Browse content similar to 28/10/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Good evening. The woman sacked after the Baby P | :00:00. | :00:09. | |
case will get a small fortune in a secret payout deal, Newsnight can | :00:10. | :00:16. | |
reveal. Go The head of child protection services at Harringay | :00:17. | :00:19. | |
Council will get a ?600,000 legal payout, some of it from Central | :00:20. | :00:21. | |
Government simply because the proper hoops weren't jumped through before | :00:22. | :00:27. | |
Ed Balls announced her sacking. A defender of Sharon Shoesmith and | :00:28. | :00:31. | |
one of her Parliamentary critics are here to count the cost. | :00:32. | :00:35. | |
These pictures show Syrian rebels ambushing and killing what they | :00:36. | :00:39. | |
assumed were government forces. It turned out their opponents were | :00:40. | :00:43. | |
Iranian Revolutionary Guards. What were they doing there? | :00:44. | :00:48. | |
St Jude brings four fatalities and knocks over trees, but in the end | :00:49. | :00:51. | |
doesn't cause the chaos that was predicted. Did we over react? | :00:52. | :01:01. | |
And we remember Lou Reed in all his charm. I don't like journalists. I | :01:02. | :01:08. | |
despise them. Mainly the English, the pigs. | :01:09. | :01:12. | |
His friend Rufus Wainright explains his unique contribution to music and | :01:13. | :01:13. | |
pop culture. You will remember the killing of | :01:14. | :01:27. | |
Peter Connelly - Baby P as he was called. He died after being injured | :01:28. | :01:31. | |
for months while theoretically under the supervision of Haringey social | :01:32. | :01:37. | |
services in London. There was great public disquiet, and in the furore | :01:38. | :01:40. | |
afterwards, the head of Children's Services, Sharon Shoesmith, was | :01:41. | :01:44. | |
sacked. The Appeal Court later ruled that she had been unfairly | :01:45. | :01:50. | |
dismissed. Now Newsnight can reveal that Ms Shoesmith, who has not | :01:51. | :01:54. | |
worked since losing her job, is to be paid hundreds of thousands of | :01:55. | :01:57. | |
pounds of public money in compensation. Allegra Stratton has | :01:58. | :02:02. | |
the story. Sharon Shoesmith always thought it was wrong that she learnt | :02:03. | :02:12. | |
of her sacking from the television. To ensure venerable children in the | :02:13. | :02:17. | |
borough are properly protected. I have directed Haringey Council | :02:18. | :02:24. | |
totted to appoint Mr John Cofflin as Director of Children's services. | :02:25. | :02:28. | |
In 2011 the Court of Appeal agreed with Shoesmith. It ruled that her | :02:29. | :02:33. | |
removal from office by the then Children's Secretary, Ed Balls, and | :02:34. | :02:37. | |
choux myth's employers, Haringey Council had been unfair. Now, two | :02:38. | :02:41. | |
years on, she is to get compensation. Newsnight understands | :02:42. | :02:46. | |
that Sharon Shoesmith has settled for one source says is over | :02:47. | :02:51. | |
?600,000. Haringey Council will meet the lion's shares of this, but the | :02:52. | :02:55. | |
Department for Education will dump up some of it, but the whole deal is | :02:56. | :03:02. | |
controversial. Haringey Council has also imposed a confidentiality | :03:03. | :03:06. | |
clause on the deal. It means the exact sum can't be disclosed. When | :03:07. | :03:11. | |
contacted by Newsnight, one Government source said the Secretary | :03:12. | :03:15. | |
of State for education, Michael Gove, was furious at the | :03:16. | :03:19. | |
confidentiality clause. He is said to think it is indefensible. Baby | :03:20. | :03:26. | |
Peter Connolly died despite being seen 60 times by social services, | :03:27. | :03:34. | |
police and health services. The child's body had 50 injuries | :03:35. | :03:40. | |
including a broken back and broken ribs inflicted by his mother. | :03:41. | :03:53. | |
After the trial, an Ofsted report found failings in Sarn Shoesmith's | :03:54. | :04:00. | |
-- Sharon choux Smith's department. Ed Balls had not given Shoesmith a | :04:01. | :04:07. | |
chance to respond to the report and contravened procedure. My sorrow at | :04:08. | :04:13. | |
the death of Peter Connolly while I was director is something which will | :04:14. | :04:17. | |
stay with me for the rest of my life. But as the judges said, making | :04:18. | :04:23. | |
a public sacrifice of an individual would not prevent further tragedies. | :04:24. | :04:27. | |
Since then, she has unable to find work and has had to claim benefits. | :04:28. | :04:34. | |
When Shoesmith won her case in 2011 Ed Balls maintained that even had he | :04:35. | :04:38. | |
given her a chance to respond, he would have made the same decision. | :04:39. | :04:42. | |
He is joined by politicians on all sides of the House who believe | :04:43. | :04:45. | |
ministers must have the right to act quickly and that public servants | :04:46. | :04:50. | |
should be held accountable. The current Government looks like it | :04:51. | :04:54. | |
will pay for Shoesmith's sacking by televised press conference, but on | :04:55. | :04:59. | |
this occasion, you are unlikely to hear them crow about it. | :05:00. | :05:06. | |
With us now is Ray Jones, Professor of Social Work who is writing a book | :05:07. | :05:10. | |
