:00:46. > :00:49.Good afternoon and welcome to the Daily Politics. Mervyn King admits
:00:49. > :00:56.he should have shouted from the rooftops about the risks ahead of
:00:56. > :00:59.the financial crisis. In a speech last night, the Governor of the
:00:59. > :01:02.Bank of England admitted mistakes had been made in the past and
:01:02. > :01:12.pledged that the Bank of England would regulate the banking system
:01:12. > :01:12.
:01:12. > :01:15.better in the future. ARGUING IN FRENCH.
:01:15. > :01:17.There were some angry exchanges between President Sarkozy and his
:01:17. > :01:21.socialist challenger, Francois Hollande, last night in the only
:01:21. > :01:25.television debate of the French election campaign.
:01:25. > :01:29.Here, voters go to the polls today in a whole host of elections in
:01:29. > :01:33.England, Scotland and Wales. And with all the bad weather we
:01:33. > :01:42.have been having recently, will it affect voter turn-out? We will be
:01:42. > :01:45.exploding some election myths. All that in the next hour between
:01:45. > :01:49.now and 1pm. And with us for the duration Howard
:01:49. > :01:52.Davies. He has done so many jobs, we are losing count, but he's now a
:01:52. > :02:02.professor at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris. It's
:02:02. > :02:05.called Sciences Po. Bienvenu, mon petit mange-tout. Now we are not
:02:05. > :02:09.really allowed to talk about domestic politics today for fear of
:02:09. > :02:19.influencing your vote. If only we could! So I'm going to sing for the
:02:19. > :02:22.
:02:22. > :02:31.next 58 minutes. No! La la la! Will you join in? No! I can laugh in
:02:31. > :02:38.French! OK, I'll put you out of misery and you can watch this. I
:02:38. > :02:41.think our ratings just went up! I will do what I'm paid to do. Lets
:02:41. > :02:46.talk about the governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King, who last
:02:46. > :02:50.night had this to say. Our power was limited to that of publishing
:02:50. > :02:55.reports and preaching sermons, and we did preach sermons about the
:02:55. > :03:00.risks, but we didn't imagine the scale of the disaster of what would
:03:00. > :03:04.occur when the risks crystallised. With the benefit of hindsight, we
:03:04. > :03:09.should have shouted from the rooftops that a system had been
:03:09. > :03:14.built, in which banks were too important to fail, banks had grown
:03:14. > :03:18.too quickly and borrowed too much, and that so-called light touch
:03:18. > :03:24.regulation had not presented -- prevented any of this all-star the
:03:24. > :03:31.first radio address by a Bank of England governor for 17 years.
:03:31. > :03:36.much did Mervyn King actually admit to? I think he is saying mistakes
:03:36. > :03:41.began in the financial markets themselves and people who run the
:03:41. > :03:44.banks and their shareholders are responsible, but they should not be
:03:44. > :03:50.expecting to run for support from the government so the problems
:03:50. > :03:54.started there, but the lock plot is there was a collective view,
:03:54. > :03:59.including politicians from all sides, regulators and the central
:03:59. > :04:07.bank, that things were fine. Inflation was low, the economy was
:04:07. > :04:10.growing, the Orrell wing was going up, we were having fun -- borrowing.
:04:10. > :04:17.Somebody should have been the person to shout that the emperor
:04:17. > :04:22.has no clothes, and I think he thinks in hindsight, that should
:04:22. > :04:26.have been him. He did hint that he was starting to preach sermons
:04:26. > :04:33.about the risk of the banking sector and he used the term
:04:33. > :04:38."shouted from the rooftops". Was he saying this quietly? If you look
:04:38. > :04:42.back, you can see some warnings from the Bank of England. The Bank
:04:42. > :04:46.of International settlements in Switzerland was louder in its
:04:46. > :04:51.complaints. The IMF was very silent indeed, they said the risks were
:04:51. > :04:55.very low, so there was not a strong consensus among central bankers
:04:55. > :05:00.that things were going wrong, but what is interesting about this
:05:00. > :05:05.beach is that there is within central bank's major rethinking
:05:05. > :05:09.about what a central bank should be -- about his speech. There was a
:05:10. > :05:15.view that if you concentrated on inflation, if that was under
:05:15. > :05:19.control, that was a sufficient condition for financial stability.
:05:19. > :05:22.Now people have realised that is not enough. We will talk more about
:05:22. > :05:24.this. So the government plans to scrap
:05:24. > :05:28.the Financial Services Authority and hand most of its powers to
:05:28. > :05:31.various committees of the Bank of England. But will the FSA's
:05:31. > :05:38.replacement really be any more likely to protect us all than what
:05:38. > :05:43.went before? We sent our own City slicker David Thompson to find out.
:05:43. > :05:47.Kerry Reed Wharf, where money talks and everything else walks -- Canary
:05:48. > :05:53.Wharf. At its heart, the Financial Services Authority, at least for
:05:53. > :05:56.now. The FSA came into being during the Ali days of the new Labour
:05:56. > :06:02.government and the idea was to create a single regulator for
:06:02. > :06:12.pretty much everything -- the early days. You could argue it was doing
:06:12. > :06:21.
:06:21. > :06:25.Panic ran amok in the city. So how long would all this misery last?
:06:25. > :06:31.All of which sounded the death- knell for the FSA, so clearly it
:06:31. > :06:36.had to go. Did it? Who was fit for purpose during this financial
:06:36. > :06:40.crisis? Everybody was lacking? The politicians were lacking, the Bank
:06:40. > :06:46.of England was lacking, the Financial Services Authority was
:06:46. > :06:51.lacking, the industry was lacking, foreign banks, hugely. I don't
:06:51. > :06:54.think it merits searching for who is going to be the scapegoat.
:06:54. > :06:59.that is not what the government things and the FSA is on its way
:06:59. > :07:03.out, with the Bank of England seizing the control. There will be
:07:03. > :07:08.a policy committee to monitor the general state of the economy, an
:07:08. > :07:13.authority to keep an eye on banks and big business, and a financial
:07:13. > :07:18.conduct authority to supervise the markets. That is a lot of power for
:07:18. > :07:22.one person, the new governor of the Bank of England, which worries the
:07:22. > :07:27.Treasury Select Committee. We need to make sure that this new quango,
:07:27. > :07:30.and in a sense that is what it is, a very powerful and enhanced Bank
:07:30. > :07:34.of England, is made fully accountable to Parliament and
:07:34. > :07:38.forced to explain to the public exactly why it is taking the
:07:38. > :07:43.decisions it has the power to take. This is a body that will decide
:07:43. > :07:48.whether you can have alone and a mortgage, and make recommendations
:07:48. > :07:53.about a raft of other powers as well. But perhaps most importantly,
:07:53. > :07:57.will these changes actually prevent another financial meltdown? I am
:07:57. > :08:00.worried we have new committees now been created where we could have
:08:00. > :08:05.quite a number of conflicts of interest and arguments, which
:08:05. > :08:11.themselves could lead to bad decision making. In a time of
:08:11. > :08:16.economic stress, is it right to turn the whole system upside down?
