08/12/2011 BBC News at Ten

Tonight at Ten: The talking has started at the most important EU

summit for many years. Their mission is to save the eurozone,

under intense pressure because of the dealt crisis, but David Cameron

arrives with concerns of his own. We need to get that stability in

the eurozone which is good for European countries, good for

Britain as well, and to protect Britain's interests. Those are the

aims, that is what we are discussing.

European leaders are urged to be constructive.

What I expect from all heads of the government is that they don't come

saying what they cannot do, about but what they will do for Europe.

All of the world is watching us. We have the latest from Brussels,

where the talking is expected to last into the early hours. Also

tonight: A red alert from the Met Office as

gale-force winds batter many parts of the UK.

An urgent inquiry into the school exam system after two examiners are

suspended amid claims they were caught cheating.

We're cheating. We are telling you the cycle. Probably, the regulator

will tell us off. And could this silent black and

white French film be on course for an Oscar? I'm here with Sportsday

later in the hour on the BBC News Channel as Wayne Rooney leaves

Switzerland with good news after a Good evening.

The talks has started, the bargaining is under way at the most

important European summit for many years. Leaders including David

Cameron are in Brussels tonight to consider a plan to ease the debt

crisis and to save the single currency. The French and the German

leaders want agreement on a new treaty. David Cameron wants a deal

that will protect British interests. Or Europe editor, Gavin Hewitt has

sent this report. Officials described this as the most critical

sit in the EU's history with the whole world watching. The French

President said that Europe had never been in such danger.

TRANSLATION: Everyone knows that if there is no agreement by Friday,

there will be no second chance. We need compromise and quick decisions.

So, what are the French President and the German Chancellor after?

They want to enforce greater budgetary discipline on the 17

eurozone countries. There would be automatic sanctions

against those who overspend. Such changes in their view require

treaty change. Threading his way through Brussels'

European quarter, David Cameron. He knows an EU treaty change needs a

British signature. In the UK, he had said he would safeguard the

British interests, especially the financial services and the single

market. REPORTER: What are you going to

say? These are important talks. We need stability in the eurozone it

is good for Britain as well. Also we need to protect Britain's

interests. The Prime Minister has a dilemma.

He said today he would use his veto if UK interests were not protected,

but block a deal and he risks further economic turmoil with

Britain isolated in Europe. Agree the deal and he risks angering some

in his party and possibly dividing his coalition.

In a clear reference to David Cameron, Angela Merkel speaking at

a pre-summit meeting, appealed for the help from those not in the

eurozone. TRANSLATION: I believe that what

unites us is that we all want to overcome this crisis, but I also

ask for understanding from those who do not have the Euro.

But there was hostility to meeting British demands.

A key eurozone official here said that he would not accept any deal

over financial services that favoured the UK.

But David Cameron was not entirely isolated. Other leaders too had

objections to treaty change. Treaty change or not, I think it is

not at the heart of what we have to do here tonight.

Before the dinner upstairs, David Cameron, Angela Merkel and Nicolas

Sarkozy metaphor 45 minutes, but there was no coming together.

Downing Street sources say that the Prime Minister was tough in setting

out his demands and a long difficult night ahead was expected.

Europe's leaders have made it clear that the future of the single

currency depends on this summit, but Europe is being asked to commit

to a big step towards closer integration.

For the leaders arriving here, the proposed changes touch on deep

issues like the sovereignty over national budgets. It is not only

Britain that has concerns. Well, at the heart of any credible

solution to the crisis, according to many observe sers the European

Central Bank. Today it decided to cut interest rates across the

eurozone, but played down the prospect of new financial support

for countries in trouble. The markets were unimpressed by that.

Our Economics Editor, Stephanie Flanders is here.

Well, the European Central Bank offered some support to Europe's

economy and to its banks, which the stress test revealed to be weaker

than we thought, but it did not offer a lifeline to sovereign

governments. The European Central Bank is

offering support to the European banks, but it is not offering

significant support to the sovereigns.

