Gavin Esler In Conversation with Sandi Toksvig

welcome to the University of Kent for this evening's in conversation I wanted to let you know that by buying a ticket tonight you have contributed to the Kent Opportunity Fund which offers scholarships bursaries and grants for student led projects in 2015 I was the vice president of the sailing and windsurfing club and we were granted some money from the Kent Opportunity Fund to run a sailing challenge we sailed from Kent along the south coast to pool the home of the Royal National Lifeboat institution and stopped at seven lifeboat stations along the way not only did we raise four thousand pounds for the RNLI but we also gained invaluable skills in events and logistic planning and sailing so on behalf of Kent students thank you it gives me great pleasure to welcome to the stage Gavin Ezra our Chancellor and his special guests Sandi Toksvig Obi hello the great thing about this lighting is we can actually see anybody oh they're so taking it on trust or somebody out there is that Rick recorded laughter yeah um welcome it's very good to see so many people here tonight um and welcome to in conversation my guest tonight as you know is known throughout the land as a serial underachiever she took a first class honours degree at Cambridge then pursued a career as a writer broadcaster actor / former comedian playwright novelist TV and radio presenter filmmaker Chancellor of the University of Portsmouth and founder of the women's equality party in her spare time she cooks weaves canoes and this to me was a real clue to her personality on Desert Island Discs she chose as her luxury item an endless supply of the Daily Mail at some point on an island you're going to have to go to the loo I'm possibly only personal desert Islanders to talk about wiing on the island which i think is is a critical thing now I'm going to pick comedian out of this just because it seems more appropriate I wondered the one thing I wondered was how do you compete with Donald Trump in real life the thing is satire is now officially dead isn't it there's a really high chance I think he is good to get in I'm so terrified that he's going to get in and you listen to him talking about being braggadocious and you just think wow okay in fact they turn into a very good song I don't know if you know the song from sound of music Mary Poppins supercalifragilisticexpialidocious know that one there's now one with Trump saying braggadocious which is really good have a look online I it's scary isn't it I'm glad I gave up in the news because I'm really a fool because there's no jokes left he just does him all by himself and then people go yeah we want him Wow okay well we got four years of it perhaps oh wait wait he may change the law we could have 12 okay but it is I mean you you you were observational you observe for your comedy and it is very difficult when some of it that well some of our own dear politicians are actually funnier than anything that you can dream up in oh yeah I mean I have to say watching Michael Gove and Boris Johnson some early stab each other the morning after the referendum was one of them and then swim away as fast as their blood luck blood loss with a low of the more entertaining things I've seen I quite like I quite like the fact that during the campaign Boris Johnson told us that we were going to be swamped by all the people of Turkey yes some here and he was and he also wrote a very entertaining limerick about the Turkish president and was shaking against wasn't it yeah it was actually it was it's something that rhymed with Ankara I can't remember exactly what it was but but the interesting thing about that was he was meeting the man last week in his capacity as Her Majesty's plenipotentiary for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs he was but the only thing he could think to ingratiate himself with the Turkish people was to say we've got a washing machine you know this worried me enormously guess we've got a washing machine I have no idea if it's nationality second how he knew that I think he was referring to a person rather than I'm so sorry missing very nice woman I don't remember it no I've got a few questions from people people have tweeted but before we get to that and you are actually a product of the BBC aren't you because I know it's met in the BBC yeah my mother wasn't extremely is an external woman but she was extorted for her time she wanted to work at the BBC but she didn't want to be a secretary she wanted to be a studio announcer and that was unheard of it just didn't happen but she did she succeeded in doing this in the early 1950s and my father was working for Danish radio which had just sort of begun as a national service and they thought they needed to train him and the best place to do that was to send him to what I think is still the benchmark of broadcasting in the world and they sent him to Bush house in London which was then the big sort of center of international broadcasting for the BBC and my mother sat one side of the glass and my father was on the other side and he broadcast to Denmark and she put him on the air and I don't know what happened maybe the glass mr. Duff I don't really want to know so yeah I ought me and I I often think if you if you cut me like a stick of rock I'd have BBC written all the way through me I'm Danish are you uh well I have that written in blue up one side of my body as born next to the Carlsberg brewery and Kevin Hagen that's quite dangerous isn't it that is as a faint whiff of hops about me and you put sir perfectly in Kent hours yeah I'm not whispering why I love kids so much um yeah I mean I have dual nationality but I only became British citizen two years ago I was always entitled Patel universe sort of never got around to it so whatever X that means we can't get rid of you then yes the friendly trance I said before em yeah yeah III belong now but but I still feel strongly I'm strongly European and I feel strongly about my Danish roots I was just there last week and and speaking Danish again and speak and eating Danish food always makes me feel good it's very much part of my of my DNA I was told to ask you by Francesca Simon is there a friend of mine their children's Orson she said just ask her about some Danish marzipan buffet what was that about well there are certain things that are unique to Denmark and when Hans Christian Andersen what he didn't celebrate his 200th birthday he was dead obviously but when his birthday was celebrated and the Danish government appointed a number of international ambassadors and I was very lucky to be made ambassador and they had a ceremony here at the British Library to mark the occasion and it was we were an eclectic mix let's just say that we international ambassadors and a friend was meeting me at the British Library in to lunch afterwards and had the very strange experience of asking a security