:00:10. > :00:17.a Newsnight exclusive. We reveal the man who sent Obama to the White
:00:18. > :00:21.House twice has been hired to work his magic on Ed Miliband. What
:00:22. > :00:26.chance the American campaign guru David Axelrod
:00:27. > :00:37.what chance the campaign Guru David Axelrod can make a winner? They are
:00:38. > :00:41.trying to support their families and retire with dignity. Frank Luntz,
:00:42. > :00:43.the top American pollster, and political commentator Rachel
:00:44. > :00:50.Sylvester discuss the star hiring - and the size of the task.
:00:51. > :01:00.After days of this in eastern Ukraine, will the deal in Geneva
:01:01. > :01:05.help? She's the most successful far right
:01:06. > :01:06.leader in Europe and she tells Newsnight she still wants to court
:01:07. > :01:20.Nigel Farage for her team. And the Nobel prize-winning novelist
:01:21. > :01:28.Gabriel Garcia Marquez has died. We reflect on his life.
:01:29. > :01:36.Good evening. It is a star signing. We can exclusively reveal that Ed
:01:37. > :01:39.Miliband has put his faith in the American campaign strategist David
:01:40. > :01:44.Axelrod to get him into Downing Street. He must have worked in
:01:45. > :01:48.number on him because last year, Axelrod, who started his career
:01:49. > :01:53.campaigning for Robert F Kennedy when he was 13, apparently said his
:01:54. > :01:59.role as Obama's chief campaign strategist would be his final role.
:02:00. > :02:11.So Axelrod makes a royal flush. The Conservatives have Lynton Crosby be
:02:12. > :02:25.and. To help with the significant task of
:02:26. > :02:32.convincing the public hears a winner, enter the man who propelled
:02:33. > :02:39.Obama to use presidential home. Who? The master strategist behind the box
:02:40. > :02:44.office appearances. Don't be fooled that David Axelrod always appears on
:02:45. > :02:47.the edge of the frame. In both of Balmer's presidential races, he was
:02:48. > :02:53.central even though he ended up being the butt of the old joke. So
:02:54. > :03:00.my advisers have switched over to the dark side. David Axelrod works
:03:01. > :03:06.for MS NBC which is a nice change of pace because they used to work for
:03:07. > :03:13.David Axelrod. But why would he want to go from this to having a shot at
:03:14. > :03:20.this? He has been taking calls from Ed Miliband since the summer and
:03:21. > :03:25.with arm-twisting from Douglas Alexander, he was persuaded to sign
:03:26. > :03:31.up. As the man himself explained in a carefully prepared clip. I think a
:03:32. > :03:37.candidate is a winner who speaks to the lives of the people they are
:03:38. > :03:41.running to represent. Ed Miliband understands the struggle that people
:03:42. > :03:45.are going through in Britain to make a living wage, to support their
:03:46. > :03:52.families, to retire with some dignity. He understands that a
:03:53. > :03:56.growing economy demands that you have brought prosperity and not just
:03:57. > :04:01.prosperity which is awarded by a few. I think you can build a
:04:02. > :04:06.movement. Even if he shares those big themes, it is a rather different
:04:07. > :04:12.endeavour. From a billion-dollar campaign with a candidate almost
:04:13. > :04:15.designed for Kodak moments. To the gentler charms of British
:04:16. > :04:20.campaigning, a budget of probably less than ?10 million and a
:04:21. > :04:28.candidate who the public has so far refused to fall in love with, even
:04:29. > :04:32.with the family snaps. But as Ed Miliband's senior strategic advisor,
:04:33. > :04:39.Axelrod is unlikely to be taking to the stump. And how useful can an
:04:40. > :04:44.Atlantic transplant actually be? In a way, I do think some of these
:04:45. > :04:48.advisers are taking candy from the hands of a baby by taking this
:04:49. > :04:52.money, these big fat contracts to work for British elliptical parties
:04:53. > :04:57.because the truth is they have not run a nationwide campaign. Their
:04:58. > :05:03.experience is very different. I am not sure how much of their wisdom is
:05:04. > :05:06.exportable to Britain but it will certainly make those advisers with
:05:07. > :05:09.DVD collections of The West Wing thrilled when they wake up in the
:05:10. > :05:17.morning and that is why they want him. But new Labour gained
:05:18. > :05:25.enormously from careful study of the Clinton playbook. If ever I get the
:05:26. > :05:33.reception that Bill gets anywhere, I am thankful I am not running against
:05:34. > :05:38.him! Axelrod is not the first hire from the Obama camp to Ed
:05:39. > :05:45.Miliband's Labour. But this man, Jim Mussina, has taken a different
:05:46. > :05:51.ticket. I want to take a minute to talk to you about what we are
:05:52. > :05:56.building on the ground. He has gone to work as a sometime adviser to
