06/12/2012 This Week

Tonight as winter arrives, This Week takes to the political slopes.

Chancellor George Osborne navigates a treacherous economic black run

and spls out just how bad things are looking. It is a hard road, but

we are getting there, and Britain is on the right track. The BBC's

Robert Peston steps out of the cold to enjoy a bit of apres ski.

There's a chill wind blowing through the economy and the

Chancellor didn't exactly open his wallet and buy us all a drink,

which is why the bill for this one Andrew is being passed back to you.

Cheers! As the snowy conditions reached the UK, is austerity

leading to a freeze in social mobility? Author Tony Parsons feels

chill. My cockles were warmed by the news that Kate and William's

baby will be the first British monarch with working class blood.

But are the Middleton as one-off? And with hoax callers using their

slalom skills to fool Kate's nurses, how easy is it to make it and fake

it? Cool comedy customer Miles Jupp slides into our studio. I've

blagged my way on to various things, including as part of the press Corp

on the England tour of India. But the most impressive thing I've

blagged my way on to is the This Week sofa. Wrap up warm, it's all

Evenin' all. Welcome to This Week, the show that promises so much and

delivers so little, leaving gullible viewers feeling conned and

out of pocket. Think of us as the Nigerian email scam of BBC current

affairs, or the Autumn Statement. Of course, we're not alone in our

tendency to commit fraud. In fact, it's been a week of prank calls and

cruel hoaxes. Yet something's clearly wrong when an Australian DJ

can impersonate the Queen and sound more believable than a forecast

from the Office for Budget Responsibility. Although the OBR

has form when it comes to misleading impressions, dodgy

predictions and dubious soothsaying, as if the nation's economic

forecasts have been out-sourced to Doris Stokes. Oooohhhh, the voices

are strong tonight. I'm picking up "expansionary fiscal contraction".

No, no, that's fading. I'm now hearing "no growth"... "bigger

borrowing"... "missing the debt target"... "bye-bye Triple A". What

can it mean? Not that I'm bothered by AAA - I'm in the RAC! Boom-boom.

Anyway, with the UK's AAA rating now in doubt and a triple-dip

recession now likely, it looks like the era of "triple-down economics"

will soon be with us. Did you see what I did there?

Speaking of those whose credibility is shot to pieces, I'm joined on

the sofa tonight by two Westminster scatter cushions with the stuffing

knocked out. The off-trend and off- colour soft furnishings of late

night political chat. I speak of course of #jacqu.i.am Jacqui Smith,

and #sadmanonatrain Michael "choo- choo" Portillo. Your moment of the

week. Hello Andrew. There was a meeting of the parliamentary

committee on banking standards and it featured Lord Lawson, Nigel

Lawson, Chancellor of the Exchequer in the 1980s, interviewing the

chairman of Halifax Bank of Scotland when it went down the due.

He had written a few letters say his bank was in brilliant condition.

Lord Lawson said if he believed that when he wrote it, he must have

been deluded. It reminded me of what a formidable force he is,ant

how all of this mess began. It was whole lot of greedy bank traders in

banks and managers supposed to have been minding them. Jacqui?

Starbucks have woken up and smelled the coffee today. I wonder whether

this is people power or whether it's the first manifestation of a

big corporate or because they are facing the risk of some sort of

demo and difficulty. It's a PR stunt. Well, but it's interesting

isn't it that a company like that has been forced into doing this?

This is why... I would like to make up a figure and pay my tax that way.

It is just a PR stunt to get them through. Will it come out of the PR

budget. But they obviously think it is important that they respond.

go to Starbucks and I get them to do my tax return.

