Browse content similar to 12/09/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
is the makings of a deal to get Syria to relinquish its chemical | :00:12. | :00:16. | |
weapons, weapons its finally acknowledged it has. While | :00:16. | :00:20. | |
President Assad negotiates on Russian TV. Tonight we meet some of | :00:20. | :00:24. | |
the millions of refugees sheltering in Lebanon. Too much too soon? The | :00:24. | :00:30. | |
education ministers doesn't admit that starting school at the age of | :00:30. | :00:32. | |
education ministers doesn't admit seven is much better for children. | :00:32. | :00:33. | |
She will tell us why. seven is much better for children. | :00:33. | :00:39. | |
# Bicycle # Bicycle | :00:39. | :00:42. | |
Stkpwhrk is the economy picking up speed? | :00:42. | :00:45. | |
We ride around the personal indicators. | :00:45. | :00:48. | |
The economics of confidence are like riding a bike, one minute it | :00:48. | :00:52. | |
is all wobbly, worrying about doom, the next minute you are sailing | :00:52. | :00:56. | |
along and on the upside. It is all about momentum. | :00:57. | :01:01. | |
I will be checking the confidence levels with my guests. | :01:01. | :01:10. | |
The Chinese puzzlele, too many men and not enough women. Marriage in | :01:10. | :01:17. | |
China seems like a distant fairytale, we hang out with the | :01:17. | :01:21. | |
love hunters. TRANSLATION: There is a lot of competition, the girls are | :01:21. | :01:32. | |
demanding a prefer tall guys. Good evening, in the last few | :01:32. | :01:35. | |
minutes we have learned that Twitter will sell shares to the | :01:35. | :01:39. | |
public. The company made an announcement in a tweet, and the | :01:39. | :01:47. | |
on-line world is abuzz tonight. In a minute we will hear from the | :01:47. | :01:51. | |
Lebanese border. First there is no doubt that the momentum of Syria is | :01:51. | :01:56. | |
with President Putin now, indeed the Republican leadership have | :01:56. | :02:00. | |
wasted no time in sticking the boot in into President Obama, claiming | :02:00. | :02:04. | |
he used Syria as a distraction from domestic bugetry business. The | :02:05. | :02:07. | |
caravan has moved to Geneva, where the US secretary and his Russian | :02:07. | :02:11. | |
counterpart have been joshing over who is calling the shots. After | :02:12. | :02:18. | |
Assad's star appearence on Russian TV, the UN said it had a request to | :02:18. | :02:29. | |
join the chemical weapons ban. How significance is that? Signing | :02:29. | :02:32. | |
join the chemical weapons ban. up to the chemical weapons | :02:32. | :02:36. | |
convention is important. A week or two ago Syria was barely | :02:36. | :02:38. | |
acknowledging those weapons. That is a key thing. Yet we still hear | :02:38. | :02:44. | |
this rhetorical diplomacy from President Assad this morning saying | :02:44. | :02:47. | |
they won't do this unless the threat of American force is lifted | :02:47. | :02:51. | |
and they stop supplying arms to the rebels. Today, bizarrely enough the | :02:51. | :02:55. | |
Washington Post leaked the story that arms have started arriving | :02:55. | :02:59. | |
from the Americans through the CIA with the rebels this very day. So | :02:59. | :03:03. | |
you would think how can they reconcile these particular | :03:03. | :03:05. | |
you would think how can they positions these political stands. | :03:05. | :03:07. | |
you would think how can they We got more of that from John Kerry | :03:08. | :03:18. | |
soon after he arrived in Geneva. Only the credible threat of force | :03:18. | :03:21. | |
and the intervention of President Putin and Russia based on that has | :03:21. | :03:26. | |
brought the Assad regime to acknowledge, for the first time | :03:26. | :03:31. | |
that it even has chemical weapons, and an arsenal and it is now | :03:31. | :03:35. | |
prepared to relinguish it. President Obama has made clear that | :03:35. | :03:42. | |
should diplomacy fail, force might be necessary to deter and degrade | :03:42. | :03:45. | |
should diplomacy fail, force might Assad's capacity to deliver these | :03:45. | :03:51. | |
weapons. So is it actually going nowhere? No, it is going somewhere, | :03:51. | :03:55. | |
that is the fascinating thing. Despite the rhetoric we heard from | :03:55. | :03:59. | |
John Kerry, we know working groups are sitting in Geneva with Russian | :03:59. | :04:04. | |
chemical warfare experts and American ones deciding practically | :04:04. | :04:06. | |
chemical warfare experts and how would you do that, if we can | :04:06. | :04:09. | |
agree it in the Security Council. John Kerry has an inside into the | :04:09. | :04:13. | |
American thought process. He thought about firstly | :04:13. | :04:16. | |
internationally safeguarding the stocks, then removing them from | :04:16. | :04:19. | |
Syria for destruction elsewhere. We stocks, then removing them from | :04:19. | :04:22. | |
are getting insights into the process they have in mind. What is | :04:22. | :04:25. | |
the Russian game here, is it keeping America away? Well, there | :04:25. | :04:31. | |
is a view that this process, even if we accept it is being sincerely | :04:31. | :04:36. | |
entered in to. Of course the state department and others would not | :04:36. | :04:39. | |
accept that of President Assad, they are still casting doubtds | :04:39. | :04:43. | |
about his motives, if it was completely sincere and the process | :04:43. | :04:46. | |
went ahead, under the conditions of civil war, it could easily take a | :04:46. | :04:50. | |
year or more to carry it out. During which time we know that | :04:50. | :04:52. | |
year or more to carry it out. President Assad and Russia are | :04:52. | :04:56. | |
insistent on the point there can be no American strikes while this | :04:56. | :05:02. | |
process is going ahead. The dilemma is that price worth aPremier League | :05:02. | :05:05. | |
for President Obama. Effectively it then -- it allows President Assad a | :05:05. | :05:16. | |
free hand in a war that has already claimed 117,000 lives. Is there any | :05:16. | :05:21. | |
way that President Obama can wrest any glory from this? If this is | :05:21. | :05:26. | |
what it seems to be, which is an increasingly viable and practical | :05:26. | :05:29. | |
