:00:30. > :00:37.of the world have been on Northern Ireland with eight leaders soaking
:00:37. > :00:40.up the sun in Fermanagh and grappling with global oblongs. The
:00:40. > :00:47.G8 summit will feature the ceiling as the audience puts questions to
:00:47. > :00:54.the panel, among politicians who make more local decisions. Tonight -
:00:54. > :01:02.David McWilliams, the economist and author. Eamon McCann, who was on the
:01:02. > :01:08.protest line in Fermanagh. Colin Eastwood, the SDLP MLA. Arlene
:01:08. > :01:18.Foster, the enterprise minister and DUP MLA. She greeted the Obamas when
:01:18. > :01:29.
:01:29. > :01:39.know what you think about the big talking points of the day. Text us
:01:39. > :01:57.
:01:57. > :02:03.twitter. The details are on the from Ryan, a management consultant
:02:03. > :02:13.from Castlederg. Was the G8 beneficial or just a very expensive
:02:13. > :02:13.
:02:13. > :02:21.private party? Oh, yes. The G8 Summit! The home county of Arlene
:02:21. > :02:26.Foster. Was it a success? It was not a private party. The eyes of the
:02:26. > :02:32.world were very much on a part of the world I am proud of and I think
:02:33. > :02:37.we really have played our part and we are very serious about these
:02:37. > :02:42.discussions and we played host to those leaders and we did very well.
:02:42. > :02:48.We had an opportunity to show the world that Northern Ireland has a
:02:48. > :02:53.completely different narrative than in the past, we are positive, open,
:02:53. > :02:59.we want to do business with the world, we got that message across.
:02:59. > :03:03.�50 million postcard? Not at all. We shall have a very nice announcement
:03:03. > :03:10.tomorrow in relation to new jobs and the Japanese Prime Minister with the
:03:10. > :03:15.source -- was with us. Having said that, this is a great advertising
:03:15. > :03:20.and for Northern Ireland to do business in and for tourism, we
:03:20. > :03:26.could not have paid for those shots. They almost looked
:03:26. > :03:30.computer-generated, they looked so well! Eamon McCann, whatever the
:03:30. > :03:37.reality and the hard talking, it has been good news for Fermanagh?
:03:37. > :03:43.Fermanagh looked very well what it always does. Not when it is raining!
:03:43. > :03:47.Sometimes even then. I came down yesterday to Enniskillen on a bus
:03:47. > :03:52.from Derry and one thing that struck me was quite a lot of people said
:03:53. > :04:01.they had never been in Fermanagh before and people from Dublin, he
:04:01. > :04:08.said he had never been there before. Before we think about other things,
:04:08. > :04:14.happy days if it does good for tourism. I don't think... Another
:04:14. > :04:21.thing I noticed is that in Enniskillen, the pubs were empty and
:04:22. > :04:28.the cafes and the local store had dropped because they said people
:04:28. > :04:34.from across the border were nervous because of all of the hype. And the
:04:34. > :04:43.possible video of violence. If some people did make a few extra bob,
:04:43. > :04:51.terrific. But if you look at the Presidents, Toronto, Gleneagles in
:04:51. > :04:58.Scotland, none of the G8 meetings in those places left behind any great
:04:58. > :05:06.legacy in terms of inward investment. There is no evidential
:05:06. > :05:11.basis for believing that. Basil McCrea? You can applaud him if you
:05:11. > :05:20.like! I thought it was fantastic. It makes you pride to beat Northern
:05:20. > :05:23.Irish. -- pride. Those pictures of Fermanagh and Belfast, but put us on
:05:23. > :05:27.the map again and we had an unfortunate winter and this has
:05:27. > :05:32.turned it all the way around and when you look at these benefits for
:05:32. > :05:36.the future, people know who we are and Arlene Foster will be announcing
:05:37. > :05:43.jobs and this is all to the good and you could not buy the type of
:05:43. > :05:51.goodwill we have got. The G8 Summit was incidental? They do important
:05:51. > :05:55.work and we shall talk about that but what is the benefit to us? I
:05:55. > :06:00.entertained eight motorcyclists from Southampton and they had been on
:06:00. > :06:04.their bikes to give some escort and they looked around and they said, it
:06:04. > :06:09.is beautiful, here. And what we should be proud about is they said
:06:09. > :06:13.they could not get over how friendly the people here are. We are worth
:06:13. > :06:21.talking about and people are talking. Lots of you will have
:06:21. > :06:27.something to say! Opera gives applause. -- applause. That is great
:06:27. > :06:34.and Orrin Foster talked about jobs. But as you can see, eight men from
:06:34. > :06:40.around the world, from great power. -- Arlene Foster. The thing is, all
:06:40. > :06:45.you can see is beset stage for the medium and for the country it goes
:06:45. > :06:51.on to. You don't see anybody in the economy or in society turning around
:06:51. > :06:56.and being involved because they are away from society, they are put on a
:06:56. > :07:02.pedestal and if leaders want to lead, and really show our country,
:07:02. > :07:11.because it told us any to bring down walls, but they do. Instead of being
:07:11. > :07:15.a here, they need to come down to this level. It was a great event for
:07:15. > :07:18.Northern Ireland and shows just how far we have come in 15 years. Lots
:07:18. > :07:28.of maturity on behalf of David Cameron and for the Executive. It
:07:28. > :07:28.
:07:28. > :07:34.was just a great event. I agree. It has been fantastic that the Prime
:07:35. > :07:36.Minister decided to host this in Fermanagh, fantastic, but it must be
:07:36. > :07:40.disappointing for the politicians around the table that they will
:07:40. > :07:43.never be able to take part in this because they belong to parochial
:07:43. > :07:48.parties and it must be the only country that has hosted the G8
:07:48. > :07:54.Summit, where nobody in that country can actually ever aspire to be a
:07:54. > :08:00.part of that. Are you depressed about that? I have no ambitions to
:08:00. > :08:06.be the British Prime Minister. None at all! Ask the Unionist members!
:08:06. > :08:10.Go-ahead. There are two sides to this, it cannot be a bad thing to
:08:10. > :08:14.have the world looking at us and these good pictures being beamed
:08:14. > :08:18.around the world. We have had negative pictures around the world
:08:18. > :08:21.and this is a good thing, and we can talk about whether this will be good
:08:21. > :08:31.for the rest of the world in terms of the outcomes and they hope it
:08:31. > :08:31.
:08:32. > :08:37.will be. David? As a slight outsider? It seems to be that it is
:08:37. > :08:42.so obvious that this can only be good for Fermanagh and for Ireland.
