:00:00. > :00:00.This programme contains scenes which some viewers
:00:00. > :00:17.I have just been to see her Majesty the Queen and I will now form a
:00:18. > :00:24.majority Conservative government. Corbin! The Kurdish tabla just three
:00:25. > :00:29.years old was washed up on a beach. His lifeless body showing the
:00:30. > :00:35.brutally tragically human side to this refugee crisis. Donald Trump is
:00:36. > :00:37.calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the
:00:38. > :00:42.shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.
:00:43. > :00:44.We look back on a year which redefined British politics,
:00:45. > :00:55.world migration, sexual identity and more.
:00:56. > :00:59.This is our last programme of the year, so we thought
:01:00. > :01:01.we'd do things a bit differently, asking our guests tonight how
:01:02. > :01:03.they would define what this year has changed
:01:04. > :01:10.won their first election in more than two decades.
:01:11. > :01:14.The year Labour chose a staunch Socialist as their new leader.
:01:15. > :01:16.And the year Germany opened her doors to a million
:01:17. > :01:18.migrants, who made a treacherous voyage across the continent
:01:19. > :01:23.Perhaps you'll remember the attacks in Paris,
:01:24. > :01:26.which opened and closed a year in which Isis made its presence felt
:01:27. > :01:28.right around the world and hastened a change of British
:01:29. > :01:34.But it was also the year identity politics began to dominate as never
:01:35. > :01:37.before - be it the race riots in Baltimore, the banning
:01:38. > :01:38.of the Confederate Flag, or the transformation
:01:39. > :01:46.Tonight, we try and cram 365 days into 30 minutes.
:01:47. > :01:58.We begin with a look at the political year at home.
:01:59. > :02:01.You face a stark choice, the next Prime Minister walking
:02:02. > :02:06.through that door will be me or Ed Miliband.
:02:07. > :02:21.These six pledges are now carved in stone.
:02:22. > :02:23.We don't want to replace the Tories with Tory light.
:02:24. > :02:26.We need to replace the Tories with something better.
:02:27. > :02:31.I said I would stand for a full second
:02:32. > :02:34.term, but I think after that, it will be time for new leadership.
:02:35. > :02:38.Here it is, ten o'clock, and we are saying
:02:39. > :02:42.that the Conservatives are the largest party.
:02:43. > :02:49.Mhairi Black, Scottish National Party, 23,000...
:02:50. > :02:51.I'm sorry, there's too much noise, too many
:02:52. > :03:02.Achieving that dream of getting Labour out and getting the Tories
:03:03. > :03:08.But I think this is the sweetest victory.
:03:09. > :03:11.I am standing down as leader of Ukip.
:03:12. > :03:13.And therefore, I announce that I will be
:03:14. > :03:16.resigning as leader of the Liberal Democrats.
:03:17. > :03:18.I am tendering my resignation, taking effect after this
:03:19. > :03:24.afternoon's commemoration of VE Day at the Cenotaph.
:03:25. > :03:47.The next Prime Minister, Jeremy Corbyn.
:03:48. > :03:52.What my heart says is, I should really be without politics.
:03:53. > :03:54.Well, get a transplant, because that's just daft.
:03:55. > :03:56.People are saying all kinds of bad things about us.
:03:57. > :04:04.Jeremy Corbyn, 251,417 votes, which represents 59.5%.
:04:05. > :04:12.The government defeated on its cuts to tax credits,
:04:13. > :04:26.The simplest thing to do is not to phase these
:04:27. > :04:28.changes in, but to avoid them altogether.
:04:29. > :04:38.I brought him along Mao's Little Red Book.
:04:39. > :04:46.We are here faced by fascists.