:08:16. > :08:23.I would suggest it is not the right thing because what we have now is a
:08:23. > :08:27.more complex system. The present Bill is not clear that in a crisis,
:08:27. > :08:31.there is someone in charge. government insists the new system
:08:31. > :08:35.will work but the last lot said that, too. If the FSA was the
:08:35. > :08:40.watchdog that did not bark, the replacement will have to prove that
:08:40. > :08:44.its teeth a sharp enough to do the job this time.
:08:44. > :08:49.And we are joined now by now the editor of City AM, Allister Heath.
:08:49. > :08:54.And Sir Howard Davies is still with us. Let me cut straight to the
:08:54. > :08:59.chase. I was quite amazed that the Governor said there was no boom
:08:59. > :09:06.before bust. We covered that he read it together. I remember a huge
:09:06. > :09:11.boom in house prices, household debt, corporate debt and on the
:09:11. > :09:16.stock market! What it did the Governor Miss? There was also a
:09:16. > :09:20.massive increase in the amount of money in the economy, a massive
:09:20. > :09:23.increase in credit and quite a few economists in America and London
:09:23. > :09:28.warning that there was a bubble and that things were out of control,
:09:28. > :09:33.that the cost of money had fallen, partly because of the behaviour of
:09:33. > :09:37.central banks and Federal Reserves, and these big economic forces
:09:37. > :09:40.caused by imbalances between East and West. Quite a few people were
:09:41. > :09:45.warning that there was a ridiculously cheap and large amount
:09:45. > :09:48.of liquidity in the system and that this would push it up at that price
:09:49. > :09:52.is like house prices, and I think the Bank of England did not do
:09:52. > :09:57.enough at the time and did not listen to people saying that
:09:57. > :10:01.interest rates had to go up to stop this. Yes, it would have throttled
:10:01. > :10:05.economic growth but it would have been better to have had a sharp
:10:05. > :10:09.slowdown in 2005 rather than go to the catastrophe that we went to, so
:10:09. > :10:15.I do not believe the Bank of England had insufficient tools to
:10:15. > :10:21.abate the bubble. That is why people do not buy that, with
:10:21. > :10:24.hindsight, we knew. The politicians and the regulators almost had a
:10:24. > :10:28.common interest in not doing anything about it because things
:10:28. > :10:32.seemed to be going too well, but people like Alistair and others
:10:32. > :10:36.have warned the Governor of the Bank of England that simply
:10:36. > :10:41.monitoring the CPI, simply monitoring inflation, price
:10:41. > :10:51.inflation, ignore the fact that there were these huge imbalances
:10:51. > :10:57.and Broomes going on. -- blues. think Mervyn King is not denying
:10:57. > :11:02.that. He is not denying there were credit Bubbles. And asset Bubbles.
:11:02. > :11:06.He is saying that overall, there was no great economic boom.
:11:06. > :11:11.Therefore what he thing is that interest rates are not necessarily
:11:11. > :11:17.the most appropriate weapon to deal with the bubble in credit that we
:11:18. > :11:23.had -- what he is saying. The bank is now getting the ability to
:11:23. > :11:27.manipulate other controls, potentially things like the amount
:11:27. > :11:31.of deposit you have to put down to get a mortgage. Those are the sorts
:11:31. > :11:37.of things you need to deal with the circumstances that we had in the
:11:37. > :11:42.early years of this century, and on that I agree with him. But the bank
:11:42. > :11:47.had two major tours as I see it. It controlled interest rates,
:11:47. > :11:55.independently, and it had leave is to control the money supply.
:11:56. > :12:01.Absolutely. -- it had a lever. Interest rate is the key thing.
:12:01. > :12:06.They could have warned much more openly. To me, this crisis was
:12:06. > :12:13.quite similar to a previous bubble. If you look back through history,
:12:13. > :12:17.you see dozens of examples all round the world, central bank
:12:17. > :12:22.making the mistake. I don't think he needed new tools to deal with
:12:22. > :12:26.that. Ultimately he just needed to put up the price of money. Suddenly
:12:26. > :12:30.people stop taking mortgages and loans and had he done that, HBOS
:12:30. > :12:34.would not have lent as much to property, Northern Rock would not
:12:34. > :12:39.have expanded as much. I don't think they are taking enough of the
:12:39. > :12:43.responsibility for the bubble. the time it seemed there was almost
:12:43. > :12:50.a Faustian pact between the politicians and the financial
:12:50. > :12:54.system, that the banks and people in the City did not want to listen
:12:54. > :12:58.to people like you because they were getting rich on cheap money.
:12:58. > :13:02.The government from Gordon Brown down, he didn't want to listen
:13:02. > :13:08.because all the money they were making was filling his coffers with
:13:08. > :13:12.tax revenues, which he loved to spend. That is completely true and
:13:12. > :13:17.Mervyn King may be good point that nobody was taking him into
:13:17. > :13:21.Parliament and asking him about interest rates and that is a fair
:13:21. > :13:25.point. Looking just at the Bank of England is not quite fair. You have
:13:25. > :13:29.to look at the whole climate. But I think you do have to consider
:13:29. > :13:33.whether, if you give the Bank a different kind of mandate, which it
:13:33. > :13:38.is now getting, with a more explicit responsibility for
:13:38. > :13:43.financial stability, that at least gives it a better excuse for
:13:43. > :13:47.increasing interest rates... People will say, why are you increase in
:13:47. > :13:51.interest rates when inflation is 2%? At the time they would have
:13:51. > :13:56.found it difficult to explain that. If they have got an explicit
:13:56. > :14:01.financial stability remit, they can say, that is our remit and that is
:14:01. > :14:05.why. But at the moment inflation is much higher than the remit, and
:14:05. > :14:11.they have found a justification for that, saying they have to do that
:14:11. > :14:18.to gain stability, so I think they could have done the same under the
:14:18. > :14:22.old remit. I think they could still have acted. From what we saw last
:14:22. > :14:28.night and from the changes we know it are happening to the bank's
:14:28. > :14:32.remit, as the Bank of England learned its lesson? Are we at risk
:14:33. > :14:36.of a repeat? We know history does not repeat itself exactly, but
:14:36. > :14:40.could something similar happened again? I think they have learned
:14:41. > :14:45.some lessons. I think everybody has, but I fear they have not learned
:14:45. > :14:48.all have the right lessons. We still have a bank that will target
:14:48. > :14:54.the consumer price index and global central banks of still making a lot
:14:54. > :14:57.of mistake, there is still a huge amount of manipulation of Monday to
:14:57. > :15:03.constantly tried to boost economic growth, even when there is far too
:15:03. > :15:08.much leverage in the system -- manipulation of money and credit.
