Browse content similar to 31/10/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Denied it is Halloween, and This Week presents a political fright | :00:09. | :00:13. | |
night! -- tonight. Not ghost trains but high-speed | :00:14. | :00:24. | |
trains are causing Ed Miliband and Tory backbenchers to tremble with | :00:25. | :00:29. | |
fear, but one Conservative and father of Boris Johnson thinks David | :00:30. | :00:32. | |
Cameron will scare off his own supporters with his plans for HS2. | :00:33. | :00:38. | |
The Government has lost its grip on high-speed rail, it is time to choke | :00:39. | :00:45. | |
at off completely. Horrific scenes at Westminster as | :00:46. | :00:48. | |
the big six energy monsters came to Parliament. The BBC's Emily Maitlis | :00:49. | :00:56. | |
is doing a bit of ghostbusting. From these shadows, we promise you | :00:57. | :01:00. | |
neither heat nor light, but don't think of it as gloomy darkness, we | :01:01. | :01:05. | |
will call it shabby chic. And how frightened should we be of the | :01:06. | :01:10. | |
secret state? More tales of spying on the public and mergers, | :01:11. | :01:14. | |
terrifyingly smart journalist and author Malcolm Gladwell is here to | :01:15. | :01:15. | |
startle us. It might sound spooky, but even the | :01:16. | :01:26. | |
most powerful forces in the world can be defeated by an underdog. | :01:27. | :01:38. | |
There is a nightmare on the This Week sofa! | :01:39. | :01:45. | |
Evening, all, welcome to This Week, a show whose genius, like much of | :01:46. | :01:54. | |
the Cabinet, is unproven. The good people of Kirkcaldy woke this | :01:55. | :01:58. | |
morning to find themselves disenfranchised after the | :01:59. | :02:01. | |
spectacular defenestration of their long-time Member of Parliament, | :02:02. | :02:05. | |
yes, a certain Gordon Brown. Our former not so great leader and a | :02:06. | :02:08. | |
shock resignation to a packed House of Commons, to a heartfelt cheers | :02:09. | :02:18. | |
For He's A Jolly Good Fellow. Yeah, right! He was actually abroad, as | :02:19. | :02:24. | |
usual, addressing not Parliament but the far more lucrative World | :02:25. | :02:27. | |
Innovation Summit on Education in gas rich Qatar. Naturally! He | :02:28. | :02:32. | |
declared himself an ex-politician. I know what you are thinking, that is | :02:33. | :02:37. | |
not news, didn't the country make an ex-politician three years ago? Well, | :02:38. | :02:41. | |
you would be wrong, because it turns out he is still on the Parliamentary | :02:42. | :02:47. | |
payroll, trousering ?65,000 per year plus expenses as an MP. Although | :02:48. | :02:51. | |
what he does for the dosh is a bit of a mystery, since he has made | :02:52. | :02:56. | |
fewer appearances than the Loch Ness monster in off-season. Indeed, he | :02:57. | :02:59. | |
has only been seen five times the election in 2010, and to put that | :03:00. | :03:04. | |
into depressing perspective, Toby Young and Sally Bercow have sat on | :03:05. | :03:08. | |
the This Week sofa more times than Gordon Brown has spoken in the House | :03:09. | :03:13. | |
of Commons! We truly get the politics we deserve! Speaking of | :03:14. | :03:16. | |
those clinging on by their bitten fingernails, I'm joined on the sofa | :03:17. | :03:20. | |
denied by two people having an affair to remember, think of them as | :03:21. | :03:25. | |
the Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks of late-night political chat, how | :03:26. | :03:30. | |
did we get that through the lawyers?! I speak of | :03:31. | :03:35. | |
#sadmanonatrain, Michael YouTube Portillo, and back as always, by | :03:36. | :03:39. | |
absolutely no public demand whatsoever, Diane Abbott. -- Michael | :03:40. | :03:50. | |
Choo-Choo Portillo. The international inspectors in Syria | :03:51. | :03:53. | |
have announced that a significant quantity of chemical weapon making | :03:54. | :03:57. | |
material has been destroyed. This process seems to be on track. It is | :03:58. | :04:01. | |
quite a surprise to me, but it reminds us that the Russian | :04:02. | :04:05. | |
initiative has had some success, but it also reminds me how much the news | :04:06. | :04:09. | |
agenda has changed in such a short period of time. A few weeks ago we | :04:10. | :04:14. | |
might have found ourselves at war in Syria, but David Cameron lost the | :04:15. | :04:18. | |
vote in the House of Commons and seems to have lost his authority as | :04:19. | :04:21. | |
Prime Minister. This seems a very long time ago. The poor people of | :04:22. | :04:25. | |
Syria might reflect that the spotlight has moved on, and they are | :04:26. | :04:28. | |
still dying in their thousands, but we don't seem to worry very much | :04:29. | :04:32. | |
anymore because the chemical weapons are being dismantled. Do you believe | :04:33. | :04:37. | |
it is happening? I do, because the international auditors are saying | :04:38. | :04:43. | |
that. I think the Syrians have cartilage that they can do without | :04:44. | :04:45. | |
chemical weapons. They will win anyway. Just look at the way that | :04:46. | :04:50. | |
the West has backed off their opposition to the regime, because | :04:51. | :04:53. | |
the focus is on chemical weapons, the wrong place to focus it, in my | :04:54. | :04:58. | |
pew. Diane. Jeremy Hunt announced a big programme of hospital closures. | :04:59. | :05:06. | |
I was in the House, four A in London, this will run and run, he | :05:07. | :05:09. | |
has just lost in court over trying to lose one -- close one in | :05:10. | :05:14. | |
Lewisham. It is not easy to close a hospital. It is not, for all parties | :05:15. | :05:26. | |