guard have you seen Santa socks vacant he said yes she's over there between Roger Moore and the Prince of Denmark and indeed I was and we went over big celebration in in Denmark and in Orleans er which is the hometown fans Christian Anderson we were invited to have a lunch well a buffet with her Majesty the Queen of Denmark and it turned out reasons I can't fathom that the entire buffet was made of marzipan the Danes like marzipan this was really going a bit mad the sort of food that looked like food but all in fact when you ant into any of it it was all actually marzipan so all sausage roll no no my mistake must been an endeavor I thought this was enormous ly funny so and then I saw her match the Queen arrived and she's unbelievably tall I mean basketball playing tours really a tall woman and I didn't think she'd see me so my friend Elena Kennedy Baroness Kennedy who's one of the great human rights lawyer was also an international judge and I said to get a picture of me with the Queen and the buffet so I'm standing like this smiling for the camera and the buffet and her majesty who's trying to sausage roll ago the hell is that they're standing behind me and I'm smiling like this like that Helena's gay and a mess the Queen was leaning over me like this and I had forgotten she was a great friend of my father's and so she sits and talks Vegas Levi with hello I've got a very bad photo of a bit of me and her Majesty the Queen with a marzipan sausage roll it was one of the weirder experiences of my life quite quite a week Denmark is the happiest country in the world it is true and Britain is the 23rd happiest country and come on people and you know how we do that I eat a lot of marzipan no we we have a we have a nation where people are as equal as it's possible to be in the world and without equality society is never going to be happy we'll get on to the women's equality party in a moment but before the and that's interesting and Danish people have a interesting attitude to paying taxes towards it which isn't the Donald Trump attitude is it but no not exactly here's the thing here's the thing that we believe that you you live in society you use things in society I remember being in Copenhagen about three years ago I became extremely was a Saturday night I became extremely ill as happens I had kidney stones but I didn't know what it was and I was in appalling pain but I couldn't bring an ambulance because it's too much attention seeking so I went in a taxi to the main hospital in Copenhagen Saturday night you imagine a main hospital anywhere in the UK bt me place was empty I thought I'd come to the wrong place okay the waiter event he had one chair in it and that's because they didn't need any more and there was in a small room a man who was clearly dying and there was me okay and I said once they'd sorted me out and gave me morphine which I totally recommend and the woman where all the drunks I said it's Saturday night in a capital city indeed or she said if you are drunk you should go home there's a - bloody right and and it's that thing that they're they're happy to pay we have the lowest infant mortality rate in the world the highest cancer surviving rates we don't have old people who die of hypothermia or loneliness the average working week is 35 hours a week and people are happy to pay their taxes because they have a nice life and they see it you know we all use the hospitals we all drive on the roads we all want kids to have a good education I have no problem with paying high taxes I think it's I think you get your money as well I do not want to see kids at this university saddled with debt for the rest of their lives I don't I'm happy to pay it might get another round of applause I um actually as I mentioned Sandy's also Chancellor the University of Portsmouth and I don't know who was whether this was aimed at me where is it yes how much time do you think University Chancellor should devote to the university to beer every bloody day Kevin ah you are a very dedicated child sir I know that I've met you here on several occasions I don't do things lightly so there are Chancellor's and no disrespect to them who turn up once a year and shake some hands and then they go away again and not that kind of person I go down I try to go down every six weeks or so go round a different department get to know the students and see myself as hopefully some kind of conduit for students or members of staff to talk to me about something they feel maybe they can't talk to somebody else about I love it this is my fifth year at Portsmouth and this will be my last year I said I would do a five-year term and and I'd loved it and we've discovered really simple and straightforward things there were some issues about certain students not certain groupings of students not joining societies and we couldn't work out why and then we discovered that almost all of those societies were meeting in a pub and those particular groups did not want to meet where there was out the hole so we instituted an idea that every society tries to have at least one meeting a month where no alcohol is served and they saw an increase in their membership so it's just those things having a look and seeing what we can do to try and improve it I love it I love having to do with the young people and I love trying to see if we can't make sure that university isn't just about the job you're going to get but it's sometimes education for its own sake so it's not it's okay that's not not the way everybody sees it because there is a there is a view that we need to universities need to measure the value of research by value I mean the monetary value of research and I was say to you before we came in what is the value of discovering the Higgs boson nobody can make any money out of it no well being a great poet oh yeah or you know I think exploring the mind is the most wonderful thing and sometimes you don't know why you've learnt something until 20 30 40 years laters anything remember that thing actually some of its useless okay something is useless when I was a school added about oxbow lakes to remember this so then he's weird lakes have got left behind when rivers couldn't be asked anymore they kind of remember that isn't it rains there's a lot of first-class training the other day and I stood up on my statement look oh I've never seen one did it's cool I got really overexcited it was a quiet carriage it wasn't popular oh but I think it's okay to foster an atmosphere in universities where we say to be pleased just learn for its own sake because expanding your mind is a wonderful thing and sometimes you expand your mind in a direction you hadn't expected and actually what you do is you make the happy accidental discovery and we need those because that's how such a total pencil in was discovered it was an accidental discovery Fleming couldn't be asked to wash up you know that's better but