10/01/2013 Newsnight

Thinking the unthinkable. Why should pensioners carry on being

exempt from welfare cuts. Two distinguished senior citizens give

us their views. We are all in this together, we have to confront the

crisis together, and that means elderly people have to be ready to

give up benefits they don't need. Elderly people have already paid

their share during their working lives, they paid taxes and national

insurance, and are entitled to the benefits of that.

We will debate, does grey power have a politicians running scared

from attacking the state pension and Winter Fuel Allowance. Also

tonight, as the men accused of the rape and murder of an Indian

student appear in court, we will reveal just how appallingly women

in India are treated, kidnapped and sold into sexual enslavement, some

of them. We have an exclusive interview with

a bowl wood veteran and activist. Without a doubt, India is a

patriarchal society, and we have internalised a patriarchal mind set

in which the girl child is not given the value she deserve. Also

on the programme tonight? I'm a Lib Dem who has just torn up his

membership card. I joined the party first in 1973, I'm afraid, I cannot

now say that I want to represent the Lib Dems. On the day the Deputy

Prime Minister begins his very own weekly date with the people, Steve

Smith has the definitive take on the political radio phone-in.

Good evening, David Cameron believes that pensioners should be

a protected species, and the figures speak for themselves. Half

of all benefits spending goes on pensioners. Overwhelmingly on the

weekly pension, but also free bus travel, Winter Fuel Allowance, and

free TV license. And now that the decision has been made not to make

major changes to the way the Retail Price Index is calculated, it is

another boost for older people. Ken Clarke may have hinted that the

next Tory manifesto might not make such happy reading for pensioners,

but right now, when everybody else, including children, have to make do

with less to reduce the deficit. Is it morally right to hold pensioner

benefit as sacrosanct. First tonight, we have two pensioners'

views, Dot Gibson and the author Stanley Johnson. We have to start

with the idea of the road sign, two old people crossing the road with a

stick. It is not that any longer. I think the state pension begins at a

much too early an age, I think the idea that you necessarily qualify

for a state pension at the age of 60 or 65, that just doesn't make

sense now, given the demographic situation we are in, we will all

live until we are 80, 90, 100, you can't, as a country, afford to pay

pensions for decades. I think after 40 years or more of work, people

are entitled to a decent length of time in retirement. I don't agree

with putting up the age of retirement, which both Governments

have now done. We are in an economic and financial crunch and

we all have to contribute to getting out of this. Older people

are suffering very much under the cuts. We know there will be more

they are not wealthy, and do find things extremely difficult to

manage. The younger generation, who have, indeed, been hit by house

prices on the one hand, and the cost of education on the other.

They have been hit by the fact that they are also funding, as I

mentioned a moment ago, state pensions for the elderly, on an

increasing scale, and probably medical care for the elderly. If

you go down the route saying the state will also pay for social care,

then the burdens which will be bourne, by, as it were, the working

population, will be become, absolutely unsupportable. It is the

principle of paying tax and insurance, and then being entitled

to the benefits arising from that. Everybody pays their tax and

insurance, they should get universal benefits. The problem

about universal benefits is that they are universal. And by

definition, they give to some sectors of society, benefits which

they don't actually need. Winter Fuel Allowance, social care, old

people's bus pass, our country as a whole, can't afford these benefits

for people who can well afford to do without them. We have to

understand that the state pension is among the lowest in Europe. We

have already seen cuts in housing benefits, cuts in day centres,

meals on wheels and things like this, which are really affecting

many millions of pensioners who feel lonely and isolated. I would

say we are the luckiest generation, we are what is called the "baby-

boomers", we left school and university at a time when jobs were

easy to get, we earned large salaries. Look at the younger

generation, the cost of education is tough, and the work market is

tough. They have a huge amount of bills to pay for the generation

that have preceded them. We shouldn't push our luck too far.

