Browse content similar to 06/12/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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political parrying, tonight we examine where the pain will hurt | :00:15. | :00:18. | |
examine where the pain will hurt most. With the numbers crunched, it | :00:18. | :00:24. | |
looks like households with children are the biggest losers. Maternity | :00:24. | :00:28. | |
pay shouldn't be squeezed, with the climate and household bills this is | :00:28. | :00:32. | |
another thing to add on to it. the Autumn Statement under the | :00:32. | :00:35. | |
microscope, are the cuts to come credible, how hard will they hit. | :00:35. | :00:41. | |
Also tonight. The UN Secretary-General joins | :00:42. | :00:46. | |
President Obama in warning Syria of dire consequences if they unleash | :00:46. | :00:50. | |
chemical weapons, as NATO missiles head to Turkey's Syrian border, we | :00:51. | :00:57. | |
talk to the Turkish ambassador. Mark Blanco died after a fall from | :00:58. | :01:05. | |
a balcony six years ago, after a party attended by PeteDoherty and | :01:05. | :01:10. | |
friends, police investigations have failed to find out what happened. | :01:10. | :01:15. | |
Forensic investigators have looked at the CCTV again and his mother | :01:15. | :01:20. | |
believes the investigation should be opened again. It is outrageous | :01:20. | :01:27. | |
the way Mark's debt has been treated. More than 40 years on from | :01:27. | :01:32. | |
this moment. It is one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. | :01:32. | :01:42. | |
:01:42. | :01:48. | ||
A first class ticket to the moon could be your's for �5 million. In | :01:48. | :01:51. | |
the past 24 hours the Autumn Statement have been shaken down. | :01:51. | :01:54. | |
And details like autumn leaves have been falling into the hands of | :01:54. | :01:58. | |
number crunchers. What is clear is the Chancellor is having to play a | :01:58. | :02:04. | |
very long game. The Institute of Fiscal Studies reckons cuts | :02:04. | :02:07. | |
totalling �27 billion could be expected in the years after the | :02:07. | :02:11. | |
2015 general election. Cuts most likely in police, local Government, | :02:11. | :02:15. | |
defence, environment and transport. Making an overall squeeze of almost | :02:15. | :02:21. | |
a third of their budgets. The IFS director said that begins to look | :02:21. | :02:25. | |
inconceivable. Well, is it? We will be discussing that in a moment. | :02:25. | :02:31. | |
First we have this. You will remember that before the | :02:31. | :02:34. | |
last election, the Conservatives made much of the fact that they | :02:35. | :02:39. | |
were going to save future generations from inheriting | :02:39. | :02:43. | |
Labour's debt. Well, a new-born at the time of the last election would | :02:43. | :02:48. | |
be roughly two-and-a-half now, and just like these toddlers at this | :02:48. | :02:52. | |
nursery in Gravesend in Kent, facing an uncertain fiscal future. | :02:52. | :02:56. | |
We now know they will be well through primary school before the | :02:56. | :03:00. | |
debt stops rising. The day after the you bub budget, or statement, | :03:00. | :03:04. | |
is normally when we get a truer picture of the real bad news, when | :03:04. | :03:08. | |
independent analysts get to peer into the bare bones of a | :03:08. | :03:12. | |
Government's figures. The first thing to say is how much worse a | :03:12. | :03:16. | |
state the economy is, even compared to the predictions made just a few | :03:16. | :03:22. | |
short months ago. We are in for a whole lot more pain. | :03:22. | :03:26. | |
Here's where the independent OBR thought growth was heading way back | :03:26. | :03:32. | |
at the time of the March budget. And here, is their line now. | :03:32. | :03:38. | |
In fact, by 2016/17, that difference represents a hole in GDP | :03:38. | :03:45. | |
of 3.6%, and much of that is permanent. | :03:45. | :03:49. | |
So, given that the outlook is now so much worse than we thought it | :03:49. | :03:52. | |
was, how come the Chancellor was able to say that borrowing is lower | :03:52. | :03:57. | |
this year than last? Well, say the Institute for Fiscal you had | :03:57. | :04:01. | |
studies, who have crunched the numbers -- studies, who had | :04:01. | :04:08. | |
crunched the numbers, he as banking on the windfall from the 4G mobile | :04:08. | :04:12. | |
phone spectrum, even though it hasn't been sold yet. And savings | :04:12. | :04:16. | |
from Government departments not spending all of their budgets. The | :04:16. | :04:19. | |
office for budget responsibility also assumes that similar | :04:19. | :04:22. | |
underspend also take place in future years, which is a bit of a | :04:22. | :04:25. | |
double-edged sword for the Government. You will remember on | :04:25. | :04:30. | |
Tuesday the Government preannounced �5 billion worth of new capital | :04:30. | :04:34. | |
spending to boost the economy, for next year and the year after. Well, | :04:34. | :04:39. | |
today we learned that the OBR is assuming that the capital budget in | :04:39. | :04:44. | |
those years will actually be underspent by �3 billion, meaning | :04:44. | :04:49. | |
the Government's �5 billion boost is more like a net �2 billion boost. | :04:49. | :04:54. | |
Not so impressive. The big story, though, is how the pain now extends | :04:54. | :04:59. | |
far over the electoral horizon, another three years, and households | :04:59. | :05:02. | |
with children could be hardest hit. The Government has so far only | :05:02. | :05:07. | |
given us total spending for those years, not how the savings will be | :05:07. | :05:12. | |
shared out. Today, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, analysed these | :05:12. | :05:16. | |
totals against the Government's stated priorities, and came up with | :05:16. | :05:19. | |
some startling predictions. Assuming that the Government will | :05:19. | :05:23. | |
protect NHS, schools and international aid spending, as they | :05:23. | :05:27. | |
have said they will, well, other departments will have to take | :05:27. | :05:34. | |
another 16.2% of cuts, between 2014 and 2016/17. If you add that to all | :05:34. | :05:37. | |
the cuts that have already happened under the coalition since 2010, | :05:37. | :05:44. | |
then you get a total of 31.5% of cut for non-protected departments. | :05:44. | :05:48. | |
Remember this includes defence, the police and local Government. | :05:48. | :05:54. | |
According to the independent IFS, this is, quote "close to | :05:54. | :05:56. | |
