:00:10. > :00:15.Forget the love nest, forget the early morning croissant deliveries,
:00:16. > :00:19.don't inquire about the First Lady and listen up about how he's going
:00:20. > :00:27.to save the economy. Facing journalists the President of France
:00:28. > :00:34.was insowsant today. -- insoucient today. Translation, "mind your own
:00:35. > :00:38.business"! But could this sandal be the one that nails the French
:00:39. > :00:41.tolerance of bed hopping in high places.
:00:42. > :00:45.In the midst of Civil War the pianist plays on at the Damascus
:00:46. > :00:51.Opera House, what is it like to live or try to live in Syria now? Some
:00:52. > :00:57.people are saying this is not the time for concerts. My opinion is
:00:58. > :01:01.that this concert matters. And the car that drives and parks itself.
:01:02. > :01:19.Coming soon to a forecourt near you. Do you really need to buy one?
:01:20. > :01:22.Before that radical banking reform plan reportedly coming from the
:01:23. > :01:30.Labour Party. Emily Maitlis is here. Tell us about it? Interesting
:01:31. > :01:33.snippets emerging tonight ahead of Ed Miliband's keynote speech on
:01:34. > :01:38.Friday. What we have heard this evening is proposals that he may
:01:39. > :01:42.introduce some kind of competition within the high street banks. The
:01:43. > :01:48.banking sector as a whole. He will, as I understand, suggest a cap on
:01:49. > :01:52.the size of banks, possibly to do with their domestic market share,
:01:53. > :01:56.possibly set at around 25%. We don't have confirmation on that figure.
:01:57. > :02:00.This is a figure that is being talked about this evening. That
:02:01. > :02:04.could draw on a scheme very similar to one in the United States, and
:02:05. > :02:10.would involve getting rid of hundreds of bank branches, the idea
:02:11. > :02:13.behind this is to split up the big five, the banking names that we are
:02:14. > :02:16.all familiar with and give smaller banks the room to challenge them, to
:02:17. > :02:19.come into the market. And if you look at this in the sort of wider
:02:20. > :02:24.political frame, you will remember that before Christmas Ed Miliband
:02:25. > :02:27.was hammering home the cost of living argument. That was very key.
:02:28. > :02:31.That landmark moment at the conference speech when went after
:02:32. > :02:35.the energy companies. And created, if you like, the impossible, by
:02:36. > :02:43.suggesting this freeze and energy cap for two years on fuel prices.
:02:44. > :02:46.Many people said, sounds utterly un-Israelistic -- unrealistic, but
:02:47. > :02:49.it seemed to have a lot of traction in public opinion. He will try to
:02:50. > :02:53.link the same argument from what we understand, the cost of living, by
:02:54. > :02:57.saying not just these individual areas like energy, but bigger,
:02:58. > :03:01.structural changes to the whole British economy. A lot of appeal to
:03:02. > :03:04.those who think that the banking sector hasn't been bashed enough.
:03:05. > :03:08.And who would like to see the banking sector paying the price. But
:03:09. > :03:12.interestingly enough the responsive been getting this evening already
:03:13. > :03:17.suggests this is more complicated than it sounds as a headline. For
:03:18. > :03:22.example how do you start looking at the domestic share of a bank. How do
:03:23. > :03:27.you look at something like HSBC, which is a global body, head
:03:28. > :03:33.quartered in the UK but could go bust in China. What would 25% of
:03:34. > :03:36.that look at? Just briefly, another senior business figure has been
:03:37. > :03:39.saying you know we have had this nonstop intervention, intervention
:03:40. > :03:42.on land, intervention on energy, it is part of a pattern and it is
:03:43. > :03:47.rather anti-business, it could alienate business. I gather that
:03:48. > :03:51.George Osborne is making a speech tomorrow as well? Yes, what we are
:03:52. > :03:58.hearing is he's going to give a speech to the Open Europe Forum on
:03:59. > :04:04.Europe, and it is to the Fresh Start Group also. The message then we are
:04:05. > :04:09.getting a few key phrases from it, one is "reform or decline". He will
:04:10. > :04:13.tell the EU, Europe itself that it has to back business, create jobs
:04:14. > :04:17.and cut welfare spending. He's going to tell, if you like, the
:04:18. > :04:21.institutions of Europe that they are not doing enough to become
:04:22. > :04:25.productive to take on countries like China, India, the Asian giant who is
:04:26. > :04:31.are really dominating the economy. There is the hint of a veiled threat
:04:32. > :04:35.in this, that he may well say if we don't see significant reform, if
:04:36. > :04:39.economic performance remains unacceptable, it might be that you
:04:40. > :04:43.will find it difficult to persuade Britain it wants to remain a member
:04:44. > :04:47.of the EU. A slight veiled threat. What is interesting about this is
:04:48. > :04:57.the way he is straddling two audiences here. Because he will be
:04:58. > :05:01.talking to Fresh Start, a think-tank about reform, they want reform from
:05:02. > :05:05.the inside. They want to keep inside the EU. So it is significant he will
:05:06. > :05:11.give this speech within that forum. But, of course, this is an answer to
:05:12. > :05:15.all those backbenchers, up to 95, we understand, who signed a letter by
:05:16. > :05:19.Bernard Jenkins, they are MPs who want to see a national veto, and
:05:20. > :05:24.many would like to leave the EU all together. What he's saying here is
:05:25. > :05:26.look I can be hard of nails on Europe but I want reform from inside
:05:27. > :05:30.not out. Thank you very much. The Syrian
:05:31. > :05:35.Government claimed today to have recaptured territory near the city
:05:36. > :05:38.of Aleppo, after the recent fighting between different rebel groups it
:05:39. > :05:42.does looks a though the balance in the Civil War has shifted a little.
