03/01/2014 BBC News at Six

Another massive winter storm sweeps up the entire west coast of the UK

with winds of up to 90mph. From Cornwall to Northern Ireland and

Scotland, coastal communities are hit by gales and high tides. It was

terrible. The waves are horrendous. It is pretty awful, certainly not

within my experience. Homes and businesses are flooded as

rivers burst their banks. The head of the Environment Agency

admits a funding squeeze and job cuts will affect flood risk

management in future. Also tonight, a sharp rise in house

prices, up on average by 8.4% according to the Nationwide Building

Society. A birthday vigil for Formula One

champion Michael Schumacher, critically ill after a skiing

accident. Newly released documents show what

Margaret Thatcher's cabinet really thought about the miners' strike.

And England start well in the final Ashes Test, only to let Australia

back in. On BBC News we'll look ahead to a

weekend of FA Cup third round action, including Arsenal against

Spurs. Good evening and welcome to the BBC

News at Six. The entire west coast of Britain,

from Cornwall to Scotland, has been battered by another storm today,

with rivers bursting their banks and homes flooded. The Environment

Agency issued severe flood warnings in nine areas, meaning there is a

"danger to life", though the damage in some places is not as bad as

feared. Gales and high tides caused a dramatic rise in sea and river

levels. Newquay in Cornwall was one of the communities affected first,

quickly followed by villages and towns in Gloucestershire. One group

of homes in Dorset was evacuated for the second time in eight days, as

the weather then moved north along the Welsh coast, Northern Ireland

and up to Scotland. Jon Kay is in Cornwall, where it all started, with

the latest for us now. Another high tide is due in half an hour. Yes. In

the next few minutes, the high tide comes in here again, exceptionally

high, and another nervous night for communities here. The problem is

that you have big waves coming in from the sea and swollen rivers and

streams coming down from the hills. They meet here in peril imports,

which is why communities like this feel so vulnerable. The coastguard

have said it is safe to stand here for now but they are cordoning off

areas nearby for public safety. Large parts of western Britain have

felt basically under attack. Cornwall's early morning wake-up

call. This was new quay at high tide, as the latest storm thundered

in. Crowds gathered well before dawn, warned by the authorities to

keep a safe distance. Look at that. Spectacular, isn't it? Absolutely

fantastic. Have you ever seen this high? I have lived here all my life

and never seen it like that. The high tide came and went quickly but

certainly left its mark. Around South West England, coastal

communities were flooded, like here in the Cornish harbour town of Looe.

It was a similar story in other seaside towns. Three days ago they

were celebrating the New Year in this pub. Now they wish to thousand

and 14 had stayed away. This is the kitchen, in six inches of water.

Jenin only took over this cafe three months ago, but last night the seed

came right in, her sandbags washed away by the tide. And she is worried

it could happen again tonight. I could sit here and cry but it will

not get it cleaned up. We have to get as prepared as we can for this

evening and hope it is not as bad as this morning. The dangers of the

tide have been all too evident. This young family were drenched by a

sudden wave. In West Wales, Aberystwyth has been battered by the

Irish Sea. The Victorian promenade, covered in debris. And this coastal

road partially collapsed. Near Barmouth, four people had to be

rescued from a flooded farm. Parts of Scotland have also taken a

pasting. This was Ardrossan in North Ayrshire. And County Down at mid-day

was no time to be taking a seaside snapshot. Back in Cornwall with

another dangerous tidal surge approaching, people came onto the

beach this afternoon. 100 volunteers, feeling more bags with

sand. This morning it was going over the wall into the car park. There is

a sense of anticipation, what is going to happen, so we do what we

can. It could be any of us, so any help, we will give it gladly. How

many bags have you done? About ten. Together, they did hundreds.

Tonight, they find out if that is enough. The bags that we saw being

filled on the beach are now blocking the doorways and windows of the

properties and businesses that you can see on the other side of the

harbour, including the cafe you saw in that report. She is in there with

her fingers crossed, hoping that this time the sandbags will hold.

Among the people moved out of their homes to escape the floods of the

last few days is 59-year-old Patrick Pope. Mr Pope, who couldn't afford

insurance for his property, is now in temporary accommodation in

Dorset. He went back to look at the damage to his home today and he's

been talking about his experience of being in the eye of the storm. When

we were evacuated on Christmas morning, this water was 18 inches

deep and rising. I took my wife out and got her to safety in the local

church. I came back, because I had to get the dog out. And all the

time, the water was rising. This was in the dark. Our house was flooded,

I think, up to about six or nine inches. You can see the high tide

mark there. I am a healthy man, but there are some old people who live

here, some who are quite disabled and it must have been very

frightening for them. It touched me to my heart, how good people were.

