23/11/2011 Politics Scotland

Welcome to the programme. Coming up...

Caring for their carers, what commitment will was Scottish

Government make to protect a vital role?

Prisons are full to bursting, but political parties Debate Howard

overcrowding should be reduced. -- how overcrowding.

And less than a week ago -- to go until the Chancellor's Autumn

Statement. Here they are debating the strategy

on carers and young carers. They wanted and got how to fund respite

care. Campaigners say there is a postcode lottery. It is a critical

role, the home carers, isn't it? It saves the Government a lot of money.

We are talking about relatives looking after all the parents or

somebody with disabilities. -- older parents. They do a crucial

service. They enable the person to continue to live at home. If they

were not willing to do this then frankly, the rest of us would have

to pay and we already know the pressures on the social care budget.

Today will focus on respite care. Occasionally, someone looking after

an older parent, the parent may go into an institutional setting for a

short time to give The Curragh a break, to enable them to go on

holiday. -- the carer. The ability and willingness of carers to

support relatives may be diminished. We need to talk about how we ensure

the state provides some support to carers so that they are able to

continue their work. That respite care is critical, isn't it, because

it gives them a rest? Will the Scottish Government give a

commitment to funding that? This is a classic piece of preventive

spending. If the government can provide support for carers, and

that is what it is promising, then hopefully that will mean fewer

people will have to rely on paid social care. We have seen a report

from the Human Rights Commission about the potential limitations of

paid-for care and whether it is necessarily of adequate quality.

The debate today is saying there has been a commitment to funding,

but we feel that local authorities have been cutting it and we do not

feel the statistics are as clean as you claim. They are trying to put

pressure on the government to put more resources into respite care

and living up to saying they will spend now to avoid spending more

later on. Let's go to the chamber.

The debate going on, the issue of respite care. He has announced an

additional �2 million of short- break funds for disabled children

and their families. They said earlier the council data was not

robust and nine councils had reduced the extent of respite care

available. He said the government would try to improve that. That you

were he has to save. It will benefit carers and the

person they are caring for. The Scottish strategy for autism, which

I launched earlier this month, is intended to improve the quality of

life for individuals on the autism spectrum and their families. Given

the importance of maintaining older people's independence at home or in

a homely setting, we have given a commitment that at least 20% of the

fund will be dedicated to supporting carers of all the people

to continue their caring role. -- older people. This amounts to �14

million over a three-year period. This is a significant level of

investment that I believe will have a real impact. I also want to

provide reassurance that this is an area where we expect the additional

resource not to replace existing resources providing -- provided

towards carers services. The new guidance issued in this matter

makes us very clear. How will this be monitored? What happens out

there, that is what really matters. We have 32 local delivery change

plans in place. Part of that has to be agreed and signed off between

the health board, the local authority and the third sector. And

what is contained in that, if the third sector or any other party is

not convinced it will deliver, then they are in the position not to

sign it off. Clearly, questions will be asked by government as to

why that has occurred and money will not be released. It is

important that all of the partners involved in making any decisions

about how the change fund is moved give an opportunity for all sectors

to be engaged in the process. We have made progress in a number of

areas in taking forward are Carers' and Young Carers' Strategy. --

taking forward the. Carers are a vital to this partnership in taking

forward its implementation. Members will want to highlight areas where

they believe progress has been made but also, where they wish to see

further progress being made. This government is committed to

implementing the strategy over the coming years. I move the motion in

my name. APPLAUSE.

Dr Simpson, you have 10 minutes. Can I be gained by welcoming the

opportunity to open and close on this particular debate. It is very

important. My colleague will talk in more detail about child and

student carers as well as kinship care. We will also talk about

examples of where we think there is a gap between the government's

aspirations and the current reality. We will cover about carers rights.

-- talk about carers' writes. We need to talk about the challenges

that carers face and we need to come up with solutions to assist

those who care and are cared for. People like a full-time parent and

carer, whose son communicates with his sister technology. He says to

us that he does not feel an equal partner in care, he does not

believe this is a reality at the moment. We need to deal in reality.

I fully acknowledge the excellent and ambitious plan of 2010. It is

an excellent strategy building on previous plans in 2006, and

extending them in an ambitious way. I am concerned as to whether there

is a gap between rhetoric and reality. The Minister has indicated

we have about 657,000 carers, about 14% of households in Scotland,

three-quarters of those are single carers. It is most commonly a

parent, but it might be for a spouse, a child or a sibling. They

will spend over 50 hours a week in a caring for an individual which is

longer than the European working time directive allows. They do that

with little financial support. We have a lot of data. It is the 2001

can sense his data. I would like to ask questions, which the Minister

may choir to take up. The strategy indicated they would take into

account the views of carers' organisations. I would like to ask

what steps have been taken and how we are getting on with progressing

that aspect. I was going to ask about primary care and health

professionals but I welcome the Minister' -- minister's statement.

