in brussels ok i can if you want to go you want to answer one of those questions are both of these is a completely separate to be i mean some of the things that have been mentioned here are complete annoyances simulate to please i've been in politics thirty three years six to sixteen of those in the late to do it resent of never had a single person come to me ask me for a lot to beating forward you seem to think i should be a focus of a political party i joined the s.n.p. because i want to go on to many cool nation among a lot of them to see the united nations on an equal police and european union in terms of related health boards were brought in a couple years ago i don't know where the professor has been i don't know if he's keeping in touch but talk about central planning. a new political party in the u.k. is in favor of central planning as he puts it all countries all the political parties are active in parliament and westminster and indeed holyrood actually believe in the mixed economy to one degree or another so i think it professor is completely out of touch with the viewpoint on these issues in terms of the european

union i think it's preposterous to suggest that if you're in europe somehow you know independent france notably did not send troops to iraq and independent scotland if we'd been in power would not have done so that's real independence not having nuclear weapons on your soil the decision not to have them is real independence having control over taxation your social security system pain sions you know that is independence of having a role in the world i mean do you see the silly seriously think we are going to suggest or have some early to police commissioners of more gold and give our. people who is this guy go on religion and william william i view it in a way to william here what about it what is the reverse direction here is when you know themselves are not so wound up about this issue i mean obviously the scots are but there's a lot of difference but it's not an issue that you have fire in your belly about or maybe i'm wrong ok i mean the average englishman is not overly worried about scotland staying in the united kingdom. i think there is

a sense in england of more particular english identity when i attended a really interesting discussion which the institute for public policy research organized into this the same mosque last week but i think there was great support for the united kingdom staying together still in terms of the e.u. i mean i must disagree i mean i think there are. three and a half million jobs that depend on us having a positive relationship with the e.u. one of the benefits that we have of being part of britain is that our relationship with the e.u. is stable and secure there is a great legal they will in one hundred people will win independence can win a game with an independent it's going to magically state it would have to go to rebut it would an independent counsel employers how it would have to be a member of the european union i would imagine it was a really exception process and why it's already in it there's a huge difference it's already huge doubt about that it's already in the euro i mean i've already look at a work on the hard very hard and book of scottish independence by joseph martins

he expresses dos if you look at the hughes how it was one of the s.n.p. his favorite economists well i'm surprised you're one of the first ministers favorite gautam is the relies on him to back a bit ahead of you so i don't know innocent that's always said this alleged time is you mentioned i've never heard it i've never seen it ok well this is completely. saluted by a copy today of kenneth wood well if you mean the interior some part of the union all right croatia. may opt to go into the single currency as part of his conditions for entry latvia is joining the euro we haven't already seen that is the possibility we're not in the possibility they're going through a recession process you lose the u.k. octo and in principle in the end you have to sign up as being part of the year i don't think up in scotland ok david what do you think about. ok i'll go to you and i get the scottish people vote on this but aren't you already in the how do you

know they're. already in the european union why would they have to re reply they are there for a vote that the scottish people devore voted on that professor baines rense a very good as a law when i was a law professor was a voluntary scholarship in criticizing the concept cross of the trust of emotion decide which is the city editor he's a us the principle that it was a nurse or can rule people without their consent for their suppose that only good why are the scottish people are good enough to vote on whether they're going to be ruled from london why don't they have the right to vote on whether they're going to be ruled from brussels nobody ever asked them to vote on that what was rightly these are issues and you did a. poll and the it was one nine hundred seventy five. you know these issues are decided it. was parties who stand their parties who stand who want to take britain out of the european union and they are humiliated to every single general election that happens so i think the vast majority of the british people want to stay within the european union we do have to reform the e.u.

look you're right it does have become more democratic we have to look at strange thing there was some people in the how is this going to relate today i mean. ok go ahead jump in with scala needs of voice still needs a voice in the european union it's preposterous but luxembourg which is lying through is able to send someone to the council of ministers to talk about and scotland is a huge fishing industry and yet we're not only to be presented and to suggest really that scotland would be an exception to the scene we can use you can see his attorney says professor milner well can he sell directly to that carriage in twenty five years ago. william guy had any you ought to look you ought to look at what the head of the scottish fisherman's federation betty armstrong has been saying in the last twenty four hours he has said that he's warned and filed that scotland going independent would mean that we would have fewer votes in the european council to discuss fisheries than estonia you've got the fishing industry worried about our

