31 May 2012
Last updated at 23:40 GMT

The EIS believes senior pupils are mature enough to take part in elections

Scotland‘s largest teaching union has said 16 and 17-year-olds should be allowed to vote in the referendum on independence.

In a submission to the Scottish government’s consultation, the EIS said young voters should take part in all elections.

It pointed out that 16-year-olds have many other rights and responsibilities, including marriage and paying taxes.

The union represents 80% of Scotland‘s teachers and lecturers.

EIS General Secretary Larry Flanagan said: “The EIS believes that 16 and 17-year-olds should have the vote in the referendum on Scotland‘s future, which is their future.

“Extending the franchise to 16 and 17-year-olds will help to foster active citizenship by giving young people a greater say in the decisions that will affect them now and in the future.”

The Scottish government has already said it would like the minimum voting age to be 16.

Mr Flanagan added: “At the age of 16, young people can secure employment, pay taxes and get married.

“They can join the armed forces. It is wholly appropriate that they should also have the right to vote on the decisions that affect them, and to have a fair say in who is elected to represent them at local or national level.”

The EIS has also said it favours a three option, preferential vote, which would allow people to indicate their support for substantially greater powers for the Scottish parliament short of independence.

Enabling Cookies in Internet Explorer 7, 8 9

1. Open the Internet Browser
2. Click Tools Internet OptionsPrivacyAdvanced
3. Check Override automatic cookie handling
4. For First-party Cookies and Third-party Cookies click Accept
5. Click OK and OK

Enabling Cookies in Firefox

1. Open the Firefox browser
2. Click ToolsOptionsPrivacyUse custom settings for history
3. Check Accept cookies from sites
4. Check Accept third party cookies
5. Select Keep until: they expire
6. Click OK

Enabling Cookies in Google Chrome

1. Open the Google Chrome browser
2. Click Tools iconOptionsUnder the HoodContent Settings
3. Check Allow local data to be set
4. Uncheck Block third-party cookies from being set
5. Uncheck Clear cookies
6. Close all

Enabling Cookies in Mobile Safari (iPhone, iPad)

1. Go to the Home screen by pressing the Home button or by unlocking your phone/iPad
2. Select the Settings icon.
3. Select Safari from the settings menu.
4. Select ‘accept cookies’ from the safari menu.
5. Select ‘from visited’ from the accept cookies menu.
6. Press the home button to return the the iPhone home screen.
7. Select the Safari icon to return to Safari.
8. Before the cookie settings change will take effect, Safari must restart. To restart Safari press and hold the Home button (for around five seconds) until the iPhone/iPad display goes blank and the home screen appears.
9. Select the Safari icon to return to Safari.

Watch it for yourself, if you don’t believe me. And see for yourself, not only
his poor performance, but also the look of horror on the faces of Mr
Salmond’s colleagues as he struggled as never before in response to a
positively scintillating cross-examination from Johann Lamont, the Scottish
Labour leader.

At issue was the blithe assertion last weekend from Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP
deputy leader, that an independent Scotland would have a representative on
the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee. Just like that. No ifs, no
buts.

A Scotland completely separate from the United Kingdom but retaining sterling
would have a say on setting interest rates not just for itself but for the
constitutional entity it had decided to leave.

It was a pretty obvious line of attack for Johann Lamont but what no one could
have predicted was the maladroit handling of the issue by Mr Salmond.

It was clear from the outset that he was skating on thin ice when he said that
the Treasury appointed four members of the committee, adding “we would
expect to be part of that process”.

Then he started to waffle to a truly extraordinary degree, talking about
having not a member but an observer at the MPC meetings and then about how
other countries that shared a currency also shared interest rate decision
making.

It later transpired that the example Mr Salmond had in mind was the euro but
for perfectly obvious reasons he didn’t dare mention that at this particular
juncture in world affairs.

