:00:10. > :00:14.Tonight, how President Assad's armed opponents are operating
:00:14. > :00:19.inside Syria's capital. Our reporter slips his minders and
:00:19. > :00:23.discovers the forces opposing President Assad are established
:00:23. > :00:27.inside Damascus, and anxious for outside intervention. TRANSLATION:
:00:27. > :00:32.They tricked the Arab League, we don't have any hope in the Arab
:00:32. > :00:37.League, or even in the UN Security Council. We just want a no-fly zone.
:00:38. > :00:41.Three words, to guarantee a headline. But is the truth more
:00:41. > :00:47.complicated? Can a decent welfare state exist, alongside mass
:00:47. > :00:50.immigration? And some breaking philosophy news,
:00:50. > :00:55.Voltaire famously said, if God didn't exist it would be necessary
:00:55. > :01:05.to invent him. It turns out it was the British who helped to invent
:01:05. > :01:07.
:01:07. > :01:12.Good evening. There were more protests in Syria tonight against
:01:12. > :01:17.the regime of President Assad, and one pro-Assad demonstration inside
:01:17. > :01:21.Damascus. Protests after Friday prayers have become a regular,
:01:21. > :01:28.weekly event, our reporter, who has just returned this evening from the
:01:28. > :01:33.country, has discovered something more, that armed opponents of
:01:33. > :01:36.President Assad's regime are now established inside the Syrian
:01:36. > :01:40.capital. Under the almost all-seeing eyes of
:01:40. > :01:45.President Assad, we stole away from our Government minders, taking a
:01:45. > :01:51.tortous route through the back streets.
:01:51. > :01:55.-- torturous route through the back streets. We found the drum beat of
:01:55. > :02:00.revolution just a few miles from the Presidential Palace. Every
:02:00. > :02:05.night they gather secretly here, in the poor Damascus districts, the
:02:05. > :02:08.atmosphere almost festive. They are not so much demanding freedom, as
:02:08. > :02:13.asserting it. Taunting the President that his day is coming
:02:13. > :02:17.soon. They welcome any western help. But
:02:17. > :02:20.they are cheering their own military force, the Free Syrian
:02:20. > :02:26.Army, Government soldiers who have defected. They are stationed in the
:02:26. > :02:30.shadows all around, protesting this protest.
:02:30. > :02:34.TRANSLATION: The people here feel safe because of the Free Syrian
:02:34. > :02:39.Army. What happened was that some honourable Government soldiers came
:02:39. > :02:42.over to our side. For example, in this street, one soldier saw the
:02:43. > :02:47.security forces behind him and the people in front, but instead of
:02:47. > :02:55.shooting them, he shot in the air and then fled to a house. Now if
:02:55. > :03:01.the army comes, they shoot on the army to give people time to escape.
:03:01. > :03:04.They are renouncing the Free Army's victory in repelling Government
:03:04. > :03:11.troops from the town of Zabadani this week. But here we are not safe.
:03:11. > :03:19.We are told to leave quickly. The police are coming.
:03:19. > :03:23.Guiding our escape, lights, held by soldiers of the Free Army. At night,
:03:23. > :03:31.this dark Labyrinth is a no-go zone for the security forces, a pocket
:03:31. > :03:36.of liberated territory inside the capital. The uprising, as you can
:03:36. > :03:39.see, is very determined, but it is very localised. That was a fairly
:03:39. > :03:45.small demonstration that had to break up very quickly, and people
:03:45. > :03:50.are moving away very fast now, along specially-chosen alleyways
:03:50. > :03:57.where they feel safe. It is a scene the Arab League monitors, who have
:03:57. > :04:01.been in Syria for the past month, will never have witnessed.
:04:01. > :04:05.TRANSLATION: They tricked the Arab League, they took them to another
:04:05. > :04:08.distinct and told them it was here, so they weren't able to see the
:04:08. > :04:13.demonstration here, or even the army stationed nearby. We don't
:04:13. > :04:17.have any hope in the Arab League, or even in the UN Security Council.
