:00:15. > :00:18.Tonight, today's extra session on phone hacking brought to an end a
:00:18. > :00:24.parliamentary era of coalition government in which the SNP won a
:00:24. > :00:28.majority at Hollyrood. As MPs pack up for holidays a day late we will
:00:28. > :00:32.ask some of the new intake what they made of it. Parliament finally
:00:32. > :00:35.rose today for the summer, a remarkable session, either by the
:00:35. > :00:38.standards of post-election years. We had the spectacle of a coalition
:00:38. > :00:42.government trying to hold itself together, a Labour Party trying to
:00:42. > :00:46.reinvent itself under a new leader and the SNP won the first ever
:00:46. > :00:55.majority of Hollywood. We will ask some of the new intake what it
:00:55. > :01:05.means. First, some of the questions raised by an extraordinary year.
:01:05. > :01:13.
:01:14. > :01:17.The question is that this house now The holidays are finally here. But
:01:17. > :01:27.for MPs, phone hacking meant a rather than winding down the last
:01:27. > :01:33.
:01:33. > :01:43.So as they get the chance to put their feet up, who is basking in
:01:43. > :01:45.
:01:45. > :01:49.the sunshine? And who is finding We can't predict the future but
:01:49. > :01:53.common sense would tell you that this is going to carry on. The
:01:54. > :01:57.questions about the crucial issue will be Andy Coulson. If it turns
:01:58. > :02:01.out he did know about the hacking Cameron has now said he will come
:02:01. > :02:06.back and make a profuse apology. It then becomes a question of his
:02:06. > :02:10.judgment. Cameron's appeal to the electorate is based on the idea
:02:10. > :02:14.this man is a leader, has good judgment. He has built his
:02:14. > :02:24.reputation on it, which will be eroded if it turns out he took the
:02:24. > :02:27.
:02:27. > :02:33.word of this guy and did not check He has had a good scandal, no
:02:33. > :02:39.question about it. It is fair to say he is now as popular as his
:02:39. > :02:43.party, previously he was less popular according to the polls. He
:02:43. > :02:46.has managed to get away from that. He has silenced grumblings within
:02:47. > :02:51.his party about people saying he is not making an impact. He has now
:02:51. > :02:58.made an impact. The bigger question for him is he has proven himself as
:02:58. > :03:08.a good opposition leader, landed some serious rooms, but what is his
:03:08. > :03:14.
:03:14. > :03:20.vision of government, we still do They are relevant when it comes to
:03:20. > :03:25.the hacking story. -- irrelevant. It has taken the attention away
:03:25. > :03:31.from them. Nick Clegg needs time to pass all the grumblings and the
:03:31. > :03:35.bitterness over the last year internally to gradually seep away
:03:35. > :03:45.and just maintain it. They cannot leave the coalition. It would be a
:03:45. > :03:51.
:03:51. > :03:53.It is clear now that the Prince, and a sophisticated when it comes
:03:54. > :04:01.to the difference between what is going on at Hollyrood and
:04:01. > :04:04.Westminster. The mood music would be better for the SNP if you had a
:04:04. > :04:09.Conservative administration going in bigger tip it is a simple
:04:09. > :04:19.argument, why would you want to have a UK government run by a party
:04:19. > :04:21.
:04:21. > :04:28.that has marginal support? -- because it is a simple argument.
:04:28. > :04:32.how the events this summer changed the views of voters? Ipsos MORI
:04:32. > :04:38.published a UK wide poll today. scandals have come and go. Public
:04:38. > :04:42.opinion will bounce-back from scandals. With this one it is still
:04:42. > :04:49.active so we do not know where the story will go from here. But at the
:04:49. > :04:54.moment we would probably guess that this will pass at some stage, and
:04:54. > :05:02.other issues will become more important in determining people's
:05:02. > :05:06.perceptions of leaders and how they will vote in the future. We will
:05:06. > :05:09.next see politicians at their party conferences. Wonder if the holidays
:05:09. > :05:19.or make any of them change their tune and dippy flurry of scandal
:05:19. > :05:21.
:05:21. > :05:27.will have melted away? -- and if that the flurry of scandal. We are
:05:27. > :05:35.joined by a member of the SNP. Also, a backbench MP who has taken up the
:05:35. > :05:39.Tory cause. In Edinburgh we have Fiona O'Donnell and the new Lib Dem
:05:40. > :05:48.MP for Edinburgh West, Mike Crockart. I want to ask you what
:05:48. > :05:52.you're made of events today. I guess you have the least close
:05:52. > :05:57.interest in what happened. Do you think David Cameron is pretty much
:05:57. > :06:00.-- has put himself in the clear. have a very keen interest in the
:06:00. > :06:05.past fortnight. They have been fascinating. It is something
:06:05. > :06:08.totally unique in Parliament. Today was interesting, there was a real
:06:08. > :06:13.attempt to try to pin something on Cameron and Labour made a real
:06:13. > :06:17.attempt to politicise this issue. I do not know who the winner is
:06:17. > :06:27.deceiving. I know there has been a farce about the remarks from Jeremy
:06:27. > :06:32.Hunt. We will wait to see if it takes us any further forward.
