Browse content similar to 12/07/2011. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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to see how the scandal has changed the way the country sees the | :00:02. | :00:11. | |
British press. Tonight on Newsnight Scotland: | :00:11. | :00:14. | |
More on the allegations by Gordon Brown and others in the News | :00:14. | :00:16. | |
International scandal. Is there now a danger that public revulsion | :00:17. | :00:18. | |
could turn into an attack on press freedom? | :00:19. | :00:21. | |
And house prices are flat, mortgage lending is down and would-be | :00:21. | :00:24. | |
sellers won't lower there prices. Has the housing market, to all | :00:24. | :00:28. | |
intents and purposes, ground to a halt? | :00:28. | :00:31. | |
Good evening. As you may just have seen, the News International | :00:31. | :00:34. | |
hacking story is not losing momentum. It's clear the House of | :00:34. | :00:37. | |
Commons will unite in an unprecedented way tomorrow to try | :00:37. | :00:40. | |
to derail the Murdoch bid to control BskyB, and the share prices | :00:40. | :00:42. | |
indicate a considerable loss of confidence in the Murdoch magic | :00:42. | :00:48. | |
touch. Shortly, I will be speaking to two former newspaper editors, | :00:48. | :00:51. | |
but first, Laura Bicker has been assessing the impact of Gordon | :00:51. | :01:01. | |
:01:01. | :01:02. | ||
Brown's intervention. They have never been easy | :01:02. | :01:07. | |
bedfellows. News International have been cosy with Blair, but with | :01:07. | :01:17. | |
:01:17. | :01:19. | ||
Brown, this was the response. They withdrew the Sun newspaper support. | :01:19. | :01:26. | |
But Gordon Brown said the real body blow came in 2006. This normally | :01:26. | :01:31. | |
private politician found his family thrust into the spotlight just as | :01:31. | :01:35. | |
they were dealing with the diagnosis of cystic fibrosis. Their | :01:35. | :01:40. | |
anguish became front-page news. The former prime minister says Labour | :01:40. | :01:50. | |
:01:50. | :01:52. | ||
has devastated. In tears. Your son is going to be broadcast across the | :01:52. | :01:56. | |
media. We are thinking about a were family, but there is nothing a you | :01:56. | :02:04. | |
can do about it when you are in the public eye. Gordon Brown did not | :02:04. | :02:14. | |
:02:14. | :02:14. | ||
sever ties with the Murdochs. This afternoon and News International | :02:14. | :02:24. | |
:02:24. | :02:49. | ||
denied they had hacked his son's But Gordon Brown is convinced he | :02:49. | :02:55. | |
was targeted by News International. I had my bank accounts broken into. | :02:55. | :03:05. | |
:03:05. | :03:05. | ||
I had my lawyer's files effectively blagged. My tax return went missing | :03:05. | :03:10. | |
at one point. Medical records had been broken into. I don't know how | :03:10. | :03:17. | |
all this happened, but I do know one thing - that in two of these | :03:17. | :03:22. | |
instances there is absolute proof that News International was | :03:22. | :03:28. | |
responsible for hiring people to get this information. I also know | :03:28. | :03:32. | |
that the people that they work with are criminals. If that is the case, | :03:32. | :03:36. | |
the Scottish government said there should be an inquiry north of the | :03:36. | :03:41. | |
border. If there has been a breach of the lot in Scotland, it should | :03:41. | :03:46. | |
be investigated by the Scottish police and people will be brought | :03:46. | :03:51. | |
to book by the Scottish police. Tonight, Rupert Murdoch and Rebekah | :03:51. | :04:00. | |
Brooks had been summoned to appear before eight Select Committee -- a | :04:00. | :04:05. | |
select committee. When the record of my time as Prime Minister is | :04:05. | :04:10. | |
looked at, it will show that we stood up to News International and | :04:10. | :04:13. | |
we refuse to support their commercial ambitions when we | :04:13. | :04:19. | |
thought they were against the public interest. Hacking or | :04:19. | :04:23. | |
