Browse content similar to 11/07/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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16`year`old is due back in court in September. Time now for the Week in | :00:00. | :00:13. | |
Parliament. Hello and Welcome to The Week In | :00:14. | :00:16. | |
Parliament. A dark cloud hung over Westminster. Has there been a | :00:17. | :00:18. | |
cover`up of a politicians' paedophile ring? The investigation | :00:19. | :00:22. | |
found that 114 potentially relevant files were not available. Most of | :00:23. | :00:31. | |
these files were probably destroyed. There was talk that an MP was going | :00:32. | :00:34. | |
to use the ancient right of parliamentary privilege to name | :00:35. | :00:37. | |
names. But, is it a weapon that's past its sell`by date? What I would | :00:38. | :00:40. | |
like to see is parliamentary privilege brought up to date and | :00:41. | :00:43. | |
codified so that we had a very clear set of rules. Also: The Northern | :00:44. | :00:46. | |
cities of England. All parties want them to become an economic | :00:47. | :00:50. | |
powerhouse. Can it be done? It is about getting rid of the factors | :00:51. | :00:54. | |
that hold the North back. We want to see the rest of the English regions | :00:55. | :00:57. | |
and Scotland and Wales also improving and computing and getting | :00:58. | :01:00. | |
investment and jobs. And we'll have the latest news from the campaign | :01:01. | :01:05. | |
trail in the Scottish referendum. But first the political world has | :01:06. | :01:08. | |
gone through a dark week, with suspicion lurking in parts of | :01:09. | :01:13. | |
Westminster. There was talk of an establishment cover`up of child | :01:14. | :01:15. | |
abuse that had involved politicians from a previous era. A dossier | :01:16. | :01:21. | |
compiled in the early 1980s by the MP Geoffrey Dickens making specific | :01:22. | :01:23. | |
accusations was nowhere to be found any longer. Also missing, it then | :01:24. | :01:29. | |
transpired, were more than 100 files concerned with child abuse | :01:30. | :01:34. | |
allegations. On Monday the Home Secretary spoke about the results of | :01:35. | :01:37. | |
an investigation last year by the Home Office. The investigation found | :01:38. | :01:43. | |
that 114 potentially relevant files were not available. These are | :01:44. | :01:48. | |
presumed by the Home Office and the investigator destroyed, missing or | :01:49. | :01:54. | |
not found. The investigator made clear that he found no evidence to | :01:55. | :01:57. | |
suggest that the files have been removed or destroyed | :01:58. | :02:01. | |
inappropriately. The investigation found no record of specific | :02:02. | :02:03. | |
allegations by Mr Dickens of child sex abuse by prominent public | :02:04. | :02:10. | |
figures. She announced the setting up of an inquiry panel to look into | :02:11. | :02:14. | |
how public bodies have handled child abuse claims. It will begin its work | :02:15. | :02:18. | |
as soon as possible after the appointment of the chairmen and | :02:19. | :02:22. | |
other members of the panel. Given the scope of its work it is not | :02:23. | :02:25. | |
likely to report before the general election. Child victims were not | :02:26. | :02:28. | |
listened to, were not heard, were not protected and too many | :02:29. | :02:35. | |
institutions lets children down. Reforms to those individual | :02:36. | :02:38. | |
institutions must not be delayed but isolated reforms are not enough. In | :02:39. | :02:45. | |
the 1970s and the 1980s there was a confusion between sexual liberation | :02:46. | :02:48. | |
and let `` sexual exploitation and that gave the cover of the abuse of | :02:49. | :02:52. | |
some children to escape challenge. Much progress has been made but | :02:53. | :02:55. | |
Victim Support child abuse are being blamed for their own exploitation. | :02:56. | :03:07. | |
Most of the discussion we have had today has been around historical | :03:08. | :03:09. | |
cases, is my right honourable friend confident that if such a bundle of | :03:10. | :03:13. | |
documents was handed to her today it would be treated in a much better | :03:14. | :03:16. | |