As this is a sovereign crisis, the ECB is basically doing very, very

little to address the crisis. To support the eurozone economy,

the Central Bank cut from rates by a quarter of a percentage point to

1%. That pushed up the European stock markets briefly, but they

soon tumbled when the investors heard from the ECB's President. For

Italy, it was enough to wipe out the effect of the US Treasury's

warm words for the new Prime Minister and his tough budget. The

Italian government's cost of brogue jumped up again to nearly 6.5%. So,

what signals did the ECB send? There was green light on support

for banks to ease the crunch in the markets now, the ECB is offering

banks longer term financing, but it will not rush to buy the government

debts in the markets to cut borrowing costs for countries such

as Italy. Most disappointing was what the President said about using

the Central Bank to produce a fire wall to protect troubled

governments, for example by getting it to lend a lot to the

International Monetary Fund. Mario Draghi stopped that scheming in its

tracks. Yes a treaty that says no monetary

financing to governments, so, the issue as to one could use the

situation as a Khan 7/11 complex, but the point of fact is that there

should be a respect of the spirit of the treaty. For many listening

that seemed to roul autoa lot. This is a man -- roul out a lot.

This is a man who must watch every word.

I wish our leaders the best and the ECB is here. It does not mean that

they will respond, by the way. Please, no! The ECB is there, it is

not letting governments off the hook.

But if leaders don't find a road from the crisis tomorrow, the

Central Bank may have to do more to rescue the eurozone's sinking

economy. Stephanie Flanders, thank you very

much. Let's go live to Brussels to talk to our Political Editor, Nick

Robertson. Gavin Hewitt or Europe editor. Gav Nick, what is the team

telling you about the British position? I think that they know

that the influence is limited. That Nicolas Sarkozy is not alone in

arguing that none of this is much to do with Britain as we are not in

the owe owe. Yet they know that the power could be great.

If the European Union is determined to have a new treaty, involving all

27 members, David Cameron has the power to say "no". Providing he is

willing to use that power, he can demand quite a lot. What he is

demanding, is this: That the City of London, that produces so much

tax revenue for Britain is treatied -- is treated pretty much the same

way as agriculture is in France. Special protection for it. He knows

he has to deliver with the MPs in his party, comparing him with a

pre-war appears, Neville Chamberlain, therefore the aides

are predicting a fight and a long night.

Gavin, what are you picking up from the European partners who take a

rather different view of some of these things? They do, the French

and the German leaders are making it clear. If they cannot get a deal

on treaty change with all 27 members of the EU they will be

satisfied to turn to the 17 members that make up the eurozone. What is

interesting, during the day, is that many of those countries that

are not in the eurozone have made it clear that they don't want a

deal like that. Why? They believe that there will be a two-speed

Europe. There will be ins and outs, that they will lose influence. They

are fighting that. On one hand that puts pressure on David Cameron to

come up with a deal. On the other hand, it gives him a very strong

hand in these negotiations. There is one other factor here.

David Cameron is a pressure is under pressure at home. So too is

Chancellor Angela Merkel and also President Nicolas Sarkozy of France,

who faces the accusation that in all of this he is handing over

French sovereignty. Gavin, thank you very much. Nick, a

final word to you, really, not maybe on the nitty-gritty of the

negotiations, but to underline what is at stake at this summit? Well,

for years, British governments of whatever colour have argued that

they don't want a two-speed Europe, even after we stayed out of the

single currency. The aim of Whitehall was to ensure we did not

go slower than everything else. Yet, if the eurozone finds a way to

coordinate its budgetary policy, its tax, the spending policies it

will coordinate more than that. Whether you are a Euro Hayter or a

sceptic or enthusiast, you have to recognise that this is a profound

change in Britain's relationship with much of the rest of Europe and

big questions will have to be asked. David Cameron has to make those

decisions pretty much on his own here tonight. His aides are not

allowed to anybody the room. He could adopt the tactic of John

Major 20 years ago at the Maastricht summit, so nervous about

the scale of the decisions he was about to take, that he secreted a

senior Foreign Office diplomat underneath the table, who would

pass UUP a note to suggest what to say next.

Thank you very much. Scotland is suffering the effects

of hurricane-strength winds. Buildings and cars damaged, schools

have been closed, travel is disrupted and many homes are

without power. Bad weather has affected parts of Wales and

Northern Ireland and closed roads in Kim breer and North Yorkshire.

This was Helensburgh, on the Firth of Clyde, as the storm rushed

ashore. It's been a long time since I've seen it quite so bad.

damage it does. And I was at work in Dumbarton and a big piece of

signage came flying off and hit the window so we decided to call it a

day and go home. The storm is peaking around now here on the

River Clyde. It's quite difficult to stand up against this wind. You

can really feel the full force of the gale. And, as it swept

eastwards across the country, so the danger Rose. In Aberdeen, the

Christmas decorations came down early that no shoppers were injured.

