:00:12. > :00:17.$:/STARTFEED. Over half a million pounds damages and a complete
:00:17. > :00:21.clearing of his name. Tonight we reveal the story and the outcome of
:00:21. > :00:25.a four-year struggle by a Middlesborough solicitors against
:00:25. > :00:29.Cleveland police force. There is no higher award of exemplary damage
:00:29. > :00:34.that is a court could make. That is the clearest recognition on the
:00:34. > :00:40.Chief Constable's part that the conduct of her officers was utterly
:00:40. > :00:43.indefensible. Also tonight at the G7. The German
:00:43. > :00:47.Finance Minister is warned by the Americans to ease up on European
:00:47. > :00:51.austerity. Is that policy really worsening as and economic crises
:00:51. > :00:57.across the west. We will hear the views from economists working in
:00:57. > :01:04.Germany, Greece and the US. It's gats bee. He was a German spy
:01:04. > :01:09.urgh the war. I heard he killed man. The roaring '20s alive in Baz
:01:09. > :01:19.Luhurmann's The Great Gatsby, and a shrew of musicals and plays.
:01:19. > :01:20.
:01:20. > :01:24.Request is F Scott Fitzgerald still a book for our sometimes. Good
:01:24. > :01:28.evening, in 2009 James Watson was one of the most prominent defence
:01:28. > :01:32.solicitors in the north-east of England. Those he defended included
:01:32. > :01:36.some very high-profile criminals, then one morning in June that year
:01:37. > :01:40.his life changed. His family home was raided, his property seized and
:01:40. > :01:44.he faced a major police investigation into perverting the
:01:44. > :01:49.course of justice. Why? That's the question Mr Watson has spent four
:01:49. > :01:55.years trying to answer. Tonight Newsnight can reveal that Cleveland
:01:55. > :01:58.Police force has agreed to pay damages of more than �500,000. They
:01:58. > :02:06.have admitted false imprisonment and there were never any grounds to
:02:06. > :02:11.suspect him of any offence. Every room, every drawer had been
:02:11. > :02:16.turned out. It looked as if we had been burgled, basically. Having to
:02:16. > :02:20.tell my 87-year-old mother I had been arrested, and there is no
:02:20. > :02:25.hiding these things was something probably the worse of it. I could
:02:25. > :02:33.actually hear them laughing. Which was something that it shocked me
:02:33. > :02:41.and angered me. Early one morning in June 209 Cleveland Police came
:02:41. > :02:45.to arrest -- 2009 Cleveland Police came to arrest James Watson. His
:02:45. > :02:49.wife Rita and their two sons were held in one room of the house for
:02:49. > :02:55.more than seven hours. As a mother I have devoted my life to ensure
:02:55. > :03:05.our two sons have a safe and secure home. And Cleveland Police violated
:03:05. > :03:09.that on that day. He was taken to north allen to North Allerton
:03:09. > :03:13.Police Station and questioned for 30 hours. He was requested on
:03:13. > :03:17.perverting the course of justice before being released on bail.
:03:17. > :03:20.James Watson is one of the most prominent defence lawyers in the
:03:20. > :03:30.north-east of England. Cleveland Police began their investigation
:03:30. > :03:32.
:03:32. > :03:39.into him after his cliend Bronson Tyers was found guilty of alleged
:03:39. > :03:43.kidnap and then acquitted on a retrial. He was arrested but never
:03:43. > :03:46.charged with any offence over questions about intimidation of
:03:46. > :03:51.witnesses to change their statements. The question is why
:03:51. > :03:55.have they done that, is this one individual officer's sour grapes
:03:55. > :03:59.after losing a provincial high- profile criminal trial. Or were
:04:00. > :04:03.there more important powerful figures in Cleveland who wanted to
:04:03. > :04:13.be rid of me and didn't care how much public money was spent in
:04:13. > :04:15.
