26/04/2012 This Week

# Raindrops keep falling on my head # And just like the guy whose feet

are too big for... Tonight on This Week: as much of

the country is officially in drought, the rain just keeps on

falling on Westminster. Storm clouds continue to gather over the

Prime Minister and the Government, as the Murdochs appear at the

Leveson Inquiry. But Historian, Andrew Roberts, thinks it's all a

storm in a tea cup. James and Rupert Murdoch might be forgiven

for being a bit under the weather at the moment. But history shows

they're quite right, a close relationship between press and

politicians is sa good thing for democracy and so David Cameron also

has nothing to worry about. It never rains but it pours.

Miserable economic conditions in the UK as the economy falls back

into recession. Journalist Kevin Maguire braves the weather on his

political milk round. The Government's handling of the

economy has been buffeted on all fronts. It's definitely the season

for criticism. And they may not be singing in the rain on the BBC's

hit show The Voice, but is talent really difficult to spot? Singer

and celebrity Sinitta joins us in our own talent-free zone. I have

been spotting talent forever, but the talent on This zap week is --

Week is out of the world. Brollies at the ready. Get ready to

have some fun splashing in the political puddles.

Evenin all. Welcome to This Week. The week Britain slipped back into

recession and everything else slipped the Murdoch family's mind.

Must be something in the genes. Young Murdoch, can't "recall"

crucial events. Old Murdoch, you just plain can't "remember". Pretty

convenient catch-alls when it comes to questions about phone hacking,

cover-ups, hush money and meetings to lobby British politicians. Their

memory was pretty sharp, however, when it came to settling scores.

Old Murdoch, while insisting he had no more power in Britain than the

tea boy at the Auchenshuggle Bugle, took no prisoners, lashing out at

everybody who'd crossed his path - from Gordon Brown to his butler;

with his former editors, executives and lawyers all caught in the

carnage. There were rumours his nervous lawyers had been putting

Ritalin in his billycan to stop him from lashing out. Clearly, they

needed something stronger. Like a gag. But the most serious damage

was done during Young Murdoch's testimony, when he revealed a

series of exchanges between a Murdoch lobbyist and the Culture

Secretary Jeremy Hunt's special adviser, which showed that during

the Murdoch bid for all of BSkyB, they'd been texting and e-mailing

each other like demented teenage lovers. The SPAD obligingly fell on

Jeremy's sword - hoping to spare his master. But, as they say in

Edinbrugh, Mr Hunt's "jaikit is hingin' by a shuggily peg".

Translation will follow on the website.

Most seasoned media watchers missed all of this because when Old

Murdoch testified he'd never as much asked for a cup of sugar from

the Government, much less a �13 billion satellite system, they

collapsed in convulsions of uncontrollable laughter, from which

most have still to recover. Speaking of laughable people, I'm

joined on the sofa tonight by two of Westminster's least credible

witnesses. The Chuckle Sisters of late night political chat. I speak,

of course, of #germanontheleft, Gisela Stuart and #sadmanonatrain,

Michael Portillo. Your moment of the week, Michael? Earlier the

public administration committee under the Conservative MP Bernard

Jenkins produced a report critical of the Government. He is a man on a

mission. I reflected on this and I think the analysis is wrong

actually. The Government does have a strategy on the deficit, on

schools on the health service, on welfare, it's a lot of strategy.

It's got other problems. It has ceased to look Governmental, it's

descended from the high ground into tittle tattle and silliness, like

the tankers drivers and pasty-gate and that sort of thing and

seriously this week what's happened is David Cameron, who promised to

create a new politics after the MPs' expenses scandal, what's at

stake here in the Murdoch question is that he hasn't really invented a

new politics at all, it's looking like a seedy old politics.

didn't mention he had a strategy for growth. We will come on to that

later, because if he has it isn't working. It was almost Prime

Minister questions time, which was meant to be more grownup and the

last few have been really vicious and more unpleasant than any I have

seen in all the years there. Two moments when Cameron was pushed

into a corner and he was unnecessarily condescending and

unpleasant. A new Birmingham MP asked a perfectly good question and

he just went, well read. Then he insulted again David Winnick,

referred to as one of Dad's Army. Insults are fine if they serve a

purpose. Flashman moments. Bad- tempered and just really, he's got

a problem with people who he disagrees with. There we go. That's

our opening moments. Let's move on. The drought's going

well, isn't it? Never realised a water shortage involved so much

rain. But you didn't need a weatherman to know which way the

wind was blowing when the James and Rupert Murdoch's swept back into

town. Right on cue, the Sun King decreed it was time to rain on the

Government's parade and promptly left the British political classes

scrambling for dry land. So is this the end of a beautiful friendship?

