Browse content similar to 23/09/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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This is only the beginning, says President Obama, as America and five | :00:00. | :00:11. | |
Arab states take on ISIS. We're going to do what is necessary to | :00:12. | :00:14. | |
take the fight to this terrorist group. For the security of the | :00:15. | :00:18. | |
country and the region and for the entire world. The air strikes target | :00:19. | :00:24. | |
Jihadists in Syria and Iraq as the Pentagon insist they were about to | :00:25. | :00:27. | |
strike the west. Is Britain shaping up to join the attack. Bahrain's | :00:28. | :00:31. | |
Foreign Minister will tell us what he thinks this curious coalition can | :00:32. | :00:36. | |
achieve. We go in search of Iran's secret bar | :00:37. | :00:42. | |
yes, fighting a clandestine war in Iraq against ISIS. Anyone seen | :00:43. | :00:47. | |
SNOBOL no-one has heard of him. Extraordinary, the most powerful man | :00:48. | :00:52. | |
in Iraq, no-one has ever heard of. Here in Manchester, Ed Miliband made | :00:53. | :00:56. | |
his pitch to be PM, telling his story through the voters he has met. | :00:57. | :01:01. | |
Let's have a round of applause for her and the great job she's doing. | :01:02. | :01:09. | |
She is one one of the lucky few, her school helped her get an | :01:10. | :01:12. | |
apprenticeship, so many schools don't do. That. | :01:13. | :01:21. | |
Why did an important part of his prepared speech on immigration and | :01:22. | :01:28. | |
the deficit go AWOL. Forget everything you think you know | :01:29. | :01:36. | |
about the threat of Syria's Assad, the world was turned upsidedown as a | :01:37. | :01:42. | |
coalition was formed inside Assad's country with his knowledge. The US | :01:43. | :01:46. | |
launched air strikes on ISIS targets in Syria, President Obama warned it | :01:47. | :01:49. | |
was just the beginning. What of Britain's role in all of this? Today | :01:50. | :01:53. | |
our Prime Minister called it a fight you can't opt out of it, does that | :01:54. | :01:57. | |
mean he's opting us in. Tomorrow things become clearer as David | :01:58. | :02:04. | |
Cameron lays out his response before the UN gen. Gen. -- General | :02:05. | :02:13. | |
Assembly. We explore this action and what it means. | :02:14. | :02:19. | |
This is what the Americans once described as "shock and awe". | :02:20. | :02:25. | |
Launched from ships and bombers, fast jets and slow drones, witness | :02:26. | :02:30. | |
the US military action at the start of yet another US campaign. This | :02:31. | :02:33. | |
time they weren't doing it alone, and President Obama was at pains to | :02:34. | :02:37. | |
credit the five Arab nations that took part in these attacks. And this | :02:38. | :02:44. | |
was the result, 22 targets reportedly hit. 70 IS fighters dead, | :02:45. | :02:48. | |
and numerous control centres destroyed. But will a change of cast | :02:49. | :02:54. | |
make today's air strikes any more successful, and any less devisive | :02:55. | :02:59. | |
than the ones in the past? It was a three-pronged attack which began | :03:00. | :03:05. | |
this morning at 1. 30am. In the first, two American destroyers | :03:06. | :03:12. | |
launched more than 40 Tomahawk cruise missiles. Some of them headed | :03:13. | :03:20. | |
for Aleppo, the target was an area that was planning attacks on the | :03:21. | :03:26. | |
west. Most targeted Raqqa head quarters of ISIS. Phase II was more | :03:27. | :03:31. | |
complex, this time the Americans weren't on their own, jets caused | :03:32. | :03:38. | |
it, Rappers, B-1 bombers and predator drone, Raqqa the target | :03:39. | :03:42. | |
again. The last phase targeted IS positions in eastern Syria, | :03:43. | :03:51. | |
particularly at Deir Al-Zour. They were launched from bases in the | :03:52. | :03:58. | |
region. Training compounds, supply depot, command and control centres | :03:59. | :04:02. | |
and communications hubs had been destroyed or disabled. By the end of | :04:03. | :04:05. | |
the operation more bombs had been dropped in one night than in all | :04:06. | :04:09. | |
previous American operations against IS. | :04:10. | :04:15. | |
So did it work? Undoubtedly IS have anticipated this attack and hidden | :04:16. | :04:18. | |
some of their assets and resources, the point is they can't now | :04:19. | :04:22. | |
concentrate. IS have been successful in such a big area because they have | :04:23. | :04:26. | |
been very rapid and they concentrate on an area of weakness, now they are | :04:27. | :04:32. | |
under air attack they can't concentrate and make any more GAIPS | :04:33. | :04:38. | |
gains. It will frustrate their mode of working and degrade their doing | :04:39. | :04:42. | |
anything. Saudi Arabia apparently launched four aircraft, so did the | :04:43. | :04:46. | |
UAE. Bahrain's contribution was said to be three aircraft. And Jordan | :04:47. | :04:50. | |
admitted involvement in bombing raids. Qatar's effort was more | :04:51. | :04:55. | |
behind the scenes. For some this contribution was overdue. Why should | :04:56. | :05:03. | |
the west pull the Arabs chestnuts out of the fire without significant | :05:04. | :05:09. | |
political, economic and military contributions from the countries | :05:10. | :05:13. | |
most at threat. It is the fight of the people of Iraq and the | :05:14. | :05:21. | |
Government of Iraq and hitherto we have seen too much reluctance by the | :05:22. | :05:28. | |
leading powers of the Iranian peninsula to support the Government | :05:29. | :05:36. | |
in Baghdad. In Syria itself state TV reported their Government had been | :05:37. | :05:41. | |
informed and crucially Syrian air defence radar were apparently turned | :05:42. | :05:45. | |
off. IS hit back with a PR strike of its own. Hello there, I'm John | :05:46. | :05:52. | |
Cantly. Another video of the British hostage. Militants said the attacks | :05:53. | :05:59. | |
would be avenged. Attention will now drift to Westminster, and whether | :06:00. | :06:03. | |
and when MPs will be recalled. Meanwhile Newsnight has been told | :06:04. | :06:06. | |
that the British military is already on the move. Over the last | :06:07. | :06:10. | |
fortnight, a small but significant number of British military | :06:11. | :06:17. | |
strategists have been centre, rbil and Iraq, and also to embed at the | :06:18. | :06:23. | |
renalal headquarters in Qatar. They have been sent there to support the | :06:24. | :06:28. | |
Americans with their surveillance capabilities. But also to prepare | :06:29. | :06:34. | |
for the moment that David Cameron orders air strikes using tornado | :06:35. | :06:38. | |
jets. We have been told that the Kurdish Peshmerga have asked the | :06:39. | :06:41. | |
British to send training mission to help their fighters. They | :06:42. | :06:45. | |
