:00:00. > :00:12.Tonight, This Week is bewitched by Westminster.
:00:13. > :00:19.Not an enchanting tale, as Culture Secretary Maria Miller is dunked by
:00:20. > :00:21.the press and then forced to resign. The Spectator's Isabel Hardman
:00:22. > :00:30.assesses whether there was any kind of witchhunt.
:00:31. > :00:36.Culture secretary Maria Miller whizzes she could wriggle her nose
:00:37. > :00:39.and cast a spell to make her expenses problems go away. In the
:00:40. > :00:43.end, she disappeared in a puff of smoke. With improving economic news,
:00:44. > :00:46.Chancellor George Osborne wants to conjure up a boom before the next
:00:47. > :00:49.general election. Former Dragon and Businessman with money-making powers
:00:50. > :00:55.Theo Papthetis is a supernatural-confident. Shopkeepers
:00:56. > :00:58.have magic powers. We see things before anyone else. And the Irish
:00:59. > :01:02.President certainly put a spell on us, with a first ever state visit to
:01:03. > :01:04.the United Kingdom. So, what's the magic ingredient that attracts so
:01:05. > :01:12.many people to Britain? Irish comedian Aisling Bea reveals all.
:01:13. > :01:23.Dignity, always dignity. When shall we three meet again? On
:01:24. > :01:27.This Week, of course Evening, all. Welcome to This Week. An historic
:01:28. > :01:31.week, with the first ever official visit of the Irish head of state. At
:01:32. > :01:34.the state banquet, the Queen naturally wore her Crown, while
:01:35. > :01:39.Martin McGuinness looked fetching in his favourite balaclava. It was the
:01:40. > :01:42.week in which a largely unknown cabinet minister's 15 minutes of
:01:43. > :01:45.fame and fortune, let's not forget, ended with her return to obscurity,
:01:46. > :01:51.from which she's unlikely ever to return. I've forgotten her name
:01:52. > :01:54.already. And it was the week in which the divine David Cameron
:01:55. > :01:58.claimed to a Christian group that, by promoting the Big Society, he was
:01:59. > :02:03.merely following in the footsteps of our Lord Jesus Christ and doing
:02:04. > :02:08.God's work here on earth. The fact that he did this to the strains of a
:02:09. > :02:11.soprano singing the hymm Ave Maria only goes to show that religion and
:02:12. > :02:16.irony are not incompatible after all. If there are things that are
:02:17. > :02:25.stopping you from doing more, he told his congregation, think of me
:02:26. > :02:29.as a giant Dyno-Rod. I guess that's the sort of thing you learn in the
:02:30. > :02:32.dormitories of Eton of a night. And for those of you who've forgotten
:02:33. > :02:38.what the Big Society is, it's just like the Big Issue - except nobody
:02:39. > :02:41.buys it. Speaking of those things nobody would buy even at a massive
:02:42. > :02:45.discount, and even if they came with a Miller-sized expense account. I'm
:02:46. > :02:48.joined on the sofa tonight by two men who are celebrating the 20 year
:02:49. > :02:54.anniversary of Britpop and were both big in the 90s. Think of them as the
:02:55. > :02:58.Liam and Noel of late night political chat. I speak, of course,
:02:59. > :03:08.of #manontheleft Alan "AJ" Johnson. And #sadmanonatrain Michael "All
:03:09. > :03:14.Aboard" Portillo. Your moment of the week. I was very pleased that Nigel
:03:15. > :03:21.Evans, the former deputy speaker, long serving of Parliament was
:03:22. > :03:25.cleared of all charges laid against him. His reputation has taken a
:03:26. > :03:29.terrible kicking. He looked like a half broken man. I believe there is
:03:30. > :03:32.more kicking of his reputation to come. I want to put it on the record
:03:33. > :03:38.how much Parliamentary colleagues that I knew, I thought he was one of
:03:39. > :03:42.the most straightforward, loyal, decent, reliable people I ever came
:03:43. > :03:46.across. For that reason, I'm pleased, at least, that he has not
:03:47. > :03:52.suffered the horror of being found guilty of these charges. Not one of
:03:53. > :03:55.the nine, was he found guilty. As a former Home Secretary, I want to
:03:56. > :03:58.talk to you later about what this means for the Crown Prosecution
:03:59. > :04:07.Service. Before we get there, what is yours? The public disclosure act,
:04:08. > :04:12.which introduced protection back in the late 90s, it was not perfect. It
:04:13. > :04:15.was very difficult to know who a whistle-blower would go to to blow
:04:16. > :04:18.their whistle too. There was a number of prescribed people. They
:04:19. > :04:22.could go to the National Audit Office or the ombudsman, but that's
:04:23. > :04:28.a pretty daunting task. From this week they can go to any member of
:04:29. > :04:32.Parliament. Why? Because a member of Parliament, not one of mine, a
:04:33. > :04:36.conservative, David Davies, he slogged through a ten minute Bill,
:04:37. > :04:41.went to the progress of getting Government support, went to talk to
:04:42. > :04:45.the opposition and now it has become a statutory instrument. Practically
:04:46. > :04:49.nobody knows about it. In a week when perhaps the worst side of
:04:50. > :04:52.Parliament has been shown, I think it's a good example of the hard slog
:04:53. > :04:55.of politics that gets you no particular praise, but will have
:04:56. > :05:01.been very beneficial for a lot of people. If you are a whistle-blower,
:05:02. > :05:05.you might be careful which member of Parliament you go to, some are more
:05:06. > :05:09.executive minded than the executive. Everyone else is delighted, Andrew.
