:16:09. > :16:16.cap we have to make sure... I'm talking about 2015-16. We haven't
:16:17. > :16:22.seen the proposition the Government has put before us.
:16:23. > :16:33.You claim people of ?1600 worse off under the coalition. That is true
:16:34. > :16:37.when you compare to pay and prices. Can you confirm that calculation
:16:38. > :16:42.does not include the ?700 tax cut from raising the income tax
:16:43. > :16:47.threshold, huge savings on mortgages because of low interest or the
:16:48. > :16:51.freezing of council tax? It doesn't include the tax and benefit
:16:52. > :16:57.changes. If you do want to look at those, last year, the ISS said they
:16:58. > :17:05.could be making people worse off. It might not include those factors. The
:17:06. > :17:11.VAT increase, tax credit cuts, child benefit cuts, they all add up. My
:17:12. > :17:17.understanding is that the ISS figures have said people are ?891
:17:18. > :17:24.worse off if you look at the tax and benefit changes since 2010. You have
:17:25. > :17:28.to look at wages and prices. The ISS confirmed our approach was broadly
:17:29. > :17:34.the right way of assessing what is happening. The Chancellor was
:17:35. > :17:40.saying, real household disposable incomes are rising. He is completely
:17:41. > :17:44.out of touch. Can you sum up the macro economic policy for Labour?
:17:45. > :17:49.Invest in the future, make sure we have the right approach for the
:17:50. > :17:52.long-term politicking. Tackle the cost of living crisis people are
:17:53. > :17:55.facing. Now, let's talk to the Financial
:17:56. > :18:03.Secretary to the Treasury, Sajid Javid.
:18:04. > :18:10.Discovery, underpinned by rising house prices, increasing personal
:18:11. > :18:14.debt, do you accept that is unsustainable?
:18:15. > :18:20.I accept the OBE are also said the reason why this country is facing
:18:21. > :18:27.more these challenges -- OBR. That is because we went through a
:18:28. > :18:35.Labour recession, the worst we have seen in 100 years. But do you accept
:18:36. > :18:40.that a recovery underpinned by these things I have just read out isn't
:18:41. > :18:46.sustainable? We set out a long-term plan for recovery, and again this
:18:47. > :18:50.week. We have shown with the tough decisions we have made already, the
:18:51. > :18:55.country can enjoy a recovery. There are still a lot of difficult
:18:56. > :19:06.decisions. The biggest risk are Labour's plans. The March
:19:07. > :19:10.projections work at for those -- for both business investment and
:19:11. > :19:17.exports. Suddenly it is expected to rise 5% next year, a 10% turnaround
:19:18. > :19:21.in investment. How is it credible? I have been in business before
:19:22. > :19:25.politics. Any business person listening will know, when you have
:19:26. > :19:31.gone through a recession, the deepest in 100 years, it will hit
:19:32. > :19:35.investment, profits, you can't make plans again until you have
:19:36. > :19:43.confidence in the economy. That is what this country is seeing now
:19:44. > :19:50.under this government. This is an assumption made independently. The
:19:51. > :19:56.fall in business investment is because of the recession. The
:19:57. > :20:03.forecast increases, 5% next year, and so on, it is based on the
:20:04. > :20:08.independent forecast. Based on fact. If you look at the investment plans
:20:09. > :20:16.of companies, this week, the Chancellor went to JCB, Jaguar Land
:20:17. > :20:19.Rover has plans to create more jobs, these investment plans are
:20:20. > :20:24.coming through now because of the confidence generated by this
:20:25. > :20:29.government, such as the cut in corporation tax which Labour would
:20:30. > :20:34.increase. Are the export forecasts more credible? The 15 years, our
:20:35. > :20:42.share of world trade decline. Suddenly starting next year, it
:20:43. > :20:47.stops falling. That's not credible. I worked in finance the 20 years. I
:20:48. > :20:55.have yet to find any forecast which is fully right. Under Labour, we
:20:56. > :21:01.would have forecasts made by Gordon Brown who would announce he would
:21:02. > :21:06.hit all his targets. Now we have an independent system.
:21:07. > :21:12.Do you accept, if exports or business investment do not pick up,
:21:13. > :21:16.then a purely consumer led recovery is not sustainable? We need more
:21:17. > :21:24.than a consumer led recovery. We need consumer investment to go up.
:21:25. > :21:27.On Xbox, it is noticeable that experts are primarily down because
:21:28. > :21:32.the markets we trade with, the eurozone markets, are depressed.
:21:33. > :21:38.Many have just come out of recession. Or they are still in
:21:39. > :21:48.recession. If you look at exports to non-EU countries, they are up 30%.
