Browse content similar to 01/04/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
A union calls for Business Secretary Vince Cable's resignation, after the | :00:10. | :00:13. | |
privatisation of Royal Mail is described as a "botched panic sale". | :00:14. | :00:18. | |
With shares in Royal Mail worth 70% more than their purchase price, the | :00:19. | :00:20. | |
spending watchdog accuses the Government of letting taxpayers | :00:21. | :00:30. | |
down. The truth is, this has been a first-class disaster for the | :00:31. | :00:35. | |
taxpayer, and those people he once referred to as spivs and gamblers | :00:36. | :00:38. | |
are laughing all the way to the bank. The last thing I intend to do | :00:39. | :00:44. | |
is to apologise. What I intend to do is to refer to what the report | :00:45. | :00:49. | |
actually said, as opposed to the spinning and the froth which is | :00:50. | :00:51. | |
being generated. We'll be getting the latest from Westminster. Also | :00:52. | :00:54. | |
this lunchtime... Living a healthier life - Scientists say we should be | :00:55. | :00:57. | |
eating at least seven portions of fruit and vegetables every day. | :00:58. | :01:01. | |
25 years after the Hillsborough disaster, the names of each of the | :01:02. | :01:05. | |
96 victims are read out at the start of new inquests. | :01:06. | :01:08. | |
"Break the rules and we'll take you out" - the warning to payday lenders | :01:09. | :01:11. | |
from the new financial watchdog. The full exchanges between air | :01:12. | :01:17. | |
traffic control and the pilot of the doomed Air Malaysia plane are made | :01:18. | :01:21. | |
public - but do nothing to solve the mystery. | :01:22. | :01:28. | |
Later on BBC London News, a new way of policing. And the mayor abandons | :01:29. | :01:37. | |
plans to try to stop motorists driving in London when pollution is | :01:38. | :01:38. | |
bad. Good afternoon and welcome to the | :01:39. | :01:55. | |
BBC News at One. Business Secretary Vince Cable says | :01:56. | :01:58. | |
he has no intention of apologising after a damning verdict on the | :01:59. | :02:02. | |
Government's sell-off of Royal Mail. A spending watchdog says the | :02:03. | :02:05. | |
taxpayer lost out to the tune of ?1 billion after the price of Royal | :02:06. | :02:09. | |
Mail shares was pitched too low. Royal Mail shares are now more than | :02:10. | :02:12. | |
70% higher than the original sale price of 330p in October 2013. The | :02:13. | :02:17. | |
National Audit Office said too much emphasis was put on completing the | :02:18. | :02:28. | |
sale within this parliament, at the One union leader has called on Mr | :02:29. | :02:31. | |
Cable to resign. John Moylan reports. Successive governments had | :02:32. | :02:40. | |
tried to privatise Royal Mail. Now, the public spending watchdog has | :02:41. | :02:43. | |
concluded that the Department for Business, which led the eventual | :02:44. | :02:48. | |
sale, did not get value for money. The department could have done | :02:49. | :02:51. | |
better to achieve value for money. It focused on selling the shares | :02:52. | :02:55. | |
within the current parliament, and achieved its primary objectives, and | :02:56. | :02:59. | |
we felt it should have gone further to extract the maximum value for the | :03:00. | :03:04. | |
taxpayer in this particular transaction. The Government priced | :03:05. | :03:09. | |
shares at 330p for the stock market flotation. But the shares jumped 38% | :03:10. | :03:15. | |
in value on the first day, the largest first day rise in years. Six | :03:16. | :03:20. | |
months later, the shares are now worth 560 2p, a 70% increase on the | :03:21. | :03:26. | |
initial price. The report says the shares were offered to the market | :03:27. | :03:29. | |
too cheaply because of the Government's cautious approach. It | :03:30. | :03:34. | |
prioritised completing the sale over getting a higher price. It relied | :03:35. | :03:38. | |
too heavily upon its advisers, and it could have kept a bigger stake to | :03:39. | :03:44. | |
benefit when the share price went up. It did not get full value for | :03:45. | :03:48. | |
the public asset that it was charged with selling. It continued to | :03:49. | :03:53. | |
undermine confidence in the business by telling the public and potential | :03:54. | :03:56. | |
investors that it did not think it was worth the share price which the | :03:57. | :04:00. | |
market was sitting. It did not look very competent. The Government | :04:01. | :04:05. | |
