:00:00. > :00:16.Tonight on This Week, we've caught the Great British baking bug. The
:00:17. > :00:20.Prime Minister has got himself into a sticky mess in the Westminster
:00:21. > :00:30.kitchen. What would Mary Berry make of David Cameron's recipe to reduce
:00:31. > :00:32.energy bills? It is too chewy. Environmental campaigner and organic
:00:33. > :00:40.bread-maker Jonathan Porritt flours his board. You know what, the
:00:41. > :00:45.government should stick its half baked energy policy is back in the
:00:46. > :00:47.oven and start all over again. Delicious.
:00:48. > :00:50.Home Secretary, Teresa May, now accepts her policy of telling
:00:51. > :00:53.illegal immigrants to "go home" was half-baked. Journalist and
:00:54. > :01:02.commentator Medhi Hasan gets to lick the political bowl. I will be
:01:03. > :01:07.assessing the latest bunfight in the Westminster village, including the
:01:08. > :01:12.row over energy prices. I guess you cannot bake cakes if you don't have
:01:13. > :01:14.power. Here is one I made earlier. Yummy.
:01:15. > :01:18.And while Great British amateur enthusiasts shone in the Bake Off
:01:19. > :01:21.tent, when it comes to teachers, how important is it to have the right
:01:22. > :01:24.qualifications? Baking music in the This Week oven is violinist and
:01:25. > :01:37.Classic Brit winner Nicola Benedetti.
:01:38. > :01:40.I did not need an officially qualified teacher to show me how to
:01:41. > :01:42.do that. Don't go to bed, I promise you won't
:01:43. > :01:51.see my soggy bottom. Evenin' all. Welcome to This Week,
:01:52. > :01:56.the wilting bag of throwaway salad in the BBC current affairs fridge.
:01:57. > :02:00.But we're not the only thing going off this week. Oh, no. Relations
:02:01. > :02:03.between the United States and some of its closest allies are also
:02:04. > :02:06.starting to smell a bit funny. The French are having a crisis, an
:02:07. > :02:09.existential one, naturellement, following the allegation that over
:02:10. > :02:15.70 million Franco phone calls were monitored by American spies in one
:02:16. > :02:19.month alone. Whilst the Germans are demanding to know why President
:02:20. > :02:23.Obama has been bugging the hell out of Chancellor Merkel's mobile. As
:02:24. > :02:26.someone who grew up in East Germany, Frau Merkel takes it rather
:02:27. > :02:31.personally when the United Stasi come snooping. So the US ambassador
:02:32. > :02:34.in Berlin was summoned to the Foreign Ministry and told to provide
:02:35. > :02:42.a slightly less pathetic explanation than "Er, look, we're not doing it
:02:43. > :02:47.now, nor in the future". And where was Little Satan, aka Britain, in
:02:48. > :02:51.all this? Keeping their little GCHQ heads down, that's where, with David
:02:52. > :02:53.Cameron refusing to answer questions at today's EU summit, sticking to
:02:54. > :02:57.the traditional de-Fawlty Towers position that when it comes to the
:02:58. > :03:04.Germans, don't mention the war of words. Speaking of those who are
:03:05. > :03:07.guilty of far more than we will ever know I'm joined on the sofa tonight
:03:08. > :03:15.by two men, who were surprisingly not chosen to give spiritual
:03:16. > :03:18.guidance to young Prince George. Think of them as the godforesaken
:03:19. > :03:23.and God grief of late night political chat. I speak, of course,
:03:24. > :03:34.of #manontheleft Alan "AJ" Johnson and #sadmanonatrain Michael "Choo
:03:35. > :03:43.Choo" Portillo. Your moment of the week. It was indeed the selection of
:03:44. > :03:46.the godparents for young Prince George. This was thought a public
:03:47. > :03:49.relations triumph because instead of choosing members of royal families
:03:50. > :03:54.from other countries they chose personal friends. I am not sure it
:03:55. > :03:58.was a triumph. There was a reason for choosing royals from other
:03:59. > :04:01.countries, which was that it was a way of strengthening the bond
:04:02. > :04:05.between different countries, a kind of diplomatic effort. Some of these
:04:06. > :04:14.friends turned out to be quite aristocratic. Very posh. Very
:04:15. > :04:23.double-barrelled. I had a feeling it make them look like a clique, rather
:04:24. > :04:31.than modern. Is one allowed to say Toff? I know that some words are not
:04:32. > :04:42.allowed. My advice is not to use the word blurb. -- pleb. It is
:04:43. > :04:51.asymmetric. You can use one but not the other. I can hear TV sets
:04:52. > :04:55.switching off across the country. It has been a good week for a hedge
:04:56. > :05:00.fund is. The Royal Mail have acquired this children investment
:05:01. > :05:03.trust, who have taken the second biggest stake in Royal Mail. My
:05:04. > :05:07.moment of the week is the Co-op. The good news is that the taxpayer will
:05:08. > :05:13.not have to bail out the Co-op, as with other banks. The bad news is
:05:14. > :05:21.that 70% is now owned by two aggressive New York hedge fund is.