manner? I would hope that if a similar sort of bundle of documents | :03:17. | :03:19. | |
was handed into the Home Office today they would ensure that those | :03:20. | :03:22. | |
documents went to the police and that they were properly | :03:23. | :03:27. | |
investigated. The missing files were next day raised with the top civil | :03:28. | :03:31. | |
servant at the Home Office. Do you know who authorised the removal of | :03:32. | :03:34. | |
the destruction of these files? No, I do not. This is the issue with the | :03:35. | :03:39. | |
114. Most of these files were probably destroyed because the kind | :03:40. | :03:42. | |
of topics that they covered would have been subject to the normal file | :03:43. | :03:45. | |
destruction procedures that were in place at that time but they cannot | :03:46. | :03:48. | |
be confirmed to have been destroyed because there is not a proper log of | :03:49. | :03:59. | |
what was destroyed on what was not. Whoever deleted them must have been | :04:00. | :04:03. | |
a registrar. Is there no possibility that someone else could have done? | :04:04. | :04:08. | |
The one absolute in this is that I am not going to make absolute | :04:09. | :04:11. | |
assurances because I simply cannot. We are talking about a long time | :04:12. | :04:15. | |
ago. And the issue became top priority for Prime Minister's | :04:16. | :04:26. | |
Questions. Does the Prime Minister agree that all enquiries including | :04:27. | :04:30. | |
by the police and where he has setup must go where ever the evidence | :04:31. | :04:32. | |
leads them in whatever institution the country, including our own, to | :04:33. | :04:36. | |
get up what happens? Child abuse is a despicable crime and the victims | :04:37. | :04:39. | |
live with the horror for the rest of their lives and it is absolutely | :04:40. | :04:42. | |
vital whether it is the two enquiries announced by the Home | :04:43. | :04:45. | |
Secretary or the vital police enquiries that are being carried out | :04:46. | :04:48. | |
that no stone is left unturned. The horror of the Jimmy Savile and Rolf | :04:49. | :04:51. | |
Harris cases just show what people were able to get away with. It was | :04:52. | :04:55. | |
almost as if on occasion they were committing crimes in plain sight and | :04:56. | :04:59. | |
it took far too long to get to the bottom of what happened and for | :05:00. | :05:02. | |
justice to be done. David Cameron. Throughout the week there was | :05:03. | :05:05. | |
speculation that the Labour MP Simon Danczuk might use the cover of | :05:06. | :05:07. | |
parliamentary privilege, which in effect gives a politician legal | :05:08. | :05:10. | |
immunity, to name a person or persons who'd been the subject of | :05:11. | :05:14. | |
the child abuse accusations. The use of Privilege has long been an | :05:15. | :05:17. | |
invaluable means for MPs to right wrongs but there have been occasions | :05:18. | :05:20. | |
when a person's reputation has been unfairly ruined because it turned | :05:21. | :05:23. | |
out there was no supporting evidence. So, do the rules on | :05:24. | :05:28. | |
parliamentary privilege need changing? I spoke to Richard Gordon | :05:29. | :05:34. | |
QC of the Constitution Society who wants to see reform and to the | :05:35. | :05:37. | |
Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament John Hemming. First I | :05:38. | :05:41. | |
asked Mr Gordon for a quick definition of parliamentary | :05:42. | :05:47. | |
privilege. Parliamentary privilege is the claim by Parliament to be | :05:48. | :05:51. | |
able to debate freely and without interference from any other place, | :05:52. | :05:56. | |
including the courts. What value is that? It is extremely important in a | :05:57. | :06:01. | |
democratic society that Parliament should be able to conduct its | :06:02. | :06:03. | |
functions effectively and MPs should be able to freely speak in the | :06:04. | :06:06. | |
chamber without fear of interference by anyone else. It started off as a | :06:07. | :06:13. | |
claim to freedom of interference by the king and the Crown but it has | :06:14. | :06:16. | |
gradually become much more, a relationship with the courts. John | :06:17. | :06:24. | |
