Browse content similar to 25/10/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
The flagship free school where the numbers don't seem to add up and | :00:10. | :00:14. | |
where the questions about discipline are directed not at the pupils but | :00:15. | :00:19. | |
at how the school is run. You have big aspirations here, that's great. | :00:20. | :00:24. | |
The Prime Minister was a big fan. But we have an exclusive report on | :00:25. | :00:29. | |
allegations of mismanagement, nepotisim and possible fraud at the | :00:30. | :00:35. | |
Kings Science Academy. Britain is growing and bouncing back is the | :00:36. | :00:38. | |
story of the latest figure, why isn't everything plastic fantastic | :00:39. | :00:43. | |
in Sheffield. The work has picked up, but I think some companies have | :00:44. | :00:46. | |
to sacrifice how much they are sell it for to how much they make. We | :00:47. | :00:50. | |
will hear from three chief executives of big British companies. | :00:51. | :00:54. | |
And the mystery of Maria has been solved, the family of the blonde | :00:55. | :00:58. | |
Roma girl, who has made the front pages all around the world has been | :00:59. | :01:09. | |
traced. We hear from Athens. Good evening, all schools can face | :01:10. | :01:14. | |
problems, but the Government's flagship free schools are under | :01:15. | :01:17. | |
greater scrutiny, most because their very existence is part of a huge | :01:18. | :01:20. | |
political debate about the direction of education policy. Tonight | :01:21. | :01:25. | |
Newsnight can reveal that a whistleblower sounded the alarm | :01:26. | :01:29. | |
about Kings Science Academy, a free school in Bradford. It has been the | :01:30. | :01:34. | |
subject of an internal audit which questions where large sums money has | :01:35. | :01:40. | |
gone amid allegations of nepotisim, misGetah and fraud. A new day begins | :01:41. | :01:48. | |
at one of Britain's highest profile free schools. This is Kings Science | :01:49. | :01:59. | |
Academy in Bradford. It is celebrated By a Prime Minister and | :02:00. | :02:04. | |
his Education Secretary as one of the new free schools. How do you | :02:05. | :02:09. | |
find having a longer day? A bit tiring, but you don't mind getting | :02:10. | :02:12. | |
up earlier if you are getting a good education. Like all free schools it | :02:13. | :02:17. | |
is state funded, but outside Local Education Authority control. The | :02:18. | :02:20. | |
policy is designed to help communities take charge of their | :02:21. | :02:24. | |
children's education. But we have discovered that financial management | :02:25. | :02:30. | |
at Kings Science Academy has been out of control. There have been | :02:31. | :02:33. | |
allegations of serious mismanagement, nepotisim and even | :02:34. | :02:38. | |
fraud. The Kings Science Academy was set up by a young dynamic Oxford | :02:39. | :02:43. | |
graduate, the son of a Bradford bus driver. On paper it was the ideal | :02:44. | :02:48. | |
project, social mobility and better education. More than two years after | :02:49. | :02:52. | |
it is open the complaints have come in. And this is the result, an audit | :02:53. | :02:59. | |
report that contains devastating criticisms of financial management | :03:00. | :03:01. | |
at the school. The leaked report is a draft internal audit, written by a | :03:02. | :03:04. | |
body called the Education Funding Agency of, the EFA, it is part of | :03:05. | :03:08. | |
the Department of Education. Newsnight can reveal a whistleblower | :03:09. | :03:14. | |
contacted the Government last year with serious concerns about | :03:15. | :03:16. | |
management and governance at the school. The report alemmings that 86 | :03:17. | :03:25. | |
-- alleges that ?86,000 of lead-in funding was cued for purpose it was | :03:26. | :03:26. | |
not intended It is unbelievable if true. We are | :03:27. | :04:01. | |
talking about here fraud on a pretty serious scale. The question of the | :04:02. | :04:07. | |
appropriateness of qualifications is one thing in terms of what was this | :04:08. | :04:12. | |
person, the right person, a fit person to run a school. A | :04:13. | :04:17. | |
publicly-funded school. This is the man at the heart of the story. Sajid | :04:18. | :04:24. | |
