Browse content similar to 19/09/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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And It's great to be back in business. Bring it on. | :00:07. | :00:17. | |
Yes, we're back. And as the much anticipated Grand Theft Auto five | :00:17. | :00:23. | |
hits the streets, This Week returns to the meaner, darker streets of Los | :00:23. | :00:25. | |
Westminster. A diplomatic deal over Syria's | :00:25. | :00:36. | |
chemical weapons, but the war goes on and it won't stop the violence in | :00:36. | :00:40. | |
downtown Damascus. Two leading world commentators, historian Simon Schama | :00:40. | :00:43. | |
and star CNN reporter, Christiane Amanpour, grab the This Week joy | :00:43. | :00:56. | |
stick. I have covered the war all my career, terrible, horrifying | :00:56. | :01:01. | |
experiences. But did the credible threat of force at least brings | :01:01. | :01:05. | |
Syria to the table to try to destroy its chemical weapons? | :01:05. | :01:08. | |
Not much violence at the Lib Dem Conference in Glasgow, as Nick Clegg | :01:08. | :01:10. | |
flexes his middle-ground muscles. Commentator and journalist Mary Ann | :01:10. | :01:13. | |
Sieghart assesses the political game-play. I've been watching Nick | :01:13. | :01:27. | |
Clegg and Vince Cable nearly come to blows at Clegg definitely won a | :01:27. | :01:31. | |
victory over his party. And fighting over the right to wear | :01:31. | :01:35. | |
a veil. Glamour model and body-builder Jodie Marsh talks about | :01:35. | :01:43. | |
the power of the face. Would I be brave enough to appear on TV without | :01:43. | :01:48. | |
my make up? Sometimes we all need a mask to hide behind, especially on | :01:48. | :01:52. | |
TV. Now lock up your car, lie back on | :01:52. | :01:56. | |
the sofa and pour yourself a glass of the blue stuff. | :01:56. | :02:03. | |
Evenin' all. Welcome back to a new and unimproved series of This Week, | :02:03. | :02:06. | |
the late-night drunk tank of BBC current affairs, for lightweights | :02:06. | :02:09. | |
who can't handle their politics or their Blue Nun. And who wouldn't be | :02:09. | :02:19. | |
feeling a bit unsteady at this hour? After downing a full week of Lib Dem | :02:19. | :02:23. | |
conference debate, intoxicated on a heady brew of real power, like a | :02:23. | :02:26. | |
socially inept teenager given the keys to the electoral drinks | :02:26. | :02:28. | |
cabinet, "Cocky" Clegg's been wearing his Deputy PM beer goggles | :02:28. | :02:31. | |
all week, labouring under the illusion he's now politically | :02:31. | :02:34. | |
irresistible, despite being told by poll after poll to just go home, | :02:34. | :02:38. | |
sober up and stop making such a fool of himself. But "Cocky's" on a | :02:38. | :02:47. | |
drunken roll. He spent the entire week trying to chat us all up, | :02:47. | :02:50. | |
boasting of his success in government, his ability to | :02:50. | :02:54. | |
sweet-talk the Tories, the Dr No of the Coalition, stopping the Tories | :02:54. | :02:56. | |
from getting their way, even taking all the credit for the first signs | :02:57. | :03:00. | |
of growth rather than the blame for it turning up so late. The only man | :03:00. | :03:07. | |
to embarrass himself more was boy minister Jeremy Brown, who called | :03:07. | :03:10. | |
for a national debate on what was doing more damage to the cause of | :03:10. | :03:13. | |
female emancipation, Saudia Arabian face veils or Lib Dem parliamentary | :03:13. | :03:16. | |
selection panels to whom women are invisible? I think we all know the | :03:17. | :03:27. | |
answer to that one, Jezza. Speaking of silly questions, I'm joined on | :03:27. | :03:30. | |
the sofa tonight by two very silly answers, the real boring and snoring | :03:31. | :03:34. | |
of late night political chat. I speak, of course, of | :03:34. | :03:36. | |
#sadmanonasunbed Peter Hain, and #sadmanonatrain Michael "Choo Choo" | :03:36. | :03:52. | |
Portillo. I have missed doing that over the summer, although I think I | :03:52. | :03:57. | |
need some practice. Your moment of the recess? It has to be the Syrian | :03:57. | :04:04. | |
vote in parliament. I believe David Cameron was saved by being defeated, | :04:04. | :04:09. | |
because he -- had he gone on to be the Prime Minister who attacked | :04:09. | :04:12. | |
Syria, I do not think his reputation would have recovered. Very rarely in | :04:12. | :04:17. | |
history has lead of the opposition controlled foreign policy in | :04:17. | :04:19. | |
history has lead of the opposition Britain, which Ed Miliband did. Ed | :04:19. | :04:23. | |
Miliband came out of it looking indecisive and shifty. You have to | :04:23. | :04:30. | |
say, David Cameron is a lucky man. And international ramifications, | :04:30. | :04:32. | |
which we will talk about. Peter, your moment? I had a great family | :04:32. | :04:42. | |
break. But there has been a dampener over Nelson Mandela's ill-health, | :04:42. | :04:46. | |
which has gone on for nearly four months, his critical condition. He | :04:46. | :04:53. | |
is back home. But he has not been the person we know and who has been | :04:53. | :04:56. | |
loved across the world for a long time, and he has not been the person | :04:56. | :04:59. | |
we know and who has been loved across the world for a long time, | :04:59. | :05:00. | |
we know and who has been loved and he's not going to be. Very | :05:00. | :05:03. | |
difficult for his family, to whom I have spoken, and they are having to | :05:03. | :05:06. | |
grapple with the media intrusion. At the same time, everybody wants to | :05:06. | :05:11. | |
know how he is. I had almost thought he has gone home to die. Is that not | :05:11. | :05:17. | |
the harsh reality? Somebody very close to him said to me, I never | :05:17. | :05:22. | |
want to grow old like that. I can understand that. | :05:22. | :05:25. | |
Nothing much happens here in Westminster during the summer | :05:25. | :05:27. | |
recess. But things were different this year. In August, chemical | :05:27. | :05:33. | |
