20/12/2013 Newsnight


20/12/2013

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An epidemic, that is how Ed Miliband describes the spread of gambling

:00:13.:00:23.

machines known as fixed odds bett terminals. After they were introduce

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under the last Labour Government, Mr Miliband says they are now another

:00:28.:00:31.

sign of the cost of living crisis and he wants to get rid of them.

:00:32.:00:36.

This man tells us gambling ruined his lif

:00:37.:00:40.

Plus take two sisters, a popular TV cook, her ex-husband and some credit

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cards, add a trial, stir in lots of press interest, stir for three weeks

:00:47.:00:51.

and turn out a not guilty verdict. What does the way we consumed these

:00:52.:00:55.

cases tell us about ourselves and the justice system. We talk to our

:00:56.:01:01.

guests. An early Christmas present for you, Newsnight graphs. What can

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economic graphs tell us about the last year. Quite a lot as it turns

:01:07.:01:11.

out. We ask a squad of economists to tell us the one that tells us most.

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The excitement is at fever pitch! It as been an eventful year in the

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Catholic Church. Its one. Two billion members were taken aback by

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the resignation of Pope Benedict, his place was taken by a man who

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seems to care about people and their issues and the modern world.

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We will reflect on the events of the last year by hearing again some of

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the most powerful contributors to Newsnight over the past 12 months.

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From Russell Brand to Bill Clinton. I will miss the light he caused to

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come on in the lives of everybody he touched.

:01:56.:02:02.

Good evening. After a popular, some might say, or populist campaign

:02:03.:02:13.

against pay day loans. The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, turned his

:02:14.:02:21.

attention to another part of life he thinks is pernicious, gambling, and

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the fixed odds betting terminals found in betting shops on high

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streets up and down the line. Since their introduction in 1999 they have

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become big money spinners. Mr Miliband says if he wins the next

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election he will legislate so councils can ban them from bookies

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if they choose to. They have brought the casino to the

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high street. Fixed odds betting terminals provide half of all

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betting shops' profits. Critics say it is the speed of play that makes

:02:53.:02:57.

them deadly. Maximum bet ?100, the time between bets, 20 seconds. What

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is amazing is how many they are, there are there and there. Ed

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Miliband chose North London to point out what he calls a gambling

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epidemic. He wants councils to be able to limit the number of betting

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shops in their area, and to be able to ban fixed odds betting terminals.

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These machines can be addictive for people, they can cause real misery

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for families. There is further and further growth of these machines and

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indeed betting on them. They are concentrated in parts of the

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country, particularly more deprived parts of the country. And somebody

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has to step in and stand up to the betting industry.

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There are 33,284 fixed odds betting terminals in the UK. For bookmakers

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the yield from the terminals is ?1. Five billion a year. The machines

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average gambler spends ?1,200 a year, compared to ?430 a year, for

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those who stick to over the counter gambling. Hi there, my name is

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James. This is the first of my video diaries regarding my compulsive

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gambling addiction... During the summer Newsnight met James, who has

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been keeping a video diary about his gambling addiction. These machines

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have changed the gambling habits of the normal punter. Instead of doing

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a ?2 bet, they are sticking ?20, ?40, ?60 in a matter of minutes,

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thousands into the machines. I have done the same. I have lost hundreds

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of thousands of pounds in these machines. Whilst betting shops are

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only allowed to have four terminals each, the problem is many towns now

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have several bookies on their high street. Under the last Labour

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Government the gambling laws were relaxed, making it easier for them

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to open. The industry rejects the idea they are targeting poor areas.

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Do you not accept though that these machines do prey on the poor and the

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vulnerable? They are not popping up on Park Lane. They are growing in

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poor communities? No, I don't accept that. These machines are in high

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streets up and down the country. There are more shops on high streets

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in urban areas, but there is more population in those areas as well.

