:00:19. > :00:21.Good afternoon. The Home Secretary, Theresa May, has defended the
:00:21. > :00:24.government's plans to go ahead with police budget cuts amid continuing
:00:24. > :00:34.tensions between police chiefs and politicians over how the riots in
:00:34. > :00:41.
:00:41. > :00:45.England were handled last week. After the riots, the search for
:00:45. > :00:48.answers, as huge numbers of police continue arrests across the country,
:00:48. > :00:51.London's police chief has criticised the mixed messages
:00:51. > :00:55.politicians were giving them as they tackled the mayhem on the
:00:55. > :00:59.streets. There is often inconsistency of feedback in terms
:00:59. > :01:04.of our policing of public order. We are sometimes accused of excessive
:01:04. > :01:09.force and then accused of not being forceful enough. A David Cameron's
:01:09. > :01:13.decision to appoint a former Los Angeles police chief as an adviser
:01:13. > :01:17.on gang culture was criticised. Sir Hugh Ward said today, we do not
:01:17. > :01:21.need lessons from America. And there was more pressure from within
:01:21. > :01:26.Conservative ranks. The case I make to government and will continue to
:01:26. > :01:30.make is that numbers matter. Boris Johnson weighed in against his own
:01:30. > :01:36.party's plans to cut police funding. But the Home Secretary is standing
:01:36. > :01:40.firm. I was clear that the public wanted to see the police taking a
:01:40. > :01:45.tough approach. The police have to change their tactics to deal with
:01:45. > :01:48.this. And we have been able to see over the last few nights a much
:01:48. > :01:51.calmer situation in towns and cities across the country. Where
:01:51. > :01:54.you get the Home Secretary saying she has ordered the police to use
:01:54. > :01:58.certain things, where the Prime Minister has said he has ordered
:01:58. > :02:01.them to do certain things when they have no power to do it, you can
:02:01. > :02:04.understand why the police felt frustrated that the politicians
:02:04. > :02:09.were trying to take credit for things that the police decided to
:02:09. > :02:14.do. Police continue to work long hours processing up to 3000
:02:14. > :02:17.suspected rioters in London alone. The sheer scale and cost of the
:02:17. > :02:21.clean-up proves that politicians will have to find better ways of
:02:21. > :02:24.protecting Britain's streets and paying for it.
:02:24. > :02:26.A 26-year-old man and a 17-year-old youth has appeared in court in
:02:26. > :02:36.Birmingham this morning, charged with murdering three men in the
:02:36. > :02:38.
:02:38. > :02:42.city during last week's riots. Our correspondent is in Birmingham.
:02:42. > :02:47.Yes, 26-year-old Joshua Donald and a 17-year-old who we cannot named
:02:47. > :02:54.for legal reasons were charged overnight with the murders of the
:02:54. > :03:01.three men who were killed after they were hit by a car in the early
:03:01. > :03:05.hours of Wednesday morning. A district judge heard these cases in
:03:05. > :03:09.very short hearings. The two men appeared separately, only speaking
:03:09. > :03:14.from the dock to answer to their names, addresses and ages and
:03:14. > :03:19.nodding that they understood the charges. Their applications were
:03:19. > :03:24.not used today, and the two were remanded in custody to appear
:03:24. > :03:28.before a court tomorrow. Elsewhere, people in Birmingham will be coming
:03:28. > :03:32.together in their thousands this afternoon for a peace gathering
:03:32. > :03:34.demanding an end to the trouble which has blighted the City this
:03:34. > :03:36.week. A British soldier has been killed
:03:36. > :03:40.by an explosion in southern Afghanistan. The soldier, from 1st
:03:40. > :03:43.Battalion the Rifles, was killed by a bomb while on foot patrol on
:03:43. > :03:51.Friday in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand Province. His family has
:03:51. > :03:54.been informed. The pro-democracy leader in Burma,