We were then taken to our hotel and the people in the hotel on holiday

gave me and my wife clothes. We are in an unfortunate situation, because

this last year I have been out of work for eight months. So I was not

in a position to actually afford house insurance. I recently got a

good job and it was just a few days away that I would have been able to

buy a year's house insurance, and then this flood came. It has been

very stressful, but fortunately my wife, on the whole, has a good sense

of humour and we have been able to bounce back and use humour. I would

like to see the government and the Environment Agency that are able to

forewarn us. And we also must learn the lesson and be better prepared.

Attention is turning to how well the UK is prepared for this kind of

extreme weather. The Environment Agency has confirmed that it's

cutting 1500 jobs, and its head has warned that cuts will affect the

organisation's ability to deal with floods. But today the government

says it's spending more than ?2.3 billion on flood defences and

efficiency savings are essential. David Shukman has more.

It started with the Saint Jude storm in October, which claimed lives and

flooded thousands of properties. Then another storm brought more

strong wind, felling trees. Last month, Christmas was ruined for many

buy more flooding and transport chaos. Today, in the face of more

stormy conditions, the Thames Barrier was being raised again to

defend London. This is the process speeded up, one example of the

pressure on coastlines up and down the country. What is happening here

tells you a lot about the exceptional nature of the weather.

Since the barrier was built 30 years ago, it has been raised 130 times.

Now, the plan is to raise it ten times in the first week of this year

alone. No wonder there are questions about whether enough is being done

to keep the country safe. In some places, defences have been

overwhelmed. And this comes at a very sensitive time for the

government. It was confirmed today that the organisation which managers

flood protection, the Environment Agency, has to lose 1500 jobs later

this year. The unions say the timing could not be worse. I would say

these jobs are involved in a vital public service and I am sure the

people who are being rescued, or warned, would agree that that is the

case. We are not talking about jobs that are not important. Look at your

TV screens and you can see how important work on flood defences is

at the moment. The government points to new defences like this one in

Devon to say it is taking flooding seriously and front line work will

not be affected by cuts. But the money to fight flooding is always

controversial. In the last year of the Labour government spending was

?628 million. It went up in the first year of again next year. The

department has had to make efficiencies given the dire

financial situation mummy came to power. Had a meeting this morning

with the Chief Executive of the Environment Agency, who will also

have two make efficiencies but he assures me he had every protection

of protecting front-line services concerned with floods. Four months

we have been battling waves of bad weather. Another is on its way this

weekend, and each time the country's ability to protect itself

is tested. For the latest on the situation go

to bbc.co.uk/news, or tune in to your BBC local radio station.

Other news now. House prices across the UK have

risen by an average of 8.4% over 2013, according to the Nationwide

Building Society. In London they're up by 15%. And the Bank of England

says the number of mortgages approved in November was the highest

for nearly six years. Hugh Pym has more details.

Whatever the weather is like, there is certainly some heat in the

housing market. That is what comes across with the latest price figures

from the leading mortgage lender and the Bank of England data on new

mortgages being approved. Ben is an estate agent in the London Borough

of Hammersmith and Fulham, where prices have jumped 25% over the

year, the fastest growth rate in the UK, with the average price now over

?690,000. At this office, they are as busy as ever, as the capital

experiences its own property boom. The London market seems to be a

completely separate markets to the rest of the country, and even if you

are not quite central London, you are still seeing massive price

rises, huge activity. It is as if everybody wants to get into London

and buy somewhere and there is just not enough to go round. There are

variations in house price growth around the UK. The increase in

London was nearly 15%. The figure for Northern Ireland was less than

half that, with Wales just fine. In Scotland, house prices were up 3.7%

over the same period. Mark is the branch manager of an estate agent in

Coventry, where there has been annual growth of just 2% and the

average price is just over ?170,000. The message is that it is

a mixed pic, depending in which area of the city the property is located.

There are some places seeing house price increases, close to the levels

of peak in 2007-2008, but other areas are seeing no real increase.

So, is a housing bubble developing? Some experts do not think so,

arguing that prices and activity levels are regaining ground lost in

that wake of the financial crisis. The housing market is not in Bloom

territory yet. For most parts of the country, house prices in

inflation-adjusted terms are still a way below their former 2007 peak.

But it is a sensitive issue. The Bank of England says it might

restrain mortgage lending if expansion is too rapid, and the

government knows it will face criticism if the scheme to help

home-buyers is seen to have stoked an overheated market.

A British man has been found dead in Libya along with a woman from New

Zealand. The bodies were discovered by Libyan security forces near an

oil and gas facility. This afternoon, Britain called on the

Libyan government to carry out an investigation and bring the

perpetrators to justice. The family of a teenage girl who

went missing last Saturday have appealed for her to return home.