on the Baby Peter case; and Charlotte Leslie, Conservative MP | :05:11. | :05:13. | |
and member of the education select committee which grilled Sharon | :05:14. | :05:18. | |
Shoesmith in 2010. Do you understand how angry many members of the public | :05:19. | :05:22. | |
will be at this news? I understand that people should be angry about | :05:23. | :05:25. | |
what happened to Peter Connolly. He had a terrible life and those people | :05:26. | :05:29. | |
who worked really hard to protect were not successful in doing that. I | :05:30. | :05:34. | |
understand the anger... But do you understand... I understand the DJ | :05:35. | :05:39. | |
that's been done to our child protection system as a consequence | :05:40. | :05:41. | |
of that anger. Do you understand how angry they | :05:42. | :05:44. | |
will be at the fact that hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money | :05:45. | :05:49. | |
are being given to Sharon Shoesmith? I understand the anger, but as I | :05:50. | :05:53. | |
said, my real concern is what is happening to the child protection | :05:54. | :05:56. | |
system and we have made it harder to protect children because of the | :05:57. | :06:02. | |
blame culture that he we cre aid and the type of vigilante action. | :06:03. | :06:07. | |
What do you make of this settlement? It is simple. You have got to ask | :06:08. | :06:12. | |
what responsibility means? When she was in her position, Sharon | :06:13. | :06:18. | |
Shoesmith got a very large salary. Showing leadership means showing | :06:19. | :06:21. | |
when something goes wrong, you take responsibility and make yourself | :06:22. | :06:24. | |
accountable. The thing there most people are angry is that | :06:25. | :06:28. | |
whistle-blowers also lose their jobs, but a lady like Sharon | :06:29. | :06:33. | |
Shoesmith walks away with a big pay-off and has not taken the | :06:34. | :06:38. | |
personal option to take personal responsibility. | :06:39. | :06:42. | |
But this is a who who she thinks will never work again? If she wants | :06:43. | :06:46. | |
to perhaps make her chances of getting a job higher, it would be to | :06:47. | :06:51. | |
demonstrate she understands what personal accountability and | :06:52. | :06:54. | |
responsibility is about and say I was carrying the can. I was head of | :06:55. | :06:57. | |
this department and I take responsibility. That would be the | :06:58. | :07:00. | |
kind of person I would be more likely to employ than someone who | :07:01. | :07:05. | |
says, "It was nothing to do with me. I am sorry about what happened. But | :07:06. | :07:12. | |
it was nothing to do with me." We have seen this not only in care, but | :07:13. | :07:15. | |
throughout the NHS as well. It seems endemic. | :07:16. | :07:20. | |
It is the size of this payment. I mean ?600,000. The biggest pay-off | :07:21. | :07:25. | |
last year for unfair dismissal was 236 thou. The average is about | :07:26. | :07:34. | |
?10,000. And Rebekah Brooks got ?10 million. | :07:35. | :07:39. | |
She was working for News International? When something goes | :07:40. | :07:42. | |
wrong, there is a tragedy, we have 50 to 70 children in England who die | :07:43. | :07:48. | |
because of abuse by their parents. We protect a large number of | :07:49. | :07:51. | |
children very well, but it is getting difficult to get people to | :07:52. | :07:55. | |
work in this job of protecting children, police officers, | :07:56. | :07:58. | |
paediatricians and social workers because when something terrible | :07:59. | :08:00. | |
happens, we get the blame we are hearing about today and who wants to | :08:01. | :08:03. | |
put themselves in that position of doing a really hard job knowing when | :08:04. | :08:08. | |
something terrible happens, they are out to get you. | :08:09. | :08:12. | |
That's a fair point, isn't it? A blame culture is not the same as a | :08:13. | :08:23. | |
culture where people take accountability and responsibility. | :08:24. | :08:24. | |
There are whistle-blowers who are trying to raise the alarm. Who are | :08:25. | :08:29. | |
trying to do things the right way. Kim Holt is an example. It is often | :08:30. | :08:33. | |
the whistle-blower. The whistle-blowers are trying to raise | :08:34. | :08:37. | |
the fact that there are concerns. Now that's not a culture of blame. | :08:38. | :08:41. | |
Someone is saying the system is covering th stuff. If someone is at | :08:42. | :08:45. | |
the top of an organisation covering stuff up and not performing properly | :08:46. | :08:49. | |
and lives put at risk, that's simple accountability. | :08:50. | :08:55. | |
Do you think it is as high as ?600,000? I have no idea. It is not | :08:56. | :08:58. | |
a figure I heard before. I don't know whether it is true or not. The | :08:59. | :09:01. | |
conversation we're having will do nothing to help us to protect | :09:02. | :09:04. | |
children better in the future. It will make it harder for people to | :09:05. | :09:07. | |
come into this business because they know as I say saying now, when | :09:08. | :09:12. | |
something goes wrong, we might talk about accountability, but it feels | :09:13. | :09:15. | |
like blame and that's my concern. Who wants to do a really difficult | :09:16. | :09:19. | |