inconceivable". Public services like the police are already feeling | :05:56. | :06:00. | |
the long arm of spending cuts. And proposals today would cut the | :06:00. | :06:06. | |
starting salary of a PC by another �4,000. | :06:06. | :06:09. | |
It is becoming politically very difficult for the Chancellor to | :06:09. | :06:13. | |
continue to pile pressure on certain Whitehall departments, we | :06:13. | :06:18. | |
may see problems in the prison system, or problems with the police, | :06:18. | :06:21. | |
or problems in local Government. It will be difficult for the | :06:21. | :06:26. | |
Government to brush those problems off, by 2015, by which time many of | :06:27. | :06:30. | |
the departments will be under pressure. We got more information | :06:30. | :06:34. | |
today of how the pain is being shared out F you divide the | :06:34. | :06:36. | |
population into ten income groups, with the highest income on the | :06:36. | :06:40. | |
right, the clear winners from the Autumn Statement are the higher | :06:40. | :06:45. | |
than average paid, with the big losers at the bottom. The very | :06:45. | :06:50. | |
highest paid are hit too, in fact, they get the biggest hit in cash | :06:50. | :06:58. | |
terms, �8.05 worse off, compared to �5.10 at the bottom. In the budget | :06:58. | :07:02. | |
in the bring George Osborne came unstuck, it looked unfair, the cut | :07:02. | :07:08. | |
in the top rate of tax, the pasty tax, the granny tax, there were | :07:08. | :07:12. | |
issues of fairness. Yesterday he went some way back to restoring | :07:12. | :07:16. | |
that, supporting pensioners, cutting taxes for the low paid. | :07:16. | :07:20. | |
Going after pension tax relief for the very highest earners. But, will | :07:20. | :07:26. | |
it work, that's the big thing? families with children may not | :07:26. | :07:28. | |
exactly feel fairly treated, broadly speaking they will be the | :07:29. | :07:32. | |
worst hit from yesterday's statement. Changes like limiting | :07:32. | :07:36. | |
increases in maternity pay and child benefit to below inflation, | :07:36. | :07:39. | |
not popular. It definitely shouldn't be squeezed at the moment. | :07:39. | :07:45. | |
With the climate as it is, it is hard enough as it is, with all | :07:45. | :07:48. | |
household bills and everything else, this is another thing to add on to | :07:48. | :07:53. | |
it. We can probably expect more pain in the form of tax rises and | :07:53. | :07:57. | |
benefits cuts, perhaps even for wealthy pensioners, so far rather | :07:57. | :08:01. | |
protected by the Government. That, of course, is all after the next | :08:01. | :08:04. | |
election. We have got some number crunchers | :08:04. | :08:08. | |
in the studio, Vidhya Alakeson, from the Resolution Foundation, | :08:08. | :08:12. | |
Nicola Smith from the TUC, also Matthew Oakley from Policy Exchange, | :08:12. | :08:16. | |
and Ruth Porter from the Institute of Economic Affairs. Nicola, | :08:16. | :08:21. | |
austerity is a given, there is a resignation that nobody can do much | :08:21. | :08:25. | |
about it, that is why there is very little dissent? It is as long as | :08:25. | :08:28. | |
the Chancellor continues on an economic strategy that fails to | :08:28. | :08:32. | |
meet stated objectives. We know from the Autumn Statement yesterday, | :08:32. | :08:37. | |
we are no closer to reducing the deficit than we were in the first | :08:37. | :08:40. | |
place. We need a stimulus to get the economy growing that gives us | :08:40. | :08:43. | |
some chance of growth, with real wages rising and unemployment | :08:43. | :08:47. | |
starting to fall. As your broadcast pointed out, we are seeing really | :08:47. | :08:51. | |
large cuts in expenditure of service, which are absolutely | :08:51. | :08:54. | |
hitting families with children, twice as hard as those without, and | :08:54. | :09:00. | |
cuts in vital benefits that families depend on. �315 less in | :09:00. | :09:03. | |
child benefit for a family with two children, this is not a strategy | :09:03. | :09:08. | |
that is working or creating jobs we need. If you are going to reduce | :09:08. | :09:12. | |
the state, presumably the people who will be hit hardest, are those | :09:12. | :09:17. | |
who use the state, that is poorest people? The Welfare Bill has | :09:17. | :09:21. | |
ballooned out of all control, we need to look at how we pull that | :09:21. | :09:24. | |
back. Hitting maternity pay and child benefit? What is missing here | :09:24. | :09:27. | |
is the other side of the equation. What we haven't heard from the | :09:27. | :09:30. | |
Chancellor is discussion about how we are going to get living costs | :09:30. | :09:35. | |
down. If you look at how you tackle poverty in Britain, the answer | :09:35. | :09:39. | |
isn't taking more taxpayer money and redistributing it, the answer | :09:39. | :09:45. | |
is looking at how to bring down the cost of things like housing. Second | :09:45. | :09:48. | |
to Australia we have pretty much the most unaffordable housing in | :09:48. | :09:51. | |
the western world. And the Government, still, even though they | :09:51. | :09:59. | |
talk about it, hasn't taken action on planning liberalisation. We have | :09:59. | :10:03. | |
a huge housing problems without enough houses, it will take a | :10:03. | :10:07. | |
generation to sort that problem. We can't rely on growing housing | :10:07. | :10:13. | |
supply to deal with day-to-day living costs. While the Chancellor | :10:13. | :10:16. | |
calls it an Autumn Statement for strivers, more strivers are being | :10:16. | :10:19. | |
hit. You are suggesting that the strivers are the working poorer, | :10:19. | :10:24. | |
are the ones that are being hit? That is proven by all the analysis, | :10:24. | :10:31. | |
that there are more families on low-to--middle income than those | :10:31. | :10:35. | |
out of work. The Government has wanted always for it to be value | :10:35. | :10:41. | |
for a family to work. Now we see actually we are going back into the | :10:41. | :10:44. | |
trap? We spent the last 15 or 20 years trying to increase living | :10:44. | :10:47. | |
standards and get people better off. Right now what the Chancellor has | :10:47. | :10:50. | |
done is made a decision that is actually going to adversary affect | :10:50. | :10:55. | |
the working poor. The strivers? think what you have to look at, we | :10:55. | :10:59. | |
have tried to do this before, let's increase living standards and | :10:59. | :11:03. | |
increase people in work, by giving them tax credits and more benefits, | :11:03. | :11:07. | |