:05:43. > :05:46.It is nowhere near a conclusion. In the meantime the need for
:05:47. > :05:51.humanitarian aid is so intense that the United Nations is about to
:05:52. > :05:54.launch its biggest-ever appeal. Meantime the BBC's correspondent, in
:05:55. > :05:59.and out of Syria all the time, has heard claims by the Al-Assad regime
:06:00. > :06:03.that some western Governments may be beginning to change their tune.
:06:04. > :06:07.She's here now. It is a real treat tonight, thank you for coming in.
:06:08. > :06:10.Good to be with you. What is it you have heard from this Syrian
:06:11. > :06:13.Government minister? Well let's be clear that what this the Syrian
:06:14. > :06:17.Government is saying now, and of course this is very much a narrative
:06:18. > :06:21.that it wants to spin. What it has been saying for many months is
:06:22. > :06:25.listen, the real enemy in Syria is not President Assad, which American
:06:26. > :06:28.Governments repeatedly call, and Arab states as well, on him to step
:06:29. > :06:32.down saying he has no future. They say the real enemy is the rising
:06:33. > :06:36.strength of these Islamist groups, some of whom are linked to Al-Qaeda,
:06:37. > :06:38.and most of which are populated by foreign fighters, including
:06:39. > :06:42.thousands that are coming from Europe. It is clear in the west that
:06:43. > :06:45.they do regard this as a growing threat. Not just that the foreign
:06:46. > :06:48.Jihadis are going to Syria and fighting there, but they will one
:06:49. > :06:52.day come back. Come back to Britain as well. And we have heard
:06:53. > :06:57.expressions of concern. The question is whether the Government is now
:06:58. > :07:01.saying that the western intelligence agencies have accepted this threat
:07:02. > :07:05.and want to make common cause. So when I was in Damascus recently I
:07:06. > :07:11.put it to the Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister, I said, are we having
:07:12. > :07:13.reports that western intelligence agencies are going to Damascus. This
:07:14. > :07:17.is what he said. We understand that western
:07:18. > :07:22.intelligence agencies have recently visited Damascus, including British
:07:23. > :07:30.intelligence? I will not specify, but many have visited Damascus. Has
:07:31. > :07:37.the British Foreign Office made inquiries about the return of its
:07:38. > :07:41.diplomats? We are still listening to statements by Mr Hague statements
:07:42. > :07:45.that are a flagrant intervention in our internal affairs. Statements
:07:46. > :07:49.which he should particularly when it comes to democracy address his
:07:50. > :07:53.friends in Saudi Arabia and other gulf countries or other countries
:07:54. > :08:01.that are very close to the UK. But frankly speaking the spirit has
:08:02. > :08:05.changed. What do you see? When sees countries ask us for security
:08:06. > :08:10.operation, then it seems to me there is a schism between the political
:08:11. > :08:12.and security leaderships. So in other words you have just confirmed
:08:13. > :08:17.that British intelligence has been in touch with you? I'm not
:08:18. > :08:22.confirming anything. I'm not confirming anything, I'm saying that
:08:23. > :08:29.many of these countries have contacted us to co-ordinate security
:08:30. > :08:34.measures. The political story apart... I should say now that of
:08:35. > :08:37.course we contacted the for on office -- Foreign Office, they say
:08:38. > :08:40.they don't comment on intelligence matters. They always say that.
:08:41. > :08:44.Political stories apart, you know the things that baffles a lot of
:08:45. > :08:49.people who look at these awful pictures coming out of Syria and the
:08:50. > :08:54.size of the refugee crisis, is the whole country desolate or what?
:08:55. > :08:57.Three years into the war in Syria and it is an absolutely punishing
:08:58. > :09:02.war. On top of that, as aid officials put it, one of the worst
:09:03. > :09:05.humanitarian crises we have ever seen. What we have seen from going
:09:06. > :09:11.in and out of Syria over these three years that more and more of the
:09:12. > :09:15.country is falling into rule. Every battlefield I have visited has been
:09:16. > :09:19.an absolute ghost town. You drive for mile after mile after mile, with
:09:20. > :09:25.not a house left standing, not a house which is not pockmarked with
:09:26. > :09:29.bullet fire. Totally torn apart by aerial bombardments or torn apart by
:09:30. > :09:32.the street-to-street fighting. We have often talked about the bubble
:09:33. > :09:35.in the centre of some of these cities, still firmly under
:09:36. > :09:38.Government control. That includes Damascus, where if you arrived and
:09:39. > :09:42.didn't know there was a war you would say look at the parks, there
:09:43. > :09:45.is lovers sitting in the park, civil servants are taking the buses and
:09:46. > :09:51.going to work. The children are dutifully going to school. Then you
:09:52. > :09:55.hear the mortars landing and the constant artillery fire. There is
:09:56. > :10:00.not a single family that hasn't been affected by this war. But on this
:10:01. > :10:04.recent visit to Damascus we decided to hear voices we don't often here.
:10:05. > :10:20.This is what they have said to us about what it is like to live in a
:10:21. > :10:32.warzone. A son nat toe by Scerleti, played by Syria's most renowned In
:10:33. > :10:43.the Damascus Opera House it is something for another time.
:10:44. > :10:48.TRANSLATION: Day after day the situation is getting worse. We have
:10:49. > :10:53.more casualties, we are more stressed. You can't imagine how hard
:10:54. > :11:02.I have to work to focus on art and this difficult atmosphere. Some
:11:03. > :11:08.people don't come to the Opera House because of explosions, mortars. The
:11:09. > :11:11.timing of the concerts has changed from the evening to the afternoon.
