Browse content similar to 02/11/2011. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Tonight, as we come on air, the leaders of the eurozone are putting | :00:10. | :00:14. | |
extreme pressure on Greece to save the Euro-bailout and the euro | :00:14. | :00:20. | |
itself. The Greek Prime Minister is summoned to meet the French | :00:20. | :00:27. | |
President and the German Chancellor. Here at the G20 the Greeks have | :00:27. | :00:31. | |
been told, fine, have your referendum, but you won't get any | :00:31. | :00:39. | |
bailout money until that's over. The three-day debate on a no | :00:39. | :00:42. | |
confidence motion in Mr Papandreou's Government has started | :00:42. | :00:48. | |
here without him. So just as soon as he can extricate himself from | :00:48. | :00:55. | |
that French embroillio, he will have to dash back to at thens to | :00:55. | :01:01. | |
fight for his political life. will speak to the European | :01:01. | :01:09. | |
council's President's righthand man. How similar are the economic | :01:09. | :01:13. | |
problems of now to the Great Depression. The new head of the | :01:14. | :01:16. | |
Press Complaints Commission will tell us why his job is still worth | :01:16. | :01:26. | |
doing. And : # It's the end of the world as we | :01:26. | :01:31. | |
know tl Michael Stipe and Mike Mills on why the band REM split, | :01:31. | :01:40. | |
and why music and politics mix. Good evening, it is probably one of | :01:40. | :01:43. | |
the most difficult evenings of George Papandreou's political life. | :01:43. | :01:46. | |
This is the way it was supposed to go. Last week the eurozone leaders | :01:46. | :01:49. | |
finally saved the currency. This week the biggest economies on earth, | :01:49. | :01:53. | |
and the G20 would need in Cannes and use that as a springboard to | :01:53. | :01:57. | |
push the worldwide recovery forward. It was a great script until it was | :01:57. | :02:00. | |
thrown into the dustbin by Mr Papandreou's decision to hold a | :02:00. | :02:06. | |
referendum on the terms of their bailout. We begin tonight in Cannes, | :02:06. | :02:09. | |
where Greece's Prime Minister has been called in to see the head | :02:09. | :02:16. | |
teachers for a real caning. The press conference with Mr | :02:16. | :02:19. | |
Sarkozy and Mrs Merkel is still going on. It is not often you get | :02:19. | :02:24. | |
at one of these conferences a real and serious action. But they are | :02:24. | :02:27. | |
coming thick and fast in the last five minutes. | :02:27. | :02:32. | |
The EU has formally suspended the eight billion debt repayment due to | :02:32. | :02:37. | |
Greece that was agreed last week. Mrs Merkel said that there had been | :02:37. | :02:41. | |
a big change in the psychology. A dramatic change in the psychology | :02:41. | :02:45. | |
of the situation, because Greece called this referendum. She has | :02:45. | :02:50. | |
accused the Greek Prime Minister of playing poker, and said that the | :02:50. | :02:53. | |
Greek referendum question should be about in or out of the euro. | :02:53. | :02:58. | |
Something that the Greeks themselves are not, of course, keen | :02:58. | :03:03. | |
on. China has said that it's not interested in lending to the big | :03:03. | :03:07. | |
bailout fund, the one trillion euro EFSF, that is going to be aimed at | :03:07. | :03:10. | |
Italy. It is not interested, because with all this uncertainty | :03:10. | :03:19. | |
around who can value the risk, who can base a calculation of risk on | :03:19. | :03:23. | |
lending that kind of money. That is nice work for a country that wasn't | :03:23. | :03:27. | |
even invited to the Cannes G20 country. Greece, too small to be in | :03:27. | :03:32. | |
the top 20. The mood here, of course is very tense. It is still | :03:32. | :03:36. | |
on going tonight. I think the reactions are even now filtering | :03:36. | :03:39. | |
out and will do throughout the programme. Overall, there is a | :03:39. | :03:43. | |
feeling that the Greek situation can be contained. Because the | :03:43. | :03:47. | |
bigger situation with Italy, Spain and the rest of the world, does | :03:47. | :03:50. | |
beckon the attention of these leaders, afterall the world could | :03:50. | :03:53. | |
be on the brink of a double-dip recession. That is what they worry | :03:54. | :04:00. | |
about. All today, ins and outs here at Cannes, with world leaders being | :04:00. | :04:03. | |
told, get your act together they are under pressure to raise their | :04:03. | :04:09. | |
game. In diplomatic speak, they are | :04:09. | :04:13. | |
called Mer kozy, the two heads of state at the heart of Europe. When | :04:13. | :04:18. | |
they met the Greek Prime Minister tonight, an unexpected invitey, it | :04:18. | :04:22. | |
was not very cosy, because the Greek PM has basically spoiled | :04:22. | :04:32. | |
their party. Although Cannes is in full lock down mode, on the luxury | :04:32. | :04:35. | |
coastline it is some how hard to remember the world is in crisis. | :04:35. | :04:40. | |
They chose this place to focus on the big issues, growth, currencies, | :04:40. | :04:49. | |
the reregulation of the world. The summit's bim toll, 20 flags wrapped | :04:49. | :04:54. | |
- symbol, 20 flags wrapped around something sweet, but Greece has | :04:54. | :04:57. | |
soured things. Last Thursday Greece was offered a deal to write off 100 | :04:58. | :05:03. | |
billion euros worth of debt, with banks agreeing to take 50% losses. | :05:03. | :05:07. | |
The price, years of austerity and control of economic policy handed | :05:07. | :05:11. | |
to outside experts. But Greece needs to roll over 20 billion euros | :05:11. | :05:15. | |
worth of existing debt by the end of January. With the referendum, | :05:15. | :05:20. | |
nobody's sure who will lend. In the French parliament the response was | :05:20. | :05:26. | |
blunt. TRANSLATION: You can't be in Europe to benefit from its | :05:26. | :05:30. | |
solidarity, and aside from Europe to escape the discipline that every | :05:30. | :05:36. | |
nation must consent to. Meanwhile, in Italy, there was an emergency | :05:36. | :05:41. | |
cabinet meeting tonight, because the bond markets are signals danger. | :05:41. | :05:44. | |
We knew the interest rates on Italy's long-term debts were | :05:45. | :05:49. | |
getting frightening, but look at the interest rates on 12-month | :05:49. | :05:53. | |
loans, usually below 1%. This is what's happened, it has spiked now | :05:53. | :06:00. | |
above 5% this week. And some fear that's a signal the Italian crisis | :06:00. | :06:04. | |
will imminently spill over into the banks, because this is the kind of | :06:04. | :06:07. | |
debts banks use for short-term business. Americans are already | :06:07. | :06:11. | |
telling Mr Berlusconi that you will not be able to sell your bonds for | :06:11. | :06:15. | |
the next few weeks or months at the punitive interest rates, they are | :06:15. | :06:18. | |
demanding, they don't trust you. Mr Berlusconi is enough of a business | :06:19. | :06:22. | |