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We are not targeting any particular community. It will be a pretty

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strange business model to specifically target people who don't

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have any money. The figures that showed gambling levels were falling

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and it also showed that the more deprived people are the less they

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are likely to gamble. Ed Miliband is using the issue of gambling to widen

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his cost of living agenda, it includes a crackdown on payday

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lending and measures to lower the cost of housing and attacking the

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energy suppliers. Ed Miliband says so many voters are not benefitting

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from the economic recovery. Many within his party are nervous,

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polling shows that Labour still isn't trusted to run the economy.

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That, they fear, will be the bigger issue on polling day. David Cameron

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has been coming under pressure for months to clamp down on betting

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terminals. This is an issue I have been repeatedly lobbied on by people

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across this house and more broadly. It is worth having a proper look at

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this issue. There will be those within David Cameron's party urging

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him to ignore this issue, to avoid being dragged on to Labour's

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preferred territory. We have James, a recovering gambling addict as our

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guest. How much have you spent on the machines over the years? Over

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the years over ?200,000. Just on these? Just on the fixed odds

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betting terminals. Predominantly roulette and black Jack. What impact

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does that have on your family and your life? I don't have a family,

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I'm not married, I'm single at the moment, I don't have any children,

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all because of my addiction to these fixed odds betting terminals. I had

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large income, but that was why I was able to put that amount of money in.

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It is not about the zeros on the end. Your earnings are relative to

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what you can get your hands on. At the moment my income is not as high,

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if I was to those ?1,000 now I wouldn't know where to turn. Are

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these machines any more addictive than other gambling, the

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scratch-cards, the instant, the on-line betting? They are more

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addictive. People don't get addicted to scratch-cards, they have problems

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with them, but these machines, the speed of play, the ease of access to

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it. The fact that you can do ?100 per spin, and that is a spin that is

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a gamble that is not in line with any other gaming product on the

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market. What do you say to people who say why don't you just choose

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not to spend the money on this kind of stuff? If it was just that

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simple, to stop gambling. I have been an addict for far longer than

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the time than these fixed odds betting terminals have been out. But

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these machines have destroyed my life. If somebody could have picked

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me up and said you had a gambling problem, stopped. But it is not as

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easy as that. Over the years I have been at so many low points,

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homeless, sleeping in my car, at one point back in 2008 I had lost over

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?2,500 in one day in one bookmaker, I had my passport on me, I stayed in

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a Bed Breakfast that night and got on a ferry the next day. I was

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reported missing for six months. I was out of the country for nine

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months. It was only a member of my family that got me back in the

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country. But the whole time that I was out of England and away from

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gambling my life got better. As soon as you got back straight into the

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bookies? Straight back into the bookmaker, gamble as heavy as I was

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before I left. What would you like to see happen? I would like the

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stakes to be reduced from ?100. I want the time between spins

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increased and Ed Miliband has said he wants to double it to 40 seconds.

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That is great step. Will that really make much difference? I think it

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will. If you go to a casino, you have a minute, up to two-and-a-half

:09:44.:09:47.

minutes between each spin of the wheel. Ed Miliband is talking about

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going from 20 seconds to 40 seconds between each spin? When you go to a

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real casino and a real wheel, you have time to think about your bet.

:09:57.:09:58.

You have time to decide whether you want to increase, you want to leave,

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take the winnings on the table and leave. That 20 seconds doesn't give

:10:04.:10:07.

your brain time to decide what to do, you just press the repeat button

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and away you go again. He wants to legislation to give councils powers

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to reduce the numbers of bookies on the high street, and reduce the

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number of terminals in the bookies, they will still be available. They

:10:21.:10:26.

will still be attractive? Yeah, but having the councils stop the bookies

:10:27.:10:31.

having more shops is a brilliant step. There is too many at the

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moment do we need any more? No we don't. If a council says you have 16

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on one road, why do you need any more, and they say no. That is a

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great step. It will protect so many people. Thank you very much for

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coming in James. You are calling for revolution?