:08:42. > :08:48.In general, the whole country. These events, if you look at the history
:08:48. > :08:52.of these events, they don't lead to much actual change in economic
:08:52. > :08:58.policy. Lots of talking and lots of full to opportunities and it is not
:08:58. > :09:06.really a case that we shall see some huge change in the way the world is
:09:06. > :09:09.governed by these seven men and one woman. That said, it has to be good
:09:09. > :09:18.for Northern Ireland to have Fermanagh looking beautiful, the
:09:18. > :09:27.whole event executed professionally and also, a very benign coverage in
:09:27. > :09:34.the papers and the media that really matters in terms of influencing
:09:34. > :09:40.public opinion. Financial, if you look at the financial Times,
:09:40. > :09:43.Northern Ireland today. That rarely happens. And that helps. I am not
:09:43. > :09:50.saying this will change the world, but I think that all of these
:09:50. > :09:54.statements, they tend to change the brand of Northern Ireland and the
:09:54. > :10:00.brand is what it will tend to remember from the outside.
:10:00. > :10:04.Internally, it must have done a power of good for people to see
:10:04. > :10:09.these men coming here. And I am sure that we shall discuss the
:10:09. > :10:14.nitty-gritty as we go along but as a get-together, I cannot see anything
:10:14. > :10:19.but advantages. The gentleman over their... People are supposed to be
:10:19. > :10:24.represented as of the most important economies and it is out of date, we
:10:24. > :10:29.should have had representatives from China and India and Brazil. We have
:10:29. > :10:36.G20 later in the year. That is a slightly different thing. The young
:10:36. > :10:39.man. It is great to look at the impact this will have for Northern
:10:39. > :10:43.Ireland but we cannot escape the impact it will have globally, which
:10:43. > :10:51.I think will be very little. It is great to look at these people coming
:10:51. > :10:56.together, very little has happened in the last G8 Summit and this will
:10:56. > :11:01.be no different. Very sceptical but this is the truth. The front row...
:11:01. > :11:11.The G8 has done one purpose, apart from economics, that is possibly
:11:11. > :11:11.
:11:11. > :11:20.persuading government put in to stop arming Syria. -- President Putin.
:11:20. > :11:25.I. You. They have not bleed on anything to change what the men and
:11:25. > :11:31.women in Northern Ireland will have. We have serious issues in terms of
:11:31. > :11:36.unemployment and poverty and global issues. Global issues around
:11:36. > :11:41.trafficking and issues around people not having enough to eat. They had a
:11:41. > :11:47.real opportunity to make some impact on that but instead, they rushed out
:11:47. > :11:51.the same old around tax, transparency, around trade.
:11:51. > :12:01.Everything that means a lot to the rich and the powerful and nothing
:12:01. > :12:02.
:12:02. > :12:07.whatsoever for those people living line, even though there weren't very
:12:07. > :12:11.many there, protest is an important part of democratic society? It is. I
:12:11. > :12:17.don't think - I have heard lots of people saying today - there were few
:12:17. > :12:22.people there, it must have been disappointing. Very few people what
:12:23. > :12:28.the PSNI were saying. We involved in recognising it reckoned there would
:12:28. > :12:33.be 1,000 to 2,000. Most of the estimates were 1500. We knew nobody
:12:33. > :12:38.would come from Belfast because it was decided we would have the march
:12:38. > :12:46.on Saturday and the musical event. There was no mobilisation across the
:12:46. > :12:52.water. Matt Baggott talked about 5,000 people coming from over the
:12:52. > :13:00.water. There were spaces on the Ferris and planes. It wasn't
:13:00. > :13:03.intelligence led, it was stupidity. I am glad we were there. What we
:13:03. > :13:07.were trying to do was to be positive. To say there are
:13:07. > :13:14.alternatives to austerity. There are alternatives to importing arms into
:13:14. > :13:18.Syria and the rest of the Middle East. Not just Putin to Assad, we
:13:18. > :13:22.see western powers lining up talking about which factions and opposition
:13:22. > :13:26.they will arm. We are going to talk specifically, we are specifically
:13:27. > :13:30.going to talk about Syria. I will stop you there. The gentleman in the
:13:30. > :13:33.checked shirt? We have to look at the significance of the G8 coming to
:13:33. > :13:37.Northern Ireland as a vote of confidence in the British government
:13:37. > :13:41.who in previous years the only thing they would have sent here were extra
:13:41. > :13:46.troops due to the violence. That is an important point. We shouldn't
:13:46. > :13:53.forget the significance of this event. To David's point about it
:13:53. > :13:56.doing nothing only good. There is an element of civic proud to try to get
:13:56. > :14:02.people of Northern Ireland proud of this place and where they lived and
:14:02. > :14:05.all of that. I really do think - can I say this to Eamonn ace his
:14:05. > :14:09.colleague I protect the right of Eamonn to protest at an event like
:14:09. > :14:14.that. We live in a democratic society. That is the right thing to
:14:14. > :14:18.be able to do. I'm so delighted that it was peaceful. I do also say,
:14:19. > :14:23.Eamonn, I don't think it was stupid to be prepared. You do need to
:14:23. > :14:26.prepare in these instances. A lot of the police officers who came over in
:14:26. > :14:31.mutual aid will have been saying to us, they have found Northern Ireland
:14:31. > :14:38.to be a beautiful place they will come back as tourists. It is a
:14:38. > :14:45.benefit. I'm not stretching it now. Quickly. Were you sitting there the
:14:45. > :14:48.whole two-days thinking, "I wish I was Angela Merkel?" ? No I'm glad to
:14:48. > :14:53.be Arlene Foster and represent such a beautiful part of this united
:14:53. > :14:59.kingdom. I'm very proud of the fact we have a devolved administration in
:14:59. > :15:02.Northern Ireland that I'm a minister of. You may make faces of me, the
:15:02. > :15:06.devolved administration in Stormont is making a difference we are proud
:15:06. > :15:10.to be part of the United Kingdom and proud to bring the G8 toNorthern
:15:10. > :15:14.Northern Ireland. You get an answer? I think it was beneficial and it
:15:14. > :15:20.showed Northern Ireland in an excellent right, only all but good
:15:20. > :15:25.can come from it. Question two, this comes there from Colin Harvey an
:15:25. > :15:29.academic from Belfast. Still many more miles to go. Was President
:15:29. > :15:35.Obama right yesterday about our process and what are the next steps
:15:35. > :15:40.here? Peace comes dropping slow, said the President, as he addressed
:15:40. > :15:44.the audience, mostly of young people at the Waterfront Hall yesterday.