:04:17. > :04:21.The uprising has lasted ten months already, and they haven't done
:04:21. > :04:30.anything. We just want a no-fly zone, so that honourable soldiers
:04:30. > :04:34.feel safer coming over to our side. Around the next corner, we find
:04:34. > :04:40.volunteers, setting off to smuggle medical supplies across the
:04:40. > :04:43.Government lines to Zabadani. TRANSLATION: This is medication for
:04:43. > :04:49.Zabadani for the injured. We are trying our best to support them
:04:49. > :04:54.with food, needles, pills, everything they need. TRANSLATION:
:04:54. > :04:57.We are setting off now, we don't get into Zabadani until 6.00am,
:04:57. > :05:02.using mountain roads, because the main roads are controlled by police
:05:02. > :05:06.and Government thugs. We have to go on foot, all we can do is take the
:05:06. > :05:10.supplies from one village and give them to another. Because we aren't
:05:10. > :05:16.getting any help from the outside world. If the security see us they
:05:16. > :05:23.will kill us straight away. It is safer for us to move on too.
:05:23. > :05:27.Crossing the city to an elaborately arranged rend day have you with
:05:27. > :05:30.another opposition -- rendezvous with another activist. He says
:05:30. > :05:33.these are the blood stains after being attacked after a
:05:33. > :05:39.demonstration by a group of soldiers armed with guns, sticks
:05:39. > :05:43.and a knife, and electric cattle prod. Tran They were beating me, I
:05:43. > :05:50.tried to pro-- TRANSLATION: They were beating me, I tried to protect
:05:50. > :05:56.myself. I swallowed the SIM card I filmed the demonstration on. They
:05:56. > :06:00.gave me four strikes in the solar plex sis, I couldn't breathe and my
:06:00. > :06:04.face went blue. They said let's leave this dog to die. It would
:06:04. > :06:09.have been too dangerous to go to hospital. A friend who is a doctor
:06:09. > :06:13.treated me at my house. After ten months, what has the opposition
:06:13. > :06:22.really achieved, if its supporters still live in constant fear? The
:06:22. > :06:28.answer, they say, is their minds have been set free. TRANSLATION:
:06:28. > :06:33.The most beautiful thing is, if a man is free for one day, he will
:06:34. > :06:37.sacrifice his life for that freedom. Our generation were born into
:06:37. > :06:42.dictatorship, into the regime of the President and his father. But
:06:42. > :06:46.the first time we went out on to the streets, without anyone
:06:46. > :06:50.ordering us to. The first time we chanted "freedom", something broke,
:06:50. > :06:58.and we can't go back. That's the first thing the
:06:58. > :07:03.revolution has taught us. It's broken the fear inside us.
:07:03. > :07:07.Outside, on the bustling streets of Damascus, activists like him must
:07:08. > :07:12.blend into the crowd. You will see no evidence of an uprising here,
:07:12. > :07:17.there may be many opposition supporters passing by, or there may
:07:17. > :07:20.be none. Is this just a veneer of normality, covering a fatally
:07:20. > :07:25.weakened system, that is about to collapse, or is it what it appears
:07:25. > :07:31.to be, the sign of a still well functioning society, largely
:07:31. > :07:38.untouched by a few pockets of revolt? Stop people at random, and
:07:38. > :07:42.everybody gives roughly the same answer. TRANSLATION: Our leader is
:07:42. > :07:48.unique, he has given us safety and security. Even if we have another
:07:48. > :07:52.leader, it is not going to be the same. He gave us a salary bonus and
:07:52. > :07:59.safety. The protestors who go out, they call for freedom, they don't
:08:00. > :08:03.even know what freedom means, they are mad. TRANSLATION: Freedom and
:08:03. > :08:06.democracy already exists, those people who are in the streets are
:08:06. > :08:13.not helping. They have a bad influence on the economy and
:08:13. > :08:17.society. TRANSLATION: For sure there is a conspiracy in this
:08:17. > :08:20.country, there is a secret hand from outside the country, something
:08:20. > :08:24.has happened, not the people, nor the security are involved here.
:08:25. > :08:30.Look in Damascus, there is no demonstration, our country is
:08:30. > :08:36.secure, they took the security. Are those the voices of conviction?