particularly need British expertise to help them with the kind of heavy | :06:46. | :06:49. | |
artillery they have never used before. The request is being | :06:50. | :06:54. | |
considered, and Whitehall sources have told us that David Cameron will | :06:55. | :06:58. | |
find it hard to refuse. Public opinion is in a mood to be seen to | :06:59. | :07:02. | |
do something, so is parliamentary opinion. If Australia and France and | :07:03. | :07:07. | |
our Arab friends are doing things alongside the Americans, it seems | :07:08. | :07:11. | |
unconceivable we will stay out it. The question is how deeply are we | :07:12. | :07:16. | |
involved, do we do a more extensive back-up operation, or do we join the | :07:17. | :07:22. | |
takes ourselves, I think the latter. So it starts again, a new campaign | :07:23. | :07:27. | |
against a new enemy, but the west facing the same sold problems. Is it | :07:28. | :07:33. | |
legal? Will it work? When will it end? | :07:34. | :07:36. | |
We will come on to some of those questions. David Cameron is in New | :07:37. | :07:45. | |
York preparing to speak to the UN gen. General -- General Assembly. | :07:46. | :07:54. | |
Did the Americans have permission to do that? They informed the Syrian | :07:55. | :07:57. | |
delegation before they conducted the air strike, we think they also gave | :07:58. | :08:01. | |
some indication of timing and broadly whereabouts they would | :08:02. | :08:04. | |
happen. The Syrians did not oppose them. Those two things put together | :08:05. | :08:10. | |
in the view of some of the Americans who were planning this constitute | :08:11. | :08:14. | |
assent. So they approved it, they didn't attempt to stop it. The | :08:15. | :08:18. | |
Americans, if you like, conservative in their legal advice, but with this | :08:19. | :08:22. | |
line about this Al-Qaeda offshoot group that they also bombed last | :08:23. | :08:27. | |
night. Which was a clear and present danger-type of legal justification | :08:28. | :08:30. | |
for going in. And indeed it may well have been the chance to hit that | :08:31. | :08:33. | |
other group that brought the timing of this forward a couple of days | :08:34. | :08:37. | |
compared with what was expected. The other interesting area of permission | :08:38. | :08:40. | |
is that of Congress itself. They have gone off to fight the mid-term | :08:41. | :08:44. | |
election, they won't be back for weeks and week, and there are plenty | :08:45. | :08:49. | |
in Congress, including some we have spoken to who are quite anxious | :08:50. | :08:52. | |
about the President making war under these terms. At some point that will | :08:53. | :08:59. | |
come back and be formally debated on in Congress. Where does that leave | :09:00. | :09:07. | |
the UK, interesting to hear Michael Clarke say that he thinks David | :09:08. | :09:10. | |
Cameron will find it hard to refuse? It was interesting to hear that. The | :09:11. | :09:14. | |
contribution the British can make in a military sense is limited, a few | :09:15. | :09:19. | |
aircraft, a limited range of munition, perhaps a few cruise | :09:20. | :09:23. | |
missiles from a submarine. The question of whether it is | :09:24. | :09:28. | |
politically and morally essential for them is foremost. Even the | :09:29. | :09:32. | |
politics of this seem to be less attractive in the wake of what we | :09:33. | :09:36. | |
saw last night. The Arab countries joining in and dropping bomb, | :09:37. | :09:41. | |
actually attacking the Islamic State militants. That is clearly hugely | :09:42. | :09:47. | |
beneficial to the US. The UK-type involvement is more what they would | :09:48. | :09:50. | |
expect. They are definitely looking at other options too, including | :09:51. | :09:55. | |
training. We know the Defence Secretary has been there in the last | :09:56. | :10:00. | |
few days, that could be to do with setting up training bases. That is | :10:01. | :10:04. | |
something the Americans are accelerating. It could also be that | :10:05. | :10:09. | |
there will be British trainers sent to the Kurdish areas of Iraq as | :10:10. | :10:10. | |
well. Thank you very much. Just sort of | :10:11. | :10:15. | |
looking at the timetables then, how much appetite do you think there | :10:16. | :10:23. | |
would be from a British parliament for any interaction and intervention | :10:24. | :10:30. | |
now? Well we have seen throughout this uncertainty about whether Ed | :10:31. | :10:35. | |
Miliband would support it. There has been this rhetorical support, would | :10:36. | :10:38. | |
he vote to support direct action, killing people, to put it crudely, | :10:39. | :10:43. | |
by UK military force. I think there are still some uncertainties in that | :10:44. | :10:49. | |
regard. And this broader question about the military utility of it. I | :10:50. | :10:53. | |
sense reluctance in quite a few parts of Government about this. | :10:54. | :10:56. | |
Someone said to me a couple of weeks back. Look in terms of the legal and | :10:57. | :11:00. | |
military practicalities we can do this much more easily in Iraq than | :11:01. | :11:06. | |
Syria. But should we really? Would we actually add anything militarily | :11:07. | :11:10. | |
to the US effort and that's why I think it is the politics and if you | :11:11. | :11:15. | |
like the moral question, having lost a British hostage and having others | :11:16. | :11:20. | |
under threat, which are really paramount in this calculation about | :11:21. | :11:22. | |
whether it is right for Britain to join this. Thank you very much | :11:23. | :11:30. | |
indeed. Well the Bahraini Foreign Minister, Shaikh Khalid joins us | :11:31. | :11:33. | |
from New York. Thank you very much for joining us, what has Bahrain | :11:34. | :11:36. | |
done so far, what do you understand has been achieved? We have joined | :11:37. | :11:48. | |
our allies in this battle and our planes, as we heard earlier in your | :11:49. | :11:52. | |
programme have joined other planes in bombing targets and destroying | :11:53. | :11:56. | |
some of the strongholds and communications and other places. But | :11:57. | :12:00. | |
I don't want to get into more details of the operation. But we are | :12:01. | :12:07. | |
part of the coalition. When you say part of, does it feel like America | :12:08. | :12:11. | |
is taking the lead or the Arab peninsula, how does the coalition | :12:12. | :12:15. | |
work? Well we should thank America for coming to help us in our battle | :12:16. | :12:21. | |
against people who have deviated from our religion and trying to | :12:22. | :12:26. | |
destroy our culture. So this is mainly our battle that we are | :12:27. | :12:30. | |
fighting, and we should thank our allies for standing with us, whether | :12:31. | :12:34. | |
in this time or before against the Taliban in Afghanistan or as we | :12:35. | :12:42. | |
fought together origins the pirates and the Indian Ocean pirate, we are | :12:43. | :12:45. | |
