:00:10. > :00:13.Stephen Hester after five years running the Royal Bank of Scotland.
:00:13. > :00:21.He'll step down later this year, though he's hinted he had wanted to
:00:21. > :00:29.stay on. I'm content with the board's perspective on this. There
:00:29. > :00:34.is no fight or anything like this, and I hope I will leave RBS a lot
:00:34. > :00:37.better than I found it. He took charge after the massive bailout by
:00:37. > :00:41.the taxpayer. Ministers say it's for someone else to take RBS back into
:00:41. > :00:46.private hands. Now we need to move from taking R BS back from the brink
:00:46. > :00:50.and out of the risky phase to a new phase where RBS does more to help
:00:50. > :00:54.the British economy and we focus on getting British taxpayers' money
:00:54. > :00:56.back. We'll be asking what this says about the timetable for privatising
:00:56. > :00:59.RBS. Also tonight: In Turkey, more
:00:59. > :01:01.anti-Government protests as ministers move to end the crisis.
:01:01. > :01:07.Controversial plans to reorganise children's heart surgery in England
:01:07. > :01:09.are put on hold. A city of contrasts. We have a
:01:09. > :01:14.special report from Damascus, more than two years into Syria's
:01:14. > :01:24.conflict. And will Australian David Warner's
:01:24. > :01:53.
:01:53. > :01:57.attack on England's Joe Root cost Good evening. Stephen Hester is to
:01:57. > :02:01.step down as chief executive of RBS later this year. He took charge of
:02:01. > :02:05.the bank five years ago after the massive bailout by the taxpayer. Mr
:02:05. > :02:08.Hester said he'd wanted to carry on in the job, but the task of leading
:02:08. > :02:17.the bank back into private hands will now fall to someone else. Our
:02:17. > :02:20.business editor, Robert Peston, reports. Stephen Hester is the big
:02:20. > :02:27.bonus banker brought in to save Royal Bank of Scotland when it was
:02:27. > :02:31.almost bust and semi nationalised at the end of 2008. And now RBS's board
:02:31. > :02:36.and the Chancellor think it is the right moment for him to stand down.
:02:36. > :02:40.Stephen Hester, you didn't want to leave RBS now did you? I think that
:02:40. > :02:46.there is a cogent argument to say that, in a perfect world, it should
:02:46. > :02:50.be the beginning of a future for RBS and RBS should be led by someone who
:02:50. > :02:53.sees it as a beginning and not as an end. I'm content with the board's
:02:53. > :02:59.perspective on this. There is no fight or anything like this, and I
:02:59. > :03:03.hope that I will leave RBS a lot better than I found it. He is
:03:03. > :03:08.leaving by mutual agreement, says a Treasury official, because the
:03:08. > :03:13.chairman of RBS, Sir Philip Hampton, and the charm, felt that giant RBS
:03:13. > :03:17.is ripe for change. Five years ago RBS was on the edge of collapse and
:03:17. > :03:22.Stephen Hester has done a very good rescue job, but now we need to move
:03:22. > :03:30.from taking RBS back from the brink and out of the risky phase to a new
:03:30. > :03:35.phase where RBS does more to support the British economy and we focus on
:03:35. > :03:40.trying to get British taxpayers' money back. Stephen Hester has
:03:40. > :03:45.shrunk RBS and made it stronger to absorb losses, but he has faced flak
:03:45. > :03:49.for not lending enough and for his big pay, which has seen him waive
:03:49. > :03:54.bonuses. You are leaving with a package worth a minimum of which
:03:54. > :03:59.four. .5 million. Many will say, because this esay this about all
:03:59. > :04:03.bankers' packages a, it is way too much. What do you say to those?
