10/05/2013 Newsnight

$:/STARTFEED. Over half a million pounds damages and a complete

clearing of his name. Tonight we reveal the story and the outcome of

a four-year struggle by a Middlesborough solicitors against

Cleveland police force. There is no higher award of exemplary damage

that is a court could make. That is the clearest recognition on the

Chief Constable's part that the conduct of her officers was utterly

indefensible. Also tonight at the G7. The German

Finance Minister is warned by the Americans to ease up on European

austerity. Is that policy really worsening as and economic crises

across the west. We will hear the views from economists working in

Germany, Greece and the US. It's gats bee. He was a German spy

urgh the war. I heard he killed man. The roaring '20s alive in Baz

Luhurmann's The Great Gatsby, and a shrew of musicals and plays.

Request is F Scott Fitzgerald still a book for our sometimes. Good

evening, in 2009 James Watson was one of the most prominent defence

solicitors in the north-east of England. Those he defended included

some very high-profile criminals, then one morning in June that year

his life changed. His family home was raided, his property seized and

he faced a major police investigation into perverting the

course of justice. Why? That's the question Mr Watson has spent four

years trying to answer. Tonight Newsnight can reveal that Cleveland

Police force has agreed to pay damages of more than �500,000. They

have admitted false imprisonment and there were never any grounds to

suspect him of any offence. Every room, every drawer had been

turned out. It looked as if we had been burgled, basically. Having to

tell my 87-year-old mother I had been arrested, and there is no

hiding these things was something probably the worse of it. I could

actually hear them laughing. Which was something that it shocked me

and angered me. Early one morning in June 209 Cleveland Police came

to arrest -- 2009 Cleveland Police came to arrest James Watson. His

wife Rita and their two sons were held in one room of the house for

more than seven hours. As a mother I have devoted my life to ensure

our two sons have a safe and secure home. And Cleveland Police violated

that on that day. He was taken to north allen to North Allerton

Police Station and questioned for 30 hours. He was requested on

perverting the course of justice before being released on bail.

James Watson is one of the most prominent defence lawyers in the

north-east of England. Cleveland Police began their investigation

into him after his cliend Bronson Tyers was found guilty of alleged

kidnap and then acquitted on a retrial. He was arrested but never

charged with any offence over questions about intimidation of

witnesses to change their statements. The question is why

have they done that, is this one individual officer's sour grapes

after losing a provincial high- profile criminal trial. Or were

there more important powerful figures in Cleveland who wanted to

be rid of me and didn't care how much public money was spent in

doing so. I can only bounce the question back to you. The police

spent two years investigating James Watson. The question is, why? It is

hard to know for certain. Cleveland Police had a habit of not writing

things down. They were supposed to be taking notes during the

investigation of the decisions they made and the rational behind them.

Yet they failed to do -- rationale behind them, yet they failed to do

so. There isn't even a recording of their interview with James Watson.

According to the police, all six tapes and all six back-up tapes

failed to record. Newsnight has seen an Independent Police

Complaints Commission report, written by a senior officer at West

Yorkshire Police, and is highly citl ka of the way Cleveland's --

critical of the way Cleveland Police investigated James Watson.

It is highly critical of Chief Inspector Anthony Riordan. It says

he behaved as if he was hell bent on cornering his quartery. It says

his attention had become focused on haultly on James Watson and this

had the effect of clouding his judgment. Chief Inspector Riordan

came to the Old Bailey to apply for warrants to search James Watson's

property. According to the IPCC, much of the evidence he presented

today the judge was unsubstantiated. The judge was left with an

impression that there were reasonable grounds to suspect James

Watson of money laundering. This wasn't true. Event here at the Old

Bailey could well explain why the Chief Constable of Cleveland Police

cannot defend her officers against the claim that these warrants were

maliciously pro-kur cured. The shen -- Procured. The shenan begans at

the Old Bailey, appalling as they may be to an outsider looking at

them for the first time is the sort of behaviour cloveland Police have

been up to in small things and big, for the bulk of my professional

career. Chief Inspector Riordan had seized 26 boxes from James Watson.