lack of influence we how do european you know voice and the more we all seem to be able to install the united kingdom through the usa i think it was going to end well that when the tories when it is up to you but i generally the. fashion industry but you remember. jimmy jimmy here where you. can just. hear union is signing up to the common fisheries policy i want to i'm going to be patient anymore so i don't want to talk about an issue any more i want to talk about a feature of the european union david thank go to you ok we have this issue with scotland we have an issue also in belgium where we have. a fragile state to say the least here what is the future we're going to see more states with with what we see is the european union and we are going to fragment even more and is that a good idea but maybe it is a good idea because it might be more democratic as you point out well but putting aside whether we say split belgium in half and then we can divide antwerpen in half

again to sort of recreate the previous division of germany able to a belgian version i think the e.u. has some long some short term stability problems because greece among others. it was well known to the euro krauts that the greece find great financial figures when greek came into the e.u. were absolute frauds and that the greek system was not sustainable and then finally the rest of the world has found that out and now you have the question about whether they're going to try to force ultimately the european central bank and the taxpayers of scotland and germany and the rest of the europe to bail out this praful get irresponsible great government that has led the country to ruin so i'm surprised that both jane are so determined at how they're going to keep scotland in the european union one way or another when this is an institution which in its free trade side has been very good i would say for all of europe but is based on lies

and fraud about the financial conditions of these welfare countries like greece which exist only because the workers in other countries have to work even harder so they can bail out the government workers in greece but i'm going to we're almost out of time we're almost out of time but i want to go do you keep hearing four million people with the referendum in two thousand and fourteen and will be in the u.s. senate before a seven independence has been forty seven independence referendums that only forty five forty two have been been won by the party of independents because people want to vote for something positive and something negative of the five that were lost montenegro in malta voted for independence subsequently a few years later i believe twenty years from now we're wondering all the fuss was about the fifty one members the united nations and forty there's no one hundred ninety three we want to go into one hundred ninety fourth and. will be

a chair in the general assembly for you many thanks to my guest today in denver edinburgh and in london and thanks to our viewers for watching us here r.t. see you next time and remember.

lucky mission and free accreditation free transport charges free. range month three per treif stereotypes freeze plug. the old free broadcast plug in video for your media projects a free media dog r.t. dot com. play. play

play. play . seeking to impose tougher economic sanctions on syria's government after failing to reduce pressure on president assad through a u.n. draft resolution that was blocked by russia and china. and russia the foreign minister calls western reaction for the double veto indecent and hysterical at the head of his trip to damascus aimed at finding a political solution to the ongoing crisis. also ensuring greater political involvement for the people through the internet prime minister bruited lays out a plan to upgrade russian democracy the day after mass protests and anti-government rallies reached the country. but the russian latvian minorities hopes for their

language to be officially recognised in the post soviet baltic state are marred by reports of intimidation being used to dissuade people from taking part in an upcoming referendum. live from our headquarters in central moscow you're watching r t with me and you so now it's four pm here in the russian capital our top story the e.u. is preparing to further toughen sanctions on syria in a bid to crank up pressure on the country's regime this is and came after russia and china vetoed the lie latest draft resolution on syria at the u.n. moscow and beijing say the wording took sides of the syrian conflict as it's only blame the government for violence without mentioning armed extremist groups in

syria opposition leaders claim at least fifty people have been killed in a fresh wave of attacks by the army on the city of homes the government denies the assault and amateur footage showing the alleged shelling cannot be verified there are two sara furth reports an absence of credit. realty and video evidence from syria raises questions as to exactly what's happening in the country. each video and social networking sites have for the past ten months being one of the activists he means and offering the world glimpses of the violence that's torn through syria actually his goods report how we got the brick through and we've just seen pictures which the b.b.c. can't verify the same many differing numbers and reports getting to the bottom of what's really going on is a major challenge even from inside the country. you gave the order if they think. the right you.