The generation I belonged to, I was ten at the end of the Second World

War, has benefited greatly from the welfare state. But I think that

this generation, the younger generations today have to

understand that welfare state didn't come into being out of thin

air, it was fought for, and they have to stand up and defend it,

alongside us. Elderly people have to realise that a large part of the

nation's wealth is now spent on dealing with the problems of the

elderly. We have to say to ourselves, can, as a nation, we

afford, can we afford that? Well, there you have two personal views.

But we love our hard data here on Newsnight, we crunched the number.

Welfare is by far the biggest element in Government spending. By

2016, it will account for nearly one pound in every three spent by

the state. The Government has already set out cuts in welfare,

amounting to �18 billion by 2014-15, and, this week, they successfully

introduced a bill that would limit the rise in certain benefits to 1%

a year for the next three years. That's a cut in real terms. However,

none of these changes have had any great impact on pensioners, despite

the fact that Treasury figures show, that over half of all welfare

spending goes on them. Mostly the state pension itself, but also

benefits like the Winter Fuel Allowance, which costs �2.1 billion

each year. And goes even to millionaires. On top of this, there

are other benefits, like free TV licenses for the over 75s: �588

million a year. And concessionary bus travel, which could be costing

up to �1 billion a year. David Cameron made a specific pledge in

the 2010 election campaign, to protect these benefits. He's

insisted that this is a promise he does not intend to break in this

parliament. Pensioners have also benefited from the called triple

lock, introduced by the coalition, through which the state pension

would rise by whichever is higher, out of RPI, prices, or 2.5%. Last

year, as inflation peaked, the increase was set at 5.2%, giving

pensioners the biggest-ever cash increase in their pension. So, is

it all sunny in the retirement garden? Far from it, the coalition

change the inflation -- changed the inflation measure, used to up-rate

occupational pensions from RPI to CPI, which is, generally lower.

They also introduced the change to the age-related income tax

allowance, which was quickly dubbed the Granny Tax. This, according to

the Institute for Fiscal Studies, will particularly affect people

retiring next year, they will be worse off by nearly �270 a year.

People who buy anuts with their pensions have also been --

aknewties with their pensions have also been affected by Government

policy, as bank rates have been so low, the yield from these is low as

well. In any case, any talk of immunity from cuts, is likely to

prompt a hollow laugh from the two million pensioners judged to be

living in poverty, and the million said to be living in fuel poverty.

They have to spend more than 10% of their income on heating. This

consideration, combined with the naked political fact, that older

people vote more, will give any politician pause for thought before

making significant cuts to pensioners' benefits. Stanley

Johnson and Dot Gibson are both here, as is Ann Pettifor, director

of Prime Economics, and Ruth Porter from the Institute of Economic

Affairs. We will begin with the Winter Fuel Allowance. Tomorrow

morning's front page in the Mail, says it is enough to make you

shudder, and the temperatures are set to plunge to minus ten, and the

average heating bill for the elderly soaring to �1,350. It is

only �2 billion plus of the spend on the Winter Fuel Allowance, but

the very universality is as divisive as it is cohesive.

