07/02/2014 Newsnight

The man they blame finally showed up and got it both barrels. At least it

is nice to see this time you have a pair of wellies on. What do you

expect us to do? Sort the rivers out. That is precisely what we are

going to try to do over the course of the next few months.

Newsnight went where Lord Smith didn't go. It is bloody awful isn't

it. It's awful, it is awful, it is awful. The French median who

inspired the -- comedian infamous Quennelle salute talks to us.

The Prime Minister has been trying to love bomb the Scots, from the

Olympic Velodrome. We took one of his feistier backbenchers to Glasgow

for a chance of doing some woulds. The Sochi Opening Ceremony had all

the colours of the rainbow, was it just a Russian fairy tale? Good

evening, the residents on the Somerset levels have to wait a long

time for a great panjandrom to come and see them. And then along came

two. Water has wreaked havoc. The Prime Minister arrived and said it

was like a biblical scene, and promptly assured the Government

would do everything to help. The money is there the councils will do

everything they can, the military will do everything they can and we

will go as fast as we can. These things take time to get right. We

are facing extraordinary weather events. Earlier the embattled Lord

Smith, chairman of the Environment Agency, refused to apologise for the

response to the flooding crisis, and insisted he was still proud of the

agency's work. That wasn't good enough for one landowner who managed

to make his point face-to-face. People whose homes are under water

and under threat, we have had this for too long now, five weeks,

Morland has had it for the same time. REPORTER: What do you say to,

that he says you should resign? I have no intention of doing so, there

is important work to be done, getting the dredging started as soon

as is possible to do so. The weather may have been mercifully dry for the

visitors from London, but residents had been warned to expect more

strong winds and cleave rain this weekend. Much of the focus has been

on just a few villages in the Somerset level, but what is it like

for communities up the river, away from the cameras and the concern? We

travelled further inland to talk to the people battling in the water in

Stoke St Gregory, Burro Bridge and CKerlow. It is a lifestyle farming,

you work every day of the year, you have no day off ever. You have

always to be here and be around. That is why the community is so

important. Farming communities and people in the no and those on the

river bank were saying sooner or later there was going to be a

disaster and this is the disaster we are having. I can't remember what

normal is at the moment, I'm firefighting all the time. Hello we

need able bodied people, Gerald has cleared a shed and ready to receive

50. I have someone ring me about Land Rovers and things, it is coming

over here isn't it. I don't know how I'm going to keep my battery going.

For the villagers we have all pulled together but we don't know what we

are actually meant to be doing for each other, we don't know where this

water is going to be, where it is going, who is getting flooded and

who is not. It is pandemonium. It is man power to clear a shed out,

I have two lads coming from Taunton now, a couple more if possible.

Preferably people who can drive machinery as well. Lovely, thank

you. People from a long way off, right up the top of Somerset were

saying they will come and help. What can we do.

Where are you guys from? I'm up the road I'm helping out. I have a wet

room for disabled chap who can't get in I have a downstairs bedroom that

can be used as a bedroom. Has the community helped more than the

state? Without doubt. We have a police car causing an obstruction we

have to take them out of the chain in a second. At the other side of

grey bridge, if there is any police there get on the radio and find out

who it is, they have two minutes. If your home is being inundated and you

can't get to it, and he's going home to put more sand bags and do all

that, they know this is the only access. We needor clear. We need

access 24 hours a day. I know, I don't think they understand that.

But they will in a minute. Hi, do you know who they are, he is

beginning to lose it. OK. Really, really important. We will try our

best. Thank you. We will try to get it moved for you. Did you just get

the feeling that they thought I was just being a Payne? Where is the

help? Where is the help in making the sandbags, where is the help

ferrying people across getting to work or get their cars back or

collecting their post. You were lucky, another few minutes you would

have been moved. You want the media to be here, and you want to be able

to tell a story and get it out there. You want to say, look, we

need some help now, and you would think by now that the message must

surely have got across that actually we do need some help. But it is not

here, it is really not here. They a loving the forecast because it is

getting, oh there is another storm on the way. Look the south west hit

again, the message is obvious, we have made Prince Charles come down

and visit you, look marvellous. But in reality we are already in chaos.

The bank here has been shored up in order for that to stop seepage.

There is a massive amount of sandbags just holding that bank back

so that doesn't go. After this spill sway starts going, the waterfall

effect, there is nothing else that is set up, so the water will then

spill anywhere. So once it's all full, then it will just go,

completely uncontrollably. I just genuinely hope that someone will

Someone will come up with an ounce of common sense and think about what

we used to do in the past and put that into action. We have nothing

like this. Will Smith came in the last flood in 2012 that something

had to be done and made an empty claim, it wasn't as bad as that

then. I want to show him what it is like and what his empty promise of

getting something done has created. The way things are at the moment.

