:00:00. > :00:07.Setting off on holiday and still in a job.
:00:08. > :00:10.Theresa May has confounded many critics by being a little more
:00:11. > :00:15.What does one of her former key advisors think
:00:16. > :00:29.She has made clear she will not be here for ever and in due course the
:00:30. > :00:32.Conservative Party will have to think about who takes on that
:00:33. > :00:37.legacy, but we have a lot of work to do in the next two years.
:00:38. > :00:41.can the Prime Minister really hold until 2019?
:00:42. > :00:49.Any other questions? Yes, just mentally, are you OK? Are you
:00:50. > :00:52.Tonight parody has lost one of its most generous donors.
:00:53. > :00:55.Sean Spicer, the man who many considered to have his foot
:00:56. > :00:59.almost permanently in his mouth, has quit.
:01:00. > :01:02.I'll be joined by a White House correspondent who sat through most
:01:03. > :01:04.of those famous briefings and asking what this means
:01:05. > :01:09.for the tweeter in chief, President Trump.
:01:10. > :01:12.Also tonight we investigate just how easy it is to buy the acid
:01:13. > :01:20.It is sulphuric acid I believe, yeah, there it is.
:01:21. > :01:23.And I said to the person, "Do I need to wear gloves?"
:01:24. > :01:27.And he said, "Yes, wear gloves, keep well away from any skin contact,
:01:28. > :01:38.wear gloves," so I knew it was the right one.
:01:39. > :01:43.# Your favourite boy has gone back to help, Matilda is coming back to
:01:44. > :01:47.And Scott Walker's music will be celebrated at the proms next week.
:01:48. > :01:57.She was famously described by George Osborne, the former
:01:58. > :02:03.Chancellor who likes to eat his political revenge cold,
:02:04. > :02:05.as a "dead woman walking" three days after that pretty
:02:06. > :02:11.Well, zombie or not, Theresa May is still with us and has
:02:12. > :02:19.managed to beat the likes of Sir Alec Douglas Home
:02:20. > :02:22.and the Duke of Devonshire in the battle not to be one
:02:23. > :02:24.of Britain's shortest serving Prime Ministers.
:02:25. > :02:26.As she packs the walking sticks and insect repellent for a summer
:02:27. > :02:28.holiday with husband Philip in Switzerland and Italy,
:02:29. > :02:31.we'll be asking was everyone wrong about Mrs May's staying power?
:02:32. > :02:33.Do the Conservatives really want her to remain in post
:02:34. > :02:36.until the end of the Brexit process, that's March 2019?
:02:37. > :02:39.Or will events catch up with Mrs May, meaning she doesn't
:02:40. > :02:43.have time to "clean up the mess she created", as she told her
:02:44. > :02:49.And what about Jeremy Corbyn and his plea for the PM
:02:50. > :02:56.With his take on Mrs May's long and tricky summer ahead
:02:57. > :03:04.here's our Policy Editor, Chris Cook.
