Browse content similar to 12/06/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Stephen Hester after five years running the Royal Bank of Scotland. | :00:10. | :00:13. | |
He'll step down later this year, though he's hinted he had wanted to | :00:13. | :00:21. | |
stay on. I'm content with the board's perspective on this. There | :00:21. | :00:29. | |
is no fight or anything like this, and I hope I will leave RBS a lot | :00:29. | :00:34. | |
better than I found it. He took charge after the massive bailout by | :00:34. | :00:37. | |
the taxpayer. Ministers say it's for someone else to take RBS back into | :00:37. | :00:41. | |
private hands. Now we need to move from taking R BS back from the brink | :00:41. | :00:46. | |
and out of the risky phase to a new phase where RBS does more to help | :00:46. | :00:50. | |
the British economy and we focus on getting British taxpayers' money | :00:50. | :00:54. | |
back. We'll be asking what this says about the timetable for privatising | :00:54. | :00:56. | |
RBS. Also tonight: In Turkey, more | :00:56. | :00:59. | |
anti-Government protests as ministers move to end the crisis. | :00:59. | :01:01. | |
Controversial plans to reorganise children's heart surgery in England | :01:01. | :01:07. | |
are put on hold. A city of contrasts. We have a | :01:07. | :01:09. | |
special report from Damascus, more than two years into Syria's | :01:09. | :01:14. | |
conflict. And will Australian David Warner's | :01:14. | :01:24. | |
:01:24. | :01:53. | ||
attack on England's Joe Root cost Good evening. Stephen Hester is to | :01:53. | :01:57. | |
step down as chief executive of RBS later this year. He took charge of | :01:57. | :02:01. | |
the bank five years ago after the massive bailout by the taxpayer. Mr | :02:01. | :02:05. | |
Hester said he'd wanted to carry on in the job, but the task of leading | :02:05. | :02:08. | |
the bank back into private hands will now fall to someone else. Our | :02:08. | :02:17. | |
business editor, Robert Peston, reports. Stephen Hester is the big | :02:17. | :02:20. | |
bonus banker brought in to save Royal Bank of Scotland when it was | :02:20. | :02:27. | |
almost bust and semi nationalised at the end of 2008. And now RBS's board | :02:27. | :02:31. | |
and the Chancellor think it is the right moment for him to stand down. | :02:31. | :02:36. | |
Stephen Hester, you didn't want to leave RBS now did you? I think that | :02:36. | :02:40. | |
there is a cogent argument to say that, in a perfect world, it should | :02:40. | :02:46. | |
be the beginning of a future for RBS and RBS should be led by someone who | :02:46. | :02:50. | |
sees it as a beginning and not as an end. I'm content with the board's | :02:50. | :02:53. | |
perspective on this. There is no fight or anything like this, and I | :02:53. | :02:59. | |
hope that I will leave RBS a lot better than I found it. He is | :02:59. | :03:03. | |
leaving by mutual agreement, says a Treasury official, because the | :03:03. | :03:08. | |
chairman of RBS, Sir Philip Hampton, and the charm, felt that giant RBS | :03:08. | :03:13. | |
is ripe for change. Five years ago RBS was on the edge of collapse and | :03:13. | :03:17. | |
Stephen Hester has done a very good rescue job, but now we need to move | :03:17. | :03:22. | |
from taking RBS back from the brink and out of the risky phase to a new | :03:22. | :03:30. | |
phase where RBS does more to support the British economy and we focus on | :03:30. | :03:35. | |
trying to get British taxpayers' money back. Stephen Hester has | :03:35. | :03:40. | |
shrunk RBS and made it stronger to absorb losses, but he has faced flak | :03:40. | :03:45. | |
for not lending enough and for his big pay, which has seen him waive | :03:45. | :03:49. | |
bonuses. You are leaving with a package worth a minimum of which | :03:49. | :03:54. | |
four. .5 million. Many will say, because this esay this about all | :03:54. | :03:59. | |
bankers' packages a, it is way too much. What do you say to those? | :03:59. | :04:03. | |
These are large sums of money, by the standards of anyone else doing | :04:03. | :04:07. | |
