friction yes many believe strength lies in the union as referendum begins in earnest focus is turning to the key players in the campaign the leaders the media. reach. will take the high road and rebuild haiti. we talk to. the first minister of scotland on his personal and political quest for sovereignty. aleksandr soundman the first scottish thank you very much for being with us today great pleasure to be to be here. so you have sat recently and this is the political union does not work for scotland . back and imperils our future what is so wrong with remaining within the u.k. . a democratic. fifty years old. if

for two thirds of my life scotland has not had the governments we vote for for two thirds of my entire lifetime scotland has voted in one direction england has voted in a different direction and because it was so much larger than scotland we end up with a government westminster which is not chosen by the scottish people so the first argument is the sense that democratic one that nations and scotland's a nation have a right to self-determination and the second argument is about what you do with that book of c. i think it's a pretty universal law anytime anywhere anyplace that the best people to govern the country the best people to choose how a country should be government of the people who live and work in that country i think that applies everywhere and i think it certainly applies to sculp well you're only fourteen months away from the referendum does it worry you a little bit that the majority of scots do not want independence from k. and for the last five years to polls haven't changed. well if it comes to opinion

polls when i was reelected to useable by an absolute majority in a proportional system as to the scope and the boat three months before the election i was twenty percent behind in the opinion polls i ended up almost twenty percent in front in the opinion poll so i think polls change and usually the change in our favor probably change the polls well as people get more information about this about the concept of the opportunity of independents than before yes how do we know this because if you pull the people who say we have enough information and we already understand the issues then by majority these people are voting yes so as we get more information out to the public of scotland then the trend will be there yes direction and would love to be twenty percent from here. probably would do i think

we're going to win the referendum yes we will think so absolutely we're talking about the positive sides in case scotland gets independence it would actually hold ninety five percent of you case current oil and gas reserves that is of course if that's divide it geometrically by mary d. and from the british. while the powers that be in london the old guard would ever allow that to happen but i believe are seriously contested the there's no choice basically because the rest of the norse the is divided on equidistance the principle that you. if you were to divide it incidentally by the covenant jurisdiction the legal jurisdiction because scotland has a sort of legal system that even more. would be ninety nine percent as opposed to ninety eight percent so the medium line has been the line for the rest of the countries of the north sea for norway for denmark but i would accept there is no choice but to do or not basis and that point is no longer seriously contested of

course there are. difficulties in terms because we will that's a great asset for scola enormous asset able and wholesale value worth one point five thousand thousand million pounds over the next half century or so but of course the liabilities of you know the u.k. is enormous national day of the if accumulated so we will have to accept provided of course we have a shared a facet. of the national debt so there are pros and cons but the balance of advantage is overwhelmingly on the independents and you know i've been traveling a lot around here up lately and talking to people especially in the central part of the western europe and people there fail back they hear a crisis that they would be so much better off alone without this the regulations and constrictions doesn't depend is really make much difference for scotland if it is part of you with or without. membership or i think

a seventy does mean i'm in favor of being part of the of the european union i think independence is about control of your finances control fewer resources in the case of oil and gas or a new bill resources in scotland but also control of your revenue if you control your revenue and therefore control your spending and how to distribute that revenue move the population then you are a genuinely independent country with independence which in the european union scotland would control one hundred percent all of its revenue base would decide how to spend its finances currently we have allowed control of less than ten percent of our revenue base in the scottish parliament therefore ten percent is not independence one hundred percent even independence within europe is independence well he want independent scotland to retain pound sterling right but if you continue to use currency without u.k. authority what scotland have a lender of last resort proposal is to have

a joint arrangement that had to have an agreed couple say union you know sterling is as much as couldn't see as it's been the bank of england was founded by a scot so we're going to see well indeed you know lots and lots of things of the world to be offended by scots but the point i'm making is the ship comes at the present moment doesn't belong to england it doesn't belong to george osborne the chancellor is part of the assets of the united kingdom but the point is quite simple we are prepared to take a share of assets and a share of liabilities in the way both these are huge but if of course he was to argue as he suggests he might we can have a share of assets of the common currency then by definition we don't have a share of the liabilities and the liabilities for the data can be huge and of course many international precedents for example the breakup of the soviet union will be newly independent countries did not by negotiation end up paying the national debt of the soviet union so the debt belongs to wonder. the present moment

