26/04/2012 Politics Scotland

A very warm welcome to the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood. First

Minister's questions on the agenda. It is sometimes hard to know what

is coming up but today it is clear what the opposition parties will be

seeking to question the first minister on, his relationship with

Rupert Murdoch. The opposition leader was hoping for a statement

today but he will have a chance today.

Thank you, anticipation is building here. Ministers are in general

question time at the moment and will welcome the High Commissioner

to Singapore. He is in the gallery taking applause from the MSPs.

Shortly, we will have the very first question from Labour.

Thank you, presiding officer. Can I ask the First Minister what

engagements he has planned for the rest of the day? Today for the

programme for Scotland. I will write again to the Prime Minister

in the light of the GDP recessionary statistics published

yesterday for the UK stressing the importance of going ahead with the

shovel ready projects from the north to the south-west of Scotland

to stimulate our economy and nourish hopes of keeping Scotland

out of recession. Of course but we would have welcomed if the First

Minister had used his investment of the first breach -- Forth Bridge.

After the uncharacteristic silence of yesterday, the first minister

last night finally alighted on a defence of his position to support

Rupert Murdoch's be to take over BSkyB. He says it is because it

would have created jobs in Scotland. Can he tell us why he first

articulated this you in public and how many jobs dig James Murdoch

promise him? The importance of the issue was first discussed, as we

know, from the e-mails are released on the 1st November 1920 10. The e-

mail that says that a Liberal MP, I think it was a liberal MSP, wanted

to take forward the importance of jobs and investment in Scotland to

the Secretary of State and they agreed with that position. Then,

Joanne Lamont will remember the correspondence I had with James

Murdoch last January which looked in particular at the prospect of

employment in Scotland, adding to their 6300 jobs at BSkyB in

Dunfermline and Livingstone. She will recall the announcement of a

further 100 jobs last March which added to the Livingstone total. I

hope that Joanne Lamont is also aware of the further significance

to jobs in Scotland because one of the issues discussed last year was

that BSkyB were moving from nine contractors took toucan tractors

and that carried with it the risk of major job losses -- reduced to

two contract is. One major contract was one leading to last week's

announcement and I will quote it. "Glasgow's newest employment - my

employers today officially opened a state-of-the-art contact Centre ate

in the city and vowed to bring 900 Dobbs to the Atlantic quayside".

The company announced last month they were coming to Glasgow after

expanding a contract centre to provide sales and support service

to BSkyB. I hope Joanna Monde will welcome these huge numbers of jobs

coming to Glasgow. I always welcomed jobs coming to my own city.

I also welcome when the first minister answers the question he

was asked. I wait for that to happen and perhaps it may happen at

some point in the future. The reason he cannot tell us when the

first time he articulated his view was because the first time here

articulated in public was last night when then -- when it was more

of an hour by their no reason. Rupert Murdoch's says he's back to

the first minister at to apologise for cutting jobs. Of course, not

everyone agreed with what the first minister now says, that the deal

would be goal for Scotland. I have here a motion to the Scottish

Parliament from 20th October 10 signed by their constituency MSP

for BSkyB's biggest Scottish base who is now the first ministers

employment minister, at a motion which opposes the deal. But MSP

policy had changed by November because we know from they've Fred

Mitchell e-mails that it was mission accomplished and the first

Edition busway first Minister was prepared to lobby on their behalf.

