22/09/2014 Inside Out London

Hello, I am Matthew Wright `nd you are watching inside out London. Here

is what is coming up. As thd dust from the Scottish referendul settles

we ask, should London now t`ke more control? We should seek you can have

your powers, but hand in glove, Powers gets devolved to London at

the same time. We go undercover to expose the gang organising fake gay

marriages for illegal immigrants. I wanted to have a tap at with you

about the marriages you are arranging illegally. People have

been convicted of organising a sham marriages that have made millions.

And we have discovered how high donations by giving patients a new

lease of life. I am eternally grateful, being able to see the

world clearly for the first time in years.

Scotland may have turned down Independence in the referendum, but

they are still likely to be given more control over their own affairs.

People are now working at London, a city with a population greater than

Scotland and Wales combined and asking if it, too, should bd given

more of a say. The night after the morning before `

12 hours after the Scottish referendum results, a littld bit

of Celtic chaos in South London where the capital's Scots and the

locals are learning how to get along This night out in Balham,

perhaps a chance to let off steam after the politics of the

past two weeks, but also a chance to reflect on what the referendum has

meant ` personally and politically. Being a Scot in London therd was a

sense of relief when I woke up that I was still at home. I did not want

to wake up and be a foreigndr. Everyone has been affected by it.

They know someone who is Scottish or they know that there will bd checked

for the England population hn the UK as a whole.

The referendum has led to government promises of more power for Scotland,

and calls for a similar deal for London `

State`by`state the London County Council is turning these ardas from

a maze of 19th`century slums and 20th`century bomb sites to `n East

End that people can be proud to live in. The LCC was responsible for

hospitals, schools... For nearly 70 years, inner London

was run by the London Countx Council ` a body with many more powdrs than

our current city government. Professor Tony Travers led `

commission calling for the capital The Greater London authoritx, the

GLA, including the May, and that has responsibilities that are

significant `` but signific`ntly less power than Scotland or Wales

but in the LCC would have h`d in its heyday.

He points to New York as an example of what could happen here.

It is raising 60 or 70% of the money that it spends from its own local

taxes. An extraordinary figtre because if we look at London, here

are the figure is sort of tdn or 15% at the absolute maximum. By some

calculation even less than that London, it's argued, should keep

hold of the money it raises They could bring in

around 13 billion pounds a xear ` money that could be invested

in housing or transport projects. More cranes perhaps

for the city skyline. All too often the debate about how

did you get more jobs or hotses or public services is not linkdd up

with the technocratic stuff, we need fiscal devolution, money in cities,

more control over skills. That is starting to happen so I think, will

cities get everything they want Probably not. Now they get some of

it? Yes and now is the time. The argument, that keeping London's

property taxes here and rel`xing borrowing rules could help build

the homes the capital needs ` Bob Blackman sat on a parli`mentary

committee that recommended just that and believes London's MPs h`ve

a golden chance to get It is very simple, people w`nt us to

vote for devolution for Scotland, well that goes hand in hand,

devolution for London. Devolution for England, devolution for Wales.

What we want to see as, you can have your powers but hand in glove,

Powers gets devolved to London at the same time.

But in New York, mayor Bill de Blasio has catsed

controversy there, by arguing for higher taxes on the rich.

And some academics statesidd say London should be careful

You do not want to devolve `ll of the requirements for spending and

finding the revenues to the local level. If you look at the Alerican

political system, the cities with the highest tax burden our cities

like to try it and Baltimord and Europe, and they are not dohng very

well. We are not going to stand for that! You cant push English people

Back in 1949, Passport to Phmlico offered a glance of what more

A tale of locals setting up a state within a state and

of the tortured negotiations with central government.

We even have a modern day equivalent.

There has been much debate over the past few weeks, much of it very

serious. But down here in one part of London things have not bden quite

so serious. They too have bden debating independence. We h`d a

referendum. And tonight thex have the great debate. What we h`ve here

in this small part of Croydon ladies and Dedman is the People's Republic

of South Norwood. They had

a mock referendum last week. I would like dog wardens. If they

come into the first meeting of the People's Republic of China Norwood.

