Browse content similar to 05/07/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Tonight at 10:00pm: an investigation into the banking | :00:11. | :00:13. | |
scandal is finally agreed. The inquiry will be handled by | :00:13. | :00:21. | |
Parliament after a heated debate among MPs. Which Labour ministers | :00:21. | :00:27. | |
were involved? Answer that question. Where is the evidence? He should | :00:27. | :00:31. | |
put up or shut up. We'll be asking if the cross-party inquiry can | :00:31. | :00:33. | |
overcome the deep political divisions. Also tonight: | :00:33. | :00:36. | |
Five infantry battalions abolished in the biggest Army reform for | :00:36. | :00:46. | |
:00:46. | :00:46. | ||
decades. We have come to some difficult decisions but they are | :00:46. | :00:49. | |
fair decisions, based on clear criteria. | :00:49. | :00:52. | |
In London, six people arrested as part of an investigation into a | :00:52. | :00:54. | |
suspected terrorist plot. 40 years after the killings of | :00:54. | :00:58. | |
Bloody Sunday, police will open a murder investigation. | :00:58. | :01:01. | |
And after the wrong calls, goal- line technology is coming to | :01:01. | :01:11. | |
:01:11. | :01:13. | ||
And coming up in Sportsday on the BBC News Channel, it is Serena | :01:13. | :01:18. | |
Williams at the double at Wimbledon. First another singles final and | :01:18. | :01:28. | |
:01:28. | :01:35. | ||
then the semi-finals in the doubles Good evening. The banking scandal | :01:35. | :01:38. | |
will be investigated by a parliamentary committee, not by a | :01:38. | :01:42. | |
judge. And any resulting changes in the law will be passed before the | :01:42. | :01:50. | |
next election. That's the outcome of a heated debate among MPs today. | :01:50. | :01:53. | |
Labour has agreed to take part, despite reservations about the | :01:53. | :01:56. | |
scope of the inquiry and deep animosity between the front benches, | :01:56. | :02:01. | |
as our political editor, Nick Robinson reports. | :02:01. | :02:07. | |
It was a debate few will forget. It was meant to be about the banks, a | :02:07. | :02:10. | |
debate in which the Chancellor and his shadow descended into a bitter | :02:10. | :02:16. | |
personal row. He has impugned my integrity. And what I am saying to | :02:16. | :02:21. | |
him is, if he has any integrity on this narrow point of his allegation, | :02:21. | :02:28. | |
he should stand up now, withdraw the allegation and apologise. | :02:28. | :02:36. | |
idea that I am going to take lessons in integrity from a man who | :02:36. | :02:41. | |
smeared his way through 13 years of Labour government is another thing. | :02:41. | :02:46. | |
There was personal venom, partisan fury, raw political calculation. At | :02:46. | :02:51. | |
issue, George Osborne's decision to point the finger at Labour in an | :02:51. | :02:56. | |
interview over who was to blame for the Libor scandal. He claimed | :02:56. | :03:06. | |
:03:06. | :03:09. | ||
Labour ministers were clearly That is Ed Balls, by the way. Where | :03:09. | :03:13. | |
is the evidence, Ed Balls demanded to know. The sight of a Chancellor | :03:13. | :03:18. | |
who says one thing to the press but can't defend himself in the | :03:18. | :03:21. | |
parliament is embarrassing to his office. The right honourable | :03:21. | :03:27. | |
gentleman was the City Minister, and the City Minister, during the | :03:27. | :03:32. | |
Libor scandal. And I want to know the answer to the question, which | :03:32. | :03:38. | |
Labour ministers were involved. should either put up or shut up. | :03:38. | :03:43. | |
Present the evidence, apologise. Why so much anger? Because they | :03:43. | :03:46. | |
know voters are furious about the banks and want you to blame the | :03:46. | :03:51. | |
other lot for what went wrong. Hence another row about who should | :03:51. | :03:55. | |
investigate that. Labour argued for a public inquiry led by a judge, | :03:55. | :03:59. | |
going much wider than the recent rate fixing scandal. The government | :03:59. | :04:03. | |
insisted that a committee of MPs and peers could investigate | :04:03. | :04:07. | |
