06/02/2014 This Week

On the eve of the Winter Olympics, This Week braves the slippery

conditions, and takes you on a downhill political ride.

On the eve of the Winter Olympics, This Week braves Tight security in

Sochi, as fears of terror attacks heighten, but there are also

heightened concerns about human rights. One of the world's most high

profile gay sportsmen, former NBA basketball star, John Amaechi, says

it's times to take a stand. Basketball may not be in the Winter

Olympics, but it's up to every athlete to stand up for human

dignity. A different kind of treacherous

weather has been causing concern for the Prime Minister, back here in the

UK. The Economist's Anne McElvoy takes to the slopes. It was raining,

not snow sending an icy chill through the Prime Minister this week

and that Prime Minister's Questions, there was not much warmth

from his own lot either. There will be a lot of apres skiing

going on in Sochi, but is alcohol consumption getting out of control?

Star of stage and screen, Brian Cox, will be raising a glass. It is

parking outside. Welcome to a winter warmer.

Tighten your bindings, strap those skis on and join me on the piste.

Evenin' all. Welcome to This Week, a week in which we realised union

leaders are not what they were. Time was when the industrial vanguard of

the proletariat limbered up for a strike by taking a few days' break

in some Soviet seaside paradise on the Black Sea, courtesy of the

Kremlin, before gathering round a flaming brazier, to further the

revolutionary struggle by shouting "scab" at unsuspecting passers-by.

Now it's a luxury Caribbean cruise, courtesy of the Cunard, followed by

a coconut cocktail on Copacabana beach. Yes, as London braced itself

for a Tube strike, union sexy beast Bob Crow was pictured exercising

every British man's right to don inappropriate shorts, lie on a sun

lounger looking like a beached whale and turn a delicate shade of lobster

pink. And why not? Nothing's too good for the workers, especially

those who've cultivated a clever mix of Das Capital, Only Fools Horses

and the Sopranos. Speaking of those who cause untold misery to millions,

I'm joined on the sofa tonight by two men who are living proof that

power is not always an aphrodisiac. Honest. Think of them as the Liz

Hurley and Wendi Deng of late night political chat. I speak, of course,

of #manontheleft Alan "AJ" Johnson and #sadmanonatrain Michael "Choo

Choo" Portillo. Michael, your moment. On the day

that a police man was sentenced to a in jail for lying in the case of

Andrew Mitchell, I looked at a video of three policemen stopping a

motorist in a rather unconventional way. They went up to his car and

beat on his windscreen with a truncheon, jumped on his bonnet,

dragged him out. He turned out to be 74 years old and a stroke victim.

You might think they would be disciplined for this but an internal

enquiry found there was no misconduct. I kid you not. No

misconduct. One of the policemen, who beat his windscreen 15 times

with a truncheon without breaking it, was then laughed at by his

colleagues, because this video went viral. And he then left the police

force and has today been given over ?400,000 in compensation for lost

earnings and pensions. It does beggar belief. What is going on in

this country? We are wasting masses of public money and cannot make

police accountable for their actions. And if you lose a limb in

Afghanistan you would get a fraction of that. Mine is Labour Party reform

many people, is esoteric political party rules. For me, it is an

important step forward on modernisation. I think Ed Miliband

showed to risk it courage and determination. Lord Collins of

Highbury did all of the spade work. He is an old union man. One day it

will be Lord Johnson of Notting Hill. That would be the end of the

House of Lords, I think. How will the Labour Party be funded after

2020? We are taking a risk, but the principle has to come before the

risk, before the finance. It was crazy that people were not making a

conscious decision to sign up for the purple party, and it was crazy

that we had a system which was not one member, one vote, but one

member, multiple votes, no member, one vote, clearing that up is the

big thing. Actually, we were going to have 20% of the nominations and

it came down to 50%, really because Mr Portillo, if I am not wrong,

could have stood for the leadership if the Conservative Party had not

restricted it to two. We wanted to make sure there was more of a choice

for members to choose from. We will blame him. I was lucky to be

squeezed out. Now, you might think an invitation

to an Olympic opening ceremony would be a prized perk of the job. But for

Prime Ministers and Presidents now is the Winter Games of our

discontent, and the Russian town of Sochi a foreign junket to avoid,

amid protests at Russia's human rights record, especially when it

comes to gay people. So what is the best strategy for politicians and

athletes with an uneasy conscience. Boycott, go and say nothing, or go

and speak out? We turned to psychologist and former NBA

basketball star, John Amaechi. This is his take of the week.

