Browse content similar to 03/09/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Tomorrow we shall see what David Cameron can do to get some zip back | :00:12. | :00:15. | |
into his Government. Could the first planned reshuffle of his time | :00:15. | :00:21. | |
in Number Ten, also be his last before the election. Our political | :00:21. | :00:25. | |
editor is here. We are expecting jobs for a lot of | :00:25. | :00:30. | |
new MPs, and a healthy amount of women, could it be the line up that | :00:30. | :00:33. | |
keeps Cameron in power. Time to shake up the political | :00:33. | :00:38. | |
panel and see if the summer holiday has harpened their brains. | :00:39. | :00:43. | |
everybody needs to be asked. Politicians on both right and left | :00:43. | :00:48. | |
make idiots of themselves over rape. Why has this crime suddenly become | :00:48. | :00:54. | |
so contentious? We will hear from the feminist writer, Naomi Woolf. | :00:54. | :00:57. | |
When street protests brought down the Mubarak dictatorship, Britain | :00:57. | :01:02. | |
Prom my to do all in its power to chase down and return to Egypt | :01:02. | :01:05. | |
money the regime had stolen. A Newsnight investigation has | :01:05. | :01:08. | |
discovered a great chasam between words and deeds. | :01:08. | :01:13. | |
Why has Britain been so slow to trace the rest of the money? | :01:13. | :01:18. | |
Its apparent inaction proved by developments Newsnight was able to | :01:18. | :01:28. | |
:01:28. | :01:28. | ||
obtain within minutes on-line. These are not good days for an | :01:29. | :01:32. | |
ambitious MP to drop his or her phone down the loo, ob to be | :01:32. | :01:36. | |
separated from it at all. The Government remuffle which has been | :01:36. | :01:39. | |
talked about all summer is finally upon us. Details are beginning to | :01:40. | :01:44. | |
emerge tonight. David Cameron has, of course, decided nothing to base | :01:44. | :01:48. | |
as winning the election will be a consideration. Unless he's suddenly | :01:48. | :01:51. | |
gone deaf, he must know there are plenty of his own backbenchers who | :01:51. | :01:55. | |
think it is way time he got a grip and changed direction. | :01:55. | :01:59. | |
First, tonight, our political editor looks at what they think he | :01:59. | :02:07. | |
ought to do. Politicians waited today for the | :02:07. | :02:11. | |
Prime Minister's first reshuffle. Promotion or demotion, but | :02:11. | :02:16. | |
certainly commotion in Westminster. Away from the hand wringing, hand- | :02:16. | :02:21. | |
me-downs and handbags were on offer down the road in south Kensington, | :02:21. | :02:25. | |
in auction, at Christie's, Margaret Thatcher's outfits went on sale. | :02:25. | :02:29. | |
Some of David Cameron's critics think her heir could do worse. This | :02:29. | :02:32. | |
reshuffle has to I a dress Cameron's twin problems of party | :02:32. | :02:36. | |
management and policy drift. Party management would suggest he recruit | :02:36. | :02:39. | |
some of those truer blue right-wing Conservatives to positions of | :02:39. | :02:41. | |
responsibility within the party. And policy direction would suggest | :02:42. | :02:46. | |
some of those radical ideas of both the new intake and actually the old. | :02:46. | :02:49. | |
Radical, right-wing, call it what you will, but many say the time has | :02:49. | :02:54. | |
come for those twin set and pearls. Today the pressure came from | :02:54. | :02:58. | |
someone with working knowledge of both Margaret Thatcher and David | :02:58. | :03:02. | |
Cameron. David Davis, Cameron's rival for the party leadership, | :03:02. | :03:06. | |
speaking at a think-tank, from Thatcher's day. When Margaret | :03:06. | :03:09. | |
Thatcher's Government stopped the steady decline of the British | :03:09. | :03:14. | |
economy, that decline, thought to be inevitable at the time, we | :03:14. | :03:18. | |
forget some of the apparently very risky things she did. So what | :03:18. | :03:24. | |
should we do about it? Let's start with the easy part, no new taxes. | :03:24. | :03:30. | |
And yes, Mr Clegg, I am talking to you. The Government actually needs | :03:30. | :03:39. | |
a coherent, long-term strategy for genuinely lower, flatter taxes. | :03:39. | :03:45. | |
He's in a really bad place. He needs a 7-10% poll lead to form a | :03:46. | :03:50. | |
majority Conservative Government after the next election. It doesn't | :03:51. | :03:54. | |
look like there is any chance of doing that on current trends. They | :03:54. | :04:00. | |
have to have a message of the kind of blue collar, northern, Midlands | :04:00. | :04:02. | |
voters, who Margaret Thatcher managed, at least in the Midlands, | :04:02. | :04:07. | |
to keep on her side for three elections. He certainly has to | :04:07. | :04:10. | |
listen to what some of the wiser heads in his party are he will | :04:10. | :04:14. | |
iting him. That means a radical recasting of the cabinet, getting | :04:14. | :04:17. | |
his whips' office in order in the Commons, and getting political | :04:17. | :04:20. | |
focus and direction into Downing Street. The Prime Minister is said | :04:20. | :04:25. | |
to be alert to all of this, and it is partly why this evening it is a | :04:25. | :04:27. | |
racing certainty International Development Secretary, Andrew | :04:27. | :04:31. | |
Mitchell, who ran David Davis's campaign, will move to become Chief | :04:31. | :04:35. | |
Whip. It is partly why ministers, like Northern Ireland Secretary, | :04:35. | :04:39. | |
Owen Paterson, Employment Minister, Chris Grayling, and the current | :04:39. | :04:43. | |
deputy fair chan, Michael Fallon, might all be in line for an | :04:43. | :04:49. | |
elevation. The Republican conventions in | :04:49. | :04:53. | |
America, and the democratic one this week are being watched, Young | :04:53. | :04:58. | |
Conservatives are wondering if their leader will take a leaf out | :04:58. | :05:05. | |
of Mitt Romney's book. He hired a young gun with controversial cuts | :05:05. | :05:09. | |
to the state in his back pocket. It was controversial there, but some | :05:09. | :05:14. | |
of our MPs have ideas similar. The Government is bringing forward | :05:14. | :05:18. | |
an economic development bill in the next few days. Much is its own work, | :05:18. | :05:22. | |
but some is heavily influenced by new intake Conservative MPs, a | :05:22. | :05:28. | |
chunk of whom are due for promotion tomorrow. Liz Truss, in particular, | :05:28. | :05:33. | |
is favourite, one of her ideas, already in the policy pot, is to | :05:33. | :05:39. | |
deregulate the lower end of the labour market. Mini-jobs, pioneered | :05:39. | :05:44. | |
in Germany, would exempt those from tax earning at least �300 a month. | :05:44. | :05:48. | |
