28/10/2011

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:00:24. > :00:26.Afternoon, folks, welcome to the Daily Politics on Friday.

:00:26. > :00:31.David Cameron arrives in Australia for the Commonwealth summit with

:00:31. > :00:35.women - but don't worry, not in a Berlusconi way - on his mind. This

:00:35. > :00:41.morning he's won approval to change the rules for Royal succession.

:00:41. > :00:44.Progress or unnecessary tinkering? Fancy an extra hour of daylight in

:00:44. > :00:47.the evenings? Britain tried it back in the '60s and the Government is

:00:47. > :00:52.considering trying it again, putting us in line with Central

:00:53. > :00:56.European Time. We'll hear from the Tory MP behind the bill.

:00:56. > :01:03.And with new figures showing our top bosses are getting 50% more in

:01:03. > :01:07.pay and perks in the last year, are we really all in this together?

:01:07. > :01:17.And it could be you. Though, let's be honest, it probably won't be.

:01:17. > :01:20.

:01:20. > :01:25.But we'll hear the story of how one And with me today are Rowenna Davis

:01:25. > :01:27.of the Guardian and Isabel Oakeshott of the Sunday Times.

:01:27. > :01:30.David Cameron arrived at the Commonwealth summit in Perth this

:01:30. > :01:38.morning announcing that he has won unanimous approval from the

:01:38. > :01:41.Commonwealth realms for reform of the rules of Royal succession. The

:01:41. > :01:45.change will allow the eldest child, whether a girl or a boy, to ascend

:01:45. > :01:53.to the throne. The ban on the monarch being married to a Roman

:01:53. > :01:55.Catholic was also lifted. The changes will require amendments to

:01:56. > :02:05.legislation including the Bill of Rights of 1689, the Coronation Oath

:02:06. > :02:07.

:02:07. > :02:14.Act of 1688 and the Act of Settlement 1701. Speaking a short

:02:14. > :02:20.while ago, this is what the Prime Minister had to say. We will end

:02:20. > :02:24.the male rule so that in future the order of succession should be

:02:24. > :02:30.determined simply by the order of birth. And we have agreed to

:02:30. > :02:32.introduce this for all descendants from the Prince of Wales. Put

:02:32. > :02:39.simply, if the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were to have a little

:02:39. > :02:46.girl, that girl would one day be Queen. Or even if she would be a

:02:46. > :02:50.big girl! I guess it is a change that had to come. It is an open

:02:51. > :02:58.goal for Cameron at the moment. There are a lot of complicated

:02:58. > :03:03.problems at the moment, but let's do this nice and easy thing. I am

:03:03. > :03:07.massively in favour of it, telling you that as an older sister. If I

:03:07. > :03:11.thought my younger brother would get on the throne before me, we

:03:11. > :03:16.would not be having any of it. life could be in danger! Will

:03:16. > :03:22.anybody oppose this? I really don't think so. What amazes me is how

:03:22. > :03:27.long it has taken full pub I wrote to netbook -- an editorial in 1986.

:03:27. > :03:31.That was how many years ago? You would have thought Harriet Harman

:03:31. > :03:37.would have done it. This was something she would have backed. It

:03:37. > :03:41.seems incredible it has taken so long. The anything funny about it

:03:41. > :03:46.is we don't know what the Royal Family themselves think about it. -

:03:46. > :03:52.- the only thing. We are told the Queen let it be known she did not

:03:52. > :03:58.object. That is the way these things work. The argument against

:03:58. > :04:03.it is that the monarchy is a special institution, it is a

:04:03. > :04:09.hereditary principle. You don't hold it to the same rules. Please,

:04:09. > :04:17.come on! If you are saying we are going to trump tradition for

:04:17. > :04:21.equality and venues we hold deer, we have to question you have so

:04:21. > :04:26.much political power on the basis of your birth. Does the Queen have

:04:26. > :04:33.political power? She has political influence. We are not in the era of

:04:33. > :04:37.Downton Abbey. If Kate Middleton was able to tell us, the Duchess of