:04:03. > :04:07.These are large sums of money, by the standards of anyone else doing
:04:08. > :04:12.the jobs, and the impact we've had, the �800 million off the balance
:04:13. > :04:16.sheet and so on, it's a low sum of money. An argument that will go in
:04:16. > :04:21.circles. The only good bit of the argument is I won't be around to
:04:21. > :04:25.have it any more. RBS's chairman, Sir Philip Hampton, said the
:04:25. > :04:32.Treasury rants RBS ready to return to the private sector by the end of
:04:32. > :04:38.2014. And will taxpayers get back the �45-46 billion that they
:04:38. > :04:43.invested in RBS? RBS a capable of being worth more. So it is possible
:04:43. > :04:48.that we'll get the money back? capable of that. I will be
:04:48. > :04:51.disappointed if over the passage of time that isn't the case In your
:04:51. > :04:55.time at the bank you've been periodically beaten up over bonus
:04:55. > :05:00.being, over not lending enough to small businesses and not supporting
:05:00. > :05:04.the economy in general. Has it been a hideous job to do? There are some
:05:04. > :05:08.not great moments of which that. There were. I like being a
:05:08. > :05:12.businessman, I don't especially like being a politician or a media
:05:12. > :05:16.person, but this job has demanded all of those things. I've done it to
:05:16. > :05:21.the best of my ability. I think the company is considerably better off
:05:21. > :05:24.as a result not just of what I've done but everyone at RBS. As Stephen
:05:24. > :05:29.Hester leaves RBS, what have we learned? That with whether we love
:05:29. > :05:35.or hate the bankers there is no return to prosperity for any of us
:05:35. > :05:39.until the banks are fixed. Robert Peston is with me. Let's talk about
:05:39. > :05:43.the prospect of privatising this bank. What do you read into the
:05:43. > :05:48.signals today about the timetable? Well, the Treasury interestingly
:05:48. > :05:55.earlier today urged me not to read too much into Mr Hester's departure
:05:55. > :05:59.in respect of when this enormous taxpayer stake is likely to be sold.
:05:59. > :06:03.But Sir Philip Hampton, the chairman of RBS, rather let the cat out of
:06:03. > :06:09.the bag when talking to journalists today. He said the Treasury had
:06:09. > :06:13.asked the bank to get itself ready for privatisation at the end of
:06:14. > :06:19.2014. Indeed that's the reason, he said, why it was right for Mr Hester
:06:19. > :06:23.to go, because the board and the Chancellor both decided that it was
:06:23. > :06:25.sensible to have somebody not only lead the bank into privatisation but
:06:25. > :06:30.run it for a couple of years afterwards. The point about Mr
:06:30. > :06:33.Hester is he didn't want to run the bank for as long as that. In my
:06:33. > :06:37.interview with Stephen Hester, he said something I think politically
:06:37. > :06:43.significant about the privatisation, and that is, and he volunteered
:06:43. > :06:49.this, he thought that taxpayers would be able to get the full �45-46
:06:49. > :06:52.billion that we've invested in RBS back. Why does that matter? Because
:06:53. > :06:57.there are quite a lot of people around, the Chancellor, George
:06:57. > :07:01.Osborne, telling him just flog this thing as quickly as possible. Don't
:07:01. > :07:04.worry about the amount of money you get, blame the losses on the last
:07:04. > :07:08.Labour Government. Stephen Hester is saying that if they manage the
:07:08. > :07:14.privatisation properly, which means doing it in a sort of staged way, Mr
:07:14. > :07:21.Hester would say, we will as taxpayers get all of that
:07:21. > :07:25.astonishing sum, �45 billion back one day. Thank you.
:07:25. > :07:29.The controversial plans to stop children's heart surgery at three
:07:29. > :07:33.hospitals in England have been suspended. The Health Secretary said
:07:33. > :07:38.the original decision was based on a flawed analysis. The NHS had planned
:07:38. > :07:43.to concentrate care in a smaller number of centres. NHS England has
:07:43. > :07:47.until the end of next month to respond back. Fergus Walsh has the
:07:47. > :07:53.details. Born with a hole in the heart, four
:07:53. > :07:56.week old Sarah Sarah has already undergone life-saving surgery at the
:07:56. > :08:00.Royal Brompton in London, one of ten hospitals in England which perform
:08:00. > :08:05.these highly complex operations. Children's heart surgery here had
:08:05. > :08:10.been under threat. But now the plans, which have already cost �16
:08:10. > :08:16.million, have been suspended. Inaccurate figures were used and im
:08:16. > :08:20.impact on other hospital services were overlooked will. The outcome of
:08:21. > :08:24.which the Safe and Sustainable was based on a flawed analysis on the
:08:24. > :08:29.impact of incomplete proposals and leads too many questions about
:08:29. > :08:34.sustainability and implementation. This is clearly a serious criticism
:08:34. > :08:38.of the Safe and Sustainable process. The need for change was set out more
:08:38. > :08:43.than a decade ago following the Bristol heart scandal, when many
:08:43. > :08:47.babies died needlessly. An inquiry said surgery should be carried out
:08:47. > :08:51.in fewer bigger and better centres. Fiver years ago the Safe and
:08:51. > :08:54.Sustainable review was set up. It concluded that children 's heart
:08:54. > :08:59.surgery should stop at the Royal Brompton in London and in Leeds and
:08:59. > :09:04.Leicester. In March this year Leeds won a High Court ruling quashing
:09:04. > :09:08.that decision. A fresh review said the proposals failed to take into
:09:08. > :09:14.account the impact on families like four-year-old Lyle's from Leeds, who
:09:14. > :09:17.would have faced repeated journeys to Newcastle for surgery.