that clearly hasn't work. It has led to a welfare state that is very | :11:07. | :11:10. | |
expensive, and people getting a lot of benefits. We can't keep | :11:10. | :11:13. | |
increasing benefits over and over again, until we are getting more | :11:13. | :11:16. | |
and more incomes from the welfare state, we have to start thinking | :11:16. | :11:20. | |
about how to get more people incomes for themselves. How they go | :11:20. | :11:24. | |
out and get higher incomes. We are completely living above our means, | :11:24. | :11:31. | |
and actually we can't keep borrowing, that is the fact of it? | :11:31. | :11:37. | |
I would be happy if you agreed with me to boost living standards for | :11:37. | :11:42. | |
higher wages, and signing up to higher collective bargaining. | :11:42. | :11:46. | |
can we afford the private wages, look at private industry right now, | :11:46. | :11:53. | |
people can't afford the wages? some places the economy can't | :11:53. | :12:01. | |
afford higher wages in tanging economy, but if we boost growth. | :12:01. | :12:06. | |
Cutting benefit when we need those who need to spend, on low incomes | :12:06. | :12:13. | |
it doesn't make sense. The OBR imply as much. It does make a huge | :12:13. | :12:19. | |
amount of assumptions, the OBR? was hugely interesting looking past | :12:19. | :12:22. | |
2015, and talking about the cuts needed. I think when you start to | :12:22. | :12:26. | |
look at the forecasts, they are very optimistic, I would be | :12:26. | :12:29. | |
surprised if the level of cuts aren't higher than they are saying. | :12:29. | :12:33. | |
You think it is optimistic to say the unring-fenced departmented | :12:33. | :12:37. | |
would have to cut the budget by a third -- departments would have to | :12:37. | :12:40. | |
cut the budgets by a third? can't go on ring-fencing health. | :12:40. | :12:45. | |
What we have is a situation where the recommendation has been made | :12:46. | :12:51. | |
that police constable should not start on �23,000, but on �19,000, | :12:51. | :12:55. | |
presumably you agree with that? do, but we need to reduce living | :12:55. | :13:02. | |
costs for people. It is crazy that pensioners were exempted, why do we | :13:02. | :13:06. | |
do that. Presumably you agree with pensioners being exempted, yet what | :13:06. | :13:10. | |
could be the rational for exempting pensioners just because George | :13:10. | :13:14. | |
Osborne got a hard time round last time round? I wouldn't agree with | :13:14. | :13:18. | |
that. We have talked about sharing the burden of the cuts, I don't see | :13:18. | :13:21. | |
any reason after the next election why pensioners should be exempted | :13:21. | :13:26. | |
at all. You would agree with that? Absolutely, we would have looked to | :13:26. | :13:32. | |
change, not the annual limit on pension tax relief, but the | :13:32. | :13:34. | |
lifetime limit, the Chancellor could have raised more money that | :13:34. | :13:38. | |
way. Also, we have a situation where we have ring-fenced and | :13:38. | :13:42. | |
unring-fenced departments, can ring-fencing continue? No. | :13:42. | :13:46. | |
areas that aren't ring-fenced, we talked about some departments | :13:46. | :13:49. | |
facing cuts of up to 30%. Some departments are facing cuts of | :13:49. | :13:53. | |
close to that amount, social care, housing, for example, parts of | :13:53. | :13:58. | |
nursery education, set to see very steep cut. And these big | :13:58. | :14:01. | |
announcements on Monday about education? We come back to the IFS | :14:01. | :14:04. | |
saying it is simply not sustainable. People need the services to depend | :14:05. | :14:09. | |
on. It is not just about ring- fencing, we needing to back and we | :14:09. | :14:12. | |
need a proper, thorough re-think as to what the Government should be | :14:12. | :14:16. | |
doing. Do we really need an Institute for Women, and a | :14:16. | :14:19. | |
Department of Business, innovation and skills. | :14:19. | :14:23. | |
What about local Government? think another way to do it is to | :14:23. | :14:27. | |
actually carve down what central Government does, and actually give | :14:27. | :14:30. | |
local Government much more responsibility, and allow them to | :14:30. | :14:33. | |
also raise more money locally, so have quite a different balance of | :14:34. | :14:38. | |
how we do Government in Britain. would agree we have to be sensible | :14:38. | :14:41. | |
about where we spend our money, some of the cuts are counter- | :14:41. | :14:45. | |
productive. The Government has cut 26% spending on youth unemployment, | :14:45. | :14:48. | |
instead we are spending thousands of points for a nearly million | :14:48. | :14:51. | |
young people to spend years out of work. That isn't sustainable. The | :14:51. | :14:55. | |
best way to get the benefit bill down is to get people back in jobs. | :14:55. | :15:00. | |
Thank you very much. The Syrian Government say the west are | :15:00. | :15:03. | |
whipping up fear about President Assad unleashing chemical weapons | :15:03. | :15:12. | |
as a pretext to intervene. The regime was responding to President | :15:12. | :15:17. | |
Obama saying any use of such weapons would be a crime with dire | :15:17. | :15:21. | |
consequences responding with NATO. NATO has agreed to missiles and | :15:21. | :15:28. | |
troops along the border with Syria in Turkey. We have this report, who | :15:28. | :15:32. | |
was in Damascus, I spoke to Jeremy boun earlier. | :15:32. | :15:38. | |
Do you get the sense -- Jeremy bow yen earlier. Do you get a sense | :15:38. | :15:43. | |
that the regime is rattled over the censure over the threat to use | :15:43. | :15:46. | |
chemical weapons? The Assad regime is under more pressure than at any | :15:46. | :15:49. | |
other time. Since all of this started, nearly two years ago, yes | :15:49. | :15:54. | |
they are feeling the strain. There is absolutely no doubt about that. | :15:54. | :15:56. | |
President Assad himself hasn't been seen in public for a couple of | :15:56. | :16:00. | |
weeks, I think, and as you go round this city, and this is my first | :16:00. | :16:04. | |
visit back here, since January, because visas are hard to come by, | :16:04. | :16:11. | |
I can really see the deterioration in the regime's position. Now, if | :16:11. | :16:16. | |
Assad is under pressure, what is your hunch, if the regime was to | :16:16. | :16:20. | |
fall, would he be like Gaddafi, saying he would stay and fight, or | :16:20. | :16:26. | |
