:00:02. > :00:06.Leading economists say Britain's highest earners need a tax cut, and
:00:06. > :00:09.soon. They call on the Chancellor to
:00:09. > :00:19.scrap the 50p top rate, saying it's damaging the economy and punishing
:00:19. > :00:22.
:00:22. > :00:24.entrepreneurs. It is punishing those who have spent the last 15,
:00:24. > :00:28.20 or 30 years working themselves to the bone to get to where they
:00:28. > :00:33.are to the point where they have the privilege of paying a 50p tax
:00:33. > :00:36.rate. People in the real world looking at this will say people on
:00:36. > :00:39.�150,000 should pay more tax. Liberal Democrats saying that
:00:39. > :00:40.cutting the tax would be immoral, we will ask where the coalition
:00:40. > :00:42.stands. Also tonight:
:00:42. > :00:46.Details are emerging of the government's proposed reforms to
:00:46. > :00:55.banking. We will have the latest. Fears of a power vacuum in the new
:00:55. > :01:00.Libya - we have a special report. It takes years, even generations,
:01:00. > :01:04.to recover from a civil war and dictatorship, and Libya has had
:01:04. > :01:06.both. People tend to remember which side their neighbours took in the
:01:06. > :01:09.fight. Shafilea Ahmed was the victim of a
:01:09. > :01:13.suspected on a killing. Now her parents are charged with the murder.
:01:13. > :01:23.And jail for the woman who drove more than 20 miles up the M5 in the
:01:23. > :01:25.
:01:25. > :01:29.And I will be here with Sportsday on the BBC News Channel as there is
:01:29. > :01:39.more rain had the US Open and players accused the organisers of
:01:39. > :01:46.
:01:46. > :01:52.making them play in dangerous Good evening. The 50p tax rate for
:01:52. > :01:55.Britain's highest earners should be scrapped. That is the view of 20
:01:55. > :01:58.leading economists, and they have made the point in an open letter to
:01:58. > :02:02.the Chancellor. They say it's doing lasting damage to the economy and
:02:02. > :02:06.discouraging wealth creation. But any cut to the rate could set the
:02:06. > :02:09.coalition at odds. While Downing Street say it's a temporary measure,
:02:09. > :02:19.the Liberal Democrats say reducing the burden on the richest 1% would
:02:19. > :02:22.
:02:22. > :02:26.be immoral. The 50 pence top tax rate, how long
:02:26. > :02:30.should the Chancellor keep it? That is a big question, and it is
:02:30. > :02:34.generating strong opinions on both sides of the argument. Today a
:02:34. > :02:38.group of economists, in a letter to the Financial Times, said it was
:02:38. > :02:43.doing lasting damage and was self- defeating. They want it scrapped.
:02:43. > :02:47.think the 50p rate is frankly an own goal for Britain. It says, we
:02:47. > :02:51.are not really interested in attracting or keeping talented,
:02:51. > :02:54.hard-working people in this country. We do not mind if they go abroad.
:02:54. > :02:58.Arm and those heading home in the City of London this evening, there
:02:58. > :03:01.was plenty of opposition to the current top rate. The people pay
:03:01. > :03:04.the 50 pence rate are paying it because they have lost their nuts
:03:04. > :03:08.to get there. I am not sure they should be punished for their
:03:08. > :03:12.endeavours over the last 20 years. The rich are going to be taxed
:03:12. > :03:17.higher, they will take their money elsewhere. So how does the top tax
:03:17. > :03:23.rate work? Until 20th April 10, on anything earned above �44,000 in
:03:23. > :03:28.back tax year, you paid 40p in the town, however high your earnings.
