03/01/2018 Newsnight

Fire and fury in America,

as an explosive war of words erupts

between Donald Trump and his former

soulmate, Steve Bannon.

Could this be the spat that drives

Trump's electoral base away?

We'll ask Bannon's right-hand man,

and a woman from Team Trump 2020.

Another winter, another crisis.

As the NHS postpones thousands

of routine operations,

is the system itself

in a critical condition?

We have been planning

most of the year now

for the challenges of winter.

We had a very challenging

winter last year as well.

And actually, the NHS is better

prepared than it's been

for very many years.

As violence escalates in yet another

of Syria's so-called

"de-escalation zones",

we'll hear from inside Idlib,

the last rebel-held

province in the county.

And is there a way of making

the cinema work better

for those with dementia?

We speak to the actress

Carey Mulligan.

Yeah, I do fear it, and I think

we all should fear it, you know.

And I think that's

what we need to, er...

We need to turn that fear

into action, you know,

this is a global issue.

One in three people will develop

dementia of some kind.

Good evening.

Even for a man as combative

as Donald Trump, today's statement

left little to the imagination.

He denounced his former

White House Strategist,

Steve Bannon, as a man who had

lost his mind, who had nothing to do

with Trump or his presidency.

The President may be

playing with fire.

Steve Bannon knows things

about him very few others do,

and he has a powerful base

on the right in which to relay them.

The statement came from

the President after the release

of extracts from a new book -

'Fire and Fury', by Michael Wolff.

In it, Bannon describes a meeting

between Donald Trump Junior

and a Russian lawyer during the 2016

campaign as treasonous

and unpatriotic.

It looks and sounds like an ordinary

Trump spat, but it raises questions

of whom the Republican base now see

as their leader.

And this in a midterm election year.

The relationship between

Donald Trump and Steve Bannon is one

of the most curious in modern

America.

If Donald Trump made

winning the presidency look

easy, Steve Bannon -

some will tell you -

was the strategic brain

behind the campaign.

He was also the ideological rump

of Trump's 'Make America

Great Again' strategy,

introducing him to those

on the right who would become

a proud and vocal base

amongst his supporters.

Like many of Trump's advisers,

he didn't last the course

of the transition to power.

If Bannon was the one person who,

rumour had it, was allowed

in the Oval Office without a tie,

he was nevertheless

unceremoniously fired from his job

in the White House last autumn.

But anyone who thought Bannon

would go quietly couldn't have been

further from the truth.

He backed Roy Moore

for the Alabama Senate race last

December and is encouraging

hard-right candidates to take

on sitting Republican senators

in almost every seat that's up

for the mid-term elections this

November - part of what he sees

as his broader populist war

against the Republican

establishment.

Bannon remains a powerful

force in the alt-right

news site Breitbart,

which could yet turn its editorial

power against the President.

The bigger question

this schism raises is,

what happens now to the base?

Do they stick loyally

with their leader, Trump himself,

or realign with the ideology that

brought them to him in the first

place, the now free agent

that is Steve Bannon?

The spectacular breakdown

of communications between the two

men was inevitably the focus

of questions at the daily White

House press briefing this evening.

Here's Press Secretary Sarah

Elizabeth Huckabee Sanders

responding to a question

about whether Donald Trump Junior

had committed treason.

Er, I think that is a ridiculous

accusation and one that I'm pretty

sure we've addressed many times

from here before.

And if that's in reference

to comments made by Mr Bannon,

I'd refer you back to the ones

that he made previously on 60

Minutes, where he called

the collusion with Russia about this

President a "total farce".

So I think I would

look back at that.

If anybody's been

inconsistent, it's been him.

It certainly hasn't

been the President,

or this administration.

It's been reported that he was

furious when these reports first

came out about what Bannon

was quoted as saying.

Is that an accurate depiction?

Er, I think, erm, furious,

disgusted would probably certainly

fit when you make such outrageous

claims and completely false claims

against the President,

er, his administration.

So what's going on here,

and where does this

leave the President?

Raheem Kassam is a close advisor

to Steve Bannon and the UK Editor

of his Breitbart news.

Mica Mosbacher is a campaigner

for President Trump who works

on the Trump 2020 Advisory

Committee.

First of all, Raheem, take is inside

Steve Bannon's mind. You know him

well, does Bannon really believe

that Don Junior's meeting with a

Russia -- Russian lawyer was

treasonous?

