27/10/2016 This Week

And I begin by asking you to spare a thought for those of us trapped

The country is awash with all manner of important political stories,

from the Brexiteers missing ?350m for the NHS, to the capitulation

of Remain's Project Fear, finally defeated by the relentless

But all is not what it seems for we humble members

Not when we have a Prime Minister who hardly ever comes out to play,

and even when she does studiously avoids ever answering any questions.

And a Leader of the Opposition who seems to have been Missing

in Action since re-elected leader of his party, no longer savaged

by the evil mainstream media but, worse, simply ignored by it.

Now, it is true that once a week Mr Corbyn puts in an appearance

at the Palace of Varieties across the road and lobs some

But they're usually questions almost designed to generate absolutely no

Like the posted workers' directive, which the PM has no

intention of answering, even if she knew the answer.

How's that ever going to make the front page

of the Auchenshuggle Bugle, never mind lesser publications

So I think now you can understand the hardships under which we labour

and I can already feel waves of sympathy lapping

Speaking of those who haven't had anything interesting to say

since the relief of Mafeking, I'm joined on the sofa by two

political veterans so long in the tooth they can't

even hear the questions, much less answer them.

I speak of course of #manontheleft, Alan AJ Johnson,

For some intelligent analysis, we Michael Choo Choo Portillo.

For some intelligent analysis, we also have Molly the dog and Iris.

