Browse content similar to 31/08/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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There are this many people in the Cabinet, and probably | :00:00. | :00:08. | |
about this many different ideas as to what Brexit means. | :00:09. | :00:11. | |
But is the Government at last inching towards a single view | :00:12. | :00:14. | |
More single market, less immigration, | :00:15. | :00:19. | |
It's a fight as to what the priority should be, | :00:20. | :00:24. | |
a fight that matters to business and the City. | :00:25. | :00:26. | |
We'll ask if our financial services can flourish | :00:27. | :00:29. | |
Also tonight, a Polish man beaten to death in Essex. | :00:30. | :00:37. | |
Could it be the latest example of hate crime post-Brexit? | :00:38. | :00:40. | |
And what does it tell us about anti-social behaviour? | :00:41. | :00:43. | |
To be honest, since Brexit, I think all the British people, | :00:44. | :00:49. | |
the Brits here, they think they've got a green light here | :00:50. | :00:51. | |
You know, they feel very, kind of, secure to be racist. | :00:52. | :01:00. | |
Ian McEwan on his new novel, in which the narrator | :01:01. | :01:04. | |
I like to share a glass with my mother. | :01:05. | :01:11. | |
You may never have experienced, or you will have | :01:12. | :01:15. | |
forgotten, a good burgundy, her favourite, or a good sancerre, also | :01:16. | :01:20. | |
her favourite, decanted through a healthy placenta. | :01:21. | :01:31. | |
This morning, the best official line we had on our future place in Europe | :01:32. | :01:36. | |
was yet another reiteration of the grand tautology, | :01:37. | :01:38. | |
But that was before the Cabinet met at Chequers to talk things through. | :01:39. | :01:44. | |
Well, the line had barely moved on, to be honest. | :01:45. | :01:49. | |
The official statement said, "We're looking for controls | :01:50. | :01:51. | |
on immigration, but we also want a good deal for trade." | :01:52. | :01:54. | |
If that seems less than clear, it's because there is a conflict | :01:55. | :01:59. | |
between what kind of participation we have in the single market and how | :02:00. | :02:02. | |
much control we have over our own rules and borders. | :02:03. | :02:04. | |
It's the fundamental conflict, because what the single market | :02:05. | :02:09. | |
actually aspires to be is a vast borderless zone of unified standards | :02:10. | :02:11. | |
For platinum access to that market, you have to give up some control. | :02:12. | :02:18. | |
So how is the debate inside the Cabinet over | :02:19. | :02:22. | |
what we should want from the EU panning out? | :02:23. | :02:24. | |
Our political editor Nick Watt is with me. | :02:25. | :02:29. | |
I gave some semblance, some sense of the official statements. What do you | :02:30. | :02:38. | |
know about what went on? Well, there's a growing confidence in the | :02:39. | :02:42. | |
Cabinet, that the three Brexiteers, the ministers charged with taking | :02:43. | :02:46. | |
the UK out of EU, will reach agreement, and agreed UK position in | :02:47. | :02:49. | |
the coming months which will allow Theresa May, early next year, to | :02:50. | :02:54. | |
trigger the formal process, Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty to take us | :02:55. | :02:58. | |
out of the European Union. Boris Johnson, David Davis and Liam Fox | :02:59. | :03:02. | |
are not exactly bosom buddies but Cabinet ministers were struck today | :03:03. | :03:05. | |
by the way in which they were pulling in the same direction. They | :03:06. | :03:09. | |
were clearly working together. They met last week and they are going to | :03:10. | :03:13. | |
have regular meetings. As one senior source said to me, they may loathe | :03:14. | :03:17. | |
each other but they sink or swim together. So they have their ducks | :03:18. | :03:23. | |
in a row, it seems. Now the principles, what is the UK objective | :03:24. | :03:28. | |
out of all of this? Two important points from the Downing Street | :03:29. | :03:32. | |
statement you mentioned, first, they are saying there will be controls on | :03:33. | :03:36. | |
immigration from within the European Union when we leave but they hope to | :03:37. | :03:41. | |
do it in a way that will ensure we can still trade in goods and | :03:42. | :03:45. | |
services. Maybe that is wishful thinking. The second big thing they | :03:46. | :03:48. | |
are saying is that Theresa May is not looking for an off-the-shelf | :03:49. | :03:52. | |
solution, the Norway option or the Turkish option, she is looking for | :03:53. | :03:56. | |
what has been described as a bespoke option. This is a British deal, | :03:57. | :04:00. | |
again, maybe wishful thinking but the thinking is that the UK is the | :04:01. | :04:04. | |
world's fifth-largest economy and we are somewhat larger than turkey and | :04:05. | :04:08. | |
Norway and perhaps that will give us some weight in the negotiations. | :04:09. | :04:11. | |
That in a way expresses the objectives. Where do they think this | :04:12. | :04:18. | |
is going to end up? What is the deal going to look like? That is the | :04:19. | :04:22. | |
crucial question. What I was really struck by today was the feeling that | :04:23. | :04:26. | |
the UK in these negotiations should perhaps not be too fussed about | :04:27. | :04:30. | |
access to the single market. The Remain supporters say they have do | :04:31. | :04:33. | |
have as much access to the single market as possible although that | :04:34. | :04:37. | |