:21:49. > :21:54.120% to China. 100% to Russia. Will you keep the triple lock for
:21:55. > :22:00.the state pension beyond 2015? Yes, long term. That's why it is not part
:22:01. > :22:04.of our welfare cap. Chris Leslie cannot answer that question. It is
:22:05. > :22:12.straightforward. House prices are now rising ten
:22:13. > :22:20.times faster than average earnings. That's not good. House prices are
:22:21. > :22:24.rising, partly reflecting recovery. Ten times faster than average
:22:25. > :22:30.earnings, how can people afford to buy homes if it carries on? What you
:22:31. > :22:33.would hope, this is the evidence, if you look at the plans of the month
:22:34. > :22:41.companies, they are planning new homes which will mean that, as this
:22:42. > :22:45.demand spurs that investment, more homes will come about. We need to
:22:46. > :23:34.give people the means to buy those homes. We have introduced the help
:23:35. > :23:39.to buy scheme. I accept the OBR says it will start rising again but as
:23:40. > :23:53.household debt rises again Petr Cech reduces, -- as household debt
:23:54. > :23:57.reduces, we need to make sure there are checks in place. Wages have not
:23:58. > :24:06.been rising in real terms for quite some time. Over the next five years,
:24:07. > :24:18.even as the economy grows, by about 15% according the OBR to the OBR --
:24:19. > :24:24.but people will not benefit. These hard-working families will not share
:24:25. > :24:30.in the recovery. What is the best way to help those families? The
:24:31. > :24:34.government doesn't set wages. What we can do is influence the overall
:24:35. > :24:44.economy. We don't have a magic lever. Wages have been stagnating
:24:45. > :24:50.for five years. When will people get a proper salary? The best way for
:24:51. > :24:54.wage growth is a growing economy, more jobs. We have more people
:24:55. > :25:01.employed in Britain today than at any time in our history. The biggest
:25:02. > :25:06.risk to recovery is if we let Labour into the Treasury with more spending
:25:07. > :25:11.and more debt. Which got us into this trouble. By whatever measure
:25:12. > :25:17.you care to choose, would people be better off come the 20 15th election
:25:18. > :25:24.than they were in 2010? Yes, they will be. Look at jobs. Already more
:25:25. > :25:28.people employed than at any other time in history. Will they be better
:25:29. > :25:33.off? The best way for anyone to raise their living standards is
:25:34. > :25:41.access to a growing job market. But will they be better off? I believe
:25:42. > :25:46.people will be. Compared to 2010. Yes. In terms of take-home pay. This
:25:47. > :25:52.is a credible measure. Now, what do you think the Education
:25:53. > :25:56.Secretary, Michael Gove, was like at school? Hard-working? Hand always
:25:57. > :25:59.up? Top of the class? Well, if he wasn't passionate about education
:26:00. > :26:06.then, he is now. In fact, since he took office, it seems he hasn't
:26:07. > :26:09.stopped working very hard indeed. When the coalition came to power,
:26:10. > :26:12.Michael Gove evoked Mao, saying they were on a long march to reform
:26:13. > :26:19.education. Just like Mao, they faced a baby boom, so pledged ?5 billion
:26:20. > :26:23.for new school places. They extended Labour's academy programme. There's
:26:24. > :26:26.now about 3,000 in England. But then, they marched even further,
:26:27. > :26:33.creating free schools run by parents, funded by taxpayers. 174
:26:34. > :26:36.have opened so far. The schools admission code was changed, to give
:26:37. > :26:39.parents more choice. And a pupil premium was introduced,
:26:40. > :26:42.currently, an extra ?900 funding for each disadvantaged child.
:26:43. > :26:46.An overhaul of the national curriculum provoked criticism.
:26:47. > :26:54.Chairman Gove mocked detractors as "bad academia". But exam reforms
:26:55. > :26:58.didn't quite go to plan. Although GCSEs got harder, plans to replace
:26:59. > :27:01.A-levels had to be abandoned. Ultimately, the true test of these
:27:02. > :27:06.reforms will be what happens in the classroom. The person in charge of
:27:07. > :27:09.making sure those classrooms are up to scratch in England is the Chief
:27:10. > :27:14.Inspector Of Schools, head of Ofsted, Michael Wilshaw, who joins
:27:15. > :27:20.me now. Over the past 15 years, we have
:27:21. > :27:23.doubled spending on schools even allowing for inflation. By
:27:24. > :27:29.international standards, we are stagnating, why? I said last year
:27:30. > :27:39.that mediocrity had settled into the system. Too many children were
:27:40. > :27:45.coasting in schools, which is why we changed the grading structure, we
:27:46. > :27:49.removed that awful word, satisfactory. Saying that good is
:27:50. > :27:53.now the only acceptable standard and schools had a limited time in which
:27:54. > :27:59.to get to that. We are seeing gradually, it is difficult to say
:28:00. > :28:04.this in the week we have had the OECD report. Things have gradually
:28:05. > :28:09.improved. I will come onto that in a minute. Explain this. International
:28:10. > :28:15.comparisons show us flat-lining or even falling in some subjects,
:28:16. > :28:19.including science. For 20 years, our domestic exam results just got
:28:20. > :28:24.better and better. Was this a piece of fiction fed to us by the
:28:25. > :28:30.educational establishment, was there a cover-up? There is no question
:28:31. > :28:36.there has grade inflation. I speak as an ex-headteacher who saw that in
:28:37. > :28:40.examinations. Perceptual state is actually doing something about that.
:28:41. > :28:50.Most good heads will say that is about time. We have to be credible.
:28:51. > :28:53.Do politicians and educationalists conspire in this grade inflation? It
:28:54. > :28:59.might suit politicians to say things are going up every year. As a head,
:29:00. > :29:07.I knew a lot of the exams youngsters were sitting were not up to scratch.
:29:08. > :29:13.The latest OECD study places us 36th for maths, 23rd reading, slipping
:29:14. > :29:18.down to 21st in science. Yet, Ofsted, your organisation,
:29:19. > :29:23.designates 80% of schools as good or outstanding. That's another fiction.
:29:24. > :29:27.This year, we have. If we see this level of progress, it has been a
:29:28. > :29:33.remarkable progress over the last years since we changed our grading
:29:34. > :29:38.structure, then... In a year, absolutely. We have better teachers
:29:39. > :29:42.coming into our school system. Better leaders. Better schools. The
:29:43. > :29:45.big challenge for our country is making sure that progress is
:29:46. > :29:52.maintained which will eventually translate into better outcomes.