weapons were used in the suburbs of Syria's capital, Damascus. America's | :05:33. | :05:35. | |
President and Britain's Prime Minister were keen to respond with | :05:35. | :05:38. | |
force but found themselves outflanked by political and | :05:38. | :05:41. | |
diplomatic opponents, not to mention public opinion. This week the UN | :05:41. | :05:44. | |
described the use of the weapons as a war crime and said the | :05:44. | :05:47. | |
international community has a moral responsibility to hold those | :05:47. | :05:50. | |
responsible accountable. But where now for a Western foreign policy | :05:50. | :05:54. | |
seemingly in disarray? We turned to CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour. This | :05:54. | :05:57. | |
is her take of the week. This summer has brought Syria to a | :05:57. | :06:27. | |
head. For two and a half years, civil war has been waging and the | :06:27. | :06:32. | |
West has not wanted to intervene, particularly President Obama, and he | :06:32. | :06:34. | |
has now been brought literally kicking and screaming into having to | :06:34. | :06:39. | |
do something because of the use of chemical weapons, weapons of mass | :06:39. | :06:40. | |
destruction, which are prohibited by chemical weapons, weapons of mass | :06:40. | :06:42. | |
international law. Our world exists chemical weapons, weapons of mass | :06:42. | :06:48. | |
based on laws and norms that have to be enforced, otherwise we exist in a | :06:48. | :06:54. | |
state of panic key. Just like Libya, it was Europe which | :06:54. | :07:00. | |
was dressing the agenda on Syria. It was Britain and France. So I was | :07:00. | :07:05. | |
stunned when I was in London covering the fact that Parliament | :07:05. | :07:09. | |
voted down David Cameron's desire to take action over Syria. It is the | :07:09. | :07:14. | |
first time in modern memory that Britain would not have been part of | :07:14. | :07:19. | |
a coalition to actually enforce international law and strategic | :07:20. | :07:25. | |
necessities. Having covered walls, I also know that limited, targeted | :07:25. | :07:29. | |
strikes, no boots on the ground, are sometimes really necessary to end | :07:29. | :07:32. | |
terrible, terrible, terrible, in sometimes really necessary to end | :07:32. | :07:38. | |
human suffering. The only reason Vladimir Putin, president of | :07:38. | :07:42. | |
Russia, and Bashar al-Assad, president of Syria, have come to the | :07:42. | :07:46. | |
table now and agreed, at least verbally, to destroy and account for | :07:46. | :07:51. | |
the chemical weapons there, having by the way lied about them, not | :07:51. | :07:55. | |
admitted they even existed, the only reason for this development is | :07:55. | :07:59. | |
because of the credible threat of US force that was on the table, and | :07:59. | :08:10. | |
hopefully will stay on the table. From her state-of-the-art studio to | :08:10. | :08:15. | |
our shabby little BBC broom cupboard. Now she sees what it is | :08:15. | :08:20. | |
really like on the licence fee. Christiane Amanpour joins us, and so | :08:20. | :08:24. | |
does Simon Schama, who has a new book out, story of the Jews. | :08:24. | :08:34. | |
Wellcome. Simon, let me start with you. The path that we are on now, | :08:34. | :08:37. | |
the West, is it a sensible solution, or are we being put -- played like a | :08:37. | :08:44. | |
fiddle by Moscow and Damascus? It is certain we are being played by a fit | :08:44. | :08:48. | |
Ashgrove like a fiddle but there may be good music nonetheless. It | :08:48. | :08:52. | |
depends on whether the United Nations Security Council can be made | :08:52. | :08:55. | |
to be serious. It will be an epic conversion. If Vladimir Putin | :08:55. | :09:14. | |
actually does, if having been in a position where he was protecting | :09:14. | :09:18. | |
Assad and preventing him from being defeated, if he is actually prepared | :09:18. | :09:23. | |
to clobber him, to do what is necessary to bring about a proper | :09:23. | :09:29. | |
solution. I just want to say one little thing. If the United Nations | :09:29. | :09:32. | |
is really going to do its job, it should begin with the chemical | :09:32. | :09:38. | |
weapons issue, not end with it. Has President Obama been weakened? Many | :09:38. | :09:43. | |
people are talking about precisely that. The people of the United | :09:43. | :09:48. | |
States are behind his policy, and what he has done has caused a lot of | :09:48. | :09:52. | |
thanks to, left, right, all around the world. If it works, and this | :09:52. | :09:59. | |
chemical weapons arsenal is to stride, it could be a game changer. | :09:59. | :10:06. | |
But, as Simon says, several thousand people have been killed by chemical | :10:06. | :10:09. | |
weapons, these are weapons of mass destruction. But over 100,000 have | :10:09. | :10:15. | |
been killed by Assad's conventional weapons, and they continue to be | :10:15. | :10:20. | |
killed. This is the worst humanitarian crisis since the Second | :10:20. | :10:22. | |
World War. There are 6 million refugees. The world food programme | :10:22. | :10:27. | |
cannot feed people. The world is weary. You know what is really sad | :10:27. | :10:33. | |
about this? Two and a half years ago ordinary people, men, women and | :10:33. | :10:38. | |
children went out on the streets in Damascus and said, we just want some | :10:38. | :10:42. | |
change, reform, freedom. What is wrong with that? Assad and his | :10:43. | :10:47. | |
henchmen arrested these kids, pulled out their fingernails, tortured them | :10:47. | :10:50. | |
to death and were then surprised there was an uprising against them. | :10:50. | :10:57. | |
And by its continued inaction, the West has created a self-fulfilling | :10:57. | :11:00. | |
prophecy. Everybody was so worried about what would happen if we | :11:00. | :11:02. | |
prophecy. Everybody was so worried intervened, by leaving it like | :11:02. | :11:05. | |
this, as President Clinton said two years ago, the longer you leave it, | :11:05. | :11:10. | |
