14/07/2011 This Week

MUSIC: Dallas them a tune. Tonight, on This Week as Dallas plans a

return to our screens, we tune in to the Westminster soap opera

to the Westminster soap opera that's gripped the nation. As the

world's most powerful media mogul Rupert Murdoch drops his bid for

BSkyB, have the Westenders of Parliament Square finally found a

voice? The will of Parliament was clear. The will of the public was

clear. And now Britain's most powerful media owner has had to

bend to that will. Tabloid critic, The Daily Mail's Quentin Lett's,

has been watching this drama unfold. There has been a right old dog

fight between Parliament and Rupert Murdoch. But which one has gone

down in flames? There's nothing like a returning character to spice

up a storyline and Gordon Brown chose his moment to make a guest

appearance. News International descended from the gutter to the

sewer. The tragedy is that they let the rats out of the sewers.

Mirror's, Kevin Maguire, looks at the settling of old scores.

bomb Brown was back to flattened a few old enemy And Westminster may

be obsessed with this cliff hanger, but should we really be watching

the dramas unfold in other parts of the world? Targets. Channel Four's

leading man, Jon Snow, looks further afield. Is this the year of

revulsion, the Arab world has been rising up against dictators.

someone tell me, who did shoot JR? Evening all, welcome to This Week.

A simple tale of plain Westminster folk, with storylines even a

Coronation Street scriptwriter might think twice about. And with

The News Of The World now no longer available even as fish-and-chip

paper. And Rupert Murdoch's takeover of BskyB reduced to toast.

The plot has taken another jaw- dropping twist. In a development

nobody predicted, not even Mystic Meg, Gordon Brown yesterday took

time out from his tax-payer funded retirement to grace us with his

presence in the Commons chamber! That's twice in twelve months

folks! I call that value for money for the good folk of Kirkcaldy. And

the former Great Leader didn't disappoint, claiming some things

are: "neither cosy nor comfortable" - and he wasn't talking about the

This Week sofa. He was, in fact - and with a totally straight face -

referring to his long relationship with the Murdoch empire. Which is

odd, because cosy and comfortable seems an apt way to describe his

wife throwing a pyjama party in 2008 for Rupert's wife, Wendi,

Rupert's daughter Elizabeth - oh yes, and Rupert's chief lieutenant,

Rebekah Brooks. In fact, there's only one thing that looks more cosy

and comfortable than Sarah Brown's girly night-in and that's Rupert

Murdoch's astonishing collection of leisurewear tracksuits! So let's

pray the Culture Select Committee get some answers to the biggest

mystery of all - why on earth has Rupert Murdoch been running around

London closing down newspapers dressed as Jimmy Saville, but

without the cigar?! Speaking of those who nobody wants to see

working up a sweat, I'm joined by two of Westminster's finest

physical specimens. The Jane Fonda and Mr Motivator of late night chat.

I speak, of course, of Michael Portillo and - back by absolutely

no public demand whatsoever - Diane Abbott. Welcome to you both.

Michael your moment. There have been so many. I will pick one that

seeps trivial. The Sun had a headline, you're wrong Gordon.

Despite what you have said about Gordon Brown, with which I agree,

the fact the Sun chose to reveal the details of his son's illness I

think was disreputable. They said there was no illegality involved.

But in that article there was no hint that there might have been

immorality and inhumanity. That is where this debate has got to.

Gordon Brown's speech was over the top, talking about the gutter and

the rats. But still the idea that these newspapers fell short of

their own very high standards is rubbish. These newspapers did

operate on the basis of inhumanity and often immorality and the only

thing that is new is illegality. The Sun only had the right to

publish that story if the parents had given their consent. Why would

you then stay best mates with a newspaper that does that to you?

