Browse content similar to 03/12/2011. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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to protect the countryside. Now it is time for Dateline London. Is | :00:28. | :00:36. | |
there just a week to save the euro? Was this a good time for British | :00:36. | :00:46. | |
:00:46. | :00:55. | ||
public sector workers to go on strike? The leaders of the eurozone | :00:55. | :00:59. | |
have been drinking in the last chance saloon for some time. It is | :00:59. | :01:07. | |
a tricky moment for Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel. Yes and it is | :01:07. | :01:12. | |
very much perceived in France as a roadshow between the two of them. | :01:12. | :01:18. | |
But don't think we should be surprised that the Saab the two | :01:18. | :01:24. | |
countries leading to guarantee the future of the European projects. | :01:24. | :01:28. | |
They are the founding fathers of the whole thing. They come from | :01:28. | :01:33. | |
different intellectual and philosophical standpoints in terms | :01:33. | :01:38. | |
of state intervention. A lot of difficulties on the road to what | :01:38. | :01:43. | |
appears to be fiscal union. They certainly have their differences | :01:43. | :01:48. | |
and they are not agreeing on everything. But they come from the | :01:48. | :01:58. | |
:01:58. | :01:59. | ||
same perspective, presenting themselves as the saviour of the | :01:59. | :02:07. | |
project. The meeting with David Cameron yesterday was downgraded to | :02:07. | :02:13. | |
a working lunch and not much was discussed. David Cameron was | :02:13. | :02:18. | |
sidelined and did not come across as a robust figure. Not like | :02:18. | :02:23. | |
Margaret Thatcher was. She was capable of getting concessions to | :02:23. | :02:27. | |
make sure that British interests were preserved. Cameron is not | :02:27. | :02:35. | |
quite there. One thing which it appears the British government | :02:35. | :02:40. | |
would like to talk for his first in the European Union, but not in the | :02:40. | :02:48. | |
euro. I think they are in real trouble. I do not use its air taxi | :02:48. | :02:56. | |
is easily, but I must say that the euro is dead. One of the founding | :02:56. | :03:02. | |
fathers yesterday said it was defective from the very beginning. | :03:02. | :03:12. | |
:03:12. | :03:13. | ||
Thanks for telling us now. You're trying to combine so many different | :03:13. | :03:23. | |
:03:23. | :03:24. | ||
countries, like trying to have one currency in Africa. So it is | :03:24. | :03:29. | |
completely irredeemable. I do not see how you will solve the problem | :03:29. | :03:39. | |
:03:39. | :03:39. | ||
of Greece or Portugal by trying to fix the euro. This is terminal. It | :03:39. | :03:49. | |
:03:49. | :03:51. | ||
is a complete failure. As an African... a man said to a long | :03:51. | :04:01. | |
:04:01. | :04:02. | ||
time ago that the economies of Europe and the West would collapse. | :04:02. | :04:08. | |
We just need to get democracy. of the growth rates of African | :04:08. | :04:17. | |
countries have been incredible. them just Crashgate and set up a | :04:17. | :04:26. | |
new type. You can see the temptation of just wanting to crush | :04:26. | :04:34. | |
it. The Deutschmark would be rising sky-high so they could not export | :04:34. | :04:42. | |
any more. They can undercut Germany and other countries. But getting | :04:42. | :04:48. | |
from where we are to them means crushing the entire world economy | :04:48. | :04:58. | |
and virtually any band that holds any euros. It is unthinkable. | :04:58. | :05:08. | |
:05:08. | :05:11. | ||
we fail to understand sometimes is that Japan... some of the countries | :05:11. | :05:21. | |
:05:21. | :05:22. | ||
will be weaker and will have a very had time. You sound of the sanguine | :05:22. | :05:29. | |
about the future of 400 million people. This is a situation of the | :05:29. | :05:36. | |
unthinkable verses the unimaginable if the euro collapses. I made the | :05:36. | :05:40. | |
European Union and don't know the way it works. I have seen it at | :05:40. | :05:45. | |
