Browse content similar to 28/01/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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The fear gripping women in the Americas | :00:00. | :00:07. | |
about the Zika virus and birth defects. | :00:08. | :00:11. | |
The possible links, only recently suspected, | :00:12. | :00:13. | |
have rapidly changed the risk profile of Zika | :00:14. | :00:16. | |
from a mild threat to one of alarming proportions. | :00:17. | :00:22. | |
We have an exclusive interview with the woman | :00:23. | :00:24. | |
taking on the Brazillian government to overturn the anti-abortion law. | :00:25. | :00:30. | |
Should the UK put a stop to Saudi arms sales | :00:31. | :00:33. | |
after the damning UN report on civilian casualties in Yemen? | :00:34. | :00:37. | |
Systematic and widespread violations of the laws of war have taken place, | :00:38. | :00:41. | |
committed by both sides to this conflict, | :00:42. | :00:42. | |
They found that 119 strikes by the Saudis have breached | :00:43. | :00:48. | |
international humanitarian law, that is a very damning finding. | :00:49. | :00:51. | |
I'll be asking the Saudi ambassador to the UN | :00:52. | :00:54. | |
why Saudi planes are attacking non-military targets. | :00:55. | :01:00. | |
All that striving and idealism and hope and progress | :01:01. | :01:10. | |
and science and art and conscience, and it all ends like this, | :01:11. | :01:14. | |
And in an exclusive television interview, | :01:15. | :01:15. | |
Julian Barnes talks about heroes, cowards and Vladimir Putin | :01:16. | :01:18. | |
on the day his novel about Shostokovich is published. | :01:19. | :01:28. | |
An emergency World Health Organisation meeting today in Geneva | :01:29. | :01:32. | |
has declared that the mosquito-borne Zika virus, linked to a surge | :01:33. | :01:38. | |
of a birth defect called microcephaly in the Americas, | :01:39. | :01:40. | |
has become a threat of alarming proportions. | :01:41. | :01:47. | |
A causal relationship between Zika virus infection | :01:48. | :01:50. | |
and birth malformations and neurological syndromes | :01:51. | :01:53. | |
has not yet been established - this is a very important point. | :01:54. | :01:56. | |
The possible links, only recently suspected, | :01:57. | :02:03. | |
have rapidly changed the risk profile of Zika | :02:04. | :02:08. | |
from a mild threat to one of alarming proportions. | :02:09. | :02:12. | |
The increased incidence of microcephaly | :02:13. | :02:14. | |
as it places a heartbreaking burden on families and communities. | :02:15. | :02:24. | |
nor is there a vaccine to protect against it, | :02:25. | :02:29. | |
and the governments of some South American countries | :02:30. | :02:31. | |
are advising women not to get pregnant. | :02:32. | :02:33. | |
This outbreak, which began in Brazil, has spread to 20 countries, | :02:34. | :02:36. | |
and in all the countries of South and Central America, | :02:37. | :02:39. | |
there are stringent anti-abortion laws, | :02:40. | :02:42. | |
a fact which is leading some women to call for a change in the law. | :02:43. | :02:45. | |
by human-rights campaigner and lawyer Debora Deniz. | :02:46. | :02:53. | |
Good evening to you. Good evening. How fearful are women in Brazil and | :02:54. | :03:04. | |
in the Americas more general about Zika? We have to name who are these | :03:05. | :03:14. | |
women. Basically, they are poor women from two cities and the | :03:15. | :03:18. | |
Brazilian north-east. It is not, generally speaking, women in | :03:19. | :03:22. | |
general. They have social class, they have colour. So we talk about | :03:23. | :03:28. | |
black women. Of course, there is tremendous fear of getting pregnant, | :03:29. | :03:32. | |
of knowing what will happen after the delivery. What we have at this | :03:33. | :03:39. | |
moment in this country is a group of women who is in fear of getting | :03:40. | :03:45. | |
pregnant, and not knowing what will happen during the pregnancy. And | :03:46. | :03:52. | |
what women, a poor woman who is pregnant, what does she do if she | :03:53. | :03:56. | |
has the virus? What help does she get? What is open to her? In fact, | :03:57. | :04:03. | |
in Brazil, abortion is a crime, so if a woman performs and macro | :04:04. | :04:07. | |
abortion, she goes to the jail. We have only two exceptions, to save a | :04:08. | :04:14. | |
woman's life and in the case of rape. A recent decision at the | :04:15. | :04:22. | |
Brazilian Supreme Court authorises abortion in cases of anencephaly, | :04:23. | :04:32. | |
another foetal malformation which is incompatible with life. In cases of | :04:33. | :04:37. | |
microcephaly, women have to be pregnant, but it is important to | :04:38. | :04:41. | |
remember that we have a social class split in Brazil, so when we talk | :04:42. | :04:44. | |
about abortion, writes in general, we have to remember that wealthy | :04:45. | :04:53. | |
women will access safe and illegal but safe abortion, and poor women | :04:54. | :05:00. | |
will go to the illegal market or be pregnant. So tell me, what is the | :05:01. | :05:05. | |
challenge were making to the Supreme Court? At this moment, we are | :05:06. | :05:12. | |
planning to propose a case to the Brazilian Supreme Court. We have | :05:13. | :05:19. | |
vast experience in the case of anencephaly and the one who was in | :05:20. | :05:23. | |
the leading group to propose the case, and we won in 2012, and we are | :05:24. | :05:31. | |
naming this case as women's rights case, and it is basically, it has | :05:32. | :05:37. | |
three parts. The first one is we have a Minister of health who said | :05:38. | :05:43. | |