:04:47. > :04:53.Not just their calculated brutality,
:04:54. > :04:56.but their belief that they are superior to every single one of us
:04:57. > :05:00.And that is why I ask my colleagues to vote for this motion
:05:01. > :05:06.Let me introduce our panel of familiar names then:
:05:07. > :05:10.Germaine Greer, Danny Finkelstein, Lord Finkelstein, Gary Younge
:05:11. > :05:29.David Cameron saying he was going or Jeremy Corbyn said, I don't care,
:05:30. > :05:36.what do we make of this? In that package, there was an extraordinary
:05:37. > :05:44.late flowering of Mick is Mo from candidates -- match and. Nicola
:05:45. > :05:53.Sturgeon felt like the most powerful and strength -- strong person in
:05:54. > :05:56.that moment. After the election, there was something that needed to
:05:57. > :06:01.express a notion of where part of the left was and how that part of
:06:02. > :06:06.the election that existed certainly end my experience and on social
:06:07. > :06:10.media suddenly had not translated into what the candidacy was under
:06:11. > :06:13.was a moment to be seized. He seized it with that straight talking or the
:06:14. > :06:20.idea of massive change, I do not know. Did straight talking land
:06:21. > :06:24.David Cameron and Corbyn in power? The big political item is we should
:06:25. > :06:28.pay attention to the fundamentals moving politics and not be so
:06:29. > :06:32.influenced by things going up and down. Afterwards, everybody said,
:06:33. > :06:36.look at that amazing headstone and everything on it and what a
:06:37. > :06:40.ridiculous mistake, that did not settle the election. It was big
:06:41. > :06:45.things about the economy and political leadership. And if we
:06:46. > :06:48.learn from the election results to keep our analysis to those very big
:06:49. > :06:52.things, we will be able to predict better what will happen in the
:06:53. > :06:57.future. Gary, you have been out of the country for ten years, what is
:06:58. > :07:01.your sense of UK politics? With Corbyn, I thought there was an
:07:02. > :07:06.entity that had been missing from a lot of British politics before,
:07:07. > :07:08.almost like everything had to be road-tested and this was somebody
:07:09. > :07:15.who spoke his mind and stored for more than office. When I look at the
:07:16. > :07:19.British election in Chicago at the time, it seems to me a much more
:07:20. > :07:25.confused picture on what you are painting. I was Scotland, London,
:07:26. > :07:32.England, Ukip doing well but not well enough to win a lot of seats.
:07:33. > :07:37.It seems like... I try to explain to people in America and I said it was
:07:38. > :07:40.a very, very fragmented country. Do you think the left will be
:07:41. > :07:48.vindicated in their choice of Jeremy Corbyn? Well, vindicated is a funny
:07:49. > :07:53.word to use here. I think what the young people were voting for and
:07:54. > :07:58.hoping for and what they were agitating for was opposition. They
:07:59. > :08:05.wanted proper opposition, principled, eloquent, determined
:08:06. > :08:11.opposition. I am not at all sure it is a bit much to ask of Jeremy
:08:12. > :08:15.Corbyn. Because the first test he faced was not singing the national
:08:16. > :08:22.anthem. At the Cenotaph or wherever it was. And instead of saying,
:08:23. > :08:27.excuse me, I am a Republican number one, and they do not believe in God
:08:28. > :08:32.so don't ask me to stand here and pretend that I am one of you because
:08:33. > :08:39.most importantly, I am not one of you. In fact, I have another group
:08:40. > :08:45.of supporters. It is nothing to do with electability. Everybody talked
:08:46. > :08:51.about Labour as if it was a government waiting to be collected.
:08:52. > :08:54.It is not collectable but it has to be done. Speaking your mind is the
:08:55. > :08:58.easiest thing in politics, anybody can speak their mind but it is
:08:59. > :09:02.whether you can get anybody to agree. Skill in politics is to
:09:03. > :09:07.retain the core of things you believe and to add people to your
:09:08. > :09:11.cause. I very much question whether Corbyn has that ability and the
:09:12. > :09:15.reason you conducted focus groups is to find out what other people think
:09:16. > :09:18.and not invented in your own head and assume everyone agrees with you.
:09:19. > :09:23.The things people dismiss from Tony Blair consulting public focus groups
:09:24. > :09:29.and being guided by the public, that is the job of a politician. Anybody
:09:30. > :09:34.can say what they think. It is a very interesting point about
:09:35. > :09:37.opposition. Is that this man, the Lords, essentially providing
:09:38. > :09:42.opposition to the government as we saw over tax credits and in David
:09:43. > :09:45.Cameron's response to what is happening? Do you think we are
:09:46. > :09:49.missing that voice of opposition strong enough? I think on the
:09:50. > :09:53.question of democracy, and the question of opposition. But as what
:09:54. > :09:58.Corbyn came from, a sense that within the Democratic posters, that
:09:59. > :10:02.had not been radically expressed. Serious questions remain about
:10:03. > :10:07.whether the system we have is accurately reflecting the will of
:10:08. > :10:13.the country. The Lords, it has gone on an extraordinary journey. To
:10:14. > :10:16.imagine a space in which the opposition becomes the unelected
:10:17. > :10:20.chamber and that is what we look to. To hold the check and balance, it
:10:21. > :10:26.puts democracy in a very strange place. This could also be remembered
:10:27. > :10:30.as the year that everybody got it wrong. If we had started in this
:10:31. > :10:35.place last year, we would not have called it the way we had. Quite.