:04:15. > :04:18.doing so. I can only bounce the question back to you. The police
:04:18. > :04:23.spent two years investigating James Watson. The question is, why? It is
:04:23. > :04:25.hard to know for certain. Cleveland Police had a habit of not writing
:04:25. > :04:29.things down. They were supposed to be taking notes during the
:04:29. > :04:34.investigation of the decisions they made and the rational behind them.
:04:34. > :04:38.Yet they failed to do -- rationale behind them, yet they failed to do
:04:38. > :04:43.so. There isn't even a recording of their interview with James Watson.
:04:43. > :04:47.According to the police, all six tapes and all six back-up tapes
:04:47. > :04:51.failed to record. Newsnight has seen an Independent Police
:04:51. > :04:56.Complaints Commission report, written by a senior officer at West
:04:56. > :05:00.Yorkshire Police, and is highly citl ka of the way Cleveland's --
:05:00. > :05:04.critical of the way Cleveland Police investigated James Watson.
:05:04. > :05:09.It is highly critical of Chief Inspector Anthony Riordan. It says
:05:09. > :05:16.he behaved as if he was hell bent on cornering his quartery. It says
:05:16. > :05:19.his attention had become focused on haultly on James Watson and this
:05:19. > :05:24.had the effect of clouding his judgment. Chief Inspector Riordan
:05:24. > :05:30.came to the Old Bailey to apply for warrants to search James Watson's
:05:30. > :05:34.property. According to the IPCC, much of the evidence he presented
:05:34. > :05:38.today the judge was unsubstantiated. The judge was left with an
:05:38. > :05:42.impression that there were reasonable grounds to suspect James
:05:42. > :05:46.Watson of money laundering. This wasn't true. Event here at the Old
:05:46. > :05:52.Bailey could well explain why the Chief Constable of Cleveland Police
:05:52. > :05:58.cannot defend her officers against the claim that these warrants were
:05:58. > :06:02.maliciously pro-kur cured. The shen -- Procured. The shenan begans at
:06:02. > :06:05.the Old Bailey, appalling as they may be to an outsider looking at
:06:05. > :06:10.them for the first time is the sort of behaviour cloveland Police have
:06:10. > :06:15.been up to in small things and big, for the bulk of my professional
:06:15. > :06:19.career. Chief Inspector Riordan had seized 26 boxes from James Watson.
:06:19. > :06:24.They included highly-sensitive documents, which were covered by
:06:24. > :06:29.legal privilege. The investigating team hoped to find incriminating
:06:29. > :06:33.evidence. Instead the Crown Prosecution Service said that the
:06:33. > :06:36.documents exonerated him. Despite this Cleveland Police kept hold of
:06:36. > :06:41.the files for several more months and continued to treat James Watson
:06:41. > :06:44.as a suspect. There were times when I would worry and think well how
:06:44. > :06:47.far are they prepared to push things here, even though I knew
:06:48. > :06:54.there was nothing there. When you are against people who are prepared
:06:54. > :06:59.to go to the lengths they went to. I think they wanted to ruin us,
:06:59. > :07:09.basically. Newsnight put to Anthony Riordan the criticisms made by the
:07:09. > :07:41.
:07:41. > :07:45.IPCC, and James and Rita Watson. He As for the IPCC's comments about
:07:45. > :07:50.evidence at the Old Bailey being unsubstantiated, Mr Riordan says he
:07:51. > :07:55.was reliant on the expertise of others. It has taken James Watson
:07:55. > :07:59.four years to clear his name. For the Chief Constable of Cleveland
:07:59. > :08:04.Police to admit it that there were no reasonable ground to suspect him
:08:04. > :08:09.of any offence. The Chief Constable has also agreed to correct police
:08:09. > :08:14.records to ensure that no vestige of suspicion remains against James
:08:14. > :08:19.Watson, his family or his colleagues. Cleveland Police have
:08:19. > :08:23.agreed to pay more than half a million pounds in damages.
