Browse content similar to 23/01/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Tonight on This Week, is Westminster descending into political farce? | :00:07. | :00:16. | |
What is it with the Lib Dems and sex scandals? As Nick Clegg and his | :00:17. | :00:25. | |
party find themselves in a fine old mess over allegations of improper | :00:26. | :00:27. | |
behaviour, racing driver and TV presenter Amanda Stretton thinks it | :00:28. | :00:31. | |
time for men to stop behaving like Benny Hill in the workplace. Women, | :00:32. | :00:43. | |
don't lap up that any hill type of behaviour. It's the pits. | :00:44. | :00:45. | |
Britain's economic recovery is speeding up, as unemployment falls | :00:46. | :00:48. | |
faster than expected. The Guardian's Nick Watt has been chasing the | :00:49. | :00:55. | |
stories in outer space. The economy is accelerating faster than a | :00:56. | :00:58. | |
speeding comment, leaving Ed Miliband a little lost in space. | :00:59. | :01:01. | |
And a proper comedian and proud Essex boy, Russell Kane chases his | :01:02. | :01:08. | |
dream of being on This Week. I'm working class but I've got a degree. | :01:09. | :01:11. | |
Honest! And we drive the fastest political | :01:12. | :01:15. | |
milk cart in the West. Evenin' all. Welcome to This Week. | :01:16. | :01:20. | |
Yes, another week, another Lib Dem sex scandal. The Chris Rennard saga | :01:21. | :01:24. | |
was showing no sign abatement when along came an official report into | :01:25. | :01:26. | |
another Lib Dem worthy, Portsmouth along came an official report into | :01:27. | :01:29. | |
MP Mike Hancock, which promptly knocked Rennard off the headlines, | :01:30. | :01:32. | |
at least for now. If the Rennard affair is less Jimmy Savile, more | :01:33. | :01:36. | |
Benny Hill, without the slapstick but with the tickle, the Hancock | :01:37. | :01:39. | |
affair is no laughing matter. Not that the Lib Dems can be accused of | :01:40. | :01:44. | |
a rush to judgment. Despite serious allegations, "credible" according to | :01:45. | :01:48. | |
the report, against Mr Hancock by a vulnerable female constituent three | :01:49. | :01:51. | |
years ago, it was only on Wednesday that the Lib Dems got round to | :01:52. | :01:55. | |
suspending him. And that was only because the QC's report, which | :01:56. | :01:58. | |
suspending him. And that was only MP's local Lib Dems voted to keep | :01:59. | :02:01. | |
under wraps, was leaked. Have you noticed, by the way, how the Lib | :02:02. | :02:06. | |
Dems have become a job creation scheme for lawyers investigating sex | :02:07. | :02:08. | |
scandals? Yes, whenever anybody drops their trousers when they | :02:09. | :02:12. | |
shouldn't, it's the lawyers who trouser the dosh. But I digress. The | :02:13. | :02:17. | |
Lib Dems may have taken their time to deal with Mr Hancock but they | :02:18. | :02:21. | |
moved like greased lightning compared with their handling of the | :02:22. | :02:24. | |
Rennard Chronicles, which are now in their 11th year. There are dark | :02:25. | :02:28. | |
rumours that the saga is splitting the Lib Dems in two, though I would | :02:29. | :02:32. | |
have thought ridicule a bigger threat than division. And even | :02:33. | :02:34. | |
have thought ridicule a bigger the Lib Dems did divide, would | :02:35. | :02:37. | |
anybody notice? Speaking of those who you wouldn't notice in an empty | :02:38. | :02:44. | |
room, I'm joined on the sofa by two men whose on-screen partnership has | :02:45. | :02:46. | |
caused a minor puddle in the Westminster area. Think of them as | :02:47. | :02:53. | |
the Elton John and David Furnish of late night political chat. I speak, | :02:54. | :02:56. | |
of course, of #manontheleft Alan "AJ" Johnson... And #sadmanonatrain | :02:57. | :03:06. | |
Michael Portillo. Your moment of the week? A worker in a Shoreditch | :03:07. | :03:12. | |
restaurant spotted a former prime minister, Tony Blair. He put his | :03:13. | :03:16. | |
hand on his shoulder and attempted to perform a citizens arrest for war | :03:17. | :03:22. | |
crimes over Iraq, to which the former Prime Minister retorted, do | :03:23. | :03:23. | |
you not agree Saddam Hussein was a former Prime Minister retorted, do | :03:24. | :03:27. | |
brutal dictator who needed to be removed? The dishonesty of that | :03:28. | :03:32. | |
reply astonishes me, because Tony Blair explained to the House of | :03:33. | :03:35. | |
reply astonishes me, because Tony Commons why we had to go to war in | :03:36. | :03:38. | |
Iraq, because he was content for Saddam Hussein to remain in place | :03:39. | :03:42. | |
and it was all about weapons of mass destruction. If they gave them up, | :03:43. | :03:47. | |
the regime was welcome to stay. You have to be careful when you give | :03:48. | :03:50. | |
permission to Prime Minister to go to war because they will change the | :03:51. | :03:53. | |
basis on which permission is given, which is why the House of Commons | :03:54. | :03:59. | |
was so very wise to deny David Cameron the right to go to war in | :04:00. | :04:03. | |
Syria. I think it means you have to be careful if you go to a restaurant | :04:04. | :04:08. | |
in Shoreditch. If you are a worker there. There have always been a | :04:09. | :04:14. | |
small number of terrorist suspects we can neither deport nor take | :04:15. | :04:18. | |
through the courts, because that would reveal the intelligence | :04:19. | :04:21. | |
sources. We had a system called control orders which was changed to | :04:22. | :04:25. | |
something else, which was, as Chamois Chakravarty would say, | :04:26. | :04:33. | |
control orders light. The light bit was that they removed the ability to | :04:34. | :04:37. | |
relocate these people, and they also said, you cannot have one of these | :04:38. | :04:42. | |
for more than two years, so they removed the right to renew it. Two | :04:43. | :04:48. | |
people have gone. Two people have escaped over the last ten months, ab | :04:49. | :04:53. | |
