RadixJournal - November 25, 2015


Heart of Darkness


Episode Stats

Length

1 hour and 16 minutes

Words per Minute

138.8562

Word Count

10,658

Sentence Count

604

Misogynist Sentences

15

Hate Speech Sentences

82


Summary

Where were you during the 9/11 attacks? Where were you in the immediate aftermath of the Paris attacks? What was your reaction to the Charlie Hebdo attack? What did you think of the response to it? And did you share your thoughts on it?


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Adrian, welcome back to the show. How are you?
00:00:02.560 Thank you very much, Richard. Very well, all the better for speaking to you.
00:00:05.920 Well, thank you for that.
00:00:08.320 Well, where were you during the Paris attacks?
00:00:11.680 I guess this is the kind of question we ask.
00:00:14.900 Where were you when Kennedy was shot? Where were you on 9-11?
00:00:17.840 Where were you during these shocking Paris attacks?
00:00:21.840 Actually, in the depths of rural Surrey, about 40 miles south of London,
00:00:27.820 and I found out about it very late that evening, about midnight our time,
00:00:35.080 France is an hour ahead of us.
00:00:37.220 When I got back, I'd been seeing an old Cambridge friend down there,
00:00:41.180 and he told me this extraordinary news was coming through on his,
00:00:46.740 I think he still uses the BlackBerry, about what was going on.
00:00:50.620 That's interesting.
00:00:51.720 Remarkable times, yes.
00:00:53.040 I think I might have mentioned this on an earlier program I did,
00:00:56.560 but I had a kind of, a very post-modern experience.
00:01:01.760 They actually happened while I was flying to Seattle.
00:01:06.580 Really?
00:01:07.560 Yeah, so I got off the plane, and there was kind of something in the air,
00:01:11.000 and you could see these televisions where, you know,
00:01:13.920 they were on CNN on silent.
00:01:16.200 You'd see these headlines.
00:01:17.200 And then I started looking at my, you know, phone and saw what was going on.
00:01:23.660 And then I was actually having to do some shopping for this project.
00:01:28.540 I won't go into the details because I don't want to bore anyone.
00:01:31.300 But we were actually in IKEA, and, you know, IKEA is this, you know,
00:01:37.860 wonderful place of Nordic affordable luxury, I guess, and efficiency.
00:01:45.240 But it's also a very post-modern place.
00:01:47.600 It's a big box store of consumerism.
00:01:50.820 It's people of all different, certainly all different nationalities in the Seattle one.
00:01:56.560 And you see people who are Indian, you see white people, you see Asians,
00:02:01.360 you see a couple of blacks, even a couple of African-Americans are into IKEA,
00:02:07.360 believe it or not.
00:02:08.260 But we were kind of walking through this expression of the end of history,
00:02:15.140 of, you know, cheap, affordable luxury goods with all sorts of different people buying.
00:02:21.160 But everyone was kind of whispering things.
00:02:24.320 It was kind of on everyone's mind.
00:02:26.260 I thought it was a very, maybe it was something out of a Welbeck novel or something of,
00:02:31.840 you know, you're in the seat of luxury, but then there's terror going on outside.
00:02:36.840 It's like a Welbeck novel without the sex, I guess, unfortunately.
00:02:43.180 So anyway, it was actually, I mean, it seems rather mundane when I describe it,
00:02:46.740 but it's actually quite memorable.
00:02:48.220 There was something a little surreal about it.
00:02:50.480 Yes, it sounds like an extraordinary experience.
00:02:53.260 And as the old saying goes, did diversity vibrate for you?
00:02:57.580 Well, what are your thoughts about this?
00:03:05.060 I think we should just maybe start out with the big picture.
00:03:10.000 You know, when I spoke with my friend, Romain, who lives in Paris, actually,
00:03:14.560 in the tax, actually, a couple of them happened within walking distance of his apartment.
00:03:19.100 What we were saying is that, you know, a lot of these things, these events are significant,
00:03:26.620 not so much for what happens, but how everyone understands what happens.
00:03:31.960 And with the Charlie Hebdo shootings, it became this, you know, very typical and very shallow call for,
00:03:42.420 oh, we all support free speech and all this kind of stuff.
00:03:45.100 I don't think you can do something that shallow for this event.
00:03:49.600 I think this event, it seems to have a kind of raw quality, a civilizational quality to it.
00:03:57.180 And so I think, in a way, the only interpretation of it is that we are into something here.
00:04:03.960 We are deep in a civilizational crisis and maybe a civilizational conflict.
00:04:10.000 Yes, I agree with you.
00:04:11.040 I think that the Charlie Hebdo episode was certainly different.
00:04:15.940 Charlie Hebdo was actually a disgusting magazine.
00:04:19.400 It mocked religious beliefs that are very sincerely held.
00:04:24.920 It mocked Christian beliefs more than Muslim beliefs, actually, although it mocked Islam as well.
00:04:29.760 There was, of course, one religion that it didn't mock.
00:04:31.940 And if you mocked that religion, you were dismissed from the staff of Charlie Hebdo.
00:04:35.480 So some animals are more equal than others.
00:04:37.620 The Mormons continue to have a great deal of hedging.
00:04:41.020 Absolutely.
00:04:41.780 They and the Eskimos have a very, very special civilizational place.
00:04:45.960 They're above any form of criticism, sarcasm or mockery.
00:04:50.740 But two of the three great monotheistic religions are, of course, exposed to ridicule, satire and the insulting of their most cherished beliefs.
00:05:02.020 And that is supposed to be one of our freedoms.
00:05:03.920 Of course, do that in the third and you will be socially ostracized and utterly ruined.
00:05:11.100 But no, Charlie Hebdo was a repulsive, is a repulsive publication.
00:05:15.020 And its publishers had set about provoking the response that they endured.
00:05:24.040 That, I think, was perceived by the French and, indeed, by other people, but particularly by the French.
00:05:31.080 So it wasn't, in a sense, directly threatening.
00:05:34.940 It was the conclusion you draw from Charlie Hebdo is if you publish a magazine that sets out to provoke and insult Muslims, surprise, surprise, they might react.
00:05:44.940 Well, well, well.
00:05:45.700 Well, that, of course, is not a source of concern to ordinary people who don't set about insulting others' religious beliefs.
00:05:54.940 This was a random attack, killing hundreds as a deliberate campaign of terror.
00:06:06.200 And it did affect ordinary people.
00:06:08.220 That was the point.
00:06:09.360 It wasn't targeted against a vitriolic and unpleasant magazine.
00:06:14.700 It wasn't targeted against a political or other particular ethno-religious group, whatever.
00:06:22.620 It was targeted against anyone who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
00:06:27.840 And it has undoubtedly had an effect, a very serious effect.
00:06:33.380 All this nonsense about people standing firm for our shared values is so much old tripe.
00:06:39.440 In fact, it has terrified people, and it will change behavior patterns very, very significantly.
00:06:46.080 How do you think that will happen?
00:06:50.180 A lot like, I mean, we went through this with 9-11.
00:06:53.000 I think people have, in a way, kind of forgotten about a lot of those things.
00:06:56.520 People get on planes.
00:06:57.940 Everyone gets on the subway.
00:06:59.200 People go to the football matches and so on.
00:07:01.980 Do you think that this attack, and also just this sense that it's going to happen again?
00:07:07.480 I mean, this was a highly organized affair, that it just seems like this is going to be the new normal,
00:07:15.060 is that this happens every quarter or something.
00:07:17.520 Well, much may turn on that.
00:07:19.600 9-11 was an extraordinary event, but it has not been repeated.
00:07:29.220 Nothing of the kind has happened in North America since.
00:07:32.440 Now, how much impact the Paris atrocities will have may very well depend upon whether similar atrocities happen
00:07:43.760 either in France or in other European countries, again, in the reasonably near future.
00:07:50.520 As you say, shocking though 9-11 was, in the end, people got over it, if I can put it that way.
00:07:57.960 I mean, I visited New York earlier this year, and people, I think, were more concerned about a repeat
00:08:04.560 of the Ferguson-type Black Lives Matter riots in which people run amok and decide to trash any business
00:08:12.700 that happens to have anything worth stealing because somewhere a white cop has shot a black suspect.
00:08:21.280 That was much more of a concern to New Yorkers at the time, so far as I could see,
00:08:25.240 than a repetition of the 9-11 bombings which have faded to some extent into history.
00:08:31.100 These events will also fade into history if they're not repeated,
00:08:35.020 but the likelihood is that something similar will happen in another European country before too long.
00:08:40.260 I agree.
00:08:41.920 Have you noticed in, and I guess you could speak for England and Britain,
00:08:47.480 and then you could speak for Europe,
00:08:49.160 have you noticed a kind of turn in political consciousness?
00:08:53.880 I mean, there is certainly a lot of talk that the Front National is going to do quite well
00:08:58.400 in upcoming elections.
00:09:00.760 I believe they're regional elections, if that's correct.
00:09:02.900 Yeah, they're regional elections in France.
00:09:04.660 Well, the situation in France is a perfect storm from the Front National's point of view.
00:09:12.380 The president is a simpering Feebleton who looked utterly, completely shocked,
00:09:21.860 well, in one sense, understandably so,
00:09:24.020 but as if he had been bowled over, had no idea how to react to the events of last Friday.
00:09:33.160 He really is a dreadful political leader.
00:09:36.140 He makes Obama seem like Ulysses Grant.
00:09:41.460 He really does.
00:09:42.880 He is such a terrible president.
00:09:47.900 Marine Le Pen, on the other hand, came over very, very well indeed.
00:09:51.840 She made an extremely dignified statement,
00:09:54.380 which obviously was very sincere and came to the heart,
00:09:56.380 about how she shared the pain of those who'd lost loved ones in the massacre,
00:10:01.100 how she wept with France for her dead.
00:10:04.100 And she came over far, far better than the president.
00:10:07.740 There's no doubt that she looks like a president in waiting,
00:10:10.760 and Hollande looks like a jerk.
00:10:12.860 That, frankly, is a pathetic individual.
00:10:16.440 He's obviously unfit for the office that he holds.
00:10:20.400 The sinister person in France is his prime minister, Valls,
00:10:24.940 who is someone who would like to create a total surveillance state
00:10:30.380 inspired by left-wing ideology where dissent is equated to treason
00:10:37.520 and essentially all the things that the system wouldn't probably do
00:10:42.640 in its last throes and death agonies before finally expiring.
00:10:47.860 The point is, however, that it's probably all too late for such things, frankly, now.
00:10:53.620 The Socialist Party, in France, has no answers to the problems created
00:11:00.320 by decades and decades of policies of denial about what has been going on
00:11:08.340 in terms of demographic transformation of the country.
00:11:13.340 It is part of the problem.
00:11:15.260 It is not part of the solution.
00:11:16.880 It has nothing relevant to say,
00:11:18.600 and it is becoming increasingly apparent to millions and millions of French people
00:11:22.240 that the Socialist Party has nothing to contribute to the debate.
00:11:27.700 Do you see a kind of maybe a realignment,
00:11:31.040 a kind of collapse of that left?
00:11:34.020 Because sometimes these ideologies have a kind of staying power
00:11:37.960 where they can kind of mold and change.
00:11:41.720 I mean, certainly the left has gone through a number of different mutations
00:11:45.240 over the decade.
00:11:46.940 Or do you think this is a big shift?
00:11:49.140 Like, we're going to see the Front National is going to come out
00:11:51.300 of being this, you know, weird, beyond-the-pale third party or something,
00:11:57.220 and it's going to be something that's a legitimate party for middle-class people.
00:12:02.940 It came out beyond the pale a long time ago.
00:12:06.100 It's now probably the largest single party in France,
00:12:10.720 although that is partly due to the divisions in the ranks
00:12:13.700 of the establishment of conservative parties.
00:12:15.460 But what is particularly interesting in France
00:12:18.080 is that the Front National is now ripping into the white working-class vote.
00:12:23.060 It's been doing that for a long time.
00:12:26.000 And it's particularly, in the last 10 years,
00:12:30.240 it's been more and more successful in doing that
00:12:32.180 because it has added to its discourse against immigration
00:12:35.580 a relatively statist, welfarist discourse
00:12:39.440 which is deeply appealing to ordinary French people.
00:12:42.280 This will, of course, shock many rightists, libertarians,
00:12:46.680 Randians, and so on, in the United States.
00:12:50.140 And there is a genuine difference, I think,
00:12:52.880 of outlook between Americans and Europeans on this.
00:12:56.360 It's a legitimate difference.
00:12:58.440 Different peoples have different perspectives.
00:13:02.340 But undoubtedly, to the white working-class in France,
