:00:00. > :00:07.They escaped Syria's civil war only to find themselves centre
:00:08. > :00:24.Three refugees are accused of sexual assault in Newcastle.
:00:25. > :00:26.They say false claims were the product of
:00:27. > :00:31.Newsnight has followed the family of one of those accused over
:00:32. > :00:39.We were with them as the verdict came through.
:00:40. > :00:51.Did you ever think, this is worse than what we left behind?
:00:52. > :00:56.They're using the result as a cover for a hard Brexit for which they
:00:57. > :01:00.But which they intend to impose regardless.
:01:01. > :01:03.Sturgeon pulls no punches as she tells the Prime Minister
:01:04. > :01:06.to listen to her on Brexit or face the consequences of a second
:01:07. > :01:13.We'll hear live from former Scottish Europe Minister and leader
:01:14. > :01:19.of the SNP's In campaign, Humza Yousaf.
:01:20. > :01:25.Mortify my flesh that I may be multiplied.
:01:26. > :01:28.The Handmaid's Tale is only one of the politically inspired novels
:01:29. > :01:30.that today won Margaret Atwood the 2016 Pinter Prize.
:01:31. > :01:33.She tells me why her dystopic novel of female enslavement feels even
:01:34. > :01:38.Unfortunately, at the time I wrote it, there were people
:01:39. > :01:40.who were saying this could never happen in America.
:01:41. > :01:59.I don't think people are saying that much any more.
:02:00. > :02:03.What should rich countries like ours be doing to help
:02:04. > :02:05.the millions of people trying to escape Syria's
:02:06. > :02:08.It's a question that has paralysed Europe for much
:02:09. > :02:12.After argument and agonising, Britain agreed to take 20,000
:02:13. > :02:15.A tiny number compared to the million offered
:02:16. > :02:23.But when one of the first to arrive in Britain was charged with sexually
:02:24. > :02:25.assaulting a schoolgirl earlier this year, some feared even this
:02:26. > :02:30.modest influx could create dangerous tensions.
:02:31. > :02:32.Newsnight has been following the family at the heart of this
:02:33. > :02:38.Today 18-year-old Omar Badreddin and two other Syrian refugees
:02:39. > :02:41.were cleared of sexually assaulting a schoolgirl in a park in Newcastle.
:02:42. > :02:43.Katie Razzall and producer Maria Polachowska chart one family's
:02:44. > :02:45.journey from a war-ravaged Syrian town to the steps
:02:46. > :03:06.The film contains some disturbing images.
:03:07. > :03:15.Relief for a family that has suffered so much. For the past three
:03:16. > :03:17.weeks, Omar Badreddin has been on trial at Newcastle Crown Court,
:03:18. > :03:28.charged with sexual assault. Today he was found not guilty.
:03:29. > :03:37.The Badreddins came from Syria, looking for respite after years of
:03:38. > :03:43.war. But this family quickly found that in taking up the offer of
:03:44. > :03:47.century, they had replaced a war zone with a different kind of hell.
:03:48. > :04:20.Did you ever think this was worse than what you had left behind?
:04:21. > :04:27.Newsnight has been filming this family for 11 months. What began as
:04:28. > :04:33.a story of escape from war became a window on the isolation of beginning
:04:34. > :04:38.a new life. In a country where not everybody wants you, where a sexual
:04:39. > :04:49.assault charge provokes a far right demonstration. Faced off by
:04:50. > :04:54.antiracism campaigners. A 14-year-old girl had accused Omar
:04:55. > :05:00.Badreddin along with two other Syrians of working together to grope
:05:01. > :05:05.and kiss her behind a pavilion in this local park. Her friends said
:05:06. > :05:07.they had done the same to her. The jury unanimously found all the man
:05:08. > :05:19.not guilty. At a time when we are navigating how
:05:20. > :05:22.to help people in desperate need, plenty are suspicious of newcomers,
:05:23. > :05:27.with their different customs and traditions. And that, believes Omar
:05:28. > :06:08.Badreddin, was at the heart of the case against them.
:06:09. > :06:17.Their nightmare began on May the tenth this year, the first the
:06:18. > :07:20.family knew of their son Omar's arrest was when he didn't come home.
