who voted against the iraq war former labor cabinet minister lord chris smith the outgoing chair of the regulator of british advertising. plus the queen of mean on to raise a major seventy eight percent increase in hate crime in the u.k. winner of ru paul's drag race insults comedian. twenty nine us states to be fired for your sexual orientation and as hurricane maria continues its trail of destruction we speak to the caribbean rebuilding their communities celebration after decades of new liberal imperial rule from westminster. coming up in today's going underground well what was u.k. prime minister theresa may all about when she decided to use one of the world's greatest basilicas to outline plans ahead of tomorrow's german election we caught up with. to ask him about that and what he thought of his friend donald trump's latest broadsides against north korea still being denied talks with the great powers niger you've been warning all along that european countries are all

referendums on leaving the european union never get to leave the european union is that what the florence speech is very much i mean look today is a great day for westminster it's a great day for the political class great day for goldman sachs great day for multinational business because effectively what the prime minister is saying is we're going to stay a full member effectively of the european union for a further two years and it's a two fingers up to the seventeen point four million poorly educated unwashed voters that voted. to go to poorly educated but that's what they've told us that's what they've told us all the way through we've been told but as voters with stupid with pig ignorant we don't understand the real world and this is the establishment trying to regain control ironic that it won't even be enough as regards your european bureaucrats in the negotiations anyway well that's the point isn't it but if. by saying we'll pay twenty billion pounds over the course of the

next two years that somehow is going to satisfy mr vanier i mean she's all moonshine because all he's going to say is you've paid for two years access to the single market we want this big divorce built on top frankly i do not think anything she says today is going to satisfy anybody in brussels but when does the so-called deep state start telling brussels be a bit nicer to britain because we want them in well that i think has to come from a different direction that i think has to come from member state governments you know the new german chancellor except for and i think the sensible thing would be for the member states to say to. you are acting as a european union in your own interests you're no longer representing the needs of individual companies or workers around the member states of europe you know they may have managed to reverse the irish referendum the danish referendum ultimately

they can delay this is long as they want we are going to leave at some point in time the will of the british people is strong and we are going to leave what i don't want is this for this to drag out for year after year after year and it looks now little be at least five years. before anything fundamental changes but the same old german chancellor arguably so well it may not happen it look if there's if there is no hope if there is no hope of getting any reasonable position coming from brussels then the time comes for us to say you know what this is a farce there's a great big world out there there's america australia india good those things that didn't even shock you that there were proposals for single european military and compulsory your joining in the past few weeks i thought your speech was pretty extraordinary last week i mean i mean this is a full state run from the. taking even you thought oh even i said i did say to mr younger afterward. had actually done us a huge favor because now ever there was

a second referendum after that speech we'd never vote to rejoin just one and. a lot of worries about his response to north korea what do you think about how he's dealing with that is that more deep state power in washington against no this is different north korea is different. donald trump has from the time he was elected been genuinely concerned not just for america but for south korea japan genuinely concerned for the world about what the intentions of this north korean regime are and what he's trying today is to rally support from russia from china from everybody everything they can to stop this guy getting full nuclear capability and it is as guilty as a geranium me of rolling back things that were said or things that the electorates want i mean he said on nafta he is leaving it what has held trump back has not been donald himself because i know that he's resolute to those things that he was

elected on what's held back is the judiciary what's held back is congress what's held back is the deep state. well of the deep state is trying to overthrow donald trump in the united states it arguably felt satisfied with itself when the british labor party was destroying the lives of tens of millions of people in one war after another under tony blair ahead of next week's labor conference we also caught up with one of his cabinet colleagues on the green at westminster former u.k. culture secretary chris smith well it's with chris thanks for coming out on the green for us before we get into advertising just remind us of why a tony blair cabinet minister would have opposed the iraq war given obviously in the past few days or been so many casualties in ongoing violence in iraq i knew in the period two thousand and two two thousand and three as we were approaching the iraq war i knew that it was the wrong thing to do. the

sanctions against iraq will be working the weapons inspectors hadn't finished their work they hadn't found any weapons of mass destruction the consequences i foretold in a number of speeches in the house of commons were going to be dire i have never more regretted having been proved right. your leaving your post as a regulator of advertising you talked about perhaps regulator of fact as regards europe and breaks it when you think we need to regulate the very claims made by the government i think we probably do need to regulate the prince of course immediately . have a look at claims that are made by political parties especially during election time and for example during the referendum when all sorts of wild claims were made it specially by the leave campaign but also to

