Browse content similar to 27/01/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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the 50p rate of income tax. How does the cat dough Chancellor that even | :00:17. | :00:29. | |
those who sat in Government with him don't buy into it. Ed Miliband says | :00:30. | :00:35. | |
Ed Balls is here to explain why it is time to tax the rich. | :00:36. | :00:41. | |
Mega City 1 is creating ten-times the jobs of its nearest rival, is | :00:42. | :00:48. | |
the capital a life force or a cyst. The woman who survived the death | :00:49. | :00:55. | |
camps by playing the cello. We came to Auschwitz preparing to be gassed. | :00:56. | :01:00. | |
Everything that is not death is a complete surprise. You are not | :01:01. | :01:04. | |
likely to say I'm sorry I don't play here. Her internationally renowned | :01:05. | :01:10. | |
son and his son perform in the studio. If the Labour Party gets | :01:11. | :01:26. | |
re-elected to get another shot at running the country it will make the | :01:27. | :01:30. | |
rich pay for tax, specifically raising the top rate of income tax | :01:31. | :01:35. | |
to 50%. Right and proper says Ed Miliband, representatives of some of | :01:36. | :01:39. | |
those who would have to pay the new rate are understandably scathing, | :01:40. | :01:42. | |
they would be, wouldn't they. More interesting are various architects | :01:43. | :01:45. | |
of new Labour, who think that this is a reversion to the days of Neil | :01:46. | :01:50. | |
Kinnock and all that unhappiness. But policy it is and it is one of | :01:51. | :01:53. | |
the ideas I will be asking the shadow shall about in a moment. | :01:54. | :02:02. | |
First though Emily Maitlis reports. Back in the day of new Labour it was | :02:03. | :02:07. | |
nicknamed the "prawn cocktail offensive". The essential agreement, | :02:08. | :02:12. | |
neither the prawn or twist of lemon, but the approach the party had | :02:13. | :02:16. | |
towards business. It was shorthand to tell those who made money not to | :02:17. | :02:21. | |
be scared. The message Tony Blair and Gordon Brown wanted to send out | :02:22. | :02:23. | |
is the City could trust them with their money and the economy. It was | :02:24. | :02:27. | |
only one part of the strategy but... A new dawn has broken, has it not. | :02:28. | :03:02. | |
businessmen and really recognised that they had to get business on | :03:03. | :03:04. | |
their side, that business was important for the wealth, for the | :03:05. | :03:08. | |
general wealth of the whole country and for economic recovery. We are | :03:09. | :03:16. | |
getting into now that Labour feels it is getting populist and | :03:17. | :03:20. | |
short-termist, it wants the quick win, quick political wins that it | :03:21. | :03:25. | |
knows in its heart of hearts is bad for the economy bad for everyone. | :03:26. | :03:30. | |
The tax Mr Balls announced was only one measure in a speech aimed at | :03:31. | :03:36. | |
reassuring voters of Labour's fiscal responsibility, and the aim of | :03:37. | :03:39. | |
balancing the books within one parliament. Of it the 50p measure | :03:40. | :03:42. | |
that became the headline. The unthat inspired letters to the Telegraph, | :03:43. | :03:47. | |
and even a pro-Labour City minister to rail against it. Ed Balls insists | :03:48. | :03:53. | |
he's not antibusiness and the tax would raise, I quote, "hundreds of | :03:54. | :03:57. | |
millions of pounds more". This is graph to show how much the | :03:58. | :04:01. | |
resurrected 50p tax would bring in. It doesn't have any numbers on it | :04:02. | :04:05. | |
because to be honest no-one has a blue. Clue. -- Let's cut to the | :04:06. | :04:13. | |
chase is it a revenue raiser? We don't know, the best estimates is it | :04:14. | :04:18. | |
probably wouldn't raise too much, there is huge uncertainty, it may | :04:19. | :04:21. | |
raise a significant amount and it may cost a bit. The key thing is you | :04:22. | :04:26. | |
are taking a bit of a gamble doing this. ?3 billion sun likely, ?1 | :04:27. | :04:31. | |
million is possible, less than half a billion is most likely. One senior | :04:32. | :04:36. | |
Blairite told us the key question on the 50p tax is whether it is a | :04:37. | :04:39. | |
deficit reduction measure or whether it is about fairness. If it is about | :04:40. | :04:43. | |
definite reduction then it is temporary, which is fine. If it is | :04:44. | :04:49. | |
meant to be a ego galltarian then it is -- egalitarian then it is that. | :04:50. | :04:58. | |
The issue is how long the policy would last and the motivation that | :04:59. | :05:02. | |
lies behind it. Ed Miliband is known to be the more | :05:03. | :05:05. | |
interventionist of the two. His talk of taxing predators to fund producer | :05:06. | :05:09. | |
was seen by many in the party and outside it as a bid for a new kind | :05:10. | :05:14. | |
of capitalism. A recognition, even, after the financial crash, the | :05:15. | :05:19. | |
centre ground had moved to the left. I'm not sure the centre ground has | :05:20. | :05:23. | |
shift today the left. If we look at France, they played it to the far | :05:24. | :05:29. | |
left and yes they did get elected, but what has happened now is they | :05:30. | :05:31. | |
have had to come right back. They have had to come back with lots more | :05:32. | :05:36. | |
probusiness policies, they have had to do an absolute U-turn. I would | :05:37. | :05:40. | |
love if the UK could learn from the U-turn and say what we have done | :05:41. | :05:43. | |
successfully over the last few years say we are probusiness and we want | :05:44. | :05:47. | |
businesses to open here, and we want that investment and jobs to come | :05:48. | :05:50. | |
into the country. We are not going to chase them away with both | :05:51. | :05:56. | |
policies and bat rhetoric. -- bad rhetoric. Of course you thinking, | :05:57. | :06:00. | |
they would say that wouldn't they. Under the Ed Miliband new order | :06:01. | :06:03. | |
perhaps a little bit of business disquiet is no bad thing. Opinion | :06:04. | :06:08. | |
polls this weekend suggest the 50p tax is fairly popular among all | :06:09. | :06:13. | |
voters except Conservatives. It is the populisim and sense of being | :06:14. | :06:16. | |
driven by polling which makes those with experience of past electoral | :06:17. | :06:20. | |
success wary. One former Labour adviser tells me they are in danger | :06:21. | :06:24. | |
of putting together a programme that becomes an electoral platform that | :06:25. | :06:28. | |
