Browse content similar to 27/11/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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EU migrants face tougher rules on claiming benefits. David Cameron's | :00:00. | :00:09. | |
plans get an angry reaction in Brussels. Just 35 days to go before | :00:10. | :00:15. | |
Bulgarians and Romanians are free to work in the UK, they'll face | :00:16. | :00:18. | |
restrictions on housing and other benefits. People in our country are | :00:19. | :00:28. | |
concerned about the pressures and the amount of immigration in recent | :00:29. | :00:32. | |
years and I share that concern. A top EU official says the plans could | :00:33. | :00:35. | |
make Britain look like a nasty country. We'll be live in Brussels. | :00:36. | :00:38. | |
Also tonight. The university lecturer and his family massacred in | :00:39. | :00:43. | |
a revenge attack. A businessman is found guilty of murder. Desperate to | :00:44. | :00:48. | |
make ends meet. A new study says nine million Brits are struggling | :00:49. | :00:53. | |
with mounting debts. More revelations about Nigella Lawson and | :00:54. | :00:56. | |
her former husband Charles Saatchi. The court hears there was a culture | :00:57. | :01:04. | |
of secrecy in their marriage. # Whoa, we're halfway there. | :01:05. | :01:12. | |
# Whoa, livin' on a prayer #. Don't call us, we'll call you. | :01:13. | :01:15. | |
William joins rock stars for a charity sing-along. In the sport, | :01:16. | :01:25. | |
the latest from Brazil where part of the stadium due to host the opening | :01:26. | :01:28. | |
game of next year 's World Cup has collapsed. It killed three people. | :01:29. | :01:49. | |
Good evening and welcome to the BBC News at Six. David Cameron has | :01:50. | :01:53. | |
promised to make it harder for migrants from the European Union to | :01:54. | :01:56. | |
get access to Britain's welfare system. From January next year | :01:57. | :02:01. | |
restrictions on Romanians and Bulgarians looking for work in the | :02:02. | :02:06. | |
UK will be lifted. But migrants will face restrictions on the benefits | :02:07. | :02:11. | |
they can claim. Mr Cameron also questioned the principle of free | :02:12. | :02:14. | |
movement of people across the European Union. That's been | :02:15. | :02:18. | |
described as an over-reaction by an EU commissioner who says the UK | :02:19. | :02:21. | |
risks being seen as the nasty country. Our Political Editor, Nick | :02:22. | :02:27. | |
Robinson, has been speaking to the Prime Minister. There are just 35 | :02:28. | :02:36. | |
days to go until any citizen of Rumania or Bulgaria will be free to | :02:37. | :02:42. | |
work in the UK. The dates been in the diary for years. But today the | :02:43. | :02:46. | |
Prime Minister promised to tighten up the benefit rules. In time for | :02:47. | :02:53. | |
January the 1st. This is not just Romanians and Bulgarians, but anyone | :02:54. | :02:57. | |
in other European Union countries thinking of coming to Britain | :02:58. | :03:01. | |
because it's easier to claim benefits, housing benefit and | :03:02. | :03:04. | |
unemployment benefit, I think it's important to send a clear message | :03:05. | :03:08. | |
that that is not the case. Frankly, some of this work has come about | :03:09. | :03:11. | |
because I have seen other European countries that do take a tougher | :03:12. | :03:16. | |
approach than us. Sending a signal means tweaking the rules for new | :03:17. | :03:20. | |
arrivals here, who want to claim out of work benefits. They will have to | :03:21. | :03:23. | |
wait three months before claiming jobseeker's allowance, it will only | :03:24. | :03:27. | |
be payable for six months, and those without work will come in future, | :03:28. | :03:30. | |
not be allowed to claim housing benefit at the same time. How many | :03:31. | :03:34. | |
will be affected? How much will be saved, Downing Street says they | :03:35. | :03:41. | |
don't know. Are you worried tens of thousands of people will come? I'm | :03:42. | :03:46. | |
