Browse content similar to 27/02/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Tonight on This Week, join us for some political ghostbusting. As | :00:09. | :00:21. | |
Prime Minister, David Cameron, takes his McCabinet to Scotland, will the | :00:22. | :00:25. | |
fear of the unknown scare Scots into sticking with the u-ooo-nion? | :00:26. | :00:30. | |
Musician and cultural commentator Pat Kane refuses to get spooked. As | :00:31. | :00:46. | |
someone who passionately believes in Scottish independence, I extend an | :00:47. | :00:50. | |
invitation to David Cameron to come up with after week after week. | :00:51. | :00:53. | |
As German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, visits Britain, can David Cameron | :00:54. | :00:56. | |
zap the get-out-of-Europe ghouls in his party? Who you gonna call? New | :00:57. | :01:01. | |
Statesman political editor, Rafael Behr. David Cameron has summoned up | :01:02. | :01:11. | |
the spirit of Angola Merkle, but even the iron Chancellor can't | :01:12. | :01:17. | |
exercise the Demon of scepticism from the Conservative Party. -- | :01:18. | :01:22. | |
Angela Merkel. And as Olympic swimmer Rebecca | :01:23. | :01:25. | |
Addlington reportedly has a nose job and singer Katy Perry is criticised | :01:26. | :01:28. | |
for blasphemy, should we be so sensitive about other people's | :01:29. | :01:30. | |
feelings? Joke-buster Stewart Lee crosses the comedy streams. A German | :01:31. | :01:37. | |
Chancellor, English Prime Minister and Scottish firm Ashgrove First | :01:38. | :01:41. | |
Minister walk into a bar, but in order to avoid hurting anyone's | :01:42. | :01:43. | |
feelings, nothing happens. Don't mess with me, because I'm in | :01:44. | :02:00. | |
charge of the marshmallow goo. Evening all. Welcome to This Week, a | :02:01. | :02:05. | |
week when it was revealed that only five of the six menfolk involved in | :02:06. | :02:08. | |
drawing up the next Tory election manifesto are Old Etonians! Now, | :02:09. | :02:14. | |
this is nothing short of a national scandal at the very heart of | :02:15. | :02:18. | |
government. For it turns out that the non-Etonian arriviste is a | :02:19. | :02:21. | |
spotty chap by name of Boy George Osborne, who went to St Paul's. A | :02:22. | :02:26. | |
day school boy! My God! You may as well re-christen it St Pleb's! It | :02:27. | :02:30. | |
means not a single Old Harrovian could be found to do the job. | :02:31. | :02:34. | |
Churchill must be turning in his grave. Not one Wykehamist. So who | :02:35. | :02:38. | |
will check the spelling? Not even an Old Fettesian laddie, at a time when | :02:39. | :02:42. | |
the union is in peril. No wonder Harrow, Winchester and Fettes are | :02:43. | :02:45. | |
miffed. As I speak, Shami Chakrabarti is preparing a lawsuit | :02:46. | :02:48. | |
on behalf of the privileged but excluded, whose minority rights have | :02:49. | :02:55. | |
been so cruelly traduced. More power to your elbow, Shami. And what will | :02:56. | :03:00. | |
it mean for the Tory manifesto? Well, I'm sure of one thing, it | :03:01. | :03:03. | |
won't be comprehensive. Speaking of those who went to schools that were | :03:04. | :03:07. | |
"approved" and couldn't tell their Wykehamist fallacy from the Eton | :03:08. | :03:10. | |
Boating Song, I'm joined on the sofa tonight by two men who everyone gets | :03:11. | :03:15. | |
mixed-up. Think of them as the Liz Kendall and Rachel Reeves, or is it | :03:16. | :03:19. | |
Rachel Reeves and Liz Kendall, of late night political chat. I speak, | :03:20. | :03:22. | |
of course, of #manontheleft Alan "AJ" Johnson and #sadmanonatrain | :03:23. | :03:30. | |
Michael "pretty boy" Portillo. Michael, the fallacy is in the | :03:31. | :03:41. | |
diplomatic corps, when you treat everybody, otherworldly does, as if | :03:42. | :03:44. | |
they had gone to Winchester and our civilised with good intentions, | :03:45. | :03:48. | |
which is not true. What are the first lines of the old Newtonian | :03:49. | :03:52. | |
boating Song? -- eat only in. Do you see what I have to work with? | :03:53. | :04:06. | |
It is not easy. Your moment of the week. Home ownership figures in | :04:07. | :04:11. | |
Britain have gone down to 65%, the lowest since 1987. I remember when | :04:12. | :04:16. | |
promoting home ownership was an important part of the Conservative | :04:17. | :04:20. | |
brand, for good reasons, because it was thought to promote social | :04:21. | :04:23. | |
stability and a sense of self responsibility, and also it was | :04:24. | :04:31. | |
meant to produce more Tories. There was a correlation between home | :04:32. | :04:35. | |
ownership and voting Conservative which was quite high. It is | :04:36. | :04:39. | |
spectacular that although we have had a largely Conservative | :04:40. | :04:43. | |
government for nearly four years, promoting home ownership has hardly | :04:44. | :04:46. | |
figured as one of its objectives. Indeed, you might say its policies | :04:47. | :04:49. | |
have pushed in the opposite direction, because by pursuing low | :04:50. | :04:53. | |
interest rates and stimulating the housing market they are making | :04:54. | :04:56. | |
housing even more unaffordable for the vast mass of the population. | :04:57. | :05:02. | |
Maybe they think everybody owns their own home anyway. That is the | :05:03. | :05:10. | |
fallacy. He has finally woken up! I think the Thatcherite policy ought | :05:11. | :05:16. | |
to be resumed. My moment was a politician talking on the radio this | :05:17. | :05:22. | |
morning, William Gladstone, who spent 63 years in active politics, | :05:23. | :05:27. | |
had his first ministerial post three years before Victoria came to the | :05:28. | :05:30. | |
