Browse content similar to 26/07/2011. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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There are all sorts of scapegoats, the Japanese tsunami, the Royal | :00:08. | :00:11. | |
Wedding, but the plain fact is, that the British economy is in | :00:12. | :00:16. | |
trouble. The latest figures out today show it is growing at 0.2%, | :00:16. | :00:21. | |
not recession, but not recovery either. Just a nether world of | :00:21. | :00:25. | |
stagnant growth, gathering inflation, and Government austerity. | :00:25. | :00:28. | |
Can we escape from the zombie economy? | :00:28. | :00:32. | |
Services are up, manufacturing is down, the economic rebalancing we | :00:32. | :00:37. | |
were promised doesn't seem to be going quite according to plan. | :00:37. | :00:40. | |
As the economy flatline, are we months from sustained recovery, | :00:40. | :00:44. | |
years or even a decade? All three main political parties | :00:45. | :00:50. | |
are here with their prescriptions. Last week we revealed accusations | :00:50. | :00:55. | |
of celebrity phone hacking at the Sunday Mirror, now Mirror Group are | :00:55. | :00:59. | |
launching a review of their journalistic standards, but still | :00:59. | :01:03. | |
denying everything. A year tomorrow, the Olympics begin, | :01:03. | :01:07. | |
the author, Ian Sinclair, asks if the huge costs can be justified. | :01:07. | :01:11. | |
Many of the great things promised as a result of the Olympic legacy, | :01:11. | :01:20. | |
are here already. Or were here and have disappeared. | :01:20. | :01:28. | |
Paralympic gold medallists, Will Self are here, as is the Olympics | :01:28. | :01:33. | |
board member, Tessa Jowell, with Baroness Gray-Thompson. | :01:33. | :01:37. | |
Dismal is perhaps the best word to describe the state of the British | :01:37. | :01:43. | |
recovery from recession, if you can really call growth of 0.2% recovery | :01:43. | :01:47. | |
at all. The word the Government prefers is "stability" which is | :01:47. | :01:50. | |
another thing all together. The opposition claimed again it was | :01:51. | :01:56. | |
proof of the need for plan B. No chance, said Number Ten. | :01:56. | :02:01. | |
0.2% is a bit of an unimpressive number, it tests the creativity of | :02:01. | :02:08. | |
the politician to turn it into evidence of soaring success. I am | :02:08. | :02:10. | |
afraid the conclusion is that George Osborne's policies have | :02:10. | :02:14. | |
choked off the recovery in the previous nine months. It was 2.1% | :02:14. | :02:18. | |
growth, now in the last nine months just 0.2% growth. This is a | :02:18. | :02:22. | |
flatlining economy. Growth would have been a bit higher, | :02:22. | :02:25. | |
except, you know how the Royal Wedding was going to be really good | :02:25. | :02:29. | |
for the economy and everything, well it turns out it wasn't. Along | :02:29. | :02:33. | |
with the Japanese tsunami and the warm weather in April, the Office | :02:33. | :02:36. | |
for National Statistics have said they have had to revise their | :02:36. | :02:40. | |
guests on growth by making some other guesses. The effects of these | :02:40. | :02:44. | |
different special factors do go in different direction, and are | :02:44. | :02:49. | |
subject to a high degree of uncertainty, but our overall broad | :02:50. | :02:59. | |
brush and illustrative anal sis suggest that they together have sub | :02:59. | :03:04. | |
- anal sis suggest that they have subjected from GDP | :03:04. | :03:06. | |
There are more voices telling the Prime Minister to do something | :03:06. | :03:11. | |
different, at the moment if we believe the rumour, one of those | :03:11. | :03:16. | |
voices belongs to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who wants, we are | :03:16. | :03:19. | |
told, an early reduction in the top rate of income tax. Both sides are | :03:19. | :03:22. | |
denying there is any sort of disagreement between them. Today, | :03:22. | :03:25. | |
it was almost as if the Prime Minister and the Chancellor were | :03:25. | :03:28. | |
reading from the same script. I think we should be positive, | :03:28. | :03:32. | |
because the economy is growing. There is positive news today, which | :03:32. | :03:36. | |
is the economy is growing. More people are in work than a year ago. | :03:36. | :03:41. | |
We are creating jobs. Clearly we are, if you like, some stability in | :03:41. | :03:45. | |
a very uncertain world. crucially, at a time when many | :03:45. | :03:48. | |
other countries in the world face a lot of instability, we are | :03:49. | :03:51. | |
providing stability in Britain, and we are a safe haven in the storm. | :03:51. | :03:56. | |
Why has growth been a bit, well, mouse had-like. The graph has been | :03:56. | :04:00. | |
falling for the past year, only just staying above the line in | :04:00. | :04:03. | |
positive territory. How do you boost it? Some believe the | :04:03. | :04:08. | |
Government has to retarget cuts in spending. You don't want to be | :04:08. | :04:11. | |
hitting the people most likely to be spending all the money they have, | :04:11. | :04:15. | |
and you don't want to be pushing people out of work, for instance, | :04:15. | :04:19. | |
by removing child cautious which means often the second earner it | :04:19. | :04:22. | |
might not be worthwhile them working any more. Some cuts you | :04:22. | :04:25. | |
should be avoiding, if you want to find the money you need to look | :04:25. | :04:29. | |
elsewhere. Where elsewhere? At the top end of the earnings | :04:29. | :04:31. | |
distribution, if we have to find money, rather than hitting people | :04:31. | :04:36. | |
who rely on childcare to work, take the money from top earners, and we | :04:36. | :04:39. | |
spend a huge amount of money as a country still, we should look there | :04:39. | :04:44. | |
first, rather than the lower to the middle ends of the income | :04:44. | :04:47. | |
distribution. Is getting households to spend more really the answer to | :04:47. | :04:50. | |
growth? We don't want them spending more, it is just a mistake to think | :04:50. | :04:53. | |
there is some solution out there, some magic bullet where the | :04:53. | :04:57. | |
Government runs even more debt and the private sector runs more debt. | :04:57. | :05:01. | |
We need to get out of the debt as a country, that will be a long, slow | :05:01. | :05:04. | |
and painful process. It is not likely, I think, to be a prd of | :05:04. | :05:08. | |
quiet, some people suggest that - period of quiet, some people | :05:08. | :05:13. | |
suggest that it might be like Japan in the 1990s where it was slow. I | :05:13. | :05:19. | |
suggest it will be a bumpy ride, with some periods where we have | :05:19. | :05:24. | |
recessions and others with rapid growth and quickly. | :05:24. | :05:27. | |
The Prime Minister was in Caerphilly, at a company that helps | :05:27. | :05:32. | |
