05/09/2014 Newsnight


05/09/2014

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The rebels, the Russians and the Ukrainian leader agree a safe. I

:00:00.:00:12.

give an order to the chief of my military to declare a ceasefire. In

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half an hour's time. But will it last, we speak to one of the few

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women to heads a country within the alliance.

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And this: IMF research has recently found, this may not surprise you

:00:29.:00:32.

that the typical forecast missed every single recession, all around

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the world, every single time. An unblemished record of complete

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failure. Why are we so bad at seeing the future, these two might know.

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And a treat from our proms preview season, the celebrated clarinettist,

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Dimitri Ashkenazy. Good evening, it was an outcome of

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sorts, 1300 miles away from the NATO summit in Wales Vladimir Putin

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orchestrated a ceasefire between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian

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separatist. It endorsed an exchange of prisoners, the creation of a

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humanitarian corridor for refugees and aid, but offered no clarity at

:01:24.:01:27.

all in the future of the region. It is hard to imagine Putin's timing

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was anything other than a desire to draw the light and the impetuous

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from NATO, who announced a new rapid reaction spearhead force to boost

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eastern defences with a no so rapid timetable. It will become

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operational at the end of next year our diplomatic editor has been

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speaking to the NATO secretary-general.

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The summer ended as it began with the Ukrainian issue cast ago shadow.

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There was a new rapid Reaction Force implicitly to come to the aid of the

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Kremlin's next target, since Ukraine's President was here this

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afternoon, conceding he has had enough. Calling an immediate

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ceasefire. First of all I welcome any attempt to stop the bloodshed

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and the violence and if this ceasefire is implemented in good

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faith is could be the first step in a constructive political process.

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One of the headline outcomes I suppose from the summit is this new

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high-readiness tax force, you have called it a spearhead for FLAIT NATO

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reinforcement for members who feel they are coming under pressure from

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Russia. We have heard this afternoon it won't be ready for a year or me,

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will that impress the Kremlin? We have already taken steps and we will

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now enhance these measures to reinforce our collective defence.

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But we hear that the enforcement of the new high readiness force isn't

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started, is it one of those things that NATO like the principle but

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look at their shoes when it comes to contributing forces? At today's

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meetings I heard the first announcements of contributions to

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this spearhead force and that's much sooner than we had expected. So it

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demonstrates there is very clear determination to take the steps

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necessary to provide effective deterrents and defence. On the

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margins of this event, at the fancy dinners and in the hidden

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bilaterals, the crisis in Iraq and Syria absorbed the leaders too. But

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for all the Cummings and goings of John Kerry and Barack Obama, signs

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that forming a grand coalition against the Islamic state is not

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easy, despite the urgency of the cause. For Islamic extremism in

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Syria and Iraq, what has impressed me this week is just how the

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alliance has come together and realised we have all got to help

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tackle this. We hear people using phrases like "there won't be

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military action involving the UK for weeks at least", is that realistic

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or could it happen sooner than that? There is a huge amount done already.

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We have used the RAF to drop humanitarian supplies, both on mount

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Singa and relieving the siege at Ameli. We have been asked to do

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these things and we are willing to do that. We have a new Iraqi

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Government, we hope being formed next week and the alliance committed

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to making sure we do everything possible to help that new Government

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in the decisions it is going to take, to help halt the advance of IS

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and roll it back. If NATO sounds like an organisation launching its

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sell simultaneously towards -- itself simultaneously towards two

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and three different issues, the capability on display has to be paid

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for. That means reversing decades of defence cuts and signing up to a new

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ten-year target. This summit has been a clear demonstration of

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resolve, unity, cohesion and Governments from 28 allies have

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committed to reverse the trend of declining defence investment. And

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also to develop the necessary military capability to address these

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new security challenges. You know that some of these commitments, so

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called, are interpreted in a pretty elastic way politically by some of

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the members. When they talk about a 2% target for defence spending as a

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proportion of their economy, in ten years time, do you think

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realistically that NATO members will meet it? I think we will now turn a

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corner and you will see a gradual increase in defence investments and

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I would say the turning point is Russia's aggression against Ukraine.

