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