10/07/2013 BBC News at Ten

privatised, raising around �3 billion. Ministers say it is the

best way to invest in the future of the service and give workers a real

stake. Our scheme will be the biggest employee share scheme of any

major privatation for nearly 30 years.

But unions say there is no case for privatisation and they are

considering strike action. believe the Government are deluded

about selling Royal Mail. We will be asking what the sell-off to mean for

the quality and the cost of postal services. Also tonight:

An independent review of MPs' salaries recommends a total pay rise

of more than 11%. We'll have the details.

With the greatest respect you have failed. You have failed. Under

attack - the BBC accused by MPs of wasting money on big severance

payments for executives. The SAS sniper, Danny Nightingale,

is found guilty by a military court, of illegal possession of a gun and

ammunition. And the wickets tumble on a dramatic

first day of the Ashes at Trent Bridge.

In Sportsday: News Froome strengthenings his hold on the

yellow jersey finishing second in today's time trial at the Tour de

Good evening. Royal Mail is to be privatised in the biggest sell off

by Government for more than 20ers yoo. Vince Cable, the Business

Secretary -- for more than 20 years. Vince Cable, the Business Secretary,

says the universal service will continue, staff will get shares but

the union says there is no case for privatisation and they are now

considering strike action. It is a key national service which

handles 58 million items every day. Now the Government has confirmed

details of Royal Mail's privatisation, the biggest state

sell-off in years. Britain's large largest Post Office.

For decades it was seen as labour intensive, antiquated, propped up by

tax payers' cash. But today its profits are soaring, on the back of

higher prices, the growth of online retailing and tens of thousands of

job losses. Successive governments have tried and failed to privatise

Royal Mail. But in the Commons, the Business Secretary said it would be

floated on the stock market. Although Labour remain unconvinced.

Now the time has come for Government to step back from Royal Mail, allow

its management to focus whole heartedly on growing the business

and planning for the future. It's now time for employees to hold a

stake in the company and share in its success. So, Mr Speaker, having

nationalised the organisations' debts by taking on its mention

liabilities, they now want to privatise the profit, at the very

time it is making money. How on earth does that make any sense?

public will be able to buy shares in the business, via a special website

or through stockbrokers. It's expected to be valued at up to �3

billion. But what will it all mean for Royal Mail's 165,000 workers?

Some fear privatisation. This morning union members brought their

concerns to the company's central London headquarters. Staff will

receive free shares, amounting to 10% of the business. It's a possibly

windfall of up to �2,000. I don't think our members will be bought off

by the free share issues. We will not take people to take something

that's not on offer for free. That's not a referendum on will people

think privatisation is the right thing. The postal union is so

concerned about privatisation, that it has announced its intention to

ballot for industrial action. That raises the very real prospect of a

national strike, and mail at a standstill at the very time when the

Government is trying to sell off its business. But what will the sell-off

mean for Royal Mail's millions of customers? Should they be worried?

When things are privatised, people want it make money. If it is

privatised, they'll have to compete and hopefully that'll benefit

everybody. I think consumers will continue to see quite sharp price

rises on the price of stamps over the next few years, but they will

also see a private Royal Mail maybe starting to be less generous with

them in terms of the scope of the services it offers. Royal Mail also

faces challenges in this brave new world. One rival, TNT, has 1,000

postmen on the streets of London and hopes to have up to 20,000 around

the UK in five years' time. With me is business editor, Robert

Peston. We heard there that there is a view in some quarters that this is

a business that is no longer a burden on the taxpayer so, what is

the rational? The presumption of both parties in the coalition is

that organisations that look like businesses - and Royal Mail does

increasingly look like a business - have no place being in the public

sector. Why do I say Royal Mail looks nor like a business these days

than a public service? For example, a huge chunk of what is does is

deliver parcels and there it is subject to significant competition.

Royal Mail's management, for example, would say that their

ability to make proper commercial decisions, decisions that will

benefit the business, and its employees, will be enhanced if they

don't have ministers breathing down their necks the whole time. The

ministers themselves, actually will say they don't really like it when

something goes wrong at Royal Mail, being blamed for the letters not

turning up, for example. And there is another point: Which is that

Royal Mail has invested a great deal in recent years, one of the reasons

why it is doing pretty well. It wants to continue to invest

significant sums. The Government, as I think we all know, has a fair

amount of debt on its balance sheet and is not keen to take on more

debt. So, both ministers and management say, in the private

sector, the great thing is that the company can borrow to invest, and

thass' not a burden on tax payers. -- and that's not a burden. But as

you astutely pointed out, it is a business that's currently making

profits and it has been turned around while state-owned. So in a

sense Royal Mail demonstrate it is possible to have a relatively

successful business in the public sector. Now, the union is proposing

a sort of half-way house. Where you would have a not-for-profit company,

but at some arm's length from the Government and it could therefore

borrow without that debt falling again on tax payers. I don't think

the CWU is going to win the argue um. It seems to me the momentum

towards privatisation is unstoppable. But I don't think the

CWU's argument is completely incoherent.