:11:12. > :11:19.Some people are saying this is not the time for concerts. My opinion is
:11:20. > :11:25.that these concerts matter, the role of art is to help build citizens.
:11:26. > :11:29.Even when you are listening to the beauty of this music, it is hard not
:11:30. > :11:35.to forget that just kilometres away, several miles away there are areas
:11:36. > :11:41.outside Damascus where people are besieged and people are starving?
:11:42. > :11:47.TRANSLATION: That's right, but the question is what should our reaction
:11:48. > :11:51.be? I'm helpless to do anything except my music, and teaching my
:11:52. > :11:59.students. I always try to support them, to build their awareness. That
:12:00. > :12:14.is what I can do. I have another choice, I can stay at home, but that
:12:15. > :12:17.wouldn't change anything. When the uprising began nearly three years
:12:18. > :12:25.ago some Syrians felt they could change a lot by peaceful protest.
:12:26. > :12:30.Including Rema Dali, they called her "the woman in the red dress". When
:12:31. > :12:33.we interviewed her then, she told Newsnight she still had hope the
:12:34. > :12:42.killing would stop. Now she's no longer taking to the streets. This
:12:43. > :12:49.one was the one that became famous. Yes, I stood on the parliament in
:12:50. > :12:54.Damascus and carried the banner and it said "stop the killing we want to
:12:55. > :12:59.build a home for all Syrians". That was more than a year ago? It was
:13:00. > :13:13.about one-and-a-half years ago. And that's when there were 10,000 dead,
:13:14. > :13:17.sadly. Now it's 120,000. TRANSLATION: Our first mistake was
:13:18. > :13:24.that we thought it was going to be fast, a quick change. And we are
:13:25. > :13:30.paying for this mistake now. To make a change you need to be patient, you
:13:31. > :13:35.need to look deeply, take a long breath and start working. There are
:13:36. > :13:40.no quick changes here. I don't think we will see any change before five
:13:41. > :13:45.years. But some people fear that if it does take another five years
:13:46. > :13:50.there won't be any Syria left given all the killing and all the
:13:51. > :13:55.destruction. TRANSLATION: There is no country that has days peered, no
:13:56. > :14:01.people who have disappeared. There is some fear at how things will turn
:14:02. > :14:06.out. What people are suffering what they will continue to suffer. How
:14:07. > :14:10.Syria will be in five years and how different the Syrian people will be.
:14:11. > :14:20.Three years on, do you believe that either the opposition or the
:14:21. > :14:23.Government represent what you stand for? TRANSLATION: They are not
:14:24. > :14:27.representative of the Syrian people, neither side are working for the
:14:28. > :14:35.benefit of the Syrian people. They don't represent our values. But I
:14:36. > :14:48.still believe in Syrian society, it still carries a lot of important and
:14:49. > :14:53.noble values. No-one expected Syria's conflict would last so long,
:14:54. > :14:57.cost so much, be so brutal. Few expected President Assad would still
:14:58. > :15:03.be in power. Except perhaps those who support him. This is a wealthy
:15:04. > :15:09.industrialist with ties to the President. He suggested we meet in
:15:10. > :15:14.the Shakespeare Cafe. You were put on the western sanctions list, what
:15:15. > :15:20.do you say to those countries now? I say first of all I tell those
:15:21. > :15:25.countries I'm not urging them to lift me from the sanctions li list,
:15:26. > :15:29.but I tell them in order for you, their politicians to protect the
:15:30. > :15:33.interest of their own people, the western people, really you have to
:15:34. > :15:37.side with the Syrian Government in fighting terrorism, because this is
:15:38. > :15:44.the biggest fight against terrorism in the history since Al-Qaeda was
:15:45. > :15:48.initiated and was born some 20 or 30 years ago in the Afghan war. This is
:15:49. > :15:53.the biggest battle against terrorism in the world. And anyone who claims,
:15:54. > :15:58.in the west, or in other countries, who claims that he is really
:15:59. > :16:01.fighting terrorism, he should be a friend with the Syrian army and with
:16:02. > :16:05.the Syrian Government. And the tragedy is people say it became a
:16:06. > :16:08.self-fulfilling prophesy that President Assad talked about
:16:09. > :16:13.terrorism before there was terrorism, because the war has been
:16:14. > :16:17.so brutal it created terrorism. From day one, from day one they used
:16:18. > :16:21.arms. No, there were peaceful protests when they started? That is
:16:22. > :16:25.what they say. From day one they used arms, many used arms and tried
:16:26. > :16:30.to create chaos. From day one or day two they attacked public buildings.
