28/06/2012 This Week

Tonight, This Week is on Centre Court. The big hitters slog it out

at Wimbledon, the big bankers are double faulting and playing by

their own rules. Allister Heath says it is time for the umpire to

get tough. Bashing bankers has never been part

of this but after This Week's revelations they deserve all they

get. Chancellor George Osborne serves up another U-turn, over fuel

duties. Channel 4's Sarah Smith deals with a top-spin. The number

two seed was convinced he had served an ace, but his opponents

saw a double fault. There is always a handshake at the end of a tennis

match. How difficult is it for opponents to put differences aside.

Danny DeVito volleys some of our best loves. Are there people I

would prefer not to work with? You bet, but they're not on This Week!

Evening all, welcome to This Week. Our weekly game of Westminster

swingball, which ends in a bad temper. When it comes to tangles,

it seems that Boy George is To execute one U-turn is misfortune,

two is carelessness, to embark on a dismantling of a Budget is an of

any shambles. To let Ed Balls take the credit looks like a Government

which has lost the will to govern. What should be done, if you are the

Chancellor of the Exchequer in a Denis Healey-sized hole. Stop

digging. Better to have your inturn, such as Chloe Smith to face the

great Paxo. With 200,000 YouTube hits and climbing, being sacrificed

to protect her boss, it is a lesson for work experience staff

everywhere - never, ever volunteer for anything more than the photo

copying or making the coffee. It works with Danny Alexander. Three

of those who are never around when the pro-ver byal hits the fan --

proverbial hits the fan. We have the Princess Beatrice of late night

chat. I speak of Alan Johnson and chug, chug, chug, chug Michael

Portillo. I enjoyed that. It is the best exercise of the week. Your

moment of the week? The queeb has had a good week. I will pick today

when she opened the Bomber Command memorial. 50,000 men lost their

lives. So the numbers who survived it were 30 missions was very, very

small. Incredibly brave men, fighting in the most appalling

conditions. There was no element of the British fighting forces that

lost a larger proportion. They have had to wait all this time to get a

memorial because of course it was so controversial that 600,000

German citizens were killed. It has nothing to do with the bravery of

these men. I am delighted that the those who were killed and the

bravery of those who survived has been recognised. A wonderful

memorial. Marvellous. The last Lancaster we

have flying over... Very, very moving. It is the handshake. When I

was a union representative at the height of the troubles I

represented members in Northern Ireland. 16 of my members were

killed because they were postal workers. To see it transformed

because of the courage of people like Robinson and McGuinness and

yesterday the good judgment and diplomacy of the Queen, it was a

triumph of. She handled it with dignity. Tough for the Duke as well,

because his uncle was killed by the IRA. The queen has to do as she is

told. Should she have to shake Diamond day's hand? It has not been

a good week nor the banks again. First NatWest proved incapable of

fulfilling its fundamental role. Then Barclays was fined for

fiddling figures, in pursuit of bigger bonuses for big boy and

bollinger Lady! Is it time to string them up from

the lamppost? We have asked the editor of City AM, Allister Heath,

Once again, the whole country is engaging in a bunch of banker

baiting. I have defended them in the past. But not this time. This

time, I think they deserve all the flak they are getting and even more.

So, what did Barclays do wrong? They were found out manipulating a

key interest rate - the liable rate, of City's gold standard which

affects millions of consumers. Some rigged this for their financial

self-interest. Barclays, I am shocked to say, failed to control

some of their traders. Shame on them!

This latest scandal will have far- reaching consequences. To be honest

a �290 million fine is small fry for a bank like Barclays. People

will ask, why haven't there been prosecutions? It seems there is one

set of rules for rich rule-breakers and one for poor criminals. It does

not seem like we're all in this Barclays boss, Diamond day is not

the monster he has been made out to be. He was at the helm when the

scandal took place. Today his position is looking increasingly

wobbly. The Government will be under

pressure to further punish the City, but it should resist calls for

Don't forget, the City's vitally important to the British economy.