:05:57. > :06:06.David Cameron's election campaign. Certainly one politician gained
:06:07. > :06:18.massively from David Axelrod's dig commission. Sometimes conventional
:06:19. > :06:24.politics turns out to be wrong. Laura is here now. Are they playing
:06:25. > :06:31.this as a coup? They certainly are. They are delighted about this. David
:06:32. > :06:36.Axelrod is a big political player. He is not going to give his
:06:37. > :06:40.expensive time, let alone an expensive public endorsement is
:06:41. > :06:44.somebody he thinks is a bit of a loser. I think in terms of the
:06:45. > :06:48.Labour grassroots, it probably depends how far they are from the
:06:49. > :06:51.Westminster bubble in terms of their enthusiasm because sometimes big
:06:52. > :06:56.hires do go wrong. The thing that Labour HQ are frankly salivating
:06:57. > :07:01.over is not that they have Axelrod on the books but he is willing to
:07:02. > :07:05.say publicly he shares their analysis of what they think should
:07:06. > :07:11.be a really big elliptical appeal. When it started out as the squeezed
:07:12. > :07:16.middle, it got some fun pokes at it but he seems to have signed up for
:07:17. > :07:21.it in a very big way. Have front of house will he be? Labour are being
:07:22. > :07:29.quite cagey about how involved he will be. Depends how much money they
:07:30. > :07:33.are paying him. It does. I understand it is six figures. They
:07:34. > :07:38.did not say how much. He is a well-known man. They have signed up
:07:39. > :07:42.his firm until the general election. It is also worth pointing
:07:43. > :07:47.out the differences. These big hires do go wrong. Gordon Brown employed
:07:48. > :07:51.somebody which went wrong when he gave Gordon Brown a speech which
:07:52. > :07:55.John Kerry had more or less given previously. They do not always
:07:56. > :08:00.understand the system and fundamentally, they are working with
:08:01. > :08:04.completely different political animals. Obama was a change
:08:05. > :08:15.candidate, Ed Miliband is in the Cabinet. With me is Frank Luntz a
:08:16. > :08:19.strategist and Rachel saw Lester, the Times columnist. Frank, you have
:08:20. > :08:25.been up against him in the States. What is he like? Pretty quiet. He
:08:26. > :08:30.does not want to have his picture and name out there so I am surprised
:08:31. > :08:35.he filmed that little clip. I will tell you, families struggling,
:08:36. > :08:39.retire with dignity, this is Barack Obama's language and the danger is
:08:40. > :08:47.if he tries to take American language and apply to British
:08:48. > :08:56.politics, for example the spelling of Labour. Do you think this is the
:08:57. > :09:01.last role of the dice for Ed Miliband? Fire won he wants a big
:09:02. > :09:07.player and he wants to pitch for the squeezed middle. As Frank says the
:09:08. > :09:10.middle-class in America has a completely different meaning. The
:09:11. > :09:12.danger is you can have the best political message in the world but
:09:13. > :09:18.if the messenger is not appealing, it will not make any difference.
:09:19. > :09:25.Axelrod must have made a calculation that it was going to be a battle and
:09:26. > :09:31.if he can deliver, that will be the final feather in his cap? It is this
:09:32. > :09:34.analysis that you can either have a recovery which is a trickle-down
:09:35. > :09:38.recovery where the very wealthy do well and that trickles down to the
:09:39. > :09:42.rest, or it is people in the middle who feel left behind, you have got
:09:43. > :09:47.to help those people. It is the fact that both Miliband and Axelrod have
:09:48. > :09:51.agreed on that analysis which Obama also shares. I think it seems there
:09:52. > :09:55.is something on the centre-left which crosses both sides of the
:09:56. > :10:04.Atlantic. Whether Miliband is as good at articulating that is Obama
:10:05. > :10:07.is not clear. The fact that the district did not change and they
:10:08. > :10:12.kept the same boundaries which will be tough for the Tories, it is a
:10:13. > :10:17.different ball game. The Conservatives should be doing much
:10:18. > :10:20.better in polls. But also look at the communication. I think Douglas
:10:21. > :10:25.Alexander is the best strategist in all of Britain and I do not think he
:10:26. > :10:28.gets credit for that. If Miliband cannot score points off this
:10:29. > :10:35.government's failure to communicate, when can he? It is interesting
:10:36. > :10:41.because the Obama team is working for both sides. It is split. Would
:10:42. > :10:45.you have taken this job if the money was good enough? It is not the money
:10:46. > :10:48.but the chance to work with Douglas Alexander is an incredible
:10:49. > :10:56.opportunity. In the end, you have to be responsive to the local cultures.
