Browse content similar to 08/12/2015. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Bullying among young Conservative campaigners. Another day, another | :00:00. | :00:00. | |
damning dossier - with questions for the party chairman Lord Feldman. | :00:00. | :00:17. | |
So complaints ant mark Clarke would be something that Conservative | :00:18. | :00:21. | |
Central Office have known about for a very long time. | :00:22. | :00:28. | |
Also tonight. Donald Trump is calling for a total and complete | :00:29. | :00:33. | |
shut down of Muslims entering the United States. | :00:34. | :00:35. | |
We'll examine what it is that people like about him, and what those that | :00:36. | :00:40. | |
And this. You can watch my full interview with this man, with this | :00:41. | :00:52. | |
amazing suit, really fancy, tonight on... BBC Newsnight. I think it is | :00:53. | :00:55. | |
the moment of fashion. Lord Feldman - Andrew Feldman - | :00:56. | :01:02. | |
is chairman of the Conservative Party. He's a close | :01:03. | :01:05. | |
confidante of the Prime Minister, and a man substantially responsible | :01:06. | :01:08. | |
for upholding decent standards And he finds himself now | :01:09. | :01:10. | |
in the midst of a crisis over the behaviour of | :01:11. | :01:19. | |
one senior campaigner, Mark Clarke. The crisis arose, | :01:20. | :01:22. | |
when a young activist killed himself earlier this year, citing | :01:23. | :01:24. | |
as a cause bullying by Mr Clarke. Questions were raised, | :01:25. | :01:26. | |
not least by this programme. Had Former party chairman Grant Shapps | :01:27. | :01:29. | |
accepted blame, But Lord Feldman has defended | :01:30. | :01:32. | |
his own role, by saying he knew nothing of | :01:33. | :01:44. | |
the problem until summer this year. The Prime Minister's inner circle | :01:45. | :01:47. | |
has been described as a shamocracy - David Cameron's propensity to | :01:48. | :02:05. | |
surround himself with But of all his relationships, | :02:06. | :02:07. | |
it is his friendship with this man Lord Feldman is not only | :02:08. | :02:13. | |
the Conservative Party chairman, but he is also David Cameron's | :02:14. | :02:21. | |
former university tennis partner. It perhaps explains why the party | :02:22. | :02:24. | |
was comfortable to see Grant Shapps resign over the affair, but | :02:25. | :02:27. | |
determined to protect Lord Feldman. We will dive into the market and | :02:28. | :02:38. | |
meet some market traders. But Feldman's career hangs | :02:39. | :02:42. | |
on how much he knew about disgraced activist Mark Clarke's alleged | :02:43. | :02:45. | |
bullying, and whether he acted with enough alacrity | :02:46. | :02:47. | |
when complaints were first made. Mark Clarke denies the allegation. | :02:48. | :02:58. | |
The student vote is really important. We | :02:59. | :03:03. | |
Since the death of the young activist Elliott | :03:04. | :03:05. | |
Johnson in September, there has been a stream of revelations about | :03:06. | :03:08. | |
Last week, the party effectively acknowledged | :03:09. | :03:11. | |
its internal investigation had been inadequate when it handed its | :03:12. | :03:13. | |
But the biggest threat to Lord Feldman's career may come | :03:14. | :03:20. | |
from a statement his own party made three weeks' ago. | :03:21. | :03:22. | |
Tonight, a former Conservative activist tells | :03:23. | :03:43. | |
Newsnight Lord Feldman was made aware of bullying long before 2015. | :03:44. | :03:48. | |
Patrick Sullivan has known Clark since 2006. | :03:49. | :03:58. | |
He says he has attempted to stop bullying in the youth wing | :03:59. | :04:01. | |
of the Conservative Party called Conservative Future. | :04:02. | :04:05. | |
He claims that he, along with Conservative MP Ben | :04:06. | :04:07. | |
Howlett, compiled a dossier of complaints about bullying, | :04:08. | :04:12. | |
which was handed into Feldman five years ago, in 2010. | :04:13. | :04:21. | |
I have known Ben how let for annum of years he won an election for | :04:22. | :04:30. | |
Conservative Future chairman, he was subject to bullying during that | :04:31. | :04:34. | |
campaign and during hiss chair map ship. He has a strong anti-bullying | :04:35. | :04:38. | |
stance in his campaign, because there had been a culture of bully, | :04:39. | :04:48. | |
as soon as he is elected, myself, Ben, helped to compile a dossier, | :04:49. | :04:57. | |
that dossier was given by Ben to Lord Feldman, and another. There | :04:58. | :05:02. | |
were complaints about Mark Clarke given to Roger Pratt in 2008. So | :05:03. | :05:08. | |
complaints about Mark Clarke have been something that Conservative | :05:09. | :05:10. | |
Central Office have known about for a very long time. | :05:11. | :05:17. | |
It is believed the dossier contained the complaints of a number of young | :05:18. | :05:21. | |
activists and would have ended up in the building behind me. We have | :05:22. | :05:25. | |
spoken to a couple of peek who have helped compile the dossier, and they | :05:26. | :05:29. | |
say that Mark Clarke's name was in it. Patrick Sullivan says that the | :05:30. | :05:35. | |
response to the dossier was initially very positive. Said Warsi | :05:36. | :05:44. | |
was very vigilant in regards to bullying and ensured that anybody | :05:45. | :05:48. | |
