:00:09. > :00:14.mass kidnapping of hundreds of girls in nigh gearia, they are still in
:00:15. > :00:21.the hands of their crazed abductors, they been rescued and
:00:22. > :00:24.what hope so long after the crime If we remain silent this will spread
:00:25. > :00:29.and happen more and more and more, if you want to stop it, then we have
:00:30. > :00:35.to speak. I will be talking to the Nigerian Interior Minister. We take
:00:36. > :00:45.rare look at life in a vertical slum in down town Caracas. Irving Welsh,
:00:46. > :00:55.author of Trainspotting, tackles body image and the sex lives of
:00:56. > :00:59.Siamese twins and other things. Before all that and first tonight we
:01:00. > :01:03.don't seem to be much closer to a resolution of the promised or
:01:04. > :01:06.threatened takeover that British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca,
:01:07. > :01:13.by the massive American firm, Pfizer. Having previously said that
:01:14. > :01:18.the fact that Pfizer wants to spend $100 billion or so in the biggest
:01:19. > :01:20.takeover of our history was a vote of confidence in Britain, today the
:01:21. > :01:24.Prime Minister said he wanted more assurances on jobs and investment to
:01:25. > :01:28.decide if it was in the national interest.
:01:29. > :01:31.Meanwhile Ed Miliband accused Mr Cameron of cheerleading for the bid.
:01:32. > :01:36.We have been looking at what options the parties have. So what have you
:01:37. > :01:41.found out? It is pretty complicated. The reason it is capturing so much
:01:42. > :01:44.attention is it is about big sums of money and big politics. The size of
:01:45. > :01:50.the potential deal is really staggering. They have offered ?63
:01:51. > :01:53.billion, that is about a tenth of everything that the British
:01:54. > :01:55.Government spent last year. Now the American Viagra
:01:56. > :01:56.Government spent last year. Now the its hand on the British company,
:01:57. > :02:01.which we its hand on the British company,
:02:02. > :02:03.more than 40% of AstraZeneca's shareholders are American. Because
:02:04. > :02:13.they want their British knowledge, shareholders are American. Because
:02:14. > :02:19.couple of days ago David Cameron seemed
:02:20. > :02:22.couple of days ago David Cameron company and had robust assurances
:02:23. > :02:22.couple of days ago David Cameron development and jobs in this
:02:23. > :02:25.country. development and jobs in this
:02:26. > :02:30.Questions a bit earlier today, he seemed to have at least tweaked his
:02:31. > :02:34.tune. Let me be absolutely clear, I'm not satisfied, I want more, but
:02:35. > :02:40.the way to get more is to engage, not to stand up and play party
:02:41. > :02:49.politics. Well he set lots of hears running with that. What did he mean
:02:50. > :02:52.by "More", that has led to lots of conversations in white happen. One
:02:53. > :02:57.official put it to me that they are trying to work out what they have in
:02:58. > :03:01.the cupboard that would make Pfizer's promises be binding. That
:03:02. > :03:05.is a difficult question to answer. Getting some sort of guarantee that
:03:06. > :03:11.meant something, unlike previous guarantees in takeovers? Indeed. And
:03:12. > :03:15.the haunting memory here is the deal when Kraft took over Cadburys, and
:03:16. > :03:19.made a whole load of promises to the Labour Government, and within days
:03:20. > :03:22.they tore up. What is being considered by officials is there a
:03:23. > :03:27.way where they can make these promises binding. Can they crank out
:03:28. > :03:32.a promise where five-year assurances on a piece of paper about jobs and
:03:33. > :03:36.research and development expand to ten-years, one suggestion has been
:03:37. > :03:39.put forward by our Conservative MP of a kind of contract between the
:03:40. > :03:42.company and the UK Government, where Pfizer would have to pay a fine if
