29/09/2011 This Week

Hi-de-hi, campers. Ho-de-ho, Providing the entertainment, chief

redcoat Ed Miliband. Did he live up to his star billing? Andrew

Rawnsley gives his verdict. Miliband has been Labour leader for

12 months. There are still voices saying he is out of his depth. The

Labour leader had to prove them wrong in his big speech. The wrong

sort of entertainment in the eurozone, as politicians scramble

to put on a show. Financial guru Alvin Hall says it is time for

campers to wake up and smell the coffee. We cannot continue to pull

the blankets over our heads about his financial crisis. It is not

someone else's Responsibility. We need to take action without own

money today. Bad behaviour in the holiday chalet. His bullying rife?

Nicola Roberts from Girls Aloud fights back. I think bullying is

out of control and something needs to be done about it. And topping

the bill, TV legend Sir David Frost, whose interrogation of President

Nixon has been voted the greatest broadcast interview ever.

someone once said, hello, good Evenin' all folks, welcome to This

Week, a week that's witnessed the fabled Labour spin machine in full

conference flow. The first job for the party's PR wizards was a nose

job. Specifically, killing off any plastic surgery jokes about Ed

"Putin" Miliband's recent nose job by getting him to crack some

terrible plastic surgery jokes about his recent nose job! As in

"Ed Nose Day". Clever stuff, indeed! A "nose" job well done.

After that, the PR "successes" came thick and fast. Show that Ed has no

intention of winning three elections by getting the conference

to boo Tony Blair. Check. Show that Ed's from the wrong side of the

tracks by claiming his school in chi-chi Primrose Hill was in "a

tough area". Double check. Get the media on your side by having your

culture spokesman advocate journalists be registered and

needing a licence. Triple check. Make sure Ed's keynote speech isn't

overshadowed by giving the platform to a precocious adolescent who

claims he was brought up in a show in the middle of a roundabout, but

turns out to be the son of a millionaire. Quadruple check! Some

crazy people are even saying the young child prodigy with the page

boy haircut who wowed the conference could become party

leader one day. But if Yvette Cooper is the answer, what the hell

is the question? Speaking of those who know exactly how to turn off

the electorate, I'm joined on the sofa tonight by the cold shower and

fun sponge of late night political chat. I speak, of course, of

Michael Portillo and Alan Johnson. Hello, both. Your moment of the

week. I was talking to a philosopher on air about the euro

crisis and he made a point that has not occurred to me before. All this

stuff about rescuing Greece, it is not rescuing Greece, but rescuing

the bankers who lent to Greece. We are transferring the burden from

bankers who chose to lend to Greece, to taxpayers who did not choose to

lend to Greece. It occurs to me there are two other things being

saved, and Greece is not one of them. We are also trying to save

the euro, and the real thing we are saving his the reputations of all

the European politicians that rest upon the construction of the euro

because they told us it was a good thing. Those are the things we have

been saving, not Greece. You have been thinking a lot. It is not good

for you. Mind is a raw political moment, being on site at the BAE

plant just outside my constituency when 900 men, highly skilled

engineers, were told they were being made redundant and that 100

years of building aeroplanes on the Humber was to finish. And the kind

of jobs we are meant to be wanting more of. And we suspect that the

Hawk, this iconic British plane that the Red Arrows use, the plans

are to build it in America, we suspect. I had a moment which was

the news today that those doctors and nurses who looked after the

patients who had been hit by the rioting in Bahrain have been sent

to jail. Up to 15 years in some cases.

Yet more turmoil in the world economy this week, and as it moves

closer to home, what exactly are our options? Other than hitting the

Blue Nun and turning off the news, that is, which is the official

policy of this programme. Well, all may not be lost just yet. We've

found our very own knight in shining financial armour - money

guru Alvin Hall. Here's his take on what we - yes, that's you and me -

should do, to prepare ourselves for the impending financial crisis.

