Browse content similar to 07/09/2011. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Leading economists say Britain's highest earners need a tax cut, and | :00:02. | :00:06. | |
soon. They call on the Chancellor to | :00:06. | :00:09. | |
scrap the 50p top rate, saying it's damaging the economy and punishing | :00:09. | :00:19. | |
:00:19. | :00:22. | ||
entrepreneurs. It is punishing those who have spent the last 15, | :00:22. | :00:24. | |
20 or 30 years working themselves to the bone to get to where they | :00:24. | :00:28. | |
are to the point where they have the privilege of paying a 50p tax | :00:28. | :00:33. | |
rate. People in the real world looking at this will say people on | :00:33. | :00:36. | |
�150,000 should pay more tax. Liberal Democrats saying that | :00:36. | :00:39. | |
cutting the tax would be immoral, we will ask where the coalition | :00:39. | :00:40. | |
stands. Also tonight: | :00:40. | :00:42. | |
Details are emerging of the government's proposed reforms to | :00:42. | :00:46. | |
banking. We will have the latest. Fears of a power vacuum in the new | :00:46. | :00:55. | |
Libya - we have a special report. It takes years, even generations, | :00:55. | :01:00. | |
to recover from a civil war and dictatorship, and Libya has had | :01:00. | :01:04. | |
both. People tend to remember which side their neighbours took in the | :01:04. | :01:06. | |
fight. Shafilea Ahmed was the victim of a | :01:06. | :01:09. | |
suspected on a killing. Now her parents are charged with the murder. | :01:09. | :01:13. | |
And jail for the woman who drove more than 20 miles up the M5 in the | :01:13. | :01:23. | |
:01:23. | :01:25. | ||
And I will be here with Sportsday on the BBC News Channel as there is | :01:25. | :01:29. | |
more rain had the US Open and players accused the organisers of | :01:29. | :01:39. | |
:01:39. | :01:46. | ||
making them play in dangerous Good evening. The 50p tax rate for | :01:46. | :01:52. | |
Britain's highest earners should be scrapped. That is the view of 20 | :01:52. | :01:55. | |
leading economists, and they have made the point in an open letter to | :01:55. | :01:58. | |
the Chancellor. They say it's doing lasting damage to the economy and | :01:58. | :02:02. | |
discouraging wealth creation. But any cut to the rate could set the | :02:02. | :02:06. | |
coalition at odds. While Downing Street say it's a temporary measure, | :02:06. | :02:09. | |
the Liberal Democrats say reducing the burden on the richest 1% would | :02:09. | :02:19. | |
:02:19. | :02:22. | ||
be immoral. The 50 pence top tax rate, how long | :02:22. | :02:26. | |
should the Chancellor keep it? That is a big question, and it is | :02:26. | :02:30. | |
generating strong opinions on both sides of the argument. Today a | :02:30. | :02:34. | |
group of economists, in a letter to the Financial Times, said it was | :02:34. | :02:38. | |
doing lasting damage and was self- defeating. They want it scrapped. | :02:38. | :02:43. | |
think the 50p rate is frankly an own goal for Britain. It says, we | :02:43. | :02:47. | |
are not really interested in attracting or keeping talented, | :02:47. | :02:51. | |
hard-working people in this country. We do not mind if they go abroad. | :02:51. | :02:54. | |
Arm and those heading home in the City of London this evening, there | :02:54. | :02:58. | |
was plenty of opposition to the current top rate. The people pay | :02:58. | :03:01. | |
the 50 pence rate are paying it because they have lost their nuts | :03:01. | :03:04. | |
to get there. I am not sure they should be punished for their | :03:04. | :03:08. | |
endeavours over the last 20 years. The rich are going to be taxed | :03:08. | :03:12. | |
higher, they will take their money elsewhere. So how does the top tax | :03:12. | :03:17. | |
rate work? Until 20th April 10, on anything earned above �44,000 in | :03:17. | :03:23. | |
