:00:00. > :00:09.On one April night this year, hundreds of migrants drowned
:00:10. > :00:11.in the Mediterranean as a trawler overloaded with human
:00:12. > :00:33.The story of what happened that night has not been told, until now.
:00:34. > :00:37.As far as we can tell, there has been no official investigation into
:00:38. > :00:40.the sinking of the ship this spring in the eastern Mediterranean.
:00:41. > :00:43.There are survivors living in refugee centres
:00:44. > :00:48.And that evidence points to not just mass
:00:49. > :00:50.killing, but something darker than that.
:00:51. > :00:56.Also tonight, we are learning more about the Prime
:00:57. > :01:04.People talk about the sort of Brexit that there is going to be.
:01:05. > :01:13.Actually, we want a red, white and blue Brexit.
:01:14. > :01:14.We really are learning more about it.
:01:15. > :01:16.And we have a former Brexit Secretary to offer his opinions.
:01:17. > :01:18.Kellyanne, I just retweeted the best tweet.
:01:19. > :01:21.I mean, wow, what a great, smart tweet.
:01:22. > :01:27.What does the Twitter corporation think about Trump?
:01:28. > :01:30.He's been able to share that kind of authentic nature on Twitter
:01:31. > :01:34.in a way that a lot of politicians maybe haven't done so in the past,
:01:35. > :01:46.News has often reached us over the last couple of years,
:01:47. > :01:48.of migrants drowning in large numbers in the Mediterranean.
:01:49. > :01:52.Their overloaded boats toppling over at the slightest disturbance.
:01:53. > :01:55.Who could forget the picture of Aylan Kurdi that brought
:01:56. > :02:02.The emotions that most of us have felt at these heart-rending
:02:03. > :02:04.tragedies probably include sadness, distress, motivation to help,
:02:05. > :02:10.Tonight, we have a story to make you angry.
:02:11. > :02:13.The tale of what we believe to be the biggest migrant shipwreck
:02:14. > :02:15.of 2016 and the criminal behaviour that caused needless deaths.
:02:16. > :02:21.Over 500 people are believed to have died on one night in April,
:02:22. > :02:24.which is about twice the entire number of people who've been killed
:02:25. > :02:26.in passenger airline crashes anywhere in the world this year.
:02:27. > :02:30.But those deaths in the Mediterranean cannot really
:02:31. > :02:32.be called an accident, and there has been no investigation
:02:33. > :02:36.Except one, John Sweeney, with our producer James Clayton
:02:37. > :02:39.and in conjunction with Reuters, decided to look at the
:02:40. > :02:58.In the 21st-century, the Mediterranean Sea is fast becoming a
:02:59. > :03:03.mass grave. This year so far, 4700 people have drowned on the open sea.
:03:04. > :03:11.Very few sinkings have been properly investigated. Until now. What we
:03:12. > :03:18.believe is the worst sinking of 2016 Took Place at night at sea. There is
:03:19. > :03:23.no footage. We have hurt to build a picture from the survivors scattered
:03:24. > :03:33.across Europe. It is a story of grief. Frustration. You think the
:03:34. > :03:39.authorities have done enough to investigate this tragedy? No.
:03:40. > :03:48.Accusations of murder. Do you think this is murder? Yes, this is murder.
:03:49. > :03:51.An international inaction. And there has been no investigation worthy of
:03:52. > :03:59.the game, are you comfortable with that? Not really, no. This is the
:04:00. > :04:05.story of the forgotten shipwreck. On April the 16th this year, a small
:04:06. > :04:14.fishing boat was picked up off the Greek coast. On 37 survivors. Every
:04:15. > :04:23.night I'm not sleeping because I remember the boat accident. They
:04:24. > :04:29.said they had come from Libya, and so did the UNHCR. Perhaps as many as
:04:30. > :04:33.500 people drowned, a few days ago, we do not know exactly when. When a
:04:34. > :04:42.large ship went down between Libya and Italy. But when Stephen Gray
:04:43. > :04:46.from Reuters talked to survivors he started to question the official
:04:47. > :04:50.version. There was their language, the way they were holding back about
:04:51. > :04:56.details, the way they were vague about certain things. They had all
:04:57. > :04:59.apparently lost their phones and could not remember who for example
:05:00. > :05:06.they paid money to to get on this voyage. The dates they would giving
:05:07. > :05:09.did not add up. The details of how they apparently simply drifted from
:05:10. > :05:16.the scene of this disaster off the coast of Libya to a rescue point
:05:17. > :05:24.halfway between Greece and Italy, that did not seem to me to add up.
