Browse content similar to 03/12/2015. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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It didn't take long for military action to start, | :00:07. | :00:08. | |
57 minutes after the vote in the Commons. | :00:09. | :00:12. | |
Yesterday MPs showed their inclination for air strikes. | :00:13. | :00:15. | |
But do we have the ability for a sustained and effective campaign? | :00:16. | :00:25. | |
The Syria operation will plays another great burden on the royal | :00:26. | :00:33. | |
air force, I'm confident they will be ready for that, but there is | :00:34. | :00:37. | |
always the possibility of overstretching an already stretched | :00:38. | :00:38. | |
military. he has a ground force ready to | :00:39. | :00:41. | |
attack IS, but there's a snag. Also tonight, | :00:42. | :00:45. | |
they're counting the votes in the Oldham by-election, but meanwhile | :00:46. | :00:47. | |
Labour MPs are preoccupied by We'll hear from an MP complaining | :00:48. | :00:49. | |
of online attacks and ask what the party leadership | :00:50. | :00:53. | |
plans to do about it. I am worried that social media may | :00:54. | :00:58. | |
be poisoning politics, people who are spilling abuse, bile, bullying, | :00:59. | :01:04. | |
it is not conducive to the way that we should do politics in this | :01:05. | :01:06. | |
country. This is like an episode of Bake Off | :01:07. | :01:37. | |
that I missed Chris Arquin LAUGHTER -- that I missed (!) LAUGHTER | :01:38. | :01:45. | |
So, the first British sorties into Syria were described as successful. | :01:46. | :01:48. | |
But what about day 100, or day 1,000? | :01:49. | :01:52. | |
We have, after all, been told to expect a long campaign. | :01:53. | :01:55. | |
Will we be out in three years? There are no guarantees. | :01:56. | :01:57. | |
Our diplomatic editor Mark Urban looks at how effective | :01:58. | :01:59. | |
and how sustained our military effort might be. | :02:00. | :02:01. | |
VOICEOVER: Britain is moving its campaign against the self-proclaimed | :02:02. | :02:04. | |
Islamic State into a different gear, doubling the number of jets flying | :02:05. | :02:11. | |
from Cyprus, and leaving many wondering how role this will go on | :02:12. | :02:17. | |
and how it will end. Let's be clear, I do not think there is any military | :02:18. | :02:22. | |
solution to the region, but the military can provide the time and | :02:23. | :02:26. | |
space for a political solution to grow roots, and I have no doubt, | :02:27. | :02:30. | |
that my military colleagues will tackle that challenge with great | :02:31. | :02:35. | |
courage, professionalism and determination, I just hope that is | :02:36. | :02:41. | |
matched by political masters over the long-term. Last night's strike | :02:42. | :02:45. | |
by four Tornados in an oilfield in eastern Syria has upped Britain's | :02:46. | :02:50. | |
role, in what is a large coalition. The US-led effort has conducted a | :02:51. | :02:59. | |
total of 8573 strikes in Iraq and Syria, since it all began. By | :03:00. | :03:06. | |
comparison, the UK has carried out 380 strikes, in Iraq, with the | :03:07. | :03:10. | |
tornadoes and Reaper drones that it is already operating, just over 4% | :03:11. | :03:16. | |
of the total, 7% of the strikes in Iraq. Russia, since its dramatic | :03:17. | :03:21. | |
entry into the conflict two months ago, has managed over 2300 strikes | :03:22. | :03:27. | |
but there is some dispute about how they count them, far more common in | :03:28. | :03:33. | |
any case, than Britain can do. Then we will have some token aircraft | :03:34. | :03:36. | |
over there from the British, they will drop a few bombs, we will say | :03:37. | :03:42. | |
thank you very much, and we will... The president will be able to say, " | :03:43. | :03:46. | |
now we have the British helping us! " And that is good. Not achieve | :03:47. | :03:52. | |
nothing, they will achieve a little something, but air strikes alone | :03:53. | :03:56. | |
will not win a conflict. In truth, with the RAF at its current size, | :03:57. | :04:02. | |
all it can hope to be is a junior, if effective member of an | :04:03. | :04:07. | |
international coalition. And now that 16 jets have been committed to | :04:08. | :04:12. | |
this operation, there really is no more slack in the system. With the | :04:13. | :04:17. | |
Defence Secretary saying that they may have two bomb for years, if | :04:18. | :04:19. | |
necessary, the cabinet must be may have two bomb for years, if | :04:20. | :04:23. | |
hoping that there are no other crises that emerge anywhere else. | :04:24. | :04:33. | |
How much will the new typhoons contribute to degrading I S? They | :04:34. | :04:38. | |
can drop bombs but a smaller variety of them than the tornado, some | :04:39. | :04:45. | |
experts argue that Typhoon's best role maybe as a fighter in dangerous | :04:46. | :04:52. | |
skies. With the tornado having an optimised air to ground radar, and | :04:53. | :04:57. | |
heavily laden with weapons and sensors, it may well be that the | :04:58. | :05:02. | |
typhoon, because of the enhanced air to air threat, possibly, they are | :05:03. | :05:06. | |
putting out the typhoon as an escort. It may be that the packages | :05:07. | :05:14. | |
that go in will go in with four Tornados and two typhoons. Five | :05:15. | :05:20. | |
