Browse content similar to 17/12/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
Hello and welcome to The Daily Politics. Our top story today - at | :00:35. | :00:40. | |
the last election, he opposed airport expansion in the South-East, | :00:41. | :00:43. | |
but a government-backed report out today suggests David Cameron will | :00:44. | :00:46. | |
eventually support a new runway at either Heathrow or Gatwick. | :00:47. | :00:53. | |
Fracking for gas could create 30,000 jobs - if the industry is allowed to | :00:54. | :00:58. | |
develop to its full potential. We will debate the controversial new | :00:59. | :01:02. | |
source of energy. Lawrence of Arabia, The Usual | :01:03. | :01:05. | |
Suspects or King Fu Panda - what does a politician's favourite movie | :01:06. | :01:15. | |
say about them? And how much do looks affect | :01:16. | :01:24. | |
political success? Labour might lose out on their majority in the next | :01:25. | :01:28. | |
election, simply because a lot of people cannot vote for Ed Miliband, | :01:29. | :01:32. | |
because, and I quote, he looks like a human platypus, unquote. | :01:33. | :01:43. | |
I am saying nothing. All that in the next hour - and with us for the | :01:44. | :01:47. | |
whole programme today is the actor, comedian and writer David Schneider. | :01:48. | :02:01. | |
Today's report on airport capacity has narrowed down the options from | :02:02. | :02:04. | |
an initial field of 58 to just three, although Sir Howard Davies | :02:05. | :02:09. | |
has not ruled out building a brand-new airport in Kent. The | :02:10. | :02:14. | |
commission admitted in October that extra runway capacity is needed in | :02:15. | :02:18. | |
the south-east, but they have now approved three options for where the | :02:19. | :02:23. | |
extra runway could go. Two of the proposals involve expanding Heathrow | :02:24. | :02:27. | |
in west London. The first option would be to build a new 3,500-metre | :02:28. | :02:30. | |
third runway, constructed to the north-west of the existing airport. | :02:31. | :02:34. | |
third runway, constructed to the north-west of the existing The | :02:35. | :02:36. | |
second option at Heathrow is a fairly radical proposal to extend | :02:37. | :02:39. | |
the airport's existing northern runway to the west to at least 6,000 | :02:40. | :02:43. | |
metres - this would allow it to be used for both take-offs and | :02:44. | :02:49. | |
landings. The third option that has been short listed is a brand new | :02:50. | :02:52. | |
runway at Gatwick Airport to the south of London. The Davies | :02:53. | :02:57. | |
Commission haven't ruled out building a brand new hub airport in | :02:58. | :03:01. | |
the Isle of Grain, which is favoured by London Mayor Boris Johnson. The | :03:02. | :03:06. | |
Commission says they will look at it in detail next year before deciding | :03:07. | :03:10. | |
whether to rule it in or out. Of course the issue of airport | :03:11. | :03:13. | |
expansion has been kicked into the long grass for political reasons, | :03:14. | :03:16. | |
and no final decisions will be made until after the next election. | :03:17. | :03:20. | |
Speaking on the BBC this morning, Howard Davies said the UK was crying | :03:21. | :03:22. | |
out for more airport capacity. We have tried to look at it from a | :03:23. | :03:36. | |
passenger perspective, and the fact is that British business people need | :03:37. | :03:40. | |
to travel to overseas business markets, people need to visit | :03:41. | :03:43. | |
friends and relatives abroad, and people need to go on holiday, and I | :03:44. | :03:47. | |
think we need to allow people to do that if they wish, as long as the | :03:48. | :03:51. | |
overall environmental obligations can be matched. This is not about | :03:52. | :03:54. | |
airports competing with other airports, it is about responding to | :03:55. | :03:58. | |
the demands of a growing economy. Howard Davies there. Meanwhile, | :03:59. | :04:01. | |
Mayor of London Boris Johnson says he is glad the option of a brand new | :04:02. | :04:06. | |
hub airport to the east of the city remains on the table. There is a | :04:07. | :04:12. | |
tough decision that has to be taken. I hope that it will be the brave, | :04:13. | :04:17. | |
the right decision, for the long-term. This is the greatest city | :04:18. | :04:22. | |
on earth, the place everybody wants to come to. I am fed up to the back | :04:23. | :04:27. | |
teeth with having to circle over Heathrow. Everybody understands | :04:28. | :04:33. | |
that. How do you solve that? You cannot expand Heathrow in my view, | :04:34. | :04:36. | |
because you are going to create a monster in West London. We need now | :04:37. | :04:41. | |
to go for the right option. With us now is Zac Goldsmith, the | :04:42. | :04:43. | |
Conservative MP for Richmond Park, who has campaigned against Heathrow | :04:44. | :04:46. | |
expansion. We're also joined by Baroness Valentine, whose London | :04:47. | :04:49. | |
First group campaign on behalf of London's business community, and the | :04:50. | :04:51. | |
former Transport Minister Simon Burns. Welcome to you all. First of | :04:52. | :05:02. | |
all, Zac Goldsmith, at what point will you consider your position as a | :05:03. | :05:06. | |
Conservative MP? I said clearly before the election, on the back of | :05:07. | :05:10. | |
a promise made by David Cameron directed towards my constituents in | :05:11. | :05:14. | |
West London, which was that if my party changes its position on | :05:15. | :05:18. | |
Heathrow expansion, I will automatically trigger a by-election. | :05:19. | :05:27. | |
Except that it now looks impossible for the Conservatives to go into the | :05:28. | :05:31. | |
next election being able to rule out expansion at Heathrow. Is that when | :05:32. | :05:36. | |
you say, game is up? I am applying maximum pressure, and I know a lot | :05:37. | :05:41. | |
of other backbenchers, even those who support Heathrow expansion, are | :05:42. | :05:44. | |
putting pressure on the Government to get off the fence. In fact, the | :05:45. | :05:48. | |
only real news today I think is that the pressure on all three leaders to | :05:49. | :05:54. | |
get off the fence this side of the election has massively escalated. It | :05:55. | :05:57. | |
is no longer tenable to imagine any of them going into the election with | :05:58. | :06:02. | |
ambiguity. And on that basis, if the Conservative manifesto does not roll | :06:03. | :06:06. | |
out Heathrow expansion, is that the point at which you say... ? Then I | :06:07. | :06:10. | |
would have to repeat my pledge, which, after the election, if there | :06:11. | :06:15. | |
is a U-turn, then I would trigger a by-election. But the position has | :06:16. | :06:20. | |
changed, we now know that Heathrow would be on the table. As you say, | :06:21. | :06:25. | |
the interim report has come out with a Heathrow bias anyway. And I think | :06:26. | :06:30. | |
from day one, that was always going to be the case. If you listen to Sir | :06:31. | :06:35. | |
Howard Davies in any of the interviews he has been doing today, | :06:36. | :06:39. | |
he is using the language of the AA, he has adopted their line, hook, | :06:40. | :06:44. | |