Raza, the principal, who set up Kings Science Academy two years ago. | :04:25. | :04:28. | |
Kings Science Academy is certainly well connected. Alan Lewis is | :04:29. | :04:32. | |
described as executive patron and a key begin factor -- Benny factor, | :04:33. | :04:43. | |
he's a successful business man and Conservative Party vice chairman. We | :04:44. | :04:45. | |
spoke to a former member of staff about his time at the school. He | :04:46. | :04:49. | |
feared his career would be damaged if he spoke publicly, so we agreed | :04:50. | :04:54. | |
to protect his identity. It is the flagship free school. I think it is | :04:55. | :04:57. | |
fair to say it has huge political backing in the current political | :04:58. | :05:01. | |
atmosphere, at least. From that point of view it is highly, highly | :05:02. | :05:05. | |
protected. As a result of that it is hard to hold someone to account if | :05:06. | :05:10. | |
you have got that much protection. The school opened in 2011, the audit | :05:11. | :05:15. | |
document says the new building was given public funds of over ?10 | :05:16. | :05:20. | |
million. Alan Lewis gave a helping hand. It is built on land leased | :05:21. | :05:27. | |
from Mr Lewis's company at a cost of ?296,000 a year for 20 years. About | :05:28. | :05:33. | |
?6 million. In Bradford there were high hopes for the school. But some | :05:34. | :05:39. | |
were uneasy. In Bradford word soon got out that the principal was | :05:40. | :05:43. | |
employing many members of his own family. This document lists them. | :05:44. | :05:47. | |
His brother was on the governing body, his sister was a senior | :05:48. | :05:50. | |
teacher at the school, his wife worked there too and his father | :05:51. | :05:55. | |
drove the school minibus. To outsiders it was beginning to look | :05:56. | :05:58. | |
like a family business. The EFA report says: | :05:59. | :06:17. | |
We spoke to the school's former Finance Director, Daud Khan. Did you | :06:18. | :06:25. | |
ever have any concerns that there were so many family members | :06:26. | :06:31. | |
associated with this school? At the time, to be honest with you we | :06:32. | :06:35. | |
thought they had all gone through the interview process and somebody's | :06:36. | :06:41. | |
interview them. Afterwards we found out that certain people were | :06:42. | :06:45. | |
recruited without being interviewed. Would you say that is wrong? That is | :06:46. | :06:48. | |
totally wrong, because we are dealing with public money. Free | :06:49. | :06:53. | |
schools are accountable to the Education Funding Agency, the EFA. | :06:54. | :06:57. | |
The EFA visited the school in December 2012 as part of a routine | :06:58. | :07:01. | |
inspection of its financial management. That visit highlighted | :07:02. | :07:05. | |
significant witnesses in the academy's governance. The academy | :07:06. | :07:09. | |
had reported its own financial management as "good", the EFA team | :07:10. | :07:18. | |
found it was "inadequate. The EFA passed the case to the audit team to | :07:19. | :07:24. | |
look for accounting irregularities. There was an historical review of | :07:25. | :07:29. | |
the school's finances. Their work highlighted serious concerns. | :07:30. | :07:33. | |
Benefactor and Conservative vice chairman, Alan Lewis, told us it was | :07:34. | :07:37. | |
his recommendation to bring them in. Reading the EFA report, the message | :07:38. | :07:42. | |
that comes out loud and clear is that there was chaos in terms of | :07:43. | :07:47. | |
financial control and management of the academy. Is that your experience | :07:48. | :07:51. | |
when you were there? I think certainly as classroom teach e I | :07:52. | :07:55. | |
think things had been constantly things had been changed on a daily | :07:56. | :07:58. | |
basis. It is that level of chaos could be down to just incompetence | :07:59. | :08:02. | |
based on inexperience. That is one way of viewing it. I think the other | :08:03. | :08:07. | |
way of viewing it is it is because they were unaware essentially of how | :08:08. | :08:10. | |
to run the school, it was almost being made up as they go along. | :08:11. | :08:16. | |
Sajid would do a lot of things behind closed doors, he wouldn't get | :08:17. | :08:20. | |