:05:25. > :05:33.Together with Reuters, Newsnight set out to find out what really
:05:34. > :05:37.happened. This man is one of the survivors. He had hoped to build a
:05:38. > :05:50.new life in Europe with his wife and baby girl. His wife and daughter and
:05:51. > :05:56.himself and 200 other migrants were loaded off a small fishing feeder
:05:57. > :05:59.boat onto a deep sea trawler, which would take them across the
:06:00. > :06:00.Mediterranean to Italy but the trawler was already crammed with 300
:06:01. > :06:58.people. These two were on the top deck of
:06:59. > :07:40.the trawler when it capsized. They made it to France.
:07:41. > :07:49.Overloaded boats can sync all too easily. At least this boat capsized
:07:50. > :07:53.in daylight when migrants crowded to one side after spotting an Italian
:07:54. > :08:00.naval ship. The trawler in our story sank at night. The physics of the
:08:01. > :08:05.simpering is simple. 500 people weighing roughly ten tonnes. If ten
:08:06. > :08:54.tonnes of cargo ship suddenly, a boat can capsize.
:08:55. > :09:03.He was the last person that this man was able to say. How many were in
:09:04. > :09:46.the water when the feeder boat left? Muaz is housed in a refugee centre.
:09:47. > :09:52.He is one of the lucky ones. Out of almost 100 in the water, almost all
:09:53. > :09:55.were abandoned. As far as we can tell there has been no official
:09:56. > :10:01.investigation into the sinking of this ship in the eastern
:10:02. > :10:05.Mediterranean. But the evidence is available. There are survivors
:10:06. > :10:09.living in refugee centres like this one behind me and the evidence
:10:10. > :10:15.points to not just mass killing, but something darker than that. Murder.
:10:16. > :10:18.There is the crucial fact that everybody has overlooked, an error
:10:19. > :10:23.that has prevented relatives of the dead getting any justice. The
:10:24. > :10:28.survivors told everyone they came from Libya, but that was alive, the
:10:29. > :10:52.boat left not from Libya, but here, in Egypt. Was the story true?
:10:53. > :10:59.Libya is in chaos, but Egypt is firmly under the heel of its strong
:11:00. > :11:04.man president, so there is a big question. What is Egypt doing to
:11:05. > :11:13.police its people smugglers? Not much, it seems. The migrants bought
:11:14. > :11:21.their tickets in Cairo from brokers. 500 people on the boat, many at
:11:22. > :11:24.$2000 each. That could be as much as $1 million gross. Even after
:11:25. > :11:31.expenses, the smugglers are making a killing. I travelled to a village in
:11:32. > :11:46.the Nile delta where nine boys on the boat came from. Too many people
:11:47. > :11:51.in Europe, a migrant boat sinking may seem like another grim
:11:52. > :11:58.statistic. For this woman, it was far, far worse than that. The list
:11:59. > :12:31.of the missing from her village starts with her own son.
:12:32. > :12:39.When you hear about these mass sinkings, you hear about Libya, not
:12:40. > :12:45.Egypt. But our investigation has shown that as many as 150 Egyptians
:12:46. > :12:52.may have died in this tragedy. The Egyptian authorities have not
:12:53. > :12:58.investigated, so you might well ask, why is that? Have the Egyptians
:12:59. > :13:54.Egyptian authorities got something to hide?
:13:55. > :14:04.Because there has been no full enquiry, she believes that her son
:14:05. > :14:09.may still be alive. This is what we understand of the doomed voyage.
:14:10. > :14:14.Most migrants leave the beach at Alexandria at night in small boats
:14:15. > :14:18.like these. They are picked up by the smugglers' feeder boat which
:14:19. > :14:23.sails west to meet the trawler in international waters. It is when the
:14:24. > :14:30.feeder boat transfers the human cargo to the trawler that disaster
:14:31. > :14:36.strikes. Whilst at sea, we believe, around 190 Somalis, 150 Ethiopians
:14:37. > :14:42.and 160 Egyptians and others from Sudan and Eritrea, roughly 500
:14:43. > :14:46.people in all. This is Miami Beach, Alexandria, where some of the
:14:47. > :14:53.survivors said their voyage started. Over there, that place with a little
:14:54. > :14:59.shack, that is a military post. The idea that hundreds of migrants could
:15:00. > :15:01.leave this place in a police state like Egypt without being seen? Well,
:15:02. > :15:11.that's a little far-fetched. an in the evidence linking the
:15:12. > :15:20.disaster to two smugglers comes from this man. He is the father of an
:15:21. > :15:24.Egyptian victim. He went to the police and they carried out a
:15:25. > :15:27.curious investigation which concluded there had been no
:15:28. > :15:32.manslaughter or murder, but only financial fraud. The police have
:15:33. > :15:43.said this is a fraud case. Is that right?