Historian Andrew Roberts hopes not and he's here with his Take of the

The phone hacking scandal is in the past. It's the subject of court

cases and huge payouts. And rightly so. Why is the nation gripped by

this Leveson inquiry, a huge national inquiry into an otherwise

guiltless industry? I am here in St Brides in Fleet Street, the

journalists' Church where Rupert Murdoch recently gave �50,000. We

are only a few doors down from a inquiry that's now turned into a

kapbger radio court driven by commercial rivals and political

enemies. The fact is that it's impossible to

insulate politicians from press proprietors and we shouldn't even

try. Very largely in the 18th century the British press came into

existence because politicians wanted to prop gate their political

views. In the 19th century Gladstone abolished the penny tax

on newspapers precisely for that reason. Some press proprietors,

such as Lord Beaver Brook who is commemorated here, have even sat in

Cabinet. So why is Lord Leveson investigating something that has

been so integral and so beneficial to British public life for so long?

It's absolutely vital for democracy that the press and politicians

should be in constant interaction. That's the way that the readers,

the electorate, are able to find out what's going on, what's being

done in their name. It's also the best way for politicians to find

out what's popular, what's unpopular. It's completely

ludicrous to expect David Cameron to have to write down every time he

ever meets Rupert Murdoch. Nobody's forced to buy any kind of newspaper

in Britain and certainly not forced to vote the way that they recommend.

News International in the past has said vote Labour as well as vote

Conservative. It's absolutely absurd to make Rupert Murdoch out

to be some kind of a Darth Vader figure. In terms of the takeover of

BSkyB, News International has done nothing wrong and all David Cameron

wanted was a political ally that would give some equality and TV

news and current affairs. It's what any party leader would have wanted

If Leveson makes recommendation that is create more of a Chinese

wall between the press and the politicians, then the press won't

be helped and the politicians will become even more remote. I can say

with certainty it will be a change Andrew Roberts from St Bride's

Church in Fleet Street, to our little temple here in Westminster.

Welcome back to the programme. Thank you. Now, you don't think

that someone as powerful as Rupert Murdoch deserves some kind of

democratic scrutiny? Yes, absolutely, and the democratic

scrutiny is if you don't like him, don't buy his papers. Don't we have

a right to question him, our elected representatives, judges, to

question him on serious matters of public policy? If he's broken the

law, which it seems like some of his papers have broken the law,

then you are going to see that in the courts. It's some of his people

have actually paid policemen and you will see that in the courts, as

well. That's entirely different from this kind of questioning that

he is getting at the moment. don't have a right to ask him why

he's created a kind of culture in his newsroom in which law-breaking

has taken place on an industrial scale? I don't believe he has

created that culture and he doesn't believe he has either. Of course he

has the right to otherwise he wouldn't be there in the first

praise, -- place, I don't think it helps either the public or the

press to have this kind of criticism. Whether you are right or

wrong, do you believe that the - that this is the beginning of the

end in terms of traditional proprietor and politician

relationships? Yes, I do believe that. I think that because of the

way in which this is being dealt with it probably is the end of the

traditional system and by the way, I don't think that the new system,

whatever it is, will be any better. Complaining about politicians and

speaking to proprietors and the other way around is like, to

misquote Enoch Powell, sailors complaining about the weather.

the newspaper industry is in decline, people aren't buying

newspapers. We have to distinguish between news and what is opinion.

News is what other people don't want you to know and the rest is

advertising. I don't have a problem with investigative journalism if

they don't break laws. If it isn't on the edge as this has been and

that culture isn't just one paper. What I am talking about isn't the

journalism, I am talking about the relationship between proprietors

and politicians. Has that really been healthy in this country? Your

party for 11 years was enthralled to Rupert Murdoch. The one Labour

Minister said to me he was the 21st man in the cabinet. But if you go

through the whole history there's always been - and same time tension

between papers don't write politicians want they criticise and

shout and the more there is tension between them the happier I am. We

are really moving now where local reporting, newspapers are in

decline, opinion is in... That's not the issue we are talking about

tonight. What I am trying to get to - I will try you, Michael, has the

Murdoch spell in Britain been broken? I want to go to the heart

of what I think this is about. What this is about is the possibility

that the Conservative Party traded before the last election the

support of the Murdoch newspapers for compliance with Murdoch's

request to take over BSkyB. Now, if there is any truth in that

allegation it is - it would be momentous. I think Andrew Roberts'

report completely misses the scale and scope of that issue. I hope,

because I am a Tory, that it isn't true. You think it might be? That's

what's been - that's what's come on the table in the evidence this week.