Hemming, you are a serial user of parliamentary privilege and you have | :06:25. | :06:28. | |
used it in a variety of ways, why do you use it so much? Why do I concern | :06:29. | :06:31. | |
myself when things are going wrong in the judicial system? We have a | :06:32. | :06:34. | |
constitutional structure and if things are going wrong in secret | :06:35. | :06:37. | |
courts then I raise it in Parliament. I have spoken on a | :06:38. | :06:43. | |
number of occasions about flaws in family courts decisions and that is | :06:44. | :06:46. | |
potentially a contempt of court if said so outside Parliament. I have | :06:47. | :06:52. | |
done an interview on Brazilian television which if it were | :06:53. | :06:54. | |
broadcast in England would have been subject to the law. It is important | :06:55. | :07:01. | |
to have the facility to talk about what is going wrong in the secret | :07:02. | :07:05. | |
court. You famously brought up the name of Ryan Giggs in the Commons | :07:06. | :07:08. | |
chamber and when you did that you were heavily criticised the | :07:09. | :07:20. | |
following day. I was criticised but that instance was not contempt of | :07:21. | :07:23. | |
court because 24 million people knew his name and if you followed spy | :07:24. | :07:26. | |
catcher judgement where something being published in Australia means | :07:27. | :07:29. | |
it is not confidential in England then if it is published in Scotland | :07:30. | :07:32. | |
it is not confidential in England so that was not a good example. It was | :07:33. | :07:36. | |
seen as a frivolous use of parliamentary privilege. To be | :07:37. | :07:42. | |
honest the fact that they were trying to imprison 75,000 people for | :07:43. | :07:45. | |
tweeting something highlights the absurdity and I was highlighting the | :07:46. | :07:48. | |
absurdity of attempting to punish 75,000 people for making a joke. Do | :07:49. | :07:53. | |
you want to see a fundamental change to parliamentary privilege? Some of | :07:54. | :08:00. | |
what John has said illustrates why. The thing is that parliamentary | :08:01. | :08:03. | |
privilege can be misused. To say something has gone wrong with the | :08:04. | :08:06. | |
judicial system so I can broadcast it throughout the land could be seen | :08:07. | :08:10. | |
by judges as an interference with the independence of the judiciary. I | :08:11. | :08:14. | |
would like to see parliamentary privilege brought up to date and | :08:15. | :08:17. | |
codified so that we had a very clear set of rules, rather than an act of | :08:18. | :08:25. | |
Parliament that goes back to 1689. That is the sole basis in law about | :08:26. | :08:29. | |
which we have rules about parliamentary privilege. When you | :08:30. | :08:37. | |
say codified you mean a new act? Yes, as they have in Australia and | :08:38. | :08:40. | |
many places where people know exactly what Parliament can and | :08:41. | :08:43. | |
can't do and what it can and can't say. It is in reality flouting the | :08:44. | :08:52. | |
law. What my colleague here is suggesting is that we should not be | :08:53. | :08:55. | |
allowed to criticise judges in Parliament when in fact it is very | :08:56. | :08:58. | |
clear that Parliament has a function for criticising judges and it has | :08:59. | :09:01. | |
the power to remove judges under the 1701 settlement act. This goes | :09:02. | :09:08. | |
beyond what John is talking about, the freedom of MPs to talk about | :09:09. | :09:12. | |
matters they perceive to be in the national interest. It actually | :09:13. | :09:14. | |
involves committees of Parliament and many things. Would you take | :09:15. | :09:20. | |
privilege away from all the select committees? No, I would not. Having | :09:21. | :09:24. | |
privilege on a Select Committee is important. It is a proceeding in | :09:25. | :09:27. | |
Parliament and it is subject to parliamentary privilege. The real | :09:28. | :09:31. | |
concern about committees is that some of them tend to go over the top | :09:32. | :09:34. | |
and demand information that other laws prevent them from having. What | :09:35. | :09:50. | |