:15:44. > :15:48.Was he right? I think he was right. It was a well crafted speech. It was
:15:48. > :15:53.aimed at young people. I think young people need inspiration, need to
:15:53. > :15:57.realise that they need to play their part as much as we do. The important
:15:57. > :16:02.thing is, this Assembly is in government now. We need to get on
:16:02. > :16:06.with the job of finishing the peace process. There is a body being set
:16:06. > :16:10.up, I think it's starting to meet next week, to address all the issues
:16:11. > :16:14.of the past, the thorny issues. We will play our full part in that. We
:16:14. > :16:18.don't believe you can move forward unless you deal with the difficult
:16:18. > :16:21.issues of the past. We failed to do that to date. We need to put our
:16:21. > :16:25.shoulders to the wheel. Obama was right in that terms. I think it's
:16:25. > :16:29.good that young people get inspiration from him. There is
:16:29. > :16:34.another side to this, it's sometimes difficult to listen to people
:16:34. > :16:38.preaching peace when some of their own actions, in terms of the Middle
:16:38. > :16:42.East and drones and other things, leave a lot to be desired. In terms
:16:42. > :16:48.of the spirit in which it was meant, we will take that and I think it was
:16:48. > :16:52.positive. Did he tell us anything we didn't already know He had a serious
:16:52. > :16:56.speech, I thought, which was to remind us that we had lost momentum
:16:56. > :17:01.from where we were perhaps 15 years ago. I think what the whole event
:17:01. > :17:06.has shown is, do you know what, we are better than this. We can move
:17:06. > :17:09.forward. What did I take out of it? I was taken with his discussion
:17:09. > :17:13.about individuals. The fact we don't have to ask permission to do
:17:14. > :17:19.anything. We can reach out and do it yourselves. We don't have to wait
:17:19. > :17:22.for anybody else to do it -- ourselves. Our future is in your
:17:23. > :17:28.hands. And, he made a couple of other really telling points, I
:17:28. > :17:32.thought, which was about young people saying that the change of
:17:32. > :17:36.attitudes that come in society, it may not happen in more mature
:17:36. > :17:46.generations because they fixed their ideas, quite rightly, but the young
:17:46. > :17:46.
:17:46. > :17:51.people are what moves us forward. The inspiration -- inspirational
:17:51. > :17:54.talk from Hannah and Michelle Obama, we have to say we can't change and
:17:54. > :17:58.start demanding that we do. The future is in our hands, we should
:17:58. > :18:02.take it. OK, you are a young person. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
:18:02. > :18:08.What did you think? As a young person I take no inspiration from
:18:08. > :18:13.Barack Obama. He knows nothing about living at an interface area. My
:18:13. > :18:18.inspiration comes from community workers who work on the interface
:18:18. > :18:22.not those who know nothing about conflict - He said his parents
:18:22. > :18:26.marriage would have been illegal in some states. He has come through a
:18:26. > :18:32.lot... He hasn't come through a 40 year conflict which was sectarian
:18:32. > :18:36.conflict. The tensions at the interface was the high highest we
:18:36. > :18:43.seen them. This country is never going to move on unless it comes
:18:43. > :18:51.from the grassroots up. People are being left outside. Fair point.The
:18:51. > :18:55.Obama made a point yesterday that, in terms of the peace process, can
:18:55. > :18:59.we export inspirational Northern Ireland format to the world?
:18:59. > :19:04.Northern Ireland to commercialise the experience they make here in
:19:04. > :19:09.Northern Ireland. Would you be willing to make peace world an then
:19:09. > :19:14.to forget your conflict? We will address that. Jat here. We had
:19:14. > :19:21.President Obama endorse integrated education. Surely it's time our
:19:22. > :19:25.politicians focussed on prioritising this. Those may come up. Arlene, was
:19:25. > :19:29.President Obama stating the obvious yesterday? I think sometimes it's
:19:29. > :19:31.good that other people come and look at what is going on in Northern
:19:31. > :19:34.Ireland. We are living through everything here in Northern Ireland.
:19:34. > :19:41.It is good people come in and look and see from their perspective what
:19:41. > :19:45.is going on. It did strike me that Hannah that spoke, Hannah Nelson was
:19:45. > :19:48.only 16, was born long after the ceasefires and hadn't lived probably
:19:48. > :19:53.through some of the difficulties we have just heard from this young man.
:19:53. > :19:57.It is important to remember that there are still young people living
:19:57. > :20:01.in circumstances where it is very difficult to live. They have a
:20:01. > :20:06.challenge in front of them. Whilst, for other young people, most young
:20:06. > :20:09.people, I do have to say nowaday, live in circumstances where they do
:20:09. > :20:12.know the other, where they can engage with the other. There has
:20:12. > :20:18.been tremendous progress in Northern Ireland. He is right, there is still
:20:18. > :20:20.much to do. I think you are right in saying that it must come from the
:20:20. > :20:25.community grassroots upwards. Obviously, what he was saying as
:20:25. > :20:29.well was that politicians negotiate and make decisions, but it's
:20:29. > :20:32.important that individually everybody plays their part as well.
:20:32. > :20:35.That is important that when we do anything in Northern Ireland we take
:20:35. > :20:40.everybody with us as we move forward. Eamonn, when they are
:20:40. > :20:44.building towards a united community, we have a 15-year target for taking
:20:44. > :20:54.down peace walls, that is coming from the top, not from the bottom.
:20:54. > :20:54.
:20:54. > :20:57.Is it wishful thinking? It is. There are a large element of wishingful --
:20:57. > :21:03.wishful thinking. Barack Obama said bring down the walls that are
:21:03. > :21:06.dividing it. If he said, we should bring down the wall that the
:21:07. > :21:11.Israelis have built, an Israeli state armed to the teeth by the
:21:11. > :21:19.United States, if he had said that I would take him seriously when he
:21:19. > :21:24.talks about walls here. The speech with Hannah yesterday, I stood on a
:21:24. > :21:29.platform yesterday and heard a young woman of 16 or 17 speak without
:21:29. > :21:35.notes for 15 minutes she made a point which Obama wouldn't make -
:21:35. > :21:38.what is going to dictate the future life is the question of youth
:21:38. > :21:44.unemployment, the services that will be available. There is the question
:21:44. > :21:49.of the quality of education. Youth unemployment across Europe is at a
:21:49. > :21:54.horrendous rate a direct result of austerity programmes imposed by Mrs
:21:54. > :21:58.Merkel and the rest there behind the wonderful scenery at Fermanagh. The
:21:58. > :22:01.G8 will not tackle that. That point would not have been made in County
:22:01. > :22:06.Fermanagh yesterday had it not been for the people outside marching
:22:06. > :22:12.against austerity, against the arms trade, against fuelling conflict -
:22:12. > :22:14.Against that, when the united community talks about 10,000
:22:14. > :22:20.placements for young people that is moving in the right direction?
:22:20. > :22:23.will wait to see them. I still say this, the structural unemployment,
:22:23. > :22:27.particularly among young people, not just in Northern Ireland, but in
:22:27. > :22:32.Spain and Italy and Greece and in Germany indeed, that is the problem.
