26/07/2012 Newsnight

Britain's back and open for business, the Prime Minister's

rallying call for foreign investment. But, with the economy

shrinking, who is willing to buy into us?

A taste of what brand Britain can be, we can do the showbiz, but

where is the business. The Mayor of Rio, and the Brompton Cycles, are

here to tell us what is needed for success.

The excitement is growing so much rb, -- so much, the geiger counter

of limb mania is going to go off the scale. He's certainly excited,

what about the rest of us. Is London 2012 the best hope of

reviving our economic hopes. The edge for Olympic goal. The ruling

bodies say what is allowed, in terms of physics, anything is

possible as long as the rules of physics allow that. Who are the

Syrian rebels, who is funding and arming them? We are on the Turkish

border to investigate. Good evening, Big Ben bathed in sunshine, crowds

along the Mal, the royals doing their royal thing at Buckingham

Palace, although in branded sports wear, Britain has rarely looked

better. Most would see the country at the top of its game tonight. But

behind the pomp lies a nation still reeling from the latest shocking

growth figures evidence and a still deepening recession. And today

David Cameron invited, some might say, pleaded with, to buy into

Britain, foreign investors. Paul Mason, what is going on? Before we

go on to that, there is moving news in Europe, the boss of the European

Central Bank, Mario Draghi, made a speech, where he said these words,

I will read them to you, "The ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to

preserve the single currency, believe me, it will be enough".

Translated, that means they will buy up the bonds of the striken

countries, Spain and Italy, or even lend to the bail out fund so it can

do unlimited bond buying itself. If that happens, that is the big Baz

sook ka we have all been waiting for. That is why all the markets

rose in Europe today. It is a big if, although Draghi holds the bass

sook ka, it is the German parliament who holds the projector,

they have never agreed to do it before. It may be turning point. We

don't know. Here in Britain we have been asking ourselves, how is it we

can stage the incredible thing we are about to see, and yet we can't

grow our economy. The quest for answers began for David Cameron in

the rose garden. It is the morning after disastrous news after growth,

what is the best thing to do? Sit in garden and make a sales pitch to

foreign investors. We have brilliant British companies they

can partner with. Last year more businesses were set up in Britain

than in almost any year in our history. We are a very

entreprenurial country. I can even offer good weather today. This is

the Britain millions are seeing as they flock to the city. The

sunshine be lies a terrible fact. The economy just can't grow, even

when it is pumped up with money from the Bank of England. David

Cameron said he would carry on with Plan A+, which is more austerity,

with more money printed by the Bank of England. Why are things so

persistently bad, what is the blue sky thinking about putting it

right? The missing bit of the recovery has been called

rebalancing, lost jobs in local councils, replaced by new jobs in

manufacturing. Growth in public spending replaced by private

investment. There have been jobs created, including in the all-

important car-making plants, that produce more than 10% of UK exports.

1100 were announced this week by Jaguar Land Rover. Since the new

year, McCollateralen, Nissan, Vauxhall, and Honda, together with

mid-size supply chain companies, announced about 8,000 new jobs. For

the private sector as a whole, more than 200,000 jobs were created in

just three months. So why are we still in trouble,

some think it is not macro- economics, but microstructures,

like the supply chains of almost successful factories that is the

problem. The import content is sucked in to actually make the

exports. That is the fundamental problem. If you look at the factory

like Vauxhall Ellesmere Port, the fundamentally, for the last few

years, been running a kit assembly operation, with a Brit content of

about 12%. If that is so, then every Astra that you export sucks

in the imports, and that's the problem of broken supply chains.