not going to make an estimate. The last government made terrible | :03:47. | :03:48. | |
mistake doing that and getting it completely wrong. My job is to put | :03:49. | :03:53. | |
in place the right controls, measures, processes, and then to see | :03:54. | :03:58. | |
how the situation develops. The images of Rome are sleeping rough | :03:59. | :04:00. | |
have fuelled already high public concern. The government is promising | :04:01. | :04:06. | |
new powers to remove beggars and a new minimum earnings threshold | :04:07. | :04:09. | |
before anyone can claim income support. It is public concern about | :04:10. | :04:15. | |
immigration which is forcing all the main parties to think again. The | :04:16. | :04:20. | |
Prime Minister has even said he wants to change the basis of the EU. | :04:21. | :04:26. | |
The idea that anyone from any country can work anywhere. Whether | :04:27. | :04:30. | |
they are a Polish plumber, a Romanian architect or a Brit who | :04:31. | :04:35. | |
fancies working on the Costa Blanca. I think people can now see when new | :04:36. | :04:38. | |
countries join, if I have a radically different wage rate, | :04:39. | :04:42. | |
radically different economies in terms of scale, you will get these | :04:43. | :04:46. | |
mass movements of people. Frankly, it isn't right for our own country | :04:47. | :04:51. | |
and for those countries. In Brussels, one EU Commissioner said | :04:52. | :04:55. | |
it was in danger been seen as a nasty country. David Cameron will | :04:56. | :04:59. | |
need the support of many other European capitals if he is to change | :05:00. | :05:05. | |
a fundamental European principle. Prime Minister Cameron called me | :05:06. | :05:11. | |
yesterday informing me about the intentions he has on this issue of | :05:12. | :05:20. | |
freedom of movement. I underlined to Prime Minister Cameron that free | :05:21. | :05:23. | |
movement is a fundamental treaty principle that must be upheld. It is | :05:24. | :05:29. | |
a sign of The Times that Labour 's main criticism today was the | :05:30. | :05:33. | |
government had been too slow to act. We are glad the Prime Minister has | :05:34. | :05:37. | |
adopted our proposals on benefit restrictions. But they should not | :05:38. | :05:41. | |
have delayed this for eight months so they won't be in place by | :05:42. | :05:46. | |
January. And it's not enough. They need to take action over jobs and | :05:47. | :05:52. | |
wages now. Many Romanian and Bulgarian have already made the | :05:53. | :05:56. | |
journey here, self-employed and got work permits. What today's | :05:57. | :05:59. | |
announcement is about as limiting the numbers who follow. You have | :06:00. | :06:03. | |
been Prime Minister for more than three years. We are now scarcely | :06:04. | :06:07. | |
more than a month from this deadline. This smacks of panic, | :06:08. | :06:14. | |
doesn't it? It's taken some time to turn the situation around. We | :06:15. | :06:17. | |
extended the time of a transitional controls in Bulgaria and Romania | :06:18. | :06:22. | |
from five years to seven years, put in place an immigration cap for | :06:23. | :06:27. | |
migration outside the EU, we tore up the last government's hope a set of | :06:28. | :06:31. | |
old measures, but if you are saying is there more that needs to be | :06:32. | :06:34. | |
done? Yes, and I'm doing it. There's more to be done, he says, but there | :06:35. | :06:41. | |
are just 35 days to do it. As the immigration debate | :06:42. | :06:43. | |
intensifies, polling shows high public concern about it. Our Home | :06:44. | :06:48. | |
Editor Mark Easton has been to Boston in Lincolnshire, a town that | :06:49. | :06:51. | |
has seen rapid immigration from Eastern Europe, to assess the impact | :06:52. | :07:02. | |
of a decade of change. Boston, an ancient Lincolnshire town | :07:03. | :07:07. | |
transformed by rapid and significant immigration from Eastern Europe. | :07:08. | :07:12. | |
What lessons have the Prime Minister promised I had an increased | :07:13. | :07:14. | |
