28/04/2012 Dateline London

Now on BBC News it is time for Welcome to Dateline London.

Revelations about the relationship between Rupert Murdoch and the

British Government. Double in it -- be done in a double dip recession,

Spain in a mess, and France It was one of the more memorable

pieces of political theatre, two one of the most powerful pieces in

the world media the intake -- interrogated by a clever lawyer at

the Leveson Inquiry. What was revealed about the clever

relationship between the British media and the government reveals a

profound sense of desperation for politicians to suck up to the

Murdochs. How damaging is this for David Cameron's government and for

politics generally? It was astonishing. If it was pretty

amazing. Murdoch was so interesting in a way because he is an

extraordinary businessman, and you had moments of great shrewdness and

lucidity, and candour, he was also very funny, you could see why a lot

of people made him, -- like him. But at the same time you thought

that he was deceiving himself or trying to pull it ball over our

eyes. I have never asked the Prime Minister for a favour, he does not

need to. And then he had moments of red mist. What I really deplore is

the low state of public education in Britain and the US. The headline

on his favourite newspapers, he loves the Sun, he loves the

newspapers, he did you still love the News of the World but that is

one of these ex-wives now. Who are you kidding, Rupert? I am still not

sure who he is kidding, himself or the rest. It was very entertaining

if it did not make you cry. It was not Rupert Murdoch, that was very

entertaining, but he did what you would expect him to do. It was the

craven nature of the politicians which was even more unsuspecting.

Have you ever been to France? You have exactly the same. It is very

difficult to sell the story. It is a complicated story. I found a

Frenchman who was at the centre of the Murdoch empire and played a

very big role in the BSkyB takeover. What fascinated me about this

Frenchmen, and about the genius of Rupert Murdoch, is that he is a

left-wing Frenchman. He is they might on the left and he became the

main Murdoch propaganda %. -- person. He did a marvellous job the

Murdoch. That shows that Murdoch is managing to attract left-wing

people. Why he did not call me back. I would swear by his left-wing

credentials. It is not so much left wing as a Third Way. They are so

much more and deviant about things. -- ambivalent. The interesting

thing about this circus, as Michael said, this incredible circus, is

the amount of influence that these moguls claim. They do not know what

is going on in their companies. It is to start believable. How can

they not know what incredible investigations, police

investigations, go on in there? The amount of e-mails they do not read,

the amount of court rulings that they do not read, that is

astonishing. That is what they pay staff bought. Even highly-paid

senior executives, they get it lots of useless emails. I do not get

inside the room. I got to the courtyard of the High Court. It was

high drama. He does believe what he says. He has no self-awareness

whatsoever. I remember seeing him interviewed, and he was talking

about building this business from scratch, and he did it all off his

own back, and then I read a biography and I found out that his

father was the most famous Australian journalist of the last

century, and that all of his father's connections came to him

when he came down from Oxford, educated at the heart of the

British establishment, and yet he honestly believes that he is a

self-made man. I was astonished that Max Mosley, who dare to sue

the News of the World, and to one, he sent Murdoch a letter after he

won his court case, and Rupert Murdoch did not read it.

There is a long run it and potential scandal for the culture

secretary over who did what, who said what and whether he was

independent enough in the quiet side judicial proceedings about the

takeover bid for BSkyB. -- quasi- judicial. That is going to continue.

There are plenty of people like Jeremy Hunt. Everybody in British

politics has paid court to Murdoch. That turns out to include

collateral damage. Alex Salmond, the first minister of Scotland, he

got caught up in to this week and he did not like it. But he was

doing it for Scottish jobs. course, they are all equally

tainted. He will sell the paper and he will go back to America where he

is very good on satellite and on radio. It has become a spectator

sport. All the Guardian's excellent work in uncovering the phone

hacking scandal. It is in danger of being overshadowed by the sheer

drama of we have got the murder ofs, we have brought them in the public

arena, they get their ritual caning and they go back to America where

they make tons of money. Maybe the FBI is uncovering something, but

maybe not. They are still on top of their corporation. It was predicted

a year ago the Murdochs will be gone, but they are still running

the show. But who is going to buy the Times?