:03:28. > :03:33.From April 2010, that still applied up to �150,000, but on every penny
:03:33. > :03:37.earned above that, you paid 50p in tax. The policy was brought in by
:03:37. > :03:41.Labour and has been continued under the coalition. Around 320,000
:03:42. > :03:45.people are affected, the richest 1% of all adults. The Liberal
:03:45. > :03:50.Democrats want to hold on to the top rate. One senior member said
:03:50. > :03:55.scrapping it would be immoral, a view echoed by Labour. Of course as
:03:55. > :03:59.a politician and an economist, I would always rather see taxes lower
:03:59. > :04:02.rather than higher. But at this time, the economy has flatlined and
:04:02. > :04:06.unemployment is up. Everybody is feeling the squeeze. Do you really
:04:06. > :04:11.think the right way to get the economy to moving is only to cut
:04:11. > :04:14.taxes for the richest? Sir how much money does the 50p tax been in? The
:04:14. > :04:18.Treasury says there is a review under way and the policy is
:04:18. > :04:23.temporary. Experts say it is not yet possible to assess whether it
:04:23. > :04:26.is good or bad for the UK. When the government introduced the 50p rate,
:04:26. > :04:30.it did not know how much money it would raise or what damage it would
:04:30. > :04:35.Duce the economy. That is not a great way of making policy. They
:04:35. > :04:38.took a chance, and we have yet to see what the effect will be. Where
:04:38. > :04:41.there or not the Chancellor cuts the top rate of tax, he will
:04:41. > :04:46.continue looking for policies aimed at boosting growth. Others may be
:04:46. > :04:49.doing the same. For example, the Bank of England is facing calls to
:04:49. > :04:53.relaunch the policy known as quantitative easing. That is
:04:53. > :04:57.creating new money to pump into the economy. It seems certain that is
:04:58. > :05:01.on the agenda at the bank's latest monthly meeting, which ends
:05:01. > :05:06.tomorrow. For policymakers including George Osborne, these are
:05:06. > :05:08.uncertain times. He wants to help business and get growth moving, but
:05:08. > :05:16.on this tax battleground, that is proving difficult.
:05:16. > :05:20.Our political editor Nick Robinson is in Downing Street for us tonight.
:05:20. > :05:24.What will the government gaining reducing this tax or scrapping it,
:05:24. > :05:29.and will they do it? Let me let you into a secret. There is no secret
:05:29. > :05:32.Tory political strategy that says that during an age of austerity,
:05:32. > :05:36.when public sector workers have their pay frozen and their pensions
:05:36. > :05:39.cut and everybody is feeling the squeeze, the way to make yourself
:05:39. > :05:43.popular is to cut taxes for the rich. So why on earth are they
:05:43. > :05:46.thinking about it at all? The reason is this. You might think
:05:46. > :05:50.that in the buildings behind me, their biggest anxiety this summer
:05:50. > :05:55.has been about the riots or the fate of Colonel Gaddafi or Libya,
:05:55. > :05:59.not true. They are most worried about where on earth the economic
:05:59. > :06:04.growth will come from. They argue that they cannot spend money to
:06:04. > :06:08.create it. They cannot cut taxes per se as a way of creating
:06:08. > :06:14.economic growth. So where do they find that growth? It is then that
:06:14. > :06:17.economists have said to them, the problem with that top rate of tax
:06:17. > :06:21.is that it is a sign over Britain say, we do not want entrepreneurs
:06:21. > :06:26.here. They should either leave or not bother coming. That is why it
:06:26. > :06:30.is being discussed. The politics is more complex than it seems. The
:06:30. > :06:33.former Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling, who put taxes up to 50p,
:06:33. > :06:38.argued that it should only be temporary. The Liberal Democrat
:06:38. > :06:43.Party dropped its policy of having 50 P. So the argument will come
:06:44. > :06:46.about the timing of changing 50p, when it should be done and what
:06:46. > :06:50.should be done to compensate other people. I believe the Liberal
:06:50. > :06:54.Democrats will use their position in the coalition not to say you
:06:54. > :07:00.cannot do it, but to say you can only help the rich if you help
:07:00. > :07:02.poorer taxpayers first, and you do it soon.
:07:02. > :07:04.Tonight, some details are also emerging of how the Government
:07:04. > :07:07.intends to reform bank regulation. The Independent Commission on
:07:07. > :07:09.Banking is expected to recommend that a law to separate retail
:07:09. > :07:13.activities from riskier operations should be passed almost immediately,
:07:13. > :07:23.but delaying implementation for some years. Our Business Editor
:07:23. > :07:24.