:05:22. > :05:26.So it is not a Co-op. This is my point. Everyone thought that after
:05:27. > :05:31.the banking scandals there would be more ethical banks, more mutuals, to
:05:32. > :05:36.give choice to consumers. It now looks like the great-grandfather of
:05:37. > :05:44.all the mutuals, 170 years as a mutual, Mike the drift away from
:05:45. > :05:50.their ethical status. Cooperative instincts and hedge fund instincts,
:05:51. > :05:53.not quite the same? Not quite the same.
:05:54. > :05:56.Now, remember those lovely husky-hugging days of "Vote Blue, Go
:05:57. > :06:00.Green", when call-me-Dave pledged to lead the greenest government ever?
:06:01. > :06:04.Well, three years with plummeting living standards is a long time in
:06:05. > :06:07.politics, and under pressure to cut energy bills, the PM now talks of
:06:08. > :06:11.rolling back the green charges he claims are pushing up energy costs,
:06:12. > :06:20.but which he campaigned for, voted for, and even introduced some of
:06:21. > :06:23.them. So where now for the green agenda? We turned to Prince Charles'
:06:24. > :06:25.environmental adviser, Jonathon Porritt. THis is his take of the
:06:26. > :06:51.week. This has been one bad week for the
:06:52. > :06:54.green agenda in the UK. On Monday the government announced its
:06:55. > :07:00.commitment to new nuclear reactors in Somerset. On Wednesday, David
:07:01. > :07:04.Cameron indicated he wanted to roll back green levies and regulations to
:07:05. > :07:09.keep prices down. In the process, the government's green credentials
:07:10. > :07:14.have been shattered. Energy bills are going up in the UK, too often
:07:15. > :07:18.and too fast. If you are a reader of the Daily Mail you probably think it
:07:19. > :07:24.is because we are covering the landscape with the hated windmills.
:07:25. > :07:32.In fact, no more than 9% of the average bill today can be attributed
:07:33. > :07:36.to these green measures. When it comes to nuclear power, this is a
:07:37. > :07:40.wretchedly bad deal both for the country and consumers. We still do
:07:41. > :07:44.not know what we will do with the nuclear waste. We know that nuclear
:07:45. > :07:48.freeze is out the alternatives, like renewables and energy efficiency.
:07:49. > :07:51.And we know that nuclear is unbelievably expensive. Ministers
:07:52. > :08:03.acknowledged that Hinkley Point will cost ?16 billion, which has gone up
:08:04. > :08:06.14% in just one year. I am baffled by the obsession with nuclear power,
:08:07. > :08:10.especially when I compare what we are doing with Germany. They have
:08:11. > :08:15.decided to phase out nuclear power and relying instead on solar, wind,
:08:16. > :08:20.biomass, smart grids, electric vehicles, storage technologies, all
:08:21. > :08:27.of the ways of holding the green economy that we should be doing in
:08:28. > :08:30.the UK, too. David Cameron's own commitment to the green agenda can
:08:31. > :08:35.be seen for what it always was, a cynical sham, announced with a lot
:08:36. > :08:40.of husky hugging flimflam before the last election, to decontaminate the
:08:41. > :08:44.Tory brand. But who is surprised? He is having to deal with more than 100
:08:45. > :08:49.backbench MPs who are not persuaded by the science of climate change. As
:08:50. > :08:51.for the Lib Dems, they are increasingly irrelevant to the whole
:08:52. > :08:54.green agenda. And from the kitchen cabinets at
:08:55. > :08:57.Puro Design in Marylebone to our own little kitchen cabinet here in the
:08:58. > :09:06.heart of Westminster, Jonathon joins us now. Michael, he is right, David
:09:07. > :09:13.Cameron, though Lou, go green, it was just PR flimflam. It was part of
:09:14. > :09:19.an attempt to decontaminate the Tory brand, not a real commitment. It was
:09:20. > :09:23.an important part of decontaminating the brand. It made people think, if
:09:24. > :09:30.the Tories have changed their mind on this they are worth looking at
:09:31. > :09:35.again. But that was a PR position, not a position of policy decided on
:09:36. > :09:41.merit. It was a very important PR decision. I do not think it was
:09:42. > :09:45.insincere. One of the things that has always struck me is that Tory
:09:46. > :09:48.voters are much more likely to be green than Labour voters, because
:09:49. > :09:54.greenery is expensive, which has been proved in the last few weeks.
:09:55. > :09:58.My ex constituents in Kensington and Chelsea, when they were changing
:09:59. > :10:02.their fleet of cars, could afford to think of hybrid cars, electric
:10:03. > :10:06.vehicles or whatever. Gordon Brown's constituents in the heart of
:10:07. > :10:11.Scotland were lucky if they had a car at all, and would not think
:10:12. > :10:17.about how green it was. So it was natural for Tories to be is pathetic
:10:18. > :10:24.to green policies. -- to be sympathetic. The economy has been
:10:25. > :10:27.flat-lining for a long time in living standards have been squeezed.