Thank you very much. Now, MPs will learn tomorrow what

the independent Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority is

recommending as a pay rise for them. David Cameron, Ed Miliband, Nick

Clegg have already urged restraint. Let's go live to Westminster. Our

Political Editor Nick Robinson. What have you learned? There have been

rumours about the figure for weeks. I can reveal that figure is �74,000

a year. Compared with now, it is an increase of more than 1 # 1%. But --

11%. But, given that the increase is only due to come into after the next

election, 2015, and MPs will have had a couple of pay rises, 1% before

then t would then be an increase of about 9%. Whatever the figure is, it

is clear it is not going to be popular and the independent body

IPSA knows that very well. The primes Saud in fans of -- Prime

Minister said in advance of seeing this, he was not in favour of an

increase in the cost of politics. There will be a squeeze on their

pension scheme, a squeeze on expenses and a squeeze on their

resettlement payments if they lose their seats. But the Prime Minister

is going to be disappointed. Those squeezes will not be enough to pay

for that pay rise. There will be a total increase. So he has a problem.

Nick Clegg said he thought this was an impossible sell to the wider

public and that he personally wouldn't take the pay rise. He has

got a problem. Ed Miliband said it shouldn't be more than the public

sector pay increases of about 1%. He, too, has a problem. Why, Huw?

Because the very point of having an independent review, was that

Government had nothing to do with this and Parliament could not vote

on T that was meant to be the solution to the expenses scandal. --

vote on it. The one hope they all have is that there is a review of

this after the next election and a consultation now. So IPSA could just

change their mind, if there is enough pressure on them. Thank you

very much. Now, Lord Patten, the Chairman of

the BBC Trust says he was shocked and dismayed by the pay-offs given

to some senior executives, in breach of theed corporation's own

guidelines. -- in breach of the corporation's.

He was being questioned by the Public Accounts Committee. Members

of the BBC Trust said they now questioned assurances they had been

given by the former Director-General, Mark Thompson.

The BBC has, over the last few years, been slimming down, getting

rid of managers. But the pay-offs? �949,000 #230r the deputy

Director-General, Mark Byford. �486,000 for the former

Director-General, George Entwistle. The BBC spent �25 million on deals

like this over the last three years. And from the outset of today's

bruising encounter with MPs, the bruising encounter with MPs, the

Trust that oversees the BBC is clear about what it felt. It was a

question of shock and dismay for us to discover how many had been beyond

contractual and, therefore, had been even higher than they needed to be.

It is not just the size of the payments that alarmed MPs. It's the

fact that the BBC was paying more than it needed to. Did the BBC Trust

know this was going on? The answer was no. And then came the next

question. And it was from the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee?

Should the trust have known? Yes. And if you call, in due course, a

previous Director-General of the BBC, I will be as interested as you

are in why we didn't know. The man he was pointing the finger at, is

here in the middle, the former Director-General, Mark Thompson. He

had made certain assurances to the Trust. But he wasn't the only one

involved in the process. Why did you not, you know, just put your food

not, you know, just put your food down? You are head of HR there?

think the overwhelming focus was to get numbers out of the door as

get numbers out of the door as quickly as possible. It's public

money. You know, it's the licence fee payers' money. It's not your

fee payers' money. It's not your money. I accept - the BBC has

accepted many of the criticisms within the report that too often we

were too generous. The BBC spent too much. That's why its new boss is now

going to be capping future pay-offs. I think we'd lost the plot. We'd

lost the way. We got dedeviled by zeros on various salaries.

former controller, Roly Keating has paid back his �376,000. The Chair of

theed Public Accounts Committee say others should follow his lead. --

the chair of the Public Accounts Committee. In its defence the BBC

say it is saving �19 million a year by cutting managers but accepts it

could have, perhaps, saved more. An SAS sniper has been convicted of

illegally possessing a pos toll and more than 300 rounds of ammunition.