:07:24. > :07:27.Robert is here with the details. What does this mean? Up the Banking
:07:27. > :07:31.Commission wants to separate investment banking from retail
:07:31. > :07:34.banking, the banking which looks after our money and makes loans to
:07:34. > :07:38.households and businesses. And it wants to do other reforms it so
:07:38. > :07:42.that the next time a big bank gets into difficulties, we as taxpayers
:07:42. > :07:46.do not have to bail it out to the tune of millions of pounds. If you
:07:46. > :07:50.go back to the autumn of 2008, we bear that banks to the tune of
:07:50. > :07:55.hundreds of billions of pounds. So it wants to put in place reforms to
:07:55. > :07:58.prevent that happening again, but it recognises that separating these
:07:58. > :08:03.activities is ferociously complicated. That is why it is
:08:03. > :08:10.saying, give them years to do it. But to end uncertainty about the
:08:10. > :08:13.new stretch of banks, it says to legislate immediately. The CBI and
:08:14. > :08:19.the banks themselves, they fear that these reforms will make it
:08:19. > :08:24.harder for them to lend. The Prime Minister seems to share some of
:08:24. > :08:28.those anxieties. We just heard Nick talking about the fears of the
:08:28. > :08:33.Government about the threat to growth. Plainly, they do not want
:08:33. > :08:36.this reform to undermine growth. So you have this uncertainty being
:08:36. > :08:42.created about whether the Government will back the reforms
:08:42. > :08:46.being proposed by experts it itself has appointed. The Chancellor has
:08:46. > :08:50.said he does in theory support this ring-fencing. It is the separation
:08:50. > :08:53.of investment banking and retail banking. The point at issue is
:08:53. > :08:57.whether or not this should be legislated for immediately. There
:08:57. > :08:59.is the prospect of a division between the government and the
:08:59. > :09:02.experts it appointed to make the bank's safe.
:09:02. > :09:05.In Libya, as the hunt for Colonel Gaddafi continues, there are fears
:09:06. > :09:08.that a power vacuum is developing in the capital, Tripoli. With the
:09:08. > :09:13.opposition leadership still based in Benghazi, the need for
:09:13. > :09:16.government and the rule of law is being felt more keenly every day.
:09:16. > :09:26.Our Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen has been inside one of Tripoli's
:09:26. > :09:26.
:09:26. > :09:33.largest prisons, and found hundreds locked up without trial.
:09:33. > :09:36.In the old Libya, where the prisoners' sky was just a patch of
:09:36. > :09:43.light, arrest was arbitrary and sentences could be indefinite or
:09:43. > :09:48.cut short by an execution. Fear still is not far away in the new
:09:48. > :09:55.Libya's prisons. We were asked not to show the prisoners' faces. I'm
:09:55. > :10:01.afraid because they say and a killer. As God is my witness, I am
:10:01. > :10:05.not. He is accused of killing two hostages and burying their bodies.
:10:05. > :10:12.His problem is that no legal process has started to establish
:10:12. > :10:16.his guilt or innocence. Around 700 men are warehoused in this
:10:16. > :10:23.improvised prison in a suburb of Tripoli. It smells of sweat and
:10:23. > :10:28.fear. Many of them fought in a unit run by the Colonel's son, feared
:10:28. > :10:32.for its ruthless and deadly disregard for the laws of war. A
:10:32. > :10:39.lot of them told me they joined in the regime's last month, for the
:10:39. > :10:43.money. And there are Nigerian prisoners, suspected mercenaries,
:10:43. > :10:49.according to their jailers. They say you had guns. No, I don't have
:10:49. > :10:52.guns. Her they said the people captured were carrying guns. No one
:10:53. > :10:57.here has a lawyer. No one has been charged with any crime. No
:10:57. > :10:59.policeman is investigating what they did or did not do. Libyan
:11:00. > :11:04.human rights lawyers who are trawling the remains of the old
:11:04. > :11:07.police state to seize and preserve its records accept that it is early
:11:07. > :11:14.days, but they believe more should have been done already to uphold
:11:14. > :11:22.the rule of law. It is a very important, very essential. It is a
:11:22. > :11:27.basic human right. If the new Libya fails to deliver this, all the
:11:27. > :11:31.sacrifices will be in vain. fighters still rule the streets.