is characterised as antibusiness and anti-enterprise. Well we all know | :06:29. | :06:32. | |
how that move Indies. In other words there may be an appetite for a more | :06:33. | :06:38. | |
puritan diet, but you forget the prawn cocktail at your peril. | :06:39. | :06:42. | |
The Shadow Chancellor is with us now. Whose idea was it to bring back | :06:43. | :06:47. | |
the 50p tax rate? I think the whole Shadow Cabinet has been behind this | :06:48. | :06:51. | |
since we have been exposing the 50p cut a year ago. Ed Miliband and I | :06:52. | :06:54. | |
discussed this in the early summer, we both decided it was the right | :06:55. | :06:57. | |
thing to do. There was a question about when was the right time to | :06:58. | :07:01. | |
make this clear, we wanted to get this right. But it was a joint | :07:02. | :07:05. | |
decision of ourselves, but also the whole Shadow Cabinet is behind it. | :07:06. | :07:08. | |
Were they consulted about it? Well of course they were. So the whole | :07:09. | :07:13. | |
Shadow Cabinet was in on the discussion about the 50p rate? All | :07:14. | :07:18. | |
the Shadow Cabinet discussed it before the speech on Saturday, I | :07:19. | :07:21. | |
have discussed with them the top rate of tax cut and its unfairness | :07:22. | :07:28. | |
many times in the last year, and we have discussed the importance of | :07:29. | :07:31. | |
taking tough and fair decisions to get the tax down. Tax you have to | :07:32. | :07:37. | |
handle with care, but everyone is supporting it. Of course they are | :07:38. | :07:40. | |
supporting it now, they have to support it now, were they in on the | :07:41. | :07:45. | |
discussions beforehand? All the Shadow Cabinet talked about it with | :07:46. | :07:48. | |
me and my team before Saturday's speech. But they didn't dismiss it | :07:49. | :07:54. | |
in a meeting of the Shadow Cabinet? We have had very many meetings of | :07:55. | :07:57. | |
the Shadow Cabinet, like last Tuesday where we discussed the 50p | :07:58. | :08:01. | |
rate and the unfairness, and the need for tough decisions and the | :08:02. | :08:05. | |
need to balance the books. I said on Saturday we will balance the books | :08:06. | :08:08. | |
in the next parliament and get the national debt falling, but in fair | :08:09. | :08:12. | |
way, it will mean spending cuts but also fairness in tax. Is it | :08:13. | :08:18. | |
temporary or permanent? We will have said for the next parliament, as we | :08:19. | :08:22. | |
get the deficit down. So it will end at the end of the next parliament? I | :08:23. | :08:25. | |
have been very clear, nothing is set in stone. I would rather tax rates | :08:26. | :08:30. | |
came down rather than went up. It is temporary then isn't it? It is for | :08:31. | :08:33. | |
the next parliament as we get the deficit down. I'm not going to say | :08:34. | :08:37. | |
to you today what our tax policy will be for the parliament after | :08:38. | :08:41. | |
next, that would be completely perverse. When the deficit is gone, | :08:42. | :08:46. | |
so too will this rate of tax? Well we need to get the deficit down, we | :08:47. | :08:49. | |
need do that in the next parliament, in the next parliament we will have | :08:50. | :08:53. | |
a higher rate of tax to do that. I'm not going to say to you today that | :08:54. | :08:56. | |
we have decided on our tax policy for the parliament after. It is to | :08:57. | :09:00. | |
get the deficit down. They are linked. The reduction and removal of | :09:01. | :09:04. | |
the deficit and the 50p rate of tax, they are linked? Of course, | :09:05. | :09:08. | |
absolutely. Our commitment to progressive taxation is fair, it is | :09:09. | :09:12. | |
permanent, but we will get the deficit down in the next parliament | :09:13. | :09:18. | |
using the 50p rate. Sure, so if the deficit is got rid of before the end | :09:19. | :09:22. | |
of the next parliament, say it happens after three or four years, | :09:23. | :09:27. | |
then this rate of tax would stop? It would be fabulous, we had a | :09:28. | :09:29. | |
parliament this parliament where the Government has failed to get the | :09:30. | :09:33. | |
deficit down, you are saying if I'm even more successful. I am take beg | :09:34. | :09:38. | |
your policies and not their's? If I'm more successful we will cope | :09:39. | :09:41. | |
with the consequences of success when we find them. You would be glad | :09:42. | :09:46. | |
because you would have succeeded? I want to get the deficit down. I said | :09:47. | :09:50. | |
on Saturday the sooner we get it down the better, it would depend on | :09:51. | :09:55. | |
growth in the economy, spending cuts and tax. The 50p rate will be there | :09:56. | :09:59. | |
for the next parliament because it is fair. Why stop at 50p? It is | :10:00. | :10:03. | |
important we don't send signals down the world we are going back to the | :10:04. | :10:07. | |
1970s and 8 #0S, I don't want do that. I look at what Francois | :10:08. | :10:11. | |
Hollande did in France, attempting to have a 75p tax rate. I thought | :10:12. | :10:15. | |
that is not sensible policy in the modern world. But we are in a | :10:16. | :10:19. | |
particular circumstance in Britain with large deficit. We need to get | :10:20. | :10:23. | |
it down. George Osborne and David Cameron have given a ?3 billion tax | :10:24. | :10:28. | |
cut to those earning over ?150,000, most people earning the programme | :10:29. | :10:32. | |
will say when my living standards are going down that's not fair, | :10:33. | :10:37. | |
let's keep the top rate at 50p to get the deficit down. When even men | :10:38. | :10:42. | |
who sat in Government with you, like Paul Miners and Digby Jones, when | :10:43. | :10:46. | |
they say this is a duff idea, don't you think maybe they are right? To | :10:47. | :10:56. | |
be fair to Lord Digby Jones he has always been consistent in thinking | :10:57. | :11:01. | |
the 50p tax rate is wrong, that is exceptional in the cabinet. As | :11:02. | :11:04. | |
Alistair Darling said yesterday, the decision to have 50p to get the | :11:05. | :11:07. | |
deficit down was the right decision and supported by the Labour | :11:08. | :11:09. | |
Government and most people in the country. That is still the case | :11:10. | :11:13. | |
today. Digby takes a different view I respect his view but the world has | :11:14. | :11:19. | |
moved on. What about Lord Miners who questions your ability to do GCSE | :11:20. | :11:24. | |
