12/12/2013 This Week

Tonight on This Week, as political drama Borgen comes to an end, the

real Danish Prime Minister steals the flashlight at Mandela's memorial

by taking a selfie. But why are there not more

Brigitte's or Helle's among the worlds' leaders? Ann Summers' boss,

Jacqueline Gold, isn't one to compromise. I will be telling you

why it is about time more women got on top.

At Westminster, it all goes quiet as David Cameron and Ed Miliband agree

over MPs' pay. The Spectator's first lady, Isabel Hardman, dons her

festive jumper. It is cold up there in those Scandinavian countries, but

not as cold as the Westminster backbenchers, where MPs are getting

frosty with party leaders over plans for a pay rise.

And is it inappropriate to take a selfie at a funeral, even if you are

the world's leading man? Singer and songwriter Kate Nash will be

behaving badly. Please, Brigette, stay in my life.

Evenin' all. Welcome to This Week, a week dominated, of course, by the

death of Nelson Mandela. You could tell this was an event of historic

significance by the fact we were bumped off air immediately it

happened, the BBC schedulers rightly realising this show is not anyone's

port of call for events of historic significance, indeed for anything of

any kind of significance. The airwaves have been thick with

tributes to the great man. But who would have thought that, even in

death, he had the power to free Britain's most famous political

prisoner, a man held under self-imposed house arrest on his own

MacRobben Island for many a long year. Yes, only the magic of Mandela

could inspire Gordon Brown to escape his remote prison and make the long

trek to freedom and the House of Commons, to give us the benefit of

his wisdom, as young MPs scratched their heads and nudged older

colleagues asking who was this strange Gordiba figure from the

tribe of Kirkaldy? What a tribute to Mandela! Can I suggest one more? At

the height of the anti-apartheid movement cricket pitches were dug up

wherever South Africa was playing to enforce the sporting boycott. So

it's only fitting we mark the old man's passing by digging up the

wicket in Perth, Australia, where the next Test is about to begin in a

couple of hours. It's the only chance we have of not being

humiliated for a third time. Speaking of those who can't tell

their googlies from their balls - sorry that should read bails - I'm

joined on the sofa tonight by two men who love themselves more than

they love their country. Think of them as the Keith Vaz and Keith

Vajazzle of late night political chat. I speak, of course, of

#manontheleft Alan "AJ" Johnson and #sadmanonatrain Michael "Chatanooga"

Portillo. Moment of the week? My moment of the

week is the week made out of a moment, the week that has been

devoted to Mandela on the airwaves. I met Mandela and I think he was the

most admirable person I ever met, but I think even when Nelson Mandela

dies there is a need for journalists to maintain a sense of proportion. I

thought all sense of proportion was lost, not only in the amount of time

devoted to interviewing anybody who could claim to have met Nelson

Mandela, or to have been in the same room, but I also thought there was a

lack of objectivity, which is an absolute requirement in journalism.

There was more than one side of the man to be reported. I thought the

journalism verged on hysteria. I hate it when there is a kind of

little correctness and only one view is available. And the BBC sending

planeloads of journalists to South Africa was a symptom of that. Not

us! I could not even get to Southend. And I don't think it

actually does the memory any good to indulge in hyperbole, rather than

accurate reporting. Putting that aside, did you like the coverage?

No. Did you think Mandela was more memorable than Allen, the most

memorable person you ever met? Yes, although his book is one of the most

memorable I have read for a long time. Had we not been bumped last

week, my moment would have been an accolade to the government because

they insisted local authorities support children in care up to the

age of 21. Children in care are kicked out of care far too early. As

we were bumped off, I will give an accolade to the government, because

I think what they did at the G8 on trying to make to mention and

researching dementia was an excellent way to use a G8 summit.

