Browse content similar to 05/06/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Allied leaders prepare to commemorate the D-Day landings, but | :00:00. | :00:11. | |
they don't all feel like allies any more. Vladimir Putin's policies have | :00:12. | :00:16. | |
drawn more comparisons with 1938 than 1944. We're at the spot that | :00:17. | :00:21. | |
seven decades ago was code named Gold Beach. This was the scene of | :00:22. | :00:27. | |
the biggest amphibious assault in history. Tonight they are | :00:28. | :00:29. | |
celebrating and tomorrow the world leaders will descend on this place. | :00:30. | :00:33. | |
How are more than 700 American troops killed while rehearsing for | :00:34. | :00:38. | |
the operation. Folk memory, the only public record of the horror. When | :00:39. | :00:44. | |
dawn broke in the beach here, as far as you could see, he said, there was | :00:45. | :00:51. | |
dead bodies. We're in Newark as the poles close in the by-election, | :00:52. | :00:55. | |
could UKIP be celebrating again tomorrow, or will the aggressive | :00:56. | :01:01. | |
Tory charm offensive pay off. Terry Gilliam is let loose on an opera. | :01:02. | :01:06. | |
What could they have been thinking. I wanted to put on a good show, this | :01:07. | :01:10. | |
involves a lot of arguments with people who are purests. And I'm not | :01:11. | :01:18. | |
interested in that. You are afraid, I remember. And how should a super | :01:19. | :01:24. | |
hero behave in the dark days of 2014? We will ask one of the world's | :01:25. | :01:29. | |
most successful comic writers, Mark Miller. | :01:30. | :01:40. | |
Good evening, the irony can't be lost on the leaders of the G 7 | :01:41. | :01:49. | |
today, the 20th ary of -- anniversary of D-Day, to celebrate | :01:50. | :01:53. | |
the greatest victory the world has ever known, and to have in your | :01:54. | :01:57. | |
midst, Vladimir Putin, the politicians they can't stop. On the | :01:58. | :02:01. | |
shores of Brussels and Paris, it promises to be a mix of the curious | :02:02. | :02:06. | |
mix of the past and present, the sharp relief of landings with the G | :02:07. | :02:11. | |
7 summit hoping this time around to shape world events by diplomacy. | :02:12. | :02:19. | |
Tonight the mood here on the seafront in Normandy could only be | :02:20. | :02:23. | |
described as festive. There was a big firework display that just | :02:24. | :02:28. | |
finished. People are sampling the cider and calvados to get into the | :02:29. | :02:34. | |
spirit of the town. Thoughs of people in tents, in mobile homes, a | :02:35. | :02:42. | |
sort of historical Glastonbury. Tomorrow will be more formal. A | :02:43. | :02:46. | |
religious service in the Cathedral, services of remembrance too in war | :02:47. | :02:51. | |
cemetaries, attended by President Obama, the Queen, Angela Merkel, | :02:52. | :02:59. | |
Vladimir Putin and of course President Hollande. There are big | :03:00. | :03:04. | |
political differences between those people at the moment, that is what | :03:05. | :03:09. | |
they have been doing today, trying to reconcile the big things that | :03:10. | :03:13. | |
divide them. If British and French troops are to parade together, as | :03:14. | :03:20. | |
they will tomorrow, there are matters of protocol to be dealt | :03:21. | :03:27. | |
with. And just as this business was being resolved, a diplomatic | :03:28. | :03:32. | |
manoeuvre of far greater complexity was unfolding. For this day started | :03:33. | :03:38. | |
with an event intended to punish Russia and ended with another, where | :03:39. | :03:43. | |
the old war time allies will remember what great friends they | :03:44. | :03:49. | |
were back in 1944. So the G7 meeting this morning in Brussels shut Russia | :03:50. | :03:54. | |
out and threatened further sanctions if Russia doesn't do more to defuse | :03:55. | :04:02. | |
the congoing crisis in Ukraine. -- the on going crisis in the Ukraine. | :04:03. | :04:10. | |
We will see what Mr Putnam does -- Putin does over the next few weeks. | :04:11. | :04:15. | |
If he remains on the course we will indicate the actions we are prepared | :04:16. | :04:18. | |
to take. A little later the Queen arrived in Paris at the start of a | :04:19. | :04:23. | |
visit to commemorate D-Day, she was ahead of her host, President | :04:24. | :04:27. | |
Hollande who was rushing back from Brussels to metre. With Barack Obama | :04:28. | :04:30. | |
and David Cameron travelling in the same direction. The situation today | :04:31. | :04:33. | |
is not acceptable and it needs to change. We need the Russians to | :04:34. | :04:38. | |
properly recognise and work with this new President. We need | :04:39. | :04:43. | |
deescalation, we need to stop arms and people crossing the border, we | :04:44. | :04:47. | |
need action on these fronts. If that happens there is a diplomatic path | :04:48. | :04:52. | |
that is open. Russia had been hoping to use this moment to turn the page | :04:53. | :04:57. | |
on Ukraine, but President Obama was having none of it. He dined with Mr | :04:58. | :05:04. | |
Hollande, but refused to meet Vladimir Putin, keeping that at | :05:05. | :05:11. | |
Foreign Minister level. When President Putin flew into Paris a | :05:12. | :05:15. | |
couple of hours later, his host endured a second working dinner of | :05:16. | :05:18. | |
the evening. The diplomats hope now that by tomorrow morning the leaders | :05:19. | :05:21. | |
will have recovered their appetite for celebrating a war time alliance, | :05:22. | :05:27. | |
complete with a Russian leader who today was shunned by the US at | :05:28. | :05:34. | |
least. There was one more awkward political moment today when | :05:35. | :05:38. | |
