Browse content similar to 26/05/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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What plaything can you offer me today? | :00:00. | :00:10. | |
An obscure late-night television programme, your Majesty. | :00:11. | :00:13. | |
The inhabitants of Earth refer to it as This Week. | :00:14. | :00:20. | |
Tonight, as war rages over our membership of the EU, | :00:21. | :00:49. | |
former Made In Chelsea star Francis Boulle battles for Brexit. | :00:50. | :00:55. | |
On the economy, on security, on immigration, | :00:56. | :00:58. | |
we are being dictated to by an EU that may as well | :00:59. | :01:00. | |
Queen of the impossible, the New Statesman's Helen Lewis | :01:01. | :01:13. | |
Forget intergalactic war, the Tories are | :01:14. | :01:19. | |
The far right is on the rise in Europe | :01:20. | :01:24. | |
and people are talking about putting boots on the ground to fight crisis. | :01:25. | :01:37. | |
Don't worry, Andrew, I've got your back covered. Gathered together your | :01:38. | :02:00. | |
intergalactic team. This Week's alive! | :02:01. | :02:04. | |
Evenin' all, welcome to This Week, the only legal high with serious | :02:05. | :02:06. | |
other than the brain-numbing EU referendum campaign, | :02:07. | :02:09. | |
which replaced Project Fear with Project Embarrassment this week, | :02:10. | :02:13. | |
as both sides made cringe-inducing appeals for the "yoof" vote. | :02:14. | :02:18. | |
First up, those reactionary retros at Leave.EU, who promised a night | :02:19. | :02:22. | |
at a concert in Birmingham, which they billed as "the biggest | :02:23. | :02:28. | |
rally in modern British political history". | :02:29. | :02:30. | |
Except nobody told the performers, leaving the stage deserted | :02:31. | :02:33. | |
after Alesha Dixon, East 17 and the two remaining members | :02:34. | :02:36. | |
of 5ive discovered they'd been booked as a Ukip backing band. | :02:37. | :02:41. | |
It looked as if Sister Sledge might still be up for it | :02:42. | :02:44. | |
until they were asked to sing "We are family, I've got | :02:45. | :02:47. | |
Not to be outdone in the stupidity stakes, | :02:48. | :02:54. | |
a poster and video campaign which employed an argot | :02:55. | :02:58. | |
the old and out of touch think is used by young people, urgin' | :02:59. | :03:02. | |
them to be thankin' the EU'in for all the chillin' an' ravin' an' | :03:03. | :03:06. | |
drinkin' an' mixin' an' snoggin' an' pukin', an' watchin' | :03:07. | :03:11. | |
This Weekin' that they've all been indulgin' in'in. | :03:12. | :03:15. | |
The advertisin' brains behind this cringin' campaignin' are claimin' | :03:16. | :03:19. | |
it was always the intention that people would "take | :03:20. | :03:22. | |
In which case, all I can say is you've succeeded | :03:23. | :03:27. | |
Speakin' of condescendin' an' patronisin' an' Blue Nunin', | :03:28. | :03:34. | |
I'm joined on the sofa tonight by two Hollywood love birds having | :03:35. | :03:38. | |
second thoughts about why they tied the television knot. | :03:39. | :03:41. | |
Think of them as the Amber Heard and the Johnny Depp | :03:42. | :03:44. | |
I speak, of course, of #jesswecan Jessica Phillips, | :03:45. | :03:48. | |
and #sadmanonatrain Michael Portillo. | :03:49. | :03:52. | |
And, though they say you should never kick a Lib Dem when they're | :03:53. | :03:55. | |
down, we're making an exception tonight for the former | :03:56. | :03:58. | |
#nickflixandchill, Nicholas "no more than 30" Clegg!! | :03:59. | :04:12. | |
Michael, your moment of the week? Steve Hilton, long-time strategic | :04:13. | :04:23. | |
advisor to David Cameron said that if David Cameron were anything other | :04:24. | :04:26. | |
than Prime Minister he believed he would be in favour of Brexit. This | :04:27. | :04:32. | |
rang a bell with me, and would be my own impression from having known | :04:33. | :04:36. | |
David Cameron some years ago. I think he was elected to the party | :04:37. | :04:41. | |
leadership because he was thought to be a Eurosceptic, which makes one | :04:42. | :04:46. | |
think this campaign is cynical, because he goes around pretending to | :04:47. | :04:51. | |
be the opposite. The person who has conducted herself with dignity is | :04:52. | :04:55. | |
Theresa May, who although in favour of remaining has just kept out of | :04:56. | :04:59. | |
all the hyperbole and has shown the properly, enthusiasm for a European | :05:00. | :05:06. | |
Union for which the British people feel a lack of enthusiasm. So the | :05:07. | :05:12. | |
way to get respect is to say nothing, Jessica. Any moment that | :05:13. | :05:16. | |
was not about the EU would be my moment of the week. I will go for | :05:17. | :05:21. | |
Sadiq Khan putting four women out of a team of five, so that in five | :05:22. | :05:27. | |
years if he has balls start London, it will be the fault of the two men | :05:28. | :05:35. | |
in the team. The ?10 million emergency funding announced for the | :05:36. | :05:40. | |
prison system two days ago. Last week we had the Queens speech which | :05:41. | :05:43. | |
was about prisoner four-man this week we have revelations of the | :05:44. | :05:48. | |
biggest spike in suicide and violence for ages. I think it | :05:49. | :05:52. | |
reveals how incredibly difficult it is to reform a prison system | :05:53. | :05:55. | |