:05:10. > :05:14.I'm just putting that warning out there, you can't trust them all.
:05:15. > :05:22.According to the ever humble Maria Miller, in the end she had to go
:05:23. > :05:28.because she'd become a distraction. The Chancellor was miffed that we
:05:29. > :05:34.work to preoccupied with her to notice that the International
:05:35. > :05:38.Monetary Fund. Forecasts had been too pessimistic and they now think
:05:39. > :05:41.they will be the fastest-growing economy in the G7 this year. But
:05:42. > :05:44.given their atrocious record of predictions, is it really time to
:05:45. > :05:50.unscrew a bottle of the blue stuff? But the IMF is not alone in saying
:05:51. > :05:55.this is a more robust recovery than expect it. We turned to the nation's
:05:56. > :05:57.favourite shopkeeper, former Dragon Theo Paphitis. This is his take of
:05:58. > :06:18.the week. As a shopkeeper, icon of all people,
:06:19. > :06:22.recognise the importance of consumer spending. I've been saying it for a
:06:23. > :06:29.while and now, if consumers are spending it shows they have still
:06:30. > :06:33.got confidence the economy. Now, I have been positive all of the way
:06:34. > :06:36.through this recession. Why? Because it is my third one. My only concern
:06:37. > :06:46.is if we can keep interest rates down, preserve employment. The
:06:47. > :06:51.answer, yes, we did. All this talk of the squeezed middle, what a load
:06:52. > :06:53.of political claptrap. You are electioneering. As far as I'm
:06:54. > :07:04.concerned, it doesn't actually exist.
:07:05. > :07:09.The so-called squeezed middle, as far as I am concerned, have not done
:07:10. > :07:12.too bad out of this recession. Mortgage rates have gone down to
:07:13. > :07:16.unprecedented levels, leaving a bigger disposable income. The worst
:07:17. > :07:20.they have had to do is tighten their belts a little bit, miss out on
:07:21. > :07:29.their ski holiday and maybe change the car a little less frequently.
:07:30. > :07:36.So, if the so-called squeezed middle have not paid the price for this
:07:37. > :07:40.recession, who has? Those at the bottom, the poor. They have seen
:07:41. > :07:42.rent go up, their fuel costs go up and, in some cases, their benefits
:07:43. > :07:54.go down. Quite rightly, the Government has
:07:55. > :07:58.tried to bring down our welfare bill. That has come at a cost. The
:07:59. > :08:03.cancer on our society, payday lenders and the rise of food banks.
:08:04. > :08:10.Whilst brilliant, there's no reason they should exist. In my opinion,
:08:11. > :08:11.politicians have stopped focusing on people in the middle, they should
:08:12. > :08:18.focus on people at the bottom. And from the Centre Court Shopping
:08:19. > :08:21.Centre in Wimbledon to our own little shopping centre here in the
:08:22. > :08:29.heart of Westminster. Theo Paphitis, welcome to the show. Now, after the
:08:30. > :08:33.crash, we lost 7% of our GDP, more than we did in the great
:08:34. > :08:38.depression. The economy is still smaller than it was in 2007. Wages
:08:39. > :08:47.have been trailing prices for years. Are you really sure this recession
:08:48. > :08:53.hasn't hurt badly? It certainly has, you probably remember the last two
:08:54. > :08:57.recessions as well. The first two were really painful, unemployment,
:08:58. > :09:00.queues at the dole office, it didn't happen this time. Employment and
:09:01. > :09:06.interest rates were the keys, that made a massive difference. As we
:09:07. > :09:11.have seen, some of the poorest in society have, unfortunately, paid
:09:12. > :09:16.the price. What do you say to that? I would say the middle-income group,
:09:17. > :09:21.the squeezed middle, probably their quality of life has not eroded as
:09:22. > :09:25.much. They have tightened their belts a little bit. So I agree with
:09:26. > :09:31.that. But you can't get away from the fact that wages on average down
:09:32. > :09:35.?1600. The red book on the budget just a few weeks ago said that by
:09:36. > :09:41.the next election wages would be down by 5.6%, real wages. Gas
:09:42. > :09:45.fires, rail fares etc, it has had an effect on everyone. It had an effect
:09:46. > :09:51.on a group of people that are not in the category where you probably
:09:52. > :09:57.wouldn't go to food banks, but they are also not getting the benefit of
:09:58. > :10:06.the decrease in high rate of income tax. In that sense, there is a real
:10:07. > :10:09.problem. Theo? The squeezed middle, what a load of nonsense. It's more
:10:10. > :10:15.like the squeezed bottom! I think I've heard you say that a couple of
:10:16. > :10:19.times. We had food in times when there was excessive everywhere. All
:10:20. > :10:27.they had to do was get rid of some of those excesses. They have
:10:28. > :10:30.relatively remained unscathed. The bottom end have suffered, but the
:10:31. > :10:34.middle have suffered. It's very difficult for the group of people in
