Browse content similar to 10/12/2015. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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It's been a week since British airstrikes in Syria began. | :00:00. | :00:08. | |
Tonight we'll look at the fight against IS in the air | :00:09. | :00:13. | |
and on the ground and we'll find out how the Americans are targeting IS's | :00:14. | :00:16. | |
To date, they have had access to major revenues that have allowed | :00:17. | :00:24. | |
But if we can start taking a real chunk out of Isil's revenues, | :00:25. | :00:28. | |
The Defence Secretary will give us his assessment. | :00:29. | :00:34. | |
Also tonight: The decision on Heathrow's third runway - | :00:35. | :00:37. | |
delayed, conveniently, until after next year's | :00:38. | :00:39. | |
What does the chair of the Government's Infrastructure | :00:40. | :00:45. | |
And how climate change in Mongolia has created a tragic war | :00:46. | :01:02. | |
between sheep herders and snow leopards. | :01:03. | :01:14. | |
It's far too early to make any proper assessment | :01:15. | :01:19. | |
as to the effectiveness of British airstrikes in Syria. | :01:20. | :01:22. | |
It is predicted to be a campaign of a long duration. | :01:23. | :01:25. | |
We've been told to expect years, not months. | :01:26. | :01:27. | |
The first British targets were oilfields in eastern Syria, | :01:28. | :01:32. | |
making the point that economic targets are in sight. | :01:33. | :01:36. | |
All part of the effort to undermine the resources going to so-called | :01:37. | :01:39. | |
Today, in fact, news came that the coalition struck and killed | :01:40. | :01:42. | |
We'll hear more about the economic front shortly. | :01:43. | :01:47. | |
But how is the military effort progressing? | :01:48. | :01:49. | |
Michael Fallon is the Defence Secretary. | :01:50. | :01:52. | |
He's in Washington and he joins us from there now. | :01:53. | :01:59. | |
Thank you for giving us the time. What effect have British strikes had | :02:00. | :02:06. | |
so far? We have seen a very impressive start, the aria have | :02:07. | :02:11. | |
moved seamlessly into dealing with Syria and they were already | :02:12. | :02:17. | |
operating in Iraq, we have doubled the strikeforce, we have raised the | :02:18. | :02:21. | |
tempo of missions, more than doubled them. And we have already had some | :02:22. | :02:30. | |
successful strikes, as you say, on the infrastructure that supports | :02:31. | :02:35. | |
Isil, from which it drives its revenue and from which it has been | :02:36. | :02:39. | |
financing terrorist attacks in Europe to stop there is a long way | :02:40. | :02:46. | |
to go before we deal with the monster that is Isil-Daesh at its | :02:47. | :02:53. | |
source. A lot was made of the Brimstone missiles, at any of those | :02:54. | :03:00. | |
bemused? We have been using our precision strike ability, and these | :03:01. | :03:07. | |
munitions are a key part of that because they are able to minimise | :03:08. | :03:09. | |
munitions are a key part of that any civilian casualties and deal | :03:10. | :03:13. | |
specifically with targets like oil wells, one building but not those | :03:14. | :03:21. | |
next door and it is that decision strike that our allies want us to | :03:22. | :03:25. | |
bring to this campaign. How we used it so far in Syria? Yes, we have | :03:26. | :03:33. | |
been using these missions in Syria alongside the campaign network. Pave | :03:34. | :03:39. | |
way is equally as precise as the brimstone missiles and hitting these | :03:40. | :03:45. | |
oil well head decisively. What busy constraint? What stops us doing | :03:46. | :03:51. | |
more? The resources we have there or is it targets on the ground that you | :03:52. | :03:56. | |
are confident you can take out and are not civilian, without civilian | :03:57. | :04:02. | |
casualty? That are sufficient targets to deal with, there is also | :04:03. | :04:08. | |
a cover each night in support of the ground forces, dynamic targeting | :04:09. | :04:13. | |
where planes are above the ground forces, ready to give help. But | :04:14. | :04:19. | |
where the RAF has, and specifically has been to add that precision | :04:20. | :04:23. | |
strike and we will see more of that in the next days and weeks on | :04:24. | :04:28. | |
logistics and command control headquarters and only supply routes | :04:29. | :04:32. | |
that run from Syria eastwards into Iraq itself. I want to ask whether | :04:33. | :04:38. | |
we have people on the ground helping identify targets because Newsnight | :04:39. | :04:44. | |
understands that in Afghanistan, brimstone missiles, three quarters | :04:45. | :04:47. | |
were directed by people on the ground who were able to ten point | :04:48. | :04:53. | |