a separate extent by the remain campaign the political parties have always refused to accept any sort of regulator or oversight over the claims that they're making to be clear your role as running the advertising standards association meant you had no remit to be able to control political advertising in there and we had no remit a toll for political advertising and a lot of people assumed we did and got in touch with this to complain but i'm afraid. because of our constitution we weren't able to do anything about it to political parties can buy and their advertising political parties can say whatever they want in their advertising at the moment and that's that's the problem and it's one of the things that's made the public very skeptical now i know. in some of the adjudications by your agency came along down a lot on gambling ironic that a former. just secretary was in

a government that basically put casinos and gambling dens all around the country should be adjudicating on gambling the loosening up of those rules generally happened actually after i'd left the cabinet what we are seeing at the moment is a lot of public concern not just about what gambling advocates say but about the sheer quantity you won't be able to do anything about it is. when the able to effect that because the law of the land permits it to happen do you think i mean the royal society college of first psychiatrist school labor's plans to expand gambling right across britain in britain a recipe for disaster is shameful record new labour's on spreading gambling up another country i wouldn't say it was a shameful record i don't think it was the right decision to have made all governments make mistakes that was i think a mistake to open it up quite so freely presumably one of your proudest.

achievements as a cabinet minister was to ensure free museum and gallery admittance and it is to some some of them i mean you're obviously very worried about bricks sort of and you think britain is going to become one giant museum of to bricks i'm very worried about bricks it i think it will do enormous damage to our economy and to society you know tourism in florence is saying they can be a deal we can still have the good things i would much rather when we see the actual terms of whatever the deal it's. our exit from the european union what the future trade arrangements are going to be when we actually see the terms of the deal then i think we should go back to the public and say now we know exactly what this means let's hear whether you wanted to go. but isn't this

part of a brand new future for britain. part of the high tech economy you know the term we call been previously of course oppose the european union for its present your liberalism the better left. aren't you just being a bit like city con the mayor now banning these new things that britain has to embrace i think excepting from the european union will diminish britain that went in hans but. it will mean that we've voluntarily removed ourselves from a number of jews a can. a very very important grouping of countries of which we are naturally of course they're a bit severe ocracy that everyone would want to trade that's on the table and emmanuel mccall is talking very seriously about change with your use as a three year period when you know me and he will. debate again what's the mood about it in the house of lords. i think that the house of lords is

it is very skeptical about the merits of bracks it. will not stand in the way of the will of the people but nonetheless wants it to happen in the right way and will scrutinize very carefully what the government is up to especially of course with this so-called great repeal bill which gives the government the executive enormous powers to ride roughshod over any sort of parliamentary scrutiny and overlords like you and i think the house of lords will have something very serious to say about that. thank you. after the break. should the trans community be allowed to enlist in the u.s. military we quiz the winner of ru paul's drag race you know g.b.t. plus an iconic piano rio about equality before the law under a true president and love his power we speak to find out just stunning. blundered.

into a call of activism. going underground. not .

welcome back not just class but identities are under attack during the continuing western economic crisis if the spanish attack on catalonia this week was a manifestation. repeated refusals on refugees ahead of a speech in florence yesterday and yet another was arguably mainstream media's privileging of u.s. deaths over commonwealth caribbean nations hit by climate change this hurricane season but all the complexity of an imperial past is currently on show in brixton in south london internationally famous for its one nine hundred eighty one uprising against that we sent senior producer pete bennett down there to the area where property prices have reportedly risen by seventy six percent since the early two thousand. and. eight well i'm here on the revival trail a collaboration between. independent business. and create this preserving afro

caribbean culture here in the u.k. . this year the love carnival goes behind the scenes on the zine organization and the struggle to put saw not only notting hill carnival in west london but carnival's across the country i've come to meet for an artist first generation and the trials facilitator alvin coffey to discuss the power of art to transcend class race in a time of post-crash of cross carnival has always been about celebration and that's very celebration in terms of a cultural expression of viewpoint and you know i know carnival i guess in some ways become a political stage which plays out because of the things going on in the background so issues come up like. polarize people's minds or. focus on a particular point but really what's going on the community the things that need to resolve a much broader than that so we get on with what we need to do in our. communities

and as create independent organizations independent bodies that have a grassroots and connected and have longevity so we don't have to rely on whether politicians or for insurance or. brands come in and changed their groups consisted in turn what we need to do to build a community to build to to allow the visual arts to express that so the tragedy of grand folks have all that really exposes the growing rift between power and the people black visual reminder of the historic fight for equality and independence. it's a make a visual artist and former caution is in the british funk groups like mandy you've been sampled by hip hop's de la soul to fiji's we met at brixton front room to discuss growing up in a post lighty and how activism became part of daily life you know. it's not just when you look at people pro. this thing or demonstrating activism is how to survive