:04:37. > :04:41.Cambridge, and what she really thinks, I'm sure she will be fully

:04:41. > :04:47.behind this. But she doesn't talk very much, it is mostly about her

:04:48. > :04:55.outfits. But even that! Since I can't get involved in this argument,

:04:55. > :04:58.we will move on. Two girls. Could we be about to start marching

:04:58. > :05:03.to 'Berlin time'? The Government has announced this morning that

:05:03. > :05:06.it's considering advancing time by one hour. That could mean the UK

:05:06. > :05:16.adopting Central European Time, putting us in line with the rest of

:05:16. > :05:17.

:05:18. > :05:21.Europe. Except Portugal and Ireland. Now, it's not the first time we've

:05:21. > :05:27.fallen in with Berlin and Paris. In 1968, a three-year trial started

:05:27. > :05:29.which kept the clocks in advance of GMT all year round. It meant darker

:05:29. > :05:37.mornings for early risers like postmen, newspaper delivery people

:05:37. > :05:43.and schoolchildren. And before that, Winston Churchill introduced single

:05:43. > :05:53.and double summer time during the war. Why? To save fuel and let

:05:53. > :05:53.

:05:53. > :05:56.people get home safely during the blackout. But while it might be

:05:56. > :05:59.nice for those in the South of England to have longer, lighter

:05:59. > :06:09.evenings, what about people in Scotland where some might not see

:06:09. > :06:09.

:06:09. > :06:12.daylight until nine o'clock in the morning? Well, the Government plans

:06:12. > :06:16.to consult all devolved parts of the UK before it decides to support

:06:16. > :06:26.the plan and if there is clear opposition in any part of the UK,

:06:26. > :06:27.

:06:27. > :06:30.the trial won't go ahead. So are we about to return to watching the sun

:06:30. > :06:40.rise at nine o'clock in the morning? Is changing our time a

:06:40. > :06:41.

:06:42. > :06:47.good idea? We are joined by two people who should know. You are the

:06:47. > :06:54.MP proposing this. Peter Hitchens has written a cover story on the

:06:54. > :06:58.Spectator revealing the government is now behind this. Explain to us,

:06:58. > :07:03.before we get into the argument, tell us what will happen. If I get

:07:03. > :07:10.my way, we will have a very comprehensive government review

:07:10. > :07:14.across government departments to find out whether the people

:07:14. > :07:19.enthusiastic about this are right or if there are compelling

:07:19. > :07:23.arguments why Richard Nott. You are in favour of it? I am convinced

:07:23. > :07:28.there are enough good arguments about creating jobs and saving

:07:28. > :07:33.lives on roads. Supposing it became law today. Tell us what would

:07:33. > :07:36.happen. The clocks are due to go back next weekend. He if the

:07:36. > :07:41.government review it and found it was a good idea... Just assume it

:07:41. > :07:44.is law now. We would not change the clocks this autumn and we would be

:07:44. > :07:48.on British Summer Time in the winter. We would have an extra hour

:07:48. > :07:52.of daylight throughout the year. if our clocks don't go back next

:07:52. > :07:58.week, we would be on the same time as Europe. They would put their

:07:58. > :08:02.clocks back? They are ahead at the moment. We would stay where we are,

:08:02. > :08:07.they would bring their clocks back. We would then be in zinc and next

:08:07. > :08:15.summer, we would go forward an hour in tune with the rest of Europe?

:08:15. > :08:21.Exactly. In perpetuity we would be an hour ahead. An extra hour of

:08:21. > :08:26.daylight in the evening. Peter Hitchens, I can see a wry smile.

:08:26. > :08:29.All of this stuff about extra hours, and the amount of sunshine you get,

:08:29. > :08:36.you can shifted about from one place to another. Those of us who

:08:36. > :08:42.get up early, almost everybody with a job, Mrs Harris may not have this

:08:42. > :08:47.problem, but I was on my way to the station at 7:30am in twilight. If a

:08:47. > :08:52.Bill were enforced, that would be a 30 -- 8:30am. So that is in October.