:10:35. > :10:38.the middle who have seen an effect on their income, that didn't happen
:10:39. > :10:42.in the previous two recessions, actually. There was not that
:10:43. > :10:47.reduction in real take-home pay. Come on, you are old enough to
:10:48. > :10:55.remember the facts, you don't have too make it up. Let me bring Michael
:10:56. > :11:01.in here, well you recover. I suppose a more modest way of saying what
:11:02. > :11:06.Theo is arguing is that the last six years have hardly been great, but
:11:07. > :11:11.there has not been, for most people, abject misery. Most folk
:11:12. > :11:17.have, with a bit of belt tightening, managed to make ends meet? I think
:11:18. > :11:24.it's very solitary if you go abroad and see what people in Spain and
:11:25. > :11:30.Greece say, Italy, Ireland, where there have been massive adjustments
:11:31. > :11:34.in property prices. I think property prices is at the heart of what Theo
:11:35. > :11:37.is arguing. If you are a property owner, the fact that interest rates
:11:38. > :11:42.have remained so low, for so long, it has been of extraordinary
:11:43. > :11:46.benefit. You would have expected to pay much more for your mortgage. All
:11:47. > :11:51.of this has come at a price, in economic terms. We have not made the
:11:52. > :11:55.adjustment that other countries like Ireland and Spain have made in
:11:56. > :11:58.property prices. We left them very high. This is because the Government
:11:59. > :12:02.didn't want anyone to be repossessed. There have been very
:12:03. > :12:06.few repossessions. But it means we have a credit fuelled recovery, not
:12:07. > :12:12.an exporter fuelled recovery. It means we are in danger of going back
:12:13. > :12:16.into the cycle. Except there is no rise in negative equity, none at
:12:17. > :12:20.all. In fact, negative equity is in decline. Unsecured debt, largely
:12:21. > :12:25.credit card debt, has risen only modestly. I think when you look at
:12:26. > :12:32.the debt figures, there is little evidence to say this is a recovery
:12:33. > :12:37.fuelled by debt. First of all, people in properties feel much
:12:38. > :12:41.richer. I understand that. And their mortgages have gone down, the point
:12:42. > :12:47.you have been making. If you keep interest rates at 1% for six or
:12:48. > :12:51.seven years, you can bet that people, sooner or later, are going
:12:52. > :12:56.to start borrowing again. It's too good a deal. Overall, households are
:12:57. > :13:00.still paying down their debt. It follows from what you said, if you
:13:01. > :13:04.are right. Ed Miliband constantly banging on about the squeezed
:13:05. > :13:06.middle, if you are right, he is saying something that is not
:13:07. > :13:12.resonating? The middle is not squeezed, it won't resonate? They
:13:13. > :13:18.have to concentrate on the realities. It seems like a great
:13:19. > :13:22.thing, if you want to appeal to a wider electorate. That is what we
:13:23. > :13:29.do. The reality is, as far as the middle is concerned, they have had a
:13:30. > :13:32.pretty soft landing. Let's talk about the bottom as well. I
:13:33. > :13:36.understand the point you make about them being squeezed. You also make
:13:37. > :13:41.the point that employment has remained high. That is of immense
:13:42. > :13:44.benefit to people in the bottom. A lot of people that might expect to
:13:45. > :13:57.be unemployed or not. Maybe the squeezed middle, if it has been
:13:58. > :14:01.resonating, will run out of steam? There is a poll in the standard
:14:02. > :14:06.tonight that shows 80% of the public that shows there is an issue, so it
:14:07. > :14:14.does not look like it is running out of steam. Now, a cost of living
:14:15. > :14:20.problem, Labour saying there is a crisis. If you take tax and benefits
:14:21. > :14:29.alone, that average group in the middle has lost around ?980. That
:14:30. > :14:37.figure only works when you include the top 10%. Make the top 10% to
:14:38. > :14:45.come out and then do the average it comes to ?400. Still a squeeze. So
:14:46. > :14:52.Theo, this is all wonderful Abbas Khan I did not say it is all
:14:53. > :14:59.wonderful, I am a realist. You have to accept there is a problem, Theo?
:15:00. > :15:07.The problem came when we went into the deepest recession. You lot went
:15:08. > :15:10.off, the other lot came in and then it is the public who have got to put
:15:11. > :15:18.up with it. Now you're saying oh my God, it was so terrible. Now we were
:15:19. > :15:28.out of the recession by five successive quarters of growth. We
:15:29. > :15:36.were supposed to continue that level of growth. If you look at the state
:15:37. > :15:45.of the French or Italian economies, the Spanish, all of them have shown
:15:46. > :15:53.some growth. The eurozone, the US is growing. Not as fast as the UK
:15:54. > :16:01.economy. That is because it has already grown. Slowest recovery from
:16:02. > :16:11.any American recession in history. And the same in Britain, also.
