03/04/2014 BBC News at One

In London, smog-like conditions, as government data shows pollution

hitting the maximum level, ten, meaning very high. We will be

looking at which parts of the UK have been worst hit.

Also this lunchtime: plain packaging on cigarettes comes a step closer as

the government pushes through plans to ban branding on all tobacco

products. A shake-up of GCSEs in England -

grades will be replaced with numbers, and a new target for the

brightest pupils. The Culture Secretary, Maria Miller,

apologises after she's told to repay nearly ?6000 in expenses.

Bringing the house down - the explosive opening planned for the

Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. On BBC London: a cyclist dies in

central London after being hit by a lorry.

And Chelsea are left disappointed in France after fielding a team without

a striker. Good afternoon and welcome to the

BBC News at One. Air pollution has hit maximum highs in some parts of

the UK as an oppressive mix of Saharan dust and emissions from

Europe spreads across the country. London has reached the maximum

level, ten. Levels in eastern England have reached nine, with the

Southeast and north-west England, the Midlands and north Wales also

affected. Yesterday, London Ambulance saw a 14% rise in 999

calls for patients with breathing problems. They say they are

expecting a similar increase today. Sarah Campbell reports.

Cities and towns across England and Wales are once again blanketed in

smog. Some of London's landmarks were barely visible today. This was

the scene, late morning. It is another difficult day for asthma

sufferers, who are particularly vulnerable to the effects of air

pollution. That night, I just had to keep up all night. Could not sleep.

I had to come and get some medication. It is waking me up. It

is really debilitating. The effects were felt across London today. My

throat and nose are getting a bit dry. I have a dog, and it was

sneezing. All of a sudden, I felt something was not quite right. In

the evening, you actually felt and tasted the sandy things in your

throat. It has not affected me, but I know a lot of people who are

affected, those with respiratory problems. So why is the air

polluted? It is being called a perfect storm. Home-grown pollution

from the UK's traffic and power stations. The rest has built up over

European towns and cities and loan over the Channel. Then there are the

sandy deposits on cars, evidence of a massive amount of dust alone up

from the Sahara . It all makes for an pleasant conditions. This

cocktail of chemical particles and gases and biological particles all

affect human health. Those with heart and lung conditions are being

advised to avoid strenuous outdoor activity . Even the prime minister

chose to stay indoors today. I did not go for my morning run this

morning. I chose to do some work instead. You can feel it, but it is

a naturally occurring weather phenomenon. Sounds extraordinary,

but that is what it is. The worst affected areas have been London and

much of the south-east. Air pollution is measured on a scale of

one to ten, and here it is a ten, the highest possible level. The good

news is that the skies tomorrow should be clear, with south-westerly

winds due to blow the dust and pollution away.

Our science correspondent, Rebecca Morelle, is here. So is it going to

clear up soon? Yes, hopefully. When is it going to end? It is pretty

grim out there. For the last few days, the problem is that we have

had still conditions, which has left a horrible mixture of dust from the

Sahara, pollutants from North Africa and the continent and are nasty car

emissions in the UK, just hanging in a sort of stagnant haze over us. It

is in the lower part of the atmosphere, the bit we read. What

makes this unusual is the Sahara dust, which has made it visible. But

some of the more invisible pollutants are the ones we have to

be worried about. We need a change of weather conditions. I have spoken

to the Met Office and the good news is that they are on their way. The

rain will draw some particles out of the atmosphere. Also winds coming in

from the Atlantic, where the air is much clearer. So hopefully, fresh

air is on its way. We will have a full weather forecast

at the end of the programme and you can see details of the pollution

affecting the UK on the BBC website. The Government says it plans to

introduce plain, standardised packaging for all tobacco products

in England as soon as possible. The change is also expected to go ahead

in other parts of the UK. The decision follows an independent

review of the likely impact on public health of removing all

branding. Our medical correspondent, Fergus Walsh, is at the Department

of Health in central London. So what exactly is the proposal?