the more space to give the bad actors, and that has happened. | :11:10. | :11:16. | |
President Obama was being urged by his aides and advisers in July 2012 | :11:16. | :11:22. | |
to start arming the rebels. Even this week, his two former defence | :11:22. | :11:26. | |
ministers said they were absolutely stunned that he thought to go to | :11:26. | :11:32. | |
Congress. They disagreed on whether he should intervene or not, but in | :11:32. | :11:37. | |
any event, do not go to Congress. You are the President. You have set | :11:38. | :11:41. | |
the red line. This is a violation of international law, a major | :11:41. | :11:46. | |
geopolitical and strategic disaster for the US and its allies in the | :11:46. | :11:49. | |
region. You need to take action. Now, where is the credibility of the | :11:49. | :12:01. | |
United States. What did you make of David Cameron's haste to call-back | :12:01. | :12:05. | |
Parliament and push for a quick involvement? At the time, I was not | :12:05. | :12:11. | |
in favour of intervention by Britain or America. But at the time I did | :12:11. | :12:16. | |
not realise what a foolish move it was by David Cameron. As it turned | :12:16. | :12:18. | |
out, it was a catastrophe in the was by David Cameron. As it turned | :12:18. | :12:23. | |
short term, inasmuch as he called a vote which he lost. The thing was | :12:23. | :12:28. | |
badly handled. In the fullness of time, it also looked foolish | :12:28. | :12:32. | |
because, as it turned out, the United States was not going to take | :12:32. | :12:37. | |
action anyway. So it was not a well judged move at all. But as I said, I | :12:37. | :12:42. | |
think David Cameron was saved from himself by the boat that happened in | :12:42. | :12:48. | |
the House of Commons. The shadow of Iraq and Afghanistan hangs over | :12:48. | :12:56. | |
public opinion, over Congress and the British Parliament, and you can | :12:56. | :12:59. | |
understand that. But neither might be the right way to view future | :12:59. | :13:07. | |
events. I agree. I was in the Cabinet that took the decision to go | :13:07. | :13:10. | |
to war in Iraq, and we have to live with that. I agree with Michael on | :13:10. | :13:16. | |
the Commons vote and where it left the Prime Minister. I agree with | :13:16. | :13:20. | |
Christina and up to a point, but I do not think, the reason why Obama | :13:20. | :13:25. | |
went to Capitol Hill and Cameron came to Parliament is that actually | :13:25. | :13:29. | |
the public of both countries do not want us to rush in there. And they | :13:29. | :13:34. | |
are right. Although this has been a catastrophe, this is a civil war. | :13:34. | :13:41. | |
What does the public want instead? The public does not want to be | :13:41. | :13:45. | |
bothered, particularly. The public feel they are all as bad as one | :13:45. | :13:49. | |
another. I do not care how many Al-Qaeda fighters are doing ugly | :13:50. | :13:54. | |
things, there is not a moral equivalence between the sides. The | :13:54. | :14:00. | |
public wants it all to go away. This is a civil war between Shia and | :14:00. | :14:02. | |
Sunni, Iran and Saudi, a proxy is a civil war between Shia and | :14:02. | :14:07. | |
battle in there, with Assad hated by the people, but actually most of the | :14:07. | :14:12. | |
Christians and other minorities who support Assad support him, although | :14:12. | :14:14. | |
they hate him, because they fear genocide. Turning your back on the | :14:14. | :14:24. | |
situation is not going to help that. I think there are two things. | :14:24. | :14:29. | |
Firstly, it is a major geopolitical and strategic catastrophe. It is not | :14:29. | :14:33. | |
just a bleeding heart situation. It is a big trouble for Britain, | :14:33. | :14:38. | |
France, the United States, and for its allies and the stability of the | :14:38. | :14:43. | |
region. No matter how much the US president says he wants to pivot to | :14:43. | :14:46. | |
Asia, the Middle East is still a big deal. He has cast himself as the | :14:46. | :14:54. | |
Pacific president. And he seems to want to do everything in his power | :14:54. | :14:58. | |
not to be dragged back to the Middle East. That is true. He said | :14:58. | :15:03. | |
specifically - listen to his body language - I was elected to end | :15:03. | :15:09. | |
wars, not to start them. He had said Assad must go, and that there were | :15:09. | :15:14. | |
red lines. When a superpower says that, they have to do something | :15:14. | :15:20. | |
about it. It was a foolish thing to say. He has been hanging by it ever | :15:20. | :15:26. | |
since. He never looked as though he had any convention. He was only | :15:26. | :15:30. | |
doing it because he said it was a red line. Normally, when you get | :15:30. | :15:35. | |
into these situations, you are very doubtful about where it will end. I | :15:35. | :15:38. | |
have never been in a situation where we did not know how it would begin. | :15:38. | :15:44. | |
The inconsistency of what Obama has been saying from day to day, one day | :15:44. | :15:48. | |
saying he would fire a shot across the bow was, a shot that does not | :15:48. | :15:53. | |
hit. The next day saying he would weaken the regime until the point | :15:53. | :15:56. | |
where it turned the balance of the civil war. Meanwhile David Cameron, | :15:56. | :16:01. | |
assuring the House of Commons and sounding like Tony Blair ten years | :16:01. | :16:04. | |
ago, assuring the House of Commons this was nothing to do with regime | :16:04. | :16:08. | |
change, not intervening in a civil war, only about chemical weapons. | :16:08. | :16:18. | |
Secretary of State Kerry said any aattack would be "unbelievable | :16:18. | :16:22. | |
small." People thought - what's the point? The point, there are several | :16:23. | :16:27. | |
points. In 1998 Britain and America took part in what was called | :16:27. | :16:31. | |
Operation Desert Fox against Iraq, Saddam Hussein when he was in power | :16:31. | :16:35. | |
and when he did have chemical weapons. According to the | :16:35. | :16:38. | |