immigration from Romania and Bulgaria? One local school now has | :07:15. | :07:24. | |
two thirds of pupils from migrant households. Exam results are | :07:25. | :07:27. | |
excellent here and it seems a model of good practice but the prospect of | :07:28. | :07:31. | |
yet more immigration without extra resources is a concern. Generally, | :07:32. | :07:36. | |
we are full, so when we're talking about the possible migration of | :07:37. | :07:40. | |
Romanian and Bulgarian children, actually, as a school, we haven't | :07:41. | :07:44. | |
got any places at this point. What will happen? That's a very good | :07:45. | :07:51. | |
question. The public perception of people drink alcohol in this place | :07:52. | :07:56. | |
particular... Police conduct assessment identifying hotspots | :07:57. | :07:59. | |
where trouble might flare. Officers admit they were too optimistic about | :08:00. | :08:05. | |
the impact immigration might have. We did have our head in the sand | :08:06. | :08:07. | |
from policing perspective and from partners as well in terms of what | :08:08. | :08:12. | |
was going on. That was more down to the fact we went seen the | :08:13. | :08:16. | |
information coming in. It was the speed of change that locals find | :08:17. | :08:19. | |
disconcerting thought up in 2001, virtually everyone in Boston was | :08:20. | :08:22. | |
white British, ten years later, it was just 84%. A dramatic cultural | :08:23. | :08:27. | |
shift which short tensions spill over into protest. Stand up for this | :08:28. | :08:36. | |
country and for the English people. A peaceful demonstration a year ago | :08:37. | :08:40. | |
highlights exactly the concern is the government nationally is to | :08:41. | :08:45. | |
today. The man behind the protest is warning that patience is wearing | :08:46. | :08:51. | |
thin. I think it's about time we took our head out of the bucket of | :08:52. | :08:54. | |
sand to see what they've done to this country, to see the problems | :08:55. | :08:59. | |
which is being caused by the first wave of immigration from Poland and | :09:00. | :09:01. | |
Latvia and Lithuania and say we can't cope any more. This family are | :09:02. | :09:08. | |
Romanians have lived in Boston for ten years. She is a senior NHS nurse | :09:09. | :09:12. | |
who finds the media portrayal of her countryfolk disturbing. If you came | :09:13. | :09:17. | |
to my house, I can take you to my Romanian friends here in Boston, | :09:18. | :09:22. | |
social workers and nurses and stuff like that. They are very good | :09:23. | :09:26. | |
people, they go to church every Sunday. Boston is exceptional but | :09:27. | :09:31. | |
lessons may apply elsewhere. Economic Lee, immigration has | :09:32. | :09:35. | |
thoroughly boosted the time but culturally, rapid change has made | :09:36. | :09:43. | |
this place and easy. -- uneasy. In a moment we will speak to Nick | :09:44. | :09:46. | |
Robinson but first our Europe editor is in Brussels. Gavin, as we saw, | :09:47. | :09:53. | |
there has been a swift and angry reaction from Brussels. What are | :09:54. | :09:56. | |
they so worried about? George, you're quite right, there has been | :09:57. | :10:00. | |
some strong coders here. One commissioner said reaction in the UK | :10:01. | :10:06. | |
was based on hysteria. One Bulgarian MEP accuse David Cameron of sliding | :10:07. | :10:11. | |
towards nationalist rhetoric. Another official said migrants pay | :10:12. | :10:15. | |
far more in taxes than they receive in benefits. But there is one big | :10:16. | :10:20. | |
key question here. Whether these new restrictions on benefits for | :10:21. | :10:26. | |
migrants undermine freedom of movement? Whether they break the | :10:27. | :10:29. | |
rules? It is interesting in that phone cupboard to the President of | :10:30. | :10:32. | |
the commission here, and David Cameron, where he underlined that a | :10:33. | :10:38. | |
court treaty principle was freedom of movement. It had to be upheld. It | :10:39. | :10:42. | |
was not negotiable and it is clear to me any new legislation coming out | :10:43. | :10:46. | |