They are here to put their tuppence in. There they go. Your moment of

the week. You would expect me to save the Lithuanian elections, in

which the anti-immigration party triumphed. It turns out there are

now 2.8 million people in Lithuania. 800,000 have emigrated in the last

25 years. In the last 12 years, half of those who have emigrated have

come to Britain. Those leaving the young and qualified. And the

Lithuanians are fed up with it. And the party which stood on the anti

immigration ticket has gone from nowhere to be the largest party in

Lithuania. I simply want to say to you that the more we tip Europe like

that, so that all the people from where the wages are a third of what

they are in Britain tumble from those areas into Britain, the worse

the situation will become. Free movement in Europe will not survive

and Brexit is not the only issue. Well, I did not see that coming, I

must confess. If you make Estonia your moment of the week... Everyone

will have a political moment on Sunday when they turn the clocks

back. Berizzo is an argument about whether we should do it or not. I

found out this week that the Spanish, who have had no government

since December 2015, despite a second general election, look like

they will get one this week. And a major part of the coalition is to

turn the clocks back. I found out, and Michael probably knows this,

that Spain, which should be in Greenwich meantime, in 1942, Franco

changed it to continental time as a gesture of solidarity to Hitler in

Germany and it has been that way ever since. Portugal is still on

Greenwich meantime. Now, this coalition has come together on the

basis that they will change it back. And it is an advance in

productivity. It will cut down the Spanish siesta. There is a real

political issue about turning the clocks back. I didn't see that

coming either. Me neither, and I said it. Have you finished? Fair

enough. Now before I go any further tonight,

I'd like to thank Alan and Michael for turning up in fancy dress

costume and getting into the spirit Something you'd never

wear in real life. Yes, Halloween has come

round again, folks, which, in the May household,

means no tricks, no treats. And in the Corbyn home

the question is not trick Anyway, to cheer ourselves up,

or to scare ourselves silly, we thought we'd bring

back the Twelfie. We need you to take a picture

of yourself with proof that you are watching the programme,

and tweet it to us at #TWelfie. Make it spooky if you can,

and we'll edit your pictures Now, are you afraid,

very afraid, of Brexit? Well, according to ex-CBI boss

Digby Jones, there have been some pretty scary Brexit horror

stories peddled of late, So hold onto your duvet,

grab your teddy bear and get ready to be scared,

very, very scared. Because here's a special bedtime

story. Let me tell you a story written

by the ghosts and ghouls who wanted The end is nigh, for Britain

as a successful economy. And what is worse,

Marmite will vanish. It's made in Burton

on Trent, for gods sake. And evidently foreign holidays

are going to become more expensive. You've got to hand it

to the scaremongering Actually, the falling sterling

is marvellous news for British exporters, and that means jobs,

and that means profits, paying tax, building

schools and hospitals. We're exporting 5% more cars

than we were a year ago. And today we've had some marvellous

news for the British economy. It grew 0.5% just in the last three

months since Brexit, and that's roughly what was forecast

before Project Fear took hold. Companies like Nissan

are committing to this country. And if banks are planning to leave,

it's because we have one of the most stifling regulatory

environments on the planet. It's time to exorcise those

Remoaners' Brexit demons. This is a huge

opportunity for Britain. That's why the third runway

at Heathrow is so important. What we mustn't have

is EU-lite, the single market. That means no control

of our borders, submission to the European Court of Justice,

and Brussels regulation. But we need access

to the single market. What UK businesses, large and small,

need, is certainty. There are going to be choppy waters

ahead but they are going to be better than the Remoaners

say they will. There is light at

the end of the tunnel. Thank you to the very kind folk

at Studio Sienko Gallery in Borough, London for opening the door

to our trick or treaters. Welcome to the programme. Alan, you

were on the side of the doom mongers. Do you accept that the

short-term predictions turned out to be far too gloomy? Depends on the

short-term predictions. I thought the Treasury over did it with some

of the stuff they produced. There is a process to go through. We are not

out of the EU yet. But they made short-term predictions about the

aftermath of the vote, not the leaving itself. The Treasury words

were that our short-term forecast is on the impact of a vote to leave.

The Treasury said it would fall into recession in Q3 by either -0.1%, or

up to 1%. That was never me, I never used those figures. But all of that

is over. Hold on a minute. What I find strange is that the Leave side

are over defensive about this. It's OK for Digby Jones to have his sunny

optimism. He should have had Mr blue skies playing in the background

rather than the doom music. Elected politicians cannot afford to be like

that because as Digby Jones referred to, there are going to be difficult

times ahead. Will we stay in the single market, in the customs union,

or in both? We have not even got to the stage of invoking article 50. So

this rerunning of the argument... The public have voted to leave. Of

course. Are you telling me it doesn't matter that David Cameron

said, vote Leave and you will tip us into an economic recession

immediately, George Osborne said, we will face a year-long recession, we

will lose 500,000 jobs immediately. The IMF said that a vote to leave as

a trigger to recession. The Bank of England said, this will increase the

risk of recession. The OECD said it could in the short-term take 1.25%

of the GDP. All of that from your side and now you are telling us,

forget this and none of it matters. I am not saying none of it matters.

My argument is that access to the single market is crucial for our

exporters, being in the customs union saves us an awful lot. We have

to find a way through this, which is the job of the Prime Minister, and

the three Musketeers, joined by Digby Jones now, the fourth

musketeer. And it is serious business. Anyone who tells me that

there is go into me no effect from this... Everything you said in that

respect, I don't think I disagree. All I am asking for is that there is

this amazing great remain sulk going on. Wherever you go and whatever you

do, if you are Remainers in the establishment, they can't seem to

leave it behind. A good example is the Financial Times. The Financial

Times, a paper of record, quality reporting, on the front page, they

almost delight, and the BBC is another, actually, they delight in

stories which say, I told you so. And then the good stories, like

today, Nissan, fabulous story. If you are working up there, great

news. What's everything tonight, but, oh, dear, well, Mrs... Instead

of saying, isn't this marvellous news. That is the purpose of my

piece. To be fair to you, you were not going down that path. Allen is

the wrong person to be the butt of this because Labour members of

Parliament know that in many of their constituencies 70% of their

supporters voted to leave. So Labour members of Parliament have to begin

their sentence, as Alan Justin, saying, we accept what the British

people said and we are going to leave the European Union. -- what

Alan was just saying. The people who are liable are civil servants, Bank

of England people and so on. I agree. To take the point about

Nissan, our currency has decreed -- depreciated. The very worst case

scenario is that we would pay a 10% tariff on our exports. I think that

is extremely unlikely. The depreciation of sterling against the

euro is a greater than that. If we had a 10% tariff, sterling would

depreciate further. So people like Nissan are quids in. By

manufacturing their cars in the Stirling area, they already have a

tremendous export advantage. Maybe it is too soon to crow, Digby Jones.

