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10/31/2010 David Attenborough: Reader's Q&A

More than 50 years after his TV debut, David Attenborough remains Britain's best-loved broadcaster. Here, on the eve of his new series, the great naturalist answers a host of questions from our readers and from public figures, including Bill Oddie, Ray Mears and Jilly Cooper

It is revealing that he would rather not play this game at all. He is properly uneasy about anthropomorphism and a stranger to sentimentality. I'd say he is cautious about imagination too (more than one questioner wanted to know why he does not read fiction). His is a questing, tireless scientific intelligence. And learning about animals is distinct from learning from them. Attenborough does not believe we learn from animals nor vice versa. He absolves them of any responsibility to teach us. Nor does he tolerate being asked to choose between animals and humans: "Why should I prefer one or the other?"

The occasion for the interview is his latest two-part series David Attenborough's First Life and it is extraordinary. It is a new departure for Attenborough because it is about a world we cannot plan to visit. It inspects animals we cannot hope (or fear) to meet in the flesh. Thanks to ground-breaking collaborative work between computer graphic artists and scientists, the programme makes a super-informed guess at what the earth was like millions of years ago. It tells the story of the origins of life by examining modern descendants of primitive species and ancient fossils (for fossil-fanciers, these programmes will be a revelation).

That broadcasters, naturalists and celebrities were asked to Attenborough

I am always being asked my views on the continued growth of the human population. It is a bit of a minefield. What are your views? Jane Goodall primatologist

David Attenborough

I have often found myself being drawn to, or dreaming about, certain animals at different periods in my life. In Native American culture it is said that animals come to teach you specific wisdom or lessons. Do you have a spirit animal? Natasha Khan (aka Bat for Lashes) musician

No. Easy… [laughs].

When dogs walk round and round their basket before sitting down, are they instinctively checking for snakes? Or are they making their beds more comfortable? Jilly Cooper novelist

Anybody's guess. But what dogs do in the wild is they flatten grass around themselves to make a nice little place to sleep. There are plenty of areas where there aren't any snakes so I think it has to be that they are making a bed for themselves.

Given that we live in an age of extinction, how successful has the wildlife documentaries have been in terms of conservation? And if you start your career again today, in what direction would you take? It would be the same? Ray Mears Explorer / TV

I started in the 50s when conservation was hardly known about by the general public. Peter Scott, who was a great television natural historian, had just started the World Wildlife Fund, so the conservation movement was in its infancy. Back then there was hardly anybody else doing natural history programmes. Now a lot of people do it, there are programmes all over the place, and there has been increasing concern about conservation. If you compared the amount of money that the public gave to conservation charities then with what they give now, you'd see it has grown absolutely fantastically. So is there a correlation between the rise in wildlife documentaries and public interest in conservation? I would like to think that there is.

If I were beginning my career today, I don't think I would take the same direction. Television is at a crossroads at the moment. And although I am not up to date technologically, I suspect that somewhere out there people are conveying things about natural history by means other than television, and I think if I were beginning today, I'd be there.

Do animals believe in God? Simon Armitage poet

We have no evidence one way or the other.

What do you consider the greatest conservation success of our time? Steve Backshall adventurer/broadcaster

Well, I don't believe there would be mountain gorillas now if it hadn't been for [US zoologist] Dian Fossey. And I believe that unless the Ecuadorian government had taken a firm line about the Galapagos Islands there wouldn't be much left there either. But, by and large, we are not doing very well on successes.

How much are you involved in the screenwriting process? And if you have a say in music? Bill Oddie naturalist / broadcaster

It depends. With some programmes I start from scratch and write it all myself. In others there are talented directors as well who will be moulding the programme with some words in mind.

With First Life I would say I wrote about 80% of the words. There are programmes which I just narrate but this isn't one of them. I would like to think that I was the author of these programmes. But I don't have much to do with music.

What three things would you suggest need to happen to galvanise the public to take responsibility for the future of our planet? Michael Dixon director of the Natural History Museum

What really makes things happen, of course, are disasters. And who would want that? But even disasters don't seem to shake us. There have been plenty of disasters recently, and then you forget about them. You forget about New Orleans… [But in terms of initiatives] I don't know the answer…

Who is the most inspirational person you have met? Michaela Strachan broadcaster

Nelson Mandela.

What our readers asked Attenborough...

I'm a huge fan and want to be just like you when I grow up. How did you become a documentary film-maker, and what advice would you have for a young naturalist wishing to follow in your footsteps? Lukas Hotes, aged eight, from Heuchelheim, Germany

Try and make your own film. It is very easy now. It wasn't in my time but these days home video is not all that expensive and you could start with home video and try and make a story about a sparrow or an earthworm or a hedgehog or a blue tit, and you will then discover how you put shots and pictures together in order to tell a story, and whether you have got any skill at doing so, and whether you want to spend your time sitting in a tent waiting for a bird to do something. And, having done that, you will end up with something that you can then show to somebody who has got money and wants a programme â€" and you can say: 'There you are, this is what I can do on no money at all… why don't you help me do something more ambitious?'

What is your favourite bird? Ali Sakkout, aged six, from Cairo

Bird of Paradise.

What is the one item that you take everywhere when you are travelling? Tamla Thornton, student, Torquay

My key to my front door.

Of all the currently threatened species (or groups of species â€" ie frogs), which ones in your opinion should demand the most attention to save? Toren Atkinson, singer, Vancouver, Canada:

There is no hierarchy. There should be enough people around to care for everything.

What was the scariest moment and/or the scariest animal that you have ever filmed? Alex Combeer, aged nine, from France

It is the job of a natural history film-maker not to get into those situations. If you are going to be in a dangerous situation, the likelihood is there is somebody standing around with a gun to shoot something.. So I am not very keen on danger.

I have been in a Land Rover that was charged by a rhinoceros, and that was tiresome. But if you are making natural history films, what you are trying to do is show the animal as it normally lives, and animals don't normally spend their time attacking human beings.

What is your earliest memory? Lizzy Dening, journalist, Cambridge

Sitting halfway up a staircase by a window, in Isleworth, where I was born. I would have been three.

How do you feel about the carbon footprint of programs such as Planet Earth,who travel around the world to highlight the effects of global warming on our planet? And what do you personally in the way of recycling, being energy efficient and supporting sustainable / renewable energy sources?

Imogen Marx, customer service professional, Brighton

Dealing with global warming doesn't mean we have all got to suddenly stop breathing. Dealing with global warming means that we have to stop waste, and if you travel for no reason whatsoever, that is a waste. If you travel in a vehicle that absorbs many times more fuel than is necessary, that's a waste. And I am against waste. I would like to think that if I go on a journey, I go on a journey for a reason. I mean, the reason could be seeing my grandchildren, which I think is perfectly OK, thank you very much [laughs]. Or it could be because I am going to make a programme, which I also hope is OK.

I am an ardent recycler. I would like to think that it works. I don't know whether it does or not. I put in all these bulbs that mean I can't see anything for more than 30 seconds. I don't put an electric fire on if I don't need it. I do put on a sweater. I am installing solar panels in my house at the moment. It is all a tremendous fiddle and you just hope it is going to contribute.

What plays on your mind when you are trying to get to sleep? Sam Atherton, junior doctor, Manchester

What I am trying to write, or problem that I do in the evening and, indeed, something I've read that is very challenging, which keeps the mind spinning.

What do you hate most about life in the 21st century? Liz Cunliffe, music teacher, Paris

Crowds, I suppose.

Where would you most like to visit that you haven't been? James Walford, software developer, Copenhagen

In a ruminative way, as I sit in my slippers by the fire, I wish I had been to the Gobi desert. I haven't, for the very good reason that there are not a lot of animals there. So if you have got to bring your employers back a rich series of programmes, they are going to cost you a lot of money if you make them in the Gobi desert. So I have never done it and I suppose I never shall.

Is there any animal you have not seen that you would like to? Yasmin Wooldridge, poet, Saskatchewan, Canada, and Adam Campbell, client services, Sydney

I 'would like to see the giant squid. Nobody has ever seen. I can tell you, people who have spent thousands of pounds trying to see the giant squid. I mean, we know that they exist, because we saw the dead. But I've never seen live. There was no one.

As you get older â€" this is a rather impertinent question, I'm afraid â€" do you examine the changes in yourself as a curious naturalist? And is it fascinating or horrifying? Ian Andrews, teacher, Mayenne, France

[Laughs] It is not particularly fascinating. I certainly observe them, but I am not particularly fascinated. I am rather dismayed.

Is there an animal that you think has a sense of humour? Dave Kempton, retired police officer, Highnam, Gloucestershire

I am pretty sure that chimps do.

In cases where the plant is impersonating insects for pollination, visually, how the plant "see", which looks like an insect? Tony Moon, film-maker/university teacher, Brighton

The answer is that the plant hasn't seen what the insect looks like. The insect has seen what the plant looks like, and the closer it comes to the female that it is impersonating, the better and more effective it is so that it is the insect which is carrying out natural selection not the plant.

What are your views on vegetarianism? Michael Steer, student, Barnsley, South Yorkshire

I think that if there is such a thing as biological morality, you might say that we evolved as omnivores. We don't have long guts like a cow to digest nothing but vegetation. We have molars, which are there to grind up, but we also have canine teeth, which are good for eating meat. So I think that, biologically, we evolved as omnivores and not as vegetarians. However, as I get older, I get more and more distressed about what I discover about the way that animals are killed [for meat]. There are other reasons for being vegetarian as the world starves â€" you can get much more sustenance from vegetation than from feeding that vegetation to animals and eating the meat. But I am not a vegetarian myself.

By the time your grandchildren are your age, what sort of world â€" if any â€" do you expect them to face? Andrew Molloy, teacher, San Sebastian, Spain

They have 50 years to go. A much richer one, and warm as a whole.