had is the u.n. security council showdown this weekend and the violence in syria seem to reach fever pitch with activists reporting a massacre in homs that was all over the headlines and watched with horror by people worldwide initially the death toll that night was put over two hundred there could be as many as two hundred just in the last hour or two that was later significantly downgraded strict access policies that have made it difficult for many foreign networks to get their correspondents into the country to collect evidence at the end of last year i leveled this criticism at the foreign minister's spokesman we've never banned the media by the way. because. we've been filtering a bit but you know how can you justify for instance you on the people relying on you to. broadcasting one side even though or even on you tube well you have also

atrocity committed by the elements it's true that to a large extent mainstream coverage of the pro-government can has been pretty sparse this graphic video appears to show every sheen supporter being had. obviously clear picture of exactly what's happening in syria right now hard to know what the western allies that the you were basing their assertions on was not really about genuine concern for human rights and democracy this is all about region change dissatisfied with the wording of the resolution especially in china veto the latest proposal many felt it contained disturbing a case of libya russia and china believed to do right the foreign military intervention as a conflict between the two sides as the crisis here in syria is becoming increasingly internationalized but any measures imposed from a player to try and put an end to the violence are going to have to be very careful not to make the same mistakes made in libya they seem to be backing one side was

increasingly looking like so so are the must get syria. well indeed for and hysteria about how russia's foreign minister described the criticism by some western countries on the russia china double veto sergey lavrov was speaking ahead of his upcoming trip to damascus where youth gadgil to meet with syrian authorities on tuesday our correspondent peter oliver listened in on the minister of commerce peter tell us more what exactly did foreign minister lavrov have to say ahead of his trip well this was continuing on from the system by china and russia to veto the recent un resolution on syria from moscow saying that russia had asked the u.n. security council to delay the vote for several days in order to allow mr lover off to complete his trip to damascus now they were requested only turned down by the u.n. security council heading to damascus on tuesday bearing with him

a message from president dmitri medvedev the message that's believed to request the assad government make strong democratic changes in the country know the foreign ministry very. and happy about this new russian government very unhappy in fact going as far as to call it disrespectful to allow the the vote to be delayed until. it completed that trip now. with regards to the comments that have been made from around the world following that decision by china and russia to veto the u.n. resolution we've heard condemnation from the united states from france from great britain the foreign secretary in great britain going as far as to say that this meant there was blood on the hands of those that had vetoed it well so very unhappy about these comments he was speaking at a press conference alongside the partner in foreign minister he said that he was scathing in his response to those comments made from abroad. and

you're through it was that so western comments on the outcome of the u.n. security council vote on syria sound indecent and almost hysterical in this connection i can't remember the saying that those who are angry are really right swifties historical statements attempts are being made to create a false picture of what is really going on in syria and what's really happening is that there are several and not just one source of violence in syria that should use but with regards to why russia vetoed that resolution over the weekend well russia's position on syria has always been the same they condemn both sides both the assad government and the the opposition and want them both sides to put down their weapons and come to the table for talks now as far as russia concerned the resolution it was on the table only focused on the government forces and didn't make any any requests from the the opposition to lay down their arms and as far as

russia concerned that's not acceptable when it comes to a u.n. resolution on syria. right peter our bring out the latest from the foreign ministry ahead of a visit by here to matthew thanks for that update. well let's continue to analyze the situation in syria john laughlin political analyst from the institute of democracy and cooperation now joins us on the line from paris thanks for being with us this latest announcement of a new batch of sanctions against syria western countries seem relentless in their efforts to press president also to go why do they want that so badly. well it's part of their general program of regime change across the middle east we've discussed on this channel on several occasions how the arab spring is in fact a program for installing pro western regimes across the arab world we've also discussed how of course behind syria there is the far more important target of the

wrong syria is one of iran's most important allies in the world and certainly in the middle east so you have a target syria targets iran but i think there's another element to this and i'm sure this is one that your viewers and your editorial staff are well aware of there's another target behind this these constant attacks on syria and that is of course russia herself. why have the western powers britain france and america repeatedly brought draft resolution as to the u.n. security council knowing that russia would not accept a russia and china would not accept and so gay lover of has said several times that he won't take sides and that the international community shouldn't do so in the syrian conflict the answer to that question in my view why if they brought these resolutions knowing that they would fail is precisely in order to paint russia in the eyes of the western public as supporting a bloody tyranny namely president assad's regime in syria in other words the very

drafting of these proposed resolutions is itself a diplomatic attack on russia as well as of course being as you say in your question part of an attempt to overthrow assad in syria. speaking of that criticism . at least they mainly been more criticized by the west the production the double veto which of course with a lot of beaten by china why does this reaction to china's the third and seem a little less harsh well don't you ask that because that's what i was going to say you're only have to see the truth that what i know of what i said in my first answer you only have to compare as you've asked me. to do in your question the attacks on china and the attacks on russia the attacks on russia are far more virulent and in particular of course it is singled out so you will often see demonstrators whether they're in syria or broad showing mr putin mr rose noted with bloody again hands you know as if to imply that mr putin was somehow involved in