in it together and we are very thankful. Do you agree with the | :12:46. | :12:50. | |
guest on our programme who says there has been previously too much | :12:51. | :12:53. | |
reluctance from the Arab powers to support the Baghdad Government | :12:54. | :12:59. | |
before now? Well, no. We have always maintained very good relationships | :13:00. | :13:05. | |
with the Government in Baghdad and we, the relationship developed in | :13:06. | :13:10. | |
many ways and we opened a consulate in another city other than Baghdad. | :13:11. | :13:15. | |
But now we are seeing the inclusiveness of the Iraqi | :13:16. | :13:18. | |
Government sending very clear messages to the neighbourhood. | :13:19. | :13:22. | |
Especially to the countries in the GCC and around. That this is a | :13:23. | :13:31. | |
serious Government that wants to get out of an area that caused them a | :13:32. | :13:34. | |
lot of problems with their own people. We are looking forward to | :13:35. | :13:37. | |
even move forward with the Government of Baghdad. Just help us | :13:38. | :13:43. | |
to understand, on a practical level, what level of co-ordination do you | :13:44. | :13:45. | |
have now with Syria to make sure they don't shoot you down? Well we | :13:46. | :13:51. | |
don't have any level of co-ordination with Syria. We have | :13:52. | :13:54. | |
all the levels of co-ordination with our allies in these operations. That | :13:55. | :13:59. | |
is what we do now, but there are no co-ordinations with Syria in any | :14:00. | :14:03. | |
way. So there has been no contact between your coalition and the | :14:04. | :14:07. | |
Syrian Government, Assad? Well, you know we are a coalition of several | :14:08. | :14:14. | |
countries, and this point here I'm talking about Bahrain, we did not | :14:15. | :14:18. | |
have any contact, but the coalition has its own way of handling the | :14:19. | :14:23. | |
matters in its own structure. Are you concerned that if this is a | :14:24. | :14:31. | |
success, as you hope, it will help Assad? Well the concern is much | :14:32. | :14:36. | |
bigger than the picture you are putting now about Syria. The concern | :14:37. | :14:41. | |
is about all our countries, so this is one battle, this is one state | :14:42. | :14:46. | |
that was created in an area that transcends the borders of countries, | :14:47. | :14:50. | |
and threatening the rest of the countries, but let's not forget this | :14:51. | :14:58. | |
is one of many. Let's not forget the issues in the Arabian peninsula or | :14:59. | :15:04. | |
Al-Qaeda, or the newly created one in the Indian sub-continent. This is | :15:05. | :15:07. | |
one battle we are facing. When you look at the new relations this is | :15:08. | :15:12. | |
creating now. You find yourself on the same side as Iran. Now for | :15:13. | :15:20. | |
Bahrain that must be very odd? Well, Iran is a neighbour, we do have our | :15:21. | :15:24. | |
relationship with Iran, we do have our differences with Iran. But we | :15:25. | :15:28. | |
are on the right side, we are fighting terror, we are fighting | :15:29. | :15:33. | |
criminals who killed innocent people, who killed aid workers from | :15:34. | :15:42. | |
Britain and journalists from America and around the world. This is a war | :15:43. | :15:46. | |
in the right direction against evil. If anyone would like to choose to be | :15:47. | :15:51. | |
with us in this battle then they will have to be fighting in a clear | :15:52. | :15:58. | |
manner. Because not doing it with other proxys. What would be your | :15:59. | :16:03. | |
message to Britain tonight as it considers whether to intervene or | :16:04. | :16:09. | |
not. Is Britain important to this? Well Britain is vital to this, to | :16:10. | :16:15. | |
this campaign and we have always worked and fought wars with Britain | :16:16. | :16:19. | |
and we are confident that Britain will be taking the decision that | :16:20. | :16:24. | |
would serve its own interests. Does that mean military intervention, you | :16:25. | :16:30. | |
want to see it fighting? Well, you can pose this question to the | :16:31. | :16:34. | |
British Government, but we did stand with Britain and Britain stood with | :16:35. | :16:38. | |
us in the past and this is not something that will surprise us in | :16:39. | :16:41. | |
any way. Thank you very much indeed, we appreciate your time here on | :16:42. | :16:45. | |
Newsnight. So back to that question then where is Britain in all of | :16:46. | :16:48. | |
this? Last time round the question of intervention in Syria was raised, | :16:49. | :16:53. | |
a year ago we were, crudely put, on the other side, then Assad was the | :16:54. | :16:56. | |
enemy, now it is really not so clear. So what are parliamentarian, | :16:57. | :17:01. | |
particularly those who came of age in the long shadow of the Iraq War | :17:02. | :17:05. | |
to decide. And what of the legality of war this time round. Here is what | :17:06. | :17:10. | |
the PM said earlier. There are other plots they have been attempting, | :17:11. | :17:13. | |
include anything my own country, in order to kill and maime innocent | :17:14. | :17:16. | |
people. The same applies to the United States of America. This is a | :17:17. | :17:21. | |
fight you cannot opt out of. These people want to kill us, they have | :17:22. | :17:25. | |
got us in their sights and we have to put together this coalition, | :17:26. | :17:29. | |
working with, right across the board, all the countries I | :17:30. | :17:32. | |
mentioned, to make sure we ultimately destroy this evil | :17:33. | :17:37. | |
organisation. Joining me now the Conservative MP, Adam Holloway who | :17:38. | :17:40. | |
served in the first Gulf War and just returned from northern Iraq, | :17:41. | :17:45. | |
and the former appeal Jew, Geoffrey Robertson. -- appeal judge, Geoffrey | :17:46. | :17:55. | |
Robertson. Does it feel like we have a role to play? We do have a role to | :17:56. | :18:01. | |
play. This will be settled by politics and not military action. It | :18:02. | :18:07. | |
is a shame that tonight's headlines are American-led bombing campaign. I | :18:08. | :18:11. | |
think we should have been a bit smarter about it, perhaps spending a | :18:12. | :18:13. | |
bit longer getting together a coalition of people from the Middle | :18:14. | :18:17. | |
East and seeing ourselves very much in support, but much more as | :18:18. | :18:22. | |
enablers, I think the last thing one wants generated around the world is | :18:23. | :18:25. | |
another western intervention in the Middle East. So what are you saying, | :18:26. | :18:29. | |
don't go in? No, I'm not saying don't go in. It was very interesting | :18:30. | :18:34. | |
in Iraq last week that whole swathe that fell to ISIS recently, didn't | :18:35. | :18:39. | |
fall by magic or indeed by force of arms, it fell because the Sunnis in | :18:40. | :18:42. | |