back tax year, you paid 40p in the town, however high your earnings. | :03:23. | :03:28. | |
From April 2010, that still applied up to �150,000, but on every penny | :03:28. | :03:33. | |
earned above that, you paid 50p in tax. The policy was brought in by | :03:33. | :03:37. | |
Labour and has been continued under the coalition. Around 320,000 | :03:37. | :03:41. | |
people are affected, the richest 1% of all adults. The Liberal | :03:42. | :03:45. | |
Democrats want to hold on to the top rate. One senior member said | :03:45. | :03:50. | |
scrapping it would be immoral, a view echoed by Labour. Of course as | :03:50. | :03:55. | |
a politician and an economist, I would always rather see taxes lower | :03:55. | :03:59. | |
rather than higher. But at this time, the economy has flatlined and | :03:59. | :04:02. | |
unemployment is up. Everybody is feeling the squeeze. Do you really | :04:02. | :04:06. | |
think the right way to get the economy to moving is only to cut | :04:06. | :04:11. | |
taxes for the richest? Sir how much money does the 50p tax been in? The | :04:11. | :04:14. | |
Treasury says there is a review under way and the policy is | :04:14. | :04:18. | |
temporary. Experts say it is not yet possible to assess whether it | :04:18. | :04:23. | |
is good or bad for the UK. When the government introduced the 50p rate, | :04:23. | :04:26. | |
it did not know how much money it would raise or what damage it would | :04:26. | :04:30. | |
Duce the economy. That is not a great way of making policy. They | :04:30. | :04:35. | |
took a chance, and we have yet to see what the effect will be. Where | :04:35. | :04:38. | |
there or not the Chancellor cuts the top rate of tax, he will | :04:38. | :04:41. | |
continue looking for policies aimed at boosting growth. Others may be | :04:41. | :04:46. | |
doing the same. For example, the Bank of England is facing calls to | :04:46. | :04:49. | |
relaunch the policy known as quantitative easing. That is | :04:49. | :04:53. | |
creating new money to pump into the economy. It seems certain that is | :04:53. | :04:57. | |
on the agenda at the bank's latest monthly meeting, which ends | :04:58. | :05:01. | |
tomorrow. For policymakers including George Osborne, these are | :05:01. | :05:06. | |
uncertain times. He wants to help business and get growth moving, but | :05:06. | :05:08. | |
on this tax battleground, that is proving difficult. | :05:08. | :05:16. | |
Our political editor Nick Robinson is in Downing Street for us tonight. | :05:16. | :05:20. | |
What will the government gaining reducing this tax or scrapping it, | :05:20. | :05:24. | |
and will they do it? Let me let you into a secret. There is no secret | :05:24. | :05:29. | |
Tory political strategy that says that during an age of austerity, | :05:29. | :05:32. | |
when public sector workers have their pay frozen and their pensions | :05:32. | :05:36. | |
cut and everybody is feeling the squeeze, the way to make yourself | :05:36. | :05:39. | |
popular is to cut taxes for the rich. So why on earth are they | :05:39. | :05:43. | |
thinking about it at all? The reason is this. You might think | :05:43. | :05:46. | |
that in the buildings behind me, their biggest anxiety this summer | :05:46. | :05:50. | |
has been about the riots or the fate of Colonel Gaddafi or Libya, | :05:50. | :05:55. | |
not true. They are most worried about where on earth the economic | :05:55. | :05:59. | |
growth will come from. They argue that they cannot spend money to | :05:59. | :06:04. | |
create it. They cannot cut taxes per se as a way of creating | :06:04. | :06:08. | |
economic growth. So where do they find that growth? It is then that | :06:08. | :06:14. | |
economists have said to them, the problem with that top rate of tax | :06:14. | :06:17. | |
is that it is a sign over Britain say, we do not want entrepreneurs | :06:17. | :06:21. | |