will be limited if there are controls on immigration. | :04:38. | :04:39. | |
Essentially, what I was hearing is don't forget that the single market | :04:40. | :04:44. | |
largely covers trade in goods, not so much on services, which makes up | :04:45. | :04:48. | |
the larger part of the UK economy. What some people have been saying to | :04:49. | :04:52. | |
me is that perhaps the UK could be clever in those negotiations, | :04:53. | :04:56. | |
perhaps it could spring a surprise by, for example, not sounding too | :04:57. | :04:59. | |
fussed about the single market. Remember we were talking last night | :05:00. | :05:04. | |
about passport rights, the ability to trade your financial services | :05:05. | :05:07. | |
around the European Union, what I'm hearing tonight on that development | :05:08. | :05:09. | |
is that Philip Hammond is essentially saying, our EU partners | :05:10. | :05:15. | |
will assume that will be number one on the Chancellor's list, on his | :05:16. | :05:19. | |
shopping list in the negotiations. But what if it's not? What if he | :05:20. | :05:23. | |
does not make a big buzz about it? Maybe the UK could spring a surprise | :05:24. | :05:27. | |
and find a clever and imaginative way of protecting financial services | :05:28. | :05:31. | |
without passporting. Thank you for joining us. | :05:32. | :05:32. | |
Well, it is clear that a central issue is passporting. | :05:33. | :05:34. | |
It matters to financial services more than most, | :05:35. | :05:36. | |
being the right of companies based here to treat the whole of the EU | :05:37. | :05:39. | |
with no new licensing or regulatory requirements. | :05:40. | :05:44. | |
Is this crucial, or can we swap the passport for a driving licence? | :05:45. | :05:51. | |
Or some other similar document that has more or less the same effect. | :05:52. | :05:55. | |
With me now is Vicky Pryce, the economist and former advisor | :05:56. | :05:58. | |
to the Department of Trade and Industry and, from Guernsey, | :05:59. | :06:00. | |
Good evening. First, explain passporting, financial services, the | :06:01. | :06:13. | |
single market, what it means to be in it as opposed to be working from | :06:14. | :06:18. | |
outside it. The first thing to say is that financial services are very | :06:19. | :06:22. | |
important for the UK economy. Yes, they may not be a perfect single | :06:23. | :06:26. | |
market in financial services yet across the EU, but actually, it will | :06:27. | :06:30. | |
benefit hugely from greater integration and that is taking | :06:31. | :06:33. | |
place. If we are not part of it, we will lose out. The most important | :06:34. | :06:38. | |
thing to bear in mind, too, is that when you do have this passporting | :06:39. | :06:42. | |
ability, what it actually means is that any firm, any financial | :06:43. | :06:47. | |
services firm that settles in the UK all starts operating in the UK can | :06:48. | :06:51. | |
then sell its services all across the EU without having to ask for | :06:52. | :06:55. | |
permission, pass through new regulatory tests but of course, it | :06:56. | :07:00. | |
still has to comply with EU regulations. But it can do that | :07:01. | :07:04. | |
freely from wherever it is, in other words, lots of firms that come from | :07:05. | :07:09. | |
abroad, the US, for example or Switzerland, set up here and then | :07:10. | :07:14. | |
can basically operate like a EU organisation. So they can use London | :07:15. | :07:18. | |
as a base for financial services across the EU? That sounds pretty | :07:19. | :07:22. | |
important. Is it? Yes, it is quite important and clearly we want to be | :07:23. | :07:26. | |
able to trade in financial services with Europe. There are ways to do it | :07:27. | :07:30. | |
without the passporting system. There's a thing called equivalents, | :07:31. | :07:34. | |
which is where the EU reckons that countries are following rules which | :07:35. | :07:37. | |
are pretty much the same as their own and they let them into the | :07:38. | :07:40. | |
market on that basis. Places like Canada and Japan are actually | :07:41. | :07:45. | |
trading in some financial services on that basis now. It is likely we | :07:46. | :07:51. | |
will have to go down the equivalents route is politically, we are not | :07:52. | :07:53. | |
allowed to be part of the single market with the immigration controls | :07:54. | :08:01. | |
that seem firmly attached to it we are in a very possible financial | :08:02. | :08:06. | |
services base which has immigration controls and essentially free trade | :08:07. | :08:12. | |
into the EU. -- so we can be in a very strong financial services base. | :08:13. | :08:15. | |
But the banks in London will not be happy to think they will have the | :08:16. | :08:19. | |
same axis into Europe as the Japanese or the Americans. That is | :08:20. | :08:22. | |
quite a step back from where they have been. -- same access. Not | :08:23. | :08:29. | |
really. They have thrived for a long time in a highly competitive | :08:30. | :08:31. | |
position with those countries and there's no reason they should not | :08:32. | :08:35. | |
continue to do the same. I think the banks are moving to a position where | :08:36. | :08:39. | |
many of them don't want the passport. They would prefer | :08:40. | :08:43. | |
passporting because that means that London can be a bit different to the | :08:44. | :08:48. | |
rest of Europe which would be an international advantage elsewhere | :08:49. | :08:53. | |
and perhaps less attractively, would enable them to dodge the bonus cap. | :08:54. | :08:58. | |