I love that they love that those accidents happen and they're they're critical oh I'm going to throw it open to questions in a moment so I'm sure there'll be plenty of those but how do you fit it all in because I should say this is secrets of the green room when I arrived she's finishing off a novel which she's got her finished by Friday because she's casting a play on Saturday and I just say I was writing the novel I wasn't reading it I'm not that challenged about reading totally fine yeah I've got a lot I have a lot of yeah but it's exciting and opportunities come up I am going next week next week yeah to San Francisco to give a TED talk and suddenly find myself involved with dead calm hi sorry it's dead calm here and I said no no really you can't be he cannot be a brand you have to be a person um but that's better but it's 40 women from around the world gathering for a conference leaning in we're all leaning in apparently that is all something I'm learning to use the proper jargon sandy it's really important in leaning in while you're with us I would certainly do that note to self wear sturdy bra a queen at the Queen of Denmark leaned in how is she look at me look what is this for her you know they do have a very odd life I am I woke up one morning I said my poor partner it's really not an easy life again we have the we have one of those alarms where the radio comes on and I one morning woken up and just at the moment that Radio 4 was running a trail for something I was on and it was my voice my wife said to me I don't know how you're doing that but shut the up it means my odd life because I was reading my emails and who's that from Isis it's from the prime minister of Iceland and she went o questions anyway we found ourselves going to stay with the prime minister of Iceland whose charming do remember Johannes secret daughter the woman who became Prime Minister when nobody else what did - it was so bad so bad I don't know have a woman bit like now oh please have you not heard the glass cliff so we're staying with that she's charming Johanna and we were staying in the Erica Duntov checkers right so there was you Hannah and her partner and me and my partner and the Primus is showing us up to bed which is quite odd anyway you thinking oh did I bring good pajamas in it and she said here's the bathroom and here's a towel and if you're cold here's a blanket in the night by the way she said just as she's leaving don't touch the red button because the SAS will come all right I'm thinking touch the read back and you know how you want to go to the loom and it's only at hazard you don't notice the river well it's an odd life I do that is an odd light well that leads us on nicely there's another another question here about the women's equality party and your political activism no I mean you know Scandinavian countries have had women Prime Minister's for years and leaders and a degree of equality which is what you talked about we may have Hillary Clinton we may have we have Angela Merkel and so on so what is the point of a new political party in our political system that's called the women's equality well it's really interesting when you look at it so we have a we have a female Prime Minister we challenged her within a hundred days in office - please do just one thing that was good for women just like anything anything at all and I think we're about 80 days in so far not so much and that's because she's busy cleaning up the mess that the boys made and even if you include the Scandinavian countries who've done so much to be egalitarian what are we 196 countries in the world there isn't actually one in the whole world where there is full equality there isn't a single country where there isn't still a gender pay gap there isn't a single one where men and women actually stand shoulder-to-shoulder and what happened was I kept shouting at the telly and I kept shouting at various people and in the end I thought this is hopeless we don't need a feminist movement we need a political party and when our candidate so if you walk a stood for the London mayoral elections we went to the very first hustings she was seventh to speak out of seven by the time she spoke not one single candidate had mentioned the position of women 51% of the population in London those huge issues about childcare about safety on the tube you know about if you're going to cut all the conductors from trains have you really thought about female safety you know jeremy corbyn's aren't supposed to have women only carriages and we just thought we wouldn't be segregated any longer this is a crazy we thought we'd contribute completely in the whole of society and it's also I have a son as well as I have daughters and I'm concerned about the boys in terms of equality did you know that 10 percent of men in this country take paternity 10% 90% do not take the leave that they're entitled to and that is because they are afraid it'll impact adversely on them at work and you know what it will it absolutely will it has to be made compulsory I think men should be entitled to enjoy those first marvelous moments with their child just as any woman should I am really concerned about boys falling behind in secondary schools in their education so so it isn't just an equality party for women it's for all of us it's for it's because I think society will be better off but honestly when people say why did you call it the women's equality party I just I don't want to say I don't know how that would be clear what the plan was and we as far as I know the only political party in the world that hopes one day to no longer exist I hope that's the case I hope we get the job done and I can go home and tidy that under stairs cupboard stuff to do but did you see there was a routine every week there's something that just needs a report out about the phenomenal spike in mental health referrals figure out women do you know the issues of the London Fashion Week and those those unbearably thin women who just some of them just look like they would snap because they we have a really unhealthy attitude to body size so there's all sorts of things and we're running a campaign at the moment called what what women want it's a repeat of a campaign that was done 20 years ago in 1996 yeah how many diverse African - 20 years from 2016 but in a way 1996 and we've asked people to write in and in 1996 it was on postcards and women are writing in now do you know what it's the same bloody stuff it's still the same do you know do you know I I was watching some coverage from Poland of the Polish TV debate about a bad abortion there was seven men on the panel and there wasn't a single woman and I thought there is something wrong with this panel I can't quite have my finger on but 4x it was much the same I have to say I think brexit was a campaign conducted by Wellsburg and white men it was a it was a it was an extraordinary thing to watch