It employs hundreds of thousands and pays �60 billion in tax a year.

It needs sensible reform, not changes born out of a climate of

anger. Yet the tidle wave of revelations has only just begun.

Too many bankers turned a blind eye to some of their colleague's wrong

doing. It will take years for the City's reputation as an

international marketplace to recover. That is a tragedy for all

Allister Heath on the wobbly bridge over the Thames, now to our wobbly

bridge here in Westminster. This was a conspiracy to rig the market.

It is something Adam Smith warned us about 250 years ago. A lot of

people were thinking, this is not a matter for fines, you don't get

your bonus - this is criminal behaviour. This should be jail.

Well it sound like criminal behaviour, looks like it, but

according to the authorities it is not. That is the problem here. It

should be criminal behaviour. It is criminal behaviour to engage in

insider trading. Why isn't it a crime to do this sort of thing?

That is a major issue which needs to be tackled. Would the Americans

regard it as criminal behaviour? The American authorities began the

opening of this can of worms. It may not have happened if it were

not for them. They were on the ball in a way we were not in this

country. In a way this important market was run in ar amateur is way.

There was no proper -- in an amateur way. There was no proper

supervision. They did not care about the rules. Diamond day is the

chief executive of bark -- Bob Diamond is the chief executive of

Barclays Bank. He was the boss of Barclays Capital, the investment

arm, where all this shenanigans were taking place. He was giving an

interview about how bankers had paid their price - it was time to

move on. How stupid does that sound tonight? Very stupid, especially

that he must have known his bank was sitting on this scandal. Heads

will have to roll at Barclays. Someone senior will have to leave.

The second in command will be sacrifices everywhere. It is a bit

like the BBC! Michael Portillo, not a single

banker prosecuted since the start of this crisis. The contrast of the

two sides of the Atlantic is very marked. In the United States we see

people in handcuffs, people going to jail. It is what will happen. In

the case of Bob Diamond I would say he knew what was going on or he

would not know, in which case his position is in impossible. If you

don't know what is going on in your bank that is no defence. It sound

like you think he should go? I do. How do you explain to the public

that a Pakistani cricket who rigs a match goes to prison, but a banker

who rigs the interest market does not go to prison. How do you

explain fining a bank �200 million, which is a drop in the ocean for

these people, when we know the bonus pot is billions? Why does

Barclays keep its license? What is the point of reg laters f banks --

regulators, if banks that behave badly are not under threat. We saw

Enron go. I don't see why we should not see a big bank go. Unless we do,

none of this will come to an end. This is not the time to stop

banker-bashing. This is a moment to indulge in it. The law will not

constrain these people alone. What we have to do is stigmatise this

rotten behaviour and make it socially unacceptable. When we had

the big bang in the 1980s - this explosion of money and the breaking

of the old skooling, in some ways - the -- school, in some ways. The

old critique was about greed and greed and knowing the price of

everything and the value of nothing. Labour got into power, Mr Balls, Mr

Darling, Mr Brown, you allowed - it was a Wild West culture that

developed. If you remember the culture at the time, Michael was

Shadow Chancellor. The culture was about ensuring this huge asset we

had wasn't restricted and restrained too much. Setting up the

FSA, getting rid of three other regulatory bodies seems sensible.

In a hind site it is a mistake. We were talking about tax avoidance. I

agree with Michael about this - this leaves a bad taste in the

mouth. What about the morality of this? What were these people doing?

I will give you a bottle of Bollinger. There was a character

called rich -- Rich Ricky. You could not make it up! There is a

question mark here, I think Bob Diamond should go. They were fined

Barclays last year, �7.7 million. That is less than Bob Diamond's

bonus. If you have a centre-right and a centre-left commentator

making these remarks, I don't see how the banks can put their house

in order. There is a reason why Barclays will not lose its license,

is 20 major banks are being investigated for this scandal. What

we are saying is every single bank would have to lose its license.

