:00:13. > :00:17.Tonight, Lord Leveson says it's not his job to decide the rights or
:00:17. > :00:21.wrongs of a minister's conduct. So where does that leave the future of
:00:21. > :00:25.the Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt? If the inquiry into the conduct of
:00:25. > :00:31.the press is too much -- has too much on its plate to consider the
:00:31. > :00:35.rights and wrongs of how the BSkyB deal was handled, what now?
:00:35. > :00:41.If only there was someone independent whose job it is to
:00:41. > :00:46.investigate alleged breaches of the ministerial code. ( mobile phone
:00:46. > :00:50.rings) There is, that's lucky. If austerity hasn't taken Britain
:00:50. > :00:55.out of recession, is the answer more austerity? The former cabinet
:00:55. > :01:01.minister, Liam Fox, says the Government has to wake up and smell
:01:01. > :01:04.the coffee on more spending cuts or more regulation. We hear what might
:01:04. > :01:11.turn the economy and the Government's fortunes round from
:01:11. > :01:15.our guests. Good evening, sources in the
:01:15. > :01:18.Leveson Inquiry, are saying tonight that Lord Justice Leveson will not
:01:18. > :01:22.provide an early opportunity for the Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt,
:01:22. > :01:27.to give evidence. Apparently Lord Justice Leveson believes it is not
:01:27. > :01:31.his role to judge ministerial conduct on the BSkyB takeover. Mr
:01:31. > :01:35.Hunt informed us today that he would make available all texts and
:01:36. > :01:41.e-mails involving his now departed special adviser, Adam Smith, to the
:01:41. > :01:51.Leveson Inquiry. But why not, some wondered, hand them over instead to
:01:51. > :01:51.
:01:51. > :01:56.the man whose job it is to police ministers conduct, sir Alex Allan.
:01:56. > :01:59.Lord Justice Leveson has a lot on his plate, he already has to chew
:01:59. > :02:02.over the relationship between the press and the public, phone hacking
:02:02. > :02:07.and other behaviour, the relationship between press and
:02:07. > :02:14.police, press and politicians and the regulation of the press. Now,
:02:14. > :02:18.supposedly this groaning banquet has been added to is the fate of
:02:18. > :02:24.Jeremy Hunt. This is at least who should decide if the minister has
:02:24. > :02:28.done anything wrong. I will be handing over all my private texts
:02:28. > :02:33.and e-mails to my special adviser to the Leveson Inquiry, and I'm
:02:33. > :02:36.confident they will vindicate the position that I handled the BSkyB
:02:37. > :02:41.merger process with total integrity. The Government thought it had a
:02:41. > :02:44.significant ally in this view. Ministers were cheered by what Lord
:02:44. > :02:49.Justice Leveson had to say earlier in the week. Although I have seen
:02:49. > :02:54.requests for other inquiries and other investigations, it seems to
:02:54. > :02:59.me, that the better course is to allow this inquiry to proceed. When
:02:59. > :03:05.it is concluded, there will doubtless be opportunities for
:03:05. > :03:09.consideration to be given to any further investigation, that is then
:03:09. > :03:12.considered necessary. But there is a problem, critics point out that
:03:12. > :03:15.the Leveson Inquiry might not report for another year, and even
:03:15. > :03:20.then, might not specifically address the question of whether
:03:20. > :03:23.Jeremy Hunt has done anything wrong. If only there were someone
:03:23. > :03:33.independent whose job it is to investigate alleged breaches of the
:03:33. > :03:38.ministerial code. (mobile phone rings) there is,
:03:38. > :03:43.that's lucky. The independent adviser on ministerial interests is
:03:43. > :03:48.Sir Alex Allan, and according to the opposition, he's the perfect
:03:48. > :03:52.person to investigate Jeremy Hunt. It is a deriliction of the Prime
:03:52. > :03:56.Minister's duty, that instead of standing up for the public and
:03:56. > :03:59.proper ministerial behave yoir, he's having a cover-up, he refer it
:03:59. > :04:03.to the special adviser on ministerial interests, and
:04:03. > :04:07.recognise it is his duty as Prime Minister, and instead of hiding
:04:07. > :04:09.behind Lord Leveson and saying it is his responsibility, which it
:04:09. > :04:15.isn't, he should show his responsibility as Prime Minister,
:04:15. > :04:19.and make sure the ministerial code is enforced. In comparison to Lord
:04:19. > :04:23.Justice Leveson's groaning plate, sir Alex's is pretty empty, as far
:04:23. > :04:28.as investigations go. He has only just taken the job, but his
:04:28. > :04:36.predecessor did not look at Liam Fox's conduct. He only looked at
:04:36. > :04:40.one case, Mr Malik, in the last Government, who was cleared. The
:04:40. > :04:43.problem is, Sir Alex can't just go, he has to wait for the Prime
:04:43. > :04:50.Minister to serve him a case to investigate. It would be a pretty
:04:50. > :04:55.safe bet to think that Sir Alex would want to look into Jeremy Hunt,
:04:55. > :05:01.earlier this year he said he would resign if he felt like he was being
:05:01. > :05:04.bypassed. If I felt the hypothesis you put forward, that I was being
:05:04. > :05:07.bypassed in favour of the cabinet secretary doing investigations, yes,
:05:07. > :05:17.I would agree in those circumstances there wasn't any
:05:17. > :05:17.