Phew cannot seem to turn on the television today, or open a

newspaper and not hear about the world's financial crisis. -- you

cannot seem to. From bankers to economists, President's two prime

ministers, they are all talking about the problems associated with

quantitative easing, stock market volatility, sovereign debt and the

savings ratio. To most of us, these are abstract concepts that seemed

to have nothing to do with the lives we live day-to-day. But let

me tell you this, these things can affect our lives in ways that are

unexpected and that would not have occurred in the past. Why? Because

we live in a global economy. This is not just a looming financial

crisis in Greece and the eurozone. If it continues, it will affect us

all, whether we are rich or poor. I do not mean to frighten you, but

what we are seeing is a result of year on year excessive borrowing by

governments, corporations and individuals. And now it is payback

time. Salaries will be frozen or cut. Profits will be reduced, and

margins will be squeezed. So what should be done? Politicians

are trying to put into effect policies to help to ease the effect

of the crisis. President Obama is trying to help those in the United

States that have been hardest hit, and politicians across Europe are

trying to do the same thing. But the answer really relies upon each

of us individually and how we handle our finances. There is no

magical solution. The answer is really quite simple. Handle your

money prudently, and build yourself a cash cushion. In difficult times,

we all need to have cash, or an asset that we can quickly turn into

cash. It can be your safety net, just in case you lose your job, or

your salary is reduced. Now, I know there are people saying, I am

already living on reduced means and having a hard time making ends meet.

But you know what, you need to spend more thoughtfully and look

for ways to save. You don't have to live on bread and water alone, but

you can live on things you like by being more prudent with your

spending. Alvin Hall joins us from that

supermarket in central London, to our supermarket of ideas in

Westminster. You are saying that despite the wall-to-wall coverage

of this on the news channels and newspapers, the public still do not

think they are going to be affected? No, if you look at

newspapers they talk about property prices being up in London. People

are feeling very secure, taking elaborate holidays. A lot of people

feel it is a problem across the pond. When I come to London and

England, I still get a sense that people do not quite see the depth

of the crisis and how it could affect their lives. Do you think

part of that is that the language that politicians and financial

experts used, even journalists covering it, that it hampers

understanding? That is one of the things, but I also think that a lot

of the journalism is 2020 hindsight, looking at why we didn't go into

the euro, why we made a great decision, not looking forward at

the impact of the crisis. One of the things I have noticed is that

you can now watch world markets moving in unison a lot of the time.

One market is down, the next market is down, then one is up and the

next one is of, a domino effect. You have a volatility in the

marketplace and it is based on whether or not there is an

agreement coming through that will lead to some unity, some support

for the euro. I keep saying the crunch is about to come and yet

they live to fight another day. When is it going to come, in your

view? I will consult my crystal ball, my tea leaves, and I will

tell you tomorrow. I think that is the thing that is so unusual about

this. This there is no script for this. We have never been in a

position like this. Exactly. People are looking for economists and

experts to come up with the days something is going to happen, and

it is not going to happen. What I am worried about four more people

is that they are not planning for the fact that it could happen in

their lives, it could affect their lives in some way that they do not

expect because it is a global economy. Do you buy that line,

Alan? If there was that independent trader in the week who said the

world was not run by governments any more but it was run by Goldman

Sachs. Was he for real? He has half the

respondents saying that he was telling the truth. I think actually

people in this country understand much more about this because they

are feeling the effects. Having gone through this after 2008 with

Lehman Brothers, most people thought it was behind them but

actually there is a worse crisis looming. Maybe you need to pass on

that primary economics you used to talk about. I can talk about the

paradox of thrift, which militates against you telling people not to

spend money. You made it to page two! Michael, you have left people

in no doubt on this programme that you think it is really serious. But

do you think the British still think they will be largely immune?

Yes, I think of them all is right about that. There are two things

about Britain which are different. One, we have been able to devalue,

which no country inside the euro has been able to do and that has

made our lives easier. Also, because the coalition has been

taken seriously, we are able to borrow money cheaper than these

other countries, able to fund the deficit. Money is flooding into

London. We are not facing a reduction in our credit rating. So

there are couple of objective differences. That said, yes, if the

euro goes down the pan, Britain will feel the effects are very

badly indeed. I have to ask this question because I was watching the

news coverage today and the News Channel of the BBC, live at the

German parliament for a vote. The vote was about the German

parliament agreeing to a bail out of 440 billion euros, when

everybody knows that it needs two trillium. Come the politicians fix

this? -- can they fix it? They are working on two fronts. First, they

are trying to convince the people who put them in office that it is

the right thing to do. And then they work on a PR front, what can

we do to show that we are looking forwards? The third front is, how

can we get the newspapers on our side so they will write positive

stories about this? That is a combination of PR and taking a

series of small steps that seemed to be leading someplace. But if you

know you need that much, why are you just allocating a fraction of

it? Some people say the markets will take it into their own hands.

Yes, they will drop or rise in response. But much of that is

driven by speculation. That is a lovely Economic. But what has

happened in Germany is that politicians persuaded the people to

give up the German mark, which was a hard, substantial currency. They

said, you will not suffer any discomfort at all. We are not going

to bail anybody out, you will not put your hand in your pocket for

any other country. They are breaking these promises. The only

difference, whether they ask them for 400 billion, or two Trulli and.

