31/01/2013 Newsnight

Francais it has reached a turning point in Mali.

Newsnight reports from inside the country. Will any peace be

shattered by violent reprisals. TRANSLATION: They tied up the head

of the family, and raped his wife in front of him, and then his

daughter. I saw it with my own eyes. I thought my family would be next.

So we fled. The French ambassador is here.

The mystery substance coating seabirds washed up on the south

coast, bird watcher Chris Packham is here. He thinks it is the tip of

the iceberg. It is time to polish your Polish, it is very popular.

Poland we have a lot of complicated world, they have more and more

difficulties than English. France's military mission in Mali

appears to be nearing its end, Special Forces are reportedly in

Kidal, the last town occupied by militants. France's Defence

Minister says the Jihadists have scattered, and a turning point has

been reached. Now what. We will ask the French ambassador to the UK in

a moment, if you want an indication of the problems that lie ahead,

even after any peace has been achieved, look no further than this

report. This report contains image that is reflect the brutality of

the conflict. Ready to die for their country.

These young men are preparing to go home. Called scat the Children of

the Land, they are a militia, made up largely from refugees of the

north of Mali. As French paratroops and Malian regular forces retake

the region from Islamists and seperatist forces, their job will

be to go in behind and deal with the new threat. The danger now,

says the Maliian soldier instructing them, is infiltration.

TRANSLATION: The rebels will hide among the population, we must be

prepared for attacks and suicide bomber. The militia know the

territory, they know the people. They know who is who. They can pick

out the rebels and deliver them to us. For months they have been

training in this camp, south of the frontline, brooding over what

happened last year. That's when rebels, first Tuareg seperatists,

then Jihadis, some links to Al- Qaeda, came to their homes in

Timbuktu and other towns. TRANSLATION: They tied up the head

of the family, and then raped his wife in front of him, and then his

daughter. I it with my own eyes. I thought my family would be next, so

we fled. They raped many women, they took them into the dunes for

two or three days, and then they came back for more. We have heard

rebels committed many rapes. But the militia is keen to stress to me

that there will be no summary justice. TRANSLATION: You can't

take justice into your own hands. This man says he also saw girls

taken to be raped. And young men forced to join the rebels. He says

now they want revenge. That's the word they are not meant to use, but

they are the successors of a previous militia accused of

atrocities, particularly against ethnic Tuareg, and they hope the

military will arm them soon. These forces seem well disciplined, they

say they are going to abide by the law. But there is an obvious danger

when they return to their own home regions in the north, where they

say their families have suffered under the rebels, that there will

be a settling of scores. Like many Malian soldiers, the instructor has

had training from the Americans. British military advisers will now

also be working with men like him. But in his heart is something they

won't approve of. Many Tuareg are loyal to Mali, but he wants

vengence against a whole ethnic group. TRANSLATION: All Tuareg are

rebels or bandits. When we get to the north, they should get out of

our way. They are enemies of the state. The river niej certificate

the highway that unites this -- Niger is the highway that unites

these people. Until the war they scratched a living side-by-side,

but now fear has driven away the Tuareg who control the salt trade

from The Sahara. They fled to refugee camps in neighbouring

countries. I ask what they are afraid of? Of

death, he says, of being killed by Malian soldiers.

It's not just Tuareg who are under suspicion now. Nearly three weeks

ago, just after France intervened in Mali, this man saw something

he's afraid to speak of openly. The Maliian military had arrested three

students in Islamic dress, with who had no identity papers.

TRANSLATION: When I got there, the students had their hands tied

behind their backment they were on their knees. I heard one of them

say, for the sake of God don't kill me, I'm not the enemy, I'm just a

student of the Koran. But one of the military guys said, don't

listen to them, they were infiltrators, they talked among

themselves, and one said, fire, they shot all three of them, in the

chest. Then they dragged them by their feet, and threw them into a

well. We went to the place he described.

