Browse content similar to 05/07/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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SONG: Diamonds Are Forever. Tonight on This Week: As Britain's | :00:17. | :00:20. | |
biggest Diamond loses his sparkle - and his job - politicians argue | :00:20. | :00:25. | |
over how to clean up the City. American author and former City | :00:25. | :00:27. | |
Girl, Barbara Stcherbatcheff, tells us why banking is so full of | :00:27. | :00:35. | |
imperfections. Clearly there's a lot that needs to change about City | :00:35. | :00:41. | |
culture. If women were in charge, we might be in less of a mess. | :00:41. | :00:44. | |
At Westminster, politicians are not just trying to cut bankers down to | :00:44. | :00:49. | |
size, but announcing major cuts to the Army. The Sun's Jane Moore is | :00:49. | :00:56. | |
judging whether the news can be polished. Just as Dave's inner Tory | :00:56. | :01:02. | |
seems to be breaking free, it's been put back under lock and key. | :01:02. | :01:04. | |
And some things are just more precious than diamonds, as | :01:04. | :01:07. | |
scientists make an historic discovery about the universe. 24- | :01:07. | :01:17. | |
:01:17. | :01:18. | ||
carat Professor, Brian Cox, is bedazzled. Diamond probably aren't | :01:18. | :01:28. | |
:01:28. | :01:32. | ||
forever, because even protons decay. Diamonds are forevahhhh... Evenin' | :01:32. | :01:35. | |
all. Welcome to This Week, the Diamante jewel in the BBC's | :01:35. | :01:39. | |
political crown. And welcome to a new age of science and | :01:39. | :01:41. | |
enlightenment, because tonight, dear viewer, we can confirm the | :01:41. | :01:44. | |
existence of something that, until now, has avoided all attempts at | :01:44. | :01:48. | |
discovery. There has been speculation for years, but firm | :01:48. | :01:52. | |
evidence was stubbornly hard to come by. No I'm not talking about | :01:52. | :01:54. | |
the "Greed particle", which explains why Barclay's gave a new | :01:54. | :02:03. | |
meaning to fixed interest. Boom- boom. That's been around for years. | :02:03. | :02:06. | |
No, I'm talking about something far harder to spot. But yesterday when | :02:06. | :02:08. | |
Bob Diamond "isn't forever after all" appeared before the Treasury | :02:08. | :02:11. | |
Select Committee, we finally witnessed what had been up until | :02:11. | :02:14. | |
now only a theoretical possibility. Yes, for a few flickering moments, | :02:14. | :02:16. | |
and using highly calibrated journalistic instruments | :02:16. | :02:18. | |
specifically designed to measure things of infinitesimal size, there | :02:18. | :02:20. | |
was the faintest glimpse of something that has eluded | :02:20. | :02:23. | |
Westminster observers since the beginning of time itself - an MP's | :02:23. | :02:33. | |
:02:33. | :02:33. | ||
backbone, in close proximity to a banker. Sceptics claim that until | :02:33. | :02:36. | |
the phenomena is replicated on a larger scale, it's far too early to | :02:36. | :02:39. | |
tell whether this was a genuine backbone or merely the traditional | :02:39. | :02:44. | |
sighting of an MP showing off because they're on the telly. | :02:44. | :02:48. | |
Speaking of those who have no need to grow a pair, I'm joined on the | :02:48. | :02:51. | |
sofa tonight by two men who often cause Bob Diamond to be physically | :02:51. | :02:58. | |
ill. Me too! The big boy, and big hair, of late night political chat. | :02:58. | :03:00. | |
I speak, of course, of #rivieragigolo Alastair "did I | :03:00. | :03:02. | |
mention my diaries?" Campbell. And #sadmanonatrain Michael "Choo-choo" | :03:02. | :03:11. | |
Portillo. Welcome to you both. Thank you Andrew. Your moment of | :03:11. | :03:15. | |
the week? I think the decision of the Bank of England to print | :03:15. | :03:21. | |
another �50 billion worth of stuff today. This takes it up to �375 | :03:21. | :03:29. | |
billion. It reminds me of, you know in those American ER films where a | :03:29. | :03:34. | |
body comes in on a stretcher and they say, "Clear!" and they put on | :03:34. | :03:39. | |
a couple of electrodes and it has a spasm. This is about the fourth | :03:39. | :03:43. | |
time these electrodes have been applied to the British economy. | :03:43. | :03:52. | |
the body is still stiff. There is quivering from the legs but no sign | :03:52. | :03:57. | |
of life. Alastair? My moment of the week was the joy in Spain at the | :03:57. | :04:01. | |
winning the euros and the next morning weigh up to the economic | :04:01. | :04:06. | |
reality, but just showing that sport can give a country a massive | :04:06. | :04:11. | |
lift. For a fleeting moment. For a few brief moments. It was | :04:11. | :04:15. | |
extraordinary. Amazing. outpouring in Madrid. Great scenes | :04:15. | :04:18. | |
in Madrid. Now, that Diamond geezer from | :04:18. | :04:20. | |
Barclays won't easily forget this week. First, he was forced to | :04:20. | :04:24. | |
resign, then forced to learn the first names of a bunch of lowly MPs | :04:24. | :04:27. | |
on the Treasury Select Committee. But is the root of his problem not | :04:27. | :04:31. | |
rate fixing but too much testosterone? You only have to look | :04:31. | :04:34. | |
at our sofa to know what a problem that can be. And former city girl | :04:34. | :04:37. | |
Barbara Stcherbatcheff thinks it's a big problem in the Square mile, | :04:37. | :04:47. | |
:04:47. | :04:48. | ||
so we've asked her for her take of the week. | :04:48. | :04:51. | |
# A kiss on the hand may be quite Continental | :04:51. | :04:55. | |
# But diamonds are a girl's best friend... # | :04:55. | :05:00. | |
When I worked in the City, many of these diamond would have been | :05:00. | :05:05. | |
within my means. Now all I can do is look. I worked in London's | :05:05. | :05:10. | |
