of the alarming findings in today's newspaper in the low take-up of schemes to hurt homeowners in scotland are there ways of ensuring her constituents and my constituents can get the same benefits that other parts of the u.k. as well some >> i share my right honorable friends of them report in the herald where the agencies are helping across scotland said the conditions in the scheme were much more difficult for people who are in the most desperate need and facing repossession. i do not want to see homeowners in scotland facing less protection than that already enjoyed in england and that is why i hope the scottish department will act very quickly on the recommendations made by the repossessions working group and provide advice who is facing court proceedings. >> allen whitehead. >> question number one, mr. speaker. >> mr. speaker, before listing my engagements this is your last prime ministers question. and the whole house will have a chance to knowledge your great contribution to public life in a few minutes time. this morning i have meetings with mine tearial colleagues and others in ad

that took me to the chairmanship of the grand committee, traveling the length and breadth of scotland, burning, to the people. and then to be chairman of the administration committee and speaker. in the year 2000, you entrusted me with a great office of speaker. i have been so happy to serve you and represent the house at home and abroad. i was honored to be the first speaker to pay an official visit to poland, a country i always hoped and prayed would be free of communism in one day. because of my political neutrality as a speaker, i must withdraw from the natural comments of this place and be a little bit isolated from the speakers house. i raise this point because i would like to thank my wife, mary, for coming to london each week when her natural instinct was to remain in her beloved belasco -- the love it glasgow. she has always been there for support and has done so much to make speakers house that place of welcome, working on official and unofficial events. though this parliament is at its lowest ebb, i can testify to the goodness of the vast majority of members of this house.

from what i saw in scotland, it was excellent. host: mike, thank you for the call. another comment from david sampson who says kaiser permanente a, very satisfied. i could not imagine a system working better. from "it will street journal," "lawmakers are getting closer to sweeping changes that would reshape taxes, health insurance, and coverage, for 46 million people in the u.s. who do not have it. as soon as this week, a senate committee is expected to release the first piece of legislation which the second bill to follow later this month. the house expected to unveil its health-care bill by the middle of the month, and both chambers inning to pass legislation by august and deliver a single bill to president obama by october. cal joins us from cookeville, tennessee. what about your health care coverage? caller: not satisfied because i am with the veterans. everybody talks about how great that is. two or three people came down with aids after colonoscopy is because they need cleaner instruments. national health care is not really what we want. first of all, by the g

. >> the scotland parliament wants less power together with a referendum. does the prime minister grow that the people should have their say? >> i'm sorry, the snp are not supporting the common recommendations. the common recommendations give a new basis on which the union can move forward. it gives a measure of devolution to allow the union to be safeguarded for the future. the difference between us and the scottish natural party they want all independent. all evidence is the people of scotland don't. >> can i thank you personally for your kindness. on policy, can i say to my right honorable friend that my constituents are nervously awaiting the outcome of the learning and skills council review of the building colleges for the put and our policy we need that money. will hebg give some reassurance that when the review takes place, our government will make an imminent decision and that he will take account of our commitment to urban regeneratioñ and also to the university quarter and urge that the full amounts can be there for their side. >> in the budget an

next week the common commission will report with recommendations on the future of devolution in scotland within the united kingdom. the government's 2006 act permits further devolution in wales on which there are discussions. my right honorable friend the community's secretary will set out how we will strengthen the engagement of citizens in the democratic life of their own communities as we progress the next stage of devolution in england so we must consider whether we should offer stronger clearly defined policies to local government and city regions and strengthen their accountability to local people. mr. speaker, last year we published a review of the electoral system and there is a long-standing debate on this issue. i still believe the link between the mp and constituencies are essential and that it is the constituency that is best able to hold mps to account. we should only be prepared to impose change if there's a broad consensus in the country that it would strengthen our democracy and our politics by improving the effectiveness and legitimacy of both government and parliament a

scotland. india. these countries are promoting themselves internationally to bring other visitors in. what do we have right now in our country? we don't have a centralized promotion of our country for tourism. countries around the world make tourism a national priority because they see that it bridges jobs to their country -- that it brings jobs to their country. they spend millions of dollars on their program and have senior officials coordinate national tourism policy. frampled, vietnam, new zealand, lebanon and jamaica have ministries of tourism. germany has a national tourist board and australia has a tourism australia program. in 2005, greece spent more than $150 million on travel promoti promotion. france spent $63 million. that's what we're up against. the travel promotion act, madam president, would level the playing field so we can compete with the rest of the world and recapture the lost market share. it will create the corporation for travel promotion, a public-private partnership to promot

the number of cases in scotland has grown. commemorations have begun to mark the 65th anniversary of d- day. prince charles and gordon brown will attend a ceremony tomorrow. the dow jones closed up. >> you have been watching bbc news night here on c-span carry you can see the program again tonight at 9:05 p.m. eastern on our companion network c-span 2. president obama held a news conference in germany today. later, they visited the buchenwald concentration camp. here is the rest of the trip schedule, france with stops in paris and normandie where he will observe the 65th anniversary of d-day. his speech to the muslim world in cairo--- cairo, egypt will be shown again this sunday. we have more now on the president's speech and a trip from this morning's "washington journal." . i want to begin with this treat that gives us an account. it says "we will never solve their problems. the u.s. should get out of other people's business. there are enough problems at home to worry about." how do you respond to that? guest: at least a phi