Nida Ul-Naseer from Newport in South Wales vanished after going to put

the rubbish out at her home. Her family say her disappearance is

totally out of character, she needs medication and they are very

concerned for her. We are missing her. We just want to tell her she is

not in trouble. We all love her. We all love you. Just come home.

A vigil is taking place at the hospital where Michael Schumacher is

in critical condition following a skiing accident. The seven times

Formula One champion has been in a medically induced coma since Sunday

and has undergone two operations. Fans gathered outside the hospital

where he is being treated. It was billed as a silent and dignified

show of support for Michael Schumacher and Ferrari fans travel

to mark his 45th birthday. He stands atop of their pantheon of driving

greats and there in motion over his current plight soon poured out.

Most, most for Michael. Because we hope that he comes back. For now,

Michael Schumacher remains in a medically induced coma following the

skiing accident which has left him fighting for his life. Ferrari fans

hold Michael Schumacher in the highest of the guards following the

five world titles he delivered for them. Today they turned out in force

to support him. He is less of a former driver and more a part of

their family. After falling high up in the French Alps, Michael

Schumacher is still under our by our neurological assessment. Those

enjoying a winter break on the slopes say the accident has given

everyone a stark reminder of the importance of safety. Only four of

us were wearing helmets and we went in the morning after and they had

completely sold out. Michael Schumacher may have been a divisive

figure on the track. He won as many enemies as friends given his

ruthless win at all costs attitude. As his battle to recover continues,

the world of Formula 1 has united behind him as never before.

Our top story this evening. Severe storms have hit the west

coast of Britain, from Cornwall to Scotland. Rivers burst their banks,

forcing people out of their homes. And coming up. How do you feel now?

You are nothing but a runaway. The British director tipped for an oscar

for his film on slavery in the American South.

Coming up in Sportsday on BBC News, all the News and reaction from

Sydney as England's cricketers confront the likelihood of an Ashes

whitewash. England are struggling in the fifth test.

Newly released government documents from 30 years ago are shedding new

light on how Margaret Thatcher dealt with some of the most difficult

issues she ever faced. The papers show that during the miners' strike,

her government considered calling out the troops and that the miners'

union leader Arthur Scargill may have been right to claim there was a

"hit-list" of some seventy pits marked for closure - strongly denied

by the government at the time. The papers also reveal that Libyan

officials warned of potential violence hours before the

policewoman Yvonne Fletcher was murdered outside the the country's

embassy. Nick Higham has been taking a look.

It was one of the most file and and confrontational industrial disputes

in British history -- most of Ireland. Throughout the year-long

miners strike there were pitched battles between police and picketing

mine workers. The mine workers leader, Arthur Scargill, was himself

arrested. There was, he claimed, a secret government plan to butcher

the coal industry. We do not want to see pit closures and a rundown in

manpower levels, airing in mind there is a hit list of 70 hits and a

reduction in manpower in mind of about 70,000. Mrs Thatcher and the

coal board always denied that. Can you deny the reduction of 70,000

jobs? I know no place where that has been discussed. We have nothing like

that on our agenda. But they did. Files released today showed

ministers met six months before the strike. The minutes are not to be

photocopied or circulated outside the private office, they were seen

by just seven people and the typist. Ian MacGregor, ministers

told, had a plan to close 75 pits over ten years at the cost of tens

of thousands of jobs. What is significant about this? Nick Jones

covered the strike for the BBC. This document, for the first time, it

shows that six months before the start of the strike, MacGregor

informs the energy secretary, and then Mrs Thatcher that yes, he wants

to close 75 pits, he wants to shut two thirds of the pits in Wales,

half of them in South Yorkshire, a third of them in Scotland. If this

document had ever emerged during the strike, it would have been

devastating for the credibility of Margaret Thatcher. The files reveal

that in July, the government had a serious wobble, face not only with a

miners' strike but a national dock strike. They considered calling a

state of emergency and getting troops to deliver coal. The copy of

the briefing document for Mrs Thatcher is covered in her scribbled

notes, she was clearly taking a very keen interest. But the miners'

strike was not the only crisis the government had to deliver with --

deal with that year. If on Fletcher was murdered and 11 demonstrators

injured by a gunman firing from inside the Libyan Embassy in London.

The files contain details of two midnight warnings received the year

before, one from diplomats and one from the Ambassador in Tripoli. He

jokingly suggested he didn't think anything will happen. I took it

seriously which is why I reported it, but I did not believe it, no.

The 30 Libyan diplomats in the London embassy were eventually freed

and sent home, even though one was almost certainly a murderer. The

files show that was personally authorised by Mrs Thatcher, for fear

of reprisals against British to plummet in Tripoli.

