:00:00. > :00:07.The Government comes a cropper in the High Court.
:00:08. > :00:10.Its draft plan for clean air will have to be published before
:00:11. > :00:16.London was enveloped in a 40 mile belt of fog.
:00:17. > :00:19.1952 - 4,000 people died from the Great Smog,
:00:20. > :00:27.Today, the judge cited 23,000 deaths from diesel fuel
:00:28. > :00:31.But are there more votes now in leaving drivers to pollute?
:00:32. > :00:33.This man was Energy Secretary in the last government.
:00:34. > :00:41.Donald Trump celebrates 100 days in the White House this weekend.
:00:42. > :00:44.We're in post industrial Detroit where the white working class voters
:00:45. > :00:48.His spirit spoke to their need for a change.
:00:49. > :00:50.When they heard somebody say, "I'm going to remember you,
:00:51. > :00:53.I'm going to speak directly to you, I'm going to fix the problem,
:00:54. > :00:56.I'm the man to do it, based on my experience",
:00:57. > :01:00.he won over the hearts and the minds of the tens of millions of people.
:01:01. > :01:02.Armando Ianucci and the new president of the National Union
:01:03. > :01:04.of Students on getting young people to vote.
:01:05. > :01:06.I remember one very senior minister telling me,
:01:07. > :01:10.that if it was the last day of an election campaign and he had
:01:11. > :01:13.a choice between canvassing a hall of residence or an old people's
:01:14. > :01:31.home, you do the old people's home any day.
:01:32. > :01:38.23,500 deaths a year from nitrogen dioxide poisoning.
:01:39. > :01:40.That figure was cited by the High Court judge today
:01:41. > :01:44.in his ruling that the Government cannot block the publication
:01:45. > :01:48.of their draft clean air plan until after the general election.
:01:49. > :01:51.They claimed publication would "drop a controversial bomb" into the mix
:01:52. > :01:55.of local and national elections, but that didn't wash,
:01:56. > :01:58.and after the local elections we'll find out what Theresa May plans
:01:59. > :02:02.to do about reducing dirty diesel - the main culprit.
:02:03. > :02:05.The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said he hoped that the government
:02:06. > :02:08.will urgently introduce a diesel scrappage fund to rid our streets
:02:09. > :02:10.of the dirtiest cars, and give financial incentives
:02:11. > :02:25.Here's our technology editor, David Grossman.
:02:26. > :02:33.How does the Government plan to clean up our air? It is as important
:02:34. > :02:37.a question as it is urgent. But ministers are fighting shy of
:02:38. > :02:41.providing any answers. By 4pm on Monday they should have
:02:42. > :02:45.published their plan, but they asked the High Court for a delay, until
:02:46. > :02:50.after the general election. The judge though, agreed with the
:02:51. > :02:55.organisation that had taken them to court in the first place, Client
:02:56. > :03:02.Earth The judge listened to claims it kneed to delay, and he rejected
:03:03. > :03:07.them vigorously, and is keeping the Government to the deadline to
:03:08. > :03:10.release the final plan on July 31. The judge was forthright about the
:03:11. > :03:16.cost of delays any plan, what did you make of that? The judge has read
:03:17. > :03:22.the evidence, and was Defra's own evidence that up to 40,000 people a
:03:23. > :03:26.year die of air pollution in the UK. And what the judge said is merely
:03:27. > :03:29.because there is an election going on, doesn't trump the public health.
:03:30. > :03:33.This is not a political issue, one day of delay is important. Weeks or
:03:34. > :03:37.months is intolerable. That is what the judge decided and in my view he
:03:38. > :03:41.was right. Make no mistake this was a huge blow
:03:42. > :03:46.to the Government's attempt to keep a lid on the growing scandal of air
:03:47. > :03:49.pollution. The young was in fact contemptuous on the goot's attempt
:03:50. > :03:54.to delay again the publication of the a plan the clean-up the air. He
:03:55. > :04:00.told them in terms to get on with it because delays mean people are
:04:01. > :04:15.dying. In his judgment, the judge said:
:04:16. > :04:21.A big contributor to this problem say researchers is the Government
:04:22. > :04:26.encouraging drives to buy diesel cars because they produce less CO2
:04:27. > :04:30.than petrol cars. Diesel went from being under 10% of sales in 1995, to
:04:31. > :04:37.over half by the start of this decade.
:04:38. > :04:41.People who bought diesels in good faith need had been to traps for to
:04:42. > :04:46.clean vehicle, that is part of what needs to happen, hence the carefully
:04:47. > :04:51.crafted scrappage scheme, but it needs to happen, we need to get rid
:04:52. > :04:54.of diesel, phase out diesel as soon as possible and ultimately petrol
:04:55. > :04:59.too. What we didn't know, is that the
:05:00. > :05:04.environmental test that diesel vehicles had to meet boar no
:05:05. > :05:08.relation to real world conditions so the amount of nitrogen dioxide they
:05:09. > :05:13.pumped out, was far in excess of what the Government was expecting.
