louie says good to see a scottish classical musician that was cute like he's quote i mind the scotland's music cd is about nine hundred ninety was the first time i heard a musical history she said like a normal country rather than reduced to a folk tradition only john says i fit enjoy this and i'm just a theory saturday alex i mean sure lovely to hear she do wellington's all too brief rendition of burton's also vibrant think it when he who are both highly enjoyable yes the word indeed and finally martin who says a public holiday for someone to stay would be great it will come one day i'm sure we all hope so too mario and i to break that to new more this week the house of commons started their five day long breaks debate which will determine the fate of mates breaks a deal and perhaps of the prime minister herself however this week was barely started when the government got itself embroiled in an unseemly squabble with parliament over the publication of legal advice here to what the opposing advocates had to say but first presiding on the bench and most unfortunately for the

government mr speaker the formidable john bercow insisting on the rights and prerogatives of the house of commons and making it clear that no attorney general be he ever so high as above the writ of parliament i have considered the matter carefully and i am satisfied that there is an arguable case but the contempt has been committed this house has now spoken and it's all future constitutional political significance which is i think a precedented for this house to find ministers in content the motion makes clear the government must now publish the attorney general's final legal advice in full and in light of the expressed will of the house we will publish the final and full advice provided by the attorney general to cabinet as our first guest explains the prime minister should be careful not to lose her legal advisers she may have need of them shortly alex spoke to professor here in mcgahee of king's college. about

the range of legal challenges now evidently confronting their prime minister welcome to the like sam i'm sure you have thanks very much could be you know can we charter we're through this legal minefield facing the prime minister the big surprise decision for many of the european court of justice at least the opinion of the advocate general of the rhetoric ability of article fifty how significant could that be i think it's very interesting because it means that the constitutional structure of the european union and of the u.k. is proving to be much more resilient to the threats that poses the many people thought so it means that the u.k. can unilaterally revoke notification of article fifteen to leave the european union and that could happen alternately in two ways number one parliament could if you like take back control from the executive so would you say take back control that's a reference to the black city or slogan julie that effort end of garbage that's

right and so there's two things that could happen either parliament could say that on deliberation perhaps even after a second referendum we don't want to leave the european union any more and the other thing that's going to happen this friday is that there's a court case to say that the referendum was so corrupt so tainted by overspending of facebook data and also russian interference that the votes integrity was seriously undermined so it's a very important stepping stone to get to i think a proper constitutional basis for the future of this country so let's take these and this opening up of the options that the european court of justice made deliberate and decide how likely is the court of justice to follow its advocate general's recommendation and publish this we will advocate general's are followed by a court of justice about eighty percent of the time so it is good but from the court to justice to the. of session in edinburgh who will then after the advice of the

court of justice make a deliberation which unusually would have up the cation beyond scotland but for the whole of the u.k. and of course i think courts in scotland like the courts in the rest of the united kingdom which is a fundamentally have to apply the law and so if you've got a process which is corrupt including in that referendum then i think that that's something that they're going to want to see they want to see the rule of law apply it's like every other judge so the political effect of that legal judgment is m.p.'s having been effectively presented with my way of the highway by the prime minister no have opening up another option which would allow time for another referendum or indeed a general election it could do and the third option as well is that we're going to see this court case on friday about what really happened in the referendum so i

think it's very important to see that there is been unprecedented illegality in a vote so we've had over spending about six point four percent by vote leave it's a criminal offense second of all we've got the biggest fine in history on a company like facebook five hundred thousand pounds not much but a lot for a much for facebook not much for facebook for allowing breach of its privacy but one of the biggest things that still on the result is it's clear that russia and the kremlin was organizing an operation to interfere in the poll we know that hundreds of thousands of bots on twitter the national crime agencies investigated aaron banks because allegedly their credit clean clear that mr banks has not been found guilty of any crane as yet but you think a court will regard these indications on the electoral commission and the house of commons committee as serious enough to to set a site the result of a referendum i don't think that there's any one solution to the kind of serious mess. that we're in. what is absolutely clear is that russia has been launching

a campaign right around the western world it has been interfering in the american political process which is probably led to donald trump being in the white house it supported le pen in france it supported the f.t. in germany it's been supporting separatist groups it drummed up support for the scottish independence vote it drummed up support for the castle an independence vote and and the reason why russia is keen on doing this is because it wants to weaken the resolve of the european union and the international community to take action against climate change you realize of course that president obama intervened in the scottish referendum and of course david camm i'm asked a lot of me are putin for support against scottish independence doesn't this sort of country interference with everybody else feels go on par for the course not least in america which isn't a field and elections all round the world i think that you interact make an