here. They should either leave or not bother coming. That is why it | :06:21. | :06:26. | |
is being discussed. The politics is more complex than it seems. The | :06:26. | :06:30. | |
former Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling, who put taxes up to 50p, | :06:30. | :06:33. | |
argued that it should only be temporary. The Liberal Democrat | :06:33. | :06:38. | |
Party dropped its policy of having 50 P. So the argument will come | :06:38. | :06:43. | |
about the timing of changing 50p, when it should be done and what | :06:44. | :06:46. | |
should be done to compensate other people. I believe the Liberal | :06:46. | :06:50. | |
Democrats will use their position in the coalition not to say you | :06:50. | :06:54. | |
cannot do it, but to say you can only help the rich if you help | :06:54. | :07:00. | |
poorer taxpayers first, and you do it soon. | :07:00. | :07:02. | |
Tonight, some details are also emerging of how the Government | :07:02. | :07:04. | |
intends to reform bank regulation. The Independent Commission on | :07:04. | :07:07. | |
Banking is expected to recommend that a law to separate retail | :07:07. | :07:09. | |
activities from riskier operations should be passed almost immediately, | :07:09. | :07:13. | |
but delaying implementation for some years. Our Business Editor | :07:13. | :07:23. | |
:07:23. | :07:24. | ||
Robert is here with the details. What does this mean? Up the Banking | :07:24. | :07:27. | |
Commission wants to separate investment banking from retail | :07:27. | :07:31. | |
banking, the banking which looks after our money and makes loans to | :07:31. | :07:34. | |
households and businesses. And it wants to do other reforms it so | :07:34. | :07:38. | |
that the next time a big bank gets into difficulties, we as taxpayers | :07:38. | :07:42. | |
do not have to bail it out to the tune of millions of pounds. If you | :07:42. | :07:46. | |
go back to the autumn of 2008, we bear that banks to the tune of | :07:46. | :07:50. | |
hundreds of billions of pounds. So it wants to put in place reforms to | :07:50. | :07:55. | |
prevent that happening again, but it recognises that separating these | :07:55. | :07:58. | |
activities is ferociously complicated. That is why it is | :07:58. | :08:03. | |
saying, give them years to do it. But to end uncertainty about the | :08:03. | :08:10. | |
new stretch of banks, it says to legislate immediately. The CBI and | :08:10. | :08:13. | |
the banks themselves, they fear that these reforms will make it | :08:14. | :08:19. | |
harder for them to lend. The Prime Minister seems to share some of | :08:19. | :08:24. | |
those anxieties. We just heard Nick talking about the fears of the | :08:24. | :08:28. | |
Government about the threat to growth. Plainly, they do not want | :08:28. | :08:33. | |
this reform to undermine growth. So you have this uncertainty being | :08:33. | :08:36. | |
created about whether the Government will back the reforms | :08:36. | :08:42. | |
being proposed by experts it itself has appointed. The Chancellor has | :08:42. | :08:46. | |
said he does in theory support this ring-fencing. It is the separation | :08:46. | :08:50. | |
of investment banking and retail banking. The point at issue is | :08:50. | :08:53. | |
whether or not this should be legislated for immediately. There | :08:53. | :08:57. | |
is the prospect of a division between the government and the | :08:57. | :08:59. | |
experts it appointed to make the bank's safe. | :08:59. | :09:02. | |
In Libya, as the hunt for Colonel Gaddafi continues, there are fears | :09:02. | :09:05. | |
that a power vacuum is developing in the capital, Tripoli. With the | :09:06. | :09:08. | |
opposition leadership still based in Benghazi, the need for | :09:08. | :09:13. | |
government and the rule of law is being felt more keenly every day. | :09:13. | :09:16. | |