with a reputation of bullying was not involved in Conservative future | :05:49. | :05:54. | |
or given access to young people. That somehow changed later on? That | :05:55. | :05:59. | |
somehow changed later on, after she left. Sullivan's testimony appears | :06:00. | :06:05. | |
to support what Ben Howlett told Newsnight three weeks' ago. Lord | :06:06. | :06:10. | |
Feldman has been well aware of all of this, for a very long period of | :06:11. | :06:15. | |
time. Howlett has refused to discuss the contents of the dossier with | :06:16. | :06:18. | |
Newsnight. He says he will pass his information to the inquiry. This is | :06:19. | :06:22. | |
the latest in a series of revelations that raises questions | :06:23. | :06:27. | |
about whether the party dealt appropriately, with warnings of | :06:28. | :06:32. | |
bullying, and Clark. Last week Newsnight reported that a memo had | :06:33. | :06:37. | |
been handed into CC HQ by a party worker in August. The memo said | :06:38. | :06:41. | |
Clark wases so thick and dangerous. And warned that if he was not kept | :06:42. | :06:46. | |
grey the party's youth wing the result could be devastating. | :06:47. | :06:51. | |
Lord Feldman orders an internal investigation after seeing that | :06:52. | :06:56. | |
memo, however, Clark wasn't suspended by the party, until after | :06:57. | :06:59. | |
Elliott Johnson's death a month later. I think it was quite shocking | :07:00. | :07:07. | |
that Mark Clarke was able to continue with his road trip 2020 | :07:08. | :07:10. | |
while this investigation was in process. | :07:11. | :07:15. | |
Elliott Johnson's father Ray believes there need to be more | :07:16. | :07:18. | |
accountability at the top of the Conservative Party. I have no | :07:19. | :07:23. | |
personal answer against Lord Feldman but I believe any head of an | :07:24. | :07:27. | |
organisation should take responsibility for what happens in | :07:28. | :07:31. | |
an organisation, if he has been made wear some years ago he should take | :07:32. | :07:36. | |
responsibility and go. Lord Feldman continues to stress | :07:37. | :07:41. | |
that he simply did not know about bullying, or about Mark Clarke. | :07:42. | :07:44. | |
Tonight we have a statement from Lord Feldman himself saying: | :07:45. | :07:59. | |
Such behaviour is abhorrent to me, had this been brought to my | :08:00. | :08:04. | |
attention I would have taken immediate action to investigate as I | :08:05. | :08:07. | |
have done since I received the complaint in August 2015. | :08:08. | :08:12. | |
Donald Trump has made a habit of lighting the blue touch paper | :08:13. | :08:15. | |
He did it again yesterday, and the fireworks duly ignited. | :08:16. | :08:18. | |
Everybody in the Republican and Democrat political establishment | :08:19. | :08:20. | |
in America has condemned his newly proclaimed policy of barring | :08:21. | :08:23. | |
Actually, politicians here too condemned it, | :08:24. | :08:28. | |
from David Cameron, to Nigel Farage, who called it a step too far. | :08:29. | :08:31. | |
But if Mr Trump's appeal is based on anti-establishment credentials, it's | :08:32. | :08:34. | |
not clear whether his supporters will care about the criticism. | :08:35. | :08:37. | |
But there's no doubt, Trump has been the talk of America today. | :08:38. | :08:55. | |
The White House has denounced the Trump plan. | :08:56. | :08:57. | |
It shows the new furore over Donald Trump, showing you raising your hand | :08:58. | :09:05. | |
We have from Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on | :09:06. | :09:09. | |
American Islamic Relations saying, "Are we talking internment camps, | :09:10. | :09:11. | |
are we talking the final solution to the Muslim question? | :09:12. | :09:13. | |
You're increasingly being compared to Hitler, does that | :09:14. | :09:17. | |
No, because what I'm doing is no different to what FDR - | :09:18. | :09:21. | |
FDR's solution for Germans, Italians, Japanese, you know, | :09:22. | :09:23. | |
We have places in London that are so radicalised, that the police are | :09:24. | :09:32. | |
Rather than debate the specific merits of the policies | :09:33. | :09:40. | |
he's proposing, we thought we might look at what people like about him. | :09:41. | :09:44. | |
I'm joined by the Iraq war veteran Joel Arends from South Dakota, | :09:45. | :09:47. | |
chairman of Veterans for a Stronger America, which endorsed | :09:48. | :09:49. | |
And from Washington we're joined by the journalist | :09:50. | :09:55. | |
Good evening, after noon to your both. Joel, let me start with you, | :09:56. | :10:07. | |
there has been lots of criticism about what Donald Trump said. Now | :10:08. | :10:10. | |
has that made any difference to you in your view of what he announced | :10:11. | :10:15. | |
his policy was on foreign Muslims entering the US? Well, there is | :10:16. | :10:19. | |
always going to be strong criticism of the kind of policy he has | :10:20. | :10:24. | |
suggested. Look, it is a workable policy if we are able to restrict | :10:25. | :10:28. | |
immigration from certain countries of origin. What you are seeing in | :10:29. | :10:35. | |
America right now is there is an intense determination among many in | :10:36. | :10:39. | |
