Browse content similar to 19/03/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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how could it be when one of the biggest deals was the news of a new | :00:10. | :00:16. | |
shape for the pound coin. In three years time. But there was comfort | :00:17. | :00:20. | |
for older people and grand claims about how the economy as a whole is | :00:21. | :00:24. | |
recovering. We will be asking the Chief Secretary to the Treasury | :00:25. | :00:29. | |
whether the budget's appeal to older people has anything to do with the | :00:30. | :00:32. | |
fact that they are more likely to vote. His Labour shadow thinks the | :00:33. | :00:37. | |
whole budget is a bit of a con. With the man described in one of the | :00:38. | :00:42. | |
newspapers in all seriousness as the "pensions Superman" and we have | :00:43. | :00:45. | |
convened the very muchable Trinity of the Newsnight -- venerable | :00:46. | :00:49. | |
Trinity of the Newsnight political panel to pass their judgment on the | :00:50. | :00:59. | |
budget. It is all going terribly well, take the Chancellor of the | :01:00. | :01:03. | |
Exchequer's claims about the healthy state of the British economy with as | :01:04. | :01:08. | |
much salt as suits your taste. Today's budget teach was a long way | :01:09. | :01:11. | |
short of the most exciting ever delivered. But it is noticeable that | :01:12. | :01:15. | |
a year out from an election wealthier, older people, the sort of | :01:16. | :01:20. | |
people who vote benefitted most from tax changes. We will pick over the | :01:21. | :01:25. | |
budget starting tonight, with Emily Maitlis's reading of the political | :01:26. | :01:31. | |
tale. Seen from this angle perhaps we should have realised that a box | :01:32. | :01:35. | |
that size in a year like this could never really have fielded that big a | :01:36. | :01:40. | |
rabbit. But for a while this morning amongst the spring daffodils, | :01:41. | :01:45. | |
Westminster village forgot the 2004 hunting act and raised in pursuit of | :01:46. | :01:51. | |
that bunny. But it never entirely came. I think George Osborne felt he | :01:52. | :01:54. | |
didn't need a huge populist rabbit, if you like. He's able to say the | :01:55. | :01:59. | |
economy is in recovery, we're cutting people's income tax, we are | :02:00. | :02:04. | |
helping people with childcare. We're getting the job done on the economy. | :02:05. | :02:11. | |
What did it tell us? Growth is two. 7%, but it won't be matched in the | :02:12. | :02:16. | |
years after and the deficit won't disappear until 2018. Whilst there | :02:17. | :02:19. | |
was no fireworks there was radical reform. Aimed at the pensioner, the | :02:20. | :02:25. | |
manufacturer and the worker? This is budget for the makers, doers and | :02:26. | :02:27. | |
savers. Pensioners will have complete | :02:28. | :02:40. | |
freedom to draw down as much or as little of their pension pot as they | :02:41. | :02:45. | |
want any time they want, no caps, no draw down limit, let me be clear, | :02:46. | :02:52. | |
no-one will have to buy an annuity. It is hard to ignore the voter | :02:53. | :02:57. | |
targeted older, traditionally Tory, not badly off, also fits the profile | :02:58. | :03:03. | |
of the putative UKIP voter. Not surprising that with elections | :03:04. | :03:09. | |
looming a few sprinkled measures to entice that sort of vote back to the | :03:10. | :03:11. | |
Tory fold. Here you will find no factory line, | :03:12. | :03:27. | |
no noise, no men. Leave your preconceptions about manufacturing | :03:28. | :03:32. | |
at the door. They make face cream here for sensitive skin and they | :03:33. | :03:36. | |
export a lot. A business that Sarah Brown started in her own garage | :03:37. | :03:40. | |
seven years ago, now with a turnover of ?1. Three billion. She welcomes | :03:41. | :03:45. | |
the increase in capital allowance which has doubled. But, says the | :03:46. | :03:49. | |
hurdles for exporters are still high. 50% of our business is coming | :03:50. | :03:54. | |
from overseas, that's fantastic, we're hungry for more, we wa export | :03:55. | :03:59. | |
more. But there are barriers to that. It is the emerging markets | :04:00. | :04:03. | |
that excite us most, we want to get in first, Brazil is great example. | :04:04. | :04:14. | |
There is a 40% import duty into that country. It is a closed market for | :04:15. | :04:17. | |
us, the Government can help with that. What about the doers? They | :04:18. | :04:25. | |
learned a salsa pretty young here, average age 12 weeks, and when their | :04:26. | :04:30. | |
mothers aren't dancing they are working. That is if they are | :04:31. | :04:34. | |
convinced it is worth it. It would probably cost me as much money | :04:35. | :04:39. | |
putting her into childcare three days, if I go back to work three | :04:40. | :04:43. | |
days a week, than it would if I didn't go to work. The Chancellor | :04:44. | :04:48. | |
hopes his ?20,000 hand-out for childcare will convince her it is, | :04:49. | :04:52. | |
an early leap from the budget, keen to put workers centre stage. When it | :04:53. | :04:58. | |
came to a cap on the welfare budget at ?119 billion, the Chancellor | :04:59. | :05:01. | |
offered a vote. A move that leaves Labour with an interesting dilemma. | :05:02. | :05:06. | |
And then it was down to the more ease so esoterics winners. You | :05:07. | :05:15. | |
couldn't wonder if it was a set up for the vintage George Osborne line. | :05:16. | :05:22. | |
King John's defeat centuries ago scenes unimaginably distant, a weak | :05:23. | :05:26. | |
leader who had risen to the top after betraying his brother. So how | :05:27. | :05:31. | |
would Ed Miliband respond, not to that line, I mean to the budget as a | :05:32. | :05:35. | |
whole. It is very simple, all the Prime Minister needs to do is to nod | :05:36. | :05:41. | |
his head if he's going to rule out cutting 45p tax to 40p in the next | :05:42. | :05:44. | |
parliament. Nod your head, come on, come on! There you have it. There | :05:45. | :05:50. | |
you have it. There you have it, Mr Deputy Speaker. So not a response to | :05:51. | :05:55. | |
the budget but a line he's used in the past. And the focus might have | :05:56. | :05:59. | |
dwelt on that Labour response, were it not for the Tory advert which | :06:00. | :06:04. | |
surfaced this evening. Commending the hard working beer drinkers of | :06:05. | :06:11. | |
the bingo halls, labelled patronising and a bit Marie | :06:12. | :06:14. | |
Antoinette. This is traditionally the time the you find the budget | :06:15. | :06:18. | |
land mine, if things are going to unravel they do it now. The | :06:19. | :06:22. | |