There are 28% of households in the most deprived areas with carers as

opposed to 13% in the least a deprived. Are we going to ensure

the resources are directed to practices like those working in the

most deprived areas. Can I ask how many primary care co-ordinators are

now working of health boards, such as happened in South Lanarkshire

and the Borders? Has that been extended? Can I asked for the

Government response to the results of the Moffatt programme? It had a

number of recommendations and I wonder what the response will be.

37% of carers are over 60. For people over 60, many will be

suffering from long-term conditions. The care assessment which was

brought in by the 2000 to act is a fundamental part of supporting

carers. Not all of them will seek assistance but they must be offered

it. There are still barriers recognised to that assessment --

assessment, that middle-managers are not keen to assess carers

because it will highlight more need and create a financial problems. We

know 70% of carers will hide the fact their health is suffering. A

survey published next week says 79% of Scots in the survey say their

health is getting worse and their mental and physical health is

suffering as a result of their caring. That is a sad fact. It

behoves us to ensure assessments are carried out. Many carers will

be isolated and will experience poverty of opportunity and

difficulties with it the financial aspect and impact of caring,

requiring additional heating, special diets, home refurbishment,

more on transport. His comprehensive assessment is

fundamental. Would Dr Simpson sure might regret that the carers'

alliance is such a pitiful sum and excludes elderly carers? --

allowance. I agree with the member on that. I would add that the

Welfare Reform Bill is not going to help. Carers will lose their

allowances with people being excluded from the disability

allowance. There will be more problems coming our way. On one

health question I would like to ask the Minister specifically, that the

strategy talks about encouraging carers to get the flu jab. What has

been done to promote that? I have not seen anything in the way of

advertising and I know many carers are unaware of that. Care should be

personalised and that carers -- and carers and those cared for should

be treated as equals. I know the government has done a considerable

amount to try and engage carers. One question that I asked of the

First Minister earlier this year was about emergency plans. I

welcome the work that has been done, but I think we have a long way to

go. If I may just look at learning disability to demonstrate how we

are feeling, the Scottish Consortium for Learning Disability

said there were over 7,000 adults known to local authorities in

Scotland who live with a carer. This represented about 48% of

adults for whom this information was reported. There are 4,000

individuals in a specialist care and that is fine, but at this

moment, there are 1,000 individuals with learning disability of these -

- disabilities in elderly residential homes whose care

packages are not suitable for a young people with learning

disabilities, 400 of whom are under 65 and many, if not all, have been

placed there as a result of a failure to have effective emergency

planning. Once they are admitted they do not come out of residential

care. I would ask in addressing this that has been at that very

carefully. We are all agreed that there should be a much greater

level of anticipate any care. Although this could be simple it is

not happening. We know the opposite is happening. The threshold for

community care packages is rising year-on-year. You have to be very

seriously needing care before you get into a care package. The

opposite of what we all want is happening, driven by the budgetary

Half-a-million pounds will be spent as a visit was made. Last night, Mr

MacAskill was asked why he had not built himself out of the problem.

We have invested over three errors �60 million in the present state --

�360 million. Prisoners do not come free. It is a time of austerity.

Everybody's priority is to look after pensioners, as well as make

sure we have sufficient capacity for prisoners. There is something

wrong. Far too many are going to prison, but we have the lowest

recorded crime figures for many years.

The Justice Secretary there. Let's cross to Holyrood. We can join the

leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats and somebody from the

Conservatives. I was impressed with the announcement. We will have a

smoother transition from criminals coming out of prison and back into

the community. Often, they can go back to their old ways and get into

crime again. I think it is a good stepping the right direction.

look at the issue of overcrowding. Crime is down, we have got shorter

sentences, and we are looking at other options. Why our prisons are

overcrowded? -- why our prisons are overcrowded? It will take a bit of

time to work. If we have these rehabilitation programmes that will

change behaviour and cut reoffending, it will take a bit of

time to cut through. It is much more expensive to have people in

prison. That is why we are in favour of community operas, of

rehabilitation. That changes long- term behaviour. -- community

options. The was saying the abolition of short-term sentences

is not the answer. Do you think community options are viable?