:29:53. > :29:58.These figures are pretty much up-to-date. Are you saying within a
:29:59. > :30:04.year 80% of the schools are good enough? All of the schools we
:30:05. > :30:08.upgraded have had better grades in GCSE and grade 2. We have to make
:30:09. > :30:12.sure that is maintained. The Government has based its reforms on
:30:13. > :30:16.similar reforms in Sweden. In opposition they were endlessly going
:30:17. > :30:21.to Stockholm to find out how it was done. Swedish schools are doing even
:30:22. > :30:27.worse than ours in the tables. Why are we copying failure? The
:30:28. > :30:31.secretary of state believes, and I actually believe, as somebody who
:30:32. > :30:36.has come from an academy model, that if you hand power and resources, you
:30:37. > :30:39.hand autonomy to the people on the ground, to the people in the
:30:40. > :30:46.classroom, in the corridors, in the playgrounds, things work. If you
:30:47. > :30:50.allow the great monoliths that used to have responsibility for education
:30:51. > :30:54.in the past to take control again, you will see a reverse in standards.
:30:55. > :30:57.You have got to actually empower those people that make the
:30:58. > :31:03.difference. That is why autonomy and freedom is important. We spent a lot
:31:04. > :31:06.of money moving what were local authority schools to become
:31:07. > :31:09.academies and new free school czar being set up as well. When the
:31:10. > :31:14.academies are pretty much the same level of autonomy, the free school
:31:15. > :31:18.is maybe a little bit more, the evidence we have had so far is that
:31:19. > :31:22.they don't really perform any better than local authority schools?
:31:23. > :31:27.Indeed, Encore GCSE subjects, they might even be doing worse? These are
:31:28. > :31:31.early days. We will say more about this on weapons they when we produce
:31:32. > :31:35.the annual report. The sponsored academies that took over the worst
:31:36. > :31:38.schools in the country, in the most difficult circumstances, in the most
:31:39. > :31:45.disadvantaged communities, are doing much better now. What about GCSE?
:31:46. > :31:52.They are doing GCSE equivalents, the lass academic subjects question my
:31:53. > :31:56.cull OK, but they are doing better than previous schools. If you look
:31:57. > :32:09.at the top performing nations in the world, they focus on the quality of
:32:10. > :32:12.teaching. The best graduates coming to education. They professionally
:32:13. > :32:16.develop them. They make sure they spot the brightest talents and get
:32:17. > :32:19.them into positions as soon as possible. We have got to do the same
:32:20. > :32:26.if we are going to catch up with those jurisdictions. This isn't just
:32:27. > :32:30.a British problem. It seems to be a European problem. The East Asian
:32:31. > :32:32.countries now dominate the top of the tables. What's the most
:32:33. > :32:37.important lesson we should learn from East Asia? Attitudes to work.
:32:38. > :32:44.We need to make sure that we invest in good teachers, good leaders. We
:32:45. > :32:48.have to make sure that students have the right attitudes to work. It's no
:32:49. > :32:53.good getting good people into the classroom and then seeing them part
:32:54. > :32:59.of teaching by bad behaviour, disaffected youngsters and poor
:33:00. > :33:03.leadership. We see young teachers doing well for a time and then being
:33:04. > :33:08.put off teaching and leaving from that sort of culture in our schools.
:33:09. > :33:13.Are you a cheerleader for government education policy rather than
:33:14. > :33:14.independent inspectors? I am independent, Ofsted is independent.
:33:15. > :36:45.I believe we are Are you enjoying it? It is a tough
:36:46. > :36:49.job. Sometimes I enjoyed it. Your job is more difficult than mine.
:36:50. > :36:56.You're watching the Sunday at Cap politics. -- Sunday Politics.
:36:57. > :36:59.Good morning and welcome to the last Sunday Politics Scotland of 2013.
:37:00. > :37:11.Coming up on the programme: Humility, humanity, humour. Scotland
:37:12. > :37:15.remembers Nelson Mandela. Nelson Mandela left perpetual scores in our
:37:16. > :37:19.Hearts. We will remember him as a man who single-handedly changed the
:37:20. > :37:24.political climate of the whole world. May his soul rest in peace.
:37:25. > :37:28.And it's that time of year. On our last programme of 2013, we reflect
:37:29. > :37:34.on the top stories of 2013. It's been a busy one.
:37:35. > :37:37.This weekend Scotland joined the world in saying goodbye to a man who
:37:38. > :37:42.was the figurehead of a movement for freedom and the father of a nation.
:37:43. > :37:45.Anti-apartheid campaigners here recalled their fear that Nelson
:37:46. > :37:49.Mandela might not live up to the legend they'd created for him during
:37:50. > :37:52.his time in jail. As it turned out, their concerns were unfounded. After
:37:53. > :37:55.his release, and in the years that followed, Nelson Mandela surpassed
:37:56. > :38:01.their expectations. Andrew Kerr has been looking at Scotland's tribute.
:38:02. > :38:06.He was once a strong man, a powerful man, a man who many once feared.
:38:07. > :38:11.Nelson Mandela overcame that impression, bringing black and white
:38:12. > :38:16.together. Glasgow promoted Nelson Mandela's cause, his memento still
:38:17. > :38:20.stands in the city Chambers, everyone from Prime Ministers to
:38:21. > :38:23.Princes have paid tribute. Tell us your reaction to hearing the news
:38:24. > :38:31.about Nelson Mandela. I think, along with so many other countless members
:38:32. > :38:35.of people, I was deeply saddened to hear of his death because he was a
:38:36. > :38:41.truly remarkable man. Ira member meeting him on various occasions --
:38:42. > :38:46.I remember meeting him. He was very special with a wonderful sense of
:38:47. > :38:52.humour. That extraordinary ability for forgiveness and reconciliation.
