Browse content similar to 10/10/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
Tonight at Ten: David Cameron's stark warning about Britain's | :00:09. | :00:14. | |
economic future. On the last day of the Conservative Conference, he | :00:14. | :00:22. | |
says the country has to face some hard truths. We are in a global | :00:22. | :00:27. | |
race today. That means an hour of reckoning for countries like ours. | :00:27. | :00:32. | |
Sink or swim, do or decline. the Prime Minister said he was | :00:32. | :00:35. | |
confident the Government had put Britain back on the right track. | :00:35. | :00:38. | |
We'll be asking if today's speech has changed the political debate. | :00:38. | :00:43. | |
Also tonight: The big deal is off. Plans to merge BAE with a Franco- | :00:43. | :00:46. | |
German defence firm have collapsed. The abuse allegations involving | :00:46. | :00:48. | |
Jimmy Savile will be investigated by an independent inquiry, says the | :00:48. | :00:58. | |
:00:58. | :00:59. | ||
BBC. I think it is clear that not only should the BBC have done more | :00:59. | :01:03. | |
but everybody should have done more. And, Lance Armstrong's doping | :01:03. | :01:12. | |
routine is judged to be the biggest ever in sport. Coming up: Lord | :01:12. | :01:17. | |
Treisman criticises the FA over their handling of John Terry. The | :01:17. | :01:27. | |
:01:27. | :01:39. | ||
former chairman says the Chelsea Good evening. David Cameron has | :01:39. | :01:42. | |
warned that Britain faces an hour of reckoning if it wants to remain | :01:42. | :01:46. | |
a competitive economy. He said the choice was to sink or swim. The | :01:46. | :01:48. | |
Prime Minister told the Conservative Conference that the | :01:48. | :01:51. | |
damage sustained by the economy had been worse than first thought and | :01:51. | :01:54. | |
would take longer to fix than he'd hoped. This report contains some | :01:54. | :02:04. | |
flash photography. Who is he really? What is his government for? | :02:04. | :02:09. | |
Why are they doing what they're doing? Questions David Cameron set | :02:09. | :02:13. | |
out to answer, which is odd, because it is more than two years | :02:13. | :02:18. | |
since he became Prime Minister. Questions still asked by a party | :02:18. | :02:22. | |
which is showing signs of having The Seven Year Itch with its leader. | :02:22. | :02:26. | |
Questions he started to address by issuing a stark warning to the | :02:26. | :02:32. | |
country. Unless we act, unless we take difficult, painful decisions, | :02:32. | :02:36. | |
unless we showed determination and imagination, Britain may not be in | :02:36. | :02:42. | |
the future what it has been in the past. Because the truth is this. We | :02:42. | :02:47. | |
are in a global race today. That means an hour of reckoning for | :02:47. | :02:53. | |
countries like ours. Sink or swim, do or decline. After the gloom was | :02:53. | :02:58. | |
meant to come hope. Captured in the conference slogan, Britain can | :02:58. | :03:06. | |
deliver, as it did this summer. There was pride from the games but | :03:06. | :03:11. | |
also raw emotion. I am so grateful for what the Paralympians did. When | :03:11. | :03:17. | |
I used to push my son, Ivan, around in his wheelchair, I used to think | :03:17. | :03:22. | |
that too many people saw the wheelchair and not the boy. I think | :03:22. | :03:26. | |
today more people would see the boy and not a wheelchair and that is | :03:26. | :03:31. | |
because of what happened in Britain this summer. At the heart of the | :03:31. | :03:35. | |
speech was an argument - that Britain could compete only if its | :03:35. | :03:40. | |
government curb spending, a reformed welfare and turned around | :03:40. | :03:45. | |
schools. The claim forced this admission. I know you are asking | :03:45. | :03:49. | |
whether our plan is working. It is the truth. The damage was worse | :03:49. | :03:54. | |
than we thought and it is taking longer than we hoped. He knows his | :03:54. | :03:58. | |
future hangs on whether voters conclude he needs more time to | :03:58. | :04:03. | |