wanted Royal Mail to have long-term, stable shareholders, so | :04:06. | :04:09. | |
it gave a core group of city institutions a bigger allocation of | :04:10. | :04:13. | |
shares. These firms also had a role in the price being set so low. But | :04:14. | :04:17. | |
the report finds that these firms had sold around half of their | :04:18. | :04:22. | |
relegation of shares within weeks of the privatisation. Some had sold | :04:23. | :04:27. | |
their entire stake. Today, one union called for the Business Secretary to | :04:28. | :04:31. | |
resign. It was right that we took a cautious and measured approach to | :04:32. | :04:35. | |
the sale. This approach was taken in the light of our primary objective, | :04:36. | :04:38. | |
and it reflects the considerable risks that we faced due to | :04:39. | :04:43. | |
industrial relations and challenging market conditions. This has been a | :04:44. | :04:49. | |
first-class disaster for the taxpayer. Those he once referred to | :04:50. | :04:52. | |
as spivs and gamblers are laughing all the way to the bank. The report | :04:53. | :04:57. | |
also questions the sell-off process. It was not flexible enough to enable | :04:58. | :05:01. | |
the shares to be priced again late in the day. That could have big | :05:02. | :05:05. | |
implications for the future, when the Government decides to sell off | :05:06. | :05:08. | |
its stakes in our biggest banks. Well, our chief political | :05:09. | :05:10. | |
correspondent Norman Smith is at Westminster. Vince Cable says he | :05:11. | :05:17. | |
will not apologise, but how damaging is this for him? Well, it is | :05:18. | :05:22. | |
striking that we have had no apology, no regrets, no qualms of | :05:23. | :05:26. | |
disquiet from any government minister, despite the fact that it | :05:27. | :05:29. | |
has cost you and I, the public, around ?1 billion, despite the | :05:30. | :05:34. | |
political price paid, because obviously, it is hard to sell | :05:35. | :05:39. | |
austerity and benefit cuts if you are blowing ?1 billion in the City. | :05:40. | :05:42. | |
Despite the political price paid by Vince Cable in particular, who | :05:43. | :05:48. | |
dismissed as froth and speculation the idea that Royal Mail was | :05:49. | :05:52. | |
undervalued. And the reason I think no one has said sorry is in part | :05:53. | :05:56. | |
because there is a conviction in government that Royal Mail's future | :05:57. | :05:59. | |
is better served in the private sector. Ministers took one look at | :06:00. | :06:04. | |
the attempts of previous governments to sell-off Royal Mail, and viewed | :06:05. | :06:09. | |
it as pretty much mission impossible, with people like Michael | :06:10. | :06:14. | |
Heseltine and Peter Mandelson both trying and failing. They decided | :06:15. | :06:18. | |
that this time they would succeed. For that reason they decided to give | :06:19. | :06:21. | |
free shares to postal workers, to have a tight timetable to avoid | :06:22. | :06:26. | |
industrial action, and yes, to sell it for a bargain price. To | :06:27. | :06:32. | |
paraphrase a couple of other Conservative chancellors, that was | :06:33. | :06:35. | |
regarded as a price worth paying if it got Royal Mail back into the | :06:36. | :06:36. | |
private sector. Well, it seems five portions of | :06:37. | :06:41. | |
fruit and veg a day is no longer enough - and we should be aiming for | :06:42. | :06:46. | |
seven or more. Scientists at University College London analysed | :06:47. | :06:48. | |
information from 65,000 adults in England and they say people eating | :06:49. | :06:51. | |
at least seven portions of fruit and vegetables a day have the lowest | :06:52. | :06:55. | |
risk of an early death. Our health correspondent Dominic Hughes | :06:56. | :06:56. | |
reports. A good diet, with lots of fruit and | :06:57. | :07:08. | |
veg, can have a significant impact on our health. Now, research | :07:09. | :07:12. | |
suggests the more you eat, the greater the benefit. Eating at least | :07:13. | :07:18. | |
reduced the risk of death through cancer, heart disease and stroke. -- | :07:19. | :07:26. | |
eating at least seven portions a day seems to reduce the risk. The most | :07:27. | :07:32. | |
health benefit weather people eating seven or more portions of fruit and | :07:33. | :07:35. | |
vegetables every day. So, what does this look like in reality? A portion | :07:36. | :07:41. | |
of fruit might be a banana or an orange. A portion of veg might be a | :07:42. | :07:45. | |