:08:24. > :08:28.Including �80,000 in exemplary damages. They admit to falsely
:08:28. > :08:32.imprisoning James Watson and his family. To trespass and to wrongful
:08:32. > :08:37.interference with his belongings. They also cannot defend claims that
:08:37. > :08:43.the search warrants were maliciously procured, or that
:08:43. > :08:48.officers' behaviour amounted to misfeasance and there was an abuse
:08:48. > :08:51.of power. The sum offered and accepted for exemplary damages was
:08:51. > :08:54.at the absolute maximum, there is no higher award a court could make
:08:54. > :08:58.for those damages. That is the clearest recognition on the Chief
:08:58. > :09:07.Constable's part that the conduct of her officers was utterly
:09:07. > :09:10.indefensible. The IPCC recommended that Cleveland Police consider
:09:10. > :09:14.suspending Chief Inspector Riordan, instead he was retired on a full
:09:14. > :09:17.pension. The man responsible for that decision was Assistant Chief
:09:18. > :09:22.Constable Sean White he was on the police sailing team with Riordan.
:09:22. > :09:27.The IPCC has said that the decision not to suspend him sent out
:09:27. > :09:32.completely the wrong message. It was a time to be seen to be doing
:09:32. > :09:38.the right thing. What certainly sticks in my throat is that
:09:38. > :09:43.millions of pounds have been wasted of tax-payers' money at a time of
:09:43. > :09:49.supposed austerity when public services are closing down hand over
:09:49. > :09:57.fist in Middlesborough. Millions of pounds wasted and not one police
:09:57. > :10:07.officer held to account. The Chief Constable of Cleveland Police, has
:10:07. > :10:20.
:10:20. > :10:23.For the last few years Cleveland Police has been at the centre of a
:10:23. > :10:27.separate wide-ranging corruption inquiry. The Chief Constable and
:10:27. > :10:32.Deputy Chief Constable have been sacked for gross misconduct. The
:10:32. > :10:37.head of finance suspended. James Watson hopes that his case will
:10:37. > :10:42.lead to a change of culture at Cleveland Police which now has a
:10:42. > :10:46.new Chief Constable. But he's not confident that his reputation will
:10:46. > :10:51.ever recover. The best I can hope for is to be regarded as having a
:10:51. > :10:57.checkered and controversial reputation. You can't come through
:10:57. > :11:02.a scandal like this and expect absolutely everyone to believe that
:11:02. > :11:06.you have been vindicated. Some will say no smoke without fire, some
:11:06. > :11:10.will say this is a testament to how good my lawyers were rather than
:11:10. > :11:15.how honest I was. But the value of the payout is important, it
:11:15. > :11:20.reflects the fact that something must be done to reform Cleveland
:11:20. > :11:26.Police. It cannot be allowed to stagger on for another 20 years in
:11:26. > :11:29.the way that it has for the last 20 years.
:11:29. > :11:35.Is German austerity cast ago shadow across the whole of the west? That
:11:35. > :11:39.seems to be the fear the US Treasury who today met German and
:11:39. > :11:42.other finance ministers for a G7 meeting in Buckinghamshire. Ahead
:11:42. > :11:46.of the meeting US officials briefed journalist that is they would call
:11:46. > :11:49.on Berlin to relax stringent austerity policies and boost
:11:49. > :11:53.domestic demand because of the dangers they pose, not just to
:11:53. > :11:57.Europe, but growth across the world. We will discuss this in a moment,
:11:57. > :12:01.but first here is Paul Mason. They are meeting amid the English
:12:01. > :12:06.greenery, but the backdrop to the G7 meeting is the sea of red and
:12:06. > :12:10.black across the streets of Europe. The eurozone economy is flatlining,
:12:10. > :12:17.and there is a chorus of demands on Germany to stop insisting on
:12:17. > :12:21.austerity and ease up a little. driver for economic growth will be
:12:21. > :12:27.consumer demand. Policies that would help to encourage consumer
:12:27. > :12:31.demand in countries that have the capacity would be helpful. Roughly
:12:31. > :12:35.translated that was the Americans telling the Germans to start
:12:35. > :12:39.boosting their economy and borrowing more to make up for the
:12:39. > :12:43.social catastrophe that is sweeping southern Europe. The Americans come
:12:43. > :12:50.armed not just with arguments but facts. In the two years after the
:12:50. > :12:54.crisis hit the USA launched a fiscal stimulus worth 5% of GDP.
