09/09/2014 BBC News at One

Alex Salmond claims the No campaign in the Scottish referendum

I think today what we have seen is the disintegration of the no

campaign. The back of an envelope non-plan to cobble something

together at the last minute because they are losing this election.

The SNP leader was responding to a new timetable from the main

pro-union parties for transferring more powers to Scotland.

You can have a strong Scottish parliament, a parliament which has

two look Scottish taxpayers in the eye without walking away from the

United Kingdom. David Cameron and Ed Miliband will

campaign in Scotland tomorrow, instead of attending the weekly

Prime Minister's Questions Investigators say the Malaysian

airliner that blew up over Ukraine was hit

by numerous "high energy objects". The governor of the bank of England

praises British workers for helping to bring the UK out of recession.

Another badger cull is underway in the South West of England - there

are new calls for the controversial policy to be abandoned.

And the remarkable story of Dame Gillian Lynne - at 88 she's

recreating the wartime ballet she performed for the troops.

On BBC London, a report reveals safety concerns were raised four

years before the Vauxhall helicopter crash that claimed two lives.

And the inquest into the death of a minicab driver who died

when a building collapsed by Holborn tube station.

Good afternoon and welcome to the BBC News at One.

Scotland's First Minister, Alex Salmond, says the NO campaign

His comments came after the three main pro-union

parties backed a timetable for giving more powers to Scotland.

And in the past hour, the leaders of the three main

Westminster parties have said they will travel to Scotland to join the

campaign trail, instead of taking part in tomorrow's regular session

This hello from Edinburgh on a glorious sunny day.

Both the yes and no campaigns have been staging vigorous rallies here.

The yes campaign a little bit of the Royal mile. The no campaign down at

Holyrood, the site of the parliament. The three pro union

parties outlined what they say is a timetable for a more significant

powers to Scotland should the Scottish voters vote no. Powers

which they say would safeguard the NHS and could lead to tax to fund

more welfare spending. But Alex Salmond dismissed this as a non-plan

and nothing new. Richard Lister reports.

The Tories, Labour and the Liberal Democrats putting up a united front

today to endorse a timetable for enhanced Scottish devolution. The

plan would allow Scotland to tax more and spend more on the NHS and

welfare. I'm absolutely delighted to welcome

you all here and to say how delighted we are to endorse the

delivery plan that will give certainty and more powers to the

Scottish Parliament. We will have certainty of change. It is possible

to vote no on September 18, a patriotic choice, but also to say

you are voting for change. More powers for the Scottish parliament.

The day after the vote work would begin towards a Scottish parliament

with more tax-raising powers. By the end of October a progress report

would spell them out. On Saint Andrews Day, a white paper would be

issued with draft legislation by the end of January. Alex Salmond was at

an event portraying Scotland at the heart of Europe as a nation in its

own right. He says the debate has moved beyond the timing of more

devolution. This is a day the no campaign finally fell apart at the

seams. We now know that after all of the hype of the last 48 hours, since

they realised the ground was shifting under their feet, that

actually there is nothing new in this package whatsoever. This is a

retreading, a repackaging, a re-timetabling of what they said in

the spring. If recent opinion polls are any guide, the momentum at the

moment is with the yes campaign. The latest poll suggests the vote is

tied. With nine days remaining, it is neck and neck.

It certainly is. We want to explore some of the political and business

implications of the events of today. Let's speak to our Assistant

Political Editor, Norman Smith. Huge news that the three leaders of

the Westminster parties are coming here tomorrow, even though in

Scotland they are not particularly popular? An unprecedented moment. I

cannot recall in my political life time a moment when the three party

leaders have set aside PMQs macro. It is designed to save the union. It

also reflects the sense of urgency set to galvanise the no campaign

after the polls suggested they had moved closer to the yes campaign.

The three men will not tomorrow, I understand, be sharing one platform.