you know when we first came here the banks would lend black people money. putting money in the pot and each week one of those persons would take all the money over a fifteen week period and they would each get their produce the to save enough money to put a deposit on ours and that's how we did it and that was actually if we didn't sit back and wait for the. but i'm still not it was fine to give black people money for mortgages so be interactive is safe say for instance a record in particular people in our community there are we important to us that stood for something else that's going to celebrating our traditional values that's in point as a way of activism so it doesn't mean it's not a political statement in the sense that where opposing something you know western

western idea was done it's more about celebrating celebration at that's in opposition because the viewpoint of an african centered thought is very different to european so you find people like call gabriel or trying to create those elements and keep the expression within the costumes within the mass span parades so that so it's not so it's not lost calling gabriel a carnival specialist but decades of experience a traditional african sculpture is cost displayed all over the world our work is not instant for instance in one piece so we're dependent if we do in a mass you know a marketing to do we actually use in natural material you know even touching the material gives you that sense of. because you're working with natural stuff especially on a piece a big piece of work there's more than just me creating something i mean there's

a fourth there's a force behind it you know i almost feel like it is the ancestors guided us to do what we do you know the culture is actually defined by those who call in life and era and to me that then my members. of western europe because it was the birthplace of white supremacy and racism in that for the first time they defined black people african people as not people and the fine arts. is one of the areas that is completely neglected say for instance if you want to go and study or figurative or life during very rarely you're going to find black models into if you do is going to be some exotic expression or notion of what black is because it's in part class because the fine arts is more of a class orientated young black people in my time going to our school was of rarity as more than a music ray or one on the news or not really you would have sports except your set

your brain indigenously just like any other culture we have people who want to express themselves in a particular way. and i was within our community and they're totally ignored the mainstream essentially is there for the benefit of those own and control them in the street and it's not in the interest of african people being proud of being african a good friend of mine is actually doing a series of talks at the national gallery. looking at blocks in western art in the national gallery and i was so upset with them when i went on the tour because all the showed me were blacks on the periphery blacks the servants blacks in a cringing statement saying i don't want to see that i don't want that to be elevated that is the reality of white supremacy and the national gallery is like a confusion to white supremacy because when you look at its relationship to other

side of western europe you realize that that's all it's interesting that we. hurricane. and hurricane maria now tearing through the caribbean and decimating so many of these islands you've had experience yourself you've got family there how important is it that say the arts will play a role now and the regeneration well i mean i've witnessed the role of the you know its order around all around europe and america and the first was opening up a massive wrong regenerates you know use some of the expertise needs to be taken down we're going to have a long period of stagnation in the caribbean off the home again and the yachts can be complaints from only helping to regenerate culture for bringing attention and bringing back festivals and celebration back to different areas in the caribbean to help generate money to generate interest back into those countries there is

a dichotomy going on so people know i'm going to invest and take for work with people where they can benefit in terms of trade so me personally i don't take too much from the what. the government do or don't do because i know people would be you know would it be and rebuilding. senior producer pete bennett well from the tragedies of hurricane maria to the hurricane that is bianca twenty four hours after president trump visited alabama in the southern united states i'm joined by insult comedian and winner of rubles drag race bianca del rio his upcoming international tour lately don't be a good deal rio kicks off in new zealand in the bank welcome to going underground so you're touring britain and ireland in twenty eight we're going to sell the whole new fashion line across britain fashion week no i got the wrong note i think that's the wrong notes i haven't branched out to fashion a lot yet i mean america obviously anybody who goes on

a reality show becomes famous and then starts hocking merchandise like the car dash cams but i don't actually have talent so i could never be a car dash and we invite the questions on by the way to. friends i don't know and yeah they come on all the time great you know but presumably you're going to tell british audiences about the great new leader of the free world all around brisbane doing really great things are sexy as president the smartest president we've ever had genius and i have to say i'm just so proud of america right now but it will seriously look if you think of his travels back in the military i mean should trans people in the united states be allowed to kill trans people in iraq and i don't know why i think if you pay taxes you should never do whatever how you want to do you know this fires like this how i feel about everything when it comes to gay marriage or banning people if they want to do it let them do it how does it affect your life who i don't know what that says about the driveway they're pretty well they're a mess they're a mess i mean they're a big mess i mean you've got your own troubles here too so don't act like it's all good everything's fine you know unless there is actually a hate crimes are up seventy percent seventy percent of those four years according