:08:52. > :08:57.This is not a Scottish problem, it is an English problem. If we have

:08:57. > :09:01.this imposed on us, we will be an hour different from us. We will

:09:01. > :09:04.have darkness until very late in the morning. We would all have

:09:04. > :09:08.breakfast in the dark. In the summer, you would be watching

:09:08. > :09:12.Newsnight and it would be light outside. Who watches Newsnight?

:09:12. > :09:17.That is another question. There would be more reasons not to do so

:09:17. > :09:22.because it would be light outside. This is nothing to do with shifting

:09:22. > :09:26.time to anyone's benefit. There's masses and masses of statistics

:09:26. > :09:31.claiming we will be billionaires, but the truth is, and the reason

:09:31. > :09:36.why Nick Clegg is pushing the Prime Minister, visited the European

:09:36. > :09:40.Union project to put us on Central European Time? Absolutely ludicrous

:09:40. > :09:44.and fanciful. It is nothing to do with the European Union, it is to

:09:44. > :09:49.find out whether we are setting our clocks to the best time zone for

:09:49. > :09:55.the way we live our lives. This is the 7th attempt to make this change.

:09:55. > :10:01.Under European Union rules, we could not do the 1960 it experiment.

:10:01. > :10:04.The European Union now main dates if... Are there as it meant --

:10:04. > :10:09.there's an insecure -- interesting argument in Ireland this week. They

:10:09. > :10:13.would like to be up to keep some time in Ireland. They were planing

:10:13. > :10:18.they couldn't do it because Brussels and wouldn't let them. --

:10:18. > :10:21.complaining. This is another interesting thing about the EU. We

:10:22. > :10:26.are not allowed to decide whether or when to put our clocks back.

:10:26. > :10:29.This Bill has been before Parliament seven times in the first

:10:29. > :10:33.25 years, always put forward by Europhiles, never openly

:10:33. > :10:36.acknowledged as being in the you measure because they know it is

:10:36. > :10:42.associated with the European Union and people will spot it for what it

:10:42. > :10:45.is. People have little imagination about what will happen. It is not

:10:45. > :10:55.just Scottish people who will suffer, it is everybody. The last

:10:55. > :10:58.time it was half tried in 1968 and 1971, road deaths rose considerably

:10:58. > :11:04.during that period despite the fact it was the time when the

:11:04. > :11:07.breathalyser was introduced and speed limits... Peter, you are a

:11:07. > :11:11.superb journalist but when it comes to analysing road accidents I would

:11:11. > :11:15.rather take the advice of the people whose job it is to do it.

:11:15. > :11:19.The Royal Society for the Prevention of accidents have been

:11:19. > :11:23.campaigning for this measure for 60 years. They know making the

:11:23. > :11:28.afternoon rush-hour lighter will save lives. I lived in Scotland at

:11:28. > :11:33.the time and it was very unpopular. And in the south. I can assure you

:11:33. > :11:37.it was very unpopular in the north. What I don't understand are the

:11:37. > :11:46.politics of this. You would think David Cameron had enough trouble

:11:46. > :11:51.us on European time. It seems a bit of a sideshow at the moment. I grew

:11:51. > :11:55.up about a mile away from the nearest street light in Scotland.

:11:55. > :12:00.Which of us really likes getting up in the dark? The thought of having

:12:00. > :12:04.to get up in the dark for longer, where I grew up, you would be

:12:04. > :12:10.getting up in the dark even if you got out of bed at 10am. I think it

:12:10. > :12:14.is pretty unappealing. I agree with Peter when he says we have a

:12:14. > :12:18.limited amount of sunshine so we will be debating where we put it

:12:18. > :12:23.and there are costs and benefits on both sides. Because those have been

:12:23. > :12:31.reviewed over and over again in the past, I end up feeling a little bit

:12:31. > :12:35.apathetic towards it. If you are going to introduce any motion into

:12:35. > :12:38.Parliament, why are we talking about this now? We just had a whole

:12:38. > :12:43.week wasted debating whether we should be reviewing whether we are

:12:43. > :12:47.in or out of Europe. And the economy is tanking along the bottom.