finish the job or whether they back the Labour call for a plan be - a | :04:03. | :04:10. | |
plan he derides. Whatever the day, whatever the question, whatever the | :04:10. | :04:17. | |
measure, it is borrow more money. Labour, the party of One notion - | :04:17. | :04:22. | |
borrowing. It was by now all too clear that David Cameron has awoken | :04:22. | :04:26. | |
to the threat posed by it Ed Miliband and that speech last week. | :04:26. | :04:31. | |
We do not preach about one nation but practice class law, we get | :04:31. | :04:39. | |
behind people who want to get on in life. They call us the party of the | :04:39. | :04:48. | |
better off. No. We're the party of those who want to be better off. | :04:48. | :04:52. | |
was for the strivers, he said, that the Government's welfare reforms | :04:52. | :04:57. | |
work as ambitious as Bevan after the war. He said his school reforms | :04:57. | :05:02. | |
were a battle of the left-wing establishment with a toxic culture | :05:02. | :05:08. | |
of low expectations. For those that say, he wants children to have the | :05:08. | :05:13. | |
kind of education he had at his posh school, do you know what I | :05:13. | :05:17. | |
say? Yes, you are absolutely right. They went to a great school and | :05:17. | :05:25. | |
want every child to have that sort of education. I am here to spread | :05:25. | :05:30. | |
privilege and not defend it. After a week that has been about facing | :05:30. | :05:34. | |
up to sew the reality, the Tory leader tried to rouse his | :05:34. | :05:39. | |
supporters by sprinkling them with the spirit of Team GB. This is the | :05:39. | :05:45. | |
country that invented the computer, defeated the Nazis, fort of every | :05:45. | :05:49. | |
invader for 1000 years, the event persuaded the Queen to jump out of | :05:49. | :05:54. | |
a helicopter to make the world smile. There is nothing we cannot | :05:54. | :05:59. | |
do. Let's get deficit down, gross fired up, aspiration backed all | :05:59. | :06:08. | |
away. We know what it takes to win. Let's get out there and do it. | :06:08. | :06:11. | |
is not the speech that David Cameron once dreamed of delivering. | :06:12. | :06:17. | |
He could not claim that job has been done. He had tried to convince | :06:17. | :06:22. | |
these people and the country better still could be done. Next year may | :06:22. | :06:31. | |
well be as difficult as the last one. He tried to answer all those | :06:31. | :06:35. | |
who question his motives. And Nick Robinson is back in London now. And | :06:35. | :06:42. | |
he is in Downing Street for us tonight. Let's just talk about that | :06:42. | :06:46. | |
speech and ask you whether you think the content to day amounted | :06:46. | :06:54. | |
to not just a new appeal but a new political argument. -- today. | :06:54. | :06:57. | |
think the Prime Minister was trying to take the short-term argument | :06:57. | :07:02. | |
about the deficit and lack of economic growth Macro and turn it | :07:02. | :07:07. | |
into a bigger long-term argument about how to arrest the national | :07:07. | :07:11. | |
decline. Decline not just against China and India but other big | :07:11. | :07:18. | |
developing economies like Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia and the like. He | :07:18. | :07:23. | |
said that involved curbing spending and reforming welfare and education | :07:23. | :07:27. | |
as well. Strikingly, David Cameron presented himself in a different | :07:27. | :07:35. | |
way. Gone for -- Khan was the man from Notting Hill with urban | :07:35. | :07:40. | |
concerns. In its place was the boy from Berkshire, the man he was | :07:40. | :07:47. | |
emphasising rather traditional Tory values. Values of hard work, | :07:47. | :07:51. | |
aspiration, insisting those who are privileged had to spread that | :07:51. | :07:56. | |
privilege. In a sense today, at the Tory conference and it all the | :07:56. | :08:01. | |
conferences, we have yet to see any Newby policy idea that lots of | :08:01. | :08:06. | |
important political positioning. Ed Miliband has talked about one- | :08:06. | :08:11. | |