There are reports that as many as 20 or 30 suspected infiltrators may

have been executed by Malian forces here. You can see lines of blood

going all the way down, and some of this earth has clearly been pushed

down, to hide the bodies at the bottom. The Maliian Government has

said it will investigate what happened. But it's clear several

wells hold awful secrets. Down below me, what appear to be the

bodies of several people. There's a horrible smell coming from down

this well, you can see the blood splattered all around. There is no

doubt that people were killed here. And that's just a few hundred yards

from a crowded bus station just over there. At the bus station

everyone's heard of the killings. But it is very hard to find anyone

who will admit to having seen them. People are afraid of the

consequences of speaking out. In the Old Town of mock at this, they

have heard too, and -- Mokti, they have heard too, and they are

worried. This is the home to a people with a reputation of pieity,

but today it is hard to find the usual Islamic students on the

streets. We find some at last, studying inside. They say they

don't dare go out any more, because so many like them have been

arrested. They have no sympathy, they say, with the Jihadis, but

they can guess why others joined the rebellion.

TRANSLATION: Some have the conviction to fight for God and

really have good Islamisation in their country. Some people, they

say also to people, if you go with them you can have, 150,000 a month.

That's why some people also go. Because they have nothing.

could this happen in Mali? For centuries there were strong,

centralised states here, the peoples have usually lived in

harmony, for most of the last 20 years, and it had a functioning

democracy. One of the President's closest advisers says that was a

facade that's now cracked. Mali, although it was showcased as

a strong democracy in Africa, was, from the start, a failed state. We

have a lot of corruption and no discipline in the army. In a

country which is one of the poorest in the world. He's grateful now to

the French and other forces, that victory over the rebels -- but

victory over the rebels, won't be enough. If we are defeated in the

north you are not solving the main issue. The main issue is how to use

the most efficiently, as possible, the meagre resources of the country.

The talk today, thanks largely to the French, is of liberation. But

it will take months or years to see whether Mali has really been

reunited. That will be the true test of the west's intervention.

Bernard Emie is the French ambassador to the UK. And in all

candour, has this operation gone much better than you might have

feared? So far we have reached our objectives. I just want to remind

you that we had three main objectives. First of all, to stop

the Jihadist offensive towards the south. These people wanted to

concur Bamako, and to -- conquer Bamako, and establish a terrorist

state in the heart of Africa. We stopped that. The second point, we

wanted to help the Malians to restore authority of the whole

territory, and to restore the sovereignty and territorial

integrity. Thirdly, the objective is to make sure that we are in a

position to help the African-led mission to be deployed on the

territory. It is on the way. Things are going according to our plans. I

want just to say again that we acted urgently, at the request of

the Malian authorities n full accordance with the United Nations

security council's charter. Were the rebels defeated or did they

felt away? We had a lot of clashes with emthis, it is not an easy ride.

Our servicemen and soldiers were extremely brave in the field.

not suggesting they weren't, but are they all gone? The rebels

melted away as well. We had some clashes with the rebels. Now we are

moving, we are in Kidal, as you said in the film, we are making

sure that the Malian authorities come back and get the power to

restore law and order in the cities. This is not our mission, to restore

law and order, the Malian police come back to the cities. We

continue to help the Malians to reconquer the sovereignty on the

whole territory. How long will France stay in the country, is it

your hope, at least, that some other force, either UN-backed, or

from the AU, will take over soon? It is very clear, we will stay as

long as necessary. We didn't fix any deadline for our presence. What

matters to us right now, first of all, is to have the Malian forces

being trained, and this is the objective of what we call the

European train mission in Mali, with around 500 men from 12-20

European countries. The second point, we want the African-led

forces to be deployed in Mali. They should be around 7,000. And we do

already have more than 2,000 in the field. These African forces,

according to the United Nations resolution, are in charge of

helping the Malian Armed Forces to recover their own sovereignty on

the whole territory. The French are not intending to stay in Mali

longer than necessary. Are those African forces up to the job of

desert fighting? They are very good, they know how to fight in the

desert. Many of the forces are extremely good. But we are going

train them. That is why we had recently in Addis Ababa, an

International Conference in order to raise fupeds and support for

this of a -- funds and support for these African forces. We have to

support them as much as possible. By the way, they are grateful to

the British forces, and to the British establishment and to the

British authorities to have decided to be part of that effort.