Next year could be much tougher. We have rising inflation which will eat

into wage rises and could put a squeeze on living standards,

consumer spending could fall. That would be bad for the economy.

Despite the Nissan decision, the uncertainty is bound to cramp

domestic investment and foreign direct investment. Next year could

be tougher. Didn't I say my piece, choppy

waters? Thert of these would happen if we voted to remain. I believe

that the British people the core of what they were talking about was

sovereignty. They talked about taking it from the judges in

Brussels. They are actually saying we want to control, we want our

democratically elected Government to control us, not somebody else from

over there. Now, they have decided, almost sud blimly, there is a price

to pay for that. You and I can have an argument about how big the price

it is. I believe the sun lit uplands will

come in five to ten years time. I can't find many people who believe

that the Euro is going to survive. Most of the argument is about

whether the Euro will collapse? I think it will, except they will

before bail out Italy. If means the enduring economic crisis in Europe

will continue longer. For as long as it does survive, the Spanish are in

a terrible position. Manufacturing was down by 1 errs. %. It is 0.5%,

it is better than predicted, it is 0.2% down than before we left the

European Union. There is nothing there to crow about in the sense

that we've got really difficult times ahead. I wish both you would

use the word "Crow." Instead of the whole of the remoaners saying, "Told

you so." No, you've done that? Can we talk about the single market for

a second? Is it right that we can no longer be in the single market and

that we're left with is as much access to the single market? When

people said we want to stay in in, it is EU-lite, you are in it and you

get all the benefits, but you submit to the European Court of Justice.

You submit to Brussels regulation and you have no control over your

borders. When we were members that was our fault. You hear it every day

from people who voted to remain. All the MPs who voted to remain, they

say, "We honoured the wish of the British people, but we will be in

the single market." They may as well stay in the EU. Having given the way

the vote went, we can be members of the single market, but the job of

the Government is to get the best access it can get to the single

market? Can you be, there is no war who are part of the single market,

but not part of the Customs union and Norway interestingly in 1992

when they had a referendum to say can't go in, they had a Plan B. They

created the European Economic Area. We don't seem to have much idea.

This is not about giving your negotiating hand away, of course,

you don't do that, but you have a broad approach to what you're going

to do here and part of that should not going to be, just going back to

Nissan which is brilliant news in Sunderland, but they have had

assurances and support, I would guess, that if the worst comes to

theors and there is the common external tariff, the 10%, that

Government has said we will sort it out for you. We're back to

subsidising the car industry. Just a minute. So many people have

commentated on this that have never been in business. The last thing the

Nissan board want is any aSure hanss made with Government being made

public knowledge. The problem, I heard people on Question Time

saying, "We have a right to know." An hour ago that's what they were

saying. I just wish more people who commented on business understood

what they were talking about. Why don't we have a right to know, it is

our money? It is our money, we have a right to know, don't we? I would

suggest when the time came, we have every right to know and we should

know, but not yet. It is so early, the trouble with democracy is that

it expects instant answers, you know, you guys have been in it more

than I have. If Government is doing deals with big business... This is a

long haul. But if Government is doing deals with big business, don't

we want to know? Governments all over the world do deals... In a

democracy you have a right to know? They do deals in Brussels. They do

that every day, don't they? It is not our money that's being spent...

Well, you don't know. We don't know. What I'm trying to say, we are

commenting on something that at this moment we would expect, I hope, a

Government to be negotiating on in private and the problem with

democracy, it expects instant answers. We're not going into

problems with democracy, it is enough trying to deal with Brexit!