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Absolutely, I'm calling for change, for genuine alternative, I say when

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there is a genuine alternative and option, then vote for. That but

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until then, don't bother! The year started with talk of a triple-dip

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recession, and ends with the latest GDP figures out today, suggesting

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that the UK economy could grow as much as 2% in 2013. As the year

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draws to a close we have a dream team of economists and economic

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commentators. To pick their favourite graph of 2013. The one

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that they think tells the most compelling story of the underlying

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health of the UK and world economy. Here is their verdict.

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I'm cheating actually because I have two graphs, the interesting thing is

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to compare the two. On the left-hand side you see that the -- risk-rated

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assets of banks are trailing downwards, but they remain very

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different from each other. On the right hand side when you look at the

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capital ratios they are all the same. Why is that? Because the banks

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are very successful in gaming the system. That shows how difficult it

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is for the regulators to get control over the banks on both sides of the

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Atlantic and indeed in the Pacific. The US share revolution and support

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for energy resource development has helped keep US energy prices well

:12:24.:12:29.

below European levels, it is bringing a resurgence in US managing

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competitiveness. US manufacturing will capture $70-$150 million of

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exports to other countries by 2020. It should give Europe pause for

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thought on its energy policy and how it chooses to develop its energy

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resources. This chart shows Germany and China's surplus, the difference

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between what they save and invest, they are the same in US dollar

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terms. Although China is usually seen as the arch capitalist,

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Germany's is three-times China's in GDP. Germany's behaviour is seen as

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widely incompat with a stable -- incompatible with the stable

:13:22.:13:25.

eurozone, both of these countries will have a significant impact on us

:13:26.:13:32.

in 2014. This chart is a chart showing what has happened to output

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per head since the start of the recession and also against this

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Government came into office. And what it shows is that output per

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head today is lower than it was in May 2010 when the coalition took

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office. So far from the Government being vindicated, this actually

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shows the worst recovery in 100 years, and in fact what it shows is

:13:55.:13:59.

no recovery at all. People are poorer today than they were when the

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Government took office. This chart shows economic forecasts for GDP for

:14:09.:14:12.

each year in the coloured lines, and the actual outcome GDP in the pink

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blocks. The turning point for the UK economy was sort of the beginning of

:14:19.:14:23.

2013, just when the doom sayers were really down on the UK. The other

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thing it shows you is the financial forecasting profession always

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underestimate amplutude, the good years are much stronger than

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predictions and the bad years are worse. This tells me the UK economy

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has finally turned a corner and growing a lot stronger than most

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predict. Earlier in the year the fear was we were in triple Dip

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investigation, the UK lost its triple-A rating and there was talk

:15:01.:15:06.

of quanative easing, and that never happened and the dip came to an end.

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Guilt yields rose dam matly through the year. The Bank of England

:15:12.:15:14.

thought the rise was unjustified and tried to stop it with forward

:15:15.:15:19.

guidance, that failed. And as GDP growth resumed in the UK, with the

:15:20.:15:25.

good news continuing, the rise in gilt yields resumed. Through the

:15:26.:15:32.

20th century economic growth fed into successive generations having

:15:33.:15:36.

on average higher incomes. This graph shows median incomes by age

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among those born in different decades, for example if you are born

:15:41.:15:45.

in the 1960s or 70s then you were likely to enjoy more income at age

:15:46.:15:49.

30 than people born in the past. But the really, really striking thing

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from the graph is that this is no longer the case. Those born in the

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1960s and 1970s are no longer experiencing higher average incomes

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than previous generations did when they were the same age.

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Not guilty of fraud. Two former personal assistants of Nigella

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Lawson and her ex-husband, Charles Saatchi, after a three-week trial.

