07/09/2011 BBC News at Six

A row over taxing the rich - leading economists say the top rate

must go. They tell the Chancellor that paying 50p in the pound is

doing lasting damage to Britain's ailing economy. I think the 50p

rate is frankly an own goal for Britain. It says we are not really

very interested in attracting or keeping talented hard-working

people in this country, we don't mind if they go abroad. In the City,

many agree, but Labour says the rich must pay their fair share.

People in the real world looking at this, people will say if they have

over �150 ,000 they should be paying a bit more tax. Ministers

have ordered a review of the tax and say it's only temporary.

Also on tonight's programme: Shafilea Ahmed was the victim of a

suspected honour killing eight years ago. Now her parents are

charged with her murder. The childcare bills pushing

families into debt. Nearly half those surveyed say it costs as much

as the rent. Childcare is a major financial burden that you have to

consider. It takes a hell of a lot of organising, and the money is

just not there. Jail for the woman who drove more

than 20 miles up the M5 in the wrong direction.

And the Saturday night battle lines are drawn - the BBC's Strictly and

Simon Cowell's latest ITV shows go head to head. Later in the hour,

I'll be here with Sports Day, including a grand finish at the

race from the British rider Chris Good evening, welcome to the BBC

News at Six. Some of Britain's most influential

economists have called for the 50p tax rate on the country's richest

people to be scrapped. They say it's doing lasting damage to the

economy and putting off people thinking of investing in Britain.

The Chancellor says the tax is only temporary. But Labour says any tax

cuts should go to families struggling to make ends meet. Our

chief economics correspondent, Hugh Pym, reports. Taxing the rich 50

pence in the pound. How long will the Chancellor carry on with with

the policy? It's a big political and economic question. With today a

group of economists writing to the financial times, saying it was

doing lasting damage and was self defeating, in their view. I think

the 50p rate is frankly an own goal for Britain. It says we are not

really very interested in attracting or keeping talented

hard-working people this this country. We don't mind if they go

abroad. So how does the top tax rate work? Up until April 2010 on

anything earned above �44,000 many in that tax year you paid �40p in

the pound however high your earnings. From April 2010 it still

applied up to �150 ,000 but in every pound above thaw paid �50

pence in tax. The policy was brought in by Labour and continued

under the coalition. It is estimated around 320,000 people are

paying this rate. That's the richest 1% of all adults. The

Treasury said the measure was temporary and there was a review

under way of how effective it was, but most Liberal Democrats feel it

shouldn't be scrapped. So too Labour. Of course as a politician,

as an economist, I would always rather see taxes lower rather than

higher, but at this time the economy has flat lined,

unemployment is up. Everybody is feeling the squeeze? Their incomes,

do you think the right way to get the economy moving is only to cut

taxes for the richest? How much money does the 50p tax bring in. It

is hard to say right now. We don't know how many people are trying to

avoid it by leaving the country. The Government when it introduced

the 50 pence rate doesn't know how much it would raise or how much

damage it what do to the economy. That's not a great way of helping

the economy. They took a punt, a chance, and we've yet to see what

the effect will be. The City of London feelings are running high.

Investors believe economic growth would be boosted by a tax cut. So

the 50p rate is causing headaches for the Chancellor. He is trying to

keep his Liberal Democrat coalition partners happy and support business

in the quest for growth. Our deputy political editor, James

Landale, is in Downing Street for us now. We know what Ed Balls for

Labour thinks is. The coalition agreed on what to do about this

tax? Well, George Osborne says this is a temporary tax. He's asked

Revenue and Customs to find out how much or how little it is raising.

Many Conservative MPs agree with economists who argue it is damaging

the economy. But privately Ministers accept that the economic

arguments for getting rid of the 50p tax rate are outweighed by the

political argument for keeping it. The coalition agreement says if

there are going to be any tax cuts they should be wort lest-well-off.

