Browse content similar to 23/04/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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$:/STARTFEED. This piece of rubbish was sold as a bomb detector to | :00:12. | :00:18. | |
Governments in some of the most violent countries in the world. | :00:18. | :00:22. | |
Newsnight exposed the conman behind this scam, today he was found | :00:22. | :00:27. | |
guilty at the Old Bailey. He said it does exactly what it is designed | :00:27. | :00:32. | |
to. I said what's that? I was expecting him to say it detects | :00:32. | :00:38. | |
explosives, ivory, gold, he never said that, he said it makes money. | :00:38. | :00:44. | |
If Scotland goes it alone will the Chancellor refuse to accept the | :00:44. | :00:48. | |
Scottish tenner? Why independence might kick it out the pound. | :00:48. | :00:51. | |
We go in search of perfect childcare as the Children's | :00:51. | :00:56. | |
Minister faces her critics on the hot issue at the moment. Welcome to | :00:56. | :01:01. | |
Newsnight all about the difference between England and France, | :01:01. | :01:11. | |
:01:11. | :01:14. | ||
reception year and nursery. Going to enjoy this show, da-da-da-da! | :01:14. | :01:20. | |
Good evening, it started life as a novelty golf ball finder and it | :01:20. | :01:24. | |
helped end the lives of hundreds. A businessman took this gadget, a | :01:24. | :01:27. | |
mere aerial on a hinge and convinced Governments in some of | :01:27. | :01:30. | |
the most volatile countries in the world that it was a bomb detector. | :01:30. | :01:35. | |
Newsnight first revealed the scam in 2010, tonight we can reveal how | :01:35. | :01:40. | |
he bribed senior figures in Iraq to win an $85 million contract. This | :01:40. | :01:45. | |
afternoon he was found guilty of fraud by the Old Bailey. Caroline | :01:45. | :01:50. | |
Horley, who broke the original story, reports. | :01:50. | :01:55. | |
If you believe the sales pitch this called bomb detector could detect | :01:55. | :02:00. | |
explosives more than half a mile away. All powered by no more than | :02:00. | :02:08. | |
the user's static electricity. REPORTER: How many people's lives | :02:08. | :02:13. | |
were taken in Iraq. Today Jim McCormick was convicted of fraud at | :02:13. | :02:17. | |
the Old Bailey. His scam began with this, a novelty golf ball finder n | :02:17. | :02:21. | |
reality just an aerial on a hinge that couldn't find anything. Jim | :02:21. | :02:25. | |
McCormick bought hundreds of them from the US for $20 each, he put | :02:25. | :02:31. | |
his own label on them and sold them as bomb detectors for as much as | :02:31. | :02:36. | |
$5,000 a time. He then created a more advanced-looking version, | :02:36. | :02:42. | |
which he called the ADE 651, this time it came with special cards, | :02:42. | :02:47. | |
supposedly programmed to detect everything from explosives to ivory, | :02:47. | :02:53. | |
human beings or even $100 bill its. He sold this -- bills. He sold this | :02:53. | :03:01. | |
version for as much as $55,000 each. Iraq alone spent $85 million buying | :03:01. | :03:05. | |
thousands of them for use at checkpoints from Baghdad to Basra, | :03:05. | :03:09. | |
as protection from suicide bombs. We have been told that bribes to | :03:09. | :03:12. | |
senior Iraqi officials helped Jim McCormick sweeten the deal for the | :03:12. | :03:20. | |
bogus devices. This was just one of a series of ploifgss to rock | :03:20. | :03:25. | |
Baghdad in -- explosions to rock bad dad in late 2009. At the height | :03:26. | :03:31. | |
of the bombings there were call force the devices to be withdrawn. | :03:31. | :03:39. | |
Mr Jim here. Jim McCormick came to Iraq, and with the head of the | :03:39. | :03:44. | |
Baghdad bomb squad, organised a press conference to persuade Iraqis | :03:44. | :03:49. | |
that it worked. We have discovered that the general had been bribed by | :03:49. | :03:52. | |
Jim McCormick. He has now been jailed for corruption, thanks to | :03:52. | :03:57. | |
the work of this man. He's the Inspector General of the Interior | :03:57. | :04:01. | |
Ministry, Aqil al-Turehi. He says his investigation is backed by the | :04:01. | :04:07. | |
Prime Minister, but that other, high-ranking officials are | :04:07. | :04:12. | |
implicated in the conspiracy. TRANSLATION: I feel furious as a | :04:12. | :04:16. | |
citizen of Iraq when I think that this gang of Jim McCormick and the | :04:16. | :04:20. | |
Iraqis working with him killed my people in cold blood by creating a | :04:20. | :04:25. | |
false sense of security with a useless device. How many people | :04:25. | :04:30. | |
lost their lives in bombs that passed through checkpoints where | :04:30. | :04:34. | |
this device was being used? TRANSLATION: I think hundreds, I | :04:34. | :04:40. | |
don't have the exact statistics, but it was hundreds. For every bomb | :04:40. | :04:44. | |
stopped, he said, four got through. And the explosives that were found | :04:44. | :04:52. | |
were discovered because of tip-offs or by chance. Between 2008-2009 | :04:52. | :04:57. | |
over 1,000 Iraqis died in bomb abacks in Baghdad alone, many more | :04:57. | :05:05. | |
were seriously injured. I met Haneen Alwan in Jordan, where she | :05:05. | :05:09. | |
has come for medical treatment. She has already had 59 operations after | :05:09. | :05:13. | |
she suffered horrific burns in a double bomb anything Baghdad in | :05:13. | :05:17. | |
early 2009. She had been two months pregnant at the time, and craving | :05:17. | :05:21. | |
ice-cream, which she had gone out to buy when she was caught in the | :05:21. | :05:26. | |
explosion. TRANSLATION: My life was completely destroyed, I lost | :05:26. | :05:30. | |
everything in an instant. I was left with nothing. I lost the baby | :05:30. | :05:38. | |
and my husband divorced me. She had trusted that Jim McCormick's called | :05:38. | :05:43. | |
bomb detector, used at virtually every checkpoint worked. What do | :05:43. | :05:50. | |
you think of the man who sold these devices? TRANSLATION: The man has | :05:50. | :05:54. | |
no conscience, he is morally bankrupt. How could he sell them | :05:54. | :05:58. | |
just for the money and destroy the lives of others. He has no humanity, | :05:58. | :06:07. | |
a useless person. What kind of man would sell fake bomb detectors to a | :06:07. | :06:12. | |
country where lives depended on it? This is Jim McCormick on a sales | :06:12. | :06:16. | |
trip to Niger, being filmed by a colleague who had believed the | :06:16. | :06:20. | |
devices worked. He has agreed now to talk exclusively to Newsnight, | :06:20. | :06:25. | |
as long as we conceal his identity. Which countries did you go to with | :06:25. | :06:29. | |
Jim McCormick to sell these devices? We flew all around the | :06:29. | :06:35. | |