That has prompted the Nationalists to say it is a stunt and it will not

work. In fact it will probably backfire because of their popularity

north of the border. But it is a big play to try and bring together old

enemies, even the most bitter of enemies, to work together. And

nowhere is that underlined more clearly than in the role of Gordon

Brown, who is in effect now leading the no campaign north of the border.

A man who, David Cameron Frankie had little personal or political regard

for. -- frankly. David Cameron's political fate may well hinge on

Gordon Brown's success. The state of the union may hinge on the ability

of David Cameron and Gordon Brown to work together.

One member of the yes campaign dismissed the news that the three

political leaders from Westminster were coming north of the border by

saying, the three Amigos. I don't think he meant it as a condiment.

Kamal Ahmed joins me now. What is happening on the markets today? What

we have had two day, share prices can go up as well as down. Yesterday

we saw downward pressure on the share prices of businesses based in

Scotland, such as The Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds bank, standard

life. Many of those share prices picked up today. What is happening

is volatility. The markets are suddenly taking the idea of a Yes

vote possibly on September 18, seriously. That is probably the

first time this week that we have really seen that. What is happening

is that businesses are nervous about to or three things. Firstly, the

currency issue. Secondly, the cost of the negotiations of possible

changes in tax legislation. Possible changes in regulation. There has

been some evidence, we need to be very careful about this, some

evidence, anecdotal, about some movement of cash by some businesses

into English part of their business. And banks are certainly prepared for

some retail deposits, possibly to be moved south of the border. Again, I

reiterate, very anecdotal. No big movement of money at all. The Bank

of England has made it clear that whatever the outcome of the vote on

September the 18th, it will stand behind all deposits in Scotland. The

Yes vote says if there is an independence vote, it will be good

for the economy and good for business.

Thank you very much. A very busy day here. We will have more later. Back

to you. Tomorrow - on TV and online -

BBC News will be looking in depth at the potential consequences

of both yes and no votes. If you've got questions you want

answered, you can text 61124 with your 'what ifs' - and we'll

have more tomorrow at one. A report out today says

the Malaysian Airlines jet, which crashed over Ukraine in July, broke

up in midair after being hit by "a large number of high-energy objects

that penetrated the aircraft". 298 people, including 10 Britons,

died in the disaster. Preliminary findings by air accident

investigators stopped short of saying explicitly that the plane was

shot down, or who was behind it. Here's our transport correspondent,

Richard Westcott. From the moment Flight MH17 came

down in a war zone it was going to be a challenging investigation. With

the wreckage still smouldering, important clues were being dragged

around. Anybody could have a look. It is still so on safe that only a

handful of air crash experts have actually visited the site, taking

quick photographs. Nobody worth -- nonwork from the Dutch team leading

the investigation. -- nonwork from the Dutch team. We have not gained

access to the site was last night. That is a pity because normally the

investigation starts on the site and we have had four days or weeks. That

has not been possible. We have had wreckage passed to us by the

Malaysian authorities. This report does not use the word missile

anywhere but it does progressively rule out anything else. It says the

aircraft broke up suddenly in midair but there were no emergency alarms

going off. The pilots did not make any mistakes, there were no obvious

mechanical problems. These images give some damning clues that the

aircraft was brought down by a weapon. It says these holes near the

cockpit hour from high energy objects penetrating the skin from

the outside. That is consistent with this weapon, a missile launcher,

apparently seen in the area. A missile does not actually hit the

aircraft, it explodes nearby, peppering it with shrapnel. The

critical question remains unanswered. Both sides use the same

weapon. Who fired it? One expert says with more information they

could work that out. Because we know the position is in the sky, we could

then reverse engineer the flight of the missile down to the ground and

work out pretty much within 100 or 200 square metres where the missile

was fired from. There were ten Britons on board the Malaysian

fight, including two Newcastle United fans. Hopefully John's body

has been identified and will be coming back to Tyneside. Him and

John left Tyneside and hopefully there will be back shortly. More

than 100 passengers have not been formally identified, including three

Britons. Some will still be resting in these fields.