financial centre for five years, surrounded by the fast cars, fancy | :05:10. | :05:13. | |
lifestyles and champagne that many people envy. Sounds great, right? | :05:13. | :05:18. | |
For the guys, absolutely, but there's a dark side to all the fun | :05:18. | :05:21. | |
and games. Unfortunately, this latest scandal with Barclays and | :05:21. | :05:25. | |
LIBOR appears to be the tip of the iceberg. It is amazing some of | :05:25. | :05:29. | |
these traders involved appear not to fear getting caught. It only | :05:29. | :05:33. | |
goes to show the sheer arrogance and pig-headedness in that | :05:33. | :05:36. | |
permeates much of London's financial community. | :05:36. | :05:42. | |
# There may come a time when a wife needs a lawyer | :05:42. | :05:46. | |
# But diamonds are a girl's best friend... # | :05:46. | :05:50. | |
Two issues have contributed to such a destructive environment. The | :05:50. | :05:55. | |
first is something we can probably do something about - the business | :05:55. | :05:59. | |
model. The short-term risk-taking culture which fuels excessive | :05:59. | :06:04. | |
gambling in the sector. This can be corrected. But the second issue is | :06:04. | :06:09. | |
much harder to office, and that is greed. They say trading is a man's | :06:09. | :06:16. | |
game, but I don't believe the hype. Everybody knows that women are more | :06:16. | :06:20. | |
intuitive, less aggressive and egotistical, which means they tend | :06:20. | :06:29. | |
to be more consistent traders who don't rack up huge losses. How many | :06:29. | :06:34. | |
rogue or disgraced traders do you know who are women in zero. | :06:34. | :06:37. | |
Statistically they are better traders. Researchers at Cambridge | :06:37. | :06:42. | |
found a link between trading and testosterone that those with too | :06:42. | :06:47. | |
much testosterone became drunk with success, so overconfident they | :06:47. | :06:57. | |
:06:57. | :06:59. | ||
could no longer properly make sound decisions. The City now condones or | :07:00. | :07:03. | |
even demands male traits. The pressure to conform sun relenting. | :07:04. | :07:08. | |
As a woman in the Square Mile you either buy into it or you leave. | :07:08. | :07:18. | |
:07:18. | :07:18. | ||
Just like I did. Barbara Stcherbatcheff in the 77 diamond | :07:18. | :07:22. | |
studio of central London. She is in our little diamond studio now. | :07:22. | :07:27. | |
Welcome. So you think it is all down to a male macho culture, is | :07:27. | :07:33. | |
that the real reason? I wouldn't oversimplify it. I would think that, | :07:33. | :07:37. | |
my book describes City culture in great depth. There are 200 books on | :07:37. | :07:42. | |
the chef about the City and how it caused the credit crunch and all | :07:42. | :07:47. | |
this, but mine is the real one that gets to the pig-headedness that | :07:47. | :07:53. | |
permeates the financial industry in London. Maybe that it is behind | :07:53. | :07:56. | |
some of the bad behaviour we've seen. Do you think it is related to | :07:56. | :08:02. | |
the City this kind of macho culture? Yeah, I do. You do? You | :08:02. | :08:09. | |
should try a tabloid newsroom! A good point. Especially when it is | :08:09. | :08:14. | |
run by a woman. That's the point in a way. I will come to you on that. | :08:14. | :08:18. | |
Often for the women to get on in these macho cultures, whether it is | :08:18. | :08:23. | |
a City trading floor or a tabloid news floor, the women have to | :08:23. | :08:29. | |
behave like men. I don't think they do. You didn't behave like a man | :08:29. | :08:36. | |
did you? I was very much one of the guys. I like adrenaline sports. As | :08:36. | :08:42. | |
long as you can dish it out. That's the way to get on, to be like them. | :08:43. | :08:47. | |
It is. No-one ever treated me badly in the City. Journalists are always | :08:47. | :08:51. | |
trying to tell me that you are blonde and you are I don't think, | :08:51. | :08:55. | |
people treated you so badly. That's not the way it works now days. It | :08:55. | :08:59. | |
is just sort of like, you would have this extreme macho culture, | :08:59. | :09:03. | |
but there is other male-dominated industries, medicine and | :09:03. | :09:07. | |
architecture. They don't behave like that. They don't spend 50 | :09:07. | :09:11. | |
grand... Did you have to do all that shouting and screaming? Is | :09:11. | :09:16. | |
there no other way you can be on a trading floor and behave like that? | :09:16. | :09:21. | |
Some of the best traders sit there quietly all day long in front of | :09:21. | :09:26. | |
their screen. That's posturing. you buy the testosterone arguments? | :09:26. | :09:31. | |
I think I have a more economic analysis. If you incentivise people | :09:31. | :09:35. | |
to make as much money as they possibly can, if you have a no | :09:35. | :09:38. | |
moral code that surround the thing, if you have almost no chance that | :09:38. | :09:44. | |
people are going to be named and shamed and and disgraced. If you | :09:44. | :09:48. | |
have almost zero chance that they are going to be prosecuted, even if | :09:48. | :09:53. | |
the bank was bankrupted it would be allowed to fairblgs it leads to | :09:53. | :09:59. | |
catastrophic behaviour. There is no great puzzle to this. Which you | :09:59. | :10:04. | |
might get if there were a lot more women on there trading floor. | :10:04. | :10:08. | |
think having more women on the trading floor might be a civilising | :10:08. | :10:12. | |
force. I don't think that having more women in the City is the | :10:12. | :10:19. | |
salvation of the City. I think that there is maybe greed and | :10:19. | :10:23. | |
deceitfulness this is factor in what we've seen in the past week. | :10:23. | :10:28. | |
Maybe those are arguably more male characteristics. There are more | :10:28. | :10:33. | |
