:00:09. > :00:13.We know there is acrisis of economic growth, is there really a
:00:13. > :00:20.crisis of can capitalism in Britain? As the new �50 note goes
:00:20. > :00:26.on display boosting the face not just of a great British scientist
:00:26. > :00:31.but a venture capitalist Ed Miliband calls for us to get a
:00:31. > :00:38.Fayer economy. Growth is built on sand if it comes from our predators
:00:38. > :00:42.and not our producers. Is it type to tear up the old rule back. The
:00:42. > :00:48.CIA kill another Al-Qaeda spiritual leader. Was he really the lifrpbl
:00:48. > :00:52.pin we are led to believe. Amanda Knox isn't only guilty of murder as
:00:52. > :00:55.her Court of Appeal edges towards it is conclusion we are told she's
:00:55. > :01:05.also a diabolical, satanic, demonic she-devil. Is our cultural
:01:05. > :01:07.
:01:07. > :01:09.fascination with female killers Good evening. On the even of the
:01:09. > :01:14.Conservative conference, the government knows it has to convince
:01:14. > :01:19.us that it has a real plan for economic growth. That may just mean
:01:19. > :01:23.tearing up the rule book. Earlier this week, to the derision of many
:01:23. > :01:27.business leaders, Ed Miliband, tried to do just that. Talking of a
:01:27. > :01:30.need to find a fairer and more decent capitalism. It was time to
:01:30. > :01:36.cull, he said, the predator businesses who leave morality
:01:36. > :01:40.behind. Is he right? Realistically, how could it work? We ask if
:01:40. > :01:47.politic has to re-think its big ideas to help Britain emerge from
:01:47. > :01:53.the economic abyss. On the knewly designed �50 note there is
:01:53. > :01:57.recognition of what capitalism can achieve at its best. On the left is
:01:57. > :02:00.Matthew Bolton who transformed James Watts improvement from a
:02:00. > :02:03.steam engine into a business that changed the world for good. Ed
:02:03. > :02:07.Miliband believes there is a crucial difference between business
:02:07. > :02:13.owners that support the industries of the future, and those who just
:02:13. > :02:17.want a quick puff of profit. must learn the lesson that growth
:02:17. > :02:24.is built on sand if it comes from our predators and not our producers.
:02:24. > :02:28.For years as a country we have been neutral in that battle. This is the
:02:28. > :02:34.Mayfair Headquarters of the company singled out by Ed Miliband as being
:02:34. > :02:39.willing to sell your grandmothers for a fast buck. They took over
:02:39. > :02:44.Southern Cross and sold out increasing its investment. Ed
:02:44. > :02:51.Miliband would say that's asset stripping, black stone Group would
:02:51. > :02:58.say it's adding value. What is asset stripping anyway? Richard
:02:58. > :03:02.Gere gave a good explanation to Julia Roberts when she played a
:03:02. > :03:06.prostitute and him a kor corporate rate raider. You don't make
:03:06. > :03:12.anything or build anything. What do you do with the companies
:03:12. > :03:16.when you buy them. I sell them. sell them? I don't sell the whole
:03:16. > :03:21.company. I break them into pieces and I sell that off. It's worth
:03:21. > :03:26.more than the whole. It's like stealing cars and selling them for
:03:26. > :03:30.pof its. Sort of, but legal. Here is what Ed Miliband sees Alex
:03:30. > :03:33.Salmond set stripping. Blackstone took over Southern Cross. It split
:03:33. > :03:37.the company into a property firm which owned the buildings and a
:03:37. > :03:41.care provider then expanded with borrowed money. The property firm
:03:41. > :03:47.then sold the homes to third party landlords which leased them back to
:03:47. > :03:50.the care provider. Blackstone sold out in 2007 for a big profit. As
:03:50. > :03:57.rents rose and local authority payments fell, Southern Cross
:03:57. > :04:02.collapsed and had to break itself up, causing anguish for 31,000
:04:02. > :04:07.residents. Not every takeover is asset stripping. Critics believe it
:04:07. > :04:11.happens too often. A company comes and acquires a business. It doesn't
:04:11. > :04:16.improve that business in anyway at all. What it does, it loads the
:04:16. > :04:20.business up with debt. It extracts as much cash out as it can by
:04:20. > :04:24.cutting costs and cutting employees and investment. Then it simply
:04:24. > :04:29.walks away as soon as possible with a profit. It doesn't build any
:04:29. > :04:32.long-term improvement at all. bad or for good predators are
:04:32. > :04:38.stalking businesses like the leisure industry. This might seem
:04:38. > :04:45.like a goodbyes on a Friday night. The owner of All Bar One is the
:04:45. > :04:50.prey of a hostile takeover bid itself. It's predator is Joe Lewis,
:04:50. > :04:55.the Tottenham Hotspur owner. He reckons if he took it over he would
:04:55. > :05:01.do a better job of running it. If capitalism is red in tooth and claw
:05:01. > :05:09.don't we need a few predators. The private equity companies say they
:05:09. > :05:14.are often supporting invest os not asset strippers. We invested in
:05:14. > :05:17.companies between three or or five years. They that has gone up during
:05:17. > :05:22.the downturn. If you talk to the managing directors of the companies
:05:22. > :05:27.we invest in they value the skills that private equity brings to bear.
