Browse content similar to 05/08/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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A hammer blow to David Cameron, a Foreign Office minister quits over | :00:07. | :00:12. | |
the Government's position on Gaza. Our current policy on Gaza is | :00:13. | :00:16. | |
morally indefensible, that it is not in our interests, it is not in | :00:17. | :00:20. | |
British interests, and that it will have consequences for us both | :00:21. | :00:24. | |
internationally and here at home. Who won the first fierce low-fought | :00:25. | :00:30. | |
TV debate between Alex Salmond and Alastair Darling over Scotland's | :00:31. | :00:35. | |
future. Mr Salmond do you agree with David Cameron or not. I was going to | :00:36. | :00:38. | |
make another small point. Do you agree with David Cameron or not. Let | :00:39. | :00:42. | |
me answer your question. Do you agree with him or not, it is yes or | :00:43. | :00:51. | |
no. A deadly disease is sweeping through west Africa, do we need | :00:52. | :00:54. | |
radical solutions to deal with it. We need to think about possible | :00:55. | :00:59. | |
tools like experimental drugs and vaccines. The app that makes Twitter | :01:00. | :01:06. | |
look like War and Peace, it is Yo, I will be speaking to its creator in | :01:07. | :01:18. | |
words of more than two letters. Good evening, there is finally a | :01:19. | :01:22. | |
ceasefire in Gaza, but the reverbations of the conflict are | :01:23. | :01:24. | |
stirring a political battle within the British Government. It is rare | :01:25. | :01:27. | |
minister resigns on a matter of principle, but today the Foreign | :01:28. | :01:31. | |
Office minister, Baroness Warsi did just that in starkly critical terms. | :01:32. | :01:36. | |
She tweeted that she could no longer support Government policy on the war | :01:37. | :01:40. | |
in Gaza. And in a letter to the Prime Minister wrote that "our | :01:41. | :01:43. | |
approach and language during the current crisis is morally | :01:44. | :01:48. | |
indefensible and is not in Britain's national interest". The Prime | :01:49. | :01:50. | |
Minister said in response that he had been consistently clear and | :01:51. | :01:57. | |
calls for peace. Tonight the divisis seem to have beepened, with Nick | :01:58. | :02:00. | |
Clegg calling for a suspension of arms export licenses to Israel. We | :02:01. | :02:06. | |
will debate all of this tonight, but we have this report containing some | :02:07. | :02:12. | |
flash photography. Beneath the certificate Rhone facade | :02:13. | :02:15. | |
of Government, tension has simmered over Gaza for week, and today in | :02:16. | :02:19. | |
Westminster it finally burst into the open with the resignation of | :02:20. | :02:27. | |
Baroness Warsi. Over the last few weeks I have done everything I can | :02:28. | :02:30. | |
at formal and informal meetings trying to convince our colleagues | :02:31. | :02:34. | |
that our current policy is morally indefensible, that it is not in our | :02:35. | :02:38. | |
interests, it is not British interests, and it will have | :02:39. | :02:41. | |
consequences for us internationally and here at home. But in the end I | :02:42. | :02:45. | |
felt the Government's position wasn't moving, therefore I had to, | :02:46. | :02:50. | |
on a point of principle, resign. In her resignation letter to the Prime | :02:51. | :02:54. | |
Minister, the Baroness lambasted the Government's stance on Gaza. | :02:55. | :03:07. | |
Once a standard bearer in the Conservative Party's quest for | :03:08. | :03:12. | |
voters from minorities, the former chairman has become a political | :03:13. | :03:16. | |
headache. So why did the Prime Minister take such an uncritical | :03:17. | :03:21. | |
attitude towards Israel over recent week, risking her fury and that of | :03:22. | :03:25. | |
millions of voters. David Cameron has in the past, like in, likened | :03:26. | :03:34. | |
Gaza to a prison camp when he was leader the last time Israel was | :03:35. | :03:38. | |
involved in an intervention he described it as disproportionate, | :03:39. | :03:42. | |
he's not going that far any more. It might be that he listening a lot to | :03:43. | :03:47. | |
the regimes in the region. Very much less critical of Israel than | :03:48. | :03:51. | |
European Governments. Perhaps, because like Israel they see Hamas, | :03:52. | :03:56. | |
ISIS, Al-Qaeda and other extremist groups in the region as more of a | :03:57. | :03:59. | |
threat than we do. There is division within the coalition over whether to | :04:00. | :04:03. | |
accuse Israel publicly of possible war crimes. Indeed Britain, along | :04:04. | :04:09. | |
with the US and Israel, may have been dissuading the Palestinian | :04:10. | :04:12. | |
Authority from taking its case to the International Criminal Court. | :04:13. | :04:17. | |
Well, the Palestinian Foreign Minister was there today and said | :04:18. | :04:21. | |
they are about to do that. But they haven't yet, and for so long as the | :04:22. | :04:25. | |
Palestinians don't go for full membership of the ICC there is | :04:26. | :04:30. | |
little chance of a war crimes investigation taking off. Using the | :04:31. | :04:35. | |
term "proportionate" or not using the term "proportionate" or | :04:36. | :04:41. | |
"disproportionate" is a highly sensitive political issue. The term | :04:42. | :04:48. | |
though not used in the 1977 Geneva protocols describes in ways that we | :04:49. | :04:51. | |
all understand what is one side and the other of the lawful line. It is | :04:52. | :04:58. | |
not an easy line to draw, in fact it is extremely difficult line to draw. | :04:59. | :05:01. | |
Once you say something is disproportionate, you are saying the | :05:02. | :05:04. | |
person who did that is acting unlawfully. Tonight w a ceasefire | :05:05. | :05:11. | |
taking hold in Gaza, evidence of the continuing fight within the | :05:12. | :05:15. | |
coalition. With the Lib Dems pushing for an arms embargo on Israel. I | :05:16. | :05:20. | |
believe that the export licenses should now be suspended, and working | :05:21. | :05:27. | |
with Vince Cable in this, it is his department in Government that | :05:28. | :05:31. | |
administers these export licenses, he and I both believe that the | :05:32. | :05:35. | |
actions of the Israeli military are overstepping the mark in Gaza, | :05:36. | :05:40. | |
breaching the conditions of those export licenses and that's why we | :05:41. | :05:44. | |
want to see them suspended, pending a wider review in whether they | :05:45. | :05:47. | |
should be revoked more permanently in the long run. And there is | :05:48. | :05:52. | |
another point where the Lib Dem leader differs from David Cameron, | :05:53. | :05:58. | |
seen here visiting Bethlehem, in labelling the Israeli action | :05:59. | :06:02. | |
"disproportionate" Nick Clegg has flagged up a belief that war crimes | :06:03. | :06:08. | |
may have taken place. A factory near Birmingham making drone component | :06:09. | :06:12. | |
force Israel was the scene of protests today. Under pressure, the | :06:13. | :06:16. | |
Government says licenses for arms sales to Israel are now under | :06:17. | :06:20. | |