:11:31. > :11:35.They are good at winning wars, not building a piece. Libya's would be
:11:35. > :11:40.civilian leaders were supposed to be in charge by now, but they are
:11:40. > :11:45.still in Benghazi, and there are whispers of tensions between the
:11:45. > :11:49.fighters' Islamist commanders and the politicians. It takes years,
:11:49. > :11:53.even generations, to recover from a civil war and a dictatorship, and
:11:53. > :11:57.Libya has had both. People tend to remember which side their
:11:57. > :12:02.neighbours took in the fight. But the way they deal with the legacy
:12:02. > :12:06.of the Gaddafi years is important because it will determine what kind
:12:06. > :12:11.of country this will be. 43 people have died after a Russian
:12:11. > :12:15.airliner crashed into a river bank shortly after take-off. The plane
:12:15. > :12:18.came down about 160 miles north- east of Moscow. Among those on
:12:18. > :12:23.board were members of one of Russia's leading ice hockey teams,
:12:23. > :12:26.who were on their way to a match. A florist who stabbed a man to
:12:26. > :12:29.death during an attempted robbery at his shop in July has been told
:12:29. > :12:32.he will not face criminal charges. The Crown Prosecution Service said
:12:32. > :12:34.Cecil Coaley, who is 72, had acted in "reasonable self-defence" when
:12:35. > :12:42.he killed 30-year-old Gary Mullings in old Trafford in Greater
:12:42. > :12:45.Manchester. The parents of a 17-year-old girl
:12:45. > :12:49.who was the victim of a suspected honour killing have appeared in
:12:49. > :12:51.court charged with her murder. Shafilea Ahmed's body was found on
:12:51. > :12:56.a riverbank in Cumbria in January 2004, four months after she
:12:57. > :12:59.disappeared from her home in Warrington. Iftikhar and Farzana
:13:00. > :13:04.Ahmed, who were arrested for a second time last year, have always
:13:04. > :13:14.denied any involvement in their daughter's death. This report
:13:14. > :13:18.
:13:18. > :13:21.Shafilea Ahmed was just 17 when she died, the victim of a suspected
:13:21. > :13:26.honour cunning. Today friends and family arrived in court to see her
:13:26. > :13:31.parents accused of murder, a charge their solicitor said they were
:13:31. > :13:35.denied. They have been charged with allegations of murder in relation
:13:35. > :13:40.to their daughter. They both deny all allegations, and the
:13:40. > :13:45.allegations will be contested in court. This story begins here in
:13:45. > :13:50.2004 at the River Kent in Cumbria, where Shafilea Ahmed's body was
:13:50. > :13:54.found and when police launched their murder investigation.
:13:54. > :13:57.Detectives have already arrested Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed on
:13:57. > :14:03.suspicion of kidnap. At the time, their solicitor said they were both
:14:03. > :14:10.innocent. They strenuously deny any direct or indirect involvement in
:14:10. > :14:15.their daughter's untimely demise. But ever since, when she went
:14:15. > :14:18.missing from her home in Warrington, police have believed she was the
:14:18. > :14:24.victim of a suspected honour killing. She drank bleach on a
:14:24. > :14:29.holiday to Pakistan, and friends said she was increasingly unhappy.
:14:29. > :14:33.Detectives, though, never charged their parents. In 2004, they were
:14:33. > :14:39.released from bail, left angry about what they had gone through.
:14:39. > :14:43.After nine months of hell, what you expect? Sorry, we're too upset to
:14:43. > :14:49.talk more today. Now, seven years after this interview, they were
:14:49. > :14:59.charged with murder. Tonight they have been remanded in custody. Once
:14:59. > :15:03.again, both face accusations that Coming up on tonight's programme:
:15:03. > :15:13.The court in Germany that held future eurozone bailouts in its
:15:13. > :15:13.