women in tabloid newsrooms now than there are 30 years ago. Has that | :10:34. | :10:38. | |
made a change to the atmosphere, do you think? I'm not in tabloid | :10:39. | :10:42. | |
newsrooms any more, but I don't think it has. A dominant culture | :10:42. | :10:46. | |
takes a long time to change and move to a difficulty position. The | :10:46. | :10:50. | |
little I know about the way City trading operates, that is a culture | :10:50. | :10:55. | |
that even what's going on now it will be very hard to shift it. You | :10:55. | :10:58. | |
say that you didn't feel badly treated because you were young and | :10:58. | :11:05. | |
blonde and the rest of it, but when we talk about the testosterone- | :11:05. | :11:11. | |
filled atmosphere, isn't that not a difficult place for a young woman | :11:11. | :11:15. | |
to be? Absolutely. People read my book and they are inspired to go | :11:15. | :11:20. | |
into the City, because they realise it is not that bad. It is not the | :11:20. | :11:24. | |
rough and tumble place that it is made out to be. However, you goat a | :11:24. | :11:30. | |
stage when it gets to be too much. It is like the pressure to go out | :11:30. | :11:36. | |
drinking every single night. The pressure, it is like the demands of | :11:36. | :11:41. | |
the industry are kind of, it is sort of condones and even demands | :11:41. | :11:47. | |
male traits after a certain period of time. So maybe that's | :11:47. | :11:51. | |
contributing to the sort of LIBOR scandal that we are seeing. Do we | :11:51. | :11:55. | |
know that all the people involved in the LIBOR scandal are men? | :11:55. | :12:00. | |
don't. No-one's been named have they? They are likely to be, as | :12:00. | :12:09. | |
traders are overwhelmingly male. is about 85%. There you go. Wasn't | :12:09. | :12:14. | |
something that made it more macho for the British that Bob Diamond | :12:14. | :12:18. | |
was an American. I think it is easier to attack him because he is | :12:18. | :12:22. | |
an American. I it won't Barclays first, because Barclays, if they | :12:22. | :12:27. | |
were acting independently, wouldn't be able to manipulate anything in | :12:27. | :12:31. | |
the market. Sure. But Fred Goodwin was the one who took all the het | :12:31. | :12:36. | |
when the crash happened. I always felt... Bob Diamond talked a lot | :12:36. | :12:40. | |
about the culture of Barclays. I would subject Michael that in a | :12:40. | :12:44. | |
bank like Barclays, which is both retail and investment, there isn't | :12:44. | :12:48. | |
a single culture. The kind of culture you need for a retail bank | :12:48. | :12:52. | |
to be successful and honest and upright is entirely different from | :12:52. | :12:56. | |
the casino bank culture of the investment bankers. Absolutely. The | :12:56. | :13:00. | |
bit that he ran before he became chief executive of Barclays was the | :13:00. | :13:06. | |
casino element. By the way, I think this crisis is 30% about morality | :13:06. | :13:11. | |
and 70% about competence. A lot of this is about how badly banks do | :13:11. | :13:15. | |
their job. How badly they are able to control behaviours. How badly | :13:15. | :13:19. | |
they are able to service their customers. In the other part of the | :13:19. | :13:25. | |
room, what you've got going on is RBS and its subsidiaries unable to | :13:26. | :13:30. | |
access their money. And in Ulster tonight they still can't do that. | :13:30. | :13:36. | |
The Americans are less squeamish about sending people to jail. They | :13:36. | :13:42. | |
even have the prep walk. Under Reagan there were squillions of | :13:42. | :13:46. | |
them. We are more squeamish about that. If we are going to have | :13:46. | :13:49. | |
American Trading Standards on the trading floor, should we also have | :13:49. | :13:55. | |
American standards of regulation and criminal sanction? I think the | :13:55. | :14:02. | |
SAC has a reputation for hiring smarter people, a job at the SAC is | :14:02. | :14:06. | |
paid extremely well. It is prestigious. It is like working for | :14:06. | :14:13. | |
the FBI. The FSA is not the same. You have to sort of, if you want | :14:13. | :14:17. | |
people working there who can discover these kind of ethical or | :14:17. | :14:26. | |
criminal breaches, you need to pay It was really shocking that when | :14:26. | :14:30. | |
the FSA and its sister company many the US announced the fine, the | :14:30. | :14:33. | |
regulators over here said the presumption was that they wouldn't | :14:34. | :14:38. | |
be able to prosecute. Prima facie, there's clearly been conspiracy to | :14:38. | :14:42. | |
commit fraud. How prima facie you can conclude there hasn't been a | :14:42. | :14:45. | |
crime, there's nothing worth investigating or prosecuting. | :14:45. | :14:48. | |
not forget, if it hadn't been for the American regulators, this | :14:48. | :14:52. | |
wouldn't have come about in the first place. They started the | :14:52. | :14:56. | |
investigation. When you said the authority are squeamish, I don't | :14:56. | :15:01. | |
think that's right. You also said there was no money. Our resources | :15:01. | :15:07. | |
are income petnt and have the wrong attitude -- incompetent. There's | :15:07. | :15:12. | |
prima facie a crime and it must be pursued. I noticed that at within | :15:12. | :15:16. | |
stage in private brief ition, Bob Diamond implyed that Paul Tucker of | :15:16. | :15:19. | |
the Bank of England has given the nod and wink to the fixing of the | :15:19. | :15:24. | |
interest rates when he appeared at the Select Committee there was very | :15:24. | :15:28. | |
little hint of that. One might think that if a person had | :15:28. | :15:31. | |
knowledge of something in 2008 and if that thing subsequently turned | :15:31. | :15:36. | |