:05:14. > :05:18.For example, the amount of nitrogen dioxide measured by this testing
:05:19. > :05:22.site on London's Marylebone Road was double the EU legal limit last year.
:05:23. > :05:26.The Government's problem is not so much presenting the plan as the
:05:27. > :05:30.price tag. Who is going to be made to pay? The people who made the
:05:31. > :05:35.diesel car, the people who drive them? Or the taxpayer? Either way
:05:36. > :05:40.the best time to present such a massive bill, is not right before a
:05:41. > :05:44.general election. One group that represents drivers
:05:45. > :05:48.fears that diesel owners will get punished for the simple reason they
:05:49. > :05:55.are the easiest to tax. Only 10% of the problem comes from diesel cars.
:05:56. > :06:00.90% comes from buses and trains and roadside construction equipment.
:06:01. > :06:06.Even, you are looking at boilers from commercial outlets in London.
:06:07. > :06:13.90% of nitrogen dioxide comes from those source, only 10% comes from
:06:14. > :06:19.car, that what we are concern about. Those owners are all expected to pay
:06:20. > :06:24.a tax hike, and that is wrong. The Government we are told hasn't
:06:25. > :06:28.decided what to do next. But, as things stand, ministers will have to
:06:29. > :06:32.publish their draft plan, in just 12 days' time.
:06:33. > :06:35.Ed Davey is a Liberal Democrat MP who served in the coalition
:06:36. > :06:40.government as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
:06:41. > :06:42.Matthew Pencharz was London's Deputy Mayor
:06:43. > :06:45.for Environment Energy under Boris Johnson - and now works
:06:46. > :06:56.The statistics are shocking. Why does it need a court to make the
:06:57. > :07:00.Government come clean on plans for diesel? Well, it is good question.
:07:01. > :07:05.Ministers should be hanging their heads in shame. They have
:07:06. > :07:09.prevaricated. They are trying to hide this from the electorate when
:07:10. > :07:13.this is a public health scanle. People talk about public health
:07:14. > :07:16.issues but the air pollution, the damage it does to health is bigger
:07:17. > :07:19.than the crisis of obesity and alcohol abuse, it is that
:07:20. > :07:24.significant. There was no justification for the delay, it was
:07:25. > :07:28.going to be some huge controversy if it came out before the general
:07:29. > :07:34.election, what could that be? Your report sums it up. They don't want
:07:35. > :07:39.to go into an election, with punishing diesel drives, that
:07:40. > :07:42.doesn't strike me as good governance, but I think politicians
:07:43. > :07:47.on the stump don't want to face as their QC put it the Tory tax on
:07:48. > :07:51.diesel plan. But we have known about this problem for years and since
:07:52. > :07:55.2010 we have been nowhere near the EU limit so it a plague on all your
:07:56. > :08:04.house, every politician, every adviser. Liberal Democrats took this
:08:05. > :08:07.seriously. Vince Cable made big steps forward with electric
:08:08. > :08:11.vehicles. I did a lot on energy efficiency in homes because that is
:08:12. > :08:17.important, because a lot of the nitrogen dioxide comes from burning
:08:18. > :08:21.gas, so we took a big issue. Let us be clear, I would suggest the
:08:22. > :08:24.coalition was perhaps no better because the environmentmental audit
:08:25. > :08:26.committee in 2014 said the Government failed to face the
:08:27. > :08:29.problem. You were the government. We were the Liberal Democrat side of
:08:30. > :08:32.the Government. You were the Government. The Liberal Democrats
:08:33. > :08:37.took action, our Conservative colleagues wouldn't. This, the
:08:38. > :08:43.people who are in charge of this are people like Owen part son at Defra
:08:44. > :08:47.who failed to take it seriously. Norman Baker did, I did, Vince Cable
:08:48. > :08:50.did. But you were impotent. We took action which helped but our
:08:51. > :08:54.colleagues time and again refused to act. I am 23409 suggesting you are
:08:55. > :08:58.the Conservative Government, you were the deputy mayor under Boris
:08:59. > :09:03.Johnson, what do you think the measures are in the draft plan?
:09:04. > :09:08.Well, the first thing I should say for my experience, the coalition
:09:09. > :09:13.Government didn't step up until it was forced to by losingings, in the
:09:14. > :09:18.Supreme Court round two years ago, and from my experience at City Hall,
:09:19. > :09:23.Liberal Democrat ministers were not, were just as difficult to engage
:09:24. > :09:29.with, I guess than their Conservative counter pars. We took
:09:30. > :09:33.action. Let me answer that point. Clear examples of actions we took.