Now, the Blue Nun screw tops have been cracking open up and down the

land, as Her Majesty's loyal plebs toast a future royal baby. -- wee

bairn. Boy or girl, Kate and Will's offspring will be the future

monarch and will undoubtedly lead a gilded life. But what about the

babies not born to rule? Can they expect even a fraction of the same

life chances? We've asked author and journalist Tony Parsons to give

This week most of us rejoiced at the news of the new royal baby. Now,

take it from me, the worst thing about having a baby is that you're

never truly free again. And the best thing about having a baby is

that you never have a better reason to be alive. Shall we get them some

flowers? The best thing about a royal baby - they guarantee the

survival of the monarchy for another 100 years, ensuring we

don't have some greedy, grasping fly-by-night politician Lording it

over us as head of state. And the worst thing about a royal baby? You

get all these pundits associating significance to the royal might

that don't exist. I wonder if there is anything fit for a King or a

Queen. We're told that Kate and William's baby will be our first

classless sovereign. And nothing could be further from the truth.

Yes Kate comes from humble working stock - miners and car penters.

Even a generation ago kit's mother was serving tea or coffee as a

flight attendant while legions of flunkies were checking the

temperature of Prince Charles' soft-boiled eggs.

The Middleton family are is gold medal winners of social mobility,

and good luck to them, but the Middletons are the exception that

proved the rule. Kate and William's baby will be born into a country

where it has never been more difficult to get ahead. A land

where social mobility is not poorly or dying, but dead. Kate and

William's baby will be born into a land that has heavy been more class

ridden in my lifetime. A land where the gap between the have not and

the have lots is big and getting bigger. Applications for university

are down. Soup kitchens are sprouting up everywhere.

Homelessness is becoming an epidemic. Even the modest

aspirations of the recent past, a higher education for your children,

buying your first home, starting a family, are starting to seem like

impossible dreams. But this baby will be born into a

realm where the people are divided by wealth, by privilege and, above

all, by opportunity. Our first classless sovereign? I'll believe

that one when Kate and William send their kid to a comprehensive.

Red, white and blue always looks good.

Tony Parsons from the Flowerstalk in Hampstead to our own little

flower shop in Westminster. Tony, welcome. Thank you. You say social

mobility isn't dying or feeling rather poorly but you are saying it

is dead. A bit of an exaggeration? I don't think so. It is remarkable

we've got this baby coming along that has the blood of miners and

core penters and flight attendants and does come from workinging class

stock. A couple of generations back. But they've completely moved from

digging coal in Cumbria to the Crown in a few generations, with

the things that always are the engine of social moct - hard work,

education, working class decency and charm, niceness, beauty, love.

But I think that that baby is the exception rather than the rule. I

don't think lit ever happen again. When I was growing up there were

five British Prime Ministers in a row that were educated by the state.

I don't think that, from 1946 to 1997. I don't think that can happen

again. If it is broken down, if it is as bad as you say, what or who

is to blame? I think the politicians that kicked away

ladders for bright working class kids should take a lot of the blame.

The ones that did it in the 1960s and the ones that continue to do it

today. Grammar schools are despised from David Cameron to Ed Miliband.

They all hate the idea of them. There'll always be people that slip

through the net, people that somehow make it, but education is

the great driving force of social mobility. It is not just the

working class but the middle class too. It is people from ordinary

homes. When that's taken away, you will always, we will forever be

ruled by unexceptional men who had exceptional educations. Is social

mobility in decline? Evidently it is and I entirely agree with Tony's

point about education. I think social engineering in education,

the destruction of the grammar schools a really important part of

this. Another misguided social policy, the expansion of welfare,

which has trapped many people into dependency and destroyed what Tony

just described as working class decency. Now it is possible for

people to get on the welfare early, to live off welfare and to create

subsequent generations of people who live on welfare. I don't

entirely agree that we are a more class-divided society. There is an

extraordinary expansion of the bourgeoisie. If you see the habits

that people adopt in the has been that its people aspire to, it is

largely now around food and wine bars and the kind of middle class

set of values and enjoyment. On the other hand, what used to be working

class sports, they've become largely bourgeoisiified. Even rock

concerts have become bourgeoisiified. The ticket prices

have gone through the roof. I think the middle class is expanding and

expanding but I do believe people at the bottom of society, it is

nigh on impossible to get to the top. Do you think it is in decline?