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What most people will remember from this case are details of private

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lives, a high society couple, lavish spending habits and as of Class A

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drug use involving powerful people experienced in image and PR, until

:16:32.:16:34.

now. Let's discuss the lessons of the trial now with our guests. Why

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do you believe that Nigella Lawson has been vilified? She has certainly

:16:47.:16:52.

been accused of being a drug habit, a habitual criminal, a user of Class

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A drugs over ten years. They were the accusations. She wasn't on

:16:58.:17:00.

trial. She was a witness. And I think that the trial does show a

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concern that British law doesn't protect witnesses enough. We do rely

:17:09.:17:13.

on witnesses to come to court, to give their evidence without fear

:17:14.:17:18.

that they are going to be accused of serious crimes. I think that when

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witnesses who have only one right, which is to say I won't answer that

:17:23.:17:28.

question on the grounds it will incriminate me. Whenever they say

:17:29.:17:31.

that everyone thinks they are guilty. When the witness is accused

:17:32.:17:36.

of very serious crime I think they should have certain rights. A right

:17:37.:17:42.

to refute the accusation by calling evidence. If they are accused of

:17:43.:17:47.

being a habitual drug addict, calling their GP, maybe

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cross-examining their accusers. This is what goes on in Europe, this is

:17:51.:17:54.

what happens at our coroners' inquest, when somebody is accused.

:17:55.:17:59.

It would make trials more a test of truth, and it wouldn't, of course,

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affect the defendant's rights, we bend over backwards, quite rightly,

:18:05.:18:08.

to uphold the rights of the defendant. But it would allow

:18:09.:18:12.

witnesses who are accused of serious crime some opportunity to answer

:18:13.:18:17.

back. Because the judge is concerned with having a fair trial. The

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prosecution is not concerned with the witness. They are not allowed to

:18:22.:18:25.

take instructions from their own witnesses. I think it would be

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fairer and it would give more comfort to potential witnesses that

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they could do their civil duty without being accused of murdering

:18:35.:18:56.

their mother. Let me bring in Nancy. What do you think? You have

:18:57.:19:04.

an incredible country, Nigella is considered a national treasure sure,

:19:05.:19:08.

and then you have this ability to have these celebrities, this star

:19:09.:19:12.

system, to put everything up and then you are ready to destroy them,

:19:13.:19:19.

to bring everybody down. This is absolutely belonging to your

:19:20.:19:25.

culture. It is something that of course I feel very sympathetic with

:19:26.:19:31.

Nigella. I would say to Jeffrey, this was a very specific particular

:19:32.:19:36.

case. And I do absolutely agree with... Celebrities take no

:19:37.:19:43.

responsibility themselves for their downfall? Of course they have take

:19:44.:19:46.

responsibility. Actually I think we are doubly responsible because when

:19:47.:19:53.

you say "celebrities" I hate this word, it is the fact that you have

:19:54.:20:00.

to be aware that you are constantly, you have to play very well the game.

:20:01.:20:03.

The game is the fact that you are constantly in the public eye. You

:20:04.:20:12.

have become a public person. You are 100% scrutinised. This is with a

:20:13.:20:18.

particular case and being in public again so many details of the private

:20:19.:20:24.

lives should not be. But of course because I'm quite shocked of the

:20:25.:20:28.

decision of the court. Because I'm now reading we don't know about the

:20:29.:20:32.

motivation. I think it is are a bit early to talk about the downfall of

:20:33.:20:38.

Nigella Lawson, here she was, she was a witness, she came and gave

:20:39.:20:43.

evidence, she didn't take the 5th, she didn't rely on the right not to

:20:44.:20:46.

incriminate herself. She spoke about using a drug at a time when her

:20:47.:20:52.

husband was dying. I don't think that this was, we have got to be

:20:53.:21:00.

very careful. This was not the trial of Nigella Lawson. The media treated

:21:01.:21:06.

it as such, and she should have had more opportunity to chro

:21:07.:21:12.

cross-examine her accusers and call evidence about her innocence of the

:21:13.:21:15.

allegation which was that she was a drug addict. I think she came out of

:21:16.:21:21.

it rather well. I would like to think that if we can provide a

:21:22.:21:26.

little more rights to witnesses, other people who witness crimes and

:21:27.:21:31.

suffer great embarrassment by going into the witness box, sometimes to

:21:32.:21:36.

physical threats. I'm talking about defence witnesses as well as

:21:37.:21:40.

prosecution witnesses. We have got to assure them that they are going

:21:41.:21:45.

to have their rights not to have their family life shredded, their

:21:46.:21:50.

privacy invaded. So that's, I think, the lesson that I hope will come

:21:51.:21:54.

through, that Nigella Lawson was in fact courageous to give evidence. It

:21:55.:22:00.

is not, she is not on trial. She hasn't been found guilty. The

:22:01.:22:04.

prosecution simply failed to prove their case beyond reasonable doubt.