:09:34. > :09:38.We took action but Boris Johnson went to Brussels to try to argue and
:09:39. > :09:41.make coalitions to undermine the European standards. So Boris
:09:42. > :09:48.Johnson, far from showing leadership, he tried to undermine
:09:49. > :09:53.action on air pollution. And of course, you know, 2014, from 2010 to
:09:54. > :09:58.2014, you were so far behind in London, Boris Johnson did not do
:09:59. > :10:03.enough to reduce emissions nitrogen dioxide. There is a few things I
:10:04. > :10:07.would like to challenge. The first about going to Brussels to water
:10:08. > :10:13.down the rule, that wasn't true. When I went to Brussels it was to
:10:14. > :10:18.get the diesel real world driving tests to work properly. And we had a
:10:19. > :10:23.coalition of other heavily populated industrial areas of Europe, around
:10:24. > :10:27.going to the Commission, trying to get united action... You are not
:10:28. > :10:31.going to have to worry about that for much longer. Can we go back to
:10:32. > :10:35.the point. People would like to know, what will in you view be the
:10:36. > :10:41.principle measures in the draft plans? I think we will see more
:10:42. > :10:46.clean air zone, so we saw my former boss Boris Johnson create the ultra
:10:47. > :10:50.low-emission zone and kudos to Sadiq Khan is bringing forward, he is
:10:51. > :10:53.bringing them faster than we were. That is is a good thing. You will
:10:54. > :10:57.see the Government bringing more clean air zones in. My concern is
:10:58. > :11:03.they are a bit of a blunt instrument. But the cost. It is not
:11:04. > :11:09.so much what you do, is the cost of, what is the cost of do deucing it?
:11:10. > :11:14.There is a huge cost on people's health. There is an overall saving
:11:15. > :11:18.if you take it over a period of years and therefore the Government
:11:19. > :11:24.can't hide behind cost, that is an excuse for not taking... But if, if
:11:25. > :11:29.the action is, is going to be tough, and it comes out of, I assume the
:11:30. > :11:34.reason the Government did not want this to come out before the election
:11:35. > :11:38.because it will have consequences, for the so-called white van man who
:11:39. > :11:42.will be hit badly. It is right about the medical and health impact and
:11:43. > :11:47.the cost to the NHS. And that will be spread widely across society. The
:11:48. > :11:52.difficult for the politician is, that bringing forward these diesel
:11:53. > :11:56.bans or charges, is you are imposing high costs on a relatively few
:11:57. > :12:00.number of people, so if you look at the impact assessments for the clean
:12:01. > :12:05.air zones, the original plan the High Court ruled illegal, that was a
:12:06. > :12:08.billion pounds, if you look at what the compliance cost it was 250
:12:09. > :12:13.million in one year. Briefly is it wrong to go after diesel drivers? It
:12:14. > :12:17.was supposedly according to the witness in that film it was only
:12:18. > :12:22.10%. We can help diesel drivers go to electric vehicles but it is not
:12:23. > :12:27.just diesel cars it is lorry, training, other aspects if we are
:12:28. > :12:31.able to use less gas... And that will be in the plans? It is
:12:32. > :12:32.certainly Liberal Democrat plans. Thank you very much indeed.
:12:33. > :12:39.Well, let's turn to another potential headache for
:12:40. > :12:41.the Conseratives ahead of the general election: what should
:12:42. > :12:44.or should they not promise voters they will do on the amount
:12:45. > :12:48.Nick Watt's here with some insight on their thoughts.
:12:49. > :12:56.I Philip Hammond buzz badly burned in his recent budget when he said he
:12:57. > :13:00.would increase the rate of national insurance contributions for the
:13:01. > :13:03.self-employed. He quickly withdrew that after it district he
:13:04. > :13:08.contradicted the last Conservative manifesto which said there would be
:13:09. > :13:11.no raise in income tax, VAT on National Insurance contributions so
:13:12. > :13:15.the Chancellor wants to avoid what he regards as the transactional
:13:16. > :13:20.approach of his predecessor, but here is his dilemma, he does not
:13:21. > :13:26.want to make specific commitments, that would bind his hands, but he
:13:27. > :13:29.does need to make what allies are describing as measurable commitments
:13:30. > :13:34.to give him credibility as a low tax party, and to allow him to attack
:13:35. > :13:39.Labour as a high tack party. What might we see in the manifesto on
:13:40. > :13:42.tax? Might we have an echo of the formula that Philip Hammond helped
:13:43. > :13:47.George Osborne draw up in the years when they were in opposition before
:13:48. > :13:50.the financial crash which was that a future Conservative Government would
:13:51. > :13:54.share the proceeds of growth to fund tax cuts and spending increases but
:13:55. > :13:59.the Hammond version would be simpler, it would say as the economy
:14:00. > :14:04.grows, the tax burden should fall, but, he may go a step further, there
:14:05. > :14:07.is an idea that has been examined in the Treasury, and that says you
:14:08. > :14:13.would give a commitment, that you would not increase the basic higher
:14:14. > :14:18.or additional tax rates, but the Chancellor would need wriggle room
:14:19. > :14:22.to raise revenue so would rely on an old friend of the Treasury, called
:14:23. > :14:29.fiscal drag, what that means is do you raise the threshold at which
:14:30. > :14:32.people pay hiring tax and that means more people would pay that 40%
:14:33. > :14:33.higher tax rate. Thank you.