help struggling firms, last month George Osborne launched what may be

the last big tweak to Plan A, in the form of �08 billion, lent by

the Bank of England to banks to get them lending again to business. But

will it work? We hear quite a bit about small and medium enterprises

that can't get finance. And they are what I think we have is what

some would say is an excessive degree of risk aversion on the part

of the banks. In my view the problem with the schemes so far is

they are essentially subsidise to the banks to -- supsidies to the

banks to lend more. But a sill subsidies to the bank doesn't mean

they will lend. If the lending doesn't work, the fear is the

economy will stagnate, you get growth but it is not spectacular,

and jobs are part-time and low-paid. You can live with that for a while,

as long as you don't have massive debts, but we do. Last November the

Government was already forced to announce an extra �43 billion of

spending cuts, for 2015 and 2016, just to maintain its target of

balancing the book. But even these drastic measures were premised on

achieving growth this year and decent growth next. That looks

unlikely, what can they do? number thing I would actually do is

incentivise manufacturing output by value-added-promotion. Rebate

corporation tax, for people who manage organic increases in output.

Give people an incentive to increase out put, because out--

output, because output drags employment with it. It is not

rocket science, we have a lot of skilled people, we have a creeking

infrastructure, and a structural shortage of houses, it is simple,

the Government should borrow more money at record low interest rates,

and using that to invest in things like infrastructure, housing and

getting the unemployed people back to work.

For now, the world's rich and powerful, and their yachts, have

come to London, to see the greatest show on earth. What is the secret

of a successful exporting economy. I caught up with Mexico's Central

Bank boss this morning. In the short-term there are no quick fixes.

You have to go through the motions, you have to go through the process

of stagnatisation. The strong message I have from Mexico is

stagnation pays. Britain's options are, in truth,

limited by what the financial markets will bear. But in the

meantime, we are determined to have one heck of a party.

What does it take to get business to invest here, and what do they

get in return. With me here is Emerson Roberts, who heads fold

away Brompton Cycles. And Eduardo Paes, the Mayor of Rio. And Gillian

Tett joins us. You hear the case that David Cameron is making today,

is it convincing, when you listen to that, as a foreigner, who has

many businesses who you could be advising, is it convincing?

Especially at this time it is a convincing message. I know the

economic crisis has nothing to do with the Olympics, but when Britain

brings the Olympics, when the Olympics happens in London, it

opens, it shows again that this is the capital of the world. Because

it is more open than other important cities. That you can come

here and make business. You are saying we are the capital of the

world tonight, you don't really believe that? I do, what are the

two most important cities in the world, after Rio, just kidding, it

is New York and London. Great Britain is more open than the US,

so when you have a big event like that, I mean, it shows really that

people can come here. But, OK, if businesses come to you, and say we

want ideas of where to do business, round the world, how far up is

London on your list, seriously? Seriously, I think it is a great

place to do business. Unless you have to buy real estate. Again,

Europe is going through a crisis, the developed world is going

through a crisis. China isn't, India isn't, Russia isn't? It is

not as bad as the developing world, the developing world is not as bad

as developed world. Peru is not doing perfect, but it is going fine,

compared to what is happening in Europe. But I do believe that at

the moment, when you bring everyone in. That's how I see the Olympics.

Gillian Tett, a slightly different view, sometimes, from Stateside,

Mitt Romney who is in town today, once wrote that England was a small

island, roads and houses are small, and it makes things the rest of the

world doesn't really want to buy. think that certainly reflects a

view of considerable pessimism amongst many people over here in

America. You talk to American policy makers or economists or

business leaders today about what is happening in the global economy,

and Europe, in general, is seen as a pretty black spot. London and the

UK until now have been viewed slightly differently, partly

because, or primarily because it is thought that there is a Government

there that has its act together. That it had a plan drawn up a

couple of years ago, to tackle the debt. It has been implementing that

plan. In stark contrast to even a country like the US, never mind the

eurozone, where Governments have been less decisive. You say, up

till now, is that changing as a result of yesterday's figures?

There was a general concern, on the part of the US Government in

Washington, who I have been speaking to recently, about the

feeling that Europe is pressing ahead with austerity a bit too fast.