the jobs, and the impact we've had, the �800 million off the balance | :04:08. | :04:12. | |
sheet and so on, it's a low sum of money. An argument that will go in | :04:13. | :04:16. | |
circles. The only good bit of the argument is I won't be around to | :04:16. | :04:21. | |
have it any more. RBS's chairman, Sir Philip Hampton, said the | :04:21. | :04:25. | |
Treasury rants RBS ready to return to the private sector by the end of | :04:25. | :04:32. | |
2014. And will taxpayers get back the �45-46 billion that they | :04:32. | :04:38. | |
invested in RBS? RBS a capable of being worth more. So it is possible | :04:38. | :04:43. | |
that we'll get the money back? capable of that. I will be | :04:43. | :04:48. | |
disappointed if over the passage of time that isn't the case In your | :04:48. | :04:51. | |
time at the bank you've been periodically beaten up over bonus | :04:51. | :04:55. | |
being, over not lending enough to small businesses and not supporting | :04:55. | :05:00. | |
the economy in general. Has it been a hideous job to do? There are some | :05:00. | :05:04. | |
not great moments of which that. There were. I like being a | :05:04. | :05:08. | |
businessman, I don't especially like being a politician or a media | :05:08. | :05:12. | |
person, but this job has demanded all of those things. I've done it to | :05:12. | :05:16. | |
the best of my ability. I think the company is considerably better off | :05:16. | :05:21. | |
as a result not just of what I've done but everyone at RBS. As Stephen | :05:21. | :05:24. | |
Hester leaves RBS, what have we learned? That with whether we love | :05:24. | :05:29. | |
or hate the bankers there is no return to prosperity for any of us | :05:29. | :05:35. | |
until the banks are fixed. Robert Peston is with me. Let's talk about | :05:35. | :05:39. | |
the prospect of privatising this bank. What do you read into the | :05:39. | :05:43. | |
signals today about the timetable? Well, the Treasury interestingly | :05:43. | :05:48. | |
earlier today urged me not to read too much into Mr Hester's departure | :05:48. | :05:55. | |
in respect of when this enormous taxpayer stake is likely to be sold. | :05:55. | :05:59. | |
But Sir Philip Hampton, the chairman of RBS, rather let the cat out of | :05:59. | :06:03. | |
the bag when talking to journalists today. He said the Treasury had | :06:03. | :06:09. | |
asked the bank to get itself ready for privatisation at the end of | :06:09. | :06:13. | |
2014. Indeed that's the reason, he said, why it was right for Mr Hester | :06:14. | :06:19. | |
to go, because the board and the Chancellor both decided that it was | :06:19. | :06:23. | |
sensible to have somebody not only lead the bank into privatisation but | :06:23. | :06:25. | |
run it for a couple of years afterwards. The point about Mr | :06:25. | :06:30. | |
Hester is he didn't want to run the bank for as long as that. In my | :06:30. | :06:33. | |
interview with Stephen Hester, he said something I think politically | :06:33. | :06:37. | |
significant about the privatisation, and that is, and he volunteered | :06:37. | :06:43. | |
this, he thought that taxpayers would be able to get the full �45-46 | :06:43. | :06:49. | |
billion that we've invested in RBS back. Why does that matter? Because | :06:49. | :06:52. | |
there are quite a lot of people around, the Chancellor, George | :06:53. | :06:57. | |
Osborne, telling him just flog this thing as quickly as possible. Don't | :06:57. | :07:01. | |
worry about the amount of money you get, blame the losses on the last | :07:01. | :07:04. | |
Labour Government. Stephen Hester is saying that if they manage the | :07:04. | :07:08. | |
privatisation properly, which means doing it in a sort of staged way, Mr | :07:08. | :07:14. | |
Hester would say, we will as taxpayers get all of that | :07:14. | :07:21. | |
astonishing sum, �45 billion back one day. Thank you. | :07:21. | :07:25. | |
The controversial plans to stop children's heart surgery at three | :07:25. | :07:29. | |
hospitals in England have been suspended. The Health Secretary said | :07:29. | :07:33. | |
