:00:13. > :00:17.the action in Sportsday at 10.45pm. So now to the main event of the
:00:18. > :00:22.evening, the rematch between Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage in a special
:00:23. > :00:28.BBC debate over Britain's future in Europe. Stay with us for all the
:00:29. > :00:33.build`up to that debate, the debate itself and all the reaction and
:00:34. > :00:40.analysis to it ahead of the full news round`up at 9pm. Last week the
:00:41. > :00:49.men went head to head, tonight will be a knockout blow? We will go to
:00:50. > :00:57.Broadcasting House. `` will there be. In the last few minutes, Nick
:00:58. > :01:05.Clegg and Nigel Farage have gone through the doors behind me. The
:01:06. > :01:10.audience of 100 people in the theatre have been here for several
:01:11. > :01:19.hours and that debate begins at 7pm. Not long to go. There has been more
:01:20. > :01:26.controversy today, people talking about Nigel Farage and his comments
:01:27. > :01:31.about Vladimir Putin. He suggested that he had a great deal of
:01:32. > :01:37.admiration for him and that has been criticised. He was asked again about
:01:38. > :01:43.this by journalists. Let us hear some of that. I admire him as an
:01:44. > :01:48.operator, and international political operator and compared to
:01:49. > :01:54.people like Nick Clegg, he is head and shoulders above him. It does not
:01:55. > :02:01.mean I like him. To regard the bloodshed in this area as a game and
:02:02. > :02:05.to say he admires Vladimir Putin, shows how irresponsible he is. This
:02:06. > :02:11.is the real world and you need to take serious decisions, particularly
:02:12. > :02:16.in the face of such a humanitarian disaster. We can only assume that
:02:17. > :02:27.there are last`minute preparations going on. Nigel Farage's camp lead
:02:28. > :02:37.in cameras earlier when he was just getting some last minute thoughts
:02:38. > :02:42.from advisers `` did let in cameras. Every journalist I have spoken to
:02:43. > :02:49.said that what has to happen is one man has two delivers some form of
:02:50. > :03:05.knockout blow. That has to happen `` has two delivers some form. `` has
:03:06. > :03:10.to deliver some. We will be talking more closer to the beginning of the
:03:11. > :03:18.debate. The debate is being chaired by David Dimbleby, a man familiar
:03:19. > :03:32.with this setup and I asked him what he expected tonight. I did 140 years
:03:33. > :03:42.ago with Roy Jenkins and Tony Benn. `` I did one 40 years ago. The
:03:43. > :03:50.arguments are still the same. It is all the same issues. Each debate is
:03:51. > :03:55.different. We did the leaders debate for the last election. This is not a
:03:56. > :04:01.party debate, it is two individuals who feel strongly. Of course the
:04:02. > :04:08.European elections are coming up, but it is not the context. Nick
:04:09. > :04:17.Clegg challenged Nigel Farage and he took it on. It is like a prize
:04:18. > :04:27.fight. The first round was on Sky. Tonight, the knockout blow. Let us
:04:28. > :04:33.see if there is one. There has to be one or else it will be a damp
:04:34. > :04:40.squib. 100 members of the public have been invited. Last week, they
:04:41. > :04:46.covered lot of ground. I wonder where it could go this week, what
:04:47. > :04:56.topics could come out which have not been touched on? I do not think
:04:57. > :05:04.that. What I hope will happen is that they will take each other on on
:05:05. > :05:10.their own arguments. They talked to the audience and not each other, and
:05:11. > :05:17.I hope they debate with each other. They hardly looked at each other. I
:05:18. > :05:21.hope that the result of last week is that the issues are there and they
:05:22. > :05:27.have to get in the killer points. Nick Clegg has said he will be more
:05:28. > :05:35.passionate and Nigel Farage says he knows there will be a fight. I would
:05:36. > :05:43.hope that the strength of conviction comes through. David Dimbleby
:05:44. > :05:51.earlier. He is going to be on the podium in the theatre soon. The
:05:52. > :05:59.theatre is on my right and further around the corner, is what has been
:06:00. > :06:06.described as a spin room. Norman Smith is there. Explain what sort of
:06:07. > :06:21.characters you are wet and what we can expect. I have moved, `` what
:06:22. > :06:30.sort of characters are there. This is the bar. This is problem where
:06:31. > :06:38.most of the journalists will gather. `` probably. This is where the
:06:39. > :06:44.Liberal Democrat team will be working things out. When it is all
:06:45. > :06:52.over, they will come out and tell us how he did. Over there, that is
:06:53. > :06:58.where UKIP are. Both teams will come out and tell us what has happened.