:12:54. > :12:58.The eurozone equivalent was 2%, after that came austerity. In the
:12:58. > :13:02.USA the Central Bank has President Clintoned more than $2 trillion in
:13:02. > :13:06.the form of quanative easing. The European Central Bank has not done
:13:06. > :13:09.money printing. It seems to be working, growth has recovered in
:13:09. > :13:18.the USA, while in the eurozone not so much. I think there is a real
:13:18. > :13:22.view here in the US that there has been a bit of a sea change in the
:13:22. > :13:27.ideolgical arguments and the political debate around the world
:13:27. > :13:30.about austerity in a recession. I think the Americans feel that
:13:31. > :13:34.actual economic performance has vindicated the US approach. They
:13:34. > :13:39.did have a stimulus programme at the beginning and they feel that
:13:39. > :13:42.the fact that the US economy is growing more strongly than European
:13:42. > :13:46.economies really is a vindication of that approach. All through
:13:46. > :13:49.spring event have come thick and fast to undermine the strategy of
:13:49. > :13:56.austerity. The collapse of technocratic rule in Italy, with
:13:56. > :14:00.25% for a party led by a comedian. Spain badly missed its borrowing
:14:00. > :14:05.target and Europe simply shrugged. Meanwhile the French President had
:14:05. > :14:09.begun a counter strike against what, despite the smiles, his officials
:14:09. > :14:11.had called a right-wing kabal, led by Germany. One of the most
:14:11. > :14:19.startling impacts of austerity in Europe has been youth unemployment,
:14:19. > :14:25.in Greece it stands at 64%. In Spain at 57%. In Portugal and Italy
:14:25. > :14:30.38%. Even France, which is opposed to austerity is seeing 22% of its
:14:30. > :14:36.young people jobless. Meanwhile, in the USA it is just 16%, and the
:14:36. > :14:39.White House sees figures like this as a problem of geopolitics, not
:14:39. > :14:43.just economics. It is important to understand this is an
:14:43. > :14:48.administration which, starting with the President, is really focused on
:14:48. > :14:52.the middle-class and the lower middle-class and opportunity. And I
:14:52. > :14:56.think they are very concerned about what they are seeing in Europe and
:14:56. > :15:00.they are very worried about a lost generation and what the political
:15:00. > :15:03.impact of that might be. Particularly in the European
:15:03. > :15:08.countries where austerity is really squeezing a lot of people very,
:15:08. > :15:12.very hard. The truth is, this is no longer about economics it is about
:15:12. > :15:15.politics. All across Europe we have seen big votes against the
:15:15. > :15:20.political mainstream, whether it is for fascists and far leftists, as
:15:20. > :15:26.in Greece, or as in Italy, for parties simply defined by their
:15:26. > :15:29.opposition to the old elite. That is what America is worried about.
:15:29. > :15:34.As for Germany, commentators who know it well believe public opinion
:15:34. > :15:40.there will take a lot of shifting. They don't translate what the facts
:15:40. > :15:44.and figures tell you about what happens around you into their own
:15:44. > :15:51.live expeerence. Which is still pretty comfortable, thank you very
:15:52. > :15:56.much. So the point has yet to come where the austerity around Germany
:15:56. > :16:02.and the adjacent countries will begin to affect its own
:16:02. > :16:10.manufacturing prowess, which is the pillar of Germany's wealth and
:16:10. > :16:16.success. When that moment comes I think they will wake up and think
:16:16. > :16:22.of different ways. While he's schmoozeing with the G7 George
:16:22. > :16:28.Osborne is all too well aware that the IMF economists will deliver
:16:28. > :16:36.their own decision which is enough austerity, aimed at him.
