Browse content similar to 02/02/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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on the BBC News Channel, and I'll be back with | :00:00. | :00:07. | |
Good evening. The Chief Executive of Birmingham City Council says he's | :00:08. | :00:11. | |
confident that problems with vote`rigging are history. Stephen | :00:12. | :00:14. | |
Hughes was speaking after the Electoral Commission identified | :00:15. | :00:16. | |
Birmingham, Coventry and Walsall as problem areas. The Commission wants | :00:17. | :00:21. | |
to make voters bring photo ID with them to polling stations to | :00:22. | :00:24. | |
eliminate fraud. BBC WM's political reporter, Kathryn Stanczyszyn, has | :00:25. | :00:29. | |
the details. At the 2004 local elections in | :00:30. | :00:32. | |
Birmingham, a vote`rigging scandal rocked the political world and made | :00:33. | :00:38. | |
headline news. Boxes of evidence, a demonstration and an historic | :00:39. | :00:41. | |
occasion ` the first electoral court to be held in Britain in 30 years. | :00:42. | :00:46. | |
Labour councillors representing two separate Birmingham wards were | :00:47. | :00:49. | |
involved in a postal vote fraud a judge said would disgrace a banana | :00:50. | :00:54. | |
republic. It led to political mudslinging and public protests. Raj | :00:55. | :00:59. | |
Rattu is a community activist in Aston, one of the wards where the | :01:00. | :01:03. | |
election had to be re`run. Here in Birmingham, we want free and fair | :01:04. | :01:06. | |
elections. We want people to vote according to who they want, not | :01:07. | :01:09. | |
because they are being forced or coerced into voting in a particular | :01:10. | :01:12. | |
manner. The Electoral Commission says it wants every individual to | :01:13. | :01:15. | |
register to vote themselves, rather than one person in the household | :01:16. | :01:19. | |
doing it. It is something that is already being brought in from June. | :01:20. | :01:23. | |
It also wants every voter to have ID at the polling station ` something | :01:24. | :01:27. | |
like a passport or driving licence. And it is bringing in a stricter | :01:28. | :01:30. | |
code of conduct for candidates, saying they must not handle ballot | :01:31. | :01:35. | |
papers. Birmingham City Council says it has already brought in tighter | :01:36. | :01:38. | |
controls. The Electoral Commission comes and looks at what we're doing | :01:39. | :01:42. | |
in order to learn how to improve things. We have certainly turned it | :01:43. | :01:47. | |
around. Speaking on Sunday Politics in the Midlands, the Electoral | :01:48. | :01:50. | |
Commission says voter ID is crucial in places like Birmingham. The time | :01:51. | :01:55. | |
has come to change the system, which was originally invented in the 19th | :01:56. | :01:58. | |
century when fewer than half of the adult population were even allowed | :01:59. | :02:03. | |
to vote. In those days, you relied on people to recognise imposters. | :02:04. | :02:07. | |
Nowadays, that's much harder. People are surprised you don't have to | :02:08. | :02:11. | |
provide ID. Electoral fraud has not gone away. Police say they | :02:12. | :02:21. | |
investigated 21 cases in 2012. One of The Birmingham Six is | :02:22. | :02:24. | |
launching an online petition this week calling for a new public | :02:25. | :02:27. | |
inquiry into the 1974 pub bombings. Paddy Hill spent sixteen years in | :02:28. | :02:30. | |
prison after being wrongfully convicted of involvement in the | :02:31. | :02:35. | |
attacks, which killed 21 people. He's also supporting a campaign led | :02:36. | :02:38. | |
by the family of Maxine Hambleton, who died in the bombings, to get | :02:39. | :02:41. | |
West Midlands Police to reopen the case. | :02:42. | :02:45. | |
The Environment Agency has warned that another storm is due to hit the | :02:46. | :02:49. | |
Midlands on Tuesday, with up to an inch of rain. Today, two amphibious | :02:50. | :02:52. | |
vehicles were sent to Somerset by a Staffordshire company to help people | :02:53. | :02:57. | |
trapped by the floods. The re`conditioned military equipment | :02:58. | :02:59. | |
can carry people and supplies. They've previously been used in | :03:00. | :03:02. | |