:06:59. > :07:05.We have had a lot of the briefing already, the Liberal Democrats want
:07:06. > :07:09.more passion from Nick Clegg, the signs from UKIP are that they want
:07:10. > :07:20.more detail from Nigel Ferrara should. Let us look at some of the
:07:21. > :07:35.issues `` Nigel Farage. So now we move to Round Two. Last time, the
:07:36. > :07:41.UKIP man was judged the winner. Both men have had a solid week to hone
:07:42. > :07:48.their key arguments, but we already know most of the big pitches. We
:07:49. > :07:52.should not be sacrificing a single job just to fulfil the dogmatic view
:07:53. > :07:58.that we should turn our backs on the rest of the world. The debate is
:07:59. > :08:02.between a tired status quo, defending a crumbling European Union
:08:03. > :08:08.which is not working any more and a fresh approach which says, let us be
:08:09. > :08:13.friendly with Europe, but not be governed by their institutions. What
:08:14. > :08:16.will be the key points? The referendum, last time the message
:08:17. > :08:25.from Nigel Farage is that we need one. This was the response from Nick
:08:26. > :08:29.Clegg. We have referendums when there is an important question to
:08:30. > :08:32.answer, when new powers are being transferred to the European Union,
:08:33. > :08:37.by a government, it should be done that is when. It should not be done
:08:38. > :08:44.by a government, it should be done by the people. The government has
:08:45. > :08:50.agreed that. Another crunch point? Immigration. Nick Clegg said not to
:08:51. > :08:56.exaggerate it. This was the response from Nigel Farage. We ought to
:08:57. > :08:59.operate a system of work permits, work permits in terms of what are
:09:00. > :09:04.the shortages we may have and what are the skills that other people may
:09:05. > :09:10.want to bring in. Perhaps the real crunch point could come with a slip
:09:11. > :09:17.or a mistake or an unexpected question. No matter how much they
:09:18. > :09:23.have prepared, there is no hiding place in a live televised,
:09:24. > :09:27.face`to`face debate. So much for the issues, let us talk about the people
:09:28. > :09:36.and the personalities involved. I will join two people involved in the
:09:37. > :09:42.briefing preparations. This is then Farren and this is the policy
:09:43. > :09:49.director from UKIP. Tim, we are hearing about how your man has to
:09:50. > :09:54.show passion. We should be passionate about the role of Britain
:09:55. > :10:01.in the world. We need to make sure we protect the jobs that matter to
:10:02. > :10:07.people. It is about being in favour of the interest of Britain. A lot of
:10:08. > :10:13.the talk today has been about Vladimir Putin. Your man said he
:10:14. > :10:22.would not back down. Is this a mistake? We do not want to be
:10:23. > :10:28.dragged into another conflict. One of our politicians said that we
:10:29. > :10:32.should not have intervened in Syria. When you look at the foreign policy
:10:33. > :10:38.of the European Union, Baroness Ashton getting involved, we do not
:10:39. > :10:44.want to meddle and dealer with the problems in this country. I was
:10:45. > :10:49.looking at some of the comments that Nigel Farage married and about
:10:50. > :10:57.Syria, he said he thought it was the rebels who had used chemical weapons
:10:58. > :11:03.`` made. If we had listened to the political class, we would be
:11:04. > :11:10.involved there are now and it would be British lives being lost. We do