:16:36. > :16:39.Our guests are here, Artur Fischer, and in Athens former Greek MP and
:16:39. > :16:42.world economist, Elena Panaritis, and assistant editor of the
:16:42. > :16:46.Financial Times, Gillian Tett in the studio. Gillian Tett, you are
:16:46. > :16:50.just back from Washington, is your sense that the Americans are
:16:50. > :16:54.worried more about the politics than the economics? There is a bit
:16:54. > :16:57.of both, the Americans are very worried about the fact that the US
:16:57. > :17:01.economy is not expanding as fast as they thought it should be. They
:17:01. > :17:04.think it is partly because of the slow global growth and the problems
:17:04. > :17:08.in the eurozone. They are also concerned about the general
:17:08. > :17:12.prospect of a lost generation in Europe and the possibility of
:17:12. > :17:17.political turmoil. But last of all there is also a feeling that
:17:17. > :17:21.actually America has learned some lessons of the last five years that,
:17:21. > :17:24.frankly, could be copied in Europe. Whether it is about trying to take
:17:24. > :17:27.more active measures to recapitalise banks or get the
:17:27. > :17:31.economy going the Americans do think they have something to tell
:17:31. > :17:36.the Europeans about what they could do instead of the current mess.
:17:36. > :17:41.it helpful to you that the Americans are singing this song?
:17:41. > :17:50.Does it actually make a difference? Will it give European countries
:17:51. > :17:58.confidence to ease off austerity? Frankly, I think we have completely
:17:58. > :18:04.misdiagnosed this European crisis. We have based all our growth on a
:18:04. > :18:13.solution which was completely based on austerity. But European
:18:13. > :18:17.economies are very bureaucratic, very high transaction costs, and
:18:18. > :18:20.they need serious deregulation, starting with my economy, Greece.
:18:20. > :18:25.Unfortunately we haven't really focused too much on that because
:18:25. > :18:32.there are a lot of vested interests around those bureaucratic steps and
:18:32. > :18:38.if we don't ease those ones up we will not have growth, we will not
:18:38. > :18:43.have employment, especially in the youth. We will not have any exit
:18:43. > :18:50.from these lost generation. When you look at the figures for youth
:18:50. > :18:53.unemployment, Greece 64%, Spain 56%, Portugal 40%. Is this a
:18:53. > :18:59.generational problem if these young people don't get the skills or
:18:59. > :19:09.motivation or feel part of the fabric of society? You are
:19:09. > :19:10.
:19:10. > :19:14.absolutely right. But I'm afraid that we have, as I said, completely
:19:14. > :19:17.misdyingios -- misdiagnosed it. We were barking up the wrong tree. We
:19:17. > :19:21.completely focused on the overexpenditure of those countries,
:19:21. > :19:26.that is correct. We didn't look further into the actual roots which
:19:26. > :19:33.were the fact that we are overspending because it is very
:19:33. > :19:36.hard for youngsters to actually innovate, to create new ideas, to
:19:36. > :19:40.define new technologies or to create a new sector of economy as
:19:40. > :19:45.we do in the United States of America. Let me put that to Artur
:19:45. > :19:51.Fischer, is there another way, perhaps austerity isn't the
:19:51. > :19:56.medicine that Europe needs? Well obviously there is a combination of
:19:56. > :20:02.things. I'm speaking to you Artur Fischer indeed in Miami? Is
:20:02. > :20:04.austerity the only way? Obviously there are a number of things one
:20:05. > :20:09.can do. Austerity is a major building block. If you take a look
:20:09. > :20:13.at it you need to sort out your own house. You need to be able to
:20:13. > :20:17.actually manage your costs in a responsible way, at the same time
:20:17. > :20:21.those measures indeed cause huge problems. I believe Europe has
:20:21. > :20:27.something to offer here. If we have mobility, if we have structural
:20:27. > :20:33.reforms then we can actually generate growth by allowing in the
:20:33. > :20:36.EU unemployment people in Greece to work elsewhere and by implementing
:20:36. > :20:41.structural reforms we can incentivise investors to provide
:20:41. > :20:45.jobs in Greece, in Spain and elsewhere. We have to look at this
:20:45. > :20:51.whole process whereby we started this austerity and we will now, I
:20:51. > :20:57.believe, enter into structural reforms, enter into increase of
:20:57. > :21:05.demand and by doing that hopefully we will go through this problem.