do you think he would clear off? think that Syria has a pretty stark | :16:26. | :16:32. | |
choice, actually. That is, that there needs to be some kind of a | :16:32. | :16:37. | |
political solution between the many and varied factions here. The | :16:37. | :16:41. | |
opposition side, both internally with the armed opposition, and | :16:41. | :16:45. | |
internality politically, and external opposition, it is | :16:45. | :16:49. | |
incredibly fragmented, and there is the regime. I think if there isn't | :16:49. | :16:54. | |
some kind of a political deal, then the outlook for Syria is really | :16:54. | :17:00. | |
very bad indeed. A long and bloody conflict, I think that there might | :17:00. | :17:05. | |
be the dissent of Syria into being some kind of a failed state, the | :17:05. | :17:09. | |
growth of warlordism, and because of the connections that Syria has, | :17:09. | :17:12. | |
all that will be felt in the countries around it. How much of a | :17:12. | :17:19. | |
step change is it, the deployment of the anti-missile defences on the | :17:19. | :17:29. | |
Turkish border? I think it is a very strong, symbolic and actual | :17:29. | :17:33. | |
expression of NATO support for turkey. But also of the way in | :17:33. | :17:40. | |
which the west wants to keep the pressure on Syria. It is another | :17:40. | :17:43. | |
sign of pressure. Turkey isn't far from being in a state of war with | :17:43. | :17:48. | |
Syria, the way things have been deteriorating between them. And | :17:48. | :17:51. | |
Turkey actively helps the armed opposition. So they have intervened | :17:51. | :17:56. | |
in the civil war here. So, I think that the deployment of those | :17:56. | :18:01. | |
missiles, it is a sign of resolve from the point of view of NATO and | :18:01. | :18:04. | |
Turkey. But the regime here itself, in a sense, already knew that, it | :18:04. | :18:12. | |
has just been drummed home a little bit more. | :18:12. | :18:17. | |
We have the Turkish ambassador to the UK. On the question of chemical | :18:17. | :18:20. | |
weapons, do you believe he has a big arsenal of weapons? That is | :18:20. | :18:23. | |
what the international community and all the major actors are afraid | :18:23. | :18:27. | |
of. These kinds of regimes are unaccountable, since they are | :18:27. | :18:31. | |
unaccountable, you don't know what the size of their arms are, and | :18:31. | :18:36. | |
what they have in stock. So, I don't think that anybody is ready | :18:36. | :18:40. | |
to take any risks. Every sign, and every signal is trying to be given | :18:40. | :18:45. | |
to the regime that they should not dare use those. | :18:45. | :18:51. | |
To what extent does that reflect in the NATO build-up along the border? | :18:51. | :18:57. | |
NATO-build up is showing solidarity with Turkey, because NATO is a | :18:57. | :19:02. | |
collective organisation, and it is only for the defensive purposes of | :19:02. | :19:06. | |
the tuarkish territory, not for any kind of -- Turkish territory, not | :19:06. | :19:11. | |
for any defensive mess measure, because that would be against the | :19:11. | :19:14. | |
patriot missile centres. Patriot missiles are going to be used, if | :19:14. | :19:21. | |
they are going to be used, to intercept any kind of aggression | :19:21. | :19:24. | |
eminating from Syria into the Turkish territory. Which would, of | :19:24. | :19:28. | |
course, anybody a kind of missile attack, that is the reason why | :19:28. | :19:34. | |
patriots are deployed. Getting ahead of ourselves a minute, if | :19:34. | :19:39. | |
President Assad falls, do you think that the greatest likelihood would | :19:39. | :19:47. | |
be a NATO mission? Into Syria, including tuarkish troops? That | :19:47. | :19:52. | |
requires inter-- Turkish troops? That requires international | :19:52. | :19:57. | |
legitimacy, that can only be gained through the Security Council. I | :19:57. | :20:02. | |
can't see without a Security Council legitimacy that kind of | :20:02. | :20:07. | |
intervention taking place. As far as Turkey is concerned, if it was | :20:07. | :20:13. | |
approved, your troops would go in? Turkey would not act unilaterally. | :20:13. | :20:18. | |
If it was the will of NATO? It is a hypothetical situation, I don't | :20:18. | :20:22. | |
want to make any comments. What do you think Russia's role should be | :20:22. | :20:26. | |
now, in terms of edging out President Assad? I think Russia is | :20:26. | :20:32. | |
trying to reach out to the regime, and trying to make them understand | :20:32. | :20:42. | |
:20:42. | :20:44. | ||
that now it is time to bring change to the existing system. And Russia | :20:44. | :20:47. | |
knows it can't continue with Assad and the ray geem can't continue | :20:47. | :20:51. | |
killing its own people -- regime can't continue killing its people. | :20:51. | :20:58. | |
You heard Jeremy Bowen saying that what the regime could be banking on | :20:58. | :21:02. | |
is the disparate opposition, one that you helped train and arm, and | :21:02. | :21:10. | |
without a credible lead figure in the opposition they can continue | :21:10. | :21:16. | |
all the condition. I disagree with Turkey training the army. Turkey | :21:16. | :21:19. | |
has given political support for the opposition. From this point of view, | :21:19. | :21:23. | |
we have tried to bring the opposition forces together under an | :21:23. | :21:26. | |
umbrella organisation. We have always said it would be necessary | :21:26. | :21:30. | |
to be represented in this umbrella organisation, without any | :21:30. | :21:35. | |
discrimination as to ethnicity, religion or sect. That is what has | :21:35. | :21:39. | |
been achieved, actually, that there is a Syrian national coalition, and | :21:39. | :21:46. | |
this, in a way, embraces all the political forces, Turkey has not | :21:46. | :21:51. | |
been assisting to the oppositions with arms. Training camps? These | :21:51. | :21:55. | |
are refugee camps, I have to underline this, it is a serious | :21:55. | :21:59. | |
burden for Turkey, because currently we have some 130,000 | :22:00. | :22:03. | |
refugees in Turkey, in different caps, along the Turkish Syrian | :22:03. | :22:07. | |
border, in addition to that, there are Syrians living in cities out of | :22:07. | :22:12. | |
the camps. What is your hunch, do you think | :22:12. | :22:16. | |
President Assad will stay and fight to the death, or do you think he | :22:16. | :22:22. | |
would leave the country? That is what he said, but it is easier to | :22:22. | :22:28. | |
