:00:21. > :00:29.hand man tells me he stopped a great deal of leg's interference on
:00:30. > :00:36.schools, the Liberal Democrats dismiss him as a fantasist.
:00:37. > :00:39.From very serious to even worse now seperatists in eastern Ukraine say
:00:40. > :00:44.they have declared independence and want to join Russia, the central
:00:45. > :00:48.Government looks on impotently as police begin to swap sides. The
:00:49. > :00:59.police changed sides? Yes, they changed from Ukrainian side to
:01:00. > :01:05.terrorist side Insurgented organise phoney referendums on independence
:01:06. > :01:08.and succession. Everyone is voting for independence, they don't know
:01:09. > :01:14.anyone voting against. I haven't seen anyone voting no.
:01:15. > :01:19.Mark Urban is in Moscow to second guess the Russians' next move.
:01:20. > :01:22.Is partly genetics that determines why some societies become wealthy,
:01:23. > :01:29.learned and sophisticated while others don't. The writer Sir
:01:30. > :01:33.Nicholas Wade thinks so and been lambasted for it.
:01:34. > :01:37.Alan scale little heads to Latin American beach where Scottish
:01:38. > :01:43.imperial dreams ended in bankruptcy. And it is said forced them to accept
:01:44. > :01:46.a union with England. It was the amazing fertility of this place that
:01:47. > :01:51.brought the Scots here in the first place. You have to spend five
:01:52. > :02:03.minutes here to know what it means, with a continual attempt to clear
:02:04. > :02:05.the land, a fight against nature. Mention the name of the Education
:02:06. > :02:10.Secretary, Michael Gove, in some parts of the land and the air is
:02:11. > :02:14.suddenly thick with the smell of wafted garlic cloves and people
:02:15. > :02:19.making the sign of the cross. Even Liberal Democrat partners is saying
:02:20. > :02:24.he's as could legional as a starved rat. That has prompted a fierce
:02:25. > :02:32.response from one of Michael Gove's previous advisers. The flash point
:02:33. > :02:37.is free schools, Michael Gove's pet education project. What operates so
:02:38. > :02:44.harmlessly in some parts of the world, what makes it so charged
:02:45. > :02:47.here. Emily? I spoke to someone this afternoon and they said the peace
:02:48. > :02:53.has broken out, it seemed to be that way over the Lib Dem-Conservative
:02:54. > :02:56.spat on free schools. We heard calming words were had between
:02:57. > :03:02.Michael Gove and David Laws, but they hadn't reckoned on one man, a
:03:03. > :03:06.man the Liberal Democrats call "poisonous", they accuse him of a
:03:07. > :03:09.personal and sustained war against Nick Clegg. He is Michael Gove's
:03:10. > :03:14.former special adviser in Government, Dominic Cummings told me
:03:15. > :03:16.this evening of the extent he said he had blocked, prevented Nick
:03:17. > :03:20.Clegg's plans in Government. And I will talk you through what he said.
:03:21. > :03:24.He said he certainly did stop a great deal of Nick Clegg's
:03:25. > :03:29.interference in school policy. He would routinely call demanding ?100
:03:30. > :03:35.million for an unknown gimmick, if you can follow it on the green. We
:03:36. > :03:38.told him to "get stuffed", more importantly we stopped him
:03:39. > :03:42.corrupting the free school process, nothing would have happened in
:03:43. > :03:46.Government if we hadn't locked Clegg out of school reform. What are the
:03:47. > :03:49.Liberal Democrats themselves saying? I guess it is important to say that
:03:50. > :03:53.a lot of people in both parties think this is a man who has gone
:03:54. > :03:56.rogue, he's now left his job and there is question marks over why
:03:57. > :04:01.he's saying this kind of stuff. But I asked t Lib Dems for their
:04:02. > :04:06.response to Cummings this evening. And this is what a Lib Dem spokesman
:04:07. > :04:13.told me. "We're not even going to dignify these absurd statements with
:04:14. > :04:18.a response. Dominic Cummings is an ex-Government visor, these comical
:04:19. > :04:25.musings show why it should stay that way." Once you dismiss him as a
:04:26. > :04:28.fantasist and an ex, you wonder why we are covering this? The reason is
:04:29. > :04:32.he was very close to a senior Secretary of State on flagship
:04:33. > :04:36.policy, which the Government has introduced for so long. So the
:04:37. > :04:39.questions are, how much did he block, if anything, and exactly who
:04:40. > :04:46.knew about what he was doing? Thank you. With all the name calling in
:04:47. > :04:52.Westminster, one might be forgiven for For getting there is a crunch
:04:53. > :04:57.looming on the horizon over the number of school places available.
:04:58. > :05:05.We have been looking at whether free schools are part of the problem or
:05:06. > :05:12.part of the solution. Everybody listening? Everybody listening. Very
:05:13. > :05:17.good. It is not immediately obvious why a free school, like this one,
:05:18. > :05:21.would be so contentious. But this category of schools trumpeted by the
:05:22. > :05:24.Tories has caused a rift within the coalition. Lib Dems say they are now
:05:25. > :05:29.worried about the amount pledged to be spent on them, and so is Labour.