spent �2 billion bailing out the City of London and that wasn't

devisive. We spend 2% of the social security budget on some of the

perks that the pensioners get. Of course, as a society and democracy,

we might want to shift where we put the burden, and where we reward

pensioners and whether we do or not by margins, but, honestly, it is so

minuscule, in terms of our economy. What we are doing is we are looking

at one side of the balance sheet, the spending side. We are doing

nothing about generating income. To pay for that. We are shrinking the

income side of the economy. You know, so I find this really

infantile, the economics. Infantile economics, but it is getting the

Winter Fuel Allowance at 60, it is totemic? We might want to have an

argument about this, it is such small beer, and to break a

political principle of universality, which is a moral, and philosophical,

do we want to live in a society where the rich get richer. We have

just done it with child benefit, therefore, the argument would be,

if we are all in this together, then, you cut child benefit, you

actually cut the allowances for childcare from 80% to 70%, they are

taking the hit at that end of the scale. You know, presumably there

is an argument which says that everybody has to take a hit? You

talk about people, you worked for 40 years, and you want to enjoy

your retirement, but let's say and hope that you live to the ripe old

age of 95. Yes. Are you really saying there will be enough in the

pot to pay you Winter Fuel Allowance, free bus travel, and

increased state pension, all the way there? You know they fix the

pot, and then they tell us that we have to be bound by the things that

they say. In actual fact, the rich are paying less tax, the poor are

paying more, people are on short- term contracts, very low pay, and

are living on benefits, and it isn't a question of pensioners

against younger people who are at work, or who are unemployed, it is

a question of rich and poor. The pensioners come within that

category. There is this myth that the amount of money which has been

paid into the system is enough to care for us in our old age, it is

simply not. We have now got a situation where a large part of the

bill for old age is being passed on to future generations. Part that

have is through the national debt we have accrued, that future

generations will have to pay back, part of it is younger generation,

the working generation, are, at the moment, facing massive cuts to

their benefits. Also a large part of it is through tax rises on those

who are working. The calculation was when the pension was set at 65,

that people would live to the age of 66, now, thankfully, people are

living longer, and what was put in during their lifetime, is not

enough for their healthcare and everything else. That is right, we

have not grasped the demographic situation. One third of the babies

born today are going to live to 100. That is what they say, is that

really true? Unless global warming intervene, it may do. Is that

really true? My generation had a good diet, we were given cod liver

oil, orange juice and the rest of it, we didn't overeat on all these

fast foods, but there is a generation now that has got this

problem, together with the fact. People are living longer, and all

the Government is doing, they are increasing. We are living longer.

They are increasing the retirement age by 67 by 2028, it should be 678

in the next ten years. You are living longer because of the

benefits that have accrued because of better medicine, and so forth?

The welfare state. They cost money? The we is do we want to live in a

civilised society, a society in which we say, first of all, we make

our young people unemployed, we strip our mothers of child benefit,

we impoverish our children, and impoverish our elderly and allow

the City of London to get richer. That is not civilised. Taking away

the City of London for a moment, there was a huge issue, and it

still goes on, that in a way there was a moral duty, there was a

social compact here. Post-war, the war generation, that lived through

terrible depravation, and so forth, and there was goodwill towards them.

Now we are going to people who are pensioners, who actually, probably,

lived high on the hog, and who are now in their late 50s and early 60,

and are actually going to have to pay back. We worked very hard.

Younger people work very hard? you think a man. A large number of

people are unemployed thanks to the Government's policies. Could a chap

intervene in this argument, I'm slightly outnumbered here. They are

not abolishing the Winter Fuel Allowance, it is not abolishing the

gas. The issue is, should the people who are very well off

benefit from those? Would you suggest that the evidence, the

evidence would suggest from what happened with child benefit reform,

actually means testing, the bureaucracy of that could be

incredibly counter-productive. that case, where do you cut it off.

There are only 250,000 pensioners out of 11 million who are actually

paying the higher rate of tax. It won't mean anything. It is peanuts.

What about the intergenerational point, do we have a duty? It is

interesting, if you go back and look at what Beverge intended with

the welfare state, it was something that was very minimal, something

there to ensure the most vulnerable people in our society were

protected. Everyone agrees that is still what we want. Everyone wants

vulnerable elderly people to afford to heat their homes, that is not in

question. But the point is, if we want to live in a civilised society,

where we get along with each other, where we don't resent each other,

we need to live in a society where we're not overly taxed, where we

are not putting bebt on to the next generation. -- Debt on to the next

generation. What would you do to the state pension, would you like

to see it raised so everyone is on �10,000, what would you like to

see? The most important thing is we put up the retirement age, that is

part of why we have ended up in a lot of the problems that we have

ended up with. The Government should be looking at putting it up

probably to 68, within the next ten years, as a start. I think also we

need to move to a system where we say we care for ourselves in our

old age through saving, and at the moment, it is very difficult for

people to save, because taxes are so high, because they are paying

for things like Winter Fuel Allowances. Interest rates are so

low. There are 60% of people at work are getting benefits, it is

not that the unemployed are getting most of the benefits, it is people

at work that are getting the benefits, the wages are so low.