throne, was Prime Minister four times. And there he was on the radio | :05:31. | :05:36. | |
this morning. Apparently there was a debate about whether he had a | :05:37. | :05:40. | |
Liverpudlian Axum. They managed to find a recording of him taken in the | :05:41. | :05:46. | |
early days of developing the gramophone. And there was Gladstone. | :05:47. | :05:49. | |
I don't think anyone knew about it apart from the people in the | :05:50. | :05:53. | |
Gladstone society. But listening to this great figure, this historical | :05:54. | :05:59. | |
figure. He would not be mistaken for Jamie character. Who is that? Here's | :06:00. | :06:12. | |
a footballer. Is that with the round ball? Never watch it. | :06:13. | :06:15. | |
Now, spare a thought for the poor people of Aberdeen who were this | :06:16. | :06:19. | |
week subjected to not one, but two rare political visitations, as both | :06:20. | :06:22. | |
David Cameron and Alex Salmond took their respective cabinets to the | :06:23. | :06:25. | |
granite city to talk independence and oil. Anyone would think there's | :06:26. | :06:28. | |
some sort of vote happening north of the border this year. Today Standard | :06:29. | :06:32. | |
Life, one of the UK's biggest pension providers, announced it may | :06:33. | :06:34. | |
move operations outside Scotland in the event of independence. So where | :06:35. | :06:40. | |
are we in the campaign for Scotland's future? And what will | :06:41. | :06:43. | |
decide the outcome of September's referendum? We turned to | :06:44. | :06:48. | |
pro-independence musician and writer Pat Kane. This is his take of the | :06:49. | :06:51. | |
week. Watching David Cameron and his | :06:52. | :07:13. | |
Westminster cabinet-maker fleeting trip to Aberdeen this week to snatch | :07:14. | :07:17. | |
a photo opportunity on an oil rig seemed like the end of a regime, and | :07:18. | :07:30. | |
I'll drink to that. They were like slightly dazed | :07:31. | :07:34. | |
visiting dignitaries holding their elite meetings in luxury hotels. At | :07:35. | :07:38. | |
the same time, down the road the Scottish Cabinet was doing a public | :07:39. | :07:43. | |
queue and a in a church hall. Compere and contrast. I was | :07:44. | :07:49. | |
fascinated by Cameron's image of the broad shoulders of the UK. What does | :07:50. | :07:55. | |
he think Scotland is, a poor child standing behind the burly bulk of | :07:56. | :07:59. | |
the UK as we face a harsh, demanding world? Look across the North Sea | :08:00. | :08:05. | |
from Aberdeen and you come to a poor shivering nation called Norway. Same | :08:06. | :08:11. | |
size as Scotland, discovered oil and gas at the same time as the UK in | :08:12. | :08:18. | |
the early 1970s. But Norway built an enormous ?450 billion sovereign | :08:19. | :08:21. | |
wealth fund, while through the same period the UK amassed what is now | :08:22. | :08:28. | |
?1.2 trillion worth of debt. I think the Scots can do a better job with | :08:29. | :08:32. | |
the next 40 years of oil and gas than that. All the experts agree, | :08:33. | :08:42. | |
Scotland is rich enough and big enough to be a viable independent | :08:43. | :08:46. | |
country. However the no side call themselves Project Fear. They try to | :08:47. | :08:51. | |
sow seeds of doubt and insecurity about the future prospects of | :08:52. | :08:57. | |
independence. So the real question to be answered this September in the | :08:58. | :09:02. | |
polling booths is about confidence. Do we believe in our abilities to | :09:03. | :09:06. | |
make our way in the world? Will we be able to deal with all the | :09:07. | :09:10. | |
negotiations and challenges we will inevitably face. Come on, Scotland, | :09:11. | :09:13. | |
what is it to be? Yes, or no? And from the Soho Whisky Club in | :09:14. | :09:26. | |
central London to our own collection of wee drams here in the heart of | :09:27. | :09:33. | |
Westminster, Pat Kane joins us now. You said it is a matter of | :09:34. | :09:38. | |
confidence, but most up-to-date's Scots are supremely confident. Why | :09:39. | :09:41. | |
do they need independence to make them any more confident? They don't, | :09:42. | :09:50. | |
but to do independence and deal with things like the currency and the | :09:51. | :09:53. | |
euro and NATO and being an independent nation in a complex | :09:54. | :09:56. | |
world, I think we need patience and gripped. We have had the factual | :09:57. | :10:02. | |
arguments, the policy arguments. We have almost reached a standstill on | :10:03. | :10:06. | |
that. It gets to the point of, when you go into the booth on September | :10:07. | :10:10. | |
the 18th, you have an existential choice. Are you a nation? Do you | :10:11. | :10:15. | |
want to hold onto power, or do you want to let it go? I think it is a | :10:16. | :10:21. | |
more profound question than necessarily one about policies, | :10:22. | :10:26. | |
which is important. Scotland is a nation, no question about it. Not a | :10:27. | :10:32. | |
nation state. You didn't say that. They could have the best of both | :10:33. | :10:36. | |
worlds, being as Scottish as they want and yet having the security and | :10:37. | :10:40. | |
scale of the British state. Why would you give that up? I think we | :10:41. | :10:46. | |
have 80% of the welfare cuts still coming from the British state. We | :10:47. | :10:51. | |
have Trident, which is about to be recommissioned, and obscene waste of | :10:52. | :10:57. | |
money. And we have an EU referendum which is genuinely shared is a | :10:58. | :11:00. | |
possibility by the Westminster parties. That is not a secure | :11:01. | :11:08. | |
prospect. Only the Tories want a referendum. The others are toying | :11:09. | :11:12. | |
