03/12/2011 Dateline London


03/12/2011

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to protect the countryside. Now it is time for Dateline London. Is

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there just a week to save the euro? Was this a good time for British

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public sector workers to go on strike? The leaders of the eurozone

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have been drinking in the last chance saloon for some time. It is

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a tricky moment for Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel. Yes and it is

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very much perceived in France as a roadshow between the two of them.

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But don't think we should be surprised that the Saab the two

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countries leading to guarantee the future of the European projects.

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They are the founding fathers of the whole thing. They come from

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different intellectual and philosophical standpoints in terms

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of state intervention. A lot of difficulties on the road to what

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appears to be fiscal union. They certainly have their differences

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and they are not agreeing on everything. But they come from the

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same perspective, presenting themselves as the saviour of the

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project. The meeting with David Cameron yesterday was downgraded to

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a working lunch and not much was discussed. David Cameron was

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sidelined and did not come across as a robust figure. Not like

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Margaret Thatcher was. She was capable of getting concessions to

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make sure that British interests were preserved. Cameron is not

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quite there. One thing which it appears the British government

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would like to talk for his first in the European Union, but not in the

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euro. I think they are in real trouble. I do not use its air taxi

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is easily, but I must say that the euro is dead. One of the founding

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fathers yesterday said it was defective from the very beginning.

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Thanks for telling us now. You're trying to combine so many different

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countries, like trying to have one currency in Africa. So it is

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completely irredeemable. I do not see how you will solve the problem

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of Greece or Portugal by trying to fix the euro. This is terminal. It

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is a complete failure. As an African... a man said to a long

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time ago that the economies of Europe and the West would collapse.

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We just need to get democracy. of the growth rates of African

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countries have been incredible. them just Crashgate and set up a

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new type. You can see the temptation of just wanting to crush

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it. The Deutschmark would be rising sky-high so they could not export

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any more. They can undercut Germany and other countries. But getting

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from where we are to them means crushing the entire world economy

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and virtually any band that holds any euros. It is unthinkable.

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we fail to understand sometimes is that Japan... some of the countries

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will be weaker and will have a very had time. You sound of the sanguine

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about the future of 400 million people. This is a situation of the

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unthinkable verses the unimaginable if the euro collapses. I made the

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European Union and don't know the way it works. I have seen it at

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work in other areas from diplomacy to political union. At the last

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minute they find a deal. This is something entirely different. It is

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not possible to conceive of what would happen to the world economy

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if this thing falls apart in the next 90 days to 120 days. There are

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players in the bond market who are trying to make that happen. It is

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both a cliche and an apt metaphor. On Friday at this summer and they

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have to present a proper plan as to how they will create... I have been

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writing this story for three months and I do not know how. There are

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two key players in the bond market. They like to hold sovereign debt

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because it is relatively safe. And then there are hedge funds, whose

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sole reason for existing is to churn the market. That has been

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working. And personally enriched themselves. In recent weeks people

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have been thinking that the euro will collapse. The big

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institutional players have parked their money elsewhere. They would

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like to go back to the euro because it does, in theory, make sense.

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Angela Merkel has not yet really spelled out to Harrad people... in

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Britain, we think the Germans will pay for rip, but they do not to

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think they should. Angela Merkel has not spelled out why they should.

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It is because they have been huge beneficiaries. If they had not been

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the euro, the Deutschmark would be sky high and they would not be able

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to exploit. Everywhere else is artificially low because of being

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tied to Greece and Portugal. She has failed to spell it out to her

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reign people that all they would be doing is putting in some of the

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money they have made out of it. is important to highlight that we

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have not heard any specifics on the plan to save the euro so far. In

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the Telegraph today we heard a plan... he said it in 1992. He has

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been a couldn't care less Statesman for a long time now. It is

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convenient to find a sympathetic ear with the Anglo-Saxon press at

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this time. The council within the capitalist economy of Europe.