job when you know that when it gets really hard, you will be in the | :09:20. | :09:23. | |
firing line? There is something of a lynch mob that comes into play at | :09:24. | :09:26. | |
times like this? The way to protect patients in NHS and children is a | :09:27. | :09:33. | |
system whereby people feel comfortable in coming forward and | :09:34. | :09:36. | |
saying something is not right. I am not happy about the way the system | :09:37. | :09:44. | |
is, working. I don't think that not whoeding people -- holding people | :09:45. | :09:51. | |
accountable at top is. To say yes, I was leading a dysfunctional | :09:52. | :09:56. | |
organisation. I myself voluntarily will do what most people would think | :09:57. | :10:00. | |
to be the descent thing and then you don't get this lynch mob. People are | :10:01. | :10:03. | |
angry because you have got someone who was earning a lot of money who | :10:04. | :10:08. | |
is found to be at the top of an organisation that needed reform, was | :10:09. | :10:16. | |
not doing that are her salary and says, "It is not my fault." The | :10:17. | :10:19. | |
organisation was found to be dysfunctional after all the media | :10:20. | :10:25. | |
attention was given and there was the hun cry. This organisation was | :10:26. | :10:30. | |
found by Ofsted to be doing well. It was rated as good and Sharon | :10:31. | :10:36. | |
Shoesmith's leadership was seen as positive. It changed quickly when | :10:37. | :10:42. | |
there was a petition run by The Sun seeking sackings. We had a different | :10:43. | :10:51. | |
picture about Haringey about that. I think there is an interesting point | :10:52. | :10:55. | |
here. Often our inspectorate are not doing the right job either and | :10:56. | :11:03. | |
people put ticking boxes before what is going on. So yes, inspectorates | :11:04. | :11:07. | |
need to get better, but people at the top need to take responsibility | :11:08. | :11:11. | |
for the organisations they head up. Thank you very much. | :11:12. | :11:18. | |
Coming up: The legacy of Lou Reed. Inspectors | :11:19. | :11:29. | |
supposed to be checking the Syrian government's stocks of chemical | :11:30. | :11:32. | |
weapons have been unable to get to two of the sites they want to visit, | :11:33. | :11:37. | |
it emerged today. Too dangerous, apparently. The war, meanwhile | :11:38. | :11:43. | |
continues its barbarous way with Government forces said to have | :11:44. | :11:46. | |
retaken a Christian town north of Damascus, part of which had fallen | :11:47. | :11:50. | |
to the rebels a week ago. The United Nations representative supposed to | :11:51. | :11:53. | |
prepare the way for peace talks reached the Syrian capital today. | :11:54. | :11:56. | |
Lyse Doucet is there. So what can you tell us? | :11:57. | :12:03. | |
Well, it is good news that he is back in the Syrian capital. He | :12:04. | :12:09. | |
hasn't been here since December and that's a long time when you are | :12:10. | :12:13. | |
trying to bring peace and an end to a war which changes shape every | :12:14. | :12:17. | |
month, but when I interviewed him in January, he diplomatically said that | :12:18. | :12:22. | |
40 years is a little bit too long as he put it for one family, the Assad | :12:23. | :12:27. | |
family to be in power. He hasn't been back to Damascus since then. | :12:28. | :12:32. | |
The fact that he is here, indicates that President Assad maybe willing | :12:33. | :12:35. | |
to give him a hearing or a message. The problem is few in the opposition | :12:36. | :12:38. | |
want anything to do with President Assad and even though there is a lot | :12:39. | :12:44. | |
of talk about a conference that will take place next month, 23rd | :12:45. | :12:53. | |
November, most of the powerful renegades said it would be an act of | :12:54. | :12:59. | |
treason. The main opposition groups haven't made up their minds and | :13:00. | :13:04. | |
President Assad says he will run for the elections next year. You can't | :13:05. | :13:10. | |
want peace more than the parties for the conflict want it. | :13:11. | :13:13. | |
Is there any sign of who is inwithing the war? -- winning the | :13:14. | :13:18. | |
war? No one is winning and no one is losing and no one has been able to | :13:19. | :13:24. | |
inflict the fatal blow to turn the tide. It is very difficult to say | :13:25. | :13:28. | |
who controls what percentage of the dertry, but the most reliable | :13:29. | :13:32. | |
figures I have seen from good sources is president Assad's forces | :13:33. | :13:39. | |
have lost 60% of Syria, but on the 40% they control, they control most | :13:40. | :13:42. | |
of the population and they control one of the main prizes in this war | :13:43. | :13:47. | |
and that's this capital Damascus. Since I was here a few months ago, | :13:48. | :13:53. | |
there are more checkpoints in the city, but it is relatively quiet as | :13:54. | :13:57. | |
was the last visit than it was say six months ago. The Government feels | :13:58. | :14:02. | |
very much in control in what is called the bubble of Damascus. A | :14:03. | :14:07. | |
different picture in the suburbs which are burning and at least one | :14:08. | :14:13. | |
suburb people are starving. They haven under siege. Someone told me | :14:14. | :14:16. | |