Britain come up with everything you asked it for? Absolutely. We

requested logistical transport yaiing, we have two C-17s --

transportation, we have two C-17s and aircraft and civilians. We have

a British participation to the AU team in Mali. And you are going to

support the training of certain English-speaking African countries.

It has been quite a popular conflict in terms of French public

opinion, will that continue the longer France is in there? It seems

to me there is a national unity around this operation. Because the

people do understand the rational for that operation. That is a war

of necessity. We had to stop terrorism in that part of Africa.

Has it been stopped, is Mali no longer in danger of being a

"terrorist state"? I'm not saying that, we stopped Bamako being

conquered by the Jihadist and terrorists, we have to make sure it

is not going to be a refuge for terrorists. It is not completely

over, but we want the Malian state to be in a position to be stable,

and then, to move to the national reconciliation in Mali. That's a

very important objective that we have as well. How much UN

involvement do you accept anticipate? At the moment you have

a UN Security Council resolution, the regional organisation of west

Africa is part of the process, and this African-led force is part of

the UN resolution. Afterwards, maybe, we will have a UN

peacekeeping operation, it is under discussion in the United Nations,

with our African friends, and with our United Nations and Security

Council partners. Are the streets of France and Britain safer

directly as a result of this operation? Well, I think that we

have to be extremely cautious on that. I think that these people,

they were threatening Mali, but they are threatening Europe as well.

I think that we are under threat from Al-Qaeda in the Islamic

Maghreb, and we should join all efforts to prevent these people

from being able to export their terrorist acts. Thank you very much

for talking to us about these important matters of life and death.

I want to ask you also since you are here about a subject that is

matter of life and death for some people, football, David Beckham

joining Paris St Germain, what is what are your thoughts? Football is

very important to the French people. David Beckham is an international

sta, and we are pleased and proud to have him coming to Paris. He's

not coming to live in Paris? We are looking forward to David Beckham

coming and spending a lot of money in Paris. Thank you.

In a moment, the mystery of the birds being washed up on the south

coast. Also in the programme. (speaks Polish) Yes, amazing.

What's she on about? We will talk language later.

In the middle of the afternoon, we got first reports of seabirds.

Hundreds of people being washed up on beachs from Cornwall to Dorset.

Some alive, some dead. All of them covered in some kind of sticky

substance. We are told it wasn't oil, and the usual cleaning methods

employed by rescuers weren't working.

This could be the first sign of a major environmental tragedy.

Hundreds of birds have been found washed up along the English south

coast, in an area from Dorset, right across to Cornwall. The

majority are guillemots, the dark brown and white seabird that is

only come to land to nest along the cliffs to the south west of

Scotland, and spend the rest of their lives at sea. They have been

covered, not in oil, but by a white waxy and glue-like substance, still

unidentified, that sticks their feathers together, that makes it

difficult to fly and causes source to their legs. Almost 100

guillemots have been found in Dorset over the last few years.

A member of the Dorset wildlife Trust was one of the first to find

them, they were in a serious state. They preen themselves and ingest

whatever this substance is. It is unidentified at the moment. They

ingest it, they can't swim. It is sticky, so they stick to the rocks

as well. They can't feed, and can't fluff up their feathers. They are

dying. We picked up bin bags of dead birds in sacks today, so they

are dying. The ones we have rescued and the RSPCA has got, are

responding well to treatment. they have been rescued, the birds

were taken to a centre in Somerset, placed on drips, and there were

attempts to clear the mystery white substance from their feathers.

have tried the normal solvents that get oil off, that hasn't been

successful. They are using margerine, and the birds that have

died, they have left them and the substance solidfies and it brushes

off. They are trying different kinds of methods. The birds are

responding well to the treatment they are giving them. Many of the

affected birds have been found along the seashore around Portland,

according to the RSPB have been found in Wrexham, and Sulkham.

Tonight scientists are trying to establish what the substance is.