President Obama in Brussels really set his face against Scotland | :05:39. | :05:42. | |
leaving the union. He made it quite clear that he didn't think that | :05:43. | :05:45. | |
would be a good thing. The White House and Downing Street we | :05:46. | :05:49. | |
understand felt they should get all of this politics out of the way | :05:50. | :05:53. | |
today and just focus on remembrance tomorrow. So that these issues would | :05:54. | :05:59. | |
not intrude, and obviously the key focus here at this are the veterans | :06:00. | :06:05. | |
of what happened 70 years ago. Even among the few hundred who are still | :06:06. | :06:08. | |
with us and who have come, the number who were actually on the | :06:09. | :06:11. | |
beaches, on D-Day, on the 6th of June is very, very small. And | :06:12. | :06:16. | |
earlier today I was lucky to meet such a man, Les Reeves, in one of | :06:17. | :06:26. | |
the first tanks of the landing craft and told me what it felt like as he | :06:27. | :06:32. | |
hit the beach. Everybody was scared, I mean those who said they weren't | :06:33. | :06:36. | |
scared were fools or liars basically. When we came off the | :06:37. | :06:42. | |
landing craft all you could see was water wasn't it! You know, once you | :06:43. | :06:51. | |
had cleared the water and there was that much going on, there was stuff | :06:52. | :06:56. | |
hitting the tank, and we got the headphones on and there was this | :06:57. | :07:00. | |
happening and that happening. You didn't have time to be scared, it | :07:01. | :07:08. | |
had gone. Of course what Folaued was followed was a tough campaign for | :07:09. | :07:16. | |
weeks, how much of a toll did it take on your squadron. Well, I don't | :07:17. | :07:33. | |
know really, you know... . Yeah... . What is your attitude now to the | :07:34. | :07:50. | |
Germans? The ordinary German army, they were doing the same job as us, | :07:51. | :07:55. | |
but the SS and others they were animals. Some people say this | :07:56. | :07:59. | |
generation is softer or they couldn't have stood the suffering | :08:00. | :08:04. | |
that you and your comrades with stood, is there any truth in that? I | :08:05. | :08:11. | |
don't think so. We were a generation where our fathers were in the first | :08:12. | :08:18. | |
war. When the call came we were there, weren't we. And I think | :08:19. | :08:23. | |
strongly that the generation of today would do exactly the same if | :08:24. | :08:29. | |
necessary and if needed. The thing is this, events like this must | :08:30. | :08:37. | |
continue, not only for the memory of those who didn't return to see the | :08:38. | :08:42. | |
white cliffs, but also for them to learn a lesson that war is not a | :08:43. | :08:52. | |
very good thing. Well the events of the landing are well trod, less well | :08:53. | :08:58. | |
known perhaps is the military disaster that preceded it and | :08:59. | :09:02. | |
threatened the very success of the entire allied invasion. A dress | :09:03. | :09:05. | |
rehearsal for D-Day involving tens of thousands of American troops went | :09:06. | :09:10. | |
badly wrong. More than 700 died in just one day when German torpedo | :09:11. | :09:14. | |
boats spotted landing craft ready to mount a practice assault in a beach | :09:15. | :09:20. | |
in Devon. Yet the real story of what happened that day was only uncovered | :09:21. | :09:26. | |
decades later by an eccentric beach comber from Grimsby. | :09:27. | :09:34. | |
In the ball of flame on the edges you could see black specks, jeeps, | :09:35. | :09:40. | |
men, parts of the ship, it was awful. The waters were burning and | :09:41. | :09:46. | |
it looked like the sea was on fire. Then there was another explosion, | :09:47. | :09:51. | |
another ship was torpedoed. Six weeks before D-Day and just off the | :09:52. | :09:57. | |
Devon coast a secret training exercise ends in disaster. There | :09:58. | :10:05. | |
were bodies everywhere, some in groups burned by oil, and there was | :10:06. | :10:12. | |
just a scene out of hell. Mani was one of 30,000 US troops sent to | :10:13. | :10:16. | |
south-west England to prepare for the biggest sea assault in history. | :10:17. | :10:21. | |
He survived the attack and felt the sacrifice of his countrymen was | :10:22. | :10:25. | |
ultimately worthwhile. Though his family say it deeply affected him. | :10:26. | :10:34. | |
When dawn broke in the beach here at Slapton, as far as you could see, he | :10:35. | :10:38. | |
made, there were dead bodies, but because no-one had told the soldiers | :10:39. | :10:46. | |
how to put their life vests on they put it round their waists instead of | :10:47. | :10:52. | |
over their chests, because of the weight of the back pack and | :10:53. | :10:56. | |
munitions and stuff, when they went into the water it pushed them | :10:57. | :10:59. | |
forward, most of the guys drowned. He was extremely scarred by the | :11:00. | :11:06. | |
whole exercise. By the experience, he was also very private and very | :11:07. | :11:12. | |
secretive about what happened until much later in his life. By the | :11:13. | :11:18. | |
spring of 1944 thousands of American servicemen, like Manny were waiting | :11:19. | :11:23. | |
on the south coast ready for D-Day. A stretch of the Devon shoreline was | :11:24. | :11:30. | |
chosen for the dress rehearsal, code named Exercise Tiger, the author | :11:31. | :11:34. | |
Michael Morpergo has written about the time. The city is the scene for | :11:35. | :11:41. | |
one of his best known novels. The Americans came here in 1943, very | :11:42. | :11:48. | |
deliberately choosing this beach, because the beach they were going to | :11:49. | :11:55. | |