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Because that has been a wake-up call, a reminder that we cannot take

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our security for granted. That has led to a reconsideration in many

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capitals, as regards defence spending. On his way home Barack

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Obama dropped in at Stonehenge. NATO's partisans like to portray it

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as monolithic in its resolve. But the impression of the past few days

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is of a group of leaders who have just about agreed on some new steps

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and now wonder how to sell those to their people.

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As well as becoming Denmark's first female Prime Minister, Helle

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Thorning-Schmidt shot to selfie infamy when she shot one with

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herself and Barack Obama controversially at Nelson Mandela's

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memorial. Now she's back with the subjects of a viral photograph as

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well as other leaders in the NATO summit in Wales. I went to meet her

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earlier. NATO has two big issues to grapple with, Ukraine and IS,

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addressing questions of what NATO is about, an existential question about

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what NATO is for. Can we deal first with Ukraine. A ceasefire set at

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5.00 tonight, will that then mean sanctions will start to be lifted?

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First of all to your question what is NATO all about, I think one word

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sums it up, it is about solidarity. And what we have discussed here for

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two days is basically how we show solidarity with the most vulnerable

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countries, that is closest to the Russian border, this is what we are

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going to do. We have shown resolve in order, in terms of doing that.

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And in the coming weeks and months we will see that we are showing that

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kind of resolve. Do you need to have sanctions imposed still? It is all

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to Russia, I mean there's, now we need to see action on the ground.

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There is a lot of words in this conflict, now we need to see action

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on the ground, that will determine whether we need to turn up the

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sanctions or not. It is interesting Putin signs the agreement and yet

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doesn't admit to troops in Ukraine, proof that you cannot trust him? I

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don't think it is so productive to go into that discussion, the most

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important now is to underline that if there is a negotiated agreement

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to stop using weapons then that is what we are hoping for. We will of

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course still prepare the sanctions and what we need basically is not to

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have more words but see action on the ground. Yesterday the Lithuanian

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President told Newsnight if you don't deal sufficiently with

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President Putin over Ukraine, next time it will be a NATO country on

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President Putin over Ukraine, next Russia's border? There is a big

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difference between being a NATO country and not being a NATO

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country, and I'm sure that the Russians can see that difference as

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well. What we have done at this meeting is really confirm our

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solidarity, not just in words, but also in action, and that means, for

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example, that we will have strengthening our NATO headquarters

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in Poland. We are doing air policing already, Denmark is contributing to

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that. And other ways of showing that we have that solidarity and that we

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are prepared to show that to our most vulnerable member states in

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NATO. Let's turn to IS, David Cameron was very firm last night

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when he talked about the fact that countries that paid ransom allowed

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IS to wreak havoc, is he right? He is right, ransom is partly what is

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funding the IS, and we have to be very serious about the question. I

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think he's right to raise that question. But we had a Danish

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hostage who was a photo journalist, Daniel Rayortison with James Foley

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in Syria, he came home alive. Did the Danish Government pay a ransom?

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We did not, we never deal with terrorists and never pay ransoms to

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terrorists. We will never do that. But we know the French do, how can

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NATO act in concert when a key member does that? This is a relevant

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discussion. I appreciate the British Prime Minister bringing it up. I

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just want to say clearly from the Danish side we never deal with

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terrorists, we never pay ransom to terrorists. And finally, as a Prime

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Minister and particularly as a female Prime Minister you are always

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under scrutiny, so have you taken another selfie with Barack Obama and

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David Cameron here at the NATO summit? I haven't, I didn't feel the

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need to because I have one already! Prime Minister, thank you very much!

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Very good, I like that! Just to mention the fans of Borg can find

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out what the Danish Prime Minister thinks of that show on our YouTube

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channel. Ahead of the NATO summit President Obama announced that the

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US had no strategy for dealing with Islam Islamic State, today he said

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they posed a real and long-term threat to the alliance and he and

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John Kerry would be working to build a broader alliance to deal with the

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terror group in the region. Laura joins me now. First of all it

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was very much IS on the margin because the focus was on Ukraine?