the jobless back to work. When we talk about growth figure, we are | :05:32. | :05:35. | |
talking about the UK-wide average, there is a lot of regional | :05:35. | :05:39. | |
variation within this. In this part of Wales, the average person | :05:39. | :05:44. | |
contribute as fifth of the GDP that the average Londoner does. Although | :05:44. | :05:52. | |
the economy has created jobs in the past year, 416,000 of them, 34 | :05:52. | :05:59. | |
4,000, or 80% went to people born over seas. There are people who | :05:59. | :06:03. | |
come to me in my surgeries and constituency, and tell me they are | :06:03. | :06:06. | |
better off staying on benefits rather than going to work. If that | :06:06. | :06:11. | |
is the situation up and down the country, it is no wonder it is hard | :06:11. | :06:17. | |
to get people into work, and make sure that culture of work expands. | :06:17. | :06:22. | |
So changinging the welfare system is actually vital to the long-term | :06:22. | :06:27. | |
growth of our economy. The problem, in case you hadn't noticed, is that | :06:27. | :06:32. | |
money is a bit scarce. All the the options for growth seem to come | :06:32. | :06:42. | |
:06:42. | :06:43. | ||
with hefty price tags, making a supersonic recovery a bit tricky. | :06:43. | :06:47. | |
Why are these growth figures so rubbish? I think it is safe to say | :06:47. | :06:52. | |
it is not because of the cuts. Although cuts in services and some | :06:52. | :06:56. | |
job cuts started in March, April, they are not big enough to cause | :06:56. | :07:00. | |
this level of flatlining. I think it is clear that it is because of | :07:00. | :07:04. | |
this falling spending power. Which is what contributes to that, | :07:04. | :07:08. | |
inflation, static wage, higher deductions from wage, it amounts to | :07:08. | :07:12. | |
a cut in real wage a cut in spending power. When you add to | :07:12. | :07:15. | |
that, people are worried when they hear all these stories, they are | :07:15. | :07:18. | |
starting to pay down debt, pay down their credit cards, pay their | :07:18. | :07:25. | |
mortgages off if they can. That is the problem. Now, is it a disaster, | :07:25. | :07:29. | |
is, are three quarters of poor growth a disaster, after the crisis | :07:29. | :07:33. | |
we went through, probably not. What they are, what we can begin the | :07:33. | :07:37. | |
discussion among the politicians from, is they represent the | :07:37. | :07:40. | |
Government missing its own target. It missed its own prediction. Let's | :07:40. | :07:44. | |
look at the graph. It has set up this Office for Budget | :07:44. | :07:48. | |
Responsibility, which is supposed to predict what happens to growth. | :07:48. | :07:52. | |
Here are the first four prediction, the first three of which were | :07:52. | :07:56. | |
pretty straight line upward growth. pretty straight line upward growth. | :07:56. | :08:01. | |
Based from early 20106789 It had a go in March 2011 in | :08:01. | :08:06. | |
bringing it down, here is reality, the actual growth is lower. We are | :08:06. | :08:10. | |
1.5 percentage points less in the space of a yor than what the | :08:10. | :08:16. | |
Government predicted. This has - - a year than what the Government | :08:16. | :08:22. | |
predicted. This is has an affect on how people live but on what they | :08:22. | :08:25. | |
predicted. Does that mean if they are 1.5 | :08:25. | :08:30. | |
percentage points fewer they need a plan B? Plan B has been knocked | :08:30. | :08:35. | |
about a bit, we heard it when the IMF came and put a rubber stamp on | :08:35. | :08:38. | |
it. It is more quantitative easing if you need it, printing more money, | :08:38. | :08:43. | |
tax cuts, if you need it, you could always Miss Your deficit reduction | :08:43. | :08:49. | |
targets, the IMF won't slap their wrist too much with that. These | :08:49. | :08:51. | |
things Ron the horizon when Liberal Democrat and Conservative | :08:51. | :08:56. | |
politicians start to talk about it. Waib waib waib at the weekend start | :08:56. | :09:00. | |
- Stephen McCabe at the weekend started talking about more quees | :09:00. | :09:07. | |
quees quees, and we had bore - quantitative easing, we had Boris | :09:07. | :09:10. | |
Johnson talking about cuts in National Insurance. Will it work, | :09:10. | :09:14. | |
quantitative easing, as we have already got it, isn't exactly | :09:14. | :09:19. | |
pushing money out into the economy. You would have to ask, tax cuts for | :09:19. | :09:23. | |
what? To give a short-term boost to next year, or tax cuts, as we heard, | :09:23. | :09:26. | |
some of the Conservative politicians in David's piece, talk | :09:26. | :09:30. | |
about, to restructure the economy. If you start talking about tax cuts, | :09:30. | :09:34. | |
you suddenly have to explain to people what they are supposed to be | :09:34. | :09:38. | |
doing. Thank you very much. Now we had hoped to interview a | :09:38. | :09:45. | |
Treasury minister, but we were told no-one was available. But Michael | :09:45. | :09:49. | |
Fallon Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party is here, for his | :09:49. | :09:52. | |
weekly visit, and Chuka Umunna and Lord Oakeshott from the Liberal | :09:52. | :09:57. | |
Democrats is also here. The various excuses being canvased | :09:57. | :10:00. | |
today, put out by the office of national statistic, there was a | :10:00. | :10:04. | |
Royal Wedding, a tsunami, a bit of nice wedding, do you buy any of | :10:04. | :10:08. | |
this? They said if you add all of them up growth would have been 0.7% | :10:08. | :10:15. | |
rather than 0.2%, that is quite a big difference. You buy that | :10:15. | :10:18. | |
explanation? They are an independent office of national | :10:18. | :10:21. | |
statistics. I asked whether you believe them? I do believe them. | :10:21. | :10:24. | |
They are independent. Do you believe them? Well they said it was | :10:24. | :10:29. | |
broad brush and highly illustrative. I think you can have one quarter's | :10:30. | :10:34. | |
excuses is fine, but when you have three in a row, why don't the | :10:34. | :10:38. | |
tsunami and bad weather affect the Germans, when their economy is | :10:38. | :10:42. | |
booming away. One wonders what will happen in the autumn? It is very | :10:42. | :10:46. | |
worrying, I think these figures are a devastating indictment of George | :10:46. | :10:48. | |
a devastating indictment of George Osborne's action, I tell you why. | :10:48. | :10:54. | |
One of the things Paul mentioned was confidence, he used the most | :10:54. | :10:56. | |
irresponsible language before the election to describe the state of | :10:56. | :11:01. | |
the economy, decribing it as on the brink of bankruptcy. It was? | :11:01. | :11:04. | |
serious economist denied that was the case. And of course, afterwards, | :11:04. | :11:08. | |
when people heard what he was planning to do with his two far, | :11:08. | :11:13. | |