The Environment Agency have collected samples for testing,

while the marine and Coastguard Agency are looking into where it

might have come from. It could, it seems, be vegtable-based. It might

be some sort of palm oil, maybe it reacts with the salt in the water

and sticks with the bird's feather. I have been dealing with spills for

22 years, I have never dealt with a contaminant like this, it is fuel-

based. There are fears that the mystery substance might cause

damage to more than seabirds. haven't seen anything on the

shoreline, we look out for it, in case it affects seals and other

things like dolphin, whatever is on the coastline. We have to look out

for that. Nothing is on the shore. Unless it is dispersed out on the

sea and they have caught it and it has dropped and dispered and the

birds are coming in. As for the cause, it could be illegal action

from shipping? Obviously it is not a ship that has gone down, that

would have been reported. It sounds like it is some form of either

accidental or even purposeful, illegal, tang washing that is going

on in the channel somewhere. Now the weather is not ideal for

monitoring and flying to look for spills. But I would hope that

within the next 24-hours, some investigation is put into place to

find out what is going on out in the channel. Because what we don't

want to do in this situation is to have something that impacts on more

wildlife. There are fears many more birds will be found washed up in

the morning, perhaps the scale and cause of the tragedy will be known.

We have the leader of the rescue mission at the RSPCA. And we have

Chris Packham from the BBC's natural history unit.

We got wind of this today, you have been dealing with this since

yesterday? Yeah, the first birds came into us, actually we had three

birds in the day before yesterday, three guillemots with the sticky

substance on them. Those birds weren't in a good way at all. Yes

it really started to escalate, and the number of birds today has

really taken off. Do you know what sort of numbers we are talking

about? We have 123 birds currently in the centre. More have been

admitted, but unfortunately they haven't made it. Reports from the

beaches is there are hundreds of birds affected by it. We are

expecting more birds in tomorrow. What proportion are you able to

save? Most so far. We have lost a couple of birds that have been lame.

Some of the birds that we are seeing towards the end of the day

have obviously been in the water for longer. They have been

obviously struggling. They can't fly, they are struggling to stay

afloat. They have been suffering for longer, those birds are in

worse condition than the ones we saw earlier. But we have still

managed to save most of the birds that have come in so far. Talk me

through your process, a bit. What was your first guess as to what the

substance was, and what did you try to tackle it with, and what did you

move on to? Well, with any bird that has something on it. The first

stop really is to use something like a soap detergent, just a

washing up detergent, that didn't touch this substance at all. But

the people here who work in rehabilitation, have come across

all sorts of substances before, they tried margarine, that they

have used on other substance, that caught on fly papers, and it does

break down sticky substances, that worked very well. We still don't

know the substance. At this stage what is your advice to people who

want to come and have their morning constitutional on beach tomorrow,

maybe out walking the dog. Should they be doing that? They should,

they should probably look out. We don't know whatever it is washed

around and caught the birds isn't washing up the beaches too. That is

worth a word of caution. If they come across birds in distress, call

the RSPCA to mobilise inspectors, if they are not already on the

scene. In order to pick the birds up, we are advising people not to

pick the birds up themselves, there are all sorts of issues surrounding

that, and we don't know what the substance is. That wouldn't be the

best idea. Call the RSPCA and we will get inspectors there. When

will you and your clogs get some sleep? It will be a bit later --

Your colleagues get some sleep? will be a bit later. These birds

will be with us for a while and a lot of birds to get through

tomorrow, it will be a while. do you think has gone on here?

is difficult to say. It is obviously an unidentified substance

and clearly affecting this population. At this time of year we

have international low important populations of birds wirpbtering

off our shores. These are not always species like the guillemot

that you can see on the beach, they are coming from way out in the

channel. What is frightening, if you are picking up 100 on the beach,

there could be many more who have died and are lost at sea. This

could be the tip of the iceberg. Not just birds could be affected?

