that is a big differential between trading by w. two your standards and the w.t. you deal w. two you rejected your case attempts to get a deal and in the last twenty years britain had gone from leading you to into the single market to leaving the e.u. altogether covering all the twists and turns of the story and often from a north of england perspective has been martin banks others caught up with him in brussels for an insight into the inside story of these last troubling decades. well martin by it's the few u.k. journalists more experienced in the ways of the the brussels politicking than yourself with what's like twenty years you've been analyzing and reporting from from this capital that you were think when when you started off as a european correspondent for the thought i had the of newspapers the that is to get a position where you are commenting on this all process of the u.k. withdrawing from the european union altogether well i came from a background of working on mostly regional papers in the u.k.

it's interesting how the sort of the distinction between the way the e.u. is reported maybe to regional level in local press in the u.k. and national level where there's a really huge difference the regionals in the u.k. they take him i think data on published will do a generally sympathetic approach concentrate on what the european union was doing for their region as opposed to the wider geopolitics is exactly that that's a great way of describing i think so i came from that regional newspaper background i had a certain uncertainty about the e.u. the biggest one was a circle of ignorance really mom my own me my own part about how the e.u. works what it's about what it does those and the sort of communications machinery now has which is absolutely massive i do think that was fairly common of how the european union was reported as being real things of the constant references to the

brussels bureaucracy and fight the brussels bureaucracy numerically with it was less than the scottish government's bureaucracy that held the numbers and certainly you know that's one example could be lots of others the i used to work in in birmingham for twelve years where the bureaucracy apparently uses almost as the same size of the one here in brussels with the commission the parliament the council combined the number of civil servants of function as is called here of course. between the two birmingham and brussels and one side started working here i realised just how important the e.u. is the institutions are the numbers of people that are employed in the related bodies. that was nearly twenty years ago it's increased many times since so i gives you an idea of sort of just how important the e.u. is the as an entity as a source of employment in this city alone back in birmingham for instance a population not dissimilar to brussels by the way about a million there are good comparisons to be made as somebody who has. used the

phrase gone native in brussels being a u.k. correspondent for so many publications over the years how do you gauge the the reaction to what's happening with this untamable black suppose as we have of other nationalities in this the capital city of europe of the last kind is it like some intolerably long it's never coming to a conclusion i mean we have our people with that i think should but it's a great question and i ask this question from time to time over this what has been a recession a very an incredibly protracted period now no one could have imagined just how torturous the whole thing would be to take the view that even from my early days here the mentality i brought the u.k. was always slightly i call it semi detached member of the e.u. never really quite fully engaged fully as fully enthusiastic

as as it might have been or simply compared with several of the member states it's had lots of opt outs it's not sort of exemptions from this that's an eel so i think the u.k. generally. is whether you break that down into the english the scots the irish i think has been seen as certain degree of curiosity its role in the e.u. its role in europe is that as well as we may call it is that an exasperated. truce freeze over a couple of weeks back in a special place in hell for for the black city of who gave them this revote really a scintilla of an idea it was going to reflect that total exasperates in from top to bottom about the attitude with what people think of the other thinking though there's lots of goodness it just lets get this over with i think the the actual approach to the u.k. and the what may have been a certain degree of understanding sympathy even for some of the issues that were

raised voted upon by the brits back in twenty sixteen cindy is certain empathy with that may be a thing that's gradually changed now in israel that's eroded and there is a certain a large chunk knowledge degree of frustration and annoyance and bordering on anger which made her partly presumably explain the slightly in characteristic outbursts when mr tosk who is generally seen here in brussels as very supportive of great britain to me gives an indication of his just virtually given up on the fact that he thinks as he clearly did that there may be a reversal of its decision to stay and it's gone now and listen this is a survey a slightly encouraged christic outburst outpouring of how he feels you know the point makes very interesting observer of the scene like yourself a comment here in brussels would have regarded donald tusk as someone sympathetic to the u.k. at least at the outset these negotiations and perhaps even someone who harbored the

the hope that accommodation could be found over the medium term at least with all of the back to the european firmament but now seems totally exasperated was both to see if that's what the supporters are feeling while the opponents thinking well the thing there's a large element of truth in that i think that the political class in the us to toss young others bernie and many many others there's a certain degree of fear here of what comes next. now post brings it in the next two or three years if not in a shorter period so martin banks if you had to judge over your twenty years' experience do you think the endgame of blacks is going to be more cohesion in the report mavens while the other twenty seven countries it should be said of the of the european union or do you think there's going to be eventually some sort of domino effect we have where bracks starts to unglue the the stick and together at the end of the european process is a big question i think what's going to happen i think there's

