22/11/2012 BBC News at Ten

Tonight at 10pm: High stakes in Brussels as leaders try to agree a

new European budget. One by one the leaders arrive,

ready to debate a real terms increase in spending, but some

disagree. It is time for a busy day!

In a hectic round of talks David Cameron says no rise can be

justified at a time of austerity. At a time when we are making

difficult decisions at home over public spending, it is quite wrong

for there to be proposals about increased extra spending in the EU.

We'll have the latest from Brussels, where leaders are now considering a

new budget proposal. Also tonight: The BBC's new

Director General is Tony Hall who used to be the corporation's head

of news. It has been a really tough few weeks for this organisation. I

know we can get through it by listening patiently, by thinking

carefully about what to do next. Dozens of flood warnings in place

across parts of Britain, as heavy rain and strong winds cause

disruption. Israeli troops withdraw from the

Gaza border as the ceasefire seems to hold.

And the referee accused of racism by Chelsea will not be charged. The

FA says there is no case to answer. Coming up: Rafah Benitez has met

his players and the press for the Good evening. European leaders are

meeting in Brussels tonight to try to agree the future size of the EU

budget. David Cameron is opposing plans for an increase. He says that

wouldn't acceptable at a time of austerity. But he is also opposing

any plan to reduce Britain's budget rebate. The search for a compromise

has been going on all day, as our Europe editor reports.

As the leaders swept into Brussels, the question was: Had they come to

argue or had they come to agree on a new seven-year budget for the EU?

All eyes were on David Cameron, regarded as the potential spoiler,

the leader who insists on a budget freeze or cut. We will be

negotiating hard for a good deal for Britain's taxpayers and to keep

the British rebate. The Prime Minister was first in to

see the key European officials to make his case. A scheduled 15

minute meeting became 35 and the prediction afterwards, there was a

long way to go. Outside other leaders were writing and their

message to Britain? Be ready to compromise. We all have some

preconditions and we all must be ready for compromises, otherwise we

don't have a compromise. David Cameron did have allies, like the

Swedish leader. We are like minded in the view that we one the overall

spending levels to come down. -- we want. The it has been a day of

trying to build alliances, but even the Dutch Prime Minister warned

against using a veto. Keep your loaded gun in your pocket, he said.

There is a fundamental divide. On one side are those who pay in more

than they get out. Germany ends up spending 11 billion euros, the UK

is next with over 7 billion. But others get more out than they put

in. Poland receives nearly 11 billion euros, Greece over four.

Those countries which receive big EU grants have joined forces to

oppose any cuts. The original proposal envisaged a budget of over

one trillion euros. A later plan reduce that by 80 billion, and does

involve a slight cut. The British say that this latest proposal is a

step in the right direction but does not go far enough and they are

having to resist calls to reduce the British rebate as part of any

potential deal. The problem is that the closer you look macro officials

get to the British position, the more it alienates others -- the

closer Europe officials get to the British position. Already, farmers

are protesting, fearing reduced farming subsidies, and they got the

backing today from the French president. Sometime this evening, a

new budget proposal will emerge and will be passed to the leaders. That

document may well determine whether agreement can be reached here or

with that there will be deadlock. Let's get the latest from Nick

Robinson, who is following the events at the summit. Two aims for

Mr Cameron. He does not want a rise in the Budget and he does not what

a cut in the British rebate. Is he making any progress?

He is waiting to find out because although the Prime Minister has

been in this building since but this time, all of the leaders of

the EU have not yet sat down together. In fact they are

gathering as we speak to sit down for talks, and all of them are

waiting to find out what a man who is chairing this summit, Herman van

Rompuy, thinks might be a way through. On -- one diplomatic

source has just told me he thinks he has made very little progress

indeed. In other words, trying to get all of those interests around

the table and to find a compromise is proving difficult. The current

plan that the Prime Minister has been talking about does allow him

to say that planned spending in the EU will be cut. Planned spending is

an important phrase because it is like a credit card limit for their

EU, it is not the actual amount that this place Benz, which could

rise. On the rebate, the current proposal is that Britain should

lose some of its rebate by David Cameron says no, he will not agree

to that. But the countries around the table are not waiting for a big

total figure for the Budget, they have all got interests. Farmers,

infrastructure, subsidies for regions and their own rebates. That

is what they will be haggling in the hours to come. Mr Cameron is

perhaps unique, not just for having to negotiate with 26 other

countries with the two President of Europe, but also knowing, in his

head, that he is negotiating with the coalition of the Labour Party

and Tory Euro-sceptic rebels who defeated him in the Commons,

calling for a budget cut just a couple of weeks ago.