:03:43. > :03:48.they broke those assurances. But there is no doubt it is extremely
:03:49. > :03:51.tricky for the Government, and one source at the company suggested to
:03:52. > :03:55.me, before an actual deal is on the table, they are very reluctant to
:03:56. > :04:01.make any more promises. It is interesting, what sanction would a
:04:02. > :04:04.Government have if Pfizer gave these undertakings and then simply ignored
:04:05. > :04:07.them? That is exactly the solution the Government is having so much
:04:08. > :04:11.difficulty in coming up with. Are they going to nationalise it? Unless
:04:12. > :04:15.they change the law it is difficult to see how they could come up with
:04:16. > :04:17.anything at all. This is where it gets so interesting a year out from
:04:18. > :04:21.a general election campaign. Labour is doing everything in its power to
:04:22. > :04:25.put pressure on the Government to spell out how they could do
:04:26. > :04:29.something that would have some kind of force? That's why Ed Miliband
:04:30. > :04:33.raised it again at Prime Minister's Questions today. That's why there is
:04:34. > :04:37.a possibility further down the track, and no more than that, but a
:04:38. > :04:40.possibility further down the track that Labour might try to force a
:04:41. > :04:43.vote on this issue to try to sink the deal. But the Government is
:04:44. > :04:46.really in quite a bind. They don't want to be seen to be pushing
:04:47. > :04:50.against foreign investment, that sounds healthy, that sounds like a
:04:51. > :04:54.good idea. Not protecting jobs, but at the same time they do not want to
:04:55. > :04:59.be accused of letting one of our industries go. There is a deadline
:05:00. > :05:03.on all this too. May 26th, the company has to make its mind up by
:05:04. > :05:07.then. If you are looking for a working
:05:08. > :05:12.example of a country in chaos you can't do much better than Venezuela.
:05:13. > :05:17.The country's unusual President, maker of interminable speeches and
:05:18. > :05:22.scourge of imperialists worldwide, Hugo Chavez has been dead for a
:05:23. > :05:27.year. In that time the country has been engulfed by runaway inflation,
:05:28. > :05:32.gun crime, food and housing shortages. This crisis was
:05:33. > :05:39.exsemplified by one building from down town Caracus, familiar to those
:05:40. > :05:43.fans of Homeland, it is a skyscraper that was a no-go zone two months
:05:44. > :05:46.ago, now home to thousands of squatters who have taken matters
:05:47. > :05:50.into their own hands. They police it, renovate its rooms and plum it
:05:51. > :05:55.into the country's electricity and water, and all for peppercorn rent.
:05:56. > :06:00.We have been to the tour and met three of the residents. The elected
:06:01. > :06:07.President of the Tower co-operative, and Miriam, a shopkeeper on the 22nd
:06:08. > :20:47.floor, and a young mum with five children.
:20:48. > :20:53.Now a year today, May seventh 2015 we shall be choosing a new
:20:54. > :21:03.Government. A huge amount can happen in that time. So the outcome is
:21:04. > :21:07.unpredictable, so too is much of the campaign. So much to come, European
:21:08. > :21:11.elections a Scottish referendum and in all likelihood the end of the
:21:12. > :21:18.coalition to mention a few. As we report, all parties have to adjust
:21:19. > :21:24.to some uncomfortable facts. Four years ago at the derelict and
:21:25. > :21:26.half abandoned site of the Battersea Power Station, David Cameron invited
:21:27. > :21:35.us to join the Government of Great Britain. Now the wasteland of 30
:21:36. > :21:39.years being transformed into prime, Riverside real estate. What is
:21:40. > :21:46.happening here is a microcosm of the different ways the electoral map is
:21:47. > :21:51.shifting. The cabbies say a few years ago we wouldn't have dropped
:21:52. > :21:58.you this south of the river. The heart has gone out of Battersea now.