00:13:06.320 the Front National is increasingly the party of
00:13:08.560 not only national salvation but, frankly, of class salvation.
00:13:12.580 They perceive it as representing their interests.
00:13:15.580 They perceive the Socialist Party as representing the interests
00:13:18.920 of metropolitan elites that are alienated from the people
00:13:22.600 and of non-European immigrant groups
00:13:26.740 with whom they have absolutely nothing in common.
00:13:32.800 So, yes, things are changing.
00:13:39.600 They are changing very, very fast.
00:13:42.480 We can't know where this is going to end.
00:13:46.000 But it will not end well, I think, for the Socialist Party,
00:13:51.060 which is losing its grip upon the working-class vote.
00:13:55.140 By the million.
00:13:56.780 By the million.
00:13:58.580 That's very interesting.
00:13:59.880 Do you think these similar things are happening really across Europe?
00:14:05.500 I mean, maybe Germany is always kind of an exception due to its history,
00:14:10.180 where it seems like it's almost impossible for a real right
00:14:16.480 outside of the, you know, kind of Christian Democrats to arise there.
00:14:22.140 But elsewhere, you see a lot of these things.
00:14:24.520 The Swedish Democrats, from what I can tell,
00:14:27.620 are actually becoming a very powerful group and elsewhere.
00:14:32.080 At the same time, I've heard this before in my recent memory of,
00:14:36.780 this is it, the right's going to rise up, and so on and so forth.
00:14:40.500 But do you think it's real this time?
00:14:42.860 I think that the answer is it varies from country to country.
00:14:47.920 In France, the process is a very advanced stage.
00:14:52.340 The Front National is probably the most professional,
00:14:57.480 the most successful, the most credible nationalist party in Europe.
00:15:02.200 And really, it has much to teach others.
00:15:05.160 Likewise, in Austria, the Freedom Party has made enormous progress
00:15:09.300 and is, again, polling well over 30% of the vote across the country.
00:15:15.100 The Swedish Democrats, as you rightly say,
00:15:17.220 they have truly emerged from nowhere.
00:15:18.880 Ten years ago, they were a marginal party with minimal support.
00:15:23.540 They're now serious players in the political game.
00:15:26.740 As far as Germany is concerned, I agree there are particular problems.
00:15:30.480 There is a historical, obviously, background,
00:15:36.400 which is, to say the least, not conducive to the emergence of a right-wing populist party
00:15:46.200 because of things that happened in German history in the past.
00:15:50.840 What is interesting in Germany is the emergence of the Alternative für Deutschland,
00:15:56.100 which I regard as a much, much more serious and credible candidate
00:16:02.200 for the role of oppositional populist and rightist party
00:16:06.460 than the much longer established National Democrats
00:16:10.480 who are a marginalised and fringy neo-Nazi-type group
00:16:14.540 thoroughly penetrated by the security service
00:16:16.860 and consisting largely of its agent provocateur,
00:16:20.300 who I would tend personally to discount altogether as a political force.
00:16:25.780 They have no real credibility amongst the German people
00:16:28.920 and count for nothing.
00:16:32.720 The AFD is a much more serious party.
00:16:37.160 Also interesting there is the increasing disenchantment
00:16:41.180 of the Bavarian CSU with Angela Merkel's CDU party,
00:16:46.060 their long-term coalition allies.
00:16:48.400 They have truly had enough of Angela,
00:16:51.580 who is a seriously, in my view, mentally ill woman.
00:16:59.980 She is infected with intellectual syphilis and spiritual aids
00:17:08.020 in the form of liberalism in a very advanced degree
00:17:10.700 and demonstrates in her person all the things
00:17:13.840 that are sickest and most unhealthy in the modern European psyche.
00:17:18.820 She really needs an appointment with Comrade O'Brien
00:17:23.780 and the rat helmet in the cellars of the Ministry of Love
00:17:26.700 very, very soon in an attempt to cure her.
00:17:29.260 I honestly cannot think that there is any other way
00:17:31.780 in which she could be cured.
00:17:33.120 That might work, but we'd really have to try that, I think.
00:17:37.080 She's a very, very sick individual.
00:17:40.720 She is totally given over to ethnomasochism,
00:17:47.000 to self-hate, to a desire to destroy her own country and people
00:17:54.500 so far as I can see.
00:17:56.100 I mean, she is truly mentally ill and pathological.
00:17:58.700 She's actually a very good photographic negative
00:18:04.180 of the ultra-nationalist.
00:18:06.900 She has many of the same characteristics
00:18:10.240 of the very people who she hates.
00:18:15.060 If you like, swivel around 180 degrees
00:18:17.300 or put through a photographic negative
00:18:19.400 so that for her, it would seem
00:18:23.700 the idea of virtue consists of
00:18:28.740 loving every people but your own,
00:18:31.680 welcoming the stranger, the alien,
00:18:35.220 the person who has nothing to do with you.
00:18:39.820 Effectively, countenancing the displacement
00:18:42.380 of your own people,
00:18:45.140 their replacement in their own country
00:18:47.560 by aliens who have nothing to do with Germany,
00:18:52.120 culturally, historically, ethnically,
00:18:54.840 linguistically, religiously, or in any other way.
00:18:57.220 She is essentially pathological.
00:19:00.760 She is as pathological as the most rabid Nazi.
00:19:06.520 She truly is.
00:19:08.000 Just as, for example, for the craziest National Socialists,
00:19:12.500 other European peoples, Russians, Poles, Czechs,
00:19:15.820 or whatever, were subhumans,
00:19:18.520 even though they were to the naked eye,
00:19:21.200 utterly indistinguishable from the Germans,
00:19:23.560 and appeared to have reached a high cultural level
00:19:25.580 and be a civilized European peoples.
00:19:27.820 And just as I say,
00:19:28.640 it's the most insane of the National Socialists.
00:19:32.360 Every other European nation
00:19:34.560 would be treated virtually as untermension
00:19:36.460 and beasts and whatever.
00:19:38.820 So to her, every other people
00:19:40.660 is more virtuous than her own
00:19:42.580 and to be preferred to her own in every way
00:19:44.960 to be invited to come to Germany
00:19:48.340 and in effect replace her own people.
00:19:50.360 It's a similar kind of extremism.
00:19:53.760 Funnily enough, in this respect,
00:19:55.580 it's not funny and it's not amusing,
00:19:59.920 but it's ironic, I suppose.
00:20:03.040 It could be said that as we all become
00:20:07.080 like the thing we hate,
00:20:08.380 so in a sense has she,
00:20:10.300 she has become a mirror image
00:20:12.760 of the thing she most hates.
00:20:15.360 Yeah, I think what you're saying
00:20:16.260 is actually quite insightful.
00:20:17.700 It's interesting.
00:20:18.560 I'll put a link to this.
00:20:20.300 I did an interview with Manuel Oxenreiter
00:20:22.960 and he actually gave a...
00:20:24.460 He's a very interesting man.
00:20:26.400 Yeah, very interesting man.
00:20:27.740 He actually gave a different portrait.
00:20:30.200 He almost portrayed Merkel
00:20:31.540 as this hollow mensch
00:20:34.460 who has no ideology
00:20:36.940 and kind of tries to absorb all ideologies.
00:20:39.680 But I think I might actually agree
00:20:42.460 with your view of her
00:20:43.640 that she's almost this photographic negative
00:20:45.800 of a nationalist.
00:20:47.020 It's interesting.
00:20:47.540 I remember when I was discussing
00:20:49.120 some of these things in graduate school
00:20:51.020 and we were talking about things
00:20:52.860 like the Sonderweig thesis,
00:20:54.860 which is this...
00:20:56.020 It was actually originally a liberal idea.
00:20:58.400 It was that Germany had a peculiar path
00:21:01.100 into modernity
00:21:01.880 and kind of married some things
00:21:04.080 that were seemingly incompatible
00:21:06.760 like industrialization and the bourgeoisie
00:21:09.600 and also a kind of sense of home
00:21:12.940 and nature and tradition and so on.
00:21:16.620 And that morphed into something very different.
00:21:19.740 It morphed into a kind of Nazi concept
00:21:21.540 of German supremacy
00:21:24.240 from Luther to Hitler.
00:21:26.600 Everything was leading to Hitler.
00:21:28.660 And in this funny way,
00:21:30.220 the generation that came after Hitler
00:21:32.440 never overcame that
00:21:34.760 or never really changed their mind.
00:21:36.820 They just changed how they thought about it.
00:21:38.680 So they almost do believe,
00:21:41.020 they agree with Hitler
00:21:42.120 that Martin Luther was just a preface
00:21:45.660 to National Socialism,
00:21:47.200 that all of German history
00:21:48.420 is leading in one direction
00:21:50.340 and that is towards evil.
00:21:52.500 It's a funny thing
00:21:53.960 because it's very funny.
00:21:55.380 It's kind of like it's this,
00:21:56.980 you're becoming your father,
00:21:58.780 even though you're trying to rebel against him.
00:22:01.380 It is quite extraordinary
00:22:03.200 that some 70 years
00:22:06.780 after the end of the Second World War,
00:22:08.420 there are people,
00:22:10.080 and Merkel is one who was born
00:22:12.400 some years after that war had ended,
00:22:15.400 who are still incapable
00:22:18.160 of moving on
00:22:20.480 from the ideological struggles
00:22:22.100 of that period.
00:22:24.060 I'm going to admire
00:22:24.860 a German National Socialism.
00:22:26.420 It led to horrific war,
00:22:32.160 the deaths of millions and millions of people,
00:22:34.360 and from the point of view,
00:22:35.700 the Germans themselves,
00:22:36.500 the frustration of their country's
00:22:38.140 occupation and division by foreigners,
00:22:40.580 their national humiliation.
00:22:43.840 It was an absolute catastrophe.
00:22:46.180 and I therefore can say
00:22:53.280 that I have no particular regard
00:22:59.280 for that regime,
00:23:00.400 rather than the contrary.
00:23:01.340 As I said,
00:23:01.680 I think it was ultimately a disaster
00:23:03.040 for the country that it led.
00:23:04.360 But nevertheless,
00:23:07.360 it represents 12 years
00:23:09.540 out of German history,
00:23:11.720 which goes back,
00:23:13.440 well,
00:23:13.960 thousands of years.
00:23:15.060 Now,
00:23:16.080 you can't possibly
00:23:18.820 judge a nation
00:23:20.640 by that period.
00:23:22.400 Right.
00:23:23.020 Nor indeed
00:23:24.300 can you understand
00:23:26.320 the National Socialist Regime
00:23:28.160 and the things it did
00:23:29.680 wrong,
00:23:31.300 though they were,
00:23:32.660 without putting them
00:23:33.680 into the context
00:23:34.680 of the Versailles Peace Settlement
00:23:36.340 and all the injuries
00:23:37.660 inflicted upon the Germans
00:23:38.880 by the victors in 1918.
00:23:41.280 So,
00:23:42.160 this kind of ethnomasochistic discourse
00:23:44.920 to which Merkel
00:23:45.840 subscribes
00:23:47.640 is just completely crazy.
00:23:50.020 But none of this would matter
00:23:51.900 were it not the fact
00:23:52.760 that this,
00:23:53.780 to my mind,
00:23:54.780 mentally and morally
00:23:55.900 disordered woman
00:23:56.980 is perhaps the most powerful
00:23:58.520 person in Europe.
00:24:00.160 She has this year
00:24:01.940 invited a million
00:24:04.200 so-called refugees
00:24:06.680 from Syria
00:24:08.680 into her country.
00:24:11.800 I think it's much more than that.
00:24:13.460 It may well be more.
00:24:14.300 The original figure
00:24:15.320 was 800,000.
00:24:16.420 I think they're talking
00:24:17.120 about a million six,
00:24:18.860 two million.
00:24:20.000 No one knows.
00:24:21.100 One of the things
00:24:23.380 that's coming out
00:24:24.420 even today
00:24:25.480 in the British press
00:24:26.720 is that the perpetrator
00:24:31.040 or the ringleader
00:24:31.680 of the Paris atrocities
00:24:32.660 had travelled backwards
00:24:33.460 and forwards
00:24:33.940 between France and Syria
00:24:35.000 several times
00:24:36.080 without being detected
00:24:37.480 by any of the security services,
00:24:39.340 even though he was
00:24:39.920 one of the most wanted
00:24:40.680 Islamists in Europe.
00:24:42.300 Now,
00:24:42.800 if that man
00:24:44.820 could do that,
00:24:46.560 it makes you wonder
00:24:49.500 how many people
00:24:50.260 are crossing borders.
00:24:51.560 No one really knows.
00:24:54.180 Well,
00:24:54.700 I think actually
00:24:55.420 there's even something worse
00:24:58.060 and that is that
00:24:58.860 I believe it was
00:25:00.000 between one and two
00:25:01.540 of the Paris attackers
00:25:03.700 had some involvement
00:25:06.760 in the refugee crisis.
00:25:08.780 And in a way,
00:25:09.500 this is a...
00:25:10.500 I think in a way
00:25:11.340 the refugee crisis,
00:25:12.580 as terrible as it is,
00:25:14.180 I think in a way
00:25:15.120 it's a kind of convenient way
00:25:17.580 that we can not think
00:25:18.780 about the real problem
00:25:19.740 because we can say,
00:25:20.480 oh,
00:25:21.120 you know,
00:25:21.460 in America
00:25:22.140 all these governors
00:25:23.040 are saying
00:25:23.460 we don't want the Syrians
00:25:24.620 or we only want
00:25:25.800 the Syrian Christians.
00:25:26.760 They're doing all this
00:25:27.680 kind of stuff.
00:25:28.680 The fact is
00:25:29.560 most of these attackers
00:25:30.960 were French citizens.
00:25:33.240 So,
00:25:33.880 I think in some ways
00:25:35.200 people are avoiding
00:25:36.180 the much deeper
00:25:37.780 and more impactful
00:25:39.840 and profound question