Chancellor and who knows a leader in waiting has been careful to avoid | :06:23. | :06:26. | |
the traps, it seems, no splashy hand-outs, nothing that leaves him | :06:27. | :06:30. | |
open to charges that austerity has thrown away. The move on pensions is | :06:31. | :06:37. | |
big, but if he stayed away from more obvious pyrotechnic, a cut in the | :06:38. | :06:40. | |
basic rate on national insurance, or a pushing up of the 40p, well | :06:41. | :06:44. | |
there's a clear political reason behind that, against back drop of | :06:45. | :06:48. | |
good growth figure, the Chancellor can't afford for things to look too | :06:49. | :06:56. | |
rosy. The last message he wants is everything is fine, the job is done | :06:57. | :07:00. | |
and they can pack up and go home. The economic picture painted by the | :07:01. | :07:03. | |
budget was actually pretty cheery. Growth up and unemployment down. So | :07:04. | :07:09. | |
are we out of the woods? Our policy editor has this health check on the | :07:10. | :07:18. | |
state of the economy. Let's start with the good news, first of all, | :07:19. | :07:23. | |
growth. Recent growth has been very robust and the OBR expects its | :07:24. | :07:27. | |
previous estimates of how much the economy would expand in this year | :07:28. | :07:31. | |
and next year are too low. It has revised them up. Now it has revised | :07:32. | :07:35. | |
them down a little for the years after that, but even so, the news is | :07:36. | :07:40. | |
broadly positive. Look at unemployment, the rate at which | :07:41. | :07:43. | |
unemployment is expecting to fall is increasing. That is good news too. | :07:44. | :07:48. | |
And have a look at wages and prices. The squeeze on living standards, on | :07:49. | :07:52. | |
some measures now looks like it is going to reverse, people's real | :07:53. | :07:56. | |
incomes are going to start to rise quite soon. But there are reasons to | :07:57. | :08:00. | |
be worried about some of these projections. Economists have spotted | :08:01. | :08:06. | |
some slightly troubling symptoms. For example some statisticians think | :08:07. | :08:10. | |
there is very little slack left in the British economy. They think that | :08:11. | :08:15. | |
the easy fast catch-up growth that a country usually gets after recession | :08:16. | :08:20. | |
may already be over. In the jargon, they think that the output gap is | :08:21. | :08:26. | |
already zero. The OBR, however, has assumed there is still a few years | :08:27. | :08:30. | |
of that easy fast growth yet to come. The OBR also assumes that our | :08:31. | :08:40. | |
growth is going to be Britain -- driven by demand. They have to | :08:41. | :08:44. | |
assume that household also rack up the debt we haven't seen since the | :08:45. | :08:47. | |
financial crisis. They also assume that businesses will pile in to | :08:48. | :08:50. | |
investment, they think that the amount that they spend on kit is | :08:51. | :08:56. | |
going to grow by 8-9% a year for the remainder of this parliament and | :08:57. | :09:01. | |
into the next. That is a pretty bald assumption. We also suffer from a | :09:02. | :09:10. | |
particular British disease. Our labour productivity, that is to say | :09:11. | :09:12. | |
the amount of stuff our workers can make in an hour hasn't risen since | :09:13. | :09:21. | |
2007. That is very, very strange it is also very troubling in the long | :09:22. | :09:24. | |
run. It is productivity that determines how rich we are as a | :09:25. | :09:30. | |
country. It is productivity that determines how much our Government | :09:31. | :09:33. | |
can afford and whether or not we need yet another dose of austerity | :09:34. | :09:37. | |
to get our debt burden down to where we want it to be. With us to discuss | :09:38. | :09:45. | |
the budget are Danny Alexander Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Lib | :09:46. | :09:50. | |
Dem MP. And Chris Leslie his shadow. Can we talk about pensions first | :09:51. | :09:54. | |
off. How many pensioners could you reckon will run out of money as a | :09:55. | :09:57. | |
consequence of these changes? I suspect not very many. I think that | :09:58. | :10:02. | |
one of the main reasons why we can go ahead with this change now is | :10:03. | :10:08. | |
because as a coalition Government we've introduce the single tier | :10:09. | :10:12. | |
pension, it clears away the morass of means testing that existed under | :10:13. | :10:16. | |
Gordon Brown. It means from 2016 every pensioner will have basic | :10:17. | :10:19. | |
pension from the state that keeps them out of poverty. I think people | :10:20. | :10:22. | |
who save for retirement, people who have built up a pension pot are | :10:23. | :10:27. | |
responsible people who the state should trust to make the right | :10:28. | :10:29. | |
choices for themselves. But they could, they could blow the whole | :10:30. | :10:35. | |
thing on a couple of holida? That is unlikely, but it is possible someone | :10:36. | :10:40. | |
could do that. That would be to their own detriment. They would take | :10:41. | :10:44. | |
a large pension pot in one go and pay more tax. That makes it all | :10:45. | :10:49. | |
right does it? No. Presumably you did some research on this before you | :10:50. | :10:53. | |
made the change? The evidence from other countries shows that people in | :10:54. | :10:58. | |
general terms don't do that. Did you research it? Yes of course we did. | :10:59. | :11:03. | |
But some people might choose to take their pension pot in one go use it | :11:04. | :11:07. | |
perhaps some of it to pay off a mortgage. They mate decide to draw | :11:08. | :11:12. | |
it down in different lumps. Some people might buy a partial annuity | :11:13. | :11:15. | |
that might be a better choice for them. I suspect a lot of people will | :11:16. | :11:21. | |
buy annuities, but it will help to make the market more competitive. | :11:22. | :11:26. | |
Someone One of the concerns is that the annuity market isn't serving as | :11:27. | :11:29. | |
well as it could do or as competitive as it could be. Let's | :11:30. | :11:32. | |
look at the state of the economy generally, your very distinguished | :11:33. | :11:38. | |
colleague, Vince Cable thinks it is the wrong sort of recovery? I'm not | :11:39. | :11:41. | |
sure that is what he thinks. He thinks it is based on consumer | :11:42. | :11:44. | |
spending and house price inflation, is that a healthy basis for a | :11:45. | :11:48. | |
recovery? It is the way that most recoveries get going. It is the | :11:49. | :11:52. | |
right start for the recovery. Actually a large component of this | :11:53. | :11:55. | |
recovery isn't driven by those things. It is driven by | :11:56. | :11:58. | |