:05:30. > :05:36.For every parent wondering why their child is taught in a class size of
:05:37. > :05:40.over 30, for every parent angry that they cannot get their kid into a
:05:41. > :05:45.good local school, we now have the answer. The coalition, both parts,
:05:46. > :05:52.has raided the schools' budget to pay for pet political projects in
:05:53. > :05:54.expensive, half-empty and underperforming free
:05:55. > :05:58.expensive, half-empty and schools are just academies that have
:05:59. > :06:01.been set up from scratch since 2011, there is nothing very special about
:06:02. > :06:03.them, like all academies they are responsible to the Department of
:06:04. > :06:06.Education, not their local authority, and they have got the
:06:07. > :06:14.right to vary, for example teachers' pay and conditions, and curriculum
:06:15. > :06:19.more than other schools. Since 2011 the Government has opened 174 free
:06:20. > :06:24.schools. Some, like this one, have been rated as "outstanding", others
:06:25. > :06:29.have failed. So they are like the schools system at large, in any case
:06:30. > :06:31.the last Labour Government set up academies from scratch too, they
:06:32. > :06:35.were just free schools under a different brand. Why all the
:06:36. > :06:40.political heat? Free schools are supposed to do two things, the first
:06:41. > :06:45.is just to introduce more choice into the system, that is to say if
:06:46. > :06:47.you create extra places at local schools parents can move their
:06:48. > :06:50.children from one to another, creating competition between the
:06:51. > :06:55.schools. The second thing they are supposed to do is allow new school
:06:56. > :06:58.providers, like Arc Schools, that ones this run, into the system. So
:06:59. > :07:02.local authorities may not just open and run new schools any more,
:07:03. > :07:05.instead, the programme means that a private group must make a bid to
:07:06. > :07:14.open a school and, if a minister approves it, the Department for
:07:15. > :07:16.Education will fund it. There are problems, first because of a
:07:17. > :07:21.population boom in England. The number of people need places is
:07:22. > :07:27.soaring. This is a particular problem in London. This map shows in
:07:28. > :07:30.dark red neighbourhoods where the nearest five primary schools are
:07:31. > :07:35.full beyond capacity. The pink shows places where they have barely enough
:07:36. > :07:38.room. The blue is where there is a little bit of spare capacity. If the
:07:39. > :07:45.Government were to build no new schools on new capacity the story
:07:46. > :07:49.would be horrific by 2017/18. While the Government may have wanted more
:07:50. > :07:54.choice in schooling it is now racing to build enough places at all. Free
:07:55. > :07:59.schools can make to meet that need. Some of them in densely built-up
:08:00. > :08:04.areas have been put in unusual buildings. This one here is an old
:08:05. > :08:10.Public Library. The problem is the process of setting up free schools
:08:11. > :08:14.can be longer and more involved to the old fashioned way we set up
:08:15. > :08:18.local authority schools. Free schools looks a an interesting way
:08:19. > :08:24.of diversifying the schools in 24 country. That is an interesting and
:08:25. > :08:28.desirable thing in itself. It is difficult to meet basic need in free
:08:29. > :08:32.school innovations, in order to do that you have to have the proposals
:08:33. > :08:36.coming through in exactly the places where there is pupil demand.
:08:37. > :08:41.Children live in localities, thank's where you need schools. So the free
:08:42. > :08:45.schools scheme isn't really suited to fighting the places squeeze in
:08:46. > :08:53.England. It wasn't really designed to be. The DfE is spending a large
:08:54. > :08:56.chunk of its building budget to help, ?5 billion over the
:08:57. > :09:00.parliament. It is this coalition Government that has increased
:09:01. > :09:03.spending on primary school spaces and local authority need and at the
:09:04. > :09:15.same time has provided excellent new provision through the free school
:09:16. > :09:19.programme. But if those measures should fail to hold off the schools'
:09:20. > :09:25.crunch, Labour and the Lib Dems want you to blame free schools and their
:09:26. > :09:28.promoter, Michael Gove. Now to more general matters, and some new polls
:09:29. > :09:32.out? Yeah, you can make what you will of polls and people often say
:09:33. > :09:35.you only recognise the ones you want to. There is a couple that won't
:09:36. > :09:38.make good reading for Ed Miliband tonight. Both show the Conservatives
:09:39. > :09:43.taking a lead for the first time in two years. The first one is an ICM
:09:44. > :09:47.poll for the Guardian with the Tories jumping over Labour with 33%
:09:48. > :09:52.of the vote, Labour on 31%. The astonishing thing is Labour have
:09:53. > :09:57.dropped six points since April. They are the lowest they have been since
:09:58. > :10:04.June 2010, shortly after Gordon Brown left. The other poll is Lord
:10:05. > :10:12.Ashcroft, he puts Conservatives on 34% and Labour on 32%, they weren't
:10:13. > :10:18.there since the omnishambles. The variance in the system is with a
:10:19. > :10:21.two-point lead by the Tories Labour could still actually claim a
:10:22. > :10:25.majority, such is the distribution of seats which means Labour picks up
:10:26. > :10:29.more in small urban areas, et cetera, the Tories have a lot of
:10:30. > :10:33.wasted votes. The weird system is they could still have a majority
:10:34. > :10:38.even as they sit two points below the Tories. I still think it won't
:10:39. > :10:41.make great ratting for Ed Miliband on a night he has tried to introduce
:10:42. > :10:46.a new policy. Sooner or later something like this
:10:47. > :10:51.was bound to happen and today one of the leaders of the trouble in
:10:52. > :10:54.eastern Ukraine appealed for Russia to consider integrating the area
:10:55. > :10:57.into Russia itself. He believes the called referendum staged by his
:10:58. > :11:04.supporters in the area yesterday, proves the strength of feeling for
:11:05. > :11:08.the idea. The British Foreign Secretary shrugged and said the
:11:09. > :11:13.votes in the European song contest had more credibility. We will hear
:11:14. > :11:21.what the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, well we were, but not now. First we
:11:22. > :11:33.from report from the east of Ukraine. Here an army base is on
:11:34. > :11:38.fire. Soldiers have vanished. No-one can tell us how it started, but in
:11:39. > :11:44.the combustible atmosphere of the east, this is almost certainly no
:11:45. > :11:50.accident. The police are nowhere to be seen. This is the backdrop
:11:51. > :11:55.against which the polls will open in a few hours time. The fire men are
:11:56. > :11:58.doing their best, but there is clearly no saving these barracks
:11:59. > :12:04.now, the worry is of course for the weapons that may or may not have
:12:05. > :12:09.been inside this building. Suddenly we get news that 30 masked men armed
:12:10. > :12:14.with clubs are heading in our direction, it is time to go. Turn
:12:15. > :12:18.the lights off. A few hours later the sense of menace was gone. There
:12:19. > :12:23.was chaos, but also optimisim amongst the voters of this province.