professional standards in banking and produce results much quicker. | :04:07. | :04:11. | |
Normally, a cross-party inquiry would get cross-party support. But | :04:11. | :04:19. | |
tonight, the Commons split. ayes to the right, 330, the noes to | :04:19. | :04:26. | |
the left, 236. The government got its way, MPs and Lords, not lawyers, | :04:26. | :04:30. | |
will quiz bankers. Labour, grudgingly, have said they will | :04:30. | :04:35. | |
take part. We will try to get it to achieve as much as it can given the | :04:35. | :04:39. | |
limitations it faces. As scandals continued to emerge and people | :04:39. | :04:41. | |
continue to demand justice for themselves and their banking system | :04:41. | :04:45. | |
they can trust, I will keep demanding and pressing for the | :04:45. | :04:50. | |
judge led inquiry. After MPs voted, two men chatted in the middle of | :04:50. | :04:54. | |
the Commons. The Tory chairman of the new inquiry, and Labour's Ed | :04:54. | :04:59. | |
Balls, who was desperate to reassure. I have been chairing an | :04:59. | :05:03. | |
all-party committee for two years. We have produced dozens of reports | :05:03. | :05:07. | |
and they have all been unanimous. It is by working together that | :05:07. | :05:11. | |
Parliament can show it can do the job. Working together? Now there is | :05:11. | :05:16. | |
a thought. After today's bitterness, that might prove easier said than | :05:16. | :05:24. | |
On that very point, can this genuinely be a cross-party inquiry, | :05:24. | :05:29. | |
given the animosity we saw today? It is hard to imagine. If the House | :05:29. | :05:32. | |
of Commons was a playground, the cry would have gone out, fight, | :05:33. | :05:37. | |
fight. It felt like a playground. They are fighting not just because | :05:37. | :05:41. | |
they loathe each other personally, but because they are fighting for | :05:41. | :05:45. | |
their parties, good grief up to the next election. In other words, the | :05:46. | :05:49. | |
Tories are desperate to remind voters, Labour's were in charge | :05:49. | :05:53. | |
when the banks went bad. Labour are desperate to convince the | :05:53. | :05:56. | |
electorate that the Tory are too close to the bankers and can't | :05:56. | :06:01. | |
clean up the mess. The row between these two men even goes on tonight. | :06:01. | :06:05. | |
George Osborne's advisers told me he had been misquoted and he never | :06:05. | :06:09. | |
believed Ed Balls was personally involved in the Libor scandal, that | :06:09. | :06:14. | |
he accepted the reassurances that had been given by Mr Balls. Labour | :06:14. | :06:18. | |
responded by saying, why didn't he says it for himself and in the | :06:18. | :06:21. | |
House of Commons, when he was in there for an hour and a half? The | :06:21. | :06:26. | |
one hope that this inquiry can escape all that is that the rather | :06:26. | :06:29. | |
low-key chairman of it insists he doesn't want to put anybody in the | :06:29. | :06:33. | |
dock for what happened in the past, he wants to come up with ideas | :06:33. | :06:38. | |
about how to make things better in the future. Rest assured, even if | :06:38. | :06:42. | |
that row doesn't take place in this new committee, in the new inquiry, | :06:42. | :06:46. | |
it will happen, because both main parties believe it is the key to | :06:46. | :06:54. | |
who wins the next election. Thank you very much. | :06:54. | :06:57. | |
The British Army is facing its biggest reform in decades. Five | :06:57. | :06:59. | |
infantry battalions are being abolished as the size of the Army | :06:59. | :07:03. | |
is reduced by 20% by the end of the decade. The number of regular | :07:03. | :07:06. | |
soldiers will fall by 20,000, and there'll be a much heavier reliance | :07:06. | :07:09. | |
on the Territorial Army to make up the shortfall. The Defence | :07:09. | :07:11. | |
Secretary insists the Army will remain a "formidable fighting | :07:11. | :07:21. | |
:07:21. | :07:23. | ||
Over the past decade, the British Army has been able to fight wars on | :07:23. | :07:31. | |
two fronts. In Afghanistan, as well as Iraq. Both long campaigns, | :07:31. | :07:37. | |