too fast cuts, confidence fell. there something about our economy | :11:13. | :11:16. | |
that makes it so much more difficult for it to grow at the | :11:16. | :11:19. | |
rate some other economies can grow? Yes there is something about it, | :11:19. | :11:22. | |
the reason, you weren't there, the reason is that Gordon Brown left it | :11:22. | :11:27. | |
in such a very bad state with such a desperately flawed banking system. | :11:27. | :11:31. | |
I mean it is much harder for us than it is say for Germany, but the | :11:31. | :11:35. | |
fact is, the economy is only progressing at the pace of a lame | :11:35. | :11:38. | |
snail, it is very disappointing, and we need to look at ways to try | :11:39. | :11:43. | |
to get it going. Just hang on a moment, the economy is growing, it | :11:43. | :11:47. | |
may be growing more slowly than you would like, but it is growing. That | :11:47. | :11:50. | |
growth has added half a million new jobs in the last year, it is | :11:50. | :11:55. | |
expanding every week, there are new jobs being created every week. Of | :11:55. | :11:59. | |
course everybody would like it to be faster, we inherited, not only | :11:59. | :12:03. | |
the worst deficit, but a very unbalanced economy. It is growing | :12:03. | :12:09. | |
at a lower rate than you yourselves predicted? The office of budget | :12:09. | :12:12. | |
responsibility is independent, it is a lower rate they predicted. | :12:12. | :12:17. | |
Inflation is higher, there is a rise of commodity prices around the | :12:17. | :12:22. | |
world that effects us as well. raising VAT help matters? That is | :12:22. | :12:26. | |
part of sorting out the deficit. Did it help the rate of growth? | :12:26. | :12:29. | |
There is a big difference between us and the turmoil in the eurozone, | :12:29. | :12:33. | |
we had to deal with the definite, we announced a plan, we are stick | :12:33. | :12:40. | |
to go that plan. That is why the market rates for which we borrow | :12:40. | :12:44. | |
money is down there with the German rates, we are not in the mess that | :12:44. | :12:49. | |
Spain or Italy are in. Michael talks about the eurozone, look at | :12:50. | :12:54. | |
the strategies in Greece and Portugal, they whacked up VAT and | :12:54. | :12:57. | |
imposed massive spending cuts, and look at the mess they are in. There | :12:57. | :12:59. | |
is a lesson there. One of the problems with the strategy of the | :12:59. | :13:05. | |
Government is it is self-defeating, we already know, the OBR has | :13:05. | :13:09. | |
mentioned already there will be borrowing of �46 billion more than | :13:09. | :13:12. | |
originally forecast. Why? Because growth will be slower, because that | :13:12. | :13:16. | |
is also going to be linked to falling jobs. I am afraid you have | :13:16. | :13:19. | |
to take some responsibility for your own last Government, we are in | :13:19. | :13:23. | |
a mess here, because the banks are not lending, and because our | :13:23. | :13:27. | |
deficit was very deep. Now, we are starting to get, I agree with | :13:27. | :13:32. | |
Michael, we mustn't take chances and end up with an olive oil credit | :13:32. | :13:36. | |
rating, but the problem we have got, you are right on this one, if | :13:36. | :13:39. | |
growth is too slow we will not get the taxes in we need and welfare | :13:39. | :13:45. | |
payment also go up. We need to take targeted measures. Stephen McCabe | :13:45. | :13:51. | |
said for the Liberal Democrats over the weekend, there - Vince Cable | :13:51. | :13:55. | |
said over the weekend we need to pump more money in through | :13:55. | :13:58. | |
quantitative easing, but the other thing, I believe is important, if | :13:58. | :14:02. | |
there is money for tax cuts, which George Osborne is talking about, we | :14:02. | :14:07. | |
don't give it to the people at the stop who don't need it and won't | :14:07. | :14:12. | |
spend it, we put it into a targeted tax cut, and my suggestion would be | :14:12. | :14:16. | |
cutting VAT from 20% to 5% on home improvements and repairs, that | :14:17. | :14:21. | |
would get white van man going. is something argued for by the | :14:21. | :14:24. | |
Federation of Small Businesses. have been arguing it for years. | :14:24. | :14:28. | |
by one. Let's continue the tax thing. This isn't just about | :14:28. | :14:33. | |
balancing the books and sorting out the deficit, we have to help the | :14:33. | :14:37. | |
economy grow, that means cutting business stackss, we have cut | :14:37. | :14:39. | |
National Insurance, cut corporation tax for business, we have made it | :14:39. | :14:44. | |
easier to start up business in the regions. It means deregulation, | :14:44. | :14:47. | |
simplifying the systems. We have said the higher rates, we have got | :14:47. | :14:51. | |
to be competitive, at the moment we have said these are temporary rates | :14:51. | :14:54. | |
that we inherited, and we need to make sure, all the time, they are | :14:54. | :14:57. | |
competitive. We have a study going on as to the yield they bring in. | :14:57. | :15:02. | |
Is that really a priority, when life is really, really tough, day- | :15:02. | :15:07. | |
to-day, for people outside London, it is not a priority to cut the 50p | :15:07. | :15:11. | |
rate, why is George Osborne talking about it, why not put the tax cuts | :15:11. | :15:17. | |
where they are working. We are not cutting the tax rate at the top. We | :15:17. | :15:21. | |
are studying the yield to it. We need to make sure our tax rates in | :15:21. | :15:24. | |
the country are competitive. That is the answer, we need to make the | :15:24. | :15:28. | |
whole economy as competitive as we can, that means more deregulation, | :15:28. | :15:32. | |
backing by-election helping people grow their businesses, so we can | :15:32. | :15:35. | |
rebalance the system. We have been hearing this for the last year, and | :15:35. | :15:40. | |
we have got 0.2% growth. inherited an economy with the worst | :15:40. | :15:45. | |
deficit in the west. We inherited an economy that was fundamentally | :15:45. | :15:50. | |
unbalanced. If you let me finish. In the previous nine months...It | :15:50. | :15:53. | |
Was all on financial services and public spending. We need to | :15:53. | :15:56. | |
encourage the rest of the economy, the real economy, manufacturing, | :15:56. | :16:00. | |
science, innovation, in the regions. Manufacturing output has dropped in | :16:00. | :16:03. | |
the figures we have seen, business services and finances has gone up. | :16:03. | :16:06. | |
This magical rebalancing that apparently George Osborne is | :16:06. | :16:09. | |
bringing about, we are not seeing happen. What about the point that | :16:09. | :16:12. | |
Lord Oakeshott mentioned, which is more quantitative easing, more | :16:12. | :16:16. | |
printing of money by the Bank of England. What about that? I don't | :16:16. | :16:20. | |