:11:11. > :11:13.not want that. We do not want to get bogged down in commitments overseas
:11:14. > :11:19.which do not affect British interests. The argument about
:11:20. > :11:26.Vladimir Putin is all fine, but it is nothing to do with Russia. In a
:11:27. > :11:35.sense it is. Are we on the side of democracy and freedom? I do not
:11:36. > :11:38.believe that what Vladimir Putin is doing in Crimea is anything any
:11:39. > :11:45.decent British person should support. How we deal with Syria,
:11:46. > :11:51.those are all moot points, but we should not, as Nigel Farage seems to
:11:52. > :11:56.do, giving credit to Vladimir Putin. We should play our part in
:11:57. > :12:04.the world, but we should not be standing up for people who are
:12:05. > :12:17.beyond the pale. In opposition they were non`interventionist. Let me
:12:18. > :12:21.finish. Now, when they get into power, they want to intervene
:12:22. > :12:30.everywhere and they want to deny us a referendum stop it is not about
:12:31. > :12:34.whether we are interventionist, it is about whether we were on the side
:12:35. > :12:39.of dictators. I do not think we should go into Crimea with troops,
:12:40. > :12:49.but I am on the side of the free people of Ukraine. I have on the
:12:50. > :12:53.table a copy of this report, on the Charter of fundamental rights, one
:12:54. > :12:57.of your people said to me that Nigel Farage may mention this, because it
:12:58. > :13:02.talks about how the European Charter has more influence on British law
:13:03. > :13:06.than the British Parliament. Does that not underline the fact that
:13:07. > :13:11.there is a scramble on your side to show that Nigel Farage has a bit of
:13:12. > :13:17.gravitas, that he is not all bluster? There are many ways that
:13:18. > :13:21.the European Union affects our day`to`day laws. We will be able to
:13:22. > :13:32.show that the EU lawmaking machine does not stop. Do you know where the
:13:33. > :13:40.phrase spin room comes from? No idea whatsoever. I look this up in
:13:41. > :13:49.advance. It comes from Ronald Reagan in 1984. Here is the interesting
:13:50. > :13:53.thing, in that debate, Walter Mondale was judged to have won it,
:13:54. > :13:58.but the headlines were won by Ronald Reagan, because he set up his team
:13:59. > :14:04.in a nearby hotel and they spun it so hard that it was judged that he
:14:05. > :14:18.actually won and ever since we have had a spin room. I want Norman Smith
:14:19. > :14:21.on my team. In a moment we will be getting the thoughts of Tim
:14:22. > :14:25.Montgomery from the times, but before we talk to him, we can see
:14:26. > :14:30.shots of the two men at the heart of the debate arriving at the BBC
:14:31. > :14:35.earlier. Nigel Farage arrived probably only about 20 minutes ago,
:14:36. > :14:39.it is fair to say. Few words to journalists on the way in. And Nick
:14:40. > :14:44.Clegg arriving just before him as well. Asked on the way in whether he
:14:45. > :14:50.had any nerves, Nick Clegg said he would enjoy it. It is a big debate
:14:51. > :14:56.on an important issue. He said, I am looking forward to it. The two men
:14:57. > :15:04.now inside Broadcasting House here in preparation for that debate
:15:05. > :15:10.inside the BBC Radio Theatre. Now we can talk to Tim Montgomery. Do you
:15:11. > :15:13.subscribe to this view that it is the second of two and therefore one
:15:14. > :15:19.man has to deliver some kind of knockout blow? Not particularly.