:09:18. > :09:23.wouldn't be here if we had to two to Newcastle for surgery, because he
:09:23. > :09:28.wouldn't have had the joined up care he had in Leeds. To have that taken
:09:28. > :09:33.away and to be told by national charities that very few children
:09:33. > :09:36.need more than one surgery and therefore your needs matter is so
:09:36. > :09:42.hurtful and it has made us so angry, so upset. All medical bodies agree
:09:42. > :09:47.that change is vital and quality of care will improve if surgery is
:09:47. > :09:51.concentrated in fewer centres. been very clear that our
:09:51. > :09:56.recommendations is a mandate to move on, not a mandate to go back and
:09:56. > :10:03.start again, and therefore we would expect NHS England to use those
:10:03. > :10:07.recommendations to forge a new process of change. NHS England now
:10:07. > :10:11.has six weeks before it must decide what to do next.
:10:11. > :10:17.The utter failure of this five-year review is a deep embarrassment for
:10:17. > :10:22.the NHS. It was meant to provide a template into how other services
:10:22. > :10:27.could be reorganised into fewer specialist centres. Instead it
:10:28. > :10:34.leaves families here and around the country facing months, maybe years,
:10:34. > :10:39.of uncertainty about where their children will be cared for.
:10:39. > :10:43.Jordan's Parliament has approved a treaty with the UK designed to lead
:10:43. > :10:47.to the deportation of Abu Qatada. The vote means that the process to
:10:47. > :10:52.deport the hard line cleric is likely to resume within weeks. He
:10:52. > :10:56.has indicated he will not challenge deportation if the treaty is passed,
:10:56. > :11:01.because the document guarantees him a fair trial.
:11:01. > :11:07.The number of people in employment has risen to the highest since
:11:07. > :11:13.records began. Other figures today show that nearly 10% of people over
:11:13. > :11:17.65 are now working. A new report also concludes that the recession
:11:17. > :11:21.has had an unprecedented impact on household finances.
:11:21. > :11:25.There are signs of an improvement in the business climate. There is
:11:25. > :11:32.growth in the economy, but many want to know, what will that mean for
:11:32. > :11:36.jobs and will it become easier to find work? The latest figures show a
:11:36. > :11:40.fall in unemployment to two. 51 million between February and April.
:11:40. > :11:43.That was the story for the UK. In Wales the jobless number stayed the
:11:43. > :11:47.same as before. Total employment rose and there are now a record
:11:47. > :11:53.number of over 65s in work. More than one million. In the hunt for
:11:53. > :11:56.jobs some are finding more opportunities. At Leicester College
:11:56. > :12:01.they are running courses teaching building skills to people out of
:12:01. > :12:05.work. That leads to a short-term contract with the local council and
:12:05. > :12:10.valuable experience. Steven was on the dole for six months but the
:12:10. > :12:16.course has given him just the lift he needed. Now I have hope, there's
:12:16. > :12:22.hope for my family and hope for me. We can go places and spend money.
:12:22. > :12:29.They've given me my life back. I'm not just existing. I'm living.