The Government will announce a further relaxation of planning | :05:48. | :05:51. | |
regulation, to galvanise the economy. Something many new MPs | :05:51. | :05:54. | |
have been pushing for. Another idea Hoveing into view, more air | :05:54. | :06:00. | |
capacity in the south-east, again a hobby horse of David Cameron's 2010 | :06:00. | :06:04. | |
cohort, and something of a philosopher's stone, has gained | :06:04. | :06:08. | |
ambassadors in the cabinet, watch out for Justine Greening, she is | :06:08. | :06:12. | |
opposed to this. Of course the Prime Minister does not necessarily | :06:12. | :06:18. | |
have to tackle any redirection in the shuffle. MPs close to him, such | :06:18. | :06:25. | |
as Nick Boles would be in line for that. Whatever he does he has to do | :06:25. | :06:28. | |
with the Liberal Democrats, he doesn't have the freedom of his | :06:28. | :06:32. | |
backbenchers as he would like F growth is your number one think, | :06:32. | :06:35. | |
then you move David Laws into a business department, you have to | :06:35. | :06:38. | |
swallow your pride and give Vince Cable a big promotion, perhaps to | :06:38. | :06:41. | |
Home Secretary. I would like to see him offer to make William Hague | :06:41. | :06:46. | |
Party Chairman, which would go down very well with the members. He | :06:46. | :06:51. | |
listens to William Hague. tonight a remind eark at the | :06:51. | :06:57. | |
Paralympics of the -- reminder of the Paralympics of the Government's | :06:57. | :07:01. | |
challenge. The first boos we have heard in the Paralympics stadium. | :07:02. | :07:06. | |
Something else to set the scene a pledge Cameron made years ago, he | :07:06. | :07:13. | |
said by the end of his parliament a third of ministers would be women, | :07:13. | :07:19. | |
tomorrow may go some way to do it hope in the future that female | :07:19. | :07:24. | |
outfits aren't such an awedity. -- odddy. | :07:24. | :07:30. | |
We have our guests. We have allowed them to keep their phones switched | :07:30. | :07:40. | |
on in case the Prime Minister rings. You haven't had a call? No. Have | :07:40. | :07:44. | |
you had one? No, I must have blotted my copy book with the House | :07:44. | :07:50. | |
of Lords reform, I don't expect one. First off, why is this reshuffle | :07:50. | :07:56. | |
happening at all, other than as a reward for towedies? I think we -- | :07:57. | :07:59. | |
toadies? I think we ought to recognise that David Cameron did | :07:59. | :08:03. | |
the right thing not to reshuffle when you in the media and others | :08:03. | :08:07. | |
were prompting him to. He allowed his ministers to settle in to | :08:07. | :08:11. | |
deliver the reforms, in welfare, education and healthcare. That was | :08:11. | :08:17. | |
the right strategy. If I was an observer of how people manage an | :08:17. | :08:20. | |
organisation, that is the right thing to do. We are to applaud the | :08:20. | :08:24. | |
Prime Minister because he fails to succumb to media tittle tattle, we | :08:24. | :08:28. | |
are supposed to applaud that are we? I'm applauding because he's a | :08:28. | :08:32. | |
manager people, he allowed his ministers. What is to be achieved | :08:32. | :08:36. | |
by the reshuffle? What is to be achieved by the reshuffle, is to | :08:36. | :08:41. | |
make sure where we need to move people, promote people, there has | :08:41. | :08:48. | |
been some fantastic backbenchers, you saw some of then on your list, | :08:48. | :08:52. | |
Truss, and others, who have done a lot of the thinking for this | :08:52. | :08:57. | |
Government, in the different plam fleds and think-tanks. You may life, | :08:57. | :09:07. | |
:09:07. | :09:10. | ||
but look at the mini-jobs idea, the idea to allow all sorts of things. | :09:10. | :09:14. | |
There is talk that there is more talent on the backbenches than in | :09:14. | :09:18. | |
Government? That is probably true, we won't find out for some time, he | :09:18. | :09:21. | |
hasn't that many positions to fill. My concern is all the attention is | :09:21. | :09:25. | |
on IRA shuffle, and we ought to be thinking about a re-think. That is | :09:25. | :09:28. | |
my thing. Nothing will be achieved, simply by changing the personnel? | :09:28. | :09:33. | |
Not at all. I want a re-think about where we are going, how we are | :09:34. | :09:38. | |
going to achieve growth, how we are going to instill some demand into | :09:38. | :09:42. | |
the economy. Then you slot people in, who are capable of creating | :09:42. | :09:48. | |
those outcomes. But, of course, he's not actually a free agent in | :09:48. | :09:52. | |
this matter? He ought to be a freer agent than he has proved to be. | :09:52. | :09:57. | |
can't even reshuffle the whole of his cabinet, can he? Isn't that a | :09:57. | :10:01. | |
sadness? The liberals are a very small minority of this Government. | :10:01. | :10:06. | |
And many Conservatives believe that very often, too often, the tail has | :10:07. | :10:12. | |
wagged the dog. I would want to see a bit more strength, a bit more | :10:12. | :10:19. | |
leadership from David in that respect. Do you think that whatever | :10:19. | :10:25. | |
this reshuffle is, that it is going to result in a change of direction? | :10:25. | :10:29. | |
Absolutely not. If you look at what you have just been asking Brian | :10:30. | :10:35. | |
about, what is this Government delivering? We have capped welfare | :10:35. | :10:38. | |
at �26,000, that is a major step. We have tackled public sector | :10:38. | :10:42. | |
pensions, another major step. We have tackled tuition fees, another | :10:43. | :10:46. | |
major step. We didn't win the election outright. We are in | :10:46. | :10:49. | |
coalition, yet we have delivered at lot of Conservative manifesto, we | :10:49. | :10:52. | |
are going in the right direction, nobody said this would be easy. | :10:52. | :10:56. | |
This is a long, hard road. I would rather have a leader who is honest | :10:56. | :11:00. | |
with the public, and doesn't look at political expediency and winning | :11:01. | :11:03. | |
elections, but says it is a long road, we will go beyond this | :11:03. | :11:07. | |
parliament to try to fix the mess we inherited. This is what I'm | :11:07. | :11:14. | |
doing to do it. Setting out his programme. Looking at departments | :11:14. | :11:17. | |
that really need a change of personnel? The Treasury, the name | :11:17. | :11:22. | |
of the game is growth, the name of the game of the economy. You want a | :11:22. | :11:25. | |
new Chancellor of the Exchequer? have already said that. Other | :11:25. | :11:29. | |
departments? I would put George as chairman, he has two jobs, let him | :11:29. | :11:32. | |
concentrate on one, which is winning the next election, and | :11:32. | :11:36. | |
bring, I would bring in Philip Hammond into the Treasury. A man | :11:36. | :11:41. | |