review. The British fall-out from the Middle East conflict is just | :06:21. | :06:26. | |
starting. Its consequences could be legal, economic and above all | :06:27. | :06:31. | |
political. Joining us from Edinburgh is the | :06:32. | :06:35. | |
former leader of the Liberal Democrats, and here in the studio is | :06:36. | :06:38. | |
Douglas Murray the journalist and writer. First of all, do you think | :06:39. | :06:41. | |
Jose Manuel Barroso was right to resign? Well, if she felt as | :06:42. | :06:46. | |
strongly as she expressed herself in the letter I don't think there was | :06:47. | :06:50. | |
any alternative open to her. Let me say I agree with her judgment that | :06:51. | :06:54. | |
it is morally indefensible and against our interests, but I would | :06:55. | :06:57. | |
go further than that and say I think it is against the interests of | :06:58. | :07:00. | |
Israel as well. Because how can you build any kind of peace either | :07:01. | :07:07. | |
temporary or lasting, based upon the kind of film and the kind of scenes | :07:08. | :07:11. | |
we have seen on our television screens. Essentially what is | :07:12. | :07:15. | |
happening in Gaza is that the infrastructure is being | :07:16. | :07:18. | |
systematically taken apart. If that is the feeling of the most senior | :07:19. | :07:22. | |
Liberal Democrat to Nick Clegg, which it clearly is, he's not going | :07:23. | :07:25. | |
to resign, but isn't it rather surprising that no senior Lib Dem, | :07:26. | :07:32. | |
feeling so strongly, has taken the same road as Baroness Warsi? Each of | :07:33. | :07:38. | |
us make our own individual judgments about these things. But no-one can | :07:39. | :07:42. | |
be in any doubt for example that people like myself or Paddy Ashdown | :07:43. | :07:48. | |
has expressed ourselves as forcibly as we could. If I could pick up on | :07:49. | :07:53. | |
the point the piece raised. I'm in no doubt that what happened is | :07:54. | :07:56. | |
disproportionate. And we will come on to that. Very well. Let me just | :07:57. | :08:04. | |
bring in Douglas Murray now. Do you think that Baroness Warsi's | :08:05. | :08:07. | |
resignation is harmful to David Cameron in all sorts of ways? Not at | :08:08. | :08:10. | |
all. It is fairly well known she has been a bit of a nuisance to him for | :08:11. | :08:15. | |
some time, she has been running effectively an independent policy on | :08:16. | :08:18. | |
a whole range of things which are areas to do with social cohesion and | :08:19. | :08:23. | |
to do with the anti-extremism agenda, which are very much | :08:24. | :08:26. | |
parallel, but different from those of the Prime Minister. Are you | :08:27. | :08:29. | |
saying they are destructive? Oh yes, and many people who have worked with | :08:30. | :08:33. | |
her and many people and voices inside the cabinet and others have | :08:34. | :08:38. | |
been quoted saying, before today, how destructive those parallel | :08:39. | :08:43. | |
policies were. Is her voice one that has echos within the wider country? | :08:44. | :08:47. | |
Certainly it has echos in the divisions of parliament, that is | :08:48. | :08:50. | |
clear with from what was just said now. She must be assuming that | :08:51. | :08:53. | |
people take different opinions in all sorts of things, she must be | :08:54. | :08:56. | |
reflecting a different opinion in the country? It is possible, I mean | :08:57. | :09:00. | |
it has been said for a long time and fairly well known that Baroness | :09:01. | :09:03. | |
Warsi wanted a Ministry of Her own, she didn't get one, it was clear | :09:04. | :09:06. | |
time after time she wasn't going to get one. Are you saying it is sour | :09:07. | :09:10. | |
grapes? It is interesting, she has been trying to create herself as | :09:11. | :09:13. | |
effectively the minister for Muslim, that has been a very noticeable and | :09:14. | :09:17. | |
I think a highly sectarian move on her part. This move and resignation | :09:18. | :09:22. | |
at this point, and let's remember as Israeli troops are withdrawing from | :09:23. | :09:27. | |
Gaza, it is timing and very clear it is a cynical and personal move for | :09:28. | :09:32. | |
future career prospects. If I may say so that is rather a personal and | :09:33. | :09:37. | |
cynical take. There are divisions in the country. Whatever the motives of | :09:38. | :09:41. | |
Jose Manuel Barroso let me make clear I think the real issue is the | :09:42. | :09:46. | |
substance here. And whatever reason she gave to us, if she had been so | :09:47. | :09:52. | |
offensive to David Cameron then he had the opportunity to ask her to | :09:53. | :09:59. | |
ten down at his most recent re-- to step down at his most recent | :10:00. | :10:03. | |
reshuffle. You said the substance there is different language being | :10:04. | :10:08. | |
used and Nick Clegg has talked about disproportionate. You said what | :10:09. | :10:12. | |
happened in the school last week, when the Israelis hit the UN school | :10:13. | :10:17. | |
last week was a violation of international law? I believe that to | :10:18. | :10:21. | |
be the case. What would you do about it? The question is whether or not | :10:22. | :10:24. | |
it can be referred to the International Criminal Court. As was | :10:25. | :10:30. | |
pointed out in the piece that because Palestine is not a member, | :10:31. | :10:37. | |
hasn't signed up then the pollability possibility has been | :10:38. | :10:39. | |
made more difficult. If you want to do it independently you have to | :10:40. | :10:44. | |
achieve a resolution of the Security Council of the United Nations. So | :10:45. | :10:49. | |
the reality is not there. Which you would be pretty certain the United | :10:50. | :10:53. | |
States would oppose. I'm accused of doing something wrong by attributing | :10:54. | :11:00. | |
motives to Baroness Warsi, and he's attributing motive to the state of | :11:01. | :11:05. | |
Israel and an entire country, people have to be careful in positions like | :11:06. | :11:10. | |
Ming and Baroness Warsi have to be extremely careful at times like | :11:11. | :11:14. | |
this. And Baroness Warsi speaks to it, there is a grassroots movement, | :11:15. | :11:17. | |
particularly in the Labour Party movement, of young Muslims in this | :11:18. | :11:22. | |
country who feel very whipped up by this, and people like Ming Campbell | :11:23. | :11:27. | |
and Baroness Warsi have to be careful before they start accusing | :11:28. | :11:31. | |
the nation state of Israel of war crimes. They are crimes going on and | :11:32. | :11:36. | |
committed by Hamas, a terrorist group, and it is very noticeable in | :11:37. | :11:40. | |
this whole debate we do not hear from the Liberal Democrat party or | :11:41. | :11:45. | |
from figures like Baroness Warsi the condemnation of the terrorist group | :11:46. | :11:48. | |
Hamas coming out of the mouth of the beginning of every statement. I will | :11:49. | :11:52. | |
do that now, I did indeed on the occasion when the Foreign Secretary | :11:53. | :11:56. | |
made a statement? The House of Commons. It is wholly unacceptable | :11:57. | :12:01. | |
that Hamas should use rockets in an indiscriminate way. Do you think | :12:02. | :12:04. | |