:12:47. > :12:54.Why are we doing it? The reason is it is a concession by

:12:54. > :12:58.David Cameron to Nick Clegg. It establishes... It re-emerged having

:12:58. > :13:03.been killed off by the relevant department in June. It emerged a

:13:03. > :13:09.few weeks ago as a result of this. If Rebecca harasses right that it

:13:09. > :13:14.is so beneficial, why are the people of Berlin not adopting Minsk

:13:14. > :13:18.time? If it is so wonderful to be getting up in the dark? Minsk time?

:13:18. > :13:23.In it would be the equivalent of Berlin time for us. It would mean

:13:23. > :13:27.Berlin would do everything... you now have the backing of the

:13:27. > :13:31.government for this motion. Otherwise you would not get the

:13:31. > :13:35.time in Parliament. It comes from Nick Clegg. It is also part of the

:13:35. > :13:40.parliamentary process. Does it have the backing of government? They are

:13:40. > :13:47.minded to back it. Is that the same as backing it? What they said in

:13:47. > :13:53.the press release is they are considering backing it.

:13:53. > :13:58.The lobby groups for this have been doing quite a good job on pointing

:13:58. > :14:02.out the potential economic benefits. The tourist industry in Britain

:14:02. > :14:07.think it could give us an 80 -- an extra 80,000 jobs because it makes

:14:07. > :14:13.us compete better with Europe in terms of attractions. It widens the

:14:13. > :14:21.British tourist season. A will Rebecca Harris stake her salary on

:14:21. > :14:25.these claims of economic advantage? David Cameron has told us on

:14:25. > :14:29.numerous occasions that we are all in this together but the pay roll

:14:29. > :14:35.figures show a different story with top director pate jumping by almost

:14:35. > :14:43.50% in a year. That is based on an analysis of what the top 100 FTSE

:14:43. > :14:46.companies take. These directors had an average income of �2.7 million

:14:46. > :14:56.last year. That includes salary benefits and bonus payments, which

:14:56. > :14:57.

:14:57. > :15:05.rose by 23%, from �737,000 in 2010, to �906,000 this year. The 49% rise

:15:05. > :15:10.follows an increase of, wait for it, 55% in 2009-10. The report by

:15:10. > :15:16.Income Data Services is based on averages. With the median figure

:15:16. > :15:22.being used, it is a more modest 16%. Whichever way you calculate it, it

:15:22. > :15:27.dwarfs the average 2.3% rise in average earnings across the economy.

:15:27. > :15:32.The report comes as Vince Cable, the bad man's favoured man, has

:15:32. > :15:37.been consulting on proposals to climb down on the escalation of

:15:37. > :15:43.awards. Mark Field is a member of Parliament for the City of London

:15:43. > :15:49.and a former recruitment consultant so he knows about salaries. When

:15:50. > :15:55.top businessmen, and they are mainly men, and getting a rise of

:15:55. > :15:59.50% two years ago and 50% this year, we are not all in it together.

:15:59. > :16:03.would all agree we are living in a global market and we want to get

:16:03. > :16:08.the brightest and best people from across the globe into our top

:16:08. > :16:14.companies. But I do accept that this does not look like a free

:16:14. > :16:20.market at all, it looks like a club that goes on with committees made

:16:20. > :16:24.of the same people being recycled. The furore about Cedric Brown from

:16:24. > :16:29.British Gas, when he had that package of �300,000, the current

:16:29. > :16:33.going rate would now be 10 times that. Let's look at the global

:16:33. > :16:37.market argument. I can understand that the chief executive of BP

:16:38. > :16:43.needs to be paid a lot because Chevron might come and get him and

:16:43. > :16:47.he is very good. But this survey shows that the biggest rises were

:16:47. > :16:51.the lower down directors, not the very top. Not the rock star

:16:51. > :16:57.managers. And also, for your argument to work, you would have to

:16:57. > :17:05.show me that the top pay in Germany, France and Italy went up by 50%.

