Browse content similar to 28/05/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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How much did Vince Cable know? Did he sail you down the river? A very | :00:07. | :00:16. | |
bungled coup. Vince Cable's comrade crashes out of the Liberal | :00:17. | :00:19. | |
Democrats. After his plot was foiled. How much did Dr Cable know? | :00:20. | :00:24. | |
We'll ask a Lib Dem minister just what is going on. Sorry statistics | :00:25. | :00:29. | |
suggest a growing number of us say yes to a question that was a taboo. | :00:30. | :00:35. | |
We will be discussing - are you racist? My life ain't heaven, it | :00:36. | :00:40. | |
sure ain't hell. I'm not on top, but I call it swell. If I'm able to | :00:41. | :00:45. | |
work, and get paid right, and have the luck to be black on a Saturday | :00:46. | :00:52. | |
night. Hey! No question, she knew how to live. Anglesey's celebrated | :00:53. | :00:58. | |
voice falls silent. Need a lift? Taxi! An uber battle is brewing as | :00:59. | :01:04. | |
London's drivers take on the new cabs on the block. The ones using | :01:05. | :01:10. | |
phone apps to catch our ride. Our technology editor tries to work out | :01:11. | :01:15. | |
what is fare. What more thing tonight. I'm Professor Hawking, on | :01:16. | :01:24. | |
Newsnight tonight I will reveal my scientific analysis on how to win | :01:25. | :01:31. | |
the World Cup in Brazil. Good evening. The attempt to get rid of | :01:32. | :01:35. | |
Nick Clegg might not have been a very good plot, but it was indeed a | :01:36. | :01:40. | |
plot. Tonight, it's not entirely clear precisely what part was played | :01:41. | :01:45. | |
by Vince Cable, one of Clegg's most senior colleagues. Even if he wasn't | :01:46. | :01:49. | |
holding the dagger, he did, at least, know about it. What did he | :01:50. | :01:57. | |
know? Morning, sir. Polls ordered up by his long time friend, Lord | :01:58. | :02:01. | |
Oakeshott, tested the waters for a Vince Cable-led Lib Dem party. The | :02:02. | :02:07. | |
Business Secretary so beloved by activists, perhaps not quite trusted | :02:08. | :02:10. | |
by colleagues. REPORTER: Mr Cable, did you know | :02:11. | :02:13. | |
Lord Oakeshott was conducting these polls? He claims tonight, from | :02:14. | :02:18. | |
China, he only knew part of what his old comrade was up to. Lord | :02:19. | :02:24. | |
Oakeshott asked my election campaign manager if we wanted a poll done in | :02:25. | :02:28. | |
my own constituency. We said, yes. It was a private, local poll. | :02:29. | :02:34. | |
Nothing to do with national leadership. I was aware that he was | :02:35. | :02:40. | |
conducting other polls around the country. I had absolutely no | :02:41. | :02:45. | |
knowledge of, certainly not involved in any commissioning of the surveys | :02:46. | :02:51. | |
done in Sheffield Hallam and Inverness. I criticised them very | :02:52. | :02:57. | |
severely yesterday. Matthew Oakeshott described to me as a snake | :02:58. | :03:02. | |
withen an agenda and money. He didn't just explode out of his party | :03:03. | :03:06. | |
today. He felled up to having ordered polls in key constituency | :03:07. | :03:08. | |
saying: -- fessed. He claimed Vince Cable | :03:09. | :03:25. | |
was aware of what he was doing. Vince amended and approved the | :03:26. | :03:29. | |
questionnaire, he said. At his request I excluded a question on | :03:30. | :03:32. | |
voting intentions with a change of leader. That poll worried me so | :03:33. | :03:38. | |
much, that I commissioned four more, in different types of constituency | :03:39. | :03:43. | |
all over the country. He claims several weeks ago I told Vince the | :03:44. | :03:45. | |
results of those four polls too. Despite the disruption, the Lib Dem | :03:46. | :03:54. | |
leadership is far from sorry to see Oakeshott go. I know I won't be in | :03:55. | :04:00. | |
politics forever, Matthew Oakeshott will be relieved! Well, just three | :04:01. | :04:05. | |
or four more general elections to go, Matthew. Can they just shrug off | :04:06. | :04:12. | |
this attempted coup? Even if it has failed, the angst may not just | :04:13. | :04:18. | |
fizzle out. With us now is Baroness Kramer, Lib Dem Transport Minister, | :04:19. | :04:21. | |
and former constituency neighbour to Dr Cable. Thank you for coming in. | :04:22. | :04:25. | |
The first problem we have here is there are two differing versions of | :04:26. | :04:29. | |
eef vents. Vince Cable says he didn't know about the poll Matthew | :04:30. | :04:34. | |
Oakeshott commissioned in Nick Clegg's constituency. Matthew | :04:35. | :04:38. | |
Oakeshott said he did, who do we believe in Vince has been | :04:39. | :04:43. | |
categorical. They didn't commission the polls. He didn't know about the | :04:44. | :04:49. | |
polls, he mentioned Sheffield Hallam and Inverness that is good enough | :04:50. | :04:55. | |
for me. Vince made a categorical statement I'm comfortable with that. | :04:56. | :04:59. | |
He said that Matthew's behaviour has been inexcusable. I'm sure you will | :05:00. | :05:04. | |
ask him questions when he comes back from China. He is doing what he | :05:05. | :05:09. | |
should do in China working for the British economy and trade. Matthew | :05:10. | :05:13. | |
Oakeshott was evener in the party for many years and you are clear | :05:14. | :05:17. | |
that his version of events is not the truth? Look. Matthew is someone | :05:18. | :05:25. | |
I regard as a friend, if I had a personal crisis, I'm sure he will be | :05:26. | :05:28. | |
there. When he gets a political idea in his head, he is impossible. You | :05:29. | :05:31. | |
can't debate with him. You can't challenge him. He doesn't listen. | :05:32. | :05:35. | |
I'm sure he has his own picture of events and what happened. All I can | :05:36. | :05:40. | |
say is, Vince has been categorical. We in the party need to get on now | :05:41. | :05:43. | |
with the job we have to do in There is Government. Another important | :05:44. | :05:47. | |
point. If he is lying about it, did Vince Cable know that Matthew | :05:48. | :05:51. | |