:15:13. > :15:16.It is nearly 10 years to the days since the shocking images of the
:15:16. > :15:20.9/11 terror attacks were beamed around the world. In Britain, the
:15:20. > :15:25.decade that followed has seen the London Underground atrocities and a
:15:25. > :15:27.huge shake-up of counter-terrorist policing, intelligence and
:15:27. > :15:37.community relations. Security correspondent Frank Gardner has
:15:37. > :15:39.
:15:39. > :15:46.been looking at whether we are any Oh, my God! What is happening?!
:15:46. > :15:55.day they said the world changed. On 9/11, Al-Qaeda hit America, then
:15:55. > :16:00.later Bali, Madrid and other In July 2005, it was London's turn.
:16:00. > :16:04.52 commuters blown up on their way to work. So what sort of terrorist
:16:04. > :16:08.threat does Britain face today? The Government has said the current
:16:08. > :16:12.threat level is substantial, only the third highest out of five, but
:16:12. > :16:18.it means an attack is still thought a strong possibility. The threats
:16:18. > :16:20.range from Al-Qaeda-inspired jihadists to dissident Irish
:16:20. > :16:25.republicans to loan a far-right extremists, like the man who
:16:25. > :16:29.attacked Oslo this summer. The early Post-9/11 rhetoric about a
:16:29. > :16:36.war on terror has given way to a more pragmatic approach. Terrorism
:16:36. > :16:41.is being treated for what it is, a crime. I am proud that some 240
:16:41. > :16:45.individuals have been subject to proper legal process and convicted
:16:46. > :16:50.of terrorist-related offences since 9/11. That is the way to deal with
:16:50. > :16:56.terrorist crime. So how effective as the response to terrorism
:16:56. > :17:01.beanie? That most of these is airport and physical security. --
:17:01. > :17:05.apps most of this. When these crash barriers went up outside Parliament,
:17:05. > :17:08.a lot of people were shocked, but we have got used to them, they are
:17:08. > :17:12.part of the world we live in. There is no clear answer as to whether we
:17:12. > :17:17.are safer now in Britain from terrorism than we were 10 years ago.
:17:17. > :17:24.We know more about the threat we are facing, but those threats have
:17:24. > :17:29.The mass hostage-taking and murder in Mumbai three years ago has led
:17:29. > :17:35.to joint police-SAS training and a major boost in police firepower.
:17:35. > :17:40.But counter-terrorism is also about foreign policy. The tallest
:17:40. > :17:44.building is up there! Britain's part in the Iraqi invasion have to
:17:44. > :17:47.recruit countless young men took Al-Qaeda's cause, increasing the
:17:47. > :17:52.danger to Britain. Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles has watched anti-
:17:52. > :17:56.Western resentment fester and grow. We have got to be tough on
:17:56. > :17:59.terrorism, tough on the causes. You have to have serious counter
:17:59. > :18:05.radicalisation programmes, but you need to look at the wider foreign
:18:06. > :18:10.policy issues. Why are young Muslim men and women so angry? In London's
:18:10. > :18:14.East End, this man hears their answers every day as he tries to
:18:14. > :18:19.stop them being radicalised. They speak of Afghanistan, Iraq,
:18:19. > :18:24.Palestine, Kashmir as long running grievances. To say that young
:18:24. > :18:27.people would not want to express their anger against the West for
:18:27. > :18:32.its interests by launching terrorist attacks would be very
:18:32. > :18:36.naive. I think we have still got a problem. Soon Britain will face its
:18:36. > :18:40.biggest peacetime security challenge, and they are taking no
:18:40. > :18:48.chances. Planning for the London Olympics is being made on the basis
:18:48. > :18:51.that an attempted terrorist attack A 35-year-old man arrested by
:18:51. > :18:55.officers investigating phone- hacking is thought to be the sports
:18:55. > :19:00.journalist Raoul Simons. He was appointed Deputy Football editor of
:19:00. > :19:05.the times in 2009 after moving from the London Evening Standard. He is
:19:05. > :19:08.the 15th person to be investigated over the scandal.