I remember sitting behind you as an undergraduate in crowded classes given by the eminent anthropologist Raymond Firth at the LSE in 1963. I have often wondered since if you were seriously considering at that time in your career changing your focus of interest from the natural world towards human cultures? Charles Hunt, retired curator, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire

The answer is yes. I had made animal programmes for over a decade, and I was very interested in some of the people with whom I had been living in that process. And I decided to resign from the BBC and take a degree in social anthropology, and it was while I was doing that the BBC asked me to come back and become controller of BBC2, which was the best job in broadcasting. I wasn't as interested in broadcasting as I was in anthropology but I wasn't being offered the most interesting job in the world in anthropology, so I took the broadcasting one.

I work in a secondary school. What one thing would you most like us to impress upon young people's minds? Sylvia Greaves, learning mentor in a secondary school, Huddersfield

That we are part of the animal world. We are part of the natural world.

Please could you explain how a young cuckoo learns to speak cuckoo rather than inherit the language of its foster parents, and is that why we hear fewer cuckoos each year because they're all now speaking Dunnock? Rona McKendrick, TV production manager, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire

[Laughs] Well, the answer to the second half is no â€" it is because there are fewer cuckoos. As to the first half, bird songs have two components in them. They have a built-in component so that if you take certain songbirds and rear them in circumstances where they don't hear anything at all, or any other birdsong, they will sing a very simplified version of their song. When they are in normal circumstances and listen, and can hear their own kind singing songs, they refine that basic song. But cuckoo is a very simple call… it could be that one of the reasons why it is such a simple call is precisely because of the phenomenon they describe.

What do you think about genetically modified species like the "super salmon"? Liz Brindley, teacher, Galicia, north-west Spain

I do not know enough about the super salmon, and that worries me. With genetically modified plants, of course, if you said that there weren 't have any right now, you' D will condemn the general humanity of hunger.

Why don't you read fiction? Is it that you don't see any intrinsic value in things that are not real? Raphael Vassallo, journalist, Malta, and Penny Turner, environmentalist, Greece

Birdsong â€" and I thought it was terrific.

David Attenborough 'S first life begins on BBC2 on Friday. Phil Hogan reviews Attenborough 'S Journey, p. 33

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10/30/2010 Letters from lifers

In the past five years, the number of whole-life sentences in England and Wales has doubled. But what does it mean to be locked up with no possibility of release? Simon Hattenstone hears from three offenders

Ten years ago there were only 25 prisoners serving full life sentences in England and Wales. "Life is life" has been reserved for the most notorious serial killers: Moors murderers Myra Hindley and Ian Brady, Dennis NilsenRosemary West . But in the past decade, as Britain's prison population has increased dramatically, so has the number of lifers and whole-lifers. Over the past 10 years, the lifer population has shot up from just under 4,000 to 13,200 â€" a figure higher than the rest of Europe combined. Meanwhile in the past five years, the number of criminals handed whole-life sentences has more than doubled. They can't all be serial killers, so who are these people? The more I thought about them, the more I wanted to know. What do they do every day? How do they keep going? Do they wish they were dead?

In early 2008, I meet with a lawyer Simon Creighton , who represents many of Britain's whole-lifers. He says some of his clients might be willing to write to me because they are challenging their sentences. He explains that if I want to visit, we'll have to get the law changed as the Home Office approves media visits only if there is a perceived miscarriage of justice. Meanwhile, he gives me the prison address of three whole-lifers â€" Ron Smith, Steve Williams and David Taylor.

I write to them, explaining why I am interested in their stories. I hear nothing, and write again. A few months later, a letter finally arrives from Ron Smith at a prison in the north of England.

"Dear Simon Hattenstone,

Received both your letters. Sorry for not replying straight back, but 'letter writing' is not at the top of my 'essential things to do' list."

Smith's tone is cold and abrasive. "After 18 years in prison, I've got sick of reading the shit in people's letters and writing the same shit. I don't go anywhere, I don't do anything and I'm not interested in anything that goes on beyond the prison walls. That world no longer exists for me. I'm no longer part of it."

At his 1991 trial, the judge branded Smith an "exceptionally dangerous man", while doctors labelled him a psychopath. Three years later, then home secretary Michael Howard ruled the crime so horrific that, in his case, life should mean life. Yet the question remains: does Ron Smith deserve to have all hope of redemption taken away from him? Everybody deserves a second chance, don't they â€" even psychopathic killers?

Smith warns me that it 's not interested in "frivolous chatter", so if we want to communicate it must be on a strictly business basis.

"Your questions? What does the whole-life sentence mean to me? It means nothing to me. It means I'll never be released, that I'll die in prison. Considering I deliberately threw my life away and was intending to die, life in prison is irrelevant. My life wasn't up to much anyway.

"Am I denied hope and rehabilitation? Rehabilitation is just a word politicians use and psychologists dream about. People rehabilitate themselves when they're ready to change, when conditions are conducive to it. They can't be bribed, blackmailed or forced to rehabilitate themselves. And to 'hope' or to 'dream' is no different from fantasising your life away."

Smith goes into details about his daily routine. He is locked up 23 hours a day, seven days a week, and has spent the last 12 years in a non-contact segregation unit. He is labelled an exceptional risk. Every morning, he does his t'ai chi exercises, meditates, has breakfast, then does more t'ai chi. In a caged area he uses the multi-gym for half an hour a day. After lunch, he returns to his cell where he meditates some more, does yoga, reads about meditation and watches television â€" nature programmes, news and documentaries. He has recently started a computer class, on Wednesday afternoons â€" the education room is two cells divided by bars, with Smith on one side, the teacher on the other. The one time in the week he is face to face with anybody is Wednesday morning when he does t'ai chi with Maureen, a member of the chaplaincy: "It's the only time I'm unlocked and freely associate with someone." Only three guards now supervise him when he's out of his cell, instead of the seven who used to. He is more trusted these days. "Ten years ago I was so at war with the system/authority, so full of hatred, that I tried to kill a governor and committed several assaults. I was self-destructing."

Towards the end of the letter, quite casually, he mentions that his whole-life tariff has recently been overturned as a result of a legal challenge. "We had a quiet, stable eight years and on May 16 my whole-life tariff was reduced to 18 years."

Not surprisingly, the family of Smith's victim were alarmed at the prospect of his release. His daughter, who discovered her father's body and has suffered post-traumatic stress ever since, said at the time, "We were dumbstruck â€" horrified." Two months later, the attorney general appealed on the grounds that 18 years was unduly lenient, and the sentence was revised back up to 30 years.

"What did I feel? What do I feel?" Smith writes to me. "Nothing. True there is a glimmer of life at the end of the tunnel now where before there was darkness. But it's one of those lights that no matter how far you walk towards it, it never gets any brighter. I never think about getting released."

The letter leaves me with more questions. Why had he deliberately thrown his life away? Did he really have no regrets, as he claimed, and if so, did I want to continue writing to such a man?

As if pre-empting a request, he tells me he has not been visited in prison for more than a decade, and prefers it that way. "I don't do visits. Last visit I had was December 1995, I don't enjoy them. They stress me out as I've got to pretend that I'm enjoying the visit in a noisy visiting room when I'm not. I've got to force myself to think of things to say and pretend that I'm interested in the 'small talk' that my visitors have to tell me. I just find the whole situation stressful. I used to come off visits drenched in sweat."

I make sure not to bore Smith with small talk. My reply is brusque â€" just a list of questions. Why had he been put in care as a child? Why was his life such a mess?

His answers are as direct as my questions.

"Dear Simon Hattenstone,

He tells me how he shoplifted food to get by, and was officially put into care aged 12. "I learnt criminal behaviour from others in these so called 'care homes'. I ended up in Aycliffe Secure Unit age 13, escaped from there 2 or 3 times before being sent to remand centres, detention centre, borstal, prison."

To Dr Bob Johnson, psychiatrist at the high-security prison Parkhurst for five years in the 90s, Smith's story is depressingly familiar. Nearly all those he has worked with, he says, have suffered traumatic childhoods. Many, he adds, still live in fear of their parents. "So many lifers have a prison in their head that is vastly more overwhelming than the prison they're actually in."

The trouble is, he says, all-Lifers are treated differently from adults and placed in the environment even more dysfunctional than the one in which they grew up. "They are not there to be rehabilitated, they are there for storage. As much as society."

Shortly after hearing from Smith, I receive a letter from Steve Williams.

"Dear Simon just a short letter to let you know I received your letter and I'll reply to it in the next couple of weeks. I'm very lazy when it comes to writing letters, but I will reply soon." It's strange how the whole-lifers seem to be too busy for letter writing. Perhaps they have to convince themselves that is the case.

A month later he again wrote, describing his crimes in detail. Williams served 10 years in prison for killing a colleague. He was released on license, but after the fight was recalled and given an additional six months for a fight. Shortly after his release from prison in 2007 he killed his wife and was given a life sentence.

Williams tells me how the first murder came about. He was in his 20s, married with a little boy, when he got into a row with a fellow worker. He claimed his victim produced a knife and attacked him. He said he'd fought him off before stabbing him â€" 13 times. "I received my first life sentence with a tariff of 12 years reduced to 10 years on appeal. Self-defence I hear you saying. Everybody I know said the same." But in the same letter he admits the evidence pointed more towards murder than manslaughter. "The number of stab wounds and no injuries on me I think did it for me."

He handed himself in to the police, and pleaded guilty. Despite this, he received a whole-life tariff, which he's now appealing against. "I don't really expect to have it reduced but worth a try I suppose. They can't exactly give me any longer."