:15:20. > :15:23.Both of them will want that knockout blow but this is another example of
:15:24. > :15:28.politics in Britain to three and politics in Britain to three and
:15:29. > :15:32.four party politics. Both leaders can lose the debate on the night but
:15:33. > :15:38.even the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, who won 36% of the vote
:15:39. > :15:44.according to an opinion poll, that is way more than he is getting in
:15:45. > :15:50.the polls for the Liberal Democrats, so both are speaking to the parts of
:15:51. > :15:52.the electorate they want to reach. Both of them can eclipse the
:15:53. > :15:57.Conservative and Labour parties and win. Is this win`win for UKIP and
:15:58. > :16:01.the Lib Dems because this is the platform they have always wanted,
:16:02. > :16:05.for people to listen to them and hear views about Europe? You get
:16:06. > :16:11.membership has gone up considerably since last week's debate. `` UKIP
:16:12. > :16:16.membership. Yes, this is oxygen for UKIP, but also for Nick Clegg as
:16:17. > :16:22.well. People associate him with the broken promise on tuition fees, and
:16:23. > :16:27.this gives him an opportunity to stand for a cause, Europe, which he
:16:28. > :16:31.clearly dearly believes in, and fight his corner and establish some
:16:32. > :16:38.credentials in that regard. Does he need to fight it with more passion?
:16:39. > :16:43.Nick Clegg needs a little bit more passion, a bit more enthusiasm for
:16:44. > :16:48.his cause, and perhaps Nigel Farage needs to calm down the anger a
:16:49. > :16:53.little bit. Anger helps him as the outsider fighting the establishment.
:16:54. > :17:09.But there are doubts about how rational he is. Upper case
:17:10. > :17:15.inaudible. `` INAUDIBLE. I think David Cameron wants us inside the
:17:16. > :17:22.European Union. Good to have you with us. Thank you very much. Let's
:17:23. > :17:27.go to Hull and find out what people gathered around their television set
:17:28. > :17:35.to watch it tonight might want to hear and could be hoping for. Tim
:17:36. > :17:38.Iredale is there. Britain's future membership of the
:17:39. > :17:45.EU is a huge talking point in this part of the world. Look behind me at
:17:46. > :17:52.the Marina, where we now see fancy yachts. We once had a huge fishing
:17:53. > :17:56.fleet for the huge fishing industry here. On the other hand, this is an
:17:57. > :18:02.area of high on implement. Only last week, the German engineering giant
:18:03. > :18:07.Siemens announced they would build a huge wind turbine manufacturing port
:18:08. > :18:14.on the banks of the river Humber, creating 1000 more jobs. There are
:18:15. > :18:19.activists here from the opposing parties. You are the regional
:18:20. > :18:25.chairman for UKIP in Yorkshire and the Humber. What do you want to hear
:18:26. > :18:29.from Nigel Farage tonight? More of the same. We had round one last week
:18:30. > :18:33.and hopefully tonight Nigel will take that further and dispel the
:18:34. > :18:39.myths and the lies that Lib Dems talk about when they discuss Europe.
:18:40. > :18:43.UKIP have said they want to take working`class votes in the North of
:18:44. > :18:48.England so there is a lot riding on this for Nigel Farage tonight. Yes,
:18:49. > :18:56.a great deal. We have got a lot of support from old Labour and in Hull,
:18:57. > :19:00.a staunch Labour city, and now when I am talking to people on the
:19:01. > :19:04.doorsteps, they are coming to UKIP, seeing us as the alternative party
:19:05. > :19:08.because they have been abandoned by Labour. Labour cannot defend
:19:09. > :19:34.themselves tonight, but you are a Lib Dem councillor, Claire Thomas. I
:19:35. > :19:39.hope Nick manages to talk about the fact that jobs are really important
:19:40. > :19:43.here. Siemens would not be coming to Hull and investing the money and
:19:44. > :19:46.bringing the jobs if it was not for the EU. I think that is really
:19:47. > :19:53.important and a message to get across. It is quite chilly on the
:19:54. > :19:57.Humber and we are going to retreat to the bar, Farage style, you could
:19:58. > :20:01.say, and watch this bout of fighting.