. You would never know it was Halloween, but it was good of him to | :05:27. | :05:30. | |
dress as a leprechaun! For train spotting anoraks right across the | :05:31. | :05:35. | |
country, Michael Portillo's new series of railway journeys was more | :05:36. | :05:39. | |
eagerly anticipated this week than the 8:14am or train from Sturminster | :05:40. | :05:43. | |
Newton, and that is saying something. But in less important | :05:44. | :05:47. | |
train use, MPs voted to approve funding for a new high-speed railing | :05:48. | :05:52. | |
from London to Birmingham and then on to Manchester and Leeds, but is | :05:53. | :05:56. | |
it value for money, and is it the right thing to do? We turned to | :05:57. | :06:00. | |
Boris Johnson's dad Stanley, who just happens to live on the proposed | :06:01. | :06:04. | |
route, so I think you can guess what his line will be. This is his take | :06:05. | :06:06. | |
of the week. Like my model railway, the | :06:07. | :06:30. | |
government's high-speed rail web project is, I think, bust. Can it be | :06:31. | :06:38. | |
fixed? I very much doubt it. It was cooped up at the last minute by | :06:39. | :06:41. | |
Labour to seem like an up to date party before the last election. -- | :06:42. | :06:49. | |
cooked. It is going to alienate Conservative voters up and down the | :06:50. | :06:51. | |
country at a time when they are really under pressure, and the | :06:52. | :06:54. | |
countryside is under pressure. We need to kill it now. | :06:55. | :06:58. | |
You know, the business case just not add up. If it did, this would be a | :06:59. | :07:08. | |
primarily private-sector project. Mrs Thatcher said there would be no | :07:09. | :07:12. | |
public sector money for the Channel Tunnel, but here taxpayers are being | :07:13. | :07:16. | |
asked to put up 50 billion and counting. This should be largely | :07:17. | :07:20. | |
financed by the private sector, the private sector is running away, and | :07:21. | :07:25. | |
that is the acid test. I have been an environmentalist all my life, | :07:26. | :07:29. | |
don't let anyone tell you this is an environmental project. It is going | :07:30. | :07:35. | |
to have a devastating effect on ancient woodlands and areas of | :07:36. | :07:39. | |
outstanding national beauty, and even in towns, the little bits of | :07:40. | :07:41. | |
green are going to go. Socially, this project is going to | :07:42. | :07:57. | |
be catastrophic. There are 500,000 houses which are going to be | :07:58. | :08:00. | |
blighted one way or another by the project. What is the government | :08:01. | :08:05. | |
proposing? Derisory compensation affecting 2% of that total. And what | :08:06. | :08:10. | |
is more, this is a project which, in terms of noise and disruption and | :08:11. | :08:13. | |
general shambles, is going to go on for decades. The right course now is | :08:14. | :08:20. | |
to devote a fraction of the money we are going to spend on HS2 into | :08:21. | :08:23. | |
improving the existing networks. It can be done, and we have got to stop | :08:24. | :08:27. | |
these high-speed train before it leaves the station, stop, stop! It | :08:28. | :08:42. | |
has not stopped. Damn! Nul points... Is quick on the uptake, it | :08:43. | :08:47. | |
did not stop! From the model railway club in King's Cross. They broken | :08:48. | :08:52. | |
collection of toys that nobody wants to play within Westminster, Stan | :08:53. | :08:58. | |
joins us. Let me go through to Choo-Choo, he says it has no | :08:59. | :09:01. | |
economic or environmental case, no social case, what say you? I say | :09:02. | :09:06. | |
that all the leading economies of the world have gone for high-speed | :09:07. | :09:11. | |
rail, France, Italy, China, Japan, Korea. It would be ridiculous of | :09:12. | :09:16. | |
Britain to think that we, uniquely, can get by without it. The most | :09:17. | :09:21. | |
important reason for having high-speed rail is that the North | :09:22. | :09:24. | |
and the south of the country needs to be linked. I think that the north | :09:25. | :09:27. | |
of this country faces a perilous future without it, and the growth | :09:28. | :09:30. | |
that is happening at the moment is basically happening in the | :09:31. | :09:34. | |
south-east of England, and unless we link Manchester and London, | :09:35. | :09:37. | |
particularly, the growth will continue to be in the south-east. | :09:38. | :09:41. | |
All the leaders of the big northern cities are all calling for it. And | :09:42. | :09:47. | |
all the businesses there, most of them. Can I be the minority here? | :09:48. | :09:54. | |
You are the minority! The business case is not made. If it was, | :09:55. | :09:59. | |
businesses would be lining to get in and invest. Think of the Channel | :10:00. | :10:02. | |
Tunnel. The truth of the matter is that the business case is not made, | :10:03. | :10:08. | |
and if it was truly made, it would be absolutely made, because if it | :10:09. | :10:12. | |
counted in the cost of compensation for those 500,000 houses, that would | :10:13. | :10:18. | |
put another ?40 billion on it. Since the earliest days of Victorian | :10:19. | :10:22. | |
railways, they have not made money for the people who build or run | :10:23. | :10:26. | |
them. So much of what the railways do for the economy is external to | :10:27. | :10:30. | |
the railway. In other words, you cannot make passengers pay for it, | :10:31. | :10:33. | |
but not the less it has these effects. You might as well say, why | :10:34. | :10:37. | |
should we ever have had any railways? The development of Britain | :10:38. | :10:42. | |
would have been unimaginable without railways, the development of any | :10:43. | :10:46. | |