:12:29. > :12:32.what do the bosses think? Numbers in work have fallen a lot less rapidly
:12:32. > :12:37.than in previous downturns. Companies like this advertising
:12:37. > :12:42.business have held on to staff but kept did lid on pay. The reality for
:12:43. > :12:46.the last five, six, seven years in a tough economic environment it is
:12:47. > :12:50.impossible simply to give inflation pay rises every year. Our staff no
:12:50. > :12:55.longer expect that. It is a similar story for salaries across the
:12:55. > :13:00.economy. To keep their jobs many workers have had to tolerate pay
:13:00. > :13:04.freezes at a time when prices of goods and services they buy have
:13:04. > :13:07.been accelerating. The wage squeeze is clear when you look at cost of
:13:07. > :13:13.living increases measured by the annual inflation rate. That's
:13:13. > :13:18.running at two. 4%. It is well ahead of average pay rises excludeing
:13:18. > :13:23.bonuses of zero. 9%. A leading think-tank said today the squeeze on
:13:23. > :13:27.pay in recent years hasn't been seen for generations. You've had this
:13:27. > :13:30.unprecedented period since the recession, wages not keeping up with
:13:30. > :13:33.inflation, falling quite a lot behind inflation, and that
:13:33. > :13:39.followings five or six years when they were barely going above
:13:39. > :13:43.inflation. A every a ten-year period no real wage increase. In recent
:13:43. > :13:53.months private sector pay rises have been even lower than the public
:13:53. > :13:54.
:13:54. > :13:56.sector. It may be the price workers are paying to hold on to their jobs.
:13:56. > :14:00.The Foreign Secretary, William Hague, has said tonight that Britain
:14:00. > :14:03.and its allies must be prepared to do more to help ease the
:14:03. > :14:06.humanitarian crisis in Syria. Speaking after talks in Washington,
:14:07. > :14:11.he said there was nothing new to announce on the possibility of
:14:11. > :14:14.providing arms to the rebels. The Syrian president insists his regime
:14:15. > :14:19.is on course to crush the opposition, after more than two
:14:19. > :14:23.years of fighting which has claimed at least 18,000 lives. In the
:14:23. > :14:28.capital, Damascus, the impact of the conflict very dramatically between
:14:28. > :14:38.districts. Our chief international correspondent Lyse Doucet has
:14:38. > :14:46.travelled across Damascus. In parts of Damascus, it is easy to forget
:14:46. > :14:51.there is a war. Maybe that is why this ice cream parlour is so packed.
:14:51. > :14:57.So much has been destroyed, but Syrians are holding onto much loved
:14:57. > :15:04.traditions. The family has been making ice cream in the old city
:15:04. > :15:12.since 1895. They have been using the same secret recipe for three
:15:12. > :15:16.generations. In some neighbourhoods, rituals also go on. There is relief
:15:16. > :15:20.that one more exam is out of the way for these high stools students. In
:15:21. > :15:24.Syria, nearly one in five schools is now shut. These teenagers are
:15:24. > :15:34.fortunate to live in a safe, government-controlled area. You do
:15:34. > :15:38.
:15:38. > :15:40.not have any worries? They answer in unison - no, none at all. They thank
:15:40. > :15:49.their army and their president, Bashar al-Assad, for keeping them
:15:49. > :15:59.safe. But in Damascus, people have had to find ways to live with war,
:15:59. > :16:01.
:16:01. > :16:07.even when a shell lands nearby. But nobody flinches this time. But just
:16:07. > :16:11.two streets away, Jobar, like many neighbourhoods, is a battlefield.
:16:11. > :16:16.The Roman troops, with overwhelming firepower, are trying to push back
:16:17. > :16:23.armed rebels. Nearly everyone who lived here has left. -- government
:16:23. > :16:27.troops. The lucky ones found shelter, and even a special place
:16:27. > :16:37.for children, funded by the UN to try to bring back some childhood
:16:37. > :16:40.
:16:40. > :16:48.joy. 13-year-old milk of it still wears her sadness. Her whole family
:16:48. > :16:58.fled Jobar a few months ago. What is it like there? Not very good, it is
:16:58. > :16:59.
:16:59. > :17:07.very bad, she says. I ask her if there are problems. A lot of
:17:07. > :17:13.problems, she says. Even in parts of Damascus like this, where it is
:17:13. > :17:18.peaceful enough to still play, the impact of the war is ever present.
:17:18. > :17:21.Now that Rania and her friends have coloured in these apples, they are
:17:21. > :17:26.going to be asked to write what they would like to do when they are
:17:26. > :17:32.older. The last time they did this exercise here, three children wrote,
:17:32. > :17:39.we just want to grow up. Rania once every detail to be just perfect. She
:17:39. > :17:49.has made her wish. She has written - I want to go back to my home. But
:17:49. > :17:51.