We know Alex Salmond had a call scheduled with the Culture

Secretary, Jeremy Hunt yet on July 13th last year, all six of Alex

Salmond's MPs at Westminster supported a motion to withdraw the

bid for BSkyB. If it was such a good job opportunity for Scotland,

as the first minister said last night, why did the first minister

support his own MPs in opposing the deal? Because that was after the

regulation -- revelations of phone hacking and Milly Dowler. The

interesting thing about Joanne Lamont and I can understand her

being -- not being fully aware of the importance of jobs, but why on

earth -- on earth is she not aware of the importance of jobs in the

city of Glasgow. What Rupert was referring to yesterday in his

evidence was exactly the point my first answer eluded two. The fact

that this guy a contract was going from nine centres to two centres

and that carried with it the risk last year of losing thousands of

Scottish jobs. Fortunately, the contract was one which led to the

opening of a call-centre and Supply Centre in Glasgow and 900 jobs to

the Atlantic quayside. One deputy whose constituency it is and who is

aware of those 900 jobs coming to their constituency... Joanne Lamont

said we published correspondence months ago which showed that the

meeting in London concerned the protection and expansion of jobs in

Dunfermline and Livingstone. Joanne Lamont may not think these things

are important but it is the job of a First Minister to advocate jobs

for Scotland and I will continue to do so. I don't think the first

minister listened to what I said. His own employment minister

representing Livingstone opposed the deal. His own MPs opposed the

deal and well come jobs -- i welcome jobs coming to Glasgow but

they have nothing to do with this issue or News International. The

first minister said that the reason the position changed was because of

Milly Dowler. The revelation that newt -- Rupert Murdoch's newspaper

hack Milly Dowler's phone was the doubt - might was the moment his

empire started to fall and yet after that devastating visit --

revelation, the First Minister became the any senior politician in

this country, perhaps the anyone in the wild, to invite him round for

tea. His newspapers might be being investigated for bribery,

perverting the course of justice, destroying evidence of perjury, but

Rupert was still welcomed and he writes an article at the launch of

his newspaper saying it wasn't just newspaper - I News International

but a whole of the industry so there may be three police

investigations going on and a judicial inquiry and nearly 50

arrests, but the kettle is still put on for Rupert. Doesn't the

First Minister realise that all he is achieving this to demean the

office he craved for for so long? remember writing the article and it

was followed the next week by Yvette Cooper who wrote an

interesting article indeed. I know the Labour Party would like to

pretend the days of courting the Murdoch press we're back in the

days of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Unfortunately, it doesn't fit with

the facts. William Shawcross, Rupert Murdoch's biographer wrote

that Ed Miliband was winning when I saw him talking to Rupert Mark debt.

-- Rupert Murdoch. Three weeks ago, and the Labour leader has admitted

he did not raise the issue of phone Hackett. Of course not, he was

trying to charm. It is like this picture of Ed Miliband advocating

the Sun and looking for at a -- support from the Sun declaring

"read aid is dead". I will stand and my his party will stand for the

mainstream of Britain for the Sun readers and their concerns. A new

set of policies will be ready. Read about it first in the sun. I think

this 15 years of worshipping at the feet of Rupert Murdoch from the

Labour Party and now treating him as a pariah, refusing to explain

the canapes... Refusing to explain the contacts... It people in

Scotland will see the Labour Party's words and think of humbug

and hypocrisy. I hate to think what they think of that performance. I

remind him again, Ed Miliband put down a motion opposing the deal.

The first Minister's own MPs also supported that deal. I'm not going

to ask the First Minister if he supported Murdoch so that the sun

supported him. But isn't the truth that this is not about the first

minister's evidence cynicism but his is -- his infatuation with very

rich men. First, he gave his office full backing to be events of Fred

Goodwin and the deal that broke the bank. Who can forget... Order!

sure this comes as much of a revelation to them as it came to us.

Who can forget, even without yesterday's reminder, the deal with

Donald chuck -- Donald Trump. Each case was secret, each deal was a

fiasco and in each case, the truth had to be dragged out of the first

minister. Big deals, big men, one quiet -- not quite so big man. No

jobs just job less is. He says it is about jobs but I think he just

likes rich men. Some say the first minister has been devious,

conniving, double-dealing. Isn't he just trying to cover up the fact

that a rich man has played him for a full again. Is it not the case

that he is no statesman, just a sucker? A reference to job losses

is a reference back to the first questioned I answered that Joanne

Lamont did not taking, the fear that they would be substantial job

losses as a result of the contra -- contract going down to two.

Thankfully, the contract was won and a 900 job call-centre has been

opened in Glasgow. She didn't realise an answer of for the second

question and now she repeats it in a pre-prepared 4th question.

Talking about Fred Goodwin, that We were bound by a deal that he

claimed had been made between him and Lord McConnell in the previous

administration. I think Johann Lamont should inform us that we are

not bound by the policies of the last administration and thank

goodness for that and Scotland. I will tell Johann Lamont one thing

that would be consistent with any First Minister of Scotland. And

that is that they would put the interests of Scotland first and

interests of jobs first. Now, how do I know this? Joe hafpb Lamont

was interviewed on Good p morning Scotland yesterday, and let me read

out the exchange - Gary Robertson, would you, if you were First

Minister, heaven forbid, be meeting Rupert Murdoch to be talking about

jobs in Scotland?" Johann Lamont, "well, you would have to meet

people to talk about jobs. And there we have it, the whole humbug

hypocrisy, the job of a First Minister is to advocate jobs for

Scotland. This First Minister will continue to do it.

The backbenchers giving First Minister thunderous applause there.