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People forget one thing which many African academics have been talking

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about from the 1970s and 80s. One of the biggest pitfalls. This issue

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of the IMF, the World Bank. In Africa, they have themselves

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accepted that their prescriptions imposed on Africa were part of the

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problem. They are completely wrong now. When I see a man calling

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himself a doctor from the IMF for the World Bank coming to Africa...

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the Europeans have taken the IMF medicine in a big way. Now we know

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that that is the calamity. Nietzsche will austerity is mutual

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destruction. Then needs to be a reflection on how capitalist

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economies work. In the Anglo-Saxon world on both sides of the Atlantic

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everybody is beating up on Germany. But they do have a model. They have

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a social market economy that actually managed to absorb East

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Germany. An economy that fires on all cylinders. They should be

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saying, we actually know how to make capitalism work through the

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social market model. Perhaps they may want to try that. They are the

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making everybody has cut back on their public sector. That brings us

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beautifully to the subject that many of Britain's public sector

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workers went on strike this week. Was that at a sensible move? Will

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we see more our industrial unrest because of the dire financial

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circumstances ahead? I think it was sensible. I think they will find it

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difficult to do that much more. It was a pretty impressive display.

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When you see the way their pensions have been taken away and there were

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lies which have been told about the pensions situation. It is not on an

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unsustainable trajectory. It has peaked and the cost is coming down,

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not going up. They will be working much longer and paying more. For

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most of them, there is not a pension pot. When there are told to

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pay an extra 3%, it does not go into a pot. They will have a cut in

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their pay of 16%, much more than most people are going to suffer.

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Adam not think you can expect trade-union us to say: We do not

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like it but we will put up with it. I think he did end the arguments.

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And we have ten years of a austerity ahead of us, people say.

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The point that I raised is simply: Does this kind of gesture strike

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make a blind bit of difference? Other than making those who went on

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strike feel good? The Prime Minister called it a damp squib. It

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is that right? No, it is not. Many operations were postponed. And I

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don't know why he was so hot and bothered about it at Prime

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Minister's Question Time. He is usually very funny and witty, David

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Cameron, but at this week's Prime Minister's Questions he was not.

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And that means he was rattled. I think the austerity is so obviously

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self-defeating and ties back and a bad way with what is going on in

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the eurozone. I would like to think that rather than say it will be

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like this for six years or ten years, that some time in next 18

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months some politicians somewhere will finally get the courage to

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say: It simply does not work. Preferably someone working inside

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the Coalition and bring down the Coalition so we can have a proper

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election and bring in new policies which are not based on austerity.

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Is it a strike if it is just one day? I think it is impressive to

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see that many people taking to the streets. The real question is

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whether it will have an effect on the government. Probably not. It

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was perhaps a display of anger with no real consequences. Because we

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are talking about a generation which has been brought up on short-

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term contracts, individual contracts. There is no collective

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bargaining. In so many workplaces trade unions are not even

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recognised. It is difficult to get something out of government or even

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disrupt the country in an effective This division between what the

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public sector it gets and what the private sector gets, allegedly, the

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reeks and benefit of beach, do you think that is a sensible way to

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have a debate about the country? -- the risks and benefits of each.

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that strike important for society? That is one thing I admire about

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Britain. There is this wonderful freedom of people agreeing to go

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out there. We have talked about budget cuts and the Government

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shooting down people on this programme. We are demonstrating for

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our entire lives in terms of democracy and our rights to freedom.

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Some people... Leaving that aside. People are free to demonstrate and

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free to disagree. That is why you need to see that this is not only

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about tensions. That is minute. Look at the students' school fees.

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Look at lack of employment. We're going back to the 70s and 80s. This

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is nothing. They're talking about the stroke having been the biggest

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in a long period of time. -- the strike. The unions were not all

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that strong in the 70s in terms of numbers. But they are so much

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weaker now. They do not control important industries any more.

