Finland’s success with ‘growsterity’

This week Sir David takes another look at the eurozone and dissects the need for a larger rescue fund.

How could one country, Finland, propose to cut its budget by nearly €3bn when other countries were struggling with debts?

Jyrki Katainen, the prime minister of Finland, a country that still holds a AAA rating, tells Sir David how the government is going about it.

“We had to take care of our confidence toward our economy so that’s why we had to turn our debt development downward, at the same time we’re putting more pressure on growth. We’re saying that we have chosen the line of ‘growsterity’ – austerity measures and growth.

“We needed to go further because our population is ageing very rapidly and that’s why we had to take care of our public debt. By adjusting the budget now we can stabilise the debt level to 45 per cent, which is rather good.”

Doug Wead, the strategic advisor to Republican candidate Ron Paul, reveals to Sir David his thoughts on the latest twists and turns in the battle for the US presidential nomination.

Also on the show is Phil Zimbardo, the acclaimed psychologist, who discusses the March 11 killings by Robert Bales, a US soldier, of 17 civilians in Afghanistan. Zimbardo talks about it within the context of his study: The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil.

Noel Gallagher, the rock ‘n roll legend and former musician of the British band Oasis, joins Sir David to discuss his new solo album.

Saving Face, a documentary film which won an Oscar at this year’s Academy Award, is about acid attacks in Pakistan and the stories of survivors. Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, the two filmmakers, share with Sir David the reasons why they decided to make the film.

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy: “I knew about acid attacks occurring, you would often see them on the news but I was not aware of the scale…I wasn’t aware of what actually happens to women when acid is thrown on their faces and that’s why I was intrigued.”

Daniel Junge: “It’s utterly horrific and it’s also very sensational so our remit as filmmakers was to not just dwell on the horror but to try to find the dignity of the survivors, and also to highlight the work of folks like Dr [Mohammad] Jawad who are alleviating this problem, so our job as a filmmaker was to try and find some redemption in this horrific story.”