vote on there why should laws be made in brussels that apply to people in the united kingdom or in scotland if it's independent when the people of scotland in the united kingdom have never consented to surrender their sovereignty to a bunch of bureaucrats in brussels ok i can if you want to go you want to answer one of those questions or both is a completely separate to b. i mean some of the things that are being mentioned here are complete annoyance assimulate to please those 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 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 be an equal nation among all 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's been and i don't know if he's keeping in touch but talk of a central planning. no political party in the uki 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 that professor is completely out of touch with 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 does he see the silly seriously think we're going to suggest or. to police commissioners or gold and give our. people who is this guy on your reasoning well you know william i view it in a way to william here what about. the reverse direction here is when you know.

english themselves are not so wound up about this issue i mean obviously the scots are but there's a lot of it i wouldn't say indifference 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 lost last week but i think there is 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 an independent scotland game with an independent it's going to magically state it would have to go to rebut it would an independent counsel appointed how it would have to be

a member of the european union i would imagine it was a real exception process and why it's already in it there's a huge difference it's already you've got about it already in the euro i mean if you look at a work on the high and very high and book of scottish independence by joseph martins he expresses dough if you look at over here is how it was one of the s.n.p. his favorite economists well i'm surprised you're one of the first ministers favorite color missy relies on him to back a bit ahead of you so i don't know innocent and that's always said this alleged time easy i mentioned i've never had it i've never seen it ok well this is complete you know it's. become so let me buy a copy today again it would well if you were to blame the it in for some paranoia. all right croatia is showing up to go into the single currency as part as conditions for entry latvia is joining the euro we haven't already seen that is the possibility we're not in the possibility that 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 i'll be in scotland ok david what do you think about it is rubbish ok i'll go to you and i get the scottish people vote on this but are you already in the out here and you'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 that you can see prisoners of war and can rule people without their consent for their supposed that own good why are the scottish people 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 their what are rightly these are issues and you did a. poll and the it was one nine hundred seventy five. you know these issues are decided let's learn. parties who stand their parties who stand who

want to take britain out of the european union and they are humiliated 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 business going to elect today. ok to kind of go ahead jump in with scala needs of voice so needs a voice in the european you know it's preposterous but luxembourg which is lying through is able to send someone to the council of ministers to talk about stretching and strong is a huge fishing industry and yet we're not ready to be presented and to suggest really that scotland would be an exception in c.c. and we can use you can see any nonsense says professor milner well kenny sailed i think that kerry 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 in the 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. me here and what you surely. must know not just me but if you're in here union is signing up to the common fisheries policy kate i want to i'm going to be a shooting 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 are 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 pointed 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 your responsible great government that has led the country to ruin so

i'm surprised that both jane are so determined about how they are 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 us i think i'm forty seven independence has been forty seven independence referendum. forty five forty two have been been won by the party of independence because people want to vote for something positive and something negative of the five that were lost montenegro and multiple it for

independence subsequently a few years later i believe twenty years from no wonder all the fuss was about the fifty one members the united nations and one thousand nine. hundred ninety three we want to go into one hundred ninety four from play along 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. news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. trying to corporations rule the day.

you seeking to impose tougher economic sanctions on syria's government after failing to boost pressure on president assad the u.n. draft resolution that was blocked by russia and china. russia's foreign minister calls the western reaction to the double veto indecent and hysterical ahead of a trip to damascus aimed at finding a political solution to the ongoing crisis. plus ensuring greater political involvement through the for the people through the internet prime minister pulling out plans to upgrade russian democracy a day after massive protests and pro and anti-government protests sweep the country . and pressure on all fronts the greek coalition government in deadlock over

adopting new austerity measures needed to secure a second bailout while the e.u. says time for a deal is running out for. eight pm in moscow i match reza good to have you with us here on r t our top story the e.u. and u.s. want further toughen sanctions on syria in a bid to crank up the pressure on the country's regime that is in came after russia and china veto the latest u.n. draft resolution on syria moscow and beijing say the wording took sides in the conflict as it solely blame the government for violence without mentioning armed extremist groups in syria opposition leaders claim at least fifty people killed in a fresh wave of attacks by the army on the city of homes the government denies to be assaulted amateur footage showing the alleged shelling can't be verified as r.t.