:15:44. > :15:45.Do you think the authorities have done enough to investigate this
:15:46. > :16:14.tragedy? The alleged leaders of the smuggling
:16:15. > :16:19.gangs are known by their nicknames, the doctor. Abdul filmed one of the
:16:20. > :16:21.alleged smugglers talking. He claims that the man was sent by the other
:16:22. > :16:55.man. We wanted to ask this man, Al-Bougy,
:16:56. > :17:02.about his alleged role in the sinking. But no one was in. We were
:17:03. > :17:07.told that he was on the run. The alleged smuggler known as the doctor
:17:08. > :17:14.did not return calls made by our investigation. Back in Cairo, we set
:17:15. > :17:18.out to track down a Somali broker and we wanted to challenge him about
:17:19. > :17:26.his role in the loss of so many lives. But the secret police had
:17:27. > :17:32.other ideas. We tried to interview the Somali broker and we have been
:17:33. > :17:37.stopped by the secret police. We are not free to leave. We are waiting
:17:38. > :17:44.for a police car and they will speak to us some more. We are now being
:17:45. > :17:54.escorted to the police station. Isn't that nice? , glee, the
:17:55. > :17:57.Egyptian authorities seemed keener on preventing journalism that matter
:17:58. > :18:04.journalism than people smuggling. As a result, the mass drownings
:18:05. > :18:07.continue. In September, another overloaded vessel sank off the coast
:18:08. > :18:13.of Egypt but this time so close to the sure that the authorities were
:18:14. > :18:17.compelled to act. 200 people drowned. Had the April tragedy been
:18:18. > :18:23.properly investigated, this second mass loss of life could perhaps have
:18:24. > :18:26.been avoided. In Egypt, a spokesperson for the Minister of
:18:27. > :18:31.justice said if the occurrence of such a crime is proven, Egypt
:18:32. > :18:36.certainly will not hesitate to conduct the necessary investigations
:18:37. > :18:41.to uncover it and arrest the perpetrators and bring them to
:18:42. > :18:45.justice. But Egypt is not alone. Greece, the country where the
:18:46. > :18:50.survivors landed, has not investigated. No official body,
:18:51. > :18:54.national or multinational, has held anyone to account for the deaths or
:18:55. > :19:00.even opened an enquiry into the shipwreck. As well as the tragic
:19:01. > :19:05.loss of life, you're's own security is being undermined. I went to The
:19:06. > :19:11.Hague to ask the head of the European police agency why it had
:19:12. > :19:16.failed. We believe 500 people died in this, the biggest mass drowning
:19:17. > :19:21.of 20 16th and so far there has been no investigation worthy of the name.
:19:22. > :19:25.You comfortable with that? Not really. I think this is an
:19:26. > :19:30.humanitarian disaster. The absence of clear answers in this case, to be
:19:31. > :19:34.fair to the authorities involved, reflect the difficulty in getting to
:19:35. > :19:40.the heart of the story, conflicting information from the survivors and
:19:41. > :19:43.elsewhere and there are some significant investigative problems
:19:44. > :19:48.in identifying who is criminally responsible. It is an uncomfortable
:19:49. > :19:53.situation. Europol has not done an investigation because no one has
:19:54. > :20:00.complained to you. You are powerless, due? Know, when it is
:20:01. > :20:02.referred to us, we can institute a full range of intelligence sharing
:20:03. > :20:07.facilities that we have at Europol and the way that we have used in
:20:08. > :20:11.many cases to hunt down and successfully target these people
:20:12. > :20:16.smuggling organisations. In this case, there has been good work done
:20:17. > :20:19.in your investigation and I am happy and I would like to receive the file
:20:20. > :20:23.that you have found and we will look at it again and we will take it to
:20:24. > :20:35.the Greek authorities and see if there is more that we can do. If
:20:36. > :20:39.these mass sinkings are not thoroughly investigated, then three
:20:40. > :20:43.things will continue to happen. The first is that the smugglers will
:20:44. > :20:48.continue to get richer, the second is that Europe will not be able to
:20:49. > :20:53.put pressure on the host countries like here in Egypt and the third,