line and sink, in a very impressive PR operation, and he has managed to | :06:45. | :06:48. | |
substitute whatever thoughts he may have had with their own thoughts, | :06:49. | :06:52. | |
and completely bought into the Heathrow argument. Would you be | :06:53. | :06:57. | |
prepared to stand as an independent? Absolutely, but this is not | :06:58. | :07:01. | |
something I have worked out and I hope I will not have to. If my party | :07:02. | :07:05. | |
does a U-turn on this issue, I will trigger a by-election. I remain | :07:06. | :07:10. | |
clear on that. What happens after that, I hope I do not have to deal | :07:11. | :07:14. | |
with that. It is going to be a political nightmare from now until | :07:15. | :07:16. | |
the election, with this interim report. You are not going to be able | :07:17. | :07:22. | |
to go into the election, as a party, without clearly setting out what | :07:23. | :07:26. | |
your favoured option would be? No, I do not think that is the case. We | :07:27. | :07:29. | |
made it clear when the commission was set up that here is an | :07:30. | :07:36. | |
independent body which is set with the task of, once and for all, | :07:37. | :07:40. | |
trying to sort out what is the best option for the expansion of our | :07:41. | :07:44. | |
capacity, and something that we can seek to get consensus about amongst | :07:45. | :07:51. | |
the political parties. Heathrow is the favoured option here. It is not | :07:52. | :07:57. | |
the favoured option, it is one of 3.5 options. It leans very much | :07:58. | :08:03. | |
towards Heathrow as an option. That is your interpretation. The fact is, | :08:04. | :08:08. | |
there are two options in this short list for Heathrow. There is the | :08:09. | :08:11. | |
third option of a second runway at Gatwick, and there is a kind of half | :08:12. | :08:16. | |
measure at the moment, and we will have to wait until June next year, | :08:17. | :08:22. | |
where the commission is going to look in greater detail at the Isle | :08:23. | :08:26. | |
of grain proposal, because that will also be coming into the mix. We do | :08:27. | :08:31. | |
not know at the moment, and we will not know, until the final | :08:32. | :08:33. | |
recommendations are made in the summer of 2015, exactly what the | :08:34. | :08:38. | |
commission believes is the right solution to airport capacity. I | :08:39. | :08:46. | |
understand that, but the timing of the report was set by politicians, | :08:47. | :08:50. | |
not by Howard Davies. I do not think there is anyone who believed that it | :08:51. | :08:54. | |
was anything other than a political decision. It was time to conclude | :08:55. | :09:00. | |
after the election, -- it was timed to conclude after the election, so | :09:01. | :09:04. | |
that the party leaders would not have to grapple with the issue | :09:05. | :09:09. | |
before the election. That is not true, because I was part of the | :09:10. | :09:14. | |
reason that was given was because this is a horrendously complex | :09:15. | :09:19. | |
issue... That you do not want to make. It is not that at all. It has | :09:20. | :09:24. | |
got to be looked at properly and thoroughly. If you put an | :09:25. | :09:29. | |
unrealistically short timetable, anyone who did not like whatever the | :09:30. | :09:32. | |
final decision was would turn around and say, you cannot deal with such | :09:33. | :09:37. | |
complexes issue in such a short period of time. But you would think | :09:38. | :09:41. | |
that Heathrow will be on the table, not, as David Cameron has said in | :09:42. | :09:46. | |
the past, off the table in 2015 average it will, insofar as it is | :09:47. | :09:50. | |
one of the final recommendations on the short list. What do you say | :09:51. | :09:54. | |
about the argument of those who say that the case for Heathrow is not | :09:55. | :10:01. | |
there? As a business community, I am hugely depressed by this | :10:02. | :10:03. | |
conversation. We should have taken a decision maybe 50 years ago. We have | :10:04. | :10:09. | |
had lots of plans and thoughts for more than 50 years and we are still | :10:10. | :10:12. | |
waiting for political consensus. What we need is political | :10:13. | :10:16. | |
consensus, and we are just seeing one bit of the fractious nature of | :10:17. | :10:21. | |
this. What would your option B? We want to be able to get to global | :10:22. | :10:25. | |
markets as soon as possible. We want people in China to be able to get to | :10:26. | :10:30. | |
us. China is building 82 airports. Where are all of those aeroplanes | :10:31. | :10:36. | |
from China going to land? We are open-minded about the solution to | :10:37. | :10:40. | |
this. We need to be able to get to and from the global economies. I | :10:41. | :10:46. | |
sympathise with some of the issues around Heathrow. There are more | :10:47. | :10:50. | |
people exposed to noise around Heathrow than anywhere else in | :10:51. | :10:54. | |
Europe, and we are advocating a noise ombudsman, because I do think | :10:55. | :10:58. | |
there has been a breach of trust in residence and the aviation industry. | :10:59. | :11:03. | |
And we need to get better data, and a better trade-off. This is all | :11:04. | :11:07. | |
about trade-offs. No solution will make everybody happy. But which will | :11:08. | :11:11. | |
be the best for competitiveness? You say this is a PAA case, and it is a | :11:12. | :11:17. | |
very plausible case, when you look at the figures, and you look at an | :11:18. | :11:21. | |
airport which has to be seen around the world as the place to fly into, | :11:22. | :11:24. | |
not just for the UK, but from around the world. There are so many | :11:25. | :11:32. | |
arguments. There is a quality of life argument, which we know. It has | :11:33. | :11:39. | |
a disproportionate impact. Increasing that impact around | :11:40. | :11:44. | |
Heathrow would be intolerable. But there is an economic argument as | :11:45. | :11:49. | |
well. My party is a free party, who believes in taxpayers paying for | :11:50. | :11:55. | |
this fast thing on one edge of the city, when we have three perfectly | :11:56. | :12:00. | |
good airports... Why are you saying taxpayer funded, I would've thought | :12:01. | :12:04. | |
estuary airport would be far more taxpayer funded than Heathrow? I | :12:05. | :12:10. | |
oppose the expansion of Heathrow very strongly. It is a monopoly. I | :12:11. | :12:16. | |
am very much in favour of Gatwick, Stansted and Heathrow competing, as | :12:17. | :12:19. | |
well as they possibly can, in the interests of the customer. Gatwick | :12:20. | :12:24. | |
has become a good airport in the last few years because of | :12:25. | :12:29. | |
competition. Absolutely, we have got to make the rail links better to | :12:30. | :12:33. | |
both Gatwick and Stansted to allow them to compete, and we have got to | :12:34. | :12:37. | |
deregulate them and let them compete with Heathrow. Heathrow is 98% full. | :12:38. | :12:45. | |
Other airports are at about 75%. We cannot pretend there is not a | :12:46. | :12:50. | |
problem at Heathrow. So we are nearly at full capacity, and this | :12:51. | :12:54. | |
decision is going to be delayed. A party which says it is pro growth is | :12:55. | :12:58. | |