with it. It is not necessarily a stable future for Scotland. It is | :11:13. | :11:17. | |
secure compared to the risks you want Scots to take. You can't tell | :11:18. | :11:21. | |
us what the currency would be, if EU membership would be assured, if some | :11:22. | :11:26. | |
of the biggest employers would stay in Scotland. On currency, it is a | :11:27. | :11:31. | |
pragmatic question. I think they are bluffing. Why? Because if you think | :11:32. | :11:38. | |
what happens after independence, you have to figure how to have stable | :11:39. | :11:43. | |
and balanced economic relations with England. If they are not bluffing, | :11:44. | :11:49. | |
it is about sovereignty. You decide you are independent and then you | :11:50. | :11:55. | |
figure it out. How? The Scottish Government was very adroit in | :11:56. | :11:57. | |
setting up the fiscal commission with lots of Nobel Prize winners to | :11:58. | :12:02. | |
set out the options. The second option is either a separate | :12:03. | :12:08. | |
currency, which is balanced on a nation to other currencies, blah | :12:09. | :12:13. | |
blah. It is a pragmatic question. Not the standard life which said in | :12:14. | :12:18. | |
the absence of a monetary union, which all three parties say you | :12:19. | :12:21. | |
would not get, they would move out of Scotland. I am amazed at the | :12:22. | :12:27. | |
amount of people the establishment can mobilise. Standard life operate | :12:28. | :12:32. | |
in about 20-25 currencies with just as many currency and tax regulations | :12:33. | :12:37. | |
and out of all those countries, this is the one they will find most | :12:38. | :12:41. | |
affable postindependence. It is ludicrous. I think if Scotland were | :12:42. | :12:47. | |
different today from what it is, they ought to vote for independence. | :12:48. | :12:51. | |
If this were the Scotland of some of the entrepreneurs of the past and | :12:52. | :12:54. | |
the great economic thinkers of the past, that sort of Scotland ought to | :12:55. | :12:59. | |
have confidence in the world. The Scotland today is a welfare | :13:00. | :13:03. | |
Scotland. It is Scotland where vast numbers are housed by the state, | :13:04. | :13:08. | |
employed by the state, sustained by the state. This idea that there will | :13:09. | :13:12. | |
be some oil wealth fund created by the Scots when they become | :13:13. | :13:15. | |
independent, if they do, is ludicrous. All of the plans that | :13:16. | :13:18. | |
Scotland has executed over the past 40-50 years under Labour and the | :13:19. | :13:24. | |
SNP, they are all about making more people dependent on the state. That | :13:25. | :13:29. | |
is the culture and politics of Scotland. That is not the sort of | :13:30. | :13:32. | |
nation that can set forth confidently into the world. We are | :13:33. | :13:37. | |
in a situation where the UK Cabinet came up to Aberdeen to say, you are | :13:38. | :13:43. | |
not capable of managing your oil. All that Scots had to do was look to | :13:44. | :13:47. | |
Norway and a range of Scandinavian nations. One of the things that | :13:48. | :13:50. | |
marks them is that they have strong labour participation in the | :13:51. | :13:54. | |
workforce and management of companies which keeps up wages, | :13:55. | :13:58. | |
keeps demand in the economy. There is a model that Scots can aspire to. | :13:59. | :14:12. | |
You are the most socialist and welfare -based country in Europe. | :14:13. | :14:20. | |
There is no one to touch it. At the top of that index of three out of | :14:21. | :14:25. | |
four Scandinavian countries. It is a globalisation index which looks at | :14:26. | :14:28. | |
well-being, prosperity, good governance. These are all "welfare" | :14:29. | :14:41. | |
societies. We should keep Michael out of the Better Together campaign. | :14:42. | :14:45. | |
Instead of trying to scare the Scots, shouldn't the campaign be | :14:46. | :14:50. | |
making a positive case for the union? I think they are. We are out | :14:51. | :14:56. | |
of it. We do not get a vote and do not see and feel a lot of what is | :14:57. | :15:00. | |
going on. I read the speech by Alistair Darling last July and it | :15:01. | :15:05. | |
was tremendous. It said that for 300 years, a separate Scottish Church, | :15:06. | :15:08. | |
separate legal system, the Scottish Parliament, enhanced by a report a | :15:09. | :15:15. | |
lot of people forgot about but was an important step forward, meaning | :15:16. | :15:19. | |
it is the third most successful part of the UK after London and the | :15:20. | :15:23. | |
south-east, economically. My roots are in a party formed in 1900 on the | :15:24. | :15:29. | |
basis of a Scottish Parliament. It is life in the union, where we | :15:30. | :15:33. | |
didn't have a division north and south of the border, in the Post | :15:34. | :15:36. | |
Office where we were a national, UK-wide institution. To me, this | :15:37. | :15:41. | |
argument from the left that it is better to go back away from a union | :15:42. | :15:48. | |
that benefits the whole of the UK, Scotland being part of the UK | :15:49. | :15:51. | |
benefiting all of the UK, to an argument that reminds me at times of | :15:52. | :16:05. | |
the Euro-sceptic argument. Being part of the UK means being part | :16:06. | :16:17. | |
of... Globally I think we have lots of power, lots of things to do in | :16:18. | :16:21. | |
the wider world. Irene do want to address the fact that there will be | :16:22. | :16:27. | |
thousands of children who will be affected by welfare cuts. There are | :16:28. | :16:30. | |
thousands of Scots who are below the poverty line and will be | :16:31. | :16:35. | |