person to know what that signal means. Then when his closest | :06:22. | :06:31. | |
friends, here at the G20, and in the G, say look, you have got to | :06:31. | :06:35. | |
promise and do grb G7, you can't just promise it, you have to do it | :06:35. | :06:39. | |
back home, and the young people have to have jobs, that is the only | :06:39. | :06:43. | |
way to grow your economy. I think Berlusconi will finally bite the | :06:43. | :06:49. | |
bullet and do it. It is hard to see it here amid the luxury of the | :06:49. | :06:58. | |
Riviera, but the world recovery is slowing, growth is down, and debt | :06:58. | :07:04. | |
up. Jose Angel Gurria, who runs the influential think-tank, OED, and | :07:04. | :07:09. | |
who will be in the talks, thinks it is crucial to sort out Greece and | :07:09. | :07:14. | |
then move on. Greece is unique in terms of the problems. We should | :07:14. | :07:20. | |
ring-fence it, referendum or not. We should really stop the contagion | :07:20. | :07:24. | |
and build the big firework. That might mean an even bigger bailout | :07:24. | :07:28. | |
to Greece, just to ring-fence it completely, otherwise why are we | :07:28. | :07:32. | |
sitting here worrying about it after a third of the debt is | :07:32. | :07:37. | |
written off already? Because the original sin was that we said, in | :07:37. | :07:44. | |
the beginning, two years ago, the future of Europe and the future of | :07:44. | :07:47. | |
the euro, is linked to Greece. Whatever happens to Greece happens | :07:47. | :07:56. | |
to all of us. That was obviously a mistake. Why is it that at summit | :07:56. | :08:00. | |
after summit, we pass resolutions, we pass action plans, but we never | :08:00. | :08:04. | |
see this structural question addressed? After spending a lot in | :08:04. | :08:08. | |
order to get out of the recession, into a feeble recovery, where did | :08:08. | :08:14. | |
that leave us? With huge deficits. And huge accumulated debt. More | :08:14. | :08:20. | |
than 100% debt to GDP in the OECD on average. And you still have 10% | :08:20. | :08:24. | |
unemployment, and you still have 20% unemployment of the youth, or | :08:24. | :08:29. | |
30% or 40%, you still have people all over the world occupying the | :08:29. | :08:33. | |
streets, occupying Wall Street or the City. They have pint haven't | :08:33. | :08:37. | |
they? Of course they have a point. - They have a point, haven't they? | :08:37. | :08:40. | |
Of course they have a point. That means no matter how tight the | :08:40. | :08:43. | |
budgets are we have to leave space for them and the things that are | :08:43. | :08:53. | |
the seedz of the future growth. the Greek crisis has centralised | :08:53. | :08:57. | |
the problem, the rest of the world has enough of things that don't | :08:57. | :09:01. | |
deliver growth. They have started to punish politics that don't | :09:01. | :09:05. | |
deliver it. Mr Papandreou's arrival here signals how fast things are | :09:05. | :09:08. | |
develop anything this crisis. Six months ago the arriving leaders | :09:08. | :09:11. | |
could have looked at Greece and said that is what you don't want to | :09:11. | :09:14. | |
happen. That is what happens when you lose control of your sovereign | :09:14. | :09:19. | |
debt. Now they look at Papandreou and think, that is what happens if | :09:19. | :09:25. | |
you lose control of your streets. And now, as a result of his | :09:25. | :09:28. | |
referendum call, Mr Papandreou seems to have lost control of the | :09:28. | :09:36. | |
very bailout he thought had saved him. I'm just noticing as you were | :09:36. | :09:40. | |
watching that report, that the Merkel press conference in Cannes, | :09:40. | :09:45. | |
Mrs Merkel is saying that the Greek referendum must ask does Greece | :09:45. | :09:50. | |
wish to be in the eurozone area. We will pursue that in just a moment. | :09:50. | :09:54. | |
The other part of the story is in Greece itself, where Mr | :09:54. | :09:59. | |
Papandreou's referendum could lead to harder times ahead. There is | :09:59. | :10:03. | |
really intense pressure on the Greeks, Mrs Merkel saying they are | :10:03. | :10:07. | |
playing poker, and effectively saying any referendum is an in-out | :10:07. | :10:10. | |
referendum? Yes, they couldn't be under any greater pressure than | :10:10. | :10:14. | |
they are already. Mr Papandreou's party fraying under the strain, | :10:14. | :10:19. | |
ministers going sick, all the rest of it. Of course we don't have a | :10:19. | :10:22. | |
response at the moment to what's just been said in Cannes. But it is | :10:22. | :10:27. | |
interesting that earlier today, Mr Papandreou's spokesman said quite | :10:27. | :10:30. | |
specifically, that this would not be a referendum on the euro in or | :10:30. | :10:34. | |
out. It was a referendum on the bailout package, and whether the | :10:34. | :10:38. | |
people were prepared to accept it and implicitly the sacrifices it | :10:38. | :10:42. | |
involves. It is interesting that they seem to have tried to head off | :10:42. | :10:45. | |
that line, before even he arrived at that time dinner in Cannes. The | :10:45. | :10:49. | |
other thing one can't help but think, is in the language of the | :10:49. | :10:53. | |
accusation from Chancellor Merkel tonight, of playing poker, that | :10:53. | :10:58. | |
there may be some indication of her own tactics in this supremely | :10:58. | :11:01. | |
difficult moment. Perhaps they are all playing poker, but perhaps it | :11:01. | :11:05. | |
is with other people's money. I notice that President Sarkozy is | :11:05. | :11:09. | |
saying we cannot spend European tax-payers' money if Greece doesn't | :11:09. | :11:12. | |
follow Brussels' agreement to the letter. How worried do you think | :11:12. | :11:16. | |
the people are in Greece that they are going to be seriously punished | :11:16. | :11:24. | |
for this referendum? There is this question of the eight billion euros, | :11:24. | :11:28. | |
that was supposed to be made available to them in mid-November, | :11:28. | :11:33. | |
to get them through the cry sifs trying to keep the economy afloat | :11:33. | :11:38. | |
here. - crisis of trying to keep the economy afloat here. This could | :11:38. | :11:41. | |
be the element of poker from Chancellor Merkel, is it a credible | :11:41. | :11:44. | |
threat to withdraw this money. This evening they seem to be saying in | :11:44. | :11:48. | |
Cannes, yes it is, this is not a deal you can pull apart and take | :11:48. | :11:51. | |
the candy and then throw the rest of it open to the referendum. But | :11:51. | :11:55. | |
many people in Greece will reflect that if that money is taken away, | :11:55. | :12:00. | |
just a week or two, potentially, before Greeks go to the polls, that | :12:00. | :12:04. | |
could have a disastrous effect on the course of the euro, and it | :12:04. | :12:07. | |
could actually trigger the implosion that France and Germany | :12:07. | :12:11. | |
are so desperate to avoid. So it will be fascinating to see whether | :12:11. | :12:15. | |