front line typhoons woodlands, 12 jets each. -- squadrons. 12 are | :05:21. | :05:25. | |
required to defend the UK, then there is Baltic air policing and the | :05:26. | :05:28. | |
defence of the Falklands, leaving around to squadrons spare, which | :05:29. | :05:34. | |
will be needed to sustain the six playing the poignant in Cyprus. The | :05:35. | :05:39. | |
only other aircraft the RAF has that can bomb, the ageing tornado, and | :05:40. | :05:44. | |
that is also now fully committed. All of that is in the future, there | :05:45. | :05:48. | |
is no doubt that over the short-term, the commitment to the | :05:49. | :05:53. | |
Syria operation is going to place another greater burden on the royal | :05:54. | :05:56. | |
air force. I'm confident they will be ready for that, but there is | :05:57. | :06:01. | |
always implications of overstretching an already stretched | :06:02. | :06:07. | |
military. Russia, America, France and the UK are all now bombing | :06:08. | :06:10. | |
Islamic State in Syria, the organisation is under intense | :06:11. | :06:14. | |
pressure. For Britain, upping and sustaining involvement will not be | :06:15. | :06:20. | |
easy, but in its own way, that is evidence of a significant national | :06:21. | :06:21. | |
commitment. STUDIO: Mark Urban reporting | :06:22. | :06:39. | |
with some military maths. The air strikes are just one part | :06:40. | :06:41. | |
of what we are told is the British The other is some kind | :06:42. | :06:44. | |
of settlement for the future of Syria, that might provide | :06:45. | :06:47. | |
an army and an alternative to IS. Lyse Doucet is the BBC's Chief | :06:48. | :06:50. | |
International Correspondent Last night we spoke with you, for | :06:51. | :06:56. | |
the immediate response, but you have spoken with the Syrian government is | :06:57. | :06:59. | |
now, what is their take on this British intervention? The tape is in | :07:00. | :07:04. | |
two parts, first, the information minister, all of the senior | :07:05. | :07:07. | |
officials, say that Britain is basically breaking international | :07:08. | :07:10. | |
law, violating Syrian airspace by not doing what Russia has done, and | :07:11. | :07:16. | |
request informal position to enter the skies. Secondly, most | :07:17. | :07:20. | |
importantly, he insisted that the air campaign was, as he put it, a | :07:21. | :07:24. | |
show of bravado for the benefit of the British public and Parliament, | :07:25. | :07:28. | |
that it would not have any impact, because it was not coordinated with | :07:29. | :07:33. | |
the Syrian army, and that, he said, was the path to success, and Britain | :07:34. | :07:38. | |
was doomed to fail in the air campaign, against the presence of | :07:39. | :07:47. | |
Islamic State. The talks, Vienna talks, that are the great hope for | :07:48. | :07:52. | |
getting there, give us your view, the realism, of delivering very | :07:53. | :08:01. | |
much, very quickly? There are two phrases that government officials | :08:02. | :08:05. | |
used often in the debate in the British Parliament, and after it | :08:06. | :08:12. | |
ended, the first was the Vienna process, the second was winning the | :08:13. | :08:15. | |
peace. There was a significant breakthrough in in recent months, | :08:16. | :08:22. | |
only significant because of the very low bar in Syria, where there has | :08:23. | :08:25. | |
been deadlocked for five years, and that is that all of the main outside | :08:26. | :08:28. | |
players involved in one way or another on one side or another in | :08:29. | :08:32. | |
this war, all sat together around one table in Vienna. If the 1 table | :08:33. | :08:38. | |
was the only point of unity, that recess, they have come up with what | :08:39. | :08:41. | |
they call a transition plan, which would take place over two years, but | :08:42. | :08:45. | |
there is still vast gaps, most importantly of all, the question of | :08:46. | :08:51. | |
president Bashar al-Assad, arid states are now saying, this is a | :08:52. | :08:55. | |
concession, the process of transition, going to a totally new | :08:56. | :08:59. | |
order of power here, both in security terms and terms of | :09:00. | :09:01. | |
political institutions, can start with Bashar al-Assad, to avoid total | :09:02. | :09:07. | |
collapse, as we have seen in neighbouring states, but it must end | :09:08. | :09:10. | |
without him, Iran and Russia ironclad doubly opposed. -- and | :09:11. | :09:19. | |
Russia are implacable in their opposition. Golf states have blamed | :09:20. | :09:24. | |
each other for the continuing the stable as Asia not just in Syria but | :09:25. | :09:28. | |
across the region. The other one is winning the peace, bear in mind that | :09:29. | :09:33. | |
Syrian talks in Vienna did not have any Syrians around the table, that | :09:34. | :09:36. | |
is supposed to be the next step, the Syrians themselves will sit | :09:37. | :09:40. | |
together. There is no sense at all that there is any thing, on their | :09:41. | :09:44. | |
agenda, they are literally opposed, still speaking with contempt. There | :09:45. | :09:50. | |
is no sense that the optimistic statements we have heard today, from | :09:51. | :09:54. | |
senior government officials in Britain, political transition, would | :09:55. | :09:58. | |
be under way in any time soon. -- Gulf states. It is going to be a | :09:59. | :10:03. | |
long haul and a very messy long haul. | :10:04. | :10:06. | |