:17:05. > :17:08.Ilott and it did not. It did not. - - I have looked. I do not entirely

:17:08. > :17:13.disagree, obviously. But I do not think we should just look at the

:17:13. > :17:19.issue of globalisation. We do need to get the best boat around.

:17:19. > :17:23.have just agreed with me. I think there is a more genuine concern

:17:23. > :17:29.here, which is the sense that capitalism, well, global capitalism

:17:29. > :17:33.now seems to be an unfair bargain in recent years. People are

:17:33. > :17:38.campaigning about this. What is interesting about St Paul's, and I

:17:38. > :17:42.have been down that this week, it is not just the usual suspects, the

:17:42. > :17:46.people on the left of politics, but increasing unease from middle-class

:17:46. > :17:50.people that capitalism is skewed against them. I have been told that

:17:50. > :17:53.the Corporation of London, the governing area they your

:17:53. > :17:57.constituency, is going to take legal action to get rid of the

:17:57. > :18:00.encampment. What do you think? is interesting that we have a

:18:00. > :18:03.Conservative MP on the show acknowledging that there are

:18:03. > :18:07.serious problems with bonuses in the City and something needs to be

:18:07. > :18:11.changed. And that it is not just immoral but economically unsound.

:18:11. > :18:16.The question I ask is why do we have David Cameron consistently

:18:16. > :18:19.coming out, as he did this morning, saying that City bankers are

:18:19. > :18:24.continuously being bashed in an unfair way, and offended those

:18:24. > :18:27.practices. He is not defending the salaries, but he says we do not

:18:27. > :18:34.want more regulation in the financial services industry,

:18:34. > :18:39.without whom we would be in trouble. Like now? If we lost the banking

:18:39. > :18:43.income then we would be in more trouble. I find that argument naive.

:18:43. > :18:47.We are negotiating to millions of pounds of banking bail-out so again

:18:47. > :18:52.and you are sitting there saying we do not need more regulation. You

:18:52. > :18:54.have just acknowledged it a second ago that we do. I do not want to

:18:54. > :18:58.see Vince Cable spending an inordinate amount of time in his

:18:58. > :19:04.comfort zone, utilising the idea of how we control industry. He should

:19:04. > :19:08.be spending his time making sure that we deal with unemployment and

:19:08. > :19:14.growth that has stalled, and the message that this country is open

:19:14. > :19:18.for business. What do you make of this? Vince Cable looked at this

:19:18. > :19:21.question this summer. The question is what can the Government do and

:19:21. > :19:25.is it right for them to intervene in the market in something like

:19:25. > :19:31.this? Vince Cable said he was surprised at the number of round

:19:31. > :19:39.table discussions with private companies and he was surprised at

:19:39. > :19:43.their willingness to move on this. With 50% pay rises? I want to get

:19:43. > :19:46.your reaction to the statement from the Corporation of London. We have

:19:47. > :19:51.had endless discussions about this and every time we talk about it,

:19:51. > :19:55.nothing happens but their pay continues to rise and rise and rise.

:19:55. > :20:00.It is way ahead, so that the gap now between the top paid in a

:20:00. > :20:05.company and the average is 10 times bigger than it was in the 1950s.

:20:05. > :20:10.What are you going to do about it? Well, I think transparency is

:20:10. > :20:16.important. What we need, therefore, within public companies is more

:20:16. > :20:20.activist shareholders. Government is trying to do that.

