we're here at the premiere of the Ken Loach film.
How many of his previous works before and what they meant to you?
I've seen pretty well most of his films at various stages
and places, and I'm always impressed.
And I remember very well the premiere of I, Daniel Blake,
because we were all waiting outside the cinema, just around the corner,
and one of his team came out and said, Okay, hands up.
Those of you that were on benefit.
And people put their hands up.
We said, Right, you will come in, you've got front row seats.
So it was kind of a delicious, lovely moment.
And the film is incredibly powerful.
And also his other films, Kaz is obviously the one that's usually mentioned,
but I also think the one that Shakes the Barley was a very powerful film,
and I remember showing that in a community center in my community.
And then Ken came and took part in discussion about how he made the film.
And that's the important part because the people that were in his films
are of the community, of the issues, of the struggles.
That was powerful about it.
And do you think the films have a special way of communicating this,
that sometimes it doesn't come across in speeches or things like that?
Absolutely.
You can't win everything with speeches.
You can't when everything we've meetings, you do it with music,
you do it with theater, you do it with dance.
You do it without. You do it with street art.
And above all, you do it with film.
Now we're all here tonight in this wonderful cinema here in Leicester Square.
Wow, what an achievement to get it on in Leicester Square.
But we're all here, see it together.
And that's the sense of empowerment.
But if you and I sat down and watched it on the television,
yeah, we'd watch it and we didn't, I'm sure, but it wouldn't be the same
because we'd end up chatting to each other.
One of us, to go get a cup of tea and come back.
And so it's never the same in a cinema.
Lights down more show Fantastic.
And and it's one of these the
the story of shared community experience which is so strong in this film.
Is that something that resonates particularly with you? Yes,
I represent a constituency that's very mixed.
There are very wealthy people as well of very poor people in it.
But I do see every day that strengths of community
in the mutual aid groups, in the food banks and so much else.
And I'm very impressed by all of that.
But I'm also impressed with the
stoicism of refugee groups and what they go through and what they achieve.
But I've never forgotten meeting a young girl in a refugee camp
on the border of Iraq and Syria, sometimes pretty awful situation she was in.
And I said to her and her family, What's your ambitions?
What do you want to do in life?
And she looked at me and said, Sir, I want to be a doctor.
I thought
the young girl in a refugee camp
with no secure future whatsoever.
She wants to be a doctor, you know.
Well, I'm sure she has one by now.
So it's the hope of people.
And we should sort of understand, you know, any of us could be refugees.
A different situation.
And hope doesn't have a bottom line.
It doesn't work in an Excel spreadsheet.
How do you think we can move towards
a way of living that just doesn't count?
Numbers deal with inequality through taxation in part,
but also by opportunities for people, but also recognize that we have amazing
and massive technologies now to do lots of things.
We could have shorter working week,
we could have much more shared resources in our society.
We don't have to cut spending on public services and so on.
This is what we're doing.
So it is about thinking a bit beyond that, about social justice and sharing
not just on the global scale, but also on the national scale and the local scale.
And so what this film and other films that Ken has done is provokes people
to think, people thinking positively and hopefully an unstoppable force.
Ladies and gentlemen, you are watching.
Hey, you guys.
Yeah, you guys are you guys?
I That's what they all say.
You guys.
Hey, guys.