Israel should be allowed to defend themselves from Hamas. This is not | :12:05. | :12:09. | |
Alastair Darling against Alex Salmond, I regard it as wholly | :12:10. | :12:15. | |
unacceptable, but it is equally wholly unacceptable for a country | :12:16. | :12:19. | |
like Israel, which has the most sophisticated defence capability at | :12:20. | :12:22. | |
its disposal should take action which has the effect of putting the | :12:23. | :12:26. | |
lives of innocent women and children at risk, more than at risk. Can I | :12:27. | :12:34. | |
just turn one other point in Baroness Warsi's letter talked about | :12:35. | :12:39. | |
the consequences of what she says policies in Gaza and radicalisation | :12:40. | :12:43. | |
here in the country, she talked about that having consequences for | :12:44. | :12:46. | |
years, do you agree with that? Remember that's precisely the | :12:47. | :12:49. | |
warning that was given to Tony Blair on the eve of the military action | :12:50. | :12:55. | |
against Iraq. It has also been publicly stated by the Intelligence | :12:56. | :12:59. | |
Services in this country that they are much concerned about | :13:00. | :13:05. | |
radicalisation. That being... It is saying agree with my views. I will | :13:06. | :13:11. | |
finish my point even if Douglas Murray won't listen to it. Briefly, | :13:12. | :13:15. | |
let him finish. I'm just saying this, radicalisation is something | :13:16. | :13:19. | |
which presents the most clear and imminent danger to the security of | :13:20. | :13:25. | |
this country and anything... Ministers shouldn't be helping to | :13:26. | :13:29. | |
whip it up. Do listen for heaven's sake, anything which adds to that or | :13:30. | :13:34. | |
brings any encouragement to that radicalisation, is wholly against | :13:35. | :13:38. | |
our interests and security of any of our citizens. Including accusing | :13:39. | :13:43. | |
Israel of war crimes. No sooner was the referendum of Scottish | :13:44. | :13:46. | |
independence announced than negotiations about who would and who | :13:47. | :13:50. | |
wouldn't take part in TV debates kicked off. Alex Salmond, the first | :13:51. | :13:56. | |
minister of Scotland would only debate with David Cameron, he | :13:57. | :14:01. | |
refused, the SNP held that line for a long time, but six weeks away from | :14:02. | :14:07. | |
the vote Salmond has sparred with Alastair Darling, in the Better | :14:08. | :14:11. | |
Together campaign in a two-hour televised debate. It ended half an | :14:12. | :14:15. | |
hour ago, here are some of the highlights. Making the case for | :14:16. | :14:19. | |
independence is the First Minister Alex Salmond and making the case for | :14:20. | :14:24. | |
the union is the leader of Better Together, Alastair Darling, please | :14:25. | :14:35. | |
welcome them. For more than half of my life Scotland has been governed | :14:36. | :14:39. | |
by parties that we didn't elect at Westminster. And these parties have | :14:40. | :14:43. | |
given us from everything from the poll tax to the bedroom tax, and | :14:44. | :14:50. | |
they are the same people who through project fear are telling us this | :14:51. | :14:56. | |
country can't run our own affairs. Let's say with confidence, with | :14:57. | :15:01. | |
pride, with optimisim, no thanks to the risks of independence, and let's | :15:02. | :15:04. | |
have the best of both worlds, not just for us, but for generations to | :15:05. | :15:12. | |
come. How can we build a just society when we have policies | :15:13. | :15:15. | |
imposed upon us from Westminster that Scottish MPs voted against but | :15:16. | :15:19. | |
did not have the power to stop, so my vision is for a prosperous | :15:20. | :15:24. | |
economy but also for a just society in Scotland. I want you to do | :15:25. | :15:27. | |
something that will be really difficult, I want you to contemplate | :15:28. | :15:31. | |
for just one minute the fact you might be wrong. What is Plan B. If | :15:32. | :15:40. | |
you don't get a currency union, what is it we are going to have had | :15:41. | :15:43. | |
instead, please tell us we need to know. I will do something more | :15:44. | :15:48. | |
difficult than contemplate that I'm wrong, I'm contemplating you were | :15:49. | :15:54. | |
right last year when you said it was logical and desirable. I believe you | :15:55. | :16:00. | |
still think it is logical and desirable that last year was before | :16:01. | :16:03. | |
we were in the campaign period, and therefore during the campaign period | :16:04. | :16:07. | |
you, George Osborne, the unionist parties, have to engage in project | :16:08. | :16:14. | |
fear and tell people that something that was logical desirable last year | :16:15. | :16:18. | |
isn't this year. Any eight-year-old can tell you the flag of the | :16:19. | :16:21. | |
country, the capital of the country and its currency, I presume the flag | :16:22. | :16:26. | |
is the saltire and the capital Edinburgh, you can't tell us what | :16:27. | :16:30. | |
currency we will have, what will an eight-year-old make of that. David | :16:31. | :16:34. | |
Cameron has said supporters of independence will always be able to | :16:35. | :16:40. | |
cite I examples of small independent economies across Europe, it would be | :16:41. | :16:43. | |
wrong to suggest that Scotland could not be another successful | :16:44. | :16:47. | |
independent country. But do you agree with David Cameron on that? | :16:48. | :16:51. | |
Small countries do have to make sure they balance the books. Do you agree | :16:52. | :16:54. | |
with him, everybody has to balance the books. Your own figures we have | :16:55. | :17:01. | |
a much bigger deficit at the time you want independence from the rest | :17:02. | :17:04. | |
of the UK, that would mean difficult decisions which you are not prepared | :17:05. | :17:08. | |
to face up with. Do you agree with David Cameron or not I feel like | :17:09. | :17:14. | |
Jeremy Paxman and Michael Howard here. You are more like Michael | :17:15. | :17:20. | |
Howard than Jeremy Paxman, you are not answering the question. Far too | :17:21. | :17:23. | |
much of the debate has been characterised by guess work, blind | :17:24. | :17:28. | |
faith and crossed fingers, that is no way to decide the future for our | :17:29. | :17:33. | |
children. Voting question is ambition over fear, telling the | :17:34. | :17:36. | |
world that Scotland is an equal nation that carries itself with | :17:37. | :17:40. | |
belief and confidence, this is our moment, let's take it. Elements of | :17:41. | :17:46. | |
the debate there from earlier tonight, joining me from Glasgow we | :17:47. | :17:56. | |
have our guests. Here in the studio is Isabelle Hardman, from the | :17:57. | :18:02. | |
Spectator live blogging the debate tonight. On points, how do you think | :18:03. | :18:09. | |
that went? I think actually it was no game-changer for starters. We | :18:10. | :18:13. | |
have had a group of young voters here all night who all say they are | :18:14. | :18:17. | |
more undecided than they were at the start. It was successful for | :18:18. | :18:23. | |
Alastair Darling to the extend that the subject matter continued to be | :18:24. | :18:29. | |