:16:12. > :16:18.Things seem to have changed. I think anybody accepts there is a recovery
:16:19. > :16:21.underway. Labour is slightly ahead in the polls, inflation is falling,
:16:22. > :16:26.unemployment is falling, living standards are starting to rise
:16:27. > :16:33.again. This is not the economic backdrop Labour thought it would he
:16:34. > :16:37.fighting the election on? I think anyone who is analysing this would
:16:38. > :16:46.have expected us to make a recovery by the 2015 election. Probably not
:16:47. > :16:56.as strong as it has turned out to be? Michael's point, that it is
:16:57. > :17:07.based on easy credit. It is not. Once those interest rates go up, as
:17:08. > :17:15.they inevitably will. The man in Weston-super-Mare will start feeling
:17:16. > :17:20.things are getting better. A year ago, Labour said there was no
:17:21. > :17:28.recovery and the government have two change its strategy. But the IMF has
:17:29. > :17:38.admitted it was wrong. I don't think anybody could count on this recovery
:17:39. > :17:43.a year ago. Just over a year ago, a feeling had set in that the recovery
:17:44. > :17:50.was so slow, we wondered if it was going to come back. We now
:17:51. > :17:53.absolutely take for granted the recovery, but we also forget that
:17:54. > :18:02.until recently we did not count on it at all. Surely the point that
:18:03. > :18:09.still resonates, when it comes to 2015, for most people, they will
:18:10. > :18:13.still not be as well off. They will be less well off in 2015 than they
:18:14. > :18:20.were when this coalition come to power? A lot of people expected a
:18:21. > :18:27.lot, a lot worse with the recession than it turned out. In some ways
:18:28. > :18:31.they will feel very relieved. CEO won't be the only person in the
:18:32. > :18:37.world to remember who was in power when the recession began. It is too
:18:38. > :18:43.difficult question for this time of night.
:18:44. > :18:46.Now it's late. "Chief Whip, Sir George Young, knocking on Maria
:18:47. > :18:50.Miller's door with a pearl-handled revolver" late. But unlike Maria,
:18:51. > :18:54.Blue Nun passes the smell test... Sort of. So hold your nose and pour
:18:55. > :18:57.yourself another. Because waiting in the wings is Irish actor and
:18:58. > :19:09.comedian, Aisling Bea, to talk about the visit of the Irish President and
:19:10. > :19:12.the attraction of coming to Britain. And if you have any moral
:19:13. > :19:16.superiority left in you after the sorry saga of Ms Miller, feel free
:19:17. > :19:19.to vent your synthetic outrage at us on The Twitter, The Fleecebook and
:19:20. > :19:24.the Interweb. It's not as if we actually bother reading any of your
:19:25. > :19:31.comments - so fill your boots. Now. MPs head off on their Easter
:19:32. > :19:34.holidays next week and so do we! For me, it's a two-week
:19:35. > :19:36.all-expenses-paid holiday at an exclusive resort Down Under with
:19:37. > :19:38.Wills and Kate! For Michael and Alan, it's an
:19:39. > :19:41.all-paid-for-by-expenses stay in a pokey flat in Basingstoke
:19:42. > :19:47.masquerading as a family home with Maria Miller! Sorry guys, she's
:19:48. > :19:51.really not suffered enough. So to get us all in the mood for Easter,
:19:52. > :19:54.we sent the Spectator's Isabel Hardman to learn from one of
:19:55. > :19:58.London's top chocolatiers William Curley. Here's her EGG-cellent
:19:59. > :20:16.round-up of the week. See what I did there? Who writes this stuff?!
:20:17. > :20:20.Hello. I am busy preparing Easter treats for the This Week team.
:20:21. > :20:27.Making chocolate takes a long time, longer than 32 seconds. If you are
:20:28. > :20:31.not careful you could end up like our politicians with a bit of a
:20:32. > :20:47.sticky mess. Sorry, Chef! On Monday, the Prime Minister
:20:48. > :20:54.started with a trip to the supermarket. Not his favourite one,
:20:55. > :21:01.he is a Waitrose kind of guy. But as they had an Easter off on, get
:21:02. > :21:07.thousand of jobs for free. But the journalists had something else on
:21:08. > :21:11.their minds. Maria Miller is in her job because she is doing a good job
:21:12. > :21:14.as Culture Secretary. She went through this process and the
:21:15. > :21:20.committee found she had made a mistake in her mortgage claim so she
:21:21. > :21:28.repaid money, made an apology. I think that is the right thing to do.
:21:29. > :21:34.Come on Isabel, let's move it. But Downing Street melted faster than a
:21:35. > :21:39.chocolate teapot and failed to sell the tie any support the Maria
:21:40. > :21:44.Miller. And Esther McVey were given free rein to criticise Maria Miller.