going to go into the next election saying, we don't know. We're going | :12:59. | :13:01. | |
to wait until just after the election, conveniently, so that you | :13:02. | :13:08. | |
conduct the issue? That is a simplistic approach. Which bit of it | :13:09. | :13:16. | |
was not true? What Davies has said in this interim report is that | :13:17. | :13:19. | |
capacity is not critical yet, so we do have some time... How long does | :13:20. | :13:25. | |
it take to build a runway or a new airport? I would think from start to | :13:26. | :13:32. | |
finish about ten years. That is if you can get consensus amongst all of | :13:33. | :13:35. | |
the political parties, as we have got with HS2. We have said that we | :13:36. | :13:40. | |
want a thorough and proper investigation of what is a highly | :13:41. | :13:44. | |
complexes and difficult issue, and we do not want to curtail the time | :13:45. | :13:49. | |
to an unreasonably short time span, so that people would be able to | :13:50. | :13:54. | |
accuse us of trying to fix it. How much business have we lost to other | :13:55. | :14:00. | |
cities? There are numbers thrown around, and ?14 billion is one of | :14:01. | :14:06. | |
them. So, a lot of money. You know if you work in London that people | :14:07. | :14:11. | |
are coming in and coming out to do business. It is absolutely vital, as | :14:12. | :14:14. | |
one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world, to be able to get to | :14:15. | :14:19. | |
and from our markets. It is a lot of money that we have lost. You can | :14:20. | :14:25. | |
pluck these figures out of midair. There are only two countries in the | :14:26. | :14:28. | |
world with more extensive aviation networks, and one of those is the | :14:29. | :14:33. | |
United States, the other is China. We are third in the world, despite | :14:34. | :14:37. | |
being a very small country. More people fly in and out of London than | :14:38. | :14:42. | |
any other city on earth. The idea that we are languishing behind is a | :14:43. | :14:45. | |
lot of nonsense. Is a question about where we go in the future, which is | :14:46. | :14:49. | |
what this discussion is about, but the idea that we are shrivelling up | :14:50. | :14:53. | |
because of this discussion is complete and utter PAA Brother | :14:54. | :15:00. | |
Gander. What do you say to that? -- propaganda. Yes, we can muddle along | :15:01. | :15:07. | |
with our existing links to the old Commonwealth economies and ignore | :15:08. | :15:11. | |
the emerging economies for the next ten years, I think it is pretty | :15:12. | :15:17. | |
self-evident! I would agree. We have modelled along for far too long, | :15:18. | :15:21. | |
under successive governments. That is why we have set up this | :15:22. | :15:24. | |
commission to seek a solution once and for all, to be able to move | :15:25. | :15:31. | |
forward in what is in the best interests of aviation, business and | :15:32. | :15:36. | |
the local communities. So, whatever he comes up with, after the | :15:37. | :15:46. | |
election, you will do it? Provided it is not off the wall, I would | :15:47. | :15:51. | |
accept. The estuary airport will be dropped next year, won't it? Do you | :15:52. | :15:56. | |
think it is a credible idea? Is it bonkers? It is visionary. I think | :15:57. | :16:04. | |
this is another trade-off which the commission needs to think about | :16:05. | :16:08. | |
because it costs a lot of money but it is a solution to reducing | :16:09. | :16:13. | |
congestion at Heathrow. Which one do you favour? I really do not | :16:14. | :16:23. | |
think... For London business, all we care about is that somebody does | :16:24. | :16:28. | |
something. We need that global market. I think this commission is | :16:29. | :16:32. | |
the best shot we have. It is complicated. There are economic | :16:33. | :16:38. | |
arguments and social arguments. To be honest, Simon, you have done your | :16:39. | :16:45. | |
U-turn. By not ruling out Heathrow in the commission, rightly or | :16:46. | :16:50. | |
wrongly, you have done a U-turn. Why not make the decision ahead of the | :16:51. | :16:58. | |
election? Conservative backbenchers would say it is better to take the | :16:59. | :17:03. | |
hits now than later on. It seems bizarre to call it a U-turn when you | :17:04. | :17:09. | |
set up an independent commission with a full three minutes to look at | :17:10. | :17:14. | |
all the options and come up with a final decision. It is not a U-turn | :17:15. | :17:19. | |
at all. It is a comprehensive enquiry to get the right decision to | :17:20. | :17:24. | |
solve the problem. It is not technically a U-turn but is a big | :17:25. | :17:30. | |
step towards a potential U-turn. What would it do to trust? I think | :17:31. | :17:38. | |
it would be catastrophic for the Conservative party. David Cameron | :17:39. | :17:43. | |
went to every single constituency affected by this expansion. He came | :17:44. | :17:51. | |
to Richmond. A U-turn of this magnitude would break the | :17:52. | :17:54. | |
relationship between the Prime Minister and West London. People | :17:55. | :17:58. | |
would notice and wonder what else would be broken. It should be taken | :17:59. | :18:05. | |
with a pinch of salt. The discussion is about the South East and London, | :18:06. | :18:10. | |
but what about other airports? What about expanding regional airports? | :18:11. | :18:16. | |
Yellow there is expansion at Manchester. Birmingham has ambition | :18:17. | :18:29. | |
to expand its airport. It will not address completely the whole issue | :18:30. | :18:33. | |
of capacity and demand in the South East, and that is what we cannot | :18:34. | :18:40. | |
affect and we need to address. Heathrow is full up and Gatwick is | :18:41. | :18:48. | |
nearly full up. Stansted has some slack with capacity. Let's leave it | :18:49. | :18:54. | |
there. Thank you. It's often said that "politics is showbiz for ugly | :18:55. | :18:58. | |
people". Present company excepted! But in an increasingly televisual | :18:59. | :19:01. | |
age, even politics can be a challenge if you have. How can we | :19:02. | :19:04. | |
put this delicately? An "aesthetically-challenged | :19:05. | :19:06. | |
physiognomy". Anyway, our guest today, David Schneider, has railed | :19:07. | :19:09. | |
against what he describes as the "scourge of uglyism" in our | :19:10. | :19:13. | |
political system. We gave him a day out at London Zoo to make his point. | :19:14. | :19:34. | |
I was shocked to read in an opinion poll that 78% of voters said they | :19:35. | :19:40. | |
would be likely to vote Labour if Ed Miliband changed his face. Actually, | :19:41. | :19:46. | |
I made that up, but it would not surprise me if the lead shot into | :19:47. | :19:49. | |
double figures if he changed his face for someone else is's, properly | :19:50. | :20:02. | |
his brother's. We know looks are important but in a scientific | :20:03. | :20:08. | |
survey, it was revealed that Labour might lose out because many people | :20:09. | :20:13. | |
would not vote for Ed Miliband because, and I quote, he looks like | :20:14. | :20:27. | |