economics? He was in the Treasury in a Government where the Chancellor | :11:25. | :11:28. | |
put it up to 50p, it may be he made hits objections. You used to have | :11:29. | :11:36. | |
this review -- view too? You said you didn't think that in a global | :11:37. | :11:40. | |
economy you can start redressing the balance by capping rewards at the | :11:41. | :11:46. | |
top and paying a big price by your ability to attract investment and | :11:47. | :11:49. | |
talent, it sounds like that to me? Of course that is the case. You have | :11:50. | :11:53. | |
to have an economy where you have wealth creators, entrepeneurs who | :11:54. | :11:57. | |
can make money and earn profits, invest for the future, but, Jeremy, | :11:58. | :12:01. | |
at a time when the deficit is really big, they have to pay the fair share | :12:02. | :12:04. | |
of tax and 50p is fair. What Government has done is given 13,000 | :12:05. | :12:10. | |
people, earning over one million pounds. I thought we were talking | :12:11. | :12:13. | |
about your policies? What I want to do is reverse a policy which this | :12:14. | :12:19. | |
year has given 30,000 people earning over a million pounds a tax cut of | :12:20. | :12:24. | |
?103,000. Do you think it is fair to give somebody a can tax cut of | :12:25. | :12:29. | |
?103,000 when most people see the living standards going down, I | :12:30. | :12:33. | |
don't. Do you share your boss's distinction between predators and | :12:34. | :12:37. | |
producers? Of course. Can you give me an example of a predator? That | :12:38. | :12:42. | |
would be somebody who breaks the law... It is a distinction between | :12:43. | :12:46. | |
criminals and others? A criminal would clearly be predatory, a | :12:47. | :12:49. | |
company which gets involved in cartel behaviour, trying to organise | :12:50. | :12:53. | |
and rig a market, that would be predatory. That would be illegal too | :12:54. | :12:58. | |
wouldn't it? It all depends on where the law is able to get to. What he's | :12:59. | :13:03. | |
talking about is criminals, not a distinction between predatory | :13:04. | :13:07. | |
capitalism and producer capitalism, he's talking about? If you take the | :13:08. | :13:13. | |
case of banks earlier year, some of the banks ended up losing touch... | :13:14. | :13:20. | |
Which banks? RBS, Lloyd's. They are predators? There were some banks who | :13:21. | :13:24. | |
lost touch with what they needed to do to serve the economy, to serve | :13:25. | :13:29. | |
their shareholders and only were out making short-term money. Is that | :13:30. | :13:34. | |
predatory or not? Tell me? I think in some of the cases where things | :13:35. | :13:39. | |
went really wrong, Fred Goodwin he stepped over the edge. He was a | :13:40. | :13:44. | |
predator? I think so. Apart from this bogeyman, are there any other | :13:45. | :13:47. | |
predators can you name? The thing I would say is I want to have an | :13:48. | :13:51. | |
economy which is long-termist and competitive. I don't want cartels, I | :13:52. | :13:55. | |
want companies working to create long-term value. You share the view | :13:56. | :14:00. | |
of predators and producer, I'm just trying to find out what we are | :14:01. | :14:03. | |
talking about when we are talking about a predator? I think short-term | :14:04. | :14:09. | |
asset stripping at the cost of long-term value, shareholder value. | :14:10. | :14:14. | |
We're on to asset strippers now, what about energy predators? In the | :14:15. | :14:18. | |
case of the energy companies it is clear you have a small number of | :14:19. | :14:22. | |
companies who have been acting in a pretty anticompetitive and | :14:23. | :14:26. | |
non-transparent market making big profits and not passing on lower | :14:27. | :14:29. | |
prices to consumers. I'm not going to call it predatory, I will say the | :14:30. | :14:33. | |
market hasn't been working and the rules of the game have not been | :14:34. | :14:37. | |
right. We need to get them right and get the investment in. In the | :14:38. | :14:40. | |
short-term let's get some help back to consumers. Probably when we had | :14:41. | :14:44. | |
the windfall tax in 1997 on the privatised utill torics some of the | :14:45. | :14:48. | |
things which happened in the utilities in that period were beyond | :14:49. | :14:52. | |
the pale, absolutely. A long time ago? It was the last time we had a | :14:53. | :14:56. | |
new Labour Government coming in with a windfall tax on energy companies. | :14:57. | :15:01. | |
Can I ask you about suing said yesterday, talking about public | :15:02. | :15:03. | |
spending, you would like to spend more on some areas than you did in | :15:04. | :15:07. | |
Government. And quote, "there would be some spending things we wouldn't | :15:08. | :15:11. | |
do and some we would do differently". What were the things | :15:12. | :15:16. | |
you wouldn't now do? I was asked about public spending of the last | :15:17. | :15:19. | |
Labour Government. I said we didn't spend every pound of public money | :15:20. | :15:22. | |
wisely, but some things we would definitely do less of. There were | :15:23. | :15:27. | |
some areas we should have done more. A good example, the housing benefit | :15:28. | :15:31. | |
bill went up under the Labour Government and it continues to go | :15:32. | :15:35. | |
up, but we didn't spend enough money on affordable housing and housing | :15:36. | :15:38. | |
investment. If you don't build the homes you need you have higher rents | :15:39. | :15:42. | |
and higher housing costs. That is an argument for spending more money? | :15:43. | :15:46. | |
And less, I would like less on the housing benefit bill and more on | :15:47. | :15:49. | |
housing investment. We didn't spend enough in the last parliament on | :15:50. | :15:53. | |
adult skills, and skills for non-university young people. | :15:54. | :15:56. | |
Anything else you spend money on unnecessarily? I thought the scam | :15:57. | :16:00. | |
dome was a waste of money -- I thought the Dome was a waste of | :16:01. | :16:04. | |
money and the Hor rice zone project we shouldn't have done. The same | :16:05. | :16:07. | |
thing is true under this Government as well. There is far more special | :16:08. | :16:13. | |
advisers and things like that going on. Did the global financial crisis | :16:14. | :16:17. | |
get caused by Labour public spending, I have been clear and said | :16:18. | :16:20. | |
we got regulation wrong of the banks, but did we get public | :16:21. | :16:24. | |