two target and if you do not have a very clear idea about what the | :04:54. | :04:57. | |
target is, there is no point in having a precise missile that hit a | :04:58. | :05:01. | |
target that might not be the right thing. Have we got people on the | :05:02. | :05:06. | |
ground guiding us? Not our own people but there are Kurdish forces | :05:07. | :05:12. | |
fighting in north-east Syria against Isil-Daesh and we are providing a | :05:13. | :05:16. | |
lot of the overhead surveillance, the intelligence and analysis in the | :05:17. | :05:20. | |
skies above that helps more precise targeting. Those people on the | :05:21. | :05:26. | |
ground, they are directing our missiles? Just to be clear? Yes, | :05:27. | :05:32. | |
wordy Kurdish forces need help in taking out targets, those targets | :05:33. | :05:37. | |
are cleared through our targeting processes and agreed and we will | :05:38. | :05:42. | |
come down and had them for them. The key question, only one week in, is | :05:43. | :05:48. | |
whether we can sustain the effort we are making there. What is your view | :05:49. | :05:55. | |
of the sustainability of this? It is only 16 jets out there, six Typhoons | :05:56. | :06:02. | |
and ten tornadoes, people are saying that is using up quite a lot of this | :06:03. | :06:09. | |
lack we would have had in the RAF? The RAF are fully engaged in this, | :06:10. | :06:12. | |
they have been able to sustain the campaign and Iraq over more than one | :06:13. | :06:18. | |
year, flying six days a week, flying pairs of tornadoes in the sky, | :06:19. | :06:24. | |
helping this campaign effort. We have doubled the strikeforce so we | :06:25. | :06:27. | |
should be able to sustain us for some time. We have one of the | :06:28. | :06:31. | |
largest strike forces in the region and we plan to be there for a while. | :06:32. | :06:37. | |
What happens in the event that something happens elsewhere in the | :06:38. | :06:42. | |
world that requires fast jets, typhoons and tornadoes, to assist? | :06:43. | :06:48. | |
Perhaps something in the Baltic states? Do we have any spare | :06:49. | :06:55. | |
capacity at all to be in any other theatre rather than the one in Syria | :06:56. | :07:02. | |
and Iraq? Absolutely, we have more Typhoons and tornadoes guarding the | :07:03. | :07:07. | |
skies over Britain against any impression by long-range Russian | :07:08. | :07:11. | |
aircraft and aircraft in the Falklands deterring any possible | :07:12. | :07:15. | |
Argentinian reprise of their original invasion and we have other | :07:16. | :07:21. | |
aircraft that we can send, we're sending them back to the Baltics in | :07:22. | :07:25. | |
the spring to be part of the policing mission so these are not | :07:26. | :07:29. | |
the only aircraft. We have doubled the force inside Cyprus. Fully | :07:30. | :07:35. | |
equipped, Battle ready, the diamond fleet aircraft, how many spare are | :07:36. | :07:42. | |
sitting around? You cannot take them out of the squadrons looking over | :07:43. | :07:47. | |
the UK and put them in the Baltics? You will not take them out of the | :07:48. | :07:50. | |
Falklands and put them in another theatre. What have you got it is | :07:51. | :07:55. | |
another theatre that comes up in the next two years? The answer is | :07:56. | :08:03. | |
enough. So after Syria that we were able to double the strikeforce after | :08:04. | :08:10. | |
the vote, we have other aircraft in reserve and we want to keep some | :08:11. | :08:14. | |
aircraft in reserve, as you say. There are other threats to this | :08:15. | :08:17. | |
country that might emerge and we may have other commitments but there are | :08:18. | :08:21. | |
enough aircraft and we are able at the moment to make a meaningful | :08:22. | :08:27. | |
contribution to this campaign over Syria just as we have been doing | :08:28. | :08:32. | |
previously in Iraq. One last point, as the Defence Secretary, do you | :08:33. | :08:37. | |
ever reflect on the fact that we say that we spend more on defence than | :08:38. | :08:44. | |
France and France comes out ahead in different measures but the official | :08:45. | :08:46. | |
line is really the biggest spender in Europe, yet the French can put 12 | :08:47. | :08:54. | |
jets, not as many as us, plus an aircraft carrier and 24 planes on | :08:55. | :08:58. | |
that. For the smaller budget they seem to get a lot more bang. Is that | :08:59. | :09:05. | |
fair? I do not think so, we are doing far more around the world, we | :09:06. | :09:10. | |
have troops and planes and ships on 20 operations around the globe | :09:11. | :09:13. | |
tonight, far more than the French and the building two aircraft | :09:14. | :09:21. | |
carriers to add to the Royal Navy and we're adding more frigates and | :09:22. | :09:24. | |