In May 2008, I finally hear from David Taylor, now 80 years old. He has been in prison for all but three years since 1962, when he was sentenced to life for murdering a man during a robbery. A month after he was released on licence in 1978, he shot a diamond jeweller in the back during another robbery, and also accidentally shot his accomplice, who bled to death. He eventually confessed to the killings while in custody for another armed robbery in 1991 and was given a whole-life sentence. Like Smith and Williams, he says keeping fit has helped him get by. As with Smith, the lawyer Simon Creighton has successfully appealed to have his whole-life tariff reduced â€" in this case to 25 years.

"Dear Simon,

Thank you for your letter. The question of a whole-life term is very difficult to put into words. It can be simple or complicated, it all depends on the way each individual approaches the sentence. Obviously a sentence such as a whole life takes away all hope of ever being released. So the first thing you do is accept this fact, which strange to say everyone does. It must be part of the human condition to accept disastrous events. Put it this way, every day all round the world people are told by their doctors, you have cancer (for example) and you have six months to live. Once the initial shock wears off, they accept their fate and carry on doing the best they can. Rehabilitation is largely a waste of time. What's the point when you're never going out? Those who do courses do them for purely personal reasons, maybe due to a desire to try and understand how and why they came to be in this position. The article you intend to write won't be easy. First you have to understand a great deal. I find it passing strange that convicts understand honest folk, but honest folk don't understand convicts."

Regards

David Taylor

The mandatory life sentence was introduced for all murder convictions when the death penalty was abolished in England, Wales and Scotland in 1965. The underlying principle was that every convicted murderer, theoretically at least, forfeited his liberty to the state for ever. In practice, nearly all lifers would be released on probation at a point when they were deemed safe. Occasionally, the home secretary ruled that an individual, such as Myra Hindley, would never be released.

The whole-life tariff was not officially introduced until 1983 when the home secretary began to set minimum terms that killers had to serve before they could be considered for release on life licence (meaning that if they committed another crime they would be recalled to prison to continue their life sentence). Not only did home secretaries set the minimum sentence, they also had the power to keep people imprisoned beyond the tariff recommended by the parole board. But in May 2002, the European court of human rights ruled that this was an abuse of power.

The then home secretary, David Blunkett, countered with legislation providing a new set of mandatory guidelines to judges about how long lifers should serve. Until then a life sentence had usually meant between 15 and 20 years. Blunkett's legislation introduced a slate of offences where life should mean life â€" criminals who had murdered two people, who had killed with a degree of premeditation, or who abducted or sexually abused their victim, child murderers, murder done to advance a political, religious or ideological cause. A final, alarmingly vague category was introduced: judges could recommend a whole-life tariff simply if they considered the offence was serious enough to merit it. A freedom of information request for this article has revealed that between 2005 and 2009, 29 new whole-life sentences were handed out (some have subsequently been overturned).

In her eight years as chief inspector of prisons (she stood down in July this year), Ms Anne Owers inspected most of Britain's jails. Yes, of course she was aware of the increasing numbers of lifers and whole-lifers; one in six of Britain's prisoners are now serving life or indeterminate sentences, she stressed. But Owers is also quick to tell me the ways in which she is proud of Britain's prisons. "One of the things that surprises people is when I say that in the course of inspections we all draw our own keys, we all walk around unaccompanied by prison officers, we open cell doors â€" even in high-security prisons. And there are not many countries in the world where you'd be allowed to do that or where you could do it safely."

But surely the increasing number of lifers makes Britain's prisons harder to manage? She nods. "It means you are managing some very different risks. If you're looking at whole-life tariffs and you want prisons and prisoners to be safe, you've got to create some horizons, some milestones within that â€" whether that's through activity, achievements, education, you've got to create an environment in which there is something literally worth living for. Because if prisoners feel there is nothing to lose, then prisons become less safe."

After he murdered a stranger, Ron Smith claimed he suffered amnesia. "By the time of my arrest, three months later, I was totally convinced of my innocence. Even now I have very little memory of it... But I did start to get flashes of recollection, and only recently was able to piece all the fragments together to form a picture. I wasn't a very nice or stable person."

He says that, through t'ai chi and meditation, he has trained his mind. "I have memories which occasionally pop into my head but they have no emotional content. It's like watching the TV with the volume down or looking at someone else's photos. One time I had nothing but bad memories which fuelled my anger."

He has spent a great deal of time reading existentialist philosophy. "In the past I had nothing and wanted everything which made me turn to crime. And because I couldn't have everything I got angry and resentful with those who had the things I hadn't. I hated the world... Now I have nothing and am happy with nothing."

He feels he deserves all the tariff for life, what he did?

\\ "If someone killed a member of my family in the same way I did, I would not 't want them released either. It' S course. I believe all life tariff was justified Considering the circumstances of my crime, and the fact that I had put the family through the ordeal of the court Didn "will not help. "

Last June, Steve Williams appealed to have reduced the whole-life sentence he received for killing his wife while on licence for his first murder. The appeal was rejected. The local paper reported the relief of his wife's family. Her brother said: "He'll never get out now. He won't be able to hurt anybody else. It takes a bit of stress off our mam. It's just been an absolute nightmare, losing my big sister. She was bubbly, fun-loving, a brilliant sister. She was always there if you needed someone. It's left a very big hole in all of our lives."

Williams tells me he wasn't surprised. "I've obviously only given you a brief history but you make your mind up. Do I deserve to die in jail or not? I'm young and fit and I've maybe got another 50 years of life as a category A prisoner left. Torture every single day. I actually pray for a heart attack or cancer."

David Taylor never dreams of such an escape. In prison you can make a life for yourself, he says, "a very basic life", but it is better than death. "In March 1963 I had the misfortune to find myself standing in the dock in the Old Bailey. Watching as the black cap was placed on the judge's head before he sentenced my co-defendant to death by hanging, it was, I can assure you, a very sobering experience, especially because whilst on remand I was weighed and measured in case I was hung as well."

The last sentence is so shocking, I must read it again.

In his next letter he tells me about his childhood. He grew up in the second world war, when London was being bombed by the Germans. Every day, prayers were said at school for the previous day's fatalities. "I suppose you could say everyone became tougher than the people are today. Everyone just carried on and did the best they could. And this state of affairs continued until I was about 12 years old and I was living with my foster family who as far as I was concerned were my real parents. I had two sisters and we were a normal family until one night our house suffered a direct hit from a German bomb and everyone was killed except me. I survived and from that moment I became a survivor and I still am."

I wonder if the everyday nature of death in the war shaped Taylor's attitude to killing â€" if life is so cheap when you are growing up, maybe killing another person becomes easier. "Regarding your question about the war having an effect on me, I don't think it did. After all, thousands of children who grew up during the war never turned out like me. One thing I'm sure of is if my family had survived they would have guided me down a different path."

He drifted into crime, he says, without being aware of the consequences. "There comes a time when you realise the seriousness of your actions, but by then often it's too late because you're locked into the criminal lifestyle. When I was 16 I was in Wormwood Scrubs mixing with men of 30 upwards and this had a great influence on me. Older criminals became my mentors, with disastrous results. I was taken into prison at a very early age and I learnt how to survive in prison, but I wasn't taught any skills that would help me survive outside."

Of the whole-lifers, Smith is the most regular correspondent. I look for hope or humanity in his writing, but they aren't easy to find. In his first letter, he had described doing t'ai chi with the chaplain. I tell him that it sounds as if she has befriended him, but he is quick to quash that idea. "Yes, I get on all right with the chaplain woman, I suppose. I wouldn't consider her a friend. People use that term too readily these days. That's just someone I do t'ai chi with â€" we share an interest, that's all."

I ask him why he said he threw his life away on a "death mission".

"I wasn't living, I was existing. Doing the same thing day in day out, seeing the same people (other criminals), talking about the same things (crime). I was drinking and taking drugs just to deal with the monotony of it all. I had no job (I've never worked), no money. I lived on a crime-ridden estate. I was with a girl I felt nothing for. I was dead inside except for a burning fire of anger and hate."

Now that he has managed to piece together the murder, does it make him think more about it? "The past is the past. Nothing good can come out of dwelling too much on things like that. Guilt is a product of obsessive thought, it develops into self-pity, and self-pity serves no purpose in prison other than causing depression, to self-harm and commit suicide. A person can accept their crime and acknowledge the effect it's had on the victim's family, and resolve not to do that act again without guilt interfering to complicate matters internally. If I could bring the person back I killed by dying, I wouldn't hesitate. But I can't, so I never think about what can't be changed."

Has he ever considered killing himself?

"I suppose I have in the past, but I've never self-harmed. I've never been depressed. What keeps me going is knowing I'll be dead soon enough anyway of natural causes. The average male only lives until he's 60-65. The way I see it, I'm closer to death than birth."

Williams is no more positive about the future. "I just sort of move along each day completely numb and that's how I get by."

The only optimistic note is struck by 80-year-old David Taylor, looking forward to release in seven years' time. "My life as a criminal is over. I will never return to crime. I want to do my best not to die in prison. By the time I get out I will have served 28 years, which is long enough for anyone. But I'm not depressed. The time for depression has long gone. I'm just like everybody else. I live in hope."

Williams says he can't do without drugs in jail, and every time he has stopped taking them he's been involved in a violent incident. "Some life. That's why I already had two failed suicide attempts."

At the end of the letter he apologises for "ranting" and says he was feeling sorry for himself. "It's the boredom down here. Not even a TV. Just 23 and a half hours solitary bang up, day after day, week after week."

Creighton had been battling with the government for a year about the right to visit the whole-lifers when the court of appeal ruled that there was a public-interest justification. I tell Smith I've requested a "media visit". "The only way you'd be allowed to visit me is if I send you a visiting order," he writes. "And the only way I could do that is by having you cleared for visits, vetted by the police. You'd have to give me your home address details (no work address) so the police could visit you. I'd have to fill a form in this end. There's no way you're going to give me your home address."

It's hard to know whether this letter is a threat or dare, or simple statement of fact.

