The King arrives in the US, what will it mean for the special relationship? — BBC Newscast

[0:00] hello it's adam in the newscast studio it's joe pike in westminster do you know what i feel a bit [0:04] lonely sat here on my own without an audience of 200 newscasters sat around the place watching [0:10] but let's increase the number of people here because we're also joined from the us by the [0:14] bbc's royal correspondent sean cochland hello sean hello lovely lovely to hear from you um so we're [0:20] recording this bit of this episode at 6 30 on monday evening what time is it where you are sean [0:25] it is now coming up to half past one here and when do we expect the king and queen to actually [0:32] land on american soil yeah well in a couple of hours they'll be descending from a blue sky and [0:38] landing into a political storm so we're looking out for them and we're looking forward to their arrival [0:45] and sean um the security story that's unfolded around the president over the weekend has that [0:50] interacted or impacted on the royal story that we're about to start covering well i think it was [0:56] already going to be a pretty uh complicated trip with all the political backdrop to it and this adds [1:02] another layer of of difficulty and possibly raising the stakes even higher and i imagine what would [1:10] have been intense security will now be raised to whatever whatever a notch higher and that um you [1:17] know the bubble that they they they will operate inside the security bubble will be made of some [1:22] sort of reinforced titanium or something to keep everybody out and the public might not get to see [1:28] you very much but hopefully we'll be able to get inside inside that bubble and see things for you [1:32] and have any of the officials who've been organizing the trip kind of engaged with questions about [1:37] security like have you been able to ask them oh have you changed things as a as a product of what [1:42] happened on saturday well i think they've acknowledged that there will be some slight changes but i think [1:48] they probably won't be for the big set piece occasions in washington the kind of white house capital [1:55] building um events which are going to be pretty secure anyway i think i think it's possibly more of [2:01] the the um softer more human friendlier photo opportunities where the king is very good at [2:08] meeting crowds and meeting people i suspect if there are changes it might be in those more [2:14] open moments rather than the closed political events and joe um talking about the view from downing [2:21] street keir starmer spoke to president trump on sunday kind of lunchtime didn't he yes sunday [2:26] afternoon and do we know what they discussed uh we we don't know whether they discussed the falkland [2:32] islands which is one uh key challenge for the foreign office after that uh there's reports about a leaked [2:40] pentagon email questioning whether the us position which had been neutral on those islands near argentina might [2:48] change certainly i suppose anxiety is has for for many months been the sort of uh normal mode for [2:56] number 10 and some in the foreign office on uh donald trump but they seem when i've had conversations [3:01] with people in government they're trying to be optimistic and they keep on talking about trade trade [3:05] is that is the sort of number one priority economic cooperation that could potentially uh you know help [3:11] the uk economy that that's the key focus and that's why yvette cooper is accompanying the king [3:16] uh they say he she is his principal foreign policy advisor for this trip which i think is potentially [3:24] um slightly patronizing this is a man who uh first met eisenhower when he was 10 he was in washington [3:30] i think for the first time sure may know better than me in his 20s i think maybe during the nixon [3:35] administration this is a guy who's met a whole lot of us presidents and is a pretty experienced diplomat [3:41] himself even though the backdrop of course is of a real fracturing of uk us relations or certainly [3:48] uh trump starmer relations it's interesting joe because you're talking as if downing street and [3:54] the government actually want to get something out of this trip politically so that it's a benefit [3:58] because i feel that all the discussion around this trip in the last few days in the last few weeks [4:02] has it's become very sort of defensive and let's cross our fingers and hope it doesn't go wrong [4:07] but actually you're talking to people who think they can actually get something out of it and it [4:10] can go well and it can go right yeah i mean they talk about trade as the priority cultural links i [4:17] think is number three on the list and number two is intelligence and security which is always uh [4:22] something there's a sort of heart quite sort of uh deeply entwined in that relationship yeah i suppose [4:28] they're trying to be positive of course it's