00:25:41.400 which is,
00:25:42.500 and I did a quick blog
00:25:43.860 in this,
00:25:44.540 I think much more
00:25:45.680 needs to be written on it,
00:25:46.660 but it's what is the meaning
00:25:47.960 of citizenship
00:25:48.700 at this point?
00:25:49.940 I mean,
00:25:50.160 that notion of the citizen
00:25:52.120 was deified
00:25:54.160 during the French Revolution
00:25:55.840 and it was,
00:25:56.880 it was,
00:25:57.940 it was a kind of idea
00:25:58.960 whose time had come.
00:26:00.120 It was a new concept.
00:26:02.800 There's a lot about that
00:26:04.820 that's admirable,
00:26:06.680 but I think in a way
00:26:08.360 we're seeing the passing
00:26:09.920 of,
00:26:10.580 we're at the end
00:26:11.680 of that era.
00:26:12.240 We're at the end
00:26:13.120 of this post-revolutionary
00:26:14.720 liberal era
00:26:15.480 where I think
00:26:16.380 that notion
00:26:16.980 of the citizen
00:26:17.900 is breaking down.
00:26:19.380 I mean,
00:26:19.600 what does it even mean
00:26:21.620 to be French
00:26:22.540 if,
00:26:23.840 you know,
00:26:24.560 if these people
00:26:26.180 who are engaged
00:26:27.100 in these terror attacks
00:26:28.140 are French?
00:26:28.720 I mean,
00:26:28.980 what does it mean
00:26:29.740 to be American
00:26:30.460 at this point?
00:26:32.120 You know,
00:26:32.340 I mean,
00:26:32.520 people might have some,
00:26:33.780 when you say America,
00:26:35.020 they might have some
00:26:35.700 motion in their head
00:26:37.140 of picket fence
00:26:38.400 and some white family
00:26:41.640 smiling into a camera
00:26:43.180 with a hot dog
00:26:44.440 and a barbecue
00:26:45.020 or something.
00:26:45.920 But that kind of thing
00:26:47.040 is breaking down.
00:26:47.980 I mean,
00:26:48.260 what does it mean
00:26:49.580 to be American?
00:26:50.360 I don't even know.
00:26:52.160 And so I think
00:26:52.920 this whole notion
00:26:53.720 of a citizen
00:26:54.900 has actually been
00:26:55.800 brought into question
00:26:56.920 by all this.
00:26:58.280 Well,
00:26:58.620 this is one
00:27:00.080 of the great issues
00:27:01.040 for the future.
00:27:04.320 In European countries
00:27:05.740 at present,
00:27:06.920 we have an idea
00:27:08.080 of nationality
00:27:09.180 in most countries
00:27:10.300 at any rate.
00:27:11.180 It's based upon
00:27:12.040 a legal fiction.
00:27:13.700 What is actually
00:27:14.400 very interesting
00:27:15.580 is that many
00:27:16.180 of the perpetrators
00:27:17.060 of the Paris attacks
00:27:18.200 were not French citizens.
00:27:20.660 They were Belgian citizens.
00:27:23.520 Now,
00:27:23.640 this is particularly
00:27:24.940 extraordinary
00:27:25.860 as they are
00:27:27.160 of North African descent.
00:27:30.100 And Belgium
00:27:30.860 was never the colonial power
00:27:32.480 in North Africa.
00:27:33.460 France was.
00:27:34.220 The Belgians
00:27:34.660 had their colony
00:27:35.680 in hell holes
00:27:36.740 such as the Congo
00:27:38.000 and other such places.
00:27:42.300 What is now Zaire,
00:27:45.200 Rwanda, Burundi.
00:27:47.760 They had their
00:27:48.960 African empire,
00:27:50.440 which incidentally
00:27:51.220 they ruled
00:27:51.600 with considerable brutality
00:27:53.060 and very,
00:27:53.700 very great severity.
00:27:56.460 I always liked
00:27:58.020 Conrad's book
00:27:58.880 The Heart of Darkness,
00:28:01.140 in which the company
00:28:02.820 that's running
00:28:03.260 the rubber plantations
00:28:04.340 with slave labor
00:28:05.120 where you get
00:28:05.480 your limb lopped off
00:28:06.380 if you don't work
00:28:07.200 hard enough.
00:28:07.740 It's La Societe
00:28:08.500 Générale de Belgique,
00:28:09.940 which owns about
00:28:10.880 a third of the Belgian
00:28:11.720 economy and whose principal
00:28:13.000 shareholder was the
00:28:13.760 Belgian royal family.
00:28:15.540 That's how I run things
00:28:17.320 in my operations,
00:28:18.760 but some people
00:28:19.580 find that severe.
00:28:20.440 Leopold King of the Belgians
00:28:23.820 was anxious to encourage
00:28:25.600 high levels of production
00:28:27.400 on his rubber plantations
00:28:29.120 and, well,
00:28:30.480 sometimes,
00:28:31.620 as Catbert,
00:28:32.500 evil director of human
00:28:33.580 resources in the Dilbert
00:28:34.760 cartoons will tell you,
00:28:35.880 it is necessary to brand
00:28:36.900 the employees with
00:28:37.760 hot irons in order
00:28:38.640 to encourage them
00:28:39.440 to high levels
00:28:39.980 of productivity,
00:28:40.600 but they were never,
00:28:42.800 although they ran
00:28:43.420 the African empire
00:28:44.440 with methods
00:28:46.020 that were certainly
00:28:47.060 not those used
00:28:47.860 in my old Kentucky home,
00:28:50.760 they had nothing
00:28:52.500 to do with the
00:28:53.960 North African colonies
00:28:55.580 that were entirely French
00:28:56.880 from which most
00:28:57.680 of the current terrorists
00:28:59.600 and perpetrators
00:29:00.440 of mass murder
00:29:01.220 in Europe
00:29:01.600 appear to be drawn.
00:29:02.420 And one asks oneself,
00:29:05.380 how did these persons
00:29:06.400 ever acquire
00:29:07.120 Belgian nationality?
00:29:09.520 Presumably they just
00:29:10.200 nipped across the border
00:29:11.560 and settled in one
00:29:12.560 of the immigrant ghettos
00:29:13.760 in various Belgian cities
00:29:15.480 where you won't be able
00:29:16.800 to find a Belgian
00:29:17.500 terribly easily
00:29:18.500 because they're now
00:29:20.960 entirely North African
00:29:23.340 immigrant ghettos.
00:29:25.960 But it shows
00:29:28.120 that legal nationality
00:29:29.980 has become completely
00:29:31.400 divorced from
00:29:32.620 the reality
00:29:33.620 of nationality
00:29:34.380 in Europe.
00:29:34.880 It brings me to
00:29:35.780 a very interesting
00:29:37.160 question.
00:29:37.960 One of the issues
00:29:40.480 is going to have
00:29:40.920 to be considered
00:29:42.160 in the long term.
00:29:44.140 And it's at present
00:29:44.940 quite unthinkable
00:29:46.060 to say this in Europe.
00:29:47.640 I suspect that even
00:29:48.400 the most,
00:29:50.700 what can I say,
00:29:52.680 the most serious
00:29:54.400 nationalist parties
00:29:55.080 in Europe
00:29:55.380 would be reluctant
00:29:56.960 to broach this subject
00:29:58.680 publicly,
00:30:00.240 though many of them
00:30:00.940 are no doubt
00:30:01.400 thinking it privately,
00:30:02.720 but since we're
00:30:04.180 talking about ideas,
00:30:05.480 let's talk about ideas.
00:30:07.920 One of the things
00:30:08.780 that we're going
00:30:09.540 to have to consider
00:30:10.280 is redefining
00:30:11.380 the whole concept
00:30:13.160 of nationality
00:30:14.420 along lines
00:30:17.340 that bear some
00:30:18.480 relationship
00:30:19.560 to reality
00:30:21.440 instead of fantasy.
00:30:23.100 the British Empire
00:30:26.840 once covered
00:30:28.400 about a quarter
00:30:29.040 of the globe.
00:30:30.540 The French Empire,
00:30:31.640 though smaller,
00:30:32.180 wasn't actually
00:30:32.640 that much smaller
00:30:33.500 in a geographical
00:30:34.080 extent.
00:30:34.520 It was also
00:30:34.860 a huge empire.
00:30:36.320 Small European states,
00:30:37.560 Belgium and Holland,
00:30:39.280 had quite substantial
00:30:40.640 empires of their own.
00:30:42.120 Every European country
00:30:43.420 pretty well
00:30:43.980 had an empire
00:30:45.200 with the possible
00:30:45.760 exception of
00:30:46.440 Scandinavian countries.
00:30:48.000 the reality
00:30:52.100 is that we have
00:30:53.760 shared our nationality
00:30:55.060 with people
00:30:55.520 who have,
00:30:56.480 in truth,
00:30:57.220 nothing really
00:30:58.260 in common with us
00:30:59.260 beyond the fact
00:30:59.920 that once upon a time,
00:31:00.980 long ago,
00:31:01.600 we were their
00:31:02.080 colonial overlords.
00:31:03.860 That time has long
00:31:05.100 since passed.
00:31:06.060 Before I was born,
00:31:07.340 and I have turned 50,
00:31:08.780 I regret to say,
00:31:09.940 in the case of
00:31:10.540 most British colonies,
00:31:13.080 we had substantially
00:31:14.640 decolonialized
00:31:16.720 by the mid-1960s
00:31:18.560 the French
00:31:19.360 by about the same period.
00:31:21.600 There is no reason
00:31:22.940 why we should share
00:31:23.900 our nationality
00:31:24.700 with a quarter
00:31:25.220 of the globe,
00:31:25.900 and one of the things
00:31:26.620 that needs to be looked at
00:31:27.640 is people who have
00:31:28.560 acquired British
00:31:29.600 or French
00:31:30.300 or Belgian
00:31:30.980 or other European
00:31:31.900 nationalities
00:31:32.620 by legal fiction,
00:31:34.260 but who have no real
00:31:35.580 connection with those
00:31:36.580 countries beyond
00:31:37.520 the historical accident
00:31:38.760 that once upon a time
00:31:39.780 they were their
00:31:40.280 colonial masters.
00:31:42.180 People who essentially
00:31:44.300 hate those countries,
00:31:45.640 although they live in them
00:31:46.540 and are happy enough
00:31:47.200 to draw welfare
00:31:48.160 and other benefits
00:31:49.180 from them,
00:31:50.820 will need in the end
00:31:52.680 to be stripped
00:31:53.320 of their legal nationality,
00:31:55.180 frankly,
00:31:55.560 not to make too fine
00:31:56.300 a point of it.
00:31:57.820 You cannot have,
00:31:59.640 living in your society,
00:32:01.000 millions of people
00:32:02.080 who are different
00:32:03.420 from you
00:32:04.240 in every way.
00:32:05.720 They're different
00:32:06.260 in ethnicity,
00:32:08.500 they're different
00:32:09.220 in religion,
00:32:10.980 they're different
00:32:11.480 in culture,
00:32:12.340 they're increasingly
00:32:12.980 different in language.
00:32:15.500 There are more
00:32:16.120 and more places now
00:32:17.560 where the language
00:32:18.980 of the country
00:32:19.960 is no longer really
00:32:21.440 the language
00:32:22.540 of the people
00:32:23.120 who live in a particular area.
00:32:25.060 They'll transact
00:32:25.780 all their business
00:32:26.820 in Arabic
00:32:27.700 or in an African language
00:32:30.900 or in some Asian language.
00:32:35.040 In America,
00:32:35.780 I know you have
00:32:36.440 this phenomenon
00:32:37.100 with Mexicans,
00:32:38.380 for example,
00:32:39.360 where you have
00:32:39.760 effectively monolingual
00:32:41.540 communities
00:32:44.280 where that single language
00:32:45.500 is Spanish
00:32:46.240 or what passes
00:32:48.520 for Spanish in Mexico,
00:32:49.700 which is not something
00:32:50.780 that most Spaniards
00:32:51.600 would consider
00:32:52.060 to be Spanish,
00:32:52.920 but leave that aside.
00:32:56.500 It's a phenomenon
00:32:58.120 really of reverse colonialism.
00:32:59.480 Now,
00:33:01.600 what will have
00:33:03.120 to be considered
00:33:03.900 and it's presently
00:33:05.380 unthinkable
00:33:06.020 and it will have
00:33:06.420 to be considered
00:33:06.800 in the future
00:33:07.460 is completely redefining
00:33:09.380 our law of nationality
00:33:10.760 and saying
00:33:12.620 that only those
00:33:13.520 who are members
00:33:14.140 of our community,
00:33:16.020 that's those
00:33:16.920 who share
00:33:17.300 common descent,
00:33:18.820 a common heritage
00:33:19.720 and history,
00:33:21.440 can be citizens
00:33:23.580 of the state.
00:33:24.520 We are a long way
00:33:25.440 from reaching
00:33:26.740 a situation
00:33:28.360 where that reform,
00:33:29.560 which I consider
00:33:30.260 to be in the end
00:33:31.000 absolutely necessary,
00:33:32.480 the redefinition
00:33:33.640 of nationality
00:33:34.720 along the lines
00:33:36.620 that bear some
00:33:37.380 relationship
00:33:38.320 to reality,
00:33:39.200 happens.
00:33:39.820 But one of the
00:33:41.200 consequences
00:33:41.700 of the unhappy events
00:33:42.920 of a week ago
00:33:44.360 is that several
00:33:45.960 million,
00:33:47.060 tens of millions,
00:33:48.100 maybe hundreds of millions
00:33:48.960 of Europeans
00:33:49.460 have come a little bit
00:33:50.220 closer to thinking that.
00:33:53.160 I think that thought,
00:33:54.960 which is, again,
00:33:56.060 totally outrageous
00:33:57.120 from the perspective
00:33:58.380 of mainstream
00:33:59.640 conservatives
00:34:00.380 and liberals,
00:34:01.800 I think that thought
00:34:02.920 is going to have
00:34:04.920 to become mainstream
00:34:05.900 within our lifetimes.
00:34:08.220 And it is an idea
00:34:10.140 whose time will come.
00:34:12.700 And I think it's actually,
00:34:14.260 it might even be bigger,
00:34:15.920 it might be more revolutionary
00:34:17.660 than the way
00:34:18.480 you're depicting it.
00:34:19.440 Because I think
00:34:21.340 the nation state
00:34:22.380 as it is,
00:34:24.620 is in a way
00:34:25.420 too big
00:34:26.540 and too small.
00:34:29.340 It's encompassing
00:34:31.440 all of these
00:34:32.720 different people
00:34:33.380 where, you know,
00:34:33.960 what does it mean
00:34:35.000 to be an American?
00:34:35.900 You know,
00:34:36.060 basically nothing.
00:34:37.080 It's,
00:34:37.640 you passed a civics exam
00:34:39.340 or you've filled out
00:34:40.940 a form,
00:34:41.600 effectively.
00:34:42.960 But at the same time,
00:34:45.100 in a way,
00:34:46.200 what does it mean
00:34:47.140 to be a Czech?
00:34:48.620 Or what does it mean
00:34:49.200 to be French?
00:34:50.940 And those things
00:34:52.000 are in a way
00:34:52.400 too small.
00:34:53.500 They don't
00:34:55.020 encapsulate
00:34:56.240 this civilizational question.
00:34:58.320 I think we're going
00:34:59.240 to have to rethink
00:35:00.380 even more.
00:35:01.060 I think we're going
00:35:01.460 to have to rethink
00:35:02.120 the nation state
00:35:02.960 and things like that.