In the end it doesn't matter, because although the court has accepted the idea in principle, it's decided that, in the case of Ron Smith, the risks outweigh any benefits.

Since I first wrote to the whole-lifers, the economy has collapsed, the coalition has come to power in Britain and new secretary of state for justice Kenneth Clarke has announced plans to reduce Britain's prison population by 3,000 to save money. Meanwhile, earlier this year the European court of human rights started to examine whether whole-life tariffs breach human rights. For budgetary or humanitarian reasons, the numbers of whole-lifers in British prisons today might never be surpassed.

This seems to make little difference to Smith, who does not give the impression that he considers himself ready for release. I'm not sure that he thinks he'll ever be ready for release but, equally, he believes he should never have been told that he would die in prison. "It was said at my original trial that I was suffering from an untreatable psychopathic disorder. Now they say it's treatable. I don't know. I can say that I no longer 'think' or 'feel' like I used to. My head has cleared somewhat. I no longer have the anger or hatred I used to have back then. Not that it means anything. Impression I get off the system is 'once a psychopath always a psychopath'. I don't expect to be released. They're reluctant to even let me out of solitary."

Despite fighting successfully to have his whole-life sentence reduced, Smith now says he cannot afford to think about the possibility of release. "If I ever walk out them gates, great, so be it, I won't look back. If I never walk out them gates, that's just how it is. I expect nothing."

I write back, telling him he must have some hope if he's even talking about release. But Smith isn't having it. "Hope is for those who can't bear the present. It's a crutch for the discontented, the unhappy, the depressed, those who struggle to stand upright on their own. It's not for me. I have no need of hope.

Regards,

Ron "

• The prisoners' names have been changed.

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10/17/2010 The insiders' guide to the arts

How long can you look at the picture for? Where the best places for the ballet? Big names from the world of art, including Charlotte Rampling and Richard Eyre, share your tips

What's the best way to enhance your enjoyment of the arts? We've pumped those in the know for their expertise â€" critics, curators, artists, practitioners and professionals â€" and have amassed a haul of useful advice. So if you've ever been curious about the ideal way to see a show, get stuck in â€" and please share your own tips below.

Which are the best seats in the house?

For opera and theatre, in the thick of it: centre of the stalls halfway towards the back, or as close to the orchestra pit as you can. You want to get a panorama of the stage but not be looking down â€" unless it's dance, when sitting towards the middle of the first circle means you can see the patterns and how the whole thing comes together. Alan Davey, chief executive, Arts Council England

What is the optimum way to appreciate architecture?

Walking is the only way. You want a good mix of weather and a day off. Manchester is a great place for this: it can be sunny, but always rains a little bit, so you're forced inside occasionally. You've got to push yourself, break some rules and go to places you're not allowed. You can't appreciate architecture until you've been told off for going to a room you're not supposed to. Tim Abrahams, associate editor, The concept of the journal

Which works withstand repeated viewings?

A great work is more than a one-liner. Personally, I would plump for anything by Cézanne. His composition, the light, the beauty and intelligence â€" he was an extraordinary artist and always pushing the form. Will Gompertz , BBC arts editor

Is it ever OK to heckle at a live performance?

Not unless you enjoy being humiliated in public â€" always remember that, if you heckle, the comedian is the one with the microphone. And if you don't mind being picked on, sit in the front rows. Shappi Khorsandi, comedian

How much should I trust reviews?

The simple answer is that it depends what they're saying and who's saying it. Evelyn Waugh said that reading reviews is "like sitting in a railway carriage and hearing a fellow traveller pointing out objects of interest and getting them all wrong". Mostly true, but some theatre critics do have a gift for describing a performance and giving an account of how the audience responded.

Others, following editorial policy, record merely whether the show is a hit or a miss. Others still are prescriptive: they write about the play or production or performance they would like to have seen, rather than the one they did. In short, they write about themselves rather than the event. If the overwhelming bulk of reviews are bad, it's foolish not to concede that you have a failure â€" but that's not the same as conceding that you've done bad work. Richard Eyre , theatre director

Is there a theater program, all worth the money?

A good program adds to the pleasure of the evening. It should tell you everything you need to know about the background for the game and a writer. Best price in London: National Theatre Program, which pocket encyclopedias and Royal Court are those where the program is play-text. Michael Billington, Guardian theatre critic

Which venues have the best and worst acoustics?

I don't really care about a venue's acoustics; if I wanted a perfect sonic experience, I'd stay at home and listen through my Grado headphones. Live rock isn't about a perfect sonic experience: if a band's powerful enough, they can overcome anything a venue throws at them.

I always thought Alexandra Palace in London had terrible acoustics until I saw Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds there: they sounded magnificent. Likewise, Brixton Academy has swallowed bands that weren't ready to play a venue that size (such as the Strokes); but REM and Coldplay, bands obviously used to playing bigger places, sounded great there. Alexis Petridis, Guardian rock and pop critic

Should I read the caption to an artwork before looking at it â€" or after?

Do both: before, because you get an understanding of where an artist is coming from; and after, because the work can make a more sense. A lot of conceptual art is about the ideas, so it makes sense to get a framework. Ekow Eshun, outgoing artistic director, ICA

Sometimes captions illuminate, but often they are dull, or try to tell you what to think. Generally, I ignore them. Use your eyes. Adrian Searle, Guardian art critic

Artists use titles to encrypt or deceive as much as to assist the audience in reading their work. It depends on the artist.Ryan Gander, artist

How can I get the perfect movie theater?

Select the movie carefully. And make sure you are sitting in folding seats, which cost a bit more. They 'Re definitely worth it. I go a day: you have a movie for themselves. Charlotte Rampling, Actor

What kind of performance shows a trick?

Halfway through the run â€" when the cast is relaxed, but not bored. Not on press nights and not on Saturday nights, when their heads are too caught up with "important people" watching. Midweek matinees and Monday nights are best; the actors are less worried and enjoy it more. Rory Kinnear, actor

Where can I see the most innovative new work?

Try the Kaai or Kunstenfestival in Brussels, Hebbel Theatre in Berlin, PS 122 in New York, FrascatiAmsterdam, BIT in Bergen. In the UK there 'S National Review of live art in Glasgow or the Nuffield Theatrein Lancaster. Tim Etchells, Forced Entertainment theatre troupe

How can I tell if an actor doesn't know his lines?

Copious sweating, stuttering and uncertainty. It's like being on a plane when the pilots aren't sure what they're doing. It's not always that actors don't know the lines, more a momentary lapse in concentration. Lyn Gardner, Guardian theatre critic

What should I wear to the opera?

Halfway between what you'd wear for the ballet and what you'd wear to a black tie party. If the ballet is a pale cashmere sweater and sparkly skirt, and black tie is a strapless LBD, the opera is perhaps a slinky but not skintight silk dress. You should have something of the night about you, but not in a sleazy way. For men? You can't go wrong with a dark, slim suit. Jess Cartner-Morley, Guardian fashion editor

Do critics ever consider the value for money a show offers?

Number Based on this you would say that five o'clock epic that 's really scary to be more important than Samuel Beckett' Breath Which lasts 30 seconds. Someone may be aware, when considering something in the West End, that people will be asked to pay £ 50 or more, but in general critique Don 't account for it at all. Lyn Gardner

 Is it worth buying tickets for preview performances?

If it's the easiest way of getting tickets, it's well worth it. It's great to see something before reviewers, so you can judge for yourself. Alan Davie

Not the first one. It's going to be shaky and awkward. Roy Williams, Playwright

What's the best way to enjoy an exhibition?

Rain is always useful; it's the perfect weather for introspection. And mid-afternoon, midweek â€" when it's always nice and quiet. Jennifer Higgie, co-editor, Frieze magazine

Is there a way to buy a ticket to a sold-out show?

Yes. Shows sell out months in advance and people change their mind. Be flexible, always call the box office, and go for the returns. In plenty of West End theatres, if you arrive an hour before curtain-up, you can get house seats at a fraction of the normal price. Tania Harrison, arts curator, Latitude festival

Whether to take children to the theater?

Children enjoy the attendant things with theatre: the ice-cream, lights going down, the magic of it. Any good production can make that come alive and it's probably more important to see how their tastes develop. The worst way is to force it, and insist they see Shakespeare, or enjoy Tennessee Williams. Children don't have to buy into the hegemony of what is good. Rory Kinnear

Where can I find the next big thing in pop?

The weekly indie club White Heat in London's Soho has uncovered its fair share of alternative stars: Klaxons, the Horrors and Bloc Party all played there before they had record deals. Krissi Murison, editor, NME

What 'S a better place for culture, filled with holiday?

London, Paris and New York remain amazing places to visit for sheer complexity and intensity. Rio de Janeiro has one of the most dynamic art scenes in the world, as do Mumbai, Dehli, Beijing, Shanghai, Beirut, Cairo and Tel Aviv. Besides the great European capitals, Glasgow, Oslo and Stockholm offer a true polyphony. Hans Ulrich Obrist, Curator, Serpentine Gallery, London

Should I research an artist or play before seeing their show?

Never read the play first if it's new, and always see the work before getting the context. Try to find out what it means to you first before reading up on it. Judith Knight, Director ArtsAdmin

Where can I spot the art stars of tomorrow?

Simple: go to art-school degree shows. Both the BA and MA ones at St Martin's, Wimbledon, Chelsea and Glasgow will be packed with dealers, but you get a good sense of what's happening in art and which trends are emerging. Ekow Eshun

How long should I spend looking at a single painting?

There is no "should" about it. Look for as long as you like. Sometimes a glance is sufficient, an hour not long enough. One might return to works over years, or even decades, and they will continue to offer new insights. The work itself might not change, but you do. Adrian Searle

Some works might seem off-putting or even dull, but with persistence you might find them profoundly satisfying. Go to a museum to learn, not to consume. Jonathan Jones , Guardian art critic

Do any arts venue cafes or restaurants offer decent food?

