Browse content similar to 07/11/2011. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Afternoon, folks, welcome to the Daily Politics. | :00:22. | :00:25. | |
There have been no major headaches at the Home Office since Theresa | :00:25. | :00:28. | |
May took charge, but is she about to face her first tough test? The | :00:29. | :00:31. | |
Home Secretary is due to make a statement to the Commons later | :00:32. | :00:34. | |
following reports that staff at the UK Border Agency secretly relaxed | :00:34. | :00:40. | |
identity checks on people arriving in the country this summer. | :00:40. | :00:44. | |
Greece gets a new government of national unity. Its first task will | :00:44. | :00:48. | |
be to ratify the new European financial rescue package. We'll be | :00:48. | :00:53. | |
asking will it be enough to avert a eurozone crisis? | :00:53. | :00:56. | |
Now here's a questions for you - has the market slipped its moral | :00:56. | :01:03. | |
moorings? We hope to give you an answer. | :01:03. | :01:13. | |
:01:13. | :01:14. | ||
And handbags at dawn as the parties All that in the next half hour and | :01:14. | :01:17. | |
with me for the whole programme today is academic, writer, | :01:17. | :01:19. | |
broadcaster, Germaine Greer, and the former editor of the Sun, | :01:19. | :01:24. | |
Kelvin Mackenzie. First this morning, let's turn our | :01:24. | :01:26. | |
attention to the eurozone and Greece because politicians are | :01:27. | :01:29. | |
meeting to appoint a new prime minister after parties agreed to | :01:29. | :01:35. | |
form a unity government. The new coalition will need to approve the | :01:35. | :01:38. | |
EU bail out package proposed by European leaders to rescue Greece | :01:38. | :01:48. | |
:01:48. | :01:50. | ||
from its debt crisis. Let's say we get this unity government and they | :01:50. | :01:53. | |
agree the bail out package, are you reassured the eurozone crisis will | :01:53. | :01:57. | |
be sorted? I don't think there's enough money to sort out Greece, | :01:57. | :02:06. | |
let alone Italy. If the reports are true, the government may have to | :02:06. | :02:10. | |
write a cheque for 40 billion. Danny Alexander says that is | :02:10. | :02:16. | |
drawing their liabilities. If this government wants to become the most | :02:16. | :02:20. | |
disliked government I can ever remember, right that cheque for 40 | :02:20. | :02:23. | |
billion without going through the Commons to seek permission and that | :02:23. | :02:28. | |
will be the end of Cameron, the end of the coalition, the people will | :02:28. | :02:32. | |
never forgive them, I promise you that. Apart from that apocalyptic | :02:32. | :02:39. | |
view, returning to Greece and Italy, that possibly is a bigger problem. | :02:39. | :02:41. | |
Now the discussions are about eurozone breaking up, is that | :02:41. | :02:47. | |
likely? There are various aspects that never get touched on. One is, | :02:48. | :02:53. | |
I think Greece has a fairly big black economy. It also has people | :02:53. | :02:57. | |
unwilling to pay taxes. They say they have a relaxed view to paying | :02:57. | :03:02. | |
taxes. That puts them in direct conflict with the EU, which has | :03:02. | :03:05. | |
done its best to cut down on the black economy. The interesting | :03:06. | :03:11. | |
thing about that is that Italy has an even bigger black economy. It is | :03:11. | :03:14. | |
a safe bet that given the present situation, people are resorting to | :03:15. | :03:21. | |
it more and more. You can't even barter under EU regulations. It is | :03:21. | :03:25. | |
illegal. The problem is they are saying even if the eurozone breaks | :03:25. | :03:29. | |
up, that is the problem, structural problems within these countries | :03:29. | :03:32. | |
will persist. Joining me now is the economist | :03:32. | :03:38. | |
Marie Diron from Ernst And Young. What is your prediction as this | :03:38. | :03:43. | |
crisis unfolds? We think the most likely scenario is the eurozone | :03:43. | :03:48. | |
will stay in its current shape because a break-up would lead to a | :03:48. | :03:55. | |
chain of negative of its -- affects. That is why we think that despite | :03:55. | :04:00. | |
difficult negotiations within Greece, Italy and the eurozone as a | :04:00. | :04:04. | |
whole, policy makers will do their utmost to keep the eurozone in its | :04:04. | :04:10. | |
