Browse content similar to 27/04/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Tonight, Lord Leveson says it's not his job to decide the rights or | :00:13. | :00:17. | |
wrongs of a minister's conduct. So where does that leave the future of | :00:17. | :00:21. | |
the Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt? If the inquiry into the conduct of | :00:21. | :00:25. | |
the press is too much -- has too much on its plate to consider the | :00:25. | :00:31. | |
rights and wrongs of how the BSkyB deal was handled, what now? | :00:31. | :00:35. | |
If only there was someone independent whose job it is to | :00:35. | :00:41. | |
investigate alleged breaches of the ministerial code. ( mobile phone | :00:41. | :00:46. | |
rings) There is, that's lucky. If austerity hasn't taken Britain | :00:46. | :00:50. | |
out of recession, is the answer more austerity? The former cabinet | :00:50. | :00:55. | |
minister, Liam Fox, says the Government has to wake up and smell | :00:55. | :01:01. | |
the coffee on more spending cuts or more regulation. We hear what might | :01:01. | :01:04. | |
turn the economy and the Government's fortunes round from | :01:04. | :01:11. | |
our guests. Good evening, sources in the | :01:11. | :01:15. | |
Leveson Inquiry, are saying tonight that Lord Justice Leveson will not | :01:15. | :01:18. | |
provide an early opportunity for the Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, | :01:18. | :01:22. | |
to give evidence. Apparently Lord Justice Leveson believes it is not | :01:22. | :01:27. | |
his role to judge ministerial conduct on the BSkyB takeover. Mr | :01:27. | :01:31. | |
Hunt informed us today that he would make available all texts and | :01:31. | :01:35. | |
e-mails involving his now departed special adviser, Adam Smith, to the | :01:36. | :01:41. | |
Leveson Inquiry. But why not, some wondered, hand them over instead to | :01:41. | :01:51. | |
:01:51. | :01:51. | ||
the man whose job it is to police ministers conduct, sir Alex Allan. | :01:51. | :01:56. | |
Lord Justice Leveson has a lot on his plate, he already has to chew | :01:56. | :01:59. | |
over the relationship between the press and the public, phone hacking | :01:59. | :02:02. | |
and other behaviour, the relationship between press and | :02:02. | :02:07. | |
police, press and politicians and the regulation of the press. Now, | :02:07. | :02:14. | |
supposedly this groaning banquet has been added to is the fate of | :02:14. | :02:18. | |
Jeremy Hunt. This is at least who should decide if the minister has | :02:18. | :02:24. | |
done anything wrong. I will be handing over all my private texts | :02:24. | :02:28. | |
and e-mails to my special adviser to the Leveson Inquiry, and I'm | :02:28. | :02:33. | |
confident they will vindicate the position that I handled the BSkyB | :02:33. | :02:36. | |
merger process with total integrity. The Government thought it had a | :02:37. | :02:41. | |
significant ally in this view. Ministers were cheered by what Lord | :02:41. | :02:44. | |
Justice Leveson had to say earlier in the week. Although I have seen | :02:44. | :02:49. | |
requests for other inquiries and other investigations, it seems to | :02:49. | :02:54. | |
me, that the better course is to allow this inquiry to proceed. When | :02:54. | :02:59. | |
it is concluded, there will doubtless be opportunities for | :02:59. | :03:05. | |
consideration to be given to any further investigation, that is then | :03:05. | :03:09. | |
considered necessary. But there is a problem, critics point out that | :03:09. | :03:12. | |
the Leveson Inquiry might not report for another year, and even | :03:12. | :03:15. | |
then, might not specifically address the question of whether | :03:15. | :03:20. | |
Jeremy Hunt has done anything wrong. If only there were someone | :03:20. | :03:23. | |
independent whose job it is to investigate alleged breaches of the | :03:23. | :03:33. | |
ministerial code. (mobile phone rings) there is, | :03:33. | :03:38. | |
that's lucky. The independent adviser on ministerial interests is | :03:38. | :03:43. | |
Sir Alex Allan, and according to the opposition, he's the perfect | :03:43. | :03:48. | |
person to investigate Jeremy Hunt. It is a deriliction of the Prime | :03:48. | :03:52. | |
Minister's duty, that instead of standing up for the public and | :03:52. | :03:56. | |
proper ministerial behave yoir, he's having a cover-up, he refer it | :03:56. | :03:59. | |
to the special adviser on ministerial interests, and | :03:59. | :04:03. | |
recognise it is his duty as Prime Minister, and instead of hiding | :04:03. | :04:07. | |
behind Lord Leveson and saying it is his responsibility, which it | :04:07. | :04:09. | |
isn't, he should show his responsibility as Prime Minister, | :04:09. | :04:15. | |
and make sure the ministerial code is enforced. In comparison to Lord | :04:15. | :04:19. | |
Justice Leveson's groaning plate, sir Alex's is pretty empty, as far | :04:19. | :04:23. | |