manufacturing, it is driven by trade. It is not driven | :11:59. | :12:02. | |
by-productivity improvement is it? No it isn't yet. Why is that? One of | :12:03. | :12:05. | |
the things I have been saying for the last six months or so is 2014 | :12:06. | :12:09. | |
has to be the year when we see business investment really get | :12:10. | :12:12. | |
going. It is one of the reasons why in this budget we have taken steps | :12:13. | :12:17. | |
to increase capital allowances, support energy-intensive businesses, | :12:18. | :12:20. | |
to encourage businesses to invest, because it is that which will help | :12:21. | :12:23. | |
productivity to improve. Of course it is only with a strong recovery, | :12:24. | :12:28. | |
with rising productivity that we can really secure better living | :12:29. | :12:30. | |
standards for British people. Without that improvement in | :12:31. | :12:34. | |
productivity we are not going to see an improvement in living standards | :12:35. | :12:37. | |
are we? That is why it is so important to do the things we have | :12:38. | :12:41. | |
done today. We haven't seen it so far? The figures today suggest some | :12:42. | :12:45. | |
improvement, but there is a long way to go. The OBR forecasts today, | :12:46. | :12:49. | |
building on the recent data of improving business investment. | :12:50. | :12:52. | |
Suggests business investment is likely to pick up. We are not | :12:53. | :12:56. | |
resting on our Laurels waiting for the forecast to happen. We are doing | :12:57. | :12:59. | |
things to support exporters to grow, the big changes today to the export | :13:00. | :13:04. | |
finance regime. Big changes to the tax allowances for businesses to | :13:05. | :13:08. | |
invest in plant and machinery. Extra incentives for businesses to take on | :13:09. | :13:12. | |
apprentices, to improve the skills of their own work force, all things | :13:13. | :13:17. | |
that help our recovery to be more sustainable. The Office for Budget | :13:18. | :13:21. | |
Responsibility says exports won't increase? We are working as hard as | :13:22. | :13:25. | |
we can to make sure we do expand exports. The exports to emerging | :13:26. | :13:30. | |
markets have risen 23% since we came into office. The exports to EU | :13:31. | :13:34. | |
countries has been less because of the problems in the eurozone. I do | :13:35. | :13:38. | |
think as the eurozone gets going, which I hope it will, I don't know | :13:39. | :13:42. | |
it will, that we will see our exports to Europe expand too. I'm | :13:43. | :13:45. | |
going to bring you in a second Chris, I would just like to ask, | :13:46. | :13:50. | |
first of a you will, what do you make of this fantastic poster | :13:51. | :13:56. | |
advertising this marvellous budget achievement, what do you make of it? | :13:57. | :13:59. | |
I thought it was a spoof at first, it is pretty extraordinary. That is | :14:00. | :14:04. | |
your budget they are talking about? It may be our budget it it is their | :14:05. | :14:10. | |
words. I think it is rather patronising. I think it demeans some | :14:11. | :14:14. | |
sensible things. There are good reasons to be supporting bingo, | :14:15. | :14:19. | |
there are good reasons to be encouraging our pub sector to be | :14:20. | :14:22. | |
stronger. That is the analysis behind those measures, this is, I | :14:23. | :14:27. | |
don't know if it is a tweak to dry to prove -- try to prove Michael | :14:28. | :14:32. | |
Gove right in one second. The Treasury have been tweeting this, | :14:33. | :14:37. | |
they are also under the impression this is what they do? I'm not sure | :14:38. | :14:41. | |
how to respond to that. The whole point of the budget is to say that | :14:42. | :14:44. | |
there are many ways in which the Government can help people with the | :14:45. | :14:50. | |
pressures that they are under. We're all under. I think the most | :14:51. | :14:53. | |
important measure in the budget is the increase in the income tax | :14:54. | :14:58. | |
personal allowance, that is what Liberal Democrats have been | :14:59. | :15:01. | |
championing and celebrating. This language that is for Grant Shapps to | :15:02. | :15:06. | |
justify. What do you make of it? What better of an example of an | :15:07. | :15:09. | |
out-of-touch Government could you have when they start patting people | :15:10. | :15:12. | |
on the head and saying what they would like. It is astonishing but we | :15:13. | :15:17. | |
know, don't we, that is the sort of view that David Cameron and George | :15:18. | :15:21. | |
Osborne have about people. You can play bingo more cheaply and have | :15:22. | :15:25. | |
beer more cheaply, that is good isn't it? If you have 300 points of | :15:26. | :15:30. | |
beer then you could get one for free on the penny-off basis, but honestly | :15:31. | :15:34. | |
the thing that was wrong with this budget was what was missing and what | :15:35. | :15:38. | |
was missing was any action on the cost of living pressures that people | :15:39. | :15:41. | |
are facing. You have been talking a little bit about pensions and | :15:42. | :15:45. | |
savings changes. Real growth in incomes coming up, that will | :15:46. | :15:51. | |
completely... Prices are still exceeding those, the problem we have | :15:52. | :15:56. | |
is we have had the record... It stops your cost of living argument? | :15:57. | :16:01. | |
Life is getting harder for most people, for a record period, 44 out | :16:02. | :16:05. | |
of the last 45 months when David Cameron has been Prime Minister, | :16:06. | :16:08. | |
earnings haven't kept pace with prices. How many times do you think | :16:09. | :16:13. | |
in the 120-pages of the budget red book cost of living was mentioned, | :16:14. | :16:16. | |
not once. They don't understand it. One thing not mentioned once was | :16:17. | :16:20. | |
productivity? There is a real problem. Not once was that | :16:21. | :16:24. | |
mentioned? That is the inbalance we have in terms of -- imbalance in | :16:25. | :16:28. | |
their approach to the economy. They have to have action on savings, the | :16:29. | :16:31. | |
reason we have a savings crisis is because people are struggling to | :16:32. | :16:35. | |
make ends meet. Once people have dipped into their savings that is no | :16:36. | :16:39. | |
wonder the growth projections are starting to come down in the | :16:40. | :16:43. | |
long-term. That has been the fuelling a little bit of the | :16:44. | :16:47. | |
recovery we have seen. But the recovery still isn't felt by the | :16:48. | :16:50. | |
vast ma the Jo of people. The savings ratio is coming down, the | :16:51. | :16:55. | |
OBR has confirmed that Danny, hasn't it? The OBR does forecast the | :16:56. | :17:00. | |