:03:05. > :03:10.The Conservative Party candidate... Last month's general election did
:03:11. > :03:14.not go to plan for the Prime Minister and shortly afterwards she
:03:15. > :03:18.ran into trouble over her handling of the Grenfell Tower fire. It felt
:03:19. > :03:24.for a spell that she might have to quit. It has been a month and a half
:03:25. > :03:27.since that general election but Theresa May is still the Prime
:03:28. > :03:32.Minister. There is talk of succession all the time but it is
:03:33. > :03:37.not about imminent succession, it is about the medium term. What are the
:03:38. > :03:42.factors that are keeping her wedged in here? One major reason is a fear
:03:43. > :03:47.of Jeremy Corbyn. Tory MPs do not want to do anything that would make
:03:48. > :03:52.a snap general election likely. Jeremy Corbyn has gone from being
:03:53. > :03:56.the no-hoper joke to the very real threat, a proper socialist now much
:03:57. > :04:01.closer to number ten and the whole country has woken up to that and the
:04:02. > :04:05.Conservative Party certainly has. Tory MPs want to avoid upheaval
:04:06. > :04:09.during the Brexit negotiations, not that they are not split about how
:04:10. > :04:15.negotiations should proceed. That has been a major cause of recent
:04:16. > :04:19.Cabinet tension. There is a lot of concern about business and the
:04:20. > :04:23.effect of Brexit on investment. You are seeing David Davis, Liam Fox and
:04:24. > :04:28.Boris Johnson begin to speak in more moderate terms about the Brexit
:04:29. > :04:32.that, yes, put Britain back in charge but does not do so in a way
:04:33. > :04:37.that damages our economic competitiveness. An important part
:04:38. > :04:42.of the answer is there has been a blood-letting, the Prime Minister's
:04:43. > :04:47.two Cochise of staff were forced to resign. It was a big decision to
:04:48. > :04:52.have the election in the first place so when it went so spectacularly
:04:53. > :04:57.wrong, the idea that someone had to be accountable, the removal of two
:04:58. > :05:02.peer advisors very close to Theresa May, but at the same time were also
:05:03. > :05:07.the subject of great criticism. Another element of the survival
:05:08. > :05:12.strategy has been a more moderate strategy than before. She arrived in
:05:13. > :05:15.Downing Street with grand ambitions. Fighting against the burning
:05:16. > :05:20.injustice that if you are born to you will die on average nine years
:05:21. > :05:25.earlier than others, if you are black you are treated more harshly
:05:26. > :05:29.by the criminal justice system. If you are white, working-class boy,
:05:30. > :05:35.you are less likely than anyone else in Britain to go to university. That
:05:36. > :05:38.speech feels like a lot more than just a year ago. Since the general
:05:39. > :05:44.election the government has only got a wafer thin majority in the Commons
:05:45. > :05:50.and thanks to the DUP. It has no majority in the Lords. They are keen
:05:51. > :05:55.to avoid unnecessary birds that they might lose and that means they have
:05:56. > :05:58.had to ditch huge swathes of their domestic agenda. It is only things
:05:59. > :06:03.like Brexit wearables have to be passed through Parliament that they
:06:04. > :06:09.are persevering with legislation. The vast majority of that through
:06:10. > :06:13.the campaign puts us in a different situation. The Prime Minister has
:06:14. > :06:19.said, we need to reach out to other parties. You do not need legislation
:06:20. > :06:25.on mental health, some of the social justice work I was working on for
:06:26. > :06:27.her as chair of the policy board. There are cross-party alliances. It
:06:28. > :06:34.remains to be seen whether the recent anonymous leadership briefing
:06:35. > :06:38.will be seen as normal or whether the party might drift into
:06:39. > :06:45.rebellion. The good thing is that keeps people occupied, not having a
:06:46. > :06:49.nonexistent agenda in Parliament, that enables people to have these
:06:50. > :06:54.conversations and it enables the discussions to go on about what next
:06:55. > :07:00.and makes the government looked like it has not got enough to be doing.
:07:01. > :07:05.We do not know how the crisis involved and in golfing Theresa May
:07:06. > :07:07.six weeks ago will end. For neither party is keeping her out there the
:07:08. > :07:10.I'm joined by Tim Shipman, who's political editor
:07:11. > :07:13.at the Sunday Times, Ash Sarkar, senior editor at Novara Media,
:07:14. > :07:20.and Polly Mackenzie former special advisor to Nick Clegg.
:07:21. > :07:28.Tim, if I can start with you. I read every week in the Sunday Times the
:07:29. > :07:32.cabinet riffs, the plot against Theresa May. The tone since the
:07:33. > :07:36.general election seems to be that she would not survive, the party and
:07:37. > :07:41.the Cabinet would turn against and maybe she would decide she had had
:07:42. > :07:45.enough. What do you put the fact she is still here, she is going on
:07:46. > :07:50.holiday, she is still on Prime Minister, there is no move against,
:07:51. > :07:55.what do you put that down against? I think she is weak, but so is
:07:56. > :08:01.everybody else and they are fighting like rats in a sack and nobody else
:08:02. > :08:04.was to take her on. The Conservative Party generally has taken the view
:08:05. > :08:10.it is better to have a bad Prime Minister than no Prime Minister. Any
:08:11. > :08:14.minister that seeks to move against her will get punished. The most
:08:15. > :08:18.significant thing is the 1922 committee, the group of
:08:19. > :08:24.backbenchers, the shop stewards for the people without the top job have
:08:25. > :08:30.said, if you want to sack any of these recalcitrant ministers, be our
:08:31. > :08:37.guest. There are a good number of people who would like to lead the
:08:38. > :08:41.Labour Party and the others have said they were not put up with it.