bursting at the seams, unless you bite the bullet and reduce the | :05:56. | :05:59. | |
numbers. It will being credibly difficult for this Government to do | :06:00. | :06:02. | |
the laudable things they say they want to in the prison system. | :06:03. | :06:05. | |
Hitler, a bunch of bananas, Shaun the Sheep, and non-energy | :06:06. | :06:10. | |
The answer is, of course, Shaun the Sheep, the only item | :06:11. | :06:14. | |
on the list not wheeled out by parts of the Brexit campaign | :06:15. | :06:17. | |
So, in a week where no one mentioned Hitler once but figures showed that | :06:18. | :06:25. | |
EU net migration to the UK hit a record high of 184,000 we figured | :06:26. | :06:29. | |
we could avoid talking about it no more. | :06:30. | :06:34. | |
Here's entrepreneur and former Made In Chelsea star, Francis Boulle | :06:35. | :06:36. | |
We're trapped in a stranded, sinking ship and the time is running | :06:37. | :06:52. | |
First, I need to get the hell out of this room, | :06:53. | :06:57. | |
and on the 23rd June, we all need to get out | :06:58. | :07:00. | |
of the economic miasma that is the European Union. | :07:01. | :07:04. | |
Right now, we are trapped, locked in by design to an anti-democratic, | :07:05. | :07:06. | |
unaccountable expanding dictatorship that is sucking up the very essence | :07:07. | :07:11. | |
of what makes Britain Britain - our democracy, our sovereignty | :07:12. | :07:14. | |
The EU is a crony capitalist system designed to serve big business fat | :07:15. | :07:30. | |
cats, multinational rentier monopolies and the unelected | :07:31. | :07:34. | |
political elites running the show at the expense of small business, | :07:35. | :07:38. | |
And in exchange for our democracy, the very right to govern ourselves, | :07:39. | :07:45. | |
contemptuous crumbs from the Lord's table. | :07:46. | :07:48. | |
Cheaper mobile bills and cheaper holidays, | :07:49. | :07:50. | |
as if that's all that matters to us ignorant little people. | :07:51. | :08:01. | |
The Remain campaign is using fear and lies | :08:02. | :08:04. | |
to intimidate you into bending to their elitist will. | :08:05. | :08:07. | |
As the great Benjamin Franklin once said, those who would sacrifice | :08:08. | :08:10. | |
their freedom for the promise of security deserve neither. | :08:11. | :08:14. | |
Britain is now in grave danger of losing both. | :08:15. | :08:26. | |
Freed from these shackles, Britain can grow and prosper. | :08:27. | :08:29. | |
More importantly, we can trade freely and directly with more | :08:30. | :08:35. | |
prosperous economies around the world. | :08:36. | :08:41. | |
With control of our economy, we can set Britain up | :08:42. | :08:51. | |
as the Hong Kong of Europe, a financial, manufacturing | :08:52. | :08:53. | |
The EU has us trapped, on our economy, on immigration | :08:54. | :09:01. | |
And from Enigma Escape in Holloway, where we did not give any clues | :09:02. | :09:16. | |
away to spoil the game, to no-one having a clue here on This Week, | :09:17. | :09:20. | |
Welcome to the programme. You might not like where we are in the EU, but | :09:21. | :09:36. | |
leaving is a leap in the dark and could be a dangerous future. I don't | :09:37. | :09:45. | |
think so. Given the opportunity to regulate our economy freely, we can | :09:46. | :09:49. | |
have a freer economy, freer trade with nations around the world. If | :09:50. | :09:52. | |
you look at Hong Kong, their policy of free trade with the rest of the | :09:53. | :10:01. | |
world has led to their prosperity. Other than trade, what could we do | :10:02. | :10:05. | |
with our economy outside the EU which we can't at the moment? | :10:06. | :10:10. | |
Negotiate our own free-trade agreements with countries | :10:11. | :10:14. | |
all-rounder world, which currently our economy is 80% service based. I | :10:15. | :10:23. | |
think only two out of three EU trade deals even cover services. We could | :10:24. | :10:28. | |
negotiate free-trade arrangements with countless countries that we | :10:29. | :10:32. | |
don't currently have arrangements with. Most free-trade deals do not | :10:33. | :10:38. | |
cover services. 90% of those of Chile do, and they have ten times | :10:39. | :10:42. | |
the value of trade agreement that the EU has. Their economy, a third | :10:43. | :10:48. | |
the size of our population, one tenth the size of our economy. It | :10:49. | :10:52. | |
can be done and there is nothing stopping us. The overwhelming weight | :10:53. | :10:59. | |
of established economic opinion is against leaving. Does that count for | :11:00. | :11:03. | |
nothing? It depends what questions you ask. For example, the Treasury | :11:04. | :11:10. | |
paper this week did not ask what I thought would be a fundamental | :11:11. | :11:15. | |
question, which is, why is the EU growing less fast than China, the | :11:16. | :11:20. | |
United States or indeed the UK? Another question very much on our | :11:21. | :11:24. | |
lips until recently, what are the chances that the euro is going to | :11:25. | :11:29. | |
collapse? If it does, what will be the consequence for those countries | :11:30. | :11:33. | |
remaining within the European Union? If you ask those questions you can | :11:34. | :11:38. | |
come up with gloomy answers. If you ask a different set of questions and | :11:39. | :11:41. | |
avoid what seemed to be self evident questions that need to be answered, | :11:42. | :11:45. | |