:12:24. > :12:27.There were all sorts of irregularities, no proper register,
:12:28. > :12:32.no voting booths, not to mention the fact that the whole exercise was run
:12:33. > :12:36.by the "yes" camp. But that wasn't really the point. The point was to
:12:37. > :12:48.turn pro-Russian sentiment into political reality by sheer force of
:12:49. > :12:51.numbers. Everyone is very clear here, everyone is voting for
:12:52. > :13:03.independence, they don't know anyone who is voting against. I haven't
:13:04. > :13:08.seen anyone voting "neit". A few metres away another burntout
:13:09. > :13:15.building, this was the police station, there was a shootout on
:13:16. > :13:19.Friday. TRANSLATION: There were bullets flying everywhere, shooters
:13:20. > :13:24.on the roof tops. The Ukrainian military came in, apparently, in an
:13:25. > :13:27.attempt to take control of the building. The locals believed the
:13:28. > :13:40.army opened fire on the police, several people were shot dead,
:13:41. > :13:46.including at least one policeman. She says something terrible is
:13:47. > :13:51.happening that will destroy them. If the police switched sides it
:13:52. > :13:59.explains how the seperatists took control of the city centre. The
:14:00. > :14:03.result of the referendum was never in doubt, today they declared
:14:04. > :14:08.themselves a sovereign state. Despite the febrile atmosphere
:14:09. > :14:12.amongst the thoughs who came out to vote, there were almost no policemen
:14:13. > :14:16.on the streets. We did find two, hiding from view, in an unmarked
:14:17. > :14:22.Lada, they were nervous and didn't want to speak on camera. It is not
:14:23. > :14:25.often that you see uniformed policemen on the streets these days,
:14:26. > :14:30.these two I have just been speaking to have told me they are doing their
:14:31. > :14:33.best to keep law and order here in the city, but they admit that
:14:34. > :14:36.frankly they and some of their colleagues are scared. They admitted
:14:37. > :14:43.freely that they have gone over to the side of what they call the
:14:44. > :14:45.people, for the Donetsk People's Republic. They say they are against
:14:46. > :14:49.the army. After the fighting on Friday, the army and the National
:14:50. > :14:53.Guard retreated to the outskirts of the city. We found them at this
:14:54. > :14:59.checkpoint in control at least of the main highway into town. Kiev
:15:00. > :15:02.can't count on the loyalty of the local security forces, so these
:15:03. > :15:09.soldiers have been brought in from outside. This captain is from
:15:10. > :15:14.central Ukraine. Trained by NATO forces in the US and the UK, he
:15:15. > :15:17.represents everything that the seperatists fear and loathe. He told
:15:18. > :15:23.me he hoped this confrontation wouldn't end in a battle with the
:15:24. > :15:28.local police. Can we ask you very simply the police, whose side are
:15:29. > :15:36.they on now? Now on, in this town what I have information from this
:15:37. > :15:39.town they are on the terrorist side. They changed sides, the police
:15:40. > :15:46.changed sides? Yes, they changed from the Ukrainian side to the
:15:47. > :15:52.terrorist side. In the nearby town of Mangush, polling took place at an
:15:53. > :15:56.inprompt you polling station in the children's playground. No armed
:15:57. > :16:01.seperatist here. These local policemen said they were still loyal
:16:02. > :16:06.to Kiev, they continued to do their job and they would not cede control
:16:07. > :16:12.to men with balaclavas and baseball bats. Back in Mariuple, the army
:16:13. > :16:19.barracks were still mouldering, hours after it had been --
:16:20. > :16:24.smelledering, hours after it was set alight ammunition boxes lay strewn
:16:25. > :16:29.amongst the debris. The key thing here is the loyalty of the police,
:16:30. > :16:36.in town after town, where they have switched sides, the seperatists have
:16:37. > :16:40.mained control. At the airport pro-Government forces are gathering
:16:41. > :16:46.in advance of an anticipated push to retake the city. Some are Ukrainian
:16:47. > :16:51.army and national Guardsmen, others are forming private militias,
:16:52. > :17:03.volunteers, taking up arms against the seperatists. He tells me they
:17:04. > :17:11.need a new army, a more professional army, they are all prepared to fight
:17:12. > :17:15.for Ukraine, to die for Ukraine. The men are nervous, the arrival of an
:17:16. > :17:21.unknown vehicle prompts a Alcocking of weapons, the occupants are
:17:22. > :17:23.questioned at gun point. Tonight Ukraine's Interior Minister said it
:17:24. > :17:28.would step up its military operations. In western capitals they
:17:29. > :17:32.have declared the referendum to be illegal. But the reality on the
:17:33. > :17:39.ground is that Kiev's authority in the east is evaporating and it may
:17:40. > :17:44.have to fight to win it back. Our diplomatic editor Mark Urban is in
:17:45. > :17:56.Moscow. How is the Kremlin reacting to today's events? The amazing thing
:17:57. > :18:02.is they haven't reacted directly to the bombshell, the Donetsk People's
:18:03. > :18:07.Republic saying it wants to join Russia. There was a statement from
:18:08. > :18:10.the Kremlin before it calling for a civilised outcome, for dialogue
:18:11. > :18:14.between Kiev and the seperatists, that seemed not to anticipate
:18:15. > :18:20.today's events. The President, Mr Putin, is down south in Sochi, his
:18:21. > :18:23.supporters await his lead but he appears to be a man who most