I think an inquiry that introduces a question as important as that is

an inquiry which is leading us towards truth and that is to be

welcomed actually. I think my report, just to disagree with

Michael, I think that my report actually made it pretty clear that

I thought the BSkyB bid should have gone through, that... Even if it's

part of a political deal. Of course it was part of a political deal

because everything to do with the newspapers and politics is always

part of a political deal. Shouldn't we have full disclosure of that?

The great thing about what would have happened if we had a proper

BSkyB that was owned entirely by News International it would not in

any way have been prepblg digsal simply because newspapers are owned

by News International, this is a TV station and not one, of course,

that's been in any way touched by the phone hacking scandal. You may

be right, we will never know now, it would have been owned by News

Corp, by the way, which is an American company, not News

International, which is based in Britain. Putting that fact aside.

Isn't the point and the point that Michael raises, it goes to the

heart of the issue, which is all businessmen and women lobby the

Government. British Aerospace, Royal Bank of Scotland and so on.

When a press baron lobbies the Government he and they're all he,

bring different weapons. They bring weapons of support that the head of

British Aerospace cannot bring and in a democracy surely that should

be under scrutiny and subject to But of course they're going to do

that. In fact that's their duty to do that. They've got to increase

value for shareholders like any other businessman. The duty to say,

"I'm Rupert Murdoch "and I say to David Cameron, "You get out of the

way of BSkyB and the Sun will be behind you?" He wouldn't say that.

But the implication is that's what you are saying aren't you? And that

is what needs to be investigated. That is the issue that needs to be

raised, and the other way around. Did the Conservatives say to Rupert

Murdoch, in return for your support, we will support your BSkyB bid?

we now are have the position of the civil servants who are not prepared

to say. The ministerial code needs to be looked at.

At the moment there is nothing to say that Jeremy Hunt did say that

to his special adviser. I don't want to get into that, as Hunt is

coming up later in the programme. You can agree or disagree with

Rupert Murdoch, but when he sits there under oath and says, "I

really have no influence in this country, I've never asked anything

from a politician at all, I don't really matter, I don't really have

nigh say in my newspapers" whether you like him or don't like him,

that is not believable and you know that. That is not exactly what he

said under oath. He said, "I have never had anything from the

Government." I do believe that. I think he was telling the truth

there. He didn't just say Prime Minister. It was Prime Ministers

actually. The whole of that section was just talking about Prime

Ministers. Let's say politicians. Tell me what he has asked from a

Prime Minister or politician, directly what he has asked for.

could answer that question quite clearly but I'm not going to do it.

What did you make of the two sides of the Murdoch personality? On day

one he was quite low key, quite quiet, he almost threw the QC. On

day two it was like he had escaped the bounds of his New York lawyers

and was swatting every men my he could get his hands on? I think it

tells us that even in his 80s he is a brilliant personality. I hope

that when his obituary is written, and it may not be for a long time,

we will reflect on how much good he did for broadcasting and journalism

in this country. But at this moment we are focused on something else.

This man who I think has tried to portray himself sometimes as

approaching the twilight of his life seems to me still to be very

much in control. There's a lot of whirring and clicking there. Yes.