world, Belgium, Romania, Hong Kong, Niger, Nigeria, Kenya. The training | :06:35. | :06:41. | |
for the Iraqis was done in Turkey. He started to have suspicions, and | :06:41. | :06:45. | |
then senior army officers in Niger complained that the detectors | :06:45. | :06:49. | |
didn't work. The whistleblower confronted McCormick. What happened | :06:49. | :06:54. | |
when you raised your concerns with Jim McCormick? Well, I said if this | :06:54. | :06:57. | |
doesn't work I can't be any part of it. He said it does exactly what it | :06:57. | :07:03. | |
is designed to I said what was that, I was expect him to say it detects | :07:03. | :07:06. | |
explosives, ivory and gold, he never said that, he said it makes | :07:06. | :07:11. | |
money. I said I didn't want nothing to do with it. He said suit | :07:11. | :07:14. | |
yourself, you are walking away from millions, said at least I can sleep | :07:15. | :07:18. | |
at night. The big contract was in Iraq, the trick was to find corrupt | :07:18. | :07:23. | |
middle men who would sign contracts to buy the ADE 651s, people like | :07:24. | :07:28. | |
the head of the Iraqi bomb squad. The middle men don't care if people | :07:28. | :07:31. | |
live or die, they are only interested in one thing, how much | :07:31. | :07:36. | |
will I get back, cash back. question at all that it was bribery | :07:36. | :07:46. | |
:07:46. | :07:49. | ||
that oiled the wheels of this scam? Absolutely, absolutely. Apart from | :07:49. | :07:53. | |
Iraq, one of the places that Jim McCormick sold his bogus bomb | :07:53. | :08:03. | |
:08:03. | :08:07. | ||
detectors was here in Lebanon. The country that had bounce the back | :08:07. | :08:11. | |
after the dark case -- bounced back after the dark case days of the | :08:11. | :08:16. | |
Civil War. He sold them to the Lebanese arm and the United Nations | :08:16. | :08:20. | |
peacekeeping force along the border with Israel. They became suspicious | :08:20. | :08:24. | |
when Mr McCormick couldn't produce evidence that showed they could | :08:24. | :08:26. | |
detect explosives. It conducted a series of tests and found they | :08:26. | :08:31. | |
didn't work. There was something else that brought Jim McCormick to | :08:31. | :08:34. | |
Beirut. The city, once the financial capital of the Middle | :08:34. | :08:38. | |
East, is still a playground for the rich. A free wheeling place where | :08:38. | :08:43. | |
money can be easily spent and laundered. It was, our source says, | :08:43. | :08:47. | |
where McCormick came to pay his bribes to the Iraqis. The | :08:47. | :08:51. | |
whistleblower says he came here to a bank in Beirut and witnessed Jim | :08:51. | :08:56. | |
McCormick organising the pay-offs. He watched as he arranged for bank | :08:56. | :09:01. | |
accounts to be set up under false names. Three Iraqis have so far | :09:01. | :09:04. | |
been arrested for corruption over the deals. But the whistleblower | :09:04. | :09:10. | |
said he saw a list of around 15 names. Our source says the Iraqi | :09:10. | :09:12. | |
officials were issued with bank cards which allowed them to take | :09:12. | :09:16. | |
out large sums of money from cash machines anywhere in the world | :09:16. | :09:20. | |
without being traced. He also says that electronic transfers were made | :09:20. | :09:26. | |
to other accounts. McCormick could afford to give bribes to the Iraqis. | :09:27. | :09:30. | |
He bought exclusive properties in Bath, including this one, sold to | :09:30. | :09:36. | |
him by Hollywood film star, Nicholas Cage. Complete with Roman- | :09:36. | :09:39. | |
style indoor swimming pool. His profits also funded a country home | :09:39. | :09:44. | |
in Somerset, smart cars and dressage horses. As well as houses | :09:44. | :09:51. | |
in Cyprus and Florida. And a yacht. It was Iraq that paid the price. | :09:51. | :09:56. | |
Shockingly the British Government had been alerted months before Han | :09:56. | :10:01. | |
in was injured, that the device was a scam, but nothing was done to | :10:01. | :10:05. | |
prevent the sale. When our whistleblower walked out on | :10:05. | :10:12. | |
McCormick in 2008, he made it his mission to take the bogus bomb | :10:12. | :10:15. | |
detector out of circulation, warning the Ministry of Defence and | :10:15. | :10:19. | |
those who bought the device. By 2009 the American military was | :10:19. | :10:24. | |
sounding the alarm. And Avon and Somerset Police began investigating. | :10:24. | :10:29. | |
But McCormick was freely plugging the ADE 651. In ideal conditions | :10:29. | :10:37. | |
you can be up to 1km away. kilometer, so this device will help | :10:37. | :10:43. | |
this device spot explosives a kilometer away. In ideal conditions | :10:43. | :10:47. | |
it will. Koerm did a BBC interview that said the cards were the key. | :10:47. | :10:53. | |
In early 2010 we decided to put the claims to the test with the help of | :10:53. | :10:58. | |
the Cambridge Computer Laboratory. McCormick said this had been | :10:58. | :11:02. | |
programmed to detect TNT, we decided to find out what was in it. | :11:02. | :11:07. | |
This is the cheapest bit of electronics you can get that look | :11:07. | :11:09. | |
vaguely electronic and are sufficiently flat to fit inside a | :11:09. | :11:17. | |
card. It couldn't be programmed to detect TNT? Absolutely not. The day | :11:17. | :11:22. | |
we broadcast our report in January 2010. Good evening a Newsnight | :11:22. | :11:29. | |
investigation has discovered that a called bomb detector produced by a | :11:29. | :11:35. | |
British company and sold to Iraq does not work. | :11:35. | :11:39. | |
British troops have now left Basra and the Americans have left Baghdad. | :11:39. | :11:43. | |
But at checkpoints across the capital and beyond, where bombs | :11:43. | :11:48. | |
remain a constant threat, the bogus detector is still being used. The | :11:48. | :11:54. | |
man who sold them now faces several years behind bars. | :11:54. | :11:58. | |
I'm joined now by Detective Superintendent Nigel Rock from Avon | :11:58. | :12:01. | |
and Somerset Police who was the senior investigating officer on the | :12:01. | :12:05. | |
case. You must be a very happy man this evening, Nigel Rock. This was | :12:05. | :12:08. | |
a conviction for fraud, which I guess in some ways just doesn't | :12:08. | :12:13. | |
quite cover it, does it, what would be your message to Jim McCormick | :12:13. | :12:19. | |
tonight? I think it does cover it in so much as the device doesn't | :12:19. | :12:25. | |
work, it could never work. Jim McCormick knew it didn't work and | :12:25. | :12:33. | |
the court accepted that. And then he told lies and a deception that | :12:33. | :12:38. | |
he practised and developed over ten years. I think fraud fits the crime. | :12:38. | :12:41. | |
Whether it fits the whole circumstances is a different matter. | :12:41. | :12:45. | |