see that at the moment. If inflation is as per the Bank of | :16:20. | :16:23. | |
England's central projection, I don't see how they can do another | :16:24. | :16:27. | |
round of quantitative easing, it is incredibly inflationary, the other | :16:27. | :16:30. | |
option in terms of monetary policy would be reducing interest rates, | :16:30. | :16:35. | |
they are on the floor already. This is where the ball bounces straight | :16:35. | :16:38. | |
back to the Government, people are looking for fiscal policy changes. | :16:38. | :16:42. | |
The question is how bad does it have to get before George Osborne | :16:42. | :16:45. | |
agrees to change course. Changing course, means, as you said, | :16:45. | :16:51. | |
reversing the VAT cut, that means spending �12, �13 billion a year | :16:51. | :16:55. | |
you haven't got. Coming off the. Can you just engage, let him engage | :16:56. | :16:59. | |
with the question. Can you engage with the question of quantitative | :16:59. | :17:02. | |
easing, more printing of money, what do you think? It is for the | :17:02. | :17:06. | |
bank to decide how much money to print, there is no evidence that | :17:06. | :17:10. | |
printing the money got through to the economy. There are bigger | :17:10. | :17:13. | |
problems as Matthew identified, about bank lending and so on, | :17:13. | :17:17. | |
getting money through to the banks. We have the new agreement with the | :17:17. | :17:20. | |
banks, the Merlin agreement, so they have to lend more, it started | :17:20. | :17:24. | |
in February, it is starting to come through. In the first quarter �2.2 | :17:24. | :17:29. | |
billion less than the target. big question is when the vicar's | :17:29. | :17:33. | |
report comes out recommending major reforms on the banks, hopefully | :17:33. | :17:37. | |
spliting them up, will Labour support it this time because they | :17:37. | :17:40. | |
totally failed to before, will you support it now. I will interrupt | :17:40. | :17:45. | |
you all there. The owners of Mirror Newspapers | :17:45. | :17:48. | |
have begun an investigation into journalistic practices across the | :17:48. | :17:51. | |
group's titles, last week a Newsnight investigation alleged | :17:52. | :17:57. | |
that hacking was common place at some papers in the group. The | :17:57. | :18:02. | |
Government, meanwhile, has released figures of how often the Government | :18:02. | :18:05. | |
and their ministers met Rupert Murdoch and his staff. There were | :18:05. | :18:07. | |
16 meetings by the Chancellor of the Exchequer alone since the | :18:07. | :18:11. | |
election. Our political editor is here with more. | :18:11. | :18:15. | |
So? You will recall on Friday, Richard Watson did a story for | :18:15. | :18:19. | |
Newsnight based on a source a former journalist on the Sunday | :18:19. | :18:23. | |
Mirror who had told him that phone hacking was prevalent in the past | :18:24. | :18:29. | |
at the Sunday Mirror, against celebrity, including Liz Hurley, | :18:29. | :18:36. | |
well, today, Trinity Mirror have announced a review of editorial | :18:36. | :18:39. | |
control and procedures, they have told us it is not an investigation | :18:39. | :18:42. | |
into phone hacking or any other allegation like that, and it is not | :18:42. | :18:45. | |
a response to Friday's story on Newsnight. What about the meetings | :18:45. | :18:48. | |
with the Murdoch organisation on the part of Government? These were | :18:48. | :18:52. | |
promised by the Prime Minister a few days ago. Disclosure was | :18:52. | :18:57. | |
promised? Yes. And of the 16 meetings that you mentioned George | :18:57. | :19:01. | |
Osborne had over the last 15 months, two of those were with Rupert | :19:01. | :19:07. | |
Murdoch, three of them with James Murdoch. Jeremy Hunt, the Culture | :19:07. | :19:12. | |
Secretary, met Rupert Murdoch twice, James Murdoch three times, Rebekah | :19:12. | :19:15. | |
Brooks once. What is interesting, Michael Gove, the Education | :19:15. | :19:20. | |
Secretary, who has met, held six meetings in the last year or so, | :19:20. | :19:24. | |
which he has met Rupert Murdoch, including three in the case of, in | :19:24. | :19:30. | |
the space of just six weeks in May and June of this year. What I think | :19:30. | :19:34. | |
is interesting about these links is it shows the extent to which senior, | :19:34. | :19:38. | |
so many senior figures, were compromised, and to a degree were | :19:39. | :19:43. | |
embarrassed by their links with Murdoch and the empire. | :19:43. | :19:47. | |
Compromised? Potentially compromised. Michael Gove's case, | :19:47. | :19:52. | |
he used to work for the Times, and Murdoch, highly regarded by him, | :19:52. | :19:57. | |
his wife still works for the paper. One of the interesting aspects of | :19:57. | :20:02. | |
what has don on over the last few weeks, is to the extent of which | :20:02. | :20:05. | |
David Cameron has been isolate. People like Michael Gove or George | :20:05. | :20:09. | |
Osborne, who might normally have come to his aid in public, haven't | :20:09. | :20:12. | |
done so. In other interesting case, William Hague, who the details | :20:12. | :20:16. | |
today don't suggest he had any particularly interesting meetings | :20:16. | :20:20. | |
with News International. It is worth noting that he may well have | :20:20. | :20:25. | |
been the man that introduced Andy Coulson to the Conservatives in the | :20:25. | :20:30. | |
first place. Although George Osborne is often credited with that, | :20:30. | :20:36. | |
calls calls calls, - Andy Coulson, way back in 2003, employed William | :20:36. | :20:41. | |
Hague as a columnist at the News of the World at a salary of over | :20:41. | :20:45. | |
�200,000 a year. What will you do tomorrow, in an unpredictable world, | :20:45. | :20:48. | |
we can reasonably be confident that large numbers of us will be | :20:48. | :20:51. | |
watching the same thing, the opening ceremony of the 2012 London | :20:51. | :20:54. | |
Olympics will usher in the world's greatest festival of sport. The | :20:54. | :20:59. | |
thing is on time and under budget, or under the budget that trebled | :20:59. | :21:05. | |
after the bid went in, and will cost us all the thick end of �9 | :21:05. | :21:11. | |
billion. The massive expense was justified by the last Government | :21:11. | :21:15. | |
because it would regenerate massive areas of East London. As we report, | :21:16. | :21:20. | |
there is many a slip. This is how the dream took shape. | :21:20. | :21:25. | |
Space age arenas for the world to visit. Built on three years, on | :21:25. | :21:30. | |
wasteland and what were polluted industrial sites. The centre piece, | :21:30. | :21:36. | |
the 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium. Amazing what a few billion can do. | :21:36. | :21:42. | |
Already they are laying the running track, for the 100 sms. But then | :21:42. | :21:46. | |
the most ambitious - 100ms, but then the most ambitious pledges are | :21:46. | :21:49. | |