diplomatic discussion about how this can be done, yes, if it comes | :05:29. | :05:34. | |
through. Because securing those chemical weapons is a vital | :05:34. | :05:37. | |
national interest to the United States. If that process goes ahead | :05:37. | :05:40. | |
he can say to the American people we have done this. The question, | :05:40. | :05:44. | |
what will he have had to give up in order to do that, and will he be | :05:44. | :05:49. | |
seen as selling out the suffering people, those in the refugee camps | :05:49. | :05:54. | |
in Syria, who have been pleading to American help in order to get that | :05:54. | :05:57. | |
over the past few years. Let's hear more about that, a deal on chemical | :05:57. | :06:02. | |
weapons might be on the table. There is no sign the conflict | :06:02. | :06:07. | |
itself and the dreadful damage inflicted on Syrians by | :06:07. | :06:08. | |
itself and the dreadful damage conventional weaponry will let up. | :06:08. | :06:11. | |
Thousands are still fleeing out of the country, more than two million | :06:11. | :06:15. | |
people. Many escaping to Lebanon. Jeremy has been to a refugee camp. | :06:15. | :06:26. | |
The bishop has more on his mind than usual. His diocese straddles | :06:26. | :06:34. | |
the Bekar Valley, the route by which refugees flee Syria, across | :06:34. | :06:38. | |
the border and into Lebanon. They say the fields and orchards of the | :06:38. | :06:44. | |
Bekar Valley fed the Roman empire. Just over the hills in the distance | :06:44. | :06:48. | |
is the frontier with the Assad dynasty. Since Islamist rebels fell | :06:48. | :06:57. | |
like a wolf on the Christian fold of Maaloula, such as can throw | :06:57. | :07:02. | |
themselves on the bishop's mercy. This refugee needs help to pay the | :07:02. | :07:06. | |
rent, the bishop promises that if she gives her name, she will go on | :07:06. | :07:11. | |
to a list and when aid arrives they will be in touch. Those who make it | :07:11. | :07:16. | |
here are offered a place to weather the storm. They start to stay with | :07:16. | :07:22. | |
the people, and we tried to find them somewhere to live. We tried to | :07:22. | :07:27. | |
find jobs for them. We try our best really. I'm afraid if there is an | :07:27. | :07:34. | |
attack in Syria, we will have more ref refugees in will he be I don't | :07:34. | :07:39. | |
know. That is why I called the international community to stop | :07:39. | :07:44. | |
sending arms to Syria. To work together with the Syrian people for | :07:44. | :07:47. | |
sending arms to Syria. To work the peace. Otherwise we don't know | :07:47. | :07:53. | |
what will happen. Not only in Syria, in Lebanon, in Turkey, and all the | :07:53. | :08:00. | |
Middle East. Fear knows no creed and Christians are a minority among | :08:00. | :08:04. | |
the refugees. Most of those fleeing the fighting are Muslims. Three- | :08:04. | :08:10. | |
quarters of a million refugees have reached Lebanon, and the promise of | :08:10. | :08:12. | |
sanctuary. The lucky ones shelter in small | :08:12. | :08:15. | |
sanctuary. camps, this one is home, if that's | :08:15. | :08:20. | |
the word, to 80 families who live in rented tents in an orchard. No- | :08:20. | :08:25. | |
one wants to stay here, but the tents are beginning to look | :08:25. | :08:41. | |
depressingly permanent. 1-2-3-4-5- 6-7-8-9-10. Some of the children | :08:41. | :08:44. | |
have seen things no-one should ever have had to see. All have read the | :08:44. | :08:49. | |
fear and desperation in the eyes of their parents. In the impromptu | :08:49. | :08:52. | |
school, students have volunteered as their teachers. They must have | :08:52. | :08:59. | |
seen some terrible things? Yes, of course, but they are children. You | :08:59. | :09:06. | |
know and we cannot stop their imagination of the children. Things | :09:06. | :09:12. | |
that happened and in themselves and their growing is peace, they want | :09:12. | :09:18. | |
peace, they don't want war and terror. Most of these people seem | :09:18. | :09:26. | |
to blame Assad. But whatever their feelings life has to go on. This | :09:26. | :09:32. | |
couple, who sold sweets for a living in Syria had a baby in the | :09:32. | :09:40. | |
camp. They called him Jihad. I would like to ask you what it was | :09:40. | :09:46. | |
like having a baby in the camp here? TRANSLATION: Very hard, it | :09:46. | :09:50. | |
was freezing. There was a lot of snow, so it was really hard. When | :09:50. | :09:53. | |
was freezing. There was a lot of do you think your son will go back | :09:53. | :09:59. | |
to Syria? TRANSLATION: Of course, God willing, he will return, even | :09:59. | :10:03. | |
if we his parents don't ever, his generation will go back. Even if | :10:03. | :10:05. | |
if we his parents don't ever, his there is only rubble left, he will | :10:05. | :10:10. | |
go back. Even if it is just to plant one rose. Le | :10:10. | :10:20. | |
What is a -- what is a home, they have light, water and half-a-dozen | :10:20. | :10:24. | |
or so lavatories between 400 of them. Parents and children do what | :10:24. | :10:28. | |
they can, but a home is surely somewhere you feel you belong, and | :10:28. | :10:35. | |
no-one belongs here. Yet this morning in Beirut there | :10:35. | :10:38. | |
no-one belongs here. were hundreds and hundreds more | :10:38. | :10:44. | |
learning the patience every refugee needs before officialdom can | :10:44. | :10:47. | |
acknowledge your existence. Over half those fleeing are children. | :10:48. | :10:54. | |
Lebanon's schools health and housing services are already | :10:54. | :10:57. | |
stretched to near breaking point. There is now a real risk of Syria's | :10:57. | :11:03. | |
war setting off instability across the region. When these people made | :11:03. | :11:09. | |
the decision to lead everything behind them, a missile strike and | :11:09. | :11:14. | |
who knows what else seemed terrifyingly imminent. It didn't | :11:14. | :11:18. | |
happen or it hasn't happened yet, at least, but neither has the war | :11:18. | :11:23. | |
ended. When you have nothing but the clothes you stand up in, | :11:23. | :11:29. | |
diplomatic games seem very remote indeed. | :11:29. | :11:34. | |