that we have lost the fight against the mosquito. We would like to tell | :05:44. | :05:52. | |
him that we have to win the fight against the mosquito. Before you | :05:53. | :05:56. | |
tell me about the others, I want to ask you about the criticism being | :05:57. | :06:00. | |
levelled, that you are using the Zika virus and the fear about it to | :06:01. | :06:05. | |
change the abortion laws, that this is a bigger women's rights issue | :06:06. | :06:14. | |
right now. Yes, the case is not only to change the Brazilian legislation | :06:15. | :06:18. | |
on abortion. As I said, it is a women's rights case. Because we have | :06:19. | :06:22. | |
to fight against the mosquito, but we have to offer a comprehensive | :06:23. | :06:27. | |
sexual and reproductive health care to women. We live in a country where | :06:28. | :06:34. | |
poor women do not have access to contraceptives, to have the early | :06:35. | :06:38. | |
diagnosis of microcephaly, and abortion is only one piece of this. | :06:39. | :06:44. | |
And indeed with microcephaly, and the way that ejection is made, it | :06:45. | :06:51. | |
can sometimes be with a very late ultrasound in the eighth month of | :06:52. | :06:55. | |
pregnancy, when an abortion is not an option. I know, but I think that | :06:56. | :07:04. | |
we are moving ahead, and the moment that we have now, we can have access | :07:05. | :07:10. | |
to diagnosis in an early moment of pregnancy. If women have full access | :07:11. | :07:16. | |
to prenatal care. The problem in this country is even the diagnosis | :07:17. | :07:21. | |
the aid not have, so I think that you are asking me something to the | :07:22. | :07:26. | |
public powers, so it is probably a second moment after we will have the | :07:27. | :07:30. | |
case, and if we change the situation in this country. But this is not | :07:31. | :07:38. | |
only an abortion case, the way that we are planning it. It is more than | :07:39. | :07:42. | |
that. It is a women's rights case. There is a third part. We have, at | :07:43. | :07:50. | |
this moment, as the Minister of Help said, a new generation of children | :07:51. | :07:57. | |
with microcephaly. We need a strong welfare state to care for them, to | :07:58. | :08:02. | |
take care of them. Because many women will want to continue their | :08:03. | :08:08. | |
pregnancy and have a child, however damaged that child might be, because | :08:09. | :08:12. | |
they want that child, so presumably the welfare care is one of the most | :08:13. | :08:18. | |
important elements of this. Of course, but we have to consider all | :08:19. | :08:23. | |
the possibilities. We have to fight against the mosquito, we have to | :08:24. | :08:27. | |
protect women's rights. How big a moment could this be for Brazil, do | :08:28. | :08:34. | |
you think? Sorry? How big a moment could this be for Brazil, do you | :08:35. | :08:45. | |
think? Yeah. You know, this is kind of... We are living and a | :08:46. | :08:52. | |
conservative national congress, and this kind of scandal and corruption | :08:53. | :08:58. | |
that we are facing, and this is a case to reframe what we need for | :08:59. | :09:05. | |
public health needs. So I am not ignoring that we have a community of | :09:06. | :09:12. | |
disability rights that has to be with us in a case like this. Thank | :09:13. | :09:19. | |
you. But my point is that... Oh. I am afraid we have to ended there, | :09:20. | :09:23. | |
Debora Deniz, thank you for joining us from Brasilia. | :09:24. | :09:25. | |
At Westminster today, the Shadow Foreign Secretary | :09:26. | :09:27. | |
called on the Government immediately to suspend all arms sales | :09:28. | :09:29. | |
to Saudi Arabia following the UN report on Yemen by a panel | :09:30. | :09:34. | |
on civilian targets in violation of international humanitarian law. | :09:35. | :09:39. | |
It said that 60%, more than 2,500 civilian deaths and injuries, | :09:40. | :09:42. | |
What is not clear is whether any British supplied weaponry, | :09:43. | :09:48. | |
airplanes or bombs, were used in these attacks. | :09:49. | :09:54. | |
Here's our diplomatic editor, Mark Urban. | :09:55. | :09:56. | |
The Saudi-led coalition struck targets around Yemen again | :09:57. | :10:01. | |
yesterday, part of the campaign that began ten months ago. | :10:02. | :10:05. | |
As it has gone on, the humanitarian situation has worsened | :10:06. | :10:08. | |
and allegations been made of deliberate targeting | :10:09. | :10:11. | |
The leaked report from a UN fact-finding mission has now set out | :10:12. | :10:18. | |
allegations that air strikes have breached humanitarian law. | :10:19. | :10:23. | |
because it found that systematic and widespread violations | :10:24. | :10:27. | |
of the laws of war have taken place, committed by both sides | :10:28. | :10:30. | |
to this conflict, including the Saudi-led coalition. | :10:31. | :10:32. | |
They found that 119 strikes by the Saudis | :10:33. | :10:34. | |
have breached international humanitarian law. | :10:35. | :10:36. | |
Because they were targeted badly or...? | :10:37. | :10:42. | |
Well, the principles of international humanitarian law | :10:43. | :10:44. | |
require the warring parties to distinguish | :10:45. | :10:45. | |
between military targets and civilian objects. | :10:46. | :10:49. | |
We found that schools and mosques and markets and residential areas | :10:50. | :10:52. | |
have been hit by the Saudi-led coalition, | :10:53. | :10:54. | |
The report has made the British Government's position trickier. | :10:55. | :10:59. | |
Having long sold Saudi Arabia combat aircraft and bombs, | :11:00. | :11:02. | |
Britain is now finding that lucrative relationship under fire. | :11:03. | :11:08. | |