limit would you set? Where would the boundary of parliamentary privilege | :09:51. | :09:53. | |
be? The boundary would in my opinion come to this, if a witness in front | :09:54. | :09:57. | |
of the committee had a good reason for not answering a question, they | :09:58. | :10:00. | |
could put that good reason and have a considered and certainly not have | :10:01. | :10:03. | |
it judged by a committee, however eminent, as being in some way a | :10:04. | :10:06. | |
contempt of Parliament. What about the Rebekah Brooks incident several | :10:07. | :10:14. | |
years ago? She said to the Select Committee that her newspapers had | :10:15. | :10:17. | |
paid the police for information. That could not then be used at her | :10:18. | :10:20. | |
trial because it was covered by parliamentary privilege. There is | :10:21. | :10:29. | |
also the Pepper versus Hart issue which... Does that show it breaking | :10:30. | :10:33. | |
down? We have a clear disagreement here. I think it is important for | :10:34. | :10:36. | |
backbench politicians to be able to criticise judicial processes, | :10:37. | :10:39. | |
subject to the sub judice motion so we have a principle that we do not | :10:40. | :10:43. | |
criticise them before they are made and influenced the decision but you | :10:44. | :10:46. | |
raise concerns as to how things have happened in the judicial system | :10:47. | :10:51. | |
after the decision is made. It is an important part of how the system | :10:52. | :10:54. | |
works and I would not want to see parliamentary privilege restricted | :10:55. | :10:56. | |
so that judges have control over Parliament. Where we are in the | :10:57. | :11:04. | |
present climate, with talk of a Westminster paedophile ring and an | :11:05. | :11:07. | |
MP who is thought to be using parliamentary privilege, that | :11:08. | :11:09. | |
creates a danger when names got out and they are guilty in the public | :11:10. | :11:13. | |
mind without any evidence. That did happen on Twitter of course but it | :11:14. | :11:16. | |
has not happened recently in Parliament. Will that lead to a | :11:17. | :11:27. | |
change? The point to remember about Parliament is that we do not have | :11:28. | :11:30. | |
complete freedom of speech. You are still subject to the rules of the | :11:31. | :11:33. | |
house and the decisions of the standards and privileges committee | :11:34. | :11:36. | |
say you do not have complete freedom of speech at all. I am tempted to | :11:37. | :11:42. | |
say if it ain't broke, why fix it? It would be great if it was not | :11:43. | :11:46. | |
broken but the answer is this, the act of Parliament is several hundred | :11:47. | :11:50. | |
years old and we need a new one to cope with the modern climate. You | :11:51. | :11:53. | |
have mentioned Twitter and John has mentioned what has gone wrong with | :11:54. | :11:56. | |
judicial cases but the relationship between law and politics should not | :11:57. | :11:59. | |
be governed by the mistrust of judges, it should be governed by | :12:00. | :12:02. | |
judges and politicians working together harmoniously in the modern | :12:03. | :12:06. | |
age. Thank you very much for joining us. | :12:07. | :12:14. | |
Some thoughts on privilege. Now a look at some of the other stories | :12:15. | :12:19. | |
around Parliament in the last seven days. Labour has accused the | :12:20. | :12:21. | |
Government of deception over the introduction of Universal Credit, | :12:22. | :12:24. | |
the new welfare system that's been hindered by IT problems. Labour say | :12:25. | :12:27. | |
MPs have been given mixed messages about whether or not the Treasury | :12:28. | :12:30. | |
has officially signed off the project. The Treasury have approved | :12:31. | :12:34. | |
funding for the universal credit programme in 2013, 2014 and 2015 in | :12:35. | :12:38. | |
line with the plan I announced in December last year. The same simple | :12:39. | :12:45. | |
question has now been answered eight contradictory ways. Not everybody | :12:46. | :12:52. | |
can be telling the truth. There has been so much beating about the bush | :12:53. | :12:55. | |
that it feels as though this house has been misled by a government | :12:56. | :12:58. | |