current form. You say that is the least bad scenario, the worst | :04:10. | :04:15. | |
scenario is the eurozone breaking up, but the G20 were just talking | :04:15. | :04:20. | |
about the break-up of the eurozone. They economists say a break-up of | :04:20. | :04:25. | |
the euro would not be a catastrophe. It is a possibility that we can't | :04:25. | :04:29. | |
exclude and that is why we have carried out analysis. We think it | :04:29. | :04:35. | |
would be a very negative scenario. The channels through which the | :04:35. | :04:39. | |
economy would be damaged would be via increased uncertainty in | :04:39. | :04:46. | |
financial markets, share prices would plunge, trade would collapse. | :04:46. | :04:50. | |
Maybe similar to what we saw in 2008 and 2009. That is why this | :04:50. | :04:59. | |
crisis would transmit to a global crisis. As we are looking at | :04:59. | :05:03. | |
uncertainty in Greece and the problem of Italy trying to service | :05:03. | :05:07. | |
its debt, which is growing daily, and they will probably also have to | :05:07. | :05:12. | |
be bailed out, is that any better than what you have just described? | :05:12. | :05:17. | |
It is a costly crisis to solve. There have been problems developing | :05:17. | :05:21. | |
in the eurozone due to inappropriate structures throughout | :05:21. | :05:27. | |
the last decade. Now it will be a very costly and protracted crisis | :05:27. | :05:32. | |
to resolve, but the alternative is even more costly. We think it is in | :05:32. | :05:35. | |
the interests of everyone to preserve the eurozone in its | :05:35. | :05:41. | |
current state and to take this crisis as an opportunity to reform | :05:41. | :05:44. | |
and to implement changes in these economies that have not been | :05:44. | :05:50. | |
carried out for the last 10 years. Thank you. On that basis we have to | :05:50. | :05:56. | |
stick a long the current half, do you agree with that? I don't. The | :05:56. | :06:01. | |
issue there is why should I give a damn about Greece? Even Sarkozy | :06:01. | :06:05. | |
said Greece should never have been allowed into the eurozone and the | :06:05. | :06:09. | |
only reason they got in was because they got Goldman Sachs to write a | :06:09. | :06:14. | |
cricket book about their accounts. I would send some of the bill to | :06:14. | :06:17. | |
Goldman Sachs and say to Greece, it is in your nature, you don't want | :06:17. | :06:22. | |
to pay tax, I don't want to pay tax, but the bottom line is, why are we | :06:22. | :06:27. | |
always going to write the cheque? It hasn't worked for us. Sarkozy | :06:28. | :06:33. | |
said we are not -- an island nation. Germany and France, it is just a | :06:33. | :06:37. | |
line in the sand. It is time we faced up to the fact we don't 1 | :06:37. | :06:43. | |
euros. You are grimacing. Well, Britain doesn't want the euro, but | :06:43. | :06:46. | |
the other country that didn't on the roof is Switzerland. Has there | :06:46. | :06:51. | |
been a run on the Swiss currency? You can bet your bottom dollar that | :06:51. | :06:58. | |
money is moving now fast, including money from the oil-rich Arab states, | :06:58. | :07:02. | |
money from China. I want to know where the money is going. Once you | :07:02. | :07:07. | |
tell me that, I think I know what to do next. Countries within the | :07:07. | :07:13. | |
eurozone, the government argueds we are not paying for this, even if we | :07:13. | :07:21. | |
are contributing to the IMF. In that sense we are still outside the | :07:21. | :07:26. | |
zone and so we are away from it. What about if the eurozone does | :07:26. | :07:32. | |
break-up? If we have the drachma come back to Greece. Let's say | :07:32. | :07:36. | |
Italy becomes a problem, that will affect us. It will do. These are | :07:36. | :07:41. | |
issues for each individual country. People say if it collapses, so does | :07:41. | :07:46. | |
a whole of the European project. That is what she's saying. She is | :07:46. | :07:52. | |
an Economist, what do they know? You quoted another collection of | :07:52. | :07:58. | |
economists who say the opposite. My sense is we are quite capable of | :07:58. | :08:03. | |
growing our own canoe. We can't control each individual Prime | :08:03. | :08:06. | |
Minister. They all make promises and they all want to retain their | :08:06. | :08:11. | |
individual country's standards of living. It is not possible. I have | :08:11. | :08:15. | |