:15:08. > :15:12.There is also the incentive to throttle the system too much.
:15:12. > :15:17.Because it is demanding too much, that they have to have a lot in the
:15:17. > :15:23.bank? Yes, you can stop a bubble by killing the economy and having
:15:23. > :15:29.permanent stagnation. That is also a mistake. I think the next mistake
:15:29. > :15:33.will be quite a different one! is something to look forward to!
:15:33. > :15:38.is right to point to the fact that the bank has itself published
:15:38. > :15:44.recently a chart showing that the ratio of credit to GDP, which was
:15:44. > :15:50.way above its long-term average, of total credit, way above the average,
:15:50. > :15:54.is now below its long-term average. In the normal way, you would say
:15:54. > :15:57.that requires some easing of pressures on the banks, maybe some
:15:57. > :16:03.reductions in the amount of capital that they have to contain because
:16:03. > :16:06.you could be throttling the economy too much. It is typical. We are
:16:06. > :16:16.forcing these high credit ratios in the banks because we are fighting
:16:16. > :16:19.
:16:19. > :16:25.A Cook question about Mr King's replacement. Should it be a banker
:16:25. > :16:29.foreign economist? I think it should be a banker. I think a pure
:16:29. > :16:34.commercial banker would not be good. The person needs to understand the
:16:34. > :16:41.markets. Who are you backing? quite like Lord Greene who used to
:16:41. > :16:49.run HSBC. A very prudent banker who is now in politics. Didn't he by
:16:49. > :16:59.all that sub-prime get in America? He did make mistakes. Harry
:16:59. > :17:00.
:17:00. > :17:08.Redknapp, I think. Who is he? free! Which has School of Economics
:17:08. > :17:16.is he from? He doesn't believe in tax! And if not him? I am not going
:17:16. > :17:23.to offer another name. Thank you very much.
:17:23. > :17:30.Now, I like today's quiz. Which Minister is a fashion icon in
:17:30. > :17:35.Islamabad of all places? Is it Jeremy Hunt, Danny Alexander, Ken
:17:35. > :17:40.Clarke or Theresa May? At the end of the show, we will ask our
:17:40. > :17:44.sartorial expert for the answer. The French go to the polls this
:17:44. > :17:52.weekend to elect a president. It is the second round. They have
:17:52. > :17:57.narrowed it down to two candidates from 10. Last night, the candidates,
:17:57. > :18:01.Mr Sarkozy on the right of centre and Francois Holland, the Socialist,
:18:01. > :18:07.conducted a heated debate on French television. But was watched in
:18:07. > :18:16.France alone by over 20 million people. They take their politics
:18:16. > :18:21.seriously. Here is a clip. TRANSLATION: You criticise me by
:18:21. > :18:27.saying that you were late in solving the euro crisis. You think
:18:27. > :18:32.it was easy to negotiate with 27 members? It wasn't easy. We also
:18:32. > :18:36.saved the euro, and that demanded a considerable amount of work. We did
:18:36. > :18:41.it mainly thanks to France and Germany. As for the European
:18:41. > :18:51.Central Bank, they have done a good job. I am not sure, Francois
:18:51. > :18:51.
:18:51. > :18:59.Holland, but she would have done any better.
:18:59. > :19:03.TRANSLATION: Europe is not out of the crisis. Austerity may strike
:19:03. > :19:09.again. This is where the presidential elections are so
:19:09. > :19:16.important. We need a president who can make Europe change, a President
:19:16. > :19:23.who can also make Germany move. But we need to borrow some money to
:19:23. > :19:28.kick-start growth. You might have gone for that type of policy, but
:19:28. > :19:34.Angela Merkel stopped you. He that was the debate last night,
:19:34. > :19:40.several hours of free-flowing debate. I don't know why there were
:19:40. > :19:44.two Ankers, because almost one wasn't needed. But I guess you can
:19:44. > :19:49.have that kind of discussion when there are only two people vying for
:19:49. > :19:53.the job. You couldn't do it with more than two. Let's see what it's
:19:53. > :20:00.like the morning after the night before. Christian Frasier is in
:20:00. > :20:04.means. Now that people have had time to absorb, is there a
:20:04. > :20:08.consensus? I know the left and right will have their views, but is
:20:08. > :20:16.there a consensus among independent minded people have who won last
:20:16. > :20:25.night? The people I have spoken to today focused very much on Francois
:20:25. > :20:33.Homs, he is six points ahead in the polls. He was clear right from the
:20:33. > :20:36.start on his first answer which topics he wanted to focus on. The
:20:36. > :20:44.Socialists have had some big disappointments, but they seemed to
:20:44. > :20:50.have learned their lessons in 2007. Francois Holland's partner was
:20:50. > :20:57.roughed up in those elections. He reacted quite differently last
:20:57. > :21:03.night. It was Mr Sarkozy who was on the back foot a lot of the time. He
:21:03. > :21:07.looked quite ruffled. So I think independent-minded analysts will
:21:07. > :21:14.probably think that if it was an honourable draw, that was good news
:21:14. > :21:19.for Mr Holland. If that was the view, then that was the last throw
:21:19. > :21:29.of the dice for Mr Sarkozy. We would have to say that if that is
:21:29. > :21:37.
:21:37. > :21:47.the consensus, then France Warhol This is the front page which shows
:21:47. > :21:52.the two main debating here. This is really setting the mood. It is
:21:52. > :22:00.never your fault is it, Mr President? And Mr Sarkozy saying, I
:22:00. > :22:05.am not your pupil. I rather brisk riposte from the President. But if
:22:05. > :22:12.this is a referendum on the style of Mr Sarkozy's politics, that
:22:12. > :22:19.underlines it. You might say people won't react well. I have picked out
:22:19. > :22:25.another paper, and we are here because Mariela Pen finished top of
:22:25. > :22:30.the pile in the first round of the vote. I have looked in one of the
:22:30. > :22:35.regional papers, and it has a map here of France and where the votes
:22:35. > :22:42.are concentrated. This is where they did particularly well, and
:22:42. > :22:45.down in the Deep South, where immigration is an issue, and also
:22:45. > :22:50.appear in the top where they are closer to Brussels. You can make
:22:50. > :22:55.what you will have that. But it is here in this region that they have
:22:55. > :22:57.done particularly well, and I have been be speaking to people about
:22:57. > :23:07.whether they might switch their vote to Nicolas Sarkozy in the
:23:07. > :23:10.