As a former basketball player, I know that practice and competition

are only one small part of the job of an athlete. As much as sport is

about the quest for gold, it is intrinsically political. So I

believe it is the responsibility of everybody attending the Games in

Sochi to at least recognise the political reality. The truth is that

these Games are happening on the backs of the abuse of migrant

workers and environmentalists, journalists. The truth is that these

Games are happening on the backs of the torture of young gay boys and

girls. Make no mistake, when powerful people like athletes and

their federations choose to say nothing in the face of injustice,

they become tainted by that decision, and no amount of gold hung

around their neck and take away the shame of that sting. John Carlos

famously gave the Black Power salute at the Olympics. They showed us that

it is not enough to simply win. You have to get on the podium and use it

as a soapbox. My message for those at the Sochi Games is this. Maybe

you wish that sport was not political. Maybe you think they are

not. But understand, people being tortured and abused in Russia will

not know by telepathy that you are poor their treatment, and the world

will not recognise that you stand for anything more than yourself

unless you say or do something to make it plain at a time when the

entire world is watching. And John joins us in our own little

basketball court. Welcome to the programme. Thank you. Can I

clarify, you think that rather than boycotting the Games, we should go

but speak out while we are there? Yes. Stephen Fry's call for a Boy

Scout is a perfectly principled approach, and not just based on

Western ideology being fixed on another country. It is not that. It

is the Olympics themselves. Their principles speak of no

discrimination on any grounds. Their own charter says sport should be

used for the furtherance of human dignity. There is nothing further

from that than what is happening now. It is principled. But I spoke

to activists, journalists, who said, come and show the world what is

happening. What do you make of that? It was one of the best films we have

ever had on the programme because you said what you thought and it was

a very clear position. I think you are right. I think it is fortunate

there has not been a boycott. I think the Russian regime believes

this is a good opportunity to grandstand. I dare say flat Amir

Putin will go down well with his own people but I think the opportunity

has been seized by others outside to draw attention to human rights

abuses. Let it be said that homosexuality is not illegal in

Russia, as it was in the UK until recently. It is just dangerous. Yes.