today, you can't get a peace of bread into some of those | :14:17. | :14:20. | |
neighbourhoods and the UN agencies have been calling for an end to the | :14:21. | :14:24. | |
siege, but the Government very much feels it has the upper hand and part | :14:25. | :14:29. | |
of the confidence comes from the chemical weapons deal which means it | :14:30. | :14:33. | |
averted a US military style strike and it has powerful friends | :14:34. | :14:39. | |
including Iran and Russia which are arming Assad and standing by him. | :14:40. | :14:47. | |
Thank you very much. From the outside it seems that most | :14:48. | :14:51. | |
of the world is lined up against President Assad, the regime makes | :14:52. | :14:55. | |
capital out of the fact. Yet we have evidence that foreign forces are in | :14:56. | :14:58. | |
Syria fighting alongside president Assad's men. Yalda Hakim reports. A | :14:59. | :15:13. | |
year ago the rebels in Syria seemed to have the upper hand. | :15:14. | :15:21. | |
But something has changed. Syrian Government forces are being | :15:22. | :15:26. | |
bolstered by Iran. If there is one country that is interfering in | :15:27. | :15:31. | |
Syria, it is Iran. When this secret footage shot by an Iranian fell into | :15:32. | :15:38. | |
rebel hands, the truth about the ayatollah's secret war in Syria was | :15:39. | :15:46. | |
revealed for the first time. A Government air base near Damascus in | :15:47. | :15:53. | |
Syria. S boarding the helicopter flight is this man, a 30-year-old | :15:54. | :16:01. | |
film-maker from Iran. It is his second trip to Syria and he is on a | :16:02. | :16:07. | |
sensitive assignment. He is making a film on behalf of Iran's elite | :16:08. | :16:17. | |
Revolutionary Guards. In September a group of Syrian rebels contacted the | :16:18. | :16:22. | |
international media saying they captured a video camera after a | :16:23. | :16:27. | |
battle. They said it contained footage which proved their long | :16:28. | :16:31. | |
stated allegation that Iranian forces were on the ground in Syria | :16:32. | :16:47. | |
and supporting the Assad regime. Raeds The captured footage came from | :16:48. | :16:56. | |
a camera. It starts in some proregime military facility in | :16:57. | :17:02. | |
Aleppo. The signs in Arabic warn people not to take any photographs | :17:03. | :17:07. | |
on their mobile phones. But such restrictions do not seem to apply to | :17:08. | :17:16. | |
the cameraman. The soldiers are Iranians. As are the troops and the | :17:17. | :17:21. | |
cleric in the prayer hall and this is a communications room. A very | :17:22. | :17:27. | |
sensitive location. The radio operator is Iranian too. He tries to | :17:28. | :17:32. | |
engage him in conversation, but the man seems uncomfortable being | :17:33. | :17:41. | |
filmed. This is the first time all the material shot by Iranian | :17:42. | :17:46. | |
film-maker has been pieced together. It is likely that it was never | :17:47. | :17:50. | |
intended for public broadcast, but was some internal Iranian | :17:51. | :17:55. | |
Revolutionary Guards project because when you watch the footage, it | :17:56. | :17:58. | |
becomes obvious that despite their repeated denials, Iran is secretly | :17:59. | :18:03. | |
playing a critical role in helping turn the tide of the war back in | :18:04. | :18:09. | |
favour of the Assad regime. It is not surprising to me in Syria Iran | :18:10. | :18:14. | |
has given training both to the regular Syrian armed forces and to | :18:15. | :18:20. | |
paramilitary groups and the paramilitary groups may out last the | :18:21. | :18:25. | |
Assad regime. It is one way that Iran keeps its options open even if | :18:26. | :18:31. | |
Assad falls, Iran will have a force that's committed to it. | :18:32. | :18:49. | |
Back on the ground in Syria. The man sitting on the right-hand side is | :18:50. | :18:52. | |
the main character in the film. Relaxed and humorous, he | :18:53. | :19:10. | |
nevertheless has a very ideological view of the Syrian conflict and | :19:11. | :19:14. | |
Iran's role in it. The footage shows the Iranians | :19:15. | :19:39. | |
training and organisationing a new grouping known as the national | :19:40. | :19:45. | |
defence force. The national defence force is a network of pro-Assad | :19:46. | :19:54. | |
militias. They are loyalists all of whom fear the consequences of a | :19:55. | :20:00. | |
Sunni Muslim rebel victory. But it seems the NDF are not just being | :20:01. | :20:07. | |
trained on the ground in Syria itself. | :20:08. | :20:20. | |
But the Revolutionary Guards aren't just providing training. According | :20:21. | :20:31. | |
to sources, their role is a very hands on one. | :20:32. | :21:18. | |
The sun rises over Aleppo. But this will not be a peaceful day. | :21:19. | :21:26. | |
Reporting are coming in that a force of rebel fighters is moving in on a | :21:27. | :21:31. | |
nearby regime stronghold known as the poultry farm near a pla called | :21:32. | :21:49. | |
Talazan. The unit gets reinforcements from | :21:50. | :21:54. | |
the local NDF that Englishia they are training. | :21:55. | :22:02. | |
There is no considerate driving style now. This is a military | :22:03. | :22:08. | |
emergency. The two truck loads of fighters head to the poultry farm | :22:09. | :22:13. | |