you will get a certain set of answers. You are quite right, your | :11:46. | :11:51. | |
opening point was to say these people favour remaining. It is not | :11:52. | :11:55. | |
that the evidence favours it, but they have decided they want to | :11:56. | :11:57. | |
remain and then looked around for evidence. Both sides do that. I keep | :11:58. | :12:04. | |
hearing this argument that it is the establishment which is to stay and | :12:05. | :12:10. | |
it is about fat cats and big business and we must give power to | :12:11. | :12:14. | |
the people. The hilarious thing is that I hear it from Jacob Rees-Mogg | :12:15. | :12:18. | |
and Boris Johnson to people like me, that somehow I am toeing the | :12:19. | :12:22. | |
establishment line. The idea that things like cheaper holidays and | :12:23. | :12:27. | |
roaming charges do not matter to people, these things actually do | :12:28. | :12:32. | |
matter to people. But should the future of Britain's plays in the | :12:33. | :12:36. | |
world be decided on roaming charges? Of course it shouldn't. But to | :12:37. | :12:43. | |
suggest these are not things people are interested in... Of course they | :12:44. | :12:50. | |
are, and that is why they are using them, but what it is doing is | :12:51. | :12:55. | |
distracting from the actual serious point, which is that we are trading | :12:56. | :13:00. | |
our democracy for things like that. For cheaper holidays. And there is | :13:01. | :13:03. | |
no proof that it would cause cheaper holidays. | :13:04. | :13:10. | |
Switzerland and Norway are not excluded from roaming charges. | :13:11. | :13:17. | |
People criticise the 1975 referendum for coming down to the price of | :13:18. | :13:21. | |
butter. Are you happy that this referendum is coming down to roaming | :13:22. | :13:22. | |
charges and cheap holidays? Listen, every campaign gets rough at | :13:23. | :13:35. | |
the edges. That does not bother or surprise me. Cheap holidays, of | :13:36. | :13:38. | |
course they matter to people, as does our place in the world, as does | :13:39. | :13:43. | |
how we deal with challenges which we could not deal with on our own, | :13:44. | :13:46. | |
whether it is climate change or cross-border crime. I would just | :13:47. | :13:51. | |
like to go back to Francis Boulle's peace. Having spent some time | :13:52. | :13:55. | |
working there, your piece is based on a complete fiction. There is not | :13:56. | :13:59. | |
this is embodied dictatorship imposing stuff. What do you call a | :14:00. | :14:06. | |
dictatorship, a bunch of unelected people dictating laws? The European | :14:07. | :14:10. | |
Commission cannot impose laws. It is about half the size of HMRC. The | :14:11. | :14:16. | |
EU's budget is a tiny am a minuscule fraction of our own budget. It | :14:17. | :14:20. | |
sounds great, we are being dictated to. Actually, my experience is that | :14:21. | :14:26. | |
it is just a permanent haggle, 306 to five days a year, between | :14:27. | :14:29. | |
sovereign states doing deals with each other. There is no | :14:30. | :14:33. | |
unaccountable democracy imposing laws on us. Well, I think the | :14:34. | :14:43. | |
evidence speaks for itself. For the past 20 years we have challenged 72 | :14:44. | :14:47. | |
laws put forward by the EU commission and we have not won a | :14:48. | :14:51. | |
single challenge. So clearly we are not having much influence. I think | :14:52. | :14:56. | |
about 95% of all EU decisions are ones we are happy with. There is a | :14:57. | :15:04. | |
very small number. I call that being dictated to. I don't mince my words. | :15:05. | :15:10. | |
Remains is the pound will fall if we leave, and house prices will fall if | :15:11. | :15:14. | |
we leave - why would either of these things be bad? Well, I mean, it's OK | :15:15. | :15:21. | |
if you can take a shock to your economy. But we're still paying for | :15:22. | :15:25. | |
the last shock which we had to our economy. And it is not big fancy | :15:26. | :15:29. | |
people here, establishment people, who will suffer. A shock to our | :15:30. | :15:34. | |
economy hits the poorest people. Why would it be bad if the pound fell or | :15:35. | :15:38. | |
house prices fell? House prices to be honest have spiralled wildly out | :15:39. | :15:43. | |
of control! So that wouldn't be bad, then. But there is a big problem of | :15:44. | :15:51. | |
young people being able to afford houses. Things like the cost of | :15:52. | :15:55. | |
petrol at the pump and all of that sort of thing. There would be an | :15:56. | :15:59. | |
effect on people's pockets. On people in my constituency. Stuart | :16:00. | :16:05. | |
Rose said the other day that in fact EU migration is driving down the | :16:06. | :16:08. | |
wages of the poorest in our country. If you look at the past five | :16:09. | :16:17. | |
years... I am not saying Hong Kong is perfect. But the principles of | :16:18. | :16:22. | |
free trade, history shows they work. When the pound went down to about | :16:23. | :16:27. | |
1.13, under the coalition government, of which the distinguish | :16:28. | :16:31. | |
Debuchy primer list was with us this evening, I do not remember anybody | :16:32. | :16:36. | |
saying that was a great calamity. -- the distinguished Deputy Prime | :16:37. | :16:43. | |
Minister. We as a country rely on the generosity of strangers. The | :16:44. | :16:46. | |