-- pistol. Danny Nightingale was found guilty by a court martial. The

court attracted attention when the Court of Appeal quashed the original

Court of Appeal quashed the original conviction. He has fought in

dangerous battles all over the world but today his legal fight to clear

his name ended in defeat. An experience he summed up in one word.

experience he summed up in one word. Shocking. If didn't have such a

stroll firmly, we would be broken. We are close to financial ruin. I am

very lucky, Sal has been amazing throughout, dad and the rest of the

family. His wife, Sally, said they still believed he was innocent and

thanked the public for campaigning on his behalf. I say thanks for

their support, I say continue to support us because he is not guilty

and he is not a criminal. This was the Glock pistol that the court

decided Danny Nightingale owned, and all authorised -- unauthorised war

trophy. He confessed into bringing it back to Britain, breaking all

military rules, even for the SAS. was intended to be decommissioned,

it is something I never got around to. I appreciate it is very naive

and something I should have done but haven't yet. In court, it claimed

this was a false confession, brought on because of severe brain damage he

suffered during a charity run in the Amazon forest. His case generated

huge interest from the public. In their view he was a veteran SAS

soldier unfairly prosecuted for simple having a gun and ammunition.

Campaigners say that this by Beagle two verdicts, the support will

continue -- that despite the guilty verdicts. I hope the court will take

account of the fact that this man was severely brain-damaged on a

charity run in Brazil and has given so much service to the country.

spokesman for the military said Danny Nightingale had received the

retrial he was looking for and any sentence would be down to the

military jury that tried him. It added that Jerry should take account

of the fact that he is a fine soldier. -- that jury. It is not

often that the words SAS soldier and defeat share the same sentence. But

Downing Nightingale -- Danny Nightingale's career is at an end

because he broke one of the rules of law.

Boston Marathon bomb suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has pleaded NOT

guilty to all charges. The 19-year-old was driven to his first

court appearance with a large police escort. He faces 30 counts of using

a weapon of mass destruction in the April blasts that killed three - and

injured 260. Prosecutors could press for the death penalty for some

counts. The chief executive of the rail

company whose runaway train derailed and exploded in Quebec has blamed a

local engineer for failing to apply the handbrake. 60 people are now

known to be dead or missing in the town of Lac-Megantic after Saturday

morning's disaster. At least 30 buildings were destroyed by the

explosion. David Cameron has rejected a

suggestion by the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, of a cap of �5,000 on

individual donations to political parties. The Prime Minister said it

would put an unfair burden on taxpayers to make up the shortfall.

And he accused Mr Miliband of seeking to divert attention from the

row about union influence in the Labour Party. Our deputy political

editor, James Landale, has the story.

Who should pay for our politics? The days, Labour has been criticised for

taking cash from the trade unions but today, Ed Miliband turned fire

on the Conservatives, claiming they had received millions from city

bankers. The result was a wall of noise. 6p a week in affiliation fees

from ordinary people up and down this country, against a party funded

by a few millionaires at the top. I am willing, as I have said before,

to have a �5,000 limit on donations from trade unions, businesses and

individuals. Is he willing to do that? He wasn't. The Prime Minister

said he would support a cap but not one set so low. It would imply a

massive amount of taxpayer support for political parties. Frankly, Mr

Speaker, I don't see why the result of a trade union scandal should be

every taxpayer in the country paying for Labour. That is the difference

between him and me, I want party funding reform, he doesn't. I am

proud we have links with ordinary working people. He is ankle rolled

by a few millionaires. The party of the people, the party of privilege

-- he is bankrolled. The loosening of financial links changed nothing

said the Prime Minister. Will the union still have the biggest vote at

the conference? Yes. Will they determine the policy? Yes. Will they

have the decisive vote in voting for the Labour leader? Yes. That is the

fact. Over the past year, the Tories received donations of �30 million,

more than 1 million from one Citibank alone. Two thirds of Labour

's funding came from the unions, the Lib Dems got 2.7 million. The

parties say they want to stop relying on rich unions and

individuals but can't agree on how much donation should be capped, who

should be covered by the cap and how much taxpayers should contribute.

One of the most powerful union leaders in Britain said Mr

Miliband's proposed reforms would mean Labour getting millions less

from them each year, and potentially ending the unions' historic link to

the party. I think it is a landmark move. He said he wanted to amend a

link, not ended. But I think this is as close to ending it as you can

get. -- wanted to mend a link. Politics always gets in the way of a

deal. If today's exchanges are anything to go by, don't expect an

agreement soon. The Pakistani teenager Malala

Yousufzai was shot in the head by the Taliban last October targeted

for daring to go to school. Since then she has made a remarkable

recovery, and this week she will address the United Nations on the

need for better access to education for children and young people across

the world. But the situation in her own country remains dire - 3.3

million girls under nine are not in education. And latest figures show

Pakistan has the second highest number of children out of school in

the world. Our correspondent, Orla Guerin, reports on the struggle to

get an education. Following in the footsteps of

Malala. Rushing to school, hungry to learn. The day begins with the

national anthem. These little girls in northern

Pakistan have already learned hard lessons. They know the Taliban wants

to silence girls' voices. And they know they aren't far away. The

attack on Malala change the equation here, but not the way you might

expect. This classroom is packed now, but teachers here tell us in

the early days after Malala washout, the school was empty. For

about a month, parents were too afraid to send their daughters here

-- the days after she was shot. There has been a big change,

enrolments are up, the school has 30 extra pupils. That is because

teachers and aid workers lobbied parents to educate their daughters.