a lot of fear if the u.k. seem to make success of bragg's it which we will happen then that is not good news for the e.u. and that will spell problems for the e.u. if great britain seem to be making a mess of post preg sic life as it is powered to of the negotiations i'm a doubt so i think it will do well but we'll see but if it seem to do if it's into make a mess then that will make that will spell good news for the e.u. and brussels that will pull it all together say look they can then say look what a mess the u.k. is made of this. don't to do the same thing stay with us there's safety in numbers in a globalised world that's the place to be but isn't that why michel barnier as bad as this fuss line of negotiations was to ensure that whatever deal the u.k. was offered a deal which remember the prime minister excepted would be less good than the deal available to a loyal member state of the european union you know i think that the put the people

and the current council president younger in a incredibly difficult position of the younger just just at the press conference just recently after the comments by tusk the hellish comment he said you said that this job is hell i think you meant specifically this job apprentice it's in and trying to negotiate the sort of the exit of big member player is hell so i should we. he was referring to the current incredibly protracted negotiations about the u.k.'s exit as i said a secret wish you might have that the next thing you become anything on is the possible the n.t. negotiations i therefore the and or perhaps even masons were friendly and i think well we keep hearing about the votes in referendum referenda are a once in a lifetime on once in a lifetime never happen again and there are lots of people here in brussels who hope maybe even believe that the u.k.'s decision to exit will be reversed and there

will be a repeat of all this can we take the repetition of all this can we take even another referendum because that would mean rehearsing and going over the whole story once again great copy for journalists like me keeps a lot of journalists in very busy indeed whether it keeps them mentally fit that's another question i guess whatever happens you'll be here to write the but so can i thank you for thinking about exile and sure if they thought that the quick. lawful thing would be a close enough the skull to the witnesses the whiskey in the quick and past life and all your close friends here only scotch mind was very kind of i work with a scot my boss is a scot i know the scots take a slightly generally different approach to the to the e.u. than some of the english surely those in the same the same attitude to first give up the fight it's over thank you thanks a lot coming up after the break alex speaks to labour's london boy finger tip about thai british a guide to from a european perspective and whether the new independent get launched this week as

a break way from labor has any chance of picking up support with. but if you didn't see a little bit. lose the. silver . if you lose lose lose lose lose. and. i would sit with you in terms of what obama has done personally i think he has not done enough i think in syria for example in two thousand and thirteen when

there was a threat of and we knew that the assad regime was about to use of chemical weapons on a wide scale like he has done in. the obama administration should have responded with force and eliminated the capacity of the syrian regime to use helicopters and other if forced to trouble betted bombs on people that's. from the muslim people by its own keep the salaam view or some new focus on the us how do you sleep. with one or both. if you dropped almost no prison for the most with nobody in.

your long long. morning. you know you will hear them they're. the ones. you know world's big partners mark and conspiracy it's time to wake up. to dig deeper to hit the stories that mainstream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door on the shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now for watching closely watching the hawks. we will not be judged by what is the heritage we will be judged by what we give to our children we must accept responsibility to fix our nations and make sure that we

fix them for the sake of the future let's stop looking behind us and believe in the clue no rule is gone we have we must have a new generation of people who will fix our countries for the rest of the future and that's basically what it is that we'll offer in nigeria. welcome back as a european problem a tin of the year no one is in a better position than claude mary's to be there in the break i did a week of the most serious parliamentary defections from labor for forty years couldn't care less whether breaks it will break labor. if you grew up at double d. so you're well aware of what a blue arc is one no might imagine so tell me from your vantage point in brussels what do you make of britain's brett search. well alex growing up in scotland i grew up in dun d. and then in starling and i think the scots have got the best words for the mess

that we're in frankly but it's also it's quest's a real situation here i'm the last. british very proud by the way have my my scottish upbringing for the last one to be here chairing a committee and that is because you know you know the parliament you know the european institutions very well and that's quite a funny position to be in. because we're still legislating i just came out of a legislative trialed they call it and wish still doing that i'm still doing that and we're just a few weeks away from a big country britain leaving the european union so it's a really surreal situation and there's a lot of a mix of kind of anger confusion and be amusement frankly. you know our government hasn't got its act together and they're risking no deal i think that's the that's the nub of it that they're risking