:23:10. > :23:14.second round. But Mary in a pen has a long term objective here to build
:23:14. > :23:19.a far-right party. It doesn't benefit her to throw a lifeline at
:23:19. > :23:22.this stage in the process. She said at the rally I attended at the
:23:22. > :23:29.other day that she would leave it to voters to vote with their
:23:29. > :23:34.conscience, but she would be casting a blank ballot on Sunday.
:23:34. > :23:44.Fascinating stuff. Thank you for joining us, Christian. Pitt look
:23:44. > :23:48.like after the first round that the Le Pen that position would be that
:23:48. > :23:52.she would be hoping she would replace Mr Sarkozy's party on the
:23:52. > :23:57.right end be the main opposition to the Socialists. They are not and
:23:57. > :24:01.National Party, they are concentrated on the North East and
:24:01. > :24:06.the South. Let's see what the implications of this election will
:24:06. > :24:14.be. I am joined by a Emma Reynolds and the Conservative MEP Daniel
:24:14. > :24:21.Hannan. Emma, are you looking forward to a Francois Hollande
:24:21. > :24:24.victory? Very much so. I think the crisis in Europe has been prolonged
:24:24. > :24:32.and deepened by the right-wing government who are focusing on
:24:32. > :24:37.austerity alone. Mr Holland was very robust last night and showed
:24:37. > :24:41.he had a plan to reduce the deficit but also get the economy growing.
:24:41. > :24:49.Daniel Hannan, I thought this would be a difficult choice the year,
:24:49. > :24:53.because both Mr Sarkozy and Mr Holland, they are not supporters of
:24:53. > :25:01.the market economy of the liberal Anglo-Saxon models, so who would
:25:02. > :25:05.you support? I don't get their vote, Andrew. From a British point of
:25:05. > :25:09.view, it doesn't make a lot of difference. We have to candidates
:25:09. > :25:13.who want to defeat the markets and to see free enterprise has the
:25:13. > :25:23.problem rather than the solution and want to give more power to
:25:23. > :25:26.
:25:26. > :25:30.Brussels. From that perspective, it doesn't make much difference. The
:25:30. > :25:36.idea that France is suffering from too much austerity, this is a
:25:36. > :25:44.country where the state takes 56% of GDP. This is a state where there
:25:44. > :25:48.hasn't been a balanced budget since 1974. For Francois Homs to come
:25:48. > :25:52.along and say that he has a plan for growth, this is wonderful. The
:25:52. > :25:56.truth is we are in danger of accelerated all of the policies
:25:56. > :26:02.that brought Europe into this mess in the first place, spending more,
:26:02. > :26:05.taxing more, borrowing more. Reynolds, I guess the. He is making
:26:05. > :26:10.is that if the state was the solution, given the size of the
:26:10. > :26:16.state in France, much bigger than Britain, France would be the most
:26:16. > :26:20.successful country in Europe already. Unemployment is at 10% in
:26:20. > :26:26.France, and the idea that if the Government gets out of the way in
:26:26. > :26:32.much the same way as the Government here is arguing, somehow the market
:26:32. > :26:39.will miraculously solved the problems. No one is arguing that.
:26:39. > :26:44.The state spends 56% of the GDP in France. It is the highest in Europe,
:26:44. > :26:50.and tax is the highest as a percentage of GDP in Europe. So
:26:50. > :26:54.what is it about the state that has resulted in 10% unemployment?
:26:54. > :27:01.state doesn't need to reduces expenditure, and Francois Honda is
:27:01. > :27:06.saying that. He is saying that 19 billion needs to be taken in tax
:27:06. > :27:11.rises or spending cuts. But the issue here is how you tackle
:27:11. > :27:16.unemployment. The global financial crisis in 2008 shows what happens
:27:16. > :27:22.if you let the market had its place. That is what Daniel Hannan would
:27:22. > :27:27.like to see. Market failure has produced a crisis in the eurozone
:27:27. > :27:32.and in our country. So I don't think that prescription will get us
:27:32. > :27:37.anywhere. And confused by what you say. It is by letting the market
:27:38. > :27:42.rip that has created the crisis in the eurozone? Almost every European
:27:42. > :27:51.economy in the heart of the eurozone, the state accounts for
:27:51. > :27:56.50% of its GDP. When did the market forces rip? I am saying that a
:27:56. > :27:59.banking crisis of excessive risk sparked the crisis. They need to be
:27:59. > :28:05.a reduction of the size of the state in France, I agree with that.
:28:05. > :28:09.But look at what happened in Spain. The crisis in Spain has not been
:28:09. > :28:14.caused by overspending of the state. It has been caused by private
:28:14. > :28:17.sector debt. So I don't think you can just to reduce this to saying
:28:17. > :28:25.that the eurozone crisis has been caused by public debt alone. I
:28:25. > :28:31.don't think that is true. Daniel Hannan, if the Socialists win, who
:28:31. > :28:36.get among them first? Angela Merkel the bond markets? There will be a
:28:36. > :28:40.queue to mug him. Can I come back to the point that Emma was just
:28:40. > :28:44.making that this is a market failure because the banks were
:28:44. > :28:47.unregulated. I used to be in journalism before I got elected,
:28:47. > :28:52.and I can recognise when a story has passed the point of correction,
:28:52. > :28:56.but I want to put on the record for the idea that the financial markets
:28:56. > :29:00.are completely unregulated is ludicrous. It is difficult to think
:29:00. > :29:05.of a more regulated section in the entire economy apart from maybe
:29:05. > :29:09.media. What we have is that governments and businesses are all
:29:09. > :29:13.massively in debt. During the boom years, they spend money they didn't
:29:13. > :29:18.have. There is now a correction, and the solution proposed to
:29:18. > :29:24.Brussels is more of the medicine that second the patient in the
:29:24. > :29:29.first place. They want to treat a debt crisis with more debt. Let me
:29:29. > :29:32.bring Howard Davies in. Let's assume - we don't know for sure,
:29:33. > :29:38.but stranger things have happened - let's assume the Socialists have
:29:38. > :29:43.one. They are pledging 60,000 more teachers, cutting the retirement
:29:43. > :29:48.age back to 60, taking Angela Merkel head on over the fiscal pact.