:21:59. > :22:04.The property is so expensive now. Battersea, where David Cameron
:22:05. > :22:09.launched his last election campaign. The MPs that were new in 2010 have
:22:10. > :22:16.bedded in a bit now, but it is also to do with the development, the
:22:17. > :22:21.gentrification and the money coming in here. It has changed the resident
:22:22. > :22:26.vote. In 2010 a Tory won a majority vote. In 2010 a Tory won a majority
:22:27. > :22:31.here, as vote. In 2010 a Tory won a majority
:22:32. > :22:34.booming constituency she stands to gain. Does it feel because the
:22:35. > :22:37.regeneration and the money coming into bat sea now that there is a
:22:38. > :22:42.more natural story voter? into bat sea now that there is a
:22:43. > :22:46.to represent everyone and I focus on that. But there
:22:47. > :22:47.to represent everyone and I focus on there now? I want everyone to vote
:22:48. > :22:50.Conservative because I want them to see what we are doing for the
:22:51. > :22:53.country. One of my big jobs as a member of parliament is to make sure
:22:54. > :22:57.that the investment, things like the tube coming to Battersea, to make
:22:58. > :23:00.sure that all local communities can benefit from that. Newish MPs also
:23:01. > :23:11.feel the benefit of what they call in America the "sophmor surge", more
:23:12. > :23:14.solid majorities. The Conservatives have more of these MPs in marginal
:23:15. > :23:19.seats. It means places like Battersea, Harlow and Ealing are
:23:20. > :23:23.looking more solidly Tory. That is only part of the story, it is a
:23:24. > :23:28.complex picture 12 months away. This is the story of Nick Clegg... . The
:23:29. > :23:33.general election is a year today, a milestone marked by Labour with the
:23:34. > :23:41.launch of a party broadcast. First on the agenda tuition fees... .
:23:42. > :23:45.Class war and Clegg bashing. Labour are just ahead in the polls, but
:23:46. > :23:48.their leader so far seems to have failed to capture the public
:23:49. > :23:51.imagination. His personal ratings are less than half those held by
:23:52. > :23:55.David Cameron at the same time in the last electoral cycle. But duck
:23:56. > :23:58.beneath the surface and you appreciate how little the generic
:23:59. > :24:02.national picture has to do with the way elections are won in this
:24:03. > :24:07.country. The fact of the matter is that there isn't any simple or easy
:24:08. > :24:09.or even fair translation of votes, how many people vote in the country
:24:10. > :24:15.for a particular party and who gets to form a majority in the House of
:24:16. > :24:19.Commons. So particularly for the Conservatives, there are many, many
:24:20. > :24:24.scenarios where they get as many votes as Labour, or just slightly
:24:25. > :24:29.fewer and massively fewer seats. In 2005, Tony Blair won 36% of the
:24:30. > :24:37.vote, 355 seats in the Commons, a majority of 64. In 2010 David
:24:38. > :24:42.Cameron won 37% of the vote, but got 306 seats or 20 seats short of a
:24:43. > :24:47.majority. This time round, if both Labour and the Conservatives get 33%
:24:48. > :24:54.share of the vote, Labour would get 304 seats, the Conservatives would
:24:55. > :24:58.get just 259. There is a massive electoral bias in favour of the
:24:59. > :25:02.Labour Party. I'm not making predictions in terms of vote share,
:25:03. > :25:05.I'm working for victory. I'm just asking you about the electoral bias,
:25:06. > :25:08.do you recognise that? Listen, we're going to have to work in seats
:25:09. > :25:15.across the country if we want to secure a majority. We had the worst
:25:16. > :25:19.result bar one for 60 years in 2010, we came in with only 29% of the
:25:20. > :25:22.vote. There is not a shred of complacency within Labour's ranks,
:25:23. > :25:25.we have to work and to earn the majority Labour Government that I
:25:26. > :25:30.believe we can achieve. Then, of course, the four-letter
:25:31. > :25:32.word you will rarely hear David Cameron utter, UKIP is the unknown
:25:33. > :25:37.factor riding high now, new Cameron utter, UKIP is the unknown
:25:38. > :25:42.candidates given the paparazzi treatment. Will they be is a force
:25:43. > :25:48.12 months down the line, and don't forget the Scottish either, tweaks
:25:49. > :25:52.to the electoral map one thing, but there is another option. All bets
:25:53. > :25:57.are off if Scotland is independent. 2015 will be an odd sort sort of
:25:58. > :26:01.election, and here is why, only twice has a Government increased
:26:02. > :26:04.their share of the vote after two years in office, it doesn't bode