:18:24. > :18:29.definitely is not under the pressure of the 24-news cycle, and so people
:18:30. > :18:34.don't really know how he intends to respond. What's the gen. Ral mood
:18:35. > :18:47.there as you wander around Moscow. What is the attitude towards
:18:48. > :18:50.foreigners? Westerners? It is a very bellicose atmosphere. You had the
:18:51. > :18:53.Victory Day celebrations at the end of last week, and pretty
:18:54. > :18:57.extraordinary stuff going out over the media. Last night on the main TV
:18:58. > :19:01.channel, a piece lasting several minutes showing President Putin in
:19:02. > :19:06.his command bunker supervising exercises, intercontinental
:19:07. > :19:09.ballistic missiles being launched, that was done late last week, but we
:19:10. > :19:12.saw the pictures last night. All sorts of other rockets and things
:19:13. > :19:18.being fired. Quite extraordinary, you would think this is a country
:19:19. > :19:22.about to go to war. Tonight watching the 24-hour news channel, seeing the
:19:23. > :19:25.reports from eastern Ukraine, suggestions that foreign
:19:26. > :19:30.mercenaries, westerners were the people who were actually killing the
:19:31. > :19:35.pro-Russian seperatists in Donetsk, the only evidence for that I saw in
:19:36. > :19:39.one piece was some European cigarette packets that had been left
:19:40. > :19:45.behind in one of the bases. Another report claiming the CIA was deeply
:19:46. > :19:53.involved now. A very particular message being given of a conspiracy,
:19:54. > :20:01.if you like, a foreign-backed conspiracy. Has it affected
:20:02. > :20:05.attitudes to foreign people, most people have been friendly, we got
:20:06. > :20:10.into a heated discussion with a man in a restaurant, he said we are
:20:11. > :20:18.American and we're different, he said what's the difference, you are
:20:19. > :20:24.NATO. The boss of Pfizer the American pharmaceutical hoping to
:20:25. > :20:28.gobble up AstraZeneca appears before the Commons committee and has to do
:20:29. > :20:32.the same thing the next day before another committee. This double
:20:33. > :20:36.whammy of scrutiny before the deal has been agreed reflects the level
:20:37. > :20:42.of unease about what is planned. The American firm today claimed despite
:20:43. > :20:45.all precedence to the contrary, its guarantees about protecting British
:20:46. > :20:51.science jobs will have the force of law. It is a big day tomorrow. It is
:20:52. > :20:55.a real blockbuster and not just because it is British science and
:20:56. > :20:58.knowledge at risk, this would be the biggest-ever commercial deal, but
:20:59. > :21:03.indirectly AstraZeneca supports about 30,000 jobs in this country,
:21:04. > :21:06.and alone makes up 2% of exports. That is why tomorrow and Wednesday
:21:07. > :21:10.will really matter. The central point is whether or not Pfizer's
:21:11. > :21:15.promises about keeping jobs and research in the UK are worth the
:21:16. > :21:19.paper they are written on. Now they claim these promises are absolutely
:21:20. > :21:23.legally binding. They suggest that because it is true that the takeover
:21:24. > :21:28.panel, you might not have heard of them. But they are the regulator of
:21:29. > :21:32.these kinds of things do have legal recourse to try to hold companies to
:21:33. > :21:39.promises they make during the course of a takeover bid. The difficulty is
:21:40. > :21:44.if you fancy a bit of slight reading and rule three and rule 1. 1 of the
:21:45. > :21:49.takeover code says they can only hold them to those promises if,
:21:50. > :21:53."things do not have a material change of circumstances". If there
:21:54. > :21:55.is a material range of circumstances, perhaps the market
:21:56. > :21:59.changes, perhaps maybe the price of drugs changes or something like
:22:00. > :22:07.that, then the promises they make aren't worth anything at all. This
:22:08. > :22:12.is becoming a pretty cleat calm charged take -- politically charged
:22:13. > :22:16.takeover. Nigel Lawson is here. We have to remember this is a deal that
:22:17. > :22:21.hasn't happened yet. Is it right that it is subjected to this sort of
:22:22. > :22:26.political scrutiny? I think it is right it is subjected to scrutiny,
:22:27. > :22:30.not just political, but also the scrutiny of the stock market, the
:22:31. > :22:36.scrutiny of investors. I think that is absolutely right. It is extremely
:22:37. > :22:39.complex issue, like in any complex issue, while there are always
:22:40. > :22:40.arguments on both sides, and there are, I think you
:22:41. > :22:45.arguments on both sides, and there does the balance
:22:46. > :22:49.arguments on both sides, and there And the balance of advantage in
:22:50. > :22:50.arguments on both sides, and there opinion is undoubtedly trying to get
:22:51. > :22:54.the undertakings you can, they don't opinion is undoubtedly trying to get
:22:55. > :22:57.want to incur the hostility of the British Government, that is no in
:22:58. > :23:00.their commercial interests, they don't want to have the National
:23:01. > :23:06.Health Service, which is a very, very big buyer of drugs hostile to
:23:07. > :23:11.them. They have every interest in being co-operative. I think the
:23:12. > :23:16.balance of advantage is that we remain welcome to perfectly
:23:17. > :23:19.respectable, they are not a shower of crooks, investment in this
:23:20. > :23:23.country, just as we invest very substantially in the United States.