I think when you look at

how this book was written, really

how any book like this is written,

the author will have posed certain

questions to the interview subjects.

The interview subject will give

answers and some of those questions

are hypothetical. For instance, with

a context such as, if this was

discussed in that meeting at this

time and it went on to do this, does

it mean it is treasonous and what

have you? And people will give

honest answers to those things. I

think that is what happened here, I

am not sure you're getting the

entire context of the conversation.

But I will say this, Steve Bannon

was in the Pentagon during the

Reagan administration, he is a naval

officer, he understands what the

Russian threat really is. Outside of

the sort of media obsession over how

many Facebook adverts they took out

and so on. He understands the Geo

political threat and he takes that

very seriously. So when he remarks

that these people should not

probably have been in Trump Tower

taking meetings with campaign,

senior campaign staff without

lawyers in the room, Edwards said

that that I would say that is a bad

thing to say.

Did he say that the

Trump and his son?

I wasn't privy to

what was going on in John Tower at

the time, I don't know who learned

what, when -- Trump Tower. I cannot

imagine he would stay silent if he

knew that was going on. But again,

go ahead.

A couple of other things

that would Korea said which you

might shed some light on although

you were not with him throughout the

campaign. He said Trump's ultimate

goal was never to win, was that your

understanding? He calls him

befuddled and horrified, quoting

Bannon each time.

Yes, I think there

was a point at which the campaign

advisers had sort of conditioned the

candidate, Trump, to think and

believe that he was not going to

win, he did not have a path to

victory. One story that is

well-known over here is on the

weekend of the Billy Bush tape

weekend, you had the entire team sat

around in Trump Tower and the

President, the candidate back then

went around the room saying, what my

chances? Everybody said, zero, zero,

zero.

Access Hollywood take?

That is

correct. Bannon said 100% certitude

you are going to win. And the

President did not believe him.

Candidate Trump did not believe

Steve at that time. I think the

President has been conditioned

especially because people were

jumping off the boat. The RNC was

condemning him, Paul Ryan, Chris

Christie. Everybody was looping off

the ship. There was any one person

that stood by him and that was Steve

Bannon.

One more on that line, this

is out in the book, that Trump never

wanted to finance his own campaign,

that it was Steve Bannon who

encouraged him to do so and Trump

merely loaned money to it, $10

million, which he then got straight

back, is that right?

I don't know if

he got it straight back, I would

imagine nobody really wants to

finance their own campaign. Going

into situations where Steve Bannon

during the campaign, they would

double digits down in the battle

ground states. They knew that they

need to spend money, well that, from

fastest? Going round the country

doing big meetings or asking the

candidate to put his hands and his

deep pockets and stump the money up

himself? I think that is privately

reasonable. And it is also

reasonable way you might not want to

do that as a candidate if you been

convinced by so many people around

you you are onto a loser. The good

thing is, he was convinced to do it,

he did spend the money comes Steve

did work on the campaign and they

did when!

Thank you for being so

patient, Mica. I want to to the

bottom" from Steve Bannon. What you

make of some of these quotes that

Trump never wanted to win, that he

was horrified when he did. That

Bannon called it broke dipped

campaign. This man never thought he

could be the President.

I disagree

totally. First of all, anointing

Steve Bannon at the King's make it

is a gross over exaggeration. If

anything, Trump won because he

outperformed and outworked 17

candidates. He did over 200 -- 250

rallies and I have been part of by

political campaigns and most

candidates are very scripted and

kept in a bubble. Taiwan has some of

the best political instincts I have

ever seen. He was off script. --

President Trump has some of the

best. Like all campaigns, they're

what advisers that came and went and

they had certain roles at certain

times. Trump would not have one

without Steve Bannon, absolutely.

You are on the 2020 campaign and

before that, you have the midterms.

Are you worried that Bannon and

Breitbart will pit itself against

Trump now, putting up candidates at

the hard right which may make it

difficult for him to keep the

Senate?

I don't think Breitbart

wants to get labelled break news

like CNN. The RNC has raised over

the $130 million in a nonelection

year and 70% from small donors. That

tells me the base is sticking with

him. Look at the rally on the Eve of

the Alabama elections. He had over

thousands of people and several

waited outside in the rain. Steve

Bannon had broken with the President

of the Roy Moore because the

President initially supported Luther

Strange. We were already seeing a

slight braking that relationship.

Do

you think the base now goes with

Bannon or does stick with Trump?