:38:53. > :38:56.A short distance away, a gathering in the place which defined the
:38:57. > :39:02.apartheid era, South African authorities. Ira member how proud it
:39:03. > :39:06.felt when the city named a street after that. The idea that the
:39:07. > :39:10.embassy would have to encounter his name every time they opened a piece
:39:11. > :39:14.of mail. The man has been an inspiration my whole life and
:39:15. > :39:18.continue to be so. On a cold Glasgow night, people you're willing to pay
:39:19. > :39:24.a worm tribute to a man from thousands of miles away who touched
:39:25. > :39:27.many hat hair. Patricia Monahan says she was a nurse in Johannesburg when
:39:28. > :39:33.she met the man himself in her hospital ward. I said, Mr Mandela,
:39:34. > :39:37.would you come visit this little girl, she is dying to meet you. He
:39:38. > :39:42.said of course. He came and talked to her and she was so delighted. He
:39:43. > :39:50.had all the time in the world for her and then he left. It was such a
:39:51. > :39:55.nice visit, it was so special to meet him. I will never forget his
:39:56. > :39:57.smile. Amazing person. I was involved in the campaign to free
:39:58. > :39:58.Nelson smile. Amazing person. I was
:39:59. > :40:03.involved in the campaign to free Mandela and organised the first leg
:40:04. > :40:10.of the march from Glasgow to London when I was a minister in Coatbridge.
:40:11. > :40:14.So I have had that association for a very long time. And from the rainbow
:40:15. > :40:19.nation, South Africans living in Scotland marks the moment. We had a
:40:20. > :40:29.completely different view of him before 1990. But he was a great man.
:40:30. > :40:31.I got to meet him in 1995 and he was a phenomenal man, the founding
:40:32. > :40:37.father of our current nation. Beautiful country and he was a
:40:38. > :40:44.wonderful person. Doctor Nelson Mandela left the perpetual scars in
:40:45. > :40:48.our Hearts. We will remember him as a man who single-handedly changed
:40:49. > :40:55.people to call climate of the whole world. May his soul rest in peace.
:40:56. > :40:59.Back home, the people switched between celebrations and sadness.
:41:00. > :41:05.They are now preparing for the funeral ceremony one week today.
:41:06. > :41:09.Joining me this morning from Selkirk is the Liberal Democrat peer Lord
:41:10. > :41:12.Steel, who was the President of the British Anti Apartheid movement in
:41:13. > :41:16.the '60s. And in the studio, the Labour MP Jim Murphy, who lived in
:41:17. > :41:19.South Africa under apartheid, and Brian Filling, who was chair of the
:41:20. > :41:22.Scottish Anti-Apartheid Movement for nearly 20 years and is now the
:41:23. > :41:25.Honorary Consul for Scotland for the Republic of South Africa. Thank you
:41:26. > :41:29.for joining us. Brian Filling, a long and eventful life. How would
:41:30. > :41:33.you sum up Nelson Mandela? And people said, he was a wonderful
:41:34. > :41:40.person. Sense of humour. Great political cleverness. To get through
:41:41. > :41:44.what he did and of course he suffered a lot, he made many
:41:45. > :41:48.sacrifices but he retained his humour and his humanity, and has
:41:49. > :41:53.been referred to in terms of his reconciliation and forgiveness. Of
:41:54. > :41:59.course, behind the famous smile there was a man of steel. Given what
:42:00. > :42:04.he had come through, he had to be. I remember when he came to Glasgow,
:42:05. > :42:10.and we had a press conference, with the editors alone, and instead of
:42:11. > :42:13.him making a speech, he said I know what is uppermost in your mind so I
:42:14. > :42:18.will add to your questions before you have asked them. He said, you
:42:19. > :42:24.will want to know about my wife and my political relationships. So he
:42:25. > :42:31.answered those questions and said, can I get onto what I want to tell
:42:32. > :42:35.you? He then of course talked about the force in South Africa that
:42:36. > :42:38.killed 10,000 people between 1980 and 1984, so one a few people say it
:42:39. > :42:46.was a bloodless change, that is not quite true. It was the regime trying
:42:47. > :42:50.to derail the election process. He then became president after his
:42:51. > :42:54.visit to Glasgow. We will talk about his success as president, but Jim
:42:55. > :42:57.Murphy, growing up in South Africa at that time, while he was
:42:58. > :43:05.incarcerated, the prominent was he? He was one of several figureheads at
:43:06. > :43:10.the time. We went to South Africa when I was young and I lived there
:43:11. > :43:14.as a teenager. Nelson Mandela was a band person. You could not talk
:43:15. > :43:18.about him, you could not have a photograph of him, you would never
:43:19. > :43:21.read about him in the newspapers. -- banned person. The reason that was
:43:22. > :43:28.given as to why that country could not have democracy, it was Nelson
:43:29. > :43:31.Mandela. You could not have a democracy because Nelson Mandela
:43:32. > :43:36.could become president. But that became the reason why South Africa
:43:37. > :43:41.got a democracy. It was not painless or bloodless. South Africa has been
:43:42. > :43:44.free of recrimination. I can see Robben Island, where he spent so
:43:45. > :43:48.much time in prison, every morning going to school as a teenager so it
:43:49. > :43:52.was a constant in your mind. It was not a constant in conversation
:43:53. > :43:57.because the way the state apparatus was constructed. Was an idea of the
:43:58. > :44:03.scale of the demonstrations, the protests, in Scotland and the UK
:44:04. > :44:11.during the 1960s and 70s. Why was it so important to people so far away?
