17/05/2012 This Week

Tonight, we are getting into the spirit and preparing for the This

Week leg of the Olympic torch relay. As the flame is handed over in

Athens, is Greek membership of the euro about to be extinguished?

Katrina's just returned from her homeland. The heat is on in Greece,

but now is not the time to leave us in the cold. As the torch is flown

on a special plane to London, new French President, Francois Hollande

and German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, are attempting to fly in

formation. Journalist and commentator Medi Hassan fears euro

turbulence. The euro may be on a flight to nowhere, but back here in

the UK, the coalition's flight crew has its own set of economic

problems. The Scottish Government carrying a torch for temperance, is

it time for the rest of the UK to deal with its alcohol problem?

One expert Jilly Goolden toasts the idea of minimum pricing. I've made

a very enjoyable profession from encouraging people to drink

delicious wine, but unfortunately, some people are just taking it just

too far. I blame Bargain Booze. Sorry, I shouldn't have done that.

Anyway, evening all, welcome to This Week. If you will permit me,

having been charged today with perverting the course of television,

and given the huge amount of bias commentary to which I'm subjected,

I'm inspired by Rebekah remember to make a brief statement. Is the

camera running? OK. While I have always respected the court of

public opinion, I have to question today whether the decision to book

tonight's special sofa guest was made on a proper and impartial

assessment of the evidence. I understand and know that there has

to be thorough and proper booking policy and yet I'm baffled by the

decision to book tonight's special guest. More importantly, I cannot

express my anger enough that those closest to me, that would be you,

Michael, have been dragged into this unfairly. One day the details

of this booking will emerge and people will see today as no more

than an expensive side show, a waste of licence fee payers' money,

a result of an unjust and weak decision. No doubt taken by the

Director General. Now, I am the presenter of This Week and I

realise for many of you, that makes me no better than the scum of the

earth, also known as tabloid editors and of course lawyers. But

even the BBC's harshest critics can't wish to see people with no

involvement in the booking policy whatsoever treated in this way.

I'm glad I got that off my chest. Speaking of those whom are presumed

innocent until proved guilty, I'm joined on the sofa tonight by two

of Westminster's most wanted, the Bonnie and Clyde of late-night

political chat. This Week of course, #sadmanonatrain, Michael choo choo

Portillo and back by absolutely no discernible public demand

whatsoever, # Sadwomanonabus, nobody will talk to me. Michael?

For seven weeks during the Olympics, it was said that people could work

from home. Any part of the Government would want to admit that

the capital will be in chaos that it's not reasonable to expect

anyone to get to his or her office. Makes you wonder what that will do

to our economic performance. The clincher is that the reason there

is going to be chaos is that the Olympics are in the East End of

London and the jumped up Olympic officials will be staying at the

hotels in the West End of London. In order to get from one place to

another, we have to have a lot of Third World arrangements to have

special lanes for their Lib Dem seens. This won't go down well with

the British public -- limousines. Your moment of the week?