blurring of journalistic boundaries, with nearly 4,000 victims, it is | :04:23. | :04:27. | |
certain there are more revelations to come. | :04:27. | :04:30. | |
I'm joined now from Edinburgh by Harry Reid, former editor of the | :04:30. | :04:32. | |
Herald, and from London by Tim Luckhurst, former editor of the | :04:32. | :04:38. | |
Scotsman and now Professor of Journalism at Kent University. What | :04:38. | :04:47. | |
do you make of this extraordinary situation that MPs will almost | :04:47. | :04:51. | |
unanimously vote against the Murdochs? They are looking for some | :04:51. | :04:57. | |
kind of revenge. I think politicians, not all of them, but a | :04:57. | :05:01. | |
lot of them had been toadying up to Murdoch and other newspaper | :05:01. | :05:06. | |
proprietors over the years and I think they privately resent this. | :05:06. | :05:10. | |
They are probably feeling a bit guilty. That is the psychology of | :05:11. | :05:18. | |
the situation. What do you think, Tim? Even if they condemn the | :05:18. | :05:23. | |
Murdoch bid by a claim, it doesn't technically derail it, does it? | :05:23. | :05:33. | |
doesn't, but I think it is derailed and I will be surprised if News | :05:33. | :05:39. | |
Corporation buys the remaining 61 % of the shares in BSkyB. The British | :05:39. | :05:48. | |
press has behaved badly in the past, but the history of self regulation | :05:48. | :05:58. | |
has survived. There is a lot of animosity towards the press. I | :05:58. | :06:08. | |
:06:08. | :06:09. | ||
think MPs are feeling animosity over the whole expenses scandal. | :06:09. | :06:14. | |
Did you think that? I think it is right. I don't think this is the | :06:14. | :06:18. | |
moment for change. I think the self regulation is clearly not working | :06:18. | :06:22. | |
and is not fit for purpose anymore. There needs to be a new system, but | :06:22. | :06:26. | |
whatever it is, I don't think the current emotional climate is | :06:27. | :06:33. | |
conducive to a sensible look at it. I think we need a bit of time to | :06:33. | :06:37. | |
calm down. The whole nation seems to be in a frenzy at the moment | :06:37. | :06:43. | |
over this. You say that sounds a bit weak, but people will look at | :06:43. | :06:52. | |
this and say, journalists at News International and elsewhere have | :06:52. | :07:02. | |
behaved appallingly. Now we have journalists complaining they may be | :07:02. | :07:07. | |
regulated properly. What I am saying is no-one is objecting to | :07:07. | :07:13. | |
being a regulated properly. What I am saying that the new system must | :07:13. | :07:18. | |
not be done in this current climate of frenzy. We have to wait a bit. | :07:18. | :07:23. | |
That is what I meant by being a week. It is sensible to wait. I | :07:23. | :07:28. | |
don't think you can say overnight eight new system can be produced | :07:28. | :07:38. | |
:07:38. | :07:40. | ||
with this great political anger. -- overnight a new system. There does | :07:40. | :07:45. | |
need to be a new system, but there is an irony at the moment. | :07:45. | :07:51. | |
Newspapers create panic, but now they are the victim of it. Yes, we | :07:51. | :07:55. | |
need a new system that is not dominated by a couple of large | :07:55. | :07:59. | |
newspaper groups. We need a system in which serving editors are not | :08:00. | :08:05. | |
sitting in judgment over their peers. I think that is right and I | :08:05. | :08:13. | |
am a member of a campaign that has asked for an independent judicial | :08:13. | :08:19. | |
inquiry into what has happened. There needs to be independent | :08:19. | :08:21. | |
regulation and it cannot be controlled by the Government. | :08:21. | :08:26. | |
Britain has shown to the world an example of free press holding a | :08:26. | :08:31. | |
free government to account. We have a raucous and sometimes unpleasant | :08:31. | :08:38. | |
press, but we have a good press. If we surrender self regulation, I | :08:38. | :08:42. | |
wonder how many other governments will wonder what to do. We need to | :08:42. | :08:48. | |
set an example. Harry is right. We need some calm and recognition that | :08:48. | :08:55. | |