Maybe you are part of the problem. You said we should cap spending in

preparation for the crash. If we all do that, it will certainly

throw us into recession. I was actually very careful about that

when we were shooting the breeze. I did not want to say people should

always cut spending. I think it is important for people to have a

financial safety net during this type of crisis. I have had friends

who have been laid off from jobs. I have had friends whose income from

business has dropped by 70%. I have had other friends who had a job one

day and not the next. These people need something to keep them going

until the next opportunity comes along. People need money and the

bank. Yes, cash is not earning that much in the bank, but do you want

to be exposed to the volatility of the stock market, or to know that

you have something they're so that when the crisis hits, if it should,

you can go on for up to nine If there is a flight to cash, which

is what happens, that implies that the banks system is not safe again.

Now remember that week in Lehman Brothers, you were worried? I was

speaking to a German business, he has a vault in his office in which

he keeps cash. He was aware in the week of the Lehman Brothers there

is what a plan in Germany to close the banks, in other words, you

could not go to the bank to draw automoney. In such an emergency

plan it may exist in the future. It is not so much a question of having

money in the bank, it is whether or not you have cash in the house.

Where are you stashing your cash? won't tell you.

I will put a stocking over my head and go around and get it. We do

know what needs to be done. Greece has to take a massive default, the

banks to be recapitalised and the liquidity pumped into the system?

Exactly. But the Prime Minister of

Luxembourg said we all know what we have to do, but we don't know how

to do it. They do need a sensible and

measured way for Greece to default and to recapitalise the banks. For

Germany, it is one step at a Tim and let's not forget the political

consequences of this. I was told that Martin McGuinness could do

well in the Irish presidential elections as he will go on a

nationalist ticket. And Le Pen in France will do well.

The political fall-out from this. Exactly. Alvin, great to have you

on the show. Now, did you know that women in

Saudi Arabia are not allowed to vote -- are allowed to vote, but

still not allowed to watch This Week. So, count your blessings,

here is what they are missing, not only Sir David Frost but Girls

Aloud singing star, Nicola Roberts. Don't forget the viewers' comments

area for angry people who refuse to watch the show post their angry

reasons for refusing to watch the show. As always, the price of a

sparkling wine will be sparkling on Twitter much to the by wilderment

of the Blue Nun office. The This Week team have had a joy

to sit through five days of riveting daily and daily arguments

while some like Harriet Harman bung off to the beach. You here is ance

drew -- you guessed right, here is Andrew redundancy by with his

At the general elections 16 months ago, the tide went out on Labour.

The party going down to its second worst defield since the Second

World War. The figures of their era in government swept away. There has

been no sight and barely a mention of a Tony Blair Oregon here on

Merseyside. The question is, is a new leadership with a ceb plan for

power emerging -- with are credible plan for power emerging from the

waters? One of the very biggest challenges for Labour is rebuilding

its credibility on the economy. A part of doing that is ed a

mything to some of its mistakes in government. So Shadow Chancellor,

Ed Balls, and not a man to whom contradition comes that easily,

confessed to some errors. The 75 p pension rise what a

mistake, so was abolishing the tax rate. We did not spend every pound

very well. And the banks have caused grows

irresponsibility here in Britain and around the world. We made a

mess, please elect us again. The idea is this, if Labour is

willing to concede some of its mistakes, they hope that the verts

are -- voters with willing to listen to some of their attacks on

the coalition. Trying to get the deficit down

faster. Choking off the recovery at the same time, those are not

Labour's mistakes it they are David Cameron's mistakes and George

Osborne's mistakes and Nick Clegg's mistakes.

Personally, I like political speeches that have an argument,

even if I don't agree with all of the argument, that's the sort of

speech I like. Ed Miliband's speech to the Labour Conference certainly

had lots of argument. But let me tell you what the 21

century choice is, are you on the side of the wealth creators or the

asset stripers? The producers or the creditors, producers train,

invest, invent, sell. Things that Britain does brilliantly, but not

enough. Creditors are interested in the fast buck. Taking what they can

out of the business. He also introduced personal touches

to convince sceptical voters you could be the son of a Marxist

academic and work for Gordon Brown for many years and still remain

human. The doctors tell me the operation

was a phenomenal success! He a deviated sent um, it needed

repoiinging, typical Labour leader, as soon as he is elected,

everything moves to the centre! was not the sort of mesmerising

speech that Tony Blair at his best could deliver. I asked several

senior Labour figures if Ed Miliband could grow into being a

great orator, I tended to get this response... My message to the

A power failure inside the conference centre interrupted the

live showing of the speech, but most people watched the highlights,

but what does matter is this, when it comes to making big speeches,

his talent is, let us say, a work in progress.