savings ratio to fall as you see in almost any economic recovery. I'm | :17:01. | :17:04. | |
disappointed that Chris if he is concerned about the pressures that | :17:05. | :17:07. | |
households in this country are under, hasn't welcomed the | :17:08. | :17:12. | |
substantial increases in the income tax personal all lions, worth now -- | :17:13. | :17:21. | |
allowance, worth now ?800. You This is 25 million people paying tax at | :17:22. | :17:27. | |
the basic rate. If you are really worried about cost of living | :17:28. | :17:31. | |
pressures on families, your party wouldn't have crashed the economy, | :17:32. | :17:34. | |
and causing an economic crisis. It was a banking crisis. And who was in | :17:35. | :17:39. | |
charge of the banks. Your boss Ed Balls was the City minister. Do you | :17:40. | :17:43. | |
think that Gordon Brown created Lehman Brothers to go bust. You are | :17:44. | :17:48. | |
better than that Danny. I know as Jeremy says, sorry I shouldn't be | :17:49. | :17:51. | |
asking the questions, you should. But you know Gordon Brown said there | :17:52. | :17:55. | |
would be no more boom and bust, it was the Labour Party that was | :17:56. | :17:57. | |
responsible for regulating the financial system so catastrophically | :17:58. | :18:01. | |
poorly for many years before the crisis, it was the Labour Government | :18:02. | :18:04. | |
that was running a structural deficit in our economy. We have | :18:05. | :18:08. | |
heard your attack message. For many years before the crisis. Why have | :18:09. | :18:16. | |
the deficit going to be ?75 billion at the next election, we didn't get | :18:17. | :18:19. | |
the growth, you failed to get that. You can continue this argument in | :18:20. | :18:24. | |
private in a minute. There is a lot to answer. In the pub over a penny | :18:25. | :18:29. | |
cheaper pint of beer. With a game of bingo! One thing the Chancellor of | :18:30. | :18:33. | |
the Exchequer trumpeted is what he called the biggest shake up of | :18:34. | :18:37. | |
pensions in 100 years. He claimed I wanted to give -- he wanted to give | :18:38. | :18:41. | |
people with pensions more access to their money. This has implications | :18:42. | :18:45. | |
not just for those who are sensible enough to put money aside for their | :18:46. | :18:57. | |
old age but everyone. The Chancellor may. Ing the tax on bingo, but he as | :18:58. | :19:02. | |
also giving 13 million private pension savers the freedom to claim | :19:03. | :19:09. | |
a bumper payout from themselves. Unlike those in the safe, called | :19:10. | :19:14. | |
defined benefit pensions where you know what you are getting out, | :19:15. | :19:18. | |
members of the defined contribution schemes only know what they are | :19:19. | :19:22. | |
getting in, and what they get out depends on the luck of the markets. | :19:23. | :19:28. | |
What private pension savers have to do when they retire is swap the fund | :19:29. | :19:32. | |
they have built up for an income until dealt. The income they get | :19:33. | :19:37. | |
will depend on annuity rates, those depend on how long people are living | :19:38. | :19:41. | |
for and interest rates. If you buy an annuity now you are unlucky you | :19:42. | :19:46. | |
will get half what you got ten years ago. If you swap the average pension | :19:47. | :19:50. | |
fund of ?25,000, the best annuity would pay little more than ?1500 a | :19:51. | :19:54. | |
year, that doesn't go up with inflation. From April next year, | :19:55. | :19:57. | |
instead of taking your pension money as income you will be able to take | :19:58. | :20:06. | |
the whole ?25,000 up front. That could make a big difference to the | :20:07. | :20:13. | |
likes of Done, who has a tiny ?2. ,500 pension fund. The rules say I | :20:14. | :20:20. | |
have to buy an annuity, with the rates so poor I would get perhaps | :20:21. | :20:26. | |
under ?5 a week. It is derisory, it is a ridiculous sum. It is so | :20:27. | :20:31. | |
frustrating, I thought I had saved it for my old age, I'm 81 now, when | :20:32. | :20:37. | |
will I get it. I can see me dying and it is still in there. The new | :20:38. | :20:41. | |
freedom of choice means he can get all his money next year. Even | :20:42. | :20:45. | |
advisers who welcome the freedom of choice, say most pensioners won't | :20:46. | :20:49. | |
want to risk spending their pension too soon. There will be a minority | :20:50. | :20:53. | |
of people choose to use the flexibility announced today. Most | :20:54. | :20:57. | |
people don't want to blow 40 years worth of pension savings | :20:58. | :20:59. | |
immediately. They have saved to provide themselves with a secure, | :21:00. | :21:05. | |
guaranteed lifetime income. On the stock market traders reacted to the | :21:06. | :21:09. | |
budget by hammering the shares of annuity providers like Legal and | :21:10. | :21:13. | |
General and Aviva, they are expected to lose big business. It is a | :21:14. | :21:18. | |
cataclysmic announcement, it is a major change and nobody should | :21:19. | :21:21. | |
underestimate that, the extent of the shock market reactions reflect | :21:22. | :21:25. | |
that. It is too -- stock market reactions reflect. That it is too | :21:26. | :21:29. | |
early to say where this will go. If we compare other markets in the | :21:30. | :21:31. | |
United States, where there is no compulsion to buy annuity, then | :21:32. | :21:36. | |
around 10% of people buy an annuity, and 90% don't. That is the polar | :21:37. | :21:40. | |
opposite to what happens here in this country. Markets have to worry | :21:41. | :21:45. | |
will the market drop by a half, 80%, no-one yet knows for certain. With | :21:46. | :21:51. | |
more pension money spent sooner rather than later, the Treasury is | :21:52. | :21:55. | |
assuming it will get more than a billion a year extra in tax. It also | :21:56. | :21:59. | |
admits to a risk. Member of public sector pensions who want their money | :22:00. | :22:02. | |
early could transfer their money out to the new flexible schemes, costing | :22:03. | :22:06. | |
the Treasury hundreds of millions. So, they are banning those | :22:07. | :22:09. | |
transfers. If you are in one of those schemes it means less freedom | :22:10. | :22:17. | |
not more. Mark Wood is the boss of JLT Employee Benefits, a pensions | :22:18. | :22:21. | |
consultancy. Is this a good idea? I think there is a vast array of | :22:22. | :22:26. | |
different things included in the announcements today. We need to be | :22:27. | :22:29. | |
specific. The big changes taking place is people are given so much | :22:30. | :22:32. | |
more opportunity to do what they will with the money that they have | :22:33. | :22:35. | |