Now, in the complex web of different groups fighting IS | :10:07. | :10:09. | |
in Syria, there is one that has been seen as a more reliable ally | :10:10. | :10:12. | |
Their fighters, the Peshmerga in Iraq and the YPG in Syria, | :10:13. | :10:24. | |
have not been counted in the 70,000 troops | :10:25. | :10:26. | |
The snag is that this army is not, at the moment, | :10:27. | :10:30. | |
A little earlier, I spoke to the Kurdish foreign minister, | :10:31. | :10:40. | |
Falah Mustafa Bakir, who's based in Erbil, | :10:41. | :10:42. | |
I asked him how effective air strikes have been where the British | :10:43. | :10:48. | |
have already been involved. The air strikes have been effective, | :10:49. | :10:54. | |
helpful and useful, and have paved the way for the reliable forces on | :10:55. | :10:57. | |
the ground, which are the Peshmerga forces, to achieve a lot of victory, | :10:58. | :11:00. | |
the last of which has been retaking In addition to over 25,000 square | :11:01. | :11:03. | |
kilometres that have been liberated since last | :11:04. | :11:10. | |
year. where Kurdish Peshmerga forces went | :11:11. | :11:14. | |
there together with the Kurdish with the help of the US air strikes, | :11:15. | :11:18. | |
and helped to bring about There's more that you would like | :11:19. | :11:24. | |
the West to do, though, as well? You could do with more weapons, | :11:25. | :11:30. | |
for example, correct? We have been asking | :11:31. | :11:32. | |
for more weapons, ammunition, equipment, | :11:33. | :11:39. | |
training and capacity-building, because this has been a tough war | :11:40. | :11:42. | |
and a costly war. Since last year, | :11:43. | :11:45. | |
sustaining this war has been costly in terms of human lives, | :11:46. | :11:47. | |
but also in terms of resources. That's why we have been asking | :11:48. | :11:50. | |
for heavy weaponry, ammunition and equipment | :11:51. | :11:52. | |
for the Peshmerga forces and lethal and non-lethal equipment to be | :11:53. | :11:54. | |
provided for the Peshmerga forces. One of the things we've been told | :11:55. | :11:56. | |
in our debate here, and everybody seems to agree | :11:57. | :11:59. | |
on this, is that for air strikes to work, there has to be a ground force | :12:00. | :12:02. | |
that can finish the job. Now, there's a dilemma here, | :12:03. | :12:05. | |
because actually, the Kurds, the YPG, the Syrian Kurds, | :12:06. | :12:11. | |
not far from Raqqa. The head of the snake, | :12:12. | :12:20. | |
if you like, of Isis. many people say it's the best army | :12:21. | :12:26. | |
nearby. And yet many people in Raqqa, the | :12:27. | :12:30. | |
Sunni Muslims, will not welcome the If, for example, the Syrian | :12:31. | :12:33. | |
opposition forces said, we would welcome some kind of | :12:34. | :12:49. | |
military help from the Kurds, you put up, if you like, forces to | :12:50. | :12:55. | |
go outside your areas, and to help take that | :12:56. | :13:01. | |
town out of Isis's hands? We have played a major role | :13:02. | :13:05. | |
in defeating Isis, and we have For non-Kurdish areas, | :13:06. | :13:08. | |
we have been talking to the US-led coalition as well as Iraqis | :13:09. | :13:11. | |
in order to prepare the ground. The same way that Raqqa is important | :13:12. | :13:14. | |
for Syria, Mosul is important for Iraq, so we talk about | :13:15. | :13:17. | |
the Iraqi battlefront, we are ready to play our role having stated very | :13:18. | :13:20. | |
clearly who does what and where the in going further towards | :13:21. | :13:23. | |
these non-Kurdish areas. It's doable, but there needs to be | :13:24. | :13:25. | |
an understanding, and a political understanding | :13:26. | :13:28. | |
and an agreement between the forces We have got some Peshmerga, | :13:29. | :13:30. | |
the Kurdish Peshmerga, They will be ready to play a role | :13:31. | :13:35. | |
in the fight in Syria as well, and there would be cooperation with | :13:36. | :13:40. | |
the Syrian democratic forces There has to be an effort | :13:41. | :13:42. | |
on the ground in order to bring all | :13:43. | :13:48. | |
these forces who are against Isis Minister Bakir, thank you | :13:49. | :13:51. | |
very much for talking to us. Yesterday's drama continues to have | :13:52. | :13:55. | |
reverberations within the Labour Party, where the new kinder, gentler | :13:56. | :14:04. | |
politics is having a rough week. While some suggest that party | :14:05. | :14:09. | |
politics is a distraction from the real issue of military | :14:10. | :14:13. | |
action, Labour MPs themselves keep talking about bullying | :14:14. | :14:16. | |
and the threat of de-selection. The Corbynite Shadow Chancellor, | :14:17. | :14:20. | |
John McDonnell, suggested on the Radio 4 Today programme this morning | :14:21. | :14:23. | |
that there was unpleasantness from some on both sides of the argument, | :14:24. | :14:28. | |
but most attention is on the tactics of those who've been against war | :14:29. | :14:33. | |
directed at those in favour. John Sweeney went to visit | :14:34. | :14:38. | |
Walthamstow, the constituency of Stella Creasy - one of the MPs | :14:39. | :14:40. | |
who says she's been targeted. Where does Democratic arguments stop | :14:41. | :14:55. | |
and intimidation begin? Labour MPs who voted for bombing so-called | :14:56. | :14:58. | |
Islamic State in Syria are asking that question. If Hilary Benn | :14:59. | :15:06. | |