A number of people would say that, in fact, the UK has been a little

bit too aggressive in terms of its austerity actions. It does, at

least, have plan. One of the things you shouldn't forget, is when the

Government was elected a couple of years ago. There were people out

there, big, powerful, bond investors who said the UK gilt

market was sitting on a bed of nitroglycerin, it seemed they were

heading towards a bond market crisis. That has been largely

averted, because there is a Government in plan with a plan.

Whether or not it is the right plan or not.

I personally would echo the view of the IMF, that would say perhaps the

austerity has been a bit too much. They could or should ease back. But

above all else, they need to do so in a controlled way, that retains

business confidence. If busys the UK Government does have a plan to

go a bit easy on fiscal austerity, maybe introduce some stimulus

measures, but at least it is part of a co-ordinated measure, that

would help bolster things a bit. you think you build things no-one

wants? I have to laugh at that. The USA has been the fastest-growing

market in the last 12 months, that and Jaguar Land Rover, other

British well known brands do incredibly well in the US. To be

honest, I was in Rio a couple of years ago, doing a south American

tour, effectively, looking fordom some distributors in -- for some

distributors. It only takes two weeks out of the schedule to do

that sort of trip. More interesting is what I learned from the guys

leading the UKTI trip down to Sao Paulo. They were saying it is great

you guys are down here, buff to realise that you are quite late in

the game. That is what I want to know, you said fundamentally all it

takes is a couple of weeks, but clearly for most British businesses

it doesn't, most British businesses are not in Rio. Why not? It is a

good qe, one statistic tis -- is a good question That is a good

question, there are more regional headquarters for companies in Sao

Paulo than Berlin, German companies. The trade balance between Brazil

and England, it is so small. It has grown a little bit in the past two

to three years, it is still really small. If you go to Brazil you will

see lots of American companies a lot of German companies, Spanish

companies, lots of them. Some Portuguese companies, but not many

British. We are not alone, generally we don't push ourselves

out into these big markets as easily as other countries?

personal view is I think we have been spoiled by our historical

associations with the Commonwealth. I think we saw that as our export

markets. The growth markets now are Brazil, India, Russia, and markets

where we are not very strong. do you think of that, Gillian, do

you think there is a cultural inhibition here? I think the issue

with the UK and Brazil is that there have been fewer ties

historically than between other parts of Europe. What is crystal

clear right now is British business needs to do what politicians told

ordinary employees a couple of decades ago, get on their bike.

They can't count on the eurozone providing growth at the moment.

They will be lucky if they avoid being draged downwards by a nasty

recession there. We need to widen their eyes and look at the emerging

markets, Brazil, China, and the Middle East. They need to look at

America. Because there are parts of the American economy growing.

terms of what David Cameron is saying, briefly, how do you get

those markets interested in Britain. What are we, on a non-eve of

Olympics night, actually offering? I would imagine one of the most

powerful things the UK is offering, is it is within Europe but not part

of the eurozone. It is not being dragged down by those problems, and

thus far it hasn't had a debt crisis. Let's hope it will continue.

Very last word to you? It is incredibly easy to set up a company

in Britain. We are very open n that sense. We went to Chile in the same

tour I went on, Brazil and Argentina, they have high import

tarrifs, Chile has a free trade agreement with the EU, it is much

better to export bikes to Chile. We are open for business, it is just

handing out that message. You get the dubious honour of

getting the first guest in shorts. Olympic medal waiting for you off

the set. If there is anything likely to get a British audience

behind the Olympics, it is a national slagging off from an

American politician. Mitt Romney, the Republican US presidential

candidate, questioned the Brits preparation for the Olympics. He

was slapped down quickly by the Prime Minister.

The golden light went through London's landmarks on the last day

of the run. We followed the flame. This is a tester of what you can

expect if you have a ticket for the opening ceremony of the Olympic

Games at Stratford tomorrow evening. It has emerged tonight that all the

seats have been sold for the big launch, with punters balking at

price tags of up to �2,000. It is understood that members of the

Armed Forces and children will fill some of the empty places.

