ever since john boehner started back in the olden days of jamming having elites jam it down on the public and they're all the elites have been consistently terrified of allowing referendums help out our scottish national party friend if the scotland achieves independence will you allow the people of scotland to vote on whether to stay in the european union and ask our labor party friend why the let the people of scotland vote on there and why not let the people of the united kingdom as a whole vote on that 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 be i mean so many things that have been mentioned here are complete annoyances in l.a. to police i've been in politics for three years six to view the sixteen of those in the late to do it is in of and i've 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 an equal nation among all of the see the united nations on an equal police and the european union in terms of related health boards we 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 talking about central planning. no political party in the u.k. is in favor of central planning as he puts it all the 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 of taxation your social security system pain sions you know that is independence of having a rule and the world i mean do you see the silly seriously think we are going to suggest all of somalia to police commissioners of all gold and give all. but who is this guy going to go on with william i view it anyway to william here what about when it was how i asked the reverse i said here is when you know you 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 way or people will end up with an independent scotland game with an independent it's going to magically state it would have to go to rebut it with 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 downside it's already you've got about that it's already in the euro i mean if you look at. a work on the hard very hard and book of scottish independence by joseph martin's he expresses 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 very very caught him as he 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're going to. become saluted by a copy today of kenneth wood well if you mean the it in for some paranoid. all right croatia is showing up to go into the single currency is 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 say not 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 aren't you already in the european union there. 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 of the us the prisoners of war 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 has ever asked them to vote on that what are rightly these are issues. and the it was one nine hundred seventy five and 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 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 business going to relate to any pieces ok 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 and scotland is a huge fishing industry and yet we're not allowed to be presented and to suggest really that scotland would be an exception to the scene we can use you can see is the time any nonsense is professor. of that 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 fight 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 don't seem to be able to install the united kingdom through the usa i think it was going to end well that when the tories win a tory saying is up to you but i jolly the. fashion industry for will but you

remember. jimmy let me hear what you surely. must now know it's just me but if you're in here union is signing up to the common fisheries policy i want to be a shooting anymore so i don't want to talk about an issue any more i want to talk about an official of the european union david bang 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 as 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 response of 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 you informed people will do the referendum in two thousand and fourteen and we'll be in the us i think i'm forty seven independence has been forty seven independence referendums that only 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 in montenegro and more to avoid 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 clear out all the 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 at the scene next time and remember.

seeking to impose tougher economic sanctions on syria's government after failing to boost pressure on president assad through a u.n. draft resolution blocked by russia and china. russia's foreign minister calls western reaction to the veto indecent and hysterical ahead of his trip to damascus which is aimed at finding a political solution to the ongoing crisis. ensuring greater political involvement for the people through the internet prime minister putin laying out plans to upgrade russian democracy a day after mass for a way to anti-government rallies sweep the country. and pressure on all fronts the greek coalition government deadlocked over adopting new austerity measures needed

to secure a second bailout while the e.u. says time to bring deals with running out for after. midnight in moscow i matter as a good to have you with us here on r t our top story the e.u. and u.s. want further toughening sanctions on syria in a bid to crank up pressure on the country's regime the decision came after russia and china vetoed the latest draft resolution of the u.n. 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 have been killed in a fresh wave of attacks by the army on the city of homs the government denies the assault amateur footage showing the alleged shelling can't be verified as r.t. sara for a hordes and absence of. credibility and video evidence from syria raises questions

as to exactly what's going on in the country a warning you may find some of the images in this report disturbing. video and social networking sites have for the past ten months been one of the activists the means of offering the world glimpses of violence this tool in three syrian activist groups reports how we got the brick through and we've just seen pictures which the b.b.c. called verify the same many differing numbers and reports getting to the ball some of what's really going on is a major challenge even from inside the country. you gave the order if they think. you're right you're a. head of the u.n. security council showdown this weekend and the violence in syria seemed to reach fever pitch with activists reporting a massacre in homs that was all of the headlines and watched with horror by people

worldwide initially the death toll that night was put over two hundred you say there could be as many as two hundred dead just in the last hour or two with that with latest 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 have never banned the media by the way. because 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 is the phrase of the can has been pretty fast this graphic video of his. show everett. being hang with me clear picture of exactly

what's happening in syria right now to know what the western allies that the way and basing their assertions own is not really about human rights and democracy this is all about regime change dissatisfied with the wedding at the resolution especially in china vetoed the latest proposal many felt it contained a case of libya pressuring china believes to do right the foreign military intervention as a conflict between the two sides as the crisis in syria is becoming increasingly internationalized but he misses and plays 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. so. indecent and hysterical about so russia's foreign minister describe the criticism

by some western countries of the russia china double veto sergey lavrov was speaking ahead of his upcoming trip to damascus where he's scheduled to speak with syrian authorities tuesday or he's peter all over has more. this was continuing on from the system by china and russia to veto the recent un resolution on syria from moscow for off saying that russia had asked the un 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 the level of heading to damascus on tuesday bearing with him a message from president commute premed get a message that's believed to question 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 with 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 connections i recall the old saying that those who are angry are really right why do you still recall stick with the terms 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 to vote despite the odds are more interested in simply finding somebody to blame drawing attention away from the arms group. didn't receive the weapons and other kinds of encouragement from abroad but with regards to why russia vetoed the resolution over the weekend well russia's position on syria has always been the same they condemn both sides both the killed 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 was on the table only focused on the government forces and didn't make 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. some perspective on this i'm joined by jim brann from the stop the war coalition joining me live from london so why do you think there was such a rush by europe and the u.s.

