this is a. story. plus

the spoils of war on show israel and lebanon compete for tourists attention with pug's any good selling this side of the story displays include weapons tanks and missile launchers and some businesses questioning its morality. up next iconic left wing british politician tony benn tells r t why he's backing the turbulent student protests even if they have been turning violent. today i'm talking to the right honorable taney been one of britain's form a socialist and the president of the stop the war coalition tony benn thank you so much for talking to r.t. now you're a big believer in democracy as the means to pass power from what you call the wallet to the ballot what do you think is the state of democracy in the well today very imperfect i mean if you look at the world people are beginning to see the

world as a single unit i mean my granddaughters school in london with seventy six nationalities ways to go to school we like addressing the general assembly of the united nations and i think that the younger generation see the world now as just roco village and they wonder who governs it can be controlled how it could be influenced and so on and everyone looking at the government of the village or the country all . over the world it bound process of what power do we have over the people who passed the lords and with the power of big business which is now enormous going across the world many big decisions are made by people we didn't elect cannot remove who do not have to listen to us so it's a very very big issue i think and you are talking about organizations like the international monetary fund from the european central bank consoles are they are

instruments of the international power of capital and they have a huge influence over the government policies you know those paid britain or greece and and i think that issue is going to become a very big one look ahead and how can we pass the power from the wallet to the ballot well historically it's been done by people who campaigned for it i mean slavery was abolished because people looked. slave owner for all being a slave and said who gave him the right to do that to that man and once you are still question who gives him the right to do that then you have opened up a debate about democracy and is that what we're seeing happening now with these protests on the streets of europe well i think all demands by people to be heard. sometimes expression themselves in protest but otherwise you know argument or these are demands. central to the future advance of mankind and how has that

happened do you think that we have gone from being a fairly politically apathetic population particularly in the u.k. to turning out on the streets in huge numbers and shouting about how government well if you look at it historically your history is a good guide because if you don't know where you came from you don't know where you are or great trade deals have been made by exactly the same type of political campaigning i did women get the vote to begin with you know there was a very little movement then when they were determined and they campaigned to day one how did men get the vote in britain to trade unions get recognised how did slavery and there are moments in history when people look around and say we are being controlled by those who don't have to listen to us we've got to change it but do you support these people who are coming out to protest sometimes in quite a violent and destructive way i very strongly support it because the right to

education is a basic human right i mean we now have accepted in britain in most parts of the world the right to be educated the right and. the right to use to justice our rights and if you take some of the way they're doing the university training you have to pay to go then you are taking away people's rights and beautiful scenery in the central in the country we seem to be saying somewhat of a hiatus. in the process and maybe with christmas and the new year coming up what do you think is going to happen once people recover from that new year stupor and realize what's going on well i mean i'm not a forecast journalist for cross the world i try to influence the time involved in the campaign against the cuts and i believe it will build up and build up because i think it is a threatening the whole nature of our society and so i would expect it would have very very profound political effects in the future and as

a campaign of what's your next step going to be to bring people together. solidarity say that students support pensioners who are finding their parents. some disadvantaged public servant support range who benefits of being up to the thing becomes a very very powerful political movement for justice and once that happens governments have to listen you're huge supporter of free health care for all and of the welfare state in general we've got figures from the department of welcome pensions that say one point six million working age people in britain have never held down a job do you think the welfare state gone too far you know. i remember the birth of the welfare state and it came in this way i was in the air force in the was a pilot and i learned to ride africa and the nine hundred forty three i went out in troop ship and we had thousands of young people. and which i did have a meeting on war aims and one young man i wish i knew his name but i didn't said

this he shed in the one nine hundred thirty s. we had mass unemployment be said we don't have unemployment in wartime he said if you could have full employment killing germans why can't you have full employment building hospitals recruiting doctors recruiting nurses building schools building and that was how we got there were first take we decided in one nine hundred forty five to apply the same determination to meet the needs of peace that we had throughout the war applied to be the needs of war and i think it wasn't an ideological so much of a practical solution and very incomplete and the conservatives in britain never really liked it and the cuts now are a way of finding an excuse for reducing it have it not created a sort of underclass of people who aren't motivated to get a job because they can live fairly comfortably on money from the government i think so i mean there are people who are homeless and there are people who are not