Mammals and seals along the coast, and crusttations as well. It is not

just at the stage of them being damaged physically, if it is toxic

and gets into the food chain, it can persist for many years and have

affects on many types of animals, from shellfish and crusttations t

might end up in pred -- crustaceans, but it might end up in the

predators. We have to identify the source of the material and try to

trace the ship. We hope there would be a legislative process to

prosecute the culprit. This has to be seen as a crime. If it was

deliberate and not accidental, because it is causing damage to

significant numbers of birds, of significantly important

conservation value. What kind of punishment is methed out for this

kind of thing? Zrb Meted out for this sort of thing? In previous

catastrophes, in our own and other places, it is very difficult to

prosecute these companies. Very often they take a long, long time

to make any compensation or mitigation processes. Has any work

been done on what happens to birds in this sort of situation who are

released back into the wild? It has, increasingly this is being

researched. The figures are variable, if a bird is heavily

oiled, the survival rate in the mid-term can be as low as 1%. If

they will go back and most of them will die within seven days T

depends on how much oil and which species. Some species are

remarkably tolerant, they have had oil disasters in South Africa, and

the penguin species that live there can take a lot of oil and a lot of

treatment, and successfully put back into the wild. Their success

is as high as 80%. In the circumstances we seem to understand

now, we know the effort, is the financial cost of doing all this

worth it in the end?. That is another consideration. Because,

again, I did read a report that those birds which were oiled from

the disaster in Alaska. Of those that were put back into the wild it

cost �32,000 -- $32,000 per bird and the survival rate was low. The

RSPCA have to make a quick decision on whether to use in this case that

bird and move on to another. We -- uetnais the bird and move on to

another. We want to do our best and make

sure it is successful. We are pretty sure something

happened involving Israel and Syria late on Tuesday night, or early

yesterday morning. But what? US officials have told the BBC that

Israeli jets struck a convoy carrying Russian-made surface-to-

air missiles, as it headed towards the Lebanese border, bound for

Hezbollah. That is not what the Syrian army says. A military

announcement on state TV said jets bombed a military research centre

in the area North West of the capital, Damascus, killing two

people and wounding five others. For its part, Israel is saying

nothing. Of other interested parties they are not saying much.

If it was true it would mean a gross violation of the norms of

international law and the charter. That is a matter of grave concern.

In Brussels, the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, was nor diplomatic.

I won't give any condemnation of Israel or rush into any criticism.

There may be many things about it that we don't know, or the Arab

League or Russia don't know. I think we should give our eyes on

the main event and crisis. He also said he welcomed a sur advice

declaration by a leader of the Syrian opposition, to negotiate

with members of Assad's regime. Syria has formally complained to

the UN, but retaliation seems unlikely. In 2007, Israeli

warplanes reportedly bombed a suspected nuclear FA sill ein the

country. But apart from an incident in November last year, it has tried

to keep the distance from Syria's Civil War. One thing the Israeli

Government has made clear, if it suspects a transfer of weapons from

Syria to Hezbollah, it will act. It removed one of the Iron Dome

defence batteries to the north of the country was said to be routine,

but it reflected concern about growing unrest in the region.

Jeff White is a Washington-based expert who specialises in Syria and

Iran. What do you think happened here? We don't know for sure, there

is a lot of confusion whether there were two attacks, one account or no

attacks, conceivably. It looks like the most likely story

here is that the Israelis struck Hezbollah arms convoy, trying to

bring weapons from Syria into Lebanon. That seems to be the core

story. The Syrians have an interest in trying to portray this as

something else. Their story of an attack in a research centre doesn't

look too good. The US has warned Syria not to transfer weapons to

Hezbollah in Lebanon, is it by and large happy to sit this out?

action the Israelis took is one of the most effective ways, I think,

to stop this kind of thing from happening. In addition to whatever

equipment the Israelis destroyed, presumablying that they did it. It

sends a warning signal to the Syrian Government and Hezbollah,

not to do this. That Israel is watching carefully and has the

capability to strike these kinds of activities. That is the most

effective way to deter them. The problem is Hezbollah and Syria have

demonstrated that they are absolutely determined to do these

kinds of things, especially over time. It is a dangerous game. We

may see more of these kinds of events. I know you have been an

advocate for greater American involvement in Syria earlier, but

at this stage, what would it take the US to get more involved. We

have had chemical weapons and all those warnings what would it take?