that area were completely fed up with the Shia Government in Baghdad, | :18:43. | :18:47. | |
so what we call ISIS in Iraq for example is made up of tribesmen, it | :18:48. | :18:54. | |
is made out of former Ba'ath Party members, Saddam's people, and also | :18:55. | :18:57. | |
international Jihadies. To treat them all together is not sensible. | :18:58. | :19:01. | |
What about Syria, should we be going there? No. I think if it was | :19:02. | :19:08. | |
possible, first of all it is a problem for those living in the | :19:09. | :19:10. | |
country and the people in the region. Only as a third order thing | :19:11. | :19:18. | |
is it for us to be doing things, certainly you know overtly like | :19:19. | :19:20. | |
that. Geoffrey Robertson, first question, is it legal? Yes, | :19:21. | :19:25. | |
absolutely in way that the attack on Saddam to overthrow a regime was not | :19:26. | :19:30. | |
lawful and needed Security Council backs. Last year there was a stupid | :19:31. | :19:37. | |
reprisal idea, we bomb Syria because they are using poison Gustafsson, | :19:38. | :19:41. | |
but without any kind of purpose, quite rightly you were opposed to | :19:42. | :19:58. | |
that, as were a number of other Conservativeso that, as were a | :19:59. | :20:00. | |
number of other Conservatives were against it. ISIS are not state, they | :20:01. | :20:05. | |
are really pirates of the desert, and enemies of human kind, and they | :20:06. | :20:10. | |
can be attacked because they are genocidal, they are committing war | :20:11. | :20:15. | |
crimes, crimes against humanity. And they are killing people because of | :20:16. | :20:20. | |
their religious beliefs, because they are unbelievers. As a military | :20:21. | :20:26. | |
man, if you don't go in to stop genocide, when do you deploy your | :20:27. | :20:32. | |
forces? Look the way that ISIS will finally be defeated in the large | :20:33. | :20:36. | |
part is when the local people, living in the areas that they | :20:37. | :20:43. | |
currently control get rid of themselves. If they can't? They have | :20:44. | :20:48. | |
got a big problem. We sure as hell won't, we failed miserably in | :20:49. | :20:53. | |
Afghanistan and Iraq, we have to see this as a political problem. Why do | :20:54. | :20:58. | |
Labour talk about the need to seek a resolution? I think Labour and a few | :20:59. | :21:02. | |
Lib Dems are wrong in law. What they don't understand is this is not a | :21:03. | :21:07. | |
state, it is committing a group of international criminals who are | :21:08. | :21:11. | |
genocidally intent to kill Kurd, they are killing Christian, they are | :21:12. | :21:17. | |
killing Shia Muslims. The call yesterday for people throughout the | :21:18. | :21:22. | |
world to rise up and behead people in the streets, in Australia they | :21:23. | :21:25. | |
foiled a plot at the weekend, there was the killing in Belgium, and so | :21:26. | :21:32. | |
they are international criminals. Ed Miliband, I was actually at his | :21:33. | :21:36. | |
speech today and he started, to everyone's amazement with Alan | :21:37. | :21:40. | |
Henning who was a Manchester man, and you could have heard a pin drop, | :21:41. | :21:44. | |
no applause until the end. And then he said, Britain can never turn its | :21:45. | :21:54. | |
back on internationalism. These are inter national criminals and we have | :21:55. | :21:59. | |
a duty to stop genocide. The feel of this is very different to the | :22:00. | :22:03. | |
British public isn't it? I don't know amongst your Conservative peers | :22:04. | :22:05. | |
how many of them would agree with your position right now, what do you | :22:06. | :22:10. | |
think? I don't know. All I can say is that last week with my colleagues | :22:11. | :22:14. | |
in northern Iraq it was really quite terrifying to hear that literally | :22:15. | :22:21. | |
two minutes drive away from us was 1,000kms of frontline with the most | :22:22. | :22:25. | |
dangerous organisation on earth, who in Mosul alone, 50 minutes away from | :22:26. | :22:32. | |
where we were had got 700 modern American armoured vehicle, 120mm | :22:33. | :22:36. | |
mortars, modern kit, they are not fools they know how to use it, they | :22:37. | :22:41. | |
are all the old ba'athists, not only can they use the weaponry but they | :22:42. | :22:46. | |
can fix it. Their social media effort is unbelievable. Their income | :22:47. | :22:52. | |
is about a million dollars a day in these little mini-pipelines to | :22:53. | :22:55. | |
Syria. We have to cut off the oil money and the hostages. The terrible | :22:56. | :23:00. | |
thing about the wrong thing about going for a UN Security Council | :23:01. | :23:05. | |
resolution is that it puts us in Putin's debt. And at this point, | :23:06. | :23:11. | |
because Russia has a veto, and might exercise that, what has to be done, | :23:12. | :23:15. | |
we should go ahead because we are in the right. And then, if Russia wants | :23:16. | :23:23. | |
to condemn us, let it put forward its opinion. That was done in | :23:24. | :23:27. | |
Kosovo. You have to get the politics right. It is the Kosovo way that has | :23:28. | :23:34. | |
to be done to do our duty a duty under the Genocide Convention to | :23:35. | :23:39. | |
stop this barbaric killing on ground of religion or no religion. | :23:40. | :23:44. | |
Now in Iraq the United States has been bombing ISIS since August in | :23:45. | :23:48. | |
support of an unlikely coalition of Iraqi military, Kurdish fighters and | :23:49. | :23:52. | |
Shia militia, but on the ground it is Iran that seems to be extending | :23:53. | :23:56. | |
its influence, playing a more and more active role, all under the | :23:57. | :24:00. | |
leadership of one secretive Iranian general. We have been on the trail | :24:01. | :24:04. | |
of the Iranian described as the most powerful man in Iraq. | :24:05. | :24:15. | |
In the stifling heat of August, Kurdish forces battle the Jihadists | :24:16. | :24:24. | |
of Islamic State. It was here, less than 100 miles from Baghdad that the | :24:25. | :24:31. | |
Peshmerga halted the IS advance, the Kurds are backed by US air power. | :24:32. | :24:41. | |
Buttal But Jalala is on the border with Iran and Iran is providing most | :24:42. | :24:45. | |
of the support. There is more to this than a battle of brutal | :24:46. | :24:50. | |
Jihadist, Iran is waging a campaign here, for control of Iraq and also | :24:51. | :24:53. | |
for its influence in the wider Middle East. And at the heart of | :24:54. | :24:58. | |
that campaign in the shadows has been one man. General Kasim | :24:59. | :25:12. | |
Sulimani, the covert external wing of the Revolutionary Guards and | :25:13. | :25:18. | |
their leader. He has the ear of the Ayatollah himself. But in Iraq he | :25:19. | :25:26. | |
has been sighting taking control of Shia militia groups, politicians | :25:27. | :25:30. | |