a no deal as part of their sort of calamitous kind of negotiating strategy plug in regard to those one of britain's most influential members of the european parliament as well as one of the longest serving how do other of europeans regard what's happening to britain do the understand atolls or any explanation mean you can offer who should lighten them i mean alex before i came on to your program are seeing two year producers that i growing up in scotland i watched years a politician growing up and a lot of respect for you so i want to be very honest and say to you that what has happened in recent days and weeks is that there's a growing i think a growing frustration with britain i think for a long time there was a lot of patience and a lot of goodwill but i want to be honest with you and say that what i'm detecting in the last days maybe the last few weeks is

a growing irritation and i want to be honest about it that people are starting to get very tired of this process they you see it in the legislation you see it in quiet ways but honestly i think people are getting tired they're getting tired of the process that again tired of the way the negotiations were conducted and they're getting tired of this sort of game of chicken at the end so you know i think there's been a lot of goodwill shown to. members who. wanted to do well here i think some of the labor members the the s.n.p. members and others who actually did the work here the ones who didn't do the work frankly well you know who the where you kept and others frankly there wasn't that much goodwill but overall you know there was a kid up this fear but no what i'm detecting is a growing tiredness and that is very sad to see maybe it was inevitable alex you know but it is really the kind of end of days feeling and what is sad about it is

that we still haven't got a kind of idea of what kind of breaks it would be so it's a fairy horrible kind of feeling actually and brussels were led by donkeys campaign of of take it out one of their famous postals the mind being the prime minister of war she used to say that it was a britain strategic interests to be part of the european union different interviews on me will notice that postal she did so over the last couple of days i really like these guys led by donkeys the freezer actually is such a resident freezer you know that very well alex and it's a great freeze in politics lions led by donkeys you know we need that frees growing up and it's a very resident one on the progressive side of politics so of course. you know these guys have done a great job i follow them on twitter by the way and they're very effective these say billboards you know because the just remind people of the hypocrisy you know

people saying on the one hand the east in the european union the next minute you just see what the hell you like about it and it is extraordinary to see some of the things that these politicians have said all the way up to teresa me so yeah i mean i think people in brussels will still be quite gobsmacked to see this stuff although i guess the know it but yeah these guys have done a great job with their lives. and some paste and some billboards good luck to them follow them on twitter and long maybe keep doing it my mission barmy the european union's key negotiator still seems genuinely confused as to what it is that the british government actually wants are you in a position to enlighten them i spoke to. every show barney last week in fact on my twitter feed people will see me sitting with him talking to him and i told him really about citizens' rights what's going to happen to the three million who are

in britain of course you know in scotland many in scotland all over britain and above course the brits all over the year peon union as well but i was talking to him about what is happening in the negotiation he's in a very tough position because he felt he had completed the negotiation now he feels that you know i'm not giving away any secrets by saying that his position is that he feels how can he open the withdrawal agreement he just doesn't feel that that is possible so i guess what he's being asked and again i'm not revealing any great secrets here but what he's being asked is to tinker around with this political declaration and what she's amazing to be doing is trying to get something in the political declaration to assuage the tory party this is always about making the tory party feel better rather than looking to the wider country or to where other m.p.'s are with other progressives are and see what they want so this is what he's

being asked to do and it's a tough position for him is he in gauging yes he is so of course this negotiations are happening i've got to be you know clear about that they are happening. whether they're going to be able to get it done and whether the m.p.'s on the hard right of the tory party will accept the tweaks to the a political declaration on the irish backstop i just don't know. and of course nobody wants to be throwing ireland on that bus and i would be pretty angry if that ever happens but applaud over the last few days we've seen a defect shouldn't strong labor party to the independent group at westminster yesterday three defections from the tories will not realignments at westminster have any impact on the politics of brussels i think of course people in brussels are talking about it let's be honest not just in westminster they're talking of

a to here as well where people are avidly interested in politics globally and and also in britain and they're talking about what it means for realignment and i think the consensus here is that while it may not have an impact on the actual raw numbers for break said i think there is that consensus there's a feeling that it might have a slow burn effects alex you know it might have an effect that we quite can't put our finger on at the moment and i think that's what the feeling is here and people know it's profound in some way but they they don't think it might have an immediate effect on the numbers treason may think of coming back next week on the deal because of course many of these m.p.'s who have formed a new group. we know where they stood on bricks it already but of course it's creating a more few breillat misfit in westminster as you well know i mean you you know this better than anyone so for that reason things are getting more skittish in the in the year in the in the work in westminster and people in brussels know that so does