This follows a review by a former paediatrician, Sir Cyril Chandler,

who has concluded today that lane or standardised packaging of tobacco

would lead to a modest, but definite reduction in the number of children

taking up smoking. Every year in the UK, 200,000 children between 11 and

15 take up smoking, 600 a day. Even a 2% reduction would lead to 4000

fewer children taking up smoking. Sir Cyril concluded that by

introducing plain packaging, I have an example here of what he's talking

about, with a very dominant health warning and no branding. He said

this sort of pack, which has been introduced in Australia, would give

a more negative impression to smokers and would-be smokers. It

would be likely to have a positive impact in terms of reducing smoking

among children. The families of the 96 victims of

the Hillsborough disaster have begun reading a series of short

biographies about their loved ones to an inquest jury. The court will

hear about nine of the victims today as their friends recall the details

of their lives. Our correspondent, Judith Moritz, is in Warrington.

Yes. So far, seven of the 96 Hillsborough victims have been

described by their relatives to the jury. The family members stepping up

to the witness box one by one, speaking about their personal

recollections and memories. It has been an emotional morning. At one

point, the coroner stopped to gently reassuring widow who had become

tearful describing her late husband. The Hillsborough disaster is set to

have encompassed many individual human tragedies. Today, the families

of the 96 people who died came to court to begin telling the jury

about their loved ones. The first was John Horrocks, who was seven in

1989 when his father went to Hillsborough and did not come back.

Arthur Horrocks was a huge music fan who loved going to Liverpool's

famous cavern club. His widow Susan wrote the words to be read out in

court. Arthur Horrocks was born in Liverpool on the 19th of January,

1948. Afterwards, his son John read them again for our cameras. It is

the hardest thing I have ever had to write, but I hope it goes some way

towards a water wonderful husband and best friend he was for me as

well as a devoted dad, brother, uncle and friend, and how much we

miss him every day. As John Horrocks spoke about his dad, the court was

silent. Later, he told the BBC about his experience of speaking to the

jury. It is very important. It is the start of a long process, but we

will get through it. Each of the 96 Hillsborough victims will be

described to the court. The process will take until the end of the

month. It has been designed to put those who died at the heart of these

inquests. Hopefully, families will be able to cope with what they say

when they are on the witness stand, talking about the person they have

loved and lost. It will be a very difficult day for many families as

we go through the next few weeks. The Hillsborough victims were

fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters. Their interest is,

personalities, hopes and dreams are being laid out in court for everyone

to hear. To give you a flavour of the sort of

things we heard in court this morning, Christine Magnuson up about

her daughter Marion, who died at Hillsborough, saying she was a

giver, not a taker. She was a good and generous person. No words will

ever do her justice. We also heard from Wilf Whelan, the father of Ian

Whelan, who died at Hillsborough. He told a story about how on the

morning of that fateful match, he had gone to his girlfriend's house

before going to Sheffield, and Ian Whelan had left two red roses for

her as a mark of his love. A new top-level GCSE grade will be

awarded to the most talented 50,000 pupils each year in proposals for a

shake-up of England's exam grades. The Ofqual exam regulator has

launched a consultation on a grading system that will rank from nine at

the very top down to one for the poorest performers. The changes, to

be introduced from 2017, will compare students to those from the

highest performing countries like China and South Korea. Our education

correspondent, Gillian Hargreaves, reports.

I got a B! This is what we have become used to, euphoric teenagers

with a clutch of top marks. But in future, it might be much harder to

get the best grade. The new scores, from one to nine, will be introduced

for students sitting GCSE exams from 2017. One will be the lowest, with

nine the top grade. The exams regulator proposes that grade nine

will only be awarded to half the pupils now achieving an A*. That is

around 20,000 students in any given year. Under the new system, and A

grade would equate to a grade seven and the current grade C, regarded as

the pass mark at GCSE, will be replaced by a great four. Students

in Shanghai are years ahead of many of their European counterparts in

maths, and ambition the government wants for pupils here. So these

proposals will include, for the first time, a link between GCSE

grades and international league tables. It is hoped it will give a

clearer picture of how well England fares. We are trying to raise our

ambitions so that we are looking more at the good achievers. That is

not to say we are aiming to be number one in the pecking order. It

is just lifting our aspirations. The new grade five at GCSE would

represent the average score of high performing countries like South

Korea, but teaching unions fear that that is a crude way to measure

success. Young people need to be well prepared to go into the world

of employment. We do need to raise the bar, but that is not only done

by exams, it is done by good teaching and learning. Students who

begin their GCSE courses next year and take there are tonnes in 2017

will be affected. Initially, it would apply to English and maths

papers only and be introduced for other subjects the following year.