Given the detail of the UN panel's report and the extreme seriousness | :11:09. | :11:12. | |
of its findings, will the Government now suspend arms sales | :11:13. | :11:15. | |
to Saudi Arabia until that investigation concludes? | :11:16. | :11:19. | |
Mr Speaker, this is about whether the Government | :11:20. | :11:22. | |
is implementing its own arms-control rules. | :11:23. | :11:27. | |
has been to question the accuracy of that latest UN report. | :11:28. | :11:35. | |
The people who wrote this report didn't go there. | :11:36. | :11:38. | |
They are basing this on satellite technology. | :11:39. | :11:41. | |
That does not mean to say that we dismiss it at all, | :11:42. | :11:44. | |
And I commit myself to sit down with the Saudi Arabians | :11:45. | :11:49. | |
to make sure that we go through this with a fine-tooth comb. | :11:50. | :11:53. | |
But as the Foreign Secretary made clear to Newsnight, | :11:54. | :11:57. | |
the UK is now paying close attention to these allegations. | :11:58. | :12:01. | |
The Saudis deny that there have been any breaches | :12:02. | :12:03. | |
Obviously, that denial alone is not enough, | :12:04. | :12:08. | |
we need to see proper investigations. | :12:09. | :12:11. | |
We need to work with the Saudis to establish | :12:12. | :12:13. | |
that international humanitarian law has been complied with. | :12:14. | :12:18. | |
The pressure group Campaign Against The Arms Trade | :12:19. | :12:21. | |
is now preparing a legal challenge to the British | :12:22. | :12:26. | |
Government's export licences for weapons to Saudi Arabia. | :12:27. | :12:30. | |
The UK Government has failed to make sufficient inquiries as to the basis | :12:31. | :12:33. | |
for these Saudi assurances to enable it lawfully to conclude that, | :12:34. | :12:37. | |
notwithstanding the evidence to the contrary, | :12:38. | :12:40. | |
there is not a clear risk that military equipment | :12:41. | :12:45. | |
may be used in violations of international humanitarian law. | :12:46. | :12:49. | |
The Yemeni conflict has claimed thousands of lives | :12:50. | :12:52. | |
people like these amputees at a makeshift rehabilitation centre. | :12:53. | :13:00. | |
The UN also accuses Houthi rebels of breaching humanitarian law, | :13:01. | :13:04. | |
may be used in violations of international humanitarian law. | :13:05. | :13:10. | |
and in fighting against those irregulars | :13:11. | :13:13. | |
the Saudis can claim the backing of the UN resolution. | :13:14. | :13:15. | |
But however much they say right is on their side, | :13:16. | :13:18. | |
the issue of civilian casualties is becoming a big problem for them | :13:19. | :13:20. | |
Earlier, I spoke to Ambassador Abdallah bin Yahya Al-Moallimi, | :13:21. | :13:26. | |
the Saudi representative to the United Nations. | :13:27. | :13:33. | |
I began by asking him whether he had admitted the charge in the reports | :13:34. | :13:41. | |
that there had been 119 Saudi coalition air strikes in violation | :13:42. | :13:44. | |
of humanitarian law. We deny that we have had any raids aimed at anything | :13:45. | :13:54. | |
but military targets of the Houthis and the forces of the former | :13:55. | :13:59. | |
president. We do not know the source of the information that was provided | :14:00. | :14:07. | |
in the report. We believe that these sources have been mostly Houthi | :14:08. | :14:10. | |
related propaganda individuals and agencies. We do not think that the | :14:11. | :14:17. | |
team had sufficient presence on the ground to be able to document that. | :14:18. | :14:23. | |
These strikes included refugee camps, weddings, two hospitals, | :14:24. | :14:31. | |
water bottling plant, Oxfam food warehouse. If they were targets then | :14:32. | :14:40. | |
your bombs were aimed very badly. No, the wedding is proven to be an | :14:41. | :14:47. | |
erroneous report. It was a gathering of forces loyal to the president. | :14:48. | :14:59. | |
The Medecins Sans Frontieres, one of them we acknowledged was a mistake | :15:00. | :15:04. | |
and we spoke with them. Look, mistakes do happen. But the extent | :15:05. | :15:11. | |
of these mistakes is not as wide as it has been reported. But the point | :15:12. | :15:18. | |
is that 60% of civilian deaths, according to this report, 2682 | :15:19. | :15:23. | |
people were from air launched explosives by the coalition. Is that | :15:24. | :15:30. | |
an acceptable number? No, it is not, and it is a hugely overestimated | :15:31. | :15:35. | |
number. We think that the vast majority of the civilian casualties | :15:36. | :15:38. | |
have been the result of arbitrary artillery shelling is by the | :15:39. | :15:45. | |
Houthis. So a bottling plant, Oxfam food warehouse, a refugee camp, are | :15:46. | :15:53. | |
you seriously suggesting that Houthis were using an Oxfam food | :15:54. | :16:02. | |
warehouse to house their troops? Probably not. I'm not particularly | :16:03. | :16:05. | |
familiar with the Oxfam food warehouse. But I'm certainly used | :16:06. | :16:11. | |
the bottling plant. I'm certain that what was described as a wedding | :16:12. | :16:15. | |
gathering was nothing but a gathering of military troops, and | :16:16. | :16:19. | |
many others. Can you guarantee that none of the civilian deaths in Yemen | :16:20. | :16:23. | |
were as a result of the use of British weaponry? I can guarantee | :16:24. | :16:29. | |
that all the weaponry that are in possession of the Saudi Armed Forces | :16:30. | :16:33. | |
and the Armed Forces of the coalition are used to target | :16:34. | :16:37. | |
military targets, and are used in conformity with international | :16:38. | :16:43. | |
humanitarian law. Why did you want the resolution for an independent | :16:44. | :16:45. | |