who knows business, who has a safe pair of hands, and he's a good | :11:41. | :11:44. | |
economy i. Any other departments needing a kick up the back side? | :11:44. | :11:50. | |
That is up to David, I have my own views. I wouldn't go that far. I'm | :11:50. | :11:54. | |
not overly happy with what Vince has done in business, that is up to | :11:54. | :11:59. | |
Nick Clegg, sadly. He can't get rite of Vince Cable, can he? | :11:59. | :12:03. | |
might change him for David Laws, who knows. Any other departments | :12:03. | :12:07. | |
crying out for a change, Department for International Development, that | :12:07. | :12:11. | |
is all we seem to know about? take Europe away from the Foreign | :12:11. | :12:16. | |
Office, and put that into the Foreign Office. Which departments | :12:16. | :12:21. | |
do you think need a kick up the back side? I think if you look at | :12:21. | :12:24. | |
where we have done well, we have done well in education, welfare, we | :12:24. | :12:28. | |
have done well in healthcare. These are areas we have done incredibly | :12:28. | :12:33. | |
well in. There are three areas you think you have done well in? Look | :12:33. | :12:37. | |
at the people in those jobs, look at the ministerial team that | :12:37. | :12:40. | |
supports the cabinet, and promote people accordingly. It is not for | :12:40. | :12:46. | |
me to sit here and speculate about which people he needs to move | :12:46. | :12:49. | |
around. There is plenty of talent in the party. The one thing I can | :12:49. | :12:54. | |
tell you is the Conservative Party, both backbench and front bench, is | :12:54. | :12:58. | |
buzzing can ideas and talent. David Cameron is watching, he has | :12:58. | :13:02. | |
the message of your intense loyalty, doubtless you have your phone on | :13:02. | :13:07. | |
silent, but it will ring shortly. Which Government departments need a | :13:07. | :13:11. | |
change at the top? If I was at the top I would have voted for change | :13:11. | :13:15. | |
in the House of Lords, I made my position clear to David Cameron, | :13:15. | :13:18. | |
and I held that position. All I would say is he's taking the tough | :13:18. | :13:21. | |
decisions, this is really hard, it is very hard to govern at a time | :13:21. | :13:26. | |
when there is no money around. are you shaking your head? Because | :13:26. | :13:31. | |
we still have �125 billion deficit on our annual budget. Government | :13:31. | :13:36. | |
spending is still increasing. We haven't cut the burden of the | :13:36. | :13:39. | |
overmighty state. These are the areas we need to start working on. | :13:39. | :13:43. | |
And secondly, we need to start putting some demand into the | :13:43. | :13:48. | |
economy, we need to create a greater sense of well being, and it | :13:48. | :13:52. | |
can be done without raising taxes. How many people like you feel like | :13:52. | :13:59. | |
you in the backbenches? More than you would think? I don't know what | :13:59. | :14:03. | |
I think. It could be you and a couple of drinking pals? I guess | :14:03. | :14:07. | |
you think we are a minority, I'm telling you more people than that | :14:07. | :14:12. | |
believe it is time for a sea change in terms of the direction of this | :14:12. | :14:17. | |
Government. Is that the way you read it? I am aafraid, I have great | :14:17. | :14:22. | |
respect for -- I am afraid, I have great respect for Brian, and he's a | :14:22. | :14:27. | |
great businessman. That means he's barking up the wrong tree! He holds | :14:27. | :14:31. | |
his position and robustly! decision of who keeps their job, | :14:31. | :14:35. | |
who should lose their's, and who should be given a chance to appear | :14:35. | :14:40. | |
on this programme defending the embarrassing U-turns he has made, | :14:40. | :14:45. | |
has been made all the more difficult, because some of the MPs | :14:45. | :14:49. | |
David Cameron wishes had never been elected are in his cabinet, namely | :14:49. | :14:54. | |
those Liberal Democrats. Our political editor is here. What's | :14:54. | :14:58. | |
happening? You suggested the Prime Minister might be watching. Of all | :14:58. | :15:05. | |
nights tonight he won't be watching. These are traditionally knock | :15:05. | :15:10. | |
tunnel activities. -- knock turnal activities, tomorrow people will | :15:10. | :15:14. | |
find out what jobs they have or haven't got. We know Andrew | :15:14. | :15:18. | |
Mitchell is not the international secretary tomorrow morning he will | :15:18. | :15:22. | |
be the Chief Whip. He's said to be a disciplinarian, he did run David | :15:22. | :15:26. | |
Davis's campaign. It would be the smack of whipping from Andrew | :15:26. | :15:35. | |
Mitchell. Everyone is laughing on that side of the table. We know | :15:35. | :15:39. | |
very little, we know how widespread it will be. There was a rumour this | :15:39. | :15:42. | |
evening that Michael Gove, of all people, because he's so tied into | :15:42. | :15:45. | |
his department, was being moved from education. I rang his people | :15:45. | :15:52. | |
to ask this, they said no, but they did have to check. It is incredibly | :15:52. | :15:55. | |
widespread, going all over the scale of Government. There will be | :15:55. | :16:01. | |
lots of new in take MPs, and it will be, they say, a fair few women. | :16:01. | :16:05. | |
This goes right down this reshuffle? Yeah. The key thing | :16:05. | :16:08. | |
about it is that, OK, there might be another one before the next | :16:08. | :16:12. | |
election, but if you want to be bedded in so as you can make a | :16:12. | :16:15. | |
difference before the next election, especially in the public's mind, | :16:15. | :16:21. | |
you probably have to be in Government now, not net next time | :16:21. | :16:28. | |
round. -- Not next time round. new political year coming, and | :16:28. | :16:31. | |
rouseed from hieb operation, our panel, snap, crackle and pop, knife, | :16:31. | :16:37. | |
fork and spoon, whatever they are, William Hague's pal, Danny | :16:37. | :16:40. | |
Finkelstein, Dickie Burnell and Miranda Green, the recovery adviser | :16:40. | :16:44. | |
to Paddy Ashdown. Is this reshuffle worth having? It is not actually | :16:44. | :16:48. | |
about changing the direction of the Government, but trying to make what | :16:48. | :16:58. | |
:16:58. | :16:59. | ||
the Government does work. In other words, I don't think he wants | :16:59. | :17:02. | |
people who agree more with him in Government, like Margaret Thatcher, | :17:02. | :17:06. | |
he wants to make his policies stick and be implemented. The talk about | :17:06. | :17:09. | |
Iain Duncan Smith, he has reached the point where he has introduced | :17:09. | :17:13. | |
the reforms, it might be a different person you want to | :17:13. | :17:17. | |