:07:21. > :07:26.Omar and one of his co-accused spent a month in Durham prison before
:07:27. > :08:22.getting bail. Jordan is where I first met Omar's
:08:23. > :08:27.family in November last year, just before they moved to the UK and the
:08:28. > :08:34.next extraordinary chapter in their lives began. Like many Syrians, they
:08:35. > :08:38.were renting a flat in the capital. I mother, father and four children
:08:39. > :08:41.who had fled Syria two years before, leaving one son, their eldest,
:08:42. > :08:56.Abdul, behind. There are 670,000 Syrian refugees
:08:57. > :08:59.living in Jordan. With their father blind in one eye and suffering
:09:00. > :09:05.various health conditions, only Omar, who was then 17 Thommo could
:09:06. > :09:12.earn money. He worked 14 hour days in a shoe shop. After paying for
:09:13. > :09:17.water, food and rent, there was no money left for schooling. The
:09:18. > :09:23.children had lost years of formal education, though they tried to keep
:09:24. > :09:31.up. They are from Muthana, near Damascus. At our first meeting, they
:09:32. > :09:34.told me they had gone on peaceful demonstrations against the
:09:35. > :10:11.Government when the uprising began. The army cracks down.
:10:12. > :10:20.We can't verify the truth of these claims, but the family and their
:10:21. > :10:24.testimonies have been vetted by UNHCR to get into Britain, because
:10:25. > :10:31.unlike most Syrian refugees, they were lucky, deemed vulnerable enough
:10:32. > :10:35.by UNHCR to require resettlement. Last November, Britain took them in.
:10:36. > :10:51.What was your first thought when you were told you were going to Britain?
:10:52. > :10:57.This family never planned to leave their home, never conceived of
:10:58. > :10:59.moving to Britain, but when they boarded that plane, they could not
:11:00. > :11:25.have envisaged what lay ahead. This is your house? The first time
:11:26. > :11:27.we met in Britain, they were settling into their new life, full
:11:28. > :11:38.of hope. They have a council flat in
:11:39. > :11:45.Newcastle. The council asked us not to identify where exactly.
:11:46. > :11:54.Omar and Mohammed? Like around 3000 Syrians so far, they have been
:11:55. > :11:58.brought to the UK on the Government's vulnerable persons
:11:59. > :12:04.relocation scheme, expanded by David Cameron last year. The family are
:12:05. > :12:11.3000 miles from Syria, but the front line is never far away.
:12:12. > :12:16.Now you are sitting here watching the news from here, further away
:12:17. > :12:18.from Syria, do you think the West should be doing more? What do you
:12:19. > :13:14.think should be happening? As new arrivals, apart from school
:13:15. > :13:19.and English classes, the family mainly stayed at home. Omar at this
:13:20. > :13:23.stage didn't appear to have friends or a social life, and his father
:13:24. > :13:28.poured over the so-called Caesar files, more than 50,000 images
:13:29. > :13:32.smuggled out of Syria, many of which apparently document people who have
:13:33. > :13:34.died in government detention, his friends amongst them. Who is this
:13:35. > :14:07.man? How did you know him? Bashar al-Assad was asked about
:14:08. > :14:09.these, and he said, you say this is torture, but anybody could have done
:14:10. > :14:31.it, the Syrian government hasn't done this.
:14:32. > :14:39.Marwan claims to speak from experience. Torture is one of the
:14:40. > :14:43.criteria listened as qualifying Syrians for the resettlement are
:14:44. > :14:44.grand that brought the family to Britain he was tortured either
:14:45. > :16:00.regime. What did they do to you? For this family, things were about
:16:01. > :16:04.to get a lot worse. Their first ever trip to the beach was perhaps the
:16:05. > :16:13.last time Maymouna would smile before their lives would implode
:16:14. > :16:21.again. This conservative family stood out a bit in ten white, even
:16:22. > :16:22.on the beach, for some members, paddling on the beach is done fully
:16:23. > :16:42.clothed. Less than two months after this day
:16:43. > :16:47.trip, Omar was arrested. But one of his sons on remand in a British
:16:48. > :16:51.prison, only a few days later, another misfortune struck the
:16:52. > :16:55.family. They talked to me about their eldest son, who they said got
:16:56. > :17:19.stuck in Syria when they fled. In May they heard he had died.
:17:20. > :17:27.Like much that happens in civil War, the truth is Liz McColgan kidded and
:17:28. > :17:31.we later learned that for the past year, he was fighting for an
:17:32. > :17:43.Islamist group. All of this father denied that made him an extremist.