work in other areas from diplomacy to political union. At the last | :05:45. | :05:51. | |
minute they find a deal. This is something entirely different. It is | :05:51. | :05:56. | |
not possible to conceive of what would happen to the world economy | :05:56. | :06:03. | |
if this thing falls apart in the next 90 days to 120 days. There are | :06:03. | :06:08. | |
players in the bond market who are trying to make that happen. It is | :06:08. | :06:14. | |
both a cliche and an apt metaphor. On Friday at this summer and they | :06:14. | :06:23. | |
have to present a proper plan as to how they will create... I have been | :06:23. | :06:29. | |
writing this story for three months and I do not know how. There are | :06:29. | :06:36. | |
two key players in the bond market. They like to hold sovereign debt | :06:36. | :06:42. | |
because it is relatively safe. And then there are hedge funds, whose | :06:42. | :06:48. | |
sole reason for existing is to churn the market. That has been | :06:48. | :06:57. | |
working. And personally enriched themselves. In recent weeks people | :06:57. | :07:06. | |
have been thinking that the euro will collapse. The big | :07:06. | :07:11. | |
institutional players have parked their money elsewhere. They would | :07:11. | :07:18. | |
like to go back to the euro because it does, in theory, make sense. | :07:18. | :07:26. | |
Angela Merkel has not yet really spelled out to Harrad people... in | :07:26. | :07:31. | |
Britain, we think the Germans will pay for rip, but they do not to | :07:31. | :07:37. | |
think they should. Angela Merkel has not spelled out why they should. | :07:37. | :07:43. | |
It is because they have been huge beneficiaries. If they had not been | :07:43. | :07:48. | |
the euro, the Deutschmark would be sky high and they would not be able | :07:48. | :07:54. | |
to exploit. Everywhere else is artificially low because of being | :07:54. | :07:59. | |
tied to Greece and Portugal. She has failed to spell it out to her | :07:59. | :08:03. | |
reign people that all they would be doing is putting in some of the | :08:03. | :08:08. | |
money they have made out of it. is important to highlight that we | :08:08. | :08:13. | |
have not heard any specifics on the plan to save the euro so far. In | :08:13. | :08:23. | |
:08:23. | :08:26. | ||
the Telegraph today we heard a plan... he said it in 1992. He has | :08:26. | :08:31. | |
been a couldn't care less Statesman for a long time now. It is | :08:31. | :08:38. | |
convenient to find a sympathetic ear with the Anglo-Saxon press at | :08:38. | :08:48. | |
:08:48. | :08:50. | ||
this time. The council within the capitalist economy of Europe. | :08:50. | :08:58. | |
People forget one thing which many African academics have been talking | :08:58. | :09:08. | |
:09:08. | :09:09. | ||
about from the 1970s and 80s. One of the biggest pitfalls. This issue | :09:09. | :09:16. | |
of the IMF, the World Bank. In Africa, they have themselves | :09:16. | :09:24. | |
accepted that their prescriptions imposed on Africa were part of the | :09:24. | :09:33. | |
problem. They are completely wrong now. When I see a man calling | :09:33. | :09:42. | |
himself a doctor from the IMF for the World Bank coming to Africa... | :09:42. | :09:48. | |
the Europeans have taken the IMF medicine in a big way. Now we know | :09:48. | :09:52. | |
that that is the calamity. Nietzsche will austerity is mutual | :09:52. | :09:59. | |
destruction. Then needs to be a reflection on how capitalist | :09:59. | :10:09. | |
:10:09. | :10:11. | ||
economies work. In the Anglo-Saxon world on both sides of the Atlantic | :10:11. | :10:20. | |
everybody is beating up on Germany. But they do have a model. They have | :10:20. | :10:23. | |
a social market economy that actually managed to absorb East | :10:23. | :10:30. | |
Germany. An economy that fires on all cylinders. They should be | :10:30. | :10:34. | |
saying, we actually know how to make capitalism work through the | :10:35. | :10:43. | |
social market model. Perhaps they may want to try that. They are the | :10:43. | :10:49. | |
making everybody has cut back on their public sector. That brings us | :10:49. | :10:54. | |