country without roads. We are 40 years behind Spain now. We do not | :10:47. | :10:53. | |
have the huge expanses that Spain has... We do, the distance from | :10:54. | :11:00. | |
London to Inverness... This will not go anywhere near Inverness. I want | :11:01. | :11:06. | |
to make a point. Let him speak! The point I want to make is, really, why | :11:07. | :11:12. | |
should the general public pay so that the fairly rich businessman, | :11:13. | :11:16. | |
with his laptop, can save 20 minutes going from Birmingham to London? It | :11:17. | :11:20. | |
does not seem fair. It will transform our economy. The reason | :11:21. | :11:24. | |
that people ought to be willing to pay is, at the moment we have three | :11:25. | :11:28. | |
high-speed trains per hour to Manchester, and in order to have | :11:29. | :11:31. | |
that kind of service we have to take them away from Northampton and | :11:32. | :11:34. | |
Milton Keynes. There is such limited capacity that every time more people | :11:35. | :11:38. | |
want to travel to Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, you have to | :11:39. | :11:42. | |
destroy the suburban services and people are travelling on crowded | :11:43. | :11:45. | |
trains, they are having to spend more to get on them. He is right, | :11:46. | :11:53. | |
you know! I think that it is a little bit naughty of Ed Balls, | :11:54. | :11:57. | |
brilliant although he is, to play politics with this. This was a | :11:58. | :12:03. | |
scheme which Labour launched, all of those Labour local authorities are | :12:04. | :12:07. | |
in favour of it. What Ed is doing is a naughty new Labour thing, looking | :12:08. | :12:13. | |
at the next day's headlines. What he says that cannot be for that is that | :12:14. | :12:17. | |
you cannot write a blank check for it. Nobody has asked for a blank | :12:18. | :12:22. | |
cheque. You have to bear down on the contingencies, they do seem a bit | :12:23. | :12:27. | |
high. ?15 billion contingencies! Could you explain the Labour | :12:28. | :12:33. | |
position on HS2? We support HS2, but obviously we want to be careful | :12:34. | :12:37. | |
about the money. You launch this project, you see it is going over 50 | :12:38. | :12:42. | |
billion, how will you stop it? It is not going over 50 billion. People | :12:43. | :12:47. | |
will say it would go over budget... They think they can do it within 17 | :12:48. | :12:52. | |
billion for the first stage. We delivered the limpets on time and to | :12:53. | :12:58. | |
budget. And Terminal 5 and so on. We are talking about the West Coast | :12:59. | :13:02. | |
Main Line, which already had a massive overbudget upgrade which did | :13:03. | :13:07. | |
not do much for it. Overbudget and underachievement. The lines into | :13:08. | :13:14. | |
Euston, which is where this will go, will already have the most | :13:15. | :13:19. | |
capacity of any lines coming in, even in peak time capacity is only | :13:20. | :13:24. | |
60%. So where is the capacity element? In the mid-1990s, there | :13:25. | :13:31. | |
were half as many people travelling by train as there are today. 700 | :13:32. | :13:35. | |
million journeys then, 1.5 billion now, and it is going up by 2% per | :13:36. | :13:41. | |
year. Victoria has capacity problems, Paddington has problems, | :13:42. | :13:45. | |
Waterloo has capacity problems, Euston, which is where high speed | :13:46. | :13:49. | |
will go to, does not have a capacity problem. But the lines do. You are | :13:50. | :13:56. | |
asking people were the Milton Keynes services are going, the Northampton | :13:57. | :13:59. | |
services are going, they have been reduced because we are running a | :14:00. | :14:02. | |
Metro service between London and Manchester. You probably would | :14:03. | :14:10. | |
oppose the railways when Stevenson was building Rocket, how could you | :14:11. | :14:13. | |
put those iron machines on the rails. Used to walk in front with a | :14:14. | :14:22. | |
red flag. That was a c It was a car. HS1 is way, way under capacity now. | :14:23. | :14:31. | |
It connects London and Paris, but otherwise - HS2 isn't going to | :14:32. | :14:36. | |
connect with HS1, there will be no link. HS1 does not connect cities in | :14:37. | :14:42. | |
Britain. HS2 does, it connects all the cities. We are sympathetic to | :14:43. | :14:46. | |
people like you who are worried about it going close to your back | :14:47. | :14:52. | |
garden if the compensation isn't good enough, we should look at it. | :14:53. | :14:56. | |
You cannot stand in the way of the development of the north of England. | :14:57. | :15:03. | |
I'm for a man who does not believe in growth, for a - this constant | :15:04. | :15:06. | |
filling demand because demand is there. We have to cut back on | :15:07. | :15:10. | |
demand. That is what I think. I'm sorry to here that. What depressed | :15:11. | :15:15. | |
me about your film was the fact that it would cost Tory votes so Cameron | :15:16. | :15:23. | |
ought not to do. David Cameron thinks about being Prime Minister | :15:24. | :15:26. | |
and doing the things that are proper to do as Prime Minister. The | :15:27. | :15:30. | |
private-sector will build if it was allowed to a new runway at Heathrow. | :15:31. | :15:35. | |
It wouldn't be Government money it would be private-sector. Actually. | :15:36. | :15:42. | |
They won't go near HS2, doesn't that make you think? O no, they aren't | :15:43. | :15:51. | |
economic. It has to be done by the state. Every high-speed railway | :15:52. | :15:54. | |
system in the world, I think I'm right in saying, was built by the | :15:55. | :15:59. | |