tomato, some salad leaves, or some beans. Some countries like | :07:46. | :07:50. | |
Australia, for example, suggest you have at least seven portions. So | :07:51. | :07:54. | |
they might add a carrot some cucumber. But could we actually | :07:55. | :07:58. | |
managed to eat that much fruit and veg? Of course, it is just getting | :07:59. | :08:02. | |
into the habit, though. It is easier said than done. I like fruit, and I | :08:03. | :08:09. | |
like vegetables, but I do not eat them every day, you know. The World | :08:10. | :08:13. | |
Health Organisation recommends we eat at least 400 grams, roughly five | :08:14. | :08:19. | |
portions, of fruit and veg each day. On average we manage just to | :08:20. | :08:23. | |
portions of fruit and 1.5 portions of vegetables. Health experts say | :08:24. | :08:29. | |
until more of us are hitting that five day target, the official advice | :08:30. | :08:34. | |
is unlikely to change. As to weather it should be raised to seven day, I | :08:35. | :08:39. | |
think probably not at the moment. This is just one study, and also, | :08:40. | :08:44. | |
the majority of us, two thirds of us, do not manage to eat five a day. | :08:45. | :08:48. | |
Until we have managed to do that, then I think there is some way to | :08:49. | :08:52. | |
go. But there are some reservations about what this study really tells | :08:53. | :08:58. | |
us. The group who ate lots of fruit and veg were predominantly | :08:59. | :09:00. | |
nonsmokers, better off, and better educated. All of those things may be | :09:01. | :09:05. | |
contributing towards a reduced mortality. The research also | :09:06. | :09:11. | |
questions whether sugar rich fruit juice should count as part of the | :09:12. | :09:15. | |
five a day target. Five a day at least feels achievable. Asking | :09:16. | :09:19. | |
people to do more may be too much. And we can speak to Dominic now. | :09:20. | :09:25. | |
Consumers could be forgiven for getting a bit bemused, couldn't | :09:26. | :09:31. | |
they? They could. One interesting thing about this report is that it | :09:32. | :09:35. | |
has exposed how the advice differs around the world. In the UK, it is | :09:36. | :09:39. | |
five portions a day, as it is in France, Germany and Spain. In | :09:40. | :09:45. | |
Denmark, it is six, in Australia, it is seven, and in the United States, | :09:46. | :09:49. | |
where portion sizes tend to be bigger and better anyway, it is | :09:50. | :09:54. | |
between seven and 13. But I think the key thing for public health | :09:55. | :09:58. | |
campaigners is not to confuse consumers. That might be a very good | :09:59. | :10:03. | |
reason for sticking to five day, particularly as we have heard two | :10:04. | :10:06. | |
thirds of us are not even that target. | :10:07. | :10:13. | |
-- not even hitting that target. The coroner at the inquests into the | :10:14. | :10:16. | |
deaths of 96 Liverpool fans in the Hillsborough disaster almost 25 | :10:17. | :10:19. | |
years ago has told the court that many of the men, women and children | :10:20. | :10:22. | |
suffered "terrible crushing injuries" as the pressure in the | :10:23. | :10:25. | |
pens on the terraces built up. The hearing in Warrington, in Cheshire, | :10:26. | :10:27. | |
was ordered after the original inquest verdicts of accidental death | :10:28. | :10:31. | |
were quashed in 2012. At the start of this morning's proceedings, the | :10:32. | :10:33. | |
names of each of the victims were slowly read out to the jury. Our | :10:34. | :10:36. | |
correspondent Judith Moritz is in Warrington. | :10:37. | :10:44. | |
Yes, those names of each of the victims were read out in court by | :10:45. | :10:48. | |
one of the lawyers. There was a complete hash in the courtroom, save | :10:49. | :10:51. | |
for the tears of some of the relatives. Families of the 96 | :10:52. | :10:55. | |
Liverpool fans who died at Hillsborough have waited for this | :10:56. | :11:00. | |
day to come, the moment that the new inquests begin in earnest. | :11:01. | :11:02. | |
Yesterday, the jury was selected. Today, the jurors were ready to be | :11:03. | :11:11. | |
sworn in. It will just be nice now to finally get started, to get the | :11:12. | :11:16. | |
jury sworn in. Once that has been done, it seems like it is real, | :11:17. | :11:22. | |
then. Lord Justice Goldring, acting as coroner, opened the inquests by | :11:23. | :11:25. | |
telling the jury of seven women and four men about the long task ahead | :11:26. | :11:29. | |