:22:05.:22:09.

Thank you very much both of you. It has been an extraordinary year

:22:10.:22:14.

for the Catholic Church. Under the leadership of Pope Francis. In just

:22:15.:22:19.

nine months since taking over from Pope Benedict, he has vigorously set

:22:20.:22:23.

about modernising the church with comments on everything from gay

:22:24.:22:27.

people, to economic and inequality to mothers breast-feeding in public.

:22:28.:22:34.

We have been looking at the Francis-phenomenon. The crib, it is

:22:35.:22:46.

hard to think of anything more traditional at Christmas time, yet

:22:47.:22:50.

800 years ago when it was invented by a man called Francis of Assisi,

:22:51.:22:55.

it was seen as something radical. Francis was a religious

:22:56.:23:00.

revolutionary, he took the gospel out of churches with gold, marble

:23:01.:23:04.

and silk, and took it into the real world. The first crib was in a cave,

:23:05.:23:08.

the figures were real people, he had real hey and real smelly animals The

:23:09.:23:19.

Catholic Church has a new Francis and a radical turning things up side

:23:20.:23:25.

down, telling leaders they are servants not masters. A real

:23:26.:23:29.

shepherd must smell of his sheep, he says. It has reignited the

:23:30.:23:40.

imagination of the world's 1. 2 billion Catholics. He respects human

:23:41.:23:44.

life, and he's close to human people and knows about the Joyce and

:23:45.:23:49.

suffering of people. He has language that connects directly to people.

:23:50.:23:55.

And a Pope who gives hope. On the edge of St Peter's Square there is a

:23:56.:24:00.

modern crib, the homeless of Rome. Wednesday was the Pope's birthday,

:24:01.:24:08.

Francis invited Marchine, his Bob called Bob Marley and three of his

:24:09.:24:12.

friends to join him for breakfast in the Vatican. What kind of man is the

:24:13.:24:24.

Pope? It is this embrace of the lowly and ostracised, throughout

:24:25.:24:29.

Pope Francis's first nine months in office which has touched the hearts

:24:30.:24:34.

of the ordinary faithful. The street sweepers of Rome devised their own

:24:35.:24:40.

crib, hoping the Pope will make an unannounced visit there this

:24:41.:24:44.

Christmas. Such is the impact of the Francis-effect, that people are

:24:45.:24:47.

returning to church who had previously left disillusioned over

:24:48.:24:52.

scandals like sex abuse by priests. I think that before this Pope nobody

:24:53.:24:57.

wanted to speak about these kinds of problems, now they are speaking a

:24:58.:25:02.

lot. This Pope has brought out this problem that it was a big deal in

:25:03.:25:05.

the church. I have a Catholic background because I went to a

:25:06.:25:10.

Catholic school until I was 12 years old. Then when I saw all the bad

:25:11.:25:13.

things that the priests were doing at school I didn't want to go there

:25:14.:25:20.

any more. But is there substance behind this dramatic change of

:25:21.:25:24.

style. There is a lot which needs practical action, the Pope's in-tray

:25:25.:25:29.

is piled high. There has been a commission to set up with the whole

:25:30.:25:35.

issue of sex abuse. A commission to handle those issues, to investigate.

:25:36.:25:43.

There has also been a series of issues relating to the reform of the

:25:44.:25:48.

Vatican bank and more stringent, more transparent measures that are

:25:49.:25:54.

being put into place. The reform of the bureaucracy. That is a big one?

:25:55.:25:58.

That is the big one, and that began by the establishing of this

:25:59.:26:03.

particular I suppose by the establishing of the Council of Eight

:26:04.:26:07.