of London will be scrutinised very closely here to see whether it | :10:47. | :10:51. | |
breaches those rules. Nick, in Westminster, you talked about this | :10:52. | :10:56. | |
in your interview. This weeks to go before this deadline. Why is David | :10:57. | :11:02. | |
Cameron only doing this now? The cynical view is politics. The | :11:03. | :11:05. | |
opinion polls show people are very concerned, certain newspaper owners, | :11:06. | :11:11. | |
big selling newspapers, are reflecting sometimes fuelling that | :11:12. | :11:14. | |
concern and there are elections next year for from all the parties on | :11:15. | :11:18. | |
their bus of UKIP breathing down their neck and UKIP are saying the | :11:19. | :11:22. | |
key to getting immigration down is to get out of Europe. A less cynical | :11:23. | :11:27. | |
view is to say something fundamentally has changed in Britain | :11:28. | :11:30. | |
in the last ten years. People felt misled about the numbers of East | :11:31. | :11:33. | |
European who would come down. They are saying to the electoral | :11:34. | :11:38. | |
representatives, we think the rules are not there between us and them. | :11:39. | :11:41. | |
And that is why it is striking that the Lib Dems today, but they didn't | :11:42. | :11:46. | |
oppose this, the Labour Party didn't oppose it. One other factor, too, | :11:47. | :11:51. | |
though, David Cameron think there's movement amongst European leaders | :11:52. | :11:55. | |
and if the Brussels bureaucrats are slagging him off, I think it will | :11:56. | :12:00. | |
put a big smile on his face. Thank you both. A businessman has been | :12:01. | :12:05. | |
convicted of murdering a family of four in their home in Northampton. | :12:06. | :12:08. | |
Anxiang Du, from Coventry, repeatedly stabbed his former | :12:09. | :12:10. | |
business partners Jeff and Helen Ding, and their daughters. He went | :12:11. | :12:16. | |
on the run and was one of Britain's most wanted criminals. Northampton | :12:17. | :12:19. | |
Court heard that he killed them in a revenge attack after losing a legal | :12:20. | :12:22. | |
battle over a Chinese herbal medicine business. Ben Geoghegan | :12:23. | :12:31. | |
reports. For Anxiang Du, the day of the royal | :12:32. | :12:36. | |
wedding was a day for revenge. He travelled to Northampton armed with | :12:37. | :12:40. | |
a knife. And murdered a family of four. These were his victims. Jeff | :12:41. | :12:46. | |
and Helen Ding and their two daughters, 18 years old and 12 years | :12:47. | :12:52. | |
old. To find four people from the same family massacred in their own | :12:53. | :12:57. | |
home, was horrendous in itself. But to find that two of those people | :12:58. | :13:02. | |
were young females, the daughters, I find that unforgivable. I can't in | :13:03. | :13:08. | |
any way get used to that as a concept. Anxiang Du went into | :13:09. | :13:13. | |
business with the Dings but the relationship turns sour. After years | :13:14. | :13:17. | |
of legal disputes and was left with debts of nearly ?90,000. On the day | :13:18. | :13:22. | |
of the murder, he took a bus and headed to the family home. The | :13:23. | :13:27. | |
prosecution said Anxiang Du carried out the murders with ruthless | :13:28. | :13:32. | |
efficiency, stabbing two adults in the kitchen and then went upstairs | :13:33. | :13:36. | |
and attacked their daughters. The Jubilee were also told that | :13:37. | :13:39. | |
afterwards, while he was still in the house, he laid down and fell | :13:40. | :13:42. | |
asleep that the jewellery. Between them, the victims suffered a total | :13:43. | :13:49. | |
of 51 stabbings. Anxiang Du fled abroad but was tracked down more | :13:50. | :13:53. | |
than a year later living rough on a building site in Morocco. Some of | :13:54. | :13:59. | |
Helen Ding's relatives travelled from China to hear the evidence | :14:00. | :14:02. | |
which the judge said was truly horrendous. | :14:03. | :14:07. | |
TRANSLATION: During the whole trial, we listened with deep sorrow | :14:08. | :14:11. | |