as investigations go. He has only just taken the job, but his | :04:23. | :04:28. | |
predecessor did not look at Liam Fox's conduct. He only looked at | :04:28. | :04:36. | |
one case, Mr Malik, in the last Government, who was cleared. The | :04:36. | :04:40. | |
problem is, Sir Alex can't just go, he has to wait for the Prime | :04:40. | :04:43. | |
Minister to serve him a case to investigate. It would be a pretty | :04:43. | :04:50. | |
safe bet to think that Sir Alex would want to look into Jeremy Hunt, | :04:50. | :04:55. | |
earlier this year he said he would resign if he felt like he was being | :04:55. | :05:01. | |
bypassed. If I felt the hypothesis you put forward, that I was being | :05:01. | :05:04. | |
bypassed in favour of the cabinet secretary doing investigations, yes, | :05:04. | :05:07. | |
I would agree in those circumstances there wasn't any | :05:07. | :05:17. | |
:05:17. | :05:17. | ||
point in my continuing in the role. If you bought folk catchia in | :05:17. | :05:22. | |
Morrison's today -- folk catchia, you look away now. | :05:22. | :05:25. | |
The Government plans for another investigation is to get Jeremy Hunt | :05:25. | :05:28. | |
answering questions in front of the Leveson Inquiry as soon as possible. | :05:28. | :05:31. | |
The Deputy Prime Minister, today, seemed to suggest, that his | :05:31. | :05:36. | |
appearance was being brought forward. We have already got an | :05:37. | :05:41. | |
agreement that Jeremy Hunt will go to the Leveson Inquiry pretty | :05:41. | :05:45. | |
quickly, I would like that as quickly as possible. By all means | :05:45. | :05:48. | |
let's look again after that has happened, and Jeremy Hunt has given | :05:48. | :05:52. | |
his evidence to Leveson. Having a multitude of different inquiries | :05:52. | :05:56. | |
and evidence sessions, they will just get crossed wires. Tonight a | :05:56. | :06:00. | |
spokesman for the Leveson Inquiry disputed this, saying the judge had | :06:00. | :06:04. | |
decided n fairness to the other witnesses, against allowing Jeremy | :06:04. | :06:10. | |
Hunt to jump the queue. A source has added that Lord Justice Leveson | :06:10. | :06:12. | |
is not the arbiter of the ministerial code, there is someone | :06:12. | :06:19. | |
else who can do that job. An apparent reference to Sir Alex | :06:19. | :06:23. | |
Allan. So tonight Jeremy Hunt is left spinning, waiting to see if | :06:23. | :06:27. | |
his one rogue adviser defence will work any better for him than the | :06:27. | :06:37. | |
one rogue reporter line worked for News International. | :06:37. | :06:40. | |
The shadow Treasury spokesman, Christ Leslie is in Nottingham, and | :06:40. | :06:43. | |
we will talk to him about the economy in a moment. I wondered | :06:43. | :06:46. | |
what your thoughts were on the developments in the past hour? | :06:46. | :06:51. | |
These are important developments, it is quite clear to most people | :06:51. | :06:53. | |
that Jeremy Hunt should never have been given the job in the first | :06:53. | :06:57. | |
place, of ajudicating on this really important matter of media | :06:57. | :07:02. | |
business. He was always partial, he had a bias involved in it. So the | :07:02. | :07:06. | |
idea that it is some surprise, Lord Leveson lef is saying, well it's | :07:06. | :07:11. | |
not for him, we shouldn't really see that has unusual, ultimately it | :07:11. | :07:15. | |
is for the Prime Minister, and this independent adviser, to be the | :07:15. | :07:19. | |
arbiters of the Ministerial Code of Conduct. I think people will see | :07:19. | :07:23. | |
this weekend, the Prime Minister ducking and dodging and trying to | :07:23. | :07:27. | |
find any way to shirk the fact that this is going to come back to him. | :07:27. | :07:31. | |
He has to take responsibility. And he should really, at the very least, | :07:31. | :07:36. | |
let the independent adviser make a judgment on Jeremy Hunt's behaviour. | :07:36. | :07:41. | |
Most people would say Hunt has to resign. What do you make of the | :07:41. | :07:43. | |
crossed wires point that the Deputy Prime Minister was making. In other | :07:43. | :07:46. | |
words, if we have a whole lot of other inquiries, and there is | :07:46. | :07:50. | |
police investigations going on as well, you get this entirely | :07:50. | :07:55. | |
entangled. Lord Leveson has been asked to look at it in its entirety, | :07:55. | :07:58. | |
BSkyB is part of relations between Government and media, surely it is | :07:58. | :08:02. | |
one for him? I think it is less of crossed wires, and more of the long | :08:02. | :08:05. | |
grass, really. I think the Government are trying desperately | :08:05. | :08:10. | |
to kick this forward, and to stop being so paralysed about this whole | :08:10. | :08:13. | |
Jeremy Hunt affair. The difficulty is, of course, constitutionally it | :08:13. | :08:17. | |