:05:17. > :05:22.point in my continuing in the role. If you bought folk catchia in
:05:22. > :05:25.Morrison's today -- folk catchia, you look away now.
:05:25. > :05:28.The Government plans for another investigation is to get Jeremy Hunt
:05:28. > :05:31.answering questions in front of the Leveson Inquiry as soon as possible.
:05:31. > :05:36.The Deputy Prime Minister, today, seemed to suggest, that his
:05:37. > :05:41.appearance was being brought forward. We have already got an
:05:41. > :05:45.agreement that Jeremy Hunt will go to the Leveson Inquiry pretty
:05:45. > :05:48.quickly, I would like that as quickly as possible. By all means
:05:48. > :05:52.let's look again after that has happened, and Jeremy Hunt has given
:05:52. > :05:56.his evidence to Leveson. Having a multitude of different inquiries
:05:56. > :06:00.and evidence sessions, they will just get crossed wires. Tonight a
:06:00. > :06:04.spokesman for the Leveson Inquiry disputed this, saying the judge had
:06:04. > :06:10.decided n fairness to the other witnesses, against allowing Jeremy
:06:10. > :06:12.Hunt to jump the queue. A source has added that Lord Justice Leveson
:06:12. > :06:19.is not the arbiter of the ministerial code, there is someone
:06:19. > :06:23.else who can do that job. An apparent reference to Sir Alex
:06:23. > :06:27.Allan. So tonight Jeremy Hunt is left spinning, waiting to see if
:06:27. > :06:37.his one rogue adviser defence will work any better for him than the
:06:37. > :06:40.one rogue reporter line worked for News International.
:06:40. > :06:43.The shadow Treasury spokesman, Christ Leslie is in Nottingham, and
:06:43. > :06:46.we will talk to him about the economy in a moment. I wondered
:06:46. > :06:51.what your thoughts were on the developments in the past hour?
:06:51. > :06:53.These are important developments, it is quite clear to most people
:06:53. > :06:57.that Jeremy Hunt should never have been given the job in the first
:06:57. > :07:02.place, of ajudicating on this really important matter of media
:07:02. > :07:06.business. He was always partial, he had a bias involved in it. So the
:07:06. > :07:11.idea that it is some surprise, Lord Leveson lef is saying, well it's
:07:11. > :07:15.not for him, we shouldn't really see that has unusual, ultimately it
:07:15. > :07:19.is for the Prime Minister, and this independent adviser, to be the
:07:19. > :07:23.arbiters of the Ministerial Code of Conduct. I think people will see
:07:23. > :07:27.this weekend, the Prime Minister ducking and dodging and trying to
:07:27. > :07:31.find any way to shirk the fact that this is going to come back to him.
:07:31. > :07:36.He has to take responsibility. And he should really, at the very least,
:07:36. > :07:41.let the independent adviser make a judgment on Jeremy Hunt's behaviour.
:07:41. > :07:43.Most people would say Hunt has to resign. What do you make of the
:07:43. > :07:46.crossed wires point that the Deputy Prime Minister was making. In other
:07:46. > :07:50.words, if we have a whole lot of other inquiries, and there is
:07:50. > :07:55.police investigations going on as well, you get this entirely
:07:55. > :07:58.entangled. Lord Leveson has been asked to look at it in its entirety,
:07:58. > :08:02.BSkyB is part of relations between Government and media, surely it is
:08:02. > :08:05.one for him? I think it is less of crossed wires, and more of the long
:08:05. > :08:10.grass, really. I think the Government are trying desperately
:08:10. > :08:13.to kick this forward, and to stop being so paralysed about this whole
:08:13. > :08:17.Jeremy Hunt affair. The difficulty is, of course, constitutionally it
:08:17. > :08:20.is the Prime Minister who has to take responsibility for his cabinet.