destroyers and the point of the strategic defence review we have | :09:25. | :09:28. | |
just completed his Regal have stronger and better defence, more | :09:29. | :09:33. | |
planes and ships and troops at readiness, better equipment for the | :09:34. | :09:37. | |
special forces. We are stepping up, as France and the Americans have | :09:38. | :09:41. | |
asked us to do, as the UN has asked us. We are stepping up in this fight | :09:42. | :09:46. | |
and I will be reviewing the progress of this campaign with the American | :09:47. | :09:50. | |
Defence Secretary and the Pentagon tomorrow. Thank you very much | :09:51. | :09:51. | |
indeed. One argument in currency last week, | :09:52. | :09:54. | |
was that more important than the military action would be | :09:55. | :09:56. | |
an assault on Isis and its finances - the oil trade, the donors sending | :09:57. | :10:00. | |
money in, the banking connections As it happens, the man | :10:01. | :10:02. | |
who is in charge of the economic war Adam Szubin is an acting | :10:03. | :10:07. | |
undersecretary at the US Department of the Treasury, responsible | :10:08. | :10:12. | |
for terrorism and financial We'll hear from him shortly | :10:13. | :10:15. | |
but first, Mark Urban The campaign against Islamic State | :10:16. | :10:18. | |
takes many forms, but it is the most violent that usually | :10:19. | :10:27. | |
grab the attention. This evening the Americans announced | :10:28. | :10:30. | |
that they killed Abu Saleh, who they described as Islamic | :10:31. | :10:38. | |
State's financial minister. We recently conducted strikes | :10:39. | :10:40. | |
against three leaders in Isil's Their removal will degrade Isil's | :10:41. | :10:43. | |
ability to command and control troops and it disrupts the ability | :10:44. | :10:52. | |
to finance their efforts. But a recent series of attacks | :10:53. | :10:57. | |
on the people running the groups moneymaking activities is just | :10:58. | :11:00. | |
the visible part of an often covert Unfortunately, finance is global, it | :11:01. | :11:15. | |
crosses borders without difficulty and I think the questions we have to | :11:16. | :11:19. | |
ask is what are we doing in Europe? How are we letting up in Europe to | :11:20. | :11:22. | |
tackle terrorist financing? And the Middle East? It does not matter what | :11:23. | :11:27. | |
the US does, frankly, this is a global issue and it needs to be | :11:28. | :11:32. | |
tackled at a global level. Where does IIS get its money? Oil and gas | :11:33. | :11:38. | |
sales provided 55% of revenues in this estimate last year. Foreign | :11:39. | :11:45. | |
sympathisers gave just 2%. Other businesses, taxes and extortion made | :11:46. | :11:49. | |
up the rest would even since this estimate was made, the group has | :11:50. | :11:53. | |
expanded its photo state activities and grown new revenue streams. You | :11:54. | :12:00. | |
might call it broadly extortion and by that I mean a combination of | :12:01. | :12:04. | |
confiscations, I'd write confiscations of course, and | :12:05. | :12:10. | |
taxation. The taxation, for example, takes a variety of forms, like | :12:11. | :12:17. | |
school registration fees, parking fines, driving licence fees, | :12:18. | :12:23. | |
violations of public space regulations and so on and so forth. | :12:24. | :12:29. | |
With oil contributing $40 million every month to IS covers, both | :12:30. | :12:34. | |
Russia and the American led coalition have been hitting the | :12:35. | :12:36. | |
trucks and other facilities used in that business. But Russia blames | :12:37. | :12:41. | |
tricky for facilitating the trade while Western countries highlight | :12:42. | :12:47. | |
President Assad's role in buying the oil so it is hardly a joined up | :12:48. | :12:51. | |
approach. There is a double game going on here and I am sure there | :12:52. | :12:56. | |
was lots of politics behind it. We have started to seek middlemen | :12:57. | :13:02. | |
individuals broke Ringo 's oil transactions, there was a recent | :13:03. | :13:06. | |
example of an individual standing between IS and the resident Assad | :13:07. | :13:11. | |
regime and we're starting to go after those middlemen but it feels | :13:12. | :13:14. | |
like there could be more that could be done. The further they have gone | :13:15. | :13:21. | |
in realising their dream of a caliphate, the greater the half | :13:22. | :13:23. | |
increased their need for money. Running everything from water works | :13:24. | :13:29. | |
to traffic police and schools, they have had to take over salaries as | :13:30. | :13:34. | |
the Syrian and Iraqi governments have cut them off. That means the | :13:35. | :13:38. | |