:16:31. > :16:35.For months and months and months it was a peaceful protest? Of course we
:16:36. > :16:38.had some mistakes in dealing with this. I don't want to defend the
:16:39. > :16:42.Government. There are mistakes dealing with this, it happened,
:16:43. > :16:47.Government has confessed, the President admitted the mistakes, all
:16:48. > :16:52.these known TV stars that attack us on TV from five-star hotels, they
:16:53. > :16:59.were all invited to sit with us and in a national dialogue in 2011, they
:17:00. > :17:04.all refused. Because ambassadors, some ambassadors told them not to
:17:05. > :17:09.come. Don't bet on a losing horse. We will, the regime will stay only
:17:10. > :17:12.for three or four months. So basically don't lose your cards,
:17:13. > :17:16.stay with us. This is what happened, unfortunately. If we were allowed to
:17:17. > :17:23.sit together, we could have reached a solution a long time ago. Life
:17:24. > :17:32.does go on. But Syria has been drawn into the abyss. With every day that
:17:33. > :17:38.passes it gets worse. But after so much suffering and sacrifice,
:17:39. > :17:59.emotions are raw. Still too raw for reconciliation. Or resolution. In a
:18:00. > :18:05.moment... The driverless car. Now, he might not have reached the
:18:06. > :18:08.rhetorical heights of Fidel Castro or Hugo Chavez, but the President of
:18:09. > :18:11.France, Francois Hollande, still managed some sort of record today
:18:12. > :18:15.for the longest uninterrupted political speech in a foreign
:18:16. > :18:19.language, broadcast in Britain. Doubtless there were many here who
:18:20. > :18:22.were desperate to hear his sloganising about the French
:18:23. > :18:27.economy. But even the eyes of some of the lap dogs in the French media
:18:28. > :18:32.glazed over. As to the reason the rest of the world was interested, as
:18:33. > :18:37.he put it, private matters should be dealt with privately. It was a very
:18:38. > :18:49.French affair in every sense. We report from Paris.
:18:50. > :18:59.What is it about the French? How does their language so plausibly
:19:00. > :19:03.lend itself to a swelling love song. How has Paris so successfully
:19:04. > :19:15.established itself as the global capital of the common human heart.
:19:16. > :19:21.This has become a lovers rend day vow, each padlock marks a tryst,
:19:22. > :19:29.couples come from all over the world to lock themselves together. In a
:19:30. > :19:35.movie you can see a lot of movies talking about love in Paris and
:19:36. > :19:41.Midnight in Paris is really romantic. Is it the most romantic
:19:42. > :19:46.city you have been in. I think so. France's relationship with love and
:19:47. > :19:50.sex runs deep. It has had a succession of Presidents,
:19:51. > :19:54.Mitterrand's double life was an open secret among the Parisian elite.
:19:55. > :20:00.Jacques Chirac's formidable life, Bernadette, knew about her husband's
:20:01. > :20:06.liaisons, bore it and acknowledged it. But the French public looked the
:20:07. > :20:17.other way. Why? Why until now has there been no salacious public
:20:18. > :20:22.purience. It would have in Britain. A French lotion explained with
:20:23. > :20:27.disdain the difference between the British and the French. He said we
:20:28. > :20:31.British are obsessed with the loves of the famous because we lack
:20:32. > :20:34.finesse in our own, and we disguise it with our excellent British
:20:35. > :20:39.humour. That is the difference between us. We French are good at
:20:40. > :20:43.love and you brush are good at -- British are good at comedy We are
:20:44. > :20:52.sensual, sexy, and you are really very funny. It has been a long
:20:53. > :21:07.traditionia public figures are entitled to their private life.
:21:08. > :21:11.There are laws that limit the scope of the media work, we can be sued
:21:12. > :21:17.very easily for breach of privacy of public figures. Actually the first
:21:18. > :21:25.reactions to Francois Hollande's present problems was unanimous in
:21:26. > :21:30.political establishment, all politicians of all sides immediately
:21:31. > :21:36.reacted saying you know he is entitled to his private life.
:21:37. > :21:44.Francois Hollande is a graduate of the Ecole Nationle it is an elite
:21:45. > :21:49.institution that trains many of France's future leaders. It is often
:21:50. > :21:54.argued that the French ruling elite is a home genius group of people,
:21:55. > :21:59.and -- hem Mo genius group of people, and they went to the same
:22:00. > :22:02.universities like this one where they were groomed for high status
:22:03. > :22:06.lives. And this is why newspaper editors, senior politician, civil
:22:07. > :22:09.servants, industry chiefs are connected to each other through a
:22:10. > :22:14.network of lifelong loyalties and old friendships and this explains
:22:15. > :22:19.why the sexual peck dill lows of previous Presidents stayed out of
:22:20. > :22:22.the news. Is it true, in a press conference lasting more than two
:22:23. > :22:35.hours today, Francois Hollande was asked only four times about his
:22:36. > :22:38.private life. He gave them nothing. Was asked only four times about his
:22:39. > :22:39.private life. He gave them nothing. The TRANSLATION: Everyone goes
:22:40. > :22:42.through difficult moments and these are difficult moment, I have one
:22:43. > :22:45.principle, private matters should be dealt with privately, and that is
:22:46. > :22:48.the same for everyone concerned. He talked instead about the dire state
:22:49. > :22:54.of the French economy, some here believe this is the real reason that
:22:55. > :22:58.the old French privacy taboo has collapsed on him. Today the economic
:22:59. > :23:05.situation is such and the indecision of this President, his inability to
:23:06. > :23:09.make any decision is such that it looked plain ridiculous. The way we
:23:10. > :23:14.look in the world I have many friends all over the world who
:23:15. > :23:20.called me and this has become a play, more prone for sex than
:23:21. > :23:25.serious economic reform. This is hurting the image of my country. And