:29:48. > :29:52.How does that play? I think I would distinguish between his domestic
:29:52. > :29:56.ambitions and what he is saying about what needs to be done in the
:29:56. > :30:01.eurozone. On the domestic side, he will have to change his mind. He
:30:01. > :30:05.won't be able to do these things. I don't believe the markets will
:30:05. > :30:09.prevent him from expanding the French budget deficit. But I do
:30:09. > :30:15.think that he has a point about the way in which to the eurozone crisis
:30:15. > :30:19.is currently being handled. And an exclusive focus on fiscal austerity
:30:19. > :30:23.and the southern European countries, when in some cases like Spain's
:30:23. > :30:28.they didn't actually have a major fiscal crisis before, this is a
:30:28. > :30:32.fiscal crisis in the housing market, etc. The exclusive focus on that is
:30:32. > :30:36.not likely to solve this problem. And so I think he will be pressing
:30:36. > :30:40.for a bigger firewall for Europe, and a bigger collectively
:30:40. > :30:47.guaranteed borrowing arrangement, which the Germans would like. But I
:30:47. > :30:51.think they will be forced to do it. He may be pushing on an open door?
:30:51. > :30:56.We have lost Daniel Hannan. The line had to be moved to someone
:30:56. > :31:01.else. We still have and a Reynolds. Emma, I want to ask you a final
:31:01. > :31:07.question. Isn't there a danger of the British Labour Party are lining
:31:07. > :31:12.itself too closely with Mr Holland and the French Socialists? If
:31:12. > :31:15.within six weeks or even six months he is in the middle of all has
:31:15. > :31:25.caused a major economic crisis in France, you will be tainted by
:31:25. > :31:26.
:31:26. > :31:35.We don't support every specific policy, especially some domestic
:31:35. > :31:40.policies. We do not support a 75% tax rate. Why not? We advocate
:31:40. > :31:45.retaining a 50% tax rate, you know that well enough. What is wrong
:31:45. > :31:55.with tax and people who make over �1 million submitted a percent? --
:31:55. > :32:01.taxing people. Who earn over �1 million, 75%? It might lead to a
:32:01. > :32:05.reduction in tax revenue but let me go back to Europe. A victory in
:32:05. > :32:11.France for Hollande would change the narrative in Europe, in a good
:32:11. > :32:16.way, in that it would take away the exclusive focus on austerity and
:32:16. > :32:20.yes, we do need to cut the deficit in some countries, but it is a
:32:20. > :32:26.sequencing issue. You need to get growth going first before you can
:32:26. > :32:31.meaningfully cut the deficit and the failure to do that in the UK...
:32:31. > :32:35.We do not want to dwell on British politics too much. Fair enough.
:32:35. > :32:41.it will be a fascinating election result with consequences for all of
:32:41. > :32:47.Europe, including the UK, and we are grateful for you for joining us.
:32:47. > :32:54.The engine macro. It is not the only election going on! -- thank
:32:54. > :33:00.you. The mother of democracies is also
:33:00. > :33:04.going to the polls this weekend and our correspondent is in Athens. Is
:33:04. > :33:09.this election really going to be about punishing the main parties in
:33:09. > :33:14.the current caretaker government and rejecting austerity?
:33:14. > :33:20.certainly looks that way, if the opinion polls are anything to go by.
:33:20. > :33:25.The two parties in coalition, the centre right and the Socialist
:33:25. > :33:29.Party, are at an all-time low in the opinion polls. In the last
:33:29. > :33:34.election in 2009, they got 80% of the vote together and this time
:33:34. > :33:39.they are struggling to get 40%. There is immense anger against the
:33:39. > :33:44.financial crisis, which has brought this country to its knees. So what
:33:44. > :33:50.voters are saying, and what we are likely to see on Sunday, is a
:33:50. > :33:56.punishing of those two parties. The smaller, left-wing, anti-austerity
:33:56. > :34:00.parties are gaining ground. For the first time in four decades in
:34:00. > :34:05.Greece, it looks like voters will move away from the traditional
:34:05. > :34:09.dominance of these two towards smaller parties, which will mean a
:34:09. > :34:15.fragmentation of the vote. It could make it hard to fault a strong and
:34:15. > :34:20.stable government. Are you saying if there is support for some of the
:34:20. > :34:23.left wing groups, that they would be able to form a government or is
:34:23. > :34:31.that still unlikely without the support of one of the larger
:34:31. > :34:35.parties? It is still unlikely because the leftist parties a very
:34:36. > :34:40.divided in themselves. They range from the communist, old Trotskyist
:34:40. > :34:44.parties that want to leave the European Union altogether, to a
:34:44. > :34:48.centre-left New a party that wants to tweak austerity measures, and it
:34:48. > :34:53.is very unlikely that they will club together to form a cohesive
:34:53. > :34:58.opposition to the mainstream. What is more likely is that the two big
:34:58. > :35:06.parties will try to form some kind of shaky coalition after Sunday's
:35:06. > :35:10.election and possibly have to bring coalition could be so shaky that it
:35:10. > :35:14.may not even survive to the end of the year, there may have to be
:35:14. > :35:20.another election, which again would bring in debility to Greece.
:35:20. > :35:27.Remember, Greece remains the epicentre of the financial crisis
:35:27. > :35:32.set in debility here means it will go beyond Greece. -- so it
:35:32. > :35:36.instability. You are going to Greece. We did not get a sense of
:35:36. > :35:43.the feeling on the streets. We have seen the images of people
:35:43. > :35:46.protesting against austerity. If Francois Hollande comes in in
:35:46. > :35:51.France and the left-wing government comes in, do you think there will
:35:51. > :35:57.be a challenge to the austerity measures of Germany and Brussels?
:35:57. > :36:01.Yes, Hollande wants to change the remit of the European Central Bank
:36:01. > :36:07.to make it more like the Federal Reserve, which is supposed to
:36:07. > :36:12.control inflation but also promote employment, which is not the remit
:36:12. > :36:18.of the ECB. I think overall there will be a challenge to the line
:36:18. > :36:28.that the Germans have been on effectively. But whether that will
:36:28. > :36:28.