concerns the... The Conservative backbenchers committee? Yes, and

Cam has a lot of problems with his backbenchers and he's ordered a

faigtback. I predict things aren't going to go come plaitly quiet. I

predict David Cameron will continue to have a problem with his

backbenchers and this 2010 intake, they may be relatively loyal but

they're a sparky intake with a lot to say. That's going to be a theme

as David Cameron goes forward, a turbulent backbench. Will he cause

as much trouble to the Tory as you have caused for Labour? Oh, nothing

like that. They are amateurs. There's a lot of unhappiness, even

among so-called loyalists. Yes. After years of shrinking austerity,

a shrinking austerity economy, it's now 20% smaller than only five

years ago, things couldn't get worse. This week they did. New

elections failed to resolve anything, so they are going to hold

them again on June 17th which will probably resolve nothing for a

second time. Meanwhile, money has been withdrawn from Greek banks

faster than Greece lightning. Between three and four billion

euros a week gone and eurozone leaders are now saying aloud words

they dared not utter only weeks ago that maybe Greece should exit the

euro. Not much to smile about. We have skt Katrina who's just

returned from Athens to give us her take of the week -- we have asked

Katrina. I'm proud to be Greek, born and

raised in Athens where my family still live. In the last two years

I've watched in disbelief has Greece has sunk deeper and deeper

into financial crisis what seems to have no end in sight. Last night, I

arrived from Athens. This is my home from home. I was there doing

stand-up shows over the last couple of months. It's been relatively

unknown there but it's going through a bit of a boom because of

its low overheads and people told me all the time, they need a laugh,

which is hardly surprising. We hear a lot about the country's

economic problems. But what about the human cost? Incomes and

pensions have been halved and people hike my parents are

struggling to pay their utility bills which have rocketed by 50%.

On top of that, there's emergency tax, one in five are unemployed,

crime is rising and suicide are up People are waiting outside

supermarkets to rumage through bins for out-of-date food in extreme

cases, desperate families are abandoning their children to

orphanages because they can't feed them. Yes, this is Greece 2012, all

this is happening alongside picture perfect sandy beaches, turquoise

waters and beautiful square Whitehouses.

-- white houses. The austerity measures aren't

working, but leaving the eurozone isn't the right answer. No-one I

know wants out. A return to devalued drachma would be

catastrophic. Most would be far worse off.

Stkpwhrm last month, there was hope that the elections would make a

difference. But with the parties unable to form a coalition, it

feels like we are back to square one, in limbo, leaderless,

frustrated and angry with everyone blaming everyone else. The

politicians, the banks, yermny, the illegal immigrants, and each other

The date for the new elections has been called, but whether the

parties will manage to pull their act together and reach an agreement,

I just don't know. Meanwhile, people I know are withdrawing money

from banks, but they still hope that the politicians will prove

their salt and come up with a plan that can save Greece without

crippling it at the same time. From the grocery shop to our

grocery shop here, welcome. Thank you. It's quite hard I think for us

to understand just how bad it is in Greece isn't it? The thing I was

thinking about was to think of America during the Great

Depression? Yes. I think Michael Portillo also said that during his

documentary. It's very similar to that, it's very bad out there. As I

mentioned in that clip, pensions and salaries are being slashed and

the emergency tax, they were huge. The emergency tax was attached to

utility bills, specifically electricity, so you couldn't avoid

it or you had your electricity cut. A lot of people after paying that

didn't have enough money for heating so a lot of people didn't

have heating this winter. Suicide rates are up by 45% which is

ridiculous. Doctors are now treating a number of people who've

picked up diseases because they are rumaging through bins? Yes. To get

food? Yes, for products that have gone past their use-by dates.

And yet the mood in the country is, we don't want any more of this

austerity? No. That's entirely understandable. But we still want

to be in the euro? Yes. Which brings the austerity? Yes, but

there's nothing left to give. I don't think further austerity

measures, they're just tired of them and they haven't seen any

result from them. Mr Papademos, the previous Prime Minister who's just

left wrote an open letter to the Greek people today saying that you

won't see the results for a couple of months to come and please don't

be hasty in your decision because we need to stay in Europe. There's

no way you can stay in the euro without further austerity measures,

I mane the German public will demand them apart from anything

else? If perhaps they could also help us with growth. I don't think

that's the mood in Germany. Maybe we could try. I want to get your

impressions of Grease in a minute, but to stick with the point Diane

raised there, the problem for the Germans is that even if they were

minded to loosen things a bit in Greece, the signals that would send

to Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland... No. It's over? Germany