:23:24. > :23:26.Do you think those are the signals that are being sent by the
:23:27. > :23:30.Government. Michael Howard is saying he wants better safeguards than have
:23:31. > :23:37.already been offered by Pfizer? He can say what he likes. Not Michael
:23:38. > :23:40.Howard, I mean David Cameron! Let's see what happens, at the end of the
:23:41. > :23:44.day you get the best sort of under akings you can, they want to give
:23:45. > :23:50.undertakings and they know it will not be helpful if they Welsh on the
:23:51. > :23:54.undertakings. Laura is right there are circumstances these would not be
:23:55. > :23:59.legally binding, but never the less it is in their interests to behave
:24:00. > :24:07.well, if they can make money doing so, which I believe they can. And I
:24:08. > :24:11.think as I say, we have benefitted tremenduously in this country. The
:24:12. > :24:18.French put barriers up against overseas investment in a big way, it
:24:19. > :24:21.has not done them any good. We have benefitted from being somewhere
:24:22. > :24:27.people want to come and they want to come because it is Britain not
:24:28. > :24:33.because we are the European Union. Equally our firms have benefitted
:24:34. > :24:36.from the assets we have acquired in the United States. There is a long
:24:37. > :24:43.history, this is not new. If you think in another area, Vauxhall
:24:44. > :24:50.Motors, I think that General Motors bought vox haul in the 19 --
:24:51. > :24:56.Vauxhall in the 1930s and it has been very successful. There is a
:24:57. > :25:00.long history of shutting down deals that are not found conGeorgeal, and
:25:01. > :25:06.science is very important? Science is centered in the universities. But
:25:07. > :25:10.no company in the drugs business can be successful if it doesn't do
:25:11. > :25:15.research. There is a question of how much research it does, but that is
:25:16. > :25:22.absolutely vital. They all do it, Pfizer does too. Do you propose
:25:23. > :25:26.confidence in Vince Cable as the right man to make this decision? I
:25:27. > :25:29.don't believe that any single individual should make this
:25:30. > :25:34.decision. I believe that at the end of the day you get whatever
:25:35. > :25:40.undertakings you can and then you leave it to the shareholders to
:25:41. > :25:49.decide how it should go. I believe that I, you know, I'm a semi-retired
:25:50. > :25:52.politician and I have no regrets about being a politician, but I
:25:53. > :26:00.think that once you start having these decisions, made by
:26:01. > :26:07.politicians, for short-term political purposes, that is a big
:26:08. > :26:11.mistake. Why does western civilisation
:26:12. > :26:15.dominate the modern world, and why are some ethnic groups seemingly
:26:16. > :26:19.more successful than others. Could the answer lie with genetic
:26:20. > :26:24.differences, these are the questions posed, not in a century-old polemic
:26:25. > :26:31.on eugenics, but the respected science writer for the New York
:26:32. > :26:35.Times, Nicholas Wade, in a new book he explores why our increasing
:26:36. > :26:41.understanding of our genetic make-up should lead us to believe our genes
:26:42. > :26:50.have played a far bigger role in how our history unfolded than previously
:26:51. > :26:55.thought. What is the core of your contention then? The core of my
:26:56. > :27:03.contention is that we can tell from recent studies of the human genome
:27:04. > :27:07.over the last ten years that human evolution didn't stop in the distant
:27:08. > :27:11.past as people believe, to the contrary it has been vigorous and
:27:12. > :27:15.extensive and has extended right up through the historical period. That
:27:16. > :27:21.is the factual part of my book and then I have clearly a speculative
:27:22. > :27:27.part in which I try to ask if evolution has been acted throughout
:27:28. > :27:33.history, what kind of traits have been selected by natural selection,
:27:34. > :27:36.what has it been doing. The suggest the most important thing that has
:27:37. > :27:40.changed is not the nature of the people, because human nature is
:27:41. > :27:43.pretty much universal, we are all very much the change. What has
:27:44. > :27:48.changed is the nature of human societies. And natural selection
:27:49. > :27:51.does that by making slight tweaks in human social behaviour and a slight
:27:52. > :27:56.tweak in social behaviour can make for a very different society. For
:27:57. > :28:01.example the radius of trust is rather narrow, in a tribal society,
:28:02. > :28:07.you only trust your family or kinnage, in a modern state it is
:28:08. > :28:17.larger. We have a genetic mechanism where it could be controlled by
:28:18. > :28:23.oxitocin. We won't know that until the genes are found. We don't know
:28:24. > :28:29.if there is an empirical basis for this theory at present? There is
:28:30. > :28:34.certainly no proof of it, but there is a reasonable amount of evidence I
:28:35. > :28:38.have tried to assemble in my book, which I think is a reasonable way of
:28:39. > :28:43.looking at things. I was quite surprised to hear you say the
:28:44. > :28:48.instructions for this programme that my book has been lambasted, that is
:28:49. > :28:53.not at all true. I saw an article in the London Times this afternoon and
:28:54. > :28:59.was completely biased and you have managed to find the one review that
:29:00. > :29:02.has called my book "racist", the Times's own review has been very
:29:03. > :29:14.open minded to what I'm trying to say. You could see how people might
:29:15. > :29:19.turn it? This is a very dangerous area, and you have to approach it
:29:20. > :29:24.very carefully. That is what I have done. I think it is worth trying to
:29:25. > :29:29.explore because for the very reasons you say. This is territory where
:29:30. > :29:34.academics fear to tread, you cannot write an article or book exploring
:29:35. > :29:40.the difference between races without being accused of racism. In my mind
:29:41. > :29:46.if one takes racism seriously one should define it narrowly and not
:29:47. > :29:51.toss the word about as a casual insult, the essence of racism is to
:29:52. > :29:56.assume one race is inherently superior to another, this is a
:29:57. > :30:00.proposition I reject on almost every other page of my book.