And there are many other abuses, which you mentioned in your film,

for example journalists who have been murdered and so one. But I

think what will come out of this is that what -- that the world will

focus on some of these disagreeable aspects of Russia and in that sense

it will come out quite well. But I think you make a very interesting

point that people have to use the opportunity to speak up. You are so

clear in what you are saying that really anybody who does not do that

is tainted. They share a certain blame in this, unless they are

willing to speak out. But I think it will work out fine. But many

athletes, they have trained for years, they are focused on trying to

win a medal, they may not be that interested in politics, or even the

important issues that John is interested in. It is a big ask. One

of our UK athletes, a lesbian, has said she will not speak out, she is

concentrating on the sport. She will not speak out at this time. But I

think John is right, this is a huge opportunity and the one time you can

put Putin and the Russians under pressure. I have heard some Russian

activists saying, be careful this does not backfire and strengthen his

position. It must be difficult to be gay or lesbian in Russia. The law

introduced there is rather like section 28 in the Thatcher era. 40

of our Commonwealth countries, homosexuality is illegal. 12 states

in the US. And this is all stuff that Putin will use. What do you say

to athletes who say, I agree but I do not want to get involved. I am

only going there to ski, to skate? When powerful people, usually

powerful men, use their words to damage, to stereotype, when they use

their words as poison, it is the responsibility of people that we

call heroes, we call our sportspeople heroes, it is the

responsibility of those people to use their words as antidotes. I

played basketball for a long time in one day I realised I put a ball in a

hole for a living. What is the point of having that power and influence

and using it for your own self aggrandising and? In Western

democracies, there has been a revolution in attitudes to gay

people. There have been huge changes in progress. In some sports. I was

going to say not necessarily in sport. Sport is still a problem. It

is a problem because it is run by dinosaurs. It is run by people who

refuse to evolve. There will come a point where extension will happen,

but at the moment they are still there, still screaming and wishing

the status quo would remain the same. I thought football players who

would not come out were not afraid of the people who ran the sport but

those who support it. If I was a fan of sport, I would be insulted that

every time there is an incident, a question about homophobia or

anything, the blame is always laid on their shoulders. It is always in

the rhetoric of, it is those blue-collar people, it is their

fault. It is not. There are well educated people in positions of

power who are not comfortable with women in the boardroom, black people

coaching in football, and certainly not comfortable with gay people

anywhere. Football supporters want to see good players. Exactly. I

think what underlines your position on the Olympics is a sort of

symmetry. One has to understand that Russia winning the opportunity to

stage the Games is a massive political act. It is an opportunity

to sanitise the impression around the world. Unless the opportunity is

taken by others to point out what the regime is really like, you have

an asymmetrical situation. It is not as though an athlete, commentator or

politician from outside Russia are raising this issue is being unfair,

not playing by the rules. It is a huge political act to stage the

Olympics. When Russia got the Games, when it was announced that Sochi was

to be the scene of the Winter Olympics, Vladimir Putin said,

Russia is back for the rest of the world to see. The problem is, even

with protest, it is unlikely to change things. I suspect, I have not

seen the polling, but I suspect that Mr Putin's government attitude to

gaze is probably popular. That is my point not strengthening his

position. But for athletes to do it, to use that opportunity is very

important. It goes along with a number of other things happening in

the country and Putin's rhetoric has already stepped back from his

disastrous, leave the kids alone, whatever he said. There is a

precedent which was the persecution of Jews in the Soviet Union. Of

course, you run the risk, that the persecution would be increased. In

the fullness of time, the Russian position became untenable, even in

the Soviet era. So I think we are working in the right direction. What

would you like the athletes to do? Use the windows they have. Press

conferences are open season. If they are asked a question, they can

answer a question about these atrocities. Use those moments. Use

all the ways... All the ways all these athletes who talk to us about

- I'm focussing on Gold. All the way they spend time with their sponsors.

The way they tweet. The way they do all these things already for

financial or commercial gain. Use those ways for something that isn't

just about your pocket. Should the politicians have gone. By in large

the politicians seem to be boycotting these Games should they

have gone and said some things too? If you send a delegation, then the

delegation can speak. It does say something when the head of a

country, who normally would take that seat, right at the front, says

no. I actually think that David Cameron should have said, rather

than passing it off as I'm too busy, I'm sending something else. Should

have said what President Obama I'm not going I'm sending these as my

delegates to represent my country to show what eve eve believe. Get a

sense there has been a semi return to the Soviet era in Russia?

Absolutely. He's not a great dictator the way the Soviets were.

He has a grip on that country he uses the oil and gas revenues to

keep that grip? Yes. It would be surprising if the Olympics weren't a

success in the sense the London Olympics Werritty a success. Well

run. The country feels good about it itself. Thought the best of Britain

- What I think we can do is make sure that the rest of the world has

a clear understanding of what Putin's Russia is. I think, in the

example I gave out, I think actually global opinion does have some

impact. Does matter. We will have to leave it there. It's grim for gays

in Russia at the moment. . Not getting better either. No. John

thank you. Now, it's late in the day, so late, and such a disaster

we're half expecting Prince Charles to turn up on the back of a tractor.