:36:28. > :36:34.be soon enough to help! It is a moot point. We heard from Mark that
:36:34. > :36:39.it looks incredibly shaky, so how optimistic are you that there will
:36:39. > :36:45.be as they bought government in the next few months? I am not very
:36:45. > :36:50.optimistic. -- be a stable government. I think that the
:36:50. > :36:55.appetite in Brussels and Berlin for yet another bail-out package, or
:36:55. > :36:59.revising the terms of the existing one, is very, very low. They have
:36:59. > :37:04.repeatedly said that Greece is a one-off, it is not a precedent for
:37:04. > :37:09.anywhere else, so I think it is very delicate. Elections are one
:37:09. > :37:13.thing in Greece, controlling the street is another. We have seen
:37:13. > :37:19.that the parliament is sometimes besieged by demonstrators. Looking
:37:19. > :37:23.back, I have to say that Papandreou's idea of a referendum
:37:23. > :37:28.and Cliff support for what he was doing was not stupid. -- clear
:37:28. > :37:31.support. He was bounced off that by Angela Merkel and Sarkozy because
:37:31. > :37:35.they feared it would be too disruptive, but when you have a
:37:35. > :37:40.very broken political system, with lots of tiny parties and splinter
:37:40. > :37:46.groups, and you also have a lot of people ready to go to the street, a
:37:46. > :37:53.referendum, if he hadn't got 55%, would have given him a mandate. I
:37:53. > :38:00.don't think it was a stupid idea. And also the idea that the far
:38:00. > :38:09.Right might -- the far Right might do well. They are talking about
:38:09. > :38:12.putting a land mine on the border! When you talk to people in France
:38:12. > :38:17.and Greece, one of the things they are concerned about is the politics
:38:17. > :38:22.of this. If it breaks up, who will benefit? It will not be just
:38:22. > :38:28.another government of nice chaps from a slightly different spectrum.
:38:28. > :38:35.The people who are benefiting, the far right, the far-left, Sinn Fein,
:38:35. > :38:40.in Finland, Ireland... In France. A bunch of guys who marched around in
:38:40. > :38:44.Hungary with their arms up in a salute. These are some nasty
:38:44. > :38:52.renewals or forces that we hoped would disappear and it is a very
:38:52. > :38:56.difficult situation -- off forces. Election results will be coming in
:38:56. > :39:01.from Paris and Athens and if you are watching the Daily Politics, I
:39:01. > :39:06.suspect you are into that, so enjoy Sunday night. We will still be
:39:06. > :39:09.cogitating over the result of our own elections! Now, unless you've
:39:09. > :39:11.accidentally turned over from the Tellytubbies, most of you guys
:39:11. > :39:15.should be performing your democratic duty and voting in a
:39:15. > :39:22.whole host of different elections up and down the country. And our Jo
:39:22. > :39:26.Voting is taking place across England, Wales and Scotland today.
:39:26. > :39:30.More than 4,700 seats are up for grabs on 128 English councils, most
:39:30. > :39:35.of which were last contested in 2008. Every seat on Scotland's 32
:39:35. > :39:39.unitary authorities is being contested. And the make-up of 21
:39:39. > :39:43.unitary authorities in Wales will also be decided. Mayoral elections
:39:43. > :39:47.take place in London, Liverpool and Salford. While, in ten other
:39:47. > :39:51.English cities, referendums take place on whether they want mayors.
:39:51. > :40:01.Adam will be staying up all night to watch the results. Here's his
:40:01. > :40:04.
:40:04. > :40:10.It is Thursday, 10pm. The polls have closed across Scotland,
:40:10. > :40:13.England and Wales and counting is under way in around half of the 181
:40:13. > :40:19.local authorities have been contests this year. The election
:40:19. > :40:23.programme will be starting soon! By 2am on Friday, we should be able to
:40:23. > :40:26.calculate what the party's share of the vote would have been if this
:40:26. > :40:31.was the national election. How do my colleagues cope with the all-
:40:31. > :40:35.nighters? I do not stay up the local elections! I stay up the
:40:35. > :40:39.general elections, but a local elections, you wake up in the
:40:39. > :40:43.morning and listen to the gloating and excuses. Two-thirds of the
:40:43. > :40:48.results will be in by 6 o'clock in the morning, and 11 cities are
:40:48. > :40:54.holding referendums on whether to have an elected mayor. We make also
:40:54. > :40:59.know who has been elected mayor of Liverpool -- we may also know. As I
:40:59. > :41:04.tucked into my super food sandwich on Friday lunchtime, there will be
:41:04. > :41:08.a flurry of excitement. Doncaster will be counting votes on whether
:41:08. > :41:12.to abolish their elected mayor. Later Birmingham will be counting
:41:12. > :41:17.its vote on having one, and we may know who will get the job in
:41:17. > :41:22.Salford. 5:00pm Friday, I will be cracking open the Irn-Bru as we
:41:22. > :41:24.find out which party is in control of Glasgow City Council. My
:41:25. > :41:30.hometown and one of the most symbolic contests in the whole
:41:30. > :41:35.country. Then it is time for a nap, because cutting for the Assembly
:41:35. > :41:39.and mayor of London takes quite a while -- because counting. The
:41:39. > :41:44.results will be counted by the returning officer. Why the long
:41:44. > :41:49.wait? It is to be elections in one, it is the most complicated one in
:41:49. > :41:54.the UK, arguably the most complex in Europe. 5.8 million people, each
:41:54. > :42:00.of them entitled to three ballot paper of. If you go to the chip
:42:00. > :42:06.shop, make it quick. Although there is certainly bound to be a result
:42:06. > :42:10.by 11pm... We hope. After, why not relax with a weekend of post-
:42:10. > :42:17.election punditry, the best of which will be on BBC One at midday
:42:17. > :42:25.on Sunday Politics. Welcome to the Sunday Politics! Where did that
:42:25. > :42:29.come from? We didn't even practice that! With us is our political
:42:29. > :42:34.correspondent. Not the one and only! She is! Give us some facts
:42:34. > :42:40.and figures. This is not a general election but it is still very
:42:40. > :42:43.important to all of the parties two years into this Parliament. 30
:42:43. > :42:49.million people are registered to vote in these elections, including
:42:49. > :42:53.6 million in London, four million in Scotland, two point three in
:42:53. > :42:58.Wales. 5,000 council seats are up for grabs and most of these were
:42:58. > :43:05.last contested four years ago. Nearly 15,000 candidates have been
:43:05. > :43:11.delivering leaflets. Not all of the seats in England are up for grabs
:43:11. > :43:16.in a local priorities. Anglesey is the exception in Wales. There are
:43:16. > :43:22.elections will be delayed for a year. All 32 councils in Scotland.