blanche at the mention of his name. His power comes because he deals | :25:31. | :25:35. | |
with units on the ground, he's not afraid to travel into Syria and | :25:36. | :25:40. | |
Iraq. He meets with politicians, influential in the political sphere | :25:41. | :25:46. | |
but also militarily. Off camera people told us that Iran | :25:47. | :25:56. | |
has sent artillery and advisers to support the Kurds, and that Kasim | :25:57. | :26:02. | |
Sulimani was here leading the Iranian forces. On the other side | :26:03. | :26:08. | |
there it is ISIS. At the frontline the Kurds are keen to show us how | :26:09. | :26:13. | |
antiquated their weaponry is. It is hard to see how they could have | :26:14. | :26:16. | |
taken this position from Islamic State on their own. I asked the | :26:17. | :26:24. | |
Colonel whether he had any help from Kasim Sulimani. Nobody has seen him? | :26:25. | :26:32. | |
Anybody seen him? No. No-one at all? He's like a ghost! No-one has heard | :26:33. | :26:45. | |
of him, the most powerful man in Iraq and no-one has heard of him! | :26:46. | :26:50. | |
But one local Kurdish commander confirmed to the BBC that Kasim | :26:51. | :26:55. | |
Sulimani had indeed visited this frontline on a number of occasions | :26:56. | :27:01. | |
and he agreed to reveal the extent of Iranian involvement here. | :27:02. | :27:05. | |
TRANSLATION: Iran sent 16 truckloads of weapons, they sent big artillery | :27:06. | :27:09. | |
and monitor, two big rocket launchers, three or four smaller | :27:10. | :27:14. | |
ones, they sent a mortar battalion too. At the Iranian border the | :27:15. | :27:24. | |
Ayatollahs keep a watchful eye over traffic passing into Iraq. The | :27:25. | :27:28. | |
battles for Iraq and Syria are part of a wider campaign for control of | :27:29. | :27:31. | |
the Middle East between Shia Iran and the Sunni powers of the gulf. In | :27:32. | :27:37. | |
Lebanon Sulimani has nutured Shia Hezbollah, in Syria he has bolstered | :27:38. | :27:42. | |
President Assad, in this not so Cold War, he has become one of Iran's | :27:43. | :27:48. | |
most potent weapons. Up until 2003, Iraq was a vast barrier, a | :27:49. | :27:52. | |
geographical and political block between Iran and its Shia allies to | :27:53. | :27:57. | |
the west in Syria and in Lebanon. But then came the US-led invasion | :27:58. | :28:02. | |
and the Americans, by removing Saddam Hussein also removed that | :28:03. | :28:07. | |
barrier to Iran's ambitions for its expansion in the region. He wants to | :28:08. | :28:16. | |
make sure that groups in Lebanon and Syria or Iraq are dependant on Iran | :28:17. | :28:22. | |
for survival, many of the militia groups fighting in the country, | :28:23. | :28:26. | |
there are variety arcs not just one or two, do rely directly Kasim | :28:27. | :28:33. | |
Sulimani, this allows the Iranians more leverage. A senior Iraqi | :28:34. | :28:39. | |
official told us when the city of Mosul fell, it was swift action by | :28:40. | :28:44. | |
Iran, more than US air strikes that prevented a broader collapse. Many | :28:45. | :28:48. | |
fear their country is becoming dependent on Iraq for its very | :28:49. | :28:53. | |
survival. That the militias as providers of security are becoming | :28:54. | :28:56. | |
an instrument of Iranian political control. The weakness of Iraq with | :28:57. | :29:07. | |
the unstable situation, giving them a bigger role. Because most of the | :29:08. | :29:12. | |
Iraqi decisions were made in Iran not Iraq. All the Iraqi politicians | :29:13. | :29:20. | |
when they have a bigger problem they went to Tehran to solve the | :29:21. | :29:25. | |
problems. They go to Tehran. Kasim Sulimani is a veteran of the | :29:26. | :29:31. | |
Iran-Iraq War, he appears in public only rarely, sometimes for a funeral | :29:32. | :29:38. | |
of the member of his Quds force, where he's known on occasion to shed | :29:39. | :29:42. | |
a tear. Those who have met him describe him as a man who says | :29:43. | :29:49. | |
little and achieves much. He has been up and down the country in the | :29:50. | :29:55. | |
north and south, in the capital, making sure that the Iraqi states | :29:56. | :29:59. | |
and the Shia militias assisting the Iraqi security forces are able to | :30:00. | :30:04. | |
confront the threat from ISIS. After eight years of occupation and | :30:05. | :30:08. | |
billions of dollars spent, the Americans are being outmanoeuvred. | :30:09. | :30:11. | |
At the end of last month American air strikes helped break the siege | :30:12. | :30:16. | |
of a town that had been encircled by IS. But who sweeps in to take credit | :30:17. | :30:34. | |
for this victory? Enter Kasim Sulimani, here he is celebrating, | :30:35. | :30:38. | |
evidence of his presence on the ground. | :30:39. | :30:43. | |
Kasim Sulimani came to visit us, he saw the situation and his visit | :30:44. | :30:48. | |
helped raise our spirits. At the Iranian border the advance of the | :30:49. | :30:53. | |
Jihadists has been checked, but they are not defeated. Iraq is becoming a | :30:54. | :30:59. | |
client state, reliant on the muscle of the Shia militias and weapons | :31:00. | :31:03. | |
from Tehran. And in the battle against Islamic State, the Americans | :31:04. | :31:11. | |
as much as the Iraqis are now dependent on Iran. | :31:12. | :31:16. | |
Here in Manchester it was leaders' speech day at the Labour Party | :31:17. | :31:20. | |
Conference. And Ed Miliband pronounced that this was the | :31:21. | :31:22. | |
beginning of his eight-month interview for the top job. Listening | :31:23. | :31:27. | |
to his speech, more than an hour, you would have been in no doubt | :31:28. | :31:31. | |
about his belief in the NHS and his desire to tax mansions and close tax | :31:32. | :31:37. | |
loopholes on bankers. In a sense Ed Miliband quite clearly framed how he | :31:38. | :31:40. | |
would like to see the election campaign. For Labour we are all in | :31:41. | :31:45. | |
it together, stealing the Tories' line, if f the Conservatives, you | :31:46. | :31:51. | |
are on your own. But there were some hefty omissions from the speech too, | :31:52. | :31:54. | |
hardly a mention of welfare, almost nothing on national security, and | :31:55. | :31:59. | |
hard as it may be to believe, it appears he forgot his section of the | :32:00. | :32:03. | |
speech about the deficit, the same with the section on immigration. So | :32:04. | :32:08. | |
was Ed Miliband trying to present a philosophy, and did it work? Our | :32:09. | :32:13. | |
political editor's report contains some flashing images. | :32:14. | :32:20. | |
Four years ago on the fourth floor of this hotel Ed Miliband stayed the | :32:21. | :32:26. | |
night on the night he became Labour leader and took his first steps. | :32:27. | :32:30. | |
Today from the same hotel room he set off to make the big speech. In | :32:31. | :32:34. | |