spending wrong, that didn't drive the global financial crisis. You | :16:25. | :16:28. | |
were also one of the authors of all that rubbish about boom and bust | :16:29. | :16:32. | |
being ended? I was the author saying we should make the Bank of England | :16:33. | :16:37. | |
independent and get away from a man fingerprintlation of interest rates, | :16:38. | :16:41. | |
and the -- manipulation of interest rates, and the up and down cycle of | :16:42. | :16:45. | |
the 1980s. I was the person who said we shouldn't join the single | :16:46. | :16:47. | |
currency, and many people on my side and other sides who said we should | :16:48. | :16:52. | |
join the euro, that would have been a catastrophic decision. We all get | :16:53. | :16:56. | |
things right in the Government, when you are a grown-up you say it when | :16:57. | :17:03. | |
you get things wrong, we didn't regulate the banks enough, and other | :17:04. | :17:08. | |
good calls we did have like not joining the euro and other things. I | :17:09. | :17:13. | |
want to debate the future? Let's get on to it. Wonderful isn't it, the | :17:14. | :17:18. | |
economy is doing really well isn't t that makes life very difficult for | :17:19. | :17:21. | |
you? At last we are getting some growth back. Do you think up and | :17:22. | :17:24. | |
down the country at the moment when most people are seeing their living | :17:25. | :17:28. | |
standards fall and in most parts of the country there isn't new business | :17:29. | :17:31. | |
investment coming through, do you think this is an economy doing | :17:32. | :17:38. | |
really, really well, it is cloud-cuckoo-land. Unemployment is | :17:39. | :17:42. | |
falling and very shortly we will be at the target set by the Governor of | :17:43. | :17:47. | |
the Bank of England for reassessing interest rates. It is good news, | :17:48. | :17:50. | |
George Osborne is doing rather a good job? Come on Jeremy, in 2010 he | :17:51. | :17:55. | |
became the Chancellor, he raised VAT, he choked off the recovery, for | :17:56. | :17:59. | |
three years of flatlining, living standards are down, finally, finally | :18:00. | :18:04. | |
we are getting growth back in our economy, we are below before the | :18:05. | :18:06. | |
crisis, France is above where we were. They are doing... So France is | :18:07. | :18:13. | |
a model? I'm just saying even France, on France is above it, it is | :18:14. | :18:18. | |
pre-crisis peak, we are below. Finally we are getting growth back, | :18:19. | :18:21. | |
that is good news. The idea it wipes out three years of flatlining | :18:22. | :18:24. | |
absolutely not. All this sort of stuff is going to stop, you won't be | :18:25. | :18:28. | |
doing that much longer will you? I had to do it for a year-and-a-half | :18:29. | :18:32. | |
longer than I expected because the flatlining. What will you be doing? | :18:33. | :18:36. | |
What I have been pointing out is living standards are down for most | :18:37. | :18:38. | |
people in our country, that is reality. And growth is up? Good | :18:39. | :18:43. | |
thing, about time we had some growth. Unemployment down? Question | :18:44. | :18:48. | |
mark why is it not business and investment-led, why not export-led, | :18:49. | :18:53. | |
why are we boosting housing demand but not the supply. Is it a balanced | :18:54. | :18:57. | |
and sustainable recovery, is it built to last, is it for working | :18:58. | :19:01. | |
people, is it fair. The answer to those is no at the moment, business | :19:02. | :19:05. | |
as usual is not good enough. We need things to change n our banks and | :19:06. | :19:08. | |
energy companies, a fair plan, Labour will deliver that, George | :19:09. | :19:11. | |
Osborne and David Cameron are cutting taxes for people on the | :19:12. | :19:14. | |
highest incomes and everybody else is suffering. That is not business | :19:15. | :19:16. | |
as usual, that is the same old Tories. Thank you. Script writers | :19:17. | :19:21. | |
are, even as we speak, looking forward to late night in Washington, | :19:22. | :19:25. | |
for tomorrow President Obama delivers the State of the Union | :19:26. | :19:28. | |
address to Congress. This ritual, for all its occasional folksiness, | :19:29. | :19:33. | |
like the pick out of ordinary citizens as fine examples of the | :19:34. | :19:37. | |
American way has a serious purpose. Particularly for a second term | :19:38. | :19:41. | |
leader like Obama. No-one in recent years has ended the White House on | :19:42. | :19:46. | |
-- entered the White House on you such a surge of he can pecktation, | :19:47. | :19:50. | |
and in three years he will be -- surge of expectation, and in three | :19:51. | :19:55. | |
years he will be out, what was it all for? Washington can be a cold, | :19:56. | :20:00. | |
cruel city, one minute this world is your's, the next it is moving on | :20:01. | :20:04. | |
without you. Barack Obama has three years left in the White House, but | :20:05. | :20:09. | |
already everyone here is focussed on who replaces him. This is Obama's | :20:10. | :20:15. | |
house of cards. If he wants to get anything big done with what remains | :20:16. | :20:19. | |
of his presidency he will need to play a stronger hand. President | :20:20. | :20:33. | |
Obama came on a wave of expectation, it seems an age away. As he prepares | :20:34. | :20:38. | |
for his sixth State of the Union address the only question is, does | :20:39. | :20:41. | |
anyone actually listen any more. His approval ratings have sunk to the | :20:42. | :20:46. | |
lowest ever. He has lost credibility around the world, and then there is | :20:47. | :20:50. | |
his terrible relationship with the gridlocked Congress. Obama craves | :20:51. | :20:54. | |
momentum, but his presidency seems stuck. Let's set party interests | :20:55. | :21:00. | |
aside... At last year's State of the Union address Obama promised action | :21:01. | :21:03. | |
on three big issues, immigration, guns and climate. As of today there | :21:04. | :21:09. | |
has been no legislation on any of them. He believed, wrongly, that | :21:10. | :21:19. | |
sort of some combination of his personality and electoral victory in | :21:20. | :21:24. | |
2008, in his own mind I think his own unique ability to bridge | :21:25. | :21:29. | |
unbridgeable gaps in the past, that things would fall into place more. | :21:30. | :21:35. | |
Political junkies in this town survive on the fix, the blog's | :21:36. | :21:40. | |
editor feeds them a commentary of who is up and who is down. He comes | :21:41. | :21:46. | |