I think there are serious problems and I think education is the answer,

although I disagree with Michael and Tony about grammar schools. I

don't think we can afford to have a society nowadays which only lifts

up, if it lifts up at all, 20% of people. Everybody through a

comprehensive system has to are the opportunity to get on. 20% would be

better than 0, which is the public schools. I do note this week a

little spat between Andrew Adonis and the new regulator of Fair

Access to Universities. It was reported that he said it doesn't

matter if kids in comprehensive schools are encouraged to go to

Oxford or Cambridge. In my view there is not enough aspiration for

enough young people. Having an expectation that large numbers of

people will go to the very best universities is at the very least

what we need to do in our schools. One of the problems, I think, one

of the big political issues at the moment for Labour is not to back

off the reforms to education that we started. So not to back off the

academies programme, which we put in place. Possibly even to see some

of the benefits of free schools, where those exist. And to support

those, but not to move away from the idea that education has to be a

There is an implication there that because only 20% went to grammar

schools, it was better that 0% should get that education. That is

exactly where we have ended up. It is about 0% of people who do not go

to public school who can make it to the top -- 0%, all people who go to

public school. That is just not true. You cannot simply have this

very artificial, at age 11, division between those who will be

academic and those who will not. understand your argument, and we

have the benefit of the policy. It is its bark macro -- it is exactly

what Tony was saying. The gap between rich and poor has got wider

as well. Cognitive skills, in an information economy become much

more important, so the well-paid skilled, blue-collar workers in the

past. For there to be social mobility, don't we all need to

start at least a little bit closer together than we are at the moment?

We do. It is not just about the education of white working-class

kids in grammar schools. My mother had six brothers, and most of them

worked in the print. They served apprenticeships, which have died

out as well as grammar schools. It is giving people a body of skills.

I understand what Jackie is saying, that at 11 you're making tough,

unfair choices. In some ways, it is unfair. I lost a lot of my friends,

my best friend, when I went to a grammar school and they went to a

secondary modern. But life is tough and unfair and it makes choices all

the time. It would not necessarily have to be 11. You could not call

them grammar schools anyway. If they ever came back, we have to

call them something else. Part of the problem with social mobility is

that the tough choices are made before you get to 11, before you

get to school, in terms of whether people come from families where

they have been supported to be able to read and be ready to go to

school. That is why I think this Government is right to be expanding

education for two year-olds, but I think they are wrong to limit the

availability of Sure Start centres to people, because that makes the

difference at the earliest stage. The Miliband brothers went to a

comprehensive. I have been to that school and a surprise that Ed

Miliband made it through his first play time because it is quite a

tough school. And a very mixed school. But they come from a home

it was full of books, and a home where ideas were discussed at the

dinner table. So they had a rich cultural life. There is no denying

that they are comprehensive Boys, but they came from an exceptional

home, with an exceptional father, where there was a level of debate

which you would not get in many homes. You know the middle classes

invented some grammar schools by making little properties it owns,

where property prices are very high, so their comprehensive is

outstanding. I would not be too surprised if this royal baby goes

to a comprehensive like that. have to say, I think public schools

are fantastic schools. But what is interesting about that golden

period of meritocracy, five Prime Ministers in a row from Wilson to

to John Major, is that they were competing, when Eton and

Westminster and St Paul's were still great schools. They were

fantastic schools them, but these quirky, strange characters, John

Major, Jim Callaghan, Margaret Thatcher and Harold Wilson coming

from the back of beyond, were competing with them. So if

politicians broke it, can they put it together again? Yes, they can.

But it is not going to happen. It is just one of those things. They

are all against it. Major parties, for some reason. I think you are

wrong about that. Out of the free schools, we are going to find such

diversity of schooling emerging that we will find something like

the old grammar schools coming through. If the crackdown on

welfare continues in the direction it is continuing, you are going to

put the family back at the centre of society, rather than having the

state as the father of so many children. An optimistic note. Let's

leave it there. Thank you very much. Now, it's late, and our viewing

figures are lower than a Frenchman's sperm count. Down a

third in recent years, apparently. The sperm count, not the viewing

figures. But for those of you still up, you're in luck. Because waiting

in the, wings fresh from the National Theatre tonight, actor,

comedian, writer, Miles Jupp, here to talk about the art of faking it.