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talking about people, not unions. People want to come out and express

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themselves. There will be more and more anger. They were also talking

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about the distribution of the pay. It has been so unfair in this

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country. In the cuts that were made last week, for instance, the top

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ten % had a 3% cut and the bottom 30% had a 16% cut. Time and time

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again the richest have got away with paying least and the middle to

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bottom have been squeezed the hardest. After a bit people will

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really understand. When I raised the question about private and

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public sector, is because, if we follow the rhetoric of the

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coalition, we are all together, to divide people like this... It has

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been relaid. To say 65% of people in the private sector have no

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pension and also what are you complaining about? Most people have

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not got a penny of a pension. But the real division is that you

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cannot divide the public and private. The private sector depends

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totally on the public sector, and vice-versa. Whether it is for the

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roads they drive off for the security, the education of their

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staff, all of these are provided by the state. Their businesses depend

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on it. Look at Africa where failed states cannot conduct business

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because there is no security or infrastructure. You need a state to

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conduct of business. In terms of solutions you do not look at simple

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things. You look at the whole ideological trends and so on. In

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Africa we talk about democracy is - - democracy and the lack of it.

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They try to privatise and nothing words. Here, we're going back to

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the days of Margaret Thatcher. Total privatisation of this and

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that... That is part of the problem. People who are vulnerable are

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finding themselves with no support. Let's get back to the point about

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endstage capitalism. 35 years ago the idea was that somehow the

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public sector was crowding out the private sector. That is not true.

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We would have mass unemployment if we relied on the private sector to

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employ people. They have been shipping jobs away from Europe and

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America into a low wage economies. The public sector is a necessary

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part of the overall employment picture. Hence the consumption

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patterns. Let's move on. The Iranian government said it was

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students who invaded the British embassy in Tehran. The result has

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been the removal of all Iranian diplomats from the UK. It is

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difficult times. Does this mean any change in the relationship?

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understand what is happening in Iran, everybody should go to the

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BBC.Not here to advertise but we love it. There is a wonderful

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article on the BBC website. The writer puts things in a historical

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context and goes back to the 19th century when you had the Rosso

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Iranian war. The British always played a part to make sure the

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Iranians lost. And then later a British general came to help impose

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the rain. Then later there was a coup when the British ask the

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Americans. The British were losing their oil concessions. This is so

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interesting because it means the Iranians have always been aggrieved

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about the British. Anything British they see as with great suspicion.

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It is also a love-hate relationship. There is suspicion. Every British

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diplomat his face by and that sort of stuff. -- is a spy. Crisis

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between Iran and Britain are periodic. They go on and on with

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the two countries not being able to reconcile their differences. It

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shows a second -- it shows the weak foundations that the relationship

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is built on. This latest attack is essentially an attack on British

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soil. We heard the interview with the former ambassador to Tehran, he

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described in portrait of Queen -- of the Queen being destroyed.

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is a really tricky time. Britain and America and the West seems to

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be have to be extraordinarily cautious. Iran is a rocky state

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with a lot of internal conflict. It is afraid by what it is seen in the

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countries around it. We must do nothing that helps them say, let's

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have a foreign war. Let's identify our enemies as being Israel,

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America and Britain. I think we have got to behave with incredible

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caution, dignity, sanctions, yes, but not giving them opportunity to

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say, we have got to pull together against the foreign enemy. I am

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very happy to be a journalist and not a diplomat. The regime enjoys

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playing games with the West. Whenever they are under internal

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pressure they have a number of levers they can pall. Sorry to

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interrupt but it was said to me by a British diplomat that Saddam

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Hussein's problem was that he would come to the brink and would not

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change until the got to the brink but he did not quite know where the

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Prince was. The British worry about Iran is that the same thing could

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happen. -- where the drink was. There is virtually no Western press

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there. Iranians still come to West. They have Western interests. We

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have graduate students going over the wall of the British embassy.

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Who controls them? With which factions? We do not know. We know

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that in this immediate situation you have got the west on the one

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hand trying to isolate, isolate, isolate, maybe even get oil

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sanctions. Then you have got China. China gets a lot of its energy from

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Iran. Today's China Daily says it seems the US and European countries

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are driven by impulse instead of rationality in their relationship

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with Iran. All parties need to calm down. That is from the coming power

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of the century. That is not a bad message. The problem with this,

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what needs to happen is if Britain wants to change things in Iran or

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