:10:57. > :11:01.You have to be careful you do not put politics first, you put policy
:11:02. > :11:04.and people's concerns. I am nervous that this will make it sound like
:11:05. > :11:11.Americans are for hire. It should not be that way. Do you think you
:11:12. > :11:15.could get Miliband elected? You spotted Cameron. I know I would do
:11:16. > :11:19.things differently. I would focus on the team, not just the individual. I
:11:20. > :11:26.would focus on promises made and where they kept. And RU better off
:11:27. > :11:29.today than you were four years ago? Because even though the numbers are
:11:30. > :11:33.good, people do not feel it. It is smart that they are focusing on the
:11:34. > :11:39.cost of living but they should call it the cost of life. I should say it
:11:40. > :11:44.is not just Americans coming over. We have Lynton Crosby working for
:11:45. > :11:48.the Conservatives and Ryan Coetzee from South Africa working for the
:11:49. > :11:54.Lib Dems. It is almost as if they have lost confidence in themselves
:11:55. > :11:58.and want endorsement from outside. I remember David Cameron saying you
:11:59. > :12:02.cannot drop democracy from 20,000 feet and there is a danger that you
:12:03. > :12:08.cannot drop election victory from 4000 miles. Each culture is very
:12:09. > :12:12.different. Each country has a different nuance and emotion and I'm
:12:13. > :12:17.sure you can understand that if you are not the country. The true story
:12:18. > :12:22.as it was the British political elite went to America in 1979 to
:12:23. > :12:28.teach one of Reagan how to win in 1980. The British taught Americans
:12:29. > :12:33.how to do politics. As far as Miliband is concerned, there is no
:12:34. > :12:37.other place. He does have an American obsession. It is
:12:38. > :12:42.fascinating. He went to live there with his father when his father got
:12:43. > :12:51.a job at Harvard when he was 12. It was emotionally performative time.
:12:52. > :12:55.He follows the red Sox. He loves the optimism of America and it is also
:12:56. > :13:01.about that time that he spent with his father. Is there a
:13:02. > :13:05.misunderstanding? The point about what Axelrod did for a Obama, as
:13:06. > :13:11.Laura said, he was a change candidate, he was hugely different,
:13:12. > :13:15.he was presidential. It is a completely different electoral
:13:16. > :13:19.offering that we have here. His analysis is you win from the
:13:20. > :13:24.centre. Miliband has decided the centre of gravity in British
:13:25. > :13:28.politics has shifted. That is a huge gamble for Miliband. I'm not sure
:13:29. > :13:33.that the voters have become more left wing. Certainly in the past,
:13:34. > :13:36.Axelrod's analysis has been that you do not win from the centre. That
:13:37. > :13:42.will be an interesting dynamic to watch. If he supports the Red Sox,
:13:43. > :13:48.there is no way he will be Prime Minister! In terms of the left and
:13:49. > :13:53.the centre, because you have four parties, it will be like snooker. It
:13:54. > :13:59.will be balls bouncing off each other. You are not going to be able
:14:00. > :14:04.to tell who is going to win. What is it that Axelrod will do that will
:14:05. > :14:08.set Miliband apart? The theme seems to be get out there, speak to the
:14:09. > :14:15.people but actually Miliband has been trying to do that. There has to
:14:16. > :14:22.be some kind of huge slick campaign. Fine macro I do not think
:14:23. > :14:26.they can necessarily do that with Miliband. It will be about the
:14:27. > :14:29.wealthiest have done the row well out of this recovery but the
:14:30. > :14:35.ordinary people, the squeezed middle have not. It is reinforcing that
:14:36. > :14:41.message which is there will be super rich versus the rest. Miliband has
:14:42. > :14:45.started on that and he has got to hope Axelrod can sharpen that
:14:46. > :14:50.message which appeals to people. There is an alternative message
:14:51. > :14:57.which is hard-working taxpayers. You can argue over whether you are
:14:58. > :15:00.middle-class or working class. Almost everyone defines themselves
:15:01. > :15:05.as a hard-working taxpayer. If Cameron focuses on that, that is the
:15:06. > :15:10.answer to this class -based politics. There will then be no
:15:11. > :15:16.cigarette paper in the way they will campaign. That requires Cameron to
:15:17. > :15:20.be laser focused on communicating the efficiency of government, the
:15:21. > :15:24.effectiveness of government, accountability of government, so
:15:25. > :15:28.they cannot run an anti-incumbent campaign. And secondly, if you shown
:15:29. > :15:32.to be fighting for hard-working taxpayers, and they have not done
:15:33. > :15:38.it. It is all about the West Wing and as Laura says, they are all
:15:39. > :15:46.salivating. But you wonder what kind of heartland Labour supporters will
:15:47. > :15:53.make of this? Last year the Labour team said let Bartlett be Bartlett
:15:54. > :15:58.talking about the West Wing. Miliband isn't Barlet or Barack
:15:59. > :16:04.Obama. The they are imposing their fantasy politics on a less glamorous
:16:05. > :16:08.reality. The idea of fantasy politics! Thank you very much. All
:16:09. > :16:14.this week, the maelstrom over an alleged takeover plot of Birmingham
:16:15. > :16:18.schools by Muslim hardliners has been intensifying. The decision by
:16:19. > :16:22.the Department of Education to appoint the former head of
:16:23. > :16:26.counter-terrorism to investigate the accusation affecting 25 schools did
:16:27. > :16:29.nothing to calm matters. It was described as "desperately
:16:30. > :16:33.unfortunate" by the Chief Constable of West Midland Police. Accusations
:16:34. > :16:38.over the segregation of girls and boys within classes, related visits
:16:39. > :16:44.to 15 schools by Ofsted, the supposed banning of sex education
:16:45. > :16:49.have all become part of the mix. We have been digging for clues in
:16:50. > :16:54.Birmingham. In the past few weeks a storm has grown around Birmingham
:16:55. > :16:59.schools and the so-called Trojan horse letter. The document, sent
:17:00. > :17:05.anonymously to figures across the city, claims to detail a plot by
:17:06. > :17:09.hard line Muslims to infiltrate Birmingham's state schools. Step
:17:10. > :17:15.one, identify the schools that are based in Muslim areas, to influence
:17:16. > :17:18.and take over. Step two, tell each parent that the school is corrupting
:17:19. > :17:22.their children. The local rumour mill assumes that it is a forgery
:17:23. > :17:28.and one that may have been cooked up to help one side in a local legal
:17:29. > :17:35.dispute. For some liberal Muslims said it shed light on a real issue.