politicians are not always acting in the public interest. At the | :08:55. | :09:02. | |
moment they are acting in a self interested fashion. Many people | :09:02. | :09:07. | |
will look at this and say that the hacks are protesting too much. No- | :09:07. | :09:12. | |
one is actually proposing statutory legislation to control the press, | :09:12. | :09:16. | |
even though there is a general atmosphere in the air that | :09:16. | :09:24. | |
something will have to be put in place to replace the PCC. The fact | :09:24. | :09:27. | |
there are no specific proposals is part of the process I am talking | :09:27. | :09:31. | |
about. The second inquiry that Cameron is setting up obviously | :09:31. | :09:37. | |
will be looking at this particular area. Can I just say that the press | :09:37. | :09:44. | |
is in the dock at the moment, but so is the police. We must not | :09:44. | :09:54. | |
:09:54. | :09:56. | ||
What would you a new forum of regulation of the newspapers look | :09:57. | :10:02. | |
like? I think, Tim set it out quite well. He has thought it about it | :10:02. | :10:06. | |
more thoroughly than I vfplt my position is simply, I do accept, I | :10:06. | :10:11. | |
have argued in past for the self- regulation by the PCC. I think the | :10:11. | :10:17. | |
PCC, to use the thwart that people have been using all over the place, | :10:17. | :10:22. | |
"toothless" we need more effective form of regulation. The problem is | :10:22. | :10:26. | |
sprest specifying that. If you ask journalist what is they want, this | :10:26. | :10:32. | |
tough new regulatory regime to look like, you bet your bottom dollar it | :10:32. | :10:37. | |
will come down to something set up by newspapers who end up regulating | :10:37. | :10:43. | |
themselves to all intent and purposes? We are good at creating | :10:43. | :10:47. | |
public bodies which are general stkpwhren winly independent of | :10:47. | :10:52. | |
government, the BBC is one of them. It isn't beyond the imagination of | :10:52. | :10:56. | |
academics or lawyers to come up with a co-operative organisation, a | :10:56. | :10:59. | |
mutual organisation, which binds newspapers together in contract | :10:59. | :11:04. | |
with each other, in agreement to a set of rules for which they can be | :11:04. | :11:08. | |
penalised if they breach them. That requires intelligence. I think it | :11:08. | :11:13. | |
requires hard work. I think it requires thought and pause. Let's | :11:13. | :11:17. | |
be absolutely candid here. We shouldn't just trust the | :11:17. | :11:21. | |
politicians. They have been far too close to News International and | :11:21. | :11:24. | |
several other newspaper groups as well. I don't dislike Gordon Brown, | :11:24. | :11:28. | |
I recognise he had an extraordinarily hard time. I twiet | :11:28. | :11:31. | |
see what News International is guilty of doing to him and his | :11:31. | :11:34. | |
family. I know. This a British Prime Minister, any British Prime | :11:34. | :11:37. | |
Minister, ought to have had the courage to stand up to Rupert | :11:37. | :11:42. | |
Murdoch and to say, no, on very many occasions. Neither Gordon | :11:42. | :11:45. | |
Brown, nor Tony Blair, or the current Prime Minister have the | :11:45. | :11:50. | |
courage to do that. I think that is not something we should overlook | :11:50. | :11:55. | |
quite so easily as the political classes would like us to. Do you | :11:55. | :11:58. | |
agree about that about Gordon Brown? I think there is truth in | :11:58. | :12:02. | |
that. Very few British Prime Ministers, for many decades, have | :12:02. | :12:06. | |
actually stood up to press baron, not just Rupert Murdoch. There has | :12:06. | :12:09. | |
been a whole history of very senior politicians, including Prime | :12:09. | :12:19. | |
Ministers, toing up to press barons. Two of the supposedly weaker Prime | :12:19. | :12:26. | |
Ministers, Stanley Baldwin and Sir John Major who have actually both | :12:26. | :12:31. | |
been quite tough, certainly in the the sense they have not groveleed | :12:31. | :12:38. | |