into the 2014 State of the Union, and a much weaker political position | :21:47. | :21:50. | |
than a year ago, the things he hoped to capitalise on the stronger | :21:51. | :21:54. | |
political position a year ago haven't happened. Can he make them | :21:55. | :21:59. | |
happen still? I think it is very unlikely through legislative | :22:00. | :22:10. | |
processing that these will get done. Inside the White House they remain | :22:11. | :22:13. | |
optimistic about the President's agenda. Sometimes you get a more | :22:14. | :22:17. | |
honest take from somebody who has left the administration. This is the | :22:18. | :22:22. | |
best last chance to hit reset. So there is a lot riding on the speech. | :22:23. | :22:28. | |
Robert Gibbs was Barack Obama's first staff member when he became a | :22:29. | :22:35. | |
senator, he stayed on as his first presidential spokesperson, the two | :22:36. | :22:39. | |
are close. It is hard to overestimate the real damage that | :22:40. | :22:43. | |
was inflicted for most of last year on healthcare. You learn quickly in | :22:44. | :22:49. | |
the White House that what really can sap your energy are things you never | :22:50. | :22:52. | |
knew you would be dealing with, or things that were unpredictable and | :22:53. | :22:56. | |
things that completely or largely were out of your control. This was | :22:57. | :23:01. | |
entirely in the control of the White House. And yet, still so badly | :23:02. | :23:06. | |
bungled. Where was the person in the White House going into the Oval | :23:07. | :23:10. | |
Office and saying Mr President, this is not working out? The one thing I | :23:11. | :23:16. | |
have always said is in my time in the White House, when it comes time | :23:17. | :23:20. | |
to knock on that door, and walk in that room and tell the President bad | :23:21. | :23:24. | |
news, not as many people want to be in on that meeting. The healthcare | :23:25. | :23:31. | |
disaster blindsided the White House and it shows. There is an undeniable | :23:32. | :23:35. | |
sense of stagnation in America at the moment, and the world is feeling | :23:36. | :23:39. | |
it. Take the issue of social mobility, it is actually worse here | :23:40. | :23:43. | |
than it is in most of Europe. And the gap between rich and poor is | :23:44. | :23:47. | |
growing faster here than it is anywhere else, but this is the issue | :23:48. | :23:54. | |
that President Obama hopes to use to give Democrats a rallying cry in the | :23:55. | :23:57. | |
mid-term elections and reboot his presidency. It has become a common | :23:58. | :24:04. | |
theme at the White House daily briefing. On income and inequality | :24:05. | :24:08. | |
the President has made it clear this will be a big part of the next three | :24:09. | :24:11. | |
years. But with so little appetite in Congress to do anything about it, | :24:12. | :24:15. | |
how much effort is he going to put behind measures that can actually | :24:16. | :24:19. | |
reduce the trend? Addressing that challenge, addressing that problem, | :24:20. | :24:24. | |
making sure there is opportunity for everyone is something that we can do | :24:25. | :24:27. | |
together with Congress. It is also something that he can tackle using | :24:28. | :24:34. | |
all of the tools in his tool box, as President of the United States. How | :24:35. | :24:37. | |
would he measure success? I think he would measure success by evidence | :24:38. | :24:43. | |
that we have improved economic opportunity in this country for | :24:44. | :24:51. | |
everyone, that the mobility that we have seen declining in this country | :24:52. | :24:59. | |
is on the rise again. The economic problems at home are limiting Obama | :25:00. | :25:04. | |
abroad. Few people have a better take on America's global influence | :25:05. | :25:09. | |
than Andrea Mitchell, she's covered US foreign policy under four | :25:10. | :25:12. | |
Presidents, and today she sees a country in retreat. Of course | :25:13. | :25:16. | |
Obama's responding to America's war fatigue, but Andrea believes there | :25:17. | :25:20. | |
is something else going on as well. Other Presidents have more value of | :25:21. | :25:25. | |
the personal relationships. Even George W Bush, who was so disliked | :25:26. | :25:30. | |
in Europe by a majority of Europe, knew how to maintain a very close | :25:31. | :25:34. | |
relationship with his British counterpart and other leaders. This | :25:35. | :25:39. | |
President just doesn't have that schmooze ability the way other | :25:40. | :25:43. | |
Presidents have, both Democrats and Republicans. Does that hurt America | :25:44. | :25:47. | |
as influence around the world do you think? I think diplomacy does boil | :25:48. | :25:52. | |
down to personal trust. I don't think people in foreign capitals | :25:53. | :25:58. | |
really feel they know Barack Obama. Clearly Obama bears some | :25:59. | :26:02. | |
responsibility for his shrunken presidency, and perhaps the only | :26:03. | :26:06. | |
reason he isn't in worse shape is that his opponents are even more | :26:07. | :26:11. | |
stuck. Michael Steel is the former chairman of the Republican National | :26:12. | :26:15. | |
Committee, he's unusually frank about the state of his party. We | :26:16. | :26:22. | |
have been running on this idea that Obama's the bogeyman, his policies | :26:23. | :26:26. | |
are bad for America, and yet we have put no alternative individual or | :26:27. | :26:32. | |
policy that the American people can gravitate towards. What I'm hoping | :26:33. | :26:37. | |
in this cycle is we see those leaders emerge that begin to push | :26:38. | :26:42. | |
back on this noise inside the party. It has to happen. If it doesn't | :26:43. | :26:48. | |
happen 2016 will be a pipe dream. This is the beginning of the end of | :26:49. | :26:55. | |
productive time for change. Productive time to implement what is | :26:56. | :27:03. | |
left of the President's agenda. Resetting the narrative and the | :27:04. | :27:08. | |
landscape couldn't come at a better time because they need it so | :27:09. | :27:14. | |
desperately. They need to get away from the them radios of 2013. Barack | :27:15. | :27:24. | |
Obama came into the White House thinking he could change the way | :27:25. | :27:28. | |
American Government works. Today a more pragmatic President has to | :27:29. | :27:32. | |
accept that just keeping Government open may have to pass for success. | :27:33. | :27:41. | |
The time for grand ideals is past. Joining us now from Los Angeles is | :27:42. | :27:45. | |