You placed it in its historic context, this country has always

had powerful press proprietors in the Beaverbrooks and others. Partly

because the others don't have such a serious play. You don't see Lord

Rothermere and the blai brothers in the same role. The question I

wanted to ask you, culminating in Rupert Murdoch, is that in essence

is end of the all-powerful press proprietor? It will be if Leveson

comes down with some of the recommendations people have been

talking about. You will get newspapers by committee and that

won't be anything like as good. You won't get as good newspapers apart

from anything else. What Gisela said about this being, in a sense,

like the shutting of the stable door inquiry is right. Obviously

the internet is taking over from this. This in many ways is the end

of the an era. OK, Andrew Roberts, thank you for being with us. Thank

you. It may be late, but you'd be madder

than a box of North Korean Politburo members to go to bed just

now, because coming up, singer Sinitta on the art of talent

spotting in show business, and in politics. And if talent is

something you're unfamiliar with, you'll feel right at home with the

rest of the desperate no-hopers, on Twitter, Facebook and the good old

missionary position interweb. Now, Call Me Dave has been

criticised this week - yet again - for being out of touch with the

likes of you, me, and Gisela, but not Michael. Whether it's a pasty

or a pint of milk, there's an increasing suspicion that the Prime

Minister has not, as he is required to do by the law of the political

playground, committed to memory the price and location of all known

grocery goods and condiments. So we've asked the Daily Mirror's

Kevin Maguire to test the theory and hop on his milk float, set out

his prices, and give us his round- Morning all. It never rains but it

pours, usually, when a drought is declared. I've only got a few

deliveries left. I never like to let down my regular customers.

David Cameron needs all the calcium he can get after this week. Things

are going from bad to worse and he might look back on the Budget

bungles with a bit of nostalgia. The week started on a sour note

when a Tory MP said some people don't have any trouble paying their

bills. I think not only are Cameron and George Osborne two posh boys

who don't know the price of milk, but they are arrogant and don't

show any remorse, have no contrition and don't understand the

live of others. David Cameron was keen to show that he is like you

and me and knows the price of one of these. I do a lot of my own

shopping. Really? Yes, I go to Sainsbury's in Chipping Norton on

Friday or Saturday. Sam does a lot of it on the internet. The price of

milk then? I pay just under 50p. And he works hard too.

I wake up in the morning, get stuck into this. There is all sorts of

things happening on the other side of the world I need to worry about,

all sorts of terrorism cases I need to worry about. There is stuff in

Parliament I need to worry about. There isn't a day where you don't

learn important lessons and you have to stay on touch and get on

top of it. But the impression is he is a gold Tom premier, part of the

guild elite who are in it together. And this is damaging for Cameron,

as is the impression that he doesn't work hard. Never around

when I'm delivering the work. I'm off to the High Court.

The public mood curdle further when billionaire's boy James Murdoch

appeared at the Leveson Inquiry. E- mails had accusations that Jeremy

Hunt, who had a quasi-judicial role in discussing the �8 billion BSkyB

bid, was given inside information. Here is a description of a one of

the e-mails dealing with Hunt's office. Managed to get some

information on the plans for tomorrow, although absolutely

illegal. What do you make of that? I thought it was a joke. I think

the greater than and the exclammation point there, a wink,

it is a joke. Hunt wasn't laughing when Labour, perhaps a tad too

quickly, demanded his resignation. But no greater sacrifice can a

Culture Secretary make than to lay down his special adviser's career.

So Adam Smith resigned and the Minister loudly protest his own

innocence. Transcripts of conversations and

texts published yesterday between my special adviser Adam Smith and a

News Corporation representative have been alleged to indicate there

was a back channel through which News Corporation were able to

influence my decisions. This is categorically not the case. Hunting

with newshounds isn't illegal and the Culture Secretary bought

himself time but he hasn't thrown his persuers off the scent.

It is standing room only when Jeremy Hunt under oath appears

before Lord Justice Leveson. They've been getting through the

milk at the Law Courts, where old man Murdoch was at Leveson. On the

first day he was all innocence. in ten years never asked Mr Blair

for anything. Nor indeed did I receive any favours.

But by the second day the milk had turned. Some might say that all

this picture is consistent with one of a desire to cover up rather than

a desire to expose. Would you agree with that? People with minds like

yours, perhaps. I'm sorry, I take that back. But... Excuse me. George

Osborne looks like a clap who could do with a nice mug of milk with an

extra sugar to softton blow that Britain is back in recession, a

double dip, the first since 1975. I've never disguised the fact that

Britain faces an economic situation. We have debts, debts built up over

many years. If I had a magic wand I could wave and Britain could spurt

into growth, I would wave it. Wouldn't we all, mate. But this is

the real world. With Nicolas Sarkozy's likely ejection from

France, the eurozone, the 10 million IMF loan, George Osborne

has an uphill battle persuading the country. Why doesn't he admit it,

it is his catastrophic economic policy, his plan for austerity,

cutting too far and too fast that has landed us back in recession.