group large amounts of cash and could be feeling the pinch. Without | :13:39. | :13:45. | |
God, I think they cannot devote necessarily so much to military | :13:46. | :13:50. | |
upkeep. They have had to come up with new ways to find education | :13:51. | :13:57. | |
schemes soapmaking students in Mosul pay most of the bees for printing of | :13:58. | :14:01. | |
textbooks, for instance. There was always the danger with steps of | :14:02. | :14:06. | |
unintended consequences, for example while workers or civil servants | :14:07. | :14:11. | |
thrown onto the mercy of Islamic State and, indeed, its payroll by | :14:12. | :14:18. | |
actions taken by the Cornish. Nevertheless, despite the very | :14:19. | :14:22. | |
different perspectives about, for example, who benefits from the | :14:23. | :14:27. | |
medical world trade, among the partners engaged in action against | :14:28. | :14:30. | |
the group, there is some evidence that attempts to hit it financially | :14:31. | :14:37. | |
are bearing evidence. -- dividends. Birds and Western allies have also | :14:38. | :14:42. | |
made some games on the battlefield yesterday. We capturing this time. | :14:43. | :14:47. | |
Here, Islamic State looted all of the property and enslaved the woman. | :14:48. | :14:53. | |
A reminder not only of the brutality of the organisation but also its | :14:54. | :14:57. | |
ability to take desperate measures against local people if it really | :14:58. | :14:59. | |
feels the financial squeeze. So now, the acting undersecretary | :15:00. | :15:03. | |
at the US Department of the Treasury responsible for terrorism | :15:04. | :15:06. | |
and financial intelligence, The man leading US government | :15:07. | :15:07. | |
efforts to cut off Isis' funds, and indeed throttle the money | :15:08. | :15:14. | |
of other terror groups and of nations which are deemed | :15:15. | :15:16. | |
to pose a security threat. I spoke to him earlier and asked him | :15:17. | :15:18. | |
how much money IS really has Isis, unfortunately, or Isil, is | :15:19. | :15:34. | |
sitting on a tremendous amount of money. We need to be very candid | :15:35. | :15:38. | |
about the threat we face as we try to cut off its access to revenue, | :15:39. | :15:42. | |
but the primary two sources of funding have been oil sales and | :15:43. | :15:47. | |
taxation, or you might call it extortion, of funds from the | :15:48. | :15:49. | |
population in the territory they control. What sort of scale are we | :15:50. | :15:55. | |
talking about? Hundreds of millions a year? Billions? I have no idea. We | :15:56. | :16:00. | |
are talking at least hundreds of millions and it could be the many | :16:01. | :16:05. | |
hundreds of millions. It is difficult, we don't have perfect | :16:06. | :16:08. | |
intelligence when it comes to their revenue streams. As they rolled | :16:09. | :16:13. | |
through, in terms of their initial military campaign, and took over | :16:14. | :16:16. | |
cities like Mosul, they were standing banks which had cash in the | :16:17. | :16:21. | |
vaults and Isil obtained control of those bank vaults. That is the bad | :16:22. | :16:26. | |
news. The good news is that once that money is spent, it is not | :16:27. | :16:31. | |
renewable. The Iraqi government has moved to sever the access of all of | :16:32. | :16:38. | |
those bank branches from Baghdad, so therefore the international | :16:39. | :16:40. | |
financial system. Let's talk about oil. Who on earth is buying oil from | :16:41. | :16:47. | |
Isil? First, Isil is a consuming itself of the oil it pulls out of | :16:48. | :16:52. | |
the ground and also has a population that requires electricity in Iraq | :16:53. | :16:56. | |
and Syria. Interestingly, maybe surprisingly for your viewers, the | :16:57. | :17:00. | |
President Assad regime in Syria is a primary customer of the Isil oil, | :17:01. | :17:05. | |
not withstanding that they are in military complex. Each has something | :17:06. | :17:09. | |
the other one once, money on one side, oil on the other and they have | :17:10. | :17:15. | |
done a bit of trade. What about the other oil that is being sold? How | :17:16. | :17:22. | |
difficult is it to stop that trade? Our focus is actually one phase | :17:23. | :17:26. | |
earlier, not necessarily stopping the transactions, but stopping Isil | :17:27. | :17:31. | |
from bringing the oil to market in the first place. What we have seen | :17:32. | :17:34. | |
over the last series of weeks has been stepped up and very smartly | :17:35. | :17:40. | |
crafted as a campaign by the coalition to conduct military | :17:41. | :17:42. | |
strikes against Isil's oil infrastructure and the oil tankers | :17:43. | :17:47. | |
that they rely on to bring it to market. You are saying that most of | :17:48. | :17:52. | |