of them. He began by telling them about Hillsborough, saying, the | :11:30. | :11:33. | |
disaster is seared into the memories of the very many people affected by | :11:34. | :11:38. | |
it, most notably, the families of the 96 people who died. The jury | :11:39. | :11:43. | |
were told that the tragedy happened in April 1989, when a terrible crush | :11:44. | :11:47. | |
developed at the Leppings Lane end of the Sheffield ground. The coroner | :11:48. | :11:51. | |
told them it had been the worst ever disaster at a British sports stadium | :11:52. | :11:52. | |
just he told them... The jury were told that there will | :11:53. | :12:16. | |
be a break inquest in a fortnight, when the 25th anniversary of the | :12:17. | :12:19. | |
disaster will be commemorated. The jury were told about the kind of | :12:20. | :12:23. | |
evidence that they will be presented with. They were told the process | :12:24. | :12:26. | |
could last more than a year. The coroner told them that he is aware | :12:27. | :12:28. | |
of the enormous public service... Pay day lenders are facing tough new | :12:29. | :12:36. | |
regulations by the Financial Conduct Authority. The watchdog is taking | :12:37. | :12:40. | |
over from the Office of Fair Trading. It wants to curb | :12:41. | :12:43. | |
extortionate charges and ensure that money is only lent to those who can | :12:44. | :12:48. | |
pay it back. And there was a warning to the lenders - if you don't stick | :12:49. | :12:52. | |
to the rules, we will take you out. Simon Gompertz reports. It is a | :12:53. | :13:02. | |
world of thousands of percentage points APR, and high charges if you | :13:03. | :13:06. | |
fail to repay. This south London borough has tried to restrict | :13:07. | :13:14. | |
posters being put up by lenders. We have got lonely shop, lonely shop, | :13:15. | :13:27. | |
and another one. -- loan shop. That is seven within about 100 yards. It | :13:28. | :13:32. | |
is absolutely terrible. The interest is absolutely terrible. I have had | :13:33. | :13:37. | |
?100, and then all of a sudden, you miss one payment, the following | :13:38. | :13:41. | |
month, they want ?300 off you. They are absolutely terrible, they should | :13:42. | :13:45. | |
not be allowed. The new regulator is demanding more checks, it will | :13:46. | :13:50. | |
restrict the number of times you can roll over your loan, and also it is | :13:51. | :13:56. | |
consulting on a cap on the overall cost of credit, all backed by the | :13:57. | :13:59. | |
threat of closing lenders down. We are concerned that people who cannot | :14:00. | :14:05. | |
afford the loans, and who then get rolled over, should be protected. | :14:06. | :14:09. | |
That is the area we are worried about. They can continue the | :14:10. | :14:15. | |
advertising, which has helped make this a ?2 billion industry, as long | :14:16. | :14:20. | |
as there is a warning saying late repayment can cause serious money | :14:21. | :14:29. | |
problems. I think the FCA has got an important part to play in setting | :14:30. | :14:33. | |
new rules for this relatively new industry, which is going to drive up | :14:34. | :14:38. | |
standards and help us to drive out the bad practice. Heyday lenders | :14:39. | :14:42. | |
were found to be making too much profit out of the people who | :14:43. | :14:47. | |
struggle to pay the money back. The new regime is designed to force them | :14:48. | :14:51. | |
to lend only to those who can afford it. | :14:52. | :14:53. | |
A pupil at a school in Edinburgh was killed this morning when a wall | :14:54. | :14:58. | |
collapsed. The Scottish Ambulance Service was called to Liberton High | :14:59. | :15:01. | |
School just before ten this morning. Our Scotland correspondent Lorna | :15:02. | :15:02. | |
Gordon is at the school. For the last couple of hours, | :15:03. | :15:16. | |
children have been arriving to pick up their children, some of them in | :15:17. | :15:20. | |
quite a distressed state. The children were told at a special | :15:21. | :15:23. | |
assembly that one of their fellow pupils has died in an accident | :15:24. | :15:28. | |
earlier this morning. Emergency services were called to the school | :15:29. | :15:31. | |
here just before ten o'clock this morning. We understand, talking to | :15:32. | :15:36. | |
the parents, that a wall collapsed inside the changing rooms for the PA | :15:37. | :15:44. | |
area, the gym area. Talking to the parents, we understand that the girl | :15:45. | :15:49. | |
who died was one of the younger pupils, in the first year of the | :15:50. | :15:52. | |