squandered, one in a taxi and one in a burka. We now have six left, whose | :04:54. | :05:00. | |
control order lights come to an end next week. We had a debate on | :05:01. | :05:04. | |
Tuesday and we said to the Home Secretary, you thought these men so | :05:05. | :05:08. | |
dangerous they were subject to these strict orders this week. What has | :05:09. | :05:15. | |
changed next week. Answer, was there none. | :05:16. | :05:19. | |
Now, Lib Dems tend to hold themselves in rather high regard, | :05:20. | :05:22. | |
unlike the electorate. Yet it's increasingly hard for the party to | :05:23. | :05:25. | |
unlike the electorate. Yet it's claim the moral high ground when | :05:26. | :05:27. | |
unlike the electorate. Yet it's it's mired in accusations of sexual | :05:28. | :05:28. | |
unlike the electorate. Yet it's harassment, complacency and | :05:29. | :05:30. | |
shambolic party discipline. Nick Clegg's former special adviser | :05:31. | :05:33. | |
Bridget Harris, who accused former election supremo Chris Rennard of | :05:34. | :05:36. | |
improper behaviour, this week said, "After 15 years working in the Lib | :05:37. | :05:40. | |
Dems I realised there's no greater good, just everyone doing a sheet | :05:41. | :05:41. | |
job". I think we can safely conclude she's | :05:42. | :05:49. | |
disillusioned. So how difficult is it being a woman in worlds dominated | :05:50. | :05:53. | |
by men? We turned to presenter, journalist, and pioneering female | :05:54. | :05:57. | |
racing driver, Amanda Stretton. This is her take of the week. | :05:58. | :06:21. | |
I know what it's like to be a woman in a man's world. When I started in | :06:22. | :06:30. | |
motor racing they were so I'm used to female drivers there was nowhere | :06:31. | :06:34. | |
for me to get changed apart from the back of a truck, so I had to learn | :06:35. | :06:39. | |
fast how to change quickly. In the beginning, I came across a huge | :06:40. | :06:43. | |
amount of sexism. It was never sexual, more passive aggressive, | :06:44. | :06:48. | |
because, like politics, motor sport is about psyching out the | :06:49. | :06:53. | |
opposition. Male drivers would put their arm around my shoulder and | :06:54. | :06:57. | |
say, don't worry, you're just a girl. I you sure you want to be out | :06:58. | :07:06. | |
in all of this? -- are you sure? Fortunately, motor sport has changed | :07:07. | :07:12. | |
and there are more and more women coming through, but the recent | :07:13. | :07:15. | |
allegations of sexual harassment in the Liberal Democrat ring into | :07:16. | :07:18. | |
question whether the world of politics is keeping up with the | :07:19. | :07:23. | |
times. -- bring into question. When it comes to attitudes, there has | :07:24. | :07:27. | |
been an enormous shift in society for the better. I have a degree of | :07:28. | :07:32. | |
sympathy for older men, who find themselves living in a world they no | :07:33. | :07:35. | |
sympathy for older men, who find longer grew up in, but that does not | :07:36. | :07:40. | |
mean women should put up with sexual harassment at work or | :07:41. | :07:47. | |
What makes motor racing almost unique as a sport is that once you | :07:48. | :07:54. | |
get on the track, men and women compete against one another on a | :07:55. | :07:58. | |
level playing field. The same should be true for politics but clearly, | :07:59. | :08:03. | |
for now, there is a long way to go. And from the automotive laboratory | :08:04. | :08:07. | |
at Oxford Brookes University to our own little laboratory of racing | :08:08. | :08:10. | |
machines here in the heart of Westminster, welcome, Amanda. And | :08:11. | :08:13. | |
we're also joined by our resident expert on all things Lib Dem, | :08:14. | :08:24. | |
Miranda Green. You talked about casual, endemic | :08:25. | :08:29. | |
harassment in racing when you started. Has that really changed? It | :08:30. | :08:34. | |
still seems to me to be a testosterone driven sport. It is, | :08:35. | :08:40. | |
unquestionably. Motor sport is very fast moving. By nature of the fact | :08:41. | :08:46. | |
that it is a sporting platform, the people who are taking part tend to | :08:47. | :08:53. | |
be younger. So in terms of the management the establishment, they | :08:54. | :08:58. | |
are, if you like, men of a certain age, but when you are looking at | :08:59. | :09:01. | |
are, if you like, men of a certain your peers and the you are on track | :09:02. | :09:06. | |
with, you are racing against young men who have grown up in this | :09:07. | :09:09. | |
society, who do not think in that way. So is it a generational matter? | :09:10. | :09:17. | |
The hand on the leg, an invitation, particularly from someone who has | :09:18. | :09:21. | |
power over you, come to my bedroom for a nightcap, there was a time | :09:22. | :09:27. | |
when that was not appropriate but it was tolerated. It was tolerated. I | :09:28. | :09:33. | |
think this is the key point, whether it be motor sport or politics, where | :09:34. | :09:37. | |
we need to define what sexual harrassment actually is. It seems | :09:38. | :09:43. | |
everybody has very vague, uncertain boundaries. Mine may be different to | :09:44. | :09:50. | |
somebody else's. I don't know why you're gesturing at me. She has no | :09:51. | :09:58. | |
boundaries. She's a Lib Dem woman. Only joking. You see, for some, in a | :09:59. | :10:08. | |
generational thing, sexual harrassment can sometimes be | :10:09. | :10:12. | |
clear-cut. Other times, it is hard to know whether it is sexual | :10:13. | :10:17. | |
harrassment, or an inappropriate, cack-handed attempt to pick somebody | :10:18. | :10:23. | |
up. Again, this is where the difficulty lies. We are crossing | :10:24. | :10:27. | |
over into tradition and people's expectations. Traditionally, I would | :10:28. | :10:32. | |
expect to be asked on a date. I have never done the asking. The | :10:33. | :10:38. | |
difficulty comes in the workplace. Because as soon as you are | :10:39. | :10:42. | |