:26:05. > :26:08.well for the Tories. Only three-times has an opposition party
:26:09. > :26:14.come back after just one parliament out of office. That doesn't bode
:26:15. > :26:18.well for Labour. Add to that we have never had two successive hung
:26:19. > :26:23.parliaments and you are really left scratching your head. Nothing will
:26:24. > :26:27.be decided until next May, of course, but a mere 365 days is
:26:28. > :26:31.nothing to the Newsnight political panel who are willing to predict the
:26:32. > :26:42.outcome of the 100 years war as early as 1337. Here they are, Tory
:26:43. > :26:50.Lord fringele Finkelstein, and the man yet to feel the touch of Ermine
:26:51. > :26:56.John McTernan. Just a question of time and loyalty! Is it common
:26:57. > :26:59.ground that whatever happens, whichever party wins the next
:27:00. > :27:03.election it is the end of the road for two other party leaders in the
:27:04. > :27:08.main parties? It is difficult to be sure of that but it is likely. The
:27:09. > :27:11.one about who is most difficult to be sure is Nick Clegg. Partly
:27:12. > :27:15.because the party is very much behind his strategy. If David
:27:16. > :27:18.Cameron lost I think there would be quite a lot of people in the
:27:19. > :27:21.Conservative Party who thought it was the end of the road for
:27:22. > :27:26.modernising, that would certainly be the case for Ed Miliband. Oddly
:27:27. > :27:29.enough, given how far behind the Liberal Democrats are in the polls
:27:30. > :27:32.it might not be the case for Nick Clegg, but he might feel it was the
:27:33. > :27:38.end of the road for him. What do you think for the personal prospects of
:27:39. > :27:42.each leader? Personal prospects of each leader, obviously if there is a
:27:43. > :27:46.general election and kind of the critical win doesn't come, that is a
:27:47. > :27:49.big one for either Ed Miliband or for dam I don't know. But I -- David
:27:50. > :27:54.Cameron. But I think it is right about Nick Clegg, which is that if
:27:55. > :27:58.there is only 1% in it, if there is a lack of clarity about the outcome
:27:59. > :28:02.and the result, the critical success factor is, do you get your party
:28:03. > :28:06.into Government? Now for all the stuff that's chucked at Nick Clegg
:28:07. > :28:12.he has been success envelope that respect. You might also lose so many
:28:13. > :28:17.seats. It is not satirical, but you don't have anybody else. That is a
:28:18. > :28:23.possibility. That is possible. John, your party is in a very interesting
:28:24. > :28:28.position isn't it, where the greatest disadvantages it has are
:28:29. > :28:34.the state of the economy and the Tories appeal, doubtless, not to
:28:35. > :28:38.risk it, but it is improving, and secondly the fact is it has an
:28:39. > :28:44.unattractive leader? I think in the end the thing that Labour has got in
:28:45. > :28:49.the bag at the moment is nearly three years of a consistent poll
:28:50. > :28:55.lead and in parliament pushing through issues which do have a
:28:56. > :28:59.resonance. The issue on new proposals on rents, or issues on
:29:00. > :29:04.energy prices, or a whole range of issues. Ed Miliband is making
:29:05. > :29:09.connection issues with people and actually there is a sellable thing
:29:10. > :29:13.for the doorstep. The party isn't as far ahead as other parties have been
:29:14. > :29:17.at this point in the electoral cycle. That point was made on the
:29:18. > :29:20.package. This is unchartered territory for us, a peacetime
:29:21. > :29:24.coalition, everything is different. I don't think Labour has got much to
:29:25. > :29:28.fear at the moment for the next period. Labour's big hope is we are
:29:29. > :29:34.seeing a big realignment in which the left reunites and the right
:29:35. > :29:37.splits. I think that is right. It was very interesting watching the
:29:38. > :29:41.party political broadcast, I thought it was a complete insult to the
:29:42. > :29:45.intelligence, it wasn't aimed at me, but at base voters and persuading
:29:46. > :29:50.Liberal Democrats to vote Labour. It was saying we are not going to win
:29:51. > :29:53.swing Tory voters, we can afford to be pretty insulting about everyone
:29:54. > :29:57.who voted Conservative and everyone who is a Conservative because we
:29:58. > :30:01.don't need them. That is a bold strategy, let's put it that way. It
:30:02. > :30:07.was Margaret Thatcher persuading centre ground voters and it was Tony
:30:08. > :30:12.Blair persuading centre ground voters that secured their victory.