implement the reform tos. You would change the welfare secretary at | :17:17. | :17:20. | |
this point, without necessarily changing the policies. You have a | :17:20. | :17:24. | |
lot of experience, you came into cabinet on a reshuffle didn't you? | :17:24. | :17:27. | |
I came in when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister, a new Government. | :17:27. | :17:31. | |
You have got experience in Government of reshuffles, what do | :17:31. | :17:38. | |
they generally achieve? Some of them annoy lots of people to no | :17:38. | :17:43. | |
great end. There is lots of easy ways of doing, that for example, | :17:43. | :17:46. | |
pretending people they haven't been fired, and they have been. They | :17:46. | :17:51. | |
turn up thinking they are envoy on clips to the Cabinet Office, and | :17:51. | :17:54. | |
they are not. If you are firing someone, you should be Hon e. What | :17:54. | :17:59. | |
they are about, I agree with Danny, is they are about making the | :17:59. | :18:03. | |
Government better, if they succeed. To do that you have to work out | :18:03. | :18:08. | |
where you want to get votes and score some goals, and put those | :18:08. | :18:13. | |
goal scorers, the Michael Goves, and you want the issue out of the | :18:13. | :18:17. | |
news, for us at one stage was social security, so you sent for | :18:17. | :18:20. | |
Alistair Darling. Here it may be that dealt, the Conservatives might | :18:20. | :18:24. | |
think we won't score points on it, let's take it out of the news. You | :18:24. | :18:28. | |
look for a politician who can gently take it out of the headlines. | :18:28. | :18:31. | |
Miranda, the Liberal Democrats have been having their own separate | :18:31. | :18:35. | |
reshuffle, will they? Yes, I think the reshuffle is much less | :18:35. | :18:38. | |
significant for the Liberal Democrats, because there are | :18:38. | :18:42. | |
relatively few at the senior level. We expect them to stay put. To have | :18:42. | :18:47. | |
David Laws back, something expected, would be very good for the Liberal | :18:47. | :18:51. | |
Democrats. It is a three-card trick rather than a reshuffle? It is | :18:51. | :18:54. | |
about party management too. It is, it is about having your strongest | :18:54. | :18:58. | |
people in the right place. ordinary civilian, what does "party | :18:58. | :19:02. | |
management" mean? It is about the authority of the people at the top. | :19:02. | :19:06. | |
That is slightly lacking, would be a polite way of saying it, over the | :19:06. | :19:09. | |
last few months. There is always violence where there are a lot of | :19:09. | :19:12. | |
young people, the Conservative Party has a huge in intake, it has | :19:13. | :19:17. | |
to be able to manage it. I think change in the whip's office, | :19:17. | :19:22. | |
everyone says Andrew Mitchell is a disciplinarian, there needs to be | :19:22. | :19:25. | |
subtle techniques used. You can't whip this Conservative intake in | :19:25. | :19:28. | |
the way you have been able to previous intake. You have to earn | :19:28. | :19:34. | |
the respect and loyalty of them. You want to maintain hope as long | :19:34. | :19:38. | |
as possible, when people lose hope, they decide to come on and say the | :19:38. | :19:43. | |
Government they are a member of is terrible. That is good, right? | :19:43. | :19:46. | |
you, but not for David Cameron. Someone who has been fired before | :19:47. | :19:51. | |
and behaved and come back, someone overlooked, suddenly plucked from | :19:51. | :19:55. | |
Select Committee obscurity, and suddenly everyone else not promoted | :19:55. | :19:57. | |
might think it could be them, if they behave better. And Gordon | :19:57. | :20:02. | |
Brown was very, very good at this. This internal detail of party | :20:02. | :20:05. | |
management, which just gives you those five or ten extra people who | :20:05. | :20:10. | |
will support you when the going gets tough. If there is the dissent, | :20:10. | :20:15. | |
I'm sorry? I think Danny is right to emphasise this idea of delivery, | :20:15. | :20:18. | |
this Government is at a stage where, now, it has to prove it is not just | :20:19. | :20:23. | |
about ideas. Obviously what your MPs were saying is all this | :20:23. | :20:27. | |
excitement about fresh ideas from the backbenches, but you also have | :20:27. | :20:30. | |
to show the things you said you were committed to do in 2010 you | :20:30. | :20:33. | |
have actually done, when you come to fight the next election. | :20:34. | :20:37. | |
reason why the delivery matters, is no-one has ever heard of any of | :20:37. | :20:41. | |
these people. When you move one person and swap them with another, | :20:41. | :20:44. | |
the general public unaware you have done t they don't know the person | :20:44. | :20:48. | |
in the job in the first place. There is no point in trying to | :20:48. | :20:51. | |
achieve freshness, since most of these details escape most people. | :20:51. | :20:54. | |
You have to achieve the policy objectives, that is what you are | :20:54. | :21:00. | |
after, getting a better Government. Cheryl Gillan, sacked, shock, no- | :21:00. | :21:04. | |
one responds, but he cannot, effectively, do what they were | :21:04. | :21:06. | |
saying over there, is change the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The | :21:06. | :21:12. | |
Chancellor of the Exchequer is his policy, isn't he? I thought that | :21:12. | :21:17. | |
was hilarious in the making up of their own Government, it was not | :21:17. | :21:21. | |
much of a guide. If David Cameron wants to change the economic policy | :21:21. | :21:23. | |
of the Government, the fundamental economic policy of the Government, | :21:23. | :21:26. | |
then it is worth changing the Chancellor of the Exchequer. If he | :21:26. | :21:29. | |
doesn't want to, and I don't think he does want to, he wouldn't want | :21:29. | :21:33. | |
to move his closest political ally out of the job where the two of | :21:33. | :21:36. | |
them can control the policy, if he doesn't want to change the policy. | :21:36. | :21:41. | |
So that's the reason why he wouldn't follow that advice. Brian | :21:41. | :21:44. | |
Binly, I don't know what he thinks the policy of the Government should | :21:44. | :21:46. | |
be, whatever it is, he thinks it should be different. In those | :21:46. | :21:50. | |
circumstance, of course it would make sense to change the Chancellor. | :21:50. | :21:54. | |
It doesn't if you are not going to change it. The rest of it doesn't | :21:54. | :21:57. | |
matter? It does put the emphasis on what the Government is doing for a | :21:57. | :22:00. | |
bit. And a lot of politics is about trying to make the media, and the | :22:00. | :22:03. | |
opposition talk about the things you are doing, rather than the | :22:03. | :22:07. | |