difficult of course the president is unpredictable but as we [4:34] know he seems wowed by the uk royal family talks about his meeting with with the late queen as being [4:42] one of the highlights of his life and therefore it's possible this is a significant moment he looks [4:49] back on on positively in weeks and months to come no a sign that would necessarily change his sort of [4:55] geopolitical uh policies but but but who knows you've got to try surely no we don't do one upmanship on [5:01] newscast but sean would you like to kind of uh trump joe's king charles washington trivia uh well i think [5:10] i think joe put that very nicely there but i think in terms of um trivia um i i think if you want to [5:17] throw in a little bit of trivia today when we see um queen camilla she's going to be wearing a brooch [5:24] that has a little flag of britain britain's flag and the u.s flag intertwined and apparently that was [5:31] given to the late queen elizabeth ii by the mayor of new york in 1957 and the the purpose of this [5:40] long-winded introduction is that that was another state visit against a very tricky moment in uk and [5:46] u.s relations sewer's war had seen a fracturing of that relationship in 1956 and uh into that after [5:53] that crisis the queen was dispatched to to uh america to make friends again and that over another [6:01] middle eastern war and and so so the british returns for another go at um making friends and [6:07] showing that the transit atlantic alliance uh has a sort of a living future and that any bumps in the [6:13] road at the moment can be temporary and that we can all make friends again and i think that the [6:18] the you know as joe was saying that there's a strange sort of like donald trump seems to have [6:22] like a split-screen vision of britain where he loves the monarchy he loves being around the monarchy [6:27] that really seems to to do things for him and then he hates parts of our political system and our [6:33] political uh representatives and i suppose the ambition from the british diplomatic side is to [6:38] somehow bring those two sides together like warm up a little bit of the political world with some of [6:43] the heat he has he sort of the warmth he feels for the monarchy and i think it's that sort of [6:48] bridge is that will be built possibly by the king over the next couple of days he has to kind of [6:54] keep uh trump sweet butter him up flatter him and all those things but at the same time get over [7:01] those big points on don't leave nato don't run away from ukraine don't run away from open trade and [7:08] so he's kind of got to deliver quite some serious punches on behalf of the foreign office but at the [7:13] same time in a very sort of velvet ermine um very monarchical glove that will make trump feel [7:20] tickled and loved rather than threatened and i should say we're hoping to speak to gary o'donohue [7:25] to do some of the american politics and other american events that have been happening today [7:29] uh we're just trying to find out where he is and then get him all plugged in in the studio so we'll [7:33] talk to him shortly but i'm just thinking sean about that brooch that brooch seems to me a bit of a [7:38] kind of like double-edged brooch if you could have such a thing because okay it's an example of um [7:44] us uk relations surviving a big disagreement about a war in the middle east but it's also a symbol of [7:51] well something that's considered a complete disaster for britain standing in the world which is when [7:55] when britain and france and israel cooked up this secret plan to seize the suez canal in egypt which [8:01] people say was actually sort of one of the lowest points for britain in its recent history so i mean [8:07] it is okay it's been used as a symbol of oh yeah we can get on but it's also a symbol of of things [8:12] going very badly wrong because of course america was completely opposed to that whole suez thing [8:17] well that's very true and you know and to stretch the metaphor a brooch can give you a nasty old prick [8:23] in the finger too if you get on the wrong way and i think that there is a kind of a i mean i i think [8:28] that you know that the the famed royal sources have been very open when they say that that this is [8:35] not just a high opportunity for the uk but also a high risk and i think they're quite serious about [8:41] that and they're aware that that this could not this isn't bound to go well lots of state physicists [8:46] are quite structured around a lot of feel good photos and back slapping and everyone has a bit of a love [8:53] in about cultural connections and everything but this isn't quite like that it really is there is [8:57] authentic jeopardy in this i think and we don't quite know how president trump will respond or [9:03] whether he will you know whether he will play ball really we don't we don't know and a lot of subplots [9:10] were away in the background they said the security