:30:01. > :30:04.Let's take a specific example, the question of the Industrial
:30:05. > :30:07.Revolution as it occurred in England in the period we know about. Are you
:30:08. > :30:17.saying there may be evolutionary reasons for that happening where it
:30:18. > :30:21.happened when it happened? Yes we know from a study by Gregory Clarke,
:30:22. > :30:27.who has measured the changes in English behaviour from the period
:30:28. > :30:34.1200 to 1800, he finds that during this period the level of violence in
:30:35. > :30:38.society decreases, literacy goes up, work hours go up and spending goes
:30:39. > :30:42.up. So you start the period with a sort of violent peasant population
:30:43. > :30:48.and you end it with a disciplined work force, which is immensely more
:30:49. > :30:52.productive than the population was 600 years previously. The essence of
:30:53. > :30:57.the Industrial Revolution is an increase in productivity. So Clarke
:30:58. > :31:01.has provided a very interesting explanation based on changes in
:31:02. > :31:08.English social behaviour of why this happened. All these behaviours could
:31:09. > :31:13.plausibly have a genetic basis. He has provided a genetic mechanism
:31:14. > :31:17.where it might happen. He found the well-off had more surviving children
:31:18. > :31:25.throughout this period than the poor. So the genes and values that
:31:26. > :31:35.made them rich then sort of perculated down through -- percan
:31:36. > :31:40.you -- percolated down in society. This is a very interesting way of
:31:41. > :31:45.looking at a behavioural change in a particular population. The
:31:46. > :31:51.referendum to decide whether Scotland should reject the union
:31:52. > :31:55.with England, which it once so enthusiastically embraced is now
:31:56. > :31:59.four months away. Interest has quickened in what seems to be an
:32:00. > :32:04.increased support to cutting the tie which has lasted 300 years. It is
:32:05. > :32:09.widely acknowledge the Scots became much keener on joining England after
:32:10. > :32:13.the catastrophic failure of their own attempt to build an empire. It
:32:14. > :32:29.bankrupted Scotland and led to the attitude if you can't beat them join
:32:30. > :32:35.them. 300 years ago a disaster that evolved here brought an end to the
:32:36. > :32:41.Scots and an end to the independent kingdom of Scotland. The
:32:42. > :32:49.anglo-Scottish union that is being challenged has roots here in Panama
:32:50. > :32:53.. When a nation rethinks its future, as Scotland does, it also
:32:54. > :32:58.re-examines its past. Scotland is re-thinking the lessons of what is
:32:59. > :33:06.still known as the Darian disaster. In the archive in Edinburgh, there
:33:07. > :33:11.is the story of an attempt by Scottish merchants to find a trading
:33:12. > :33:18.colony, they would call it Caledonia and New Edinburgh. We have the
:33:19. > :33:24.charter in constitution. It is a document set up how they wanted it
:33:25. > :33:28.to run, from the judiciary and how disputes are settled. They are found
:33:29. > :33:32.Agnew colony and whole new country? This is all the things about
:33:33. > :33:36.beginning a country, there is a lot to think about that is what they are
:33:37. > :33:43.trying to do here. It was fatastically ambitious? Very
:33:44. > :33:48.ambitious indeed. It would be funded by public subscription, kept sealed
:33:49. > :33:53.in this elaborately locked strong box. Across Scotland almost anyone
:33:54. > :33:57.with savings queued to invest. It seemed everyone wanted to be part of
:33:58. > :34:02.what they called the most noble undertaking. I think it was an early
:34:03. > :34:08.example of financial mania, whipped up by those organising the capital
:34:09. > :34:12.raising, particularly William Patterson, who was very skillful to
:34:13. > :34:19.persuade investors to part with their money. He combined a clever
:34:20. > :34:31.mixture of poetry and sound financial sense that was very
:34:32. > :34:36.persuasive. The The subscription book remains, it would be millions
:34:37. > :34:40.worth of donations if it was today. It was interesting how seized
:34:41. > :34:44.Scotland was of the mania, it is a list of page after page after page
:34:45. > :34:55.of those who sunk their life savings into the adventure. Palm quite reach
:34:56. > :35:02.up to ?3,000 to people of modest means, Margaret Adamson ?1. It is
:35:03. > :35:06.like looking at the wealth of a small and poor country being thrown
:35:07. > :35:11.away. They filled their ships with goods they hoped to trade with the
:35:12. > :35:17.maritime nations of the world. They took with them 85 campaign wigs.