:06:32. > :06:42.front page of the Scotsman says David Cameron's attempts to deflect
:06:42. > :06:43.
:06:43. > :06:48.the situation with the Murdoch issue it was -- failed. They have
:06:48. > :06:52.tried to work the story all evening. If there is any real significance
:06:52. > :06:58.to it, time will tell. Their rights issues for the Conservatives in
:06:58. > :07:02.this. The closeness for Cameron and Andy Coulson. In the past year
:07:02. > :07:06.there were real questions to be answered. I think the public at the
:07:06. > :07:09.stage where they are saying we have come so far with all of this, let's
:07:09. > :07:14.now get down and deal with the issues, let's make sure the
:07:14. > :07:21.judicial a quarry is properly resourced and does it work. --
:07:21. > :07:26.inquiry. I you going to amaze me and say you do not think Cameron
:07:26. > :07:30.did well? I think he did well. Labour's attempt to politicise the
:07:30. > :07:35.event today flop because the public could see through it. You had Tony
:07:35. > :07:40.Blair flying out to meet Rupert Murdoch, Gordon Brown throwing a
:07:40. > :07:45.slumber party for Wendy Murdoch and Elisabeth Murdoch and it Rebekah
:07:45. > :07:53.Wade, and eight Miliband being at a summer party, yet today he tried to
:07:53. > :07:57.play politics -- Ed Miliband. But he should have admitted that his
:07:57. > :08:02.party, the previous Labour government had as much fault in
:08:02. > :08:06.terms of being too close to the media in all its guises and work
:08:06. > :08:13.together with the coalition government to try to resolve the
:08:13. > :08:19.issues through the inquiries, the police inquiry. I think there was a
:08:19. > :08:23.tactical error that he made today. On the comment about Jeremy Hunt,
:08:23. > :08:30.that is important, whatever David Cameron would have said to any
:08:30. > :08:36.editor is irrelevant. Jeremy Hunt was not quoting a particular
:08:36. > :08:40.conversation. Let me give you an example... If I were Prime Minister
:08:40. > :08:44.and I meet an editor from News International newspapers and I say
:08:44. > :08:48.we cannot talk about the BSkyB bid, then move on to another
:08:48. > :08:52.conversation, does that mean we have actually talked about BSkyB,
:08:52. > :08:57.or not? It is ridiculous to assume that the Prime Minister can have so
:08:57. > :09:03.many meetings with different parts of News International Media and not
:09:03. > :09:08.ever mention BSkyB in any conversation. Perhaps the most
:09:08. > :09:14.telling criticism I saw of Ed Miliband's performance today was
:09:14. > :09:18.that he misjudged it, he turned up and did lots of forensic
:09:18. > :09:22.questioning, but all he had to do was turn up and say hello David
:09:22. > :09:26.Cameron, where have you been? I have been here for a fortnight,
:09:27. > :09:32.nice of you to finally turn up, and left it at that. He did not have to
:09:32. > :09:36.win anything today, he had already won. I think Ed Miliband asked some
:09:36. > :09:40.important questions today and David Cameron, on three occasions, failed
:09:40. > :09:48.to answer the question as to whether or not he discussed the
:09:48. > :09:51.BSkyB takeover with Rupert Murdoch. But politically, obviously there
:09:51. > :09:55.are interesting questions about the nitty gritty of the News of the
:09:55. > :09:59.World scandal, but the argument is politically that can be up to Tom
:09:59. > :10:04.Watson and company. The job for Ed Miliband was to turn up and say
:10:04. > :10:08.look, I have been like a leader and you have not. He distracted from
:10:08. > :10:18.that by getting involved in this nitty gritty stuff, which he did
:10:18. > :10:23.
:10:23. > :10:28.They do not agreed that he has been playing Hoy grab -- playing
:10:28. > :10:34.politics. David Cameron is very compromised by his relationship
:10:34. > :10:40.with Andy Coulson. I am curious as to what the Liberal Democrats have
:10:40. > :10:44.as a strategy in this debate. It looks as if it is to pretend as
:10:44. > :10:48.much as you possibly can that you are not really part of the
:10:48. > :10:54.coalition with the Tories while still being part of the coalition
:10:54. > :10:59.with the Tories. This is a pretext here. When we talk about this
:10:59. > :11:04.particular issue of phone hacking, it is clear that the problem has
:11:04. > :11:09.been cosy relationships not just between the Conservatives and News
:11:09. > :11:14.International, it is not just one party problem but it is a cross
:11:14. > :11:21.Conservatives and Labour. It has been going on for a large number of
:11:21. > :11:28.years. Matthew Taylor first tried to get News International stopped
:11:28. > :11:32.in 1994 Beira ferrying their pricing practices to their Trading
:11:32. > :11:36.Commission. We had amendments to the Competition Bill in 1997 which
:11:36. > :11:44.Labour took out the following year. There are lots of questions which
:11:44. > :11:50.not just David Cameron need to answer. On a broader point, and at
:11:50. > :11:57.least one Conservative MP raised it today, is there not a growing sense
:11:57. > :12:02.amongst all view that while the politicians and journalists are
:12:02. > :12:07.fascinated by this, the general public is getting bored with this.