accumulated during a lifetime. Is that a good idea? I think it is a | :22:36. | :22:39. | |
good idea for some, and not such a good idea for others. One of the | :22:40. | :22:42. | |
problems we have is people find it very difficult to appreciate just | :22:43. | :22:46. | |
how long they are going to live for. And one of the great Joyce of | :22:47. | :22:50. | |
annuity purchase, which is the old regime, is that the money you | :22:51. | :22:54. | |
received was guaranteed for life. And now people will have to estimate | :22:55. | :22:59. | |
how much they draw of their capital over time. As your film illustrated | :23:00. | :23:03. | |
there will be some relatively elderly people who potentially run | :23:04. | :23:14. | |
out of money. What happens then? Life expectancy is 2. 5 years every | :23:15. | :23:19. | |
decade for a 65-year-old, that is six-and-a-half hours day, it is a | :23:20. | :23:22. | |
dramatic increase. People need to provide for that length of | :23:23. | :23:26. | |
retirement. We saw that annuity providers, pensions companies, their | :23:27. | :23:34. | |
shares, many of them, took a real pasting today, was that wise? I | :23:35. | :23:38. | |
think the market overreacted to this announcement. Large number of | :23:39. | :23:41. | |
people, for the reasons I just described will continue to buy | :23:42. | :23:44. | |
annuities for at least part of their pension provision. We might see | :23:45. | :23:49. | |
going forward people will buy some of their capital for annuities for a | :23:50. | :23:53. | |
portion of their income. Would you buy an annuity now? I wouldn't buy | :23:54. | :23:58. | |
one today. The market clearly has reacted to quantitative easing, real | :23:59. | :24:02. | |
interest rates have dropped dramatically. That is reflected in | :24:03. | :24:06. | |
the price of an annuity, we need to get to a position where we have | :24:07. | :24:10. | |
stronger real rates of return for annuities to become real value. Your | :24:11. | :24:13. | |
advice would be don't buy annuities until interest rates go up? If you | :24:14. | :24:17. | |
can afford to put it off. That is one of the occasion where is this | :24:18. | :24:20. | |
change today is very good news, because it enables people to draw a | :24:21. | :24:25. | |
bit of their capital, put off buying an annuity, wait until an annuity is | :24:26. | :24:29. | |
better value and then invest in an annuity when the market is more | :24:30. | :24:35. | |
favourable. Thank you very much. Now they weren't paying much attention | :24:36. | :24:38. | |
to George Osborne's speech in the Crimea today, they had rather more | :24:39. | :24:42. | |
pressing things on their mind, like who are they? After Vladimir Putin's | :24:43. | :24:54. | |
incursion yesterday, including the Ukrainian's Navy head quarters. We | :24:55. | :25:01. | |
report from there. The seizure of the Ukraine naval head quarters was | :25:02. | :25:10. | |
a well choreographed operation. Regular troops from the naval | :25:11. | :25:13. | |
infantry took over. One of the organisers of this morning's assault | :25:14. | :25:17. | |
gave vent to emotions that Ukrainian rule in place since the collapse of | :25:18. | :25:25. | |
the Soviet Union was coming to an end bloodlessly. TRANSLATION: We | :25:26. | :25:29. | |
would like to thank all Ukrainian military men, they understand the | :25:30. | :25:33. | |
citizens here. After 23 years of occupation, we still remain the | :25:34. | :25:43. | |
Russian citizens. I broke down in tears when Putin said yesterday | :25:44. | :25:47. | |
Crimea is part of the Russian federation. It started with hundreds | :25:48. | :25:56. | |
of Russian locals storming the building, apparently unarmed. But | :25:57. | :26:01. | |
things like this don't happen by accident here and the Ukrainian | :26:02. | :26:11. | |
garrison's readiness to reply had been worn down. Many came out in | :26:12. | :26:17. | |
civvies, having salvaged possessions but not dignity. TRANSLATION: There | :26:18. | :26:20. | |
were many promises from the Russians and our side that the base would not | :26:21. | :26:27. | |
be stormed. That all issues would be resolved from political means. It | :26:28. | :26:30. | |
was stormed and no issues solved through political means. What has | :26:31. | :26:34. | |
happened here today which is afterall the headquarters of the | :26:35. | :26:38. | |
Ukrainian Navy shows how futile it is for Ukrainian service men and | :26:39. | :26:42. | |
women to try to struggle on here, knowing as they do that there is | :26:43. | :26:45. | |
little practical backing that their Government in Kiev can give them, | :26:46. | :26:50. | |
and they are surrounded by a hostile population. And it wasn't just the | :26:51. | :26:58. | |
capital that was stormed today, here another naval facility was taken and | :26:59. | :27:02. | |
the Ukrainian national symbol soon replaced by a Russian one. As the | :27:03. | :27:06. | |
bases fall, the Ukrainian servicemen are given an awful choice. | :27:07. | :27:13. | |
TRANSLATION: Soldiers who will local, settled with kids and homes | :27:14. | :27:17. | |
will statement those like me from other regions like central and | :27:18. | :27:22. | |
western Ukraine, what have we got here, nothing. Acknowledging that | :27:23. | :27:27. | |
some will stay, but many of their 20,000 troops will go, out Ukrainian | :27:28. | :27:32. | |
Government was tonight discussing an evacuation plan. Elsewhere we found | :27:33. | :27:41. | |
men of Ukrainian unit 3009 awaiting their fate forlornly. Outside, | :27:42. | :27:46. | |
unarmed middle-aged local Russian defence volunteers maintained their | :27:47. | :27:51. | |
vigil, confident that the Stranded garrison will change sides. | :27:52. | :27:54. | |
TRANSLATION: Many, many soldiers and officers present at this base are | :27:55. | :27:58. | |
changing their allegance from the Ukrainian to the Russian army. Look | :27:59. | :28:02. | |
at us, we don't have any arms, in a few days most of the bases here will | :28:03. | :28:08. | |
also be under Russian control. It is not Evra where and it could still be | :28:09. | :28:15. | |
bloody. Here where there is a unit of Ukrainian paratroop who is might | :28:16. | :28:19. | |
fight, Russia is approaching things more gingerly. How quickly to press | :28:20. | :28:25. | |
the snuffing out of these Ukrainian forces that is the question that now | :28:26. | :28:30. | |
preoccupies the Russian volunteers. If they miscalculate we will all | :28:31. | :28:39. | |
know about it. Yet another day without a sign of the missing | :28:40. | :28:43. | |
Malaysian airliner and the people on board. Tonight there have been some | :28:44. | :28:52. | |