:35:18. > :35:21.They took wigs to central America? Yes, they didn't know with the
:35:22. > :35:34.climate and what it would be like, they didn't understand. There would
:35:35. > :35:38.be two major expeditions to Panama, carrying 3,000 settlers between
:35:39. > :35:46.them. The first embarked in a mood of national euphoria. The fleet set
:35:47. > :35:55.sail from here athlete in #16 98. The whole City of Edinburgh poured
:35:56. > :36:01.down on the port of Leith to see the colt Colinists department. This was
:36:02. > :36:05.a great at venture, those on board the ships thought themselves lucky
:36:06. > :36:08.to be alive. They hadn't the slightest notion they were sailing
:36:09. > :36:22.into personal and national catastrophe.
:36:23. > :36:29.There is it is, Scottish Harbour, when they came around the headland
:36:30. > :36:35.after four gruelling months at sea. They found themselves in calm seas
:36:36. > :36:41.and fertile land not occupied by any European power. They thought the
:36:42. > :36:45.harbour had room for a thousand ships. They should have looked at
:36:46. > :36:46.the sky, they should have known it rains here most of the year, and
:36:47. > :37:05.nothing ever dries out. It was the amazing fertility of this
:37:06. > :37:08.place that brought the Scots here in the first place, you have to spend
:37:09. > :37:13.five minutes here to know what that means. One of the settlers wrote
:37:14. > :37:17.that the book breaking work of clearing the place took place, but
:37:18. > :37:21.within a matter of weeks the jungle had grown back and it was though
:37:22. > :37:26.nothing had been done to it, it was a continual attempt to fight against
:37:27. > :37:31.nature and clear the land. And against disease, Malaria, yellow
:37:32. > :37:35.fever, somewhere in this tangle is a Scottish cemetery with hundreds of
:37:36. > :37:42.graves, no-one has ever found it. Nine months after the first fleet
:37:43. > :37:49.set sale, two-thirds of the colonists were dead. The survivors
:37:50. > :37:53.struggled on, they built a fort and named it for their patron saint, we
:37:54. > :37:56.searched the forest and coastline for what is left of it. This is what
:37:57. > :38:05.we have been working for, this is the start of the defensive trench,
:38:06. > :38:11.the moat that they built around fort Andrew, they dug it through solid
:38:12. > :38:14.coral rock for hundreds of yards, right to the far end and other
:38:15. > :38:23.shore. It must have been a huge task. We went to the place the Scots
:38:24. > :38:28.named New Edinburgh, it is still called that on some maps. They lived
:38:29. > :38:34.here in houses like these. But nothing survives of their capital
:38:35. > :38:40.city. 20 families live here now, descentants of the Indians that the
:38:41. > :38:45.Scots tried to befriend. No Europeans ever succeeded in settling
:38:46. > :38:52.this place, not even the Spanish. Only its oldest indigenous people
:38:53. > :38:55.survive. 300 years ago the Scots made alliances with them, signed
:38:56. > :39:03.treaties, traded with them, learned from them. Across the bay we found
:39:04. > :39:08.the island that is still called Caledonia, a legacy of the Scots'
:39:09. > :39:15.presence. The people today live off the sea and forest. It is part of an
:39:16. > :39:20.autonomous province of Panama, reserved for them alone. And it is
:39:21. > :39:26.dedicated to preserving its precolonial way of life, to keeping
:39:27. > :39:35.the modern world at bay. The story of the Scots colony survives in
:39:36. > :39:39.their oral history. TRANSLATION: The story of how white people, the Scots
:39:40. > :39:43.tried to settle here has been passed down through the generations. Our
:39:44. > :39:47.forefathers told us they became looking for gold there were battles
:39:48. > :39:51.with the Spanish and many ships sank. They were driven inland
:39:52. > :39:56.because of fear. When the Scots arrived the Spanish had already been
:39:57. > :40:00.here for nearly 200 years. Their garrison town was the gateway
:40:01. > :40:05.through which the gold and silver that made imperial Spain the
:40:06. > :40:10.greatest power of the age was shipped back to Europe. The Spanish
:40:11. > :40:13.blockaded and then besieged the Scots colony and then forced a
:40:14. > :40:17.humiliating surrender. They burned what was left of Caledonia to the
:40:18. > :40:21.ground. All but one of Scotland's great ships, with the goods they
:40:22. > :40:24.hoped to trade were lost. But it was the role of the English that was to
:40:25. > :40:32.cause lasting bitterness in Scotland. In London King William
:40:33. > :40:38.olded the English colonies of the North Americas not to trade with
:40:39. > :40:44.Caledonia and deny all assistance to the Scottish colonies. He was in a
:40:45. > :40:48.slightly different position, English trading interests were very much
:40:49. > :40:54.against the Scottish Company against the East India Company, the
:40:55. > :40:57.realities of power was he was going to side with where the power and
:40:58. > :41:01.money was, the London trading interests. Orders were sent to the
:41:02. > :41:05.English plantations saying they weren't allowed to supply the Scots
:41:06. > :41:11.with any extra provisions, they were trying to starve them out.