huge amount of money which is lent to us by people from other parts of | :16:47. | :16:50. | |
the world, liens and billions of it. I do worry sometimes that if we were | :16:51. | :16:54. | |
to pull out of the European Union, and Alex Salmond was saying today, | :16:55. | :16:58. | |
another possible Scottish referendum, it would be much harder | :16:59. | :17:01. | |
for us to borrow money, which we need to do, because otherwise... | :17:02. | :17:07. | |
These are all prospects, and yet British bond yields are still at | :17:08. | :17:13. | |
record lows. I don't think it's going to happen, but if did...! When | :17:14. | :17:20. | |
you listen to Remain about what would be in store for us, the | :17:21. | :17:24. | |
terrible things that would happen if we left the EU, you do wonder how we | :17:25. | :17:28. | |
managed to survive on our own for 1000 years. You could make the | :17:29. | :17:32. | |
argument both ways. We have been in this club for 41 years. If it was | :17:33. | :17:37. | |
such a disaster, we wouldn't be the fastest-growing economy in the | :17:38. | :17:41. | |
European Union. So you can't have it both ways. Excuse me, four decades, | :17:42. | :17:46. | |
that's mainly because we've thwarted what you wanted to do, which was to | :17:47. | :17:49. | |
join the euro full stop that has been asked of ocean. The only reason | :17:50. | :17:55. | |
that Britain is in any way content in the European Union is because we, | :17:56. | :17:59. | |
the Conservatives, back in the day, stopped us being in either Schengen | :18:00. | :18:03. | |
or the euro, while you were busy campaigning for us to be in the | :18:04. | :18:06. | |
euro. Don't laugh about it, you would have brought this country to | :18:07. | :18:12. | |
ruin. I think the Conservative government of the time took the | :18:13. | :18:15. | |
right decision, which was the single market. The single European act was | :18:16. | :18:17. | |
the greatest pulling of sovereignty at any time undertaken. The Boadicea | :18:18. | :18:27. | |
of Euroscepticism! The market went down by half! Let me put this to you | :18:28. | :18:32. | |
chuckle when this country joined what was then the European economic | :18:33. | :18:40. | |
community, London was fast becoming a declining backwater. During the | :18:41. | :18:45. | |
membership of the European Union, this city has become the biggest, | :18:46. | :18:52. | |
most successful city in Europe, if not the world. What's wrong with | :18:53. | :18:55. | |
that? Imagine how much more successful if it could be if it was | :18:56. | :19:03. | |
hampered by the single market. Back then, the EU trading bloc was the | :19:04. | :19:06. | |
future, and it is not the future any more. Excuse me, that's because the | :19:07. | :19:10. | |
Conservative government... What else did you do? Deregulated in 1984. It | :19:11. | :19:17. | |
was big bang that made that happen. I will tell you a dog that is not | :19:18. | :19:22. | |
barking. For all Project Fear, nobody this time dares to say the | :19:23. | :19:26. | |
City of London will be ruined if we leave the European Union. That is | :19:27. | :19:29. | |
because they know that they made such complete fools of themselves | :19:30. | :19:32. | |
saying that the City of London would be ruined if we didn't join the | :19:33. | :19:35. | |
euro. Thank goodness, even the Project Fear direct is not bringing | :19:36. | :19:42. | |
up that one. We have just had a night saying it is a dictatorship, | :19:43. | :19:51. | |
it is Hitler...! Let me ask you this, as we are coming to an end. Is | :19:52. | :19:54. | |
this referendum cutting through to the public? No. I was going to ask | :19:55. | :20:01. | |
him first! So what is the turnout going to be? It will be terribly | :20:02. | :20:05. | |
low, don't know will win by a landslide. Maybe the people I am | :20:06. | :20:11. | |
speaking to. People who want out speak very loudly about it, people | :20:12. | :20:16. | |
who want in our shy. You think the turnout will be low if it is, it | :20:17. | :20:22. | |
will be bad for your side? Yes, at I think it will be higher than Jessica | :20:23. | :20:27. | |
thinks. People are not wildly... The bunting will not be out, it is not a | :20:28. | :20:32. | |
street party moment. Actually, most normal people aren't that | :20:33. | :20:37. | |
interested. But I sense in my constituency that people, even if | :20:38. | :20:39. | |
they are not particularly interested in it, kind of get that it is | :20:40. | :20:43. | |
important and that they probably should drag themselves to the | :20:44. | :20:49. | |
polling station. Turnout? I'm still for less than 60%. Do you think you | :20:50. | :20:54. | |
will win this argument? You know, I hope some, but I think... I don't | :20:55. | :20:59. | |
know. You don't know. I just don't know. | :21:00. | :21:01. | |
Now, it's late, "Alex Salmond gently stroking the hair | :21:02. | :21:05. | |
But don't let the strange habits of the former First Minister send | :21:06. | :21:10. | |
And the actor and adventurer is waiting in the wings, | :21:11. | :21:15. | |
to tell us why we should embrace danger, rather than avoid it. | :21:16. | :21:18. | |
And if you like to live life on the edge, follow us | :21:19. | :21:21. | |
on The Twitter, The Fleecebook, InstaGranny, SnapDrivel and Gordon | :21:22. | :21:23. | |
