04/10/2012 This Week

Tonight, This Week goes back to school. In the political playground,

Ed Miliband wants everyone to know he's just an ordinary kid who went

to an ordinary skal. I went to my local comprehensive,

my comprehensive school education. My comprehensive. The Forwardian's

head boy judges if it was an A* performance. Here in Manchester, Ed

Miliband wowed the audience and gave the per morance of his

political life as he proclaimed himself the guardian of the Tory

one naition tradition. But did the political tectonic plates really

shift that much? How will the boys from the posh

school, masters Cameron and Osborne respond? Are they still planning to

jump young Miliband behind the bike sheds? Tory blogger Tim Montgomerie

reveals the Tory tactics. As he takes the trip, Ed Miliband might

not be so easy to pick on. We look at the homework that goes into a

police's performance. The world's hottest classical violin i, Nicola

Benedetti knows a thing or two about how practice makes perfect.

practice my instrument for five hours a day. To put in a good

performance, Andrew, you know that you have to put in a good practice.

Flipping heck Tucker what ever happened to Trisha Yates?!

Evening all. Welcome to This Week. You find us

in shock, shock I tell you, just when we thought that only a Taser

to the temples could jolt us from our conference season stupor, or

Blue Nun breath was taken away repeatedly by a series of shocks to

the political system. Who would have thought that Ed Balls would

take a sneaky tief to win a personalty in a Labour Conference

footie match -- dive. Or that Keith Vaz, the saintly Keith would be

under pressure again to explain his bountively bank accounts? That was

as surprising that claims that Jimmy Savile was molesting under

age girls. Or Ed Miliband being such a fan of old Ben Disraeli and

Funkadelic that Labour's new slogan is One Nation under a Labour groove.

It doesn't end. A one time employee of this parish, the former national

treasure Diane Abbott has a new Facebook page with as many as 16

"likes"! Amazing. Or that the seemingly genteel streets of

Primrose Hill are actually an urban hell which make The Wire look like

Chipping Sodbury and that Ed Miliband had to fight his way

through them to get to school every day. He went to a comprehensive by

the way, you probably didn't know that. Or that, whereas Mussolini

could make the trains run on time, our lot don't seem to be able to

run them at all. Speaking of those not fit to pull the leaves of power,

I'm joined on the sofa tonight by two main lines to Westminster

wisdom, the Orient Express and the Chattanooga choo choo of late

political night chat. I speak of course of #littlelordfalconer,

that's Charles Falconer and #sadmanonatrain, Michael choo choo

Portillo. You must be the Chattanooga choo

choo. I guess so. Your moment of the week? Well, before his great

speech, Ed Miliband accused the Prime Minister of writing a �40,000

cheque to every millionaire. Now, the truth of the matter is that a

person earning �1 million is paying �100,000 more in income tax this

year than he or she was under the last Labour Government. Next year,

when the top rate of tax falls to 45%, that person will be paying

about �50,000 more in income tax than they were under the last

Labour Government. So not only is it a very strange thing to say that

the Government has written a cheque for �40,000 to a millionaire, it

betrays an absolutely corrupt way of thinking about life which is the

belief that the Government really owns all to money that you and I

earn and that anything that the Government is so bountively as to

allow us to keep is the Government writing a cheque to us. It's the

other way around, we write cheques to the Government. In a week when

Ed Miliband was claiming to be centries on One Nation, I thought

this actually showed him as having a beyond Soviet understanding of

the sources of wealth and who actually owns the wealth of the

country. Two porky pies doing the rounds, one from Labour that every

millionaire is going to get a cheque for �40,000 - that's not

true. The other is the coalition claim that the deficit is falling.

That's not true. This financial year it's up 22% already. Your

moment? Well, of course, Ed Miliband's speech but also the new

Ed ball who is was on show at Manchester Arena. He gave a strong

speech too? A very funny speech, Butch Cameron and the flatline Kid.

At the end of the day, he attended a meeting of business where you

couldn't have found a more immollient, convincing individual

than the much-loved Ed Balls. is he on? He's on peace and love

and consensus. It will never catch on. I think it will. It's been a

rough week for call we Dave. He's had to treat sworn enemy Boris

Johnson to a posh lunch at Nancy Cameron's local, make a groveling

apology to Richard Branson and explain why his party can't run a

railway. Watch Ed Miliband do a Dave at the Labour Party Conference

and elop with a Tory political hero in a speech that established the

opposition leader as a genuine, well, opponent! How should the

Tories respond? We've asked the Conservatives inside man, Tim

Montgomerie, to pick up his clubs and give us his take of the week.