the electorate to want to stop radical Islamic terrorism, and in | :10:40. | :10:42. | |
order to stop that, we are looking at new ideas and so I think what | :10:43. | :10:46. | |
Donald Trump is doing is voicing a lot of the frustration, but also a | :10:47. | :10:50. | |
lot of the resolve and determination that Americans have, to want to stop | :10:51. | :10:56. | |
the terrorism from coming to our shore, we saw it in San Bernadino, | :10:57. | :11:01. | |
Americans are on edge, Donald Trump is giving voice to those people and | :11:02. | :11:06. | |
their concern, so when he announces a major policy shift like that, you | :11:07. | :11:10. | |
will see the kind of criticism, he is not one to shy away from | :11:11. | :11:14. | |
criticism. That is certainly another... Dick Cheney, he is hardly | :11:15. | :11:22. | |
Mr Liberal, and everybody in the establishment has criticised him. | :11:23. | :11:26. | |
Does that in way strengthen your support for Trump or make you | :11:27. | :11:31. | |
question? Well, I don't think it makes his question his suppose as to | :11:32. | :11:36. | |
what it says to us as have the current and existing policies been | :11:37. | :11:39. | |
work something no, they haven't. They haven't stopped terrorism | :11:40. | :11:43. | |
coming to our shore, what do we do next? We need to look at restricting | :11:44. | :11:48. | |
or putting a temporary pause on immigration, Rupert Murdoch came out | :11:49. | :11:52. | |
today and said a temporary pause is a great idea as well. Until question | :11:53. | :11:57. | |
get a handle on how to best defend the home land, maybe we should make | :11:58. | :12:02. | |
a temporary pause a part of the dialogue, Donald Trump has certainly | :12:03. | :12:05. | |
done that, I think there is constitutional issue there's that | :12:06. | :12:09. | |
will have to be worked through. It is constitution Ali permissible in | :12:10. | :12:13. | |
America, to stop immigrants from coming from certain countries of | :12:14. | :12:18. | |
origin, whether or not the religious test would survive a constitutional | :12:19. | :12:22. | |
challenge is a little uncertain but that is part of his Donald Trump | :12:23. | :12:26. | |
appeal, he is plain spoken and he is talking to people's concerns. Plain | :12:27. | :12:31. | |
spoken and constitutional issues deal with them later. Before I move | :12:32. | :12:36. | |
on, let us talk about this, today Donald Trump said parts of London | :12:37. | :12:41. | |
are so radicalised the police are afraid for their own lives. I live | :12:42. | :12:45. | |
in London, for a few year, I can tell you I think that is not true. | :12:46. | :12:51. | |
Now, does that matter to you, that I, who live in London tell you that | :12:52. | :12:56. | |
Donald Trump has just made up something, that is, you know, | :12:57. | :13:00. | |
basically balderdash, nonsense and spouted it as a fact. Does it matter | :13:01. | :13:05. | |
to you that he does that or not? I think what he is giving rise to, he | :13:06. | :13:11. | |
is certainly giving a reference to some of the no-go zones that, that | :13:12. | :13:15. | |
appear throughout Europe. I think, you know, we have seen that in | :13:16. | :13:18. | |
France, there are certain places, we even see it in America today, where | :13:19. | :13:23. | |
there are certain towns in America where you have seen... I don't want | :13:24. | :13:27. | |
to argue about it with you, because we don't have it in London. He said | :13:28. | :13:30. | |
we have it in London. What I want to know whether it matters to you | :13:31. | :13:35. | |
whether the truth value of what he says is a of any significance or | :13:36. | :13:41. | |
whether he is giving voice to the concerns that is the appeal? He is a | :13:42. | :13:48. | |
bombastic figures she going to say exaggerated things from time to | :13:49. | :13:51. | |
time, in order to make his point. It is how he is cutting through like a | :13:52. | :13:54. | |
knife to the rest of the American public, because they understand what | :13:55. | :13:57. | |
he is say, they understand what he is trying to get through with these | :13:58. | :14:01. | |
30 second sound bites that most of America can't get past. He is | :14:02. | :14:04. | |
getting through, he is getting past, they understand it, they understand | :14:05. | :14:07. | |
that there is no-go zones round Europe, whether or not they are in | :14:08. | :14:12. | |
London or not is irrelevant to the major policy issue of is it happen | :14:13. | :14:17. | |
something Thank you. Stay there. I am going to put some of that to my | :14:18. | :14:22. | |
other guest. What is your theory as to why Donald Trump has been so | :14:23. | :14:26. | |
unbeatable in this Republican contest this year? I think we are | :14:27. | :14:32. | |
witnessing the death rattle of white supremacy in America. It is an | :14:33. | :14:36. | |
ideology of exclusion, there are people who want to conTrickett | :14:37. | :14:39. | |
America and others who want to stretch America to accommodate | :14:40. | :14:43. | |
minorities and freedoms. All the studies show that Trump is appealing | :14:44. | :14:48. | |
to the disaffected white voter. So the surveys show the white voter is | :14:49. | :14:51. | |
saying this America no longer belongs to me, I can no longer | :14:52. | :14:59. | |