It's true this people's reptblic is not exactly a mass movemdnt.

True too that its tongue is clearly in its cheek.

But it does offer a glimpse of how some people are callhng

There are no people from working backgrounds becoming MPs. Pdople

have lost their connection with what is meant to be their local LP or

local council. People do not see anyone who would fight them in

Parliament. The all look thd same, middle`aged blokes with ties on

Speaking of which, the mayor ` he's long argued

The door may now be ajar ` although what exactly's being

What do you make of the plans that appear to be drawn on the b`ck of a

fag packet? A brushed attempt to persuade Scotland and now they try

to buy off the rest? The gods, no, the gods are delighted todax. That

But what if the mayor's confidence isn't played

out in greater powers for London to keep more of the money it r`ises?

What if that next steps to devolttion

It will begin to make the chty far more difficult to live in. Xou have

edges of this to begin with. There are not enough primary school places

in London and everybody knows public transport, rail lines and the blind

can be hopelessly overcrowddd. The roads are congested and congestion

is spreading. These things will just get worse and worse.

A sombre warning from a man who's studied London for a

lifetime and seen its previous calls for more powers fall on deaf ears.

Still to come on tonight 's show,... The changes are very

dramatic and everything is luch cleaner. It is how I imagindd,

before I had the operation, how perfect eyesight would be. Ht is no

secret that many weddings that take place in the capital are, in fact,

sham is designed to get arotnd and `` immigration laws and enable

foreigners to live permanently in the UK. The UK. Despite clalp`downs

it is estimated that the nulber of fake weddings has trebled in recent

years. Tonight we can reveal the situation is going to get even worse

as gangs are now organising a bogus gay marriages which the authorities

claim are even harder to detect It's no secret that many weddings

that take place in the capital are, `` March 29 was a significant date

in the country 's history. March 29th was a significant date

in our country's history. At the stroke of midnight, same`sex

marriages were enshrined in law So, congratulations you

may now kiss the groom. I'm planning my own wedding

and looking for a dress. This is a tale

of girl meets girl with a twist I'm not lesbian but I'm going

undercover to expose the sh`m wedding fixers and brides whlling to

fake gay and marry anyone for cash. People have been prosecuted

and convicted of organising sham I just wanted to have

a chat with you about the m`rriages Our investigation begins with

a tip`off from a contact who needs This gang specialises

in arranging sham marriages The gang are from Romania and we've

arranged a meeting with thel. My cover is I'm an illegal hmmigrant

urgently seeking a sham marriage Our contact will work closely

with me, posing as my uncle. Our first meeting with Peter

and Ricardo, the men suspected of supplyhng bogus

lesbian brides across London. We head to

a local pub where conversathon He assures us that breaking

the law by fixing sham, The people taking part

in this citizenship ceremonx have They've passed strict vetting

rules and tests before winnhng the But the numbers of people who are

dodging immigration control through Here in Brent the home office

stop marriages on a weekly basis. In many boroughs in London,

the thought is up to 20 to 30% of marriages are actually for the

avoidance of immigration control. That statistic only accounts

for straight fake weddings. Peter and Ricardo trade in something

the authorities have yet to get to We need to be sure Flori is in

on the scam; that she's not here To prove she's fully up for this

and she has the right credentials to ensure my UK residency,

Flori produces her passport. The deal is agreed ` Flori `nd I

will now need to fabricate a convincing history togethdr to

pull off our fake wedding. Registrars now have more powers than

ever, with the authority to query and report ceremonies they don't

believe to be genuine but when it comes to gay weddings ?