that's still the case that is still the case if you look at all the stats on television you know I'm thrilled and delighted to this it comes out in two weeks time I'm the very first woman to host a major comedy panel show on television and I'm hosting Qi which starts at and but as lemon best job ever absolutely thrilled love it but 2016 the tellers has been around for 80 years and here's the thing it is a trade secret about being a host on a quiz show they tell you the answers beforehand so you don't need to be that clever and then just to back it up they give it all to you on a card which you're allowed to hold and that cards not as heavy as the boys led me to believe so it's you know it's not it's not rocket science well I I just like to point out that one of our questioners said I saw you present Q I live at Kent in 2015 this play a role are you becoming a host of Qi after Stephen left and of course it was a settling don't never thought of it before that exam at all yes thank you is it but but a lot of those shows a lot of those shows either don't have women on them yet or the women contribute less or a seem to contribute less for one reason or another yes what is that well are there in 26 I don't know well there's various reasons for that I do know that's not true I'm lying and being a woman and pretending I don't know absolutely know the answers the first thing is that there are fewer female comedians around and that is because the training ground to be a stand up is deeply in horribly unpleasant place so it's quite often late at night in a very small dingy club in front of very drunk people shouting show oh it's that is honestly where you have to Train and most women stand there and think I could be at home and they leave and go home because it's just awful so the training ground for the kind of comedy the kind of comedians that are used on those shows the boys tend to last longer than the girls is the first thing because it's unpleasant and the second thing is that we just haven't had any female hosts and I think that the answer is not to have as was once suggested a woman on every single panel but to have more female hosts because there's a different atmosphere there's genuinely a different atmosphere when Albin is in charge and if it was more normalized that a woman was the host I think that more women would feel comfortable about being on the panel is it however a bit daunting to take over that show because other women will be wanting you to succeed men will be wanting you to succeed it's a big successful show you know was that tough or not ah it's a show that I admire and I loved but I haven't gone into be a mini-me of anybody else you know I'm myself I can't be anything but myself so I've known Stephen Fry's since I was 19 we were at university together so I have it probably a different attitude to him then it's not somebody I've seen on the telly it's somebody I know well and so I just went in de Wow great what fun and I've loved it at the very first thing I did the elves who are there assuming all the elves the researchers on Qi and I call them Nyssa because that's the Danish elf and the first thing I did was invite them all to Danish dinner at my house where marzipan was sir we had an awful lot of miles on Hannah they must love you I I threw a little red cabbage on the side just together just that I go crazy so it's a wonderful it's a wonderful family atmosphere on the show and I have to say I've loved they're all recorded now we've already done them I laughed more than I think I've ever laughed Alan Davis is a genius and there is a moment which I don't know what goes out because I haven't seen the edits but there was a moment in the in the recording which I hope is broadcast when he does an impersonation of a female trout faking an orgasm which is first of all who knew trout did that and they like the make Mayans of the fish world and it was a piece of comic genius so we really had it's perfect television because you come away with going editor in that hmm and having laughed and laughed and laughed and so it was yeah huge fun but maybe we can raise the lights a little bit and let's let's get some questions from the audience people there are you quite scary lot there's well let's go to a gentleman first there's a man in the middle what a wild I did hello sandy hi what's your name Dave hello Dave how's things yeah things all right thank you um call me Dave yeah sure question please a few years ago David Cameron was asked if he considered himself to be a feminist and he struggled to answer that question did he won't understand it probably not but then the same question was asked to Justin Trudeau the Canadian Prime Minister and he was had no problem saying yes of course I'm a FEMINIST and I'm a proud feminist but do you think there are men or there are problems with the word feminism do you think people are scared to admit that well like it's a new F word I was that I think that I hear a lot of people say I'm not a feminist but which is my least favorite sentence and I was saying if there's a but in the centres there must be a bit of a problem but because there was some issue about the word it's one of the reasons why I decided that we didn't need a feminist movement we needed a political party the only place in the world where men and women are absolutely equal is at the ballot box at that moment we're all equal and I have to say we have hundreds of wonderful matters a male members but that doesn't sound right not in my mouth anyway we have hundreds of wonderful men who who are a fantastically supportive I would say probably the strongest feminist I know is my son who's a wonderful 22 year old young man and so I think it's something that we all need to fight together we need to have a look and say why is this happening why if we if we fully engaged women in the workplace who want to be engaged in the workplace it'll be worth billions to our economy it makes sense for everybody one of the things that we know is in the STEM industry so science technology engineering mathematics there's the most phenomenal glass ceiling loads and loads of stunning women are getting brilliant degrees in these areas and then not progressing at all so what if the answer to global warming is in the head of a young female scientist who doesn't get or she's got the cure for cancer it's for all of us that we every child in this country has the opportunity to be the best that they can be and to contribute the most that they can contribute and it isn't happening you know the Equal Pay Act 1975 how is it possible that we still have a gender bear unite one of the biggest unions was a was it the report out this week about mass sexism within the within the Union really really you can't even depend on a union which should be looking off the everybody that you can't have a level playing field so so I in a way I don't really care about whether we