26/09/2014 BBC News at Ten

Britain is just hours away from carrying out air strikes on Iraq.

The ayes to the right, 524. The noes to the left, 43.

THE SPEAKER: The ayes have it. After MPs vote overwhelmingly to

intervene, six RAF jets have been committed to fight the extremists

of Islamic State. This isn't a threat

on the far side of the world. Left unchecked, we will face a

terrorist caliphate on the shores of the Mediterranean and boredering a

NATO member with a determination to attack our country and our people.

In acting against them, we need to learn lessons from the past.

That means a comprehensive VATTy, humanitarian and political, as well

as military and crucially rooted in the region.

And the Prime Minister signalled that Britain may have to consider

Nigel Farage unveils a policy of tax cuts and says UKIP has both the

As Dave Lee Travis gets a suspended sentence for indecent

assault, he says the case should never have come to court.

And it's coming up roses for Europe at the Ryder Cup,

The MP for Bethnal Green and Bow resigns as Shadow Education Minister

over the vote for air strikes in Iraq.

And claims that housing costs are driving employees away,

Within hours, Britain will return to a combat role

in Iraq, after MPs voted overwhelmingly to back air strikes

against extremist fighters from the group known as Islamic State.

The RAF will join the bombing campaign

Operation Shader, led by the United States, as early as this weekend.

In a seven-hour-long emergency debate at Westminster,

the Prime Minister said Britain would need to demonstrate patience

and persistence to tackle the IS threat in Iraq but that no ground

524 MPs backed military action - 43 voted against the motion.

Many of them warned that air strikes alone won't defeat the extremists.

In a moment, we'll be reporting from Iraq's

First, our Political Editor, Nick Robinson,

Here they go again, RAF tornadoes will be attacking targets in Iraq

soon. 11 years after the Bush-Blair invasion, 24 years after the Gulf

war. Will this be the start of British involvement in a third Iraq

war or simply, small-scale, largely symbolic military action? The ayes

to the right, 524. The noes to the left, 436789 Today's vote was only

so overwhelming because it allowed MPs with conflicting views about the

future to back the same motion. It masked deep anxiety about what might

follow next. Anxiety that showed on the face of the Prime Minister today

and in hands that could be seen shaking, as he stood up to tell MPs

that military action was not just moral and legal, but his and their

duty. Left unchecked, we will face a terrorist caliphate on the shores of

the Mediterranean and boredering a NATO member, with a declared and

proven determination to attack our country and our people. This is not

the stuff of fantasy, it is happening in front of us. We need to

face up to it. The RAF, he said, should join the Air Forces of

America, Europe, and the Gulf states. And protecting the streets

of Britain should not be a task that we are prepared to entirely

subcontract to other Air Forces of other countries. Today's motion

limits military action to Iraq and excludes ground operations, but

minutes into the Prime Minister's speech, a ask was asked -- a

question was asked. How long will this war last and when will Mission

Creep start? Is he seriously contending by air strikes alone we

can role back ISUL or is this gesture politics? The Commons is

haunted by another vote, at another time, about military action in the

same place. Many now say they regret the vote back in 2003, but still

back action now. Including the Liberal Democrats. And the Labour

leader, who said the case today was very different. One of those is the

Labour leader, who said the case now was very different. This case is

about supporting a democratic state. It is not about overturning an

existing regime and seeking to build a new He said Britain one. Should

not leave it to others to act. If we say to people that we will pass by

on this one, it surely makes it harder to persuade other Arab

countries to play their One Shadow minister part. Quit and the aide to

another was sacked after refusing to back their leader. This recent

video, released by those fighting for what they call Islamic State, is

in the Syrian city of Kibani, not Iraq. So why was Britain talking of

action in Iraq alone? The elephant in the room for me remains Syria.

They will never be defeated if it is allowed to regroup from its Syrian

bases. The Prime Minister agreed on the need for military strikes

against IS in Syria too, but promised another Commons vote first.

We support the action that the United States and five Arab states

have taken in Syria and I do believe there's a strong case for us to do

more in Syria. But I did not want to bring a motion to the House today,

which there wasn't consensus for. That's code for saying he couldn't

be sure that Labour or many of his backbenchers would back him in the

face of warnings like this. ISU L is a death cult. It's a gang of

terrorist murderers. It's not an army. It's certainly not an army

that's going to be destroyed by aerial bombardment. Even some who

voted for air strikes today said the past showed the risks ahead. What

happened was in all those cases the military deployment produced a

situation, at least as bad as it had been before and actually, largely

worse. British Muslim leaders have already united to condemn IS, but

should that extend to backing military action against them? What

they're doing is not good. We want people to be involved as well,

Britain potentially should be involved. We should have to

negotiate with them, sit down and negotiate, because you will create

thousands of IS. In the House of Lords a warning of the risks of

alienating swathes of the Muslim communities. The drum beat of war,

my Lord's, has been quickly accelerated over the past two weeks

without references to the aftermath. The Church of England and the

Government were, today, singing from the same hymn sheet. The action

proposed today is right, but we must not rely on a short-term solution,

on a narrow front, to a global, ideological, religious and

transgenerational challenge. For the third time in a quarter of a century

MPs have voted to deploy our armed forces in Iraq, that's how it

begins. No-one knows how or when it will end.