wonders what the strange whirring noise is, it's his father turning in | :15:07. | :15:07. | |
his grave. Well done, murderer. So why is Sweeney standing in the | :15:08. | :15:29. | |
middle of a roadworks in Walthamstow, you may well ask? As | :15:30. | :15:32. | |
well as the vote on bombing Syria this week, something else happened, | :15:33. | :15:36. | |
it happened here, and it is a potential sign of trouble ahead not | :15:37. | :15:40. | |
just for the Labour Party but the British politics as a whole. | :15:41. | :15:47. | |
Walthamstow MP Stella Creasy is right in the line of fire. Her north | :15:48. | :15:51. | |
London constituency has a lot of ethnic minority voters and far left | :15:52. | :15:56. | |
activist. They came to her Labour Party office on Tuesday night. They | :15:57. | :16:03. | |
said, to stage a vigil. From what I saw, it was very much a peaceful and | :16:04. | :16:08. | |
respectful protest. It was a free vote, so she has a right to follow | :16:09. | :16:13. | |
her conscience? She has a right to do that, absolutely, but we live in | :16:14. | :16:19. | |
her constituency, and her constituents are disappointed to see | :16:20. | :16:22. | |
Gucci isn't representing our views in Parliament. If there was a vote | :16:23. | :16:26. | |
to deselect her, would you deselect? I believe she doesn't | :16:27. | :16:30. | |
represent views of her constituents and the local Labour Party. After | :16:31. | :16:35. | |
Stella Creasy voted for bombing, local councillor Azema mood | :16:36. | :16:41. | |
suggested that any MP who supported the killing of innocents should face | :16:42. | :16:50. | |
reselection. I have spoken to the counsellor and he said he couldn't | :16:51. | :16:53. | |
talk to us as he was at Heathrow, Eddie Gunter recommend anyone else. | :16:54. | :16:58. | |
He said the people who are against the vote to bomb IS in Syria are | :16:59. | :17:07. | |
lying low right now. -- he couldn't recommend anywhere cars. As the RAF | :17:08. | :17:12. | |
began striking Syria today, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and MPT Tom | :17:13. | :17:19. | |
Watson is issued a statement together. One senior figure is | :17:20. | :17:27. | |
calling for a new code of conduct. I am worried that social media may be | :17:28. | :17:32. | |
poisoning politics as people who are spelling abuse and bile, bullying, | :17:33. | :17:37. | |
it is just not conducive to the way we should do politics in this | :17:38. | :17:40. | |
country. Because people are sitting behind a keyboard, they think it is | :17:41. | :17:47. | |
OK to add extra vitriol to the political point they want to make. | :17:48. | :17:50. | |
In the end it will just deter people from becoming part of politics. | :17:51. | :17:55. | |
There needs to be a code of conduct, clear roles | :17:56. | :17:57. | |
There needs to be a code of conduct, bullying and abuse will just not be | :17:58. | :18:02. | |
tolerated. The Labour MP for Bermondsey received a tweet showing | :18:03. | :18:11. | |
three knives. They thought they could compel me to act in a | :18:12. | :18:16. | |
particular way, and that was very unfortunate, and it did lead to some | :18:17. | :18:20. | |
level of intimidation. That undermines democracy. Stop the | :18:21. | :18:24. | |
Warsaw and poor power sees things differently. -- stop the war | :18:25. | :18:43. | |
spokesman Paul power. It is not tweet that kill people, it is bombs. | :18:44. | :18:47. | |
It is not e-mails that kill people, it is missiles, and that is the real | :18:48. | :18:55. | |
issue here. There isn't a stop the war office in Raqqa. Obama himself | :18:56. | :19:05. | |
said Russian bombs will free terrorism. I don't think British | :19:06. | :19:14. | |
bombs are any different. What is at stake here is freedom of conscience | :19:15. | :19:17. | |
in British political life. Ashworth. | :19:18. | :19:20. | |
Shadow Cabinet minister Jonathan First, though, let's talk to one MP, | :19:21. | :19:32. | |
Diana Johnson, She was sent an e-mail which claimed | :19:33. | :19:34. | |
she would lose her seat if she voted You did vote against air strikes. | :19:35. | :19:42. | |
Where you bullied? How do you know that you were not influenced by | :19:43. | :19:47. | |
those kinds of threats? I was in the middle of a consultation with my | :19:48. | :19:50. | |
constituents, and I received that e-mail saying that if I didn't vote | :19:51. | :19:54. | |
the right way, as they saw it, they would have a vote of no-confidence | :19:55. | :20:00. | |
and to deselect me. I wanted to call that out immediately, because I | :20:01. | :20:03. | |
didn't want that kind of leading e-mail but I received, and other | :20:04. | :20:07. | |
e-mails that went to other MPs, to be kept quiet. I wanted to get it | :20:08. | :20:12. | |
out there to say this is not a tactic that will influence me. I am | :20:13. | :20:17. | |
going to look at the evidence and what the Government are saying and | :20:18. | :20:22. | |
come to a judgment. It seems to me in tenures as an MP, I have never | :20:23. | :20:26. | |
had an e-mail like that before, and I have never seen the level of | :20:27. | :20:31. | |
vitriol and abuse that is an social media, but also as you were just | :20:32. | :20:36. | |
describing with Stella, that level, that attempt to bully MPs, this is | :20:37. | :20:42. | |