the author and Republican strategist, Leslie Sanchez, we're | :27:46. | :27:49. | |
joined from Washington by Barack Obama's former Director of | :27:50. | :27:52. | |
Speechwriting, Jon Fravreau, who worked on every one of the | :27:53. | :27:56. | |
President's State of the Union addresses until he left the White | :27:57. | :27:59. | |
House early last year. So what's going on inside the speech writing | :28:00. | :28:06. | |
team now, Jon Fravreau, just on the eve of the speech? These are some | :28:07. | :28:13. | |
hectic last couple of days for the speech-writing team and the | :28:14. | :28:16. | |
President. I know they are editing furiously, trying to cut out words | :28:17. | :28:20. | |
here and there so the speech is as tight and short as possible. And we | :28:21. | :28:24. | |
will see what happens tomorrow night. There is a content problem | :28:25. | :28:32. | |
too isn't there? There is always a content challenge in the State of | :28:33. | :28:39. | |
the Union. You have a lot of issues to cover, all the domestic issues | :28:40. | :28:42. | |
and international issues and you have just under an hour to do so. | :28:43. | :28:46. | |
You have to make to sure that you use the words sparingly make your | :28:47. | :28:52. | |
point quickly. Leslie Sanchez, do you think it is a problem specific | :28:53. | :28:58. | |
to the Obama presidency or maybe it just affects every second term | :28:59. | :29:03. | |
presidency? Absolutely correct that it affects every president in the | :29:04. | :29:09. | |
second term, regardless, Republican or Democrat, they are facing a | :29:10. | :29:13. | |
ticking clock which is a lame duck presidency. You are looking at the | :29:14. | :29:17. | |
at a cycle in a few months, the President has a short window to | :29:18. | :29:21. | |
press efforts forward and 2016 people will realise they are waiting | :29:22. | :29:26. | |
out for the next Congress to come in with the next President to see what | :29:27. | :29:30. | |
they can get done then. What do you think the President would be wise to | :29:31. | :29:36. | |
concentrate on tomorrow Jon Fravreau? I think tomorrow he will | :29:37. | :29:40. | |
focus on expanding opportunity for the middle-class. What we can do to | :29:41. | :29:44. | |
keep creating jobs in America and not only creating jobs and making | :29:45. | :29:47. | |
sure those jobs pay a decent wage, if you work hard you can get ahead | :29:48. | :29:52. | |
in this country. So I think that involves proposals around job | :29:53. | :29:56. | |
training, around investments in education, in infrastructure. All | :29:57. | :30:01. | |
the sort of things the President has been talking about for the last | :30:02. | :30:03. | |
couple of years that he hopes Congress can work with him on. Miss | :30:04. | :30:09. | |
Sanchez is that going to wash? Not at all, what the reality is there | :30:10. | :30:16. | |
was no Obama economic recovery. That the legislative team put forward | :30:17. | :30:21. | |
last year in the State of the Union, everything from pre-schools, tax | :30:22. | :30:24. | |
reform, manufacturing hubs, none of them were seen to fruition, you are | :30:25. | :30:29. | |
seeing an American electorate that is increasingly impatient. So there | :30:30. | :30:33. | |
is not a lot of political capital for the President to run on. He has | :30:34. | :30:39. | |
a short window. As regards the rest of the world, Jon Fravreau, | :30:40. | :30:44. | |
President Obama has been notably vague in some parts of the world, | :30:45. | :30:50. | |
hasn't he? What do you mean by vague? I mean he is keen not to get | :30:51. | :30:59. | |
involved? Well look, you know, through the help of American | :31:00. | :31:02. | |
diplomacy as well as our allies, you know, the President did help achieve | :31:03. | :31:10. | |
you know an historic deal to halt uranium enrichment in Iran. That is | :31:11. | :31:12. | |
something that they will be moving forward on. The President's ended | :31:13. | :31:19. | |
the Iraq War and continuing to end the Afghanistan war. By next year | :31:20. | :31:23. | |
our troops will be home from that war as well. I believe the President | :31:24. | :31:26. | |
is very engaged around the world wherever he can be. What do you | :31:27. | :31:30. | |
think of his international position, Leslie Sanchez? I think that many | :31:31. | :31:35. | |
feel there was a lot of missed opportunities, that the US does not, | :31:36. | :31:40. | |
in many ways it comes away more bruised than it is in a position of | :31:41. | :31:45. | |
leadership. When you are talking about the most recent initiative, | :31:46. | :31:47. | |
there is still a lot of scepticism about did the President make the | :31:48. | :31:50. | |
right choices and soon enough. I think that is something that not | :31:51. | :31:55. | |
only the United States but the world community will be anxious to decide. | :31:56. | :31:58. | |
What is mysterious to an outsider, if this President is so frail and | :31:59. | :32:05. | |
faulty, why hasn't the opposition, the Republican Party made greater | :32:06. | :32:10. | |
headway against him? It is a very good point. Many felt that the last | :32:11. | :32:15. | |
mid-term cycle and even the last presidency that you were going to | :32:16. | :32:19. | |
see a rebuff of the President's policies and the President himself, | :32:20. | :32:23. | |
I think a couple of things and lessons learned by Republicans is in | :32:24. | :32:27. | |
many cases we did not have a legislative agenda and a | :32:28. | :32:31. | |
solution-orientated agenda that the Americans could believe. There were | :32:32. | :32:35. | |
many independent voters and swing voters who felt they should do with | :32:36. | :32:41. | |
the candidate they know in a very tough economic time. There wasn't | :32:42. | :32:46. | |
enough of a change agent, enough of a hope that was tangible for people | :32:47. | :32:49. | |
to believe that they should jump ships and support another party. | :32:50. | :32:54. | |
Thank you both very much indeed. Thank Hemps for London, no-one's | :32:55. | :32:58. | |
actually put it like, that but the assessment from a research group | :32:59. | :33:04. | |
that the capital dramatically upped the rest of the country in creating | :33:05. | :33:08. | |
jobs is astonishing. London is creating ten-times more private | :33:09. | :33:11. | |
sector jobs than the next most booming city. Even the public sector | :33:12. | :33:17. | |
is booming too. Not fair cry other cities across the land. The chant of | :33:18. | :33:23. | |