that make it more likely that we get a deal or less likely well i think m.p.'s are more afraid that's the impression people get here will that lead them to a deal you never know with the tory hard right again that's what people feel here close one final question you represent very ably london in the european parliament but you grew up in scotland both of strong remain voting areas do you have any thoughts. on what the long term political implications might be for scotland if it's dragged out of the european union against the will of the people but i love scotland i love london a place that would accept somebody like me they grew up in scotland is of indian origin and the accepted me to represent them and that's what i love about both areas both three main areas scotland in london and i like that identity and i think both will suffer very badly to breaks it scotland will suffer because scotland was an open country looking outwards towards free movement so the benefit of it and

you know alex people might not know about the old alliance but you know i knew what the old alliances i did scots law university and i always want that for the whole of britain london will suffer badly for very obvious reasons not just free movement but for that of the economic reasons so you know this is going to be the slow burn effect of brics it i feel very sad about it i'm never going to change my opinion about that before scotland in london two of the regions that will really feel it but they knew that before breaks it and will scotland and london did the right thing let's hope that that fair for stays and let's see how the people of scotland in london deal with this and what lead to you afterwards claude monet is thank you so much when appearing on the exam and show and reminding us of the old alliance it's a real pleasure alex thank you very much. this week's big news at westminster has

been the formation of the independent group of m.p.'s starting on monday was seven defections from the labor party they were joined by name from choose the and yes the b three tories defected the three amigos to join the gang of independents this means that the new parliament to grouping was already much the liberal democrats in terms of numbers in the house of commons is thus a long heralded realignment of british politics as member takes a look at the history. and one hundred eighty one there was a gang of four underlined high stick creation almost forty years later there's a secret seven who formed an independent grouping of m.p.'s now with no disrespect to the new grouping they don't quite have the cachet of the former cabinet ministers who form the s.t.p. nor the head do they have the confusions of a political program necessary to launch a new political party nor are they the first people to have this idea recently in the last two years alone that been half a dozen new party floated and then sunk the radical party was launched in twenty

sixteen and now has four hundred twenty followers on twitter a year later prominent barrister joe home q.c. was threatening to stand against theresa may in maidenhead as a launch gambit for spring the party later that year the democrats were launched and then fly hundred by late twenty seventeen the radicals were the chosen title of jenny clift of the economist but she then resigned from his own party at the same time two more parties renew and advance were competing for the created center and they then marched on the still operating albeit at a lower level celebrities were said to be lining up to back a new party just last year while start again with one of the working titles for the breakaway united for change was a favorite alternative for multi-millionaire simon franks in the last few months the u.k.'s existing center party the liberal democrats launched

a campaign under the truly inspiring title momentum for moderates these ministers and indeed the liberal democrats have all been overshadowed by the new independent group who seem to have little time for their established competitors from the political center. all of these putative parties seem to instruct a moral tale even in the social media age treating about a new political force is somewhat easier than creating one however if ever there was a moment for political baldness then this might be the one the political establishment at westminster is fracturing as never before whether you are to break the mold of british politics or just wanting to secure as you want the exit or one thing like the new back to party to stop or deal with europe or indeed our king for scottish independence within europe that we few more propitious opportunities than ny this could be a time when fortune does indeed favor the brief. and so for alex and me and

all the show it's good bye for now i i will see you next week. for the. trots asked strong ten years ago. what happened now is so what's called deep globalization i'm sure they caused it but that's what's going on along with the dollar as it. was. as though this.

might just suck as it. might. so there was a build up. in the human mind mission about how they. look . for the little guy we. don't want out of the money i was. somehow didn't really. want to. mislead. phone company i don't want of a shuffle stemming with the. song will. feel better with a warrant and you know what. shall i do. this i don't.

i have the honors to still again interview alister croaky is a former. and founder and director of conflict forms this time we will discuss the end of america's beautiful moment. we came here where you were before you came here when you live. in many u.s. states capital punishment is still practiced convicted prisoners can spend years waiting for execution but most of the time the victims' families they are very much in favor of the death penalty there are some people because of what they do have given up their right to live among us some even proven innocent after years on death row and how many more exonerations is it going to take before we as a society realize that this is not working and we actually do something about.

president putin says russia is ready to respond to threats with its new hypersonic missile system while stressing it's a purely defensive weapon a statement prompted a swift response. threatened to retaliate by targeting western capitals with his own new weapons quite a confrontational step quite a confrontational speech to russia is not for me anyway moving all our actions in the she was done solely as a response to that and so they're a bit defensive nature. also the sour democrat controlled committee questions u.s. ties with saudi arabia report reveals washington is ready to transfer sensitive nuclear technology to riyadh.