17/03/2016 BBC Wales Today

Welcome to Wales Today. Tonight's headlines -

Abuse that spanned decades at children's homes in north Wales.

The latest review finds no evidence that establishment

And a bill that could have seen a partial ban on e-cigarettes.

The First Minister says Plaid Cymru voting against it was "childish."

Three years ago, a top judge was tasked with looking again

at the Waterhouse Inquiry into historical child abuse

in North Wales following fresh allegations.

Today, that review, the Macur Review, was published,

and found no evidence that politicians or national

It said there was no reason to doubt the inquiry's conclusions.

The Welsh Secretary told the Commons that the long-awaited review

into the Waterhouse Inquiry found it had fulfilled its remit

into exploring a tragic period of Welsh history.

We are talking about dark and shameful events that are a stain

These were children in the care of the state because

they were vulnerable, and the state let them down.

Lady Justice Macur's main finding is that,

and I quote, "I have found no reason to undermine the conclusions

of Waterhouse in respect of the nature and the scale of abuse."

Lady Justice Macur was asked to carry out her review

She even heard evidence in Wrexham to discover what,

if anything, was missed by Sir Ronald Waterhouse's inquiry.

Started in 1997, it contained 700 allegations of abuse

One of its recommendations was the creation of a Children's

Today I'm thinking of the victims of those North Wales scandals

who need to be heard and who need to have justice, but

We need to make sure they are kept safe, and if they are victims,

that they are able to come forward and we respond to them properly

The Waterhouse Report also found that a paedophile ring existed

in Wrexham and Chester, but it said the inquiry had had seen

no evidence that prominent public figures were involved.

However, fresh claims resurfaced in 2012 when Steven Meesham,

a survivor of abuse, gave a Newsnight interview which led

wrongly to the naming of former senior Tory Lord McAlpine

as an offender, something that was later retracted.

Today, Mr Meesham says the Macur Report should have

To say the Waterhouse Inquiry wasn't too narrow

To say the Waterhouse Inquiry wasn't too narrow is an outrageous thing.

It only investigated abuse within homes in Clwyd and Gwynedd,

it didn't go as far as Liverpool, Manchester, south Wales,

and bearing mind people like myself who were abused in those places -

They should have been allowed to investigate that.

Lady Justice Macur highlighted concerns about the way relevant

documents were stored and in some cases destroyed, though

that was an innocent mistake by Welsh Government

But for many who endured abuse at children's homes in North Wales,

this review isn't the conclusion they hoped for.

The First Minister, Carwyn Jones, says he has never seen anything

as childish as the behaviour of Plaid Cymru after it helped

defeat a proposed ban on e-cigarettes in public places.

Plaid withdrew its support when a Labour minister described

a previous deal between the two parties as a "cheap date."

The parties have been accused of playing political games

Our political editor, Nick Servini, has the latest.

Labour called it theatre and disagreement in the chamber.

Plaid called it belittling and sexist.

Whatever your view, yesterday's exchange certainly had consequences,

as the Public Health Bill fell at the final hurdle.

I thought at the time they were rather cheap date.

Today, Labour went on the attack, claiming that years of work had been

wasted as a result of an overreaction which,

they said, showed that Plaid were unfit to govern.

You couldn't describe Plaid Cymru's behaviour yesterday as a mature

response from mature, responsible politicians prepared

to make difficult choices on the half of the people of Wales.

to make difficult choices on behalf of the people of Wales.

The former Plaid leader, Lord Elis-Thomas, who missed events

yesterday because of a vote in the House of Lords,

said he felt betrayed by his party's opposition.

But overall, Plaid said that they were united

There was an assumption by Labour that they could depend

It was an arrogant assumption in relating to a very controversial,

and in my view, bad piece of legislation, and that is why

Labour themselves jeopardised this Bill.

Labour and Plaid have been coalition partners in the past.

Many people believe some kind of future deal between the two

could be on the cards after the Assembly election.

But this has been a notch above the usual political

knock-about, and the question is how realistic that could be after such

Ironing out the details of the Public Health

The proposal to ban the use of e-cigarettes in some public

But it would also have created a compulsory licensing system

for tattooists and acupuncturists, and require councils to provide

Doctors and nursing unions like the BMA and the Royal College

of Nursing called on all the parties not to play games with the health

Their disappointment that time had run out for the Bill was shared

by the owner of this tattoo parlour, who supported greater regulation.

At the moment, tattooing is on a registration system,

and basically anybody can get registered, I mean, you could get

There is no minimum standard, no training standard,

and what we were hoping for was a slightly tighter licensing

system which would have maybe had a minimum standard,

and possibly hygiene training before you are allowed to be licensed.

But a number of cancer charities had opposed the plans to ban the use

of e-cigarettes because they felt it helps discourage smoking.

For them, last night's defeat was welcome.

One of the things that we've quite actively spoken out against has been

the restrictions placed on electronic cigarettes.

We would be really keen to see marketing restrictions on the age

of sale of electronic cigarettes, but we were really quite concerned

that the impact that putting electronic cigarette users out

with smokers could have in certain situations.