:05:27. > :05:33.It's about building sustainable business over the longer term.
:05:33. > :05:37.most criticised press tors like BlackStone have achieved positive
:05:37. > :05:40.results keeping employees in work who may have lost their jobs. How
:05:40. > :05:46.could you discourage the bad predators without keeping out the
:05:46. > :05:49.good ones? There is an important point at the root of this. Alhamzi
:05:50. > :05:54.though very often markets work really well, private interests work
:05:54. > :05:59.in the public interest. Sometimes, it doesn't. The public interest
:05:59. > :06:03.isn't being well served by unregulated markets. We don't have
:06:03. > :06:06.to talk about state intervention much we can talk about getting
:06:06. > :06:13.employees, kust ministers mers and other stake holders involved with
:06:13. > :06:17.the governance of companies or the ownership of companies. If I take a
:06:17. > :06:21.company that is going to go bust, I may have to shut down one of the
:06:21. > :06:27.three factories and sell it off. That could look like asset
:06:27. > :06:32.stripping, I may lay staff off, I would say save 1,000 jobs rather
:06:32. > :06:36.than cutting 200. There are no set of rules you can write down in
:06:36. > :06:41.black-and-white and a tick box exercise. There is an awful lot of
:06:41. > :06:51.judgment involved. That is a hard thing to do. The capitalism of
:06:51. > :06:56.Matthew Boulton and James Watt may not have been kinder than today's.
:06:56. > :07:02.By putting them on the �50 cot Bank of England be hinting we should
:07:02. > :07:10.take a trip back to the future stphr Joining me now to discuss the
:07:10. > :07:12.morality of capitalism is Rowenna Davis of the soon to be published
:07:12. > :07:15.book, Tangled up in Blue, Blue Labour and the Struggle for
:07:15. > :07:16.Labour's Soul. Also joining me from Newcastle is Business Angel and
:07:16. > :07:21.multi-millionaire venture capitalist, Jeremy Middleton. He's
:07:21. > :07:24.also the deputy Chair of the Conservative Party Board. Business
:07:24. > :07:29.has slammed Ed Miliband's vision this week. He is right, isn't he,
:07:29. > :07:33.to be thinking big and thinking philosophically, this is radical?
:07:33. > :07:38.It shows he doesn't understand business. He is talking about
:07:38. > :07:44.predators, he means people like me who are business angels or venture
:07:44. > :07:49.capitalists. What this country needs is more venture cam
:07:49. > :07:55.capitalists. They fill the gap where banks won't go. Banks won't
:07:55. > :08:00.do startups which we need. You won't find banks taking risks,
:08:00. > :08:06.venture capitalists do that. If you look at Dragon's Den. I'm sure your
:08:06. > :08:09.viewers see it, who would put the money in if the Dragons didn't, no-
:08:09. > :08:14.one certainly would put the money. In we need more dragons we don't
:08:15. > :08:19.need to put the fire that the dragons have out. Which is what Ed
:08:19. > :08:23.Miliband would do. Now will is a question in the wake of 200 about
:08:24. > :08:27.what kind of capitalism we want. The fact is, it hasn't been working.