Britain will initially deploy six tornado warplanes to attack

It joins a global coalition which has already carried out more than

United States forces launched most of those, with warplanes

from France, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain and the United Arab

Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark have said they will soon join

Some of the latest airstrikes targeted IS

fighters on the frontline, close to Kirkuk in northern Iraq.

Our Middle East correspondent is there and has sent this report from

Iraq's frontline. The frontlines between Iraq and the

so-called Islamic State stretch for miles. It's near these winding

trenches that British planes will soon be bombing. At times, the two

sides here are dangerously close. Less than 100 metres away. Again and

again, their black flag dots the skyline. But in the past few days,

the fight has changed here. The Kurdish Peshmerga say IS have gone

to ground, thanks to American aircraft. Just the sound of American

planes is enough to send IS fighters scurrying for cover. British

tornadoes will soon be joining them. The air strikes are already making a

difference. Yesterday afternoon, on the other side of the river, three

IS local commanders were killed in an American bombing, but what the

Peshmerga are telling us, if they're to push back the Islamic State, they

will need more than just air support. New guns are top of the

list and Britain has sent supplies. TRANSLATION: You may have heard on

the news that we are receiving a lot of weapons, but I'm telling you,

that we haven't received as much as said yet. To everyone listening,

please send support quickly. More than a million have been displaced

here. Iraq's people, Sunni, Shia, Kurds and Arabs, have been divided.

If the country is to be pieced back together, it will need outside help.

"We just want to go back to our city. Whoever it is that drives IS

out, we just want to take our families home. "

TRANSLATION: There is no work, no money. Everyone is miserable. If

they attack IS it will be good for all the poor people. Iraqis have

faced the Islamic State but this is now Britain's fight too. It won't be

short and it won't be easy. The latest Islamic State offensive

has focused on the strategic border town of Kobane inside Syria, just

meters from the Turkish border. The fighting has sent

at least 140,000 people fleeing across that border, into Turkey,

because they fear a repeat of the atrocities committed against the

Yazidi community in Northern Iraq. Our Middle East Correspondent,

Paul Wood, is the first Western journalist to get into Kobane,

and he's sent us this exclusive Turkish territory and safety is

agonisingly close. They've been chased here by Islamic State but can

go no further. Several thousand Syrian Kurds are stuck on the

railway line that marks the Syrian-Turkish bored. As refugees

they can't take their animals, their livelihoods with them. They believe

they'll be killed if they turn back. This man says the world has

abandoned them. Where's the international community, he asks,

where's our human rights? Where's your conscience? Look around you.

Behind them lies the town of Kobane. It's holding out, but only just,

against Islamic State. Shops and homes are shuttered. That's no

surprise. The frontlines are just ten minutes away.

The Kurds are lightly armed. This is a home-made armoured vehicle. But

they are defiant. Here, Kobane is defended by a unit of female

fighters. "We fight for our land. No matter what weapons the enemy has,

our will to fight is stronger." But the jihadis are closing in,

advancing along this, the main road, to Kobane. Turn around and go back.

The Kurds know they must stop them here or lose the town. The Kurds say

air strikes have not stopped Islamic State from moving forces up to

confront them. They're pleading for a more decisive

Western intervention. Islamic State fighters filmed

themselves on the road to Kobane, happy and relaxed. They believe

victory is within their grasp. Tonight, the jihadis began a new

offensive. We left just as the battle was getting under way.

The Kurds hoped that air strikes would take some of the pressure off

them, but every night, here, Islamic State fighters have been attacking.

On this part of the frontline, the jihadis remain as ambitious and

dangerous as ever. In a moment, we'll assess the day's

events with our Political Editor, First, our Defence Correspondent,

Jonathan Beale, is at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus,

where the British tornado fighters What is expected where you are in

terms of what happens next? We've heard no jets leaving and the

Defence Secretary has said there will be no British strikes tonight.

