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American Morning

News Making Headlines 'Over There'

Aired December 13, 2002 - 07:48   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: It's Friday, time for our weekly trip across the pond to find out what's happening "Over There." Some good stuff actually. British Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife all over the news for some shady-looking real estate deal called Cheriegate.
And my pal, Richard Quest, checks in from London on that story, and a vicar who stole Christmas and other items about people who made fools of themselves.

Good morning, sir, and happy Friday.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And a happy Friday to you, Jack.

This is the story of the prime minister's consort and the conman. Cherie Blair, or Booth as she calls herself professionally, she wanted to buy two apartments, one for her son and one as an investment. So, she turned to her lifestyle guru and used her boyfriend -- the guru's boyfriend, not Cherie Blair's. She hasn't got one. She is married to the prime minister. Stay with me on this.

CAFFERTY: I'm fine, I'm fine.

QUEST: She wanted to use the boyfriend to do the negotiations. But he's been in prison for three occasions in three different countries. Who said what to whom, where, when, why? Who was lying? Who was obfuscating?

Anyway, finally, after an enormous amount of palaver, the prime minister's wife came out in front of the press in an unprecedented statement and basically said, I'm sorry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHERIE BLAIR, WIFE OF PRIME MINISTER TONY BLAIR: My immediate instinct when faced with the questions from the mail on Sunday, 10 days ago, was to protect my family's privacy, of particularly my son in his first term at university, living away from home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAFFERTY: Try to get yourself together, there are two more stories to do.

QUEST: The "crying game" is how the "Daily Mirror" called it. And normally, we turn to the tabloids every week, but just look, Jack. The broad sheet papers have been absolutely full of it. They're all over the place wherever you go in this country at the moment. You can't escape, "the conman treachery," "Cherie's bad call," "payback time," you name it.

So, that's what we've got at the moment. There's only one problem. You can't fire the prime minister's wife.

(CROSSTALK)

CAFFERTY: Well, and that's the way it should be. I mean, you know, maybe she didn't know about this guy. You know, cut her a break here. Let's don't be so harsh. It's the season to be jolly, Richard. Chill out a little bit.

QUEST: No, it's not. Santa is dead!

CAFFERTY: Uh-oh!

CAFFERTY: This is the story of the Reverend Lee Railfield (ph), who was giving his sermon to a group of youngsters at their Christmas carol service. And he basically -- he thought he was being funny. He basically said it was impossible for Santa Claus to deliver 90 million presents, the reindeers would have to travel up 3,000 times the speed of sound, they would implode, Santa would destroy himself with four million pounds of pressure, and it would all be a disaster.

The children went home in tears. The reverend is having to write to every family and say, "sorry."

CAFFERTY: Well, he's an idiot. I mean, what kind of moron would do that? Little kids have their fantasies to hold onto, why would you go and shatter a kid's fantasy?

Anyway, the last item is my favorite. I'm thinking of maybe trying to institute this program of these name tags for viewers of this program. Explain how this works.

QUEST: Right. You go to an office party at Christmas. You decide you're going to have a little, you know, too much maybe, and you get the train home. But it's a suburban train that also goes long distance. So, a local that becomes the express. So, what you do is you put a name tag over your head saying which stop you want to get off at, and you're home. It's true. They're handing out name tags in the railway stations of Britain, because so many people...

CAFFERTY: That's a great idea.

QUEST: So many people miss their stops. They end up miles away from home, and they have to sort of stay overnight.

CAFFERTY: And if you want to have some fun, if the person next to you is really sound asleep, you can cross out what he's written on the tag, and put a different stop on the thing, and he'll never know the difference until they wake him up to get him off the train at the wrong place.

I've got to run. Enjoy your weekend. I'll see you next Friday. QUEST: Have a good one, Jack.

CAFFERTY: All right, Richard Quest "Over There."

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.






Aired December 13, 2002 - 07:48   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: It's Friday, time for our weekly trip across the pond to find out what's happening "Over There." Some good stuff actually. British Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife all over the news for some shady-looking real estate deal called Cheriegate.
And my pal, Richard Quest, checks in from London on that story, and a vicar who stole Christmas and other items about people who made fools of themselves.

Good morning, sir, and happy Friday.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And a happy Friday to you, Jack.

This is the story of the prime minister's consort and the conman. Cherie Blair, or Booth as she calls herself professionally, she wanted to buy two apartments, one for her son and one as an investment. So, she turned to her lifestyle guru and used her boyfriend -- the guru's boyfriend, not Cherie Blair's. She hasn't got one. She is married to the prime minister. Stay with me on this.

CAFFERTY: I'm fine, I'm fine.

QUEST: She wanted to use the boyfriend to do the negotiations. But he's been in prison for three occasions in three different countries. Who said what to whom, where, when, why? Who was lying? Who was obfuscating?

Anyway, finally, after an enormous amount of palaver, the prime minister's wife came out in front of the press in an unprecedented statement and basically said, I'm sorry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHERIE BLAIR, WIFE OF PRIME MINISTER TONY BLAIR: My immediate instinct when faced with the questions from the mail on Sunday, 10 days ago, was to protect my family's privacy, of particularly my son in his first term at university, living away from home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAFFERTY: Try to get yourself together, there are two more stories to do.

QUEST: The "crying game" is how the "Daily Mirror" called it. And normally, we turn to the tabloids every week, but just look, Jack. The broad sheet papers have been absolutely full of it. They're all over the place wherever you go in this country at the moment. You can't escape, "the conman treachery," "Cherie's bad call," "payback time," you name it.

So, that's what we've got at the moment. There's only one problem. You can't fire the prime minister's wife.

(CROSSTALK)

CAFFERTY: Well, and that's the way it should be. I mean, you know, maybe she didn't know about this guy. You know, cut her a break here. Let's don't be so harsh. It's the season to be jolly, Richard. Chill out a little bit.

QUEST: No, it's not. Santa is dead!

CAFFERTY: Uh-oh!

CAFFERTY: This is the story of the Reverend Lee Railfield (ph), who was giving his sermon to a group of youngsters at their Christmas carol service. And he basically -- he thought he was being funny. He basically said it was impossible for Santa Claus to deliver 90 million presents, the reindeers would have to travel up 3,000 times the speed of sound, they would implode, Santa would destroy himself with four million pounds of pressure, and it would all be a disaster.

The children went home in tears. The reverend is having to write to every family and say, "sorry."

CAFFERTY: Well, he's an idiot. I mean, what kind of moron would do that? Little kids have their fantasies to hold onto, why would you go and shatter a kid's fantasy?

Anyway, the last item is my favorite. I'm thinking of maybe trying to institute this program of these name tags for viewers of this program. Explain how this works.

QUEST: Right. You go to an office party at Christmas. You decide you're going to have a little, you know, too much maybe, and you get the train home. But it's a suburban train that also goes long distance. So, a local that becomes the express. So, what you do is you put a name tag over your head saying which stop you want to get off at, and you're home. It's true. They're handing out name tags in the railway stations of Britain, because so many people...

CAFFERTY: That's a great idea.

QUEST: So many people miss their stops. They end up miles away from home, and they have to sort of stay overnight.

CAFFERTY: And if you want to have some fun, if the person next to you is really sound asleep, you can cross out what he's written on the tag, and put a different stop on the thing, and he'll never know the difference until they wake him up to get him off the train at the wrong place.

I've got to run. Enjoy your weekend. I'll see you next Friday. QUEST: Have a good one, Jack.

CAFFERTY: All right, Richard Quest "Over There."

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.