:08:42. > :08:49.The party may not want her to go, but is she define Parliamentary
:08:50. > :08:55.political gravity with the fact that she might not be able to get any
:08:56. > :08:59.legislation through and in the end events will plot against her rather
:09:00. > :09:04.than her party? They usually do and the summer is a time for people to
:09:05. > :09:08.do a lot of thinking. There are some people who hope if she goes away
:09:09. > :09:12.walking she will come up with a dramatic decision largely came up
:09:13. > :09:16.away with the last time, this time to walk away. None of the other
:09:17. > :09:20.ministers are strong enough to get rid of her, but if she decided to go
:09:21. > :09:25.of her own accord, a lot of people would welcome it. You are a firm
:09:26. > :09:29.supporter of Jeremy Corbyn and Labour did better than many people
:09:30. > :09:35.expected in the general election. He did not win is one point worth
:09:36. > :09:39.making. What do you think about Theresa May's position and what you
:09:40. > :09:44.think Jeremy Corbyn, if anything, can do to get himself to the
:09:45. > :09:51.position he wants to be in, which is in number ten? I think we have a
:09:52. > :09:58.strong but unstable government which is the worst of both worlds. There
:09:59. > :10:02.is very little in the wake of democratic oversight or
:10:03. > :10:05.accountability so we saw with the state pension age, the timescale to
:10:06. > :10:10.increase it has been brought forward and there has been very little noise
:10:11. > :10:15.about that made because once more our attention is focused on this
:10:16. > :10:18.short time, petty analysis of personality rather than substantive
:10:19. > :10:24.policies and that is where Jeremy Corbyn comes in. Our political
:10:25. > :10:29.classes, our media classes all banked on him having a kind of
:10:30. > :10:34.off-putting, socialist, grandad style that would put people off.
:10:35. > :10:39.That was not the case. Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell and Diane
:10:40. > :10:42.Abbott presented a fully costed and substantive manifesto and they
:10:43. > :10:46.talked about issues and that appealed to people. The best thing
:10:47. > :10:49.they can do is keep doing that over the summer and that will make
:10:50. > :10:56.Theresa May look weaker because she will be away on holiday, and she
:10:57. > :11:01.will look weak and Jeremy Corbyn will be addressing the real needs.
:11:02. > :11:05.Is that anything in Parliamentary terms that Jeremy Corbyn can do to
:11:06. > :11:08.spike the smooth that he wants to get into number ten? At the moment
:11:09. > :11:14.he has not got the numbers he needs to be able to move. In my view the
:11:15. > :11:20.best thing he can do is focus on modernising the Labour Party, making
:11:21. > :11:24.it more open and democratic and focus on his policy platform. Let
:11:25. > :11:28.the Tories rip each other to shreds because they are doing a very good
:11:29. > :11:33.job of it right now. They look an absolute shambles to be honest. What
:11:34. > :11:38.we have seen is that people find party infighting very unattractive.