committing large numbers of troops. It is something that the army of | :07:37. | :07:42. | |
2020 will not be able to do. With less money, the Army is having to | :07:42. | :07:47. | |
change. We need to restructure to face an increasingly uncertain | :07:47. | :07:53. | |
world. Ready to intervene whenever and wherever, to protect our | :07:53. | :07:57. | |
national interest. With an ability to project force and prevent | :07:57. | :08:01. | |
conflict, through agile and adaptable armed forces. | :08:01. | :08:05. | |
Controversially, it will mean cutting well-mannered English | :08:05. | :08:09. | |
regiments and saving Scottish units that struggle to recruit. The | :08:09. | :08:14. | |
bigger question will be, what will be left? This isn't just about a | :08:14. | :08:18. | |
small army, many will believe it is also a less powerful army and a | :08:18. | :08:23. | |
less influential nation. Today come armed forces, our country and | :08:23. | :08:30. | |
families deserve better -- today it our aren't forces. The ministry | :08:30. | :08:37. | |
announced it will be losing 17 of 136 units. The regular Army goes | :08:37. | :08:42. | |
from 102,000, to 82,000 troops. It will mean that some famous names, | :08:42. | :08:46. | |
like the Green Howards, who were involved in the first landings on | :08:46. | :08:50. | |
D-Day, and with 18 Victoria crosses to their name, will be lost for | :08:50. | :08:57. | |
ever. Are these political or military decisions? They are always | :08:57. | :09:00. | |
political considerations in everything we do in the military. - | :09:00. | :09:03. | |
- there are always. We have consulted with ministers and come | :09:03. | :09:13. | |
:09:13. | :09:14. | ||
to what I believe is a fair and The army of 2020 will have to rely | :09:14. | :09:18. | |
more on reservists like these. During the day, bankers, builders | :09:18. | :09:23. | |
and business owners. The TA is meant to double in size, to 30,000. | :09:23. | :09:29. | |
And there will be greater demands. The formula by which you can reduce | :09:29. | :09:37. | |
the regular Army by 20,000, and up the effective reserves by a similar | :09:37. | :09:44. | |
number, it is a brave one. It will be quite a challenge. It is not the | :09:44. | :09:49. | |
only challenge. How will the nation view these challenges? Just last | :09:49. | :09:53. | |
weekend, the public showed support for those who serve. Pride in the | :09:53. | :09:58. | |
military, but today, some of their families felt let down. They are | :09:58. | :10:02. | |
out there losing lives at the moment, in our eyes for possibly | :10:02. | :10:05. | |
the wrong people and the wrong reasons. To get that thrown in | :10:05. | :10:11. | |
their face, I think it is a massive slapper in the face. An end to the | :10:11. | :10:16. | |
war in Afghanistan is now inside, but no one knows what will come | :10:16. | :10:20. | |
next or whether this Li Na army will be able to deal with that | :10:20. | :10:23. | |
threat. The bodies of three British | :10:23. | :10:26. | |
servicemen killed by an Afghan policeman have been brought home. | :10:26. | :10:28. | |
Warrant Officer Leonard Thomas, from the Royal Corps of Signals, | :10:28. | :10:31. | |
Guardsmen Craig Roderick and Apete Tuisovurua, from First Battalion, | :10:31. | :10:41. | |
:10:41. | :10:43. | ||
The Welsh Guards, died on Sunday in Friends and family gathered to pay | :10:43. | :10:45. | |
their respects as the cortege passed through Carterton in | :10:45. | :10:53. | |
Six people have been arrested in anti-terror raids in London and are | :10:53. | :10:56. | |
being questioned about an alleged plot involving potential targets in | :10:56. | :11:00. | |
the UK. Three of them were living just a mile from the Olympic Park | :11:00. | :11:03. | |
in East London. In a separate operation, a coach was stopped on | :11:03. | :11:08. | |
the M6 motorway by armed police, but it proved to be a false alarm. | :11:08. | :11:16. | |
Our home affairs correspondent, June Kelly, reports. | :11:16. | :11:20. | |
The arrests came at dawn, at this address, the police didn't just | :11:20. | :11:24. | |
