Browse content similar to 25/10/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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As 007 hits the big screen, Week has a feast of beautiful women, | :00:26. | :00:36. | |
:00:36. | :00:37. | ||
fast cars and lots of action. As the baddie makes a comeback, the | :00:37. | :00:42. | |
BBC and his Director-General are on the firing line. John Sergeant has | :00:42. | :00:47. | |
the scandal in his sights. What is it about the BBC management that | :00:48. | :00:56. | |
makes them so difficult to understand? As England's badgers | :00:56. | :01:04. | |
live to die another day, does Her Majesty's Government believe that | :01:04. | :01:08. | |
shambles are forever. Anne McElvoy spies an opportunity. Good evening, | :01:08. | :01:18. | |
:01:18. | :01:26. | ||
Mr Neil. A long way to go before While James Bond continues to have | :01:26. | :01:33. | |
his quota of beautiful women, are other women not getting their fair | :01:33. | :01:39. | |
share? Shappi Khorsandi talks press disand our inability to live and | :01:39. | :01:45. | |
let live. I am not interested in being a Bond girl, but a Neil girl. | :01:45. | :01:55. | |
:01:55. | :01:57. | ||
Now you're talking! The name's Week - This Week. A | :01:57. | :02:07. | |
Evening all. Welcome to This Week. Ringing the bell for political last | :02:07. | :02:13. | |
orders in a final round of froth and innuendo, with wildly | :02:13. | :02:18. | |
inaccurate Westminster predictions. Andrew Mitchell, safe as houses - | :02:18. | :02:28. | |
:02:28. | :02:29. | ||
yeah! And tasteless crimes against high fashion and common decency. | :02:29. | :02:36. | |
We're not the only programme being accused of highly questionable | :02:36. | :02:40. | |
editorial decisions. National creep, Jimmy Savile, the BBC has in time- | :02:40. | :02:44. | |
honoured fashion got a firing squad and is pulling the trigger on | :02:44. | :02:49. | |
itself. Panorama led the way on Monday w the typically robust | :02:49. | :02:53. | |
allegation into Newsnight. Given the BBC's love of self-flagellation | :02:53. | :02:58. | |
and the urge to purge, it was only the start. As we speak tonight, | :02:58. | :03:06. | |
Blue Peter has launched an urgent investigation to Newsround. Homes | :03:06. | :03:10. | |
Under The Hammer are investigating cash in if attic. I am leading a -- | :03:10. | :03:16. | |
Cash In The Attic. I am leading an investigation into my behaviour on | :03:16. | :03:21. | |
the Sunday Politics. They are investigating why This Week dropped | :03:21. | :03:26. | |
Diane Abbott from the sofa. There's no mystery about it - as always, | :03:27. | :03:31. | |
with Diane, it was all about the Benjamins! Speaking of those, who | :03:31. | :03:37. | |
are next in line to be droped in the preverbial by the Director- | :03:37. | :03:41. | |
General, I am joined by a fraud and a fraudster, both living in total | :03:41. | :03:51. | |
:03:51. | :03:57. | ||
denial. Let's call them the Conrad Blacks - AJ Johnson and sad man on | :03:57. | :04:05. | |
a train, Michael Cho-cho Portillo. A terrible week for the Government | :04:05. | :04:09. | |
which made a mess of one thing after the other. All the flak moved | :04:09. | :04:18. | |
on to the BBC. It would have been a good time for the Government to go | :04:18. | :04:24. | |
quiet and all the preverbial what not hitting the fan. The Culture | :04:24. | :04:27. | |
Secretary intervenes to remind the BBC there is a question of public | :04:27. | :04:32. | |
trust. You would have thought that the BBC and public would not need | :04:32. | :04:39. | |
reminding of what deep do--do the BBC found themselves in. Patten was | :04:39. | :04:43. | |
able to write a fierce letter, saying the Government would not | :04:43. | :04:45. | |
want to question the independenceance of the BBC. You | :04:45. | :04:48. | |
wonder what it is about the Government that when it sees a | :04:48. | :04:52. | |
clear run, when it sees an opportunity to stay out of the | :04:52. | :04:57. | |
spotlight, stay out of the flying stuff, you know, it immediately | :04:57. | :05:02. | |
inserts itself in the way of all the flying stuff. Very interesting. | :05:02. | :05:08. | |
Alan, your moment? I hope you will explain why you have put these | :05:08. | :05:13. | |
horrid ties on us! There's nothing wrong with my tie. | :05:13. | :05:16. | |
It's rather posh! That's enough. There'll be a | :05:16. | :05:19. | |
competition. Anyone in public life, who thinks | :05:19. | :05:25. | |
you can go in front of a select committee without being briefed and | :05:25. | :05:31. | |
without being rehearsed is in for a shock. My colleagues and Michael's | :05:31. | :05:35. | |
ex-colleagues who are sometimes very gentle and nice people turn | :05:35. | :05:39. | |
into demons in that room. I just thought that was an example - leave | :05:40. | :05:44. | |
aside whether it was the BBC or someone else - walking in there, | :05:44. | :05:50. | |
apparently unaware of what was coming. It was horrible to watch. | :05:50. | :05:58. | |
They all have a fantasy the MPs - it goes back to... Of the Watergate | :05:58. | :06:05. | |
investigate. Of the mid-1950s. is interesting you both choose the | :06:05. | :06:12. | |
BBC as your moment of the week which shows we are still in the | :06:12. | :06:17. | |