I

think it sticks altogether and I

think Mica is mischaracterising

this. If you look at Steve Bannon

and bright spot news, it is still

the only new state into the world

and United States that endorses --

at Breitbart. It only endorses the

agenda, and it does not need to be

an either or situation. You are

right when Donald Trump is himself

on the stump, he has the best

political instincts of anybody in

the best couple of decades, at least

to build that base and get those

people are voting and to the

rallies. I don't think you need to

worry about that. Throwing threats

around, calling Breitbart fake news

if we do not toe the line is silly.

We are not on different sides.

This

man has accused the President's son

of treason.

And the treason, it is

outrageous. I agree with Sarah

Huckabee Sanders.

That was not a

report on Breitbart, that is a

comments made by a private

individual, it you cannot inflate

the two.

Thank you both very much

indeed.

At least 17 hospital

trusts are on the highest

state of alert tonight,

as well as two ambulance

services in England.

NHS doctors, consultants,

emergency practitioners and nurses

have spoken of the impossible

conditions in which they're

being asked to work -

some have called it the most intense

strain in their professional lives.

We'll hear later from

the Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt,

and Chris Cook is here to help

explain why the service is coming

under such pressure.

First, let's hear from those

on the front line themselves.

When patients have their

appointments or their operation

cancelled, they may

come back into the surgery a few

weeks later because their symptoms

have gone worse so they may be

asking us for additional pain relief

or some other way of helping them to

manage their symptoms until they are

rebooked.

Another thing that we see

is that the hospital administration

teams are so thinly staffed now that

patients are told they'll receive

another appointment in the post

and then that may not happen.

So they quite often have

to try and phone the

hospital, they leave phone messages,

they may leave two or three phone

messages, but not have a reply back,

so they come to us to ask us to help

them reschedule their appointment.

We are also getting

an increase in winter

viruses in children,

we are

just starting to see an increase

in people with flu so there are many

different ways in which the winter

pressures do affect us in general

practice.

It means a complete loss

of dignity for patients.

I think that is the most

striking thing that

I have seen.

Right at this moment there will be

hundreds of patients

being cared for in corridors.

That means makeshift

screens being pulled

around them for them

to try

and go to the toilet, their results,

the screaming, their pain, tears,

all being heard by

everyone around them.

It's just an impossible place

and way to treat patients and look

after people.

Mistakes are going to happen.

People are going to be treated

inadequately and all we can

do is just say sorry and apologise,

and that's not good enough.

Between the Christmas

and New Year period,

during an emergency surgery,

I saw a very elderly lady who I felt

that we could not manage

in general practice,

so I felt that she

needed to go to A & E.

And so instantly the anxiety

within myself starts,

because the patient maybe doesn't

want to go into A & E, which you can

understand.

And you don't want this elderly

person to potentially go

on their own up to a very

busy A & E department.

I know they are always

busy and overstretched.

And then the ongoing

consequence of whether she's

admitted and the pressure that

adds on to the hospital,

or whether she is maybe given some

treatment and then

sent home, but she is home alone,

and therefore is she going to get

any temporary services

while she recuperates at home?

So it's one of the dilemmas

we face on a daily

basis, not just over the winter

periods, where obviously the demand

increases, but I think

throughout the year.

When an elective operation

is cancelled it has

a lot of implications

on

everyone.

In a hospital environment,

a person going in for an elective

operation will probably have

to have a preoperative assessment.

They will need to have a preplanned

programme if they need to be got fit

before an operation.

And so therefore,

cancelling an operation

means that everything will have

to be repeated, but it also has

significant impact

on the individual.

So taking a young person

for example, who say,

has a scar that needs

revising, and also has

a

lot of psycho-social effects related

to that scar, it therefore

means that they will have to put

their life on hold most probably

for 1-2 months.

Because they had planned

for their life to move on

after they had their operation, and

that has an impact for both young

and old.

Just some of those working

with patients in the NHS every day.

And for transparency we should

mention that alongside his day job

one of the contributors -

Dr Amar Mashru - has previously

campaigned against the government

on health matters and is a member

of the Labour party.

Now - Chris Cook is our policy

editor, and he has charts to explain

why the service is under

such a strain now.

Give us the big picture first of

all?

The thing to get your head around is

this not about the NHS doing less

than it used to, it is doing more

than ever yet not keeping up with a

wave of demand. This graph shows

hospital admissions going back to

the late to thousands. About 1

million per quarter to about 4

million per quarter. That's the gap

you can see, a rise of roughly 40%

since Gordon Brown left office.