Britain is in double dip recession, Spanish unemployment is

unbelievable, the Dutch government has collapsed, does his lens some

credibility to the French presidential candidate, Francois

Hollande, who says that austerity is not working. That is his big

beach. Britain is becoming the example where a austerity does not

work. The problem is for Francois Hollande, after the election, they

have a huge deficit to solve. If you are downgraded by the rating

agency, which Britain may be and France may be, then your cost of

borrowing is increasing. How do you do austerity, which the ratings

agency is asking, and a non austerity, which your public

opinion is asking for. It is a question which we have everywhere.

I think it is better than -- better to have debt, like America, which

is living very well. For centuries, countries have lived with debt.

Sometimes they wipe the slate. That is what countries had done for

years. But in the past it, debt has become the most sinful thing. There

is nothing progressive about dead, but there are different ways of

reducing the deficit, and austerity is not working. It is not working

in Greece, it is not working in Portugal, in France, in Italy, in

England. Not working in lots and lots of countries because it is

killing the economy, the social cost of the policies... there are

those who say it will be working in Germany. But Germany has not had

austerity. They went through it a decade ahead. They had the big

conferences, they have a much better relationship between their

trade unions and the banks. Eventually, we will all have to

have a conference. They also make something that everybody wants to

buy. The or steady growth argument is almost a false one at the moment.

-- austerity. This crisis does not really start in 2008. This is a

crisis that has been building for 30 years, and all across what we

call the developed world. It is no longer possible without a lot of

government intervention to have conditions approaching full

employment. The public sector has not crowded out the private sector

in this period. In Britain for example, quantitative easing has

put a tremendous amount a money back in circulation, has it

improved employment in the private sector? No. In America, where there

has been some modest stimulus, has it improved hiring in the private

sector? Not enough to get us back to where we were. There is no

possibility be the economic model improving until it is acknowledged

that the state has to be the employer of last resort. Then you

can have your consumption. That at -- that is the opposition

of the prevailing sentiment in The need to keep trying until you

find something to work but what should we do? We need to slow down

the debt repayments without frightening the banks. They will

not get any money unless a slowdown. The former Chancellor said they

will pay down half the debt that the Coalition under talk. We need

to invest with more quantitative easing but it has not worked well

but better than alternatives such as flatlining. We need to spend on

infrastructure, energy, we haven't energy gap, Palace stations, the

airport, Heathrow Airport is a scandal with three-hour delays.

That's just 90 days ahead of the Olympics. There's more we can do.

The banks are sitting on tonnes of money. They need to be forced to

recognise the reality. We are is the sense of the electorate in

France? 20% had voted. That's because they look at everybody as

encryption. We have moved from an era of a banking crisis and the

financial crisis to a series of political crisis. A loss of

confidence in the parties. This is the big lesson in the French

election. It's more like 35%. We have extreme left. 35% of the

people want protection against Europe. They do won the immigrants

out. The danger of France is that the middle class is collapsing such

as many of southern European countries. But say we will win. He

deserves to win. Presidents are close is responsible for this mess.

They need to do what you have said, go slower with reducing the debt.