employed and working class people are at the mercy of those who have the money to employ them and if you can keep a lot of people unemployed that is a threat to those that work because people say to themselves oh well if i don't accept low wages my job will go to somebody else i don't accept that argument and let's go back to democracy more generally do you see it as a panacea that can be applied to countries and cultures across the world name matter what that underlying principles are i think we're have a country and our lives in the dumond of people to be. and have some control there's a natural couldn't bond i heard a program of trying to gauge the other day which was about a school in trying to where they agreed to elect the school representative and it was fan a. sedating program because you realize that in that chinese school all the characteristics

that we associate with voting in britain were taking place and then one day you know children will say well if we could choose our school represent the when we were young why should we have a role in deciding the government and i think these things happen but. in order for them to develop you can't have a threatened society because i threaten society will repress domestic dissent because they feel it weakens them and we went to war in iraq ostensibly in the name of democracy but that's obviously not something that you support no i didn't think we did we went to war in support of oil interests and we use arguments governments use arguments to justify what they do and then everyone has the right now with the information of the disposal to question these arguments and say are they valid or not and if they are not valid why we're doing it and to stop the war movement built up the biggest political campaign in britain in history of two million people live

in london the next stop the war but it created a. pattern of public opinion that compelled governments to train their policy and since then have you seen support for what the stop will coalition is doing to minish in any way now i think it i think it built up to the point the maximum point just when we were going to war and now with all the inquiries and thoughts about the war tisn't the most dominant question but i think governments realise that when you do get a campaign of that power against what they're doing they are very vulnerable and wiki leaks and julian i saw is what what do you think that wiki leaks has done to support your campaign releasing all this information about the iraq and afghan wallace well my opinion is the information is itself a very very powerful weapon in general governments want to know everything they can about us they want. to tap our telephone or open our letters to find out what we're

doing and don't want us to know anything about them and so when all this information is circulating between ambassadors and diplomats without knowing about it we could buy it when we know we're able to put questions and so on and i think we're colleagues is a very very important event and a very profound one and very relevant to democracy and obviously the opposition to wiki leaks is saying that it puts the soldiers and those who are collaborating with the u.s. and british armies in afghanistan in danger what do you think about that well i think the question is why should we be it afghanistan or in iraq and that's the question everybody has to answer somebody with a story about a young person an old man said to him are you interested in politics and the boy said no and so the old man said we're take an interest in politics before politics actually interested you should be on missions or to afghanistan i think debates

about policy are absolutely right and let's separate house if we can for a moment the information about the iraq and afghan wars that we got from wiki leaks and then this latest u.s. diplomatic cables that have been released and i would have thought that as an antiwar campaign you would support diplomacy by any means as a last resort doesn't this weaken to play misty in the world no i think all it does is to reveal the way to proceed is conducted but you're quite right diplomacy is the alternative to war and therefore if you can get diplomatic contacts going so much the better but people are entitled to know what is being done in their name but does it really matter what insight is in the diplomatic core think about presidents why isn't another sort of tattle tattle well that's gossip and go see if you have to disregard because. politics of gossipers makes people cynical about

testing all that since that happens you must know it happened because it helps you to understand better what is really going on among powerful people tony bennett thank you very much. it can hit dr swan's policeman swines ministers why i just pray that if you didn't find me if i could slip through the night that i would get my kids out of here because i knew that what was going to happen was that he was going to kill me many victims don't understand that domestic violence includes verbal abuse psychological abuse physical abuse and sexual abuse at least four million women are affected by abuse every year those are my only two options that i saw at that moment either i'm going to kill him or me in jail or he's going to kill it it