things that the opposition wants to talk about. At least for the next | :22:07. | :22:11. | |
few days, they will want to say X is moved to Y, because they want to | :22:11. | :22:14. | |
put an emphasis on standards in primary care in health. That is the | :22:14. | :22:18. | |
kind of thing which the rest of the time is very hard to get up. It is | :22:18. | :22:25. | |
a bit of dynamism, but most of all it is getting people who know about | :22:25. | :22:28. | |
a particular issue and who can score goals in those jobs, and | :22:28. | :22:32. | |
people who want to turn down an issue and score goals there too. | :22:32. | :22:35. | |
There is the larger problem, which is David Cameron's problem with his | :22:35. | :22:39. | |
own backbenchers, and this constant blue-on-blue attacks. There is a | :22:39. | :22:48. | |
major question mark over whether this achieve will achieve the sort | :22:48. | :22:52. | |
of changes, the whip's office changing that we're talking about, | :22:52. | :22:56. | |
and stop the backbench sniping, it is gradually weaken, it is death by | :22:56. | :23:00. | |
a thousand cuts of the Prime Minister's own authority. It has | :23:00. | :23:06. | |
been done to the Prime Minister, Iain Duncan Smith, and William | :23:06. | :23:10. | |
Hague, and now David Cameron. If they continue to do that it would | :23:10. | :23:13. | |
be very damaging. It is partly a question of party management, | :23:13. | :23:16. | |
partly it is a question for the Members of Parliament, and partly | :23:16. | :23:20. | |
it is a question for party management. In so far as party | :23:20. | :23:23. | |
management, you have to have the right chairman, Chief Whip and | :23:23. | :23:28. | |
strategy for dealing with the parliamentary party. That is a very | :23:28. | :23:32. | |
important part of the reshuffle, even though for the public it has | :23:32. | :23:38. | |
no interest. What will it do to the opposition, if the Government has a | :23:38. | :23:42. | |
reshuffle, does the opposition think they need a reshuffle too? | :23:42. | :23:46. | |
Quite often the leader of the opposition would delay their | :23:46. | :23:49. | |
reshuffle until they have seen what they are pairing up against. Ed | :23:49. | :23:53. | |
Miliband had a reshuffle recently that went well. I think they will | :23:53. | :23:57. | |
stick where they are. It gives them an opportunity to rejuvinate in a | :23:57. | :24:00. | |
few months time if they want. To I think they will stick where they | :24:00. | :24:04. | |
are. They have been pretty good at opposing in the last year, they | :24:04. | :24:08. | |
have given themselves a good mark on. That I think they would be | :24:08. | :24:12. | |
pretty happy with the team they have got. It worked perfectly well | :24:12. | :24:16. | |
last time, I can't see why he would bother to change. He would be | :24:16. | :24:19. | |
better to stick with what he has. If it doesn't make much sense of | :24:19. | :24:25. | |
refreshing the Government in terms of new faces, it makes less sense | :24:25. | :24:28. | |
to reshuffle. In opposition you have one researcher, and you have | :24:28. | :24:32. | |
no idea what the debate you are doing that afternoon, if you are in | :24:32. | :24:36. | |
the job a couple of years, at least you have done it once or twice | :24:36. | :24:40. | |
before. If you look at the trouble the Government is in, George | :24:40. | :24:45. | |
Osborne goes to the Paralympics, a kind crowd, and he is booed? When | :24:45. | :24:49. | |
you have no growth and mishandle aspect of the budget. You will have | :24:49. | :24:55. | |
that sort of trouble. Of It won't be saved by a reshuffle? No, the | :24:55. | :24:58. | |
thing that will save the Chancellor of the Exchequer is if his strategy | :24:58. | :25:01. | |
works, he believes it will. There is a lot of reason to agree with | :25:01. | :25:06. | |
that, but not everyone shares that view. We will see. If you are going | :25:06. | :25:10. | |
to change the strategy of the Government towards the economy, | :25:10. | :25:14. | |
fundamentally, you are going to move away from austerity, you can't | :25:14. | :25:17. | |
keep the same Chancellor. If you are going to, it doesn't make sense | :25:17. | :25:20. | |
to change the Chancellor. Obviously the Prime Minister doesn't intend | :25:20. | :25:23. | |
to change his strategy. Thank you very much. | :25:23. | :25:27. | |
Rape, it is one of those crimes which we all think we know when we | :25:27. | :25:32. | |
hear about it. Sexual assault is easy enough to define, and | :25:32. | :25:36. | |
improving police and judicial practices, has been one of the ways | :25:36. | :25:40. | |
in which society has tried to rectify an historic prejudice | :25:40. | :25:43. | |
against women. Suddenly increasing numbers of us are finding it harder | :25:43. | :25:48. | |
to explain precisely what rape is. Increasing numbers of us are making | :25:48. | :25:58. | |
:25:58. | :26:00. | ||
excuses for male violence. No everybody needs to be asked. | :26:01. | :26:08. | |
legitimate rape, the female body...Once Upon a time, "no" meant | :26:08. | :26:14. | |
"no", now both left and right hear tones of ambiguity. | :26:14. | :26:18. | |
Allegations of sexual assault and rape against Julian Assange have | :26:18. | :26:28. | |
:26:28. | :26:29. | ||
fuelled the debate. Not everybody needs to be asked prior to each | :26:29. | :26:32. | |
incertifictaion, some people believe that when you go to bed | :26:32. | :26:36. | |
with somebody, take off your clothes, and have sex with them, | :26:36. | :26:42. | |
and then fall asleep, you are already in the sex game with them. | :26:42. | :26:47. | |
The Respect MP, George Galloway, has refused to apologise, insisting | :26:47. | :26:51. | |
the allegations since Assange weren't rape, as most people | :26:51. | :26:55. | |
understood it. Across the Atlantic, a right-wing Congressman, used, | :26:55. | :27:01. | |
what we thought was biology, to redefine the offence. If it is a | :27:01. | :27:05. | |
legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole | :27:05. | :27:09. | |
thing down. Let's assume that didn't work or something. Even | :27:10. | :27:14. | |
feminists are divided. The writer, Naomi Woolf was quick to pick holes | :27:14. | :27:19. | |
in the Assange case, claiming it to be a politically motivated witch- | :27:19. | :27:25. | |
hunt, despite him refusing to face questioning in Sweden. Woolf also | :27:25. | :27:33. | |
argues that his and he accusers should be denied anonymity. -- that | :27:33. | :27:40. | |
his accusers should be denied anonymity. Why has rape suddenly | :27:40. | :27:50. | |
become so contentious. With husband is the feminist writer Naomi Woolf, | :27:50. | :27:54. | |