:10:28. > :10:33.People care more about their fuel bills than the green agenda. But
:10:34. > :10:37.guess which part of the economy has been growing fastest in the last
:10:38. > :10:41.couple of years. The green economy. That is true. With all those
:10:42. > :10:48.subsidies, it should have grown the fastest. When Michael says you can
:10:49. > :10:54.only do green if you can afford it, that misrepresents a huge part of
:10:55. > :10:56.the green agenda. Improving quality-of-life by improving homes,
:10:57. > :11:02.investing in energy efficiency, creating new jobs. It is such an old
:11:03. > :11:08.and tired view that he can only do green if you are a middle-class
:11:09. > :11:15.Toff. And some of the green levies would help Gordon's constituents
:11:16. > :11:18.most. But they are paid for by people paying average fuel bills.
:11:19. > :11:22.You put a levy on ordinary fuel bills which will subsidise people
:11:23. > :11:29.who are poorer than them. It is a regressive tax. Cameron wants to
:11:30. > :11:35.take it from the consumer and get the taxpayer to pay. If the agenda
:11:36. > :11:40.was to intimate lofts, give double glazing and take out old appliances,
:11:41. > :11:47.that is quite sensible. But the agenda is to charge people money on
:11:48. > :11:51.their bills, ?110, apparently. And how much do you think goes on green
:11:52. > :12:05.measures, and how much on energy efficiency? 50-50. If I could finish
:12:06. > :12:10.the sentence, part of it goes on building wind turbines. Wind
:12:11. > :12:17.turbines, as we know... I thought we would get there! They need back-up
:12:18. > :12:20.capacity because the wind does not always blow. It is undeniably
:12:21. > :12:25.expensive because you up to double provide the capacity. That is a
:12:26. > :12:34.Daily Mail fiction you need to disabuse yourself of. The wind blows
:12:35. > :12:38.all the time? Of course not. When you have a grid system and the wind
:12:39. > :12:41.is blowing some of the time and the sun is shining some of the time, you
:12:42. > :12:48.can balance the grid to use that intermittent source of energy when
:12:49. > :12:52.you want it. How are you scoring it? How do you think Germany is managing
:12:53. > :13:00.to provide 25% of energy from renewables. 52% of German
:13:01. > :13:04.electricity is generated by coal. Germany has done what you wanted, it
:13:05. > :13:10.now has the highest electricity prices in Europe. 300,000 households
:13:11. > :13:13.each year in Germany are cut off from power because they cannot
:13:14. > :13:22.afford the bill. Germany is building new coal-fired stations, and its CO2
:13:23. > :13:26.emissions are rising. Its CO2 emissions are temporarily up. They
:13:27. > :13:35.are at the moment. But Germany has made the biggest investment... It is
:13:36. > :13:43.building coal-fired stations. It is building one. It is going to burn
:13:44. > :13:50.the dirtiest fuel in Europe, and its CO2 emissions are rising. That is
:13:51. > :13:54.why I do not agree with Jonathan on nuclear energy, and I think Michael
:13:55. > :14:01.is right about baseload and nuclear energy could provide that. It is
:14:02. > :14:06.secure. We are generating it, not importing it. When I looked at it,
:14:07. > :14:11.and when the Lib Dems, who have done two conversions, on student fees and
:14:12. > :14:16.nuclear, even Chris Huhne looked at this in detail and actually nuclear
:14:17. > :14:25.has to be part of the mix if you want to reduce CO2 emissions. The
:14:26. > :14:31.price of nuclear winter by ?2 billion and they have not even
:14:32. > :14:35.started building it. The cost is off the scale, Alan. It is impossible we
:14:36. > :14:41.can put that extra cost on bills when consumers are already feeling
:14:42. > :14:45.hard pressed by this. The reason we are going into this expensive
:14:46. > :14:50.nuclear power is that we have taken the decision to close down oil fired
:14:51. > :14:54.power stations. We have been closing down the plant much faster than we
:14:55. > :14:57.have been opening plant, so we find ourselves in the position where,
:14:58. > :15:01.having ruled out cheaper options, we have to go for the more expensive
:15:02. > :15:07.option. And we are now negotiating in a hurry, so the energy companies
:15:08. > :15:11.have a gun to our head. And why do you think we are doing that? You are
:15:12. > :15:15.probably one of the Tories who finds it difficult to accommodate the
:15:16. > :15:19.reality of climate change. Every country will have to deal with
:15:20. > :15:22.climate change. That means lowering carbon emissions. That means you
:15:23. > :15:32.have to get rid of cold. If you think that coal is the answer, then
:15:33. > :15:36.all you are doing... The government has accepted your green agenda. It
:15:37. > :15:39.is rowing back on it, but it is because it accepted the green agenda
:15:40. > :15:51.that they are now paying for a nuclear power station. Ed
:15:52. > :15:58.Miliband's price freeze was good politics and a popular move. I am
:15:59. > :16:02.not commenting on the economics of a price freeze or the climate
:16:03. > :16:10.obligations of getting off the green agenda. But if Mr Cameron does this,
:16:11. > :16:18.he says he will cut your energy bills. It is a big mistake. It looks
:16:19. > :16:23.as if he has dreams of the policy to protect himself at PMQs. There is
:16:24. > :16:34.nothing worse than a Prime Minister announcing, " I am announcing
:16:35. > :16:40.today... " but the accusation David Cameron stands up for the week, he
:16:41. > :16:47.does not stand up to the strong. He is doing what the energy companies
:16:48. > :16:51.want them to do. There was a time, 2008 being the peak of this, when
:16:52. > :17:00.every party voted for the Climate Change Act. Except for some Tories.