:14:34. > :14:37.On Saturday Donald Trump will have been President and Commander
:14:38. > :14:41.He's got very little legislation through Congress and his approval
:14:42. > :14:43.ratings don't look good, 41% - substantially lower
:14:44. > :14:46.than any other other modern president at this stage in his term.
:14:47. > :14:49.But how is he faring among the working class white voters
:14:50. > :14:51.who ditched the Democrats and propelled him to the White House
:14:52. > :14:55.on the promise that he would make America great again by making mines
:14:56. > :14:56.factories and steel mills come back to life?
:14:57. > :15:02.Our diplomatic editor Mark Urban has been to Detroit where blue collar
:15:03. > :15:29.workers put all their hopes in Donald Trump.
:15:30. > :15:32.If you want to see rusted-out factories scattered
:15:33. > :15:38.Michigan voted twice for Obama but last November
:15:39. > :15:49.With its recent history of industrial decline,
:15:50. > :15:54.his 'Make America great again' message carried the state.
:15:55. > :15:59.When they heard somebody say "I'm going to remember you,
:16:00. > :16:02.I'm going to speak directly to you, I'm going to fix the problem,
:16:03. > :16:05.I'm the man to do it based on my experience,"
:16:06. > :16:09.he won over the hearts and minds of the tens of millions of people,
:16:10. > :16:17.and including the Michiganders that turned the state red.
:16:18. > :16:21.So where better to look for the voters' verdict on those
:16:22. > :16:36.Of course in a neighbourhood like this in Detroit many
:16:37. > :16:39.of the first hundred days issues that resonate in Washington have no
:16:40. > :16:45.meaning whatsoever and if you come here looking for signs of buyers'
:16:46. > :16:49.regret on the part of Trump voters, you'll be disappointed.
:16:50. > :16:54.In the post-apocalyptic remains of Detroit's industrial heyday,
:16:55. > :16:57.Alan Hill scavenges metal and looks to his president for change.
:16:58. > :17:10.The previous administration seemed to alienate people's ideas
:17:11. > :17:13.and broke their dreams and Trump has put a lot of faith back
:17:14. > :17:17.And out where they still produce vehicles in vast quantities,
:17:18. > :17:30.you'll hear similar expressions of faith in the president.
:17:31. > :17:33.50% of the union members in my plant voted for Donald Trump.
:17:34. > :17:35.Across the road from the Ford plant where he works,
:17:36. > :17:38.Brian explained why so many blue-collar workers here deserted
:17:39. > :17:40.the Democrats and why Trump's record so far doesn't disappoint.
:17:41. > :17:45.I am 100% satisfied with Donald Trump's efforts to this point.
:17:46. > :17:51.I think he has fought very hard to do exactly what he pledged to do
:17:52. > :17:53.in terms of immigration policy, securing our borders,
:17:54. > :18:03.I have been very disappointed, however, with Congress -
:18:04. > :18:05.both Democrats and Republicans - for them not being able to implement
:18:06. > :18:16.Of course, there are plenty of Trump critics here, too.
:18:17. > :18:22.Most notably for his immigration executive orders.
:18:23. > :18:28.The largest Muslim population in the country is in my district.
:18:29. > :18:31.Targeting people because of their faith, of religion,
:18:32. > :18:37.I know he talked about it, but you just don't understand how
:18:38. > :18:41.these communities are being divided with fear and hatred.
:18:42. > :18:48.But in some ways, it's also communities coming together.
:18:49. > :18:50.You've never seen them come together before,
:18:51. > :18:53.and that gives you a feeling of hope in some ways, but this
:18:54. > :19:01.Issues of security, national and economic,
:19:02. > :19:05.have long run harmoniously together in this state.
:19:06. > :19:15.The Yankee Museum maintains this pristine B-17 and it was here
:19:16. > :19:17.when it opened at Willow Run, Michigan, that the world's
:19:18. > :19:21.And they're coming off the assembly line as fast
:19:22. > :19:26.They constructed more than 8000 Liberator bombers here,
:19:27. > :19:28.applying the car industry's manufacturing methods
:19:29. > :19:34.The fact of the matter was every 55 minutes an aircraft was coming
:19:35. > :19:36.off a production line, just in this plant alone,
:19:37. > :19:38.and Germany, Japan, our enemies in the Mediterranean,
:19:39. > :19:41.there was no way to be able to compete with that
:19:42. > :19:48.So President Trump came to Willow Run last month, promising
:19:49. > :19:54.This facility, this city and this nation will once again shine
:19:55. > :20:03.So this, it's clear, is the Trump style.
:20:04. > :20:05.A permanent campaign and a one-man assembly-line
:20:06. > :20:18.One reason why Trump came to Willow Run is because here,
:20:19. > :20:21.on a part of the old bomb factory, they're planning a test
:20:22. > :20:23.facility for the automated vehicles of the future.