disenfranchised. I want to address that and have an opportunity to do | :16:36. | :16:41. | |
so. You have been part of what I'd call progressiveness in the United | :16:42. | :16:47. | |
Kingdom. Why do you want to get out of it? I want Scotland to set an | :16:48. | :16:53. | |
example. Every time someone comes up with what could be uncertainties, it | :16:54. | :16:59. | |
gets shrugged off. You did it with Standard Life, George Osborne, | :17:00. | :17:07. | |
Herman Van Rompuy, Standard Life, standards and pause, they are all | :17:08. | :17:18. | |
bluffers and Belize? -- Lee -- bullies. They wanted to have a | :17:19. | :17:26. | |
stable economic tax regime. If you do not go your own way, your | :17:27. | :17:31. | |
government would have no ability to put liquidity into the financial | :17:32. | :17:37. | |
system. It would not just be Standard Life, all the financial | :17:38. | :17:41. | |
institutions would leave. A currency union requires a lot of things. One | :17:42. | :17:46. | |
of the things it requires is trust and mutual respect. If that doesn't | :17:47. | :17:53. | |
pertain and the parties do not negotiate something that works in a | :17:54. | :17:57. | |
subtle structure in the way the Benelux structure is probably the | :17:58. | :18:05. | |
best model, it requires agreement and belief on both sides. If that | :18:06. | :18:08. | |
does not happen, yes, you would have to look at other options. Pit your | :18:09. | :18:16. | |
own views aside and be an analyst, if the vote was tomorrow how do you | :18:17. | :18:21. | |
think it would go? I think it would be a yes. I think it would be close. | :18:22. | :18:27. | |
You think there is still some are meant to go? Yes. I think there is a | :18:28. | :18:35. | |
very dramatic moment. It is about people deciding who they are as | :18:36. | :18:39. | |
citizens and individuals. People will look in the mirror that morning | :18:40. | :18:44. | |
and say, who am I? What will I do and how will I feel at one minute | :18:45. | :18:48. | |
past ten on that Thursday night? It is a big question. Thank you for | :18:49. | :18:58. | |
discussing it with us. Now it's late, and you're probably | :18:59. | :19:01. | |
ready to flop like an Andrew Lloyd-Webber musical. But let's keep | :19:02. | :19:05. | |
the show on the road just a little longer - because waiting in the | :19:06. | :19:08. | |
wings, "King of the 100-liner", comedian Stewart Lee is here to | :19:09. | :19:11. | |
discuss whether we're all getting a bit too sensitive - about | :19:12. | :19:15. | |
everything. And just to prove even This Week presenters have feelings, | :19:16. | :19:19. | |
please be nice to us on the Twitter, the Fleecebook and the Interweb. | :19:20. | :19:23. | |
Now today, David Cameron launched a major diplomatic charm offensive to | :19:24. | :19:25. | |
woo German Chancellor Angela Merkel, known in Foreign Office circles as a | :19:26. | :19:29. | |
whopping big suck up. She got the chance to address Parliament and | :19:30. | :19:33. | |
have tea with the Queen, all part of Dave's masterplan to get her to back | :19:34. | :19:36. | |
his vision of EU reform. To which Frau Merkel said, "nein", but ever | :19:37. | :19:47. | |
so politely. So to show Dave how you should wine and dine a German | :19:48. | :19:50. | |
Chancellor, we sent the New Stateman's political editor Rafael | :19:51. | :19:53. | |
Behr down to the Bavarian Beerhouse in London. Here's his round-up of | :19:54. | :19:55. | |
the week. As you can see, we are clearing up | :19:56. | :20:16. | |
after a very special guest we have had, the leader of a country that | :20:17. | :20:21. | |
everyone knows is Britain's oldest friend and ally. It is a kind of | :20:22. | :20:25. | |
special relationship. You know the country I mean, of course? It is | :20:26. | :20:28. | |
Germany, who else? Downing Street extended a right | :20:29. | :20:45. | |
royal welcome to Angela Merkel today. She addressed both houses of | :20:46. | :20:49. | |
parliament. She had tea with the Queen who is kind of German, I | :20:50. | :20:53. | |
suppose. Not every leader gets that welcome. When the French president | :20:54. | :20:56. | |
was here last month, he was lucky to get half a pint of bitter and a | :20:57. | :21:01. | |
packet of cheese and onion crisps. It is clear that diplomatically | :21:02. | :21:08. | |
speaking, Dave is on the pull. So I have heard that some expect my | :21:09. | :21:11. | |
speech to pave the way for a fundamental reform of the European | :21:12. | :21:15. | |
architecture, which will satisfy all kinds of alleged or actual British | :21:16. | :21:20. | |
wishes. I am afraid they are in for a disappointment. The PM needs | :21:21. | :21:26. | |
Merkel's help to renegotiate his plan for Britain's membership of the | :21:27. | :21:31. | |
European Union. She wants to help because ultimately she wants Britain | :21:32. | :21:35. | |
to stay in the club. And don't tell the Conservative Party, so does | :21:36. | :21:39. | |
Cameron. But if he does not rewrite the rules, he will be in trouble | :21:40. | :21:43. | |
with his party. He will be, what is the word, kaput. Angela and I both | :21:44. | :21:57. | |
want to sea change in Europe. I want to build confidence in our | :21:58. | :22:02. | |
membership of this organisation. The gap between what his Eurosceptic | :22:03. | :22:07. | |
backbenchers are demanding and what he is offering is as wide as ever. | :22:08. | :22:12. | |
What we have seen in the remarks of Chancellor Angela Merkel are very | :22:13. | :22:16. | |
warm words but they will be cold comfort to the a Prime Minister. | :22:17. | :22:24. | |
Old adverse threes setting aside national differences, coming | :22:25. | :22:30. | |