beautifully to the subject that many of Britain's public sector | :10:54. | :11:01. | |
workers went on strike this week. Was that at a sensible move? Will | :11:01. | :11:05. | |
we see more our industrial unrest because of the dire financial | :11:05. | :11:12. | |
circumstances ahead? I think it was sensible. I think they will find it | :11:12. | :11:17. | |
difficult to do that much more. It was a pretty impressive display. | :11:17. | :11:24. | |
When you see the way their pensions have been taken away and there were | :11:24. | :11:31. | |
lies which have been told about the pensions situation. It is not on an | :11:31. | :11:35. | |
unsustainable trajectory. It has peaked and the cost is coming down, | :11:35. | :11:40. | |
not going up. They will be working much longer and paying more. For | :11:40. | :11:47. | |
most of them, there is not a pension pot. When there are told to | :11:47. | :11:53. | |
pay an extra 3%, it does not go into a pot. They will have a cut in | :11:53. | :12:00. | |
their pay of 16%, much more than most people are going to suffer. | :12:00. | :12:06. | |
Adam not think you can expect trade-union us to say: We do not | :12:06. | :12:16. | |
:12:16. | :12:21. | ||
like it but we will put up with it. I think he did end the arguments. | :12:21. | :12:29. | |
And we have ten years of a austerity ahead of us, people say. | :12:29. | :12:35. | |
The point that I raised is simply: Does this kind of gesture strike | :12:35. | :12:39. | |
make a blind bit of difference? Other than making those who went on | :12:39. | :12:46. | |
strike feel good? The Prime Minister called it a damp squib. It | :12:46. | :12:56. | |
:12:56. | :12:57. | ||
is that right? No, it is not. Many operations were postponed. And I | :12:57. | :13:01. | |
don't know why he was so hot and bothered about it at Prime | :13:01. | :13:07. | |
Minister's Question Time. He is usually very funny and witty, David | :13:07. | :13:13. | |
Cameron, but at this week's Prime Minister's Questions he was not. | :13:13. | :13:22. | |
And that means he was rattled. I think the austerity is so obviously | :13:22. | :13:25. | |
self-defeating and ties back and a bad way with what is going on in | :13:25. | :13:29. | |
the eurozone. I would like to think that rather than say it will be | :13:29. | :13:35. | |
like this for six years or ten years, that some time in next 18 | :13:35. | :13:39. | |
months some politicians somewhere will finally get the courage to | :13:39. | :13:46. | |
say: It simply does not work. Preferably someone working inside | :13:46. | :13:50. | |
the Coalition and bring down the Coalition so we can have a proper | :13:51. | :13:58. | |
election and bring in new policies which are not based on austerity. | :13:58. | :14:03. | |
Is it a strike if it is just one day? I think it is impressive to | :14:03. | :14:08. | |
see that many people taking to the streets. The real question is | :14:08. | :14:13. | |
whether it will have an effect on the government. Probably not. It | :14:13. | :14:20. | |
was perhaps a display of anger with no real consequences. Because we | :14:20. | :14:23. | |
are talking about a generation which has been brought up on short- | :14:23. | :14:28. | |
term contracts, individual contracts. There is no collective | :14:28. | :14:33. | |
bargaining. In so many workplaces trade unions are not even | :14:34. | :14:39. | |
recognised. It is difficult to get something out of government or even | :14:39. | :14:49. | |
:14:49. | :14:54. | ||
disrupt the country in an effective This division between what the | :14:54. | :14:59. | |
public sector it gets and what the private sector gets, allegedly, the | :14:59. | :15:05. | |
reeks and benefit of beach, do you think that is a sensible way to | :15:05. | :15:15. | |
:15:15. | :15:17. | ||
have a debate about the country? -- the risks and benefits of each. | :15:17. | :15:22. | |
that strike important for society? That is one thing I admire about | :15:22. | :15:32. | |
:15:32. | :15:33. | ||
Britain. There is this wonderful freedom of people agreeing to go | :15:33. | :15:41. | |
out there. We have talked about budget cuts and the Government | :15:41. | :15:46. | |