This is the disadvantage of the passport. It says we are British and | :08:59. | :09:03. | |
single market and we have a minimum standard of regulation. If you have | :09:04. | :09:06. | |
this kind of equivalence arrangement, you can be operating on | :09:07. | :09:10. | |
their rules, there, but have different rules when you are | :09:11. | :09:16. | |
operating in China. Is that good for London as a financial centre? There | :09:17. | :09:21. | |
are different rules depending on where you operating. It's a fact in | :09:22. | :09:24. | |
any case. The interesting thing is that if you were trying to leave the | :09:25. | :09:27. | |
single market because we think it is actually very burdensome and has | :09:28. | :09:31. | |
regulations we don't like, it is worth bearing in mind that the UK is | :09:32. | :09:35. | |
considerably more tightly regulated in the financial sector than Europe. | :09:36. | :09:38. | |
If anything, what we have been worrying about for quite some time | :09:39. | :09:43. | |
is that we be forced to lower our own regulatory environment in order | :09:44. | :09:46. | |
to fit in with what goes on in Europe, rather than the other way | :09:47. | :09:50. | |
around. You are speaking from Guernsey, of course, which is an | :09:51. | :09:54. | |
offshore centre, if you like. It is very different to London, isn't it? | :09:55. | :09:59. | |
I wonder whether the analogy of you all right, it's OK come your | :10:00. | :10:02. | |
offshore and you can trade into it, is going to work for something the | :10:03. | :10:06. | |
size of London? It is far from a perfect analogy. We are a lot | :10:07. | :10:12. | |
smaller but we do thrive. I don't think the banks are going to be too | :10:13. | :10:17. | |
worried about operating on this equivalence basis. The problem with | :10:18. | :10:23. | |
equivalence and similar things is that they are determined by what is | :10:24. | :10:28. | |
a very bureaucratic, slow system in Europe. It might take three years | :10:29. | :10:32. | |
for us to be deemed equivalent, even though today we are obviously | :10:33. | :10:36. | |
totally equivalent. We have the same rules as the EU. It is not a perfect | :10:37. | :10:41. | |
solution. Equivalence requires lots of political will to make it happen | :10:42. | :10:45. | |
quickly. Do you think the Europeans will kind of want London to be a big | :10:46. | :10:50. | |
financial player for the residual EU? Will they say they have to make | :10:51. | :10:57. | |
it work for London because London is the finance provider? We know full | :10:58. | :11:00. | |
well that London is indeed the European centre, if you like, for | :11:01. | :11:04. | |
financial services and we have such a huge attraction in terms of all | :11:05. | :11:07. | |
sorts of foreign firms coming year and providing services for the whole | :11:08. | :11:10. | |
of the EU but we have already seen huge attempts by the French and | :11:11. | :11:14. | |
others to try to get bits back from here by offering all sorts of | :11:15. | :11:17. | |
incentives to firms to go and relocate in France, in Frankfurt and | :11:18. | :11:22. | |
so on. I think that is not going to stop at all. We do need passporting, | :11:23. | :11:26. | |
we do need to be part of the single market. The interesting thing for me | :11:27. | :11:29. | |
is that the Treasury, if it is indeed Philip Hammond two pushes | :11:30. | :11:33. | |
this, is the one department that has been incredibly good at negotiating | :11:34. | :11:37. | |
deals for the UK, in the financial sector which other countries have | :11:38. | :11:41. | |
not been able to do. I know you are quite optimistic about London but is | :11:42. | :11:44. | |
there somewhere else in Europe that can begin to nibble away at London's | :11:45. | :11:50. | |
leading financial services? Begin to nibble, yes but it is really task. | :11:51. | :11:55. | |
London has an incredibly strong concentration of talent. It has a | :11:56. | :11:59. | |
more sensible regulatory system than most of Europe operates with. It is | :12:00. | :12:04. | |
really very popular. It's a nice place to live. It is in the right | :12:05. | :12:10. | |
time zone. It has lots going for it and it has lived before with having | :12:11. | :12:14. | |
to operate outside other people's regulation to make money. The City | :12:15. | :12:18. | |
got going in a big way in the 80s because it had different regulation | :12:19. | :12:22. | |
to the USA. Difference can be good. Vicky Price, just more generally, | :12:23. | :12:30. | |
the relevance or the weight put on a bespoke deal for Britain, a Brexit | :12:31. | :12:34. | |
deal for Britain, you know, clearly, Theresa May is not going to lift off | :12:35. | :12:38. | |
the shelf Norway or Switzerland or Singapore anything. She says we will | :12:39. | :12:42. | |
negotiate our own. Is that a good strategy for an economy the size of | :12:43. | :12:47. | |
ours as we approach it? I think it all depends on what the European | :12:48. | :12:50. | |
thing, whether they think they are keeping the UK as close as they | :12:51. | :12:53. | |
possibly can is a good thing for them or not. We have already seen | :12:54. | :12:56. | |
that confidence in Europe has declined because of the Brexit | :12:57. | :13:00. | |
threat. In a way, yes, they do need us. On the other hand, there's quite | :13:01. | :13:03. | |
a lot of advantage they can have by taking beans over themselves. But I | :13:04. | :13:07. | |
think we have to bear in mind that whatever -- taking things over | :13:08. | :13:11. | |