:20:24. > :20:26.So what do those who met him think of Trump's promise
:20:27. > :20:32.I couldn't hazard a guess on what that would mean for jobs
:20:33. > :20:37.I will say this, that if the technology's going
:20:38. > :20:42.to revolutionise the way that we move people and goods,
:20:43. > :20:46.and to that extent, if we don't focus on this technology,
:20:47. > :20:49.we will lose a lot more, a lot more jobs that are around
:20:50. > :20:53.engineering and making the system work, making vehicles work.
:20:54. > :20:56.Near the plant, the Bomber diner serves up 'bomber burgers'
:20:57. > :21:04.It's popular with veterans and those who served have
:21:05. > :21:05.often been unimpressed with their new President's
:21:06. > :21:19.He is learning how complex things are, he thought they were simple.
:21:20. > :21:21.He said, "Who knew health care could be so complicated?"
:21:22. > :21:23.Now he's saying "Who knew that international relations
:21:24. > :21:25.could be so complicated, who knew that Korea or Syria
:21:26. > :21:30.And so he's really done nothing in 100 days other than to get
:21:31. > :21:36.a Supreme Court judge put on the bench.
:21:37. > :21:39.So what, I asked the woman who ran Trump's campaign in the state,
:21:40. > :21:42.should we make of the discarded promises or admissions
:21:43. > :21:45.that he hadn't realised it was all so complicated?
:21:46. > :21:46.That's what the American people wanted.
:21:47. > :21:49.We wanted someone to say, "Wow, this is tougher than I imagined."
:21:50. > :21:51.I think that message of honesty speaks to the voters
:21:52. > :22:00.For the president to say "This is tougher than I thought
:22:01. > :22:03.it was going to be", or "I'm surprised by how complicated
:22:04. > :22:06.it is," I think that speaks to his to his strength as a man,
:22:07. > :22:12.And if the issue of preserving American jobs is paramount here
:22:13. > :22:16.Last month, General Motors started shedding more than 1000 jobs
:22:17. > :22:22.Some are going elsewhere in the US but each new factory announcement
:22:23. > :22:28.now gets scrutinised as a success or failure for Trump and the fight
:22:29. > :22:33.You will hear any number of reasons advanced for why things like this
:22:34. > :22:41.From the strength of the dollar, that's one that President Trump
:22:42. > :22:43.himself has used, to people here locally blaming uncompetitive
:22:44. > :22:45.dumping of goods, cheaper production elsewhere,
:22:46. > :22:56.And it is that sort of message that carried President Trump to power
:22:57. > :23:03.but which also now informs the debate in a place like this,
:23:04. > :23:05.where even some leading members of the Democratic Party are echoing
:23:06. > :23:06.the President's protectionist language.
:23:07. > :23:10.What we need is a level playing field so we need to make
:23:11. > :23:11.sure that people aren't manipulating their currency.
:23:12. > :23:18.I want to see currency manipulation enforcement.
:23:19. > :23:20.Now I'm hearing you as a Democrat congresswoman effectively urging
:23:21. > :23:28.Trump to remain true to his campaign platform.
:23:29. > :23:32.But go look, you'll find me in August of 2015,
:23:33. > :23:37.saying Donald Trump was exciting people.
:23:38. > :23:48.And I think that people - and I don't agree with him
:23:49. > :23:51.on many things he's done but my responsibility
:23:52. > :23:53.is to work for the working men and women in our districts.
:23:54. > :23:57.And if he's going to do something that's going to fix bad trade
:23:58. > :23:59.policies, my job is to work with him to do that.
:24:00. > :24:06.Viewed from Michigan or middle American generally,
:24:07. > :24:09.the effort to revive the economy and protect jobs form the central
:24:10. > :24:11.narrative of Trump's administration so far.
:24:12. > :24:14.In that sense, he's redefined politics here, even if he's far
:24:15. > :24:23.from demonstrating he's found the answers.
:24:24. > :24:30.Mark, we saw there Trump voters standing by their man.
:24:31. > :24:32.And we're getting a clearer sense of his plan to
:24:33. > :24:45.Absolutely. If you are in a place like Michigan, you think, how can
:24:46. > :24:50.you really reverse the tide of industrial decline? One of the key
:24:51. > :24:55.answers unveiled this week is an ambitious plan for tax reform. It is
:24:56. > :25:00.being billed as the most ambitious ever. Central to that, plans
:25:01. > :25:09.announced by the Treasury Secretary here to cut corporation tax is by a
:25:10. > :25:17.huge margin, from 35% to just 15%. And to cut personal taxation fans
:25:18. > :25:23.from 7% to 3%, to reduce the overall burden of taxation. They argue that
:25:24. > :25:26.if they can't these corporate taxes, many companies, famously Apple,
:25:27. > :25:34.which has kept hundreds of billions in profits overseas, will repatriate
:25:35. > :25:39.those monies, the tax take will go up and offset by the fact that they
:25:40. > :25:43.are cutting it to 15%, you have a massive decrease in tax. And that
:25:44. > :25:48.that money, as it is repatriated, could also be used to fund research
:25:49. > :25:53.and development and new factories and all the rest of it. That is
:25:54. > :25:58.their message but many Republicans in the Senate and Congress do not
:25:59. > :26:03.believe that message. They feel that this is a dangerous gamble, that the
:26:04. > :26:07.loss of tax receipts could easily be $1 trillion in the next few years of
:26:08. > :26:12.this ambitious change, and how on earth will it be funded other than
:26:13. > :26:18.by running up huge debt? That, if you like, will be the central gamble
:26:19. > :26:20.of the Trump platform to revive the economy. Mark, thank you.
