Few months. Look in your inboxes for information about those events coming to you shortly. In the interim, im so pleased to welcome my guests, Douglas Murray to our event this afternoon. Douglas is a journalist and i am sure many of you have read his work in the wall street journal, National Review orc spectator where he is an associate editor he is also an author of the 2019 book, the madness of crowds and he is with this in person at the Manhattan Institute i think in early 2018 that was just after the publication of this book, the strange death of europe. Now douglas is a Formidable Political critic and while he is an observer of all things, and the uk and the u. S. But im not sure he knew the subjects of both of his most recent books and this one would come into place so much during this particular moment in time. But they have and it is for that reason and many others that it is my pleasure to welcome you, douglas, to our event this afternoon. Guest thank you very much, vanessa, its a great pleasure to be with you and your members. Host thank you the way this will work, douglas and i will talk for the next 20 minutes or so and at which point we will turn over to the q a to you, the audience. If you look at the righthand side of your screen there is a little widget and a little triangle with the road question. You can type in questions anytime you like. You can do it while douglas and i are speaking and when you turn over to the q a portion of the event, i will be looking at that list and pulling your questions for douglas at that time. With that we will jump right in obsolete have to go through a rather serious moment in history will all be doing a lot of evaluation on how the governments of handled this moment we are looking comparatively across nations to see if theres something we can learn to handle them a lot better than we are. Its part for that reason a little checkin with our friends over in england. Now douglas i would like to start with the political moment that the uk finds itself. On january 31, i dont need to tell you, but the uk left the European Union and started a transition. I think it was only about 11 months of short anyway it was a moment in time of the future relationship between the uk and the you would be determined. My question for you is what is going to happen now . In theory, your political leaders are a little bit distracted to the kind of negotiation that would normally happen. Its got to be complicated in this moment. Are we going to have an agreement by the 31st of december . Guest yes weatherby get an agreement i dont know but the government wants to get an agreement by them absolutely. The house came question came up he was very playing once again there is to be no delay even a minor delay in this process. I think, by the way, thats right. Whatever attitude one takes to brexit and britains exit from the eu, is profoundly important for the british public. Its a more of a majority nonetheless to leave the European Union but after three and a half years of parliamentary shenanigans and other factors that were going on, it appears to be trying to delay or reverse the decision absolutely crucial its the government led by this Prime Minister by the cabinet that they not be reneging on that promise. I think even something as major as the current corona criers is not going to persuade they should in any way move that timeline. Host but if no agreement is reached and we enter a moment in time where there is even more uncertainty is that going to be good for the british economy in this particular . Guest its not good for anybodys economy the situation were in right now this is totally uncharted territory ill repeat the point the crucial thing is we are never our insurgent times these may be, especially in certain times with the fact is just thrown in expected by very many people. But the Brexit Process has to be separate from that its the commitment of the British Government will be very surprised if it was not followed through on. I gathered this weekend the formal trade talks between the u. S. And america is the lot going on although the main preoccupation is the virus. So the coronavirus at this stage is not in your mind derailed the transition process. Has it been any other fundamental changes that you see coming to the uk as a result of the coronavirus . None other than the country every Companies Going through. I know all of our countries as you will know from the u. S. All the countries are looking around the globe for potential best practice and much more. The figures just came in about an hour ago suggesting the uk now has the highest death toll in europe of deaths of people who died with the virus and there will be lots of going over by that came about a lot of postmortem with my milwaukee when the morton process would be a bit premature. Host how are the british people thinking about issues like globalization . I know here in the u. S. There is a big question around supply chain murray getting her drugs and all of those type of things is there a stronger argument now, anti globalization happening in the uk . Schemata think that argument is happening everywhere is in it . Its happening in every single country not the least because its in the early stages of the crisis. We have sorts of things that was alarming. The example someone written an awful lot on European Affairs in recent years have allowed for lot in europe and across europe, seeing them in the early days of the crisis where they were suffering worse, seeing the french and german governments with protects and products and masks, oxygen, that sort of thing the italian public had seen and a normas swings apprising recent weeks against the eu. It was rightly enraged by the countries that have lectured people most on protection in recent years. Actually when the crisis hit doing something with completely against everything they have said before. So i think theres a lot of looking around and a lot of lessons are to be in taken. It will be sometime before we the