Our Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen has been inside one of Tripoli's | :09:16. | :09:26. | |
:09:26. | :09:26. | ||
largest prisons, and found hundreds locked up without trial. | :09:26. | :09:33. | |
In the old Libya, where the prisoners' sky was just a patch of | :09:33. | :09:36. | |
light, arrest was arbitrary and sentences could be indefinite or | :09:36. | :09:43. | |
cut short by an execution. Fear still is not far away in the new | :09:43. | :09:48. | |
Libya's prisons. We were asked not to show the prisoners' faces. I'm | :09:48. | :09:55. | |
afraid because they say and a killer. As God is my witness, I am | :09:55. | :10:01. | |
not. He is accused of killing two hostages and burying their bodies. | :10:01. | :10:05. | |
His problem is that no legal process has started to establish | :10:05. | :10:12. | |
his guilt or innocence. Around 700 men are warehoused in this | :10:12. | :10:16. | |
improvised prison in a suburb of Tripoli. It smells of sweat and | :10:16. | :10:23. | |
fear. Many of them fought in a unit run by the Colonel's son, feared | :10:23. | :10:28. | |
for its ruthless and deadly disregard for the laws of war. A | :10:28. | :10:32. | |
lot of them told me they joined in the regime's last month, for the | :10:32. | :10:39. | |
money. And there are Nigerian prisoners, suspected mercenaries, | :10:39. | :10:43. | |
according to their jailers. They say you had guns. No, I don't have | :10:43. | :10:49. | |
guns. Her they said the people captured were carrying guns. No one | :10:49. | :10:52. | |
here has a lawyer. No one has been charged with any crime. No | :10:53. | :10:57. | |
policeman is investigating what they did or did not do. Libyan | :10:57. | :10:59. | |
human rights lawyers who are trawling the remains of the old | :11:00. | :11:04. | |
police state to seize and preserve its records accept that it is early | :11:04. | :11:07. | |
days, but they believe more should have been done already to uphold | :11:07. | :11:14. | |
the rule of law. It is a very important, very essential. It is a | :11:14. | :11:22. | |
basic human right. If the new Libya fails to deliver this, all the | :11:22. | :11:27. | |
sacrifices will be in vain. fighters still rule the streets. | :11:27. | :11:31. | |
They are good at winning wars, not building a piece. Libya's would be | :11:31. | :11:35. | |
civilian leaders were supposed to be in charge by now, but they are | :11:35. | :11:40. | |
still in Benghazi, and there are whispers of tensions between the | :11:40. | :11:45. | |
fighters' Islamist commanders and the politicians. It takes years, | :11:45. | :11:49. | |
even generations, to recover from a civil war and a dictatorship, and | :11:49. | :11:53. | |
Libya has had both. People tend to remember which side their | :11:53. | :11:57. | |
neighbours took in the fight. But the way they deal with the legacy | :11:57. | :12:02. | |
of the Gaddafi years is important because it will determine what kind | :12:02. | :12:06. | |
of country this will be. 43 people have died after a Russian | :12:06. | :12:11. | |
airliner crashed into a river bank shortly after take-off. The plane | :12:11. | :12:15. | |
came down about 160 miles north- east of Moscow. Among those on | :12:15. | :12:18. | |
board were members of one of Russia's leading ice hockey teams, | :12:18. | :12:23. | |
who were on their way to a match. A florist who stabbed a man to | :12:23. | :12:26. | |
death during an attempted robbery at his shop in July has been told | :12:26. | :12:29. | |
he will not face criminal charges. The Crown Prosecution Service said | :12:29. | :12:32. | |
Cecil Coaley, who is 72, had acted in "reasonable self-defence" when | :12:32. | :12:34. | |
he killed 30-year-old Gary Mullings in old Trafford in Greater | :12:35. | :12:42. | |
Manchester. The parents of a 17-year-old girl | :12:42. | :12:45. | |
who was the victim of a suspected honour killing have appeared in | :12:45. | :12:49. | |