discussing these matters with somebody who is in power, you are in | :10:43. | :10:47. | |
a position where you do not know how to behave will stop that is where, | :10:48. | :10:52. | |
when we look at these cases, it is always the man is in power and the | :10:53. | :10:57. | |
woman who has less power. That goes to the heart of the Lib Dem problem. | :10:58. | :11:04. | |
You can have views that what Chris Rennard was doing was more Benny | :11:05. | :11:08. | |
Hill Van Jimmy Savile, but he was the one in power. These younger | :11:09. | :11:13. | |
women did not really know how to react. That seems to be the crux of | :11:14. | :11:19. | |
the matter, and why they left the organisation, which is so sad. Some | :11:20. | :11:26. | |
are still there. That is also why they have kept up their complaints | :11:27. | :11:31. | |
and not gone away, because they do not want to see him remain in a | :11:32. | :11:35. | |
position of power while they are forced out. Unfortunately, in many | :11:36. | :11:39. | |
different scenarios and industries, that is probably what happens, | :11:40. | :11:43. | |
people who make a complaint are the ones who end up pushed out, not the | :11:44. | :11:49. | |
person against whom the complaint is made, which is completely unjust. | :11:50. | :11:53. | |
Why has it taken your party 11 years to work this out? Good question. It | :11:54. | :12:04. | |
is an utter shambles. It is a shambles, isn't it? How could I say | :12:05. | :12:10. | |
otherwise? You worked at Lib Dem headquarters. You knew the power | :12:11. | :12:16. | |
structure. Chris Rennard was the Chief Executive. That's right. Were | :12:17. | :12:23. | |
you ever aware that this inappropriate use of power was going | :12:24. | :12:28. | |
on? Absolutely not, not when I worked there. I worked there quite a | :12:29. | :12:35. | |
long time ago. But I was still very much in touch with people and it was | :12:36. | :12:39. | |
not, at all, some sort of open secret. I think the crucial thing | :12:40. | :12:45. | |
about this case is that it was an isolated case, and that's why it | :12:46. | :12:49. | |
should have been dealt with clearly and firmly. It goes what you get, | :12:50. | :12:53. | |
because of this saga as you described it, is the impression it | :12:54. | :12:57. | |
is not only endemic and commonplace but that nobody really minded, which | :12:58. | :13:01. | |
could not be further from the truth. That is why it is such a disaster | :13:02. | :13:06. | |
not to deal with it firmly and appropriately and early. I have seen | :13:07. | :13:14. | |
people saying, why did the women not just whack him. I might have, but I | :13:15. | :13:21. | |
have always been fairly spirited and not really adhering to the norm. But | :13:22. | :13:27. | |
then, women don't. It depends on how you have been brought up and your | :13:28. | :13:31. | |
expectations. And if it is the boss it is a different matter. You | :13:32. | :13:37. | |
can't. If this was my show and I was rubbing your leg and you didn't | :13:38. | :13:43. | |
quite know how to act, would it be sexual harrassment? It would be a | :13:44. | :13:50. | |
miracle! The rules have changed from what was tolerated. And things that | :13:51. | :13:59. | |
were tolerated in years gone by - actually, the private sector is much | :14:00. | :14:06. | |
better. Well, you say that but I am not convinced. I experience more | :14:07. | :14:12. | |
instinctive sexism when I encounter business people than when I'm doing | :14:13. | :14:15. | |
my daily job in politics and journalism. What do you think it is | :14:16. | :14:22. | |
like for women in the city? I would suggest sexism is different from | :14:23. | :14:28. | |
sexual harassment. Are the rules clear enough yet? They are still | :14:29. | :14:33. | |
muddied. Like everything in Britain, it develops through case history. | :14:34. | :14:37. | |
What is happening at the moment is changing the rules. Many people, if | :14:38. | :14:43. | |
they are sensible, will be more wary about the way they are behaving and | :14:44. | :14:47. | |
complainers will be more in courage to complain in future. I think the | :14:48. | :14:51. | |
issue has become slightly more compensated since last week. There | :14:52. | :14:55. | |
is one case where a woman says, well, he touched me. And then later | :14:56. | :15:01. | |
in his hotel bedroom I thought... Excuse me, later in his hotel | :15:02. | :15:07. | |
bedroom? How did this situation come about? There is a certain mutuality | :15:08. | :15:12. | |
implied in at least one case. It is a pity that this report is not | :15:13. | :15:16. | |
published because it leaves us pretty much in the dark, with one | :15:17. | :15:19. | |
set of complainants making some point very clearly, and Chris | :15:20. | :15:24. | |
Rennard mounting a pretty strong, I would say slightly hysterical, 2600 | :15:25. | :15:32. | |
words counterblast. If the rules are not as clear as some would like the | :15:33. | :15:36. | |
fact is in all of these circumstances, the men know what | :15:37. | :15:41. | |
they are doing and they know it is inappropriate. | :15:42. | :15:43. | |
There is a generational thing here. I experienced it growing up through | :15:44. | :15:49. | |
the 60s and 70s. It's clear what sexual harassment is, unwanted | :15:50. | :15:54. | |
physical contact, advances. Vntss. Or suggestions. Pressure. The Benny | :15:55. | :16:00. | |
Hill generation was seeing it on their telly. A younger generation of | :16:01. | :16:04. | |
young men. The problem we have to watch here, is Michael is absolutely | :16:05. | :16:08. | |
right, you set this case study... You set the rules as you go forward. | :16:09. | :16:13. | |
I hope we don't go backwards here. Some of the people defending. There | :16:14. | :16:17. | |
is a completely, I think it's a mess with the Lib Dems, we talk about the | :16:18. | :16:20. | |
political aspects perhaps later, on with the Lib Dems, we talk about the | :16:21. | :16:24. | |