:43:22. > :43:27.More than half-a-million postal votes in Scotland. A lot of people
:43:27. > :43:31.have already cast them. The highest number of candidates in any ward is
:43:31. > :43:36.in Glasgow in going, where there will be 14 candidates to choose
:43:36. > :43:40.from, and it is the only statutory elections in the UK with the rules
:43:40. > :43:45.have been changed so that if you are still in the queue at 10pm, in
:43:45. > :43:49.Scotland, you will still get the chance to vote. That was terrible
:43:49. > :43:56.when they were turned away before! What about the different voting
:43:56. > :44:00.systems? England and Wales, first- past-the-post. The Scotland local
:44:00. > :44:06.government elections are single transferable vote. In London, it
:44:06. > :44:12.gets interesting. I have the voting papers here. You have first-past-
:44:12. > :44:16.the-post for your local election, it is a supplementary vote system
:44:16. > :44:20.for the London mayor, First Choice and second choice, and a
:44:20. > :44:25.constituency member to choose for the London Assembly, which is
:44:25. > :44:28.first-past-the-post, and finally, your London member is the
:44:28. > :44:33.additional member system, which is the closed list of proportional
:44:33. > :44:39.representation, so a lot to be thinking about. That is why the
:44:39. > :44:47.vote takes so long to count. I am not surprised! Thank you very much.
:44:47. > :44:51.Have you voted yet? No. Me neither. They do not make it easy. Even if
:44:51. > :44:58.you haven't got around to doing it yet, you can still fill your postal
:44:58. > :45:02.vote out and take it to any station. Great. Thank you.
:45:02. > :45:05.If you are going out to vote, you will want to know what the
:45:05. > :45:09.weather's doing. So don't say we don't make and effort on the Daily
:45:09. > :45:19.Politics. We have bought in a man who knows. I've always wanted to
:45:19. > :45:22.
:45:23. > :45:28.say this: Now the weather with John Shades of grey, weather Wise. A
:45:28. > :45:38.different story for Scotland. If you are voting out there, there is
:45:38. > :45:39.
:45:39. > :45:46.sunshine. It will almost feel like England and Wales are universally
:45:46. > :45:56.glum. Nothing relentless in terms of rain, but it will be dampened
:45:56. > :45:57.
:45:57. > :46:01.drizzly. And temperatures are woefully low for the time of year.
:46:01. > :46:09.For the big clash in London, ten Celsius as the best I can offer you.
:46:09. > :46:15.What about the big contenders? For David Cameron's consistency, just
:46:15. > :46:24.nine. Similar for Clegg and Miliband. For Alex Salmond in
:46:24. > :46:29.Who wouldn't have thought of Glasgow would be the warmest city
:46:29. > :46:36.in Britain? That is my kind of forecast, because you didn't tell
:46:36. > :46:42.us whether to wrap up would take an umbrella. Or any other statements
:46:42. > :46:44.of the obvious! Any more information you need,
:46:44. > :46:53.Andrew? How it is actually quite varied
:46:53. > :46:58.weather, isn't it? Rain being more common than not. And it is cold and
:46:58. > :47:04.damp, and it will stay that way. When will it get better?
:47:04. > :47:12.No sign of it. This weekend will be even colder.
:47:12. > :47:17.So, wrap up warm and get your coat out! You will be the first to know.
:47:17. > :47:25.If thank you very much. Now, we all assume that when it rains, people
:47:25. > :47:29.get put off going to the polls, and that may be true. Or is it? Now to
:47:29. > :47:33.our myth Buster, Giles Dilnot. You think the question of whether
:47:33. > :47:37.the weather affects our behaviour is something of a no-brainer, and
:47:37. > :47:45.when it is raining, do you see people sitting outside in the Park
:47:45. > :47:55.enjoying the outdoors? When the sun is out, everybody is. Ergo, bad
:47:55. > :47:55.
:47:55. > :48:00.weather is bad for voter turnout? Know. -- no. If you look at the
:48:00. > :48:04.post-war period, you don't see a correlation. In 1987 when New
:48:04. > :48:08.Labour first came to power, it was a gloriously sunny day, but the
:48:08. > :48:15.turnout that election was the lowest on record for the post war
:48:15. > :48:21.period. Compare that with February 1974, which will obviously be a bad
:48:21. > :48:27.day, being February, snow in places, turnout was much higher at 79%, one
:48:27. > :48:31.of the highest turnouts on record. And increasing numbers of postal
:48:32. > :48:37.votes also affect that particular myth. So how about this one? We
:48:37. > :48:44.don't like a tidal wave of negative campaigning. That is only partly
:48:44. > :48:50.true. Take a look at this. A one serial hypocrite exposed. Now
:48:50. > :48:56.another has emerged. Rick Santorum, corporate lobbyist and a record of
:48:56. > :49:05.betrayal. Mitt Romney will say anything to win, anything. And just
:49:05. > :49:11.like John Kerry: He speaks French, too. Bonjour. Je m'appelle Mitt
:49:11. > :49:13.Romney. There is a reason why our American
:49:13. > :49:19.cousins spend millions on campaigning - we might not like it,
:49:19. > :49:21.but we do absorb it. It works. And the final myth is that people in
:49:21. > :49:26.this country we don't really understand the voting systems
:49:26. > :49:31.available. There is a problem this busting that. It is not a myth. It
:49:31. > :49:35.is true. And if you don't understand the voting systems
:49:35. > :49:38.available, you are not alone, and explanations can be found on the
:49:38. > :49:44.Electoral Commission website and the BBC's website, which saves me
:49:44. > :49:51.from having to explain them. I could, I just don't want to.
:49:51. > :49:57.Howdahs AV work again? Great stuff, Giles. Andrew Hawkins
:49:57. > :50:05.is here with us. Are you surprised that the weather doesn't affect the
:50:06. > :50:10.turn out? The evidence is conflicting. It certainly is a myth
:50:10. > :50:15.that it expects -- affects things to the extent that no politicians
:50:15. > :50:20.fear it does. Labour in particular fear it. The that is the perceived
:50:20. > :50:25.wisdom. The academic evidence, such as it can be relied on, suggest
:50:25. > :50:31.that for every 1% Celsius increase in temperature, we expect turnout
:50:31. > :50:37.to increase by 1%. The academic literature doesn't tell you which
:50:37. > :50:40.party that favours. Interesting. And what about the business of
:50:40. > :50:47.negative campaigning, the great and the good are always down on
:50:47. > :50:50.negative campaigning, but some people quite like it. I think it in
:50:50. > :50:56.the States it is one of those things where because everybody does
:50:56. > :51:01.it, everybody does it. Whether it affects the outcome, I don't know.
:51:01. > :51:10.It seemed to affect John Kerry in 2004. Possibly, but you think he
:51:10. > :51:14.was really going to beat George W them? It was narrow. He can speak
:51:14. > :51:21.French. That seems to be the black market if you are from America.
:51:21. > :51:23.That is why Sarkozy went win. is your polling tell you about
:51:23. > :51:28.negative campaigning? The public will always say that they think
:51:28. > :51:33.there is too much negative campaigning. But is it really news
:51:33. > :51:37.to us that some politicians don't actually like each other very much?