land on across there in Normandy, Utah Beach, has great similarities | :11:56. | :11:59. | |
with this. What they wanted to do was to practice their landings, | :12:00. | :12:06. | |
which would be happening on Slapton Sands. In order to do that they had | :12:07. | :12:11. | |
to evacuate huge amounts of land, 30,000 acres had to be evacuated. | :12:12. | :12:16. | |
Six villages, all the people and animals had to be moved away. | :12:17. | :12:21. | |
Evacuation in the path of war has come to the peaceful south-west of | :12:22. | :12:29. | |
England. In 1943 this man was one of 3,000 told to leave their homes for | :12:30. | :12:36. | |
nearly a year. Now 83 she still lives in the same house. We weren't | :12:37. | :12:41. | |
told why we had to move out, we were told the land was wanted. We had to | :12:42. | :12:48. | |
get out within six weeks. So you know, it was quite an ordeal for the | :12:49. | :12:56. | |
parents. People realised that it was for a special reason that they had | :12:57. | :13:00. | |
to move out. But they didn't know why. As the residents moved out, so | :13:01. | :13:06. | |
the military moved in. A series of training exercises through April | :13:07. | :13:11. | |
1944 culminated in a large scale assault on Slapton Sands itself. The | :13:12. | :13:17. | |
whole idea is they were going to practice and make it as, I suppose, | :13:18. | :13:23. | |
as like a real battle as possible. With live fire and all the rest of | :13:24. | :13:27. | |
it. Shells would be coming over the heads of ships out there, the men | :13:28. | :13:31. | |
would be landing on the beaches, the shells would be landing in the | :13:32. | :13:34. | |
countryside and the villages all around, and then come June 1944 they | :13:35. | :13:42. | |
went over. But inbetween in April there was this terrible tragedy | :13:43. | :13:49. | |
during Exercise Tiger. As thousands of troops sailed around the bay, a | :13:50. | :13:54. | |
destroyer meant to provide cover was ordered away. The landing ships was | :13:55. | :14:00. | |
easy targets for German S-boats hunting in the channel. | :14:01. | :14:04. | |
50 servicemen died in the sea that day. US generals ordered a complete | :14:05. | :14:09. | |
news blackout. What has really happened here on the beach wouldn't | :14:10. | :14:14. | |
reach the public until the mid-1980s, 40 years after the D-Day | :14:15. | :14:18. | |
landings. The full story only came to light because of the remarkable | :14:19. | :14:23. | |
work of one retired police officer from Grimsby. Ken Small was | :14:24. | :14:28. | |
something of an eccentric a beach comber who kept asking questions | :14:29. | :14:33. | |
about the schrapnal, belts and bullets he was picking up. Then a | :14:34. | :14:37. | |
fisherman told him about a mysterious object three-quarters of | :14:38. | :14:42. | |
a mile out to sea. After the tank had been recovered naturally the | :14:43. | :14:47. | |
coverage that got internationally that did lead to people starting to | :14:48. | :14:52. | |
make contact. It became important to my dad, he wanted to create | :14:53. | :15:00. | |
something, a memorial to those who lost their lives. Slowly he started | :15:01. | :15:04. | |
piecing the story together, getting hold of unclassified documents, | :15:05. | :15:09. | |
spending hours on the phone to survivors, by 1988 he had the ear of | :15:10. | :15:14. | |
the President. It is a letter of thanks from Ronald Regan for all | :15:15. | :15:19. | |
that my dad did. "Your concern for our servicemen who made the supreme | :15:20. | :15:24. | |
sacrifice exsemplifies the strong bonds of friendship and admiration | :15:25. | :15:28. | |
that unite the people of our two countries." Historians agree there | :15:29. | :15:33. | |
was no deliberate military cover-up in this case, the official news | :15:34. | :15:36. | |
blackout was lifted a couple of months after D-Day. By then nobody | :15:37. | :15:40. | |
wanted to read about a training disaster and the story of Exercise | :15:41. | :15:45. | |
Tiger, simply faded away. Right from the people from these farms and | :15:46. | :15:49. | |
villages here, who gave up their homes and who helped this to happen, | :15:50. | :15:52. | |
who understood it and went through what they went through, to the | :15:53. | :15:57. | |
American soldiers who came over here from goodness knows where to live on | :15:58. | :16:03. | |
a, in a Devon landscape for a bit and exercise here, and then go over | :16:04. | :16:07. | |
to France, and many of them died both here in this exercise and in | :16:08. | :16:18. | |
France. Was what worth it? Of course it was. The most necessary of all | :16:19. | :16:24. | |
wars. The entire free world was at stake, his friends from New York, | :16:25. | :16:28. | |
other members of the family, his brother, they all felt they had to | :16:29. | :16:39. | |
go and fight to save the world. Despite the lost of life something | :16:40. | :16:42. | |
concrete was achieved by the operation, allied planners | :16:43. | :16:49. | |
understood the danger from fast torpedo boats, plans were changed | :16:50. | :16:53. | |
and survival training given, all this was put into practice on D-Day | :16:54. | :17:01. | |
itself in Normandy. Harry Leslie Smith is a Second World | :17:02. | :17:06. | |
War veteran, and author of Harry's Last Stand, with us tonight, joined | :17:07. | :17:13. | |
by a Russian historian at the London School of Economics and a German | :17:14. | :17:17. | |
historian at Queen Mary in London. A warm welcome to you all, thank you | :17:18. | :17:21. | |
for coming in. Harry I want to start with some of your thoughts, | :17:22. | :17:24. | |
