Browse content similar to 23/08/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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It is a Newsnight studio ram packed with guests this evening. | :00:09. | :00:27. | |
It is a Newsnight studio ram packed Vergini Coast they they have the | :00:28. | :00:35. | |
footage to prove otherwise. -- Virgin East Coast. Can we get to the | :00:36. | :00:40. | |
bottom of it. Also tonight... Rio de Janeiro has had a good couple of | :00:41. | :00:45. | |
weeks, but is it now facing its biggest embarrassment? Botching the | :00:46. | :00:47. | |
organisation of the Paralympic Games. It's desperately, desperately | :00:48. | :00:51. | |
disappointing, not least for the athletes who are having to compete | :00:52. | :00:56. | |
in two weeks in real adversity. The man in charge of the International | :00:57. | :00:58. | |
Paralympic Association will tell us whether he has hopes of fears for | :00:59. | :01:02. | |
the Games this year. And from Olympic gold to Olympic gloom, how | :01:03. | :01:07. | |
the athletes had to come down after coming home. | :01:08. | :01:15. | |
You've got to hand it to Rio that when it came to the Olympics, | :01:16. | :01:20. | |
Whatever the worries, the mishaps, the less | :01:21. | :01:25. | |
than crowded stadiums, the Games were actually great. | :01:26. | :01:27. | |
And in a city that doesn't have the money of London | :01:28. | :01:30. | |
or the dictatorial tendencies of Beijing, they showed | :01:31. | :01:38. | |
you can still host a successful Olympics and be normal. | :01:39. | :01:41. | |
But, when it comes to the Paralympics, Rio does not look | :01:42. | :01:44. | |
Ticket sales are appalling, budget cuts are biting, | :01:45. | :01:47. | |
some teams won't make it, having not been sent | :01:48. | :01:49. | |
So how much of setback will these Games be, from the successful | :01:50. | :01:55. | |
It's been a day of beaming smiles and flashing medals, as | :01:56. | :02:12. | |
While success in Rio helped overshadow criticism | :02:13. | :02:18. | |
of how the Games were run, there are now concerns over the fate | :02:19. | :02:22. | |
Problems like green swimming pools have led to money intended | :02:23. | :02:30. | |
for the Paralympics being spent on the Olympics instead, | :02:31. | :02:33. | |
Whilst dismal ticket sales could mean even more empty seats. | :02:34. | :02:40. | |
It's almost become an Olympic tradition to question how ready | :02:41. | :02:45. | |
a host nation is before the Games begin, but this does feel like it's | :02:46. | :02:49. | |
Just the other week, the head of the International Paralympic | :02:50. | :02:55. | |
Committee said that the Games have never faced circumstances like these | :02:56. | :02:58. | |
The Paralympic cycling team is training here in Newport. | :02:59. | :03:03. | |
They are focusing on winning medals, but the controversies | :03:04. | :03:06. | |
Is there a disappointment about the ticket sales? | :03:07. | :03:11. | |
That's clearly a lot of empty seats and it would be nice | :03:12. | :03:24. | |
if they were filled, not just from the athletes' | :03:25. | :03:26. | |
perspective and the spectators' perspective and the whole | :03:27. | :03:29. | |
atmosphere, but also from the funding perspective | :03:30. | :03:31. | |
and just the exposure to the sport and the atmosphere in general. | :03:32. | :03:34. | |
The Paralympics are meant to be run in line and we always | :03:35. | :03:37. | |
because of the way the calendar works. | :03:38. | :03:41. | |
But the way they treat us definitely isn't the same, is it? | :03:42. | :03:45. | |
According to official documents, the Brazilian authorities had | :03:46. | :03:52. | |
initially hoped to raise $170 million for the Paralympics. | :03:53. | :03:55. | |
But we've been told they are now nowhere near the amount they need. | :03:56. | :04:02. | |
One reason is just 12% of tickets have been sold, | :04:03. | :04:05. | |
compared to 92% of Olympic tickets, although even then | :04:06. | :04:08. | |
There are also just 28 Paralympic sponsors, | :04:09. | :04:15. | |
As a result, they've decided to make cuts to the workforce, | :04:16. | :04:23. | |
cuts to transport services for athletes and also changes | :04:24. | :04:26. | |
to the venues of some events, allowing the closure of one | :04:27. | :04:28. | |
London's 2012 Paralympic Games were hailed as being | :04:29. | :04:34. | |
The former Paralympic athlete who helped deliver them says that | :04:35. | :04:40. | |
legacy looks like it's in tatters now. | :04:41. | :04:45. | |
This is a leap into Paralympic prehistory. | :04:46. | :04:52. | |
The economic and political backdrop are certainly very different | :04:53. | :04:56. | |
to when Rio won the bid, but this doesn't have so much | :04:57. | :04:58. | |
to do with the economics, this has to do with cannibalisation | :04:59. | :05:06. | |
of the Paralympic budget to bail out and backfill Olympic elements that | :05:07. | :05:09. | |
didn't need to go wrong in the first place. | :05:10. | :05:11. | |
There has been a disrespect, a misunderstanding, | :05:12. | :05:13. | |
a lack of understanding for the Paralympic Games, | :05:14. | :05:16. | |
for the potential and for the impact that could have made | :05:17. | :05:19. | |
A legacy for the 45 million disabled people in Brazil could make a | :05:20. | :05:29. | |