inspectors, after that very limited attack, they said that that put paid | :16:38. | :16:43. | |
to his ability to actually want to go-ahead with doing chemical | :16:43. | :16:46. | |
weapons. We know that there were no chemical weapons because when people | :16:46. | :16:51. | |
went in in 2003, there were no chemical weapons. Partly because of | :16:51. | :16:55. | |
the limited targeted attacks, no boots on the ground, that Clinton | :16:56. | :17:00. | |
and Blair and whoever else was in power in 98 took. Also, we have a | :17:00. | :17:04. | |
and Blair and whoever else was in humanitarian imperative. We in the | :17:04. | :17:08. | |
West, who believe in values in the moral and imperative, I covered | :17:08. | :17:13. | |
Bosnia for years, nobody intervened, it was a genocide unfolding in our | :17:13. | :17:17. | |
backyard. With no boots on the ground... We should have intervened | :17:17. | :17:23. | |
there. With no boots on the ground you changed it. With Bosnia, we had | :17:23. | :17:32. | |
a 78-day bombing campaign. Kosovo. No-one is talking about that in | :17:32. | :17:37. | |
Syria? No boots on the ground, Kosovo free and independent. I agree | :17:38. | :17:44. | |
with Michael you could possibly explain the incoherence about how it | :17:44. | :17:47. | |
would begin and the unbelievable... It US m be the only, kind of, | :17:47. | :17:53. | |
military statement where you reassure those on the end it isn't | :17:53. | :17:55. | |
going to hurt one bit. What the hell reassure those on the end it isn't | :17:55. | :18:01. | |
is the point! Failure of policy? With any luck we won't have to find | :18:01. | :18:05. | |
out whether or not a targeted attack, say, on command and control | :18:05. | :18:12. | |
of the air force. I these are horribly vague things that got us | :18:12. | :18:17. | |
into trouble before. It seems not inconceivable that an intelligently | :18:17. | :18:20. | |
limited carefully worked out strategy might have had the same | :18:20. | :18:27. | |
effect that Desert Fox had. Obama is like Neville Chamberlain if you | :18:27. | :18:31. | |
believe it's a horrific situation you need to sort out at the first | :18:31. | :18:37. | |
whisper from Russia you ought to put it off for a year to have | :18:37. | :18:41. | |
discussions. You back and wave a bit of paper saying it is all over you | :18:42. | :18:47. | |
are in effect Neville Chamberlain. I don't believe of an intervention at | :18:47. | :18:51. | |
all. If you settle for what Russia has given you, you are then Neville | :18:51. | :18:57. | |
Chamberlain. They talked it up, the Holocaust was dragged in at one | :18:57. | :19:00. | |
stage. The Battle of Britain was dragged in the President yet the | :19:01. | :19:04. | |
response would be unbelievable small. I don't understand it. The | :19:04. | :19:12. | |
default Hitler rhetoric. Margaret Thatcher did it. George Bush did it. | :19:12. | :19:21. | |
Leave Hitler out of it. In a year's time will Syria have chemical | :19:21. | :19:24. | |
weapons? It might have a bit. A few. They will probably have got rid of | :19:24. | :19:28. | |
most of them. You think it would be successful? ? No, the killing will | :19:29. | :19:32. | |
go on. The killing will certainly go on. That wasn't the question. The | :19:32. | :19:36. | |
question was, will it still have chemical weapons? I really don't | :19:36. | :19:41. | |
know. I really don't know. Yes. It will, won't it. Assad himself said | :19:41. | :19:46. | |
it will have chemical weapons in a year. They will keep it going | :19:46. | :19:50. | |
forever. That is correct. Thank you. That was great. So much better than | :19:50. | :19:58. | |
what I'm used to! Now it may be late, but pour | :19:58. | :20:01. | |
yourself another three fingers and get ready to stick it out like Miley | :20:01. | :20:05. | |
Cyrus's tongue, it'll be worth it, because waiting in the wings, | :20:05. | :20:08. | |
glamour model and bodybuilder Jodie Marsh is here to talk about why the | :20:08. | :20:12. | |
face is a window into the soul. She's obviously never met George | :20:12. | :20:18. | |
Osborne! And for those of you poised to | :20:18. | :20:21. | |
register their offence at tonight's show, get ready to charge up your | :20:21. | :20:25. | |
Amstrad, you never know one day it might work, and log onto the | :20:25. | :20:28. | |
Twitter, the fleecebook and the good old interweb. | :20:28. | :20:34. | |
We await your complaints with total indifference. | :20:34. | :20:40. | |
The Lib Dems spent the past week basking in their own magnificence up | :20:40. | :20:42. | |
in Glasgow, congratulating themselves on providing the moral | :20:42. | :20:45. | |
sunlight around which we all now orbit. | :20:45. | :20:53. | |
It's thought "cocky" Clegg had a pretty good conference, announcing a | :20:53. | :20:56. | |
tax-payer funded school lunch subsidy of over a £400 a year for | :20:56. | :21:00. | |
every infant child, even if mummy and daddy could afford a daily | :21:00. | :21:02. | |
hamper from Harrods. No doubt they'll put it in the kitty | :21:02. | :21:07. | |
to pay off the £9,000 a year tuition fees the little darlings face when | :21:07. | :21:10. | |
they reach university, thanks to the very same Liberal Democrats. | :21:10. | :21:13. | |
So with nothing much happening here in Westminster we asked Mary Ann | :21:13. | :21:15. | |
Seighart for her conference round-up of the week. | :21:15. | :21:27. | |
Hard work on the thigh. Yes. Dancing like politics is all about | :21:27. | :21:38. | |
partnership. At the Lib Dem conference this week, the question | :21:38. | :21:41. | |
was - who were they going to Tango with? | :21:41. | :21:47. | |
No, not them. They are talking about those a little closer to home. | :21:47. | :22:01. | |
Yes, d was Vince Cable flirting with Labour this week. If he shouted, | :22:01. | :22:10. | |
"can you hear me Ed" at the end of his speech I wouldn't have | :22:10. | :22:13. | |
surprised. He threatened not to support his own leader on the | :22:13. | :22:19. | |
economy. Come on. Oh, no, this is tiring. Before you could say | :22:19. | :22:24. | |