doesn't want to be saddled with the idea that it's going to bail out

every country in Europe. It's accompanied with an out-of-date

impression with Greece, but they are stuck with the impression they

had a year ago that Greece has a lot of lazy people who retire at

the age of 50 and don't pay their taxes. Greece has moved on from

there. Many people are unemployed. What we don't understand here, just

think about this, people's salaries have been cut by 25%, 50%, those

who are still in work. There aren't eeven basic welfare services

available to people after a period of time. Once you have been out of

work for aier or whatever, the basic welfare's disappeared? It's

only for a year, yes. You did this excellent documentary. What did you

find was the thing that most stuck in your mind from filming,

interviewing and talking to the people? The thing that most stuck

in my mind I mentioned before which is when I found that the aid

agencies that normally work in Uganda and places like that are

working in Athens and handing out medicines, free medicines and food

parcels. They are offering their medical services free because again,

one of the things that goes after a period of unemployment is, you

don't even have access to free medical care. Things have become

very, very bad indeed. To see that in a European city is extraordinary.

My fear for Greece is that whatever path it takes now, whether it

sticks with the euro and tries to make this austerity work or whether

it goes back to the drachma and takes an entirely different path,

either way it faces austerity? Either way, there is, because the

country's basically bust, it faces austerity? Yes and there are some

very tough choices that need to be made. But I think the problem is

that there's no-one that they trust to lead them through this. I think

if there was, I keep saying they need a Churchillesque figure that

they can unite behind as much as Greeks can unite. Who is that?

there is a Head of A coalition party and the parties have a

tendency, in my mind they're like demeanted, they subdivide and then

unite. If it was a Parliament, it would break up immediately? There's

not a lot of trust. If there was one that people could trust, if

they could see a laigt at the end of the tunnel, they would buckle

down and stick with it -- light. They don't want to throw everything

away and everyone wants to stay in Europe. Diane, it's that old

American cliche, Greece is between a rock and a hard place? Whatever

route it takes, it will be really The underlying problem is democracy.

You are trying to impose austerity, almost Third World conditions, with

a without a man day. The rock and the hard place are different, in

that if you come out of the euro you have the chance of trading your

way out of this difficulty, because you then get an exchange rate which

makes you competitive to sell your goods and attract more tourists.

What happens then is people's savings in euros are halved or

decimated in value - we don't know. However, for most people who don't

trade internationally it doesn't make any difference. What matters

is what's the value of the money you have in your own country? How

many beans does it buy, eggs or sugar. In a sense going to the

drachma is attractive because of what you said. Most Greek banks and

companies would go bust because they had borrowed in euros and

wouldn't be able to pay it back. There would be a massive default.

Greek has no export sector other than tourism. Thirdly, as you know,

devaluation only works if once you have devalued you are really

disciplined, you keep wages down, you don't let wages take off and

you reform the supply-side of the economy. Discipline and reform

haven't been hallmarks of Greece in modern times. I agree with the

third point. But on your second point, Greece used to do

internationally speaking than it does now. Many Greek people hate

the idea of going back to the drama, because it associates it with

failure. You have to recognise that this level of problem is new and it

coincides with being in the euro It is very unfair to say this is about

Greece. This is about the nature of the euro. And they want to stay

part of it. The Germans never wanted to be in the euro with

Mediterranean countries in the first place, because the economies

never converged. Tragically for the Greeks it was always going be like

this. The Greeks cheated with the help of figures from Goldman Sachs.

Clearly having a single currency was going to be difficult. This is

one of the difficulty we face. country is haemorrhaging money and

people. Yes. And that's the real tragedy. It is. The country's

resources are leaving, the best and the brightest. I'm here. Not that

I'm calling myself the best - I'm just saying. We think you are.

Thank you! Let's hone it gets better but it is hard to see how it

is going to be. Don't head yet for the Grexit just yet as I'm picking

up a valve eti smell of bon viveur, a pungent aroma of late night chat.

It's a cheeky little number known as the rascal of the vineyards.

Jilly Goolden is here to talk politics and alcohol. For those of

you who couldn't tell your Chateau Lafite from a bottle of Buckfast,

you are register your disgust via Facebook, or the interweb.