:20:54. > :21:01.worst of all, is that thousands of people will continue to drown. And
:21:02. > :21:02.for the people who have lost loved ones, no investigation means grief
:21:03. > :21:09.without end. We did ask the Egyptian government
:21:10. > :21:11.for an interview, but they declined. Though the Justice Department
:21:12. > :21:13.told our investigation that they have just passed new laws
:21:14. > :21:15.against illegal migration and are determined to take
:21:16. > :21:19.action against smugglers. You can watch the Our World
:21:20. > :21:22.documentary on John Sweeney's investigation on the News Channel
:21:23. > :21:24.this Sunday at 21:30, And John Sweeney and Stephen Grey
:21:25. > :21:31.from Reuters will be taking your questions
:21:32. > :21:34.on their investigation. That's tomorrow at 1pm on the BBC
:21:35. > :21:44.Newsnight Facebook page. It may be coming out
:21:45. > :21:46.in dribs and drabs, but the government is feeding us
:21:47. > :21:48.more about the approach We have some fairly
:21:49. > :21:51.bland-sounding propositions - in today's version the Prime
:21:52. > :21:53.Minister said we are looking And you thought it was magenta
:21:54. > :22:00.that we were seeking. But slogans aside, for anyone
:22:01. > :22:03.listening to the objectives that have been set out in public of late,
:22:04. > :22:05.a relatively full picture And to add to that,
:22:06. > :22:09.the government also today conceded that it will publicly set
:22:10. > :22:11.out its plan, before The flurry of Brexit chatter
:22:12. > :22:17.was prompted by two things: the fact that Labour have tabled a Commons
:22:18. > :22:19.motion on it tomorrow, urging And secondly, leading
:22:20. > :22:23.Brexit negotiations for the European Commission,
:22:24. > :22:26.said that in effect we'll have 18 months to sort it out,
:22:27. > :22:28.and that we won't as good deal Our political editor
:22:29. > :22:47.Nick Watt is with me. On the domestic politics, Labour put
:22:48. > :22:54.down a motion, the Tories have amended it, who has won this little
:22:55. > :22:58.spat? It is a score draw all around, that averted a Tory rebellion and
:22:59. > :23:01.allows all sides to say they are claiming victory. A number of
:23:02. > :23:06.pro-European Tories were going to vote with Labour because Labour had
:23:07. > :23:09.used very colourful language to draw up a motion which would require the
:23:10. > :23:16.government to publish its Brexit plan before it triggers those
:23:17. > :23:19.Article 50 manoeuvres. The government said we will accept that
:23:20. > :23:22.Labour motion, but we will tackle on our own little bit that says that
:23:23. > :23:27.the government should be allowed to trigger Article 50 by its deadline
:23:28. > :23:31.of the end of March. I have learned this evening that it is highly
:23:32. > :23:36.likely that Labour is going to accept that motion as amended and
:23:37. > :23:40.will claim victory on two grounds, in the first place it will say thank
:23:41. > :23:44.you very much for accepting our demand that you publish your plans
:23:45. > :23:49.before you trigger Article 50. I think when we see those plans, they
:23:50. > :23:54.will be very much on the broad principle, of that 31-macro. The
:23:55. > :23:57.second thing, Labour will say we have no problem in saying that
:23:58. > :24:02.Article 50 should be triggered by the end of March because we agree
:24:03. > :24:07.with that. Everyone is converging, except potentially the Europeans.
:24:08. > :24:11.They have been setting out parameters, what has been the
:24:12. > :24:15.reaction? There was some surprise in Downing Street when it was said that
:24:16. > :24:20.if Theresa May follows her timetable then those negotiations will have to
:24:21. > :24:24.be concluded by October, 2018 and the reason for that is to have it
:24:25. > :24:28.fully ratified and signed and sealed by the time of the European
:24:29. > :24:31.Parliamentary elections in the spring of 2019. There was less
:24:32. > :24:36.surprise when he said that there could be no cherry picking and no
:24:37. > :24:40.favourable axis to the single market unless you accept the full freedoms.