me or anybody he else involved. I don't know how much he was telling | :08:21. | :08:23. | |
the governors, even if he was telling them, the majority were all | :08:24. | :08:26. | |
their friends any way. They would back him up. The most eye-catching | :08:27. | :08:32. | |
conclusion though is not all invoices submitted to the Government | :08:33. | :08:35. | |
for payment could be justified. The report states that the principal, Mr | :08:36. | :08:41. | |
Raza has admitted some of the invoices submitted to the department | :08:42. | :08:47. | |
to support the claim for lead-in grant, were fabricated invoices. He | :08:48. | :08:57. | |
blames Daud Khan for fabricating six invoices from Mr Lewis's company. | :08:58. | :09:00. | |
Have you seen these invoices? I don't know anything about it. It is | :09:01. | :09:03. | |
stark reading. In one passage in the document it says "further follow-up | :09:04. | :09:09. | |
with Mr Raza clarified that all six invoices, supposedly from the Trust | :09:10. | :09:18. | |
were raised by Daud, you, the former Finance Director so rent could be | :09:19. | :09:21. | |
claimed from the Department of Education as part of the grant | :09:22. | :09:25. | |
claim. They are trying to put the blame on you? That is rubbish, I was | :09:26. | :09:30. | |
recruited for book keeping, banking reconciliation and other tasks. I | :09:31. | :09:33. | |
was responsible for financial accounting not management. Any | :09:34. | :09:37. | |
invoices that were passed they were passed on from Razpash, he would be | :09:38. | :09:41. | |
responsible for opening all the post. David Ward MP sits on the | :09:42. | :09:45. | |
Education Select Committee, a school governor for 30 years, he has long | :09:46. | :09:49. | |
been a critic of the free school policy. It sounds, and I I think it | :09:50. | :09:59. | |
sounds like a complete disaster and a financial nightmare. If this is | :10:00. | :10:03. | |
true, we must ensure this is made public. Because this is such a | :10:04. | :10:07. | |
flagship policy for the Government, there is always a suspicion that | :10:08. | :10:12. | |
anything that is critical of free schools will not be made public and | :10:13. | :10:20. | |
that is not simply in terms of the academic performance of the school, | :10:21. | :10:23. | |
but actually the governance, quality and integrity of the governance | :10:24. | :10:28. | |
procedures as well. We also tried to speak to Conservative vice chairman | :10:29. | :10:32. | |
Alan Lewis, the former executive patron at the school, his company | :10:33. | :10:38. | |
spokesman We also asked the principal about | :10:39. | :10:50. | |
governance, the schools lawyers told us. . | :10:51. | :11:11. | |
The Department of Education told us there is a plan for the school to | :11:12. | :11:17. | |
pay back ?76,000 after expenditure couldn't be justified. The | :11:18. | :11:20. | |
department stress both the EFA and the school had taken action when | :11:21. | :11:27. | |
problems were revealed. Six months after the report was drafted, | :11:28. | :11:30. | |
knowing we were about to broadcast for the investigation, the | :11:31. | :11:33. | |
Department of Education published the report on its website. A | :11:34. | :11:35. | |
spokesman said. D.. People in Bradford will be left | :11:36. | :11:57. | |
wondering about the future of their free school. But the Department of | :11:58. | :12:01. | |
Education says there are more scandals in conventional state | :12:02. | :12:04. | |
schools. Both the academy and the Department of Education say that | :12:05. | :12:07. | |
governance and financial management are much improved. | :12:08. | :12:12. | |
Richard is with me now, what has been going on this week since you | :12:13. | :12:15. | |
started this investigation? It is the timing that is very curious. We | :12:16. | :12:19. | |
got hold of this leaked draft report about a week ago, beginning of the | :12:20. | :12:24. | |
week. By Tuesday we had interviewed our own sources on this, we have put | :12:25. | :12:29. | |
the allegations to the people being criticised. By Wednesday the | :12:30. | :12:32. | |
principal of the school was telling me the draft report was only a draft | :12:33. | :12:35. | |
and it won't be published until January next year. That changed very | :12:36. | :12:41. | |