:44:12. > :44:16.In London, there was a vigil outside South Africa house, it lasted for
:44:17. > :44:20.years. And in fact, the night when we heard that Nelson had died, a few
:44:21. > :44:25.of us went around it to South Africa house and people were starting to
:44:26. > :44:28.gather on the pavement where we had had those bejewelled and I met one
:44:29. > :44:35.or two beagle who had been on those the ago. So it was a constant
:44:36. > :44:42.struggle. -- one or two people who had been up on those vigils. They
:44:43. > :44:54.were supporting the South African exiles in London at that time. All
:44:55. > :44:58.of these people were in refuge in London and were part of the backbone
:44:59. > :45:08.of the movement. How good his time in prison change him? -- how did his
:45:09. > :45:15.time in prison change him? A lot of them came out of prison changed
:45:16. > :45:20.people. It made them what they are. The man who Nelson regarded as his
:45:21. > :45:24.mentor, all of them were remarkable human beings and I think it was
:45:25. > :45:29.because of, partly because of the struggle but the prison experience,
:45:30. > :45:33.already had to campaign to get newspapers, it took years to get
:45:34. > :45:36.that, to be allowed to read and so on. So they were very, very
:45:37. > :45:43.different people, all of them, not just Nelson. Was there a fear that,
:45:44. > :45:45.on release from prison, Nelson Mandela main outlet up to the
:45:46. > :45:53.expectations that had been built up around him? -- may not live up to
:45:54. > :45:57.the expectations. No. What people think today of is his impact on
:45:58. > :46:01.South Africa, it was so great. He set an example to the rest of the
:46:02. > :46:06.world. We look at some of the trouble spots in the world today,
:46:07. > :46:08.for example Israel and Palestine, is there a Nelson Mandela figure who
:46:09. > :46:16.can help solve the problem? And is no. Or even in his own continent, in
:46:17. > :46:21.Somali, the world is crying out for more Nelson Mandelas. The truth is,
:46:22. > :46:31.there aren't any. What about his time as president? How did he live
:46:32. > :46:34.up to what was expected of him? We often talk about Nelson Mandela the
:46:35. > :46:39.freedom fighter. We often talk about him as the statesman. There was a
:46:40. > :46:45.period of causing between when he was the first Democratic president.
:46:46. > :46:52.That was a country where the problems facing it were so enormous.
:46:53. > :46:57.He got youngsters into education, change the law in employment. He
:46:58. > :47:00.started the work on a dandy HIV. One of the things he did that was a
:47:01. > :47:06.dandy HIV. One of the things he did that was a Marco Lynn terms of
:47:07. > :47:17.politics general -- he started the work on AIDS and HIV. Nelson
:47:18. > :47:22.Mandela, his dilemma -- he managed to maintain reverence and respect
:47:23. > :47:25.into old age. Your viewers will know that we don't usually grant that to
:47:26. > :47:33.someone who has been denied opportunity to live a full life. He
:47:34. > :47:36.had a great sense of humour. Brian, when stood out there in George
:47:37. > :47:39.Square or I go straight or Sauchiehall Street, people would
:47:40. > :47:44.have walked past him in campaign for decades. So people who watch him,
:47:45. > :47:49.what is the point in signing petitions? Things like this prove
:47:50. > :47:53.that there is a point to this sort of community campaigning. How much
:47:54. > :48:02.did news of that reach him when he was incarcerated? After the rally in
:48:03. > :48:05.George Square, thousands came and did not put up umbrellas although it
:48:06. > :48:08.was raining, even bad for Glasgow, going in the car back to the hotel
:48:09. > :48:13.with him when we went through Nelson Mandela Place, I was explaining that
:48:14. > :48:15.South African consulate had been on the fifth floor of the stock
:48:16. > :48:20.exchange building and that was partly why we had chosen it. We had
:48:21. > :48:27.picketed it. And he had heard about it. And the point he made was that
:48:28. > :48:32.the wardens were always saying, you will go out of your feet first. You
:48:33. > :48:37.will not walk out of here. You are forgotten. And they tried to
:48:38. > :48:40.maintain that the world had given them up, that they had been
:48:41. > :48:46.forgotten about, but he said through the grapevine he heard often, and
:48:47. > :48:52.the news was maybe one year after it had happened, he said it lifted our
:48:53. > :48:55.spirits. So he said, I have always had a special place in my heart for
:48:56. > :49:01.Glasgow because was the first city to give freedom to me. And so when
:49:02. > :49:05.he came, he said, here I was, 6000 miles away, in a city that had made
:49:06. > :49:10.me free, whereas in the country I was born, I was still not free. At
:49:11. > :49:19.that point, he did not still have the boat. He had never voted. -- the
:49:20. > :49:25.vote. How do you believe the world will remember Nelson Mandela? One of
:49:26. > :49:29.the interesting things is, we go to Cape Town nowadays, people can take
:49:30. > :49:34.visitors to Robben Island, and you can go into the prison cell where he
:49:35. > :49:40.was held. The interesting thing is, the people who show you around where
:49:41. > :49:45.his fellow prisoners, and there is huge numbers of people who go and
:49:46. > :49:48.pilgrimage to Robben Island. I was lucky that I was one of the
:49:49. > :49:53.observers at the first South African election in 1984 and you cannot
:49:54. > :49:55.imagine the sheer emotion of people who had been totally suppressed
:49:56. > :50:02.having for the first time the right to vote. -- 1994. Under Nelson
:50:03. > :50:05.Mandela, that bitterness was removed from the country and it was a
:50:06. > :50:11.country that moved forward in unity and harmony and peace and that was
:50:12. > :50:16.an astonishing achievement. Thank you for joining us.