say than it is easier to be done. I had the impression that the Syrian | :22:28. | :22:32. | |
regime is realising that it is approaching a very critical | :22:32. | :22:37. | |
decision, and I think as longly as they can give the decision it will | :22:37. | :22:42. | |
be the best for the Syrian people's future. | :22:42. | :22:48. | |
Six years ago a young man called Mark Blanco, plunged to his death | :22:48. | :22:52. | |
from a first floor balcony after being at a party with the rock star, | :22:52. | :22:56. | |
Pete Doherty, and some friends. The coroner ruled out suicide, three | :22:56. | :22:59. | |
police investigations have failed to find out what really did happen. | :22:59. | :23:04. | |
Now, forensics experts in Britain and the US, have examined the CCTV | :23:04. | :23:08. | |
evidence for Newsnight, and their initial findings suggest Mark | :23:08. | :23:14. | |
Blanco was probably dropped to his death. We have been examining the | :23:14. | :23:23. | |
case over the last eight months. It is just after midnight on a | :23:23. | :23:27. | |
Saturday night, and a young man, in high spirits, arrives in East | :23:27. | :23:31. | |
London. He's hoping to wile away the small hours here with friends. | :23:31. | :23:36. | |
Within minutes he will lie dying, here he is captured on CCTV, | :23:36. | :23:41. | |
plunging from a first floor balcony, minutes earlier he had been | :23:41. | :23:46. | |
haranguing the singer, Pete Doherty, here is Mr Pete Doherty with others | :23:46. | :23:50. | |
running from the scene. What happened, and why has the police | :23:50. | :23:54. | |
investigation failed? I knew as soon as I saw him that it was | :23:54. | :24:02. | |
really bad, he had, his pupils were fixed. It is very consistent with | :24:02. | :24:05. | |
someone being carried and literally dropped over the edge of the | :24:05. | :24:10. | |
balcony. It is like a bad dream, it started | :24:10. | :24:17. | |
and has gone on and on. It needs to be laid to rest. | :24:17. | :24:23. | |
You are convinced that Mark was the victim of foul play? Yes. I am, | :24:23. | :24:33. | |
:24:33. | :24:38. | ||
absolutely convinced. Mark Blanco was a talented man, | :24:38. | :24:42. | |
Cambridge educated, with a quick brain and a zest for life. In | :24:43. | :24:46. | |
December 2006, he was about to launch a fresh career, as an actor. | :24:46. | :24:51. | |
It was a big time for all of us, especially Mark. It was the first | :24:51. | :24:55. | |
theatre production we were putting on, from The George Tavern, it was | :24:55. | :24:59. | |
something I always wanted to do, put on a play. And Mark had known | :24:59. | :25:08. | |
this. He came up with the play, The dental Death of an scan anarchist. | :25:08. | :25:14. | |
He had the star role and he was really good. It was just after | :25:14. | :25:19. | |
midnight when he arrived at Fieldgate Mansions in Whitechapel, | :25:19. | :25:25. | |
he was drinking and in a buoyant mood. He goes into a flat of a man | :25:25. | :25:28. | |
well known for using hard drugs, his name is Paul Roundhill. Friends | :25:28. | :25:32. | |
would come and visit me, that was the only way I had a social life, | :25:32. | :25:39. | |
was people coming to me. That is how the sort of saloon emerged. | :25:39. | :25:44. | |
Saloon? That is, I like to think of it as a literary saloon, and | :25:44. | :25:48. | |
creative, I was consciously trying to work with multimedia and | :25:48. | :25:51. | |
collaberate with other artists. was called a crack den, you know | :25:51. | :25:57. | |
that? I know the papers called it a crack den. Was it a crack den? | :25:57. | :26:01. | |
may have seemed like that at times. Because there was crack going on in | :26:01. | :26:08. | |
there? Well, I, you know, I, I had a problem with drugs, yeah. | :26:08. | :26:12. | |
12.15 we see Pete Doherty arrive with a girlfriend, once inside he | :26:12. | :26:16. | |
was seized on by Mark Blanco. The actor wanted the rock star to come | :26:16. | :26:22. | |
to his play, another guest describes him as persistent. He was | :26:22. | :26:28. | |
very, you know, passionate about his play, and he wanted to impress | :26:28. | :26:33. | |
that upon Peter, but because he was drunk it came across as being quite | :26:33. | :26:41. | |
aggressive. Peter was sort of pinned up against the fireplace at | :26:41. | :26:48. | |
one point, and you know, that was when the sort of, everything | :26:48. | :26:55. | |
started to go quite wrong. Which is why I took the very extreme step of, | :26:55. | :27:00. | |
his tweed cap was on the table, I put some lighter fuel on it, and | :27:01. | :27:06. | |
set fire to it. It didn't burn because just the lighter fuel. | :27:06. | :27:13. | |
To try to get him to turn around. It felt very nasty. Just because of | :27:13. | :27:18. | |
the, you know, the measures that people were going to try to get | :27:18. | :27:23. | |
Mark's attention, I thought were unnecessary. A bit bullying? I just | :27:23. | :27:27. | |
thought, you know, it is a very difficult to sit and sort of watch | :27:27. | :27:31. | |
something like that and, you know, it is just not nice, to see | :27:31. | :27:35. | |
anything like that going on. But the atmosphere had changed. There | :27:35. | :27:39. | |
were lots of drugs around? There were drugs around, every night in | :27:39. | :27:44. | |
that flat. That night was no exception. Doherty appealed to his | :27:44. | :27:53. | |
minder, Johnny 'Headlock' Jeannevol, known as HeadLock, and others to | :27:53. | :27:58. | |
come to his aid. He was drunk and we threw him out of the house, and | :27:58. | :28:03. | |
he went out of the house. I said, right, Mark, time to to go, I | :28:03. | :28:06. | |
grabbed him by the lapels, pulled him the length of the flat, as I | :28:06. | :28:09. | |
opened the door and tried to push him out, he had his hands on the | :28:09. | :28:17. | |
jams like this, I tried to aim some punches at his face to get him out. | :28:17. | :28:21. | |
Less than 15 minutes after arriving, Mark Blanco was back outside. He | :28:21. | :28:26. | |
walks away, but then has seconds thoughts. We see him go back inside | :28:26. | :28:32. | |
the building. What happened in the next 57 seconds is crucial and | :28:32. | :28:38. | |
fatal for Mark Blanco. The next time we see him he appears over the | :28:38. | :28:43. | |
railings of that communal balcony, and from a height of 14 feet he | :28:43. | :28:47. | |
seems to drop, head first to the ground. The guests in Paul | :28:47. | :28:52. | |
Roundhill's flat above, all say they were unaware that Mark Blanco | :28:52. | :28:55. | |