base as fast as they can. There are about 40 fighters gathered in this | :22:14. | :22:17. | |
base including at least one other squad of Iranian military advisors. | :22:18. | :22:27. | |
All these men know an attack is coming. The squad is led out of the | :22:28. | :22:36. | |
poultry farm base on a mission to secure the reasoned flank of the -- | :22:37. | :22:45. | |
right-hand flank of the battlefield. At first glance, this Iranian led | :22:46. | :22:52. | |
group looks well equipped for a fight. Then there is movement on the | :22:53. | :23:05. | |
horizon. What the Iranians can't see is there are more than three rebels. | :23:06. | :23:09. | |
What you are seeing now is footage filmed by the rebel's own cameraman | :23:10. | :23:17. | |
as their fighters advance towards the combat zone. They outnumber the | :23:18. | :23:22. | |
squad and have heavier weapons including a tank. The Iranians are | :23:23. | :23:27. | |
heading into an ambush. With bullets supplies slicing | :23:28. | :23:58. | |
through the corn field and mortar rounds, the group is pinned down. | :23:59. | :24:10. | |
The others try to retreat. But it is too late. These are the last images | :24:11. | :24:20. | |
filmed. Two days later, Revolutionary Guards | :24:21. | :24:37. | |
commander is buried with military honours in Iran. It is final | :24:38. | :24:44. | |
confirmation of his important role in the Revolutionary Guards. | :24:45. | :25:03. | |
And this is one of the members from the Syrian war. He never made it | :25:04. | :25:12. | |
home to his wife, or three-year-old daughter. Even after all this, the | :25:13. | :25:18. | |
Revolutionary Guards continue to deny their activities in Syria. | :25:19. | :25:32. | |
The story shines a light on to Iran's covert war in Syria, but the | :25:33. | :25:39. | |
Iranians are not the only foreigners interfering in the Syrian conflict. | :25:40. | :25:43. | |
With weapons and fighters now pouring in on both sides, there is a | :25:44. | :25:48. | |
very real danger that this crisis will spin further out of control. | :25:49. | :25:55. | |
You can see a full half an hour version of that report on Our World | :25:56. | :26:00. | |
on the BBC News Channel on Saturday and Sunday evening at 9.30pm. | :26:01. | :26:08. | |
He was the elusive figure rarely photographed behind David Cameron's | :26:09. | :26:14. | |
canny media strategy. She was the flame haired executive to exchanged | :26:15. | :26:23. | |
text message with her friend and neighbour, Cameron. That was how the | :26:24. | :26:28. | |
Associated Press ne agency explained two of the people in the dock at the | :26:29. | :26:31. | |
Old Bailey today. Eight people are on trial on charges arising out of | :26:32. | :26:40. | |
the phone hacking affair. Steve Hewlett has dainty feet. How big a | :26:41. | :26:46. | |
deal is this case? It is bill. Eight defendants after a two year police | :26:47. | :26:51. | |
inquiry. Charging relating to phone hacking, corrupt payments to public | :26:52. | :26:54. | |
officials and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice which relates | :26:55. | :26:58. | |
to allegations that boxes of documents were removed from News | :26:59. | :27:01. | |
International. Not all eight are charged with all of them, but all | :27:02. | :27:06. | |
eight are denying the it charges against them, but by way of scale, | :27:07. | :27:11. | |
the prosecution opening is due to start tomorrow afternoon and last | :27:12. | :27:14. | |
for two days. It is reckoned the prosecution case in total could last | :27:15. | :27:19. | |
until Christmas. And the case overall is scheduled to last until | :27:20. | :27:25. | |
next Easter. Until Easter? It is big. Yes, | :27:26. | :27:30. | |
Easter. Some big institutions involved? Yes, when you look at it. | :27:31. | :27:33. | |
This is the first time the public will get to hear in detail what it | :27:34. | :27:38. | |
is alleged occurred and there is big players and big institutions with | :27:39. | :27:42. | |
skin in this game. You might say. So you have got the press. You are busy | :27:43. | :27:49. | |
fighting the post Leveson settlement, the atmospherics that | :27:50. | :27:54. | |
are going to come out of it and you have got the Metropolitan Police | :27:55. | :27:59. | |
looking on anxiously. This is a case that they declined to investigate | :28:00. | :28:06. | |
until forced to it. You have got the political class, David Cameron, made | :28:07. | :28:10. | |
the big speech after the Milly Dowler revelations which led to the | :28:11. | :28:15. | |
News of the World being closed who said, "We the political class had | :28:16. | :28:19. | |
turned a blind eye." And there is Rupert Murdoch and his company | :28:20. | :28:26. | |
turned inside out by the whole thing. Costs of half a billion, | :28:27. | :28:31. | |
suggestion from one senior executive secretly recorded sometime ago, that | :28:32. | :28:36. | |
it could be ?1 billion. There is this trial to Easter. There are | :28:37. | :28:40. | |
other trials going on reckoned to be the end of 2015 and then brewing | :28:41. | :28:47. | |
nastily in the undergrowth is and the fact that News International, | :28:48. | :28:52. | |
News Corporation have been told they are suspects in an ongoing inquiry | :28:53. | :28:59. | |