Theatre and museum restaurants rarely offer good value, but some do have other attractions. The Whistler murals at Tate Britain's dining room are an attraction, and the wines there are famously impressive. Tate Modern's seventh-floor dining room has impressive City views. And the Wallace Collection's restauranthas a fantastic atrium. But it always ends up thinking: if only the food lived up to the surroundings. Richard Harden, co-editor of Harden's London Restaurants

Should I attempt to see an artist's entire oeuvre?

It 's impossible to see everything, but you can often make full use of the artist through an artistic work, or by examining one aspect of this artist. I 've always been a dream to see all of Vermeer. There are only slightly more than 70 papers and an exhibition of all of them will be unusual, a real epiphany. Hans Ulrich Obrist

Which museum has the best gift shop?

The Baltic's gift shop is probably the best shop in Newcastle or Gateshead, let alone the best art or museum store. The Tate and V&A also do it well. The National Gallery offers print-on-demand reproductionsfor every shot in a building on the canvas: plus posters and greeting cards to all popular. Peter Tullin, co-founder of culturelabel.com

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10/18/2010 Life in the Theater: Nicholas Hytner

'I genuinely want to deliver the most communicative version of a play, whatever that is.' The producer and director Nicholas Hytner talks to Andrew Dickson

Richard Eyre 'S diaries of his decades of work report of the National Theatre of the meeting with a man who will one day become his successor. "Lunch with Nick Hytner," Eyre wrote in his entry on April 16, 1987. "He has a face like MIME - Barro Les Enfants du Paradis â€" oval face, arching eyebrows, animated, almost over-Animated. Flights of ideas and gossip, riffs enthusiasm, indignation, and then rest. Covert violence undermined childlike smile. "

Twenty-three years on, Hytner is sitting in front of me in the office once occupied by Eyre. The thumbnail sketch still holds. While that mime-performer's face looks a little tougher, the smile a little older, it is still difficult to believe that he is 54. The brilliant boy of British theatre has somehow become middle-aged. He even has a new knighthood to prove it.

"I suppose I have had a life in theatre now," Hytner admits. The eyebrows arch up, and he manages to look simultaneously amused and stricken. "It's gone on long enough for it to have been a life."

The truth is that Hytner has packed more into the last 25 years than most directors accomplish in a lifetime. A young star at Manchester's Royal Exchange, he was directing at both Covent Garden and English National Opera by his late 20s, and in the years since has overseen both box-office-banking musicals and epic flops. His list of credits is eclectic. He has sometimes tickled Middle England (The Wind in the Willows), elsewhere thrown satirical hand grenades (he brought Jerry Springer: The Opera to the NT). For every major dud (Richard Bean's England People Very Nice, which saw the theatre accused of inciting racism in 2009) there has been a major triumph (Major Barbara, which Hytner overcame his aversion to George Bernard Shaw to direct). He has dusted off rarities, but also managed to make overfamiliar texts seem fresh-minted. Sometimes the contrasts have been visible, as in his new production of Hamlet , which transforms the play into a crisp, chilling study of realpolitik but also illuminates its flecks of humour. The Observer's critic singled out Rory Kinnear's "caustic, exact, gimlet-sharp prince", while the Financial Times found an unselfconscious silliness in the hero's antics. The Evening Standard sensed both Spooks and The West Wing in the earpiece-wearing bodyguards who populate Elsinore. "Everything I like involves the reconciliation of apparent opposites," Hytner smiles. Most impressively of all, he has managed to succeed not simply as a director, but at one of the most difficult jobs in the arts: running the National.

In the last seven years, Hytner has led the NT through its most stable and creative period since it was set up in a row of temporary, tin-roofed sheds near the Old Vic, nearly 50 years ago. Audience numbers are up, a cheap tickets scheme has seemingly changed the theatre's demographic for good, there have been forays into live cinema broadcasts, and he has presided over the broadest and boldest repertoire in a generation.

Hytner seems genuinely abashed at the suggestion he's made it look easy. "Some of the things I've done here were intuitions, a wing and a prayer," he says. "Some of them were purely impresarial, if that is an adjective. I've had tremendous luck."

Listening to Hytner describe his career, you'd think everything was accidental â€" or, at least, happened en route to somewhere else. The eldest child of four, he had a comfortable, apparently unruffled childhood in the prosperous suburbs of south Manchester. His father is a retired barrister; his mother a well-known theatrical fundraiser, serving on the board of the Old Vic. The Hytners were "a typical Jewish, cultured family", their son recalls, remembering traditional Sunday-night trips to the Free Trade Hall â€" with entire phalanxes of Manchester's Jewish community â€" to see the Hallé under Barbirolli. But drama wasn't especially on the radar. "When I started going in the mid-60s, theatre wasn't fantastic in Manchester, though it perked up later. And as a teenager, my brothers were hugely into Old Trafford, which" â€" he places the words delicately â€" "I wasn't."

Hytner was lucky, however, to attend the Manchester Grammar School, which offered a trip to Stratford-upon-Avon and the opportunity to speak. "Sites that seemed the most alive he was backstage, rehearsal room, a school game", he says . "It 's when I felt happy. "

Even so, as a teenager Hytner felt trapped in Manchester ("I just remember it being rather dour"). Liberation arrived in the form of Cambridge â€" Griff Rhys Jones and Rory McGrath were in his year â€" and specifically its drama societies. At first he acted. "I was a show-off," he laughs. "As a student the only acting I did that was acceptable to me was the Footlights kind. But I quickly rumbled that I was not emotionally or psychologically kitted out to be an actor. I could time a joke. What I couldn't do was be one person."

Xerxes in 1985 remains a cornerstone at ENO â€" but, internationally, he is probably best known for piloting Schönberg and Boublil's flamboyant Vietnam musical, Miss Saigon, on to the West End stage in 1989.

Another stroke of luck, he claims now. "It just felt like a huge lark . . . It was gigantic, and I was into gigantic at the time, so I threw everything I knew at it. It was big, honest, moving, brash, kind of crazy. I had no idea that it would take off."

But accept it, of course. Miss Saigon was an overnight success and transferred to New York, where it now ranks as the 10th-longest-running production in Broadway history. As well as earning him lustrous reviews, it meant that Hytner never need worry about money again. He was just 34. He shrugs. "It was a huge . . ." â€" he searches for a big enough word â€" "a massive stroke of fortune. It meant that thereafter I only needed to do what I wanted to do."

But what Hytner wanted to do, ironically enough, was the one thing that stubbornly refused to happen: make a career in the movies. His first film, a 1994 adaptation of Alan Bennett's The Madness of King George, was a hit (Hytner disputes the story that the American studio changed its title from The Madness of George III in order not to confuse audiences wondering about the first two instalments). But the director hit a trough soon afterwards, once telling an interviewer, echoing Hamlet's father, that he was "doomed for a certain term to walk Sunset Boulevard". A cinematic version of Miller's The Crucible struggled at the box office, and he spent a dogged and "unremittingly horrible" 15 months embroiled in a project to get a Hollywood version of the musical Chicago off the ground. (By the time the film eventually appeared, Hytner was long gone.)

"I made a mistake professionally, because I had an apartment in New York, and I spent more time there than here. That was partly because â€" actually mainly because â€" I was in a relationship that was important to me, but also because I thought I could make it in American movies." He looks rueful. "Which I absolutely couldn't. Luckily I called time on that before it became terminal."

He also tried to repeat the trick of Miss Saigon, With mixed results. Carousel, which transferred from the National in 1994, did decently (it won plaudits for being the first mixed-race production to appear on Broadway), but Hytner's next big musical, inauspiciously entitled Sweet smell of success He met with the accident. The New York Times ended the first paragraph of his review, brutally, with "ZZZZZZZZ".

"It was one of those wonderful overnight flops," Hytner says now, the pain of the tale apparently eclipsed by his delight in the telling. "You're at the party, everyone's having a wonderful time, telling you how much they've enjoyed it. Then you look around â€" it happens in a millisecond â€" and everybody's gone. And you think: 'Oh my God, it's a flop.'" He looks briefly cheered. "I'm almost glad, in a way, because it doesn't happen any more. Everyone looks at the Times review on their Blackberry or their iPhone before they come to the party. Or they don't come."

It wasn't the money that drew him to the US, Hytner insists, but the opportunity to reach the widest possible audience â€" an article of faith, not just when it comes to his own work, but one he has preached with missionary zeal at the National. "The reconciliation of the popular with the intellectually ambitious, from the Elizabethans onwards, is what British theatre is all about," he argues. "At our best, we've tried to bring together those two sometimes irreconcilable ambitions â€" theatre as searching and complex as possible, and theatre that brings in as many people as possible. I've had really interesting rows with people who run theatres on the continent, who ask, 'what is subsidy for if you're worrying about the audience?' That's very startling."

There 's something about an old-fashioned showman Hytner: highbrow and lowbrow ISN' is the distinction that he values (he argues that the use of Diana Krall as much as Haydn, and admits secret affection for sophisticated pop). "For me, 1.000 people held that the emotionally complex, ambivalent, inaccessible to simple explanations -. That 'S breathtaking"

It has sometimes been suggested that Hytner's flair for theatrical spectacle â€" and his efficiency at getting a show up and running â€" has not always been matched by his taste. City Limits said of Miss Saigon that it was "packed with circus tricks", and in a savage review of England People Very Nice the Evening Standard's critic tartly remarked that, although Hytner's staging was impressive, he couldn't "understand how a man of his intelligence and sensitivity ever allowed himself to bring [the play] into the National's repertoire". Hytner accepts that he hasn't always made the best choices. "Possibly I've done too much, and not done it very well. But that's because I've been interested in stuff that's new to me."