:19:08. > :19:13.Germany's highest court has rejected a challenge to the country
:19:13. > :19:16.bailing out the struggling members of the eurozone. The constitutional
:19:16. > :19:19.Court upheld Germany's participation in the recent rescue
:19:19. > :19:24.packages, but it ruled that any future bailouts would have to give
:19:24. > :19:27.the German parliament a bigger role. As Europe editor Gavin Hewitt
:19:27. > :19:32.reports from Berlin, the bailouts are becoming increasingly unpopular
:19:32. > :19:36.with Germans. These German judges had made
:19:37. > :19:41.European officials nervous. A lawsuit by six Germans had asked
:19:41. > :19:51.the constitutional court to declare the eurozone bailouts illegal. But
:19:51. > :19:51.
:19:51. > :19:55.The complaints are rejected. In a landmark judgment, the court ruled
:19:55. > :19:58.that the bailouts could continue, but they insisted the German
:19:58. > :20:03.parliament had to expressly approve further rescues, and that could
:20:03. > :20:08.prevent Germany responding swiftly to future crises. The battleground
:20:08. > :20:14.is now a German public opinion. That is the view of those who lost
:20:14. > :20:18.the court case. There is a growing uneasiness among the German people.
:20:18. > :20:24.The acceptance of the euro is not an -- now at an all-time low, with
:20:24. > :20:29.the effect that the acceptance of Europe and the EU is at an all-time
:20:29. > :20:34.low as well. And recent polls to suggest more than 60% of Germans
:20:34. > :20:39.now oppose further bailouts. Germany cannot always pay for
:20:39. > :20:43.everything and everyone. If it is just a bottomless pit, I would not
:20:43. > :20:48.be prepared to pay. The German parliament today began debating
:20:48. > :20:52.whether to support new powers for the eurozone bail-out fund. German
:20:52. > :21:02.Chancellor Angela Merkel said she had been vindicated by the court's
:21:02. > :21:02.
:21:02. > :21:07.decision and defended the single TRANSLATION: The euro is the
:21:07. > :21:11.guarantee of a united Europe. If the euro fails, then Europe fails.
:21:11. > :21:14.But moving through parliament's corridors, it is easy to find MPs
:21:14. > :21:22.of our opponents of further bailouts, even within Angela
:21:22. > :21:26.Merkel's own party. TRANSLATION: I cannot agree to further bailouts,
:21:26. > :21:29.because we will face huge burdens at gigantic risks for our future
:21:29. > :21:33.generations. The expectation here is that Germany will have to make
:21:33. > :21:38.further loans in the future, but the eurozone is heading towards
:21:38. > :21:48.much closer economic integration, and that is sparking anxiety as to
:21:48. > :21:48.
:21:48. > :21:51.what that will mean for of India's prime minister, Manmohan
:21:51. > :21:55.Singh, has condemned a bombing outside the High Court in New Delhi
:21:55. > :21:59.as a cowardly act of terrorism. At least 10 people died and more than
:21:59. > :22:02.60 were wounded when a device inside a briefcase went off near a
:22:02. > :22:06.security gate. The Scottish government wants to
:22:06. > :22:10.merge the country's eight police forces into one. The measure is
:22:10. > :22:14.among 50 new bells announced by First Minister Alex Salmond as part
:22:14. > :22:23.of its first programme for government since the SNP's
:22:23. > :22:26.landslide election victory in May. It is four months since Alex
:22:26. > :22:31.Salmond celebrated re-election. Today he renewed calls for
:22:31. > :22:36.Westminster to give Holyrood more economic cloud. The first objective
:22:36. > :22:40.in the constitution is to deliver much-needed job-creating powers of
:22:40. > :22:44.this Parliament. The voters put their trust in us and understand
:22:44. > :22:50.the SNP believe in independence. But it does not seem to be in any
:22:50. > :22:54.rush, so what are the early priorities? Police reform is at the
:22:54. > :22:59.centre of his law-making plans for the year ahead. Scotland's eight
:22:59. > :23:04.forces are to merge into one, the largest in the UK outside London.