and painful is finally, today the verdict is murder. Anxiang Du will | :14:12. | :14:16. | |
get what he deserves. He admitted the killings and claimed he was | :14:17. | :14:20. | |
suffering mental illness. And guilty only of manslaughter. But today, the | :14:21. | :14:24. | |
jury decided this was murder and nothing less. Two people have been | :14:25. | :14:32. | |
killed in an accident at the stadium that is due to host the opening | :14:33. | :14:35. | |
ceremony of the World Cup in Brazil next year. A crane is reported to | :14:36. | :14:39. | |
have fallen onto the stadium in Sao Paolo destroying parts of the | :14:40. | :14:42. | |
stands. The arena is due to be completed at the end of December to | :14:43. | :14:46. | |
meet a FIFA deadline. Brazil has admitted it is struggling to have | :14:47. | :14:54. | |
all 12 venues ready. This week we've reported on allegations that The | :14:55. | :14:57. | |
Royal Bank of Scotland pushed small businesses into administration and | :14:58. | :14:59. | |
then bought their assets at a knock-down price. Today the bank's | :15:00. | :15:04. | |
chairman, Sir Philip Hampton, told the BBC that the claims would be | :15:05. | :15:07. | |
fully investigated but also insisted that RBS had kept alive tens of | :15:08. | :15:12. | |
thousands of struggling companies. Here's our chief economics | :15:13. | :15:20. | |
correspondent, Hugh Pym. It is a bank mostly owned by all of | :15:21. | :15:25. | |
us, the taxpayers. The hope is that it is lending to businesses to help | :15:26. | :15:28. | |
the economy grow, but this week there have been claims RBS has been | :15:29. | :15:32. | |
squeezing the life out of some small firms in order to get hold of their | :15:33. | :15:37. | |
properties. The allegations came from an independent adviser to the | :15:38. | :15:41. | |
Business Secretary, Vince Cable. RBS has brought in a top law firm to | :15:42. | :15:44. | |
look at the evidence, and today the bank's chairman gave his first | :15:45. | :15:49. | |
reaction. If these allegations are true, they are extremely serious, | :15:50. | :15:54. | |
and that is why we are going to take investigation of them extremely | :15:55. | :15:59. | |
seriously. At the moment, all we have is some unsubstantiated, | :16:00. | :16:02. | |
anecdotal allegations, that is what it amounts to at the moment. We need | :16:03. | :16:06. | |
to get to the bottom of this, get to the facts, and if there are facts | :16:07. | :16:10. | |
that show that we have behaved in the wrong way, we will take the | :16:11. | :16:14. | |
appropriate action. The former boss of a company which was an RBS | :16:15. | :16:18. | |
customer is among those who have accused the bank of not playing | :16:19. | :16:22. | |
fair. They saw as as an opportunity, a company that had a | :16:23. | :16:25. | |
problem, it has been well documented, and it's all that it was | :16:26. | :16:31. | |
a classic case of being able to take control of the company, replace | :16:32. | :16:36. | |
management and asset strip it. RBS says that with that business it does | :16:37. | :16:40. | |
not believe it did anything wrong. It is understood that the Serious | :16:41. | :16:44. | |
Fraud Office, based here, is looking at the allegations levelled at RBS. | :16:45. | :16:49. | |
A spokesperson said, we are aware of the issue and are monitoring | :16:50. | :16:53. | |
developments. City regulators are also looking at the accusations that | :16:54. | :16:58. | |
RBS pulled the plug on viable businesses to make more profit. The | :16:59. | :17:02. | |
bank says it may have been too heavy and too lax in dealing with | :17:03. | :17:09. | |
distressed firms since the crisis. The time is 17 minutes past six, our | :17:10. | :17:16. | |
top story this evening: Just 35 days to go before Bulgarians and | :17:17. | :17:19. | |
Romanians are free to work in the UK, they will face tougher rules and | :17:20. | :17:23. | |
claiming benefits. And still to come... | :17:24. | :17:31. | |