focus has to be on rehabilitation. That can be in prison or in the

community. Our system is failing now in rehabilitating offenders in

prison. Reoffending rates speak for themselves. They are very high. Ms

we can cut them reoffending rates, we will not cut crime figures.

you not admit that the Scottish Government have a very difficult

job when it comes to pensioners or prisoners? The public wants money

to go to pensioners and housing and schools. The obligation on the

Scottish Government is to make sure it provides enough prison spaces

and enough punishment options that the court to require so that if the

courts determine someone should be in prison or punished, it is

imperative that there is enough funding in place to accommodate

those prisoners. It is not the job of Government to say someone should

not be punished in the wishes of the court. That is an obligation

which I believe the Government are failing on. They are not providing

sufficient prison spaces. There could -- if you speak to victims of

crime, I believe most people believe that someone committing a

crime should be sent to prison in line with what the court said.

looks like the Scottish governments are putting money into prisons.

looks like the money is there. are putting money into prisons. We

will have to have prison available for those who need to go to prison.

The real focus needs to be on making sure there is a proper work

programme for those who are in prison. Currently, there is only

one place for every 80 long-term prisoners in a proper word

programme in prison. -- every eight long-term prisoner. We need to get

them working and it will be easier for them to fit back into society.

We also want to look at payment by results, social bombs. - - bonds. I

think that is the kind of thing the Scottish Government should be

looking at. That is interesting. Ken Clarke has been looking at

those other options. Annabel Goldie aim was not too keen on those --

Annabel Goldie was not too keen on those. We all agree that

rehabilitation should be the focus of our justice system. Where we are

failing in Scotland is that reoffending, it is with properly

rehabilitating prisoners. That is what Ken Clarke has said and what

we have said. There is no difference in terms of what we're

saying in terms of focus. The Government should be focusing more

on making sharp while people are in prison, people are being

rehabilitated. OK. Thank you very much.

You are watching Politics Scotland. Still to come: The threat of

independence is causing Warriors for people who want to invest.

-- causing worries. The latest twist in the row between

Edinburgh and London. That is coming up shortly. First, the

President of the Students' Society at St Andrews University who burnt

an effigy of Barack Obama has issued an apology. Our reporter is

in St Andrews, where the burning of the lethargy took place.

The meeting was taking place here of the University's Conservatives

Association. A bonfire was taking place and an effigy of the

President ended up on the bonfire. One student said they were very

surprised by what had taken place. Political condemnation has been

swift. One MSP told us that what happened here went beyond a student

prank. I was shocked to learn what had happened. It sends a completely

wrong message. These people are going to one of the most

prestigious universities in Scotland. It is renowned all over

the world. They are behaving in such a fashion. Most ordinary

people will be discussed it with this behaviour and the undertones.

Scottish Conservatives have also condemned the burning of the effigy,

and student union here have moved quickly to distance the student

body from what happened here. It says it deplores the burning of

effigies as part of political protest, regardless of who they are

meant to represent. It said it does not believe what happened here was

racially motivated, but finds it disgusting. The President of the

Conservative Students' Association has issued an apology, saying what

happened was stupid. He is due to meet with university bosses later

today. A disciplinary officer will be present, and further action may

follow. Let's discuss this further with

John Curtis. Very embarrassing for the Conservatives. They have

distanced themselves from these actions, but some people will be

saying, same old Tories. I was tempted to say that students will

be students, and they will be the occasional politician who has done

things they regret. I think David Cameron and George Osborne have

things they do not want the press to recover from their past. The

problem here is the resonance. The burning of somebody from an Afro-

Caribbean background remind people of the coupe looks clown. -- the

Cook looks clown. I am sure these students will make some action. It

was particularly in apposite. Awkward for the university. A of

course. It is embarrassing for St Andrews. It is a prestigious

university, allegedly, this publicity does not do any good.

let's go back to our discussion about prisons. It was interesting

to see Ken MacAskill struggling to explain why prisons are overcrowded.

