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That's all coming up in Sportsday in around 15 minutes. | :00:00. | :00:15. | |
Hello, welcome to our lock ahead to watt papers will bring us tomorrow. | :00:16. | :00:21. | |
With me, Hugh Muir, from the Guardian and Deborah Haynes the | :00:22. | :00:25. | |
defence editor at the Times. Let's look at the front pages now. | :00:26. | :00:29. | |
Start with the telegraph, it leads with the ruling on the Hyde Park | :00:30. | :00:33. | |
bombing. Victims of IRA bomb cheated of justice by a monumental blunder, | :00:34. | :00:38. | |
it says. That sentiment is echoed on the front of the Metro. The Mail | :00:39. | :00:42. | |
leads with a different story, that of a vulnerable man who was dealt a | :00:43. | :00:46. | |
fatal blow after he complained about a cyclist on the pavement. The | :00:47. | :00:50. | |
victim's mother said the four-year sentence handed down was a sick | :00:51. | :00:53. | |
joke. The Express has a health story on the front page. There could be a | :00:54. | :00:58. | |
new powerful injection to ease arthritis pain. | :00:59. | :01:03. | |
We begin with the story that's dominated the news today, victims of | :01:04. | :01:09. | |
IRA bomb cheated of justice by a monumental blunder, this in relation | :01:10. | :01:14. | |
to the Hyde Park bombing in 1982. Yes, it's quite a reminder of the | :01:15. | :01:22. | |
horrors that took place during the conflict and it's quite a puzzling | :01:23. | :01:27. | |
ruling that's been made, that's only really been made public today about | :01:28. | :01:34. | |
how Mr Downey was, by mistake, sent a letter basically an amnesty letter | :01:35. | :01:41. | |
as part of the peace settlement, following the Good Friday Agreement | :01:42. | :01:46. | |
that meant that he had been - no charges were going to be brought | :01:47. | :01:50. | |
against him. He took that letter in good faith, thought he'd been | :01:51. | :01:53. | |
cleared, came to the UK to go on holiday to Greece last year, was | :01:54. | :02:00. | |
arrested and they've been trying to tussle at the Old Bailey, whether or | :02:01. | :02:05. | |
not he could be prosecuted. The judge ruled that it would be a | :02:06. | :02:09. | |
threat to the peace settlement and would be unfair to carry on with the | :02:10. | :02:15. | |
prosecution. Obviously, he's never been found guilty of anything, but | :02:16. | :02:19. | |
he's never stood trial. He's always denied the charges. This is what the | :02:20. | :02:25. | |
judge said, he said this last week, it's only today we can talk about | :02:26. | :02:29. | |
the details of the case. He said that the need to prosecute those | :02:30. | :02:33. | |
accused of serious crime was outweighed by the public interest in | :02:34. | :02:39. | |
holding officials of the state to promises they've made in full | :02:40. | :02:42. | |
understanding of what is involved in if the barringin. The -- in the | :02:43. | :02:47. | |
bargain. The suggestion is that this letter was sent erroneously to this | :02:48. | :02:51. | |
man, but the IRA partly decommissioned their weapons on the | :02:52. | :02:54. | |
understanding that these letters would be September out and this man | :02:55. | :02:57. | |
-- sent out and this man came to the UK on the understanding he wouldn't | :02:58. | :03:02. | |
be prosecuted. There are two issues. On one hand, you can understand as a | :03:03. | :03:06. | |
matter of policy a deal might be made whereby people are told they | :03:07. | :03:10. | |
won't be prosecuted and they will be part of the deal that's brought | :03:11. | :03:13. | |
peace to Northern Ireland. On the other hand, if he was never supposed | :03:14. | :03:17. | |
to be pa of that deal, if he wasn't one of those people designated as | :03:18. | :03:20. | |
being on the run and therefore bundled into that deal, if the | :03:21. | :03:24. | |
letter was sent in error, I think it's a bit a struggle to say, well, | :03:25. | :03:28. | |
why has the judge decided to deal with it in this way. Now it's going | :03:29. | :03:32. | |
to be a transparency issue. I think there's now a job for the media and | :03:33. | :03:36. | |
for politicians to really explain this to the public. I think the | :03:37. | :03:40. | |
public are going to have a lot of difficulty understanding this. And | :03:41. | :03:44. | |
the families as well. Especially, part of the problem is that not a | :03:45. | :03:47. | |