The Government this week was the worst week since the last worst

week and the trouble for Dave and journal and Nick and Jeremy is

every week's a bad week. Labour's up in the polls because

the Conservatives are down. There is no point Cameron crying over

spilt milk, but he needs a new plan fast, otherwise his Government's in

danger of going down the drain. Kevin Maguire revealing the Prime

Minister still buys his milk in pints. Chipping Norton must be in a

time water. Miranda Green, welcome back. How do you assess the

position of Jeremy Hunt, Michael? Perilous. The Adam Smith

revelations are very damaging. The man was his special adviser, the

relationship between a special adviser and a Minister is intimate.

Special advisers in my experience don't do things that Ministers

don't want them to do, particularly not in a field as delicate as. This

it's a pretty horrible position. And all we know, and we knew little

about Adam Smith beforehand, other than he had been a great 18th

century economist from the University of Glasgow, other than

that we knew he wasn't a Damian McBride or a Charlie Whelan. He was

low key. He didn't walk around Westminster talking himself up.

Permanent Secretary didn't help him either by refusing to answer the

question today in front of the Public Accounts Committee. Why is

no-one questioning the coalition? I would love to hare what Vince Cable

makes of this. We haven't got Vince Cable here but we've got second

best, Miranda. My understanding is that the Liberal Democrats have

unhappy about this, which Simon Hughes on Question Time was

unleashed on it. That's right. Simon was suggesting there's a

prima facie case for Jeremy Hunt breaking the Ministerial Code. The

Liberal Democrats stand in a very different position from the

Conservative Party, vis-a-vis international relations with Rupert

Murdoch, opinions on how the Murdoch empiper should be treat.

You were so unimportant Rupert Murdoch never bothered with you.

That is one way of putt it. There was an interesting piece this week

which did go through the contact between News International

lobbyists and Vince Cable's office. They really gave him the braush-off

and said it would be inappropriate. That's the point, it is how you

behave. One of my feelings, watching Jeremy Hunt ace statement,

was there was this view which you used to get in the Blair Government,

I'm a nice guy, I wouldn't have done anything wrong. It is not good

enough. You have to be above reproach and behave in a way that

is above reproach. So if the Liberal Democrats, and if Labour

are gunning for him too, as I said, the translation of his jacket is

hanging by a shaky pet is that his jack set on a peg which isn't

properly inserted into the wall. That's the way it looks doesn't it?