There has been corruption here at the heart of the system. I think

the problem is not per se, right. I think the problem is greed which is

unchecked by fear. That is the problem that has happened in the

banking system, because you knew you could be bailed out, because

you knew the Government would step in and save you if things went

wrong. You were not cautious enough N the case of this particular sand

--. In the case of this particular scandal there was no umpire to

check what was going on. It has got worse rather than better. In 207

you might doubt that your bank would be rescued. Before 207 you

might have thought, maybe we can -- 2007 you might have thought maybe

You see the politicians struggling. The sound byte today of David

Cameron. Ed Miliband giving a speech. It's always kind of,

nothing to do with me, we are against it, we can't find the words

to condemn it, yet they seem to limited in what they can really do?

That's got to change. I hear tonight that there are bits of

legislation that they can be prosecuted under. I mane -- mean,

it would just be remarkable if the public see, and are disgusted like

this, see clear criminality and find there's no law. It happened

under Labour, but it's the Conservatives in power and I guess

it's a plague on all your Houses as far as the public's concerned?

absolutely. They blame everybody for this. To be honest, if you look

at whole financial crisis which is different from this particular

problem, I don't think financial crisis was caused by criminality, I

think it was caused by massive - where just about everyone is to

blame, Central Banks, the Americans, Chinese, regulators, consumers,

bankers, investors, absolutely frb. That's the issue. We feel not had

the right reform when it comes to the banking and financial system.

Maybe we should have a banking for the Leveson -- Leveson for the

banking sment. Sounds like you are saying this is just the tip of the

iceberg. Barclays got fined but they were first up. They kind of

fessed up when they got rumbled. Other banks could be in line for

bigger fines now? I suspect we'll see bigger fines for other banks

which is a massive blow for London's reputation as a financial

centre because this was a key global interest rate that was set

here in London and basically what's happened is that London's not got

its act together. The banks were not able to do something that

worked that was trustworthy. That's a massive blow for the UK economy.

Ultimately, the City's vitally important to the UK economy and

pays a lot of tax, employs a lot of people. It needs to be reformed

sensibly to make it work better to make it stronger and unfortunately,

we've got all these problems. very important when the banks say

you mustn't kill the goose that lays the golden eggs by over-

regulation. Actually, a vital part of the City is that people should

have confidence that it is properly regulated.

The rest of the world uses this rate, it looks to London because it

thinks it can trust London. We didn't become prosperous by

being the sharks but by being the best regulated market. These two

think kb Bob Diamond should go. Shall me and you agree that he

probably won't go? Diamond came out fighting today. But someone will

have to go for this. Other people will have to go at other banks but

it's not just a problem with barricallys but a lot of global

banks. Expecting the board to do anything about it is a pathetic

hope isn't it? That's not going to happen. There could be more bodies

lying around in the coming week. Those of you who have trouble

sleeping at night - talking to you Gary Barlow and you Bob Diamond.

Put aside those pills and pour yourself a picture of the van bleu

instead. Coming up - and we can hardly believe it ourselves -

Hollywood director, producer, star of the West End stage, Danny Devito.

He'll be talking about the art of putting personal and political

differences aside and for those of you who can't help burying a grudge,

which is most of the audience, remember, in's the Twitter, the

fleecebook and the missionary position interweb. Strawberries and

cream time again when the great and good and under employed bunk off

for the day and rock up at the Royal Box at Wimbledon for the

yearly Festival of High-class sport and middle-class work donling.