difference. Many still struggle with being accepted and feeling included. | :05:30. | :05:34. | |
TRANSLATION: I was disappointed but not surprised that the lack of | :05:35. | :05:37. | |
funding, because historically, disabled people have been left | :05:38. | :05:40. | |
behind in this city. Having said that, there have now been some | :05:41. | :05:44. | |
improvements to public transport here because of the Games. But | :05:45. | :05:49. | |
despite everything, Rio is what Paralympic athletes have spent years | :05:50. | :05:53. | |
training for. And all the athletes we spoke to were clear about the | :05:54. | :05:57. | |
need to make the most of the Games. People will organise it or they | :05:58. | :06:01. | |
won't, they will sort it or they went, and we're going to have to | :06:02. | :06:06. | |
kind of deal with it as it happens. Whereas the performance of riding a | :06:07. | :06:10. | |
bike as fast as we can, that is totally within our control, so we | :06:11. | :06:13. | |
just have to do the best we can and make sure we get the best | :06:14. | :06:17. | |
performances out of ourselves. Delays to travel grants paid out by | :06:18. | :06:20. | |
Brazilian authorities had raised concerns that some countries | :06:21. | :06:24. | |
wouldn't even be be able to afford to come to Rio. It looks like it | :06:25. | :06:28. | |
won't come to that, but many are seeing these Games as a missed | :06:29. | :06:30. | |
opportunity. Tim Hollingsworth is | :06:31. | :06:35. | |
the Chief Executive of the British Paralympic | :06:36. | :06:36. | |
Association. It seems that all the teams are | :06:37. | :06:43. | |
going? That is the case now. It is very late news but that travelled | :06:44. | :06:48. | |
ground that was referenced that the organising committee makes available | :06:49. | :06:51. | |
to every nation, including us, has got enough certainty for every | :06:52. | :06:55. | |
nation to confirm that they are coming. That is very important, we | :06:56. | :06:59. | |
wouldn't want any athlete who is qualified to go not going. Argue | :07:00. | :07:03. | |
basically optimistic about these Games? Is it just the case that the | :07:04. | :07:07. | |
Brazilians get it together late on, or are you thinking this is going to | :07:08. | :07:11. | |
be like we heard in the piece, this is prehistory for the Paralympics? | :07:12. | :07:16. | |
Chris Holmes had more than a little hand in London 2012 and knows very | :07:17. | :07:19. | |
much of what he speaks and he is right in a sense that to weeks out, | :07:20. | :07:23. | |
we shouldn't be speaking about this, we should have had the Paralympic | :07:24. | :07:26. | |
Games ready and organised in the way that the authorities in Brazil | :07:27. | :07:31. | |
promised two years -- seven years ago when they won the bid. I guess | :07:32. | :07:34. | |
Brazil is in a different place economically now than it was then, | :07:35. | :07:38. | |
but we have seen circumstances arise to call into question a lot of the | :07:39. | :07:42. | |
traditional services and everything you would expect. Like what | :07:43. | :07:48. | |
services? We are taking about 260 athletes to Rio, our biggest ever | :07:49. | :07:52. | |
away. A lot of things around the transport, the village, some of the | :07:53. | :07:55. | |
accommodation for the athletes, we want an exact what we're facing. We | :07:56. | :08:00. | |
may now have to overlay some of our own support for the athletes to make | :08:01. | :08:03. | |
sure that is OK. I'm sure you're going to ask about the ticket sales. | :08:04. | :08:07. | |
We want. A.D. And excited countrymen. How much of a difference | :08:08. | :08:11. | |
does it make and how much of a difference would it make to | :08:12. | :08:20. | |
Paralympics in general if these Games are perceived to have been a | :08:21. | :08:23. | |
bit of a flop? Empty stadiums, not much excitement, not much buzz, is | :08:24. | :08:25. | |
that really serious? That would be really concerning. We go on about | :08:26. | :08:30. | |
London's cataclysmic impact but that really was the case. It was a | :08:31. | :08:35. | |
transformational Games for many of us and people's attitudes towards | :08:36. | :08:39. | |
sport and disability. We found we've got more nations than ever before | :08:40. | :08:44. | |
competing, more competitive than ever before, the sport will be | :08:45. | :08:49. | |
better than London. NDC in America for the first time have live | :08:50. | :08:55. | |
coverage. The whole upswing around the world. The sport is going to be | :08:56. | :08:59. | |
better? The one thing we can be sure of is that the Times will be fast | :09:00. | :09:02. | |
and people will be competing more strongly than they were in London. | :09:03. | :09:08. | |
One might look at this and say it is a sort of depressing sign that | :09:09. | :09:11. | |
although we talk about the parity of the Games, this talk is really a | :09:12. | :09:15. | |
British thing and actually nowhere else in the world talks about it | :09:16. | :09:19. | |
like this? The American team is the same size as our team. I think the | :09:20. | :09:26. | |
French team is two thirds or half the size of our team. I think we bat | :09:27. | :09:32. | |
above our weight in the Paralympics. Is it a British thing to think of | :09:33. | :09:38. | |