a human platypus. Is it really all about looks now? What do people | :20:28. | :20:32. | |
want? A Labour manifesto that guarantees above inflation taxes or | :20:33. | :20:42. | |
an elimination of the mono brow? Was the struggle to get elected is in | :20:43. | :20:49. | |
the 80s and 90s about moving from elderly leaders struggling to get | :20:50. | :20:54. | |
elected towards someone who was reasonably hot? As an actor, I have | :20:55. | :21:00. | |
profited from being funny looking but as a politician it can be a | :21:01. | :21:06. | |
problem. I am not voting for you! There have been times when I have | :21:07. | :21:10. | |
been frustrated by Ed Miliband. I wanted him to stand up straight and | :21:11. | :21:19. | |
look prouder, but I am appalled by people who would never judge a | :21:20. | :21:23. | |
person by the colour of their skin or sexuality, judges someone because | :21:24. | :21:29. | |
he looks like he has his lips pressed up against the window. Let's | :21:30. | :21:40. | |
make sure we judge someone on policies and not look because we | :21:41. | :21:44. | |
might as well replace the leadership debate with a swimsuit competition. | :21:45. | :21:54. | |
I do not want to see politicians in their swimming costumes! Can you | :21:55. | :22:01. | |
tell me about your policies? ! House-building? Will you build more | :22:02. | :22:07. | |
houses? What do you think of the welfare cap? Will there be one? Can | :22:08. | :22:12. | |
you guarantee more police on the streets? I am not sure you are going | :22:13. | :22:19. | |
for the right topics there, David. Sadly, we're still waiting for the | :22:20. | :22:22. | |
penguins to give us a response to David's questions. But David is | :22:23. | :22:26. | |
still with us - and we've been joined by the broadcaster Nick | :22:27. | :22:33. | |
Ferrari. David, well done, you got here in the end. I got here through | :22:34. | :22:39. | |
the traffic! At least you were not trying to fly into one of the | :22:40. | :22:43. | |
airports! What about looks? Is it that much of a worry to you that | :22:44. | :22:48. | |
people are actually being sidelined because they are not good looking | :22:49. | :22:53. | |
enough? I think I was just shocked. People who seem very fashionable and | :22:54. | :22:59. | |
who would never say they are not voting for that person because they | :23:00. | :23:06. | |
are black, they would say of Ed Miliband that, because of this human | :23:07. | :23:12. | |
platypus look, they could not imagine him at Number Ten, and | :23:13. | :23:16. | |
therefore could not vote for him. It did not matter what his policies | :23:17. | :23:22. | |
were. Is that the level of discourse that the television age has brought | :23:23. | :23:28. | |
us do? Are talented politicians being put beyond where they can | :23:29. | :23:32. | |
reach? David is blessed because he has the looks of George Clooney and | :23:33. | :23:36. | |
has had them since the beginning of his career! I disagree with David on | :23:37. | :23:43. | |
a couple of runs. Firstly, we select most things in life by looks. | :23:44. | :23:49. | |
Whether it be a House, a partner of a car. The idea that people have | :23:50. | :23:57. | |
been held back, I do not think that is strictly true. Look at the last | :23:58. | :24:02. | |
couple of politicians who were like. The late Mo Mowlam or Ann | :24:03. | :24:08. | |
Widdecombe. And Widdecombe was loved by the people. I think you know | :24:09. | :24:19. | |
different people from me! And Widdecombe is complicated because | :24:20. | :24:25. | |
there is a patronising, Leicester, kind of looked to have. I think that | :24:26. | :24:35. | |
supports my argument. -- bless her. Look at Angela Merkel! If you have | :24:36. | :24:41. | |
talent it will come out. It is harder to come out. It is | :24:42. | :24:45. | |
interesting that you compare choosing a wife and a card to | :24:46. | :24:48. | |
someone who is running the country. That is exactly my point. We should | :24:49. | :24:54. | |
not be choosing people to run the country in the same way we choose a | :24:55. | :24:58. | |
wife. These people will feature in our lives so much, why can they not | :24:59. | :25:07. | |
be decent to look at? You are saying that in your ideal world, you would | :25:08. | :25:11. | |
have better looking people running the country? Oh, yes, absolutely! | :25:12. | :25:22. | |
Does it matter if they are good-looking? Let's Jesse... Let's | :25:23. | :25:31. | |
make it simple and have a swimsuit competition. We do, to certain | :25:32. | :25:38. | |
extent. There must be brains as well. If they are that good then I | :25:39. | :25:44. | |
would point you again to Angela Merkel. It is about personality, is | :25:45. | :25:49. | |
it not? It is about the whole package. People become more | :25:50. | :25:56. | |
attracted to the leaders by the character they are. Angela Merkel is | :25:57. | :26:04. | |
the mother figure. People trust, she is wrong. She has run with the looks | :26:05. | :26:09. | |
and has understood what the image is, and presented it. You should not | :26:10. | :26:20. | |
judge her on her looks and judge her on her policies. It is a truism that | :26:21. | :26:25. | |
we are judging people in this television age but Ed Miliband is a | :26:26. | :26:29. | |
perfect example. He is handicapped by the fact people do not like what | :26:30. | :26:34. | |
he looks like. Baby they cannot look past it. If you look at the demotic | :26:35. | :26:41. | |
type of politicians like Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, it is | :26:42. | :26:50. | |
true. There was charisma. Charisma is not just about looks. It is | :26:51. | :26:55. | |
important and I am not saying we should have all openly politicians | :26:56. | :27:01. | |
or anything like that! Some would say we already do! I think we need | :27:02. | :27:06. | |
to listen more carefully. Let's do it like The Boys. If you like it, | :27:07. | :27:17. | |
the policies, hit the Red Button. -- The Boys. They laughed at William | :27:18. | :27:24. | |
Hague to some extent. They laughed at Neil Kinnock. Iain Duncan Smith, | :27:25. | :27:34. | |
he was challenged. Is that not unfair? Was it to do with the way | :27:35. | :27:42. | |
they looked? Not just that. You could look at all three of them and | :27:43. | :27:45. | |
said there were glaring problems with their policies. It is not just | :27:46. | :27:51. | |
that they needed a wig! Would Winston Churchill get elected now? | :27:52. | :27:57. | |
Sadly, properly not. He was old, walked with a stick, he had a funny | :27:58. | :28:01. | |
way of talking. He is not very televisual. What about Gordon Brown? | :28:02. | :28:10. | |
He is not ugly but was seen as being quite awkward. That speaks more of | :28:11. | :28:18. | |
charisma. Whatever you say about Tony Blair, there was a charisma. He | :28:19. | :28:27. | |
was fairly comfortable in his own skin which is possibly a product of | :28:28. | :28:32. | |
being good-looking. With Gordon Brown, that was not there. Both of | :28:33. | :28:38. | |
you are quite successful. Is that because of your looks? I am on the | :28:39. | :28:44. | |
radio! Being funny looking has been great for me! I was described once | :28:45. | :28:50. | |