Oakeshott replaced the questions in the poll about whether or not the | :05:52. | :05:55. | |
Lib Dems would perform better under Vince Cable's leadership? Looking at | :05:56. | :05:59. | |
the statement that you described to me, that I looked at from Vince, | :06:00. | :06:02. | |
when he talked about poll questions, he was talking about a poll in | :06:03. | :06:07. | |
Twickenham. If somebody came back to me and said back in the days when I | :06:08. | :06:12. | |
was a Richmond Park MP we would like to run a poll, I would discussion | :06:13. | :06:16. | |
questions with them. As far as I understand that is where the | :06:17. | :06:19. | |
discussion was. Vince's statement is good enough - Do you know if Vince | :06:20. | :06:24. | |
Cable knew that Matthew Oakeshott was asking about him as a potential | :06:25. | :06:28. | |
Lib Dem leader? I haven't talked to Vince. Knowing Vince, I very much | :06:29. | :06:32. | |
doubt it. You look at the statements that Vince made before he left for | :06:33. | :06:36. | |
China. He was very supportive of Nick Clegg. He understands what our | :06:37. | :06:39. | |
job is for the next year. He has made the same kind of statements | :06:40. | :06:43. | |
from China. At the very least, though, given Matthew Oakeshott and | :06:44. | :06:46. | |
Vince Cable's closeness over the years, it tells us rather a lot, | :06:47. | :06:51. | |
does it not, his close comrade, at times, believed that Vince Cable | :06:52. | :06:54. | |
would be very interested in knowing whether or not the party would | :06:55. | :06:57. | |
perform better under his leadership. That tells us a lot about Vince | :06:58. | :07:02. | |
Cable's ambition, does it not? I am Rae found of Matthew Oakeshott, as | :07:03. | :07:06. | |
well, they have been friends for many years. As I said earlier, | :07:07. | :07:12. | |
Matthew Oakeshott has never hidden his dislike of Nick Clegg - Has he | :07:13. | :07:16. | |
talked to you about wanting to be leader He has never spoke to me | :07:17. | :07:20. | |
about being leader. He has spoke about the importance of being in | :07:21. | :07:23. | |
Government. The challenges we face as a party over the next year. This | :07:24. | :07:26. | |
is precisely the point. Isn't the case that the challenge for the | :07:27. | :07:31. | |
party is in fact only honestly being confronted by Matthew Oakeshott. The | :07:32. | :07:34. | |
Lib Dem leadership and ministers are putting their heads in the sand. He | :07:35. | :07:38. | |
is the one saying - we have to confront this reality? We have to | :07:39. | :07:42. | |
reflect over the last week, for sure. I mean, we had some very bad | :07:43. | :07:47. | |
results. We lost some very good people. The main job that we've got | :07:48. | :07:51. | |
is in this next year we have to make sure we continue to grow the | :07:52. | :07:55. | |
economy. That is why Liberal Democrats went into coalition. I | :07:56. | :07:59. | |
will be working on rail infrastructure, that is crucially | :08:00. | :08:02. | |
important. With Nick Clegg as leader, as many of your activists | :08:03. | :08:07. | |
believe, as many of your former councillors, former MPs, Matthew | :08:08. | :08:10. | |
Oakeshott is not the only one who believes this. If no-one will listen | :08:11. | :08:14. | |
to the case you are trying to make under Nick Clegg, surely Matthew | :08:15. | :08:17. | |
Oakeshott is right? You can argue we need to make our case better. I | :08:18. | :08:21. | |
would agree with that. We do need people to know, for example, that on | :08:22. | :08:25. | |
the face of our manifesto we said we would cut taxes from the bottom. As | :08:26. | :08:30. | |
a result, 24 million people this year have ?800 in their pockets. | :08:31. | :08:33. | |
Apprenticeships. Do you think this would have happened without Liberal | :08:34. | :08:36. | |
Democrats in Government? Will anybody listen to that if Nick Clegg | :08:37. | :08:39. | |
is still in charge? Isn't what happened today, you shot the mess | :08:40. | :08:43. | |
injury because you don't like the message? It's a responsibility for | :08:44. | :08:47. | |
all of us to get the message out. This does not rest on one shoulder. | :08:48. | :08:53. | |
We a party. We are like a family. Nick Clegg has led us through a | :08:54. | :08:56. | |
unique time for the Liberal Democrats. It is not the time now to | :08:57. | :09:01. | |
go all intro spective. We have a job to do in Government and a message to | :09:02. | :09:05. | |
get out. That is what we need to get on with. Thank you very much for | :09:06. | :09:08. | |
coming into the studio and giving us your message this evening. You might | :09:09. | :09:12. | |
expect that a rise in the number of people of different creeds and | :09:13. | :09:15. | |
colours living in Britain would be matched by a rise in tolerance. Not | :09:16. | :09:20. | |
so, according to researchers, who have claimed today that Britain is | :09:21. | :09:25. | |
becoming more racist. Their statistics suggest nearly a third of | :09:26. | :09:29. | |
people admit they harbour some kind of prejudice. But have attitudes | :09:30. | :09:33. | |
really hardened in recent years? We've been to Oldham, scene in 2001, | :09:34. | :09:39. | |
of some of the worst race riots in memory, to see how people there feel | :09:40. | :09:41. | |
about prejudice now. 10 years ago the National Front were | :09:42. | :09:57. | |
coming in and causing problems. Gathering up in pubs. Things have | :09:58. | :10:01. | |
got better, mate. They have got a lot better. I would say, you know, | :10:02. | :10:10. | |
racism is very, very low. Very low. This area itself is full of Asians. | :10:11. | :10:14. | |
We have got a lot of different people from different countries | :10:15. | :10:17. | |
coming here as well. A lot of Romanians coming as well. Yeah, | :10:18. | :10:22. | |
other than that, it's good. Everyone gets on about colour or race or | :10:23. | :10:26. | |
religion or everything. Everyone just gets on. Maybe a few years ago, | :10:27. | :10:31. | |
yeah, there was more racism, but no, we don't say that now. It is like | :10:32. | :10:39. | |
you said, a mixed community up here. I have been in this country since | :10:40. | :10:51. | |