The BBC has a new Director General. Tony Hall is currently chief

executive of the Royal Opera House and a former director of news at

the BBC. Lord Hall succeeds George Entwistle, who resigned earlier

this month following allegations of child abuse made by Newsnight,

which wrongly implicated Lord McAlpine. Tony Hall will take

control in March and he said today he was confident the BBC would get

over its difficulties and rebuild its reputation.

The new man brought in to run the BBC is an outsider who was once an

insider. Tony Hall has run the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden

for 11 years but he started at the BBC as a young news trainee, who

rose to become head of news and current affairs, and since he has

kept abreast of broadcasting as a director of Channel 4. Today he was

already sounding like an insider again. The reason I am standing

before you today is because I care passionately about the BBC, about

what it can do, its programme makers and the impact we have in

all sorts of different ways. It is one of those extraordinary

organisations which is an absolutely essential part of the UK,

of Britain, of who we are. appointment was widely welcomed but

there were questions about the way it was made. He was the only

candidate, approached just a few days ago. I don't think that given

what has happened to the BBC in the last couple of months, it would

have made any sense to have spent another four months going through a

similar process to the one we went through before. If we had spent the

next four months on this, you would have all been telling us we were

off our trolley! The BBC Trust is also facing criticism for the last

Director General's pay-offs. George Entwistle left after 54 days with a

year's salary. Today it emerged he was also given a year's private

health cover, �25,000 for legal fees and �10,000 and handling the

press. MPs on the Public Accounts Committee were horrified.

demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of how this is viewed

in the public domain, given that it is licence-fee payers money.

BBC is still reeling from the Jimmy Savile affair, now the subject of

inquiries. And from the recent Newsnight programme that wrongly

implicated Lord McAlpine in child abuse and led to George Entwistle's

departure. Tony Hall's top priority: Restoring public

confidence. This is the same BBC that when it came out of the

Olympics everybody said how wonderful it was, so Tony only

needs to conjure up a few sensible and come steps to move forward for

people to wonder what the last few months have all been about. Tony

Hall has a good record for sorting out troubled institutions. At

Covent Garden, they had had 3G executives in three years before he

arrived to put it back on an even keel. The BBC approached him about

the top job last year. He turned it down saying he thought they needed

someone younger. Now they need his experience. This afternoon he was

to ring the BBC's headquarters, meeting newsroom staff -- he was

touring. The BBC's reputation has taking a knock, and they hope that

Tony Hall is the man to rebuild it. Severe weather has caused flooding

in many parts of Britain with hundreds of homes evacuated. The

areas worst affected include south- west England, the Midlands, north

and west Wales, Cumbria, and parts of Scotland. More heavy rain and

strong winds are forecast tonight. The force of nature. Puns of water

on the move, impossible to control. The roads of Llanberis in North

Wales suddenly transformed into a raging torrent. The damage is done

in minutes, assessing the cost to this community, drying out,

clearing out. It will take much longer. I have lived here for 44

years and I have never seen it like this. Now I am in my 60s and I have

never seen the village in this condition. It was terrible when it

came in. It didn't give us any chance to get hold of anything.

Rain at like this always means travel chaos, plenty of that today.

The A55, is soaking, Sutton car- park. Frustrating. -- sodden. But

for the patients at this hospice in Cumbria, things were more serious

or stop water cascading meant seven patients were evacuated as the

deluge continued. As of tonight, it is not clear when they can return.

We are used to flooding but we have never seen anything like it. We had

to have a mountain rescue come to help us. We had to get our

colleagues at a neighbouring hospice in Lancaster to take

impatience for us. Across south- west England, the wind has been a

striking feature of the weather. Many bridges have been closed but

far more significant perhaps is the heavy rain arriving tonight. The

problem is not just all the rain that has fallen in the past 24

hours, but more rain is predicted in the coming days. It is the fact

that water is also falling onto countryside that is already sodden.

This water has no where to go. The Grand Western Canal at Holbeton

gave way. The sheer weight of water that has wall in the past 40 hours

was simply too much for the structure to cope with -- that has

fallen in the past 48 hours. All day they have been trying to stop

the big problems are becoming a local disaster. The problem is the

water is coming into the canal and we are trying to bring in

additional things to try to regulate the levels where we can.

Tonight, the rain has arrived as promised across much of the country.