:17:44. > :19:00.A sexual assault in this park would have put their second son behind
:19:01. > :19:04.bars. Face of it the case involves three older men preying on two
:19:05. > :19:09.underage girls but the court heard one of the girls had told lies in
:19:10. > :19:12.the past. The defence wanted it to run out and damning statements made
:19:13. > :19:16.by the men in police interviews turned out to have been
:19:17. > :19:21.mistranslated. As the evidence emerged, Syrian men appeared less
:19:22. > :19:24.sexually experienced than the girls who they were supposed to have
:19:25. > :19:30.attacked. Another defendant revealed he had never even seen two people
:19:31. > :19:31.kissing. 18-year-old Omar told me he never had a sexual encounter of any
:19:32. > :19:58.kind. The reaction by far right groups to
:19:59. > :20:03.the impending trial was not surprising. But others, particularly
:20:04. > :20:07.since the six attacks in Cologne, were ready to blame cultural
:20:08. > :20:12.differences by the way the Syrians were alleged to have behaved. His
:20:13. > :20:18.parents never accepted that. Do you think it is possible that boys like
:20:19. > :20:23.Omar see women in the West, girls in the West, they view them differently
:20:24. > :20:24.from how they view and the respect they have for women from their own
:20:25. > :21:03.culture? No. No. Britain has promised 20,000 Syrians
:21:04. > :21:09.will be resettled in the UK by 2020 on the same scheme as a family. I
:21:10. > :21:11.asked local council had offered new arrivals, 73 in Newcastle, any
:21:12. > :21:33.classes on attitudes to in Britain. Did you talk to Omar and other
:21:34. > :21:47.children about what the council said in that cultural talk?
:21:48. > :21:53.With the trial hanging over them, they have tried to make these
:21:54. > :21:56.difficult times happier for their other children. They have been
:21:57. > :22:00.introduced to the cultures and traditions of the strange new land,
:22:01. > :22:02.learning more about a country they will likely never call home.
:22:03. > :22:51.Especially after what has happened. This visit to the beach feels like
:22:52. > :22:55.an age ago, A time of optimism when Britain felt like it was offering a
:22:56. > :23:00.new start. Now they are grateful that justice can beat me to died
:23:01. > :23:04.fairly but for them, indication has come too late to repair the
:23:05. > :23:05.reputational damage a family with so little prizes so very much. --
:23:06. > :23:08.vindication. Scotland's First Minister has fired
:23:09. > :23:13.a warning shot to Theresa May that she must listen
:23:14. > :23:19.to the SNP on Scotland. Nicola Sturgeon told her party
:23:20. > :23:23.conference today that if the Conservative government
:23:24. > :23:25.was not prepared to listen, she'd demand a second
:23:26. > :23:26.Independence Referendum. She confirmed to the surprise
:23:27. > :23:28.of many supporters that she would publish a referendum
:23:29. > :23:31.bill for consultation next week. Or a step on the way
:23:32. > :23:35.to a second vote? Nick Watt is at the conference
:23:36. > :23:44.for us. Well, this was the week when the
:23:45. > :23:47.harsh reality of Brexit across the UK struck home. First it was
:23:48. > :23:53.turning, then the supermarkets and today Scotland. Nicola Sturgeon
:23:54. > :23:58.caused some surprise when she said she wanted to create the possibility
:23:59. > :24:02.of an independent Scotland being ready to join the EU before those
:24:03. > :24:08.Brexit negotiations have concluded. If it is a hard Brexit. I will be
:24:09. > :24:17.joined by the Scottish transport minister but first, here is my take
:24:18. > :24:23.on the events of today. It's wild expanses can make Scotland feel
:24:24. > :24:27.remote from the rest of the UK. But today, this semi-detached corner of
:24:28. > :24:31.Britain showed that it can shape events across our island. I can
:24:32. > :24:40.confirm... APPLAUSE
:24:41. > :24:42.I can confirm today that the independence Referendum Bill will be
:24:43. > :24:47.published for consultation next week.