What do you say to Ruth Porter's idea that actually, it is not about

means testing, it is not necessarily even about things like,

you know, fuel poverty and the Winter Fuel Allowance, it is about

a fundamental change to raise the retirement age successively and

quickly towards 70, because actually n your middle to late 60s

you are not old? If Ruth is happy to go on working until she's 70,

that's fine. It should be 80, come on. And you know, if Ruth that's

fine. But people get very tired, I know that people that have worked

very hard that are very grateful for their pensions. I wonder if you

would like to work on a building site when you are 80, you might be

able to write, but you won't be able to work on building sites.

have done a lot of jobs in my life. Would you expect somebody in their

mid-70s still to be working on huge big projects on the City as steel

workers? Somebody in their mid-70s today might hope to retire at 75 or

whatever. I'm saying the way the demographics are going, we will be

living much longer than 70, into the 80s and 90s t makes sense to

raise the retirement age. It is about harmony between what Ruth

seems to be suggesting, and the more likelihood of

intergenerational conflict and resentment, if something's not done

about this, do you believe that? don't believe particularly in the

intergenerational conflict, we will go in that direction if we do

ridiculous things. I take the question of social care. There is a

whole lot of ideas going around now, that some how society must pay for

the old age of people, not just the health of people, but the general

caring for people in old age. Can you imagine how we could possibly

afford that. Why should people who benefit from house price rises not

have to sell their houses to fund their old age. I can't see that.

Dot? The whole point about social care, and healthcare, is that it is

possible to have a national care system, like the NHS, paid for

through, just 1.5p in the pound on tax. Social care? Let me make this

point, what is left out of the picture completely, the Women's

Royal Voluntary Service did a survey, which is generally accepted

as a correct survey that shows, that the benefit to the state of

pensioners volunteering, caring and the work that they do, is actually

�40 billion a year. That is a huge A money, Ruth Porter. It is a huge

amount of money. Obviously retired people make a huge contribution.

Which can't reduce everything down to some monetary value. That's what

you are doing. I think actually it is about having decent

relationships within families. I think by making it monetary you

reduce it, in the same way that you take care of elderly relatives.

Delhi, amid heavy police presence, and the on going protests, suspects

in the case of a fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old student in a moving

bus in New Delhi appeared in court. Thousands have demanded justice for

the young woman whose death shocked India, and which prompts anguish

soul--- anguished soul-searching in a country where violence against

women goes further than this case. The widespread killing of female

foetuses is well known. But less well known is trafficking of young

women to make up for the shortages. We have a World Service

Investigation. Calcutta, the capital of West

Bengal, choking roads and bustling markets, where young women face a

growing threat. This girl was 15, when two years ago neighbourhood

boys invited her to a local fair. There someone, a stranger, offered

her a soft drink. The next thing she remembers is waking up on a

train. A day later, she found herself in a brothel, in Delhi.

Where for seven months every day she was raped by countless

Her mother finally tracked her down, and, with the help of police,

rescued her. She got her daughter back, but not the life she has

worked so hard to build. Neighbours don't talk to them any more. Their

house has been stoned, and those Every year tens of thousands of

girls across India are either tricked or forced into making a

journey that changes their lives forever. Many, like the young woman,

come through this Calcutta train station. This place is just

overwhelming. It is so easy to become invisible in this crowd. I

couldn't tell you whether a man I just passed is father who is

travelling with his daughter, or a trafficker who is transporting his

victim. What I can tell you, is that right at this moment, at this

very station, there are girls who have been sold. Police sources tell

us this train alone carries dozens of trafficking victims every day.