investigation into what was happening with civilian deaths in | :16:46. | :16:50. | |
Yemen to be shelved? We supported an alternative resolution that was | :16:51. | :16:56. | |
presented and suggested by the veggie debate government of Yemen. | :16:57. | :17:00. | |
That government itself is accused of war crimes. What have you got to | :17:01. | :17:03. | |
lose with an independent investigation? Surely that's what's | :17:04. | :17:08. | |
needed, if indeed it is a possibility that 60% of civilian | :17:09. | :17:11. | |
deaths are caused by explosives from the air? We can't work based on | :17:12. | :17:18. | |
assumptions that are made on an arbitrary basis. It is a UN | :17:19. | :17:26. | |
investigation. No, it is not a UN investigation. It is a report that | :17:27. | :17:29. | |
was collected outside of a UN mandate and it was based on | :17:30. | :17:34. | |
information provided by the Houthis in most cases. Let me just turn to | :17:35. | :17:41. | |
another aspect of this. There are at least six British military advisers | :17:42. | :17:45. | |
in the command and control centre for the coalition, what do they do? | :17:46. | :17:49. | |
I do not know, I am not willing to talk about the command and control | :17:50. | :17:53. | |
centre or what the military personnel do there. Would you accept | :17:54. | :17:59. | |
that these British military trainers would be looking to make sure no | :18:00. | :18:03. | |
British weaponry was used in anyway that could kill or maim civilians? | :18:04. | :18:08. | |
No, I don't think I would expect them to be doing that, that is the | :18:09. | :18:12. | |
responsibility of the Saudi Armed Forces. As far as we are concerned | :18:13. | :18:17. | |
it does not and whether they are British supplied, American supplied, | :18:18. | :18:21. | |
once they are in our possession they are Saudi weapons and weapons of the | :18:22. | :18:27. | |
coalition. And we intend to use them as responsibly as we possibly can | :18:28. | :18:31. | |
and in full conformity with international laws and regulations. | :18:32. | :18:37. | |
If the British military advisers advised you not to hit a certain | :18:38. | :18:42. | |
target, would the Saudis comply with that? That's not of anybody's | :18:43. | :18:49. | |
business other than the military leaders of the Saudi and coalition | :18:50. | :18:53. | |
Armed Forces. The reason I'm asking this is because Philip Hammond, | :18:54. | :18:58. | |
Foreign Secretary, came on Newsnight in September and called for proper | :18:59. | :19:02. | |
investigations into Saudi air strikes in Yemen and he said that | :19:03. | :19:08. | |
Saudi assurances of compliance with humanitarian law are not enough. I | :19:09. | :19:12. | |
wonder what representations the British government have made to you | :19:13. | :19:16. | |
following that. You would have to ask that question to Philip Hammond | :19:17. | :19:19. | |
and the British government. Because if it is seen to be that coalition | :19:20. | :19:24. | |
strikes are in violation of international humanitarian law, UK | :19:25. | :19:29. | |
sales of arms to Saudi would have to hold if they have been found to be | :19:30. | :19:33. | |
in breach of international law. And I wonder if there was a suspension | :19:34. | :19:37. | |
of British arms sales, how the Saudis would respond. We conduct our | :19:38. | :19:43. | |
activities with the utmost care and responsibility and we do not expect | :19:44. | :19:46. | |
any such action to be taken by the UK Government, or to be required to | :19:47. | :19:54. | |
start with. Ambassador, thank you very much indeed. Thank you. | :19:55. | :19:57. | |
Last summer, Newsnight and BuzzFeed News started a run | :19:58. | :19:59. | |
of reports on Kids Company, the celebrated youth-work charity, | :20:00. | :20:02. | |
as it ran into trouble and collapsed. | :20:03. | :20:06. | |
One of those reports, into allegations by former staff | :20:07. | :20:11. | |
members that the charity failed to report sexual abuse and violence | :20:12. | :20:14. | |
by clients of the charity, sparked a police investigation. | :20:15. | :20:16. | |
Today, the police announced that they do not have sufficient | :20:17. | :20:18. | |
In an interview with BBC News today, Ms Batmangeilidjh had this to say. | :20:19. | :20:26. | |
They behaved incredibly honourably, and they kept boundaries, | :20:27. | :20:34. | |
and they did their investigations based on fact. | :20:35. | :20:40. | |
But the fact is, when a children's charity is accused of sexually | :20:41. | :20:43. | |
abusing the children in its care, it's the kiss of death. | :20:44. | :20:46. | |
Chris Cook, who has led on this story for Newsnight, is with us. | :20:47. | :20:51. | |
Is this a clean bill of health now for Kids Company? If you talk to the | :20:52. | :20:58. | |
former leaders they have always talked about how they thought these | :20:59. | :21:02. | |
allegations were unfounded, even talked about some of them being | :21:03. | :21:05. | |
malicious, and they see this as real vindication. In more neutral terms | :21:06. | :21:10. | |
what has happened, Scotland Yard have been investigating for six | :21:11. | :21:13. | |
months and they just don't have enough evidence to mount a | :21:14. | :21:16. | |
prosecution. There are a couple of strands still going on, and it is | :21:17. | :21:20. | |
worth keeping an eye on the Charity commission, looking at the financial | :21:21. | :21:24. | |
side. It is worth a member in a lot of the allegations about Kids | :21:25. | :21:28. | |
Company, particularly the ones we published, were about the misuse of | :21:29. | :21:32. | |