enough debts of my own, I don't want any Greek or Italian debt. | :08:15. | :08:19. | |
will have to stop you there, we will talk about your debts later! | :08:19. | :08:22. | |
Now it's time for our daily quiz and today it has an ethical | :08:23. | :08:25. | |
dimension. That's because a report on the morality of City workers is | :08:26. | :08:28. | |
being released right now. It's been written by the former banker, Ken | :08:29. | :08:32. | |
Costa, who was appointed by the Bishop of London. But what does Mr | :08:32. | :08:35. | |
Costa, a committed Christian, think is the best system to create growth | :08:35. | :08:45. | |
:08:45. | :08:47. | ||
At the end of the show we'll give you the correct answer. On that | :08:47. | :08:53. | |
very note, about capitalism, Ed Miliband says the protest at St | :08:53. | :08:57. | |
Paul's reflects the feelings of millions that the Community and the | :08:57. | :09:04. | |
country are not working for them. - - the economy. Is he right? | :09:04. | :09:08. | |
would be difficult to know how many people think it because it is not a | :09:08. | :09:11. | |
very big demonstration. It is not exactly shaking the foundations of | :09:11. | :09:17. | |
the state. It is kind of a stalemate. However, those of us who | :09:17. | :09:22. | |
don't understand money, most of us, have been bewildered about how | :09:22. | :09:27. | |
money was expected to grow money. And about the use of leverage, for | :09:27. | :09:32. | |
example. We saw banking depart from its own basic principles, but | :09:32. | :09:36. | |
banking didn't pick up the tab, ordinary people, pension funds | :09:36. | :09:40. | |
picked up the tab. People are very bitter about this. Some people | :09:40. | :09:45. | |
think charging interest is itself immoral. If you think of the | :09:46. | :09:51. | |
Islamic approach to the lending of money. Banking was invented by a | :09:51. | :09:54. | |
group of people who have been blamed for just about everything | :09:54. | :09:58. | |
that has gone wrong in the last couple of millennia. Banking has | :09:58. | :10:04. | |
got itself to a stage where it is less useful vanities noxious and | :10:04. | :10:12. | |
that has to be fixed. It has tapped into the consciousness of a lot of | :10:12. | :10:17. | |
people. Maybe there are not many people there, but people are | :10:17. | :10:22. | |
worried and they think capitalism is to some extent a bit of an evil. | :10:22. | :10:27. | |
Well, yes, I didn't hear any of these complaints between 1994 and | :10:27. | :10:31. | |
2007 when everybody was going on 7,000 holidays and living in | :10:31. | :10:36. | |
massive houses. It goes like this, the economy. We have good times and | :10:36. | :10:40. | |
bad times. Thanks to e-mail and Twitter, nobody is prepared to | :10:40. | :10:46. | |
accept the bad times. Banks over Lent, but people over-borrowed. It | :10:46. | :10:51. | |
is about people wanting what they think is free money. When it came | :10:51. | :10:57. | |
to paying it back, they couldn't. Should politicians regulate more? | :10:57. | :11:00. | |
Kelvin does have a point, people don't want to be told what to do | :11:00. | :11:04. | |
with their money. Should governments and politicians say we | :11:05. | :11:09. | |
are going to meet you and banks be better regulated so we don't have | :11:09. | :11:13. | |
what is happening now happen again? We have been told the problem | :11:13. | :11:18. | |
wasn't a lack of regulation in the banking industry. The banking | :11:18. | :11:22. | |
industry was over-regulated. The banking industry has its own | :11:22. | :11:26. | |
principles and it has to admit it departed from them. One of the | :11:26. | :11:30. | |
things Ken Costa has raised is that maximising profit should be the | :11:30. | :11:35. | |
only issue for shareholders, do you agree? So many people have been | :11:35. | :11:42. | |
forced to contribute to fault of those people. They did | :11:42. | :11:46. | |
what they were told. They were told to save and now they're being | :11:46. | :11:51. | |
punished. That is part of where the anger comes from. But it affects | :11:51. | :11:54. | |
older people and older people tend to be patient in these | :11:54. | :11:57. | |
circumstances. Coming back to your point about people not accepting | :11:57. | :12:02. | |