to people like Mr Murdoch as, I'm afraid, more recent Prime Ministers | :12:38. | :12:42. | |
have. Harry Reid mentioned the police there. One of the alarming | :12:42. | :12:47. | |
things a lot of people feel about this, we had the MPs' expenses | :12:47. | :12:52. | |
scandal, you know, the banks are completely discredited, now the | :12:52. | :12:59. | |
newspapers are completely discredited now the police are | :12:59. | :13:03. | |
completely discredited. newspapers aren't completely | :13:03. | :13:09. | |
discredited. The News of the World have acted atrociously. It was a | :13:09. | :13:13. | |
newspaper which exposed this wrong- doing, not politicians. It was the | :13:13. | :13:17. | |
Guardian. The Guardian has done a fantastic job on this. It proved, | :13:17. | :13:22. | |
as well as having the worse press in the world, Britain has the best. | :13:22. | :13:27. | |
OK, we will take Tim's point about the newspapers, there is a crisis | :13:27. | :13:33. | |
of the institutions of Britain here, isn't there? Very much so. I mean, | :13:33. | :13:37. | |
Britain is a country in decline economically we all know that. I'm | :13:38. | :13:41. | |
afraid it's also in decline in terms of its public institutions, | :13:41. | :13:46. | |
which is very worrying. I think, in the long-term, the failure of the | :13:46. | :13:50. | |
police in this matter is every bit as serious as the failure of the | :13:50. | :13:54. | |
press. We will have to leave it there. Thank you very much. Now, | :13:54. | :13:58. | |
economists expected a slight recovery in house prices last month, | :13:58. | :14:00. | |
but the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyers has said today | :14:00. | :14:03. | |
house prices from April to June have continued to fall. For those | :14:03. | :14:07. | |
in the market to buy or sell their homes, historically, June has been | :14:07. | :14:12. | |
the time to do it. Today's report suggests that this year the summer | :14:12. | :14:19. | |
holidays for the housing market have come early. June is usually a | :14:19. | :14:22. | |
busy time for the housing market. This year was different. The number | :14:22. | :14:27. | |
of sales have dipped. There were fewer buyer enquiries than any | :14:27. | :14:31. | |
other month this year. There are a lot of homes on the market, which | :14:31. | :14:34. | |
the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyers says puts buyers in a | :14:34. | :14:39. | |
strong negotiating position. The Royal Institute of Chartered | :14:39. | :14:42. | |
Surveyers says almost three quarters of those surveyed in | :14:42. | :14:45. | |
Scotland reported house prices didn't move in June. The more | :14:45. | :14:52. | |
houses are coming on the market here than across the UK as a whole. | :14:52. | :14:54. | |
The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyers said that homes in good | :14:54. | :14:58. | |
condition are selling more easily than property requiring work. So, a | :14:58. | :15:01. | |
quarter of sellers are spending money improving their property | :15:01. | :15:08. | |
before putting it up for sale. I'm joined now by Keith Denholm of the | :15:08. | :15:13. | |
Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. I'm curious as to | :15:13. | :15:17. | |
whether we are in this for the long-term. Whether we are seeing a | :15:17. | :15:20. | |
change? It looks like, at the moment, to all intents and purposes, | :15:20. | :15:25. | |
there is no housing market. A few houses change hands. Buyers happen | :15:25. | :15:29. | |
to meet sellers who want them. For the vast majority nothing is | :15:29. | :15:33. | |
happening? I don't think so. Chartered surveyers are reporting | :15:33. | :15:39. | |
that the market is in in certain parts of the country are moving, in | :15:39. | :15:43. | |
other parts of the country it's a tough market. The property in best | :15:43. | :15:47. | |
condition and best presented - Council of Mortgage Lenders says | :15:47. | :15:50. | |
that the number of mortgages issued in Scotland in the first quarter of | :15:50. | :15:59. | |