:23:04. > :23:08.It is supposed to cut costs. Instead of officer numbers for pay
:23:08. > :23:13.and conditions, changes that are coming in England and Wales.
:23:13. > :23:16.Through restructuring in Scotland and hopefully removing a lot of the
:23:16. > :23:21.inefficiencies, then hopefully we can preserve the terms and
:23:21. > :23:24.conditions of police officers and staff. Another key measure is on
:23:24. > :23:31.alcohol misuse. Ministers hope setting a minimum price per unit
:23:31. > :23:33.for sales will reduce consumption, a proposal voted down at Holyrood
:23:33. > :23:38.before the SNP won its unprecedented mandate. Alex Salmond
:23:38. > :23:42.could get almost anything through the Scottish Parliament because,
:23:42. > :23:47.unlike any previous First Minister, his party won an overall majority
:23:47. > :23:52.of seats here at Holyrood. But he has chosen not to use that
:23:52. > :23:58.unrivalled power to bring forward an early referendum on independence
:23:58. > :24:02.for Scotland. He has a majority in this Parliament. He has a draft
:24:02. > :24:06.bill, or so he said. He has no credible excuse for not bringing
:24:06. > :24:11.that Bill forward. Politics professor John Curtice thinks the
:24:11. > :24:15.reasons are obvious. His playing a long game for two reasons. The
:24:15. > :24:19.first is that the opinion poll evidence shows he would not win a
:24:19. > :24:23.referendum if it were held tomorrow. England-Scotland are not convinced
:24:24. > :24:28.of the case for independence. -- people in Scotland. He is leaving
:24:28. > :24:32.the door open for a referendum about increasing the powers of the
:24:32. > :24:37.Scottish parliament, staying within the Union. The SNP says it will pop
:24:37. > :24:42.the independence question towards the end of its five-year term.
:24:42. > :24:46.A woman has been jailed for nine months for driving the wrong way at
:24:46. > :24:50.the M5 in Somerset while twice over the drink-drive limit and uninsured.
:24:50. > :24:54.Deborah Hunt was on the wrong carriageway of the motorway for 23
:24:54. > :25:00.miles. Police have described her driving as outrageously perilous.
:25:00. > :25:04.Jon Kay reports. It was on this dark stretch of the
:25:04. > :25:09.M5 that Deborah Hunt is said to have spread terror. Other drivers
:25:09. > :25:15.suddenly saw her head like speeding towards them. Cameras caught her
:25:15. > :25:21.Peugeot on the wrong side of the motorway at 60 mph. Vehicles
:25:21. > :25:26.swerved out of her way as she carried on for 20 miles, mainly in
:25:26. > :25:29.the so-called fast lane. Today, the mother of three came to be
:25:29. > :25:35.sentenced. After pleading guilty to dangerous driving, being drunk at
:25:35. > :25:39.the wheel and having no insurance. What you say to the people on the
:25:39. > :25:43.motorway that night? Inside, she was jailed for nine
:25:44. > :25:48.months. The judge said it was unbelievable that Deborah Hunt had
:25:48. > :25:54.driven at speed head on into motorway traffic here and there
:25:54. > :25:58.have not been a massive loss of life. She had even performed two U-
:25:58. > :26:02.turns on the carriageway. This was an outrageous act, an offence which
:26:02. > :26:07.is very serious and could have ended up in death or serious injury
:26:07. > :26:11.to anyone travelling on a very busy stretch of motorway. The court
:26:11. > :26:16.heard that she only stopped 20 minutes later when she eventually
:26:16. > :26:20.ran out of fuel. Officers said the 43-year-old was so drunk she could
:26:20. > :26:24.not explain why she had ended up there. Her lawyer said she had been
:26:24. > :26:29.drinking heavily after losing her job as a financial adviser and
:26:29. > :26:33.splitting up from her partner. As well as jailing her, the judge