it was done with the rollback of scotland extension of credit by the u.k. government and today in "the wall street journal" it was mentioned s&p has developed additional means of providing information on credit exposure to the marketplace that incorporates credit defaults slops so we see continuing evolution and about to be encouraged. >> jury quickly senator joe hans deserves his round and at the end of we have time we will -- >> i'm not worried about to people on one side or another of the market so if somebody wants to buy and sell -- you've heard but symbols of the utility of the credit devolve swaps. the concern i have is the small airline, the small company doesn't have it treated market that we can use to price these contracts. so, again we have the lawyer poker scenario which is you have a trader firm on one side and they've decided the implied spread on the debt of this company is a good way to price redefault contract. the trouble is most people on wall street trade these instruments like options. the use them for delta hedging, various expose sir

officials from scotland, indonesia, and thailand, and from the missions in geneva expect in announcement of a global swine flu pandemic to be imminent. the world health organization meeting in an emergency session today is likely to declare the first flu pandemic in 41 years. it would push drugmakers to fast-track production of a vaccine. finally, from the new york daily news the head of the white house military office forced out over the photo over the statue of liberty has become a senior fellow at the center for american progress. those are some of the latest headlines on c-span radio. "washington journal" continues. host: our democratic senator, senator mary lenders from louisiana joins us. -- mary landrieu. guest: we have been busy looking for pat ford for renewable energy for america. it has been a tough debate, not necessarily republican against democrat, but region versus region. host: you recently passed a bill on drilling. guest: we actually voted on closing a title on gas drilling. there's a major energy bill with several titles. the main is renewable electricity standard. we

scotland and wales creates a written constitution for these parts of the united kingdom, there's the european union legislation, great conditions in which we operate as members of the european union, their speech given rights act, the freedom of information act and other rights and qualities that will come through the house of commons. is not the shortage of legislation that defines our rights and responsibilities, it is the fact that we have not brought that together in a way, for the people of this country -- we have not down statements the way others do for other countries. that is what the debate should be about. the circumstances about the written constitution takes place, completely different from where we were 20 years ago. it was not the relationship with your for freedom of information or the human rights act, these things have changed fundamentally over the last 20 years. >> thank you, mr. speaker. the prime minister has said many things which are acceptable. many people across the chamber. he referred in passing to the imbalance between the executive and parliament. that i

a different one in northern ireland, a different one in scotland and a different one for the european parliament which is proportional representation and a different one in the house of commons but i will -- i will deal with this issue in the constitutional statement in a few minutes. >> my apologies, i was too quick. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i'm sure, mr. speaker -- i'm, mr. speaker, you would agree it's no good saying wait for the statement when he's briefed all the details out to the press. and i have to say in asking questions about personalities, what is there left to ask when so many members of the cabinet walked out 'cause they can't work with him? i want to ask the prime minister questions about the issue of electoral reform and also about the process he intends to follow. on the issue does he agree with me that a truly proportional system has massive drawbacks? didn't we see this on sunday night when the bnp, a bunch of partialist thugs got him elected to the european parliament. does he agree with me that is a very, very strong argument? >> mr. speaker, let the whole house

inappropriate strategies to resolve but, i'm instructed to look at the example of royal bank of scotland, uk replacing our management. the bankers maintain operations without significant instructions i would not want to discard this option prematurely, that is a quote. german bernanke, ken lewis came to you with a store the fed didn't believe. you were getting information from your staff and pierced considerable concessions should be required at bank of america because of concern of the quality of top management, and yet you decide to give the eight away without any meaningful changes to bank of america's corporate management or compensation policies. how do you explain that, chairman? >> congressman, the process isn't a one time thing, it's an ongoing process and in the ongoing supervisory process we have made demand of the bank of america in terms of their -- >> so you give the money first and then start supervising? >> well, we have the ability to insist on these changes at any point. >> thank you mr. chairman. >> thank you. i now yield to the gentleman from indiana, mr. burton. >> is

the second battalion the rifles and private robert mclaren of third battalion, the row regiment of scotland, the black watch. their lives, jefferson contribution will not be forgotten their sacrifice for mises of the dangers of serving our forces confront every day and why they must continue to give them all of our support. mr. speaker troops first went into iraq in march 2003 and now they are coming home. in total 120,000 men and women served in iraq during the last six years so it's fitting the should now come to the house to talk with their achievements the difficult times, to try the new relationship we are building with iraq and to set out plans for an inquiry into the conflict. as always mr. speaker, we can be supremist proud of the way our armed forces carried out their mission other beller in the heat of combat recognize in the many citations for awards and decorations and their vigilance and resolution amid the most typical the mentionable conditions and the ever-present risk of attack by an unseen enemy. today we continue to mourn and remember the 179 men and women who gave their