Omnishambles - we like that word. Slightly overused these days but it

does sum up so much of the what you see on this programme every

Thursday. The Government promised to get on top of the omnishambles,

the border controls at Heathrow. It only leaves the omnishambles of the

euro, the economy, the police cuts and the local election results. We

met one the New Statesman's Mehdi Hassan, fresh off the executive jet

at Biggin Hill. Queues? We don't do Don't be fooled by the odd ray of

sunshine. Dark storm clouds are gathering over the eurozone. The

Continent's leaders are flying blind and no-one's sure whether the

euro can even manage a crash- landing. Torrential rain was a

rather fitting accompaniment to the inauguration of the new French

President on Tuesday. But getting soaked on his first day in the job

was the least of Monsieur Hollande's problems, such was the

desperation of France's first socialist President in 17 years to

have the belt-tightening Germans to sign off on his anti-austerity

measures that he boarded a jet for Berlin, only to have it hit by a

bolt of lightning. Back here in Blighty the Governor

of the Bank of England says he doesn't know when the storm clouds

will move away from the eurozone. Yesterday the bank cut its growth

forecast for the UK economy, again. The euro area is tearing itself

apart without any obvious solution. The idea we could reasonably hope

to sail serseenly through this with inflation at -- serenely through

this with inflation at 2% is unrealistic. Will Greece will

forced out of the euro? Will Spain? Is the single currency on a flight

to nowhere? It hirt to make up or it is looking at a potential break-

up. That's the choice they have to make and it is a choice they cannot

long put off. The Prime Minister and the Chancellor are in a bit of

a bind. The euro crisis on the one hand gives them a shiny new excuse

for their continuing failure to produce economic growth. But on the

other hand they both know that a collapse in the eurozone would

destroy any chance of a British economic recovery. And no recovery,

no re-election. No wonder Ed Miliband seems to be enjoying

himself so much these days. It is a shame he didn't see the French

President three months ago when he was in the United Kingdom. But I'm

sure, Mr Speaker, a text message and LOL will go down very well. Mr

Speaker, Europe needs a proper growth plan which this Prime

Minister has failed to argue for. Lots of love or laugh out loud, LOL,

that's how Rebekah Brooks said the Prime Minister used to sign off his

text messages to her. On Tuesday she was charged with conspiracy to

pervert the course of justice. cannot express my anger enough that

those closest to me have been dragged into this unfairly. One day

the details of this case will emerge and people will see today as

nothing more than an expensive sideshow, a waste of public money,

as a result of an injust and weak decision.

-- unjust and weak zifpblgts Meanwhile Ed Miliband -- unjust and

weak decision. Meanwhile Ed Miliband was promoting Jon Cruddas

and Andrew Adonis. Both former supporters of his brother. This is

a Captain with total confidence in his crew. The Prime Minister didn't

seem too pleased about it. What's the big decision that the Leader of

the Opposition has taken this week? He took the person in charge of his

policy review, the honourable Member for Hodge Hill, and replaced

him with a policy chief who thinks Labour's problem is they are not

It hasn't exactly been a great week for Home Secretary Theresa May

either. First she was heckled by the police over yep, you've guessed

it, cuts. Let's stop pretending the police are being picked on. Every

part of the public sector is having to take its share of the pain.