-- British diplomats in Tripoli. The BNP leader Nick Griffin has been

declared bankrupt. Mr Griffin says his bankruptcy does not prevent him

from continuing to sit as an MEP in the European parliament. It's been

reported that he had debts of outstanding legal fees.

Police investigating the murder of a woman who was killed while

house-sitting in West Sussex say she may have been murdered during a

break-in. The body of Valerie Graves who was 55 was found in Bosham near

Chichester on Monday. At a police press conference her son described

her as a free spirit and said she had recently moved to Sussex to be

closer to her family. This has been a devastating... This is devastating

for the family and has come as a complete shock. We would appeal to

anyone who has any information about this, no matter how trivial, to

contact the police and help us catch you hurt done this -- who has done

this horrible act. He was a black musician, living as a free man in

New York during the middle of the last century. But when Solomon

Northup accepted the offer of a job, he was tricked and sold into slavery

in the American South. Now his story has been made into a film and its

British director - the Turner Prize winning artist Steve McQueen - is

being tipped for an Oscar. Will Gompertz went to meet him. America,

1841. I was born a free man, I lived with my family in New York to the

day I was deceived, kidnapped. How you feel now? You are no free man,

you're nothing but a Georgian runaway. 12 years a slave has been

widely praised for its unsentimental Bru -- portrayal of brutality in the

American South. I felt that in the sequences that are more

uncomfortable, I felt a deeper connection to Solomon and what he

went through. Certainly on the plantations, you have a real sense

that you are dancing with ghosts. That everything is still very much

alive and present, right in the soil. This is an American story told

by a British director, who feels Hollywood has overlooked the

subject. Slavery lasted 400 years. How many movies are made about

slavery? There are more movies about Spartacus than slavery. I wanted to

address that subject. And oddly, in the last 20 form is, we have seen

quite a lot of movies tackling this. -- last 24 months. Why is there this

new engagement? No one can underestimate the importance of

President Barack Obama. I think people possibly felt they had the

authority, or they had the possibility of making that kind of

story. Maybe the financiers thought we could make a buck out of this

now. It ain't my property. Brad Pitt said it took an inducement to tell

this story. -- it took an Englishman. I am an Englishman but I

am part of the narrative. My parents came from the West Indies and the

only difference is their boat went right and my boat went left. There

is the possibility that Steve McQueen could become the first

person in history to win both the Turner prize and an Oscar.

England's hopes of avoiding a 5-0 Ashes whitewash were delivered a

blow in the first day of the final Test in Sydney. At one point

Australia were struggling on 97-5. But they recovered to leave England

chasing 326 runs and by close of play, England had already lost an

early wicket. Dan Roan reports. There are few better places to make

a fresh start and with a city synonymously New Year, English

cricket had made a resolution to turn the tide. A trio of players

were given debuts and England won the toss for the first time this

series, the decision to bowl was quickly vindicated as Australia were

reduced to 97-5. As sure as night follows day, Brad had in, it seems

will come to the rescue. She sure enough he was full of his usual

swash and buckle as the hosts recovered. These were not the debuts

that England's players had hoped for. Boyd Rankin was hamstrung and

Scott Borthwick was hammered. Steve Smith continued what Brad had in had

started. Just as a weary England sank to new levels of the pond and

see -- dependency came some solace. Ben Stokes wrapped up the tail with

three victims in an over. The young all-rounder's six wicket haul gave

his team something to celebrate. But by then, the damage had been done

and under a ferocious evening assault from Mitchell Johnson,

Michael Carberry was out for a duck, England leaping off -- limping off

on 8-1. A New Year and some new faces but the same old story for

England, failing to capitalise after a good start. They face a huge

batting day but in truth, the prospect of a five - zero series

whitewash remains all too real. Have we seen the worst of the

weather? We are reaching the peak, things are

a little bit better over the 48 hours but there are still a few

problems. We still have severe flood warnings in force and this is the

flat line number. -- the flood line number. Some strong winds are

producing more heavy rain and showers. Those winds gradually ease

off but more heavy rain comes back into southern parts of England. We

need to watch that. Further north, a touch of frost with potentially a

few icy patches. It is a wet start to the weekend across many eastern

parts. As the rain works northwards, we have to talk about a

bit of snow. Mainly over high ground. Across the eastern side of

Northern Ireland, potentially, for a time. A chilly one across northern

parts, relatively mild in the South. The heaviest rain moves away,

another storm system waits in the wings. The main Loews stays to the

west of us but Bush is in these weather fronts. -- the main lobe

stays. The rain is not quite as heavy but

still likely to cause some impact, perhaps not quite as bad as what we

have seen over the last few weeks. Some weather to watch out for, the

rain works northwards on Saturday, some snow in the north, wet and

windy weather later in the week in. On the bright side, the days are

getting longer. On the bright side, the days are

That is something! That is