Now, the Chelsea Flower Show opened its garden gate this week. | :21:24. | :21:30. | |
And as usual, the green-fingered This Week team have put | :21:31. | :21:32. | |
in a strong entry for this year's competition. | :21:33. | :21:35. | |
We've called our show garden Westminster Weeds, | :21:36. | :21:38. | |
because although we're considered undesirable, the Yentobs | :21:39. | :21:41. | |
Here's the New Statesman's Helen Lewis with her bloomin' marvellous | :21:42. | :21:46. | |
You know the trouble with young people? | :21:47. | :22:22. | |
25- to 40-year-olds have never learned to garden, | :22:23. | :22:29. | |
according to the Royal Horticultural Society. | :22:30. | :22:31. | |
And there's something else they don't enjoy doing | :22:32. | :22:33. | |
With just a month to go to the EU referendum, | :22:34. | :22:39. | |
Everyone's desperate to convince us to vote. | :22:40. | :22:44. | |
With that in mind, George Osborne and David Cameron headed to B | :22:45. | :22:47. | |
The shock to our economy after leaving Europe would tip | :22:48. | :22:51. | |
This could be, for the first time in history, a recession | :22:52. | :22:56. | |
As I stand here in B, it would be a DIY recession. | :22:57. | :23:04. | |
I know, you thought this show was the place to come | :23:05. | :23:06. | |
Elsewhere, things weren't quite so rosy either. | :23:07. | :23:12. | |
Harriet Harman and Shirley Williams warned that not enough women's | :23:13. | :23:14. | |
voices were being heard in the debate, while Nicola Sturgeon | :23:15. | :23:17. | |
said all the doom mongering was putting people off. | :23:18. | :23:19. | |
I'd much rather we were campaigning positively. | :23:20. | :23:21. | |
In Scotland we've got lots of experience of Treasury | :23:22. | :23:27. | |
reports during referendum campaigns and I think people have got | :23:28. | :23:29. | |
savvy to see through some of the overblown claims. | :23:30. | :23:34. | |
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson may have been a late bloomer as far | :23:35. | :23:37. | |
as Euroscepticism is concerned, but on the campaign trail | :23:38. | :23:40. | |
I think that they are rattled on the Remain side of the campaign | :23:41. | :23:48. | |
because they are putting out more propaganda than we've seen at any | :23:49. | :23:55. | |
time since 1992 when they said that we couldn't leave the European | :23:56. | :23:58. | |
It was a liberation for this economy. | :23:59. | :24:04. | |
They were wrong then, my friends, and they are wrong now. | :24:05. | :24:11. | |
That said, there were times he just wanted to avoid | :24:12. | :24:14. | |
I was told there was a gentleman who had an egg he was | :24:15. | :24:20. | |
Now, there are people hungry in this country, my friend. | :24:21. | :24:27. | |
Immigration is likely to dominate the final weeks of the EU campaign, | :24:28. | :24:33. | |
and across Europe fears over free movement of people are driving | :24:34. | :24:36. | |
In the Austrian presidential election this week, the far right | :24:37. | :24:41. | |
candidate, Norbert Hoffer, lost by lost by just 31,000 votes. | :24:42. | :24:47. | |
# And tiptoe through the tulips with me...# | :24:48. | :25:00. | |
Back at home, things were exceptionally feisty | :25:01. | :25:03. | |
where Angela Eagle enjoyed tearing into the Tories. | :25:04. | :25:11. | |
With David Cameron away at a G7 meeting in Japan, her opponent | :25:12. | :25:19. | |
was that sensitive little wallflower George Osborne. | :25:20. | :25:21. | |
Following his second omnishambles Budget earlier this year, | :25:22. | :25:23. | |
I see the Chancellor's approval ratings have collapsed by 80 points | :25:24. | :25:26. | |
Given that he seems to be following a similar career path... | :25:27. | :25:32. | |
Given that he seems to be following a similar career path, | :25:33. | :25:36. | |
isn't it time he turned to Michael Portillo for advice? | :25:37. | :25:41. | |
Last week the former would-be leader said of the Queen's Speech, | :25:42. | :25:46. | |
"After 23 years of careful thought about what they would like to do | :25:47. | :25:52. | |
in power," Michael Portillo said, "the answer is nothing. | :25:53. | :25:54. | |
"There is nothing they want to do with office or power. | :25:55. | :25:59. | |
The Government has nothing to do, nothing to say and thinks nothing," | :26:00. | :26:02. | |
I will tell you what we have done in recent weeks. | :26:03. | :26:08. | |
We have taken another million people out of tax altogether. | :26:09. | :26:13. | |
We have frozen fuel duty, cut business rates for small | :26:14. | :26:16. | |
businesses, we have seen the deficit fall by another 16 billion, | :26:17. | :26:19. | |
we have delivered a record number of jobs and introduced | :26:20. | :26:21. | |
Outside Parliament, Jeremy Corbyn took time away from his allotment | :26:22. | :26:30. | |
to protest with steelworkers who want the Government to help Tata | :26:31. | :26:33. | |
Putting pressure on from the very beginning. | :26:34. | :26:41. | |
One of them is to halt the Chinese steel dumping. | :26:42. | :26:43. | |
I went to see the Chinese President and raised that issue with him. | :26:44. | :26:46. | |
The other thing is a European-wide rate to prevent Chinese dumping, | :26:47. | :26:54. | |
and that is beginning to happen, but again the British Government has | :26:55. | :26:57. | |