Whenever I talk to Tory separate jis about the next election, how

they are going to win, it's always the same two world answer, Ed

Miliband. I ask how they'll cope if the economy doesn't recover, what

they'll do if the coalition continues to squabble - it's always

the same - Ed Miliband, Ed Miliband, Ed Miliband. It's almost like a

one-club re-election strategy. It's always the Ed Miliband club that

they rely on for victory. You can almost understand why.

Before the Labour Conference began, just 3% thought Ed Miliband was

charismatic. 4% thought he was a natural leader, only 5% thought

that he was strong. Now, the speech that he gave this week wasn't

exactly a hole in one, but it will give Tory strategists pause for

thought. Perhaps he isn't quite the electoral liability that they'd

And the fact is, Ed Miliband doesn't have to be that good to win

the next general election. Forget the cuts, the unpopularity of the

Tories and the NHS, the only thing that really matters in British

politics at the moment is the fact that the Lib Dem voters collapsed

and UKIP is surging. All the unhappy ex-Lib Dem voters are

supporting Labour and all the UKIP voters have largely come from the

Tories. Margaret Thatcher won in the 1980s because the right was

united and the left was divided. Ed Miliband could get into Number Ten

because exactly the opposite is true today.

Putter please, caddie... Signs of life from Ed Miliband

complete what's been quite a difficult summer for the Prime

Minister. Deficit reduction, the central mission of this Government

was supposed to be half way around the course by now. Actually, we are

stuck in a bunker. Boundary reform was supposed to be the Tory's

winning shot. But that's been lost in a water hazard. Next week in

Birmingham when Tories gather for their Annual Conference, David

Cameron has to show that he's as capable of a comeback as Europe's

Ryder Cup team. So what can he do now? He needs the

skills of every successful golfer. He needs to show strength and

finesse. He certainly needs to be more Euro-Sceptic and tougher on

crime but he also needs to deepen his commitment to the National

Health Service and to pensioners. Tough and tender, not right, not

left, but in touch with the whole common-sense of the British people.

A bit more Jack Nicholas and a lot The miracle of Montgomerie joins us

from the urban golf in Soho to our little urban studio here in

Westminster. Welcome back. Thank you. Tell me, does the Tory high

command still think Ed Miliband is the weakest link after this week?

Yes, I think they still think he's a liability for Labour. I don't

think that they think Health and Safety as bad as perhaps they'd

hoped that he was, but his ratings are so bad and they could haven't

got much lower. What he's shown is he's capable of giving a good

speech, capable of raiding Tory territory, but he still hasn't got

answers to the debt problem, he's still on the wrong side of the

public on questions like immigration, welfare and crime,

he's still not taken any tough decisions and so I think the Tories

still think he's run rabble but perhaps not as weak as we'd thought.

Are you sure it's the Tory strategy's only election-winning

gam bit? Are they really putting all their chips on Mr Bland?