2006, and I'm very happy here. I came here with an empty hand. I'm | :10:52. | :10:56. | |
from Pakistan. I met different people here. I never see any kind of | :10:57. | :11:04. | |
issue of (inaudible) It's more with the younger kids. The kids have | :11:05. | :11:10. | |
trouble with orchids, but nothing major. They get chased, name called | :11:11. | :11:27. | |
and that. Started punching you. Just calling you a "white boy" and that. | :11:28. | :11:32. | |
Your dad went round to the house. Found out where they lived and went | :11:33. | :11:35. | |
round to their house. It never happened again. We are Muslim, | :11:36. | :11:44. | |
that's something we are proud of and we're happy with. We won't change | :11:45. | :11:48. | |
that for anything. It doesn't matter what colour skin you are or | :11:49. | :11:54. | |
anything. You can get called names because of the colour of your hair, | :11:55. | :11:59. | |
don't you? It doesn't matter. The EDL, National Front, whoever they | :12:00. | :12:02. | |
are, they have to remember, we are British, they can't take that us | :12:03. | :12:06. | |
away from us. If our country ever went to war here, the UK, we would | :12:07. | :12:10. | |
fight for our Queen, of course we would. I'm born and bred here. All | :12:11. | :12:15. | |
my neighbours have been here since I've been born. Never been a | :12:16. | :12:19. | |
problem. We have always got on. Send them curries around now and then. We | :12:20. | :12:25. | |
have no problems. They're happy. Here with us now to talk about how | :12:26. | :12:31. | |
attitudes to race have changed in the past generation are Girish | :12:32. | :12:34. | |
Mehta, who came to this country in 1972, fleeing the regime of Idi Amin | :12:35. | :12:40. | |
in Uganda and his daughter, Binita, who was born in Watford and is now a | :12:41. | :12:46. | |
Conservative Cllr there. -- councillor there. How did people | :12:47. | :12:50. | |
respond to you when you arrived in the UK? When we landed in Stansted | :12:51. | :12:56. | |
we went to a refugee camp in Devon where we stayed for six months. | :12:57. | :13:01. | |
There after we were in Lincolnshire for a few months and went to | :13:02. | :13:04. | |
Glasgow, aided by a family friend. My earliest memories of Glasgow, we | :13:05. | :13:15. | |
were in Pollock. My brother and I, we were nonwhite people in the whole | :13:16. | :13:19. | |
school. You could imagine what a shock it was. There were no familiar | :13:20. | :13:24. | |
faces, as such. The earliest memories of the school - this wasn't | :13:25. | :13:30. | |
due to maliciousness, because we were different, we weren't sure how | :13:31. | :13:34. | |
people would take us on. Was there malice towards you or curiousity or | :13:35. | :13:39. | |
prejudice? More curiousity. I think it was definitely more curiousity. I | :13:40. | :13:43. | |
don't think there was maliciousness there at all. In Glasgow, at the | :13:44. | :13:48. | |
time, it was more sectarian. Protestant and Catholic more than | :13:49. | :13:53. | |
racism. During then your childhood and then your youth, as you entered | :13:54. | :13:59. | |
adulthood, did you though experience unpleasantness, racism as we would | :14:00. | :14:03. | |
call it? There were always instances. We used to run to school | :14:04. | :14:07. | |
and run back home. Not because of the maliciousness, the fear to see | :14:08. | :14:12. | |
what would happen. We used to be taunted, that was quite a big thing | :14:13. | :14:17. | |
at the moment. Taunted with the "B" word as such. As time went on, more | :14:18. | :14:22. | |
people were actually coming into Scotland. More nonwhite people were | :14:23. | :14:26. | |
coming in. Binita what was your experience like? You heard your dad | :14:27. | :14:30. | |
talking about his experiences? Very different. Growing up and being born | :14:31. | :14:34. | |
in Watford meant I was already going to school with a variety of | :14:35. | :14:38. | |
different people from different backgrounds and very diverse | :14:39. | :14:42. | |
environment. So, hearing that from my dad, and seeing his experience | :14:43. | :14:47. | |
from his perspective, is a world away from mine. Obviously, in the | :14:48. | :14:49. | |
same country, it's so different. research project which is carried on | :14:50. | :15:00. | |
for years and years suggest we might be going back that way. Do you not | :15:01. | :15:06. | |
recognise that? I don't agree with that at all. We are so much more | :15:07. | :15:11. | |
tolerant in society now than when my dad first came to this country. It | :15:12. | :15:16. | |
is scary for me to see the people thinking they would be more racist | :15:17. | :15:20. | |
and I think the data is slightly skewed in that sense because it's | :15:21. | :15:24. | |
not the reality. Do you think, though, some other nationalities now | :15:25. | :15:29. | |
arriving in the UK, Romanians, Bulgarians, could be experiencing | :15:30. | :15:33. | |
the same things? Would it economic climate as it is, and the economic | :15:34. | :15:37. | |
situation, things changed slightly and I think it's more of the picture | :15:38. | :15:42. | |
at the time rather than a trend because certain times, certain | :15:43. | :15:47. | |
circumstances, sometimes it's a snapshot, and gives you a different | :15:48. | :15:50. | |
picture of what the actual picture actually is in the country. Did you | :15:51. | :15:54. | |
ever think your daughter would become a counsellor, for one of the | :15:55. | :16:02. | |
main street that stream parties? Absolutely full to it that on | :16:03. | :16:06. | |
integration, I don't know what is. When she's out campaigning, I don't | :16:07. | :16:12. | |
think she actually comes across racism as such. I have never really | :16:13. | :16:17. | |
come across racism at all in my upbringing especially on the | :16:18. | :16:21. | |
doorstep. Meeting people when there are fears and concerns about | :16:22. | :16:23. | |
immigration, it's never directed towards me. Do you think you've had | :16:24. | :16:29. | |
your family life in Watford, a relatively mixed part of the | :16:30. | :16:32. | |