is the Prime Minister who has to take responsibility for his cabinet. | :08:17. | :08:20. | |
And for their behaviour. Yes, there is an independent adviser, it seems | :08:20. | :08:25. | |
as though he's waiting, twidling his thumbs for a case to be | :08:25. | :08:31. | |
referred to him, if ever there was a clear example this is it. | :08:31. | :08:36. | |
The traf vais of Jeremy Hunt are far from the only problem Britain | :08:36. | :08:39. | |
has to face. Britain is back in recession. The former Defence | :08:39. | :08:43. | |
Secretary, Liam Fox, has some ideas, which he claims, will turn things | :08:43. | :08:46. | |
around, more cuts in public spending, reforms to employment | :08:46. | :08:54. | |
laws, and eventually employers' tax cuts to stimulate growth. One | :08:54. | :08:57. | |
newspaper speculated that George Osborne agrees with that analysis. | :08:57. | :08:59. | |
We have been figuring out whether the Chancellor of the Exchequer | :08:59. | :09:06. | |
still agrees with the Government's own stated economic policy. | :09:06. | :09:14. | |
If there is one job that symbolises flexible Labour, it is that of a | :09:14. | :09:19. | |
coffee barista, you work long hours and instantly replacable. At the | :09:19. | :09:24. | |
London coffee festival today, they were competing for Barista of the | :09:24. | :09:28. | |
Year. But on Tory tables, a blast from the man who would have us all | :09:28. | :09:33. | |
work our socks off. Writing in the Telegraph, Liam Fox said that the | :09:33. | :09:43. | |
:09:43. | :09:56. | ||
Lib Dems are blocking Britain's Basically, he means we all need to | :09:56. | :10:06. | |
:10:06. | :10:06. | ||
start working like baristas. Liam Fox has a point, according to the | :10:06. | :10:09. | |
theory the Government believes in, deficit reduction alone does not | :10:09. | :10:13. | |
bring growth. You need a massive spurt of business investment to | :10:13. | :10:17. | |
change the mix between public and private in the British economy. And | :10:17. | :10:23. | |
they think what is stopping that is the rights that people at work | :10:23. | :10:27. | |
accumulated under work. Time to hear from the editor of a newspaper | :10:27. | :10:32. | |
for City of London types. George Osborne's focused on austerity, | :10:32. | :10:36. | |
that has really been a combination of tax hikes and a bit of public | :10:36. | :10:39. | |
spending reductions. He has done nothing to deregulate the economy, | :10:39. | :10:44. | |
and done nothing to deregulate the labour market. Fox thinks he's a | :10:44. | :10:47. | |
prisoner of the Liberal Democrats in that regard? That is one way of | :10:47. | :10:52. | |
looking at it. Another way of looking at it is he's still stuck a | :10:52. | :10:56. | |
bit in this consensus of the past 10-15 years. The Government | :10:56. | :11:04. | |
commissioned this man, venture capitalists Adrian Beecroft to tell | :11:04. | :11:11. | |
them how labour rights should be diluted, but he was received like a | :11:11. | :11:15. | |
cold cup of cappuccino. The report said you get rid of the current | :11:15. | :11:20. | |
unfair dismissal rules, and replace them by an automatic compensated | :11:20. | :11:22. | |
dismissal system. In other words, if you want to get rid of someone, | :11:22. | :11:25. | |
you have to pay them, say, three months, and then you can get rid of | :11:25. | :11:31. | |
them. That is a key change. It appears this was blocked by the | :11:31. | :11:34. | |
Liberal Democrats, and Vince Cable in particular. But, as always in | :11:34. | :11:38. | |
economics, other flavours are available. | :11:38. | :11:41. | |
There are some notable examples, for example, the United States, | :11:41. | :11:44. | |
which is said to have a very flexible labour market. It still | :11:44. | :11:51. | |
has getting on for 10% unemployment. So that there isn't a very close | :11:51. | :11:53. | |
relationship between called flexibility of the labour market | :11:53. | :11:59. | |
and their employment levels. The key factor in the end, is the level | :11:59. | :12:05. | |
of demand in the economy. Labour, in the week of the double- | :12:05. | :12:11. | |
dip recession, and The Hunt hunt scandal, this coalition spat is | :12:11. | :12:17. | |
brisk to the mill. There is no demek date that to suggest the | :12:17. | :12:19. | |
unfair dismissal regime in this country is the reason we have no | :12:19. | :12:22. | |
growth and tipped back into recession. The reason we have | :12:22. | :12:25. | |
dipped back into recession, because of the policies of this Government, | :12:25. | :12:31. | |
is abracadabra sense of demand. This is a coffee -- A lack of | :12:31. | :12:37. | |
demand. This is a coffee work place, if | :12:37. | :12:41. | |
lots of places were as nimble as these, we would see more businesses | :12:41. | :12:47. | |
formed and real growth? Let's be clear what Fox is talking about, | :12:47. | :12:52. | |