:08:27. > :08:32.At the moment we are going to be paying back a hell of a lot of
:08:32. > :08:36.money to banks because they acted morally irresponsiblibly. Business
:08:36. > :08:42.cannot continue as normal. What about the venture capitalists we
:08:42. > :08:44.are talking about - With all due respect to Jeremy, it's a sip
:08:45. > :08:49.simplistic interpretation of the speech to say that Ed Miliband
:08:49. > :08:52.doesn't like venture capitalists. What he was saying was, there is a
:08:52. > :08:55.difference between goodbyes practice and bad business practice.
:08:55. > :09:00.We should divide those lines. We don't need business that is built
:09:00. > :09:05.on sand, that ends up bringing long-term - Of which Jeremy
:09:05. > :09:11.Middleton it's hard to disagree with? This country needs growth and
:09:11. > :09:15.jobs. For that we need risk takers. We don't need more regulation, more
:09:15. > :09:19.taxation - Can I come in on that point? We need support. It's
:09:19. > :09:25.nonsense to be talking in this way. How are you going to do it? When
:09:25. > :09:28.you talk about risk takers, is a bad company or two a price worth
:09:28. > :09:34.worth paying? I think, we talk about the odd bad company, there
:09:34. > :09:37.are good and bad in life. To be perfectly - They do exist?
:09:37. > :09:44.Businesses overwhelmingly are forces for good. I have been
:09:44. > :09:46.investing in companies for 20 years. I sit on numerous boards. Over that
:09:46. > :09:51.time the companies I'm involved with employed 5,000 people or more.
:09:51. > :09:57.They have paid millions in tax. That is a force for good. The idea
:09:57. > :10:00.that somebody can set up some sort of commissar to judge what is good
:10:00. > :10:06.and bad. You have to pay taxes and follow the law. That is what
:10:06. > :10:09.companies need to do. How would you do it? I find this ridiculous.
:10:09. > :10:13.Goodbyes practice and bad business practice. If you get the regulation
:10:13. > :10:19.right in the beginning you stop state intervention. People don't
:10:19. > :10:24.have to step in and bail out - There is already regulation -
:10:24. > :10:28.good is that regulation. We have a massive financial crisis much I
:10:28. > :10:33.don't see many regulations changing in the way wake of it. What would
:10:33. > :10:39.you do? We have rules anyway. Why don't we make them recognise moral
:10:39. > :10:44.standards. Why don't we - nothing revolutionary - What does that mean,
:10:44. > :10:49.recognise moral standards? Put it into something that someone can
:10:49. > :10:53.understand. When you do public procurement, make sure we give
:10:53. > :10:57.contracts to those companies who give apprenticeships. Tax breaks to
:10:57. > :11:03.companies who pay the living wage wage to their workers because we
:11:03. > :11:08.respect dignity in work. concrete examples? You find anybody
:11:08. > :11:12.who does apply will, living in this country lrks have to pay the
:11:12. > :11:15.minimum wage - Living wage. might give the contracts to people
:11:15. > :11:20.who are paying higher sums. You are forming a judgment there which you
:11:20. > :11:23.are not in a position to do. You talk about apprenticeships as good
:11:23. > :11:28.things. What about small companies. And people taking - Why don't we
:11:28. > :11:33.give tax breaks to those companies to help them? Can I also point out.
:11:34. > :11:39.It's obvious that Jeremy knows what goodbyes practice is and recognises
:11:39. > :11:47.moral standards. One of the companies he set up Homeserve say
:11:47. > :11:54.it's bleest believes in responsibilities of integrity. When
:11:54. > :11:57.the government starts talking about it, it's as if it's - You are being
:11:57. > :12:02.complimented. Whether you like it or not, you are an ethical business
:12:02. > :12:06.and that the economy would flourish from that? Well, I'm grateful for
:12:06. > :12:11.that. And I think it's great that companies - You recognise your
:12:11. > :12:14.morality in your business? It's in the best interests of business to
:12:14. > :12:19.behave in the best interest of their communities. All the Boards I
:12:19. > :12:23.sit on we spend our time thinking about how to improve customer
:12:23. > :12:29.services. How do we improve the motivation and moral of our staff?
:12:29. > :12:34.We don't need to do is more regulation and more taxation and -
:12:34. > :12:38.It's not more regulation to give awe tax break. Apart - it looked to
:12:38. > :12:41.me like a speech where he is trying to create a bogey man. Trying to
:12:41. > :12:45.find someone to blame. I really don't know what he was specifically
:12:46. > :12:51.planning to do. Who is going to judge what is good and what is bad?