Now, it's late, too-late-to-save-the-Great-British

But don't despair because Michael's promised to cook up a tray

of fondant fancies and Alan says his walnut whips.

And if that's not enough to whet your appetitie then

waiting in the wings is the Revererand Richard Coles,

here to tell us how to construct a runway over a motorway,

or maybe under it, which may be a bit of a porkie.

And remember, you can contact us from beyond the grave

on the Snap Numpty, the intergalactic websphere,

the Twitter-drivel and the Fleece-bollocks.

And if all of that is your cup of tea, remember to send us

Now, here on This Week we take our health very seriously,

which is why a daily flagon of Blue Nun is compulsory.

But it's come to my attention that Michael has been looking

so we sent the New Statesman's Helen Lewis to up his iron count for this

They say you should never ask how a sausage is made and Theresa May

The Prime Minister still won't be drawn on her negotiating strategy

with the European Union, but she defended herself

against Labour attacks that she's pursuing a hard Brexit

In fact, she says, there is no such thing.

The Right Honourable gentleman seems to think that

all of these matters are binary decisions between either you're able

to control immigration or you have some sort

We are going to be ambitious for what we obtain for

the United Kingdom and that means a good trade deal

Unfortunately, to some, it felt as though May's offers had

Many parts of the meeting were deeply frustrating because I felt

as if we weren't getting any greater insight into the thinking

Nicola Sturgeon there sharpening her meat cleaver over Europe.

Also on the butcher's block this week, the Government's actions over

Have they acted quickly enough in taking the wheeled refugees

The Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, was in the Commons this week

The Government has sought every opportunity to expedite the process

My officials were only given access to the camp to interview children

in the last week and similarly we have only recently received

agreement from the French Government that we could bring

But that didn't satisfy Labour's Diane Abbott

who grilled her opposite number about the slow progress

If the commentators, who are now suggesting that these

young people should be treated like cattle and have

had made as much noise about the Government's slowness

in processing these child refugees in the first place we would not be

Still, there was bold decisive action from the

After 70 years and multiple delays, a third runway at Heathrow has

Oh, I have no doubt there will be a runway.

You just had to listen to the debate in Parliament yesterday.

There is overwhelming support for what we announced yesterday.

We have to go through the formal process to obey the laws that

are there, but I'm confident this will happen and we'll deliver it

There's only one thing wrong with Heathrow -

it's dangerously close to several Cabinet Ministers constituencies

and so Boris Johnson has been given special dispensation

to make his beef for the project public.

If and when a third runway were to be built, and I don't think

it would be, but suppose it would be, there would be

an overwhelming clamour to build a fourth runway as soon

as it was completed and then what would London be like?

You would have a New York, a city of beautiful skyscrapers,

Paris a city of light and London the city of planes!

Tory eco warrior Zac Goldsmith always said he'd resign

if the decision went ahead and this week he didn't chicken out!

He'll now stand in Richmond Park as an independent.

The sheer complexity, the legal risks, the costs,

means that Heathrow expansion is not going to get off the ground

and I believe this will be a millstone around this

Government's neck for many, many years to come.

As you know, I have to honour my promise.

So I've resigned as your member of Parliament and I'll be

standing in the by-election as an independent candidate.

# And on that farm he had some pigs.

# With a knock, knock here, a knock, knock there.

# And when those pigs got out of line, pork

Hi, could I have that piece of steak, please?

The Lib Dems see Richmond Park as a prime cut, after all it voting

overwhelmingly to remain in the EU and with the Tories not standing

a candidate, Tim Farron's party will be hoping to re-take this juicy

sirloin of a seat which it lost in 2010.

Now, Jeremy Corbyn's interventions might be rare,

At Prime Minister's Questions he tried to skewer Theresa May

So he moved on to asking about our relationship with Saudi Arabia.

On the 28th October, there are elections again for the UN

A UN panel has warned that Saudi Arabia's bombing of Yemen has

Amnesty International says and I quote, "Executions

Women are widely discriminated against and torture

is common and Human Rights organisations are banned."