:10:36. > :10:41.There needs to be a moral centre to politics. You do not back -- get
:10:42. > :10:44.that from a focus group, you do not get that from a poll, it you get
:10:45. > :10:49.that from standing for something more than power and Corbyn offers
:10:50. > :10:54.something that people want which is somebody who believes in their cause
:10:55. > :11:01.-- in their core in something. That had been lacking. I am saying the
:11:02. > :11:04.job of a Democratic politician is to accommodate other principles and
:11:05. > :11:08.express their own and any great political leader succeeds in doing
:11:09. > :11:12.that and that is a job in a democratic system. At the end of
:11:13. > :11:15.this year, we are talking more about Jeremy Corbyn than the Conservatives
:11:16. > :11:19.winning the election of the SNP in Scotland. Or about Ukip. That has
:11:20. > :11:25.dominated more than any other political moment this year? It has
:11:26. > :11:29.been extraordinary because just about everything that happened has
:11:30. > :11:35.been interpreted as evidence of splits in the Labour Party. You
:11:36. > :11:42.believe that democracy has to have a centre. Politicians have to have a
:11:43. > :11:45.moral core, I think. I am not sure whether they have or not. The bit of
:11:46. > :11:48.Tony whether they have or not. The bit of
:11:49. > :11:54.lying which is something he is fairly famous for!
:11:55. > :11:59.lying which is something he is truth all the time. My
:12:00. > :12:03.lying which is something he is consensus in a country as big as
:12:04. > :12:11.this with as many different streams, religious, cultural and so on is
:12:12. > :12:14.nonsensical. What you have is accommodation, negotiation and
:12:15. > :12:15.compromise. It is what the British have always been good at. With a
:12:16. > :12:20.caveat about have always been good at. With a
:12:21. > :12:25.when you look at the Conservatives now, who is up and down? I do think
:12:26. > :12:27.a good point is to understand this has been a
:12:28. > :12:29.a good point is to understand this Cameron and that is such a banal
:12:30. > :12:33.point to make because he won Cameron and that is such a banal
:12:34. > :12:35.general election, it seems strange to make it. The political
:12:36. > :12:39.conversation always to make it. The political
:12:40. > :12:40.people forget that. He has now won to make it. The political
:12:41. > :12:46.Minister in history so to make it. The political
:12:47. > :12:49.fourth in terms of winning to make it. The political
:12:50. > :12:50.does express something about the country. You have not mentioned
:12:51. > :12:56.anything about country. You have not mentioned
:12:57. > :12:58.him! We all know the candidates and it is too early to say. Stay right
:12:59. > :13:02.here, we will be back. 2015 was also a year in which images
:13:03. > :13:05.had the power to change policy. A three-year-old Syrian boy washed
:13:06. > :13:08.up on a Turkish beach seemed to stop the world in its tracks
:13:09. > :13:10.and redefine our response This was a year framed -
:13:11. > :13:15.in grim symmetry - And a reminder that Isis was no
:13:16. > :13:19.longer contained within the Middle And then came the rise
:13:20. > :13:26.of one Donald J Trump. But here's something
:13:27. > :13:29.to jog your memory. We will continue to do everything
:13:30. > :13:44.in our power to help France seek the justice that is needed,
:13:45. > :13:47.and that all our countries He has set his party and his country
:13:48. > :13:55.on a collision course with the mighty
:13:56. > :14:07.institutions of the EU. You can see all these
:14:08. > :14:29.discarded clothes here. They are stuck outside in the cold,