the Isil money comes from internal sources? Oil, banks, taxation? But | :17:53. | :17:57. | |
there are donors. There is money given to them from outside and a lot | :17:58. | :18:01. | |
of attention has focused on Saudi Arabian donors. Are you satisfied | :18:02. | :18:05. | |
that the governments in the region are doing enough, and let's focus on | :18:06. | :18:11. | |
Saudi Arabia, to stop their citizens donating to Isil? I tell you, we do | :18:12. | :18:16. | |
not actually see major financial donations coming into Isil. I think | :18:17. | :18:21. | |
the phenomenon we witnessed in the cases of other terror groups, and I | :18:22. | :18:26. | |
would think of Al-Qaeda, Hamas, where you have deep pocket wealthy | :18:27. | :18:29. | |
donors, sometimes in the Gulf states, providing money, and | :18:30. | :18:33. | |
sometimes you have charities that are either abused or intentionally | :18:34. | :18:36. | |
set up to funnel funds to terror groups, we have not seen Isil using | :18:37. | :18:40. | |
those channels in any significant way. Now, in part, they would have a | :18:41. | :18:47. | |
very hard time raising funds in a place like Saudi Arabia. The Saudi | :18:48. | :18:50. | |
Arabian government has come a tremendous distance in terms of | :18:51. | :18:54. | |
setting up a meaningful anti-money-laundering and counter | :18:55. | :18:57. | |
finance regime. They deserve credit for that. -- counterterrorism | :18:58. | :19:03. | |
finance regime. You have to remember that the population in Saudi Arabia | :19:04. | :19:09. | |
sees Isil as a threat, which is true of many of the governments in the | :19:10. | :19:13. | |
region. Isil is carrying out attacks that are killing Muslims. They are | :19:14. | :19:16. | |
killing Shia Muslims and Sunni Muslims. This is not a group that is | :19:17. | :19:22. | |
tremendously popular in many corners. How much do you think the | :19:23. | :19:31. | |
economics matters? How much can it achieve compared to air strikes? It | :19:32. | :19:35. | |
will have to be both, no question. Remember what I saw's needs are and | :19:36. | :19:40. | |
its expenditures are. -- Isil's. They are trying to gather territory | :19:41. | :19:47. | |
while fighting a multi-front war against the US, the coalition, | :19:48. | :19:52. | |
Russia and various other entities in the east, including the Iraqi army. | :19:53. | :19:56. | |
That is not a cheap, inexpensive endeavour. So their financial needs | :19:57. | :20:03. | |
massive. To date, they have access to major revenues that allowed them | :20:04. | :20:07. | |
to sustain this, but it would we can start taking real chunk out of their | :20:08. | :20:12. | |
revenue we will see the revenue -- repercussions of that. What has | :20:13. | :20:18. | |
caused a bit of tension between the US and Europe have been enormous | :20:19. | :20:21. | |
penalties, hundreds of millions of dollars, billions of dollars in the | :20:22. | :20:26. | |
case of the French banks, over activities by those banks which were | :20:27. | :20:31. | |
said to be breaking American law because of transactions between the | :20:32. | :20:35. | |
European bank and Iran. Do you think the US has been extraterritorial, | :20:36. | :20:41. | |
overzealous in the way it has punished European banks or some of | :20:42. | :20:46. | |
these transgressions? This was not a stray transaction here and there | :20:47. | :20:50. | |
which happen to find its way into a US bank without the knowledge and | :20:51. | :20:53. | |
intent of the European banks. What we are talking about are intentional | :20:54. | :21:00. | |
patterns, and often a programme designed to be able to access US | :21:01. | :21:06. | |
banks to route money to and from parties like Iran and Sudan that | :21:07. | :21:12. | |
were prohibited under US sanctions. And the intent was manifested in | :21:13. | :21:17. | |
things like scrubbing payment transactions and even setting up | :21:18. | :21:20. | |
computer transactions to find the word Iran and delete it and replace | :21:21. | :21:24. | |
it with something more innocuous. Add Szubin, thank you. -- Adam | :21:25. | :21:28. | |
Szubin. saga of bullying and other | :21:29. | :21:33. | |
unpleasantness among young Conservative activists, | :21:34. | :21:35. | |
and in particular the activities of Mark Clarke, the ambitious | :21:36. | :21:36. | |
organiser who has become something The scandal has gathered pace | :21:37. | :21:39. | |
since the death of young activist Elliott Johnson, who claimed | :21:40. | :21:42. | |
he was bullied by Clarke. But should the party have done more | :21:43. | :21:44. | |
to stop Clarke earlier? James Clayton has new evidence | :21:45. | :21:47. | |
of how long the party has known it The scandal over alleged bullying, | :21:48. | :22:04. | |