quickly indeed, because today, well yesterday, then the Department of | :12:42. | :12:44. | |
Education said, look, we are going to publish this, but they didn't | :12:45. | :12:47. | |
want to give a timetable for it, they said several weeks. Today, of | :12:48. | :12:52. | |
course, they publish it on their website a few hours before we go to | :12:53. | :12:56. | |
air. I should pension mention one other thing that I think came out of | :12:57. | :12:59. | |
the Department of Education today, which is actually very interesting. | :13:00. | :13:02. | |
That is there is a reference in their statement to the fact that | :13:03. | :13:07. | |
they refer it to the police in April this year but the police chose to | :13:08. | :13:12. | |
take no further action. We contacted the Department of Education but | :13:13. | :13:15. | |
nobody was available to come on the programme tonight. | :13:16. | :13:19. | |
Today's growth figures, the best for three years, were hailed by the | :13:20. | :13:22. | |
Chancellor, George Osborne, as demonstrating that Britain was on | :13:23. | :13:26. | |
the path to prosperity. Before the band could strike up a chorus of | :13:27. | :13:32. | |
Happy Days Are Here Again, George Osborne was reminded that people are | :13:33. | :13:36. | |
squeezed, energy prices are up way beyond inflation, and inflation has | :13:37. | :13:39. | |
been significantly higher than wage increases. We're in Sheffield to | :13:40. | :13:45. | |
find out what 0. 8% growth in the last quarter means in the real | :13:46. | :13:54. | |
world. Sheffield is a city that still trades on its past, metals and | :13:55. | :13:59. | |
heavy industry. The decline of the steel works forced the city to | :14:00. | :14:06. | |
reinvent itself. Now these slabs at ?20,000 each are being used to make | :14:07. | :14:11. | |
something different, Sheffield plastic. | :14:12. | :14:15. | |
We were within a month of going under. It was as close as that, we | :14:16. | :14:20. | |
had already, if you like, made arrangements with banks to say look | :14:21. | :14:24. | |
we are going to have to pull the plug. At the height of the recession | :14:25. | :14:28. | |
this company was on the brink, but orders started to come back, four | :14:29. | :14:32. | |
years later it feels like things are looking up. We're confident that we | :14:33. | :14:35. | |
have turned the corner, I'm confident that we will move ahead, | :14:36. | :14:39. | |
we are going to invest in more people and more equipment, we | :14:40. | :14:43. | |
believe the economy is on the up, the automotive industry, Aerospace | :14:44. | :14:47. | |
are growing, we don't see why the UK can't take advantage of this growth. | :14:48. | :14:52. | |
This latest set of GDP figures is starting to paint a picture of what | :14:53. | :14:57. | |
looks like a solid recovery. All sectors of the economy grew together | :14:58. | :15:01. | |
in the third quarter. Industrial output was up 0. 5%, helped by a 0. | :15:02. | :15:07. | |
9% rise in manufacturing. The service sector grew another 0.7 per | :15:08. | :15:14. | |
cent, constructiontruction is bouncing back helped by an increase | :15:15. | :15:18. | |
in house building. A quarterly growth of 0. 8% is the highest for | :15:19. | :15:22. | |
three years. I think Britain's hard work is paying off. We see that in | :15:23. | :15:26. | |
these economic numbers today. It shows we are on the path to | :15:27. | :15:30. | |
prosperity. Lots of risks remain, we have to stick with the economic plan | :15:31. | :15:34. | |
that has got us this far. What the Chancellor is after is some | :15:35. | :15:43. | |
Dragons Den-style innovation. You are harming the environment by a | :15:44. | :15:49. | |
bottle you say is here, it is a terrible invention, ludicrous but | :15:50. | :15:53. | |
I'm out. Ducan Bannatyne might not have liked the idea, but this | :15:54. | :15:59. | |
factory has now churned out half a million collapsable bottles for its | :16:00. | :16:03. | |
British inventor, many going for export. To some of the well known | :16:04. | :16:07. | |
companies we are churning out 10,000 a month each for the big companies | :16:08. | :16:11. | |
for their customers. It is really good. How much money are you making | :16:12. | :16:14. | |