Now time for Ruth day Sidson, the Conservative Leader for her first

question. To ask the First Minister when he'll next meet the Secretary

of State for Scotland? No plans in the immediate future. Well, while

we are on the topic of New York- based well billionaires, the First

Minister was asked in January 2008 by the Local Government and

communities committee if he'd ever met prior to the previous December

any members of the Trump organisation. He replied that he'd

met representatives at the many estates on 24th September, 2007. No

mention of the Donald, no mention of candle-lit Manhattan dinners, no

mention of talking for hours on the favoured subjects of golf and

windfarms. That dinner occurred just three months before that

committee meeting. Did the first minister intentionally mislead

Parliament or did he just forget in the glory of supping with Murdoch

one night that he'd been supping with Trump the next? The idea of a

candle-lit dinner between Donald Trump and myself that, was a global

dinner in New York attending the event were the Alexander Real

Estates, the General Electric, the Head of Discovery Research,

McKenzie and Company, Morgan stafpbly banking corporation. It

doesn't sound the likely venue to be exchanging the commitments in

terms of our planning application five years down the road.

This Government have never taken any. The most significant thing in

terms of validating that potion is as follows: In February this year,

I wrote to him after receiving a number of letters from the Donald.

I had a phone conversation and was trying to work out the nature of

his ferocious opposition, not just apparently to offshore wind,

offshore Aberdeen, but wind power in jefpblt it would seem to be a

new phenomena. He accept head never had any commitments from this

administration, but he considered us bound by the commitment of the

previous administration. An issue sustain and maintained last week in

a BBC spweer view on the on on Sunday was it decided that a global

Scot interview was a moment when this commitment would be given. I

think that's rather unlikely. For the first time in our life, Ruth

Davidson's paid atopbgs the advice of Fraser and if this is the best

phrase Kerr do, I suggest she gets a new adviser -- paid attention.

-- Fraser can do. Why not tell the committee about it

three months later? The First Minister in his overweaning self-

regard never knowingly undersells what he knows or thinks to be his

political gifts and I don't think Mr Salmond himself thought he had

the stills to make Donald Trump look credible. We know that the

dinner that Alex Salmond failed to disclose to to the committee took

place and thank you for now admitting it. We know he talked for

hours about golf, we know they talked about windfarms. Is the

First Minister seriously asking the Scottish people to believe that

when a multibillionaire attracted to Scotland with great fanfare by

his predecessor was threatening to pull the plug as soon as he took

office, that he didn't like some latter day Arthur Daly tell his new

best pal that he'd get it sorted, something here stinks, Presiding

Officer. Will the First Minister set the record straight and state

categorically before this chamber that no such discussions on the

planning or on the windfarms took place. No assurances were ever

given in that light, but I think to get the time line right, Donald

hasn't been threatening to pull out of the estate until the last few

months. There's been a variety of reasons given for his, not decision

to pull out of the golf course, the development which looks by all

accounts absolutely wonderful, but first of all, it was Michael for

bs' croft which was the reason for not having the development. --

Forbes. Only recently have we alighted on the Government policy

of energy. If she cares to check the record, that wasn't the

position of the Trump organisation in a letter they wrote a year or so

ago. I was struck by this thing about

credible. I only saw the excerpts of the evidence session yesterday

but I was struck by the question when Donald Trump was asked, what

is the evidence for this great difficulty of Scottish tourism and

he says, I am the evidence and, I have to say, it struck me not so

much as credible, a bit like the Judge Dread view of tourism in

Scotland. I think people in Scotland when they look at this

issue will look at jbs -- jobs and development. They'll see the

announcements today from the Murray Firth and see the prospect of

28,000 jobs in offshore wind and it will be a shame on the Conservative

Party of Scotland that while their colleagues in London are supporting

such developments, Ruth Davidson and her colleagues don't want to

see these developments and these massive jobs in green energy in

Scotland. A supplimentary question from

Willie Rennie. The leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats. I hear

what the Scottish First Minister says about Milly Dowler, so does he

regret the terrible article in the Sun where he played down the role

of Rupert Murdoch's papers in phone hack something is he ashamed that

he put his political motives above those of the phone hacking victims?

Well, my opposition revulsion about phone hacking has been on the

record many times, I can supply that. I supported the establishment,

the Leveson Inquiry, indeed we had to comment on the terms of rfrpbs

of the Leveson Inquiry. I think the aspect for phone hacking will be

fully dealt with at the inquiry and hopefully dealt with by the police

force and the judicial system on both sides of the border. I have to

say to Willie Rennie, if given the evidence coming before Leveson,

particularly the insight from ITN just a few weeks ago of the extent

of the payments made by a number of news organisations in terms of

investigators for suspected breaches and criminality, I really

think one of the things I'm certain is going to come out the Leveson

Inquiry is there were widespread malpractice and widespread

potential illegality across the press. That seems to me evident and

I hope and believe that Leveson will pursue that without fear and

without favour. Question three, Patrick Harvie.