themselves. But we have to bear in mind that whatever arrangement we | :13:12. | :13:14. | |
have got is going to be less good than now and for me, negotiation | :13:15. | :13:17. | |
will be the key. We all know how difficult it will be and how few | :13:18. | :13:20. | |
people there are who can actually do it from the UK side and really know | :13:21. | :13:25. | |
what the issues are in every aspect of this trading arrangement that we | :13:26. | :13:28. | |
have with them, what we do with the rest of the world. It is just not | :13:29. | :13:33. | |
going to be an easy thing to do. Varies one very interesting factor, | :13:34. | :13:36. | |
the politics of this has led the government to say, "We have do have | :13:37. | :13:40. | |
control of immigration but we want as much trade as we can get", this | :13:41. | :13:44. | |
is the conflict. The one thing Theresa May has not talked about so | :13:45. | :13:48. | |
much is the EU budget. I wonder if you would approve of an idea that | :13:49. | :13:53. | |
said, "You guys in Europe have a problem because quite a bit of your | :13:54. | :13:56. | |
money is not going to be paid over to you from the UK any more but we | :13:57. | :14:01. | |
in the UK will bribe you, pay you some budget", I know it's hard to | :14:02. | :14:05. | |
swallow, "We will keep on paying you for access to the single market on | :14:06. | :14:10. | |
current terms"? Would that be a good idea? It's what Norway does, they | :14:11. | :14:14. | |
put money into remain a member without actually getting anything | :14:15. | :14:17. | |
worthwhile back so it is just a straight gift of cash for being in | :14:18. | :14:21. | |
the single market. On some terms, all deals are worth doing. I hope | :14:22. | :14:25. | |
that isn't one deal we will have to do. Thank you for joining us. | :14:26. | :14:28. | |
The town of Harlow in Essex is in something of a state of shock | :14:29. | :14:32. | |
after a attack on two Polish residents on Saturday night | :14:33. | :14:34. | |
Arkadiusz Jozwik died from his injuries on Monday. | :14:35. | :14:39. | |
Five 15-year-old boys and one 16-year-old boy, | :14:40. | :14:41. | |
all from Harlow, were arrested on suspicion of murder. | :14:42. | :14:44. | |
There are obvious worries in the Polish community in Harlow | :14:45. | :14:50. | |
The Polish ambassador was in the town today, | :14:51. | :14:54. | |
along with the local MP, to offer support. | :14:55. | :14:56. | |
Our reporter John Sweeney went to hear the local concerns. | :14:57. | :15:02. | |
The killing of Arek Jozwik, a 40-year-old Pole in Essex, | :15:03. | :15:05. | |
was a particular tragedy, and cause for a wider, more general | :15:06. | :15:08. | |
unease about the politics of identity in Britain today. | :15:09. | :15:14. | |
Saturday night, just before midnight, 15 or 20 youths are here. | :15:15. | :15:17. | |
Arek, the Polish man, goes to that pizza | :15:18. | :15:21. | |
And that, people say, is the trigger for what happens next. | :15:22. | :15:29. | |
The story ends with Arek down on the ground where those flowers | :15:30. | :15:32. | |
For Poles in Britain, there is mounting anxiety | :15:33. | :15:43. | |
Today, a very public visit from Warsaw's man in London. | :15:44. | :15:46. | |
It is the beginning of my mission in the United Kingdom, | :15:47. | :15:49. | |
and I'm really shocked and deeply concerned on this tragedy. | :15:50. | :15:53. | |
To be honest, since Brexit, I think all the British people, | :15:54. | :15:59. | |
the Brits here, they think they've got a green light | :16:00. | :16:01. | |
You know, they feel very, kind of, secure to be racist. | :16:02. | :16:14. | |
To swear, to say all kind of rude comments, to be sarcastic, to send | :16:15. | :16:25. | |
sarcastic comments every day at work. I have been there, and it | :16:26. | :16:31. | |
isn't nice. All the British people we spoke to told us they were | :16:32. | :16:35. | |
horrified by the killing and had no problem with the Polish community. | :16:36. | :16:40. | |
Conrad works in the cafe directly opposite the pizza takeaway. He | :16:41. | :16:44. | |
spoke to us first in English, then in Polish. | :16:45. | :17:07. | |
This is not an isolated experience. What happened here isn't only a | :17:08. | :17:14. | |
story of the ugly mood in our country post Brexit. It is also a | :17:15. | :17:21. | |
story of anti-social behaviour, of people at night being afraid to walk | :17:22. | :17:27. | |
down a British high street. They terrorise all the shopkeepers, | :17:28. | :17:29. | |
terrorise people just walking through. It's awful. Awful. They go | :17:30. | :17:35. | |
into shops and knock things off shelves and walk back out. | :17:36. | :17:40. | |
Shopkeepers are too scared to say anything. We have no problem with | :17:41. | :17:44. | |
any foreign people. There's a problem with police not controlling | :17:45. | :17:51. | |
a of youths, cos they have no power to do anything. It's too late. | :17:52. | :17:56. | |
Someone has died, all because the police cannot control the situation. | :17:57. | :18:00. | |
Why is there a group of youths hanging around here anyway? It was | :18:01. | :18:06. | |
not supposed to be like this. 12 years ago today, then Prime Minister | :18:07. | :18:12. | |
Tony Blair visited Harlow to laud the local success in tackling | :18:13. | :18:17. | |
anti-social behaviour. I believe that Harlow is a kind and tolerant | :18:18. | :18:21. | |
place to live. I'm proud of being the MP here. The vast majority of | :18:22. | :18:28. | |
people are tolerant. We have lower levels of anti-social behaviour than | :18:29. | :18:32. | |