Because clearly many people's lives have probably been affected by | :12:46. | :12:50. | |
McCormick and his useless device. Hundreds lost we were hearing | :12:50. | :12:56. | |
because of this? We have never been able to directly prove that the | :12:56. | :13:00. | |
device was directly responsible for killing people. But I find | :13:00. | :13:06. | |
inconceivable, there was 6,000 of these devices in Baghdad, in | :13:06. | :13:12. | |
environment of Baghdad. At one point there was there were 10- | :13:12. | :13:19. | |
12IEDs going off in the city how could that not be the device that | :13:19. | :13:24. | |
was thought to protect them. There are many still out there now? | :13:24. | :13:27. | |
it is unfortunate and despite messages from ourselves, messages | :13:27. | :13:30. | |
from Government departments, through the embassies, they are | :13:30. | :13:35. | |
still there and they are still in use on the streets in a number of | :13:35. | :13:39. | |
countries and the people operating them unfortunately still believe | :13:39. | :13:44. | |
they work. How can that be? That is one of the most extraordinary | :13:44. | :13:49. | |
things about this tale, the Home Office tested them, the UN tested | :13:49. | :13:54. | |
them, we know the American military were raising the alarm? Isn't it | :13:54. | :13:58. | |
very simple to work out if something that is a bit of plastic | :13:58. | :14:03. | |
works or doesn't work? It is, clearly the evidence we gathered | :14:03. | :14:08. | |
over a four-year investigation, or the best part of four years, firmly | :14:08. | :14:11. | |
established beyond doubt that the device doesn't work, could never | :14:11. | :14:17. | |
work. But McCormick had developed such a con, such a patter, such a | :14:17. | :14:21. | |
way of delivering the demonstration of the device that he was able to | :14:21. | :14:26. | |
convince some people that it worked. And he was still selling it whilst | :14:26. | :14:31. | |
these investigations were going on? He certainly has not sold one since | :14:32. | :14:37. | |
the moment he was are-ed in September 2009, up until that point, | :14:37. | :14:44. | |
yes, he was selling them. I can assure you that since we -- he was | :14:44. | :14:48. | |
arrested in September 2009, up until that point, yes he was | :14:48. | :14:55. | |
selling you. I can assure you since then he has not sold any more. | :14:55. | :15:02. | |
we claim them back the money from his assets? One of the things we | :15:02. | :15:06. | |
have done through the court is restrain his assets and the | :15:06. | :15:11. | |
investigation continues, hopefully with the assistance of the courts, | :15:11. | :15:15. | |
we will confiscate the assets we know about. It is highly likely | :15:15. | :15:19. | |
there are assets we will never trace. As you saw in the report | :15:19. | :15:22. | |
bank accounts were opened in parts of the world where it may be | :15:22. | :15:25. | |
difficult to get information. money claimed from the assets could | :15:25. | :15:28. | |
go back to refund some of the Governments who have paid out | :15:29. | :15:33. | |
money? The process is the assets are seized through the courts and | :15:33. | :15:38. | |
then the money is distributed through the police and the Crown | :15:38. | :15:43. | |
Prosecution Service. But clearly the civil cases are open to some | :15:43. | :15:47. | |
countries to try to get money back. Do you think you will get money | :15:47. | :15:50. | |
back from those who were bribed? That was a different situation. | :15:50. | :15:53. | |
There are a number of investigations going on in other | :15:53. | :15:57. | |
countries. We are supporting those, and clearly we have had a lot of | :15:57. | :16:00. | |
contact with the Ministry of Interior from Iraq. We are hoping | :16:00. | :16:04. | |
to assist them, we will give them all the information we can. Nigel | :16:04. | :16:08. | |
Rock, we really appreciate you coming in, thanks again. | :16:08. | :16:16. | |
Coming up: The difference between England and | :16:16. | :16:25. | |
France reception year and nursery. (applause) going to enjoy this show, | :16:25. | :16:28. | |
da-da-da-da-da! All that to come, will you still be | :16:29. | :16:32. | |
able to use a tenner in the new independent Scotland. The SNP would | :16:32. | :16:36. | |
like to say, of course, the Chancellor is not so sure. He's | :16:36. | :16:41. | |
warning, some would say fledening, that the UK -- threatening, that | :16:41. | :16:46. | |
the UK might not want to tie itself to a foreign currency. Many say | :16:47. | :16:51. | |
there is gentle political mischief being made. How realistic is it | :16:51. | :16:57. | |
that the two countries could share the same currency, a kind of | :16:57. | :17:05. | |
eurozone-light? At one time it was easier to imagine this happening | :17:05. | :17:08. | |
than Scotland politically separating from the rest of Britain. | :17:08. | :17:11. | |
But now political time is speeding up, we are starting not just to | :17:11. | :17:17. | |
imagine Scottish independent but to measure the cost. Let's be clear, | :17:17. | :17:22. | |
abandoning current arrangements would represent a very deep dive | :17:22. | :17:26. | |
indeed into unchartered waters. Would a newly independent Scottish | :17:26. | :17:32. | |
state be prepared to accept significant limits on its economic | :17:32. | :17:37. | |
sovereignty? To submit its bugetry plans to Westminster before | :17:37. | :17:41. | |
Hollywood? To constrain the degree of tax competition between Scotland | :17:41. | :17:46. | |
and the rest of the UK. To accept some continuing oversight by UK | :17:46. | :17:50. | |
authorities of its public finances. Those are good questions if you | :17:50. | :17:54. | |
want to leave Britain but keep the pound. So the Chancellor headed for | :17:54. | :17:59. | |
the kind of factory, high-tech, export-driven, partly reliant on | :17:59. | :18:04. | |
defence, where getting independence right would be make-or-break. He | :18:04. | :18:08. | |
asked an even more fundamental question. Why would 58 million | :18:08. | :18:11. | |
citizens give away their sovereignty over monetary and | :18:11. | :18:14. | |
potentially other economic policies to five million people in another | :18:14. | :18:19. | |
state. The SNP asserts that it would be in everyone's interest for | :18:19. | :18:24. | |
an independent Scotland to keep the pound as part of a eurozone-style | :18:24. | :18:27. | |
sterling zone. But the Treasury analysis we are publishing today | :18:27. | :18:31. | |
shows that is not the case. Treasury today laid out three | :18:31. | :18:37. | |
options after a Scottish "yes" vote, joining the euro, launching its own | :18:37. | :18:44. | |
currency or keeping the pound. The problem with all of them is | :18:44. | :18:48. | |
Scotland's economic shape, think oil, whiskey and banks. This | :18:48. | :18:52. | |