:08:36. > :08:41.Or the voices of fear? As in any dictatorship, there is no means of
:08:41. > :08:46.knowing. For all the courage of the revolutionaries, the Syrian
:08:46. > :08:52.dictatorship facing a world unable or unwilling to intervene, still
:08:52. > :08:55.has the upper hand. Ace mentioned earlier, Tim has just
:08:55. > :09:01.got back this evening from Damascus. What does it feel like, does it
:09:01. > :09:06.feel like a country on the brij? doesn't really feel -- brink? It
:09:06. > :09:11.doesn't really feel, now like a country consumed in chaos. There
:09:11. > :09:16.are some pockets of disquiet, some big pockets, like the city of Homs.
:09:16. > :09:19.When we went on the Government tour of Homs, we had to go on a round
:09:19. > :09:23.about route to avoid opposition gunfire, we couldn't have the
:09:23. > :09:26.planned meeting with the governor, it was too risky to go to the
:09:26. > :09:28.governor's residence. That was when you were in the hands of the
:09:28. > :09:32.Government? Yes, in the pocket of Homs we are talking about a very
:09:32. > :09:37.big pocket. There are little pockets, about this little district
:09:37. > :09:41.of Damascus this film was B but most of Damascus, most of the
:09:41. > :09:46.country, the shops are packed, it is living a normal life. You aren't
:09:46. > :09:51.even seeing, except perhaps on Friday, which is high tension, you
:09:52. > :09:55.aren't even seeing that many roadblocks or soldiers around.
:09:55. > :09:59.you willing to give a guesstimate of whether we are talking about
:09:59. > :10:06.dozens of many defecting, hundreds, thousands? You are certainly
:10:06. > :10:12.talking athletes hundreds, probably more than that. It is -- Talking at
:10:12. > :10:15.least hundreds, probably thousands. It is the weapons they have
:10:15. > :10:19.defected with and psychalogically they are more important, they might
:10:19. > :10:25.begin to be armed by outside sources, at the moment it is a liek
:10:25. > :10:29.lightly armed force. That guy you were interviewing in the mask,
:10:29. > :10:33.talking about the Arab League mission, great disappointment to
:10:33. > :10:37.the protestors, do you know whether it will stay there or not? They
:10:37. > :10:41.meet on Sunday, the Arab League, they will have to decide. Qatar,
:10:41. > :10:45.small but rich, has been the most hawkish, and said simply, the
:10:45. > :10:49.mission has failed. There should be armed Arab intervention. I think
:10:49. > :10:54.there will be really no other call for that. Qatar will be on its own
:10:54. > :10:58.in that. It is pretty certain that the mission will continue. Syria
:10:58. > :11:02.said that is OK. It will be beefed up, it will get more technical help,
:11:03. > :11:07.it certainly needs it. When I was out in the monitors, well
:11:07. > :11:11.intentioned, maybe, but amateurish in their approach T will go on. If
:11:11. > :11:14.the Arab League mission doesn't go on, the only alternative form of
:11:14. > :11:18.intervention is the United Nations. It is very hard to see with Russia
:11:18. > :11:23.and China against how any form of intervention through the UN could
:11:23. > :11:27.possibly work. There are over 370,000 people
:11:27. > :11:31.claiming benefits in this country, who were not born in this country.