:08:20. > :08:25.And for their behaviour. Yes, there is an independent adviser, it seems
:08:25. > :08:31.as though he's waiting, twidling his thumbs for a case to be
:08:31. > :08:36.referred to him, if ever there was a clear example this is it.
:08:36. > :08:39.The traf vais of Jeremy Hunt are far from the only problem Britain
:08:39. > :08:43.has to face. Britain is back in recession. The former Defence
:08:43. > :08:46.Secretary, Liam Fox, has some ideas, which he claims, will turn things
:08:46. > :08:54.around, more cuts in public spending, reforms to employment
:08:54. > :08:57.laws, and eventually employers' tax cuts to stimulate growth. One
:08:57. > :08:59.newspaper speculated that George Osborne agrees with that analysis.
:08:59. > :09:06.We have been figuring out whether the Chancellor of the Exchequer
:09:06. > :09:14.still agrees with the Government's own stated economic policy.
:09:14. > :09:19.If there is one job that symbolises flexible Labour, it is that of a
:09:19. > :09:24.coffee barista, you work long hours and instantly replacable. At the
:09:24. > :09:28.London coffee festival today, they were competing for Barista of the
:09:28. > :09:33.Year. But on Tory tables, a blast from the man who would have us all
:09:33. > :09:43.work our socks off. Writing in the Telegraph, Liam Fox said that the
:09:43. > :09:56.
:09:56. > :10:06.Lib Dems are blocking Britain's Basically, he means we all need to
:10:06. > :10:06.
:10:06. > :10:09.start working like baristas. Liam Fox has a point, according to the
:10:09. > :10:13.theory the Government believes in, deficit reduction alone does not
:10:13. > :10:17.bring growth. You need a massive spurt of business investment to
:10:17. > :10:23.change the mix between public and private in the British economy. And
:10:23. > :10:27.they think what is stopping that is the rights that people at work
:10:27. > :10:32.accumulated under work. Time to hear from the editor of a newspaper
:10:32. > :10:36.for City of London types. George Osborne's focused on austerity,
:10:36. > :10:39.that has really been a combination of tax hikes and a bit of public
:10:39. > :10:44.spending reductions. He has done nothing to deregulate the economy,
:10:44. > :10:47.and done nothing to deregulate the labour market. Fox thinks he's a
:10:47. > :10:52.prisoner of the Liberal Democrats in that regard? That is one way of
:10:52. > :10:56.looking at it. Another way of looking at it is he's still stuck a
:10:56. > :11:04.bit in this consensus of the past 10-15 years. The Government
:11:04. > :11:11.commissioned this man, venture capitalists Adrian Beecroft to tell
:11:11. > :11:15.them how labour rights should be diluted, but he was received like a
:11:15. > :11:20.cold cup of cappuccino. The report said you get rid of the current
:11:20. > :11:22.unfair dismissal rules, and replace them by an automatic compensated
:11:22. > :11:25.dismissal system. In other words, if you want to get rid of someone,
:11:25. > :11:31.you have to pay them, say, three months, and then you can get rid of
:11:31. > :11:34.them. That is a key change. It appears this was blocked by the
:11:34. > :11:38.Liberal Democrats, and Vince Cable in particular. But, as always in
:11:38. > :11:41.economics, other flavours are available.
:11:41. > :11:44.There are some notable examples, for example, the United States,
:11:44. > :11:51.which is said to have a very flexible labour market. It still
:11:51. > :11:53.has getting on for 10% unemployment. So that there isn't a very close
:11:53. > :11:59.relationship between called flexibility of the labour market
:11:59. > :12:05.and their employment levels. The key factor in the end, is the level
:12:05. > :12:11.of demand in the economy. Labour, in the week of the double-
:12:11. > :12:17.dip recession, and The Hunt hunt scandal, this coalition spat is
:12:17. > :12:19.brisk to the mill. There is no demek date that to suggest the
:12:19. > :12:22.unfair dismissal regime in this country is the reason we have no
:12:22. > :12:25.growth and tipped back into recession. The reason we have
:12:25. > :12:31.dipped back into recession, because of the policies of this Government,
:12:31. > :12:37.is abracadabra sense of demand. This is a coffee -- A lack of
:12:37. > :12:41.demand. This is a coffee work place, if
:12:41. > :12:47.lots of places were as nimble as these, we would see more businesses
:12:47. > :12:52.formed and real growth? Let's be clear what Fox is talking about,
:12:52. > :12:57.he's talking about taking away the employment rights of workers, not
:12:57. > :13:00.normally unionised, a right to decent time off work, for holiday,
:13:00. > :13:04.their maternity rights, all those things that people watching this
:13:04. > :13:08.programme value, and feel plaiks a difference to them. If you asked --
:13:08. > :13:12.make as difference to them. If you asked the dynamic coffee businesses
:13:12. > :13:15.here today, what is your big problem, they will not say it is I
:13:15. > :13:20.can't sack people. They will tell you the problem they have got is
:13:20. > :13:25.there aren't people buying their coffee.