They included highly-sensitive documents, which were covered by

legal privilege. The investigating team hoped to find incriminating

evidence. Instead the Crown Prosecution Service said that the

documents exonerated him. Despite this Cleveland Police kept hold of

the files for several more months and continued to treat James Watson

as a suspect. There were times when I would worry and think well how

far are they prepared to push things here, even though I knew

there was nothing there. When you are against people who are prepared

to go to the lengths they went to. I think they wanted to ruin us,

basically. Newsnight put to Anthony Riordan the criticisms made by the

IPCC, and James and Rita Watson. He As for the IPCC's comments about

evidence at the Old Bailey being unsubstantiated, Mr Riordan says he

was reliant on the expertise of others. It has taken James Watson

four years to clear his name. For the Chief Constable of Cleveland

Police to admit it that there were no reasonable ground to suspect him

of any offence. The Chief Constable has also agreed to correct police

records to ensure that no vestige of suspicion remains against James

Watson, his family or his colleagues. Cleveland Police have

agreed to pay more than half a million pounds in damages.

Including �80,000 in exemplary damages. They admit to falsely

imprisoning James Watson and his family. To trespass and to wrongful

interference with his belongings. They also cannot defend claims that

the search warrants were maliciously procured, or that

officers' behaviour amounted to misfeasance and there was an abuse

of power. The sum offered and accepted for exemplary damages was

at the absolute maximum, there is no higher award a court could make

for those damages. That is the clearest recognition on the Chief

Constable's part that the conduct of her officers was utterly

indefensible. The IPCC recommended that Cleveland Police consider

suspending Chief Inspector Riordan, instead he was retired on a full

pension. The man responsible for that decision was Assistant Chief

Constable Sean White he was on the police sailing team with Riordan.

The IPCC has said that the decision not to suspend him sent out

completely the wrong message. It was a time to be seen to be doing

the right thing. What certainly sticks in my throat is that

millions of pounds have been wasted of tax-payers' money at a time of

supposed austerity when public services are closing down hand over

fist in Middlesborough. Millions of pounds wasted and not one police

officer held to account. The Chief Constable of Cleveland Police, has

For the last few years Cleveland Police has been at the centre of a

separate wide-ranging corruption inquiry. The Chief Constable and

Deputy Chief Constable have been sacked for gross misconduct. The

head of finance suspended. James Watson hopes that his case will

lead to a change of culture at Cleveland Police which now has a

new Chief Constable. But he's not confident that his reputation will

ever recover. The best I can hope for is to be regarded as having a

checkered and controversial reputation. You can't come through

a scandal like this and expect absolutely everyone to believe that

you have been vindicated. Some will say no smoke without fire, some

will say this is a testament to how good my lawyers were rather than

how honest I was. But the value of the payout is important, it

reflects the fact that something must be done to reform Cleveland

Police. It cannot be allowed to stagger on for another 20 years in

the way that it has for the last 20 years.

Is German austerity cast ago shadow across the whole of the west? That

seems to be the fear the US Treasury who today met German and

other finance ministers for a G7 meeting in Buckinghamshire. Ahead

of the meeting US officials briefed journalist that is they would call

on Berlin to relax stringent austerity policies and boost

domestic demand because of the dangers they pose, not just to

Europe, but growth across the world. We will discuss this in a moment,

but first here is Paul Mason. They are meeting amid the English

greenery, but the backdrop to the G7 meeting is the sea of red and

black across the streets of Europe. The eurozone economy is flatlining,

and there is a chorus of demands on Germany to stop insisting on

austerity and ease up a little. driver for economic growth will be

consumer demand. Policies that would help to encourage consumer

demand in countries that have the capacity would be helpful. Roughly

translated that was the Americans telling the Germans to start

boosting their economy and borrowing more to make up for the

social catastrophe that is sweeping southern Europe. The Americans come

armed not just with arguments but facts. In the two years after the

crisis hit the USA launched a fiscal stimulus worth 5% of GDP.