"collective responsibility" he backed off from treading on Nick | :22:24. | :22:29. | |
Clegg's toes. Clegg was trying to persuade his party into coming into | :22:29. | :22:36. | |
line over spend. We will go into the next election, we will go into the | :22:36. | :22:41. | |
next election in favour of more fair taxes and not follow George | :22:41. | :22:46. | |
Osborne's plan, such as it might be, to only make further savings out of | :22:46. | :22:50. | |
spending cuts. We will not do that. That is not Liberal Democrat. It | :22:50. | :22:55. | |
won't happen under my watch. Vince is a passionate ballroom dancer | :22:55. | :23:00. | |
himself. Is he setting himself up for a celebrity come leading contest | :23:00. | :23:05. | |
with all his Tory bashing The list of people the Tories disapprove of | :23:05. | :23:11. | |
is even longer than that. Public sector workers, especially teachers, | :23:11. | :23:15. | |
the unmarried, people who don't own property. I suspect that their core | :23:15. | :23:21. | |
democratic excludes pretty much anybody who wouldn't have qualified | :23:21. | :23:26. | |
for a vote before the 18 67 reformle act. That is not our kind of | :23:26. | :23:35. | |
politics. It is ugly we will not be dragged down by it. The speech was | :23:35. | :23:45. | |
aimed at lefties both inside his party and out. Most Lib Dem | :23:45. | :23:49. | |
activists would much rather form a coalition with Labour after the next | :23:49. | :23:53. | |
election. Their leader insists that is up to the voters. Could you, Nick | :23:53. | :24:01. | |
Clegg, comfortably, after the next election say, bye-bye David Cameron, | :24:01. | :24:04. | |
hello Ed, I will be your deputy now? I can tell you why I could, it isn't | :24:04. | :24:11. | |
actually about my personal pre-renlss it isn't about whether | :24:11. | :24:14. | |
this person likes that person or more, it's about following the | :24:14. | :24:19. | |
infrastructureses the infrastructures manual handed to us. | :24:19. | :24:24. | |
In the run-up to the last general election, I will always seek to do | :24:24. | :24:29. | |
what the British people have said to us politicians they want us to do. | :24:29. | :24:34. | |
The Lib Dems could easily partner up us politicians they want us to do. | :24:34. | :24:39. | |
with Labour. In fact, they find it smoother than another two step with | :24:39. | :24:43. | |
the Tories. Labour would love the mansion tax and their pro-EUstance. | :24:43. | :24:50. | |
There is not that much to choose between them. Clegg was boasting | :24:50. | :24:55. | |
about how much he had said no to the Tories. Would would he say no to | :24:55. | :25:00. | |
Labour? Tax cuts for millionaires. No. Bringing back O-levels an a two | :25:00. | :25:06. | |
tier education system, no. Profit making in state schools. That will | :25:06. | :25:13. | |
be a no. New childcare ratios. No Firing workers at will without any | :25:13. | :25:22. | |
reasons given. No! Broadly it has been a pretty good week for the Lib | :25:22. | :25:26. | |
Dems. A tasty new free school meals polypropylene Sid. His party coming | :25:27. | :25:30. | |
into line. The economic recovery has put a spring back in Clegg's step. | :25:30. | :25:34. | |
If you are going to praise the merits of coalition, does it really | :25:34. | :25:38. | |
make sense to keep boasting about how many times you tripped your | :25:38. | :25:44. | |
partner up? I don't think so. Can't compete with that. The Dance Lab in | :25:44. | :25:56. | |
put any. We are now joined by Miranda Green at our little dance | :25:56. | :26:05. | |
lab here in Westminster. Gave us a quick pao doble. Right here, right | :26:05. | :26:12. | |
now? What will he do to convince the voters? It was a very... It did have | :26:12. | :26:22. | |
a very inward looking feel about it, the conference, you know, it was | :26:22. | :26:27. | |
seen as a success. There weren't any great rebellions. People were, sort | :26:27. | :26:31. | |
of, confirmed in their view that the party has grownup and is getting | :26:31. | :26:37. | |
used to the idea of power. It was inward looking actually. Even the | :26:37. | :26:42. | |
leader's speech was very much talking to the party and keeping | :26:42. | :26:43. | |
leader's speech was very much them happy. I didn't understand | :26:43. | :26:48. | |
that. He had won the faithful by then. They were on his side. They | :26:48. | :26:52. | |
voted every way that he wanted them to. Surely he should have spoken out | :26:52. | :26:54. | |
to the rest of us, the troops to. Surely he should have spoken out | :26:54. | :26:58. | |
on side? It's an interesting point this. I mean, back in the 2010 | :26:58. | :27:04. | |
election, when the TV debates were such a success for him, it was this | :27:04. | :27:08. | |
feeling he had got the attention of the country. I think the Lib Dems, | :27:08. | :27:12. | |
you know, they are trying to talk about being newly self-confident, | :27:12. | :27:17. | |
but what they have to do, they have to work out the next stage of | :27:17. | :27:21. | |
talking confidently to the nation. There is a real danger of getting to | :27:21. | :27:26. | |
a point where you put the defensiveness behind you. You put | :27:26. | :27:30. | |
the disaster behind you. You have to lay out a positive platform in a | :27:30. | :27:34. | |
confident way to the broadest audience. I'm not sure they quite | :27:34. | :27:38. | |
got there yet. What would be a good result for the Lib Dems at the next | :27:38. | :27:44. | |
election, the loss of 10 seats, 20 seats lost? They are very confident | :27:44. | :27:48. | |
in a lot of current Lib Dem seats they can hold on there. They don't | :27:48. | :27:52. | |
think they will gain any? No. They will definitely lose seats. There | :27:52. | :27:56. | |
are other seats they have their eye on to gain. What would be a bad | :27:56. | :28:00. | |
result? How many to lose and we say, that is a bad result? How many to | :28:00. | :28:03. | |
lose and we say, not a bad result? that is a bad result? How many to | :28:03. | :28:08. | |