school, so she would have been 11 or 12 years old. Many of the pupils | :15:53. | :15:56. | |
have left for the day. You can see the ambulance and the police | :15:57. | :16:00. | |
remaining outside the building. There will be a full investigation | :16:01. | :16:05. | |
into what happened. There was a big operation of course to try and | :16:06. | :16:08. | |
release the girl by paramedics at the scene, but she was pronounced | :16:09. | :16:14. | |
dead. A lot of distress for the pupils here today and a big | :16:15. | :16:17. | |
investigation to work out what has happened. Thank you very much. | :16:18. | :16:26. | |
Our top story this lunchtime: A union boss calls for Vince Cable to | :16:27. | :16:32. | |
stand down this lunchtime after the selling off of Royal Mail is called | :16:33. | :16:47. | |
a botched sale. And still to come: The best April fool ever? | :16:48. | :17:01. | |
The Malaysian authorities who have been coordinating the search for the | :17:02. | :17:05. | |
missing airliner flight MH370 have released the transcript of | :17:06. | :17:07. | |
communications between the pilots and air traffic controllers and it | :17:08. | :17:09. | |
differs from the version they gave just after the plane disappeared. | :17:10. | :17:14. | |
They said though that the exchanges showed there was nothing abnormal in | :17:15. | :17:19. | |
the conversations. Australia is to deploy a special flying air traffic | :17:20. | :17:22. | |
control centre to prevent collisions between the planes searching for the | :17:23. | :17:24. | |
missing aircraft in the remote Indian Ocean. Our correspondent Lucy | :17:25. | :17:26. | |
Williamson sent this report. Three and a half weeks after MH370 | :17:27. | :17:40. | |
went missing, the investigation is in some ways becoming less clear. | :17:41. | :17:45. | |
Under growing pressure for clarity, the Malaysian Government has | :17:46. | :17:48. | |
released a transcript of the final conversation between the plane and | :17:49. | :17:52. | |
air traffic controllers. The final words spoken by the cockpit were not | :17:53. | :17:57. | |
all right good night, as originally stated, but good night Malaysia | :17:58. | :18:03. | |
370, a standard industry sign off. That small difference in language | :18:04. | :18:07. | |
does not change the investigation but it does show how unreliable our | :18:08. | :18:22. | |
information about it might be. At a conference in Kuala Lumpur today, | :18:23. | :18:24. | |
the global airline association said that the plane must never be allowed | :18:25. | :18:27. | |
to vanish again, and announced a new task force to look at better ways of | :18:28. | :18:30. | |
tracking international flights. I think what we will have to do after | :18:31. | :18:33. | |
this incident is to make sure that this can never happen again and that | :18:34. | :18:35. | |
aircraft can be tracked in real-time. The technology is either | :18:36. | :18:38. | |
they're already or almost there, but we need to think about the most | :18:39. | :18:41. | |
effective ways of deploying it to make sure we can never be in this | :18:42. | :18:47. | |
situation again, where we can't find an aeroplane. After days of claiming | :18:48. | :18:51. | |
the new search area, all that has been found fishing nets and rubbish. | :18:52. | :18:57. | |
The current search area, to give you some context, about the size of | :18:58. | :19:01. | |
Ireland. I have to say, in my experience, and I have got a lot of | :19:02. | :19:05. | |
experience in search and rescue over the years, this search and recovery | :19:06. | :19:12. | |
operation is probably the most challenging one I have ever seen. | :19:13. | :19:18. | |
Political leaders in several countries have said there is no time | :19:19. | :19:22. | |
limit on the operation, but with so little information to go on, they | :19:23. | :19:27. | |
are working in the dark. Lucy Williamson, BBC News, Kuala Lumpur. | :19:28. | :19:33. | |
NATO Foreign Ministers are meeting in Brussels this afternoon to | :19:34. | :19:37. | |
discuss the crisis in Ukraine. With tensions still high in the region, | :19:38. | :19:40. | |
Moscow has announced the withdrawal of one infantry battalion from the | :19:41. | :19:42. | |
Ukrainian border but the Americans say tens of thousands of Russian | :19:43. | :19:45. | |
soldiers are still deployed there. Speaking ahead of the meeting, the | :19:46. | :19:48. | |