country, where there are many people from different creeds and colours | :16:33. | :16:38. | |
and cultures. Do you think that a patchwork exists in the country and | :16:39. | :16:43. | |
in other that you chose to have stayed in Scotland, Devon, your | :16:44. | :16:45. | |
experience could have been different? Yes, as the research | :16:46. | :16:52. | |
shows, in the inner cities it a different picture whereas a up north | :16:53. | :16:57. | |
or going to the country, because of ignorance and the fact people are | :16:58. | :17:03. | |
not more familiar with the so-called non-English people, it becomes a | :17:04. | :17:07. | |
bigger issue, possibly, I think. Thanks so much for coming in and | :17:08. | :17:10. | |
talking to us. Thank you. The reassuring thing about bubbles | :17:11. | :17:14. | |
is that, in the end, they burst. But the Bank of England is currently | :17:15. | :17:17. | |
trying to decide whether it's better to pop what looks very much | :17:18. | :17:21. | |
like a property bubble in some parts of the countre on purpose, or let | :17:22. | :17:24. | |
the madness continue, hoping that As our economics correspondent, | :17:25. | :17:27. | |
Duncan Weldon reports, it's not an If you, like a lot of people, | :17:28. | :17:32. | |
enjoy talking about house prices, there is a fancy new phrase you can | :17:33. | :17:44. | |
drop into the conversation. That's right, | :17:45. | :17:47. | |
macro prudential regulation. Just rolls off the tongue, | :17:48. | :17:55. | |
doesn't it? Like a lot in economics, | :17:56. | :17:59. | |
this is a really complicated way The Bank of England might be | :18:00. | :18:03. | |
about to make it harder One of the things we learned | :18:04. | :18:07. | |
in the 2000s was trying to have control of the economy by interest | :18:08. | :18:18. | |
rates isn't a good idea so if you're trying to calm the housing | :18:19. | :18:21. | |
market, raising interest rates can So macro prudential regulation tries | :18:22. | :18:24. | |
to either make it more difficult and expensive for lenders to do risky | :18:25. | :18:33. | |
lending or they try and control the Since the recession, | :18:34. | :18:36. | |
the Bank of England has been given a whole new toolkit of policies | :18:37. | :18:41. | |
so what's in the box? The power to recommend that changes | :18:42. | :18:49. | |
are made to Help To Buy. The scheme where the government will | :18:50. | :18:52. | |
help people with small deposits by Or the bank could make it | :18:53. | :18:55. | |
more expensive for mortgage If this isn't enough, then the | :18:56. | :18:59. | |
bank can take more direct action. For example, | :19:00. | :19:06. | |
putting a limit on the size of loans These tools might prove to | :19:07. | :19:08. | |
be pretty controversial. Especially amongst | :19:09. | :19:14. | |
those most affected. I don't think there's a need to | :19:15. | :19:17. | |
restrict mortgage availability here at the moment but if the Bank of | :19:18. | :19:28. | |
England felt that was appropriate at some point down the line, we'd have | :19:29. | :19:32. | |
to be very careful that they didn't institute measures | :19:33. | :19:36. | |
which did restrict housing supply. The government has said there are | :19:37. | :19:37. | |
deep problems in this country and he was referring to | :19:38. | :19:43. | |
the low levels of house building. He would be mindful that any | :19:44. | :19:46. | |
Midwich I got the interest The reason the bank is considering | :19:47. | :19:49. | |
using its new tools is that in some parts of the country, but by no | :19:50. | :19:54. | |
means all, house prices are soaring. According to official figures, they | :19:55. | :19:58. | |
rose by 8% in the year to March. To put that another way, in the last | :19:59. | :20:02. | |
year, the average London property earned ?6.96 an hour and it worked | :20:03. | :20:13. | |
24 hours a day seven days a week. To some economists, | :20:14. | :20:17. | |
that sounds a bit, well, bubbly. The housing market never left | :20:18. | :20:20. | |
the bubble. Between 97-2007 the level | :20:21. | :20:23. | |
of house prices tripled. National statistics obscure | :20:24. | :20:55. | |
as much as they reveal. For regional patterns, | :20:56. | :20:57. | |
it's much more varied. In London, the average | :20:58. | :20:59. | |
home now costs ?459,000. But in the north-east, | :21:00. | :21:01. | |
it's just 148,000. These big differences mean the Bank | :21:02. | :21:03. | |
of England could take more targeted So, for example, they helped | :21:04. | :21:06. | |
by guarantee is currently available Cut that to 300,000, | :21:07. | :21:10. | |
and it would still help people in the north-east but would be far | :21:11. | :21:14. | |
less effective in London. The big rise | :21:15. | :21:17. | |
in the capital is often thought of as being driven by what is known | :21:18. | :21:19. | |
as the prime central London market. Cash buyers, some of them | :21:20. | :21:23. | |
from overseas, have snapped up places like this currently | :21:24. | :21:26. | |
on the market for over ?7 million. Through to the kitchen, | :21:27. | :21:33. | |
under floor heating. New mortgage rules came | :21:34. | :21:35. | |
into effect in April. Lenders now have to ask much | :21:36. | :21:39. | |
tougher questions on spending habits to check the borrower can | :21:40. | :21:42. | |
really afford the payments. Today Nationwide, one of Britain's | :21:43. | :21:48. | |
biggest loan providers, said there was a slowing down in the | :21:49. | :21:51. | |
marketplace particularly in London. Prices may well be rising, but | :21:52. | :21:54. | |
activity, certainly in the last two or three months, mortgage values are | :21:55. | :22:01. | |
beginning to decline from still a You normally find | :22:02. | :22:04. | |
in a housing market cycle that London leads so normally price | :22:05. | :22:07. | |
growth starts in central London because this is the engine of UK | :22:08. | :22:32. | |
economy and you begin to see that So far, the ripple effect of rising | :22:33. | :22:36. | |
central London prices haven't really But it can be felt in the suburbs | :22:37. | :22:41. | |