particularly the ones you have expressed recently in the book about | :17:25. | :17:29. | |
sacrifice b whether you are no longer convinced that the sacrifice | :17:30. | :17:38. | |
your generation made was worth it? I think I my thoughts on that is the | :17:39. | :17:47. | |
fact that we fought so hard to win the war and in the election which we | :17:48. | :17:57. | |
were lucky to be involved in we all voted for liberal and when Attlee | :17:58. | :18:08. | |
took over we saw a new face from conservatism which gave us more hope | :18:09. | :18:16. | |
for a better life. Unfortunately it lasted for a long time, they did | :18:17. | :18:25. | |
well, they built new homes, they made universities for our young | :18:26. | :18:32. | |
people to go and educate themselves which didn't exist for the poor in | :18:33. | :18:43. | |
the old days. And like I said, the rationing was still on when we were | :18:44. | :18:49. | |
demobed, and it went on for a good year-and-a-half afterwards, which | :18:50. | :18:53. | |
meant that you know you got very simple rations for food it was still | :18:54. | :19:01. | |
a bleak life in the early days. But we could see change coming. And it | :19:02. | :19:11. | |
was really an uplifting time, because in those days ordinary | :19:12. | :19:18. | |
people like us we suffered misery of hunger and disease. There was no | :19:19. | :19:25. | |
health service. I lost a sister actually to TB. I remember as a kid | :19:26. | :19:38. | |
she was lying there helpless. My mother was so distraught by the | :19:39. | :19:56. | |
whole thing. She actually died in a work house. Does it feel a very | :19:57. | :20:04. | |
different place to you where we are today, the generation that you look | :20:05. | :20:13. | |
at today? It is but there is an undercurrent involved in what we | :20:14. | :20:16. | |
see, which we seem to be ignoring. There is a massive amount of people | :20:17. | :20:24. | |
who are living almost pay day to pay day and on the brink of disaster. | :20:25. | :20:29. | |
Let me bring in our historians, because for 60 years neither the | :20:30. | :20:34. | |
Russians nor the Germans have been part of these D-Day celebrations. | :20:35. | :20:39. | |
What does their presence this year tell us or signify? It might mean | :20:40. | :20:45. | |
that Germans are simply more confident about being equal | :20:46. | :20:50. | |
partners, but also that D-Day is no longer only a symbol of defeat. It | :20:51. | :20:55. | |
is also a symbol of liberation. Germans have never really remembered | :20:56. | :21:00. | |
D-Day as one of their major events, they would rather remember VE Day | :21:01. | :21:07. | |
the day of allied victory. The main debates about VE Day were whether it | :21:08. | :21:13. | |
was a day of defeat or rather a day of liberation. In 1985 that was | :21:14. | :21:20. | |
still very controversial when the German federal President held a | :21:21. | :21:26. | |
speech and said we should look at these events as events of liberation | :21:27. | :21:33. | |
because that connects us with the west. Angela Merkel today has been | :21:34. | :21:36. | |
praising the sacrifice and the bravery. Do you think that is | :21:37. | :21:40. | |
reflected at home in Germany? I don't actually think that in German | :21:41. | :21:47. | |
popular culture and in the German mind D-Day is, has anything to do | :21:48. | :21:52. | |
with heroism or was a positive memory of the war. D-Day was one of | :21:53. | :21:59. | |
many battles which signified defeat. It was actually rather Stalin | :22:00. | :22:03. | |
grabbed, the defeat at the eastern front, the bombings of the German | :22:04. | :22:08. | |
cities that really impacted Germans at the home front and also on the | :22:09. | :22:18. | |
German army. I would say that D-Day it is not that it is insignificant, | :22:19. | :22:26. | |
it is rather Stalingrad rather than D-Day. Does that chime with you, | :22:27. | :22:29. | |
does it have a significance for Russians? D-Day had a huge | :22:30. | :22:33. | |
psychological significance, it was downplayed by the Soviet propaganda | :22:34. | :22:39. | |
in 1944, because by that time of course Stalin was preparing | :22:40. | :22:44. | |
phenomenally big offensives against the German army and Belarusia and | :22:45. | :22:53. | |
Ukraine and then entering Europe. But that was the end of a third year | :22:54. | :22:58. | |
of incredibly tough fighting when the Soviets had already lost | :22:59. | :23:05. | |
millions. Jews died in millions, so by that time it was immensely | :23:06. | :23:09. | |
important for people to know when this war is going to end. So D-Day | :23:10. | :23:16. | |
came at this amazing moment and finally the second front | :23:17. | :23:22. | |
materialised. The second front which for two years the Soviet propaganda | :23:23. | :23:26. | |
promised the Soviet people that this front would appear, and their burden | :23:27. | :23:32. | |
would be lightened by the Allies. That was immensely important as a | :23:33. | :23:39. | |
moment when millions of people said Hallelujah, finally. When you say | :23:40. | :23:44. | |
"finally", is there a sense it could have come earlier? We should look at | :23:45. | :23:48. | |
the sense of how the news was presented. Stalin never recognised | :23:49. | :23:53. | |
the operations in Africa, Sicily and Italy as the proper second front. He | :23:54. | :23:58. | |
used it actually to prepare the Soviets, hey, we have to rely on | :23:59. | :24:03. | |
ourselves, the Allies are unreliable. They are not one of us, | :24:04. | :24:06. | |
they are different, they are capitalists. So still despite this, | :24:07. | :24:13. | |