Gillian is here with me now. This is England only, and they want

to bring it in quickly? Yes, England only. Northern Ireland and Wales are

sticking with the old system. That might be baffling if you are an

employer on the Welsh border, with candidates coming from England and

Wales. You may be thinking, grade C, great four, has this person done

well or not? It might be confusing. But the greater controversy lies

with the speed with which this is being done. It will affect

candidates who are going to study GCSEs next year and will take their

X and will take there X and Z 2017. Teaching unions say it is far too

quick -- it affects those who will take their exams in 2017. They are

arguing that it is too quick. The reason why it is only English and

maths in 2017 is because Ofqual has introduced tougher exams in those

subjects, but they are the only subjects where the specification has

already been laid out. Other subjects like science, geography and

other humanities will not see this numeric grade until 2018.

The Commons Committee on Standards has ordered Culture Secretary Maria

Miller to repay ?5800 and apologise to MPs. The money is to cover for

overclaiming of expenses on her mortgage after she failed to reduce

the amount claimed as interest rates and her repayments fell. But the MPs

have cleared her of the central charge of deliberately submitting

claims for expenses to which she was not entitled.

Our chief political correspondent, Norman Smith, is in Westminster. How

damaging is this for her? My sense is that this report does not do Ms

Miller, but it does damage her. It does not terminate her political

career, but it punishes the. Why? She is cleared off the central

charge of fiddling her expenses to provide a home for her parents, but

the committee are scathing about the way she responded to their enquiry,

in effect accusing her of being struck with an difficult and

legalistic. For that reason, they judge her to be in breach of the

MPs' code of conduct, which is meant to govern how MPs behave. For that

reason, she was forced to make an apology in the House of Commons. In

other times, potentially, that alone could have insufficient to lead to

her political demise. But this morning, the prime minister came out

and in effect said, she is going nowhere. More significant is the

fact that yesterday, even before the prime minister had seen the report,

Number Ten was putting a pre-emptive protective arm around Ms Miller,

saying the prime minister had full confidence in her. That tells us

that Mr Cameron was absolutely love to lose her. Why? One suspects in

part because Ms Miller is a woman and Mr Cameron absolutely did not

want to lose one of the four female members of his cabinet. High levels

of pollution once again hit parts of the UK. Health warnings are issued

for people with lung and heart conditions and people with asthma.

Coming up, I will be live in Portsmouth for the grand opening of

the Royal Navy's new national news. Later on BBC London, the school in

Enfield that is keeping some pupils endorse as pollution levels hit

high. And updating the past, how Chelsea pensioners are being moved

into the 21st century. Organisers of this year's

Commonwealth Games' opening ceremony in Glasgow are hoping to bring the

house down. Hundreds of them, as the demolition of a series of high rise

flats will form part of the official launch of the event. The Red Road

flats, a feature of the Glasgow skyline for almost 50 years will be

blown up and the images beamed live into the opening ceremony. James

Cook has the full story. It was a city in the sky, 4000

people used to live here in the highest tower blocks in Europe. The

Red Road flats were built in the 1960s, but they have long since had

their day and now they will come down in front of a watching world.

What a finance for Red Road blocks, to come down in a blaze of glory,

the Commonwealth Games getting shown to over 1 billion people. They could

not have picked a better way to see these blocks come down. And we have

some idea of what it will look like. Two of the blocks have already been

demolished, but they went down a year apart. This time, five will

turn to dust at once. For the Games' organisers it is a way of

competing with the extravagant Olympics ceremony, on a smaller

budget. We will spend it very wisely. It is just below 21 million

for both opening and closing ceremonies, which is a fraction of

Sochi, but we're not trying to be the Olympic Games or Sochi. We are

Glasgow, Scotland's Commonwealth Games, and we will give a

spectacular show. A tonne of explosives be used to bring these

buildings down. It will all be over in just 15 seconds and those who

have lived here for years are preparing for an emotional moment.

To be honest, I don't want to believing this. I really want to

stay until the last moment, but I guess I don't have any option so I

will be moved but my first priority will be to stay in this area so I

will always live next to the memories. It is an iconic moment.