then she is handbaged by screen legend Joan Collins, who demanded

via twit they are the Home Secretary sorts out the

omnishambles that is Heathrow Airport's border controls. I must

DM Joan to say there don't seem to be any queues around here. LOL. Is

that the time? Yes Angela, I'm coming. I'm on my

way. Lightning doesn't strike He's not been seen since! If you

are watching, come back. Interesting what's happening isn't

it? Mr Hollande hold in France has been elected on a supposedly anti-

austerity package. We've been talking about the anti-austerity

mood in Greece as well. There are other signs of it too, but the

British Government sticks to its fiscal discipline. Is it on the

wrong end of the tide of opinion? think the British circumstances are

different. What we have to cling on to is our lower interest rates than

most of the European countries who are doing as badly as we are. Spain

and Italy, whose economies are no worse than the British economy, are

paying 6-7% to borrow and we are paying 2% or less. That's the vital

difference. Wet have the ability to print our own money and vary our

interest rates and devalue our way out of trouble. Unfortunately this

advantage isn't going to last forever. Since our economy is not

growing and yet we are continuing to borrow 10% of our economy every

year, our national debt is rising. At some point the market will say

you may have an austerity programme but your national debt is much

worse and your Irish yoes are much worse. But what the Government --

ratios are much worse. The Government thinks if they showed

for a moment they are going to abandon their programme the markets

would punish us next day. On top of the incompetence the coalition is

accused of... The key finding isn't that we are 14 points ahead but

we've just begun to inch ahead on the economy. If if that trend

continues, that's fatal. Major never recovered from crashing out

of the ERM. A euro-type situation could do for them again.

frustrating for David Cameron that Ed Balls is able to argue, in the

absence of proof, that since we are able to borrow more cheaply why not

borrow and put it all on infrastructure? And the Liberal

Democrats believe this as much as the Conservatives, that that would

bring disaster in the markets. may do but the problem the

coalition faces, when the walk Bank of England said the economy was

going to grow by 0.8% this year many people thought that was

optimistic. If there is Armageddon in the eurozone it probably won't

grow next year. Could be approaching the 2015 election and

there is sill no sign of the sunny uplands that Mr Cameron used to

talk about. That's the central assumption. The downside is much

worse than that. And politically it becomes every man and woman for

himself. You say the Liberal Democrats understand, but what they

understand at the top is different from what people fighting for their

seats. It may be in Labour's interest that things don't get too

bad. If it really becomes a meltdown, if we are really in an

incredible economic crisis people will think we are not that keen on

the Tories but maybe stick with them when times are tough rather

They might do, but Nadine Dorries' posh boy narrative is pushing

through. The Blairites were saying Ed would have a bad... That's gone,

they are a bunch of whingers anyway. There is no doubt he leads Labour

into the next election. That's the important thing. In a way, the

Thatcherite strategy which was make lots of unpopular decisions but get

elected at the next election because people will think OK at

least you are doing what you believe has to be done, that

strategy is threatened by seven weeks in which the Government's

looked pretty incompetent with lots of contradictory decisions and U-

turns. But the coalition strategy at the

moment looks as if it's up the proverbable creek without a paddle.

0% of the cuts are still to come. That's the thing. That could come

just as the eurozone is washing across the channel and knocking our

economy down anyway -- 80% of the cuts are still to come. When you

say there is nothing to show for the policy, the thing to show is

invisible, I repeat it again, the fact that we are financing our debt

at 2%. No, listen Michael it's a long time since you have been

engaged in electoral politics. The elector couldn't give a stuff. What

they are seeing is insecurity, a Government which lacks incompetent

and things they care about, including their jobs and people

they know whose jobs are being cut. They are not up on bond rates

understand that but politicians in power have to take account of

what's real. Not Lib Dem backbenchers, you mark my words and

not Tory backbenchers who are worried about boundary changes and

want to be able to secure their constituency by being a voice to

their constituents irrespective of bond yields. When it comes to

economy, what is the good news for the coalition? There is none.

are not Michael We are not Spain, Italy, France or Greece. That's a

really big point. And if the continent really goes down the

chute, that could still resonate I suppose. There is a mini reshuffle.

So small you wouldn't notice. Exactly. Two people are not

household names outside their own households. Andrew Adonis and Jon

Cruddas who are big supporters of David Miliband, I remember, so that

shows a certain growing confidence for Ed? I think so. I think Ed is

growing in confidence. Jon Cruddas is an interesting person, a

supportive person of David Miliband, but he's close to unions. Andrew

Adonis is a big time Blairite but he's very able. I have a lot of

time for him. Very smart. Yes. Police Federation, the Home

Secretary, not the first Home Secretary to get a bad time, but

did the police overplay their hands? They certainly did. They got

a bad press the next day. For people to behave in that way who're

meant to be a disciplined force, by the way, just does look very bad.