as being grotesque and it was a compliment! I took it as such! I am | :28:51. | :28:54. | |
lucky where I can be in a career where I can make something out of my | :28:55. | :29:01. | |
looks! I hope people hear what I have to say rather than inking I am | :29:02. | :29:06. | |
a funny looking bloke! Thank you very much. Now it's time for our | :29:07. | :29:13. | |
daily quiz. The question for today is... Google has published its | :29:14. | :29:16. | |
annual list of top internet searches for the UK in 2013. So which | :29:17. | :29:20. | |
politician has seen the biggest increase in people looking them up | :29:21. | :29:25. | |
online? Was it a) Theresa May b) Stella Creasy c) Boris Johnson or d) | :29:26. | :29:30. | |
Barack Obama? At the end of the show, David will give us the correct | :29:31. | :29:40. | |
answer. Fracking, a way of extracting shale gas from the | :29:41. | :29:43. | |
ground, is heating up as an issue once again. It did not cool down! | :29:44. | :29:48. | |
The chief executive of Total says he hopes Britain will become a major | :29:49. | :29:52. | |
source of his firm's shale gas production in Europe. We've learnt | :29:53. | :29:55. | |
this morning that David Cameron has written to Brussels to protest | :29:56. | :29:58. | |
against new EU legislation which he fears will delay the development of | :29:59. | :30:01. | |
the industry. And the energy minister Michael Fallon says today | :30:02. | :30:04. | |
that thousands of new jobs could be created if fracking is allowed to | :30:05. | :30:15. | |
reach its full potential. The report shows there is far more potential | :30:16. | :30:18. | |
for shale gas than we originally thought. There could be 30,000 jobs | :30:19. | :30:22. | |
created in this industry. The highest scenario is that there could | :30:23. | :30:26. | |
eat enough shale gas to satisfy three times our gas demand. So, we | :30:27. | :30:31. | |
are sitting on a lot more shale gas than we thought. We do not yet know | :30:32. | :30:36. | |
if we can get it out as easily as they have got it out in the United | :30:37. | :30:39. | |
States, but it has huge potential for our economy. And we've been | :30:40. | :30:45. | |
joined by the Lib Dem MP Tessa Munt and the Conservative Peter Lilley. | :30:46. | :30:51. | |
Welcome to you both. First of all, what is your objection to this, | :30:52. | :30:56. | |
after all, it is going to create thousands of jobs, Tessa Munt? My | :30:57. | :31:02. | |
contention is that this appears to be cutting down on a completely | :31:03. | :31:07. | |
front bases to what was done in America, where methane is clearly | :31:08. | :31:14. | |
the unwanted by-product, methane, butane and propane, the feedstock | :31:15. | :31:18. | |
for the petrochemical industry. You are not against it in principle? I | :31:19. | :31:22. | |
think we have to be very careful. Does that mean you do not want it to | :31:23. | :31:27. | |
happen at all? No, I do not think that is the case. A number of my | :31:28. | :31:31. | |
coalition colleagues are very keen for this to happen, but I sit in a | :31:32. | :31:36. | |
seat in Somerset, which is the Mendip Hills, surrounding it, and it | :31:37. | :31:43. | |
is completely inappropriate. This is the basis of our business, in | :31:44. | :31:50. | |
tourism, and we have little else that is going on. 26,000 jobs in | :31:51. | :31:57. | |
Somerset depend on tourism. To have a landscape which is covered with | :31:58. | :32:02. | |
oil drilling wells, effectively, gas trilling, nobody can say that will | :32:03. | :32:07. | |
enhance the beauty of Somerset. It is not appropriate in the Mendip | :32:08. | :32:12. | |
Hills. Where would you put it? Wherever the shale gas is. Including | :32:13. | :32:18. | |
the Mendip Hills? Including the Mendips, if it is available. Are you | :32:19. | :32:26. | |
against windmills on the Mendips? We have one, which is absolutely fine. | :32:27. | :32:32. | |
These gas rigs can be easily hidden by trees and bushes. I have got a | :32:33. | :32:37. | |
picture somewhere of a wind farm, interspersed with gas wells. They | :32:38. | :32:42. | |
are invisible, compared with the windmills. It is not a serious | :32:43. | :32:46. | |
problem. I agree you should do it seriously, you should be worried | :32:47. | :32:51. | |
about visual appearance, as well as every other aspect, but it is | :32:52. | :32:53. | |
actually marvellous technology. And it could transform, according to | :32:54. | :32:59. | |
people like Peter, the country, in terms of gas. The US has gas imports | :33:00. | :33:06. | |
by 50%, that would be transformational, for your | :33:07. | :33:12. | |
constituents this is being done on a completely different premise. What | :33:13. | :33:15. | |
we are looking at is drilling for methane. In the US, they are using | :33:16. | :33:22. | |
the butane, methane, protein, as part of the feedstock for the | :33:23. | :33:25. | |
petrochemical industry. We only have ten pet or chemical sites as far as | :33:26. | :33:30. | |
I know in the UK, and methane is an unwanted by-product. They flare it | :33:31. | :33:34. | |
off, or now they have found that they can supply that. Our area is | :33:35. | :33:39. | |
very dependent on quality water, and we have to be very careful. Let's | :33:40. | :33:46. | |
talk about the gas itself. Gas is three times as valuable here as it | :33:47. | :33:50. | |
is in the States, because the price is three in the states, they use it | :33:51. | :33:54. | |
primarily for generating electricity, as they have been | :33:55. | :34:01. | |
phasing out coal stations. But methane is an unwanted product. No, | :34:02. | :34:07. | |
it is hugely important. They are not allowed to flare it off, normally. | :34:08. | :34:12. | |
You only do that until you connect up to the mains. The purpose of | :34:13. | :34:19. | |
drilling for gas is defined gas. We are in porting those extra products | :34:20. | :34:27. | |
now into Aberdeen. -- importing. If there is a by-product here, we will | :34:28. | :34:30. | |
be able to produce it legally, as well as methane. Ought about the big | :34:31. | :34:34. | |
concern about water, that when you are fracking, you could affect the | :34:35. | :34:40. | |
water table? They have fractured 2 million wells in North America, not | :34:41. | :34:44. | |
a single person has suffered poisoning from the water supply. We | :34:45. | :34:57. | |
have actually done nearly 200 wells in this country. There was no fuss | :34:58. | :35:02. | |
about it until there was concern among the extreme environmentalists | :35:03. | :35:07. | |
that it might be terribly successful and discover lots of gas, and they | :35:08. | :35:10. | |
do not like fossil fuels, so they have engineered every kind of fear | :35:11. | :35:20. | |
and scaremongering. Are you scared? I am very wary. ABI am an extreme | :35:21. | :35:26. | |
environmentalist, I do not know. I think there are quite a few extreme | :35:27. | :35:30. | |
ones, in that case. Because it is an unknown. How long has fracking been | :35:31. | :35:37. | |
around? Since 1949. In what quantity? Rowing quantity, over the | :35:38. | :35:45. | |
