thank you for making us aware of the scandal it's truly shocking and u.k. chigger support group or thanks paul monaghan who was the vase chair of the crossed party parliamentary group on the islands if i can fall for once again speaking up of the iowans and the interesting contributions will surely who says that she was in the united states navy a long time ago before the internet only guys at that time could serve of what they called the rock we were told it was uninhabited before the united states arrived she was just different we joined the ultimate parliamentary wife said to lord wigley in the second half of the show but first let us take a look at the impact of the bricks that process from economic theory to grassroots practice from a distinctively scottish perspective alex explores with economist george kind of in weather and where the becks impact is being felt and then with leading scottish kinds let chris michael amy just how local authorities are getting up for bricks that. just go and welcome to the it seven sure is so nice to be here in the flesh

no let's have a look at a stand back and look at this economic landscape in the sense of this jack of delivering his political statement yes the very peculiar circumstances in which to be issuing a fundamental economic message you know what's weird the markets have been so quiet and i think is that nobody understands what's going on even the markets how meant he knows we was going to happen with brakes is he can't do very much so he's cutting the money and british to be going up the last few months and centuries just banking it and i personally as an economist and an activist i think rather than wait for something to descend from the heavens and and you react i think be more proactive you should be using the money in the economy british investment for the last four quarters every quarter investment in british manufacturing has been declining that is not a good sign but haven't is just putting the muscle in the heavens as a possible will see the child sore back at the sparks box in a couple of weeks time so the the post breaks that spring statement well i'd like

you if i was a betting man that's why bet on i think we'll see them urgency budget look all of that he will believe he'll be back so it will get us for these breaks consuming the political bandwidth and one of the things that is almost over with the political discourse is what's happening in the world economy because of certain very worrying trends we've generally jemele the polar host of europe looking like it's good to session the german economy i mean that is the motor of the european economy literally in the sense that the whole industry duster structure is based around motor cars now it has two things going in germany first there's the short run right now they sell most cars to china the chinese economy has slowed so they're not buying any of the big limousines the big mercedes so the german economy at the moment as flat light hasn't quite gone into recession people thought it would but it's flat lights going nowhere longer term what's german what's the core technology the germ. he has they make diesel engines motor cars are going to have diesel

engines over the next decade so germany has to replace that with something so short term long term the german economy is in real trouble and you know you can you saw last week. the germans tipped the wink to the buddhist monk and to the european central bank and something we've reversed what was appeared to be happened the last two years which was rolling back quantity of easing letting interest rates rise back to so-called normal stop that all of a sudden let's keep has keep printing the money let's keep interest rates down and you've also got germany defaulting back to its it's all style interventionism industrial planning into restructure the economy so a big change is going on in germany my worry is the u.k. trying to form of the e.u. all these things going on and doesn't have a plan the germans have a plan so we're starting scotland in all of this how hopeless scotland fitted into the second only scottish columns of very balanced economy it's got it's got food

exports put a twenty percent target of sort of score some of those are not coming down the track yet other than quote old exit that that's one of the one of the technicalities from brakes it crash it but frankly if i was a farmer i would be i would be worried in the u.k. because farming of a u.k. level is you know it's not that economically or politically important ultimately and if they have to be trade deals i think the u.k. government would sacrifice the farms for us but there's another. possibility of despite all the apocalyptic forecasts of cliff edges on the rest of it which everybody has an adult's than there's a good things will just muddle through economically that people will of just the new paradigm that that none of these cliff urges will be as steep as people suspect or worry about breaks it is a long term one even with a negotiate even if tourism had got her deal through leaving the e.u. at the moment. in a world which is moving towards intensified competition between economic books i

think of your u.k. on its own outside of the you its economy will be crushed britain leaving the leaves britain as an economy vulnerable was little economic or political clout to negotiate economic deals and that's dangerous so i think you have to choose friends in this world economically and i think to leave move away from from the european bloc is extremely dangerous you've been showing your film to m.p.'s and members of the house of lords and others about the last financial crash and some of the the lessons tell us in a couple sentences what's thoughts about that since i left palm i've gone back to the tools i'm a filmmaker so we made a documentary about about the banks not about the two thousand and eight banking crisis but what happened afterwards one day afterwards when the banks were bailed out they decided they needed to get the cash back get the bonuses up we capitalise so who do they go after rebuild the banks or banks took about one hundred billion pones of assets out of small businesses in order to recapitalize result small