:20:02. > :20:06.I think that means you have to have a pint! Thank you. In the last
:20:07. > :20:11.debate, and you may know a lot of facts and figures that were thrown
:20:12. > :20:16.out about Europe, immigration and jobs, it was quite hard sometimes
:20:17. > :20:19.for the audience to know where the truth lies. Anthony Rubin is the BBC
:20:20. > :20:24.fact checker and you have got a busy night ahead. Explain how it works
:20:25. > :20:29.and what to do because potentially these men could be throwing out a
:20:30. > :20:36.lot of statistics. Last week was an hour of nonstop fact flinging, so we
:20:37. > :20:39.have lined up pretty much everything they have said in the last six
:20:40. > :20:46.months together with where it came from and what the context is. And
:20:47. > :20:50.whether it is convincing. If you are watching at home and want to know
:20:51. > :20:55.whether you should be believing something, where it has come from,
:20:56. > :21:01.then you can go to the BBC website, find the live page, and we will be
:21:02. > :21:04.live fact checking. What you do is fascinating but sometimes tricky. If
:21:05. > :21:09.one person says a certain percentage of British laws are made in Brussels
:21:10. > :21:14.and not Westminster, that is quite a grey area to investigate. It is very
:21:15. > :21:18.difficult, so you have to consider whether you are counting statutes
:21:19. > :21:23.from Parliament or all regulations in the country, and if you have an
:21:24. > :21:28.entire act of Parliament, whether having one small part of it that
:21:29. > :21:33.relates to Europe counts as European legislation. We will try to unpick
:21:34. > :21:37.everything and get the context. Thank you. We will be talking again
:21:38. > :21:41.after eight o'clock. You have a busy period after seven o'clock but much
:21:42. > :21:47.later we will have another chat and try and work through what is thrown
:21:48. > :21:50.out. Thank you for being with us. Where are we? Goodness. About seven
:21:51. > :21:58.minutes to go before the debate gets under way. Coming live from the BBC
:21:59. > :22:03.Radio Theatre inside Broadcasting House, Nigel Farage and Nick Clegg.
:22:04. > :22:10.They arrived here about half an hour ago. And of course a reminder that
:22:11. > :22:14.100 members of the public have been selected to try to provide as much
:22:15. > :22:19.of a cross`section as possible, and the questions they put forward are
:22:20. > :22:22.selected to give a representative balance of all the thoughts and
:22:23. > :22:30.issues that people in the audience want to be discussing. We can talk
:22:31. > :22:36.now to Anne`Marie from BBC Trending. Good evening. A very busy
:22:37. > :22:40.evening for you as well. Talk us through the social media. People
:22:41. > :22:45.talk about it online all the time. Instant reaction? It is an
:22:46. > :22:49.interesting experience to watch this unfold on social media platforms. It
:22:50. > :22:54.is multifaceted. On the one hand media outlets are live, tweeting
:22:55. > :22:57.about it, and at the other time there are conversations about the
:22:58. > :23:03.subject raised during the debate and then the hashtags that arise
:23:04. > :23:04.Twitter. I have been looking at the statistics about the most popular
:23:05. > :23:27.hashtags. This one is gaining popularity again
:23:28. > :23:30.today, so interesting news for the hashtags and conversations around
:23:31. > :23:34.that. Interesting to look at the number of mentions that Mr Clegg at
:23:35. > :23:38.Mr Farage got online and Farage got more mentions after the last
:23:39. > :23:43.debate, but that is not necessarily him winning the debate in the eyes
:23:44. > :23:47.of people on Twitter. It is more about whether the topics were
:23:48. > :23:53.controversial or contentious. Some of it can be about personality,
:23:54. > :23:59.tone, style. It can be about a whole range of issues. And when you look
:24:00. > :24:01.at the tweets that were the most engaging and made the biggest
:24:02. > :24:04.impression, the parody pages on Twitter were actually the ones that
:24:05. > :24:09.people had the most conversations around. So the parity page for Queen
:24:10. > :24:21.Elizabeth, with over 1 million followers, `` joke page. She said
:24:22. > :24:26.she could not get a signal, and people were having fictitious
:24:27. > :24:33.conversations with the Queen, which people enjoyed. And the Fleet Street
:24:34. > :24:37.Fox, obviously a take on characters from The Simpsons. People want to be
:24:38. > :24:47.entertained as well as informed on social media. Very busy night ahead.