:11:39. > :11:45.If I was Jeremy Corbyn's advisor I would say lead them to it. So Vince
:11:46. > :11:49.Cable, your new leader of the Liberal Democrats, what is the role
:11:50. > :11:53.for the Liberal Democrats? 12 seats, not in coalition with anyone, does
:11:54. > :11:58.not want to be in coalition with anyone. How does any engineer
:11:59. > :12:04.anything different from Theresa May basically carry on for as long as
:12:05. > :12:09.the Conservative Party once? That is right. What Vince is doing already
:12:10. > :12:14.is being the only party in Parliament that is firmly against
:12:15. > :12:18.Brexit. Jeremy Corbyn is backing up everything the government is doing,
:12:19. > :12:23.making a hash of these negotiations, cheered on by the Labour benches, at
:12:24. > :12:29.least the leadership. But there is very little anybody can do to get
:12:30. > :12:35.rid of Theresa May. They are holding onto the nurse for the finding
:12:36. > :12:42.anything worse, which is what they about Margaret Thatcher. You cannot
:12:43. > :12:46.get an election to happen. In 2010 everybody said the coalition would
:12:47. > :12:51.fall and it would fall over the first summer and then they said by
:12:52. > :12:55.conference, by Christmas, by Easter. For years we were constantly told
:12:56. > :13:01.there would be an election. But it was a proper, full coalition. That
:13:02. > :13:05.is true, she has a majority, the DUP will not turn against her. There is
:13:06. > :13:11.a lot you can do without legislating atoll and getting frozen and
:13:12. > :13:16.carrying on in government for as long as they can, nobody wants that
:13:17. > :13:20.poisoned chalice of eating the Brexit negotiations. Of course the
:13:21. > :13:26.Conservatives are nervous about losing the tenuous control of power
:13:27. > :13:30.they have, but remember Jeremy Corbyn lost a conference vote with
:13:31. > :13:34.his backbenchers. They are not convinced they can robbed of victory
:13:35. > :13:40.quickly either. Isn't the big danger for the voting public that the
:13:41. > :13:43.parliament is there, but it is not doing any legislating? We have
:13:44. > :13:49.already seen the Conservative Party bend a lot of its manifesto. The
:13:50. > :13:54.focus is on Brexit, they are not dealing with social care, mental
:13:55. > :13:58.health, the problems in the economy. This is called a zombie parliament,
:13:59. > :14:03.that might be unfair to zombies because they move forward in some
:14:04. > :14:07.way, but this parliament is static. A lot of people say politics is not
:14:08. > :14:12.just about legislating and we have a chance to see whether the public by
:14:13. > :14:17.that argument or not. It looks like chaos. When I announced on Twitter I
:14:18. > :14:22.was coming on tonight to talk about politics, people tweeted back at me
:14:23. > :14:25.comments like we are in search of a paddle but there are none. The
:14:26. > :14:31.general view of politicians at the moment is this whole thing is a
:14:32. > :14:37.shambles. If the Labour Party brings in all this democratisation, that
:14:38. > :14:45.creates infighting in the Labour Party as well with the selection.
:14:46. > :14:53.Was he lasts until 2019? Oh, God, no. Yes, but if she goes she is
:14:54. > :14:54.replaced with another conservative and it does not change anything
:14:55. > :15:02.anyway. He was a one-man media battle tank,
:15:03. > :15:07.the provider of alternative facts. This was the largest
:15:08. > :15:12.audience to ever witness an inauguration period,
:15:13. > :15:15.both in person and around the globe. The dishonesty in the media,
:15:16. > :15:17.the challenging, the bringing our nation together,
:15:18. > :15:19.is making it more difficult. There has been a lot
:15:20. > :15:21.of talk in the media about the responsibility to hold
:15:22. > :15:23.Donald Trump accountable and I am here to tell
:15:24. > :15:26.you that it goes two ways. We are going to hold the press
:15:27. > :15:28.accountable as well. Sean Spicer, the President's
:15:29. > :15:30.official spokesman and bulldog in chief,
:15:31. > :15:32.resigned from the White House after Mr Trump hired
:15:33. > :15:34.a new communications chief, Anthony Scaramucci,
:15:35. > :15:38.as Mr Spicer's boss, something that Mr Spicer found
:15:39. > :15:42.hard to stomach. Now, let's admit it,
:15:43. > :15:45.Mr Spicer may have broken the first cardinal rule of comms -
:15:46. > :15:48.don't become the story - but some people are going to miss
:15:49. > :15:52.him and his unique approach. Tamara Keith is the NPR
:15:53. > :16:10.White House Correspondent. Good evening. That first point, if
:16:11. > :16:15.nothing else, Mr Spicer was great sport and gave the press lobby in
:16:16. > :16:26.the White House plenty to talk about, you will miss him? Yes, sure!