despite this propaganda, despite this, common people in the trenches, | :24:14. | :24:18. | |
in the rear working, toiling day and night, they heaved a huge sigh of | :24:19. | :24:23. | |
relieve. It is often said we look at history through the prism of where | :24:24. | :24:26. | |
we are today. When you see the leaders and look at the allies and | :24:27. | :24:30. | |
the Allies within the Allies, as it were, it is a very stark picture | :24:31. | :24:35. | |
isn't it. You see the kind of diplomacy they have to do with each | :24:36. | :24:39. | |
other now? That's right, there has been a lot of discussion in Germany | :24:40. | :24:45. | |
about whether Angela Merkel would sit next to Putin, whether she would | :24:46. | :24:51. | |
talk to Obama, so I think there is a certain sense of, it is good that | :24:52. | :24:55. | |
the Germans are there and taken seriously and no longer a pariah. As | :24:56. | :25:00. | |
a historian this is quite a development from a few decades ago. | :25:01. | :25:06. | |
Thank you very much indeed. The European Central Bank has taken | :25:07. | :25:10. | |
drastic action, cut interest rates to record lose to ward off | :25:11. | :25:15. | |
deflation. It has also placed negative lending rates on its | :25:16. | :25:20. | |
overnight depositors, in order to tempt banks into lending more. The | :25:21. | :25:24. | |
ECB President confirmed the rates would stay low for longer than | :25:25. | :25:28. | |
previously foreseen, but it could take up to a year to be fully felt | :25:29. | :25:33. | |
in the economy. Our economics correspondent is here. Talks through | :25:34. | :25:38. | |
what they are doing and the negative what it implies, the rate? It was | :25:39. | :25:44. | |
either interest rate were going up or down in the past. Now we are in a | :25:45. | :25:49. | |
world of unconventional policy. What we had from the European Central | :25:50. | :25:57. | |
Bank was a lot of unconventional policy. This isn't the rate at which | :25:58. | :26:01. | |
they lend but what they pay on deposit. This is the rate if you are | :26:02. | :26:05. | |
a bank in Europe and you are putting money at the ECB they will charge | :26:06. | :26:09. | |
you to put that money there. Perhaps the most interesting thing they did | :26:10. | :26:13. | |
though, potentially one of the most significant is a big scheme to boost | :26:14. | :26:18. | |
lending in the eurozone. They will make up to 400 billions of euros of | :26:19. | :26:24. | |
cheap funding available to commercial banks, you can go and get | :26:25. | :26:28. | |
cheap funding and pass it on to the real economy. | :26:29. | :26:30. | |
Why are they doing this, what has triggered this, a real fear of | :26:31. | :26:35. | |
deflation or stagflation? That is the problem. This is a very | :26:36. | :26:39. | |
conservative Central Bank, they have had to be pushed into doing this, | :26:40. | :26:44. | |
growth and inemployment are awful. The real big issue is what is | :26:45. | :26:48. | |
happening in inflation in the eurozone. Inflation in the eurozone, | :26:49. | :26:53. | |
it is up at 2. 5% a few years ago, exactly what you would expect as | :26:54. | :26:57. | |
normal. In the past year-and-a-half two years, inflations came all the | :26:58. | :27:02. | |
way down to just 0. 5%. What people are scared about now is prices | :27:03. | :27:05. | |
actually start to fall, inflation goes negative, we get deflation. I | :27:06. | :27:09. | |
think to a lot of people the idea that stuff is getting cheaper | :27:10. | :27:13. | |
probably sounds good, it is not number one on the list of economic | :27:14. | :27:19. | |
problems. But most economists would tell you deflation is a serious | :27:20. | :27:22. | |
problem for an economy. Profits go down, wages go down, you get into | :27:23. | :27:26. | |
what people call a spiral of everything, there is no demand in | :27:27. | :27:29. | |
the economy, it sucks the life out of it. If you are a really highly | :27:30. | :27:32. | |
indebted economy, as in southern Europe, it is potentially lethal. | :27:33. | :27:39. | |
Will it actually work? I guess that is the 64 billion euro question | :27:40. | :27:45. | |
tonight! The market has been through three stage, stage number one this | :27:46. | :27:50. | |
is great, stage number 2, it is not enough, and now we are settling it | :27:51. | :27:54. | |
might be enough. It is often said you can't solve a problem by | :27:55. | :27:58. | |
throwing money at it, low inflation, you can. Is the ECB going to throw | :27:59. | :28:03. | |
enough money, do we have to wait for things to get worse before pushing | :28:04. | :28:07. | |
them into acting. The latest figures on the ebowl | :28:08. | :28:17. | |
ebola virus show 200 people have died in Ghana because of the | :28:18. | :28:24. | |
disease. We go to Brussels and speak to our guest recently working as a | :28:25. | :28:29. | |
co-ordinator in Guinea. What are the barriers when you look at the | :28:30. | :28:36. | |
problem with this outbreak? The big barrier is that the population there | :28:37. | :28:41. | |
has to be a willing participant in outbreak control. They need to work | :28:42. | :28:45. | |
with the outbreak control agencies to help bring sick people into the | :28:46. | :28:51. | |
treatment unit. And currently they are very, very scared and often | :28:52. | :28:56. | |
running away, and this is causing difficulty with bringing people into | :28:57. | :29:01. | |
a place where they can be cared for safely with the virus. The | :29:02. | :29:04. | |
population is very mobile, while they are psyche they are moving | :29:05. | :29:09. | |
about and this is -- sick they are moving about and it is causing | :29:10. | :29:12. | |