00:35:05.100 Because the way
00:35:06.140 history is pushing us
00:35:08.620 is towards,
00:35:10.640 you know,
00:35:11.060 understanding ourselves
00:35:12.140 as a race
00:35:13.260 and civilization.
00:35:14.880 Yes.
00:35:15.460 Well,
00:35:15.720 I agree with you
00:35:16.380 about that.
00:35:16.840 That's a very,
00:35:17.480 very complex issue.
00:35:19.200 some of the nations,
00:35:21.600 the nation states
00:35:22.280 of Europe
00:35:22.540 are very ancient.
00:35:23.560 The two that are
00:35:24.020 really very ancient
00:35:24.760 are England
00:35:25.220 and France.
00:35:26.860 England became
00:35:28.680 recognizably
00:35:30.060 a nation,
00:35:31.320 assisted,
00:35:31.920 of course,
00:35:32.220 by the fact
00:35:33.000 that it was
00:35:34.260 an island.
00:35:37.260 Long,
00:35:37.900 long ago,
00:35:40.020 long before
00:35:40.860 the Norman Conquest,
00:35:42.540 by,
00:35:43.320 by,
00:35:43.940 well before
00:35:44.360 the year 1000,
00:35:45.720 there was
00:35:46.340 an English state
00:35:48.180 recognising
00:35:48.860 the English state.
00:35:50.140 Really,
00:35:50.820 Alfred the Great
00:35:52.120 created the English state
00:35:53.520 by welding together
00:35:54.580 the seven disparate
00:35:55.720 kingdoms of
00:35:56.420 Anglo-Saxon England
00:35:58.240 in a kind of
00:36:00.520 resistant front
00:36:01.500 to Danish
00:36:02.080 and Norwegian
00:36:03.200 Viking invaders
00:36:04.600 who'd conquered
00:36:05.240 the larger part
00:36:06.220 of the country.
00:36:08.160 And the idea
00:36:09.260 of Englishness
00:36:10.080 as a national identity
00:36:11.400 emerged so long ago
00:36:12.900 as that
00:36:13.460 in opposition
00:36:14.380 to the Viking invaders.
00:36:15.980 France again
00:36:17.940 emerged as a
00:36:19.060 nation-state
00:36:19.820 a very long
00:36:20.960 time ago
00:36:22.200 under the
00:36:23.920 influence
00:36:24.640 of the French
00:36:25.400 Royal House
00:36:26.340 and its
00:36:27.380 ambitions,
00:36:28.320 originally in a
00:36:29.020 fairly small
00:36:29.820 territory around
00:36:30.880 Paris,
00:36:31.480 but later
00:36:31.980 encompassing
00:36:33.280 more and more
00:36:34.100 territory.
00:36:35.280 Now,
00:36:35.520 that is certainly
00:36:36.240 not the case
00:36:37.540 of other
00:36:38.260 European nations.
00:36:40.560 The next
00:36:41.440 to emerge
00:36:41.960 were the
00:36:42.220 Iberian nations.
00:36:43.620 Spain only
00:36:45.580 really
00:36:46.500 came to be
00:36:49.100 as a
00:36:49.560 nation-state
00:36:50.380 with the
00:36:50.800 union of
00:36:51.700 Aragon and
00:36:52.400 Castile
00:36:53.120 in the
00:36:53.540 15th century.
00:36:55.140 Before then,
00:36:55.760 it had been
00:36:56.400 several Christian
00:36:57.400 kingdoms and
00:36:57.980 indeed several
00:36:58.520 Moorish Muslim
00:36:59.240 kingdoms
00:36:59.680 constantly
00:37:00.140 a war with
00:37:00.640 one another.
00:37:02.320 The other
00:37:03.100 European nations
00:37:03.920 outside Iberia
00:37:05.000 emerged even
00:37:05.720 later.
00:37:06.140 Spain and
00:37:06.480 Portugal,
00:37:06.820 again,
00:37:07.140 are quite
00:37:07.540 old nations
00:37:08.780 relatively speaking.
00:37:09.940 Germany and
00:37:10.400 Italy,
00:37:10.720 for example,
00:37:11.260 are not.
00:37:11.820 Germany as
00:37:14.900 a nation-state
00:37:15.880 really only
00:37:17.540 emerged in
00:37:18.660 the later
00:37:19.040 parts of
00:37:19.440 the 19th
00:37:19.820 century as
00:37:21.660 Italy.
00:37:23.140 There had
00:37:23.600 been no
00:37:24.100 concept since
00:37:26.320 well.
00:37:27.220 Well,
00:37:27.440 there had
00:37:27.820 been a
00:37:28.160 concept of
00:37:28.940 a German.
00:37:29.620 I mean,
00:37:29.880 the word
00:37:30.440 German,
00:37:31.140 Deutsch,
00:37:31.960 is much
00:37:32.900 older than
00:37:33.360 that.
00:37:33.780 There had
00:37:35.280 been a
00:37:35.600 concept of
00:37:36.460 a different
00:37:37.460 kind of
00:37:38.000 nationality.
00:37:38.640 I think
00:37:39.200 this is
00:37:39.620 where,
00:37:39.960 you know,
00:37:40.940 and sometimes
00:37:41.440 language fails
00:37:42.460 us because
00:37:43.100 you will use
00:37:44.520 words like
00:37:45.040 Germany and
00:37:45.920 we'll have
00:37:46.280 this notion
00:37:47.180 of what that
00:37:47.660 means.
00:37:48.340 But actually,
00:37:49.240 it's different.
00:37:49.960 It can have
00:37:50.300 different resonances.
00:37:51.860 It did,
00:37:52.320 but in a
00:37:52.520 different way.
00:37:53.020 For example,
00:37:53.500 in ancient
00:37:54.140 Greece,
00:37:56.700 a Spartan,
00:37:57.820 an Athenian,
00:37:58.520 a Theban,
00:37:59.080 a Corinthian,
00:38:00.200 would all,
00:38:01.140 at another
00:38:01.660 level,
00:38:02.200 think of
00:38:02.520 themselves as
00:38:03.160 Greeks.
00:38:03.960 But their
00:38:04.640 primary loyalty
00:38:05.560 would be to
00:38:06.180 their city-state.
00:38:07.280 So I
00:38:09.040 agree,
00:38:09.960 in Germany,
00:38:10.700 long before
00:38:11.280 Bismarck's
00:38:11.960 time,
00:38:12.880 there was
00:38:13.140 a certain
00:38:13.800 sense of
00:38:15.100 cultural
00:38:15.680 unity,
00:38:16.920 but there
00:38:17.700 was no
00:38:18.440 political
00:38:19.320 unity,
00:38:20.240 and ever
00:38:21.400 since the
00:38:21.860 Reformation,
00:38:22.680 Germany had
00:38:23.160 been bitterly
00:38:24.280 fractured and
00:38:25.060 divided along
00:38:25.860 religious lines
00:38:26.860 with rival
00:38:27.600 power centres
00:38:28.380 in Vienna
00:38:29.420 and Berlin
00:38:30.720 for Catholic
00:38:32.140 and Protestant
00:38:32.900 states.
00:38:33.700 So the
00:38:35.320 emergence of
00:38:36.260 Germany as
00:38:37.600 a nation
00:38:38.340 state,
00:38:39.220 in many
00:38:40.400 ways,
00:38:40.840 was a
00:38:41.220 rather
00:38:41.520 artificial
00:38:42.520 nation
00:38:43.000 state,
00:38:43.640 in fact,
00:38:44.500 that came
00:38:46.260 about through
00:38:46.900 Bismarck's
00:38:48.000 political
00:38:48.820 intrigues,
00:38:50.580 and in
00:38:51.400 many ways
00:38:51.980 as a
00:38:53.400 reaction to
00:38:54.620 Napoleon's
00:38:55.860 invasions of
00:38:56.660 Germany,
00:38:57.160 in which he
00:38:58.100 inflicted the
00:38:58.760 most terrible
00:38:59.220 things upon
00:39:00.140 his subjects,
00:39:01.920 largely conscripted
00:39:02.960 the Grand
00:39:03.460 Armée,
00:39:03.880 and sent
00:39:04.200 off to
00:39:04.540 Russia to
00:39:05.080 die for
00:39:05.760 Napoleon's
00:39:06.420 imperial
00:39:06.800 ambitions.
00:39:07.940 It had
00:39:08.060 nothing to
00:39:08.480 do with
00:39:08.780 some
00:39:08.960 unfortunate
00:39:09.480 Württemberg
00:39:10.500 who was
00:39:11.460 pressed into
00:39:12.040 the army,
00:39:13.140 and sent
00:39:13.540 off a
00:39:14.060 couple of
00:39:14.400 thousand
00:39:14.640 miles away
00:39:15.180 to die
00:39:15.480 of hunger
00:39:15.860 and cold
00:39:16.460 fighting a
00:39:17.100 war that
00:39:17.580 he didn't
00:39:17.900 understand
00:39:18.520 for an
00:39:18.820 emperor whose
00:39:19.300 language he
00:39:19.780 couldn't
00:39:19.980 speak and
00:39:20.400 whom he
00:39:20.680 probably loathed
00:39:21.540 and detested
00:39:22.280 and could
00:39:22.640 reason.
00:39:24.660 So that was
00:39:25.540 in the
00:39:25.760 background.
00:39:27.820 Coming back
00:39:28.700 to your
00:39:29.060 idea,
00:39:30.480 yes,
00:39:30.920 I'm not
00:39:32.000 by any
00:39:32.580 means
00:39:32.900 opposed to
00:39:33.840 the idea
00:39:34.640 of
00:39:35.900 overarching
00:39:37.140 European
00:39:37.600 identity,
00:39:38.460 and to
00:39:38.700 that extent
00:39:39.180 I disagree
00:39:39.840 with the
00:39:40.680 little
00:39:40.940 Englanders
00:39:41.540 of whom
00:39:42.080 we have
00:39:42.380 altogether
00:39:43.020 too many
00:39:43.640 in this
00:39:44.160 country,
00:39:45.360 who are
00:39:48.640 apt to
00:39:49.140 think that
00:39:49.860 anybody on
00:39:51.080 the other
00:39:51.380 side of
00:39:51.800 the channel
00:39:52.360 is completely
00:39:53.880 beyond the
00:39:54.420 pale and
00:39:55.960 utterly
00:39:56.240 incomprehensible
00:39:57.080 and alien.
00:39:57.580 A lot
00:39:58.840 of this
00:39:59.100 has got
00:39:59.400 to do
00:39:59.660 with
00:39:59.780 linguistic
00:40:00.300 chauvinism.
00:40:01.140 Very few
00:40:01.540 people in
00:40:01.960 England can
00:40:02.400 speak a
00:40:02.880 foreign
00:40:03.080 language.
00:40:03.700 It's not
00:40:04.000 much better
00:40:04.460 than the
00:40:04.780 United States
00:40:05.420 in that
00:40:05.760 respect.
00:40:06.720 I would
00:40:07.040 say
00:40:07.280 mitigation.
00:40:08.020 The second
00:40:08.380 worst
00:40:08.780 nation in
00:40:09.340 Europe in
00:40:09.680 this
00:40:09.840 respect is
00:40:10.500 France,
00:40:11.700 where,
00:40:12.340 again,
00:40:12.640 very few
00:40:13.260 people can
00:40:13.760 speak a
00:40:14.160 foreign
00:40:14.400 language,
00:40:14.840 and if
00:40:15.060 they can,
00:40:15.640 it's usually
00:40:16.020 English,
00:40:16.640 not another
00:40:17.100 European
00:40:17.460 language.
00:40:18.340 that leads
00:40:21.400 to a very
00:40:21.860 narrow sense
00:40:22.840 of identity.
00:40:24.140 If you're
00:40:24.660 not capable,
00:40:26.500 literally not
00:40:27.420 capable of
00:40:27.960 speaking to
00:40:28.380 people in
00:40:28.740 the country
00:40:29.240 next to
00:40:30.020 your own,
00:40:30.840 certainly
00:40:31.200 not in
00:40:33.460 their language
00:40:34.720 nor they
00:40:35.380 in yours,
00:40:37.000 it leads
00:40:38.140 to a
00:40:38.460 measure of
00:40:39.140 estrangement,
00:40:40.620 a lasting
00:40:41.180 estrangement.
00:40:42.780 Now,
00:40:43.140 I'm all in
00:40:43.700 favour of
00:40:44.180 the idea of
00:40:44.720 an overarching
00:40:45.440 European
00:40:46.380 identity.
00:40:47.460 I'm not
00:40:47.880 sure I'm
00:40:48.240 in favour of
00:40:48.780 the idea
00:40:49.140 of an
00:40:49.380 overarching
00:40:49.800 European
00:40:50.280 state.
00:40:51.720 I'm not
00:40:52.320 sure I'm
00:40:52.560 necessarily
00:40:52.880 against it,
00:40:53.560 I keep an
00:40:54.040 open mind
00:40:54.640 on this
00:40:55.120 subject,
00:40:55.860 but any
00:40:56.660 form of
00:40:57.080 European
00:40:57.380 unity would
00:40:57.980 have to
00:40:58.140 be a
00:40:58.340 much
00:40:58.540 looser
00:40:59.260 European
00:41:01.740 Union
00:41:02.340 than that
00:41:03.480 which the
00:41:04.300 architects
00:41:04.920 of the
00:41:05.580 present
00:41:06.400 entity that
00:41:08.200 calls itself
00:41:08.820 the European
00:41:09.240 Union
00:41:09.580 would wish
00:41:09.920 to see,
00:41:10.580 which involves
00:41:11.220 a high
00:41:11.520 measure of
00:41:11.940 political,
00:41:12.840 social,
00:41:13.300 economic,
00:41:13.860 and so on
00:41:14.160 centralisation.
00:41:15.700 That, I
00:41:16.400 think, is
00:41:16.660 probably not
00:41:17.220 acceptable to
00:41:17.900 most of the
00:41:18.300 peoples of
00:41:18.800 Europe,
00:41:19.580 not desired.
00:41:20.940 Well, we'll
00:41:21.760 see.
00:41:22.860 I think we
00:41:23.920 don't know
00:41:24.820 what kind
00:41:26.280 of political
00:41:27.380 form will
00:41:28.440 come into
00:41:28.880 being.
00:41:29.580 And I
00:41:29.880 would say
00:41:30.480 that I
00:41:31.000 think this
00:41:32.180 holds,
00:41:34.040 and there's
00:41:34.600 some exceptions
00:41:35.660 to this
00:41:36.400 maxim, which
00:41:37.700 I'm going to
00:41:38.020 say, but
00:41:38.460 politics is
00:41:39.620 really, it
00:41:40.760 lags behind
00:41:42.100 social and
00:41:43.680 cultural change.
00:41:44.680 Yes, yes,
00:41:45.620 I absolutely
00:41:47.720 agree with
00:41:48.120 you about
00:41:48.540 what you
00:41:49.320 say, that
00:41:49.800 politics tends
00:41:50.620 to lag
00:41:51.120 behind cultural
00:41:53.260 and, if you
00:41:55.340 like,
00:41:55.540 metapolitical
00:41:56.340 change.
00:41:58.620 And no
00:41:59.920 doubt we
00:42:00.380 shall see
00:42:01.220 that lag
00:42:03.260 slowly work
00:42:04.660 itself out
00:42:06.720 over the
00:42:07.460 next 20 or
00:42:08.160 30 years.
00:42:08.900 Yes, yeah,
00:42:09.800 I think
00:42:10.340 what a
00:42:11.420 European
00:42:12.040 Union might
00:42:12.980 be, we
00:42:14.040 just don't
00:42:14.640 know what
00:42:15.080 it is.
00:42:17.100 But I
00:42:17.980 think we
00:42:18.680 were both
00:42:19.020 on agreement.
00:42:20.260 I might
00:42:20.780 be more
00:42:21.320 wildly
00:42:22.180 enthusiastic
00:42:22.920 about a
00:42:24.260 European
00:42:24.600 super state
00:42:25.340 than you.
00:42:27.220 That's
00:42:27.780 because you
00:42:28.760 live in
00:42:29.100 Montana and
00:42:29.920 I live in
00:42:30.480 Europe.
00:42:31.360 It's very
00:42:31.920 easy to
00:42:33.060 have
00:42:36.180 idealistic
00:42:37.760 views.
00:42:38.900 of other
00:42:41.000 countries.
00:42:41.520 My late
00:42:42.040 father, who
00:42:42.880 was a
00:42:44.260 convert to
00:42:45.220 Catholicism,
00:42:47.580 used to
00:42:48.760 act lyrical
00:42:49.460 about Ireland,
00:42:50.800 the land of
00:42:51.520 saints and
00:42:52.260 scholars.
00:42:53.380 This is very
00:42:53.800 funny.
00:42:54.720 He was an
00:42:55.060 English
00:42:55.360 convert to
00:42:56.000 Catholicism.
00:42:56.740 He taught
00:42:57.040 in a Catholic
00:42:57.460 school where
00:42:58.120 90% of his
00:42:58.820 colleagues were
00:42:59.320 Irish.
00:42:59.700 One of them
00:42:59.980 said to him,
00:43:00.900 have you ever
00:43:01.260 been to
00:43:01.620 Ireland?
00:43:02.040 He said,
00:43:02.420 no.
00:43:02.720 He said,
00:43:02.980 it's the
00:43:03.320 land of
00:43:03.980 drunkards
00:43:04.760 and lay
00:43:05.700 abouts.