other areas of Essex and the country. However, there are problems | :18:33. | :18:37. | |
in certain areas. We need to find out what has happened. Today is a | :18:38. | :18:42. | |
day for the family, the Polish community and the people of Harlow, | :18:43. | :18:47. | |
but we need to find out the lessons that can be learned from it. In | :18:48. | :18:52. | |
Harlow tonight, people United, but for the town's Polish community, the | :18:53. | :18:58. | |
killing of one of their own makes emotions wall. I don't know if I can | :18:59. | :19:05. | |
mention names... Nigel Farage, thank you for that, because you are part | :19:06. | :19:09. | |
of this death. You have blood on your hands. Thanks to you, thanks to | :19:10. | :19:15. | |
this decision, where ever you are, it is your call. Nigel Farage has | :19:16. | :19:21. | |
always denied this allegation. As the search for clues and answers | :19:22. | :19:26. | |
continues, the fear is that two poisons have come together to a | :19:27. | :19:28. | |
lethal result. We first reported on the Zika | :19:29. | :19:31. | |
virus back in January, and sad to say, it has been | :19:32. | :19:34. | |
continuing its spread ever since. Back in January, it was | :19:35. | :19:37. | |
present in 20 countries Over the last eight | :19:38. | :19:40. | |
months, the virus has Now it's 70 counties | :19:41. | :19:43. | |
from the US to South Korea. making it the the largest | :19:44. | :19:50. | |
cluster in Asia. Earlier I spoke to Nyka Alexander | :19:51. | :20:01. | |
from the World Health Organisation in Geneva, and asked her if there | :20:02. | :20:04. | |
is any country in the world that has Although the virus has been around, | :20:05. | :20:07. | |
first detected in the 1940s, it's only been causing these | :20:08. | :20:13. | |
outbreaks, and certainly these outbreaks in the Americas, since | :20:14. | :20:17. | |
last year, so it's relatively new. I would almost turn your question | :20:18. | :20:21. | |
around and say, is there any place that we would expect not to have | :20:22. | :20:29. | |
Zika, and that would be any country that doesn't have the mosquitoes | :20:30. | :20:32. | |
that can spread Zika. If your country is one | :20:33. | :20:34. | |
that's the right climate for those mosquitoes, | :20:35. | :20:38. | |
quite possibly Zika will be Right, so it's in about | :20:39. | :20:40. | |
70 countries now. How many will it settle in, | :20:41. | :20:46. | |
do you think? If you look at a map of the world, | :20:47. | :20:50. | |
it's pretty much a very fat band around the middle of the equator, | :20:51. | :20:57. | |
so the warmer climates, In the Americas, for example, | :20:58. | :21:00. | |
it's only continental Chile and Canada that don't really seem | :21:01. | :21:07. | |
to have that mosquito, so that gives you a sense | :21:08. | :21:11. | |
of how much of the world Is there any progress | :21:12. | :21:14. | |
on the vaccine? It will be a couple of years before | :21:15. | :21:20. | |
we see a vaccine widely available, but it's certainly something | :21:21. | :21:25. | |
that WHO is working on, the research community | :21:26. | :21:28. | |
is working on together, Is this disease going to become | :21:29. | :21:29. | |
embedded and, if you like, a sort of chronic feature of life | :21:30. | :21:36. | |
of the countries that it arrives in? Or do you see it as something that | :21:37. | :21:40. | |
arrives, like Ebola, and is then eradicated | :21:41. | :21:44. | |
in the course of a year, and those countries can go back | :21:45. | :21:47. | |
to normal and stop So, from the discussions that | :21:48. | :21:49. | |
I hear my technical colleagues having, it's not something | :21:50. | :21:56. | |
that they are focusing on yet. It's not something | :21:57. | :21:59. | |
they are discussing yet, because we are still | :22:00. | :22:01. | |
at the beginning times, in a way, Over time, some populations | :22:02. | :22:04. | |
will develop immunity. Enough people will have had it, | :22:05. | :22:11. | |
they can't catch it again, and that will reduce how many people | :22:12. | :22:14. | |
are vulnerable to it, and therefore, how many more people | :22:15. | :22:17. | |
are having it and spreading it. Why are we concerned about Zika | :22:18. | :22:21. | |
in the first place? Because, as you know, | :22:22. | :22:23. | |
it's mild in most people. In fact, most people that have Zika | :22:24. | :22:26. | |
won't even know that they've had it, won't have any symptoms, | :22:27. | :22:29. | |
they'll be fine. A few people will develop | :22:30. | :22:31. | |
symptoms which themselves The concern is really for pregnant | :22:32. | :22:32. | |
women and the developing foetus, and what can happen | :22:33. | :22:38. | |
to the developing foetus. And microcephaly, the phenomenon | :22:39. | :22:42. | |
of the brain damage that is done by the Zika virus in some foetuses, | :22:43. | :22:46. | |
do we have more information now than we had at the beginning | :22:47. | :22:51. | |
of the year about what rate, what proportion of unborn children | :22:52. | :22:54. | |
are actually affected by it? What they can see is that there | :22:55. | :23:01. | |
are many more cases of microcephaly in populations that have Zika | :23:02. | :23:04. | |
than in populations who don't. One thing recent that we have | :23:05. | :23:10. | |
learned, and I would say it's been something we have learned | :23:11. | :23:13. | |
more about this year, that it's not just microcephaly, | :23:14. | :23:16. | |
that children might be born who seem fine, but then, on examination, | :23:17. | :23:19. | |