disasters all over the world. They can climb fallen trees, | :03:03. | :03:05. | |
stricken trees, up to my chest height. They will be able to just | :03:06. | :03:11. | |
climb over an obstacle. You can't do that with a tractor and trailer. | :03:12. | :03:15. | |
They also have a very light footprint over sodden ground, so | :03:16. | :03:20. | |
farmers don't need to be worried. Thousands of people gathered in | :03:21. | :03:23. | |
Birmingham today to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Visitors were | :03:24. | :03:26. | |
greeted with performances from traditional lion dancers and | :03:27. | :03:30. | |
musicians. The event was organised to welcome in the Year of the Horse. | :03:31. | :03:35. | |
Lindsay Doyle reports. The lion, the symbol of protection, | :03:36. | :03:37. | |
and traditional stalwart of festivals of celebration. Chinese | :03:38. | :03:42. | |
New Year in Birmingham, heralding in the Year of the Horse. The crowd is | :03:43. | :03:47. | |
tremendous today, and I welcome everybody to come in and celebrate | :03:48. | :03:51. | |
Chinese New Year with the Chinese community, and may I take the | :03:52. | :03:54. | |
opportunity to wish everyone gongxi facai. Birmingham boasts the | :03:55. | :03:56. | |
second`largest Chinese population in Britain, and a campaign has begun to | :03:57. | :04:01. | |
raise ?1 million to build an arch. Other major cities such as Liverpool | :04:02. | :04:05. | |
and London have an arch. The proposed Birmingham arch would act | :04:06. | :04:08. | |
as the focal point for the entrance to Chinatown. They used to say that | :04:09. | :04:12. | |
Manchester had the best Chinese quarter, but Birmingham does. I | :04:13. | :04:16. | |
think when we get the arch, and I think there will be an arch here, | :04:17. | :04:20. | |
that will help complement what is a very successful Chinese quarter in | :04:21. | :04:23. | |
Birmingham. It is thought more than 20,000 people have joined in today's | :04:24. | :04:26. | |
festivities. We're loving it already. Yes. The smell of the food | :04:27. | :04:30. | |
` amazing. Everybody's coming together, eating Chinese food. I'm | :04:31. | :04:37. | |
amazed how busy it is. The stalls and everything add a bit extra to it | :04:38. | :04:41. | |
as well. In Chinese mythology, the Year of the Horse is the year where | :04:42. | :04:45. | |
people stick to their principles, a year when businesses can turn their | :04:46. | :04:49. | |
fortunes around for the better. The next major event in the Chinese | :04:50. | :04:53. | |
calendar will be in June, as part of the campaign to raise money for the | :04:54. | :05:02. | |
arch. Very nice. One football result to bring you, | :05:03. | :05:06. | |
and in the Premier League, a 1`1 one draw for West Bromwich Albion | :05:07. | :05:08. | |
entertaining Liverpool. More bad weather to come this week. | :05:09. | :05:11. | |
Sara Blizzard has the Midlands forecast. | :05:12. | :05:13. | |
Good evening. We do have a few light showers with us for the early part | :05:14. | :05:20. | |
of this evening. It will be a mainly cloudy night. The wind is starting | :05:21. | :05:23. | |
to ease as well, so we should not see a frost developing at all. The | :05:24. | :05:26. | |
minimum temperature out towards Coventry and Warwickshire will be | :05:27. | :05:29. | |
four Celsius. There is also rain quite close by. That comes through | :05:30. | :05:32. | |
tomorrow. The occasional shower ahead of that band of rain. It | :05:33. | :05:36. | |
starts coming in from the west as we head into the afternoon. The wind is | :05:37. | :05:40. | |
also going to strengthen as well, so very wet and windy conditions for | :05:41. | :05:43. | |
Monday. Tuesday too, this deep area of low pressure starting to develop. | :05:44. | :05:47. | |
That will affect the weather through Tuesday into Wednesday. Gale`force | :05:48. | :05:49. | |
winds are likely, and obviously the opportunity for further flooding. | :05:50. | :05:54. | |
Just time to tell you ` Countryfile, at 7:00pm, comes from | :05:55. | :05:56. | |
Worcestershire. The national forecast is next. Bye`bye. | :05:57. | :06:07. | |
Good evening. Most of us have had a fine Sunday with some sunshine, but | :06:08. | :06:12. | |
there is more wet and windy weather on the | :06:13. | :06:14. |