:11:31. > :11:34.What are we to make of the relose of these previously unknown
:11:34. > :11:39.figures? They have been held to prove that this country's welfare
:11:39. > :11:45.system, paid for by British tax- payers, of course, has made it a
:11:45. > :11:48.magnet for called benefit tourists. Yet the truth, unsurprisingly, is
:11:48. > :11:56.more complicated. It is a highly- charged issue, we will discuss in a
:11:56. > :12:02.molt. First David Grossman reports. Three words set to get a heated
:12:02. > :12:07.debate flowing. Today the Government gave us its best guess
:12:07. > :12:11.of foreign-born benefits claimants, it is 371,000. This is all about a
:12:11. > :12:15.system people can have confidence in, the tax-payers feel they have
:12:15. > :12:18.confidence in. I want to make sure we have all the safeguards against
:12:18. > :12:22.benefit tourism, people coming here to claim. I want to make sure we
:12:22. > :12:25.are paying out money to those people, and only those people
:12:25. > :12:30.entitled to it. We were left a chaotic system by the previous
:12:30. > :12:34.Government, this is about sorting it out. What have we learned from
:12:34. > :12:40.today's information? For a start, while 6.6% of the working migrant
:12:40. > :12:47.population claims benefit, a lot more, 16.6%, of the British-born
:12:47. > :12:51.population claim. It was it was spun in the Telegraph article as
:12:51. > :12:56.something that has arisen from people arriving in the backs of
:12:56. > :13:01.lorries, students and benefits' tourists. This is a context very
:13:01. > :13:06.firmly set in. When we actually found when we looked at the figures,
:13:06. > :13:12.is migrants do, there are about 5.5 million people claiming benefits at
:13:12. > :13:17.this particular point in time. So that migrants representation of
:13:17. > :13:25.just over 6% was rather low. So where have these people come
:13:25. > :13:29.from? Well, 17% are from the EU, excluding the new mainly eastern
:13:29. > :13:36.European accession states, 8% come from the accession states like
:13:36. > :13:39.Poland and Lithuania. It is a fact that because we have left poor
:13:39. > :13:45.countries into the European Union, we have given them unlimited rights
:13:45. > :13:49.of free travel within the countries, and use of our health system, our
:13:49. > :13:52.benefits' system and schools. The vast majority of fair-minded people
:13:52. > :13:56.would say f people from Poland want to work in this country and we have
:13:57. > :14:00.jobs for them, fine, surely they shouldn't be able to claim benefits
:14:00. > :14:07.on day one, coming into this country, that is not right. But the
:14:07. > :14:14.biggest group, 34%, come fromation and the Middle East. -- come from
:14:14. > :14:17.the Middle East. 27% from Africa, consequence according to some of a
:14:17. > :14:23.non-selective immigration policy. You can't blame that on the last
:14:23. > :14:30.Labour Government t goes back to the late 1940s and 50, we felt we
:14:30. > :14:37.had an imperial obligation to those in the empire or former empire. We
:14:37. > :14:40.put no restrictions at all, unlike Canada who have a brutal form of
:14:40. > :14:43.restrictions, you have to have a PHd before you can get in there.
:14:43. > :14:49.That is why some believe that immigration and welfare benefits
:14:49. > :14:52.are so closely linked in the public consciousness, because so many
:14:52. > :14:58.immigrants are low-skilled, competing with the low-skilled
:14:58. > :15:01.British-born for the jobs. Labour accuses the Government of leasing
:15:01. > :15:05.these statistics, purely as a diversion from its poor immigration
:15:05. > :15:10.record. The Government said it would cut net migration into the
:15:10. > :15:15.country. The Prime Minister said no ifs or buts, it would go below
:15:15. > :15:21.100,000, the figures have gone up. The diversion from last year, we
:15:21. > :15:26.saw a number of people arrested at our borders and deported, we saw
:15:26. > :15:30.those numbers go down. Last summer we saw, Damian Green, decided no
:15:30. > :15:34.longer to finger print people caught as illegal immigrants. We
:15:34. > :15:39.can't specify who they are. Many voters, though, would say the
:15:39. > :15:43.fact that immigrants are legally entitled to benefits, is not the
:15:43. > :15:47.same as saying they are morally entitled. This raises all sorts of
:15:47. > :15:55.political questions about what qualifying contribution society
:15:55. > :16:00.should require. The recent case of the Big Issue seller in Bristol,
:16:00. > :16:05.who won her case for being classified as self-employed, which
:16:05. > :16:11.means that she can qualify for benefits, things like that get a
:16:11. > :16:14.lot of publicity. We have to a much clearer sense of progression from
:16:14. > :16:20.coming to this country to qualifying for benefits.
:16:20. > :16:24.This combination of words, then, is particularly potent now, during
:16:24. > :16:26.austerity. When one of the major political themes is, the parties
:16:26. > :16:32.promising to end something for nothing.
:16:32. > :16:35.With us now is Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, a new
:16:35. > :16:40.think-tank dealing with migration issues, and Harriet Sergeant,
:16:40. > :16:45.journalist, and author, and fellow of the Centre for Policy Studies.