on something like this? Not enough. You are not going to tell us are | :16:15. | :16:22. | |
you? But even after today's positive growth figures the economy is still | :16:23. | :16:28. | |
two-and-a-half 2. 5% smaller than at its peak in 2008. There are | :16:29. | :16:33. | |
constraints on the recovery, banks are still reluctant to end, the | :16:34. | :16:38. | |
fiscal squeeze is still there and real pay is falling. We are seeing | :16:39. | :16:42. | |
the recovery broaden out and become much stronger. Well today's data | :16:43. | :16:48. | |
might look good on paper, the reality for most workers here is a | :16:49. | :16:52. | |
squeeze on wages and the cost of living. Money-wise you do feel, you | :16:53. | :16:58. | |
don't feel as though it is getting a lot better. In the last couple of | :16:59. | :17:04. | |
years. Are you starting to feel better off, do you feel that there | :17:05. | :17:07. | |
is better times ahead or is that still a long way away? They say it | :17:08. | :17:14. | |
is, but if it is it is all down south, not up north. No I don't | :17:15. | :17:20. | |
think so. So the economy might be on the mend, growth might be picking | :17:21. | :17:25. | |
up, the Government's next task is to make these workers feel they are | :17:26. | :17:32. | |
part of it. I'm joined by three CEOs from three top British companies, | :17:33. | :17:36. | |
Lisa Thomas of the advertising agency, Saatchi, and Paul Waits and | :17:37. | :17:43. | |
Paul Dunn from 02. The construction figures were good, what is driving | :17:44. | :17:48. | |
that, is it just confidence is back or Help To Buy or those kinds of | :17:49. | :17:54. | |
things? The principal driver of stronger growth in construction in | :17:55. | :17:57. | |
this quarter, has been the increase in house building, private | :17:58. | :18:01. | |
residential house building, a little bit of increase in infrastructure, | :18:02. | :18:05. | |
still a long way to go to get the industry back to where it was five | :18:06. | :18:10. | |
years ago. Do you worry about it in the south-east, it is in London and | :18:11. | :18:14. | |
also do you worry about it could be a bubble? I think there is no doubt | :18:15. | :18:18. | |
that the economy in London and the south-east is considerably stronger | :18:19. | :18:22. | |
than the rest of the UK. And that there is investment needed to | :18:23. | :18:26. | |
rebalance the economy to get some stronger growth and employment | :18:27. | :18:30. | |
opportunities outside the greater London area. That's quite | :18:31. | :18:32. | |
interesting, that kind of reflects what we heard from Sheffield there. | :18:33. | :18:37. | |
In terms of advertising, whose who is advertising, where is the growth | :18:38. | :18:41. | |
coming from there? Not surprisingly in terms of the development of | :18:42. | :18:44. | |
digital, the growth is coming, there is advertising, but it seems to be | :18:45. | :18:48. | |
the majority of spend is on digital and a huge increase in mobile as | :18:49. | :18:51. | |
well. That seems to be up considerably. Do you see any | :18:52. | :18:55. | |
evidence of overall rebalancing of the economy, the Government made it | :18:56. | :18:59. | |
quite clear what they wanted was more manufacturing, less on | :19:00. | :19:02. | |
financial services and more export-driven economy. You sound as | :19:03. | :19:06. | |
if you are talking about advertising the exact opposite of that? The | :19:07. | :19:10. | |
service businesses seem to be driving forward, advertising is | :19:11. | :19:15. | |
growing. I'm not sure where the growth is coming from but it would | :19:16. | :19:18. | |
suggest it is not from manufacturing, yes. I suppose the | :19:19. | :19:22. | |
overall point that people are thinking about, it may be good for | :19:23. | :19:25. | |
the economy, that is great, but is it good for me? What we have seen is | :19:26. | :19:28. | |
people talking about this crisis of living standards. It is not | :19:29. | :19:32. | |
filtering through in increased wages? Certainly we're seeing it is | :19:33. | :19:35. | |
mostly small businesses that are seeing some pig-up now in our | :19:36. | :19:41. | |
customer base. What we are trying to make sure is by launching our 4 G | :19:42. | :19:44. | |