the actual issue here, we don't want to send out different messages, this | :16:25. | :16:27. | |
is all right. What is the problem with it? Why didn't they slap him | :16:28. | :16:32. | |
around the face, whatever? The problem is, on the one hand, we are | :16:33. | :16:37. | |
telling young women, go out into engineering, become scientists, go | :16:38. | :16:40. | |
out into these fields where you are terribly under represent... Yet, on | :16:41. | :16:50. | |
the other hand... Before we become too complacent say it's a | :16:51. | :16:55. | |
generational thing that has taken care of itself. Younger generation | :16:56. | :17:00. | |
of men have different attitudes. No, we are getting a different series of | :17:01. | :17:04. | |
stories. Which is that teenage guys and teenage girls, there is | :17:05. | :17:09. | |
bullying, victimisation. Yes. Sexualisation through texting, | :17:10. | :17:20. | |
sexting. The availability of on pornography. Absolutely. Different | :17:21. | :17:25. | |
problems. Do you think there is less of it in professions, for example, | :17:26. | :17:29. | |
the law? You get into big law of it in professions, for example, | :17:30. | :17:34. | |
companies in the city, full of women. If there are more women in | :17:35. | :17:36. | |
companies in the city, full of top positions, is there less of it? | :17:37. | :17:39. | |
If there are more women in top positions, yes. We come on to the | :17:40. | :17:43. | |
whole issue of, women in the workplace. Because whether we like | :17:44. | :17:47. | |
it or not, we are different. We have children. We have to take time off | :17:48. | :17:53. | |
you talk about maternity benefits. That is a whole can of worms, not | :17:54. | :17:58. | |
for now. Yes, if there are more women in the top level of | :17:59. | :18:01. | |
management, there will be less, I think the other thing is, you know, | :18:02. | :18:05. | |
in politics, for example, as opposed to motor sport, you don't get people | :18:06. | :18:09. | |
moving out. They don't really retire. True. They hang around for | :18:10. | :18:15. | |
quite a while. Shouldn't a woman be able to invite a man on a date? My | :18:16. | :18:20. | |
mother proposed to my father in 1940. No, women should. Yes. Your | :18:21. | :18:26. | |
mother was Scottish, was she not? She was. They have pushy Scottish | :18:27. | :18:31. | |
women. Thank you so much for being with us. We will let you go. Miranda | :18:32. | :18:36. | |
we will hold on. We haven't finished torturing her yet. Thought so much. | :18:37. | :18:41. | |
You can't have too much of a good thing, you know. Absolutely. Now, | :18:42. | :18:46. | |
it's late, so pour yourself another Blue Nun and leave the empties in an | :18:47. | :18:50. | |
it's late, so pour yourself another underground car park in the full | :18:51. | :18:52. | |
it's late, so pour yourself another glare of the CCTV cameras for an | :18:53. | :18:53. | |
it's late, so pour yourself another unsuspecting cleaner to find | :18:54. | :18:55. | |
because, waiting in the wings, comedian Russell Kane will soon | :18:56. | :18:57. | |
because, waiting in the wings, joining us to talk about his | :18:58. | :19:00. | |
aspirations and the poverty of ours. In case you were wondering, we're | :19:01. | :19:04. | |
still ignoring all your complaints on the Twitter, the Fleecebook and | :19:05. | :19:09. | |
the Interweb. Now, we know it's late, very late, too late for most | :19:10. | :19:14. | |
of our viewers. Wake up, Mrs Cholmondley, it's midnight dear! | :19:15. | :19:19. | |
You're watching BBC One. But even you lot can't beat Europe's Rosetta | :19:20. | :19:23. | |
space probe, which awoke this week after more than 950 days in | :19:24. | :19:29. | |
hibernation. That's almost as long as it takes Michael to order a drink | :19:30. | :19:35. | |
at Annabels. So we asked the Guardian's Nick Watt to stow away on | :19:36. | :19:40. | |
board for his round up of the week. I wondered why I hadn't seen him for | :19:41. | :19:43. | |
a while. Wake up this week 13. You are | :19:44. | :20:03. | |
nearing your destination. Repeat your last transmission This Week 13, | :20:04. | :20:08. | |
what is your current status? Control, control. I'm absolutely | :20:09. | :20:14. | |
starving. # There's a star man waiting in the | :20:15. | :20:19. | |
sky # He'd like to come and meet us, but | :20:20. | :20:25. | |
he thinks he'd blow our minds... #. It's been a long time in hypersleep. | :20:26. | :20:32. | |
On Monday the European Space Agency announced it had woken up its space | :20:33. | :20:41. | |
probe, how things have changed. Since I fell asleep. The economic | :20:42. | :20:46. | |
storm predicted by Ed Balls around the time I laid down my head has | :20:47. | :20:51. | |
been replaced by an upbeat IMF assessment. It says Britain is | :20:52. | :20:54. | |
coming out of a London period of hibernation as it revised growth up | :20:55. | :21:02. | |
from 1.9% to 2.4%. George Osborne wanted to shoot off into space with | :21:03. | :21:08. | |
great glee, but instead he adopted a serious tone, the better to mock his | :21:09. | :21:13. | |
opponents. We had some advice to avoid taking the difficult decisions | :21:14. | :21:16. | |
in Britain, but we rejected that advice. We rejected the quick fixes | :21:17. | :21:21. | |
and the easy options. By working through our plan, we are delivering | :21:22. | :21:25. | |
economic security for the hard-working people of this country | :21:26. | :21:28. | |
and that's reflected in the good news today. Unemployment has tumbled | :21:29. | :21:35. | |
to 7.1%, creating the moment when Mission Control, that is the Bank of | :21:36. | :21:38. | |
England, has to decide whether to pull the throttle and raise interest | :21:39. | :21:42. | |
rates from their historic low of 0.5%. It's all rather left Labour | :21:43. | :21:47. | |
looking, well, a little lost in space. He comes here every week and | :21:48. | :21:55. | |