become a protagonist. America has become a minority country. He has | :15:00. | :15:01. | |
support. It is not negligible support. This | :15:02. | :15:17. | |
race plays interfere. What Donald Trump does cynically, he marries | :15:18. | :15:22. | |
anger with hate, with ignorance and creates a lot of cocktail and | :15:23. | :15:26. | |
projects strength by lobbying it against a perceived enemy, the | :15:27. | :15:29. | |
other. In this case banalities, Muslims, women, black men, Mexican | :15:30. | :15:35. | |
immigrants. He says I will protect you against them. Disagree, this is | :15:36. | :15:41. | |
the irony, he has given Islamic State a premature early Christmas | :15:42. | :15:45. | |
gift. Basically they're number recruitment tool is the West is at | :15:46. | :15:52. | |
war with Islam. President Obama said to not divide along religious or | :15:53. | :15:56. | |
ethnic lines, because that helps Islamic State. And Dawn Trump says | :15:57. | :16:03. | |
I'm going to ban Muslims. He gave a nice gift to Isis and I'm sure they | :16:04. | :16:08. | |
e-mailed him and said thank you for doing our job. There is plain | :16:09. | :16:13. | |
speaking, this was a phrase used and you have to admit that it is more | :16:14. | :16:17. | |
interesting to listen to the guy speak than a lot of other guys | :16:18. | :16:22. | |
speaking. That is part of his appeal. He positioned himself as | :16:23. | :16:26. | |
saying I'm not these old-timers, not part of the establishment, I am | :16:27. | :16:32. | |
self-made, I have my own money, I will tell it like it is. I do not | :16:33. | :16:37. | |
bow down to political correctness and I will rationalise your hate, be | :16:38. | :16:40. | |
a spokesman for your frustration and say what I have got to say. I do not | :16:41. | :16:45. | |
care about moderation. Of course that is attractive to a base | :16:46. | :16:50. | |
according to all the studies that those fields disaffected and sees | :16:51. | :16:54. | |
the country slipping away. There is anger and frustration but it is | :16:55. | :16:57. | |
channelled in the most poisonous way which divides Americans along | :16:58. | :17:00. | |
religious and ethnic lines. That helps our enemies. Joel, that film. | :17:01. | :17:08. | |
Network, the catchphrase is I am mad as hell and I will not take this any | :17:09. | :17:13. | |
more. That is what Donald Trump is appealing to. Do you recognise that | :17:14. | :17:18. | |
in yourself for example, angry white man? Absolutely not, I reject any | :17:19. | :17:25. | |
such notion. What Donald Trump is speaking to is the hopes and dreams | :17:26. | :17:29. | |
of Americans in general. Looking at is minority support, he has | :17:30. | :17:37. | |
phenomenal support with the African American community and Hispanic | :17:38. | :17:44. | |
community relatively speaking. In the African-American community in | :17:45. | :17:48. | |
fact he has increased levels of support because they understand that | :17:49. | :17:52. | |
cheap labour flowing across the borders in the form of illegal | :17:53. | :17:55. | |
immigration is running African-American communities. We are | :17:56. | :18:00. | |
going to lose the line. Let me go back to Wajahat Ali. What is | :18:01. | :18:05. | |
interesting is how hard it has been for opponents to lay a glove on | :18:06. | :18:09. | |
Donald Trump. What would be your advice because if you argue with | :18:10. | :18:19. | |
him, if you taken seriously and argue with him you give him | :18:20. | :18:22. | |
credibility. If you ignore him you're just undignified and the guy | :18:23. | :18:26. | |
is the centre of the show. When Dick Cheney, the most Muslims consider | :18:27. | :18:31. | |
the manifestation of the Sith Lord himself, basically says Trump is too | :18:32. | :18:37. | |
extreme, that is telling. What a lot of the Republicans and many | :18:38. | :18:41. | |
Americans have to say is OK, this guy is a bustling, a character, then | :18:42. | :18:46. | |
spoken and fun to watch but he is dividing us and making us less safe. | :18:47. | :18:50. | |
That is what you say because his rhetoric is poisonous and assist our | :18:51. | :18:54. | |
enemies both abroad and at home. What type of future do we have for | :18:55. | :18:59. | |
the rest of America, all Americans regardless of religion, ethnicity | :19:00. | :19:06. | |
and gender, if I might Donald becomes president and enacted | :19:07. | :19:09. | |
policies. It would be World War II. Maybe he wants those internment | :19:10. | :19:17. | |
centres. Hopefully that will not happen. We are living in an era | :19:18. | :19:25. | |
where these events do seem to happen, what would be the chance | :19:26. | :19:28. | |
that he gets the Republican nomination and goes on to beat | :19:29. | :19:36. | |
Hillary Clinton? It is a scary time because he is double down on his | :19:37. | :19:39. | |
anti-Muslim rhetoric, he sees it working with his base and now he's | :19:40. | :19:43. | |
the leading candidate for the Republicans. He might be the leading | :19:44. | :19:46. | |
candidate and I see this as the death rattle of a certain white | :19:47. | :19:51. | |
supremacy in America. I do not think he will win because we have seen | :19:52. | :19:55. | |