Some are as young as ten. It took us weeks, but finally we managed to

He tells me he traffics, an average, 200 girls a year, and makes around

$1,000 on each. Most of them are 12, The trafficker also said that,

while he still pays local politicians and individual

policemen for protection, the central Government's recent

awareness campaign has made his operation more difficult. And at

the police headquarters in Calcutta, they deny charges of any

involvement. This is one of the allegations which is brought

against us as police. The police is doing very, very well in this field

of human traffics. The allegation of corruption against police is

very negligible. The fight is daily on. Activists say that at the

police level things have improved. But change is slow. Every police

station in India is now supposed to have anti-trafficking police

officers, and at district levels they have even set up anti-

trafficking unit. That looks good on paper, have a look at the

reality of India's fight against one of its greatest organised crime

networks. This is the centre of anti-trafficking activity for the

whole of West Bengal. Two computers, a few phones, and

thousands of cases. This detective and her small team are overwhelmed.

We are trying to solve this problem, how do I get more man power, some

digital support, some other support, Xerox machine, some telephones,

laptop, we need those. Traditionally there is dark and

secretive trade of humans, which has been driven by prostitution,

and more recently, demand for domestic workers among India's

growing middle-class. But that is changing.

We travelled across the country to northern India, where there is a

new and growing market for brides. This is a man's world, the men of

this town are famous for being strong, fit and single. Fortunate

to be born in one of India's wealthiest states, fortunate,

perhaps, to be born at all. One estimate suggests that ten million

girl foetuses have been aborted in India in the last two decades. The

UN says it is a problem of genocide proportions. The Indian Government

disputes these estimates. But the reality of life in Haryana is hard

to argue with. It is such a social issue that every house is facing

this problem. Every house is facing that there are young boys who are

not getting girls. And when you talk to them, they are frustrated.

Rishi Kant took me to see how this frustration fuels organised crime.

There is a minor child, she has been traffiked, we will go and see

and do the raid. If the girl is there we will do the rescue

operation. So we're going to have your group, as well as the police

from Bengal, and police from Haryana, working together to rescue

this 14-year-old. Exactly. You know where she is? The family knows.

Ruksana, the girl, is at home when we enter. But minutes later, the

Before she lets her go, she takes out the earrings she had given her.

As police lead her away, she follows. Rishi Kant orders her out

of the police car, the trafficker and the victim have to be separated,

it's the law, he says. But she is not scared of me, she is screaming.

A couple of hours later, at a police station, she is still

insisting she has done nothing wrong. We don't have enough girls

and many people are buying girls from Bengal, she cries. She swears

she had treated her well. But in the car outside, Ruksana tells the

police a different story. She talks about daily humiliation, beatings,

rape. Her father listens, overwhelmed. Soon he will be able

to take his daughter home. This is incredible, the whole village is

basically following us to Ruksana home, I'm sure this is more

attention than she's used to. She is still haunted by memories of

She was never even allowed outside. She doesn't want to talk about the

rape. Her parents are worried about She just wants to be at home, she

told me. But with so much attention, so much gossip, Rishi tells the

parents it is not safe for her to stay. Everything is at stake, her

life, her identity, her marriage, and her image in the society.

Everything is lost. And if you don't get any support from the

state, the administration, that's ten-times more problematic. This is

probably where Ruksan will end up, at least for the time being. This

private shelter in Calcutta is the best in the state. It is home to

150 girls. Here too they tell us they have noticed that the number

of girls sold into marriage is on the rise. And the real struggle,

activists say, is to get politicians on side. They are not

interested, you know, because you know why, do we have to still go

and tell them this is happening in our country. When so many girls are

dying, when so many girls are being traffiked, and you know, we are not

talking about hundreds, we are But attitudes here show no sign of

changing. In a village in Haryana, we visited a meeting of influential

local elders, even before the notorious Delhi rape case, they

came to discuss the worrying rise in rapes in Haryana. Here is how

one of them explained the problem These women don't get much of a

choice. This is a community support centre for victims of trafficking,

some of them have settled here, some don't leave because they are

too ashamed to go back. All are expected to produce sons. 25-year-

old Rupa was traffiked from Bihar, she says she was forced to have two

abortions until she finally gave Fuelled by poverty, corruption, and

attitudes towards women, in India, this cycle of abuse carries on.