he's talking about taking away the employment rights of workers, not | :12:52. | :12:57. | |
normally unionised, a right to decent time off work, for holiday, | :12:57. | :13:00. | |
their maternity rights, all those things that people watching this | :13:00. | :13:04. | |
programme value, and feel plaiks a difference to them. If you asked -- | :13:04. | :13:08. | |
make as difference to them. If you asked the dynamic coffee businesses | :13:08. | :13:12. | |
here today, what is your big problem, they will not say it is I | :13:12. | :13:15. | |
can't sack people. They will tell you the problem they have got is | :13:15. | :13:20. | |
there aren't people buying their coffee. | :13:20. | :13:25. | |
So, a man who resigned, after irregularly employing his adviser, | :13:25. | :13:30. | |
wants the rules on employing people relaxed. But Fox is still a senior | :13:30. | :13:35. | |
and influential Tory, and his intervention was, reportedly, | :13:35. | :13:39. | |
discussed and agreed with George Osborne. If so, one reading of the | :13:39. | :13:42. | |
coffee grounds is this, the Chancellor himself must think his | :13:42. | :13:50. | |
own policy is failing. To try to see if there is any | :13:50. | :13:55. | |
consensus on how to turn the economy round, we have John Redwood, | :13:55. | :14:00. | |
Lord Oakeshott, Labour's shadow Treasury spokesman, Chris Leslie. | :14:00. | :14:04. | |
John Redwood, do you think the Chancellor has been too feeble and | :14:04. | :14:08. | |
knows he has been too feeble? think more needs to be done, | :14:08. | :14:10. | |
because the current state economy is not delivering the growth we | :14:10. | :14:14. | |
need. I think most people agree, right left and centre, that the | :14:14. | :14:18. | |
best way to bring the deficit down is to get a lot more people into | :14:18. | :14:22. | |
jobs off benefits, so the benefit bill goes down and they become tax- | :14:22. | :14:25. | |
payers. That is what we want to. Do I think the number one thing we | :14:25. | :14:29. | |
need to do is to be much more dramatic in what we do about the | :14:29. | :14:33. | |
banks. One of the reasons we don't have a pror recovery is we have | :14:34. | :14:38. | |
very weak banks -- proper recovery, is we have very weak banks and | :14:39. | :14:41. | |
under a regulatory cosh stopping them lending money, the Chancellor | :14:41. | :14:46. | |
and the authorities need to sort that out quickly. It is all the | :14:46. | :14:49. | |
Vince Cable and the Liberal Democrats fault, as we heard from | :14:49. | :14:52. | |
Liam Fox, that you are stopping market reforms, and you personally | :14:52. | :14:58. | |
are against more cuts, saying it would be economic madness and self- | :14:58. | :15:00. | |
harm? That is to have another round of cuts, which is being talked | :15:00. | :15:05. | |
about by the Treasury. That would be tree foolish. They say planned | :15:05. | :15:14. | |
for another 5%, if -- very foolish. They say planned for another 5%. | :15:14. | :15:17. | |
You have heard Nick Clegg saying today there is no need for any more | :15:17. | :15:21. | |
cuts. Those in the Treasury trying to do it have been put back in | :15:21. | :15:24. | |
their box. It is amazing to come on Newsnight, and not hear anyone | :15:24. | :15:30. | |
being tougher on the banks than me. I agree with John. That is what is | :15:30. | :15:34. | |
necessary, if you talk to small businessmen, far more will you tell | :15:34. | :15:36. | |
you they are worried about not having the money to employ people, | :15:36. | :15:40. | |
rather than sacking them on the spot. Liam Fox is completely | :15:40. | :15:44. | |
missing the point. The point about the banks is they are under the two | :15:44. | :15:47. | |
biggest banks for small businesses, under the direct control of the | :15:47. | :15:50. | |
Treasury, and under both the Labour Government and under this | :15:50. | :15:53. | |
Government, they are not dealing with them. They have got to get a | :15:53. | :15:57. | |
grip and make them lend. Do you think Liam Fox is completely | :15:57. | :16:01. | |
missing the point? That is what Lord Oakeshott just said. He wants | :16:01. | :16:07. | |
deeper cuts, he wants labour market reform and the prospect of tax cuts | :16:07. | :16:10. | |
for businesses in the future? agree with Liam Fox that we need to | :16:11. | :16:17. | |
get the deficit down. This country is borrowing too much, it is living | :16:17. | :16:21. | |
beyond its means. I believe the best way of getting the deficit | :16:21. | :16:24. | |
down is deal with unemployment in the way they are beginning to | :16:24. | :16:27. | |
discuss. I don't want to criticise Liam Fox, but most serious | :16:27. | :16:31. | |
commentators on the economy, would identify, first of all, the issue | :16:31. | :16:35. | |
of banking and credit availability, in the way they have been doing | :16:35. | :16:39. | |
