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 ON THE RECORD
                             PADDY ASHDOWN     THIRD INTERVIEW


RECORDED FROM TRANSMISSION: BBC ONE                          DATE:    21.2.99

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JOHN HUMPHRYS:                A quick return to Paddy Ashdown, if 
I may, you're still there I'm relieved to see.

PADDY ASHDOWN:                I'm going to challenge you for the 
job in a minute.

HUMPHRYS:                    You've got it, you don't need a 
challenge.  Why...the important point here is why prepare for something at this sort 
of cost, that's the point that Francis Maude is making, that may not happen, we may 
say no to the Euro.

ASHDOWN:                    Well yeah, I mean, you heard the 
unmistakable and authentic voice of Euro scepticism but there will of course in the 
present Conservative Party...

HUMPHRYS:                    He's entitled to that...

ASHDOWN:                .........    lead us out of Europe, 
he's perfectly entitled to it but let's be honest about it from the Conservative 
Party's point of view.  What they want to do is get out of Europe, that's the truth 
of it.  I think most people will think this is a perfectly sensible piece of preparation 
in case we have to take this decision.  Now you know my view John, I think we should 
have taken
the decision already, I think the referendum should be already conducted, I think 
the government is leading us by stealth, I think the Prime Minister, it reminds me 
of that line from Gilbert and Sullivan's Duke of Plaza Touro, do you remember the 
one.

HUMPHRYS:                    Sure.

ASHDOWN:                    Whenever in matters of martial kind, 
there was any fighting he led his regiment from behind he found it less exciting. 
 The Prime Minister it seems to me has decided that everybody else should lead on 
this the National Farmers Union, the Trades Union Congress, the CBI, British Industry 
but the government's not going to provide a lead and I personally think that's pathetic 
and I think you may well see that the pressure which has been put on the Prime Minister 
may well cause a movement in the Government in the next week or fortnight in which 
they will inch forward, they'll try to move the country by stealth instead of leading 
them towards the European Union but this step it seems to me taken as it is, is a 
perfectly sensible step, a step related to preparation.  It won't answer the leadership 
question, but it's a perfectly sensible thing to do.

HUMPHRYS:                    But ought there not to be, as Francis 
Maude suggested there, legislation to allow the government to spend the money, because 
they don't have the authority, he thinks at the moment.    
 
ASHDOWN:                    I think parliament should be informed 
about it and there should be debate on it and I'd like to see the government take 
a lead in it.  On the matter of expenditure, I think Francis Maude is not correct. 
 The government is perfectly legitimately carrying out a measure of preparation. 
 Now where I agree with Francis Maude is that this government is not providing leadership, 
it's not being clear, it, indeed, in my view has both emotionally and intellectually 
taken the decision in the secret recesses of the government that it wants to join 
the Euro but is not prepared to say so to the British people because of fear of the 
anti European Euro sceptic press, which they seem to bow down to far too much, so 
I think there is an abnegation of leadership here, a failure of leadership but I 
think in this particular instance, this particular measure, is a measure of sensible 
preparation - a measure which would be better if it was backed up by a clear declaration 
of where the government wants to go.

HUMPRHYS:                    Okay, talking about the press, 
one final thought for you this morning, the injunction sought and obtained by the 
Home Secretary to stop the Sunday Telegraph and anybody else for that matter reporting 
on what the inquiry into the Stephen Lawrence murder has come with. It is going to 
be published in a couple of days but they've slapped an injunction and forced the 
Sunday Telegraph to drop its story, what do you make of that.

ASHDOWN:                    Well John, as a Liberal, you'll 
understand that I am pretty nervous about censoring or limiting the power of the 
press and I am pretty nervous about the use of injunctions as well except where they 
are used in matters relating to personal privacy and in this particular occasion 
I think that is the case, that the people involved in this need to be informed.  
I understand that the newspaper themselves, the Sunday Telegraph, have accepted the 
reason for the injunction and have said that they have got a good story which they 
will be able to develop later, so I am pretty nervous about injunctions in general 
but not inclined to get over excited about this one, John.

HUMPHRYS:                    Paddy Ashdown, thanks very much 
indeed for your many appearances this morning.




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