:21:45. > :21:47.It is at times like this is a minister needs his or her bag
:21:48. > :21:52.carrier to step up to the plate for them. I'd do think this is a
:21:53. > :21:58.witchhunt by the media, who are angry about the leather some
:21:59. > :22:05.reports, equal marriage and they are taking it out on Maria. Many in the
:22:06. > :22:14.Conservative Party thought it was her clumsy text messages that did
:22:15. > :22:16.the Maria Miller. She tried to sweeten her constituents by penning
:22:17. > :22:21.an emotional piece for her Basingstoke local newspaper. Perhaps
:22:22. > :22:24.if she had written this on the day she spoke in the Commons, she could
:22:25. > :22:32.have support -- survived. Support was like gold dust. It is a question
:22:33. > :22:37.of honour. She should quietly have gone to the Prime Minister and said,
:22:38. > :22:42.I think I should go. And the Prime Minister should have said, yes,
:22:43. > :22:48.thank you for doing a good job, you can come back at some time later.
:22:49. > :22:53.Honour is saved at all that, I am out raged about it. Even so, most of
:22:54. > :22:58.us thought she would try to stick it out until Wednesday when
:22:59. > :23:03.Conservative backbenchers meet at the committee. As journalists were
:23:04. > :23:08.sharpening pencils in anticipation when Mrs Miller decided to take an
:23:09. > :23:13.early Easter break. I hoped that I could stay but it has become clear
:23:14. > :23:17.to me over the last few days this has become an enormous destruction
:23:18. > :23:25.and it is not right I am distracting from the incredible achievements of
:23:26. > :23:30.this government. -- enormous destruction. Was she pushed, Ord did
:23:31. > :23:37.she jump? Number ten has shut down all
:23:38. > :23:41.discussion repeatedly saying it was Maria Miller's decision to go. It
:23:42. > :23:50.sounds like she did get a visit from someone and it probably wasn't the
:23:51. > :23:55.Easter Bunny. What really did for Maria Miller was a mix of backbench
:23:56. > :23:59.fear of the public backlash, a lack of warmth from senior colleagues and
:24:00. > :24:02.the Chancellor's allies were furious that this news about the economy was
:24:03. > :24:13.lost in the mix about the ongoing Maria Miller model.
:24:14. > :24:23.What have we got here? Oh dear. It's not up to standard. The Minister has
:24:24. > :24:27.dominated the agenda. Labour's pledge to give English councils ?20
:24:28. > :24:36.billion disappear faster than 32 second apology. So a PMQs, Ed seized
:24:37. > :24:39.his opportunity. He said six days ago she had done the right thing and
:24:40. > :24:45.should leave it up that. Does he realise it is a terrible error of
:24:46. > :24:54.judgement? Why didn't he call on her to resign? He seems to be the first
:24:55. > :24:57.leader of the opposition in history to come to this house and make the
:24:58. > :25:02.first suggestion someone should resign, after they have already
:25:03. > :25:07.resigned. I have heard everything! It is my job to fire members of his
:25:08. > :25:12.cabinet. In opposition, David Cameron prided himself on his
:25:13. > :25:17.finesse in judging the public opinion. But he has misjudged the
:25:18. > :25:22.public mood now and many Tory MPs are worried it has left them looking
:25:23. > :25:29.vulnerable before the European elections. Still, there is one bit
:25:30. > :25:39.of politics guaranteed to leave you with the sweet taste, and a sugar
:25:40. > :25:48.high. Andrew, this is for you. Michael, what did you make of the
:25:49. > :25:52.shambles? One of the biggest shambles I have ever witnessed in
:25:53. > :25:58.British politics? Because? Unnecessary? David Cameron had
:25:59. > :26:03.decided his government was going to be whiter than white. Maria Miller
:26:04. > :26:09.had been forced to make an apology to the House of Commons for being
:26:10. > :26:14.uncooperative with the investigating authority. Any Secretary of State
:26:15. > :26:17.who found people were being uncooperative with her or with him
:26:18. > :26:21.would be outraged. I don't see how you can have a member of the cabinet
:26:22. > :26:26.apologising to the house who had been uncooperative with the
:26:27. > :26:31.authorities. That was a sack of all offence in itself. I think David
:26:32. > :26:36.Cameron should have said, I told you things were going to be different
:26:37. > :26:43.under me, I don't think she has done anything wrong, but she did not
:26:44. > :26:46.cooperate, so she has gone. He would have saved himself a week of
:26:47. > :26:53.terrible publicity. And he was worried that she must not be hounded
:26:54. > :26:59.out by the newspapers. But what he achieved is that she has been
:27:00. > :27:04.hounded out. If she had gone before the first began, that implication
:27:05. > :27:09.would not have been carried. I suppose what happened was, he got
:27:10. > :27:13.distracted by the thought she was going to be bullied and Harry ride
:27:14. > :27:18.the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph and the other unhappy newspapers.