:22:32. > :22:40.Nothing that was done in Fermanagh yesterday by the G8 addresses that
:22:40. > :22:45.problem at all. Much less sort it. Much as I take your o point about
:22:45. > :22:48.the Middle East and Obama seriously, does that not suggest to our young
:22:48. > :22:53.people we shouldn't do anything, what is the point, because there are
:22:53. > :22:58.bigger fish to fry? Of course not. Does it not create apathy in our
:22:58. > :23:02.young people? I hope I can come back to that. It's interesting we talk
:23:02. > :23:08.about youth unemployment in the context of Germany. I agree with
:23:08. > :23:14.what of Eamonn says. Germany is the country where youth unemployment is
:23:14. > :23:22.far and by the way the lowest in the world. Why is this? The Germans have
:23:22. > :23:26.a 6% youth unemployment rate, Greece over 50, Spain moving towards 40%,
:23:26. > :23:30.Italy has a huge unemployment problem. What the Germans do is they
:23:30. > :23:34.have a very old system of apprenticeships. So if you leave
:23:34. > :23:38.school, you go into an apprenticeship. It means young
:23:38. > :23:42.people are trained to do something. They can actually do something at
:23:42. > :23:48.the age of 20, number one. Number two, it means that where there is a
:23:48. > :23:51.demand for the jobs... What happens in a lot of our countries, we
:23:51. > :23:55.educate people for nothing actually. They can't do anything. When they
:23:55. > :23:59.come out of university or what have you, even if they don't go to
:24:00. > :24:04.university, there is no-one that takes a kid by the hand at the ages
:24:04. > :24:08.of 17, 18, the Germans figured it out. I want to bring the discussion
:24:08. > :24:11.back to the question about the next steps forward here? I'm interested
:24:11. > :24:15.that most of the question and discussion are about the economic
:24:15. > :24:20.side of it rather than the sectarian side. Let me bring a couple of
:24:20. > :24:25.people in. Yes, sir, just to your left hand side there. There is a lot
:24:25. > :24:30.of talk about taking down peace walls, but are we going to be
:24:30. > :24:34.confident we will address the wider issues in those poor neighbourhoods?
:24:34. > :24:37.And their connection to the jobs and educational opportunities in the
:24:37. > :24:42.centre of the city. We have different barriers in this country
:24:42. > :24:47.which we don't recognise, such as roads? The gentleman in the back
:24:47. > :24:51.row. It's great the usual rhetoric from Barack Obama it sounds great.
:24:51. > :24:54.Let us make something clear, he could do with building peace in his
:24:54. > :24:58.own country. I was talking to an American yesterday who said America
:24:58. > :25:02.is almost at civil war because of Barack Obama, he needs to build
:25:02. > :25:06.bridges in his own country, but also the Middle East as well. A lot of
:25:06. > :25:11.young people see through it. Young people need inspired I don't think
:25:11. > :25:17.Barack Obama is the person. Talking about take taking down peace walls,
:25:17. > :25:23.how would the people attacked seven nights in a row with petrol bombs
:25:23. > :25:26.would feel if that wall was to come down or neem Tiger Bay who are
:25:26. > :25:30.attacked as well? How would they feel? Everyone needs to feel safe
:25:30. > :25:34.before they are brought down. You wanted to address integrated
:25:34. > :25:37.education aspect? I did want to. That is the point I was trying to
:25:37. > :25:41.make in relation to the communities must be comfortable with those walls
:25:41. > :25:46.coming down before they do come down. It's right we have an
:25:46. > :25:50.aspiration the walls should come down we will be more peace in those
:25:50. > :25:54.interface communities. We can't just go in and take the walls away that
:25:54. > :25:59.would be, as far as I'm concerned, the wrong thing to do having lived
:25:59. > :26:03.in a border area all my life. I want to address the integrated education
:26:03. > :26:06.piece. One of the disappointing things for me yesterday was the fact
:26:06. > :26:11.that they didn't have the opportunity, Barack Obama and the
:26:11. > :26:15.Prime Minister, to go along and see Fermanagh Community Learning Project
:26:15. > :26:18.that takes place across all of the schools in Fermanagh. All of the
:26:18. > :26:22.schools in Fermanagh come together in a shared education environment.
:26:22. > :26:27.They work very well together. Instead they took the easy option of
:26:27. > :26:32.going to an integrated school whereas they could have even real
:26:32. > :26:35.sharing, if they had of choosen to go to that sort of context. I was a
:26:35. > :26:43.little disappointed with that Noel, I have to say.
:26:43. > :26:50.CHEERING AND APPLAUSE Let us move on. Question number
:26:50. > :26:57.three. Should we arm the Assyrian rebels, knowing what armed groups
:26:57. > :27:04.can do. We know that G8 has said they will exercise maximum
:27:04. > :27:08.diplomatic basher to get all of the parties to the table in Geneva with
:27:08. > :27:15.no timetable or definition of what everyone 's role should be. That is
:27:15. > :27:22.what they have come up with today. Eamon McCann? Should we arm them?
:27:22. > :27:26.No, we should not be putting arms into Syria at all. There are enough
:27:26. > :27:32.people being killed and Vladimir Putin, representative of gangster
:27:32. > :27:39.capitalism. Arming the regime, largely because of trade relations
:27:39. > :27:45.but mostly because they haven't big naval base, they are. -- they have a
:27:45. > :27:49.vague naval base there. France are champing at the bit to get arms into
:27:49. > :27:56.the hands of the rebels, some pretty unsavoury people. They talk about
:27:56. > :28:01.peace. Arming Saudi Arabia, that feudal dictatorship, armed to the
:28:01. > :28:10.teeth by the West and meanwhile, the Israelis are being armed, all being
:28:10. > :28:16.armed. It is a big Bazaar in the Middle East. What the protesters
:28:16. > :28:22.said yesterday, unlike G8, they said stop pouring petrol on the fire that
:28:22. > :28:26.is consuming the people of the Middle East. 93,000 people estimated
:28:26. > :28:36.killed in Syria. Should people draw back and let them kill each other?
:28:36. > :28:36.