:16:45. > :16:47.How sensitive an issue is this? Extremely sensitive. People feel
:16:47. > :16:51.very strongly that if you come to this country, you come here because
:16:51. > :16:56.you want to work. That is what we are told immigrants come here to
:16:56. > :17:01.work. They shouldn't be here to claim benefits. That is precisely
:17:01. > :17:06.what the figures suggest? But, I think those figures are, I mean
:17:06. > :17:08.those figures are, I read that report, and I I have to say I
:17:08. > :17:13.wasn't entirely convinced. I have read at least three other reports
:17:13. > :17:15.in the last month, that have given different figures and different
:17:15. > :17:20.interpretations. I think the interest figure, which doesn't
:17:20. > :17:24.appear in this report, is that national insurance numbers, you
:17:24. > :17:28.actually don't have to, they are not checked. Your immigration is
:17:28. > :17:32.not checked when you are handed your national insurance number.
:17:33. > :17:36.Which, as we know, is the gateway to all benefits. How sensitive an
:17:37. > :17:41.issue is this? It is a sensitive issue, it is a good thing the
:17:41. > :17:45.Government has gone and decided to find out what is going on. They
:17:45. > :17:49.decided to be vigilent about immigration, very vigilent about
:17:49. > :17:52.benefit claimants, benefit tourism, and so on. One hopes they will be
:17:53. > :17:57.relieved that they couldn't find very much of T the headline of this
:17:58. > :18:02.report is "migrants half as likely to claim benefits as anybody else".
:18:02. > :18:06.We now know that on education, on health, on benefits migrants,
:18:06. > :18:11.overall, are net contributors, are putting in more than they are
:18:11. > :18:14.taking out. I don't agree with that at all. This is absolutely not true.
:18:14. > :18:24.That is what the figures show? Those figures are an extrap laigs
:18:24. > :18:27.
:18:27. > :18:29.of one small, 9,000 people. They don't cover the fact that we don't
:18:29. > :18:34.know national insurance numbers. You have to look at schools in
:18:34. > :18:38.London to know it is not true. Primary schools are very heavily
:18:38. > :18:42.burdened at the moment. That is a different issue. Let's stick to
:18:42. > :18:50.this question, if we can, please, of the welfare state and
:18:50. > :18:53.immigration. Is a welfare state, of the kind we have got used to in
:18:53. > :18:56.this country, compatible with high levels of immigration? The short
:18:56. > :19:00.answer is immigration and the welfare state are compatible. There
:19:00. > :19:03.is a problem with sustaining people's willingness to pay for a
:19:03. > :19:07.welfare state, which is, if you get a politics of them and us, where
:19:07. > :19:11.the people who pay for it, feel they aren't the people who get
:19:11. > :19:14.something out. That is a colour blind issue, that is not about
:19:14. > :19:19.immigration status, that is whether people feel if people are willing
:19:20. > :19:24.to contribute or to work. If someone comes to pay and work and
:19:24. > :19:28.pay national insurance, people support, that not a British-born
:19:28. > :19:33.person who is not challenged to work. Immigration plays into it,
:19:33. > :19:36.but isn't the biggest issue at all. Can it be made to work? I don't
:19:36. > :19:40.think so, I have lived in the Third World, he see the tremendous
:19:40. > :19:44.sacrifices people make to get housing, education and healthcare.
:19:44. > :19:48.A lifetime of work to acquire those things for their children. They
:19:48. > :19:52.hear there is a country offering all these things free, of course
:19:52. > :19:55.immigration is going to be a pull. Now you are arguing that benefit
:19:56. > :20:00.tourism exists, when that isn't what this report seems to suggest?
:20:00. > :20:03.I take issue with the figure of this report. They are the
:20:03. > :20:06.Government figures. There are two things people say, they take our
:20:06. > :20:10.jobs or come for the benefits, they can't be doing both. The Government
:20:10. > :20:14.has found they come for our benefits isn't happening, it is
:20:14. > :20:19.half as likely. They found two weeks ago that under certain
:20:19. > :20:23.circumstances in a downturn, you do want to worry about the impact of
:20:23. > :20:26.jobs. What is the most famous part of the British stay, the National
:20:26. > :20:29.Health Service, which wouldn't have survived without immigration. At
:20:29. > :20:33.the same time the population pressures on it will worry people
:20:33. > :20:36.if we don't manage population, so we deal with the local pressures in
:20:36. > :20:40.your area. We know there is national gain and we can sort it
:20:40. > :20:43.out. I did a report on national health as a draw for immigration. I
:20:43. > :20:47.have to say I didn't start to do, with the intention of doing that
:20:47. > :20:52.report. But I kept on interviewing doctors. This is in the south-east,
:20:52. > :20:56.in the London area, not the rest. Not at that point to the rest of
:20:56. > :21:02.the UK. They said never mind what you are asking us about, the real
:21:02. > :21:05.problem that we have is we have so many people in our hospitals who do
:21:06. > :21:10.not deserve to be here. They were telling me this was a scandal.