:23:26. > :23:31.I resent that. Whatever the reason, the old French consensus on privacy
:23:32. > :23:35.in matters of the heart and the flesh is crumbling. The French
:23:36. > :23:44.public are no longer looking the other way. Anne Elizabeth Moutet is
:23:45. > :23:49.a French journalist for the Daily Telegraph, and we have a former
:23:50. > :23:52.senior foreign correspondent for French television. Anne Elizabeth
:23:53. > :23:59.Moutet, do you think this line that a private life should stay private
:24:00. > :24:02.is going to hold in the case of President Hollande? No. I thought
:24:03. > :24:07.that for years. Actually I changed my mind at the time of Mitterrand,
:24:08. > :24:11.because he lied to the country about his parallel families. And it turned
:24:12. > :24:15.out that the way he had behaved in his private life was exactly the way
:24:16. > :24:21.he behaved in his political life. He lied about his past. He lied about
:24:22. > :24:26.his links to Vichy France. He lied about his crooked friends and so I
:24:27. > :24:31.thought that the passing was a fair indication of how the political
:24:32. > :24:35.animal was behaving. We see this again withhold Hollande, he's a man
:24:36. > :24:39.who has been vacilating all his life in his private life. He has never
:24:40. > :24:45.been able to marry anyone of his partners, not even the mother of his
:24:46. > :24:49.children, with whom he lived for 23 years. He didn't marry Miss
:24:50. > :24:54.Trierweiler, we don't know about the next person. But in the same way he
:24:55. > :24:57.has vacilated between several strains of policy, he has vacilated
:24:58. > :25:03.about taxes, if people squealed enough in the street he withdrew the
:25:04. > :25:08.taxes. He has basically taken off any kind of visibility to the French
:25:09. > :25:13.economy. I think that too is a very straight parallel with his private
:25:14. > :25:16.life. I think only for that, there are other reasons, but only for that
:25:17. > :25:23.I would say we ought to know about their private lives. Why do the
:25:24. > :25:29.French have this belief that a private life must stay private in a
:25:30. > :25:34.public figure? Well you see the French do not like prying, they do
:25:35. > :25:41.not like prying in their private lives. They don't like prying in
:25:42. > :25:46.their bank accounts and this is this habit of considering that people
:25:47. > :25:50.that do not have mistresses are not successful in politics, this is what
:25:51. > :25:54.my diplomat friend was telling me this morning. He said two French
:25:55. > :26:01.politicians did not have mistress, they were not re-elected. The last
:26:02. > :26:09.one who was a Prime Minister and the other one was LouisXVI, who met the
:26:10. > :26:14.guillotine. The argument of course is that the way a person behaves in
:26:15. > :26:18.their private life, whether they honour their marriage vows or make
:26:19. > :26:22.marriage vows are very often indicative of how they will behave
:26:23. > :26:29.in their public life and therefore whether the public can trust them.
:26:30. > :26:34.Why do you disregard that argument? You see it is not totally
:26:35. > :26:40.disregarded. I think there is a lot which is true in what Anne Elizabeth
:26:41. > :26:46.said. But in any country in the world the story of a man getting
:26:47. > :26:51.caught with his pants down is funny. It is all the funnier except in
:26:52. > :26:55.North Korea perhaps if this man is the President. But at the same time
:26:56. > :27:00.the only thing that is not down at the moment in France is
:27:01. > :27:04.unemployment. So after trying to get one of those pictures which are very
:27:05. > :27:09.hard to get, I can tell you, I confessed to trying to buy the
:27:10. > :27:15.magazine, it was impossible to find one. You know on a double-take the
:27:16. > :27:18.French rather go to the core of the problems, that is the economy, that
:27:19. > :27:25.is doing very bad. President Hollande had daringly promised that
:27:26. > :27:29.it would be able to reverse the upward trend offen employment last
:27:30. > :27:32.year and it just didn't happen. Anne Elizabeth Moutet there is the
:27:33. > :27:41.question of the French press in all of this. Why are the French press so
:27:42. > :27:49.deferential. That goes back to de Gaulle and before that. It goes back
:27:50. > :28:03.to Louis XVI. If you really want to go into historical, when Louis Vi is
:28:04. > :28:09.there and the monarchy takes over. On the one hand you have an Monarch
:28:10. > :28:13.and oligarchy on the other. There is a strong tradition. This is the
:28:14. > :28:16.whole negotiation about the establishment -- notion about the
:28:17. > :28:20.establish the. The French are confirmist, newspapers write things
:28:21. > :28:25.they think will be respectable. You notice that none of them sell many
:28:26. > :28:30.copies, but Closer magazine sold out a first print run and they printed
:28:31. > :28:34.again and they sold out the second print run. I take issue that the
:28:35. > :28:37.French are not interested in the private life of their politicians,
:28:38. > :28:41.the truth is they are fascinated by it. The truth is when it was
:28:42. > :28:53.Mitterrand's daughter everybody was talking about it, in this case
:28:54. > :28:59.everybody it talking about this. They have a two-faced attitude to
:29:00. > :29:04.it. They judged Sarkozy because of his private life and they will judge
:29:05. > :29:10.Mr Hollande for his private life. Thank you both very much. We have to
:29:11. > :29:14.move on. Now it has taken four years but at last inflation has now
:29:15. > :29:18.reached the Bank of England's target for the first time since November
:29:19. > :29:22.2009, it is running at 2%. Lower than many predictions which led the
:29:23. > :29:26.Chancellor of the Exchequer today to claim that his plan for the economy
:29:27. > :29:31.is working. Labour replied there was still a cost of living crisis, but
:29:32. > :29:42.if inflation stays low and the economy keeping growing, could
:29:43. > :29:46.people start to feel differently. Cost of living crisis, what crisis?