lot of people knew about this deal. I mean, apparently the suggestion is | :03:48. | :03:51. | |
that it was a deal cooked up by the, or sorted out by the British | :03:52. | :03:56. | |
Government and Republicans and unionists had no idea what was going | :03:57. | :04:01. | |
on. Exactly. There will be questions asked about who the other people | :04:02. | :04:05. | |
were who've been granted this amnesty. And also, how it could be | :04:06. | :04:12. | |
that the letter was obviously sent in 2007, I think it said, and it | :04:13. | :04:16. | |
seems as though the error was realised but why that wasn't | :04:17. | :04:19. | |
communicated and they knew that there was a warrant out for his | :04:20. | :04:23. | |
arrest at the time. So it seems as though, something's gone badly | :04:24. | :04:30. | |
wrong. It says that the Police Service for Northern Ireland have | :04:31. | :04:32. | |
launched an investigation. We will have to see what that discovers. | :04:33. | :04:37. | |
What the public think ises going to be key here -- thinks is going to be | :04:38. | :04:41. | |
key here. We will want a die section of the judgment, disection of the | :04:42. | :04:45. | |
judgment, because we need to understand the legal thinking of the | :04:46. | :04:50. | |
judge dealing with this case in the way he has. We also need a detailed | :04:51. | :04:55. | |
explanation from the Crown as to why they felt that they could not or | :04:56. | :05:00. | |
should not continue an appeal. Because, it's because they've | :05:01. | :05:03. | |
dropped the appeal that this story has reached the public domain today. | :05:04. | :05:08. | |
Clearly, they must have had reasons to think that Mr Justice Sweeney's | :05:09. | :05:13. | |
reasoning was logical and sensible. They will have to explain that as | :05:14. | :05:17. | |
well. The public are going to want to faux the details. As you say, | :05:18. | :05:23. | |
transpatience -- want to know the details | :05:24. | :05:26. | |
The vast majority of people will agree that the Good Friday Agreement | :05:27. | :05:29. | |
was a good thing and is a good thing and is cementing peace in Northern | :05:30. | :05:34. | |
Ireland. But this makes people wonder - well, what else was part of | :05:35. | :05:41. | |
the deal to get Good Friday going? What else happened behind-the-scenes | :05:42. | :05:44. | |
that we don't know about? You can see this as being sensible as a | :05:45. | :05:49. | |
matter of political poll soy. Someone may -- policy. Someone may | :05:50. | :05:53. | |
make a decision that for the greater good, someone may have done dreadful | :05:54. | :05:58. | |
things but we need to move on. Ly what they decided. You may make that | :05:59. | :06:02. | |
decision. But does it make legal sense? I think that's what we have | :06:03. | :06:06. | |
to find out. What is the legal reasoninger as opposed to the policy | :06:07. | :06:11. | |
reasoning. I think that's right. It's exactly that point of that | :06:12. | :06:17. | |
balance that you talk about of the public interest against the | :06:18. | :06:21. | |
integrity of civil servants. That doesn't sit very comfortably. I | :06:22. | :06:26. | |
wonder whether this is the end of it. The judge has made his ruling. | :06:27. | :06:31. | |
There are other courts and higher courts. One wonders if particularly | :06:32. | :06:35. | |
the families of those affected won't take it further. I suspect this will | :06:36. | :06:41. | |
run and run. Sticking with the telegraph. Flood defence. Yeah, this | :06:42. | :06:47. | |
is a really interesting story. Obviously... Money's no object in | :06:48. | :06:53. | |
dealing with the floods. We heard this from the Prime Minister. In his | :06:54. | :06:57. | |
wellies. He's been at pains to say under the coalition Government, | :06:58. | :07:01. | |
spending has been increased or, you know, has been more than in the past | :07:02. | :07:07. | |
and there haven't been cuts. There's a study that's been done by UK | :07:08. | :07:14. | |
Statistics Authority, which contradicts this claim and says that | :07:15. | :07:20. | |
the budget for flood defences has been cut by nearly a quarter of a | :07:21. | :07:26. | |
billion pounds, so ?250 million. That supports a study by the House | :07:27. | :07:31. | |
of Commons library, which also found that over the period, the four years | :07:32. | :07:37. | |