the original decision was based on a flawed analysis. The NHS had planned | :07:33. | :07:38. | |
to concentrate care in a smaller number of centres. NHS England has | :07:38. | :07:43. | |
until the end of next month to respond back. Fergus Walsh has the | :07:43. | :07:47. | |
details. Born with a hole in the heart, four | :07:47. | :07:53. | |
week old Sarah Sarah has already undergone life-saving surgery at the | :07:53. | :07:56. | |
Royal Brompton in London, one of ten hospitals in England which perform | :07:56. | :08:00. | |
these highly complex operations. Children's heart surgery here had | :08:00. | :08:05. | |
been under threat. But now the plans, which have already cost �16 | :08:05. | :08:10. | |
million, have been suspended. Inaccurate figures were used and im | :08:10. | :08:16. | |
impact on other hospital services were overlooked will. The outcome of | :08:16. | :08:20. | |
which the Safe and Sustainable was based on a flawed analysis on the | :08:21. | :08:24. | |
impact of incomplete proposals and leads too many questions about | :08:24. | :08:29. | |
sustainability and implementation. This is clearly a serious criticism | :08:29. | :08:34. | |
of the Safe and Sustainable process. The need for change was set out more | :08:34. | :08:38. | |
than a decade ago following the Bristol heart scandal, when many | :08:38. | :08:43. | |
babies died needlessly. An inquiry said surgery should be carried out | :08:43. | :08:47. | |
in fewer bigger and better centres. Fiver years ago the Safe and | :08:47. | :08:51. | |
Sustainable review was set up. It concluded that children 's heart | :08:51. | :08:54. | |
surgery should stop at the Royal Brompton in London and in Leeds and | :08:54. | :08:59. | |
Leicester. In March this year Leeds won a High Court ruling quashing | :08:59. | :09:04. | |
that decision. A fresh review said the proposals failed to take into | :09:04. | :09:08. | |
account the impact on families like four-year-old Lyle's from Leeds, who | :09:08. | :09:14. | |
would have faced repeated journeys to Newcastle for surgery. | :09:14. | :09:17. | |
wouldn't be here if we had to two to Newcastle for surgery, because he | :09:18. | :09:23. | |
wouldn't have had the joined up care he had in Leeds. To have that taken | :09:23. | :09:28. | |
away and to be told by national charities that very few children | :09:28. | :09:33. | |
need more than one surgery and therefore your needs matter is so | :09:33. | :09:36. | |
hurtful and it has made us so angry, so upset. All medical bodies agree | :09:36. | :09:42. | |
that change is vital and quality of care will improve if surgery is | :09:42. | :09:47. | |
concentrated in fewer centres. been very clear that our | :09:47. | :09:51. | |
recommendations is a mandate to move on, not a mandate to go back and | :09:51. | :09:56. | |
start again, and therefore we would expect NHS England to use those | :09:56. | :10:03. | |
recommendations to forge a new process of change. NHS England now | :10:03. | :10:07. | |
has six weeks before it must decide what to do next. | :10:07. | :10:11. | |
The utter failure of this five-year review is a deep embarrassment for | :10:11. | :10:17. | |
the NHS. It was meant to provide a template into how other services | :10:17. | :10:22. | |
could be reorganised into fewer specialist centres. Instead it | :10:22. | :10:27. | |
leaves families here and around the country facing months, maybe years, | :10:28. | :10:34. | |
of uncertainty about where their children will be cared for. | :10:34. | :10:39. | |
Jordan's Parliament has approved a treaty with the UK designed to lead | :10:39. | :10:43. | |
to the deportation of Abu Qatada. The vote means that the process to | :10:43. | :10:47. | |
deport the hard line cleric is likely to resume within weeks. He | :10:47. | :10:52. | |
has indicated he will not challenge deportation if the treaty is passed, | :10:52. | :10:56. | |
because the document guarantees him a fair trial. | :10:56. | :11:01. | |
The number of people in employment has risen to the highest since | :11:01. | :11:07. | |