:16:27. > :16:31.He definitely got good ratings as a President said in his statement
:16:32. > :16:35.bidding him farewell, the press briefings became must see
:16:36. > :16:42.television, those Saturday Night Live sketches that came out of it
:16:43. > :16:46.and also there were quite a few viral videos including one with the
:16:47. > :16:51.faces of correspondence in the room reacting to some of the things that
:16:52. > :16:55.Sean Spicer said, that some of us would rather not have been part of,
:16:56. > :17:02.but such is life. Why did the President should lose him to have
:17:03. > :17:08.that role? Given that he did that role in a very different way from
:17:09. > :17:14.his predecessors? That is exactly where the President would have
:17:15. > :17:19.chosen him. Sean Spicer, from when he was at the Republican Party, he
:17:20. > :17:27.showed an incredible amount of loyalty and an ability to speak up
:17:28. > :17:31.for the candidate, Trump, and President Trump, in a way that the
:17:32. > :17:36.sometimes out of sync with reality, like the clip about the size of the
:17:37. > :17:42.crowds, that was a formative moment for Sean Spicer, during the
:17:43. > :17:50.Republican convention, Melania Trump gave a speech that it turns out was
:17:51. > :17:54.Seawright -- strikingly similar to a speech that Michelle Obama game
:17:55. > :17:59.after -- at another convention and there were questions of plagiarism
:18:00. > :18:06.and Sean Spicer said, I think that sparkle pony from my Little pony
:18:07. > :18:13.said something similar. Was that plagiarism? One day later, the Trump
:18:14. > :18:19.campaign said, yes, it was inspired and lifted from Michelle Obama but
:18:20. > :18:26.Spicer again and again has defended the President and in the face of
:18:27. > :18:33.days later, President Trump contradicted him. Tell us about
:18:34. > :18:41.Scaramucci. His press briefing, he is a lot more brilliant in tone, he
:18:42. > :18:48.said the media were a little bit biased rather than tremendous
:18:49. > :18:52.enemies, has Mr Trump shown that he wants to change the tone with the
:18:53. > :19:01.battle of the media and it might be eased down? That is not clear and it
:19:02. > :19:05.is not clear that Mr Scaramucci will do the briefings, he announced that
:19:06. > :19:11.Sarah Huckabee Sanders will be the new press secretary, she has been
:19:12. > :19:16.conducting lots of briefings off camera and she has been conducting
:19:17. > :19:20.them. The thought is she will continue briefings and the role of
:19:21. > :19:27.Scaramucci is one of strategy. What he really brings is loyalty to the
:19:28. > :19:34.President and in that briefing he did today, time and again he said, I
:19:35. > :19:39.love this President. And I love this team. He does not bring a lot of
:19:40. > :19:43.communications experience, he is good on television, he has been on
:19:44. > :19:49.cable defending the President as a private citizen but his background
:19:50. > :19:52.is in finance and most of his political experience is as a
:19:53. > :19:56.political donor. Thank you so much for joining us.
:19:57. > :19:59.It is a new and frightening weapon, acid, often thrown in people's faces
:20:00. > :20:02.Assaults involving corrosive substances have more than doubled
:20:03. > :20:14.The question is should any potential weapon capable of disfiguring people
:20:15. > :20:18.for life be readily available in the shops and available legally
:20:19. > :20:25.to anyone of any age who wants to buy it?