:24:41. > :24:47.What the intervention showed was that once Article 50 is triggered in
:24:48. > :24:51.a legal sense, the UK has very few cards to play. But the British
:24:52. > :24:55.Government's view is once we have the French and German elections out
:24:56. > :24:59.of the way by this time next year, we will be looking towards a
:25:00. > :25:05.political deal where EU leaders will not want to leave the UK out in the
:25:06. > :25:11.cold. Thank you. Joining me now is Oliver Lachlan, former Cabinet
:25:12. > :25:15.Office minister who was briefly in charge of Brexit before Theresa May
:25:16. > :25:19.became Prime Minister. I do not understand, the government have
:25:20. > :25:24.announced something, we are going to be given the plan before Article 50,
:25:25. > :25:26.why did they wait for a Labour motion before making the
:25:27. > :25:30.announcement? There was no doubt that the government would publish
:25:31. > :25:35.some kind of paper before it started negotiating. I am not sure that it
:25:36. > :25:40.is going to tell us anything we do not know already and I do think it
:25:41. > :25:48.should. When they say publish a plan, is that like three tweets or
:25:49. > :25:56.400 pages of a White Paper? How do I know? I am sure that Whitehall will
:25:57. > :26:02.create something mellifluous and serious. I very much doubt and I
:26:03. > :26:06.hope that it won't say anything very material that has not been said
:26:07. > :26:12.already. We are clear what the outlines are, we are leaving, we are
:26:13. > :26:16.leaving the single market, we are going to have control over our own
:26:17. > :26:20.migration. If you want that, it implies you're the single market. We
:26:21. > :26:29.will be able to negotiate our own free trade deals with the rest of
:26:30. > :26:32.the word. That is pretty clear. You have a whole pile of very
:26:33. > :26:35.nitty-gritty bits of negotiating on how you deal with European arrest
:26:36. > :26:38.warrant and information exchange and you come to the big issue about
:26:39. > :26:42.trading and the truth is there is no one alive today who knows what kind
:26:43. > :26:48.of trading relationship we will end up with. You can't possibly declare
:26:49. > :26:53.a plan. The objective is clear, we want as much trade as possible.
:26:54. > :26:57.What's amazing is that you have spelt out, out of the customs union
:26:58. > :27:02.and the single market, free-trade deals with other countries, you have
:27:03. > :27:06.spelt out so much more clearly than any member of the government, why is
:27:07. > :27:13.that? Actually I don't think that is true. I have an unusual habit of
:27:14. > :27:18.reading what is produced. It has been said or implied. I thank you
:27:19. > :27:21.can infer all that. When Theresa May is asked a perfectly straightforward
:27:22. > :27:27.question, is a possible we will be making payments to the EU, everyone
:27:28. > :27:33.knows the answer is yes, David Davis has said that, she says, we want a
:27:34. > :27:37.Red, White and Blue Brexit. Why can she say yes, we would not like to
:27:38. > :27:41.make payments, but it could be inevitable? You are much clearer
:27:42. > :27:48.than she is or David Davis 's or Boris Johnson is, much clearer. On
:27:49. > :27:53.the question of payments, you don't want to pay an indefinite amount,
:27:54. > :27:58.but there are some things it would be worth paying some amounts for,
:27:59. > :28:02.particularly access to the sale of stocks and bonds and things by
:28:03. > :28:08.financial institutions in Britain. If we were not able to do that, we
:28:09. > :28:12.might lose a lot of investment in the City. I think it is very wise of
:28:13. > :28:17.the Prime Minister not to get pinned down on these things because she did
:28:18. > :28:21.not want to start fighting now and it will be quite a difficult
:28:22. > :28:25.domestic political issue, in advance of knowing what she does or does not
:28:26. > :28:29.have to give away. She doesn't want to get into a position of someone
:28:30. > :28:34.asking how much will we pay? You don't want to pay more than you need
:28:35. > :28:43.to. I think her whole instinct is to keep her cards close to her chest
:28:44. > :28:46.and I think she is right to do that and I think it is crazy for everyone
:28:47. > :28:53.else to demand more. A Red, White and Blue Brexit is simply a stall,
:28:54. > :28:57.just to be quite clear? It's a way of saying we will get the best deal
:28:58. > :29:01.that we can. That is what you ask a sensible Prime Minister to get for
:29:02. > :29:08.this country. If we have a plan and we know what we want, why are we
:29:09. > :29:14.delaying? Why don't we just invoke Article 50? White Wade four months
:29:15. > :29:19.until March. As you may know, I teamed up with some other colleagues
:29:20. > :29:23.to suggest we should not appeal to the Supreme Court. Slightly tricky
:29:24. > :29:30.thing to do, who knows what they will decide? I thought we could put
:29:31. > :29:33.a bill to Parliament, I think it is abundantly clear, I have been on
:29:34. > :29:38.programmes with John McDonnell and he was clear that Labour would vote
:29:39. > :29:42.for Article 50 and I cannot see any reason why we should not get a bill
:29:43. > :29:46.very quickly through Parliament and get a move on. There is something
:29:47. > :29:53.going on, which of course is easy for you and quite difficult inside
:29:54. > :29:56.Whitehall, there is a huge wealth of detail about a whole series of
:29:57. > :30:01.things which are not really integral to the issues we're talking about
:30:02. > :30:06.but have to be sorted out. What do you do about the Information
:30:07. > :30:08.Systems? How you deal with the kinds of cooperation on security and
:30:09. > :30:19.intelligence and policing... In a restricted time when I dealt
:30:20. > :30:24.with this I could see the ghastly prospect of those details.