There are many versions of this. Gordon, people close to him, say at

that point Rebekah Brooks said you will never become Prime Minister

this way. If you don't understand you mustn't bust our scoops. The

the idea that a child's illness a commercial property is repugnant

That is the point I was making. Diane? I was in the chamber for

Gordon's speech. We saw you looking up adoringly as you did in the old

days. I know you're making a mock of it but to be there it was an

extraordinary occasion. It was only the second time he had spoken. You

knew he was to plunge a knife into Murdoch and the pain and the rage

were absolutely genuine. It was a genuine parliamentary occasion.

Thank you for you moments. Phew! It's been another intense week here

in Westminster. In fact it's been a pretty hectic year - and it's only

July! So as MPs prepare to head off on their hols, ahem, return to

their all-consuming constituency work - Diane knows what I mean - we

caught up with two people who've already fled the country. Looking

back not just on this week, but also the year so far here's our

very own odd couple - well apart from those two - the Mirror's Kevin

Maguire and the Daily Mail's Come fly with me, let's fly away!

It is 7.30 and Kevin and Quentin are running late. Come on man.

can't believe that taxi driver put us on the hard shoulder. I told you

not to tell anyone we're tabloid hacks. But we have not done

anything! Check in for the flight to Mongolia closes in five minutes.

I have seen things I never thought would happen. Ed Milliband said

something and people listened. I can't bare to watch. The Prime

Minister was wrong not to come to the House today. As on every

occasion during this crisis he has failed to know show leadership.

was in the cockpit. Cut class David Cameron behind. He kept the

pressure on Andy Coulson, got his inquiry and he scuppered the BSkyB

bid. But I reckon David Cameron just about pulled it back by Prime

Minister's questions. Where was the public inquiry over the last ten

years. We have a full on police investigation that will see

prosecution and I hope convictions and we will have a public inquiry

run by a judge to get to the bottom of this. That is the leadership I'm

determined to provide. Today there is disruption to all Westminster

flight s. Oh dear. It is causing headache for passengers and crew.

Jeremy Hunt has ordered us to stack. He has had a clever strategy. It is

called la la la, I'm not listening. To be fair he has been in a bind

and he could have changed runway and referred the BSkyB bid to the

Competition Commission and risked a judicial review or given it the go

Aled and risked outrage. His solution. Wait for News

International to make the decision for you. I am going to refer this

to the Competition Commission with immediate effect and we will be

writing to them today. But he was wrong if he thought that would draw

a line under it. With the parties planning to vote against the deal

and calls for News International to get the house in horder, News

International cancelled the flight. There was 1-1 Vulcan droning over

the horizon. I have set out the record of my desire to have a

judicial inquiry. It was opposed by police and the Home Office. It was

opposed by the civil service and it was not supported by the select

committee of the day. Inside Westminster terminal one, Kevin and

Quentin are still trying to check in Cancelled all together. I wish

we xould say the same or the Brook. But it is Parliament reasserting

itself. But some Tory MP will turn their sight on that other media

jumbo jet - the BBC. I think if ministers has to record meetings

with journalists I will go around saying good morning to Secretaries

of state to add to their paperwork. But I suspect what will happen is

we see more of the monkey and fewer of the organ grinders. Come on, we

will miss our check in. Let's fly away. When we come back, flights to

the eurozone and the Middle East are disrupt. The Chief Executive of

Westminster airways finds the cash has run out and Quentin has a row

at the check in. More of these two later. We're joined by stars of

stage, screen and TV. Germain Greer and Jon snow welcome to our humble

abode. Let me ask a straight forward question. Has Rupert

Murdoch's spell, is his spell on British politics over? Yes.

Diane Yes. Germaine Probably. We can all go home then. What does

it mean if the spell is broken, Jon. How will that affect how

politicians behave and what policies they stand for? I think

the first thing is that I was speaking to Murdoch's biographer

the other night and he said Murdoch doesn't have to explain anything.