People aren't stupid about this, working people know that policemen

have been retiring at 50. They know that vast numbers of police are on

the "sick", that it's a badly managed force in that respect, that

policemen who retire at aged 50 make off with pretty big pensions.

The money devoted to policing does not my any means go exclusively to

the frontline ah whole lot goes to pensions and sick pay and that's

got to change. Should a Tory-led Government which faced riots in the

major cities last summer and, we are saying maybe heading for even

more difficult economic circumstances, do you really want a

pick a fight with the police at this time? Governments have been

ducking reform of the police for decades and Ken Clarke had a go at

this many, many years ago. One day the police has got to be reformed.

The best context in which to do that is the context in which

everything else is being reformed as well pause of the new realities

of public spending. It remained largely unreformed under Labour?

What can I say? It does need a major jaefr haul. Just say yes? --

overhaul. I know it sounds silly, but there's something distasteful

about it when it's applyed to a woman minister, for some reason, do

you know what I mean. That's why people thought they overplayed

their hands. A brief question. Is it politically damaging to the

Prime Minister that his old school mate and his best media mate have

been charges, and I emphasise only charged with perverting the course

of justice? Yes. There was a point made on Question Time just now

which was that, you know, the Prime Minister had copied Blair

absolutely in wanting to be very close, a different expression was

used on Question Time, but to be very close to the Murdoch press, to

suck up to them, you might say. I'm afraid that's coming back to haunt

him. It's damaging and it will run and run. I'm glad you said that

quickly. Very quickly. We like a Liebfraumilch or drei

here on this week. When Diane Abbott turned her back on the

bright lights of BBC's Tinsel Town, snatched from the This Week bosom

by political talent spotting extraordinaire, Ed I am Miliband

and promoted to the dizzy heights of junior Shadow Minister for

Public Health, we were almost tempted to finish the bottle until

Diane rang up and told us we were over our limit. Typical Labour

killjoy. With public health and Nazis on the march, we decided it

was probably time gentlemen to put Broken Britain or booze Britain?

Scottish politicians are preparing to do something about it by making

their country the first in the EU to introduce minimum pricing for

alcohol at 50p per unit. Scotland suffers hugely from alcohol misuse,

it takes its toll on individuals, families, communities, our Health

Service, our Police Services, and this policy is designed to avoid

alcohol related deaths. David Cameron thinks binge drinking is

one of the scandals of our society. I'm not embarrassed about this. The

Scots have gone for minimum unit pricing on alcohol. I think that's

a good idea. Should politicians really dictate how much we drink?

When MP Eric Joyce was found guilty of nutting another MP, in the House

of Commons bar, it was a reminder that cheap booze isn't just an

issue for the general public. think drink was an aggravating

factor, there's no question about that, I have to deal with that

personally, but not everyone who drinks gets involved in fights,

certainly not when they are my age. Will minimum pricing stop people

reaching for the second can of special brew, or is it just a

policy that penalises the poor, rather than problem drinkers just

as long as they keep their hands off our precious blue stuff.

We had to get extra in because Diane's with us, it's obvious,

isn't it?! Jilly Goolden, twock the programme. You like to encourage

people to have a drink and good time. So do we, but does this

country, the United Kingdom, have an alcohol problem? There's a very

distinct difference between the sort of wines that I have been

recommending which have intrinsic character, they have a delight on

the taste buds, they smell delicious. Alcohol is just part of

them. Put those against something which is just a vehicle for alcohol,

something that is just alcohol at a cheap price, they're totally...