:30:13. > :30:19.This seems to be possibly insulting quite a lot of people that are
:30:20. > :30:27.beyond the core Labour vote. Margaret Thatcher would not be doing
:30:28. > :30:32.with UKIP what David Cameron is doing with UKIP. Margaret Thatcher
:30:33. > :30:35.looked at, people tended to vote for the National Front in the 1970s, she
:30:36. > :30:40.said I understand your issues but you have to vote Tory. She brought
:30:41. > :30:44.them into her party. David Cameron faces a split on the right with
:30:45. > :30:48.UKIP, every time he is under pressure from UKIP he moves further
:30:49. > :30:54.to the right. There is a strange position where the centre ground is
:30:55. > :30:57.being vacated and all the elections are winning the centre. And the
:30:58. > :31:00.Liberal Democrats have become a centre right party, three parties
:31:01. > :31:04.are righting for the right-wing vote, UKIP, the Tories and the
:31:05. > :31:09.Liberal Democrats, and only party is fighting for the centre left vote.
:31:10. > :31:13.It is a very different kind of politics. I don't think that the
:31:14. > :31:16.election will be fought on an ideolgical spectrum, it will be
:31:17. > :31:19.fought on the economy. By the way if I was advising Ed Miliband I would
:31:20. > :31:25.advise him to change the subject. Almost all the evidence from the
:31:26. > :31:27.United States is, if you are behind terms of the realities on the ground
:31:28. > :31:32.in economics don't fight on economics. So I think he's making
:31:33. > :31:35.two bold decisions, one is don't go after the Tories, just bring the
:31:36. > :31:39.Liberal Democrats over we don't need the swing voters, secondly, he will
:31:40. > :31:42.fight on the economy because he believes people will not feel better
:31:43. > :31:46.off. Actually they are not stupid, those are not stupid risks, I
:31:47. > :31:49.understand why he's following them. They wouldn't be my strategy, I
:31:50. > :31:53.suspect they wouldn't be the Blairite strategy, but Ed Miliband
:31:54. > :31:56.got elected as leader not to pursue that. Now we will see whether it
:31:57. > :32:01.works. It wouldn't be what I do, but I can see his argument. John has
:32:02. > :32:04.mentioned the prospect of UKIP doing well in the European elections and
:32:05. > :32:08.the ramifications that may have. But what are the other things between
:32:09. > :32:15.now and this time next year? That are likely to have a big impact on
:32:16. > :32:21.the election? Again the economy will continue to be, if cost of living
:32:22. > :32:24.shifts, if wages rise, if people start beginning to feel that, if
:32:25. > :32:29.there is a greater sense of optimisim. I think the challenge is
:32:30. > :32:33.then there. But politicians never get rewarded for a good result. What
:32:34. > :32:39.they get a vote for is a vision of what's next. I think what is the
:32:40. > :32:43.real challenge for Labour and evidenced by this party election
:32:44. > :32:49.broadcast today is you know what's the vision? What's the offer? I
:32:50. > :32:54.think as a kind of absence of that, I also think there is a real danger,
:32:55. > :33:00.I hear what you say about the poll lead and 1% is a poll lead, and we
:33:01. > :33:06.count our 1%. I hear you. However, I think there is a real danger for
:33:07. > :33:10.Labour over the next year, of being a little cock-a-hoop about the
:33:11. > :33:12.Labour over the next year, of being outcome. I saw Douglas Alexander
:33:13. > :33:18.trying to play that outcome. I saw Douglas Alexander
:33:19. > :33:23.circles, there is quite a lot of outcome. I saw Douglas Alexander
:33:24. > :33:27.bag. I think that is offer the vision of what is next.
:33:28. > :33:36.One thing the coalition must offer the vision of what is next.
:33:37. > :33:48.are location a lot of people are stretched.