sara for a throw ports an absence of credibility in video evidence from the country raises questions as to what exactly is going on there just a warning you may find some of the images in this report disturbing. and social networking sites have for the past ten months been one of the activist he means of offering the world glimpses of the violence that's torn through syria activist groups report how we got the brick through and we've just seen pictures which the b.b.c. called verify to say many differing numbers and reports getting to the bottom of what's really going on is a major challenge even from inside the country. that if. you're writing a. head of 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 they 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 of the objectivity we've been filtering you how can you justify for instance you on the people relying on you tube and broadcasting one side even though or even on you tube 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 supporter being hanged with a clear picture of exactly what's happening in syria right now it's hard to know what the western allies that the. and basing their assertions oh and this is not really about human rights and democracy this is all about regime change dissatisfied with the wedding at the resolution special in china the latest proposal many felt it contained disturbing a case of libya pressuring china believed to do rape in the foreign military intervention as a conflict between the two sides as the crisis in syria is becoming increasingly internationalized but any measures in place limit poll to try to put an end to the violence the going to have to be very careful not to make the same mistakes made in libya. looking like.

indecent and hysterical that's a russia's foreign minister characterized the criticism by some western countries of the russia china double veto sort of lavrov was speaking ahead of his upcoming visit to damascus where he's scheduled to meet with syrian authorities tuesday or he's peter all over has more. this was continuing on from that the sitting by china and russia to veto the recent un resolution on syria from moscow sergey lavrov saying that russia had asked the u.n. security council to delay the vote for several days in order to allow mr leavitt off to complete his trip to damascus now they were that request were turned down by the u.n. security council so he left off heading to damascus on tuesday bearing with him a message from president commute premed get every message that's believed to quest the assad government make strong democratic changes in the country now the foreign ministry very unhappy about this the russian government very unhappy in fact going

as far as to call it disrespectful to allow the not allow 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 the session 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 that 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 people here in a foreign minister he said that he was scathing in his response to those comments made from abroad some western comments on the outcome of the u.n. security council syrian resolution vote sounded decent and almost hysterical in this connection i recall the old saying that those who are angry are really right

why does hysterical statements attempts are being made to blur what is really happening in syria and what's really happening is that there are several sources of violence in syria not just one it seems that the resolution cool authors who rushed the vote despite the odds are more interested in simply finding somebody to blame drawing attention away from the armed group. there are receiving weapons and other kinds of encouragement from abroad but with regards to why russia vetoed that resolution over the weekend while 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 are concerned the resolution was on the table only focused on the government forces and didn't make any requests on 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. charlie lackland political hours from the institute for democracy

and cooperation says the countries pushing for regime change in syria are also pursuing goals that why beyond just this middle eastern country it's part of their general program of regime change across the middle east of course behind syria there is the 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 we have a target syria targets iran as soon as the international community starts to get involved even even politically never mind by sitting in bombers or 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 political or military and it weakens as it were the government position really strong from stand

. back in against the government so foreign intervention can make things worse because it distorts the natural mechanisms which exist in any countries resulting in a conflict of this kind. well still ahead this hour on r t a whistleblower nominated for a peace prize a u.s. soldier accused of releasing secret files to wiki leaks now on a list of candidates for the prestigious nobel award we talk with one of the people behind his nomination plus. anders breivik appears in court sharing shocking comments survivors look on in disbelief. but first with less than a month to go before russia's presidential vote emotions are running high as the campaigns shift up a gear following a dead demonstrations in the country a prime minister and presidential candidate putin continues laying out his electoral program this time it's about web democracy with a initiatives allowing people to suggest their own laws online are going off as more of the main idea of the sort of 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 internet users in russia who over the past few years have become very active. stewards of blogs and forums and videos of all internet lures political movements and all of them are going on on the web and the prime minister wants to see the role of the internet and its influence increase more user friendly government websites to provide proper basis for public discussion and not only on initiatives put forward by the states any person any internet user has to be able to put