nation Labour in Nick Clegg has said his party is now one of three | :08:11. | :08:16. | |
parties of government. What was my striking about the Prime Minister | :08:16. | :08:21. | |
today was there was not a single word about coalition or the Liberal | :08:21. | :08:29. | |
Democrats and not a mention of Nick Clegg. A planned merger between | :08:29. | :08:32. | |
Britain's biggest manufacturer, BAE Systems, and the European aerospace | :08:32. | :08:35. | |
giant, EADS, has been abandoned. The deal needed the approval of the | :08:35. | :08:37. | |
British, French and German governments but it seems the | :08:37. | :08:39. | |
objections of German ministers couldn't be overcome. The merger | :08:39. | :08:41. | |
would have created the world's biggest defence and aviation | :08:41. | :08:51. | |
:08:51. | :08:52. | ||
company, overtaking the US firm Boeing. It would have been a merger | :08:52. | :09:01. | |
on a huge scale. The idea to join the only British maker of fighter | :09:01. | :09:06. | |
aircraft, BAE Systems come up with the European owners of Airbus. | :09:06. | :09:11. | |
After days of rumour, at lunchtime, the BBC broke the news that the | :09:11. | :09:18. | |
deal is dead. The company behind Airbus is effectively part owned by | :09:18. | :09:23. | |
the French and German governments. They both wanted stakes in the new | :09:23. | :09:26. | |
venture but discussions about the size of the share and level of | :09:26. | :09:31. | |
control scuppered the deal. The chairman of BAE told the BBC that | :09:31. | :09:35. | |
Germany had become more intransigent. That would have made | :09:35. | :09:42. | |
it hard for the UK to agree. view is that for this company as a | :09:43. | :09:46. | |
merged entity to be successful it would have had to operate as a | :09:46. | :09:50. | |
commercial company free of any undue control and influence by a | :09:50. | :09:54. | |
single government. This deal was so complex that the various | :09:55. | :09:59. | |
governments involved could not agree. In the financial heart of | :09:59. | :10:06. | |
the city, wake up behind me, it has left many wondering where does this | :10:06. | :10:14. | |
leave BAE Systems? It employs 35,000 people, making military | :10:14. | :10:18. | |
aircraft, warships and even submarines. With defence budgets in | :10:18. | :10:24. | |
the West shrinking, the big concern is jobs, especially in places like | :10:24. | :10:29. | |
Lancashire. What this means is that jobs here are probably safe and | :10:29. | :10:33. | |
they can look forward to a bright future probably for the next 15 | :10:33. | :10:38. | |
years. It makes sense to create a European company to compete with | :10:38. | :10:44. | |
the American giants. A similar story at Barrow in finesse where | :10:44. | :10:49. | |
they build a nuclear submarine. Some claim this company could | :10:49. | :10:55. | |
become a takeover target. This is a missed opportunity for BAE. Some | :10:55. | :10:58. | |
will believe the company will be vulnerable to the Americans - | :10:58. | :11:05. | |
perhaps one of the major American companies - looking at it. We could | :11:05. | :11:10. | |
see the break-up of BAE Systems because of this. We could see | :11:10. | :11:16. | |
another attempt for EADS and BAE to get together again. BAE says the | :11:16. | :11:21. | |
merger was an opportunity and not a necessity. Its shares fell today | :11:21. | :11:25. | |
and there could be more choppy waters ahead. Police are | :11:25. | :11:27. | |
questioning two people, arrested at Heathrow Airport last night, on | :11:27. | :11:30. | |
suspicion of committing terrorism offences. The man and woman are | :11:30. | :11:33. | |
both British and they are being held on suspicion of travelling to | :11:33. | :11:36. | |
Syria in support of alleged terrorist activity. Our security | :11:36. | :11:46. | |
:11:46. | :11:47. | ||
correspondent is here. What more can you tell us? The 26-year-old | :11:47. | :11:51. | |
man and 26-year-old woman were picked up at Heathrow Airport | :11:51. | :11:57. | |
yesterday off a flight from Egypt. It is not a random stop. It is an | :11:57. | :12:03. | |