important point which is that we need to get back to the principle of votes being fair and free just like the universal declaration of human rights says we are entitled to but if russia is interfering and the united states is interfering in any vote this is debasing the right of citizens to choose their own government to this little field than anybody else's election that's not the point that fundamentally look i think that if that was happening and i'm sure it has its wrong but the thing an elected government in iran for example well i think that you can't get into a question of everybody's doing wrong so therefore there's no right to do courts make decisions over and above politics if we take the european court of justice ruling both the u.k. government wanted to stop the case and the european commission didn't want the european court of justice to rule that article fifty was revoked a bill so both political list. didn't want the court to rule as it looks like it is

doing so doesn't court would be that could a session and they hadn't but of the supreme court in london or the european court of justice go over and above political considerations and try to examine what is the law yes that's right we don't have cases on referendums but we have cases on courts declaring n.p.r. elections void or council elections void because the process was corrupt so if the interference or illegality would have made the result different or if the process was so corrupt that it substantially violated the laws on elections or referendums then it common law you can say that the vote is for it from a legal perspective what's the new mall of all these huge legal and political questions all the evidence points to the deep deep corruption of the referendum because and foreign and russian interference you might be cautious about having another referendum to get out of this mess now that. they're taking the legal hat

off and pushing on sort of citizens have to sort of think you've got to be pragmatic and perhaps it's the right thing for another vote to take place especially given that two out of the four nations of the united kingdom scotland and northern ireland voted to remain if you had to guess from a legal under political perspective is a good to be another referendum i have a bet with my constitutional law students i bet them one pounds that the government wouldn't still be in place by the end of our constitutional course at the end of march and so i think i might just be getting a pound from the students but the then again there's a lot of things that could happen well your best of luck in your bet your constitutional law students coming up after the break from the legal minefield we've moved to the political minefield facing the prime minister of commentators north and so for the border from. opposite sites what lies ahead for

a reason. when a loved one is murder it's natural to seek the death penalty for the murderer i would prefer it be to win the death penalty just because i think that's a fair thing the right thing research shows that for every nine executions one convict is found innocent the idea that we were executing innocent people was terrifying news just no really hasn't been that we're even many of the times families want the death penalty to be abolished the reason we have to keep the death penalty here is because that's what murder victims' families what that's going to give them peace that's going to give them justice and we come in and say. not quite enough we've been through this this isn't the way.

and you may never get out of the most of. my teenage gang rules here. want to. be my good girl because you were there with me but. now you will be very cold. you. might see her. you know. now it's looking for the yeah. well it might not be for.

you about the monkey little weasel i see. welcome back when the commons got down to the main motion the meaningful vote on me still things though it took a turn for the better for the embattled prime minister with scott not so the last of a democratic unionist to the rights of art she had the guns of labor in front of her and the knives of the tory backbenchers behind her i hope don't believe you will compound out by the polls in a section thirty for scotland the scottish government once it had

a history of opposition is not a good one and she should respect the democracy she's talking about it applies to scotland to prime minister to come i ask the prime minister in terms of guaranteed northern ireland's position. she will remember that in paragraph fifty of the joint report that we spent forty. asia negotiate in there where guarantees given to northern ireland never mind the words that have been shared in this house today it was actually in the text why has stopped being deleted the deal before us would make our country worse off i really can't believe that there is a single member of this house who seemed see the believes that this deal we have before us is a good deal like politics is as much about listening to people from all sides of the debate and then doing what you believe is in our national interest and that's what i've done when it comes down to brass tacks kind of prime minister deserted by much of her party look elsewhere for support out fast columnist for the national

guard kind of been at the scottish political play would be unlucky for me just kind of unwelcome to them examine show and our legs nice to be talking to you again but george you've got every bit of castle there behind you in the and then to the studio but for the last two years the scottish dimension to the european debate seem to be slipping down the agenda but no this week with the case and the indication of a ruling in the european court of justice in the revocable ity of article fifty s but with a bang how important you believe that is well isn't good important and home is back with a bang course has always been here is just the arrest of a in the tories were having their own little private discussion was ham this week is the people have been forced to remember that scotland isn't just a land of economists like you and me alex is principally a land of lawyers and scottish lawyers people like john a cherry who forced the scotland back into the debate by going to a court of justice in europe and getting this ruling that the u.k.