:21:10. > :21:15.are not ill? They were ill, but they were not British subjects,
:21:15. > :21:18.they had come in order to get the National Health Service. It is a
:21:18. > :21:22.huge draw. This whole issue becomes much more difficult, much more
:21:22. > :21:26.urgent, doesn't it, at a time when we are short of money? Yes. That
:21:26. > :21:31.will continue for a good while yet? That is why people are very
:21:31. > :21:36.concerned about how it is managed, they have anxieties about their
:21:36. > :21:40.local surgeries and schools, and so on. The Government has found
:21:40. > :21:44.migrants are net contributors. can't carry on, do you think we can
:21:44. > :21:48.carry on as we are? People are keen to see the numbers reduced a bit,
:21:49. > :21:52.but in ways that are sensible. you think we can carry on as we are
:21:52. > :21:56.going now? People want reductions, but not the sort of things that
:21:56. > :21:59.will damage the economy. Do you think we can carry on as we are
:21:59. > :22:03.now? We will get numbers down because of the recession, but
:22:03. > :22:06.people don't want to cut out care and health workers we need. That is
:22:07. > :22:10.not what we are talking about? numbers will go down a bit. The net
:22:10. > :22:18.immigration figure is up, because immigration fell because of the
:22:18. > :22:22.weak pound. We have had, over the last, since 2004, we have had
:22:22. > :22:25.600,000 young, skilled, nobody is saying about the quality. Excellent
:22:25. > :22:29.young people coming in from Eastern Europe. At the same time we have
:22:29. > :22:33.had youth unemployment rise in this country by 450,000. If people come
:22:33. > :22:38.into this country, they work and they pay their taxes, why aren't
:22:38. > :22:42.they entitled to benefits? There is another one of these many reports
:22:42. > :22:46.giving contradictory figures out this month, which actually points
:22:46. > :22:50.out how many people are fail to go get jobs. Mostly these are young
:22:50. > :22:53.people? That is why I asked you a question of principle. The
:22:53. > :22:59.principle I'm asking about, if people come to the country, they
:22:59. > :23:03.work, they pay taxes, are they entitled to claim benefits or not?
:23:03. > :23:06.For how long, one week after they arrive in this country. What is
:23:06. > :23:09.your view? At the moment you can get a British citizenship after
:23:09. > :23:14.five years, why not after five years. You would accept that,
:23:14. > :23:18.wouldn't you? If they were in work. People want to treat different
:23:18. > :23:23.cases differently. If we think someone is persecuted as a refugee
:23:23. > :23:27.they need full support to be a member of society. If people get
:23:27. > :23:30.citizenship we believe in equal citizenship, we care about
:23:31. > :23:34.integration, it becomes an economic migrant for a short-term, you
:23:34. > :23:38.shouldn't be entitled to means- tested benefits. People don't get
:23:38. > :23:42.them f you are from outside the EU you are not entitled them until you
:23:42. > :23:47.become a citizen. As a citizen we believe in treating you fairly and
:23:47. > :23:55.equal. That is British policy. I should apologise for a couple of
:23:55. > :24:00.I had sis in the piece, it is David Goodyard.
:24:00. > :24:02.Who is the greatest 18th century French philosopher, we are always
:24:02. > :24:06.asking ourselves in the Newsnight office on a Friday afternoon. The
:24:06. > :24:11.answer is actually Voltaire, not least because he appreciated
:24:11. > :24:14.England as a haven of free thought, openness and tolerance, unlike his
:24:14. > :24:18.native country. In France they kept locking him up. In Britain he was
:24:18. > :24:23.free to say what he liked. It also turned out, after discoveries of
:24:23. > :24:29.letters by an Oxford professor, that he was rather well connected
:24:29. > :24:38.here. Did England make him? Can it be true, that we simple
:24:38. > :24:43.British folk have something in common with fancy French thinkers?