He speaks power to power. I think the power has collapsed and he is

not proving good at... Speaking to anyone. And explaining anything. He

is in the Wall Street journal today saying they made a few minor

mistakes. The Wall Street journal that he owns. That affects the

political classes, that is fascinating. Because they will

start looking at the other papers. And the other papers will be found

wanting. They are in some of Mulcaire's note and that lot hasn't

been identified. It is a virus that spreads across the media? I think

so, but I don't think anyone other than the daily mail has exerted an

extraordinary psychological effect on governments, and the editor has

had access, but don't think that the Mail has wielded the actual

political power that Mr Murdoch has wielded. I think you're spot on on

that. But it is the case that politicians want to curry favour

with the Mail as well. As far as Murdoch, he has been the person to

court. You court him personally. He is very agreeable to deal with. But

you want him on side for whatever project. Did you you? Yes I courted

him. All of that is broken now. Not only will you not pursue that route

but you feel very wary about meeting Mr Murdoch. You have to

account for it. Well you wouldn't. Well you wouldn't. That is a

remarkable statement. Is it getting too easy to blame all of this on

I can't help laughing because you know him better than almost anybody.

I've said lots of words. I think we need to remember what he did. When

Murdoch was really manipulating his papers, as political influences,

first of all, he created Mrs Thatcher. Mrs Thatcher didn't know

what she was doing until the News Of The World taught her how to be

house wife's superstar and did the stoirz - I understand all that. I

don't want to go through a whole history. It's important. We'll be

here all night doing that. What I'm saying is it right to make Murdoch

this maligned character or is that too easy? We're running a risk of

making him into some kind of Superman, as if he has his finger

on everything that happened -- happens in all his many organs,

which I think he probably doesn't. He's probably more concerned about

China than the News Of The World. think we're talking about the

misjudgment of power in the political classes and the police

classes. This was not a clever idea. Just as it's not a clever idea to

Courtney of these people. Historically one recognises that

politicians have always courted media barrons. But this was a media

barron who wasn't British and didn't have roots here or pay tax

here. We had no leverage on him. Westminster, there is a sense that

a spell has been broken. It may be wrong to attribute all the problems

between proprietors and politics to Murdoch, but definitely an era is

over. What is it that MPs want now? Are they out for revenge? Out for

justice? Or now that he's down do they just like to give him a good

kicking. No-one was prepared to kick him when he was up. I know,

it's extraordinary. Even your glorious leader. There were people

who were besty friends with Rebekah Wade who were mouthing off this

week. They're trying to set the primacy of Parliament. That is what

Parliament is for. Do you buy this thing that Parliament, a number of

commentators have said after the mess of the expenses scandal,

politicians' reputation in the dirt, suddenly like a Phoenix from the

ashes... No I think you're oversentimentalising it. It's

overpersonalised. It's very easy to hit on Murdoch. But the fact is

he's provided ten million people with a service that they love,

sport that they never had access to on this scale, you know, films,

first runs and all the rest of it. One has to accept that in a very

brilliant business. But what was wrong was the access that he was

allowed in order to engineer it. What politicians now seem to do is

reflect what the population feels, which is it isn't a good idea for

anybody to wield the amount of power he does. We don't let Tesco's

have that power on the High Street. They don't have 40% of the market

why should we allow a media barron? It could result in a change of the

political culture in this country, couldn't it? You could argue that

it has already changed. The coalition means that even supposing

that Murdoch wanted to put his weight behind somebody, he can't

find that person to put his weight behind. He might argue it's behind

Cameron, except it doesn't seem to be the way it's working out. Though

I'm confessed bit startled by the closeness of Cameron to the whole

Murdoch set up, or rather the Rebekah Brooks set up. That seems a

bit odd to me. Because intimacy was never part of the deal. The deal

before was about power. It was about putting people in the

spotlight and delivering to them the readers of his paper. There's a

very sad underbelly to this. This happens at the very moment when

newspapers are in crisis, when cyberspace is invading the

territory that newspapers once had. There is a tragic story of really

vulnerable jobs now. All those 200 people on the News Of The World,

they might some of them get a job at Sun. But the truth is that

people on the Times must feel vulnerable. It loses 40 million a

year. The shareholders arrested, they'll want to get rid of it.