returned to the building. It is a further 12 minutes that they are | :28:55. | :28:59. | |
alerting that Mark Blanco is dying on the pavement below. | :28:59. | :29:02. | |
-- alerted that Mark Blanco is dying on the pavement below. | :29:02. | :29:07. | |
wanted to help, and go and see if Mark was OK. I went downstairs | :29:07. | :29:10. | |
immediately. Pete Doherty left the scene, he's seen running away. | :29:10. | :29:14. | |
Peter had walked down the stairs and seen how badly injured Mark was, | :29:14. | :29:22. | |
he was very shocked and upset about it. I kept saying to him, Peter | :29:22. | :29:32. | |
please, just go. It's OK. He said "it's not F-ing all right, it's not | :29:32. | :29:36. | |
all right", he got very upset, and that's when he left. | :29:36. | :29:45. | |
Mark Blanco was taken to hospital, he died the next day. I have had to | :29:45. | :29:48. | |
do it as I go along. If you get behind a few months, then you | :29:48. | :29:55. | |
really have a lot of paperwork and it all has to be sorted out. Sheila | :29:55. | :29:59. | |
Blanco spent the last six years, at least �60,000 and every waking hour | :30:00. | :30:03. | |
trying to find out what happened to her son. She keeps everything, | :30:03. | :30:06. | |
police reports, medical files and legal transcripts, she does it, | :30:06. | :30:09. | |
because from the start, she has been unhappy with the police | :30:09. | :30:15. | |
investigation. When Mark died, the same day, in the afternoon, I was | :30:15. | :30:20. | |
taken, by the police, to those flats, and when I came down from | :30:20. | :30:26. | |
the second or third balcony, I saw Mark's lens glistening in the | :30:26. | :30:33. | |
gutter. His lens? His lens from his glasses. It hadn't been taken away? | :30:33. | :30:39. | |
It hadn't, and the policeman bent down as did I, and he gave it to me | :30:39. | :30:43. | |
as a keeps sake. What did you think? My blood started to run cold, | :30:43. | :30:49. | |
I thought from then I was going to have 0 -- to have, perhaps an | :30:49. | :30:54. | |
uphill battle with the pli. police -- The police. The police | :30:54. | :31:00. | |
got off on the wrong foot, and then the chief investigating officer | :31:00. | :31:05. | |
said he thought that Mark had committed suicide. He did agree | :31:05. | :31:12. | |
that he was 99% sure he committed suicide, and that his brother had | :31:12. | :31:18. | |
died the same way. He said he was trying to empathise with the family. | :31:18. | :31:22. | |
And his judgment wasn't affected. The notion of suicide, always | :31:22. | :31:26. | |
rejected by Mark Blanco's family and friends, looked less realistic | :31:26. | :31:32. | |
once Johnny Headlock, Pete Doherty's minder, had walked into a | :31:32. | :31:36. | |
police station, and said, he had killed Mark Blanco. The reason I | :31:36. | :31:40. | |
said to the police that I had did it, because I would go out and | :31:40. | :31:44. | |
stuff and people would say, you murderer, and this that, and the | :31:44. | :31:49. | |
stress of too much. I sat down and I thought about it, and said, I | :31:49. | :31:52. | |
would phone the police. confessed because people were | :31:52. | :31:57. | |
saying that you did it? It was because the stress, people telling | :31:57. | :32:01. | |
me, and the cocaine was a major factor. People were telling me you | :32:01. | :32:08. | |
did this, this, this, after a while I'm like taking it on board. If you | :32:08. | :32:14. | |
say BEEP I will take it on board, and I will think and think and | :32:14. | :32:17. | |
think. You actually thought you had done it at one point? I didn't | :32:17. | :32:21. | |
think I did it, I know I didn't do it, we know what happened, you know. | :32:21. | :32:26. | |
What did happen? Nothing, nothing from our point of view. Mark was | :32:26. | :32:33. | |
drunk, we threw him out of the house, and then he went out of the | :32:33. | :32:37. | |
house sort of thing. People think you threw him off the balcony? | :32:37. | :32:40. | |
know, people can believe what they want, I know the truth, my | :32:40. | :32:48. | |
conscience is clear. At the coroner's court, this | :32:48. | :32:51. | |
confession, which was retracted almost immediately, and the fact | :32:51. | :32:56. | |
that Mark Blanco had had been punched, only emerged during cross- | :32:56. | :33:06. | |
examination by the Blanco's lawyer. I'm curious, you have a man going | :33:06. | :33:09. | |
into another police station who confessed to the killing. That was | :33:09. | :33:15. | |
no part of the account presented. The coroner wasn't impressed? | :33:15. | :33:19. | |
don't know, he certainly wasn't impressed by the fact that the | :33:19. | :33:24. | |
confession was omitted, ore the fact that Roundhill's -- or the | :33:24. | :33:28. | |
fact that Roundhill's assault on Mark was omitted, and the theory | :33:28. | :33:33. | |
that the whom police investigation was based that this was suicide or | :33:33. | :33:36. | |
accident. The coroner ruled out suicide, recorded an open verdict | :33:36. | :33:40. | |
and told the police to reinvestigate. After a further 18 | :33:40. | :33:44. | |
months they concluded that either Mark jumped without meaning to harm | :33:44. | :33:50. | |
himself, or he had been the victim of a criminal act. | :33:50. | :33:55. | |
Mark Blanco's friends said the idea that this confirmed athlete, who | :33:56. | :34:01. | |
wore socks on the beach, would jump as some sort of stunt, is ludicrous, | :34:01. | :34:04. | |
they believe someone deliberately put him over the balcony. The | :34:04. | :34:08. | |
police say in the absence of eyewitness or forensic evidence, | :34:08. | :34:12. | |
they have little hope of finding the truth. Four years after the | :34:13. | :34:18. | |
death, Paul Roundhill, Johnny Headlock and Pete Doherty were | :34:18. | :34:20. | |
interviewed under caution, they were in the flat. The Crown | :34:20. | :34:22. | |
Prosecution Service concluded there was insufficient evidence for any | :34:23. | :34:27. | |
prosecution. The morning Mark Blanco died, Pete | :34:27. | :34:31. | |
Doherty appeared in court on an unrelated drugs charge. His musical | :34:31. | :34:36. | |
career has been interspersed with prison and rehab. | :34:36. | :34:41. | |
Recently he has been appearing at small clubs in London. | :34:41. | :34:45. | |
It is getting on for six months since I asked Pete Doherty to give | :34:45. | :34:49. | |
his side of the story of what happened to Mark Blanco. He's here | :34:49. | :34:53. | |