:13:25. > :13:30.So, a man who resigned, after irregularly employing his adviser,
:13:30. > :13:35.wants the rules on employing people relaxed. But Fox is still a senior
:13:35. > :13:39.and influential Tory, and his intervention was, reportedly,
:13:39. > :13:42.discussed and agreed with George Osborne. If so, one reading of the
:13:42. > :13:50.coffee grounds is this, the Chancellor himself must think his
:13:50. > :13:55.own policy is failing. To try to see if there is any
:13:55. > :14:00.consensus on how to turn the economy round, we have John Redwood,
:14:00. > :14:04.Lord Oakeshott, Labour's shadow Treasury spokesman, Chris Leslie.
:14:04. > :14:08.John Redwood, do you think the Chancellor has been too feeble and
:14:08. > :14:10.knows he has been too feeble? think more needs to be done,
:14:10. > :14:14.because the current state economy is not delivering the growth we
:14:14. > :14:18.need. I think most people agree, right left and centre, that the
:14:18. > :14:22.best way to bring the deficit down is to get a lot more people into
:14:22. > :14:25.jobs off benefits, so the benefit bill goes down and they become tax-
:14:25. > :14:29.payers. That is what we want to. Do I think the number one thing we
:14:29. > :14:33.need to do is to be much more dramatic in what we do about the
:14:34. > :14:38.banks. One of the reasons we don't have a pror recovery is we have
:14:39. > :14:41.very weak banks -- proper recovery, is we have very weak banks and
:14:41. > :14:46.under a regulatory cosh stopping them lending money, the Chancellor
:14:46. > :14:49.and the authorities need to sort that out quickly. It is all the
:14:49. > :14:52.Vince Cable and the Liberal Democrats fault, as we heard from
:14:52. > :14:58.Liam Fox, that you are stopping market reforms, and you personally
:14:58. > :15:00.are against more cuts, saying it would be economic madness and self-
:15:00. > :15:05.harm? That is to have another round of cuts, which is being talked
:15:05. > :15:14.about by the Treasury. That would be tree foolish. They say planned
:15:14. > :15:17.for another 5%, if -- very foolish. They say planned for another 5%.
:15:17. > :15:21.You have heard Nick Clegg saying today there is no need for any more
:15:21. > :15:24.cuts. Those in the Treasury trying to do it have been put back in
:15:24. > :15:30.their box. It is amazing to come on Newsnight, and not hear anyone
:15:30. > :15:34.being tougher on the banks than me. I agree with John. That is what is
:15:34. > :15:36.necessary, if you talk to small businessmen, far more will you tell
:15:36. > :15:40.you they are worried about not having the money to employ people,
:15:40. > :15:44.rather than sacking them on the spot. Liam Fox is completely
:15:44. > :15:47.missing the point. The point about the banks is they are under the two
:15:47. > :15:50.biggest banks for small businesses, under the direct control of the
:15:50. > :15:53.Treasury, and under both the Labour Government and under this
:15:53. > :15:57.Government, they are not dealing with them. They have got to get a
:15:57. > :16:01.grip and make them lend. Do you think Liam Fox is completely
:16:01. > :16:07.missing the point? That is what Lord Oakeshott just said. He wants
:16:07. > :16:10.deeper cuts, he wants labour market reform and the prospect of tax cuts
:16:11. > :16:17.for businesses in the future? agree with Liam Fox that we need to
:16:17. > :16:21.get the deficit down. This country is borrowing too much, it is living
:16:21. > :16:24.beyond its means. I believe the best way of getting the deficit
:16:24. > :16:27.down is deal with unemployment in the way they are beginning to
:16:27. > :16:31.discuss. I don't want to criticise Liam Fox, but most serious
:16:31. > :16:35.commentators on the economy, would identify, first of all, the issue
:16:35. > :16:39.of banking and credit availability, in the way they have been doing