And because Malala inspired them. We met some of the new pupils, like

10-year old Tasleem, who wants to be a policewoman. My mum saw what

happened to Malala on television. That made her think. After this, she

decided her girls should also be in school and should get a good

education. We should all follow Malala's example. Girls who were

trapped at home by conservative social values now have plans and

opportunities. But many children in Pakistan never see the inside of a

classroom. Instead, their childhood looks like this. Full of

backbreaking toil. At this kiln in the South, entire families make

bricks. Even the youngest have to pull their weight. Pakistan has

millions of child labourers, born into poverty and often debt. Geenie

is one of them, she is ten and she is desperate. We eat, otherwise we

go hungry. My big brother was hurt and he can't help my father making

bricks. He can't make any money. So now it is only ask, younger ones,

only lesson here, that life is a test of endurance.

Flooding in Western China has created a landslide that has buried

as many as 40 people, according to Chinese state media. Days of heavy

rain and floods have damaged hundreds of homes and forced the

evacuation of more than 36,000 people in Sichuan and Yunnan

provinces. The Irish parliament is tonight

expected to approve an abortion bill for the first time in the country's

history. The government says the bill will simply give clarity to

existing laws, but the Catholic Church believes the legislation will

lead to abortions where a mother's life is not at immediate risk. Our

Ireland correspondent, Chris Buckler, reports from Dublin.

Abortion is an emotive issue, particularly in Ireland. As

proposed, new legislation was discussed inside the Irish

Parliament. Just outside, the debate between pro-choice and pro-life

campaigners was loud, heated and sometimes angry. More than two

decades ago, Ireland's Supreme Court ruled an abortion could be carried

out if a woman's life was at more than substantial risk. The

government says it is bring clarity by putting that into legislation.

Even some of its ministers are wrestling with that their conscience

over how to vote. It is not reversible. They will change the

culture in this country. Savita Halappanavar was admitted into

hospital in Galway seriously ill and miscarry on, but was denied an

abortion and died days later. Her family claimed medical staff were

confused about when an abortion could be carried out. There are many

concerned in Ireland about legislating for abortion at all.

That has exposed a sharp divide between church and state, the

Catholic clergy and the Irish government. It includes suicidal

feelings as a risk to the mother's live, caused by an unborn child. We

would maintain that these wide interpretations open the door for

more and more wider access to abortion. Politicians have been put

under pressure. The Irish Prime Minister revealed he had been called

a murderer and sent a plastic foetus and a letter written in blood ahead

of this vote. Opinion polls suggest the majority of people in Ireland

support the bill, although the minority have been very vocal.

find it in comp rentable, how they think they have the right to enforce

those opinions on me and the majority of the public. This is a

debate that divides and accommodation of religion and

politics makes it an extremely sensitive one for the Irish

government. It's been a compelling start to the

summer's great clash between England and Australia at Trent Bridge.

England's cricketers fought back on day one of the first Ashes test

after being bowled out by the tourists for just 215.

You have witnessed one-day cricket, drunk maybe a few and seen 14

wickets fall. It is the Ashes, all right. Alastair Cook had plenty of

time to ponder his decision to bat first after he was dismissed for 13.

The weather was overcast, which cheers up bowlers. Peter Siddle was

the real star, taking five wickets including Jonathan Trott, who had

reached 48 when this happened. The stumps were already flattened.

Mitchell Starc roared into action, Jonny Bairstow was exposed. England

were all out for a measly 215. It is only a bad score if your opponents

make more. Australia were reeling as soon as they had begun. Steven Finn

was not sure of his selection but repaid confidence with two wickets

in two balls. Against Australia, everything matters more. You grow up

on a diet of wanting to play in the Ashes. Play against Australia, one

of the things you dream about. To live that dream, especially for

someone like me in my first home series, it is a really exciting

time. Ideally you bowl your best balls to the best batsmen. James

Anderson dismissing Michael Clarke 40, and exquisite example. Australia

without their captain and 75-4 at the close -- dismissing Michael