:17:01. > :17:04.It has got a lot tougher, hasn't it? The politics has got tougher and
:17:05. > :17:08.there are many more who questioned the speed we need to introduce these
:17:09. > :17:15.low carbon measures. That means we need more leadership than we needed
:17:16. > :17:20.back in 2008. So, the betrayal of that quality of leadership now by
:17:21. > :17:27.David Cameron and the failure of the Lib Dems... He voted for the climate
:17:28. > :17:35.change? He not only voted for it, he put in some measures. This is an act
:17:36. > :17:40.of political weakness. When the going gets tough, he heads off into
:17:41. > :17:49.the embrace of the big six all over again. But fuel bills being cut
:17:50. > :17:53.would be good politics? I think it is a short-term measure which does
:17:54. > :17:59.not take into account the need to balance these different objectives,
:18:00. > :18:04.energy security, low carbon, fuel poverty and that means a different
:18:05. > :18:08.tariff thing system so you can look after the needs of the less well off
:18:09. > :18:13.and simultaneously increased security on low carbon. I have a
:18:14. > :18:21.feeling this is not going to go away. It may be late, but squeeze
:18:22. > :18:25.out the last drop of doom out of the dish cloth, because waiting in the
:18:26. > :18:30.wings is the recent winner of a classic Brit award, Nicola Benedetti
:18:31. > :18:36.is here to talk about the importance of qualifications.
:18:37. > :18:44.For those of you with a great three CSE in TV criticism, we love nothing
:18:45. > :18:49.better than reading your chat on the Internet. The government must be
:18:50. > :18:56.kicking itself. It had to admit its infamous go home
:18:57. > :19:00.fans were a bad idea and then it turns out they were more effective
:19:01. > :19:08.than they realised. One man did in fact go home. One man! To Pakistan,
:19:09. > :19:14.but only after reading about it and the fans in the Guardian. A Guardian
:19:15. > :19:22.reading illegal immigrant. We decided to pick up where the Home
:19:23. > :19:26.Office left of an Medhi Hasan hit the streets. This is his round-up of
:19:27. > :19:40.the political week. This week, we bid farewell to the
:19:41. > :19:46.controversial immigration vehicles, who were accused of being divisive
:19:47. > :19:52.and racist, and which led to just one illegal immigrants volunteering
:19:53. > :19:56.to go home. The Home Secretary, Theresa May, slammed the brakes on
:19:57. > :20:03.the whole thing and decided to ban the van. As for me, this? The This
:20:04. > :20:09.Week team thought I needed the exercise. Politicians should step up
:20:10. > :20:14.and admit when things have not been a good idea. Immigrants should not
:20:15. > :20:18.rake out the champagne just yet, the government is still gunning for
:20:19. > :20:24.them. The debate in Parliament this week calls on landlords and banks to
:20:25. > :20:29.be on the lookout for foreign types who have no right to be here.
:20:30. > :20:33.Visitors from outside the UK, don't get sick when you go to buy your
:20:34. > :20:38.sofa nears, because a report says you are costing the NHS ?2 billion a
:20:39. > :20:42.year. That is a lot of travellers cheques, and the government wants to
:20:43. > :20:49.get some of that cash back from you to pay for new nurses. We don't want
:20:50. > :20:54.to turn GPs into border guards, but we need a system where if someone is
:20:55. > :21:01.not entitled to NHS care, they don't automatically get a full NHS number.
:21:02. > :21:05.Those immigrants, coming here to our NHS and staffing it with doctors,
:21:06. > :21:13.nurses and care workers. Outrageous! Foreigners in our NHS,
:21:14. > :21:20.no, no, no. Foreigners in our nuclear power industry, yes, yes,
:21:21. > :21:26.yes. The government gave the green light for a nuclear power station to
:21:27. > :21:34.be built by EDF Energy and some investors. The government is opposed
:21:35. > :21:42.to foreign-owned assets, unless they are owned by the French. By 2030,
:21:43. > :21:46.the average consumer bill will be ?77 lower thanks to having nuclear
:21:47. > :21:50.in our energy strategy than otherwise if we had a non-nuclear
:21:51. > :21:56.strategy. This week saw the return of Sir John Major. The former Prime
:21:57. > :22:02.Minister, 1990. The big grey, a bit dull. He is not dull Annie Moore. He
:22:03. > :22:10.regaled an audience of journalists with jokes. Calling three of my
:22:11. > :22:19.colleagues bustards was unforgivable. But it was true. But
:22:20. > :22:25.it must have caused a stir inside number ten when John Major made his
:22:26. > :22:28.remarks. It is difficult for one Tory Prime Minister to dismiss
:22:29. > :22:33.another one as a mad lefty. The government will be forced by events
:22:34. > :22:38.to provide more assistance for people prepare -- needing more help.