engaged in a deliberate act of deception. This is the best instance | :12:59. | :13:06. | |
of a man in an ill fitting anorak dancing on the head of a pin. I | :13:07. | :13:12. | |
think it is quite pathetic. The Birmingham schools inspected in the | :13:13. | :13:15. | |
wake of claims that hardline governing bodies were promoting | :13:16. | :13:17. | |
Islamic extremism, the Chief Inspector of Schools describes what | :13:18. | :13:28. | |
was found. One of the real, real upsetting things about what we found | :13:29. | :13:32. | |
in Birmingham and I found it personally upsetting talking to head | :13:33. | :13:34. | |
teachers is that people were frightened about speaking. One head | :13:35. | :13:37. | |
teacher had to be interviewed in a supermarket car park because she was | :13:38. | :13:40. | |
so fearful. We text, we talk, we send e`mails. All that personal | :13:41. | :13:50. | |
information will still be open to scrutiny from the police and | :13:51. | :13:53. | |
security services but only after an emergency bill races through | :13:54. | :13:55. | |
Parliament in the next week. There's broad support, but not everyone is | :13:56. | :14:02. | |
happy. It is as a result of a last`minute deal between elites with | :14:03. | :14:05. | |
little scrutiny by Parliament or civic society, and the rushed | :14:06. | :14:07. | |
legislation might unravel. British people are not stupid and they are | :14:08. | :14:10. | |
not ideological when it comes to this type of thing. Why can they not | :14:11. | :14:14. | |
have time to discuss it with their elected representatives? The Home | :14:15. | :14:17. | |
Secretary has rushed this through the house on the basis of emergency. | :14:18. | :14:31. | |
The case was put to the ECJ sometime ago and it took some time to come to | :14:32. | :14:35. | |
its conclusion on eighth April, so if there was an emergency it was a | :14:36. | :14:39. | |
predictable one by April the 8th. This legislation we face the | :14:40. | :14:41. | |
prospect of losing access to this data overnight with the consequence | :14:42. | :14:43. | |
that police investigations will suddenly go dark and criminals will | :14:44. | :14:46. | |
escape justice. Unlike the Commons, no`one person keeps order in this | :14:47. | :14:49. | |
House. Members of the House of Lords wonder whether self`regulation | :14:50. | :14:51. | |
actually works at daily Question Time. The jostling and bullying in | :14:52. | :15:02. | |
order to ask the supplementary, people who do not like this do not | :15:03. | :15:07. | |
take part. It is undignified. I am sure the leader would agree with me | :15:08. | :15:11. | |
that question time in this house is both the best of this house and | :15:12. | :15:21. | |
sometimes the worst. Most of the time, I think, most of the time, the | :15:22. | :15:25. | |
House operates pretty well at giving way to people and giving people the | :15:26. | :15:36. | |
chance. Lord Hill. The economic recovery is under way and are we all | :15:37. | :15:40. | |
benefiting or is there an ever widening split between thriving | :15:41. | :15:42. | |
South and the stagnating North? This week, Labour promised to vote | :15:43. | :15:45. | |
devolved ?30 billion of spending power to the regions of England to | :15:46. | :15:51. | |
boost growth away from London. The Conservative Chancellor George | :15:52. | :15:53. | |
Osborne, whose constituency lies near Manchester, has said he would | :15:54. | :15:56. | |
want to turn the northern cities into an economic powerhouse. Two MPs | :15:57. | :15:59. | |
from either side of the Pennines came into our studio, Wigan's Lisa | :16:00. | :16:02. | |
Nandy and Stockton's James Wharton. I first asked Lisa Nandy if I was | :16:03. | :16:06. | |
right in saying she wanted to take economic power away from London. To | :16:07. | :16:10. | |
be blunt, no, you're not right at all. This is not about taking away | :16:11. | :16:26. | |
from one part of the country to give to another part, this is about | :16:27. | :16:29. | |
recognising that we need to grow our economy and if you look at countries | :16:30. | :16:32. | |
like Germany that have done this successfully, they have eight | :16:33. | :16:35. | |