Many Liberal Democrats want to keep the 50p rate unless it is replaced

with another tax on wealth and property. Ministers don't want to

be accused of favouring the rich at a time of austerity. I don't think

we are going to see a big change on this soon. What's significant about

this letter, an illustration of the pressure the Government is doing,

to do more to help growth. The Chancellor said he would support it

by printing more electronic money but at the moment George Osborne

knows he has to do more. He is promising more but not delivered it

yet. Shafelia Ahmed was described as a

bright young woman with an ambition to become a lawyer. She disappeared

from her home in Warrington in 2003 and her body was found a few months

later, the victim of a suspected honour killing. Today, eight years

later, her parents have been charged with her murder. Ed Thomas

is in Warrington for us now. It is nearly eight years to the day since

Shafilea Ahmed went missing from her home in Warrington. Ever since

her parents have protested their innocence. They say they had

nothing to do with any suspected honour killing. But today they

appeared in court to face one charge - that on 11th September

2003 they murdered their daughter. Shafilea Ahmed was just 17 when she

died, the victim of a suspected honour killing. Today friends and

family arrived in court to see her parents accused of murder. A charge

their solicitor said they would deny. They have today been charged

with allegations of murder concerning the death of their

daughter, Shafilea Ahmed. Both Mr and Mrs Ahmed deny the allegations

and these will be contested in court. But this story begins in

2004 at the River Kent in Cumbria, where Shafilea Ahmed's body was

found. When police launched their murder investigation. Shafilea's

body was obscured by overgrowth and was found by workmen who were at

the location after floodwaters recede. Detectives had already

arrested Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed on suspicion of kidnap. They turned

up at the press conference unannounced. Their solicitor at the

end they were innocent. They strenuously deny any direct or

indirect involvement in their daughter's untimely demise. If

called upon to do so they will not hesitate to defend their good and

unplem Britished names in any court in this -- unblemished names in any

court in this land. The teenager had drank bleach on a family

holiday to Pakistan. Schoolfriends said she became unhappy, but

detectives never charged her parents 2004 they were released

from bail, leaving the couple angry about what they had gone through.

After nine months of hell, what do you expect? Sorry, we are just too

upset to talk about it yet. Seven years on after this interview

police again searched their Warrington home 2010, for a second

time, Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed were arrested. Now though they've

been remanded in custody, accused of killing their daughter.

And this is just the start of a long legal process. The couple will

appear in court on Friday, via video link, to once again face

accusations they killed their daughter.

Ed, thank you. A florist who fatally stabbed a

suspected robber during a raid at his shop in July will not face

criminal charges. The Crown Prosecution Service said Cecil

Coley, who's 72, had acted in "reasonable self defence" when he

killed 30-year-old Gary Mullings in Old Trafford in Manchester.

A 35-year-old man arrested by officers investigating phone

hacking is thought to be the sports journalist, Raoul Simons. He was

appointed deputy football editor of The Times in 2009 after moving from

the London Evening Standard. Mr Simons is the 15th person to be

investigated over the scandal. Paying for childcare has left

thousands of families struggling with debt. A new survey by Save The

Children and the Daycare Trust found that 4 out of 10 families

said that the cost of childcare was on a par with their mortgage of

rent. -- or rent. Childcare. Earning

enough to pay for it is an increasingly big issue for many

parents. Take Karri Byrne. She and her husband work full time but

their total childcare bill for three-year-old Josie and six-month-

old Beatrix is double the mortgage. It is incredibly frustrating. We

have good jobs and this is how we live? We live hand-to-mouth every

month. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't feel right. What are you

working for if you can't have an enjoyable weekend and rest a bit?

Here's how the cost of childcare Here's how the cost of childcare

has risen. In 2002 the average amount was �120 per week. This year

it is �180. It's the poorest who it is �180. It's the poorest who

are struggling most. 41 % of those on low incomes say they may have to

give up work. One reason was the recent changes to benefits and the

campaigners agreement It is the impact of this change to the

working tax credit rule which will go directly against that. It will

make it much harder for families to make work pay. Even more so the

poorest families, who are the very families we need to encourage as

much as we can and help as much as we can to get back into work.

parents of all incomes it seems are finding it harder to cover costs.

I'm still on maternity leave with this one but it raises big issues

about whether I'm going to be able to afford to go back to work.

to give up full-time work to go to part-time because of childcare.

there are also some who question the need for the taxpayer to

further subsidise parents. question facing us is, should the

taxpayer be expected to fund the cost of a family which decides to

go out two parents to work rather than stay at home? Work and

parenthood are always a difficult balancing agent. The Government

insists that working tax credits are still fair and generous, but

many believe it should be investing more in childcare for a better more

rounded society. In Libya the hunt for Colonel

Gaddafi goes on, and more harrowing stories are emerging about his

regimes last days in Tripoli. At least a thousand former loyalists

have been detained since the city fell. Some have been telling the

BBC how they were forced to commit appalling crimes to defend their

leader. Ian Pannell sent this report.

This is where the enemies of Colonel Gaddafi were silenced. A

place of detention and abuse. Now the new Government holds its

enemies here. More than 700 men and women suspected of crimes against

the revolution. We are restricted on what we are allowed to film

inside the prison, so let me describe the conditions here. First

of all the floor is filthy. There is litter, there is dirt, water,

cigarette ends. The cells themselves, I guess there are three

on this side and three on that side, very cramped and very, very hot.