Hospitals, and not just hospitals,

social care systems and GPs, haven't

been able to keep up in recent years

with this rising tide. They have not

been able to build in the capacity

they need. And for example, another

graph showing you why, if you look

at the amount hospital has been

spending in the last four years on

things like new buildings,

renovating existing buildings and

new equipment, there have been big

declines in the last four years. 10%

down on new-builds, 20% down on

improving buildings, 50% down on new

equipment. We are not putting money

into expanding the pipeline, not in

hospitals, not in social care, not

in GPs so we can cope with this ever

rising demand.

When you put it like

this it looks like it is all about

money. Is it?

Money is a necessary

but not sufficient part of the

answer to the problems in the NHS.

You must remember that there are

things like recruitment which have

lead times. We have a problem at the

moment getting and keeping staff,

not just because of the referendum

result which means it will be hard

to recruit people from the EU, but

if you put many, capital into

equipment and all that stuff you

also have to fund the people to work

on it. You can't just build the kit

and not stuff it. So you must have

the money in the right places. As

well. That's the challenge, it means

having lead times.

Thank you Chris.

Well, earlier, I spoke to

the Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt,

and asked him if he recognised

a National Health System in crisis.

I think a crisis is

when you have adverse

circumstances and you don't

have a plan to deal with those

challenges, and that's not the case.

In fact the opposite.

We have been planning most

of the year now for the challenges

of winter.

We had a very challenging

winter last year as well.

But are there highly challenging

circumstances on the

front line?

Absolutely.

And I think, the thing I'd

like to say is, a very

very big thank you to all NHS staff.

Not just from me but from the whole

country because I think we are

incredibly proud of the efforts they

are going to to keep patients safe,

working well beyond

the call of duty.

You are saying a big

thank you to NHS staff.

They are saying, I will read out

the following, Richard

Fawcett, senior doctor

in emergency medicine,"

I personally apologise

to

the people of Stoke

for the third World conditions."

Dr Taj Hassan, president

of the Royal College of emergency

medicine: "We are seeing conditions

people have not experienced in their

working lives."

Doctor Nick Scriven,

president of the society of

acute medicine "The position

is as bad as I have ever known."

Tracey Bullock, another

one, chief executive,

Tracey Bullock, another one,

chief executive, mid-

Cheshire hospitals, who says,

I am 34 years in, and I

have never seen anything like this.

Shall I ask that again.

Is this a crisis?

Well, as I say, I don't

dispute their experiences.

It is very, very tough

on the front line.

But if you just look

at what we are coping with this

year, compared to one year ago,

around 3000 more

people going every single day

to our A & E departments...

You are happy to say

that we planned to

cancel 55,000 operations

or postpone, you are

happy to say that that

was part of the plan?

Let me explain exactly

what the plan was.

So this time last year,

what we ended up

doing because we had extreme

pressures, is cancelling a lot of

operations the day before.

But just because you're

not cancelling them

with 24 hours' notice doesn't mean

that this is a step in the right

direction, this means

you have a systemic crisis,

you have a massive chronic gap

between your needs and

your resources.

You recognise that, don't you?

Well I think there is a resources

issue, which we can talk

about, but it is really important

to recognise that this time of year,

creates pressures in health

systems all over the world.

So they had a terrible

winter in Australia.

Which was our summer...

But it's not just about this

time of year, Health

Secretary.

Three years ago as you know,

in October 2014 200,000 people

were in that group category waiting

more than 18 weeks for

treatment.

You will know well that by the end

of last year, that number

had doubled, 400,000 people.

So this is not something

that just happens

over Christmas or over winter.

This is the direction

the NHS is heading

in.

Well, let's look at

the longer-term performance.

Because in the five

years that I have been

Health Secretary, we have an NHS

that is doing 5,000 more operations

every single day.

The accident and emergency

departments in our country

are seeing 2,000 more people every

single day within the four-hour

target.

We have more doctors, or nurses,

and an independent report

published in the middle of last year

said that in most major disease

categories outcomes have

dramatically improved.

You were hitting your A & E

targets in July of 2015.

95% of patients dealt

with within four

hours.

You haven't met that

target since 2015.

Is that wrong?

No, that is correct.

But that is not the entire measure

of the performance of

the healthcare system...

Does the target not matter,

tell me if these targets

are out of date and we

can get rid of them.