centres of regional growth that really rival Berlin in terms of how | :16:36. | :16:38. | |
to grow the economy, create jobs and create output. This is about not | :16:39. | :16:43. | |
taking away from London, but getting rid of the factors that hold the | :16:44. | :16:55. | |
North back. You are a Member of Parliament in the north`east, there | :16:56. | :16:58. | |
is a large and the London sentiment among people and councillors in the | :16:59. | :17:01. | |
north`east? You do hear that but I do not know what that's should be | :17:02. | :17:06. | |
about in the debate. `` what that should be about. It is about what we | :17:07. | :17:10. | |
can do to grow the regions, spread prosperity, not talk about the | :17:11. | :17:12. | |
unfairness of London being a central hub. The reality is London is a | :17:13. | :17:15. | |
capital city, a great global financial centre. It is going to | :17:16. | :17:18. | |
continue to be hopefully for many years to come. We want to see the | :17:19. | :17:22. | |
rest of the English regions and Scotland and Wales also improving, | :17:23. | :17:24. | |
competing, getting investment, creating jobs and securing the | :17:25. | :17:27. | |
long`term growth we need. We have been here before, we have had | :17:28. | :17:29. | |
regional assemblies talked about, directly elected mayors and each | :17:30. | :17:35. | |
time the public rejects this. There have been substantial no votes in | :17:36. | :17:39. | |
referendums. Why should this be any different? I campaigned against it | :17:40. | :17:48. | |
in my home region. We are talking about yet another layer of elected | :17:49. | :17:50. | |
representatives in regional assemblies, and people are not | :17:51. | :17:53. | |
generally predisposed towards that. One of the things to be careful of | :17:54. | :17:58. | |
is that we talk about this as if regions are set in stone. It has to | :17:59. | :18:01. | |
be, the north`east region is the building block. I think that is a | :18:02. | :18:07. | |
mistake. The Greater Manchester Council campaign against having a | :18:08. | :18:12. | |
Manchester Mayor, quite strongly. James is right in that nobody thinks | :18:13. | :18:16. | |
it is a good idea to be campaigning for more politicians especially at | :18:17. | :18:18. | |
the moment. The debate about regional assemblies especially in | :18:19. | :18:21. | |
the north`east is very similar, more layers of bureaucracy, additional | :18:22. | :18:23. | |
politicians. Nobody is arguing in favour of that. What we are talking | :18:24. | :18:27. | |
about is handing real power to the regions and James talked about... | :18:28. | :18:31. | |
What does that mean? You talk about handling power, are you talking | :18:32. | :18:36. | |
about devolution? It is devolution of funding and autonomy to make | :18:37. | :18:45. | |
decisions. You can compete on a fairer playing field then, but this | :18:46. | :19:03. | |
is about a lot about collaboration. If you look for example at one of | :19:04. | :19:07. | |
the great challenges that we have in my region and in James's, which is | :19:08. | :19:09. | |
around current transport infrastructure, our challenge is to | :19:10. | :19:12. | |
connect up those cities in the North better. We have to negotiate that. | :19:13. | :19:15. | |
You are out of the city, you're not out on the M62 belt of the | :19:16. | :19:18. | |
conurbations. How can the north`east change its status? All this talk of | :19:19. | :19:22. | |
an economic powerhouse does not seem to include the north`east. We have | :19:23. | :19:25. | |
had a city deal recently, announced by Greg Clark. He is the cities | :19:26. | :19:28. | |
minister, that is great news that he is the cities Minister, that is | :19:29. | :19:35. | |
great news for Teeside. It is not just about these clearly defined | :19:36. | :19:39. | |
areas, and to try and find a point difference, this clear agreement | :19:40. | :19:41. | |
across the political divide, about the need to devolve, promote the | :19:42. | :19:44. | |
economies of our regions. We have differences of opinion about how it | :19:45. | :19:47. | |
should be done. One of the challenges is getting the right | :19:48. | :19:54. | |