the Parolo pigs as important? We are the birthplace of the movement, with | :09:39. | :09:43. | |
Stoke Mandeville being the birthplace of that and we should be | :09:44. | :09:48. | |
proud of that. But it doesn't make it bad at all, the fact that we are | :09:49. | :09:51. | |
one of the larger teams is partly historic but it is also demonstrably | :09:52. | :09:55. | |
the case that more athletes are coming to this Games than ever | :09:56. | :10:00. | |
before. More nations are taking it seriously and the journey is | :10:01. | :10:03. | |
definitely very positive. If I were to be a bit cliched about it, it is | :10:04. | :10:07. | |
a journey. The movement is growing and I think it's really important | :10:08. | :10:11. | |
that with Rio and with Tokyo to come, Tokyo has already demonstrated | :10:12. | :10:14. | |
huge interest in the Paralympic Games and I think this will still be | :10:15. | :10:18. | |
a great games. The sport will be fantastic and we have seen, small | :10:19. | :10:22. | |
measures, but we have seen quite a lot of tickets seen in the last few | :10:23. | :10:26. | |
days, about 100,000. While we still got a lot of concerns, I think it | :10:27. | :10:30. | |
still looking like we could have a great Games. The ban has been upheld | :10:31. | :10:36. | |
for Russia, they cannot go. Was that a good idea for the Paralympic | :10:37. | :10:41. | |
committee to be on a kind of stronger anti-regime crusade than | :10:42. | :10:45. | |
the Olympic Committee? I think so. I think it was a bowl and right thing | :10:46. | :10:49. | |
to do at this time. Doping in Paralympic sport, it's quite unusual | :10:50. | :10:53. | |
really, we haven't had any major cases, but for them to read in the | :10:54. | :10:57. | |
McLaren review about so much potential evidence of systematic | :10:58. | :11:00. | |
doping as they uncovered, I think it was the right thing to do. It's very | :11:01. | :11:04. | |
sad that the athletes, no one is celebrating Russia not being there, | :11:05. | :11:08. | |
but it feels like we've done the right thing as a Paralympic | :11:09. | :11:12. | |
movement. Medel prediction for Team GB? Second place? We were third last | :11:13. | :11:18. | |
time. And we move up to third like in the Olympics West remarked they | :11:19. | :11:23. | |
have done fantastically well in the limpet games. ParalympicsGB, we're | :11:24. | :11:30. | |
looking at 120 medals in London, if we can match or exceed that I think | :11:31. | :11:32. | |
we will make the nation proud. A new study of men, women | :11:33. | :11:34. | |
and the labour market It's from the Institute | :11:35. | :11:37. | |
for Fiscal Studies, who are very good at making sense of huge | :11:38. | :11:40. | |
datasets, and the report confirms what we perhaps knew - | :11:41. | :11:43. | |
that women earn less than men. But there is more to say | :11:44. | :11:46. | |
about it that that. There are three basic | :11:47. | :11:48. | |
takeaway facts here. The first is this - | :11:49. | :11:51. | |
the wage gap between childless women The men have hourly wages that | :11:52. | :11:54. | |
are about 10% higher than the women. And that is a pretty | :11:55. | :11:58. | |
significant gender disparity. It's not clear what the cause is - | :11:59. | :12:01. | |
this is not different It could be that women gravitate | :12:02. | :12:04. | |
towards different occupations Or it maybe that society has tended | :12:05. | :12:08. | |
to pay so-called women's jobs, like nursing, less than so-called | :12:09. | :12:14. | |
men's jobs, like trucking. The second point is that on top | :12:15. | :12:16. | |
of this, a bigger disparity that So here is the wage gap in relation | :12:17. | :12:26. | |
to the birth of a first child. Before the child, | :12:27. | :12:37. | |
the gap is about 10%. And then in the later years | :12:38. | :12:39. | |
after the first child, 12 years after their | :12:40. | :12:43. | |
first born, the wage In fact, for every year taken | :12:44. | :12:48. | |
out of the workplace, the woman's salary when she returns | :12:49. | :12:52. | |
is 2% lower than it would That, you can call the price | :12:53. | :12:55. | |
of taking time out. There is a third point to make | :12:56. | :13:06. | |
though - that the wage gap is bigger at the more educated end | :13:07. | :13:09. | |
of the labour market. For people with A-levels | :13:10. | :13:11. | |
or a university degree, the wage penalty of taking time out | :13:12. | :13:13. | |
is much bigger than for people Of course, top end jobs are better | :13:14. | :13:16. | |
paid, but they are more better So two question leap out | :13:17. | :13:25. | |
of all this. Why is the penalty of looking after | :13:26. | :13:28. | |
children quite as large as it is? And why there is that core 10% | :13:29. | :13:32. | |
gender wage gap even when children One country that has a smaller | :13:33. | :13:36. | |
than average gap is Sweden - it has long been seen as a beacon | :13:37. | :13:40. | |
of equal opportunity. Joining us now from Sweden, the | :13:41. | :13:56. | |
Minister for Labour. Good evening, thanks for joining us. What do you | :13:57. | :14:00. | |
think it takes to get that wage gap down? What is the most powerful and | :14:01. | :14:05. | |
effective tool? I think the first thing is that you have to be very | :14:06. | :14:10. | |