But in the meantime grin and bear it because waiting in the wings, actor

Brian Cox is here fresh from his performance tonight in The Weir, in

London's West End and ready to talk about our cultural relationship with

alcohol. Remember, if you are suffering from too much This Week

flooding in your living room, you can contact us on the premium rate

Twitter, the premium rate Fleecebook and the premium rate Interweb. We

will make money out of your misery. Drowning not waving, the Government

is struggling to keep its head above the flood waters and today announced

an extra ?30 million towards repairs and maintenance on top of the ?100

million the PM announced yesterday, which appears more to do with

defending itself against the charge it's cut real terms spending on

flood defences, than defending against the actual flood water. And,

like the Little Dutch Boy putting his finger in the dyke, the Big

Bradford Boy, Eric Pickles, has now been deployed. The Communities

Secretary is en route to the Devon coast in a last ditch attempt to

plug the gaping hole in the Dawlish sea wall. He knows what I'm going to

say ay. If anyone can do it, he can. So with the political weather

getting us down, what better than a Winter Olympic break with The

Economist's Anne McElvoy. Here's her roundup of the week.

Greetings from Sochi, where the welcome is as warm as a Siberian

weren't. It takes me back to my days in Moscow at the old East Germany

that was a going concern when this outfit was still in vogui. -- vogue.

Back home it's storm squalls and not snow causing chaos and giving the

Government an icy chill from some unexpected quarters. Has the

Environment Agency done enough, sir? You might very well think so. I

couldn't possibly comment. Prince Charles, waded into politics

suggesting that more should have been done to help those in

flood-drenched areas, being charged with a flood helpline probably

didn't help. Ed Miliband reached out to those drenched in true blue

constituencies. Many affected feel the Government's response has been

slow and more could have been done sooner. Will the Prime Minister tell

the House what actually is now being taken to ensure areas affected have

all the necessary support they need? I don't accept the Government has

been slow. We have been having Cobra meeting on a daily basis. We have

taken action right across the board. Round one to Ed Miliband then. He

was cruising nicely for a bronze, could he go for gold? The Prime

Minister though wanted to talk about other things, the travel chaos in

London due to the Tube strike. The man in the middle of the gridlock

was his rival, Boris Johnson. He was meeting his match in the RMT's chief

charmer, Bob Crow. I'm sorry, Bob, there is a table to be sat round by

you and your team. There they are. They can't do it while you put a gun

to our head. You are putting a gun to the head of Londoners. You served

the notice on our unions to say the jobs were going. If you didn't serve

the notice there wouldn't be a strike tonight. About more than just

the woes of London commuters. Boris is talking about changing strike

laws. That is easier said than done. Still, opening up that subject could

discomfort Labour, still reeling from revelations of union

malpractice in the Falkirk selection battle. Ed Miliband, with his

reputation as a bit of a union lackey.

Every Olympic competitor knows having the right people on the team

is the secret of success. Someone always loses out. Sally Morgan, a

Labour peer, is out of her role of Ofsted, the school's watchdog. She

claims she is the latest non-Conservative figure to be culled

from a senior kwaun goal. After you, Claude. I think it's absolutely a

pattern. I think it's extremely worrying. One of the really

important things about public appointments is that they are made

on the basis of merit. Michael Goef said he wanted a fresh face, a nice

Tory face to appease the Tory backbenchers. He had a plan to state

schools. Make them more like Hogwarts. My ambition is simple.

When you advice ate school in England, standards are so high all

round that you simply cannot tell whether it is a state school or an

independent fee paying school. In fairness, Baroness Morgan agrees

with most of Mr Gove's school reforms there is a drive from the

Conservatives to dilute the number of senior Labour people at the top

of kwaun goals. There are quite a lot of them. It was an easy target

for Harriet Harman. We don't have enough women in senior positions and

this is the common Dee nominator happening. What is the problem in

your Government with women. It's like raining men in the Tory party.

Labour was out to get a medal for women. On PMQs in Wednesday when

David Cameron's frontbench was full of chaps. A picture tells a thousand

words. Look at the all male frontbench before us. He says he

wants to represent the whole country. Mr Speaker, I guess they

didn't let women into the Bullingdon Club either. We are making progress.

We will make more progress. Let me make this point. This party is proud

of the fact we had a woman Prime Minister. Yes. That got loud cheers

from the Education Secretary, a spiritual son of the great she

Champion. The speaker thought a dose of discipline was in order. You

really are a very overexcitable individual! You need to write out

1,000 times, "I will behave myself at Prime Minister's Questions." Oh,

dear, he must have kept that joke on ice for quite some time. It's time

for my final run. Seeing as Eddie the Eagle was sadly unavailable.