solidarity even with Republicans and the Conservatives and all along | :19:56. | :19:58. | |
religious and ethnic lines saying that this is enough, this is toxic | :19:59. | :20:04. | |
and we reject it. So I remain hopeful and please remain hopeful in | :20:05. | :20:05. | |
the future of America. When I looked a little earlier this | :20:06. | :20:08. | |
evening, the weather forecast was for further rainfall across much of | :20:09. | :20:11. | |
Scotland and northern England during John Sweeney is in Kendal today | :20:12. | :20:14. | |
in the heart of the Lake District. The town didn't get | :20:15. | :20:19. | |
a flood protection scheme that was planned, and now | :20:20. | :20:22. | |
much of it has been flooded. John spent the day with families who | :20:23. | :20:25. | |
had been washed out of As the floodwaters recede, | :20:26. | :20:27. | |
what is striking is the grace and courage of the ordinary people | :20:28. | :20:35. | |
of Cumbria whose living rooms Kendal sits in a bowl of hills | :20:36. | :20:38. | |
and on Saturday night and Sunday morning it was swamped | :20:39. | :20:46. | |
by a month's worth of rain. There is a culvert, | :20:47. | :20:53. | |
an underground river beneath us, that overfilled and then a wall of | :20:54. | :20:56. | |
water like a mini tsunami battered And the poor people living here had | :20:57. | :20:59. | |
no idea what was going to hit them. At finishing time I collected | :21:00. | :21:06. | |
my wife from work We struggled to get home in the car | :21:07. | :21:08. | |
because they had closed bridges. So we had to go all the way | :21:09. | :21:14. | |
round the town to get back here. And in the meanwhile I phoned | :21:15. | :21:17. | |
my son who was at home doing some artwork, totally | :21:18. | :21:20. | |
oblivious of what was going on. So I rang up and said, | :21:21. | :21:26. | |
will we get somewhere A foot and a half | :21:27. | :21:28. | |
of water was flowing down the road. Jude Harrison, | :21:29. | :21:36. | |
shopkeeper and grandmother. And the thing that upset her | :21:37. | :21:44. | |
the most? I had kept the letter that my son | :21:45. | :21:46. | |
had written me, for 16 years. And I have just found it, | :21:47. | :21:50. | |
it is ruined. Ashley Harrison, | :21:51. | :21:52. | |
son and tattoo artist. I think after the water had actually | :21:53. | :21:59. | |
come up through there was kind of a And just that moment of well, | :22:00. | :22:07. | |
we can't do anything. So we sat down and had a glass | :22:08. | :22:12. | |
of wine and just had a bit Wendy and Russell Dawson, | :22:13. | :22:18. | |
they live for their dogs. So unfortunately Newsnight | :22:19. | :22:24. | |
doesn't have smell-ovision. I cannot tell | :22:25. | :22:27. | |
the viewer what it smells like. But you live here, | :22:28. | :22:29. | |
this is your home. As the waters rose outside, what | :22:30. | :22:31. | |
to do about their trail hounds? All | :22:32. | :22:44. | |
of a sudden it came through the back It just rose and it was just grab | :22:45. | :22:50. | |
the dogs and straight upstairs. Seven dogs, me and my wife | :22:51. | :22:56. | |
and my son in the bedroom. And these are working | :22:57. | :23:00. | |
dogs that live outside! Andrew Henshaw | :23:01. | :23:02. | |
and Danny Hawes were told by an elderly neighbour when they | :23:03. | :23:08. | |
moved in, Sandylands never floods. and I turned round and it was just | :23:09. | :23:27. | |
coming through the floor. Within about 30 seconds we were | :23:28. | :23:31. | |
in two inches of water. So we turned the power of | :23:32. | :23:34. | |
at the fuse box because we don't We went upstairs and we thought, | :23:35. | :23:37. | |
we can cope with soggy carpet You came down | :23:38. | :23:41. | |
about 20 minutes later and it was up And then at half past eight we knew | :23:42. | :23:45. | |
it was too late We just decided to leave because | :23:46. | :23:49. | |
we didn't know what else to do. These houses were built in 1923 | :23:50. | :23:56. | |
and people said they had never People in the town talked about | :23:57. | :23:59. | |
global warming, bare hills causing This is where the Lake District | :24:00. | :24:07. | |
meets The Italian Job. The mini's owners are | :24:08. | :24:19. | |
in sunny Spain. I have been told there is | :24:20. | :24:21. | |
a covert which runs across the estate and of course the water could | :24:22. | :24:24. | |
not get into the River Kent because It's backed up and all | :24:25. | :24:27. | |
of a sudden it would come over I think that is exactly | :24:28. | :24:31. | |
what has happened. Cleaning up this stinking mess | :24:32. | :24:34. | |
would spoil anyone's Christmas. But there is something about | :24:35. | :24:37. | |
the quiet stoicism of the people of We don't meet enough glamorous | :24:38. | :24:39. | |
fashionistas on this programme so it's nice to bring you a rising | :24:40. | :24:51. | |
star of the scene, with even more glittering friends and social media | :24:52. | :24:55. | |
followers than we have. Frenchman Olivier Rousteing is | :24:56. | :24:57. | |
creative director of the house of Balmain, now linking up with | :24:58. | :25:02. | |
a name familiar in the UK, H He's adopted, and has scaled the | :25:03. | :25:05. | |
commanding heights of French couture despite lacking the traditional | :25:06. | :25:10. | |