those glorious Londoners, Millwall with their No One Likes Us And We | :33:24. | :33:31. | |
Don't Care, sums up the feelings towards the capital. | :33:32. | :33:37. | |
London is becoming a giant suction machine, draining the life out of | :33:38. | :33:42. | |
the rest of the country. The speed of London's economic growth has | :33:43. | :33:47. | |
become visible in its skyline, with the gherkin building looking short | :33:48. | :33:50. | |
now to the walkie-talkie and the cheese greater. This is how glaring | :33:51. | :33:53. | |
the difference between London and the rest of the country has become. | :33:54. | :33:56. | |
Of the private sector jobs created in the first two years of this | :33:57. | :34:01. | |
Government, 79% were created in London. You can see why if you live | :34:02. | :34:05. | |
in Glasgow or Manchester it looks like the whole economy is skewed | :34:06. | :34:10. | |
towards London. It has barely an 8th of the country's population, but a | :34:11. | :34:13. | |
fifth the jobs and the a quarter of the value of the economy. | :34:14. | :34:17. | |
London's dominance has been the case for decades. People were complaining | :34:18. | :34:21. | |
about it back in 1940, it is the administrative capital and the | :34:22. | :34:25. | |
cultural capital, it has Government here and so much here already, it is | :34:26. | :34:28. | |
difficult to break that cycle. Actually what we want to see is that | :34:29. | :34:33. | |
allstitious London included, but it has some powers, all cities have | :34:34. | :34:37. | |
more power to do what they want for their economy, and make the case for | :34:38. | :34:41. | |
why they are so fantastic for investment, that would turn the | :34:42. | :34:44. | |
tide. When it comes to attracting talent from the rest of the country, | :34:45. | :34:50. | |
the research confirms what Vincent Cable said, London sucks. Only five | :34:51. | :34:55. | |
cities saw population flow the other way. That is also reflected in jobs, | :34:56. | :34:59. | |
in the same time that London created more than 216,000 jobs, other big | :35:00. | :35:08. | |
cities lost thousands. I don't think the economy is skewed towards London | :35:09. | :35:12. | |
f you looked at the headline you would think that is the case, it is | :35:13. | :35:15. | |
easy to paint that picture. The truth is when you follow the money, | :35:16. | :35:19. | |
right, much of the money, if not most of the money that comes into | :35:20. | :35:24. | |
London ends up elsewhere. Whether investment in the tube, where the | :35:25. | :35:28. | |
money is spent in derby or Sheffield, financial services | :35:29. | :35:34. | |
overseas but performing back office functions elsewhere, it is private | :35:35. | :35:37. | |
sector employers and financial services only there because of the | :35:38. | :35:41. | |
headquarters in London. London's success is intrinsic to the success | :35:42. | :35:46. | |
of the country. The two are linked. To stop the drain of talent, radical | :35:47. | :35:53. | |
solutions are being prepared to he devolving cities and taking power | :35:54. | :35:57. | |
away from Westminster. But London looms so large it is hard to see how | :35:58. | :36:01. | |
the picture could change. Sarah Sands, the editor of the London | :36:02. | :36:05. | |
Evening Standard newspaper, and Graham Stringer, the Labour MP for | :36:06. | :36:09. | |
the Greater Manchester constituency of blackly and broughten to. It is | :36:10. | :36:13. | |
obvious isn't it, move the capital out of London? Why. Here we have | :36:14. | :36:21. | |
great cause for celebration and we are treating it with a rage because | :36:22. | :36:26. | |
London is successful. I rather approve of its success, the question | :36:27. | :36:30. | |
is whether it comes at somebody else's cost, do you think it does? | :36:31. | :36:39. | |
London is great city and one of the world's great financial centres, it | :36:40. | :36:43. | |
is God for the country and also in an excellent position for -- it is | :36:44. | :36:46. | |
good for the country and also in an excellent position for trade with | :36:47. | :36:50. | |
Europe. Given those strengths that we then put parliament most of the | :36:51. | :36:54. | |
Civil Service here in London, so they get a treble benefit as well as | :36:55. | :36:59. | |
their natural economic benefit. That's bad for London, it leads to | :37:00. | :37:03. | |
congestion, and it is bad for the rest of the country. You want to | :37:04. | :37:07. | |
effectively move Government out of London? Many of the private sector | :37:08. | :37:12. | |
jobs created in London are dependant on the public sector, the two go | :37:13. | :37:16. | |
hand in hand. Where would you send it to? I would send it to | :37:17. | :37:21. | |
Manchester, but it would be good anywhere else in the country. That | :37:22. | :37:25. | |
it would benefit that. Everywhere this country has set up, new | :37:26. | :37:35. | |
countries coming up after the Second World War, London, Australia and the | :37:36. | :37:39. | |
United States. They have chosen to separate their capital from the | :37:40. | :37:43. | |
major financial city, so one city doesn't dominate. Like London has. | :37:44. | :37:49. | |
They should have gone to Milton Keynes? They should have gone | :37:50. | :37:56. | |
further than Milton Keynes. In a most-industrialeria we are wasting | :37:57. | :38:00. | |
the capacity in those cities. They could make a much greater | :38:01. | :38:03. | |
contribution to the United Kingdom as an economy than it is being made | :38:04. | :38:07. | |
at the present time. We are getting more and more congestion in London. | :38:08. | :38:14. | |
Sarah Sands, it is unattractive when you look at these loads of money | :38:15. | :38:19. | |
characters in London and compare them with the might of some of our | :38:20. | :38:24. | |
great cities. It is a bit upsetting isn't it? We have a lot of people | :38:25. | :38:28. | |
below the poverty line in London. That is A Tale of Two Cities in | :38:29. | :38:32. | |
itself. What seems completely bonkers is to say you move your | :38:33. | :38:36. | |
Government out of your capital city. Is this some other solution then. | :38:37. | :38:41. | |
The other solution is to learn a bit about London about what it is about | :38:42. | :38:45. | |
flexible Labour and this great concentration of talent. London's a | :38:46. | :38:51. | |
magnet city, it has been since dick Whittington. You might as well, you | :38:52. | :38:56. | |