author of Vagina, a new autobiography. Why is that becoming | :27:54. | :28:00. | |
so talked about, as an issue? Sexual assault, because there are | :28:00. | :28:03. | |
high-profile cases. It is clear, and now I understand this better, | :28:03. | :28:08. | |
when women make too many strides forward, rape and discourse about | :28:09. | :28:12. | |
rape is used to undermine them, call them into question. You have | :28:12. | :28:18. | |
two separate issues here, it seems to me. Your video introduced the | :28:18. | :28:24. | |
Assange case, just for the forward, I'm not saying those women should | :28:24. | :28:28. | |
be "unmasked", I'm saying it service rapists to have rape | :28:28. | :28:32. | |
prosecutions to be prosecuted under the cover of anonymity all together, | :28:32. | :28:38. | |
it gives impunity to prosecutor, let me give you statistics. The law | :28:39. | :28:44. | |
was changed in 1976 in order that woman would feel more comfortable? | :28:44. | :28:49. | |
-- women would feel more comfortable? The upshot is 6% of | :28:49. | :28:53. | |
reported rapes, that is a small fraction of all rapes, ever get | :28:53. | :28:56. | |
convicted. But that's what I really want to stress. Are you expecting | :28:56. | :29:02. | |
women to be willing to testify in open court, with their full | :29:02. | :29:06. | |
identity disclosed, in a case which may or may not be successful? | :29:06. | :29:11. | |
isn't what I came here to talk about. But I do think, like many | :29:11. | :29:14. | |
feminists, that rape shouldn't be stigmatised any differently from | :29:14. | :29:19. | |
any kind of assault. Just like we expect, allegations of beating | :29:19. | :29:23. | |
someone up, or allegations of fraud, to have both the victim and the | :29:23. | :29:28. | |
perpetrator stand up and say this happened, that's what justice is. | :29:28. | :29:33. | |
And more importantly, it stigmatises women, ultimately, and | :29:33. | :29:39. | |
allows impunity. It allows impunity for rapes and prosecutors, here and | :29:39. | :29:43. | |
in Sweden. The reason I know there is something very corrupt about the | :29:43. | :29:46. | |
prosecution of the Assange case, I'm not talking about the women now, | :29:46. | :29:50. | |
we don't know enough. Is it is so profoundly different from, and I | :29:50. | :29:54. | |
have worked with rape victims for many, many years, from the way rape | :29:54. | :29:58. | |
is prosecuted for any other victim in Sweden. Right now in Sweden, it | :29:58. | :30:03. | |
has the highest rape rate in women, the lowest prosecution rate, | :30:03. | :30:08. | |
Amnesty International says Swedish rapists enjoy impunity, there are | :30:08. | :30:16. | |
600 women in Sweden waiting for shelter from vicious assailants and | :30:16. | :30:20. | |
their children. When I called the Stockholm Government police hot- | :30:20. | :30:25. | |
line, there is no answering machine. The idea this is a typical | :30:25. | :30:31. | |
prosecution. Nobody has suggested it is a typical prosecution, but | :30:31. | :30:36. | |
why shouldn't one prosecution go ahead if the crime is alleged, just | :30:36. | :30:39. | |
because various others haven't gone ahead? There should be justice for | :30:39. | :30:42. | |
rape victims, but it should be a single standard of justice. It | :30:42. | :30:47. | |
insults the thousands of rape victims in Sweden, let me give you | :30:47. | :30:51. | |
an example, when I called the Rape Crisis line in Stockholm, which no | :30:51. | :30:54. | |
reporter seems to do is call the people in the frontlines with rape. | :30:54. | :30:58. | |
They said that in Stockholm the most common kind of rape is exactly | :30:58. | :31:06. | |
like the Assange case, they meet a man on-line, go to his apartment, | :31:06. | :31:11. | |
consensual sex turns non-consensual, the volunteers said that is exactly | :31:11. | :31:17. | |
the kind of scenario that the police won't prosecute, because the | :31:17. | :31:21. | |
woman is not considered "clean ". There isn't a single standard for | :31:21. | :31:24. | |
prosecution here. This is such a deviation from the way most rape | :31:24. | :31:32. | |
victims in Sweden are dismissed, disregarded, I think it is | :31:32. | :31:37. | |
insulting to rape victims. there grey areas, George Galloway | :31:37. | :31:41. | |
says if you get into bed and have sex with them, and wake up the next | :31:41. | :31:44. | |
morning and that person is attempting to have sex with you, | :31:44. | :31:48. | |
without you having said yes, is that rape? At that point, if you | :31:48. | :31:54. | |
are not fearful, or frightened of violence, you say, no, and that is | :31:54. | :31:59. | |
a clear communication. Is it rape? You need to get consent, that is | :31:59. | :32:04. | |
the law. You need to know you don't have consent for it to be rape, and | :32:04. | :32:08. | |
there has to be a broken social contract. The law is you have to | :32:08. | :32:14. | |
know you have active consent. is no ambiguity about this? This | :32:14. | :32:18. | |
situation? Rape is rape? Look, it is very important for women, and | :32:18. | :32:22. | |
men, who feel like they are being assaulted, to express they have a | :32:22. | :32:26. | |
lack of consent. Absolutely, categorically. I think that's | :32:26. | :32:30. | |
critical. Can I just pivot to something more important, we can | :32:30. | :32:35. | |
spend all day talking about grey areas. More important is why are | :32:35. | :32:39. | |
women being raped, why does society disregard it so much? I know the | :32:39. | :32:43. | |
answer now, which I didn't before I did the research in my book, which | :32:43. | :32:46. | |
has a chapter on rape, which goes right to this question. It turns | :32:46. | :32:52. | |
out there is a lot of new cutting- edge data, which is astonishing on | :32:52. | :32:56. | |
what the vagina does and what it is for. It is not just a sex organ, | :32:56. | :33:03. | |
but there is a brain, vagina connection, which neuroscience is | :33:03. | :33:06. | |
documenting it is one neurosis them. What happens to the vagina happens | :33:06. | :33:13. | |
to the brain. On a positive note, when a woman is well treated and | :33:13. | :33:21. | |
respected sexually, I'm going somewhere important, it boosts | :33:21. | :33:26. | |
dopamean and other toxins in her brain, which leads to sense of | :33:26. | :33:30. | |
connection, creativity, and other good things. On the dark side, it | :33:30. | :33:35. | |
explains so much misogyny, when you traumatise a woman's vagina, in new | :33:35. | :33:39. | |
ways that have been undocumented previously in recent years, you are | :33:39. | :33:43. | |
traumatising her brain, even if there is no violence. We saw | :33:43. | :33:47. | |