ongoing investigation into travel to Syria for terrorist reasons. One | :12:03. | :12:08. | |
line of inquiry is a link to the abduction - the holding - of two | :12:08. | :12:12. | |
journalists, including a British Sunday Times journalist in Syria | :12:12. | :12:18. | |
over the summer. The Sunday Times journalist said he was held by a | :12:18. | :12:24. | |
judge hardest group and an NHS doctor who was on a two-year | :12:24. | :12:28. | |
sabbatical from an NHS hospital in London as part of this group. | :12:28. | :12:31. | |
Police are not commenting on whether or not one of the people | :12:31. | :12:36. | |
picked up might be that Dr that they are investigating a potential | :12:36. | :12:42. | |
leak. No one has been charged yet. It is a sign the authorities are | :12:42. | :12:46. | |
looking into these Britons who are going to Syria to fight. Some of | :12:46. | :12:51. | |
them with the Free Syrian Army which the Government broadly | :12:51. | :12:55. | |
supports. Some, a small number of Britons, are going out to fight | :12:55. | :13:00. | |
with these groups. They are the ones the authorities are worried | :13:00. | :13:06. | |
about. They might be turned battle- hardened and dangerous. The BBC | :13:06. | :13:09. | |
will appoint an independent figure to lead an inquiry into the scandal | :13:09. | :13:13. | |
surrounding Jimmy Savile. He has been accused of abusing as many as | :13:14. | :13:18. | |
25 young women and girls during his long career. Lord Patten said the | :13:18. | :13:28. | |
:13:28. | :13:29. | ||
investigation would begin as soon It was a headstone honouring a | :13:29. | :13:32. | |
local hero. This morning it was gone. Removed and destroyed by his | :13:32. | :13:40. | |
family. Meanwhile in London, facing the questions, Lord Patten, the | :13:40. | :13:45. | |
head of the BBC Trust, the body that oversees the corporation. He | :13:45. | :13:49. | |
said yes, the BBC should have done more in the past, given the rumours. | :13:49. | :13:55. | |
Now then, now then, now then... Then what about this, a tribute to | :13:55. | :13:58. | |
Sir Jimmy Savile broadcast after the head of the BBC was told | :13:58. | :14:04. | |
Newsnight was investigating Savile. Give us a kiss then. The director | :14:04. | :14:08. | |
of television knows of this investigation, knows that there are | :14:08. | :14:13. | |
these issues about Sir Jimmy Savile and then still broadcasts an | :14:13. | :14:17. | |
affectionate tribute to Jimmy Savile a few weeks later. He didn't | :14:17. | :14:21. | |
know the terms of the investigation. He must have had an idea? He knew | :14:21. | :14:26. | |
it was an investigation into rumours about Jimmy Savile. For | :14:26. | :14:30. | |
years, if we're to believe newspaper editors and others, for | :14:30. | :14:35. | |
years, people have known about the rumours surrounding Jimmy Savile. | :14:35. | :14:40. | |
It didn't stop anybody writing pieces about him. That was wrong. | :14:40. | :14:47. | |
It was wrong at the BBC that we were part of that culture. Those | :14:47. | :14:51. | |
rumours were very well known. An Irish radio programme put them | :14:51. | :14:56. | |
directly to Jimmy Savile five years ago. What claims of abuse? Claims | :14:56. | :15:00. | |
of abuse with you and young children? Oh, never heard of it in | :15:00. | :15:04. | |
my life. Never heard of it? Never heard of it. It was mentioned in | :15:04. | :15:09. | |
that documentary. No, it wasn't at all. Then there's the question of | :15:09. | :15:15. | |
the special access Jimmy Savile had. A former resident of the Duncroft | :15:15. | :15:19. | |
Approved School for girls said he was the only man allowed to use a | :15:19. | :15:23. | |
flat there. At Stoke Mandeville he had an office and a flat. He of | :15:23. | :15:29. | |
course, he ped raise money for the hospital, but one former patient | :15:29. | :15:34. | |
said nurses didn't always welcome his ward visits. There was an air | :15:34. | :15:38. | |
of resignation, something you had to put up with. There was some | :15:38. | :15:42. | |