it turns out they have problems with eyesight or hearing, | :23:20. | :23:22. | |
some joint problems, So that's where some of the research | :23:23. | :23:24. | |
has expanded our knowledge, and it underlines yet again how | :23:25. | :23:31. | |
important it is for pregnant women to be aware of the dangers, | :23:32. | :23:34. | |
and to know how to protect themselves, and to be given | :23:35. | :23:37. | |
the services and choices, so they can make decisions | :23:38. | :23:40. | |
about what risks they are willing to take, and how to protect | :23:41. | :23:42. | |
themselves from that risk. Nyka Alexander, thanks | :23:43. | :23:50. | |
for bringing us up to date The writer Ian McEwan had his first | :23:51. | :23:52. | |
work published in 1975, which, by coincidence, | :23:53. | :23:58. | |
was the year of first referendum on membership of the EU, | :23:59. | :24:00. | |
or Common Market as it was. Things have not gone | :24:01. | :24:02. | |
so well for Britain's relationship with the EU, | :24:03. | :24:04. | |
which has upset Mr McEwan, who is, it's fair to say, | :24:05. | :24:07. | |
is a strong EU supporter. But things have gone well for him | :24:08. | :24:10. | |
since 1975. He has written 15 or more major | :24:11. | :24:13. | |
novels - one of them won the Man Booker, many have been | :24:14. | :24:16. | |
were turned into films, And his latest novel | :24:17. | :24:19. | |
is released tomorrow. It is an interesting | :24:20. | :24:22. | |
one called Nutshell. It brings echoes of Hamlet | :24:23. | :24:25. | |
to a murderous tale set in But the most striking feature | :24:26. | :24:27. | |
is that the narrator is a rather erudite unborn child, | :24:28. | :24:33. | |
a womb-bound witness to the drama. I sat down with Mr McEwan this | :24:34. | :24:37. | |
morning to talk about So, here I am, | :24:38. | :24:39. | |
upside-down in a woman. Waiting and wondering who I'm | :24:40. | :24:52. | |
in and what I'm in for. My eyes close nostalgically | :24:53. | :25:02. | |
when I remember how I once drifted in my translucent body bag, | :25:03. | :25:05. | |
floated dreamily in the bubble of my thoughts, through my private | :25:06. | :25:09. | |
ocean in slow motion somersaults, colliding gently | :25:10. | :25:12. | |
against the transparent Ian McEwan, the book has this | :25:13. | :25:16. | |
interesting conceit of the narrator The first line drifted into my head | :25:17. | :25:25. | |
during a long, boring meeting at which I was required to wear | :25:26. | :25:31. | |
an expression of attentive joy. I sat on it for a couple of months | :25:32. | :25:34. | |
and then decided I knew exactly In the meantime, I'd been | :25:35. | :25:41. | |
reading Hamlet again. And the two fused before | :25:42. | :25:45. | |
I knew what I was doing. Having a foetus is actually very | :25:46. | :25:50. | |
restrictive in a way. He has to listen very carefully | :25:51. | :25:55. | |
to what is going on. But he can get into the most private | :25:56. | :25:59. | |
situations. He hears all the pillow | :26:00. | :26:01. | |
talk, of course. He sees his mother having an affair | :26:02. | :26:03. | |
with his uncle from a very... I was going to say privileged, | :26:04. | :26:08. | |
rather less privileged point of view When the book goes to the States, | :26:09. | :26:11. | |
obviously, the issue of unborn children in America | :26:12. | :26:16. | |
is a very hot issue, I mean, a Wall Street journalist | :26:17. | :26:18. | |
says, "This is clearly I had to ask him to unwrap | :26:19. | :26:26. | |
the question for me because I didn't understand | :26:27. | :26:30. | |
what he was talking about. So we shouldn't | :26:31. | :26:32. | |
infer anything That didn't even cross my mind | :26:33. | :26:33. | |
when I was writing it. Anyway, he gets born, | :26:34. | :26:38. | |
like many foetuses do. But in the States, opinions come | :26:39. | :26:40. | |
in packages, squadrons even. Brexit, though, I know, | :26:41. | :26:47. | |
wounded you deeply. You felt very strongly, | :26:48. | :26:50. | |
very bad after the referendum and you have written about in many | :26:51. | :26:53. | |
ways you hoped it was just a I still think it might not happen, | :26:54. | :26:57. | |
or that it's impossible to happen. That the triad of Fox, | :26:58. | :27:05. | |
Davis and Johnson will come back with a deal that is simply not | :27:06. | :27:08. | |
acceptable to the Brexiters. We might be in something | :27:09. | :27:12. | |
of a recession and the mood I asked to live in a | :27:13. | :27:17. | |
parliamentary democracy. I don't want to be | :27:18. | :27:22. | |
ruled by plebiscites. I think that running this matter | :27:23. | :27:24. | |
on a small majority when it impacts on every corner of our constitution, | :27:25. | :27:29. | |
not only our laws but our science and the whole sense of where, | :27:30. | :27:36. | |
who we are in the world, And I think David Cameron will have | :27:37. | :27:39. | |
to sit with an awkward I wonder because you can point quite | :27:40. | :27:45. | |
a lot of fingers of blame from your point of view, | :27:46. | :27:51. | |
I would have thought. Yeah, I suppose blame is hardly | :27:52. | :27:53. | |
worth bothering with now. I think we made a mistake, | :27:54. | :27:55. | |
we who sit around about these things, in not saying, | :27:56. | :28:01. | |
"What is the status Apparently, it was advisory, | :28:02. | :28:03. | |
unlike the AV referendum, If we'd gone into this referendum | :28:04. | :28:09. | |
all telling each other, "This is only advisory | :28:10. | :28:14. | |