At Westminster, as in Sochi, it's the taking part that counts. Winning

is so much nicer. Anne McElvoy. I'm obliged to tell

you, thanks to the BBC's Truth and Accuracy guidelines, she wasn't

really in Sochi, but the Hemel Hempstead Snow Centre. If you hadn't

worked that out, you don't know how small this programme's budget is.

Miranda is with us. There are a small number of people affected,

those affected have been affected for a long time. Life is miserable

for them. People aren't dying. Even so, does this kind of thing have

political dangers for the Government? Up to a point. I think

once the floodwaters recede, whenever they do, then probably the

political dangers will recede too. I think it has looked, it has looked

sluggish, it has looked uncertain. I don't think the Government is

hitting the right tone now. I heard David Cameron today boasting about

all the things that Cobra could do. What does Cobra mean to the average

voter. Cobra is a committee. To say that a committee is doing things is,

again... It's the wrong tonality isn't it? Prince Charles played a

blinder this week. He turned up in his wellies. Spoke to farmers in

farmers language about farmerer problems. He offered ?50,000 out of

the Duchy to help them at a time when... By the way Chris Smith is in

the firing lined as well. Lord Smith said out of his budget he doesn't

have enough to do anything. It has been a week when the politicians

have been circling the Government seem to have forgotten their

politics. If you are sitting in the Somerset Levels at the moment your

house is still soaking, you see very little coming to help you, London

and Cobra and these politicians and the Environment Agency seem a long

way away. Nothing. People are sensible enough. We had flooding in

Hull and East Riding in 2007. It's one of Gordon's finest moments.

David Cameron got in trouble for going away when his own constituency

was flooded. Gordon was straight there. People know this is something

politicians can't snap their fingers and resolve. It is all about the

tone and the approach, which is why Prince Charles got it so right.

David Cameron going there, even without his wellies... Paterson

didn't have his wellies. These things matter. That people

understand... Think that you empathise with their plight. That is

really important. Not the Somerset Levels themselves, this area, this

is Lib Dem country, isn't it? Absolutely. What are they saying is

it? The region is important for the Lib Dems. Their power base. They

have a lot of MPs there. The MPs were reshuffled out of the

Government. It has allowed them, Mr Browne, and his neighbour, David

Heath, who is standing down. It's actually allowed them to be the

voice of their constituents much more than if they had still been in

the Government. Yeah, it's really important. That idea of what's

London doing for us? It's not great if your people are in the Government

at the moment, but you know I saw one Conservative MP on Twitter

saying, "we must hold back the sea" that's no good. Modern-day commute.