something that has happened recently. Have you had insults or | :20:43. | :20:47. | |
threats from the other side, from the pro-war lobby saying that now | :20:48. | :20:53. | |
you have voted against, you will be deselected? No. When I consulted my | :20:54. | :20:58. | |
constituents, I had a balanced response, people with views on | :20:59. | :21:02. | |
either side. But in a sensible, reasonable way. And one other | :21:03. | :21:06. | |
thing, I think there is a particular issue about the way women MPs are | :21:07. | :21:11. | |
being targeted. Some of the offensive language use, words I | :21:12. | :21:14. | |
cannot repeat on the television, but also words like hang and which -- | :21:15. | :21:29. | |
hag and witch, and this has been building for some time, and Jeremy | :21:30. | :21:32. | |
Corbyn himself has said it is not acceptable. We need more than words, | :21:33. | :21:38. | |
we need action now. Andy Burnham's talk about a code of conduct is one | :21:39. | :21:42. | |
thing, but we need a leader to be very clear to stand by the | :21:43. | :21:45. | |
Parliamentary Labour Party to say he gave us a free vote, and whichever | :21:46. | :21:50. | |
way you voted, it was done in principle. People step by their | :21:51. | :21:54. | |
principles, and the leader needs to reiterate that he is proud of the | :21:55. | :21:59. | |
PLP. Diana Johnson, thank you very much indeed. Jon Ashworth, what is | :22:00. | :22:07. | |
the party going to do about this? This evening, Jeremy has put out an | :22:08. | :22:11. | |
important statement saying he will have no truck with this kind of | :22:12. | :22:14. | |
intimidation and bullying that Diana is quite rightly calling out. Also | :22:15. | :22:25. | |
Tom Watson our deputy leader is looking at producing a code of | :22:26. | :22:28. | |
conduct, and I think that is an important step, so let's take it to | :22:29. | :22:33. | |
the NEC and discuss what that means. When you look at the three pillars | :22:34. | :22:36. | |
that Jeremy Kyle bin got elected upon, his mandate, one of the most | :22:37. | :22:40. | |
important ones was that he wanted a kinder style of latex, a more | :22:41. | :22:44. | |
engaging style of politics and a democratic kind. But you must be | :22:45. | :22:53. | |
even having to mention it, because frankly are those who will say that | :22:54. | :22:57. | |
while he talks of gentle politics, he has attracted in a lot of people | :22:58. | :23:01. | |
who didn't get the memo about kinder and gentler. I think a lot of the | :23:02. | :23:08. | |
people on Twitter are not in the party, but if they are, I think that | :23:09. | :23:14. | |
type of leading, nasty, abusive social media behaviour, this Twitter | :23:15. | :23:20. | |
pitchfork mob is unacceptable. We should be debating issues in the | :23:21. | :23:24. | |
party. I want a more democratic party, I don't want people feeling | :23:25. | :23:26. | |
bullied and pressured into adopting a position because of the abuse they | :23:27. | :23:32. | |
have been getting an social media. Let's talk about deselection. What | :23:33. | :23:36. | |
Diana Johnson had was a threat of deselection. We have used the word | :23:37. | :23:41. | |
allaying and just seamlessly gone from deselection to Twitter insults. | :23:42. | :23:48. | |
Is it illegitimate for a local party to say if you vote against the way | :23:49. | :23:53. | |
we would like to vote, we will deselect you? We have A.D. Selection | :23:54. | :23:59. | |
process already. So why is it unreasonable? | :24:00. | :24:05. | |
When your constituency party selected to be the candidate, they | :24:06. | :24:11. | |
are asking you to form judgments on complex, big issues. They want | :24:12. | :24:17. | |
someone whose judgment they like. Indeed. All Labour MPs take these | :24:18. | :24:22. | |
issues very seriously, such as whether to extend air strikes to | :24:23. | :24:29. | |
Isil in Syria. They listen to their electorate and they way up the ante | :24:30. | :24:32. | |
must carefully. I think this kind of idea that you don't do a certain | :24:33. | :24:38. | |
thing, we will push you off a cliff approach to politics is not the way | :24:39. | :24:42. | |
of doing things. That is not an in gauging way of doing things. What | :24:43. | :24:47. | |
all of this just tells us, this party is just absolutely | :24:48. | :24:51. | |
dysfunctional at the moment. It is completely split, and not just over | :24:52. | :24:57. | |
a disagreement, it is a visceral disagreement in which one lot | :24:58. | :25:01. | |
actually hate the other lot. I don't know if people hate each other in | :25:02. | :25:06. | |
the Parliamentary Labour Party. We have had a debate this week on | :25:07. | :25:12. | |
whether to extend air strikes in Syria, and clearly there was a | :25:13. | :25:17. | |
division, but the economic policy of John McDonnell, there is consensus, | :25:18. | :25:20. | |
and on the welfare policy, there is consensus. On the health policy of | :25:21. | :25:26. | |
Heidi Alexander, there is consensus. There have been split some foreign | :25:27. | :25:29. | |
policy this week, but when you look at domestic policy, the Shadow | :25:30. | :25:33. | |
Cabinet and shadow ministers are broadly united. Stay there a moment. | :25:34. | :25:35. | |
Voting ended about an hour ago in the much anticipated by-election | :25:36. | :25:39. | |
in Oldham West and Royton, triggered after the death | :25:40. | :25:41. | |
