in the southeast of england we. 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 seventy eight percent increase in hate crime in the u.k. winner of ru paul's drag race insults comedian. it is legal in 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 building 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 on about when she decided to use one of the world's greatest basilicas to outline bricks it 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 that 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. international 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 for bracks and casting about the poorly educated but that's what they called that's what they've told us all the way through we've been told but it's stupid we're 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 that if she thinks by saying we'll pay twenty billion pounds over the course of the next two years that 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 as 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 heard those things but it didn't even shock you that there were proposals for a single european military and compulsory your joining in the past few weeks i thought you know because speech was pretty extraordinary last week i mean i mean this is a full state run from the center taking a when you thought oh even. i said i did say to mr younger afterwards it 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 on. 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 is. as guilty as say juries are made 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 of

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. i knew that it was the wrong thing to do. the

sanctions against iraq were 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 would you think we need to regulate a 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 is

especially 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 be oversight over the claims that they're making to be clear your role as running the advertising standards as a schmitt 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 in 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 you came along down a lot and. gambling ironic that

a former culture secretary who 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 will 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 psychiatrists call labour's plans to expand gambling right across been in britain a recipe for disaster it's 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 it 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 the 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 ahead 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 non recall they will introduce 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 within the euro you see as a three year bid and 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 the 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 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 analogy between iconic piano rio about equality before the law under a truck president and love his power. we speak the final of just stunning london

design week into a call of activism to reconnect with the african diaspora all of them all coming to i'm going underground. join me every thursday on the alex simon show and i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you then.

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 so arguably was to raise a maze repeated refusals on refugees ahead of her 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 nine hundred eighty one uprising against that euro zone 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 when this become activism and activists lead to lost in change well i'm here on the brixton revival trail a collaboration between longer design festivals independent businesses and create

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 why nazis first generation and the trolls facilitator alvin kofi to discuss the power of art to transcend class race in a time of post-crash. cross carnival has always been about celebration and that's very celebration in terms of our cultural expression of viewpoint and now you 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 in our community the things that need to resolve a much broader than that so we get on with what we need to do in an organ.

communities and asked create independent organizations independent bodies that have a grassroots and are connected and have longevity so we don't have to rely on where the politicians or franchises or brands come in and changed their routes const consisted in turn what we need to do to build a community to build to to allow the visual arts to express that the tragedy of grant felt how are arguably exposes the growing rift between power in the people black visual reminder of the historic fight for equality and independence. is a jamaican born visual artist and former caution in the british funk resigned 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 slavery society and how activism became part of daily life you know activism is not just when you look at people protesting or demonstrating activism is

how to survive you know when we first came here the banks would lend lucky people money how did we buy houses to live in the relationship we have would be job that was a kind of art because without it we wouldn't not have survived it's like coming together putting money in the pot and each week one of those persons would take all the money over fifteen weeks. and they would each get there. to save enough money to put a deposit on a mouse and that's all we did and that was we didn't sit and wait for the. but i'm still not it was fine to give black people money for mortgages so be an activist say so for instance record in particular people in our community there are 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 that you know west and western idea was done it's more about celebrating celebration at that you know position because the viewpoint of an african centered thought is very different to european so you find people like karl gabriel or trying to create those elements and keep the expression within the costumes within the span parades so that so it's not so it's not lost calling gabriel a carnival specialist with decades of experience in traditional african sculptures and cost displayed all over the world our work is not instant for instance one piece of work depends if we're doing 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. i mean there's a fourth there's a force behind it you know i almost feel like it is the ancestors guided. to do what we do you know the culture is actually defined by those who call in like heroes and to me that then like members. of western europe because it was the birthplace of white supremacy and racism in that way for the first time they defined black people african people as not people in the far north. is one of the areas that is completely neglected say for instance if you want to go and study if you're pretty for life you're very 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 a 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 down in new zealand 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 those within our community 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 to be 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. side of western europe you realize that that's all it's interested in with. 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 on a massive wrong regenerates you know use so 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 first moves 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 from work with people where they can benefit in terms of trade so me personally i don't take too much you know what do you care 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 insults 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 a whole new fashion line across britain fashion week no we've got the wrong note i think that's the wrong notes i haven't branched out to fashion a lot yet i mean obviously anybody who goes on a reality show becomes famous and then starts talking merchandise like the car dash cams but i'd never be a car dash by the questions oh and by the way it leads to. yeah i think i'm a little that i'm great you know but presumably you're going to tell british audiences about the great new leader of the free world between 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 well i think if you pay taxes you should be able to have a 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 and so 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 and maybe you've got your own troubles here too so don't act like it's all good everything's fine you know unless you're exactly. grams 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 don't 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 it is actually outside of london after the things are not quite the same a hundred miles north or south of the studio but that's exactly how tom 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 hell 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 down 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 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 a 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 doesn't make any sense but most people don't realize that that literally if you come out of your job that 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. we the good thing for . you to injustice so i think we need to get information from somewhere because if we we're 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 we're 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 medicaid and debates between and the rights and pro that if. 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 to let it 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 that's your air raiding the ground to actually let the water seep in then that would be helpful but other than that no so you know in series as the results show up at the united states yes. do you think the kind of comedy you do in your tour and so it helps for. you but understanding that while

you've got a laugh i mean you've got something going 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 now 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 a good night people don't like look there's nothing that brings people got more than laughter and i get 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 may trump jokes and they went crazy and it's like you're really don't know who's out there that 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 you're 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. the best place in the world.

to be in debt to express. an american and part of the western. culture debt is by definition your identity your credit score is who you are. media as are doing in china any time you step out a line if you spit on the subway your social media index is degraded and your cost of funds goes higher and you get. to be a little. bit

. more headline stories this hour supporters over your really in government hold a fourth day of. the off pricing that swept across the country leaving at least twenty one people dead. however warring the events of the last few days in iran may be they do not constitute a threat to international peace and security to the security council should not discuss the issues of any country towards human rights issues the un security council on america's request towards on emergency meeting over the situation in iran however the initiative is criticized by some members who see.