services in places like Yorkshire, we are trying to make sure it is a | :19:45. | :19:47. | |
broader-based economy growth. I think digital skills and the digital | :19:48. | :19:51. | |
economy will be part of how it seeps through to the general consumer. | :19:52. | :19:55. | |
That might be the good news in a couple of years time. Just right | :19:56. | :19:59. | |
now, Grangemouth has been in the news this week, without the ins and | :20:00. | :20:03. | |
outs of the dispute, a lot of people who look at it there are workers | :20:04. | :20:08. | |
taking pay cut to keep a job, that reflects how a lot of people feel | :20:09. | :20:12. | |
about their own jobs? There is huge cost pressure in the economy, trying | :20:13. | :20:16. | |
to keep a cap on prices is really tough, in our sector we are seeing | :20:17. | :20:20. | |
prices trop in real terms, but we know that average households are | :20:21. | :20:23. | |
seeing a lot of their other costs going up in utilities, I think it | :20:24. | :20:27. | |
will be a while, and I think it is the overall growth in the economy | :20:28. | :20:32. | |
that will help to see Anne crease in real wages. Do any of you see that | :20:33. | :20:40. | |
any time soon -- an increase in real wages, do you see that any time | :20:41. | :20:44. | |
soon? We are faced with global competition, for many of our | :20:45. | :20:47. | |
products and services and they have to compete on a global stage. | :20:48. | :20:51. | |
Getting the overall strength in the economy will take some time. The | :20:52. | :20:54. | |
Chancellor said, we have to stick to the plan, it is incredibly important | :20:55. | :20:58. | |
that for a lot of these investments that there is cross-party support, | :20:59. | :21:02. | |
so we have continuous growth in the economy. Not the stop-start we have | :21:03. | :21:06. | |
had in recent year That is interesting, cross-party support, | :21:07. | :21:09. | |
that came up in a different aspect there. Both the Prime Minister and | :21:10. | :21:12. | |
Deputy Prime Minister effectively had a go with Labour and said we | :21:13. | :21:18. | |
need you not to go wobbly on HS 2, presumably your industry would | :21:19. | :21:22. | |
benefit greatly if that goes ahead? The vital thing about HS 2 is it is | :21:23. | :21:27. | |
one of the best investments r getting a rebalanced economy in the | :21:28. | :21:32. | |
UK, it brings eight to ten cities closer to London. That has to be | :21:33. | :21:36. | |
good for the economy overall. It won't gain momentum if investors | :21:37. | :21:40. | |
can't be confident if it will have the support of all parties over the | :21:41. | :21:43. | |
long-term. Would you put ?50 billion into that if you had ?50 billion as | :21:44. | :21:48. | |
a Government to spend. Is it that important for the economy? It is key | :21:49. | :21:53. | |
to invest in the infrastructure to support the economy. We need | :21:54. | :21:56. | |
transport and communications infrastructure, at the moment there | :21:57. | :21:59. | |
is a lot of investment going on. Our business alone will invest one | :22:00. | :22:02. | |
billion a year and our sector ?5 billion. At this important stage in | :22:03. | :22:06. | |
the economy's recovery we have to commit to long-term investment, | :22:07. | :22:09. | |
stable policy and stable regulation and then companies will invest on | :22:10. | :22:12. | |
the back of the Government's investment. Not necessarily HS 2, we | :22:13. | :22:16. | |
still haven't seen the business case up for it? I think connectivity is | :22:17. | :22:20. | |
critical. I think the balance of the economy will be supported by the | :22:21. | :22:24. | |
right sort of transport links and communications links, so we have a | :22:25. | :22:29. | |
broader economy. I think it is important as was said | :22:30. | :22:36. | |
to build the connectivity and build the closeness between the north and | :22:37. | :22:41. | |
south. You talked about the north being left behind, that connectivity | :22:42. | :22:44. | |
through the country is very important, and investing in | :22:45. | :22:49. | |
infrastructure is critical for us. The other interesting thing from the | :22:50. | :22:53. | |
report, you have the businessman being asked, how much are you | :22:54. | :22:56. | |