And you too can pretend to be somebody you're not, as you do most

weeks, on the Twitter, the Fleecebook, and the interweb.

Now, we love big days, when everyone's focused on exciting

Westminster occasions. No, not the visit to Downing Street of gangsta

rapper Dr Dre, I kid ye not, but the Autumn Statement by financial

rapper Boy George. Yesterday, he stood at the despatch box and

claimed he was on course, despite being, well, totally off course,

not to say lost in a sea of red ink. Since then, there's been a lot of

wondering about what it all means. So we turned to the best in the

business, the BBC's business editor, Robert Peston. He's been taking a

well-deserved breather with his Another huge week for this

Government. George Osborne had to admit he is going to miss one of

his important debt targets, and tried to convince us in his Autumn

Statement that he has a plan to get some momentum behind the economy.

It has been a pretty gruelling week for me because I have to try and

make sense of it all. Thank goodness, after these exhausting

days, I can come to my club. Only the best are Loudon. But there is

obviously nothing AAA about this place, because if there was, they

would not let you in. When the Chancellor goes on and on about AAA

in relation to debt, what does he mean? Well, it means investors have

confidence, confidence that the Government can repay its debts.

That allows the Government to borrow very cheaply, so maintaining

that AAA badge has been desperately important to George Osborne. In

fact, trying to retain that triple- A rating underpinned pretty much

everything he said in the House of Commons. The tougher economic

conditions mean that while our deficit is forced -- forecast to go

on falling, instead of taking three years, it is going to take four.

Confronted with this news, some say we should abandon our deficit plan

and try to borrow more. We are not taking that road to ruin. It may

not be the road to ruin but it certainly looks like a pretty hard

road. The Chancellor says that austerity, tax increases and

spending cuts, now has to go on all the way to 2018. So I am always

hearing the Chancellor going on about how we are all in it together.

Is there anything to that? Well, the pain is not being imposed on

everybody equally by the Chancellor. Actually, the super rich are pretty

much left off. But if you are a doctor or a civil servant, saving

for a pension, you are going to be worse off. And if you are

unemployed or on very low earnings, you will be worse off. What is

interesting to me is that the people who have probably done all

right are those right in the middle, people who you might see as swing

voters, desperately important for the next election. There are no

quick fixes to these problems. But they want to know that we are

making progress. And the message from today's Autumn Statement is

that we are making progress. It is a hard road, but we're getting

there. With the Government missing its numbers, it looked like an open

goal for Labour, but they do not have -- they do not seem to have

scored. What went wrong? There was some fancy footwork from the

Chancellor which caught the shadow jobs were, Ed Balls, off guard. He

suffers from a stutter and what came out was not what he wanted.

The House of Commons showed no sympathy. The national deficit is

not rising. It is rising, not falling. I will say it again. Our

economy is contracting this year. Government borrowing and the

deficit is revised up this year, next year and every year, and the

national debt is rising. It is not falling. This is obviously going to

be a long game. How will Labour try to fight back? Ed Balls will

continue to point out that George Osborne is failing his own test of

credibility, in that the national debt is going up and up as far as

the eye can see. He will say it is unfair that so much of the squeeze

is falling on the working poor. But the Chancellor has set a trap for

Labour. Cuts in unemployment benefits are popular with many

voters. How will Labour vote on that? Cutting taxes for the rich,

while struggling families and pensioners pay the price, unfair,

incompetent and completely out of touch. Many would say Labour has

not launched a significant economic policy for some time. Its strategy

appears to be to sit back on the assumption that it will fall apart

and there are certainly plenty of economists who fear that the UK may

lurch back into recession. If that were to happen, there would

certainly be tensions, new tensions in the coalition. A senior Lib Dem

minister recently said to me that if there were a so-called triple

dip, he would start to put pressure on George Osborne for a change of

strategy, which is why the Chancellor may have taken something

of a risk in so publicly pooh- poohing the Lib Dems cherished

mansion tax. In my view, it would be intrusive, expensive to levy,

would raise little and be a temptation for future Chancellors

to bring ever more homes into its net. So we are not having a new

homes tax. There are huge pressures of -- on the British economy. If

the recovery fails to materialise in the way George Osborne hopes and

expects, the UK would then lose that glistening AAA credit rating,

which would be a huge political embarrassment for the Chancellor

and also for the Prime Minister. I say, old chap, I think it is time

you left. My goodness, they let anybody in these days.