if they are to persuade us to accept a share which we are willing to do the new only basis in which we'll do it is if we have a share of the assets as well you can't of one with the other because of the bond with a penny and that is why incidentally the after the yes vote for independence will be no difficulty from london about sharing a common currency adam burke is a case second largest city financially in case becomes independent could you see it challenge london is something you would like to say well i think there would be a very real possibility if england were to leave the european union. that is a live possibility there in the believe european union i think that the effect of england leaving the european union after scottish independence would be that many headquarter companies would move to scope i think would be very unwise for the good to leave the european union but you know that's a choice for the people of england to me that's their choice and their will judgement choice so you can see a circumstance where the financial sector would get more headquarters under the

circumstance but i should say this goes five sets a very strong and very able and particular in the things it does best asset management the long term investment trusts pension funds the long term investment or people's money or corporate money as opposed to the much more fanatic market driven. financial dealings of the of the city of london so to a great extent i should continue to do what we do best and that is to manage people's money carefully in long term investments and build up that special someone asset management which is proving so enormously successful this now with companies are measuring and growing like aberdeen asset management for example but any major political transformation such as becoming independent from the u.k. in your case really needs a lot of spending how much would it cost scotland to be independent how much will it cost once got to become independent it will be benefits scott mccaughey in the

pilot we listed the last five years just for example in the last five years scotland has contributed more by eight thousand million pounds sterling relative to london than we've received back again that is the the relative surplus between scotland and london. million poems as well. who won one thousand six hundred pounds of disco. and over the last five years every scoby one of those six hundred which. is not just about finance of course i mean the reason for scott becoming independent is not that would be richer the reason for scott becoming independent the scope of the nation the nation should be self-governing they govern the feels better than allowing someone else to do it for them but who was a balance sheet calculation that's very much in favor of scotia independence but can you tell me exactly what is difference between the devil marx and the in july that you're proposing but as far as i'm concerned note that most of the scots there

saying you know we're fine as long as there's more power to the scottish parliament within the u.k. plus when it control over taxation and welfare why go through so much trouble for much of the same not come because westminster won't see control over our economy and welfare they've said no to that if rejected they say this for a no for little they will not will not concede control over scottish. or major natural resources or will how to pursue the licensing for renewable energy which is we've got a quarter one quarter of the potential will remain renewable energy of the whole continent if you put in scotland and we don't have control over the licensing provisions for the amazing natural resource to london will not concede that that's why we've got a democratic opportunity to refashion relationship with london many things we're going to keep we want to control economy we want to decide on the government but we're perfectly happy with the union of the cones for example we want to keep the

royal family home the queen as head of state but then a much the queen as head of state sixteen countries at the present moment for scotland and that should be head to seventeen countries if we think about the history of scotland as scott with an england share the same monarch when the scottish king became king of england for one hundred years while scotland and england were independent countries for all of the seventeenth century scope in that they would work independent country. that shared the same monuc so that's a perfectly easy thing to do in the modern world did you see a lot of the queen as head of state as well and so we'll continue to share what is valuable and important the social union between scotland england so as people can travel freely between the countries can visit the friends and families that people from london can come and work and in shetland and people from scotland can go and work in newcastle all of that will stay and remain as it should but will have control over who government will have control over our finances and spend at least

things out of central. or talking to the first minister alex salmond here in scotland we're taking a short break now we'll be right back. facing the queen is running out of options as winter approaches with a crashing economy. it may be. a war but that they have already left the station. and i think.

series of explicit lisa tried to clear the players the people are going to be going into your life or it's your teaching everybody. plays. me. no weapon. my overlap like the heavy. lifting since the molten lead skis is mostly to blame sometimes for

nothing actually led this season and it's still it's not just any of the story it's still being jobst maybe you see a stage eight look to be to sleep but speech was still. sleeping gender trying to symbolize it the gender madness in swedish it could be near because i found this. project the finest with seventy thousand euro to investigate the trunk fence from a gender perspective. your c.v. is bizarre to see it more than the propaganda. that is the state sponsor of

russia today programme just words like c.b. and not like telling them in candlelight this. is just ridiculous not an answer to my question. johnny's not. supporting their safety and sometimes their lives all over the wall to bring people stories among the taliban the child don't want you to see and we told her some sleep. still. the. leg was terrible a leg very hard to take on the legs again the longer the club has never had sex with the target there's no legs let's listen. to some.