:27:19. > :27:26.But that should not have clouded his judgement. The point to focus on is
:27:27. > :27:31.she had done something not come -- compatible with her position as
:27:32. > :27:36.Cabinet minister. David Cameron is not the first to do this, spend so
:27:37. > :27:38.much political capital on a relatively obscure politician, that
:27:39. > :27:45.no one had really heard of in the country. Was regarded by many people
:27:46. > :27:53.as not very good at her job in the first place. Yet he is out on a
:27:54. > :27:58.limb. Why does that happen? Not exactly a household name before This
:27:59. > :28:04.Week. She sure is now! David Cameron does seem to have a little bit of a
:28:05. > :28:12.fetish of this idea of personal loyalty. We saw this also with Andy
:28:13. > :28:17.Coulson. It is as if he sees it as his own code of honour. Which in
:28:18. > :28:20.theory is not a bad thing? In the right circumstances it can be an
:28:21. > :28:29.admirable quality. But as Michael said, if you know what you might end
:28:30. > :28:33.up having to do, do it quickly because a week of these front pages
:28:34. > :28:39.has been bad for the Prime Minister. Do you think the political class in
:28:40. > :28:46.general forgot how bad this is? No, Betty Boothroyd had it right. Nobody
:28:47. > :28:52.was expect a Maria Miller to get away with this. When David Cameron
:28:53. > :28:58.was in opposition, a lot of decent Tories went, he sacked them in
:28:59. > :29:07.opposition. He said it was wrong. There was no way her house in
:29:08. > :29:11.Wimbledon, in which her husband, her children and parents lived was her
:29:12. > :29:14.second home. It starts from that ASIC points and builds from there.
:29:15. > :29:18.The frustration for politicians on all sides who were tearing their
:29:19. > :29:22.hair out last week because she was still there, people seem to think
:29:23. > :29:29.that is still the system. This system has changed completely. If it
:29:30. > :29:33.happened now it would be an independent person dealing with it.
:29:34. > :29:40.Maria Millie was only dealt with under that process because it was a
:29:41. > :29:43.legacy before 2010. I read articles from a usually very informed
:29:44. > :29:52.journalist that seem to have missed that point. David Cameron back to an
:29:53. > :29:58.events and nobody to defend her until it was too late? It was the
:29:59. > :30:03.wrong wicket to be batting on. Just to dwell on hard strawberry this has
:30:04. > :30:10.all been, as you pointed out, we had this fantastic economic news,
:30:11. > :30:15.completely lost. The beginning of the European elections, completely
:30:16. > :30:18.drowned out. In one year's time, we will be in a general election
:30:19. > :30:21.campaign. To have a Government associated with the sleaze of MP
:30:22. > :30:27.expenses, one year before the election, it is a calamitous
:30:28. > :30:34.outcome. So easily avoided. Do you think there was an element of a
:30:35. > :30:41.witchhunt in this by the papers? Many people are saying it. I don't
:30:42. > :30:45.know anybody in the newspapers who thought that Maria Miller was a
:30:46. > :30:55.formative figure in the Leveson process. She just happen to have the
:30:56. > :30:58.portfolio. It was Oliver Letwin, the Prime Minister. Nobody thinks she
:30:59. > :31:05.was important, so I doubt see why the papers would have created a
:31:06. > :31:08.witchhunt. Your point of David Cameron expending so much political
:31:09. > :31:17.capital, it would be odd for the papers to blend -- rent their spleen
:31:18. > :31:24.on this. On gay marriage as well, she wasn't the influence. It was the
:31:25. > :31:28.Prime Minister will who forced this. Are you not surprised, as I was
:31:29. > :31:35.surprised, that the Prime Minister did not replace Miss Miller with one
:31:36. > :31:39.of the number of rather, just as there are on the Labour side, the
:31:40. > :31:44.number of rather bright young Tory women? I was surprised, but I do
:31:45. > :31:52.think that the new Secretary of State for culture is very
:31:53. > :31:58.interesting. He is of Pakistani origin, working class background,
:31:59. > :32:03.completely self-made. So he's a really interesting appointment.
:32:04. > :32:06.Esther McVey would have been interesting. Pretty Patel, who
:32:07. > :32:13.happens to be a woman and an ethnic minority. Absolutely. What he has
:32:14. > :32:17.ended up with is a cabinet with the proportion of women in it going down
:32:18. > :32:22.all of the time. When he came into Government he promised to have 40%
:32:23. > :32:27.of his ministerial team female. We have half the percentage of women in
:32:28. > :32:34.our cabinet that Rwanda has, less than half. Rwanda! If you were
:32:35. > :32:43.inventing a parliament, as they did in Rwanda, you presumably were...
:32:44. > :32:52.That is what they are dealing with. Francois Hollande has 52%.