It is Labour's first electoral test since choosing Jeremy Corbyn | :25:42. | :25:46. | |
The party is defending a majority of over 14,000 - so surely it's | :25:47. | :25:51. | |
Joining us from the count is BBC North West's political editor, | :25:52. | :25:57. | |
We are going to wake up tomorrow morning to the result of this | :25:58. | :26:10. | |
by-election. Tell us what we might expect in terms of what would be a | :26:11. | :26:17. | |
good result or bad? What I can do is tell you what Labour is predicting, | :26:18. | :26:22. | |
and that is that they will win tonight, because they have described | :26:23. | :26:26. | |
themselves as confident of that. You can see behind me that the county | :26:27. | :26:31. | |
still going on. It will go on probably until about half past one | :26:32. | :26:33. | |
in the morning when we expect results. Ukip say that they also | :26:34. | :26:39. | |
believe they have done very well, but not enough, they think, to cross | :26:40. | :26:45. | |
the line. We waited to see. As you say, the majority here is almost | :26:46. | :26:49. | |
15,000, so the question is the extent to which Ukip is able to | :26:50. | :26:54. | |
narrow that gap, close the majority. As I see it, there are two | :26:55. | :26:59. | |
challenges here. The ones Ukip is to prove not that they can do well in | :27:00. | :27:03. | |
seats like this, they have proven that, but that they can actually win | :27:04. | :27:06. | |
them. And the challenge Labour is that with Jeremy Corbyn as leader, | :27:07. | :27:13. | |
can he appealed to seats like this? Old Western writing is primarily a | :27:14. | :27:18. | |
working-class constituency. -- Oldham West and | :27:19. | :27:24. | |
working-class constituency. -- working class constituency, and if | :27:25. | :27:25. | |
he can't succeed here, we working class constituency, and if | :27:26. | :27:31. | |
Thank you very much. It is extraordinary that the main | :27:32. | :27:33. | |
Thank you very much. It is that the main political affected to | :27:34. | :27:35. | |
resuscitate elliptical trouble of their own. | :27:36. | :27:39. | |
They did well at the general election, they didn't take seats but | :27:40. | :27:43. | |
they did take votes. We need to think about how we take that on. Our | :27:44. | :27:48. | |
candidate is brilliant, think about how we take that on. Our | :27:49. | :27:52. | |
be a superb MP if he gets elected. If Ukip take votes of Labour, | :27:53. | :27:55. | |
be a superb MP if he gets elected. they seem likely to take some of, | :27:56. | :27:58. | |
what do you mean when you say you have to look into that? C what the | :27:59. | :28:03. | |
result is, first of all. In a town like Oldham, it is a Labour town so | :28:04. | :28:09. | |
I don't want to see Ukip doing well. If the reports come in that they are | :28:10. | :28:12. | |
doing better-than-expected, we will have to decide how to bond to them. | :28:13. | :28:15. | |
John Ashworth, thank you very much. One of the BBC's best-known | :28:16. | :28:18. | |
and long-serving executives, Alan Yentob, is to step down | :28:19. | :28:20. | |
from his post as Creative Director. He's been in the news as he was | :28:21. | :28:24. | |
chairman of the collapsed charity Kids Company and he'd been accused | :28:25. | :28:27. | |
of trying to influence BBC coverage of its affairs - | :28:28. | :28:30. | |
a potential conflict of interest. Our policy editor Chris Cook has | :28:31. | :28:32. | |
been reporting on the problems of Kids Company | :28:33. | :28:35. | |
and its senior team this year. And then, just like that, | :28:36. | :28:40. | |
the man himself emerges. Alan Yentob is best known | :28:41. | :28:44. | |
for his televised documentaries. He has chats with grand arts | :28:45. | :29:00. | |
figures. My first meeting with Jay Z, short but sweet. Isn't that Diana | :29:01. | :29:07. | |
Ross? But today, he resigned as creative director of the BBC because | :29:08. | :29:13. | |
the youth work charity he chaired collapsed in August, | :29:14. | :29:15. | |
the youth work charity he chaired receiving a ?3 million public | :29:16. | :29:20. | |
bailout. During nearly 50 years at the BBC, he made classic films like | :29:21. | :29:25. | |
this one on David Bowie, and served as a controller of BBC | :29:26. | :29:26. | |
this one on David Bowie, and served and head of television. So it is | :29:27. | :29:32. | |
perhaps a little surprising that it is the collapse of a charity he | :29:33. | :29:34. | |
supported in his spare time that is the collapse of a charity he | :29:35. | :29:37. | |
caused the end of his career as an executive here at the BBC. But the | :29:38. | :29:42. | |
collapse of Kids Company was a national scandal. The charity | :29:43. | :29:49. | |
received more than ?40 million of government funding, including ?7 | :29:50. | :29:52. | |
million this year, and an official report looking into the case has | :29:53. | :29:56. | |
found that taxpayers have no idea what value they actually got for all | :29:57. | :29:57. | |
that cash. He was not a token trustee, he was | :29:58. | :30:05. | |
intimately involved in getting public funds, this summer he wrote | :30:06. | :30:09. | |
to ministers with a letter which included some ordinary claims, the | :30:10. | :30:13. | |
sample, he said that if Kids Company closed, there would be a high risk | :30:14. | :30:16. | |