state. Yes. Most I think have been a financial and economic kiss | :16:00. | :16:03. | |
disaster. Really? Haven't they opened regions in Spain and parts of | :16:04. | :16:07. | |
France? If you look at France - If you are saying that the amount of | :16:08. | :16:11. | |
money they cost has not been recouped from the fare paid, that is | :16:12. | :16:15. | |
true, they transformed the economies. You can't take such a | :16:16. | :16:19. | |
narrow view of what the railway is for. I'm perfectly happy to take a | :16:20. | :16:26. | |
narrow view of almost anything. That is why you're not a member of | :16:27. | :16:31. | |
parliament. That is why we have happy with a Cameron Government than | :16:32. | :16:40. | |
an Johnson Government The money spent on the French railway system | :16:41. | :16:47. | |
has deprived other parts of the French really way system. HS2 will | :16:48. | :16:52. | |
deprive other parts of the rail network of crucial investment. It's | :16:53. | :16:56. | |
bound to. Nonsense. We are planning to pay ?56 billion on transport on | :16:57. | :17:04. | |
top of the ?50 billion for HS2 These are all astronomical figures. We | :17:05. | :17:09. | |
have to cut back on public spending. This is a very good chance. Last | :17:10. | :17:15. | |
word to you. Regardless of your view on whether we should do it or not, | :17:16. | :17:20. | |
will it happen? Yes. Will it happen? Nope. There you go. Are you sure you | :17:21. | :17:25. | |
are not being influenced by your view. Don't answer that. We ran out | :17:26. | :17:33. | |
of time. Lovely to be here. It's late, very late, Diane doesn't | :17:34. | :17:37. | |
have to get up in the morning anymore and can stay for as she | :17:38. | :17:41. | |
likes in her scratcher late. But don't retire to the boudoir just | :17:42. | :17:45. | |
yet because waiting in the wings, after years of pathetic begging | :17:46. | :17:47. | |
letters, journalist, author, intellectual adventurer, Malcom | :17:48. | :17:49. | |
Gladwell is here to explain why underdogs shouldn't be | :17:50. | :18:01. | |
underestimated. I'm not sure he is right | :18:02. | :18:03. | |
Don't forget to power-up your PC that smells of cat pee, get | :18:04. | :18:07. | |
messaging just for the joy of being ignored by us on the infantile | :18:08. | :18:09. | |
Twitter, the useless Fleecebook and the good old missionary position | :18:10. | :18:14. | |
Interweb. Have you locked all the windows? | :18:15. | :18:17. | |
Checked the back door? Well, pour yourself a glass of the | :18:18. | :18:23. | |
blue stuff and come closer. Over the last few days, former Prime | :18:24. | :18:26. | |
Ministers have been rising from the grave. | :18:27. | :18:31. | |
Yes, the spectres of Major, Blair and now Brown have all come back to | :18:32. | :18:36. | |
haunt us. Out vile spirits, the power of the | :18:37. | :18:38. | |
Blue Nun compels you. We asked Newsnight's Emily Maitlis | :18:39. | :18:42. | |
to brave the political house of horror for a political round up of | :18:43. | :18:45. | |
the week and those of a nervous disposition be warned. | :18:46. | :18:51. | |
Michael, you can hold my hand. . Just my hand! | :18:52. | :19:16. | |
It's Hallowe'en, OK, Hallowe'en. If you encounter spooky tortured | :19:17. | :19:26. | |
analogies or phraseology, references to the lights going off, at least | :19:27. | :19:31. | |
you will know why. On this week we have searched high and low for | :19:32. | :19:37. | |
derelict buildings, but as you know, property in the south-east is at a | :19:38. | :19:39. | |
premium right now and the really good, the really derelict buildings | :19:40. | :19:44. | |
have all been snatched up by American hedge funds for their hall | :19:45. | :19:48. | |
between-themed roadshows. Still, we found one, and it's definitely cold. | :19:49. | :19:52. | |
The reason it's cold has got nothing to do with the former, let us call | :19:53. | :19:56. | |
them, headless occupants of this place, no, the reason it's cold is | :19:57. | :20:00. | |
because it costs a lot to heat a room this size and, let us be crude, | :20:01. | :20:07. | |
it is going to cost nearly 10% in the coming months. The major energy | :20:08. | :20:11. | |
companies appeared before the Select Committee to explain why they are | :20:12. | :20:15. | |
not horrid and we should like them before. They are referred to as the | :20:16. | :20:23. | |
Big Six as if they were safari game. Inside they want to tell us they | :20:24. | :20:30. | |
were furry Lynn chin chill yas. I acknowledge we are not trusted. . We | :20:31. | :20:35. | |
need a thorough Competition Commission investigation, supported | :20:36. | :20:40. | |
by Ofgem. The six say they are the victims of rising wholesale energy | :20:41. | :20:44. | |
price, bye all sounds quite convincing until rather like the | :20:45. | :20:50. | |
baddie hiding in the monks outfit on the staircase they were rumbled by | :20:51. | :21:02. | |
one Scooby Do. We don't see nearly the same impact, specially on | :21:03. | :21:08. | |
wholesale comodity costs. Ed Miliband hit the and custody hard. | :21:09. | :21:13. | |
He is so on the side of the energy companies we should call them the | :21:14. | :21:17. | |
Big Seven, the Prime Minister and the Big Six energy companies. He | :21:18. | :21:24. | |
switched his supplier. Yes. He went for one of these insurgent companies | :21:25. | :21:29. | |
to cut his bills. Isn't it typical, he comes here every week and attacks | :21:30. | :21:34. | |
Tory policy, he goes home and he adopts Tory policy to help his own | :21:35. | :21:36. | |
family. It's state intervention of another | :21:37. | :21:49. | |
kind that is freaking the newspapers right now. Last night, a Royal | :21:50. | :21:53. | |