:17:36. > :17:38.They worry that a small cliche has pressed auto conservative Muslim
:17:39. > :17:42.line into secular state schools. The authorities are now worried too.
:17:43. > :17:48.There are four separate investigations covering 25 of
:17:49. > :17:52.Birmingham's schools. The council, which has had 200 approaches from
:17:53. > :17:55.members of the parliament. The Department of Education asked Peter
:17:56. > :18:00.Clarke a counter-terrorism official to take a look. All of that focus
:18:01. > :18:04.and attention is going into a relatively small part of the city.
:18:05. > :18:10.Birmingham's Muslim population is compacted very tightly. It is a
:18:11. > :18:20.rather selling agree gaited city -- egg agree gait city -- segregation.
:18:21. > :18:25.This concentration means that Birmingham has a number of schools
:18:26. > :18:31.where Muslims make up almost the entire student body. Some worry that
:18:32. > :18:34.allows so-called Islamisation of secular schools. A teacher, at one
:18:35. > :18:38.of the schools at the centre of the investigation, spoke to Newsnight on
:18:39. > :18:43.the condition of anonymity. His voice has been disguised. I don't
:18:44. > :18:50.think will is a problem with teaching Arabic, or having haogical
:18:51. > :19:01.food. When there is an idea behind the thought ho cress to Islamise the
:19:02. > :19:06.schools, it's a problem. The local MP, Khalid Mahmood, is worried. It's
:19:07. > :19:17.an issue of people fitting into the wider society. If you take that away
:19:18. > :19:21.they will be less able to get on in wide society. Lots of the
:19:22. > :19:26.allegations are focussed on Park View, a comprehensive school.
:19:27. > :19:31.Academically, the school is a great success. Sources say that, for
:19:32. > :19:36.example, romance between pupils is severely punished. A socially
:19:37. > :19:43.conservative reading of Islam is said to underpin it. The Chair of
:19:44. > :19:49.Governors, named in the Trojan horse documents, said the school is
:19:50. > :19:58.mainstream and and it reflects the local area. We cater for the
:19:59. > :20:05.communities we serve. I don't apologise for any of that. Nobody is
:20:06. > :20:10.asking for any favours. We don't want any favours. This former Park
:20:11. > :20:16.View parent said the school gave his daughter the education she had
:20:17. > :20:22.wanted for her. This is majority Asian area and Somalis. Therefore,
:20:23. > :20:30.we would like, not anything special, but because this area is a social
:20:31. > :20:34.conservative area, you would expect some kind of values that would
:20:35. > :20:38.reflect the overall majority. The issues in Birmingham are
:20:39. > :20:42.crystallising a problem that has been discussed widely in government
:20:43. > :20:45.for several years. That is, how much should we worry about extremism if
:20:46. > :20:49.it's not violent? There are some people in government, like Michael
:20:50. > :20:54.Gove, the Education Secretary, who think that religious conservatism,
:20:55. > :21:00.if it's extreme enough, is dangerous because it can be the ideology for
:21:01. > :21:06.terrorism. There is resistance to that view. I'm not going to accept
:21:07. > :21:10.that the pressures from the Muslim community in Birmingham to respect
:21:11. > :21:14.Islam within the school is going to lead to terrorism. I think that is
:21:15. > :21:19.stretching this argument far too far. This dispute has now spilled
:21:20. > :21:23.over into concern at the choice of this former terrorism official to
:21:24. > :21:27.investigate what people in the ground think of as an argument about
:21:28. > :21:33.religious conservatism. Peter Clarke is a former Head at Scotland Yard of
:21:34. > :21:37.counter-terrorism. We are dealing with allegations here. We are not
:21:38. > :21:41.dealing with Al-Qaeda, who had a number of issues in the city before,
:21:42. > :21:46.and there has been some mistrust, this will add to it. I don't think
:21:47. > :21:51.it's sensible. There are worries among moderate Muslims in Birmingham
:21:52. > :21:55.about whether some conservatism may have shaded into extremism. We have
:21:56. > :22:01.new evidence that their concerns have existed for a number of years.