Still they come, the old, the young, the millions in whom hope has been | :11:34. | :11:39. | |
driven out by fear. The makeshift shelters give way to the concrete | :11:40. | :11:44. | |
floor and the shortened horizons of lives lived from day-to-day. So | :11:44. | :11:55. | |
very many small tragedies. Now we know that Newsnight viewers are | :11:55. | :11:59. | |
pretty smart. But you might want to put a pen and paper together for | :11:59. | :12:02. | |
the end of the programme. Right now though try to work out what age you | :12:02. | :12:06. | |
were when you first went to school, are you four? Five? Six? The law | :12:06. | :12:10. | |
now says that children must be in school by the age of five. But | :12:10. | :12:14. | |
according to an influential group of educationalists writing in the | :12:15. | :12:19. | |
Telegraph today, that is just too early for formal learning, never | :12:19. | :12:23. | |
mind testing. Tomorrow they jaunch a Too Much Too Soon campaign, and | :12:23. | :12:27. | |
point to the Scandinavian education system that starts at six or seven, | :12:27. | :12:31. | |
and where children consistently achieve better education results, | :12:31. | :12:33. | |
and where children consistently they say, as well as higher levels | :12:33. | :12:37. | |
of well being. At the moment I will be asking the education minister if | :12:37. | :12:40. | |
we have the whole thing wrong. First we have this. | :12:40. | :12:45. | |
If you are six in Finland you can play all day. This morning these | :12:45. | :12:48. | |
children were in kindergarten, now play all day. This morning these | :12:48. | :12:52. | |
they are at their club. They won't start school until their seven. | :12:52. | :12:55. | |
There are so many things you have to be able to do in school, sit | :12:55. | :13:03. | |
still, receive orders and to fulfil them. To understand abstract | :13:03. | :13:11. | |
concepts and most of those you have to do at the same time. So at the | :13:11. | :13:16. | |
age of five they are still kids. Last year Finland's education | :13:16. | :13:20. | |
system was ranked the best in the world. Based on how the students | :13:20. | :13:24. | |
did in tests and how many went to university. Not surprising, then, | :13:24. | :13:29. | |
that many in Britain are keen to copy them. When it comes to | :13:29. | :13:34. | |
education questions this is a hardy perennial, do we start our children | :13:34. | :13:40. | |
too early in formal education? And could this help explain the serious | :13:40. | :13:44. | |
problems we have like poor literacy amongst boys or the achievement gap | :13:44. | :13:49. | |
between rich and poor children. The head of this nursery thinks it can. | :13:49. | :13:54. | |
Along with over 100 leading figures in education, she signed an open | :13:54. | :14:00. | |
letter today saying our approach could cause profound damage to | :14:00. | :14:03. | |
children's self-image and attitude to learning. The letter argues | :14:03. | :14:08. | |
children should spend more time in high-quality nursery schools, | :14:08. | :14:10. | |
learning informally, getting involved in active, outdoor, | :14:10. | :14:16. | |
creative play. You don't need a structured environment, you needed | :14:16. | :14:20. | |
a dults who are understanding how that child -- adults who are | :14:20. | :14:24. | |
understanding how that child is learning, and using the early years | :14:24. | :14:27. | |
understanding how that child is foundation stage. If a child is | :14:27. | :14:30. | |
able to read at three then the adult supports that, if the child | :14:30. | :14:35. | |
wants to do anything that they are interested in, calculus at four! | :14:35. | :14:40. | |
That's fine. These parents agreed. Even in schools they don't play, | :14:40. | :14:42. | |
they don't play enough. More play is always better, it gets them | :14:42. | :14:48. | |
thinking, using their brains and different areas. That is what I | :14:48. | :14:52. | |
feel. In eight European countries, including Finland, children have to | :14:52. | :14:56. | |
be in school at seven. In 23 countries they have to be in school | :14:56. | :15:00. | |
when they are six, in most of Britain and Cyprus it is five. In | :15:00. | :15:05. | |
Northern Ireland school starts at four. | :15:05. | :15:09. | |
Not everyone in education agrees with the letter writers, here, a | :15:10. | :15:13. | |
cop of miles from the nursery, another -- a couple of miles from | :15:13. | :15:19. | |
the nursery, another disadvantaged area of London, an educational | :15:19. | :15:22. | |
charity believes the best way for children to learn is putting them | :15:22. | :15:25. | |
in a structured environment as early as possible. Jacob's only six | :15:25. | :15:30. | |
but he has been becoming to the Learning Store for two years, he's | :15:30. | :15:35. | |
out tisic, he spends part of every estimate -- out tisic, he spends | :15:35. | :15:40. | |
half of Saturday in the Blur fly Class, improving his reading. I | :15:40. | :15:49. | |
don't want him to fall behind that is why I put him in the class. So | :15:49. | :15:59. | |
he gets the extra help. Katie has run the classes for 14 years, | :15:59. | :16:03. | |
mostly for children failed by their schools. They are saying that if | :16:03. | :16:07. | |
you start teaching them in any formal way before age seven it is | :16:07. | :16:10. | |
too much too soon. I would say that what we are doing at the present | :16:10. | :16:14. | |
still isn't good enough, it is too little too late. Children has a | :16:14. | :16:18. | |
very young age are very ready to learn in a formal manner. Yes they | :16:18. | :16:22. | |
like to play, but they love to learn, they like to be taken | :16:22. | :16:25. | |
seriously. They are extremely intelligent and I think we | :16:25. | :16:28. | |
seriously. They are extremely underestimate them. There is | :16:28. | :16:30. | |
another lesson from Finland. Teaching is highly competitive, and | :16:30. | :16:35. | |
a masters degree is required even for primary school. Many would | :16:35. | :16:40. | |
argue it is the quality of teaching across the system which make the | :16:40. | :16:42. | |
difference, not the age children start formal school. We're going to | :16:42. | :16:51. | |