00:43:07.680 And the
00:43:08.220 only people
00:43:08.800 who do
00:43:09.140 any work
00:43:09.720 are the
00:43:10.000 Protestant
00:43:10.440 minority.
00:43:12.540 This was a
00:43:13.280 Catholic
00:43:13.820 Irish woman
00:43:14.860 from a
00:43:15.340 rural area
00:43:16.180 explaining
00:43:16.900 reality to
00:43:18.060 him.
00:43:19.640 In many
00:43:20.380 respects,
00:43:20.800 I respect
00:43:21.720 for my
00:43:22.180 late father,
00:43:22.840 who was a
00:43:23.020 very great
00:43:23.380 man in his
00:43:23.860 own way.
00:43:24.700 But in
00:43:25.120 that regard,
00:43:25.820 he didn't
00:43:26.420 half remind
00:43:27.120 me of
00:43:27.420 communists who
00:43:28.400 waxed lyrical
00:43:29.040 about the
00:43:29.500 Soviet Union
00:43:30.260 without ever
00:43:30.920 having been
00:43:31.780 there.
00:43:32.400 view of
00:43:35.720 it taken
00:43:36.240 really from
00:43:36.760 his ideal
00:43:37.520 of how
00:43:37.960 it ought
00:43:38.540 to be,
00:43:39.240 not the
00:43:39.960 reality with
00:43:40.820 which those
00:43:41.380 who grew
00:43:41.760 up there
00:43:42.140 were much
00:43:42.600 more familiar.
00:43:44.720 Right.
00:43:45.060 You know,
00:43:45.560 Napoleon was
00:43:47.000 an outsider.
00:43:48.120 Certain other
00:43:48.700 historical figures
00:43:49.860 were outsiders.
00:43:51.120 Outsiders,
00:43:51.600 yes.
00:43:51.760 You know,
00:43:52.440 that's how it
00:43:53.340 goes.
00:43:54.080 Well,
00:43:54.440 indeed,
00:43:55.280 and look what
00:43:55.740 Napoleon
00:43:56.120 ultimately did
00:43:57.040 for France,
00:43:59.060 much the same
00:44:00.380 as that other
00:44:01.000 outsider did
00:44:01.880 for Germany,
00:44:02.580 which,
00:44:02.820 say,
00:44:03.020 reduced the
00:44:03.520 country to
00:44:04.040 rack and
00:44:04.540 ruin with
00:44:05.020 the Cossacks
00:44:05.660 encamped upon
00:44:06.640 the Champs
00:44:07.240 Elysees,
00:44:08.760 much as I
00:44:10.100 say as that
00:44:10.560 other outsider
00:44:11.480 reduced Germany
00:44:12.760 to rack and
00:44:13.420 ruin with
00:44:14.140 the Cossacks
00:44:15.920 encamped on
00:44:16.740 the under-day
00:44:17.300 Linde.
00:44:18.120 It didn't end
00:44:18.820 terribly well
00:44:19.560 for either
00:44:20.840 state,
00:44:21.420 did it?
00:44:23.260 That's
00:44:23.820 touché.
00:44:26.700 France and
00:44:27.500 the
00:44:27.620 Ancien
00:44:28.080 Régime
00:44:28.880 I think
00:44:31.200 for all
00:44:32.340 the fault
00:44:32.720 of the
00:44:32.980 Bourbon,
00:44:33.900 at least
00:44:34.580 didn't have
00:44:36.160 such
00:44:36.540 unrealisable
00:44:37.440 ambitions
00:44:38.020 as a
00:44:38.440 little
00:44:38.640 Corsican
00:44:39.220 did,
00:44:40.380 and look
00:44:41.900 how those
00:44:42.420 ended.
00:44:43.680 I'm very
00:44:44.480 cautious about
00:44:45.500 people who
00:44:46.320 have,
00:44:47.160 that's one
00:44:47.600 of the
00:44:47.700 things that
00:44:48.420 I've learned
00:44:48.880 with age,
00:44:49.460 be very
00:44:49.840 cautious about
00:44:50.580 people who
00:44:51.540 have great
00:44:52.460 ideals for
00:44:53.660 their nations,
00:44:55.540 those great
00:44:56.560 dreams.
00:44:57.320 the same
00:44:58.880 Emperor
00:44:59.180 Napoleon
00:44:59.740 who once
00:45:01.100 remarked
00:45:02.340 about,
00:45:04.940 indeed about
00:45:05.700 the Russian
00:45:06.140 campaign,
00:45:07.540 a million
00:45:07.980 dead,
00:45:08.580 what's that
00:45:09.060 for a man
00:45:09.540 like me?
00:45:11.480 Well,
00:45:11.840 for a million
00:45:12.180 dead it was
00:45:12.740 quite a lot,
00:45:13.360 wasn't it?
00:45:14.620 Right.
00:45:15.700 But yes,
00:45:16.380 I,
00:45:16.560 while I think
00:45:19.060 some of the
00:45:19.500 efforts,
00:45:20.440 some of the
00:45:21.000 endeavours to
00:45:23.180 create a
00:45:24.060 European state
00:45:24.840 in the past
00:45:25.400 have been
00:45:25.700 somewhat
00:45:26.000 catastrophic,
00:45:27.860 the idea
00:45:28.960 of at
00:45:32.240 least some
00:45:34.260 measure of
00:45:35.460 unity between
00:45:36.160 the European
00:45:36.580 nations is
00:45:38.500 in principle
00:45:39.160 a noble
00:45:39.680 ideal,
00:45:40.520 one to which
00:45:41.540 I subscribe.
00:45:42.520 We certainly
00:45:42.960 don't want
00:45:43.560 any more of
00:45:44.400 the kinds
00:45:44.900 of fratricidal
00:45:45.900 wars that
00:45:46.920 tore Europe
00:45:47.460 apart in the
00:45:49.300 20th century,
00:45:49.900 and indeed
00:45:50.280 before that,
00:45:51.100 in the 19th
00:45:51.860 century.
00:45:52.300 we would
00:45:54.880 certainly
00:45:55.220 never want
00:45:55.920 to see
00:45:56.500 that again.
00:45:58.840 And I don't
00:45:59.120 think that's
00:45:59.520 going to
00:45:59.720 happen.
00:46:00.080 I think
00:46:00.420 actually a
00:46:01.200 war between
00:46:02.180 Germany and
00:46:03.340 France,
00:46:03.960 it not only
00:46:05.280 would strike
00:46:06.060 people as
00:46:06.760 terrible and
00:46:07.640 tragic,
00:46:08.060 but it would
00:46:08.580 almost strike
00:46:08.960 people as
00:46:09.320 ridiculous.
00:46:10.220 It doesn't
00:46:10.720 make sense,
00:46:11.640 and I think
00:46:12.420 that's actually
00:46:13.080 a very important
00:46:14.060 historical development,
00:46:15.800 the fact that
00:46:16.460 it just doesn't
00:46:17.120 make sense.
00:46:17.880 It's not in
00:46:18.660 the realm of
00:46:19.160 possibilities
00:46:19.740 anymore.
00:46:21.020 And that's
00:46:22.040 a good thing,
00:46:22.980 and we should
00:46:23.340 look at that,
00:46:24.180 of where is
00:46:24.720 all this
00:46:25.100 leading?
00:46:26.520 No, I
00:46:26.880 absolutely
00:46:27.380 agree with you
00:46:27.740 about that.
00:46:28.800 That's a
00:46:29.440 very, very
00:46:30.040 positive thing.
00:46:31.960 A very
00:46:32.820 positive thing
00:46:33.760 indeed.
00:46:35.480 There is
00:46:36.720 almost no
00:46:38.320 chance of
00:46:40.240 another
00:46:40.740 conflict of
00:46:43.080 the kind
00:46:43.720 that we
00:46:44.120 saw between
00:46:44.520 1914,
00:46:45.600 1918,
00:46:46.280 1939,
00:46:47.080 1945,
00:46:47.840 between
00:46:48.020 European states,
00:46:48.800 or indeed
00:46:49.160 of the
00:46:49.380 kind
00:46:49.640 to say
00:46:50.040 that we
00:46:50.320 saw in
00:46:51.240 the
00:46:51.380 19th
00:46:51.940 century,
00:46:52.400 the
00:46:52.520 Franco-Prussian
00:46:53.440 War,
00:46:55.260 etc.
00:46:56.820 Thankfully,
00:46:57.520 that time
00:46:58.140 is past.
00:46:59.120 I think
00:46:59.620 it will
00:46:59.900 never come
00:47:00.540 again.
00:47:01.120 I hope
00:47:01.500 it will
00:47:01.740 never come
00:47:02.240 again.
00:47:03.480 And that
00:47:04.260 is a
00:47:04.680 very,
00:47:05.120 very good
00:47:05.500 thing.
00:47:05.920 Not all
00:47:06.260 the developments
00:47:07.180 since 1945
00:47:08.900 have been
00:47:10.620 negative.
00:47:12.120 That is
00:47:12.840 a big
00:47:13.560 positive.
00:47:15.480 I do
00:47:16.280 not believe
00:47:17.000 that we
00:47:17.420 shall see
00:47:17.900 such things
00:47:18.600 again.
00:47:18.980 I'm very
00:47:19.680 happy to
00:47:20.180 say.
00:47:21.080 I agree.
00:47:22.060 What we're
00:47:22.980 much more
00:47:24.700 likely to
00:47:25.080 see,
00:47:25.540 a catastrophic
00:47:26.980 civil and
00:47:28.860 social disorder
00:47:29.980 within the
00:47:31.120 disintegrating
00:47:32.120 states,
00:47:33.140 whose
00:47:33.700 multiracial,
00:47:34.700 multireligious,
00:47:36.120 multicultural
00:47:36.780 polities fall
00:47:37.760 apart.
00:47:39.240 I agree.
00:47:40.500 I think that
00:47:41.200 is where the
00:47:42.900 arrow of
00:47:43.400 history is
00:47:43.900 pointing.
00:47:44.180 I think
00:47:47.000 this is a
00:47:47.880 little bit
00:47:48.160 less now,
00:47:48.880 but in
00:47:49.540 2014,
00:47:51.520 I was
00:47:52.440 almost
00:47:52.740 thinking that
00:47:53.380 we were
00:47:53.640 about to
00:47:54.020 see a
00:47:54.420 repeat of
00:47:55.260 1914 with
00:47:57.120 all of
00:47:57.540 these tensions
00:47:58.300 between
00:47:58.880 Washington
00:48:00.560 and Europe
00:48:02.080 and Russia
00:48:02.720 and this
00:48:04.120 battling over
00:48:05.600 Ukraine.
00:48:06.600 It kind of
00:48:07.340 reminded me of
00:48:07.900 some damn
00:48:08.440 thing in the
00:48:08.900 Balkans.
00:48:09.460 it was
00:48:11.380 this little
00:48:12.240 conflict that
00:48:13.800 was about
00:48:14.160 to spread.
00:48:15.960 I think
00:48:16.420 that's
00:48:16.840 lessened a
00:48:17.500 little bit.
00:48:18.100 Actually,
00:48:18.620 I did want
00:48:19.320 to shift
00:48:19.740 gears a
00:48:20.220 little bit
00:48:20.560 into foreign
00:48:21.180 policy before
00:48:22.000 we put a
00:48:23.640 bookmark in
00:48:24.180 the conversation.
00:48:25.820 I can
00:48:26.620 remember when
00:48:27.540 I was just
00:48:28.120 out of
00:48:28.420 college,
00:48:29.960 there was
00:48:30.260 this so-called
00:48:31.980 great Atlantic
00:48:33.620 divide between
00:48:35.140 America and
00:48:36.680 Europe.
00:48:37.440 It was
00:48:37.700 mostly over
00:48:38.860 the Iraq
00:48:39.580 war where
00:48:41.420 Europeans,
00:48:43.180 you know,
00:48:44.380 European
00:48:44.980 leaders,
00:48:46.600 it was
00:48:47.000 named
00:48:47.200 Villepin,
00:48:49.260 gosh,
00:48:50.180 that seems
00:48:50.560 so long
00:48:51.020 ago now,
00:48:53.040 Dominique
00:48:54.160 de Villepin,
00:48:55.760 who actually
00:48:56.800 was a
00:48:57.300 foreign
00:48:57.540 minister of
00:48:58.100 France who
00:48:58.660 resisted the
00:48:59.340 Iraq invasion.
00:49:00.980 And there
00:49:01.620 were all
00:49:01.820 these books
00:49:02.320 written about
00:49:03.040 Mars and
00:49:04.140 Venus and
00:49:04.860 all this
00:49:05.200 kind of
00:49:05.480 stuff.
00:49:05.720 I almost
00:49:09.700 took the
00:49:10.200 European side,
00:49:10.960 not almost,
00:49:11.900 I did take
00:49:12.440 the European
00:49:12.840 side in
00:49:13.480 this debate.
00:49:15.160 I would
00:49:15.940 say that
00:49:16.460 certainly
00:49:17.060 that tension
00:49:17.780 lessened for
00:49:18.700 quite some
00:49:19.160 time.
00:49:20.580 And there
00:49:20.880 was actually
00:49:21.260 a lot of
00:49:21.660 collaboration
00:49:22.320 between
00:49:23.020 America and
00:49:24.020 Europe and
00:49:24.480 engaging in
00:49:25.280 totally pointless
00:49:26.380 and stupid
00:49:27.260 and destructive
00:49:27.940 wars like
00:49:28.840 overthrowing
00:49:29.560 Gaddafi's
00:49:30.100 regime in
00:49:30.620 Libya and
00:49:31.100 so on.
00:49:31.420 And they
00:49:32.800 seem to
00:49:33.340 have wanted
00:49:34.620 to do
00:49:35.000 that to
00:49:35.560 Syria.
00:49:36.600 But they
00:49:37.320 were prevented
00:49:38.280 doing that
00:49:39.620 by a number
00:49:40.380 of forces,
00:49:41.100 including Russia
00:49:43.020 actually coming
00:49:43.680 back onto the
00:49:44.480 scene.
00:49:45.440 But do you
00:49:45.760 think there,
00:49:46.580 I don't know,
00:49:47.360 it seems like
00:49:48.260 Washington has
00:49:49.240 just been
00:49:49.680 playing with
00:49:50.720 fire.
00:49:51.520 It's been
00:49:51.760 playing this
00:49:52.180 really dangerous
00:49:53.180 game by
00:49:54.760 jumping on
00:49:56.040 the Arab
00:49:56.440 spring,
00:49:57.740 by throwing
00:49:58.880 money and
00:49:59.520 weapons at
00:50:00.320 moderate
00:50:01.300 rebels and
00:50:02.240 some,
00:50:02.920 you know,
00:50:03.760 pointless
00:50:04.620 effort at
00:50:05.300 overthrowing
00:50:06.000 the Assad
00:50:07.140 regime in
00:50:08.220 Syria.
00:50:09.280 What's going
00:50:10.240 on is
00:50:10.920 almost beyond
00:50:12.660 credence.
00:50:15.140 It truly
00:50:16.520 is because
00:50:17.620 the foreign
00:50:19.220 policies of
00:50:20.440 America and
00:50:21.580 its European
00:50:22.660 allies or
00:50:24.180 the unkind
00:50:24.960 would say
00:50:25.640 satellites in
00:50:27.380 the Middle
00:50:27.720 East truly
00:50:28.700 defy belief.
00:50:30.320 that they
00:50:31.200 have plunged
00:50:32.120 into a
00:50:33.520 maelstrom of
00:50:35.580 ethnic and
00:50:37.920 religious
00:50:38.780 conflicts that
00:50:41.040 they can
00:50:41.460 scarcely begin
00:50:42.280 to comprehend.
00:50:44.180 That would
00:50:44.880 be bad
00:50:45.420 enough in
00:50:46.780 itself were
00:50:47.960 it not for
00:50:48.700 their own
00:50:49.220 complete lack
00:50:50.480 of logic.
00:50:51.800 So, for
00:50:52.280 example, in
00:50:53.520 Iraq.
00:50:54.460 Iraq is a
00:50:55.100 totally artificial
00:50:55.700 state.
00:50:56.820 It has no
00:50:58.180 reality.
00:50:58.740 It's a
00:50:59.680 collection of
00:51:00.160 lines on
00:51:00.800 the map
00:51:01.240 drawn by
00:51:01.920 the British
00:51:02.660 when they
00:51:04.080 agreed with
00:51:04.600 the French
00:51:05.060 under the
00:51:05.540 famous or
00:51:06.120 infamous Sykes-Picot
00:51:07.340 agreement how
00:51:08.400 the allied
00:51:09.280 victors of the
00:51:10.160 1914-1918 war
00:51:12.240 would divide up
00:51:13.320 the spoils of
00:51:14.140 the Middle
00:51:14.460 East, which
00:51:15.000 were effectively
00:51:15.440 the spoils of
00:51:16.080 the Ottoman
00:51:16.460 Empire, which
00:51:17.580 they correctly
00:51:18.120 anticipated would
00:51:19.140 collapse.
00:51:19.840 they correctly
00:51:22.980 anticipated the
00:51:23.680 Arabs would
00:51:25.000 no longer
00:51:25.620 tolerate their
00:51:26.420 Turkish overlords
00:51:27.720 and they
00:51:29.280 decided that
00:51:30.360 they would
00:51:31.400 set up
00:51:32.300 states that
00:51:33.900 would be
00:51:34.380 dominated in
00:51:35.360 effect by
00:51:36.380 London or
00:51:38.520 Paris, as the