forced the door, they took it off its hinges. It was left lying in | :11:24. | :11:28. | |
the front garden. In the early morning commotion, firearms | :11:28. | :11:33. | |
officers used a tasered to arrest one of the suspects here. I saw one | :11:33. | :11:36. | |
on the top of a ladder, going through the window at the side | :11:36. | :11:42. | |
there. Another one shining a torch at the windows, and smoke coming | :11:42. | :11:47. | |
out from around the door where they took the door off. There was a big | :11:47. | :11:51. | |
bang. For a minute, I thought it was a bomb, really, that sort of | :11:51. | :11:56. | |
nice. Those arrests came in Newham in east London, three brothers | :11:56. | :12:00. | |
detained at the same house. One is a former police committee support | :12:00. | :12:04. | |
officer. On the other side of the capital in Ealing in west London, | :12:04. | :12:09. | |
three people were arrested, a man and a married couple. One of the | :12:09. | :12:14. | |
interests is a Muslim convert, Richard Dart, said to have once | :12:14. | :12:18. | |
worked as a BBC security guard. He featured last year in this BBC | :12:18. | :12:22. | |
documentary, and is now known as Salahuddin al Britani. He and the | :12:22. | :12:26. | |
others are in custody because of a possible plot against UK targets, | :12:26. | :12:32. | |
allegedly involving Islamist extremists. The east London arrests | :12:32. | :12:36. | |
came at a house less than a mile from the Olympic site, although | :12:37. | :12:41. | |
today's operation is said not to be linked to the Games. The police | :12:41. | :12:44. | |
intelligence services will act far earlier on in an active part, | :12:44. | :12:51. | |
because the risk appetites are diminishing rapidly as we move | :12:51. | :12:56. | |
closer to the Games. In an unrelated incident in Staffordshire, | :12:56. | :13:01. | |
what began as a counter-terrorist operation became a false alarm, but | :13:01. | :13:05. | |
only after it had caused major disruption on the M6. Passengers | :13:05. | :13:11. | |
were taken off a coach after reports of vapour escaping from a | :13:11. | :13:16. | |
back. It turned out to be a fake cigarette being used by someone to | :13:16. | :13:21. | |
help give up smoking. From this road, you can see the Olympic site. | :13:21. | :13:26. | |
While the rest CMA not be linked to the games, with just three weeks to | :13:26. | :13:36. | |
:13:36. | :13:37. | ||
go, the police know they are moving The Bank of England is to inject | :13:37. | :13:40. | |
another �50 billion into the economy to counter the effects of | :13:40. | :13:44. | |
the recession. It takes the total amount of quantitative easing so | :13:44. | :13:48. | |
far to 300 and Sunday �5 billion. The bank has also decided to hold | :13:48. | :13:55. | |
interest rates at 0.5%. When the Bank of England first | :13:55. | :13:59. | |
talked about quantitative easing, it was a novelty. Not any more. It | :14:00. | :14:05. | |
began in March 2009 with a plan to inject �75 billion into a sinking | :14:05. | :14:10. | |
economy. That grew to 200 billion. Then last October, they decided | :14:10. | :14:14. | |
more emergency action was needed. With another 50 billion announced | :14:15. | :14:20. | |
today, the total has risen to �375 billion. If you spent it all at | :14:20. | :14:23. | |
once, that is enough to buy a quarter of Britain's national | :14:23. | :14:26. | |
output. That money is supposed to make it easier for businesses to | :14:27. | :14:31. | |
borrow, but if so, this mail-order company in Buckinghamshire has not | :14:31. | :14:35. | |
noticed. It will make no difference to my business almost of the other | :14:35. | :14:40. | |
businesses in the UK. The banks need to retain the low capital from | :14:41. | :14:46. | |
the Bank of England, and therefore will only lend on onerous terms and | :14:46. | :14:49. | |
that higher interest rates. Here at the bank, they say things would | :14:49. | :14:53. | |
have been worse if they had not created all that money and a | :14:53. | :14:58. | |
quantitative easing and spent it in the City, buying government debt. | :14:58. | :15:02. | |