the bad times, do you think things will change? It will come and go | :12:02. | :12:08. | |
and politicians, there's nothing they can really do? To start with | :12:08. | :12:11. | |
politicians are not in charge of anything and they don't have the | :12:11. | :12:16. | |
brains. There's many more brains in the City working on Monday and many | :12:16. | :12:20. | |
more brains in manufacturing and the world I know, small-time | :12:20. | :12:25. | |
entrepreneurs. They are clever people. But they have winners and | :12:25. | :12:29. | |
losers. Politicians should stop saying we are going to increase | :12:29. | :12:34. | |
your standard of living, that will not happen. Every morning they | :12:34. | :12:38. | |
should get up and say how can we cut spending at the centre so we | :12:38. | :12:42. | |
can leave more money for ordinary people to spend it in a manner they | :12:42. | :12:49. | |
want. Leave me alone. We will leave you alone but only for a moment! | :12:49. | :12:53. | |
Spare a thought for the Home Secretary. When the Home Office is | :12:53. | :12:56. | |
in the news, it's almost never going to be good, and so it is with | :12:57. | :12:59. | |
Theresa May and a brewing scandal surrounding the UK Border Agency. | :12:59. | :13:03. | |
The problems began at the beginning of the summer when, in an attempt | :13:03. | :13:06. | |
to bring down the queues, UK Border Officials were told they didn't | :13:06. | :13:11. | |
have to check the biometric chips have to check the biometric chips | :13:11. | :13:12. | |
of passports of European citizens. There have been reports in the | :13:12. | :13:15. | |
press that this order came from the Immigration Minister Damian Green | :13:15. | :13:20. | |
and he was backed by the Home Secretary Theresa May. It's now | :13:20. | :13:23. | |
been alleged, however, that there was an instruction to staff to do | :13:23. | :13:26. | |
the same for people coming in from outside the EU, leading to fears | :13:26. | :13:31. | |
that criminals could have entered the country. The Public and | :13:31. | :13:34. | |
Commercial Services Union has claimed the controls were relaxed | :13:34. | :13:38. | |
to compensate for staffing cuts. So far three senior officials, | :13:38. | :13:41. | |
including Brodie Clarke, who's the head of the UK Border Force, have | :13:41. | :13:44. | |
been suspended and Theresa May is said to have reacted to allegations | :13:44. | :13:50. | |
with "incredulity and fury". The Home Secretary will make a | :13:50. | :13:52. | |
statement in the Commons this afternoon where she'll face | :13:53. | :13:56. | |
questions over who knew what at the Home Office and whether anyone who | :13:56. | :14:01. | |
posed a threat to the UK came into the country. Yvette Cooper, who's | :14:01. | :14:04. | |
the Shadow Home Secretary, has called on the Home Office to launch | :14:04. | :14:07. | |
a wide ranging independent inquiry and has said all documents and | :14:07. | :14:12. | |
correspondence relating to the correspondence relating to the | :14:12. | :14:15. | |
passport checks be published. I'm joined now by the Conservative MP | :14:15. | :14:18. | |
Mark Reckless, who sits on the Home Affairs Select Committee, and the | :14:18. | :14:26. | |
Shadow Home Office Minister Chris Bryant. Are you surprised and | :14:26. | :14:29. | |
worried that there was top level agreement to relax controls on EU | :14:29. | :14:35. | |
citizens? I'm a little surprised it wasn't reported to Parliament, but | :14:35. | :14:40. | |
I think the relaxation for non- EU people is much more serious. With | :14:40. | :14:46. | |
the EU, there's little we can do, even if we apprehend people, but | :14:46. | :14:49. | |
non-EU, the situation there was relaxation is very serious and the | :14:49. | :14:54. | |
suggestion ministers were not aware is even more serious. How clear was | :14:54. | :14:59. | |
the message given to UK Borders Agency staff? If they were saying | :14:59. | :15:03. | |
relax the restrictions on EU nationals, we've got to cut down | :15:03. | :15:07. | |
those queues, do you know exactly what was said to the staff? It | :15:07. | :15:17. | |
:15:17. | :15:18. | ||
I am looking forward to finding out more this afternoon but I would be | :15:18. | :15:22. | |
very surprised if ministers had authorised this for non-EU people. | :15:22. | :15:27. | |
In my dealings with the Home Office, it seems there was a culture of | :15:27. | :15:33. | |