00:51:39.260 case may be.
00:51:40.020 Now, these
00:51:40.420 states have
00:51:42.640 no real
00:51:44.380 basis.
00:51:45.420 Iraq has
00:51:47.960 no proper
00:51:49.920 foundation, if
00:51:51.860 I can put it
00:51:52.220 this way.
00:51:53.340 It has
00:51:54.180 different
00:51:54.540 peoples.
00:51:55.140 It has
00:51:55.340 Arabs and
00:51:55.900 Kurds, who
00:51:56.860 are not
00:51:57.260 closely related
00:51:59.080 to one
00:51:59.440 another.
00:51:59.740 Kurdish is an
00:52:00.300 Indo-European
00:52:01.040 language, for
00:52:01.780 example, Arabic
00:52:02.540 and Semitic
00:52:03.040 language, so
00:52:04.220 the Kurdish is
00:52:04.840 more closely
00:52:06.040 related to
00:52:06.520 English than
00:52:07.060 it is to
00:52:07.440 Arabic.
00:52:08.760 It has
00:52:09.520 no religious
00:52:10.420 unity.
00:52:12.300 It's
00:52:12.600 bitterly
00:52:13.020 divided between
00:52:14.280 the Sunni and
00:52:15.200 Shia sects,
00:52:16.120 who have
00:52:16.620 complex theological
00:52:17.700 disputes about
00:52:18.400 the correct
00:52:18.800 interpretation of
00:52:19.760 Islam that are
00:52:20.380 not easy for
00:52:21.240 Christians to
00:52:22.040 understand.
00:52:23.340 Anymore than
00:52:24.000 the Catholic
00:52:24.400 Protestant dispute
00:52:25.340 is no doubt
00:52:25.920 easy for
00:52:26.400 Muslims to
00:52:26.960 understand.
00:52:28.960 And the
00:52:30.240 result,
00:52:30.840 therefore, is
00:52:31.500 that the
00:52:32.380 state divides
00:52:33.280 upon both
00:52:33.980 religious and
00:52:34.760 racial grounds,
00:52:35.880 although the
00:52:36.380 divisions are
00:52:36.900 somewhat different
00:52:37.600 because the
00:52:38.220 Kurds are
00:52:38.640 Sunni Muslims.
00:52:41.260 It's the
00:52:41.880 Arab population
00:52:42.660 that's
00:52:42.920 religiously
00:52:43.440 divided.
00:52:43.880 The Kurds
00:52:44.260 are actually
00:52:44.560 religiously
00:52:45.220 homogenous.
00:52:46.060 They're all
00:52:46.360 Sunni Muslims.
00:52:46.980 The Arabs
00:52:47.320 are divided
00:52:47.720 between Shia
00:52:48.420 and Sunni.
00:52:50.180 Now, what
00:52:51.640 is so
00:52:52.020 bizarre is
00:52:53.540 that in
00:52:53.840 Iraq, the
00:52:55.920 Western
00:52:56.400 coalition led
00:52:57.240 by the
00:52:57.560 United States
00:52:58.340 overthrew the
00:52:59.340 government of
00:52:59.980 Saddam Hussein,
00:53:02.200 who managed
00:53:04.100 to maintain
00:53:04.880 some kind
00:53:07.380 peace,
00:53:09.060 although only
00:53:10.320 by brutal
00:53:10.900 repression
00:53:11.520 between the
00:53:13.540 different
00:53:13.840 ethno-religious
00:53:14.620 groups.
00:53:15.540 And what
00:53:15.920 they have
00:53:16.180 installed is
00:53:17.260 a sectarian
00:53:18.260 government
00:53:19.240 dominated by
00:53:20.840 elements of
00:53:21.680 the Shia
00:53:22.480 community,
00:53:23.080 who are the
00:53:23.800 majority in
00:53:25.060 numerical terms,
00:53:26.000 and were long
00:53:26.660 oppressed by
00:53:29.140 the Sunni
00:53:29.620 minority, who
00:53:30.480 the British
00:53:30.900 had in fact
00:53:31.540 placed a
00:53:32.080 leadership role
00:53:32.740 in Iraq.
00:53:33.220 the Iraqi
00:53:34.060 army was
00:53:34.560 created by
00:53:35.000 the British
00:53:35.340 in the
00:53:35.640 1920s, and
00:53:36.780 it was
00:53:36.900 officed almost
00:53:37.660 entirely by
00:53:38.480 Sunni.
00:53:40.300 What is so
00:53:41.140 strange about
00:53:42.040 this policy is
00:53:43.080 that Syria is
00:53:43.960 a mirror image
00:53:44.880 of Iraq.
00:53:46.320 In Iraq, the
00:53:47.120 Sunni are the
00:53:48.320 minority, but
00:53:49.240 have long
00:53:49.680 dominated the
00:53:50.560 state.
00:53:51.580 In Syria, the
00:53:52.380 Sunni are the
00:53:52.800 vast majority,
00:53:54.900 but the
00:53:55.380 Alawite sect
00:53:56.420 has dominated
00:53:57.400 the state since
00:53:58.240 the advent of
00:53:59.900 Hafez al-Assad,
00:54:02.100 the President
00:54:02.760 Bashar al-Assad's
00:54:03.840 late father,
00:54:05.120 in the
00:54:05.660 1960s, because
00:54:07.800 for complex
00:54:08.440 historical reasons,
00:54:09.660 the French, who
00:54:10.440 were the
00:54:10.780 colonial overlords
00:54:11.600 of Syria, as
00:54:12.400 we were the
00:54:13.000 colonial overlords
00:54:13.740 of Iraq, had
00:54:14.760 favoured the
00:54:15.400 Alawites over
00:54:16.140 the Sunni
00:54:16.660 majority, and
00:54:17.500 had put the
00:54:18.040 Alawites in
00:54:18.740 charge of the
00:54:19.300 army.
00:54:20.260 In most of
00:54:20.920 these countries,
00:54:21.540 it doesn't
00:54:22.100 matter who
00:54:23.000 the majority
00:54:23.580 is, it
00:54:24.020 matters who
00:54:24.660 controls the
00:54:25.640 army.
00:54:26.660 So the
00:54:27.020 result is that
00:54:27.900 our glorious
00:54:28.620 leaders are
00:54:29.320 supporting
00:54:29.880 the minority,
00:54:31.880 sorry, let's
00:54:32.320 get this
00:54:32.580 right, they're
00:54:33.860 supporting the
00:54:35.140 Shia against
00:54:36.740 the Sunni in
00:54:38.140 Iraq, where
00:54:39.380 traditionally the
00:54:40.260 Sunni were the
00:54:40.740 leadership group.
00:54:42.720 They are
00:54:43.240 supporting the
00:54:44.380 Sunni against
00:54:45.320 the Alawites
00:54:46.300 and various
00:54:46.940 other dissident
00:54:47.780 sects, plus
00:54:49.060 non-Muslims,
00:54:50.340 Christians,
00:54:51.800 Druze, etc.,
00:54:53.580 in Syria.
00:54:55.420 Thus, they
00:54:56.180 are supporting
00:54:58.140 different sides
00:54:59.760 and sectarian
00:55:00.580 conflict in
00:55:01.400 adjoining
00:55:01.820 countries.
00:55:03.160 Now, you
00:55:03.900 tell me the
00:55:05.140 logic of
00:55:06.380 that.
00:55:07.600 It is beyond
00:55:08.880 my comprehension.
00:55:11.360 Incidentally, one
00:55:12.460 of the
00:55:13.020 interesting and
00:55:14.320 deeply
00:55:14.840 unattractive, to
00:55:16.120 my mind,
00:55:16.860 aspects of the
00:55:17.620 last week,
00:55:19.400 very, very
00:55:20.260 revealing about
00:55:21.540 the inner
00:55:22.340 psychology,
00:55:24.260 even of our
00:55:25.340 opponents,
00:55:26.080 is that the
00:55:28.740 horrific Paris
00:55:29.840 massacre was
00:55:30.520 not the only
00:55:31.160 horrific massacre
00:55:32.240 that week.
00:55:33.700 Earlier that
00:55:34.320 week, of course,
00:55:35.680 Islamist
00:55:36.120 elements had
00:55:36.620 downed the
00:55:37.040 Russian jet
00:55:38.440 over Sinai.
00:55:40.480 But there
00:55:40.860 were two
00:55:41.140 other horrific
00:55:41.820 massacres.
00:55:43.480 One was in
00:55:44.780 Baghdad, where
00:55:45.900 they are
00:55:46.240 routine.
00:55:46.880 the other
00:55:49.340 was in
00:55:50.060 Beirut, where
00:55:51.540 members of
00:55:52.200 an extreme
00:55:53.200 Sunni group
00:55:54.960 blew themselves
00:55:56.500 up in front
00:55:57.280 of a Shia
00:55:57.840 mosque on
00:55:58.860 Friday night.
00:56:00.960 Explain their
00:56:01.780 actions in this
00:56:02.560 way.
00:56:03.640 Our knights of
00:56:04.320 jihad waited
00:56:05.420 till a large
00:56:06.300 number of the
00:56:06.880 heretics had
00:56:07.720 gathered outside
00:56:08.500 the house of
00:56:09.280 apostasy, that
00:56:10.380 is to say, the
00:56:10.920 Shia mosque.
00:56:12.240 Then they
00:56:12.720 blew themselves
00:56:13.500 up, taking
00:56:14.140 themselves to
00:56:15.220 heaven and
00:56:15.840 the heretics
00:56:16.440 to hell.
00:56:18.280 Now, this
00:56:19.120 got a couple
00:56:19.760 of column
00:56:20.200 inches in
00:56:20.980 the English
00:56:21.380 press.
00:56:22.060 This atrocious
00:56:23.260 sectarian
00:56:24.560 mass murder
00:56:26.120 cum suicide
00:56:27.160 doesn't matter
00:56:28.660 because everybody
00:56:29.200 involved in it,
00:56:29.800 they're all just
00:56:30.240 Arabs.
00:56:30.920 That's the
00:56:31.300 attitude, the
00:56:32.020 real attitude
00:56:32.920 of the
00:56:33.220 Western press.
00:56:35.240 Curiously
00:56:35.840 enough, they
00:56:36.740 do not believe
00:56:38.100 that brown
00:56:38.640 lives matter,
00:56:39.960 actually.
00:56:40.500 They are such
00:56:42.280 hypocrites that
00:56:44.440 for all their
00:56:45.740 unctuous,
00:56:46.940 fawning,
00:56:47.560 ostensible
00:56:48.340 multiracialism
00:56:49.560 and multiculturalism,
00:56:51.280 the truth is
00:56:52.160 they expect such
00:56:53.440 things to happen
00:56:54.120 in Arab countries
00:56:54.940 and they don't
00:56:55.360 really care about
00:56:56.460 them.
00:56:57.220 They're only really
00:56:58.180 upset, exorcised
00:56:59.480 and agitated
00:57:00.420 when such things
00:57:01.260 happen in rich
00:57:02.140 Western countries.
00:57:03.560 I actually find
00:57:04.460 that quite
00:57:05.020 disgusting.
00:57:06.680 It is absolutely
00:57:07.600 appalling that
00:57:09.740 we are not
00:57:10.780 exercised by
00:57:12.040 the crimes
00:57:12.540 committed by
00:57:13.320 these crazed
00:57:14.440 sects in
00:57:16.420 other countries.
00:57:17.400 It only matters
00:57:18.180 when it happens
00:57:18.800 in a Western
00:57:19.400 country.
00:57:20.120 It's not the
00:57:20.660 case at all.
00:57:22.320 Undoubtedly,
00:57:23.340 these extreme
00:57:24.220 groups do
00:57:26.480 need to be
00:57:27.120 eradicated.
00:57:27.920 To that extent,
00:57:28.400 I actually agree
00:57:29.020 with our
00:57:29.400 establishment
00:57:30.080 just for once.
00:57:31.780 It would be a
00:57:32.720 very good thing
00:57:33.460 if ISIL were
00:57:34.340 completely liquidated.
00:57:36.000 and I do
00:57:37.980 not agree
00:57:38.700 that it only
00:57:39.520 matters when
00:57:40.380 they commit
00:57:40.820 atrocities in
00:57:41.480 European countries.
00:57:42.840 But we have
00:57:44.340 made things much
00:57:45.120 worse in the
00:57:46.140 Middle East.
00:57:46.780 We have taken
00:57:48.340 away, we have
00:57:50.120 swept away
00:57:50.960 those rulers
00:57:52.520 who, brutal
00:57:54.760 and cruel
00:57:55.700 and tyrannical
00:57:56.500 and corrupt
00:57:56.960 though they
00:57:57.440 might have
00:57:58.060 been, were
00:57:59.760 better than
00:58:00.460 what has come
00:58:01.260 after them.
00:58:02.560 Gaddafi was a
00:58:03.400 monstrous,
00:58:03.960 insane person.
00:58:06.140 He's truly
00:58:06.940 out of his
00:58:07.620 mind.
00:58:08.760 But Libya is
00:58:09.380 in a worse
00:58:09.920 state now that
00:58:10.640 lunatic has
00:58:11.360 been removed
00:58:12.200 from office
00:58:12.600 and killed.
00:58:13.660 Undoubtedly.
00:58:14.640 Yeah.
00:58:15.260 Saddam Hussein
00:58:15.800 was far
00:58:16.300 saner than
00:58:17.020 Gaddafi, but
00:58:18.340 he was even
00:58:19.080 more cruel
00:58:19.620 and brutal.
00:58:22.000 The overthrow
00:58:23.020 of his regime
00:58:23.960 has unleashed
00:58:25.420 hell for the
00:58:26.680 ordinary Iraqi
00:58:27.480 regardless of
00:58:29.200 religion or
00:58:29.840 ethnicity because
00:58:30.840 the country is
00:58:31.500 now absolutely
00:58:32.160 unlivable.
00:58:33.960 frankly, the
00:58:35.400 late Hafez
00:58:36.000 al-Assad, in
00:58:36.840 my view, was
00:58:37.260 a great man,
00:58:39.200 a great Arab
00:58:39.960 nationalist and
00:58:40.760 patriot and
00:58:42.620 a staunch
00:58:43.120 resistor of
00:58:43.840 Zionism.
00:58:45.220 And there was
00:58:46.000 much to commend
00:58:47.500 him and his
00:58:48.780 son is a far
00:58:49.680 more estimable
00:58:50.380 man than
00:58:50.900 either Saddam
00:58:51.560 Hussein or
00:58:52.480 Muammar al-Gaddafi.
00:58:54.560 And if the
00:58:55.720 regime in
00:58:56.820 Damascus is
00:58:57.720 eventually
00:58:58.180 overthrown at the
00:58:59.040 moment, it seems
00:58:59.720 to be doing
00:59:00.040 rather well in
00:59:00.760 this war against
00:59:01.480 the terrorists,
00:59:02.860 the life, the
00:59:04.380 lot of the
00:59:04.980 ordinary Syria
00:59:05.580 will be far
00:59:06.200 worse than it
00:59:06.860 is now.
00:59:08.580 But our
00:59:09.380 rulers in
00:59:10.020 their insanity
00:59:10.880 would like to
00:59:11.620 overthrow Bashar
00:59:12.500 al-Assad and
00:59:13.320 replace him
00:59:14.080 presumably with
00:59:15.500 I don't know
00:59:16.320 what.
00:59:18.020 It really is.
00:59:18.800 Some religious
00:59:19.620 maniac.
00:59:20.720 Yes.
00:59:21.600 I think it's
00:59:22.100 almost worse than
00:59:23.140 how you're
00:59:23.880 describing it.
00:59:24.600 Because it is
00:59:25.560 almost as if
00:59:26.520 Washington and
00:59:27.940 its allies or
00:59:29.200 vassals are
00:59:30.540 going after the
00:59:31.460 most civilized
00:59:32.340 people in the
00:59:33.000 region.
00:59:33.480 I mean, at
00:59:33.800 the end of
00:59:34.160 the day, Iran,
00:59:35.660 I agree, I
00:59:36.640 would prefer not
00:59:38.160 to live under
00:59:38.800 any kind of
00:59:39.500 theocracy.
00:59:40.800 And certainly
00:59:41.980 I would not
00:59:42.500 want to live
00:59:43.000 under a
00:59:45.000 state that
00:59:46.480 is at least
00:59:47.120 somewhat controlled
00:59:47.940 by religious
00:59:49.640 people.
00:59:50.280 But nevertheless,
00:59:51.460 I mean, Iran,
00:59:52.640 again, if you
00:59:53.440 go see images
00:59:54.540 of Tehran,
00:59:55.540 it's easily
00:59:56.520 the most,
00:59:57.000 it's far
00:59:57.600 more European,
00:59:59.700 so to speak,
01:00:00.260 civilized than
01:00:01.100 anything.
01:00:01.680 It's Saudi
01:00:02.080 Arabia or
01:00:02.920 beloved allies.
01:00:05.000 That partly
01:00:05.420 reflects upon
01:00:06.100 the people.
01:00:06.840 The Iranians,
01:00:07.660 again, are
01:00:09.460 people
01:00:10.880 linguistically
01:00:12.060 and culturally
01:00:12.720 much more
01:00:13.320 akin to us
01:00:14.220 than the