and Parliament will take a decision", we might have been | :28:15. | :28:16. | |
in a different place by now and Parliament would be ready | :28:17. | :28:19. | |
to make its view known. A number of people on that side | :28:20. | :28:21. | |
say he did not pull... I don't want to be ruled | :28:22. | :28:27. | |
by plebiscites and I don't I just wish the Labour Party | :28:28. | :28:32. | |
would get themselves sorted out, that the Parliamentary Labour Party | :28:33. | :28:38. | |
would find a way of working with Corbyn or whoever | :28:39. | :28:40. | |
is going to be in front. We urgently need another voice | :28:41. | :28:44. | |
in Parliament and we don't have one. And now we are giving | :28:45. | :28:50. | |
the government absolute free rein. They conduct, they are in control | :28:51. | :28:54. | |
of the argument. Do you blame yourself | :28:55. | :28:58. | |
and your class? Maybe it's my class, | :28:59. | :29:03. | |
that metropolitan group, who were very easy targets | :29:04. | :29:05. | |
for the Brexit side of the campaign? People who, if you like, | :29:06. | :29:10. | |
seem to be rather comfortable, live rather well, and have a rather | :29:11. | :29:15. | |
disconnected life from other If you offer a referendum, | :29:16. | :29:19. | |
you ask for a bloody nose, If you're not doing well | :29:20. | :29:27. | |
by the status quo, why not vote In one interview, I think | :29:28. | :29:36. | |
you are quoted as saying, "What it is like to be a manual | :29:37. | :29:43. | |
labourer just doesn't I wonder whether that really | :29:44. | :29:45. | |
is the problem in this country, that we were two | :29:46. | :29:51. | |
cultures, two societies. You don't get the other lot, | :29:52. | :29:54. | |
they don't get you. You have to understand the context | :29:55. | :29:57. | |
in which I say this... I was the first to go to university, | :29:58. | :30:01. | |
the first to even stay I'm constantly being asked questions | :30:02. | :30:08. | |
that no one asks Julian Barnes or James Fenton, why don't I have | :30:09. | :30:19. | |
more labourers and JCB drivers Well, I could have | :30:20. | :30:22. | |
but I don't, you know, You can only judge a novelist | :30:23. | :30:25. | |
by what he or she does, "What are you doing out | :30:26. | :30:29. | |
of your class? Why aren't you writing | :30:30. | :30:39. | |
about your own class? I might well write | :30:40. | :30:44. | |
about manual labour. I was a dustman for Camden Council | :30:45. | :30:49. | |
for six months. I was free in that I went | :30:50. | :30:51. | |
to a wonderful state grammar school, full of working class kids | :30:52. | :30:55. | |
from central London. I feel very easy in the class | :30:56. | :30:58. | |
system. So I think it's the problem | :30:59. | :31:02. | |
of my interviewers. The interviewers are constantly | :31:03. | :31:06. | |
boxing you in. Interesting, the narrator | :31:07. | :31:08. | |
in the book... We've established that the narrator | :31:09. | :31:12. | |
speaks for you some of the time. For example, I love | :31:13. | :31:19. | |
a New Zealand sauvignon blanc. He will only drink | :31:20. | :31:26. | |
the French variety. I like to share a glass | :31:27. | :31:36. | |
with my mother. You may never have experienced, | :31:37. | :31:38. | |
or you will have forgotten, a good burgundy, her favourite, | :31:39. | :31:42. | |
or a good sancerre, also her favourite, decanted | :31:43. | :31:46. | |
through a healthy placenta. Even before the wine arrives, | :31:47. | :31:50. | |
tonight, her Jean Max Roger sancerre, at the sound of a drawn | :31:51. | :31:56. | |
cork, I feel it on my face I know that alcohol will | :31:57. | :32:00. | |
lower my intelligence. As you get older, do you find it | :32:01. | :32:06. | |
hard not to become a bit of a curmudgeon about | :32:07. | :32:15. | |
the state of the world, the decline of the West, | :32:16. | :32:17. | |
what everyone else is doing? No, the older I get, | :32:18. | :32:20. | |
and the closer it comes to the point at which I vanish, | :32:21. | :32:24. | |
the more I want the It was in my youth when I had just | :32:25. | :32:27. | |
two pairs of jeans and three T-shirts and paid ?3 a week | :32:28. | :32:35. | |
for a rented flat in Stockwell that in a way, I could allow | :32:36. | :32:38. | |
the full rein of pessimism. Nuclear war, bring it on, | :32:39. | :32:43. | |
it will be so exciting. I even started a novel on that | :32:44. | :32:46. | |
very same theme. Based on Defoe's Journal | :32:47. | :32:50. | |
Of The Plague Year. No, I give my foetus a double | :32:51. | :32:55. | |
account of the world. Nuclear exchange, climate change, | :32:56. | :33:00. | |
all the things that make an intellectual pessimistic, | :33:01. | :33:05. | |
but then let him run Hundreds of millions of people taken | :33:06. | :33:09. | |
out of poverty, more people living longer, | :33:10. | :33:13. | |
unbelievable access to information, a golden age of | :33:14. | :33:17. | |
scientific discovery. We know more about the cosmos, | :33:18. | :33:19. | |
more about the human cell, We live in amazing times, | :33:20. | :33:22. | |
which makes it all the It was 350 years ago | :33:23. | :33:29. | |
that the Great Fire It ignited late on 2nd September, | :33:30. | :33:40. | |
1666 and continued for several days. Now it actually killed remarkably | :33:41. | :33:48. | |
few people, perhaps only six, but it destroyed swathes of buildings, | :33:49. | :33:53. | |
much of the old city, There's lots to say about it and how | :33:54. | :33:55. | |