year one it was the big idea. The producers or predators. Year two the | :32:35. | :32:39. | |
big slogan? One- nation, the country where everyone has a stake. And last | :32:40. | :32:44. | |
year, year three, the big policy offer. The next Labour Government | :32:45. | :32:47. | |
will freeze gas and electricity prices. So to Manchester 2014, his | :32:48. | :32:52. | |
last big moment before the general election. Our country nearly broke | :32:53. | :32:59. | |
up. A country that nearly splits apart is not a country in good | :33:00. | :33:04. | |
health. Lessons from Scotland were fresh in his mind, and people too? I | :33:05. | :33:09. | |
don't know how Josephine voted in the referendum but I do know the | :33:10. | :33:15. | |
question she was asking, is anyone going to make life better for me and | :33:16. | :33:19. | |
my family. That wasn't just the referendum question. That is the | :33:20. | :33:26. | |
general election question. Once he talked about one-nation | :33:27. | :33:31. | |
Labour, today it was even simpler? Together we can build a better | :33:32. | :33:35. | |
future for the working people of Britain. Together we can rebuild | :33:36. | :33:41. | |
Britain, friends together we can. He said the word "together" over 50 | :33:42. | :33:45. | |
times, this was primary colour politics, hit the Tories where it | :33:46. | :33:49. | |
hurts, friends of the rich, butchers of the NHS. If you are a | :33:50. | :33:55. | |
Conservative-supporting, gold-mining, Russian oligarch and | :33:56. | :34:00. | |
you have got ?160,000 to spare to bid in an auction, you won't be on | :34:01. | :34:04. | |
your own! You will be on the tennis court, playing doubles with David | :34:05. | :34:09. | |
Cameron. That's telling you all you need to know about this Government. | :34:10. | :34:14. | |
We will set aside resources so that we can have in our NHS 3,000 more | :34:15. | :34:22. | |
midwives, 5,000 more care workers, 8,000 more GPs, and 20,000 more | :34:23. | :34:30. | |
nurses. And NHS with time to care. Paid for by a "Mansion Tax" and | :34:31. | :34:34. | |
windfall tax on tobacco companies, but so far the barest mentions of | :34:35. | :34:39. | |
Britain's deficit or debt. Later it would emerge that without notes the | :34:40. | :34:42. | |
Labour leader had forgotten the sections. The recovery would be for | :34:43. | :34:48. | |
the many and not few, he tried to name check all the population too. | :34:49. | :34:55. | |
Like a young girl called Ziamara, Gareth at a softwarep k I met | :34:56. | :34:59. | |
someone called Elizabeth, I met an amazing man called Colin in his 80s. | :35:00. | :35:06. | |
5 minutes the speech sagged sending Labour's biggest funders to sleep. | :35:07. | :35:12. | |
Today I want to lay out ten years of goals, plan for the next ten years. | :35:13. | :35:18. | |
Increasing wages, NHS funding, apprenticeship, house building, | :35:19. | :35:22. | |
green jobs by 2025, because trust in politics is so low, but also perhaps | :35:23. | :35:27. | |
to help wavering voters who can't yet see Ed Miliband in Number Ten | :35:28. | :35:31. | |
imagine it a little more easily. Ed Miliband waving at Newsnight, but | :35:32. | :35:35. | |
that was one of the flattest to my mind of his big four speech, he | :35:36. | :35:39. | |
didn't have the humourous and dramatic moments he can sometimes | :35:40. | :35:42. | |
pull off. There was a good message on the NHS, very popular. There was | :35:43. | :35:47. | |
good language about basic bargains for Britain's workers. But the thing | :35:48. | :35:52. | |
is Labour as a party is polling well enough, speechers like this may not | :35:53. | :35:55. | |
matter. The party may be in Downing Street in seven month's time. There | :35:56. | :35:59. | |
is a sense in Manchester this evening that the speech didn't | :36:00. | :36:02. | |
broaden Labour's appeal, Labour's big tent has been replaced by a | :36:03. | :36:08. | |
bivoac, one source said. By boosting the NHS, Ed Miliband has tonight | :36:09. | :36:12. | |
made things very unfortunately for the Conservatives. That speech came | :36:13. | :36:17. | |
to an end a few hours ago, people here have been on absorbing what it | :36:18. | :36:25. | |
meant. Can we be clear, did Ed Miliband forget to mention the | :36:26. | :36:29. | |
deficit? You know it was an hour-long speech and you know things | :36:30. | :36:36. | |
always change in the delivery b you I don't think anybody in the cabinet | :36:37. | :36:40. | |
is under any illusions of the challenge we face with the deficit, | :36:41. | :36:43. | |
how we need to live within our means and balance the book. Ed Balls set | :36:44. | :36:47. | |
out a range of things yesterday and we will carry on making the case for | :36:48. | :36:51. | |
the future. As might be understanding in a big speech, | :36:52. | :36:55. | |
trying to do it without notes, he happened to forget a particular | :36:56. | :36:58. | |
passage which is available for all to see on the Labour website. Isn't | :36:59. | :37:01. | |
it telling that issue isn't at the forefront of his mind? I think it is | :37:02. | :37:06. | |
at the forefront of his mind. He has been very clear, and the Chancellor | :37:07. | :37:09. | |
has been very clear, And we are all-clear as members of the Shadow | :37:10. | :37:12. | |
Cabinet. There isn't going to be extra money around. We have to stick | :37:13. | :37:15. | |
to the limits that this Government has set for the first year and make | :37:16. | :37:20. | |
big reforms to the economy, and big reforms to our public services if we | :37:21. | :37:23. | |
will live within our means. But there was not any of that in the | :37:24. | :37:28. | |
speech, surely to re-establish economic credibility, which | :37:29. | :37:30. | |
everybody agrees Ed Miliband has to do for the Labour Party, there had | :37:31. | :37:35. | |
to be language about hard choices fast, you read what he meant to say | :37:36. | :37:42. | |
about it, it was a matter of three or four lines and saying I will get | :37:43. | :37:46. | |
on it? He was clear on the NHS that there wouldn't be extra borrowing | :37:47. | :37:49. | |
for the commitments. He talked about new taxes to put more money? It is | :37:50. | :37:53. | |
also those extra staff will be tied to reform, to make sure that we get | :37:54. | :37:56. | |
a care system we need for the future, keeping people at home, | :37:57. | :38:02. | |
rather than in hospital. Our public serves do need to change, and the | :38:03. | :38:04. | |
economy needs to change. Actually if you look at his section on the | :38:05. | :38:08. | |
economy, if we are going to get the deficit down we have to turbo charge | :38:09. | :38:13. | |
jobs and growth. Good jobs with decent wages that is part of the way | :38:14. | :38:17. | |
to get the deficit down. Hasn't he just given the Conservatives all the | :38:18. | :38:21. | |