fears there are people who are here on saturday [9:15] protesting about the king and queen not meeting jeffrey epstein's survivors there's a whole lot of [9:20] other stuff going on so i think this is this is an unusually fraught and difficult moment in both [9:28] uh uk and us relations but also in terms of uh attempts by by the king to go and help sort things [9:34] out and sean do you want to give us a brief rundown of what the agenda for the next few days actually [9:39] is what what the set piece events are well today is a bit of bit of garden partying so that's but even [9:45] that actually is interesting but it has a symbolic um subtext because people are going to get beef [9:51] sandwiches and the beef in the sandwiches is going to be the first tariff-free beef imported into the [9:58] us after careful negotiations so that'll be it's that they are symbolic sandwiches even at the garden [10:03] party the big the big the big i was just going to say i was watching an instagram video by the chief [10:09] chef at the uk embassy in washington dc who is preparing 3 000 sandwiches a quarter of which will [10:15] be those beef ones and he said oh yeah you wouldn't normally have a beef and horseradish sandwich as [10:20] part of a classic quintessential english afternoon tea but because of trade policy we're putting the [10:25] beef sandwich in the in there and you can say yeah and they can say where's the beef here it is [10:32] and it tastes that wonderful tariff-free flavor yes the tariffs are really affecting the flavor [10:38] anyway sean i interrupted carry on with the timeline then it's going to tomorrow is that [10:43] that's the big kind of big ticket events so you've got there'll be a big parade and ceremonial thing [10:49] around the white house um uh introducing introducing the whole event and follow that there'll be a big [10:56] the big speech in congress where king charles will address both houses of congress um and then [11:03] afterwards there'll be the the state dinner where it will be the first chance really to hear donald trump [11:09] because he will then give his own reply to the king's speech i'll be interested to hear [11:13] what comes back also i'm looking out particularly for for um a beehive because apparently [11:20] um the white house uh law now plays host to a beehive which has been rebuilt in the shape of [11:27] the white house so it's like a miniature little little bee bee palace and i think that's meant to um [11:33] be a bit of sort of honey-coated diplomacy for for king charles who's a very enthusiastic beekeeper [11:39] so these are the little details i think we'll be looking out for and hoping to see them in all their [11:45] all their grandeur and all their folly and then there's a bit bit of a there's a trip to new york [11:50] on wednesday which is quite a serious one there's they're going to the 9-11 memorial and then they're [11:55] going to the countryside on thursday to virginia for a bit of countryside fresh air and american natural beauty [12:02] right i'm told gary o'donohue is sitting in the studio getting ready to get plugged in so we will [12:08] let him get plugged in but let's plug ourselves back into westminster because joe um i mean there's [12:13] a huge day tomorrow in westminster in terms of the peter mandelson vetting story so a sort of washington [12:20] ish link to tomorrow um where where should we start should we start with the the foreign affairs select [12:25] committee which is where all the action was last week but it's going to be again this week yes two [12:30] people appearing before that who are arguably both sides of the was uh you know was pressure put on [12:36] the foreign office argument uh morgan mcsweeney who was the prime minister's chief of staff will be [12:41] appearing somebody who is seen as close to lord manderson or was close to lord manderson and and [12:46] was very supportive of making him u.s ambassador he will appear and uh earlier in the morning philip [12:54] barton will appear he was the top civil servant in the foreign office at the time do was he somebody [13:01] who experienced pressure i'm sure emily thornbury and her committee members will be interested philip [13:07] barton was the predecessor to ollie robbins that could be potentially a dramatic a couple of hours [13:14] those two appear and it potentially could change the minds on all of this of some labor and peace why [13:20] do they matter well because later tomorrow there's going to be a debate and then a vote over whether [13:26] to refer some of this some of this sort of wider matter to parliament's privileges committee that's [13:33] the committee that uh did play a part in boris johnson's uh demise and what the conservatives have [13:40] argued is that sakir starmer has misled the house of commons repeatedly something he denies that that [13:47] needs to be investigated by uh this committee over two things one uh the prime minister claiming that [13:53] due process