Nobody wants to buy it. If they do, it will be an oligarch. Clearly,

this is a moment of relief that we've lanced the o boil.

Nevertheless there will be terrible fallouts. What marked out the

Murdoch's relationship with politicians was not the

relationship between Murdoch and the Prime Minister, important

though that was, it was the top of a Nexus of relationships involving

many characters, steltssteltsstelts, Les Hinton, Rebekah Wade. Lord

Stevens, one of the highest paid columnists of all time. That made

it different and some may say inSidious, because it was so

enmeshed. What is now happening, as this unravels in Britain, is that

this story is now crossing the Atlantic. That's where Rupert

Murdoch really has to worry. If it's true that 9/11 victims have

been hacked, even if they're British, to hack a 9/11 victim, I

imagine in the United States is regarded as a deeply unpatriotic

act. It is. Though I have to say the evidence for that is pretty

tenuous. I put an "if" at the beginning of my sentence. It is a

matter which has been raised by Congress and which the FBI will

investigate. If that goes wrong, that is incredibly serious. There

is the fit and proper person issue. The point about the American when's

they catch up with corporate wrongdoing they're quite ruthless.

A colleague said in Parliament, under current British legislation

Murdoch is not a fit and proper person to run a mini cab office let

alone a media organisation. That may not get easier when the police

investigation continues. The bigger threat on the other side of the

Atlantic is actually the institutional investors in the

company and the corporate governance issues, which have

basically given him a free hand and certainly unlikely now to allow

James Murdoch to take over from him. The family dynasty is gone and he

may face even a revolt from within the company about himself. Andrew,

the biggest threat is the Grim Reaper. He's 80 years old.

mother is over 100. I don't want to depress you. The fact is that he

needs time to claw himself back on this. Obviously he still wants the

BSkyB takeover. If you'd asked me yesterday morning, I would have

said he'll get it in the end, now I don't think. So now I think because

of his age and they won't want the boy. They won't want the boy?

will not want the boy. He's not in any way exceled himself here.

said the same thing about Rupert in the beginning. My father was

employed by Rupert's father. They all thought the Sun was useless.

And one of the things that always struck me about him, maybe he's

still trying to prove himself to his dad. At 80? Yeah, never stops.

Maybe he thought he would inherit a newspaper dynasty from his father

and he didn't. Maybe that's why he's so keen on his own dynasty now.

Now if you don't like what you see, and you probably don't, and you

can't switch off because you've lost the remote down the sofa,

again and writing to points of view is a step too far for your literary

capabilities, you know it is, feel free to join in the festival of

pain otherwise known as the viewers comments section on our interweb

page. For those of you who understand the full and terrible

horror of the phrase "shirt gate" remember that a couple of weeks

ago? There's a wonderful world of Twitter. Now, to a far more

gripping story than the goings on at the Murdoch empire, no not David

Beckham naming his daughter Harper Seven, sounds like a cross between

a TV show and a magazine. I was shocked however, what's wrong with

good old Andrea? That's a nice name. No, I'm talking about the faits of

our plucky hacks, will Kevin Maguire and Quentin Letts make good

their escape? Where will they go? Have they had their jobs? Will

their ears go pop? Are there any more questions to ask? No. Let's go

Quentin and Kevin have missed check-in for their flight to outer

Mongolia. Come on, for goodness sake. They're now trying to find

out what other destinations are available. Tunisia is nice. It's

under armed guard. Egypt? Niez if you like mass protest. Italy?

Closed. Greece? It's been sold. about America? It's been cut.

Portugal is just �99. Is that flight one way? �99 gets you

What exchange rate due get for your euros? The euros, you don't want

euros any more. No-one wants them. The bad weather in Europe has

affected the UK too. Hundreds of flights have been cancelled,

leaving passengers furious. This is ridiculous, just because of one

snowflake on the Tarmac. Flight officer George Osborne has Med a

statement: They're clearly disappointing figures, but the stat

Titians tell us that the weather had a huge effect, we ht coldest

weather for 100 years. Have you heard how much flights are to

Libya? Libya? Yeah you can go for 16 quid from Luton or 260 million

from Brize Norton. A lot of money to keep Gaddafi from the Olympics.