:50:17. > :50:20.Coming up after the news, our annual A-Z extravaganza for 2013. First,
:50:21. > :50:28.let's get the latest from Reporting Scotland.
:50:29. > :50:31.Good afternoon. Members of the Labour Party in Falkirk will select
:50:32. > :50:35.their candidate to fight the next general election. The original
:50:36. > :50:44.process was abandoned after allegations of vote-rigging. The
:50:45. > :50:49.seat is held by Eric Joyce, who resigned from Labour after being
:50:50. > :50:52.convicted of assault. A glitch that caused hundreds of
:50:53. > :50:55.flights to be delayed has been sorted, but there's still some
:50:56. > :50:57.disruption for Scottish passengers. Thousands of passengers across the
:50:58. > :51:01.UK faced cancellations and long waits after the phone system at the
:51:02. > :51:03.National Air Traffic Service broke down.
:51:04. > :51:07.A US-inspired scheme which provides support for teenage mothers is to be
:51:08. > :51:14.extended. The Family Nurse Partnership aims to help first-time
:51:15. > :51:18.parents. Frequent visits from nurses. It operates in seven areas
:51:19. > :51:28.and will be rolled out to NHS Forth Valley and Grampian next year.
:51:29. > :51:32.Let's have a look at the weather. A rather dull look to the afternoon
:51:33. > :51:33.with a vibrator rain for many. The rain most persistent and heaviest
:51:34. > :51:42.crossed western parts. Some drier interludes in southern
:51:43. > :51:48.and eastern Scotland. Potentially after 13 Celsius across the North
:51:49. > :51:52.East. A fresh the strong wind. The rain gradually becomes confined to
:51:53. > :51:55.the West tonight but it will be heavy and persistent. Predominantly
:51:56. > :51:58.dry elsewhere, it will be mild and breezy.
:51:59. > :52:02.That's all for now. Our next update is at 6:10pm. I'll now hand you back
:52:03. > :52:07.to Gary. So, we have seen snow this week,
:52:08. > :52:11.Christmas is coming and this is the last of our programmes for 2013, so
:52:12. > :52:32.it is time for our annual A-Z review of the year.
:52:33. > :53:25.Andy Murray is the Wimbledon champion!
:53:26. > :53:33.We did, after all, see that picture with the shocking ain't fat and the
:53:34. > :53:39.shades, but I have exclusively revealed that Alex Salmond is on the
:53:40. > :54:00.same day it as Beyonce. -- same diet.
:54:01. > :55:12.I have been elected to serve in the Scottish Parliament.
:55:13. > :55:20.People formed a human change am a side-by-side with each other, to
:55:21. > :55:24.help pull injured people out. RU OK? Gym, there is blood on your
:55:25. > :56:18.shirt. It is not mine. Scotland's future is now in
:56:19. > :56:22.Scotland's hands. There is nothing new in it, there is nothing
:56:23. > :57:19.published that they could not have told us about yesterday.
:57:20. > :57:32.Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will
:57:33. > :57:40.again experience the oppression of one by another. The sun shall never
:57:41. > :57:52.set on so glorious a human achievement.
:57:53. > :58:08.Professor Peter Higgs, University of Edinburgh. I asked, what used you
:58:09. > :58:17.Mac she told me her daughter had phoned her from London to alert her
:58:18. > :58:18.to the fact I had won this prize. Super Puma helicopter has crashed
:58:19. > :59:34.into sea off Shetland. Clearly, it is anti-English. They
:59:35. > :00:51.hate the union Jack. We will freeze gas and electricity
:00:52. > :01:51.prices until the start of 2017. Regrettably, that will mean 835 job
:01:52. > :01:53.losses across Filton, the Clyde and Rosyth, and the closure of the
:01:54. > :02:17.company's shipbuilding yard in Portsmouth.
:02:18. > :02:24.Just some of the events that shaped 2013. A special thank you goes to
:02:25. > :02:28.Grace Kirkwood and Stuart Pauley for putting that film together. It is a
:02:29. > :02:30.full house with us today, welcome to best selling author Chris Verbruggen
:02:31. > :02:35.are, broadcaster and journalist Ruth Wishart, GC Derek Ogg and last but
:02:36. > :02:41.not the -- not least, Professor Alan Miller. Let's start with Nelson
:02:42. > :02:47.Mandela, tributes being paid this weekend to him. When you're growing
:02:48. > :02:52.up, Watsi at personal hero? Very much so. The first political
:02:53. > :02:57.activity it a place in at university, Gordon Brown was
:02:58. > :03:01.candidate for student director and he organised a sitting at Edinburgh
:03:02. > :03:05.University's Administration building to disinvest in South Africa. The
:03:06. > :03:10.university had huge shareholdings in South African companies.
:03:11. > :03:14.Anti-apartheid was the very first political action I ever took part
:03:15. > :03:18.in. It had been with us for so many years, it is extraordinary to think
:03:19. > :03:22.now that those ideas of apartheid actually existed in our own
:03:23. > :03:26.lifetimes. People were so dreadfully persecuted in that way. As someone
:03:27. > :03:31.who has worked in the field of human rights, how would you assess his
:03:32. > :03:34.legacy two I think like countless millions around the world, I have
:03:35. > :03:39.been inspired my life by Nelson Mandela. He epitomised the human
:03:40. > :03:45.spirit. He transcended race, class, nationality. He brought out the best
:03:46. > :03:49.in us all. He made us all bigger in ourselves by how he led his life.