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Thats That is absolutely right. There is clearly an ambition for

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action there. There were plenty of conversations taking place. The

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question of practicalities and the optics here. We understand that

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there is now a coalition of ten countries, countries like France and

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Australia who have indicated that they are willing to participate in

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some form of action. But crucially, for example, France expressed today

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going public that they would be willing to take action against IS in

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Iraq, but not in Syria. Also crucially important to America is

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that what someone in Government described to me as respectable

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regional partners are also involved. But significant today that the U

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Knighted Arab Emirates was at the NATO meeting. They are not a member

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but they were there, and they made a public statement saying unified

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action was very important. On the home front are MPs being canvassed

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very quietly about air strikes? There are conversations about

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willingness to take some kind of action. This is rolling the pitch

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rather than putting specific proposals or trying to tally the

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numbers for any kind of vote. There are two very important conditions

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for the UK Government. Like the Americans the UK is determined that

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you have to have respectable regional partners involved and also

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that a stable, or what looks like it might be a stable new Iraqi

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Government will be in place, there would not be sectarian leadership.

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In the diary, we have a significant British event the Scottish

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referendum on the 18th, it is unlikely the Government will push

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anything controversial before that. But that is a second order issue, if

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you like. The two other big conditions are ones that would have

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to be met and this is all before President Obama sets out his vision

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at the UN and that's not for another couple of weeks. Thank you very much

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indeed. If you had said at the beginning of the year that Brazil

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would hose 7-0 in the World Cup or the British economy would be the

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fastest growing in the G 7 you would have been laughed out of the room.

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These are interesting times, why do the forecasters not forecast the big

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stuff and get the little stuff wrong. We peer into the world of

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political and economic forecasting. Consider the vital human subject of

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economics and politics that so engage Newsnight's discerning

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audience. When it comes to such matters we're terrible at making

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forecasts. Why? Why is it that the fancy

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forecasts we keep hearing from the Government, City economists and the

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International Monetary Fund simply aren't very good. IMF research has

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recently found, and this may not surprise you, that the typical

:14:44.:14:46.

forecast missed every single recession, all around the world,

:14:47.:14:52.

every single time. An unblemished record of complete failure.

:14:53.:14:58.

Sometimes you just need a friend, someone close to you, someone plain

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speaking to tell you what everyone else is thinking. In this case it

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was the Queen, after the banking crisis she visited the London School

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of Economics and asked its great academics why did no-one see it

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coming? It is fair question, and not only for the economists, who

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predicted the Arab Spring, the drop in crime in Britain, the impact of

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the internet and the smartphone, the fall of the Berlin wall. Bad

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forecasts matter. Governments and businesses are always trying to peer

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into future. Forecast influences our foreign policy, the size of the army

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or police force, resources for school systems, border controls and

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billions flowing around the stock market. Why are forecasters so bad

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at their jobs. One reason is that the world is a complicated place,

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you can't see the future of Ukraine any more than you can see how many

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Conservative MPs will defect to UKIP. It is foolish to ask for

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predictions about the fundamentally unpredictable. A second reason is

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that when forecasters make predictions, they are not trying to

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see into the future. They are prone to bias. They are trying to say

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something original, or they are cheering for their side in an

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argument, or they are selling a product. Economic and political

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forecasts are like horoscopes, horoscopes aren't accurate because

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they are -- popular because they are accurate but they are engaging and

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seeming plausible at the time. We don't have to give up on the whole

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forecasting issue, a group of psychologists in America have been

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running a vast geological competition with thousands of

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participants. They have discovered a select group they call the "super

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forecasters", they are uncannily good at making predictions. They

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also know what can and can't be predicted. They know when they are

:17:10.:17:13.

speaking with insight and when they are just randomly throwing darts. So

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how do they do it? Here are three secrets to super forecasting. One,

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feedback. Forecasters make predictions about casualties in Gaza

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or the next move in Ukraine and they quickly see if the predictions are

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right. The feedback comes again and again, so the best forecasters soon

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learn what they can and can't predict. Two, work in teams. Super

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forecasters are even better when they are working in teams, they

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challenge each other. Three, prove yourself wrong. Super forecasters

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actively try to prove themselves wrong. They try to see the opposite

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side of any argument, probing their own thinking for weaknesses. To be

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honest, that sounds like exhausting, thanksless, anxious work, but at

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least now we might be able to see some things coming and that might

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please everyone. Governments, businesses, even the Queen.