and the surrounding commuter belt. One example is Walthamstow | :22:42. | :22:47. | |
in the east of the city. It's not the kind of place that | :22:48. | :22:50. | |
Russian oligarchs go shopping for a luxury pad but it tasted is | :22:51. | :22:53. | |
said to have more estate agents than You do get your own entrance door | :22:54. | :22:57. | |
at the front which is great. This is a two-bedroom | :22:58. | :23:02. | |
flat that's just sold. This one went under offer | :23:03. | :23:04. | |
at the weekend, Is that a big move over | :23:05. | :23:07. | |
the last few years? We sold pretty much back to the same | :23:08. | :23:11. | |
flat about four years ago in the same road, two-bedroom, first floor | :23:12. | :23:17. | |
that achieved 165,000. On streets like this, | :23:18. | :23:19. | |
prices have basically doubled So it's no surprise people | :23:20. | :23:21. | |
are talking about a bubble. A bubble implies an market | :23:22. | :23:25. | |
completely detached from reality. The simple fact is, lots of people | :23:26. | :23:29. | |
want to move to places like this. And housing supply isn't keeping | :23:30. | :23:33. | |
up with all that demand. Add in low interest rates | :23:34. | :23:36. | |
and you got all the ingredients That might not be something to | :23:37. | :23:38. | |
welcome, So if the issue is that | :23:39. | :23:43. | |
we're not building enough, It's welcome that we have macro | :23:44. | :23:52. | |
prudential regulation tools. What is unproven anywhere in the | :23:53. | :24:01. | |
world is that using macro prudential regulation tools like restricting | :24:02. | :24:05. | |
mortgage availability and so on has sufficient impact on its own | :24:06. | :24:07. | |
without monetary policy working. Messing | :24:08. | :24:11. | |
around with mortgage guarantees Macro prudential regulation | :24:12. | :24:21. | |
might not be the catchiest phrase But it is the new big thing | :24:22. | :24:25. | |
in central banking. It could take some demand out | :24:26. | :24:29. | |
of the market but unless a supply picks up, over the longer run, | :24:30. | :24:37. | |
house prices will keep on rising. Our obsession with house prices | :24:38. | :24:45. | |
and wealth is one of the reasons why, according to one of the left's | :24:46. | :24:49. | |
most prominent intellectuals, we are all, more or less, | :24:50. | :24:51. | |
on the way to hell in a handcart. David Marquand has influenced | :24:52. | :24:55. | |
politicians from Roy Jenkins to Gordon Brown | :24:56. | :24:57. | |
over the past few decades. His latest book, Mammon's Kingdom, | :24:58. | :25:01. | |
paints the UK as a greedy society fixated | :25:02. | :25:04. | |
on cash that cannot go on as it is. I asked him earlier if we'd learned | :25:05. | :25:10. | |
anything from the 2008 crash. I thought I had immediately | :25:11. | :25:26. | |
afterwards but I'm afraid to think no, it didn't. The governor of the | :25:27. | :25:30. | |
Bank of England is saying the same kind of behaviour patterns that | :25:31. | :25:33. | |
existed before the crash scene to be coming back. You can tend in the | :25:34. | :25:37. | |
book that here in Britain we are more ardent worshippers of Mammon | :25:38. | :25:42. | |
than any other country. Why do you say that? I don't say than any other | :25:43. | :25:47. | |
country but I say any other big country, big European country. We | :25:48. | :25:53. | |
are not more ardent worshippers of Mammon than the USA and many other | :25:54. | :25:57. | |
social ills that come from inequality in Britain are from the | :25:58. | :26:05. | |
USA, and they are there in much worse form. I'm not saying nobody | :26:06. | :26:10. | |
worships Mammon in Germany, France, Italy, but I do think we have been | :26:11. | :26:13. | |
more ardent worshippers of Mammon than other large western | :26:14. | :26:18. | |
democracies. What do you put that down to? I think it goes back quite | :26:19. | :26:24. | |
a long way, actually. Indeed, I tried to say this in the book. | :26:25. | :26:32. | |
There's been a sort of... The state and financial sector are big Siamese | :26:33. | :26:37. | |
twins almost in this country in a way which is not true of other | :26:38. | :26:40. | |
countries. Actually since the beginning of the 18th-century, but | :26:41. | :26:45. | |
right back then, the foundation of the Bank of England at the end of | :26:46. | :26:49. | |
the 17th century and the foundation of the national debt which is more | :26:50. | :26:53. | |
or less contemporaneous, actually created a very curious kind of sin | :26:54. | :27:00. | |
by a Swiss to use another pompous word, between the political elite | :27:01. | :27:04. | |
and the financial elite. But the success of that sector has also | :27:05. | :27:11. | |
brought enormous wealth to the country through the payment of tax | :27:12. | :27:15. | |
revenues, which have been available for successive governments to spend. | :27:16. | :27:18. | |
You can't really have one without the other. Well, you don't have to | :27:19. | :27:24. | |
have this degree of the dominance of the financial sector and I think | :27:25. | :27:29. | |
it's been very unhealthy. Also, it's true that a very large amount of the | :27:30. | :27:36. | |
wealth that has been treated by the financial sector has been | :27:37. | :27:41. | |
squirrelled away in tax havens and the avoidance of tax has been pretty | :27:42. | :27:46. | |
remarkable, so I don't think we should think that we've been the | :27:47. | :27:52. | |
nation as a whole has necessarily benefited very much from the | :27:53. | :27:57. | |
dynamism and undoubtedly miss the financial sector. Successive | :27:58. | :28:03. | |
politicians including from the left, and you are seen as an intellectual | :28:04. | :28:06. | |
godfather to some on the left, having courage development in the | :28:07. | :28:13. | |
city. How has that been allowed to happen? At any stage, having told | :28:14. | :28:18. | |
politicians to stop it? I'm not in any party at the moment. I did have | :28:19. | :28:22. | |
a curious flirtatious ablation shipped with Gordon Brown but it was | :28:23. | :28:27. | |