the initial reaction was to blame the French and Dutch, | :33:56. | :34:02. | |
but one historian has been looking at the buildings that were lost, | :34:03. | :34:05. | |
the sights that tourists might be gazing upon today, | :34:06. | :34:08. | |
had the fire not got to them first. Matthew Green wrote London: | :34:09. | :34:11. | |
A Travel Guide Through Time Good evening. You're going to take | :34:12. | :34:22. | |
us through some pictures of one or two of these lost buildings. Let's | :34:23. | :34:28. | |
have a look at the first. Bridewell Palace, one of many imposing | :34:29. | :34:31. | |
riverside structures, as you can see, rather rambling brick palace, | :34:32. | :34:35. | |
set around a number of courtyards with its own gardens and Private | :34:36. | :34:40. | |
wharf. This built between 1550 and 1520 and it was one of Henry VIII's | :34:41. | :34:45. | |
favourite palaces and we think he had his final, rather quarrelsome | :34:46. | :34:48. | |
supper with Catherine of Aragon there. Made of? Brick which was a | :34:49. | :34:54. | |
sign of status at the time when most of the houses were lurching, timber | :34:55. | :34:57. | |
framed buildings. It was on the bank of the Fleet River and on the third | :34:58. | :35:01. | |
day of the fire it was hoped the river would act as a fire break but | :35:02. | :35:05. | |
instead, the fire merely vaulted across and decimated the palace. | :35:06. | :35:13. | |
Let's have a look at another one. This is what I would describe as the | :35:14. | :35:16. | |
marvel of medieval London, Gothic St Paul's Cathedral, a remorselessly | :35:17. | :35:19. | |
Gothic structure, very different to Sir Christopher Wren's neoclassical | :35:20. | :35:23. | |
successor, all flying buttresses and pointed parrots, crawling with | :35:24. | :35:27. | |
gargoyles and the most impressive feature was originally the | :35:28. | :35:29. | |
monumental lead and timber spire which rose to 489 feet. You would | :35:30. | :35:35. | |
not get anything as high in London again until 1964 but it was hit by | :35:36. | :35:39. | |
lightning in 1561 and on the eve of the fire, it looked like a bazaar | :35:40. | :35:44. | |
inside, it was the most popular public space. On the same site as | :35:45. | :35:49. | |
the existing church? Yes. An interesting feature is that these | :35:50. | :35:52. | |
buildings were lost to the fire. If they had not been, they may have | :35:53. | :35:56. | |
been lost anyway because there are plenty of other things that could | :35:57. | :35:59. | |
have destroyed them white human action. We have one to demonstrate | :36:00. | :36:04. | |
that. The Victorians had an obsession with knocking down | :36:05. | :36:08. | |
beautiful, antiquated buildings. Looking at Nonesuch house, perhaps | :36:09. | :36:16. | |
my favourite. This is fabulous. It is wildly eccentric, meticulously | :36:17. | :36:20. | |
carved, gaudily painted. This was the marvel of London bridge, | :36:21. | :36:23. | |
straddling both sides of the street, bulging over the swirling River | :36:24. | :36:26. | |
Thames and it is an architectural mongrel. There was nothing like it. | :36:27. | :36:35. | |
When did it come down? Not until the 1770s, after all of the other houses | :36:36. | :36:41. | |
on the bridge were taken. Right over the Thames, these days, you could | :36:42. | :36:44. | |
not build it because it would obstruct the views of Saint Pauls | :36:45. | :36:48. | |
and someone would say you can't. Exactly and what a shame because it | :36:49. | :36:55. | |
is such a crazy building. That is one we miss. How many buildings | :36:56. | :37:00. | |
predating the fire are left in London? You won't find more than 18, | :37:01. | :37:05. | |
in the actual catchment area of the fire itself, really no more landmark | :37:06. | :37:09. | |
buildings apart from the Tower of London and the Guildhall, who facade | :37:10. | :37:13. | |
dates from the 14 30s. Outside that zone, you find the Middle Temple | :37:14. | :37:17. | |
Hall, stable in in Hoban and one or two others but essentially, as | :37:18. | :37:21. | |
Johnny Flynn said after the blaze, London was and is no more. -- John | :37:22. | :37:29. | |
Eva Lind. The streetscape was a very interesting feature of the city of I | :37:30. | :37:36. | |
bought a yes and much of that is preserved because gritter Wren and | :37:37. | :37:41. | |
others had visions an Italian aid -- Sir Christopher Wren and others had | :37:42. | :37:44. | |
visions of an Italianate city but others came back as they wanted to | :37:45. | :37:47. | |
do and started rebuilding it and many of the street are still | :37:48. | :37:50. | |
labyrinth in even though the wooden buildings have long since vanished. | :37:51. | :37:55. | |
They still adhere to the old topographical hotspot that people | :37:56. | :37:58. | |
knew and loved and feared as medieval London. Thank you for | :37:59. | :37:59. | |
joining us. That's just about it tonight, | :38:00. | :38:00. | |
but let's end on the elephant. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, | :38:01. | :38:03. | |
scientists think that Africa may have been home to as many | :38:04. | :38:08. | |
as 20 million of them. By 1979, that number | :38:09. | :38:10. | |
was just 1.3 million. And the Great Elephant Census | :38:11. | :38:12. | |
released today found that in just the last seven years, | :38:13. | :38:16. | |
30% of Africa's elephants have disappeared, lost to poachers | :38:17. | :38:20. | |
serving an insatiable It would be a pity if it we only had | :38:21. | :38:21. | |
pictures to remember | :38:22. | :38:28. |