forward their own draft law and if it gains c. 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 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 substituted but let's move the web aside for a bit and focus on other initiatives like reintroducing the elections of local governors was initially put forward by the president supported by the prime minister now another initiative in this sphere is easing the rules for registering new political parties which should make way for more competition now this brings us to another problem of corruption and the prime minister is proposing to increase the salaries of 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 they're aiming for civil servants because these positions are often viewed as possibilities to make easy money quick and according to the prime minister. it's time for that to change as well. remember you can always find more on our web site r t dot com on line right now the kremlin wants a more competitive approach to politics in russia president medvedev says the country needs a strong liberal party to break the mold of the current politics more highlights of what he had to say all there for you at r.t. dot com. plus the man behind the mask the moscow street artist whose detail our work has and secret identity earned him the nickname the russian banksy after the british artist. plus three thousand meters beneath the sea russian scientists make a unique discovery and find out what it is they found in its impact on the future

of science by clicking on our web site r t v dot com. the greek prime minister is struggling to get coalition party leaders to buy into a harsh new international bailout terms talks have now been postponed till tuesday this is pressure mounts on athens with the european commission spokesman saying the deadline is already passed the country must now accept even more painful cus of its to get one hundred and thirty billion euro second lifeline from international creditors if the deal fail falls through greece is expected to default by the end of march you know for more on this i'm joined by trevor evans a professor at the berlin school of economics and law so greece is facing an ultimatum now make cuts or no cash injection what outcome do you see from this deadlock well but the moment it's

a very close play that putting great pressure on greece to make these cuts greece is having enormous political difficulties in making the cuts but furthermore if they do many of these cuts is going to drive greece into an even deeper recession which means it will have even less money to meet its foreign debt repayments. do you think greece should be given another lifeline by proving itself to be after proving itself to be an unreliable creditor greece will never be able to pay its debts back if you drive it into a deep deep recession the only possibility of greece but also portugal or ireland repaying their debts is if they get long term financing that means that they can begin to invest in projects that have a future that are based on skilled labor not on cutting wages and driving the country into a recession and the german chancellor is once again confirmed today that she wants greece to stay in the eurozone at the same time recent polls suggest more than half

of the german people wanted to leave the euro zone why do you think the discrepancy in the country's thinking well the german leadership is definitely committed to the project of a common currency and strengthening of the european union the problem is that the german government has over the years continually stressed a very conservative view of fiscal orthodoxy and the result is now that when some countries don't meet that they the government has been telling the german people you must make cuts you must you must cut back on public spending so that people in germany have been told that the countries that don't follow this are on the wrong track now what's your view in general of the e.u.'s austerity policy do you think it's the right approach i'm sorry i didn't hear that question that's ok i'll ask it again do you think the e.u. is austerity policy in general is the right approach. definitely not i mean the

problem in the euro area is not fiscal deficits fiscal deficits are a result of the crisis that we've had in europe that began in the united states and governments in the europe were forced to bail out the banks in europe it caused a deep recession in europe which meant that governments had to pump money into the economy to stop the recession in the deeper the recession led to a fall in tax revenue that the fiscal deficits in the euro didn't cause the crisis they are the result of the crisis so focusing on fiscal deficit as the german government is doing as the german government is forcing the e.u. to do is forcing on the symptom and not the underlying cause of the crisis but finally president sarkozy urged greece's political leaders to agree to reform saying the crisis must be solved quote once and for all but do you think this is a realistic proposition to find such a once and for all solution to this the fundamental problem is that they introduce

monetary union without having a fiscal union and a common wage policy that with ten years of euro massive imbalances built up in europe germany built up a massive trade surplus of two hundred billion euro the countries of southern europe greece spain italy and portugal built up deficits of between one hundred fifty to two hundred billion euro that failing to deal with those imbalances is that the root of the problem and that's the european union and mrs merkel and president sarkozy address this problem they will not get to grips with the crisis all right trevor evans professor at the berlin school of economics a law thanks for your time you're welcome. the name private bradley manning a u.s. soldier accused of passing classified material to the whistle blowing web site wiki leaks has consistently made it into headlines mostly in connection with his trial but now his name is on a different list that of more than two.