:24:48. > :24:50.Thank you for being with us. Let's hear what both the key men here had
:24:51. > :24:55.to say as they arrived for this debate. We were reflecting that Nick
:24:56. > :25:03.Clegg was saying he was looking forward to it. Do my best, all you
:25:04. > :25:07.can do in life. Confident? Well, I am confident that the majority of
:25:08. > :25:11.the British population want to have this debate, wants to have a say,
:25:12. > :25:16.and I think many will be quite shocked by some of the things that
:25:17. > :25:20.Nick Clegg said last week. How are the nerves? I am going to enjoy it,
:25:21. > :25:25.it is a big debate on an important issue and I am going to look forward
:25:26. > :25:34.to it. Will it get personal? I hope not. The issues are very important.
:25:35. > :25:39.Let's see what happens. As we go into this debate, at the top of the
:25:40. > :25:44.hour, let's try to reflect on all the people we have spoken to here
:25:45. > :25:51.today. And also everything they have said, which is necessary in the
:25:52. > :25:56.coming hour. The two men have an opportunity to put their case, if
:25:57. > :26:00.you like. They have a few minutes at seven o'clock, at the start of the
:26:01. > :26:06.hour, to put their case to the audience. The subject for discussion
:26:07. > :26:10.is the EU, Britain in or out. They will have their pre`prepared
:26:11. > :26:17.remarks, if you like, but crucially, then there are questions from the
:26:18. > :26:20.floor. It was interesting talking to David Dimbleby earlier. He is
:26:21. > :26:24.chairing this and he has chaired many debates in his life. He was
:26:25. > :26:30.reflecting on 190 carried out 40 years ago with two politicians. ``
:26:31. > :26:35.reflecting on one that he carried out. He said what is striking is
:26:36. > :26:38.that the issue has barely changed. Europe. As a nation we are still
:26:39. > :26:46.debating and agonising about the same issues, immigration, jobs,
:26:47. > :26:50.trade. It is fair to surmise that all of those issues will come up
:26:51. > :26:55.tonight. An awful lot of policy areas were covered in that first
:26:56. > :27:00.debate on LBC radio last week. A lot of talk about jobs and trade. Lots
:27:01. > :27:04.of fact checkers had to go to work quickly when Nick Clegg talked about
:27:05. > :27:09.3 million jobs being potentially at risk if Britain were to leave the
:27:10. > :27:13.EU. That in itself is debatable in terms of the specific number. I
:27:14. > :27:19.asked David Dimbleby if you thought all the topics were being covered,
:27:20. > :27:23.and he said what he was hoping as the chair of the event would be that
:27:24. > :27:28.the two men would get to grips even more with each other,
:27:29. > :27:32.metaphorically. That they would really take head on the other's
:27:33. > :27:38.arguments and statistics at the other was throwing out. That is what
:27:39. > :27:41.he hopes to hear. Also questions from the audience. After eight
:27:42. > :27:46.o'clock, we will be here with full analysis. We will go to the spin
:27:47. > :27:51.room with lots of politicians as well and I am looking forward to
:27:52. > :27:54.talking to some members of the audience as they leave the BBC Radio
:27:55. > :27:58.Theatre for the instant reactions tonight. We will find out what is
:27:59. > :28:02.being said on social media as well of course. Full coverage from eight
:28:03. > :28:10.o'clock throughout the night on BBC News. Now let's head inside to the
:28:11. > :28:18.BBC Radio Theatre for the live debate. Should Britain stay in the
:28:19. > :28:20.European Union? Tonight,