And getting medical expertise behind it. Absolutely. If you look at the

money dedicated to important medical research, neuroscience gets a

fraction of that. Your moments of the week fall into irrelevance

compared to mine, when we learned that this programme is the highest

trending programme on Twitter. What is Twitter? No idea, but somebody

told me it was important. Now, a few weeks ago we introduced a

horrified world to the Twelfie, where tired and emotional This Week

viewers tweeted pictures of themselves watching the show, with

the photographic evidence edited together for our end credits. Now,

flogging dead horses is still not illegal so we're bringing it back

next week for a festive Twelfie Night of Christmas. We're giving you

a full seven days' notice get your tinsel out for the boys and get

ready to tweet us. Extra points for Blue Nun in shot.

Now, as the great and the good, and Tony Blair, convened in South Africa

this week for Mandela's memorial service, one thing stood out, where

were all the women? Sure there were plenty of political wags but what

about political leaders? The Danish Prime Minister was the front page

exception that proved the rule, with call-me-Dave reduced to

photo-bombing her selfie just so he could be seen with a woman leader.

So why are there so few women in politics and public life? We turned

to top business woman Jacqueline Gold. This is her take of the week.

As the chief executive of Ann Summers, I believe I have a very

good idea of what women want. We do not need more men who think they

know what women want. We need more women in top positions.

We are always hearing about politicians trying to win over the

female vote. Sorry, boys, and sadly it is mainly boys in politics, but

you have to earn it. Many people think David Cameron has a problem

with women, but I think all politicians have a problem

connecting with women. It is about engaging with women, about

connecting and addressing the right issues that really matter to women.

And the issues I am talking about our child care, education, and what

about equal pay? This is a subject that is really important to women. I

find it shocking that on average women are paid ?5,000 less than

their male counterparts who are doing exactly the same job. Maybe if

there were more women in government this would be an issue that would be

addressed and very high up on their agenda.

50% of the directors on my board are women, and that is not because they

are women, it is because I only pick the best people for the job. The

government only have four women in the Cabinet, and possibly are

missing out on some great talent. Instinctively, I do not want

government to get involved in business but I would like to see

targets for businesses to get more women onto boards. I would also like

naming and shaming of those companies who are not paying women

the same as men for doing exactly the same job.