ironic chatter between them about who would be the lucky one to go | :15:42. | :15:48. | |
off with him to his room. Then as one of the nurses was leaving or | :15:48. | :15:54. | |
passing by my bed, she said, "And the best thing you can do is stay | :15:54. | :15:58. | |
in bed until he's gone and pretend to be asleep." The hospital says it | :15:58. | :16:04. | |
was unaware of any inappropriate behaviour. Meanwhile more people | :16:04. | :16:10. | |
have approached the police. The allegations are growing day by day. | :16:10. | :16:15. | |
Coming up tonight: New research into the storms raging on the | :16:15. | :16:25. | |
:16:25. | :16:26. | ||
surface of the sun. The US Government denies claims | :16:26. | :16:33. | |
that its consulate in Benghazi was inadequately protected when their | :16:33. | :16:37. | |
ambassador died there last night. The former head of the US military | :16:37. | :16:43. | |
team in Libya told a Congressional hearing that the security was weak | :16:43. | :16:46. | |
and a struggle. Our North America editor Mark Mardell reports. The | :16:47. | :16:50. | |
American ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens and three of his colleagues, | :16:50. | :16:54. | |
died in an attack on the US compound in Benghazi. There were | :16:54. | :16:59. | |
five special agents on guard. The ambassador had repeatedly asked for | :16:59. | :17:02. | |
tighter security. Initially the American government linked the | :17:02. | :17:07. | |
attack to protests against an anti- Muslim film. Now they say it was a | :17:07. | :17:11. | |
terrorist attack. The committee will come to order... Republicans | :17:11. | :17:16. | |
are outraged at the change. It was September 11th, the 11th | :17:16. | :17:21. | |
anniversary of the greatest terrorist attack in US history, in | :17:21. | :17:25. | |
New York, Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon. It was that anniversary | :17:25. | :17:29. | |
that caused an organisation, aligned with Al-Qaeda, to attack | :17:29. | :17:33. | |
and kill our personnel. This isn't just about why the attack took | :17:33. | :17:36. | |
place. The central charge against the people here at the State | :17:36. | :17:40. | |
Department is that they ignored repeated requests for greater | :17:40. | :17:43. | |
security for political reasons. With only a month before an | :17:43. | :17:48. | |
election, that's a very political charge. Mitt Romney has put the | :17:48. | :17:51. | |
attack at the heart of his accusation that President Obama | :17:51. | :17:57. | |
doesn't stand up for America. latest assault can't be blamed on a | :17:57. | :18:02. | |
reprehensible video insulting Islam, despite the administration's | :18:02. | :18:06. | |
attempts to convince of us of that. The administration has finally | :18:06. | :18:09. | |
conceded these attacks were the deliberate work of terrorists. | :18:09. | :18:13. | |
committee heard that security was a struggle. There are allegations | :18:13. | :18:16. | |
numbers of agents were kept artificially low. Those on the | :18:16. | :18:21. | |
ground wanted 15 special agents, they got only seven. What's | :18:21. | :18:24. | |
infuriating is that we have hundreds of terrorist types of | :18:24. | :18:28. | |
activities, our consulate is bombed twice. The British ambassador has | :18:28. | :18:33. | |
an anas nation attempt and you're over here arguing about whether the | :18:33. | :18:37. | |
number is five or two or five or three. Democrats say budget cuts | :18:37. | :18:41. | |
backed by Republicans are really to blame and some think the whole | :18:41. | :18:45. | |
situation was out of control. easy to blame someone else, like a | :18:45. | :18:48. | |
civil servant at the State Department. We all know the game. | :18:48. | :18:51. | |
We want to stop the attacks on our embassies, let's stop trying to | :18:52. | :18:56. | |
overthrow governments. One security official has said another six | :18:56. | :18:59. | |
agents, another foot of wall would have made no difference, but this | :18:59. | :19:04. | |
is now about something bigger and the State Department looks at least | :19:04. | :19:08. | |