tonight. I'm all in favour of some deregulation, I think total costs | :16:39. | :16:44. | |
on business are too high, and selective deregulation would be | :16:44. | :16:46. | |
very helpful. More importantly is cheaper energy, I think the | :16:47. | :16:52. | |
Chancellor is on to this. He now realises our energy is totally | :16:52. | :16:55. | |
uncompetitive with the United States of America, if we could get | :16:55. | :16:58. | |
cheaper energy we would have more industry. Whatever you think of | :16:58. | :17:02. | |
Liam Fox's plan, at least it is a plan, and Labour's plan appears to | :17:02. | :17:06. | |
be to do with what the Government would do, but not as quick or as | :17:06. | :17:11. | |
deep, as if it is homeopathic cuts, you dilute it? It comes to | :17:11. | :17:14. | |
something when Liam Fox's article is further to the right of even | :17:15. | :17:19. | |
John Redwood's suggestion. Of course we have to deal with bank | :17:19. | :17:24. | |
lending, as Lord Oakeshott was saying, the Government own these | :17:25. | :17:30. | |
shares and not doing what it should do with the banks. Matthew is | :17:30. | :17:32. | |
normally the spokesman for Vince Cable, I don't know if he's | :17:32. | :17:36. | |
changing his mind on this. When Liam Fox and John Redwood talk | :17:36. | :17:40. | |
about deregulation, let's decode that for a minute. It is an obscure | :17:40. | :17:48. | |
phrase. What exactly do they mean, is it maternity or paternity rights, | :17:48. | :17:52. | |
the minimum wage, you have to spell out what you mean by the supply | :17:52. | :17:55. | |
side reforms, working people have been hammered enough by this | :17:55. | :17:59. | |
Government so far. Do you think that there is a prospect of making | :17:59. | :18:03. | |
it easier to fire people, and that is what some at least on the | :18:03. | :18:06. | |
Conservative right would like, would that be acceptable? Can I | :18:06. | :18:10. | |
just say, I speak for myself, since I resigned from the front bench. | :18:10. | :18:14. | |
Obviously I have worked with Vince Cable for a long time. I certainly | :18:14. | :18:17. | |
know what they are doing there. Does he share your view? You have | :18:17. | :18:21. | |
asked, so let me tell you, it is not that the business department is | :18:21. | :18:31. | |
:18:31. | :18:31. | ||
not looking at these reforms, there has already been a change, whereby | :18:31. | :18:33. | |
people don't have employment protection rights for two years | :18:33. | :18:38. | |
rather than one. That is sense pbl, because it takes longer to -- | :18:38. | :18:42. | |
sensible because it takes longer to work out. They are also serious | :18:42. | :18:45. | |
about having protected discussions, so you can have a talk with your | :18:45. | :18:51. | |
employee, and not risk having a great long time at the thrill | :18:51. | :18:56. | |
tribunal. But in general, just a minute -- industrial tribunal. But | :18:56. | :19:01. | |
in general, we do not agree, and I don't agree with the sack on the | :19:01. | :19:07. | |
spot mentalty. We think most of Beecroft is wrong. I hope Vince | :19:07. | :19:11. | |
shares your view, the idea of trying to make it easier to fire | :19:11. | :19:16. | |
people as the solution to economic difficulties is ridiculous, it | :19:16. | :19:20. | |
should be easier to hire people. Why don't we get a way of helping | :19:20. | :19:22. | |
small firms with a national insurance contribution discount. | :19:22. | :19:27. | |
That is the sort of thing we need to do. I think it is a bit rich | :19:27. | :19:30. | |
from the Labour spokesman, they slammed up the national insurance | :19:30. | :19:34. | |
in the last days in power. This Government has been trying to abate | :19:34. | :19:38. | |
national insurance increase. What labour market deregulation would | :19:38. | :19:42. | |
increase employment would you say? I'm very happy with what the | :19:42. | :19:47. | |
Government is doing, I produced 43 deregulatory ideas before the | :19:47. | :19:50. | |
election, none including the kind of things Liam Fox is talking about. | :19:50. | :19:53. | |
I'm not arguing that case. What we have a serious problem in Britain | :19:53. | :19:57. | |
with now is overtaxation, which have reached tax saturation point | :19:57. | :20:01. | |
and gone beyond it T you can see now the income tax figures fell | :20:01. | :20:05. | |
last year compared with the year before, because we are above the | :20:05. | :20:09. | |
tax saturation level. Capital gains tax is going down. I think you need | :20:09. | :20:12. | |
rates that raise more revenue, I think that is one of our big | :20:12. | :20:18. | |
problems. We have gone away from Gordon Brown's very sensible rates | :20:18. | :20:22. | |
of tax, to taxes at levels that don't seem to work. Anything we can | :20:22. | :20:26. | |
do to produce less tax on people other than the very rich, would | :20:26. | :20:29. | |