:16:39. > :16:44.tonight. I'm all in favour of some deregulation, I think total costs
:16:44. > :16:46.on business are too high, and selective deregulation would be
:16:47. > :16:52.very helpful. More importantly is cheaper energy, I think the
:16:52. > :16:55.Chancellor is on to this. He now realises our energy is totally
:16:55. > :16:58.uncompetitive with the United States of America, if we could get
:16:58. > :17:02.cheaper energy we would have more industry. Whatever you think of
:17:02. > :17:06.Liam Fox's plan, at least it is a plan, and Labour's plan appears to
:17:06. > :17:11.be to do with what the Government would do, but not as quick or as
:17:11. > :17:14.deep, as if it is homeopathic cuts, you dilute it? It comes to
:17:15. > :17:19.something when Liam Fox's article is further to the right of even
:17:19. > :17:24.John Redwood's suggestion. Of course we have to deal with bank
:17:25. > :17:30.lending, as Lord Oakeshott was saying, the Government own these
:17:30. > :17:32.shares and not doing what it should do with the banks. Matthew is
:17:32. > :17:36.normally the spokesman for Vince Cable, I don't know if he's
:17:36. > :17:40.changing his mind on this. When Liam Fox and John Redwood talk
:17:40. > :17:48.about deregulation, let's decode that for a minute. It is an obscure
:17:48. > :17:52.phrase. What exactly do they mean, is it maternity or paternity rights,
:17:52. > :17:55.the minimum wage, you have to spell out what you mean by the supply
:17:55. > :17:59.side reforms, working people have been hammered enough by this
:17:59. > :18:03.Government so far. Do you think that there is a prospect of making
:18:03. > :18:06.it easier to fire people, and that is what some at least on the
:18:06. > :18:10.Conservative right would like, would that be acceptable? Can I
:18:10. > :18:14.just say, I speak for myself, since I resigned from the front bench.
:18:14. > :18:17.Obviously I have worked with Vince Cable for a long time. I certainly
:18:17. > :18:21.know what they are doing there. Does he share your view? You have
:18:21. > :18:31.asked, so let me tell you, it is not that the business department is
:18:31. > :18:31.
:18:31. > :18:33.not looking at these reforms, there has already been a change, whereby
:18:33. > :18:38.people don't have employment protection rights for two years
:18:38. > :18:42.rather than one. That is sense pbl, because it takes longer to --
:18:42. > :18:45.sensible because it takes longer to work out. They are also serious
:18:45. > :18:51.about having protected discussions, so you can have a talk with your
:18:51. > :18:56.employee, and not risk having a great long time at the thrill
:18:56. > :19:01.tribunal. But in general, just a minute -- industrial tribunal. But
:19:01. > :19:07.in general, we do not agree, and I don't agree with the sack on the
:19:07. > :19:11.spot mentalty. We think most of Beecroft is wrong. I hope Vince
:19:11. > :19:16.shares your view, the idea of trying to make it easier to fire
:19:16. > :19:20.people as the solution to economic difficulties is ridiculous, it
:19:20. > :19:22.should be easier to hire people. Why don't we get a way of helping
:19:22. > :19:27.small firms with a national insurance contribution discount.
:19:27. > :19:30.That is the sort of thing we need to do. I think it is a bit rich
:19:30. > :19:34.from the Labour spokesman, they slammed up the national insurance
:19:34. > :19:38.in the last days in power. This Government has been trying to abate
:19:38. > :19:42.national insurance increase. What labour market deregulation would
:19:42. > :19:47.increase employment would you say? I'm very happy with what the
:19:47. > :19:50.Government is doing, I produced 43 deregulatory ideas before the
:19:50. > :19:53.election, none including the kind of things Liam Fox is talking about.