funds, not illegal things but odd use of money. One thing from the | :21:33. | :21:39. | |
video we saw, she talked about the charity being accused of abusing | :21:40. | :21:42. | |
children in its care, I don't think anybody accuse them of that. The | :21:43. | :21:45. | |
issue was they heard complaints about clients of theirs and they did | :21:46. | :21:49. | |
not do enough with them, did not take them to the authorities. So | :21:50. | :21:54. | |
where does that leave all of this? They are really not vindicated on a | :21:55. | :21:59. | |
lot of things. This is very welcome news for the charity, but they have | :22:00. | :22:03. | |
warranty had a report from the National Audit Office which | :22:04. | :22:07. | |
questioned the use of ?40 million of public money. We have had a report | :22:08. | :22:10. | |
from the Public Accounts Committee of MPs that said the government put | :22:11. | :22:15. | |
money into what they said was a failed, expensive experiment. A new | :22:16. | :22:19. | |
report is expected next Monday from another committee of MPs, the public | :22:20. | :22:23. | |
administration committee. What is that likely to say? We don't know, | :22:24. | :22:28. | |
but what we can say is that they've been looking at governance of the | :22:29. | :22:32. | |
charity, its effectiveness. They've heard more evidence than anybody | :22:33. | :22:36. | |
else. They've heard cases where clients were given almost ?1000 a | :22:37. | :22:42. | |
week in support by the charity. They've heard evidence that perhaps | :22:43. | :22:45. | |
the charity didn't help nearly as many people as it said it was | :22:46. | :22:49. | |
helping. They've heard evidence from local authority officials about | :22:50. | :22:52. | |
whether it was a safe place for young people. It is worth pointing | :22:53. | :22:57. | |
out that the person who is likely to be reading this report is the former | :22:58. | :23:02. | |
chair of the trustees. Because the trustees are really going to get a | :23:03. | :23:05. | |
kick in, I would expect. Alan Yentob, the former creative director | :23:06. | :23:11. | |
of the BBC was chair of the trustees for Kids Company for more than a | :23:12. | :23:13. | |
decade. Thanks very much indeed. In the face of the constant | :23:14. | :23:16. | |
cruelties and purges of a totalitarian regime, | :23:17. | :23:18. | |
would you act as a hero, stand up to your oppressors, | :23:19. | :23:24. | |
and face the likelyhood of death? Or allow them to bend your will | :23:25. | :23:29. | |
to theirs and muddle through? of Julian Barnes's latest | :23:30. | :23:32. | |
novel, published today, about the anguished accommodations | :23:33. | :23:37. | |
Russian composer Shostakovich made In The Noise of Time, Barnes | :23:38. | :23:39. | |
questions whether for an artist, artistic survival | :23:40. | :23:44. | |
is possible or worthwhile, when the artist is destroyed | :23:45. | :23:46. | |
by shame and the betrayal of others, | :23:47. | :23:47. | |
especially of his fellow artists. In his only TV interview, | :23:48. | :23:50. | |
I spoke to him about the composer whose music | :23:51. | :23:55. | |
he has listened to since he was 18. And why he thinks the rise of no | :23:56. | :24:04. | |
platform represents the closing of the mind. | :24:05. | :24:16. | |
He didn't want to make himself into a dramatic character but sometimes | :24:17. | :24:22. | |
as his mind skittered in the small hours he thought, so this is what | :24:23. | :24:26. | |
history has come to. All that striving and idealism and hope and | :24:27. | :24:31. | |
progress and science and art and conscience, it all ends like this. | :24:32. | :24:37. | |
With a man standing by a lift. At his feet a small case containing | :24:38. | :24:41. | |
cigarettes, underwear and toothpaste. Standing there and | :24:42. | :24:43. | |
waiting to be taken away. In the book you discuss in a way | :24:44. | :24:53. | |
whether being a hero is easier Often looking at a | :24:54. | :24:56. | |
tyrannical state from the outside, we want | :24:57. | :25:00. | |
people to be heroes. But then we are also asking | :25:01. | :25:03. | |
for their blood when we do. And to be a hero you can throw | :25:04. | :25:07. | |
a bomb, you can pull a trigger, On the other hand, | :25:08. | :25:11. | |
in Stalin's Russia it wasn't just you who was wiped out, | :25:12. | :25:16. | |
it was your family, friends, So your only choice, | :25:17. | :25:18. | |
really, was to compromise. He paid Caesar as best | :25:19. | :25:26. | |
he could while keeping as much of himself, his private soul and his | :25:27. | :25:37. | |
music as untouched as possible. There's a scene at the beginning | :25:38. | :25:49. | |
of the book where he has his first meeting with power, as it was, | :25:50. | :25:52. | |
the forces of Stalin. And he thinks that he | :25:53. | :25:54. | |
is going to be purged. And he waits outside a lift | :25:55. | :25:58. | |
for almost a fortnight. After Lady Macbeth was condemned | :25:59. | :26:02. | |
he thought that he was probably What happened, oddly, | :26:03. | :26:05. | |
on the weekend between the Saturday and the Monday was | :26:06. | :26:10. | |
that the interrogator So he was sort of off | :26:11. | :26:11. | |
the hook for a bit. But he still thought | :26:12. | :26:16. | |
that he would be taken So he spent the night standing | :26:17. | :26:18. | |
on the landing outside his flat by the lift doors, because he didn't | :26:19. | :26:26. | |
want his wife and child, the trauma of having the door broken | :26:27. | :26:30. | |
down in the middle of the night, child taken away, perhaps | :26:31. | :26:33. | |
to a Soviet orphanage where she would be brought up | :26:34. | :26:36. | |