of arson attacks on government buildings. And communities served by | :30:17. | :30:21. | |
the charity could descend into savagery. It was his efforts to | :30:22. | :30:27. | |
defend the charity in the BBC which have ultimately been his undoing. He | :30:28. | :30:32. | |
spoke with Newsnight to try to affect our output, unsuccessfully, | :30:33. | :30:35. | |
and the world at one, and there is something about this interview with | :30:36. | :30:41. | |
the Chief Executive, on Radio 4's today. It is not true, and I will | :30:42. | :30:47. | |
tell why, we have had audits in the last 19 years, and all of them have | :30:48. | :30:52. | |
been clear. Here is something you cannot see in that footage, that | :30:53. | :30:57. | |
interview took place in that room there, the studio where the today | :30:58. | :31:00. | |
programme is being broadcast, and this is the cubicle, where the | :31:01. | :31:03. | |
producers and editors in control of the programmes it, they control the | :31:04. | :31:09. | |
length of interviews, for example. Alyn Yentob came in and stood in | :31:10. | :31:13. | |
this cubicle, he did not say anything, he waited until he went | :31:14. | :31:16. | |
outside again to do that. -- Alan Yentob. MPs think that this was an | :31:17. | :31:22. | |
abuse of his position at the BBC and when he was asked about that, he did | :31:23. | :31:27. | |
not -- they did not feel his answers were straightforward. You position | :31:28. | :31:31. | |
yourself with the producer in the box... I'm sorry, I do not know why | :31:32. | :31:37. | |
you heard that, she was being interviewed, I was outside, I was | :31:38. | :31:41. | |
not with the producer in the box. Allegation is that you are not in | :31:42. | :31:44. | |
the studio with her but you were the other side of the glass with the | :31:45. | :31:50. | |
producers. Yes, I was. So you inhibited the producer! You have | :31:51. | :31:54. | |
been giving a very misleading answer... Alan Yentob will stay on | :31:55. | :32:01. | |
as a presenter of the art show, Imagine, and as the chair of BBC | :32:02. | :32:06. | |
films, he is stepping down as an executive, and the BBC trust, the | :32:07. | :32:09. | |
governing body, feel enough is enough, they do not need to look | :32:10. | :32:12. | |
into his behaviour any further, they have asked for a senior member of | :32:13. | :32:20. | |
staff to look into outside interests among BBC staff. He says he resigned | :32:21. | :32:23. | |
for the sake of the BBC, and so this is quite a moment, he has been | :32:24. | :32:33. | |
integral enough to merit a joke in W1A... See what happens in here... | :32:34. | :32:39. | |
No, that is something else. Even resigning from a ?180,000 a year | :32:40. | :32:44. | |
executive job will not end the saga, for one thing, that select committee | :32:45. | :32:48. | |
report is going to come out early next year, and it is expected to be | :32:49. | :32:50. | |
savage. STUDIO: Here me is Steve Hewlett, | :32:51. | :32:57. | |
media journalist and presenter Why has this happened now? Nobody | :32:58. | :33:06. | |
understood, there has been mounting incredulity, I had a cabinet | :33:07. | :33:09. | |
minister say to me, why is that man still there, why has he got a job? ! | :33:10. | :33:16. | |
Once he intervened with the today programme and Newsnight, the | :33:17. | :33:18. | |
conflict-of-interest, which you might think was latent, became | :33:19. | :33:22. | |
apparent. There has been mounting incredulity. The reason for today, | :33:23. | :33:27. | |
we discover this afternoon, the BBC trust has an editorial standards | :33:28. | :33:31. | |
committee, there has been a formal complaint about Alan Yentob, from | :33:32. | :33:35. | |
somebody, we do not know who, this person has appealed to the trust to | :33:36. | :33:40. | |
look at this, and the first part of the process is to say, is this an | :33:41. | :33:46. | |
appeal that we will hear? They have decided not to, because they think | :33:47. | :33:50. | |
it is not worth it. One of the key reasons they say they are not going | :33:51. | :33:53. | |
to hear the appeal, there are a number, they say the editorial | :33:54. | :33:58. | |
integrity of the BBC was not impacted, they see no basic | :33:59. | :34:02. | |
contradiction between being the chair of Kids Company and involved | :34:03. | :34:06. | |
with the BBC in that way. The key thing is, since he has never stood | :34:07. | :34:14. | |
down, it is not worth the trouble. You do not have to be some kind of | :34:15. | :34:19. | |
criminal on the to think that he has stood because otherwise there was | :34:20. | :34:24. | |
concern is about the trust enquiring and coming to a conclusion that | :34:25. | :34:31. | |
would be unfavourable for him. -- Kremlinologist. | :34:32. | :34:34. | |
With us all so preoccupied by Syria in recent weeks, | :34:35. | :34:37. | |
there has barely been a moment for the media to enjoy the annual | :34:38. | :34:40. | |
ritual of gleeful mocking of the Turner Prize nominees, and asking | :34:41. | :34:42. | |
There's little time left now, as this year's prize will be awarded | :34:43. | :34:47. | |
Among the nominees for the first time is one that is | :34:48. | :34:50. | |
It's a group of young architects and designers called Assemble, | :34:51. | :34:55. | |
whose work includes a cinema in a petrol station, a theatre under a | :34:56. | :34:58. | |