shams can be harder to detect. I think it is fair to say that

registrars are probably verx well experienced in looking

for the signs where oppositd sex I think it is probably more

difficult to spot the signs if you have a same sex couple

whether it be male or femald. I would have thought that most

registrars are having some concerns that they are performing ceremonies

that actually aren't quite real The fact that registrars max

struggle to detect sham gay couples is used as a selling point

by our wedding fixers. They are probably justified

in their belief that it may be easier to get away with it

if it is a same sex couple. We are just heading

on our way to Hyde Park to leet What's planned is that we are going

to have our fake photo shoot and we are going to take these pictures to

the registrar's office as p`rt We've arranged for our own

photographer, who is actually When we arrive though,

there is a surprise ? Peter tells us that

my previous bride is now involved in another sham wedding so Alexandra

has come along in her place. Over a drink, Alexandra trids to put

us at ease by admitting to having helped organise half

a dozen previous sham weddings. In our wedding though, she will

take centre frame as the brhde. She talks me through how we will

deceive immigration officers. Outside

our photo shoot gets underw`y. Alexandra is

certainly pulling out all the stops. But Peter assures us that

if she is not to our liking, he has a selection of other potenthal fake

gay brides and grooms. In fact, for those who want to gain

UK citizenship illegally, The actions of our wedding

fixers suggest government claims to be getting tough on illegal

immigration may not be workhng. So we showed our evidence to

the Minister for Immigration From the images you've shown me I

would want them to be followed up by But in terms of our focus on sham

marriages, that is across the board We are strengthening

the law this year to enable registrars to share information more

readily, to better identify sham Our wedding fixers are expecting

Alexandra and I to head to Instead I have a surprise

for them ? a camera crew. I just wanted to have

a chat with you about the m`rriages I've got you on camera several

times arranging illegal marriages. This is your opportunity to put

your side across... They're unwilling to talk now but

once we hand all our evidence over to the police they could each face a

prison sentence of up to 14 years. You probably know that we h`ve of

the world leading eye hospitals You probably don't know that appear of

eyes can be used in 10 diffdrent sight saving operations. But the

hospital is being forced to buy in corneas from abroad because of a

shortage in the UK. Be warndd, those of you have a squeamish nattre may

need to look away during part of the report.

It?s a blurriness which is worse in certain scenarios,

It can be very bad, driving with headlights comhng.

It?s got to the stage where I don?t want to drive really.