:22:02. > :22:04.And, have been known to officials. Newsnight has seen documents which
:22:05. > :22:10.show the police were notified about two figures at Park View School in
:22:11. > :22:15.2010 suspected of spreading radical ideas. No action was taken, but last
:22:16. > :22:19.year the Department for Education declined to allow Park View to open
:22:20. > :22:24.a new school, in part because of fears about extremism. The events in
:22:25. > :22:28.Birmingham raise big questions about what role religion should play in
:22:29. > :22:39.the education system. And about when it is that devotion become a worry.
:22:40. > :22:43.View Educational Trust deny there have been instances of extremism at
:22:44. > :22:46.the school. They say if they were aware of any allegations about such
:22:47. > :22:51.behaviour they would have investigated it. The agreement over
:22:52. > :22:56.Ukraine, that was thrashed out today in Geneva by diplomats from the US,
:22:57. > :23:00.EU, Russia and Ukraine, to reduce the unrest on the ground, called for
:23:01. > :23:05.all sides to refrain from violence and provocation, the disarming of
:23:06. > :23:09.all illegally armed groups and for the control of buildings seized by
:23:10. > :23:14.pro-Russian separatists to be handed back to the authorities. The
:23:15. > :23:17.response from Donetsk in the east of of Ukraine was immediate.
:23:18. > :23:20.Separatists occupying a local government building said they would
:23:21. > :23:25.not leave until supporters of Ukraine's new government quit their
:23:26. > :23:29.Maidan Square in Kiev. So has today's Geneva deal removed the
:23:30. > :23:33.threat of more sanctions against Russia and increased the chance of
:23:34. > :23:37.the planned elections taking place next month. I'm joined by Mark
:23:38. > :23:41.Urban. Was it a breakthrough? It's important and progress. Up until
:23:42. > :23:45.today, there was a real prospect that elections, due on the 25th May,
:23:46. > :23:49.to give that country an elected government, an elected President,
:23:50. > :23:54.were going to be disrupted by this trouble in the east. That the people
:23:55. > :23:59.there would press their demands for federalism or a special deal for
:24:00. > :24:03.Russian-speakers within Ukraine, by doing that, stop a national election
:24:04. > :24:08.happening. Now, all of these things, which you mentioned in the inrow,
:24:09. > :24:11.are now supposed to happen to de-escalate the crisis. Get people
:24:12. > :24:17.out of the government buildings, all the rest of it. Sergei Lavrov, the
:24:18. > :24:23.Russian Foreign Minister, hied that Russia exists that addressing those
:24:24. > :24:27.grievances will only happen after that 25th May election. That is a
:24:28. > :24:35.very important point. Earlier today I spoke by Skype to the US
:24:36. > :24:39.Ambassador in Kiev to ask how it might go from here. The
:24:40. > :24:44.constitutional commission, formed by RADA, will offer recommendations by
:24:45. > :24:48.the 15th May. There will be further consultation with Ukraine's
:24:49. > :24:52.Constitutional Court, changes to the constitution require separate
:24:53. > :24:56.readingses in two separate sessions of the RADA. You are looking, as you
:24:57. > :25:00.say, a process of several months to make these changes to Ukraine's
:25:01. > :25:04.fundamental document. In the meantime, Ukraine has functioning
:25:05. > :25:08.democratic institutions. Our belief is those institutions need to be
:25:09. > :25:13.allowed to function. That means the Presidential elections on the 25th
:25:14. > :25:19.should go-ahead. But, should we read this as a back down by Russia? Well,
:25:20. > :25:23.there is definitely been more diplomatic language - From Lavrov
:25:24. > :25:27.You can say some of the interpretations, the armed groups,
:25:28. > :25:34.do those armed groups include the new National Guard, formed by Maidan
:25:35. > :25:37.supporters to act as the strong arm of the interim government. Should
:25:38. > :25:41.they be disbanded. Russia could press that point. Critically, many
:25:42. > :25:47.countries have said to the Russians, if you want to de-escalate this, you
:25:48. > :25:52.have 40,000 troops on the borders of Ukraine, rescind the permission
:25:53. > :25:56.given to you by the Upper House of the Russian Parliament to go in and
:25:57. > :25:59.use those troops in the Ukraine if you want to calm this situation.
:26:00. > :26:02.This morning, in Moscow, Vladimir Putin, when asked about it,
:26:03. > :26:09.specifically wouldn't give such a guarantee.