:20:26. > :20:28.After a series of attacks on moped riders in the last week,
:20:29. > :20:32.But with MPs now on a lengthy summer break, will there be
:20:33. > :20:52.It is illegal for anyone to buy acid but just so easy is it in practice
:20:53. > :20:59.or a teenager to get rid -- hold of a litre bottle of sulphuric acid,
:21:00. > :21:03.tonight be ask a 17-year-old to buy acid that can unblock drains but it
:21:04. > :21:09.is fast becoming a weapon for the criminals of young London. In the
:21:10. > :21:13.past few years, dozens of attacks of terrified Londoners, scarring some
:21:14. > :21:20.people for life physically and mentally. On Tuesday, Stephen Timms
:21:21. > :21:25.from Labour staged and debate calling for action. Carrying acid
:21:26. > :21:29.without good reason should be as much as a criminal offence as
:21:30. > :21:34.carrying a knife, there are legitimate reasons for obtaining
:21:35. > :21:40.acid as from obtaining a knife but we do not want people carrying this
:21:41. > :21:43.around the streets. Javed Hussain knows all about that, last week he
:21:44. > :21:52.was the first victim in a series of five attacks staged by two youths,
:21:53. > :21:57.reportedly to steal mopeds. He was at home when they struck. The skin
:21:58. > :22:05.was burning on my face, I was looking in the windows. People were
:22:06. > :22:16.scared, I was scared, I did not know what to do, I was running like
:22:17. > :22:21.crazy. The acid hit me on that side. Physically, his helmet saved him but
:22:22. > :22:25.mentally he is still suffering. When was the last time he went on your
:22:26. > :22:35.own onto the street? Not since this happened. I will always take my
:22:36. > :22:41.cousin or my brother with me. And I always keep my door unlocked as
:22:42. > :22:54.well. For my safety. Have you lost trust in others? Yes. I don't trust
:22:55. > :22:59.anyone passing by. How can this resolve itself? We cannot stay
:23:00. > :23:09.locked up on your own forever? What will you do? I feel like if my
:23:10. > :23:18.daughter came next to me, I can hug her, that will be OK, but this does
:23:19. > :23:22.not work, even my wife, looking after me, I feel something dark
:23:23. > :23:34.behind me. That is what I think. I need to get back to work and I have
:23:35. > :23:40.to be safe. We ask the 17-year-old how difficult it would be for him to
:23:41. > :23:48.get hold of some acid. Sulphuric acid, I believe? Verities. I said if
:23:49. > :23:53.I needed to wear gloves, he said yes, keep well away from any skin
:23:54. > :24:01.contact. Wear gloves. Did he ask for ID? He did but it was not enforced,
:24:02. > :24:09.it was like reading from a script, do you have ID? I said, look at me?
:24:10. > :24:19.Do I look under 18? All right, then. It costs ?7. I gave him ten times
:24:20. > :24:26.and for the ?3, I said, this is between me and you. Of course.
:24:27. > :24:33.Nothing happened. The latest numbers the police believe is 4000 acid
:24:34. > :24:37.attacks at the last six months or so and it feels that the problem is
:24:38. > :24:43.getting worse so what are authorities doing? The Home Office
:24:44. > :24:48.promises and review by Parliament? The MPs have gone on holiday. There
:24:49. > :24:55.is something horrible about using acid as a weapon. And something
:24:56. > :24:56.troubling. The authorities, when they seem so slow about trying to
:24:57. > :25:00.stop this. "We expect too much of new buildings
:25:01. > :25:05.and too little of ourselves," so said the urban theorist
:25:06. > :25:08.Jane Jacobs in her acclaimed 1961 book The Death and Life
:25:09. > :25:13.of Great American Cities. Central to the development of cities
:25:14. > :25:16.for more than half a century Seen first as the answer
:25:17. > :25:25.to alleviating poverty and post-war slum housing,
:25:26. > :25:28.and then as a monument to poor Is there a difference
:25:29. > :25:31.between a "tower block" and an "apartment block",
:25:32. > :25:34.terms which say a lot about the lens through
:25:35. > :25:36.which we see high-rise living. Following the Grenfell
:25:37. > :25:38.tragedy what is the future We asked the writer and chair
:25:39. > :25:43.of New London Architecture, In the planning of our cities few
:25:44. > :25:53.topics generate as much heated debate as tall buildings,
:25:54. > :25:57.whether they are '60s council blocks, glass and steel offices
:25:58. > :26:03.or modern apartments. Since the Grenfell tragedy,
:26:04. > :26:07.council built towers have been under The discussion has not just been
:26:08. > :26:15.about what the towers are made of or what risks they represent,