still to be kept. London got the Olympic, not only because they | :21:49. | :21:53. | |
could put on a big show on time, but because of what they promised | :21:53. | :21:57. | |
to come next. The regeneration of London's poorest areas. This is to | :21:57. | :22:01. | |
be the launch pad, the future is supposed to start here. Behind the | :22:01. | :22:06. | |
�9 billion plus of public money, there is, of course, a buzzword, | :22:06. | :22:12. | |
the buzzword is "legacy". Legacy seems to be mean different | :22:12. | :22:17. | |
things to different people. A point gleefully seized by the current BBC | :22:17. | :22:21. | |
satire. The Olympics isn't really about sport at all, this whole | :22:21. | :22:26. | |
thing starts when the sport ends. Sustainability is closely related | :22:26. | :22:31. | |
to legacy? They are not the same, sorry. The original London bid | :22:31. | :22:34. | |
promised legacy would mean the regeneration of an entire community | :22:35. | :22:38. | |
for the benefit of everyone who lives there. | :22:39. | :22:44. | |
Most of the Olympics will happen in the East London borough of Newham, | :22:44. | :22:47. | |
the locals have already faced years of disruption with the building | :22:47. | :22:52. | |
work, there is no let up. The mayor says it will only be worth it if | :22:52. | :22:56. | |
they see the benefits? This is an area of poverty, and has been for a | :22:56. | :23:00. | |
century. We want to change that. You are worried at the moment that | :23:00. | :23:04. | |
people could end up resenting things. We will have an opening | :23:04. | :23:08. | |
ceremony dress rehearsal, we want residents at that. We don't get the | :23:08. | :23:11. | |
opening ceremony, but the dress rehearsal. We will get the feel of | :23:11. | :23:14. | |
an Olympics being in the park. There is lots of things to do to | :23:14. | :23:19. | |
get a feel and be part of the Olympics. You believe local | :23:19. | :23:22. | |
residents should be invited to that? Of course they should. In the | :23:23. | :23:27. | |
longer term East London needs job. The mayor, Sir Robin Wales, says | :23:27. | :23:31. | |
construction of the new �1.5 billion shopping centre, privately | :23:31. | :23:34. | |
funded, has offered far better prospects than the Olympic project. | :23:35. | :23:38. | |
But the man so far delivering the Olympics on time and under budget | :23:38. | :23:45. | |
says that is unfair. I could not have built this relying on Robin | :23:45. | :23:49. | |
turning up with people to provide the labour force to the contractors. | :23:49. | :23:53. | |
You always want to get the thing built on time and create jobs. We | :23:53. | :23:59. | |
gave more focus here than in my experience we have ever done to | :23:59. | :24:02. | |
creating training opportunities for people, we made it a condition of | :24:02. | :24:06. | |
the contract with the contractors that they had to employ a certain | :24:06. | :24:09. | |
percentage of trainees with their work force. These youngsters | :24:09. | :24:13. | |
training in south London, are part of a charitable project run in the | :24:13. | :24:19. | |
most deprived boroughs, to encower participation in sport. It has no | :24:19. | :24:24. | |
olympics funding, but its director is unconvinced by promises of the | :24:24. | :24:28. | |
game's sporting legacy. In the original bid, Lord Coe pledged the | :24:28. | :24:32. | |
London Games would inspire a new generation of youth to greater | :24:32. | :24:34. | |
sporting activity. Some believe no- one at the Olympics is delivering | :24:34. | :24:38. | |
on that promise. I'm not sure who is taking | :24:38. | :24:41. | |
responsibility, at the moment I'm not sure who it is. There are | :24:41. | :24:45. | |
various people you could say, Sebastian Coe was obviously the | :24:45. | :24:49. | |
person in Singapore who made the comment. Since then it is unclear | :24:49. | :24:52. | |
whose responsibility it is to create the participation and aspect | :24:52. | :24:56. | |
of the legacy. If you don't know who to ask, then what hope is | :24:56. | :25:02. | |
there? I think there are many sports where participation is | :25:02. | :25:05. | |
decreasing overall. We're hoping that the legacy will be obviously | :25:05. | :25:10. | |
something that will happen after the Olympics. In order to have | :25:10. | :25:18. | |
success we need to plan now. Michael di Giorgio's GreenHouse | :25:18. | :25:22. | |
project has been lauded for encouraging sport not just for | :25:22. | :25:26. | |
those doing it but for everyone. There are many programme where is | :25:26. | :25:29. | |
people go in and say there are 50,000 people doing this now, and | :25:29. | :25:32. | |
there weren't before. Yes, but you are not going to make any | :25:32. | :25:36. | |
difference to their lives by going in for a short-term. They will stop | :25:36. | :25:40. | |
doing it in a few weeks time? Absolutely. Perhaps the biggest | :25:40. | :25:44. | |
headache of the games will be transporting millions of visitors, | :25:44. | :25:51. | |
the satirists of 2012 have already made hey. It is low flying | :25:51. | :25:55. | |
aeroplane, if you get it right everybody noticed, if you get it | :25:55. | :26:00. | |
wrong, first everybody notices it and then they die. Stratford, home | :26:00. | :26:03. | |
of the Olympic Park, is a growing transport hub, with 14 rail lines | :26:03. | :26:08. | |
in and out. But the sheer volume of passengers for the games will be a | :26:08. | :26:12. | |
challenge, and the roads, already notorious for snarl ups, are a real | :26:12. | :26:20. | |
concern. At the Railway tap vern, just opposite the Olympic Village, | :26:20. | :26:25. | |
- tavern, just opposite the Olympic Village business is booming. The | :26:25. | :26:28. | |
landlady is worried, next year the road outside will be closed for 18 | :26:28. | :26:33. | |
hours a day for three months, the beer lorries won't get through. | :26:33. | :26:37. | |
have already had the road shut for 18 months when we were dismandling | :26:37. | :26:42. | |
a new bridge. How did you cope? managed, we were part of a building | :26:42. | :26:46. | |
site. I know we were going to have disruption, because we are so close | :26:46. | :26:53. | |
to the proximity of the actual site. I understand that. And people do | :26:53. | :26:59. | |
speak to you, they just seem to think it is the Olympics, and | :26:59. | :27:03. | |
that's it, you have to swallow. But the head of the Olympic legacy | :27:03. | :27:07. | |
company, the man in charge of the future, says it will pay off. He | :27:08. | :27:11. | |
knows the real regeneration of niece London will take another 20 | :27:11. | :27:14. | |
years, and private investors with further billions to spend. And | :27:14. | :27:19. | |
there are no guarantees. If the idea that is being floated around | :27:19. | :27:23. | |