together with a shared economic interest, it sounds a bit like | :22:31. | :22:34. | |
England and Scotland. Days before Merkel flew here to support Britain | :22:35. | :22:39. | |
in Europe, Cameron flew the cabinet up to Aberdeen to bolster a | :22:40. | :22:44. | |
different kind of union. His argument is that together the United | :22:45. | :22:47. | |
Kingdom will be much better than an independent Scotland at investing in | :22:48. | :22:52. | |
and making the most of North Sea oil. People I think in the end will | :22:53. | :22:59. | |
vote on the arc immense and issues, not on personalities. There is a | :23:00. | :23:04. | |
difference between jetting into Scotland and jetting out again and | :23:05. | :23:08. | |
having a real debate about the future of the country. Just another | :23:09. | :23:14. | |
case of the old colonial power throwing its weight around say | :23:15. | :23:17. | |
Scottish Nationalists. Actually, that is more Vladimir's style. The | :23:18. | :23:22. | |
Russian president does not like the way Viktor Yanukovych was ousted as | :23:23. | :23:27. | |
Ukraine's president. It is too much like the Cold War. William Hague | :23:28. | :23:31. | |
said Britain should not be choosing sides. Good luck with that. We | :23:32. | :23:36. | |
believe that closer economic links between Ukraine and the UK can be | :23:37. | :23:41. | |
beneficial to that entire region, including Russia. We are not | :23:42. | :23:45. | |
presenting it as a strategic competition between East and West. I | :23:46. | :23:48. | |
think that would be a mistake to do so. | :23:49. | :24:03. | |
Sometimes come history will not stay in the past, as Harriet Harman found | :24:04. | :24:09. | |
out when the Daily Mail went gunning for her over links between the Civil | :24:10. | :24:13. | |
Liberties Organisation she had worked for 30 years ago and a nasty | :24:14. | :24:18. | |
outfit called the Paedophile Information Exchange. It is not the | :24:19. | :24:23. | |
case that my work was influenced by the Paedophile Information Exchange, | :24:24. | :24:28. | |
was apologising for paedophilia or colluding with paedophilia. That is | :24:29. | :24:31. | |
an unfair influence and it is a smear. Ed Miliband would say total | :24:32. | :24:38. | |
war with the Daily Mail goes down well with voters but the reality of | :24:39. | :24:44. | |
having your party name and paedophilia in the same headline is | :24:45. | :24:45. | |
not a good look. In the end, there was only so much | :24:46. | :25:02. | |
help Merkel could give Cameron. UFO bit Tories and Europhile Germans | :25:03. | :25:07. | |
will not see I tried but who knows, maybe there is the potential for a | :25:08. | :25:11. | |
new special relationship closer to home. The Eleanor I agree with what | :25:12. | :25:15. | |
he said about the importance of climate change. It is obvious the | :25:16. | :25:20. | |
new approach to Prime Minister's Questions, you come to the House of | :25:21. | :25:24. | |
Commons and praise the Prime Minister for his commitment to | :25:25. | :25:27. | |
Climate Change Act. I like the new style! A consensus between red and | :25:28. | :25:34. | |
blue on all things green? It is how they do it in Germany. Frau Merkel | :25:35. | :25:40. | |
would approve. Now we have waved goodbye to the iron Chancellor, | :25:41. | :25:43. | |
there is one German lady you can always rely on. | :25:44. | :25:53. | |
He knows a good drink when he sees one! Miranda, welcome, good to see | :25:54. | :25:59. | |
you back again. We are not any the wiser about how Mrs Merkel will | :26:00. | :26:06. | |
respond to David Cameron except he would not get everything he wants. | :26:07. | :26:10. | |
There was never any doubt about that. I do not think she has in mind | :26:11. | :26:14. | |
any number of concessions whatsoever. I do not think the Prime | :26:15. | :26:17. | |
Minister knows what concessions he would ask for either. The connection | :26:18. | :26:22. | |
we had with the previous discussion about Scottish independence is if we | :26:23. | :26:26. | |
did get to a referendum, David Cameron's government would use the | :26:27. | :26:32. | |
same tactics they are using in the Scottish referendum, they would try | :26:33. | :26:36. | |
to scare people rigid about the consequences of leaving the European | :26:37. | :26:41. | |
Union. To that extent I have some sympathy with Pat in the previous | :26:42. | :26:45. | |
discussion. It is a bit dangerous, is it not, for a British Prime | :26:46. | :26:48. | |
Minister to put nearly all their faith, he has got the Dutch Prime | :26:49. | :26:52. | |
Minister as an ally as well, but nearly all thy faith in the German | :26:53. | :26:58. | |
Chancellor? Particularly German Chancellor who is in with the social | :26:59. | :27:04. | |
Democrats? Absolutely, it is mad. If you are going to negotiate your way | :27:05. | :27:08. | |
out of this, you do not throw yourself on the mercy of Merkel, I | :27:09. | :27:12. | |
did this as a favour. If you did this where I come from, no matter | :27:13. | :27:16. | |
how well you get on with the person on the other side of the table, | :27:17. | :27:20. | |
you're showing a huge weakness. Merkel knows that even if she did | :27:21. | :27:24. | |
concede something and she will not concede anything this side of the | :27:25. | :27:28. | |
general election, but even if she did, she knows the British scene | :27:29. | :27:32. | |
well enough to know that none of that might count for anything. If | :27:33. | :27:36. | |
she was going to concede something big hit Britain in the European | :27:37. | :27:41. | |
Union, she sees what is going on on the Tory backbenches and she knows | :27:42. | :27:44. | |