:20:20. > :20:24.think we have a tipping point. What is happening in Wall Street and St

:20:24. > :20:27.Paul's, it is not just the usual suspects. They are middle-class,

:20:27. > :20:35.Tory-voting people that feel they have done the right thing and they

:20:35. > :20:39.have got savings and they are losing out. Vince Cable jumping on

:20:39. > :20:44.this particular bandwagon and spending an inordinate amount of

:20:44. > :20:47.time solving what he regards as a problem makes some sense but we

:20:47. > :20:51.have to make sure the country is open for business. Our economy is

:20:51. > :20:55.bumping along the bottom and still we have companies awarding

:20:55. > :20:59.themselves 50% extra this year compared to last year. That is

:20:59. > :21:05.phenomenal to me. It is not economically sound. It is rewarding

:21:05. > :21:09.failure. Shares have not gone up by 43% in the past year. The people

:21:09. > :21:14.that own the companies do not get that, the dividends do not rise,

:21:14. > :21:17.the pension funds do not go up. We have run out of time, but what is

:21:17. > :21:23.your reaction to the news that has just come through that the

:21:23. > :21:26.Corporation of London will begin legal action to remove the protest?

:21:26. > :21:30.I think it has been absolute pantomime over the past couple of

:21:30. > :21:34.weeks. It is like a Third World shanty town outside St Paul's,

:21:35. > :21:38.which is a world heritage site. We have Remembrance Sunday, the Lord

:21:38. > :21:41.Mayor's Show within a fortnight, and on that basis I think they are

:21:41. > :21:45.doing the right thing to try to remove these people but it will be

:21:45. > :21:53.a long process. They will be lucky if they can remove them for that.

:21:53. > :21:57.and a parrot to they are Tory voters! -- and apparently they are

:21:57. > :22:02.Tory voters! Parliament Square has been there for 10 years, so do not

:22:02. > :22:06.hold your breath. We are grateful that Mark Field has

:22:06. > :22:12.come on the programme. What do you think when I say John

:22:12. > :22:15.Major? Do not fall asleep! Traffic cones hotline, Black Wednesday, or

:22:15. > :22:20.positively maybe the National Lottery. The former Conservative

:22:20. > :22:25.Prime Minister did indeed introduce the national lottery in the 1990s.

:22:25. > :22:35.The original idea was promoted by a far more obscure politician. We

:22:35. > :22:38.

:22:38. > :22:41.The National Lottery, it feels like it has been with us forever. The

:22:41. > :22:47.irony is that the man that actually got those big-money balls rolling

:22:47. > :22:52.is not the man that a credit for it when they finally dropped. -- that

:22:52. > :22:55.took credit for it. The lottery was only in his mind because he won the

:22:55. > :22:59.parliamentary version of the lottery, the ballot for Private

:22:59. > :23:04.Members' bills. I was not there. The first I knew about it was when

:23:04. > :23:08.the phones rang and people kept saying to me, what is your subject?

:23:08. > :23:14.I am from this newspaper, the TV, and I said I had not thought about

:23:14. > :23:16.it. Colleagues loaded him with options but the two that he steered

:23:16. > :23:24.away were the National Lottery and a Government hand-me-down that

:23:24. > :23:29.would please the shipping industry but few else. The bill of carriage

:23:29. > :23:33.of Goods by Sea was not going to up the credibility of somebody that

:23:33. > :23:36.had been in Parliament for 18 years without making much of a hit. But

:23:36. > :23:41.the National Lottery is another matter. What was the opposition to

:23:41. > :23:47.this? It all stretches back to Margaret Thatcher. She was very

:23:47. > :23:51.puritanical. Actually, I think she did believe that the feckless might

:23:51. > :24:00.be trapped into more feckless behaviour with the lottery. So she

:24:00. > :24:02.was very far from enthusiastic. Then the real reason was the

:24:02. > :24:08.Treasury had done the deal with the Football pools. That is why when we

:24:08. > :24:12.have the second reading vote, the Government was kept out of the

:24:12. > :24:17.lobby. After the debate, a journalist came up to you and what

:24:17. > :24:21.did he say? He said, that is it then, it is finished. I asked why

:24:21. > :24:26.and he said that Number 10 had told him. I said that Number 10 had

:24:26. > :24:31.better think again. I said we are going places with this. This will

:24:31. > :24:35.be immensely, immensely popular in the country, because it will bring

:24:35. > :24:38.lot of pleasure and report to thousands of people every week.