London-based economist who designed the residue of RBS and HBOS thinks | :18:52. | :18:55. | |
it is the size of the banking sector that dictates much else. | :18:56. | :18:59. | |
When you have a bank in trouble you have a Central Bank to support it, | :18:59. | :19:03. | |
and behind the Central Bank is always the taxpayer. That means if | :19:03. | :19:06. | |
you have an independent Scotland within a sterling area you need to | :19:07. | :19:11. | |
have a Central Bank, not only for monetary policy, but also banking | :19:11. | :19:14. | |
policy. That requires the big taxpayer, which is the rest of the | :19:14. | :19:20. | |
UK. That's where the complication becomes. Probably the most selling | :19:20. | :19:24. | |
graphs in today -- telling graphs today are these. It shows Scottish | :19:24. | :19:27. | |
exports declining to the UK over the past few years, but remaining | :19:27. | :19:31. | |
way above exports to the rest of the world. It is the same when it | :19:31. | :19:36. | |
comes to imports. Scotland's main trade route, effectively, runs down | :19:36. | :19:41. | |
the M6 and the west coast railway line between Gretna and Carlyle. | :19:41. | :19:45. | |
Confused? A lot of Scottish people are. I like the pound and what we | :19:45. | :19:49. | |
have got. I don't like the euro. Ideally I would like to see it as | :19:49. | :19:52. | |
it is at the moment. Just continuing with the Scottish notes. | :19:52. | :19:58. | |
If it came down to changing the currency I think that would swing a | :19:58. | :20:03. | |
lot of votes. We should create our own currency. With the oil still | :20:03. | :20:06. | |
flowing and the globally important engineering industry it has | :20:06. | :20:11. | |
produced, the SNP's argument is the rest of Britain that needs Scotland | :20:11. | :20:16. | |
to keep the pound. The rest of the UK needs Scotland within the | :20:16. | :20:19. | |
currency area to support the balance of payments. If they didn't | :20:19. | :20:23. | |
have access to Scotland's resources like our oil, that would be a loss | :20:23. | :20:26. | |
of �40 billion from the sterling balance of payments. That would | :20:26. | :20:30. | |
double the balance of payments deficit and cause all sorts of | :20:30. | :20:33. | |
problems. There is no need for. That they can continue to have | :20:33. | :20:36. | |
Scottish resources underpinning the sterling balance of payments. That | :20:36. | :20:40. | |
is why it is in the interests of the rest of the UK. What George | :20:40. | :20:44. | |
Osborne is effectively saying to Scottish voters is you can have | :20:44. | :20:47. | |
independence, but if you want to keep the pound you may end up | :20:47. | :20:52. | |
giving quite a lot of control over that independent Scottish economy | :20:52. | :20:57. | |
to London. So why doesn't Scotland opt, like Denmark, for its own | :20:57. | :21:00. | |
separate currency? This certainly is what some supporters of | :21:00. | :21:03. | |
independence see as the long-term goal? I think you have to | :21:03. | :21:07. | |
distinguish between the short-term and the long-term. The short-term | :21:07. | :21:10. | |
practically would have to be some arrangement whereby Scotland | :21:10. | :21:14. | |
continued to use sterling. I think the option of moving to the euro is | :21:14. | :21:18. | |
a non-starter. You could say that we have been in one dysfuntional | :21:18. | :21:25. | |
currency union in the UK kuorn union, why go into an even more | :21:25. | :21:29. | |
dysfuntional currency union. The preferred option is for our own | :21:29. | :21:32. | |
currency. It is the getting there that worries people and on both | :21:32. | :21:35. | |
sides of the border. The difficulty is how to get from where they are | :21:35. | :21:39. | |
today, with all of their contracts in sterling, to all of their | :21:39. | :21:43. | |
contracts being in a new currency that hasn't been set yet. And going | :21:43. | :21:46. | |
from where we are today to there, you run the risk of capital coming | :21:46. | :21:51. | |
out of the country. It is a big transitional risk, but in the | :21:51. | :21:53. | |
longer term it is a coherent solution. | :21:53. | :21:59. | |
But in the shorter term, come next September, the prospect is of a | :21:59. | :22:02. | |
Scotland-shaped economy using money issued by the bank of somewhere | :22:02. | :22:07. | |
else. The Scottish Finance Minister, John | :22:07. | :22:11. | |
Swinney, joins us from from Dundee. Thank you for your time this | :22:11. | :22:16. | |
evening. Let's imagine, if you like, that you have won, that Scotland's | :22:16. | :22:20. | |
independent. Why wouldn't a proud, new low- independent Scotland want | :22:20. | :22:24. | |
to have its own currency? What we have set out is a framework that is | :22:24. | :22:28. | |
well evidenced about the arguments which essentially create the | :22:28. | :22:32. | |
platform for a continuity of the business environment between | :22:32. | :22:36. | |
Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom. That is one of the very | :22:36. | :22:38. | |
powerful attractions of the proposition we have put forward to | :22:38. | :22:42. | |
the rest of the UK into the bargain. That companies south of the border | :22:42. | :22:48. | |
would continue to be able to trade with Scotland in the same currency. | :22:48. | :22:52. | |
And visa versa for companies and organisations within Scotland. It | :22:52. | :22:55. | |
is a practical and sensible and rational approach which is in the | :22:55. | :23:00. | |
interests of everybody north and south of the border. In currency | :23:00. | :23:06. | |
terms Scotland couldn't go it alone then? I think that Scotland has all | :23:06. | :23:08. | |
the attributes to be a strong, independent country. Our | :23:08. | :23:13. | |
proposition is to ensure that our country is able to take all of the | :23:13. | :23:16. | |
decisions that are relevant and important to the economic and | :23:16. | :23:21. | |
fiscal interests of our country. But not with its own currency? | :23:21. | :23:24. | |
currency, you have looked at all the various options that the UK | :23:24. | :23:28. | |
Government has looked at into the bargain. We consider the best | :23:28. | :23:30. | |
approach for Scotland is to maintain the use of sterling as | :23:30. | :23:34. | |
part of a sterling zone. Is that just for a short-term transition or, | :23:35. | :23:40. | |
I mean is there a long-term goal for a Scottish currency? | :23:40. | :23:45. | |
proposition we have put forward is a strong and sustainable | :23:45. | :23:49. | |
proposition. It is one we put forward as a robust long-term | :23:49. | :23:53. | |
proposition to give the correct framework for the Scottish economy | :23:53. | :23:56. | |
and to enable the companies and businesses of Scotland to continue | :23:56. | :24:00. | |