Earlier today in Mumbai, we filmed a veteran Indian act stress, who is

also a prominent -- actress, who is also a prominent women's activist

and former member of the Upper House in parliament. I began by ask

She Lay Down Deep Beneath the Sea believed that India did not love

its -- by asking if she believed that India did not love its girl

children? It comes from the complication of being a complex

society. So it is with the position of women. On the one hand we have

had a woman President and Prime Minister, several women are in top

positions in politics and business and the arts and all of that, but

on the other hand, female foeticide is also being practised. It is,

essentially, a country living in contradictions and trying to come

to terms with it. Having said that, without any doubt. India is a

patriarchal society, and we have internalised a patriarchal mind set

in which the girl child is not given the value that she deserves.

The victim of December's gang rape was a middle-class student living

in the capital city, where the majority of the country live

poverty striken and voiceless. I asked her if she believed India's

lingering caste system was an issue in the rape? There are problems in

the rural areas where certain women where nobody pays the attention to

them. This was a case that was given tremendous visibility, and

people came to know the horror that is associated with rape. Somewhere

the deadening of our senses has really been brought into sharp

position. I think it is about time something like this happened, and

the outrage of complete demand for justice became central to our

system. The week since the rape has seen an extraordinary outpouring of

public anger in India, much of it directed at the police. The fact is,

that the police have internalised the same patriarchal mind set, and

what happens is most often girls do not even go to register cases of

rape, or trafficking, for fear that they are really going to be treated

to a verbal abuse amounting to a second rape. Because of the

insensitivity of the police, and the tendency to some how blame the

victim for having invited the rape. And that is a shocking state of

affairs, because it is not enough to say they have internalised their

mind set, because when they occupy a chair, and they wear a uniform,

then there has to be a process of training in which they are

disabused from the horrible values they have. She has made her name as

a star of more than 100 Bollywood firms over four decades, did she

believe the industry was responsible for suggesting that in

terms of women and sex, "no" didn't necessarily always mean no. We have

to tread careful grounds here. Because to blame Bollywood for

everything that is wrong in society would be factitious, and not true.

I think there is definitely a churning within sections of the

film industry, of the Hindi film industry, where they are indulging

in some amount of self-reflection and analysis. But they are his tent

to verbalise what they feel, for fear of being appropriated by the

moral brigade. We cannot have a situation where this gives an

opportunity to the moral brigade to stand waving their flags and saying

women are responsible because they are wearing short skirts or they

are being emancipated or what have you.

I think, for the film industry, we have to understand that the

business of cinema is about images. And when you show fragmented images

of a woman's body, she really loses all autonomy it commodifies herself.

However, I do want to insist that celebration of senuality is welcome,

and something that is healthy. But there is a thin line between

celebration of sexuality and a surrender to the male gaze. We have

come a long way from films made in the 1960s where, "I will remain

silent", was considered a virtue. We have seen more visibly working

women in India. There is still a lot left to be desired, it is for

us to stand up, and also, for female actors to say they demand

more. Could the student's gang rape and

murder prove a turning point in the way India's women are treated.

Could it prove a watershed for women's rights? I think the outrage

has been so universal, and so persistent, that I will be very

surprised if there is no change at all. But ultimately what we are

dealing with is a mind set change, a societal, mind set change, which,

as you know, takes a very, very long time. There is a bit of skill

in handling a radio chat show, the witty one-liner, a bit of flirting

and being kind to granny, Terry Wogan, and Jonathan Ross spring to

mind. But Nick Clegg? For coalition spin doctors, for some reason, they

have decided he could make it big on the airwaves, he has a lot to

live up to. Time to call in Steve Smith?

Hello Newsnight? What you mean now, on now?

You may have heard about the BBC's state-of-the-art new HQ in central

London. This is where we maintain our all-important links with our

audience. Would you mind one second?

