BBC SCOTLAND is under fire from Labour for making a TV programme about how an independent Scotland could learn from the perceived enlightened economic and social policies of Scandinavia.

The documentary is expected to air around the time the SNP government's white paper on the mechanics of independence is published in November. Labour peer Lord George Foulkes said the idea smacked of BBC "luvvies".

BBC sources said the documentary, looking at life in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark, was one of many programmes planned as part of the BBC's £5 million referendum coverage.

Foulkes recently complained to broadcast watchdog Ofcom and STV about the Road to Referendum documentary presented by Sunday Herald columnist Iain Macwhirter, because he objected to Macwhirter's "view on independence".

He said: "All these comparisons with Scandinavia, when the proper degree of scrutiny has been put on them, don't stand up ... there is a luvvy Scottish establishment behind the nationalists getting carried away."