help demand. How about a temporary VAT cut to stimulate the economy, | :20:29. | :20:33. | |
John. Do you think that would be a good idea. I prefer to let people | :20:33. | :20:36. | |
keep more of what they earn, the Government has gone in that | :20:36. | :20:39. | |
direction with raising the threshold. The more we can do to | :20:40. | :20:43. | |
create more demand through giving people a break. People feel taxed | :20:43. | :20:48. | |
to death. They have been very badly squeezed by tax and inflation. | :20:48. | :20:50. | |
it your sense that you think the Chancellor would like to go further, | :20:50. | :20:53. | |
either down the road you are suggesting, or the road that Liam | :20:53. | :20:59. | |
Fox is suggesting, but he's either a prisoner of the Lib Dems, for | :20:59. | :21:03. | |
foot dragging, or he can't get it through? There is always | :21:04. | :21:07. | |
difficulties in a coalition, two different parties with two | :21:07. | :21:10. | |
different traditions have different views, I dare say the Chancellor | :21:10. | :21:16. | |
would like to deregulate more, he would like cheaper energy than the | :21:16. | :21:19. | |
current policies, that would be helpful. These are not the big | :21:20. | :21:23. | |
issues, what the Government needs is confidence to tackle, first of | :21:23. | :21:26. | |
all the banking problem, and secondly, the way the private | :21:26. | :21:30. | |
sector has been very badly squeezed through a very expensive public | :21:30. | :21:34. | |
sector, when we do that we will make progress. We are not foot- | :21:34. | :21:38. | |
dragging, we want to see as Liberal Democrats, is much more emphasis on | :21:38. | :21:41. | |
capital spending, particularly capital spending on housing, where | :21:41. | :21:47. | |
we could perfectly well be building 100,000 more houses a year, we | :21:47. | :21:51. | |
could move on to Plan A+ then. would be the kind of week the | :21:51. | :21:55. | |
coalition would like to forget again. | :21:55. | :21:57. | |
Philip Collins and Gillian Tett, who is based in the United States | :21:57. | :22:01. | |
for the Financial Times are here to reflect on what the Government can | :22:01. | :22:07. | |
do to turn around the economy and its own fortune, along with Adam | :22:07. | :22:13. | |
Smith. -- -- Iain Martin. | :22:13. | :22:21. | |
Can he survive this? I think the Government has invested a lot of | :22:21. | :22:27. | |
time and political energy in Jeremy Hunt, because if not they would | :22:27. | :22:34. | |
focus on the Prime Minister. I don't think it is something that | :22:34. | :22:40. | |
Leveson will deliver a report on the Culture Secretary in autumn. | :22:40. | :22:43. | |
How would you analyse what Lord Leveson has been saying tonight, it | :22:43. | :22:52. | |
looks like "not meg uv". I think Jeremy Hunt is in a precarious | :22:52. | :22:55. | |
position, and I wouldn't say with confidence he would stay. But the | :22:55. | :23:00. | |
release of his texts and e-mails suggests on the surface that he | :23:00. | :23:03. | |
thinks there is nothing there that will necessarily incriminate him. | :23:03. | :23:06. | |
He has two serious questions to answer, one about the parliamentary | :23:06. | :23:10. | |
statement, which it appears he released before he gave it to a | :23:10. | :23:13. | |
representative of news interle that. The second is whether there was an | :23:13. | :23:19. | |
on going -- News International. The second is whether there was an a | :23:19. | :23:21. | |
conversation of entirely another kind between his people and News | :23:21. | :23:24. | |
International. It won't be enough to say he didn't know about it. | :23:25. | :23:32. | |
What do you make of this, the shareholders do they care about it? | :23:32. | :23:36. | |
The questioning of the Murdochs did get a lot of attention in the US, | :23:36. | :23:40. | |
there are people who are pretty shocked by the whole thing. There | :23:41. | :23:44. | |
are certainly lawyers scurrying around, working out whether it will | :23:44. | :23:47. | |
extend into America, either because there are American citizens who | :23:47. | :23:53. | |
have had their phones hacked on American soirblgs or because there | :23:53. | :23:59. | |
is an act -- or, because there is an act that could damage News | :23:59. | :24:04. | |
Corporation. The bigger point to look at is it adds to a sense of | :24:04. | :24:10. | |
malaise about Government in generally. Not just in Britain? On | :24:10. | :24:18. | |
that specific point do you think it has to go to Sir Alex Allan, it has | :24:18. | :24:24. | |
to go to the guy who looks at ministerial conduct? Everybody | :24:24. | :24:33. | |
takes the Mick oit of him, but he's a former very serious civil servant, | :24:33. | :24:37. | |
who won't be happy at being mishandled by the Government. It is | :24:37. | :24:41. | |