That may be because it will take some time for US Central Command to

provide them with targets and remember, Britain is joining this

fight more than a month after the US launched its first air strikes. They

would have already taken out some of the more obvious targets like

command and control centres. Remember too, there are only six RAF

tornadoes here. That's on par with countries like the Netherlands and

France. When you look at France, there was a six-day gap between

launching their first strikes and second strikes. This is not going to

be high tempo operations. But we do expect to see RAF warplanes loaded

with bombs flying from here within the next 48 hours. Thank you.

Let's turn to Nick Robinson. A clear vote in the Commons but you didn't

have to listen for that debate for long to pick up on real anxieties

about where this could be heading? . That's right. Anxieties, fuelled,

frankly, by the Prime Minister's very clear statement that he wants

to see this military action extended to Syria and he believes there is a

moral and legal basis for doing that, under the United Nations'

charter. So, why, you may ask, did he not present a motion that would

have allowed him to do it. Quite simply, he was uncertain he boo get

the Parliamentary support he needed. -- he would get. Labour backed him

today but on the issue of extending action to Syria, Ed Miliband has

been clear, that he thinks it would be better, to use his exact word

"better" if it was presented to the UN, not, therefore, an objection in

principle if that doesn't happen. He raised doubts about which ground

forces would be supported in Syria and what the end game might

ultimately be. The calculation of ministers I'm told is a simple one -

that if the public, if Members of Parliament, see progress being made

after air strikes continue in Iraq, if, for example, the town of Mosul

falls back into the hands of the Iraqi government forces, if ISIS

continues its murderous campaign against hostages, or indeed against

European targets, then parliamentary opinion and public opinion will

switch to backing military action in Syria as well.