business very weak in the u.k. productivity flat like a major impact on the economy are you calling the revenge of the pushes east is called spank the banker. if i remember correctly you had at least one the story because that will save your title to the exam are executing fastenal you on the show thank you so much for the interview thank you thank you for having me from economic theory it's a grassroots reality much of the discussion has been on the high politics of brecht's it but how local authorities coping with the practical impact and there's that impact already being felt alex interviews councillor chris met collating. cress fifteen days to be the how the local authorities shaping up to that challenge well it's a challenge that's quite davis dependent old which will afford it obviously small or for usual of forty's lots of forty's and the main challenge for the north some will be where will the money come from the moment will for instance scotland

benefit from our own three hundred seventy one million this is structural fund of the structural funds social investment fund and us over the last five years that fund and has been there and that ends in two thousand and twenty and the more in the you know you can government has feel the actually should comes will the forty's or that money will be there and i simply can't see have a corner me which is plummeting off the brakes that is going to find any new money put up money and which does not money actually mean in reality it could be funding local community centers it could be funding employability initiatives all of that money but sixty six percent in a local all of forty's that's where the employer public funding comes from and when you take that money are we going to do is you're going to doesn't franchise young people you're going to make it harder for younger people with our mainstream education who've failing or the job market you're going to meet these people economically and active and that's the reality of what happens when we can all the objects that i remember when i was first minister i'm in the teeth of financial

recession in two thousand and two thousand and ten the training funds coming late from europe were very very important for areas like the clay i remember specifically when that was for the money had run out according to the government ministers of the time but these trailing funds will be able to make significant announcement in terms of the structural help for for the west of scotland column e. and these sort of things you think will be most damaged by any kind of press yeah absolutely at the moment you can see you can see a young person a real person and you can see that money come in and you can see the employability in ash if they get involved on the pin drop they screw with moving or call for. the bin economically not to have an entire life but funding helps get them in a trade and it helps get them scales and then you see it up here some move on it in full employment and that's really really good to see but not monies taken away that's target money money for a specific purpose and of the money is not there the popular kind of beef affair

with the not so real what if the local authorities causal has been leading the way on this but the reality is the u.k. government just some confirmation that the money received that there is going to be there are conflicts that needed and of course much of the structural funding many people guard has been influential in female employment in scotland rising beyond the u.k. of its youth unemployment below the u.k. and some of the hardest issues for the scottish economy have the least been mitigated of not solved over the last few years partly as a result of these funds why are you confident that the u.k. and scottish government's will say well we can see the success of that european funding will replace it because it's not some will see in home much money it is a u.k. gift to the european union at the moment and how much comes by because of the economy feeling in one region that in the same amount of money that we actually got by again the money she's not going to be there that's much the scottish issue look at where was for example one of the colonies across the whole european union that is

one of the largest amounts and european structural funds and sadly leave it to leave the e.u. and i don't think people are going to actually realise the realities until they see what your garden for jack so community said massive employee ability schemes shot and though the money she's been pulled off people may then start realising the projects it was quite a good idea i suspect it of council was voting on blacks that you'd be voting to remain where we were thirteen to fifteen sixteen overwhelmingly right about the national average and scold the people who would remain afford people who would leave but i think the another aspect that's going to impact will for the easy stuff and you look at them. will go for it at the sky. highest amount a united but from what fourth point of view one thousand employees unite and then if we go from. the west on to use the lunar new year correct it off twelve consultants what going in the n.h.s. and the western nails in those consultants are you not eco to twelve of twelve

across the entire western isles and i think the importance of law is because in two thousand and eighteen we saw the lowest of all full of migrants coming to scotland and the fact there's a real reason there is because brics has been talk sick and many people lost be to e.u. not as much as they love scotland and the sort of scotland i want to live in scotland that welcomes a united knows the not of the people see in the media is that blix is becoming very is in a four because i think that's partly the reason there was the e.u. nationals drop off and that of course is really for future domination of policy going out late because it is what the islands with the west on nails and work late . for it is populations of the claimant so cancel michael any point would just message be from the grassroots the liberating work the blacks are not i think my message will be the same as it's been flossed two years indeed the message of the scottish government and many people across coleman is to respect the democratic

will of the scottish people because what we're going to see as you know you can them leave the e.u. but the people scotland overwhelmingly voted to mean and the e.u. and i don't see how well you know you can them can survive and sustain and you have an entire does not ma and i just from the democratic deficit can be folks long term and ultimately a family discussion the bennetts and so mike let me thank you there's been some i'm sure and thank you. join the softer the lord wigley upon them and to then who was named be in the north and the when you look in the one nine hundred seventy five attempts to bring some whites into the west once the heat.

come on. you. still think i want to. go through because a couple of my wife and i. just got to meet. the costs to be ok so. i think you know. you want to know before you get on there. i don't know how that came from. all over the united.