Leading the way is Britain's most famous NEAT, that's not in

education, employment or training, yes, pip that Middleton, so we

decided if it's good enough for her, it's probably not good enough for

us. We sent the girl with the tattoo, Channel 4's Sarah Smith,

this is the round-up of the Thank you heavens for Wimbledon. A

Championship as British as strawberries and cream. A ver

itable bastion of civility and respectability. OK, some of the

tennis stars might be sporting the odd power tattoo these days but I

bet they could still teach our British politicians a thing or two

about fair play in sporting behaviour. And after all, you can't

Now, it's not just tennis stars displaying a fondness for body art

these days. It's said that Winston Churchill had an anchor tattooed on

his arm. So was the Chancellor George Osborne thinking Churchill

or Popeye when he revealed his latest surprise? A delay in the 3p

rise in fuel duty. Now, he can't tell us how much it's going to cost

and he can't tell us where the money's going to come from, but he

still thought he'd served an ace. His opponents saw a double fault.

We are on the side of working families and businesses and this

will fuel our recovery at this very difficult economic time for the

world. The Shadow Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls is more of a bare knuckle

fighter than tennis player, the kind of man who might have love and

hate tattooed on his fists but he saw the opportunity to lob a few

long shots at the Chancellor. have had U-turns on pasties,

churches, charities, caravans, skips and today a U-turn on fuel

which we welcome. The Chancellor did manage to return

most volleys but for some reason, he didn't seem confident in his

game off the court, so we put the ballgirl up against an old Grand

Slam master. Can you tell us from which departments that gap is going

to be made up? The figure will be drawn from under-spends in

departmental budgets. Yes. Where? Which department is it going to

come from? They fall from different... Just name me a few

departments? No, I won't do that because we'll be... You don't know?

We'll give you the details in the autumn statement. Are you waiting

to be told that as well? No. Do you ever wake up in the morning and

think, my God, what am I going to be told today?

Not exactly an impressive display of girl power there, but in the

week when we saw the Spice Girls all back together again, we also

saw some sisterly solidarity in the Conservative Party. Two female Tory

MPs did stand up for Chloe Smith, one of them called George Osborne a

coward for not going on Newsnight himself. And then, the Tory party's

number one seed had to display fancy footwork when he was caught

at the net. The fuel duty incress was a Labour tax rise. It cannot be

a U-turn to get rid of a Labour tax increase.

The Government has grown accustomed to losing a few game points over

their U-turns by now and they know it won't necessarily cost them the

match. But the real problem for team Cameron is how can he promise

to spend every penny on slashing the deficit and then spend all that

cash on tax cuts for motorists and Easy to think all the sporting

action is taking place in London this summer but don't forget the

fun and games in the eurozone as yet another crucial European summit

gets going in Brussels. Even the Governor of the Bank of England,

Mervyn King, says he doesn't know who's going to win this game. Now,

where do we go from here? When this crisis began, 2007, 200,

most people, including ourselves, did not believe that we would still

be right in the thick of it, the middle of it, five years later. All

the way through, I said to the committee, I don't think we are

It's a rare day at Wimbledon when it isn't raining and it's tempting

to think that maybe this brief spell of good weather inspired

David Cameron's blue sky thinks when it came to rel fare we form.

For literally millions, the passage to independence is several years

living in their childhood bedroom as they save to move out while for

others it's a trip to the council where they can get Housing Benefit

at 18 or 19, even if they are not really actively seeking work.

have some big ideas on welfare reform, a growing economic crisis

in the eurozone and a double dip recession here at home. That is a

lot of balls in the air. So when Lib Dem MPs insist now is the right

time to introduce a Bill to reform the House of Lords, you can see why

other MPs accuse them of rather unsporting behaviour.

The idea that you can't do more than one thing at once in politics

just as in life, I just think it's really silly.