court charged with her murder. Shafilea Ahmed's body was found on | :12:49. | :12:51. | |
a riverbank in Cumbria in January 2004, four months after she | :12:51. | :12:56. | |
disappeared from her home in Warrington. Iftikhar and Farzana | :12:57. | :12:59. | |
Ahmed, who were arrested for a second time last year, have always | :13:00. | :13:04. | |
denied any involvement in their daughter's death. This report | :13:04. | :13:14. | |
:13:14. | :13:18. | ||
Shafilea Ahmed was just 17 when she died, the victim of a suspected | :13:18. | :13:21. | |
honour cunning. Today friends and family arrived in court to see her | :13:21. | :13:26. | |
parents accused of murder, a charge their solicitor said they were | :13:26. | :13:31. | |
denied. They have been charged with allegations of murder in relation | :13:31. | :13:35. | |
to their daughter. They both deny all allegations, and the | :13:35. | :13:40. | |
allegations will be contested in court. This story begins here in | :13:40. | :13:45. | |
2004 at the River Kent in Cumbria, where Shafilea Ahmed's body was | :13:45. | :13:50. | |
found and when police launched their murder investigation. | :13:50. | :13:54. | |
Detectives have already arrested Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed on | :13:54. | :13:57. | |
suspicion of kidnap. At the time, their solicitor said they were both | :13:57. | :14:03. | |
innocent. They strenuously deny any direct or indirect involvement in | :14:03. | :14:10. | |
their daughter's untimely demise. But ever since, when she went | :14:10. | :14:15. | |
missing from her home in Warrington, police have believed she was the | :14:15. | :14:18. | |
victim of a suspected honour killing. She drank bleach on a | :14:18. | :14:24. | |
holiday to Pakistan, and friends said she was increasingly unhappy. | :14:24. | :14:29. | |
Detectives, though, never charged their parents. In 2004, they were | :14:29. | :14:33. | |
released from bail, left angry about what they had gone through. | :14:33. | :14:39. | |
After nine months of hell, what you expect? Sorry, we're too upset to | :14:39. | :14:43. | |
talk more today. Now, seven years after this interview, they were | :14:43. | :14:49. | |
charged with murder. Tonight they have been remanded in custody. Once | :14:49. | :14:59. | |
again, both face accusations that Coming up on tonight's programme: | :14:59. | :15:03. | |
The court in Germany that held future eurozone bailouts in its | :15:03. | :15:13. | |
:15:13. | :15:13. | ||
It is nearly 10 years to the days since the shocking images of the | :15:13. | :15:16. | |
9/11 terror attacks were beamed around the world. In Britain, the | :15:16. | :15:20. | |
decade that followed has seen the London Underground atrocities and a | :15:20. | :15:25. | |
huge shake-up of counter-terrorist policing, intelligence and | :15:25. | :15:27. | |
community relations. Security correspondent Frank Gardner has | :15:27. | :15:37. | |
:15:37. | :15:39. | ||
been looking at whether we are any Oh, my God! What is happening?! | :15:39. | :15:46. | |
day they said the world changed. On 9/11, Al-Qaeda hit America, then | :15:46. | :15:55. | |
later Bali, Madrid and other In July 2005, it was London's turn. | :15:55. | :16:00. | |
52 commuters blown up on their way to work. So what sort of terrorist | :16:00. | :16:04. | |
threat does Britain face today? The Government has said the current | :16:04. | :16:08. | |
threat level is substantial, only the third highest out of five, but | :16:08. | :16:12. | |
it means an attack is still thought a strong possibility. The threats | :16:12. | :16:18. | |
range from Al-Qaeda-inspired jihadists to dissident Irish | :16:18. | :16:20. | |
republicans to loan a far-right extremists, like the man who | :16:20. | :16:25. | |
attacked Oslo this summer. The early Post-9/11 rhetoric about a | :16:25. | :16:29. | |