impunity at the top of the Civil Service. The previous head of | :15:33. | :15:43. | |
:15:43. | :15:46. | ||
British Airways was not fit for purpose but she was promoted, and I | :15:46. | :15:50. | |
think there should be parliamentary confirmation hearings for all | :15:50. | :15:54. | |
senior civil servants to root out the problems. Do you accept there | :15:54. | :15:59. | |
was a lot of political pressure? Over the last six months there were | :15:59. | :16:04. | |
endless statements by politicians saying we have to encourage economy | :16:04. | :16:08. | |
and boost tourism, cut down the queues and that means general | :16:08. | :16:16. | |
relaxation. But we have with the biometrics, we have serious | :16:16. | :16:21. | |
advances in technology. If you compare the numbers to other | :16:21. | :16:25. | |
agencies overseas doing this work, or what it would take in the | :16:25. | :16:29. | |
private sector, I think it is a serious problem with management at | :16:29. | :16:33. | |
the top and ministers need to sort that out directly. Nothing to do | :16:33. | :16:39. | |
with the cuts? I think we need to get some details are out. We need | :16:39. | :16:44. | |
to know exactly what was signed off by it either Damian Green or | :16:44. | :16:48. | |
Theresa May this summer because there have been different versions | :16:48. | :16:54. | |
about whether it was EU or non-EU citizens. I think it is dangerous | :16:55. | :17:02. | |
to say we will waive all the non-EU citizens the room. You can't do the | :17:02. | :17:05. | |
proper risk assessment in terms of potential criminals and terrorists | :17:05. | :17:09. | |
coming into the country. Do you expect every passenger coming into | :17:09. | :17:18. | |
the UK to be seen by an immigration officer? I would be -- I would | :17:18. | :17:23. | |
prefer the biometric cheque to be done. But if you expect every | :17:23. | :17:27. | |
passenger to be checked, we have already got statements here from | :17:27. | :17:30. | |
the Immigration Service Union saying that is supposed to happen | :17:30. | :17:34. | |
but there aren't enough staff to cover certain planes or freight | :17:34. | :17:39. | |
traffic. I don't think it is a question of staff will stop that is | :17:39. | :17:44. | |
what they are saying. Clearly the union will stand up for its members, | :17:44. | :17:50. | |
but what I have seen of the UK BAe is that it is still not fit for | :17:50. | :17:58. | |
purpose. If ministers decide EU citizens can be waved through, and | :17:58. | :18:02. | |
secondly may well indeed have said that none the you citizens should | :18:02. | :18:07. | |
be waved through, I want to know why has Theresa May not been out | :18:07. | :18:12. | |
there explaining what will be happening? She will be making a | :18:12. | :18:16. | |
statement this afternoon. She could have already published this | :18:16. | :18:21. | |
information. If government doesn't give enough resources to UK British | :18:21. | :18:24. | |
Airways to make sure there is enough staff are there to be able | :18:24. | :18:29. | |
to pass every passport over the machines, then you are bound to | :18:29. | :18:33. | |
have these problems. One of the biggest concerns for the public is | :18:33. | :18:39. | |
even if it was only for EU citizens, we don't know who has come into the | :18:39. | :18:43. | |
country over those some warmth. That reflects free movement of | :18:43. | :18:48. | |
people within the EU. We should have border controls properly | :18:48. | :18:56. | |
enforced against all countries. This is precisely so we can take | :18:56. | :19:04. | |
action against criminals or terrorists. I am confused, I have | :19:04. | :19:10. | |
always gone straight through. I could be the Great Train robber, in | :19:10. | :19:15. | |
fact some people think I am. I get sailed through so I don't see what | :19:15. | :19:22. | |
the issue is. May I observed as a non- EU passport holder who doesn't | :19:22. | :19:27. | |
hold a British passport either, that I have never waved through. I | :19:27. | :19:33. | |
have to queue, so it is news to me there has been any attempt to | :19:33. | :19:40. | |
shorten the queues. Sometimes we have a UK residents queue, which is | :19:40. | :19:44. | |
amazing, otherwise we are waiting for hours. We also have to fill out | :19:44. | :19:52. | |
a landing card, what do they do with them? I suppose there will | :19:52. | :19:57. | |