And from her store in Westfield Stratford to our own little store of

battery-operated toys in the heart of Westminster, Jacqueline Gold

joins us now. It is the 21st-century, we have made so much

progress in so many areas over the past 150 is, so why is it still a

man's world? There are a few reasons. First of all, and business

level there is a failure to really sees some fantastic talent from

women right in front of their eyes. I think women play down their

success themselves, and there is an issue around lack of confidence and

self belief. I think also society is limiting beliefs on women's

potential. I think it is a big issue. In what way is a business

better or different run partly by women, by men and women together,

roughly call, as opposed to a male dominated business? On my own board,

I have 50% men, 50% women. It is not a quote. No, it is because I pick

the best people for the job. This is what surprises me about boards,

especially in retail. I was speaking to somebody the other day who has

five department stores. Their market is essentially women and they do not

have one woman on their board. It is ludicrous. But what difference does

it make, in your view, to have a mix of men and women running the

company? How does it change the company for the better? I think you

have to have a balance. An empathy with your customers. For me, that is

common sense. What difference do you think it would make if we had a lot

more women in politics? I think it would make a huge difference. I

think it would change the culture. I watch Prime Minister 's questions

and that whole culture, I think, is very unappealing. It is very

unappealing for female voters, and I would imagine for women wanting to

go into politics. I think there would be more issues on the agenda

that relate to women, such as childcare, tax relief, unequal pay,

pay equality. Just more female voices. Absolutely. Does gender

matter in politics? Is it a problem that women are not better

represented in parliament and government? Yes. I was in favour,

when I was running for leadership of the Conservative Party, of taking

all sorts of measures to make sure we increased representation of women

among Conservative MPs. Labour Party have a ready done that. Would you

have gone as far as Labour went, in having all-female selection list? It

is a long time since this happened, but at the time I refused to rule

that out. One person on the last day of the vote for the leadership

said, I cannot vote for you if you will not rule out all women short

lists, and I lost by one vote. Possibly I lost because of that. It

is the women to blame! That being said, I hoped that having got more

women into parliament we could remove any special measures. I

thought women were not putting themselves forward because they had

so little chance of being selected. I hoped that once we got into the

habit of selecting women it would take care of itself. I would say a

couple of things, and one is not to underestimate how many women have

been very successful in politics. Margaret Thatcher, Theresa May,

Barbara Castle, Yvette Cooper, there are a lot of important women. That

is one hand I have needed so far. And I have two. You have to struggle

with this further. It is not that women have not got near the top of

politics. Lots of women have and yet these issues have not been

resolved, so something else needs to be done. The other thing you said in

your film was that you would like to see targets for boards. One thing

that struck me recently is that many of our problems recently have been

caused by boards on which there were unqualified people who were put

there for any number of reasons, some of them diversity reasons. I am

loathe to see people going on boards unless, as you say of yours, they

happen to be the best qualified. You did not do it for diversity reasons.

I am against quotas, for the reasons you are saying. Firstly, nobody

wants to be the token woman on the board anyway, and secondly, for the

very reason that you are saying. But I think we should recognise

companies that do it well. There needs to be a change of culture at

the top. And actually a change of culture, I was going to say, in

schools. We need to do something about women building self-esteem.

People don't don't like quotas. Sometimes if you don't have a quota,

you can't make the breakthrough. No, I thought Jacqueline's film was spot

on, particularly in terms of the pay gap. We thought this would be solved

by the end of the 70s, it is still going on. We took positive action,

as Michael said. There was an interesting story there of Michael

losing by one vote. We took positive action. I'm not saying that

everything is perfect in our party. 50% of our Cabinet are women. You

don't now... We do now because we changed the law... Blair was more

popular with women voters as a result. Critical Mass. A Critical

Mass comes that talent we see on our frontbench. In business it's amazing

how many FTSE 100 companies in this country have not one single woman on

the board. It's not a case of quote... It's a case of an all-male

domain. It has taken a long time to breakthrough. You might be right,

eventually something needs to give. In other countries, in Scandinavian

countries... They have done that. They have done quotas and it worked.

Jacqueline mentioned schools. It it is alleged that because children are

accessing pornography, I wonder whether through your shops you are

stereotyping women as sexual objects and whether that plays a part in the

way women are viewed. I'm surprised to hear you say that? It's a

question. The last 30 years of my career has been about empower women

not sexualising them. When I became involved, 30 years ago, you couldn't

buy sexy underwear in the high street like you can today. It's more

about empowering. For me, this is about equality. I don't... I really

can't see the connection there. Why don't you go into politics? With my

colourful career Andrew, I've been in politics all my life, I can

assure you. Are quite colourful, only their shirts, mind you. If you

are very colourful, you can survive in politics. Boris is pretty

colourful, he survives in politics. If your colour is... One of my

redcressors, in Kingston Chelsea my redcressor was Alan Clarke, he was

asked if he had skeletons in his cupboard. He said, "cup boards

full." We need to move on. Thank you for being with us. It's very

interesting. Now it's late and you're probably

wide-awake and wide-eyed, it's the ketamine that does it, but with the

Government announcing a review of 'legal highs', our days could soon

be numbered. So enjoy us before we get recategorised because waiting in

the wings, singer, songwriter and actress Kate Nash is here to discuss

modern manners. Did I mention we're now the number one TV show trending

on Twitter? Did I? Well, stick that in your pipe and smoke it, Strictly.

See what all the fuss is about on the Twitter and the Fleecebook and

the good old missionary position interweb. Now, as we hurtle towards

Christmas, like an out-of-control yule log flume, the early presents

hit us thick and fast. This week we were treated to the leaders'

Christmas cards. David Cameron's advisers chose to recreate an Athena

poster from 1985. Ed Miliband's advisers thought 'nothing quite says

Christmas' like the Labour Party conference. Whilst Nick Clegg's

advisers are fooling nobody with their ludicrous claim his children

were responsible for his card's festive graffiti everyone knows the

first thing any normal kid draws are a pair of black-rimmed spectacles

and a Hitler moustache! Well, we thought we should make our own and

so asked Isobel Hardman from the Spectator, here's her round-up of

the week. It's the biggest political decision

of the year, forget your spare room subsidies or your autumn statements,

most of us have, the burning question in Westminster this week

is... What on earth am I going to do with all my Christmas cards?