making, and not enough. It is not just wages being squeezed but | :22:57. | :22:59. | |
profits too for the small businesses? Margins across the | :23:00. | :23:02. | |
economy have been squeezed everywhere, I think what we have to | :23:03. | :23:05. | |
try to make sure is there is enough money left for the investment. Now, | :23:06. | :23:09. | |
one other issue which has come up again today, David Cameron has been | :23:10. | :23:14. | |
in Europe, do you worry as some business people do that the | :23:15. | :23:17. | |
uncertainty, whatever your views are, how people should vote if there | :23:18. | :23:20. | |
is a referendum, do you worry about the uncertainty? As the head of a | :23:21. | :23:24. | |
British business that's owned by a European parent, I think it is | :23:25. | :23:27. | |
really important for me to make the case for investment in the UK. I | :23:28. | :23:31. | |
think that case can be made much more strongly when the UK is playing | :23:32. | :23:35. | |
a leading role inside Europe. What do you think of that, is that | :23:36. | :23:38. | |
something you worry about or not? It is vital for the success of the UK | :23:39. | :23:42. | |
in the long-term to be at the centre of a strong and better Europe and | :23:43. | :23:45. | |
that's a far better forward than being an outsider on the periphery. | :23:46. | :23:51. | |
Agreed? Definitely. And just one final point, one other question | :23:52. | :23:56. | |
about Grangemouth, it came up very, very strongly from Ineos themselves | :23:57. | :24:01. | |
who basically said this is a very difficult market and not place in | :24:02. | :24:05. | |
which we can compete, we can go somewhere else and make it for less, | :24:06. | :24:09. | |
it goes back to your question about the global race, David Cameron also | :24:10. | :24:12. | |
talks about that? The fundamental challenge for the UK in the | :24:13. | :24:15. | |
long-term is to be internationally competitive, and that means from the | :24:16. | :24:18. | |
talent and skills that we generate through to the products and services | :24:19. | :24:21. | |
we manufacture and deliver. We have to compete on a global basis, | :24:22. | :24:26. | |
investors always have choice as to where they can put their money. Do | :24:27. | :24:30. | |
we compete in the global basis? There was also a lot of figures | :24:31. | :24:35. | |
about talent, lack of, educational standards, looking at 24 different | :24:36. | :24:40. | |
countries, England comes about 2 #st and 22nd in terms of basic | :24:41. | :24:46. | |
arithmetic skills. It is not great? The Government are behind t they are | :24:47. | :24:50. | |
investing, the investment in apprentice schemes and in skills and | :24:51. | :24:56. | |
in equipping the youth to deal with the new digital world has been | :24:57. | :25:00. | |
impressive. I think we are doing what we can to develop that talent | :25:01. | :25:04. | |
and I know all of our businesses are investing in young people, bringing | :25:05. | :25:08. | |
in graduate, training them for the new skills and the new world that we | :25:09. | :25:15. | |
need. Thank you all very much. Her face has been on newspaper front | :25:16. | :25:18. | |
pages and the hunt for her real parents has been intense. It led to | :25:19. | :25:22. | |
some people drawing parallels with the stories of Madeleine McKin and | :25:23. | :25:28. | |
Ben Needham. The blonde girl detained in Greece is actually the | :25:29. | :25:37. | |
child of another Roma couple from Romania. What does it tell us about | :25:38. | :25:42. | |
the Roma and how they are viewed in countries like Greece. | :25:43. | :25:47. | |
For more than a week her story mystified the world, and appeared to | :25:48. | :25:52. | |
feed some old prejudices. How come Maria, found under a blanket at a | :25:53. | :25:57. | |
Roma settlement in central Greece looked nothing like the couple she | :25:58. | :26:01. | |
lived with. They were charged with anduction and Maria dubbed "the | :26:02. | :26:09. | |
blonde angel", taken into care. Tot today a Bulgarian Roma couple were | :26:10. | :26:16. | |
confirmed by DNA tests to be her biological parents, her mother said | :26:17. | :26:23. | |
exactly what Maria's parents said, she gave up her little girl in | :26:24. | :26:26. | |