years. I feel there are worries about the water, worries about Earth | :35:46. | :35:49. | |
tremors, we do not really know the effects. That is true, isn't it? It | :35:50. | :35:55. | |
is still a politically unknown quantity. It is very we had in this | :35:56. | :36:03. | |
country a study prepared by the royal society, and it's opening | :36:04. | :36:05. | |
words are, the health, safety and environment or risks associated with | :36:06. | :36:12. | |
hydraulic fracturing to extract shale gas can be managed effectively | :36:13. | :36:17. | |
in the UK... Why have France and Bulgaria bandit, then? France, | :36:18. | :36:21. | |
because they have got blocked as of nuclear electricity, and because of | :36:22. | :36:27. | |
the antinuclear vote. Wasn't this government meant to be the greenest | :36:28. | :36:34. | |
government ever? Because I do not know what has happened with all of | :36:35. | :36:38. | |
the green stuff. There are other solutions which have been massively | :36:39. | :36:41. | |
neglected. I do not know how long fracking will keep us going. We need | :36:42. | :36:46. | |
to look at and infrastructure and the plan, renewables which are | :36:47. | :36:50. | |
definitely safe. There is a legitimate argument, which I share, | :36:51. | :36:53. | |
that you should keep all fossil fuels in the ground. If you take | :36:54. | :36:58. | |
that view, fair enough. Those people take that view, they then cannot | :36:59. | :37:04. | |
persuade other people to go along with it, so they invent worries | :37:05. | :37:06. | |
about earthquakes and water pollution. Why is it invented? The | :37:07. | :37:13. | |
earthquakes are a fact. I would accept that it is shown that there | :37:14. | :37:18. | |
are Earth tremors at various times for various reasons, and I | :37:19. | :37:23. | |
completely accept that you might not want to get completely hysterical | :37:24. | :37:27. | |
about earthquakes, but I cannot have faith in the Environment Agency. Its | :37:28. | :37:31. | |
processes at the moment, its practices say that they should call | :37:32. | :37:36. | |
ahead one week in advance, or at least 24 hours, before they | :37:37. | :37:43. | |
inspect. At that point, anyone who is running the company in a way in | :37:44. | :37:49. | |
which we would not want has the opportunity to close everything down | :37:50. | :37:52. | |
and make sure everything is in order by the time the Environment Agency | :37:53. | :37:55. | |
terms up. We need to have a completely different regime to make | :37:56. | :38:00. | |
sure we can test whether these companies are behaving. There have | :38:01. | :38:03. | |
been a number of incidents, you know, where things have been pretty | :38:04. | :38:06. | |
poor on fracking. The other thing is, the fracking process which has | :38:07. | :38:10. | |
been proposed for my area and for some other areas is different from | :38:11. | :38:14. | |
what has been going on in this country for the last 40-50 years, | :38:15. | :38:19. | |
and that modernisation process needs a new at how we do this. Nour party | :38:20. | :38:23. | |
colleague said it would not contaminate water supplies. I am | :38:24. | :38:29. | |
glad Ed Davey has said that, because we are totally dependent on the | :38:30. | :38:33. | |
water in the Somerset levels, which is a patchwork of waterways, and we | :38:34. | :38:37. | |
need to be absolutely certain that if anything is going to happen on | :38:38. | :38:41. | |
the Mendips, and I do not believe it should, but if it should, then we | :38:42. | :38:44. | |
have to make sure we have got completely rigorous testing. Thank | :38:45. | :38:45. | |
you very much. Lemurs, lorises. Gibbons, gorillas. | :38:46. | :38:53. | |
Chimps, capuchins. It's estimated that 3,000 rare primates are being | :38:54. | :38:58. | |
kept as pets in homes across the UK. Now a Conservative MP has called for | :38:59. | :39:02. | |
an end to the sale of primates, condemning it as "outdated and | :39:03. | :39:05. | |
cruel". Mark Pritchard has introduced a ten-minute rule bill to | :39:06. | :39:10. | |
Parliament. He has warned that "time is running out" for the world's apes | :39:11. | :39:14. | |
and monkeys.The bill comes at a time when primates are diminishing in | :39:15. | :39:16. | |
numbers because of climate change, deforestation, and being hunted for | :39:17. | :39:22. | |
bush meat. A study by the International Union for Conservation | :39:23. | :39:25. | |
of Nature has reported that 48% of primate species face extinction if | :39:26. | :39:32. | |
no action is taken by governments. Mark Pritchard believes that the UK | :39:33. | :39:36. | |
can help tackle the problem by reducing the number of primates | :39:37. | :39:39. | |
being caught and sold on for exotic pets. Mark Pritchard joins us now. | :39:40. | :39:47. | |
What are you hoping to achieve? First of all, I am glad that the | :39:48. | :39:51. | |
DEFRA select committee are going to hold an inquiry into the keeping of | :39:52. | :39:55. | |
primates as pets in the UK. Any people that I speak to are shocked | :39:56. | :40:01. | |
to learn that the numbers range from 3000 to 7000. That seems to be an | :40:02. | :40:04. | |
incredible number of people, are you surprised by that? I am surprised, | :40:05. | :40:12. | |
yes. And this has cross-party support. I introduced a bill in the | :40:13. | :40:17. | |
last Parliament, and my colleague from Cornwall introduced a bill last | :40:18. | :40:23. | |
year. I think the law is outdated. Gone are the days where people | :40:24. | :40:26. | |
needed to have a particular animal in their possession to understand | :40:27. | :40:30. | |
nature. We have great BBC programmes, we have online, people | :40:31. | :40:35. | |
travel more. And this is an outdated practice, and I hope what the | :40:36. | :40:41. | |
Government -- and I hope the Government will support this. Do you | :40:42. | :40:45. | |
want to ban the sale of the primates or the ownership, or both of which | :40:46. | :40:51. | |
there are about 32,000 plus primates being sold into the international | :40:52. | :40:55. | |
pet market. These are wild primates, the fathers of the forest. The | :40:56. | :41:00. | |
Government says it supports I/O diversity and the ecosystem, and one | :41:01. | :41:05. | |
way of protecting the forests, just one way, is protecting primates, | :41:06. | :41:08. | |
because when they are taken out of the wild, that actually does not | :41:09. | :41:17. | |
help the ecosystem. I would like to CNN and to the sale of primates, and | :41:18. | :41:21. | |
also the keeping of primates. We would have a sunset clause so that | :41:22. | :41:25. | |
people who currently have them, either they could put them into | :41:26. | :41:28. | |
sanctuaries, or eventually, when the primates dies, that would be the end | :41:29. | :41:33. | |
of them keeping primates. I have to say, primates do live a long time. | :41:34. | :41:39. | |
Many people that take them on, whether they are movie stars or | :41:40. | :41:46. | |
singers, they can live 35-45 years. On 24th of December two years ago, | :41:47. | :41:52. | |
Tarzana's chimpanzee, Cheater, died at the age of 80. Not wanting to be | :41:53. | :42:00. | |