:41:12. > :41:17.Scotland's imperial ambitions were defeated by climate and disease,
:41:18. > :41:22.attacked by the Spanish, and sabotaged by the English. Within a
:41:23. > :41:28.decade they accepted union with England. They agreed to pay a sum of
:41:29. > :41:32.money to compensate. It was known as the equivalent, or the price of
:41:33. > :41:38.Scotland. Bought and sold for English gold Robert Burns would say
:41:39. > :41:43.later, "such a parcel of rogues in a nation". With us here in the studio
:41:44. > :41:48.is a former economic adviser to the Scottish Government, and now a
:41:49. > :41:52.visiting professor at the London School of Economics. We're joined
:41:53. > :42:00.from Aberdeen by a professor at the University of troth collide and
:42:01. > :42:05.author of Union and Empire. First of all, do you think this, how big a
:42:06. > :42:16.deal was it in the making of the union? It was quite a big deal in
:42:17. > :42:19.two ways, one was the issue, one was the equivalent, bailing out the
:42:20. > :42:24.Scots in this terrible condition. The more basic point was it was a
:42:25. > :42:29.demonstration that in the long run without the support of the English
:42:30. > :42:34.Navy. Without access to a free trade zone with England, and without
:42:35. > :42:37.access to the expanding English empire Scotland's prospects in a
:42:38. > :42:42.global environment were not very good. And with access to all these
:42:43. > :42:51.things they proved to be very effective. Do you think it was that
:42:52. > :42:56.important? I think the Darian scheme was a fiasco in its execution, but
:42:57. > :43:01.it was not the cause of union or indeed was it a financial
:43:02. > :43:11.catastrophe for Scotland. It was doing quite well, regardless of the
:43:12. > :43:16.Darian, which I think is being misrepresented here thus far. As a
:43:17. > :43:21.relatively small country Scotland would be unable to carve out for
:43:22. > :43:25.itself the international desknee it sought and therefore some kind of
:43:26. > :43:32.alliance with a bigger partner just across the border was probably a
:43:33. > :43:36.good idea. Scots weren't looking for other partnership, the Scots were
:43:37. > :43:40.also at the same time as Darian investing heavily in Swedish
:43:41. > :43:43.textiles and ballistics and German manufacturing as well. They were in
:43:44. > :43:48.a good trade relationship with France and also a buoyant trading
:43:49. > :43:53.relationship with the Dutch. We can overstate this desire for the
:43:54. > :44:00.alleged poverty of the Scots. Do you think there is much a read across
:44:01. > :44:04.into where we are now in relations with England and Scotland? Not very
:44:05. > :44:10.much, we need to understand the prosperity of small countries in
:44:11. > :44:13.today's world is based on defining your competitive advantages and
:44:14. > :44:19.being able to sell them in a global environment. And Scotland was able
:44:20. > :44:23.to do that from 1707, other small countries, like lites land or
:44:24. > :44:28.Denmark or -- Switzerland or Denmark or Sweden have prospered only in the
:44:29. > :44:36.20th century as a result of the growth of free trade. Do you see
:44:37. > :44:39.much of a read across? I think the first thing that I need to state is
:44:40. > :44:44.it is important to have collaboration with international
:44:45. > :44:48.partners. That was clearly lacking at Darian, it could be one or
:44:49. > :44:54.several partners, but the lesson is the need for international
:44:55. > :45:00.collaboration. As you might say it was a lesson of the financial
:45:01. > :45:05.crisis? You could exactly say that. You could say the same thing about
:45:06. > :45:09.any financial crisis even in 20008, the need to have international
:45:10. > :45:15.collaboration is vital. And you will be well aware of how often that
:45:16. > :45:20.argument is made by those who wish to see the union continue? You could
:45:21. > :45:27.equally say that international collaboration was important for
:45:28. > :45:33.European banks, that is the sand navian countries included. There was
:45:34. > :45:39.one blindingly obvious collaboration for Scotland at the beginning of the
:45:40. > :45:42.18th century, and a large and increasingly successful country,
:45:43. > :45:46.which happened to be located immediately across the hills, that
:45:47. > :45:52.was England. Of course the Scots played an
:45:53. > :45:57.important part in building the British Empire? We need to emphasise
:45:58. > :46:02.over and over again that 150 years that followed union were for
:46:03. > :46:06.Scotland. An amazing period of economic development that Scotland
:46:07. > :46:12.moved from being a small country on the periphery of Europe to being in
:46:13. > :46:17.the second half of the 19th century, one of the richest parts in the
:46:18. > :46:19.world, you can see a legacy of that any time you go to Edinburgh or
:46:20. > :46:24.Glasgow. What do you make of the fact that
:46:25. > :46:32.pro-unionist politicians are using the Darian scheme as an argument
:46:33. > :46:36.against separation? I think it is almost like a lack of confidence
:46:37. > :46:41.that you can't do certain things, likewise the belief that the union
:46:42. > :46:45.would have been a gesture by English, an altruistic gesture,
:46:46. > :46:50.there is far more reasons that England wanted union than bailing
:46:51. > :46:53.out Scotland. Disruption to international trade and war of the
:46:54. > :47:00.Spanish succession, financial difficulties experienced by England
:47:01. > :47:07.at the time. There is a bigger picture in this rather than easy
:47:08. > :47:15.answers, that is Darian leads to England leads to money in their
:47:16. > :47:21.pocket. It wasn't an act of altruism on England's part. But the Scots did
:47:22. > :47:25.well out of the Britishm pyre. The coraly of that is when the British
:47:26. > :47:32.empair they lost a large part of these benefits, so the union was a
:47:33. > :47:39.great deal for Scotland in the 18th or 19th, it was not clear about the
:47:40. > :47:44.20th century. That leaves the 21st century an open question.
:47:45. > :47:51.??FORCEDWHI That is it from tonight. We leave you with images from a
:47:52. > :47:55.Facebook page where Iranian women post pictures of themselves out in
:47:56. > :47:58.public without a hijab, something that is punishable if it is done in
:47:59. > :48:24.that country.