:24:48. > :24:51.APPLAUSE Nicola Sturgeon has been treading
:24:52. > :24:54.carefully since the EU referendum after the people of Scotland took a
:24:55. > :25:01.different view to the rest of the UK and voted to remain. Unexpected
:25:02. > :25:04.spike in support for independence failed to materialise but today the
:25:05. > :25:09.Scottish first Minister warns Theresa May that she might formally
:25:10. > :25:13.demand a second independence referendum before the end of the EU
:25:14. > :25:21.negotiations if the Prime Minister negotiates a hard Brexit. The SNP's
:25:22. > :25:24.new Deputy Leader says his party does mean business. Perhaps what is
:25:25. > :25:28.happening at the conference is a wake-up call and there needs to be a
:25:29. > :25:34.realisation in Downing Street and in the Labour Party that there is a
:25:35. > :25:39.strong mandate in Scotland to protect our place in Europe and if
:25:40. > :25:44.our friends site of the border do not get that, we are going to get on
:25:45. > :25:48.with it ourselves. It was a big moment when the first minister but a
:25:49. > :25:51.second independence referendum on the table, delegates who feared she
:25:52. > :25:56.was going soft on the defining issue for their party left to their feet
:25:57. > :26:00.but Nicola Sturgeon is no gambler and she made clear she would only
:26:01. > :26:05.take this momentous step if she fails in her first girl to build up
:26:06. > :26:11.a cross-party Alliance to campaign against a hard Brexit for the whole
:26:12. > :26:16.of the UK. But events might move more quickly than the SNP had
:26:17. > :26:21.expected. Donald Tusk, European Council president, said in Brussels
:26:22. > :26:27.today there is only one way to leave the EU- are hard Brexit. In my
:26:28. > :26:37.opinion, the only real alternative to a hard Brexit is no Brexit.
:26:38. > :26:43.APPLAUSE Even if today, hardly anyone
:26:44. > :26:47.believes in such a possibility. Angus Robertson made clear that a
:26:48. > :26:55.referendum will be held if that is the only way to preserve Scotland's
:26:56. > :26:59.membership. Unless you realise that remain means remain, we will take
:27:00. > :27:03.the power into our own hands as a nation whether people are sovereign,
:27:04. > :27:09.having voted 62% to remain, and will do whatever it takes be sure we
:27:10. > :27:14.protect our place in Europe. Scotland's most eminent historian,
:27:15. > :27:18.who supports independence, warns that an early second referendum
:27:19. > :27:23.would be a risk. It would be counter-productive for the current
:27:24. > :27:28.government to go again to the country until, as they previously
:27:29. > :27:31.said, something like 60% of April independence vote in the opinion
:27:32. > :27:35.polls over a period of time. One of the things that concerned me about
:27:36. > :27:43.this is the Canadian situation. Quebec. When they left it for too
:27:44. > :27:48.long to go for the other boat and the constitutional position in
:27:49. > :27:53.Canada is more or less stable. The leader of the Scottish Conservatives
:27:54. > :27:57.agrees. I think Nicola Sturgeon is trying to ride two horses, half of
:27:58. > :28:01.the members want another referendum tomorrow and she is trying to keep
:28:02. > :28:04.them happy and she also has the opinion polls telling her we don't
:28:05. > :28:08.want another referendum, we want to move on and it was another one
:28:09. > :28:14.tomorrow she would lose, she knows then she would have to go and the
:28:15. > :28:18.SNP independence project would be defeated. Ruth Davidson warns that
:28:19. > :28:28.Scots might not be wildly enamoured of the EU. Very few people who go to
:28:29. > :28:31.sleep underneath European flag... That is a hard sell. I would not
:28:32. > :28:36.underestimate that one was not a proxy vote from the other. The
:28:37. > :28:39.largest block of supporters of any political party that voted to leave
:28:40. > :28:45.the European Union and Scotland were SNP voters, around 400,000, if it
:28:46. > :28:49.was not a proxy for others... I want to stay part of the UK but I've
:28:50. > :28:57.ordered to remain so the SNP cannot co-opt my vote to mean something
:28:58. > :29:01.else. The warnings from north of the border were given short shrift in
:29:02. > :29:04.London, which believes Nicola Sturgeon might be bluffing. Theresa
:29:05. > :29:12.May will hope she only has to battle over one union. I am joined by Hamza
:29:13. > :29:19.Yousuf, the Scottish transport minister. Nicola Sturgeon outlined a
:29:20. > :29:23.two point plan, forming a coalition of the willing across the UK to keep
:29:24. > :29:27.Britain in the single market but that does not work she talks about a
:29:28. > :29:32.referendum on independence before the end of those negotiations. If it
:29:33. > :29:38.is a hard Brexit but today Donald Tusk said there is only one form of
:29:39. > :29:43.Brexit and it is hard. Why not hold that referendum right now? The first
:29:44. > :29:48.Minister is doing what she said she would do in the run-up to the
:29:49. > :29:52.Scottish election but the European referendum, that would be that we
:29:53. > :29:56.maintain our place in the EU if Scots wanted that and they did. We
:29:57. > :29:58.will put together a proposal which will hopefully not just give
:29:59. > :30:01.Scotland and the single market, I want to see the whole of the UK
:30:02. > :30:04.remaining within the single market and the ball would be in the Court
:30:05. > :30:08.of Theresa May, if she can secure those proposals, secure those
:30:09. > :30:12.interests for Scotland then that would be great, we will stay within
:30:13. > :30:15.the EU and will have access to the single market. If not, we reserve
:30:16. > :30:20.the right to have that referendum and that option is on the table. It
:30:21. > :30:24.is not the first resort. Do not have a problem? You thought there would
:30:25. > :30:29.be a surge of support for independence if the UK voted out of
:30:30. > :30:34.the EU. That has not happened and also, your fiscal prospectus you put
:30:35. > :30:35.before Scotland in 2014 has disappeared with collapse in the oil
:30:36. > :30:45.price? Let's take those points one by one.