talk to the Education Minister Liz Truss in a moment. First let as | :16:51. | :16:55. | |
talk to Dr Mary Bousted, the General Secretary of the teachers | :16:55. | :16:59. | |
union, the ATL, who backs this move. Isn't the issue that children at | :16:59. | :17:02. | |
the age of five are sponges, they want to learn, they seek to learn, | :17:03. | :17:06. | |
and that is what the system provides them with, a chance to | :17:06. | :17:12. | |
learn? Well, they are sponges, but they need to have a strong grasp of | :17:12. | :17:16. | |
key concepts before they can actually go on to formal learning. | :17:16. | :17:18. | |
key concepts before they can For example let me just take the | :17:18. | :17:22. | |
example of maths. Before you understand the importance of number, | :17:22. | :17:24. | |
you have to know what number is. You have to understand the concept | :17:24. | :17:28. | |
of more or less. And the way to understand that is through playing | :17:28. | :17:33. | |
and through real live expeerence of what that means. Can you --Real | :17:33. | :17:40. | |
live expeerence of what that means. Can you get that in school? We are | :17:40. | :17:46. | |
in a period of where children are taught and tested. If there is a | :17:46. | :17:51. | |
test for five-year-olds, how will that work? The Government will have | :17:51. | :17:54. | |
to explain what is proposed as a baseline test at five to understand | :17:54. | :17:56. | |
where they are and a more baseline test at five to understand | :17:56. | :18:00. | |
formallised curriculum that will be further tested through a phonics | :18:00. | :18:03. | |
test at six. If the Government has its way through every child in the | :18:03. | :18:08. | |
country being ranked in percentages of where they are in respect of the | :18:08. | :18:12. | |
national population at 11. We are entering a more testing period. | :18:12. | :18:16. | |
national population at 11. We are Isn't it up to primary school | :18:16. | :18:19. | |
teachers to cope with this and interpret it in the way they think | :18:19. | :18:23. | |
best for the chin in their class? It is, but when you are under a | :18:23. | :18:27. | |
strong accountability regime and having to meet particular standards, | :18:27. | :18:30. | |
it can be very difficult to teach in way that does develop the | :18:31. | :18:35. | |
ability of children to learn properly. The accountability regime | :18:35. | :18:40. | |
imposes certain formallised approaches to teaching. Many | :18:40. | :18:43. | |
schools are really under that regime at the moment. Won't your | :18:43. | :18:47. | |
ideas, your plans hit less privileged children? No they won't. | :18:47. | :18:52. | |
The evidence shows that countries which adopt a less formal approach | :18:52. | :18:56. | |
to early years education, where children get a better grasp of | :18:56. | :19:00. | |
concepts and they then approach the more formal concepts more ready to | :19:00. | :19:04. | |
understand them. There is less of a gap between disadvantage and the | :19:04. | :19:08. | |
advantaged children. How are those comparable, these two aren't | :19:08. | :19:12. | |
comparable? The international system and this system? You can | :19:12. | :19:16. | |
only compare systems by looking at another system, if they achieve | :19:16. | :19:20. | |
better results, saying how is it and what are they doing. Most | :19:20. | :19:23. | |
countries in western Europe start school later than us, and those | :19:23. | :19:27. | |
that do very well have a less formal curriculum when children are | :19:28. | :19:31. | |
very young. Thank you very much indeed. Well Liz Truss, the | :19:31. | :19:38. | |
Education Minister is here. Too much too young, the idea is you are | :19:38. | :19:42. | |
force-feeding formal education, no matter the level the child is at. | :19:42. | :19:46. | |
Every child is at a different level? That is absolutely true, we | :19:46. | :19:50. | |
have given teacher more flexibility in the new national curriculum to | :19:50. | :19:53. | |
find the right level for the child and teach in the right way. If you | :19:53. | :19:58. | |
go into a reception class you will find that children are playing, | :19:58. | :20:01. | |
they are learning how to play together, they are learning how to | :20:01. | :20:04. | |
take turns. What I think the issue is that too many children are | :20:04. | :20:08. | |
arriving at school, not with those skills that Mary talked about, not | :20:08. | :20:13. | |
ready to learn, so what we need to do is improve early years education | :20:13. | :20:14. | |
to make sure that rather than the do is improve early years education | :20:14. | :20:19. | |
33% of children who arrive at school without communication skills | :20:19. | :20:23. | |
make sure they have them. So you believe the state should, | :20:23. | :20:31. | |
essentially be in loco parentis? We are recruiting early years teachers | :20:31. | :20:36. | |
for our nurseries. 96% of children take up early age education at | :20:36. | :20:40. | |
three and four. Let's make sure it is high quality so children have | :20:40. | :20:44. | |
the skills and vocabulary and learn how to take turns, and they start | :20:44. | :20:48. | |
school ready to learn. We shouldn't delay the start because we haven't | :20:48. | :20:51. | |
done the preparation beforehand. This Government and other | :20:51. | :20:55. | |
Governments have always praised the Scandinavian system of education | :20:55. | :20:58. | |
because of what comes out the other end. So therefore if you embrace | :20:58. | :21:02. | |
some aspects of it, why can't you embrace the idea that the best way | :21:02. | :21:06. | |
to start a child is to start a child informal low and then | :21:06. | :21:08. | |
to start a child is to start a actually move to formal education | :21:08. | :21:13. | |
at seven. It seems to work for Scandinavia and other countries in | :21:13. | :21:19. | |
Europe. It is a complete misrepresentation of Scandinavia, | :21:19. | :21:23. | |
they have formal settings in countries like Sweden with highly- | :21:23. | :21:28. | |
trained teachers, an early years teachers are paid the same as a | :21:28. | :21:32. | |
primary school teachers. Here we have them paid less. You think | :21:32. | :21:35. | |