news. Newsnight was rocked by some shocking events, not the | :06:17. | :06:21. | |
investigations by its best friends at Panorama. Much worse than that - | :06:21. | :06:24. | |
Jeremy Paxman has been on air without a tie! | :06:24. | :06:29. | |
Some have wondered whether his belt and laces have been taken away too! | :06:29. | :06:35. | |
We nipped into.... Well, it is serious. We nipped into Jeza's | :06:35. | :06:41. | |
locker, obviously Panorama gives the keys and pill fered some of his | :06:41. | :06:50. | |
finest pieces of Pollyiest ta! -- of material. At least, the BBC's | :06:50. | :06:58. | |
Director-General, God bless you, Sir, God bless you, wore a tie when | :06:58. | :07:02. | |
he appeared before the Commons select committee this week. The DJ | :07:02. | :07:07. | |
told him he knew next to nothing of the investigation into Jimmy Savile, | :07:07. | :07:12. | |
even though at the time he was director of vision. | :07:12. | :07:18. | |
That's television to you and me. We asked former BBC stalwart, John | :07:18. | :07:28. | |
:07:28. | :07:35. | ||
Sergeant, to give us his take of When I first became a BBC reporter | :07:35. | :07:39. | |
more than 40 years ago, someone said to me, but you don't write | :07:39. | :07:44. | |
your scripts do you? When I said I did, he said, "But, someone tells | :07:44. | :07:49. | |
you what to write, don't they?" he simply would not believe it when I | :07:49. | :07:58. | |
said, that's not the case. So, I wasn't surprised at the | :07:58. | :08:00. | |
incredulous, mystifyed response from some people to the evidence | :08:00. | :08:05. | |
given to the parliamentary committee by the Director-General, | :08:05. | :08:10. | |
George Entwistle. Appalling, absurd, incompetent - he should resign, | :08:10. | :08:14. | |
they said. But on the basis of what he said on Monday, the Director- | :08:14. | :08:21. | |
General should certainly not resign. He was simply explaining how the | :08:21. | :08:31. | |
:08:31. | :08:34. | ||
D It may seem complicated and in many ways it is. Being responsible | :08:34. | :08:39. | |
for 2,000 journalists is never going to be easy or simple. The | :08:39. | :08:45. | |
Director-General is the Editor in Chief. But if he, or she, becomes | :08:45. | :08:49. | |
too closely involved t staff may become frightened, making them too | :08:50. | :08:55. | |
careful, or too cautious. During the Second World War, the | :08:55. | :08:58. | |
British Army gave its tank commanders, particularly, as much | :08:58. | :09:03. | |
free reign as possible. They called the shots. It made them more | :09:03. | :09:07. | |
confident. It made them more effective. This system of command | :09:07. | :09:15. | |
and control was adopted by the BBC. The bosses here are always careful | :09:15. | :09:20. | |
about not intervening too much. When George Entwistle took the view | :09:20. | :09:25. | |
that the Newsnight investigation might not be broadcast, it wasn't | :09:25. | :09:33. | |
surprising that he didn't inquir further. The BBC management have | :09:33. | :09:39. | |
one objective - to maintain the independence of the BBC. | :09:39. | :09:46. | |
This unique organisation has developed its own way to deal with | :09:46. | :09:50. | |
any eventuality. What other media company would allow one group of | :09:50. | :09:56. | |
journalists, in Panorama, to report on another group, in Newsnight, | :09:56. | :10:01. | |
without even allowing the Director- General to see the report before it | :10:01. | :10:07. | |
was broadcast? So, does that mean the BBC system is perfect? Of | :10:07. | :10:12. | |
course not. Mistakes, sometimes serious ones, as on this occasion, | :10:13. | :10:16. | |
are made. Newsnight should have run that report. And most important of | :10:16. | :10:21. | |
all, for years and years, Jimmy Savile should not have been invited | :10:21. | :10:25. | |
here to Television Centre, as an honoured guest, he should have been | :10:25. | :10:35. | |
arrested. And from the BBC to, well, the BBC. | :10:35. | :10:41. | |
John Sergeant, welcome. I knew we would get you on eventually. Is | :10:41. | :10:45. | |
John Simpson, the famous BBC world affairs editor, is he right when he | :10:45. | :10:53. | |
says this is the worst crisis in the BBC for 50 years? Is that | :10:53. | :10:57. | |
wrong? I know Chris Patten said it was the worst in his career, which | :10:57. | :11:01. | |
I find very difficult to understand. I really think that if you think of | :11:01. | :11:05. | |
the row that there was over sexing up the document and the Iraq war - | :11:05. | :11:10. | |
that was - that was a clash between the BBC and the Government. That | :11:10. | :11:15. | |
resulted in one Director-General going and a real moment, and a | :11:15. | :11:21. | |
chairman going. So the idea this is the worse crisis. What is horrible | :11:21. | :11:26. | |
is this ghastly affair of Savile. It is endless behaviour which the | :11:26. | :11:30. | |
BBC and these other institutions seem to have either ignored or in | :11:30. | :11:34. | |
fact covered up. That is serious. That is very serious. Michael, do | :11:34. | :11:39. | |
you think it is the worst crisis for 50 years? No, I agree, I think | :11:39. | :11:42. | |
the Hutton was the big one for exactly the reasons John Sergeant | :11:42. | :11:47. | |