Deputy airport manager Nick was left in charge while boss David was

away on a business trip to the Middle East. Unfortunately no-one

noticed, not even him The first Deputy Prime Minister in British

history, to fail to turn up to work when the Prime Minister is abroad

for a week. I think I am wanting to ask, what's the point of Nick

Clegg? So instead, he's been given a really important new job, moving

all the tralies from one end of the airport to the other. Oh, look,

what's he going to do now? He's taking them all back again. Bit sad

really. Having successfully booked a new

flight, Kevin and Quentin are finally off on holiday. This is a

new bit of security. Can I ask what you do for a living? Sure, tabloid

journalists... When we come back, there's confusion on the flight

deck and Nick gets lost in his own airport.

Now we see why Michael Portillo is always on trains. You wouldn't want

to be on that. Jon, I've watched a lot of your reports from Egypt and

as the Arab Spring was gathering pace, we've seen it in Egypt, Syria,

Tunisia, Syria as well. Are we in danger that the Arab Spring will go

straight to an Arab winter? I don't know what we will see. We have run

out of the experts. Nobody stood up and said, be prepared, Mubarak will

go. The Tunisian President will go. Gaddafi will be undermined, Yemen's

tyrant will go. Nobody came up and forecast that at the beginning of

this year. We're in completely uncharted territory. The Egyptian

spring is probably the most interesting because it is stalled,

yet the voices are still there in the square. It's still very, very

much alive. They may have to do it again almost. They may have to, and

it may evolve and rolling experience. A big issue will be

Mubarak on trial. If they successfully get him job to trial,

it seems to me they'll be one step further forward, towards what, I do

not know. Jermaine, do you see this as an Arab Spring that will end up

with more liberal societies or repressive regimes being replaced

by different kinds of oppressive regimes? This is the problem. When

you have oppressive regimes they don't allow an alternative

government to form. You don't have the logistics that you need.

There's no structure to move into the vax uem that has been created.

We all got a bit excited about what was going on in Egypt, because it

was so spontaneous. But spontaneous means vulnerable. Spontaneous means

now we have a space where whoever is organised to exploit it can move

in. The most obvious people in most parts of north Africa would be some

kind of Islamic fundamentalist organisation that already has the

information of the mosques and the madrassas and communications

between them. This is what is really scary. The one thing we have

to be grateful for at this point is that hasn't happened in Egypt. And

it may not happen in Egypt. The ironic thing is that we have

tacitly supported all these regimes. In the case of Gaddafi, we armed

him. Now we're having, as soon as there's a spurt of opposition to

him, we suddenly decide we're on their side, which is puzzling for

everybody on the ground. It looks as if we haven't got the staying

power to go with it any way. We're facing chaos. Speaking of Gaddafi,

was Mr Cameron right to get engaged in Libya with looking back with a

couple of months' hindsight? think the situation has turned out

to be very messy. It's made NATO look completely impotent. I think

it's more like four months, we haven't brought any kind of

decisive result to it at all. I think probably David Cameron got

into this by accident. He called for a no-fly zone, which I thought

was a reasonable thing to call for. He never expected the Americans to

support that. I don't think he imagine today would escalate from

something much beyond a no-fly zone into attacking every Gaddafi target

that could be found. He finds himself by accident. -- here by

Are the Labour backbenchers still comfortable with the situation?

think both backbenchers are uneasy. We thought we were voting to stop a

massacre and we were told the Arab league would get involved and it

has fallen apart. Both backbenchers are uneasy. But about prospects.

I'm not as, wrel sort of cynical as the others. We are not going to see

Scandinavian democracy over night in the region, but there a shift

going on. So in the long run I think we can't go back to where we

were. Having stood in Egypt, it was a most extraordinary experience and

it is hard to see that spirit and that education. These people were

extremely bright and engaged and able and the use of the social

network. Like the Iranian population. Yes I accept they have

not been able. Or the students in China? But this lot were not shot.