tonight and we are getting a message from his manager that in | :34:53. | :34:56. | |
fact Pete has decided himself he doesn't want to speak to us. But he | :34:56. | :34:59. | |
has always maintained he had had nothing to do with Mark Blanco's | :34:59. | :35:09. | |
death. In The police have said the CCTV | :35:09. | :35:14. | |
evidence is of poor quality and inconclusive. But Newsnight has | :35:14. | :35:17. | |
consulted video forensics experts, who believe there is far more here | :35:17. | :35:22. | |
than meets the untrained eye. John Kennedy has testified in scores of | :35:23. | :35:28. | |
cases in the UK and overseas. experience tells me from looking at | :35:28. | :35:32. | |
these type of images for many, many years now, that it is not | :35:32. | :35:37. | |
consistent with a jump, it is not consistent with a fall, he just | :35:37. | :35:44. | |
simply drops. There is no evidence of any body movement to suggest | :35:44. | :35:50. | |
that he is trying to break his fall or something like that. There is no | :35:50. | :35:54. | |
defensive movement? None whatsoever, it is literally a drop from outside | :35:54. | :35:57. | |
the railing. The only explanation I can think of that someone might | :35:57. | :36:02. | |
have dropped him off the balcony, right. He doesn't climb over the | :36:02. | :36:05. | |
railing himself, he doesn't jump, he just suddenly appears outside | :36:05. | :36:13. | |
the railing and falling. suggestion of no defensive injuries, | :36:13. | :36:17. | |
consistent with unconsciousness, is in line with a biomechanics | :36:17. | :36:25. | |
investigation, and a neurobuy kolgists report, -- | :36:25. | :36:30. | |
neurobiologist's report, both commissioned by Sheila Blanco. This | :36:30. | :36:35. | |
man lectures at the FBI, his initial analysis is startling. | :36:35. | :36:39. | |
examining the video activity in the top righthand corner. It is clear | :36:39. | :36:43. | |
that somebody moves out from inside the building, when the person moves | :36:43. | :36:49. | |
out from the building, there is a lot of mass in front of that | :36:49. | :36:54. | |
individual. That mass suggests that there is more than one person. It | :36:54. | :36:59. | |
is very consistent with somebody being carried out, and literally | :36:59. | :37:03. | |
dropped over the edge of the balcony. So, what we are not seeing | :37:03. | :37:07. | |
is anything that would support that somebody ran and dove or jumped, | :37:08. | :37:13. | |
because the activity doesn't support an upward movement, it | :37:13. | :37:20. | |
supports someone coming out and dropping someone off the edge. | :37:20. | :37:26. | |
experts say these are preliminary findings, and what is need is more | :37:26. | :37:30. | |
tests, but they believe it will confirm their views. The Blanco's | :37:30. | :37:33. | |
barrister say this is a turning point. This is a great difference, | :37:33. | :37:36. | |
this should ignite the enthusiasm of the police to investigate this | :37:36. | :37:40. | |
properly. Mark, who doesn't make any defensive gestures, as any | :37:40. | :37:44. | |
normal, conscious person would do, Mark is dropped, or thrown off that | :37:45. | :37:48. | |
balcony. And someone was there. think the case should be re-opened? | :37:48. | :37:52. | |
Of course it should be re-opened. It is not too late. All those who | :37:53. | :37:57. | |
were in Paul Roundhill's flat have said they didn't come down to the | :37:57. | :38:07. | |
:38:07. | :38:08. | ||
communal balcony until after Mark Blanco went over. Sheila Blanco is | :38:08. | :38:11. | |
now into her seventh year trying to find out what happened to her son. | :38:11. | :38:16. | |
She's not giving up. My resolve now is even stronger | :38:16. | :38:22. | |
than it was. It is in equal measure to the outrageousness to the way | :38:22. | :38:26. | |
that Mark's death has been treated. The whole case needs revisiting | :38:26. | :38:36. | |
:38:36. | :38:37. | ||
very, very seriously. The truth will out. | :38:37. | :38:43. | |
40 years ago tomorrow, the crew of Apollo 17blasd off for the last | :38:43. | :38:49. | |
scheduled manned commission to -- blasted off for the last scheduled | :38:49. | :38:54. | |
manned mission to the moon. Many then thought in this many years we | :38:54. | :38:58. | |
would be living there. But despite all the space exploration, no crew | :38:58. | :39:01. | |
has been back. A commercial company has made the bold claim that it | :39:01. | :39:06. | |
will offer the paying public the chance to land in the moon -- land | :39:06. | :39:12. | |
on the moon by the end of the decade. That is one small step for | :39:12. | :39:22. | |
:39:22. | :39:25. | ||
man, one giant leap for mankind. July 1969, Neil Armstrong became | :39:25. | :39:30. | |
the first man to set foot on the moon. During the next three years, | :39:30. | :39:35. | |
12 men touched down on the lunar surface, collecting precious | :39:35. | :39:40. | |
samples, that changed our ideas about how the earth was formed. | :39:40. | :39:46. | |
We're on our way. 40 years ago the crew of Apollo 17, waved goodbye to | :39:46. | :39:50. | |
the moon for the last time. Now the idea of manned trips to the moon | :39:50. | :39:54. | |
seem, well, extravagant. China has plans to do it t and NASA wants to, | :39:54. | :39:59. | |
but says it doesn't have the money. A small step for space travel, one | :39:59. | :40:03. | |
giant leap for privately-owned commercial enterprise. But the | :40:03. | :40:09. | |
private sector is getting ready to blast off. �870 million could soon | :40:09. | :40:14. | |
by you two return tickets to make the trip yourself. | :40:15. | :40:21. | |
The salesman is with us, the co- founder of Golden Spike. Good | :40:22. | :40:28. | |
evening. First of all, have you got a waiting list? I can't tell you we | :40:28. | :40:33. | |
have a waiting list at this point, but we have reached out to more | :40:33. | :40:37. | |
than one prospective customer, and received some positive interest. | :40:37. | :40:41. | |
You mentioned whether we are going to be paying, sending the paying | :40:41. | :40:46. | |
public to the moon, that is not exactly our business model. | :40:46. | :40:52. | |
Although that could happen at some point. Our target customer is the | :40:52. | :40:56. | |
space agencies and science agencies of foreign Governments. So, wait a | :40:56. | :41:00. | |
minute, what we are talking about here, is Government countries | :41:00. | :41:03. | |
hoping to get a toe hold in the moon, for whatever reason, using | :41:03. | :41:08. | |