NATO Secretary-General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said the North Atlantic | :19:49. | :19:50. | |
alliance could not carrying on doing business with Russia as usual. | :19:51. | :19:57. | |
Russia's actions are unacceptable. We will take positions on which | :19:58. | :20:05. | |
cooperation with Russia is still appropriate because through its | :20:06. | :20:09. | |
actions, Russia has undermined the principles on which our partnership | :20:10. | :20:15. | |
is built and has breached its own international commitments. So we | :20:16. | :20:20. | |
cannot go on doing business as usual. Our diplomatic correspondent, | :20:21. | :20:27. | |
Jonathan Marcus is in Brussels. What realistically our NATO's options? | :20:28. | :20:33. | |
Clearly NATO was not going to go to war with Russia, that is obvious. | :20:34. | :20:37. | |
But I think they want to do three things. In the short term, they want | :20:38. | :20:42. | |
to reassure worried NATO allies like the Baltic republics, and the | :20:43. | :20:46. | |
Polish, who believe there should be a more muscular response to the | :20:47. | :20:50. | |
Russians. We may see some small military deployments, stepped up | :20:51. | :20:54. | |
exercises and so on. They also want to give reassurance to Ukraine, so I | :20:55. | :20:58. | |
think we will see a continuation of the sorts of activities that NATO | :20:59. | :21:05. | |
countries have been carrying out with Ukraine and its military in the | :21:06. | :21:07. | |
past. For the longer term, they want to reassess the whole relationship | :21:08. | :21:10. | |
between NATO and Russia and to look at NATO defence plans and defence | :21:11. | :21:15. | |
deployments, and see whether they should be changed. It was | :21:16. | :21:18. | |
interesting, the Polish Foreign Minister arrived a short while ago | :21:19. | :21:23. | |
and said it was the 15th anniversary of Poland joining NATO. The only | :21:24. | :21:27. | |
NATO facility in his country, he said, was a conference centre, so he | :21:28. | :21:31. | |
said really, perhaps with what is going on in Ukraine, and the new | :21:32. | :21:41. | |
wind blowing from Russia, the sorts of deployments that NATO has in | :21:42. | :21:44. | |
eastern and central Europe should be looked at again. Thank you. At his | :21:45. | :21:47. | |
trial in Preston, the former Deputy Speaker Nigel Evans has had his | :21:48. | :21:52. | |
evidence cross-examined. He is on trial of rape and sexual assault and | :21:53. | :21:56. | |
he denies the charges. Danny Savage is at Preston Crown Court. Less | :21:57. | :22:02. | |
people at the evidence into context. Yesterday Nigel evidence | :22:03. | :22:08. | |
gave evidence in his defence. -- Nigel Evans. He talked about an | :22:09. | :22:11. | |
alleged sexual assault that is claimed to have taken place at his | :22:12. | :22:15. | |
home in Lancashire. He was asked about the man who was accused of | :22:16. | :22:19. | |
assaulting and the MP said he was incredibly flirtatious. I got the | :22:20. | :22:23. | |
impression he was interested in me. There is no fall like an old fool. | :22:24. | :22:30. | |
He was asked by his barrister if his approaches were unwelcome and he | :22:31. | :22:36. | |
said, goodness, no. Nigel Evans said that he wanted a reaction from the | :22:37. | :22:40. | |
man that the passes I was making towards him would be accepted. It | :22:41. | :22:43. | |
was put to him that he obviously did not consent to what you were doing. | :22:44. | :22:48. | |
That is right, conceded the MP, but he maintained that he did not | :22:49. | :22:52. | |
sexually assault the man. He was also asked about a couple of the | :22:53. | :22:56. | |
other charges, one of them in the House of Commons bar. He is supposed | :22:57. | :23:01. | |
to have tried to kiss a man. It was put to him he was exercising his gay | :23:02. | :23:05. | |
sexuality. You knew perfectly well that the likelihood that he would | :23:06. | :23:10. | |
complain about you, Nigel Evans MP, was virtually zero. The MP replied | :23:11. | :23:14. | |
to that, this goes from the bizarre to the bunkum. It is ridiculous | :23:15. | :23:18. | |
beyond belief. On another charge, he said, do you realise how absurd it | :23:19. | :23:24. | |
sounds about what you are saying I have done? It is better you don't | :23:25. | :23:28. | |
ask questions for fear that I might answer them, Mr Evans, was the | :23:29. | :23:31. | |
response. The trial continues. Thank you. | :23:32. | :23:37. | |
Do people's perceptions of freedom correspond to how free they really | :23:38. | :23:40. | |