That was Robert Peston, taking five at the Sir Richard Steele Pub in

Belsize Park. And the music, of course, our little homage to the

wonderful jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck, who died this week.

Yes, I was a fan of Dave Brubeck. None of that was on the autocue.

Are we going to lose the triple-A rating? It is possible. It is more

or less what the whole government strategy has been about. It is more

or less why the coalition came into being in the first place. But not

exactly the triple-A rating. Precisely, it is to keep the

interest on what the Government has to pay on its borrowing as low as

possible, that is to say at about 2%. It is possible that even if we

lost the triple-A rating we would still be paying interest at 2%, in

which case none of us would notice any difference and I don't think

the Americans would. Although there were warnings that we might lose

the triple-A rating, the markets this morning were pretty positive

for the Government. The triple-A rating is a kind of proxy, but what

really matters is the rate of interest that we pay. If the rate

of interest remains at 2%, we are fine, in a sustainable position. If

it goes up to where Spain and Italy are, 5%, that is catastrophic. The

coalition would say this is an argument in its favour. It is

precisely because we are on this hair-trigger, that interest rates

could go zooming up, that if we were to do what Ed Balls says,

borrow more now, we would simply lurch into that position of having

these much higher interest rates, and that would be catastrophic. So

any little stimulus that you might provide to the economy by borrowing

more and spending more would be absolutely washed away with

interest rates went up in that way. The comparison that you have to

make is not the economy we have compared with what we would like,

or compared with what it was, but the economy we have compared with

the economy that the Spanish and Italians and Greeks have. If we

were to lose the triple-A rating, it would be an open goal for Labour.

Put aside the economics. The politics of it are huge. But there

may be a trap for Labour, too. If we lose the triple-A rating, it is

probably because the Chancellor is failing to meet his borrowing

targets and failing to meet his debt targets, so for Labour to

argue that borrowing should be even On the AAA rating, I agree. It is

more significant for the Chancellor's reputation than it is

for the real economy in the UK, not least because comparatively there

are now in terms of of where investment will go less options as

attractive for the UK, even if we were to lose our AAA rating. I

agree with you that there is an issue for Labour in the way in

which they respond to the Autumn Statement, another Michael, of

course, as Ed Balls rightly pointed out, as the OBR demonstrated, a

failure to bring growth into the economy through the austerity

programme is the reason why, if we take out the receipts from the 4G

sale, why we will nevertheless be borrowing more this year than we

would have borrowed last year. is true, if you take the 4G seams

out and strip away all the one-off items he rather complicatedly put

out yesterday, we borrow more this year than last year. The problem is

that austerity isn't working and nor are we all in this together.

Because the Chancellor performed rather well yesterday, he had a

weak hand and he played it well, and we'll come on in a minute to Ed

Balls, who stumbled a bit in the beginning and found it hard to

recover. The Chancellor got not a bad press today. When you peal

about the figures, he told us he is going to borrow over �250 billion

over five years but now it is over �500. -- over �5 00 billion. Growth

is now going to be negative this year, barely 1% next year.