01:00:14.580 Arabs.
01:00:14.780 Iran actually
01:00:15.600 means Aryan.
01:00:17.280 Some people
01:00:17.600 forget that.
01:00:18.300 The language
01:00:18.760 is an
01:00:19.060 Indo-European
01:00:19.800 language.
01:00:20.640 The people
01:00:21.020 are culturally
01:00:21.540 closer to us.
01:00:23.440 But Washington
01:00:24.100 wants to
01:00:24.900 promote,
01:00:26.220 it wanted to
01:00:26.860 promote the
01:00:27.280 Arab Spring.
01:00:28.600 I don't want
01:00:29.700 to exactly
01:00:30.580 go to there
01:00:31.460 in the
01:00:31.960 conspiracy
01:00:32.760 theory about
01:00:33.600 ISIS,
01:00:34.140 but at the
01:00:34.800 same time,
01:00:35.220 I have no
01:00:36.260 doubt that
01:00:37.240 all of this
01:00:37.980 funding of
01:00:39.020 moderate rebels,
01:00:40.520 which was
01:00:40.960 this buzzword
01:00:42.600 for a while,
01:00:43.800 has basically,
01:00:45.020 all of this
01:00:45.760 stuff has
01:00:46.280 probably ended
01:00:47.080 up in the
01:00:47.420 hands of
01:00:47.760 ISIS.
01:00:48.740 It's like
01:00:49.300 that's what
01:00:50.260 Washington is
01:00:51.160 pursuing.
01:00:52.160 They're all
01:00:53.540 deady moderate
01:00:54.260 rebels,
01:00:55.120 except in a
01:00:56.200 relative sense.
01:00:57.020 For example,
01:00:57.780 Al-Qaeda and
01:00:59.000 the Taliban
01:00:59.660 have condemned
01:01:01.420 ISIL for
01:01:02.740 being too
01:01:03.120 extreme.
01:01:04.400 However bad
01:01:05.220 you are,
01:01:05.540 there's always
01:01:05.900 someone more
01:01:06.360 extreme.
01:01:06.820 My favourite
01:01:07.340 example was
01:01:08.420 the Peruvian
01:01:09.300 guerrilla group,
01:01:10.240 the Sendero
01:01:10.940 Luminoso,
01:01:11.880 a shining
01:01:12.340 path.
01:01:13.440 They first
01:01:13.940 proclaimed
01:01:14.440 themselves to
01:01:15.220 be Maoists,
01:01:16.180 but the
01:01:16.400 Chinese government
01:01:17.100 repudiated them
01:01:18.020 because they
01:01:18.240 were so crazy
01:01:19.040 that the
01:01:19.280 Chinese
01:01:19.440 didn't have
01:01:19.620 anything to
01:01:20.080 do with them.
01:01:20.580 So Sendero
01:01:21.940 then decided
01:01:22.840 they would
01:01:23.180 embrace
01:01:24.140 Pol Pot's
01:01:25.380 version of
01:01:26.580 Marxism-Leninism.
01:01:28.080 But wait for
01:01:28.680 it,
01:01:29.400 Pol Pot condemned
01:01:30.340 them because
01:01:30.920 they were too
01:01:31.460 cruel.
01:01:32.460 I'm not
01:01:33.120 joking.
01:01:35.040 So however
01:01:35.840 insane you
01:01:36.880 are,
01:01:37.500 there's someone
01:01:38.120 worse.
01:01:39.800 Now,
01:01:40.480 if you're
01:01:41.020 taking ISIS...
01:01:42.580 Let me jump
01:01:44.200 in real quick.
01:01:44.920 Keep in mind
01:01:45.620 that Richard
01:01:46.400 Spencer was
01:01:47.240 imprisoned by
01:01:48.520 the notorious
01:01:49.400 fascist
01:01:50.360 Victor
01:01:50.920 Orban.
01:01:52.540 He's that
01:01:53.520 bad.
01:01:54.580 He's that
01:01:54.980 bad.
01:01:55.280 It's that
01:01:55.580 ironic.
01:01:56.060 But if
01:01:56.840 you take
01:01:57.360 ISIL as
01:01:59.180 the paradigm
01:01:59.920 of extremism,
01:02:01.960 compared to
01:02:02.940 them,
01:02:04.200 slightly less
01:02:05.140 crazy
01:02:05.640 fundamentalist
01:02:06.440 groups appear
01:02:07.100 relatively
01:02:07.660 sane.
01:02:08.780 But this
01:02:09.160 is like
01:02:09.460 saying that
01:02:09.980 Stalin was
01:02:10.740 sane compared
01:02:11.580 to Trotsky
01:02:12.340 and Trotsky
01:02:12.900 was saying
01:02:13.360 compared to
01:02:14.160 the anarchists.
01:02:14.980 These things
01:02:15.620 are very,
01:02:16.240 very relative.
01:02:17.200 Which is
01:02:18.380 true.
01:02:19.400 Yeah,
01:02:19.600 I say,
01:02:20.040 compared to
01:02:20.620 the Sendero
01:02:21.120 Luminoso,
01:02:22.100 Pol Pot,
01:02:22.680 the Cambodian
01:02:23.340 Revolution were
01:02:24.100 relatively sane.
01:02:26.780 They were
01:02:27.220 moderate mass
01:02:29.560 murderers.
01:02:29.700 Very relative.
01:02:31.740 Yeah,
01:02:31.940 yeah,
01:02:32.100 yeah.
01:02:33.240 We need to
01:02:34.500 get this in
01:02:35.020 perspective.
01:02:35.640 There are no
01:02:36.480 moderate rebels.
01:02:37.660 There's no
01:02:38.320 one in Syria
01:02:39.660 who wants
01:02:40.840 to create a
01:02:41.900 British or
01:02:42.480 American-style
01:02:43.440 liberal democracy
01:02:44.600 or who
01:02:45.200 believes in
01:02:46.160 multicultural,
01:02:47.200 liberalism,
01:02:48.320 who believes
01:02:49.180 in universal
01:02:49.980 tolerance and
01:02:51.100 so on.
01:02:53.280 This is just
01:02:54.480 nonsense.
01:02:56.380 What would
01:02:57.420 replace the
01:02:58.880 regime of
01:02:59.540 Bashar al-Assad
01:03:00.560 were it ever
01:03:01.180 to fall would
01:03:02.340 be some kind
01:03:03.080 of theocratic
01:03:03.900 state in
01:03:05.200 which Christians,
01:03:07.560 non-Sunni
01:03:08.580 Muslims,
01:03:09.360 and indeed
01:03:09.980 Jews would
01:03:10.680 be hideously
01:03:11.280 oppressed.
01:03:13.000 All which
01:03:13.940 groups are
01:03:14.480 much better off
01:03:15.260 under the
01:03:15.660 present government
01:03:16.420 than they
01:03:17.220 would be
01:03:17.780 under a
01:03:18.340 religious
01:03:18.660 totalitarian
01:03:19.680 state.
01:03:20.940 That's not
01:03:21.480 to say the
01:03:21.800 present government
01:03:22.280 is perfect
01:03:23.020 or that it
01:03:23.960 hasn't done
01:03:24.540 things in the
01:03:25.460 past which
01:03:26.120 were manifestly
01:03:27.400 wrong and
01:03:28.220 so on.
01:03:29.320 But I
01:03:29.920 admit it to
01:03:30.900 say that
01:03:31.940 whatever its
01:03:32.500 faults,
01:03:33.020 whatever its
01:03:33.520 past errors,
01:03:35.080 it presides
01:03:36.540 over a
01:03:38.440 system that
01:03:39.260 is relatively
01:03:40.540 tolerant of a
01:03:41.920 plurality of
01:03:42.700 religious beliefs
01:03:43.960 and relatively
01:03:44.980 westernised and
01:03:47.220 better than any
01:03:48.700 likely replacement.
01:03:50.960 Our governments,
01:03:52.060 the British,
01:03:52.680 the French,
01:03:53.180 and above all
01:03:53.640 the American,
01:03:54.360 have destroyed
01:03:55.500 relatively stable,
01:03:58.300 relatively westernised,
01:04:00.440 relatively sensible
01:04:01.780 regimes in some
01:04:03.460 parts of the
01:04:03.940 Middle East.
01:04:05.040 Furthermore,
01:04:05.640 they only pay
01:04:06.120 lip service to
01:04:07.100 their supposed
01:04:07.660 beliefs in
01:04:08.360 democracy.
01:04:09.940 Anyhow,
01:04:10.620 for example,
01:04:11.800 the American
01:04:12.320 government has
01:04:13.640 not only
01:04:14.700 tolerated but
01:04:15.840 has funded and
01:04:16.700 supported the
01:04:17.500 overthrow of
01:04:18.140 democracy in
01:04:18.980 Egypt by
01:04:19.640 General Sisi,
01:04:20.980 who overthrew
01:04:21.580 the democratically
01:04:22.380 elected regime
01:04:24.280 of the Muslim
01:04:24.880 Brotherhood and
01:04:25.660 created a military
01:04:26.660 dictatorship led
01:04:27.840 by himself.
01:04:29.340 My view on
01:04:30.060 that is that
01:04:30.560 General Sisi is
01:04:31.660 a far, far
01:04:32.300 better ruler than
01:04:33.520 the man who
01:04:34.500 he replaced.
01:04:35.260 And if I were
01:04:35.680 Egyptian, I'd be
01:04:36.300 a strong support
01:04:37.040 of General Sisi.
01:04:37.940 But you
01:04:40.000 cannot pretend
01:04:40.720 to be a
01:04:41.480 Democrat and
01:04:42.300 support a
01:04:42.840 military coup
01:04:43.820 against the
01:04:44.720 elected government
01:04:46.000 of the country
01:04:46.720 simply because you
01:04:47.320 don't like the
01:04:48.200 answer the people
01:04:48.980 gave when you
01:04:50.000 held an election.
01:04:51.540 But that is
01:04:52.240 actually the kind
01:04:52.840 of person who
01:04:54.000 governs us.
01:04:55.020 I need to dwell
01:04:56.380 upon the support
01:04:57.280 of the British,
01:04:58.160 the Americans,
01:04:59.020 and others for
01:05:00.960 the Saudi regime
01:05:02.700 or for various
01:05:05.500 regimes in the
01:05:06.760 Gulf States.
01:05:07.940 many of which
01:05:09.160 have a minority
01:05:10.100 sectarian base
01:05:12.060 and are in
01:05:13.520 effect royal
01:05:14.480 dictatorships where
01:05:16.740 dissent is
01:05:17.760 punished with
01:05:19.080 considerable
01:05:19.660 cruelty.
01:05:20.480 Although in
01:05:20.980 fairness, unlike
01:05:21.940 Saudi Arabia,
01:05:22.940 a few of the
01:05:23.380 other Gulf states
01:05:24.120 use crucifixion as
01:05:25.320 an ordinary
01:05:25.720 method of
01:05:26.260 punishment, I
01:05:26.920 suppose.
01:05:27.780 They're
01:05:28.260 relatively
01:05:29.560 moderate.
01:05:30.460 That's one way
01:05:31.280 of looking at it.
01:05:31.940 how often do
01:05:34.480 you hear an
01:05:35.200 American or a
01:05:36.320 British politician
01:05:37.260 talking about the
01:05:39.740 methods that are
01:05:40.400 used in Saudi
01:05:41.120 Arabia to repress
01:05:43.060 political or
01:05:43.820 religious dissent?
01:05:44.760 not often.
01:05:47.620 Money talks.
01:05:49.160 Money talks.
01:05:51.260 So our rulers are
01:05:52.020 hypocrites as well
01:05:53.520 as vandals.
01:05:55.440 And many of the
01:05:56.700 dreadful things that
01:05:57.560 we see happening
01:05:58.560 now are the
01:06:00.060 result of the
01:06:00.600 second Iraq war,
01:06:01.420 which destabilized
01:06:02.240 the whole region.
01:06:03.520 They have no
01:06:04.900 understanding of
01:06:08.620 the different
01:06:09.880 sensitivities,
01:06:12.140 cultural,
01:06:13.040 religious,
01:06:13.880 ethnic,
01:06:14.420 linguistic of
01:06:16.240 the Middle
01:06:16.580 East, which
01:06:16.980 are enormously
01:06:17.740 complex and
01:06:18.840 require a lifetime
01:06:19.760 study to begin
01:06:20.740 to understand.
01:06:22.600 And they
01:06:23.040 blunder about
01:06:24.000 there as if
01:06:26.240 you can rule
01:06:26.720 Iraq in the
01:06:27.340 way you can
01:06:27.760 rule Iowa.
01:06:28.620 It doesn't
01:06:29.160 work that way.
01:06:31.040 It just
01:06:31.420 doesn't.
01:06:32.820 The worst
01:06:33.240 part of it
01:06:33.900 is that
01:06:36.180 everyone who
01:06:37.580 knew anything
01:06:38.020 about this
01:06:38.980 in the
01:06:40.400 State Department
01:06:41.260 and the
01:06:41.900 CIA and
01:06:42.500 elsewhere
01:06:42.940 was just
01:06:44.880 ignored
01:06:45.320 by
01:06:47.920 George Bush
01:06:49.680 when he
01:06:49.960 decided to
01:06:50.620 launch the
01:06:52.440 war to
01:06:53.260 turn Iraq
01:06:54.720 into a
01:06:55.160 Western liberal
01:06:55.740 democracy.
01:06:58.080 We now see
01:06:59.060 the consequences
01:06:59.720 of it and
01:07:00.380 the terrible
01:07:00.740 things that
01:07:01.120 happened in
01:07:01.500 Paris in a
01:07:02.160 way one of
01:07:02.660 the spin-offs
01:07:03.300 of that.
01:07:06.520 Yeah.
01:07:06.880 I mean,
01:07:07.480 do you think
01:07:08.040 there are
01:07:08.960 people in
01:07:09.960 Washington and
01:07:11.340 Foggy Bottom
01:07:12.240 or in the
01:07:14.040 Defense or
01:07:14.560 State Departments
01:07:15.340 that in a
01:07:17.040 way want
01:07:17.960 this kind of
01:07:18.660 chaos?
01:07:20.120 No, I
01:07:20.480 think on the
01:07:21.480 contrary.
01:07:22.000 I think the
01:07:22.280 people in the
01:07:23.440 State Department
01:07:24.140 and the
01:07:24.540 agency didn't
01:07:26.140 want this
01:07:26.640 kind of chaos
01:07:27.380 and gave good
01:07:28.000 advice which was
01:07:28.780 ignored because
01:07:29.520 of the kind
01:07:30.020 of people who
01:07:30.640 have political
01:07:31.180 purchase in
01:07:32.080 Washington.
01:07:32.480 It was
01:07:34.820 more the
01:07:35.580 advocates of
01:07:36.620 regime change
01:07:37.880 and the new
01:07:38.480 millennium that
01:07:39.660 you need to be
01:07:40.340 concerned about
01:07:41.260 than the
01:07:42.140 traditional,
01:07:44.280 if you like,
01:07:45.980 experts on
01:07:47.620 foreign policy.
01:07:48.800 Their expertise
01:07:49.480 was largely
01:07:50.160 ignored.
01:07:52.200 I wouldn't
01:07:53.400 be subscribing
01:07:54.180 to conspiracy
01:07:55.000 theories that
01:07:55.960 blame some of,
01:07:56.800 if you like,
01:07:57.120 the more
01:07:57.420 traditional organs
01:07:58.360 of the American
01:07:59.040 state for what's
01:07:59.840 happened.
01:08:00.040 I think on
01:08:00.360 the contrary,
01:08:01.060 they gave good
01:08:01.680 advice against
01:08:02.560 it and they
01:08:03.000 were ignored.
01:08:04.920 It really is a
01:08:06.960 neoconservative,
01:08:07.900 we all know what
01:08:08.740 that's a euphemism
01:08:09.740 for, a neoconservative
01:08:12.980 political project
01:08:14.260 to which fools
01:08:15.280 subscribed.
01:08:17.080 So you think
01:08:17.760 there's a kind
01:08:18.960 of Israeli
01:08:19.820 Zionist interest
01:08:20.840 that wants
01:08:21.940 these, wants
01:08:23.500 some kind of,
01:08:24.280 wants either
01:08:24.800 chaos or some
01:08:26.000 kind of terrible
01:08:27.840 theocratic
01:08:29.640 government.
01:08:30.600 It would be
01:08:30.980 simplistic, I
01:08:31.760 think it would
01:08:32.040 be simplistic
01:08:32.660 and reductionist
01:08:33.460 to explain
01:08:33.900 things in that
01:08:34.480 way.
01:08:34.880 There is a
01:08:35.540 danger in
01:08:36.700 going down
01:08:37.280 that road
01:08:38.100 in which
01:08:38.640 everything is
01:08:39.620 explained by
01:08:40.360 some kind of
01:08:41.020 overarching Zionist
01:08:42.120 conspiracy.
01:08:42.860 I think that
01:08:43.560 politics and
01:08:44.320 history are much
01:08:44.900 more complicated
01:08:45.560 than that.
01:08:47.120 I think a