they really are in ernest about that threat, or whether some kind | :12:15. | :12:20. | |
of formula is put together, simply to get Greece through the crisis | :12:20. | :12:24. | |
that leads up to the referendum, assuming it still happens. Thank | :12:24. | :12:30. | |
you very much. The Greek decision to hold a | :12:30. | :12:35. | |
referendum on the bailout package, and the implications, are being | :12:35. | :12:41. | |
absorbed in every European capital. Joining me live is Alvaro Santos | :12:41. | :12:49. | |
Pereira, the Portuguese Finance Minister, and Richard Corbett. How | :12:49. | :12:52. | |
irritated are you in the EU leadership that Mr Papandreou has | :12:52. | :12:59. | |
made you look like fools? Well, on the one hand the EU, as you know is | :12:59. | :13:03. | |
not a centralised powerful authority, it is a union of | :13:03. | :13:06. | |
democracies, and democratic procedures in each member-state | :13:06. | :13:10. | |
have to be respected. But on the other hand, last week, when this | :13:10. | :13:15. | |
package was put together, that everybody thought was a key turning | :13:15. | :13:18. | |
point, there was no indication at that point from the Greek side that | :13:18. | :13:23. | |
this may well be put to a referendum. Which, whatever its | :13:23. | :13:29. | |
merits, prolongs the uncertainty for a long period of time. Indeed. | :13:29. | :13:32. | |
Triggering a return to market volatility, which is undermining | :13:32. | :13:36. | |
the whole process. Indeed, but it also shows the profound weakness at | :13:36. | :13:40. | |
the very heart of the EU, when you have a deal which is unravelled | :13:40. | :13:46. | |
within five days? Well, as I said, the EU is not a dictatorship, it is | :13:46. | :13:50. | |
a uefpb democracies, you have to work with - a union of demok | :13:50. | :13:54. | |
circumstance you have to work with the - democracies, and you have to | :13:54. | :14:00. | |
work with the countries in that. If Greece so chooses to put this deal | :14:00. | :14:04. | |
to a referendum it can. But you can also understand how others have | :14:04. | :14:08. | |
reacted to that. They thought there was a deal that could be enacted | :14:08. | :14:13. | |
quickly, that would already calm the markets, the initial effect was | :14:13. | :14:17. | |
very beneficial, it was well received, this puts that in | :14:17. | :14:19. | |
jeopardy. You can understand the reaction from other member states | :14:19. | :14:27. | |
to that decision. Do you now see, in the words of Mrs Merkel, that | :14:27. | :14:32. | |
has to be an in-out of the eurozone decision for Greece, however they | :14:32. | :14:38. | |
word it, that is what is at stake here for Greece? It is indeed | :14:39. | :14:43. | |
difficult to understand what a "no" would actually mean. Would they be | :14:43. | :14:48. | |
saying, no, this loan is not big enough, we want a bigger loan to | :14:48. | :14:52. | |
help us turn the corner, or are they saying we don't want any loan | :14:52. | :15:00. | |
at all, we can manage wout without assistance from the rest of the | :15:00. | :15:04. | |
Euro-- - eurozone. It is an odd situation to have a referendum the | :15:04. | :15:07. | |
leadership, at least, thinks there is only one possible answer. But | :15:07. | :15:14. | |
the people may well say we don't actually like that answer. But from | :15:14. | :15:18. | |
different perspectives, you won't have an answer to what they want | :15:18. | :15:25. | |
instead. Would you contrue this as an in-out - cons true this as an | :15:25. | :15:29. | |
in-out vote s that how you see it? The Greek Government will formulate | :15:29. | :15:39. | |
:15:39. | :15:48. | ||
the question. You See the knock-on effect of a potential no-vote might | :15:48. | :15:54. | |
bring the question of Greece leaving the euro might be possible. | :15:54. | :15:59. | |
How do you view this Greek referendum? Good evening, for us | :15:59. | :16:04. | |
the Greek referendum obviously increases the uncertainty, and | :16:04. | :16:12. | |
increases volatility. On our part what we see is we are extremely | :16:12. | :16:16. | |
strongly committed to reform, we are strongly committed to fiscal | :16:16. | :16:21. | |
consolidation, we believe in a reform agenda that would bring, | :16:21. | :16:27. | |
would make Portugal a country that is more business-friendly, more | :16:27. | :16:31. | |
business orientated, with better labour laws, with new competition | :16:31. | :16:37. | |
laws just approved and under public consultation. It could all be blown | :16:37. | :16:40. | |
sideways? You may be doing all the right things, and with the angels | :16:40. | :16:45. | |
on this but the Greek decision means months of uncertainty for you | :16:45. | :16:51. | |
and the people of Portugal. The Greek decision increases the | :16:51. | :16:56. | |
uncertainty, on our part, what we can do is show the world we are | :16:56. | :17:02. | |
doing our best and doing whatever we can to maintain dialogue with | :17:02. | :17:06. | |
the trade unions, we have maintained also a peaceful | :17:06. | :17:10. | |
environment in Portugal, together we have had a very strong reform | :17:10. | :17:16. | |
agenda. That makes sure fiscal consolidation is made possible, | :17:16. | :17:20. | |
together with a growth agenda that is bringing large reforms to | :17:20. | :17:25. | |
Portugal, unequivocal reforms. suggesting, whatever you do, your | :17:25. | :17:30. | |
fate is in the hands of ten million people in Greece. It has nothing to | :17:30. | :17:34. | |
do with these greet reforms you may be doing. It has to - great reforms | :17:34. | :17:38. | |
you may be doing. It is to do with the Greek referendum going ahead | :17:38. | :17:44. | |
and whether it blows up the euro? We strongly believe by doing the | :17:44. | :17:49. | |
reform agenda we are doing, we will be able to stop any contagion that | :17:49. | :17:55. | |
might come about with the Greek situation. Even if they vote no. | :17:55. | :17:59. | |
strongly believe. For us it doesn't make sense to get out of the euro, | :17:59. | :18:02. | |
for several reasons, including the fact that our exports are growing | :18:02. | :18:06. | |
at 9% a year, they have been growing for quite a while, in the | :18:06. | :18:11. | |
last three or four years they are growing very well. So, for us the | :18:12. | :18:18. | |
euro, the impact of the euro has past passed, our exports are | :18:18. | :18:23. | |
getting stronger and the economy getting more stronger, it doesn't | :18:23. | :18:27. | |
make sense at all for us. Bringing in Mr Corbett again. You can | :18:27. | :18:31. | |
imagine if you were in the Chinese delegation, they will look at this | :18:31. | :18:35. | |
and think it is a complete shambles and not putting the Chinese people | :18:35. | :18:40. | |
as money in anything to do with Europe? I think that - the Chinese | :18:40. | :18:44. | |
people's money in anything to do with Europe? I think you have to | :18:44. | :18:47. | |