out to be a crime, it wouldn't turn out to be a good thing to admit | :15:36. | :15:41. | |
knowledge of it. To you miss this City? No, to be honest, I've been | :15:41. | :15:48. | |
here eight years and it's lost a lot of its swagger. I mean, people | :15:48. | :15:52. | |
have left in droves because of, you know... You are glad you are not | :15:53. | :15:57. | |
there any more? Yes, because of the obvious reasons. The money's gone, | :15:57. | :16:03. | |
it's the regulation that's getting to be excessive and, you know, it's | :16:04. | :16:09. | |
not the powerhouse it used to be. We'll have to leave it there. | :16:09. | :16:14. | |
Thanks for being with us. It may be too late for Bianca Jagger to crack | :16:14. | :16:20. | |
a smile but not too late for you to crack open a bottle of the Bollie | :16:20. | :16:25. | |
blue stuff. We have spotted a superstar, dazzling with the size | :16:25. | :16:31. | |
of the brain like a planet. Brian Cox will be testing the theory of | :16:31. | :16:38. | |
the size of the studio. You can sign up and join the Guinea pigs on | :16:38. | :16:46. | |
the Twitter, fleecebook and... Hang on, dude I owe you big time. Come | :16:46. | :16:52. | |
on, big boy, I'll open a bottle of the Blue Nun. Oh, sorry, just | :16:52. | :17:00. | |
signing a few e-mails to my tax avoidance advisers. There's been a | :17:00. | :17:03. | |
shocking revelation from our very own Deputy Prime Minister. In a | :17:03. | :17:09. | |
peach this week, I saw it and heard with my own ears, Nick Clegg said | :17:09. | :17:14. | |
he feels lobotomized by the weight of Government. It's not a secret if | :17:14. | :17:18. | |
you tell everybody, but I think we knew that already. We sent Jane | :17:18. | :17:28. | |
:17:28. | :17:38. | ||
Moore to unearth more hidden gems Breaking into a bank is tough | :17:38. | :17:42. | |
enough. Getting away with the cash is harder still. | :17:42. | :17:52. | |
Unless of course you work in one. Normally, politicians lake to hide | :17:52. | :17:56. | |
uncomfortable secrets behind closed doors in the deepest, darkest | :17:56. | :18:01. | |
recesses they can find. But these days, there's no hiding | :18:01. | :18:06. | |
place. What with the Leveson Inquiry on a | :18:06. | :18:10. | |
week off, Ed Miliband clearly feels there's something missing in our | :18:10. | :18:18. | |
lives, so he's demanded a full- blown judge-led inquiry into the | :18:18. | :18:23. | |
Barclays scandal. Number eight should do it, I reckon. The British | :18:23. | :18:28. | |
people will not tolerate anything less than a full, open and | :18:28. | :18:32. | |
independent inquiry. Did he ask you about it? No, me neither. Clearly | :18:32. | :18:37. | |
Health and Safety trying to repeat his success in leading the agenda | :18:37. | :18:41. | |
over phone-hacking, but Cameron said he would not be bounced into | :18:41. | :18:46. | |
making a decision. Then 48-hours later, promptly announced there | :18:46. | :18:54. | |
would be an inquiry. But, led by an His is a party bankrolled by the | :18:54. | :19:01. | |
banks. If he fails to order a judge-led inquiry, people will come | :19:01. | :19:06. | |
to one conclusion. He simply can't act in the national interest. | :19:06. | :19:11. | |
party opposite want to talk about absolutely everything apart from | :19:11. | :19:16. | |
their record of 13 years in Government. I have to say, Mr | :19:16. | :19:20. | |
Speaker, we may have found the particle, Labour haven't found a | :19:20. | :19:24. | |
seasons of shame. One man who found a sense of shame, | :19:24. | :19:28. | |
well on behalf of his pane myway, was Barclays boss Bob Diamond. | :19:28. | :19:34. | |
After days of clinging on to his job, he resigned. It looked as | :19:34. | :19:38. | |
though the buck might finally be stopping with him. Then rumours | :19:38. | :19:45. | |
swept Westminster that the Bank of England had asked Barclays to lower | :19:45. | :19:50. | |
Libor. Suddenly, diamonds testimony to MPs | :19:50. | :19:57. | |
became a jewel in the news schedule. Either you were complicit in what | :19:57. | :20:02. | |
was going on or you were grossly negligent or you were grossly | :20:02. | :20:08. | |
incompetent. That's the only conclusion? Sorry, I agree and I've | :20:08. | :20:13. | |
agreed from the finning that the -- beginning that the information was | :20:13. | :20:17. | |
wrong. It's hard to give another answer than that. It turns out to | :20:17. | :20:23. | |
lack much sparkle. Despit the best efforts of John Mann to rough him | :20:23. | :20:33. | |
:20:33. | :20:38. | ||
up, Bob Diamond turned out to be a For years David Cameron tried to | :20:38. | :20:41. | |
lock away his party's political in- fighting over Europe behind thick | :20:41. | :20:47. | |
steel doors. But this week, the vault burst wide-open when nearly | :20:47. | :20:53. | |
100 Conservative MPs demanded a referendum about the rather | :20:53. | :20:58. | |
polarising issue. Life outside the EU holds no | :20:58. | :21:02. | |
terrors. As I believe globalisation will increasingly force countries | :21:02. | :21:07. | |
to cooperate more closely on the basis of functional commonality | :21:07. | :21:10. | |
rather than geographical proximity. Dave wouldn't be the first Prime | :21:10. | :21:13. | |
Minister to be held hostage by his party over Europe. At first, he | :21:13. | :21:18. | |
seemed to shake himself free of it. And then promptly handcuffed | :21:18. | :21:26. | |
himself right back up again. Shhhh... | :21:26. | :21:30. | |
Just as I believe it would be wrong to have an immediate in-out | :21:30. | :21:33. | |
referendum, so it would also be wrong to rule out any type of | :21:33. | :21:38. | |
referendum for the future. Of late, political pundits have | :21:38. | :21:45. | |
suggested that Dave is digging deep to find his inner Tory, but opt day | :21:45. | :21:49. | |