says. Nonetheless, I think it is a big problem and I think John just | :11:48. | :11:54. | |
now made a very interesting explanation of George Entwistle's | :11:54. | :11:57. | |
answers. Most people will not perceive it in that way. Most | :11:57. | :12:02. | |
people will think it is extraordinary that when the BBC was | :12:02. | :12:06. | |
going to broadcast tributes to Jimmy Savile and he was informed | :12:06. | :12:10. | |
there was an investigation into Jimmy Savile, most people find it | :12:10. | :12:14. | |
extraordinary he did not ask the question. What should it have been? | :12:14. | :12:19. | |
The question should have been - what does this concern? How serious | :12:19. | :12:23. | |
is this? Even though you may be pulling it, is there enough in it | :12:23. | :12:31. | |
to make me worried I am doing all tributes over Christmas? Exactly. | :12:31. | :12:35. | |
The big question is not... I am going to retract that. They are | :12:35. | :12:43. | |
both big questions. Why Newsnight was pulled. The other is why were | :12:43. | :12:50. | |
the tributes broadcast? Leerveing aside all of these allegations, he | :12:50. | :12:56. | |
was the most talentless idiot on television ever. I don't think it | :12:56. | :13:01. | |
is the biggest crisis. On balance, I think Newsnight was probably | :13:02. | :13:04. | |
pulled not because of the Christmas tribute programmes but because | :13:04. | :13:09. | |
there was a fear they would not be able to stand it up. I think John's | :13:09. | :13:14. | |
analysis was very interesting as to how the BBC worked. It is the first | :13:14. | :13:18. | |
time I have understood Entwistle's position. He was criticised for | :13:18. | :13:23. | |
lack of curiousty. What John is saying is this crucial point about | :13:23. | :13:26. | |
independence leads to a certain timidity in the organisation by the | :13:26. | :13:32. | |
people at the top, which could be portrayed as timidity. What they | :13:32. | :13:37. | |
tend to do, is if there is a possibility of avoiding a decision, | :13:37. | :13:42. | |
the wise BBC boss does not then move in. He doesn't think, oh, well | :13:42. | :13:45. | |
I better get involved any way because I might have to make a | :13:45. | :13:48. | |
decision. Their instincts are, right, if it may not be broadcast | :13:48. | :13:52. | |
and that is what Entwistle said, people did not understand that. | :13:52. | :13:56. | |
They thought, well surely he would be interested in a Jimmy Savile | :13:56. | :14:00. | |
sorry. No, he wouldn't. He is thinking of other things. People | :14:00. | :14:04. | |
say, there is an investigation going on. Do I have to deal with it | :14:04. | :14:07. | |
now? I don't. Let's move on. If you are not in an organisation like the | :14:07. | :14:12. | |
BBC, you cannot believe that. Gosh, wouldn't that be interesting, | :14:12. | :14:17. | |
fascinating? No, not for him Head of Vision. Not at all interesting. | :14:17. | :14:21. | |
Would the Christmas schedules be so important, that he would | :14:21. | :14:28. | |
immediately think, "My, goodness this could wreck my Christmas | :14:28. | :14:32. | |
schedule." The BBC has hours it could replace it with instantly. | :14:32. | :14:37. | |
The thought that, oh, my goodness me, my lovely work will be ruined. | :14:37. | :14:40. | |
That is why I said in the piece how difficult it is for people to | :14:40. | :14:44. | |
understand this. If you are not part of it you don't see the whole | :14:44. | :14:49. | |
organisation, it does seem mysterious. | :14:49. | :14:52. | |
Every media organisation, worth its salt, should get into trouble every | :14:52. | :14:56. | |
now and then. The problem is, how do you handle it? The structure of | :14:56. | :15:01. | |
the BBC makes it difficult. It is so big - the way we have handled it | :15:01. | :15:06. | |
- it feels out of control. No-one seemed to know the whole picture. | :15:06. | :15:10. | |
No-one knows where the story is going. That has made it worse for | :15:10. | :15:20. | |
:15:20. | :15:23. | ||
The way it has come out the editor of Newsnight appears to have been | :15:23. | :15:27. | |
hanged. We have not heard his version of the story. So the | :15:27. | :15:32. | |
Director General is put in a weird position where he implies that here | :15:32. | :15:38. | |
is the guy who is going to tape the rap for this. But if he overdoes | :15:38. | :15:45. | |
that, people are going to say, hang on a moment, he hasn't even given | :15:45. | :15:51. | |
his evidence to the inquiry. You can't say, you know what? I called | :15:51. | :15:57. | |
this guy in and he went through it Immediately shown the door Appears | :15:57. | :16:01. | |
that at the end for's blog was challenged the day after it was | :16:01. | :16:05. | |
first published and it was first published on October 4th and Chris | :16:05. | :16:09. | |
Patten wasn't informed until October 21st, so this looks very | :16:09. | :16:14. | |
incompetent. I was reminded of this today, that all large organisations | :16:14. | :16:19. | |
are very incompetent. I was reminded today because someone is | :16:19. | :16:24. | |
selling administratery arch and when I was Secretary of State for | :16:24. | :16:30. | |
defence I was accused of selling Admiralty Arch. Ways in Japan at | :16:30. | :16:34. | |