:22:39. > :22:42.If it proves to be the case, it will be reasonable for the council to
:22:43. > :22:48.recoup that money back from the energy companies in a one-off
:22:49. > :22:51.payment, given the scale of their payments -- profits and the
:22:52. > :23:01.unjustified nature of the increases. A windfall tax? A one-off windfall
:23:02. > :23:06.tax. How is Ed Miliband doing with his communist freeze on energy
:23:07. > :23:12.rises? He seemed to have David Cameron on the defensive at PMQs.
:23:13. > :23:18.John Major was a Prime Minister who won a majority, unlike this Tory
:23:19. > :23:22.Prime Minister. The former Prime Minister says, given the scale of
:23:23. > :23:26.their profits, we should recoup that money. That is a quote from him. He
:23:27. > :23:31.wants to do it through a windfall tax. I say we need a price freeze.
:23:32. > :23:37.What does the Prime Minister want to do to recoup the money for the
:23:38. > :23:46.consumer? We need to roll back some of the green regulations and
:23:47. > :23:52.charges. Yes, yes. We all know who put them in place. David Cameron's
:23:53. > :23:57.message seems to be voted loo and stay blue. But the Greens cannot be
:23:58. > :23:59.too pleased. John Bercow was not pleased with David Cameron either,
:24:00. > :24:07.and he gave the Prime Minister telling of up PMQs for calling the
:24:08. > :24:11.leader of the opposition a conman. The Prime Minister is a man of great
:24:12. > :24:16.versatility in the use of language, it is a bit below the level. It
:24:17. > :24:19.wasn't just the Prime Minister who got a public drilling, the former
:24:20. > :24:24.chief whip, Andrew Mitchell was back in the headlines as the police
:24:25. > :24:28.officers at the centre of the plebgate saga went in front of the
:24:29. > :24:34.Home Affairs Select Committee to explain. Can I say, we have found
:24:35. > :24:38.your evidence most unsatisfactory. You are welcome to stay and listen
:24:39. > :24:44.to what the chief constables have said. If you are a wealthy, white
:24:45. > :24:48.politician who has been wronged by the police, you can go after them,
:24:49. > :24:54.demand an apology. But that does not apply to non-white poor kids in
:24:55. > :24:58.council estates across the land who would like to do the same, but
:24:59. > :25:01.can't. I have just got a text message from the UK Border Agency.
:25:02. > :25:06.You are required to leave Westminster. You no longer have the
:25:07. > :25:19.right to remain on This Week. What? ! I now have to go home also. Which
:25:20. > :25:23.way is Hertfordshire. He could have advertised for a job
:25:24. > :25:30.on the Daily Mail with that. Miranda Green, welcome back.
:25:31. > :25:35.Mr Clegg said he had 30 minutes notice of David Cameron's U-turn on
:25:36. > :25:44.green levies. That is almost about as much as he gave Mr Cameron on his
:25:45. > :25:52.opinion on free schools. It has not been a great week for coalition
:25:53. > :25:58.unity. Lots of people have been saying the pre-general election
:25:59. > :26:02.desire for both sides of the coalition to differentiate
:26:03. > :26:06.themselves to their voters has started to early. It has been ill
:26:07. > :26:10.judged and it looks to those people who don't pay attention at every
:26:11. > :26:15.twist and turn of politics, I don't think they like squabbling. People
:26:16. > :26:20.won't like it. Obviously the separate issues you have been
:26:21. > :26:25.discussing, energy price rises and fuel bills is serious, as the John
:26:26. > :26:29.Major intervention made clear, this is something that matters if either
:26:30. > :26:36.side of the government will appeal to people on the ground. But, the
:26:37. > :26:41.merits of each particular case aside on the policies, I think getting
:26:42. > :26:47.into a slanging match on flagship policies in public like this, it is
:26:48. > :26:51.a spectacle and it does not really help the overall strategic object
:26:52. > :26:57.death, if you are the Lib Dems, which is to say, look, the coalition
:26:58. > :27:01.can work. I sense a coalition compromise over this green levies
:27:02. > :27:07.business. It will probably come out in the autumn statement. That is the
:27:08. > :27:12.Tories will get a cut or reduction of some of the levies but the
:27:13. > :27:15.Treasury will find some way of putting it onto general taxation.
:27:16. > :27:21.They will say your fuel bill is coming down, but taxation will have
:27:22. > :27:29.to pay for this and that is fair? It is. That is more progressive. But
:27:30. > :27:36.the general principle you should maintain a diverse area of supply of
:27:37. > :27:42.energy, is going to be difficult to get the Lib Dems to shift on that.