reach is you definitely are checked when you are going through, we are | :19:57. | :20:01. | |
yet to establish what the order was in terms of non e u but it comes | :20:01. | :20:07. | |
back to this question about non-EU citizens. If people were waved | :20:07. | :20:10. | |
through, we can't know who was coming into the country. I have | :20:10. | :20:16. | |
gone through biometric and the old fashioned method. Bizarrely, the | :20:16. | :20:23. | |
old-fashioned method is faster than the single laying biometrics. I am | :20:23. | :20:30. | |
puzzled us to who has been affected. I don't know any non-EU citizens, I | :20:30. | :20:37. | |
don't hang around with them. Yes, you do! He was it who has been | :20:37. | :20:43. | |
damaged in this manner? If Damian Green has given the go-ahead to non | :20:43. | :20:48. | |
e us to sail through passport control, that would be utterly | :20:48. | :20:54. | |
wrong. -- to none at the you citizens. At the queues are | :20:54. | :21:00. | |
dreadful - what is the problem? need to make sure the UK Border | :21:00. | :21:04. | |
Agency has enough resources to make sure there are not long queues and | :21:04. | :21:08. | |
that they don't have to cut corners in order to cut queues. I think | :21:08. | :21:18. | |
that means this applies to both types of citizens, biometric | :21:18. | :21:24. | |
passport should be passed over. will be hearing from Theresa May | :21:24. | :21:29. | |
this afternoon. Thank you. If you hate it, you call it | :21:29. | :21:32. | |
positive discrimination. If you love it, it's positive action. But | :21:32. | :21:35. | |
no matter what it's called, all the main parties are trying to do | :21:35. | :21:38. | |
something to increase the number of women in their ranks. That's | :21:38. | :21:40. | |
because polling shows that women are more likely to be undecided | :21:40. | :21:50. | |
:21:50. | :21:55. | ||
about who to vote for compared to Meet the wife of the great | :21:55. | :21:58. | |
grandfather of the stepfather of the wife of David Cameron, Nancy | :21:58. | :22:03. | |
Astor, more relevantly in 1919 she became the first woman ever to take | :22:03. | :22:09. | |
a seat in the Commons. By 1931, there were more, but these days | :22:09. | :22:12. | |
Britain is not exactly a leading the world with the number of women | :22:12. | :22:21. | |
in Parliament. Westminster is 22% female, behind Pakistan's | :22:21. | :22:31. | |
:22:31. | :22:35. | ||
parliament, 22.2% female. Photo opportunities have not moved on | :22:35. | :22:39. | |
since their days, but Labour has been responsible for a big increase | :22:39. | :22:43. | |
in the visibility of women at Westminster. Thanks to all-women | :22:43. | :22:48. | |
short lists for candidates, the front bench has been recently | :22:48. | :22:53. | |
refreshed with lots of women on it. Labour's deputy leader has been | :22:53. | :22:58. | |
holding hand back only all-female meetings at the Shadow Cabinet. | :22:58. | :23:02. | |
idea that she is running some sort of parallel shadow cabinet within | :23:02. | :23:07. | |
the party, I don't think that is what she is trying to do. She is | :23:07. | :23:12. | |
creating a space where, as women in the parliamentary party, we can | :23:12. | :23:17. | |
come together and talk about issues from our particular perspective. | :23:17. | :23:23. | |
Amen allowed to come along? Some of them are women only, girls want to | :23:23. | :23:28. | |
get together for a cup of tea sometimes. The issue for David | :23:28. | :23:32. | |
Cameron is that his popularity amongst Women is falling, according | :23:32. | :23:36. | |
to internal party polling, hence why a lady MP was never far from | :23:36. | :23:41. | |
his side at the conference. Years ago he made a pledge that a third | :23:41. | :23:45. | |
of his first government would be female, then raging some of his MPs. | :23:45. | :23:50. | |
I ask for female MPs and they say I don't want to be there as | :23:50. | :23:55. | |
Parliament quota, I want to be there on my ability. I feel enraged | :23:55. | :24:00. | |
that a third of the Cabinet has to be women because of a quota. It is | :24:01. | :24:03. | |
nonsense, doesn't bear a resemblance what is right for the | :24:03. | :24:13. | |
country. Nick Clegg has the teacher -- the T-shirt, but very few female | :24:13. | :24:18. | |