to be able to trade effectively with the rest of the UK and for | :24:00. | :24:03. | |
other companies in the rest of the United Kingdom to be trading with | :24:03. | :24:08. | |
the companies and businesses in Scotland. It makes sense in the | :24:08. | :24:11. | |
interests of everybody in these islands to be taking that approach. | :24:11. | :24:15. | |
There seems to have been three identifyable positions on currency. | :24:15. | :24:20. | |
You were unambiguously committed to joining the euro in 1999, you were | :24:20. | :24:25. | |
in favour of pegging the Scottish pound to sterling. Now you are | :24:25. | :24:29. | |
staying with terling, if you got your own way -- sterling, if you | :24:29. | :24:33. | |
got your own way and there is no talk of a currency at all. It is | :24:33. | :24:36. | |
hard for people looking at your policies to work out what you | :24:36. | :24:39. | |
really mean isn't it? Over the years there has been a broad cross | :24:39. | :24:43. | |
section of political opinion that at some stage has supported | :24:43. | :24:47. | |
membership of the single currency, not least of which the last Labour | :24:47. | :24:51. | |
Government and the current Chief Whip to the Treasury and the Lib | :24:51. | :24:54. | |
Dem party. The issue of the single currency is broadly debated across | :24:54. | :24:58. | |
the political spectrum. What we have set out over some considerable | :24:58. | :25:01. | |
time is the advantages of Scotland retaining the pound, establishing a | :25:01. | :25:06. | |
sterling zone that would enable us to operate within a framework which | :25:06. | :25:10. | |
would essentially create the stability of a unified market | :25:10. | :25:14. | |
across these islands and that in the interests of everybody aclos | :25:15. | :25:19. | |
the UK. We have heard the -- Across the UK. We have heard the | :25:19. | :25:21. | |
advantages for Scotland, the Chancellor has laid down the | :25:21. | :25:25. | |
compromises you needed to make, significant limits, and submitting | :25:25. | :25:28. | |
plans to Westminster. Accepting continuing oversight of public | :25:28. | :25:31. | |
finances, you would be prepared to do that would you, under the Bank | :25:31. | :25:35. | |
of England? These are some of the overbearing interventions of George | :25:35. | :25:39. | |
Osborne. Why are they overbearing, they seem completely sensible don't | :25:39. | :25:42. | |
they? They are pretty overbearing. We have made it pretty clear that | :25:42. | :25:46. | |
we would see the logic and the rationale of some form of | :25:46. | :25:50. | |
"stability pact" arrangements in which we set out some strategic | :25:50. | :25:53. | |
rules around the management of the public finances in Scotland. With | :25:53. | :25:57. | |
particular agreements around the level of debt that we would incur, | :25:57. | :26:06. | |
or the level of borrowing we would be undertaking. When you talk about | :26:06. | :26:09. | |
strategic rules, a lot of tax- payers will be rembering that | :26:09. | :26:14. | |
billions were paid out to rescue Scottish banks, RBS and HBOS to be | :26:14. | :26:17. | |
rescued by the Bank of England. Would that continue? All of these | :26:17. | :26:20. | |
factors are part of the public finances of the United Kingdom as | :26:20. | :26:23. | |
we stand just now. Basically you would use the loans there are the | :26:23. | :26:27. | |
Bank of England without submitting any of our bugetry restrictions or | :26:27. | :26:30. | |
qualifications, you would be prepared to just take and not give? | :26:30. | :26:35. | |
What I said a moment ago is we accept the rationale for a | :26:35. | :26:39. | |
"stability pact" type arrangement, where the levels of debt we would | :26:39. | :26:43. | |
be incurring, or the level of borrowing we would undertake would | :26:43. | :26:47. | |
be part of the "stability pact". That would give Scotland a maximum | :26:47. | :26:50. | |
amount of fiscal flexibility to determine economic policy in the | :26:50. | :26:53. | |
interests of the community of Scotland and to create the | :26:53. | :26:58. | |
strongest possible economy. Chancellor said it was unworkable. | :26:58. | :27:03. | |
That is the argument to enable us to do that. The Chancellor said it | :27:03. | :27:08. | |
was unworkable. The Chancellor said why would the 58 million citizens | :27:08. | :27:12. | |
of the rest of the UK to give their sovereignty to share in a new kind | :27:12. | :27:17. | |
of eurozone with you? There are two reasons why that would be in their | :27:17. | :27:19. | |
interests, the first is there is a significant amount of trade between | :27:19. | :27:22. | |
Scotland and the rest of the UK, and crucially between the rest of | :27:22. | :27:28. | |
the UK and Scotland. And secondly, you can see, you saw in the clip | :27:28. | :27:33. | |
from the First Minister in the package that you just ran, Scotland | :27:33. | :27:37. | |
makes a significant contribution towards the balance of payments | :27:37. | :27:41. | |
situation for the United Kingdom, to the tune of �40 billion alone in | :27:41. | :27:45. | |
North Sea oil and gas revenues. That is a particular prize that I | :27:45. | :27:47. | |
think the Chancellor of the Exchequer would be determined to | :27:47. | :27:51. | |
get his hands on for the sterling zone benefits. Isn't the truth, as | :27:51. | :27:55. | |
was made clearly and succinctly by the woman in the film, that people | :27:55. | :27:58. | |
don't want to hear about any real change. They want to think you | :27:59. | :28:04. | |
still keep the pound and the Queen, nothing really changes. It is an | :28:04. | :28:07. | |
independance-light, where you take the good bits and leave the bad | :28:07. | :28:11. | |
bits, and you don't tell people exactly what they are settling for, | :28:11. | :28:15. | |
because it is easier to get them voting for you? People want to hear | :28:15. | :28:18. | |
is what it is possible to achieve within Scotland. What it is | :28:18. | :28:21. | |
possible to achieve is a much stronger economy, using the | :28:21. | :28:25. | |
economic and fiscal levers that countless other countries around | :28:25. | :28:28. | |
the globe take advantage of. To make sure we have a more prosperous | :28:28. | :28:35. | |
and fairer society. We live in the United Kingdom, in the fourth-most | :28:35. | :28:39. | |
unequal country in the IOC. It is high time we used our wealth, | :28:39. | :28:42. | |
imagination and talent to create a more prosperous and fairer country. | :28:42. | :28:48. | |
Thank you very much indeed. How do we want our kids to be | :28:48. | :28:51. | |
raised? What role should the Government have in looking after | :28:51. | :28:55. | |
them? If child minders were more qualified they could look after | :28:55. | :29:01. | |