was followed on the manderson appointment but also the foreign office was [13:56] not put under pressure we should say that reform uk look likely to back the tories and the lib dems [14:03] want labor and peace to have a a free vote on it so there will be a vote tomorrow afternoon or evening [14:10] of whether to refer this to the privileges uh committee and yeah adam it's another example of [14:15] the mandelson saga and that fateful decision to appoint him and indeed to to sack ollie robbins [14:22] more recently that that being something that akir starmer cannot escape and so basically just in [14:27] terms of the chronology of today um this all got rolling just after lunch when the house of commons [14:33] sitting started and lindsey hoyle the speaker said yes i'm going to let this debate and vote go ahead on [14:40] wednesday i am not going to stand in the way of the house debating whether kia starmer should be [14:45] referred to the privileges committee for them to investigate exactly yeah and also the bar is [14:50] normally reasonably low for this and ultimately labor have a big majority in the house of commons [14:54] should this be difficult for kia starmer to win well you'd think not but soon after that [14:58] announcement from the speaker we have um in westminster really sensed a sort of anxiety on the [15:05] on the behalf on behalf of number 10 we had kia starmer suddenly being announced as appearing before [15:10] the the parliamentary labor party the plp uh a big meeting of of mps to talk to them we had this [15:17] unexpected intervention from gordon brown uh backing in words as opposed to on camera the prime minister [15:24] i've also spoken to a lot of mps who say they have had phone calls from either cabinet ministers or [15:30] senior mps trying to get them on side that does point i think to a number 10 who are worried about [15:37] how this vote could do tomorrow and certainly who don't want to be complacent and want to ensure that [15:41] as many mps are in the chamber tomorrow to vote for them and to stop this going to [15:47] a stage which as boris johnson found could be pretty damaging yeah i can't work out if wheeling [15:52] out the cabinet and big figures like gordon brown is a is a show of strength or a show of um [15:57] intensively worriedness that's such a good point adam i think i agree entirely because there is this [16:03] view from some including one mp who's just texted in the last few minutes this is unnecessary and that [16:08] really it could look like the prime minister is panicking that is a danger and um it's maybe not [16:14] the message you want to get across to labor mps certainly this morning we had in the the news [16:20] bulletins on the bbc this uh intervention from alan johnson and david blunkett criticizing the [16:26] the tories move now yes those are two respected former cabinet ministers who might be able to [16:32] persuade labor mps but without their intervention arguably the story of the privileges committee [16:38] wouldn't have been something you heard or saw waking up this morning and therefore there is [16:43] argument as to whether by throwing the kitchen sink at all of this uh the government are being not [16:49] complacent and and really trying hard to ensure they win this and not regretting it in the future [16:54] or whether they look like they're really worried and that's not something that you really want your [16:59] leader in his team to look like and i suppose maybe some labor mps will be thinking okay i support the [17:05] prime minister i don't think he misled parliament uh so i'm i kind of really need to vote against this [17:12] motion but equally i don't want to look like i'm against transparency and also i don't want when [17:18] people google keir starmer mandelson appointment my name to then appear because i voted in this debate [17:26] that's true and there are certainly uh labor mps who are already vocally anti-starmer who are saying [17:33] well the prime minister should just let this go through and if he's not misled the house he can he [17:38] can he can defend himself but there are others that do think even comparing this to to boris johnson is is [17:45] nonsense because of course there was a police investigation underway at that point and [17:49] ultimately the privileges committee at that time concluded that he had deliberately misled the house [17:56] if he had been an mp by the time the privileges committee had finally reported they would have [18:01] suspended him from the house for i think almost three months and um they also decided not to give him a [18:08] westminster pass as a former mp so the the the situation many argue is is completely different and the [18:14] number 10 line important to get this into adam is that it's a political stunt by the conservatives [18:20] intentionally timed just before the may elections right joe i'm going to let you go so you can prepare [18:27] for the approximately 23 hours of coverage