Ultimately Egypt came through. raise an important point at the

start, the possibility of multiple revolutions. In history, the French

revolution was four or five and the Russian was three or four.

Government is saying that it expects a major break through in

Libya before the end of the month. I think we think that too. Most of

us who have people in there think it will resolve. What is

complicated is the Italian/French situation which you have both

Silvio Berlusconi and Nicolas Sarkozy asking for talks with

Gaddafi. It I not clear whether that is because they would rather

prevent a blood bath, or whether they actually think we can't go on

with is. -- with this. If Gaddafi falls and there is a reasonably

respectable government takes over in Tripoli, will that have

justified the intervention? still don't know how many civilian

were killed in Iraq. We will probably never know how much damage

we have done in this particular sorty. It looks as if there has

been a few disasters, we have hit the rebels. If it come out well and

Gaddafi is removed, all of this will be forgotten. It will be a

success. It may be. It airk takes more than that. It may be a pwheebg

confor the countries where the revolution is still born. I think

it will move south. It is interesting. You mean? SubSaha ran

Africa. Some of these leaders will find times get uncomfortable. But

it is interesting how paranoid the Chinese have been. The removal of

the world -- word Egypt from the Chinese search engine is strange.

They think that will contain a revolution in China. I don't think.

So We're talking about worried people I think. That is the world

dealt with. Now the big issue - how does Nick Clegg hold down being

Deputy Prime Minister and do the school run? Because his wife tells

him and with the answer to that we rejoin Letts and Maguire on their

After seven hours 06 waiting they have made it on their holiday

flight. Can't believe what six months it has been. You must admit

Ed Milliband could go on holiday having got a lift under his wings.

People were calling him a mall functioning robot. These strikes

are wrong. I do believe these strikes are wrong. But it could be

a blip. You remember Hague with the fuel protests in 2000? If you don't

want to be an economy-class politician you have to have a plan

for economy. We know captain Cameron's plan. Kprash and burn.

I'm surprised how well the Tories are doing. Cut more I say. Come off

it. This coalition flight has been diverted so often they don't know

what time zone they're in. Forest, prison sentences, the NHS, schools,

the inner Flashman isn't coping well. Calm down dear. Listen to the

doctor. As for Nick Clegg. He promised to redefine politics - o'

politic and brought us his big vision. - alarm clock Britain!

what call alarm clock Britain. wonder what he is doing now. I'm if

the invisible man! At least we agree on something. It is nice to

go, seeing left and right having put aside petty squabbles. Ten

minutes to take off. Make sure you armrest is down. It is my armrest.

It is to the left. No to the right. You're causing a scene! After a

long flight they reach hear the destination. In Belgium. David

managed a short break in Cornwall for 45 minutes for a photo

opportunity, before flying to somewhere, you know, well nice. Ed

his his holiday hiding from Rupert in a card board box. And Nick

pushed all the trolleys down to one end of the airport, before pushing

them back and then being sent by An airline to avoid. As if by magic,

Germain Greer has turned into somebody else. First the coalition.

You represent the Liberal Democrats. No I don't. In an unofficial

capacity. This crisis has been good, this media crisis has been good for

Nick Clegg. I think it has. What it has given him is something that

encapsulates change. And it fits in with his agenda. So I think for him

that is good. I think what is also important is the clue's in the

title, liberal, he does believe in a plural media. We all believe in

that. I'm not sure we do, having watched those two, the mirror and

the mail as a representative of how we feel, that is not plural media.

Nick Clegg's thing is he has not God anything -- got anything to

hide. Rupert Murdoch never rated the Liberal Democrats. I am sure

that is right. But that doesn't mean that they didn't over a long

period of time, even under attack over a long period, they still

argued a lot about plurality. Even when David Puttnam talked about

amendments and how Labour refused to bring some control on the media,

he praised the Liberal Democrats. What co-you -- do you think Mr

Clegg and Mr Cable has done if Rupert Murdoch said a few years ago,

I have decided you're the future, I will put my paper be hind you.

have nowt no - o' I have no doubt they would have been interested.