So will her Government again be backing the Saudi dictatorship?

Also returning to the spotlight was the Commons own Aberdeen

Did he feel bad about kebabing his old mate Boris Johnson

What were the mistake you made, do you think?

Well, I think, I gave an interview to the Times in which I said

I should either have paused and reflected before backing Boris

or having backed Boris then stuck with him and then

if I was going to break from him at the end I should have said

I have an alternative view rather than passing any commentary

Still Gove now has a position on the powerful Brexit Select

Committee along with seven other Tory leavers.

So any ministry that looks to be going soft on Europe will get

Helen Lewis there, looking a little too comfortable

with a sausage machine at the Hampstead Butcher

Right, Heathrow, right or wrong decision? Right. Because? Because

London and Britain need an airport that can compete with airports

elsewhere in the world and you know, Istanbul is building a six runway at

the moment and we're struggling to build a third runway. Right decision

as I voted in Cabinet in January 2009! Harold Wilson mooted the idea

in 1968. In all that time, Charles de Gaulle Airport has expanded and

Istanbul opening soon with six runways. Right or wrong?

Economically ronning and in climate change terms wrong. Why in climate

change terms? We should be encouraging people to fly less. You

know that's not going to happen. Look at Dubai Airport and you see

the whole world moving through there and not just rich, white people

either? That doesn't mean it is the wrong argument. Aircraft account for

6% of CO2 emissions, the problem with Heathrow is the huge traffic

potential of the cars that may end up going there. The Government had

assume there will be a massive increase in electric vehicles and

everybody, huge numbers will use public transport. Those are heroic

assumptions? There are various constituencies who feel strongly

about it as we had this weird note from your mum to get off games that

just dean greening has got. Will it happen? Get the majority in

Parliament, I don't think there is any doubt, a lot of Labour people

are in favour of it, a lot of SNPs are going to vote for it too, but

there is a massive planning process. There are environmental standards.

There is going to be huge pro? I think given the build-up to this,

the report and Theresa May pushing this back a year which actually is

aa cute move, she is trying to defend herself against the judicial

review. All of that will help. Yes, it will happen, unfortunately

whereas Alistair Darling predicted this would be happening in 2015, our

first white paper on that, I don't think it will happen until 2030.

This by-election that's been triggered in Richmond Park, Zac

Goldsmith, he fought and won two elections opposed to Heathrow.

What's the point of calling a third on the same issue?

He got trapped into the position of making the promise and is now

reluctantly having to go through with it. He is a very nice person.

He has been criticised in the last week for being so very low key, but

I don't think that will be a disadvantage in the by-election. He

is a man who is very well liked. I bumped into him the other day and

was reminded how charming he is. Probably, his constituents will turn

out for him. They might, but Richmond voted over 70% to Remain.

Zac Goldsmith is a huge Euro-sceptic, voted to Leave.

Heathrow will not happen for ten or 15 years. Brexit is happening now.

If the Lib Dems grab this and make it a Brexit by-election, not a he

throw by-election, you could lose. On paper, they need a 19.3% swing.

They did get that in Witney, so it is eminently winnable. And it will

come down to a two horse race. Labour will stand a candidate but

that will not be part of it. The Lib Dems have a united Parliamentary

party on the Brexit message and 48% of the country feel strongly about

that. Quite a gamble in the end for Zac Goldsmith. It reminds me of

David Davis. He resigned and it seemed an act of futility. Zac

Goldsmith promised the electorate it was what he would do. But I presume

all the other candidates will be anti-Heathrow. Although Labour's

shadow spokesman, Andy Macdonald, is backing Heathrow and all the

northern Labour MPs back it. The Lib Dems will certainly be opposed to a

third runway. Their policy at the moment is against any runway

expansion in the south-east. We have not seen you since Jeremy Corbyn got

re-elected. Jolly nice to see you. On a scale of one to ten, ten being

most delighted, how delighted are you? We have been through all that.