earlier legitimate rape, Neanderthals think of legitimate | :33:47. | :33:50. | |
rape as rape where there is violence and a threat of violence. | :33:50. | :33:55. | |
This new neuroscience shows that any rape, which always has fear, is | :33:55. | :33:59. | |
traumatic to a woman's brain and body for years. Lasting harm | :33:59. | :34:04. | |
changes the system, constellations of systems that seem unrelated to | :34:05. | :34:08. | |
the original rape. Thank you very much. The people of Britain are, we | :34:08. | :34:11. | |
are told by our Government, thrilled that Egypt has moved from | :34:11. | :34:15. | |
dictatorship to a former imperfect democracy. Yet our Government | :34:15. | :34:18. | |
doesn't seem to be putting its money where its mouth it is, or | :34:18. | :34:22. | |
rather it is not putting the money stolen by the dictator where its | :34:22. | :34:28. | |
mouth it. Once a self-respecting clep toe maniac has everything | :34:28. | :34:34. | |
sorted at home. Everything small men equipped with toenail extractor, | :34:34. | :34:40. | |
he seeks a bolt-hole and shelter for his loot, for Hosni Mubarak, | :34:40. | :34:44. | |
that is what London offered. We don't seem to be in a rush to track | :34:44. | :34:54. | |
:34:54. | :34:55. | ||
it all down. They wanted bread, freedom, but also their money back. | :34:56. | :35:00. | |
Reports of the tens of billions of dollars their dictator, Hosni | :35:00. | :35:06. | |
Mubarak, and his friends, had allegedly stolen from Egypt, drove | :35:06. | :35:09. | |
the revolutionaries on Tahrir Square last year, into a white heat | :35:09. | :35:14. | |
of fury. After revolution, Britain was one | :35:14. | :35:18. | |
of the first countries to propose freezing that wealth. Exciting | :35:18. | :35:22. | |
great hopes in Egypt. We have also received a request from the | :35:22. | :35:26. | |
Egyptian Government to freeze the asset of several former Egyptian | :35:26. | :35:32. | |
officials. We will, of course co- operate with this request, if there | :35:32. | :35:36. | |
is any evidence of illegality or misuse of state assets, we will | :35:37. | :35:41. | |
take firm and prompt action. But a year-and-a-half on, not a | :35:41. | :35:46. | |
penny has been returned. Egypt, is so angry, it is suing | :35:46. | :35:50. | |
Britain. A country, it now believes, is willfully concealing its | :35:50. | :35:56. | |
billions. TRANSLATION: We are in Egypt, but | :35:56. | :36:02. | |
our money is in the UK. How can we get it back if Britain won't co- | :36:02. | :36:08. | |
operate? Mubarak's billions, they believe, are somewhere here. It | :36:08. | :36:12. | |
is no secret that London is one of the places that the Egyptian elite | :36:12. | :36:18. | |
most likes to keep and console their wealth. Yet the UK has frozen | :36:18. | :36:22. | |
a mere �85 million worth of asset, linked to Mubarak and his | :36:22. | :36:27. | |
associates. Is that, as many believe, a fraction of the ill- | :36:27. | :36:31. | |
gotten gains hidden here. If so, why has Britain been so slow to | :36:31. | :36:37. | |
trace the rest of the money. Its apparent inaction proved by | :36:37. | :36:44. | |
documents Newsnight was able to obtain, within minutes on-line. | :36:44. | :36:48. | |
Those clues led us through one of the Egyptian elite's favourite | :36:48. | :36:53. | |
haunts, London's Belgravia, to assets the UK authorities have | :36:53. | :36:57. | |
either ignored or failed to discover 28 Wilton Place, | :36:57. | :37:02. | |
conveniently around the corner from Harrods, was the much-loved London | :37:02. | :37:08. | |
home of President Mubarak's younger son, Gamal, Playboy, businessman, | :37:08. | :37:12. | |
deputy head of the ruling party. His name was prominent on the list | :37:12. | :37:16. | |
of Egyptians, whose assets were frozen last year. But this very | :37:16. | :37:20. | |
substantial asset, worth about �10 million, wasn't subject to that | :37:20. | :37:28. | |
order. The Land Registry title shows it belongs to a firm in the | :37:28. | :37:33. | |
tax haven of Panama. The reason, perhaps, there is no reference to | :37:33. | :37:37. | |
any freezing order, though the sanctions should apply to any | :37:37. | :37:41. | |
property the named individual benefits from, regardless of the | :37:41. | :37:45. | |
legal ownership. Just around the corner, the former office of | :37:45. | :37:49. | |
Medinvest Associates, an investment company, belonging to a Cypriot | :37:49. | :37:55. | |
firm Gamal Mubarak was involved with. A company's house document -- | :37:55. | :38:02. | |
Companies House document, easily available on-line, shows it | :38:02. | :38:07. | |
dissolved itself in February last year, it operated 11 months after | :38:07. | :38:13. | |
sanctions were imposed. Tim Daniel, one of the City's | :38:14. | :38:19. | |
leading asset tracers, is astonished. He is a lawyer, who | :38:19. | :38:24. | |
hunts down dirty money worldwide. He helped Nigeria recover millions | :38:24. | :38:30. | |
stolen by its dictator, Sani Abacha. What does he make of the documents | :38:30. | :38:32. | |
from Gamal's former company, Medinvest Associates? Whoever | :38:33. | :38:37. | |
lodged the stock has put a note saying in addition to the two | :38:37. | :38:43. | |
axiveties, the software company et cetera, they were also involved -- | :38:43. | :38:47. | |
activities, the software company et cetera, they were involved in | :38:47. | :38:50. | |
providing credit to financial institutions. There you are, you | :38:50. | :38:54. | |
have an active business, through which Gamal was actively trading, | :38:54. | :38:58. | |
you might have thought that the company would be added to the list | :38:58. | :39:02. | |
of entities affected by the sanctions. That hasn't happened. | :39:02. | :39:05. | |
further short walk, prompted by another very simple web search, | :39:06. | :39:10. | |
brings me to a third asset that has escaped the freeze, linked to | :39:10. | :39:15. | |
another prominent Egyptian on the sanctions list. This Companies | :39:15. | :39:19. | |
House entry, shows the wife of Mubarak's Housing Minister, was | :39:19. | :39:24. | |
able to register a new firm at this address, seven months after the | :39:24. | :39:30. | |
freezing order against her. We find, interestingly, this company, was | :39:30. | :39:35. | |
authorised on the 1st November last year. The sanctions list was put | :39:35. | :39:40. | |
out in March last year. That's extraordinary, somebody on the | :39:40. | :39:42. | |
sanctions list, months after the sanctions list comes out, is about | :39:42. | :39:50. | |
to open a company? Register a company. I mean, you know, one | :39:50. | :39:53. | |
wornders if any questions were asked at the company -- wonders if | :39:54. | :40:00. | |
if any questions were asked on the companies registering, about how | :40:00. | :40:05. | |