been last in line to do anything about it. | :26:58. | :26:59. | |
Thirdly, the British Government must be prepared to take a public stake | :27:00. | :27:02. | |
Corbyn's predecessor as Labour leader, Tony Blair, | :27:03. | :27:08. | |
popped up to say we should nip Isis in the bud by invading | :27:09. | :27:11. | |
Air strikes are not going to defeat Isis. | :27:12. | :27:15. | |
They've got to be tackled on the ground. | :27:16. | :27:17. | |
It doesn't mean to say that it's our forces all the time. | :27:18. | :27:19. | |
But do not be under any doubt at all. | :27:20. | :27:25. | |
If you want to defeat these people, you're going to have to go and wage | :27:26. | :27:29. | |
And if you think that was the most controversial political | :27:30. | :27:33. | |
intervention of the week, wait until you see the Remain | :27:34. | :27:36. | |
campaign's video for young people, which seems to think | :27:37. | :27:38. | |
Anyway, I must get back to my begonias. | :27:39. | :28:06. | |
I'm sure the judges from Chelsea will be | :28:07. | :28:08. | |
I think I've done something really avant-garde here. | :28:09. | :28:14. | |
Thank you to the team at the garden Centre in Herne Hill. They would not | :28:15. | :28:30. | |
let us into the Chelsea Flower Show. How nasty is this war getting | :28:31. | :28:34. | |
between the Tories during the referendum? I don't think I have | :28:35. | :28:40. | |
much to Ed to the situation last week when I said it was really | :28:41. | :28:46. | |
bitter and I thought it was about a 50-50 split between the remains and | :28:47. | :28:49. | |
the levers and a difficult situation once this was all over. Shares in | :28:50. | :29:00. | |
George Osborne have been dumped. It is generally thought that Boris | :29:01. | :29:04. | |
Johnson, so far, has not had a great campaign. Where does that leave the | :29:05. | :29:11. | |
post-Cameron Tory leadership? I think the candidates who would go | :29:12. | :29:14. | |
forward in the near future would be Boris Johnson and Theresa May. Boris | :29:15. | :29:19. | |
has not had a good campaign that on the other hand we just lost London, | :29:20. | :29:25. | |
which rather suggests he was an exceptional election winning figure | :29:26. | :29:30. | |
to hold London for 80 years. And he has put himself on the Leave side, | :29:31. | :29:35. | |
and the majority of people who will vote for the next Tory leader are | :29:36. | :29:41. | |
likely to be voting leave. The Tories think that no matter how much | :29:42. | :29:45. | |
they knock spots off each other, which is never good for a party to | :29:46. | :29:50. | |
be seen to be fighting, they think that Labour is such a mess that does | :29:51. | :29:55. | |
not effect of area election chances. Are they right? It is impossible to | :29:56. | :30:02. | |
say what will happen in future but I think the Tories feel pretty | :30:03. | :30:05. | |
confident that they can air their dirty laundry in public for a little | :30:06. | :30:09. | |
while because they have some leeway. That is definitely the way they | :30:10. | :30:14. | |
feel, although I think the airing after the referendum will be worse | :30:15. | :30:20. | |
than what has come before. There has been a sense in which this | :30:21. | :30:23. | |
referendum has been, if not a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Tory | :30:24. | :30:29. | |
party, largely an internal Tory argument. Which is a problem for the | :30:30. | :30:35. | |
three quarters of the electorate that did not vote for the | :30:36. | :30:38. | |
Conservatives, or did not vote at all. The vast majority did not vote | :30:39. | :30:43. | |
for the current government and are not interested in the Tory | :30:44. | :30:49. | |
infighting. I find in parts of the country, such as Sheffield, and I | :30:50. | :30:54. | |
suspect your constituency, it is a real difficulty when you are talking | :30:55. | :30:57. | |
to people on the doorstep and they say, I find this quite off-putting. | :30:58. | :31:01. | |
I do not think it will change because it is a great story so the | :31:02. | :31:05. | |
media love it, and it is self-inflicted. David Cameron called | :31:06. | :31:10. | |
the referendum and it was driven principally because of divisions in | :31:11. | :31:15. | |
the party. I always assumed, because the country will be desperate to | :31:16. | :31:19. | |
move on, of course there will be some people who will bang on about | :31:20. | :31:23. | |
it in the Conservative Party, but I have a hunch that they will move on | :31:24. | :31:31. | |
quicker than people might imagine. They are obsessives. There are 42 | :31:32. | :31:35. | |
are obsessives. I plucked that number. But I think there are quite | :31:36. | :31:43. | |
a large number who feel they have been bruised by the way they have | :31:44. | :31:48. | |
been treated, by the way the campaign has been conducted. Given | :31:49. | :31:50. | |
that the Prime Minister is not fighting the next election, how many | :31:51. | :31:55. | |
of those bruised people will feel that change should come sooner | :31:56. | :32:02. | |
rather than later. This could be Labour's opportunity in | :32:03. | :32:07. | |
Parliamentary terms, because there is a prospect, given how small the | :32:08. | :32:12. | |
Government's majority is and there could be 40 people feeling bruised, | :32:13. | :32:16. | |