But there is so much uncertainty hanging over households, banks and | :15:02. | :15:05. | |
businesses that critics say the money is not getting out into the | :15:05. | :15:10. | |
broader economy. The amount of cash sitting on bank balance sheets has | :15:10. | :15:14. | |
risen by 58% since the Monetary Policy Committee restarted the | :15:14. | :15:17. | |
policy last autumn. But lending to households and companies has barely | :15:17. | :15:24. | |
risen at all, by just 0.2%. Because the Bank's view the riskiness of | :15:24. | :15:27. | |
lending to companies and individuals as quite high, the | :15:27. | :15:32. | |
money that has been injected has cooled in the financial system. And | :15:32. | :15:36. | |
it is not likely to spread outside the financial system until | :15:37. | :15:40. | |
prospects for the real economy begin to improve. That is just the | :15:41. | :15:46. | |
moment when you will not need it. The European central bank cut its | :15:46. | :15:50. | |
key interest rate today to another all-time low, and said it was not | :15:50. | :15:55. | |
going to pay any interest at all to banks who part money at the Central | :15:55. | :16:00. | |
Bank. China's central bank also cut rates for the second time in a | :16:00. | :16:04. | |
month. In his Mansion House speech last month, the Bank of England | :16:04. | :16:08. | |
governor, Sir Mervyn King, said the quantitative easing policy could | :16:08. | :16:12. | |
still make a difference, but admitted it was not enough. He and | :16:12. | :16:15. | |
the Chancellor announced several schemes to get credit flowing to | :16:16. | :16:19. | |
companies directly. More details promised soon. But if the global | :16:19. | :16:23. | |
economy continues to weaken, the Bank of England will not be the | :16:23. | :16:32. | |
only one looking for bright ideas. Coming up: rising above London, | :16:32. | :16:36. | |
Europe's tallest building, but will the Investment prove to be a wise | :16:36. | :16:44. | |
one? The Police Service of Northern | :16:44. | :16:48. | |
Ireland is to open a murder investigation into the events of | :16:48. | :16:50. | |
bloody Sunday 40 years ago in Londonderry. 13 people were shot | :16:50. | :16:55. | |
dead by soldiers during a civil rights demonstration. The | :16:55. | :17:02. | |
investigation is expected to take four years to gather evidence. | :17:02. | :17:07. | |
January 30th, 1972. A Catholic priest, Father Edward Daly, tries | :17:07. | :17:12. | |
to get the dead and dying to safety, victims of soldiers of the | :17:12. | :17:15. | |
Parachute Regiment who opened fire on protesters on the day. 13 | :17:15. | :17:20. | |
Catholics died, more than half of them teenagers, and 40 years on, | :17:20. | :17:23. | |
the possibility that former British soldiers could be tried for murder | :17:24. | :17:27. | |
has moved a step closer with the announcement of a police | :17:27. | :17:32. | |
investigation. It will build on the Saville Inquiry, which called the | :17:32. | :17:36. | |
deaths unjustifiable. Among Lord Saville's findings, the victims | :17:36. | :17:41. | |
posed no threat. The report says some were clearly fleeing or going | :17:41. | :17:46. | |
to help those injured or dying. The soldiers gave no warning before | :17:46. | :17:51. | |
opening fire. And some of the soldiers lied to the enquiry or did | :17:51. | :17:59. | |
not care what happened when they opened fire. Those findings two | :17:59. | :18:04. | |
years ago delighted Derry's Catholic community. Tonight, the | :18:04. | :18:09. | |
families' spokesman welcomed the investigation, but was unhappy that | :18:09. | :18:13. | |
police say it could take up to four years. It is too long, because the | :18:13. | :18:18. | |
evidence is already there. And Lord Saville has conducted this inquiry | :18:18. | :18:24. | |
for 12 1/2 years. I can't see why it has to take four years to finish | :18:24. | :18:30. | |
the job. But today's Police Service, part of a completely changed | :18:30. | :18:33. | |
Northern Ireland, warns that 30 experienced detectives will be | :18:33. | :18:37. | |