ammunition they need for the next six months, they can say Ed Miliband | :38:22. | :38:24. | |
forgot the deficit? I think he set them a challenge. He has set them a | :38:25. | :38:29. | |
challenge and rightly so. That we need a different kind of economy, | :38:30. | :38:33. | |
that helps ordinary people, that we need to have the jobs for the | :38:34. | :38:37. | |
future, decent well-paid jobs. We need to give people a sense of hope | :38:38. | :38:40. | |
that their lives are going to be different. I think that is a | :38:41. | :38:43. | |
rightful challenge to the Tories. And he's saying, which is the really | :38:44. | :38:47. | |
big question, how are we going to achieve this. Will it be by working | :38:48. | :38:51. | |
together and make sure everyone benefits or a few at the top. That | :38:52. | :38:55. | |
has always been the big debate between Labour and the | :38:56. | :38:56. | |
Conservatives, I think he nailed that argument. In the hall, however, | :38:57. | :39:01. | |
the huge rounds of applause, which were far and few between were for | :39:02. | :39:06. | |
those attacks on bankers or for the support for the NHS, isn't it really | :39:07. | :39:12. | |
the case that speech was about the core votes, the 35%? Absolutely not. | :39:13. | :39:20. | |
I take it you would assume you are a middle-class person, do you use the | :39:21. | :39:26. | |
NHS? I do use the NHS, but let's not make assumptions about anyone else. | :39:27. | :39:31. | |
The NHS is from all walks of life. Being able to afford a decent home. | :39:32. | :39:34. | |
That is what people of all walks of life aspire to. The section on | :39:35. | :39:37. | |
people who are self-employed, more and more of those people. I think | :39:38. | :39:41. | |
that you are really wrong to say that was a core vote strategy, it | :39:42. | :39:45. | |
wasn't. It was appealing to ordinary people across the country. That is | :39:46. | :39:49. | |
very positive message for us. In terms of the messages about | :39:50. | :39:53. | |
aspiration, you have written for the pressure group Progress, about the | :39:54. | :39:55. | |
importance of having that message of aspiration. Where was that in this | :39:56. | :39:59. | |
speech? What is more of an aspiration than wanting a decent | :40:00. | :40:03. | |
job, getting great skills, being able to afford a home. I think that | :40:04. | :40:08. | |
is what all people want. That is a message about aspiration. People | :40:09. | :40:12. | |
wanting to own their own business, the entrepeneurs, that is what he | :40:13. | :40:15. | |
talked about, that is a complete misinterpretation of the speech, if | :40:16. | :40:19. | |
you don't mind me saying. You are entitled to have your views, that is | :40:20. | :40:22. | |
why we asked you on the programme. Thank you very much for joining us. | :40:23. | :40:25. | |
Let's hear some other views on Ed Miliband's speech today. Because | :40:26. | :40:31. | |
caught on camera in there was even Len McClusky, Labour's biggest | :40:32. | :40:39. | |
backer falling asleep at the back. We have Phil Collins for the times | :40:40. | :40:47. | |
with us. You used to write these for a living, you wrote some of Tony | :40:48. | :40:50. | |
Blair's speeches, what did you make of it? I thought Liz said more about | :40:51. | :40:54. | |
the deficit to greater effect in the answer she gave you than Ed Miliband | :40:55. | :40:58. | |
managed to say in the speech. I think she did a very good job. It is | :40:59. | :41:03. | |
very telling, not only that he forgot to say what he was going to | :41:04. | :41:06. | |
do, which was a consequence of learning the speech. Which he had no | :41:07. | :41:09. | |
need to do. He should have done it behind a podium with an autocue, we | :41:10. | :41:14. | |
didn't need to know he can audition to play King Lear, he should have | :41:15. | :41:20. | |
done a prime ministerial speech. The fact is even in the scripted version | :41:21. | :41:26. | |
there was hardly anything in the deficit, tells us Labour want to | :41:27. | :41:29. | |
forget it, we will hear about that again and again at the Conservative | :41:30. | :41:33. | |
Party Conference. Is it the new note saying there is no money left? What | :41:34. | :41:37. | |
I'm worried about with the speech which I really wanted to support was | :41:38. | :41:41. | |
indeed that it would appeal to the people who are already convinced by | :41:42. | :41:44. | |
Labour. If you already thought Labour's heart is in the right place | :41:45. | :41:48. | |
and on the side of fairness and justice and more equal society and | :41:49. | :41:50. | |
more opportunities for the people who are left behind and against the | :41:51. | :41:55. | |
privileged, then he reinforced all of that. I thought the messages on | :41:56. | :42:00. | |
the NHS were excellent, I think it has been under threat. I was | :42:01. | :42:03. | |
reassured to hear him talking about Europe. If you are worried about how | :42:04. | :42:08. | |
Labour will deliver this land of unicorns and milk and honey, then | :42:09. | :42:11. | |
you didn't get many answers about how it was going to get from where | :42:12. | :42:15. | |
we are now to where they hope to be. If you are a worried sceptic it | :42:16. | :42:23. | |
wouldn't convince you. Phil it is 35% strategy that you shore up the | :42:24. | :42:27. | |
core and get to the door of Number Ten? There is some of that but let's | :42:28. | :42:32. | |
find glimmers of hope in it. The long section on policy was dull, I | :42:33. | :42:37. | |
say that as a compliment, it is always boring. Part of being | :42:38. | :42:43. | |
primesal is saying I'm man with a -- prime ministerial is saying I'm a | :42:44. | :42:46. | |
man with a plan. I didn't mind it was tedious, underneath that it was | :42:47. | :42:49. | |
a good policy. There was good stuff in there. The thing that didn't | :42:50. | :42:52. | |
work, I have some sympathy because it is hard to do the speeches is the | :42:53. | :42:57. | |
governing idea of together didn't work, together is not an idea it is | :42:58. | :43:00. | |
just a word. The idea that Labour likes to do things together and | :43:01. | :43:04. | |
Tories sometimes like to do something on their own was slightly | :43:05. | :43:08. | |
preposterous, and it fell apart quickly. I disagree with that. Come | :43:09. | :43:13. | |
on! From George Osborne's first budget which made it clear that | :43:14. | :43:15. | |
basically the Tories are stripping away a lot of the safety nets that | :43:16. | :43:19. | |
underpin people's lives, I think there has been a theme from the | :43:20. | :43:22. | |
Tories which says it is a cold, hard world you have to make it on your | :43:23. | :43:25. | |
own merits. I think for Ed Miliband to come back and remind people that | :43:26. | :43:31. | |
the Labour Party is about saying we believe in co-operation, | :43:32. | :43:35. | |