The owners of these cars had a lucky escape, too. A collapsing war

caused nothing worse than twisted metal and shock. We felt the

rumbling and the bang of the building that collapsed. Very scary.

Many children got a day off. This school closed at lunchtime, but

hundreds were shot all day. It's such a shame that our councils

didn't make a decision earlier in the day. The it's terrible. We

should have been notified this morning. That was it. This is why

schools were closed. The bus was empty, the driver and her to, but

it could have been packed with pupils when it blew over. When you

have the kind of information that the Scottish government was in

receipt of last night from the experts, the Met Office and the

police, then it was appropriate to act in the way we did and the

decisions, in my view, were correct. For much of the day Scotland was at

a standstill, as gusts on the mountain tops reached 165 mph. The

police advised against all travel in central Scotland. The conditions

were too harsh even for Scottish football. Hibs training session in

Edinburgh was called off. Too harsh, too, for this wind turbines in

Ayrshire, which failed in spectacular style. The waves and

the wind have taken their toll today. Police say they've dealt

with nearly 100 major incidents on Scotland's roads. And the storm is

now being followed in the north of the country by snow. But tonight's

biggest battle is to restore power. Engineers are struggling to

reconnect more than 60,000 homes. After a tough day, it will be a

cold night. Ministers have ordered swift action to restore confidence

in the school exam system, after allegations of cheating. Two

examiners have been suspended following claims that teachers were

given advice about the questions likely to feature in a coming

papers. - Matkin upcoming papers. The boards in charge of our

children's exams cheating their own systems, telling teachers the

answers to the questions they themselves have said? That is what

seems to be happening in this undercover filming, done by the

Daily Telegraph at a seminar for teachers run by the Welsh exam

board, WJCE. Examiners are allowed to give support and guidance but

here the examiner appears to go Examiners were apparently seen

telling teachers which areas pupils were likely to the questioned on,

and phrases to include in answers. The Welsh government is

investigating the claims and the exam board has taken action. In the

short term, those examiners have been suspended from their current

duties pending the investigation being completed. The paper's story

names English exam boards, too. Leading the Education Secretary to

set up an inquiry and to threaten top action. It could be the case

that exam boards lose the right to preside over exams. We want to

ensure that our exams are respected, the best in the world. As far as

I'm concerned, any powers that we need to invoke in order to get that,

we will use. This year, 10 class at West London School is soon due to

sit mock GCSEs. The exams watchdog, Ofqual, has warned it could pull

papers drawn up for next summer. The exam sector is a multi-million-

pound industry that is now under great pressure. The exam boards get

paid by schools to set their papers and compete with each other

fiercely. Meanwhile, head teachers need pupils to do well in the exams,

so the school does well in the league tables. The head teacher

here describe what influences a school to choose a particular board.

If an exam board was felt to be easier, it may play a part in a

school choosing that exam board. Because results matter and it may

be that the results would be higher for the school. Tonight the

Telegraph released more claims suggesting exam standards on to

being upheld. With time running out to restore faith in the system, the

watchdog has two week to report back. Coming up, protesting against

corporate greed. And the top banker In Zimbabwe, President Mugabe, who

is 87, has called for elections next year, as he attempts to win

another term in office. He was speaking at the ruling party's

Annual Congress in Bulawayo, where the delicate issue of who might

succeed him was not discussed. Mr Mugabe has been in power for the

past 31 years. But even after a power-sharing deal three years ago,

there remaineds serious concerns in the country. -- there remains

serious concerns in the country. He still has his fans here. President

Mugabe's based on almost every surface. His loyalists party as

Zimbabwe struggles. Imposing security, as the man himself but

arrives to declare he wants elections and another term in

office. We are saying time has come now for us to prepare for elections.

We have to have elections next year. In a year of revolutions, President

Mugabe has been mocked in this African fast food advert as the

last dictator. Today he hit back. Only a dead imperialist is a good

one. But after three decades, how much longer can the President keep

this going? He is 87 and reportedly in failing health. Behind the

scenes there is plenty of talk about life after Robert Mugabe. But

you wouldn't catch anyone here talking about that in public.

don't even imagines ZANU-PF without Mugabe. Because Mugabe, it is not

just physical. He is an idea of the party. In the real world Zimbabwe

is enjoying some stability, with a power-sharing government in place.