complacent. Jeremy Forrest, the teacher who | :19:09. | :19:13. | |
travelled to France with a 15-year- old pupil, has tonight been charged | :19:13. | :19:16. | |
with child abduction after being extradited to the UK. Mr Forrest, | :19:16. | :19:20. | |
who is 30 and married, flew back to Gatwick Airport from Bordeaux this | :19:20. | :19:26. | |
afternoon. He's due to appear before magistrates tomorrow. | :19:26. | :19:30. | |
An official report has concluded that the former Tour De France | :19:30. | :19:33. | |
winner, Lance Armstrong, was at the centre of the most stpit Kateed | :19:33. | :19:38. | |
doping programme the sport has ever seen. The US Anti-Doping Agency has | :19:38. | :19:41. | |
published more than a thousand pages of evidence against the | :19:41. | :19:45. | |
cyclist who won the Tour De France a record seven times after he | :19:46. | :19:48. | |
recovered from cancer. Let's speak to our sports correspondent James | :19:48. | :19:52. | |
Pearce. We've talked about his cheating before. It's the scale of | :19:52. | :19:55. | |
it that is now apparent. That's right. We've heard some of these | :19:55. | :19:59. | |
allegations before. It's the sheer volume which makes today's | :19:59. | :20:04. | |
developments quite so extraordinary. 26 people have testified, 11 of | :20:04. | :20:07. | |
them former team-mates. We're told Armstrong wasn't just a drug taker. | :20:07. | :20:11. | |
He was an enforcing encouraging other people to get involved in | :20:12. | :20:15. | |
testing. Armstrong's lawyer has described this as a one-sided | :20:15. | :20:19. | |
hatchet job, the evidence appears to be overwhelming. Not just about | :20:19. | :20:24. | |
Armstrong. We're told in the Tour De France from 1999 until 2005, the | :20:24. | :20:30. | |
21 people who finished on podium in the top three 20 of those 21 are | :20:30. | :20:33. | |
tainted by drugs. Some serious questions for the authorities as | :20:33. | :20:37. | |
well. This report really backs up evidence from some cyclists that | :20:37. | :20:41. | |
Lance Armstrong failed a drugs test in 2001, which was covered up. The | :20:41. | :20:44. | |
record from the Anti-Doping Agency concludes by saying, "So ends one | :20:44. | :20:49. | |
of the most sordid chapters in sports history." Some might debate | :20:49. | :20:56. | |
whether or not it's ended. I don't think anyone will doubt it's sorted. | :20:56. | :21:01. | |
An Appeal Court in Russia has unexpectedly released one of the | :21:01. | :21:04. | |
three members of the punk group Pussy Riot, who was jailed in | :21:04. | :21:08. | |
August. The judge suspended the two year sentence given to Yekaterina | :21:08. | :21:13. | |
Samutsevich after ruling she played little part in a demonstration | :21:13. | :21:16. | |
against President Putin. Her two band mates were sents back to | :21:16. | :21:17. | |
prison. From Moscow, our correspondent Steve Rosenberg | :21:17. | :21:23. | |
reports. She was free, but she didn't get far. Released after more | :21:23. | :21:27. | |
than six months in jail, Yekaterina Samutsevich was mobbed by | :21:27. | :21:37. | |
:21:37. | :21:38. | ||
supporters and journalists. But she was soon in the arms of her father. | :21:38. | :21:45. | |
"I'm pleased, but I feel bad for the others, who didn't get out." | :21:45. | :21:49. | |
In court, Samutsevich's two-year prison term was commuted to a | :21:49. | :21:52. | |
suspended sentence. But the two other Pussy Riot activists failed | :21:52. | :22:02. | |
:22:02. | :22:03. | ||
in their appeals. They'll be sent to a prison colony. Maria Alyokhina | :22:03. | :22:06. | |
said, we've been jailed for our political beliefs. Even if we're | :22:06. | :22:11. | |
sent to Siberia now, we won't stay silent. | :22:11. | :22:15. | |
Then again, Pussy Riot never has. The band has played outside a | :22:15. | :22:19. | |
prison, where anti-government protesters were jailed. They've | :22:20. | :22:25. | |
screamed "down with Putin" on Red Square. It's this stunts at | :22:25. | :22:29. | |
Moscow's main cathedral which put three of them behind bars. They | :22:29. | :22:34. | |