new development its. It is clear the Americans know far more about what | :28:53. | :28:55. | |
happened to the plane than they are letting on publicly. It appears they | :28:56. | :28:58. | |
are taking the lead on the search and feeding information in, | :28:59. | :29:02. | |
particularly to the Australians. They have been examining the | :29:03. | :29:05. | |
satellite data, the satellite pings, and I think they have established a | :29:06. | :29:09. | |
far clearer route of where they think the plane went. Remember there | :29:10. | :29:14. | |
was a northern arc and southern arc, it is clear they think that the | :29:15. | :29:17. | |
plane went to the south, just off the coast of Australia. They | :29:18. | :29:22. | |
prepared a map and the Australian authorities prepared a map. This is | :29:23. | :29:25. | |
the search area they think the plane has gone to. Provided by the | :29:26. | :29:30. | |
national transportation safety. That is south-west of Perth, it is miles | :29:31. | :29:34. | |
from where it was said to be? What they think happened is after it | :29:35. | :29:38. | |
disappeared from Malaysian radar it went south and it kept going until | :29:39. | :29:44. | |
I'm afraid the grim scenario they are decribing is it ran out of fuel | :29:45. | :29:50. | |
and fell into the sea. You have found something on the flight | :29:51. | :29:54. | |
simulator that the pilot was said to have spent a lot of time on? It was | :29:55. | :29:59. | |
a lot made about whether this was a sincer fact or some data will be on | :30:00. | :30:03. | |
it. The Americans have been given access to the data on that, to | :30:04. | :30:10. | |
determine whether there is data on there. We have uncovered through | :30:11. | :30:14. | |
finding posts on lots of obscure flight simulator hobbyist websites | :30:15. | :30:22. | |
that the captain was in fact an avid flight simulator hobbyist going back | :30:23. | :30:27. | |
to 1985. These are some of the posts he has done. One of the last ones | :30:28. | :30:30. | |
was talking about how cool the new system was that allowed him to | :30:31. | :30:36. | |
simulate jettisoning fuel there. That was back in November of last | :30:37. | :30:40. | |
year. It may be that the flight simulator does yield clues as to | :30:41. | :30:43. | |
what happened to this flight, but there is, it seems, another | :30:44. | :30:46. | |
explanation and more innocent explanation from having this flight | :30:47. | :30:51. | |
simulator. He was a hobbyist. Back to the budget now. Our political | :30:52. | :30:57. | |
leaders are too high minded to notice anything as self-interested | :30:58. | :31:03. | |
as in a year there will be an election, but there will. The state | :31:04. | :31:07. | |
of the economy and how people feel about the economy and their own | :31:08. | :31:10. | |
household will be vital in how that pans out. Crucially will the | :31:11. | :31:14. | |
coalition be able to cash in on any credit for the recovery. On the day | :31:15. | :31:18. | |
of much travel when one of us got to go to Wimbledon. We went to the | :31:19. | :31:29. | |
super marginal seat of Watford. A typical town, maybe not the centre | :31:30. | :31:33. | |
of the universe, but George Osborne must pay attention here. Behind the | :31:34. | :31:38. | |
net curtains lurks swing voters, those whose wallets could decide the | :31:39. | :31:45. | |
next election. Here in Watford you have marginal Britain personified. | :31:46. | :31:48. | |
It is marginal because it is a mixture of better-off and less | :31:49. | :31:52. | |
well-off and middle Britain places. You have got Britain in microcosm. | :31:53. | :31:59. | |
Watford school kids are growing up in a town where there are more | :32:00. | :32:02. | |
people in work than ever. Most of them earning about ?20 more a week | :32:03. | :32:09. | |
than a couple of years ago. But still there is a squeeze. Tim Henson | :32:10. | :32:16. | |
is the head of PE. His wife stopped working to look after his three | :32:17. | :32:20. | |
kids. He used to vote Labour but chose the Tories last time, he has | :32:21. | :32:23. | |
just had to start paying the higher rate of tax although he's earning | :32:24. | :32:34. | |
more. These are the issues, we don't go shopping, we have had to change | :32:35. | :32:43. | |
our lifestyle, we don't go out to dinner because we have the children. | :32:44. | :32:46. | |
People are offering to lend more money. People are saying we can have | :32:47. | :32:51. | |
an extension on credit cards. How will you vote if you have decided? | :32:52. | :32:57. | |
It is a trust issue, it is who do you trust the most out of the | :32:58. | :33:00. | |
choices in front of you. Do you trust any of them? I would like to. | :33:01. | :33:11. | |
Martin had to sign on today, his son is at school so his income support | :33:12. | :33:14. | |
has stopped? You have applied for jobs at lots of places in the high | :33:15. | :33:19. | |
street then. Just in the space of three weeks I have handed out 40 | :33:20. | :33:26. | |
CVs. 40? He backed the Lib Dems last time but the coalition recovery | :33:27. | :33:31. | |
certainly hasn't reached him. I don't know what I'm going to live | :33:32. | :33:34. | |
on, I'm with British Gas, which costs me the earth. I'm on a mooter, | :33:35. | :33:40. | |
it was there -- a metr it was there when I moved in, it is either heat | :33:41. | :33:45. | |
the house, keep my son warm and not eat, properly, or eat properly and | :33:46. | :33:57. | |
not heat the houseetre, it was there when I moved in, it is either heat | :33:58. | :34:00. | |
the house, keep my son warm and not eat, properly, or eat properly and | :34:01. | :34:03. | |
not heat the house. I was in tears earlier thinking about everything. | :34:04. | :34:05. | |
It is hard. The Government says the economy is recovering, do you think | :34:06. | :34:10. | |
the economy is recovery? I think for some people it is recovering, for | :34:11. | :34:15. | |
others it is not. I think the country is split in two. In Watford, | :34:16. | :34:24. | |
like all over the country, Osbourne's recovery has come with | :34:25. | :34:28. | |
hundreds of new firms, Andrew and Clare's dog care company is | :34:29. | :34:35. | |
thriving, not a luxury they insist. They say they are traditional | :34:36. | :34:38. | |
Tories, but now they are not so sure. We are fiddling around at the | :34:39. | :34:43. | |
edges of the economy and stuff isn't enough. I think someone needs to | :34:44. | :34:47. | |
take a real hold of things and really take drastic approach. When | :34:48. | :34:52. | |
you are down right in it, running a business and you do want the | :34:53. | :34:56. | |