:24:38. > :24:44.after adopting it in the manifesto, pulling a surprise jackpot victory

:24:44. > :24:50.out of the bag in 92, John Major did indeed launch the National

:24:50. > :24:55.Lottery, but he would not keep his fingers crossed. I know exactly

:24:55. > :24:59.what you will do with that! name is now attached to its

:24:59. > :25:03.creation but not everybody has forgotten the man that first put it

:25:03. > :25:07.in the public and the Prime Minister's mind. People still come

:25:07. > :25:12.up to me. I was on the Queen Mary during a speaking tour recently and

:25:12. > :25:17.somebody came up to me to thank main. He said he would not be on

:25:17. > :25:23.the Queen Mary but form what I had done because he had won the lottery.

:25:23. > :25:27.-- but for what I had done. They still do it. Europe has dominated

:25:27. > :25:35.the news agenda this week in more ways than one. It is time to look

:25:35. > :25:38.back at the events over the seven days of the week. David Cameron

:25:38. > :25:41.endured the biggest Tory rebellion over Europe ever this week, with 81

:25:41. > :25:49.of his MPs defying him by voting in favour of a referendum on British

:25:49. > :25:53.membership of the EU. I have to say to the front bench tonight, shame

:25:53. > :25:57.on you. After that, the Prime Minister cleared his schedule and

:25:57. > :26:00.headed to the EU summit. But it was left to the leaders of the 17

:26:00. > :26:04.eurozone countries to secure a deal. Vince Cable found himself in a spot

:26:04. > :26:10.of bother over an unpaid tax bill. The Business Secretary was forced

:26:10. > :26:14.to pay a �500 penalty for late payment on earnings from media work.

:26:14. > :26:18.An embarrassed by the fact that an honest mistake was not spotted.

:26:18. > :26:20.However I make it absolutely clear that I did not avoid paying tax.

:26:20. > :26:24.And Ken Clarke was forced to changed his sentencing bill

:26:24. > :26:27.conceding to demands that 16 and 17 year olds who commit knife crimes

:26:27. > :26:34.should go to prison. Asked if he and the government were running

:26:34. > :26:44.scared over the threat of another backbench rebellion, he said: That

:26:44. > :26:45.

:26:45. > :26:53.Honest Ken Clarke. Now it turns out that this trillion pound bail-out

:26:53. > :26:58.fund, the money does not exist. So the eurozone is cap-in-hand to

:26:58. > :27:03.China. What will the Chinese ask for in return? That is the key

:27:03. > :27:07.question. The art of politics over the next 40 years will be how we

:27:07. > :27:11.learn to negotiate with the rising powers like China and India. Let's

:27:11. > :27:16.face it, Europe is not what it used to be. We will have to learn how to

:27:16. > :27:19.do that, but the question is how we can do that while also keeping true

:27:19. > :27:28.to our moral standards and not being beholden to powers that we

:27:28. > :27:33.disagree with. As they say, it shut up! They will say that about human

:27:33. > :27:37.rights in Tibet. No doubt. I find this situation and embarrassment.

:27:37. > :27:43.It is the direction that things are going in and we will have to get

:27:43. > :27:46.used to it. We are not going there. Not Britain, but the eurozone.

:27:46. > :27:54.Chinese could come up with some money but they are very smart

:27:54. > :27:57.people. They will exact a price. They will love the idea of being

:27:57. > :28:01.centre-stage and being brought in, and complaining about their

:28:01. > :28:04.currency being too weak. True, but there are lots of opportunities

:28:04. > :28:07.that come with that process. It is just about being very clear what

:28:07. > :28:11.your boundaries are and what you will work with and what you will

:28:11. > :28:14.not. David Cameron is meeting with members of the Commonwealth today

:28:14. > :28:21.and you should also be talking about building better links with

:28:21. > :28:26.our Commonwealth partners. Thank you very much for being with us.

:28:26. > :28:31.That is it for this week. Jo will be here on Monday and you can join

:28:31. > :28:36.Jon Sopel for the Politics Show on Sunday. In the meantime, we leave

:28:36. > :28:46.you with images from the Brussels summit, which eurozone leaders hope

:28:46. > :28:56.