early years teachers should be better paid, a I hooer salary I | :21:35. | :21:40. | |
would like to see them better respecteded and better paid it is | :21:40. | :21:43. | |
really important. We are setting higher -- respected, and better | :21:43. | :21:48. | |
paid, it is really important. We are setting higher standards to | :21:48. | :21:54. | |
close the gap. If we can come back to the whole idea of the child, | :21:54. | :21:57. | |
what Mary Bousted is saying, I in terms of concepts and socialisation | :21:57. | :22:04. | |
and more and less, it means much more play, much less focused | :22:04. | :22:07. | |
learning, and yet you have started putting kids into test situations | :22:07. | :22:11. | |
at the age of five. Essentially you are putting them in pigeonhole, | :22:11. | :22:15. | |
even before the age of six? We're absolutely not doing that. There is | :22:16. | :22:19. | |
already an early years profile done at age four or five to see where a | :22:19. | :22:23. | |
child is. We do that through the current system. What we are doing | :22:23. | :22:27. | |
is we are saying schools can have a choice between using that and using | :22:27. | :22:29. | |
is we are saying schools can have a alternative methods to see where a | :22:29. | :22:33. | |
child is. But good teaching is all about finding what a child knows | :22:33. | :22:36. | |
already, how they are learning, how they are developing and building on | :22:36. | :22:41. | |
that. We're giving power to professionals to say this is the | :22:41. | :22:46. | |
way we want to approach it, and this is the way we want to help | :22:46. | :22:50. | |
children get on in their school career. Can I make the point about | :22:50. | :22:54. | |
play. We are not about play, we absolutely think about children | :22:54. | :22:58. | |
learning through play, the issue is whether it should be entirely | :22:58. | :23:04. | |
child-initiated or teacher-led. And parents supporting? When you had on | :23:04. | :23:07. | |
the film we will teach the child to read if they want to. I think that | :23:07. | :23:09. | |
the film we will teach the child to is the wrong approach. What you | :23:09. | :23:11. | |
will get is middle-class children with book on the balls, they will | :23:11. | :23:15. | |
be the ones learning to read, the children who may not have an | :23:15. | :23:19. | |
experience of reading will be the ones that are left behind. Are you | :23:19. | :23:23. | |
saying that poor people and working-class people aren't capable | :23:23. | :23:26. | |
of introducing their children to books? I'm saying that children on | :23:26. | :23:33. | |
free school meals do much worse at GCSE than children without. There | :23:33. | :23:37. | |
is a long tale of underperformance. Low income children arrive at | :23:37. | :23:39. | |
school less well prepared. We have evidence to show that. What you are | :23:39. | :23:44. | |
essentially saying is this policy is simple low because you believe | :23:44. | :23:48. | |
that poorer children -- simply because you believe that poorer | :23:48. | :23:53. | |
children need the Government to step? I'm saying we need to make | :23:53. | :23:59. | |
sure that every child succeeds. Basically part of the problem with | :23:59. | :24:03. | |
it is you need women to come into the work force, you just do, and | :24:03. | :24:10. | |
therefore what you are offering is three and four-year-olds, places in | :24:10. | :24:15. | |
nursery and form yamalised because that suits the economy, rather than | :24:15. | :24:18. | |
child-centered which the UN believes the rights of the child | :24:18. | :24:22. | |
won. We know 66% of mums go out to work, that is a fact of life. We | :24:22. | :24:27. | |
know early education benefits all children. There is a study showing | :24:27. | :24:29. | |
that early education has benefits far into a child's life, right | :24:29. | :24:34. | |
through to 18. But it has to be high-quality early education, that | :24:34. | :24:37. | |
is why we are raising the standard for early years teachers, we are | :24:37. | :24:41. | |
giving professional autonomy. We are not saying how we want teachers | :24:41. | :24:44. | |
to teach, what we are saying is we are going to allow you to get the | :24:44. | :24:48. | |
best outcomes for children, to see where a child is, to offer much | :24:48. | :24:52. | |
more flexibility. Let me give you an example. I can't have an example, | :24:52. | :24:57. | |
we have run right out of time I'm sorry. All manner of indicators | :24:57. | :25:00. | |
would suggest there is a new optimisim in the country, those | :25:00. | :25:04. | |
popular folk, estate agents, are being recruited by the budgetload. | :25:04. | :25:09. | |
The monthly consumer confidence bore barometer is at its highest in | :25:09. | :25:16. | |
four years, and GDP is up to since the first quarter. How does it feel | :25:16. | :25:21. | |
to you? Given the UK real wages have fallen by 5.5% since 2010, is | :25:21. | :25:26. | |
confidence measured in hard data or is something else in the air. Be it | :25:26. | :25:31. | |
the Olympics, a football match, an autumn day, or the joy the economic | :25:31. | :25:37. | |
editor gets from riding a bike? The job market is moving, growth is | :25:37. | :25:42. | |
accelerating and house prices are rising. But these are just the | :25:42. | :25:45. | |
tangible side of the recovery, what we are waiting for is the return of | :25:45. | :25:49. | |
something called "confidence", to invest, to spend, to take risk. But | :25:49. | :25:54. | |
that is hard to quantify. The economics of confidence are a bit | :25:54. | :25:58. | |
like riding a bike, one minute it is all wobbly, you are worried | :25:58. | :26:02. | |
about doom, the next minute you are sailing along and everything is | :26:02. | :26:05. | |
amplified on the upside. It is all about momentum. I have been | :26:05. | :26:14. | |
amplified on the upside. It is all covering the economic crisis since | :26:14. | :26:17. | |
it started. Here is what I think about when I think about confidence. | :26:17. | :26:25. | |
Number one, pubs. Five years ago when Lehman Brothers went bust my | :26:25. | :26:29. | |
local pub emptied, there was a dramatic loss of confidencek even | :26:29. | :26:32. | |