Of course it matters but in that

period there are 7000 people

alive today who would not be alive

if we had had the cancer survival

rates of 2012.

You set these targets

and you are missing them.

If that's the last

time you reached the

target which was July 2015,

where are we now with that?

Well I will tell you

exactly where we are.

We are treating more people

than we ever have in our history

within the four-hour target.

But with the 95%, because you used

to publish this on

a weekly basis and now

we don't see it.

You will know that figure.

What is that figure

now as a percentage.

No, we published it

on a monthly basis.

But let's just look

at the last published data.

Next week we will

have the data for the

whole of December but if you

look at the November

data let's just look

at

specifically the issue

you raise of A & E.

The data from November shows that

every day in fact the number of

people we are treating compared

to seven years earlier is 5000 more,

within the four-hour target.

It also shows that

more than half the

hospitals in the NHS are performing

better on A & E than one year

previously.

It also shows...

Those numbers don't

match, I'm just asking

you for a percentage so we can let

the public understand how they

compare.

Why won't you tell me

what the percentage is?

And is not my target,

it is your target.

Because we don't have

a number to publish.

There is no number that

I'm sitting on but

I'm not telling you, as you know

what happens is the data is

collected across the system once

a month, and that data is then

validated and it will be published

next week and I don't know what that

number will be, just

as you don't know.

So are you happy for me to tell

these people, whether it is

Richard Fawcett, Taj Hassan,

Nick Scriven, Tracey Bullock, chief

executives, experts in their field,

that everything is going according

to plan?

That you are reaching targets,

that there isn't a crisis,

that there is no systemic

problem with the way

the NHS is funded or

is

working right now?

Can you tell that

to front line staff?

You're putting words into my mouth.

I'm asking you a question.

Well you are putting

words into my mouth.

What I am telling you

is, there is extreme

pressure on the front line.

We are incredibly

grateful for the hard

work that those doctors and nurses

and many other people are doing.

And you are asking

for that money from

the Prime Minister,

from the Chancellor, are you?

I am asking for money

and I've been given money.

That is why in the last budget I got

an extra £2.8 billion.

We are going to need more

money going forward of

course, but let me say this.

It isn't just about money.

It's also about manpower.

You won't have the manpower

if people think that they

are in a crisis and they are not

able to work in the conditions that

they are being given.

Well I'll tell you how we get

the manpower, Emily,

we get the manpower by training

more doctors and nurses.

It is going to take time,

it takes seven years to

train a doctor, three

years to train a nurse...

You've got somebody who said they've

been working on this

for 34 years.

What do you say, Bye bye to them

because they say it's

the worst crisis

they have ever seen?

I say to them thank you for

the amazing work you are doing.

Please bear with us.

We are trying as hard

as we can to train up more

doctors and nurses to

get into the system.

And if voters in England

or patients who have had their

operations put back, or front line

staff who have expressed their

frustrations need to find somebody

accountable for what they are facing

right now, who is that person?

Is it you, or is it

Simon Stevens of NHS

England?

Well, ultimately I am accountable

for the treatment of

every patient in the NHS.

I am the Health Secretary.

And to people who have

had their operations delayed,

because of the winter pressures

that we are now facing, I apologise,

because I recognise

that it is a very, very

big deal if you need

a

hip replaced and you are

happy to wait longer.

Jeremy Hunt, thank you.

The war in Syria is heading

towards its eighth year with no

definite end in sight -

though some believe the government's

new assault on the last entirely

rebel-held province in the country

could prove the

beginning of the end.

Idlib, in north west Syria,

has been in the hands of rebel

groups since near the beginning

of the conflict.

Tens of thousands of civilians

and fighters from former rebel

strongholds including Aleppo,

Homs and Daraya

were evacuated there.

But an attack in the far

south of the province

by government forces,

backed by Russian planes,

could suggest the regime has fresh

aspirations to reclaim control.

Here's Mike Thomson.

And I should warn you that his film

contains distressing scenes.

This has been life for the past two

weeks for the people of Southern

Idlib.

And the bombing by Syrian government

forces is carrying on.

Today marks the 15th day

of the continuous onslaught

by Syrian warplanes,

mainly against the

southern and eastern

Idlib countryside.

We've had more than

250 aerial raids.

So far, 57 people have died

and 200 civilians have been

injured.

I can distinctly hear the buzzing

of the regime's aeroplanes

pounding the area with bombs

while doing this interview

with you at this very moment.