does his bully routine and all he shows is that he is absolutely no | :21:56. | :21:59. | |
understanding of the lives of people up-and-down this country. For months | :22:00. | :22:04. | |
they told us to listen to the IMF. Remember that. Five tweets in one | :22:05. | :22:08. | |
month from the Shadow Chancellor, listen to the IMF. Now the IMF are | :22:09. | :22:13. | |
telling us the economy is growing, stick to the plan, you unemployment | :22:14. | :22:26. | |
is going down. Not a word. The message from Planet City is, for | :22:27. | :22:32. | |
once, clear, these figures are exceeding expectations. Ed Miliband, | :22:33. | :22:38. | |
who greeted the news about the fall in unemployment through gritted | :22:39. | :22:42. | |
teeth has a tricky job on his hands, not just because Ed Balls accused | :22:43. | :22:46. | |
the coalition of ripping up the foundations of growth at about the | :22:47. | :22:49. | |
time I went to sleep. George Osborne is now perfecting the art of | :22:50. | :22:55. | |
trashing Labour's weakest ideas and nicking the good ones. Most notably, | :22:56. | :23:00. | |
Ed Miliband's signature theme of the cost of living, which the Chancellor | :23:01. | :23:05. | |
hopes to neutralise with a 7% increase in the minimum wage. | :23:06. | :23:15. | |
Now, our mission is to land a probe on the surface of Come et. The two | :23:16. | :23:39. | |
leaders did exchange civil blows on Syria in contrast to the tter | :23:40. | :23:45. | |
recriminations at the opening day of the Geneva II Conference in | :23:46. | :23:49. | |
Montreux. There is no way possible, in the imagination, that the man has | :23:50. | :23:55. | |
led the brutal response to his own people could regain the legitimacy | :23:56. | :24:00. | |
to regovern. One man, those who have supported him, can no longer hold an | :24:01. | :24:11. | |
entire nation and a region hostage. Oh, it all looks so small from up | :24:12. | :24:18. | |
here. Wait a minute, I can see a tiny Nick Clegg returning to his | :24:19. | :24:24. | |
home turf in the Swiss Alps. The Deputy Prime Minister headed to | :24:25. | :24:29. | |
Davos for the world economic forum, whose modest tight this will year is | :24:30. | :24:35. | |
Reshaping the World. There are signs there is growth. There are a lot of | :24:36. | :24:40. | |
risks out there. I've recently spent some time in Europe meeting with | :24:41. | :24:44. | |
some of my counterparts. I very much think it would be in you were 'S for | :24:45. | :24:48. | |
there to be policies that really drove investment and demand and | :24:49. | :24:51. | |
countries that are surplus countries. Mind you, the alpine | :24:52. | :24:55. | |
chill is nothing compared with the coldness we have to put up with in | :24:56. | :25:00. | |
space. There are solar storms and the odd passing meteorite. Must be | :25:01. | :25:10. | |
those gay marriage reforms. If the UKIP councillor, David Sylvester is | :25:11. | :25:14. | |
to be believed. He is not the party Chairman, he is not the party | :25:15. | :25:18. | |
leader. I have never met him, heard of him, he is one member who | :25:19. | :25:22. | |
recently joined the councillor who is a town councillor in a small town | :25:23. | :25:27. | |
in Oxford. Get a sense of perspective. Sometimes, it seems | :25:28. | :25:34. | |
falls our politicians live on a different planet. This week, we have | :25:35. | :25:48. | |
a problem. Hey, there's Sandra Bullock. Wee! He lives in a fantasy | :25:49. | :25:55. | |
world. He was at the National Space Centre, which is in Leicester, you | :25:56. | :26:00. | |
know. We thank them for letting us use the facilities there. Michael, | :26:01. | :26:06. | |
these appalling pictures coming out of Syria, about what has been | :26:07. | :26:09. | |
happening in the Syrian prisons, some of them looking more like from | :26:10. | :26:16. | |
Belsen than a prison, or Dhakar. Our decision not to intervene means | :26:17. | :26:20. | |
there is nothing we can do about that, right? That I think is | :26:21. | :26:24. | |
probably right. Indeed, this is a very difficult moment to say this, | :26:25. | :26:29. | |
clearly the regime has been caught performing the most appalling | :26:30. | :26:34. | |
atrocities. I must say, I'm still unconvinced at the western foreign | :26:35. | :26:38. | |
policy position, which is to support opposition to Assad rather than | :26:39. | :26:43. | |
Assad. Opposition now being a very broad front of organisations, | :26:44. | :26:46. | |
including many which are extremist and many of which are hostile to us. | :26:47. | :26:53. | |
After a series of policy decisions by the West, which seem to me to | :26:54. | :26:58. | |
have removed regimes that were almost always very nasty, but nearly | :26:59. | :27:06. | |
always western supporting western orientated and against the very | :27:07. | :27:10. | |
extremists who threaten our survival. I am puzzling as to what | :27:11. | :27:15. | |
western foreign policy is about. Don't we feel a little uncomfortable | :27:16. | :27:20. | |
though seeing this going on and we don't... We don't or we can't do | :27:21. | :27:29. | |
anything? We do. Tony Blair said that said to a waiter, aren't you | :27:30. | :27:35. | |
concerned about Syria, the point he is making, to intervene, not to | :27:36. | :27:38. | |
intervene, what do you do? Michael is right, it's an uncomfortable | :27:39. | :27:43. | |
time. I tell you what, I thought we might get something out of this, | :27:44. | :27:47. | |
just something until I heard John Kerry say, Assad has to go. The | :27:48. | :27:52. | |
alwhites will be massacred. He knows that. It's just not realistic to try | :27:53. | :28:00. | |
to get... If you are Assad, why would you agree? Yes. Set an | :28:01. | :28:05. | |
impossible condition. In Britain we, on the Daily Politics Today we had a | :28:06. | :28:12. | |
young Labour Shadow Minister on, this argument which Mr Miliband | :28:13. | :28:14. | |
brought up at Prime Minister's Questions, we should take 500 | :28:15. | :28:21. | |