Hello Newsnight? Yes. No. The vital connection, talking in

real time, to real people, politicians want it too. Nick Clegg

has become the first cabinet minister to launch what is promised

to be a regular weekly phone-in, on London's LBC Radio. What support is

the Government going to be able to offer families and couples who are

being forced to leave their jobs within the army or other forces,

jobs within the ministry. Stay on the line, this is to do with the

military review, and many jobs have been shed, some on the frontline.

As you know better than I do, we have been upfront with you and your

husband, and said because defence expenditure was so mishandled in

the past, we have to bring things down to a level which we can

properly support. There isn't that uncertainty. I honestly don't think

it does any harm to the reputation of politics in general for a

politician to make himself accessible. It is a big commitment

for him. Yes, I think in a newsy week, in a week with a lot of

political news, I might listen, and I might even ring up. Let us know

when you do. This is the Newsnight Awards Line, if you think we

deserve...hello...$$NEWLINE # Hey how you doing

Politicians and their handlers, believe there is nothing like

direct contact with the great British public. Good morning Mr

Major. Good morning. I would like to know why I should vote Tory?

They are talking straight to voters, and they are being seen, or at

least heard, to do so, but it doesn't always end well. Someone

has just handed me the tape, let's play it and see if we can hear it.

You should never have put me with that woman, whose idea that was? It

is just ridiculous. That Gordon Brown bigot-gate moment, all

triggered by contact with maybe of the public. It was played back on

my show, and he didn't know it was filmed. It was a catastrophic for

Brown and it happened in the middle of an election. It takes you back

to all the other election moments, how often it is the member of the

public who changes the weather. The all-time classic was a woman called

Diana Gould. Why, when the Argentinian battleship, was outside

the exclusion zone, and actually sailing away from the Falklands,

why did you give the orders to sink it? It was not sailing away the

Falklands, it was an area which was a danger to our ships. And it

stopped the then Prime Minister in her tracks.

One second, hang on? Hello. Hello Jeremy, I wondered why we kept this

phone. Direct dialogue with the people is a hallmark of strong men

among world leaders. Including Chavez of Venezuela. And Russia's

Vladimir Putin. I'm wondering are you a man of the people, and have

you worn a onesie? From your constituency, have you ever worn a

onesie? I was actually given a big, green onesie in Sheffield, which I

have kept in its packaging, I haven't worn it yet. Actually,

Newsnight imagined that look last month. This programme's meaningless

if it doesn't set the agenda. What's he got to lose. Everybody

hates him, everybody thinks he's like the daft lad. This morning he

showed, you know, quite a few sparks of humour. How many stars

would you give it? As a show four stars. That is pretty good? Yes, I

would. Hi Kirsty. It's going well. What's that? Get off?

Nuisance caller. Figures out today show there are

still 13,000 black and white television licenses in the UK, so

tonight's farewell is tailored especially for viewers watching

tonight in glorious monochrome, Colder weather on the way for the

UK in the next few days. Friday quite a chilly affair, and a rather

grey one for many of us as well. The best of any sunshine likely

across Wales in the south west during the early part of the day.

Elsewhere it is a mixture of low clouds and outbreaks of rain and

stubborn patches of mist and fog. And wintery across the hills of the

north-east of England, maybe the bit of sleet mixed in with the

showers across East Anglia. For the south west and Wales, after the

sunshine first thing, more cloud piling in come the afternoon, that

will have a tendency to bring increasingly heavy showers as the

afternoon progresses. Perhaps there is brightness to be found across

the likes of Devon and Dorset, and up into the Welsh marshes and the

afternoon. For Northern Ireland a dreary day, a foggy start making

way to a foggy afternoon, with outbreaks of rain. In the far north

of Scotland it may brighten during the afternoon. Elsewhere cloud

around or misty and murky weather. For the weekend, the prospects turn

colder still, the threat of wintery showers across eastern Scotland and

the north-east of England. Further south, an area of low pressure

pushing in, making for a bit of a forecasting headache for us, it

looks like it will bring heavy rain to the southern most counties of