to put the resolution on the table even though russia had asked for a delay until minister lavrov met with the syrian government. i think they got the strong sense that. they would not actually russian and chinese support and they decided that there was probably no point in. delaying i think that probably because this. stretching of international law really the breaking point has been going on for a long time and i don't think it's surprising that russia and. had to veto it under those conditions now one of the reasons cited for blocking the resolution was the text didn't offer a chance for a dialogue between syria's conflicting sides why do you think the west denied the notion of those talks. we know for

example going back to two thousand and one we know that they want to rearrange the middle eastern region as a general thing and there's you know abundant evidence of that and we know that the intention to effectively overthrow the regime in syria goes back at least to two thousand and five when george bush gave the state of the speech so that i think things are becoming. clearer. and stones have to be taken. the us are suspended its embassy in damascus the u.k. has recalled its ambassador to syria why do you what do you think these actions signify. well clearly they're ramping things up the british foreign secretary said they wouldn't actually necessarily close the british embassy because it was good to have is on the ground whereas i think the united states has given the reason though of insecurity but i

don't think that that's probably the journey and i think that it's also simply an escalation and. there's a whole continuing. series of escalations of which these are just a part. of the recording of the ambassador. so far russia has taken most of the criticism from the west for the double veto but also china vetoed as well why do you think reacting to china's the decision has been less harsh. i think probably because. they see russia and china differently and if you attack them both equally you tend to create a united bloc so this discrimination is probably because they think that they can. take advantage of dividing the two countries. jim brann from the

stop the war coalition thanks for your insight. with less than a month to go before russia's presidential vote emotions are running high and campaigns shift up a gear following a day of demonstrations in russia prime minister and presidential candidate of lead in your putin continues to lay out his electoral program this time it's more about web shape democracy with initiatives allowing people to suggest their own laws online or he's eager piskun off reports. 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

internet users in russia who over the past few years have become very active there is scores 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 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 waiting for more competition that is 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 possibilities to make easy money quick and according to the prime minister. it's time for that to change as well. on our website the kremlin wants a more competitive approach to russian politics president medvedev saying russia

needs a strong liberal party to break the mold of current politics more highlights of what he had to say a click away at r t dot com plus three thousand meters beneath the sea russian scientists make a unique discovery to find out what they found and its impact on the future of science by clicking on our team dot com. president barack obama's been ordering new sanctions against iran hitting its central bank and giving us agencies the ability to freeze assets linked to tara on at the same time u.s. battleships are running naval drills off the country's east coast with a war game scenario reportedly depicting a potential conflict with the islamic republic let's get some discussion on this with here if you're able to school oriental and african studies joining us from london she's also representative of the campaign against sanctions and military

intervention in iran so we know where she stands in recent days not a single new threat has emerged from tehran and we see the u.s. president ordering new sanctions why do you think that is. it was not just the recent days where threat has emerged from iran iran has never actually threatened the us this is. policy has been always defensive but in terms of threats coming from the u.s. special it is distance is sanctions against iran central bank i think that they're mostly. directed for the mystic consumption in the united states as we get closer to the presidential elections in the u.s. we see that each side trying to see as being more as being tough. on and this is another move by president obama to satisfy. is rivals or the supporters of his campaign that he's actually taking

a tough stand with. the words continues claiming sanctions are targeting iran's controversial nuclear program tehran has those stepped up cooperation with the i.a.e.a. nuclear inspectors planning a new mission in a few weeks so why not wait for the outcome of the church before new sanctions. well the u.s. problem has never been about iran's nuclear program it's really as i said an excuse for for the u.s. to create more confrontation with iran and this is really sad to see that the u.s. is undermining the work that. fantastic work that the i.a.e.a. is doing with iran and iran itself is trying very hard to keep the environment professional in the face of the recent assassination of iranian scientists this really. was a big blow to the relationship between iran and. iran is trying to keep the environment professional in the face of public pressure coming from iran which

officials to be more strict with the so the u.s. is really undermining the. international organization of the i and if there is going to be any peace will they out of this conflict i is going to play a crucial role and it's not this shouldn't be on their mind or a response to the oil embargo iran has vowed to stop crude supplies to some states immediately not naming which ones they were you think we should expect from tehran in response to these fresh american sanctions. as i said i think design sions are more for america and the mess they can solve and i don't think that iran is going to be provoked into a reactionary position in this press are coming out from from the u.s. because if iran were to respond to every every threat that is coming from there we should have had ten times you know ten ten.