effects of that in polls or in the voting. Host lets talk for a second about the general sentiment in the uk right now. Here in the u. S. Is a pretty firm divide of people who believe this moment in time is further evidence of further government incompetence. There are those taken this as an opportunity to say government requires more control and more intervention to handle the situation better. Doesnt matter which camp you are in, trust is at an alltime low here in the u. S. , which has created a number of problems for us. As at the same thing over in england . Are you experiencing that same sort of desired customer. Not specifically by sayso at the thickets of particularly american thing going on thats fairly unique to america, sadly at the moment. In the uk we have seen a rise in trust of almost every institution. That includes parliament, the government, the monarchy, the mhs, scientific experts academic and so on. As i spent some of my time in the press and im not writing books, it does not exactly pleased me to it say but im not surprised to say the institution has fallen samosas being repressed with the media which is collapse in public trust theres a lot of interesting reasons for that. But with that aside, one of the most interesting things about the uk example is that although we have said to been a divided country in recent years, much like america has been, in fact when the scientists got together and the advisors on the advice was given the lockdown was instituted, that was acted upon. There was no this ongoing divide that certainly going on in america or even in a Global Pandemic, its inevitably seen to the pro or anti trump prism. That is a particular challenge for your country. If Something Like this cannot bring a common cause or can show people the commonwealth draws upon, then one wonders what it would take . But everywhere else is not as extreme as the u. S. And that divide. Stu went its amazing to see and walking the streets how nicely all of your neighbors have participated in trying to keep everyone safe its a human to Human Interaction has been very quick changeover into what he think has been for everyone. But when it comes to political divide everything continues to be seen right through that anti or pro trump blend. There are certain of the country controversial two. I hear your point on unity. Im wondering though if right now people are really standing behind not only because of his leadership in this moment, but because hes one of the few Global Leaders who had a personal interaction with the virus. So how are people thinking of him these days. Two and the most serious. The country didnt do quite how serious it was it was announced hed gone into intensive care im told over those few days there were certain moments when they expected to lose them which would have been catastrophic for the uk not least because Boris Johnson not at this point but in british life. It was very close i think when he came out of the hospital had a very, very moving message he said doctors had saved his life as he said, that was something which the public could relate to. As a following thing from that which is politically this means its exceptionally hard for the labour party, the left to claim in the future that the conservatives do not care. Every election in my lifetime the labour party is run on three weeks 48 hours its still there as it has been created from the second world war. Its very striking that you can pretend after this they do not support. It seems preposterous. Its undoubtedly something that is a weight on the conservatives he personally shows he owes to the health service. Its going to be good years for the health service. He named his new baby after his doctor. So very moving, very moving. What lets talk for just a second about the monarchy. Here in the u. S. The American Public falls very closely the relationship of the royals as a whole generation is a leadership role to play a big role in unity so feels like this is a real moment most people watch the queens address in the u. S. And felt comforted by it. Set the same reaction youre having . Again in recent years we have had every institution being claimed to be losing public trust and so on it was profoundly moving the worst. Of this in the uk the one test we wanted to hear from us her majesty the queen. Her dress was remarkable the least of which she is one of the only people, by the best person on earth to draw on the historical aspect to say we have been through bad times before. We have been through worse times before, and we have come through them. And as someone who gave her first broadcast of the nation as a young girl in 1940, when the late Princess Margaret addressed the people of the empire, was a very moving thing to see her able to draw on the historical memory to give this reassurance that the media are much more inevitably likely to see things in catastrophic terms as possible. Many other people do and theres the risk of increasing fear to the public. It is crucial there are some public figures now of course the problem about this the corona lockdown consists people were sitting around watching netflix its not climb storming the beaches of normandy. If this generation has challenges indeed to set this out i suppose they would need encouragement to do so the queen certainly provides that. I think about some of the challenges that our generation now will be facing certainly not remotely the same as what you just described. The most recent book, a big part of that book was talking about the rise of the social justice and Politics Movement of politics into the media, the workplace, i dont know how things look for you folks, here it took about two minutes once a coronavirus had ascended of the political organizations exist to use the crisis to unleash a torrent of commentary and content that reverse engineers the pandemic through their own ideology that use covid19 as the evidence to pay healthcare, family leave, they been fast and sophisticated are you seeing that same