I hope what people will see is, obviously, all the things they love

about Britain's past, all the fingers they like about our history,

our institutions, our culture, or contribution to world development,

but I also hope they will see a very open country, and one that has

an enormous amount to offer for future. People keep talking about

the Olympic family. Perhaps they mean the Windsors, who have been

publicly lending their support to the London Olympiad today. As has

footballer, David Beckham, rejected by one leader of great brain,

Stuart 'Psycho' Pearce, he's happily joining forces with another,

to take part in a called "Hunger Summit", which will take place

before the games end. I'm honoured to be part of UNICEF and be here

today, voicing our opinions on malnutrition, because it is so

important. Why are the eyes of the world -- while the eyes of the

world are on our country. # Love is a burning flame

# And it makes a fiery ring Like a flaming brandysnap of hope.

The Olympic Torch, or rather torches, have been travelling the

country in recent weeks. The passing flame has shed light on the

extraordinary achievements of some of our fellow countrymen and women.

Today it came to white City in west London, the home of Newsnight --

White City in west London, the home of Newsnight and BBC Television

Centre. That's the magic of the torch, it's bringing a little joy

and wonder to this isolated community, which, let's face it,

hasn't had much to do with entertainment for years.

High five, come on, feel the love. Bruce a quick word for Newsnight,

are you thrilled about this event? Don't I look thrilled, I have been

waiting for this 84 years, I have finally done it, carried the

Olympic Torch, thank you so much. But there is a danger that Sir

Bruce will have to work into old age to pay for the games. That

could go for the rest of us too. With apologies to Brucie and his

classic game show, Play Your Cards Right, the initial price tag for

the games was a comparatively modest �2.4 billion. Higher, higher.

Only for it to go up to more than �9 billion, in 2007. Lower, lower.

Last month, the Government said the cost was inching down. The games

were coming in under budget to the tune of �476 million. Higher,

higher. Ah yes, but MPs on the Public Accounts Committee say the

final figure could go up again, to �11 billion. Tonight, the torch

reached Buckingham Palace, met by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge,

in Team GB sports wear, bearing the manufacturer's logo. The problem

with the games is they are unnecessarily expensive, we don't

have all these different sports and all these specially-designed venues,

then we have to commercialise them, we have to get sponsors, the

sponsors are paranoid with everyone muscling in on it, with the Royal

Family dressing-up in their gear. It is undignified and ridiculous.

The London mayor biffed the American presidential hopeful, Mitt

Romney, who downed the games. Romney wants to know whether we are

ready, are we ready? Yes! Yes we are. Have a wonderful wonderful

London 2012 thank you for your support.

We to speak to LOCOG, the London Organising Committee, yet again

they didn't want to be interviewed by us. Happily the Olympic minister,

Hugh Robertson is with us. Thank you for coming with us, ahead of a

busy day. Our economy is in dire need of a bright spark, and as we

saw from the growth figures, yesterday. We are pretty desperate

to find the right solution. Do you think that the Olympics can provide

that touch paper? Yes, I. Do I think in a sense the Olympics has

already given us one fantastic legacy, is that we undertook the

largest construction project anywhere in Europe, to try to

transform the largest area of industrial wasteland inside the M25

into the Olympic Park. When you look at the GDP figures, everyone

points to construction, and you would think that the Olympic Park

hadn't even happened? The Olympic Park is the most magnificent

calling card moving forward. The trick is to use in the years ahead

to secure more business opportunities and contracts for

business construction. David Cameron spoke of the lasting

economic legacy, you have come up with a figure of �13 billion over

the next ten years. Break it down, the quoted figures are a billion

pounds from UK business conferences held during the games? Absolutely.