though I don't think anybody there actually worked for Lehmans. Now, | :26:32. | :26:36. | |
the economy is clearly coming back, but I still think a lot of pubs are | :26:36. | :26:40. | |
struggling. If you look at the statistics on people's spending | :26:40. | :26:44. | |
power there is a reason why. So what we found out over the last | :26:44. | :26:48. | |
five years the average household has been squeezed by a prolonged | :26:48. | :26:54. | |
period of inflation with essential items running ahead of regular pay. | :26:54. | :26:59. | |
Pay growth all the way back since January 2010 has been running | :27:00. | :27:03. | |
behind inflation, that has seen spending power squeezed | :27:03. | :27:07. | |
considerably in the last three years. Number two is estate agents, | :27:07. | :27:11. | |
house prices are rising, but the ones in the window are always a | :27:11. | :27:15. | |
little bit optimistic. It is once estate agents start recruiting that | :27:15. | :27:22. | |
you know the market is recovery. -- recovering. This week's job figures | :27:22. | :27:26. | |
showed 380,000 private sector jobs have been created in that year. | :27:26. | :27:32. | |
Staggeringly 77,000 of those were estate agents. | :27:32. | :27:38. | |
And that, to me, is confidence. Number three might seem a bit close | :27:38. | :27:43. | |
to home, but it is job adverts for journalists. I have come to | :27:43. | :27:47. | |
London's Silicon Roundabout, home of the tip and techno-savvy to meet | :27:47. | :27:51. | |
a man who can tell me what's happening in the recruitment market. | :27:51. | :27:54. | |
We have seen some big investment plays by big players in the market. | :27:54. | :27:58. | |
We have the Mail on-line, the website for the Daily Mail is out | :27:58. | :28:02. | |
there recruiting 100 journalists for a big expansion. A lot of it on | :28:02. | :28:10. | |
the back of the US. We have got the Evening Standard launching a TV | :28:10. | :28:13. | |
station there, a good amount of journalism jobs there, and the Sun | :28:13. | :28:16. | |
on-line coming to the market as well. Is journalism the canary in | :28:16. | :28:22. | |
the coal mine when looking at an advertising upturn? They have to be | :28:22. | :28:26. | |
confident about revenues coming through, on-line revenues are very | :28:26. | :28:30. | |
much advertising that. Number four is a graph, the consumer confidence | :28:30. | :28:34. | |
index, it is always a negative number, what now? This graph shows | :28:34. | :28:39. | |
the last five years, it is recovering fast, that is because | :28:39. | :28:42. | |
there is more credit in the economy. Of course, on my bike, I'm not | :28:42. | :28:46. | |
really seeing outside London. The recovery beyond the M25 is patchy. | :28:46. | :28:51. | |
That means a lot of people are not really confident there is a | :28:51. | :28:55. | |
recovery at all. My final barometer of confidence is Twitter. Because | :28:55. | :28:58. | |
every time a report like this goes out saying the statistics show | :28:58. | :29:02. | |
signs of recovery, a lot of people tweet me saying basically I'm a | :29:02. | :29:13. | |
Cameronite, Osbourneist full of propaganda. When that stops I will | :29:13. | :29:17. | |
say confidence has returned. There is momentum and a bit of movement, | :29:17. | :29:23. | |
but the magic ingredient of total confidence is till missing. Paul | :29:23. | :29:29. | |
will be back with us soon when we explore that Twitter sale story. | :29:29. | :29:36. | |
Are there reasons to be cheerful? Here is the assistant editor of the | :29:36. | :29:39. | |
Financial Times and in New York we have the economist and director of | :29:39. | :29:45. | |
the Earth Institute. You both look happy. Welcome to the studio. First | :29:45. | :29:51. | |
of all, Gillian, is Paul right? Is there a feel-good factor, what is | :29:51. | :29:55. | |
your equation for confidence? Paul is definitely right in the sense | :29:55. | :29:58. | |
your equation for confidence? Paul that optimisim is rising. We have | :29:58. | :30:01. | |
just seen the highest optimisim level for the last four years and | :30:01. | :30:07. | |
the most significant increase, the fastest-pace of increase in decades | :30:07. | :30:10. | |
that is striking. The level of optimisim is always relative, we | :30:10. | :30:14. | |
have just been through a very bad recession. Frankly it is not | :30:14. | :30:17. | |
surprising that people are feeling more confident. To me the big | :30:17. | :30:20. | |
question is, who is feeling confident. Is it just the people | :30:20. | :30:23. | |
who have assets that are being buoyed by qoosing. Or is it young | :30:23. | :30:27. | |
people -- quantative easing, or is it young people as well, we don't | :30:28. | :30:33. | |
have that breakdown. Where you sit in America, is confidence a self- | :30:33. | :30:37. | |
fulfiling prophesy? It is a little bit more than that. I think there | :30:37. | :30:43. | |
really is a recovery under way after the hard knocks of 2008/2009. | :30:43. | :30:53. | |
The UK, and the eurozone that suffered badly, Japan and the | :30:53. | :30:56. | |
United States are healing. There are still lots of wounds and | :30:56. | :31:02. | |
structural imbalances like high inequality of income and lack of | :31:02. | :31:08. | |
opportunities forepeople with lower skills or educational training. -- | :31:08. | :31:12. | |
for people with lower skills or educational training. There is a | :31:12. | :31:17. | |
real recovery under way, and the real pessimists yelling at the | :31:17. | :31:20. | |
Chancellor until recently, saying you are wrecking everything and | :31:20. | :31:23. | |
driving the economy over the cliff have been proved wrong. Does it | :31:23. | :31:28. | |
look different sitting in tech areas like San Francisco and New | :31:28. | :31:32. | |
York and sitting in Nebraska or outside Detroit? Of course, so we | :31:32. | :31:41. | |
are suffering from very, very, deep divides and widening inequality | :31:41. | :31:44. | |
that has been widening for divides and widening inequality | :31:44. | :31:48. | |
than two decades, even more than that. Our politicalcy thems have | :31:48. | :31:52. | |
not wanted to look very deeply at. This is a real underlying -- it has | :31:52. | :32:05. | |