They've relied too much on him -- Mr Miliband. It's not the only

thing. If there are signs of economic recovery that, will give

new hope to the Conservatives. The average of the opinion polls has us

about 10% behind, that's with the economy contracting. We could

become a lot more competitive if voters begin to see that the pain

that they've been experiencing, the real pain, has actually been worth

Should the Tories change strategy after one good speech by Mr

Miliband? Well, they could adopt a strategy,

I suppose that could be a change of strategy. You mane they haven't got

one? Not at all as far as I can see. I've not heard any articutation of

what is Government is about recently. For six months, we have

gone into a dormant state. It's been a summer of bred and circuses,

the Olympics and the Jubilee have taken the mind off politics but it

seems to have taken the Prime Minister and the Chief Executive's

mind off politics as well. We are in a very dire situation vis-a-vis

the size of the national debt and the deficit as you described. There

is a perfectly articulate case for why, even if the strategy doesn't

seem to be working well, it's the only strategy and why any other

strategy would be extraordinarily difficult. There is a whole lot to

be said about how we get people used to the idea that they have to

have declining expectations, not rising expectations of the future

because the party is over because we have already made the next

generation pay for everything we want to do. There is an interesting

dialogue about what's happening about the transfer of power from

Europe to the east. There is an interesting discussion to be had

about the euro. There is a lot to be said about the horrific pensions

problem that is eAmericaning. On all these interesting subjects, as

far as I know, the Government is completely silent. I'm quite

exhausted listening to that. Can I bring Charlie in now? If he has

something to say. Of course he has. One well received speech by Mr

Miliband doesn't change a leader's fortunes, does it? His poll ratings

are still dire? Yep, but the sense you have is that Ed Miliband is

making progress getting on top of his party and making progress in

terms of improving. So he's got some momentum in a way that Tony

Blair had momentum by getting a grip of his party and moving

forward. For all the reasons that Michael is saying, if you are the

Prime Minister, you've got to make progress wrestling with the

problems of the country and it appears to be getting worse and

worse for him. He pinned his colours to an improving economy, an

external event which is just making no progress. What if the key

figures are strong? I don't know. Labour's poll lead is soft. We have

seen polls down to five and three. I mean, it bumps around? Good

quarters growth could blow the ratings polls out of the water?

what is the sense of command of events? It's external events, the

politicians look as if it were not in control. The Government's been

buffeted around. Exactly. It seems to me, see if you agree with this,

that what Mr Miliband did this week was made his party, finally believe

that they had chosen the right guy after all? Precisely right.

what he's got to to now is convince the country and that's a much

bigger ask? I think you are dead right because I came away from

Manchester with the party who'd never been going to get rid of Ed

Miliband thinking, we've got somebody who could win on his

merits and in the past, Michael Foot, Gordon Brown, we have often

thought we couldn't win but now we think we can. The Noirs next week

are in Birmingham, Tim. How much strubl Mr Cameron in with his own

party and supporters -- how much trouble is Mr Cameron in with his

own party and supporters in the sense that they don't think he's

one of us, them being the Tories, they don't rate him as on the same

wavelength? It is a problem and he's completely secure in that

there's no threat. The Conservatives look at someone like

Boris Johnson who'll be a huge figure in Birmingham next week and

they see someone who's won in London, a City which leans Labour,

has won in the middle of a recession and he speaks the

language. He won't cause any The favours seem to be dwindling,

do you agree? Last week you talked about the fact they haven't looked

after people. When they were riding high, that didn't matter. Actually,

now they are in trouble, they turn round and look for friends in Fleet

Street and elsewhere, there aren't any. It is hard from a position of

weakness - They don't look for friends in Fleet Street much they

have no media operation what so ever. They are not getting in touch

with anybody. They are not pulling the strings in Fleet Street or in

the BBC or in ITV. There seems to be no media operation what so ever.

It's puz ling. David Cameron was once the best strategist. In

opposition he had a strategy for how to change the reputation of the

Conservative Party, move it to the centre ground and win. For the last

six months the strategy has disappeared down the plug hole.

Miliband's speech was one of the most vabg Kew yus speeches made...

Without notes and without content. He is our guest. The speech was

without content. The only reason it could be praiseside that people

have got used to contentless-free politics. The Prime Minister should

not be in a position where he is allowed politics to become

contentless because the Prime Minister ought to be putting

content into it. What has Mr Cameron to do next week? He has to

escape from this idea that he is going to shift left or shift right.

He has to be the big Prime Minister in serious times. One of the things

I was slightly disappointed last week was the poster they launched

against tkharly -- Charlie's party, slightly childish poster, Labour

isn't learning. These are serious times. The government's chance is

when it looks like it is serious. That it has the lerm solutions to

the country's problems. Labour clearly don't. That is an

opportunity for the Conservatives. One of the groups that was affected

from the speech, from my experience, when I came out of the Hall was the

right-wing who said, I spoke to one of the political editors of the

Sunday newspaperes who said "this is a game-changer, we are sure he

has talent." I'm not sure if it was a vengeful thing. They were almost

saying, we are not going to endorse him. They are taking him seriously.

Who is this right-wing newspaper editor who won't take David

Cameron's calls? We could all speculate. Who do you think it is?

You look at neerm every centre- right newspaper on Fleet Street.

Which one is not taking the Prime Minister's calls? I do not know.