He is very vulnerable, but also because this relationship between a

Minister and their special adviser. You can't have the special adviser

just as somebody who is there to kill off if things get a bit

unfortunate, so that you can have denyability. That's a corrupt

culture, if that's what the special advise ser there for. But your

analysis in broad Scots leaves out one point, that he is, to change

the metaphor, the salami slice before the Prime Minister. That's

why you saw that organised rump news the House of Commons with the

Tories baying their support for Jeremy Hunt. It is not particularly

because they understand the issue or have studied the issue. It is

that the Prime Minister very much wants Jeremy Hunt to survive,

because if he does not, you get into the issue of what was the

relationship between the Prime These stories have a momentum about

them. The question of, given he was playing a judicial role in the

BSkyB takeover, why in the - why even did the civil service allow

him to put a special advisor as the point man if they knew? Why has Mr

Cameron, why has he outsourced the policing of the Ministerial Code of

Conduct to Justice Leveson? And the body language during the statement

when Jeremy Hunt gave the statement was very interesting. David Cameron

was sitting there, really engaging, you could see him almost feeding

lines when questions were troupb at -- thrown at him. I think the only

thing which would make him sur survive if he is seen as the

barrier, firewall between him and the Prime Minister. The civil

service have to raise their game, time and again now permanent

Secretaries are not doing what they ought to do. Certainly one

breakthrough we need is the Ministerial Code needs to be

enforced by some powerful outsider who can decree each time when an

inquiry is required. Shouldn't that be the Cabinet Secretary. Nadine

Dories, does her attack on Mr Cameron and Mr Osbourne, I assume

that's the targets of her attack, does it matter? Well, she is so

combative, so fierce, so horrid, I might say to them, that it loses a

lot of its impact. Of course the criticism which she makes that

they're out of touch... reasonates at the moment. But I

think she's perhaps the worst messenger to deliver it. Does it

mat tper the Prime Minister knows the price of mising or -- milk or

not. It does up to the point when he keeps trying to pretend he is

the ordinary guy who does these things. The attack, whoever the

messenger, the attack hit such a reasonians and even more so with

Osbourne, who kind of almost looks as if he announces a cut that he

really enjoys it and you can see him in the back of a French coach

during the revolution telling them to eat cake. The famous double-dip

came today, for many people that's the biggest story of the lot. This

coalition has had its ups and downs but the one thing it's been solid

on, remarkably so, you have all sung from the same song sheet on

deficit reduction. But now we are back in recession, there will be

more pressure for a plan B? Undoubtedly there will be pressure,

whether it actually results in many changes is something that is

possibly a different question. I think there are differences of

emphasis within the coalition. For example, the Lib Dems in the

cabinet are very against this talk about the immigration crackdown

because if you are going to go for growth all out in the economy, you

can't have this message going out Britain is closed for business. So

that would be a different emphasis on that side. Obviously on the Tory

right there is this pressure for deregulation, people suggesting you

should abolish maternity leave, for example, which goes down very badly

on the Lib Dem side. There will be push-pull on that sort of thing

because clearly there does need to be huge effort put into a growth

plan. The economy must now be Labour's opportunity, if it cannot

capitalise on this and get the public with it, then when can it?

Indeed. But in order to show you are competent you need to deliver

things on the ground and that's why I think Labour's recovery in a

sense will be after the local elections if they take control of

some of the councils and can then show the kind of economic

competence at a local local level. They still have to convince people

of that. Indeed and you can only regain that confidence by your

actions and showing when Labour controls some of the citys which we

are hoping to take at the local elections. This negative growth, of

course makes the debt problem worse. It actually makes it even less

possible to row back on the austerity programme. The reaction

in the Margetts will be even more - - in the markets will be more

severe. The debt problem is now so important, so severe that even if

the Government sticks to its austerity it may find interest

rates go up in the medium term and that will be very, very serious.

The prospect for this coalition is it's really between a rock and a

hard place. It's stuck in a no growth scenario with none of the

traditional engines of growth of the demand, whether it's household

spending, or exports or wherever, but if it was to do what Ed Balls

wants is it to do, which is probably borrow even mover, -- even

more, the bond markets would take it to the cleaners. It can't do

anything. The Government has to convince the public about is that

even though things are absolutely terrible, if we were to do what Ed

Balls suggests, they would be much, much worse. That's hard for people

to imagine. It certainly is. Luckily we can point to most of the

other countries in Europe to demonstrate how they would be worse.

This isn't why you went into coalition, it was all beginning -

it was meant to be coming right by now. Just beginning, you were

supposed to see the light at the end of the tunnel. And there is a

light, it's an oncoming train. a very good point Michael makes,

because actually if you think back to those heady days around the

formation of the coalition one of the things that was going on,

frankly, was a lot of senior people in the Labour Party were thinking

thank goodness we are not going to be in charge for this bit, it's

going to be terrible. They didn't want a coalition. The agreement was

formed to provide stability during a terrible, terrible time and guess

what, we are in that terrible time. The stability of the graveyard.

have a political stability. It's a lot worse elsewhere. It will get

worse. The euro is going to break up. That's the problem. In a sense

there will be tougher times. There's nothing as cheery as you

lot! Thank you for being back with Now, it's easy to hide your light

under a bushel. Take Adam Smith, former special adviser to Jeremy

Hunt, who - if you believe Jezza's alibi - instigated a single-handed,

clandestine, one-sided, back- channel briefing and support policy

to James Murdoch and News Corporation during the largest and

most controversial media takeover negotiations in recent times,

entirely unbeknownst to his boss - self-styled man of 'integrity'

Jeremy Hunt! If only Jezza realised what Adam was really capable of!

Simon Cowell certainly wouldn't have missed such a trick. So that's

why we've decided to put talent spotting in this week's Spotlight.

# I heard it through the grapevine...

As The Voice dominates the TV ratings it proves there is nothing

we like more than watching fresh- faced hopefuls strut their stuff on

stage. Television is not ready for this talent on this show.