blackmail and sexual harassment in the youth wing of the Conservative | :22:05. | :22:09. | |
Party reads like a cut-price version of house of cards. At its heart lies | :22:10. | :22:13. | |
one key question, how much did the party know about the alleged | :22:14. | :22:16. | |
bullying before a stream of complaints were received in August | :22:17. | :22:20. | |
of this year, and what did they do about it? Were you given a dossier | :22:21. | :22:28. | |
about bullying in 2010? Arty children -- Chairman Feldman has | :22:29. | :22:31. | |
said he was unaware of any bullying allegations against Mr Clark until | :22:32. | :22:36. | |
Elliot Johnson and a slew of others submitted complaints in August. Last | :22:37. | :22:40. | |
month, the party said this in response to a Newsnight report. A | :22:41. | :22:46. | |
spokesman told us, we have been checking and rechecking that we have | :22:47. | :22:50. | |
not found any evidence of complaints made not dealt with, but we are | :22:51. | :22:53. | |
determined to get to the bottom of has happened. But now Newsnight has | :22:54. | :22:59. | |
learned that a number of complaints were made about bullying by Clarke | :23:00. | :23:04. | |
as far back as 2008, and intriguingly, one of these was even | :23:05. | :23:07. | |
submitted by a man who is now one of the party's most senior | :23:08. | :23:12. | |
spokespeople, its deputy director of communications. Newsnight has | :23:13. | :23:15. | |
obtained an e-mail to Richard Jackson, and he used to be a Young | :23:16. | :23:20. | |
Conservative activist. The e-mail complains of bullying and abusive | :23:21. | :23:27. | |
behaviour at a hustings of a conservative Future election. | :23:28. | :23:30. | |
Conservative Future being the youth wing of the Conservative Party. It | :23:31. | :23:32. | |
goes on to warn... It is understood Mr Jackson passed | :23:33. | :23:48. | |
on the complaint as well as one of his own to Roger Pratt, the then | :23:49. | :23:55. | |
head of discipline at CCHQ. We also have learned that a file was kept on | :23:56. | :24:00. | |
Clarke before 2009 containing multiple complaints. At least one of | :24:01. | :24:03. | |
those complaints was of a serious nature. It is the latest in a line | :24:04. | :24:07. | |
of disclosures about how much the Conservative Party knew about | :24:08. | :24:14. | |
Clarke. Here is a quick reminder. The young activist Elliot Johnson | :24:15. | :24:18. | |
took his own life in September. He left a note saying he had been | :24:19. | :24:23. | |
bullied by Mark Clarke. In August, complaints were sent to CCHQ about | :24:24. | :24:27. | |
Clarke including a memo from party worker which described him as | :24:28. | :24:32. | |
dangerous to young activists and that Clarke was sociopathic. In | :24:33. | :24:38. | |
2014, a young activist sent an e-mail to a party worker called | :24:39. | :24:41. | |
Chris Scott who said that Clarke had tried to damage my reputation and | :24:42. | :24:45. | |
remove meat from politics. And we have been told that back in 2010, a | :24:46. | :24:51. | |
dossier was handed to CCHQ warning of a culture of bullying. A | :24:52. | :24:56. | |
candidate's report was also compiled in the same year when Clarke lost | :24:57. | :24:59. | |
the bid to win the seat of tooting in London. One witness described his | :25:00. | :25:04. | |
extreme excessive behaviour, verging on violence. We now know of another | :25:05. | :25:09. | |
complaint in 2008 to the deputy director of communications. | :25:10. | :25:14. | |
A NACRO temporary spokesman told us tonight that the 2008 allegations | :25:15. | :25:20. | |
have been dealt with properly and confirmed that Mr Jackson made a | :25:21. | :25:23. | |
complaint. They say the party maintained it could not find any | :25:24. | :25:28. | |
evidence of complaint against Mr Clark, only they could not find | :25:29. | :25:34. | |
complaints about his behaviour on his road trip, which vast young | :25:35. | :25:40. | |
activist around the country in the 2015 election. The emergence of the | :25:41. | :25:44. | |
2008 complaint raises one inconvenient question. If even one | :25:45. | :25:48. | |
of his most senior media operatives had complained about Mr Clarke, how | :25:49. | :25:53. | |
did Lord Feldman remain so blissfully ignorant of the problem | :25:54. | :25:54. | |
for so long? It was at 7.06pm that | :25:55. | :25:57. | |
the long-awaited announcement on the future of airport capacity | :25:58. | :25:59. | |
in the south of England came. Well, it's probably Zac Goldsmith, | :26:00. | :26:02. | |
Tory candidate for London mayor. He'd said he'd resign as MP | :26:03. | :26:09. | |
for his seat near Heathrow So Heathrow didn't get | :26:10. | :26:12. | |