Most can't afford to drink your wines, can they? They can. The sort

of wines I'm talking about you could buy for under �5 and they

would be quite nice. You can get wine for under �56? It might be

astonishing to you, Andrew, but you can, and it's very drinkable.

right. If you can get cheap wine and it's still pretty good, is the

Scottish Government right to introduce the minimum price? We are

not talking about wine, I mean there are things like you have

probably never had one, a super strength cider. Do you know what,

for only �3.20, you can buy a two litre bottle which is as many units

as tiian and I could consume in a week. You have not met Diane! Be

careful what you are saying there. Maybe in a day! Maybe not a week

but a day. 15 units for �3.20. the posh folk can drink their

little Chateauneuf and you are penlising the poor people --

penalising the poor people? I don't think drinking alcohol is any

better per say than main lining because you are using it as a drug.

Alcohol should be part of something that's enjoyable and delicious.

Meez don't tell me that a super strength cider is enjoyable, it

isn't -- please. It tastes like vomit actually. It causes it too.

Probably not what they say in the East End of Glasgow. Why are

politicians so obsessed with penalising the poor when it comes

to alcohol? It's not about that. The minimum price won't affect

people that drink in pubs and clubs. The price is already above the

minimum? Yes, and in fact people who run pubs are in faufr of it.

It's targeting at ultra--cheap alcohol sold as a loss leader in

supermarkets which problem drinkers drink in big quantities and

youngsters before they even... get tanked up? Yes and they are

vomiting within 20 minutes. And the supermarkets will make a lot more

money? Well, yes, that is one of the by-products which is

unfortunate. Maybe things you could do with duty, but if Alex Salmond

brings it in in Scotland, we'll have to bring it in the same way

here. An off-licence in Carlisle or Berwick, we'd make a fortune. David

Cameron's talked kindly about this, we are probably going to get it in

England as well. The nanny state lives? I think we have a huge

problem with alcohol in this country but it seems to me

fundamentally cultural. Most countries do not have the problem

we have and probably their alcohol is cheaper than ours and more

readily available. But there are pressures on people not to be

publicly drunk. Now, I don't think you are going to simulate these

pressures simply by increasing the minimum price of alcohol. So I'm

not sure that I feel strongly about it either way. I feel convinced

that it's not going to be the solution to the problem. I think

Michael is right, there are cultural issues. Alcohol is hugely

more available than when I was a child. You went to an off-licence

or a pub. The pubs usually closed at 10 o'clock and respectable women

didn't go into pubs. All the doctors and people like Jilly say

you have to bring in a minimum price. The booze you were talking

about, it's the downmarket cheap booze you were talking about, it's

still going to be downmarket and it's still going to be cheap even

after the minimum pricing? Will it really make a difference? It's not

going to be nearly as cheap. The super strength ciders is 16p for

100ml, that is going to have to go up at least three fold. It's going

to become a bit more of a dent in your pocket to get hold of it.

Let's put you to the test we have a quiz. Three glasses of wine in font.

I won't ask you what the wine is, I am simply going to ask you to tell

me what the country is. Glass A? They are from Europe aren't they

I'm not telling you that. I thought I'd heard that. The first one? You

are the expert, you answer? 'S -- That's from France. The inside of a

car battery. France. You got that right. B? Germany. Tell me the

country? Germany because it's sweet. Again it's really not a very good

example of wine but it is from Germany. It is indeed. Well done.

It's actually Blue Nun. It was very sweet.

It only relaunched because we reinvented it here and not a penny

have we seen. Right, C? Espana. would know - Spanish. You are just

going with the crowd Diane. Such a copy cat. It's the nicest of the

three by far. Yes, I would go with Spain. I think toppically it should

be Greek but I don't think it is. You should have stuck with Greek

because it's Greek. There you go! trued you, Michael. Never trust

pill Portillo. His knowledge of wines and you end up being wrong!

It's the nicest one anyway. Something good about Greece tonight,

that is your lot for tonight in fact but not for us. The Shadow

frontbench night at Annabels, they lay the Shandys on especially.

Diane's promised Liam Byrne, the man stripped this week of his

policy role, one last dance before he gets to swim with the fishes. We