We can speak now to our correspondent, Richard Galpin,

Richard, this report does not point the finger of blame. Is it any

Shearer on the ground who is responsible? -- clearer. I don't

think there is any mortality. Certainly the rebels have again

today denied it, saying then had the capacity to be able to shoot down a

large commercial airliner. However, we have to say that many Western

governments have said all along they have evidence that convinces them it

was shot down from rebel held territory, either by the separatist

rebels here or by Russian troops. We know there is a large amount of

video, of photographs, all on the Internet, showing a very

sophisticated surface-to-air mirth -- Michael -- surface-to-air missile

system in eastern Ukraine. One military analyst is convinced it was

Russians who brought in the weapon and fired it.

Many thanks. Doctors in the Czech Republic say five-year-old Ashya

King could start his radiation treatment on Monday. He was flown

there from Spain yesterday, days after his parents removed him from a

hospital in Southampton. They were not happy with the treatment he was

receiving. In the last hour, Brett King has been speaking to Jenny

Hill. My son actually came here in the

ambulance, and we got him into this establishment. It is the end of the

road. This is everything, everything was leading up to this. We started

this long process it seems like a million years ago.

Lets join Jenny Hill live. What is the latest on the treatment that

Ashya and his family hope he will get? Well, Ashya has just left the

clinic here in private. There is a huge amount of media interest in his

case. At its heart, a vulnerable little boy. As he was wheeled into

the amulets, he was awake, clutching a teddy bear. He has been

anaesthetised for much of the last seven hours. He is being prepared

for his proton beam therapy, which begins here at the clinic on Monday.

So he spent seven hours here, a lot of procedures to go through. He has

been scanned, he has been assessed. It is important to patients stay

completely still during proton beam therapy. He has been fitted with a

special body mould and a mask which he will have to wear during

treatment, which is expected to last six weeks.

Three main Westminster party leaders will head to Scotland tomorrow to

join the campaign against independence. Scotland's first

minister, Alex Salmond, says the No campaign is falling apart.

event Britain has never won - but that's about to change if Sir Ben

Starting school this week, the boy whose parents were told to switch

off his life-support machine when he was four weeks old. And French

without Saunders, we speak to one of our best loved comics on the eve of

her first solo tour. A new badger cull got underway this

morning in Somerset It will last six weeks

and is designed to reduce the spread Critics say culling

is not effective. They point to the fact that last

year's cull didn't succeed in reaching its target of killing 70%

of the counties' badgers. But the government and farmers say

doing nothing is "not an option". Our correspondent, John

Maguire, is in Gloucestershire. That Cole was described as an

effective by a panel of experts. Many thought that the process would

be dead in the water. But the government has stuck to its guns and

the cull is underway. Loved by many, hated by others but now, once again,

in the sights of marksmen. And as the shooting resumed in the two

pilot areas of Gloucestershire and Somerset last night, so did the

protests. These badger patrols are also taking aim, trying to disrupt

the killing. It is a hideous disease. A lot of us live in rural

communities. Every day, we see what happens to the farmers when the

cattle come down with TB. But killing badgers is not the way to

stop it. Many farmers in the West Country are desperate. Bovine TB is

endemic here. And they believe that the disease must be fought, even

though the cast is so high. It is a cruel thing to do and I am not

comfortable with it but this is what I'm interested in. I'm spent my life

trying to keep them alive, but if there are sick badgers out there,

you need to deal with it. During last year's cull, 1700 badgers were

shot. The latest objective is a figure between just under 1000 and

up to 1900. More than 26,000 cattle were slaughtered across England last

year because of TB. The scheme aims to Cole 70% of the initial

publishing of badgers here. Last year, the number of badgers killed

fell short of the target. This time, marksmen will try to meet the

government's objectives. This remains a highly contentious issue

in the British countryside. Campaigners, protesters say that it

is barbaric but the government maintains this is a responsible

approach and is doing nothing, they say, is not an option.