:30:46. > :30:51.On the financial and fiscal case the independence, we put together a
:30:52. > :30:55.report by various economists, I think we could have done better on
:30:56. > :30:59.the economic case for independence, but we need to go through those
:31:00. > :31:04.arguments and put together a stronger case for the economy. But
:31:05. > :31:08.before we get to that point, we are not saying we will hold an
:31:09. > :31:13.independence referendum immediately. Every poll has shown an increase in
:31:14. > :31:16.independence, but let's argue for Scotland's interests and make sure
:31:17. > :31:21.that we can protect Scotland's lace within the European Union, access to
:31:22. > :31:24.the single market, but if that is not able to be secured, then we
:31:25. > :31:28.reserve the right to hold another referendum.
:31:29. > :31:31.But here we are talking about Scotland and the Constitution, but
:31:32. > :31:36.you failed to get a majority in the Holyrood election earlier this year.
:31:37. > :31:40.Don't you need to be talking about bread-and-butter issues? I don't
:31:41. > :31:45.think it is one or the other. The two I linked. We achieved a historic
:31:46. > :31:50.third term that no other political party has achieved in the Scottish
:31:51. > :31:54.Parliament, so that is a huge mandate for us to move forward.
:31:55. > :31:58.Literacy and numerous erects are falling, you should be defined on
:31:59. > :32:02.that not the Constitution. NHS waiting list are going down, record
:32:03. > :32:06.investment in our transport system, we're doing incredible things in the
:32:07. > :32:11.third term like free prescriptions, three education, concessionary
:32:12. > :32:17.travel. We are getting on with the job, but we shouldn't say that we
:32:18. > :32:23.won't be protected Scotland's interests. If we don't get access to
:32:24. > :32:28.the single market, that will affect businesses. There was a widespread
:32:29. > :32:33.knowledge report today that that could reduce wages by ?2000 for
:32:34. > :32:38.workers. That is people's real life, so we have to protect Scotland's
:32:39. > :32:42.interests as best we can. And indeed, as you say, get on with the
:32:43. > :32:46.bread-and-butter job of Government. If we weren't doing that, we
:32:47. > :32:50.wouldn't have been elected for a third term. OK, Humza Yousaf, thank
:32:51. > :32:55.you very much. MLA, back to you in the studio.
:32:56. > :32:58.Marmite, it seems, will live to see another day on UK
:32:59. > :33:01.This evening, Unilever confirmed the price dispute was over.