:12:51. > :12:56.It's in the best interests - It's not about sitting in judgment on
:12:56. > :13:00.companies? What is it. Who are the predators. You are talking about
:13:00. > :13:05.practices, that is not what he said. I spoke to the office today to make
:13:06. > :13:10.sure it's clear. He is not sitting in judgment on companies. He is
:13:10. > :13:13.saying there are rules to the game in the market. When we design the
:13:13. > :13:16.rules they should be implemented with an eye to marral standards.
:13:16. > :13:19.That would be good for society and good for business. That isn't
:13:19. > :13:25.radical at all, is it? particularly, no. I don't see what
:13:25. > :13:29.the problem. Is I would say that every single man - every single and
:13:29. > :13:32.man woman on the street would tell you that they know what goodbyes
:13:32. > :13:36.practice is. They know it's immoral to have something come through
:13:36. > :13:40.their door offering them a loan for something they can't afford and can
:13:40. > :13:47.never pay back. The public taste for that kind of operation has just
:13:47. > :13:51.reached a limit. You must recognise that things have gone badly wrong
:13:51. > :13:54.since 2007/2008 something big has to change? There is no doubt that
:13:54. > :13:58.most companies are ethical and wish to be as ethical as possible. That
:13:58. > :14:03.is goodbyes. What I'm saying, if all you are saying is what we
:14:03. > :14:07.already know, what are you saying? I mean, is motherhood an apple pie?
:14:07. > :14:11.Most of us entirely go along with that. If that is all it is, what is
:14:11. > :14:16.the substance in the speech? I didn't hear it. There is a hell of
:14:16. > :14:19.a lot. What you are suffering from a moral blindness in what is
:14:19. > :14:23.happening here. Even though we bailed out the banks the
:14:23. > :14:27.regulations that came through hardly make any difference at at
:14:27. > :14:32.all. Ed Miliband is saying - Firmer regulation? That would be one part
:14:32. > :14:37.of it. A lot of incentives. Have worker representation? Tax breaks
:14:37. > :14:43.for the living wage? What you mean, you want to interfere in business
:14:43. > :14:45.more. Not at all. One of the things you have - That is you hand it back.
:14:45. > :14:51.That is absolutely fan fine. There are rules already. Why don't we
:14:51. > :14:59.have rules that have an eye to marral standards. The status quo
:14:59. > :15:02.Jeremy, I know you are having problems with your earpiece. We
:15:02. > :15:06.understand George Osborne is going to say tomorrow that tax cuts will
:15:06. > :15:11.be pretty much ruled out before the next election. As an entrepreneur
:15:11. > :15:15.yourself, could we get your response? The most important thing
:15:15. > :15:19.is that we have an economy that is growing and that means lower
:15:19. > :15:23.interest rates and that means we have to control the debt. That is
:15:23. > :15:27.the most important thing. I hope taxation will come down when it can
:15:27. > :15:30.come down. The Government has already made some reductions in
:15:30. > :15:36.corporation tax and has promised more, but you can't we do use them
:15:36. > :15:40.further and to you can afford it. - - reduce them. Thank you both very
:15:40. > :15:43.much indeed. Where Bush tried, Obama, it could
:15:43. > :15:46.appear, has succeeded not once but twice - and in a field few imagined
:15:46. > :15:49.would be his strength. Tonight, America hailed as a victory the
:15:49. > :15:53.assassination of Anwar al-Awlaki - Al-Qaeda's link, they said, to the
:15:53. > :16:03.English-speaking world. So what is his legacy, and how will his death
:16:03. > :16:07.
:16:07. > :16:12.be received? Tim Whewell reports. He was the western face of Al-Qaeda.
:16:12. > :16:17.Not a senior commander, or even a senior cleric at, but the terror
:16:17. > :16:22.network's most charismatic English language propagandist. I eventually
:16:22. > :16:27.came to the conclusion that she had against America is binding upon
:16:27. > :16:32.myself just as it is binding upon every other able Muslim. A US
:16:32. > :16:38.citizen born in New Mexico, Anwar al-Awlaki could speak to American
:16:38. > :16:42.and British Muslims in their own language and recruit them to do his
:16:42. > :16:50.cause. Now an air strike in his adopted homeland of Yemen has put a
:16:50. > :16:53.stop to that. My reaction is we got him. This is one of the most
:16:53. > :16:58.treasured targets we have been seeking for a long time. We all
:16:59. > :17:05.feel this is, in terms of winning that important wall we talked about,
:17:05. > :17:15.the war of ideas, it is an absolutely critical victory.