:27:43. > :27:46.He has energy companies putting price rises up. He has a problem in
:27:47. > :27:51.Grangemouth which we will talk about and Hezbollah the green levies, some
:27:52. > :27:57.of them for the chop. He is not happy. Some of those levies are to
:27:58. > :28:03.do with helping households in fuel poverty. They could pay the VAT out
:28:04. > :28:14.of general taxation? Yes, they could. Partly sparked off by your
:28:15. > :28:19.old mate, John Major, who made his intervention saying about a windfall
:28:20. > :28:28.tax. His justification for calling you and others names is because it
:28:29. > :28:34.is true, what do you say to that? Literally we were born out of
:28:35. > :28:41.wedlock bastion Mark he said it was unforgivable he use such a word, and
:28:42. > :28:54.his justification was, it was true? Of whom did he use it? You, Michael
:28:55. > :29:10.Howard, John Redwood. You think it was a new? There is ambiguity. Are
:29:11. > :29:19.you saying, " not me love". I don't know. There was an interesting line
:29:20. > :29:28.from John Major when he talked about the millions of silent have-nots
:29:29. > :29:35.locked into a lace curtain poverty. It was very emotive language. I
:29:36. > :29:40.assume the speech had been written and he considered very carefully
:29:41. > :29:46.what he was saying. It was, from David Cameron's point of view,
:29:47. > :29:54.unhelpful. John Major can use that. He said, these are my people and I
:29:55. > :29:57.was brought up with these people. That's why I found it so strange,
:29:58. > :30:03.John Major who has been loyal and quiet, unlike some of his
:30:04. > :30:10.predecessors, choose this moment ago public in front of the cameras.
:30:11. > :30:16.Slagging off Duncan Smith big-time. He said it would be criminally easy
:30:17. > :30:23.to overlook these people. These are the people who voted for him? He got
:30:24. > :30:28.more votes for the Conservative party than any Prime Minister ever.
:30:29. > :30:34.I suppose the point he was making was to try and drag David Cameron
:30:35. > :30:38.back to what he would think himself, was the bat and he handed over to
:30:39. > :30:48.him of modernising the Conservative party. The Conservative Party have
:30:49. > :30:52.been trying to replay the slogans from that general election. And John
:30:53. > :30:57.Major is here saying to them, that is all very well but you need to do
:30:58. > :31:01.something about appealing to that massive centre ground of voters, who
:31:02. > :31:08.I managed to garner, otherwise you will not get the majority. I want to
:31:09. > :31:12.move on to a real issue, Grangemouth, the biggest industrial
:31:13. > :31:21.story to hit the country for a long time. Why has the Unite union made
:31:22. > :31:24.such a shambles of this? I would think their judgement must come into
:31:25. > :31:29.question but there was an article in the Spectator which said you cannot
:31:30. > :31:33.keep all of the blame on the union. It takes two to tango. I have known
:31:34. > :31:36.union officials in difficult situations who have negotiated
:31:37. > :31:44.reductions in pensions and pay freezes. I am not sure what has
:31:45. > :31:52.happened. This is 2% of our GDP. I am not sure about the story. Inside
:31:53. > :31:56.Grangemouth, the union was planning the takeover of the Falkirk
:31:57. > :32:02.constituency. The company complained and the union threatened to strike.
:32:03. > :32:05.I thought it was a peripheral issue and it now seems central, whereas I
:32:06. > :32:11.would have thought the central issue would have been about making that a
:32:12. > :32:14.going concern. It is not even clear tonight, even though it looks like
:32:15. > :32:19.the union has done a total climb down and is prepared to accept what
:32:20. > :32:25.the management once, it is not clear that that petrochemical plant is
:32:26. > :32:29.going to reopen tonight. I think it is a disastrous situation. Only by
:32:30. > :32:33.ten, but the majority of the workforce did vote for the new
:32:34. > :32:40.package, against a recommendation to vote no. The owner, who is somewhere
:32:41. > :32:44.on his yacht, is not totally innocent in the way he has handled
:32:45. > :32:48.industrial nations, and he said it is not a big enough majority for him
:32:49. > :32:54.to make those changes. I have not seen a proper negotiation going on
:32:55. > :33:00.here. OK, you want to freeze pay for two years. How about freezing it for
:33:01. > :33:03.a year? It is certainly not the normal way industrial relations are
:33:04. > :33:09.conducted. It rings everything together, energy prices, industrial
:33:10. > :33:14.policy, fracking India knighted States. It brings everything