particularly with the Scottish vote. He is reinforcing in people's minds | :43:36. | :43:39. | |
the idea with the Labour Party we are trying to bring everybody up. | :43:40. | :43:43. | |
That is a wonderful that he's trying to make our society more equal, I'm | :43:44. | :43:47. | |
still worried about the fact that for instance when he talked about | :43:48. | :43:50. | |
the fact that we are going to give people better jobs and we are going | :43:51. | :43:53. | |
to make sure that wages rise along with productivity. The things that | :43:54. | :43:56. | |
he then announced that would deliver that had nothing to do with the | :43:57. | :44:01. | |
first. Perhaps, Phil, the scepticism in this conference hall afterwards | :44:02. | :44:04. | |
was pretty high, to be honest with it. The chat was it had been quite | :44:05. | :44:09. | |
flat, it didn't do that much to alter things for him, except that | :44:10. | :44:12. | |
people have underestimated Ed Miliband before, nobody thought he | :44:13. | :44:15. | |
was going to beat his brother and Labour are still ahead in the polls? | :44:16. | :44:19. | |
That is true, that is because the economic recovery is not translating | :44:20. | :44:22. | |
into improved living standards, that is the explanation why Labour can be | :44:23. | :44:25. | |
a long way behind on the economy, but still extremely competitive for | :44:26. | :44:28. | |
the next election, which it is. Briefly, we are almost out of time, | :44:29. | :44:32. | |
did anything happen on the stage today that actually shifts the dial | :44:33. | :44:35. | |
in terms of the election? Can I say this was one of the rare speeches | :44:36. | :44:39. | |
that worked less well in the hall than on the clips on television. I | :44:40. | :44:42. | |
think the clips we have watched where Ed looks as if he as really | :44:43. | :44:48. | |
passionate about the NHS or Europe or the Tories constructing a society | :44:49. | :44:51. | |
rigged against ordinary working people, that worked very | :44:52. | :44:55. | |
effectively. One thing I would say is stop going out and talk to | :44:56. | :44:58. | |
people, so don't talk to anyone ever again. S it the dangerous thing of | :44:59. | :45:02. | |
talking to public people and then mentioning them on the stage. They | :45:03. | :45:05. | |
are not always aware that it is even going to happen. We failed to track | :45:06. | :45:08. | |
any of them down. But thank you very much indeed for joining us tonight. | :45:09. | :45:12. | |
We couldn't track down any of the people who as Phil said were | :45:13. | :45:21. | |
mentioned as nausium in Manchester. Perhaps you could have found them | :45:22. | :45:25. | |
somewhere Emily? Some of you will remember Joe the | :45:26. | :45:30. | |
plumber made famous in President Obama's campaign as the every day | :45:31. | :45:32. | |
voter who speaks volumes to the nation. Today it was Ed Miliband's | :45:33. | :45:37. | |
turn to fixate on a random member of the public and make him totemic, one | :45:38. | :45:43. | |
of those was Gareth, a software developer, quietly coming home from | :45:44. | :45:47. | |
a work do and approached by none other than the Labour leader. | :45:48. | :45:49. | |
Gareth's life will never be the same. We tracked him down and made | :45:50. | :45:55. | |
him watch the speech that some how he had completely missed. We have a | :45:56. | :45:59. | |
duty to look each other when times are hard, together, the way we | :46:00. | :46:04. | |
restore faith in the future, together a different idea for | :46:05. | :46:08. | |
Britain. I think this is the first conference speech I have ever | :46:09. | :46:12. | |
watched. I hope it will be my last claim Gareth is here now, do you | :46:13. | :46:16. | |
mean you are not a convert? Some of the things he said in his speech | :46:17. | :46:21. | |
sounded quite sensible. But it is an hour-long speech by a politician. | :46:22. | :46:25. | |
You met him on the Heath a few weeks ago and they told you you were going | :46:26. | :46:28. | |
to be in the speech? I got a call from his office a week or so ago | :46:29. | :46:31. | |
they talked through some of the things he was going to be saying. I | :46:32. | :46:34. | |
thought I would get one mention and maybe one call from a journalist but | :46:35. | :46:37. | |
the phone has been off the hook today, it has been a surreal day to | :46:38. | :46:41. | |
be honest. Did you tell people you were going to be mentioned? I told a | :46:42. | :46:45. | |
few people, but to be honest I thought I don't want to jinx it, I | :46:46. | :46:48. | |
thought he might not mention me in the end. Getting quite as much | :46:49. | :46:52. | |
attention as I have was a big surprise. Did he convince you on a | :46:53. | :46:56. | |
personal level? I was very impressed I think by the meeting. I didn't | :46:57. | :47:01. | |
know him that well as an individual, but he came across as very sincere, | :47:02. | :47:08. | |
very interested and actually I came away certainly very positive | :47:09. | :47:13. | |
impressions. Leaving the secrecy of the ballot box, would that meeting | :47:14. | :47:16. | |
turn your mind, would it make you vote Labour? I don't think it is | :47:17. | :47:21. | |
transformed my opinion, but certainly it has pushed me in that | :47:22. | :47:25. | |
direction, yes, I think so. And fame awaits presumably? Well I'm on | :47:26. | :47:29. | |
Newsnight, so, yeah! And you are great sport for coming in. Thank you | :47:30. | :47:32. | |
very much. Really appreciate having you here. That is all from us, but | :47:33. | :47:36. | |
if you haven't had your fill of conference coverage yet, Andrew Neil | :47:37. | :47:41. | |
will have further highlights and analysis in Today at Conference, | :47:42. | :47:46. | |
here on BBC Two in a few minutes. Wondering how to sum up the theme of | :47:47. | :47:52. | |
the today in one word, Ed Miliband did 52 keeps. Keeping our country | :47:53. | :47:55. | |
together. We are better together. | :47:56. | :47:59. | |
Together. Together. | :48:00. | :48:02. | |
Together we can build a better future for the working people of | :48:03. | :48:06. | |
Britain. Together a different idea for | :48:07. | :48:07. | |
Britain. # Together Together. | :48:08. | :48:14. | |
# Together Together we bring up our families. | :48:15. | :48:17. | |
# Together. On this Britons pebble of together. | :48:18. | :48:21. | |
Can the Tories be the answer? Together we can build a better | :48:22. | :48:24. | |
future for the British people. Together we can make Britain | :48:25. | :48:27. | |
prouder, stronger in the world. # Together. | :48:28. | :48:33. | |
Together, thank you very much. # Go west On Wednesday we have a | :48:34. | :48:43. | |
cloudy start to the day, the remains of old weather fronts across England | :48:44. | :48:48. | |
and Wales producing patchy rain, it is clearing eastwards, | :48:49. | :48:49. |