:26:10. > :26:12.TRANSLATION: I would remind you that the Federation Council of Russia has
:26:13. > :26:17.given the President the right to deploy armed forces in Ukraine. I
:26:18. > :26:22.very much hope I will not have to examiner countries that right. I
:26:23. > :26:26.hope the the acute problems affecting Ukraine can be resolved by
:26:27. > :26:33.political and diplomatic methods. How much has Russia been (inaudible)
:26:34. > :26:39.with the idea they are facing an appalling economic response from the
:26:40. > :26:44.West Well, the fascinating thing in this crisis, different methods being
:26:45. > :26:47.used by the two sides, just as President Putin signalled there that
:26:48. > :26:52.he will keep his hand, if you like, on the hilt Or the handle of his
:26:53. > :26:59.sword, his army on the borders of Ukraine to ensure an outcome that he
:27:00. > :27:08.wants, so the US today explicitly signalled that its financial weapon
:27:09. > :27:12.is not being (inaudible) either. John Kerry explicitly said this
:27:13. > :27:19.afternoon in Geneva, if we don't get what we want over the weekend,
:27:20. > :27:21.progress to de-escalate to come out of the occupy government buildings
:27:22. > :27:26.we will use further sanctions. If you look at the Russian economy in
:27:27. > :27:30.the past few weeks. It has been suffering. People pricing in some of
:27:31. > :27:35.the things they think might happen. T stobgck market tumbling by 10%.
:27:36. > :27:40.Capital flight from Russia since the crisis started. Some people say $70
:27:41. > :27:46.billion. The key thing, it appears, that the Russians fear is US Tressy
:27:47. > :27:49.Department blacklisting of some of their financial institutions, the
:27:50. > :27:53.Red Letter approach, which has been used against Iran, that could
:27:54. > :27:57.absolutely freeze up the movement of capital and cause them serious
:27:58. > :28:01.damage. That is the balance now between the US and Russia. As they
:28:02. > :28:07.wait for this to play out in Ukraine. Mark, thank you very much.
:28:08. > :28:12.The UKIP leader, Nigel Farage's, role as chief scourge of the EU in
:28:13. > :28:15.Europe is being challenged by the French Front Nationale leader,
:28:16. > :28:19.Marine Le Pen. Such are her party's opinion poll ratings ahead of the
:28:20. > :28:24.European Parliamentary elections, she might just be about to become a
:28:25. > :28:27.lot more powerful. Pollwatch 2014, based on opinion polls across
:28:28. > :28:31.Europe, suggest she is on target to form part of a far-right bloc in the
:28:32. > :28:35.parliament and so, for the first time, be entitled to a share of
:28:36. > :28:40.public funds. At the same time, her bloc would be a challenge to UKIP's
:28:41. > :28:43.right-wing Europe f free Europe of Freedom and Democracy bloc. Laura
:28:44. > :28:48.Kuenssberg travelled to Strasbourg to interview Marine Le Pen. She
:28:49. > :29:21.asked her, how her party could reach beyond the protest vote.
:29:22. > :29:27.That united front of refusal in the UK, Nigel Farage is part of what you
:29:28. > :29:39.describe as that, isn't he? You see him as part of your
:29:40. > :31:10.movement? Perhaps politicians in the UK are
:31:11. > :31:14.simply put off by your views? You say you would ban pork free meals
:31:15. > :31:18.for Muslim children in the towns you control. One of your allies in
:31:19. > :31:22.Holland said he would take care of the number of Moroccans in one town.
:31:23. > :31:24.Maybe British politicians do not want to have anything to do with you
:31:25. > :31:42.because of the views you hold. You said yourself it makes sense for
:31:43. > :31:46.you and Nigel Farage to work together in a strategic way because
:31:47. > :31:49.you have a lot of things in common but he does not want anything to do
:31:50. > :32:21.with you because of your views? But isn't it the case that some of
:32:22. > :32:25.the views you have put forward understandably do not appeal to
:32:26. > :32:29.British politicians because they can be at worst offensive and at best
:32:30. > :32:31.prejudiced? You said Muslims in France were almost like having the
:32:32. > :32:44.Nazi occupation. That is what you said. You said it
:32:45. > :33:56.was like an occupation. And there is nothing offensive
:33:57. > :34:02.towards European Muslims in your view about saying those kind of
:34:03. > :34:04.things, that it is against the identity of France or somehow
:34:05. > :34:32.unacceptable for Muslims to be praying in public places?