Camerons the Cleggs and the mill bands have all done theirs. We will

have to forgive our political leaders from being naff, it's

Christmas after all, which is why at this festive time of year, I like to

spare a thought for the poor and the needy. Yes, you're poor MP,

struggling to get by on a mere ?66,000 a year! Mr Speaker, does the

Prime Minister agree with me that given the crisis ordinary families

are facing in their living standards, MPs should not be awarded

a pay rise many times above inflation in 2015? I do agree. It

would be wrong for MPs to get a big pay rise at the time of public

sector pay restraint. All three party leaders agree on that. Last

Christmas Tory backbenchers might have savaged Cameron over an issue

like pay, I get the impression that the MPs' relation with his MPs are

beginning to thaw. His MPs seem to be blaming all three party

leadersers rather than just him. They are annoyed that senior

politicians don't quite understand how tough it is being a backbencher.

Cameron has been trying really hard, inviting his MPs round for more

bacon butties and evening drink events than the average backbench

expense budget can stretch to. We haven't seen the Balls' Christmas

card yet. The Tories love Ed Ball as flop, they see him as an asset to

the party. He is at it again, heckling again. We learnt something

last week, he can dish it out, he can't take it. There we are. Oh... I

tell you what's going down, his career is going down. That is what

is going down. Did you hear that, Ed, that is the sound of the world's

tinest piano playing. -- tiniest. Some in his party agree with the

Tories, Ed Balls isn't helping make Labour electable again. Even E em's

team realise the Shadow Chancellor is a nightmare. The Labour leaders

real nightmare would be sacking the Shadow Chancellor, he wouldn't get a

Christmas card from Balls if he did that. People are betting on you not

being in the job? That is the nature of politics. They are betting on

David Cameron, George Osborne, Ed Miliband. It's the way it is. The

thing is, the reason why you ask me these questions you want me to be

bothered. Frankly, I couldn't give a toss. The I couldn't give a toss.

Iain Duncan Smith looked like the Grinch who stole Christmas this week

as he batted away criticism of his welfare aforms and the hi-tech IT

system needed to deal with. It Iain Duncan Smith does have a solution to

his universal credit nightmare. As well as getting very grumpy indeed

with anyone who cite sizes it he can confuse people by using strange

jargon such as yob potting, and front loading. We have had to sit

for some time while a lot of bogus nonsense has been talked about huge

levels of additional writoffs. This note in the front of you absolutely

finishes that and ends it. Within the time scales and within budget we

are delivering a universal credit solution. Is all about children.

This year the deputy PM got his children to make their Christmas

card using an iPod, it's how like Lib Dem party policy is drawn up

these days. It's the sort of encouragement that Ofsted says our

children need. This week they demanded that seven-year-olds in

England take compulsory tests. This doesn't really look like me. Greater

accountability, more assessment is delivering better outcomes. If we

have any ambition to join the top performing nations, we have to do

the same. Goodwill to all men did break out in the Commons on Monday

during parliamentary tributes to Nelson Mandela. The Commons is

always at its best on these occasions the three party leaders

put on a very good performance. It was the glos of Christmas past,

Gordon Brown who put on the best show. The one and first great

achievement of Nelson Mandela, what made him this great architect of a

free South Africa, was this burning belief that everyone, every man and

woman was equal. Everyone born to be free. Everyone created, not with a

destiny to be in poverty, but created to have dignity in life. The

three party leaders headed to South Africa for the tribute to the former

President. The greater and the good rubbed shoulders together, a little

too closely, some thought. The Prime Minister argued that it was only

polite to join in when asked by Neil Kinnock's daughter in law, the

Danish PM, she can always air brush him out of the photo. It's nowhere

near as good as my picture! Ah, Miranda, welcome. Thank Thank

you. , why is MPs pay still such a mess? Because there are only two...