:26:21. > :26:22.Now Viewsnight, the part of the programme designed
:26:23. > :26:27.While the manifesto writers are wrestling with what to promise
:26:28. > :26:30.and not to promise after June 8th, one of David Cameron's
:26:31. > :26:31.former speechwriters, the commentator Julian Glover
:26:32. > :26:42.suggests a radical way to make our highways...super.
:26:43. > :26:52.It's time to pay as you drive. No one likes roads. We are not fans of
:26:53. > :28:18.the M25. That was Julian Glover,
:28:19. > :28:20.who is also director of the Wolfson Economics Prize
:28:21. > :28:23.which this year is looking at ideas In the 2015 election,
:28:24. > :28:33.as per usual fewer young people voted than any other age group -
:28:34. > :28:40.following an established trend. And the chasm was at its deepest
:28:41. > :28:43.between the youngest and the oldest - so 43% of 18-24s put a paper
:28:44. > :28:46.in the ballot box, as against The writer and satirist
:28:47. > :28:51.Armando Iannucci has become so exercised about this disconnect,
:28:52. > :28:54.that he's been trying to brew up a Twitter storm,
:28:55. > :28:57.with a campaign to get three million 18-24 year olds to register to vote
:28:58. > :29:01.before the deadline of May 22nd. "I beg you on my gnarled and brittle
:29:02. > :29:12.knees, register to vote, then vote." I spoke earlier to the man who likes
:29:13. > :29:15.to make a mockery of politicians about his desperation,
:29:16. > :29:17.to get young people I asked him whether he really
:29:18. > :29:21.believed that young people held this I think it's important that young
:29:22. > :29:30.people engage as much as possible in the election,
:29:31. > :29:32.because if they don't, they lose. If you look at how politics has
:29:33. > :29:35.conducted itself over the 20 years, the young vote has gone down,
:29:36. > :29:38.so a lot fewer voters between 18 and 24 vote than,
:29:39. > :29:40.say, voters over 65, so as a result, people over 65
:29:41. > :29:49.are courted by politicians. I remember one very senior minister
:29:50. > :29:52.telling me that if it was the last day of an election campaign,
:29:53. > :29:55.and he had a choice between canvassing a hall
:29:56. > :29:58.of residence or an old people's home, you do the old people's home
:29:59. > :30:01.any day because they're the ones And as a result, young people have
:30:02. > :30:12.been abused by the system. It's young people who have had,
:30:13. > :30:15.you know, their housing benefit cut, their Education Maintenance
:30:16. > :30:17.Allowance cut, they're not part of the living wage until age 25,
:30:18. > :30:19.they're an easy target. So the more young people vote,
:30:20. > :30:22.irrespective of who they vote for, the more they have something that
:30:23. > :30:24.politicians are after, But don't you want young people
:30:25. > :30:29.to vote in a particular way? So you would like young people,
:30:30. > :30:32.I would imagine, to vote for Remain candidates,
:30:33. > :30:33.or tactically vote You only want them to vote
:30:34. > :30:41.if they vote your way. No, no, no, this is
:30:42. > :30:43.how democracy works. I saw one opinion poll that showed
:30:44. > :30:48.that young people might split more in favour
:30:49. > :30:50.of the Tories this election. I'd rather they voted
:30:51. > :30:53.than they didn't vote. It's also about how politics
:30:54. > :30:56.is going to function in the future. If politicians rely more and more
:30:57. > :30:59.on the fewer and fewer people who do come out in elections,
:31:00. > :31:01.it does mean that a larger percentage of the population are
:31:02. > :31:09.just ignored and forgotten about. So should young people be allowed
:31:10. > :31:12.to vote at 16, as they did Yes, initially when that was
:31:13. > :31:15.announced in Scotland, I was a bit concerned,
:31:16. > :31:18.but the level of debate, the excitement and also the fact
:31:19. > :31:20.that 16 and 17-year-olds for the first time felt really
:31:21. > :31:23.involved in fundamentally important decisions about their country's
:31:24. > :31:24.future, really galvanised an interest in politics,
:31:25. > :31:27.so I am all for opening that up. David Cameron was given
:31:28. > :31:29.the opportunity to allow 16, 17-year-olds to vote in the EU
:31:30. > :31:32.referendum and he said no, because he was thinking about how it
:31:33. > :31:35.might affect the Tory vote If he had said yes, then he may well