MPs. He is signing up people to be super candidates for the next | :24:18. | :24:23. | |
election. The career of Westminster's first lady didn't end | :24:23. | :24:27. | |
to well, and the party leader who fails to keep in tune with what | :24:27. | :24:33. | |
women want could suffer the same fate. | :24:33. | :24:38. | |
Germaine Greer, David Cameron has a women's problem, according to | :24:38. | :24:43. | |
internal polling. What can he do about it? The problem it is his | :24:43. | :24:53. | |
:24:53. | :24:55. | ||
party, Parliament itself. You remember when he made the blunder | :24:55. | :25:02. | |
calling no been frustrated. His problem was the immediate go for, | :25:02. | :25:08. | |
it wasn't even a double entendre, it was a 1 1/2 entendre, and they | :25:08. | :25:13. | |
went berserk. Asexual lies that particular member of Parliament | :25:13. | :25:17. | |
because she is blonde. She is in her 50s with grown-up children, she | :25:17. | :25:23. | |
was accused of a one-night stand, and that is his problem. Parliament | :25:23. | :25:27. | |
is a profoundly unpleasant experience for many of the women | :25:27. | :25:34. | |
who enter it. They have stood down and stood down. If you look at the | :25:34. | :25:39. | |
original Blair's Babes in take, many of them walked away. They | :25:39. | :25:43. | |
couldn't learn the ropes because nobody would teach them and they | :25:43. | :25:47. | |
didn't understand the system of patronage, horse-trading, making | :25:47. | :25:56. | |
alliances. What do you do - change what happens first. You need to | :25:56. | :25:59. | |
attract more women, but you're saying you need to change the | :25:59. | :26:05. | |
manner in which Parliament is run. The women I know are cleverer than | :26:05. | :26:15. | |
:26:15. | :26:22. | ||
the men. Women MPs? Women MPs as well. The women I know are clever, | :26:22. | :26:29. | |
ballsy and pushy. The problem seems to me that when they get defeated | :26:29. | :26:33. | |
at the moment, when they get defeated, they don't get preferment, | :26:33. | :26:37. | |
something doesn't happen, they begin to think about whether this | :26:37. | :26:43. | |
is for them. I just wonder whether they have got to be as tough and | :26:43. | :26:47. | |
clever as they are away from the house inside the house. I have no | :26:47. | :26:52. | |
doubt, looking out the current intake of Conservative women MPs | :26:52. | :26:58. | |
that I know, that they will be the leaders of tomorrow. Is that | :26:58. | :27:03. | |
because they are younger and this is a new generation? Blair's Babes | :27:03. | :27:09. | |
was part of the political class that existed at that time. Do you | :27:09. | :27:13. | |
think they will stay the course? One of the problems of being | :27:14. | :27:17. | |
younger is you will be treated and used as a junior. You will be | :27:17. | :27:22. | |
dragooned into supporting policies you are only partly in favour of. | :27:22. | :27:27. | |
The important thing is who write the agenda, and the women don't get | :27:27. | :27:32. | |
to write the agenda because that is to do with patronage. Hold on a | :27:32. | :27:36. | |
second, what about Margaret Thatcher? She wrote an agenda that | :27:36. | :27:44. | |
has gone around the world 30 times. It is not a question of intellect, | :27:44. | :27:48. | |
long-term ambition - are they prepared to take a punch on the | :27:48. | :27:54. | |
nose? If so, they are fantastic. is tougher than that. Margaret | :27:54. | :27:59. | |
Thatcher is an example. Tony Blair leaves politics and is now a | :27:59. | :28:04. | |
billionaire. What does Margaret do? She went lecturing in the United | :28:04. | :28:08. | |
States. She didn't get any of the lucrative board positions offered | :28:08. | :28:15. | |
to politicians leaving power. She was outside the loop. She wasn't | :28:15. | :28:18. | |
able to exploit the connections everybody else does. She played the | :28:18. | :28:25. | |
politics game absolutely on face value. She was never part of the | :28:25. | :28:35. | |
inner circle. Just before we go, we have got to find the answer to our | :28:35. | :28:44. | |
quiz. Ken Costa has been asked by the Bishop of London to look at how | :28:44. | :28:47. | |
a form of ethical capitalism could work. But what does Mr Costa - a | :28:47. | :28:51. | |
Christan and an investment banker - think is the best system to create | :28:51. | :28:56. |