into a corporate criminal liability. Corporate criminal liability? | :29:00. | :29:01. | |
Corporate criminal liability which will have the FBI sniffing around | :29:02. | :29:06. | |
it, but means that if the company were to be found guilty of that, | :29:07. | :29:12. | |
they become criminally liable. For Rupert Murdoch, it really couldn't | :29:13. | :29:15. | |
be much worse and the stakes here really are very high, indeed. I | :29:16. | :29:19. | |
should say all eight of the defendants on trial now deny the | :29:20. | :29:33. | |
charges. One of the most enigmatic and | :29:34. | :29:37. | |
influential figures in pop music is dead. Most of us would probably | :29:38. | :29:41. | |
recognise Lou Reed's Perfect Day, but you certainly couldn't measure | :29:42. | :29:44. | |
his significance in sales. Lou Reed said he didn't give a damn about his | :29:45. | :29:48. | |
legacy except he used a much stronger word than "damn". Much of | :29:49. | :29:51. | |
his music was almost unlistenable to. But for all that he could | :29:52. | :30:00. | |
genuinely have the word "legendary" attached to his name. Stephen Smith | :30:01. | :30:03. | |
has five things you didn't know about Lou Reed. Because we are | :30:04. | :30:07. | |
saluting Lou Reed on Newsnight, we have decided to break with tradition | :30:08. | :30:14. | |
and feature a man being grumpy on camera! Is that a good opportunity? | :30:15. | :30:21. | |
What do you mean authenticity from whom? It is funny having someone | :30:22. | :30:24. | |
from TV asking that question. It is like the lowest medium there is. | :30:25. | :30:39. | |
The velvet Underground in one of their first appearances. We haven't | :30:40. | :30:46. | |
got to the end of the effect they had on rock'n'roll. It is like that | :30:47. | :30:54. | |
famous early Sex Pistols gig in Manchester. Everyone supposedly | :30:55. | :30:59. | |
there went into the music business, but without Lou Reed there may not | :31:00. | :31:01. | |
have been any Sex Pistols. # Plucked her eyebrows on the way | :31:02. | :31:26. | |
# Shaved her leg # She said take a walk on the wild | :31:27. | :31:30. | |
side # I said honey, take a walk on the | :31:31. | :31:42. | |
wild side. # Reed sang about he being a she, that | :31:43. | :31:46. | |
was from life. Reed said his parents made him have electric shock | :31:47. | :31:52. | |
treatment as a boy to cure homosexual urges. You are a man of a | :31:53. | :31:56. | |
few words, why is this? I have little to say. Do you like press | :31:57. | :31:58. | |
interviews in general? No. Lou Reed put the pop into pop art | :31:59. | :32:16. | |
and it was the art he was really interested in. He was a friend and | :32:17. | :32:24. | |
associate of Andy Warhol. Lou Reed saw himself as a writer. It is a | :32:25. | :32:36. | |
little known fact that Lou Reed toppled communism, not on his own. | :32:37. | :32:45. | |
# Just a perfect day # Drink sangria in the park." When | :32:46. | :32:51. | |
Prague was behind the Iron Curtain, underground albums inspired | :32:52. | :32:55. | |
reformers not least their leader and their movement was dubbed the Velvet | :32:56. | :33:04. | |
Revolution. # | :33:05. | :33:09. | |
just a perfect day. # # Feed animals in the zoo # | :33:10. | :33:19. | |
On tour, in fancy hotels, Lou Reed would find himself sleeping on the | :33:20. | :33:22. | |
floor because of a bad back as he used to do through lack of funds | :33:23. | :33:27. | |
when he was just starting out. Ill health became a problem. Four months | :33:28. | :33:33. | |
ago, he had a liver transplant claiming, "I am a triumph of modern | :33:34. | :33:42. | |
medicine." It was aironic. -- ironic. I don't like journalists. I | :33:43. | :33:47. | |
despise them. Why? They are disgusting. With the | :33:48. | :33:51. | |
exception of you! With the exception of tu! -- of you! Mainly the | :33:52. | :33:57. | |
English, the pigs. It might have gratified Lou Reed to | :33:58. | :34:03. | |
see how those journalists toiled to praise him today. | :34:04. | :34:11. | |
The singer Rufus Wainwright was a friend of Lou Reed. He joins us from | :34:12. | :34:15. | |
Seattle. When did you first meet him, please? | :34:16. | :34:22. | |
Well, I actually met Lou before I made my first album. I was a waiter | :34:23. | :34:27. | |
at a restaurant in New York City, the Lion's Head and he was my first | :34:28. | :34:32. | |
ever customer! And I was very afraid and he ordered French toast with no | :34:33. | :34:35. | |
butter. What was he like as a human being? | :34:36. | :34:43. | |
As a friend? Yes. Of course, there is a lot of talk about his, you | :34:44. | :34:51. | |
know, grumpy nature and his critical outlook and slightly, you know, | :34:52. | :34:57. | |
negative ambiance, but really behind that, he was such a kind and gentle | :34:58. | :35:04. | |
and soleful man. -- soulful man. Part of the reason he might have | :35:05. | :35:19. | |
been so pug nacious, it was a defence mechanism. Like a great | :35:20. | :35:23. | |
chocolate or something, he was hard on the outside and very, very soft | :35:24. | :35:27. | |
on the inside. So he was a lovely guy. | :35:28. | :35:31. | |
Is it possible to be precise about what his contribution to music was? | :35:32. | :35:38. | |