There are only two ways of settling MPs pay, it ourns out in the end

there is only one way. The two ways appear to be, MPs vote for it or you

have an independent committee. When you have an independent committee

and the public doesn't like the result, indeed the political leaders

don't like the result, it turns out that the MPs will go out to vote to

vote down the recommendation of the independent committee. In the

current circumstances when you cannot find any group of public

sector workers, many of which could make a good argument to say we have

fallen behind, we need to catchup, and they have not got a chance in

hell. There is no no case for MPs to be an exception in those

circumstances. According to IPSA there would be no extra money

because they there would be savings from MPs' pensionses, their payments

would be cut back, the resettlement schemes which MPs get when they lose

seats, that would be cut back. IPSA claims overall it's a wash, it won't

cost us a penny more. I was a trade union negotiator. Can you make these

arguments. You are looking for the biggest increase you can get. You

can make all kinds of arguments, it's the headline figure. Lots of

public sector workers, teachers, senior scientists working for the

Government can make a good argument. They haven't got a chance. We have

1% cap on the poorest and most vulnerable in welfare. Can you not

put your pay up by 12%, I make it 12% from ?66,000 to ?74,000 in those

circumstances. The leaders of both front benches, Mr Clegg as well, are

all saying this is outrageous, terrible it will not happen, we will

stop it, nothing off the table, even threatening IPSA, the Prime

Minister's very existence. On the backbenches, they want it? Of course

they do, absolutely. They are not getting ministerial salaries on

backbenches as well. And, some of... Not independently wealthy some of

them, are they? Indeed. Some of them have described the decision that

they made to go into politics and take quite a big cut if they were in

well-paid positions, some of them in the public sector, Sarah Walston,

who was a GP, it's less remuneration for a MP than a GP. Less being a

trade union leader. Yeah. This IPSA argument that it actually, you know,

it flat if you take into account the pension, it's too complicated for

the public to understand. You cannot go out there with a headline saying

- 11%, 12% rise. It's not just public sector pay freezes, in the

private-sector a lot of people haven't had a pay rise at all

either. Private-sector pay is bearing rising by 0.5%, even less.

How will it end? It will end with it being got rid of. It won't happen It

absolutely won't happen. What mug do you have to be to do any job for the

Government. Kennedy is working for IPSA. He does a lot of serious work.

He looks into the figures, asked to be independent. Comes up with a

recommendation and the Prime Minister threatens to abolish him.

Which mug would work for the Government? IPSA was set up

independently, they were set up to look at this problem of where you

establish MPs pay and put a mechanism of how it is increased in

the future. His mechanism for that, average earnings, is right, how we

get to the first stage. And when exactly, not now. When is the time

to do it. We are agreed on that. We got bumped last week about Nelson

Mandela's death we wanted to ask you about Ed Balls, for three

nanoseconds you did his job? More than three nanoseconds.

You had been Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Is there any possibility

that Mr Miliband might remove Ed balls? No possibility whatsoever,

and neither should he. That Autumn Statement, and I replied to one in

autumn 2010. The only have two compare it with what has happened

and you will see that this is no great success. The Autumn Statement

is really for a Chancellor to stand up and preen and look smug. No

matter the circumstances, they will do that. It is a terribly difficult

act. You get the thing a few seconds before, heavily redacted. So he will

be Shadow Chancellor going into the 2015 election? You would need more

than Ed Miliband has to remove him. I don't know. He stabbed his brother

in the back. That was brave, risky, but this could be fatal. I think

that having Ed balls there is a disaster, frankly, for the Labour

Party going into the election. They think he is one of their biggest

assets. David Cameron tries hard to mention him as often as he possibly

can, and it is because everyone remembers him being Gordon Brown's

henchmen. It allows them to repeat the line of, Labour got us into this

mess and we are clearing up the disaster they left. We should recall

how Ed Miliband got into the mess of having to appoint him. That is very

true. Thank you very much. Have you still got that primer? I have got

loads because I got loads as soon as I make that joke. I could lend you

one. When James Callaghan became Chancellor of the Exchequer, he went

to Oxford to do a course on economics. They get everything

wrong. I could have told you that, and I am cheap. We will talk

afterwards. Adam Smith went to his university. At the same time! He

came after me. Universal credit, do you think it is still going to

happen? Yes, by dribs and drabs, I think it will eventually happen.