the time. It asked my press officer and it took them 48 hours for them | :16:35. | :16:40. | |
to discover that we didn't even own Admiralty Arch. Let me try to | :16:40. | :16:44. | |
inject some reality into this. Your moments of the week were on the BBC. | :16:44. | :16:49. | |
We are talking about the BBC and Jimmy Savile. Can I remind you and | :16:49. | :16:54. | |
our viewers that the real story isn't the BBC in this. The biggest | :16:54. | :16:58. | |
casualty of the BBC taking centre stage is that this is a story about | :16:58. | :17:06. | |
the evil abuse of an evil man and other people were almost certainly | :17:06. | :17:11. | |
complicit. What temperature BBC did with e-mails to Newsnight or | :17:11. | :17:14. | |
Panorama, it pales into insignificant compared to what Mr | :17:14. | :17:19. | |
Savile was up to. Absolutely. There's a frenzy here. Mark | :17:19. | :17:22. | |
Thompson is supposed to not take up his new job in New York. I read | :17:22. | :17:28. | |
tonight that that is not true. But you are right there was speculation. | :17:28. | :17:33. | |
George Entwistle is suddenly calling for his head, Patten | :17:33. | :17:37. | |
calling for his head. At the heart of this is a vile and evil man. The | :17:37. | :17:40. | |
allegations against him and the more we learn about it the more | :17:40. | :17:45. | |
evil and nasty he was. It wasn't just a cultural thing from the | :17:45. | :17:50. | |
early 1970s. It was far more evil than that. The newspapers are | :17:50. | :17:55. | |
putting bell oes into this. They got a kicking at Leveson. They | :17:55. | :18:00. | |
think at the BBC we enjoyed that too much and now it is our turn. | :18:00. | :18:06. | |
The what if George Entwistle had come across as a dynamic and | :18:06. | :18:11. | |
amazing charisma character saying, don't worry, I will sort this out. | :18:11. | :18:16. | |
They would have taken him apart wouldn't they? Who is this arrogant | :18:16. | :18:22. | |
man who walks in and says, "Ly sort this out." He's only been there 11 | :18:22. | :18:27. | |
days. We know that in Broadcasting House and other buildings it is BBC | :18:27. | :18:31. | |
journalists who are taking up the knives and the axes and every | :18:31. | :18:35. | |
weapon they can lay their hands on, because they are not that fond of | :18:35. | :18:40. | |
their management. In the best traditions of tabloid journalism, | :18:40. | :18:45. | |
what senior heads will roll. don't know. I hope it is not the | :18:45. | :18:51. | |
Director General or the chairman. Michael? If I can say I hope not, I | :18:51. | :18:58. | |
will say I hope not. John? The news managers are have got a case to | :18:58. | :19:02. | |
answer. If this independent inquiries finds e-mails, there's a | :19:02. | :19:06. | |
lots that could come out. On the face of it, the Director General | :19:06. | :19:12. | |
and the chairman, they are well in the clear. You say that John but | :19:12. | :19:19. | |
these two said from in the clear. said Andrew Mitchell should go! | :19:19. | :19:24. | |
head of the, the head is lying at the bottom of the guillotine within | :19:24. | :19:28. | |
24 hours, so there could be some worried people tonight. John, thank | :19:28. | :19:32. | |
you. Good to see you. It may be late, but don't disappear | :19:32. | :19:36. | |
into thin air like Alex Salmond's legal advice. It turns out it was | :19:36. | :19:44. | |
written in invisible ink. Very clever. Stick with us in full view, | :19:44. | :19:47. | |
because coming up, comedian Shappi Khorsdandi is in the wings | :19:47. | :19:50. | |
anxiously waiting to find out what the hell we're talking about next! | :19:50. | :19:53. | |
And given that it's open season on the BBC at the moment, why not | :19:53. | :19:56. | |
shoot some This Week fish in a barrel, on The Twitter, the | :19:56. | :20:03. | |
overvalued Fleecebook, and the Interweb. Everyone else is. Why | :20:03. | :20:06. | |
shouldn't you? Now, they say if you want a friend | :20:06. | :20:09. | |
in Washington, get a dog. I guess the same could be said about | :20:09. | :20:12. | |
Westminster, because loyalty can be hard to find here as well. Although | :20:12. | :20:14. | |
perhaps call-me-Dave showed a little too much towards Andrew | :20:14. | :20:17. | |
Mitchell before the chief snob's Cabinet career was eventually put | :20:17. | :20:22. | |
down last Friday. Sorry, I mean "went to live on a farm" Well, as | :20:22. | :20:25. | |
you know, we're always on the scent for a good story, so we turned to | :20:26. | :20:28. | |
The Economist's Anne McElvoy and her faithful friend, Peter the | :20:28. | :20:38. | |
:20:38. | :20:59. | ||
French bulldog, for their roundup It is a very stressful day for | :20:59. | :21:06. | |
Peter the French bulldog and for me drafted in as the new incarnation | :21:06. | :21:10. | |
of Barbara Woodhouse this week. Peter is about to be put through | :21:10. | :21:16. | |
his paces at the Westminster dog of the year show. The dogs we'll be | :21:16. | :21:22. | |
judging on that and not their MP owners. | :21:22. | :21:29. | |
It has been a testing time for others too. Cameron and Co were | :21:29. | :21:33. | |
derided by Norman Tebbit, that dear old Rottweiler of the Tory Party, | :21:33. | :21:38. | |