:34:33. > :34:35.Is your invitation to Nigel Farage to be part of your campaign still
:34:36. > :34:52.open? Would you hope to work with him in
:34:53. > :35:22.future? WorldCom in a statement to
:35:23. > :35:28.Newsnight, UKIP said they were not interested in any deal with Marine
:35:29. > :35:33.Le Pen and her party because of anti-Semitism in her party. Tonight
:35:34. > :35:40.we learned of the death of one of the greatest 20th-century authors,
:35:41. > :35:42.Gabriel Garcia Marquis, whose novel One Hundred Years Of Solitude was a
:35:43. > :35:49.literary masterpiece. He was 87 and had been ill for some
:35:50. > :35:53.time with pneumonia. His writing transformed Colombian literature and
:35:54. > :35:57.his use of magical realism inspired other writers to explore those
:35:58. > :36:02.worlds. Here is a look back at his life. Until tonight, he was perhaps
:36:03. > :36:08.the greatest living novelist, the most notable literary voice and
:36:09. > :36:12.spokesman of his continent, Latin America and the godfather of a
:36:13. > :36:18.style, magic realism. Gabriel Garcia Marquis was born 87
:36:19. > :36:23.years ago and raised in a dirt poor banana growing town in a lonely
:36:24. > :36:29.corner of Columbia, that beautiful but often benighted country. The
:36:30. > :36:33.family built its definitive shelter, a linear house with eight successive
:36:34. > :36:37.rooms along the hallway with an alcove filled with begonias where
:36:38. > :36:41.the women and family would sit to embroider on frames and talk in the
:36:42. > :36:44.cool of the evening. The rooms were simple and did not differ from one
:36:45. > :36:52.another, but a single glance was enough for me to know that in each
:36:53. > :36:57.of their countless details, they had a crucial moment of my life. The
:36:58. > :37:00.landscape and people of his childhood furnished his fiction,
:37:01. > :37:06.including perhaps his most widely read book, One Hundred Years Of
:37:07. > :37:10.Solitude. It sold 20 million copies and was translated into 30
:37:11. > :37:15.languages. I invent nothing, he protested. People always praise my
:37:16. > :37:22.imagination but I believe I am a terrible realist. Everything I
:37:23. > :37:26.invent was already there. This was his answer to the charge,
:37:27. > :37:32.if it was a charge, that he wrote magical realism. In fact, he trained
:37:33. > :37:37.as a reporter and alongside his novels was a shelf of great
:37:38. > :37:41.nonfiction, documenting his country's problem with kidnapping,
:37:42. > :37:47.for example. He was that rare writer, one who fully deserved his
:37:48. > :37:53.Nobel prize, awarded more than 30 years ago now. Nor did it become a
:37:54. > :37:57.premature headstone on his career. He continued to publish, to travel
:37:58. > :38:06.and interest himself in the politics of his hemisphere. He was confident
:38:07. > :38:10.of Fidel Castro of Cuba. Some thought a strong man in a novel was
:38:11. > :38:17.based on the leader in Havana. The writer was variously compared to
:38:18. > :38:26.Cervantes, Mark Twain and Dickens. He was known to his adoring fellow
:38:27. > :38:38.Colombians as Gabo. Joining me now in the studio are the writer a R
:38:39. > :38:40.Kennedy and from Scotland's Ian McEwan.
:38:41. > :38:48.What was so enriching about his stories? A translucent quality about
:38:49. > :38:55.the prose itself, an extraordinary experiment with time, driving Miss
:38:56. > :39:03.and fiction with one other unknown and unusual element. He really was a
:39:04. > :39:10.one-off and one would have to go back to Dickens to find a writer of
:39:11. > :39:13.the very highest literary quality who commanded such extraordinary
:39:14. > :39:20.persuasive powers over whole populations. It really is an
:39:21. > :39:24.extraordinary phenomenon, his literary career. You heard him say
:39:25. > :39:31.that he is a realist and he has been putting this idea that he was not
:39:32. > :39:35.about magic realism but wasn't it about the stories that his
:39:36. > :39:39.grandparents told him that he remembered and if used his whole
:39:40. > :39:47.idea of what fiction would be about? -- ends used his whole idea.
:39:48. > :40:03.People rightly remember One Hundred Years Of Solitude but Love In The
:40:04. > :40:06.Time Of Cholera was one of the best. This unknown Colombian town, the
:40:07. > :40:16.heat, the corruption, the Swamp Younis of it all is named in the way
:40:17. > :40:20.that is important. This runs against the current of the magical but still
:40:21. > :40:25.it is there that magical element and that is what makes him so
:40:26. > :40:28.extraordinary. I thought it was amazing that it was only recently he
:40:29. > :40:34.decided he would write his memoirs and he was going to take his time.
:40:35. > :40:39.First one volume and then a long time before the second volume came.
:40:40. > :40:45.This idea that he was denying that he was ever going to start writing.