:19:53. > :19:57.I'm not arguing that case. What we have a serious problem in Britain
:19:57. > :20:01.with now is overtaxation, which have reached tax saturation point
:20:01. > :20:05.and gone beyond it T you can see now the income tax figures fell
:20:05. > :20:09.last year compared with the year before, because we are above the
:20:09. > :20:12.tax saturation level. Capital gains tax is going down. I think you need
:20:12. > :20:18.rates that raise more revenue, I think that is one of our big
:20:18. > :20:22.problems. We have gone away from Gordon Brown's very sensible rates
:20:22. > :20:26.of tax, to taxes at levels that don't seem to work. Anything we can
:20:26. > :20:29.do to produce less tax on people other than the very rich, would
:20:29. > :20:33.help demand. How about a temporary VAT cut to stimulate the economy,
:20:33. > :20:36.John. Do you think that would be a good idea. I prefer to let people
:20:36. > :20:39.keep more of what they earn, the Government has gone in that
:20:40. > :20:43.direction with raising the threshold. The more we can do to
:20:43. > :20:48.create more demand through giving people a break. People feel taxed
:20:48. > :20:50.to death. They have been very badly squeezed by tax and inflation.
:20:50. > :20:53.it your sense that you think the Chancellor would like to go further,
:20:53. > :20:59.either down the road you are suggesting, or the road that Liam
:20:59. > :21:03.Fox is suggesting, but he's either a prisoner of the Lib Dems, for
:21:04. > :21:07.foot dragging, or he can't get it through? There is always
:21:07. > :21:10.difficulties in a coalition, two different parties with two
:21:10. > :21:16.different traditions have different views, I dare say the Chancellor
:21:16. > :21:19.would like to deregulate more, he would like cheaper energy than the
:21:20. > :21:23.current policies, that would be helpful. These are not the big
:21:23. > :21:26.issues, what the Government needs is confidence to tackle, first of
:21:26. > :21:30.all the banking problem, and secondly, the way the private
:21:30. > :21:34.sector has been very badly squeezed through a very expensive public
:21:34. > :21:38.sector, when we do that we will make progress. We are not foot-
:21:38. > :21:41.dragging, we want to see as Liberal Democrats, is much more emphasis on
:21:41. > :21:47.capital spending, particularly capital spending on housing, where
:21:47. > :21:51.we could perfectly well be building 100,000 more houses a year, we
:21:51. > :21:55.could move on to Plan A+ then. would be the kind of week the
:21:55. > :21:57.coalition would like to forget again.
:21:57. > :22:01.Philip Collins and Gillian Tett, who is based in the United States
:22:01. > :22:07.for the Financial Times are here to reflect on what the Government can
:22:07. > :22:13.do to turn around the economy and its own fortune, along with Adam
:22:13. > :22:21.Smith. -- -- Iain Martin.
:22:21. > :22:27.Can he survive this? I think the Government has invested a lot of
:22:27. > :22:34.time and political energy in Jeremy Hunt, because if not they would
:22:34. > :22:40.focus on the Prime Minister. I don't think it is something that
:22:40. > :22:43.Leveson will deliver a report on the Culture Secretary in autumn.
:22:43. > :22:52.How would you analyse what Lord Leveson has been saying tonight, it
:22:52. > :22:55.looks like "not meg uv". I think Jeremy Hunt is in a precarious
:22:55. > :23:00.position, and I wouldn't say with confidence he would stay. But the
:23:00. > :23:03.release of his texts and e-mails suggests on the surface that he
:23:03. > :23:06.thinks there is nothing there that will necessarily incriminate him.
:23:06. > :23:10.He has two serious questions to answer, one about the parliamentary
:23:10. > :23:13.statement, which it appears he released before he gave it to a
:23:13. > :23:19.representative of news interle that. The second is whether there was an
:23:19. > :23:21.on going -- News International. The second is whether there was an a
:23:21. > :23:24.conversation of entirely another kind between his people and News
:23:25. > :23:32.International. It won't be enough to say he didn't know about it.
:23:32. > :23:36.What do you make of this, the shareholders do they care about it?
:23:36. > :23:40.The questioning of the Murdochs did get a lot of attention in the US,
:23:41. > :23:44.there are people who are pretty shocked by the whole thing. There
:23:44. > :23:47.are certainly lawyers scurrying around, working out whether it will
:23:47. > :23:53.extend into America, either because there are American citizens who
:23:53. > :23:59.have had their phones hacked on American soirblgs or because there
:23:59. > :24:04.is an act -- or, because there is an act that could damage News
:24:04. > :24:10.Corporation. The bigger point to look at is it adds to a sense of
:24:10. > :24:18.malaise about Government in generally. Not just in Britain? On
:24:18. > :24:24.that specific point do you think it has to go to Sir Alex Allan, it has
:24:24. > :24:33.to go to the guy who looks at ministerial conduct? Everybody
:24:33. > :24:37.takes the Mick oit of him, but he's a former very serious civil servant,
:24:37. > :24:41.who won't be happy at being mishandled by the Government. It is
:24:41. > :24:45.clear that breaches of the ministerial code don't fall under
:24:45. > :24:48.the remit of the Leveson Inquiry, and the Government is attempting to
:24:48. > :24:54.shift it on to Leveson, and good for him, he's fighting back.