who have the taste of rebellion in their mouths, that you could well, | :32:17. | :32:21. | |
as far as the Government is concerned, this could become a | :32:22. | :32:25. | |
zombie parliament, a parliament in which not very much can happen. It | :32:26. | :32:31. | |
is not just the Euro-sceptic divide, but a new breed of Tory MP from the | :32:32. | :32:39. | |
last election that are wet. Many people approached me after I asked a | :32:40. | :32:43. | |
question of the Prime Minister last week and said, we are on your side, | :32:44. | :32:48. | |
many backbenchers. I think it speaks to David Cameron's weakness. The | :32:49. | :32:53. | |
same reason we are having the referendum. He threw in the towel | :32:54. | :32:57. | |
and everybody thinks they can misbehave because they can pick | :32:58. | :33:02. | |
their lane. Supposing the Government wins the referendum by a reasonable | :33:03. | :33:11. | |
margin, it could still have trouble getting its way. It has a small | :33:12. | :33:15. | |
majority and has to have a leadership election while trying to | :33:16. | :33:18. | |
ride the bicycle of government. But there are big things which will come | :33:19. | :33:23. | |
into sight. The fiscal promises they have made are completely incredible. | :33:24. | :33:27. | |
There is no way George Osborne can generate this surplus by the end of | :33:28. | :33:32. | |
the parliament. Not only have they failed in one parliament, but over a | :33:33. | :33:36. | |
decade. Hospitals and schools will come under pressure and Middle | :33:37. | :33:39. | |
England does not like that. Those things will intrude while they are | :33:40. | :33:44. | |
arguing about who will lead to them. I think those things will be more | :33:45. | :33:48. | |
difficult to navigate than the bruised egos after the referendum | :33:49. | :33:56. | |
campaign. I always thought David Cameron was in the ideal position | :33:57. | :33:59. | |
when he was leading a coalition which included 57 Liberal | :34:00. | :34:14. | |
Democrats... A distant memory. The lamp -- the number of Liberal | :34:15. | :34:17. | |
Democrats was higher than the number of head-bangers in the Tory party. | :34:18. | :34:20. | |
He is in a more difficult position now and I think this Government is | :34:21. | :34:24. | |
turning out to be less distinguished than the one in which you were | :34:25. | :34:31. | |
involved. Where would you place the Lib Dems on their trajectory of | :34:32. | :34:40. | |
recovery? Starting. Don't snigger. I know it's a long climb back. In the | :34:41. | :34:44. | |
local elections we got the third highest proportion. The largest net | :34:45. | :34:51. | |
gains, from a low base. It is a start. We got absolutely hammered | :34:52. | :34:55. | |
last year. We are trusting ourselves down and starting the recovery. You | :34:56. | :35:02. | |
have come back from worse. I remember when the Lib Dems had | :35:03. | :35:08. | |
Jeremy Thorpe, or David steel, a national figure leading them and | :35:09. | :35:11. | |
that is what you do not have the moment. | :35:12. | :35:15. | |
Now, here on This Week, we like to think we fear nothing. | :35:16. | :35:18. | |
Like us, you have probably run screaming from the room | :35:19. | :35:22. | |
on numerous occasions, having caught sight of one | :35:23. | :35:24. | |
It turns out there's a perfectly good explanation. | :35:25. | :35:27. | |
You must be suffering from something called sidero-dromo-phobia, | :35:28. | :35:33. | |
the medical term for an abnormal fear of trains, train | :35:34. | :35:36. | |
Either that, or Michael Portillo gives you the willies, | :35:37. | :35:42. | |
which is hard to believe, I know. | :35:43. | :35:44. | |
And that's why we're putting "danger" in this week's Spotlight. | :35:45. | :36:02. | |
Grim news from the slopes of the world's highest mountain, | :36:03. | :36:04. | |
which claimed a number of climbers' lives this week. | :36:05. | :36:09. | |
But for those driven by danger, is conquering Everest | :36:10. | :36:12. | |
the peak of excitement and a risk worth taking? | :36:13. | :36:19. | |
The world certainly seems more dangerous. | :36:20. | :36:21. | |
Even beach holidays are outside the comfort zone for some people, | :36:22. | :36:24. | |
with government warnings about travel to Tunisia, | :36:25. | :36:26. | |
Egypt and Turkey, and holiday bookings dramatically down due | :36:27. | :36:29. | |
So, living on the edge isn't for everyone, and if you believe | :36:30. | :36:39. | |
the warnings of Project Fear, that's exactly what leaving the EU | :36:40. | :36:41. | |
But isn't one man's terrifyingly leap into the unknown another man's | :36:42. | :36:48. | |
We're going to sail to the top this time, God willing. | :36:49. | :37:00. | |
If anyone embraces danger, it's the man who's attempted | :37:01. | :37:07. | |
Everest three times, survived a plane crash | :37:08. | :37:08. | |
in the Venezuelan jungle and punched a polar bear in the nose. | :37:09. | :37:12. | |
But what's the appeal of a life like that, and would you risk life | :37:13. | :37:16. | |
He climbed up and got back up again and he joins us here. Welcome back, | :37:17. | :37:36. | |
Brian. It is wonderful to be here are terrific. And Jess is looking | :37:37. | :37:42. | |
gorgeous. She never swears in the House of Commons, but she does that | :37:43. | :37:48. | |
with her nose, which means she is saying something. Shall I just rip | :37:49. | :37:57. | |