needed and no start date for their work has been set. Long-standing | :18:37. | :18:41. | |
political enemies of Irish nationalism oppose an investigation, | :18:41. | :18:47. | |
and insist that too many victims of IRA atrocities have been ignored. | :18:47. | :18:51. | |
It takes natural justice beyond any recompense when you compare it with | :18:51. | :18:54. | |
other atrocities carried out by the Provisional IRA and others, where | :18:54. | :18:59. | |
there has been no attempt to get restitution or justice or | :18:59. | :19:04. | |
prosecutions. But justice for the victims of bloody Sunday is also | :19:04. | :19:07. | |
far from guaranteed. Well prosecutors be able to assemble | :19:07. | :19:12. | |
sufficient evidence against individual soldiers, more than four | :19:12. | :19:16. | |
decades on? World Football's governing body | :19:16. | :19:20. | |
FIFA has approved the use of goal- line technology. It follows a | :19:20. | :19:24. | |
series of high-profile mistakes by more referees including England's | :19:24. | :19:32. | |
disallowed goal against Germany in the 2010 World Cup. | :19:32. | :19:38. | |
Lampard! Brilliant! They are the goal line - that have finally | :19:38. | :19:42. | |
forced football to move with the times. With the white line | :19:42. | :19:46. | |
something of a grey area, high- profile injustices have blighted | :19:46. | :19:52. | |
matches for years. But the game's lawmakers to date decided the time | :19:52. | :19:55. | |
had come for technology to help match officials get it right, and | :19:55. | :19:59. | |
the most powerful man in the sport tonight told me that football had | :19:59. | :20:03. | |
taken a leap forward. How significant a day is this for | :20:03. | :20:13. | |
:20:13. | :20:13. | ||
football? I think we could say that 5th July 2012 was, and still is, a | :20:13. | :20:17. | |
historical day of international football. It is difficult to score | :20:17. | :20:22. | |
goals, so when we have the possibility to identify that a goal | :20:22. | :20:28. | |
is scored, it is a help for the referee. Two different systems have | :20:28. | :20:33. | |
been given the go-ahead. The German-Danish PIN uses sensors | :20:33. | :20:38. | |
inside the ball and a magnetic -- magnetic field in the Gold to | :20:38. | :20:42. | |
determine whether a gold has crossed the line. The English | :20:42. | :20:48. | |
system uses a different method. An alternative has also been approved. | :20:48. | :20:52. | |
But technology has been used effectively in other sports for | :20:52. | :20:56. | |
years, and the Premier League could follow suit as soon as the new year. | :20:56. | :20:59. | |
It would be potentially possible during the middle of the coming | :20:59. | :21:02. | |
season. It is up to the need to decide whether they want to bring | :21:02. | :21:07. | |
it in, and if they do, whether they want to do it during the course of | :21:07. | :21:13. | |
a season. The decisions taken here at FIFA HQ today a share in a new | :21:13. | :21:17. | |
era for the game. But the combination of opposition and cost | :21:17. | :21:21. | |
means that technology will not be applied universally, and in the | :21:21. | :21:25. | |
majority of matches, decisions as to whether a goal has or has not | :21:25. | :21:32. | |
been scored will still be subject to human error. Disputed goals have | :21:32. | :21:36. | |
been part of football for decades. Technology has been a line the | :21:36. | :21:39. | |
government has been reluctant to cross, but with the stakes growing | :21:39. | :21:43. | |
ever higher, the means are now at least available to make some of | :21:43. | :21:47. | |
sport's biggest decisions more black and white. | :21:47. | :21:51. | |
To Wimbledon, where Andy Murray has been making final preparations for | :21:51. | :21:55. | |
tomorrow's semi-final. If he wins, he will become the first British | :21:55. | :21:59. | |
man to reach the final since 1938. Today the line-up for the women's | :21:59. | :22:06. | |
final was decided. A knock up like 1000 others, except | :22:06. | :22:09. | |
it isn't. Tomorrow Andy Murray will be aiming to reach a Wimbledon | :22:09. | :22:15. | |