the country at the moment, for greater realisation, stuff moving | :27:23. | :27:27. | |
away from London to the region, maybe London won't need to grow any | :27:27. | :27:30. | |
more? London is always growing, it is projected to grow between seven | :27:30. | :27:35. | |
to eight million people, it is a global city, it needs to | :27:35. | :27:38. | |
accommodate the growth. Look at all the buildings in the back drop, | :27:38. | :27:41. | |
that is testimony to the fact that London is growing, this will be a | :27:41. | :27:47. | |
new centre for London. Predicting whether 2012 has a | :27:47. | :27:51. | |
successful legacy is an exercise in speculation. Because legacy is | :27:51. | :27:55. | |
something which by definition can only be really judged with | :27:55. | :28:00. | |
hindsight. So we will have to wait until after next year, in fact, | :28:00. | :28:06. | |
until years after 2012, before we can really see whether the �9 | :28:06. | :28:15. | |
billion plus gamble is paying off. Tessa Jowell MP is here now, she's | :28:15. | :28:20. | |
a member of the linlic 2012 Board, and former Olympics minister, she | :28:20. | :28:25. | |
shadows the department. Why has the legacy plan gone wrong? It hasn't. | :28:25. | :28:29. | |
It had two elements, the first the regeneration of East London. You | :28:29. | :28:34. | |
have seen the evidence of that. The second was transforming a | :28:34. | :28:39. | |
generation of young people through sport. Young people, in our country, | :28:39. | :28:44. | |
are playing more sport than ever before. We had disagreemented with | :28:44. | :28:49. | |
the coalition Government's decision to dismantle ...They Are playing | :28:49. | :28:53. | |
more sport than ever before because the Olympics are coming here? | :28:53. | :28:57. | |
Olympics are certainly an element. Certainly, when I was in Government, | :28:57. | :29:03. | |
we put substantial amounts of money into sport that every level there | :29:03. | :29:07. | |
is, because of the Olympics. This is a legacy before the event? | :29:07. | :29:13. | |
you are going to create legacy you have to plan beforehand. The sports | :29:13. | :29:18. | |
programme that we created, which saw every child playing, between | :29:18. | :29:24. | |
three and four hours of sport a week. That took eight years to | :29:24. | :29:29. | |
realise. The increase in budget, the original bid was �2.4 billion? | :29:29. | :29:36. | |
We put in what is called an indicative bid. It wasn't very | :29:36. | :29:41. | |
indicative, the original bid was �2.4 billion, and the final bid | :29:41. | :29:46. | |
will be the best part of �9 billion. I made clear to parliament if we | :29:46. | :29:49. | |
won the right to host the games we would have to review the budget, | :29:49. | :29:54. | |
which we did. The substantial part of the increase was contingency, | :29:54. | :30:00. | |
security after 7/7, VAT and the decision to be bolder and do more | :30:00. | :30:04. | |
on regeneration than the original budget suggested S My question is | :30:04. | :30:07. | |
given the budget was three times what you thought it was going to be | :30:07. | :30:12. | |
when you put in the bid, have you got three times the legacy? I think | :30:12. | :30:17. | |
without any shadow of a doubt. do so many people in the area think | :30:17. | :30:21. | |
that is a question mark? I take that very seriously. We can talk | :30:21. | :30:26. | |
here in west London about the Olympics in East London, and people, | :30:26. | :30:36. | |
:30:36. | :30:40. | ||
the people that Robin Wales are talking about. Robin Wales is being | :30:40. | :30:44. | |
a first-class champion for the people of Newham. He wants them to | :30:44. | :30:49. | |
have a fair share of the cake. is the population of Newham, about | :30:49. | :30:53. | |
a quarter of a million. Is it a gesture of good faith they have had | :30:53. | :30:59. | |
to pay �30,000 to get tickets for 100 events. Is that a gesture of | :30:59. | :31:04. | |
their involvement? I hope that what that means is that children from | :31:04. | :31:10. | |
Newham schools, and so forth, will be able to come to the games. | :31:10. | :31:15. | |
free? I don't know exactly how Newham are planning to distribute | :31:15. | :31:23. | |
their tickets, Newham will get, as do tower hamlets, as the other six | :31:23. | :31:27. | |
Olympic boroughs. They have asked for more, they will get them will | :31:27. | :31:30. | |
they? We are talking about legacy. And a very important part of the | :31:30. | :31:34. | |
legacy is changing the nature of the economy, in the poorest | :31:34. | :31:39. | |
boroughs in the country, certainly in London. What we have seen, | :31:39. | :31:44. | |
40,000 people will work on the Olympic Park, twice the number of | :31:44. | :31:50. | |
local people, the emphasis on' present tisships, actually creating, | :31:50. | :31:55. | |
- apprenticeships, actually creating the legacy. This is for �9 | :31:55. | :32:00. | |
billion? You can turn up your nose and sneer at this. I'm not, I'm | :32:00. | :32:04. | |
asking how you justify this vast amount of money? It will actually | :32:04. | :32:10. | |
be rather less than �9 billion. The cost of the park will be �7.2 | :32:10. | :32:14. | |
billion. A snip! You have to remember that either this great | :32:14. | :32:21. | |
tract was going to remain as contaminated wasteland, or become | :32:21. | :32:26. | |
the largest urban park in Europe for 150 years, with 2,700 homes in | :32:26. | :32:31. | |
the first stage, state-of-the-art, sporting venues, and the | :32:31. | :32:36. | |
opportunity for jobs, because what East London needs is jobs and | :32:36. | :32:39. | |
investment. We will explore a bit more of this in a moment or two, | :32:39. | :32:43. | |
the vast sums of money being spent on the Olympics were committed | :32:43. | :32:48. | |
before the nation woke up to how broke we are. Worth it, we are told, | :32:48. | :32:52. | |
for the legacy, but inheritance is notoriously much more easily | :32:52. | :32:56. | |
dreamed than realised. That is someone else's problem, as the | :32:56. | :32:59. | |
author Ian Sinclair knows, we have heard these sorts of promises | :33:00. | :33:06. | |
before, indeed we have begin legacies before. | :33:06. | :33:10. | |
If the drama of international competition, man against man on the | :33:10. | :33:15. | |
track was required, then Hackney Wick, found ways to provide it, as | :33:15. | :33:18. | |
a modest private investment, the nation didn't have to go into hock | :33:18. | :33:25. | |
to pull in the punters. It is my contention that many of | :33:25. | :33:30. | |
the great things promised as a result of the Olympic legacy are | :33:30. | :33:34. | |
here already. Or were here and have disappeared and been allowed to | :33:34. | :33:38. | |
wither away for lack of investment. We couldn't afford to keep them, | :33:38. | :33:43. | |