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Tim Harford, who not, coincidently has an article in the Financial

:18:23.:18:26.

Times weekend magazine about how to best predict the future. Who would

:18:27.:18:30.

predict I got the score wrong, it was 7-1, Brazil versus Germany. We

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have Ben Lauderdale of the LSE who has developed a model to predict the

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next election, and Jackie Stevens from Northwestern University joins

:18:42.:18:45.

us too. Jackie Stevens your argument is that it is just a bad thing to

:18:46.:18:52.

try to predict the future at all? That's correct, I don't see a lot of

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value from the kind of short-term forecasting that social scientists

:18:58.:19:01.

have been relatively successful at, or the kind of selection modelling

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that doesn't seem to be especially useful, and the kinds of important

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events about which the public would have something at stake, political

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scientists and social scientists have not fared very well at

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predicts. For example election modelling, you would say withdraw

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funding for that kind of prediction that political scientists undertake?

:19:24.:19:27.

Well I wouldn't say withdraw all funding, my argument is that funding

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should be distributed on the basis of people having political science

:19:33.:19:37.

PhDs by the NSF in the United States, on a random basis and not

:19:38.:19:43.

based on particular social networks or past peer reviewed publications.

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Here in the studio we have Ben Lauderdale a daily bread forecaster.

:19:53.:19:55.

What is your general election forecast at the moment? Our best

:19:56.:20:02.

guess is Conservatives 301 Labour 295. However one of the things we

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try to emphasise in the forecast is uncertainty. The fact that we don't

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know that number. The margin of error is plus or minus 50 seats

:20:10.:20:12.

either side of that for both of the two parties. What that tells us is

:20:13.:20:18.

not this particular number will happen on election day, it would be

:20:19.:20:21.

foolhardy, but instead more likely than not there will be a hung

:20:22.:20:28.

parliament. But given what we know from history, geography and

:20:29.:20:32.

demography and polls available bringing that information together,

:20:33.:20:35.

there is fairly good evidence that a hung parliament is likely but either

:20:36.:20:40.

party could still manage a majority. Dr Stevens point is that is useless

:20:41.:20:44.

for the public, that information doesn't help the public, we should

:20:45.:20:48.

be concentrating on forecasting things that will actually make a

:20:49.:20:52.

difference? I won't claim that forecasting the next general

:20:53.:20:56.

election is the most important task for social scientists, I do think it

:20:57.:20:58.

is interesting and important. There are lots of stakes to the next

:20:59.:21:01.

general election in the UK, for a range of policy areas, there are

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stakeholders in those areas, people who care about immigration policy,

:21:06.:21:09.

who care about social welfare. So often you get it wrong? It is

:21:10.:21:13.

whether we get it wrong or right on any given case, it is a worthwhile

:21:14.:21:17.

exercise to try to get better at these forecasts. Is it a worthwhile

:21:18.:21:22.

exercise to get better at that, is it also a worthwhile exercise to get

:21:23.:21:26.

better at economic forecasting given what Tim Harford said, that it is so

:21:27.:21:30.

often wrong? Well, I think there is opportunity cost in the ways that we

:21:31.:21:34.

invest our resources in the social sciences. And so to the extent that

:21:35.:21:38.

we put our money into trying to guess the next general election we

:21:39.:21:41.

are not putting our money into developing let's say the kind of

:21:42.:21:46.

symbolic or cultural or other kinds of litties that might be important

:21:47.:21:50.

for helping the public orient themselves from Elementary School on

:21:51.:21:54.

ward to understand how events interact in a complex world. And

:21:55.:21:58.

instead by reducing our questions to those that can be answered by

:21:59.:22:03.

quantitative methods we foreclose real opportunities to try to enrich

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our understandings more generally. Would that not be more productive? I

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think having a range of topics under consideration is important. I don't

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think it is a very compelling argument to say we shouldn't do any

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of this. I certainly wouldn't recommend that everyone be engaged

:22:19.:22:23.

in these kinds of forecasting projects but they have an important

:22:24.:22:26.

role to play in checking that we know what we say we know. What about

:22:27.:22:31.