Iain Duncan Smith has been very brave. So many people have wanted to

do this. Including me. You have to give him credit for trying. The

business over the information technology systems, the impairments,

writing off ?40 million of code, this is the story repeated year

after year in government. With both parties in power. Of course, it is

nothing to do with politicians. I think it is to do with the inability

of civil service managers to specify the system that they want, so the

waste occurs, but it is scandalous. You also have the example on the

other side of the Atlantic. Any policy overhaul, the minute you

here, we are going to have a magnificent IT system which will

bring the nation together, you start to panic. If you are going to try

it, do not make grand claims. Simplification of the system is a

noble objective but it is crazy to make these are statements that you

are going to do so many people on it. 450,000 by now, it was going to

be. This is more sensible than what came out from the Labour front

bench. For Labour to criticise IT cock ups is like Satan complaining

about sins. Except that when we had IT cock ups, there were people like

Iain Duncan Smith to point it out. I want an honest answer. Do you think

Nick Clegg's children independently drew the antlers and the beard on

their parents, or were they told to buy a spin doctor? If I tell you

that my two-year-old is better with the iPad than I am, I believe they

did it. That was a much clever answer than any of us had

anticipated. I thought she would say, that is a good question, but

she answered it, in her way! In my way! I think it was the kids, yes. I

want to see you do it later. Now, if the Danish Prime Minister went to

the memorial of the world's greatest statesman and took a selfie with

Barack Obama, would it be bad manners? And if she then took her

memory stick and memory-of-a-lifetime into the

Copenhagen branch of Snurrrpy Snurrrps and airbrushed out the

gurning face of our own Prime Minister who'd managed to force his

way into the picture, would it be bad form? We're not sure. That's why

we've decided to put modern manners in this week's Spotlight.

# I got too drunk at the Christmas party. #

Girls can be gross and barred, so says Kate Nash, talking about her

new film, the powder room. Our bad manners always a bad thing? The

Ofsted chief Inspector claims some schools must do better, but also

must behave better. It is a culture of casual acceptance of low-level

disruption and poor attitudes to learning. With a lack of manners and

discipline affecting results, he once unannounced behavioural

inspections put in place. Maybe someone should have been inspecting

David Cameron and Barack Obama at Nelson Mandela's Memorial. They were

criticised for taking a selfie with the Danish prime minister. But Mr

Cameron argued it was perfectly appropriate. When a member of the

Kinnock family asked me for a photograph, I thought it right to

say yes. He is not the only one getting grief, with the memorial

crowd showing distaste for South African President Jacob Zuma. The

cameras caught plenty of chip chat during the eulogies. So is there

anything wrong with some bad manners? Are they a bit of harm --

harmless fun, or potentially damaging and disrespectful?

Kate Nash joins us. Welcome. Thank you for the intro. Your new movie is

getting rave reviews. Is it a celebration of bad manners? It is a

celebration of friendship. There are some bad manners. There are things

that go wrong, things that a lot of people get up to which happen in the

movie. But really it is about having a quarter life crisis, and

realising, actually, that does not satisfy you, and about friendship

prevailing. Do you think in this day that young women are still expected

to have better manners than young men? Yes, I do. If you look at the

way badly behaved men are portrayed in the media and badly behaved

women, it is three different. Men are considered rock stars and women

are train wrecks. There was a time not that long ago when young women

were better behaved, better mannered than men of the equivalent age. But

you see a lot of behaviour in the streets on a Saturday and Friday

nights now that suggests they are as bad as each other. I suppose you do.