. is he. just needs to. come. see. won't come into the current makes a big splash in the world of heights or business cloud turns it veered science into i ching products just don't understand all these is kept he followed russian invaders to each invaders and brought it and their big breakthrough back. spotlight

on stone on technology update here on along. we've got the future covered. sports ahead release of the top stories first today no release from a cold khodorkovsky of the already jailed for more oil tycoon has been found guilty of been battling billions in cash in oil before my head of oil giant you course is already serving eighteen years for tax evasion and for following his arrest in two thousand and three. a tough crackdown on racially motivated crimes and justice for all criminals regardless of nationality the kremlin make strong promises in response to a number of incidents of ethnic cleansing. plus the spoils of war on show israel and lebanon compete for tourists attention with the theme parks selling this side of the story displays include weapons tanks and missile launchers with some

visitors questioning the reality. twenty forty five more news online twenty four seven at r.t. dot com. hello and welcome to the sports thank you for joining me and other headlines. blades of steel high flying metal magnitogorsk keep our place to plug in the. wall going forward national ice hockey can be called sexist brush aside have learned lessons from the disappointing. top against the government's chelsea go to austin in a couple clash in the english premier league. start with ice hockey and in the continental hockey league leaders. have continued their strong vein of form after climbing with number six this month maybe if you keep making. music or started out

last only you want seven games in the whole of december else well that's because that's on the fourteenth and in champions at the bronze age talk to himself or to some about you i have taken from behind to be after maybe least five to take scott recorded their second good in a row this week three hundred bodies haven't got have a good win on the road at the number of minutes to really get. in overtime. meanwhile twenty ten was a year to forget for russia's national ice hockey team there was the shock seven three defeat to canada at the olympics want to stop studded lineup failed to bring home gold at the world championships which is on pole feet caught up with head coach. who says the next few years will be a rebuilding process for russian hockey. it's been a very difficult year for the russian national team the loss of a quarter finals a billion bucks to the canadians and the feat in the final of the world championships how difficult has it been for you personally by the way it is

difficult not to lose not just in sport but as a rule in life in general that the most important thing is to make the right moves and to pick your head up and start moving forward again it's a necessary fact of life in order to improve one must also experience what it's like to lose of course the defeat to canada in the olympics was difficult to swallow you'll just for us but also the team's fans and the country as a whole at the world championships we try to play more taking hockey and finishing second isn't the worst result in the world and you always want to finish first but that isn't always possible as at the moment there are five or six teams who also want to win gold and can do so again sometimes it's important to lose in order to move forward. where you a little surprised that of course i was surprised that what happened i would never have expected us to lose seven three in a quarter final against canada when you're in a situation like this when you go behind quickly it's very important to make quick

decisions to try and turn the game back in your favor when things are going against here one must never start to show their emotions it's imperative to stay calm to try and give yourself a chance but unfortunately this didn't happen and psychologically we weren't able to compete with the canadians who are more russian veterans returning to play in a cage shell mad from the n.h.l. does this mean it's much harder for russian youngsters to break into the national team. is returning to build a national team around the best russian players whether they are old or young or that there are two or three youngsters who are involved at the moment at the world junior championships in buffalo as you i will be interested in having a look at once they get back and call them out to the national school or do. you. on the other hand these veterans can give these russian youngsters a wealth of experience. to play alongside experienced and talented players is an invaluable source of support as they were able to teach youngsters so much about

the game both on and off the ice after returning to play in russia i think these veterans understand that it's part of their job to try and teach the new generation of just like how they were taught by more experienced players when they were starting out their careers. it's been a long time since russia's produced a player of the caliber of alexander i.v. . and in a couple of guinea markin already have a players out there but moments who could perhaps become as good as one of these three players which i mentioned. we do have some talented young players the most important thing is that they want to become stars and if they are prepared to put in the necessary work in order to achieve this they've got everything at their feet in order to reach the same sort of level of the three players you've mentioned everything is in their hands a star is only born when a player is ready to become a star some other talk of them ok shows now in his first season is the toughest year of competition in your opinion. it's