:33:49. > :33:51.are location a lot of people are services with another wave, and that
:33:52. > :33:56.will be important. The services with another wave, and that
:33:57. > :34:07.Labour is with the it is it cuts both ways. It emphasises the
:34:08. > :34:10.Conservative anti-service method, you don't want to be fighting an
:34:11. > :34:13.election being the Conservatives cutting services, that is difficult
:34:14. > :34:18.for the Tories. It is genuinely difficult. Labour would have to cut
:34:19. > :34:23.services too? Jo That is why it is a dilemma for both parties. If they
:34:24. > :34:27.renationalise the railway it will cost a lot of money. You asked the
:34:28. > :34:30.events. I think it is the next round of spending cuts. The referendum on
:34:31. > :34:40.Scotland, supposing Scotland votes of spending cuts. The referendum on
:34:41. > :34:49.rather complacently, of spending cuts. The referendum on
:34:50. > :34:52.it did Cameron would of spending cuts. The referendum on
:34:53. > :34:58.as Prime Minister. You can't of spending cuts. The referendum on
:34:59. > :35:00.a crisis inside the Tories and of spending cuts. The referendum on
:35:01. > :35:06.Government. And Labour would never be in power again. Is it not if the
:35:07. > :35:09.moon was made of green cheese would you eat it. How much Scottish
:35:10. > :35:14.moon was made of green cheese would are there? 40 Labour MPs. They
:35:15. > :35:19.wouldn't be there any more? The problem, Labour could win in the
:35:20. > :35:20.rest of the UK, Labour wins, London wins Wales, Labour wins the north
:35:21. > :35:25.and the cities, the problem wins Wales, Labour wins the north
:35:26. > :35:28.Tories and the current electoral system is not that it is biased to
:35:29. > :35:32.Labour as suggested on the package, it is that the Tory Party
:35:33. > :35:34.Labour as suggested on the package, regional party, the party of
:35:35. > :35:38.regional counties in England. They are no longer a National Party. That
:35:39. > :35:42.is the big crisis for the Tory Party. That is why they couldn't get
:35:43. > :35:45.a majority last time that is why they will struggle to keep the 306
:35:46. > :35:49.seats in the coming election. What is your understanding of how long
:35:50. > :35:52.the coalition can last. It lasted right up to the election does it? I
:35:53. > :35:56.have always believed it would do that. I can't see why it is in the
:35:57. > :36:01.interests of either party, at any point to stop. If you are
:36:02. > :36:05.interests of either party, at any Liberal Democrats you are running
:36:06. > :36:08.really with the idea that coalitions work. If you are the Conservative
:36:09. > :36:12.Party the last thing you want to show is a Government in chaos before
:36:13. > :36:16.an election. There are management issues, the big thing is how to
:36:17. > :36:18.manage Government documents and prevent what happened the other day
:36:19. > :36:22.with the Justice Department and whether or not people are leaking
:36:23. > :36:26.against each other. That is a big issue, I have always argued they
:36:27. > :36:29.need a divorce agreement as comprehensive as the marriage one.
:36:30. > :36:34.There does need to be an arrangement as we get closer. It is a complete
:36:35. > :36:38.fallacy, this fantasy world where suddenly the coalition separates and
:36:39. > :36:41.the Liberal Democrats say, oh we weren't in Government afterall. It
:36:42. > :36:45.is a joke. What the Liberal Democrats need to do is justify why
:36:46. > :36:49.they were there and what they? Did in Government. Things like the tax
:36:50. > :36:53.threshold and the pupil premium, but to suddenly disgoes that we were
:36:54. > :36:57.there in the -- disguise that we were there in the first place, it is
:36:58. > :37:02.ridiculous and the electorate are not that daft. That is the Lib Dem
:37:03. > :37:04.strategy, good money after bad, they will double down on being in
:37:05. > :37:08.Government. The problem is they told one thing in the last election, and
:37:09. > :37:13.there was sincerity, and breaking the promise on tuition fees they
:37:14. > :37:19.break themselves. Tony Blair didn't break promises? He didn't do that.