:28:36. > :28:39.No, not willy-nilly. After all, the intervention of outside forces,
:28:39. > :28:46.lacking the regime, and the brutality of the Assad dictatorship,
:28:46. > :28:50.and his father, who murdered on an even bigger scale, at one point
:28:50. > :28:56.murdering 20,000 people in a single time. The powers outside, not just
:28:56. > :29:00.the arms, they are manipulating and playing one country off another and
:29:00. > :29:04.it is a great game for Middle Eastern oil and that has been going
:29:04. > :29:09.on for a long time and that is the basic problem. And in the Middle
:29:09. > :29:15.East. And the first thing that ought to be done is a should not be more
:29:15. > :29:21.arms coming in but Alan Babu of all sides. For the Americans to stop
:29:21. > :29:29.arming Israel and Saudi Arabia and all the rest of them. -- and arms
:29:29. > :29:37.embargo. I am no expert but we talk about this great game and it strikes
:29:37. > :29:42.me like the Balkans in 1914 at every power as a vested interest in some
:29:42. > :29:45.side and everybody is fighting this proxy war, we all want peace but the
:29:45. > :29:50.reality is, if you look at people 's actions, you have an enormous
:29:50. > :29:55.financial incentive coming in from Qatar in the Gulf of Mexico, arming
:29:55. > :30:01.the rebels. They have been doing that for a very long time, Russia on
:30:01. > :30:06.the side of resident aside, the Israelis saying they are doing
:30:06. > :30:10.nothing and say they will keep out of this but ultimately, Leben on
:30:10. > :30:15.will be dragged into this. As Europeans, what is interesting is
:30:15. > :30:21.this represents a watershed because what strikes me is this reinforces
:30:21. > :30:27.the extent to which look cannot project its will any more in the
:30:27. > :30:30.Middle East and this is a first time in my lifetime when I have seen the
:30:30. > :30:34.Europeans second but third fiddle and this is the is the way the world
:30:34. > :30:39.has changed. You have the Middle East, which has oil, and everybody
:30:39. > :30:47.wants to secure that Boyle. And ultimately, Europe does not have the
:30:48. > :30:52.muscle any more to be a big player. Questions? In the West were very
:30:52. > :30:57.quick to put down Vladimir Putin 's understanding and appreciation of
:30:57. > :31:03.the situation in Serbia and Russia 's form policy has been invariably
:31:03. > :31:08.far more effective than that of the West since the fall of communism and
:31:08. > :31:14.four Vladimir Putin, the issues are very much domestic. They share a
:31:14. > :31:19.land border. As tragic as it may be, I can understand his motivation for
:31:19. > :31:24.trying to put down the rebel insurgency. Should we encounter
:31:24. > :31:28.that? -- counter that? I believe that Russia will prevail and they
:31:28. > :31:38.will sustain President Assad, it is the lesser of evils, we are creating
:31:38. > :31:42.a power vacuum. When we arm rebels, it is a race to destruction. Russian
:31:42. > :31:49.foreign policy, in the Middle East, and we, the Middle East but in
:31:49. > :31:58.Moscow, they call it the site. They see Chechnya and beyond and they
:31:58. > :32:04.have had a much more consistent approach. The young lady? This is
:32:04. > :32:08.addressed to Eamon McCann. What is your alternative to negotiating with
:32:08. > :32:15.governments and corruption is the only thing they have ever known?
:32:15. > :32:20.gentleman in the second row? real tragedy in Syria is that almost
:32:20. > :32:25.100,000 people have been killed and there are an estimated 4.5 million
:32:25. > :32:28.people have fled their homes. The equivalent of the population of
:32:29. > :32:33.Northern Ireland leaving the country. What is needed is a
:32:33. > :32:38.political settlement and not more arms. And an agreement that aid can
:32:38. > :32:48.be delivered to some of the people whose lives have been destroyed.
:32:48. > :32:50.
:32:50. > :32:56.the lady? If any country arms Syria, what we have is like in Iraq, the
:32:56. > :33:04.Sunni Moslems, fighting with each other. We have religious disillusion
:33:04. > :33:10.and political division and the oil wells are pumping. The oil wells
:33:10. > :33:15.pumping. And into Syria, pro-and anti-President Assad fighting with
:33:15. > :33:25.each other. Fighting for how many years and the oil wells keep on
:33:25. > :33:28.
:33:28. > :33:34.pumping. And women, children and men will be dying and starving. This was
:33:34. > :33:41.not dominating politics and Iraq prior to the invasion. Some
:33:41. > :33:47.observations. 93,000 people have been killed and I do not know if
:33:47. > :33:52.anybody saw the footage about the families massacred in their homes,
:33:52. > :33:59.mothers cradling children and babies and the humanitarian response is
:33:59. > :34:04.these people are undefended, they are being slaughtered and it is very
:34:04. > :34:08.well for us to sit here and talk about G8 or President Assad or these
:34:08. > :34:14.people, the humanity involved in this comes out, we want to try to do
:34:14. > :34:20.something. And I look here and the challenge that I have put back is I
:34:20. > :34:23.do here in the McCann, angry at everything, negative at everything,
:34:23. > :34:29.everything is wrong, the question for all of us is, what are you going
:34:29. > :34:33.to do about it? How would you fix it? No point in just venting your
:34:33. > :34:39.spleen. I do support some sort of diplomatic solution, I do think G8
:34:39. > :34:43.were right in saying we want the Geneva conference together and is an
:34:43. > :34:50.issue around here about saying, if we arm people, we will end up with
:34:50. > :34:54.some escalation, like in Iraq. But anybody who has been around and
:34:54. > :34:59.looked at Kosovo or other places, we all said, somebody please do
:34:59. > :35:03.something. And I come back to this point and I put this challenge to
:35:03. > :35:09.you, all of those people who talk about oil and gas and how bad it is.
:35:09. > :35:16.Remember, it is the oil and gas that keeps your lights on, it actually
:35:16. > :35:25.drives your car. And we have is a Sidey but is dependent upon it and
:35:25. > :35:29.how can people respond to these issues? -- we have a society. It is
:35:29. > :35:34.not that we can impose our solution on anybody else but we can show
:35:34. > :35:39.people that success is possible. And success comes through dialogue with
:35:39. > :35:45.people willing to put things together. That is what I is a port.
:35:45. > :35:53.Diplomatic manoeuvres and something has to happen at Geneva. -- what I
:35:53. > :35:56.support. This is a humanitarian catastrophe and the figures are
:35:56. > :36:00.different from different places but they are huge in terms of the people
:36:00. > :36:06.killed and I have never known it catastrophe that could do with more
:36:06. > :36:13.goals. Within hours, those guns will be in the hands of people who are
:36:13. > :36:17.very closely and public are lined with Al-Qaeda. -- publicly aligned.
:36:17. > :36:23.I ran say they will have 4000 Republican guards coming in as the
:36:24. > :36:29.first force. Hezbollah are already involved. This is a major issue. The
:36:29. > :36:34.last thing we need is more weapons being pumped into this. We do need a
:36:34. > :36:38.political solution and we also need to be consistent and the West picks
:36:38. > :36:44.good and bad guys and they change every six years. That is no way to
:36:44. > :36:53.do foreign policy. The West should be more honest about who they deal
:36:53. > :36:59.with. And one of the risks is that we might be arming extremists but we
:36:59. > :37:05.should also consider that we need to consider intervention, perhaps not
:37:05. > :37:10.with arms, to support moderate voices so they do not get sidelined
:37:10. > :37:16.in any civil war. That is right and when you look at what is happening
:37:16. > :37:21.in Syria, it would be easy to think that we need to send arms in to
:37:21. > :37:24.support the rebels. They are having such a horrendous time. But I
:37:24. > :37:30.fundamentally agree with all of the panel members that sending more arms
:37:30. > :37:33.into that tinderbox would be fundamentally the wrong thing to do.