Charter on press regulation was granted by the Privy Council after | :21:54. | :21:58. | |
the industry lost its last-minute court battle. The editor of the | :21:59. | :22:03. | |
Daily Telegraph took to Twitter where the 140 character limit leaves | :22:04. | :22:09. | |
little room for ambiguitiy. Stances of us signing up for state | :22:10. | :22:16. | |
interference, zero, he wrote. Of course, committing things | :22:17. | :22:19. | |
electronically, let alone to paper, is a mugs' game these days. Spooks, | :22:20. | :22:25. | |
as you know are everywhere. The US spy chiefs hit back insisting they | :22:26. | :22:30. | |
work within the spirit and intent of the law. Just to clarify, that is | :22:31. | :22:35. | |
American law, covering American citizens. Nothing that has been | :22:36. | :22:41. | |
released has shown that we're trying to do something illegal or | :22:42. | :22:50. | |
unprofessional. Ah, the Hallowe'en chestnuts, national security. Maybe | :22:51. | :22:59. | |
they are right. Maybe Angela Merkel is knitting together a troops day | :23:00. | :23:07. | |
plot that is going to kick off in Nebraska. Thank God for the NSA. | :23:08. | :23:11. | |
Well, we are nearing the end. Less of a rollercoaster ride more of a | :23:12. | :23:15. | |
creaky old ghost train. Before we go, we leave you with a few spirits | :23:16. | :23:22. | |
of the past. Last week John Major rose from the meadows of Huntingdon | :23:23. | :23:26. | |
to call for a windfall tax on energy companies. This week, it was the | :23:27. | :23:31. | |
turn of Labour's most successfully electoral ghost ever, one Tony | :23:32. | :23:36. | |
Blair. Then today an intervention from one, we might call, politically | :23:37. | :23:41. | |
the living dead. The former Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, described | :23:42. | :23:45. | |
himself as an "ex-politician" news that may come as a surprise to his | :23:46. | :23:50. | |
constituents. For Ed Miliband, there is probably no greater Hallowe'en | :23:51. | :23:54. | |
treat than this. A former leader who is more than happy to quietly nail | :23:55. | :24:01. | |
down his own coffin. Thank you. Goodbye. Oh, spooky. Miranda is | :24:02. | :24:11. | |
here. Welcome back. How was that Select Committee on energy so | :24:12. | :24:17. | |
useless? They did seem inadequate to the task. Yeah, useless? A serious | :24:18. | :24:22. | |
one, which is trying to ask these Big Six companies quite why they | :24:23. | :24:27. | |
have the consumer over a barrel to such an extent. It was enjoyable, I | :24:28. | :24:32. | |
thought, to watch OVO man steal the show completely and get at least | :24:33. | :24:39. | |
48-hours fantastic pub publicity for his own company. These committees, | :24:40. | :24:43. | |
some of them are quite good. This one wasn't. They don't seem to do | :24:44. | :24:46. | |
their homework in advance. They don't seem to say, right, here are | :24:47. | :24:50. | |
the three lines we agree to take. You start with this questions, I | :24:51. | :24:54. | |
will pick up. You will take over the other one. Don't let them go. They | :24:55. | :25:02. | |
don't do any prep? When a committee is weak like that. They haven't read | :25:03. | :25:07. | |
their brief. You get a wonderful brief from the clerks and can you | :25:08. | :25:12. | |
can do your own research on this. The keen thing is to hunt as a pack. | :25:13. | :25:20. | |
I say a, you a plus one and a plus three? They start out knowing what | :25:21. | :25:24. | |
their questions will be. They don't listen what are the previous | :25:25. | :25:28. | |
questions. They want a killer line to get on the telly and let the | :25:29. | :25:31. | |
witness off the hook. That happens. It's a problem for the coalition | :25:32. | :25:34. | |
because, you saw this at Question Time, the Tory backbenches, and the | :25:35. | :25:38. | |
Lib Dems too, they had been prepped to raise questions about the | :25:39. | :25:42. | |
economy. The there was plenty question after plenty question about | :25:43. | :25:46. | |
jobs are up, growth is getting better, living standards, all that, | :25:47. | :25:51. | |
but it kept being dragged back to energy prices. It is getting in the | :25:52. | :25:55. | |
way of the coalition' narrative. They can't get it onto their ground? | :25:56. | :25:59. | |
Absolutely. It's not just about the issue of energy prices important | :26:00. | :26:04. | |
that those are, that issue speaks to a wider point about cost of living. | :26:05. | :26:08. | |
It is this line from Ed Miliband that this particular recovery, this | :26:09. | :26:13. | |
in coming tide won't lift everyone's boat. That is a huge problem for the | :26:14. | :26:16. | |
Government. Lots of stuff next week about wage levels as well. That is | :26:17. | :26:19. | |
another huge problem for the story of the recovery and whether it is | :26:20. | :26:26. | |
helping the population as a whole. The Government each week has a | :26:27. | :26:29. | |
different response. Last week it was about removing green taxes. This | :26:30. | :26:33. | |
week it is about having a year-long inquiry as to what is going on with | :26:34. | :26:38. | |
the energy companies and quicker switching, they are keeping the | :26:39. | :26:47. | |
story going. It this notion that Cameron isn't in touch with people's | :26:48. | :26:53. | |
lives. That was a John Major's point. Since Ed Miliband made the | :26:54. | :26:57. | |
speech at the Labour conference he set the political weather on this. | :26:58. | :27:00. | |
He could be trumped if the coalition get its act together, they could | :27:01. | :27:05. | |