beseeched the virgin Mary to rid Russia of Vladimir Putin in. Court | :22:34. | :22:36. | |
today Yekaterina Samutsevich's defence lawyer argued that her | :22:36. | :22:39. | |
client should be treated more leniently because she hadn't been | :22:39. | :22:44. | |
given the chance to perform the controversial punk prayer at the | :22:44. | :22:49. | |
cathedral. Even before she had taken her guitar out of its case | :22:49. | :22:55. | |
Samutsevich was detained and taken from the building. Earlier, | :22:55. | :22:58. | |
opponents of Pussy Riot held their protest outside the court house. | :22:58. | :23:02. | |
The female punk group is out of tune with public opinion here. Many | :23:02. | :23:08. | |
Russians believe even a two-year prison sentence is too lenient. | :23:08. | :23:12. | |
Yekaterina Samutsevich has apologised for offending orthodox | :23:12. | :23:15. | |
believers. But as she goes free, she still doesn't accept she | :23:15. | :23:24. | |
committed any crime. Parts of northern Britain have | :23:25. | :23:27. | |
witnessed the Northern Lights this week triggered by a violent storms | :23:27. | :23:31. | |
raging on the surface of the sun. But the stream of particles | :23:31. | :23:37. | |
creating the displays can be disruptive to satellite navigation | :23:37. | :23:40. | |
systems and scientists estimate the systems can lose significant | :23:40. | :23:43. | |
accuracy during the worst solar storms. Our science editor David | :23:43. | :23:45. | |
Shukman reports on the latest research on the Arctic islands of | :23:45. | :23:54. | |
Svalbard. A remote valley in Svalbard in the high Arctic leads | :23:54. | :23:58. | |
to one of the loan least research stations in the world. It's perched | :23:58. | :24:04. | |
on a mountainside. It's a steep climb to reach it. But this is the | :24:04. | :24:08. | |
best location to investigate the extraordinary power of the sun. A | :24:08. | :24:13. | |
giant flare from the surface. This is a solar storm. It's a | :24:13. | :24:16. | |
mesmerising sight, but scientists say this space weather can disrupt | :24:16. | :24:24. | |
modern life by damaging signals from satellites. Lisa is one of the | :24:24. | :24:27. | |
scientists here. She has to Carrie a gun because polar bears are a | :24:27. | :24:33. | |
real threat. But she needs to be here to measure how solar activity | :24:33. | :24:37. | |
can affect satellite navigation. Everyone has sat nav in their cars. | :24:37. | :24:42. | |
It's something we almost take for granted. These days, what we need | :24:42. | :24:48. | |
to research is how the GPS systems are actually affected by solar | :24:48. | :24:52. | |
storms and by this huge amount of energy that's coming into the earth | :24:52. | :24:57. | |
and affecting the signals. When that solar energy strikes, you get | :24:57. | :25:01. | |
the Northern Lights, the famous swirl of particles in the upper | :25:01. | :25:05. | |
atmosphere. This can distort the GPS system on a serious scale. What | :25:05. | :25:09. | |
the scientists are finding out here is the true extent of that effect. | :25:09. | :25:12. | |
They've measured how severe conditions can lead it a huge loss | :25:12. | :25:19. | |
in accuracy. How much of a distortion could you get during a | :25:19. | :25:25. | |
solar storm? Well, if you have a very large solar storm and you are | :25:25. | :25:33. | |
far enough north you can get up to tens of metres. Tens of metres? | :25:33. | :25:40. | |
exactly. In the Arctic, accurate sat nav is vital. For most of us an | :25:40. | :25:45. | |
error might not matter that much. But for ships and search and rescue | :25:45. | :25:49. | |
up here in the far north, pin-point navigation could be a matter of | :25:49. | :25:55. | |
life and death. The more we've come to rely on sat nav, in fact | :25:55. | :25:58. | |
anything involving satellite technology, the more critical | :25:58. | :26:01. | |
research like this has become into trying to understand space weather | :26:02. | :26:05. | |
and ideally working out a way of forecasting its most damaging | :26:05. | :26:09. |