advantages of being white and old - In an exclusive interview, he's | :25:11. | :25:13. | |
been speaking to Stephen Smith. Olivier Rousteing is young enough | :25:14. | :25:28. | |
and pretty enough to be a model. In fact, he is creative designer for | :25:29. | :25:33. | |
one of fashion's leading brands. Now collaborating with | :25:34. | :25:36. | |
high street chain H It is a big challenge, but it's | :25:37. | :25:41. | |
an amazing challenge for a designer Because usually you speak to | :25:42. | :25:44. | |
a niche, to a really small crowd. Because not everyone can afford | :25:45. | :25:50. | |
the Balmain clothes. So I have to say that it's really | :25:51. | :25:53. | |
exciting for me to work Because you talk to a really big | :25:54. | :25:56. | |
crowd, like more global, and all my fans that maybe love the | :25:57. | :26:07. | |
brand and love the Balmain work but cannot afford the clothes, actually | :26:08. | :26:11. | |
now can afford the clothes. Rousteing has nearly two million | :26:12. | :26:14. | |
followers on social media. He is so well-connected, | :26:15. | :26:19. | |
it's thought he may know who all My generation it is Facebook, | :26:20. | :26:22. | |
Twitter, Instagram, it is one click. So I have to say that also my way | :26:23. | :26:28. | |
of working is the same, If you don't like me, | :26:29. | :26:31. | |
you just un-follow me. So there's something really honest | :26:32. | :26:37. | |
that we don't have sometimes in fashion, because when you're part | :26:38. | :26:39. | |
of a magazine, maybe you can be a big advertiser, where on social | :26:40. | :26:42. | |
media I think it is something really How easy or difficult has it been | :26:43. | :26:46. | |
for somebody like you to make it I had been adopted | :26:47. | :26:53. | |
by my white parents. I don't know where I come from, | :26:54. | :26:59. | |
because I was born in the late '80s, when the mum was giving up | :27:00. | :27:03. | |
the baby, she could leave without So I think fashion always helped me | :27:04. | :27:06. | |
to actually define who I am Because not knowing where you come | :27:07. | :27:18. | |
from, not knowing your parents, Because I think we can't forget that | :27:19. | :27:25. | |
sometimes fashion is defined So I think I have been lucky, but | :27:26. | :27:30. | |
at the same time I work so hard. And I almost thank my past because I | :27:31. | :27:37. | |
think it is my past that makes me There is great debate | :27:38. | :27:41. | |
about the size, shape, of catwalk models, people say they | :27:42. | :27:45. | |
are too skinny, they're not real. So I think we're going back to real | :27:46. | :27:51. | |
bodies, to embrace real femininity And all my catwalk, | :27:52. | :28:00. | |
all my girls are naturally like They can be mums, they can be young, | :28:01. | :28:04. | |
it is just depending. But I love just showing reality | :28:05. | :28:08. | |
on my catwalk. And I think we are | :28:09. | :28:11. | |
going back to that. You have got | :28:12. | :28:13. | |
into trouble with a belfie or two. It is when you take photos | :28:14. | :28:15. | |
of your backside, your ass. Your bosses weren't too keen, | :28:16. | :28:20. | |
is that right? I think they were not | :28:21. | :28:26. | |
like the happiest person But when they see my ass, | :28:27. | :28:28. | |
they were OK! Like, I took a selfie | :28:29. | :28:32. | |
a long time ago of my body, and actually after I had it changed | :28:33. | :28:38. | |
to do a cover naked for a magazine. I just want to show myself, | :28:39. | :28:42. | |
how I am, without a double-breasted jacket and in French we say | :28:43. | :28:45. | |
"mise a nu", literally being naked. The Paris attacks happened in | :28:46. | :28:52. | |
your neighbourhood where you live. I was with my assistant and we were | :28:53. | :28:57. | |
speaking about the next collection. And she asked me, | :28:58. | :29:04. | |
is it going to take long, the So she texted her boyfriend | :29:05. | :29:06. | |
and said we are not going to go to the restaurant, | :29:07. | :29:14. | |
because she should have had dinner, and this dinner was exactly | :29:15. | :29:16. | |
at the place where they shot. So she felt really lucky, obviously, | :29:17. | :29:20. | |
because she was with me in the office when we heard | :29:21. | :29:23. | |
the news on our phone. We locked the office | :29:24. | :29:25. | |
and we just didn't want to go out. The past few days have seen | :29:26. | :29:29. | |
considerable success for I don't think we need to respond | :29:30. | :29:31. | |
by extremist ideas. I think Front National is | :29:32. | :29:50. | |
like a really bad thing for France. I think people should vote and I | :29:51. | :29:53. | |
think people should actually not go We can't answer an extreme story | :29:54. | :29:56. | |
with extreme political ideas. I'm really wondering | :29:57. | :30:01. | |
about my country because I'm really worried, I think we can't forget | :30:02. | :30:05. | |
that what is amazing about France is I don't think there's any freedom | :30:06. | :30:09. | |
in Front National. With all that's happened with Paris, | :30:10. | :30:15. | |
I want to make sure my next collection is | :30:16. | :30:20. | |