a third runway for now. A decision on a runway will, | :26:13. | :26:16. | |
we are told, definitely come next year, and it will definitely be one | :26:17. | :26:20. | |
of Heathrow or Gatwick. They didn't mention the London | :26:21. | :26:24. | |
mayoral election, but it The indecision could be seen | :26:25. | :26:26. | |
as a set-back for a process that was meant to take the politics | :26:27. | :26:30. | |
out of these decisions. We had a three-year-long | :26:31. | :26:33. | |
investigation by the Airports With me now, the man who is chairing | :26:34. | :26:35. | |
the new National Infrastructure Commission, which is meant | :26:36. | :26:41. | |
to advise government Lord Adonis, thanks to coming in. | :26:42. | :26:56. | |
Your reaction to the delay? We are getting there on a firm decision | :26:57. | :27:00. | |
about air Corps capacity in the south of England -- airport | :27:01. | :27:04. | |
capacity. The big thing was that the analysis of Howard Davies was | :27:05. | :27:06. | |
accepted for the need of a new run rate at Gatwick or Heathrow. It made | :27:07. | :27:12. | |
it clear it would be one of those two airports, so no question of | :27:13. | :27:14. | |
Stansted, the estuary or other options. There are further issues to | :27:15. | :27:20. | |
look at with pollution, which Howard Davies said needed more analysis and | :27:21. | :27:24. | |
there will be a firm decision next summer. It's important to understand | :27:25. | :27:26. | |
that Howard Davies said we needed the runway which is vitally | :27:27. | :27:32. | |
important for the economy, needed by 2030. If a decision is made him -- | :27:33. | :27:39. | |
made by then, we could see one at Heathrow or Gatwick. It was said it | :27:40. | :27:42. | |
would be wrong to rush the decision. RB Rice sing the decision? -- are we | :27:43. | :27:50. | |
rushing? It is not over rushed, but there has been 25 years of debate on | :27:51. | :27:54. | |
this. I was transport minister in the last government and we did not | :27:55. | :27:57. | |
rush to take the decision either. You would Transport Secretary and it | :27:58. | :28:02. | |
was your policy, which was to build a runway at Heathrow -- you were. | :28:03. | :28:05. | |
The politicians have not done brilliantly at this. We took the | :28:06. | :28:08. | |
decision at the end of the government and we had ten years and | :28:09. | :28:11. | |
we could have moved on. But we are getting there. On your point about | :28:12. | :28:15. | |
the independent commission process, we would not be where we are today | :28:16. | :28:19. | |
without the work of Howard Davies and his colleagues, and it looks | :28:20. | :28:22. | |
like we are set for a decision. There are other two viable options, | :28:23. | :28:27. | |
next year, it will be Heathrow or Gatwick. I admire your optimism, but | :28:28. | :28:31. | |
this was the first test for the commission structure. The commission | :28:32. | :28:35. | |
look at it and advised and the government can have six months to | :28:36. | :28:38. | |
think about it and then they come to a decision, yes or no, and we have | :28:39. | :28:45. | |
indecision. Are you denying politics is driving the delay on this? I | :28:46. | :28:50. | |
couldn't possibly comment on why next May is a bridge to overcome. | :28:51. | :28:55. | |
They have taken a year over six months, and in the context of 25 | :28:56. | :28:59. | |
years, it doesn't matter a great deal. Provided a decision is taken. | :29:00. | :29:03. | |
Because as Howard Davies said, we need the run by by 2030. -- the | :29:04. | :29:12. | |
runway. It is Yes, Minister, we have had an enquiry and the result is to | :29:13. | :29:15. | |
have an enquiry. If it was like that, there would be no commitment. | :29:16. | :29:20. | |
It isn't like that. The decision has taken some time, but the government | :29:21. | :29:24. | |
did say today that it accepts the case for a new runway in the | :29:25. | :29:27. | |
south-east of England which is a controversial proposition and it | :29:28. | :29:30. | |
says it must be Heathrow or Gatwick and now it needs to decide. Can I be | :29:31. | :29:34. | |
clear, if there is not a clear decision next summer, then the | :29:35. | :29:39. | |
commission process, the process by which you have a commission and then | :29:40. | :29:42. | |
politicians decide, that process will have failed and he would not | :29:43. | :29:46. | |
want to be running the National Infrastructure Commission? | :29:47. | :29:50. | |
It would not be a great advert for this process but what the government | :29:51. | :29:56. | |
has done today is a perfectly sensible step forward, to narrow | :29:57. | :30:02. | |
down, as Howard Davies did, the options for Heathrow and Gatwick and | :30:03. | :30:10. | |