look much further than Greece. The package agreed last week was in | :18:47. | :18:52. | |
part about Greece, but also in part about building firewalls so make | :18:52. | :18:57. | |
sure there is no contagion from Greece to other states in the euro, | :18:57. | :19:03. | |
or the rest of the European Union. The increased capitalisation of | :19:03. | :19:06. | |
banks, increasing the fire power of the so-called bailout fund. That is | :19:06. | :19:11. | |
all designed to make sure there is no contagion from Greece. If you | :19:11. | :19:16. | |
were China you wouldn't put money into it? Those aspects are not | :19:16. | :19:19. | |
subject to the referendum in Greece, they still stand as part of the | :19:19. | :19:22. | |
deal. They are still there and should reassure potential investors | :19:22. | :19:25. | |
from other parts of the world. Thank you very much. | :19:25. | :19:30. | |
Let's go back to Paul Mason in Cannes, who has not just been | :19:30. | :19:33. | |
following tonight's events ahead of the G20 Summit tomorrow, but also | :19:33. | :19:37. | |
looking at some of the lessons of history. We thought two years ago | :19:37. | :19:43. | |
we had avoided a repeat of the Great Depression. We spent | :19:43. | :19:48. | |
thrillions of digging ourselves out of the Lehman Brothers - trillions | :19:48. | :19:52. | |
digging ourselves out of the Liam man brothers crisis. Required | :19:52. | :19:56. | |
reading, the economic history of the early 1930s, that period is the | :19:57. | :20:02. | |
period that shows us what happens if the - if during the crisis you | :20:02. | :20:06. | |
enter, as we have done tonight, the finger-pointing stage, the blaming | :20:06. | :20:11. | |
stage, and the competitive exit out of the crisis stage. I have been | :20:11. | :20:15. | |
looking at what the parallels are, what we can learn, and how we can | :20:15. | :20:25. | |
:20:25. | :20:27. | ||
avoid repeating it. The depression of the 1930s began in Wall Street, | :20:27. | :20:30. | |
with the share price crash. How did it get from Wall Street to the rest | :20:30. | :20:35. | |
of the world. That is the story of a cross-border | :20:35. | :20:39. | |
banking crisis, social unrest, countries reneging on their debts, | :20:39. | :20:44. | |
and the breakdown of an international currency system. If | :20:44. | :20:48. | |
that sounds familiar, it should. What is haunting the world's | :20:48. | :20:53. | |
leaders, as they prepare for the G20 Summit is a repeat of the early | :20:53. | :20:59. | |
1930s. In the 1930s there was a great | :20:59. | :21:01. | |
fracturing of globalisation. So countries which had been used to | :21:01. | :21:05. | |
co-operating with each other in a number of ways, all took to doing | :21:05. | :21:08. | |
their own thing. They took to doing their own thing politically and | :21:08. | :21:16. | |
economically. The world that collapsed in 1931 | :21:16. | :21:21. | |
was a glilt glittering, ultra modern world, the economic recovery | :21:21. | :21:27. | |
of the 1920s had produced Art Deco, luxury for the masses, and for the | :21:27. | :21:31. | |
elite, as with this family and its purpose-built deco mansion, what | :21:31. | :21:39. | |
could possibly go wrong. The 1920s had seen rapid | :21:39. | :21:42. | |
technological advance, when the crisis started it looked like just | :21:42. | :21:46. | |
a blip, what had produced all this was a global system of trade and | :21:46. | :21:51. | |
currencies based on gold. But in the fight to safe that system, they | :21:51. | :21:54. | |
would destroy almost everything else. One of the things that | :21:54. | :21:58. | |
happened in the 1930s was the very mechanism which people focused on, | :21:59. | :22:03. | |
which they thought would promote globalisation, actually was a | :22:03. | :22:08. | |
contributor to its end. The gold standard was a system of | :22:08. | :22:13. | |
fixed exchange rates that obliged Governments to balance their books | :22:13. | :22:17. | |
long-term. But in the worst-hit countries, once the downturn | :22:17. | :22:27. | |
:22:27. | :22:28. | ||
started, sticking to gold forced Governments to make austerity worse. | :22:28. | :22:31. | |
Today some worry what happened with the gold standard could happen with | :22:31. | :22:35. | |
the euro, here again, adherence to the rules is forcing some countries | :22:35. | :22:40. | |
to impose harsh austerity. And even as the streets erupt, the European | :22:41. | :22:43. | |
political class has convinced itself that nobody can leave the | :22:43. | :22:48. | |
euro. The thing about Europe is the | :22:48. | :22:52. | |
single currency, and the way that all these 17 countries are tied | :22:52. | :22:56. | |
together by one exchange rate. The parallel with the early 1930s is | :22:56. | :22:59. | |
clearly the gold standard, where some countries believe that the | :22:59. | :23:08. | |
gold standard was the basis for prosperity. The reality was that it | :23:08. | :23:12. | |
was imposing enormous deflation on some countries and the UK was one | :23:12. | :23:19. | |
of the first to break-away. Britain's exit from gold in 1931 | :23:19. | :23:25. | |
forms a case study in how events can confound a currency peg. First, | :23:25. | :23:28. | |
the Labour Government collapsed over the levels of austerity | :23:28. | :23:35. | |
required to stay on gold. And then, amid defence cuts, the Royal Navy | :23:35. | :23:39. | |
mutinyed. Those particular spending cuts led to parts of the Royal Navy, | :23:39. | :23:42. | |
fearing that they would have very large salary cuts, and there was a | :23:42. | :23:50. | |
mutiny, which included the flagship of the Navy, The Hood, this, in | :23:50. | :23:54. | |
mid-September 1931 triggered a very widespread panic, people thought | :23:54. | :23:57. | |
there might be a coup and all kinds of things, and international | :23:57. | :24:00. | |
investors really panicked in respect of the UK. And the | :24:00. | :24:04. | |
Government quite soon after gave up on the attempt to hold the gold | :24:04. | :24:07. | |
standard. When Britain came off gold, the establishment were so | :24:07. | :24:12. | |
shocked that one former Labour minister said, we didn't know you | :24:12. | :24:17. | |
could do that. Germany and Japan came off gold in the same year, and | :24:17. | :24:21. | |
the industrial output showed those who ran for the exits first, | :24:21. | :24:27. | |
recovered first. The depression of the 1930s was felt worst by those | :24:27. | :24:31. | |
countries that were last to abandon their commitment to the global | :24:31. | :24:37. | |
system. America, and France. Of course, we know what happened, | :24:37. | :24:41. | |
within a decade the big powers were engaged in trade wars, currency | :24:41. | :24:45. | |
wars, land grabs, and ultimately military conflict. | :24:45. | :24:49. | |
And the problem today is you can just see the beginnings of some of | :24:49. | :24:56. | |
that. When the USA decided on a second | :24:56. | :25:01. | |
round of qeesing, QE-2, the result was to boost inflation in the | :25:01. | :25:05. | |