money, pensions, currency, all the aspects to an extent which would be | :18:30. | :18:33. | |
favoured by the unionist cause. And Alex Salmond didn't manage to get | :18:34. | :18:37. | |
the values, the reasons that anybody would really want to have an | :18:38. | :18:41. | |
independent Scotland as firmly at the centre of the debate as Alastair | :18:42. | :18:45. | |
Darling managed to get money. So I think to that degree you would have | :18:46. | :18:49. | |
to say it began to move Alastair Darling's way. But having said that, | :18:50. | :18:54. | |
I think there is no silver bullet in the argument or in the debate and it | :18:55. | :18:57. | |
will be the conversations people have around it that matter. Did you | :18:58. | :19:02. | |
get the sense it was a moment tonight where six weeks out this | :19:03. | :19:06. | |
actually would have energised a lot of people in terms of taking part in | :19:07. | :19:11. | |
the debate? I think so actually, I was in the hall admittedly in the | :19:12. | :19:15. | |
cheap seats up the top, but it did feel quite electric at points. | :19:16. | :19:20. | |
Particularly in the cross-examination when Alastair | :19:21. | :19:22. | |
Darling cross-examined Alex Salmond and visa versa. That is when it | :19:23. | :19:26. | |
really came to life. And overall I think you know Alex Salmond is an | :19:27. | :19:32. | |
experienced television performer, he was much slicker and confident, | :19:33. | :19:38. | |
Darling was very nervous initially. Over the cross-examination things | :19:39. | :19:41. | |
came to light and Darling came to light and we got into the | :19:42. | :19:44. | |
substantive issues. It is those issues that a lot of undecided | :19:45. | :19:49. | |
voters are interested in. On the substantive issues, did you get a | :19:50. | :19:53. | |
sense no matter if you are for or not, a lot of people south of the | :19:54. | :19:58. | |
border couldn't see sadly is Scotland very much feels like a | :19:59. | :20:00. | |
different country? That was certainly the impression that Alex | :20:01. | :20:02. | |
Salmond wanted to create, particularly in his closing | :20:03. | :20:05. | |
statement. He talked about Scotland being a more equal country and that | :20:06. | :20:08. | |
could be the impression it sold to the rest of the world. I think this | :20:09. | :20:12. | |
is part of the SNP's campaign in general. It wants to create the | :20:13. | :20:15. | |
impression that Scotland is separate. And to a certain extent it | :20:16. | :20:20. | |
has succeeded in that, whether or not Scotland votes to go | :20:21. | :20:23. | |
independent. As was said, on the hard questions, the economic | :20:24. | :20:26. | |
questions, where there aren't any silver bullets there were very, very | :20:27. | :20:30. | |
strong exchanges, on the question of currency, and also on the question | :20:31. | :20:37. | |
of being in or out of Europe. A sense that these, you know, they | :20:38. | :20:40. | |
talk about in the end of the day it will be people voting about identity | :20:41. | :20:44. | |
or whatever, these are hard-headed economic questions aren't they? | :20:45. | :20:49. | |
Absolutely, and they are both issues on which Alex Salmond and the yes | :20:50. | :20:53. | |
campaign has never been particularly strong. I thought Alastair Darling | :20:54. | :20:57. | |
did particularly well on dissecting his position on the currency union. | :20:58. | :21:01. | |
Very curious for Alex Salmond to raise the European Union and go | :21:02. | :21:04. | |
after Alastair Darling on that point. Because again, as I say, he's | :21:05. | :21:07. | |
not on strong ground there. What the debate did was highlight that | :21:08. | :21:12. | |
actually after two years of this referendum debate, two years in | :21:13. | :21:15. | |
which things have been thoroughly raked over, Alex Salmond and the yes | :21:16. | :21:19. | |
campaign are no further forward on the EU and the currency union | :21:20. | :21:23. | |
question. Leslie, it is always a problem isn't it in whatever the | :21:24. | :21:27. | |
referendum is, when there is bed fellow that is don't otherwise | :21:28. | :21:32. | |
agree, you have Alex Salmond harrying Alastair Darling to agree | :21:33. | :21:35. | |
with David Cameron's view that Scotland could be a successful small | :21:36. | :21:39. | |
country, and Alastair Darling found himself in a position of not wanting | :21:40. | :21:43. | |
to agree with David Cameron? That's true, and that was a kind of wobbly | :21:44. | :21:47. | |
moment for Alastair Darling. As was the fact that when he was asked for | :21:48. | :21:51. | |
two definite powers that would be given to Scots if they voted no, he | :21:52. | :21:56. | |
came up with road tax and then some devolution of income tax. Now today | :21:57. | :22:03. | |
we were told there was a new devo more proposal agreed by the three | :22:04. | :22:10. | |
unionist parties. That decision of more devolution welfare wasn't | :22:11. | :22:14. | |
brought to Alastair Darling, that should have been brought up more. | :22:15. | :22:18. | |
There are your perspective, blogging here in London looking at this, | :22:19. | :22:21. | |
where what are the big issues and the big points of contention do you | :22:22. | :22:25. | |
think? The main take away from the debate was the currency union. That | :22:26. | :22:29. | |
was where Darling was particularly strong. Hammering away asking the | :22:30. | :22:33. | |
same question again and again. And the audience helped him, they were | :22:34. | :22:36. | |
confused about Salmond's position and Plan B, whether he actually had | :22:37. | :22:40. | |
one or not. Salmond doesn't want to state whether he has a Plan B | :22:41. | :22:43. | |
because he wants to give the impression that Better Together are | :22:44. | :22:48. | |
cobbling together half truths and misquotes and all their warnings are | :22:49. | :22:53. | |
campaign rhetoric. It also looks as if he hasn't thought about it. Among | :22:54. | :22:57. | |
the other issues pulled out tonight there was oil, immigration, social | :22:58. | :23:01. | |
justice and so forth, how do you think that the tenor of this debate | :23:02. | :23:05. | |
and the areas covered will inform the next one? Obviously both | :23:06. | :23:11. | |
participants will take away from that what they perceived were their | :23:12. | :23:16. | |
weaknesses and their advisers perceive as weaknesses and work on | :23:17. | :23:20. | |
that. Alex Salmond came across at points as frivolous, he has a | :23:21. | :23:26. | |
terrible habit of dredging up newspaper cuttings and off the | :23:27. | :23:29. | |
record things, and aliens he appeared frivolous on that point and | :23:30. | :23:34. | |
will avoid that the next debate. Darling missed a trick by not | :23:35. | :23:37. | |
setting out a clearer vision for after a no vote. It is a problem in | :23:38. | :23:42. | |
any campaign if you are saying Better Together and interpreted in | :23:43. | :23:46. | |
Scotland as a no vote. And Alex Salmond getting trapped on that the | :23:47. | :23:49. | |
positive reasons what you would say would come out if indeed on | :23:50. | :23:53. | |
September 18th Scotland is still part of the United Kingdom. What do | :23:54. | :23:57. | |