up to 2015, less money has been spent on flood defences and | :07:38. | :07:41. | |
apparently this whole issue is going to be debated in the Commons | :07:42. | :07:45. | |
tomorrow. I imagine it will be an uncomfortable time for the Prime | :07:46. | :07:48. | |
Minister. They will have to find this money, after what he said. It | :07:49. | :07:52. | |
will be pretty embarrassing. I was in the Commons just a couple of | :07:53. | :07:55. | |
weeks ago when they were talking about the figures here. There was a | :07:56. | :07:59. | |
ding dong about how much was being spent and whether or not there have | :08:00. | :08:02. | |
been cuts and whether or not what the Government was spending were | :08:03. | :08:06. | |
only making up for the cuts they had already made. One has to say the | :08:07. | :08:10. | |
Government seems to have problems in terms of statistics. This isn't the | :08:11. | :08:14. | |
first time that the UK Statistics Authority have taken them to task. | :08:15. | :08:20. | |
Got their numbers mixed up. Iain Duncan Smith' department was taken | :08:21. | :08:24. | |
to task by the Statistics Authority earlier this week. It becomes a | :08:25. | :08:30. | |
thing about credibility. Particularly on an issue like the | :08:31. | :08:34. | |
floods that obviously and quite rightly made very many people angry. | :08:35. | :08:41. | |
In all those Conservative constituencieses. -- constituencies. | :08:42. | :08:43. | |
This is not a headline the Prime Minister will welcome. There it is. | :08:44. | :08:46. | |
That's the Daily Telegraph. We will go to the inside of the | :08:47. | :08:56. | |
Metro, teenage pregnancy falls again to a record low. Yeah, it's a good | :08:57. | :09:03. | |
story. We seem to be making some headway. Obviously this is something | :09:04. | :09:07. | |
that's been concerning policy makers for some time. What we're told now | :09:08. | :09:11. | |
is that the conception rate stands at 27. 9 births per thousand for | :09:12. | :09:18. | |
girls aged 15 to 17. That's good. These are figures from the Office | :09:19. | :09:22. | |
for National Statistics. There's a caveat, the decrease does not bring | :09:23. | :09:26. | |
us in line with other western European countries, such as the | :09:27. | :09:30. | |
Netherlands, that's only six six births. So far behind in the first | :09:31. | :09:35. | |
place. We seem to be retrieving a very bad situation, but it still | :09:36. | :09:40. | |
isn't great. I don't know if any of the other papers have picked up on | :09:41. | :09:46. | |
it on their inside pages, the Metro has this. It's an interesting story | :09:47. | :09:50. | |
because obviously, while you have got the drop in the teenage | :09:51. | :09:55. | |
pregnancies, there's this massive rise in older women getting | :09:56. | :09:59. | |
pregnant. So it really seems we're having a big shift to enable women | :10:00. | :10:05. | |
to maybe have more of a career before they start becoming parents | :10:06. | :10:10. | |
and I think it's a really positive news story. Any explanation as to | :10:11. | :10:14. | |
why this is happening, why we're getting better at sorting this issue | :10:15. | :10:18. | |
out? It's to do with education. That's a big factor. And because | :10:19. | :10:23. | |
there's more opportunities for women, young women, you know it's | :10:24. | :10:28. | |
not just about leaving school and having a family straight away. | :10:29. | :10:31. | |
There's more chances available to you. And also, greater protection | :10:32. | :10:38. | |
with contraception, obviously, talking about terminations, so | :10:39. | :10:42. | |
there's just more education out there. That means young women are | :10:43. | :10:45. | |
better informed to make choices. We're getting over the squeamishness | :10:46. | :10:49. | |
we've had about dealing with this properly in schools. Because there's | :10:50. | :10:53. | |
always been a reticence to tackle it head on. I think in some areas of | :10:54. | :10:57. | |
the country this has been such a serious problem they've had to do | :10:58. | :11:01. | |
something. Hopefully, this is the result of that public health work | :11:02. | :11:05. | |
and education work that we're doing now. OK. Let's go on to the Express. | :11:06. | :11:11. | |
Harman won't say sorry in child sex row. A story that is really dogging | :11:12. | :11:20. | |
her, her husband, Jack Dromey and Patricia Hewitt. Clearly what | :11:21. | :11:32. | |