call ourselves feminists or not I just I'm old and tired I want to get the job done that's what I think nothing wrong are you gonna burn your bra you think yes because bras are famously made of flammable material less that's why we women spark when we run and it's boring the truth is that that's a historical it's one of those wonderful moments that people have kind of latched on because they read about in the papers no woman has ever Berta bra no bras were burnt in 1968 a New York Times journalist made it up and thank goodness journalism has improved since then but what you have these kind of old ideas that hang on but maybe feminism isn't a nice word that women are going to burn their bras I don't care about that anymore I care about every child in this country that every single one of them can be the best that they can be and at the moment I don't see anybody getting on with it so I had no choice even though I hadn't got time but wine was involved and to found a political party so are you a feminist good man all right good fella right some awkward lady over there hey what's your name ella ella yeah are you a student Ella no I'm only 16 oh and that's 16 is a fantastic aged what what do you do you have a plan and what you would like to hire yourself what do you see yourself doing and all my mum inspired me so I want to study criminology then become a lawyer yay go girl good for you um I at the age of 16 I would obviously identify myself as a feminist and I feel very strongly about women's rights and not being oppressed however at my school I will sit there in a classroom and here's Texas comments going on and I sit there and look at my friends who are girls and say we can't be listening to this surely you're sent and they all sit down and go or what do you expect how do you think we can inspire more young women and men to identify as feminist and really fight for what I think is right yeah it is a real problem and bullying online as well and trolling is a serious issue it's social medias on the whole is not a very safe space for young women and there are big issues about how the fashion industry treats young women and it worries me enormous Lee the thing that that I would like to see is sex and relationship education from the earliest years in school so you're 16 but I would have liked to have seen boys and girls sitting down from a very early age and looking at how we relate to each other it starts very early and if the boys are being allowed to get away with it then they'll think that that's acceptable behavior and actually what I think is you challenged any one of them on their own they probably would be embarrassed by some of the comments there's a thing about boys and getting overexcited in a group but kind of pack mentality if you have the courage stand up to them and tell them or take them aside one at a time and go you understand that's work for that's not very nice and we have to stand up and we have to be bold and I've stood up in my time and gay woman I when I when I first came out which seems incredible now as 22 years ago there wasn't a single out gay woman in British public life okay and I had death threats and it was terrifying but you have to stand up for what you believe in and in the end when I got married I got married on stage to my wife in front of June a half thousand people in the Royal Festival Hall so it can be done okay and we can combat sexism but we need you Ella we need you to stand up and say that will do okay when when sanding was talking there reminded me of a friend of mine from Glasgow Ruth Davison as leader of the Scottish Conservative Party who said being a Glaswegian it was much easier to come out as lesbian and come out as a conservative sotry yes a war stru it anymore hello good evening hi darling what's your name mine's Freddie hi I'm a second year undergraduate here I can't actually and my question is as both of you are Chancellor's at universities and most undergraduates will finish their degrees with 42,000 bound of worth of debt and as there is this disparity it's gender pay gap between men and women more and more women and I think well I don't have to pay it back if I owned less than 21 thousand a year so how are it is a aspiration of women going to be tackled with this such an enormous amount of debt they go and leave University with I sort of if I'm honest with you I hadn't really thought of that but you're right there's nothing to encourage a woman to want to improve her income is there and she's got to pay off that a normal summer I'd be honest had you thought of that yeah I have thought of it I feel really now but that's all Bella Wow that's another too much to take away with me you're right you're right but I when I went to university I didn't bet you Gavin but it was paid for by the state it was absolutely paid for by the state and it was your taxes in action yeah for our generation behind me and yeah I did it does seem to me that you know this is not setting one generation against another because grandmothers and grandfathers have grandchildren that they care about but it is certainly true that our generation it seems to me have stolen the past from younger people and they've got fewer opportunities they're less likely to get our house they're less they're going to be saddled with debt and basically they're waiting for us to die so inherit whatever we've managed to say then it seems to me that that kind of opportunity culture that I grew up in has some of has died and there's also been a kind of denigration of public services you know I think most of us grew up in a in a world where there was a private sector which did create wealth but the public sector creates wealth as well there's nothing that creates wealth more than having streets which are safe to walk in and and work in and nothing creates wealth more than education so we've kind of lost that part of the dialogue and that balance that seems to me no I completely agree when I drink that when I do the graduations at Portsmouth the first thing I do is apologize to the young people on behalf of the older generation because I think what we have landed them with is a tremendous disservice I genuinely believe all education ought to be free we're seeing a huge loss in mature students as well applying now I didn't but that's true here but certainly true important we're seeing people just not applying the mature students I think how great we want to re study when you're sixty seventy whatever you want it's great but it's unfortunate people are now looking at the money involved and thinking well well I went and it stopped it's tough I met one of our mature students recently who works three days a week doing a job and four days a week here at the University knees just started and I wish him well because I think that's really tough yeah but how inspirational is it not tastic there was a there was a lady there yes what is your name