But the fear has not gone. This is still the land of nervous laughter.

Are you scared to talk about President Mugabe? I don't want to.

Why not? And I don't know. uncomfortable with the subject.

it difficult to talk about President Mugabe, what do you think

of him? No. I'm not comfortable talking about that either. And that

sense of political unease is hurting the economy, too. Business

is terrible. We survive, I think we've been able to keep things

going, but we are way below what the real potential of the economy

is. But President Mugabe still insists the outside world is to

blame, and only he can lead Zimbabwe to real freedom. A British

soldier from the Royal Engineers has died from injuries he sustained

in an explosion in Afghanistan on Tuesday. The soldier, from 35

Engineer Regiment, was brought back to the UK from the Nahr-e Saraj

district of Helmand province. He died in hospital in Birmingham. It

will take several years for the British economy to grow again at

the rate we enjoyed before the financial crash. That is the view

of Business Secretary Vince Cable, whose spoken to the BBC about the

lasting impact of the crisis. And the chairman of the Royal Bank of

Scotland has admitted his surprise that the public protest against the

big banks did not happen before now. Robert Peston has this exclusive

report. We didn't all have a Ferrari or a Roller. But the 16

years to 2008 was a golden age. Unbroken growth of 3% a year on

average. A consumer boom fuelled by debt. Ended by the crash. Now over.

Since then, we've had recession and near stagnation. How long do you

think it will take to reconstruct the British economy so that we can

have that kind of 3% growth on a sustainable basis? 3% growth and a

sustainable basis is quite ambitious. We're talking most of

that growth has got to come from innovation and technological change,

and achieving that would be very substantial. It's not going to

happen within months. We are talking years. Years. 5, 10 years?

There is no point in artificially putting a deadline on it.

transforming our economy into one in which we invest more and pay our

way in the world by exporting more than we spend may mean they have to

get used to flat or low growth. Would that be so terrible? 1% isn't

so bad. It means we are still growing. People. Sometimes to the

Japanese experience in the 1990s as having been shocking. How terrible

it was that growth in Japan flatlined for the better part of

the decade. But if you look at the Japanese population, they weren't

especially unhappy with their lot, they were perfectly content. This

arduous period of economic transition isn't universally

popular. And it's not unusual for the banks to be on the sharp end of

popular anger. What is your own view of the oche by Wall Street and

related popular campaigns? -- Occupy Wall Street. I'm surprised

it's taken so long. The financial crisis and the failure of banks and

so on has been going on for three years. Most people think it's going

on for a bit longer. I absolutely feel the sense of outrage about

what happened in the banking sector. I think it is absolutely

disgraceful that British banks for the first time in 300 years of

British banking needed massive taxpayer bail-out. Austerity, maybe

it's less a British base and more in the way of life. More grafting,

less shopping. You can see more of those interviews this Sunday on

BBC2 at 7pm in The Party's Over: How the West Went Bust, where

Robert looks at the prospects for a stronger British economy in the

coming decade. Among this year's more unlikely contenders for an

Oscar nomination is a silent film, a French romance called The Artist,

shot in black and white. What's more, the actors are mostly unknown.

The story takes place in Hollywood in the 1920s and 30s, as silent

movies slipped out of fashion. Our arts editor has been to see if all

the praise is justified. It's a silent movie that has got people

talking. The Artist has been a surprise hit of the festival

circuit, winning awards and receiving applause. It is a loving

pastiche of the silent movies made in Hollywood during the 1920s. An

era that ended abruptly with the introduction of the talkies, films

in which the audience could hear the actors speak. It was a way to

make a modern movie. It was very important to me not to try to make

a fake 1920s movie. The directors in the 20s, they didn't make silent

movies. They made movies. They didn't have the option. The plot is

simple. As the reputation of the unfashionable silent screen idol

sinks, so the career of a glamorous new actress with talking talent

rises. Of course the modern actors in the film had to take the reverse

journey. How easy was it for new stars to learn old tricks? It is

not intellectual, it is just instinctive. Your body does the

work. I was happy because I had fun pretending to be a movie star in

the 1920s. My energy, my movement, my face. This is the first and the

last silent-movie to win the Best Picture Oscar, and that was back in

1929. What chance then of The Artist repeating that feat nearly a

It is a beautifully short movie. It is sophisticated clever and very

funny. The plot is all about the rise and fall of the matinee idol.

In these times of our celebrity obsessed culture, it really is