And it seems it's the very young

who are suffering the

most.

The majority of those casualties

are innocent civilians.

Just yesterday, a massacre committed

saw more than 12 civilians killed,

the majority of which were children.

Hunger and cold compete with bombs

and bullets as causes of misery

here in this hugely

overcrowded province.

We fled the heavy bombardment

in Aleppo, leaving our

homes behind,

only to face the same

terrible scene here in Idlib

of bombardment and destruction.

Where else can we go?

We're living the same nightmare each

day, alone and scared

for our children.

Idlib's population has been

swelled by the arrival

of thousands of civilians and

fighters from other areas of Syria,

as more and more rebel territory has

fallen to Government forces.

Now, Idlib is in the firing line.

Idlib is in a strategic

location that's on

the border with Turkey.

It is the main area

that supplies coming

through Turkey pass

through in order to be

deployed in the rest

of

the rebel-held areas in Syria.

And therefore, if the

regime cuts off the

supply lines through Idlib, then

it can significantly weaken rebels

across Syria.

Infighting between rebel

groups, some of whom are

extremists, has

weakened them further.

After a long struggle, an alliance

led by the formerly Al-Qaeda

linked Tahrir al-Sham,

or HTS, now dominates.

It is accused of carrying

out the numerous

war crimes.

These war crimes include the summary

killings of civilians,

especially activists.

Human rights defenders.

Beheading and the stoning of women.

And also, basically

passing unlawful sentences

throught their courts,

that do not need any

international standards.

Idlib's civilians haven't

taken this lying down.

Over the last year, there have

been street protests

against HTS's diktats.

Local radio station

Fresh FM has joined the

rebellion against HTS's rule,

defying their ban on playing music

and using women presenters.

But the station's

founder fears that if

President Assad's forces succeed

in overrunning the province,

his rule might be even worse

than that of the

extremists.

If Assad's forces take over

all of Idlib, will your radio

station keep broadcasting?

No, no.

With the nearby Turkish

border currently

closed to refugees,

the

burning question facing civilians

desperate to escape Idlib is, where

to go?

If there was an attack on civilians,

they have nowhere to

flee.

They can't go to

government-controlled

areas out of fear of

reprisals and attacks against them.

At the same time, they can't

cross into Turkey.

So this would be another

humanitarian disaster.

If it reaches that

point, Turkey must open

its borders to these refugees,

or people fleeing the violence.

Yesterday, two hospitals in the far

south of Idlib were hit by air

strikes, further

hampering the ability

of doctors to cope with

the

growing number of casualties.

A shortage of staff and medicines

compounds problems caused by damage

to equipment and buildings.

But it's what might happen

if government forces

overrun the province

that

worries some even more.

This is a real source of concern

for the entire world.

Because if the regime

succeeds in its sinister

offensive, it will commit crimes

against humanity in Idlib.

Even worse, if the borders

are sealed, there

will be a total annihilation of more

than two million people living here.

It's yet unclear whether

President Assad has

the strength to retake

the

whole of this last rebel-held

bastian, though even if he does,

many years of insurgency

involving various rebel

looks likely to follow,

Before rebuilding this shattered

country can truly begin.

Carey Mulligan has told

Newsnight about her fear

of developing dementia in old age

after she lost her

grandmother to the illness.

The actress is a spokesperson

for the Alzheimer's Society

and was speaking as a number

of cinemas have started welcoming

dementia patients and their carers

to separate screenings.

Staff are specially trained,

and cinemas keep the house lights

up, and the volume low,

for the benefit of the audience.

Will this tempt an often immobile

section of the community

to get more out of life?

Or is there a danger it might

marginalise them even more?

Stephen Smith went to the movies.

Welcome, everybody,

to East Dulwich Picture House

and to Alzheimer's Society

and Southwark Dementia Action

Alliance dementia-friendly

screening today.

Today, we have White

Christmas, which is very

appropriate for this time.

And we hope you're really

going to enjoy it.

We've got the wonderful Bing Crosby

and some lovely other amazing actors

to entertain us today.

You may have had your fill of mince

pies and musicals by now,

dear viewer, but an outing

to the pictures like this can be

a rare treat for elderly people

with mental health issues.

So Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye

and friends are top of the bill

for this screening,

which is especially for those

with dementia and their carers.

Here, they have the house lights up

a little for their audience.

The volume, not too high.