clear that breaches of the ministerial code don't fall under | :24:41. | :24:45. | |
the remit of the Leveson Inquiry, and the Government is attempting to | :24:45. | :24:48. | |
shift it on to Leveson, and good for him, he's fighting back. | :24:48. | :24:54. | |
don't know if you call it Plan B or plan C or A plus, and other parts | :24:54. | :24:59. | |
of it you heard in the discussions tonight. Are there other all | :24:59. | :25:01. | |
tiornives for -- alternatives for the Government to implement now, | :25:01. | :25:05. | |
other than what we are doing? Government is caught between a rock | :25:06. | :25:09. | |
and a hard place, there are three important things happening in the | :25:09. | :25:13. | |
last few weeks, first the mounting evidence the economy is slowing | :25:13. | :25:19. | |
down in the UK, and the US and the eurozone, and the US prodowsing | :25:19. | :25:22. | |
disappointing figures today. The markets have remained very nervous, | :25:22. | :25:26. | |
we had breathing space earlier this year, once again there is a sense | :25:26. | :25:30. | |
of profound unease in the markets. Thirdly, we are seeing increasing | :25:30. | :25:35. | |
sign of voting revolt across the eurozone. You have had several | :25:35. | :25:38. | |
countries where you have had incumbent Governments kicked out. | :25:38. | :25:41. | |
You are seeing as economic pressures mount, is more and more | :25:41. | :25:46. | |
political and social tension coming to the fore. Which is why things | :25:46. | :25:50. | |
like the Leveson Inquiry is bad timing for the Government trying to | :25:50. | :25:55. | |
maintain credibility. How damaging is it? In a funny way the Leveson | :25:55. | :26:00. | |
Inquiry is a good thing, we have had a return to recession this week, | :26:00. | :26:05. | |
if you said six months ago that the return to recession is item number | :26:05. | :26:10. | |
three on the news, that would be a delighted Government. Leveson is a | :26:10. | :26:13. | |
distraction from a more important story, which is the state of the | :26:13. | :26:18. | |
British economy. The Government don't have much room for manoeuvre, | :26:18. | :26:22. | |
they have staked so much on this policy, I would urge them not to | :26:22. | :26:26. | |
double a failed strategy, as Liam Fox seems to be suggesting they. Do | :26:26. | :26:28. | |
they haven't got the room the American Government had for a | :26:29. | :26:32. | |
stimulus, and the inclination either to do so. I think they are | :26:32. | :26:37. | |
stuck with Plan A, with a little bit of quasi-industrial policy, | :26:37. | :26:42. | |
there is nowhere else to go. have to remember politically what | :26:42. | :26:47. | |
was supposed to have happened now. The entire Government plan was | :26:47. | :26:50. | |
predicated on recovery which should have happened now, and they | :26:50. | :26:56. | |
backdated the cuts. The worse is still to come? By 2013,/14, wages | :26:56. | :27:00. | |
would have recovered, sign of life in the employment market, a return | :27:00. | :27:03. | |
of pre-election feel-good factor, that is the basis the Government | :27:04. | :27:07. | |
designed their plan, now there will be cutting, most of it against the | :27:07. | :27:10. | |
backdrop of a stagnant economy. That is politically very, very | :27:10. | :27:16. | |
difficult. But they have two years to turn around, no election before | :27:16. | :27:20. | |
that? It is difficult to see how you relaunch this Government F it | :27:20. | :27:26. | |
was a majority Government you can imagine a majority Conservative or | :27:27. | :27:31. | |
Labour Prime Minister say let's shift direction and try more | :27:31. | :27:35. | |
radical policies. They are boxed in by coalition, most Tories would | :27:35. | :27:41. | |
want to do, as you can see this morning with Fox working as an | :27:41. | :27:44. | |
ambassador for Osbourne, it is difficult to know where they will | :27:44. | :27:48. | |
go. They have a flatlining economy. They can say, look, 25% | :27:48. | :27:53. | |
unemployment in Spain, we know the basket case of Greece. France may | :27:53. | :27:59. | |
be going in a different direction, the Netherland Government has | :27:59. | :28:04. | |
fallen down. They can point to the fact that the UK has not had a gilt | :28:04. | :28:08. | |
market crisis which, frankly, is quite an achievement, given that | :28:08. | :28:14. | |
groups two years ago saying that gilt was set on a bed of | :28:14. | :28:22. | |
it implements the cuts and uses ways that don't involve spending | :28:22. | :28:26. | |
money to try to boost demand, such as looking seriously at the | :28:26. | :28:35. | |
provision of credit in the economy. And secondly, what can do -- can it | :28:35. | :28:40. | |
do to keep social cohesion in doing that. There was a fascinating talk | :28:40. | :28:46. | |
about who Governments are hitting and imposing pain on, it is not the | :28:46. | :28:48. | |