Peter Obourne... He wrote. It I wondered if you knew. It was

remarkable if the Mail or the Telegraph won't take the Tory Prime

Minister's calls. How difficult is it for Mr Cameron and the Tories to

win an overall majority in 2015? It's getting harder and harder. The

leader is unlikely to increase his vote. Liberal Democrat votes are

coming to us. How difficult? Extraordinarily difficult. Most

difficult for any party in government to increase its

percentage from the previous time even if everything goes swimmingly.

It hasn't. Even Mrs Thatcher didn't do that between 83 and 87. Or Tony

Blair either. How difficult? How difficult for an overall Tory

majority in 2015? Very difficult. Once they realise it's a problem

that is the start for a search for a solution. We need a game-changer

to turn things around. We will see if you get that progress in

Birmingham next week. Thank you for being with us.

Now, don't go to bed and let Mary Berry's bomber jacket give you

nightmares, stick with us until the bitter end because, waiting in the

wings, superstar violinist, Nicola Benedetti, who performed at the

Ryder Cup Closing Ceremony on Sunday.

Won a Classical Brit award on Monday.

And, now crowns her achievements with a seat on the This Week sofa,

proving all those years of practice have finally paid off.

And not forgetting that Michael Portillo is gagging to read all

your comments about him. So get stuck into 'The Twitter, The

Facebook' and the good old missionary position Interweb. Go on,

you want to. Now, before this week there was

more chance of a pot-bellied South Korean rapper getting to number one

than Ed Miliband getting the keys to Downing Street.

Thanks to a bravura conference performance, the north London

Rubik's Cube Champion is now well and truly top of the Labour charts.

So we asked the Guardian's Nick Watt to take the West Coast

Mainline franchise to Manchester - before Branson pulls the plug - for

It's the 24-hour party conference people gathering here in Manchester.

Ed Miliband's favourite album is What's The Story Morning Glory by

those two local Gallagher brothers who had the odd falling out in

public. What better place for Ed Miliband to seek inspiration as he

tries to find a bit of popularity than the spiritual home of

Manchester. # What's the story morning glory

# Where we need a little time to wake up... #

Ed Miliband had one goal this week to follow in the footsteps of all

those bands and achieve a breakthrough. Labour may enjoy a

comfortable lead in the opinion polls, but David Cameron is way

ahead on Prime Ministerial ratings. As a first step, the leader leader

needed to show he is not a soleless geek. Perhaps he needs to stop

listening to Oasis. I think the education that I got at this

comprehensive was so much more than how to pass exams. It was brks how

to look after yourself, it's about the world was a complex place with

people of all kinds, all nationalities, all classes and

races. That is a really important lesson in life. His big moment was

the leader's speech in which he reminded us of something we knew

already. I went to my local comprehensive. I'm sorry, I didn't

quite catch ta? My comprehensive school education. Yes, Ed Miliband

wanted to remind us that he is a thoroughly normal person, unlike,

oh, yeah thark bloke who cut taxes for millionaires. Speaking without

notes for just over an hour, he declared that she standing on the

shoulder of the father of one nation Conservatism, Benjamin

Disraeli. One nation a country where everyone has a stake. One

nation, a country where prosperity is fairly shared. One nation, where

we have a shared destiny, a sense of shared endeavour and a common

life that we lead together. That is my vision of one nation. That is my

vision of Britain. That is the Britain we must become.