:31:36. > :31:50.be Prime Minister still. But don't people 65-plus have
:31:51. > :31:52.as a legitimate right to have their views heard
:31:53. > :31:56.as people under 25? I am also saying, if you think none
:31:57. > :32:03.of the above, then spoil your paper, I don't care, I just want you to get
:32:04. > :32:06.out and register, because as soon as you register you have that one
:32:07. > :32:09.thing that a politician needs off Isn't there a terrific irony in this
:32:10. > :32:22.- you have spent much of your life writing brilliant satire
:32:23. > :32:24.about the terrible state our politicians are in, you know,
:32:25. > :32:26.The Thick Of It here, Veep in America, satirising
:32:27. > :32:28.politicians for being venal, being stupid, pursuing their own
:32:29. > :32:30.agendas, so you kind People say why should
:32:31. > :32:37.I care about them? What has happened there is I have
:32:38. > :32:41.responded to that in my own way, which is through doing things
:32:42. > :32:44.like The Thick Of It. I think you cannot change politics -
:32:45. > :32:49.if you are angry like I've been angry about the state of politics,
:32:50. > :32:51.but if you care about politics as much as I care,
:32:52. > :32:54.you have to do something, and I think that something must
:32:55. > :32:57.start with at least registering, showing an interest,
:32:58. > :32:59.and then getting out and voting. Are you are putting your hand
:33:00. > :33:07.on your heart and saying it doesn't matter to you if every single person
:33:08. > :33:10.between 18 and 25 was, for example, to vote for Theresa May,
:33:11. > :33:13.it wouldn't matter to you? A British Prime Minister,
:33:14. > :33:17.if they have a massive majority, have total power, so I would say
:33:18. > :33:20.even though the headlines are saying huge majorities are inevitable,
:33:21. > :33:22.if young people are looking for a reason to try and make any
:33:23. > :33:25.kind of a difference, then at the very least they might be
:33:26. > :33:28.interested in seeing that majority, that total power, that sort
:33:29. > :33:30.of elected dictatorship, as Lord Hailsham once
:33:31. > :33:39.described it, is minimised. Here we are, here you are,
:33:40. > :33:41.and why should young They know, they have
:33:42. > :33:44.made up their minds, they understand politics,
:33:45. > :33:46.they understand the system, they don't necessarily want
:33:47. > :33:52.you to tell them what to do? You invited me on the programme,
:33:53. > :33:55.I didn't ring up to ask. But you have been
:33:56. > :33:58.tweeting like crazy. Yes, well, you have been
:33:59. > :34:00.reading my tweets and responding. So here you are, Armando Ianucci,
:34:01. > :34:04.who is an Italian Scot, who lives near London,
:34:05. > :34:06.who plies his trade sometimes across the Atlantic,
:34:07. > :34:08.what kind of Britain I want to live in a Britain that has
:34:09. > :34:13.a fully functioning democracy. I have been writing for some time
:34:14. > :34:16.about how people are frustrated by - I mean we now have a system,
:34:17. > :34:19.we still have a system where by in the last election,
:34:20. > :34:23.37% of the people who voted, voted And yet they gain a majority,
:34:24. > :34:30.a working majority of, Listening to when Theresa May
:34:31. > :34:33.announced the election, and said she was announcing it
:34:34. > :34:36.because Parliament couldn't agree Now that sounded to me like how
:34:37. > :34:45.a proper functioning demock should work, and the fact
:34:46. > :34:55.she could casually announce that as a flaw in the system,
:34:56. > :34:58.that needs to be corrected, and ask for a mandate that
:34:59. > :35:03.allows her to get whatever she wants, without opposition,
:35:04. > :35:10.I find a worrying trend. Do you see a possibility
:35:11. > :35:15.of a satirical episode in that? Well, let's see how it plays out
:35:16. > :35:20.in front of us in reality first. So are you ready to go back
:35:21. > :35:24.into television satire? I just want to get this election
:35:25. > :35:30.out of the way first. Well, I'm now joined
:35:31. > :35:35.by Shakira Martin, who just yesterday won the election to become
:35:36. > :35:42.the new President of O raise revenue so would rely on an
:35:43. > :35:44.old friend of the Treasury, called fiscal drag, what that means is do
:35:45. > :35:47.you raise the threshold at which people pay hiring tax and that means
:35:48. > :35:48.more people would pay that 40% higher tax rate.