:29:47. > :29:50.The scourge of inflation has been stamped out. If it is only 2%, why
:29:51. > :29:56.don't we feel better? You know the answer, wages are rising by less
:29:57. > :30:00.than half that. For more than 30 years the debate about inflation has
:30:01. > :30:05.been dominated by what the older generation think they remember about
:30:06. > :30:09.the 1970s. With prices rising by 10-20%, the cost of living became
:30:10. > :30:17.unaffordable and we all got worse off, right? Wrong, back in the 70s
:30:18. > :30:23.prices may have risen, but what also gets forgotten is wages were rising
:30:24. > :30:28.even faster. Take 1975 when prices rose by 25%, in that year household
:30:29. > :30:31.disposable income still grew in real terms. In the middle of out of
:30:32. > :30:35.control inflation we were still getting better off. Stripping out
:30:36. > :30:41.inflation, in the 1970s we got better off on average by one. 2% a
:30:42. > :30:47.year. In the 1980s incomes went up by two. 2%, in the 1990s by one. 3%
:30:48. > :30:51.and in the noughties by one. 3%. It is only since then that the average
:30:52. > :30:56.income started to fall in real terms, and it has fallen fastest,
:30:57. > :31:01.not in the recession but the recovery. Why if we are in recovery
:31:02. > :31:04.aren't we claiming higher pay rises. For the last five years we have been
:31:05. > :31:07.through a difficult economic situation and a lot of people seem
:31:08. > :31:10.to have been prepared to accept lower pay to help secure their job.
:31:11. > :31:13.But if we look what is happening in the last year now employment is
:31:14. > :31:16.growing, the economy is more obviously growing, so I think people
:31:17. > :31:20.will feel more secure in going forward and saying I think we need a
:31:21. > :31:27.pay rise. What will be interesting is, as we get through 2014, as a
:31:28. > :31:30.real wages start to rise again, but real wage growth remains
:31:31. > :31:35.historically very weak, does that change debate. Not all employers say
:31:36. > :31:43.they can't afford bigger wage rises, however companies have built up a
:31:44. > :31:46.pile of cash worth ?671. With prices rising faster than wages, they have
:31:47. > :31:52.been getting more in for the goods they sell and paying out less for
:31:53. > :31:55.staff. Why can't they spend it on bigger pay rises. The cash belongs
:31:56. > :31:59.to shareholders and they expect it to be invested for a return. Those
:32:00. > :32:03.workers need to be more productive, using more up-to-date technology.
:32:04. > :32:07.Delivering new products and services, in order to generate a
:32:08. > :32:12.bigger return for the business. Higher wages flow from productivity
:32:13. > :32:16.growth. But yes, after several pretty flat years, in which living
:32:17. > :32:20.standards have declined, if we now have the prospect of keeping
:32:21. > :32:27.inflation at 2%, and skill shortages and pressure in the labour market
:32:28. > :32:31.allows workers to earn more value by being more productive then wages
:32:32. > :32:35.should modestly grow this year. The other thing that gets forgotten
:32:36. > :32:39.about, the big wages of the 1970s is if you are in debt they did you a
:32:40. > :32:44.big favour. Your wages would go up with inflation, but the amount you
:32:45. > :32:55.owed wouldn't. Inflation makes your debts shrink. Not Take That is
:32:56. > :33:01.relevant -- not that that is relevant now. Companies charged
:33:02. > :33:05.higher prices and then workers want higher pay, but with pay claims as
:33:06. > :33:09.meek as they are there is little danger of that.
:33:10. > :33:12.To discuss this is Margaret Doyle formerly of the Economist and now
:33:13. > :33:18.head of financial services research from Deloittes UK, we are joined
:33:19. > :33:22.from Dartmouth College by a former member of the monetary policies
:33:23. > :33:25.committee for the Bank of England. George Osborne says this inflation
:33:26. > :33:36.figure proves his economic strategy is working, does it? Not really,
:33:37. > :33:44.inflation is falling everywhere the world. It is in America and zero. 8%
:33:45. > :33:47.in the eurozone. It is hard to say worldwide inflation is driven by
:33:48. > :33:52.Osbourne's policies. We have seen real wages continuing to fall and
:33:53. > :34:04.actually nominal wages, that is how much you get in your pay packet over
:34:05. > :34:07.the last few months as been falling as well. Wages have been falling, it
:34:08. > :34:14.doesn't look like much of a success. The man and woman in the middle is
:34:15. > :34:18.worse off than they were in 2010 and six months ago. Not much indication
:34:19. > :34:22.there. Why is it that wages aren't rising to keep pace with inflation?
:34:23. > :34:25.I think it is really because we have had a huge downturn. That really
:34:26. > :34:29.explains why wages haven't been rising as fast as inflation. And
:34:30. > :34:34.effectively what has been happening is workers have chosen to accept
:34:35. > :34:37.these real-term wage cuts, to accept changes in their working conditions.
:34:38. > :34:40.For example we have seen things like zero hours contracts. And the
:34:41. > :34:46.bargain that they have struck is that effectively it is better to
:34:47. > :34:50.have a job although with lower real wages than it is to be unemployed.
:34:51. > :34:54.And I would argue that for the economy as a whole it is better for
:34:55. > :34:57.the economy as a whole to have lower unemployment. The surprise of the
:34:58. > :35:02.recession has been that employment has held up remarkably well. But it
:35:03. > :35:05.does mean that people are not feeling that things are getting
:35:06. > :35:08.better? Exactly. People have not felt that things have been getting
:35:09. > :35:12.better. Because for them they haven't been getting any better?