APPLAUSE It didn't take long for people in

the hall to realise that he pulled it off. One member of the Shadow

Cabinet told me that Ed Miliband had finally broken with the labels

"old" and "new Labour" by rooting his philosophy in the country and

not the party. Senior Labour figures were wondering whether

Downing Street is now that little bit closer. Then politics is never

Ed Miliband's superior from the days of Gordon Brown show head is a

force to be reckoned with when he came up with the joke of the week

about David Cameron's quip that the Labour lead certificate not quick

enough. Let see them ride off into the sunset, Butch Cameron and the

Flatline Kid. Right now we are witnessing generous Ed as the

Shadow Chancellor outlines spending plans to contrast with the

Government's cuts. Before the election austere Ed will spring

into action as he says the Government's handling of the

country gives him no choice but to accept cuts. The brothers will not

be happy. Asking the poorest for further sacrifices for a crisis

that they did not cause, is the road to political ruin. For the

first time in years, Labour activists left Manchester with

smiles on their faces on Virgin trains. Ed Miliband's description

of a back of the envelope government appeared to come true as

ministers admitted they had mucked up the West Coast franchise and Sir

Richard Branson may get to keep his train set afterall. What happened

is unacceptable. It's regrettable. I apologise much we have made a big

mistake as fart as this Department is concerned. The companies that

have put bids in have done nothing wrong. What can you say about the

West Coast Main Line fiasco? It is a disgrace that it is going to cost

�40 million and perhaps more of taxpayers' money because they have

so bungled this franchise. That well-known northerner, David

Cameron, is the real fan of Mancunian music. I suppose somebody

has to like the Smiths. He will have to raise his game because Ed

Miliband may no longer be the Tories great trump card.

Nick Watt at the famous Vinyl Exchange record shop in Manchester.

Miranda is back from the Lib Dems. Do you think Lib Dem voters will be

impressed by the Miliband speech? Everyone was impressed. We weren't

expecting anything much. I think they would have been. I have to say,

anyone who was listening to the Today programme interview the next

morning would have been disappointed. The star dust started

to come off quite quickly am he can't keep on giving speeches about

the vision thing. He has to convince people with some substance.

That will be much, much trickier, I think, even with those traditional

Lib Dem voters on the soft left who feel themselves emotionally drawn

to the message that Ed Miliband delivered this week. They want more.

He waches wasn't that rude about Mr Clegg or the Lib Dems is that

because he doesn't think you matter any more or should we read more

into that? Both parties need to start being nicer to each other

just in case, don't they? The Lib Dems... Just in case what? Just in

case. The Lib Dems sent a rude campaigning poster to Manchester on

the day after his very successful speech. Which I thought was badly

judged. You know, the air has turned blue between Labour and the

Lib Dems for the last two-and-a- half years. I think they need to

stop it. Do you think we should be nicer to the Liberal Democrat

leadership? Don't we want their votes. Having the Liberal Democrats

run to the left now trim to the right, isn't tht time when Labour

should be saying about the Liberal Democrats, forget them, you can't

trust them? Then after the general election maybe see where it all

ends up. The idea that we should be talking to either Clegg or Cable

seems, to me, to be ridiculous. me come on to - I don't know

whether you know this or not, em emwent to a comprehensive. I was

unaware of that. A chap on the telly said that. I'm glad I filled

you in there on your knowledge. Does it matter to be a leader what

school you went to now? You are a boy of Tony Blair, you went to the

poshest school in Scotland. It didn't do him harm. It's your

ability to connection with the electorate. Regardless of school?

Regardless of school. The greatest person for expressing the recession

in America was Franklin Roosevelt who was a posh highly educated

individual. I don't think it's the school, it's, do you listen? Can

you express what people are feeling? Michael described the

speech as vabg Kew yus, there was little policy in. It did it express

what the country was feeling and what it wanted? The idea things are

tough, we want to come together and try and solve it. Not a complicated

Many think about Ed Miliband saying he went to a comprehensive school.

I mean, does that rule you out from being a Labour Leader, that you

went to a posh school? There are a number of reasons why I'm ruled out.

Not you personally but that sort of thing? I don't think it does. I

think the critical thing is the ability to express what a

significant section of the population are feeling, the Romney

problem in saying 47% will never vote for me because they're benefit

te pen dent indicates a person expressly looking at things through

his own background -- dependent. What do you think of it all? About

the schooling? Yes. It's interesting that it's become such

an issue for David Cameron and that's a kind of failure because it

wasn't an issue for Tony Blair for whatever reason. I mean, my

goodness, he was public school, Oxford and he was a Paris ter. If

anything, set you apart from the public, that is a lethal

combination -- barrister. Interestingly, it doesn't seem to

be a problem for Boris Johnson who went to Eton and Oxford, identical.