his Defence Secretary announces 0,000 job cuts in the Army, sounds | :21:49. | :21:54. | |
lake that inner Tory is being stashed away again. | :21:54. | :21:58. | |
These withdrawals and emergencyers unwelcome as I know they will be in | :21:58. | :22:02. | |
the units affected are fair and balanced and have been carefully | :22:02. | :22:07. | |
structured to minimise the impact of the regular manpower reduction | :22:07. | :22:17. | |
:22:17. | :22:26. | ||
and maximise the military Normally politicians like to keep | :22:26. | :22:30. | |
what they think will be locked awe way in a safety deposit box so it's | :22:30. | :22:34. | |
refreshing the end the week with a couple of them prepared to tell it | :22:34. | :22:39. | |
like it is. The first - Ken Clarke. | :22:39. | :22:44. | |
We'd been engaged in a war with drugs 30 years, we've not achieved | :22:44. | :22:50. | |
very much progress. The second, Nick Clegg. He talked about being | :22:50. | :22:54. | |
lobotomize by the weight of Government. We know what you mean, | :22:54. | :23:04. | |
:23:04. | :23:04. | ||
mate, and that's just observing it. That's cracked it. I'm in! | :23:04. | :23:14. | |
:23:14. | :23:14. | ||
This is what bankers get up to behind closed doors, is it?! | :23:14. | :23:24. | |
:23:24. | :23:27. | ||
I hope that's a 1994 chateau red. Only ram for one, I'm afraid. Bye! | :23:27. | :23:33. | |
I found the 93 a better year myself. What did you make of Bob Diamond's | :23:33. | :23:37. | |
appearance at the committee? demonstrated that committees are | :23:37. | :23:41. | |
come plaitly useless I think. It always happens, they've learned | :23:41. | :23:44. | |
their two or three questions, they don't work as a team, they don't | :23:44. | :23:49. | |
pick up on each other's questions and follow through or pin the man | :23:49. | :23:52. | |
down. Every time someone appears at the Select Committee, there's a | :23:52. | :23:56. | |
kind of anticipation. I always say, don't hold your breath, no will | :23:56. | :23:59. | |
happen, the Select Committee will not manage to pin this person down | :23:59. | :24:02. | |
at all. Now it's seriously proposed that banking should be looked into | :24:02. | :24:05. | |
by a Parliamently committee. I think it's a joke. | :24:05. | :24:10. | |
The one thing they did come out is that Bob Diamond did not have a | :24:10. | :24:14. | |
convincing reason for not knowing about the rate rigging? Yes, but | :24:14. | :24:18. | |
can I also pick up on what Michael said. I agree with this point about | :24:18. | :24:22. | |
how the Conservatives are trying to say that a Parliamentary Committee | :24:22. | :24:26. | |
can do such a big job they seem to be proposing and I think some | :24:26. | :24:30. | |
Select Committees are pretty good but I thought that yesterday did | :24:30. | :24:35. | |
show that a committee is not going to do the job. It's going to be a | :24:35. | :24:39. | |
committee of Parliamentarians which will become... Do you want another | :24:39. | :24:42. | |
Leveson? I've been saying this since the crisis. You have had | :24:42. | :24:50. | |
Chilcot for Iraq, Leveson for the press. Chilcot's not reported? | :24:50. | :24:54. | |
the financial has had huge impacts and we have not had the reckoning | :24:54. | :24:57. | |
that the public want. Do judges know any more about banking than | :24:57. | :25:02. | |
they do about the media? Took Leveson sucks months to work out | :25:02. | :25:12. | |
that reporters don't write their own headlines. I think Leveson has | :25:12. | :25:17. | |
shone a light on parts of the press in a relationship with politics | :25:17. | :25:20. | |
that's been a gad thing for the public. The banking thing is just | :25:21. | :25:24. | |
so big and it's had such an impact and we still don't really know what | :25:24. | :25:29. | |
happened and what caused it. I agree with Michael. I think the | :25:29. | :25:35. | |
idea that Andrew Tyrie may be a good bloke and get Parliamentarians | :25:36. | :25:40. | |
together but it's so easy to say a judge won't do any better but an | :25:40. | :25:44. | |
inquiry has to go to the heart of what's happening. Parliamentary | :25:44. | :25:48. | |
Committees never work as a team. They don't have the time to do this | :25:48. | :25:55. | |
job. And now, the issue is hugely part zafpb. Yes. We saw the | :25:55. | :25:59. | |
exchanges in the House of Commons today -- partisan. Come plaitly | :25:59. | :26:03. | |
partisan. George Osborne, if you look at the House of Commons today | :26:03. | :26:08. | |
and saw the interview he gave to the Spectator, he looks as though | :26:08. | :26:12. | |
his main priority is to get Ed Balls, a political strategy. | :26:12. | :26:15. | |
Totally. That would be a reasonable objective, but what seemed to be in | :26:16. | :26:19. | |
the House of Commons today was that the Chancellor did not seem to be | :26:19. | :26:25. | |
able to produce any evidence that implicated Balls. How z is it to | :26:25. | :26:29. | |
led Ed Balls get on your nerves, Alastair? I was saying to makele, | :26:29. | :26:33. | |
he's brilliant at the nodding at the frontbench and winding them up, | :26:33. | :26:38. | |
but I thought Ed Balls had... he get on your nerves? From time to | :26:38. | :26:41. | |
time, but he's an effective Shadow Chancellor and Osborne, he had | :26:41. | :26:44. | |
literally no evidence whatsoever and he stands up in the House of | :26:44. | :26:49. | |
Commons and, you said it's a political strategy, Michael earlier | :26:49. | :26:53. | |
mentioned the quantitive easing, there is no seasons of the economic | :26:53. | :26:56. | |
strategy the country needs. Osborne I think has been totally exposed as | :26:56. | :27:01. | |
a not very good tactician and he parades has the great strategist. | :27:01. | :27:05. | |