as a good communist and never know That was unthinkable | :26:37. | :26:39. | |
to him, but that was You have Shostakovich say it's easy | :26:40. | :26:42. | |
being a communist if you don't live And you talk about | :26:43. | :26:48. | |
Picasso and Sartre. One of the interesting sides | :26:49. | :26:51. | |
of Shostakovich is he was a great ironist and he was | :26:52. | :26:57. | |
also very sarcastic. He was particularly harsh | :26:58. | :27:01. | |
on fairweather friends, and on those he saw as helping | :27:02. | :27:08. | |
enforce an entrenched Stalinism. Stravinsky, whom Shostakovich | :27:09. | :27:13. | |
revered, they met twice, very uneasy meeting on both | :27:14. | :27:18. | |
occasions, Stravinsky never went to the help of any | :27:19. | :27:21. | |
persecuted Soviet composer. So Shostakovich's conclusion | :27:22. | :27:27. | |
is that you can have artistic integrity, as Stravinsky | :27:28. | :27:33. | |
did, and not have moral integrity. He thought that that | :27:34. | :27:35. | |
was a weakness of So on one hand you have | :27:36. | :27:37. | |
the Solzhenitsyn figure and on the other | :27:38. | :27:41. | |
side the Shostakovich figure, which do you think | :27:42. | :27:43. | |
you would have been? Oh, I think I would | :27:44. | :27:45. | |
have been a coward. I would have done some kind of deal | :27:46. | :27:48. | |
in order to keep on writing Shostakovich used to say that music | :27:49. | :27:51. | |
is not like Chinese eggs, it doesn't gain by being | :27:52. | :28:00. | |
buried in the ground He did not think that when a piece | :28:01. | :28:03. | |
of his was banned it would get He just thought the people | :28:04. | :28:07. | |
for whom it was being written The book is about truth | :28:08. | :28:11. | |
and freedom and conscience. I wonder if you think | :28:12. | :28:17. | |
now that there is artistic Well I'd be very wary about writing | :28:18. | :28:19. | |
a satirical novel about Putin. One of my favourite Russian sayings | :28:20. | :28:31. | |
which I used as an epigraph to one of my novels 20 years ago | :28:32. | :28:35. | |
and I repeat in the book is: Which is so wonderfully ironic | :28:36. | :28:38. | |
and so Russian and so Shostakovich. And they do say it, | :28:39. | :28:45. | |
Putin, don't they? That he is very | :28:46. | :28:49. | |
straightforward to deal with, and when he lies, | :28:50. | :28:51. | |
he lies brilliantly. But if you were in opposition | :28:52. | :28:53. | |
to Putin, given what has happened to Litvinenko, | :28:54. | :28:57. | |
would you have sleepless nights? I would, I would have | :28:58. | :29:01. | |
sleepless days as well. And you can understand | :29:02. | :29:04. | |
why they are building mansions, the rich ones, | :29:05. | :29:08. | |
all around North London. Which is interesting now | :29:09. | :29:16. | |
because there is a resurgence of interest and affection for Russia | :29:17. | :29:19. | |
from the British left. I don't think it's the shining city | :29:20. | :29:21. | |
on the hill any more. But I remember when the wall came | :29:22. | :29:29. | |
down, I remember being very disappointed with Western | :29:30. | :29:36. | |
politicians because I thought that they would say, ah, | :29:37. | :29:40. | |
now we can painlessly and without any fear look | :29:41. | :29:45. | |
at what left-wing systems had and maybe take some of the best | :29:46. | :29:53. | |
that they had, and some Whereas in fact when the Cold War | :29:54. | :29:56. | |
ended everyone was sort of high-fiving and saying "We're | :29:57. | :30:03. | |
the best, our system has won." Terrible consequences | :30:04. | :30:06. | |
in Eastern Europe, complete Pensioners who'd worked as surgeons, | :30:07. | :30:16. | |
say, having to go and dig I have friends in Bulgaria | :30:17. | :30:23. | |
who told me all about it. But you talked about being a child | :30:24. | :30:28. | |
of the Cold War, and having very distinct memories of | :30:29. | :30:31. | |
what repression really was. And I wonder if you think | :30:32. | :30:34. | |
that we take free speech and the attacks on | :30:35. | :30:37. | |
freedom of speech too Particularly on no platform | :30:38. | :30:39. | |
is really what I'm talking about, Actually what do you make | :30:40. | :30:48. | |
of the idea of no platform? I think it's crazy, | :30:49. | :30:54. | |
especially in academic situations where the whole point | :30:55. | :30:58. | |
of being young and clever and at university | :30:59. | :31:01. | |
is to have your views challenged and opposed, | :31:02. | :31:04. | |
and to have forceful figures like Germaine Greer | :31:05. | :31:07. | |
come and annoy you. I think no-platforming | :31:08. | :31:10. | |
is a very bad idea. Because you disagree | :31:11. | :31:18. | |
with someone about one item of thought, therefore | :31:19. | :31:24. | |
the rest their thinking is not only That's a kind of | :31:25. | :31:27. | |
closing of the mind. I don't know when there | :31:28. | :31:35. | |
was ever a golden age. Earlier this week, | :31:36. | :31:42. | |
Newsnight revealed that a number of key witnesses | :31:43. | :31:44. | |
to the Tory party bullying inquiry were calling for a senior official | :31:45. | :31:47. | |
to stand down from his role | :31:48. | :31:49. | |
overseeing the investigation. At first, Rob Semple | :31:50. | :31:51. | |
refused to do so, Our investigations correspondent | :31:52. | :31:52. | |
Nick Hopkins is here with the latest | :31:53. | :31:57. | |
on this story. Who is Rob Semple, and why is he so | :31:58. | :32:10. | |
important? Rob Semple runs what is called the Tory party national | :32:11. | :32:13. | |
convention, which represents volunteers at Lansdowne the country, | :32:14. | :32:18. | |