# Living on a prayer... The Prince of pop, William as you | :17:32. | :17:36. | |
have never seen him before. Coming up in Sportsday on BBC News, | :17:37. | :17:40. | |
can Manchester United make it through to the knockout stages of | :17:41. | :17:44. | |
the Champions League? They need a win against Bayer Leverkusen. | :17:45. | :17:46. | |
Manchester City also play. The scale of the debt problem faced | :17:47. | :18:00. | |
by Britain's has become clear today, nearly one in five adults is | :18:01. | :18:06. | |
struggling with their finances. -- Britons. A new survey says that over | :18:07. | :18:11. | |
9 million people say they are over indebted or more than three months | :18:12. | :18:14. | |
behind with their bills. Nearly half said their problems stopped them | :18:15. | :18:19. | |
from buying the basics. Hardest hit is Hull, where 43% are deeply | :18:20. | :18:24. | |
indebted. Personal finance correspondent Simon Gompertz has | :18:25. | :18:28. | |
been there. Rising prices, stagnant incomes, and | :18:29. | :18:32. | |
high cost lenders cashing in, it is not that borrowing is higher in | :18:33. | :18:37. | |
Hull, it is that so many are taking on more debt than they can handle. I | :18:38. | :18:45. | |
am stressed, fed up, not very well all the time. This taxi driver has | :18:46. | :18:51. | |
lost control of ?40,000 of debt. He did not want us to show his face, | :18:52. | :18:54. | |
he's frightened after confrontations with bailiffs on his doorstep. I go | :18:55. | :19:01. | |
to work eight or ten hours a day, sometimes 12 hours a day. I come | :19:02. | :19:07. | |
home, I tried to pay the rent, the council tax, the food, fuel for my | :19:08. | :19:11. | |
car, I just don't have anything left. Everything else just swallows | :19:12. | :19:17. | |
it up before I can pay my debts. At a food bank around the corner, | :19:18. | :19:21. | |
borrowing has become a way of life. Along with it, the worry when you | :19:22. | :19:26. | |
cannot meet payments. Nerve wracking, it made me really old, | :19:27. | :19:31. | |
yeah, it made meal. If the gas and electric go up, and also the | :19:32. | :19:37. | |
possible interest rate rises, that is going to literally tip us over | :19:38. | :19:41. | |
the edge. So who are the people who have too much debt? Well, nearly | :19:42. | :19:46. | |
half of them, 48%, own their own homes, 58% are in work, 64% are | :19:47. | :19:54. | |
women, but only 17% are getting advice and help with their debts. | :19:55. | :20:00. | |
Too many are turning to payday lenders to make ends meet, | :20:01. | :20:02. | |
compounding the problem when they could get free help from the likes | :20:03. | :20:07. | |
of national deadline and Citizens Advice Bureau is. It is a fear | :20:08. | :20:12. | |
factor, people certainly feel they can sort these things out | :20:13. | :20:16. | |
themselves, but debt problems very soon become too big to sort out | :20:17. | :20:21. | |
yourself. You can deal with debt by negotiating lower payments or even | :20:22. | :20:25. | |
going bankrupt. The challenge now is to make more people get the advice | :20:26. | :20:31. | |
they need. There have been further revelations | :20:32. | :20:35. | |
about the relationship between Nigella Lawson and her former | :20:36. | :20:37. | |
husband Charles Saatchi in court today. Before the trial of their | :20:38. | :20:42. | |
personal assistants on charges of fraud, lawyers said there had been a | :20:43. | :20:44. | |
culture of secrecy in their marriage. Luisa Baldini is at | :20:45. | :20:49. | |
Isleworth Crown Court, what did we hear in court today? | :20:50. | :20:55. | |
The jury was sworn in this afternoon, and opening the case the | :20:56. | :20:59. | |
prosecution said that sisters Elizabeth and Francesca Grillo spent | :21:00. | :21:07. | |
in excess of ?685,000 on Charles Saatchi's company credit card in a | :21:08. | :21:11. | |
greedy and fraudulent free for all in a four-year spending spree. The | :21:12. | :21:17. | |
sisters at its spending the money, but they deny fraud. Their defence | :21:18. | :21:21. | |
is that there was an understanding between them and Nigella Lawson that | :21:22. | :21:25. | |