announce at the Autumn Statement in the first week in December, we will | :27:06. | :27:09. | |
not freeze your bills, we will put levies on to general taxation. We | :27:10. | :27:13. | |
will get rid of others, we will cut your bills? Yeah. George Osborne | :27:14. | :27:18. | |
could shoot his fox and George Osborne is up to that, a lot of | :27:19. | :27:23. | |
these levies they can't get out of them legally. Some of them came in | :27:24. | :27:28. | |
with the Climate Change Act, others they would have to change the law. | :27:29. | :27:32. | |
You are quite right. The Lib Dems aren't keen to go down this route? | :27:33. | :27:36. | |
They aren't, the green agenda is very important for the Lib Dems. | :27:37. | :27:40. | |
They think it is a key part of being a responsible Government, planning | :27:41. | :27:45. | |
are for the future and maintaining a diversified - They have to cling to | :27:46. | :27:49. | |
something having dumped to many other issues. I don't know what made | :27:50. | :27:55. | |
me say that. Unkind. A saucer of milk for my friend. What do you make | :27:56. | :28:01. | |
about your friends in Unite targeting people's homes, | :28:02. | :28:06. | |
Grangemouth? I don't know the truth of this. We have pictures showing | :28:07. | :28:10. | |
them outside a manager's home. We haven't got them to show now. We | :28:11. | :28:17. | |
will when I interview - Where do you buy a blowup rat. It's about the | :28:18. | :28:22. | |
size of a house. It's not even Rowland Rat. It's not a nice rat. | :28:23. | :28:28. | |
That is not proper behaviour, is it? People are entitled to demonstrate. | :28:29. | :28:36. | |
D's not a question, did it happen, Mr McCluskey defended what happened | :28:37. | :28:40. | |
they called it leveraging tactics? There is such a thing as freedom of | :28:41. | :28:46. | |
expression. I think the demonisation of ewe night and Len McCluskey has | :28:47. | :28:51. | |
gone too far. You think it's all right to turn at a manager's home | :28:52. | :28:55. | |
and demonstrate outside the home where the wife and the kids are | :28:56. | :29:00. | |
there and the manager is not? We don't know what happened, do we? | :29:01. | :29:05. | |
McCluskey said that is all right. You can take the fight to the | :29:06. | :29:09. | |
managers, they shouldn't be allowed to go back to their cosy homes. That | :29:10. | :29:14. | |
is the Unite position. If it's legal. No-one is saying they did | :29:15. | :29:19. | |
anything illegal? No, unpleasant. Well... If I turned outside your | :29:20. | :29:25. | |
home and started shouting at you through the window it may be legal, | :29:26. | :29:28. | |
it wouldn't be pleasant. We would assume you were a member of the | :29:29. | :29:35. | |
press. Yes. You may wonder why we aren't talking about the hacking | :29:36. | :29:38. | |
trial, under the law, as it is in Britain, with contempt of court and | :29:39. | :29:42. | |
so on, the media is only allowed to report the actual factual statements | :29:43. | :29:48. | |
that were made,, we cannot comment in anyway. As much as we would love | :29:49. | :29:53. | |
to. I will interview Len McCluskey on the Sunday Politics this week and | :29:54. | :29:57. | |
see if I can get answers out of him, unlike you. | :29:58. | :30:04. | |
David Cameron returns to the Unite theme at PMQs, he will keep doing | :30:05. | :30:11. | |
it. He has got nothing else to say, it is not cutting through with the | :30:12. | :30:16. | |
general public. The Grangemouth crisis was a serious industrial | :30:17. | :30:19. | |
policy disaster looming, and now it has been solved, it has just turned | :30:20. | :30:25. | |
into more ammunition for David Cameron's campaign against the | :30:26. | :30:29. | |
Labour links. What did you make of your former hero, the former great | :30:30. | :30:35. | |
leader of this nation with his description of himself as an | :30:36. | :30:41. | |
ex-politician? A bit difficult. The truth is it reminded me that, since | :30:42. | :30:45. | |
2010, I have only seen him in Parliament three times, you say he | :30:46. | :30:49. | |
has been there five times. We think he has spoken five times. I think it | :30:50. | :30:55. | |
gives a psychological insight, he was destroyed by having lost the | :30:56. | :31:00. | |
premiership. When I lost my seat, I used to describe myself as the | :31:01. | :31:04. | |
former Michael Portillo. Your world has collapsed. But other leaders... | :31:05. | :31:09. | |
I remember Edward Heath, he was very bitter, God knows, the great silk, | :31:10. | :31:15. | |
they called him, but he was always there, he took part in debates. John | :31:16. | :31:20. | |
Major, after 1987, he took part in debates. Tony Blair walked out and | :31:21. | :31:27. | |
was never seen again. That is another way of doing it, not on the | :31:28. | :31:33. | |
public payroll. I think Gordon Brown will be treated better by history | :31:34. | :31:36. | |
than his contemporaries, but it would help that he contributed in | :31:37. | :31:39. | |
Parliament. Not when Alistair Campbell publishes the whole of his | :31:40. | :31:43. | |
book. What do you know about that book? I think there is more to come. | :31:44. | :31:49. | |
You heard it here first. Should he stand down? I think so, don't you? I | :31:50. | :31:55. | |
agree with Michael that this is yet another psychological insight into | :31:56. | :31:58. | |
this really rather fascinating but deeply flawed individual who... | :31:59. | :32:05. | |
Should he stand-down? It is not for me to say what he should do, it is | :32:06. | :32:09. | |
for the people of Dunfermline. Or Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath! I suspect | :32:10. | :32:15. | |