shooting down people on this programme. We are demonstrating for | :15:46. | :15:51. | |
our entire lives in terms of democracy and our rights to freedom. | :15:51. | :16:01. | |
:16:01. | :16:29. | ||
Some people... Leaving that aside. People are free to demonstrate and | :16:29. | :16:34. | |
free to disagree. That is why you need to see that this is not only | :16:34. | :16:41. | |
about tensions. That is minute. Look at the students' school fees. | :16:41. | :16:47. | |
Look at lack of employment. We're going back to the 70s and 80s. This | :16:47. | :16:51. | |
is nothing. They're talking about the stroke having been the biggest | :16:51. | :17:00. | |
in a long period of time. -- the strike. The unions were not all | :17:00. | :17:04. | |
that strong in the 70s in terms of numbers. But they are so much | :17:04. | :17:12. | |
weaker now. They do not control important industries any more. | :17:12. | :17:17. | |
talking about people, not unions. People want to come out and express | :17:17. | :17:25. | |
themselves. There will be more and more anger. They were also talking | :17:25. | :17:28. | |
about the distribution of the pay. It has been so unfair in this | :17:28. | :17:35. | |
country. In the cuts that were made last week, for instance, the top | :17:35. | :17:44. | |
ten % had a 3% cut and the bottom 30% had a 16% cut. Time and time | :17:44. | :17:49. | |
again the richest have got away with paying least and the middle to | :17:49. | :17:53. | |
bottom have been squeezed the hardest. After a bit people will | :17:53. | :18:01. | |
really understand. When I raised the question about private and | :18:01. | :18:08. | |
public sector, is because, if we follow the rhetoric of the | :18:08. | :18:13. | |
coalition, we are all together, to divide people like this... It has | :18:13. | :18:19. | |
been relaid. To say 65% of people in the private sector have no | :18:19. | :18:25. | |
pension and also what are you complaining about? Most people have | :18:25. | :18:34. | |
not got a penny of a pension. But the real division is that you | :18:34. | :18:40. | |
cannot divide the public and private. The private sector depends | :18:40. | :18:46. | |
totally on the public sector, and vice-versa. Whether it is for the | :18:46. | :18:50. | |
roads they drive off for the security, the education of their | :18:50. | :18:59. | |
staff, all of these are provided by the state. Their businesses depend | :18:59. | :19:04. | |
on it. Look at Africa where failed states cannot conduct business | :19:04. | :19:08. | |
because there is no security or infrastructure. You need a state to | :19:08. | :19:15. | |
conduct of business. In terms of solutions you do not look at simple | :19:15. | :19:21. | |
things. You look at the whole ideological trends and so on. In | :19:21. | :19:27. | |
Africa we talk about democracy is - - democracy and the lack of it. | :19:27. | :19:33. | |
They try to privatise and nothing words. Here, we're going back to | :19:33. | :19:42. | |
the days of Margaret Thatcher. Total privatisation of this and | :19:42. | :19:47. | |
that... That is part of the problem. People who are vulnerable are | :19:47. | :19:53. | |
finding themselves with no support. Let's get back to the point about | :19:53. | :20:01. | |
endstage capitalism. 35 years ago the idea was that somehow the | :20:01. | :20:08. | |
public sector was crowding out the private sector. That is not true. | :20:08. | :20:12. | |
We would have mass unemployment if we relied on the private sector to | :20:12. | :20:17. | |
employ people. They have been shipping jobs away from Europe and | :20:17. | :20:22. | |
America into a low wage economies. The public sector is a necessary | :20:22. | :20:25. | |
part of the overall employment picture. Hence the consumption | :20:25. | :20:31. | |
patterns. Let's move on. The Iranian government said it was | :20:31. | :20:35. | |
students who invaded the British embassy in Tehran. The result has | :20:35. | :20:45. | |
:20:45. | :20:48. | ||
been the removal of all Iranian diplomats from the UK. It is | :20:48. | :20:55. | |
difficult times. Does this mean any change in the relationship? | :20:56. | :21:01. | |