Yet while admiring the creative imagination of directors such as Katie Mitchell and Richard Jones, he is impatient with the idea that a director should hone a single way of doing things, still less aspire to mystical auteurship. "I have a constantly changing, perhaps ambivalent relationship with my own work," he insists. "I've never felt myself to be so fascinating as a director that I could spend a life in the theatre only in the pursuit of my own ideas." He goes on: "I'm not the kind of director that submits the play to . . . " â€" he searches for an appropriately barbed term â€" "a prefabricated idea of what theatre should be, or even a sense of my own personal style. I genuinely want to deliver the most communicative version of a play, whatever that is."

Though Hytner's feelings about his back catalogue may be ambiguous (he claims he no longer has the nerve to direct opera), it may be his reluctance to be pinned down that has enabled him to triumph at running a theatre, where more single-minded directors fail. And few theatres compare to the National, with 570 permanent staff, a £64m turnover, three auditoriums and assorted other spaces waiting to be filled. Eyre's and Peter Hall's diaries often bleed with frustration at the logistical nightmares, the board meetings, the backstage bickering, the front-of-house politics (on one particularly doleful occasion, Hall daydreams about the theatre burning down with him inside). But, the way Hytner describes it, running the NT sounds like a blessing. Though he admits he shoulders less admin than his predecessors â€" executive director Nick Starr, who joined in 2002, handles day-to-day management â€" he has clearly found the collegiate aspects of the job satisfying. "It's the first building I've run, and it was exactly the right time in my life. I've been liberated by the repertoire, talking to other directors, constant conversation with writers."

What I 'M wondering how it affected him personally. Eyre admitted later to depression hall 'S diaries alternately rambunctiousness and despair, turning over the idea of suicide, and culminating in the breakup of his second marriage. Their successor, Trevor Nunn, left the National Communications isolated and deeply unhappy.

Hytner, characteristically, approaches the subject via work. We talk about plays that have meant most to him; he mentions The History Boys and a recent version of Much ado about nothing with Simon Russell Beale and Zoë Wanamaker. Easy to see how a play about a northern grammar school has resonance, I say, but why that Shakespeare in particular? "I only ever wanted to do it with a couple my age," he says, then halts as if he's revealed too much. "But it wasn't just the love affair between Beatrice and Benedick. Funnily enough, what I got really involved with was making a warm Sicilian household whose first instinct is to throw a party." He looks away, towards the corner of his office. "That is not the life I've lead, though it's a life I've often wanted to."

Hytner is reluctant to talk about his private life: "I don't talk about it for a simple reason, which is if you can say it in a sentence, say it. Mine takes a paragraph." Despite being openly gay â€" he figures highly in the Independent's annual pink power list â€" he has clearly striven to keep the public and private portions of his biography separate.

Is he happy? He pauses again. "I don't think of myself as the finished article, and I'm sad about that â€" but then I don't know. I know a lot of people in their early 50s who are settled and happy, and I know people who would be very happy about the different roads I could still travel down." He mentions that relationship in New York, which he says is the one that has meant the most. "We spend a lot of time with each other, but neither of us think it's a solution to life. But it has probably been ideal for me." How so? "It leaves an awful lot of time for work."

The work will assuredly continue: Hamletjust opened, there are plans to make King Lear with Russell Beale, plus a welter of other projects at the National. Hytner's current contract runs until 2013; he says he wants to be around for the NT's 50th birthday that October, but is keen for his fingertips not to be prised away from the desk. He might set up a new company, perhaps experiment with other kinds of producing. "It's something I've started thinking about, but not much," he says. "I have no wild ambitions to go back to the movies or anything like that. That was not happy." His voice drops, then recovers. "But it all adds up to happy."

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10/19/2010 Defence budget slashed by 8% as PM wields cuts axe

• Defence spending to fall by 8% in real terms
• No reduction of troops in Afghanistan
• 25,000 civilian jobs cut in MO
• Nimrod reconnaissance planes cancelled
• Assistance in fragile and unstable countries has doubled
• Army to lose 7,000 soldiers by 2015
• Marine forces to descend on 5000 2015
• Future of the Territorial Army to be reviewed
• Harrier fleet to be abandoned

4.33pm:Julian Brazier, Conservative, who will serve on the review of the Territorial Army, said that the five MPs among the 27,000 reservists who served in Afghanistan.

4.31pm: Cameron says the Brize Norton RAF base is within his constituency. It will not be particularly affected by the cuts, he says.

4.29pm: Jeremy Corbyn, Labour, suggests renewing Trident is against the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

Cameron says that Corbyn is wrong. Renewal is within the spirit and the letter of the treaty, he says.

He also notes that the number of warheads cut.

4.26pm: Cameron says no army regiments will be abolished as a result of the review.

4:23 pm: Julian Lewis, Conservative, asks why he is not holding the vital vote on Trident in this parliament. He suggests that Cameron is delaying the vote as a concession to the Lib Dems.

Cameron says that the military advice is that the "main gate" decision on Trident doesn't have to be taken until 2016.

He also said that it is not as pessimistic as Lewis. He thinks that there will be a lot of pro-Trident of Deputies (ie the Tories) in the House of Commons after the 2015 elections.

4:20 pm: Here's the strategic defence and security review document. It's 75 pages long.

4:18 pm: James Arbuthnot, the Tory chairman of the defence committee, says the government is taking "a real gamble in the short term" with the decisions being taken today.

Nick Brown, Labour, says the UK 's only a tank factory is based in Newcastle. What are the implications for the plant?

Cameron says the statement as a whole is "extremely positive" for Britain's industrial base.

Some of the tanks is being saved, "he says. These tanks should be serviced.

4:14 pm: Angus Robertson, the SNP MP, says the decisions today will lead to a 25% reduction in the number of servicemen and women based in Scotland.

Cameron says he is not announcing base closures today. There are more service personnel coming back from Germany than there are losing their jobs, he says. They will need to be based somewhere, he says.

4.12pm: Mike Gapes (Labour) says the national security strategy is "not worth the paper it is written on" because it says Britain's influence should not be diminished.

Cameron says Gapes should consider what the government gets out of its defence budget, not what it puts in.

Sir Malcolm Rifkind, a Tory former defence secretary and former foreign secretary, says all MPs should welcome the fact that the government can save £700m from delaying Trident.

4.09pm: Cameron says the British will co-operate more on defence with the French. But anyone who thinks that this is a "cloak for a European army" is wrong. It will be the opposite, he says.

4.07pm: Bob Ainsworth, the Labour former defence secretary, says that, in delaying the Trident decision, Cameron is doing something he criticised Labour for â€" postponing an important decision.

Cameron said that his decision will not threaten the principle of continuous deterrent at sea.

4.07pm: Sir Peter Tapsell says many people will be concerned by the decision to delay the Trident decision until after 2015. After an election, the Lib Dems may try to veto it, he says. The decision looks like political expediency, he says.

Cameron says he is a strong supporter of replacing Trident.

4.06pm: Cameron is still replying to Miliband. He says there was no order for 24 Chinook helicopters, because there was no money to fund it under Labour.

On the subject of the Harriers, Cameron says he had to keep either Harriers or Tornadoes. The Harrier is a "brilliant" aircraft. But the Tornado is better.

Cameron says he has to take tough decisions now.

On Trident, Cameron says he held a value-for-money review on Trident to find out what money he could save.

This is a responsible decision, well-made.

It accuses Mr Miliband of "escapes" on Trident decision he initially supported.

4.02pm:a statement full text of Cameron "is currently on the site of Downing Street .

4.00pm: Cameron is replying to Miliband now. He points out that Miliband did not attend the TUC anti-cuts rally today, Despite the fact that he will.

Cameron said Mr Miliband had to begin with the word "sorry".

Cameron denies taking short-term decisions. In fact, he has taken long-term decisions, he says.

3.58pm: Ed Miliband (left) is speaking now. He starts with a tribute to the members of the armed forces. They are "the best of Britain".

Miliband thanks Cameron for advance notice of Cameron's statement. "In today's papers, in yesterday's papers ... " (Liam Byrne used the same joke last week.)

Labour will be "constructive" on the subject of defence, Miliband says.

The cuts represent a significant reduction in defence spending. But what matters is what the money does.

Miliband quotes from the leaked letter from Liam Fox to Cameron. Fox said the defence review was being rushed. Miliband says the 1998 defence review took more than a year. Wouldn't it have been better to take longer, he asks.

Miliband asks for further reassurances about Afghanistan. Can he say that no decision taken today will undermine the position of troops in Afghanistan?

Today's document says 12 new Chinook helicopters are being ordered. But originally 22 were meant to be ordered, Miliband says.

Miliband asks for an assurance that nothing announced tomorrow about the Home Office budget will undermine the fight against terrorism.

And he asks about the decision to choose to have "aircraft carriers without aircraft".

Miliband says the document out today says there will be a one third reduction in the number of troops that can be deployed.

He asks Cameron to comment on the decision to shelve the St Athan training base. Cameron gave a personal assurance that this would go ahead, Miliband says.

Miliband also asks why Cameron announced some decisions relating to Trident despite saying it was not part of the defence review.

He accuses Cameron of creating an "unfunded spending requirement". This prompts laughter from the government benches.

This is "a spending review dressed up as a defence review", Miliband says. It is "simply not credible".

Labour will support the government where it can. But it will also provide "principled opposition", he says.

3:50 pm: Cameron says Britain will remain vigilant against "all possible threats". It will retain the capability to replace tanks and artillery being scrapped.

• Britain to have carrier strike capability in the future.

The last government got things "badly wrong", Cameron says. The carriers ordered could not work with the French and the Americans. The planes and the ships did not arrive at the same time. And the contract said that it would cost more to cancel a carrier than to build it. The British people should be angry about this, he says.

Both carriers will be built. But one will be kept in "extended readiness".

Aircraft and carriers come into operation at the same time.

• Nuclear deterrent to be retained.