The most likely thing is the chemical weapons issue, that the

Syrians released chemical weapons against their own population, or

that they try and transfer them to Hezbollah. Maybe if the radical

Islamists get a hold of weapons, those might push the United States

to become involved. Another possibility here is that the

outbreak of a large, very large and snow-balling humanitarian crisis,

with lots of people dying, lots of people in very difficult conditions,

even beyond what we are seeing today, that might also push the US

in the direction of more military involvement. As of now, I don't see

either of those things on the immediate horizon. What did you

want the US to do? My view was there is two kind of intervention

that the United States could approach. One was direct military

intervention. Sort of like in the Libyan case, with direct attacks on

the Syrian military structure. That can be done in different ways,

different tactics and so on, but the core of it would be direct

attacks on the Syrian military. The second way in more plausible ways

to me was indirect intervention. That is providing arms, training,

intelligence, organisational help, all those kinds of things to the

armed Syrian opposition. The groups that are fighting in Syria.

Basically we had those two kinds of options, direct intervention,

indirect intervention. Thinking of the opposition, the main opposition

leader indicating that he would be happy to talk to officials of the

Assad regime, with some conditions, it should be said. How significant

do you think that is? Not very. One thing we have learned in the course

of the war is the Syrian opposition doesn't speak with one voice. There

is criticism of him for making that kind of statement or approach,

whatever. In addition to that, the notion of a negotiated peace

settlement is just nonsense at this point. The regime's response to the

uprising, the peaceful uprising was brute force. And brute force has

dominated the conflict ever since. And that's the way this conflict is

going to be settled, is by brute force. Whoever can mass the most

military power, and be most effective on the battlefield will

win this war. Thank you.

Perhaps you popped out earlier this evening and entered a Polski skep

skep, they can't touch skrb skel, they can't -- skelp they can't

touch you for it. A new census might have suspected what your ears

have detected for a long time. Polish is the second most common

language in England and Wales. We went out to talk Polish with

speakers of those languages and in I'm Bangladesh and my brother is

Bengali, my child talks Bengali, my childlikes English. In this country

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 92 seconds

everything is English, doctor, Plos and thank you, the most

important -- please and thank you, the most important English.

I want to speak proper English, my Well besides being fantastic news

for subtitlers, what else should we make of it. We have an academic and

linguist with us, and an English Noelist and playwright from a

Romany background. What sort of influence will all these Polish

speakers have on the way English is spoken? It really depends on how

much impact they make. I don't have the privilege of Polish groceries

in my neighbourhood, perhaps if I don't. Skelp is the word you want

to look for. For me, Polish is associated with things like

solidarnish. That dates you? dates me indeed. The point is,

there has to be something going on in that language, and then people

will pick up words from it. I'm a curious, if a lot of Polish people

are learning English, which you might expect them to, if English

people aren't picking up any Polish, where is the cross-fertilisation?

It certainly doesn't work the other way round. In my field, novel

writing, it is tremenduously to our advantage that the rest of the

world is interested in fiction in English, and it doesn't work the

other way round. Countries like Germany, Sweden, a lot of the

Scandinavian countries, something like 40% of their fiction is read

in translation. In this country we read, I think, between 2-4% of our

fiction in translation. In America it is 1-2%. You don't need to be a

rocket scientist to work out that is a huge advantage to novelists

writing in the English language. We get, or theed over the world and

get translated into umpteen language, we have the opportunity

to travel and to spread the culture of English fiction or fiction in

the English language, all over the world. I think it is to our

detriment that it doesn't work the other way round. If you think of

how many fantastic novelists there are in other language, that English

readers are look missing out on because we are poor at translating

languages. Are you trying to save languages? Its all about morale, to

make people value them, if they value them they are more likely to

speak it. That is the strategy of language saving is. You need to

make people want to speak it, before everyone who could teach it

to them has gone away. What will happen, leaving aside Polish, but

more minority languages in this country, aren't they just going to

speak English as the generations go on? I don't know about that. We

have already seen a slight maligning of Welsh, since in the

significant, which came out in the census, Welsh is still bigger than

Polish as a language within England and Wales, as it was mentioned.