to what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy foundation let it be an arms race. spearing dramatic development only personally i'm going to resist i don't see how that strategy will be successful very critical time to sit down and talk. welcome back to this because seen yet another meaningful vote on yet another defeat for the hapless prime minister here are the highlights of the commons turmoil i've been working for leading the with the deal business is a business organizations have been clear across the u.k. that they want m.p.'s to back the deal this business is worried about the uncertainty it breaks it there's one thing they worry about more and that's according to government yes. but mr speaker the prime minister doesn't seem to understand her deal has been flatly rejected twice

by this house my own precedented majorities i may not have my own voice but i do understand the voice of the country they want to see. if anyone knows what will happen next our expert well alex discusses this seems to not just have elements where the most experienced problem until they know westminster i know to make some sense of this parliamentary cartilage we're talking to one of the most experienced voices in parliamentary politics of these islands that the bottom wigley of them dr wigley you were involved in the last referendum related some to five years and they may be you know you think of what's happened the consequences of the more recent referendum well it is chaos absolute chaos i've never seen anything like it in all my days in westminster or indeed what i've read about in recent years is nine hundred seventy five referendum was

a piece of cake compared to this and i was a rebel in my own party that i was in favor of steering the whole europe so far you know but until you are indeed applied at that time to took the left wing view that europe was a capitalist club and there were elements of truth of course in that i saw the bigger picture as i said considered it that europe gave an opportunity for the small nations to emerge and to get as much independence as they could with their. in a global global family on a european scale it should be a difference than what we had a prime minister and how wilson with a plan he went negotiated them brussels actually came up with a nothing a toll but came back and presented it with panache going to college by the country but of course the difference then was three referendum now remember that term because it's going to rise again my belief is that whatever is eventually agreed something's going to have to be agreed the only fair way to all the people is to give it back to them to say are you happy with this because it's going to be a different model to work the one on which many people thought they devoted and i

think they should have the opportunity to say yes or no on that we live without consequence but let's flip flop from your vantage point and you've got the ability to be reasonably impartial as you survey the main westminster parties at least when the prime minister's strategy as far as you can tell over the last two and a half years has been trying to find a majority for what might work in a soft this hard but exit by appealing to get to the position of the rebels the european hardliners in her own party would swing behind the if you're offered them enough but she hasn't managed to get anything close to a parliamentary majority in the house of commons what can she do not well look let's say her strategy was to keep her party together the tactics that what the delivers that and none of the various taxes she's tried has done so and she's now got to either capitulate to the hard rock city is and go for

a no deal which is still on the table despite the votes that we've had this week it is still possible because there needs to be legislative change to take that away or alternatively to accept that there's going to be possibly under different leadership some coming together across party abound rees in westminster to use the customs union dimension which would be acceptable in brussels as a way out as a compromise but if that compromise comes. or would it would have to be subject to a confirmation vote because it's not what some people voted for when they were voting for but it was that not to do the new prime minister and wouldn't that confirm the split in the tone but well of course the tory party is split probably irredeemably split at this point but in the context of the time that we've got know if it's until may the extension of the of the article fifty that is not enough time to negotiate anything and the european union isn't in the mood of negotiating if however it was on the basis of a customs union or single market europe has indicated that they would do that and

you could be negotiating that through the summer and have a consummate free vote in october and get the whole thing cleared up on a reasonable compromise basis so you're talking about perhaps moving to a soft of the of the customs union station to the teleplay the labor party so what is the labor party's started you put it was put you in the shoes of jeremy carbon for a second what are you looking at with trouble in your own party on a range of issues that could this be his salvation thank you for off the record shoes thank you but no thank you i think the general govt has made an absolute mess of all this he has avoided all along until the very last few weeks having it and thing to do with it and it puts the labor leadership in the national symbol in cardiff that we have a labor prime minister in wales of course and he is trying to latch on to the corbett line and to have some sort of a red breck's it's but the end of an era in fact there's no certainty the korban

wants to see that delivered the half of the field involvement in parliamentary politics that westminster has a been a situation where both major parties have been fundamentally riven at the same time well of course we've had times when the construction of the s.t.p. and the peeling off from the labor party in the early and mid eighty's that was one part. there were then tensions within the conservative party but they never got to this level when this is that she was in charge she made sure that she was getting away and john major's a different way of doing it but he got the mustard treaty through but i think there's a much greater respect for john major today and i'm absolutely certain that if a conservative body were under his leadership they wouldn't be in the mess they are in an old baumberger that you've recently being in discussions in europe at a very senior level course or a range of of senior european politicians is an indication there of just no the