There is a long programme, it is all done at Malboro House, and next

door at Lancaster House, there is a programme right the way through the

Olympics, of business conferences, of getting the world's top business

leaders in the country. A billion pounds in three weeks? That is the

realistic estimate, of contracts signed as a result, the estimate of

contracts signed as a result of the games. �4 billion of opportunities

for British business from embassy summits after the games? Absolutely,

there is a programme called The Great Campaign, launched in the ten

major markets, very successfully, it has been all over the New York

subway and Los Angeles. Across the ten major markets. When will you

add them up and tell us what they made? The Foreign Office said it is

the most successful trade campaign they have ever seen, it has a good

chance of raising those sorts of sums. You will know that when?

years after the Olympics. These are, as you said in the introduction,

ten-year figures. For a country in such dire economic constraints,

there is huge marketing constraints, I'm looking at the wording you can

use, the sponsorship after every event, banning smaller businesses

to get in on the act. We have the royals wearing Addidas sweat

shirts? They are wearing those because they are Team GB supporters,

it is not a sports brand thing. Don't you wake up wondering what

LOCOG will tell you what to do next? I won't, because LOCOG have

been more successful than any other organising committee in the history

of the Olympic Games, by raising �700 million from the private

sector. That is a success story, it says a lot to foreign investors

about our ability to attract sponsorship to major sporting

events. It shows that every year from 201224 will be a major

sporting event. Let's look at some of the sponsorship. We have covered

on Newsnight the area of obesity, LOCOG has refused to engage with it.

The games sponsored by Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Cadbury's, a lot fast

food sponsors, they contribute 2% to the overall IOC income, and yet

they have extraordinary dominance in the field? They do, but many of

those sponsors also run fantastic grass roots programmes, they have

healthy eating programme, and sport in schools programme, they have

corporate responsibility programmes. But isn't it strange someone

running with a fast food logo on it. You are happy that McDonalds will

be ruling the school at the Olympics? I'm happy for them to be

investing money in children's sports, getting people fit, and

conducting their corporate responsibility programmes. Who will

do the Olympic Torch, Mitt Romney? Fortunately it is not my decision,

I'm not involved in it. There is nobody who has done as much for

British sport, particularly as in recent times as Coe, I suspect he -

- Sebastian Coe, I suspect he's not available, with other things on the

night. If you look at the olympian with the greatest number of medals,

it has to be Steve Redgrave. If the rebels of the Free Syrian

Army, in and around Aleppo, lack weapons to match those of Bashar

Al-Assad's forces, one thing they don't lack is optimisim. They have

claimed victory in parts of the city after clashes in recent days.

Who are the rebels, and who arms them?

It is within range of Syrian artillery. Once a part of Syria,

and today, the Turkish town of Antackia, serves as a safe haven

for rebels fighting across the border. Place to recover,

reorganise, and begin to plan their country's future.

Rebels like this man, he left his home town of Hama, a few years

after the regime massacred thousands of Muslim Brotherhood

rebels there in the 1980s, and built a new life as a prosperous

businessman in the United States. This year, a sense of guilt brought

him back to his country. To fight for its freedom.

He re-equipped this rebel battalion, partly from his own pocket, and

became its commander, at the age of 52. I participate in so many fights,

like including many cities. I enjoyed it. You enjoyed it?

course. I would consider I spent the best six weeks in all my life.

I was so happy to be there. I was so happy to be a part of it. I

don't have this kind of guilt that I had, it's gone.

This week, Syrian rebels like him celebrated one of their greatest

victories yet. An advance into their country's second city, and

trading hub, Aleppo, which up until recently appeared to be a

Government stronghold. In a darkened house, just yards over the

border in Turkey, Mahmoud was waiting to help some of the

refugees, as they emerged through the nigh. This builder and his son

have walked for hours, still keeping the Ramadan fast. He

translates as they tell me why they flet Government militia.

TRANSLATION: They killed, they burned their bodies, they burned

some people who were alive, then they threw them in the street.

Why is it all starting in Aleppo now. Because for a very long time,

for a year, even after the uprising started, Aleppo was quite quiet?