look further. Sorry, but had anybody thought we were looking at any other | :30:11. | :30:17. | |
options? The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said we should still be | :30:18. | :30:22. | |
looking at the estuary. A good part of the work was looking at a | :30:23. | :30:26. | |
completely new airport in the estuary or expanding Stansted and | :30:27. | :30:32. | |
you recommended against those and by narrowing the options to Heathrow | :30:33. | :30:37. | |
and Gatwick... I really thought we really had narrowed it down to | :30:38. | :30:43. | |
Heathrow or Gatwick. I can assure you, it would have been perfectly | :30:44. | :30:48. | |
possible to take no decision. You did back Heathrow as Transport | :30:49. | :30:55. | |
Secretary. Do you support Heathrow? Howard Davies came up with that and | :30:56. | :30:58. | |
that was her personal view, so you support Heathrow? Let us be clear, | :30:59. | :31:06. | |
as chairman of the commission, we're not playing any role in this because | :31:07. | :31:10. | |
Howard Davies has done the review. But I think his report is | :31:11. | :31:14. | |
persuasive, in terms of the massive gains to the economy we will have | :31:15. | :31:19. | |
from a new runway, over ?100 million in terms of economic output and | :31:20. | :31:25. | |
hundreds of thousands of jobs and Heathrow is our most important port | :31:26. | :31:30. | |
in the country in terms of the value of the trade that comes through so | :31:31. | :31:34. | |
this is deadly serious for the future of the country and I do | :31:35. | :31:38. | |
support it but equally, what Howard said was it different recommendation | :31:39. | :31:43. | |
to Heathrow to the one I put forward. Much tougher conditions | :31:44. | :31:49. | |
insurance of pollution, in terms of noise control and entrance of public | :31:50. | :31:52. | |
transport access and the proposal he put forward is one that can command | :31:53. | :31:57. | |
much wider consent than the one we put forward but he says there is a | :31:58. | :32:03. | |
plausible case for Gatwick and that debate will rumble on for a few more | :32:04. | :32:09. | |
months. Not years. Flood defences, I think when the commission was | :32:10. | :32:13. | |
launched, flood defences were mentioned in the list of things in | :32:14. | :32:18. | |
the bag and whilst in Cumbria the Prime Minister said when you have a | :32:19. | :32:22. | |
flood but ask, are we spending enough? Is that high on the entry? | :32:23. | :32:28. | |
People say we are short of what we should be spending, we should be | :32:29. | :32:33. | |
spending a quantum more? As we have seen over the last week, we have to | :32:34. | :32:38. | |
look intensively at improving flood defences and it has only been going | :32:39. | :32:42. | |
for a few weeks so I will not be able to offer instant relief in | :32:43. | :32:46. | |
Cumbria and places dreadfully affected. But it is in our remit and | :32:47. | :32:51. | |
something we will be looking at because it is urgent for the | :32:52. | :32:52. | |
country. Thank you very much indeed. Tomorrow is deadline day | :32:53. | :32:55. | |
for the delegates from more than 100 nations trying to hammer out a deal | :32:56. | :33:00. | |
on tackling climate change Negotiations are expected to run | :33:01. | :33:02. | |
through the night as they strive to agree a plan which is palatable | :33:03. | :33:07. | |
for countries both rich and poor. But we don't need to wait | :33:08. | :33:10. | |
for the outcome to know that one particular place is already | :33:11. | :33:13. | |
being affected by climate change. Mongolia's temperature has already | :33:14. | :33:15. | |
risen by two degrees celsius, and scientists in the landlocked | :33:16. | :33:17. | |
country are warning it could heat up by another four degrees by 2080 | :33:18. | :33:20. | |
unless urgent action is taken. The country is scarred | :33:21. | :33:23. | |
by desertification, and it's having a devastating impact on both nomadic | :33:24. | :33:25. | |
herders and the country's wildlife. And sadly, the number of snow | :33:26. | :33:27. | |
leopards is in rapid decline as their natural habitat | :33:28. | :33:30. | |
is encroached upon more and more. Film makers William Davies | :33:31. | :33:36. | |
and Hereward Holland joined a World Wildlife Fund expedition | :33:37. | :33:38. | |
in the Altai-Sayan mountain range in the west of the country, | :33:39. | :33:40. | |
to see what can be done to protect and conserve this iconic | :33:41. | :33:44. | |
and elusive animal. That film was made by William Davis | :33:45. | :41:12. | |
and Hereford Holland. That's it for tonight, | :41:13. | :41:18. | |
Kirsty will be here tomorrow. | :41:19. | :41:21. |