persistent and very decisive, that you will reach a 100% equal pay and | :14:11. | :14:16. | |
you will not be satisfied with less. But being more pragmatic, I think | :14:17. | :14:20. | |
that it must be easy to combine family and working life and I think | :14:21. | :14:24. | |
that is one of the things that we have done quite good in Sweden. | :14:25. | :14:30. | |
Almost all women work, we have a high employment rate amongst men and | :14:31. | :14:40. | |
women. There is still a gap of 4% but that is smaller each year. I | :14:41. | :14:46. | |
think we will reach equal levels of employment rates between men and | :14:47. | :14:50. | |
women. And this is important. I was looking at the OECD statistics, | :14:51. | :14:57. | |
respected international comparisons, and you still have quite a big wage | :14:58. | :15:02. | |
gap. At one point you were world readers, but now still around 15% of | :15:03. | :15:08. | |
wage gap. Even when you have a government that calls itself | :15:09. | :15:11. | |
feminists, why do you think you still cannot get rid of that last | :15:12. | :15:18. | |
15%? It is coming closer, it is 12.5% now and we need to take into | :15:19. | :15:24. | |
account these things that can be explained by different levels of | :15:25. | :15:28. | |
education and different ages. It is still a gap between 4.5% but I think | :15:29. | :15:34. | |
we have got to do more and that is why we passed a law saying all | :15:35. | :15:39. | |
importers have got to do equal pay gap reviews every year. At the | :15:40. | :15:46. | |
workplace. And all employers also have to have an action plan, how to | :15:47. | :15:50. | |
get rid of the equal pay gap. I think this is one important tool you | :15:51. | :15:58. | |
can use on each workplace. Do not need to talk to the Swedish men, you | :15:59. | :16:04. | |
have generous parental leave for when people have children, I think | :16:05. | :16:08. | |
16 months between the mother and the father. It is the women who take | :16:09. | :16:13. | |
most of that, though. Three quarters of it is women. That is correct and | :16:14. | :16:20. | |
that is why we have just passed a new law saying that we will have, we | :16:21. | :16:27. | |
will earmark three months for the mother and three months for the | :16:28. | :16:33. | |
father. Or if there is a same sex parents, three months for one parent | :16:34. | :16:36. | |
and three for the other. I think this will really help to have a more | :16:37. | :16:41. | |
equal use of the parental leave and I think we have got to go one month | :16:42. | :16:47. | |
by month until we reach an equal level of parental leave. Do you | :16:48. | :16:53. | |
think that the wage gap that you still have, is that what I would | :16:54. | :16:58. | |
call a gender gap or a child rearing gap? Is that the punishment can if | :16:59. | :17:04. | |
you like, for a woman coming out of the labour market and going back in | :17:05. | :17:07. | |
or is it about sexism at work or the weight we respect men but jobs | :17:08. | :17:16. | |
different to women's jobs? It is not so easy, you are not punished | :17:17. | :17:20. | |
because your children, it is quite easy to have children in Sweden, we | :17:21. | :17:25. | |
have a good, high quality and affordable childcare for all | :17:26. | :17:28. | |
children and we have this generous parental leave. We can also see that | :17:29. | :17:34. | |
women with a high income, high level of education, have more children | :17:35. | :17:37. | |
than those with low levels. So this is not really that easy, but you can | :17:38. | :17:44. | |
see we still have a division in the labour market where women tend to | :17:45. | :17:49. | |
work more with caring, working with people. And tend to be paid less if | :17:50. | :17:56. | |
you work with people than if you work with machines or technology. I | :17:57. | :17:59. | |
think that is one reason. Another reason is that a lot of women work | :18:00. | :18:05. | |
in sectors where they're not allowed to be full-time working, so they | :18:06. | :18:12. | |
work 80% or something but they still would like to work 100%. This is one | :18:13. | :18:17. | |
of the most important issues for the Swedish unions to fight for. Yes, | :18:18. | :18:26. | |
the part-time, full-time, and different occupations, caring | :18:27. | :18:28. | |
occupations being underpaid. Thank you very much. | :18:29. | :18:30. | |
It didn't take long for Twitter to call it Traingate. | :18:31. | :18:32. | |
A case of alleged mendacity on the East Coast line. | :18:33. | :18:35. | |
It started last week with Jeremy Corbyn recording some | :18:36. | :18:37. | |
footage about the state of the railways, sitting | :18:38. | :18:39. | |
on the floor of a train, calling it ram-packed. | :18:40. | :18:42. | |
The implication was that there were no available seats. | :18:43. | :18:47. | |
Well, Virgin decided to declare war on the Corbyn machine today, | :18:48. | :18:50. | |
releasing CCTV images of apparently empty seats on that train, | :18:51. | :18:54. | |
and indeed showing us that Mr Corbyn went to sit in one | :18:55. | :18:57. | |
Now in TV land we know that sometimes the thing | :18:58. | :19:02. | |
you want to film - like a ram-packed train - | :19:03. | :19:04. | |
And we normally find carefully constructed weasel words to get | :19:05. | :19:10. | |