Government to get behind the small businesses that are creating jobs | :34:57. | :34:59. | |
for people out there, you want them to see that and actually maybe speak | :35:00. | :35:03. | |
to us and speak to others like us who are in smaller businesses to see | :35:04. | :35:08. | |
what we actually need. It certainly wasn't a budget that will get | :35:09. | :35:13. | |
average voters in average towns's pulses racing, there probably wasn't | :35:14. | :35:16. | |
much that will change how most people feel about their own | :35:17. | :35:20. | |
situation. But Westminster's assumption is that what is said on | :35:21. | :35:23. | |
the economy will decide the election. In a marginal seat like | :35:24. | :35:28. | |
Watford the economic argument is vital. The argument is a contest | :35:29. | :35:33. | |
between two narratives, the Tory narrative, don't give the keys back | :35:34. | :35:38. | |
to the people who crashed the car, Obama's favourite slogan from a | :35:39. | :35:41. | |
couple of years ago. Versus Labour saying are you better or worse off | :35:42. | :35:46. | |
than you were in 2010 when the coalition came into being. Labour is | :35:47. | :35:50. | |
fractionally ahead on standards of living, but on all the other | :35:51. | :35:53. | |
economic independent Kators the Tories are ahead. And perhaps | :35:54. | :35:58. | |
crucially people do think that cutting the deficit must be the | :35:59. | :36:13. | |
prime objective of the Government. Here and everyone the economy | :36:14. | :36:17. | |
matters. Dwarfing everything said today the economy is still the | :36:18. | :36:30. | |
biggest show in town. Government. Here and everyone the economy | :36:31. | :36:32. | |
matters. Dwarfing everything said today the economy is still the | :36:33. | :36:34. | |
biggest show in town. Now the judgment of the Newsnight panel, | :36:35. | :36:37. | |
they have been still at it. Lord Fink, Lord Finkelstein, ollie, | :36:38. | :36:49. | |
thinking it both democratic and undemocratic and John McTernen, who | :36:50. | :36:56. | |
has paid his debt to society after serving in John Major's Government. | :36:57. | :37:00. | |
Do you think it was a very political budget, it was wasn't it? Actually I | :37:01. | :37:06. | |
thought that the politics of it were dwarfed by the policy. I don't think | :37:07. | :37:09. | |
the political shift that is budgets make are really huge, but the policy | :37:10. | :37:13. | |
revolution on pensions is very significant. Its implications will | :37:14. | :37:19. | |
last for years. Obviously it depends who is right. I personally I'm in | :37:20. | :37:25. | |
favour of the rather radical package on the liberalising of pensions. You | :37:26. | :37:30. | |
are less in favour of it. I think it is right thing to do. What are you | :37:31. | :37:36. | |
sniggered for, please -- sniggered for, please explain? Budgets have | :37:37. | :37:42. | |
ideas that look good on the day and fall apart in the coming days. | :37:43. | :37:46. | |
Nobody understood it in the House when it was set out. Steve Webb | :37:47. | :37:59. | |
probably did. The implications are bigg days. Nobody understood it in | :38:00. | :38:02. | |
the House when it was set out. Steve Webb probably did. The implications | :38:03. | :38:04. | |
are big. We encouraged people to save for pensions and gave them tax | :38:05. | :38:07. | |
relief. The moral hazard is great, in the 80s and 90s a lot of people | :38:08. | :38:12. | |
will end up on benefits because you can't trust people to spend their | :38:13. | :38:16. | |
own money sensibly, planning for their retirement. They don't imagine | :38:17. | :38:21. | |
at 65 they will live for 30 years and you are encouraging them now to | :38:22. | :38:27. | |
spend all their money. Steve Webb whose finger prints are all over | :38:28. | :38:30. | |
this would talk about the fingertip pension which is generous in the | :38:31. | :38:34. | |
extreme. There is a complete revolutionary change coming in that | :38:35. | :38:37. | |
respect as well as in pensions, I agree with John, as everyone was | :38:38. | :38:41. | |
sitting in the chamber, instantly overnight everyone is becoming a | :38:42. | :38:45. | |
pensions expert. We don't force people to save in the first place at | :38:46. | :38:49. | |
that rate, it seems wrong to force them to have to spend the investment | :38:50. | :38:53. | |
on an annuity in that way. They could run out of money by not saving | :38:54. | :38:58. | |
it. The point of this policy is it will encourage them to save. If they | :38:59. | :39:02. | |
spend additional money they have to pay tax for them in the end. That is | :39:03. | :39:06. | |
a disincentive. In a policy sense this is the difference between | :39:07. | :39:09. | |
people who think people should be trusted with their income and those | :39:10. | :39:12. | |
people who think it is a gamble. It is a gamble. We know that | :39:13. | :39:16. | |
20-year-olds don't save enough, we are trying to force them through | :39:17. | :39:20. | |
automatic enrolment to do. That there is a contradiction. The | :39:21. | :39:24. | |
question about is it a political budget, it is a deeply political | :39:25. | :39:29. | |
budget. I disagree with Danny. It is the pensions and the substantive | :39:30. | :39:34. | |
change and I would say with the tax threshold on the front of the Lib | :39:35. | :39:38. | |
Dem manifesto, it is delivered and plus, plus. It is now ?800 | :39:39. | :39:43. | |
deduction, that is incredibly political. Single individual | :39:44. | :39:50. | |
puttings don't have very profound political effects. It sends a | :39:51. | :39:54. | |
message. We always ignore when budgets happen is what is underneath | :39:55. | :39:57. | |
the budget. In other words the budget consists of some changes that | :39:58. | :40:00. | |
have been made on the existing situation on tax and spending. But | :40:01. | :40:03. | |
actually what will settle the election is the existing position on | :40:04. | :40:07. | |
tax and spending and growth. So the Conservatives, for example, are | :40:08. | :40:11. | |
going to have a big fight on their hands and the Liberal Democrats too | :40:12. | :40:14. | |
on the issue of public spending, because this budget means there is | :40:15. | :40:17. | |
going to be big public spending cuts. | :40:18. | :40:20. | |
Let's take what is said about growth. Does this, Danny Alexander | :40:21. | :40:27. | |
sounded quite cocky about the fact that it is not as Vince Cable says a | :40:28. | :40:33. | |
false recovery? There is going to be a people's personal income -- | :40:34. | :40:37. | |
people's personal incomes are going to recover, that is clearly going to | :40:38. | :40:40. | |