records began. Other figures today show that nearly 10% of people over | :11:07. | :11:13. | |
65 are now working. A new report also concludes that the recession | :11:13. | :11:17. | |
has had an unprecedented impact on household finances. | :11:17. | :11:21. | |
There are signs of an improvement in the business climate. There is | :11:21. | :11:25. | |
growth in the economy, but many want to know, what will that mean for | :11:25. | :11:32. | |
jobs and will it become easier to find work? The latest figures show a | :11:32. | :11:36. | |
fall in unemployment to two. 51 million between February and April. | :11:36. | :11:40. | |
That was the story for the UK. In Wales the jobless number stayed the | :11:40. | :11:43. | |
same as before. Total employment rose and there are now a record | :11:43. | :11:47. | |
number of over 65s in work. More than one million. In the hunt for | :11:47. | :11:53. | |
jobs some are finding more opportunities. At Leicester College | :11:53. | :11:56. | |
they are running courses teaching building skills to people out of | :11:56. | :12:01. | |
work. That leads to a short-term contract with the local council and | :12:01. | :12:05. | |
valuable experience. Steven was on the dole for six months but the | :12:05. | :12:10. | |
course has given him just the lift he needed. Now I have hope, there's | :12:10. | :12:16. | |
hope for my family and hope for me. We can go places and spend money. | :12:16. | :12:22. | |
They've given me my life back. I'm not just existing. I'm living. | :12:22. | :12:29. | |
what do the bosses think? Numbers in work have fallen a lot less rapidly | :12:29. | :12:32. | |
than in previous downturns. Companies like this advertising | :12:32. | :12:37. | |
business have held on to staff but kept did lid on pay. The reality for | :12:37. | :12:42. | |
the last five, six, seven years in a tough economic environment it is | :12:43. | :12:46. | |
impossible simply to give inflation pay rises every year. Our staff no | :12:47. | :12:50. | |
longer expect that. It is a similar story for salaries across the | :12:50. | :12:55. | |
economy. To keep their jobs many workers have had to tolerate pay | :12:55. | :13:00. | |
freezes at a time when prices of goods and services they buy have | :13:00. | :13:04. | |
been accelerating. The wage squeeze is clear when you look at cost of | :13:04. | :13:07. | |
living increases measured by the annual inflation rate. That's | :13:07. | :13:13. | |
running at two. 4%. It is well ahead of average pay rises excludeing | :13:13. | :13:18. | |
bonuses of zero. 9%. A leading think-tank said today the squeeze on | :13:18. | :13:23. | |
pay in recent years hasn't been seen for generations. You've had this | :13:23. | :13:27. | |
unprecedented period since the recession, wages not keeping up with | :13:27. | :13:30. | |
inflation, falling quite a lot behind inflation, and that | :13:30. | :13:33. | |
followings five or six years when they were barely going above | :13:33. | :13:39. | |
inflation. A every a ten-year period no real wage increase. In recent | :13:39. | :13:43. | |
months private sector pay rises have been even lower than the public | :13:43. | :13:53. | |
:13:53. | :13:54. | ||
sector. It may be the price workers are paying to hold on to their jobs. | :13:54. | :13:56. | |
The Foreign Secretary, William Hague, has said tonight that Britain | :13:56. | :14:00. | |
and its allies must be prepared to do more to help ease the | :14:00. | :14:03. | |
humanitarian crisis in Syria. Speaking after talks in Washington, | :14:03. | :14:06. | |
he said there was nothing new to announce on the possibility of | :14:07. | :14:11. | |
providing arms to the rebels. The Syrian president insists his regime | :14:11. | :14:14. | |
is on course to crush the opposition, after more than two | :14:15. | :14:19. | |
years of fighting which has claimed at least 18,000 lives. In the | :14:19. | :14:23. | |
capital, Damascus, the impact of the conflict very dramatically between | :14:23. | :14:28. | |