:03:50. > :03:53.The legacy is important, we all pay our tributes, but how to protect and
:03:54. > :03:57.nurture the legacy is where we need to look now, and as we debate
:03:58. > :04:02.Scotland's constitutional future, we can learn from South Africa. They
:04:03. > :04:05.have protected them Agassi by enshrining in constitution and
:04:06. > :04:11.universal human rights that Mandela gave his life towards. I think that
:04:12. > :04:15.is secure in our country's busted usual future, no matter what the
:04:16. > :04:21.outcome of the referendum, it is one way of measuring the legacy of
:04:22. > :04:25.Mandela. This has dominated domestic politics for the last year, as it
:04:26. > :04:29.been something of a phoney war up until now? I think it probably was
:04:30. > :04:32.until the white paper came out. You could have written what was said
:04:33. > :04:38.about the White Paper before it was published, I think the war in
:04:39. > :04:45.earnest starts in 2014. There is a nine-month run up, and things will
:04:46. > :04:48.probably turn a little less savoury. My personal plea, I was at a meeting
:04:49. > :04:58.last week of people who are undecided, everyone was encourage to
:04:59. > :05:03.be honest about their feelings, but there was not a politician insight.
:05:04. > :05:09.But a very present evening. Have you heard enough to make up your mind?
:05:10. > :05:13.Suddenly. I was looking at the Mandela package. When I was a
:05:14. > :05:15.student, there was a sense of nothing changing, so it seemed
:05:16. > :05:22.astonishing that a few years later Nelson Mandela was released. Then we
:05:23. > :05:26.had flowed cuckoo land, as Margaret Thatcher described it. The notion
:05:27. > :05:29.that 25 years ago that Scotland would be on the verge of this
:05:30. > :05:34.referendum seems incredible. It seems very exciting. I think we are
:05:35. > :05:40.privileged to have the chance to debate our future this way. This is
:05:41. > :05:43.not me avoiding standing on one side of the fence, I did not need to be
:05:44. > :05:49.convinced by the White Paper. What about you, Derek Ogg two have you
:05:50. > :05:53.made a decision yet you Mac I thought it read more like a
:05:54. > :05:58.manifesto for the SNP. The SNP are quite good governors. They are an
:05:59. > :06:01.honest party and a heart seems to be in the right place. But I was not
:06:02. > :06:04.getting a vision of what an independent Scotland would look like
:06:05. > :06:10.and I am not buying a pig in a poke, so I am not voting for independence
:06:11. > :06:16.this time round. It is not about the small print in a white paper our
:06:17. > :06:20.manifesto from either side. For me, it is a vision and value thing about
:06:21. > :06:26.the kind of Scotland you wish to see in the future and what swayed me was
:06:27. > :06:30.the more mean-spirited things became, in terms of the bedroom tax,
:06:31. > :06:33.the more mean-spirited things became as a result of the Coalition
:06:34. > :06:40.Government policies, the more I wanted to construct something better
:06:41. > :06:44.in Scotland. Looking at the footage of Nigel Farage there, you realise
:06:45. > :06:47.that this was a year in which a huge amount of the British national
:06:48. > :06:54.political agenda has been dictated by this minority figure. And it is
:06:55. > :06:59.concerned that we tend not to fuss about in Scottish politics. So the
:07:00. > :07:05.idea of us being in bed with the elephant has brought into sharp
:07:06. > :07:09.focus by something like that, defer the Conservative Party have of Nigel
:07:10. > :07:15.Farage is the reason we are seeing the go home and text and posters.
:07:16. > :07:18.The chance of independence gives us an opportunity to not have our
:07:19. > :07:24.political agenda dictated in the future. Ruth mentioned that people
:07:25. > :07:30.are not decided. We know that from the opinion polls. What will it take
:07:31. > :07:34.to persuade those people? Respect for them. My sense is that people
:07:35. > :07:39.want to make up their own minds, and they will. He will not be told what
:07:40. > :07:42.to do. They will not be sold anything, they want reliable
:07:43. > :07:46.information. I think they want to know what kind of Scotland is it
:07:47. > :07:50.that is on offer from either side, and that is the sort of discussion.