refugees. Good for the 500, but when you look at the scale of a country | :28:22. | :28:25. | |
with four million, you would think you are arguing on the head of a pin | :28:26. | :28:30. | |
here. If we are going to do is something, let us do something | :28:31. | :28:32. | |
here. If we are going to do is not argue about 500? It's a small, | :28:33. | :28:35. | |
it would be a small gesture, it would be one worth making, but also | :28:36. | :28:39. | |
it's very late. I mean, per narnogical, I found it very | :28:40. | :28:43. | |
upsetting that the September, you know, events where the West pulled | :28:44. | :28:48. | |
back from any sort of military strikes, the whole sort of Syria | :28:49. | :28:52. | |
issue disappeared off the front pages. It was sort of parked. There | :28:53. | :28:56. | |
was a terrible sense, well, that's Syria dealt with because of the | :28:57. | :28:59. | |
Russian deal on chemical weapons. It wasn't dealt with at all. Over | :29:00. | :29:04. | |
Christmas the situation for the refugees became worse and worse. | :29:05. | :29:08. | |
There is this sense we've actually balked our responsibilities and | :29:09. | :29:11. | |
failed because we forgot about it for too long. It could be the Middle | :29:12. | :29:17. | |
East is in the grip of forces way beyond our control? That what you | :29:18. | :29:21. | |
are seeing is ready really the Middle East 30 years war. It's a | :29:22. | :29:26. | |
battle of Sunni, Shia, religious battle which there is very little we | :29:27. | :29:31. | |
can do about. You see it in Lebanon. You see it in Iraq today. You see it | :29:32. | :29:36. | |
in Syria and the standoff between Iran and the Gulf states. It's | :29:37. | :29:44. | |
horrible, but it's huge? It has always been an element of what is | :29:45. | :29:48. | |
happening there but it is a counsel of despair to say there is nothing | :29:49. | :29:52. | |
we can do. We can exert influence. Russia is very important. The effort | :29:53. | :29:59. | |
to get talks going was great. To try it with such impossible condition at | :30:00. | :30:03. | |
the outset and to do it to failure was a big diplomatic error, not by | :30:04. | :30:08. | |
those you are talking about but by the West. I agree that possibly we | :30:09. | :30:16. | |
are at the threshold of a big civil war engulfing the whole area. | :30:17. | :30:19. | |
However, another story this week, apart from the atrocities, is that | :30:20. | :30:25. | |
hundreds of Britons who are going to Syria are being trained as | :30:26. | :30:28. | |
terrorists and sent back to Britain in order to commit terrorist | :30:29. | :30:31. | |
atrocities here. We have to have some sense of our own interest. Our | :30:32. | :30:35. | |
first responsibility is to protect ourselves. Therefore, these are | :30:36. | :30:42. | |
areas of instability are greatly to the disadvantage of our country. It | :30:43. | :30:46. | |
seems we have added to the instability of Libya, Egypt, of | :30:47. | :30:50. | |
Syria throughout foreign policy, and that is one of the reasons I cannot | :30:51. | :30:55. | |
comprehend what we are up to. Economic news gets better and | :30:56. | :31:02. | |
better, the unemployment figures are actually quite remarkable in many | :31:03. | :31:07. | |
ways. But when did the Tories start to get the credit? Because it is not | :31:08. | :31:13. | |
clear at the moment that they are. I have said several times that I | :31:14. | :31:17. | |
doubted living standards would rise in time for the 2015 election. But | :31:18. | :31:22. | |
George Osborne has cottoned on to the point that the massive increase | :31:23. | :31:26. | |
he proposes in the minimum wage is obviously important. The fact that | :31:27. | :31:31. | |
the rate of inflation has fallen back to 2% and will fall further is | :31:32. | :31:35. | |
important. Degrees from the Treasury in the last couple of days, | :31:36. | :31:39. | |
suggesting that if you take into account tax reductions at the lower | :31:40. | :31:43. | |
end, because the threshold went up to ?10,000, that people's living | :31:44. | :31:50. | |
standards may have increased up to 4.8%... I have my doubts about these | :31:51. | :31:58. | |
figures. Not as bad as Labour has made out but I am not sure the | :31:59. | :32:03. | |
Treasury figures are right. Whereas three weeks ago I would have thought | :32:04. | :32:07. | |
the prospect of living standards rising by 2015 for most people would | :32:08. | :32:13. | |
have been poor, they are now a bit better than they were. There is also | :32:14. | :32:18. | |
the intervention from Mark Carney to say they will probably not look at | :32:19. | :32:22. | |
raising interest rates, even though unemployment is down. So much for | :32:23. | :32:30. | |
his formal guidance. And so much for the OBE are saying we would not hit | :32:31. | :32:36. | |
7%. And so much for the IMF. Giving a monkey a set of darts and the | :32:37. | :32:42. | |
board would be more accurate than the IMF. If this news continues, the | :32:43. | :32:49. | |
sense of an economy on the way back, growing, Labour needs to find a | :32:50. | :32:55. | |
position from which it can still attack the coalition. It has been | :32:56. | :32:59. | |
doing so successfully. British people are not stupid. They know | :33:00. | :33:05. | |
George Osborne said the deficit would be eradicated by next year and | :33:06. | :33:10. | |
now he needs another five. He said investment and exports would be our | :33:11. | :33:14. | |
next big push. In terms of investment, we are 159th. The worst | :33:15. | :33:21. | |
record ever. Exports has not worked. And unemployment has been a huge | :33:22. | :33:27. | |
boost for them. It is much bigger in the North than the south. What | :33:28. | :33:32. | |
happens if investment does not start to grow this year? There is no | :33:33. | :33:38. | |
reason why it should not. But if George Osborne had said in 2010, | :33:39. | :33:44. | |