:21:05. > :21:10.Fischer, 64% youth unemployment, where will they get jobs? That is a
:21:10. > :21:14.very good question. All I can say is the jobs most likely will not be
:21:14. > :21:19.available in Greece. Will they come to Germany? They will come to
:21:19. > :21:23.Germany, they will come to England. They will come to everywhere in
:21:23. > :21:27.Europe where jobs are available. They probably will have to reduce
:21:27. > :21:35.the standards of living. They will probably have to work in jobs they
:21:35. > :21:42.haven't learned in the past. It will be a quite a change. Basically
:21:42. > :21:47.young Greeks have to leave the country? Well, frankly, we have to
:21:47. > :21:53.really think about the economics 101. We are talking about white
:21:53. > :21:58.collar workers here, well educated individuals with over 2-3 foreign
:21:58. > :22:04.languages and usually one or two masters degrees. They do not move
:22:04. > :22:09.out of Greece to go to continental Europe, because continental Europe
:22:09. > :22:13.is suffocating. It is full of bureaucratic and administrative
:22:13. > :22:18.burdens. So the majority of Greeks are flying out of the country and
:22:18. > :22:23.they go to the United Kingdom and the United States, Canada, a lot of
:22:23. > :22:30.them are going to Latin America, believe it or not. Many of them to
:22:30. > :22:33.the gulf countries. So let me put that to Gillian. Actually the
:22:33. > :22:38.Americas are the best hope for a lot of these people. They see
:22:38. > :22:44.America doing better in this recovery?. It is rather ironic that
:22:44. > :22:47.Mr Fischer is in Miami. If the eurozone was a functioning reformed,
:22:47. > :22:51.liberal economic area, the Americans would be having holidays
:22:51. > :22:54.in Greece spending their money there. That would help Greece?
:22:54. > :22:58.German tourist trips to Greece over the last year have fallen 5-10%.
:22:58. > :23:02.That is a real problem, you need to find ways to replicate what America
:23:02. > :23:05.has had and turn Greece into Florida, if you like for the
:23:05. > :23:10.eurozone where wealthy middle-class people from the north go down in
:23:10. > :23:13.the summer. There is also going to be, perhaps, a different atmosphere,
:23:13. > :23:17.post-German election or not do you think? It is very unclear. One
:23:17. > :23:23.hopes that the new Government will have the competence to be a bit
:23:23. > :23:27.bolder and perhaps try to take some Morriss. Do you think post-election
:23:27. > :23:33.there may be a change, even if Angela Merkel returns to power,
:23:33. > :23:40.actually there may be a loosening of the austerity? I think there
:23:40. > :23:45.will be a shift. We can already see that coming. Take a look, in
:23:45. > :23:51.Germany we had salary increases of 5%. About two years ago that was
:23:51. > :23:54.unthinkable that would happen. So Lagard, he's demand that we have
:23:54. > :23:58.higher spending in Germany already takes place. When you take a look
:23:58. > :24:02.at the Social Democrats who currently propose quite drastic tax
:24:02. > :24:08.increases, I believe that the Conservatives, if they stay in
:24:08. > :24:15.power, they will obviously try to ease austerity programmes in a way
:24:15. > :24:19.that the results don't suffocate German output and demand on German
:24:19. > :24:23.goods outside Germany. Thank you all very much indeed.