limited leg leg. length. of a. welcome back you're watching sophie and co and we are talking to alexander salmond the first scottish minister here in shetland isles scotland were talking about why scotland should get independence well talking about travelling freely if you guys

become independent as part of e.u. you would actually have to open your university doors to all the british students who now pay nine thousand pounds a year does this this is where you can see it can be kind of costly for scotland well we believe we can maintain the coming to arrangement we've got legal faced to that effect but i do still have more students coming to scotland think this year because of the policies of the scottish cup we have a record number of scottish students studying in scottish higher education a record number of english students fleeing the high fees studying in the scottish highlands education under record number of international students studying at scottish universities and colleges so we've got three records all in one year that's a great thing for scotland for scope reputation it's a great thing for the scottish economy so i'm not worried about having more students others to scotland but we can maintain a rage which was a powerful if we're at the present moment that's the advice we've got what do you

make of the recent claims that the u.k. defense ministry may simply designate their nuclear naval base and fresh as a certain u.k. territory in case of a yes well of all of the exercises and project feel that the scaremongering campaign that was probably the least successful only lasted for two hours so the ministry of defense briefed the guardian newspaper and then doubting street denied it within two hours of. the paper being printed so that was a scare story whose life. was to our children and of all the skier still isn't a dick alyson nonce of the project feet of produced that was one of the least successful indeed probably the most spectacularly unsuccessful pieces of months in a while why did they were dropped from two as well of course they know the reaction of scotland to the suggestion they would try to annex perhaps a skull and to make it part of even the even the most

fair haven't in scotland if there is such a thing would find objectionable the idea you could have next part of the land of scotland that's why a life cycle of only two of us is a scare story but what are you going to do with it because you don't want nuclear weapons but even if you wanted to it's not yours to use when you can deal with that part well we're going to ask for it to be removed quickly under safely as possible and the emphasis on board we want to move we want the timetable to be quick but we want to do it safe we would all want to we don't want to have any risk to anyone by doing so there are plenty of benefits of stately in english ports in the so very good and for submarines the difficulty is not bare from the submarines the difficulty is that we supplied with nuclear missiles of course resupply capability in both america and france and i think it's extremely unwise instantly i think would be ridiculous for the country of five and

a quarter million people to have nuclear weapons i think would be unhelpful to the world community it's not going to be the case that scotland will host someone else's nuclear weapons very few countries do the unwise to do that so trident will have to be removed it's up to the people of england the people at westminster to decide whether they want to continue with a nuclear. be very unwise to do so i think it's the most phenomenal waste of money but i agree it's their decision but of course if they make that decision then of course they have to accept the consequences which is to find some put it put and it's well known the only reason that submarine will be out it was his father we as the could think of from the the sentence a population no luke scott was a peace loving country we want to cooperate from neighbors with in favor of nato membership for example because our neighbor saw the need to bot. twenty five of the twenty countries in nato are no nuclear countries and so we'll be

a non-nuclear country wolf in little here but most of the countries actually strive to be new care that's why i'm asking that if you become a world leader in case an independence then you know you're faced with countries like iran or north korea who could tomorrow having nuclear weapons and scotland not well i have to say i don't think north korea. to try the threaten or attack scotland but let's remember the world has two hundred countries almost in it one hundred ninety of them do not have nuclear weapons and depending how you calculate these things almost ten probably half. or probably some secretly i think i'd rather be one of the hundred ninety with the weapons than one of the one full with nuclear weapons and there's absolutely no reason on air that a country of five million people should possess nuclear weapons this would not be a good thing for perforation for the safety of the planet nobody seriously argues for that position i don't really want to enter into the debate a boat in with

a nuclear weapons all i would say is this if you're actually justifying a nuclear dependent on the basis of a reunion to come then you wouldn't want to try to still try even as a rule choice of nuclear system which frankly was designed by the british government to penetrate the defenses our own most cruel that's what it was designed for it's not a deterrent against. or for that matter that's new that against the terrorist organization so if you were persuaded in england of the argument of having a deterrent against iran then what you would choose is a deterrent of that sort of scale that you go back to an all vulcan bomb or something you certainly wouldn't of a nuclear weapon system to renew it will cost one hundred thousand million pounds over its life cycle that would not be the deterrent you would choose. and certainly scotland doesn't want to engage in that sort of nuclear poker politics so the u.k.