:35:13. > :35:17.They haven't been, but certainly my colleague will tell you that real
:35:18. > :35:21.wages will begin to increase in 2014, because inflation is coming
:35:22. > :35:27.down, tax rises are on hold. We have had tax rises there on hold. And
:35:28. > :35:29.earnings are going to and likely to increase for a variety of reasons,
:35:30. > :35:35.partly because the economy is improving. Do you think that is
:35:36. > :35:39.going to happen? I think that's really quite wishful thinking. If
:35:40. > :35:43.you look at the Government's forecast and the OBR's forecast,
:35:44. > :35:47.each forecast they have made they have said don't worry, real wages
:35:48. > :35:50.will start to grow. The thing you have to ask yourself is what is
:35:51. > :35:53.different today. The answer is really very little. If you look at
:35:54. > :35:58.the example now, the UK starts to look like the US, and today real
:35:59. > :36:03.wages in the US are the same as they were in 1979. Here we are in this
:36:04. > :36:07.noble world, unions have -- global world, unions have gone, pressure
:36:08. > :36:12.down with global forces because firms can go somewhere else,
:36:13. > :36:15.migrants have come in. This is dream world not least because public
:36:16. > :36:19.sector still has a pay freeze going. This is wishful thinking again. It
:36:20. > :36:23.hasn't happened until now. What you have to ask yourself is what has
:36:24. > :36:28.suddenly changed? The answer is little or nothing. In that case we
:36:29. > :36:32.may well have reached the end, may we not, of a period of pretty
:36:33. > :36:38.consistently rising standards of living? I think that's probably
:36:39. > :36:41.right. We have seen people's standards of living rise at the top
:36:42. > :36:45.end. The difference in a sense between the UK and the US and we
:36:46. > :36:49.were saying this in your commentary earlier was up to 008 we saw
:36:50. > :36:53.positive real wage growth for all the people in work. Because in the
:36:54. > :36:56.past recessions 10% of the people were unemployed all the time and
:36:57. > :37:00.everybody else was not unemployed and kept nice high wage growth, now
:37:01. > :37:04.everybody is in this, and it may well be that the person at the
:37:05. > :37:09.middle, the one that Ed Miliband has been talking about, the squeezed
:37:10. > :37:12.middle, the medium voter, there is every prospect of no real wage
:37:13. > :37:16.growth and certainly not between now and May 2015. I think it is wishful
:37:17. > :37:27.thinking and it would be wonderful but there is no evidence in the date
:37:28. > :37:31.Take That is -- data That is going to happen. There are signs that
:37:32. > :37:38.recruitment is on the rise. That is likely to push up wages. Our latest
:37:39. > :37:41.survey of chief financial and finance directors shows there is
:37:42. > :37:45.increasing confidence. That is likely to be a leading indicator of
:37:46. > :37:48.mergers and acquisitions, of hiring and general expansion which is
:37:49. > :37:53.generally good for employment numbers. But as regards wage levels?
:37:54. > :37:58.Well, if employment goes up typically wage levels follow. So we
:37:59. > :38:06.do expect that real wages will rise this year. The professor is right to
:38:07. > :38:11.say that there has been a global trend towards an increasing share in
:38:12. > :38:16.profit and decreasing share of wages in the global economy over the past
:38:17. > :38:20.30 years. That is right and not driven by particular policy
:38:21. > :38:24.decisions in any country. What it is driven by huge forces like
:38:25. > :38:28.globalisation and technological progress, like the decline of the
:38:29. > :38:32.union. That is definitely a trend. We have also seen that there has
:38:33. > :38:38.been a change in the distribution of income away from those lower skilled
:38:39. > :38:42.towards the elite, those who are very well educated. I wanted to ask
:38:43. > :38:46.you one other question, and I'm springing this on you, you won't
:38:47. > :38:50.know about this speech or maybe you do know about the speech that Ed
:38:51. > :38:54.Miliband is supposed to make later in the week, in which he is
:38:55. > :39:00.proposing to restrict the big five banks and there by to the number of
:39:01. > :39:02.branches they have, and market capitalisation or something or
:39:03. > :39:06.other, some how to encourage competition from smaller offshoots
:39:07. > :39:13.by making them shed parts of their business. Is that a goer? You sprung
:39:14. > :39:18.that one on me. I haven't actually seen the details. But could try.
:39:19. > :39:22.Obviously we need to get money flowing to people. Not least, and I
:39:23. > :39:26.think you and I have talked about this before. How can we actually
:39:27. > :39:30.expect workers' wages to lies, when small firms that are the job
:39:31. > :39:34.generators in the economy can't get access to cash, can't get loans,
:39:35. > :39:37.this seems like wishful thinking. But any attempt to try to
:39:38. > :39:42.restructure the economy, get things to change and try to get help if you
:39:43. > :39:45.like to the person in the middle. What we just heard was that things
:39:46. > :39:49.were going to change but probably what they are going to do is change
:39:50. > :39:52.for people at the top. They have had a tax cut, we have seen people at
:39:53. > :39:55.the high end doing well, the question through all of this is
:39:56. > :39:59.let's folk cuss on the average audience of Newsnight. What's going
:40:00. > :40:03.to happen to them. If Ed Miliband can start to think about how you
:40:04. > :40:10.helped the squeezed middle, good for him. Do you want to say anything? As
:40:11. > :40:15.it happens the tax share borne by the very top earners has increased
:40:16. > :40:20.in the last few years by a quarter. It is the case that those at the top
:40:21. > :40:23.end have been taxed more. If you belong to that select
:40:24. > :40:28.minority of Newsnight viewers who have no chauffeur, take heart! The
:40:29. > :40:32.car which requires no driver is almost reality. This of course is
:40:33. > :40:36.pretty bad news if you happen to work as a chauffeur, but those who
:40:37. > :40:40.say autonomous automobiles will never happen are beginning to look
:40:41. > :40:45.like the people who said there was no future in the horseless carriage.