I ask the First Minister when a decision will be made on the

European offshore wind deployment centre? As the responsible Minister

for Energy, enterprise and tourism will make a decision on the wind

deployment centre based on plan legislation, he'll do so once

there's been a thorough consideration of issues concerned

with the application. Can I say that the fact and the constituency

MSP means that I will not be determining that application and

all comments on the matter should be taken in that light.

Thank you. Now that my favourite part has left the stage for now, I

hope the First Minister is coming to regret having been drawn so

easily into Mr Trump's orbit and finding himself now with a half

built carbuncle in his constituency and a billionaire threatening legal

action against a vital demonstration site for offshore

wind power. This Parliament's committed itself to fighting the

climate change Trump doesn't believe in and securing the lower

carbon energy supply Trump doesn't care about. Can we rely on the

Scottish Government and on the First Minister to treat the

windfarm proposal with the seriousness it deserves, defend it

vigorously in the courts if it comes to that and take no delay in

telling Mr Trump where to get off, kicking him out of the global Scot

network would be a good start? I thought I was going to agree with

everything Patrick was going to say in asking this question, so let me

first start with a point of disagreement. By all accounts, by

every account, the golf course which is emerging looks absolutely

tremendous and I don't think that's a reasonable description to make of

it. However, the point that I made to the Scottish Trade Union

congress this week is the one that pertains. We welcome investment in

Scotland. It's absolutely vital to have investment across the range of

technologies, of industries, and I think golf course investment is a

very valid thing as well. The issue now is not just investing

in Scotland, but whether that confers ownership of Scotland and

just because somebody invests in a project, doesn't give it the right

to say everybody else's project cannot go ahead. Other people's

projects, including the offshore demonstrators, need to be assessed

in the proper manner and I'm certain the Minister of Energy will

do that according to his duties and responsibilities.

On the generality, two things I would say. Anybody here that

doesn't know my position and advocacy of the potential and

wealth of renewable energy in the marine sector in Scotland hasn't

been paying much attention to Scottish politics over these last

few years. I think there's the most extraordinary potential to see the

reindustrialisation of vast areas of this country around the ports of

Scotland, the research and development, the engineering, the

installation and the servicing of these new machines which will power

much of the next century and an essential part of the future of

this country. Can I ask the First Minister what

steps the Government is taking to address concerns raised by the STUC

regarding youth unemployment? I was very pleased to address the

STC congress in Inverness on Tuesday. I set out to the

Government has taken to support youth employment work which has

been supported by the Scottish Trade Union congress. Angela

Constance is the only youth Employment Minister on these

islands, set out in his youth draft unemployment strategy the old

Scotland approach, and it's gaining substantial support this. Month, we

began the roll out of the opportunity force all programme

which guarantees to every 16-19- year-old school lever not already

in work, education or training, that they'll be offered a suitable

training or educational opportunity. The 25,000 modern apprenticeships

we now know reached over 26,000 in the last financial year and best of

all the success rate, completion rate for the apprenticeships

reached a record 75%. A huge amount requires to be done, but let's pay

regard to the substantial amount that is being done.

Thank you to the First Minister for his response. I'm also conscious

that the issue of female unemployment was one of the ones

raised by the STUC. I'm wondering whether the First Minister can give

us some insight into what the Government is doing on that

particularly first? The Scottish Trade Union congress would hope to

replicate the employment seminar which I think carried all sect oral

and all-party support and was considered by everyone as a

substantial success and pli that to a female summit. Even though

unemployment in Scotland has been falling and male unemployment has

been falling, female unemployment has been rising and is now

marginally above male unemployment in Scotland. The idea of that all-

Scotland approach applying it to finding jobs for women in the

workforce is fundamental. It's widely supported and in particular

gained a warm welcome at the STUC. Can I ask the nirs minister whether

the Scottish government would provide additional funding to

community protects to reduce reoffending? We have increased

funding since 2006-2007 by 22%, in the face of significant cuts by the

Westminster Government. With increasing funding for community

justice by two million in cash terms between 2010-2011 and 2013-

2014. We come to the close of our

coverage of First Ministers questions there, a day of two

tycoons. We had Labour and we had the Liberal Democrats asking about

the relations with Rupert Murdoch and similarly from the

Conservatives, from Ruth Davidson asking the about relations with

Donald Trump. On both occasions, Mr Salmond rebutting suggestions he

was too close and suggesting on each occasion his concern was for