same. That is tying the stories together. If you believe as a voter | :28:49. | :28:52. | |
that politics is a game for rich people, and certain things going on | :28:52. | :28:55. | |
behind the scenes, you are not sure what happens with big business and | :28:55. | :28:58. | |
people like Mr Murdoch and Governments, that is one of the | :28:58. | :29:04. | |
reasons you might be discontented, we might not all be -- we might all | :29:04. | :29:08. | |
be in it together but we are not in the same both? The "feel-good | :29:08. | :29:11. | |
factor" will be part of the incomes election, but the country feeling | :29:11. | :29:13. | |
bad could be good for the Government. In the sense that the | :29:13. | :29:17. | |
numbers have shifted on the polls, but the numbers which have | :29:17. | :29:20. | |
stubbornly not shifted is where people are asked whether they are | :29:20. | :29:23. | |
yet asked to trust the Labour Party with the economy. Until that | :29:23. | :29:27. | |
changes, you haven't necessarily had a transitional moment in the | :29:27. | :29:31. | |
political landscape. What is happening, I think, is in 2008 | :29:31. | :29:35. | |
finance went bust, now it is politics that is going bust. | :29:35. | :29:40. | |
Essentially the kind of politics we have lived with since Clinton in | :29:40. | :29:46. | |
1992, there is 20 years since The War Room, which Blair copied and | :29:46. | :29:49. | |
Cameron copied rather ineptly, people can see the wiring and see | :29:49. | :29:53. | |
through all of it. This is big trouble for Labour too, they will | :29:53. | :29:56. | |
have to be committed in the next election to cuts. That has changed | :29:56. | :30:00. | |
what they thought they would have to do. The failure of the deficit | :30:00. | :30:03. | |
reduction programme is bad news for the as for the Government. We will | :30:03. | :30:06. | |
have to leave it now. That's all from Newsnight tonight. | :30:06. | :30:10. | |
The end of a week which you might think shows that politics and | :30:10. | :30:13. | |
satire are now merging in Britain. It seems in Australia they might | :30:13. | :30:19. | |
just be ahead of us, as this little gem of an interview shows. | :30:19. | :30:23. | |
REPORTER: Do you think he should return to the Speaker's chair, | :30:23. | :30:28. | |
while the civil claims are still being played out? I understand that | :30:28. | :30:32. | |
the Prime Minister has addressed this in a press conference in | :30:32. | :30:36. | |
Turkey in the last few yuers, I haven't seen what she said, I | :30:36. | :30:42. | |
support what it is that she said. You haven't seen what she said. | :30:42. | :30:45. | |
I support what my Prime Minister said. What is your view? My view is | :30:45. | :30:48. | |
what the Prime Minister's view is. Surely you must have your own view | :30:48. | :30:53. | |
on this? No, when you ask if I have my view on this, it is such a | :30:53. | :30:57. | |
general question it invites me to go into lots of question. It is | :30:57. | :31:01. | |
whether a speaker should be returned when he's facing civil | :31:01. | :31:06. | |
claims of sexual harassment? It is an incredibly serious manner, there | :31:06. | :31:10. | |
should be no tolerance for sexual harassment, in my view. But on the | :31:10. | :31:13. | |
other hand, these matters have yet to be established, and I support | :31:13. | :31:17. | |
what the Prime Minister has said. don't know what that is? I'm sure | :31:17. | :31:27. | |
:31:27. | :31:31. | ||
Hello there, it isth's trying up a bit, a frosty start in Scotland, | :31:31. | :31:34. | |
sunny spells in Northern Ireland and northern England. For the rest | :31:34. | :31:38. | |
of the UK cloudy and showers. Rain develop anything the south-east. | :31:38. | :31:41. | |
Not too bad if you have the sunshine across northern England. | :31:41. | :31:46. | |
Into the Midland, a lot of cloud. The wet weather is developing | :31:46. | :31:50. | |
across East Anglia and the south- east of England. The weather going | :31:50. | :31:54. | |
downhill. Ahead of that we will find a few sharp showers breaking | :31:54. | :31:56. | |
out across the West Country and the south west of England. Generally | :31:56. | :32:02. | |
dry, I think, for Wales, there won't be an awful lot of sunshine. | :32:02. | :32:06. | |
The west coast most favoured, it will be cool among the cloud. The | :32:06. | :32:09. | |
sunshine in Northern Ireland, temperatures struggling to get into | :32:09. | :32:13. | |
double figures, largely dry here. Across Scotland, wintry showers | :32:14. | :32:16. | |
today. The odd shower around tomorrow, but for most of the | :32:16. | :32:20. | |
country it will be dry with a good deal sunshine. Rather chilly. | :32:20. | :32:24. | |
Elsewhere into Europe, we have got rain through the weekend, in | :32:24. | :32:28. | |
Amsterdam and Paris, behind the rain we are drawing in some war air | :32:28. | :32:33. |