are? That was the question asked by a BBC poll, carried out to mark the | :23:41. | :23:47. | |
end of our Freedom 2014 season. The survey, conducted between December | :23:48. | :23:49. | |
2013 and February 2014, discovered that people who live in countries | :23:50. | :23:52. | |
traditionally considered to be free don't necessarily feel more free | :23:53. | :23:58. | |
than others. Nick Higham reports. Freedom has never been a simple | :23:59. | :24:03. | |
notion, but what does it mean in our modern digital age? The internet and | :24:04. | :24:07. | |
social media mean we can communicate more freely than ever but we are | :24:08. | :24:11. | |
also under more surveillance than ever before from governments and | :24:12. | :24:16. | |
commercial organisations. Our BBC World Service poll began by asking | :24:17. | :24:19. | |
people about freedom and the internet. More than two thirds of | :24:20. | :24:23. | |
those we questioned told us they thought the internet means we have | :24:24. | :24:25. | |
greater freedom but more than half also told as they thought it was an | :24:26. | :24:31. | |
unsafe place in which to say what they think. Edward Snowden's | :24:32. | :24:35. | |
revelations about widespread surveillance by the US Government | :24:36. | :24:39. | |
have really had an impact on the public consciousness in terms of | :24:40. | :24:43. | |
their understanding of the fact that anything they do online can | :24:44. | :24:47. | |
potentially be monitored. These days, the prying eyes of the state | :24:48. | :24:52. | |
seem to be everywhere. Governments say they need surveillance to fight | :24:53. | :24:56. | |
terrorism and crime but what do the public think? In our survey, we | :24:57. | :25:00. | |
asked people whether they felt free from monitoring by their own | :25:01. | :25:04. | |
governments. Results were surprising. In countries like the | :25:05. | :25:08. | |
United States and Germany, which like to think of themselves as | :25:09. | :25:11. | |
bastions of freedom and democracy, fewer than half those and felt free | :25:12. | :25:17. | |
from Government surveillance. In China and Russia, it was completely | :25:18. | :25:21. | |
different. A sizeable majority said they didn't think they were subject | :25:22. | :25:26. | |
to online surveillance. We have about 80% of American and German | :25:27. | :25:32. | |
people who do have access to internet in their homes. It is less | :25:33. | :25:36. | |
than half this in Russia and China. It seems that people in countries | :25:37. | :25:41. | |
with higher internet connectivity naturally feel more exposed. How | :25:42. | :25:46. | |
free you feel, it seems, is not necessarily a reflection of how | :25:47. | :25:49. | |
freely the society in which you live is supposed to be. | :25:50. | :25:56. | |
It's perhaps the most famous April Fool prank in the history of British | :25:57. | :25:59. | |
television. And in a rare interview, the man responsible has explained | :26:00. | :26:02. | |
how it all happened. In 1957 the BBC's Panorama programme showed a | :26:03. | :26:05. | |
report about spaghetti growing on trees in Switzerland and many of its | :26:06. | :26:08. | |
eight million viewers swallowed every word. Here's our entertainment | :26:09. | :26:18. | |
correspondent Colin Paterson. The past winter, one of the mildest | :26:19. | :26:21. | |
in living memory, has had its effect in other ways as well. Most | :26:22. | :26:27. | |
important of all, it has resulted in an exceptionally heavy spaghetti | :26:28. | :26:33. | |
crop. At 8:30pm on the 1st of April 1957, in between Hancock's Half Hour | :26:34. | :26:37. | |
and some heavyweight boxing, the current affairs programme Panorama | :26:38. | :26:40. | |
featured one of the most famous April falls of all time. Spaghetti | :26:41. | :26:45. | |
cultivation here in Switzerland is not carried out on anything like the | :26:46. | :26:48. | |
tremendous scale of the Italian industry. Michael Peacock presented | :26:49. | :26:54. | |
Panorama and was responsible for giving the spaghetti tree hoax the | :26:55. | :27:00. | |
go-ahead. We had noted in the editorial meeting that April the 1st | :27:01. | :27:03. | |
was on a Monday, power transmission day. A week or so later, a freelance | :27:04. | :27:10. | |
cameraman came into the office and they pitched the idea of the | :27:11. | :27:15. | |
spaghetti harvest being an April fool's joke. I gave Charles a budget | :27:16. | :27:24. | |