We'd say "trains like this are ram-packed day-in and day-out". | :19:11. | :19:16. | |
Or "often you can't get even a seat on a train, | :19:17. | :19:18. | |
But Mr Corbyn left himself less wiggle room. | :19:19. | :19:23. | |
He said, "Today this train is completely ram-packed". | :19:24. | :19:27. | |
He's meant to be untainted by the dark arts of spin, | :19:28. | :19:33. | |
so was it ram-packed or merely crowded, and does it matter? | :19:34. | :19:35. | |
Something that Jeremy Corbyn's fans love about him is his | :19:36. | :19:42. | |
Indeed, a few weeks ago he made a viral | :19:43. | :19:46. | |
video about being the victim of an all too common problem. | :19:47. | :20:03. | |
Today though, Virgin Trains, which runs | :20:04. | :20:05. | |
And it shows him walking past empty seats before he recorded that video. | :20:06. | :20:14. | |
Then settling down in a seat, after he was done. | :20:15. | :20:17. | |
Mr Corbyn's team absolutely deny this | :20:18. | :20:32. | |
We walked through all the carriages on the train and there | :20:33. | :20:40. | |
So either people were sitting in the seats, | :20:41. | :20:43. | |
or they were reserved, or | :20:44. | :20:44. | |
there was, you know, luggage in the seats reserving | :20:45. | :20:46. | |
Walked all the way through the train and ended up having to sit | :20:47. | :20:51. | |
on the floor at the far end of the train. | :20:52. | :20:57. | |
There were other passengers there also sitting on the floor. | :20:58. | :20:59. | |
They weren't able to get a seat either. | :21:00. | :21:01. | |
I think after about 45 minutes we were able to, a friendly | :21:02. | :21:04. | |
train guard came to tell us that some seats have become available. | :21:05. | :21:08. | |
As I understand, a family moved into, | :21:09. | :21:10. | |
first-class section of the train and therefore | :21:11. | :21:14. | |
the seats were offered to | :21:15. | :21:15. | |
Jeremy and we were very grateful for them. | :21:16. | :21:17. | |
This footage is of Mr Corbyn shortly into | :21:18. | :21:20. | |
the journey, from before he recorded the video. | :21:21. | :21:23. | |
Virgin said the seats are empty and unreserved. | :21:24. | :21:25. | |
There appear to be lots of empty, unreserved seats in that | :21:26. | :21:31. | |
And that's right at the beginning of the journey. | :21:32. | :21:34. | |
Yes, so we walked through and I think what isn't clear | :21:35. | :21:38. | |
in the photo is the fact that there are people | :21:39. | :21:40. | |
children sitting on the seats, or luggage on the seats. | :21:41. | :21:44. | |
I mean, as we walked through, all of the | :21:45. | :21:46. | |
carriages, there weren't any places for us to sit down. | :21:47. | :21:48. | |
You may ask whether this sort of thing is really | :21:49. | :21:51. | |
But it's important to remember that sadly, most people in | :21:52. | :21:54. | |
Most voters aren't that interested in the minutiae of policy discussion | :21:55. | :21:59. | |
A simple story that speaks to the character of | :22:00. | :22:13. | |
senior politicians is one that really gets cut through can | :22:14. | :22:16. | |
Michael Foote's so-called donkey jacket worn at | :22:17. | :22:18. | |
the Cenotaph was of no real importance. | :22:19. | :22:20. | |
But people with concerns about his patriotism saw it as a | :22:21. | :22:23. | |
Ten years ago, the discovery that David Cameron cycled to work | :22:24. | :22:26. | |
followed by a chauffeur carrying his stuff got | :22:27. | :22:28. | |
amazing cut through, because it spoke to concerns he | :22:29. | :22:31. | |
Might the Virgin Trains video saga be Mr | :22:32. | :22:35. | |
Does it speak strongly to his weaknesses? | :22:36. | :22:41. | |
Jeremy Corbyn is certainly trusted among his | :22:42. | :22:43. | |
supporters, but among the | :22:44. | :22:44. | |
general public, that level of trust is not nearly as high. | :22:45. | :22:47. | |
And so an event such as this where his honesty | :22:48. | :22:49. | |
is called into question certainly could have an impact. | :22:50. | :22:55. | |
My suspicion is though that the timing means that | :22:56. | :22:57. | |
among his supporters this will be seen as yet another attack. | :22:58. | :23:00. | |
And among the general public they probably won't pay too much | :23:01. | :23:03. | |
Well, Mr Corbyn's team is sensitive about | :23:04. | :23:06. | |
It does seem strange that the timing of | :23:07. | :23:14. | |
Richard Branson and Virgin to release these images and kind of | :23:15. | :23:17. | |
present a slightly skewed version of events, | :23:18. | :23:18. | |
that they've chosen now as | :23:19. | :23:19. | |
Mr Corbyn is still likely to retain the leadership. | :23:20. | :23:25. | |
Rather appropriately, his supporters point | :23:26. | :23:27. | |
to a lack of empty seats at rallies as a measure of his support. | :23:28. | :23:32. | |
Joining me now are Matt Laza, former broadcast media advisor | :23:33. | :23:35. | |
to Ed Miliband and now director of the thinktank Policy Network. | :23:36. | :23:39. | |
And Debora Mattinson who used to be a pollster for Gordon Brown and now | :23:40. | :23:42. | |
What do you think the truth is? You can see the photographs. They are | :23:43. | :23:57. | |
there to see. Unless Virgin has issued photographs and somehow | :23:58. | :24:00. | |