It is over now. Just like the EU referendum, I am now committed to

Britain leaving the EU and I am committed to Jeremy Corbyn leading

us to victory at the next election. A recent poll had the Tories 18

points ahead, but I would suggest that it does not really matter how

bad it gets. As Alan says, Jeremy Corbyn will lead Labour into the

next election. From the point of view of the members, absolutely. The

really difficult thing for Labour is what issues are they united around?

Those are the only ones they are getting a hearing on. The only one I

can think of with Labour is grammar schools. They are managing to make

some cut through on that. But apart from that, it is this spooky

Halloween silence from Labour on a lot of issues. Is the Corbyn camp

worried that rather than being attacked by the mainstream media

they are now just being ignored by it? I don't think they are worried

and I think that is a problem. Sometimes you see their adviser

fighting the leadership election again. As you were saying, it is

time for everybody to move on. Corbyn won decisively. He does not

need to defeat the PLP any more, he needs to defeat the Tories. Diane

Abbott said she is ashamed to be British because of talk of checking

the age of migrants who claimed to be unaccompanied minors. RUSI? Did

she say that. There was one Welsh MP who said that. I did not hear

anybody sensible saying that at all. That we should not check their age?

To check their teeth to see their age. That was one renegade Tory

backbencher. No one of any stature has suggested that. So you are not

ashamed? It is not as if the British state has said they are going to

check teeth. There was broad consensus in this country, even in

the anti-immigrant mood at the moment, that unaccompanied minors,

we should bring them in from Calais in decent numbers and do it well.

And yet, as a result of the argument over the age of some of them, and

other things, it has become muddied. People are wondering if what they

wanted to happen is actually happening, or something different.

Is it another Home Office clock up? It appears to be. We saw Amber Rudd

blaming it on the French, probably not the best tactic at the moment. I

think the British people's reaction is rational. Adults who have arrived

in Calais did not arrive to Calais, they came from somewhere else. They

have chosen to go to Calais because they want to come to the UK, but

they can apply for asylum in France, or can move to Germany or anywhere

else in the Schengen area. They may have fled from terrible things,

maybe not, but they are certainly not fleeing terrible things at the

moment. The only vulnerable people in Calais potentially are minors.

And those minors should be allowed to come to this country. But when

the Home Office began to make a mess of it, bringing over adults who were

perhaps claiming to be minors, they covered their heads and began to put

up tarpaulins in Croydon outside their headquarters in order to

literally cover up the mess they were making. It is amazing that the

Prime Minister has not got it more in the neck. But Amber Rudd, I

think, was slightly hung out to dry. In the referendum, we saw that the

British people do not quite trust the elite when it comes to

immigration. I would suggest the danger of what happened here is that

it fuels test trust. There is clearly a problem that some people

who are overage have snuck through the system. But you would expect

that, in any system like that there will always be people who will game

it. What I see is a cynical attempt to say, look, they are all over 18.

To turn people against child refugees by saying they are all on

the fiddle. In the same way, there are small rates of benefit fraud and

it is done in a way to say that everyone is on benefit fraud. And

the figures show that of the 550 who came in as unaccompanied minors,

well over 60% were over age. There will obviously be some people. That

is a majority. But the Czechs are working, that tells you. It was

after they came in. In that case, the system should be strengthened,

but I think there is a problem about the fact that we are told this is a

rationale for it being OK to not care about refugees. We have only

agreed to take 3000. Thank you. Now, the world is undergoing

massive transformation. Keith "let's get this party started"