a reflection of the beautiful So it is going to be a lot | :30:21. | :30:23. | |
of diversity, it is going to be a beautiful Paris and it is going | :30:24. | :30:32. | |
to be a homage to my country. And showing that Paris is amazing | :30:33. | :30:35. | |
and we have to keep it strong and not forget that Paris is | :30:36. | :30:38. | |
the city of light. It's been a difficult week | :30:39. | :30:50. | |
for the Stop the War coalition. It failed to Stop the War in that | :30:51. | :30:52. | |
Commons vote last Wednesday. And today, | :30:53. | :30:55. | |
the Green Party MP Caroline Lucas stepped down as a patron, troubled | :30:56. | :30:58. | |
by some statements of the campaign. It's Jeremy Corbyn's connection to | :30:59. | :31:01. | |
Stop the War that is keeping it Lfie. In belfie. What happened | :31:02. | :31:14. | |
today? So, Stop the War organisation that has been round since early | :31:15. | :31:18. | |
2000, to oppose military intervention in places like | :31:19. | :31:22. | |
Afghanistan and irrang, Caroline Lucas and Jeremy Corbyn being | :31:23. | :31:26. | |
lifelong supporters of it. Caroline Lucas pulls out. She says that | :31:27. | :31:33. | |
reports end didn't let Syrians speak at a meeting in November. Stop the | :31:34. | :31:37. | |
War deny that. That is one of the reasons she is citing and the other | :31:38. | :31:40. | |
is she is unhappy about comments they made in the aftermath of par | :31:41. | :31:47. | |
Ritz. One supporter was supposed to have said... She accepts the | :31:48. | :31:51. | |
comments are been taken down but she says it was the Vice-President. She | :31:52. | :31:55. | |
didn't feel she could take, keep an eye on what they were up to so she | :31:56. | :31:58. | |
pulled out. This puts pressure on Jeremy Corbyn, at the weekend on | :31:59. | :32:03. | |
Friday, he is due to be speaking at one of their big dinner, ?50 a head. | :32:04. | :32:09. | |
Three course, Turkish meal? A glass of wine and the night will feature | :32:10. | :32:14. | |
music, comedy and speeches, including one from Jeremy Corbyn. It | :32:15. | :32:19. | |
is his position, they have reiterated it to me, Stop the War is | :32:20. | :32:24. | |
a vital democratic campaign, organised the biggest demonstration | :32:25. | :32:28. | |
in British political history and this quote, called it right, Jeremy | :32:29. | :32:33. | |
Corbyn is not pulling out, but, I think that Caroline Lucas pulling | :32:34. | :32:37. | |
out might change it, because she is a fellow traveller of his. It is not | :32:38. | :32:42. | |
like Tristram Hunt, he is on a different wing of the party, who at | :32:43. | :32:47. | |
the weekend he said Stop the War was deplorable. This is coming from a | :32:48. | :32:50. | |
different quarter. Thank you very much. | :32:51. | :32:53. | |
A lot of race being discussed in the programme today. | :32:54. | :32:55. | |
I'd like to say it was thematic planning, but it wasn't. | :32:56. | :32:58. | |
However it was exactly 50 years ago today that the Race Relations Act | :32:59. | :33:01. | |
The law prohibited discrimination on "grounds of colour, race, | :33:02. | :33:04. | |
or ethnic or national origins " in public places. | :33:05. | :33:07. | |
It didn't cover housing, it didn't cover employment. | :33:08. | :33:09. | |
But it did mark a pretty big legal change. | :33:10. | :33:14. | |
It was back in days when the phrase "colour bar" didn't | :33:15. | :33:16. | |
We asked writer Benjamin Zephaniah, who's a little older than the Act, | :33:17. | :33:21. | |
to look back, and at how far we've come. | :33:22. | :33:23. | |
There is some bad language in his piece. | :33:24. | :33:30. | |
And Britain was a very different place. | :33:31. | :33:34. | |
There were colour bars - landlords would refuse to rent to | :33:35. | :33:38. | |
Most people are suspicious when they first meet something different. | :33:39. | :33:46. | |
Immigrants are different. There were pubs with signs, | :33:47. | :33:48. | |
"no blacks, no Irish, no dogs". Want to keep Britain. Keep it white, | :33:49. | :33:51. | |
as it should be. The Race Relations Act | :33:52. | :34:04. | |
of 1965 changed things. It was now illegal to discriminate | :34:05. | :34:06. | |
in public on the grounds of colour, It was a civil and not | :34:07. | :34:09. | |
a criminal offence, and it didn't Three years later, | :34:10. | :34:15. | |
the law was toughened up following Enoch Powell's infamous | :34:16. | :34:20. | |
rivers of blood speech. In this country, in 15 or 20 years' | :34:21. | :34:35. | |
time, the black man will have the whip hand over the white man. | :34:36. | :34:40. | |
Notting Hill is famous for its carnival. Not the notorious race | :34:41. | :34:46. | |
riots of 1958. This used to be the front line. A danger no go area for | :34:47. | :34:53. | |
some. But now, it is one of the trendiest most multicultural parts | :34:54. | :34:56. | |
of London. Time has moved on, and racism has evolved. We don't really | :34:57. | :35:01. | |
see gangs of racist thugs roaming the streets like they did back in | :35:02. | :35:06. | |
the day. They now wear suits and ties. Some form political party, | :35:07. | :35:12. | |
some build websites and some of them are academics. The whites have | :35:13. | :35:20. | |
become black. A particular sort of violent, distrucktive nihilistic | :35:21. | :35:22. | |