:37:33. > :37:40.And I have to say that Vladimir Putin, on the other side, needs to
:37:40. > :37:43.pull back as well in relation to his comments on foreign policy. I do
:37:43. > :37:47.think that despite everything that has been said about the G8 Summit
:37:47. > :37:51.achieving absolutely nothing, we have seen the Lough Erne
:37:51. > :38:01.declaration, enquired and I am very proud that that name is attached to
:38:01. > :38:04.
:38:04. > :38:08.it. --, enquired. And we hope and pray for sense to prevail. And we
:38:08. > :38:17.need to not just look at the simple solutions, we need to look at the
:38:17. > :38:22.longer term, if these things were to take place. I welcome Geneva and the
:38:22. > :38:26.fact that an aid package has been set aside for Syria as well and it
:38:26. > :38:34.is in port and that gets to the right people. And it is exercised in
:38:34. > :38:40.a proper way. The lady talked about tax and transparency. -- it is
:38:40. > :38:50.important. These issues have a real impact on whether countries are able
:38:50. > :38:54.to feed their population and I was at a service with John Sentamu on
:38:54. > :39:01.Sunday and he was very strong on this issue of having the proper tax
:39:01. > :39:05.regimes in place and I welcome all of those things. But Syria is
:39:05. > :39:10.important, too. They are interlinked. Should be armed rebels
:39:10. > :39:15.or not? I don't think we should, when you look at Obama coming over
:39:15. > :39:18.here and he has talked about our past, and we know what happens in
:39:18. > :39:25.every guns fall into the wrong hands. This is turning into a
:39:25. > :39:31.sectarian war. And I think it is daft. Not that long ago rogue --
:39:31. > :39:38.long ago, if we had more goals, what would have happened here?
:39:38. > :39:42.Christopher? With your claim that you are a move away from sectarian
:39:42. > :39:52.politics, was a decision to designate yourselves as Unionist and
:39:52. > :39:59.
:39:59. > :40:06.a steak? The brand-new party, a party for Mr and Mrs. And Basil
:40:06. > :40:16.McCrea is a leader. A brand-new world of politics? By the way, we
:40:16. > :40:21.
:40:21. > :40:29.are Unionist as Mac -- we are unionists! The first thing is we do
:40:29. > :40:36.not like labels. What is nationalist or Unionist? We don't like labels
:40:36. > :40:46.but what is Unionist or nationalist? UR interrupted! Let us do with this.
:40:46. > :40:46.
:40:46. > :40:55.We don't like labels. It is so last century. It is the thinking of the
:40:55. > :40:59.past. Here is the thought process. How did we come up with this name?
:40:59. > :41:04.We started looking at names like proceed and that was stolen by
:41:04. > :41:09.somebody and progressive was used, I am much if they were progressive.
:41:10. > :41:17.Different things. We came up with a name that said, we want to be for
:41:17. > :41:20.Northern Ireland. And you want to be 21st century. That is the name. We
:41:20. > :41:25.were determined, we said at the start, we would not have Unionist in
:41:25. > :41:31.the name and it would not have flags in the literature, that is what we
:41:31. > :41:38.believe. You get to the stage where we have to designate. It is part of
:41:38. > :41:44.legislation. We wondered about that. You could be other? If you asked me
:41:44. > :41:51.the question... This is the issue, we could make the decision and we
:41:51. > :41:55.believe that Northern Ireland is best served by being part of the UK.
:41:55. > :41:59.But not everybody believes that. Here is what we will do. We will
:41:59. > :42:03.introduce legislation, John McAllister and do this very soon,
:42:03. > :42:07.saying we do not want such a renewables of the past applied to
:42:08. > :42:14.the system, we don't want people forced to be Unionist or nationalist
:42:14. > :42:20.or anything else. But we are going to do that anyway? This is really
:42:20. > :42:24.important. Couple of words.We will do what it takes to move Northern
:42:24. > :42:28.Ireland forward, away from the sectarian labels of the past and
:42:28. > :42:31.build a brave new world for our young people and in the meantime, we
:42:31. > :42:41.will have to put up with what is not a good system but we will change
:42:41. > :42:45.
:42:45. > :42:49.married a girl from Dundonald, that was confusing enough. I remain
:42:49. > :42:56.confused. I do sometimes feel... I have been coming to the North for a
:42:56. > :43:01.long time. Both my kids were born in Dundonald Hospital. We come up,
:43:01. > :43:07.unusually for a southerner, we are up here all the time. And, we... I
:43:07. > :43:10.have seen this country change over the last 16 odd years. And, I just
:43:10. > :43:14.welcome, again, I welcome the idea that somebody says - we will have a
:43:14. > :43:21.political party. We are hoping it will not be sectarian. What we will
:43:21. > :43:27.not do is not hang our coat on the sectarian... But he has. That is
:43:27. > :43:32.where the confusion - No, he has not. You will have a chance to come
:43:32. > :43:38.back. Don't know, I was listening to him there. I can see somebody
:43:38. > :43:43.beginning to deal in his head with how does this country move in this
:43:43. > :43:49.direction? OK. That, it's interesting listening here, that
:43:49. > :43:53.will take all sorts of compromises. You are going to make mistakes and
:43:53. > :43:58.do stupid things. It has to be, again, I come back to it, it has to
:43:58. > :44:03.be a good idea you are moving in that direction. You are so last
:44:03. > :44:09.century! I'm a unionist and I'm proud of. It I don't take that away.
:44:09. > :44:13.I'm confused about Basil. He says he believes in the UK. Then he says he
:44:13. > :44:18.doesn't want to be tagged as a unionist. You either believe in the
:44:18. > :44:22.UK or you don't believe in the UK. I believe fundamentally in the United
:44:22. > :44:27.Kingdom. What about the people who believe you are Northern Irish and
:44:27. > :44:32.be a nationalist or unionist? That is fine for them. I believe in all
:44:32. > :44:37.the benefits that come with being with the United Kingdom. I get
:44:37. > :44:42.confused with Bass sill if he wants to say... You should join me.
:44:42. > :44:45.should join you if I'm confused, that's right!
:44:45. > :44:50.CHEERING AND APPLAUSE Thankfully, I'm not confused.