total exasperates know what's going on in the u.k. or is there some sign that they are looking in a friendly i.e. towards scott when wills and of course backing ireland oh everybody that we met our criticism of the u.k. but clearly there is an exasperated and absolutely fed up with the way the shilly shally has been going on the one thing that came out clear to me was that if there was a customs union type deal a soft drinks it then they would be willing to look very positively at that and why on earth has this been left off the table over the last two years when that could have been the basis on which we build a new relationship with europe that allow us to have open borders and allow scotland and wales or how about independence but to work together within a economic block that is bigger than ourselves amid all this carnage do you think that is potentially the way forward that could be a commons majority for that sort of sought is black site would send would be a bit jerky in the house a lot just think that is the look forward to somebody has the ability to seize the

moment were those of lords voted again two weeks ago in favor of course a customs union type approach but in the house of commons i've no doubt there is now a majority for that but not within either of the two large parties across party if you get people to work together then that would be a basis on which we could move forward for many of the causes which you've championed i'm thinking of the. all firemen in wheels and small business sector have been a bathing interest for us they must be people who are feeling the pressure of breaks uncertainty to great to grow up salute a good get one instance a muscle business that. gets the muscles in the main a straits and sells them within some fourteen hours in the paris markets if you get a hold up at dover the way they're going that would ruin the product and they're struggling with uncertainty you think of the sheep farmers that have the lambs already born that will be going to market to this summer ninety percent of whales

export to market is to the european union and there's an uncertainty whether it be a tariff barrier there or not you know we can't live with this sort of backdrop it's undermining people on whose backs the economy depends now i i don't know you've champion these causes and one of the political strengths that you for was deployed has been an ability to think in practical terms but can't you see a sample irony in the death of weekly the on phone as was of the house of commons actually charting from his vantage point in the hopes the logs away out of chaos for the westminster to stop this from i think there are times when we voices from scotland or from wales or from northern ireland have to bring some common sense into those are the comments and i'm very delighted to do that but being in an unelected chamber we're in a very weak position and that underlines the need to have a democratically elected second chamber to give it the authenticity to press

forward on government the viewpoints that it represents or death wigley if you are successful in stealing of course from the pleasant choppy waters i'm sure they'll be many people beyond wheels we give you lots of things thank you very much thanks very much indeed alex. the still weeks to blacks it and the prime minister has lost her voice as well as a parliamentary majority chaos and gulfs westminster yet to resume a clings to office like a limpet a lesson on the better prime minister with his i'd long ago but the prime minister seems empowered this to political humiliation the seems no purpose and what she's doing for to not have years she's sought to build a majority in the commons for a hodgepodge of a soft exit only to find out repeatedly had no finally there's no such consensus no this not even the tense of collective cabinet sponsibility as the west mist of time drifts towards the rocks and no one's on the bridge the chance of the exchequer

makes his spring statement but there's more attention focused on the chelton hospices than on his vital economic decisions that it's probably a cost party majority for a much softer vesna breaks with a customs union with a single market the prime minister has made no serious attempt to not direction feeling it would split her own party no she may end up with a split by the un no direction as duff and likely points out it's the one proposal which probably commands a majority in both parliamentary chambers and would be greeted with relief from brussels meanwhile in the real world people attempt to go on with the laves and businesses west most of continues in the blacks that bubble or the one of the quantum ahead so for huge issues and to national domestic remain unresolved a public service is affecting people stop to buckle under the strain and when local authorities try to pick up the pieces of governance. if there was any come of

comfort from the prime minister and allies in the state of opponents the labor party and not just these opposition out in disarray the s.n.p. seem unable as yet at least to fashion a scottish opportunity out of this westminster of calamity the new group of tego something sight played and the liberals totally eclipsed this the government's responsibility to govern the none of the failings of opposition offers a route forward for the beleaguered prime minister two weeks to but exit and confusion still reigns as. the focus of kind of heal the fall could all thanks paula the scent of cannot hold on a is loosed upon the world and so from to speed on me in the rest of the team it's good bye for now.

when lawmakers manufacture consent to instant of public wealth. when the ruling classes to protect themselves. when the financial merry go round lifts only the one percent told. to ignore middle of the room signals. to leave the room dream real news is

really low. and seventy four design submissions says. seven thousand pilings. to join judges. hundred sixty nonstop days of. a russian w.b. a champion of it. and a russian mob stuff. show you how many want the crimean bridge was built. witnessed the construction moving you need to transport. that will help the heart of crimea the cost of most all those euro while the go go for more snow yet it abuts. the.

well let's just. say. yes. he was going to. be a nor do i think that we are in the constitutional crisis it is a crisis of unprecedented rejected and no obvious way with the clock taking the u.k. parliamentarians it's her idle but i told her come the brakes have been. coming up on the program this hour u.s. secretary of state mike pompeo declares washington's intention to weaponize its

energy exporting. to.