gangster culture has become the fashion. | :35:23. | :35:27. | |
Racists have become more sophisticated. | :35:28. | :35:27. | |
He picked on me, sat next to me on packed train on the way to | :35:28. | :35:42. | |
Liverpool. He like, he called me all of the names you can think of and | :35:43. | :35:47. | |
more and started doing monkey sounds and you know, jungle sounds and told | :35:48. | :35:53. | |
me to get out of his country, his grandfather fought in the war so | :35:54. | :35:57. | |
dirty Africans like me could get out. Nobody jumped to my rescue. I | :35:58. | :36:03. | |
said I was on there, on my own for 45 minute, it was only when I I was | :36:04. | :36:07. | |
was physically assaulted one person, one man finally came to my defence. | :36:08. | :36:20. | |
It isn't enough for me to make more or less Indian work or work that | :36:21. | :36:26. | |
refers if you like to my past, what I am interested in, is how it is | :36:27. | :36:34. | |
that one can be you know, one can rid one's self of that colonial | :36:35. | :36:39. | |
yolk. Something to do with this both, the expectations of one's self | :36:40. | :36:46. | |
and the expectation given by a political socio-political context | :36:47. | :36:49. | |
that says in order to be the cutting-edge on the cutting-edge, | :36:50. | :36:53. | |
you have to deal with this question of your blackness. Well, actually do | :36:54. | :36:58. | |
you? In my generation we are using to it. Definitely used to getting | :36:59. | :37:04. | |
not getting a job because your name is a certain name or having people | :37:05. | :37:09. | |
harass you because your hair is difference, that is insidious | :37:10. | :37:13. | |
racism. What happened to me is kind of what we think happens in America, | :37:14. | :37:18. | |
what we think happened to our parents and our grandparents. I no | :37:19. | :37:23. | |
longer have to run away from skin head thugs but I still get stopped | :37:24. | :37:28. | |
by the police. On the whole society is more accepting but we Silva | :37:29. | :37:33. | |
institutional racism. Company boardrooms are very white, and | :37:34. | :37:36. | |
ethnic minority communities are still very suspicious of the police. | :37:37. | :37:42. | |
After the death of Steven Lawrence the report said the Met was | :37:43. | :37:46. | |
institutionally racist, and that hasn't gone away. Black people are | :37:47. | :37:50. | |
still disproportionately stopped and searched, and the amount of black | :37:51. | :37:55. | |
people, like my cousin Mikey Powell that die in custody is very | :37:56. | :38:00. | |
worrying. It seems to me we live in a society | :38:01. | :38:06. | |
where we are always being told to fear someone. The other. Those who | :38:07. | :38:12. | |
are not like us, and the newest targets are migrants, those who | :38:13. | :38:17. | |
David Cameron refers to as the swarm. We also live in a time of a | :38:18. | :38:26. | |
new kind of does one call it racism? One does, Islamophobia, you know, it | :38:27. | :38:32. | |
is as if it has given full measure, you are allowed to you know, look at | :38:33. | :38:37. | |
those people who wear a hijab or whatever else it is, and say are you | :38:38. | :38:43. | |
going to bomb me now? You know, how many incidents have there be | :38:44. | :38:46. | |
recently, and how watchful do we have to be? Very, I say. | :38:47. | :38:53. | |
This is just one of the many racist rants on public transport that have | :38:54. | :39:01. | |
recently gone viral. Bitches -- bitches. Isis bitches. | :39:02. | :39:10. | |
Laws can control people's actions but they can't control people's | :39:11. | :39:15. | |
thoughts. As racism becoming more subtle we need to keep pressuring | :39:16. | :39:20. | |
our institutions to change. So yes, society is a lot more tolerant than | :39:21. | :39:25. | |
it was 50 years ago but there is still work to do. | :39:26. | :39:32. | |
The struggle continues. We need to stop blaming each other. | :39:33. | :39:39. | |
You see, I am not the problem, but I bear the brunt of silly playground | :39:40. | :39:43. | |
taunts an racist stunts. I am not the problem. I am a born academic | :39:44. | :39:49. | |
but they have me on the run. Now I am branded athletic, I am not the | :39:50. | :39:53. | |
problem, if you give me a chance I will teach you of Tim buck too. I | :39:54. | :39:57. | |
can do more than dance, I am not the problem, I greet you with a smile, | :39:58. | :40:03. | |
you put me in a pigeon hole but I am versatile. Well, these conditions | :40:04. | :40:07. | |
may affect me, as I get older, and I am positively sure I have no chips | :40:08. | :40:13. | |
on my shoulders, black is not the problem, mother country, get it | :40:14. | :40:18. | |
right. And just for the record, some of my best friends are white! | :40:19. | :40:23. | |
That is just about it for this evening. Before we go I am not sure | :40:24. | :40:31. | |
whether it is austerity to me the fashion for flamboyant Christmas | :40:32. | :40:34. | |
light displays seem to have passed its peak. At least that is what I | :40:35. | :40:42. | |
thought, then this display in Texas came along courtesy of the Johnson | :40:43. | :40:46. | |
family in San Antonio. | :40:47. | :40:54. |