The eurozone equivalent was 2%, after that came austerity. In the

USA the Central Bank has President Clintoned more than $2 trillion in

the form of quanative easing. The European Central Bank has not done

money printing. It seems to be working, growth has recovered in

the USA, while in the eurozone not so much. I think there is a real

view here in the US that there has been a bit of a sea change in the

ideolgical arguments and the political debate around the world

about austerity in a recession. I think the Americans feel that

actual economic performance has vindicated the US approach. They

did have a stimulus programme at the beginning and they feel that

the fact that the US economy is growing more strongly than European

economies really is a vindication of that approach. All through

spring event have come thick and fast to undermine the strategy of

austerity. The collapse of technocratic rule in Italy, with

25% for a party led by a comedian. Spain badly missed its borrowing

target and Europe simply shrugged. Meanwhile the French President had

begun a counter strike against what, despite the smiles, his officials

had called a right-wing kabal, led by Germany. One of the most

startling impacts of austerity in Europe has been youth unemployment,

in Greece it stands at 64%. In Spain at 57%. In Portugal and Italy

38%. Even France, which is opposed to austerity is seeing 22% of its

young people jobless. Meanwhile, in the USA it is just 16%, and the

White House sees figures like this as a problem of geopolitics, not

just economics. It is important to understand this is an

administration which, starting with the President, is really focused on

the middle-class and the lower middle-class and opportunity. And I

think they are very concerned about what they are seeing in Europe and

they are very worried about a lost generation and what the political

impact of that might be. Particularly in the European

countries where austerity is really squeezing a lot of people very,

very hard. The truth is, this is no longer about economics it is about

politics. All across Europe we have seen big votes against the

political mainstream, whether it is for fascists and far leftists, as

in Greece, or as in Italy, for parties simply defined by their

opposition to the old elite. That is what America is worried about.

As for Germany, commentators who know it well believe public opinion

there will take a lot of shifting. They don't translate what the facts

and figures tell you about what happens around you into their own

live expeerence. Which is still pretty comfortable, thank you very

much. So the point has yet to come where the austerity around Germany

and the adjacent countries will begin to affect its own

manufacturing prowess, which is the pillar of Germany's wealth and

success. When that moment comes I think they will wake up and think

of different ways. While he's schmoozeing with the G7 George

Osborne is all too well aware that the IMF economists will deliver

their own decision which is enough austerity, aimed at him.

Our guests are here, Artur Fischer, and in Athens former Greek MP and

world economist, Elena Panaritis, and assistant editor of the

Financial Times, Gillian Tett in the studio. Gillian Tett, you are

just back from Washington, is your sense that the Americans are

worried more about the politics than the economics? There is a bit

of both, the Americans are very worried about the fact that the US

economy is not expanding as fast as they thought it should be. They

think it is partly because of the slow global growth and the problems

in the eurozone. They are also concerned about the general

prospect of a lost generation in Europe and the possibility of

political turmoil. But last of all there is also a feeling that

actually America has learned some lessons of the last five years that,

frankly, could be copied in Europe. Whether it is about trying to take

more active measures to recapitalise banks or get the

economy going the Americans do think they have something to tell

the Europeans about what they could do instead of the current mess.

it helpful to you that the Americans are singing this song?

Does it actually make a difference? Will it give European countries

confidence to ease off austerity? Frankly, I think we have completely

misdiagnosed this European crisis. We have based all our growth on a

solution which was completely based on austerity. But European

economies are very bureaucratic, very high transaction costs, and

they need serious deregulation, starting with my economy, Greece.

Unfortunately we haven't really focused too much on that because

there are a lot of vested interests around those bureaucratic steps and

if we don't ease those ones up we will not have growth, we will not

have employment, especially in the youth. We will not have any exit

from these lost generation. When you look at the figures for youth

unemployment, Greece 64%, Spain 56%, Portugal 40%. Is this a

generational problem if these young people don't get the skills or

motivation or feel part of the fabric of society? You are

absolutely right. But I'm afraid that we have, as I said, completely

misdyingios -- misdiagnosed it. We were barking up the wrong tree. We

completely focused on the overexpenditure of those countries,

that is correct. We didn't look further into the actual roots which

were the fact that we are overspending because it is very

hard for youngsters to actually innovate, to create new ideas, to

define new technologies or to create a new sector of economy as

we do in the United States of America. Let me put that to Artur

Fischer, is there another way, perhaps austerity isn't the

medicine that Europe needs? Well obviously there is a combination of

things. I'm speaking to you Artur Fischer indeed in Miami? Is

austerity the only way? Obviously there are a number of things one

can do. Austerity is a major building block. If you take a look

at it you need to sort out your own house. You need to be able to

actually manage your costs in a responsible way, at the same time

those measures indeed cause huge problems. I believe Europe has

something to offer here. If we have mobility, if we have structural

reforms then we can actually generate growth by allowing in the

EU unemployment people in Greece to work elsewhere and by implementing

structural reforms we can incentivise investors to provide

jobs in Greece, in Spain and elsewhere. We have to look at this

whole process whereby we started this austerity and we will now, I

believe, enter into structural reforms, enter into increase of

demand and by doing that hopefully we will go through this problem.