secondary outbreaks across the country. And resources are inthis. | :29:13. | :29:16. | |
There is a lot of talk and discussion about the local | :29:17. | :29:20. | |
population being very mistrustful of the foreigners or aid workers there, | :29:21. | :29:24. | |
they feel they are there for dark and different reasons? Yes, these | :29:25. | :29:31. | |
are people who live in a remote area without a lot of outside disease | :29:32. | :29:35. | |
control agencies coming on a regular basis. When they do in the setting | :29:36. | :29:40. | |
of a scary outbreak, rumours start to pass around. I have heard that we | :29:41. | :29:45. | |
are there to spread the disease, not to cure it. That we are there at the | :29:46. | :29:50. | |
behest of drug companies seeking to make a profit off the outbreak. Even | :29:51. | :29:55. | |
that we are three to harvest the organs of the deceased. When you | :29:56. | :30:01. | |
have text messages sent about spreading these rumours or that you | :30:02. | :30:07. | |
are there, we heard, harvest organs or whatever the ideas that they are | :30:08. | :30:14. | |
having, how do you combat that? We do our best to let people know what | :30:15. | :30:26. | |
we are trying to do. We also enlist survivors, people whom come into the | :30:27. | :30:29. | |
centre and done well and let the community know what we are up to. We | :30:30. | :30:35. | |
try to bring in community leaders. It works with some people but not a | :30:36. | :30:42. | |
uniformly impressive effect. Tonight the curtain has come down on | :30:43. | :30:50. | |
the first night of Cieline by the notoriously difficult French | :30:51. | :30:53. | |
composer and has not been seen in London since another World Cup year, | :30:54. | :30:58. | |
1966. The man who has risen to the challenge of making sense of | :30:59. | :31:11. | |
Cieline. Is Terry Gilliam. He granted exclusive access through the | :31:12. | :31:15. | |
rehearsals, I warn you there is some strong language. It may surprise you | :31:16. | :31:26. | |
that Terry Gillian of Monty Python fame is directing an opera at the | :31:27. | :31:32. | |
E Not just any opera, but one of the most difficult in the can non-. | :31:33. | :31:43. | |
-- cannon. Cieline is notoriously tricky, at its premier in Paris in | :31:44. | :31:53. | |
1888, the audience rioted. It has been down hill ever since. I want to | :31:54. | :32:02. | |
put on a good show, this involves a lot of arguments with people who are | :32:03. | :32:09. | |
purists. I'm not interested in that, people pay a lot of money to see | :32:10. | :32:14. | |
something and I want to really give them something they will go and | :32:15. | :32:18. | |
remember for a long time. And I don't want it just to be for opera | :32:19. | :32:27. | |
lovers. In the world of opera, there seems to be a lot of museum-like | :32:28. | :32:31. | |
thinking going on, and I really don't like that, because what worked | :32:32. | :32:35. | |
in the 19th century, why should it work in the 21 century. Everything | :32:36. | :32:45. | |
about this opera is inflated. It always bothers me because I don't | :32:46. | :32:50. | |
like opera singing in that sense where it is all arms out. The opera | :32:51. | :33:05. | |
is based on the autobiography of the Italian sculpture, Cieline, and the | :33:06. | :33:10. | |
statue the Pope asked him to cast of a Greek God. Cieline was a notorious | :33:11. | :33:28. | |
man. Terry Gilliam's kind of guy. This coy was full of hub Ritz -- | :33:29. | :33:35. | |
hubris, and has had statue, at this point in his career, it was a big | :33:36. | :34:03. | |
mistake I made and will it ever workstake I made and will it | :34:04. | :34:05. | |
We do have a carnival sequence where the world is turned upsidedown, and | :34:06. | :34:13. | |
it involves a lot of abhorrent behaviour. I'm not sure if we have | :34:14. | :34:18. | |
enough rehearsal time to really perfect this. We will see on the | :34:19. | :34:23. | |
opening night. Laughter, what a stupid joke. The whole Roman | :34:24. | :34:32. | |
carnival through to act I is some of the most rea veryious -- vivacious, | :34:33. | :34:43. | |
cheeky music he has ever composed. The reason this piece is a very | :34:44. | :34:47. | |
difficult piece is because he cared about the drama so much that he | :34:48. | :34:52. | |
didn't care whatever. It's like sing a high C sharp for no reason. And | :34:53. | :34:56. | |
people are like why, because he should be in ecstacy tonight. How | :34:57. | :35:07. | |
high would that be, ahhhhhhhh, so it is a little high. We do have maiden | :35:08. | :35:23. | |
aunts that may or may not be violated. Never too late, I always | :35:24. | :35:30. | |
say. We have, yes, some very rude behaviour in the middle of carnival, | :35:31. | :35:42. | |
because you should. There may be even some blasphemous behaviour from | :35:43. | :35:49. | |
an anti-Pope who has to be there. That is what is interesting about | :35:50. | :35:54. | |
the opera because he never knew when to stop, and Cieline the same thing. | :35:55. | :35:59. | |
And on the third bit of the magnet that is me. Out of the three two are | :36:00. | :36:12. | |
geniuses! I still want to surprise myself, I suppose. Because I find | :36:13. | :36:18. | |
life becomes more and more repetitive and more predictable as | :36:19. | :36:23. | |
you get older and you want to find something somewhere that nobody has | :36:24. | :36:27. | |
been before. I wanted to be the explorer and the world is closing in | :36:28. | :36:32. | |
so much it is becoming tiny. So let's go somewhere else, at least | :36:33. | :36:42. | |
Folau the mad men. Dare I bring up the p-word? You said to the c-word, | :36:43. | :36:52. | |