:24:54. > :24:59.don't know if you call it Plan B or plan C or A plus, and other parts
:24:59. > :25:01.of it you heard in the discussions tonight. Are there other all
:25:01. > :25:05.tiornives for -- alternatives for the Government to implement now,
:25:06. > :25:09.other than what we are doing? Government is caught between a rock
:25:09. > :25:13.and a hard place, there are three important things happening in the
:25:13. > :25:19.last few weeks, first the mounting evidence the economy is slowing
:25:19. > :25:22.down in the UK, and the US and the eurozone, and the US prodowsing
:25:22. > :25:26.disappointing figures today. The markets have remained very nervous,
:25:26. > :25:30.we had breathing space earlier this year, once again there is a sense
:25:30. > :25:35.of profound unease in the markets. Thirdly, we are seeing increasing
:25:35. > :25:38.sign of voting revolt across the eurozone. You have had several
:25:38. > :25:41.countries where you have had incumbent Governments kicked out.
:25:41. > :25:46.You are seeing as economic pressures mount, is more and more
:25:46. > :25:50.political and social tension coming to the fore. Which is why things
:25:50. > :25:55.like the Leveson Inquiry is bad timing for the Government trying to
:25:55. > :26:00.maintain credibility. How damaging is it? In a funny way the Leveson
:26:00. > :26:05.Inquiry is a good thing, we have had a return to recession this week,
:26:05. > :26:10.if you said six months ago that the return to recession is item number
:26:10. > :26:13.three on the news, that would be a delighted Government. Leveson is a
:26:13. > :26:18.distraction from a more important story, which is the state of the
:26:18. > :26:22.British economy. The Government don't have much room for manoeuvre,
:26:22. > :26:26.they have staked so much on this policy, I would urge them not to
:26:26. > :26:28.double a failed strategy, as Liam Fox seems to be suggesting they. Do
:26:29. > :26:32.they haven't got the room the American Government had for a
:26:32. > :26:37.stimulus, and the inclination either to do so. I think they are
:26:37. > :26:42.stuck with Plan A, with a little bit of quasi-industrial policy,
:26:42. > :26:47.there is nowhere else to go. have to remember politically what
:26:47. > :26:50.was supposed to have happened now. The entire Government plan was
:26:50. > :26:56.predicated on recovery which should have happened now, and they
:26:56. > :27:00.backdated the cuts. The worse is still to come? By 2013,/14, wages
:27:00. > :27:03.would have recovered, sign of life in the employment market, a return
:27:04. > :27:07.of pre-election feel-good factor, that is the basis the Government
:27:07. > :27:10.designed their plan, now there will be cutting, most of it against the
:27:10. > :27:16.backdrop of a stagnant economy. That is politically very, very
:27:16. > :27:20.difficult. But they have two years to turn around, no election before
:27:20. > :27:26.that? It is difficult to see how you relaunch this Government F it
:27:27. > :27:31.was a majority Government you can imagine a majority Conservative or
:27:31. > :27:35.Labour Prime Minister say let's shift direction and try more
:27:35. > :27:41.radical policies. They are boxed in by coalition, most Tories would
:27:41. > :27:44.want to do, as you can see this morning with Fox working as an
:27:44. > :27:48.ambassador for Osbourne, it is difficult to know where they will
:27:48. > :27:53.go. They have a flatlining economy. They can say, look, 25%
:27:53. > :27:59.unemployment in Spain, we know the basket case of Greece. France may
:27:59. > :28:04.be going in a different direction, the Netherland Government has
:28:04. > :28:08.fallen down. They can point to the fact that the UK has not had a gilt
:28:08. > :28:14.market crisis which, frankly, is quite an achievement, given that
:28:14. > :28:22.groups two years ago saying that gilt was set on a bed of
:28:22. > :28:26.it implements the cuts and uses ways that don't involve spending
:28:26. > :28:35.money to try to boost demand, such as looking seriously at the
:28:35. > :28:40.provision of credit in the economy. And secondly, what can do -- can it
:28:40. > :28:46.do to keep social cohesion in doing that. There was a fascinating talk
:28:46. > :28:48.about who Governments are hitting and imposing pain on, it is not the
:28:49. > :28:52.same. That is tying the stories together. If you believe as a voter
:28:52. > :28:55.that politics is a game for rich people, and certain things going on
:28:55. > :28:58.behind the scenes, you are not sure what happens with big business and
:28:58. > :29:04.people like Mr Murdoch and Governments, that is one of the
:29:04. > :29:08.reasons you might be discontented, we might not all be -- we might all
:29:08. > :29:11.be in it together but we are not in the same both? The "feel-good
:29:11. > :29:13.factor" will be part of the incomes election, but the country feeling
:29:13. > :29:17.bad could be good for the Government. In the sense that the
:29:17. > :29:20.numbers have shifted on the polls, but the numbers which have
:29:20. > :29:23.stubbornly not shifted is where people are asked whether they are
:29:23. > :29:27.yet asked to trust the Labour Party with the economy. Until that
:29:27. > :29:31.changes, you haven't necessarily had a transitional moment in the
:29:31. > :29:35.political landscape. What is happening, I think, is in 2008
:29:35. > :29:40.finance went bust, now it is politics that is going bust.