you think Leslie would be one of the big things that will happen. Will it | :23:58. | :24:00. | |
return to the issue of currency, people are passionate about this? | :24:01. | :24:05. | |
Here is the thing to say. Actually the whole pro-independence campaign, | :24:06. | :24:09. | |
like myself. I'm not a member of the SNP or a formal member of the yes | :24:10. | :24:13. | |
campaign. There are many political parties voting for yes, but far more | :24:14. | :24:17. | |
people who are no political parties at all. Tomorrow there is a mass | :24:18. | :24:21. | |
canvas of Scotland by the radical independence campaign and they are | :24:22. | :24:24. | |
looking at ten areas where actually no party has actually bothered to | :24:25. | :24:30. | |
canvas for several generations, these folk aren't registered to | :24:31. | :24:32. | |
vote. There is a huge grassroots movement going on here, that is | :24:33. | :24:36. | |
something very difficult for the classic media to get hold of and | :24:37. | :24:39. | |
perhaps even the official campaigns, because it is beneath the radar. To | :24:40. | :24:45. | |
me it is transformational and change always happens like that. A Guardian | :24:46. | :24:51. | |
poll taken straight after the debate put Alastair Darling at 56 and Alex | :24:52. | :24:56. | |
Salmond at 44. Is that what it looked like to you? I think so, | :24:57. | :24:59. | |
partly because Salmond didn't perform as well as he could have | :25:00. | :25:02. | |
done. Do you think he was too tricksy on the questions? The stuff | :25:03. | :25:06. | |
about aliens and the right side of the road was irrelevant, and | :25:07. | :25:09. | |
actually he really needed to have a clear win from tonight. And even if | :25:10. | :25:12. | |
you think it was debatable whether or not he won, that is bad enough | :25:13. | :25:16. | |
for him. Thank you very much, we can go now to Alan Little, who joins us | :25:17. | :25:21. | |
from Glasgow. What was the atmosphere like from where you were | :25:22. | :25:31. | |
watching it? Can you hear me? We will come back to Alan a little | :25:32. | :25:36. | |
later, as soon as we have sound attaching us to Glasgow. Now camera | :25:37. | :25:41. | |
five here I can go to you, thank you one of the unique things about the | :25:42. | :25:45. | |
referendum on Scottish independence is 16-year-olds can vote, for | :25:46. | :25:50. | |
another viewer in tonight's debate we went to meet some of them. A | :25:51. | :25:55. | |
group involved in Generation 2014, a BBC Scotland project to track young | :25:56. | :25:59. | |
people's voting intentions. They have never voted in a national | :26:00. | :26:03. | |
election, but the independence referendum has given 16 and | :26:04. | :26:06. | |
17-year-olds in Scotland their chance. How will these lovers of the | :26:07. | :26:10. | |
selfie, the social media generation vote? I travelled to Glasgow as | :26:11. | :26:15. | |
tonight's debate loomed, to find out. First stop, Motherwell where I | :26:16. | :26:26. | |
met a political ingenue and undecided voter Jessica. I think now | :26:27. | :26:33. | |
it is getting so much closer to the vote everyone is so interested in | :26:34. | :26:37. | |
it, and everyone is talking about it a lot. Even when we were out at the | :26:38. | :26:40. | |
weekend and things it will always turn to the conversation at one | :26:41. | :26:43. | |
point. This is where you get your information about the referendum? | :26:44. | :26:48. | |
Pretty much. It is where everybody will, my age, will probably find out | :26:49. | :26:52. | |
most things. Forget newspapers and television, this generation heads to | :26:53. | :26:57. | |
social media as it weighs up how to vote. I'm on Facebook nearly 24 | :26:58. | :27:02. | |
hours a day. Usually I will just go on and it will just be there. This | :27:03. | :27:06. | |
is about the debate, do you recognise that man? I know Alex | :27:07. | :27:11. | |
Salmond quite well. What about this one? Not too familiar with him. | :27:12. | :27:15. | |
Alastair Darling. So everybody, there is a really important debate | :27:16. | :27:19. | |
going on tonight, does anyone know what it is? Yes. Yes. Brilliant, you | :27:20. | :27:25. | |
are all very clued in. These under-18s are on a council-run | :27:26. | :27:31. | |
course learning about entrepeneurialism. | :27:32. | :27:35. | |
How many are going to vote yes, who will vote no who is undecided? I | :27:36. | :27:44. | |
have got a few deal-breakers, mainly the EU-NATO issue. Because Scotland | :27:45. | :27:49. | |
currently is part of the greater UK we are also under NATO and the EU | :27:50. | :27:54. | |
subsequently, and if we were to leave then both bodies have said it | :27:55. | :27:57. | |
would be very difficult to reapply, and it could take up to five or | :27:58. | :28:02. | |
eight years to get back into the EU. As a 16-year-old you are worried | :28:03. | :28:06. | |
about that? Yeah. Because I think growing up it is like a backing | :28:07. | :28:10. | |
almost of kind of having a bigger body behind the country rather than | :28:11. | :28:15. | |
just, if you want to be independent you don't want to be on your own at | :28:16. | :28:21. | |
the same time. Whether university tuition fees would stay free in a | :28:22. | :28:25. | |
future Scotland was another big question. These youngsters were | :28:26. | :28:32. | |
enfranchised by Alex Salmond but the polls show more plan to vote no | :28:33. | :28:37. | |
rather than yes. Some say because the social media generation are more | :28:38. | :28:40. | |
linked into the outside world. They are the first generation that has | :28:41. | :28:44. | |
grown up always with networked computers, they use social media, | :28:45. | :28:47. | |
they talk to people elsewhere, they order something from abroad and it | :28:48. | :28:52. | |
arrives within one or two days. It plays into their voting intentions. | :28:53. | :28:55. | |
Not that they feel less Scottish as such, but that they think less about | :28:56. | :29:04. | |
smaller scales. Borders don't make as much sense to them. Our last | :29:05. | :29:08. | |
young voter says she's not Scottish or British first just a human being. | :29:09. | :29:12. | |
I am glade that we have been given this vote, because ideally it is a | :29:13. | :29:18. | |
better future and I think, it is about our future and we should have | :29:19. | :29:22. | |
a say in it. It is daunting, I'm voting but undecided right now. I | :29:23. | :29:25. | |
don't have that long left to make a decision. There are around half a | :29:26. | :29:29. | |
million voters who like these three haven't yet decided how they will | :29:30. | :29:33. | |
vote. So what did they think of tonight's debate. I think it is | :29:34. | :29:36. | |
quite interesting and you do get to see both sides. I think it has been | :29:37. | :29:41. | |
really interesting at times, but it can be boring because it is like | :29:42. | :29:45. | |
repetitive, they keep asking the same questions, he keeps giving the | :29:46. | :29:49. | |
same answers. No-one is actually giving you a definitive answer, you | :29:50. | :29:54. | |