no and the p-word is nowhere at all. It is the biggest leap in work and | :36:53. | :36:58. | |
career in my life. And everything I have done as a result has been as a | :36:59. | :37:03. | |
result of Monty Python. I love the idea of going back and reliving it | :37:04. | :37:08. | |
is something different from the fact that python is why I'm sitting here | :37:09. | :37:13. | |
talking to you right now, I'm talking to you because of the python | :37:14. | :37:18. | |
show. Who is the trickyist one? Graham, because he's dead, he can't | :37:19. | :37:23. | |
complain. That is not fair. Maybe it is true, I don't know? He wasn't the | :37:24. | :37:28. | |
tricky one, tricky is an odd one, I'm not sure exactly how you would | :37:29. | :37:34. | |
define that with python. It was who was the moodiest, who was the least | :37:35. | :37:39. | |
trustworthy, who was the most backstabbing, these are games that I | :37:40. | :37:47. | |
will never mention to Newsnight! John wonderfully referred to me as | :37:48. | :37:56. | |
the conscience of python, the Jimmeney Cricket of python. I | :37:57. | :38:02. | |
thought it was the sweetest thing he said about me. What are they doing? | :38:03. | :38:12. | |
Lock, Fan Tuti that is not our pop a, we should be here this afternoon, | :38:13. | :38:23. | |
but they are putting that up. If you could develop superpowers tonight, | :38:24. | :38:27. | |
what would you do, fight crime, save the city, rob a bank, kick back, | :38:28. | :38:32. | |
enjoy it? One of the world's most successful comic book writers, Mark | :38:33. | :38:40. | |
Miller, who has penned Superman and Spiderman and Kick Ass is thinking | :38:41. | :38:55. | |
about how a super hero these days. How a super hero is behaving these | :38:56. | :39:02. | |
days. It was the time when the super heros was defined. A time when the | :39:03. | :39:06. | |
world was at war and the bad guys were the Nazis in the 1940s. As the | :39:07. | :39:11. | |
world changed and the Cold War dragged on, new characters were | :39:12. | :39:17. | |
needed to engage a more disenfranchised youth. There is a | :39:18. | :39:22. | |
new enemy out there. The X-Men were born, focussing on a team of mutated | :39:23. | :39:30. | |
humans. The comics delved deeply into the themes of racism and the | :39:31. | :39:34. | |
politics of fear. More recently questions over America's influence | :39:35. | :39:42. | |
and perceived fall billity have led to a divide. On the one side those | :39:43. | :39:47. | |
like the Avengers and on the other a question about the society we | :39:48. | :39:52. | |
inhabit. Mark Miller is one of the biggest stars writing comics right | :39:53. | :39:57. | |
now. He straddles the world of escapism and gritty reality. Perhaps | :39:58. | :40:04. | |
best known for creating stories like the Spiderman and the ultra violent | :40:05. | :40:12. | |
Kick Ass, now a franchise. He goes further, focussing on Detroit, a | :40:13. | :40:17. | |
city he believes has been left to rot by those with power. The heros | :40:18. | :40:22. | |
are from the bottom of power, questioning the very notion of the | :40:23. | :40:26. | |
American dream and how far you should help those around you. Can a | :40:27. | :40:29. | |
comic book really change perceptions and force people to take action, or | :40:30. | :40:34. | |
will it always be seen as a reactionary reflection of the world | :40:35. | :40:40. | |
we live in? You saw Mark Miller briefly in the piece. He joins us | :40:41. | :40:43. | |
from the Glasgow studio. Great to have you. I guess when we look at | :40:44. | :40:49. | |
your super heros and they attract millions of fans. Why do you think | :40:50. | :40:55. | |
there is an appetite for change? I think pop culture has to keep | :40:56. | :41:01. | |
evolving. When I was a kid growing up I read simplistic comic books and | :41:02. | :41:08. | |
as a teenager they became more sophisticated. Every ten or 20 years | :41:09. | :41:14. | |
we have to reinvent ourselves. The mainstream audience has probably | :41:15. | :41:18. | |
seen everything now it is time to try something different. Isn't the | :41:19. | :41:23. | |
point about the super hero that they are mercifully black and white, they | :41:24. | :41:26. | |
are on the side of law or on the side of evil, they allow people a | :41:27. | :41:31. | |
very, if you like, relaxing ride into what they know will happen | :41:32. | :41:35. | |
there? I know what you mean and it has certainly served that purpose. | :41:36. | :41:40. | |
Even Superman was created by two Jewish kids in the depression back | :41:41. | :41:45. | |
in the 1930s, we have always needed these heros, going back to the Greek | :41:46. | :41:49. | |
myths. I feel slightly cupable, where we worried about got shall | :41:50. | :41:58. | |
City we are forgetting -- Gotham City, we are forgetting about other | :41:59. | :42:04. | |
things. I feel while all eyes are on superheroes it is time to try | :42:05. | :42:08. | |
something more radical. Talks through the radical idea, you were | :42:09. | :42:12. | |
affected by what you saw in Detroit, how do you convey that? I see both | :42:13. | :42:17. | |
sides of America because I work in Hollywood and I work in publishing | :42:18. | :42:22. | |
and in New York and I see the extravagant side of it I see 90% of | :42:23. | :42:29. | |
the time. I book to the south and see places like Kentucky and | :42:30. | :42:34. | |
Arkansas, and I visited a friend in Detroit, it is the America we don't | :42:35. | :42:48. | |
see on television or in Comic, I thought about talking about the real | :42:49. | :42:52. | |
thing. They are more grounded in reality, how do you know the guys | :42:53. | :42:56. | |