the violence in syria. and the fact is that your sense of who's in announced his attorney intention of running for the presidency the west has been gunning for him and these attacks that we're seeing against him but not against hu jintao the president of china are part of the two problem strategy against putin. two problems i mean on the international level to discredit him at the international level by training him in supporting tyrants in the middle east and of course on the domestic level by betraying him as committing electoral fraud in order to win the parliamentary elections and possibly the presidential ones and as someone who as it were cracks down on dissent at home i'm referring of course to the protests in moscow so these are the two images that are being peddled not very vigorously in the western media against putin and the purpose of that of course is to make sure that he is as discredited as possible in the eyes of the western media by the time

he as everybody expects gets elected on the fourth of march back critics. in terms of russia and china who imposed impose the foreign involvement of course in syria we've been talking about critics are saying that they china and russia will have to bear the responsibility for further bloodshed is it fair to argue that our right same time you could say the same about western allies and what happened with the u.n. mandate in libya i totally absolutely agree with that and of the many remarks made by western politicians following the security council vote i thought that was one of the worst. it is of course true as you suggest in your question that intervention can itself make things worse worse and i think that's true not just of military intervention it's pretty obvious to me that in libya the military intervention made things worse in spite of what the western powers claimed the most conservative estimates of fifty thousand civilians were killed during the nato

operation and that surely far more than would have been killed even if the worst propaganda had been true about colonel gadhafi but the same is true of political intervention we saw we see lucas' loving the breakup of yugoslavia in ninety ninety one as soon as the international community starts to get involved even even politically never mind by sitting in bombers and troops even politically as soon as it starts to get involved in a civil. situation of civil unrest of this kind then the tables are tipped in favor of the rebels in favor of the rebels in the country in question. because those people think that they can rely on foreign support not political or military and it weakens as it were the government's position only strengthens them in the battle against the government so foreign intervention of both kinds can make things worse because it distorts the natural mechanisms which exist inside any

country for resolving a conflict of this kind right john lochlann institute of democracy and cooperation in paris thank you very much for your analysis there. was less than a month ago before russell's presidential vote emotions are running high and the campaign set up a gear following a day of demonstrations in russia prime minister and presidential hopeful that the america continues to lay out his electorial program this time it's more about west's a web site democracy with an assertive allowing the people suggest their own online r.t. the group can now has more. well the main idea of the sort of go is that civil society in russia has grown and developed and become much more active most importantly compared to say ten years ago and what comes to the state well it's a lagging behind at the moment people do want to be more active and have more influence on the political life and one of the mechanisms providing them with these

opportunities is the internet and this is not only about the tens of thousands of people who now take to the streets for this or that rally is about millions of interest users in russia who over the past few years have become very active there is stories of blogs and forums videos all internet wars between political movements and all of them are going on on the web and the prime minister wants to see the role of the internet is influenced increase more user friendly government websites to provide proper bases for public discussion and not only on initiatives put forward by the state any person any internet user has to be able to put forward their own draft law and if it gains say one hundred thousand approval signatures from other users it has to be reviewed by the parliament the internet also gives another opportunity to evaluate civil servants for example if locals of a district of any city are not satisfied with the way the head of the local police

department works or a judge or even a principal of a local school they have to be able to voice their concerns on the web be heard by the authorities so that the civil servants can be substituted but let's move the web aside for a bit and focus on other initiatives like reintroducing the elections off local governors was initially put forward by the president and supported by the prime minister now another initiative in this sphere is easing the rules for registering new political parties which should make waiting for more competition for them now this brings us to another problem of corruption and the prime minister is proposing to increase the salaries. civil servants in exchange for their complete transparency and put together a list of the most corrupt jobs and it's in the ninety's many people wanted to become all the guards now there a need for civil servants because these positions are often viewed as possible used to make easy money and according to the prime minister. it's time for that to change as well. but tens of thousands took to russia streets in the election run up

. both for and against the government many is that it represented a third divide in public opinion but all i know is to me bob it's believed there's no real struggle between the people and since then the protests will have a positive influence on the country's politics it's mostly just emotions fueled by the media some people were obviously irritated seen the same two faces on television maybe to march in the last few months especially some people were terrified when they saw the opposition and its slogans and when they felt the hand of the west behind it so it's mostly media driven there is no real cost struggle behind it there are poor people and reach people in both radius there are people all kinds of ethnic groups in both threads so right now i think it's it's.