massive resurgence in the uk . I think this is part of a phenomenon that continues with the globalization critique. My only expectation with this virus is it makes people double down on what they already thought doesnt mean they dont get much reach with it there been certain figures in the eu who always wanted sovereignty more they save the coronavirus evidence of why we need to pull sovereignty more. Similarly politicians who have tighter borders this is an explanation. Everyone can do this from every angle in a way the just the identity of the movements in the social Justice Movements there is exception to that extent it took slightly longer here than it did there for people tos start doing the social Justice Warrior game they started inevitably they started by saying women suffer more than men from the virus the statistics show males are disproportionately likely to die of the virus they double down and say the men might be dealing with tiring but women are suffering. The endless debates about which ethnic minority may may not be suffering more from it in the presentation of those questions about why might that be . Simple the presentation being yet more evident than the racism of society we live in so we cannot get a virus from china justifying the view that america is a racist society all of that has been going on my prediction of it is what will happen is those people double down as they already have just because thats the only gain they know how to play they dont have a look at the world unless its through those spectacles. The more subtle person might work out in a time like this is something comes along you have never thought about before. It is possible all the preexisting views may not be justified and vindicated by the arrival of this virus. You might think you need to come back on something else. Those people will not because its the one lens through which they see everything. What i would expect still be less wide sympathy for the claims being made because theres off a lot of people in the country have a declining Living Standard were an awful lot of people have seen unemployment come through their family, through their home, an awful lot of people have real grievances. It is fairly unlikely to my mind to spend very much time listening to people with made up grievances. To think maybe those groups are overplaying their hand right now . Very much so. I cant see the celebrities sat in their house complaining about the awfulness of having to spend all of this time in their manchin so that does not play well at the moment anywhere. People who have been saying look at me, in recent years its interesting the world straw different from that in the uk person with public affection we have not heard of recently is not someone whos done the look at me look the victim i am narrative but not 100yearold ex serviceman to raise tens of millions of pounds for the mhs either doing the sponsored books with that is something narratives of suffering and in our lifetime that narrative has emerged as in the 1990s if you kind won the game of life. That happened very recently. And so it can change back. I would not be at all surprised if the crisis that will come after this crisis, the crisis were me this mail and be the prelude, we do something to bring about the death of that movement. Host just letting the audience know in just a minute were going to turn to your question self feel free to type on that little widget on the righthand side. I want to cover one more thing and that is china. Over the weekend the secretary, our secretary of state, mike pompeo said there is enormous evidence indicating the pandemic began in a lab in wuhan. Both the sec. And President Trump have accused kind of misleading the world about the virus. I saw the uk defense secretary commented on it over the weekend too and is demanding more from chinas response of these allegations. Tell me, how do you think about china from this point out . And will the uk participate at lease within the direction of the United States and Holding China accountable if these allegations turn out to be true . i think is important. The Australian Government last week quite rightly called for an International Inquiry into the source of the virus. This i think is absently crucia crucial. We should not expect or get cooperation from beijing that even the site of that noncooperation is important internationally. But the backlash from the communist party of china the papers that it runs in the comments among others with the Chinese Ambassador to australia have been exceptionally virulent with australia being chewing gum on the bottom of the shoe of china. It is really extraordinary language they are using. Australia is in a different position from the uk. As we have a trade deficit with china they have a surplus so this puts australia and a much better position it was interesting in the days and weeks and months ahead the extent of chinas leverage is not still there depending on the nations reliance economically. I would hope that in particular that they stick together and demand accountability of china and then having a response of whatever we find. When you think about the italian reaction and that posture of china for so many obvious reasons its clear this will be a complicated time and everyone will line up with that Balance Sheet and you can start to see that. By the way what shocked me the most is the president of serbia gave a speech to say eu was never our friend and it turns out that china was our friend but for america Strategic Partners around the world this is an important game going on at the moment to see the country like serbia being plopped off like that nevermind italy thats far more significant that is something we should really be thinking about. Now i will switch over to the audience who asks do you think the uk will be the first of many dominoes to bring the European Union to an end . It is a very tricky question. I should prophesy advocated for brexit and britains role in the world was not to rema