They are probably about 7 metres by 6 or 5 metres deep. Inside each one

there are the marks of about 30 prisoners. To a man and a woman,

surprisingly they proclaim their innocence, and they are keen to

tell their story. Five men from Africa accused of being mercenaries

for Gaddafi. They were let out of their cell to talk to us. They say

they were labourers dragged from their homes because they are black.

We are told they'll get a fair trial and if there is no evidence

they will be freed. But for now the rule here is guilty until proven

innocent. Have you ever workinged for the military, for Colonel

Gaddafi? No, I never done such a thing at all. I swear to my

Heavenly father. If I want to do a military man I had better do it in

my country, I'm 53 years old. girls, the yoings 16. They don't

want to to show their faces because they were part of Gaddafi's

National Guard. But just listen to their explanation. They claim they

weren't motivated by loyalty but fear. TRANSLATION: When our family

was against the regime, the soldiers came to our house. They

threw us out. They killed my uncle and my brother. We thought if we

joined them they wouldn't suspect us or hurt us. One teenager accused

of executing 11 rebel prisoners. She was recruited to a feared

brigade of ruthless fighters, where she claimed she was rapedly Colonel

Gaddafi's security chief, the man who has just escaped to Niger she

says she was forced to shoot prisoners with a rifle. Unable to

watch, she turned her head and pulled the trigger. Five men, three

girls, and one teenager. It will be for the new courts to

decide their fate, to judge who is a victim and who is an offender, to

set the standard for truth and just in this the new Libya. But they

Our top story tonight: Some of Britain's most influential

economists say the 50p tax rate Has the X Factor got the wow

factor? As the BBC launches Strictly, the battle for Saturday

It is nearly ten years to the day since the shocking images of the

9/11 terror attacks were beamed around the world. In Britain, the

decade that followed has seen the London Underground atrocities and a

huge shake-up of counter-terrorist policing, intelligence and

community relations. Our security correspondent, Frank Gardner, has

been assessing whether we are any The day they said the world changed.

9/11, Al-Qaeda hit America and later other targets. In July, 2005

it was the turn of London. 52 commuters blown-up on their way to

work. What sort of terrorist threat does Britain faced today? The

Government has set the current threat level at substantial - the

third highest out of five. It means an attack is still thought a strong

possibility. The threat reins from Al-Qaeda to have lists to rub --

Republicans or extremists. The police and security service have

had to adapt. We have become more accustomed to making high risk

decisions on assessed intelligence, often within rapidly declining time

friends. There has been immediate increase in police firepower to

cope with large-scale hostage taking. How effective has the

response to terrorism been? Most obvious is the boosting of physical

protection around government. When police anti-terrorist crash

barriers went up around parliament in 2003, a lot of people were shot.

We have got used to them. There is no clear answers as to whether we

are safer in Britain from terrorism there we were 10 years ago. We know

more about the threat we are facing but those threats have multiplied

and diversified. Private security companies like this one now offer

anti- kidnapped devices to their customers on the move. The alarm

gets raised, the client gets trapped and the police get alerted.

Counterterrorism is also about foreign policy. Britain'as part in

the Iraq invasion increased the danger to Britain. In the East End

of London, this man is one of those trying to stop people being drawn

into terrorism. To say that young people would not want to express

their anger by launching terrorist attacks, I think it would be very

naive. We still have a problem. Huge efforts have gone into

preventing people from becoming radical eyes. You have got to be

tough on terrorism, tough on the causes. You have to have special

programmes. You need to look at the wider foreign policies. Soon

Britain will face its biggest peacetime security challenge.

Planning for the London Olympics is being made on the basis that an

attempted terrorist attack is highly likely. The Scottish

government wants to merge the country's eight police forces into

one. It is one of 15 new bills as part of the first programme for

government since the SNP landslide election victory in May. This

report from Glen Campbell. It is four months since Alex Salmond

celebrated re-election as the Scottish First Minister. He set at

some early priorities for his second term. Making Scotland better

is the focus of this government. It is one reason why we won an

historic victory. It was a record of proven competence and commitment.