war on terror has given way to a more pragmatic approach. Terrorism | :16:29. | :16:36. | |
is being treated for what it is, a crime. I am proud that some 240 | :16:36. | :16:41. | |
individuals have been subject to proper legal process and convicted | :16:41. | :16:45. | |
of terrorist-related offences since 9/11. That is the way to deal with | :16:46. | :16:50. | |
terrorist crime. So how effective as the response to terrorism | :16:50. | :16:56. | |
beanie? That most of these is airport and physical security. -- | :16:56. | :17:01. | |
apps most of this. When these crash barriers went up outside Parliament, | :17:01. | :17:05. | |
a lot of people were shocked, but we have got used to them, they are | :17:05. | :17:08. | |
part of the world we live in. There is no clear answer as to whether we | :17:08. | :17:12. | |
are safer now in Britain from terrorism than we were 10 years ago. | :17:12. | :17:17. | |
We know more about the threat we are facing, but those threats have | :17:17. | :17:24. | |
The mass hostage-taking and murder in Mumbai three years ago has led | :17:24. | :17:29. | |
to joint police-SAS training and a major boost in police firepower. | :17:29. | :17:35. | |
But counter-terrorism is also about foreign policy. The tallest | :17:35. | :17:40. | |
building is up there! Britain's part in the Iraqi invasion have to | :17:40. | :17:44. | |
recruit countless young men took Al-Qaeda's cause, increasing the | :17:44. | :17:47. | |
danger to Britain. Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles has watched anti- | :17:47. | :17:52. | |
Western resentment fester and grow. We have got to be tough on | :17:52. | :17:56. | |
terrorism, tough on the causes. You have to have serious counter | :17:56. | :17:59. | |
radicalisation programmes, but you need to look at the wider foreign | :17:59. | :18:05. | |
policy issues. Why are young Muslim men and women so angry? In London's | :18:06. | :18:10. | |
East End, this man hears their answers every day as he tries to | :18:10. | :18:14. | |
stop them being radicalised. They speak of Afghanistan, Iraq, | :18:14. | :18:19. | |
Palestine, Kashmir as long running grievances. To say that young | :18:19. | :18:24. | |
people would not want to express their anger against the West for | :18:24. | :18:27. | |
its interests by launching terrorist attacks would be very | :18:27. | :18:32. | |
naive. I think we have still got a problem. Soon Britain will face its | :18:32. | :18:36. | |
biggest peacetime security challenge, and they are taking no | :18:36. | :18:40. | |
chances. Planning for the London Olympics is being made on the basis | :18:40. | :18:48. | |
that an attempted terrorist attack A 35-year-old man arrested by | :18:48. | :18:51. | |
officers investigating phone- hacking is thought to be the sports | :18:51. | :18:55. | |
journalist Raoul Simons. He was appointed Deputy Football editor of | :18:55. | :19:00. | |
the times in 2009 after moving from the London Evening Standard. He is | :19:00. | :19:05. | |
the 15th person to be investigated over the scandal. | :19:05. | :19:08. | |
Germany's highest court has rejected a challenge to the country | :19:08. | :19:13. | |
bailing out the struggling members of the eurozone. The constitutional | :19:13. | :19:16. | |
Court upheld Germany's participation in the recent rescue | :19:16. | :19:19. | |
packages, but it ruled that any future bailouts would have to give | :19:19. | :19:24. | |
the German parliament a bigger role. As Europe editor Gavin Hewitt | :19:24. | :19:27. | |
reports from Berlin, the bailouts are becoming increasingly unpopular | :19:27. | :19:32. | |
with Germans. These German judges had made | :19:32. | :19:36. | |
European officials nervous. A lawsuit by six Germans had asked | :19:37. | :19:41. | |
the constitutional court to declare the eurozone bailouts illegal. But | :19:41. | :19:51. | |