:33:15. > :33:21.together. -- fracking in the United States. How does this play to Alex
:33:22. > :33:25.Salmond? We will see in the fullness of time. If the plant closes
:33:26. > :33:29.altogether it leaves Scotland looking ridiculous, claiming it can
:33:30. > :33:32.live off oil when it has no refining capacity. On the other hand, if the
:33:33. > :33:37.plant closes, it will be yet another Scottish grievance, which may play
:33:38. > :33:45.through into more people voting for independence. What do you think? The
:33:46. > :33:51.petrochemical plant is closed for now. The refinery has closed
:33:52. > :33:54.temporarily. Indeed, but the baseline case for independence, to
:33:55. > :33:57.do with being a self-sufficient economy would be seriously
:33:58. > :34:02.undermined if this enormous industrial facility was not there
:34:03. > :34:09.any more. But also, this idea about where Britain stands in competition
:34:10. > :34:11.with other industrialised nations, for a massive global company like
:34:12. > :34:17.this to invest in, is much more significant. This chap has said he
:34:18. > :34:21.does not like doing business in the UK. And he is clearly biased in
:34:22. > :34:30.favour of leaving. If not now, then later. So perhaps a larger
:34:31. > :34:37.alternative strategy is called for. And others are not queueing up to
:34:38. > :34:41.buy it either. To be honest, there is a worldwide glut of simple
:34:42. > :34:45.petrochemicals. This is an ethylene making plant and there is a
:34:46. > :34:50.worldwide glut of these things. In America you can make them for a
:34:51. > :34:53.third of the price of here. What is your view of how the Police
:34:54. > :35:00.Federation behaved with Andrew Mitchell? Well, I struggle with this
:35:01. > :35:03.one, because I do not know everything Andrew Mitchell said. I
:35:04. > :35:07.know it is open season on the police at the moment and they have not
:35:08. > :35:12.played this early and leave. But I am still scratching my head to know
:35:13. > :35:14.why, at the start of this, it was not the Police Federation that
:35:15. > :35:19.accepted Andrew Mitchell's resignation, it was the Prime
:35:20. > :35:25.Minister, and why at the start of this Andrew Mitchell was not very
:35:26. > :35:28.clear about what he said. He has got very good friends. To have David
:35:29. > :35:32.Davies on your side, he is a formidable campaigner, but it is
:35:33. > :35:37.getting to the stage now where everyone seems to make an assumption
:35:38. > :35:40.that actually Andrew Mitchell... Actually, swearing at a police
:35:41. > :35:47.officer is an offensive can be arrested for. It is said that he did
:35:48. > :35:53.not swear at, but he swore in front of. Swearing in front of a police
:35:54. > :35:56.officer may be an offence you can be arrested for.
:35:57. > :35:59.Now, when a Diane Abbott-shaped vacancy appeared on the This Week
:36:00. > :36:02.sofa, we were inundated with literally thousands of begging
:36:03. > :36:13.letters and CVs, all from a certain A Johnson esquire, BA Hons,
:36:14. > :36:17.University of Life. Although given that he'd previously held one of the
:36:18. > :36:21.great offices of state, whilst Diane most certainly had not, we at first
:36:22. > :36:26.thought him over-qualified. Then we met him and it all made perfect
:36:27. > :36:28.sense. And that's why we've decided to put qualifications in this week's
:36:29. > :36:43.Spotlight. You may not know it yet, but once
:36:44. > :36:49.George is already eligible for the big job. The only qualification he
:36:50. > :36:53.needs to be King is a royal birth certificate. Nick Clegg thinks the
:36:54. > :36:57.education system should not have it so easy, calling for all teachers,
:36:58. > :37:04.including those in free schools, to be fully trained and tested. It
:37:05. > :37:07.makes no sense to me to have qualified teacher status if only a
:37:08. > :37:14.few schools have do employ qualified teachers. Maybe he has the North
:37:15. > :37:17.Korean dictator in mind, after he was awarded an honorary doctorate in
:37:18. > :37:27.economics this week by a Malaysia and university. Former civil service
:37:28. > :37:31.chief Gus O'Donnell certainly thinks MPs could be better trained,
:37:32. > :37:35.claiming parliamentary candidates should be vetted before standing. So
:37:36. > :37:40.how important our qualifications when it comes to doing a job
:37:41. > :37:44.properly? The future monarch can certainly manage without any. It
:37:45. > :37:56.seems the rest of us plebs may not be so lucky.
:37:57. > :38:06.Nicola Benedetti is back. Well comeback. Thank you for having me.