There is a lot of money in Aleppo. Most of the business people were

partners with the regime. Or members of the regime. Those people

it took them so long to get their families outside of the country, to

transfer their money somewhere else, that is what took so long, and now

there is no more money, and people are in a safe I can't remember

outside the country. That is why the situation has changed.

Now that the Government can't hold their cash, or their relatives

hostage, they are free to declare their support for the uprise, and

join their family in a Turkish refugee camp.

Meanwhile, back in Aleppo, the Government was mustering its

superior fire power for a return attack. Fighting wars costs money,

and the rebels don't have much. 24 hours we estimated the

ammunition we used of over $1.2 million.

Here the rebel commanders are holding a crisis meeting, desperate

to find ways of getting more cash and weapons. They have had little

luck from the main opposition grouping, the Syrian National

Council, which is funded partly by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, countries

committed to arming the rebels. I have been told by one senior Syrian

national council official, that there was a pause in fighting

because mistakes were being made. Weapons were being passed to people

who were not real revolutionaries, they were dealers, who were selling

the guns on. The fear that weapons may fall into the wrong hands,

including terrorist hands, is the reason why CID agents are said to

be operate anything the area, trying to vet arms decision. They

are collaborating with the General who is are more involved than they

are said. Down the road, one Syrian rebel leader said he had received

arms from a Turkish truck parked down the road. An opposition party

member in Turkey has heard similar stories. They told us two or three

times a week, between midnight and 5.00am, there are mini-buses and

lorries bringing boxes. Sometimes they are escorted by military

vehicles. We are getting information they are bringing

weapons. It is not possible it could be done without the knowledge

of Government. According to the rebels, those deliveries go mainly

to battalions that support the Muslim Brotherhood. They say it is

the dominant force in the Syrian National Council. And units like

his, which aren't Islamist, are left out. The other parties who are

apart from the SNC are not effective, they are not doing

anything. The Muslim Brotherhood are getting money. They are getting

money from the Arab countries, they are getting money from other places.

They have money, and when you have money you have power.

The SNC itself denies any discrimination in the use of funds.

But the claim raises questions for western powers, which won't pay for

arms, but do help the Syrian opposition in other ways. Britain,

which last year unambiguously backed the main Libyan opposition

group, the National Transitional Council, now, much more gingerly

describes its would-be equivalent, the Syrian National Council, as

just "a", not "the" legitimate Syrian representative of the people,

and helps other groups as well. British sources deny they have any

concerns about the overdue influence of the Muslim Brotherhood,

they are urging it could be as inclusive as possible of all Syrian

communities and political groups. As for Turkey the border crossings

with Syria are now closed. Something the Government here, led

by a Sunni-Islamic party, is encouraging chaos, but trying to

bring down the secular Assad regime, dominated by the minority Alawite

sect, and backed by Shia Iran. TRANSLATION: This is part of our

Prime Minister's great Middle East project to redesign the region.