If there was an alternative to culling badgers infected with

But we are doing lots of other things,

from cattle movement controls to using vaccines in the edge area.

But our veterinary advice and the advice of our chief scientists is

very clear, that removing infected badgers has got to be part of a

The issue continues to divide rural communities but as the arguments

rage on, the guns have returned. And it is day one of that process. Last

year, the word extensions to both of the culls, the one in

Gloucestershire and Somerset. Of course, they were protested by

campaigners who say they will try to disrupt this controversial procedure

every night. Britain's workers were praised today

by the Governor of the Bank of England for the part they played

in pulling the UK out of recession. In a speech to the TUC conference

in Liverpool, Mark Carney said pay should now start to rise

as the economy strengthened. The economy may be growing but when

will that be reflected in our wage packets? For many workers, pay has

not kept up with the cost of living, although there are

exceptions. 6%, not too bad. Everyone seemed happy with that.

Things are picking up in construction. Why have not had a pay

rise in a while. Everything is increasing except pay. The big

question for unions is when will Britain get a pay rise? Mark Carney

said that wages have fallen by around 10% in the downturn, but next

year, that was likely to change. As employment approaches its new higher

level, wage pressures should increase and capital investment

should continue to recover. Productivity growth should pick up,

bringing the higher sustainable pay rises that British workers deserve.

Mark Carney's message today is that after many difficult years, that pay

rise that many need is finally coming. The big question here is,

will interest rates rise first? Esther Carney was asked a series of

questions from the floor on living standards, employments and pay. He

says the central forecast was that the forecast could rise from

spring. We need to raise interest rates before a vote or an election

or a referendum or anything. We will do what is necessary. Mark Carney

said that the recession had been a calamity bash a calamity. He called

on unions to play their role in ensuring that the economy reached

its potential in years ahead. The six men who'll battle

for the oldest trophy in international sport lined up in

public today for the first time. And all eyes were on Sir Ben Ainslie

and Jimmy Spithill, his former team mate on the vessel which won

the America's Cup last year. But this time they're

going head to head. Here's our sports correspondent,

Joe Wilson. This hotel dates back to the 19th

century and it is expensive. An appropriate place to talk about the

America's Cup which shares both those elements. The America's Cup

trades on the thrill of competition, the ultimate risk and rewards on the

open seas. Lined up today, the defending champions from the USA and

leaders of the teams talk to challenge. Among them, Ben Ainslie,

who seeks competition like most of us need oxygen. The result was a

little bit of aspiring, maybe inadvertently. Absolutely. We are

out there and racing incredibly hard. -- there is always a little

bit of aspiring. There's some niggling, from time to time, and we

saw that in the last America's Cup. What Ben Ainslie offers is the

certainty of past experience. In the last couple, he was a tactician who

turned things around to win with an American team. The America's Cup

will stay in America! What inspires him is the idea of repeating that

for Britain, based in Britain. Eye since you are as hungry as ever.

This is an incredible opportunity for all of us and it is about

history. It is about writing a wrong. The America's Cup started on

British waters. It is the last hurdle in international sport. The

last one that Britain has not won. The will is there, and Ben Ainslie

says that he is on track to find the ?80 million needed to get the team

on the water. Like most valuable antiques, the America's Cup does not

come cheap. The British dancer

and choreographer, Dame Gillian Lynne, was just 17

when she danced for British troops Seventy years later -

and at an amazingly sprightly 88, she's recreated that wartime

ballet for a new audience, as our arts correspondent,

David Sillito, now reports. Up, down, again, change this,

do that. The lady with relentless

energy is Dame Gillian Lynn. She is recreating a ballet

from her youth, a ballet about working-class life in

Glasgow that was performed near the battlefields of Germany to soldiers

fighting in the Second World War. This is quite a raunchy sequence. 70

years on from when it first appeared.

Gillian Lynne, performing Miracle in the Gorbals, back in 1944.

The people you were playing to had probably never seen ballet before.

I'm quite sure there was quite a bit of swearing about -

But the results were wonderful and then they became fans.