:44:50. > :44:55.you sure you you are not confused? couldn't be clearer about being a
:44:55. > :44:59.unionist. I'm the only person on the panel who is, apparently, quite
:44:59. > :45:05.comfortable with it. A gentleman in the back row, please. I have to say
:45:05. > :45:10.I quite like the idea of Basil's new party, I like the name. I like the
:45:10. > :45:16.logo. I have been on the website. It looks good. I have struggled to see
:45:16. > :45:22.the detail of the policy behind the razzle dazzle, Basil. We don't have
:45:22. > :45:28.time to get into NI21's policies tonight. It is the name. Lady in the
:45:28. > :45:33.third row? Attitudes like like Arlenes that will keep us stuck in
:45:33. > :45:42.the pass and stop us progress progressing onto the future? Being a
:45:42. > :45:49.unionist? No.Are you denying my right to be a unionist. Party
:45:49. > :45:55.believe, we believe... "We believe." I like it! Gentleman here. I feel
:45:55. > :45:59.there should be one unionist party. This is what our unionist party is.
:45:59. > :46:03.There are too many unionists parties. Because they couldn't
:46:03. > :46:10.become kingpins they decided to go their own way. I said play-the-ball,
:46:10. > :46:13.not the man. Third in there please. Is there anything new you can bring
:46:13. > :46:17.to the communities that have a disconnection to the two main
:46:17. > :46:21.unionist parties? I will give him a chance to do that. Another hand that
:46:21. > :46:26.I hadn't seen before, I have now lost. That chance has gone. Eamonn,
:46:26. > :46:31.what do you think the problem, too many unionist parties, is that the
:46:31. > :46:36.problem with Northern Ireland? don't care how many unionist or
:46:36. > :46:42.nationalist party there are. I'm not a unionist or a nationalist. One of
:46:42. > :46:49.the interesting things said with about our sectarian decision was
:46:49. > :46:55.said by Jim Wells he said to Mrs Lowe - it doesn't matter what you
:46:55. > :46:57.say. When we take a vote on this you won't matter. Only because there is
:46:57. > :47:01.a Petition of Concern. Only nationalist and unionist votes will
:47:01. > :47:06.matter. The sectarian identification, even in Stormont, is
:47:06. > :47:10.privileged over people who want to call themselves "others" if we were
:47:10. > :47:14.serious in breaking down sectarian barriers we would look at those
:47:14. > :47:18.occasions in our history, including our recent history, when sizeable
:47:18. > :47:23.numbers of people detached themselves from the community to
:47:23. > :47:27.which they so to speak belong and join hands to do something else.
:47:27. > :47:30.Going back 100 years or three years are owe kiegss when people joined
:47:30. > :47:33.together to fight for the economic rights for the people at the bottom
:47:33. > :47:37.of the society. There are no other examples. People never do it when
:47:37. > :47:40.they are preached at. They do it when they come together on a basis
:47:40. > :47:44.which has nothing to do with the community you come from. That is the
:47:44. > :47:48.way forward. In Fermanagh yesterday and elsewhere down through the years
:47:48. > :47:53.that is what people like me are fighting for. The I don't think will
:47:53. > :48:01.is anything wrong with being a unionist, or equally I don't think
:48:01. > :48:05.there is anything wrong being a nationalist. I don't think I'm
:48:05. > :48:09.(inaudible) to strive for a united Ireland or strive to keep the union.
:48:09. > :48:13.I don't know what Basil is afraid of. He is clearly a unionist heaven
:48:13. > :48:17.should not be afraid to say. It I have no problem in supporting the
:48:17. > :48:20.right to be there. It's not the same thing to say people, if you are a
:48:20. > :48:24.unionist you are sectarian or nationalist you are sectarian. We
:48:24. > :48:29.have built a society where we can hopefully work together for the
:48:29. > :48:37.betterment of all our people. I will never cease to be an Irish
:48:37. > :48:42.Nationalist. I can work with anybody from the unionist parties. You are
:48:42. > :48:47.not going to back down. I will challenge a couple of points. Colin
:48:47. > :48:53.says he is clearly a unionist. Who gives you the right - You did. You
:48:53. > :48:57.just designated yourself as a unionist. You designated yourself a
:48:57. > :49:00.unionist. Eamonn pointed out there are stuckure problems you have to
:49:00. > :49:07.deal with. There are structural problems which we will change, they
:49:07. > :49:09.are not working right. The second thing, people asked me about the PUL
:49:09. > :49:13.community what we will do is different. Something different has
:49:13. > :49:16.to happen. You are not in a good place at the moment. Whatever advice
:49:16. > :49:20.you have been getting, where ever you have gone you need to do
:49:20. > :49:23.something different. We need to tell people this is the way forward. When
:49:24. > :49:27.it comes to where is Northern Ireland going to go forward, we are
:49:27. > :49:31.not interested in the old labels of the past. We are going to move
:49:31. > :49:34.forward. I'm stuck with a system I don't like. NI21 will do something
:49:34. > :49:38.different for Northern Ireland. Christopher, what do you think, were
:49:38. > :49:44.they right or wrong? Arlene's point that if there is nothing wrong with
:49:44. > :49:48.being a unionist. When you attach that label to yourself and base your
:49:48. > :49:54.politician on that idea that is sectarian you are dividing your
:49:54. > :50:00.self- - No. Sorry. The fundamental concept of unionism is that we have
:50:00. > :50:05.civil and religious liberties for all, how can it be sectarian. It's a
:50:05. > :50:09.nonsense. New hands. A lot of people seem to be afraid to express their
:50:09. > :50:14.cultural identity. I'm a unionist. I work with nationalists every day. I
:50:14. > :50:19.know they are nationalists. We can work together. You don't have to
:50:19. > :50:25.hide your identity like Basil says. You don't have to hide it. So much
:50:25. > :50:31.to discuss so little time. Now, question five from Nadine Campbell a
:50:31. > :50:35.fundraising manager from en skillen. -- Enniskillen. The G8 focussed on
:50:35. > :50:41.tax and transparency. If Northern Ireland adopts a lower rate of
:50:41. > :50:48.corporation tax are we in danger of becoming a tax haven island albeit
:50:48. > :50:54.without the good weather? Indeed. Your Finance Minister accused the
:50:54. > :50:58.Republic of stealing UK taxes. Because they have a low-tax rate,
:50:58. > :51:04.corporation tax rate, if we had one, would we be stealing UK money as
:51:04. > :51:08.well? I think you misunderstood was Sammy was saying. He was refrjing
:51:08. > :51:11.the fact that the exchequer had put a considerable amount of money into
:51:11. > :51:15.the Irish banks at the time of the whole break down. What he was saying
:51:15. > :51:18.is that they needed to get a clear vision of what was happening in
:51:18. > :51:22.relation to the taxes that were being paid in the Republic of
:51:22. > :51:26.Ireland. That is not what he said. He said they were stealing it?