:17:15. > :17:17.
:17:17. > :17:21.Awlaki was in touch with an... He was in contact with the underpants
:17:21. > :17:27.bomber, who planned to blow up a plane to Detroit on Christmas Day
:17:27. > :17:33.that year. And he inspired Russian our Chowdhry, who stabbed the
:17:33. > :17:39.London MP Stephen Timms at his constituency in 2010. Ifan a fist
:17:39. > :17:45.comes to you and says give me prove that God exists, -- Ifan a feast.
:17:45. > :17:50.You say that you exist. Pish -- if an atheist or stop he enjoyed a
:17:50. > :17:56.devoted following worldwide. American and British Muslims after
:17:56. > :18:00.he moved to the UK in 2002. He spoke here at the East London
:18:00. > :18:04.Mosque in December 2003. During the two years or so that al-Awlaki
:18:04. > :18:11.spent in Britain, he was in great demand as a speaker at Islamic
:18:11. > :18:14.events. The group's hosting him did not support extremism. This London
:18:15. > :18:19.mosques -- this London Mosque actively opposed it and he didn't
:18:19. > :18:23.preach violence. But he did open the eyes of at least some of his
:18:23. > :18:28.audience to a more political understanding of Islam. And while
:18:28. > :18:33.it is perfectly possible to be an Islamist without being violent, it
:18:33. > :18:40.is quite difficult in these times to be a violent Jihad the without
:18:40. > :18:43.first being an Islamist. Emphasising the divide between
:18:43. > :18:47.Muslims and the West, pushing people towards the violence,
:18:47. > :18:52.without advocating it directly, was the subject of a major study
:18:52. > :18:57.published in London. He was immensely popular. He was the face
:18:57. > :19:00.of orthodox conservative Islam in the West. He was sent all around
:19:00. > :19:05.the country, speaking that universities, packing every place
:19:05. > :19:10.he went and spoke out. A lot of the Islamic Forum's lit up with
:19:10. > :19:15.excitement when he came. He was really treated... The treated he
:19:15. > :19:20.got was unparalleled as far as Islamic preachers go. Moving to his
:19:20. > :19:24.parents' home in Yemen in 2004, he taught at this university, where
:19:24. > :19:28.Newsnight found a strong anti- Western attitudes, before later
:19:28. > :19:32.becoming prominent in the increasingly powerful local branch
:19:32. > :19:39.of Al-Qaeda. Since Osama Bin Laden's death, it has emerged that
:19:39. > :19:44.it was al-Awlaki Al-Qaeda in the Arabian prince here but wanted to
:19:45. > :19:49.increase the Western attacks -- AQAP. What we have found is that
:19:49. > :19:52.there was this the division between the old guard and the new card and
:19:52. > :19:56.al-Awlaki represented the new guard. Even though it was lower
:19:56. > :20:02.consequence, they were higher density attacks, to illustrate they
:20:02. > :20:07.were still relevant. But now Yemen appears to many to be on the verge
:20:07. > :20:11.of civil war. Split in two opposing factions and tribes after months of
:20:11. > :20:15.protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh. Al-Awlaki is dead
:20:15. > :20:22.but the chaos in the country may mean that the remaining Al-Qaeda et
:20:22. > :20:26.fighters have more space to operate. This period of turmoil with the
:20:26. > :20:31.President is supposedly committed to transition. We have seen an
:20:31. > :20:38.enormous amount of instability and in that process, unfortunately,
:20:38. > :20:44.over 65 members of AQAP have managed to escape from prison. On
:20:44. > :20:48.the one hand, we have decapitated their leader with al-Awlaki, but we
:20:48. > :20:58.have now seen at the Asper of a number of disciples across the
:20:58. > :20:59.
:20:59. > :21:03.Off and his influence will outlive him in the West. -- and.
