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About this episode

Number stations, more conditionally exempt art, Santa goes to the Dome and Mark reveals what the series 2 backdrops are all about. * CEWA o Conditionally Exempt Works of Art List o If you inherit a work of art you can put it on a list and avoid paying inheritance tax o You have to in return, look after it, keep it in this country and allow the public access to it o All of us have the right to see 18,000 works of art o Evelyn De Rotschild hs a Gainsborough painting on the list, we asked to go and see it o He said no as his house is open for 2 months of the year o Being publicly minded, Mark phoned the inland revenue o They said he couldn't do that o He agreed that they could see the Gainsborough at his bank o One person has permission, but 19 others turn up in fancy dress and queue up outside o They wouldn't let them in o Sir Evelyn had another 349 Art objets on the list o 20 of them wrote in and asked to see other stuff o Found out that Sir Nicholas Soames had a rather lovely "three-tier mahogany buffet with partially-reeded slender ballister upright supports" on the list o 200 people applied to see it o Agrees that people can view it at Christie's Auction House store in Vauxhall o Mark and a few friends turn up dressed as works of art o Mark and his mate Tony went as half a cow each a la Damien Hurst o They don't let cameras in, but Mark gets his Etch-a-sketch in and Tony does a proper sketch o They agree to let the others in to see it o Sir Evelyn De Rothschild still hadn't let them see anything after 2 months (the limit defined by the CEWA scheme) o Being publicly minded, Mark phoned up the Inland Revenue o They said they couldn't help as Sir Evelyn had removed all 350 of his works of art from the list o They wouldn't reveal if he had paid the tax but said there were three possible reasons for someone removing their works from the list + 1. The work may have been vandalised, stolen or destroyed + 2. The owner may have died. + 3. They have paid the tax o Apparently paid between £400,000 and £1,000,000 in tax o We're just a bunch of snotty-nosed obstinate letter-writers, we can do what the fuck we want. o Mark decided to make the viewing of Nicholas Soames' buffet an annual event o Go back to Christie's on 28th February 1998 o Yellow jackets with "Access all Aristos" on them o Soames has paid the tax on the buffet, about £8,000 o But he has other items on the list which we can ask to see o About 200 people turn out this time o One lad has a T-shirt reading "Three Tiers, One Buffet, Pure Mahogany" o Sir Jacob De Rothschild has 700 works of art on the list * Number Stations o SW radio stations that broadcast numbers which are use by government agencies and spies to send messages. o You're not allowed to listen to them, even if you tune in by accident you are breaking the law. o Security forces don't acknowledge they exist o Marks show backdrop which has a message from a number station printed on it o Also an encryption algorithm printed on the other backdrop o In the USA they have prescribed this as a munition o One bloke has had it tattooed on his body, technically every time he leaves the country he's an arms dealer. * Millennium Dome o The companies involved in the dome must think it's Christmas every day as even if they go over budget the government will bail them out o Even if it stays on track at £750 million it's a waste of money. o Mark dresses up as Santa and visits some of the companies o Has a sack of wish list cards gets people to pick one out and read it to camera o Each one starts "What I would like for Christmas is..." o followed by a useful use of £750 million o followed by "...rather than spend £750 million on the millennium dome" o British Airways have pledged £6 million towards the dome + Tony Cocklin - Fund Oxfam for 10 years o M&C SAATCHI - won the £16 million advertising contract for the dome + Camilla Graham - PA to Maurice Saatchi - To delay students having to pay for tuition fees for five years o The millennium experience - responsible for he contents and daily running of the dome + Don't want to play ball o The millennium commission - distribute lottery money in the UK to celebrate the New Millennium + Jo McCarthy - PA to the Director of the Millennium Commission - 3,7500,000 land mines to be cleared o Richard Rogers Partnership - designed the dome and received £800,000 in fees so far + Julia Moran - PR officer - for one and a half million pensioners to have their homes insulated o English Partnerships - Urban regeneration agency for the dome site + Ms Murch - Site manager - is to provide food, first aid, clothing and accommodation for the homeless for 12 years * What the show's about o You don't have to take this shit, direct action o Reclaim the streets squatted a motorway, big sounds o big stilt-walkers with bell dresses. Underneath the dresses there are people with pneumatic drills digging up the tarmac and planting trees o Disabled action network people chaining themselves to buses * Ballooning over the dome o Mark gets a hot air balloon shaped like a white elephant o Takes Christina with him who lies at the Girls Alone Project hostel in Camden o Chat's about the funding and her situation as they float gently over one white elephant in another. o She says that the money wasted on the dome could be better spent on something for the future * Press conference o Mark attends the Millennium Experience Press Conference on 24th February 1998 o Mark asks that given it would take approximately 1 minute from leaving the building to find someone that is homeless, presumably they are going to be welcomed into the dome. What are they going to find that links them to Michael Heseltine, Bob Ayling and Peter Mandelson and what common cause are the striking miners, BA and Magnet workers going to find with them? o They can't answer the question. o Mark gets interviewed afterwards. Accused of hijacking the conference to advertise his show. It's a bit late as this is the last show of the series.

• Release Date

  Jan 31, 2010

• Runtime

  23:09