Maybe we all have a gift we just don't know about. That's the the

premise behind Richard Bacon's new programme Hidden Talent where a

nurse discovered she was a superskilled rock climber. Go on,

Why is it so hard to scout fresh talent in politics? With a major

parties offering Londoners the same old faces in next week's mayoral

election, can cities like Birmingham do any better? Let the

auditions begin. But whether it's Diane tinkling the

ivories or Michael tackling the ever so tricky triangle, we have

already proved that This Week is the one place in politics that has

definitely got talent. Not! Sinitta joins us, good to see

you. All these so-called talent shows that are on right now, we

know all the titles and the BBC has this new one, The Voice, doing

incredibly well, are they really talent shows are just

entertainment? I think The Voice is and not just for one person to win

at the end. I think it's a talent show for 40 amazing artists because

because everyone on the show can sing. Are these shows good at

spotting talent? Have they had many success? Leona Lewis obviously.

She's been phenomenonal. Internationally, not just British.

Have they been good at doing it? They have careers after. A lot of

those people probably wouldn't have been discovered at all. But now at

least whether they're doing shows or musicals or gigs they're now

working as professional singers now. Sometimes the people who do best

aren't the ones who win. Exactly. The losers, exactly. I don't think

you have to win to do well. You get the exposure. Yeah. If you are any

good. To that extent it's an indicater of talent then.

Definitely. Have you spotted any political talent? Oh, political

talent. I would say that the front bench would make a great boy band.

They're all very young, aren't they? Vince Cable? There's no Tom

Jones, though. Not really. What about William Hague? No. I don't

think so. People feel there isn't that much political talent around

these days. They may be wrong, I tell you why I think they may be

wrong, the 2010 intake of MPs into the Commons on the Labour and

Conservative side, the Lib Dems didn't really get any new people,

but on the two big parties, it's actually I think very impressive.

It's awesome. Also a third of the House of Commons after 2010 was a

new intake. So you had a great many new faces on both sides. They are

very impressive. They've cut their teeth before they came in, they've

got opinions and they're not going with the flow. Can I pick up the

point about the mayoral election. The thing about these talent shows

like The Voice is that of course the BBC, ITV, which ever it is,

gives an opportunity to a range of people that you never set eyes on

before. In the mayoral elections that was meant to happen as well,

but what the BBC is doing is it's only showing the candidates from

the three main parties. That's got to change. The debate I did we had

four and we had recorded contributions from the other

parties. Don't get defensive. just explaining. It's a general and

substantial point that throughout the mayoral election the BBC is

giving air time to the principle candidates representing the

traditional parties and is not giving the same air time to the

others. That never happens in elections. Sky and ITV have done

the same. That's the point, I am asking for the mould to be broken.

If we are going to have political talent and elections which are

meant to be a new thing in politics then the BBC has to adapt and it

has to recognise that we are not just giving air time to the main

political parties because we are trying to do something new. Are you

going to run in Birmingham? there is a yes vote, yes I am going

to run. I think in terms of breaking the moulds, I think

political parties and I think it was in the coalition agreement,

that they would pay for some open primaries, actually going the way

candidates is elected, open this much wider. Do you stand down as an

MP to run or do you stand down if you win? There is nothing in the

legislation and I think Boris and Ken went on for sometime before

they stood down. Have you spotted talent yourself? I have actually.

Do you know Daniel Bedingfield, Natasha, I found them and mentored

them and helped them get record deals, spotted Myleene. The girl on

The Voice, Ruth Brown, who was phenomenonal last week, she is only

19. I worked with her a few years ago but her mother thought she was

too young and she had to concentrate on her studies. I think

she's going to win the whole thing. You are about to do a concert with

Pete Waterman, you are going to celebrate talent you have both

spotted over 25 years. I was one of the talents he spotted 25 years ago.

Now he is bringing all the talent from the 80s, putting on a huge

concert in Hyde Park called The Hit Factory Live. It's like a big class

reunion. A sensitive question to finish with here. You are one of

Simon Cowell's best friends. Can you clear something up? You can say

no if you don't want to answer this. Does he really use black toilet

paper? I have seen it, yes. Sorry. You wouldn't get that kind of fact

on Newsnight, would you? That's why This Week is different. Thank you

very much. Good to see you. Good luck with the tour.

That's your lot for tonight folks. It's certainly past your bedtime

and if the pictures at this week's Leveson Inquiry are to be believed,

it's well past Old Man Murdoch's. Nurse, some Blue Nun cocoa and a

copy of my book "Full Disclosure" for the elderly gent in the

Penthouse Ward! Both of these will certainly put him to sleep.

Nighty night - don't let the the old guy's false modesty bite. #

I've been sitting here all day thinking