And a break for refreshments halfway

through the main attraction.

Would you like a mince pie, sir?

Do you like the film today?

Yes, I didn't mind it but, er,

I've got my mind working on some

stuff I've got to do at home

when I get back.

You liked the dancing,

didn't you, Betty?

Eh?

You liked the dancing on the film.

Oh, yes.

Dancing's dancing, isn't it?

You used to like to do ice-skating.

I used to do a lot of it,

ice-skating and everything.

Well, it's our first outing

out to the cinema...

Pardon?

It was the first time we've come out

to the cinema, isn't it,

together, for a few years?

So we're sort of seeing how it goes.

We're hoping everything

is going to be good and that Mum

will enjoy coming and singing

the songs from back then.

I remember.

Someone with plenty of experience

of the movies, and a family

connection to dementia,

is the actor Carey Mulligan.

What does she make

of these screenings?

I think it's amazing.

I think, you know,

the Alzheimer's Society did a survey

recently and found that 67%

of the people who were surveyed said

they didn't feel part

of their community any more

when they had dementia.

And I think, you know,

there's no reason for these lovely

pleasures to be taken away

when you have dementia.

It can be a very safe,

lovely environment, and a very

stimulating environment for someone

who has dementia.

So being able to come to a cinema,

and for carers to be able

to bring their loved-ones

to the cinema, is

a really great thing.

The actor lost a beloved

grandmother to the illness.

Does she fear for her own

health in the long term?

Yeah, I do fear it.

And I think we all should

fear it, you know.

And I think that's

what we need to...

Er, we need to turn that fear

into action, you know,

this is a global issue.

One in three people will develop

dementia of some kind.

In our country, one...

every three minutes,

one person develops dementia.

There's over 850,000 people

in our country living with it.

And everyone knows someone

who's going through that.

And so I think we should

all be aware of it.

We should all be thinking

about how we can conquer it.

And that's sort of how I see it.

I am afraid of it, and that's why

I want to do something about it.

Back in South-East London,

is there a risk that screenings

like this one could actually

intensify the isolation of elderly

people with mental illness?

The cinema should be a part

of the local community and people

living with dementia are part

of that community, and there should

be an offer for them.

People don't have to come

to those screenings.

We've had some people that have come

to the dementia-friendly screenings

and then felt perfectly comfortable

in the cinema environment.

They know the staff and they'll come

to other screenings.

And equally, anyone can come

to the dementia-friendly screenings,

you don't have to be living

with dementia to do so.

But those adaptations

are there in place,

and there's the cheaper ticket

price, free carer places, and free

coffee and biscuits,

to kind of hopefully help encourage

a bit of social interaction

before and after the film.

Taking her mum to the screening,

Em is grateful that the staff

and other patrons are more patient

than they might be

at a regular showing.

We've been to Jailhouse Rock,

which she really loved, like Elvis.

She knew the songs.

Did she join in?

Yeah, yeah.

And her favourite was Singin'

in the Rain, it has been.

And then whenever she brings it up

that we went there and we saw

Singin' in the Rain,

that's the one...

Oh, she remembers that?

Yeah, she always tells people

that she went to a place and she saw

Singin' in the Rain.

We're scrupulously nonjudgemental,

of course, but films that get people

with dementia and their carers out

of the house, it might

just be a feel-good hit.

Steve Smith. Let's take you through

the front pages. The Times has that

same book extracts that we started

with, Tony Blair warned Trump that

the UK may have spied on him and a

suggestion by Michael Wolff Mr Blair

might have been angling as an

adviser to Mr Trump in the Middle

East in the White House

administration.

The Daily Telegraph has farmers to

be paid for improving public access.

And the financial Times has a

picture of the leaders of Hungary

and Poland, defiant amid EU

sanctions threat on immigration

policies. That is almost it for

tonight.

Given recent precedent,

who would dare predict

what 2018 has in store?

But one thing we can say with happy

certainty is that it

will give us a Royal wedding.

Harry and Meghan, take note.

The best wedding photos of 2017 have

just been announced -

at least, according to the wedding

planners Junebug Weddings.

Over 9,000 pictures from around

the world were entered

into the competition,

and we leave you tonight

with the pick of the lot.

Goodnight.

# Lets get married to...

# I love you and I want to stay with

you.

# Lets get married...

# Let's get married...

# Let's get married...

# Come on, Darling, please take my

hand.

# Come on, Darling, please take my

hand.