:40:46. > :40:49.There was a sad quality to this because he had a neurodegenerative
:40:50. > :40:53.disease. He was making pronouncements about how he would
:40:54. > :40:58.never stop writing but in fact he had. There was an element of tragedy
:40:59. > :41:05.that we will all come to, I guess, at some point or other for
:41:06. > :41:10.ourselves. Ian, thank you for now. Ian talks about Love In The Time Of
:41:11. > :41:17.Cholera being his favourite. But One Hundred Years Of Solitude was
:41:18. > :41:31.translated into 30 languages and a bestseller, or what was it about
:41:32. > :41:37.that book? It comes from a whole set of beliefs, if you write something
:41:38. > :41:42.true enough and full enough, it has the capacity to change the world. If
:41:43. > :41:48.you set out on that premise, it will. You have these incredible
:41:49. > :41:51.swathes of time that you will accomplish and take on all kinds of
:41:52. > :41:56.technical challenges because you believe you can do it and because it
:41:57. > :42:01.is worthwhile and you have a definite aim insight. There is a
:42:02. > :42:06.huge beautiful confidence. When I read him as a student I was not
:42:07. > :42:09.thinking of writing and he literally blew my mind because you can do
:42:10. > :42:14.anything, your mind can do anything. Within reality, there is a
:42:15. > :42:23.reality which is magic. If you dream you kiss your boss and you see him
:42:24. > :42:29.in the morning, you look at him differently. That is real. It is a
:42:30. > :42:40.different book in Spanish than it would be in other languages. The
:42:41. > :42:45.child with the kick's tale in One Hundred Years Of Solitude, in
:42:46. > :42:50.Colombia you can take that as a given. Not necessarily because that
:42:51. > :42:53.has happened but because the folkloric is part of your
:42:54. > :42:58.experience. In the world we live in today, the folkloric is not
:42:59. > :43:02.celebrated in the way it was. In South America and other countries
:43:03. > :43:09.the folkloric was incredibly important. If you look at his
:43:10. > :43:13.influence it is difficult to trace. If you imagine his influence more
:43:14. > :43:27.tangible tea, you might think Sam and Rushdie -- Salman Rushdie,
:43:28. > :43:34.Midnight's Children. The permission to tell a story in that way. It is
:43:35. > :43:40.the permission to make something out of absolutely nothing. We have this
:43:41. > :43:45.special voice where we say folkloric. These are stories which
:43:46. > :43:50.have stood the test of time for centuries. There are extraordinary
:43:51. > :43:56.good. It is not just that I will make up some fan fiction and then
:43:57. > :44:02.turn someone into a parrot. You have to explain so much more and those
:44:03. > :44:05.guys go for it. Ian McEwan, you talked earlier about Dickens but
:44:06. > :44:11.where would you put him in the pantheon of writers? Right at the
:44:12. > :44:17.top. Talking of his influence, I think he had a massive effect, not
:44:18. > :44:22.only of Angela Carter and Salman Rushdie in say the British literary
:44:23. > :44:26.scene, but I think he loosened asked up in our little corner of
:44:27. > :44:32.north-western Europe. All kinds of writers who you would not associate
:44:33. > :44:37.with magical realism, suddenly were able to break free of a kind of
:44:38. > :44:46.literary inhibitions into thinking for themselves and how they might
:44:47. > :44:54.experiment with time and space and fiction. I would place him right up
:44:55. > :44:59.there in the best Parnassus, almost of a Shakespearean quality. And the
:45:00. > :45:07.other side of his life, the opposition to Pinochet, the row but
:45:08. > :45:13.went on for years and years and years. He was capable of very
:45:14. > :45:21.obstinate principled behaviour, wasn't he?
:45:22. > :45:27.He was. I was there three or four years ago having dinner and talking
:45:28. > :45:31.about that great rupture. In fact, behind it I think there was great
:45:32. > :45:37.fondness and great mutual admiration. This was really the
:45:38. > :45:43.battle of giants. He was often cast, I think, unfairly in the context of
:45:44. > :45:50.Latin and American literature as an extreme right-winger. This simply
:45:51. > :45:53.wasn't the case. He had strict (inaudible) against Castro. Many
:45:54. > :45:58.which were true. There were writers and journalists in prison in Cuba.
:45:59. > :46:09.He dared say so. I think there was a kind of... A rather (inaudible)
:46:10. > :46:13.quality to this discord. Now I think the death will settle this. Thank
:46:14. > :46:18.you very much. There are a few more beautiful sounds in the song of the
:46:19. > :46:22.Nightingale. The nightingale is in decline. There is a petition to
:46:23. > :46:28.bring the nightingale back, to the BBC airwaves. On midnight on 818th
:46:29. > :46:35.May 1924 a million people tuned into BBC Radio to hear the first ever
:46:36. > :46:44.loud outside broadcast, a nightingale in full song accompanied
:46:45. > :46:53.by a chelist. We thought you might like to hear it right now tonight.
:46:54. > :47:30.-- cellist Beatrice Harrison. The second-half of the weekend sees
:47:31. > :47:36.more unsettled weather, rain around as well. We start in Good Friday on
:47:37. > :47:37.a chilly note. A beautiful sparkling blue sky sort