When I heard this in the debate, I understand this, but it wouldn't be

responsible to make promises I can't keep. That's Nick Clegg's

job! The message has potential, but the messenger still has lots of

work to do coming out with plausible policies and winning over

a mistrusting electorate. If he fails, well, then, someone else

will be the next Labour Prime Minister, perhaps this 16-year-old

who wowed the conference. I owe my entire well being and my

family's to the welfare state. That is why I joined the Labour Party,

but that same welfare state is being ruthlessly ripped apart by a

right-wing government. David Cameron's conference is not

far from here next week. Only a fool or a liar would

confidently predict which way the tide will turn. I'll say this, the

From the beach back to our studio, with that living ledge thaend is

broadcaster David Frost. Welcome. What a week.

We have waited for years. Now we have got you.

It is a privilege to be here. Now, I spent the week in Liverpool

interviewing various politician, you spent a career interview k

every Prime Minister, several Presidents, Mikhail Gorbachev,

Vladimir Putin. When you interview them in their early careers can you

spot a leader in the making? not sure. There are certain things

if you see someone who conagain etally all the while is kissing

babies, you know he is training for leadership. Certainly you can tell

almost invariably, afterwards. I don't know about you. People who

have been in power are in some way slightly different. They carry

themselves slightly differently and so on. If you looked at David

Cameron, he carries himself slightly differently now than he

did two or three years ago, so on and so forth. You can see that

after, when they have had power or have power. Spotting it really is

difficult. It is ambition. I mean the two things politicians need to

be leaders is trust, obviously and competence.

Both of those things. In America they are very, very clever. Leaders

prepare themselves. One thing that our leaders don't do is self

deprication. You can get away with anything in America if you use self

deprication. That is not a technique that is used here as

often as they ought to, really. Have you ever got it wrong? Have

you ever interviewed somebody and thought they are never going to

make it and they ended up the President or the Prime Minister or

important? Well, I, John Lindsey in New York, the other way around,

really. He was republican, of course, he looked like JF Kennedy.

He looked like the republican's answer to John F Kennedy. We all

thought he was, that he must be, but as one interviewed him, one

found for some reason you know that the Mantell didn't come off and the

frank person did not come through and he never delivered what

everybody, all of us in the media thought that he was the certain to

the leader, the bizarre thing is that taxi drivers in New York hated

him. Eight years afterwards, I remember being in a taxi, eight

years after he creased to be the Mayor and the taxi driver said to

me, "That bloody Lindsay..." And he lost. He was incredibly handsome,

he throst a little, fattings balding Italian, whose campaign

slogan was: Had enough of charisma? I was on Question Time with robin

Day in 1987 with Tony Blair. Tony Blair had just come into Parliament.

I had come into Parliament recently. When we were assembling for the

programme, I could tell that Robin Day was in a filthy mood. I asked

the editor what was wrong with him. She said he was cross as he had

hefrnaerd of -- heard of the panellists on the show! How big a

disadvantage is it, Alan, that many, many people, according to the polls

just can't imagine Ed Miliband as the Prime Minister? I don't think

it is a disadvantage at this stage. If you look at how many people

thought that Margaret Thatcher would be a good Prime Minister when

she was a year into the opposition, there were not many.

You cannot judge Tony Blair and David Cameron. They came in after

four election defeats, and three election defeats in Cameron's case.

So coming in straight after an election defeat it is really

difficult. I really, really liked Ed Miliband's speech this week.

Did you like it for the way that he delivered or for the message?

tell you why, he needed to do a sketch, not a painting. It was a da

Vinci cartoon, not a Mona Lisa. He needed to set out a left of centre

perspective of the cames that we live in. He didn't need to set out

a shopping list, that would be wrong, but he did that, he did it

with authenticity. You cannot ask for me at the end of your first

year as the Leader of the Opposition.