I'm not sure if we can continue. This event to be the end of our

business. It is bloody awful isn't it. It is

awful, it is awful, it is awful, it is awful. We have been inviting Lord

Smith to appear on Newsnight all week. Again tonight we were told he

wouldn't be available for us. The French comedian Dieudonn M'bala

M'bala, he of the infamous Quennelle gesture, sent a message to the Prime

Minister, following the decision to ban him entering the UK. He

previously declared he would travel to Britain to support the West Brom

player, Nicholas Anelka, who used the gesture when he scored against

West Ham. Anelka who denies malicious intent face as

disciplinary hearing. In Dieudonn's letter, written by his lawyers,

which Wednesday "all truths begin as blasphemy". He argues the Quennelle

is a humorous guessture, invented by the artist Dieudonn and used by him

for many years. R Nicholas Anelka claimed he used

the salute to mock the French establishment in solidarity with his

comedic hero, and the letter takes up that theme, just a tad pompusly.

As Dieudonne can't come to Britain, Newsnight went to him. Steve Smith

hopped across the channel to Paris this morning to meet him in the

theatre where he's performing. Most people in the UK became aware of you

because of the incident involving Nicholas Anelka. Did you ask him to

make that gesture? TRANSLATION: No, I didn't ask him directly. He did it

to pay me a tribute because he's a friend. It is a gesture with

panache, one of emancipation and courage. But it is caused a great

deal of offence, people believe it is an inveted Nazi salut

TRANSLATION: That's a very funny definition. It is just not truee.

People who claim it is an inverted salute have their own agenda, they

want to see anti-semitism wherever and however to justify their own

solutions. Those who claim the Quennelle is an inverted Nazi salute

are crazy. Why is it that people have been photographed making this

salute in front of synagogues and in front of the Holocaust memorial and

Auschwitz. TRANSLATION: That's the problem, all of that stuff is just

exaggeration, around 100,000 photos have been taken and you are talking

about three photos taken in front of symbolic places that represent

Judaism. That is not even one in 1,000 of the photos that have been

taken. Why try to sum up a much bigger movement in just a few Motos.

So you condemn, that you think those people were wrong to make that

gesture in those places? places? Think those people were wrong to

make that gesture in those places? Ou You are asking me to condemn

people and set myself up as judge and jinx in your society do what you

have to do, put them in prison, that is not my job, I would rather judge

you. You come here to me and I'm speaking to you and giving you a bit

of my time talking about subjects that are obviously important to you.

This gesture isn't anti-semetic for me, if people do the Quennelle and

are anti-semetic, go and talk to them. How many people hate black

people and do sketches about black people, do things that you could

judge to be racist. Go and speak to them. It is a bit tiresome to

systematically be put in the position of having to justify

yourself. I don't have to justify myself to you. OK, let's talk about

what you are responsible for. And that is your act. Your performance.

You are a comedian, you say, but what sort of comedian makes jokes

about the Holocaust or jokes that brag bracket Jewish reporters with

gas chambers? TRANSLATION: I have never approached the Holocaust in

any other terms than the logic of competition amongst victims. It is

important for me to make chore to the public that no-one suffering is

above any other, there is no hierarchy of suffering. I have no

sympathy for anti-semitism. So for instance quite a common trait of

anti-semitism is a belief that the Holocaust didn't happen, or was in

some way exaggerated, so what is your position there, do you accept

that as a historical fact. TRANSLATION: Look, I'm a comedian.