it's Anne hello Ann how are you I'm fine thank you - I'd like to ask your views on single sex education because in my opinion it doesn't make for a melded society I think that it's important for boys and girls young men and young women to be educated in school but I'd like to know yogi I completely agree with you and but III think it's very important that you know we talk - LM talking about the sexist comments and so on how can boys and girls learn to relate to each other if we separate them in the educational process but equally I don't believe in selective education either I'm afraid I I'm Anna Gannett arian as far as education is concerned and I think we should all mix in together and you should learn to all be all you know different backgrounds and different sexes we should all and try and understand each other and again if you separate out early on well most of the research actually a lot of research done here in Kent indicates that the ones who go to grammar schools for example do very well but the ones who don't get selected to do worse or worse and that won't do for me I'm I'm all for making sure no matter what your background is you can reach as high as you like so but will only make a proper equality in this country if we get the boys and girls from us early on to sit down and examine how they relate to each other and that we don't do name-calling and we don't play kiss Jason and all those things that the girls find distressing that it's not too soon to start at 5 but we need properly trained sex and relationship teachers because at the moment it's you don't have to be qualified and it's usually the teacher who was last into the staff meeting against you know Oh guess what you get to do they you know and it's two important things so but you're absolutely right I think we should have mixed education yeah some more thoughts there's somebody up there and there's a anybody on this side we've been neglecting you or you don't have that's all politics I have a great soup recipe and talk about other things hello hi what's really my name is Sarah I still have found a member of the women's equality party go Sarah Oh which I am very disappointed in oh why is that because all I have seen is emails coming and asking me for money Wow you don't get my emails then um a lot of the information I think has been promulgated through Facebook Twitter things like that but are you on the mailing list seriously on the moon yes absolutely um because emails go out about a phenomenal range of subjects yes I got one telling me that there would be a conference yes and I looked through it and I read it and I said well I sent an email back saying actually having read this I can find out that it's in Manchester but you haven't told me where it is exactly in Manchester and what dates okay it's all it's all on the website it's all available on the website so the email really directs you to the website where all the information is available we don't want to put too much stuff in in any mail and can I just can I just say to you about the money thing that one of the problems about politics in this country is the phenomenal cost which I simply did not know about just the stand as London Mayor okay just the sound not to have leaflets not to campaign in any way just to put your hat in the ring costs 20,000 pounds okay we have no major donors we are entirely funded by our membership who are either paying for pounds a month or two pounds 50 if their unwaged all of those members have to fund our ability to stand and to put deposits down I'm afraid and it is a fact and you'll find that whatever political party you belong to money becomes critical you have to have people thrown to us when we press that said like to come and see party headquarters you type we'd like to have a party headquarters that have been nice and it is it is prohibitively expensive to run a political party in this country it is something that absolutely needs addressing and I would be very surprised if you any political party wasn't at some point saying if you have some spare money please do that but I guarantee you that we send out emails on a phenomenal range of subjects so one of the things that we particularly have been looking for is what is it that you want us to discuss at our very first party conference which is expensive because we have to have a room like this we have to have like taken we have to have microphones and so on what are the things that you want us to discuss if you can't come and you can't afford to come to Manchester we've tried to have it somewhere in the center of the country so it's as cheap for as many people to come we have branches in Scotland we have brushes in Wales and so we've tried to be as economic as we can for our membership okay if you can't come please will you tell us what you'd like us to talk about it's really hard to know any other way to reach out okay I'm sorry if you feel it's about money I can't tell you how many times I personally just signed a check because it was quicker for the party to just make sure that we got stuff done if you feel it is expensive please look at the other parties and know that we are giving you value for money and please direct yourself to the website by all the information you've just asked me about is freely available hello no sorry what's your name Tessa hi hi no wish to quarrel with the last person at all but I'm also have found a member of w/e I get millions of emails from you I'm not on Facebook I'm not on Twitter I've learnt a fantastic amount I feel very included I've been asked for my opinion I've seen all the range of policies and everything and I think maybe just somebody's missing some emails or something because worship I'm fully informed and I'm coming to conference and I'm really looking great good thank you very much there's a gentleman there and a lady there hello good evening hey darling what's your name I'm Terri I don't and what a Danish Christmas is like Oh fantastic it's that Terry it's we have a Danish word Hugin and it doesn't translate and hooga means to spend a warm cozy time with the people that you love that's what it means so a hug is as close as I can show you what Christmas feels like but it's celebrated on Christmas Eve we still in our family it's Black Tie we dress up we have real candles on the tree which is just not only I know it's beautiful and also hilarious watching my mother stand by the fire extinguisher we have special Temple Hills with so we have beautiful live candles on the tree and we have a special dinner every night we have each Christmas live we're stuck with red cabbage and something called caramelized potatoes which are disgracefully fattening you feel your arteries clogging as you're eating editor they're delicious so we have dinner in the evening when it's dark and then the oldest children will go in and light the tree and then we all go in we all hold hands and we sing