Which means there is no restraint on the end, because the women used to

be the restraint on the men when they get out of line. It was the

women who said, stop doing that, but that has gone if women are behaving

the same way. I do not know if it is women's responsibility to control

men and tell them how to behave. I think most able know you cannot

actually control someone and if you tell someone not to behave in one

way they will do it behind your back. I think clearly there are

problems with binge drinking and violence, and they need to be

addressed. They used to be male monopolies but they are not any

more. I guess. I do not think it is a question of manners. When I meet

young people, I find incredibly well mannered, no different to kids when

I was young. I do not think there has been a collapse in manners.

There has been a collapse in manners. There has been changing

lifestyles, and one of them, is that instead of just men getting

legless, it is men and women. There are certain things we need to

address which are being missed, which are to do with education being

inspiring and interesting for young people, rather than just about

purely passing tests and pressure. I was in a skate park the other day

and there was this kid who I met who I had seen a couple of times. He is

a really sweet boy. He got kicked out of school because he got into a

fight, so obviously he is a bit of a troublemaker. But he is a

good-hearted boy, nice to everyone there. He goes there to skate. I saw

this trailer documentary recently about the South skate park which is

being shut down. Things like that are redeemed poor and for young

people to have places to express themselves. That is real culture

that has been created in a genuine way. Let me real you back in from

the skate park. Is that mine? It is now. Unless it has my lipstick on

it. The picture from South Africa of the Danish prime minister taking the

selfie at Mandela's Memorial. Was that bad manners? What I find weird

is that we are having a discussion about the selfie on this programme.

That is the most disturbing part for me. Selfie is in the dictionary, I

think. Was it bad manners? I would not take a selfie at a memorial

service, especially if I was a president or prime minister. I

cannot appreciate the context entirely. For example, lots of

people are singing at a memorial service, because it was partly a

celebration. It clearly does not have the sombre atmosphere of a

funeral in a church in this country. I think the three who took the

selfie might have figured out that, back in their home countries, we

would not have the benefit of the context as they appreciated it, and

it might be a pretty bad hostage to fortune. Thank God for the Danish

prime minister. I thought it was great. The person who would have

smiled the most would have been Nelson Mandela. It was a memorial

service, they were sitting around for long periods, people were

singing and dancing, and they took a selfie. A selfie? Why? Stop taking

them, everyone. It was a photo of three people. They could have got

someone else to take it. The key is in the words selfie. You take it

yourself. The number is not the issue. What did you make of Michael

Wilshaw's point, Alan, being interested in education, that what

we see is casual indiscipline, sloppy culture, noisy corridors,

children answering back, teachers confusing friendliness with

familiarity. That is what you see in bad schools. That is the kind of

behaviour that can be transformed just by leadership, by a headteacher

who will not tolerate that, and that permeates down to the rest of the

staff. I entirely agree. If you used the argument of the well-behaved

kids in the class that the other kids are hampering their life

chances, do you think that carries anyway? Can you invoke peer

pressure? You can. What impressed me was the number of kids who behaved,

who were resentful at the attention paid to those who did not. It does

disrupt class, but as a general proposition, is it not fair to say

that kids today are at least as polite and well mannered as previous

generations? I guess every generation has its own problems, and

we obviously saw a few years ago, with the riots, that there are a lot

of unhappy people. Whether you can figure out exactly why that happened

does not really matter. What matters is that it did happen and so there

is some kind of unhappiness. And I think you have to work with, like,

engaging young people. It is not about rewarding the bad kids, it is

about inspiring them and trying to encourage them. If they are not

succeeding at academic things, encourage them vocationally and

creatively. The best way for the young to be inspired is not to watch

this programme because it brings you down. Good luck with the movie. It

is going great. That's your lot for tonight, folks.

But not for us. We're off to Annabel's to celebrate the fact that

we're the top trending TV show on Twitter. Oh, did I already mention

that? Did I? Did I? Nighty-night, don't let our bloated sense of

self-importance bite. # We are the champions, my friends

# And we will keep on fighting until the end

# We are the champions # We are the champions

# No time for losers # Because we are the champions of

the world. #