:21:03. > :21:06.Operationally, you can say we are safe for now, but if we are talking
:21:06. > :21:10.about ideologically, that is not going to end. He has said
:21:10. > :21:16.everything he needs to say as far as convincing people to mobilise in
:21:16. > :21:20.favour of Al-Qaeda. America's drone attacks in Yemen are likely to
:21:20. > :21:26.continue, further weakening the terror network, but the struggle
:21:26. > :21:29.for hearts and minds in the Muslim world will have to continue as well.
:21:29. > :21:32.The appeal trial of Amanda Knox will come to its conclusion early
:21:32. > :21:36.next week in Perugia, when six jurors and two judges decide
:21:37. > :21:39.whether to overturn her conviction and 26-year sentence for murder. In
:21:40. > :21:44.2007, the American was found guilty - along with her boyfriend and
:21:44. > :21:47.another man - of killing British student Meredith Kercher. But
:21:47. > :21:50.during the hearing, the lawyer of the man she had originally and
:21:50. > :21:56.wrongly accused of the crime, Diya Lumumba, described her as a
:21:56. > :22:06."demonic she-devil with a dirty soul". Has a trial that started as
:22:06. > :22:11.
:22:11. > :22:21.a media circus turned into She was a diabolical satanic and
:22:21. > :22:25.
:22:25. > :22:29.Not the words of some medieval Pope, but one of the lawyer's are bought
:22:29. > :22:33.in the appeal of Amanda Knox. She has been described as everything
:22:33. > :22:39.from Jessica Rabbit to a Venus in a first during the past we got caught
:22:39. > :22:49.herrings. Just calling her a murderer doesn't seem to be another
:22:49. > :22:56.
:22:56. > :23:05.Today, the prosecution alleged that if her appeal were allowed, she
:23:05. > :23:10.would immediately flee the country. TRANSLATION: We know that if the
:23:10. > :23:14.verdict is overturned, there will be an immediate escape overseas. As
:23:14. > :23:19.a result, even if this is the second of a three-step legal
:23:19. > :23:25.process in Italy, it is up to you to ensure that justice -- ensure
:23:25. > :23:31.justice. Amanda Knox claims the murder was carried out by Rudy
:23:31. > :23:35.Hermann Guede ape from the Ivory Coast on his own. He has also been
:23:35. > :23:39.convicted of the murder. -- from the Ivory Coast. Will we will find
:23:39. > :23:42.out the verdict on Monday, but guilty or not, what does her
:23:42. > :23:45.depiction in the media and now the court as some kind of modern-day
:23:45. > :23:48.witch say of misogyny in modern-day Italy?
:23:48. > :23:50.I'm joined now by author and feminist commentator Joan Smith and
:23:50. > :23:54.Annalisa Piras, the London correspondent for Italian news
:23:54. > :23:58.magazine L'Espresso. Welcome to you both. Just to
:23:58. > :24:05.clarify, we are not really talking about the innocence or guilt of
:24:05. > :24:10.Amanda Knox. But we have seen some of the words used there. You could
:24:10. > :24:15.just say it is a pretty normal case of a lawyer trying to influence the
:24:15. > :24:20.case, could ensue? I think it is the culmination of a pro -- process
:24:20. > :24:24.that has been going on since 2007. It is a really horrible murder of a
:24:24. > :24:28.young woman and the whole case has got completely messed up by the
:24:28. > :24:33.focus on Amanda Knox. After all, three people have been convicted of
:24:33. > :24:36.different things in relation to this murder. We hear enough --
:24:36. > :24:40.almost nothing about the two men involved and what has happened is,
:24:40. > :24:43.I think normally in cases like this, you get a sense of what actually
:24:43. > :24:47.happened. I think it has been completely impossible from the
:24:47. > :24:52.start to get a sense in this case because of the focus on one woman,
:24:52. > :24:56.who is a foreigner, who is pretty and obviously quite sexual, and
:24:56. > :25:02.that has muddied the entire case. Do you think this is specific to
:25:02. > :25:07.the culture in which the trial is taking case? Or is this what we do
:25:07. > :25:11.to all alleged women killers? is always a fascination with any
:25:11. > :25:15.crime which involves a man and a woman, or more than one murderer.