The flats have meant so much to Glasgow and they are so much a part

of the Glasgow skyline for so many years. To see them coming down and a

host of them coming down in one go is going to be a big thing to a lot

of people. These flats have dominated Glasgow's skyline for

decades. They provoke mixed emotions. Life here was not always

easy. But they are still held in great affection and fair and will be

spectacular. An American soldier has shot dead

three colleagues at an army base in Texas. The gunman also wounded 16

others before killing himself at Fort Hood. The base was the scene of

another shooting in 2009, when 13 people died. The gunman, who has

been named in the US media is army truck driver Ivan Lopez, had served

in Iraq and was being treated for mental health problems. Philippa

Thomas reports. In the space of 15 minutes the

soldier had only arrived at Fort Hood in February, had shot dead

three colleagues, before faced with a military policewoman he turned his

gun on himself. Good Morning America. Breaking overnight, a

shooting in Fort Hood. I gunman opens fire in America's largest army

post. The Army has confirmed the gunman had served in Iraq, reported

a brain injury and was being assessed for post-traumatic stress

disorder. We are digging deep into his background, any criminal

history, psychiatric history, his experiences in combat, all of the

things you would expect as are being done right now. This is not believed

to be a terrorist act. It is being noted that Ivan Lopez bought the gun

locally and carried it into the base unregistered. Many of the people

there have been through multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. They

served with valour and they served with distinction. When they are at

their home base they need to feel safe. But this incident has brought

back memories of the mass shooting their only five years ago, the worst

ever such event on a domestic army base. In which an Army psychiatrist

about to be deployed to Afghanistan, no Hasan, killed 13 and injured 32

more. -- Nangel Hassan. The question today, what drove this soldier to

open fire on his colleagues on home ground.

Ukraine's special police shot dead dozens of anti-government protesters

in Kiev in February, according to an initial government enquiry. The

Interior Ministry said 12 members of the Berkut police had been

identified as snipers and three of them had been arrested. More than

100 people were killed in the fabric protests that led to the ousting of

President and -- President Viktor Yanukovych. The Queen is in Rome for

her first meeting with Pope Francis. She and Prince Philip had been

invited by the Italian president. It is her third visit to the Vatican

during her reign and her first foreign trip in three years. As head

of the Church of England, the Queen has supported moves to improve

Anglican and Roman Catholic relations.

The education watchdog has warned that nurseries and childminders in

England are failing to teach thousands of young children the

skills they need to start primary school. Ofsted's Chief Inspector Sir

Michael Wilshaw has this morning called for a radical shake-up of

early years education, with more emphasis on learning words and

numbers. Luke Walton reports. A chance to have fun with your

friends, but Ofsted says early years education is also about learning

basic language and number skills. And though this nurseries rated

outstanding, others do less well. We are concerned about the quality of

provision in early years because we know it is one of the most vital

times in a child's life. If they don't have the basic skills, social

skills, emotional skills and learning skills that are necessary

before four and five, they don't start school well. Under the Chief

Inspector's plans nurseries and childminders would be asked to put

more emphasis on structured learning. There is a call for more

primary schools to open nurseries on site. Move Sir Michael says would

increase quality, particularly for low-income families. Watching the

children here it is clear they are having fun as well as learning. But

some worry that an increased emphasis on structured teaching to

the under fives could lead to too much pressure, too young. The fear

is we are removing their opportunity to learn through discovery, learn

through play, be creative and that worries me, that we are removing the

opportunity for some of our very youngest children to be children, to

play, to enjoy life. At this nursery play and learning do appear to go

hand-in-hand, but with the government also putting the focus on

the skills of the under fives, the balance between their care and their

education remains contentious. The Environment Secretary Owen

Paterson has announced that the pilot badger culls in

Gloucestershire and Somerset will continue this year, but the practice

will not be rolled out to other areas. Our science correspondent

Pallab Ghosh is here. What has he said? Mr Paterson published his

independent scientific assessment of his own trials and quite simply this

assessment shows the trials failed and failed spectacularly. They

failed to kill enough badgers. They were supposed to kill 70% and they

killed 50%. There were too many that were killed in an inhumane way, with

more than 20% taking more than five minutes to die. How embarrassing is

this for the government? It is embarrassing, particularly for Owen

Paterson, who has associated himself with this policy. He said regardless

of what the pilot trials were like and the scientific assessment said,

he would roll out ten cull areas each year for the next four years.

Today, he has not been able to roll out a single one and one wonders

what the future of the policy is going forward.