are you opening another company. This lady was a resident here in | :40:05. | :40:09. | |
Chelsea. What is the reason for the inaction? One problem is that it is | :40:09. | :40:14. | |
not always clear in Britain who is responsible for tracing stolen | :40:14. | :40:19. | |
assets from abroad. Or what should trigger such action. When the | :40:19. | :40:23. | |
Treasury freezes foreign assets, it is up to the banks, and other | :40:23. | :40:27. | |
financial institutions, to implement the order. They were | :40:27. | :40:30. | |
heavily criticised last year by the Financial Services Authority, for | :40:30. | :40:37. | |
of theen failing to do so. Further police -- for of theen failing to | :40:37. | :40:45. | |
do so -- often failing to do it. It sometimes only comes from mutual | :40:45. | :40:48. | |
legal assistance, from those requesting the recovery. They have | :40:48. | :40:53. | |
to be specific. Is the UK, which has all the expertise and resources | :40:53. | :40:58. | |
to trace money, simply using the law as an excuse to do nothing. Not | :40:58. | :41:03. | |
even to freeze funds, which should require a lower burden of proof, | :41:03. | :41:09. | |
than confiscating or returning them. On the Nile, they can't understand | :41:09. | :41:12. | |
why Britain's asking Egypt, recovering from decades of | :41:12. | :41:18. | |
dictatorship, to provide the leads in this investigation. Why it is | :41:18. | :41:23. | |
parrying Cairo's many requests for help, with demands for more | :41:23. | :41:28. | |
information. Britain, citing data protection laws, won't even tell | :41:28. | :41:32. | |
Assem al-Gohary, responsible for recovering stolen asset, what money | :41:32. | :41:36. | |
it has already frozen. Now he's taking the UK Government to court | :41:36. | :41:43. | |
in London, to try to find out. TRANSLATION: The British Government | :41:43. | :41:47. | |
is obliged by law to help us. But it doesn't want to make any effort | :41:47. | :41:52. | |
at all to recover the money. It just says, give us evidence. Is | :41:52. | :41:57. | |
that reasonable? We are in Egypt, how can we search for money in the | :41:57. | :42:07. | |
:42:07. | :42:07. | ||
UK? Surprisingly, there is another country that is certainly stirring | :42:07. | :42:11. | |
itself to implement those agreements. A country where you | :42:11. | :42:17. | |
might least expect movement to recover ill-gotten gains, a country | :42:17. | :42:20. | |
burdened with a terrible reputation for concealing them. Switzerland, | :42:20. | :42:26. | |
long known for the discretion of its bankers, is the perfect place | :42:26. | :42:30. | |
for dictators and tycoons to squirrel away their assets, and it | :42:30. | :42:34. | |
is now trying to reinvent itself as a model of financial integrity. As | :42:34. | :42:40. | |
a world leader in the hunt for dirty money. Switzerland's federal | :42:40. | :42:44. | |
Government, a traditionally weak institution, is using all its power | :42:44. | :42:51. | |
to change the country's image. also published a communique, a | :42:51. | :42:57. | |
press release...Its Chief agent in the struggle is this man from the | :42:57. | :43:00. | |
Foreign Ministry. Immediate low after President Mubarak was | :43:00. | :43:05. | |
overthrown, on the 11st February last year, he activated a decree, | :43:05. | :43:10. | |
freezing the assets of the dictator and those around him. 37 days | :43:10. | :43:14. | |
before Britain and the rest of the EU took a similar step. I was | :43:14. | :43:18. | |
sitting here, when I heard the news that President Mubarak had left his | :43:19. | :43:24. | |
palace in Cairo, I had a phone call with the President of Switzerland. | :43:24. | :43:29. | |
Because she had the power to freeze the money that may have been here | :43:29. | :43:34. | |
in Switzerland. And we could then act within half an hour, the money | :43:34. | :43:39. | |
was effectively frozen in Switzerland. Within half an hour of | :43:39. | :43:43. | |
Mubarak leaving his Presidential Palace? Yes, within half an hour. | :43:43. | :43:48. | |
Since then, Switzerland, with more than 20 investigators on the case, | :43:48. | :43:52. | |
has doubd the amount of money frozen here. On the day Mubarak -- | :43:52. | :43:59. | |
doubled the amount of money frozen her. On the day Mubarak fell they | :43:59. | :44:05. | |
froze �270 million in asset, that has risen to �470 million. In the | :44:05. | :44:08. | |
UK, �85 million, no increase since last year. | :44:08. | :44:13. | |
The Foreign Office, says it is doing what it can to help Egypt. | :44:13. | :44:17. | |
But UK law is different to Swiss law, and there are many legal | :44:18. | :44:22. | |
problems. We have a duty, both to the people who are ostensibly own | :44:22. | :44:27. | |
the money, as well as to those who are pursuing it, we have to make | :44:27. | :44:32. | |
sure that proper legal processes have been gone through, so that a | :44:32. | :44:36. | |
decision ultimately made is just and right. We will trace and return | :44:36. | :44:40. | |
assets wen when it is legally right to do so. -- when it is legally | :44:40. | :44:44. | |
right to do so. We have no vested interest in doing anything else. | :44:44. | :44:48. | |
The Government said it can't help if the necessary Government from | :44:48. | :44:51. | |
Egypt isn't available? We have been proactive in trying to help the | :44:51. | :45:00. | |
Egyptian authorities what they need to do to identify and find things. | :45:00. | :45:04. | |
But recovering Egypt's stolen wealth, isn't only just about | :45:04. | :45:08. | |
justice, it is about development. The revolution hasn't ended the | :45:08. | :45:12. | |
country's festering social inequalities. But Mubarak's | :45:12. | :45:19. | |
millions might. Every day they ask me, are we getting back our money. | :45:19. | :45:27. | |
Is the west going to steal our money and keep it in their banks? | :45:27. | :45:31. | |
Britain says it is doing a lot to support Egypt's fragile new | :45:31. | :45:34. | |
democracy. It is the largest foreign direct investor in the | :45:34. | :45:41. | |
country. But that doesn't solve the issue, they say, here of promises | :45:41. | :45:47. | |
not kept. We are disappointed by Mr Cameron, we are disappointed by our | :45:47. | :45:51. | |
Government also. But we think that Mr Cameron can do a lot for us. If | :45:51. | :45:56. | |
they have the political will to do it, they will help us. And if they | :45:56. | :46:03. | |
don't have the political well, they will use this -- will they will use | :46:03. | :46:10. | |
this legal procedures and so on to do nothing. That's about it for | :46:10. | :46:13. | |
tonight. Almost all of tomorrow morning's newspapers have the | :46:13. | :46:19. |