:25:15. > :25:19.If there is a woman involved, the focus tends to be on her rather
:25:19. > :25:23.than the male perpetrators. I think also you have to remember that
:25:23. > :25:27.Italian culture, particularly popular culture, is incredibly
:25:27. > :25:30.sexist and women are centralised all the time and it has a prime
:25:30. > :25:33.minister who seems to describe himself as a part-time Prime
:25:33. > :25:37.Minister because he is so interested in his sex life. That is
:25:37. > :25:40.very much to the detriment of women because it portrays them as sexual
:25:40. > :25:44.creatures and whenever they are portrayed primarily as that, they
:25:44. > :25:51.get punished for it with this kind of rhetoric about witchcraft and
:25:51. > :25:58.last. Is that too profound to make this into a Berlusconi's it to
:25:58. > :26:03.leave...? -- Italy. I think it is quite clear that it is not a
:26:03. > :26:08.country for women. He has brought back a very chauvinistic and Mrs
:26:08. > :26:16.Dot -- misogynistic attitude towards women, dividing them into
:26:16. > :26:21.Madonna, Hall and which. Amanda Knox has fallen into the last
:26:21. > :26:25.category. On top of that, she is also American. That goes deeper
:26:25. > :26:29.into the Italian male Psyche, because in the Second World War,
:26:29. > :26:34.when the British and American women arrived, there is this image of
:26:34. > :26:39.these terrifying, liberated sexual woman that is not controllable but
:26:39. > :26:45.is incredibly attractive. Before we make this into a sob story, and she
:26:45. > :26:49.is not the real victim here at all, Meredith Kercher is, Jessica
:26:50. > :26:55.Rabbit? That is a quote used by her own defence lawyer. It works both
:26:55. > :27:00.ways. That is my point, it is actually impossible to work out who
:27:00. > :27:04.the real demand a Knox is in this trial. -- Amanda Knox is in this
:27:04. > :27:08.trial. But these are a generation of women who have been posting
:27:08. > :27:13.personal things about themselves on internet website and a huge deal
:27:13. > :27:17.has been made about what she posted on a social website. That is the
:27:17. > :27:22.kind of thing that young men and young women do it without thinking
:27:22. > :27:26.about what it would look like it in a highly publicised trial. You have
:27:26. > :27:31.to remember that the extraordinary accusation this week is that women
:27:31. > :27:38.are dressed -- driven by lust and our sex-crazed, that was kind of a
:27:38. > :27:44.pact with the devil. It is medieval. It goes back to 1486 and the
:27:44. > :27:49.publication of the Hammer at of witches. Most of that book inspired
:27:50. > :27:54.incredible scenes across Europe and ended in the deaths of thousands of
:27:54. > :27:57.its innocent people. All that was because women cannot be trusted
:27:57. > :28:01.because they are defective compared to men and are untrustworthy and
:28:01. > :28:05.all of that is coming out in the trial. The wider question is that
:28:05. > :28:10.whatever the verdict now, will there be a suspicion that somehow
:28:10. > :28:14.it has been influenced by the way this trial has been run? I guess
:28:14. > :28:19.that is impossible to avoid. There has been such a phenomenal media
:28:19. > :28:26.attention, and there has been all of these stereotypes are thrown at
:28:26. > :28:29.had, it is difficult to say they jury will not be influenced. On the
:28:29. > :28:35.other hand, I trust the final verdict will take into account
:28:35. > :28:39.everything that has been put on the table, the reliability of the Pru
:28:39. > :28:47.found the evidence and her behaviour and so on. -- prove, and
:28:47. > :28:51.the evidence. And nothing she will get a lesser conviction that she
:28:51. > :28:57.has now. -- I think. I think it does a disservice to everyone in
:28:57. > :29:02.the trial, including the victim, to turn a forensic forum into a witch
:29:02. > :29:06.hunt like this. Thank you very much. Let's take you
:29:06. > :29:10.through the papers. I mentioned the story in the Daily Telegraph. Just
:29:10. > :29:14.there to talk you through this. George Osborne says he is a
:29:15. > :29:19.conservative who believes in the Lower taxes but not finding them by
:29:19. > :29:23.borrowing more, so it is highly cautious on whether there will be
:29:23. > :29:27.tax cuts in the next -- before the next election.
:29:27. > :29:37.The Tories despairing over Cameron growth plans.
:29:37. > :29:39.The Daily Mail, the revolt over EU benefits. And at how the city
:29:39. > :29:42.bankrolls the Conservatives. That's all from Newsnight tonight,