Even if Nick Clegg does get his bay way, the new look Upper House won't

be filled with the Senators until 2025, and we can only hope this

influx of commoners doesn't dilute She'll never get the tattoos off,

you know. We are joined, as we often rrbgs and we welcome you,

Miranda Green. We are sitting here in the Westminster village which

says all parties in their manifesto backed House of Lords reform in

principle? Indeed. Stkpwh I mean the three main party leaders,

National Partys, say that they want it to happen, they are going to

instruct their traps to vote and yet as we sit here, the consensus

is it won't happen. Explain? I think this is one of these rather

depressing occasions where the merits of the case, in this case

for reform of the upper chamber have been completely lost in

political in-fighting, intrigue, tit-for-tat revenge now from the

backbenchers of the two coalition parties, the Tory party were very

insulted that Nick Clegg didn't back David Cameron over Jeremy Hunt

and the sort of slightly getting their revenge by saying they'll

rebel over House of Lords reform. The Labour Party for their own

reasons are saying this isn't right, we don't like the way it's being

handled in Parliament and don't like the way it's going to be

debated. So it's an unholy mess. I think if you are the Liberal

Democrats and you after 100 years have an opportunity to have a go,

you have to cheerlead as one of your own priorities. We know it's

important to Nick Clegg and he sees this as a way of making up for the

complete shambles of the AV referendum. But is it really that

important to Lib Dems in the large? Is it really an issue that gets him

out of bed? I think that's a very, very good question actually and is

the right one and I think the Lib Dems should ask it of themselves

actually because... It's hard to tell isn't it? The reason for this

coalition is not actually a comprehensive programme of

constitutional reform. It is to do with stability and the economy

which, as we have seen today, you know, is far from solved. However,

it's the case that you can do more than one thing at a time. And also

really Parliamentarians have moaned now for a very long time what the

executive is too powerful, Parliament doesn't have enough ways

of reining them in. This is a way of adding legitimacy to Parliament

and it's an opportunity that people who're serious about reform should

think. Labour is supporting it in principle, as they should, the

elected second chamber, overwhelmingly elected and you are

going to cause as much trouble as possible in the process? Well, I'm

not and we are supporting the second reading and I support this

as much as Nick Clegg. I don't know why we are saying the Lib Dems

should be supporting this, it was one of kaer Hardy's founding

principles, it's a monument of pat Ronage, institutionalised snobbery.

It's a stain upon our democracy. Since 1997, there's been lots of

attempts to find a middle way because there's people worried

about primacy in the Commons et cetera and great Labour stalwarts

like one of my heroes, the late Robin Cook, Tony Wright, others

working with people like William Hague and George Young came up with

this, called breaking the dead log, which I supported. All these

proposals came from that discussion. We have all had to compromise.

party's not going to vote for the programme motion which is the

motion that allowed... Since it's a constitutional issue, got to take

place on the floor of the House, you don't have a programme motion

limiting the time to reasonable amounts, it will dominate the whole

session? But there's a very good point about this, which given that

it's Lord's reform, if we send it to the Lord's and it's not been

properly debated in the Commons, that won't be good. There should be

a referendum on big constitutional issues like this. I think it knead

a referendum and that's a very important thing. Where are you on

this Michael? The House of Lords in its present form is in a hopeless

state of affairs, however it's a huge leap to go from saying the

solution is to elect 80% of the members for 15-year terms. I think

that's a ludicrous proposal. So I don't actually agree with what

Miranda said that it's tit-for-tat. I think it's hard to believe that

this is the right proposal that you should make. My own solution would

be to go bit by bit, cut the House of Lords in half, then get rid of

the hereditaries, cut in half probably by having an election

within the members of the House of Lords to see which were the popular

people who could stay and see how The American Senate manages with

100. Another week, another U-turn. What do you think the U-turn will

be next week? I think it is a sign, as was the �80 billion injection

into the banks of how serious the Government thinks things are. It

does not enjoy doing U-turns. It is a serious amount of money. Where is

the money coming from. The Government believe the stimulus is

needed to prevent the further stalling of the economy. On this

fall out from the Budget, the collateral damage is to the Tories?

The Lib Dems are well shielded. Even though they are responsible?