they could spend on the cards if they did not reveal her alleged drug | :21:26. | :21:29. | |
habit. The sisters' defence barrister claimed that Ms Lawson | :21:30. | :21:34. | |
lied to her husband about her alleged drug-taking because there | :21:35. | :21:37. | |
was a culture of secrecy in their marriage. The barrister said that if | :21:38. | :21:41. | |
Mr Saatchi was also telling the truth about the celebrity chef's | :21:42. | :21:48. | |
alleged drug use, then Ms Lawson is an habitual criminal. The prosecutor | :21:49. | :21:51. | |
told the jury, these details are secondary as use, this case is one | :21:52. | :21:57. | |
of fraud. Mr Saatchi is expected to give evidence here tomorrow. | :21:58. | :22:04. | |
In Italy, the Senate has voted to expel former Prime Ministers Silvio | :22:05. | :22:07. | |
Berlusconi from parliament with immediate effect over his conviction | :22:08. | :22:11. | |
for tax fraud. Berlusconi told thousands of supporters in Rome that | :22:12. | :22:15. | |
he would fight on despite the vote, saying it was a day of mourning for | :22:16. | :22:20. | |
democracy. He is now banned from taking part in any general election | :22:21. | :22:23. | |
for six years and has lost his parliamentary immunity and could | :22:24. | :22:26. | |
face arrest over other criminal cases. | :22:27. | :22:31. | |
Members of the Scottish Parliament had a first chance to debate their | :22:32. | :22:35. | |
government's plans for independence this afternoon. The white paper was | :22:36. | :22:39. | |
launched yesterday with First Minister Alex Salmond describing it | :22:40. | :22:42. | |
as a blueprint for an independent country. Here is Scotland | :22:43. | :22:48. | |
correspondent James Cook. Where does Scotland's future like, | :22:49. | :22:52. | |
within the United Kingdom or as an independent state? Politicians had | :22:53. | :22:57. | |
barely one day to digestive this document, a blueprint for | :22:58. | :23:01. | |
independence, before the debate about its contents began. | :23:02. | :23:04. | |
Independence gives us the opportunity to make choices, to | :23:05. | :23:08. | |
spend less on weapons of mass destruction and more on educating | :23:09. | :23:12. | |
our children. Alex Salmond said there would be more free childcare | :23:13. | :23:16. | |
in an independent Scotland, saving families thousands of pounds a | :23:17. | :23:20. | |
year. Labour says he could do that now. If it were transformational, if | :23:21. | :23:24. | |
you believed it was that important, he would start now. The First | :23:25. | :23:30. | |
Minister has only just discovered the issue of childcare. But | :23:31. | :23:34. | |
independence is bigger than any one issue. The white paper promises to | :23:35. | :23:39. | |
build an Scotland's cultural ambitions, and as if on cue, this | :23:40. | :23:43. | |
giant work of art was unveiled new Falkirk today. This mystical, | :23:44. | :23:48. | |
quizzical sculpture seems to suit the mood of Scotland today, a nation | :23:49. | :23:52. | |
pondering its future, uncertain which way to turn. So what of the | :23:53. | :23:57. | |
voters who have to take that decision? What do they make of the | :23:58. | :24:02. | |
white paper's promises for their country? How much more tax would I | :24:03. | :24:05. | |
have to pay in order to keep Scotland independent? If Bush comes | :24:06. | :24:10. | |
to shove, I will go south to England anyway! Most of the facts have not | :24:11. | :24:17. | |
emerging, it is all conjecture, and only now people beginning to realise | :24:18. | :24:20. | |
there is quite a lot of implications as to what would happen if it was a | :24:21. | :24:25. | |
yes vote. I love Scotland, it has been my home since 1990, and I would | :24:26. | :24:29. | |
never go back to live in England again. Could Scotland go it alone? | :24:30. | :24:37. | |
Yes. And it should? Yes, it should. For now, there is still work to be | :24:38. | :24:41. | |
done on this sculpture, and there is still much debate to be had about | :24:42. | :24:43. | |