infrastructure of accountability. If you give people control about | :19:55. | :19:57. | |
spending and money so they can adapt it to local priorities, you have to | :19:58. | :20:00. | |
ensure there are the right mechanisms to hold them to account. | :20:01. | :20:09. | |
From a former Conservative point of view, you would probably want more | :20:10. | :20:12. | |
Conservatives in the north`east of England? Yes, I hope we will have | :20:13. | :20:15. | |
more in the next election. George Osborne is talking about high`speed | :20:16. | :20:19. | |
three, it is pie in the sky or is it serious? The point is that this is | :20:20. | :20:23. | |
serious, we had have HS2 which I support and we are working on it. If | :20:24. | :20:40. | |
you are given the authority to be able to negotiate that deal to | :20:41. | :20:42. | |
politicians and leaders in the north`east and north`west, Yorkshire | :20:43. | :20:45. | |
and Humber, it is possible that what they might have said was, firstly, | :20:46. | :20:48. | |
we will start building here. And secondly, connect the great cities | :20:49. | :20:51. | |
of the North. The reason for all of this is that we think communities | :20:52. | :20:54. | |
are better placed to make decisions for themselves. The leader of | :20:55. | :20:57. | |
Wakefield Council has said Yorkshire should be an independent state. That | :20:58. | :21:01. | |
would solve everything, we would not go on having to discuss anything, | :21:02. | :21:06. | |
has he got a point? There is a little town in my constituency that | :21:07. | :21:13. | |
has had a parish poll and they are going back into Yorkshire because | :21:14. | :21:16. | |
they are sick of being in the Stockton on Tees. Then you would be | :21:17. | :21:26. | |
to have a dependence in Lancashire? Then you would have to argue about | :21:27. | :21:29. | |
the capital, and I would be arguing for Wigan! Thank you for joining us. | :21:30. | :21:34. | |
Moving on for the North of England, next up is Scotland. Two months to | :21:35. | :21:37. | |
the referendum, here is the news of the week. | :21:38. | :21:49. | |
It's a date, Alistair Darling and Alex Salmond have finally named the | :21:50. | :21:54. | |
day for the two`hour debate. On August the 5th, they will be joined | :21:55. | :21:57. | |
by an audience of 350 asking questions. The First Minister has | :21:58. | :22:01. | |
vowed to continue his rough wooing of David Cameron for a further | :22:02. | :22:18. | |
debate. The Channel 4 documentary Dispatches revealed business leader | :22:19. | :22:20. | |
complaints of the aggressive tactics used by Scottish ministers as the | :22:21. | :22:40. | |
independence debate intensifies. The SNP said the new president of the | :22:41. | :22:42. | |
European Commission Jean`Claude Juncker is a man that can do | :22:43. | :22:46. | |
business with them. He said he would respect the referendum. The prounion | :22:47. | :22:49. | |
campaign has amassed a war chest twice the size of its nationalist | :22:50. | :22:52. | |
rivals. They said the no campaign is property bankers. And an independent | :22:53. | :22:54. | |
Scotland could get millions of pounds on an independent European | :22:55. | :22:57. | |
Space Agency should independents happen. `` should independence | :22:58. | :23:05. | |
happen in 2016, could we see the saltire flying on the moon? | :23:06. | :23:22. | |
Voting is on September 18. Now, we have all been in the | :23:23. | :23:25. | |
restaurant where the next table is having a terribly loud happy | :23:26. | :23:28. | |
birthday celebration. It can be very annoying! The Commons has in the | :23:29. | :23:42. | |
last couple of days gone into an outbreak of happy birthday. If you | :23:43. | :23:45. | |
do not like birthday mentions, please look away now. My 65th | :23:46. | :23:48. | |
birthday. Here, here! Retire! Can I come on my birthday, simply | :23:49. | :23:51. | |
reflect... Minister! May I wish my honourable friend a happy birthday. | :23:52. | :23:54. | |
And on this day, wish my sister happy birthday as well. And the Week | :23:55. | :24:09. | |
in Parliament wishes them all a very happy birthday. Warm at the | :24:10. | :24:10. |