:51:26. > :51:29.That is the background to what was happening in relation to Sammy. Can
:51:29. > :51:33.I say, there does need to be more transparency in relation to what
:51:33. > :51:36.happens in the Republic of Ireland because, as you know, we go out, we
:51:36. > :51:40.look for jobs, we look for investment in Northern Ireland. We
:51:40. > :51:45.play by the rules that have been set for us by the European Union
:51:45. > :51:48.sometimes frustrating rules they are too, I have to say, Noel. It does -
:51:48. > :51:51.it is interesting to see the way in which the Republic of Ireland seems
:51:51. > :51:55.to be able to bring in these companies in a way which we are not
:51:55. > :51:59.clear as to how they are doing all of that. If it naes relation to
:51:59. > :52:02.corporation tax, that is fine. It's one of the reasons we want to a
:52:02. > :52:08.devolution of corporation tax for Northern Ireland so we can match or
:52:08. > :52:12.indeed go lower - Compete with the Republic in being equally tax
:52:12. > :52:15.havenish? It's about everything else connected to it. That is why we need
:52:15. > :52:18.to have transparency in relation to the whole issue so we can all play
:52:18. > :52:24.in a level playing field am we are all members of the European Union.
:52:24. > :52:28.We are all supposed to be playing by the same rules. David?
:52:28. > :52:33.Republic's policy of low-tax on capital came from the fact that we
:52:33. > :52:36.didn't have any capital. We had to make it attractive to come into the
:52:36. > :52:44.Republic. You make it cheap you don't tax it as much as your
:52:44. > :52:49.neighbours. That was the first idea. And, I think now we are in danger...
:52:49. > :52:53.There is a big difference between a country regarded as a country with
:52:53. > :53:00.low capital gains tax... Low corporation. There is a huge leap to
:53:00. > :53:05.a tax haven. With that all sorts of other issues because there is good
:53:06. > :53:12.money and bad money in the world. OK. By that I mean, if you attract
:53:12. > :53:16.in - if the Republic does, companies whose only explicit reason is to not
:53:16. > :53:22.pay their fair share of tax in the countries where they generate their
:53:22. > :53:28.revenue, then I believe we would, in the long run, not benefit from this
:53:28. > :53:31.because I was very instreegd. Remember recently in Cyprus where
:53:31. > :53:36.the Cypriot depositors were told they would have to pay for their
:53:36. > :53:40.banks. One of the spins against the Cypriots was that, Cyprus is really
:53:40. > :53:44.just a money laundering place for Russia. OK. When they went looking
:53:44. > :53:48.for friends the sip Premier League yots they didn't have any. Why?
:53:48. > :53:56.People felt they were harbouring Russian money. Now, I think that is
:53:56. > :54:05.a very interesting lesson for the likes of the Republic because if you
:54:05. > :54:09.go down the road of beggar my neighbour, your neighbour will get
:54:09. > :54:13.feddup. I agree. The future is not about taxation, the future is about
:54:13. > :54:17.skills. If I had �300 million to spend from the corporation tax I
:54:17. > :54:21.would be trying to restrain all of our people for the future. I do not
:54:21. > :54:25.want to be chasing low paid, low skilled jobs. It's about giving
:54:25. > :54:29.people the opportunity to compete in the world. So, when you talk about,
:54:29. > :54:34.it I will not say much about it, the issue that the G8 brought out about
:54:34. > :54:39.the tax avoidance or the aggressive tax manipulation I agree with. You
:54:39. > :54:44.have to find some way where you get a level playing field for people to
:54:44. > :54:49.compete. It is OK, I think, for countries that are on the periphery
:54:49. > :54:53.of certain blocks like Europe to have a tax rate to encourage
:54:53. > :54:57.investment. What is not appropriate is for large multinational
:54:57. > :55:02.corporations to exsplot those tax loopholes to the detriment of all of
:55:02. > :55:05.us. Colin I don't think the comments were helpful to start with when we
:55:05. > :55:09.are going to the British treasury asking them to lower our corporation
:55:09. > :55:14.tax or to allow us to do that. I don't think that the Republic is a
:55:14. > :55:20.tax haven. They are entitled to have the tax regime that they wish. I
:55:20. > :55:24.think it's more than about the tax issue. Corporation tax is important
:55:24. > :55:28.- The questions about the tax issue? It is. We need to ensure that while
:55:28. > :55:33.we wait on this corporation tax bill coming down-the-line we do all the
:55:33. > :55:36.other things that an economy needs to do. We invest in the road and
:55:36. > :55:40.rail network. That we invest in the skills of our young people. I come
:55:40. > :55:44.from a city that has too too high an unemployment rate. We need to tackle
:55:44. > :55:50.that. We can tackle it without corporation tax being devolved.
:55:50. > :55:57.Gentleman here. Is the last Soviet left in the western world. Until we
:55:57. > :56:07.get 72% of the population not rely - our GDP not public funded we will go
:56:07. > :56:08.
:56:08. > :56:12.nowhere. We will also go nowhere with 30% of the population education
:56:12. > :56:20.Ali inefficient. What are your thoughts? If we collected all the
:56:21. > :56:26.taxes we should do it would equate to three times the worth of aid and
:56:27. > :56:30.the money we are giving. It's part of a bigger issue. It is. That is
:56:30. > :56:36.absolutely right. What is happening is that we are being ripped off by
:56:36. > :56:39.the rich. We are being ripped off for billions of pounds. With no say
:56:39. > :56:43.of anything being done about it. We talk about regulation and cracking
:56:44. > :56:47.down on this. We remember the phrase - light touch regulation. We don't
:56:47. > :56:50.actually interfere. We heard it over and over again from British
:56:50. > :56:55.politicians not only Conservative politicians, Labour politicians as
:56:55. > :57:00.well. If you try to interfere with or impose some sort of order, impose
:57:00. > :57:04.rules on the big financial companies they will go to Frankfurt. They will
:57:04. > :57:07.flee, therefore you have to let them do. That is the key to the
:57:07. > :57:12.development where by they pay as much tax as they like. They have
:57:12. > :57:16.meetings with the Head of the Revenue and Tax - I want to bring
:57:16. > :57:22.you back to the question. Do you think Northern Ireland should go for
:57:22. > :57:26.12. 5 corporate tax rate would that make us as bad or good as the
:57:26. > :57:32.Republic? I don't think it will make a difference. A company in the south
:57:32. > :57:37.paying 12. 5%, is either very foolish or more likely they have bad
:57:37. > :57:42.accountants. I hate to give you the last word, I have to. I was dieing
:57:42. > :57:47.to ask you which of the G8 ministers would make the next best Doctor Who.
:57:47. > :57:50.We don't have time for it. Thank you to all my guests and to a vigorous