of this story we will have tomorrow so thank you very much [18:31] thanks adam and in joe's place is gary o'donohue who's in washington hi gary hello adam has your [18:37] heart stopped pounding after being at the white house correspondence dinner on saturday well it's [18:42] obviously pounding again not the prospect of talking to you is not hopefully in a positive way rather [18:47] than a scared way yeah just gary just on a human level i mean what what has it been like the last [18:52] couple of days witnessing something like that and then sort of living with it uh i mean it's um [19:00] people react in very different ways i kind of um i i always feel a bit depressed i mean i felt [19:06] depressed after butler i feel depressed after this and i don't you know i don't much like kind of going [19:12] over it as a person if you know what i mean um i mean you kind of in the 24 hours after it we were [19:18] in complete you know reporter mode and indeed immediately after it happened i was you know when [19:23] i was under the table i was trying to get through to our news desk uh which is surprisingly hard even [19:29] even given that we're a broadcasting organization but trying to get through to our news desk to get on [19:33] air so you go into that kind of mode um uh because you you don't really want to leave give yourself the [19:39] time and space to think about how blooming awful and how depressing it is and uh you know this [19:45] country tearing itself apart politically um but yeah so i don't i don't experience the kind of euphoria [19:53] that some people feel after being present at these sorts of things and some people are kind of euphoric [19:57] about it especially if they survive obviously yeah i hope you didn't mind me asking but i thought we [20:02] just wanted to sort of probe that a little bit um and then in terms of what's been happening in the [20:07] aftermath uh so caroline levitt the white house press secretary has just been doing a briefing [20:12] for reporters um and she basically pinned the blame for for this um on the people that are [20:19] very vocal about donald trump and their criticism of him and tossing around words like fascist all the [20:24] time she went really on the offensive against donald trump's critics all in constant and violent [20:29] rhetoric directed at president trump day after day after day for 11 years has helped legitimize this [20:36] violence and bring us to this dark moment yeah we saw a bit of this actually after butler as well [20:43] people sort of blame trying to turn this around into a kind of republican democrat thing i mean [20:48] interestingly on the on the night on saturday night when the president went back to the white house [20:52] he said you know it's time to resolve our differences well that's not really what the press [20:57] secretary has done today in fact the press is meant to be on maternity leave she told us on friday [21:02] you know this is it i'm done but now she's back saying it's too important not to to address this [21:07] and and does seem to be kind of politicizing it in that which i think is a pity i think it's a real [21:12] pity because you know there are people on this on the on all wings of of politics in this country who [21:19] who are prepared to do crazy things and and given that the confluence of those crazy things and the [21:27] polarization and the fact you can readily get lay your hands on high caliber weapons you know has [21:35] has turned into a sort of a real kind of horrendous cocktail that means political violence in this [21:40] country is becoming normalized again and also it's just it's just in so many different layers in the [21:47] culture so for example melania trump has been calling out a clip that's gone viral today of jimmy [21:53] kimmel the talk show host making a joke about her being a potential widow a couple of days ago yes um [22:01] i mean this is a this is the sort of late night uh you know comedian type beat where you know pretty [22:08] much all bets are off and they make jokes about all sorts of things and and this was him talking before [22:13] actually the the white house dinner um but in the in the light of it they've kind of gone after him [22:20] uh as they have done a number of those late late night people um as opposed to just ignoring it [22:26] really which is probably what you should do because it's like late late night comedy i mean kind of who [22:31] cares um but she she's really she's really amplified that it's it's interesting um if you look at the [22:39] footage from saturday night um you you i mean it clearly had an impact on her because you you can see [22:46] how shocked and sort of horrified she was um before they were dragged under the table and dragged off [22:54] the stage um so it's obviously had a bit of an impact on her hasn't it and gary is this being seen [23:00] as a security failure because there's been so much talk about whether the security was too light touch and [23:05] not high touch enough what where's that conversation got to do you know it's it's interesting because you [23:11] know on the one hand you've got a lot of people in a sense correctly saying look the system worked [23:16] they got this guy before he actually did any damage you know in a in that brutal sense the [23:22] people who are meant to take the bullets took the bullet in other words the secret service that is [23:26] literally their job is to take the bullet um if they have to um but on the other hand people are [23:32] saying and also it's worth saying that the chief of staff in the white house is convening a bit of [23:37] a meeting this week with the secret service to try and review and to look at security when the president [23:43] is at various events so again this also happened after butler kind of praise for the secret surface [23:50] then also what the hell went wrong kind of thing you get both sides of the coin and i think that i [23:55] think in some ways that's right because you know i mean it was immediately on my you know on my question [24:03] on my lips on saturday you know what on earth you know after everything we've learned how does this [24:10] man get within i mean 50 meters with two guns and a bunch of knives i mean i i just kept thinking [24:18] imagine there'd been three of them right one of them would have got through those doors and it was [24:24] down four or five steps and you were into the middle of a room right where there were two and a [24:29] half thousand people and we were all crammed together right absolutely crammed together with a [24:34] semi-automatic weapon if you you're in that space you could have caused carnage in seconds absolute [24:42] carnage even if you didn't get you know donald trump or anyone on the top table you could have caused [24:47] absolute carnage uh and it beggars belief really that somehow the kind of confluence of the the [24:53] supposed security but this normal hotel with all its guests in it um how that makes sense i don't know [25:00] and you know hilton have blamed the secret service as you can imagine but they're getting a bit of a [25:05] reputation aren't they given this was the very place that reagan got shot as well yeah and sean [25:11] hearing about the security around president trump makes you realize the white house way of doing [25:16] things and the buckingham palace way of doing things is very different in kind of scale approach [25:23] manner tone kind of everything isn't it well it does and also coming at it from uh the eyes of a [25:31] london one of the most surprising things uh since gary talking about the secret service is that [25:36] that the people who are the secret service have uniforms that say secret service on them and they [25:41] drive around in black cars the secret service written down the side which to my eyes doesn't seem [25:48] very secret really but the the um it is a very different style and different different sort of [25:53] there's very i suppose very uh upfront approach their securities guns [26:00] glowers sunglasses there's quite a macho approach to the whole thing um which is probably different [26:06] from our rather more uh a different sort of approach again you know it depends what what you're up [26:13] against perhaps as well and and uh as gary said america is a country uh with uh not just people with [26:19] strong views but very strong guns as well and access to all sorts of things so you know i suppose the [26:24] challenge is different in britain um and it is a very different thing but i think that the royal trip [26:30] will be very very heavily policed and one of the things i think that i'll be spending most of the [26:36] time in the next few days is standing in queues having documents checked and having every part of me [26:43] scanned and every bit of equipment checked i think that's going to be our lot for the next um few days [26:50] already seen hours of uh waiting in in security processing keys is being offered to us so i think [26:56] that that could be a rather to be very selfish like we won out coming from the other night and and gary [27:02] earlier on sean and joe and i were talking about whether this state visit can be a net positive for [27:09] the uk kind of politically economically diplomatically rather than it just being a sort of defensive thing [27:15] of just get through it without it going wrong what what's your take on on where where the needle [27:20] is on that that dial at the moment i'm i'm certain that trump won't try and embarrass the king and [27:28] queen i'm certain he won't do that i don't i don't think he'd do that um and i think you know if you [27:34] asked him at the end of the trip has it done any good he'll probably tell you it has and etc but these [27:39] these advantages these achievements can evaporate in a moment you know if if the president gets upset [27:48] about something that comes out of london or something london won't do you know the the