too cynical, but with climate change and deforestation, your ten minute | :42:01. | :42:05. | |
rule bill is hardly going to change the world, is it? Many people accuse | :42:06. | :42:11. | |
the coalition government of not being animal welfare friendly. I | :42:12. | :42:15. | |
disagree with that, but I do think there needs to be more evidence that | :42:16. | :42:20. | |
they are animal welfare friendly. There are ministers who were not | :42:21. | :42:25. | |
ministers in the past who backed my bill in the last element. We have | :42:26. | :42:30. | |
got shadow ministers supporting, we have got ministers openly and | :42:31. | :42:35. | |
secretly supporting a ban. Would it be popular, would it win your vote? | :42:36. | :42:40. | |
I am not saying it is the major issue, people are not going, it is | :42:41. | :42:44. | |
the primates, stupid, but yes, credit to you for doing it just I am | :42:45. | :42:49. | |
not going to try to strike some leftie blows about, why can't you | :42:50. | :42:55. | |
have more care for the poor and the disabled to being these things do | :42:56. | :42:58. | |
matter as well. But whether it is going to be a vote winner or not | :42:59. | :43:01. | |
does not matter. It seems the right thing to do. Exactly, it is not | :43:02. | :43:06. | |
about winning votes, it is about doing the right thing by the planet, | :43:07. | :43:13. | |
by the animal kingdom, by Cindy at beings like ourselves. -- by CIA | :43:14. | :43:21. | |
beings like ourselves. -- sentient beings. Justin Bieber had a monkey, | :43:22. | :43:31. | |
didn't he? In role model terms, young people might think, it is | :43:32. | :43:35. | |
fine. Monkeys, primates, they need to be in their own environment. They | :43:36. | :43:42. | |
often live in groups of up to 50. But many of these pets are kept | :43:43. | :43:46. | |
alone, in solitary conditions, often very small cages. In the wild, you | :43:47. | :43:53. | |
can roam across 130 hectares. Diet, sunlight, a whole range of issues | :43:54. | :43:57. | |
affecting the welfare of primates being kept in this country. That is | :43:58. | :44:01. | |
why we need to end keeping primates as pets. | :44:02. | :44:06. | |
Around one in six Brits is a pensioner. But do politicians pay | :44:07. | :44:11. | |
them enough attention? Our next guest thinks not - and is proposing | :44:12. | :44:14. | |
a new forum to get their views across. Here's Conservative MP Peter | :44:15. | :44:24. | |
Bottomley. As a schoolboy, I listened from the public gallery. | :44:25. | :44:30. | |
Now at 69, I listened in the chamber. Some people might think my | :44:31. | :44:36. | |
generation could be pensioned off. I think the mature, the experienced, | :44:37. | :44:41. | |
should be heard more clearly. The Government would do well to listen. | :44:42. | :44:47. | |
Mr Speaker, at the moment, the tuition fees system benefits either | :44:48. | :44:52. | |
the extremely rich... Youth Parliament has represented | :44:53. | :44:54. | |
youngsters for over ten years. Youngsters between 11 and 18 have a | :44:55. | :45:00. | |
chance to vote. They have shaped public debate about issues of | :45:01. | :45:05. | |
importance to young people. They come here to Parliament each year. | :45:06. | :45:08. | |
Let's create something similar for older members of our society. Some | :45:09. | :45:15. | |
pensioners only see Parliament on a tour. I think their views matter, | :45:16. | :45:20. | |
and the government could hear them more clearly if they were in the | :45:21. | :45:23. | |
chamber, but in their points of view across. The government would gain, | :45:24. | :45:31. | |
the country would gain. A Parliament was launched for pensioners in 2011 | :45:32. | :45:37. | |
in Northern Ireland. Mr Speaker, I note the concerns and comments | :45:38. | :45:42. | |
expressed by members of the Parliament for pensioners and I | :45:43. | :45:46. | |
welcome the debate. It is time the government took into account the | :45:47. | :45:52. | |
views of pensioners. We want a Parliament for pensioners. When do | :45:53. | :46:03. | |
we want it? Now. Because you asked nicely, I am sure they will listen | :46:04. | :46:07. | |
to you. Do we really need it? They are very well represented. They are | :46:08. | :46:13. | |
more likely to vote than other sections of the population. As you | :46:14. | :46:16. | |
know, the information suggests they are doing well in terms of their | :46:17. | :46:24. | |
income versus GDP. Members of Parliament must represent all their | :46:25. | :46:30. | |
constituents. You can argue, yes, you are right. What harm will it do | :46:31. | :46:39. | |
if we gave up Parliament for one day of the year? Let's see what impact | :46:40. | :46:42. | |
that will have. They could raise issues that matter such as elderly | :46:43. | :46:48. | |
people who are claiming for their grandchildren. When the family | :46:49. | :46:55. | |
break-up, do the grandparents keep access to their grandchildren? Half | :46:56. | :47:01. | |
of elderly people overseas cannot vote. There are a whole series of | :47:02. | :47:08. | |
issues that could be raised and put on the public agenda by a Parliament | :47:09. | :47:15. | |
for pensioners. Are those issues not being dealt with already? Because | :47:16. | :47:22. | |
pensioners are already active themselves, we hear about these | :47:23. | :47:27. | |
issues quite a lot of the time. It is the other end of the scale, the | :47:28. | :47:33. | |
youth Parliament, the young people who cannot vote, they are the ones | :47:34. | :47:36. | |
who are struggling to get their issues across. Most people of some | :47:37. | :47:43. | |
maturity would be concerned for the young. People of my age are asking | :47:44. | :47:49. | |
how we can bring things into the open and avoid the mistakes we made. | :47:50. | :47:57. | |
How do you avoid a third of teenagers taking up smoking, for | :47:58. | :48:04. | |
example? One concrete example is the exploitation of leaseholders and | :48:05. | :48:09. | |
that was raised. If it was raised in the Parliament for pensioners, the | :48:10. | :48:14. | |
Ministry of Justice would take it up and you would not have elderly | :48:15. | :48:19. | |
people being exploited in the open. Do you think it a good idea? Why | :48:20. | :48:29. | |
would I say no! In the youth Parliament, both sides were | :48:30. | :48:33. | |
applauding the Speaker! It seemed like a strange dream! I have to | :48:34. | :48:40. | |
agree. We are all in this together apart from those who are older than | :48:41. | :48:45. | |
67 or whatever it is. Everything is fine until we talk about making | :48:46. | :48:51. | |
cut. I think pensioners are looked up to because they vote. Sorry, | :48:52. | :48:57. | |
Peter, one last point. You look at the Youth Parliament and it seems | :48:58. | :49:02. | |
that they are still being ignored. The danger is that the Parliament | :49:03. | :49:09. | |
for pensioners would be as ignored. I suspect that if we had a joint | :49:10. | :49:16. | |
session of the youth and pensioners Parliament you would find the same | :49:17. | :49:22. | |
thing. You may get some mature, experienced comedians who come onto | :49:23. | :49:29. | |