together and old Christmas Danish Christmas songs and when the presents are handed out one at a time and by the time they're all handed out the drunk the adults are all drunk as skunks and it's a really special and wonderful evening it takes me a week a whole week every year to prepare and every year I say to the kids come on guys Bahamas this year the Bahamas somewhere let's not and my children are all grown up and I thought they would all leave and now they bring their bloody partners but what I like about it is that it has a hint of formality about it and we make speeches and it's a it's a really special it's a really special time we have a marzipan Pig who knew was it pudding live rice pudding that almonds in it and there's only one hole Armand whoever gets the hole Armand wins the marzipan Pig and whoever's nearest to the family is given the task of making the marzipan Pig and we always say it's very good every year just good luck with that but there was a lady there I think I was a judgement I can't say yes it gentlemen hello sandy hi darling what's your name my name's Alex oh and the the media in this country and always prioritizes personality ahead of policies and that makes it very difficult for political movements because they need excellent orators who have a great sense of humor and who find it easy to engage with an audience so I suppose what I'm saying is we you stand for Carmen because I'd vote for you I would no I won't ever go into politics I think I'd be rubbish and I I don't know if I could do it well enough maybe that's very you're very sweet and so is that wasn't graduate mark said I didn't think I wouldn't want to join any club that would have me as a member III think there's so much wrong with the system that hopefully I can highlight by going around and talking and even criticism it's good to air those things I think it's really important and fortunately I'm able to draw an audience and so maybe I can talk a little bit about why I think these things are necessary I'm saddened by the political system it was bless you somebody with TB and the audience it's a very strange thing that for example that Boris Johnson spent all his time when he was talking about leaving saying how much he disliked unelected representatives and he was quite often saying it in front of the house of parliament where there's about 800 members of the House of Lords who he doesn't seem to have drawn his attention to whatsoever so there's a very strange sort of doublespeak goes on in politics so I think oh I think I'll stick to Rab rousing I once asked the same question of Dolly Parton and she said to me honey there been enough boobs in the White House without mine she is seriously talented she's very fun you seen her in concert yeah she's amazing she weighs about 17 instruments and he was funny and brilliant oh I see she should run for president Charlie part yeah Dolly Parton for president lay lady on there I'd definitely vote for hello right what's really amazing hello darling and I had a question for you on drama actually I am a graduate here and I was in drama and multimedia that was my joint honours and and I wondered what you felt about how people would view drama and the arts because you've sort of built your career on skills that are taught to us here at Kent yet here we've had you know ma programs cut and things like that and I just wondered if you thought maybe how your views were about the view that drama isn't a sort of worthwhile subject yeah I know that I learned so much on my degree just from doing a degree yeah I'd be sad if people thought that I think there's an issue that so many courses now are because people having to pay for them there is a there's a notion that you must immediately do a course that takes you straight into the career that's going to give you a career ladder and you're going to progress on and that's never going to happen in the performing arts or in the field drama whatsoever but it's so important it's so vital so whenever I have the time I wrote a play in 2012 which opened in London's news didn't sir James called the bully boy which was about post-traumatic stress in our in our serving veterans I have a new play which is opening in January called silver linings which was written because there's so little theatre written for older actresses and and our oldest actress we've just finished casting the older person five older women in it the our oldest actress in it is 82 and that is because I have something to say about how we treat old women in particular that we look at them and forget that they had wonderful full lives and maybe they even had sex once and it's a sort of a frightening thought and so it's a it's a it's a play it's a comedy hopefully in you can ever tell to a bluff but because sometimes when you have something that's really important that you want to say the best place to say it is on a stage the best place to say it is through the medium of drama so don't you listen to anybody else and I'm saddened if we if we start to lose the creative arts and we start cutting courses in the creative art because that's what feeds the soul of everybody we all need it and it's only through people studying drama and coming up through theatre that we then get great telling we get great film because that's where you start and it's starting Telly's thought you know in a small black box just two of you doing a play and then eventually there's four of you and then six of you and so it grows like that I think theatre still has something hugely important for us to say and to do in this country was last night first night of Lisa Diwan doing a new Beckett piece at the at the Old Vic and mostly I said that I think I know bloody idea was going on in Beckett Ivan nobody ever says that because it's improv new clothes but but it was so thrilling to have that live experience to be in the presence of a consummate performer to feel the atmosphere and of being in a live thing it is wonderful isn't it to be gathered in a live audience it's a really wonderful feeling it's so much better than watching something I don't know celebrity Island on your own or whatever the hell it is that could sit by themselves and watch and so so I'm passionate about it so good for you I don't know what you want to do don't want to perform all right or what great yeah okay then write the story you have to tell write the stir each and every one of us in this room has stories that are unique to us you have unique stories you have a unique voice find it write the thing to me write the thing that makes you mad okay make the thing that makes you mad and and then and then somebody in the audience will be knocked back and say wow so my play bully-boy that the greatest moment for me Anthony Andrews was in it was the star and a woman came up to me after the play and she said I have lots of returning it was about two returning veterans returning