more children at a time, childcare would cost less, children would be | :29:01. | :29:06. | |
better behaved? Make sense? The French does, and our Education | :29:06. | :29:09. | |
Minister, Elizabeth Truss, agrees with them. We went across the | :29:09. | :29:19. | |
channel to see if we could learn a lesson. | :29:19. | :29:23. | |
Look at these faces very carefully. They seem perfectly normal. But | :29:23. | :29:28. | |
from a very young age they have become more disciplined, more | :29:28. | :29:36. | |
socialised, more attentive, more mind-boggleing angelic! By the way, | :29:36. | :29:44. | |
they are French. If on the rare occasion a French child throws a | :29:44. | :29:47. | |
tantrum or throws food, it is because, we are told, they have | :29:47. | :29:50. | |
permission to do so. That is the idea we are going to test with a | :29:50. | :29:56. | |
Government minister on a trip to France. Before we head off to check | :29:56. | :30:00. | |
this little angel thesis, I want someone of my own to test any | :30:00. | :30:10. | |
:30:10. | :30:11. | ||
claims that we hear in France. So, we have French mother Lola. She has | :30:11. | :30:16. | |
three children who -- Leila, she has three children who at various | :30:16. | :30:20. | |
stages of their upbringing have experienced both systems. We will | :30:20. | :30:24. | |
come back to her later. Until the children enter school parent are | :30:24. | :30:34. | |
really struggling here. Probably in France they do not as much. Last | :30:34. | :30:38. | |
Tuesday we got up and out with Government minister for children, | :30:38. | :30:45. | |
Elizabeth Truss. We are on a research expresident dix into early | :30:45. | :30:51. | |
years education. -- expedition into early years education. This is a | :30:51. | :30:54. | |
nursery, but more like a school, three-year-olds attend it, a year | :30:54. | :30:59. | |
earlier than attending school in the UK. A lot of problems in the UK | :30:59. | :31:03. | |
is quite a lot of kids arrive in school not able to sit and | :31:03. | :31:07. | |
concentrate in lesson. That means they will get behind further on in | :31:07. | :31:11. | |
their school career. What these children are doing is they are | :31:11. | :31:15. | |
being led by really qualified professionals, who know what they | :31:15. | :31:22. | |
are doing. Who can operate with large groups and encourage that | :31:22. | :31:28. | |
self-reliance amongst children. children here are not shouting out | :31:28. | :31:31. | |
or running about, they are concentrating on what the teacher | :31:31. | :31:39. | |
is saying. That is so important. You would see this in some nursery | :31:39. | :31:44. | |
in -- nurseries in the UK, but only a third of them, this is an | :31:44. | :31:48. | |
entitlement for all children in France. The headteacher has hosted | :31:48. | :31:53. | |
a large delegation from the UK, why does he think that they are | :31:53. | :31:57. | |
mesmerised by his school? Language is improving fast. We can see they | :31:57. | :32:04. | |
develop social relationships very, very quickly. They become quite | :32:04. | :32:13. | |
deep as well for this age. As well they improve their abilities about | :32:14. | :32:23. | |
being ready to learn how to read, how to write. What did Leila's son | :32:23. | :32:29. | |
make of the French school? He has take great advantage of being | :32:29. | :32:34. | |
schooled that early. He enjoyed it. He was ready to have other | :32:34. | :32:40. | |
relationships and that he started to build up his own path, | :32:40. | :32:45. | |
confidence, knowledge. What does the big sister think? They have | :32:45. | :32:52. | |
these sort of stricter methods of teaching children. Here we learn | :32:52. | :32:57. | |
through games and through all that. So we learn more discipline in | :32:57. | :33:04. | |
France. Discipline at three years old but also in the earlier years. | :33:04. | :33:08. | |
As we travelled around nurseries we met child minders with high | :33:08. | :33:14. | |
qualifications where one looked after eight two-year-olds. | :33:14. | :33:17. | |
Elizabeth Truss is shifting Britain to this French system, one to eight, | :33:17. | :33:21. | |
if the minder is looking after children at home, it will be one to | :33:21. | :33:27. | |
four. Elizabeth Truss has been much criticised for this shift, she | :33:27. | :33:36. | |
thinks it is possible. My colleague Jacob Reece-Mogg has four under- | :33:36. | :33:39. | |
fives and they are capable of looking after it and so should | :33:39. | :33:43. | |
child minders. We are saying it is down to individual child minders to | :33:44. | :33:47. | |
say how many children it is OK to look after and how it fits with | :33:47. | :33:53. | |
their life. Back in Oxford we had ratios that had a mixed report card. | :33:53. | :33:57. | |
When my last baby started in a French City Council nursery, she | :33:57. | :34:02. | |
was six months old, she was one of eight children for one carer. And I | :34:02. | :34:08. | |
thought it was a bit hard after the experience of the British ratios of | :34:08. | :34:14. | |
three children for one carer. Leila does agree with Elizabeth | :34:14. | :34:17. | |
Truss that all round provision in France is better. This means that | :34:17. | :34:20. | |
more French mothers than British mothers work. Two-thirds of mums in | :34:20. | :34:25. | |
Britain go out to work. I'm very concerned that those mums who often | :34:25. | :34:30. | |
have to go out to work for economic reasons, and this is a trend across | :34:30. | :34:34. | |
the world, in all developed countries dual-income families are | :34:34. | :34:38. | |
the norm, I'm concerned those mums are made to feel guilty about a | :34:38. | :34:47. | |
choice they don't really have. France probably the experiences of | :34:47. | :34:52. | |
women are the same as the experiences of British women. We | :34:52. | :34:58. | |
are juggling probably you know we have got our cultural habits of | :34:58. | :35:02. | |
raising children that are quite different from the more relaxed | :35:02. | :35:10. | |
approach of British women. I feel like English mums and parenting is | :35:10. | :35:14. | |
much more gentle and geared toward the children, where as in France | :35:14. | :35:24. | |
maybe we ask the children to fit into our lives more. With me now is | :35:24. | :35:28. | |
the Education Minister, Elizabeth Truss, also joined by Laura Perrins | :35:28. | :35:33. | |
who is the mother who challenged Nick Clegg on his radio programme. | :35:33. | :35:36. | |
And we have a member of the professional Association for | :35:36. | :35:40. | |
Childcare and early years. Elizabeth Truss do you think French | :35:40. | :35:43. | |
kids really are better behaved? What I noticed in the French | :35:43. | :35:48. | |
nurseries we visited is they do tend to be very calm and purposeful | :35:48. | :35:52. | |