:14:30. > :14:47.with no idea how long Murder and mayhem across three
:14:48. > :15:11.continents, as Isis It is a great honour for us
:15:12. > :15:17.to announce that we have reached an agreement on the
:15:18. > :15:23.Iranian nuclear issue. For two days, a new force has gone
:15:24. > :15:36.to work on Syria's battlefield. My message to the French people
:15:37. > :15:41.is simple - we stand Donald J Trump is calling
:15:42. > :15:48.for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering
:15:49. > :15:54.the United States. I am very, very proud and humbled
:15:55. > :16:07.that our son is up there. Let's go back to Danny,
:16:08. > :16:18.Germaine, Gary and Josie. Perhaps the policy define this year
:16:19. > :16:22.was Angela Merkel opening the door to migrants. Do you think she will
:16:23. > :16:29.be vindicated? How do you think history will view that decision? I
:16:30. > :16:33.do think she will be vindicated. There was this moment across the
:16:34. > :16:39.continent when large numbers of people came out. I have only just
:16:40. > :16:47.come back to the country. They came out with nappies and food and there
:16:48. > :16:51.was this very human moment. It wasn't clear that it was there
:16:52. > :16:57.before. It had a kind of human relationship to these migrants. What
:16:58. > :17:00.happened prior to that was quite shameful in terms of the migrants
:17:01. > :17:14.that had been left to drown off the coast of Libya. European racism
:17:15. > :17:18.killed those people. Had it not been that the Ukip, this sense every
:17:19. > :17:21.government had that they had to look over there right shoulder for bigots
:17:22. > :17:25.and racists, if they hadn't done that, they wouldn't have died. I
:17:26. > :17:32.cannot agree that, the idea they were killed European races, it is
:17:33. > :17:37.too simplistic. We cannot solve this problem entirely by taking refugees.
:17:38. > :17:44.I am completely sympathetic with the idea Europe must take refugees, I
:17:45. > :17:49.understand that completely. But you could see by the number and what
:17:50. > :17:54.they are fleeing that you cannot solve the problem in that way. We
:17:55. > :17:59.have problems we're not going to be able to solve. We think there is an
:18:00. > :18:04.endgame. We always talking about if we do this, what is the endgame?
:18:05. > :18:10.They're just lots of action is where we do the best we can in the
:18:11. > :18:14.circumstances we have. We respond as human beings, or we have a security
:18:15. > :18:18.response and we try to help as best as we can in very difficult
:18:19. > :18:25.situations. Why do you think so many countries did not take refugees and
:18:26. > :18:34.Britain shamefully taking very few? It is not so much the right because
:18:35. > :18:39.you are assuming that that policy has a fairly limited appeal. It is
:18:40. > :18:46.an overall feeling that human beings have about strangers, which
:18:47. > :18:51.unfortunately is deep in people. It is within people. What I was
:18:52. > :18:55.disagreeing with is the reason why people died in this situation was to
:18:56. > :19:01.do with European racism, but it is not it is to do with the wars they
:19:02. > :19:06.have fled. Compassion and refuge sits deep in people. It is not
:19:07. > :19:13.everybody didn't want to take as many refugees as Germany would do...
:19:14. > :19:19.It has been an interesting manipulation of the public, who saw
:19:20. > :19:24.a picture of a young boy who died and felt one thing, saw pictures of
:19:25. > :19:28.attacks in Paris and felt the shift. It has been a year where people
:19:29. > :19:35.haven't been comfortable knowing which side of the fence they are on?