But Michael, as the Tories found out the hard way with William Hague

and Iain Duncan Smith, sometimes the public gets an impression in

its mind from the start, you then cannot shift it? I agree. Leader of

the Opposition go into nose dive and you are unable to pull out of

it. That is characteristic of William Hague and Ed Miliband. I

think that Margaret Thatcher was a completely different case. She was

clearly from the start an extraordinary individual. It was

not a question of whether she had the talent, the charisma, the drive,

the dynamism, she had it all, but could you elect that package of

Maybe there is hope for Ed Miliband, if you look back to the whole News

of the World affair. For that period, he revived. His poles went

up, people respected him for his stance. Since then, they have gone

down again. But I don't think you can write "finished" on his career.

That would be absurd. But in this age of TV, of will people listen to

a message if they do think the messenger is a bit weird? I found

that word "weird" in the papers this week rather weird. I had not

been expecting to see that. I don't think if they thought people really

were weird, I think the personality has got to come through. I think it

has to come through to be - Trust and competence are the two things

that matter. There has to be trust. As you say, with a weird person,

trust would be rather difficult. You were regarded as one of the few

frontline politicians that was normal. Is it a problem for Ed

Miliband - a weird is kind of an insulting word - but he is not

regarded as normal in the way people regard you as normal. Down

to earth. Perhaps they do not know him as well. I was around for much

longer. He is not weird at all. He is a decent human being who looks

very good in a suit, by the way, if we are going by those descriptions.

He is putting the Tony Blair, Gordon Brown era behind him and

saying, I do not want to do what Cameron did, going to the Arctic

with huskies, and I do not want the spin of Tony Blair. This is what I

believe. It is very important -- authentic, and it is important for

the electorate. The weird stuff comes from people who are

viscerally hostile to Ed Miliband and Labour and whatever he does

they would be saying that. I think he has struck a chord. He set a

very high bar, because at conferences e did not say, I am

unknown and untried but I would like you to vote for me, I want to

be the next Government, he is saying more than that. He said, and

the era has come to an end and I represent a completely new way of

doing things. For someone who is yet to convince that he could run

the country on a day-to-day basis, that is a big ask. Well, he set out

the left of centre vision for how he sees the world developing after

this enormous crisis. But he does not admit to left of centre, does

he? He is worried about being -- red Ed Miliband. But we do need

a left of centre idea. His big idea is predators of verses producers.

If you take that into financial services, Adair Turner said that a

lot of what financial-services do is useless. There is a big debate

about what society we want. Except the taxes that they paid just pay

for all the schools and hospitals. Not the old debate about communism

against capitalism. It is capitalism, but people do not want

this rapacious, promiscuous capitalism they are seeing at the

moment. I think there is a point there. There are different sorts of

capitalism. When he says there are family businesses which are quite

patrician and they put stuff back, and others who are coming in and

making a quick buck and disappearing, ripping the heart out

of Southern Cross, those care homes, for example, that is true. What I

thought was extraordinary about his speech was the amateur nature of

the bits that mattered. How could that line, and not Tony Blair, I am

not Gordon Brown, I am my own man, how could that have gone well? What

was the correct reaction from the audience? Were they meant to cheer,

saying they did not like Tony Blair? There should not have been a

pause. I do not think anybody was in any doubt that he is not Tony

Blair. On a number of different levels! I do not understand all

that stuff about good firms and bad firms. How do you decide that?

spent the whole week - other than Southern Cross and Rolls-Royce, I

spent the whole week trying to work out who were the producers and who

were the predators. I speak as a failed man. What will David Cameron

be thinking watching one of this? He will be well satisfied. Although

Allen makes a good defence of it, on the whole the press was hostile.

The Daily Mail said it was impressive. The Daily Mail said it

was impressive. I must have missed that. The frost-Nixon interviews,

voted the world's greatest ever interview. They obviously did not

see me and Diane Abbott on private schools. Fantastic! And they are

showing them again this weekend. is a real thrill, on BBC Two it is

Frost-mixer night on Saturday night. There is an interview with Joan

Bakewell, who is brilliant. -- Frost-Nixon. And then the actual

real Watergate interview, and then the movie. It is right that there

came a moment when you knew he wanted to confess, you knew that he

wanted to tell you the whole thing? No. I don't think I knew that until

he did. I knew that I wanted to get into, but until it happened, I did

not fully believe it. I was determined, I was optimistic, but

until it actually happened... And at the end of that two and a half

hours, we were both drenched with exhaustion at the end of it.

will have to leave it there but I will be watching on Saturday night.

Great to have you on the programme. Now you have to come back. It is a

pleasure. Now, we know what it's like to be

the victim, forever dodging the journalistic jocks from Newsnight

and Today who swan around like they own the place, copying our scripts,

poking fun at our graphics, giving us wedgies in the BBC locker room!