rapidly developing countries like bra still. Bra still's Finance | :25:05. | :25:11. | |
Minister called it economic war and re- Brazil's Finance Minister | :25:11. | :25:17. | |
called it economic war. Japan, fearing its exports would be hit by | :25:17. | :25:21. | |
a weaker dollar, intervened to weaken its own currency, | :25:21. | :25:26. | |
Switzerland did the same, Japan did the same this week and so did | :25:26. | :25:30. | |
Argentina, that has led to some fearing the break up of | :25:30. | :25:33. | |
globalisation, others to welcome it. I don't think there is a danger | :25:33. | :25:43. | |
with retreating from globalisation. Globalisation has led to a lot of | :25:43. | :25:49. | |
problems causing the credit crunch, we have to ask is this what we want, | :25:49. | :25:52. | |
a world dominated by large companies with weak labour power. | :25:52. | :25:57. | |
It is not a level playing field at the moment. You have Asian | :25:57. | :26:02. | |
Governments gaming the system which manipulating the exchange rate. | :26:02. | :26:07. | |
last week's euro deal injected, potentially, more friction into | :26:07. | :26:10. | |
that argument. Europe needs to borrow a trillion, but when the man | :26:10. | :26:14. | |
doing the borrowing turned up in China, with his begging bowl, he | :26:14. | :26:21. | |
was told stop criticising us over currency, and then we will see. | :26:21. | :26:25. | |
In the early 1930s, even as the global economy slid towards break | :26:25. | :26:30. | |
up, the band played on. This was a world in which radio was growing | :26:30. | :26:34. | |
rapidly, the movies were beginning to talk, public morals were getting | :26:34. | :26:39. | |
loser. - looser. Today it seems impossible that our | :26:39. | :26:45. | |
global system could disappear, so much of our culture is bound up | :26:45. | :26:50. | |
with it. Their's did. Within a decade, the whole world of jazz, | :26:50. | :26:57. | |
loose morals and modern art was gone. | :26:57. | :27:03. | |
There is no legal justification whatever for France not paying the | :27:03. | :27:07. | |
current installment of $20 million on her debt to us. | :27:07. | :27:11. | |
Two things drove the break up, debts that had become politic sized, | :27:11. | :27:16. | |
and social unrest. - politicised, and social unrest. | :27:16. | :27:21. | |
On the streets, once unrest brokeout, it proved impossible for | :27:21. | :27:27. | |
politicians to resist, and national route out of the crisis. This time | :27:27. | :27:31. | |
around, free market economists have been at the forefront of defending | :27:31. | :27:35. | |
globalisation, but now some are beginning to see the possibility of | :27:35. | :27:40. | |
retreat. Do you think it is realistic for us to still be | :27:40. | :27:45. | |
talking about a global, multilateral solution to this | :27:45. | :27:50. | |
crisis? I think it is both unrealistic and if it were it would | :27:50. | :27:54. | |
be a mistake. I think it would be better at this stage for us each to | :27:54. | :27:59. | |
look to our own ramparts, each try our own thing, and if we see | :27:59. | :28:03. | |
something is working better somewhere else than what we have | :28:03. | :28:06. | |
tried we can copy them. If you wait too long and end up doing your own | :28:06. | :28:10. | |
thing, you do your own thing in an environment in which the | :28:10. | :28:14. | |
populations and the politicians who turn up as their spokesman, blame | :28:14. | :28:18. | |
international co-ordination for the events. They will say, we have been | :28:18. | :28:22. | |
forced, by the Germans or the Americans, or the IMF or the UN, to | :28:22. | :28:28. | |
do things this way, and part of our identity now is that we are against | :28:28. | :28:35. | |
them, the enemy. In Greece, that's already happening. | :28:35. | :28:39. | |
But the occupy protests too, though international, are each putting | :28:39. | :28:45. | |
pressure on national Governments to act. Here again, say the economists, | :28:45. | :28:50. | |
there are lessons from history. should not underestimate the social | :28:50. | :28:55. | |
and economic peril of neglecting the moral aspect of policy. If | :28:55. | :28:59. | |
people are subject to injustice for long enough, they will ultimately | :28:59. | :29:08. | |
reject that and the political consequences can be terrifying. | :29:08. | :29:12. | |
1934 the San Francisco industrial strike, this is worse than the | :29:12. | :29:21. | |
world war. Today we are a lot richer than in the 1930s, that | :29:21. | :29:26. | |
should cushion the blow. But the social cohesion is lower. To a | :29:26. | :29:29. | |
generation whose future has been cancelled, it will be of little | :29:29. | :29:35. | |
comfort that things were worse back then. | :29:35. | :29:39. | |
In the last few minutes, Mr Papandreou has been speaking, and | :29:39. | :29:46. | |
he has been quite defiant. I believe it is crucial that we | :29:46. | :29:54. | |
show the world that we can live up to our obligations. We can live up | :29:54. | :30:00. | |
to these obligations, and this is crucial for our future | :30:00. | :30:09. | |
participation in the eurozone. telegraphic though that statement | :30:09. | :30:12. | |
scenes, it does contain a message, it tells the world that what Mr | :30:12. | :30:15. | |
Papandreou is trying to do in Greece is to convince the Greek | :30:15. | :30:21. | |
people to take the bailout, to take the conditions which involve having | :30:21. | :30:25. | |
foreign civil servants inside their own ministries, and to stay inside | :30:25. | :30:29. | |
the eurozone. It is telling Mrs Merkel and Mr Sarkozy this is a | :30:29. | :30:33. | |
gamble, I'm taking on your behalf, to try to convince the Greek people. | :30:34. | :30:38. | |
It is saying, in other words, it is not to the cynical, a gamble in | :30:38. | :30:41. | |
which I end up being chucked out of power, and therefore I don't take | :30:41. | :30:45. | |
the blame for the disaster. I think that was a very clear message there | :30:45. | :30:50. | |
from Mr Papandreou. Thank you very much. | :30:50. | :30:54. | |
After their handling, or non- handling of the newspaper hacking | :30:54. | :30:57. | |
scandal, the Press Complaints Commission has appeared more or | :30:57. | :31:01. | |
less friendless, a toothless poodle, according to Ed Milliband, a | :31:01. | :31:04. | |
failure and we need a new system entirely, according to David | :31:05. | :31:09. | |
Cameron. Now the PCC has a new chairman, Lord Hunt, does it have a | :31:09. | :31:13. | |
future. We will ask Lord Hunt in a moment. First, how the PCC hit the | :31:13. | :31:20. | |
headlines for all the wrong reasons. The phone hacking scandal destroyed | :31:20. | :31:23. | |
Britain's biggest-selling newspaper, News of the World. It still | :31:23. | :31:30. | |
threatens the Murdoch empire. Hello it is Glenn. How are you. | :31:30. | :31:35. | |
Just a quick one, voice mail reset on Gordon Taylor, it has Tottenham- | :31:36. | :31:40. | |