as a dog of the coalition Government. The attack dogs were | :21:38. | :21:43. | |
released on George Entwistle. Would coo it be that the pedigree | :21:43. | :21:48. | |
executive pack had lost its nose for a story in the sad story of | :21:48. | :21:51. | |
Jimmy Savile? I don't know the answer to that question. Have you | :21:51. | :21:58. | |
not asked that question? Are you going ask that question? I will. | :21:58. | :22:05. | |
Are there any questions you would like to be prompted to ask that you | :22:06. | :22:11. | |
haven't asked yourself? Did someone bark an order from above or, as one | :22:11. | :22:16. | |
of the reporters suggested, was it a long political chain which got | :22:16. | :22:21. | |
yanked? Committee still don't know the truth, but the BBC's top dog | :22:22. | :22:25. | |
talked about processes and structure which is somehow | :22:25. | :22:30. | |
prevented him from asking what on earth was going on. You are told | :22:30. | :22:34. | |
that one of the flagship investigative programmes on the BBC | :22:34. | :22:39. | |
is looking into one of the most iconic figures that you are going | :22:39. | :22:44. | |
to issue huge tributes to and you didn't want to know? What was in my | :22:44. | :22:53. | |
mind was this determination not to show an undub interest. But we are | :22:53. | :23:03. | |
:23:03. | :23:10. | ||
all interested now in the story of But we old Westminster newshounds | :23:11. | :23:15. | |
now it is never long in the BBC feud before the politician try to | :23:15. | :23:20. | |
dig Apple juicy bone. And who is this? The freshly minted Culture | :23:20. | :23:25. | |
Secretary Maria Miller bounding on to the scene. These are very | :23:25. | :23:28. | |
serious allegations and it is absolutely right the Government | :23:28. | :23:33. | |
reflects the deep level of public concern. Meanwhile David Cameron's | :23:33. | :23:36. | |
been undergoing critical gaze for his change of temperament. You know | :23:36. | :23:41. | |
what it is like, you threat kids persuade tow get one of those | :23:41. | :23:46. | |
fluffy new Conservatives and before you know it they are snapping at | :23:46. | :23:51. | |
your ankles and.. We teed to be tough as the foundation of | :23:51. | :23:53. | |
effective criminal justice is personal responsibility. Committing | :23:53. | :23:58. | |
a crime is always a choice. That's why the primary, proper response to | :23:58. | :24:02. | |
crime is not explanations or excuses, it is punishment, | :24:02. | :24:06. | |
proportionate, meaningful punishment. When it comes to | :24:06. | :24:09. | |
dealing with those difficult foreign breeds we had a bit of a | :24:09. | :24:12. | |
tuls. On the thorny issue of prisoner's votes the Attorney | :24:12. | :24:15. | |
General, the constitutional watchdog, warned that we might end | :24:15. | :24:20. | |
up in the doghouse if we ignore European legislation. But Mr | :24:20. | :24:26. | |
Cameron said he didn't accept Strasbourg's ruling. Peter? Good | :24:26. | :24:29. | |
dog. What a good dog. No-one should be in any doubt prisoners are not | :24:30. | :24:34. | |
getting the vote under this Government. But it wouldn't be a | :24:34. | :24:38. | |
week at Westminster without on amny vor shambles and the badger cull | :24:38. | :24:42. | |
turned into the big controversial story that wasn't. Today I have | :24:42. | :24:46. | |
received a letter from the President of the N fufplt on behalf | :24:46. | :24:51. | |
of the companies co-ordinating the culls. Explaining why they do not | :24:51. | :24:56. | |
feel they can go ahead this year and requesting that they be | :24:56. | :25:00. | |
postponed until next summer. In these circumstances, it is the | :25:00. | :25:05. | |
right thing to do. All this was good news for the underdog, Ed | :25:05. | :25:09. | |
Miliband, who was hounding his prey at Prime Minister's Questions. | :25:09. | :25:15. | |
Fetch. And that is what he said before he became Prime Minister. We | :25:15. | :25:21. | |
must provide the modern Conservative alternative. Clear, | :25:21. | :25:26. | |
competent... LAUGHTER Inspiring. LAUGHTER Mr Speaker, where did it | :25:26. | :25:31. | |
all go wrong? CHEERING I tell you, I are tell you what has happened | :25:31. | :25:35. | |
under the Government under the last week. Inflation down, unemployment | :25:35. | :25:44. | |
down. Crime down, waiting lists down. Borrowing down. | :25:44. | :25:47. | |
The omnishambles a building attack line for Mr Miliband but it doesn't | :25:47. | :25:54. | |
tell us anything about how he would good he would be at running any. | :25:54. | :25:58. | |
After this action the Andrew Mitchell affair seemed like a very | :25:58. | :26:05. | |
long time ago 2009 Mr Mitchell's dog won Westminster dog of the year. | :26:05. | :26:10. | |
She was imPresident Sarkozyably behaved, unlike her master. Last | :26:10. | :26:14. | |
week we had a Government Chief Whip who was educated at Rugby public | :26:14. | :26:19. | |
school and this week we have one who was educated at Eton. Can the | :26:19. | :26:29. | |
:26:29. | :26:31. | ||
Prime Minister give us an update on his campaign to spread privilege? | :26:31. | :26:34. | |
At Westminster it is the winning and not the taking part that counts. | :26:34. | :26:39. | |
So I'm nabbing a bit of Peter's reflected glory and David Cameron's | :26:39. | :26:44. | |