Cumulatively the pain is shared. You get the impression that if you

push hard enough on any issue the Government will cave in, which does

not make it look like a strong front. You need a strong Government.

If it is not plan B, what is it? This should have been good news,

shouldn't it? It makes it seem as if there's no skill. The way that

George Osborne handled this, from springing it on, aparently the

Cabinet, poor old Justine Greening was going out to defend it. If the

fiscal deve it is is your number one priority, you don't -- deficit

is your number one priority, you don't throw it away. You can make

an argument on that and you can't say, we'll take it from

departmental under-spends. underlines how worryed the

Government is about the financial position. Let's look at what

happened. In June 2010, the Chancellor told us it would be five

years of austerity to get the fiscal deficit right. In the Pre-

Budget Report last year, he told us two. We are up to seven. The

Cabinet Secretary says up to 10 and now the Governor of the Bank of

England says we're not even half- way through. You have to look at

what is going on, the economy is not growing. We are borrowing 8% of

national GDP every year. When the national debt reaches a certain

point the markets go wild. And the problem for the coalition is the

original game plan, with the five years, everything would be hunky

dorry you would fight the 2015 election saying we know it has hurt,

but we've been through the worst and the sunny up lands around the

corner, don't let Labour screw it up. This was an interesting week.

Some of it last week, with Michael Gove playing to the gallery, you

know, the Tory Party seems to me is starting to lay out its stall for

the next election. Everyone will think in this way. The background

is a decade or more of austerity. All these problems which have been

kicked into the long grass - what do you do with an ageing population

- they have to be addressed. thrash the country and then you

throw some money at it. He's been thinking to get that line

in. Thank you to Alan Johnson's script writer for that!

Now Michael and Diane, Michael and Jacqui, Michael and Alan. It is

like a Westminster wife-swapping party, choo, choo Portillo has a

different parter in every week. How easy is it to put aside your

personal and professional differences and keep it up so late

# Bring me sunshine # In your smile # As Danny DeVito

takes to the West End, reunited with a partner he's not spoken to

for years, can personal differences be put aside for one last show? The

Spice Girls seem to think so, with the launch of their new musical,

even if Posh does not want to be there. It doesn't matter how long

it is - 16 years on, we feel like family members. With speculation

that Danny will get together with Arnold Schwarzenegger for a Twins

sequel, are personal differences easier to overcome? Northern

Ireland shows what is possible, with a royal Belfast handshake that

has brought 1,000 words. This is an opportunity for me to extend the

hand of peace and reconciliation to Queen Elizabeth. So long as our own

sunshine boys keep their roving We are joined by Danny DeVito.

Hello. Who does think these two share a bed. Got our pyjamas on.

That is really crazy. I was looking outside, desperately trying to find

a striped shirt to put on. No, two is more than enough. You are

treading the boards. You are in The Savoy theatre, you are doing The

Sunshine Boys, a tale of two former stars who are very different. You,

as an actor and director, have you been forced to work with somebody

who you would prefer not to?Vy very fortunate, like most of the

time I have worked with really nice people and I have a lot of friends

who I work with a lot over and over again. Like Michael Douglas, Jack

Nichol son. All these guys I have grown up with. They are all really,

really kind, generous people. I've been in a good spot for many, many

years, on Taxi - all the people on Taxi, we were like a family for

five years. Nobody you would have said, "Get me out of this studio!"