happened today when she expressed regret, but still didn't apologise | :11:33. | :11:39. | |
for her role in the national council of civil liberties and its link, has | :11:40. | :11:47. | |
been an attempt to lance the boil, if you like. She will be looking to | :11:48. | :11:52. | |
see if that has happened. Perhaps be heartened it's not on the front of | :11:53. | :11:56. | |
the Mail again. It's interesting they haven't gone for it, they've | :11:57. | :11:59. | |
another front page we will look at. They've gone with another story. | :12:00. | :12:04. | |
What will be important for her is to see if Labour circles the wagons, | :12:05. | :12:09. | |
because one of the things that happened at the weekend even Labour | :12:10. | :12:13. | |
leaning commentators were saying you have to deal with this, address | :12:14. | :12:21. | |
this. Will they be supportive? If they are she may be able to get | :12:22. | :12:24. | |
through this and the Mail will move to something else. She will be | :12:25. | :12:28. | |
looking to signs as to the dynamic now. Ed Miliband has made it clear | :12:29. | :12:35. | |
he gives her a pun -- 100% his support. That's not like a football | :12:36. | :12:39. | |
manager being told we give the manager 100% and they are out the | :12:40. | :12:44. | |
next day. They sometimes do politicians, and then something else | :12:45. | :12:48. | |
comes out and that support dilutes to about 95% and down to 60. I don't | :12:49. | :12:54. | |
think that alone is enough to give you superconfidence. I don't | :12:55. | :12:59. | |
understand why she can't just say sorry for the association. I very | :13:00. | :13:04. | |
much regret, it's that one step down. It's what politicians do. They | :13:05. | :13:10. | |
never just say - speak simply and say sorry, OK, you know, for the | :13:11. | :13:15. | |
association part. It's what the Daily Mail would want her to say. | :13:16. | :13:20. | |
That would be the end. It's not as if she's done anything wrong. Would | :13:21. | :13:27. | |
it? The suggestion is that - the Mail is going after the NCCL, it's | :13:28. | :13:31. | |
an organisation those on the right perhaps didn't fall in love with | :13:32. | :13:36. | |
back in the day. A civil liberties o. If Harriet Harman is to say | :13:37. | :13:43. | |
sorry, potentially reflecting on the work she did. They're able to attack | :13:44. | :13:54. | |
senior Labour politicians and also to attack liberty, I mean the Mail, | :13:55. | :14:06. | |
I think with what Liberty have done, that organisation isn't being | :14:07. | :14:11. | |
attacked. It's really between the politicians and the Mail. The fact | :14:12. | :14:16. | |
it's The Mail is crucial because there is no way that Harriet Harman | :14:17. | :14:22. | |
or Jack Dromey is going to want to make a fulsome apology even if they | :14:23. | :14:27. | |
felt that way because it's The Mail. I find it difficult to see Ed | :14:28. | :14:31. | |
Miliband parting company with Harriet Harman, not least because | :14:32. | :14:35. | |
it's The Mail. All right. The Mail very brief, a few seconds. A | :14:36. | :14:41. | |
vulnerable man's life ended by a punch after he complained about a | :14:42. | :14:45. | |
cyclist on a pavement and he got four years in jail. It's an | :14:46. | :14:50. | |
horrendous story. A split second moment ending a life. This poor man, | :14:51. | :15:00. | |
he has as spergers -- aspergers syndrome and was keen on rules. The | :15:01. | :15:05. | |
cyclist was on the pavement and he objected. The guy who did it is only | :15:06. | :15:10. | |
given a four-year sentence and could be out in two years. We will discuss | :15:11. | :15:15. | |
this further in an hour's time when you are back to look at more of the | :15:16. | :15:19. | |
stories behind the headlines here. Stay with us for that and stay with | :15:20. | :15:24. | |
us, because at 11.00pm we will have more on that police error that led | :15:25. | :15:27. | |
to that man being accused of the Hyde Park bombing actually not | :15:28. | :15:33. | |
facing prosecution now. That's coming up. Now it's time for | :15:34. | :15:35. | |
Sportsday. Hello and welcome to Sportsday. I am | :15:36. | :15:54. | |
John Watson. Here is what's on the way: Manchester United are beaten by | :15:55. | :15:58. | |
Olympiakos in the first leg of their last 16 tie in the Champions | :15:59. | :16:00. |