• Vanguard class submarines to be extended.

• The number of missile silos on new submarines to be reduced from 12 to eight. Number of warheads per submarine to be reduced from 48 to 40. Stockpile of warheads to be reduced from less than 160 to less than 120.

Delaying the Trident replacement will save £1.8bn, Cameron says. Another £2bn of spending will be deferred.

3.45pm: The intelligence agencies will get priority, Cameron says.

After 2015, there should be year-on-year growth in the defence budget, he says.

The MoD needs to become more "commercially hard-headed", he goes on.

Cameron says the government inherited a "mess" from Labour.

• Army to lose 7,000 soldiers by 2015. At that point it will have 95,500 troops.

• Tanks are being reduced by 40%.

• The future of the Territorial Army to be reviewed. The Tory MP Julian Brazier, a reservist, to serve on the review.

• Naval manpower to go down by 5,000 by 2015. This will leave 30,000 personnel.

• The number of frigates and destroyers to go down from 23 to 19.

• RAF manpower to go down by 5,000 by 2015. That will leave 33,000 airmen and women.

• The Harrier fleet to be abandoned.

3.44pm: Cameron says the Ministry of Defence will get real growth next year. But the MoD will have to make various cuts.

• 25,000 civilian jobs in the MoD to go by 2015.

Cameron says the cost of Nimrod aircraft has increased by over 200%. And it is eight years later.

• Cameron confirms Nimrod programme being cancelled.

• Aid to fragile and unstable countries to be doubled. By 2015 a third of department for international development's budget to be spent on conflict prevention.

Cameron confirms that there will be more investment in cyber security.

3.37pm: Here are some of the key points the prime minister makes:

• Defence spending will fall by 8% in real terms, Cameron says. But it will remain above the Nato target of 2% of GDP.

Even after the review, Britain will have the fourth largest military budget in the world.

Britain 'S national interest requires it "full and active participation in world affairs". Britain 'traditionally punched above its weight in world affairs, "and the government wants to continue to do so.

• There will be no cuts whatsoever in support for troops in Afghanistan.

Cameron said that he always took Defense Council chiefs, when they told him to cut may affect operations in Afghanistan. In fact, the troops in Afghanistan will receive the best equipment.

Cameron says the defence review has been led from the top.

• The defence review is to be repeated every five years, Cameron says.

3:33 pm: Cameron says the defence review is not simply a cost-cutting exercise. But national security does depend on the nation's economic health.

3:33 pm: In the Commons, David Cameron has started explaining the defence review now.

3.31pm: Only a few minutes to go until David Cameron speaks. Some details seem to be coming out on Twitter.

From Sky:

Sky Sources: No British Army in Germany in 2020 # sdsr

From Sky:

17,000 cut in the number of defence personnel will be announced by Cameron at 1530, say Sky sources #sdsr

From the BBC:

Hearing PM will outline compulsory redundancies in frontline troops + soldiers may have to do longer tours in Afghanistan

From the BBC:

Hearing also 300 million quid to go from MOD service and personnel allowances

3.28pm: Here's an afternoon reading list:

• Robert Peston on his blog says there should be a formal investigation into the decision to buy the two aircraft carriers.

The leaders of our armed forces â€" or at least those outside the navy â€" concede that they don't really need or want these two 65,000-tonne floating monsters, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, the joint cost of which was estimated at £3.9bn as recently as July 2008 and is now well over £5bn. If they end up costing less than £3bn each, it will be little short of a miracle â€" see my note Aircraft carriers' costs soar £1bn for more on this devastating inflation.

But, as you'll doubtless know from the agonised leaks about all of this, the contracts for the carriers were apparently written in such a way that it would have been more expensive to cancel them than to press ahead.

So the military is behaving a bit like a five-year old which originally asked for a bike for its birthday, but on the big day has decided that a Wii would be better. It is putting a brave face on the whole disaster, but can't really hide its disappointment.

• Gary Gibbon in his blog says there is real anger amongst Tory MPs about the spending review. "A joke," one said. "Imagine what we'd say if Gordon Brown announced this," barked another.

• Alastair Campbell on his blog says the strategic defence reviews shows how biased the media is towards the government.

If the Labour government has ever come up with a strategic review of defense in the center of which was the idea of aircraft carriers without aircraft to fly with them, we would never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never hear the end.

• Dave Hill at the Guardian on how Ken Livingstone has broken Labour's rules by backing the non-Labour candidate in the contest to be mayor of Tower Hamlets.

2.19pm: Paul Waugh has also been taking a look at Danny Alexander's spending review document. (See 2.11pm.) He says on his blogthat it includes a line about the government reducing the impact on employment through the promotion of "voluntary offer to staff on pay restraint or reduced hours to save jobs.

2.11pm: David Cameron is not the only member of the cabinet who has allowed his papers to be photographed today. (See 12.37pm.) Danny Alexander, the chief secretary to the Treasury, has been pictured in a car with a copy of the comprehensive spending review on his lap (you can see the picture above). According to Benedict Brogan on his blog, it suggests that the public sector will lose 500,000 jobs.

2.08pm:Nine Nimrod reconnaissance aircraft currently being repealed, reports the BBC. He said that the decision would lead to the closure of RAF Kinross in Scotland.

1.41pm:There are some interesting figures in the last election YouGov.
YouGov has posted two polls. One just relates to the defence cuts; the other relates to the whole spending review.

• The defence cuts seem to have popular support. YouGov told people about some of the decisions expected in the defence review and asked them if they supported the cuts. Some 40% said they did; 38% said they didn't.

• 47% of people think the overall spending cuts are being imposed unfairly. Only 36% think they are being done fairly.

• But 60% of people think the cut are unavoidable. Only 25% think they are avoidable.

• 48% of people think the last Labour government is "most to blame" for the cuts. Only 18% think the government is most to blame.

• 55% of people believe that the government is to reduce costs, mainly because he must. Only 31% think it is cutting spending mainly because it wants to.

• First-past-the-post now has an eight point lead when people are asked how they will vote in the referendum on whether or not to replace it with the alternative vote.

1.23pm:Sir Hugh Orde, the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said the fund for home this morning that he will be elected police commissioners concerned about having too much control over the employees on the streets.

If it is the will of this government to put chief officers into a position where someone elected, on a pretty wide piece of territory, can say to the chief, 'You will double,' for example, 'the number of officers on the street tomorrow, chief constable,' I see huge issues with that. Because unless they want to then take the responsibility away from chief constables for removing officers, by definition, from something else, be it the child protection unit, be it the rape unit, be it the major crime unit, the anti-terrorism unit - the things that are currently right at the top of this government's agenda around security - I think that puts chiefs in an impossible position.

But Orde also said that 99.9% of such issues could be resolved through "sensible conversations" between the commissioners and chief constables.

This may appear quite strong, but actually it sounds as if Orde is coming round to the idea of elected police commissioner. A year ago he was much more critical of the idea. In a speech to an ACPO conference he said:

If people seriously think some form of elected individual is better placed to oversee policing then the current structure, then I am very interested in the detail of how that is going to work â€" and happy to have that debate. Every professional bone in my body tells me it is a bad idea that could drive a coach and horses through the current model of accountability and add nothing but confusion.

1.16pm:The former commander of HMS Ark Royal, said that the decision to get rid of the jet Harriet turn in the UK 'laughing stock ". Rear Admiral Terry Loughran, who was at the helm of Ark Royal from 1993 to 1994, currently listed in the history of the Press Association. Here's what he said:

The Harriers were the logical link to the joint strike fighters and I have heard Dr Liam Fox say that we have done without them before, but flying from sea is a very perishable skill. If we get rid of the Harriers, where in fact will the next batch of fixed wing pilots go for the next 10 years? One will lose a huge wealth of skill as they drift off elsewhere ...
The nation has its aircraft carriers but it is actually incoherent to get rid of the Harriers in advance of replacing the aircraft. It is not the Navy that will be viewed as a laughing stock, it is the nation that will be viewed as a laughing stock to have built such a capability which reflects the [government's defence] policy and then not to provide the aircraft to go on them.

12.37pm: Here's a lunchtime summary.

• David Cameron has said that Britain will remain a "front rank military power" despite the cuts that he will set out in a statement to the Commons this afternoon. The prime minister has been photographed holding a note that suggests that the defence budget has been cut by 6% - less than expected - although this has been contested by official sources. It has already emerged that Britain will be left without a carrier strike capability for 10 years as a result of the strategic defence and security review. At one point Britain will have a carrier, but without jets able to land on it. Ministers have blamed Labour for signing contracts that made it impractical to cancel the orders for two new carriers. But Jim Murphy, Labour's defence spokesman, defended the decision to order the ships. "Governments of all political persuasions grapple with how to get procurement right, because you have twenty or thirty years lead-in time," he said.

• Liam Fox, the defence secretary, has shelved plans for a £14bn military training academy at St Athan in South Wales. He said Metrix, the consortium behind the project, could not deliver "an affordable, commercially-robust proposal within the prescribed period". (See 11.26am and 12.17pm.)

• Sir Menzies Campbell has welcomed the decision to delay the Trident replacement as a victory for the Liberal Democrats within the coalition. "Extending the life of the existing Trident fleet will not only save money in the short term; it will allow the opportunity to keep nuclear policy under review, to explore the possibilities of co-operation with the French, and even to consider other alternatives to like for like replacement of Trident," the former Lib Dem leader said. (See 11.10am.)

• Shelter, the housing charity, has criticised the government in response to reports that the social housing budget will be cut by more than 50%. "The rumours of what we can expect in tomorrow's spending review suggest the coalition government is severing the link between the state and one of our most basic requirements," Campbell Robb, Shelter's chief executive, said. "The above average cuts to housing mean it has firmly turned its back on those most impacted by our affordable housing crisis." (See 9.09am.)