:19:51. | :19:51. | ||
The complaints are rejected. In a landmark judgment, the court ruled | :19:51. | :19:55. | |
that the bailouts could continue, but they insisted the German | :19:55. | :19:58. | |
parliament had to expressly approve further rescues, and that could | :19:58. | :20:03. | |
prevent Germany responding swiftly to future crises. The battleground | :20:03. | :20:08. | |
is now a German public opinion. That is the view of those who lost | :20:08. | :20:14. | |
the court case. There is a growing uneasiness among the German people. | :20:14. | :20:18. | |
The acceptance of the euro is not an -- now at an all-time low, with | :20:18. | :20:24. | |
the effect that the acceptance of Europe and the EU is at an all-time | :20:24. | :20:29. | |
low as well. And recent polls to suggest more than 60% of Germans | :20:29. | :20:34. | |
now oppose further bailouts. Germany cannot always pay for | :20:34. | :20:39. | |
everything and everyone. If it is just a bottomless pit, I would not | :20:39. | :20:43. | |
be prepared to pay. The German parliament today began debating | :20:43. | :20:48. | |
whether to support new powers for the eurozone bail-out fund. German | :20:48. | :20:52. | |
Chancellor Angela Merkel said she had been vindicated by the court's | :20:52. | :21:02. | |
:21:02. | :21:02. | ||
decision and defended the single TRANSLATION: The euro is the | :21:02. | :21:07. | |
guarantee of a united Europe. If the euro fails, then Europe fails. | :21:07. | :21:11. | |
But moving through parliament's corridors, it is easy to find MPs | :21:11. | :21:14. | |
of our opponents of further bailouts, even within Angela | :21:14. | :21:22. | |
Merkel's own party. TRANSLATION: I cannot agree to further bailouts, | :21:22. | :21:26. | |
because we will face huge burdens at gigantic risks for our future | :21:26. | :21:29. | |
generations. The expectation here is that Germany will have to make | :21:29. | :21:33. | |
further loans in the future, but the eurozone is heading towards | :21:33. | :21:38. | |
much closer economic integration, and that is sparking anxiety as to | :21:38. | :21:48. | |
:21:48. | :21:48. | ||
what that will mean for of India's prime minister, Manmohan | :21:48. | :21:51. | |
Singh, has condemned a bombing outside the High Court in New Delhi | :21:51. | :21:55. | |
as a cowardly act of terrorism. At least 10 people died and more than | :21:55. | :21:59. | |
60 were wounded when a device inside a briefcase went off near a | :21:59. | :22:02. | |
security gate. The Scottish government wants to | :22:02. | :22:06. | |
merge the country's eight police forces into one. The measure is | :22:06. | :22:10. | |
among 50 new bells announced by First Minister Alex Salmond as part | :22:10. | :22:14. | |
of its first programme for government since the SNP's | :22:14. | :22:23. | |
landslide election victory in May. It is four months since Alex | :22:23. | :22:26. | |
Salmond celebrated re-election. Today he renewed calls for | :22:26. | :22:31. | |
Westminster to give Holyrood more economic cloud. The first objective | :22:31. | :22:36. | |
in the constitution is to deliver much-needed job-creating powers of | :22:36. | :22:40. | |
this Parliament. The voters put their trust in us and understand | :22:40. | :22:44. | |
the SNP believe in independence. But it does not seem to be in any | :22:44. | :22:50. | |
rush, so what are the early priorities? Police reform is at the | :22:50. | :22:54. | |
centre of his law-making plans for the year ahead. Scotland's eight | :22:54. | :22:59. | |
forces are to merge into one, the largest in the UK outside London. | :22:59. | :23:04. | |
It is supposed to cut costs. Instead of officer numbers for pay | :23:04. | :23:08. | |
and conditions, changes that are coming in England and Wales. | :23:08. | :23:13. | |
Through restructuring in Scotland and hopefully removing a lot of the | :23:13. | :23:16. | |