Cardinals who have been meeting regularly, they met in October, they

:26:08.:26:12.

met in December, they are meeting again in February. There is a sense

:26:13.:26:19.

here in the city of that reform really gathering momentum. The

:26:20.:26:23.

commission to tackle sex abuse has only just been set up. But Francis

:26:24.:26:26.

has acted swiftly to tackle financial scandal. Through the gates

:26:27.:26:33.

behind me is the Vatican bank, or the Institute for Religious Works as

:26:34.:26:36.

it is known around here. The new Pope has moved swiftly to bring

:26:37.:26:40.

change. He has closed 600 suspect bank accounts and put in a new

:26:41.:26:45.

regulator and appointed an outside panel of experts, including a female

:26:46.:26:50.

law professor from Harvard to recommend long-term structural

:26:51.:26:54.

reform. But are some of the Pope's big gestures little more than PR.

:26:55.:26:58.

The homeless man who breakfasted with Francis is still sleeping rough

:26:59.:27:02.

in the Vatican porch the following night. Will the Pope find you

:27:03.:27:08.

somewhere to live, or a bed? TRANSLATION: But that is the way we

:27:09.:27:12.

live, we like to move around. The Pope has millions of other people to

:27:13.:27:18.

look around with bigger problems. But if he does not expect more,

:27:19.:27:23.

there will be many others who want substantial change rather than

:27:24.:27:27.

symbols. To turn the Vatican from the master of the church to its

:27:28.:27:31.

servant will require a scale of reform which is massive. Working out

:27:32.:27:37.

how to change the papacy from an absolute monarchy to something more

:27:38.:27:44.

collegial is the task of new cardial advisers. It is the biggest change

:27:45.:27:47.

in the Government of the church for over 1,000 years. He wants to know

:27:48.:27:51.

what ordinary Catholics think, on all sorts of issues, like

:27:52.:27:55.

contraception, and homosexuality, and so on. I think think his

:27:56.:28:04.

fundamental concern is together as a church we must be responsible. He

:28:05.:28:08.

wants to devolve a lot of responsibility from his own personal

:28:09.:28:13.

position to the college of bishops, and he hopes that bishops in their

:28:14.:28:18.

own diocese will give real responsibility to the people. And I

:28:19.:28:21.

think he also wants each of us to take responsibility for our own

:28:22.:28:25.

lives. In the end we have to be adults, we have to be grown-up. And

:28:26.:28:31.

so we could say that what I think Pope Francis wants is a church for

:28:32.:28:36.

grown-ups. Francis wouldn't call it democracy, but it feels something

:28:37.:28:39.

rather like that. The big question about the consultation, and the

:28:40.:28:43.

wider work of the Cardinal advisers is how radical will be the reforms

:28:44.:28:49.

which emerge. Big change is clearly under way in the Vatican, but rather

:28:50.:28:53.

like this crib, which behind the cloth is entitled "St Francis 122

:28:54.:29:02.

"to Pope Francis 2013, we won't know until it is unveiled just before

:29:03.:29:06.

Christmas how significant the work in progress will be. We may have to

:29:07.:29:10.

wait longer than that to find out about the extent of the reform in

:29:11.:29:14.

the Vatican itself. That's nearly all from us. But

:29:15.:29:18.

before we formally sign off for the year. Let's take a look back at some

:29:19.:29:23.

of the memorable words that have resounded in the studio over the

:29:24.:29:24.

past year. That really is all from us for this

:29:25.:31:57.

year. There is no cookie monster to play us out. Nor am I about to

:31:58.:32:02.

dance. Sorry. Instead we will leave you with an extract from Carols at

:32:03.:32:09.

Kings, can you see it on BBC Two at Christmas Eve, if you celebrate

:32:10.:32:12.

Christmas, happy Christmas, otherwise have a very good holiday.

:32:13.:32:20.

# Remember Christ our saviour # Was born on Christmas Day

:32:21.:32:35.

# Oh tidings of comfort and joy # Oh tidings of comfort and joy

:32:36.:32:45.

# Comfort and joy # Oh tidings of DPORMENT

:32:46.:32:49.

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