good that's done [27:55] doesn't necessarily last um so i would have pretty pretty low expectations for any kind of long-term [28:03] impact the president enjoys having people like the king and queen here obviously uh he has a soft spot [28:12] in some ways uh he's an anglophile in that sense uh he was very fond of the the former queen obviously [28:19] but in terms of the lasting impact beyond that kind of glow that you get from the moment and the [28:26] the days around it and a couple of days afterwards um i'd be amazed if it kind of changes his overall [28:32] attitude um to the british government for example um which we know can be i mean extraordinarily fickle [28:41] and is it true that the king's going to meet zoran mamdani they're the mayor of new york yeah i think [28:47] that's right i'm not completely because i'm not really covering it very much but um they're certainly [28:53] going to new york and and they're going to ground zero and i think that mamdani is on the schedule [28:59] there was some debate about whether it was going to be a private meeting or not i'm not sure what [29:02] the status of it is but you know in some ways if you're in new york and you've got a ground zero [29:07] then it makes sense to to meet the mayor because like um you know it's a massive figure in the in [29:13] the city isn't it so um and and you know we had the extraordinary moment don't you feel when mandani [29:19] came to the white house and everyone was waiting for a massive punch-up and it didn't happen so [29:25] so so maybe um maybe maybe the president doesn't mind him meeting mandani but also sean to me that [29:30] seems like another example of the uh the genius of royal diplomacy in that if you go to new york [29:38] you've probably got to go and see the 9 11 memorial and if you're paying tribute at the 9 11 memorial [29:43] you're probably going to be accompanied by the mayor the most senior politician in the city [29:46] oh who just happens to be a democrat so therefore you can then say oh we're not taking sides in [29:51] american politics we spoke to a controversial republican and we spoke to a high profile [29:55] democrat as well and it all just lines up very very neatly well that's absolutely the case and [30:00] i'm sure they will meet and there'll be um it is that sort of symbolic building of bridges and [30:07] it will be very much that case the case of of uh appealing to both sides and also i think there's a [30:12] part of this trip is also looking beyond just the american political system they want to reach out to [30:20] the american public and and try and send the message that there's a deeper connection between [30:26] britain and america beyond the occupants of number 10 or the occupants of the white house at the moment [30:32] i think that's kind of button they'll be pushing um and so i think not just meeting people like the [30:37] mayor of new york but also they'll be trying to meet other bits of civil society these garden [30:42] parties aren't just all about imports uh tariff-free beef it's also about pressing pressing the flesh [30:49] with all sorts of dignitaries and people from universities and people from charities and people [30:53] from you know whatever local government people from hospitals and talking to a broad swathe of [31:00] civil society and they're quite good at that and they're quite good at the the chit chat and and the [31:05] and the the the the sort of regal schmoozing so i think that is a big part of this event too [31:11] reaching above the the political level and stretching out a hand and saying we're all [31:18] friends don't you know don't forget us we're still here and meeting a broader number of americans and [31:22] trying to rebuild those historic bridges right well thank you very much both of you for lending your [31:28] hands to newscast today sean good luck with the brooch commentary and even more deep analysis over [31:33] the next few days thank you very much indeed i'll do my best and um gary good to catch up with you and [31:39] thank you for another amazing eyewitness report from our dramatic moment in american political [31:43] history oh thanks adam thank you and just as we finish that conversation downing street has put [31:49] out the remarks that keir starmer made to his mps at that meeting of the parliamentary labour party [31:55] which is a regular meeting on monday but doesn't always have the pm turning up he basically said that [31:59] this vote tomorrow about referring him to the privileges committee is not about a lack of transparency [32:03] this is a political stunt by our opponents who want to bring us down obscure our message stop us getting [32:08] on with our work and the timing tells you everything nine days before local elections he said to his [32:13] colleagues tomorrow is pure politics and we need to stand together against it thank you to you for [32:19] listening to this episode of newscast there'll be another one along very soon bye