give us an entertainment. Would it achieve anything? Would it be a | :49:30. | :49:32. | |
symbolic gesture and a bit of theatre, but that is it? As we give | :49:33. | :49:39. | |
more people the boat, we discover that the pension system is a good | :49:40. | :49:45. | |
idea. As we gave more people the boat we discovered that people like | :49:46. | :49:57. | |
me could go to university. -- vote. Taking one person's experience, | :49:58. | :50:02. | |
having it expressed, I think people will be ignored less often. If you | :50:03. | :50:10. | |
take the people who run voluntary organisations, for them, for their | :50:11. | :50:18. | |
children who may be critically ill, we play our part, not because I want | :50:19. | :50:28. | |
to be regarded as a pensioner! Is it really necessary? Today, with the | :50:29. | :50:37. | |
economic situation, there may not be a great wave of support for it. The | :50:38. | :50:41. | |
Institute for Fiscal Studies has said the gap is even more striking | :50:42. | :50:51. | |
than 20 years ago. The gap is very large. We have got their, not for | :50:52. | :51:00. | |
pensioners, but in a way, they have achieved so much without a | :51:01. | :51:04. | |
Parliament for pensioners. Many have, yes. I know a woman who cared | :51:05. | :51:16. | |
for her dying child and had not had a boiler working for two years. She | :51:17. | :51:22. | |
did not have benefits, and I reckon it is the job for people like me or | :51:23. | :51:28. | |
a Parliament for pensioners to ask how do you fix this? I would say, on | :51:29. | :51:33. | |
average, pensioners are better off than they were. I would say students | :51:34. | :51:39. | |
often spend more money on beer than they spend on food each week! That | :51:40. | :51:44. | |
individual case is obviously important and all politicians should | :51:45. | :51:48. | |
look out for cases like this. I suspect that our focus groups for | :51:49. | :52:03. | |
the parties. In that case, why not get people from charities, people | :52:04. | :52:08. | |
from work, people who are carers? I think they could come along and they | :52:09. | :52:13. | |
would be immensely impressed. How would they be elected? I would have | :52:14. | :52:23. | |
people like you. There may be a retired forecaster! Many, many | :52:24. | :52:30. | |
years' time! Now, the actor Peter O'Toole died at the weekend, and | :52:31. | :52:34. | |
he'll perhaps best be remembered for the part that catapulted him to | :52:35. | :52:37. | |
fame, as the lead in the Oscar-winning epic Lawrence of | :52:38. | :52:38. | |
Arabia. Let's have a look. CHEERING | :52:39. | :52:54. | |
No criminals! No criminals! Peter O'Toole in the 1962 classic | :52:55. | :53:12. | |
Lawrence of Arabia. The Prime Minister was among those paying | :53:13. | :53:16. | |
tribute to the actor at the weekend, and he reminded us that Lawrence of | :53:17. | :53:19. | |
Arabia is his favourite film. It's pretty common now to ask politicians | :53:20. | :53:23. | |
for their favourite movie - but what if anything does it really tell us | :53:24. | :53:27. | |
about them? We're joined now by Dan Hodges from the Telegraph who's been | :53:28. | :53:34. | |
writing about this. What did it tell you? Lawrence of Arabia is David | :53:35. | :53:40. | |
Cameron's favoured. It tells us that political leaders have good taste in | :53:41. | :53:43. | |
films. I thought he would go for a more political choice. I was | :53:44. | :53:54. | |
sceptical. If you look at it, it is a deep, classic film. Certainly. | :53:55. | :54:00. | |
Were you surprised? It takes a few boxes. -- takes a few boxes. It is | :54:01. | :54:16. | |
complex. Everyone liked Lawrence of Arabia, did they not? It was quite | :54:17. | :54:23. | |
controversial when it came out. What about Ed Miliband? We discussed this | :54:24. | :54:36. | |
in the office. 12, Angry Men was his favourite but he has changed it to | :54:37. | :54:45. | |
the Usual Suspects. That is an unusual choice. Those are two great | :54:46. | :54:53. | |
films. I think the thing is that it is hard to get the truth as of | :54:54. | :55:05. | |
leaders. You hear on Desert Island Disks when they are thinking whether | :55:06. | :55:16. | |
they should like Coldplay. I was surprised by Usual Suspects. I can | :55:17. | :55:26. | |
see this image of him sitting there thinking about Ed Balls. Why could | :55:27. | :55:36. | |
he not have the Usual Suspects? Is he not trendy enough to pick a film | :55:37. | :55:44. | |
like that? Ed Balls, not trendy? ! You are not being fair. When I was a | :55:45. | :55:57. | |
child, my favourite film was dumbo, but now it is not! You progress. It | :55:58. | :56:04. | |
does not change your view about the leader, does it? What about Nick | :56:05. | :56:19. | |
Clegg? He went for Kung-Fu Panda. Kung-Fu Panda? ! Do you think he | :56:20. | :56:27. | |
sees himself as a Kung-Fu Panda? He said he is a big fan. He did say he | :56:28. | :56:42. | |
liked The Class. Have you seen it? I have not seen it. You are dammed if | :56:43. | :56:49. | |
you do and dammed if you don't when it comes to these choices. Favourite | :56:50. | :56:55. | |
songs, favourite films. Whatever you say, it is going to be over | :56:56. | :56:58. | |
analysed. When I worked as a researcher, we spent hours thinking | :56:59. | :57:03. | |
about our favourite films and favourite books. I was shocked to | :57:04. | :57:11. | |
learn that Tony Blair's favoured film is Rush Hour starring Jackie | :57:12. | :57:17. | |
Chan. I think that is quite refreshing. We asked Nigel Farage. | :57:18. | :57:24. | |
Have a go at what you think is his favourite film. I would not want to | :57:25. | :57:31. | |
go there! I thought maybe the Great Escape. But it is not. It is The | :57:32. | :57:41. | |
Longest Day. Are you surprised? Do you think he watches it in reverse? | :57:42. | :57:46. | |
It is about with drawing from Europe! You could put that to him, | :57:47. | :57:56. | |
could you not? That doesn't fit Nigel Farage. Favourite film? I like | :57:57. | :58:03. | |
Galaxy Quest. That is my favourite comedy. I also like Downfall. What | :58:04. | :58:13. | |
about you? Casablanca. Casablanca, very good. There's just time before | :58:14. | :58:21. | |
we go to find out the answer to our quiz. The question was... Which | :58:22. | :58:25. | |
politician has seen the biggest increase in the number of people | :58:26. | :58:28. | |
searching for them in 2013, according to Google? Was it a) | :58:29. | :58:31. | |
Theresa May b) Stella Creasy c) Boris Johnson or d) Barack Obama? So | :58:32. | :58:40. | |
David, what's the correct answer? I think it is Stella Creasy because | :58:41. | :58:44. | |
she has become much more prominent. Stella Creasy is not right. A good | :58:45. | :58:48. | |
guess. Boris is the top trending politician. May is at five and | :58:49. | :58:51. | |
Stella at eight. That's all for today. Thanks to David Schneider and | :58:52. | :58:55. | |
all my guests. Andrew and I will be back at 11.30 tomorrow for the last | :58:56. | :58:59. | |
Daily Politics of 2013 and of course we'll have Prime Minister's | :59:00. | :59:03. | |
Questions live from midday. Do join us if you can. Bye bye. | :59:04. | :59:05. |