of ?100 and sent him off. Some heavyweight support gave its | :27:25. | :27:29. | |
backing. The anchorman for Panorama was Richard Dimbleby. Richard was | :27:30. | :27:33. | |
most respected reporter and he earned his reputation as a war | :27:34. | :27:38. | |
correspondent. We knew perfectly well we were using his authority to | :27:39. | :27:41. | |
make the joke work. He loved the idea and went at it with relish. | :27:42. | :27:46. | |
Many people are often puzzled by the fact that spaghetti is produced at | :27:47. | :27:51. | |
such uniform length, but this is the result of many years of patient by | :27:52. | :27:55. | |
plant breeders, who succeeded in producing the perfect spaghetti. | :27:56. | :27:59. | |
Next day it was all over the newspapers. The press loved the | :28:00. | :28:05. | |
story. Others hated it for misleading the nation, which was why | :28:06. | :28:09. | |
it worked so well. We'll felt very pleased with ourselves. Almost 60 | :28:10. | :28:14. | |
years later, it is still being talked about. For those who love | :28:15. | :28:18. | |
this dish, there is nothing like real home-grown spaghetti. Colin | :28:19. | :28:25. | |
Pattinson, BBC News. What are the chances of sunshine? No | :28:26. | :28:30. | |
April Fool about the weather. We could see 20 degrees in the South | :28:31. | :28:35. | |
East of England. This is a satellite picture. Cloud across Scotland and | :28:36. | :28:40. | |
the central slice of England. It is breaking up all the time with | :28:41. | :28:44. | |
sunshine around. Already 17th in the South East. With that weather front | :28:45. | :28:48. | |
struggling Scotland and bringing outbreaks of rain, it is quite | :28:49. | :28:53. | |
chilly East coast of Scotland. Through the afternoon, much of | :28:54. | :28:56. | |
England, Northern Ireland and Wales will hold onto sunshine with the odd | :28:57. | :29:01. | |
shower. The lion's share of the rain will affect central and eastern | :29:02. | :29:05. | |
Scotland. That said, the Outer Hebrides is not doing too badly with | :29:06. | :29:11. | |
some shelter. You will enjoy a fine afternoon with sunshine. Eastern | :29:12. | :29:14. | |
Scotland and the South of Scotland will be cool with an onshore breeze. | :29:15. | :29:19. | |
England is not doing too badly. Double figures for Newcastle with | :29:20. | :29:24. | |
sunshine. The Midlands, South East England and Southern counties seeing | :29:25. | :29:28. | |
the best sunshine. Variable amounts of lead cloud around with the odd | :29:29. | :29:33. | |
shower. Most places remain dry. Cloud in the South coast of Devon | :29:34. | :29:40. | |
and Cornwall. In Northern Ireland, conditions improve but the far | :29:41. | :29:45. | |
western coast will hold onto cloud and the odd shower. That is how it | :29:46. | :29:50. | |
is looking this afternoon. Into the evening and overnight, rain affects | :29:51. | :29:54. | |
central and eastern Scotland and low mist and cloud rolls on and off the | :29:55. | :29:59. | |
North Sea in eastern areas. This weather front coming from the South | :30:00. | :30:02. | |
will bring showery -based sovereign into the Midlands. Some dry | :30:03. | :30:09. | |
interludes and a mild night to come but quite chilly in the North. | :30:10. | :30:13. | |
Wednesday morning starts off damp and cloudy with showers and western | :30:14. | :30:18. | |
areas pushing East. It will be quite chilly across the North East corner | :30:19. | :30:22. | |
of England and also eastern Scotland, but some sunshine for the | :30:23. | :30:25. | |
far North of Scotland with better temperatures there. Cool in the | :30:26. | :30:30. | |
North East corner. In the South East, temperatures could hover | :30:31. | :30:34. | |
around 20. The pressure chart for Thursday shows low pressure trying | :30:35. | :30:38. | |
to push further East. This weather front could have more action on it. | :30:39. | :30:44. | |
More heavy rain affecting central and western areas. Slowly pushing | :30:45. | :30:49. | |
its way East. Cooler air moving in the Atlantic. Still quite warm | :30:50. | :30:53. | |
across central and eastern areas with sunshine. We have had lots of | :30:54. | :30:59. | |
emails about the Sahara dust and air pollution situation. If you want | :31:00. | :31:03. | |
more, check our local weather website. Thank you. | :31:04. | :31:08. | |
The top story this lunchtime: A union boss calls for Vince Cable's | :31:09. | :31:13. | |
resignation after the privatisation of Royal Mail | :31:14. | :31:15. |