:30:25. > :30:28.You would rather they had not gone to the Supreme Court because it
:30:29. > :30:32.delays everything and there is a risk the Supreme Court will
:30:33. > :30:39.potentially go further than the High Court in giving Parliament or
:30:40. > :30:46.devolved assemblies rights. I am worried about uncharted waters. If
:30:47. > :30:52.you get 11 Supreme Court judges who are very intelligent and serious
:30:53. > :30:58.people, the attacks on the judiciary from some quarters were despicable
:30:59. > :31:03.and totally wrong. The judges try to do their job and judge the law. In
:31:04. > :31:07.this area of the law is indistinct, we do not know what our constitution
:31:08. > :31:14.is, it is not written, and we ought to have one. Because we do not have
:31:15. > :31:18.a written constitution, if you ask 11th learn to people what is the
:31:19. > :31:22.Constitution? You may find out things you do not want to know and I
:31:23. > :31:28.have no idea what the result will be but I fear there may be limits on
:31:29. > :31:31.the prerogative in ways that limit future governments from taking
:31:32. > :31:35.actions that would be sensible and I don't think we need to have that but
:31:36. > :31:37.we are in the middle of the trial so it will happen. Thanks.
:31:38. > :31:39.Every three years, the OECD, an international, official body,
:31:40. > :31:41.publishes the results of its Pisa tests.
:31:42. > :31:44.they are meant to be internationally comparable tests
:31:45. > :31:48.Ministers from well-performing countries open their results
:31:49. > :31:53.envelope, look aghast for a moment, and then leap in the air with joy.
:31:54. > :31:57.Actually, it doens't work like that but the Pisa league tables often
:31:58. > :31:59.spark national panics, because half the countries
:32:00. > :32:03.The results came out today and our policy editor Chris Cook has
:32:04. > :32:24.The Pisa tests are like in -- inkblot tests with people seeing
:32:25. > :32:28.different patterns. These are sacked by students and 72 jurisdictions.
:32:29. > :32:36.What should you see in Pisa? Pisa is trying to test people'sreal-world
:32:37. > :32:41.problem-solving skills so it is giving questions about being in a
:32:42. > :32:45.supermarket and you see articles priced in different ways. What it
:32:46. > :32:51.does not test is the subject specific content knowledge you study
:32:52. > :32:55.in schools. There are not questions on the periodic table for example.
:32:56. > :32:59.There are tests that measured knowledge and you get similar
:33:00. > :33:02.patterns of knowledge for broke so it looks like whatever Pisa is
:33:03. > :33:10.measuring is something real. This year it is focused on science, a
:33:11. > :33:16.topic where Britain does well and the UK average beats the OECD
:33:17. > :33:21.average. We are in a packed with Germany, Netherlands, Australia,
:33:22. > :33:27.Germany and Korea. We are behind the leaders Canada, Estonia, Finland and
:33:28. > :33:33.Japan, and in front, Singapore. What can we learn from the countries that
:33:34. > :33:39.beat us? First some of this is about attitude and culture. Culture is
:33:40. > :33:42.important. An example is a study by a professor and colleagues looking
:33:43. > :33:47.at Canadian and Japanese students and how they respond to failure.