about constitutional reform, not about finance. I think Gordon Brown | :28:28. | :28:37. | |
was, in this respect, he was a disaster. He actually boasted, he | :28:38. | :28:46. | |
said not just light touch regulation but unlimited touch regulation, and | :28:47. | :28:59. | |
we were engaged in the period when Gordon Brown was Chancellor of the | :29:00. | :29:07. | |
Exchequer, in a kind of competition with America to undercut the | :29:08. | :29:08. | |
regulations that they had so that we would get a business in the city | :29:09. | :29:08. | |
from Wall Street. Just briefly, would get a business in the city | :29:09. | :29:09. | |
may, given your past record, Exchequer, in a kind of competition | :29:10. | :29:09. | |
Lord Oakeshott someone you would have come across in your career. | :29:10. | :29:12. | |
What you make of what has happened today? I like him as a person. | :29:13. | :29:18. | |
Here's a bit of a bull in a china shop, actually. I've seen this | :29:19. | :29:22. | |
happen before but never like this, and I think he's clearly blown it. | :29:23. | :29:30. | |
When I was an MP in the 1970s, I thought Harold Wilson was a dreadful | :29:31. | :29:34. | |
person. I don't now full that I think I was very silly and very | :29:35. | :29:38. | |
young. I was involved in all sorts of plots to get rid of Harold | :29:39. | :29:42. | |
Wilson. And it didn't do him any harm at all and it possibly | :29:43. | :29:50. | |
strengthened him, actually. Thank you very much for talking to us. | :29:51. | :29:53. | |
Thank you for having me. Now who would take on the London | :29:54. | :30:01. | |
cabbie or, for that matter, Phone apps that allow minicabs to | :30:02. | :30:04. | |
scoop up their fares now face a legal challenge to stop them | :30:05. | :30:08. | |
operating. Newsnight has learned that London's | :30:09. | :30:10. | |
taxi regulator. Transport For London, | :30:11. | :30:12. | |
will tomorrow begin seeking the high court's opinion as to whether | :30:13. | :30:14. | |
a minicab app is legal or illegal. What happens could affect | :30:15. | :30:18. | |
the trade up and down the country. Here's our technology editor | :30:19. | :30:24. | |
David Grossman. NEWS REEL: | :30:25. | :30:30. | |
Minute cabs have begun to invade the streets of London. Taxi drivers | :30:31. | :30:34. | |
think, blimey, they will be using scooters next! This isn't the first | :30:35. | :30:38. | |
time that London cabbies have seen their livelihoods under threat from | :30:39. | :30:42. | |
newcomers. These days, it's something more advance than a | :30:43. | :30:47. | |
stretched Fiat. What has got the cabbies worried is uber. It's a car | :30:48. | :30:52. | |
company that runs via a smartphone app. I can just jab a couple of | :30:53. | :30:58. | |
buttons here and select a cab. I can see who the cab driver is. In this | :30:59. | :31:02. | |
case, it's Ben. The car he's driving. It 's a Toyota, the | :31:03. | :31:08. | |
registration number and even how far away he is. He should be getting | :31:09. | :31:14. | |
here fairly quickly, according to this! Let me just check you look | :31:15. | :31:18. | |
like your picture. I suppose that is you. Hello, Ben. Hello, David. Can I | :31:19. | :31:27. | |
get in? London black taxis are an I con of London. I'm a Londoner. I | :31:28. | :31:32. | |
love black taxis I'm sure they are here to say. -- stay. Transport of | :31:33. | :31:43. | |
London welcome the use of smartphone apps. The Black Cab drivers were | :31:44. | :31:49. | |
given two important protections. The first one, taxi! You can only do | :31:50. | :31:54. | |
this with a Black Cab. If you want a minicab, you have to ring up the | :31:55. | :31:57. | |
office and they will despatch someone out to you. Protection | :31:58. | :32:04. | |
number two, that thing up there that you struggle to keep your eyes off, | :32:05. | :32:09. | |
the meter. Only a licensed taxi is allowed to have a meter, with a | :32:10. | :32:13. | |
minicab, you have to agree the fare in advance. According to the law, no | :32:14. | :32:21. | |
minicab shall be equipped with a taxi meter. Which is defined as a | :32:22. | :32:25. | |
device for calculating the fare to be charged in respect of any journey | :32:26. | :32:28. | |
by reference to the distance travelled or time elapsed since the | :32:29. | :32:32. | |
start of the journey, or combination of both. So how does Uber work out | :32:33. | :32:39. | |
its fares? The driver hits the start button on his iPhone when we go. At | :32:40. | :32:44. | |
the end he hits stop. When I get my bill for the journey, which is | :32:45. | :32:48. | |
charged to my credit card, I can see it's based both on the distance | :32:49. | :32:52. | |
travelled and the time taken. It it is therefore a meter, cry the London | :32:53. | :32:57. | |
cabbies. It's, therefore, illegal. We haven't got any objections to | :32:58. | :33:04. | |
Uber what so ever. What we have problems with is Transport for | :33:05. | :33:06. | |
London not enfortsing the law. It's a meter as far as anyone is | :33:07. | :33:11. | |
concerned. How can a device that measures, time, distance and | :33:12. | :33:16. | |
calculates the fare not be a meter. The cabbies are planning a legal | :33:17. | :33:20. | |
challenge and a protest which will, they say, bring thereoned a | :33:21. | :33:23. | |
standstill on June 11th. Other cities in the world have had similar | :33:24. | :33:29. | |
Uber-inspired demonstrations. Uber say this is is matter for | :33:30. | :33:34. | |
regulators. The roll of Transport for London is to regulate the | :33:35. | :33:36. | |
industry. That is really a question for them. We very much welcome their | :33:37. | :33:41. | |
statement a few weeks ago welcoming smartphone apps in the private hire | :33:42. | :33:45. | |
industry. I think it's important to know the intent behind that | :33:46. | :33:50. | |
regulation is public safety. That is where Uber goes above and beyond. | :33:51. | :33:55. | |
Newsnight understands as early as tomorrow Transport for London will | :33:56. | :33:58. | |
commence legal proceedings to get the High Court to give a binding | :33:59. | :34:02. | |