And today, no word from Leighton Andrews on his use

The only sense we got on that came from Carwyn Jones, who said that

if the Public Services Minister had his time again, he would have

The lawyers of a former Gwynedd lifeguard, jailed for 50 years

in the United States for raping a 10-year-old girl,

22-year-old Gareth Vincent Hall from Talysarn was jailed

after admitting four counts of rape, two of serious sexual offences,

and one of online sexual corruption of a child.

His lawyers now have three months to review the case

The former managing director of a bus company in Gwynedd has told

a jury he had no knowledge of the fraudulent claiming of more

John Hume told Caernarfon Crown Court he didn't know

the Padarn Bus Limited claimed to carry more concessionary

"It's time for a change" - the message from the Welsh

Gwent Police are investigating the death of two pensioners at a House

in Torfaen. Their bodies were discovered just before lunchtime and

the deaths are being treated as unexplained.

"It's time for a change" - the message from the Welsh

Conservatives as they launched their campaign for the Assembly

The Tories say they're the only party that offers a real alternative

to what they say has been "17 years of Labour failure in running Wales."

Our political reporter, James Williams, has more.

Kick-off for the Welsh Conservatives.

With just under two months to go until the Assembly election,

this is the team they hope will be running Wales.

After 17 years of bad results in Government,

it's time to relegate Labour to the backbenches, they say.

According to the party's leader, the Conservatives

We've crafted out policy positions that are unique

to the Welsh Conservatives such as potentially the health Budget,

to the Welsh Conservatives such as potentiallypretecting the health

to the Welsh Conservatives such as protecting the health budget,

such as driving forward excellence in education,

such as guaranteeing quality jobs with decent take-home pay,

dignity and security in old age, and 30 hours of free childcare,

and it is only the Welsh Conservatives that can give that

Labour's failure in running Wales was a prominent narrative

in the Tories election campaign last year.

It led to their best general election results in Wales for more

A useful springboard, they say, for the Assembly vote.

It demonstrates to people that actually, Conservatives can

We of course won more votes across Wales that the general

We of course won more votes across Wales at the general

election than elected Carwyn Jones at the last Assembly

Technically, if we got all of those Conservative voters out for this

election, we could win an outright majority.

At an Assembly level, the Conservatives have

increased their number of seats in Cardiff Bay in every single

election since the start of devolution in 1999,

But becoming a party of Government will be a much harder challenge.

One issue that potentially might make things more difficult

for the Conservatives this year is the referendum,

and we are seeing very public splits in the Conservative Party on the EU

referendum, and we don't yet know how that's going to impact

on the Conservative Party's support here in Wales.

It's quite possible that it could actually hurt them.

"Our focus will aim firmly on the Assembly election

until the vote on May the fifth," say the Welsh Conservatives.

But for their team-mates in Westminster, domestic

competitions are likely to play second fiddle to Europe.

Rugby's world governing body has asked Six Nations organisers

to explain the decision not to punish England prop Joe Marler

for calling Wales' Samson Lee "gypsy boy."

The Welsh Rugby Union say they're "surprised" at the decision.

The comment was made during the defeat by England at Twickenham.

Lee, who's from the Traveller community, said he accepted

Well, I can't speak for myself, I speak for the organisation,

that we don't condone any sort of discrimination,

whether it be race, religion, whatever, sexuality etc, so...

As an organisation, I think we probably slightly disagree

with it, but the decision's been made.

Football, and Swansea City head coach Francesco Guidolin has

dismissed speculation linking him with the Italian national job.

He revealed he came close to getting the position before Antonio Contay

Contay will leave this summer, but Guidolin says his only focus

is keeping the Swans in the Premier League.

Well, the weather's staying pretty dry over the next few days.

Here's Derek now, with all the details.

we enjoyed lots of spring sunshine today, and so far this month we have

only had about 15 millimetres or two inches of rain and there is plenty

And that goes for tomorrow, another dry day in prospect.

More sunshine but some cloud on the way as well.

The sky is clear tonight, so that means dipping temperatures.

Cold night with a widespread frost, a few mist and fog patches

Temperatures in some rural spots could fall as low as minus three.

So a cold start to tomorrow, but we have high pressure in charge,

which will things mostly dry and settled.

Some fog patches in the morning will gradually lift.

Sunny for most of us, and dry, maybe some cloud,

though, towards the border over Welshpool and Monmouth.

Across the rest of the UK, central and eastern areas much

The odd spot of drizzle, otherwise dry.

The best of the sunshine in the west, feeling chilly

and the cloud, only six Celsius in Norwich, warmer in the sunshine -

In Wales tomorrow afternoon, most places fine and sunny,

Parts of the north-east, parts of Powys and the south-east,

clouding over, and chilly under the cloud, seven in Monmouth,

warmer in the sunshine, 12 in Aberystwyth.

Friday night, cloud will become more extensive, some mist and hill fog,

the odd spot of drizzle, with temperatures staying

Saturday, a lot of cloud, still the chance of the odd spot

Dry for most of us, and hopefully it will brighten up in places

So another dry day to come tomorrow, sunshine for most of us.

The weekend, cloudier but mostly dry and settled,

and there is more dry weather to come next week.

We'll be back in Breakfast from 6:25 tomorrow morning.

But that's Wales Today - from all of us here, good night.