related issues there. Many believe it will soon claim the scalp of the | :31:40. | :31:43. | |
regulatory body, the Press Complaints Commission too. The PCC | :31:43. | :31:46. | |
has been absolutely shocking in terms of any pretence of regulating | :31:46. | :31:50. | |
the press. They just haven't done it. If you examine the time line | :31:51. | :31:54. | |
behind the phone hacking story, then the weight of evidence against | :31:54. | :32:04. | |
:32:04. | :32:05. | ||
the PCC becomes embarrassingly clear. It reveals an organisation | :32:05. | :32:09. | |
totally dependian on the good will and operation of those it is | :32:09. | :32:12. | |
regulating. It also shows that those trying to blow the whistle | :32:12. | :32:16. | |
were wrong, and it gave the impression of a body trying to shut | :32:16. | :32:21. | |
down the story. For the PCC the challenge began in 2006 with the | :32:21. | :32:28. | |
arrest of News of the World's private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, | :32:28. | :32:35. | |
he had been working with the royal correspondent, Clive Goodman, | :32:35. | :32:41. | |
hacking phones. The Police swung into action and interviewed the | :32:41. | :32:44. | |
suspects, the regulatory body said it was one rogue reporter, this | :32:44. | :32:50. | |
satisfied the PCC. Later the PCC would write it was not its reblit | :32:50. | :32:55. | |
to replicate the police investigation to establish other | :32:55. | :32:58. | |
transgressions, so no powers of investigation, no powers of audit, | :32:58. | :33:04. | |
all was well in the best of all possible worlds. In 2009 the | :33:04. | :33:08. | |
Guardian revealed other journalists had known about the phone hacking. | :33:08. | :33:12. | |
Once again the PCC swung action to investigate, and published a report. | :33:12. | :33:15. | |
That report concluded there was no substantial evidence to support | :33:15. | :33:19. | |
that and that it had not been materially misled. Indeed, a week | :33:19. | :33:24. | |
later, when giving evidence to the society of newspaper editors, the | :33:24. | :33:28. | |
chair said new evidence had emerged from a Metropolitan Police | :33:28. | :33:31. | |
detective. Who said that the number of victims of phone hacking was | :33:31. | :33:35. | |
just a handful, not the thoughs referred to in evidence by leading | :33:35. | :33:40. | |
phone hacking lawyer Mark Lewis. Not only did you go along with the | :33:40. | :33:43. | |
News of the World lying that it was only one rogue reporter, not only | :33:43. | :33:47. | |
did you implicitly attack the Guardian. You are not hearing your | :33:47. | :33:51. | |
answers, you ignored my answers. You then attacked the lawyer to | :33:51. | :33:56. | |
testified to the Commons that 6,000 people had been hacked. I didn't | :33:56. | :34:01. | |
attack the lawyer, I'm not going into that. You had to apologise and | :34:01. | :34:08. | |
pay costs, correct. They ended up paying damages and my legal costs. | :34:08. | :34:12. | |
They certainly didn't understand the full nature of the hacking | :34:12. | :34:14. | |
scandal? Not only did they not understand it, they didn't bother | :34:14. | :34:20. | |
to look at it and get evidence. They were more concerned it seems | :34:20. | :34:23. | |
in pleasing the crowd and the pay masters rather than investigating | :34:23. | :34:28. | |
the problem. Shortly after that interview, Baroness Buscombe | :34:28. | :34:32. | |
announced she was stepping down. Her successor will have to decide | :34:32. | :34:36. | |
if the PCC has lost so much credibility it can no longer | :34:36. | :34:39. | |
command respect, or whether it is possible to strengthen the | :34:39. | :34:49. | |
:34:49. | :34:49. | ||
commission as part of reform. Lord Hunt here, the new head of the PCC. | :34:49. | :34:53. | |
It sound from that worp that you are worse than useless, because you | :34:53. | :35:01. | |
give a fig leaf of respectability to those newspapers? My job is not | :35:01. | :35:05. | |
to look at the past, but to start with a blank sheet of paper and | :35:06. | :35:11. | |
work out the best possible system for the self-regulation, the | :35:11. | :35:13. | |
independent self-regulation of the press, that will command the | :35:13. | :35:16. | |
confidence of the public. You don't start with a blank sheet of paper, | :35:16. | :35:22. | |
you start with a Levison inquiry, not about the past but the future. | :35:22. | :35:27. | |
You have to deal with that. Every single thing we have heard there | :35:27. | :35:36. | |
suggests the PCC, if you like, are a union for newspapers who serve on | :35:36. | :35:41. | |
the PCC The way I see it, I have just arrived, I have been given a | :35:41. | :35:44. | |
blank piece of paper, I sense a mood for fundamental reform. It is | :35:44. | :35:48. | |
my job now to work out what is the best possible structure. | :35:48. | :35:53. | |
puzzled by the blank sheet of paper thing? There isn't one? There is | :35:53. | :35:58. | |
for me. The past of the PCC doesn't matter? I'm suggesting you the | :35:58. | :36:03. | |
future, if you you have got one, does matter, and the Levison | :36:03. | :36:06. | |
Inquiry could say you are useless, as the Prime Minister and the | :36:06. | :36:10. | |
leader of the opposition have said? What I would like to do is this, | :36:10. | :36:16. | |
Lord Justice Levison has this inquiry, he's looking into a whole | :36:16. | :36:23. | |
range of areas of policy, the ethics of the whole of the press | :36:23. | :36:26. | |
regulatory system. What I would like to do is fill in my blank | :36:26. | :36:30. | |
piece of paper, listening to everyone, taking account of all the | :36:30. | :36:34. | |
concerns, some of which you have just expressed. And then present | :36:34. | :36:38. | |
Lord Justice Levison with what I believe to be the solution. It is | :36:38. | :36:43. | |
then up to him to decide whether that is adequate or not. But I'm | :36:43. | :36:46. | |
going to do everything I can to produce the right result. That is | :36:46. | :36:50. | |
very interesting, you also said a regulator, or self-regulator, is | :36:50. | :36:53. | |
that how you see yourself, you would want to be a regulator, | :36:54. | :36:58. | |
because the charges, - the charge is, you are not? I think one of the | :36:58. | :37:02. | |
reasons I have been asked to do this job s I'm a lawyer. I have | :37:02. | :37:07. | |
been with my law firm for 46 years, OK 35 years in parliament, but I | :37:07. | :37:11. | |
have very understanding partners. I specialise in regulatory law. What | :37:11. | :37:15. | |
I have to say straight away, in answer to the question you have | :37:15. | :37:22. | |
raised, is that the PCC is not a regulator. Should it be? There | :37:22. | :37:28. | |
needs to be a regulator, now another two bodies, the editors | :37:28. | :37:33. | |
code committee, which actually, if you read the code, it is an | :37:33. | :37:40. | |
excellent code, the sort of code that the late David Calcott wanted | :37:40. | :37:46. | |