he will, too, because he's not showing enough interest to want to | :32:16. | :32:20. | |
bother. OK, we believe it there for now. Miranda, thank you. As a | :32:21. | :32:26. | |
regular pundit on This Week and a regular candidate for leader of the | :32:27. | :32:29. | |
Labour Party and a former leading light in the crack public health | :32:30. | :32:37. | |
team... Sorry, Diane is well used to being a big fish in a stagnant pond! | :32:38. | :32:43. | |
What about the also-rans like Michael who never reached the | :32:44. | :32:49. | |
dizzying heights of Diane? Never to appear on Celebrity Come Dine With | :32:50. | :32:52. | |
Me, do they still have a chance to make it big? We're not sure, that is | :32:53. | :32:55. | |
why we are putting underdogs in the spotlight. | :32:56. | :33:11. | |
It appears David and Goliath still exist in the Middle East. After a | :33:12. | :33:16. | |
handful of women hits the road this week to take a stand against the | :33:17. | :33:22. | |
Saudi Arabia ban on women drivers. Syrian rebels may have one less | :33:23. | :33:26. | |
thing to be after the announcement that the regime's chemical weapons | :33:27. | :33:30. | |
are finally being put out of action, allegedly. In London, the big six | :33:31. | :33:35. | |
energy Goliaths appeared before a parliamentary select committee. The | :33:36. | :33:41. | |
MPs' slings failed to find their target. How can these profits be | :33:42. | :33:49. | |
fair? If I do not make a 5% profit in my business, I cannot afford to | :33:50. | :33:53. | |
continue employing my 20,000 people, who are equally members of | :33:54. | :33:58. | |
society, and I cannot afford to operate the company. In Washington, | :33:59. | :34:02. | |
spy chiefs maintain they are defending US citizens by turning | :34:03. | :34:06. | |
their American Eagle I on everyone else. It is invaluable to us to know | :34:07. | :34:15. | |
where countries are coming from, what their policies are, how that | :34:16. | :34:20. | |
would impact us across a whole range of issues. So in a world of | :34:21. | :34:25. | |
invincible Goliaths, what chance do modern-day Davids have? Or is it a | :34:26. | :34:29. | |
case that the underdog has more power than we might ever realise? | :34:30. | :34:39. | |
David and Goliath, we are joined by Malcolm Gladwell to talk about | :34:40. | :34:42. | |
this. Welcome to the programme. Why are we wrong to assume, as most of | :34:43. | :34:46. | |
us due, that the Saudi women trying to get the right to drive won't? One | :34:47. | :34:53. | |
of the big themes of my book is about the weapons of the spirit, | :34:54. | :34:59. | |
about whether things like anger, persistence, motivation, shame me | :35:00. | :35:06. | |
how well they stack up against material resources, formal | :35:07. | :35:15. | |
authority, weapons, troops. And the central argument of the book is that | :35:16. | :35:18. | |
those weapons of the spirit matter a good deal more than we sometimes | :35:19. | :35:24. | |
assume, and so the fact that Saudi women can stage a protest and then | :35:25. | :35:27. | |
can use social media to spread that around the world, and can bring an | :35:28. | :35:32. | |
extraordinary amount of attention to this one issue, it matters. It is | :35:33. | :35:37. | |
not a trivial thing at all. But will they end up being able to drive? I | :35:38. | :35:42. | |
don't know. And you optimistic about it? I sort of an. Have you been to | :35:43. | :35:48. | |
Saudi Arabia? I have never been. There is a world of difference, a | :35:49. | :35:53. | |
bigger difference between Dubai and Saudi Arabia and there is between | :35:54. | :36:00. | |
Alabama and New York. If you look at the recent history of social and | :36:01. | :36:05. | |
political protest, what do we learn from Martin Luther King and Nelson | :36:06. | :36:09. | |
Mandela and on and on? What we learn is that the ability to hold the | :36:10. | :36:17. | |
abuses of power up to the world, and just get an emotional and | :36:18. | :36:21. | |
psychological response to that, that can be extraordinarily effective in | :36:22. | :36:24. | |
bringing that kind of power to heal. Is that what you mean when you | :36:25. | :36:28. | |
talk about the advantages and disadvantages? That idea is | :36:29. | :36:32. | |
something that I spent a lot of time on, which is that when people are | :36:33. | :36:38. | |
robbed of formal authority, they are pushed towards certain kinds of | :36:39. | :36:42. | |
strategies and approaches that they would never otherwise have | :36:43. | :36:46. | |
considered. So I have a chapter about Martin Luther King and how he | :36:47. | :36:51. | |
outwits his opponents in Birmingham, Alabama. He has no advantages over | :36:52. | :37:01. | |
them. They control the courts, they control politics, they control all | :37:02. | :37:05. | |
the resources. What does he have? He simply has his creativity and his | :37:06. | :37:11. | |
intelligence. But he also had a big chunk of the federal government | :37:12. | :37:16. | |
behind them. He had to use them, the chapter is about how artfully he | :37:17. | :37:18. | |
manipulated public opinion. He played a trick, a magnificent, | :37:19. | :37:27. | |
hilarious, brilliant trick that King plays on the media in Birmingham, | :37:28. | :37:33. | |
Alabama. In Little Rock Arkansas, the governor would not let the black | :37:34. | :37:37. | |
kids go to the high school in the centre of Little Rock, and | :37:38. | :37:40. | |
Eisenhower it was then, not a Democrat, he federalised the | :37:41. | :37:48. | |
National Guard. These people had... Nobody is fertilising the National | :37:49. | :37:51. | |