Tim Harford saying that super forecasters do different things.

:22:32.:22:35.

They review their work all the time. They work in teams and actually the

:22:36.:22:41.

predicting the, the wrong predictions are as valuable as the

:22:42.:22:44.

right predictions you are not drilling down? That is absolutely

:22:45.:22:48.

right. I work in a team with colleagues at the University of East

:22:49.:22:58.

Anglia, and Durham, we do bounce ideas off each other and we go back

:22:59.:23:02.

to 2010 to see how good the predictions are, we are not perfect,

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we miss lots of seats, we do as well as anyone at the time or maybe a

:23:08.:23:10.

little better. At the end of a week when opinion polls in the Scottish

:23:11.:23:14.

referendum have tightened from just a few points from a commanding lead

:23:15.:23:21.

for the Better Together campaign, Freeland emits a howl of pain at the

:23:22.:23:24.

possibility of Scotland leaving the union in less than two weeks time,

:23:25.:23:28.

he writes if Britain loses Scotland it will feel like an amputation. He

:23:29.:23:33.

worries that a poll might show a small lead for yes, and he says the

:23:34.:23:39.

British will become an extinct term. To get reflections on the last two

:23:40.:23:41.

weeks of campaigning Jonathan Freeland is here, and joining us

:23:42.:23:47.

from Scotland is Professor Philips O'Brien, part of the yes campaign.

:23:48.:23:54.

Jonathan Freeland, first of all, do you think the tone you are adapting

:23:55.:23:58.

is one that should have been adopted from the start? I'm not sure it

:23:59.:24:03.

would have been helpful for the campaign, the effect on people like

:24:04.:24:06.

me outside Scotland isn't the criteria by which the electorate in

:24:07.:24:09.

this contest are deciding. The choice they are making is what kind

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of Scotland is better for Scotland. One that is independent or one part

:24:14.:24:18.

of the union. So the effective break-up on England and Wales and

:24:19.:24:26.

Northern Ireland isn't th germaine. You seem to have not necessarily

:24:27.:24:30.

woken up but feeling it more viscerally now, do you think in the

:24:31.:24:34.

next two weeks that there will be a different atmosphere in England? I

:24:35.:24:37.

hope so. I have been writing on this for quite a long time. I haven't

:24:38.:24:41.

just woken up to it, but the prospect of a yes vote will

:24:42.:24:45.

concentrate the mind. So far it hasn't been concentrated, I think

:24:46.:24:48.

people have thought it is important but it will be a no vote. Now there

:24:49.:24:52.

is the prospect of a yes. I attached you to the yes campaign, which I

:24:53.:24:55.

shouldn't have said but I should have said you are a yes supporter?

:24:56.:24:59.

I'm an academic and tried to be evenhanded about the whole campaign.

:25:00.:25:03.

You are trying to be neutral in this, tell me what you think about

:25:04.:25:08.

the emphasis on the economy as the balancering ram of both sides --

:25:09.:25:12.

battering ram of both sides? It was always going to come down to that

:25:13.:25:15.

any way. Ultimately if people vote, one of the most interesting polls

:25:16.:25:20.

from years ago if you were going to be ?500 worse off you would vote

:25:21.:25:23.

against independence, if you felt you would be ?500 better off you

:25:24.:25:26.

would vote for it. The economy would be the defining issue of it. I think

:25:27.:25:31.

what has come down now is they are trying to sell two very different

:25:32.:25:35.

visions of what would happen after independence, the yes campaign's

:25:36.:25:38.

vision is things would get better. That Scotland could go off on its

:25:39.:25:43.

own and the unionists are saying it is simply too risky. Now we are in a

:25:44.:25:48.