examples of some of these things, these great ghosts of London can be | :33:43. | :33:53. | |
:33:53. | :33:59. | ||
found behind me in Victoria Park. This was once the Crowning glory of | :33:59. | :34:03. | |
East London, the Victoria Park boating lake, temporarily drained, | :34:03. | :34:07. | |
as part of the grand Olympic make- over. And including an | :34:07. | :34:10. | |
extraordinary structure that looks like an east German border post. It | :34:10. | :34:17. | |
is a recreation of a Chinese pagoda, and the original had come out of | :34:17. | :34:19. | |
Hyde Park at the time of the great exhibition, it decayed as the way | :34:19. | :34:23. | |
these things do, and it is such a strange notion, that when we are | :34:23. | :34:27. | |
trying to invent London again, we go back to something that had its | :34:27. | :34:37. | |
:34:37. | :34:54. | ||
This locked doorway is to what was once the Eton Mission, whereby | :34:54. | :34:57. | |
benevolent figures from the great English public schools came to | :34:57. | :35:01. | |
Hackney and provided everything that the Olympic games is now | :35:01. | :35:08. | |
promising to do. They had playing fields, boating, they had swimming, | :35:08. | :35:13. | |
they had allotments, and inside this particular building they also | :35:13. | :35:18. | |
did culture, they were teaching people to paint. Now, unfortunately, | :35:18. | :35:22. | |
all that is gone, we can't get inside the building and that | :35:22. | :35:32. | |
:35:32. | :35:35. | ||
building will disappear very soon. Brought through from the pool room | :35:35. | :35:40. | |
of the now closed Eton Mission, into the grander space of St Mary's | :35:40. | :35:44. | |
Church, we have what really is the legacy of the first attempt to | :35:44. | :35:48. | |
bring sports and athletics to the people of East London. All that we | :35:48. | :35:54. | |
are left with are a series of quiet haunting images of the sporting | :35:54. | :35:59. | |
teams of the past. A sort of cabinet of curiosities for a great | :35:59. | :36:09. | |
:36:09. | :36:24. | ||
High above Hackney Wick, if we're looking for the one big cultural | :36:24. | :36:28. | |
legacy of the Olympics, maybe we should just observe more closely | :36:28. | :36:33. | |
what is around us, rather than trying to impose something massive | :36:33. | :36:37. | |
and spectacular, a lot of the best qualities are the very things that | :36:37. | :36:42. | |
you have to tease out for yourself, by going up in weird elevators into | :36:42. | :36:49. | |
the tops of mysterious buildings. If I look over there, I see water | :36:49. | :36:58. | |
playing, remediating over a pile of rubble, and for me that is as good | :36:58. | :37:08. | |
:37:08. | :37:14. | ||
I feel that the real legacy is the place itself, which is something | :37:14. | :37:18. | |
you can't predict. So legacy is defined as being the unpredictable, | :37:18. | :37:23. | |
and should be kept away from all kind of planners and promoters, and | :37:23. | :37:25. | |
left to the people themselves hidden within these buildings to | :37:25. | :37:29. | |
fix their own legacy and to write their own history, and anything | :37:29. | :37:39. | |
:37:39. | :37:40. | ||
else is false, impractical and, in the end, wrong. | :37:40. | :37:50. | |
Tessa Jowell is still with us, I'm joined by Will Self and Baroness | :37:50. | :37:57. | |
Gray, who has won 16 gold medals. What is Britain trying to say with | :37:57. | :38:00. | |
these Olympics? It is part of the same old song of what our society | :38:00. | :38:04. | |
has been doing during the boom years. This is a creation | :38:04. | :38:08. | |
essentially of capital, capital has to find things to do with itself. | :38:08. | :38:14. | |
It is essentially a kind of boosterism, huge monumental | :38:14. | :38:18. | |
buildings, massive amounts of infrastructure, mood music, you | :38:18. | :38:24. | |
heard it all from Tessa, state-of- the-art was a phrase we heard there, | :38:24. | :38:30. | |
it is not about social capital, it is about capital capital. Watch out, | :38:30. | :38:35. | |
she's looking very angry here? don't agree with you Will? What a | :38:35. | :38:40. | |
surprise? We have done this before. What I think the Olympics is saying | :38:40. | :38:47. | |
about us is that we are a proud, modern, open and diverse country, | :38:47. | :38:51. | |
that celebrates tolerance, and that it is quite different from some of | :38:51. | :38:57. | |
the is iteryo types of Britain. never understand - Stereotypes of | :38:57. | :39:01. | |
Britain. I never understand what elite athletes have to do with the | :39:01. | :39:06. | |
state of Britain. Do you see it like that? It is hugely positive. | :39:06. | :39:12. | |
The Paralympics will be an amazing legacy, having 4,500 disabled | :39:12. | :39:16. | |
athletes in London, will change attitudes and legislation more than | :39:16. | :39:22. | |
anything else will be able to do. Any more than seeing the same thing | :39:22. | :39:25. | |
on television anywhere else? will be in London and they will be | :39:25. | :39:29. | |
around. London is an old city, incredibly expensive and difficult | :39:29. | :39:33. | |
to change. Having the athletes here will do more to normalise | :39:33. | :39:37. | |
disability than anything we see. Disabled people are still excluded | :39:37. | :39:41. | |
from society. Paralympic sport is about elite sport, it also has a | :39:41. | :39:45. | |
secondary message. For me, the legacy of the Olympics what that | :39:45. | :39:49. | |
can do to change the Paralympics. It is one organising committee | :39:49. | :39:54. | |
promoting itself as two games, will be incredibly powerful. Is it not | :39:54. | :39:58. | |
the case that this obsession with elite sport, as in the Olympics, is | :39:58. | :40:04. | |
damaging some grassroots sport? There is the view that elite sport | :40:04. | :40:07. | |
doesn't help long-term grassroots participation. However there will | :40:07. | :40:11. | |
be a Wimbledon effect. In the weeks after the games, lots and lots of | :40:11. | :40:15. | |
young people will want to do sport, they will want to do art, and lots | :40:15. | :40:18. | |
of different things. It is how we are then geared up to deal with it. | :40:18. | :40:22. | |
That is another part of it, will the clubs be ready, will the | :40:22. | :40:25. | |
governing bodies be ready, will the volunteers and coaches be there to | :40:25. | :40:29. | |
accept all the young people who will come in. What do you make of | :40:29. | :40:34. | |
the legacy argument? It is not there at all, really. It is a sort | :40:34. | :40:37. | |
of boon dog, I don't think it matters whether you talk in terms | :40:37. | :40:40. | |
of disabled, young people, or you talk in terms, I had dinner with | :40:40. | :40:46. | |
days abled friend this week who said, I'm afraid to say is a big | :40:46. | :40:48. | |
critic of the Paralympics and doesn't feel it does that for the | :40:48. | :40:52. | |