your commercial, what will it be, the space shuttle or will it look | :41:08. | :41:15. | |
different? It will look a lot more like The Apollo-era rather than the | :41:15. | :41:17. | |
space shuttle. You are right about human decision not having been to | :41:18. | :41:21. | |
the moon in 40 years, but we have learned a heck of a lot in those 40 | :41:21. | :41:25. | |
years about humans surviving in space and the equipment necessary | :41:25. | :41:31. | |
to travel in space. What The Golden Calf team has done is formulate an | :41:31. | :41:40. | |
-- the Golden Spike team is formulate a process on all that has | :41:40. | :41:46. | |
made human space flight possible in the last 40 years, and combine that | :41:46. | :41:49. | |
with the emerging technologies available from companies such as | :41:49. | :41:57. | |
Space Exploration Corporation and United Launch Alliance. Give us the | :41:57. | :42:03. | |
perspective, three days to get there and how long when you are up | :42:03. | :42:09. | |
there, do people have to do good things for mankind, what will | :42:09. | :42:17. | |
happen up there? The duration of the lunar mission under the Golden | :42:17. | :42:21. | |
Spike architecture, will be comparable to The Apollo programme. | :42:21. | :42:24. | |
What we envisage being accomplished on the moon is science. You mention | :42:24. | :42:28. | |
the moon rocks taken back. It will be commercial? The science that | :42:28. | :42:32. | |
could be conducted by those on those moon rocks really just | :42:32. | :42:36. | |
scratched the surface about what we know of the moon's composition, and | :42:36. | :42:40. | |
therefore, what we know about the formation of the earth. So it is | :42:40. | :42:48. | |
actually commercial. We are talking about, $1.4 billion, �800 million, | :42:48. | :42:51. | |
people will really think this is something they can reap the reward | :42:51. | :42:54. | |
of when they get up there, major commercial, mineral, whatever, to | :42:54. | :42:59. | |
spend that kind of money? At some point we think there will be a | :42:59. | :43:04. | |
commercial market for our customer, such as mining water for more | :43:04. | :43:08. | |
expansive space exploration and helium 3. But, again, we think that | :43:08. | :43:11. | |
the near-term market will be from foreign space agencies, who right | :43:11. | :43:17. | |
now are paying hundreds of millions of dollars, if not a billion-plus | :43:17. | :43:22. | |
dollars, just to conduct robotic science in orbit around the moon | :43:22. | :43:26. | |
and the lunar surface. All of the scientific community agrees you can | :43:26. | :43:30. | |
achieve a greater degree of science with people having boots on the | :43:30. | :43:34. | |
moon. Can you just give us a sense of who this prospective early | :43:34. | :43:38. | |
customer might be, it wouldn't be India hoping to get there before | :43:38. | :43:42. | |
Pakistan? We are not mentioning the names of any of our perspective | :43:43. | :43:46. | |
customers city point. We can tell you we have reached out to two | :43:46. | :43:51. | |
Government space agencies, other than NASA, and they have both | :43:51. | :43:56. | |
expressed interest, and we have many more on our list, based on the | :43:56. | :43:59. | |
market research we have done over the last two years, who we think, | :43:59. | :44:03. | |
based on the expenditures they have made for lunar science in the past, | :44:03. | :44:07. | |
would be very interested in spending $1.4 billion to spend | :44:07. | :44:12. | |
scientists to the moon. Presumably there might be a discount on offer | :44:12. | :44:17. | |
to get there early and get you off the ground. When will you make the | :44:17. | :44:20. | |
first flight? We are looking at that within the decade, a flight to | :44:20. | :44:25. | |
the surface of moon, and orbital missions prior to that. Have a good | :44:25. | :44:33. | |
flight, thank you very much indeed. Tomorrow morning's front pages now: | :44:33. | :44:42. | |
On the Financial Times there is a story saying Starbucks will be | :44:42. | :44:52. | |
:44:52. | :44:52. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 42 seconds | :44:52. | :45:35. | |
Tonight we leave you with some of the works of the great Brazilian | :45:35. | :45:44. | |
architect, Oscar Nemire, who has died before his 105th birthday. He | :45:44. | :45:54. | |
:45:54. | :45:54. | ||
said he was inspired by the curves # Long and lovely | :45:54. | :45:59. | |
# The girl from Impanema goes walking | :45:59. | :46:02. | |
# When she passes # She passes | :46:02. | :46:05. | |
# She goes by # When she walks | :46:05. | :46:09. | |
# Just like a samba # That swings so cool | :46:09. | :46:14. | |
# And sways so gently PC when she passes | :46:14. | :46:20. | |
Each one she passes goes # Ahhh | :46:20. | :46:30. | |
:46:30. | :46:32. | ||
# Oh but A cold start to the day, frost and | :46:32. | :46:36. | |
icey patches around, rain and sleet and snow in parts of East Anglia | :46:36. | :46:39. | |
and the south-east. Grey for eastern England and Scotland, right | :46:39. | :46:42. | |
the way through the day, with a good scattering of showers. A | :46:42. | :46:46. | |
strong wind coming down from the north. Temperatures only five or so | :46:46. | :46:50. | |
degrees, add on the wind and it will feel raw out there. Some | :46:50. | :46:53. | |
sunshine to be found for the southern counties of England. A | :46:53. | :46:57. | |
nice afternoon with sunshine, top temperatures only seven or eight, | :46:57. | :47:00. | |
and the keen breeze coming from the north. It will feel cold in spite | :47:01. | :47:04. | |
of the sunshine. Not completely dry, showers dotted around in Wales, one | :47:04. | :47:08. | |
or two of those drifting towards the north coast of Devon and | :47:08. | :47:10. | |
Cornwall. A dry afternoon in Northern Ireland, plenty of | :47:10. | :47:15. | |
sunshine, again, a cold feel to things, particularly in that breeze, | :47:15. | :47:18. | |
some sunshine too for western Scotland, chilly. The north and | :47:18. | :47:22. | |
east of Scotland sees thicker cloud, showers around some of those, | :47:22. | :47:25. | |
wintery over the hills. As we get towards the start of the weekend. | :47:25. | :47:29. | |
Something of a north-south split develops, the northern half of the | :47:29. | :47:33. | |
UK sees cloud around, rain crossing Scotland, further south, after a | :47:33. | :47:37. | |
cold start to the day on Saturday a good deal of sunshine, nothing for | :47:37. | :47:42. |