left people without jobs on low incomes, it is not fair and right, | :32:05. | :32:10. | |
the rich have just prospered incredibly and we need more balance, | :32:10. | :32:17. | |
that is not yet soft. Is it true the people in Idaho and Nebraska | :32:17. | :32:19. | |
that is not yet soft. Is it true don't matter as much. The boom and | :32:19. | :32:22. | |
that is not yet soft. Is it true recovery here might look better in | :32:22. | :32:26. | |
London than in North Shields? The answer is of course they matter. It | :32:26. | :32:30. | |
is disgraceful to imagine we can have a society where the rich get | :32:30. | :32:36. | |
richer. If you are living in London it is easy to feel confident, house | :32:36. | :32:41. | |
prices are rise, partly due to foreign money coming in. The gap | :32:41. | :32:45. | |
between the old and the young is perhaps the most important issues | :32:45. | :32:49. | |
right now. If you are old and have assets, you are benefiting. If you | :32:49. | :32:57. | |
have savings that earn very little interest. But if your house price | :32:57. | :33:01. | |
is going up it offsets it. A fascinating study from the Bank of | :33:01. | :33:02. | |
England last year, suggesting that fascinating study from the Bank of | :33:03. | :33:05. | |
40% of the gains from quantative fascinating study from the Bank of | :33:05. | :33:09. | |
easing have gone to the wealthiest 5%, they own stocks and houses. In | :33:09. | :33:16. | |
the US in particular when stock markets go up confidence goes up | :33:16. | :33:19. | |
too, particularly amongst people who are wealthier. Stock markets go | :33:20. | :33:25. | |
up and people take huge risks we have problems then and it happens | :33:25. | :33:29. | |
all over again? Absolutely, I don't think we are in bubble territory | :33:29. | :33:33. | |
right now. Let's come back for housing, Jeffrey housing is up 12% | :33:34. | :33:38. | |
in America as well. Part low because of the help to buy. And now | :33:38. | :33:43. | |
we have Vince Cable so you better watch because of a housing bubble? | :33:44. | :33:49. | |
That is a bit of an exaggeration. Take it from an American | :33:49. | :33:51. | |
That is a bit of an exaggeration. perspective, house prices going up | :33:51. | :33:54. | |
12% but still much, much lower than they were in 208. Yes we had a | :33:54. | :34:04. | |
megabubble and collapse. And now we have some recovery because it has | :34:04. | :34:08. | |
been a number of years of not building houses and finally people | :34:08. | :34:12. | |
are earning some more income and coming back into the market. I do | :34:12. | :34:16. | |
think the point is those who were panicking that we are going over | :34:16. | :34:22. | |
the cliff, that's not the case. We see moderate growth in many, many | :34:22. | :34:25. | |
important economies around the world, but I don't think we should | :34:25. | :34:31. | |
therefore be complacent regarding these deeper problems of high | :34:31. | :34:34. | |
unemployment among young people, very low wages if they have a job. | :34:34. | :34:41. | |
People with the lower skills, we have to work on making our | :34:41. | :34:44. | |
societies more fair. We also have to start looking at the long-term. | :34:44. | :34:48. | |
Because in the meantime we are also still wrecking the environment and | :34:48. | :34:51. | |
many other things, we haven't attended to any of those longer | :34:51. | :34:58. | |
term issues. Always driven to the very short-term. Now that we have | :34:58. | :35:01. | |
both feet on the ground, there is a bit of a recovery, let's think | :35:01. | :35:06. | |
about the quality of the growth. Would you learn from history? I | :35:06. | :35:10. | |
think certainly there have been a number of lessons learned. Let's | :35:10. | :35:13. | |
not lose sight of the fact that it is good news that people are | :35:13. | :35:19. | |
feeling more cheerful. Whether it was the summer, or Andy Murray | :35:19. | :35:26. | |
winning Wimbledon, or a new baby in the palace. Danny Finkelstein said | :35:26. | :35:29. | |
last night, he was talking about the Government last night and the | :35:29. | :35:33. | |
recovery, he was saying it was very, very important for George Osborne | :35:33. | :35:37. | |
and David Cameron not to talk up the recovery too much because that | :35:37. | :35:39. | |
is what they have going for them, the continued idea of a recovery. | :35:39. | :35:42. | |
You don't want to talk too soon? Maybe, but the enof the day, the | :35:42. | :35:47. | |
thing that matters now is not so much our British consumers rushing | :35:47. | :35:50. | |
thing that matters now is not so out and buying new sofas, it is are | :35:50. | :35:55. | |
companies feeling confident enough to hire, invest in new plant and | :35:55. | :35:59. | |
equipment and get the real economy growing as again. That is a key | :35:59. | :36:02. | |
equipment and get the real economy question, we need to watch that | :36:02. | :36:04. | |
closely and say house prices. We question, we need to watch that | :36:04. | :36:12. | |
have an incredible short memory, over the last four years we have | :36:12. | :36:17. | |
learned a lesson, or have we? No more Masters of the Universe? | :36:17. | :36:23. | |
Tragedy is that quantative easing, pumping money into the economy and | :36:23. | :36:29. | |
the rich have got richer, that is one of the ironies, dealing with | :36:29. | :36:31. | |
the rich have got richer, that is that will be a challenge for | :36:31. | :36:34. | |
politicians for years to come. Thank you very much for joining us. | :36:34. | :36:42. | |
The news that Twitter is to share sell shares to the public has | :36:42. | :36:46. | |
happened. Paul is here. What is the story did we expect it to happen so | :36:46. | :36:50. | |
quickly? It has been rumoured for the last few days. Let me explain | :36:50. | :36:55. | |
what is going on. An initial public offering is where you sell shares | :36:55. | :36:59. | |
in a company to anyone who wants to buy them. What you are expecting is | :36:59. | :37:04. | |
to make eight, ten fold back, invested by the original people who | :37:04. | :37:11. | |
set the company up. Those moments are big signal moments, with | :37:11. | :37:17. | |