are left there to sit and wonder by yourself. Scotland's under-18s make | :29:55. | :30:00. | |
up 2. 5% of the electorate. As the polls narrow, their voices will play | :30:01. | :30:04. | |
an important role in their country's future. | :30:05. | :30:07. | |
They just keep asking the same questions. I'm joined by Alan Little | :30:08. | :30:11. | |
and try to ask him the same way west again! What was the big take out | :30:12. | :30:16. | |
tonight? I can hear you now. If anybody had asked most political | :30:17. | :30:19. | |
observers earlier on this evening who they expected to win this debate | :30:20. | :30:22. | |
they would have said that Alex Salmond is the superior debater and | :30:23. | :30:27. | |
that is not even Alastair Darling's most fervent supporters would | :30:28. | :30:30. | |
concede campaigning of this sort on the stump is not his greatest | :30:31. | :30:34. | |
strength. You wouldn't have thought that from the way the debate went. | :30:35. | :30:38. | |
We learned that Better Together have bane donned old fears, hammering | :30:39. | :30:43. | |
away on the question of the currency will be perceived as negative, there | :30:44. | :30:47. | |
is a danger it might be counter-productive. We saw Alastair | :30:48. | :30:54. | |
Darling going for the jugular. We learned whether or not it is fair or | :30:55. | :30:59. | |
just the burden of proof is very much on the side of those who want | :31:00. | :31:03. | |
radical change and the yes campaign. On the currency question it is their | :31:04. | :31:08. | |
weakness suit and Better Together have really taken the gloves off on | :31:09. | :31:12. | |
that and on the question of the European Union membership. They have | :31:13. | :31:15. | |
abandoned the fears they had earlier in the year that it might not be | :31:16. | :31:19. | |
working that Scots might vote against it. And I think they will be | :31:20. | :31:25. | |
concluding tonight that they should keep hammering away at that, keep | :31:26. | :31:28. | |
pulling at that thread and that will get them over the finishing line. | :31:29. | :31:32. | |
And the nationalists must be looking at their strategy and saying we have | :31:33. | :31:35. | |
to have an answer to this currency question and pretty soon. | :31:36. | :31:40. | |
Thank you very much indeed. It is a measure of the fear of the spread of | :31:41. | :31:47. | |
the Ebola outbreak in west Africa that British Airways has suspended | :31:48. | :31:51. | |
lights to like beeria and Sierra Leone until the end of the month, | :31:52. | :31:56. | |
due to it has said to the deteriorating health condition in | :31:57. | :31:59. | |
the country. The outbreak has claimed 887 people across west | :32:00. | :32:04. | |
Africa, and the pace of the infection is fastest in Liberia, two | :32:05. | :32:10. | |
infected aid woers returned to the US have in isolation and given doses | :32:11. | :32:14. | |
of an experimental treatment to boost the immune system. Independent | :32:15. | :32:18. | |
voices are calling for the pharmaceutical industry to put more | :32:19. | :32:24. | |
resources into creating a vaccine to treat the deadly virus. | :32:25. | :32:28. | |
At the centre of this outbreak is fear and anxiety. Ebola has now | :32:29. | :32:35. | |
spread beyond the rural village where is it had been contained to | :32:36. | :32:38. | |
the vast coastal cities of west Africa. Sandra Smiley has just | :32:39. | :32:47. | |
returned from one of the capitals. There is a lot of fear and stigma | :32:48. | :32:53. | |
around the disease, and in some of the areas that are affected by | :32:54. | :32:57. | |
Ebola. The example of this is the story of Finda Marie, a 33-year-old | :32:58. | :33:04. | |
woman demonstrating symptoms of Ebola, her sister called in an alert | :33:05. | :33:09. | |
and she was tested and tested positive two, days later she died. | :33:10. | :33:14. | |
Some of the members of her sister's community blamed her sister for her | :33:15. | :33:17. | |
death because they said that if she had stayed at home then she would | :33:18. | :33:22. | |
have lived. There are a lot of misconceptions around healthcare | :33:23. | :33:24. | |
workers in these communities, and that is hindering MSF and other | :33:25. | :33:33. | |
NGO's work. Nearly 900 have died from the disease across four | :33:34. | :33:38. | |
countries. Ebola spreads by direct contact with bodily fluids, the | :33:39. | :33:41. | |
current outbreak is killing around half of those infected. Today a | :33:42. | :33:46. | |
second American missionary landed back in Atlanta for treatment. The | :33:47. | :33:49. | |
condition of both aid workers is said to have suddenly improved after | :33:50. | :33:53. | |
they were offered a highly experimental drug, not available to | :33:54. | :33:58. | |
locals. Tell us about these details that you have learned about this | :33:59. | :34:02. | |
experimental and some are even saying secret serum? US TV networks | :34:03. | :34:08. | |
have been full of talk about a wonder drug, they are attributing | :34:09. | :34:13. | |
any improvement to that alone, but that is impossible. One reason Ebola | :34:14. | :34:18. | |
generates so much fear is there is no single cure, advantage s are in | :34:19. | :34:24. | |
development with human trials in the autumn, not quick enough for some. | :34:25. | :34:28. | |
Tomorrow in a letter to the Wall Street Journal, a group of | :34:29. | :34:31. | |
influential scientist also call for treatment to be fast-tracked and | :34:32. | :34:34. | |
west African countries to be given the chance to try new untested | :34:35. | :34:39. | |
drugs. This time we seem to be in an exceptional situation, we have had | :34:40. | :34:42. | |
an epidemic that has gin going on for six months or possibly longer f | :34:43. | :34:46. | |
anything it is going out of control rather than being contained. And | :34:47. | :34:53. | |
rereally need to be thinking about other possible tools we could be | :34:54. | :34:59. | |
using here. Part of the problem is large drug companies have little | :35:00. | :35:02. | |
incentive to develop new medicines. The number of Ebola victims in | :35:03. | :35:07. | |
Africa is still tiny compared to major western killers like heart | :35:08. | :35:10. | |
disease and cancer. I think the question fundamentally is then also | :35:11. | :35:15. | |
about limited resources and how does a pharmacompany decide to spend its | :35:16. | :35:19. | |
money and where to invest. And also from our benefit is something like | :35:20. | :35:23. | |
heart disease, for instance, kills 160,000 people a year in the UK, | :35:24. | :35:26. | |
that is one every three minute, approximately. So you know if you | :35:27. | :35:31. | |
had a choice about where you can meet the needs best of a large | :35:32. | :35:34. | |
population, that is where you would invest. It may take concerted | :35:35. | :35:41. | |
international effort to find a cure with the World Health Organisation | :35:42. | :35:45. | |
taking the lead. Until then Ebola will keep rearing its head and | :35:46. | :35:48. | |
generating shock headlines in the west and genuine fear across large | :35:49. | :35:56. | |
swathes of the developing world. As mobile phones allow us to do more | :35:57. | :35:59. | |