Vaz is back on a select committee. Donald Trump's star is obliterated

from the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And Brexit means foie gras is off

the menu at Annabel's. But here in the This Week broom

cupboard, whether it's Michael's perma-tan or Alan's endless efforts

to dress like an extra from Quadrophenia, time

continues to stand still. That's why we're putting "change"

in this week's spotlight. Theresa May once criticised plans

for a third runway at Heathrow. Nobody is going to take this

government seriously But she changed her mind on Tuesday,

as her government committed to building one, much

to the disappointment of some The Prime Minister wasn't

the only Tory MP to rethink But does Nigel Adams' change

of heart mirror a wider transformation in attitudes

towards gay marriage. Not for Christian bakers in Belfast

who lost a discrimination case on Monday for refusing to bake

a cake bearing a message of support It's all change for another

set of dough punchers. After attracting a record audience

for its final BBC show, Great British Bake Off swaps

to Channel 4 with a changed line-up. From pop star to vicar,

Reverend Richard Coles And Reverend Richard

Coles is with us now. Welcome to the programme. We often

think of our own country as being Conservative, resistant to change,

the long history we look back on. But if you look at the way the

country was 20 years ago, 30 years ago, we have gone through massive

changes, and most of them probably for the better. Yes, although it can

go either way, but it has been a dynamic past 30 years, particularly

where I have been aware of what has been going on. And social attitudes

have changed. Hugely, particularly in areas like sexuality, for

example. The country is unrecognisable. It used to be that

80% said there was nothing good to be said about gay relationships, and

now it is 20%. Why do you think we have become more accepting of

change? Why do you think we take change more in our stride than

before? It is a mixed picture. Some change we manage quite well. I think

attitudes towards homosexuality, for example, changed partly because we

just got a much broader range of people doing it in the 1980s,

particularly through popular culture. Civil partnerships had a

huge impact. Suddenly a generation of people who might have had

negative attitudes saw civil partnerships and thought, I get

that, it is per sector and a slice of cake. Although we have had the

Belfast cake business coming back to the Court and being resolved against

the Bakers, would it be going too far to say that for most people it

is not even a matter of controversy? To be unremarkable is not a bad

ambition for people who have been involved in gay activism for the

past 30 years. You have gone through big changes in your life from doing

what you did, doing what you do now. Did it come easily? Looking at my

efforts in video in the 1980s, obviously there is a vicar

struggling to get out! Yes, in some ways a dramatic change from Top of

the Pops to the pulp it, but in other ways, continuities. Still

dressing up, still performing, still working strange hours. The

remuneration is not what it was, but you know. What is the biggest change

you have gone through? The biggest change in my lifetime is the

attitude towards people from other countries. I grew up through the

Notting Hill race riots. Room to let, no Blacks, no Irish, no dogs.

It is inconceivable that was happening just 50 years ago. I wish

you had not said no dogs! What is the biggest change? I think that is.

It has been a global phenomenon. The Irish voted by an enormous

percentage in favour of gay marriage. With the Catholic church

which has been so strongly embedded in their society and government.

Spain, another Catholic country, voted for gay marriage as well. We

have not been an island in this, in any respect. We are not even in the

lead. Many people criticise David Cameron for going for gay marriage.

How ridiculous he would have looked if he had tried to hold out against

it while all these other movements were going on across the world. How

interesting it was a Tory Prime Minister who brought that in.

Standing on the shoulders of giants, but so surprising. The Lib Dems will

tell you it was them who encouraged it. It might be in Nick Clegg's

book. Howard is that the Tories... I imagine many gay people are natural

Tories, so why would the Tories go out of their way to make gay people

vote against them in every election? Many Hispanics are natural

Republicans in America, and Mr Trump has managed to make sure he will not

get many of their votes. What are you up to? With my life? I am trying

to be a vicar and fitted around also having a media career, too. I am

broadcasting and writing a book at the moment. It is an attempt,

following the example of great parson diarists, to try and give an

account of the real texture and grain of trying to sustain a parish

priest ministry in a Britain which reflects precisely the changes we

were talking about. Thank you. That's your lot for tonight

but not for us, folks, because it's Ukip hustings night

at Lou Lou's and Nigel Farage is in the chair to ensure fair play,

and short the currency during any We can't wait to get

there because there's bound to be a punch up, and proof

positive that people Don't let these

trolling TWelfies bite.