the press to endorse. Two years after he stepd set up the PCC, he | :37:46. | :37:50. | |
said it wasn't strong enough or working. The point is systemic | :37:50. | :37:54. | |
failure, I know you don't want to look back at the past, but as a | :37:54. | :37:58. | |
regulator, you wouldn't go and regulate anybody by saying what do | :37:58. | :38:03. | |
you think, OK, fine, would you expect it your self. That has to | :38:03. | :38:11. | |
change or the PCC will go, won't it? I was in the cabinet that | :38:11. | :38:15. | |
received the first of the reports and then the second. I approach | :38:15. | :38:20. | |
this with two fundamental beliefs, first of all in self-regulation, | :38:20. | :38:23. | |
and secondly in freedom of the press. I think that is one of the | :38:23. | :38:27. | |
greatest assets we have. It carries with it, not only the right for | :38:27. | :38:33. | |
free expression, but also the heavy responsibility. I have got to try | :38:33. | :38:37. | |
to find the structure that will restore public confidence in the | :38:37. | :38:41. | |
whole system. You are not there to be the last PCC chairman, are you. | :38:41. | :38:45. | |
That is the implication? That is still to be decided, if there is an | :38:45. | :38:49. | |
appetite for fundamental reform. I would hope we would see the | :38:49. | :38:53. | |
existing work of the PCC, a lot unrecognised, which has been very | :38:53. | :38:58. | |
effective in dealing with complaints. But I want to see a | :38:58. | :39:02. | |
regulatory system, which does require renewal and regeneration. I | :39:02. | :39:06. | |
will do my best. Thank you very much. | :39:06. | :39:09. | |
To their fans they have always proved very popular right here in | :39:09. | :39:15. | |
Britain. News that REM are spliting up after 1 years was a real moment | :39:15. | :39:21. | |
of sadness. Their music - 31 years a real moment of sadness. Their | :39:21. | :39:25. | |
music is called alternative right, but it is also a political voice | :39:25. | :39:30. | |
throughout the world. Our report talks about why it really is the | :39:30. | :39:38. | |
end of the world as we know it. # Shiny happy people | :39:38. | :39:44. | |
The men from Athens Georgia, weren't your typical rock stars. As | :39:44. | :39:48. | |
Rolling Stone Magazine said, they lived in some weird town nobody | :39:48. | :39:52. | |
ever heard of, they didn't play power chords, they probably | :39:52. | :40:02. | |
:40:02. | :40:03. | ||
couldn't even spell spanned decks. Massive - Spandex. Massive stardom | :40:03. | :40:08. | |
sat uncomfortably on REM shoulders. Unlike Bono, when you see him out | :40:08. | :40:13. | |
in his leathers waving a flag, someone who looks to the manor born, | :40:13. | :40:18. | |
it never looked quite that, rather like Morrisey in the Smith, they | :40:18. | :40:21. | |
looked like they could do it, but never looked as comfortable doing | :40:21. | :40:26. | |
it. In Michael Stipe he had a rock man, who subverted what the rock | :40:26. | :40:34. | |
frontman was, more Quentin Crisp than Rock Viking. | :40:34. | :40:40. | |
# Kaufman in the wrestling match # Yeah, yeah, yeah. | :40:40. | :40:47. | |
REM took traditional American rock feel, and gave it a reading list. | :40:47. | :40:51. | |
Their songs could be about subjects as ease sow teric about the | :40:52. | :40:57. | |
troubled sitcom star, Andy Kaufman as in Man On The Moon. | :40:57. | :41:03. | |
This was alternative rock. M it's the end of the world | :41:03. | :41:08. | |
- # It's the end of the world # As we know it | :41:08. | :41:13. | |
You could say the same of the causes REM championed. | :41:13. | :41:17. | |
Members of the band have campaigned for environmental, feminist and | :41:17. | :41:22. | |
human rights causes, and to encourage voting. But are they for | :41:22. | :41:29. | |
real, or just celebrity liberals, as some have claimed. For a while | :41:29. | :41:34. | |
they were lumped in with the charity aristocracy, I think they | :41:35. | :41:40. | |
always remained true to a slightly esoteric and leftfield agenda. | :41:40. | :41:44. | |
Stipe aligned himself with any number of causes, he genuinely | :41:44. | :41:48. | |
believed in them, that is not to say anybody else didn't. You | :41:48. | :41:51. | |
certainly felt his heart was in them rather more than Sting, shall | :41:51. | :41:59. | |
we say. To take a liberal agenda, quite an | :41:59. | :42:02. | |
explicitly liberal agenda and fill American rock stadiums with it and | :42:02. | :42:10. | |
the radio, is no mean feat, it they have remained a constant in | :42:10. | :42:15. | |
American conscience in the way that politicians haven't. | :42:15. | :42:20. | |
idiosyncratic REM marked their break-up, not with fights and writs, | :42:21. | :42:26. | |
but with a new video featuring Kirsten Dunst, was it that | :42:26. | :42:31. | |
difficult 16th album, or did they chuck the towel in after David | :42:31. | :42:37. | |
Cameron picked their Perfect Circle for his desert island disc. Was | :42:37. | :42:42. | |
there a moment when you thought that's it, it's over? It was a long | :42:42. | :42:47. | |
moment. Two years worth. We took a long time to figure out we wanted | :42:47. | :42:52. | |
to call it a day and disband. you could go on, separate for a bit, | :42:52. | :42:57. | |
come back for a bit, other bands do it, why? Because it was an | :42:57. | :43:01. | |
opportunity for us to walk away on our own terms, which is something | :43:01. | :43:04. | |
that, as far as I know, very few bands, certainly that have been | :43:05. | :43:08. | |
around for any length of time, have had the opportunity to do. There | :43:08. | :43:12. | |
are no external forces making us do this, we have no problems. | :43:12. | :43:19. | |
don't hate each other? No. We can walk away as friends and feel like | :43:19. | :43:23. | |
we have accomplished everything we wanted to accomplish. We touched on | :43:23. | :43:28. | |
the politics there, going back to the Reagan administration, you | :43:28. | :43:32. | |
spoke at the Clinton inaugural in 1993, how important was that for | :43:32. | :43:37. | |
you, and does it mix with the music? That was a moment for | :43:37. | :43:41. | |
America, we had been through 12 years of what I thought were the | :43:41. | :43:46. | |
darkest political years of my country. In my lifetime. We had no | :43:46. | :43:51. | |
idea that Bush and Cheney were on the horizon, they trumped his | :43:51. | :43:58. | |
father. But to be able to welcome in someone who was relatively | :43:58. | :44:02. | |
liberal-minded or at least moderate, as the Clinton administration | :44:02. | :44:06. | |
started out to be, it was a great moment for America. This is a great | :44:06. | :44:10. | |
moment for politics, isn't it, therefore, presumably for political | :44:10. | :44:15. | |
song writing, I know some of you in your songs have touched in and out | :44:16. | :44:19. | |
of it. This is great moment for it right now? It is easy to write | :44:19. | :44:22. | |