:17:51. > :17:55.Rania knows she has no home to go to Unions in Greece have called a
:17:55. > :17:59.24-hour general strike for tomorrow in protest at the sudden closure of
:17:59. > :18:03.the state broadcaster ERT. Programmes were taken off air in the
:18:03. > :18:09.middle of a broadcast late last night. The Government says it needs
:18:09. > :18:15.to save money, and it says ERT was inefficient. It says it will reopen
:18:15. > :18:19.later with a smaller staff. An independent report has concluded
:18:19. > :18:22.that the Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg, should have done more to deal with
:18:22. > :18:26.allegations of inappropriate behaviour by one of the party's
:18:26. > :18:33.senior figures. It says opportunities were missed formally
:18:33. > :18:38.investigate claims of sexual misconduct against a party's former
:18:38. > :18:42.chief executive, who has denied wrongdoing. Vicki Young can tell us
:18:43. > :18:47.more. These reports first became public earlier this year, but in one
:18:47. > :18:52.case they were made as far back as 2007, so this report looked into how
:18:52. > :18:56.the Liberal Democrat had handled it over those years. It says the
:18:56. > :19:00.party's response was haphazard, that much more could and should have been
:19:00. > :19:04.done, and that Nick Clegg himself should have asked more questions. It
:19:04. > :19:08.says senior figures who heard the complaints did not act maliciously,
:19:08. > :19:13.and there is no evidence of a deliberate cover-up, but by not
:19:13. > :19:15.launching a formal investigation at the beginning, it says it allowed
:19:15. > :19:22.issues to fester, making the situation far worse for everybody
:19:22. > :19:26.involved. Nick Clegg has admitted that serious errors were made.
:19:26. > :19:31.makes sobering reading, because it shows that, stretching over a 20
:19:31. > :19:35.year period, a series of mistakes were made, which left a number of
:19:35. > :19:40.women feeling seriously let down, and for that there is no excuse. The
:19:40. > :19:43.report also shows that the individuals who dealt with the
:19:43. > :19:46.complaints had the right motives, but there were not the right
:19:46. > :19:51.processes in place to support the women who had come forward. As
:19:51. > :19:56.leader of the Liberal Democrats, I take responsibility for that.
:19:56. > :20:00.the main problems seems to have been misunderstanding and confusion about
:20:00. > :20:04.what the women who complained wanted to happen next. Some wanted to
:20:04. > :20:09.remain anonymous, others wanted a formal procedure. The report says
:20:09. > :20:13.that because the allegations will associate Reus, any organisation in
:20:13. > :20:19.this sensitive situation must fully investigate them anyway. Throughout
:20:19. > :20:22.the affair, Lord Rennard himself has denied any wrongdoing.
:20:22. > :20:24.Thousands of anti-government protesters are again gathering in
:20:24. > :20:30.central Istanbul despite warnings from the Prime Minister that his
:20:30. > :20:36.patience has run out. The government has now raised the possibility of a
:20:36. > :20:41.referendum for the people of Istanbul on the original, local
:20:41. > :20:44.dispute which provoked the protests. Jeremy Bowen has the latest. By the
:20:44. > :20:51.middle of the evening, the demonstrators were back in Taksim
:20:51. > :20:55.Square, a human chain against the police. It looks like the old
:20:55. > :20:59.Turkey. But one of the protest organisers said the country had new
:20:59. > :21:09.rules now. The government needed the consent of all the people, not just
:21:09. > :21:12.
:21:12. > :21:15.the supporters of the ruling party. Thousands reoccupied Taksim Square.