capitalism, 1 up had had hundredors ago Goldman Sachs brought | :37:17. | :37:21. | |
Woolworths, it dominated the 20d century. What we are looking at -- | :37:21. | :37:27. | |
20 years ago, a company in San Francisco was open opened up, has | :37:27. | :37:32. | |
filed documents under a confidentiality clause which is is | :37:32. | :37:34. | |
only available for companies that take less than a billion dollars a | :37:34. | :37:39. | |
year. This is a country with 200 million user. It has been valued at | :37:39. | :37:47. | |
8-10 billion. That is a ten fold increase put into it by the private | :37:47. | :37:52. | |
investors. Look this company is, via these things, the new service | :37:52. | :37:57. | |
of the world. There is two views of it, either it is a low-ref few tech | :37:57. | :38:02. | |
company that nobody knows how it will make money. This is the radio | :38:02. | :38:07. | |
of the 21st century. Who decides who will make money? It will be a | :38:07. | :38:11. | |
big challenge to the company. Interesting fact, since Twitter was | :38:11. | :38:17. | |
formed there have been 430 billion tweets dispatched across the world. | :38:17. | :38:25. | |
£4 30 billion. It is an extraordinary triumph of technology | :38:25. | :38:31. | |
and entrepenural driving the economy forward. The big question | :38:31. | :38:37. | |
is for Twitter how to make money on The Tweets. Facebook have had the | :38:37. | :38:41. | |
challenge, they managed to get our tentacles in our every day lives, | :38:41. | :38:43. | |
we reply on them and use them but tentacles in our every day lives, | :38:43. | :38:48. | |
don't want advertising on it. How do you monetise that? I think the | :38:48. | :38:50. | |
don't want advertising on it. How answer to that has become clear in | :38:50. | :38:56. | |
the past few days, Twitter acquired a company called Mo Pub, reported | :38:56. | :39:01. | |
low the market leader in mobile advertising. Advertising on devices | :39:01. | :39:16. | |
is so technological choices, if will be used to outFacebook | :39:16. | :39:20. | |
Facebook. A lot of people who use Twitter doesn't want to be | :39:20. | :39:24. | |
interrupted or bothered. Two ways to do it, put adverts on to the | :39:24. | :39:31. | |
tweets, the creepier way is to actually start sorting people into | :39:31. | :39:36. | |
groups and use algorithms to look at their behaviour and sell things | :39:36. | :39:41. | |
more subtley. What is fascinating now is seeing the same geeks doing | :39:41. | :39:46. | |
finance a decade ago and getting involved in using their mats to | :39:46. | :39:50. | |
read how markets are going, they are trying to lead us to do the | :39:50. | :40:02. | |
same. Twitter needs to hosepipe the data to sort us all out. There will | :40:02. | :40:09. | |
be a real jarb lash about that? This company don't tell us what the | :40:09. | :40:19. | |
user base is. 200 million is the starter figure. The point thing is | :40:19. | :40:26. | |
they posted a live BOt may not be making much money yet, it is all | :40:26. | :40:30. | |
about the belief of making money in the future. Essentially they can | :40:30. | :40:34. | |
read our new addiction and find ways to profit from that. The | :40:34. | :40:39. | |
addiction to Twitter is different to Facebook, and they were using | :40:39. | :40:43. | |
one more than the other? This is the crack of on-line addiction, | :40:43. | :40:54. | |
Twitter is it. For a lot of people like me. When the last bank was | :40:54. | :40:58. | |
floated and then it was sickness and gone down. Not just for all the | :40:58. | :41:02. | |
addictions but the stock market more broadly, that will have a big | :41:02. | :41:05. | |
impact. Interesting we have just been talking about confidence, | :41:05. | :41:10. | |
something like Twitter floating a new contract, seven years old, this | :41:10. | :41:14. | |
will lead to business confidence. If you want to basically see 21st | :41:14. | :41:19. | |
century innovation and growth and business building in action. Things | :41:19. | :41:26. | |
like Twitter are encouraging. Twitter won't be like that with Pin | :41:26. | :41:33. | |
to Rest and all these other things. The signal moment it represents, | :41:33. | :41:37. | |
not just because it is a big tech, it is the tech ifpt PO we have been | :41:37. | :41:42. | |
waiting for. We are talking about the Royal Mail floating, it makes | :41:42. | :41:48. | |
£200 million a year. This company makes reportedly £330 million. It | :41:48. | :41:53. | |
is about the same as the Royal Mail in business terms. If 25 years | :41:53. | :41:58. | |
hence we are still twittering you will guarantee that the scale of | :41:58. | :42:01. | |
the revenue will be fast. What is the scale of growth? It is doubling | :42:01. | :42:07. | |
its user base and tweets every year to eight months in the seven years. | :42:07. | :42:13. | |
The critical question is those 450 billion tweets that they have | :42:13. | :42:17. | |
already sent sitting in databases, who will use them, how will they | :42:17. | :42:20. | |
already sent sitting in databases, use the information and can it | :42:20. | :42:28. | |
Monetorise. That is to do with vive -- monitorise, that is to do with | :42:28. | :42:41. | |
advertising. That is what we make a deal with every operating system we | :42:41. | :42:50. | |
use. So the cards are packed? We are analysing our data and we don't | :42:50. | :42:55. | |
mind making that because we get a lot from it. You might want to have | :42:55. | :43:00. | |
your pen and paper handy for the end of the programme. First the | :43:00. | :43:01. | |
papers: That is all tonight. Tonight's | :43:01. | :44:33. | |
Twitter news meant we were unable to show our film from China. | :44:33. | :44:38. | |
Apologies for that. Before we go the Government's communications | :44:38. | :44:44. | |
centre, GCHQ, has issued a cryptic code and invited potential recruits | :44:44. | :44:48. | |
to break it. We asked our crack team to set a challenge of our own. | :44:48. | :44:52. | |
There is a coded message hidden in our closing credits and tomorrow | :44:52. | :44:57. | |
night we will name the first person to tweet it with the hashtag | :44:57. | :45:00. | |
Newsnight. | :45:00. | :45:01. |