it is just one concession after another and she is giving it away to | :27:45. | :27:48. | |
find that Britain still goes down the same route anyway. That was the | :27:49. | :27:53. | |
nonsense of starting with a pledge to a referendum when he should start | :27:54. | :28:00. | |
with proper negotiators straightaway. Mrs Merkel will still | :28:01. | :28:06. | |
be there in 2017. Mr Cameron might not be so why go out on a limb? | :28:07. | :28:11. | |
Absolutely. Asking the whole of Europe to cater to add to show | :28:12. | :28:18. | |
election timetable is also bananas. President Hollande has made it clear | :28:19. | :28:22. | |
he will not do that. We are going to see European elections in May from | :28:23. | :28:27. | |
the mainstream right to the very hard right are going to do really | :28:28. | :28:30. | |
well and some of the very hard left will do as -- do well. This whole | :28:31. | :28:43. | |
question of David Cameron's allies elsewhere and where are they, does | :28:44. | :28:47. | |
he have remotely enough of them to try and push forward the reforms | :28:48. | :28:52. | |
they are looking for, he started off with this disastrous decision to | :28:53. | :28:57. | |
pull the Conservative Party out of the moderate centre-right grouping | :28:58. | :29:05. | |
in Strasbourg... Which Mrs Merkel as part of. Exactly, he lost all those | :29:06. | :29:10. | |
allies as the way to buy off the right wing of his own party. Molly | :29:11. | :29:16. | |
is French and she does not think Mr Cameron will get his way on this so | :29:17. | :29:21. | |
I think we will move on. Thereby hangs a tale! How serious is it that | :29:22. | :29:28. | |
Labour and the Tories are hinting that they would rather be in a | :29:29. | :29:31. | |
minority government than being coalition again with the Lib Dems. | :29:32. | :29:37. | |
Good luck with that, I would say. Trying to make a minority government | :29:38. | :29:44. | |
work... They would assume that the Nationalists and the Ulster MPs and | :29:45. | :29:51. | |
others would all gang up on them at once. I was waiting for this moment | :29:52. | :29:59. | |
actually, for pressure in both large parties to rule out future pacts. | :30:00. | :30:03. | |
Number one, it is up to the electorate, number two, you cannot | :30:04. | :30:11. | |
buck the electoral market. We are in a situation where, the days of large | :30:12. | :30:15. | |
majorities for either big party do seem to be over. Apart from anything | :30:16. | :30:26. | |
else, it seems absolutely extraordinary that David Cameron | :30:27. | :30:29. | |
would want to rule out the coalition. Firstly, you want to be | :30:30. | :30:34. | |
in office. Secondly, surely at some point he has to defend what the | :30:35. | :30:37. | |
coalition has done and he has to say, this has been a good | :30:38. | :30:41. | |
unsuccessful government which took care of the economic crisis, and on | :30:42. | :30:45. | |
top of that did it useful reforms in health, welfare, and we have all of | :30:46. | :30:52. | |
these achievements to talk about. If you say, the last thing I will do is | :30:53. | :30:57. | |
be in a coalition again, it implies a terrible government. If we had an | :30:58. | :31:03. | |
alternative vote system... Our problem at the moment is that you | :31:04. | :31:07. | |
have coalition politics with first past the post. He cannot say, vote | :31:08. | :31:13. | |
Tory first, Lib Dems second. He cannot go to the electorate may | :31:14. | :31:17. | |
coalition under first past the post. It would be madness to rule out | :31:18. | :31:22. | |
coalition, and madness to go into a general election saying you did not | :31:23. | :31:28. | |
want an overall majority. I am Ed Miliband and it is the day after the | :31:29. | :31:33. | |
election, I am ten votes shy of an overall majority, ten seats shy of | :31:34. | :31:41. | |
an overall majority in the Commons, and there are 30 Lib Dems still in | :31:42. | :31:46. | |
the Commons so I could go into government with them and get a small | :31:47. | :31:51. | |
overall majority. There are also 20 or 30 MPs from smaller parties. What | :31:52. | :31:58. | |
would you advise? This is Wilson in 74. It would depend on whether there | :31:59. | :32:02. | |
is a feeling the public would take a second election. If you went alone, | :32:03. | :32:08. | |
that is the risk you would run. Did Scotland vote for independence in | :32:09. | :32:13. | |
this scenario? If Scotland votes for independence there would have to be | :32:14. | :32:18. | |
another election anyway. You keep options open. It would be madness to | :32:19. | :32:22. | |
listen to Len McCluskey and rule out the coalition. I may well advise him | :32:23. | :32:29. | |
to go for the coalition. It would depend on the circumstances. You | :32:30. | :32:33. | |
cannot assume the Lib Dems would agree to confidence and supply. You | :32:34. | :32:42. | |
do not have too agreed to that. With 30 MPs, they would not be looking | :32:43. | :32:47. | |
forward to a second election. I want to ask about this Harriet Harman | :32:48. | :32:52. | |
business and the Daily Mail. Why did she not simply do what Patricia | :32:53. | :32:57. | |
Hewitt has done to Mike and say, as general secretary them I take | :32:58. | :33:01. | |
responsibility for mistakes. I got it wrong on PIE. I apologise. If she | :33:02. | :33:07. | |
had said something similar, end of. Number one, she wasn't the general | :33:08. | :33:14. | |
secretary. Shami Chakrabarti as the current general secretary and | :33:15. | :33:16. | |
Patricia Hewitt as the previous general secretary, quite right for | :33:17. | :33:21. | |
them to say that. This was about smearing Harriet Harman. Come on! | :33:22. | :33:27. | |