Well, I think, I mean, you can never, he invented cool in terms of | :35:39. | :35:47. | |
the music industry and when I say cool, I mean real cool. I am not | :35:48. | :35:52. | |
talking Elvis cool or Marvin Gaye cool, I am talking about completely | :35:53. | :35:58. | |
cutting edge. Completely, I don't know, just the coolest kid in the | :35:59. | :36:06. | |
class and so I think, you know, much like someone like other people from | :36:07. | :36:12. | |
that era, he just, he cre critted a benchmark -- created a benchmark. | :36:13. | :36:23. | |
But this was not just a question of style, was it? I mean he had | :36:24. | :36:30. | |
encountered cultural terms, I guess, a political stick about him, didn't | :36:31. | :36:40. | |
he? Yes. He seemed to - he was not - he didn't believe in full hit. | :36:41. | :36:49. | |
Whether it was a political party or, you know, or a social movement or | :36:50. | :36:56. | |
art or anything, he just told it as he saw it and it was always | :36:57. | :37:00. | |
opinioniated and very, very refreshing, but, you know, | :37:01. | :37:03. | |
disturbing as well if you were on the other side of that, you know, | :37:04. | :37:07. | |
pointed argument. What was he like to work with? He | :37:08. | :37:15. | |
was hell to work with! Utter hell. At the end of the day, we would get | :37:16. | :37:19. | |
it done. We did a few shows together. We did Christmas shows | :37:20. | :37:25. | |
together. I had to sing Blue Christmas with Lou. He with had to | :37:26. | :37:30. | |
do one song and the last time we did this and it took three hours to get | :37:31. | :37:39. | |
what he wanted! Why? Oh, I don't know. He enjoyed torturing, you | :37:40. | :37:44. | |
know, the musicians and doing it over again and then, of course, when | :37:45. | :37:49. | |
we got up to do it on stage, it was completely different. I don't think | :37:50. | :37:51. | |
he wanted anything set and the minute people started to get their | :37:52. | :37:55. | |
heads around something, that was when it was time to throw the wrench | :37:56. | :37:59. | |
in it! Which is great. Do you have a favourite song of his? | :38:00. | :38:08. | |
Well, I mean, I was listening a lot to Pale Blue Eyes recently and also | :38:09. | :38:18. | |
there was a song that I loved. I can never remember the title, but the | :38:19. | :38:29. | |
one that starts, "Because if you close the door." Can you sing us a | :38:30. | :38:34. | |
phrase or two? I will sing you a little bit of it, sorry! | :38:35. | :38:39. | |
I am going to take from the bridge down to the end. | :38:40. | :38:51. | |
# Shiny cadillac cars # People on subways looking grey | :38:52. | :38:59. | |
# Other people look well in the dark # If you close the door | :39:00. | :39:07. | |
# The night could last forever # Leave the sunshine out and say | :39:08. | :39:14. | |
hello to never # All the people who dance and they | :39:15. | :39:20. | |
are having so much fun # I wish it could happen to me | :39:21. | :39:27. | |
# Because if you close the door, I would never have to see the day | :39:28. | :39:31. | |
again # I would never have to see the day | :39:32. | :39:34. | |
again # One more time | :39:35. | :39:40. | |
# I would never have to see the day again # | :39:41. | :39:44. | |
Thank you very much indeed. Good night. Thank you. | :39:45. | :39:49. | |
Thank you. Farewell then, Jude. | :39:50. | :39:57. | |
Trains were halted for a bit at least. One should not take too light | :39:58. | :40:02. | |
of it because there were several tragic fatalities, but St Jude | :40:03. | :40:06. | |
didn't cause the mayhem we were warned about. Perhaps the reason | :40:07. | :40:11. | |
that we got off lightly compared to the great storm of 1987 was because | :40:12. | :40:17. | |
we were well warned. Zoe Conway reports. | :40:18. | :40:22. | |
Storm Jude arrived as predicted. It hit the south-west of England at | :40:23. | :40:30. | |
around midnight. Hurricane Force winds moved north-east wards. It | :40:31. | :40:34. | |
caused death and injury and cut power to hundreds of thousands of | :40:35. | :40:40. | |
homes. But because of advances in science and technology, this storm | :40:41. | :40:44. | |
didn't take us by surprise. It is 3am here in Exmouth, but this storm | :40:45. | :40:51. | |
has only got going. It is an unusual weather event when storms cross the | :40:52. | :40:56. | |
Atlantic, they burn themselves out, but this one kept on going. Falling | :40:57. | :41:02. | |
trees proved deadly. The bodies of a man and a woman were pulled from the | :41:03. | :41:08. | |
wreckage of their home. It exploded when a tree fell on to the gas | :41:09. | :41:12. | |
mains. A 17-year-old woman was crushed to death when a tree crashed | :41:13. | :41:19. | |
on had to her caravan. A bus was also toppled injuring the driver and | :41:20. | :41:28. | |
several passengers. At this Devon county council incident room, they | :41:29. | :41:34. | |
watched Storm Jude's every move. We have had a report of a tree falling. | :41:35. | :41:43. | |
It is a large tree. Hundreds of cameras monitored the | :41:44. | :41:49. | |
roads and the rivers. Twitter provided rumours and facts about the | :41:50. | :41:56. | |
damage the storm was causing and there were meteorological maps. | :41:57. | :42:01. | |