be something that will help the coalition parties at a general | :40:41. | :40:42. | |
election. It is not the only issue, it is not decisive but clearly it | :40:43. | :40:48. | |
will help. The OBR projection was adjusted for greater growth an a | :40:49. | :40:52. | |
year ago, that is significant. What is it based on? The big political | :40:53. | :40:55. | |
challenge for Labour. It is not based on any productivity | :40:56. | :41:01. | |
improvement at all? It is based on increasing employment and salaries | :41:02. | :41:05. | |
will increase as well and mostly on the Helps to Buy. This is a problem. | :41:06. | :41:09. | |
There in lies an issue. It is house prices. There in lies the absolute | :41:10. | :41:14. | |
contradiction at the heart of this you say you rebalance the economy, | :41:15. | :41:17. | |
and there you have a Government-driven, house price-led | :41:18. | :41:20. | |
economic boom, and the problem with that is that booms are followed by | :41:21. | :41:25. | |
busts, we had a situation like this. There was somebody who predicted | :41:26. | :41:29. | |
there will be no more boom and bust I'm trying to remember who it is. | :41:30. | :41:32. | |
The challenge for the Labour Party is there is also a very political | :41:33. | :41:36. | |
moment from George Osborne which is about this benefit cap issue. I | :41:37. | :41:40. | |
think that is a real challenge for Labour and I was really surprised | :41:41. | :41:46. | |
that even in the chamber that Ed Miliband didn't in any way find a | :41:47. | :41:49. | |
way to respond to it. Clearly this question of where people are with | :41:50. | :41:53. | |
their incomes will be of importance. Basically John Labour and you have | :41:54. | :41:57. | |
been against the fact that there wasn't an increase in growth and now | :41:58. | :42:01. | |
you are against the growth. Let's go back to the benefits cap, it is a | :42:02. | :42:05. | |
good question and point to make, I'm pretty sure that Labour will support | :42:06. | :42:11. | |
the benefits cap, however, you have a benefits cap of ?26,000 if you are | :42:12. | :42:18. | |
poor, but a childcare cap of ?300,000, what is the logic there, | :42:19. | :42:21. | |
go back to the policy, it is to buy the votes of professional voters. | :42:22. | :42:25. | |
What age group do you think the budget was most directed at? Over | :42:26. | :42:33. | |
45, probably 55. Old people? People in that age gap are four-times more | :42:34. | :42:39. | |
likely to vote than younger people. He may be right? Let's question | :42:40. | :42:43. | |
that, what older people are going to do is be able to withdraw from the | :42:44. | :42:47. | |
savings policy, but this actually allows people to save during their | :42:48. | :42:51. | |
working life. It is not just a policy that works for older people. | :42:52. | :42:54. | |
Clearly by the way it does. And I think you know looking at the | :42:55. | :42:58. | |
political implications, obviously one of the implications will be to | :42:59. | :43:02. | |
try to assist the Conservative Party against UKIP. That is no question | :43:03. | :43:06. | |
that a political calculation that is. Their voters are by and large | :43:07. | :43:11. | |
male and older people who are economically less well off. Clearly | :43:12. | :43:16. | |
it is designed to help them some what. This fails to recognise that | :43:17. | :43:20. | |
kind of especially for Lib Dems in movement what has been a substantive | :43:21. | :43:24. | |
change and really fascinating is the tax threshold, but staying with | :43:25. | :43:27. | |
pensions, you have had the same minister who is known to be an | :43:28. | :43:33. | |
expert in that sector, in this job, in DWP, Steve Webb, the question, | :43:34. | :43:39. | |
the exam question he will not have asked himself is what will win the | :43:40. | :43:43. | |
number of votes? What can we do in this sector that is going to make a | :43:44. | :43:51. | |
difference? My My problem with the -- pensions is that they have to be | :43:52. | :44:01. | |
changes. Why wasn't it consulted on? Probably because there are losers. | :44:02. | :44:05. | |
The rollout isn't until 2026. There is time for people to adjust. You | :44:06. | :44:08. | |
should have consulted before the announcement was made, pensions are | :44:09. | :44:13. | |
really delicate areas. This is a liberalisation. Can we get away from | :44:14. | :44:18. | |
this Steve Webb fan club! You wrote an article in the Times this morning | :44:19. | :44:24. | |
in which you argued that the budget, the whole Budget Day thing was | :44:25. | :44:29. | |
profoundly misconceived? Yes. I think that. That is one of the | :44:30. | :44:32. | |
reasons I said at the beginning that I thought the political implications | :44:33. | :44:35. | |
of it were always overestimated. I believe that Governments should try | :44:36. | :44:38. | |
to set frameworks within which people can operate and they can be | :44:39. | :44:42. | |
different kinds of framework, I'm not judging which they could be. Let | :44:43. | :44:47. | |
as say you believe that a low-tax, low-regulation economy was a good | :44:48. | :44:51. | |
thing. If you have freak budgets you basically start to meddle, you move | :44:52. | :44:55. | |
up and down as the forecasts move up and down. You adjust taxation in | :44:56. | :45:01. | |
order to create posters or short-term effects. I think our | :45:02. | :45:05. | |
political life is strewn with events, springs conferences, annual | :45:06. | :45:09. | |
conferences, budgets, Autumn Statements, each of which put a | :45:10. | :45:13. | |
pressure on the office of the minister, the Chancellor, to make | :45:14. | :45:19. | |
silly announcements. We get more and worse policy announced at these | :45:20. | :45:25. | |
events than if we had the perameters -- parram at thes set. It is like | :45:26. | :45:30. | |
the lowest common denomination version of this is the road trip. | :45:31. | :45:48. | |
Let's take the beer tax. The beer tax has been designed to produce | :45:49. | :45:51. | |
headlines on the day. You have to have enough so Newsnight doesn't | :45:52. | :45:56. | |
have to start with this stuff because it is boring. That is what | :45:57. | :45:59. | |
you are after. I don't think that is driving good policy making. That is | :46:00. | :46:02. | |
enough excitement for tonight, thank you all very much from us good | :46:03. | :46:28. | |
night. Good evening. Not a particularly pleasant start to the | :46:29. | :46:31. | |
day across Scotland and Northern Ireland, it will be wet and windy, a | :46:32. | :46:35. | |
gust of wind, 50, 60 miles an HOUFRMENT all | :46:36. | :46:36. |