judgment as to whether Uber is legal or illegal. The hope being that will | :34:03. | :34:05. | |
be enough to get the cabbies to call off their protest. Uber isn't the | :34:06. | :34:11. | |
end of this disruptive technological journey. One of their biggest | :34:12. | :34:16. | |
shareholders is Google, they announced they will begin building | :34:17. | :34:22. | |
these driveless cars. If this project works, Uber, or something | :34:23. | :34:27. | |
like this will power a driverless taxi revolution. Using cars that | :34:28. | :34:32. | |
look similar to those old minicab Fiats. "My mission in life is not | :34:33. | :34:38. | |
merely to survive, but to thrive. And to do so some passion, some | :34:39. | :34:43. | |
compassion, some humour and some style." Anglesey probably described | :34:44. | :34:47. | |
the way she lived her life bitter than anyone else will in the coming | :34:48. | :34:52. | |
days as she is mourned. The American author of I Know Why the Caged Bird | :34:53. | :34:57. | |
Sings died today. Tonight, artists, performers, even Presidents, are | :34:58. | :35:00. | |
vying to pay tribute. With his, here's Stephen Smith. My life ain't | :35:01. | :35:07. | |
heaven, but it sure ain't hell. I'm not on top, but I call it swell. If | :35:08. | :35:13. | |
I'm able to work, and get paid right, and have the luck to be black | :35:14. | :35:25. | |
on a Saturday night. Hey! They say write what you know. Anglesey had | :35:26. | :35:31. | |
plenty to draw on. Most of it come by the hard way. Raised by her | :35:32. | :35:49. | |
grandmother in the south. She was raped by her mother's boyfriend when | :35:50. | :36:03. | |
still a child. It shocked her into a silence that lasted five years. | :36:04. | :36:04. | |
During which she read and read. I remember never believing that whites | :36:05. | :36:05. | |
were really real. White folks couldn't be people because their | :36:06. | :36:07. | |
feet were too small. Their skin too white and see throughy. She was a | :36:08. | :36:10. | |
singer and dancer and toured Europe. She had a spell as a journalist and | :36:11. | :36:14. | |
then came the volumes of autobiography which made her name. | :36:15. | :36:18. | |
Telling a story America had hardly heard before. By the 90s her work | :36:19. | :36:29. | |
was heard in a presidential inauguration. History, despite its | :36:30. | :36:34. | |
renting pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be | :36:35. | :36:50. | |
lived again. . I thought. She was eternal. I thought she would always, | :36:51. | :36:58. | |
always be there. And the second thing was. It hurts so much that I | :36:59. | :37:09. | |
have no credible, elegant, powerful, even interesting words to say what I | :37:10. | :37:19. | |
feel about that. Maya Angelou told Jerry Paxman how she overcame her | :37:20. | :37:24. | |
fear of death. The fear of death visited me so, so real, so palpable, | :37:25. | :37:31. | |
at a couple of times in my late teens and my early 20s. Then somehow | :37:32. | :37:39. | |
I lived through it. And came to the condition of admitting that I will | :37:40. | :37:48. | |
die. Admitting that is incredible. Because it lib rates one. | :37:49. | :37:54. | |
With us from New York is the novelist and professor of creative | :37:55. | :38:00. | |
writing Tayari Jones and in the studio the poet and author, Ben | :38:01. | :38:06. | |
Okri. To you, Tayari Jones, explain her significance, particularly to | :38:07. | :38:15. | |
African-Americans? You know, Maya Angelou wrote her famous memoir, I | :38:16. | :38:21. | |
Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in 1969. Keep in mind, in 1945, Richard | :38:22. | :38:26. | |
White had written Black Boy which was said to be the definitive black, | :38:27. | :38:34. | |
southern coming age during Jim Crow. 15 years later comes this amazing | :38:35. | :38:38. | |
memoir of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. That is a woman's story. Her | :38:39. | :38:43. | |
story was told in a way in the intro said, "a story that America hadn't | :38:44. | :38:47. | |
heard" I think for African-Americans, for many ways, it | :38:48. | :38:51. | |
was a story we had heard, but had not yet read. Even with that just | :38:52. | :38:57. | |
the recognition of seeing one's self in print. She broke such a taboo in | :38:58. | :39:03. | |
writing about her rape. Now, lots of people write memoirs and they talk | :39:04. | :39:09. | |
about rape and sexual violence, but in 1969, she really broke ground. | :39:10. | :39:14. | |
She opened the door so wide that younger writers, like me, don't even | :39:15. | :39:18. | |
know necessarily that there was once a door there. I think that's what | :39:19. | :39:23. | |
happens when trailblazers do their work well. We forget that there was | :39:24. | :39:28. | |
ever a block there. I think that is one of the real significance of her | :39:29. | :39:33. | |
legacy, but there are One of many. The big significance is her role in | :39:34. | :39:37. | |
the civil rights campaign. It wasn't just her writing about her own life, | :39:38. | :39:44. | |
but her political role? I mean, absolutely. I mean, she was good | :39:45. | :39:52. | |
friends with Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. She wrote, but lived a | :39:53. | :39:58. | |
life that was interested in transformation. She was a true | :39:59. | :40:03. | |
citizen of the world. She lived in Cairo, lived in Ghana. I think her | :40:04. | :40:10. | |
experiences growing up in the Jim Crow Southmead her curious about a | :40:11. | :40:15. | |
larger world. She wasn't in exile, the way some of the others were in | :40:16. | :40:22. | |
exile when they were abroad. She was just Wydening her community. | :40:23. | :40:24. | |
Bringing others into the fold. All of which enriched her writing. Ben | :40:25. | :40:30. | |
Okri, in terms of her writing, she wasn't universal popular with all | :40:31. | :40:33. | |
authors. What do you make of what she achieved as a literary figure? I | :40:34. | :40:39. | |
think she achieved something very significant. As you heard Tayari | :40:40. | :40:48. | |