On the inquiry on the fixing of LIBOR and all the things that Suhr | :27:05. | :27:12. | |
ronded it. Yes. There aren't Tory skeletons in the cupboard, this is | :27:12. | :27:22. | |
:27:22. | :27:23. | ||
all for the Labour, not the Tories. -- surrounded it. There's been | :27:23. | :27:27. | |
criminal activity... That's entirely different. That was the | :27:27. | :27:33. | |
rate-fixing of LIBOR in 005-2006, traders trying the make money. | :27:33. | :27:37. | |
he's trying to link the issues. no, no, he was talking about, was | :27:38. | :27:41. | |
there a policy in 2008 in the autumn when the wholesale markets | :27:41. | :27:46. | |
were drying up. Was there an spwst in the market in the interest | :27:46. | :27:51. | |
rates? To artificially depress the LIBOR rate. There's not a shred of | :27:51. | :27:58. | |
evidence for that. A tonne of evidence. Where is it Start with | :27:58. | :28:03. | |
Tucker. Jay what does it show in relation to Ed Balls or anybody | :28:03. | :28:07. | |
else? They have an interest in the LIBOR interest rate, why wouldn't | :28:07. | :28:10. | |
they at a tame of global economic crisis. They are saying to Barclays, | :28:10. | :28:16. | |
we have an interest in you posting a lower interest rate than market | :28:16. | :28:21. | |
circumstances would dictate. Read the memo. I've read it. You say | :28:21. | :28:28. | |
That's what it says. Osborne's trying to put Ed Balls in the frame | :28:28. | :28:37. | |
and Gordon Brown. That is what he is doing, trying to make that | :28:37. | :28:43. | |
extrapolate. When Mr Tucker Dell - tells Bob Diamond that... It would | :28:44. | :28:48. | |
be very interesting to know. People who've been asked and responded | :28:48. | :28:51. | |
about it, this is my point about Osborne, I can't imagine and when | :28:52. | :28:54. | |
Michael's in Government or when Tony Blair was Prime Minister, to | :28:54. | :28:57. | |
have a Chief Executive stand up in the House of Commons with not a | :28:57. | :29:02. | |
shred of evidence... My point is nothing to do with Mr Osborne. | :29:02. | :29:06. | |
is. That's what he's gone to. is a policy being followed by the | :29:06. | :29:10. | |
Government in 2008 to do something about LIBOR. Or by the Bank of | :29:10. | :29:13. | |
England possibly. The Bank of England saying it was under | :29:13. | :29:16. | |
pressure from the Government and that's what the investigation | :29:17. | :29:19. | |
should concentrating on doing. you saying the MPs that you have | :29:19. | :29:23. | |
seen at each other are the best people to do that and the judges | :29:23. | :29:30. | |
will get... That won't be for me to This latest round of defence cuts. | :29:30. | :29:34. | |
How serious are they? Serious. Personally I find it hard to | :29:34. | :29:37. | |
understand, because what was demonstrated by Iraq and | :29:37. | :29:42. | |
Afghanistan is we don't have enough troops on the ground to run two | :29:42. | :29:46. | |
campaigns simultaneously. We lost both. We failed to hold Basra and | :29:46. | :29:50. | |
we failed to hold Helmand. So you might think, well the response to | :29:50. | :29:53. | |
that ought to be to have more boots on the ground and to see whether | :29:53. | :29:58. | |
you could make the savings from equipment that we never use. For | :29:58. | :30:02. | |
example nuclear weapons. Never use them, never will use them, a big | :30:02. | :30:08. | |
waste of money. Aircraft carriers. If we are doing without them for | :30:08. | :30:13. | |
ten years, why not in perpetuity. I would have thought the focus in the | :30:13. | :30:18. | |
defence review would be to get rid of expensive people, but it has | :30:18. | :30:25. | |
done the opposite. Can you explain, it came out in Question Time, the | :30:25. | :30:30. | |
Israelis, who've a procurement budget the same size as Britain's | :30:30. | :30:38. | |
we have 2,500 people doing defence procurement and the Israelis have | :30:38. | :30:45. | |
450. I didn't know that figure. I didn't know the Israeli figure. | :30:45. | :30:50. | |
you ran the British department! knew the British figure. I was | :30:50. | :30:54. | |
recently reading the memoirs of Bomber Harris, who ran the air | :30:54. | :30:58. | |
campaign during the Second World War. He said there was a particular | :30:58. | :31:03. | |
civil servant in the Air Ministry who was worth two division as day | :31:03. | :31:13. | |
:31:13. | :31:13. | ||
to the Air Ministry. If you have that many soiths, the way they | :31:13. | :31:17. | |
entertain themselves is changing their decisions and making every | :31:17. | :31:21. | |
project expensive. If there's a single proper policy for the | :31:21. | :31:26. | |
Ministry of Defence it should be to eliminate so many civil servants. | :31:26. | :31:31. | |
And the big question: has Nick Clegg been lobotomised? I don't | :31:31. | :31:38. | |
think so. Lo not mization is a very serious -- lobotomisation is a very | :31:38. | :31:43. | |
serious operation, carried out very rarely these days. He was talking | :31:43. | :31:47. | |
that the demands of Government are such that you hardly ever have a | :31:47. | :31:54. | |
minute to think. I see. I thought you meant he was feeling battered | :31:54. | :31:59. | |
and beleaguered. I want to make my usual defence of Nick Clegg. They | :31:59. | :32:04. | |
are solid on the Government policy of maintaining austerity, a and | :32:04. | :32:08. | |
that's which stands between us and disaster today. Mr Clegg will be | :32:08. | :32:13. | |
very pleased. So will Mrs Clegg. But the economy is not getting | :32:13. | :32:17. | |
fixed. We know your view on that. It may even be right! | :32:17. | :32:20. | |
Now, This Week isn't exactly rocket science. It's a pretty simple | :32:20. | :32:23. | |
equation: Michael + Alistair + Blue Nun = on-screen chemistry! Yet | :32:23. | :32:25. | |