Losing more than half would be pretty bad. Yes. That would be "c" | :28:08. | :28:13. | |
Losing more than half would be for catastrophe. You have to have a | :28:13. | :28:17. | |
respectable number to be in a hung parliament To make a difference to | :28:17. | :28:21. | |
the vote. They will hold on to their seats where they are incumbent | :28:21. | :28:24. | |
against Tories in contest with Labour I think they will lose. Yes. | :28:24. | :28:31. | |
Far fewer seats. Left of the Lib Dem will go to Labour. He said he could | :28:31. | :28:36. | |
work with Ed Miliband and Labour if there was a hung parliament. Could | :28:36. | :28:42. | |
you see that? Can you see Ed and Nick getting together in the Rose | :28:42. | :28:47. | |
Garden press conference? They did on media regulation, didn't they? And, | :28:47. | :28:50. | |
I could. I don't know that it will be another Rose Garden. We don't | :28:50. | :28:57. | |
want it to be. Count that out. I think they could. I mean, most | :28:57. | :29:02. | |
Liberal Democrats don't actually agree with the right-wing agenda | :29:02. | :29:05. | |
that this Government is following. They would be far happier with us. | :29:05. | :29:10. | |
There is another thing, I think British politics is in the mode now | :29:10. | :29:14. | |
where you are more likely to get hung parliament's than not. The | :29:14. | :29:18. | |
Liberal Democrats national vote will fall, but they will hold on to quite | :29:18. | :29:23. | |
a lot of their seats, UKIP will do well. The party, the electorate have | :29:23. | :29:29. | |
given up on majority government from the two older parties, ourselves and | :29:29. | :29:36. | |
the Tories. In that situation we are in for a period until that culture | :29:36. | :29:39. | |
is broken. I don't see it being broken for a while. The implication | :29:39. | :29:43. | |
for that is that Ed Miliband, although he will fight to win an | :29:43. | :29:47. | |
overall majority, obviously, he should be behind closed doors | :29:47. | :29:50. | |
preparing for a hung parliament in which he is the largest party We | :29:50. | :29:54. | |
were badly prepared last time. The Conservatives and the Liberal | :29:54. | :29:57. | |
Democrats were well-prepared. That lesson has to be learnt. You know, I | :29:57. | :30:03. | |
think that... Lord Ashcroft had a poll today saying there are huge | :30:03. | :30:07. | |
swings from the Tories to Labour in the marginal seats that could propel | :30:07. | :30:11. | |
Ed Miliband into Number Ten. I think Ed is more likely to be Prime | :30:11. | :30:14. | |
Minister than anybody else. Whether we can achieve a majority government | :30:14. | :30:18. | |
is a different matter. The logic of Mr Clegg's position is that the Lib | :30:18. | :30:22. | |
Dems would always be in power. He is hoping for a hung parliament and he | :30:22. | :30:26. | |
will always hold the balance of power. Isn't it a long-term risk, | :30:26. | :30:32. | |
even if you lose seats, he could be in power there is a danger of a | :30:32. | :30:36. | |
backlash in the longer term for that. People won't understand, how | :30:36. | :30:40. | |
come he did so badly and the Lib Dems are still in ministerial cars? | :30:40. | :30:44. | |
I think the backlash is there in the sense that lots of people who voted | :30:44. | :30:47. | |
Liberal Democrat on the strict understanding the party would never | :30:47. | :30:50. | |
be on power. He had a problem with those people. They have now moved | :30:50. | :30:54. | |
off. They don't like the reality of that. Vince Cable said that once, | :30:54. | :30:59. | |
didn't he? He has done a good job Nick Clegg in convincing people this | :30:59. | :31:03. | |
is a party that can hold power. Indeed, actually speaking they may | :31:03. | :31:08. | |
have the best chance of the three parties of being in power. They may | :31:08. | :31:12. | |
have a high higher certainty of being in power. Secondly, I want to | :31:12. | :31:16. | |
go back to Syria on the Lib Dem point. Something that really | :31:16. | :31:19. | |
instruct me about Syria was that the Government was defeated not because | :31:19. | :31:22. | |
the coalition fell apart. The Lib Dems and the Tories stuck together | :31:23. | :31:25. | |
the coalition fell apart. The Lib on Syria. The Lib Dems and the | :31:25. | :31:29. | |
Tories have stuck together on austerity. The two most difficult | :31:29. | :31:32. | |
things the coalition had to do, the two parties have been together. In | :31:32. | :31:36. | |
terms of the leadership? Is Yes. That goes a long way down. Quite a | :31:36. | :31:44. | |
few Lib Dems... J r Backbenchers a huge po portion of Conservative | :31:44. | :31:48. | |
backbenchers revolted. Miranda and I have been talking over the weekses | :31:48. | :31:52. | |
with about how there is a growing feeling among the Liberal Democrats | :31:52. | :31:56. | |
and the Conservatives that a coalition between the two of them is | :31:56. | :32:00. | |
a strong possibilities. I perfectly understand they can work with Ed | :32:00. | :32:05. | |
Miliband, if that is what happens, Ed Miliband is not looking | :32:05. | :32:09. | |
competent. He has not had a good summer. Someone like Danny | :32:09. | :32:13. | |
Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, would he happily | :32:13. | :32:18. | |
exchange Osborne and Kamran for Miliband and Balls. I absolutely | :32:18. | :32:20. | |
exchange Osborne and Kamran for doubt it. Interesting. | :32:20. | :32:34. | |
This was not Vince Cable's strongest hour. It is really crucial for the | :32:34. | :32:44. | |
Lib Dems, having suffered the pain and the kicking of the first two and | :32:44. | :32:47. | |
Lib Dems, having suffered the pain a half years of the coalition over | :32:47. | :32:52. | |
austerity, now that the economy has started to turn the corner, it would | :32:52. | :32:56. | |
be utter madness. That would be madness. Briefly, if it is not a | :32:56. | :33:03. | |
hung parliament, if we are wrong, if either Tory or Labour form an | :33:03. | :33:07. | |