This has been around for the last eight years. If you think back to | :33:28. | :33:31. | |
the 1970s, this vile organisation... There is a leading | :33:32. | :33:39. | |
article in a newspaper that -- there is not a leading article that has | :33:40. | :33:45. | |
not said she got it wrong. If she apologised, it would have been, | :33:46. | :33:50. | |
Harriet Harman admits, as if she had some ties with the organisation. She | :33:51. | :33:56. | |
is still in that position, because Patricia Hewitt has apologised so | :33:57. | :33:59. | |
the pressure is on Harriet Harman and it will go on for days. Do you | :34:00. | :34:05. | |
think it is because, people like Harriet Harman, the Labour Party, | :34:06. | :34:08. | |
they hate the Daily Mail. Ed Miliband hates it, too and we know | :34:09. | :34:13. | |
what it did about his father. Do you think her judgement was skewed | :34:14. | :34:17. | |
because she was up against the Daily Mail? I can't help but think there | :34:18. | :34:21. | |
is a bunker mentality when it comes to issues to do with the Mail. This | :34:22. | :34:26. | |
is their payback for the fact that Ed Miliband gained public support | :34:27. | :34:29. | |
over their attack on his father, right. But the reason people throw | :34:30. | :34:36. | |
mud is because it sticks, unfortunately. So it's very, very | :34:37. | :34:41. | |
damaging. It would still stick if she had apologised. The interview | :34:42. | :34:51. | |
she gave was such a disaster. They had their annual meeting at Oxford | :34:52. | :34:56. | |
University. The police didn't move against them. Patricia Hewitt has | :34:57. | :34:58. | |
apologised because there is some thing to apologise for what did the | :34:59. | :35:04. | |
Daily Mail say about PIE in the 70s? I have to apologise because we | :35:05. | :35:12. | |
have run out of time. Now, in its defence, the Daily Mail | :35:13. | :35:16. | |
claimed this week that "it is a newspaper's job is to ask awkward | :35:17. | :35:18. | |
questions". And the Mail certainly does ask the questions that matter. | :35:19. | :35:22. | |
Such as, why did Harriet Harman not take action against the Paedophile | :35:23. | :35:24. | |
Information Exchange, does Harriet Harman cause cancer, why is Harriet | :35:25. | :35:27. | |
Harman encouraging Romanian gypsies to park their caravans in Hyde Park, | :35:28. | :35:31. | |
and why does she not apologise for being the main cause of global | :35:32. | :35:40. | |
warming? Because she is, you know, I read it in the Mail. The Mail | :35:41. | :35:43. | |
certainly likes to consider itself attuned to the sensitivities of | :35:44. | :35:46. | |
Middle England. But are we all getting way too sensitive about | :35:47. | :35:49. | |
everything? We decided it was time to put "sensitivites" in this week's | :35:50. | :35:51. | |
Spotlight? People have been voting for UKIP | :35:52. | :36:10. | |
macro as a protest vote, and they are mastering they might get in. | :36:11. | :36:15. | |
What kind of protest is that? It is like defecating in your hotel bed as | :36:16. | :36:20. | |
a protest against hotel service and then realising you have to sit on it | :36:21. | :36:33. | |
-- sleep in it. Jokes can hurt, of course. Just ask Olympic swimmer | :36:34. | :36:38. | |
Rebecca Adlington, who suffered jibes about her appearance and has | :36:39. | :36:42. | |
reportedly taken action and had a nose job. But are we now so | :36:43. | :36:46. | |
sensitive we can't even listen to opinions we don't like. Poor old | :36:47. | :36:51. | |
Piers Morgan has had his poorly performance show cancelled amid | :36:52. | :36:55. | |
claims that Americans don't like being lectured to by slimy English | :36:56. | :37:00. | |
men who don't understand their indigent is gun culture. And what | :37:01. | :37:06. | |
about religious sensitivities? In Katy Perry's new video, this man was | :37:07. | :37:11. | |
wearing an Islamic pendant, until the image was proclaimed blasphemous | :37:12. | :37:16. | |
and edited to avoid offending Moslems. She is a regular Salman | :37:17. | :37:22. | |
Rushdie. Whether it is humour, politics, religion, are we getting | :37:23. | :37:28. | |
too touchy? Should sensitivities always be listened to and pandered | :37:29. | :37:32. | |
to, or do we need to grow a thicker skin? | :37:33. | :37:40. | |
Spitting image. It would be great to have it now. I used to write on | :37:41. | :37:45. | |
that. The first time you had me on we were talking about that and I | :37:46. | :37:49. | |
said, I used to write on it. Kenneth Clarke looked terrified. He used to | :37:50. | :38:00. | |
be a slug on it. When you write comedy, do you ever have the back of | :38:01. | :38:05. | |
your mind people's sensitivities? Absolutely, all the time. That pops | :38:06. | :38:12. | |
out as a funny one-liner but it is contextualised in the show. I think | :38:13. | :38:18. | |
about the media that is going on as well. The stuff that I do live and | :38:19. | :38:23. | |
put out on DVD, which goes out on cable channels, which I would not do | :38:24. | :38:28. | |
on the BBC because it is responded to differently by the press | :38:29. | :38:32. | |
depending on which broadcaster puts it out. I think about it all the | :38:33. | :38:38. | |
time really carefully. In the scale of sensitivity, do you expect | :38:39. | :38:42. | |
politicians to have a thicker skin than others? Are you prepared to be | :38:43. | :38:45. | |
more rude about politicians than, say, sports stars? I don't really | :38:46. | :38:53. | |
like sports stars either. With politicians, I'm getting to the | :38:54. | :38:57. | |
point where they start to be in the audience, which is strange, all | :38:58. | :39:01. | |