:21:16. > :21:20.They may be changing this country, but the Prime Minister still wants
:21:20. > :21:27.to do things his way. He reportedly told a meeting that this business
:21:27. > :21:30.must be concluded by tomorrow. The government told the protesters to
:21:30. > :21:35.clear the square, and the adjoining Gezi Park, but nobody was going
:21:35. > :21:40.home. Because it means freedom, without freedom, you do not do
:21:40. > :21:49.anything. It means freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of religion,
:21:49. > :21:55.everything. But is this not a democracy already? This is not a
:21:55. > :21:59.democracy, this is fascism. Ankara, the Prime Minister met a
:21:59. > :22:07.group which some people said was not representative. He offered them a
:22:07. > :22:10.referendum on the plan to build on Gezi Park. This demonstration was by
:22:10. > :22:15.lawyers in Istanbul against police violence. It shows that the protest
:22:15. > :22:18.is about much more than the original issue. It is about country's
:22:18. > :22:22.future, and the anger among those who did not vote for the Prime
:22:22. > :22:27.Minister about the way that he governs. Tonight, the police, not
:22:28. > :22:32.the protesters, have the backing of the government's supporters, still
:22:32. > :22:36.the majority. But the split in the country is deepening. This is as
:22:36. > :22:39.tense as it has been all day in the square. The Prime Minister has
:22:39. > :22:43.effectively given the people in the park and in the rest of the square
:22:43. > :22:50.and Alderman Tim - they have to go home, or the police are going to
:22:50. > :22:55.move in. -- an ultimatum. Behind the square, in Gezi Park, thousands are
:22:55. > :23:03.waiting, talking endlessly about what happens next, in no mood to bow
:23:03. > :23:08.to the Prime Minister's authority. The Barcelona for Paula Lionel Messi
:23:08. > :23:11.and his father are being investigated for allegedly
:23:11. > :23:16.defrauding the Spanish authorities of almost �3.5 million in unpaid
:23:16. > :23:22.tax. The striker, world Player of the Year, is one of the highest-paid
:23:22. > :23:26.sportsmen in the world of sport. David Warner, the Australian
:23:26. > :23:31.cricketer, has apologised for punching the England batsmen John
:23:31. > :23:33.wrote in a bar in Birmingham in the early hours of Sunday morning. The
:23:33. > :23:37.England and Wales Cricket board described it as an unprovoked
:23:37. > :23:46.attack, and it led to one being dropped from today's Champions
:23:46. > :23:52.League Trophy match against New Zealand. Australians prefer their
:23:52. > :23:57.sporting heroes to come with a rough edge, but batsmen David Warner's
:23:57. > :24:02.behaviour may have gone a step too far. He has been suspended for
:24:02. > :24:06.punching young England player John Root in a late-night pub brawl.
:24:06. > :24:16.Believe it or not, it was here, in an Australian themed bar in
:24:16. > :24:21.Birmingham, that the first blow of an Ashes summer was struck. Root was
:24:21. > :24:25.drinking with two team-mates, when, according to England, a worse for
:24:25. > :24:29.wear Warner launched an unprovoked attack. For Root, it was business as
:24:29. > :24:34.usual today, as he prepared for England's Champions League Trophy
:24:34. > :24:38.game tomorrow. His captain is confident his players were not to
:24:38. > :24:42.blame. Disappointed that the incident happened, but after
:24:42. > :24:48.investigating our side, we realise we do not believe we have done
:24:48. > :24:53.anything wrong. A different sort of round four Warner and his team-mates
:24:53. > :25:02.today, serving drinks, as Australia played New Zealand at Edgbaston.
:25:02. > :25:06.Now, he could be kicked off the tour. Whatever unfolds, the tone for
:25:06. > :25:10.the Ashes has been set here in Birmingham. David Warner's
:25:10. > :25:16.suspension might come to be seen as a minor footnote, but it reflects a
:25:16. > :25:18.deeper malaise in the Australian camp. The Australian team have
:25:18. > :25:23.certainly had their problems recently. Only three weeks ago,
:25:23. > :25:28.Warner was in trouble again on Twitter, fined for using offensive
:25:28. > :25:31.language against Australian journalists. In March, four players,
:25:31. > :25:35.including vice captain Shane Watson, were suspended for failing
:25:35. > :25:41.to complete the report on the squad's problems on tour in India.
:25:41. > :25:46.Now, with the Ashes looming, their captain and only world-class
:25:46. > :25:49.player, Michael Clarke, is struggling with a back injury.
:25:49. > :25:54.Unfortunately, David Warner has tarnished the whole of the
:25:54. > :25:58.Australian cricket team. The whole network of the team, the structure,
:25:58. > :26:03.the management, the captain, the supporters, you all get tarnished.
:26:03. > :26:09.That is what the individual has done for them. Uncle with Australian team
:26:09. > :26:12.under growing pressure, Warner's actions might actually galvanise