so we has a big job, and he has a place at the top table of the party. | :32:19. | :32:24. | |
-- volunteers up and down the country. He was also one of the | :32:25. | :32:30. | |
officials due to set in judgment on the bullying inquiry sparked by the | :32:31. | :32:33. | |
death of Elliott Johnson. The problem is that Mr Semple has been | :32:34. | :32:38. | |
linked with a man at the heart of the allegations of bullying, a chap | :32:39. | :32:43. | |
called mark Clark, and this was raising real concerns among some | :32:44. | :32:46. | |
witnesses who said that it is inappropriate for Mr Semple to hold | :32:47. | :32:51. | |
this role, he should stand down. Mr Semple was refusing to do so, and | :32:52. | :32:55. | |
when we spoke to Central Office earlier this week, they said they | :32:56. | :33:00. | |
would not ask him to do so. So what has changed? Earlier this week, | :33:01. | :33:06. | |
Semple was digging his heels in, when I asked whether he would stand | :33:07. | :33:12. | |
down, he said, no, I was one of the proposers of the independent | :33:13. | :33:16. | |
investigation. But that was before he saw our film on Tuesday night in | :33:17. | :33:22. | |
which Elliott Johnson's parents spoke very movingly about the loss | :33:23. | :33:25. | |
of their son, and they also said that they thought Mr Semple should | :33:26. | :33:31. | |
stand aside. He should do the decent thing and realise that any inquiry | :33:32. | :33:36. | |
conducted by the Conservative Party in which he takes apart is always | :33:37. | :33:40. | |
going to be questioned by the general public, people will say, how | :33:41. | :33:45. | |
can a man who has associated with Mark Clarke be seen to be a person | :33:46. | :33:48. | |
that is actually overseeing part of the inquiry? Well, hearing that | :33:49. | :33:55. | |
seems to have made him change his mind, and earlier today Mr Semple | :33:56. | :33:58. | |
released a statement in which he said, as a father myself, the wishes | :33:59. | :34:03. | |
of Mr and Mr Johnson are paramount to me, and after seeing their | :34:04. | :34:08. | |
interview on BBC TV, I have decided to recuse myself from the board | :34:09. | :34:12. | |
meeting that will discuss the bullying report. He also said he did | :34:13. | :34:17. | |
not regard that as a reflection on his own impartiality. What happens | :34:18. | :34:23. | |
now? I have spoken to Mr and misses Johnson tonight, they are relieved | :34:24. | :34:26. | |
that Mr Semple has stepped aside. They describe it as a victory for | :34:27. | :34:31. | |
common sense. But I think they and other witnesses to the inquiry are | :34:32. | :34:37. | |
wondering, I think they are slightly be willed it, why did it take the | :34:38. | :34:41. | |
Tory party so long to realise that this was a potential problem, and | :34:42. | :34:44. | |
all the way through this there have been episodes in which they have had | :34:45. | :34:49. | |
doubts about the independence and integrity of this inquiry. I should | :34:50. | :34:55. | |
also say that Mark Clarke denies all the allegations against him. Nick, | :34:56. | :34:56. | |
thank you very much indeed. It's been a stalwart | :34:57. | :34:58. | |
of military campaigns, beloved by 007, | :34:59. | :35:02. | |
the world's most famous spy, royalty and most farmers | :35:03. | :35:04. | |
in the country, the Landrover Defender | :35:05. | :35:06. | |
has been in production longer than any other vehicle, | :35:07. | :35:08. | |
the best part of 70 years. While recent iterations of the car | :35:09. | :35:13. | |
has become a must-have for the school run | :35:14. | :35:15. | |
in London's pricier postcodes, the last of the original | :35:16. | :35:19. | |
bone-shakers rolls off the production line | :35:20. | :35:22. | |
in Solihull tomorrow. that meets safety | :35:23. | :35:27. | |
and emission regulations, but that will hardly compensate fans | :35:28. | :35:32. | |
of the simple brute which could be fixed | :35:33. | :35:34. | |
with the blow of a hammer. Talking of which, here's motoring | :35:35. | :35:36. | |
editor Stephen Smith. A museum piece that people have a | :35:37. | :35:55. | |
soft spot for but has supposedly been overtaken by new technology. | :35:56. | :35:59. | |
Never thought I would be associated with anything like that. I am | :36:00. | :36:04. | |
talking, of course, about the Land Rover Defender, seen here being put | :36:05. | :36:07. | |
through its paces on a secret BBC stage where Countryfile is filmed. | :36:08. | :36:14. | |
-- estate. It is really about and Wenger, I should have some sheep in | :36:15. | :36:19. | |
the back or a party of commandos. -- about an adventure. Next time you | :36:20. | :36:25. | |
are late for work, it is worth remembering that nothing but nothing | :36:26. | :36:28. | |
gets in the way of a Land Rover. Like the Spitfire and | :36:29. | :36:38. | |
bread-and-butter pudding... The Defender was an all conquering | :36:39. | :36:43. | |
British invention thrown together by serendipity and inspired | :36:44. | :36:46. | |
improvisation. We took an American jeep and made it our own. It is a | :36:47. | :36:50. | |
bit like what the Rolling Stones did with the blues. The genius | :36:51. | :36:55. | |
responsible was Maurice Wilkes, who tested his Land Rover on the beach | :36:56. | :37:00. | |
at Anglesey. He wanted something hardy and farmers could choke up | :37:01. | :37:03. | |
hill farms in and repair themselves if they had to. For the lowdown on | :37:04. | :37:13. | |
his creation, I consulted design guru Stephen Bayley. Welcome on | :37:14. | :37:20. | |
board! The North face of Soho! E-group a sketch in the sand of the | :37:21. | :37:24. | |