Albert Einstein actually claimed politics was more difficult than | :32:25. | :32:31. | |
physics. I suppose the existence of the Miliband brothers disproves the | :32:31. | :32:35. | |
theory of relativity. John Prescott disproves the theory of evolution. | :32:35. | :32:37. | |
Alastair Campbell's diaries disprove the theory of accurate | :32:37. | :32:47. | |
:32:47. | :32:50. | ||
recall. That is not true! Michael Portillo's quiff disproves | :32:50. | :32:53. | |
the theory of gravity. But we decided it was time to test the | :32:53. | :32:55. | |
hypothesis and put political science under this week's | :32:55. | :33:05. | |
:33:05. | :33:15. | ||
Eur ech ka! After 50 years of predict and seek, the Higgs boson | :33:15. | :33:19. | |
particle has been found. The British photographer who began the | :33:19. | :33:24. | |
search couldn't hide his joy. would like to add my | :33:24. | :33:27. | |
congratulations to everybody involved in this tremendous | :33:27. | :33:35. | |
achievement. For me it's really an incredible thing that has happened | :33:35. | :33:40. | |
in my lifetime. The Prime Minister was quick to congratulate the team | :33:40. | :33:45. | |
at CERN and dismiss the accusation that science isn't given the | :33:45. | :33:50. | |
respect or money it deserves. should congratulate everyone | :33:50. | :33:54. | |
involved. In Government's commitment to the science budget, | :33:54. | :33:59. | |
while we've had to make difficult cuts, we preserved the science | :33:59. | :34:03. | |
budget. With only a single Member of Parliament from a science | :34:03. | :34:07. | |
background r our politicians failing to understand the world | :34:07. | :34:14. | |
around them? Perhaps with geek chic, we need a scientist at Westminster. | :34:14. | :34:18. | |
It is like saying we want to explore that ocean but we don't | :34:18. | :34:23. | |
know where the land is. We have now found the land. We don't know | :34:23. | :34:30. | |
what's on that land yet, but at least we know where it is. | :34:30. | :34:34. | |
Professor Cox is with us now. Welcome to This Week. It's been a | :34:34. | :34:40. | |
great week for scientists. Explain to us simpletons why we, | :34:40. | :34:45. | |
particularly these two, who are very simple, I should put in a | :34:45. | :34:50. | |
warning. It is late at night. Most ofous audience is drunk! Simply, | :34:50. | :34:55. | |
the theory is that empty space is not empty. It is rammed full of | :34:55. | :34:59. | |
things called Higgs particles. We get our mass, the particles that | :34:59. | :35:04. | |
make up everything in the universe, your hand, this table, get their | :35:04. | :35:07. | |
solidity by bouncing off the Higgs particles, which sounds like a | :35:07. | :35:11. | |
bizarre thing to say, except we now know that is correct. Who could | :35:11. | :35:16. | |
ever have thought that was the case? Well, Peter Higgs and a few | :35:16. | :35:22. | |
others. I get that. But why would you ever think that? It was a | :35:22. | :35:26. | |
mathematical prediction based on an aesthetic judgment about the | :35:26. | :35:29. | |
equations that we had which described how the universe works. | :35:29. | :35:38. | |
It is one of the best examples, the if not the best I know, the | :35:38. | :35:41. | |
unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the sciences. It is | :35:41. | :35:47. | |
not known why it should be a guide to reality, but in this case, not | :35:47. | :35:54. | |
only have we found that the vacuum of space are filled with Higgs | :35:54. | :36:00. | |
particles, but 08 countries have tested that hypothesis and found it | :36:00. | :36:04. | |
to be true. David Cameron and others launched a congratulatory | :36:04. | :36:07. | |
statement. Do you think he had any idea what he was congratulating the | :36:08. | :36:11. | |
science community about? I don't know. There's been a lot of it in | :36:11. | :36:16. | |
the press. It's a positive time, because as you thingsed in the | :36:16. | :36:22. | |
introduction, Britain has not been great, certainly its political | :36:22. | :36:26. | |
class has not been great at understanding science and | :36:26. | :36:29. | |
supporting it. We are one of the lowest spending countries in terms | :36:29. | :36:34. | |
of R&D and yet we are one of the most successful countries. We had | :36:35. | :36:42. | |
the best Science Minister we ever had in David Sainsbury. And he | :36:42. | :36:47. | |
doubled the contributions to the Labour Party too;; Is it a cause | :36:47. | :36:50. | |
for worry that there is almost a total lack of scientific knowledge | :36:50. | :36:56. | |
in the Commons? Only one MP has worked in science. There are many | :36:56. | :37:00. | |
reasons why that bad. Policys should be based on evidence. What | :37:00. | :37:05. | |
you are talking about that is the scientific method. The number is | :37:05. | :37:10. | |
something like 44% of our GDP is based on knowledge-intensive | :37:10. | :37:15. | |
services and industry, which rests on the University sector and on the | :37:15. | :37:20. | |
science budget that. Train through the economy, the route to growth I | :37:20. | :37:23. | |
would contend rests on the university sector and the research | :37:23. | :37:28. | |
and science budgets. If people don't back that philosophically and | :37:28. | :37:34. | |
politically, we are in trouble. of MPs have previously worked in | :37:34. | :37:38. | |
banking and accountancy. None the science. That's pretty shocking, is | :37:38. | :37:44. | |
it not? Does medicine count? Good point. We did produce a Prime | :37:44. | :37:53. | |
Minister who was qved. Qualified? Yes, a chemist. | :37:53. | :37:58. | |
Hadron collider required the co- operation of Governments around the | :37:58. | :38:02. | |