01:08:48.080 further element,
01:08:49.700 although that
01:08:50.360 is an element,
01:08:52.120 and certainly
01:08:52.740 I think it was
01:08:53.380 a powerful
01:08:55.020 factor in
01:08:55.620 attempting to
01:08:56.160 overthrow both
01:08:56.980 the Saddam Hussein
01:08:57.860 regime in
01:08:58.420 Iraq and
01:08:59.040 the Assad
01:08:59.700 regime in
01:09:00.800 Syria, father
01:09:01.600 and son,
01:09:03.220 eased that
01:09:03.960 Zionist agenda.
01:09:05.040 These were
01:09:05.400 states that
01:09:06.040 were leading
01:09:06.480 the struggle
01:09:07.000 against Israel,
01:09:08.200 the Arab
01:09:08.600 nationalist
01:09:09.160 polities that
01:09:10.280 were opposed
01:09:10.980 to Zionism.
01:09:12.680 But there are
01:09:13.320 other factors,
01:09:14.040 one of which
01:09:14.460 is the
01:09:14.820 millenarian
01:09:15.540 and messianic
01:09:16.620 idea that the
01:09:17.320 whole world
01:09:17.980 can be remade
01:09:19.320 in the shape
01:09:20.100 of America.
01:09:22.200 Now that
01:09:22.760 is a
01:09:24.760 doctrine to
01:09:25.380 which a
01:09:25.640 great many
01:09:26.120 people have
01:09:27.000 subscribed
01:09:27.840 in influential
01:09:30.020 circles in
01:09:30.920 the United
01:09:31.300 States, and
01:09:32.060 it has done
01:09:32.560 more harm
01:09:33.240 than anything
01:09:33.760 else in my
01:09:34.820 view.
01:09:35.040 Now undoubtedly
01:09:35.600 there is a
01:09:36.100 large overlap
01:09:37.080 between that
01:09:37.880 and the
01:09:38.200 Zionist lobby,
01:09:39.760 but it
01:09:40.120 would be
01:09:40.940 too, I
01:09:41.900 think,
01:09:42.240 too simplistic,
01:09:43.360 too reductionist
01:09:44.140 simply to say
01:09:44.880 this is all
01:09:46.100 a gigantic
01:09:47.080 Zionist
01:09:47.620 conspiracy.
01:09:48.880 That is
01:09:49.820 much, much
01:09:50.880 more complex
01:09:51.780 than that.
01:09:52.780 Yeah, I
01:09:54.460 mean, I'm
01:09:55.020 sure there
01:09:55.580 are people
01:09:56.020 in Israel
01:09:56.580 and, you
01:09:57.840 know, if
01:09:58.120 I were to
01:09:59.180 conceive of
01:10:00.060 an Israeli
01:10:01.700 foreign policy,
01:10:03.260 I would be
01:10:03.820 supporting
01:10:04.460 Assad's
01:10:05.160 regime in
01:10:05.740 Syria.
01:10:06.580 You know,
01:10:07.520 he's stable,
01:10:08.720 he's a
01:10:09.020 civilized man,
01:10:09.800 even if you
01:10:10.280 disagree with
01:10:10.820 him, you
01:10:11.080 could at
01:10:11.340 least deal
01:10:12.040 with him.
01:10:12.420 He's sane
01:10:13.420 and he's
01:10:14.020 likely to keep
01:10:14.680 his word.
01:10:15.540 Those are
01:10:15.960 two big
01:10:16.380 factors and
01:10:17.320 anything that
01:10:17.860 comes after
01:10:18.380 him won't
01:10:19.300 be.
01:10:19.680 But so
01:10:21.060 far as
01:10:21.400 Israel is
01:10:21.840 concerned,
01:10:22.360 I have no
01:10:23.140 particular
01:10:23.760 interest in
01:10:24.720 that country.
01:10:26.240 It pursues
01:10:26.920 its own
01:10:27.500 policies.
01:10:28.360 I don't
01:10:28.740 think that
01:10:29.680 the line
01:10:30.180 that it
01:10:30.400 pursues is
01:10:30.940 necessarily
01:10:31.320 in its
01:10:31.600 own long
01:10:32.100 term
01:10:32.460 interests.
01:10:34.120 It seems
01:10:34.920 unable to
01:10:35.720 make a
01:10:36.100 lasting peace
01:10:36.920 with its
01:10:37.240 neighbours,
01:10:37.760 which cannot
01:10:38.140 be in
01:10:38.800 its own
01:10:39.220 long term
01:10:39.940 interests.
01:10:41.820 I don't
01:10:42.500 think, as I
01:10:43.040 say, that
01:10:43.620 everything that
01:10:44.580 happens in
01:10:45.360 American politics
01:10:46.440 can be
01:10:46.780 explained by
01:10:47.280 the machinations
01:10:47.980 of the Zionist
01:10:48.640 lobby.
01:10:49.680 Nevertheless,
01:10:50.740 it would
01:10:51.420 be both
01:10:52.120 dishonest and
01:10:52.960 cowardly to
01:10:53.700 pretend that
01:10:54.380 that lobby
01:10:54.860 does not
01:10:55.260 exercise a
01:10:56.040 disproportionate
01:10:56.980 influence upon
01:10:57.900 American foreign
01:10:58.820 policy and
01:11:00.940 directs that
01:11:01.640 foreign policy
01:11:02.240 in the
01:11:02.480 direction which
01:11:03.420 is the
01:11:03.900 interests or
01:11:04.800 perceived
01:11:05.380 interests,
01:11:05.980 often wrongly
01:11:06.660 perceived
01:11:06.960 interests,
01:11:07.460 in the
01:11:07.620 state of
01:11:07.940 Israel,
01:11:08.740 rather than
01:11:09.180 the United
01:11:09.440 States of
01:11:09.960 America.
01:11:10.640 That is a
01:11:11.160 particularly
01:11:11.820 American
01:11:12.540 problem and
01:11:15.840 one that the
01:11:16.360 American people
01:11:17.000 are going to
01:11:17.440 have to solve,
01:11:18.440 the influence
01:11:19.380 of that
01:11:19.760 lobby on
01:11:20.620 American foreign
01:11:21.500 policies plainly
01:11:23.260 contrary to the
01:11:24.000 American national
01:11:24.800 interest and
01:11:25.420 needs to be
01:11:25.960 broken, although
01:11:26.760 that will not
01:11:27.260 be an easy
01:11:27.780 thing to do
01:11:28.680 because it has
01:11:29.760 bought so many
01:11:30.880 American politicians
01:11:32.020 with campaign
01:11:33.000 donations and
01:11:35.040 other associated
01:11:36.260 bribes.
01:11:37.000 countries, but
01:11:37.900 that is not
01:11:38.820 the only
01:11:39.640 factor.
01:11:40.820 It feeds
01:11:42.400 into and
01:11:43.240 links up well
01:11:44.180 with the
01:11:45.580 messianic view
01:11:46.580 that Western
01:11:47.560 liberal democratic
01:11:48.960 values and
01:11:50.840 institutions can
01:11:51.960 be exported to
01:11:52.880 other countries.
01:11:53.880 Oh, no,
01:11:54.980 they can't.
01:11:56.680 They only evolved
01:11:57.660 in England very
01:11:58.540 slowly over many
01:11:59.740 centuries.
01:12:01.240 They were taken
01:12:02.140 to North America
01:12:03.520 by the
01:12:04.340 colonists, where
01:12:05.580 they then
01:12:06.280 developed, but
01:12:08.580 really as a
01:12:09.160 continuum of
01:12:10.360 institutions and
01:12:11.220 ideas they
01:12:11.700 brought over
01:12:12.260 with them from
01:12:12.960 England, where
01:12:14.400 they had
01:12:14.640 evolved over
01:12:15.380 long, long
01:12:16.480 centuries.
01:12:17.240 You cannot
01:12:18.300 suddenly transform
01:12:20.360 a tribal,
01:12:22.300 religiously
01:12:23.080 based, sectarian
01:12:24.560 society, which
01:12:26.780 is what most
01:12:27.320 Arab societies
01:12:28.060 are, into a
01:12:30.080 British or
01:12:31.220 American society
01:12:32.960 because our
01:12:33.700 Arab societies
01:12:34.580 only evolved in
01:12:36.740 that direction
01:12:37.660 over a very,
01:12:39.260 very long
01:12:39.780 period of time,
01:12:41.660 not without
01:12:42.840 terrible internal
01:12:43.940 convulsions of
01:12:45.680 their own in
01:12:46.500 past centuries.
01:12:48.620 So the idea
01:12:50.740 that things
01:12:51.600 which happened
01:12:52.200 in England
01:12:52.760 over hundreds
01:12:53.560 and hundreds
01:12:54.060 of years can
01:12:55.820 be replicated
01:12:56.520 in the Arab
01:12:57.120 state in a
01:12:57.720 few years is
01:12:59.500 just madness.
01:13:01.960 No sensible
01:13:03.280 person can
01:13:03.920 believe that.
01:13:04.580 Apparently,
01:13:04.980 most of our
01:13:05.500 rulers do.
01:13:07.080 I think,
01:13:08.460 sadly, a lot
01:13:09.280 of these
01:13:09.540 illusions will
01:13:10.260 have to be
01:13:10.940 shattered by
01:13:12.440 chaos and
01:13:14.120 blood because
01:13:15.780 I don't think
01:13:16.580 we're going to
01:13:16.940 convince them
01:13:17.880 through reason.
01:13:21.560 One of the
01:13:21.860 things I've
01:13:22.340 learned as I've
01:13:22.980 got older is
01:13:25.420 that what
01:13:26.480 Lenin called
01:13:27.700 objective factors
01:13:29.280 are very,
01:13:31.980 very important.
01:13:33.320 Of course,
01:13:33.540 nobody's a fool
01:13:34.320 could think that
01:13:35.060 they're unimportant,
01:13:35.980 but what I'm
01:13:36.520 meaning is that
01:13:38.680 other factors
01:13:40.700 such as
01:13:41.840 ideology,
01:13:43.080 correct analysis
01:13:45.580 and so on
01:13:47.120 are perhaps
01:13:49.100 less powerful
01:13:50.600 than we think
01:13:51.580 that it
01:13:52.180 sometimes takes
01:13:53.380 really brutal
01:13:54.620 external facts
01:13:56.360 to impinge
01:13:57.620 upon your
01:13:58.620 little closed
01:14:00.140 bubble world
01:14:01.100 before you
01:14:01.680 realize how
01:14:02.580 things are.
01:14:04.540 Now,
01:14:04.900 coming back to
01:14:05.680 where we
01:14:06.060 began,
01:14:07.360 some of those
01:14:08.440 very cold,
01:14:10.820 harsh realities
01:14:12.100 are coming
01:14:12.920 home to an
01:14:13.460 awful lot of
01:14:14.020 European people
01:14:14.900 now.
01:14:16.060 One of the
01:14:16.760 things which
01:14:17.180 is going to
01:14:17.580 come home to
01:14:18.420 them is that
01:14:19.840 their feeble,
01:14:22.880 incompetent,
01:14:24.040 yet at the
01:14:24.700 same time
01:14:25.440 paranoid and
01:14:26.600 tyrannical rulers
01:14:27.840 are unable to
01:14:29.700 protect them
01:14:30.500 from the
01:14:30.920 consequences of
01:14:32.420 the nightmare
01:14:33.120 that they have
01:14:34.100 unleashed upon
01:14:34.920 most of the
01:14:35.460 continent.
01:14:35.880 that is
01:14:37.340 going to be
01:14:37.740 very good
01:14:38.480 for the
01:14:38.820 souls of
01:14:39.400 the people
01:14:39.800 of Europe.
01:14:40.420 They will
01:14:40.620 have to
01:14:40.900 think about
01:14:41.420 that and
01:14:42.060 come to
01:14:42.360 appropriate
01:14:42.820 conclusions.
01:14:45.420 Well,
01:14:45.540 let's leave
01:14:46.460 it at that,
01:14:47.140 Adrian.
01:14:47.440 I can't think
01:14:48.020 of a better
01:14:48.520 conclusion.
01:14:50.060 So we'll put
01:14:50.780 a bookmark in
01:14:51.360 it, but
01:14:51.640 thank you,
01:14:52.460 Adrian.
01:14:53.520 It's always
01:14:54.160 good to talk
01:14:55.720 to you and
01:14:56.120 it's always
01:14:56.540 fun to have
01:14:57.060 you on my
01:14:57.580 podcast.
01:14:58.300 It's always
01:14:59.320 good to speak
01:14:59.840 to you.
01:15:00.260 I only wish
01:15:00.560 I'd be able
01:15:01.000 to attend
01:15:01.420 your conference
01:15:02.020 in Washington,
01:15:02.700 which I hear
01:15:03.120 is enormously
01:15:03.600 successful.
01:15:04.180 Unfortunately,
01:15:05.100 October is
01:15:05.720 a very busy
01:15:06.860 and difficult
01:15:07.400 month for
01:15:08.480 lawyers in
01:15:09.100 England.
01:15:09.400 It's when our
01:15:09.720 court term
01:15:10.260 begins.
01:15:10.660 We do most
01:15:11.160 of a year's
01:15:11.620 work in one
01:15:12.320 month, as a
01:15:14.120 result of which
01:15:14.560 I wasn't able
01:15:15.040 to come over.
01:15:15.740 But I'm going
01:15:16.660 to try and
01:15:17.200 urge you to
01:15:18.820 do a conference
01:15:19.680 in some other
01:15:20.660 months than
01:15:21.340 that most
01:15:21.880 overloaded month
01:15:22.980 for American
01:15:23.640 patriotic
01:15:24.320 conferences.
01:15:25.360 But I'll tell
01:15:25.880 you that.
01:15:26.560 Well, Adrian,
01:15:27.220 I'm sick of
01:15:28.180 hearing this
01:15:28.680 excuse every
01:15:29.640 year.
01:15:30.520 You're going
01:15:30.700 to have to get
01:15:31.980 your priorities
01:15:32.600 straight.
01:15:33.020 It's true,
01:15:34.500 I'm afraid.
01:15:35.080 What we're
01:15:35.560 going to have
01:15:35.880 to do is
01:15:37.700 to hold it
01:15:38.160 a little bit
01:15:38.560 earlier in
01:15:39.100 the year,
01:15:39.580 say September,
01:15:40.460 and I'd
01:15:40.660 be absolutely
01:15:41.180 delighted to
01:15:41.780 come over to
01:15:42.260 Washington and
01:15:42.940 join you there.
01:15:43.580 That would be
01:15:43.920 absolutely
01:15:44.300 marvellous.
01:15:45.000 I hope it was
01:15:45.480 a great success
01:15:46.200 and everyone
01:15:46.640 who attended
01:15:47.240 it very much
01:15:49.660 enjoyed it.
01:15:51.080 I need to be
01:15:51.460 congratulated on
01:15:52.240 organizing it.
01:15:53.240 Just push it
01:15:54.040 forward a few
01:15:54.760 weeks in the
01:15:55.340 year so we
01:15:55.780 don't have this
01:15:56.440 October conference
01:15:57.340 season.
01:15:57.900 Every patriotic
01:15:58.720 group has a
01:15:59.440 conference one
01:16:00.300 weekend after
01:16:01.240 another.
01:16:01.700 I'll look
01:16:03.280 forward to
01:16:03.720 seeing you
01:16:04.060 then.
01:16:04.500 I hope we
01:16:05.060 should be
01:16:05.240 able to
01:16:05.420 persuade you
01:16:05.720 to come
01:16:05.940 over to
01:16:06.260 England
01:16:06.500 before too
01:16:07.220 long.
01:16:08.100 I want to.
01:16:09.180 That is one
01:16:09.760 place in
01:16:10.260 Europe where
01:16:10.760 I can legally
01:16:11.560 enter.
01:16:13.240 Yes, yes,
01:16:14.620 yes, yes.
01:16:16.740 Well, as I
01:16:18.200 say, bearing
01:16:19.080 in mind that
01:16:20.240 Syrian terrorists
01:16:21.380 seem to be able
01:16:22.020 to cross borders
01:16:23.000 in Europe freely
01:16:24.040 despite not
01:16:24.760 being un-
01:16:25.240 censor it.
01:16:25.780 No, you
01:16:27.320 ought to be
01:16:27.740 able to do
01:16:28.280 it.
01:16:28.580 But then on
01:16:29.120 the other
01:16:29.460 hand, the
01:16:31.460 mass murderers
01:16:33.020 on the one
01:16:33.460 hand and
01:16:33.880 those who
01:16:34.260 express ideas
01:16:35.260 contrary to
01:16:36.200 the ideas of
01:16:37.340 European political
01:16:38.140 elites are
01:16:38.620 treated very
01:16:39.120 differently as
01:16:39.760 we all know.
01:16:40.920 We know where
01:16:41.780 the really
01:16:42.600 dangerous people
01:16:43.840 are.
01:16:44.240 you