Yes. It is interesting. One possible argument might be, why is

the crime rate down? Because more people are imprisoned. That is one

conclusion people might draw. We have seen both north and south of

the border, administrations come to office with a commitment to try to

reduce the size of the prison population. Ken Clarke was trying

to deal with this by trying to reduce the prison population. In

England and Wales, the prison population is at a record high. The

truth is, the general population are very keen to see people who

have committed crimes go to prison and serve the length of their

sentences. They do not want to spend money on prisons, either. If

we do want to send people to prison, we have to pay for it. Otherwise,

we have to accept prison may not be the best place to send people long

times -- long time. Thank you. David Cameron must change course

and his economic strategy or risk a lost generation of unemployed

youngsters becoming a symbol of his time in office, Ed Miliband has

said. The leaders clashed in the Commons for the first time since

last year's figures showed 1,000,016-24 year-olds are out of

work. In a Labour Government, youth unemployment never reached one

million. It is taking him 18 months to get to that figure. Since he did

not answer the question, the reality is, since he scrapped the

Future Jobs Fund, long-term youth unemployment has risen by 77 %. Now

can he tell us what has happened to long-term youth unemployment since

he introduced his work programme in June? Let me just repeat, youth

unemployment up 40 % under a Labour Government, and let me remind him

of something his brother said last week. He said, this Government did

not invent the problem of youth unemployment. We should have that

sort of Camembert from this brother. - - candour. The work programme is

helping 50 % more people than a Future Jobs Fund. It will help

120,000 young people this year, with a Future Jobs Fund only held

80,000 people. The waiting time for the most needy young people will be

half of the waiting time there was under their Future Jobs Fund. Those

who were not in education, employment and training will get

help. I would have thought the members of the Said wants to hear

what we do to help young people. They will get help within three

months, rather than six months. The absolute keep his that because we

are paying by results, the work programme will help those who need

the most help. The Future Jobs Fund but a lot of graduates into public

sector jobs and was five times more expensive than the alternative.

That is why we skirted and replaced it with something better. Is the

Prime Minister aware that the turnout in the strike ballot was 32

%, 31 % and 25 % respectively? Will he agree that any striker has the

right to strike? But should not engage in mass action unless he has

the support of the majority of the Union? As I said, it is wrong that

these strikes are going ahead when negotiations are under way. It is

wrong to strike and close classrooms and essential services,

but it is being done on the basis of these turn out, just one quarter

of Unison members voted to strike. 23 % of those balloted at you like

to voted in favour. We know why they will not condemn the strike.

We have the figures today from -- we have the figures of where they

get their money from. In his first year as leader of the party, 86 %

of Labour's donations came from the Under the last Labour leader it was

56%. It is about the only thing he has improved. I understand the

Prime Minister is having trouble connecting with women and is

seeking advice. Given that female unemployment has increased by 20%,

given that women have been hardest hit by public sector cuts and the

VAT rise and given they have benefited least from his tax

giveaways, would he not agree it is time for another plan which

reverted the VAT increase and insured benefits increase in line

with inflation? I do not agree. Every family in Brighton is facing

a difficult time. -- in Britain. If you looked at what we are looking

at in terms of trying to help women to the million people we have

lifted out of tax, many of them we are -- are women. In terms of

additional child care, but is helping women. Look at the extra

hours we are giving to it too, at the three and four year-old, that

is helping women. -- to two, three and four year olds.

We will also look at the impact of the independence referendum on

investment. All eyes on the economy today? The overriding theme at the

moment, because of the economic climate, is the state of the

economy. Whether there are signs of recovery, we are less than a week

away from the Chancellor's autumn statement, where most people will

think he will say that getting the debt under control is not getting

done as quickly as they would like. He will be forced to revise

downwards his figures for economic growth. We have had a couple of

straws in the wind. Earlier this week the Prime Minister addressed

the CBI, where he said blatantly that we are not where we want to be

at the moment. That was delaying a bit of rounded to say that the

growth figures are going to be worse than predicted. -- laying a

bit of ground. What the Prime Minister was doing was saying that

there are tough times to come because they will have seen the

crucial figures ahead of next week's statement. So there are

signs that the political and economic cycles are out of sync?

Yes, this could cause problems. It had always been predicated that the

coalition government would get rid of the structural debt over the

lifetime of the Parliament. The idea was, at 2014, there may be

some financial goodies to be given away. That does not appear that it

will happen. Rather than the Chancellor saying that we can give

tax cuts he will say there is some way to go and bad debt reduction is

still to come. His argument will be that you need to stick with us to

get the job done. More concern about the independence referendum?

For several months we have had government ministers at Westminster

saying to the SNP and Alex Salmond, you want a referendum, we know you

have a mandate and the majority of seats in the Scottish Parliament,

just go ahead and call it. We have heard these calls from the Scottish

Secretary and the Prime Minister. Now, the Chief Secretary to the

Treasury, Danny Alexander, has waded into the row. His argument is

all this talk about referendum is all very destabilising for the

economy, not just for Scotland, but in England as well. He has been

making that call in an interview this morning, saying to the SNP,

you want a referendum, go-ahead and collar. -- go ahead and call it.

