The Daily Telegraph from London, Greater London, England • 7

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH SATURDAY, JULY 15, 2000 7 NEWS Lord Rogers goes cold on cool Britannia peer Richard Rogers: 'spin is a problem' Cancan dancers celebrate we've got educaand health going look at the enviWell, I say you maximise on any of you do all of together." he agree with Sir Naipaul that there is a culture'! in the "It's deeply society," he says. there's a misunderabout making popular. Just because are queuing up outdoesn't mean it's: a event. a slight feeling long it is made availeverybody, that's But you can't judge by he be thinking of the Dome? There who argue that his flying saucer has with low-brow tat. were not responsible contents," he says, his eyebrows with a smile.

"I like some I have to be carepauses. "Tate Modvery interesting a greater about a vision. not a particular the Dome." would he have put in "We could have done with more aspiration. It really had to be the best at whatever level it was going to. be and some of it is very good but I don't think it aspires.

It doesn't On Millennium Eve, he travelled to Greenwich by boat with the Queen. "It was a pretty tacky affair. The whole thing England at its worst and it hasn't ever recovered." The Government has been criticised for using the Dome to look to the future rather than celebrate the past. Lord Rogers thinks that was right. He has difficulty remembering past events because his mind is so focused on the future.

Culture is by definition a "very cutting edge thing. You're not going into the past but into the future and there's not much point trying to look backwards. I've never suffered from the shock the But this prophet has not always been recognised in his own land. When he applied for planning permission on his Chelsea house soon after designing the Pompidou Centre in Paris, a council official with a sense of humour replied with a request that the plumbing stayed on the inside. Is the public ready for so ruch modernity? "'Yes, I think they are.

The British he have changed "I remember enormously," says. my neighbour really thought spaghetti grew on trees. We're no longer an island. "But it is difficult because it's not been tested. We know about Beefeaters but building wobbly bridges is more adventurous.

The Millennium Bridge designed by Sir Norman Foster, his rival, is, says Lord Rogers, "fantastic" despite the "teething "You have to be daring. You have to try to fly even if your wings aren't fully stretched out." Richard Rogers did not grow up with modernity. Fasten your moneybelts Where to go, Find a lower price for how to get there, the same seat online what to do when and we'll beat you're there. worldtraveldirect.com om The fastest way to view and book available flights on the web. No web access? Call 0800 001 500 anytime.

to availability. Economy seats only. Terms and conditions apply. ABTA F2383 6 STEPHEN HIRD and DAN STEVENS Rachel Sylvester meets the Dome architect given the task of organising Blair's vision of urban renaissance the has Labour. ICHARD spirit always of Rogers shared New Stylish, modern and youthful, he lives in the future and not the past.

He prefers "culture" to Warhol to Turner, chianti to bitter and the city to the country. The architect designed the Millennium Dome, Tony Blair's statement of national identity, and was charged by the Government with masterminding an urban renaissance. The Prime Minister adores his wife Ruthie's smart Italian restaurant, the River Cafe, and holidays in his birthplace, Tuscany. Lord Rogers (a New Labour peer) appears to be the essence of Blairism. But he is beginning to wonder whether he is.

The Government is ignoring his urban task force report and has ruined his Dome. Now he has agreed to work with Ken Livingstone, Downing Street's rouge, on improving London's architecture. Has the embodiment of cool Britannia gone cold on Mr Blair? We arranged inside the peers' entramedo the House of Lords. A group of Tory hereditaries charges past in pinstripe, suits. Then a slightly figure, with a thin green tie and crinkly eyes shuffles up.

Mr Blair put this awardwinning architect Lords: But Lord Rogers does not feel under an obligation to be slavishly loyal. He confesses that he voted for "Red Ken" in the recent mayoral elections and is in final negotiations about joining. Mr Livingstone's team for two days a week. "Ken's impressive," he says. "He was passionate; his burning ambition of life was to be mayor.

He didn't want to be an MP or a Cabinet minister. He wanted to be mayor. That's catching, and there's some advantage for the mayor to be independent." Soft-spoken, with a genial manner, the Labour peer is not Mr Angry but he is disappointed. His party handled the mayoral elections "pretty thinks. "Londoners didn't like being told what to do.

The British have always liked the outsider. It doesn't matter if 6 Millennium Eve was a pretty tacky affair; it was England at its worst? they're Left, Right or middie. They like individuality. They're anti the system and that's come through at the moment. Labour is the Establishment now." Does he think the London vote represents a broader backlash against the "control freaks' at Labour's Millbank headquarters? "Spin become a problem," says.

"People don't like to see themselves being spun. "This is one of things I would like to think we don't have to learn from the Americans. We like our politicians to be at face value. I think Tony is but there is an atmosphere which has built up, a slightly proud atmosphere. That has to be dealt with." There is also a problem with delivering policies that were presented with much hype when Labour swept to power.

"There is clearly a need for us to get our vision across. "I do think the Labour Party is doing pretty well but the public are shrewd and they want the cake. It's a question of explaining they can't have their cake too soon because it takes a long time, but also some of the cake should have come a bit earlier." The report of Lord Rogers's urban task force, which took a year to produce, is a case in point. He is bewildered that so few of the recommendations have been implemented. 'There's a problem with priorities," he says.

"They say 'Oh, Richard Rogers. All he wants to do is put a bit of lipstick on the gorilla, tie up the bricks and mortar with a pink ribbon'. But actually it's about social exclusion. "The Government would the vast sums people get. If you want to spend more on education and it has to be put on tax, then I think it should." Did such an egalitarian have any about accepting his peerage? had more difficulty about the knighthood.

At least there are things you can do in the House of Lords. "It's the strangest institution in the world and it does need remodelling. I dislike the whole hereditary thing." He has clashed with the Prince of Wales over architecture in the past and, ideally, he would like to see the Royal Family scrapped. "I'm a republican. I would like to have somebody as head of state who reflects the 21st century," says.

Prince and I have had our arguments about architecture but the problem is that you can't debate with him. I remember the BBC trying to set up a discussion. Approaches were made to Buckingham Palace and the message came back: the Prince does not debate. That tells me Perhaps he could work with Mo Mowlam to design a new home for the Queen? He chuckles, clearly pleased with the idea. "There are many more burning he says, "like the difference between rich and poor." Labour say, when tion going then we'll ronment.

can't them Does Vidia "plebeian Government? rooted in "I think standing things people side, it cultural "There's that, as able to enough. everything Could Millennium are those beautified "We for the raising knowing of them. ful." He ern is a statement confidence, There's vision in What it instead? Bastille Day at the Dome yesterday with its French boss, brought up on that, so it the social, political and artisvery, very tough." It was tic." This is the same reason, when he became an he says, that he joined the architect that he felt a pur- Labour Party. There is more in life. to architecture than "earning knew what I wanted to a His business is orgaIt was the combination of nised so that the highest paid Pierre Yves Gerbeau Born 66 ago in Flor- School was a disaster.

"I was been ence, his family's home over- dyslexic which had was looked the Uffizi and the heard of and so they thought only Palazzo Vecchio. His father, I was lazy. The system of a doctor, and his mother, a dealing with lazy schoolboys pose potter, fled the fascists to days was that you "I England when he was six. got beaten regularly. I hadn't do.

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