:19:36. > :19:41.It has been an awful year, everything that has gone wrong has
:19:42. > :19:46.gone wrong. We cannot sort ourselves out over Syria, we cannot make sense
:19:47. > :19:52.of any of it. This evening, there was a plea on behalf of of an
:19:53. > :19:56.adviser to Bashar al-Assad, for people to come and talk to the
:19:57. > :20:00.government. Why won't people talk to the government? In the end we will
:20:01. > :20:06.have to talk, bombing will not get us anywhere. Bashar al-Assad does
:20:07. > :20:11.not think bombing will not get him anywhere. We should let him speak to
:20:12. > :20:21.us occasionally, before we decide that. OK. Before Angela Merkel
:20:22. > :20:27.deciding they would take a million migrants, I'm not sure how that will
:20:28. > :20:31.be for her. She is normally cautious, thoughtful rather dull
:20:32. > :20:38.politician, but she manages to keep the boat steady and get us to some
:20:39. > :20:45.decisions we thought we would never arrive at. I think the situation is
:20:46. > :20:50.too volatile. We have already had Robins for Turks in Germany. Now
:20:51. > :20:56.this new wave of migrants might just be the last straw that breaks the
:20:57. > :21:01.right wing camel's back. But the right wing camel is an irritable
:21:02. > :21:06.creature. Let's talk about the rise of Donald Trump. Some would say his
:21:07. > :21:16.role model, Vladimir Putin! You think there is anything in that
:21:17. > :21:22.comparison in these big beasts? No! They are both quite eccentric,
:21:23. > :21:27.outspoken characters. To that extent they are quite similar. I would
:21:28. > :21:34.actually put Donald Trump more in a box with Marine Le Pen and other
:21:35. > :21:40.European far right characters whose base is terrified by
:21:41. > :21:46.cosmopolitanism, by the outside world. He talks about the Chinese
:21:47. > :21:53.being cheats and Muslims have to go away. I think Donald Trump is part
:21:54. > :22:00.of a global expression of fear of the outside world. Do you get the
:22:01. > :22:09.sense of how to build an audience and what underpins his sense in all
:22:10. > :22:15.of this? Vanity. He is the most distorting Selvie stick of an event.
:22:16. > :22:17.We have to engage it because it is the American political process, but
:22:18. > :22:23.I try not to think about Donald Trump. The good thing about Donald
:22:24. > :22:34.Trump, he is limited, even though it is shocking. You are still saying
:22:35. > :22:37.that? I think it is possible to see people from extreme groups taking
:22:38. > :22:44.over parties, but not possible to see them winning broad, democratic
:22:45. > :22:48.elections. I don't think he will win an election. He represents a
:22:49. > :22:56.constituency that fears that. Often does it for understandable,
:22:57. > :23:01.democratic reasons. But that is limited and it will mean he can get
:23:02. > :23:09.to a certain point but no further. The old by-election was the same
:23:10. > :23:11.phenomenon, it was limited. I mentioned identity politics, who
:23:12. > :23:19.could have foreseen the stepfather of the world's most googled person,
:23:20. > :23:25.Kim Kardashian would come out as woman of the year.
:23:26. > :23:30.as Glamour magazine's Woman of the Year.
:23:31. > :23:33.in race relations over allegations she'd lied about her racial
:23:34. > :23:36.2015 saw gay marriage legalised in Ireland and across the US,
:23:37. > :23:41.Once again, forgive the brevity. religion should
:23:42. > :23:49.MUSIC: Take Me To Church by Hozier.
:23:50. > :23:51.I actually don't like the term African-American.
:23:52. > :23:57.Yes, I do consider myself to be black.
:23:58. > :24:23.Bruce has lived a lie his whole life about who he is.
:24:24. > :24:29.He/she wanted the limelight that the other female members
:24:30. > :24:46.of the family were enjoying, and has conquered it just like that.
:24:47. > :24:57.This theme emerging of self-determination. Do you get to
:24:58. > :25:04.choose, define your own gender? I don't imagine... It depends, a bit.
:25:05. > :25:08.I am interested in intersex, so far from being transferred it, I think
:25:09. > :25:13.intersex is an important state of life and should be allowed to exist.
:25:14. > :25:19.But what do we do with intersex children. We give them what we think
:25:20. > :25:29.is appropriate genitalia. I want to bring you back to that question when
:25:30. > :25:36.Caitlin... Are we interested, really? She was a seminal moment. If
:25:37. > :25:43.she calls herself a woman, does it make her a woman in your book?
:25:44. > :25:47.she calls herself a woman, does it but I don't mind her calling herself
:25:48. > :25:56.a woman, I could call myself a cocker spaniel. For indigenous
:25:57. > :26:00.people for example, you don't get to choose who is part of your group,
:26:01. > :26:11.you get consulted. I wanted to be Jewish, but I couldn't. This whole
:26:12. > :26:18.idea of whether an operation could reassign your fault gender identity?
:26:19. > :26:24.I guess the people who are having these operations believe they can
:26:25. > :26:27.and that on some level, one has to take that. People have the right to
:26:28. > :26:38.call themselves what ever they want. You have to take that at face value.