:37:20. > :37:23.He did on tuition fees. They have to fight seats, and it is a PR
:37:24. > :37:27.strategy, you have to align your 10% with 10% of MPs, brilliant! An
:37:28. > :37:31.investigation by medical researchers was reported today to show that more
:37:32. > :37:35.people are dying as a consequence of being overweight in Britain than
:37:36. > :37:43.anywhere else in Europe. There is no question that owe besity is bad for
:37:44. > :37:51.-- obesity is bad for you. But is thinness next to Godless, Irving
:37:52. > :37:56.Welsh's next novel deals with that. A fitness trainer so fit she's
:37:57. > :37:59.acting like a Nazi. It is full of four-letter words as you would
:38:00. > :38:08.expect from the author of trains spotting, and features many versions
:38:09. > :38:15.of sex since the character is also a receiptry bisexual. What attracted
:38:16. > :38:20.you of the subject? I was interested in sport and art and looking at the
:38:21. > :38:25.false dichotomy between the two that we get spoon fed into. It was
:38:26. > :38:31.happening in Miami and it is a very visual culture, it is all about body
:38:32. > :38:38.image and how people look. You know the thing about the obesity thing
:38:39. > :38:42.and the kind of faddy diets, they are a big American thing. Is it
:38:43. > :38:45.harder or getting harder do you think to write shocking novels?
:38:46. > :38:50.There are scenes in this that are quite shocking? Yeah, I don't think
:38:51. > :38:55.you kind of see it in that way. I don't really set out to shock when I
:38:56. > :39:00.write a novel. I set out to, it all has to be consistent with character
:39:01. > :39:08.and story. If it doesn't, it kind of jumps out. The protaganist in this
:39:09. > :39:13.is a lesbian. You are not! I was working on it. Is that difficult to
:39:14. > :39:18.write? Well, I mean I think it is not really, I think you kind of, one
:39:19. > :39:23.of things about writing about sexuality, it is like anything else
:39:24. > :39:26.you are writing about, so much of it is subconscious, you are not really
:39:27. > :39:31.thinking overtly about, you are not really thinking about gender or
:39:32. > :39:35.sexuality overtly, you are aware of kind of these characters and you
:39:36. > :39:39.just try to make them psychologically consistent. Is it
:39:40. > :39:44.difficult to write about lesbian sex? It wasn't really, it was quite
:39:45. > :39:50.easy to write about lesbian sex. Did I have both hands on the keyboards
:39:51. > :39:55.at all times. But what I did notice is when I came to adapt it for the
:39:56. > :39:59.screenplay that it was much more difficult, because you are actually
:40:00. > :40:05.kind of telling a story in pictures and when I look back the eight pages
:40:06. > :40:14.of lesbian sex to put it into the screenplay I just found that I got
:40:15. > :40:18.all were youedish and felt -- were you prudish and electuring and
:40:19. > :40:25.writing about young women having sex with each other. I didn't feel that
:40:26. > :40:32.when I was writing the book. I condensed it down to uninstruction,
:40:33. > :40:37."they make love", the director can handle that stuff. Another theme in
:40:38. > :40:42.the book is sex lives of Siamese twins, it is a recurring story in
:40:43. > :40:48.the news about a pair of Siamese twins who have a problem with one of
:40:49. > :40:54.their boyfriends. What are you saying there about the news? It is
:40:55. > :40:59.about that breaking news culture and that kind of thing, it becomes this
:41:00. > :41:02.voyeuristic thing and it becomes about creating celebrity with an on
:41:03. > :41:09.going narrative, rather than reporting news. That's very
:41:10. > :41:17.prevalent in America now. I think it is also about the sort of, you kn,
:41:18. > :41:24.this kind of idea that it is not so much a news story it is almost like
:41:25. > :41:30.a celebritisation of these twins. Is this a consequence of the fact that
:41:31. > :41:33.news is now a 24-hours business that intrudes into people's homes on
:41:34. > :41:36.their televisions all day long. The televisions aren't switched off. Is
:41:37. > :41:40.that what it is or something else? It has also got to the point that I
:41:41. > :41:45.mean, I read somewhere recently that more people know the number now of
:41:46. > :41:49.the local breaking news station than they do of the emergency services.