situation where things are going to perhaps get you know pretty angry,

:25:49.:25:54.

in these last ten days a number of events are going to happen that

:25:55.:25:57.

perhaps will increase it. Where do you think that the key moments will

:25:58.:26:00.

come. What would be the key issues, what we are having now is we are

:26:01.:26:04.

having a ride north by everybody from John Prescott to David Cameron,

:26:05.:26:08.

probably together in the same bus? I would say angry would be really bad,

:26:09.:26:12.

if it gets angry then that would not be good for the no campaign. I think

:26:13.:26:16.

if you look at the Canadian experience what you want is a real

:26:17.:26:19.

love bomb, and not from politicians and celebrities. I think what's

:26:20.:26:24.

happened up in Scotland is there is letters from celebrities, there are

:26:25.:26:27.

politicians saying stay in the union. The interesting thing in the

:26:28.:26:30.

Canadian experience is average Canadians outside of question beck

:26:31.:26:36.

weretation -- Quebec, were saying please day, we want you to. That

:26:37.:26:40.

would be more effective than politicians and celebrities. In the

:26:41.:26:44.

Quebec case you had the emotional tightening of the vote in ten days

:26:45.:26:48.

and in the end it didn't deliver, there is a lot to play for? The last

:26:49.:26:52.

ten days are crucial, the fact that people are coming up, there may be a

:26:53.:26:56.

feeling in Scotland that will say what took you so long now you come

:26:57.:27:01.

up in the last two week, some of the messages could be

:27:02.:27:04.

counter-productive. In six days out from the referendum there is the

:27:05.:27:11.

prospect of a UKIP rally in Glasgow and in Edinburgh a very strong

:27:12.:27:17.

loyalist Orange Order march, both big events. I mean putting your own

:27:18.:27:22.

politics aside, looking at the impact of UKIP on a Scottish

:27:23.:27:26.

electorate what might that achieve? It is troubling for the no campaign,

:27:27.:27:30.

because that will tar them with the brush they don't want to be tarred

:27:31.:27:34.

with. UKIP did pretty well in the elections in Scotland, 10% of the

:27:35.:27:38.

vote, but that is a small constituency, what they need to know

:27:39.:27:41.

that may turn off, huge numbers of other Scottish voters who think it

:27:42.:27:44.

is little England nationalism they don't want any part of. If I was in

:27:45.:27:50.

the no campaign I would be telling Nigel Farage and the Orange Order to

:27:51.:27:54.

stay away. Absolutely, one of the things that showed that Scots could

:27:55.:27:59.

vote for independence if they believed the United Kingdom would

:28:00.:28:04.

leave the EU. If UKIP comes and brings a big thing about the union

:28:05.:28:08.

they are more likely to help break it up. Behind you you have the

:28:09.:28:13.

Clyde, in the hydro, one of the big new event places on the 11th

:28:14.:28:17.

September, there will be a BBC debate that has either 10,000 or

:28:18.:28:22.

12,000 new voters in it. That's going to be broadcast on BBC, the

:28:23.:28:27.

impact of first-time voters it was thought to be the great vote winner

:28:28.:28:30.

but that hasn't proved to be the case at the moment? I think it will

:28:31.:28:34.

be an extraordinary turnout. I think it is one of the things we can't

:28:35.:28:38.

really use previous models, I was interested in your earlier

:28:39.:28:41.

discussion. Because the turnout is so heavy, it is impossible to say

:28:42.:28:43.

what the key constituencies are going to be, will it be the young

:28:44.:28:48.

voters, older voters, people who haven't voted before. We are simply

:28:49.:28:51.

into a grey area because it is such an important vote and will have such

:28:52.:28:56.

a high turnout. Thank you very much indeed. That is just about all for

:28:57.:29:00.

this week, we leave you with another live preview of next week's prom,

:29:01.:29:05.

this time with a renowned clarinettist, Dimitri Ashkenazy,

:29:06.:29:08.

he's performing the final melody from the end of Sir Peter Maxwell

:29:09.:29:18.

Davies's Strathclyde Concerto No 4. Good night.

:29:19.:29:48.

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