inefficiencies, then hopefully we can preserve the terms and | :23:16. | :23:21. | |
conditions of police officers and staff. Another key measure is on | :23:21. | :23:24. | |
alcohol misuse. Ministers hope setting a minimum price per unit | :23:24. | :23:31. | |
for sales will reduce consumption, a proposal voted down at Holyrood | :23:31. | :23:33. | |
before the SNP won its unprecedented mandate. Alex Salmond | :23:33. | :23:38. | |
could get almost anything through the Scottish Parliament because, | :23:38. | :23:42. | |
unlike any previous First Minister, his party won an overall majority | :23:42. | :23:47. | |
of seats here at Holyrood. But he has chosen not to use that | :23:47. | :23:52. | |
unrivalled power to bring forward an early referendum on independence | :23:52. | :23:58. | |
for Scotland. He has a majority in this Parliament. He has a draft | :23:58. | :24:02. | |
bill, or so he said. He has no credible excuse for not bringing | :24:02. | :24:06. | |
that Bill forward. Politics professor John Curtice thinks the | :24:06. | :24:11. | |
reasons are obvious. His playing a long game for two reasons. The | :24:11. | :24:15. | |
first is that the opinion poll evidence shows he would not win a | :24:15. | :24:19. | |
referendum if it were held tomorrow. England-Scotland are not convinced | :24:19. | :24:23. | |
of the case for independence. -- people in Scotland. He is leaving | :24:24. | :24:28. | |
the door open for a referendum about increasing the powers of the | :24:28. | :24:32. | |
Scottish parliament, staying within the Union. The SNP says it will pop | :24:32. | :24:37. | |
the independence question towards the end of its five-year term. | :24:37. | :24:42. | |
A woman has been jailed for nine months for driving the wrong way at | :24:42. | :24:46. | |
the M5 in Somerset while twice over the drink-drive limit and uninsured. | :24:46. | :24:50. | |
Deborah Hunt was on the wrong carriageway of the motorway for 23 | :24:50. | :24:54. | |
miles. Police have described her driving as outrageously perilous. | :24:54. | :25:00. | |
Jon Kay reports. It was on this dark stretch of the | :25:00. | :25:04. | |
M5 that Deborah Hunt is said to have spread terror. Other drivers | :25:04. | :25:09. | |
suddenly saw her head like speeding towards them. Cameras caught her | :25:09. | :25:15. | |
Peugeot on the wrong side of the motorway at 60 mph. Vehicles | :25:15. | :25:21. | |
swerved out of her way as she carried on for 20 miles, mainly in | :25:21. | :25:26. | |
the so-called fast lane. Today, the mother of three came to be | :25:26. | :25:29. | |
sentenced. After pleading guilty to dangerous driving, being drunk at | :25:29. | :25:35. | |
the wheel and having no insurance. What you say to the people on the | :25:35. | :25:39. | |
motorway that night? Inside, she was jailed for nine | :25:39. | :25:43. | |
months. The judge said it was unbelievable that Deborah Hunt had | :25:44. | :25:48. | |
driven at speed head on into motorway traffic here and there | :25:48. | :25:54. | |
have not been a massive loss of life. She had even performed two U- | :25:54. | :25:58. | |
turns on the carriageway. This was an outrageous act, an offence which | :25:58. | :26:02. | |
is very serious and could have ended up in death or serious injury | :26:02. | :26:07. | |
to anyone travelling on a very busy stretch of motorway. The court | :26:07. | :26:11. | |
heard that she only stopped 20 minutes later when she eventually | :26:11. | :26:16. | |
ran out of fuel. Officers said the 43-year-old was so drunk she could | :26:16. | :26:20. | |
not explain why she had ended up there. Her lawyer said she had been | :26:20. | :26:24. | |
drinking heavily after losing her job as a financial adviser and | :26:24. | :26:29. | |
splitting up from her partner. As well as jailing her, the judge | :26:29. | :26:33. |