world. Don't you think it is remarkable that there was the | :38:02. | :38:07. | |
understanding across the plan thaet this needed to be done? CERN was | :38:07. | :38:13. | |
set up in the 1950s as one of the projects that would pursue | :38:13. | :38:17. | |
knowledge for peaceful means. It is not as expensive as people think. | :38:18. | :38:21. | |
CERN's entire budget out of which it built the large Hadron collide | :38:22. | :38:26. | |
ser less than the budget of a medium-sized European university. | :38:26. | :38:30. | |
You are talking about one extra university in the world which does | :38:30. | :38:35. | |
a unique thing, to explore the early universe. Who is going to win | :38:35. | :38:39. | |
the Nobel prize? I would expect there'll be a British noble el | :38:39. | :38:44. | |
prize. Kite well be Peter Higgs, but the people who designed the | :38:44. | :38:50. | |
machine, a lots of them were led by a British physicist. Lynn Evans | :38:50. | :38:54. | |
would have a good claim to it. you think the harsh truth is that | :38:54. | :38:59. | |
if scientists are to have the same access to Downing Street as bankers, | :38:59. | :39:07. | |
you have to donate more money to political parties? We spent more | :39:07. | :39:14. | |
money bailing out the banks than we have spent on science since Jesus. | :39:14. | :39:20. | |
Just a drip of that budget would transform our economy. Why don't | :39:20. | :39:28. | |
you stand for Parliament? Not much happens there does it? Don't you | :39:28. | :39:32. | |
have to be Prime Minister at least until you can get anything done. | :39:32. | :39:37. | |
Lord Sainsbury did. And he is a Lord. The only scientific knowledge | :39:37. | :39:42. | |
in Parliament is in the House of Lords. It is going to be an | :39:42. | :39:47. | |
interesting feature of Lords reform that when we move to choosing it by | :39:47. | :39:53. | |
party list system, on a regional basis, all that scientific | :39:53. | :39:57. | |
knowledge will go. Absolutely. The House of Lords reform is a | :39:57. | :40:01. | |
catastrophe. It is an catastrophe and the worst of it is the method | :40:02. | :40:05. | |
that's been chosen for the election, the one that hands all the power to | :40:05. | :40:10. | |
the political parties and removes all power from the voters. I think | :40:10. | :40:15. | |
the plan has been lobotomised a bit. Where you do stand on the plan? | :40:15. | :40:20. | |
a great fan. I've never been a great fan of the Lords full stop. | :40:20. | :40:24. | |
If you had proper devolution around Britain, and Europe treated | :40:24. | :40:29. | |
properly with a proper partnership with Britain, could have a strong | :40:29. | :40:33. | |
House of Commons and a completely different system. But under the | :40:33. | :40:37. | |
present system for the House of Commons it is open for people with | :40:37. | :40:41. | |
scientific knowledge to offer himself for Parliament. It is all | :40:41. | :40:45. | |
very well for blaming Parliament and the Conservative Party, but it | :40:45. | :40:49. | |
is open to scientists to put themselves forward. You might speak | :40:49. | :40:53. | |
on evidence and it would make it difficult to get elected. That's a | :40:54. | :40:58. | |
good point is. British science on a bit of a roll at the moment? Are we | :40:59. | :41:03. | |
doing well? Are we, in that famous Foreign Office phrase, punching | :41:03. | :41:08. | |
above our weight? Every statistic tells the us that we are the most | :41:08. | :41:13. | |
efficient in the world by a long way, although we spend less than | :41:13. | :41:20. | |
any other nation in GDP. We won two Nobel prizes in physics two years | :41:20. | :41:28. | |
ago for the discovery of graphine. The Government has put �50 million | :41:28. | :41:33. | |
into the research. David Cameron is not entirely speaking fictitiously | :41:33. | :41:37. | |
when he says he is backing science. There is some evidence that it is | :41:37. | :41:42. | |
beginning to sink in. Does this mean our universities, which face | :41:42. | :41:46. | |
great competition from the much better funded American universities, | :41:46. | :41:49. | |
and the rise of Chinese universities in the Far East, are | :41:49. | :41:54. | |
they still holding their own? you look at the Shanghai ratings we | :41:54. | :41:59. | |
do very well indeed. The I think it is because you can't buy a | :41:59. | :42:05. | |
university system. It rests on hundreds of years actually of | :42:05. | :42:08. | |
strong foundations. We've got that. It is one of the great assets of | :42:08. | :42:13. | |
this country. We need to protect it. That's fine. We've had a lot of | :42:13. | :42:17. | |
praise for science, rightly. I have a bone to pick with you. When I was | :42:18. | :42:22. | |
a kid, science held out the prospect for me of a jet pack and I | :42:22. | :42:32. | |
:42:32. | :42:33. | ||
still haven't got one. You can get those? You can? We even have | :42:33. | :42:39. | |
teledeportation. Deportation. me up, Scotty! So we could have a | :42:39. | :42:44. | |
jet pack now? We've got jet packs. They are not not very practical. | :42:44. | :42:51. | |
don't care about that. And we are, the one when I saw Star Trek, the | :42:51. | :42:59. | |
one thing I thought we would never have is telePorthation. Over a | :42:59. | :43:03. | |
subatomic level, it's been done. Brian, thank you very much for | :43:03. | :43:06. | |
being with us. That's your lot for tonight, folks. | :43:06. | :43:09. | |
But not for us, because it's M6 Toll Road Pre-Olympic Panic Night | :43:09. | :43:12. | |
at Annabel's. No doubt the police will arrive en masse to cordon the | :43:12. | :43:15. | |
whole place off after Michael is reported making some highly | :43:15. | :43:18. | |
suspicious moves on the dancefloor. But we leave you tonight with | :43:18. | :43:20. |