Possibly Mrs Lamont’s best point in this whole debate, however, was the scorn
she poured on the fact that whilst Mr Salmond did not believe that Scotland,
as a constituent member of the United Kingdom, had enough influence over the
decisions of the MPC but thought that it would somehow have more power as a
foreign country.

Oh, how they laughed at Eck at this juncture as he floundered on and on.

As all those who have tracked Mr Salmond’s words over the years have noticed –
and as the Labour leader pointed out – his vision of an independent Scotland
is based on “assertion, belief and hope” not fact.

All we get, she said, was “meaningless assertion after meaningless
assertion”.

For instance, Mr Salmond has neither asked nor sought an assurance from the
Bank of England or the Treasury about whether an independent Scotland could
retain sterling or have representation on the monetary policy committee.

Yet he says we’ll retain sterling and have a member on the MPC.

And, in perhaps her most cutting blow, she mercilessly teased those totally
cowed SNP backbenchers by suggesting that the only question they were
permitted to ask was “Just how good are you First Minister?” Ouch.

So rattled was Mr Salmond that he was reduced to accusing the Labour leader of
not asking him the “right question.”

She has certainly no intention of doing that and as a result it was game, set
and match to Mrs Lamont; six-love, six-love, six-love.

For the Tories, Ruth Davidson decided not to pursue the same line of
questioning – so too, later, did Willie Rennie of the Liberal Democrats –
which was a great pity.

When Eck’s on the ropes, it’s time to get stuck in, not plough your own
furrow.

And while the Tory leader tried to embarrass the Nats over the fact that
Northern Irish students are using their entitlement to Irish – and hence
European Union – passports to get free university education in Scotland, she
still hasn’t mastered the art of asking proper questions.

When Mr Salmond did his usual and answered a question he hadn’t been asked,
Miss Davidson failed to get him back on track and with one bound he was
free.

Still, with Johann Lamont on such form it was a great day to be in the cheap
seats.

By way of contrast with Mr Salmond’s car-crash of a performance, his deputy,
Miss Sturgeon, was in sparking form when she later wound up an entirely
pointless debate on Scotland‘s future. Watch out Alex.

Print this Article   
Email this Article

LONDON — The former top media adviser to Prime Minister David Cameron was arrested and charged with perjury Wednesday in the trial of a flamboyant ex-Scottish lawmaker — the latest case tied to allegations of wrongdoing by British tabloid newspapers.

Andy Coulson, 44, was detained by Scottish police at his home in London on Wednesday morning over an accusation related to testimony he gave in a high-profile case at Glasgow’s High Court in 2010, when politician Tommy Sheridan was convicted of offering a false account in a legal hearing.

Coulson arrived in Glasgow on Wednesday afternoon for questioning, but he was not arrested or charged until late Wednesday evening. In Scotland, which uses a different legal system from the rest of the United Kingdom, a suspect can be detained by police to answer questions before being formally arrested or charged.

Strathclyde Police said late Wednesday that a report would be submitted to Scottish prosecutors, who will determine whether Coulson will face a trial. In Scotland, police can charge a suspect but the decision on whether to prosecute rests with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

Sheridan had won a lawsuit against the now-defunct News of the World tabloid over its claim that he was embroiled in a sex-and-drugs scandal, but he was later jailed for three years after a jury at the 2010 trial ruled he had committed perjury when he sued the newspaper.

Coulson was editor of the tabloid when stories about Sheridan were published, and working as Cameron’s communications director when he gave evidence to the 2010 trial.

The ex-aide, who left his post at the News of The World in 2007 after a reporter and a private investigator were jailed over phone hacking offenses, told the court that he didn’t “accept there was a culture of phone hacking” at the tabloid.

He insisted that he had ordered his reporters to work within the law and said that police officers were not paid for information.

Those assurances have since been called into question by revelations of widespread illegal behavior at the paper and allegations — denied by Coulson — that he approved and encouraged the shady practices.