:26:39. > :26:45.How they categorise themselves is a different thing. It is a tricky
:26:46. > :26:51.thing, which actually, generation early, I think younger people are
:26:52. > :26:57.much more comfortable with the grey areas than I certainly am. It's is
:26:58. > :27:02.something one has to engage with sensitively. Do you think it is a
:27:03. > :27:09.generational thing where we step back and everyone defines their own
:27:10. > :27:14.gender, or even their own race? I think race and gender are different.
:27:15. > :27:21.In terms of gender, we are talking about... And it is easy to do this,
:27:22. > :27:25.to be anecdotal on it, but for the people I know who are transsexual,
:27:26. > :27:29.that is their reality, they live through it and they wouldn't be
:27:30. > :27:34.having the debate, they have the right to define themselves. It is a
:27:35. > :27:41.fact of their existence and a fax of them being alive. Let me read this
:27:42. > :27:47.quote, race is not coded in your DNA and should be viewed like gender or
:27:48. > :27:53.religion. Do you think you can put race, gender and religion in the
:27:54. > :28:01.same group? It was interesting when you said you wanted to be Jewish,
:28:02. > :28:04.because I am. It is not a race, it is a people. It is a mixture of
:28:05. > :28:11.ethnic background, ideology, position. It is not just a simple
:28:12. > :28:17.thing. I am sympathetic to the idea she can choose her own people, her
:28:18. > :28:25.own grouping. Are you comfortable, if you like, and ethnically white
:28:26. > :28:28.woman, calling herself black? You can call yourself what are the
:28:29. > :28:38.wants, but it has to make sense. In the way that Caitlin is a woman does
:28:39. > :28:43.not make sense to Jermaine Greer. In Australia we have had interracial
:28:44. > :28:47.relationships were all of the stolen children generation came from. If
:28:48. > :28:52.you claim to be aboriginal and therefore entitled to some of the
:28:53. > :28:58.special treatment aboriginal people get, it is down to the community to
:28:59. > :29:03.accept you. If you have had the same experiences, regardless of whether
:29:04. > :29:07.your parents were white or black, whatever. If you have lived as an
:29:08. > :29:12.aboriginal person answer that the discrimination, they will accept
:29:13. > :29:15.two. Let's not trip so far from common sense that people can claim
:29:16. > :29:22.political rights as a black person when they not from Matt raised... It
:29:23. > :29:26.is the same with women. She was trying to take a political position.
:29:27. > :29:34.Would you say it is true for women, a man who has been through an
:29:35. > :29:40.operation can become a woman. That is your phone and you are not
:29:41. > :29:49.getting out of this question! One of the things Rachel did was make it
:29:50. > :29:57.clear what a nonsense race is. It is a social construct. Unfortunately
:29:58. > :30:02.for her in that definition, you look at black people being shot by the
:30:03. > :30:07.police and so on, it is not an abstract conversation it is a real
:30:08. > :30:14.thing that is happening. It is in those challenges. When we talk about
:30:15. > :30:20.trans people, being murdered in jail, hanging themselves in jail, it
:30:21. > :30:26.is not a debate, it is a reality. At the heart of all this, is the same
:30:27. > :30:31.argument for the writer not to be oppressed or speak out about and
:30:32. > :30:35.oppression you feel. Do you get a sense of where identity politics
:30:36. > :30:39.will take us? How you find your gender, race or even if you say
:30:40. > :30:48.migrants against refugees. What is your sense of what is coming towards
:30:49. > :30:51.us? It is very hard to tell. What is happening in identity politics is a
:30:52. > :30:57.year in which these extraordinary events have occurred, and Caitlin
:30:58. > :31:03.brought it quickly into the public discourse. Normally you tell the
:31:04. > :31:07.stories and they set on the margins for a while before they enter
:31:08. > :31:11.society. It feels like this is a year in which they have. The result
:31:12. > :31:13.of that, I don't think I am qualified to predict. Thank you very
:31:14. > :31:18.much. Well perhaps 2015 will be
:31:19. > :31:20.remembered for being the year Despite the balmy climate,
:31:21. > :31:24.the Christmas jumpers have been out in force and we wanted to send
:31:25. > :31:27.you off with the full festive Merry Christmas from all
:31:28. > :31:32.of us here, goodnight.