:33:02. > :33:03.Last night Tesco halted sales of many Unilever brands
:33:04. > :33:06.after the supplier threatened to raise prices due to a fall
:33:07. > :33:10.Last night on this programme, former Northern Foods Chairman Lord Haskins
:33:11. > :33:13.told me that Brexit had thrown what he called a "huge wobble"
:33:14. > :33:19.Lord Simon Wolfson, the CEO of Next, who today announced the Wolfson
:33:20. > :33:21.Economics Prize would be awarded to the best solution for overhauling
:33:22. > :33:33.We are going to come onto roads and your prize in a moment. Thank you
:33:34. > :33:37.for coming in. As a retailer, how do you make sense of a dispute that
:33:38. > :33:44.seemed to be making such waves last night, and has gone today? I think
:33:45. > :33:47.the reality is it is probably a very bad idea to have your negotiations
:33:48. > :33:52.in public, but underlying all of this is the simple fact, if that
:33:53. > :33:56.pound devalued by a lot, then prices of imported goods will go up, and
:33:57. > :34:00.there isn't any way around that. I don't think they will go up by as
:34:01. > :34:05.much as people think, and not as much as the pound has devalued,
:34:06. > :34:09.because retailers will negotiate as hard as they can to keep prices
:34:10. > :34:12.where they are. And it will be the same on the high street? Is that
:34:13. > :34:16.something you with your stores and others would expect a scene for the
:34:17. > :34:20.consumer? Yes, it will flow eventually through to the economy,
:34:21. > :34:24.but the thing to bear in mind is most of us have bought our currency
:34:25. > :34:27.for next year already, so these changes will take time, and it
:34:28. > :34:32.depends whether pound ends up, and that will depend on people's
:34:33. > :34:34.confident in the British economy, which is where things like investing
:34:35. > :34:40.in infrastructure is so important, because those things will get our
:34:41. > :34:43.economy moving. I know you hate the term is hard and soft Brexit, but
:34:44. > :34:48.you have warned against becoming isolationist as a country. What is
:34:49. > :34:53.the direction you favour at the moment? Do we need to be in the
:34:54. > :34:57.single market? Can only flourish out of the single market? What would be
:34:58. > :35:02.best for you as a businessman? The hard and soft Brexit language is
:35:03. > :35:07.very dangerous. What we need to say is do we want an open or closed
:35:08. > :35:10.Brexit. If we are going to pull up the drawbridge and set up all sorts
:35:11. > :35:14.of barriers, then our economy will fail. So it is important that we
:35:15. > :35:19.remain in a customs union? Not necessarily. What is important is
:35:20. > :35:22.that we remain an open economy, and that depends on our attitude to all
:35:23. > :35:26.sorts of things like immigration, trade agreements with other
:35:27. > :35:29.countries as well as the European Union, and our attitude of going
:35:30. > :35:32.into negotiations with an open mind and wanting to get the best
:35:33. > :35:39.Austevoll deal for Britain. And contributions? We have understood we
:35:40. > :35:42.will probably be paying quite substantial amounts of money to get
:35:43. > :35:47.access in some shape or form to the single market? Is that money worth
:35:48. > :35:51.paying now? I think it depends on what we get in return, and
:35:52. > :35:56.ultimately running any form of free trade organisation will involve some
:35:57. > :36:00.cost. If those costs are reasonable than they are worth paying. But
:36:01. > :36:03.ultimately we have to recognise that the more free trade we have in the
:36:04. > :36:07.world the better. That doesn't mean we can't be an independent nation.
:36:08. > :36:12.One of the things people got confused about is they assumed
:36:13. > :36:17.Brexit is a vote isolation, but is about the independence. Whether we
:36:18. > :36:20.become isolated or a free trading at Wood looking nation depends on what
:36:21. > :36:26.the Government does in the next two or three years. And you are looking
:36:27. > :36:29.specifically at roads and infrastructure around them with your
:36:30. > :36:33.prize. Do you think more money should be going into that? It should
:36:34. > :36:37.be going in the right way, and politicians love to talk about how
:36:38. > :36:41.much they are spending, but it is whether it is spent well or badly.
:36:42. > :36:47.Investment in bad infrastructure is wealth destruction, investment in
:36:48. > :36:54.good infrastructure creates wealth. 90% of our journeys are on roads.
:36:55. > :36:58.The taxpayer, the British road users, pay ?33 billion in taxes to
:36:59. > :37:03.use the roads, mainly through fuel tax, and the Government only spends
:37:04. > :37:06.?9 billion on roads. Do you think infrastructure has been ignored up
:37:07. > :37:13.until now? We know there has been this shift of focus away from QE to
:37:14. > :37:18.infrastructure. Do you think that is overdue? I think the emphasis has
:37:19. > :37:22.been an wrong infrastructure, grand projects like HS2, Hinkley point.