and they are very good at actually improving the outcomes of children | :35:52. | :35:56. | |
later on in life. There has been some very good studies of the | :35:56. | :36:02. | |
impact of French l'ecole maternello Casanova which are positive. I | :36:02. | :36:08. | |
think the strong eacher leadership is really good. Is that the | :36:08. | :36:14. | |
qualification of the teachers in charge, or is it the numbers or a | :36:14. | :36:17. | |
discipline introduced or what is it? The qualifications of the | :36:17. | :36:20. | |
teachers is really important. That is one of the main factors in the | :36:20. | :36:23. | |
outcomes for children. The more qualified the teacher, generally | :36:23. | :36:26. | |
the better the outcomes are. That is true in studies in Britain, but | :36:26. | :36:31. | |
also for studies in France. I think though that the structured | :36:31. | :36:37. | |
environment they operate in enables them to hire those high-quality | :36:37. | :36:41. | |
teachers. There is a relationship between the two. What do you hear | :36:41. | :36:44. | |
when Elizabeth Truss talks about high-quality teaching and that | :36:44. | :36:47. | |
difference that we see in France? think there is a very different | :36:47. | :36:51. | |
language in terms of the conversations that we have with our | :36:51. | :36:56. | |
members, childcare professionals and nursery workers and childminder. | :36:56. | :36:59. | |
They talk about children enjoying their time in childcare, learning | :36:59. | :37:03. | |
through play, and having a very much mixed balance of child-led | :37:03. | :37:08. | |
experience as well as adult, teacher-led experience. That is at | :37:08. | :37:12. | |
the heart of the early years foundation stage we work with in | :37:13. | :37:18. | |
England. You can't disentangle high-quality from good | :37:18. | :37:21. | |
qualifications and ratios, it is both. What do you mean by that? | :37:21. | :37:26. | |
key factors for a good-quality experience for children are high- | :37:26. | :37:29. | |
quality one-to-one interactions with their adult carer, that is | :37:29. | :37:33. | |
about the number of children you are looking after at any one time, | :37:33. | :37:39. | |
that allows them to be provided by play-led opportunities. Play-led is | :37:39. | :37:42. | |
important? We are talking about structured play, of course we are | :37:42. | :37:45. | |
not talking about three-year-olds sitting down at desks writing | :37:45. | :37:49. | |
things. But we are talking about teacher-led activities. We do know | :37:49. | :37:53. | |
that the impact of the teacher is the most important thing. The level | :37:53. | :37:56. | |
of qualifications is the most important factor, it has been shown | :37:56. | :38:00. | |
to be the case in France as it has in England. Only a third of our | :38:00. | :38:03. | |
nurseries are led by graduate teachers, even though we know that | :38:03. | :38:07. | |
is the most important factor. So, yeah, interaction between adults | :38:07. | :38:11. | |
and children is important, but also socialisation between children is | :38:11. | :38:15. | |
important, learning to take turns is important, all of those kinds of | :38:15. | :38:18. | |
things. You do need structure. What I really worry about is some of the | :38:18. | :38:23. | |
children in the most deprived areas, who don't have structure in their | :38:23. | :38:25. | |
family backgrounds need that structure when they get to nursery | :38:25. | :38:29. | |
so they can learn and be ready forle skoo. What we know is a third | :38:29. | :38:34. | |
of -- school. What we know is a third of children arrive at school | :38:34. | :38:38. | |
without communication and language skills that more structured play | :38:38. | :38:41. | |
delivers. Don't they get that at home with their parents as opposed | :38:41. | :38:49. | |
to being in an organised group? think they get it in both groups. | :38:49. | :38:52. | |
I'm very supportive of more child minders, and I'm supportive of stay | :38:52. | :38:55. | |
at home parents. What we need is people to have a choice. The thing | :38:55. | :39:00. | |
I pointed out in the film is a lot of women, men, have to go out to | :39:00. | :39:03. | |
work for economic reasons, and we need to make sure the childcare | :39:03. | :39:07. | |
that they rely on is really high quality what you get in France is a | :39:07. | :39:11. | |
sense of a continuum, a system you can rely on so you can make your | :39:11. | :39:15. | |
choice, secure in the knowledge that your child is getting a really | :39:16. | :39:19. | |
good quality education. minister has accepted that many, | :39:19. | :39:24. | |
many parents have to go out to work. The reason for that is that this | :39:24. | :39:28. | |
Government has actively discriminated against stay at home | :39:28. | :39:32. | |
mums and single income families by penalising them in the tax system | :39:32. | :39:38. | |
and stag ma advertising them in the language they use, implying -- | :39:38. | :39:43. | |
stigmatising them in the language they used and in the language they | :39:43. | :39:47. | |
use, implying they are lazy. Eight out of ten mothers say they would | :39:47. | :39:53. | |
like to reduce their hours to go part-time or full-time stay at home | :39:53. | :39:56. | |
mothers. The minister and the Government, instead of coming here | :39:57. | :40:06. | |
in here with this French fairytale of Ameila and Jacques sitting down | :40:06. | :40:09. | |
at desk, should think about Alice and John, the British children you | :40:09. | :40:14. | |
are elected to represent, they want to be at home with their parents. | :40:14. | :40:16. | |
And importantly, the key factor is those parents want to care for | :40:16. | :40:20. | |
their children at home. And your Government instead of coming in | :40:20. | :40:24. | |
here with this French fantasy, should instead do what they did, | :40:25. | :40:30. | |
and implement the promise in the coalition agreement to provide for | :40:30. | :40:34. | |
a transferable tax allowance. That would give a real choice to working | :40:34. | :40:38. | |
parents to stay at home for the crucial early years and care for | :40:38. | :40:43. | |
those kids at home. You have deprived them of that choice. | :40:43. | :40:48. | |
will be putting in the tax allowance for marriage. When will | :40:48. | :40:52. | |
that happen? Is that a promise on Newsnight? Let me finish responding | :40:52. | :40:57. | |
to your point. Let's just get to the bottom of that, is this a | :40:57. | :40:59. | |
marriage tax allowance that is coming in this parliament? This is | :40:59. | :41:02. | |
a commitment that the Conservatives have in our manifesto. Jo are you | :41:02. | :41:07. | |
going to act on it? I hope so, I'm very supportive of marriage in the | :41:07. | :41:12. | |