overall majority and they are in power for five years, does Nick | :33:07. | :33:11. | |
Clegg step down? It is interesting. One thing that did occur to me, | :33:12. | :33:15. | |
watching the Lib Dems, that leaked briefing note saying they were in | :33:15. | :33:23. | |
buoyant mood. They actually were. If they are not able to participate in | :33:23. | :33:28. | |
government again it will be a big psychological blow. I do not think | :33:28. | :33:32. | |
he would hang on. He would be gone. The Labour conference is coming up | :33:32. | :33:37. | |
in Brighton. It is a grim run-up to the conference. In the Guardian we | :33:37. | :33:40. | |
have e-mails being published about that Tony Blair- Gordon Brown | :33:40. | :33:42. | |
battles of 2006. The Daily Mail has that Tony Blair- Gordon Brown | :33:42. | :33:47. | |
brought forward its serialisation of Damien pride to be serialise to in | :33:47. | :33:53. | |
the Daily Mail, which is quite devastating. Terrible polling for | :33:53. | :33:58. | |
Labour at this stage in the political cycle, and the economy | :33:58. | :34:02. | |
showing signs of life. You could call it a shambles. We have Damien | :34:02. | :34:10. | |
McBride milking the moment for his book, getting a serialisation in a | :34:10. | :34:17. | |
way that undermines the party. This is all about factional staffer years | :34:17. | :34:21. | |
ago which Ed Miliband has turned his back on, and it is not there. -- | :34:21. | :34:30. | |
factional staff. But look at the factional things in his party over | :34:30. | :34:35. | |
Maastricht. It continues to be a shadow over the Tories, poisoning | :34:35. | :34:42. | |
the well, still. He has a mountain to climb, I would suggest, Mr | :34:42. | :34:47. | |
Miliband. He needs to make a big speech. We need to get beyond a very | :34:47. | :34:50. | |
poor summer, no question about that. For the leadership and for the | :34:50. | :34:57. | |
party, generally. You have the Ashcroft marginal seats poll, and | :34:57. | :35:00. | |
some polls are showing us six or seven points ahead. Not many. It is | :35:00. | :35:09. | |
a volatile situation. I think it is fair to say that at the moment, and | :35:09. | :35:13. | |
it has been through the summer and was not derailed by Syria, that the | :35:13. | :35:19. | |
political weather is now with Mr Cameron and the Tories, but the | :35:19. | :35:22. | |
electoral arithmetic is still with Mr Miliband. It is not with David | :35:22. | :35:30. | |
Cameron because, as I have said countless times, he only got 37% | :35:30. | :35:35. | |
last time, not enough to win, and the governing party never improves | :35:35. | :35:36. | |
its share of the vote. Whether it is the governing party never improves | :35:36. | :35:41. | |
with Mr Miliband, we still do not know. Labour got 31% last time, a | :35:41. | :35:48. | |
very poor result. It was actually 29. For a party to put on five, six | :35:48. | :35:55. | |
or seven points between one election and another is also pretty unusual. | :35:55. | :36:00. | |
He only needs 35 for an overall majority. He needs much less than | :36:00. | :36:06. | |
the Tories, but at the moment Ed Miliband is in what I call the | :36:06. | :36:10. | |
leader of the opposition nosedive, which is set meal Kinnock, William | :36:10. | :36:17. | |
Hague, Iain Duncan Smith. -- Neil Kinnock. We are running out of time | :36:17. | :36:20. | |
but I get the point. Now, a political riddle for you. | :36:20. | :36:23. | |
I've got just the one. Peter's got just the one. But if you've read | :36:23. | :36:27. | |
John Major's memoirs, fat chance, it turns out Michael's actually got | :36:27. | :36:30. | |
two. What am I talking about? That's right, faces. So, with this in mind, | :36:30. | :36:34. | |
and after a week of argument over whether we should have the right to | :36:34. | :36:36. | |
see them, we've decided to put faces whether we should have the right to | :36:36. | :36:38. | |
in this week's Spotlight. Female celebrities faced their fear | :36:38. | :36:55. | |
of being naked this week by appearing without make up for | :36:55. | :37:01. | |
children in need, proving the human face takes many forms, all of them | :37:01. | :37:05. | |
beautiful in their own unique way. 26 years since becoming the first | :37:05. | :37:09. | |
black model on the cover of Vogue magazine, Naomi Campbell this week | :37:10. | :37:14. | |
raised her own angry eyebrows and question the lack of faces of colour | :37:14. | :37:18. | |
in the fashion industry. Meanwhile, the argument over the rights to | :37:18. | :37:21. | |
cover your face reared its head again, causing controversy in | :37:21. | :37:25. | |
cover your face reared its head schools, colleges, chords and | :37:26. | :37:29. | |
hospitals, with politicians forced to lift the veil on their own | :37:29. | :37:33. | |
feelings. I do not think government should tell women what they should | :37:34. | :37:37. | |
be wearing. Women should make a choice about what they wish to wear. | :37:37. | :37:43. | |
As a patient, I would want to be able to see the face of the doctor | :37:43. | :37:46. | |
or nurse who was treating me, so I have sympathy for people who are | :37:46. | :37:53. | |
worried about that. So just how important is your expression when it | :37:53. | :37:57. | |
comes to expressing yourself, and is a first impression all it is cracked | :37:57. | :38:02. | |
up to be, or do our faces sometimes mask our true feelings and sparkling | :38:02. | :38:09. | |
personalities? Jodie Marsh is with us. Has anybody | :38:09. | :38:14. | |
got the right to tell a woman what to wear or how they should look | :38:14. | :38:19. | |
first remark no, I don't think so. In this day and age we should be | :38:19. | :38:26. | |
allowed to wear whatever we like. Talking about the veil, I think | :38:26. | :38:33. | |
there are separate issues at hand which are, I think, a matter of, | :38:33. | :38:38. | |
say, security. Talking about the courtroom, if you are in court | :38:38. | :38:42. | |