superimposed Jeremy Corbyn in that carriage. They could be very small | :24:01. | :24:07. | |
people we could not see. I think this is difficult to talk your way | :24:08. | :24:12. | |
out you need a better witness than someone who is a member of his | :24:13. | :24:21. | |
staff. There are conspiracy theories which the Jeremy Corbyn camp are not | :24:22. | :24:25. | |
unfamiliar with, but cannot explain this away. Now does it matter, is it | :24:26. | :24:30. | |
like David Cameron with the car behind him? I think it is more like | :24:31. | :24:38. | |
the David Cameron with his shoes in the limo. I remember that vividly. | :24:39. | :24:46. | |
The incident happened and in focus group situations months afterwards | :24:47. | :24:50. | |
people talked about it it struck a chord. Because David Cameron have | :24:51. | :24:55. | |
carefully positioned himself as an eco-warrior and then suddenly, doing | :24:56. | :24:59. | |
this and the story unravelling, it just aren't picked that position. | :25:00. | :25:07. | |
And everyone got it. And we become a month later they still talked about | :25:08. | :25:11. | |
it. I think this could just be the same. This is the man who is | :25:12. | :25:17. | |
straight talking, honest politics, he put himself above all of those | :25:18. | :25:22. | |
tacky photo opportunities and media games. And yet here he is. Neither | :25:23. | :25:28. | |
of them Jeremy Corbyn fans, in particular, but I can see you | :25:29. | :25:37. | |
nodding. Where it does matter, die-hard Jeremy Corbyn fans will see | :25:38. | :25:41. | |
this as just another mainstream media attack on him. Tomorrow we | :25:42. | :25:47. | |
will find out which former Blairites work for the media agency for | :25:48. | :25:53. | |
Virgin. But it does matter, he is trying to be holier than thou, and | :25:54. | :26:02. | |
the late Michael Meacher once was caught out trying to say he had a | :26:03. | :26:18. | |
dozen houses, and that is all people remembered about him. If you're | :26:19. | :26:22. | |
going to be straight talking and you claim that the train is empty, your | :26:23. | :26:31. | |
court red-handed. It is less about authenticity, I think that is a | :26:32. | :26:37. | |
subset of integrity. And we look at what matters for leadership and | :26:38. | :26:42. | |
being a good communicator, having integrity and being decisive other | :26:43. | :26:47. | |
things that stand out. I think integrity, this is it. Would you | :26:48. | :26:52. | |
have let this happen when you were running around with Ed Miliband? We | :26:53. | :26:57. | |
all know that you play tricks, to make a point about trains for | :26:58. | :27:02. | |
example. His point, even Virgin conceded that they need more trains | :27:03. | :27:07. | |
on that line. So this is his bigger point in a way. But it needs to have | :27:08. | :27:11. | |
a factual basis. I go up and down quite frequently on Virgin Trains. | :27:12. | :27:17. | |
If they thought Labour was going to win, they would not have released | :27:18. | :27:23. | |
this. The idea that you pick a fight with the Leader of the Opposition at | :27:24. | :27:27. | |
any other point, frankly, in 50 years of political history and that | :27:28. | :27:32. | |
is an important point. Labour Party supporters should realise that the | :27:33. | :27:36. | |
party is not being taken seriously. It could just be, the Jeremy Corbyn | :27:37. | :27:43. | |
narrative begs to differ, that this is the company and we are saying | :27:44. | :27:48. | |
they're going to nationalise the railways. If they thought that they | :27:49. | :27:52. | |
were going to do it then Virgin would be scared and Richard Branson | :27:53. | :28:00. | |
would be sending out sarcastic text. With Ed Miliband, authenticity did | :28:01. | :28:06. | |
matter to him. He spent 18 months of his childhood in Leeds. And I got so | :28:07. | :28:13. | |
many phone calls from this building saying please take him to that | :28:14. | :28:17. | |
school. And he said he would not pretend to be an authentic | :28:18. | :28:21. | |
Yorkshireman. And that is what Jeremy Corbyn has not quite realised | :28:22. | :28:27. | |
and it shows that the operation is amateur, you would have checked what | :28:28. | :28:30. | |
was going on before releasing the video. What about authenticity, is | :28:31. | :28:35. | |
that what the public really want or do they want competent politicians? | :28:36. | :28:43. | |
They do want of setting politicians. -- authentic politicians. And once | :28:44. | :28:47. | |
you believe what they believe. If you are authentic, and your views | :28:48. | :28:51. | |
are different from the public, then actually they will not vote for you. | :28:52. | :28:54. | |
If they just wanted authenticity then Jeremy Corbyn, his ratings | :28:55. | :28:59. | |
would be screaming and they're not, they are the worst of any leader of | :29:00. | :29:04. | |
a political party since polling began. So I do not think so, it is | :29:05. | :29:07. | |
not enough. Thank you both. Two months ago today, | :29:08. | :29:10. | |
Britain voted to leave the EU. Our business editor Helen Thomas | :29:11. | :29:13. | |
has been taking stock. And remember what was | :29:14. | :29:18. | |
meant to happen next? Mortgages will get more expensive | :29:19. | :29:25. | |
and mortgage rates will go up. More worried now, much more worried, | :29:26. | :29:29. | |