:07:51. > :07:55.I agree with Ruth, talking to people who are undecided, it is that kind
:07:56. > :08:00.of discussion. The bedroom tax comes up a lot and it links to what we
:08:01. > :08:03.said about Mandela. Do we want some constitutional framework, whether it
:08:04. > :08:10.is devolved or independent, where these fundamental rights to live
:08:11. > :08:13.your life with your family with an adequate standard of living should
:08:14. > :08:16.not be subject to this short-term political pressure and a two-day
:08:17. > :08:20.policies of this party or that Government. It is something much
:08:21. > :08:30.more serious than I think we have been given so far in the debate. I
:08:31. > :08:36.talk about the Catholic Church. Cardinal Keith O'Brien stand the
:08:37. > :08:43.gonad allegations of abuse. This is not exclusive to this year but I
:08:44. > :08:46.wonder whether the reason we keep, the story keeps coming back, is
:08:47. > :08:51.because the Catholic Church does not get to the root of the problem. I
:08:52. > :08:56.thought when the story broke, if I had written this, a story of a very
:08:57. > :09:02.vocal anti-homosexual religious figure who turned out to be a secret
:09:03. > :09:07.self folding homosexual, I would say -- people would say, you have to be
:09:08. > :09:11.more subtle. It is beyond satire. But it is the root of the problem,
:09:12. > :09:13.the Catholic Church is essentially in an ongoing war with human nature
:09:14. > :09:17.when it comes to issues of sexuality. Until those lessons are
:09:18. > :09:23.learned and addressed, this story will keep happening. Is it fair to
:09:24. > :09:27.say that often the victims are the forgotten ones when we talk about
:09:28. > :09:30.some of these abuse cases? Some of the victims this year have felt as
:09:31. > :09:34.though they did not have the support they would want. That is right,
:09:35. > :09:40.certainly in the case with Cardinal Keith O'Brien. For me, the real
:09:41. > :09:44.underlying scandal concerns the child abuse and the fact that not
:09:45. > :09:48.just in Scotland, are not just in England or America or elsewhere,
:09:49. > :09:52.people have not investigated that. People who have known about it have
:09:53. > :09:55.chosen just to ask the offending priest around different parishes in
:09:56. > :10:01.the full knowledge that someone else might become that victim. Until the
:10:02. > :10:05.church claims that up, I think we will always be suspicious but having
:10:06. > :10:09.said that, it is the year we got Pope Francis, who is by far the most
:10:10. > :10:13.compassionate sounding Pope we have seen in a long time. He seems to be
:10:14. > :10:17.softening the Church's view on homosexuality yet we have a Catholic
:10:18. > :10:22.Church in Scotland is against the idea of same-sex marriage. There
:10:23. > :10:25.seems to be a contradiction there. I will not hold my breath waiting for
:10:26. > :10:30.the Catholic Church to support me and my partner in everyday
:10:31. > :10:33.relationship. We need to separate two things, adult gay relationships,
:10:34. > :10:38.and the Catholic Church's attitude to it, and the abuse of children,
:10:39. > :10:41.which is not just the Catholic Church but other institutions that
:10:42. > :10:46.looked after children, or are supposed to, get involved in. One
:10:47. > :10:52.thing Nelson Mandela's legacy is, one way to approach conflict like
:10:53. > :10:55.that and victimhood like that is reconciliation and truth. The
:10:56. > :11:00.Catholic Church has a lot of truth it has to confront and a lot of
:11:01. > :11:04.reconciling to do and that is the way to clear those particular
:11:05. > :11:08.stables out. The same-sex marriage thing, it goes to show, one thing
:11:09. > :11:11.about this year is, we can look and see how much change happens in our
:11:12. > :11:17.lifetime, looking at Thatcher and Mandela having died, but 30 odd
:11:18. > :11:21.years ago I lived in a country where it was illegal for anyone of any age
:11:22. > :11:27.to have homosexual sex in any circumstances. Now we are cocking
:11:28. > :11:35.about same-sex marriage, civil partnership. -- now we are talking
:11:36. > :11:37.about. You only have to look to Russia to see what happens if you
:11:38. > :11:44.are not vigilant about rights. That is why Alan has got his work cut out
:11:45. > :11:47.for him. There has been a lot of negativity about historic child
:11:48. > :11:51.abuse this year. A piece of work has been taking place in Scotland which
:11:52. > :11:54.I think next year will yield significant progress and access to
:11:55. > :11:58.justice for victims of historic abuse. It borrows a lot from the
:11:59. > :12:01.Mandela legacy because the commission has brought around the
:12:02. > :12:05.table, for the first time in Scotland, the victims. Sitting next
:12:06. > :12:11.to none is and other representatives. -- sitting next to
:12:12. > :12:16.nuns that are supposed to have perpetrated abuse. This is what
:12:17. > :12:21.Mandela stood for, it has been quite transformative in understanding the
:12:22. > :12:25.situation of each, what they require, how they can move on in
:12:26. > :12:31.life and agree on what steps have to be taken. I am hoping that in 2014,
:12:32. > :12:34.those steps, which have been identified in this round table
:12:35. > :12:38.throughout 2013, will finally see some justice for the victims of
:12:39. > :12:43.historic child abuse. Let's talk about Andy Murray. I am sure you're
:12:44. > :12:48.jumping up and down with joy. He first came across my radar when he
:12:49. > :12:56.won the junior US Open and since then I have watched every match. I
:12:57. > :13:00.played every shot with him. It is such a life enhancing thing. I am a
:13:01. > :13:04.big sports fan, I spent a lot of time at Hampden and Murrayfield, and
:13:05. > :13:09.that is a particular form of masochism. But then you get Andy
:13:10. > :13:13.Murray, who is just brilliant. I love his sense of humour. I love the
:13:14. > :13:18.way he plays. I love that very Scottish sense of humour that a lot
:13:19. > :13:23.of folk do not understand. He is a complete star and I hope he wins in
:13:24. > :13:26.other couple next year. It has taken a lot of people a long time to
:13:27. > :13:32.understand and the's sense of humour. It has not taken Scottish
:13:33. > :13:35.people a long time. I did not get to see the final because I was in Italy
:13:36. > :13:40.and I was going through all the channel trying to find it, and I was
:13:41. > :13:47.not able to find it. It occurred to me, I said to my wife, can you name
:13:48. > :13:52.an Italian tennis player? I was following it by BBC text updates. He
:13:53. > :13:57.gets to the final stages and it disappeared from the telephone. That
:13:58. > :14:03.is when I realised it was no longer ongoing, it was over. That is all we
:14:04. > :14:07.have got time for. No time to talk about the pandas, but maybe next
:14:08. > :14:11.year. That is all from us from this week and this one. We are back again
:14:12. > :14:15.in the New Year. If you are missing your political fix, you can watch
:14:16. > :14:21.The Politics Show on Wednesday.