people who work for them and know them. Then you feel crestfallen, | :39:02. | :39:05. | |
because you are not attacking an abstract idea, but a person. Rebecca | :39:06. | :39:11. | |
Adlington, there were some terrible things on Twitter. That of the | :39:12. | :39:16. | |
public, though. As a result of that, would you be more sensitive | :39:17. | :39:21. | |
towards her? If it wasn't that she had been in the news, I wouldn't | :39:22. | :39:25. | |
even know who she was. I'm not interested in sport. Also, I don't | :39:26. | :39:30. | |
tend to do stuff about people's appearance, or people that have any | :39:31. | :39:36. | |
responsibility for anything. She is not responsible for anything, not in | :39:37. | :39:39. | |
a position of power. It is not anything to do with me. What about | :39:40. | :39:45. | |
journalists. You would be sensitive about Piers Morgan. I have done | :39:46. | :39:52. | |
stuff about some journalists, about opinion columnists and stuff like | :39:53. | :39:55. | |
that. But they do it about other people, so it opens up the field. | :39:56. | :40:01. | |
You do think about consequences. One of the problems with the BBC is that | :40:02. | :40:04. | |
you have to think carefully that so many people have a political or | :40:05. | :40:08. | |
commercial opposition to it that they are keen to take what you have | :40:09. | :40:12. | |
said out of context, call you a BBC man and say, why are we paying the | :40:13. | :40:17. | |
license fee for this? The same thing on a cable channel owned by sky will | :40:18. | :40:22. | |
never get picked up. You have the joke about my daughter. I understand | :40:23. | :40:26. | |
the BBC is moving your programme so it does not clash. -- you had the | :40:27. | :40:41. | |
joke about Nigel Farage. We had flagged it. I understand the | :40:42. | :40:52. | |
sensitivity about it. I can see why it is an issue. Have we become too | :40:53. | :40:59. | |
sensitive? Probably. We are also a bit too ready to insult people. You | :41:00. | :41:04. | |
know how it is that no one would be rude to you on the street but in a | :41:05. | :41:08. | |
car they start yelling obscenities because they are behind glass, well | :41:09. | :41:11. | |
it is like that when you become a journalist. When you are writing, | :41:12. | :41:16. | |
you feel free to say whatever you like about people. I think we ought | :41:17. | :41:22. | |
to be careful about that. I used to write a column of theatre criticism | :41:23. | :41:25. | |
and I once wrote something about actor, a lady actor, and she wrote | :41:26. | :41:33. | |
to me. I felt so badly about what I'd written. I was just a journalist | :41:34. | :41:39. | |
trying to fill up my column. You have to put something in. You're not | :41:40. | :41:44. | |
always that careful about what you say, whether you have researched it, | :41:45. | :41:50. | |
or whether it is true. There are responsibilities. I never | :41:51. | :41:52. | |
anticipated being in situations where I would meet people I had done | :41:53. | :41:57. | |
anything about. I never go to showbiz things, awards or anything, | :41:58. | :42:01. | |
but I now consciously avoid them because I don't want my perception | :42:02. | :42:04. | |
of a person to be altered by having met them. Ten years ago I had a | :42:05. | :42:10. | |
funny routine about you. I would now feel compromised about doing it. You | :42:11. | :42:22. | |
never know what's coming next? Your art is changed. Satirists, | :42:23. | :42:25. | |
comedians, when they become celebrities you are compromised | :42:26. | :42:29. | |
because you drift into that world. A lot of the best people have a degree | :42:30. | :42:33. | |
of anonymity. Chris Morris, you will never see him at anything. He does | :42:34. | :42:38. | |
not become friends with the people. Have we become too sensitive? I | :42:39. | :42:44. | |
don't think so. I remember a show in Birmingham in the 1970s, and the way | :42:45. | :42:50. | |
that the comedian picked out a black man in the audience, and it was just | :42:51. | :42:58. | |
Krul. It was the start of the kind of feeling that this is totally | :42:59. | :43:02. | |
unacceptable. Thank God we became a bit more sensitive. My question is, | :43:03. | :43:08. | |
what has happened to satire? Spitting image finished in 1996. I | :43:09. | :43:14. | |
grew up on that was the week that was and all of that. Rory Bremner is | :43:15. | :43:23. | |
not there. Mike Yarwood. What is perhaps a perceived failure of | :43:24. | :43:26. | |
comedians to do satire goes hand-in-hand with how politics has | :43:27. | :43:29. | |
got better at managing personalities. If you look at people | :43:30. | :43:38. | |
from that era, they were much more obviously able to be caricatured. | :43:39. | :43:46. | |
What about Jeremy Hunt, for example? I read a sketch about him yesterday. | :43:47. | :43:52. | |
But there isn't an obvious physical way into it. That aspect of it is | :43:53. | :44:00. | |
micromanaged. Where should we June in to be offended? Saturday at 10pm, | :44:01. | :44:06. | |
unless you live in Wales, where it could be at any random point. | :44:07. | :44:10. | |
That's your lot for tonight, folks. But not for us because we've got | :44:11. | :44:14. | |
tickets to Piers Morgan's welcome home party at Lou Lou's, and as you | :44:15. | :44:18. | |
can imagine, it's not exactly a sell out. But we leave you tonight with | :44:19. | :44:22. | |
an exclusive glimpse of the Department for Work and Pensions | :44:23. | :44:24. | |
universal credit IT system, still, according to IDS, on budget and on | :44:25. | :44:31. | |
track. Nighty-night. Don't let the inevitable IT failure bite. | :44:32. | :44:35. |