than I was in 2008. So why would we take | :29:30. | :29:33. | |
a leap in the dark? So, has the economic reality lived | :29:34. | :29:37. | |
of years of uncertainty? As the first hard data on the state | :29:38. | :29:48. | |
of the economy is rolled in, Last week, retail sales figures | :29:49. | :30:05. | |
for July showed spending up 5.9% One measure of unemployment, | :30:06. | :30:09. | |
the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance, | :30:10. | :30:12. | |
fell by 8,600 in July, And today, a survey | :30:13. | :30:13. | |
by the Confederation of British Industry found | :30:14. | :30:18. | |
that the sharp drop in the pound was helping export orders, | :30:19. | :30:21. | |
boosting UK manufacturing. I think Project Fear actually | :30:22. | :30:24. | |
looks quite ludicrous. Because a lot of the very lurid | :30:25. | :30:33. | |
claims that we had from August bodies like the Treasury or the Bank | :30:34. | :30:36. | |
of England or the IMF or the OECD, they're all coming up with all kinds | :30:37. | :30:39. | |
of weird and wonderful predictions of calamity, | :30:40. | :30:42. | |
based on their economic models. Which were broadly | :30:43. | :30:44. | |
bogus, in my opinion. The weaker pound may | :30:45. | :30:46. | |
also be helping. There was a near 20% | :30:47. | :30:53. | |
increase in tourism in July. Well, lo and behold, | :30:54. | :30:57. | |
tourists don't walk around So all the data from outfits | :30:58. | :30:59. | |
like Visa or people who sell Swiss watches or luxury items, | :31:00. | :31:07. | |
we've got a tourist boom going on. I don't think it's a one-month | :31:08. | :31:09. | |
wonder. Forecasts for UK growth | :31:10. | :31:11. | |
have been slashed. Confidence took a hit | :31:12. | :31:15. | |
after the vote. And surveys of business activity | :31:16. | :31:18. | |
plummeted to the lowest That rattled the Bank of England | :31:19. | :31:21. | |
enough to unveil an aggressive package of measures | :31:22. | :31:31. | |
to boost the economy. An overreaction, or is the bank, | :31:32. | :31:33. | |
like others, waiting for important I think the really key area | :31:34. | :31:35. | |
where heightened uncertainty after this vote is going to affect | :31:36. | :31:41. | |
the UK is business investment. It's in house-building, | :31:42. | :31:45. | |
it's in construction. And we don't have any | :31:46. | :31:47. | |
hard data on that yet. We're not going to get | :31:48. | :31:53. | |
it until next month. But that, for me, is going | :31:54. | :31:55. | |
to be really important. What happens to the construction | :31:56. | :31:58. | |
sector, especially, what happens We're talking into the autumn | :31:59. | :32:00. | |
for that. The trouble is that this early data | :32:01. | :32:05. | |
is inevitably ambiguous. Does one strong month of retail | :32:06. | :32:09. | |
sales reflect robust consumer confidence, | :32:10. | :32:12. | |
or just some sunny weather? The risk of an acute economic shock | :32:13. | :32:16. | |
seems to have passed. But whether it's slow burn damage | :32:17. | :32:21. | |
is being done to the UK That might depend on the longer term | :32:22. | :32:24. | |
effects of a weak pound. Do rising prices start to hurt | :32:25. | :32:29. | |
people's spending power? It also relies on what | :32:30. | :32:34. | |
the Government does next. Peak risk sits probably six to 12 | :32:35. | :32:40. | |
months after the the The reason I say that is in | :32:41. | :32:42. | |
the short term, the quick action by the Bank of England | :32:43. | :32:50. | |
and the collapse in sterling has provided a bit of a stimulus | :32:51. | :32:53. | |
to the UK economy. But once you start to get a specific | :32:54. | :32:55. | |
steer from the Government, what type of Brexit it will pursue, | :32:56. | :32:58. | |
you move towards a situation where firms are making clear | :32:59. | :33:01. | |
decisions on their future and some of the trade-offs that inevitably | :33:02. | :33:04. | |
come from withdrawing from the European Union, | :33:05. | :33:06. | |
the rubber starts to hit Consumers so far remained unfazed, | :33:07. | :33:08. | |
but business appears more skittish. Whether that is a passing hit | :33:09. | :33:16. | |
or the start of a lasting investment freeze could determine | :33:17. | :33:19. | |
whether the UK economy has been left It's only two days since our last | :33:20. | :33:22. | |
Olympic medal, but a lot of people Daytime TV just isn't | :33:23. | :33:37. | |
the same in the 206 weeks But the more serious | :33:38. | :33:40. | |
post-games adjustment is not the one that affects us, | :33:41. | :33:43. | |
it's the one that affects Their job is to give it | :33:44. | :33:46. | |
all in the run-up to the Games, You might have heard Jason Kenny | :33:47. | :33:53. | |
and Laura Trott talk of the post-race blues, | :33:54. | :33:59. | |
on Radio 4 this morning. Well, someone who has been | :34:00. | :34:01. | |
through it is swimmer Karen She was four times World champion, | :34:02. | :34:03. | |
broke two world Records and competed at four consecutive Olympic Games, | :34:04. | :34:07. | |
starting at Barcelona in 1992. Very good evening. Just described to | :34:08. | :34:14. | |
us the feeling come-down that come-down that you get. Well, you've | :34:15. | :34:19. | |