could walk away and walk away from article fifty to walk away from leaving the e.u. if it wants to must be a bit of a i haven't is that going to be appreciated in the hollow of halls of the court to sessions see scottish judicial case which seems to be opening up a new. potentially for members of parliament to westminster well i mean our thing the must be surprise smiles at the court of session and the original scottish parliament has been taken over by the lawyers and is actually the main scottish locals at the moment and has few lawyers now thinking well maybe scald become independent maybe those low courts will actually be with the locals for an independent country some day and that's the route through that is through the european crisis now looking at the dramatic events and the house of commons this week obviously something you're very familiar with from terms of the the rules and procedures of the of the parliament to reasonably seems to a divided her own party in terms of her proposal she seems to view hated the liberal party against but simpleton the asli has alienated the ulster unionists

under scottish nationalists is there any hope or toll in your opinion for the prime minister given that landscape in the house of commons i think what we're fundamentally seeing alex is the breakup of the british parliamentary system the parliament and political parties that have existed for the last last hundred years we're seeing the labor break up but also see the tory party breaking up and therefore the smaller parties like the union also unions and the s.n.p. they become strategic indeed the direction the parliament goes to alienate them therefore in those circumstances is just political imbecility but is that any proposal get in britain's relationship we europe that commands enough support to carry parliament and the people well i suspect there's there's there's quite a large voting support within the existing bloc of parties for what they're calling

norway plus in other words u.k. to stay to formally come out of the e.u. but to stay within the single market and the customs union i suspect there are enough. center grown m.p.'s in the tory party and asked. most labor m.p.'s would support that and the s.n.p. would support that but whether in the kind of hothouse atmosphere of westminster you could get some kind of deal brokered remains skeptical of that but sadly that seems to be the one logical compromise that come out of all of this short of going to the country holding another referendum and in a phrase george kind of i'm a new year resolution for to be easily. let the scots go their own way to reason thank you very much jobs care of a member and i'll be up to join you by hogmanay will have a wee dram together. and so the celtic tiger might finally were just at the most inopportune moment for the prime minister and the votes are being counted in the

lobbies of course she's not without her supporters and the last few days the meal and express have deserted the hard line breaks the tears and rallied to domy banner however how was consistent defender in fleet street has been celebrated columnist peter oborne he cautions alex it is too soon try to political a better day for trees and me is a robot and welcome to the examined show thank you very much indeed it's a huge pleasure thank you peter know you've been is staunch defender of the samee and fight one of the only defenders and terms of calmness are you still worth it in this moment of trial for the prime minister absolutely and you know again and again the metropolitan media claussen that all acolytes of trash the plumbers the said she's finished going again i've pointed out no she isn't this is an indomitable a very resilient woman and again and again guess what i've been proved right she

meets the ultimate test well next tuesday. in court or perhaps by nick button do you think she can still triumph through despite the parliamentary arithmetic it's the most difficult one yet but i think lynn i. the dramatic vote in parliament on tuesday night has actually helped even though she was defeated and routed as no prime minister in modern times has been before but what it meant is this is on the publication of the legal advice of the amendment to a low the opening up of parliamentary options of bread is this is that amendment which is meant to them means that parliament can actually seized control of the brics it process and what that means of course is that no deal which is being pursued by the brics a tear suddenly becomes very unlikely if not impossible and so no mrs may can say to the brits or tears you either support my form of bricks it this calls

or parliament will seize back control and we know that these m.p.'s for the most part a pro european anything can happen after that including people britain staying in the european union is that why it is chosen michael gore of perhaps not the her or her most reliable of allies but he has been chosen to sum up the debate on tuesday so that his quite she's been much shrewder only people who read my columns know this by the way much ruder than people understand she's brilliantly split the tory brits it's years between the boris johnson's and the david davis's and miss to go who's regarded as on the most perfidious politicians of all time on the tory right a serial traitor but he will stand up there and i can tell you now what he will say you say either you back mrs may and you'll get brett sit or vote and you will be no bretta that's all that is the message he will be sending straight to the tory

bret's it is so you still think you are a number not of the opinion this that she could still win through in these next few vital days absolutely i think that it could be that it'll take two shards. but if she gets a narrow defeat first time run then she will come back again and see if she can push it through second time it was a big defeat the but i think the idea that she might be defeated by two hundred which is being put about by allies of dining scene classic expectation management in order to make a minor defeat look like a great heroic victory done coke indeed and i think that's what they're aiming for thinkin of forty is being talked of as the defeat she can wear first time around with an attempt with the massive attempt to turn it run second time but let's just say for the sake of argument that despite the prime minister's undoubted resilience