:24:23. > :24:28.Well on Wednesday the The Great Gatsby opens the Cannes Film
:24:28. > :24:35.Festival, directed by Baz Luhurmann, soundtrack curated by Jay-Z,
:24:35. > :24:39.starring Marco Capuano and Carey Mulligan, if the trailers are --
:24:39. > :24:44.Leonardo depap Rio and Carey Mulligan. It is expected take
:24:44. > :24:50.millions in the states this weekend, but reviews will be lukewarm. It is
:24:50. > :24:56.the theatrical book about the novel and a novel about Zelda, why all
:24:56. > :25:03.the razzmatazz? I have all these things for her and now she just
:25:03. > :25:08.wants to run away. She wants to leave that. Jay, you can't repeat
:25:08. > :25:15.the past. You can't repeat the past? No. Of course you can. Of
:25:15. > :25:23.course you can. With me now is the author Philip Hensher and Sarah
:25:23. > :25:27.Churchwell, author of Careless People Murder Mayhem and the
:25:27. > :25:32.Invention of the The Great Gatsby. People say this is a wonderful book,
:25:32. > :25:36.what do you think? It is not that good a book looked at coldly. But
:25:37. > :25:41.it becomes more and more relevent, fascinatingly relevant as time goes
:25:41. > :25:46.on. Ten or 15 years ago we would have said maybe the time has passed
:25:46. > :25:50.for this. Who wants to become an English gentleman like Gatsby. But
:25:50. > :25:53.now with Russian oligarchs sending their children to terrible English
:25:53. > :25:59.public schools, it is becoming more and more relevent. Also from the
:25:59. > :26:05.point of view of a recession. I think it becomes a much more
:26:05. > :26:08.important and speaking book to us. Sarah, is it a good book?
:26:08. > :26:11.Absolutely I think it is a masterpiece. It is exactly that, it
:26:11. > :26:16.is a book that keeps coming back. It is a book that never dies. It as
:26:16. > :26:20.book in 1925 readers didn't get. As Philip says 15 years ago we didn't
:26:20. > :26:23.get it but now we get it again. What that registers is not if it is
:26:23. > :26:26.a good or bad book, but how prophetic it is, it says something
:26:26. > :26:31.good and last beg the society we have created about capitalism,
:26:31. > :26:34.about materialism, about greed. But also about hope and aspiration, our
:26:34. > :26:38.need to search for something better. But the fact that keeps letting us
:26:38. > :26:44.down and disappointment and disillusion as well. The film is
:26:44. > :26:49.all razzle dazzle we hear? It is, it is all razzle dazzle. For me it
:26:49. > :26:53.is a book about emptiness which has an emptiness at its heart. It is
:26:53. > :26:57.not quite aware of its own emptiness. I think that is
:26:57. > :27:03.condescending. It is totally aware that have, agree that is what it is
:27:03. > :27:10.about. The thing it doesn't quite seem to be aware of is how
:27:10. > :27:17.insufferable the narrator is. The way he's so patient troising to
:27:17. > :27:21.everybody. He is the flaw. depends as if you see him as
:27:21. > :27:27.Fitzgerald's error or the character's error. Is it that we
:27:27. > :27:31.can't trust his opinions that he's a prigg or patronising or
:27:31. > :27:34.Fitzgerald's mistake. That is for people like me makes it interesting,
:27:35. > :27:38.there are lots of questions. There is lots of stuff going around. You
:27:38. > :27:44.were saying in recessionary times you have written your own academic
:27:44. > :27:48.book about it? It is not that academic. There is this enduring
:27:48. > :27:54.interest in Fitzgerald and The Great Gatsby. Why? I agree with
:27:54. > :27:58.Philip but I go further. It hits our ambivalence about this question
:27:58. > :28:02.about class, status and luxury and hedonism, we want to chase the
:28:02. > :28:06.pleasure, what Zelda Fitzgerald calls the Green Light, the symbol
:28:06. > :28:12.for everything we want. Let yet we know, we have learned the hard way,
:28:12. > :28:17.as the last segment showed the hollowness and how toxic it is at
:28:17. > :28:27.its heart. We repeat the same mistakes? That is what the novel is
:28:27. > :28:30.
:28:30. > :28:39.about, the famous last line, "and so we are born ceaselessly again ".