:51:37. > :51:45.We are a nation addicted to reading about conflict. That is what sells
:51:45. > :51:49.newspapers. Is it perhaps something about the human psyche you that we
:51:49. > :51:53.like to watch gladiatorial contests? And actually negative
:51:54. > :51:57.campaigning can get people at least talking about the contestants. It
:51:57. > :52:05.can raise interest in what is going on, even if not in a way that
:52:05. > :52:09.people always like. Let's finish up on the voting systems. Have we got
:52:09. > :52:14.ourselves into a bit of a mess in this country with the these
:52:14. > :52:18.incredibly complicated voting system? I think we are. We are
:52:18. > :52:23.experimenting in different areas, but that does leave people a bit
:52:23. > :52:29.confused, because in London, it is partly first past the post with an
:52:29. > :52:35.extrovert, and then some of it is a regional list. I think people are
:52:35. > :52:38.pretty confused. If professional commentators are confused, it is
:52:38. > :52:44.pretty fair to bet that the average voter who has more important things
:52:44. > :52:48.to think about is confused? I agree entirely. It is the triumph of the
:52:48. > :52:52.logical neatness of having perhaps a system that produces a fairer
:52:52. > :52:58.result compared to the other end of the spectrum to something that is
:52:58. > :53:03.easy to understand. Going back to the last London mayoral election,
:53:03. > :53:09.the first choice, people understood. There were around 40,000 spoiled
:53:09. > :53:14.papers. When it came to the second choice, that number have rejected
:53:14. > :53:21.ballot papers went up tenfold, 400,000. It is extraordinary.
:53:21. > :53:25.you for coming in and talking to us. If I am glad I am not coming in in
:53:26. > :53:30.counting the votes tonight! From cricket tours of apartheid that
:53:30. > :53:33.Africa to the Moscow Olympics, politics and sport often clash.
:53:34. > :53:38.There are now new concerns over the euro 2012 football tournament, with
:53:38. > :53:43.European leaders including our own sports Minister Hugh Robinson
:53:43. > :53:53.threatening to boycott the tournament in Poland and Ukraine.
:53:53. > :53:54.
:53:54. > :53:58.The problem is the human rights of the Leader of the Opposition in
:53:58. > :54:01.Ukraine. Many politicians have described her imprisonment as a
:54:01. > :54:06.politically motivated act. Her daughter is heading the campaign
:54:06. > :54:10.for her release. We just want to see the Government of Ukraine and
:54:10. > :54:14.deciding that they will change their ways, solve the political
:54:14. > :54:22.crisis, release political prisoners, and it is all in their power to do
:54:22. > :54:27.so. There is no need to boycott them. From their discrediting
:54:27. > :54:31.something that could have become a democracy in Ukraine. With us now
:54:31. > :54:38.is the football commentator Garth Crooks. You went to meet officials
:54:38. > :54:41.in Ukraine some time ago. What did you say? We said that it was
:54:41. > :54:45.important that the football authorities going to Ukraine looked
:54:45. > :54:49.at their human rights abuses very seriously. The footballing world
:54:49. > :54:52.and the rest of Europe will be looking at them closely during the
:54:52. > :54:55.course of the European Championships. They didn't take us
:54:56. > :55:02.very seriously then, and they are not now. Do you think that you
:55:02. > :55:06.Robertson should boycott the tournament. I was very surprised
:55:06. > :55:10.when he made the announcement, because nobody saw it coming.
:55:10. > :55:14.was no preparation? No one in football seems to recognise that he
:55:14. > :55:18.was going to take this stand, but take it he has, and it has drawn a
:55:18. > :55:22.lot of attention. The issue is it won't make any difference
:55:22. > :55:26.whatsoever to the football authorities. It went? They have
:55:26. > :55:35.said they had distance themselves from it. So it will not achieve
:55:35. > :55:38.anything? It might symbolise a bit of a snowball effect. I understand
:55:38. > :55:42.German officials and the German government have said they are going
:55:42. > :55:50.to pull out and not go to the VIP reception, because that is what
:55:50. > :55:57.they are, basically. What you see here is a gentle development of
:55:57. > :56:02.political disapproval. Let's just assume that it takes hold, and you
:56:02. > :56:06.have got 12, 13, 14 governments are saying they are not going to go,
:56:06. > :56:09.and someone like the Germans take it very seriously and says, do you
:56:09. > :56:15.know what, we would like our team to pull out. Do you think it would
:56:16. > :56:19.get that far? No, I don't. There is no precedent. But I think
:56:19. > :56:23.politically, the Ukraine, because they are inexperienced in these
:56:23. > :56:31.matters on such a scale, might be thinking to themselves, we do not
:56:31. > :56:37.want any sort of embarrassment, because we are now under the
:56:38. > :56:45.European view, and also they want to make sure that they don't upset
:56:45. > :56:50.their hosts, who are Uefa. Rather like Britain in 2012, they will be
:56:50. > :56:54.on their best behaviour. The whole point of taking the Games to
:56:54. > :56:59.Ukraine is to hope that they will conform with the rest of us. Can I
:56:59. > :57:07.just put into the view of the football authorities here, the FA.
:57:07. > :57:11.Or will they just not get involved? In the 1980s when the BOA were
:57:11. > :57:21.asked not to be involved in the Olympics, they said excuse me, we
:57:21. > :57:25.will make our own decision, but the athletes have a choice. There is
:57:25. > :57:29.another view that actually going to these countries, because there is a
:57:29. > :57:34.big divide over Bahrain and the Formula One. And obviously it went
:57:34. > :57:37.ahead. You can shine the light of publicity even more closely by
:57:37. > :57:41.going to these countries and be attending these tournaments, in a
:57:41. > :57:45.sense, were as if you don't go, people would think about the
:57:45. > :57:52.Ukraine again. I think this is a political problem that should be
:57:52. > :57:56.dealt with in political forum. I don't know quite why the European
:57:56. > :58:00.Council of Ministers has been so silent about it. This is a Council
:58:00. > :58:03.of Europe type interview. They are signed up to the Council of Europe
:58:03. > :58:09.under a signature of that, and they should not be holding people in
:58:09. > :58:12.prison and beating them up on trumped-up charges. Maybe the sport
:58:12. > :58:15.will push that forward, but I don't think the next step should be
:58:15. > :58:25.pulling out of football team, it should be putting real political
:58:25. > :58:28.pressure on them. We have got to find that the answer to the quiz!
:58:28. > :58:33.The fashion icon in Aslam about is, of course...? I think I will say
:58:33. > :58:41.Gallia Alexander. You are right. That is the right answer, Danny
:58:41. > :58:46.Alexander. There is no This Week tonight. There is no Daily Politics