• Union leaders have condemned the government 'S planned cuts. "At worst the cuts will plunge us back into recession, and at best they will condemn us to lost years of high unemployment and growth so weak that the deficit may well stay high," Brendan Barber, the TUC general secretary, told a rally at Westminster.

12.33pm: Dave Prentis, the Unison general secretary, told the anti-cuts rally at Westminster today that the government would face further protests if did not respond to public concern about the spending review.

If the government doesn't listen to us today, they won't have heard the last of us. If George Osborne's cuts go through â€" cuts that could mean a death sentence for our services and our communities â€" then we will be back. For every one of us in this room today, we will bring a hundred more. We'll march in our thousands and we'll vote in our millions.

There are more details here.

12:25 pm: The Press Association has got more from David Cameron's visit to the permanent joint headquarters at Northwood. The Harrier pilot Kris Ward wasn't the only person to give the prime minister a hard time.

Another staff member also questioned Cameron on the use of aircraft carriers in accordance with the terms of the review.

\\ "If we are punching above our weight is why we spend billions on aircraft carriers just so that American and French planes can take off and not Britain fighters?" He said.

Mr Cameron insisted "they will have UK fighters on them" - to the response of "not for 10 years sir" from the member of staff.

The Prime Minister continued: "The right decision for the long term is to have the carrier, to have the right sort of joint strike fighter inter-operable with the French and the Americans so you have that strike capability for the future," Mr Cameron said.

He said he accepted that left a gap for a number of years where there was not "carrier strike capability" but there was still the capability of projecting air power, he said.

12.17pm: The Ministry of Defence has now put up the news release about the shelving of the £14bn St Athan project (see 11.26am) on its website. Here's the key statement from Liam Fox, the defence secretary.

The Metrix Consortium was appointed as preferred bidder in January 2007 subject to it developing an affordable and value for money contract proposal.

Given the significance of this project and the opportunity to provide a world-class training facility, the Ministry of Defence has worked tirelessly to deliver this project.

However, it is now clear that Metrix cannot deliver an affordable, commercially-robust proposal within the prescribed period and it has therefore been necessary to terminate the DTR procurement and Metrix's appointment as preferred bidder.

11.57am: David Cameron has said that Britain will remain "an absolutely front rank military power with full capability in all the services". He made the comment this morning as he addressed staff at the operations headquarters for the armed forces. As the Press Association reports, he faced at least one difficult question.

One Harrier jet pilot, Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander Kris Ward, 37, said: "I am a Harrier pilot and I have flown 140 odd missions in Afghanistan, and I am now potentially facing unemployment. How am I supposed to feel about that, please, sir?"

Mr Cameron thanked Lt Cdr Ward for "everything" he had done for his country.
\\ "We have to make decisions for the future and there were long discussions about this in the National Security Council", he said.

"I have listened to all the military advice, and the military advice is pretty clear that when we have to make difficult decisions, it is right to keep the Typhoon as our principal ground attack aircraft, working in Afghanistan at the moment, and it is right to retire the Harrier."

11.26am: The Ministry of Defence has shelved plans for a £14bn military training academy at St Athan in South Wales, the BBC is reporting.

I did get the figure right. It was due to cost £14bn. I'll post more details when I get them.

11.10am: Sir Menzies Campbell, the former Lib Dem leader, has put out a statement saying that the decision to delay the Trident replacement marks a win for his party.

If these press reports are true then it is clear that Liberal Democrat views have prevailed. Extending the life of the existing Trident fleet will not only save money in the short term; it will allow the opportunity to keep nuclear policy under review, to explore the possibilities of co-operation with the French, and even to consider other alternatives to like for like replacement of Trident. Liberal Democrats would be well satisfied with this outcome.

10.35am:You can find all of today 'S Guardian politics stories here . And all the politics stories filed yesterday, including some in today's paper, are here.

As for the rest of the papers, here's my pick of some of the most interesting stories and articles.

• The Times in its editorial (paywall) says the defence review is a "humiliating reflection of failures of financial control and military planning".

It is an inglorious outcome. The UK's failures of planning are displayed in the etoilated state of the Forces. David Cameron's decision is inevitable but not admirable. It represents a humiliating compromise when no option was left to him but humiliating compromise. The SDSR is launched today amid serious concerns about the MoD's ability to manage a budget, let alone a future military campaign.

• James Blitz in the Financial Times(Subscribe) said that some senior military leaders are dissatisfied with the decision to go ahead with the purchase of two aircraft carriers.

"We should never have bought them in the first place," said a senior military figure. "We've got better ways of spending our money. We could have had more frigates, more money for cyber, more for special forces. It's £5bn of lost opportunity. But what's done is done. We have to hope now that somehow we can make this work."

• Holly Watt and Robert Winnett in the Daily Telegraph say that more than 90,000 people live in council homes they have "inherited" from family members. The subsidy on the rent they pay is worth more than £300m. (For more on this, see 9.09am.)

• Robert Winnett in the Daily Telegraph says the House of Commons has been unable to produce its annual accounts because "auditors are concerned about 'missing documentation' to justify MPs' expenses claims".

• The Times (paywall) says winter fuel payments will be cut by up to £100 because the government will not continue to pay the one-off top-up payments that have been paid alongside the basic payments.

Universal payments for those over 80 will fall from £400 to £300, and those for pensioners aged over 60 will fall from £250 to £200 in 2011-12, despite David Cameron's pledge to protect them.

For the past two years all pensioner households have been given one-off payments â€" £50 for over-60s or £100 for over-80s â€" on top of the annual winter fuel allowance paid in December, but the supplements have never been built into the annual payment.

George Osborne has said that he would continue it for a third year this Christmas but it has not been counted into figures for future years and did not appear in the June emergency budget.

10.11am: Since we're having a defence day, did you know that Tony Blair seriously considered giving up the nuclear deterrent? In his autobiography he says that although most people would assume that it was inevitable that he was going to decide to renew the nuclear deterrent, he actually hesitated about it.

The expense is huge, and the utility in a post-cold war world is less in terms of deterrence, and non-existent in terms of military use. Spend the money on more helicopters, airlift and anti-terror equipment? Not a daft notion. In the situations in which British forces would likely to be called upon to fight, it was pretty clear what mattered most. It is true that it is frankly inconceivable we would use our nuclear deterrent alone, with the US.

Blair says Gordon Brown was "similarly torn". Giving up the nuclear deterrent "would not have been stupid", Blair says. But in the end he decided to renew it. "It's a big step to put that beyond your capability as a country," he explains.

9.40am: In the Commons last night MPs voted against a proposal to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote in next year's referendum on changing the electoral system. The proposal came from Labour MP Natascha Engel, who said that 16-year-olds should be consulted because they would be voting in the 2015 election. But it was rejected by 346 votes to 196, a majority of 150

9.09am:Budget of social housing in England will be cut by more than 50%, BBC reported this morning . Council house tenancies lasting for life will also be phased out, it says.

Simon Hughes, the Lib Dem deputy leader, won't be happy. "We will not let anybody have their homes taken away,\\ "He said, when David Cameron first floated the idea during the summer.

9.02am: Liam Fox isn't giving the statement in the Commons this afternoon, but he has been doing a round of interviews this morning. The Press Association and PolitcsHome (paywall) have been following them. Here are the highlights.

• He said it was not unprecedented for Britain to have aircraft carriers without jets to fly from them. He said that this happened for a period in the 1970s and that there had been a "very limited" ability to fly fast jets from carriers in Afghanistan between 2004 and 2009.

• He said Britain would still be able to project force internationally even if it has to go without a carrier strike capability for a decade.

The concept of carrier strike is only one of the ways in which we have air power projection. We have Tornado, we have Typhoon and the military view at the moment is that because we don't have at the present time any problems with basing or overflights, then Britain is able to project air power in that way.

• He said Britain needed to be "inter-operable" with its Nato allies. One reason why the Royal Navy will not be able to fly jets from its carriers for 10 years is because the new Prince of Wales carrier is being adapted to ensure that American and French planes can land on it.

The design of the carriers we have wouldn't let some of the French or American planes and jets land anyway. If you are thinking strategically you have to think long term over next 40 years and have to comply with our allies and invest for the future and not just the short term ...

If you are going to have an effective Nato in years ahead we need to be working with our allies. We need to be more inter-operable with Nato allies. We want to interact and be inter-operable with the American forces.

• He said delaying the Trident replacement would not damage the nuclear deterrent. "I do not think that any actions we take in no way affects the effectiveness of our nuclear deterrent, nor our ability to have a continuous deterrent at sea", he said.

8.34am: Winston Churchill didn't appoint a defence secretary during the second world war. He did the job himself. David Cameron hasn't quite adopted that approach himself, but - in a sign that Liam Fox is in the doghouse - he has decided that he is going to make the statement in the House of Commons about the publication of the strategic defence and security review. As my colleague Nicholas Watt reports in the Guardian today, many details of the review have emerged already, and it is not getting a good press. The front page headline on the Times says: HMS Ignominious - £5bn carrier fiasco (paywall). We'll find out more when Cameron speaks at 3.30pm. Ed Miliband will be replying for Labour, and that should be interesting too. I'm not sure I've ever heard him on the subject of defence.

The defence story will dominate the news today, but there are a few other things worth keeping an eye on too.

10.30am: Jonathan Djanogly, the justice minister, gives evidence to a Commons committee about court closures.

11 am: Sir Hugh Orde, the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, and others to testify at the committee of the Interior about the government 'S plan for elected police commissioners. (Ord hates the idea in the past, he threatened to resign if it becomes law .)

12:30 pm: Unions to join the TUC campaign against the cuts in Westminster Hall. (Ed Miliband will definitely not there .)

As usual, I'll be covering all the breaking news, as well as taking a look at the papers and bringing you the best politics from the web.

Have a Good NEWS