Yet somehow there's this warmth around Boris. Not a problem for

Cameron. It wasn't a prb for Mr Cameron for some time. The fact he

ended up surrounded by so many of the same sort of people became a

problem. Your lot are pretty posh as well? That last point is very,

very important. The tribal thing? That's right. It's the idea that

there's a magic circle of all these people who've known each other

since they were 15 and perhaps have their own way of communicating, how

does anyone else break into that. That's damaging to a Government

because you have blind spots on policy, it's in terms of the

substance of what you are doing, it's dangerous. It matters when

their policies aren't working and they've said this is what's going

to happen in relation to the economy and it's not happening as

they described, so all this becomes proxys for disconnection. I think

Ed Miliband is still divorced from the public by something even more

lethal than a public school education and that is

intellectualism. David Cameron is not an intellectual and Ed Miliband

is. The public don't warm to that. There's a good point there because

Mr Bland, he may claim he's one of the lads from the local komp but

the voters sense he's from a privileged background, that he's

part of an elite, different from David Cameron's elite. When I was

15, I tkpid not -- I did not come home and have dinner with Tony Benn

or a Professor, maybe he did. goes back to the point we started

with which was the fact that he was having tea with Carl Marx every

evening does not necessarily mean he cannot connect with the

electorate. Surprised he didn't end up as a right-wing Tory. Any

mileage for the Tories claiming that all this One Nation stuff,

stealing the clothes of Benjamin Disraeli is cover for moving the

party to the left? I mentioned that his position on tax, his attitude

to tax is highly left-wing, but as far as what the Tory tax are

concerned, no, the Tories need to forget about the Labour Party and

talk about what it is they are trying to do in Government. That's

what they have to get on to. We have this West Coast rail fiyas

toe it says here, -- fiasco. You are Mr Choo choo, give us your take

on it? It's a fiasco.

Consensus breaks out. Insight. a complete shambles in which both

civil servant and ministers are culpable because I cannot believe

that ministers who were in position, not Patrick McLoughlin, but the two

who were there before, I cannot believe that they couldn't ask

civil servants the right questions to find out. From the moment

Richard Branson began to agitate, ministers should have started

saying, this is getting serious, it will end in court, you better tell

me a good case here. Although I think ministers are responsible, I

also think that we don't have nearly enough civil servant

accountability in this country. Let me just give you a... I want to

come on to that. If Miss Greening or Villiers was still at transport,

their positions at the moment would be entenable, would they not?

would be running very fast. point you were going to make?

example, it turned out that there was, what was it, an �18 billion or,

no, a �38 billion hole in the Ministry of Defence accounts under

Labour. I knew it would be our fault. No. I was told not to be

partisan and you were. I'm not being part Stan. The Permanent

Secretary signs off on the accounts of the Ministry of Defence. No

Permanent Secretary's ever been held to account for the fact that

there was a �38 billion hole in the Ministry of Defence. There is no

accountability for civil servants at the moment. The ministers are

not going to get away with total deniability, but I do sometimes

wonder whether our Civil Service these days is the Rolls-Royce

machine of mythical British bureaucracy. They've obviously

messed up here, but the reason it's fallen apart is because there's

about to be a court case, the only test that Justine Greening had to

satisfy was to reach a rational decision in order to satisfy the

legal test. That presumably involved as a minimum explain to me

rationally... The rate of return this group was going to get was

unfathomable. Final thought? think it would be very healthy this

Lazarus-return like return from the dead from Ed Miliband. If you have

a dangerous looking opposition, perhaps the Government will get

into let shambolic fiascos. We are all on the F-word. Miranda, thank

you. It's the Italian word for bottle. You probably didn't know

that, and why should you?! It takes a great deal of effort to make

television look this effortless. I've been in rehearsals all day

practising my South Korean dance moves. I know who is number one,

you know. Charles has been in wardrobe all day deciding whether

to wear a tie or not and you can see the result there. As everyone

in BBC make-up knows, Michael's quiff doesn't just build itself,

you know. That's why Ed Miliband's impressed us so much, by speaking

without notes for 70 minutes and that's why we've decided to put

practice makes perfect in this Chasical bread winner neck la

Benedetti puts her success down to fashionable hard work and practices

five hours a day -- Nicola Benedetti. Ed Miliband lived up to

his tkpeecky reputation when he memorised his 6,000 word conference

speech and performed without notes or a safety net. Only one problem,

where's my speech? Ever keen the shake off his school swat image, he

was at pains to give the credit to pure passion rather than revision.