a very interesting season as i'd say the gap between the clubs is closing i think this shows that the league is growing in stature and the teams in the care channel are developing and it's getting tougher and tougher to win the going cup figure ever so much for your time. so bornand in the english premier league third place arsenal will host fourth place chelsea this monday night the gunners are itching to beat the blues in the league for the first time in two years and narrow the gap to leaders manchester united to two points. we have mixed feelings because we came out of both games against. man united but it was possible. there was not a difference between the teams and so we have a good opportunity to show that in the coming months and to show as well i believe our room for improvement is bigger than any other team because we are very young side and so it's a whole room where we respond to what happened to us in the end in man united me

watch l.c.r. aimee's get back to winning ways the players have slipped from a five point lead at the top to fourth after losing to the entering three of the last five games but their relishing the chance to put their campaign back on track as important game or be as late because. valving in the fight for the tide everyone i think that team can win this game. my things in this period. but i have to play this game because. we move on after the moment we are able to come back to play our football and to try to do everything to him. meanwhile on sunday months united remain top of the table after winning two nails home just sunderland to reach all the top score to the top to ensure united remain two points clear of rivals manchester city who won three one of the

a castle. also next. as that rafael van der vaart is ten mount tottenham stayed fit with a two one win at aston villa despite having jermain defoe sent off after twenty seven minutes also kept up the pressure in six because they want to know the time to west brom also ran out to no discipline been called in cold emetic twice as west hollywood dock to the bottom of the table with a three one win in the london dogmeat fullerton and was dropped to the bottom after a loss to one time in the basement battle with wigan everton against birmingham and blackpool first medical were postponed. but every russia much of mosco have started their pre-season early this year with new coach saying reinforcements are needed for the next campaign the forty seven year old replaces u.t.c. i mean he was sacked at the end of the season after going the wrong way meant to focus on do you wake of a place. now to six place in the last campaign doesn't cost him his life over his

new squad most of the foreign stones into the strike at them to sit for absent because it's made clear he wants to bring in some new faces. without question the team meet somewhere in force so they can come from the outside as well as from the inside and the internal structure is the main care we're focused on right now as well as good players are critically ready for the training camp. possible imagine the n.b.a. the new orleans hornets of claim their full success is home when after coming back to. lands at ninety three eighty six the house where nine points behind her except half the time that the third quarter was the turning point and the point back to what's called our opponents by twelve points chris paul was most instrumental for new orleans he scored twenty two points thirteen of them in the pivotal for a period until this lead with a foul to make it sixty six sixty two the hornets held on to their advantage throughout the final farias benchley run and the ninety three ninety six victims

were built the way for us now some form a stars of synchronized swimming have been putting on a christmas show here in moscow the spectacle was produced by st on the impact champion ready access and yoga who hopes the production could reach a global audience that the rest of that reports. they will be a few seats mouse over the next two weeks that they're in piskies swimming pool in the sky maybe the steam has created a unique show you. may see a nice reamers but diverse and outer banks if you know about his droid several occupations after your time and six years ago but sr is no happy with this show but it was great and if the kids loved our performance then we're happy if we managed to keep their attention throughout the show and they left this place delightful then we've achieved some success. the main star of the spectacle is another limbic chamber in israel and she plays the leader mir meet your fairy tale by a famous writer and screws to yourself. and the rest of your former school the show

will take off in the capital and plan to spread the show all over russia and then maybe around the world. in evolutionary my heart. and finally there's some good news for russia off the sports minister vitaly mutko announced that around one point four billion u.s. dollars would be spent on sport in the country next year. that would. state budget for twenty eleven to forty three billion rubles will be spent on sport in general of course the bulk of it will be spent on professional sport but almost a third of that money will be spent to lamberts a sport right now we have around twenty five million people who do sports on a regular basis and our main goal is to increase this figure to twenty eight million. and that's all the sports news for this bulletin that will be back with another update in just under two hours time.