districts. Our chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet has | :14:28. | :14:38. | |
travelled across Damascus. In parts of Damascus, it is easy to forget | :14:38. | :14:46. | |
there is a war. Maybe that is why this ice cream parlour is so packed. | :14:46. | :14:51. | |
So much has been destroyed, but Syrians are holding onto much loved | :14:51. | :14:57. | |
traditions. The family has been making ice cream in the old city | :14:57. | :15:04. | |
since 1895. They have been using the same secret recipe for three | :15:04. | :15:12. | |
generations. In some neighbourhoods, rituals also go on. There is relief | :15:12. | :15:16. | |
that one more exam is out of the way for these high stools students. In | :15:16. | :15:20. | |
Syria, nearly one in five schools is now shut. These teenagers are | :15:21. | :15:24. | |
fortunate to live in a safe, government-controlled area. You do | :15:24. | :15:34. | |
:15:34. | :15:38. | ||
not have any worries? They answer in unison - no, none at all. They thank | :15:38. | :15:40. | |
their army and their president, Bashar al-Assad, for keeping them | :15:40. | :15:49. | |
safe. But in Damascus, people have had to find ways to live with war, | :15:49. | :15:59. | |
:15:59. | :16:01. | ||
even when a shell lands nearby. But nobody flinches this time. But just | :16:01. | :16:07. | |
two streets away, Jobar, like many neighbourhoods, is a battlefield. | :16:07. | :16:11. | |
The Roman troops, with overwhelming firepower, are trying to push back | :16:11. | :16:16. | |
armed rebels. Nearly everyone who lived here has left. -- government | :16:17. | :16:23. | |
troops. The lucky ones found shelter, and even a special place | :16:23. | :16:27. | |
for children, funded by the UN to try to bring back some childhood | :16:27. | :16:37. | |
:16:37. | :16:40. | ||
joy. 13-year-old milk of it still wears her sadness. Her whole family | :16:40. | :16:48. | |
fled Jobar a few months ago. What is it like there? Not very good, it is | :16:48. | :16:58. | |
:16:58. | :16:59. | ||
very bad, she says. I ask her if there are problems. A lot of | :16:59. | :17:07. | |
problems, she says. Even in parts of Damascus like this, where it is | :17:07. | :17:13. | |
peaceful enough to still play, the impact of the war is ever present. | :17:13. | :17:18. | |
Now that Rania and her friends have coloured in these apples, they are | :17:18. | :17:21. | |
going to be asked to write what they would like to do when they are | :17:21. | :17:26. | |
older. The last time they did this exercise here, three children wrote, | :17:26. | :17:32. | |
we just want to grow up. Rania once every detail to be just perfect. She | :17:32. | :17:39. | |
has made her wish. She has written - I want to go back to my home. But | :17:39. | :17:49. | |
:17:49. | :17:51. | ||
Rania knows she has no home to go to Unions in Greece have called a | :17:51. | :17:55. | |
24-hour general strike for tomorrow in protest at the sudden closure of | :17:55. | :17:59. | |
the state broadcaster ERT. Programmes were taken off air in the | :17:59. | :18:03. | |
middle of a broadcast late last night. The Government says it needs | :18:03. | :18:09. | |
to save money, and it says ERT was inefficient. It says it will reopen | :18:09. | :18:15. | |
later with a smaller staff. An independent report has concluded | :18:15. | :18:19. | |
that the Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg, should have done more to deal with | :18:19. | :18:22. | |
allegations of inappropriate behaviour by one of the party's | :18:22. | :18:26. | |
senior figures. It says opportunities were missed formally | :18:26. | :18:33. | |
investigate claims of sexual misconduct against a party's former | :18:33. | :18:38. | |
chief executive, who has denied wrongdoing. Vicki Young can tell us | :18:38. | :18:42. | |
more. These reports first became public earlier this year, but in one | :18:43. | :18:47. | |
case they were made as far back as 2007, so this report looked into how | :18:47. | :18:52. | |
the Liberal Democrat had handled it over those years. It says the | :18:52. | :18:56. | |