:26:16. > :26:19.but how they become symbols of broken Britain, of inequality
:26:20. > :26:25.and social disparity. Strange, really, when only last year
:26:26. > :26:29.towers were being accused of being money boxes in the sky
:26:30. > :26:34.for the offshore wealthy. Ghost buildings whose Chinese
:26:35. > :26:39.and Middle Eastern investors kept them empty as they profited
:26:40. > :26:43.from the UK's housing shortage. Strange, too, when you realise
:26:44. > :26:49.that the millionaires who paid huge amounts for top floor flats did
:26:50. > :26:55.so because of the spectacular views they provide, a luxury that
:26:56. > :26:58.thousands of council tenants have enjoyed since towers were first
:26:59. > :27:01.built to solve the housing crisis As authorities around
:27:02. > :27:07.the country assess the risk of towers in their boroughs,
:27:08. > :27:10.there are suggestions that the days NEWSREEL: From the home of war times
:27:11. > :27:20.to the homes of people. Tall, modern new homes
:27:21. > :27:22.where once there were slums. Constructed in great
:27:23. > :27:24.numbers in the 1960s, The series Our Friends In The North
:27:25. > :27:33.charted the shady dealings of Newcastle's council house
:27:34. > :27:35.building boom and the social For all its inconveniences,
:27:36. > :27:42.Lionel was satisfied JG Ballard's High Rise portrays
:27:43. > :27:48.a dystopian future and a tower that falls apart as poor residents
:27:49. > :27:54.on the lower floors revolt Yet there are billions of people
:27:55. > :28:03.living successfully in tall buildings around the world
:28:04. > :28:06.and the scale of tragedy that we saw at Grenfell Tower is,
:28:07. > :28:09.thankfully, very rare. The safety record of tall buildings
:28:10. > :28:14.tells us that a well-built, well-maintained tower block
:28:15. > :28:19.is literally as safe as houses. Well, just look here
:28:20. > :28:26.at the Barbican. It enjoys fantastic levels
:28:27. > :28:29.of maintenance, the public space here is freed up by the towers,
:28:30. > :28:32.the people in the towers have great views across London
:28:33. > :28:34.and the concrete structure But most importantly,
:28:35. > :28:43.it is dense, close to the city and the Barbican Cultural Centre,
:28:44. > :28:47.allowing residents to easily enjoy the concerts, plays,
:28:48. > :28:52.exhibitions and amenities Density is a good thing and should
:28:53. > :28:59.be encouraged where there It is sustainable, reducing reliance
:29:00. > :29:07.on the car and it is essential in the future as cities around
:29:08. > :29:14.the world grow exponentially. But density doesn't necessarily
:29:15. > :29:20.mean building high. The centres of Paris and Barcelona
:29:21. > :29:24.are the densest in Europe but tall buildings do help to create greater
:29:25. > :29:30.density in existing urban centres. After 9/11, some thought it was
:29:31. > :29:35.the end of the tall office building. People would not want to work
:29:36. > :29:39.in them, they would feel unsafe. The Leadenhall building,
:29:40. > :29:45.with its dramatic glazed lifts, was designed just one year
:29:46. > :29:47.after the destruction The Grenfell Tower tragedy
:29:48. > :29:55.is unlikely to herald an end Over 400 new tower blocks
:29:56. > :30:02.are planned in the capital alone, reflecting a desire for city centre
:30:03. > :30:07.living which is fuelling a spate Nevertheless, we have
:30:08. > :30:17.to up our game in the design and location of new towers
:30:18. > :30:19.as well as the maintenance Post-Grenfell, the government,
:30:20. > :30:31.which was responsible for ignoring the warnings of the Lakanal fire
:30:32. > :30:35.in 2009, has much to do to upgrade to building regulations and to make
:30:36. > :30:41.more money available. Local authorities need the resources
:30:42. > :30:45.to retrofit sprinklers, ensure fire doors are in place,
:30:46. > :30:49.that maintenance work is properly done and regular safety checks
:30:50. > :30:54.are carried out in order to ensure that nothing like the Grenfell Tower
:30:55. > :31:05.tragedy ever happens again. But we thought we'd leave
:31:06. > :31:12.you with a taste of next week's prom which celebrates the songs
:31:13. > :31:14.of Scott Walker, featuring Jarvis Cocker, John Grant,
:31:15. > :31:22.Richard Hawley and Susanne Sundfor. You can catch it on BBC Four next
:31:23. > :31:25.Tuesday but here's a taster. Here is Susanne singing Walker's
:31:26. > :31:27.1969 song On Your Own Again. # Heroes died in
:31:28. > :32:13.subways left behind. # I see it all the way
:32:14. > :32:51.as far as anyone can see. # Except when it began I was
:32:52. > :33:02.so happy I didn't feel like me.