Damn you, Humphreys! We may be mocked as the seven-stone weakling

of political programmes, but when Scotland Yard this week demanded we

hand over footage of blatant criminal behaviour we refused to be

intimidated. So what if Michael's fashion crimes that are his shirts

prove Britain is broken? Don't expect us to grass him to the feds.

But we are prepared to put bullying She had some texts from a number

she did not recognise, basically saying, we are watching you and you

look lovely when you are sleeping. She was worried and I said, nothing

can happen to you at school. Bullying can start in the classroom

but can also reach the top in politics. Ed Balls' wife, Yvette

Cooper, insisted her children took her surname to avoid schoolyard

taunts, but this week her husband admitted he was no goody-two-shoes

when in government. Was there a bullying swagger around as well, do

you think? I think... Yes, a little bit. But what happens when the

public start to pick on you? Ed Miliband is finding it not easy

being a bit of a geek. The word that crops up most often

in focus groups is "weird". Is that a problem? I think I am a pretty

normal. It is not just politicians who are tormented. Some say that

the King of Pop felt harassed into performing a final curtain call. So,

are we a nation that loves an easy target, at least on this week we

like to look out for the little guys. We are joined by Nicola

Roberts formerly of Girls Aloud, who has a new solo album out which

is getting great reviews. One of the songs, I am told, is about

bullying. Why is that? There is a song called Sticks and Stones. It

is a personal situation that I found myself in. It was some time

ago. And I wrote the song quite universally, and I really wrote it

because I did not want people to feel like they were necessary on

their own in a situation. I think whatever it may be at home, we all

have something we might be going through. Whatever it maybe.

Sometimes we feel we are the only person in the world that is going

through it. And I really believe in a problem shared is a problem

halved. It was to help other people? Exactly. I think the

response I have had since we put the song out has been quite

incredible. Is it true that you experienced bullying even after you

had become successful? It is kind of a very difficult for me to sort

of say something like that. I found myself in a vulnerable position

that was not very nice. I think it is important that we highlight it.

But this was not when you were a schoolgirl. No, this was once I

found myself in the public eye. That will surprise people. Yeah, I

suppose. It can happen to anybody. It is so out of control. Society is

very quick to judge these days. I think it is very out of control.

One of the good things about Twitter is that I am, not

necessarily good, but it highlights the severity of the problem.

Constantly I am finding tweets talking about people's Prso

situations, whether it is at school, people being scared to go to school.

-- people's personal situations. Even in the workplace. It really

angers me. I do not like to think that there are people out there

that really feel not great about themselves. And you feel very alone

when you are being bullied, don't you? Yes, and I don't think anybody

is in a position to make somebody else feel like that about

themselves. It really annoys me. Part of the problem is that those

with the reputation for being bullies - Gordon Brown, Ed Balls,

Alex Ferguson, they seem to do rather well in our society. I think

there is a difference. I think what Nicola is talking about is in a

different league. We bandy the term poorly around as if it applies to

his strong football manager, but there are people in our society who

lofted humiliate individuals and love a group of people around them

to applaud them for that humiliation. With the internet and

tweeting and mobile phones, they have found new ways to do it. That

is in a different league. It is all about ego and positioning. What

would your message be to some youngsters watching who are being

bullied? It is really difficult. I would really just say that you have

to turn it around. You can't admire the people who are able to say

nasty things so frivolously. It is not admirable. Effectively, you are

the nicer person and you should hold on to that. You should try to

talk to someone, shouldn't you? Try to share it. Absolutely. It is so

out of control in schools. I would like to speak to somebody.

think it is really bad in schools? Yes, and there needs to be more of

a support system. I get tweets every day saying, I am terrified to

go to school. You are helpless. is a terrible thing. It can stunt

anybody's development and lead to terrible things. Michael, a quick

thought. I think it is one of the most wretched things possible to

happen. The idea that people are terrified to go to the office, I

think there is a great deal of it and ultimately, as you say, it

leads to a loss of self-worth, and even in the worst cases to people

committing suicide. It is a horrible problem. Thank you for

coming. Thank you. I was going to say good luck with your solo album

but I don't think you need my luck. Thank you.

That's your lot, folks, but we end with glorious news. After

protracted negotiations, the noble Baron Prescott of Kingston upon

Hull will be descending from the vastness of his Northern throne

next week to join us on our humble sofa, making up for missing the

party conference, where he was notable by his absence. As was the

former great leader! Yes, the invisible man of British politics,

Gordon Brown, is still refusing to play the game, despite being paid