:12:07. > :12:13.The key about the Milly Dowler Seng but the fact that nothing else is
:12:13. > :12:17.been discussed, they are getting tired of this? There is a definite
:12:17. > :12:27.sadness here that the story is pushing everything else from the
:12:27. > :12:31.news in Turley. I am curious, one of your colleagues said that people
:12:31. > :12:38.in your constituency for example, people are annoyed about the Milly
:12:38. > :12:44.Dowler thing, but they think things should move forward. A I used to
:12:44. > :12:53.run a polling organisation and this is what they would call a Beltway
:12:53. > :12:58.issue - like Washington. With the Milly Dowler and soldiers who have
:12:59. > :13:03.risked their lives on they have of the nation, with their victims of
:13:03. > :13:08.77, that is why the nation is outraged and it is right that we
:13:08. > :13:14.take it seriously and debated and have a police inquiry but at the
:13:14. > :13:18.same time, the nation, and my e- mail box is full about what is
:13:18. > :13:23.happening with the euro-zone and the famine which is taking place in
:13:23. > :13:28.a Horn of Africa at and the see politicians debating an issue over
:13:28. > :13:34.and over again when they want to see closure on that and move on to
:13:34. > :13:39.serious issues which affect their jobs and welfare. You were nodding
:13:39. > :13:43.when I spoke to Fiona O'Donnell, do you agree about the performance of
:13:43. > :13:48.Ed Miliband? All he needed to do was turn up and say that he had
:13:48. > :13:55.made the running and leave it up in the air so that Andy Coulson hangs
:13:55. > :14:01.around behind everything that handicap -- David Cameron does.
:14:01. > :14:07.were spot-on. Today's speech by David Cameron was a rambling affair,
:14:07. > :14:12.I lost the plot and did not have a clue what he was going on about.
:14:12. > :14:17.Ali had to do was say he had shown leadership in the past few weeks. -
:14:17. > :14:22.- all he had to do. The attempts to politicise it was the wrong thing
:14:22. > :14:29.to do. Now we should let the judicial inquiry and the police
:14:29. > :14:34.inquiry do their work. Let us get back to the normal political agenda.
:14:34. > :14:40.Fiona O'Donnell, D think people in East Lothian are saying, we care
:14:40. > :14:46.about Milly Donna -- Milly Dowler, but this is getting obsessional.
:14:46. > :14:51.That is not what my Inbox is telling me. I am still receiving e-
:14:51. > :14:58.mails from people who are praising Ed Miliband's leadership on this
:14:58. > :15:03.issue and say they want answers. David Cameron says he is in touch
:15:03. > :15:07.with people but on this issue he is not in touch with the public mood.
:15:07. > :15:14.People were writing to me about this issue before the revelations
:15:14. > :15:22.about the Milly Dowler. We have all they had won pole, which tells you
:15:22. > :15:26.nothing, there has only been one poll since this started and it did
:15:26. > :15:31.not show Labour was getting any benefits, it showed that the
:15:31. > :15:36.Liberal Democrats were the only party to gain. I think it would be
:15:36. > :15:41.interesting... The Liberal Democrats have not been listened to
:15:41. > :15:47.in his coalition and ousted -- suspect David Cameron regrets not
:15:47. > :15:52.listening to Nick Clegg's advice. It would be good to hear from them
:15:52. > :15:57.what advice Nick Clegg offered the Prime Minister about appointments.
:15:57. > :16:03.We are slightly running out of time. I want to get a sense from Olivia
:16:03. > :16:08.about what do you think the lasting effect of this will be. -- from all
:16:08. > :16:16.of you. What will the lasting political effect be in the next
:16:16. > :16:20.parliamentary session? I think we need answers. I know we need
:16:20. > :16:26.answers. What do you think the effect will be? It is causing
:16:26. > :16:31.untold damage to the trust, not just to politicians but also the
:16:31. > :16:41.press and police. I do not think people want a constant political
:16:41. > :16:43.
:16:43. > :16:47.inquiry into S. I'll write. I said it had to be brief. Briefly. David
:16:47. > :16:53.Cameron has done more in two weeks than the previous Labour government
:16:53. > :16:57.in 13 years. The lasting effect is, like with the MP's expenses, we
:16:57. > :17:03.will see a healthier relationship between the police, the media and
:17:03. > :17:06.the public. I think this will be a cloud which hangs over David
:17:06. > :17:11.Cameron. There are thousands of innocent people out there who are
:17:11. > :17:14.still to learn about phone hacking of their phones. I think will was
:17:14. > :17:20.see a more contrite press for a few months and then it will be business
:17:20. > :17:27.as usual. Thank you all very much indeed. Now for a look at the front
:17:27. > :17:35.pages. The Scotsman is talking about the BSkyB Stonewall smashed
:17:35. > :17:42.by blunder. Not an elegant head line there. The Guardian says
:17:42. > :17:47.Cameron spoke to murder executives about BSkyB bid. It says Coulson
:17:47. > :17:53.was never given top security clearance. The Daily Mail says at