trained for something. Along, you put your heart and soul, your whole | :34:20. | :34:23. | |
focus, you've been very selfish and driven, aiming towards one goal. And | :34:24. | :34:29. | |
in a flash it is all over. And suddenly you don't have that | :34:30. | :34:32. | |
structure, you don't have the same aims and goals. You are suddenly | :34:33. | :34:36. | |
feeling a bit aimless and quite lost. You've been on a high with | :34:37. | :34:41. | |
other team members and you kind of go back to reality. How long does it | :34:42. | :34:46. | |
take for you to start training again after one championship, one event, | :34:47. | :34:51. | |
start thinking about the next one? For everyone it is different. It | :34:52. | :34:54. | |
depends where you are in your career. Young athletes will probably | :34:55. | :34:59. | |
be chomping at the bit to get back at it and some of the more | :35:00. | :35:02. | |
experienced athletes will actually take a bit of time, some even up to | :35:03. | :35:06. | |
a year to decide if they're going to do another cycle. Actually it | :35:07. | :35:09. | |
doesn't really matter whether you've been successful or not, the | :35:10. | :35:16. | |
come-down after that major championship, after you've gone and | :35:17. | :35:20. | |
done what you wanted to do or not, the come-down after it is | :35:21. | :35:24. | |
significant. The really big precipice is for those who have just | :35:25. | :35:28. | |
done their last Olympics, their last big contest, right? The end of the | :35:29. | :35:33. | |
Korea, that must be an enormous adjustment? It really is and I think | :35:34. | :35:38. | |
there is probable you more of an understanding of the retirement and | :35:39. | :35:41. | |
that sort of process that athletes need to go through and work on | :35:42. | :35:45. | |
careers afterwards but also their mental health afterwards and there | :35:46. | :35:51. | |
real change. It's not just a job, it's a lifestyle, a way of life, | :35:52. | :35:56. | |
being an athlete. You lose a whole identity. I think there is | :35:57. | :35:59. | |
understanding of that but actually there is less understanding of an | :36:00. | :36:01. | |
athlete who is an Olympic champion, who comes back and everyone thinks | :36:02. | :36:06. | |
they've got the world at their feet, they are starting a fantastic career | :36:07. | :36:10. | |
and they can't understand that actually there are all these things | :36:11. | :36:13. | |
going on in their mind and they can't get a grip again, they don't | :36:14. | :36:17. | |
have that fight. Everyone is looking at them thinking you should be | :36:18. | :36:21. | |
really happy, you had it all, and they can't reconcile that. How | :36:22. | :36:27. | |
serious can that get? Do people get depressed, I mean properly | :36:28. | :36:30. | |
depressed? Do they just go through the blues? Does it get very serious? | :36:31. | :36:35. | |
It can be very serious. For some people it is just a bit of blues, a | :36:36. | :36:39. | |
bit of adjusting to having to do their own washing and cook their own | :36:40. | :36:42. | |
meals and start over again, but for other people can become something | :36:43. | :36:46. | |
quite serious. There is an American swim, Alison Schmidt, who has been | :36:47. | :36:50. | |
very vocal about it just recently. She was a five-time medallist in | :36:51. | :36:55. | |
London and she was really suffering and felt suicidal at times after and | :36:56. | :37:01. | |
has really struggled in the last few years. She made it to Rio, | :37:02. | :37:06. | |
fortunately, but she's had a really tough time of it and she is now | :37:07. | :37:10. | |
speaking out about it and I'm sure she's not the only one. What do you | :37:11. | :37:14. | |
do about it? What support is there and what kind of backing do the | :37:15. | :37:18. | |
athletes get? Do people think about their mental health as well as their | :37:19. | :37:22. | |
physical? I think people are starting to because you realise how | :37:23. | :37:31. | |
-- how strong the mind is. It's starting to be more understood. I | :37:32. | :37:34. | |
think in some ways athletes who don't perform well I helped more | :37:35. | :37:39. | |
because people expect them to be sent and needing some support. I | :37:40. | :37:44. | |
think the key thing is actually the home coaches need to see the signs. | :37:45. | :37:47. | |
When they go back to their programmes, maybe not having the | :37:48. | :37:53. | |
same personalities, not driven in the same way, something is not quite | :37:54. | :37:59. | |
right, that is where the help can come for them. If friends and family | :38:00. | :38:05. | |
of the athletes notice a change, they can get in early and catch it | :38:06. | :38:09. | |
before it becomes something really serious. Karen Pickering, thanks a | :38:10. | :38:11. | |
lot. I'll be back tomorrow, | :38:12. | :38:13. | |
but before we go, the second in our series of performances | :38:14. | :38:16. | |
from artists appearing Tonight, we're sticking | :38:17. | :38:18. | |
to the Brazilian theme, because we have the Sao Paulo Jazz | :38:19. | :38:21. | |
Symphony Orchestra, who will be performing in tomorrow's late night | :38:22. | :38:24. | |
Prom at the Royal Albert Hall. You can catch it tomorrow evening | :38:25. | :38:26. | |
at 22:15 on Radio 3. | :38:27. | :38:30. |