party's response was haphazard, that much more could and should have been | :18:56. | :19:00. | |
done, and that Nick Clegg himself should have asked more questions. It | :19:00. | :19:04. | |
says senior figures who heard the complaints did not act maliciously, | :19:04. | :19:08. | |
and there is no evidence of a deliberate cover-up, but by not | :19:08. | :19:13. | |
launching a formal investigation at the beginning, it says it allowed | :19:13. | :19:15. | |
issues to fester, making the situation far worse for everybody | :19:15. | :19:22. | |
involved. Nick Clegg has admitted that serious errors were made. | :19:22. | :19:26. | |
makes sobering reading, because it shows that, stretching over a 20 | :19:26. | :19:31. | |
year period, a series of mistakes were made, which left a number of | :19:31. | :19:35. | |
women feeling seriously let down, and for that there is no excuse. The | :19:35. | :19:40. | |
report also shows that the individuals who dealt with the | :19:40. | :19:43. | |
complaints had the right motives, but there were not the right | :19:43. | :19:46. | |
processes in place to support the women who had come forward. As | :19:46. | :19:51. | |
leader of the Liberal Democrats, I take responsibility for that. | :19:51. | :19:56. | |
the main problems seems to have been misunderstanding and confusion about | :19:56. | :20:00. | |
what the women who complained wanted to happen next. Some wanted to | :20:00. | :20:04. | |
remain anonymous, others wanted a formal procedure. The report says | :20:04. | :20:09. | |
that because the allegations will associate Reus, any organisation in | :20:09. | :20:13. | |
this sensitive situation must fully investigate them anyway. Throughout | :20:13. | :20:19. | |
the affair, Lord Rennard himself has denied any wrongdoing. | :20:19. | :20:22. | |
Thousands of anti-government protesters are again gathering in | :20:22. | :20:24. | |
central Istanbul despite warnings from the Prime Minister that his | :20:24. | :20:30. | |
patience has run out. The government has now raised the possibility of a | :20:30. | :20:36. | |
referendum for the people of Istanbul on the original, local | :20:36. | :20:41. | |
dispute which provoked the protests. Jeremy Bowen has the latest. By the | :20:41. | :20:44. | |
middle of the evening, the demonstrators were back in Taksim | :20:44. | :20:51. | |
Square, a human chain against the police. It looks like the old | :20:51. | :20:55. | |
Turkey. But one of the protest organisers said the country had new | :20:55. | :20:59. | |
rules now. The government needed the consent of all the people, not just | :20:59. | :21:09. | |
:21:09. | :21:12. | ||
the supporters of the ruling party. Thousands reoccupied Taksim Square. | :21:12. | :21:15. | |
They may be changing this country, but the Prime Minister still wants | :21:16. | :21:20. | |
to do things his way. He reportedly told a meeting that this business | :21:20. | :21:27. | |
must be concluded by tomorrow. The government told the protesters to | :21:27. | :21:30. | |
clear the square, and the adjoining Gezi Park, but nobody was going | :21:30. | :21:35. | |
home. Because it means freedom, without freedom, you do not do | :21:35. | :21:40. | |
anything. It means freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, | :21:40. | :21:49. | |
everything. But is this not a democracy already? This is not a | :21:49. | :21:55. | |
democracy, this is fascism. Ankara, the Prime Minister met a | :21:55. | :21:59. | |
group which some people said was not representative. He offered them a | :21:59. | :22:07. | |
referendum on the plan to build on Gezi Park. This demonstration was by | :22:07. | :22:10. | |
lawyers in Istanbul against police violence. It shows that the protest | :22:10. | :22:15. | |
is about much more than the original issue. It is about country's | :22:15. | :22:18. | |
future, and the anger among those who did not vote for the Prime | :22:18. | :22:22. | |
Minister about the way that he governs. Tonight, the police, not | :22:22. | :22:27. | |
the protesters, have the backing of the government's supporters, still | :22:28. | :22:32. | |