:33:48. > :33:52.Where Japanese students thought they had failed they were motivated to
:33:53. > :33:57.work harder compared to Canadian students, who I imagine more similar
:33:58. > :34:00.to British students and are demotivated by failure. Different
:34:01. > :34:05.ways of thinking about success and how you get there. There are things
:34:06. > :34:10.we could change more easily. There is very little time to do anything
:34:11. > :34:19.else than teaching. That has been the price force the -- for small
:34:20. > :34:23.classes. East Asia, those teachers would teach a larger class but it
:34:24. > :34:27.leaves the more room to advance their careers to prepare lessons, to
:34:28. > :34:32.work with other teachers. It is not about the student staff ratio, which
:34:33. > :34:39.is pretty much fine in England. There are parts of the results that
:34:40. > :34:43.should concern Britain. While we are better at science, we are only at
:34:44. > :34:49.the OECD average in reading and maths. We have not really improved
:34:50. > :34:55.in the last ten years. Finally, when you look at the UK average it hides
:34:56. > :35:02.important disparities between the performances of the four home
:35:03. > :35:08.nations. England is on 512 points for science, 19 above the OECD
:35:09. > :35:13.average. It puts it six months of school time ahead of Northern
:35:14. > :35:18.Ireland, and Scotland, which is four points up. But England is the best
:35:19. > :35:22.part of the year ahead of Wales, eight points below the OECD average
:35:23. > :35:26.in that gap is driven by the fact that middle-class and rich people in
:35:27. > :35:34.particular in Wales are doing very poorly. The results may matter more
:35:35. > :35:39.elsewhere in the UK. The Scottish education minister is pondering
:35:40. > :35:42.English sounding reforms. The report from the Pisa analysis is
:35:43. > :35:47.uncomfortable reading and we should recognise that. There has been
:35:48. > :35:52.stability in maths performance but a fall in science and reading in
:35:53. > :35:55.Scotland. The clearest policy prescription was aimed at England
:35:56. > :36:01.and its flirtation with new grammar schools. At the School of witchcraft
:36:02. > :36:09.and wizardry, Harry Potter and classmates were very... As they
:36:10. > :36:20.arrived they were sorted into houses. An early sorting might be
:36:21. > :36:25.appropriate for students of magic but does not work in the real world.
:36:26. > :36:28.As it happens, English schools are probably more selective than you
:36:29. > :36:34.think because of their unusual love for setting and streaming. You see
:36:35. > :36:38.an interesting pattern for England. The school system is one of the
:36:39. > :36:45.least selective across OECD countries but once you move inside
:36:46. > :36:50.schools, England is one of the most stratified. A lot of selection takes
:36:51. > :36:54.place within classes within schools and that is more difficult to deal
:36:55. > :36:58.with. Our governments should at least agree they can see one thing
:36:59. > :37:01.in the results. Things are not where we would like them to be.
:37:02. > :37:04.Donald Trump tweeted today, as he does.
:37:05. > :37:07.He said "Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One
:37:08. > :37:10.for future presidents, but costs are out of control,
:37:11. > :37:16.One aerospace analyst said the tweet was "completely nonsensical
:37:17. > :37:23.But it's very difficult to adjudicate on complicated program
:37:24. > :37:24.management and military requirements questions with Twitter
:37:25. > :37:28.I tell you all this, not to talk about Trump,
:37:29. > :37:32.It's had a tough time of late, fighting for relevance as other
:37:33. > :37:41.I met up with Rob Owers this afternoon, he is one
:37:42. > :37:42.of the company's most senior people in the UK.
:37:43. > :37:45.We sat in the library at the Twitter office,
:37:46. > :37:46.which conspicuously seemed to have hardly any books.
:37:47. > :37:49.I suggested to Mr Owers, he must be pleased that Donald Trump
:37:50. > :37:55.has kept Twitter in the public eye this year.
:37:56. > :37:58.I think Donald Trump's my use of the platform has been something
:37:59. > :38:00.that has obviously driven a lot of attention.
:38:01. > :38:02.We've seen him take to Twitter to share his opinions,
:38:03. > :38:05.to be very candid, in a way that I suppose he's been able to share
:38:06. > :38:09.that authentic nature on Twitter in the way that a lot of politicians
:38:10. > :38:13.maybe haven't done so in the past at such a level.
:38:14. > :38:16.The kind of things he's been saying in rallies to his supporters around
:38:17. > :38:18.the country he is now saying via his Twitter feed
:38:19. > :38:23.A big cohort of our user base, and early adopters were of course
:38:24. > :38:26.journalists, and journalists are jumping on this every time
:38:27. > :38:28.he tweets, of course, to say, let's fact check this,
:38:29. > :38:30.let's look at it, let's see what the context is,
:38:31. > :38:33.the meaning behind it, that kind of thing.
:38:34. > :38:35.And also it's sparking debate from our users.
:38:36. > :38:42.I mean, in what sort of way, for someone who's not on Twitter,
:38:43. > :38:44.would you say you would have consumed the Brexit referendum?
:38:45. > :38:52.Every year we look at the top trends that are on Twitter.
:38:53. > :38:55.Last year, it was very much around movements that had sprung up,
:38:56. > :38:58.where people were trying to give a voice to the voiceless.
:38:59. > :39:00.Things like Black Lies Matter, Home To Vote, Refugees Welcome.
:39:01. > :39:02.2016 was a year of huge, seismic live events,
:39:03. > :39:05.so the US election, Brexit, as you just talked about.