Fischer, 64% youth unemployment, where will they get jobs? That is a

very good question. All I can say is the jobs most likely will not be

available in Greece. Will they come to Germany? They will come to

Germany, they will come to England. They will come to everywhere in

Europe where jobs are available. They probably will have to reduce

the standards of living. They will probably have to work in jobs they

haven't learned in the past. It will be a quite a change. Basically

young Greeks have to leave the country? Well, frankly, we have to

really think about the economics 101. We are talking about white

collar workers here, well educated individuals with over 2-3 foreign

languages and usually one or two masters degrees. They do not move

out of Greece to go to continental Europe, because continental Europe

is suffocating. It is full of bureaucratic and administrative

burdens. So the majority of Greeks are flying out of the country and

they go to the United Kingdom and the United States, Canada, a lot of

them are going to Latin America, believe it or not. Many of them to

the gulf countries. So let me put that to Gillian. Actually the

Americas are the best hope for a lot of these people. They see

America doing better in this recovery?. It is rather ironic that

Mr Fischer is in Miami. If the eurozone was a functioning reformed,

liberal economic area, the Americans would be having holidays

in Greece spending their money there. That would help Greece?

German tourist trips to Greece over the last year have fallen 5-10%.

That is a real problem, you need to find ways to replicate what America

has had and turn Greece into Florida, if you like for the

eurozone where wealthy middle-class people from the north go down in

the summer. There is also going to be, perhaps, a different atmosphere,

post-German election or not do you think? It is very unclear. One

hopes that the new Government will have the competence to be a bit

bolder and perhaps try to take some Morriss. Do you think post-election

there may be a change, even if Angela Merkel returns to power,

actually there may be a loosening of the austerity? I think there

will be a shift. We can already see that coming. Take a look, in

Germany we had salary increases of 5%. About two years ago that was

unthinkable that would happen. So Lagard, he's demand that we have

higher spending in Germany already takes place. When you take a look

at the Social Democrats who currently propose quite drastic tax

increases, I believe that the Conservatives, if they stay in

power, they will obviously try to ease austerity programmes in a way

that the results don't suffocate German output and demand on German

goods outside Germany. Thank you all very much indeed.

Well on Wednesday the The Great Gatsby opens the Cannes Film

Festival, directed by Baz Luhurmann, soundtrack curated by Jay-Z,

starring Marco Capuano and Carey Mulligan, if the trailers are --

Leonardo depap Rio and Carey Mulligan. It is expected take

millions in the states this weekend, but reviews will be lukewarm. It is

the theatrical book about the novel and a novel about Zelda, why all

the razzmatazz? I have all these things for her and now she just

wants to run away. She wants to leave that. Jay, you can't repeat

the past. You can't repeat the past? No. Of course you can. Of

course you can. With me now is the author Philip Hensher and Sarah

Churchwell, author of Careless People Murder Mayhem and the

Invention of the The Great Gatsby. People say this is a wonderful book,

what do you think? It is not that good a book looked at coldly. But

it becomes more and more relevent, fascinatingly relevant as time goes

on. Ten or 15 years ago we would have said maybe the time has passed

for this. Who wants to become an English gentleman like Gatsby. But

now with Russian oligarchs sending their children to terrible English

public schools, it is becoming more and more relevent. Also from the

point of view of a recession. I think it becomes a much more

important and speaking book to us. Sarah, is it a good book?