Reduce the public service. Reduce the deficit. The argument from

President Sarkozy is that it has the potential to break up any deal

with the eurozone and it may be dangerous with markets reacting

badly. That's impossible to German and French axis will collapse. They

may be a softening with the Germans Audley alliance. This is at the

centre. President Sarkozy broke two deals saying he would keep that

'AAA' rating which they lost earlier and also he said, at the

beginning of his mandate, if unemployment is higher than 5% by

the time he finishes his first term the electorate has the right to

judge me because I did not do my job but now the unemployment is at

10%, double the rate and he has failed. How about Spain with 25%

unemployment? That unimaginable. I think it Co-op's with the economy

and family structure, the families of coming together to help each

other. A whole family can live together and help each other with

living off their grandmothers pension. They cannot pay off their

mortgage etc. It's desperate. prospect of discontent on the

streets should not be underestimated. We saw last year

there was a lot of protesting in Spain, Madrid, all over. They

complained about the austerity measures. They will be there again

soon with these elections. It is spreading like wildfire and it is

unsustainable exposing them to so much pain. I was there at the time

of the last election in Spain when the right wing government was

elected. It's been interesting to watch how quickly they have come

back from the statements saying to satisfy the Germans. They said they

wanted more austerity but here we are, 120 days later realising they

cannot do this. Betts narrow it down to the thoughts this week in

Britain. The ex-Cabinet minister resigned, in Fox, St austerity is

not working but says we need more austerity. Who is he speaking for?

It's a narrow segment of the ideological pro-American group but

he is way off. The Chancellor is clever. He instinctively is

economically dry. He is conservative classical. He is not

stupid. A will not be able to fulfil the promise of posterity. It

will become self defeating. That was clear from the start. They need

to adjust and adapt and do the things we have spoken about. Even

the Dutch government, prosperity, eight Bell with excessive austerity.

They need change and the Germans The euro is fine. You do not need

to fight for the devaluation. a Pine Point that the euro is still

there. There's an Anglo American mind set that cuts across all lines

with their egotistical reasons. not have a currency without a

policy. They proved that with the greenback. The British do not want

to go forward. The speed of creating this without any back up

with a shed at risk. The model which we created ten years ago we

knew it would hit trouble. It's the opposite of what was meant to do.

It is still there. It will stay there. The cry says exists as the

result of the financial crisis but with a fundamental flaw in the

design of the single currency. fact that there's not a political

union but also the' economic instruments at work to judge the

success of this single currency, they are all wrong. Even Germany

Let's move on. This issue is about Amsterdam with copy shops. Across

Europe people know you can buy cannabis there which has been

decriminalised. The Dutch have woken up that some of these

tourists a day to buy drugs. And they will now move to sell drugs to

only Dutch criminals. It's no it at Question of decriminalisation.

a problem for the Dutch they have recognised. The last, was in

Amsterdam was a few years ago and I love the city. It's a wonderful

city. It's degraded, terribly degraded because children come from

all over Europe to get higher. They get prostitutes. It's been going on

for 30 years and it is deteriorating. From spending time

there, they're very empirical with morality. It's reasonable to say,

why would she decriminalise smoking pot? After 30 years they say it's

drawn in a bad elements so we need to adjust. I don't think there's a

problem with decriminalising a drug like cannabis. The problem is, if

it brings in anti-social elements, society needs to respond. I think

this is the end of Europe and I do not think they will do this. It's a

violation of the single market. Can you imagine in Britain if you went

to a pub in Britain and the publican asks to see your passport?

Exactly. You cannot have a beer because you are not English, you

are Dutch. Is very difficult to implement. It violates the single

market. One of out Portugal? never created laws for who can or

who cannot. It would be OK it you kicked Americans out of Amsterdam

but not Europeans? I think soft drugs bring hard drugs. It will

bring a bad element. We do not need that. We have enough problems.

much older but I do not understand these issues, what is this front? I

My Dutch have been retreating from the very liberal positions cracking

They have cracked down on prostitution. They are pragmatic.

It degrades parts of the city. But it is a wonderful city. If they

ever get it finished it will be more wonderful but the question of

criminalisation is interesting because for about 50 is with drug-

use as part of society and that has empowered the criminals around the

world. They have managed to turn most of the Spanish-speaking

countries in the Caribbean into one last drug area creeping towards the

US. West Africa is in a similar destabilised position. The deeper

question is about criminalisation and how can the Consumers' in the

first world with all the money how can we get this balanced to attack

the organised crime? We need to use the taxes to pay off the budget

deficit. We need to keep people employed so they can be taxed on

their income and the consumers. Those developing countries are

using it as a cash income. They cannot find things to sell to the