:37:23. > :37:26.Big projects that cost an enormous amount of money rather than the
:37:27. > :37:29.myriad of small projects we need, things like the extra little mini
:37:30. > :37:34.roundabout that will make someone's Jenny to work 20 minutes faster. So
:37:35. > :37:40.you would get rid of HS2 and Hinkley point? I think we need to look at
:37:41. > :37:44.the returns Government are getting on any type of investment, and that
:37:45. > :37:48.should make money for Government, because it is all of our money that
:37:49. > :37:52.they are investing. The road user gets a benefit with a better road,
:37:53. > :37:56.and the Government should get the return from investing in it. If they
:37:57. > :38:01.don't, and there is no return in HS2, there is a real risk that the
:38:02. > :38:04.money will be wasted. If it is invested in the roads, it can get
:38:05. > :38:10.people to work faster and home faster, there is a chance not only
:38:11. > :38:13.of improved quality-of-life but also of boosting our economy. Thank you
:38:14. > :38:16.very much for coming in. Thank you very much.
:38:17. > :38:18.When Margaret Atwood wrote The Handmaid's Tale
:38:19. > :38:20.more than 30 years ago, a dystopian novel of female
:38:21. > :38:23.subjugation, many told her the world she created was too
:38:24. > :38:27.Today, she won the Pen Pinter Prize, awarded for an "unflinching,
:38:28. > :38:29.unswerving gaze upon the world" and says she believes today's
:38:30. > :38:31.political climate in America means the work has more resonance
:38:32. > :38:35.I went to meet her as she publishes her latest novel, Hagseed,
:38:36. > :38:39.I began by asking her whether she ever imagined reality
:38:40. > :38:41.would get anywhere close to the world she created
:38:42. > :38:55.Probably writing The Handmaid's Tale, which Harold Pinter did the
:38:56. > :39:02.screenplay for, that was when I first met him. So that, because I
:39:03. > :39:06.used nothing in the book that hadn't been done at sometime somewhere. And
:39:07. > :39:10.do you think with The Handmaid's Tale it feels like it belongs to an
:39:11. > :39:15.era, or could you be writing the book today without it having dated?
:39:16. > :39:19.Unfortunately, at the time I wrote it there were people who were saying
:39:20. > :39:25.I don't think people are saying that much any more.
:39:26. > :39:27.Because of the kinds of things we have seen coming out
:39:28. > :39:35.Just recently the hashtag #RepealThe19th, which means take
:39:36. > :39:43.So that comes dangerously close to the world of The Handmaid's Tale.
:39:44. > :39:52.I doubt that you would get those exact same costumes!
:39:53. > :39:54.But a lot of the diminishment, disempowerment, disenfranchisement
:39:55. > :40:09.What is it that brings you to The Tempest?
:40:10. > :40:12.And is it too simplistic to say you were inspired by the political
:40:13. > :40:21.Because I started writing this several years ago but those themes
:40:22. > :40:25.of revenge and power are, of course, in a lot
:40:26. > :40:34.of Shakespeare's work and in a lot of work of all kinds.
:40:35. > :40:37.Those are two very strong human themes.
:40:38. > :40:44.Among other things, we see Trump already feeling that he should get
:40:45. > :40:46.revenge on the Republican Party for not going along
:40:47. > :41:09.I want to just get back to Felix and Hagseed, and getting back at people.
:41:10. > :41:16.That seems to be how it is working in various parts of the world.
:41:17. > :41:22.Except that people are being blamed for conditions that they have not in
:41:23. > :41:28.fact created. Like what? Like what. Is it the fault of all Muslim
:41:29. > :41:36.immigrants to the United States that there have been some terror attacks?
:41:37. > :41:43.Like that. Let me just ask you about the Nobel Prize for Literature
:41:44. > :41:47.awarded to Bob Dylan. What you think about that?
:41:48. > :41:49.I think it is a very strategically placed win.
:41:50. > :41:52.The US election and everything that is going on there.
:41:53. > :41:55.A US countercultural figure from the '60s is selected.
:41:56. > :42:05.You think it was intended to send a message
:42:06. > :42:17.But these things are often political in the broad sense of the term.
:42:18. > :42:20.So choosing a person from that time, that place, who had that message,
:42:21. > :42:23.I would say is sending a very broad message, which is not
:42:24. > :42:41.And in this scenario, Trump is the Nixon of
:42:42. > :42:48.We don't know because I can't read people's minds.
:42:49. > :43:04.Margaret Atwood talking to me earlier. That's all we have time for
:43:05. > :43:14.this evening. Evan is back here tomorrow night. Good night.
:43:15. > :43:22.Hello there. It was cold if you were caught in the wind and showers.
:43:23. > :43:29.Probably colder in the south, although we have fewer showers here.
:43:30. > :43:31.Bracing in the North, and there will still be showers