There is evidence this is worrying people who want to invest in

Scotland. The best thing to do is for the government to come out with

their plans on a referendum and bring it forward as quickly as

possible so we can clarify the issue and get on with the job of

supporting jobs and growth in Scotland. That is what the UK

Government is doing now to try and support growth in Scotland. What

has been the reaction in Scotland? Not surprisingly, the SNP are not

willing to fall into the political trap. They know that it to some

extent, while they equivocate they hold the political initiative. John

Sweeney taking issue with Danny Alexander. He says there is no

indication that the fact that we don't have a clear referendum date

is damaging the economy. He points to inward investment in Scotland.

He says to the chief secretary of the Treasury, you've got it wrong.

The Chancellor suggested that the independence referendum was putting

companies off investing in Scotland and could not name a single company

that had suggested that. That is contrasted with a long list of

companies, which should be she, Amis on -- Mitsubishi, Hammers on -

- and was on, who have invested in Scotland. All eyes will be on the

autumn statement. It is very important, by George Osborne, on

Tuesday next week, giving revised growth figures. It is likely he is

going to say it will be a long and hard task to get debt down.

The Scottish Government has taken steps to protect freedom of

expression under plans to tackle religious hatred. The move came as

a bill to prevent violence at football games passed its latest

parliamentary hurdle. An update from the Scottish Government, today

they have announced new funding for community-based education

initiatives to tackle sectarianism. It is an attempt by the Community

Safety Minister to demonstrate the government is interested in

tackling the wider issue of sectarianism as well as threatening

behaviour associated with football matches and indeed, online, Terry.

Those issues are the focus of the controversial legislation passed at

the scrutiny staged here at Holyrood yesterday, but not without

amendment. Let's talk more about that with these members of the

committee looking at legislation. In what way is the build different

following the changes? There have been some changes. A lot of people

express eight freedom of expression issue. That was brought forward. On

top of that, a requirement for a review after two seasons to see how

the legislation is being enacted and the effect and evaluation of it.