:35:49. > :35:50.Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you very
:35:51. > :35:51.much. Let us deal with national politics. Armando Ianucci says
:35:52. > :35:55.politicianings are obsessed with older people, that is the votes they
:35:56. > :36:00.are trying to court. Let us take something like the triple lock on
:36:01. > :36:05.pensions which Jeremy Corbyn is wedded to, more so than the Tory,
:36:06. > :36:11.the triple lock on pensions guarantees them 2.5% increase a
:36:12. > :36:19.year, why not campaign to take that away from pensioner, and use it for
:36:20. > :36:22.increasing apprenticeship wages, reducing tuition fees, making
:36:23. > :36:27.affordable rents for young people, why not take that and say don't
:36:28. > :36:31.spend it there, spend it here? So I think there is a few thing,
:36:32. > :36:34.pensioners go out and vote it is a guaranteed vote, so when elections
:36:35. > :36:39.are happening, they are guaranteed to come out so they need to have a
:36:40. > :36:44.promise, to the older generation, and that is through pension. That is
:36:45. > :36:48.a kind of chicken and egg, because actually, they pander to them, you
:36:49. > :36:53.could say, because they come out and vote, but if young people voted they
:36:54. > :36:56.might pander to you. There is a few things, it is about making politics
:36:57. > :37:02.engagele and relatable to young people. Many young people students I
:37:03. > :37:06.speak to they find politics unrelatable when they see
:37:07. > :37:11.politicians speaking they don't look like them, they don't sound like
:37:12. > :37:17.them, they don't see how the link is related to their every day life.
:37:18. > :37:23.They are disenfranchised in politics. Do they think that because
:37:24. > :37:29.of the way politics are conducted on student campuses because it is
:37:30. > :37:33.narrow and niche and things like trans issue, no platforming,
:37:34. > :37:36.cultural appropriation, that is, it I would say it doesn't Brook broad
:37:37. > :37:41.argument, it looks like, you know, you can't afford to argue with this
:37:42. > :37:45.or you will be struck down. I think it is more simple. Before we can get
:37:46. > :37:49.young people to understand the importance of freedom of speech, we
:37:50. > :37:52.need to get them to understand the importance of shaping their
:37:53. > :37:58.generation and the society they would like to live in, and the
:37:59. > :38:01.importance of you know, them exercising their democratic right by
:38:02. > :38:06.voting and that is the way in which they can make change. But, do you
:38:07. > :38:11.think that young people, particularly people on campus who
:38:12. > :38:15.need to be more thick skinned about people holding different views, so
:38:16. > :38:19.someone like Germaine Greer should be invited to universities. I
:38:20. > :38:23.believe we should encourage healthy debate, and a place for university
:38:24. > :38:29.should be a place for people to learn, as the NUS is supporting
:38:30. > :38:34.students unions in doing so. Is there too much on, in you know,
:38:35. > :38:37.colleges and in university, too much intolerance to views that don't
:38:38. > :38:42.support your own? I think that there is is a need for some healthy
:38:43. > :38:47.discussion, and we need to promote the importance of bringing people
:38:48. > :38:51.together, to have healthy debate and respecting differences, and freedom
:38:52. > :38:54.of speech but coming up with solutions together to be able to
:38:55. > :38:58.make change. You are President-elect of one of the biggest trade unions
:38:59. > :39:02.in this country, I would think that you should be the heart of this
:39:03. > :39:06.election, your policies should be something that politicians court,
:39:07. > :39:10.need to talk to you about things so for example, you know we hear that
:39:11. > :39:14.on tuition fee, tuition fees are going to be increased, there won't
:39:15. > :39:18.be a commensurate increase in standards but on the question of
:39:19. > :39:22.tuition fees where is your big platform that you as leader,
:39:23. > :39:26.President-elect of a union will take out and make politicians listen to
:39:27. > :39:30.you? So it is about getting young people to get the argument first and
:39:31. > :39:34.understand the importance of free education, I think there is a lot of
:39:35. > :39:37.young people in colleges who will be going on to university or sixth form
:39:38. > :39:41.who don't understand the argument, who don't know when they are making
:39:42. > :39:46.choices about universities that is different values with the proposal
:39:47. > :39:52.of the bill and I am proud of the work that my current Vice President
:39:53. > :39:55.has done, in separating the links between raising tuition fees and
:39:56. > :39:59.quality, we think that students should be entitled to high quality
:40:00. > :40:05.but not at the detriment of the you can afford it or not. They are not
:40:06. > :40:10.registered to vote. Isn't it your job make them do that? It is
:40:11. > :40:14.definitely our job to go out there and represent them nationally as a
:40:15. > :40:18.national union of student, it is something we have to do
:40:19. > :40:21.collectively. We have to work with communities and organisation, giving
:40:22. > :40:25.political education and citizenship education to let young people
:40:26. > :40:32.understand the importance of voting, and how that influences and shapes a
:40:33. > :40:39.their future. Just one front-page, the EU signal
:40:40. > :40:46.of united Ireland Stokes fears for post-Brexit UK. European leaders are
:40:47. > :40:50.recognising, confirming that Northern Ireland would rejoin the
:40:51. > :40:51.block after Brexit in the event of a vote for Irish reunification. That
:40:52. > :40:54.is it for tonight. We end with news of the death
:40:55. > :40:58.at the age of 86 of Leo Baxendale, the legendary cartoonist
:40:59. > :41:00.from the Beano, who, back in the 1950s, originally
:41:01. > :41:02.created Minnie the Minx, Little Plum, and, most enduringly,
:41:03. > :41:04.The Bash Street Kids. Here they are at the height
:41:05. > :41:08.of their politically incorrect fame.