to one report you think again part of the problem is i mean you're not from new york even though you won this great thing in new. people in the media big metropolitan cities think everything is liberated and for the never dull totally up to where is actually outside of london to this you do things are not quite the same a hundred miles north of the studio but that's exactly how time got elected you know i mean here it was in pockets i mean i lived in los angeles and new york and new orleans and there's normal people there but it's that middle america area that came out and voted for him and that's when you go how the how did this happen it's kind of insane for those who have seen the film from a couple of years ago would it be different or can be. drained it was small town in texas well not in texas now i mean we're actually filming a sequel in october i end up in russia at a science fair because you know of course they hate the gays as well so this is a perfect opportunity for set up you know a really bad situation we're going to fill in. this which is no. sure

i'm going to go right over to russia no we're filming some in new york and some in dallas texas yeah but exterior shots because homosexuality is illegal in russia in some states in the united states it's not it's twenty nine states number and twenty nine states and united states that it's legal to be fired for being gay which is kind of insane i mean does that work with the u.s. constitution who knows there's always a loophole for something i mean how how is any of this possible does it make any sense but most people don't realize that that literally if you come out of your job they can fire you just because your sexual orientation because when it comes to issues arguably a great. i call them has become chelsea manning. is alleged to be in the wiki leaks whistleblower secrets of state do you think that's been the. i mean the good thing for. you to win justice so i think we need to get information from somewhere because if we were not getting it from the news sources i mean everything is you know sensationalized in a reality show that's what we're living in over there now so it's good to actually get some information they're not telling us so i think we need people like chelsea to give us the information that we need you think for a long time the communities are both sides of the united states were getting

a bit complacent in the whole job is waking them up actually i don't really think so i don't think well you know i think i think we need i'm not saying we need but i think this situation has got people i mean look at facebook everyone every day i have friends that are constantly posting about political stuff that never discussed it you know the past few years so i think it's a hot button right now which is really important to shake up what's going on like this can't happen this is insane what we're living in you know and i think it's important for people to especially young people who think oh my vote doesn't count obviously it does because what is forty seven percent in america i didn't even vote which is back to how much the blame is the media the statement the b.b.c. here is in a bit of trouble for it medically and debates between and the rights and pro that if it's ok to. you. ideas in the first place but in the u.s. routinely well i mean i think it. could be the. kinds of reports that you know certain channels won't even discuss things that are going on you know like right now with this hurricane situation that's happening and some some of the stations

will discuss it fully and some of them don't even mention it so it's quite fascinating they just pick and choose what they want it's either hillary's book that's out or trump did this today or and then you've done it and there was a hurricane and you're like wait a minute wait a minute what's more important here you know obviously not hillary's book but it's just trump helping people out with it all how about any of this leave his wife was down a lot i was just with her fancy shoes at a flooded area i'm like that's that's typical you're against rules to live as an american but that doesn't make it a big news story already unless you're air raiding the ground to actually let the water seep in then that would be helpful but other than that you know so you know i'm serious as the results show up at the united states yes. do you think the kind of comedy you do on your tour and so it helps for. sure but understanding it well you gotta laugh i mean you gotta laugh at something but first i'm a man in a way i have to laugh at myself yes this is awake but also not as a hair choice but i am in those moments not realizing that you've got to laugh at

something and right now it's so depressing over there you've got to do what you've got to do and so for me it's one of those things where i've been doing this for twenty one years so it's kind of like you get it if you don't some people say oh it's too much you need to unite people that might like there's nothing that brings people got more than laughter and anger to be donald trump and i don't even get political in the show i mean because you never know who's out you know his political i mean we don't get political i don't discuss him on that level i mean because then you never know who's in the audience i mean recently in america there was amy schumer and want to sykes who had issues with hecklers in the audience because they made trump jokes and they went crazy and it's like you're really don't know who's off it might be a gay republican who thinks trump is lovely so i don't want to. you know i'll talk about myself and make fun of that which of course is just tracking from what's really going on sometimes you need an hour away from the maddest negative thank you and you're touring australia in november then the united states then in britain is that it's correct you've got my schedule. and that's it for one of your favorite shows of the season we'll be back with a whole new episode going on the ground on wednesday the seventeenth of january

children can be judged by social media have a happy. it's the cradle of jazz. climatic. alligators on the. members of my close. street racing. of the night. this is new orleans. the best place in the world. to be in debt is to express your true self as an american and part of the

western. culture card debt is by definition your identity your credit score is who you are and when you combine social media as are doing in china any time you step out alive if you spit on the subway your social media index is degraded and your cost of funds goes higher and you get deeper into the casino goulet. wall. the wall. on the show. and.

the top stories this hour the u.s. is criticized by members of the u.n. security council the washington code in the missions meeting antigovernment protests in iran also to come we speak to kid list who's published an illustration on daily life in war torn yemen and fury the latest book to expose the private life of donald trump and his time in the white house becomes an instant bestseller .