What began in Tunisia and Egypt has now got stuck in Syria. Next will

come Iran. To make it easier tie tack Iran, Israel, America, Saudi

Arabia and Qatar want a new Government in Syria. They are

sparking a sectarian war. McMood last the same fear of -

Mahmoud has the same fear of sectarianism. We will have civil

war, most of the people in the regime and the Syrian people

fighting now, they are Alawite. I don't think that's something the

Syrians will forget soon. There will be a retaliation, I have no

doubt. The end of the regime, he's sure, won't be the end of the

struggle. But he doesn't want to give up fighting. Over the next few

week, for some, winning a medal at the Olympics, will hang on a few

hundreths of a second. What is it that gives elite athlete the edge

they need for success. We have had exclusive access to Teep GB

athletes and the -- Team GB athletes and the scientists and

people working with them to find out if it is talent or anything

else. Focused to win. Striving to reach

the top. We expect our athletes to be almost superhuman. So is it as

simple as being the best, or is there more to these elite

performers. What is it that sets them apart. What is it that gives

them the edge? McCollateralen doesn't just do cars. -- McLaren

doesn't just do cars. At their technology centre, a Formula One

effort is being applied to help top athletes too. With performance

across many sports reaching a peak, winning depends on the smallest of

margins, fine tuning is what McLaren does best. It is this know-

how that Team GB is tapping into. Many athletes are monitored every

day in their training environment, as opposed to a lab. That

continuing collection of information helps us understand how

the athlete is developing all the time. It is about data, we talk

about the only competitive, sustainable advantage is to learn

faster than the opposition. Technology has given us a platform

to better understand individuals, and better intervene so they can

develop more effectively for their events. Live measurement of Formula

One cars during a race on tyre or engine performance, and the

driver's physiology, means teams can make instantaneous decisions

about the tactics. The technology is closely guarded in motor racing,

and McLaren is equally secretive about how they have helped Team GB.

The impact of the work we do is generally the difference between

meddling and not meddling. It might even be the case of once you --

medals, and not medaling, once you get in the case, you can get a

medal. This lab in Sheffield is where the ideas of the future will

be honed. These PhD students are not dancing, they are learning

about posture. They are helping to build the proto-types of systems to

help athletes out in the field as they train. Everything he does

depends on measuring an athlete's performance, then feeding that

information back straight away, giving them the edge. You have the

boundaries of the allowed and the possible. The ruling bodies, they

say what is allowed, but in terms of physics, anything is possible,

as long as the rules of physics allow that.

How many strokes per minute does it say? 32.5 something.

Yes t looks daft, but believe me, this kind of monitoring is intended

to help athletes work out how to optimise their performance.

It is great, keep going. Tiny reflectors on my arms and legs,

mean the 12 infrared cameras around the world can track my movements.

An athlete can use this to watch how they position their bodios, how

long and how fast their stroke -- bodies, how long and how fast their

strokes are, how much weight they put on an arm or leg, and when.

It is out in competition that matters most.

The key is the rapid development of mobile technology. This makes

instantaneous feedback possible, right at the pool side. Teams have

access to more than a million pieces of data, on thousands of

races, by swimmers from over 60 nations. They can begin to see

though they compare with rival, or over the years. -- how they compare

with rivals, or over the year. At qualifiers in Sheffield last month,

the athletes were on edge. This is the second round of the Olympic

trials for British swimmers. 37 places have already been filled,

there are only 15 left to compete for. So for these swimmers, every

hundreths of a second really counts. -- hunddret of a second really

counts. Stacey has already earned her place at the London Olympics.

She's watched by her performance team, so they can feedback last-

minute tweaks. Professor Haake is monitoring her too and her rivals.

What they are looking at Stacey's race, they will look at the video,

with that they can see her technique, and the individual

strokes going into and out of the turns. With an all what they have

done already, they are looking at analysis and the number of strokes

per minute, the distance between strokes and her velocity through

the water, particularly coming into the beginning and ends of the race.

You weren't aware of them here. Stacey herself seems less

interested in the high-tech analysis, just watching the video

tells her the most. Spectators too can be wary of the role technology

plays in an athlete's performance. People like to see, in any sport,

that it is the athlete in front of them that is winning, not some

spurious piece ofing at the knowledge. So, the world governing

body, although they like technology, they want technology it keep the

sport alive, it can't be the dominant effect.

At Loughborough, and the British Olympic swimming team is now in

lockdown. Craig beginson is the world junior champion for the 100m

breast stroke. His coach wants to work on his weak points. When he

qualified for the Olympics, off the start he came up, he was probably

last after the start, so the first 10-15ms of the race, he was one of

the slowest, and by the time he got down to 50ms he was second-fastest,

so you know, obviously if we improve the start to the point

where he's one of the best at the start, then he's probably going to

be one of the best swimmers in the world. Today, she and Craig have

scientists from the University of Southampton, poolside, to help,

they are measuring his speed through the water and the way he

turns. Feeding this back to him straight away, while the memory is

still fresh enough, that he can still almost feel the movements in

his body. It can make the difference between winning an

Olympic gold medal and not. Because, you are talking, at the Olympics,

of such small amounts between 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, sometimes it is.01

of a second. Anything to improve that is good.