flyover, a collection of barbecued doorknobs and a renovated street | :34:59. | :35:00. | |
Steve Smith headed to Toxteth to make a barbecue and find out more. | :35:01. | :35:08. | |
"Neither use nor ornament", according to some. | :35:09. | :35:25. | |
# Yet you're my favourite work of art... # | :35:26. | :35:32. | |
Whatever else the critics might say about this year's entry | :35:33. | :35:36. | |
from a young architects' collective called Assemble, it ain't useless. | :35:37. | :35:42. | |
This is like an edition of Bake Off I missed. | :35:43. | :36:01. | |
What are you doing? It's not edible. | :36:02. | :36:04. | |
With a timely austerity of aesthetic, | :36:05. | :36:09. | |
Assemble and volunteer helpers are making household fittings out | :36:10. | :36:11. | |
I'll put another doorknob in here, and we will put leaves in here, | :36:12. | :36:16. | |
because when the actual burning process takes place, | :36:17. | :36:18. | |
you get these wonderful patinas of the veins of the leaf on the ceramic | :36:19. | :36:21. | |
Did you ever think you'd be doing this? No! | :36:22. | :36:41. | |
We tried banana skins, we tried feathers. | :36:42. | :36:44. | |
We've tried salt, coffee, tea leaves... | :36:45. | :36:45. | |
Here's one Assemble made earlier. Different. | :36:46. | :36:46. | |
Assemble's bespoke fixtures and appurtenances have ended up here | :36:47. | :36:49. | |
in a Glasgow gallery awaiting the judges' verdict in the Turner Prize. | :36:50. | :36:52. | |
Their products are also available to buy online, with the proceeds | :36:53. | :36:55. | |
supporting Assemble's work back in Liverpool, where they have so far | :36:56. | :36:57. | |
And you can see their handiwork all around here. | :36:58. | :37:15. | |
including the doorknobs on the cupboards. | :37:16. | :37:29. | |
Not to mention the new fireplace, the pride and joy, | :37:30. | :37:31. | |
made out of crushed bricks and aggregate rescued from a skip. | :37:32. | :37:35. | |
When I opened the front door and saw this contemporary, | :37:36. | :37:39. | |
I was just very happy. Very happy with what they've done. | :37:40. | :37:44. | |
And it's been done with a lot of thought. | :37:45. | :37:46. | |
It's aesthetically, to me, attractive. | :37:47. | :38:08. | |
also suffered from ill-conceived housing policies, say people here. | :38:09. | :38:11. | |
Families were uprooted and their homes demolished. | :38:12. | :38:16. | |
because I feel as though I've returned. | :38:17. | :38:22. | |
Val Young lives in another part of the city now, | :38:23. | :38:25. | |
my parents were the only mixed-race couple. | :38:26. | :38:35. | |
When you moved out? When we moved into New Park. | :38:36. | :38:39. | |
My mum always wanted to come back into Liverpool, | :38:40. | :38:41. | |
and she died and she never got back to Toxteth. | :38:42. | :38:44. | |
But I think there was always a sense of loss that she couldn't come back | :38:45. | :38:47. | |
to the area and the friends that she had met during her time here. | :38:48. | :38:53. | |
for Assemble's efforts to cheer up tiles | :38:54. | :39:02. | |
and otherwise help restore this community. | :39:03. | :39:04. | |
Where do we see the value of creativity in our society, and is | :39:05. | :39:08. | |
that inside a gallery or can it be really embedded in everyday life? | :39:09. | :39:12. | |
And we definitely believe in the latter. | :39:13. | :39:14. | |
Whether you call that art or design or craft or anything, | :39:15. | :39:17. | |
But some art critics are unconvinced. | :39:18. | :39:27. | |
and when you start going around saying, "This is not art", | :39:28. | :39:38. | |
It works very well as architecture. Why bring it in as art? | :39:39. | :39:45. | |
I think if you are looking for stuff that isn't pretentious | :39:46. | :39:48. | |
and it is useful, why don't you nominate B or Oxfam? | :39:49. | :39:50. | |
Apparently one of the judges is very keen to push the idea of useful art. | :39:51. | :39:55. | |
I think it is great if art can be useful. | :39:56. | :39:57. | |
But just because it is useful doesn't make it art. | :39:58. | :40:01. | |
But as the Turner Prize-givers mull their difficult decision, | :40:02. | :40:09. | |
let's leave the last word on Assemble's efforts | :40:10. | :40:11. | |
It is recognising the politics in art, | :40:12. | :40:14. | |
that goes into some rich person's warehouse. | :40:15. | :40:23. | |
This is something that you live with, and it's art for the people. | :40:24. | :40:26. | |
And if art isn't about people and humanity, then what is it about? | :40:27. | :40:39. | |
we should say there's been a development | :40:40. | :40:48. | |
in the Tory bullying scandal tonight. | :40:49. | :40:50. | |
Newsnight has obtained a memo that was sent to senior Conservative | :40:51. | :40:58. | |
Party officials in August by a then party worker, | :40:59. | :41:00. | |
of the scandal -- was "sociopathic" "dangerous" and a "bully". It also | :41:01. | :41:06. | |
urged officials to keep Mr Clarke away from the party's youth wing and | :41:07. | :41:09. | |
not to do so would be "devastating". You can read all the details of this | :41:10. | :41:13. | |
Now, the British Museum has announced a major exhibition | :41:14. | :41:17. | |
scheduled for next year which will gather together artefacts discovered | :41:18. | :41:21. | |
Here's a taste of what will be on display. | :41:22. | :41:26. |