:41:50. > :41:52.So the news cameras are always, something happens in a community,
:41:53. > :41:57.they tip-off the breaking news people first, the local news channel
:41:58. > :42:03.first. So they are ahead of the emergency services, you know. They
:42:04. > :42:08.know the local news number before 901. Most of this stuff is drivel,
:42:09. > :42:16.what is filling the channels is drivel? Absolute ho nonsense. It is
:42:17. > :42:19.not really news at all. It is cheesy features disguised as news. While
:42:20. > :42:23.you are here because you live in the states most of the time. You must
:42:24. > :42:28.talk to us about the Scottish independence referendum. Which you
:42:29. > :42:35.have taken a very public stance in? Yeah, I basically believe that the
:42:36. > :42:38.long-term prognosis for the union isn't good. I think it is over,
:42:39. > :42:42.basically. I think what actually happens in the referendum isn't
:42:43. > :42:46.really too concerning to me. I think the process has actually
:42:47. > :42:50.begun. I don't think it is going to stop now. Do you think it really is
:42:51. > :42:54.the business of a man who doesn't even live here any longer to take a
:42:55. > :42:59.position in this? Yeah, I mean I think it is not my business to vote
:43:00. > :43:07.and all that. And I do feel a bit kind of sort of presumtious about it
:43:08. > :43:10.sometimes, I think you have to taken a interest in where you have come
:43:11. > :43:14.from and an interest in these islands. When you say the union is
:43:15. > :43:19.just dying, that is because it doesn't mean anything any more? I
:43:20. > :43:25.think the things that were actual fuelling it, industry, empire, the
:43:26. > :43:29.two world wars the welfare state. These things don't exist any more.
:43:30. > :43:33.The welfare state certainly does? Almost. It is hanging on in there.
:43:34. > :43:39.But there is not that much of it left. There won't be much of it left
:43:40. > :43:43.in five years' time if we continue the policies we have for the next 35
:43:44. > :43:49.years that we had for the last 35 years. I think really that in some
:43:50. > :43:55.ways the political centre of gravity is because people in Scotland are
:43:56. > :44:01.feeling more empowered. I think they do feel they have strategies now to
:44:02. > :44:05.progress into get the kind of representation and Government and
:44:06. > :44:09.the country they want. And I also feel the real fear for the British
:44:10. > :44:14.establishment is not to do with Scottish independent, if you get rid
:44:15. > :44:22.of all the people from the Scottish sin Nair urics the House of Lords,
:44:23. > :44:25.the bankers, the public school guys, if all those people have to get a
:44:26. > :44:30.cut before anybody else can have anything, people in England will say
:44:31. > :44:35.we will have some of that. They won't stand by and watch Scotland do
:44:36. > :44:40.this, they will want something as well. It will change the whole
:44:41. > :44:44.political system of the islands. We were going to bring awe report
:44:45. > :44:50.from Nigeria, followed by an interview with a Nigerian Interior
:44:51. > :44:57.Minister but he seems to have got lost on his way to the studio.
:44:58. > :45:00.Much to the annoyance of Michael Gove's Department for Education, it
:45:01. > :45:05.has emerged that a top explanation board is planning to broaden its
:45:06. > :45:14.English A-level to give pupils chance to study among other things
:45:15. > :45:21.dizzy Dizzy Rascal's appearance on this show. Ever since somebody has
:45:22. > :45:25.edited it as a performance, here is part of it and students will be able
:45:26. > :45:29.to study it. Mr Rascal do you feel yourself to be
:45:30. > :45:33.British? Of course I'm British, man, you know me, I'm here man, it is
:45:34. > :45:36.good. I don't think it matter what colour you are, it matters what
:45:37. > :45:41.colour your heart is and your intentions, a black man, a purple
:45:42. > :45:45.man, partial man can run the country, whatever man, as long as he
:45:46. > :45:49.does right for the people. Why don't you run for office? That is a very
:45:50. > :45:56.good idea, I might have to do that one way, dizzy Rascal for Prime
:45:57. > :46:01.Minister. Barack Obama embraced hip hop that is the way he got through
:46:02. > :46:05.to the kids and there was a younger vote than ever and through hip top.