the split your passionate support of her position the theater's a sore major that she has no prospect of continue in office what then well i've got some news for you actually i would be that surprised if we got a coalition government which would include the scottish national party for instance for a while the mergence a government national government led by and this is my prediction for today prime minister nobody's heard of them is called livingston david leading to the dullest of man in british politics may step forward as the prime minister the un like the prime minister you check the odd son david linton i feel employers know you're a betting man they're enormous i look at that one this is so obscure or is not even all of it. i mean you can get any orders you like but the fact is that i think he's so boring that. he will put all the seal on political in a way that the corbin. and the surgeon and people will feel happy enough to work

with him and then tell you that he's the that is the secret weapon the tory whips offices we've got the threat of. people over thank you so was there i say that you could use this to toss the living to improve his ship but this is for the period male example show the queen of scots go it for the loving cup you know the drill whisky in the quick only scotch and then rode your many many friends world we'll drink it on new year's eve my birthday we'll drink it chose to you put it up a scotch whisky and pass it run the obama family table my mother who is scottish will really approve fifty over the focus of one thank you very much indeed. in many ways this week's parliamentary trials and tribulations of the prime minister and the tale of two backstops first the one that's right there at the heart of her

european agreement the one which is proving so unpalatable to m.p.'s of all persuasions and as we know from the published legal advice is no mere bagatelle instead that backstop potentially condemns the u.k. to a form of neverland between e.u. membership and the way the world. the catholic church some years ago abolished limbaugh a spot of doctrine to these a may as give that let's go flesh and her blanks agreement this hoss uprising there for that is so acceptable to so many for manners it retains the vestige of membership biffo any of the advantages of influence over collective the social making for leavers is to part again name only but without any of the purported advantages of the freedom to chart a new trading and economic destiny. of a proposing such an arrangement was the juki of european negotiators trying hard to fill their obligations to the remaining twenty seven and then particular to that

loyal european member state of ireland for the e.u. perspective it's not a punishment of the u.k. by god t. if the principles of the european union are not to incest and such a backstop would have been a an act of great shot at the by european negotiators now michelle obama is trailing was as a french goalless the charity is not rated uppermost in the many otherwise fine qualities. that brings us to the second but stop a reserve position the one that doesn't exist the prime minister was bowing to fail in negotiation as soon as a decision was made to invoke article fifty and thus enter into a limited negotiation with vote any reserve position for breaks a ts that meant preparations for new deal or even an organized new deal would be intensely damaging skydiving with a polish it is essential is safer than undertaking the same activity without one but it's still a risky endeavor however to invoke article fifty one vote this backstop was

a night of lunacy for which morley are supposed to substantial majority of m.p.'s who voted for that two years ago are jointly and severally liable of a while they may be jointly liable as the prime minister who's in office i'm responsible for the looming catastrophe. and that brings us to the advocate general of the european court of justice at that opinion after all article fifty might be unilaterally to fall by the u.k. we have discussed this case and they seated by scottish parliamentarians many times in the show well up until know the least it's been largely ignored by the mainstream london media before in this expected judgement that is the solution to britain's blacks build out and that is for a parliament which kind of itself some of the majority for anything palatable but has a substantial majority against the unpalatable new deal that parliament has but one final duty which is to prepare the gloating for the decision to be made by others

if the prime minister's an easy compromise finally bites the dust next week than the choices between a renewed to go she with a declared backstop of no deal or remaining in the european union that decision between the two real options could either be made by referendum or by general election or both revoking after fifty elos a tag for the people to make such a choice and so from thousand b. and all at the show it's goodbye for now.

is finding this out the need. in our eyes how the powder but i again gag and gowns which i like. to. break. and then we'll bring your daughter the most almost the whole cd i mean look if you get that and you know has it funny but it was you don't love me will you. write down the bank fall for the right guy based walker chemical lights and this is going to that he would get out and you treat them and their international market knowing that these industries out of polluting your dissenting ignored your money and mother none of even else i mean he's also the mother of one like me to the last name of this.

prosecution will need. to stretch will find. somebody to i mean i'm you know i mean. business models used by american corporations. and the solution. is it is just somebody deleted an investigative documentary.

ghost war. because it set on fire a student riot says clash with french police and fresh mass protests following the government's decision to accept a key demand of yellow vests on the streets. breaking news this hour.