understand what is happening in Iran, everybody should go to the | :21:01. | :21:10. | |
BBC.Not here to advertise but we love it. There is a wonderful | :21:10. | :21:19. | |
article on the BBC website. The writer puts things in a historical | :21:19. | :21:29. | |
:21:29. | :21:30. | ||
context and goes back to the 19th century when you had the Rosso | :21:30. | :21:36. | |
Iranian war. The British always played a part to make sure the | :21:36. | :21:46. | |
:21:46. | :21:48. | ||
Iranians lost. And then later a British general came to help impose | :21:48. | :21:52. | |
the rain. Then later there was a coup when the British ask the | :21:53. | :22:02. | |
:22:03. | :22:03. | ||
Americans. The British were losing their oil concessions. This is so | :22:03. | :22:08. | |
interesting because it means the Iranians have always been aggrieved | :22:08. | :22:13. | |
about the British. Anything British they see as with great suspicion. | :22:13. | :22:20. | |
It is also a love-hate relationship. There is suspicion. Every British | :22:21. | :22:29. | |
diplomat his face by and that sort of stuff. -- is a spy. Crisis | :22:29. | :22:34. | |
between Iran and Britain are periodic. They go on and on with | :22:34. | :22:38. | |
the two countries not being able to reconcile their differences. It | :22:38. | :22:46. | |
shows a second -- it shows the weak foundations that the relationship | :22:46. | :22:54. | |
is built on. This latest attack is essentially an attack on British | :22:54. | :23:04. | |
:23:04. | :23:06. | ||
soil. We heard the interview with the former ambassador to Tehran, he | :23:06. | :23:12. | |
described in portrait of Queen -- of the Queen being destroyed. | :23:12. | :23:17. | |
is a really tricky time. Britain and America and the West seems to | :23:17. | :23:24. | |
be have to be extraordinarily cautious. Iran is a rocky state | :23:24. | :23:31. | |
with a lot of internal conflict. It is afraid by what it is seen in the | :23:31. | :23:35. | |
countries around it. We must do nothing that helps them say, let's | :23:35. | :23:39. | |
have a foreign war. Let's identify our enemies as being Israel, | :23:39. | :23:48. | |
America and Britain. I think we have got to behave with incredible | :23:48. | :23:55. | |
caution, dignity, sanctions, yes, but not giving them opportunity to | :23:55. | :24:05. | |
say, we have got to pull together against the foreign enemy. I am | :24:05. | :24:10. | |
very happy to be a journalist and not a diplomat. The regime enjoys | :24:10. | :24:14. | |
playing games with the West. Whenever they are under internal | :24:15. | :24:18. | |
pressure they have a number of levers they can pall. Sorry to | :24:18. | :24:22. | |
interrupt but it was said to me by a British diplomat that Saddam | :24:22. | :24:25. | |
Hussein's problem was that he would come to the brink and would not | :24:25. | :24:29. | |
change until the got to the brink but he did not quite know where the | :24:29. | :24:33. | |
Prince was. The British worry about Iran is that the same thing could | :24:33. | :24:39. | |
happen. -- where the drink was. There is virtually no Western press | :24:39. | :24:49. | |
:24:49. | :24:55. | ||
there. Iranians still come to West. They have Western interests. We | :24:55. | :24:58. | |
have graduate students going over the wall of the British embassy. | :24:58. | :25:04. | |
Who controls them? With which factions? We do not know. We know | :25:04. | :25:07. | |
that in this immediate situation you have got the west on the one | :25:07. | :25:12. | |
hand trying to isolate, isolate, isolate, maybe even get oil | :25:12. | :25:17. | |
sanctions. Then you have got China. China gets a lot of its energy from | :25:17. | :25:26. | |
Iran. Today's China Daily says it seems the US and European countries | :25:26. | :25:30. | |
are driven by impulse instead of rationality in their relationship | :25:30. | :25:37. | |
with Iran. All parties need to calm down. That is from the coming power | :25:37. | :25:47. | |
:25:47. | :25:51. | ||
of the century. That is not a bad message. The problem with this, | :25:51. | :25:56. | |
what needs to happen is if Britain wants to change things in Iran or | :25:56. | :26:02. |