It seems as if the experts in the Environment Agency and the

Government don't know what to do about this at all. Is a clear

division. Between the so-called experts and the Environment Agency

and London and Government advisers. What the experts on the ground have

been saying, the local drainage boards, the Farmers' Union down

there, they wanted dredging they have been denied it? I'm not an

expert on this. It seems to me these areas are only flood-free, in as

much as they are, because of fairly recent human interventions. These

are natural floodplains. Human intervention has made them Hebb

table and farmable. If you stop the human intervention, which was

dredging, big surprise, the waters come back. I really can't

understand... You know, I can't think there is much argument about

that really. If we move on to the London Tube strike. Borisv Bob, was

the strike right or wrong? Right. I would have he voted for it. They are

cutting 17% of staffed and closing every single ticket office in

London. It was done by Edict not through negotiation. When Ken

Livingstone was proposing reform to the ticket offices, said no ticket

office will close. I mean, this is bad news for Boris. Terrible for the

travelling public as well. But if I was a Tube worker, I'd have voted to

strike. Compulsory redundancies, more people have voted for

redundancy than the number of jobs that will go. 3% of travellers use

the ticket offices. They are barely largely unused. That amounts to

100,000 people. People have been deployed behind the glass onto the

platforms and onto the forecourses to help people get through? So they

say. This looks very dodgy to me. If there has been no discussion by the

way you can't get to a position where there is a compromise here. It

looks dodgy to me they will cut 17% of the staff. That is a fact. I saw

Matthew Hancock on Question Time they are only closing some of the

ticket offices. They are closing all 240 of them. If the idea was to

bring the staff from behind the glass and they are helping in the

station concourse, OK. They can't do both. They can't cut the staff by

17%, close the ticket offices, where will they bring the staff to help

the passengers? It strikes me as something that was resolvable in

discussion and negotiation. For some reason it didn't take place. Say

you? I think it was resolvable. I think

the direction this is moving is more or less inevitable. All industries

have to be streamlined by mechanisation, by reduction in

face-to-face contact through glass. I hope that many of the people from

behind the glass will be redeployed to places where they can deal with

passengers. One of the reasons Boris is on the hook is that he made a

clear statement that there would be no closure of ticket offices. He

says the technology has changed since then. It was a typical

populist statement to get elected. Is that what politicians do? You

should be careful what populist statements you make because they

come back to haunt you. It is unfortunate, because to deflect

attention from the failure, the lack of attempt to negotiate a

compromise, there is all this talk about introducing new laws to

restrict the right to strike, and whether you call transport and

essential service. This is quite an extreme reaction, it seems to me, to

something which is essentially an issue which should be resolved

around the negotiating table. Here is my suggestion for David Cameron.

He is going to negotiate a better European deal and put it to a

referendum and ask for a yes vote. Let's make everyone who does not

vote a no vote. Let's have the same rules. Now, let me ask you this.

This coalition is now a loveless marriage. There is constant

fighting, throwing the toys out of the pram. Much of it is just

manufactured. Never mind Michael Gove and David Laws. Danny

Alexander. There is no prospect of the Tories trying to cut the top

rate of tax to 40% this side of the election. They know they can't do

it, but Danny Alexander says, they will do it over my dead body.

Nonsense. When I heard that, I did not know if it was a dare. There are

probably Tory backbenchers who would like to respond to that. Because

Labour came out with Ed Balls in an upfront way saying, this is our

intention on the top rate of tax, to go back to 50p, it brought the whole

subject back into play. The thing about that tax rate is that it

symbolises a lot about a party's values and direction. But the point

is, Miranda, are we going to have 16 months of artificial disputes, just

so the Lib Dems can put some distance from the Tories? I hate to

say it, but I fear so. You say it is a loveless marriage, but it is not

preventing the coalition from functioning. The coalition is

still... It is still there. More than that, having terrific success

with its economic policy. The comparison between British and

European growth gets better every day. Some of these differences are

important for working out who you want to vote for you next time.

Now, you can make a complete fool of yourself when you drink too much. I

only agreed to host This Week after a boozy lunch with former DG Greg

Dyke. Alan only agreed to become Shadow Chancellor after one sherry

too many with Labour lush Ed Miliband. And Michael only agreed to

install a bank of telephone lines and then not challenge John Major to

prove he couldn't organise a kiss up in a brewery. And that's why we've

decided drink plays a role in all our decisions and put our cultural

relationship with alcohol in this week's Spotlight. Bottoms up.

Supermarket owners gulped this week as the government announced a

crackdown on cheap booze. But new licensing laws will affect just 1%

of sales and you will still be up to get a can of lager for 50p. The

coalition does not do minimum alcohol pricing laws. But if they

did, they would probably be the worst minimum alcohol pricing laws

in the world. But what is wrong with enjoying our booze? Who could blame

England football fans for needing a stiff drink? The Prime Minister

agrees and says pubs will be opened later during the World Cup this

summer. So cheers, here is to our good health. But experts say we must

drink less or cancer cases may rise by up to 75% by 2035. And today we

see the dangers of drink. A teenager in Northern Ireland has died after

taking part in a drinking game that is sweeping across social media. So,

will we continue to drink no matter the cost? Is our relationship with

alcohol too ingrained in our culture for it to be any other way? The

trouble is, with this lot following me all died, they will work out how

many I have had. -- following me all day. Welcome to the programme.