this is how I will handle the fiscal deficit, it would be different. He | :33:45. | :33:48. | |
has met none of his targets. But no one has. Look at France. Let's not | :33:49. | :33:55. | |
put him on a pedestal in Trafalgar Square and say he is an economic | :33:56. | :33:59. | |
genius. Could we do that if we had ox is of tomatoes? Just before we | :34:00. | :34:07. | |
finish this, what is the political significance of the Rennard and now | :34:08. | :34:12. | |
the Hancock business for the Lib Dems, because it seems to be death | :34:13. | :34:20. | |
by 1000 cuts at the moment. I think the Lib Dems think that, certainly | :34:21. | :34:24. | |
on the Rennard affair, that both sides in this dispute, who have | :34:25. | :34:28. | |
become increasingly polarised, have looked death in the face and | :34:29. | :34:33. | |
realised they were going to destroy the party if they carried on, so | :34:34. | :34:40. | |
peace has not totally broken out but there is mediation going on. They | :34:41. | :34:42. | |
peace has not totally broken out but pulled back from the brink. There is | :34:43. | :34:48. | |
a way through on that. Nick Clegg has been holed below the water line | :34:49. | :34:54. | |
on this. I do not think it looks marvellous to be trying to fix lane | :34:55. | :34:58. | |
you're a labyrinth at it processes when people expect you to act. -- | :34:59. | :35:03. | |
trying to explain your elaborate aquatic processes. -- democratic | :35:04. | :35:15. | |
processes. You do have democratic processes, and he does not have | :35:16. | :35:19. | |
absolute authority. He looked so weak, but I realised there were | :35:20. | :35:24. | |
fundamental reasons why he looked so weak. Michael is feeling sorry for | :35:25. | :35:30. | |
him. He is finished! That is really bad. Thank you. | :35:31. | :35:36. | |
Now, you don't kick a man when he's down, but no-one seems to have told | :35:37. | :35:41. | |
Miriam Gonzalez, who spoke this week to pupils at an Essex comprehensive | :35:42. | :35:44. | |
as part of a project to raise teenage girls' ambition, telling | :35:45. | :35:46. | |
them not to be overawed by the over-confidence of the expensively | :35:47. | :35:52. | |
educated. "You are going to have to take my word for this", said Miriam, | :35:53. | :35:57. | |
"there are lots of people from these top schools who are unimpressive". | :35:58. | :36:01. | |
That's no way to talk about our Westminster educated - fees ?30,000 | :36:02. | :36:04. | |
a year - Deputy Prime Minister, Miriam. But it got us thinking, | :36:05. | :36:12. | |
which doesn't happen a lot, and that's why we've decided to put | :36:13. | :36:13. | |
aspiration in this week's Spotlight. As the global elite gather in | :36:14. | :36:34. | |
Davos, we ask, what's the point of being a world leader if you end up | :36:35. | :36:38. | |
stuck up a mountain with George Osborne. Should we all aspire to | :36:39. | :36:43. | |
more? Many young people do but record numbers cannot afford to | :36:44. | :36:47. | |
leave home, let alone buy property. Esther McVey thinks they should | :36:48. | :36:52. | |
lower their expectations, focus on working in a coffee shop, rather | :36:53. | :36:58. | |
than being a barrister. So, are our aspirations unrealistic. Stephen | :36:59. | :37:03. | |
McGann fears that council estate kids are finding it harder to become | :37:04. | :37:08. | |
screen stars, van posher, private school thespians. And although the | :37:09. | :37:14. | |
residence on Benefit Street are a long way from the Swiss mountain | :37:15. | :37:19. | |
chalet, they still have hopes of a better life. I am not too old to | :37:20. | :37:27. | |
have dreams. How easy is it to turn those dreams into reality? And do | :37:28. | :37:31. | |
politicians understand how to turn hard work and ambition into the good | :37:32. | :37:37. | |
life and success? Let us in this hall, this government, this country, | :37:38. | :37:43. | |
make this pledge. Let us build an aspiration nation. | :37:44. | :37:49. | |
Russell, welcome to the programme. Hello. As a working-class lad | :37:50. | :37:56. | |
growing up in Essex, what did aspiration mean to you? I think it | :37:57. | :38:01. | |
is complex. Very broadly, aspiration is ending up with more than you | :38:02. | :38:07. | |
started off with - nicer house, more money, better future for your kids | :38:08. | :38:12. | |
and more security and maybe the job you want. People say it is hard for | :38:13. | :38:16. | |
poor people to describe their dreams. I think that is nonsense. | :38:17. | :38:22. | |
Unless you read too much philosophy at Oxford and you are a mechanic out | :38:23. | :38:26. | |
of some weird philosophical irony, you want to end up with more than | :38:27. | :38:31. | |
you started with. For most people, that represent a better economic | :38:32. | :38:33. | |
state of affairs, living longer, good health and education. Is that a | :38:34. | :38:42. | |
boring answer? Do you think we have an inverted snobbery? If people are | :38:43. | :38:46. | |
seen to aspire to something and want to get on, to think big about that, | :38:47. | :38:52. | |
is there a kind of, a put down in Britain is, he tries too hard. | :38:53. | :38:57. | |
Without meaning to plug my show, it is called smallness. Jumping point | :38:58. | :39:02. | |
is about this odd relationship we have with success. You can be | :39:03. | :39:08. | |
successful, but not too famous, too loud, too good-looking. We prefer | :39:09. | :39:14. | |
the chipped teacup. It is one of the few countries where I play in the | :39:15. | :39:18. | |
world where I will say, please don't mention any of the awards that I | :39:19. | :39:22. | |
have one because I want a good gig. In America, he has won this award, | :39:23. | :39:27. | |
he must be great. Here, he has won an award, so let's not laugh. We | :39:28. | :39:32. | |
have this weird relationship, but it is different to the notion of | :39:33. | :39:38. | |
aspiration and dreams. I think the cards are stacked against | :39:39. | :39:41. | |