:40:46. > :40:58.Our technology correspondent can prove it.
:40:59. > :41:01.Driving across the Golden Gate Bridge is a pretty special
:41:02. > :41:07.experience, but let's be honest most of the time life looks nothing like
:41:08. > :41:12.the car adverts. Being behind the wheel is often just boring
:41:13. > :41:25.stop-start frustration. There has to be a better way. Of course a truly
:41:26. > :41:28.autonomous car won't be just one technology, it is a whole range of
:41:29. > :41:34.different jobs that the car is going to have to take over from the driver
:41:35. > :41:38.before we can leave them to run themselves. For example, Audrey is
:41:39. > :41:42.one of a number ash Audi is one of a number of manufacturers getting cars
:41:43. > :41:47.to park themselves. If you look over there it is a tight space. I take
:41:48. > :41:52.out my smartphone and the car should start parking itself. And what's
:41:53. > :41:55.going on here is not, there is nothing special in the road, there
:41:56. > :42:06.is nothing special in the parking space, all the technology necessary
:42:07. > :42:15.for this is in the car. It is a bit of a tight one, it will have to make
:42:16. > :42:20.a number of manoeuvres. There we go, the car is parked and everyone's
:42:21. > :42:27.paint work is intact and I'm not stressed about it. All the big
:42:28. > :42:31.manufacturers are in the race, the prize is potentially huge. This is
:42:32. > :42:35.BMW's latest effort. Polling suggests drivers want the technology
:42:36. > :42:41.as well. Firstly it is going to be a lot safer. Computers don't doze off,
:42:42. > :42:47.lose concentration, start fiddling with their phones or shout at their
:42:48. > :42:50.kids. We can't accept any more that every day the equivalent of
:42:51. > :42:55.aeroplane crashing down of people die in traffic fatalities. These
:42:56. > :42:59.technologies can help us use this and utilise the road infrastructure
:43:00. > :43:03.that we have today because cars can drive closer together. Ford are
:43:04. > :43:08.developing a system where cars can communicate with each other using
:43:09. > :43:12.Wi-Fi to prevent collision. The range is up to 250ms. There is a bad
:43:13. > :43:17.driver coming that way, our line of sight is obstructed by the truck,
:43:18. > :43:25.but the car, this car will get a communication from that car saying
:43:26. > :43:30.it will steam through. The vibrations have come the brakes
:43:31. > :43:34.go on, the audible signal you heard, we come to a safe stop, even though
:43:35. > :43:38.we couldn't really see that car until the last possible moment. The
:43:39. > :43:44.idea of you know a computer driver or a human driver is that the more
:43:45. > :43:47.information we can give them from better sensor technology the better
:43:48. > :43:54.either a human driver can make decisions about what to do or a
:43:55. > :43:57.computer driver could. When cars first arrived on the scene people
:43:58. > :44:01.could only describe them in terms of what they lacked. They didn't have
:44:02. > :44:04.horses, therefore they were horseless carriages. And yet the
:44:05. > :44:10.social and environmental changes that the car brought went far beyond
:44:11. > :44:14.just getting rid of horses. Likewise at the moment we are rather fixated
:44:15. > :44:18.on driverlessness of autonomous vehicles and yet the changes that
:44:19. > :44:23.are going to happen go far beyond liberating us from being behind the
:44:24. > :44:27.wheel. The The technology to have self-driving cars is just the
:44:28. > :44:31.beginning, the real implications is how to save money and how business
:44:32. > :44:35.models will change. If I don't have to own a vehicle to have access to
:44:36. > :44:39.transportation and I can get it on demand from an autonomous vehicle
:44:40. > :44:43.that comes and picks me up and drops me off I save a lot of money as a
:44:44. > :44:48.consumer. Insurance companies might change the way they ask you to pay
:44:49. > :44:51.for premiums. Instead of paying an annual premium you only pay for it
:44:52. > :44:56.when you use the vehicle. That could have huge implications for consumers
:44:57. > :45:02.and costs associated with vehicle ownership. I could do Angela Merkel
:45:03. > :45:10.and go like this. That is what she always does. Hands-free, look mum.
:45:11. > :45:16.Look mum no hands, and hopefully "look mum no teeth". It is a way
:45:17. > :45:21.off, on the Nevada freeway Audi show me their traffic system. In
:45:22. > :45:24.slow-moving traffic the car will take over everything, but the driver
:45:25. > :45:28.has to be ready to step in if conditions change. This is the
:45:29. > :45:38.project lead e he says we need to be realistic about how safe these
:45:39. > :45:43.technologies can make driving. LLOW We have to ask ourselves if we are
:45:44. > :45:49.OK with a technology that is safer than the car in status quo but not
:45:50. > :45:55.100% safe. Personally I think I would much rather save 90% of the
:45:56. > :46:02.people that are hurt today and maybe still hurt 10% because I can't help
:46:03. > :46:06.it, technologically. Then just don't put that technology in the market at
:46:07. > :46:16.all because it is still going to, it is still not going to be able to
:46:17. > :46:22.prevent all accidents. So how long until everyone can do
:46:23. > :46:26.this, five, ten, twenty years, the hurdles are both technological and
:46:27. > :46:37.legal. For me though, it can't come soon enough.
:46:38. > :46:45.That's it for now, the great piano improviser, Sehrt Keith Jarrett has
:46:46. > :46:47.been named as Jazz Master, we leave you in his prime playing in Tokyo in
:46:48. > :47:29.1993. Good night. Hello, sunshine will be collector's
:47:30. > :47:30.item tomorrow