The question on my mind was, how, at 88, does she keep so active?

I get down in a very funny way, because of the metal hips.

Two metal hips, and this foot has got two huge nails through it.

And you have to keep your crotch open.

And if you wake up and think, I am too tired to do it,

You need to start the day the Dame Gillian way.

More now on our main story, the Scotland Referendum, and let's

return to Gavin Esler who's in Edinburgh, with a slightly different

take on what's going on north of the border from a very old friend.

The Scotland referendum debate is being watched very closely all

across Europe. Nowhere more so than in France. France is the home of the

old alliance dating back to the 13th century, an alliance between France

and Scotland usually directed against the English. This report

from France on how things are seen over there.

What are Scottish pipe bands doing parading in July through the middle

of an obscure Central Frenchtown due Mike in this town, they have annual

festivities to mark the old Alliance. In the 100 years war,

stewards from the Scottish Royal Family Fortier alongside the French

against the English. They were rewarded with the Lordship and the

shadow of the town, which dates Scottish for nearly 400 years.

Enthusiasm for all things Caledonian extends to the culinary. This is

French haggis. The bond is heartfelt. It is a question of

blood. Scottish people bled for us for French people. And French people

for Scotland. What else? Whether it is the old Alliance and the common

antipathy towards the English whether it is that both countries

like to share a drink, there is clearly deep sympathy for the Scots,

not just here but across France. As for Scottish independence, we

carried out an impromptu poll with the audience. The result was clear

enough. The affection and the affinity is real enough. French

national interest is another matter. And when the policymakers of the

Foreign Ministry in Paris turned their heads to the Scottish

question, independence may not be their favourite course. For

centuries, France has built its relationship with a strong United

Kingdom. Its representative, the Crown, the Queen here visiting Paris

in June, and the government based in London. And in Europe, France wants

no more separation in the EU but more coming together. -- not more

separation. The French want a strong, united kingdom, as strong as

possible. In a way, as a balancing act with Germany. Germany is always

more powerful. And so a divided United Kingdom is not in the

interest of France. The old Alliance has left its traces. The French

instinctively like the Scots. Scottish independence, it is not

really their fight. French Angus, you learn something new everyday. We

will have updates throughout the day on the BBC News. Back to you. Time

for the weather. And was looking? Not bad. Settled, September weather

continues. Perfect conditions for farmers gathering in the harvest.

More to come for the remainder of the week. High pressure is the

driving force for a good deal of dry weather on offer. The lion share of

the sunshine today across England and where. -- The Lions's share. A

little bit of drizzly rain across the northern and western isles. But

fair amount of cloud here to Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Temperatures more disappointing. Clouds tending to bubble up across

England and Wales but hopefully sheltered western areas of Wales and

the South West will cling on to the best of the sunshine. Temperatures

reflecting the highs of 17, 221. -- to 21. Overnight, we are chasing

cloud. If you get clearer skies, temperatures will fall away. In

rural spots, frost and font are possible. Generally speaking,

through the night in the towns and cities, temperatures holding at

around ten. Starting off on a pretty quiet note. Wednesday will develop

with decent sunshine coming through for some. Perhaps a little more

sunshine with a south-westerly flow across Scotland and Northern

Ireland. Temperatures will reflect this. We might pick up a little

cloud across eastern England highs, again, generally between 16 and 21.

A chilly nights to come. Wednesday and Thursday, the potential for some

more widespread fog. But hopefully some decent sunny spells around as

well. Just swinging around that low pressure, more of an easterly

breeze. That may drag in cloud from the North Sea coast. If you want

something with more oomph. Head towards the Mediterranean. An area

of low pressure bringing showers across the Czech Republic, Italy and

the Balkans. And an area of low pressure towards Portugal changing

the scenario over the next couple of days. Generally, the Mediterranean

is settled and sunny. Temperatures into the high 20s. That will do from

me. What do you reckon? Think you very much indeed. -- thank you