recently placed top on a global soft power survey do you worry that you're going to be left out because obviously you want the pardon. is there actually attributing to that and you know i think we'll do far better projecting our own image of scotland we already do this and what investment and we top the lead table not just for the u.k. but for europe as far as people coming in to invest in our country and we promote ourselves as scotland in terms of soft power when we don't claim to have we're not going to have vast army so or navies or boehm or whatever that's not what we are we are in terms of soft power in terms of influence scotland is incredibly well placed with a country of five a quarter million people but there are not far off one hundred million people across this planet who either of scottish descent or have an affinity with scotland or will have a connection with scotland in terms of influence so this pilot scotland has a great deal of influence which will hopefully we'll be able to use for for good

for promoting positively the case of scotland but also for doing what we can and we'll get some of the scandinavian countries have done and ten like norway for example in terms of be an honest broker to help to help solve difficult situations we'd like to do that we're willing to do it and of course to the start of obligations to those on the planet who have virtually nothing we already have built up an international development portfolio in scotland modest proportions no but something with late to do a lot more off specializing perhaps in renewable energy which we have such an expertise in and water which we have a lot of. and therefore we look to. be welcomed into the community of nations as a sponsible world citizen. of this and will have terms of influence agreed. of influence in terms of military power not very much but if i was offered the choice to be in the country with great influence or great military then i would

choose being a country with great influence what do you make of the b.b.c. coverage of your complaint having both in both places really scotland and london paste operation i think. the chairman of the b.b.c. trust recently said he thought covering the referendum was the biggest challenge that the b.b.c. had ever faced i think it was a difficult challenge and i'm not sure that it's getting it right at the present moment. broadcasters by nature usually and not in five. newspapers and news triple don't have to be balanced. castle's have to be very careful to be balanced but the b.b.c. finds scotland a challenge because so much of what they report for example in the network news that goes right across the u.k. and you just broke them from nationally in the report for example scandals in the

health service in england as if they were the scottish health service which is run quite separately education difficulties in england as if they were educational scott which is run totally separately so they find it really difficult and we feel the challenge to date of trying to differentiate the debate and the position of scotland from the positioning would only be that some understanding will because you know the covering of country will hear more than one hundred eighty five percent of the people stay in one country and the other fifteen percent will still stay in another free country so perhaps they find it too difficult to challenge the law and said it was a greatest challenge it's not one that they're beating us yet and finally have you considered and thought about what your position may be in case of a no would you resign would you stay continue fighting for freedom but totally interesting i been in politics for twenty five years or so alone was one past the

elections another one national life was. just what i was doing wrong and maybe the politicians everything. when you were an opposition and when i became a member of parliament at westminster abbey a plea m.p.'s three out of a parliament a six hundred fifty there is very easy to be opposition to jump up and to be noticed because if you didn't jump up and nobody would pay any attention to you whatsoever. when you want to lead a country. to be positive to talk about the future to say what you're going to do people have done you have to put the accent on the post of and you have to absolutely believe it with every fiber of your being so lesson well before the lesson another one of the last election. less than a one every national election and that we think we are looking at the world we are approaching the people i'll take into the referendum campaign and one of the things

you have to believe is you have to believe you're going to win and you have to believe it with every fiber of your being because if you are to persuade people if you are to have a conversation about the future you have to do it from the basis that we're going to win this referendum and scotland will become an independent country. thank you very much for this great talk a great pleasure thank you you are watching sophie and co our guest today was alexander salmond thanks for watching and we will see you in our next edition. we think of why we think you're.

going to be swayed in the ocean breeze. and. little secret a secret the u.s. government would like you to go. through all right brooke.

this is our mark. on the full that is the state sponsor of russia today program just words by sabean not right to analyze this data is just ridiculous non-answer to my question. johnny's not. sure to say c. and sometimes their lives to bring people stories none the calming down the channels don't want you to see and we told her some. stuff. your friend posts a photo from a vacation you can't afford. a different. your boss repeats the same old joke of course. your ex-girlfriend still tends to rejection poetry keep. ignoring. we

post only what really matters. to your facebook you speak. ukrainian militias respond to the russian president's request the. government soldiers leave on the by saying they can leave. heavy weapons. and this is the city of the un yes. leaving at least two people dead our correspondent is there she witnessed the aftermath. and american police departments admit that some of the military grade weapons are missing raising fears the big guns could now be on the black market.