It was about Scotland and the nation's future. What has the

nationalist leader got in mind? Police reform is at the centre of

law-making plans for the year ahead. The eight forces are to merge into

one - the largest in the UK outside of London. Instead of officer

numbers and police pay and can in - - conditions, changes are coming in

England and Wales. We will restructure and remove a lot of

inefficiencies. Hopefully we can preserve the terms and conditions

of police officers and staff. Another key measure is on alcohol

misuse. Ministers hope setting a minimum price per unit will reduce

consumption. A proposal voted down at Holyrood before the SNP won its

unprecedented mandate. Alex Salmond could get almost anything approved

by the Scottish Parliament. His party won an overall majority of

the seats at Holyrood. He has chosen not to use that unrivalled

power to bring forward an early referendum on independence for

Scotland. He has a majority in this Parliament. He has a draft bill. He

has no credible excuse for not bringing that Bill forward. John

Curtis things the reasons are obvious. He is playing the long

game for two reasons. It indicates he would not win a referendum if it

were held tomorrow. People in Scotland are not convinced.

Secondly, he is leaving the door open for that referendum not to be

just about independence but about increasing the powers of the

Scottish Parliament. They will pop the independence question tours the

end of the five year term. A woman who drove 23 miles the wrong way up

the M5 has been jailed for nine months. Deborah Hunt was over the

drink-drive limit when she did a U- turn macro and started to dodge

oncoming vehicles. Can you imagine driving at speed head on into this

kind of motorway traffic? Not just for a couple of minutes but for

more than 20 minutes. That is what Deborah Hunt did on this stretch of

the M5. It is a miracle that no one was killed. They could not believe

what they were watching on motorway cameras. It appears to be a normal

night on the M5. Look closely. This car is travelling the wrong way.

Going north on the southbound carriageway. Straight into oncoming

traffic. It carried on like this for more than 20 miles - travelling

at 60 miles an hour. The driver was Deborah Hunt, a mother of three.

She was drunk and uninsured. Today the court heard she had caused

terror among other motorists who had had to swerve to avoid her.

What do you say to the people on the motorway that night? Inside the

judge told Deborah Hunt it was unbelievable she had not caused a

massive loss of life. She had been more than twice the drink-drive

limit. So drunk she had not been able to explain to officers how she

had made such a mistake. She performed two you turns on the

carriageway and police say she only stopped when she ran out of fuel.

It is an outrageous act. It was very serious. It could have ended

up in death or serious injury. court heard Deborah Hunt was

struggling with alcoholism at the time after splitting from her

partner and losing her job as a financial adviser. The judge said

he had to jail her. He also banned her from driving until she can

prove she had stopped drinking. Deborah Hunt wept uncontrollably as

she was given that sentence earlier today. She was jailed for nine

months. She is expected to be freed after about half that time. The

latest battle for Saturday-night television audiences has begun. The

line-up for the new series of Strictly Come Dancing has been

announced and Simon Callow's two new television shows are already up

and running. -- Simon Cowell. This report does contain flash

photography. Strictly come Dancing and it the X Factor. BBC One and

ITV one's Saturday-night giants. They rarely directly compete but

each broadcaster keeps more than a wary eye on its rivals flagship

because of its shows importance to a particular channel. X Factor is

giving ITV a huge chunk of its profits during the year. Strictly

shows it can appeal to a big mainstream audience and show that

the BBC is still in touch. Today is the launch of strictly. The stars

are no doubt well aware that despite the absence of Simon Cowell

and cherub Kohl, be expected has continued to be strong. Series

launch shows are crucial with the overnight viewing figures able to

affect public perception of the show's success or failure. It is

more than two shows - it is about the whole evening's show dole.

Neither broadcaster is taking a risk. ITV is saving his biggest

hitters for Nature -- for later and putting on Family fortunes. Red Or

Black is on. The lottery takes on the ever-popular X Factor. Saturday

nights a really important for BBC One. It has to inform, educate and

entertain. Saturday night is the key moment for us. This Saturday

night will certainly give the taster. The final audience marks

I do hope those sequins are on tight because it could be quite

blustery. It is breezy out there tonight. It will be damp for many

of us, particularly in Northern Ireland. It to be went in north-

west England. The rain will continue to affect Wales. The wind

will die down a touch through the early hours. Eight degrees in

Aberdeenshire. In the south, 12-14 Celsius. Outbreaks of rain in Wales

and southern England. There will be showers in southern Scotland. There

could be sunshine in England. In the south it will be quite gloomy.

A bit of a breeze blowing. Not as strong as the last couple of days.

Through the day the rain will be on the light side. It could increase

later on. In north-west England and North Wales it could be brighter.

The rain in Northern Ireland will track northwards. Showers will

continued to pepper parts of Scotland. In the east, not too many

showers. There could be showers in Scotland. On Friday the, the north-