coalition made a miscalculation. They thought that by announcing

there was going to be a Government for five years and announcing there

was going to to be an austerity programme there would be such a

boost to confidence that growth would return to the economy, and

tax revenues would come in and everything would be put right. That

was a miscalculation. When Jacqui and others say the policy is not

working, it is true that the policy is not creating growth, but Britain

has been able to go on borrowing money at 2%, a privilege not

available to other countries to Europe. But had there been growth

there wouldn't be such a requirement to borrow. Of course,

but your little stimulus, your borrowing more, would have hurried

on the day at which we would have to pay more interest on the money

we borrowed. So the success of the policy has been that we were not

Spain or Italy. Before I come on to that... Nor are we Germany or the

US on political growth. It is sif to say it is not very good but it

could be much worse. That's what the Government is reduced to isn't

it? Absolutely, but there will be an option at the next election and

that option will be you do wants it very bad or very much worse? That

will be the choice that will be put to the British people. The eurozone

as a whole is now in recession. The Greek and Spanish economies are in

deep decline. The French economy's in recession, the Italian economy

is in recession. When you look at the growth figures, which may even

be too optimistic for Britain of 1% next year, barely 2% the year after

that. I'm beginning to wonder whether you are on the left or the

right, the new normal we face is stagnation for the foreseeable

future. There is a totally difficulty economic context, I

think that's true. From what we grew up with. For the whole of the

time that I was in Government, the issues were about how you spent the

money with ana was there to be spent. This is a totally different

political and economic fiscal environment in which to operate.

And to be honest, people are struggling I think in both the

major parties with what's the approach to that? The Tory approach

was to say we've inherited a mess, we believe austerity is the answer

and we are all going be in it together, in taking this tough

austerity medicine that. Hasn't worked. The Labour approach to a

certain extent Michael is right has been to say that we wouldn't have

got into this mess in the first place, as we wouldn't have cut so

far and so fast. But the problem is we are now in this situation and

for Labour win the next election they have to have a credible story

about how the deaf sift will be reduced. How we will manage, the

Government, at a time when spending more isn't going to be the answer.

I'm sorry to keep going on about European comparisons but people in

this country, unless they travel abroad or study abroad don't get

the full measure of how desperate the situation is elsewhere and how

desperate it could be here. I'm not guaranteeing you with these

policies we won't end up in the same place. No. And he isn't. Where

we are seeing employment of 8%, other countries are seeing 25%.

Tory Party broadcast will be full of rights and demonstration rights

footage of Spain and Greece and maybe Italy. To give credit to the

last Government, where we in the euro we wouldn't be able to devalue

our currency or print money. bank that can print money like

America, like here, have lo interest rates.

Ed Balls was slightly thrown I think was we all thought the

deficit would be rising this week. But a bit of jiggery-pokery threw

him. Do you feel sorry for him? feel sorry for him. He a good line

about a response to the Autumn Statement is like making a wedding

speech when you don't talk about the -- when you don't know the

broid or the groom. It is not as if people will say the trouble with Ed

is he can't perform at the dispatch box. He is a robust performer and

if this is lightly less than his usual performance, well... But he's

so rude to everybody in the House. The House of Commons is like these

Medieval ordeals where they used to dip witches in water and see if

they drowned or not. You are thrown into this place and you are you

either sink or swim. Your survival depends on all sorts of things.

Whether you have a sore throat that day, whether you've got a cold,

whether you've got out of the right side of bed. Osborne is like Gordon

Brown, he is very political in that he's thrown to Labour this 1% rise

in benefits. I couldn't get any Labour politician in the shadow

Government to tell me how they are going to vote for it. We'll keep an

eye on it. Now, you've probably not twigged,

but we're all a bunch of frauds on this sofa, playing at making a TV

show. We hide it well don't we? Michael's accidentally stumbled

onto the set on his way home from a guest appearance on Gok Wan's

Fashion Fix. Jacqui's trying her best as the great pretender to the

Abbott throne, though we'll never forget you Diane, or your Annabel's

bar bill. And I'm doing my most convincing impression of a man who

knows how to read an autocue, read an autocue, read an autocue. So

this week we're putting our best feet forward and putting "faking

Hospital staff looking after Kate were left red faced after two

Aussie radio DJs pretended to be the Queen and Prince Charles. The

likeness was uncanny. Hello, there can I please speak to

Kate please, my granddaughter. hold on ma'am. Thank you.