But they wown't have abandoned a long standing commitment to

pluralism in the media. It seems to me that the Liberal Democrat leader

he is benefiting in this issue, unlike many, because attention has

switched to the Prime Minister. He is not in the frame for this. David

Cameron is. That is true. But of course there are lurking ghosts who

are also not Mr Clegg who are in the frame. That is the Labour Party.

At least as deeply in bed in the form of Tony Blair and in the form

even of Gordon Brown, despite yesterday's huffing and puffing

from the benches. So Mr Clegg emerges as clean Clegg. That won't

be a bad description. Dan has he had a good crisis, Ed Milliband, he

has been said to be setting the pace. I think it has been a game

changer for Ed. With his own party. And in Parliament. Because he has

ended the yearen a high and for the public. It has been a game changer

with Parliament. You say it is easy to lead the opposition. Actually

everything he call for he got. He absolutely led this. But I want to

say one thing. This has been a great week for backbenchers. John

Whittingdale did this and Tom Watson. Isn't the challenge for Ed

Milliband over the summer and in September, is to engage with the

public on more mainstream issues. We we were fortunate in the concern

of our activists on this coincided with the concerns of public. That

is not the case with other issues. From a point where people were

muttering and there was stuff in the media, Ed Milliband has pulled

it back. How damaged is David Cameron by the, particularly with

the Andy Coulson link and the fact that he built relations with the

Murdoch empire in the same way as Mr Brown and Mr Blair. How damaged

is he. He has been uncomfortable and he has not looked as if he has

been in the lead all week. Still he gave a good performance in

Parliament and he has risen to the occasion. His dominance of

Parliament remains absolute. Broadening this out to his general

performance, he is in command of the Government. He is a decisive

man and looks Prime Ministerial. I think the big issue around the U-

turns. I worked with Margaret Thatcher and she made many U-turns.

But the thing was you were never in doubt as to what she thought and

where the Government was going. U- turns in that context are

acceptable. The question I think still about David Cameron is the U-

turns have been made, is the sense of direction and is the clarity

about what he believes as much as it was in Mr Thatcher's day. The

answer is now at the moment. But can he develop it. Would it be fair

to say this countlys - country has taken well to idea of coalition.

think people are enjoying their first experience of majority

government with relish. People are comfortable with the coalition.

They are uncomfortable the cuts. As for U-turn, people like flexibility.

They like ducking and waving. The health thing was a nonsense.

people are comfortable with coalitions, why did the A Vlasov

vote go down? That reflected. -- why did the AV vote go down in

flames. That was a nonsense operation. The Prime Minister talks

about an election in 2015. He is very enthusiastic about the

continuation of the coalition. Maybe I will happen. I was thinking

back, given we are at an end of a term moment and to my first

appearance on here. We gave you tougher time. No you have always

given me a very tough time. Good on you for it. But what was, we talked

about was what would happen with the party collapse if there was a

no to AV vote and the speculation was everything would fall apart.

Well the opposite. Thank you Mr Murdoch you can say. More robust

than people think. A great piece of political theatre. Next week the

select committee. I think it will be a disappoint. They will be there

together and should take them in separately and grill them

separately and have the others locked away so they can't hear the

evidence. We shall see and will be live on BBC Two on Tuesday

afternoon and bring you that select committee grilling of the Murdochs

and Rebecca Brooks. Channel four will bring you the highlights.

There is two for the price of one. Thank you. That is it for tonight

and that is your lot until we return in the autumn. Do ahear a

collective ah? I thought I did. We leave you knowing Westminster will

be a different place in September. Not content with stabbing his

brother in the back, Ed Milliband will go under the knife himself. To

have his adenoids removed. A regular viewer know we have become

as attached to them as he is. Perhaps even more so. Because he is

getting rid of them we plan to Byrd for them once they make their --