the future of this nation. Prince William managed to surprise | :24:44. | :24:53. | |
the audience at a charity gala in Kensington Palace last night, not to | :24:54. | :24:56. | |
mention the rest of the world, when he took to the stage at the end of | :24:57. | :25:02. | |
the evening with Jon Bon Jovi and Taylor Swift for an impromptu | :25:03. | :25:04. | |
singalong. Here is royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell. | :25:05. | :25:10. | |
So there you are, having a little soiree at your place with some | :25:11. | :25:15. | |
musical salts, and somehow you end up on stage hoping not to miss your | :25:16. | :25:25. | |
shoe. Deep breaths now! # It doesn't make a difference if we | :25:26. | :25:29. | |
make it or not. # We have got each other, and that's | :25:30. | :25:36. | |
a lot for love. # Give it a shot. | :25:37. | :25:43. | |
# Oh, we are halfway there. At Kensington Palace, Taylor Swift, | :25:44. | :25:52. | |
Jon Bon Jovi and Prince - Prince William. Whoa-oh, living on a | :25:53. | :26:05. | |
prayer! And who was it that had persuaded | :26:06. | :26:08. | |
him to take to the stage, Mr Jonathan Ross. At heart, he is a | :26:09. | :26:16. | |
rapper, not a singer. I think next time we will try to get up with tiny | :26:17. | :26:19. | |
temper, that will be special. The evening did have a serious purpose, | :26:20. | :26:24. | |
they were there to raise money for homeless charity Centrepoint, but | :26:25. | :26:28. | |
this is what will linger in the memory, karaoke night at Kensington | :26:29. | :26:29. | |
Palace. He is not bad! Time for a look at | :26:30. | :26:37. | |
the weather with Tomasz. I wanted to sing, they would not let | :26:38. | :26:49. | |
me! As far as the weather goes for tonight, another chilly night, quite | :26:50. | :26:53. | |
a cloudy one, a little bit of drizzle here and there, nothing more | :26:54. | :26:57. | |
than that. Quite chilly in one or two spots across Scotland were skies | :26:58. | :27:01. | |
might just about clear, there could be an early frost, but most of the | :27:02. | :27:05. | |
story is that there is cloud and fog forming over the Vale of York, and | :27:06. | :27:09. | |
you can see this high pressure that has been stuck around for a long | :27:10. | :27:13. | |
time, giving as cloudy sty is, that is persisting through most of | :27:14. | :27:17. | |
tomorrow as well. The overnight temperatures, 6-8 degrees, that | :27:18. | :27:24. | |
should cover it for most of us, a similar start to the day tomorrow | :27:25. | :27:28. | |
compared to today, drizzly across the South, cloudy. There will be | :27:29. | :27:31. | |
some sunshine to the East of Scotland, these of the Pennines, but | :27:32. | :27:35. | |
on balance, overall, another cloudy, chilly day with temperatures | :27:36. | :27:40. | |
hovering for most of us around eight or 10 degrees. There is a change on | :27:41. | :27:44. | |
the way happening Thursday night into Friday, so the high-pressure | :27:45. | :27:48. | |
slips out into the Atlantic, central and North Atlantic, this cold front | :27:49. | :27:51. | |
brings isobars that we have not seen so many of them quite a while. That | :27:52. | :27:56. | |
translates to gale force and severe gale force winds across Scotland, | :27:57. | :28:00. | |
wintry showers across the hills. For a lot of us, a breezy day with sunny | :28:01. | :28:04. | |
spells, one or two showers, temperatures of nine or 10 degrees. | :28:05. | :28:09. | |
After we are done with all of that weather front, the isobars push | :28:10. | :28:12. | |
awaits towards the near continent and we get back into that high | :28:13. | :28:16. | |
pressure we have got over us right now, so that in turn is going to | :28:17. | :28:21. | |
translates to this, so it looks as though after a bright Saturday, | :28:22. | :28:25. | |
there is going to be more cloud on the way for the weekend. Just one | :28:26. | :28:27. | |
chilly, breezy day. That is all from the News At Six, | :28:28. | :28:35. | |
goodbye from me and | :28:36. | :28:37. |