also trying to borrow some glory from those upward growth figures | :26:44. | :26:47. | |
today. Just maybe it is his chance to gets back ahead of the political | :26:47. | :26:55. | |
pack. Michael, the growth figures for the | :26:55. | :26:59. | |
third quarter were a bit better than expected. Technically we've | :26:59. | :27:03. | |
come out of the double dip. Should we get excited about this | :27:03. | :27:07. | |
snoofrpblts I think we should probably. Not that the economic -- | :27:07. | :27:12. | |
should we get excited about this? think we should probably. If | :27:13. | :27:16. | |
narrative of the opposition until now has been powerful. Here we are | :27:16. | :27:20. | |
in recession, back in recession, three quarters of recession all of | :27:20. | :27:23. | |
that a over now. The 1% is a pricked number, because it takes | :27:23. | :27:27. | |
the economy back to where it was a year ago. That doesn't sound | :27:27. | :27:32. | |
spectacular but it does undo the three quarters of recession. So it | :27:32. | :27:37. | |
is a good number. The employment figures last year, last week, were | :27:37. | :27:40. | |
good. I think the great thing about the Government is the austerity | :27:40. | :27:43. | |
programme and the fact that it has stuck at the austerity programme. I | :27:43. | :27:46. | |
think the austerity programme is right. I think eventually the | :27:46. | :27:49. | |
austerity programme will be rewarded by a sort of success. When | :27:49. | :27:53. | |
I say sort of success, it dependents on what happens in the | :27:53. | :27:58. | |
euro and I think the euro is more likely to collapse than not. Alan, | :27:58. | :28:02. | |
the 1% growth in the third quarter is clearly a blip in the sense that | :28:02. | :28:08. | |
that's an annual rate of 4% and the economy isn't going to grow at 4% | :28:08. | :28:12. | |
this year, next year or the year after. If it is back to growth, it | :28:12. | :28:17. | |
is anaemic. This is the political question, is the Labour lead big or | :28:17. | :28:22. | |
strong enough to survive any kind of economic recovery? Well, it | :28:22. | :28:25. | |
would be a foolish Labour politician that felt that that was | :28:25. | :28:29. | |
the case, because it is going to be about the commitment I disagree | :28:29. | :28:35. | |
with Michael, because our criticism in 2010 and 2011 didn't imagine we | :28:35. | :28:40. | |
were going to go back into another recession. Alistair Darling, we | :28:40. | :28:45. | |
were always going to say we were bump along the bottom. The other | :28:45. | :28:50. | |
thing it doesn't feel, up in the North we've had terrible news on | :28:50. | :28:55. | |
jobs today. Now the news in Southampton and Dagenham about Ford. | :28:55. | :29:01. | |
If you took every Treasury official out and every Treasury Minister and | :29:01. | :29:05. | |
put sacks of Maris Piper notes the Treasury, eventually growth would | :29:05. | :29:12. | |
return. There would be gloth the economy. -- growth in the economy. | :29:12. | :29:15. | |
The question is how much damage is done in the meantime to the | :29:15. | :29:20. | |
underlying economy and to people's lives? I want to come back to the | :29:20. | :29:25. | |
question, the Conservatives' problem surely is this. Growth | :29:25. | :29:31. | |
could be so anaemic that only pundits in TV studios notice it. | :29:31. | :29:34. | |
Ordinary folk, particularly the further north you go, as Alan says, | :29:34. | :29:39. | |
don't. So the Torys could have a voteless recovery. That's the | :29:40. | :29:44. | |
political danger. The economic danger is that the economic | :29:44. | :29:48. | |
recovery is so anaemic that public borrowing just goes up and up and | :29:48. | :29:53. | |
in particular the national debt reaches such a size that the | :29:53. | :29:56. | |
markets refuse to lend to the British Government at the present | :29:56. | :30:00. | |
low rates and then you convert a problem which at the moment is | :30:00. | :30:03. | |
perfectly manageable into a cries which is is unsustainable. In other | :30:03. | :30:13. | |
:30:13. | :30:27. | ||
words you become a Spain or an The growth figures -%, as I said. | :30:27. | :30:32. | |
But in recent days, unemployment has gone down, retail sales have | :30:32. | :30:36. | |
gone up. People like me have been saying the deficit is rising again. | :30:36. | :30:40. | |
It is, but not as much by the original figures that we used | :30:40. | :30:45. | |
during the party conference season. Again, I just wonder, if I was a | :30:45. | :30:49. | |
Labour strategist, I look at my leader, I am ten points ahead of | :30:49. | :30:53. | |
the Tories. There was a good Labour conference, but is it strong enough | :30:54. | :30:58. | |
to survive a recovery? We're along way from an election. You are not | :30:58. | :31:03. | |
going to answer that, are you? are right. It has been a good week | :31:03. | :31:06. | |
for the Government. Two weeks if you go back to the statistics. Is | :31:06. | :31:12. | |
there a thought in the public's mind about competence of the | :31:12. | :31:16. | |
Government that overrides that good news and means that it just falls | :31:16. | :31:22. | |
flat and that would be a worry. They have to find some competence. | :31:22. | :31:27. | |