veterans who come and see me in my practice and now that I've seen your play the next time somebody comes in I'm going to ask them different questions and I thought wow if they just did that one doctor that's fine good time for a couple more there's somebody right in the middle I'll tell you what this gins good hi where are you could see you huh hello darling what's your name I'm Beth hello and I just wanted to ask I'm currently in year 13 and I'm not going to university next year okay you're after not going at all so I just wondered if I'm planning on doing career in journalism or media and publishing and I wondered if you had any advice on entries into that career for you know a woman but is there a reason why you're not to go into Chris University um partially cost and right minimizing the amount of debt but also it's just not really my thing I don't think I'd rather go straight in and get some experience there okay so so here's my and the advice that I gave my children okay is it me being very boring maternal I don't think you go to university to learn how to be a journalist I think you go to university to learn how to be a grown-up so I think it's really a wonderful time in your education where you get to socialize with people that maybe you might never have met before who are doing really extraordinary subjects so my first thing is that I would recommend that you go to university whatever the cost I think it is easy for me to say that because I've been through it but I feel probably at a stage in your education we think I don't want any more I know what I've had enough but university is a totally different experience okay it's not people telling you what to do is you deciding your own program is you deciding I am going to commit to this or my children two out of three did not want to go to university they all went and they all grew into wonderful and amazing human beings they blossomed while they were at university so it may be you're looking at it as an extension of school it isn't it's a chance to be the best that you can be I'm really sorry that you have debt that I am sorry about but I recommend it from my heart I hope Gavin would agree with me I recommend that you go to universe I'm afraid I would too it's horrible to think of the debt burden but I do think and particularly the career that you're choosing is very much having a degree that people enjoy doing is kind of almost an entry level qualification for many people it's very very difficult to to get in at the age of 18 I started in the newspaper called the Belfast Telegraph in Northern Ireland during the Troubles and a lot of the old reporters had gone in straight from school but they were all graduate recruitment from the time that I that I started so it is difficult it's not impossible but it is difficult I know somebody who is taking jobs as a runner in television doing just about anything and and its kind of managing to get a foot in the door without having gone to university although she's definitely Tallis's enough to do so and I've said to her I think I think you should go and you would benefit from it she's exactly the same position as you in terms of thinking about the debt but I would recommend it if you can see a way to do it and it's all sort of fun it's funny seriously is a lot of drinking it's good okay wait we've only only got a couple minutes left but just just one thought just to return to - to women and politics and so on I was really struck you know I think your sparing your brush is one of the most talented women in Britain - shucks I do and you just I do and you just said you you weren't sure that you could do politics and so on I mean is there something about the way in which women are held to a different standard in public life in general and politics in particular this was something that came from a conversation with a woman and politics from from another country who was at the top of her game she said you know I visited the Queen in London and the only thing the press in my country could talk about was what my suit looked like and my shoes and we seen it with Theresa May this week is the bloody shoes again you know nobody do you remember the last photo feature on David Cameron's shoes it was good it was very woman but but but you know obviously there's a serious point there isn't it the women are regarded differently in the media and women in proper political life I mean I know Merkel has done brilliantly by just basically buying the same suit in different colours so she always looks to say yeah that's one of the way she handles it yeah it is a serious issue because actually I want to hear what they have to say I'm not really interested in what they're wearing it's true for all in in public life I think you held to a different standard and yeah I don't think I've been in public life for so long 35 years now I've been mine I was 23 I had my very first television series so I've been doing this a really long time it's not the fact of being in the public eye that would worry me in terms of doing politics it's that I have so many other things that I want to do it is the plays it is the books it is the many ways in which I I want to communicate I feel like there's never going to be enough time I think life is so I'm such a Pollyanna I think life is so bloody marvelous and there's and there's so much music I haven't heard in so many books I haven't read so many books I haven't written so many things so many opportunities that are out there I find it slightly mesmerizing and the idea that I would focus down on just one thing I think it would be it would be to cramping for me and what's weird is I don't think if I as a bloke and I saying those things anybody would be the least bit surprised it's fine for a bloke to be a polymath or be interested in a million different things but I just find life phenomenally exciting in fact to the point where I know there's new at home my wonderful wife debbie has banned me I'm not allowed to have a new idea until we've had a cup of tea in the morning what a that's absolutely brilliant that's a wonderful wonderful it's a wonderful way to end for very inspirational infectiously inspirational I should say thank you very much and just the final word of thank you to everybody in the audience because we moved we did a series of these last year we've moved to a new location it's a lovely lovely location and we're also using your money and your contributions for the Kent Opportunity Fund and I know we've collected at least 1,400 pounds thanks to your generosity and there may be buckets on the way out so if you've got any mores loose change please give generously we'll make sure it's spent in a good way thank you very much that was good fun

Channel: University of Kent

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Id: 1R4sj-sljlE

Length: 57min 51sec (3471 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 27 2016