Are they putting us through? Yes! Starbucks' impression of a hippy

dipy coffee chain doesn't look so believable, now the mask has

slipped and its creative approach to tax revealed a more corporate

face. While rumours that Voeck editor Anna Wintour might be the

next American ambassador to the UK proves that even if you lack skills,

self-confidence can open doors. And at least "Freddie" Flintoff didn't

fall flat on his face after leaving cricket and becoming a heavyweight

contender, slengs his crit nicks the process.

-- silencing his critics in the process. Good to see you. Is it

true you blagged your way on to a cricket tour of India? It was six

years ago. I couldn't blag my way into the team, obviously, in those

days it had selection policy, but the nearest best thing would be to

be a journalist. I rang the right people and said I'm the BBC

Scotland crickets correspondent, can you sort out my travel and

accommodation and stuff. People said yes, so I went out there with

the press Corp and tried to be like them. Were you nervous? I was. I

imagined the hard thing would be convincing people, would be getting

in there. To me the grey area was getting into the press box and voog

it as a fortress, but that Paz -- viewing it as a fortress, but that

was ludicrously easy. Do you know anything about cricket? I know a

lot about cricket. There is a difference between being a fan and

people who absorb it all day. Lots of arm chair political experts,

they are thrown, you would feel brutally out of your death. It is

remarkably how easily the hospital allowed that call to go through. It

suggests that people want to believe, they are in a kind of

accepting, believing mood. suppose if you answered the phone

and someone said it's the Queen here, would hope it was the Queen

wouldn't you? You would think, I hope this is the Queen ringing me

and not someone pretending the Queen. You are transferring your

hopes on to it in a way. The Australians are fascinated by our

monarchy, as they are so proud to be subjects of her Marge city.

are an actor, a stand-up comedian, a writer. You do ever feel an

imposter in these roles? A lot of roles all the time. The different

jobs I do, it is one of the great sadnesses of life, you talk to

people of any age and they always say you feel you will be found out.

There is no such thing as making it. People are amazing in all sorts of

field have the most extraordinary doubts sometimes. Michael Portillo,

have you ever felt an imposter in any of your jobs? All the time.

There was a night when Margaret Thatcher was decide tolling resign

and all her cabinet had told her to resign. I was a middle ranking

Minister. I got in to see her one to one and urged her not to resign.

I thought I am far too junior. Where is the person who is meant to

tell the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom not the resign. All

the time I was in the Cabinet, I thought I was in a fake Cabinet and

behind the curtain there was a real Cabinet. How long did it take for

tow feel you belonged in the cabinet? I had been a Minister for

seven years. Mike sell modest and not what I always thought Tories

were like. When I first got into Government, I remember the first

time I went to Downing Street, I thought isn't the thing that Labour

politicians do being in Government, whereas those Tories always think

they are born for power and they should belong here. I was a grammar

school boy you see. But you can, we were talking about class earlier,

if you have a public school accent and confidence and dress the right

way, you can fool people a lot of the time. You can fool people, I'm

meant to be in there. An act like that. Yes. People are on the

lookout for that Braying behaviour now a little bit more. Just being

posh and shouting doesn't get you. They just tell tow get off your

bicycle. "Freddie" Flintoff swapped contribute for heavyweight boxing.

You've swapped heavyweight for -- politics for television. It is

marvellous. And I'm less stressed as well. Any other jobs you fancy

blagging your way into? Well, I'm always keen to work. All sorts

really. I do like the idea of travel documentaries. I'm not sure

that is something. Don't tell him that. What are you doing at the

moment? I'm in Alan Bennett's new play, People. It is considerable

and it has upset the National Trust. You must have done something right.

We need to go. That's your lot for tonight folks,

but not for us, because with Madonna's infamous "conical bra"

being sold at auction this week - for over �32,000! The music was

Time Out. I wonder who bought Madonna's conical bra. Michael's

absolutely determined to get his money's worth at Annabel's tonight.

He'll take someone's eye out if he's not careful. But we leave you

tonight with a heartfelt plea, after Sally Bercow declared on