:29:40. > :29:46.Essentially the kind of politics we have lived with since Clinton in
:29:46. > :29:49.1992, there is 20 years since The War Room, which Blair copied and
:29:49. > :29:53.Cameron copied rather ineptly, people can see the wiring and see
:29:53. > :29:56.through all of it. This is big trouble for Labour too, they will
:29:56. > :30:00.have to be committed in the next election to cuts. That has changed
:30:00. > :30:03.what they thought they would have to do. The failure of the deficit
:30:03. > :30:06.reduction programme is bad news for the as for the Government. We will
:30:06. > :30:10.have to leave it now. That's all from Newsnight tonight.
:30:10. > :30:13.The end of a week which you might think shows that politics and
:30:13. > :30:19.satire are now merging in Britain. It seems in Australia they might
:30:19. > :30:23.just be ahead of us, as this little gem of an interview shows.
:30:23. > :30:28.REPORTER: Do you think he should return to the Speaker's chair,
:30:28. > :30:32.while the civil claims are still being played out? I understand that
:30:32. > :30:36.the Prime Minister has addressed this in a press conference in
:30:36. > :30:42.Turkey in the last few yuers, I haven't seen what she said, I
:30:42. > :30:45.support what it is that she said. You haven't seen what she said.
:30:45. > :30:48.I support what my Prime Minister said. What is your view? My view is
:30:48. > :30:53.what the Prime Minister's view is. Surely you must have your own view
:30:53. > :30:57.on this? No, when you ask if I have my view on this, it is such a
:30:57. > :31:01.general question it invites me to go into lots of question. It is
:31:01. > :31:06.whether a speaker should be returned when he's facing civil
:31:06. > :31:10.claims of sexual harassment? It is an incredibly serious manner, there
:31:10. > :31:13.should be no tolerance for sexual harassment, in my view. But on the
:31:13. > :31:17.other hand, these matters have yet to be established, and I support
:31:17. > :31:27.what the Prime Minister has said. don't know what that is? I'm sure
:31:27. > :31:31.
:31:31. > :31:34.Hello there, it isth's trying up a bit, a frosty start in Scotland,
:31:34. > :31:38.sunny spells in Northern Ireland and northern England. For the rest
:31:38. > :31:41.of the UK cloudy and showers. Rain develop anything the south-east.
:31:41. > :31:46.Not too bad if you have the sunshine across northern England.
:31:46. > :31:50.Into the Midland, a lot of cloud. The wet weather is developing
:31:50. > :31:54.across East Anglia and the south- east of England. The weather going
:31:54. > :31:56.downhill. Ahead of that we will find a few sharp showers breaking
:31:56. > :32:02.out across the West Country and the south west of England. Generally
:32:02. > :32:06.dry, I think, for Wales, there won't be an awful lot of sunshine.
:32:06. > :32:09.The west coast most favoured, it will be cool among the cloud. The
:32:09. > :32:13.sunshine in Northern Ireland, temperatures struggling to get into
:32:14. > :32:16.double figures, largely dry here. Across Scotland, wintry showers
:32:16. > :32:20.today. The odd shower around tomorrow, but for most of the
:32:20. > :32:24.country it will be dry with a good deal sunshine. Rather chilly.
:32:24. > :32:28.Elsewhere into Europe, we have got rain through the weekend, in
:32:28. > :32:33.Amsterdam and Paris, behind the rain we are drawing in some war air