working-class kids these days more than they were a while back. Do you | :39:42. | :39:47. | |
think the education system does not do enough with working-class kids to | :39:48. | :39:51. | |
encourage aspiration, to say, the world is your oyster if you work | :39:52. | :39:56. | |
hard and get a good education and get on? Nothing should hold you | :39:57. | :40:00. | |
back. These are the sentiments of people that wished children were | :40:01. | :40:04. | |
things you could programme. However, having just come through the system, | :40:05. | :40:09. | |
and also having two parents who failed the 11th us and were tipped | :40:10. | :40:15. | |
into secondary modern, , what happens when you get to compensate, | :40:16. | :40:20. | |
regardless of how bright you are, the law of the jungle kicks in. I | :40:21. | :40:26. | |
was in the pack of nerds that wanted to study and do well, and you get | :40:27. | :40:28. | |
was in the pack of nerds that wanted slightly bullied and picked out for | :40:29. | :40:32. | |
it. In the playground, that is where the law of the jungle kicks in. I | :40:33. | :40:36. | |
don't understand why it is considered right-wing to want to | :40:37. | :40:39. | |
celebrate the success, the brightness, the intelligence of | :40:40. | :40:43. | |
working-class children. What does that have to do with right or left | :40:44. | :40:48. | |
wing, apart from the historic position of parties in the 1960s. | :40:49. | :40:54. | |
You can draw a bell curve from the education act and the grammar school | :40:55. | :40:58. | |
system kicking in, social mobility goes like that, and comes down again | :40:59. | :41:02. | |
as my generation get tipped into the melting pot of competency of this. | :41:03. | :41:08. | |
You do not get equal education, you get more grade C. If your mum is a | :41:09. | :41:14. | |
single parent, if you come from an Afro-Caribbean background, you are | :41:15. | :41:16. | |
less likely to go to Oxbridge now than you were in the 1960s. How can | :41:17. | :41:21. | |
that be right? At my school, there were musical prodigies who were | :41:22. | :41:24. | |
taken off for a special musical education. No one said, that is not | :41:25. | :41:29. | |
fair, the same violin lessons for everyone. Absurd. But if they had | :41:30. | :41:34. | |
been good at maths. It is unfair. Why do people struggle with two | :41:35. | :41:39. | |
different concepts, equality and fairness? They are totally | :41:40. | :41:44. | |
different. Sometimes equality is the way to go, but sometimes fairness is | :41:45. | :41:48. | |
the right way. Visit different from equality? Of course. Good stuff. At | :41:49. | :41:57. | |
grammar schools, kids got picked on as well. I think there is a | :41:58. | :42:06. | |
political issue about a kid doing well, getting on, being Brighton | :42:07. | :42:12. | |
being skimmed off. There is no difference. The man arrested in that | :42:13. | :42:18. | |
restaurant under citizens arrest would agree with everything you | :42:19. | :42:23. | |
said. That was one of the things he tried to change, because there was | :42:24. | :42:26. | |
this feeling that Labour wanted everyone to be on the same level. | :42:27. | :42:32. | |
Your definition of aspiration was right, you want to do better and get | :42:33. | :42:38. | |
on. The problem now is still the problem it always was. If a kid from | :42:39. | :42:41. | |
a working-class estate wants to be a surgeon, a neurosurgeon, very little | :42:42. | :42:46. | |
chance. If he wants to be a top judge, very little chance, Army | :42:47. | :42:50. | |
General, very little chance. Breaking down the barriers to those | :42:51. | :42:55. | |
professions and at the same time seeing the things that working-class | :42:56. | :42:58. | |
kids used to go into, music, even foot ball now, actually becoming | :42:59. | :43:04. | |
more elitist. You have two be picked up when you are young. And there is | :43:05. | :43:11. | |
international competition. The can I step back from education systems and | :43:12. | :43:14. | |
international competition. The can I put the question to both of you, | :43:15. | :43:17. | |
because you are in a good position to answer. I have read your book and | :43:18. | :43:21. | |
I think your mother was highly aspirational for you, thinking you | :43:22. | :43:24. | |
must go to the grammar school. She thought the way out of your | :43:25. | :43:28. | |
predicament of poverty was education. Are there enough parents | :43:29. | :43:33. | |
who believe the way out of their predicament, for their children, is | :43:34. | :43:36. | |
education? There seems to be a disconnect. It is an important | :43:37. | :43:43. | |
question and I will let you give a quick answer. There is a science | :43:44. | :43:45. | |
test where you look at the quick answer. There is a science | :43:46. | :43:47. | |
importance of environment versus education. In the UK, family is | :43:48. | :43:52. | |
equally as important as education. Shorter school holidays would help. | :43:53. | :43:58. | |
I am on tour at the moment. I am much funnier on tour. Funny and wise | :43:59. | :44:03. | |
tonight. That's your lot for tonight, folks. | :44:04. | :44:07. | |
But not for us, because it's Citizen's Arrest Night at Lou Lou's. | :44:08. | :44:10. | |
And Michael's looking for someone to Citizen's Arrest Night at Lou Lou's. | :44:11. | :44:14. | |
put him in handcuffs and punish him for being such a naughty, naughty | :44:15. | :44:18. | |
boy. I suspect they'll be forming queue. But we leave you tonight with | :44:19. | :44:21. | |
boy. I suspect they'll be forming conclusive proof that UKIP | :44:22. | :44:23. | |
weatherman David Silvester was right to blame recent flooding on a | :44:24. | :44:25. | |
homosexual warm front. Nighty night, don't let the Village People bite. | :44:26. | :44:44. | |
Join me on Room 101 to hear what grinds the gears | :44:45. | :45:08. | |
of my guests Richard Osman, Joan Bakewell and Roisin Conaty. | :45:09. | :45:13. |