As museum exhibits go they don't get any bigger than this. The height of

a four-storey house, a World War II submarine is the centrepiece of a

major new exhibition looking at the story of naval life over the last

century. It is at the Royal Navy's National Museum in Portsmouth and

Duncan Kennedy is there now. You join us at the opening of this

brand-new navy museum here in Portsmouth and we are at the moment

the military wives are taking part in that opening ceremony. Let's

listen to them for a few seconds. # You fill up my senses

# Console me again #. The museum has been planned for ten

years and charts 100 years of naval history. 500 unique artefacts,

including World War II era submarine. All hoping to tell the

personal stories of those who serve. From the actual trigger of a nuclear

missile to the hulking presence of a submarine. HMS Alliance spent

decades above and below the waves and is now the giant centrepiece of

this unique exhibition. It is so big Alliance is the height of a

four-storey building, the biggest exhibit in the new museum set-up and

it remains the only British ocean-going submarine that has

survived since the Second World War. Moving into the control room now.

The museum isn't just about the hardware, it's the people like Rob

Forsyth, who skippered the Alliance and now a keen champion of

submariners' stories. We were hidden. We were underwater. It's not

a case of needing to pop oneself up but all the years spent doing

important things underwater deserve to be known about. Navy women are

not forgotten. In film and photos their lives are chronicled. They

include Dorrie Thomas, one of the first to join the Wrens in World War

II. She trained as Morse code operator and even at 90 it's a skill

she has never lost. D is da-diddy. O is dar-dar-dar. But it's one highly

memorable message to the Atlantic Fleet that has always stayed with

her. The group came up, 4-4-7-4, and believe it or not in Morse that is

diddy -diddy dar, diddy-diddy dar, dar-dar diddy, diddy-diddy dar. You

could almost dance to that. From a captured German Enigma code machine

to a list of simple instructions to sailors on how to address prisoners

of war, the museum traces the Navy's rise and decline, its successes and

failures. A service served by people like Dorrie Thomas, who has the last

word. Fantastic. Let's have a look at the

weather. We have been talking about the pollution levels. A prediction

that it is not here forever? That is right, there is some respite on the

way. We will start to see a slow improvement but at least for the

rest of this afternoon and into this evening we have those high or very

high pollution levels. Over the next couple of days we will start the

season cleaner, clearer air coming in from the Atlantic, so few

problems with pollution. There will be some rain and it will help to

bring particles to the surface. The rain has been heading in across the

Channel Islands, the south-west of England into Wales and into parts of

Scotland. Some and patchy rain through the rest of the afternoon.

Central and eastern parts of England staying dry. Quite mild and muddy in

the south-east. Further north, the air coming in from the north Sea

making it feel cool. We start with the rain at about 4pm, affecting

Devon, Somerset, south Wales. Towards the east, a drier story. We

can't rule out sharp showers but 18-20dC in the south-east. Cooler in

the north-east of England. The air coming in from an North Sea.

Outbreaks of rain brightening up across Northern Ireland but for

Scotland, damp, hill fog and temperatures 8-9d. Through the

latter part of the afternoon and into this evening we will see the

rain heading out, pushing out across Wales, clipping Northern Ireland so

perhaps some surface water issues. The rain pushes into Scotland and

drying up to the south of that. It is not going to be a cold night.

Frost free wherever you are on Friday morning. A cloudy, murky

start but crucially we will start to see the wind coming in from the

south-west. That means an improving day in terms of equality and

pollution. Some outbreaks of rain through tomorrow is still lingering

across parts of Scotland. Elsewhere, a drier story. A few showers towards

Wales and the south-west by the afternoon. Not as warm as weak

recent days. 10-14dC in the north, 17-18 at the south. If you are

heading to Aintree for the Grand National Festival, for Friday are

predominantly dry day. On Saturday, more spots of light rain. The rain

is courtesy of a weather front that is heading in from the Atlantic,

pushing its way across the UK and bringing some outbreaks of rain. Not

a particularly heavy. The next weather system is looking for

Sunday. In terms of the weekend, things are that bit fresher. There

will be rain around at times. Also a few sunny spells. Crucially, there

will be an improvement in the air pollution that we have at the

moment, so good news in terms of the weekend weather. More details

online. Our top story this lunchtime. As we

have been hearing, high levels of pollution once again hit parts of

the UK. Health warnings are issued for people with lung and heart

conditions and those with asthma. Plain packaging on cigarettes has

come a step closer. The government is pushing through plans to ban

branding on all tobacco products. On BBC News channel throughout the

afternoon reaction to the News the European Parliament has voted to

scrap the roaming fees charged for using a mobile phone whilst abroad.

That is