final. The thwack of ball on racket a severe distraction from the | :22:15. | :22:21. | |
Mermoz of "could he? Should he?" from those watching him. Most | :22:21. | :22:25. | |
tennis fans around here will say they don't like to tempt fate, but | :22:25. | :22:29. | |
the truth is that Andy Murray has his best chance yet to get a place | :22:29. | :22:34. | |
in the Wimbledon finals. It is something no British man has done | :22:34. | :22:39. | |
since 1938. Andy Murray is of course have | :22:39. | :22:44. | |
refusing to look beyond the hulking frame of his opponent tomorrow, Jo- | :22:44. | :22:48. | |
Wilfried Tsonga. Very tough matches. He has played very well this | :22:48. | :22:54. | |
tournament. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga can be unplayable. He has also proved | :22:54. | :23:02. | |
beatable. As Murray has done, the past four times they have met. | :23:02. | :23:06. | |
Today on Centre Court, the first women's semi-final produced its own | :23:06. | :23:10. | |
moment of history. Agnieszka Radwanska became the first Polish | :23:10. | :23:16. | |
woman in the Grand Slam final in 75 years. She will meet Serena | :23:17. | :23:23. | |
Williams, who thundered past the second seed, Victoria Azarenka. | :23:23. | :23:30. | |
Memo to Murray - this is how good it feels. | :23:30. | :23:34. | |
Europe's tallest building, the Shard, on London's South Bank, has | :23:34. | :23:38. | |
been officially opened. But the 300 metre tower, paid for with money | :23:38. | :23:45. | |
from Qatar, is certainly dividing opinion. | :23:45. | :23:50. | |
The sharp rises as if it were a rocket bound for outer space. | :23:50. | :23:55. | |
Dwarfing its surroundings like Gulliver in Lilliput. A 310 metre- | :23:55. | :23:59. | |
high, 30 acre town in the sky. There is even a vertical | :23:59. | :24:04. | |
Billionaire's Row at the top, each department reported to be costing | :24:04. | :24:09. | |
up to �50 million a pop. I have just, been one of the Shard's 43 | :24:09. | :24:15. | |
lifts to the 69th floor to the public viewing gallery which will | :24:15. | :24:19. | |
open in February next year. This is what you will see - London. You can | :24:19. | :24:26. | |
see the Gherkin. To its right, the Tower of London. And in the middle | :24:26. | :24:31. | |
distance on the right, Canary Wharf. Standing here at to and from 40 | :24:31. | :24:35. | |
metres in the air makes the whole place look a bit like Legoland, a | :24:35. | :24:42. | |
jigsaw of a million pieces, and organised chaos that feels alive. | :24:42. | :24:47. | |
The celebrated Italian architect Renzo Piano designed this tapering | :24:47. | :24:55. | |
Tara of glass. He has high hopes for it. Somebody told me, watch the | :24:55. | :24:59. | |
faces of people watching the building when you finish. So this | :24:59. | :25:03. | |
is what I did in the street this morning. I went around, and I was | :25:03. | :25:08. | |
stopping on the corner, watching people watching the building. There | :25:08. | :25:13. | |
is a sense of surprise, a sense of stupor, a sense of amazement. | :25:13. | :25:16. | |
majority of the Shard is owned by the state of Qatar, which invested | :25:16. | :25:20. | |
heavily in the building. For some, it is a new icon for London and a | :25:20. | :25:24. | |
demonstration of the city's energy and modernity. Two others, a blot | :25:24. | :25:29. | |
on the landscape, ugly, arrogant and inappropriate. It would look | :25:29. | :25:33. | |
wonderful in Dubai. It has little to do with the architecture or the | :25:33. | :25:37. | |
language of London. It is an outrage. It has been implanted in a | :25:37. | :25:43. | |
part of London that had no high buildings of that sort. It is a | :25:43. | :25:48. | |
gesture, a statement, a virility symbol. The sharp took over a | :25:48. | :25:53. | |
decade to get off the ground. The majority of the space has yet to be | :25:53. | :25:58. | |
let. It is in many ways a hi-tech building, but not in all respects. | :25:58. | :26:01. | |
It will still require a man with a sponge and a bucket of warm, soapy | :26:01. | :26:09. |