:28:39. > :28:46.The last one was 1974 with Mia Farrw and the OPEC oil crisis, the
:28:46. > :28:50.previous version with Shelley Winters, that is suddenly a movie
:28:50. > :28:55.about American imperialism. If you look at what was talked about
:28:55. > :28:58.Gatsby, and his assertion he has been to Oxford, and they said you
:28:58. > :29:04.couldn't have been to Oxford because you are wearing a pink
:29:04. > :29:08.shirt. There are tropes, you talk about the Russian oligarchs giving
:29:08. > :29:14.their children an English education, big articles in the papers this
:29:14. > :29:19.week. Can people by dint of their wealth slip into society more
:29:19. > :29:26.easily than Gatsby could? Well, I don't know. I have never really
:29:26. > :29:31.witnessed that level of society. I suspect the thing that is slightly
:29:31. > :29:35.problematic in Gatsby the novel is people think that actually you know
:29:35. > :29:42.an English Duke at Oxford would be able to tell much difference
:29:42. > :29:45.between Nick Carroway and the Buchanans and The Great Gatsby, I
:29:45. > :29:52.don't think they could. What about America? You can sneer at the class
:29:52. > :29:56.system, but within the class system of America it matters a lot, and
:29:56. > :30:01.Buchanan represents that money class, and he wears a pink suit and
:30:01. > :30:05.he Downing Street he went to Oxford. What is interesting to me,
:30:05. > :30:12.Fitzgerald's prophetic insight that what he saw was this world coming
:30:12. > :30:14.that being rich and classy there would cease to be a distinction,
:30:14. > :30:19.Gatsby's problem doesn't understand that, he thinks getting rich is
:30:19. > :30:25.enough, but it is not enough to get him Daysy. In today's world it
:30:25. > :30:29.probably would be enough, what do I know, I don't travel in those
:30:29. > :30:32.circles. My sense is the distinction is more and more
:30:32. > :30:36.disappearing. Who wants to be a gentleman or Daisy, she's a strange
:30:36. > :30:40.empty kind of name in the novel. We don't know what Daisy is like. She
:30:40. > :30:43.is just followed around. Because it is a novel about desie, the whole
:30:43. > :30:47.point is Gatsby's romance with possibility, aspiration, wanting
:30:47. > :30:51.something t might be Dicey, a mansion, wealth, what do we want?
:30:51. > :30:57.You have talked us right out to the front pages. That is all for this
:30:57. > :31:01.week. We leave you with pictures of Dhaka and Bangladesh, 17 days ago
:31:01. > :31:05.an eight storey clothing factory collapsed claiming more than 1,000
:31:05. > :31:15.lives, today a young woman was found alive in the rubble, it is
:31:15. > :31:47.
:31:47. > :31:51.Hello, last weekend's weather was about increasing warmth this
:31:51. > :31:53.Saturday not. A spell of rain moving out of Northern Ireland into
:31:53. > :31:57.Scotland and the Midland. It turns showery for the afternoon. Sunshine
:31:57. > :32:03.and showers just about to cross the board, mental to go give a longer
:32:03. > :32:05.spell of rain for the south west of Scotland. The wind are lighter in
:32:05. > :32:11.northern Scotland compared with elsewhere and elsewhere the showers
:32:11. > :32:14.will move along quickly on the brisk and rather cool westerly wind.
:32:14. > :32:18.You may catch a heavy and possibly thundery downpour into the
:32:18. > :32:21.afternoon. It shouldn't last too long and the sun should make an
:32:21. > :32:26.appearence before the next shower comes along. You will notice the
:32:26. > :32:30.temperatures mid-to low teens, some getting to 15, most not. It will
:32:30. > :32:32.feel cooler in the breeze. Whenever it is raining also. It is a similar
:32:32. > :32:36.picture, sunshine and showers into Wales. Heading through Saturday
:32:36. > :32:40.evening could see a spell of wet and windy weather for a time in
:32:40. > :32:44.North West England, then moving to Midland and the south-east later in
:32:44. > :32:48.the night. Heading further afield this weekend, the northern half of
:32:48. > :32:52.Europe is looking rather showery too. So if you want the best of the
:32:53. > :32:55.sunshine head south, although it may well see some occasional rain