Guard and Saudi Arabia! No, but the fascinating thing about the rise of | :37:52. | :37:59. | |
social media and the digital revolution that we have seen is to | :38:00. | :38:03. | |
what extent does it feed into these weapons of the spirit to give people | :38:04. | :38:11. | |
who lack access to formal means of authority and power a voice, and the | :38:12. | :38:17. | |
ability to shame? A lot of this, the whole Saudi protest is about shame. | :38:18. | :38:23. | |
And shame is an incredibly powerful emotion it turns out, in political | :38:24. | :38:28. | |
arenas. Do you buy this theory? Yes, I find is plausible. If you talk | :38:29. | :38:33. | |
about David and Goliath, one theory is that David is small, but the | :38:34. | :38:38. | |
other is that he is brave and pugnacious and audacious, all of | :38:39. | :38:42. | |
those things. And you know, thinking about politics, you see that again | :38:43. | :38:46. | |
and again, Margaret Thatcher came from nowhere, Ed Miliband defeated | :38:47. | :38:51. | |
David Miliband. In this case, confusingly, the Goliath is called | :38:52. | :38:56. | |
David... We are following you! OSHA media does make it easier for | :38:57. | :39:00. | |
underdogs. My favourite is the Scottish schoolgirl who photographed | :39:01. | :39:05. | |
her school dinners and it went all over the world. They tried to stop | :39:06. | :39:11. | |
photographing the school dinner and it caused a pro, a little girl in | :39:12. | :39:15. | |
Scotland who tried to block about dinner. The authority had to change, | :39:16. | :39:21. | |
that is a good example. I bet that is not in the book! There's not | :39:22. | :39:26. | |
another Scotland in my book. That could be said many books! We have | :39:27. | :39:32. | |
always known the power of shame in local contexts, in a small town. It | :39:33. | :39:38. | |
is an incredibly powerful emotion. What has happened now is that we | :39:39. | :39:41. | |
have been able to take the same social dynamics that used to only | :39:42. | :39:46. | |
operate in very small, tightly knit communities and magnify them. | :39:47. | :39:49. | |
Because of the digital revolution. How does this work in Syria, then? | :39:50. | :39:54. | |
Well, it is early to tell what is going to happen in Syria. The | :39:55. | :40:00. | |
beginning of the whole thing, a man set fire to himself in June is | :40:01. | :40:05. | |
here, and everything else followed from that, extraordinary. In | :40:06. | :40:16. | |
Tunisia. The English love Eddie the Eagle Edwards and the Jamaican | :40:17. | :40:21. | |
bobsleigh team we love the underdog. Do we share a little Jamaican... My | :40:22. | :40:27. | |
mother is Jamaican. I was looking at your hair! Don't get carried away | :40:28. | :40:36. | |
here. There has been examples, the velvet revolution may be one | :40:37. | :40:40. | |
example, we have seen examples of people power, and we have seen | :40:41. | :40:46. | |
Tiananmen Square. At no time in David and Goliath do I pretend that | :40:47. | :40:51. | |
these kinds of... The weapons available to underdogs do not | :40:52. | :40:55. | |
guarantee triumph. That is ridiculous. All I am saying is that | :40:56. | :41:00. | |
there are, if we do a more sophisticated accounting of the | :41:01. | :41:04. | |
advantages and disadvantages that each side has, we realise the | :41:05. | :41:08. | |
battles are an awful lot more even than we would imagine. Nobody is | :41:09. | :41:13. | |
saying that David always beats Goliath. He did one time! But at the | :41:14. | :41:19. | |
beginning of the book, I read tell the story, the biblical story, | :41:20. | :41:23. | |
pointing out that David's weapon, the slain, is one of the most | :41:24. | :41:27. | |
devastating weapons available in ancient times. The stopping power of | :41:28. | :41:33. | |
the rock that came from the sling is a bullet fired from a handgun, it is | :41:34. | :41:40. | |
incredibly... When he decides to break the rules, he has superior | :41:41. | :41:44. | |
technology. That is a very interesting fact to keep in mind. | :41:45. | :41:48. | |
And it is not entirely new, even the digital, because in the wall, the | :41:49. | :41:55. | |
role of the Wall coming down, the freeing up of Eastern Europe from | :41:56. | :41:59. | |
Soviet supremacy, the fax machine played a role in that, mobile | :42:00. | :42:03. | |
phones, satellite TV. That is always the case. It has always been the | :42:04. | :42:07. | |
case that underdogs, by virtue of being shut out of the status quo, | :42:08. | :42:12. | |
the first to exploit the next wave of technology. So we could go back | :42:13. | :42:16. | |
to the French Revolution and the role of the printing press, | :42:17. | :42:30. | |
pamphleteer... In politics the underdog can come through, the | :42:31. | :42:33. | |
prospective Democratic candidate for mayor in New York, he went from | :42:34. | :42:37. | |
being bottom to being the main contender. Underdogs can win. Very | :42:38. | :42:43. | |
British, nothing more British than that. Malcolm Gladwell, thanks for | :42:44. | :42:51. | |
being here. That is your lot for tonight, folks, but not for us. At | :42:52. | :42:58. | |
Lulu's it is warm, cheaper than putting the heating on. It is | :42:59. | :43:02. | |
Halloween, and people like to be scared, so we leave you tonight with | :43:03. | :43:06. | |
some frankly terrifying footage that came to light this week. Apparently | :43:07. | :43:15. | |
this is what passes for entertainment on BBC Two these days, | :43:16. | :43:20. | |
no wonder nobody is watching. Night night, don't let your private dancer | :43:21. | :43:24. | |
bite. | :43:25. | :43:27. |