Cameron has insisted he had been right to offer Coulson a “second chance,” by making him his media chief — but the ex-aide’s resignation early last year, his arrest by London police investigating phone hacking, and Wednesday’s detention by Scottish police have raised questions about the British leader’s judgment.

The prime minister’s ties to both Coulson and their mutual friend Rebekah Brooks, an ex-chief executive of Rupert Murdoch’s News International, have brought the tabloid phone hacking scandal to Cameron’s doorstep.

Sheridan, who was freed from jail after serving a year of his sentence — usual practice for crimes of that type in Scotland — said he now hopes to have his conviction quashed.

“We were led to believe by Mr. Coulson and his acolytes at News International during my trial and the initial phone-hacking investigations that the problem was a rogue reporter,” Sheridan told reporters outside his home. “Well, I think we all know now that there is no bad apple in the barrel. What there is is a rotten orchard full of bad apples.”

Sheridan’s lawyer, Gordon Dangerfield, said he would appeal the ex-lawmaker’s perjury conviction.

In 2006, Sheridan won a defamation suit against the tabloid after it claimed he had visited a swingers’ club, had taken part in orgies and used cocaine. However, a year after his courtroom victory against the newspaper, police arrested and charged Sheridan with perjury in connection with the hearing.

The subsequent trial riveted Scotland, with its lurid allegations about sex clubs and tabloid skullduggery.

Coulson arrived in Scotland on Wednesday afternoon for questioning, but he was not formally arrested or charged until Wednesday night.

The police department said the case was tied to Operation Rubicon, a Scottish police investigation into allegations of phone hacking, breaches of data protection and perjury. Those inquiries are running separately to major investigations by London police into newspaper malpractice.

Coulson is currently on police bail in connection with the London inquiry, meaning he must return to answer more questions from detectives there in the near future. He has also testified to the country’s media ethics inquiry.

News of the World was part of News Corp., which is the corporate parent of the Portsmouth Herald.

Sign Up for Text Alerts

Sign Up for News by Email

(UKPA)
–
4 hours ago 

MSPs have for the first time voted in favour of Scotland becoming independent.

First Minister Alex Salmond hailed the vote, by 69 to 52, as a “milestone” in the country’s history. He also revealed that 15,000 people have backed a declaration stating it is “fundamentally better” if decisions about the country’s future are taken by the people of Scotland.

The declaration is a key part of the Yes Scotland cross-party campaign for independence, which officially got under way just six days ago. At the time of its launch Mr Salmond declared that if one million voters put their names to it “then we shall win an independent Scotland“.

The SNP leader revealed 15,000 people had already given it their backing as Holyrood debated the country’s constitutional future.

Labour, Tories and the Liberal Democrats all united round an amendment put forward by Johann Lamont, the Scottish Labour leader. It argued that it was in Scotland‘s best interest to remain part of the United Kingdom and that the country was “stronger together and weaker apart”.

But that was defeated, with MSPs instead backing Mr Salmond’s motion, which said: “The Parliament agrees that Scotland should be an independent country.”

While the vote is largely procedural, it will have symbolic significance for Nationalists, who can now state that independence is “the will of the Scottish Parliament”.

Mr Salmond said: “Today, for the first time since the beginning of the political union, the elected representatives of the people of Scotland have agreed that this nation should be an independent country.” He said the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 had a been a “milestone in Scotland‘s journey” and added: “The motion today marks another.”

While he said Holyrood had “achieved much in its short life span” – such as the ban on smoking in public places – he added: “This Parliament is not yet able to make many of the key decisions which affect the lives of our fellow countrymen and women.”

But Ms Lamont argued that most Scots did not want independence. “We, as a nation, were never conquered,” the Labour leader said. “The United Kingdom has not been imposed upon us, it is the choice of Scots. It is the choice of Scots to share power with our neighbours in these small islands.”

Copyright © 2012 The Press Association. All rights reserved.