On top of that, an undertaking to widen the second offence to cover

all protected categories of the qualities shirt. Does that make it

palatable to Labour? This bill is still riddled with confusion and

even if you take specific amendments passed yesterday, the

freedom of information clause only applies to section 5 am not to the

offensive behaviour part in section one. -- and not. That leads to

confusion. The review section, which is at to football seasons,

people were looking for a shorter period. Serious concerns remain

both in the Parliament and in the country. If there are serious

concerns and you are genuine in raising them, why did you not bring

forward amendments yesterday? Why did you sit on your hands and

abstain in the business of the committee? Labour interrogated

robustly the bill as a stage to evidence was heard -- as stage two

evidence was heard. I have not had any meeting with Roseanna

Cunningham since June. I have tabled twenty-one parliamentary

questions asking what meetings the Minister has held. If the

government was serious about getting support for this bill they

would have built their consensus. The First Minister said he wanted

all sides to back this. Why has he and other ministers have failed to

build that? He decided to withdraw amendments to continue dialogue. He

is someone who is not convinced but he is prepared to engage in

dialogue. James Kelly says he has tabled parliamentary questions but

yesterday he sat on his hands for two hours without asking a single

question to the Minister in front of him. That is not constructive or

building a consensus. We are prepared to listen. What is it

about this build my you cannot support? What are the key flaws's -

- floors? There is existing legislation in place which we have

seen used effectively over the summer. Yesterday it was shown

there have been 400 convictions in the last year for religiously

aggravated offences. We see adequate legislation in place. In

terms of the bill, one of the central problems is that the

Minister has been unable to explain what would be an offence under the

bill. They are looking for the police and prosecutors to fill the

gaps. Some offensive behaviour would be acceptable, Mr Yossel has

said. -- Yusef. He is not giving me an opportunity to persuade him of

the case. A third of the statistics were related to football and

offensive behaviour. You have not even touched on that. People do not

elected to come to this chamber and say nothing. That is the problem

with the party. Only 13% related to the Football season. They were

prosecuted. People do not accept -- expect MSPs to turn a blind eye to

legislation which will be passed which would make a bad law and make

the situation worse. We have been making the case constructively over

the weeks. Not constructively at all! It is clear that consensus has

broken down in the Parliament and the country. The Parliament was --

must rebuild the consensus. Are you going to make fresh efforts to

bring Labour on board? The door is always open. I do not know if James

Kelly has approached the Minister. Is there something by you can say

that might persuade James Kelly? -- that you can say. We are being as

open about the legislation as possible. Come forward with

amendments, let's see what we can add and clarify the confusion that

exists. This legislation has not been completed. There is a final

stage when the whole chamber will debate the merits or otherwise of

this bill and then take a final vote before Parliament breaks for

Christmas. At Holyrood this morning the

economy committee were taking evidence on the state of Scottish

tourism. As you would expect from a sector that contributes a lot,

there was talk from the chat -- about the challenges ahead. MSPs

were asking hotelier's if we can benefit from the Olympics. --

I think the Olympics will be a challenge. It has always caused

problems. As for the Ryder Cup, it is how we do it and how we tried

and extend holidays each side of it, and how we inspire people to see

Scotland as the home of Gulf, so we have opportunities but also a

threat. In my view, there will be less of a general leisure business.

It will be more people who want to see the Olympics. We should not

accept that there will be less of an inbound tourism. Perhaps the

marketing approach should be to say to other parts of England, 78 % of

our business comes from the UK, so we should concentrate and perhaps

the south-east of England and saying to them, if you wish to

explore Scotland at this time, this is the best opportunity will have

to do so. The focus shifted to whether it is beneficial to have

London as the travel hub for Scotland, and the role of training

was discussed. Maybe we have it wrong. Maybe we should look at some

of our European partners and say, that is the way to do it. If

they're going to have this punitive tax, customers will avoid it. We

want Connectivity, fast trains and airlines that connect. Heathrow is

under threat. People coming out of higher or further education are

generally not fit for purpose, and one thing we try to do his farm --

form links with colleges and universities to make sure there is

a programme which is greater than the normal one week's work

experience programme. There were calls from the Highlands for a more

joined up approach. We have three very different destinations here.

We have destinations a length and breadth of the country. There is a

feeling we do not have a coherent strategy. Calls for change on

broadband and mobile phone coverage. We are finding it extremely

difficult to communicate to that changing customer. We are working

with one hand, and with both hands in some areas, tied behind our

backs. There is a lot of conversation about broadband roll-

out. We would like to see the target brought forward. I think the

targets are particularly lazy. We watch to see mobile in there.

Looking to the future, Edinburgh believes their growth will be

centred around the festivals. are looking at how we create a year

round market. We have a significant break with our festivals. -- we

have a significant peak with our festivals in August, particularly.

It is important that we do not forget we have a year round

cultural excellence. We should use the first was as a lever.

Scottish Government has a target to increase tourism by 50 % by 2015.

This was questioned. The number of trips was over 7 million in 2006. I

come back to the question, the target is not achievable. I suspect

if you look at any industrial sector in Scotland or the UK or the

world, a 50 % growth target in three years is a huge ambition. It

said as an ambition to go for. latest from the economy committee.

Let's pick up on some issues. John Curtis is still here. Let's look at

the new referendum row. Can he Alexander waded into that. It is

ongoing. -- can he Alexander. are two parts to this. The

opposition parties saying they once the referendum sooner. I think if

Mr Salmond was to take them up on the offer, they would be somewhat

scared. There is not much semblance of much in the wake of a united

campaign. Some people want them to go away and think about it. I am

not sure that that is what this referendum particularly airless.

The allegation that the prospect of the referendum is beginning to

damage Scotland's economy, the Chancellor has not brought up much

of the work of detail, but it is an illustration of the issue of

whether or not Scotland will be worse off under independence.

week is a big week. We have George Osborne's statement on Tuesday. The

big strike in a generation on a Wednesday. Again, the economy

dominates. The Autumn Statement will be crucial for a couple of

things. The Government will probably have to admit it will take

longer to get rid of the deficit. The problem for most people is not

the size of the deficit, it is the fact that unemployment is rising as

a result of the fact that we have relatively low growth. But also a

maze -- that also means little in the way of rising living standards.

I think the Government really has to worry that by 2014, 2015, the

public will say, we have had the pain, now where is the game, and

the Government will be in trouble. I think the Government will have to

admit they are not getting the growth they wanted. The following

day, those public sector strikes. They meant to be about pensions,

but I think in truth it is about the public sector expressing

concern about the pain it is suffering more generally, the

public sector pay freeze and the pensions. Also, fewer jobs. It is