giving evidence I do not think you should be allowed to wear a veil, in | :38:42. | :38:45. | |
the same way you would not be allowed to wear a balaclava or a | :38:45. | :38:50. | |
helmet in court. So there are times when we need to see somebody's face? | :38:50. | :38:56. | |
Absolutely. One, to gauge how genuine they are, whether they are | :38:56. | :39:00. | |
telling the truth, what range of emotion they are displaying. And | :39:00. | :39:06. | |
obviously for security purposes, in airports, maybe schools and | :39:06. | :39:11. | |
colleges. Banks, places that are at risk of things happening. I think we | :39:11. | :39:19. | |
do need to see people's faces. People are judged by their faces but | :39:19. | :39:22. | |
I would suggest women probably judged more than men by their faces. | :39:22. | :39:29. | |
Yes, I think so. I have been judged all my life by my face. I have been | :39:29. | :39:34. | |
through every range of emotions on this possible. I am finally at the | :39:34. | :39:41. | |
point where I do not care. I was bullied at school for being ugly and | :39:41. | :39:44. | |
then made a career from modelling, in the beginning. I have made a | :39:44. | :39:50. | |
living out of my face and body, but I have also been told I am hideously | :39:50. | :39:54. | |
ugly by many people, and I am still told that by patrols on Twitter. You | :39:54. | :40:00. | |
do not want to take any notice of them. I do not. Why are we unnerved | :40:01. | :40:07. | |
by women covering their faces? I think we would be under I meant | :40:08. | :40:11. | |
covering their faces, probably even more. -- probably be unnerved by men | :40:11. | :40:18. | |
covering their faces, probably even covering their faces. Of course, | :40:18. | :40:21. | |
people can do what they want in a private capacity but in a public | :40:21. | :40:25. | |
role it is different. There are many examples where we tell people what | :40:25. | :40:29. | |
they can wear. We all have to appear decently in public, for a start. But | :40:29. | :40:35. | |
even beyond that, many employers require employees to be smartly | :40:35. | :40:39. | |
turned out. They might require them to wear a suit or a uniform. There | :40:39. | :40:43. | |
are no hard and fast rules. There are all sorts of cases where, | :40:43. | :40:46. | |
although we have the right to wear what we like, when we are in some | :40:46. | :40:50. | |
public capacity that is no longer the case. And I think the veil is | :40:50. | :40:56. | |
just a subset of that. I agree with both points. But I think modern | :40:56. | :41:01. | |
women, whether Christian, Muslim, Jewish, whatever, having to cover | :41:02. | :41:07. | |
their faces, for me it takes you back to a reactionary era, the | :41:07. | :41:13. | |
Victorian era, when women had to be completely covered up in our own | :41:13. | :41:16. | |
country. If you displayed your ankle, you were virtually lynched. | :41:16. | :41:24. | |
That is where I come from. I feel uncomfortable about it in today's | :41:24. | :41:29. | |
age. I have been to Saudi Arabia where women are not allowed to | :41:29. | :41:34. | |
drive. I have been to offices, where there is a segregated office for the | :41:34. | :41:36. | |
women compared with the men working on the same staff. I am | :41:36. | :41:41. | |
uncomfortable with that but on the other hand I do not think it is for | :41:41. | :41:43. | |
uncomfortable with that but on the government to say. Is it for | :41:43. | :41:49. | |
government to say, if you are going into a bank, you take the veil off? | :41:49. | :41:54. | |
That is for the banks to impose rules. I do not think government | :41:54. | :41:59. | |
should lay that down. What about the NHS? Would you like to be looked | :41:59. | :42:06. | |
after by a nurse with a veil? It depends what was going on. If it was | :42:06. | :42:13. | |
a sensitive situation... I was interested in seeing earlier this | :42:13. | :42:16. | |
evening two muslin doctors in a hospital in the Midlands saying, we | :42:16. | :42:21. | |
take a face veil off when we are treating patients. -- Muslim. They | :42:21. | :42:26. | |
also said, we do not know of any nurse, consultant or doctor in | :42:26. | :42:30. | |
hospital who wears the veil. So it has got exaggerated. The answer is, | :42:30. | :42:35. | |
I would prefer to be treated, if I was being prescribed a pill, it does | :42:35. | :42:39. | |
not matter, but if I was having something being done to me, or being | :42:39. | :42:45. | |
told something bad, yes. To my knowledge, I think there are | :42:45. | :42:50. | |
something like 17 hospitals that have privately imposed a ban anyway | :42:50. | :42:54. | |
on face veils, and have set that as a rule. Rather than government doing | :42:54. | :43:01. | |
it. Very briefly, yourself excluded, do you think this would have been a | :43:01. | :43:06. | |
better programme if we had won the veil? Absolutely! Only joking! | :43:06. | :43:13. | |
Thanks for coming. That's your lot for tonight, folks. | :43:13. | :43:16. | |
But not for us, because Peter's brought along his loyalty card to | :43:16. | :43:20. | |
the Bronze Age, the most popular tanning salon on the Old Kent Road. | :43:20. | :43:24. | |
So we're all off for a free top up. Well, if Obama can have his red | :43:24. | :43:28. | |
lines, so can we! But we leave you tonight with a Lib Dem political | :43:28. | :43:31. | |
martyr, whose sacrifice on the altar of political comedy we may never see | :43:31. | :43:37. | |
the like of again. Nighty-night. Don't let Sarah Tether ankle-bite. | :43:37. | :43:46. | |
I thought I would not keep you for too long tonight as I want to get | :43:46. | :43:52. | |
back to my hotel room to watch strict glee. Do you watch it? Of | :43:52. | :44:00. | |
course you do. -- strictly. The problem with this series is that | :44:00. | :44:04. | |
Edwina Currie is not a patch on Vince Cable, is she? I think we need | :44:04. | :44:10. | |
him back on. I heard they have got Peter Hain booked for the next | :44:10. | :44:17. | |
series. He is doing the tango. Or has he been tangoed? | :44:17. | :44:21. |