know. That is fair point. London is great city, I don't deny that, why | :38:57. | :39:01. | |
then does it need twice the level of investment per head of population. | :39:02. | :39:08. | |
By far it is the return. Per head of population. Why do you need 90-odd % | :39:09. | :39:15. | |
that The Ghost Writer into London. Because of the return. You are | :39:16. | :39:20. | |
subsidising congestion by putting the money in London. You sort out | :39:21. | :39:24. | |
the congestion if you pay for the infrastructure. As more people come | :39:25. | :39:27. | |
to London, which they will, in their millions, it means you have to sort | :39:28. | :39:31. | |
out public transport which I think is the big challenge. But the reason | :39:32. | :39:39. | |
you invest in London is that is where the return is. It is true to | :39:40. | :39:43. | |
say one pound in five that is earned in the capital goes to the rest of | :39:44. | :39:48. | |
the country. Don't bite the hand that feeds you. London is keeping | :39:49. | :39:52. | |
much of the rest of the country afloat? Yes, totally responsible for | :39:53. | :39:58. | |
the recovery. If you have a billionare rather than trying to tax | :39:59. | :40:02. | |
them at 50p in the pound as Ed Balls is arguing, you will say we won't | :40:03. | :40:10. | |
tax you. We are extraordinarily successful and putting double into | :40:11. | :40:15. | |
transport, that creates economic activity which again brings more | :40:16. | :40:19. | |
people in. What is the evidence it is bad for other places? Exactly. | :40:20. | :40:24. | |
Because that money isn't going into other cities. Could you force it to | :40:25. | :40:29. | |
go somewhere else? London is paying for those cities. We have to go side | :40:30. | :40:34. | |
ways, it is ridiculous that a city like Manchester has to fight five | :40:35. | :40:39. | |
years for permission to have a tram system, and leads and Liverpool | :40:40. | :40:45. | |
can't build it, ?20 billion goes into tube system and CrossRail. | :40:46. | :40:50. | |
Eight million people live in London? There are that many living in the | :40:51. | :40:54. | |
North West of England. When you lock at the amount of money per head of | :40:55. | :40:59. | |
population. It is still a tiny percentage of what is going into | :41:00. | :41:02. | |
London. It makes sense to spread ma money about. You get more bangs for | :41:03. | :41:07. | |
your buck if it isn't put into London. You aren't complaining | :41:08. | :41:12. | |
like-for-like, for London now it is becoming a global city that is what | :41:13. | :41:17. | |
you are comparing yourself with and that is where you get you the money | :41:18. | :41:21. | |
and investment. London is not imagining Manchester in any way, it | :41:22. | :41:25. | |
is comparing itself with all the world cities, that is what it is | :41:26. | :41:28. | |
fighting. I agree with that and I want them to be successful. I think | :41:29. | :41:35. | |
the thing that we are doing. I'm trying to take out money so there is | :41:36. | :41:40. | |
a fair distribution with the cities. I have heard Boris and Ken | :41:41. | :41:44. | |
Livingston argue if you take out a lot of the public sector jobs, | :41:45. | :41:47. | |
London can be better at doing what it does really well. That is being | :41:48. | :41:50. | |
one of the great financial cities of the world. You can't just be a | :41:51. | :41:55. | |
financial city, we have heard great finance, politics, art and tech. The | :41:56. | :41:59. | |
politics could easily go out. That is why people want to do business | :42:00. | :42:02. | |
here. The cultural base, the transport base, the universities are | :42:03. | :42:09. | |
all here, that would remain, but you can stop investing and subsidising | :42:10. | :42:13. | |
congestion and take money out and put it in the other cities. It is | :42:14. | :42:18. | |
not a question of Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle competing | :42:19. | :42:21. | |
with London, we are part of the same country, it shutted be a share deal | :42:22. | :42:26. | |
-- it should be a fair deal and we should use the capacities in those | :42:27. | :42:29. | |
cities to create the whole economy and not just depend what is | :42:30. | :42:33. | |
happening in London. And which putting in the public money we are | :42:34. | :42:40. | |
not getting as much as we could. Do It was Holocaust Memorial Day today, | :42:41. | :42:45. | |
it was also the 69th anniversary of the liberation of the inmates of | :42:46. | :42:48. | |
Auschwitz. Many of those who survived the Nazi's unspeakable | :42:49. | :43:00. | |
bankruptism brutism. Not a member of the Auschwitz or at thes at that, | :43:01. | :43:14. | |
You arrive at Auschwitz and you go to a special block and people put a | :43:15. | :43:22. | |
number on your arm. That is done by prisoners themselves. I had a | :43:23. | :43:26. | |
conversation with a girl who was processing me. And of course she | :43:27. | :43:32. | |
asked me what did I do before I was arrested, I said I used to play the | :43:33. | :43:37. | |
cello. She said fantastic you will be saved. By that time I was naked, | :43:38. | :43:43. | |
without hair with a number on my arm, not a pretty sight. But I can | :43:44. | :43:48. | |
say without hesitation that it saved my life. Music can't be destroyed, | :43:49. | :44:01. | |
you know, the Germans have destroyed so much but music it is | :44:02. | :44:16. | |
indestructable. Dr Mengelar wanted to hear the tune I was playing. His | :44:17. | :44:20. | |
job was to go to the trains when we aRoyal Navy and look for twin -- | :44:21. | :44:24. | |
arrive and look for twins and take them to his laboratory and | :44:25. | :44:27. | |
experiment on the twins until they were dead. So man who did that knew | :44:28. | :44:38. | |
about Schumann, this is the big mystery about these top Nazi, how is | :44:39. | :44:44. | |
it possible that totally normal and called educated men can sink to such | :44:45. | :44:51. | |
a level. So when people ask me how do I feel about it? I don't feel | :44:52. | :44:55. | |
anything about it other than think about how obscene such a situation | :44:56. | :45:01. | |
is. It did not spoil the music for me. | :45:02. | :45:18. | |
We leave you tonight on Holocaust Memorial Day with Antia's son, the | :45:19. | :45:26. | |
internationally renowned cellist, Antia Lasker-Wallfish, along with | :45:27. | :45:32. | |
his own son, Simon, playing Jewish Song, by Ernst Bloch. | :45:33. | :46:33. |