:39:06. > :39:08.And what we've seen is where people have come to our platform
:39:09. > :39:11.They are coming onto Twitter and they are seeing both
:39:12. > :39:15.A very interesting question and a sort of big issue
:39:16. > :39:18.for our society is this one of tribes and a very divided country
:39:19. > :39:27.Howling around their same views with their same chums,
:39:28. > :39:32.Are there people who are basically being fed the same old diet
:39:33. > :39:35.We always encourage people on Twitter to follow people
:39:36. > :39:38.from both sides of an argument, to follow people you agree with
:39:39. > :39:42.But definitely when it comes to this kind of filter bubble argument
:39:43. > :39:45.that is often labelled at Twitter, I think that absolutely wrong
:39:46. > :39:47.on a number of levels, particularly around the fact
:39:48. > :39:51.Twitter, the hashtag is where Twitter originated
:39:52. > :39:57.That allows people to tap on something and to see tweets
:39:58. > :40:02.You are not going to see it filtered by one side or the other.
:40:03. > :40:05.Also, we don't have an interest here at Twitter in having
:40:06. > :40:07.any kind of algorithm that is going to affect,
:40:08. > :40:10.for you, how you see different types of content.
:40:11. > :40:13.We are not going to keep resurfacing again and again a certain type
:40:14. > :40:16.of content based on how you have interacted with it before.
:40:17. > :40:21.In the same way that maybe there were filter
:40:22. > :40:24.bubbles 20 years ago, 30 years ago, down to
:40:25. > :40:27.the newspaper you read or the TV channel you used to watch.
:40:28. > :40:34.Essentially, there are two ways of constructing a timeline.
:40:35. > :40:39.Via a computer it will direct stuff to me that it thinks I am
:40:40. > :40:42.Yours is more or less chronology of the people
:40:43. > :40:46.I wonder whether you still think the chronology works.
:40:47. > :40:49.The chronology for us is really vital because people come to Twitter
:40:50. > :40:52.to just discover what is happening in the world right now
:40:53. > :40:58.Now we're much more about news then we are about social media.
:40:59. > :41:00.We move from social media part of the App Store
:41:01. > :41:03.and the Google Place store into the news area in both of those
:41:04. > :41:08.and I think that gives an indication of where we see ourselves.
:41:09. > :41:11.One interesting aspect of this year of such interesting politics
:41:12. > :41:14.is people have said, don't use Twitter to judge what's
:41:15. > :41:24.I am guessing most of the tweets on Brexit were for Remain?
:41:25. > :41:32.On Brexit, there were definitely more tweets about Leave,
:41:33. > :41:35.talking about Leave than there were about Remain.
:41:36. > :41:39.But if you looked at the individual accounts that were tweeting
:41:40. > :41:41.about Leave or Remain, it was almost exactly 50-50,
:41:42. > :41:44.which is pretty much how it turned out in the referendum result
:41:45. > :41:47.Fake news stories have become an issue.
:41:48. > :41:49.Is Twitter the right company to start trying to decide this
:41:50. > :41:52.point needs to be removed because it is the spreading
:41:53. > :41:55.We are definitely not in the business of policing
:41:56. > :41:58.the content to that extent in terms of deciding what is true
:41:59. > :42:02.When it comes to journalism, that is not what Twitter's about.
:42:03. > :42:05.We take the issue extremely seriously.
:42:06. > :42:08.How do you take it seriously, other than to say, to flag up
:42:09. > :42:10.stories that you don't think are true?
:42:11. > :42:12.From the start we have always verified journalists and real news
:42:13. > :42:15.networks to make it clear from when you see the tweet
:42:16. > :42:21.And that is something we have done for years.
:42:22. > :42:24.We have also recently partnered with a group called
:42:25. > :42:26.the First Draft News Coalition and they are a group of news
:42:27. > :42:29.organisations and academics who are coming together to get these
:42:30. > :42:33.meaty topics around news at the moment and to look
:42:34. > :42:36.at solutions and ways we can work together so it is not tech companies
:42:37. > :42:39.policing journalism, and we can find a way to make it
:42:40. > :42:42.clear for users what is real, what isn't real, or where
:42:43. > :43:00.That is all we have time for. We will watch the debate in Parliament
:43:01. > :43:06.about Brexit tomorrow and I will be back in this chair tomorrow evening.
:43:07. > :43:19.Good night. We are in for some mild weather,
:43:20. > :43:23.certainly a change to what we have been used to in the last couple of
:43:24. > :43:26.weeks. The wind is coming in from the south and it will be
:43:27. > :43:28.particularly mild. If you