At the Olympic Park, with the games just a few weeks away, the British

women's hockey team, enjoy a 2461 win against Argentina -- 2-1 win

against Argentina. Then this happens, the moment every athlete

dreads, Alex Danson injuries her shoulder, is it all down to bad

luck, or could her genes have played a role too? A few weeks

later and she's having physio. Let's do eight.

Her prospects for London look good. But by knowing about her gene,

could she have avoided injury all together? A London team has

identified two genes with variants that can mean an athlete is more

prone to stress fractures, might genetics be the clue to elite

performance? If you look at any one sporting element, let as say, for

instance, how high you can jump as a child, quite a lot of that

variation in a classroom will be down to genes. It can be as much as

80% of the variation of that sort of event. As you get more and more

elite, you require an increasingly rare combination of genes, but

quite clearly, if you didn't get to train, if you didn't get the right

nutrition, you would never reach that potential.

At the English Institute of Sport, they spend millions making sure the

latest in sports science and medicine reaches Olympic and

Paralympic athletes, they are keen to make use of anything that

science can teach them, including the latest in genetics.

We know some individuals seem to have a higher risk of certain types

of injury. If we can better understand the risk of injury for

an individual athlete, due to their genetics, so we can Taylor their

conditioning programme to pre-- tailor their conditioning programme

to prevent injury, but also inform their medal programme to manage and

treat injury. That research involved work with

the military, as well as athletes, but to some, the idea of testing

for genes to help swap the perfect -- spot the perfect soldier or

athlete is a chilling one. There is a danger, not least it isn't yet an

exact science. And if we try to apply it in that way, we could be

missing out on possible champions. But perhaps more importantly, it

raises some big ethical and social issues, and for many people,

participation in sport is about fun, it is about healthy lifestyle, and

the last thing we or anyone else should be doing is actually

screening people in to or out of particular sports, based on genetic

variations. In the end, being the best is about

so much more than data collection, fine tuning and genetic testing.

Let's just imagine you have screened all the males in the

country at the age of two, you have identified the next Beckham Gino

type, does that person want to play, enjoy playing, have they also

developed the set of gene that is will lead them to discover alcohol

and cigarettes at the age of 11 and stop training. None of these things

are predictable. If the winners emerge from people like you and me,

they are essentially the same enough or different enough to set

them apart. If they weren't, the rest of us would have nothing to

aspire to. Let me take you through the front

of tomorrow's papers. A lot with beautiful covers, and souvenir

That's all from Newsnight, tomorrow night we are timed to be on air

right in the middle of the Olympic ceremony, I'll be here with the

best moments, we will explore what it says about Britain, with a panel

from music, sport and literature, good night from all of us.

The Olympic Park looked amazing in the sunshine this week, that is set

to change, to some extent, during Friday, a risk of showers pushing

in across the south-east of England. Showers across the North West of

Scotland. Inbetween many places dry, sunshine coming through from time

to time. Temperatures across northern areas still struggling.

Just scraping up to 21 degrees across Yorkshire. In the south

lower than they have been. 23 degrees in London, as opposed to 30

we saw days ago. In the south-east largely dry, sunshine coming

through, pleasantly warm on the beaches. A fine afternoon, some

patchy cloud, some sunshine as well. Dodge the showers across Northern

Ireland, being pushed in by a fairly brisk north-westerly wind,

that won't help with the feel of the day, those showers merging to

get longer spells of rain across North West Scotland, particularly

to the north of the great Glenn. Not the warmest of days, by