:32:53. > :32:57.Absolutely. This point of giving the women's Minister position to
:32:58. > :33:02.somebody who is not a full member of cabinet and reporting to a man,
:33:03. > :33:08.extremely unhealthy. There is not a mother, does that matter? I think it
:33:09. > :33:11.does, being one myself, I know that women's lives change radically when
:33:12. > :33:16.they become mothers. You look at things slightly differently. You
:33:17. > :33:20.care about things differently as well? Your economic circumstances
:33:21. > :33:22.change completely, if you don't have people who understand that
:33:23. > :33:30.experience, you will have lined spot on policy. On gay marriage, he has
:33:31. > :33:35.managed to appoint a woman responsible for women's issues who
:33:36. > :33:39.voted against gay marriage, so people are now saying she is
:33:40. > :33:43.Minister for heterosexual women. Final thought, Michael? I think
:33:44. > :33:47.there has to be a reshuffle because I think we do need to have more
:33:48. > :33:52.women and more ethnic minorities. The real issue is who is in the
:33:53. > :33:56.inner circle. The cabinet is in public display, but the people
:33:57. > :33:59.really calling the shots are a small group close to the Prime Minister,
:34:00. > :34:05.some of whom are in parliament and some of whom are not. I'm very few
:34:06. > :34:22.of whom are women. They don't let girls into Eton! Dick Whittington
:34:23. > :34:25.found that the streets of London were not paved with gold. Whilst
:34:26. > :34:28.Maria Miller found that the streets of Wimbledon most certainly were -
:34:29. > :34:32.to the tune of over ?1 million, minus capital gains tax - if she
:34:33. > :34:36.ever gets round to paying it. So, with such riches to be made from so
:34:37. > :34:40.little effort, is it any wonder people from around the world want to
:34:41. > :34:43.come, and live, and claim expenses in Perfidious Albion? And so, on the
:34:44. > :34:45.day when those annoying fact-checkers at the Office for
:34:46. > :34:48.National Statistics revealed we've underestimated the number of recent
:34:49. > :34:51.migrants by at least 350,000, we've decided to ponder why people bother
:34:52. > :35:03.and put "Coming to Britain" in this week's Spotlight.
:35:04. > :35:11.Once upon a time, the headliner Martin McGuinness toasts the Queen
:35:12. > :35:13.would have shocking connotations. But the former IRA man showed times
:35:14. > :35:19.have changed for the better at Windsor Castle this week. The
:35:20. > :35:23.banquet was in honour of Michael D Higgins, the first-ever state visit
:35:24. > :35:30.by an Irish President, who spoke of friendship, shared history, but not
:35:31. > :35:34.forgetting our troubled past. The intertwined histories of Ireland and
:35:35. > :35:37.Britain have indeed no great turbulence. But we meet at a time
:35:38. > :35:45.when the relationship between hers has never been more friendly or
:35:46. > :35:49.respectful. So, what have his charm and stature done for Anglo-Irish
:35:50. > :35:53.relations? For a start, it shows Irish visitors no longer labour
:35:54. > :35:58.under the impression they are not welcome at the top table. Foreigners
:35:59. > :36:02.come to Britain for lots of reasons. One MP is determined to find out
:36:03. > :36:09.why, living undercover as a migrant, trying to understand why so many
:36:10. > :36:14.young Poles want to move to Britain. If only he had asked the
:36:15. > :36:18.Education Secretary. He told cabinet that people come here for a variety
:36:19. > :36:24.of attractions, one of them being, and I quote, loads of hot sex.
:36:25. > :36:29.# It's getting hot in here, to take off all your clothes... #
:36:30. > :36:35.So, what makes our fair isle so attractive? In a week when Ireland
:36:36. > :36:39.and Britain moved closer together, are people more ready to put the
:36:40. > :36:43.past behind them in search of a brighter future?
:36:44. > :36:58.How about that? How important was it to see the head of state of Ireland
:36:59. > :37:06.sitting down at a state banquet? Hugely important. Odd balaclava
:37:07. > :37:09.jokes aside, it was an amazing thing to see. I moved to win in seven
:37:10. > :37:17.years ago. If you had told me then they would be hanging tricolours
:37:18. > :37:20.alongside union Jacks on the road to Buckingham Palace, you would have
:37:21. > :37:26.laughed your head off. To see them now, as someone who lives here, it
:37:27. > :37:31.is sort of a beautiful thing. Going back to the balaclava, even more
:37:32. > :37:37.remarkable was Martin McGuinness? It really was. There was a lot of
:37:38. > :37:40.controversy about it, obviously. But it is sort of a testament to
:37:41. > :37:44.humanity that can happen. It is sort of one of those things where you go,
:37:45. > :37:48.God, we are not robots, we are humans and we get over things. If
:37:49. > :37:53.you put anger aside, the amount that can be achieved in such a short
:37:54. > :37:59.amount of time is remarkable and a testament to human people. To
:38:00. > :38:05.humans, rather. The lead up to what happened, the huge success of this
:38:06. > :38:09.week, it can go back to the Queen's visit to Ireland three years ago,
:38:10. > :38:15.which laid the groundwork for this? Absolutely. Even in the week in the
:38:16. > :38:20.lead up to that, people were still naysaying. Report of a bomb on a bus
:38:21. > :38:27.from Dublin, quite serious threats. As soon as she stepped off the
:38:28. > :38:33.plane, in a green outfit, spoke a bit of Gaelic, everybody went, oh,
:38:34. > :38:40.she's lovely, just like your old mother, just like your mother. How
:38:41. > :38:51.popular William and Kate are as well, that has filtered into
:38:52. > :38:54.everybody's psyche. The Queen's magnanimity in this is exceptional.