up the questions? Can I say, this is my favourite programme. My wife | :37:58. | :38:03. | |
adores it. The most dangerous thing you can do on every arrest is to | :38:04. | :38:12. | |
wear green. Why? Oh, my God, he is wearing a green shirt. Did you just | :38:13. | :38:19. | |
make that up? He looks like the King of the leprechauns. Why can't you | :38:20. | :38:27. | |
wear green? It is very bad drought -- bad luck. I know you have torn up | :38:28. | :38:34. | |
your questions. I will not dry up, I promise. I will have Nick's water. | :38:35. | :38:44. | |
It is vodka. I think the most dangerous thing you can face on | :38:45. | :38:48. | |
Mount Everest, you always must make sure that you camp above the French. | :38:49. | :38:54. | |
Because they will crap on you from a great height. You get underneath | :38:55. | :39:07. | |
and, look out, Brian. Does this bring us back to the European Union? | :39:08. | :39:14. | |
Is something going on in Europe? Why are you always putting your life on | :39:15. | :39:20. | |
the line? I think the greatest danger in life is not taking the | :39:21. | :39:26. | |
adventure. There are Everests everywhere. It can be your garden, | :39:27. | :39:32. | |
your garden shed, your greenhouse, whatever. Why is that risky? It is | :39:33. | :39:42. | |
the challenge, you mean. Yes, everywhere. Since the age of seven, | :39:43. | :39:47. | |
I always wanted to follow in the footsteps of Mallory, wearing the | :39:48. | :39:52. | |
same clothes. It's all right, I am not going to grab you, I promise. | :39:53. | :39:56. | |
This is what it is like at base camp. Is this what the French do? It | :39:57. | :40:06. | |
is quite a serious thing, going to the toilet on Mount Everest. We were | :40:07. | :40:15. | |
at 27,000 feet. The wind was blowing, we were about to go for the | :40:16. | :40:21. | |
summit, and suddenly Adams said to me, I've got to go for a crap. I | :40:22. | :40:27. | |
said, you can't. We are at 27,000 feet, the wind is blowing everywhere | :40:28. | :40:32. | |
and there is a four mile drop, four men in a two man tent. This is | :40:33. | :40:39. | |
reality. I said, crap in your pants. It will turn to dust, as it does at | :40:40. | :40:46. | |
altitude. The quiet, Nick. I brought his body across. The bloody can of | :40:47. | :40:56. | |
beans are coming out... I got him across my body, the snow was coming | :40:57. | :41:03. | |
in. I have this gift for altitude and they did not. I said, tie | :41:04. | :41:08. | |
yourself off, think of your mother and your children, try and | :41:09. | :41:12. | |
concentrate. He went out there and he had a crap. He came back in and, | :41:13. | :41:23. | |
get him across my body. We were still alive. I thought, Christ, | :41:24. | :41:28. | |
well, we had better have a brew up. We were getting the brew up ready | :41:29. | :41:32. | |
and suddenly Graham said, there's a terrible smell of crap. I turned | :41:33. | :41:42. | |
round and there was a third on his shoulder. He had had a crap and the | :41:43. | :41:50. | |
wind had blown it up in the air. It had landed on his shoulder. That is | :41:51. | :41:59. | |
the glamour of Mount Everest. You don't get this on Newsnight or | :42:00. | :42:07. | |
Panorama. You don't get this on ITV. You don't get this on the Ten | :42:08. | :42:14. | |
O'Clock News. You are going to do the opposite of Everest, going to | :42:15. | :42:20. | |
the deepest flaw of the ocean. I want to go to the deepest trench, | :42:21. | :42:25. | |
mine extend venture. I will make this straight and clear, because | :42:26. | :42:30. | |
there is no end to my talents, Michael. But I have completed 800 | :42:31. | :42:41. | |
hours space training. I have been training at reunion Island in the | :42:42. | :42:48. | |
Pacific. You have the choice of whether to go up or down. I am a | :42:49. | :43:01. | |
trained cosmonaut. How do you complete that procedure you just | :43:02. | :43:07. | |
talked about? Don't go there. Are you directing a play? You have done | :43:08. | :43:15. | |
your work. You are looking at a genius. I have always been humble. | :43:16. | :43:22. | |
Give us the name. I am trying to get you a plug. I was the master of | :43:23. | :43:27. | |
ceremonies for the Hong Kong handover. Remember that? You didn't | :43:28. | :43:33. | |
know that. I literally handed over Hong Kong. We are going to have two | :43:34. | :43:41. | |
handover to continuity. Good luck with the play. It is great to have | :43:42. | :43:47. | |
you and once again, public service broadcasting at its finest! | :43:48. | :43:51. | |
That's your lot for tonight, folks, but not for us. | :43:52. | :43:53. | |
Because today was Jezza Corbyn's 67th birthday, and Charles Clarke's | :43:54. | :43:55. | |
minicab is waiting to whisk us away to the Red Rose Tandoori | :43:56. | :43:58. | |
in Islington North, to share a keema naan at the feet | :43:59. | :44:01. | |
It wasn't just Jezza's special day today. | :44:02. | :44:06. | |
And we all have to sing happy birthday, or he's | :44:07. | :44:15. | |
promised to storm off in an almighty strop. | :44:16. | :44:26. | |
# Happy birthday to you # Happy birthday to you | :44:27. | :44:46. | |
# Happy birthday, dear Michael # Happy birthday to you. | :44:47. | :44:49. | |
# Once upon a time, there was | :44:50. | :45:00. | |
a great and glorious king. | :45:01. | :45:07. |