and more, it is pretty surprising that the latest communications | :36:00. | :36:04. | |
sensation is utterly minimal. A free app launched on April fool's day, | :36:05. | :36:08. | |
which has been downloaded more than two million times. Has the single | :36:09. | :36:12. | |
purpose of being able to send to other users one word, unchanging, | :36:13. | :36:17. | |
uncorruptible, and that word is "yo", the app has been valued at $10 | :36:18. | :36:22. | |
million, is it brilliant or bonkers. In a minute we will hear from the | :36:23. | :36:27. | |
man behind it. First we discover the joy of Yo. | :36:28. | :36:32. | |
The text-based communication we are all addicted to has a big | :36:33. | :36:36. | |
limitation, context. You can't see the sender's face, were they being | :36:37. | :36:42. | |
ironic, playful, serious, angry, passionate, despairing or something | :36:43. | :36:47. | |
else entirely. Perhaps the ultimate mobile app is this one, Yo, here is | :36:48. | :36:54. | |
mobile messages that is all context. What does it mean? You tell me. Wait | :36:55. | :36:59. | |
it works is simple, after I was downloaded the app I can find out | :37:00. | :37:02. | |
which of my friends have downloaded it, in this case my producer James. | :37:03. | :37:08. | |
I can send him a message, Yo, and if he wants he can reply. There you go, | :37:09. | :37:14. | |
Yo, if I want to send another one I can send it, Yo, did I mention this | :37:15. | :37:21. | |
was launched on April fool's day. If it is a joke it is a pretty serious | :37:22. | :37:27. | |
one, a million downloads and $1. 5 million of investment, and a | :37:28. | :37:31. | |
valuation of the company between $5 million and $10 million. Is it a | :37:32. | :37:39. | |
quays of Yo bubble, aisle lean is a partner in the venture capital | :37:40. | :37:44. | |
company, she says we are in very different territory than the late | :37:45. | :37:50. | |
dotcom bubble of the 1980s. You have mastive user communities and | :37:51. | :37:54. | |
audiences that people with monetise, you are seeing a lot of engagment | :37:55. | :37:57. | |
and people are coming back and using Yo again and again and again. There | :37:58. | :38:00. | |
is more fundamentals behind what people are doing and growth pushing | :38:01. | :38:04. | |
what is on the Internet and the app economy. I don't think it is the | :38:05. | :38:06. | |
same thing as last time. According to one study the mobile app economy | :38:07. | :38:12. | |
is now worth $25 billion a year, up from roughly zero six years ago. All | :38:13. | :38:16. | |
over the world there are thousands of teams working on the assumption | :38:17. | :38:20. | |
that we barely have begun to explore the potential of the app. Kate Rider | :38:21. | :38:26. | |
is developing Maven, a health app for women. One of the biggest | :38:27. | :38:30. | |
problems in healthcare is access, having health on your mobile device | :38:31. | :38:35. | |
means you can access it from anywhere, and you can connect | :38:36. | :38:42. | |
instaly with our product and healthcare providers, or | :38:43. | :38:45. | |
information, you can keep your health data on the phone so yeah, I | :38:46. | :38:49. | |
mean definitely mobiles are the centre of a lot of the innovation in | :38:50. | :38:54. | |
healthcare. But that doesn't mean that every idea will succeed. | :38:55. | :38:58. | |
Although there are some blockbusters, many, indeed most of | :38:59. | :39:04. | |
the 700,000 plus apps available on app stores fail to make money. And, | :39:05. | :39:11. | |
what about Yo, go or no? We will find out now, because joining me | :39:12. | :39:16. | |
from San Francisco we have our guest, the founder of Yo. Good | :39:17. | :39:20. | |
evening to you. It was launched as David said on April fools day, was | :39:21. | :39:26. | |
it first a light-hearted joke? No, it wasn't a joke. It was launched on | :39:27. | :39:32. | |
the 1th of April, but for us it was a fun app that we used and we saw a | :39:33. | :39:38. | |
lot of use case force it. We saw its potential right from the start. We | :39:39. | :39:42. | |
didn't think about all the use case, but from the beginning we | :39:43. | :39:46. | |
immediately saw that people liked using it. There are a lot of case | :39:47. | :39:50. | |
force it. How did you come up with the idea, did you do market research | :39:51. | :39:54. | |
or have a brain wave? It wasn't like that. My partner asked me to do a | :39:55. | :40:00. | |
app for him to test one big button that sends a push notification in | :40:01. | :40:03. | |
order to summon his personal assistant. In the beginning I | :40:04. | :40:07. | |
thought it was a silly idea and I didn't want to do it. Two weeks | :40:08. | :40:11. | |
later he came again and asked me to do it again. And then I remembered | :40:12. | :40:16. | |
that I have a friend which I basically talk with him in the same | :40:17. | :40:20. | |
manner, we text each other messages with no confident, for basically | :40:21. | :40:27. | |
texting each other "yo". I like that it started as a summons to a PA. In | :40:28. | :40:32. | |
the relatively early stages what applications apart from saying hi to | :40:33. | :40:36. | |
your friends might it have? We think of the Yo not as an app to say hi to | :40:37. | :40:40. | |
your friend, we think of it as platform. As a platform we open an | :40:41. | :40:44. | |
API and it is public, and other people can use it for a lot of | :40:45. | :40:47. | |
things. For example restaurants can use it to just notify the customers | :40:48. | :40:54. | |
when the table is ready instead of having the customers waiting by the | :40:55. | :40:58. | |
door. Websites that don't have an app can send notifications to their | :40:59. | :41:05. | |
readers. News websites can send notifications. This is basically a | :41:06. | :41:09. | |
communication platform. Currently there is no content, but the | :41:10. | :41:13. | |
notification itself is a message. Do you think it will make you rich? I | :41:14. | :41:17. | |
don't think about that currently. Thank you very much indeed for | :41:18. | :41:21. | |
joining us. It sounds like the stuff of science | :41:22. | :41:27. | |
fiction, send a spacecraft on a 12-year mission to chase down and | :41:28. | :41:30. | |
land on a comet in deep space. This is no Space Oddity, it is real. The | :41:31. | :41:36. | |
European Space Agency Rosetta spacecraft has been pursuing comet, | :41:37. | :41:47. | |
the comet for six billion kilometres. Tomorrow it will get | :41:48. | :41:51. | |
there. We go behind the scenes at Mission Control. Comets can be | :41:52. | :42:05. | |
spectacular objects. But to scientists they are amongst the most | :42:06. | :42:08. | |
valuable objects in our skies, because they can take us back in | :42:09. | :42:12. | |
time to the origins of the Solar System. The formation of the sun and | :42:13. | :42:19. | |
the planets left behind millions of bits of ice and rock spinning around | :42:20. | :42:23. | |
the Solar System and they are what we now call asteroids and comets. | :42:24. | :42:31. | |
That means that comets can help answer the fundamental questions | :42:32. | :42:35. | |