day in Anglesey and said, we are going to make a better four-wheel | :37:25. | :37:30. | |
drive like this. -- he drew. The original one had components from the | :37:31. | :37:34. | |
cheap, but it is altogether more sophisticated. It is that terribly | :37:35. | :37:38. | |
rare example of a British product, to my mind, a central thing doing | :37:39. | :37:46. | |
Bush values, probity, no-nonsense. Honesty as well, this is a very | :37:47. | :37:50. | |
honest vehicle, there is no pretence about what it is. It is either | :37:51. | :37:56. | |
military equipment or agricultural plant. As it also featured on the | :37:57. | :38:02. | |
school run? This is the great grandparent of the notorious Chelsea | :38:03. | :38:08. | |
tractor. There is a direct line of descent from the Land Rover to the | :38:09. | :38:16. | |
popular and much derided sports utility vehicle. But no, I do not | :38:17. | :38:20. | |
think people use the original Land Rover Defender on school runs. It is | :38:21. | :38:25. | |
actually quite hard work to drive. It is not a relaxing car, the | :38:26. | :38:32. | |
difference is like flying in a 1948 aeroplane, you know, which was | :38:33. | :38:39. | |
noisy, uncomfortable and vibrated a lot. The difference between that and | :38:40. | :38:43. | |
an Airbus, silent, smooth and stable. You are having an authentic | :38:44. | :38:46. | |
1948 driving experience here. Is this the most storeyed set of | :38:47. | :38:59. | |
wheels in London? Jack's Series 1 Land Rover once belonged to an army | :39:00. | :39:03. | |
bomb disposal unit, and a vehicle and is a description was linked to | :39:04. | :39:10. | |
the great train robbers. -- answering. I have snapped the rear | :39:11. | :39:15. | |
axle, the gearbox gave up on me. That is a piano pedal, it is set on | :39:16. | :39:20. | |
fire twice. I have had the tail for loch outside Buckingham Palace. I | :39:21. | :39:26. | |
put it in the back and drove off. -- Paul off. Although it is the end of | :39:27. | :39:33. | |
a vehicle, it is also the end of a mentality, the Land Rover, | :39:34. | :39:35. | |
especially the defender, is something which is very empowering, | :39:36. | :39:39. | |
because with very little skill you can work on it yourself, and now | :39:40. | :39:47. | |
people buy vehicles with, you know, five years' warranty and then | :39:48. | :39:49. | |
actually replace them within that period. You know, the Defender will | :39:50. | :40:00. | |
go on for ever. Yes, we will all miss the Defender, high and low | :40:01. | :40:05. | |
alike. According to the Queen, Her Majesty herself gets about in one on | :40:06. | :40:10. | |
her island states, ideal for a bit of stag spotting. You cannot beat | :40:11. | :40:17. | |
pulling on the plus fours, climbing into the old defender and popping | :40:18. | :40:21. | |
out into the countryside. It feels like adventure, especially if you | :40:22. | :40:28. | |
have a nice flask of oxtail with you and an eyeful of red deer. But like | :40:29. | :40:37. | |
the man said, they think it is all Rover. It is now. The front pages, | :40:38. | :40:51. | |
going to the Guardian, EU steps in over Google tax row. On the | :40:52. | :40:55. | |
right-hand side, deal close at UK benefit kids for EU workers. The | :40:56. | :41:00. | |
Daily Mail, ministers promise cosy tax deal for US giants. The Daily | :41:01. | :41:07. | |
Telegraph, Cecil Rhodes' statue at Oxford, they say it is to stay in | :41:08. | :41:11. | |
place after furious donors threaten to withdraw gifts and bequests worth | :41:12. | :41:15. | |
more than ?1 million if it was removed. Finally, the Financial | :41:16. | :41:19. | |
Times, a different take on that story, David Cameron eyes compromise | :41:20. | :41:26. | |
over migrants benefit cuts. How significant is this, plans for | :41:27. | :41:31. | |
reform in Europe? Potentially very significant, because he has managed | :41:32. | :41:35. | |
to meld two things we have been talking about, an emergency brake on | :41:36. | :41:39. | |
migration and forcing people to wait four years until they can claim | :41:40. | :41:42. | |
benefits after they have migrated to the UK. He has merged them into one, | :41:43. | :41:47. | |
and emergency brake which will delay the point at which new migrants can | :41:48. | :41:52. | |
get benefits for four years. It is the worst of both worlds from the | :41:53. | :41:55. | |
perspective of Eurosceptics, because what it means is that he is | :41:56. | :42:00. | |
potentially negotiating a deal which means that only Brussels will be | :42:01. | :42:05. | |
able to tell us when the four year moratorium will come in, that will | :42:06. | :42:09. | |
be in the hands of the European Commission. Thanks very much indeed. | :42:10. | :42:11. | |
Before we go, let's go back 60 years to January 28th 1956. | :42:12. | :42:14. | |
grabbed his guitar and shook his hips | :42:15. | :42:17. | |
in front of a television camera for the first time, | :42:18. | :42:20. | |
on the Dorsey Brothers' Stage Show on CBS. | :42:21. | :42:22. | |
# Get out of that kitchen and rattle those pots and pans | :42:23. | :42:34. | |
# Well, roll my breakfast cos I'm a hungry man | :42:35. | :42:39. | |
# I believe you're doing me wrong and now I know | :42:40. | :42:47. | |
# Cos the harder I work, the faster the money goes | :42:48. | :42:52. | |
# Well, I said shake, rattle and roll | :42:53. | :42:54. | |
# Well, you won't do right to save your doggone soul... # | :42:55. | :43:13. | |
The Met Office has issued a warning for damaging gusts and winds, be | :43:14. | :43:19. | |
prepared for the potential for disruption, because we could see | :43:20. | :43:22. | |
Gast in excess of | :43:23. | :43:23. |