say. She didn't invent the bearing witness memoir, she certainly | :40:49. | :40:53. | |
transformed it. She enriched it. She wrote a very lyrical, under stated | :40:54. | :41:00. | |
pros that reflected very, very carefully minutely the details of | :41:01. | :41:04. | |
African-American life in the early part of the 20th Century. She wrote | :41:05. | :41:10. | |
carefully. She wrote with passion. And, heretic territory is the | :41:11. | :41:17. | |
territory of the memoir. Of the autobiographicle writing. It's a | :41:18. | :41:20. | |
powerful tradition in African-American writing, by the | :41:21. | :41:25. | |
way. That is an area you have played with in your writing. What did she | :41:26. | :41:31. | |
mean to your writing? To many of us, throughout Africa, and in England, | :41:32. | :41:37. | |
she was a very inspiring figure. Because she spoke very eloquently | :41:38. | :41:42. | |
about survival. Under very difficult circumstances. Survival with grace | :41:43. | :41:47. | |
and forgiveness and understanding. She reached across in her writing | :41:48. | :41:50. | |
and as a person to different communities. I remember once a very | :41:51. | :41:54. | |
beautiful reading she gave, where she was talking about the love | :41:55. | :41:59. | |
poetry of Lang son Hughes. She was concerned about bridging the gap | :42:00. | :42:04. | |
across againeders. I think many people that I spoke today, they | :42:05. | :42:08. | |
called me up, left message on my cell phone saying how deeply touched | :42:09. | :42:12. | |
they were at her passing. She meant a lot to individuals who were aware | :42:13. | :42:17. | |
of the difficulty of life. She trance figured this in her writing. | :42:18. | :42:22. | |
Did she manage, through her writing, to bridge that divide between the | :42:23. | :42:30. | |
genders? Absolutely. I mean, you may know she was very influential to a | :42:31. | :42:36. | |
whole generation of even hip-hop stars. Tpau connected with her. She | :42:37. | :42:51. | |
made a joke and called him Six Pack. She balanced art and commerce. She | :42:52. | :42:59. | |
kind of felt like everyone's aunt, everyone who provided wise counsel | :43:00. | :43:03. | |
and also who listened. You meet so many people who are every day | :43:04. | :43:06. | |
people. Yes, she was friends with the stars, you can meet every day | :43:07. | :43:10. | |
people at a book event. You say that you are a writer. They may say, do | :43:11. | :43:16. | |
you know Dr Angelou? I would say, I met her a few times. They would say | :43:17. | :43:22. | |
- I know her, she has been to my house. She connected with people | :43:23. | :43:27. | |
across all kind of lines, she was a true citizen of the world. She never | :43:28. | :43:31. | |
stopped growing, changing and learning. She understood the way we | :43:32. | :43:37. | |
grow, we change, we learn is through connection with people across any | :43:38. | :43:41. | |
barrier. OK. Tayari Jones in New York and Ben here with us in the | :43:42. | :43:45. | |
studio. Thank you for joining us. He has solved some of the greatest | :43:46. | :43:53. | |
mysteries of the universe. Stephen Hawking's turned his considerable | :43:54. | :43:56. | |
brain power to one of the biggest unsolved puzzles. Why is the England | :43:57. | :44:00. | |
football team never quite as good as its fans expect it to be? One of | :44:01. | :44:08. | |
that benighted number, our reporter Jim Reed, went to hear what the | :44:09. | :44:15. | |
Professor'S predictions of what will success mean or failure at this | :44:16. | :44:22. | |
year's tournament. Heartbreak, missed penalties, shattered dreams. | :44:23. | :44:25. | |
England fans are of course used to it all. | :44:26. | :44:29. | |
COMMENTATOR: A red card for David Beckham. Now though our best-known | :44:30. | :44:38. | |
scientists thinks he can help out. -- scientist. Professor Hawking has | :44:39. | :44:45. | |
analysed every tournament since 1966 for the bookmakers Paddy power, he | :44:46. | :44:50. | |
says he never bets on sports and has donated his veto charity. As we say | :44:51. | :44:58. | |
in science... The bad news, England don't stand much of a chance, the | :44:59. | :45:02. | |
heat will be a problem. Brazil should lift the Cup this summer. It | :45:03. | :45:07. | |
is of course more complex than that. So we asked one of the world's most | :45:08. | :45:11. | |
celebrated minds the big important questions you would expect from | :45:12. | :45:13. | |
Newsnight. scorer this summer? I'm going to | :45:14. | :45:27. | |
stay -- say Daniel Sturridge. You don't need to be a big | :45:28. | :45:33. | |
mathematicians to work this out. If the scores once every 108 minutes, | :45:34. | :45:38. | |
compared to Wayne Rooney, once every 144 minutes, he is in the form of | :45:39. | :45:46. | |
his life and Wayne Rooney has never scored in the World Cup final. | :45:47. | :45:58. | |
When you look at penalties, who should be taking England's penalties | :45:59. | :46:05. | |
from mathematical point of view? A no-brainer. 100% record this season. | :46:06. | :46:16. | |
Lampard has been consistent from the spot. And Gerard. The fifth spot as | :46:17. | :46:22. | |
the one I worry about. Neither Wayne Rooney or Daniel Sturridge have good | :46:23. | :46:26. | |
records despite their otherwise great attacks on goal. What are the | :46:27. | :46:31. | |
chances of us beating Germany this year? The answer is not great, I'm | :46:32. | :46:44. | |
afraid. I'm assuming you are referencing the war. We have won | :46:45. | :46:49. | |
only 33% of games against countries we have officially declared war on, | :46:50. | :46:54. | |
compared to 58% of those that we haven't. Maybe our opponents. | :46:55. | :47:06. | |
Germany has more of a history. Professor Hawking was just 24, the | :47:07. | :47:11. | |
last time England won the World Cup. That second victory still feels a | :47:12. | :47:17. | |
world away. But then statistics never tell the whole story. Surely | :47:18. | :47:21. | |
even the top minds get it wrong sometimes. Place your bets now. | :47:22. | :47:27. | |
That's all we have got time for. Good night. | :47:28. | :47:30. |