:24:43. > :24:48.France soir Voltaire was a philosopher, poet, the first
:24:48. > :24:54.literary superstar. I do not drag a great name about with me, but do
:24:54. > :24:58.honour with I have. He raised his cane, I drew my sword, she fainted.
:24:58. > :25:02.As a young man, Voltaire spent some time in this country. Where,
:25:02. > :25:12.according to this painstaking reconstruction, children taunted
:25:12. > :25:13.
:25:13. > :25:17.him, with heart-breaking chance of "-- chants of "frogy Frenchman".
:25:17. > :25:23.Children I might have not been fortunate enough to be born among
:25:23. > :25:26.you. But that didn't put him off. He lived on this street in central
:25:26. > :25:32.London. Newly discovered letters show Voltaire taking to his adopted
:25:32. > :25:36.home with a real voi of life. He sounds almost -- joy of life. He
:25:36. > :25:46.sounds almost home sick of England when he writes to an English Lord
:25:46. > :25:50.
:25:50. > :25:55.This is a breath and better letter in which Voltaire thanks the Lord
:25:55. > :26:00.for the many weekends he spent in - - bread and butter letter in which
:26:00. > :26:04.Voltaire thanks the Lord for the many weekends he spent in his house.
:26:04. > :26:09.It shows him in an important literary circle where he would have
:26:09. > :26:14.met Pope and Swift. He thanks him for the time he spepbts in the
:26:14. > :26:18.library, you catch Voltaire -- spent in the library, you catch
:26:18. > :26:22.Voltaire working in the library, a nice little insight. He was always
:26:22. > :26:25.a social climber in France and England. He always liked to meet
:26:25. > :26:31.the high and mighty, the people with titles. But one of the reasons
:26:31. > :26:37.that he did that, was that if you were a writer, especially in France,
:26:37. > :26:44.where there was no copyright law, you had to find people who would be
:26:44. > :26:54.patrons. Voltaire fitted so well in here, he aing gla sized his name,
:26:54. > :26:57.
:26:57. > :27:03.Reveals. Our French philosopher found out how to keep one the
:27:03. > :27:07.Jones's and the Smiths'. But can England claim him? Can we claim him
:27:07. > :27:15.as one of our own? We can, it was while he was here and went back to
:27:15. > :27:19.France, he wrote probably his most important work, which is about a
:27:19. > :27:26.series of letters about England. When he comes to England as a young
:27:26. > :27:28.man, he learns about Lock, Newton, in the 1940s he writes very
:27:28. > :27:33.extensively explaining and conveying to the French, and then
:27:33. > :27:38.through the French to the rest of Europe, the importance of Lock's
:27:38. > :27:43.fis lol fee, and the porpbs of -- philosophy, and the importance of
:27:43. > :27:47.free thinking, and not approaching problems with a closed mind. You wo
:27:47. > :27:54.imagine Voltaire's letters did a -- you would imagine Voltaire's
:27:54. > :27:57.letters did a not for the enfant cordial, but it didn't. Voltaire
:27:57. > :28:02.encouraged lots of people to go to England on holiday they went and
:28:02. > :28:06.got laughed at. At the time, even the most snobbish English gentlemen
:28:06. > :28:11.dressed up as a country gent, going hunting, the French would turn up
:28:11. > :28:16.with their perfumeed wigs and handerchiefs, and the Londoners
:28:16. > :28:19.would laugh at them. They blamed Voltaire for that. Perhaps it is
:28:20. > :28:24.not surprising that Voltaire was accommodating with the old
:28:24. > :28:29.adversary across the channel. This is a man on his death bed asked to
:28:29. > :28:39.announce the devil, and he replied, "this is no time to make new
:28:39. > :29:00.
:29:00. > :29:07.enemies"! That's all from Newsnight tonight,
:29:07. > :29:13.I leave you in the company of the great R & B singer Etta James, her
:29:13. > :29:20.death in California was announced today. She was 73, here she is at
:29:20. > :29:27.the jazz festival in 1979. # Rock me baby
:29:27. > :29:35.# Rock me all night long # Rock me baby
:29:35. > :29:43.# Rock me all night long # Rock me baby
:29:43. > :29:50.# Like my bake ain't got no bone # Roll me baby