from Detroit, who have come to the cinemas sitting there, eatingway | :42:57. | :43:00. | |
popcorn, is the last thing they want to see on the screen? I don't know | :43:01. | :43:08. | |
if there is an element of a that particular. -- catharticis I grew up | :43:09. | :43:16. | |
where there was a deindustrialisation without a plan, | :43:17. | :43:20. | |
similar to Detroit from the 50s onwards. I felt a connection with it | :43:21. | :43:26. | |
in a strange way. I love the catharsis of superheroes, rather | :43:27. | :43:32. | |
than letting Batman go out and fight for people every night. I wanted a | :43:33. | :43:36. | |
thoughter to the little guy, and maybe if you can get superpowers you | :43:37. | :43:40. | |
don't do the black and white thing and put food on the table for those | :43:41. | :43:45. | |
who cannot pay their bills any more. Easier to change that on the screen | :43:46. | :43:51. | |
but the page is flatter, I mean that in every sense? I have done the job | :43:52. | :43:56. | |
since I was 19, I will do my best. We have a Detroit screenwriter who | :43:57. | :44:04. | |
is doing the screenplay and the they are transforming it to a movie. We | :44:05. | :44:08. | |
will try to keep it as close to home. You have sent this to Obama | :44:09. | :44:13. | |
and other Congress men and women, what do you want to happen? | :44:14. | :44:17. | |
Visibility is the thing. Not for my book, I mean visibility in terms of | :44:18. | :44:25. | |
just making people not forget about Detroit. This has been going on | :44:26. | :44:32. | |
since the 19 #50S, it has been America's embarrassment. Then it | :44:33. | :44:38. | |
becomes a sexy spread in the Guardian and it is like room porn. | :44:39. | :44:45. | |
It seems strange that the forth-largest city looks like | :44:46. | :44:47. | |
something out of the Third World in places. I think visibility. Let's | :44:48. | :44:53. | |
not talk about Gotham City, if everyone going to the cinema let's | :44:54. | :44:59. | |
go and see superhero movies, let's slip this in, I want them to know | :45:00. | :45:03. | |
about and the Power Rangers. You said you felt slightly culpable of | :45:04. | :45:11. | |
the niceness, if you like of the superhero, not related to reality. | :45:12. | :45:15. | |
If it doesn't work do you still return to the spider man or | :45:16. | :45:19. | |
establishment figures that seem good. What does the violence? Do? It | :45:20. | :45:31. | |
would be great if everything was the Avengers or a Woody Allen movie, I | :45:32. | :45:40. | |
like writing things like Iron Man or Siderman. I love this gritty stuff. | :45:41. | :45:45. | |
I left marvel four years ago and worked for them through the last | :45:46. | :45:49. | |
decade, I left them to become them. My plan is to create franchises and | :45:50. | :45:58. | |
I'm nine in. I want to do the 21st version it. When all the characters | :45:59. | :46:01. | |
were created were talking about the world he was in and I'm trying to do | :46:02. | :46:06. | |
the same. Thank you very much. Now late tonight in truth about 3.00am | :46:07. | :46:11. | |
we find out whether UKIP, flushed with recent electoral success in the | :46:12. | :46:16. | |
euros have managed to secure a parliamentary seat. The by-election | :46:17. | :46:22. | |
of Newark came after Patrick Mercer stepped down and the Tories have | :46:23. | :46:28. | |
done everything they can to save the party. There are reports they are | :46:29. | :46:33. | |
busting young Tory activist -- bused in Tory activists with the promise | :46:34. | :46:37. | |
of beer if anything else. We will see you if it has had any effect. | :46:38. | :46:44. | |
What are you hearing from inside the hall, a high turnout? The | :46:45. | :46:49. | |
expectation is there is a high turn out on the basis of the ballots they | :46:50. | :46:57. | |
have brought in and checking at the moment. 45-50%. In the event result | :46:58. | :47:03. | |
you get a lot of different opinions, although it is a safe Tory seat with | :47:04. | :47:09. | |
a majority of 16,000, the Tories are insisting they are refusing to be | :47:10. | :47:12. | |
optimistic or confident or anything like that. Their opponents are | :47:13. | :47:18. | |
talking about will U cup overturn the majority, but by how much will | :47:19. | :47:24. | |
they reduce it. Everything will demand th what happens to the | :47:25. | :47:29. | |
crucial votes, 20,000 up for grabs. There is an awful lot of expectation | :47:30. | :47:36. | |
and churn, some Labour and the Lib Dems voting UKIP to hit the | :47:37. | :47:43. | |
Conservatives. Some voting story to keep UKIP out. There will be mixed | :47:44. | :47:47. | |
switching of votes. What is your sense of what would found as a | :47:48. | :47:51. | |
success for the Conservatives, how big does the majority have to be for | :47:52. | :47:58. | |
them to rest easy? I think in these volatile and fluid political times | :47:59. | :48:01. | |
they will take a win. They won't give me any kind of target when I | :48:02. | :48:06. | |
ask them those questions. UKIP is saying anything less than 5,000 | :48:07. | :48:11. | |
shows that even when the Tories throw huge resources they have, they | :48:12. | :48:25. | |
have not just thrown small things into the water they will now go for | :48:26. | :48:34. | |
more. We will be back, thank you very much. That's all for tonight. | :48:35. | :48:45. | |
A dry note on Friday, more in the way of low cloud. A few spots of | :48:46. | :49:00. | |
rain from that. A few isolated showers drifting up from the west, | :49:01. | :49:05. | |
west Wales in the direction of Northern Ireland in the | :49:06. | :49:06. |