:38:07. > :38:13.Teachers. Schoolteachers, music teachers, did they all have good
:38:14. > :38:17.qualifications to teach? They taught me incredibly well and I'm the
:38:18. > :38:19.product of a mixture of teachers. Some did not have official
:38:20. > :38:27.qualifications, which made up most of my musical education. And many
:38:28. > :38:34.teachers that did. So some of the best teachers that taught you music
:38:35. > :38:41.were not necessarily qualified. They were great musicians but not
:38:42. > :38:44.qualified to teach music. That is part of the whole discussion. You
:38:45. > :38:49.can be almost overqualified in your subject. If you choose to then have
:38:50. > :38:51.a passion to teach the subject but do not have a qualification in
:38:52. > :38:58.teaching it, that definitely was the case with probably all of my violin
:38:59. > :39:02.teachers. But it should be said that individual one-to-one lessons for an
:39:03. > :39:05.instrument is a very specific kind of skill, a specific kind of
:39:06. > :39:13.environment. There is no crowd control. There are so many sets of
:39:14. > :39:16.skills that are in national curriculum for learning to teach a
:39:17. > :39:26.class that are not necessary for the violin. One of the things that your
:39:27. > :39:33.teachers needed was to recognise early on that you had a natural
:39:34. > :39:36.ability. Exactly. This is where I am feeling that the question is not so
:39:37. > :39:39.much about whether a teacher is officially qualified, but what are
:39:40. > :39:45.those qualifications they are asking for. There is obviously a very real
:39:46. > :39:49.reason why plenty of teachers are feeling a frustration with their
:39:50. > :39:55.ability to be free, creative, to respond to what is in front of them,
:39:56. > :40:00.to teach the class in the way that... I could name hundreds of
:40:01. > :40:05.examples of teachers I have spoken to, not just musical teachers but
:40:06. > :40:10.from all fields, that have said, I am strangled by something that is
:40:11. > :40:14.too restrictive. That is not to say I do not think the qualifications
:40:15. > :40:19.should be there. I do think so, but what are they, and can they be
:40:20. > :40:26.developed, and can they be spread, I guess, to include more creativity,
:40:27. > :40:31.which I think teaching needs? I am slightly puzzled by Nick Clegg's
:40:32. > :40:33.emphasis. Of course, you want a well qualified teaching profession, but
:40:34. > :40:39.don't you also need flexibility? I was looking back and listening to
:40:40. > :40:43.Nick Ferrari on LBC, and it turns out that Westminster School, around
:40:44. > :40:47.the corner from here, one of the greatest schools in the world, which
:40:48. > :40:52.Nick Clegg went to, a lot of his teachers were unqualified, in the
:40:53. > :40:55.sense that they did not have a certificate saying, you are
:40:56. > :41:01.qualified to teach. They just happen to be leading experts in the fields
:41:02. > :41:04.they were teaching. And historically, I imagine that would
:41:05. > :41:07.have been largely the case. I do not know because I did not ask to see
:41:08. > :41:11.their certificates, but I suspect when I was at school in the 1960s
:41:12. > :41:15.lots of teachers had not been through a formal process of teaching
:41:16. > :41:18.them to be teachers. In those days, there were people who had come out
:41:19. > :41:23.of the Army in the Second World War, men and women of great experience.
:41:24. > :41:28.And they had an ability to communicate. Of course, many people,
:41:29. > :41:33.because their parents actually teach children for much of their lives. --
:41:34. > :41:38.because they are parents. It is difficult, frankly, to improve on
:41:39. > :41:41.what Nicola has said on the subject. Where it gets political is that it
:41:42. > :41:46.is not just about whether somebody is qualified. There is also an
:41:47. > :41:50.implication, and I think there is a lot in this, that in the process of
:41:51. > :41:55.teaching teachers to teach, you actually, in some cases, are
:41:56. > :41:58.narrowing those people. You introduce agendas and ideologies
:41:59. > :42:02.about the nature of teaching. That is why some politicians want to
:42:03. > :42:05.introduce teachers who have not been through that process, because they
:42:06. > :42:12.have not have that narrowing and the ideology. I agree with Nicola. Music
:42:13. > :42:17.is a special subject, in a sense, because my worry would be that so
:42:18. > :42:21.few children have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, despite
:42:22. > :42:26.initiatives by governments of all persuasions. Mainly it is because of
:42:27. > :42:29.finding people who have those talents. If you find somebody who is
:42:30. > :42:32.a great musician but they cannot spend three years getting the
:42:33. > :42:36.property can qualifications, I think you should use them. That is
:42:37. > :42:42.probably your point, about some flexibility. At the margins. Have
:42:43. > :42:50.you done some teaching of the violin? I have done a lot of
:42:51. > :42:53.teaching. I go to many schools. I am travelling and performing all the
:42:54. > :42:58.time and I teach in most cities that I travel to. But I would absolutely
:42:59. > :43:03.agree with that. I cannot understand how you cannot come across a piece
:43:04. > :43:08.of writing or race that stick, any amount of research -- or a
:43:09. > :43:15.statistic, that will disagree with the fact that a greater artistic
:43:16. > :43:20.creation, the greater creative education. It is astonishing to me
:43:21. > :43:24.that somehow it is still not, I hear constantly of it is not only being
:43:25. > :43:28.implemented but it being decreased. To me, it is an enormous
:43:29. > :43:32.underestimation, not just underestimation, but a complete
:43:33. > :43:36.misunderstanding of what that education is, what is the substance
:43:37. > :43:43.of it. Has it been misconstrued before? Where did it go wrong? But
:43:44. > :43:53.we totally manage to misunderstand what a great creative education
:43:54. > :43:57.does. Yes. I saw a finger there. That's your lot for tonight, folks.
:43:58. > :44:00.But not for us. Because we're in luck. Nicola's promised us our very
:44:01. > :44:04.own private recital tonight, on her trusty violin, which makes a nice
:44:05. > :44:06.change from Alan on his rusty spoons. So nighty-night, everyone.
:44:07. > :44:08.Please don't let our embarrassing lack of talent compared to Nicola
:44:09. > :44:13.bite.