Those things are going on. In fact, there has been quite a change in

morale, one could saying, generally, among the smaller languages of the

world, as far as I'm in touch with them. Not only do those people feel

that they are being given a chance, and that people are concerned about

them, it impacts on a small community of people coming in and

saying we are interested that you are speaking this language, what is

it like. It is also the case, if you speak to English people, and

people are much less likely to be puzzled by the very idea of an

endangered language. How much is English going to be influenced by

all the languages that prevail in this country now? It depends what

happens t might be the case that there is some comedy show that gets

established with Poles in a Polish grocery, and all sorts of other

things, like spacemen coming into it, something that makes it

distinctive. Then you will find Polish expressions cropping up in

popular English. It will take that, something like that, historically

has there been much of that? Historically you find communities

come in and talk their language to each oh when they have an effect on

other people. The classic thing, we had this at the beginning here,

with menus, could not be written nowadays, without using Turkish,

Greek, various Indian languages, all of which have hundreds of

thousands of speakers in this country. I wonder are from your

experience, when people come here, do they always want to pass on

their own language to their children? Is it inevitable?

necessarily, we have think about the political and social

sensitivites around language. For a lot of immigrant, certainly in

previous generation, dropping the language they grew up in the

country of their birth was about asimulation. You only have to look

at movie stars like Rene Zellwegger, in the 1980 she would have to have

been Jenny Johnson. Now we are happy with her name. From my

father's background, with Romany ancestry, it was important not to

speak his words of Romany dialect in public. You had to be careful,

he didn't want people to know about his background. Did you get a sense

of that growing up? Certain low. I have cousins of my generation who

were taught the Romany, we weren't, my father was keen we would be

educated and myself and brother and city to go on to higher education.

We were the first generation of our family to do that. That was

extremely important to him, and not clinging on to many cultural and

social aspects of his ancestry, including language, was extreme low

important to him. I hope that is different now and there is a sense

of national pride. In Romany Europe they have 160 groups speaking many

dialects, not all mutually Intelable. It is politically --

Intelable, it is politically sensitive. When should a language

be allowed to die? It has a rank oder want to go generalise in this

sort of thing. -- wanting to generalise in this sort of thing.

Every language and community is related to the communities in

several ways. There is no point in being sentimental, there may be

times when you have to suppress your own language in order to

survive as a community. Which language is in danger in your point

of view? The language in greatest dang, which has the lowest morale.

So Romany might be one such language. Can I just come in there

with a little scepticism about the articles in the press. It claimed

that 629 people speak Romany, there is between 80,000-120,000 people

who speak it? A mixed version of Romany, that sort of thing.

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 92 seconds

appreciate you both coming in. Now Some news just in, the singer

Beyonce has admitted she did sing along to a pre-recorded track at

President Obama's inauguration. That is all for us, apart from

saying goodbye to the last surviving member of the Andrews'

Sisters, Patti has died at the age of 94. Newsnight is not complete

without boogie wooingy, here is some more.

# Don't go walking down lovers' lane

# No # Lover's lane

# Until you see me # Until you see me ach marching

home # Sit down under the apple tree

# Baby just you and me A a wet night in the south, the

rain moving away fairly smartly. Rain too across Scotland, hill snow,

that will work into North West England, leaving behind clearer

skies. That is the story for Northern Ireland as well. Come the

afternoon, a rather damp one for the Manchester area. Further south,

lots of sunshine, temperatures about where I would expect to see

them. Fairly brisk winds across much of south-west England. That's

that little change from recent days. But the sunshine will be quite

pleasant, despite the breeze. Across Wales, a fair bid of cloud

through the afternoon, clouding over to bring patchy outbreaks of

rain. A dryer, brighter afternoon across Northern Ireland. Brisk

winds coming in from a chilly direction, highs of around six or

seven. A largely fine afternoon across much of Scotland. Light snow

showers across Grampians, otherwise largely drive. A bit of a damp one,

eventually in Manchester. Most places by Saturday brightening up,

a crisp, although chilly day. Temperatures coming down three or

four degrees in many place, a chilly wind to add into the mix.