I'll have one more go. Is Mr Balls an asset or liability on policy? | :31:27. | :31:34. | |
He's an asset. He's an asset on the basis that, where Cameron and | :31:34. | :31:38. | |
Osborne have gone wrong, where I disagree with Michael profoundly, | :31:38. | :31:42. | |
is what they said would happen. This austerity package was supposed | :31:42. | :31:46. | |
to lead us away from the danger zone. They would be unwise to go | :31:46. | :31:51. | |
back to that. We are still in the danger zone. What they said would | :31:51. | :31:55. | |
happen, hasn't happened. Votes for prisoners came back again. We are | :31:55. | :31:59. | |
sure it must have been the Attorney General's department, leaking to | :31:59. | :32:03. | |
the Guardian, that we would have to do something on votes for prisoners. | :32:03. | :32:07. | |
The Prime Minister, making policy on the hoof again - saying to the | :32:07. | :32:11. | |
House of Commons, at Question Time, if you want another vote against | :32:12. | :32:17. | |
prisoners, I'm your man. You can have one - vote as much as you like. | :32:17. | :32:24. | |
I'll make a prediction, which is some prisoners will.... That is the | :32:24. | :32:28. | |
Attorney General's idea. Some prisoners will get the vote. Will | :32:28. | :32:34. | |
that be the right thing to do? not all that keen on them getting | :32:34. | :32:42. | |
the vote. I agree with the Attorney General that you have obey laws. | :32:42. | :32:46. | |
There is a way through, that you give some the vote and not others. | :32:46. | :32:51. | |
If there's a way through like that, for heavens sake, take it. I know | :32:51. | :32:56. | |
quite a bit about this. The Strasbourg court was against the | :32:56. | :33:00. | |
ban. The appetite in the Commons for giving prisoners any kind of | :33:00. | :33:07. | |
vote, even with conditions and criteria, you know this? I was | :33:07. | :33:17. | |
:33:17. | :33:17. | ||
against that and voted gepbss it. What we were hoping to -- against | :33:17. | :33:27. | |
:33:27. | :33:28. | ||
What we were hoping to do, is that Cameron did that the way he did. | :33:28. | :33:33. | |
Not a hostage to fortune. But also, so publicly disagreeing with his | :33:33. | :33:36. | |
Attorney General, who must have given him advice before he stood up | :33:36. | :33:42. | |
and said what he said. So, I think I don't want prisoners to get the | :33:42. | :33:46. | |
vote. I somewhere along the line there'll be a compromise. | :33:46. | :33:53. | |
Mitchell did not live to fight another day, contrary to your | :33:53. | :33:59. | |
prediction. I said he would go. It's childish, but very important. | :33:59. | :34:04. | |
Did you get legal advice? Have you got written legal advice? You can | :34:04. | :34:09. | |
play back from two weeks ago. Yes, I said. The badgers live to fight | :34:09. | :34:17. | |
another day, don't they? Will this cull ever happen? I think it is | :34:17. | :34:24. | |
50/50. Things are looking good for the badgers. They have survived | :34:24. | :34:30. | |
another season. Some have described it as a sett-back! | :34:30. | :34:37. | |
Oh, no, that brought this item to an end. You have seen one glance at | :34:37. | :34:42. | |
our sofa, tells you anything is welcome here. We are not fussy. | :34:42. | :34:47. | |
Michael and Alan may not share the same politics, but they are happy | :34:47. | :34:54. | |
to share a FTSE under the coffee table. I have watched them. -- a | :34:54. | :34:58. | |
footsy under the coffee table. I have watched them. Discrimination | :34:58. | :35:02. | |
in football is still an issue. This week, we are putting prejudice in | :35:02. | :35:12. | |
:35:12. | :35:20. | ||
When Alex Ferguson threatened to deal with Rio Ferdinand for not | :35:21. | :35:26. | |
wearing anty racism T-shirt, it seems all men are not born equal. | :35:26. | :35:31. | |
Rio is protesting at a lack of action on press dis. Luckily Sir | :35:31. | :35:37. | |
Alex has not held it against him. always think that the union is | :35:37. | :35:43. | |
stronger than an individual. It's important that he bears his | :35:43. | :35:51. | |
grievances to the right people. Someone else who is not a racist | :35:51. | :36:01. | |
:36:01. | :36:04. | ||
and can prove it in a court of law is comedian Frankie Boyle. | :36:04. | :36:08. | |
A glamour model and her fiancee were dismissed as not the type of | :36:08. | :36:15. | |
people who should be getting married at a posh hotel. Never mind, | :36:15. | :36:19. | |
Pauline. Try the vicar of Babestation! | :36:19. | :36:24. | |
The Supreme Court - modern day suffragettes challenged Birmingham | :36:24. | :36:34. | |
:36:34. | :36:38. | ||
council over pay inequality and a great granddaughter of pan hurst | :36:38. | :36:48. | |
:36:48. | :36:51. | ||
came to Westminster. Is the only Sofa? And we are joined by Shappi | :36:51. | :36:56. | |
Khorsandi. Welcome back to the programme. Thank you. Lovely to sit | :36:56. | :37:03. | |
down. Glad you can take the weight of your feet. There cannot be many | :37:03. | :37:08. | |
Iranian female comedians on the British circuit. There are loads. | :37:08. | :37:16. | |
What causes you the biggest problem in this job - is it your gender or | :37:16. | :37:20. | |
ethnicity? Neither. I don't wake newspaper the morning and go, oh, | :37:20. | :37:28. | |