Water levels and anxiety levels The Israeli government has warned

that it's prepared to resume military operations against

Palestinian militants in Gaza if the ceasefire which came into force

last night doesn't hold. The Israeli army has started to

withdraw vehicles from the Gaza border, while Hamas declared a

public holiday to mark what it said was a victory over the Israelis.

Our Middle East editor, Jeremy Israel is pulling its troops and

tanks back from the Gaza border, for the invasion is off and the

ceasefire is on. Opinion polls suggested a majority of Israelis

are against it because long-term they don't feel any safer.

really want to believe in the ceasefire, but it didn't prove

itself last time so we are sceptical and scared. Bringing home

the troops without using them at worries many Israelis. To reassure

them and the government is emphasising that it will knock

tolerate ceasefire violations. I don't want to give an exact

recipe, but they need to keep the border entirely quiet. I don't want

to give them a licence to do up to a certain level. Nothing should

cross the border against us in the form of rockets or mortars. Nothing.

In Gaza, streets that were empty were packed. Hamas put on a victory

rally, the people celebrated survival. Hamas feels bolstered by

stronger support than ever from allies like Turkey and Qatar. At

the barber's, this man said the balance of power was changing in

favour of Palestinians. TRANSLATION: Thank God for the

ceasefire and all the Palestinians who witnessed the war agree with me.

He with funerals still going on in Gaza, two of the ceasefire deals

understandings already look like potential flashpoints. Hamas, whose

men were moving round again, is supposed to stop all fired into

Israel, but resistance, as it calls it, is where Hamas draws its

strength. And with smuggling tunnels into Egypt reopening,

Israel is supposed to discuss easing the blockade of Gaza. It is

hard to imagine the Israelis doing much to dilute what they call her a

vital security measure. The Palestinians and the Israelis have

a breathing space, turning it into something better than that might

take more than either side is prepared to give at the moment. The

sad fact is that the conditions that her intention into violence

are still there. Gaza and Israel had a peaceful day at last, a

chance to relax. But it won't stay like that until they can settle a

century of conflict. A man accused of stabbing a

teenager to death in central London on Boxing Day last year has been

found not guilty of murder and manslaughter. The Old Bailey heard

that Jermaine Joseph was acting in self-defence after being chased

into a shop by 18-year-old Seydou Diarrassouba. The men were gang

rivals and the case highlights a growing threat, as our

When two former gang rivals met by chance on Oxford Street last Boxing

Day, this was the bloody result. A teenager dying in front of shoppers

with a fatal knife wound. Seydou Diarrassouba was a big name in the

south London street gang and no stranger to knife and gun crime.

The man who started in this store, Jermaine Joseph, was cleared today

because he had been trying to get away from his gang past, but had

been forced to defend himself. Young people in London have been

telling us how the gang culture takes over their lives before

they've even grown-up. If I'd been walking through he had night, what

would have happened? For you probably would have got marked.

This man is 16 so we are hiding his identity and voice. He was

convicted after another boy was stabbed. I went up to him, punched

him out, kicked his face. Gang life got him young and crucially, his

friends became as important as his parents. I felt protected. If I

wanted something, I would ask them and I would get it rather than

asking my mum when I knew I wouldn't get it. When you start

doing stuff, everyone is on your case and has respect for you.

Staff he means crime and in gangs, respect is where there were real

trouble starts as members get older and try to maintain their position

by hitting back when attacked. That is what Russell Ahmed's friends

wanted him to do when he was attacked with a machete. They said

they would sort them out for me. Not retaliating was not an option.

You don't think about not retaliating, you think about how to

retaliate. It is an eye for a knife. You literally do it, in my case. I

have a fake eye. A glass eye? But he never did retaliate. The Met

Police has one key strategy, they don't go after the whole gang, they

go off to individuals, the most dangerous ones within the gang. A

raid on alleged gang members in Croydon. 2000 have been arrested

since the Met's command Trident to con Danns. But as well as law

enforcement, there's now a network of project working with young

people offering mentors and mediators. More of this, they say,

is what is needed. Ministers are said to have

abandoned plans to set a new target for reducing the amount of fossil

fuel used in generating electricity. But following lengthy negotiations

between the Conservatives and Lib Dems, the Government's new Energy

Bill will commit up to �7 billion a year to renewable energy projects.