about politics in the opposition, when you are the underdog and you | :44:22. | :44:26. | |
are angry at what's going on. Eventhough we are huge fans of | :44:26. | :44:30. | |
President Obama, the fact is, he has been stymied in so much of what | :44:30. | :44:35. | |
he wanted to do by the minority, which seems inherently unfair to us, | :44:35. | :44:43. | |
and just as irritating as having the majority being the problem. | :44:43. | :44:47. | |
are not abandoning President Obama, and would support him next year? | :44:47. | :44:50. | |
absolutely. He's in trouble isn't he? He's in trouble, this is my | :44:51. | :44:57. | |
opinion, nothing more. He won't say up front that the administration | :44:57. | :45:01. | |
that he followed screwed things up so badly, and that he and his | :45:01. | :45:06. | |
administration had to clean up the mess. And I wish he would just say | :45:06. | :45:11. | |
that. But it seems unpresidential to do so. When you have toured | :45:11. | :45:16. | |
around the world for many years, very popular here, as we have said, | :45:16. | :45:19. | |
do you notice how views of America and Americans have changed since | :45:19. | :45:25. | |
you have started touring. In other words, how popular are Americans | :45:25. | :45:30. | |
and how popular is America now? think it is better than it was | :45:30. | :45:33. | |
certainly when we first started coming over here. There were the | :45:33. | :45:38. | |
civils being placed around, we were the lighten - cuefls being placed | :45:38. | :45:43. | |
around, and we were - cruise missiles being placed around and | :45:43. | :45:47. | |
Westminster the face to complain to when we were here. General America | :45:47. | :45:51. | |
is perceived a little better than when we started out, it is a | :45:51. | :45:55. | |
neverending struggle and it doesn't get better in the big picture. | :45:55. | :46:01. | |
important is it when anybody who is a celebrity in any field gets | :46:01. | :46:06. | |
involved in causes, your causes have been Darfur and domestic | :46:06. | :46:09. | |
politics. Does that actually help or not? I think it does, people | :46:10. | :46:14. | |
have come up to me over the course of 32 years we have been together | :46:14. | :46:19. | |
as band and said I was an aimless 17-year-old and I heard this song | :46:19. | :46:24. | |
or saw this show and I'm an environmental lawyer, thank you for | :46:24. | :46:27. | |
helping influence my life choice. Stuff like that happens, more often | :46:27. | :46:32. | |
than you would think. That makes me feel, as a public figure, like our | :46:32. | :46:36. | |
actism, although it might turn off some fans because they might have a | :46:36. | :46:40. | |
different opinion, I think it is important to feel like you can | :46:40. | :46:44. | |
express yourself. But is there a problem when you are one of the | :46:44. | :46:48. | |
biggest rock bands in the world doing that kind of thing. Sometimes, | :46:48. | :46:52. | |
for instance, Sting and Bono, not entirely popular with some people | :46:52. | :46:56. | |
because of that? You certainly risk alienating people. As a human being, | :46:56. | :47:01. | |
I have to get up and look at myself in the mirror in the morning. And | :47:01. | :47:04. | |
what I live for is not to be popular with everyone, but to be | :47:04. | :47:08. | |
true to what I believe in and what I feel. If that involves using our | :47:08. | :47:11. | |
platform to make political statements and potentially | :47:11. | :47:14. | |
alienating a certain portion of the audience, that is something we have | :47:14. | :47:19. | |
to do any way. When are you getting back together again? We are not. | :47:19. | :47:29. | |
:47:29. | :47:30. | ||
Thank you for asking. When is the hell freezes over tour going to go | :47:30. | :47:37. | |
on? It is over. Sad? It is bitter sweet, it is strangely liberating. | :47:37. | :47:40. | |
Oddly liberating, we feel very comfortable with what we have done. | :47:40. | :47:45. | |
Today's protest, the Occupy Wall Street, fans of that? Absolutely, | :47:45. | :47:52. | |
yes. Let's get a quick last word from Paul in Cannes at the G20. | :47:52. | :47:56. | |
In the last 60 minutes effectively what has happened is the deal done | :47:56. | :48:01. | |
in Brussels last week has been put on hold. Greece won't get the eight | :48:01. | :48:04. | |
billion bailout money it was due, until the referendum, it is fairly | :48:04. | :48:09. | |
clear that the G20 leaders are accepting that Mr Papandreou wants | :48:09. | :48:12. | |
the referendum, and we are being told he will try to go for it in | :48:12. | :48:15. | |
December, possibly as early as the 5th of December. This could all | :48:15. | :48:19. | |
change by Friday, he has to get it through the Greek parliament. But | :48:19. | :48:23. | |
ultimately, there is a bit of poetic justice, the Greek crisis, | :48:24. | :48:27. | |
at the root of all the other crises going on in this town, will be | :48:27. | :48:31. | |
resolved by the Greek parliament and the Greek people. | :48:31. | :48:34. | |
That is all from Newsnight tonight, more from Kirstie tomorrow, good | :48:34. | :48:44. | |
:48:44. | :48:50. | ||
Good evening, few of us will be completely dry overnight. Outbreaks | :48:50. | :48:54. | |
of rain in the north and the east. Northern England and Scotland, | :48:54. | :48:57. | |
conditions will improve during the day. A scattering of showers across | :48:57. | :49:00. | |
the west and south initially. Developing a bit further inland. | :49:00. | :49:04. | |
Some showers puorning into the back of northern England for the end of | :49:04. | :49:09. | |
the afternoon. Much of the wet start will be dry and bright. There | :49:09. | :49:13. | |
is that threat of showers anywhere across central and southern areas, | :49:13. | :49:16. | |
some heavy, some of of the wetter conditions across East Anglia and | :49:16. | :49:21. | |
the south-east. It looks as if across South-West England and Wales, | :49:21. | :49:26. | |
the big threat of showers should be in the afternoon. Brighter weather | :49:26. | :49:29. | |
throughout the day despite the continuing threat of showers. For | :49:29. | :49:31. | |
Northern Ireland the heaviest of the showers again for the afternoon, | :49:31. | :49:37. | |
a few rumbles of thunder too, the brighter spells, 15-16, same sort | :49:37. | :49:40. | |
of values across Scotland, showers in the west of Scotland, but to the | :49:40. | :49:43. | |
north and east it will be a brighter second half of the day. | :49:43. | :49:46. | |
From Thursday into Friday, again some outbreaks of rain, Friday, you | :49:46. | :49:50. | |
can see the city forecast, Scotland and Northern Ireland, not many | :49:50. | :49:54. | |
showers to speak of, compared to further south, outbreaks of rain on | :49:54. | :49:58. | |
Thursday, Friday looking that little bit brighter, but there will | :49:58. | :50:01. | |
be slow-moving, heavy and thundery showers. Those showers will be at | :50:01. | :50:04. |