Thank you. We'll have more about today's

vote later in the programme. The UK Independence Party has used

its conference in Doncaster to try to reach out to

Labour supporters and to show voters that it has policies on issues other

than Europe and immigration. The party's leader, Nigel Farage,

has promised to reduce income tax for middle earners

and eliminate it completely for people on the minimum wage by

using savings from leaving the EU. From Doncaster, here's our political

correspondent, Vicki Young. Nigel Farage believes UKIP is

shaking the foundations of the Westminster political system

but he wants to broaden the party's appeal - by talking about more than

Europe and immigration. And he thinks Labour votes are up

for grabs in the north of England. This conference is taking place

on the doorstep of the Labour Mr Farage told supporters UKIP's

opponents were quaking Many of our target seats will be

seats that are currently held We pose a threat -

not just to the Conservative Party, as the papers would have you

believe - we pose a threat to the entire British political class

and I'll drink to that. Mr Farage wants to beef up

his economic policies. He used to highlight the abolition

of inheritance tax for the wealthy. Now he is talking about no tax

for those on the minimum wage. They are evening considering a new

tax on designer shoes and handbags. -- they are even considering a new

tax on designer shoes and handbags. At a nearby aluminium factory,

some former Labour voters said they were looking for an alternative

and liked what UKIP had to offer. We are sick and tired of working

and working and working and getting What about the politicians

at Westminster? No, I don't think they understand

at all. I think they are just

for themselves. I think Labour and Conservatives

are just one party. But Nigel does sound like he has

a bit of roar in his voice. I say give the man a whirl,

basically. You know, others have tried

and failed in other areas but I say, Mr Farage is known

for his plain-speaking. Today he blamed the abuse

of hundreds of children in Rotherham on the Labour council's reluctance

to speak out because some abusers Some people are saying to me -

Nigel, it is wrong, you shouldn't You shouldn't be making

this political. Well, I'm sorry, but

if this isn't political, what is? An all-out attack on Labour,

which went There is a raw energy

about this party. It is not slick,

it's not polished but Nigel Farage knows that that's part

of the attraction and soon they are With two by-elections

on the horizon, they are aiming Today Nigel Farage

and his team contradicted each other Their opponents picked holes

in their tax plans, but they are The former Radio 1 DJ,

Dave Lee Travis, has been given a three-month suspended prison

sentence for indecent assault. He was convicted of groping

a young researcher, who was working Travis said the case should

never have come to court. This report from Matt Prodger

contains flash photography He'd just been given

a suspended sentence But as David Lee Travis left court,

he was unrepentant. Whilst I'm relieved that I have been

able to prove that I'm not a sexual predator, I'm mortified

and I am really disappointed that I was convicted of one count and it is

of little comfort to me that I was Judge Anthony Leonard quoted

a statement from the victim, which said, "I was a naive

and trusting 22-year-old when I was subjected to an

unprovoked and terrifying physical Being called a liar

and fantacist has been painful." It's a fall from grace for the man

who was once a famous name at the Just before he was sentenced,

Dave Lee Travis shouted angrily at this journalist,

as she sat in the Public Gallery. In 2012, she said he'd groped her,

too. I think that I would have preferred

it I also felt very sympathetic for the

victim in this case, who summoned up the courage to come in and relate

what was actually a very unpleasant After two trials,

the man whose real name is David Griffin has been spared prison

but the damage to his reputation Eight men, including

the radical preacher Anjem Choudary, who were detained yesterday as part

of an investigation into alleged support of a banned extremist group,

have been released on bail. Mr Choudary claims his arrest

was "politically motivated". Police investigating the

disappearance of 14-year-old Alice Gross in west London, have finished

searching a park, close to where she An area of disturbed ground had been

considered a potential lead but officers have now said it's not

connected to the case. The Home Secretary has announced

that the Passport Office is to be brought back under the control

of the Home Office. The move follows widespread

criticism of delays in processing passport applications

over the summer. The PCS union said the timing of the

announcement - just minutes before the parliamentary debate about Iraq

- was "cynical and shameless". Golf now,

and on day one of the Ryder Cup, the favourites Europe have taken a two

point lead over the United States, America started well in the morning

session, but a late charge by Europe Since 1979 - when America first

faced a Europe-wide team - Europe has managed nine wins

and there's been one draw. Our Sports Correspondent,

Andy Swiss, has been watching A perfect Perthshire morning was in

for the loudest of wake-up calls. Europe's Justin Rose and the

US's Bubba Watson working the crowd into a frenzy, as

the players were roared under way. Watson's errant opener

seemed to set the tone. It was the hosts that settled

the quicker - Sergio Garcia with an Then they stumbled and in

Ian Poulter's case, sank - Europe's talisman wayward and walloped and

when Phil Mickleson followed-up his prematch jibes with victory over

Rory McIlroy, it was advantage USA. So Europe head into the afternoon

matches already with some work to After such high hopes,

the fans will now be hoping that Justin Rose led the charge with

his second win of the day. And finally, the world's best lived

up to his billing - McIlroy grabbing By the time Graeme McDowell rolled

in a final putt, a one-point deficit They took their time

but Europe now have the edge. The splendours of Blenheim Palace

are now adorned with artworks The stately home in Oxfordshire is

hosting the largest ever exhibition by the artist, who is

still under house arrest in China. Some of his new work features 3D

images of his confiscated passport. Our Arts Correspondent,

David Sillito, The grandier of Blenheim Palace but

as you walk in the chandelier is new. Turn the corner and you see

2,000-year-old Chinese vases covered in glossy paint this. Rice bowl

filled with 25 kilos of pearls. Sly digs at status symbols and elites by

Ai Weiwei. Lord Edward Spencer Churchill does it feel comfortable?

I think it is great. The whole point is to challenge these things all of

the time. It's all been created in Beijing. Ai Weiwei is forbidden from

leaving China. So, he's had to create a virtual Blenheim Palace to

position the works. I still don't have a passport. I'm still under a

kind of detention here but I'm very satisfied that the work can be there

and the audience can see the work. Zblts not just Blenheim. -- It's not

just Blenheim. This is opening in Alcatraz. His fame is unparalleled.

Other Chinese artists on show here in Manchester reflect a very

different mood I think he is a very important artist in China, but he is

not the only one. Also, I am not a believer to say politics is the core

of contemporary art. The Chinese visitors were a little bewildered by

Blenheim's avant-garde arrivals. Ai Weiwei? None had heard of him.

Now, we'll return to tonight's main story. The UK preparing to carry out

air strikes in Iraq. THE SPEAKER: Order, order.

MPs voted overwhelmingly in favour of joining the US-led coalition of

Western and Arab nations in air strikes on Islamic state targets.

David Cameron told the Commons it's in the national interest to confront

IS militarily and said the mission will take years, not months.

Well, our Middle East editor, Jeremy Bowen joins from us Beirut in

Lebanon now. The UK is involved, alongside

America. How Sol this being viewed in the wider region? -- how is this

being viewed? Well, there are interesting things

on social media first of all coming out of Syria and opinion towards

IS's moving, not the way the Americans and the British would

like, among some. That's because -- one important thing to know about IS

is it fell out with other Jihadi groups and they have been fighting

each other. Now there are calls for the two groups to get together

because Nusra has also been attacked and it is more popular on the ground

than IS is. That's one thing. Another thing is that President

Obama's strategy is to get local fighters to take on IS on the

ground. Now a lot of those are Sunni rebels who have been fighting

already for three years. Their priority is the downfall of

President Assad. They are wondering why it is that the Americans are not

wanting to hit Assad. Why they tipped off Assad? They are asking

questions like where were the Americans when there were barrel

bombs and chemical weapons and their people were starving to death. In

other words, the Americans and British have pledged head-long into

the highly complicated politics of a very bloody, intractable war.

Thank you. And that is it from us for this

evening. Now on BBC One, time for