But that's not an excuse, you are also a man, walking around and

talking to people. Is it an all-purpose excuse to say I'm just a

humourist, it doesn't matter what I say? TRANSLATION: But, you, you are

a man who presents himself as someone serious, a journalist, I'm

here to make people laugh. When you ask me questions about the Holocaust

with that superserious long face, I say to myself clearly I'm not going

to make you laugh about that subject, but I think you need to. I

think it would be interesting to hear one of your jokes, can you tell

us one of your jokes? TRANSLATION: That will cost you 35 euros, go and

ask at the till there. You know perfectly well your act has created

a lot of controversy, it is not just me sitting here, you have been

fined, your show has been banned at times by the French. My country has

refused you entry. TRANSLATION: I'm not responsible for the recent ban

in England. I wanted to go there to play my show. I think my lawyers

have sent a letter to your Government, to Mr Cameron to explain

to him that this whole situation is not only unjust, but ridiculous. So

I think I will come to London to perform within the year, in 2014. I

think probably between September and December, at that point you are more

than welcome to see what I do. What makes you think you will be allowed

in? TRANSLATION: Can you seriously imagine that my ban in England

protects the English from any risk or invasion or any sort of

terrorism. It is so stupid that I think the English will wake up. You

have got a Home Secretary who is almost as stupid and ridiculous as

our own. Dieudonne and Steve Smith. Well before the Prime Minister

winged his way to Somerset, he waded into the debate over Scottish

independence with a speech we previewed last night, delivered from

the site of the London Olympics. It was designed to evoke the spirit of

the games and rouse a so far unconcerned population of the rest

of the United Kingdom. For all of them to tell Scotland, "we want you

to stay"! The Scottish leader, Alex Salmond retorted that instead of

delivering the sermon from mount owe limb police, and come and speak to

him. The Tory MP who is half Scottish and a staunch unionist is

no firty, he went in the company of Alan Little to try to love bomb the

Scots. What did you think of the Prime Minister's speech? I thought

it was really moving, one of the best speeches he has made. Why did

he make it? I think he made it because, or I guess he made it

because he feels like I do,est speeches he has made. Why did he

make it? I think he made it because, or I guess he made it because he

feels like I do, that one of the problems is the English, Welsh and

Northern Irish people have not talked about their love of Scotland.

Tonight I persuaded him to come to a Glasgow pub where many of the

drinkers were inclined to be yes voters or inclined that way. This is

not a representative sample of the Scottish population, full

disclosure. Could he persuade this sceptical crowd of the vert it is of

a British patriotism. It is important to give English, Welsh and

Irish people to a chance to say they love Scotland, and are committed to

Scotland otherwise what is the UK if not about commitment and respect. It

means basically nothing, unfortunately for youd to Scotland

otherwise what is the UK if not about commitment and respect. It

means basically nothing, unfortunately for you. I don't think

it will matter to the way people are voting. I hope in my lifetime I will

see an independent Scotland. Cameron today has done the yes campaign a

lot of good. His remarks were facile and glib, and the reaction on

Twitter today is unbelievable. People from England, Wales, tweeting

to say, run, run, as fast as you can. By the way I'm still sitting on

the fence, I'm worried about my own finances, naturally. Nevertheless I

can understand... He as undecided but you might change his mind for

him. Is there a sense of Britishness that is more than a sense of

English, Welsh, Irish or Scottishness, is that gone, or

something that is fading? Has it gone? It is not necessarily gone but

I think there is a sense of self-Government in Scotland now

because in a lot of different ways Scottish Parliament has done better

than Westminster appears to be doing. What do you think about the

question of whether there are ways of finding a more positive way of

expressing a British identity while having a proud Scotland and being

British in the way that was discussed is that possible any more

or fading? I think it is a tough job really, and for me whether I have no

doubt unionists will want to find as many positive things as they can

find, but in general terms there is a real sense of Scottishness, there

isn't a real great sense. The exchanges are polite, mutually

respectful, but it is as though they are talking about two different

countries. Easy to forget in here that the anti-independence Better

Together campaign are still ahead in the polls. Then finally something to

cheer Rory up. A no voter. Do you think we should be spending more

time with each other, that the nations should be? I think we do

already. I don't think that relations are that bad. I certainly

don't think that Scotland would survive on its own without England.

Did you feel you were part of their dialogue there? No, I felt in that

conversation that we were coming from very, very different

directions, and that you know, I think it is a challenge in politics.

But what I really felt above all is that it didn't feel to me primarily

to be about nationalism in an old fashioned sense. It felt to me as

though this was really about party politics. These were people who, you

know, I'm a Conservative MP and these are people who don't like

Conservatives, some how that is becoming Scottish nationalism. Ahead

of the Sochi winter Olympics there have been no shortage of photographs

in the press and on-line reporting to demonstrate just how unready the

Russians were. But, when the show began, it turned into a spectacular.