tax system. You hope so, are you going to act on a commitment, given | :41:12. | :41:16. | |
in the coalition agreement, parliamentary democracy is for the | :41:16. | :41:20. | |
children you represent, act on that commitment. This is crucial, we | :41:20. | :41:23. | |
have heard a lot about the marriage tax allowance t will come in, it | :41:23. | :41:26. | |
was a commitment, then a promise, it got dropped because now of the | :41:27. | :41:30. | |
Lib Dems, now you say it is a commitment and you hope it will be | :41:30. | :41:33. | |
brought in, before the end of this parliament? I hope so. I can't | :41:33. | :41:37. | |
commit that. I'm not the Chancellor, I can't say that. Why don't you | :41:37. | :41:40. | |
lobby the Chancellor to bring it in? I think it is important. | :41:40. | :41:44. | |
However, what I would say is we need to support all families. We | :41:44. | :41:46. | |
need to allow families to make choices. I don't think it is right | :41:47. | :41:50. | |
to pit one set of parents against another set of parents. We are | :41:50. | :41:54. | |
supporting those parent. What we have to recognise is that childcare | :41:54. | :41:58. | |
costs here in England are twice as high as they are in other countries | :41:58. | :42:01. | |
in Europe, it is very, very difficult for some families to get | :42:01. | :42:06. | |
by. Some families are on very low incomes. We need to make sure that | :42:06. | :42:13. | |
the childcare of those 66% of mums that go out to work can be relied | :42:13. | :42:17. | |
on and is good. There is an important factor that we need to | :42:17. | :42:20. | |
remember. The parents currently signing petitions to Governments | :42:20. | :42:24. | |
around the ratios have two messages, it is not about cost it is about | :42:24. | :42:32. | |
the quality of care for children. There is concerns about increasing | :42:32. | :42:35. | |
ratios, alongside proposals for qualification change that will take | :42:35. | :42:40. | |
longer than the ratio change. of parents are saying we spend an | :42:40. | :42:46. | |
enormous amount, a friend who had twins spent �2,500 a month, that | :42:46. | :42:50. | |
nearly broke them. Can't you say as a parent I want a better | :42:50. | :42:53. | |
qualification and I expect for more that money? Absolutely, one of the | :42:53. | :42:57. | |
lessons we need to recognise is countries like Holland and France | :42:57. | :43:01. | |
are investing far more in state- funded childcare. And alongside | :43:01. | :43:06. | |
that a greater contribution from employers. There is choices to be | :43:06. | :43:08. | |
made around how much childcare costs, will there is more that | :43:08. | :43:13. | |
could be done in terms of employer- supportive vouchers. We spend the | :43:13. | :43:16. | |
same as a proportion of GDP on early years that the French do. It | :43:16. | :43:23. | |
is about getting value for money for what we spend. We spend �5 | :43:23. | :43:26. | |
billion. The figures on what you spend keep changing. We had the | :43:26. | :43:33. | |
lower ratios in Europe, and the average childcare worker gets �6.60 | :43:33. | :43:37. | |
an hour, barely above minimum wage, we can't kid ourselves that the | :43:37. | :43:39. | |
system we have at the moment is right. Let's not kid ourselves that | :43:39. | :43:42. | |
you have any support for this change in ratio. The entire | :43:42. | :43:46. | |
industry is against you, most parents by the parenting forums are | :43:46. | :43:55. | |
against you, and Professor Nut Brown who commissioned the original | :43:55. | :43:59. | |
report has dismissed the ratio changes as nonsense. These ratios | :43:59. | :44:04. | |
are across Europe. You heard the film about the French system. | :44:04. | :44:09. | |
you interested in British children or British parents are you | :44:09. | :44:14. | |
interested in French parents and children. You can see the high | :44:14. | :44:20. | |
quality care works in France. A lot of childcare providers operate in | :44:20. | :44:24. | |
other countries with different qualifications and higher ratios. | :44:24. | :44:29. | |
Let's be clear we are only going to allow childcare providers who hire | :44:29. | :44:34. | |
high-quality staff to operate these ratios, there will be strict | :44:34. | :44:38. | |
criteria to operate the ratios. There is no link to child minders | :44:38. | :44:43. | |
for qualifications and ratios. is why we are having childcare | :44:43. | :44:47. | |
agencies. That is not about quality assurance through qualifications. | :44:48. | :44:52. | |
It is. I think the key issue for parents is absolute he cost but not | :44:52. | :44:56. | |
at the sacrifice of quality. But I don't think there is evidence | :44:56. | :45:00. | |
really for us to see that how changing ratio levels will really | :45:01. | :45:06. | |
change the cost of childcare. up to the professionals to decide. | :45:06. | :45:10. | |
I'm sorry we have run out of time, thank you for coming. I come to | :45:10. | :45:20. | |
:45:20. | :45:54. | ||
these papers rather new so I will That's all we have time for tonight. | :45:54. | :45:57. | |
But Jeremy will be here tomorrow, from all of us here, a very good | :45:57. | :46:07. | |
:46:07. | :46:32. | ||
Good evening. Wednesday will be a bit of a mixed picture across the | :46:32. | :46:35. | |
UK, some rain, some sunshine. The rain across primarily northern part | :46:35. | :46:39. | |
of the UK, during the first half of Wednesday. It turns brighter across | :46:39. | :46:42. | |
Scotland. Sparkling sunshine and fresh conditions, a little further | :46:42. | :46:46. | |
southwards in Northern Ireland it will remain cloudy. The north coast | :46:46. | :46:49. | |
getting sun but well and truly it is across Scotland where we will | :46:49. | :46:53. | |
have the best of the weather in the north of the UK. Then we get into | :46:53. | :46:56. | |
England, here it is relatively cloudy. To the east of the Pennines | :46:56. | :47:01. | |
there might be breaks in the cloud. A little bit more cloud across the | :47:01. | :47:04. | |
north Midland. For East Anglia and the south-east, a little bit more | :47:04. | :47:08. | |
cloud on Wednesday compared to what we had on Tuesday. So maybe the | :47:08. | :47:12. | |
temperatures in one or two spots won't be quite so high. For the | :47:12. | :47:16. | |
south west some low grey cloud and mist in one or two places affecting | :47:16. | :47:21. | |
areas deep inland, not just around the coast. Some of that may drift | :47:21. | :47:25. | |
up the Bristol Channel. Cloudy across Wales too. Let's look at the | :47:25. | :47:29. | |
outlook over the next couple of days. Wednesday and Thursday | :47:29. | :47:33. | |
temperatures across the north hovering around 1010 degrees. As | :47:33. | :47:38. | |
far as the Midland go on Wednesday. Already temperatures starting to | :47:38. | :47:41. |