I'll let you into a secret. The notes for the speech, such that

they were with 6,000 words and I had a limit of 7,500. I tried to

say what I believe. In States, there's no such bashfulness when

the Americans went into battle with facts and figures. 23 million

people out of work. When the President took office 32 million

people on food stamps, 47 million on food stamps today. Ever the

grafter, Obama even managed to remember his wife's anniversary.

want to wish you, sweetie happy anniversary, a year from now we'll

not be celebrating it in front of 40 million people. After years of X

Factor-style quick fix success, could it be that practice really

does make perfect? Great stuff. What was the ork ork you were

playing with there? The BBC Symphony Orchestra. Two Scots

together here, can we agree there is no substitute for hard work?

Right, we can. I thought you were going to ask something else there.

Absolutely. Definitely not with the violin. That's what I know about

most. So how much would you say - you've obviously got enormous

talent - but how much would you say your success is due to the natural

talent but also the practice that you consistently to? I think there

are certain things being a musician you have to have a natural ability

for, so a sensitivity to rhythm, to tone and a sort of a willingness to

want to share music with people. That's a really important thing.

But there is no exception to any good instrumentalist. There are

lots and lots of talented ones I went to school with, the ones that

didn't practice. How often do you practice? Every day. Every day?

hours. For hours? Yes. So even at your level now, you still have to

put in that amount of time to be that good? If I don't practice for

two days, I immediately feel my fingers are not in shape. That's

how much practice is required. Also, the amount of repertory you are

learning is enormous so it's a constant, constant daily routine.

You are at the opposite end now of our popular culture where Equitable

now be famous with no talent at all, you just have to appear in maiden

Chelsea with a combined IQ of the ten people in that in single

figures or TOWIE. As a result, they'll be making a lot of money?

I'm sure they are all making a lot of minute and also encouraging a

lot of people into a direction of chasing fame for whatever that is,

without any understanding of how vacuous it is and how there's

nothing really to chase. A lot of whatiful is my biggest success is

the feeling that the daily discipline's given me. That's what

stabilises me and makes me happy and feel like I'm fulfilled and

like I'm achieving. It's that daily ability to work on something,

there's something in that discipline that enriches you that

gives you a core. But back in the day and like you

now, people became famous because they were good at something, they

were better than most other people at something? Celebrated for

something. They won Wimbledon or were wonderful dancers or actors,

today you can be famous for big famous? Yes, that seems to be the

way that we are going and everybody seems to - I mean it's all stemming

from money-making - everyone can buy into it and make something from

it. It continues and I try every chance I have to speak to anyone or

to have any sort of platform to try to say something sub Setantaive,

something that's not empty and that's definitely not about fame

for the sake of fame. It's a very, very dangerous game. And there

would be no shame, Charlie, in Ed Miliband admitting that that wasn't

an effortless performance. He put a hell of a lot of work into it?

at all. Indeed, I think the product of a lot of hard work with that

speech and yes, you are right, there's lots and lots of mayor

Trish shus fame around. If you think about violinists like Nicola

or tennis players like Andy Murray, they could never achieve now with

so much spotlight on them without the degree of hard work and

practice that twos on. One feels that Fred Perry, and this may be

unfair, wasn't remotely working as hard as Andy Murray was to get to

the position he was. There was no TOWIE, but it was more amateurish.

I don't think you succeed in the way Nicola does without being

dedicated day after day, hour after hour. Absolutely. Those at the very

top are probably working harder than ever to stay at the top

because competition is fierce? competition is fierce. In the music

business, my goodness, there are so many instrumentals popping up all

over the place and we all have to put in that daily - there are no

short cuts, that's the only consistency for the people that

have made it - they've all put in the work. All the other factors

change but the consistency is... The pressure gets higher and

higher? I sat up a few nights working with Margaret Thatcher on

her conference speeches, she was fanatical about them, not only

conference peoples but parentry speeches as well. At the time I

felt she put if too much work because she would work through the

night, she was exhausted by the process. -- Parliamentary speeches.

30 years later, we remember some of the statements like "the lady's not

for turning". Can we have a quick burst from this wonderful

instrument, Nicola? Sure. I'm Play quietly in the background

while I'm reading. It's better than my voice. That's your lot for

tonight, Phoebes, but not for us, because it's Marxist history night

at Annabels and we are off to justify the sub Jew gaition and

miserableness of millions. We couldn't leave you or Nicola who's

playing beautifully without a musical goodbye from the great Ed

Balls of fire, Labour's very own lich rar chi or Les Dawson should