about our own earth's origin, and perhaps the biggest mystery of all | :42:36. | :42:43. | |
is where did all the water come from? It might sound outlandish but | :42:44. | :42:49. | |
the blue planet wasn't always blue. When the earth was a young planet it | :42:50. | :42:57. | |
was searingly hot and volcanic. And any water on the surface would have | :42:58. | :43:01. | |
simply boiled away into space, and with no water there could be no | :43:02. | :43:08. | |
life. But at some point water appeared back on the surface, we | :43:09. | :43:12. | |
became the blue planet and life could emerge in all of its glorious | :43:13. | :43:15. | |
diversity. But finding out where that water came from is a | :43:16. | :43:19. | |
fundamental question. And one we don't know the answer to. Some | :43:20. | :43:24. | |
scientists think there was water trapped under the earth's surface | :43:25. | :43:28. | |
which then seeped out. Many scientists believe that this water | :43:29. | :43:34. | |
comes from space. From the IC comets and asteroids that bombard earth, | :43:35. | :43:41. | |
left over from the beginning of the Solar System. How can we tell if | :43:42. | :43:45. | |
this water came from a comet. Surprisingly it is not impossible. | :43:46. | :43:48. | |
All water has an atomic significanture, little differences | :43:49. | :43:51. | |
that create a finger print. By carefully comparing the water on the | :43:52. | :43:55. | |
comet to that here on earth, we can tell whether they had the same | :43:56. | :43:59. | |
origin or not. But to do that properly we have to land on the | :44:00. | :44:03. | |
comet. Something never before attempted, that is what Rosetta will | :44:04. | :44:10. | |
do and why it is a supremely ambitious mission. Here at Mission | :44:11. | :44:17. | |
Control in Germany, I met up with the man in charge. Rosetta's flight | :44:18. | :44:26. | |
director Andrea. It has been a long journey, hell us how Rosetta has got | :44:27. | :44:33. | |
to the comet? The comet is flying relatively far away from the sun. | :44:34. | :44:38. | |
And our rockets couldn't deliver the spacecraft to such an orbit, we had | :44:39. | :44:43. | |
to use energy from planets in the Solar System to accelerate Rosetta | :44:44. | :44:47. | |
further and further out into the Solar System to reach the comet. | :44:48. | :44:52. | |
This takes time. So Rosetta has spent the last ten years spiralling | :44:53. | :44:57. | |
around the Solar System, flying past the earth, then Mars, then earth | :44:58. | :45:01. | |
twice more, using the gravity of the planets to nudge it into its deep | :45:02. | :45:09. | |
space orbit. Now we are on a trajectory that would fly close to | :45:10. | :45:13. | |
the comet, but we are not exactly on the same orbit around the sun, we | :45:14. | :45:17. | |
have match the two orbits. Without that the comet would fly-past? There | :45:18. | :45:21. | |
would be a fly by, a mission like many others that flew next to comets | :45:22. | :45:25. | |
but that is not what we want to do. We want to reach the comet and stop | :45:26. | :45:30. | |
there and orbit the comet. We had to slow down the spacecraft compared to | :45:31. | :45:36. | |
the comet and slowly approach it, and once we were there we could | :45:37. | :45:39. | |
start the mission. Tomorrow Rosetta will finally reach the comet and | :45:40. | :45:46. | |
begin its exploration. Why is it difficult to go into orbit around a | :45:47. | :45:49. | |
comet? We don't know anything about the comet, the shape, the gravity, | :45:50. | :45:53. | |
so we have to characterise all this. We don't even know the altitude | :45:54. | :45:58. | |
hour, it is rotating. How close with Rosetta get to the comet? We will | :45:59. | :46:05. | |
fly mid-September an area of 30kms and then country to 20kms if the | :46:06. | :46:10. | |
environment will allow it. We still have to explore. Exploring the comet | :46:11. | :46:14. | |
and its environment will initially be done by imaging it. And already | :46:15. | :46:22. | |
the images taken from thousands of kilometres away have thrown up | :46:23. | :46:26. | |
revelation about the comet's shape. We are surprised to see it looks | :46:27. | :46:31. | |
like two bodies sticking together. The most recent ones I have seen | :46:32. | :46:38. | |
make it look like a rubber duck? I like that a lot. It is a surprise | :46:39. | :46:41. | |
and we have to find out why the body looks like this. Just looking at the | :46:42. | :46:46. | |
shape model here, these image, it is hard to understand where you would | :46:47. | :46:52. | |
safely put down this landing. It is the obvious thing to go for the big | :46:53. | :46:57. | |
face here? The tricky thing is the sun coming up or going down. You | :46:58. | :47:02. | |
don't want to land in the dark? You don't want to land in the dark. The | :47:03. | :47:05. | |
lander will basically be dropped on to the surface from a few thousand | :47:06. | :47:10. | |
metres up, because the gravity on the comet is a tiny traction of the | :47:11. | :47:15. | |
gravity here on earth, it will take several hours to fall. It makes for | :47:16. | :47:21. | |
a soft landing but the very weak gravity also presents a problem. | :47:22. | :47:29. | |
Gravity is about 100 millionth of the gravity on the earth. To top it | :47:30. | :47:35. | |
bouncing straight back off the comet we have ice screw that is will dig | :47:36. | :47:39. | |
down as soon as the feet hit the floor. They are not just to secure | :47:40. | :47:43. | |
it, it will make measurements of the surface and measure the seismic | :47:44. | :47:47. | |
qualities of the surface as well. Even that part of the messing, just | :47:48. | :47:51. | |
securing it to the comet is science itself. One of the key tasks for the | :47:52. | :47:56. | |
lander will be to analyse the ice within the comet to see if it | :47:57. | :48:02. | |
matches the water we find on earth. Meanwhile, Rosetta will continue to | :48:03. | :48:06. | |
orbit, staying with the comet as it goes through its closest approach | :48:07. | :48:12. | |
with the sun r duesing vast plumes of gas and dust throwing into the | :48:13. | :48:22. | |
comet's tame we will reproduce the vast tail. Of the comet. It is a | :48:23. | :48:30. | |
risky mission, but if we knew it we wouldn't have to do it. It has huge | :48:31. | :48:34. | |
solar panels and you are flying in windy dons and constant -- windy | :48:35. | :48:39. | |
conditions, so constantly being forced away from the comet. With the | :48:40. | :48:43. | |
mission about to enter its most critical phase, after more than a | :48:44. | :48:46. | |
decade's work for many of the team, there is a palpable sense of | :48:47. | :48:51. | |
excitement amongst astronomers across Europe and at Mission | :48:52. | :48:54. | |
Control. For sure it is one of the most challenging space missions | :48:55. | :48:58. | |
ever. Nobody has ever gone to such an irregular body or active body | :48:59. | :49:04. | |
with the need of such a high accuracy of flying a spacecraft | :49:05. | :49:07. | |
around the body. It is new and unique in the history of space | :49:08. | :49:18. | |
flight. It is fantastic. That's all we have time for, good night. | :49:19. | :49:24. |