Absolutely I think it is a masterpiece. It is exactly that, it

is a book that keeps coming back. It is a book that never dies. It as

book in 1925 readers didn't get. As Philip says 15 years ago we didn't

get it but now we get it again. What that registers is not if it is

a good or bad book, but how prophetic it is, it says something

good and last beg the society we have created about capitalism,

about materialism, about greed. But also about hope and aspiration, our

need to search for something better. But the fact that keeps letting us

down and disappointment and disillusion as well. The film is

all razzle dazzle we hear? It is, it is all razzle dazzle. For me it

is a book about emptiness which has an emptiness at its heart. It is

not quite aware of its own emptiness. I think that is

condescending. It is totally aware that have, agree that is what it is

about. The thing it doesn't quite seem to be aware of is how

insufferable the narrator is. The way he's so patient troising to

everybody. He is the flaw. depends as if you see him as

Fitzgerald's error or the character's error. Is it that we

can't trust his opinions that he's a prigg or patronising or

Fitzgerald's mistake. That is for people like me makes it interesting,

there are lots of questions. There is lots of stuff going around. You

were saying in recessionary times you have written your own academic

book about it? It is not that academic. There is this enduring

interest in Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby. Why? I agree with

Philip but I go further. It hits our ambivalence about this question

about class, status and luxury and hedonism, we want to chase the

pleasure, what Zelda Fitzgerald calls the Green Light, the symbol

for everything we want. Let yet we know, we have learned the hard way,

as the last segment showed the hollowness and how toxic it is at

its heart. We repeat the same mistakes? That is what the novel is

about, the famous last line, "and so we are born ceaselessly again ".

The last one was 1974 with Mia Farrw and the OPEC oil crisis, the

previous version with Shelley Winters, that is suddenly a movie

about American imperialism. If you look at what was talked about

Gatsby, and his assertion he has been to Oxford, and they said you

couldn't have been to Oxford because you are wearing a pink

shirt. There are tropes, you talk about the Russian oligarchs giving

their children an English education, big articles in the papers this

week. Can people by dint of their wealth slip into society more

easily than Gatsby could? Well, I don't know. I have never really

witnessed that level of society. I suspect the thing that is slightly

problematic in Gatsby the novel is people think that actually you know

an English Duke at Oxford would be able to tell much difference

between Nick Carroway and the Buchanans and The Great Gatsby, I

don't think they could. What about America? You can sneer at the class

system, but within the class system of America it matters a lot, and

Buchanan represents that money class, and he wears a pink suit and

he Downing Street he went to Oxford. What is interesting to me,

Fitzgerald's prophetic insight that what he saw was this world coming

that being rich and classy there would cease to be a distinction,

Gatsby's problem doesn't understand that, he thinks getting rich is

enough, but it is not enough to get him Daysy. In today's world it

probably would be enough, what do I know, I don't travel in those

circles. My sense is the distinction is more and more

disappearing. Who wants to be a gentleman or Daisy, she's a strange

empty kind of name in the novel. We don't know what Daisy is like. She

is just followed around. Because it is a novel about desie, the whole

point is Gatsby's romance with possibility, aspiration, wanting

something t might be Dicey, a mansion, wealth, what do we want?

You have talked us right out to the front pages. That is all for this

week. We leave you with pictures of Dhaka and Bangladesh, 17 days ago

an eight storey clothing factory collapsed claiming more than 1,000

lives, today a young woman was found alive in the rubble, it is

Hello, last weekend's weather was about increasing warmth this

Saturday not. A spell of rain moving out of Northern Ireland into

Scotland and the Midland. It turns showery for the afternoon. Sunshine

and showers just about to cross the board, mental to go give a longer

spell of rain for the south west of Scotland. The wind are lighter in

northern Scotland compared with elsewhere and elsewhere the showers

will move along quickly on the brisk and rather cool westerly wind.

You may catch a heavy and possibly thundery downpour into the

afternoon. It shouldn't last too long and the sun should make an

appearence before the next shower comes along. You will notice the

temperatures mid-to low teens, some getting to 15, most not. It will

feel cooler in the breeze. Whenever it is raining also. It is a similar

picture, sunshine and showers into Wales. Heading through Saturday

evening could see a spell of wet and windy weather for a time in

North West England, then moving to Midland and the south-east later in

the night. Heading further afield this weekend, the northern half of

Europe is looking rather showery too. So if you want the best of the

sunshine head south, although it may well see some occasional rain