Tracking the storm as comes in and the intensity as well. We will keep | :42:02. | :42:05. | |
an eye on it. We have guys on the ground who are also eyes and ears. | :42:06. | :42:12. | |
Travellers out there would be seeing trees falling. Maybe some isolated | :42:13. | :42:16. | |
flooding. They will be passing that on. When they get that information | :42:17. | :42:24. | |
in here, we contact our local agents and they can send teams tout to deal | :42:25. | :42:30. | |
with it. We might have to close roads. | :42:31. | :42:34. | |
Six days ago, storm Jude didn't exist. Yet here at the Met Office in | :42:35. | :42:40. | |
Exeter, they knew it was coming and accurately predicted its path. This | :42:41. | :42:44. | |
is where the storm started. As it came towards the UK it really began | :42:45. | :42:50. | |
to develop strongly and brought some strong gusts of wind across the | :42:51. | :42:55. | |
southern half of the UK especially where we have this hook of cloud and | :42:56. | :42:58. | |
now it is tracking in towards the North Sea and going towards the low | :42:59. | :43:03. | |
countries and northern Germany where we will see strong winds, if not | :43:04. | :43:06. | |
stronger winds than we have seen across the southern UK this morning. | :43:07. | :43:11. | |
The science and technology has been transformed since the Great Storm of | :43:12. | :43:17. | |
1987 which the weathermen failed to warn us about. Behind me is the Met | :43:18. | :43:21. | |
Office's super computer. It is like a giant calculator. It takes the raw | :43:22. | :43:27. | |
weather data out there like temperature, air pressure and | :43:28. | :43:32. | |
humidity. Gravity, the laws of motion and it does its sums at a | :43:33. | :43:38. | |
rate of 100 trillion calculations per second. | :43:39. | :43:44. | |
It is so much better than it was those years ago. It enables us to | :43:45. | :43:49. | |
have a detailed picture of weather over the world at any particular | :43:50. | :43:53. | |
time. Then the scale of super computing which allows us to analyse | :43:54. | :44:01. | |
the satellite da data. So in 30 years, in any technology, you would | :44:02. | :44:05. | |
expect a lot of change. 30 years in meteorology has been a world of | :44:06. | :44:09. | |
difference. Because of the accuracy of the | :44:10. | :44:13. | |
forecasting, emergency workers in Devon were ready. The highway has | :44:14. | :44:17. | |
been proactive this evening. They have come out and they are clearing | :44:18. | :44:22. | |
away which is great. They were out within five minutes of us calling | :44:23. | :44:28. | |
them. They have been really good clearing the drains and any of the | :44:29. | :44:33. | |
issues that we have had. But this was still a deadly weather | :44:34. | :44:37. | |
event. Science might be able to predict the weather. The authorities | :44:38. | :44:42. | |
might feel they can organise and manage it, but we can't control it. | :44:43. | :44:48. | |
Before we go, we return to our main story, the financial settlement | :44:49. | :44:54. | |
reached between Haringey Council and Sharon Shoesmith, the head of | :44:55. | :44:57. | |
children's services sacked after the Baby Peter case. The payout we | :44:58. | :45:05. | |
understand involves six figures. We have learned the figure reflects the | :45:06. | :45:11. | |
total payment and Ms Shoesmith may receive a lower sum. | :45:12. | :45:16. | |
The Sun has news that Jimmy Savile's driver, who was due to appear in | :45:17. | :45:25. | |
court has been found dead. The Daily Mail, mother's agony, a report of | :45:26. | :45:31. | |
one of the unfortunate fatalities caused by the storm. | :45:32. | :45:38. | |
And the Daily Mirror goes with some of the unfortunate stories of what | :45:39. | :45:41. | |
happened as a consequence of the storm. | :45:42. | :45:44. | |
That's it. Emily is here tomorrow. What may turn out to be the last | :45:45. | :45:49. | |
poem written by the great Irish poet, Seamus Heaney who died in | :45:50. | :45:58. | |
August has been published. It is called In A Field. It pictures | :45:59. | :46:15. | |
a soldier returning from the war. The actor Gabriel Byrne read it for | :46:16. | :46:19. | |
us. And there I was in the middle of a | :46:20. | :46:22. | |
field. The furrows once called "scores" | :46:23. | :46:24. | |
still with their gloss. The tractor with its hoisted plough | :46:25. | :46:26. | |
just gone. Snarling at an unexpected speed out | :46:27. | :46:29. | |
on the road. Last of the jobs. | :46:30. | :46:31. | |
The windings had been ploughed, furrows turned. Three ply or four | :46:32. | :46:35. | |
round each of the four sides of the breathing land to mark it off and | :46:36. | :46:39. | |
out. Within that boundary now step the | :46:40. | :46:42. | |
fleshy earth and follow the long healed footprints of one who | :46:43. | :46:49. | |
arrived. From nowhere, unfamiliar and de-mobbed. In buttoned khaki and | :46:50. | :46:56. | |
buffed army boots. Bruising the turned-up acres of our | :46:57. | :46:59. | |
back field to stumble from the windings magic ring and take me by a | :47:00. | :47:06. | |
hand to lead me back. Through the same old gate into the | :47:07. | :47:10. | |
yard where everyone has suddenly appeared all standing | :47:11. | :47:11. |