this year was down 20%, a fifth on 2010. In 2010, it was artificially | :15:59. | :16:04. | |
depressed because, in late 2009, people bought houses to take | :16:04. | :16:10. | |
advantage of the stamp duty cut. So, 20% down this year, on an already | :16:10. | :16:14. | |
extremely depressed figure? That's the figures that, obviously, I | :16:14. | :16:18. | |
can't comment further on. What I would say, that we are reporting | :16:18. | :16:21. | |
that some conditions in the market are acceptable. Other conditions | :16:21. | :16:27. | |
are not. There are times when we have to - What are people doing? | :16:27. | :16:32. | |
People who - only five years ago, perhaps, couples in their late 20's, | :16:32. | :16:35. | |
early 30's thinking of having a child would, five years ago, have | :16:35. | :16:41. | |
been getting a mortgage and buying a house. What are they doing now? | :16:41. | :16:45. | |
lot of people are staying in the accommodation they are in. Looking | :16:45. | :16:49. | |
to extend the property. They are happy where they are. In some | :16:49. | :16:53. | |
situations people have to sit there and ride it out. If they are | :16:53. | :16:57. | |
renting, they have to stay renting? That is the case. Many schemes have | :16:57. | :17:01. | |
been brought out, through government assistance, to assist | :17:01. | :17:06. | |
people to move on onto the property ladder. There are, you know better | :17:06. | :17:11. | |
than I do, lots of house that is have been for sale now pretty much | :17:11. | :17:15. | |
since the financial crash started, aren't there? All those people? | :17:15. | :17:19. | |
There are properties there. Some people have to look at what price | :17:19. | :17:23. | |
they have that property on for and readjust their price to reflect the | :17:23. | :17:27. | |
change in market conditions. There may be many properties out there | :17:27. | :17:32. | |
being marketed just now that could benefit from some improvement. | :17:32. | :17:37. | |
know the statistic is hard it get at. What percentage of people | :17:37. | :17:41. | |
selling houses have to sell a house, because, let's say, they live in | :17:41. | :17:44. | |
Glasgow, they have to live in London, they don't have enough | :17:44. | :17:49. | |
money to keep two houses and have to sell. People in that position | :17:49. | :17:53. | |
would lose r their prices because they have no choice. The | :17:53. | :17:58. | |
implication that a lot of people aren't able to meet the prices they | :17:58. | :18:03. | |
are libel to get, means they don't have to sell, they are doing it | :18:03. | :18:07. | |
from choice? They can sell it on 10% loss, when they consider buying | :18:07. | :18:10. | |
another property there is a potential gain they can get. There | :18:10. | :18:13. | |
the price difference between what they are selling their house for | :18:13. | :18:17. | |
and the property they are purchase something not as big as per | :18:17. | :18:19. | |
received received - The implication of what you are saying, about | :18:19. | :18:24. | |
people not lowering the prices they are asking, actually, the majority | :18:24. | :18:28. | |
of the house that is are sold are not because people absolutely have | :18:28. | :18:32. | |
to sell them. In that sense it doesn't really matter, does it? | :18:32. | :18:36. | |
Some people do have that belief that they don't have to sell their | :18:37. | :18:40. | |
property. I think a lot of people do want to sell their property and | :18:40. | :18:44. | |
have been advised to reduce a price to more a relistic level. Right. | :18:45. | :18:49. | |
They are not doing that, are they? In some cases they are not doing | :18:49. | :18:55. | |
that. That's correct. We have to leave it there. The front pages: | :18:55. | :19:00. | |
leave it there. The front pages: first The Sun. What really | :19:00. | :19:09. | |
happening between The Sun and the XPM. The Scotsman: MPs to unite | :19:09. | :19:15. | |
behind anti-Murdoch vote. The Independent. Party leaders unite | :19:16. | :19:19. | |
against Murdoch. The Guardian, Parliament verses Murdoch. Same | :19:19. | :19:24. |