:38:55. > :38:57.I think she has played more of a political role on Ireland than she
:38:58. > :39:02.has ever played on any other subject. Her willingness to go to
:39:03. > :39:08.Ireland, lay a wreath, her willingness to have Martin
:39:09. > :39:11.McGuinness in Buckingham Palace, remembering the assassination of
:39:12. > :39:17.Lord Mountbatten by the IRA, this is an extraordinarily personal mission
:39:18. > :39:20.the Queen has undertaken, without parallel and without precedent. One
:39:21. > :39:24.of the consequences has been, as the Prime Minister claimed this week,
:39:25. > :39:27.and I think he was right too, that Anglo-Irish relations have been good
:39:28. > :39:34.for some time now. But they have never been better? No. I think in
:39:35. > :39:39.terms of what Her Majesty did, what Martin McGuinness did was hugely
:39:40. > :39:45.brave. It's no good celebrating what has happened in Northern Ireland. I
:39:46. > :39:49.used to represent members killed on duty, 16 of them assassinated during
:39:50. > :39:52.the troubles, I was always over there as a union official. You can't
:39:53. > :39:59.celebrate that and failed to recognise the courage it took from
:40:00. > :40:02.people on all sides. I think that is an aspect of it. It would have been
:40:03. > :40:06.easy for him to play to the gallery and say, I'm not going to go. It
:40:07. > :40:10.doesn't make him any less of a Republican that he's gone to the
:40:11. > :40:20.Palace. He has taken his responsibilities seriously and that
:40:21. > :40:23.is remarkably brave. I think in politics you really respect people
:40:24. > :40:27.that aren't looking for glory or the vote, genuinely looking for change.
:40:28. > :40:31.I think that is what all of this is. What was really appreciated, the
:40:32. > :40:34.symbolism was so huge, especially with the tensions. When the Queen
:40:35. > :40:38.came over three years ago, and she doesn't normally speak the language
:40:39. > :40:43.of the place she visits, she arrived and spoke a little line of Gaelic,
:40:44. > :40:47.of Irish, at the start of a meal that they were having. It was so
:40:48. > :40:52.huge to hear the Queen of England speak a line. A tiny bit of
:40:53. > :40:57.symbolism that makes a huge difference. Martin McGuinness, he is
:40:58. > :41:01.bowing his head, but he's not... There was a slight gesture there.
:41:02. > :41:07.For her, to welcome him, when her family had been affected. What we
:41:08. > :41:11.had on Spotlight is why people want to come to Britain. I wonder why,
:41:12. > :41:16.for most people, it is not so much Britain they want to come to, it is
:41:17. > :41:20.London? London is a beautiful city, I have been living here for seven
:41:21. > :41:25.years and I love it. Why did you come here? To steal your jobs. I
:41:26. > :41:30.moved over here to go to drama school. I moved over here seven
:41:31. > :41:35.years ago, before the crash in the economy. I sort of moved over here
:41:36. > :41:38.out of choice and opportunity rather than necessity, which is a nicer
:41:39. > :41:43.reason to move anywhere. When I moved here, I was immediately
:41:44. > :41:47.involved in the community, the artistic community. I have always
:41:48. > :41:57.felt a familiar tie to London. I feel part of it. There are very few
:41:58. > :42:03.Cockney geezers left in London. Where you come here, you sort of
:42:04. > :42:07.become a Londoner. If you move to Dublin, you will never become a
:42:08. > :42:14.Dubliner. Have the natives been friendly? I haven't talked to many
:42:15. > :42:23.of them, I haven't been able to go out in these tropical climes. Some
:42:24. > :42:27.of my best friends are you people! These aren't Londoners, these
:42:28. > :42:32.Scotsmen and... I can't tell difference. There is a huge Irish
:42:33. > :42:37.community in London. It does amazingly well. There is the Irish
:42:38. > :42:42.Centre in Camden, which doesn't just look after... We run the London
:42:43. > :42:46.Irish comedy Festival, it doesn't just look after the elderly people,
:42:47. > :42:51.it also looks after the vulnerable young people that come over on
:42:52. > :42:59.Ryanair, expecting everything to be amazing. To quit hint? There is a
:43:00. > :43:07.support system? You are happy to be here? -- Dick Whittington. The And
:43:08. > :43:15.there is also loads of hot sex. That is the real reason you came? I can
:43:16. > :43:22.confirm the reports. That is your lot for tonight, but not for us. It
:43:23. > :43:26.is the smell test, and Michael is wearing his Teen Spirit, just for
:43:27. > :43:30.the occasion. We leave you tonight with the increasingly gorgeous
:43:31. > :43:33.George. Windsor, that is, not Galloway. He already looks like he
:43:34. > :43:38.has a way with the girls. Good night, don't let the return of cool
:43:39. > :43:41.Royal Britannia bite.