Our deputy political editor, James Landale, is at Westminster. What

have you learned? For the last few months, there's been a battle royal

between the Conservatives and Lib Dems over energy policy. They have

a deal, but it is a compromise. The government has agreed to spend more

than �7 billion a year, subsidising renewable energy. The aim is to try

to create certainty in the energy markets, kick-start a few

infrastructure project and boost the economy. That will be claimed

as a big victory by the Lib Dem energy secretary. But the

government has also decided to abandon plans for a big new green

energy could target that would take out a most fossil fuels from the

electricity market by 2030. That will be claimed as a big victory by

George Osborne. He wants to keep investing in gas. Bottom Line, the

government will spend more money on renewables. That money doesn't grow

on trees so you and I will be spending more on our energy bills

to pay for it very soon. The once-in-a-generation change of

national leadership in China, which took place last week, has been

closely scrutinised in Hong Kong. The former British colony was

transferred to Chinese rule 15 years ago. As our world affairs

editor, John Simpson, reports, there's growing concern there about

the scope and reach of China's 15 years after it was handed back

to China, Hong Kong still seems as British as ever. It is not just

something to reassure the expats, it gives the people of Hong Kong

themselves the feeling of being different, special. And they still

fire off a Noonday Gun. I was here for the handover of Hong Kong in

1997, the last ceremony took place at the Convention Centre over there

and I must admit I assumed, like a lot of people, that Hong Kong would

simply become submerged in the Greater China. But it hasn't worked

out like that at all and in fact, in recent months, something

extraordinary has been happening here. Demonstrators brandished the

old colonial flag, Union Jack and all, when the Chinese President

came to visit. People here are increasingly worried that China is

trying to remake the place in its own image. And the people behind

the flag protest, like Danny Chan, far from being old colonial types,

went even in their teens when the handover took place. Climb from

Hong Kong, I'm not British or Chinese. Hong Kong is my home. I

need to protect it. If we don't have any freedom -- freedom, Hong

Kong will die. When China tried to force Hong Kong schools to teach

the Chinese version of history, so many people protested that the

local government had to back down and withdraw the scheme. A top

academic here says China is putting the wrong emphasis on the basic

principle of the handover, one country, two systems. It seems that

Beijing is the only legitimate interpreter or before to does.

Beijing, in recent years, tens to have more and more emphasis about

the priority and importance of one country. An opinion poll the other

day showed that almost two-thirds of people think of themselves as

Hong Kongers more than Chinese. There's real pressure for more

democracy, with elections for a chief executive perhaps in 2017.

But will China like that? The Speaker of Hong Kong's parliament,

who used to lead the main pro-China party, is anxious. It is getting to

be a colossal task. How to transfer democracy and also get it approved

by the central government. It is very difficult and we need all the

pack to make -- pragmatism of the Hong Kong people and the Chinese

government. Mutual trust is now lacking on both sides. The 3:30pm

at Sha Tin, racing and it -- is another British legacy, one of the

things that characterises this place. So it is clean government.

When Britain handed over Hong Kong it had the best and most

transparent economy on earth. 15 years on, the sincere of freedom

and being different is stronger than ever. -- the sense here.

The football referee Mark Clattenburg won't face any

disciplinary action after claims that he'd racially abused a Chelsea

player during a Premier League match last month. The Football

Association said there was "no case to answer". This report contains

flash photography full for the last three weeks he's been in the

spotlight, accused by a Chelsea of being a racist.

But today Mark Clattenburg was told he had no case to answer. Following

an investigation, the FA said there was no evidence to back up the

claim he had called Jon Obi Mikel among key during Chelsea's game

because Manchester United. -- A Monkey. Mikel never even heard the

remark and the club based their case on a Brazilian team-mate. In a

They haven't apologised for the damage done to mark's reputation.

There's no scintilla of an apology, there's no recognition of the

damage they cause, no indication that they are prepared to pay any

compensation. To compound Chelsea's embarrassment tonight, the FA have

charged Jon Obi Mikel for allegedly entering the match officials room

and using threatening behaviour. The decision to drop the Mark

Clattenburg case is another damaging blow to a club whose

reputation was already on the line. And it comes in a whirlwind week

when one short-term manager was replaced by another one. Tonight,

Rafa Benitez became the latest to take his chances at Stamford Bridge.

Does he think the team are out of control? I was talking with the

players, everything was fine, they were training really well,

intensity was there. Talking with them about ideas, tactics. I didn't

see any problems. Hopefully it will be the same from now on. Chelsea

want to move on from the Clattenburg controversy, but this

case has once again highlighted football's sensitivities around