my gosh, I'm a female, stand-up, Iranian comic again! You get asked | :37:28. | :37:33. | |
about it by journalists again and again. We're just like a herd!. The | :37:33. | :37:41. | |
same questions, again and again! have to say it is the skinny, male, | :37:41. | :37:47. | |
white ginger comedian is never hauled up to talk about the press | :37:47. | :37:52. | |
dishe suffers. People will look at what you -- prejudice he suffers. | :37:52. | :37:57. | |
People will look at you on the stage.... Is it not a big deal | :37:57. | :38:02. | |
then? It is not something I analyse. Sometimes people have said, | :38:02. | :38:07. | |
especially on Twitter t trolls - they keep our bridges safe. They go, | :38:07. | :38:12. | |
"Oh, you are only on TV because you are a woman and from Iran." These | :38:12. | :38:18. | |
are the two key things people need in soe business. My mother has just | :38:19. | :38:25. | |
been booked for Live At The Apollo. You cannot analyse it - you cannot | :38:25. | :38:29. | |
say I'm not getting this job because I'm this or that. You have | :38:29. | :38:35. | |
to get on with what you have to do. Being a comedian does that give you | :38:35. | :38:39. | |
more latitude? When you are a comedian, you are in a room with | :38:39. | :38:44. | |
people - you are creating an atmosphere. You are having a chat. | :38:44. | :38:48. | |
They know your intention by being there live. All these comedians who | :38:48. | :38:51. | |
get hauled up for being racist, it is rarely by the people who are in | :38:51. | :38:58. | |
the room with them. You know yourself, if you are at a dinner | :38:58. | :39:02. | |
party and people get your intention is not malicious. Frankie Boyle - | :39:02. | :39:09. | |
well he won the case against the Mirabalais. What a waste that was - | :39:09. | :39:14. | |
- against the Mirror. What a waste of time that was. I | :39:14. | :39:24. | |
could have given it to his favourite charity or donal -- | :39:24. | :39:30. | |
Donald Trump's favourite charity! In general, in Britain, where are | :39:30. | :39:38. | |
we now? We all think we have made great strides on things like racial | :39:38. | :39:45. | |
discrimination and predgedils -- prejudice. Do we still have great | :39:45. | :39:49. | |
strides? If we look at other countries that are not as toll rent | :39:49. | :39:58. | |
as us and the fact it is up for debate is.... Are you not joking? | :39:58. | :40:05. | |
That we are not tolerant. I think it is good. I thought she | :40:05. | :40:12. | |
was a comedian. I thought she was here to tell jokes. Don't you think | :40:12. | :40:20. | |
most prisoners would vote Tory? There is prejudice on class. You | :40:20. | :40:28. | |
have the toffs talking about chavs. Just because I am a Tory he thought | :40:28. | :40:38. | |
I went to a leading public school. That is prejudice. Harrow Road | :40:38. | :40:43. | |
Primary School. You have the wrong Harrow! | :40:43. | :40:49. | |
We still seem to tolerate a class prejudice. | :40:49. | :40:54. | |
I hate the term "chav". I hate the way that that was turned into some | :40:55. | :41:01. | |
kind of depiction of the working class I did not recognise at all. | :41:01. | :41:07. | |
It was probably comedians! It was not. Take that back. I thought | :41:07. | :41:13. | |
Michael went to Harrow. You are in no control of where you went to | :41:14. | :41:21. | |
school. Equally, being prejudicial because someone is a toff. When I | :41:21. | :41:28. | |
was an MP. A lady wrote to me and said "do you know how I don't like | :41:28. | :41:32. | |
a foreigner like you being an MP. She said, if it is a part of an | :41:33. | :41:37. | |
exchange programme. While you are here, one of our people is in your | :41:37. | :41:43. | |
country, that would be a good idea. People are bonkers though. People | :41:43. | :41:49. | |
say bonkers stuff to you. Not on this programme. You cannot | :41:50. | :41:57. | |
take something someone says. You have to ride it out. I have to say, | :41:57. | :42:06. | |
it is not taken as seriously as it should be. We have Milf and Cougar | :42:06. | :42:16. | |
banded around. They are used to say a mum's age.Um mi mummy sound like | :42:16. | :42:26. | |
:42:26. | :42:27. | ||
you are -- Yummy Mummy sound like you are covered in chocolate. I am | :42:27. | :42:34. | |
at the Soho theatre, discussing words like Milf and cougar. What | :42:34. | :42:39. | |
fun! The lawyers have told me to bring the programme to an end! | :42:39. | :42:46. | |
That's your lot for tonight. Not for us - because, it is Pippa | :42:46. | :42:54. | |
Middleton's party, planning dinner at a restaurant tonight. Looking | :42:54. | :43:00. | |
for a walk-on part in made in Chelsea. We are finding out whether | :43:00. | :43:04. | |
you pass the Blue Nun to the right or the left. Me, I just drink it. | :43:04. | :43:08. | |
Hopefully Pippa can put them straight. Good old Pippa. Newsnight | :43:08. | :43:15. | |
may be down, but it is not out. Jeremy Paxman may have miss placed | :43:15. | :43:23. | |
his tie again, but Conrad Black has clearly myself judged -- miss | :43:23. | :43:31. | |
judged his opponent. You have been convicted. Will you stop this | :43:31. | :43:36. | |
prejudice. You are a criminal. not a criminal. You are a convicted | :43:36. | :43:45. |