In which the athletes almost played second fiddle to the lavish

performances. # Back in the USSR. ?30 billion,

that price tag should be able to include a good bash. 2,900 athletes

from 45 countries crowded into the stadium. As with all glitzy parties

it was made clear who the host was. The games have been dogged with

tales of corruption, warnings of bombs and toothpaste, they have also

been overshadowed by protests from the gay community, and in support of

them by the absence of notable western world leaders. For just a

moment there was a hiccup. A slight mal-Police Station with one of the

makes but I think we get the idea. It wasn't a night for nay sayers, as

a smooth story of Russia's history unfolded, from the Gauls to the time

of tolls toy. There was even an Iron Curtain, who knew the 60s hung

behind it. This was a potted history. Here was Stalin, and no

mention of Solzinizen. But the corks popped, the flame is lit, and the

world is waiting to see what the most expensive games ever will

bring. What to make it all, I'm joined by historian and Russian

export. When you looked at that, did you think there was an essence of

Russian creativity, about the story and delivery? I thought the delivery

was strangely Soviet in some ways. The spectacular, it is the sort of

thing than an authoritarian regime does well, the Chinese did it well.

The North Koreans? Exactly. In some ways it was quite Russian, a smooth

depiction of Russian history with lots of bits left out, notably

Stalin. For me also. And Lenin? Also just the fact that Sochi is on the

site of two genocides and there are two significant accept teen rows, 18

-- sent teen rows, the last of the Cecascians were forced out of Sochi,

600,000 of them died on the way to the ottoman empire, where they were

forced to go. The games will end on the 23rd of February, the 70th

anniversary of the Stalinist expulsion of the Chechens. None of

that was reflected in the story. Whether nations are obliged to

pinpoint on their negative aspects or not I don't know. Did the

Americans do that in Atlanta about the native Americans? I don't know.

That was obviously something very cloud in its omission. But they were

never going to put up a big image of Stalin, that was never going to

happen. And yet you had tolls toy and Tchaikovsky. That struck me

rather ironic being a gay composer at a time of antigay legislation in

Russia. I'm not sure he would be too happy having the music used for an

Olympics. Never watched an Opening Ceremony where I was so conscious of

Putin. He was watching and checking, when the he fifth ring didn't come

out you thought Putin and all the things happening recently and how

again on the toes people were perhaps. It is very much his games,

it was his personal choice to hold it in Sochi, it is crazy, a

subtropical resort. They have the whole of Siberia, plenty of snow

there, it would be cheaper. Perhaps they could build up some of the

mbling infrastructure of Siberia instead he does it in the Soviet Las

Vegas. One area where the idea of building the 20th century Russia

into a kind of major military machine, a building with the steam

train and so forth. That actually, as you say, it was very

Soviet-style, but rather a beautiful style, some of the avant-garde style

and Kandinsky, and all the artists, that can't be forgotten? Yes, but to

try to alie the avant-garde with the bowls Vic, and then straight to the

Sputniks and the Soviet rock 'n' rollers all having a great time and

playing to post society nostalgia for that era. I felt slightly

uncomfortable with that, visually it was stunning. There are rumours that

Putin is trying to rehabilitate Stalin, he was never going to make

that fly today? Do you think it marred to Russians watching that? I

think it is a piece of propaganda and very effective. They would have

come out of that today thinking very good about themselves as Russian,

they would have thought Putin had done a good job in terms of

presenting Russia positively to the world. A piece of propaganda, very

effective. And yet you have the Germans with the rainbow uniforms on

a direct reference to the harsh gay crackdown. Do you think Russians

seeing that will have noticed that, would that really be uppermost in

their minds? I don't think so, probably more listening out for the

rumours about Kabaya, the athlete who is purportedly even putten to's

wife but certainly a mistress, who was allowed to carry the torch. That

sort of thing would be more in their minds, and the antigay legislation

if anything is probably quite popular. Just one very final point,

would it matter to Russians the absence of the western leaders and

what their absence signified? Again I think probably not. I think they

probably have their attitude of you know we can take pride in what we

have done regardless of what the west thinks of us, and we can think

good of ourselves as a result of this. Thank you very much. Just

tomorrow morning's front pages now: They have that fifth ring not

opening, and product samples not what we think they are. And sorry

the hardest word for the flood chief. The Daily Mail spending our

foreign aid on British victims of flooding MPs tell Cameron.

That's all for tonight. Believe it or not. It is 50 years to the day

since Beatlemania first hit the United States. When the Fab Four

were met in New York by screaming fans and cynical press. Soon they

were won over. Any doubts about the Beatles reception in America were

disspelled the moment they touched down. New Yorkers turned out in

force, and making allowance for the American accent the screams were

genuine. John, Paul, George and Ringo had found a new world to

conquer. Some press conference. For half an hour there was so much den

you couldn't tell a word? REPORTER: Will you please sing something?

Sorry, next question! REPORTER: Can you thing? No, we need money first

claim --! . The crowds cheered them all the way to the hotel. The

Beatles are the top pop music This winter is already breaking

records for wind and rain, there is more where that came from. Severe

gales affecting lots of Wales, south-west