There are people who may not focus the way you like them to. Those are

the people you avoid. Those are the people who have their own problems

and thinks that they... That's personal stuff. Somebody like, for

instance, if a movie star, say, or a director or producer, who treats

the people who work for them in not a kind way, an unkind way, those

are the people that you just say, you put a tag on that and you say,

if they, if that's the way they're going to be in life, you would

rather not work with them. But most of them... I have been very

fortunate. Acting, when you look from the outside, acting seems like

a love-in, everybody is publicly nice to each other, which is the

opposite of politics. Behind, away from the public gaze, can it be

just bitchy as politics? It depends on the whole... And my mother used

to say, that fish stinks from the head. So, if you have a situation

where I produced many movies and have acted in many, directed seven

or eight. The idea is, if the person in the helm has a clear,

first of all they understand what they want, and they are not

operating out of greed and fear, then, you know, they are really

genuinely thinking about the project. Most of the time it will

work out really good. Things will be smooth. There may be differences

of opinion and this, that and the other, but in the long-term, it's

solid. If there's something up there -- somebody up there what is

not a really good person, somebody who is abusing the power, then it

is the same thing in movies or politics or anywhere. For you, what

has been more difficult to reconcile - personal or political

differences? I find everybody has their own certain world view of

things which are going on. Personal differences, I mean, like I said, I

have been very fortunate to work with people who I have gotten on

with and occasionally you butt heads with maybe a studio executive

or some financial things where they are in a spot where they need to

fight for, to keep the budget down. Sometimes and that happens, it has

happened in the past, but never to the point where it was

irreconcilable. Like Arnold and I. We are totally opposite ends, I am

a Democrat. He's a Republican. He was a supporter of Alex Bushill --

of George Bush. I am not. We have those kind of... You get on well?

We get on well like on set. We've done two movies together. We are

planning a third. Are you going to do another one? Now he has finished

with this insanity of being governor of California. You mean go

back to a real job. Are you often mistaken for each other? No. The

idea is that now we have been speaking, just before I came here

to do The Sunshine Boys, which I am having a great time doing with

Richard Griffiths. Before that, we had several dinners, talked about

the possibility of doing a new movie and we decided that we wanted

to call it Triplets and we reached out to Eddie Murphy to see if he

would.... That would work! Politics involves working people you don't

like, because row have no choice. Let me give you an example, not

someone I didn't like but after Michael Heseltine challenged

Margaret Thatcher for the leadership and unseated Margaret

Thatcher, it felt to me the day after that to work for Michael

Heseltine. I found the experience uplifting. We worked to abolish the

poll tax, the community charge and we were politically different, but

it was uplifting. We had to find a way to win the subsequent election,

getting rid of the poll tax. He remains a very good friend for me

today. Do you care to tell us who you don't like working with?

The biggest challenge in politics is a coalition. Each party is a

coalition. That is true. In our country it is different.

Right now, what's going on right now is not a... You have got people

who are definitely just one, with one thing on their mind. It has

become personal. It is like a big, it's a big... Just yesterday they

voted to allow, uphold the crazy law where you can, anybody can

donate, any corporation... amount of money. So all these

people with billions of dollars pay money to get people into office and

do anything they can. It's not like really what politicians are

supposed to be doing. They are supposed to represent the voice of

the people. Have you noticed a time when America was more polarised and

politics more bitter than it is now and the media egging it on in

America? Look things all over the world are not getting better. It's

not only politics, it's like everything - the population, the

supply of water. Everything is getting, we're... The planet is

shrinking. We're becoming like. We're a blink in the eye. We are

just like that. That is what we are. If you look at the eve vow luegsry

scheme of things, we are like a tiny blink. We don't realise that.

We think we'll be here forever. It's not true. So, it may be our

time. We want maybe see all this, but if we have children or

grandchildren, their children, anybody who you invest your

emotional investment into, you have got to look down the line and say

it is going faster and faster. It is deteriorating. We have run out

of time. Good luck in The Sunshine Boys. Come and see us at The

Savoy.Ly be there until 20th July. That is your lot tonight, folks.

Not for us. For once we are going to sofrbl unionist with the ASBO

dodging crews. We are off to their favourite fish and chip shop - The

Laughing Halibut, in Victoria. Which celebrates 30 years in the

business and nearly 10 years of making our production office

stinking of vinegar. News that MPs have taken their sex-change,

gender-reassignment surgery of Big Ben just a little too far. We say,