the majority. But the split in the country is deepening. This is as | :22:32. | :22:36. | |
tense as it has been all day in the square. The Prime Minister has | :22:36. | :22:39. | |
effectively given the people in the park and in the rest of the square | :22:39. | :22:43. | |
and Alderman Tim - they have to go home, or the police are going to | :22:43. | :22:50. | |
move in. -- an ultimatum. Behind the square, in Gezi Park, thousands are | :22:50. | :22:55. | |
waiting, talking endlessly about what happens next, in no mood to bow | :22:55. | :23:03. | |
to the Prime Minister's authority. The Barcelona for Paula Lionel Messi | :23:03. | :23:08. | |
and his father are being investigated for allegedly | :23:08. | :23:11. | |
defrauding the Spanish authorities of almost �3.5 million in unpaid | :23:11. | :23:16. | |
tax. The striker, world Player of the Year, is one of the highest-paid | :23:16. | :23:22. | |
sportsmen in the world of sport. David Warner, the Australian | :23:22. | :23:26. | |
cricketer, has apologised for punching the England batsmen John | :23:26. | :23:31. | |
wrote in a bar in Birmingham in the early hours of Sunday morning. The | :23:31. | :23:33. | |
England and Wales Cricket board described it as an unprovoked | :23:33. | :23:37. | |
attack, and it led to one being dropped from today's Champions | :23:37. | :23:46. | |
League Trophy match against New Zealand. Australians prefer their | :23:46. | :23:52. | |
sporting heroes to come with a rough edge, but batsmen David Warner's | :23:52. | :23:57. | |
behaviour may have gone a step too far. He has been suspended for | :23:57. | :24:02. | |
punching young England player John Root in a late-night pub brawl. | :24:02. | :24:06. | |
Believe it or not, it was here, in an Australian themed bar in | :24:06. | :24:16. | |
Birmingham, that the first blow of an Ashes summer was struck. Root was | :24:16. | :24:21. | |
drinking with two team-mates, when, according to England, a worse for | :24:21. | :24:25. | |
wear Warner launched an unprovoked attack. For Root, it was business as | :24:25. | :24:29. | |
usual today, as he prepared for England's Champions League Trophy | :24:29. | :24:34. | |
game tomorrow. His captain is confident his players were not to | :24:34. | :24:38. | |
blame. Disappointed that the incident happened, but after | :24:38. | :24:42. | |
investigating our side, we realise we do not believe we have done | :24:42. | :24:48. | |
anything wrong. A different sort of round four Warner and his team-mates | :24:48. | :24:53. | |
today, serving drinks, as Australia played New Zealand at Edgbaston. | :24:53. | :25:02. | |
Now, he could be kicked off the tour. Whatever unfolds, the tone for | :25:02. | :25:06. | |
the Ashes has been set here in Birmingham. David Warner's | :25:06. | :25:10. | |
suspension might come to be seen as a minor footnote, but it reflects a | :25:10. | :25:16. | |
deeper malaise in the Australian camp. The Australian team have | :25:16. | :25:18. | |
certainly had their problems recently. Only three weeks ago, | :25:18. | :25:23. | |
Warner was in trouble again on Twitter, fined for using offensive | :25:23. | :25:28. | |
language against Australian journalists. In March, four players, | :25:28. | :25:31. | |
including vice captain Shane Watson, were suspended for failing | :25:31. | :25:35. | |
to complete the report on the squad's problems on tour in India. | :25:35. | :25:41. | |
Now, with the Ashes looming, their captain and only world-class | :25:41. | :25:46. | |
player, Michael Clarke, is struggling with a back injury. | :25:46. | :25:49. | |
Unfortunately, David Warner has tarnished the whole of the | :25:49. | :25:54. | |
Australian cricket team. The whole network of the team, the structure, | :25:54. | :25:58. | |
the management, the captain, the supporters, you all get tarnished. | :25:58. | :26:03. | |
That is what the individual has done for them. Uncle with Australian team | :26:03. | :26:09. | |
under growing pressure, Warner's actions might actually galvanise | :26:09. | :26:12. |