disabled community at all. There are many disabled people who stand | :40:52. | :40:58. | |
in the same relationship to elite disabled athletes as you or I do to | :40:58. | :41:03. | |
the elite athletes. There aren't the resource there is, we have had | :41:03. | :41:08. | |
a decade or two decades, where playing fields have been sold off | :41:08. | :41:13. | |
by local authorities, and swimming pools. It is beginning to make me | :41:13. | :41:19. | |
slightly angry. Simon Jenkin, by no means a firebrand on this issue, | :41:19. | :41:28. | |
said the games would be elitist, and stupifying in his column today, | :41:28. | :41:34. | |
that is the perception in the games. Sepp Blatter will be riding in | :41:35. | :41:42. | |
special lanes to this games, with his cronies, and that is where the | :41:42. | :41:47. | |
�9 billion. That wouldn't be so if we had the sell-out games. It was a | :41:48. | :41:53. | |
clever piece of marketing. Tickets sold at prices that people could | :41:54. | :41:58. | |
have afford. Two-thirds of tickets �50 or less, the Robin Hood tax on | :41:58. | :42:03. | |
the corporates to get kids from schools into the Olympic Stadium, | :42:03. | :42:08. | |
watching Olympic sport. At every level, at every single level these | :42:08. | :42:13. | |
Olympics have been, you can't answer every single challenge, | :42:13. | :42:20. | |
focusing on training young people, creating jobs for young people. | :42:20. | :42:26. | |
many jobs were created. 40,000 people have worked on it. How many | :42:26. | :42:32. | |
were local. 25%. I think I could create more than 10,000 jobs, if | :42:32. | :42:36. | |
you give me �9 billion, I can create a lot more than that. I | :42:36. | :42:41. | |
could have cleaned up that whole area. 40,000 people working in the | :42:41. | :42:47. | |
park, 8,000 when Westfield hope, another 8,000 in the press and | :42:48. | :42:53. | |
broadcast. These are sustainable aspect of it is a shopping centre. | :42:53. | :42:57. | |
With an academy to train people in the retail industry. It is a | :42:57. | :43:00. | |
shopping centre and a training academy for people to sell more | :43:00. | :43:04. | |
things. I'm not seeing that as particularly sustainable. Retail is | :43:04. | :43:08. | |
an important part of our economy, we had a gloomy discussion at the | :43:08. | :43:11. | |
beginning. East London will become an engine of growth. But in the | :43:11. | :43:15. | |
meantime, in the meantime, as a country, as the evidence is, and | :43:15. | :43:19. | |
the number of people who volunteered to take part, the kids | :43:19. | :43:25. | |
who want to be part of team GD, the rate of ticket sales, the country | :43:25. | :43:30. | |
is getting behind this. You're on theing willcy, that is two weeks, | :43:30. | :43:34. | |
what comes afterwards? Hang on skaebgd, please, as an athlete, | :43:34. | :43:44. | |
:43:44. | :43:49. | ||
what do you make of it, these concerns are widely held, as an | :43:49. | :43:53. | |
athlete? The atmosphere during games time is very different, it is | :43:53. | :43:56. | |
how to harness that for a positive value. The trouble with legacy is | :43:57. | :44:00. | |
it means different things to different people. Athletes aren't | :44:00. | :44:04. | |
that bothered about legacy. From my experience is from the five games I | :44:04. | :44:09. | |
competed at and the one that I worked at, is that we all need to | :44:09. | :44:13. | |
be responsible for legacy. There is so much of what is happening at the | :44:14. | :44:18. | |
moment we are are panicking about it. This is my analogy, Sebastian | :44:18. | :44:22. | |
Coe is a multi-millionaire who has made an awful lot of money out of | :44:22. | :44:27. | |
sports club and being a global brand ambassador for Nike shoes, he | :44:27. | :44:32. | |
gets a lot of tax-payers' money, it is like giving a brewer money to | :44:32. | :44:38. | |
mount an Octoberfest. Sebastian Coe has done a fantastic job as | :44:38. | :44:43. | |
chairman of the organising committee, let's hope for every | :44:44. | :44:49. | |
Tany Gray. Not that there will be many. There will only be one. | :44:49. | :44:55. | |
we will have 16 gold medals and more kids playing sport and feeling | :44:55. | :45:02. | |
better. Where will they play it about, they will not play it in the | :45:02. | :45:06. | |
cracked Olympic buildings that will reside back into the marshes where | :45:06. | :45:09. | |
they came from. Even the centre is not fit for purpose. They are | :45:09. | :45:14. | |
trying to sell it to a football team who don't really, it is not an | :45:14. | :45:17. | |
ideal football. It is a multipurpose stadium. This could go | :45:17. | :45:22. | |
on for a long time. It will go on for a year at least. Thank you all | :45:22. | :45:25. | |
very much. That is all from Newsnight tonight, friend and | :45:25. | :45:32. | |
family of the singer Amy Winehouse, sent her off today with a funeral | :45:32. | :45:35. | |
service in North London, she was 27. Here she is at the height of her | :45:35. | :45:40. | |
powers. # Black | :45:40. | :45:50. | |
:45:50. | :45:50. | ||
Tl # Black # Black | :45:50. | :45:57. | |
# I go to # I go back to | :45:57. | :46:04. | |
# We only said goodbye with words # I died a hundred times | :46:04. | :46:10. | |
# You go back to her # And I go | :46:11. | :46:18. | |
# We only said goodbye with words # I died a hundred times | :46:18. | :46:28. | |
:46:28. | :46:39. | ||
# You go back her Hello there, the western side of | :46:39. | :46:43. | |
the UK saw the sunniest weather we had, that is where we will start | :46:43. | :46:45. | |
with most of the sunshine in the morning. We will keep more cloud | :46:45. | :46:49. | |
for central and eastern areas of England, sunny spells in Scotland. | :46:49. | :46:52. | |
Rain will eventually arrive into Northern Ireland and the Western | :46:52. | :46:55. | |
Isles. For northern England though it should be dry, we will have | :46:55. | :46:59. | |
sunshine. It may brighten up a touch to the Pennines. The odd | :46:59. | :47:03. | |
shower feeding to the east of London. Better chance of seeing | :47:03. | :47:06. | |
some sunshine as you head further best for the south west of England. | :47:07. | :47:13. | |
It should be a dry day. 23, 24 degrees, it will feel pleasant when | :47:13. | :47:17. | |
the sun is out. Patchy cloud around here and in Wales in the afternoon. | :47:17. | :47:22. | |
Still some sunshine as well. For Northern Ireland a bright start in | :47:22. | :47:26. | |
the east and west. Drizzley rain heading towards Belfast by the end | :47:26. | :47:29. | |
of the afternoon. By that time seeing rain heading into the | :47:29. | :47:34. | |
mainland of Scotland, ahead of it sunshine, a warmer day in | :47:34. | :47:44. | |
:47:44. | :47:54. | ||
Aberdeenshire, and 24 degrees in For Scotland, we see the rain | :47:54. | :47:56. |