Greece because she couldn't afford to look after her. Her biological | :26:27. | :26:30. | |
grandmother said the same thing. TRANSLATION: She left the child and | :26:31. | :26:35. | |
booked tickets home to her other children. It is not clear whether | :26:36. | :26:39. | |
money was involved, both sides say not. The Greek charity looking after | :26:40. | :26:43. | |
her had earlier suggested it was not simply a case of altruistic | :26:44. | :26:51. | |
adoption? It shows that the combined effort of these people to buy and | :26:52. | :26:55. | |
sell chirp, and when they have a good commodity, they like this one | :26:56. | :26:58. | |
they are trying to find a better price. Today he was asked in a | :26:59. | :27:02. | |
Newsnight interview whether he still stood by that. The story is more or | :27:03. | :27:07. | |
less as the Greek Roma couple said it was, why was all this hysteria | :27:08. | :27:13. | |
whipped up about abductions, about kidnappings, children as | :27:14. | :27:18. | |
commodities? This was an illegal act one way or another. What we were | :27:19. | :27:23. | |
saying then we are saying now. Whatever happened it was an illegal | :27:24. | :27:28. | |
act. People that are using and manipulating the system, the Greek | :27:29. | :27:35. | |
system to make false statements, so again, still it is an illegal act. | :27:36. | :27:39. | |
Don't you think that the remarking you made fed into some existing | :27:40. | :27:45. | |
stereotypes? No, it is me that made the remarks, it is a problem with | :27:46. | :27:48. | |
the Europe that the Government don't respect the Romas and they let this | :27:49. | :27:53. | |
situation of people who are using the Romas for this exploitation. | :27:54. | :27:59. | |
Some Roma people. And I always say "some" Roma people. I have to be | :28:00. | :28:04. | |
very specific and I'm very careful. In Ireland this week in apparent | :28:05. | :28:09. | |
response to events in Greece, there were two separate cases where the | :28:10. | :28:13. | |
police took a child away from Roma parents because they looked | :28:14. | :28:16. | |
different. Tests later proved there was nothing amiss. It has been a | :28:17. | :28:21. | |
week that has reminded us just how marginalised and precarious the | :28:22. | :28:25. | |
position of Europe's 10 million Roma is. The debate that has been | :28:26. | :28:31. | |
reignited, largely without their participation, has barely changed in | :28:32. | :28:35. | |
decades if not centuries. Are the Roma an oppressed minority, victims | :28:36. | :28:41. | |
of entrenched stereotypes, or a threat to the rest of society. | :28:42. | :28:44. | |
Responsible at least in part for their own misfortune. Some are | :28:45. | :28:48. | |
shocked that debate is still taking place at all. In Greece, as across | :28:49. | :28:54. | |
Europe, any progress towards integrating Roma into society is | :28:55. | :28:58. | |
being set back by economic austerity and will be set back even further by | :28:59. | :29:02. | |
the case of Maria. Even though I'm an educated Roma, it | :29:03. | :29:07. | |
had an impact, a negative impact on me, I was afraid to go outside. It | :29:08. | :29:13. | |
has shattered the image of the Roma. It was negative, scapegoat, thieves, | :29:14. | :29:20. | |
things like that. It became worse, because now we have also the blame | :29:21. | :29:26. | |
that Roma people steal children. This is only case of illegal | :29:27. | :29:30. | |
adoption. What happened doesn't apply to the rest of our society. | :29:31. | :29:37. | |
Maria's future now still depends on further investigation of her story. | :29:38. | :29:40. | |
But whatever the exact facts, attitudes to Roma are so polarised | :29:41. | :29:44. | |
that many will have already drawn their own conclusions. | :29:45. | :29:48. | |
Now tomorrow morning's front That's all we have time for, this | :29:49. | :30:42. | |
weekend we are expecting the biggest storm since 1987. For those of you | :30:43. | :30:46. | |
dreaming of warmer climb, we leave you with the singer Manuelo Escobar, | :30:47. | :30:58. | |
here he is in happier times with catchy songs, he is mourned today in | :30:59. | :31:03. | |
Spain. # VIVA he is spannia | :31:04. | :31:19. | |
V ivaEspanga. | :31:20. | :31:22. |