Alcohol is quite central to our culture. It has been with us a long

time. If you think about it, in England, you could not drink the

water, you could only drink ale. In Scotland, you could drink the water

because it was pure. But English water was always polluted. The way

people got fluid was through ale. Therefore, for the English, that is

why beer and English men go hand-in-hand. And the Scottish drink

whiskey. You are starring in a successful play which is set in a

pub and features a group of heavy drinkers. Has that been part of its

success, because people can relate to it? Well, I think it is a

setting, in the way that Nigel Farage uses his beer has a setting.

It is a setting for this play. It is more than the alcohol. The alcohol

is central to their lives, but it is also at night-time, so it is when

can drink. The problem about alcoholism, the problem about what

happened, I think modern alcoholism is a result very much of the

Industrial Revolution. Really, before then, people lived in an

agrarian culture. I did a programme on whiskey a couple of years ago.

They drank whiskey on special occasions, so it was a celebrant and

social drink. But after the Industrial Revolution, when people

were coming from the Highlands, going to Paisley and places like

that, and coming from Ireland, suddenly you had workers, and you

had a lot of men who were not, it was the women working in my

hometown, and the men were spare. Suddenly there were these pubs. And

then there was this horrible thing because William Pitt the Younger put

a huge tax on whiskey, which meant that the rotgut whiskey came in.

That is when, really, the rot set in. Alcoholism in the 19th century

went through the roof. This may be seeing it through rose tinted

glasses, but the pub used to be a socialising place. It was also a

place where the older man would maybe keep an eye on the younger

ones, whereas today that has totally gone. There was a culture which came

up because of what was happening and the Temperance thing that was going

on, and the older people did look after the younger people. But it has

all gone haywire. You must remember growing up where we did that the

pubs used to shut at 9pm and you would see men falling down drunk

because they would go straight to the pub and they would drink very

quickly. On Friday night when they got the wages. So we thought that by

extending the hours that would -- that would solve the problem. We

have never solved it. Binge drinking. The high street on a

Friday night, I have seen sites which are unbelievable. Just go to

an English market town, which you might think is quite posh, and you

see the same thing. Labour changed it, liberalising the laws. Many

people said it is great and we will get the continental thing of having

a drink after the theatre, or whatever. We did not take into

account the culture, did we? There is no evidence that crime went up as

a result either. Another important change is that when I was a kid in

London, people did not drink at home, but they drank at the pub. You

never saw blues in the house. -- you never saw alcohol in the house. And

now, this preloading thing that youngsters do before they go out,

they have got drunk before they go out because it is cheaper. Have you

ever had a pint of beer? Certainly. In fact, when I make television

series, I do travel programmes on railways, most gays end up with me

having a drink. This is interesting. I would never be allowed by the BBC

to end each day I having a cigarette, but that is still

regarded as acceptable that I end up every day having a drink. Drink is

still something we find amusing. We portray people falling down drunk.

There has been no movement on the stigmatisation of alcohol, as there

was on drunken driving or cigarettes. Can politicians do

anything about this? I doubt it. It is cultural. Alan Johnson's point,

in France, people drink at home. The wine was there and the same in

Spain. They don't have the same problem. I think it is a lot to do

with the cold, the weather. Plus, they eat when they drink. Drink and

food go hand-in-hand. They have always been more sensible about it.

We have always been a bit crazy and I don't think we have ever got it

right. Before you go, you are in favour of Scottish independence.

Have you got a vote? No, because I do not live in Scotland. But you

would vote yes. How do you think it is going? It is getting there,

slowly. There is work to do but it is getting there. It is a narrower

margin than many think. I have been doing something today in Corby,

funnily enough, interviewing that little Scotland area, and I was

fascinated at the results which we will see one another programme on

another day. We had to go. Your play is doing great.

That's your lot for tonight, folks. We're giving Lou Lou's a wide berth

tonight. It's Tory MP Aiden Burley's Nazi-themed leaving party. Will the

man never learn? Instead, we're donning our brown wigs and red

lipstick and heading over to Sally Bercow's booth at number five

Cavendish Square. Alan, Michael, get ready to pucker up. #innocentface.

Nighty night, don't let the Speaker's wife's bottom lip bite.

..Julia Davis, Tamsin Greig, Julian Rhind-Tutt, Helen McCrory,