Chris suffers from a diseasd which affects the part of the eye which

focuses entering light. If the condition is left untreated it can

lead to bring this `` blindness After I had some problems whth

cloudiness in the vision, I got referred here by my GP

and they did lots of tests and found I had Fuchs dystrophy

which is a syndrome whereby the eye The moisture builds up

and causes cloudiness. Down in the basement of Moorfield?s

hospital is the eye bank. It?s here in this incrediblx sterile

environment that donated eyds are prepared and stored ready

for transplants. Here we are seeing David

decontaminate the whole eye. He?s put the eyes through an iodine

wash and then into antibiothc wash. This whole very strict procdss

of cleanliness ensures that those corneas will be safe

for the patient because somd of our patients are as young

as 1 month old and as old as 10 . On average one pair

of eyes is donated to the b`nk each day but to meet the growing demand

of operations they need manx more. We actually always find ourselves

in a position whereby we ard short of corneas and we are always

encouraging people to think about donating their corneas

so we can benefit the patients that And how quickly after this person

died would these eyes have been We have to do the whole process

in 24 hours. Once the eyes have been cle`ned they

are then dissected ready to use What you don?t want to do

at this stage is bend the cornea One pair of eyes can be used in ten

different sight saving oper`tions. There are the corneas,

the whites of the eye... This is just a small piece of the

sclera and what will classically tend to happen is that we provide

this to glaucoma surgery. Even the parts

of the eye that can?t yet bd The retina, the lens,

the macula and the optic nerve can be used by various research groups

at the Institute of Ophthallology. Finally all the tissues frol

the eye are stored for 2`4 weeks before the transplant to make sure

they are free of any infecthon. Upstairs

in the operating theatre and the eye tissue for Chris?s transplant has

one final stage to go through. Manni is preparing

the donor material in such ` way that we can do this particular

version of transplant that we are Just replacing

the thin back layer of the cornea that supports the pump cells that

help to keep fluid pumped b`ck into We?ll end up with a disc sh`pe

of a membrane that is 20,000th of a millimetre thick

and that gives you some ide` Preparing the cornea to sizd is a

difficult but vital procedure ` if it doesn?t go to plan then the whole

operation will have to be aborted. What Mani is going to do thdre is

cut a circular shape and yot?ll see The Roman philosopher Cicero

believed that the eyes were In Hinduism and Buddhism, the third

eye represents enlightenment. So we can tell that people `re

emotionally if not mystically Maybe be that?s why 10 percdnt

of those who sign up to the organ I think there is a lot

of misconceptions when it comes to Some people believe

their loved one will have their facial appearance altered in some

way from the eye donation process. But thankfully

the way that we retrieve thd eye there is no cutting of skin, no

bleeding, no bruising that occurs. When we remove the eyes you

would not notice we had dond so Anyone up to the age

of 90 can donate their eyes ` Corneas do not have a blood supply

therefore patients that havd had breast cancer, cervical cancer,

colon cancers, etc, they can all still donate their corneas `nd that

is a very positive thing for patients who have suffered

and have unfortunately died Chris Whitehouse understands more

than most about the process His father Alan died last ydar

from a brain tumour. I think my dad probably did carry

a donor card ` it was something we were always aware

of that my dad would have w`nted to Chris?s father donated a nulber

of organs including his eyes. The fact that it can potenthally

alter 10 people?s lives from one set of eye donations is

absolutely astounding that?s the main comfort we took

from it knowing that we could have 32 year old Dhivya?s life h`s

been transformed by her eye being able to see the world clearly

for the first time in 15 ye`rs. Dhiyva has keratoconus `

a disorder which causes When did you realise you had any

sort of problem with your exes? When I was 14 I was reading a book

and it was getting a bit bltrry A third of all corneal transplants

are carried out on Keratoconus The most common type of transplant

however is the one Chris is having We?re doing more and more of these

operations and we frequentlx have to cancel the operations because

we don?t have tissue available. I?m just making a few littld

access points to the eye here.? The blue scroll there that hs

the transplant. It?s stained with

a blue dye there to help us see it. There?s lots of tapping on the eye

surface at this stage just to get The implanted tissue is held

in place with air bubbles. Chris,

I?m just going to take that retainer The nice thing

about this operation is it's just replacing the diseased cell

layer with one that is healthy. It's vitally important to h`ve

people who are prepared to be organ donors not just for the surgery

but also for research to make Preparing the cornea

for transplant by hand could soon be Funded by the Medical Research

Council, Dr Maninder Bhogal is looking at new techniques

of cutting corneas using lasers The advantage of the laser hs

just the precision is can offer We are trying to create laydrs that

are a 10th mm thick or smaller and so you can see that would be

difficult to achieve by mantally A surgeon will spend time preparing

the characteristics of the graft on the computer and then

when we?re ready the laser will do Three months after Chris's

transplant and I caught up with him The appearance of the corne` is

great actually on both sides. The change is very dramatic

and everything is much clearer. . It's how I imagined before H had

the operation how perfect exesight would be, It is actually brhlliant

and it?s made a huge differdnce What would you say? Thank you very

much, it is brilliant, it h`s made a huge difference. I'm very grateful.

And what better gift could xou give than the gift of sight?

If you'd like details of how you can register for eye donation you can

find that on the website. 1st, this is what comes up next week. Every

day, 30 Londoners suffer cardiac arrest. Why do survival ratds vary

so dramatically? London ambtlance research found if they get xou to 1

of these centres in London rather than a quick dash, your survival

chances double. How the maghc of the silver screen is leading new life to

enter our village community. We want to keep this going. I knew there was

a tradition of cinema so it seemed logical that we would go along this

route. We join the underwatdr archaeologists unlocking thd secrets

of a 17th`century shipwreck. It is like the Mary Rose. That is it. If

you have missed any of the night, and would like to catch up, or would

like information about donating your eyes, head to the website. Goodbye.

Hello, I'm Sam Naz with your 90`second update.

14`year`old Alice Gross went missing three weeks ago.

Today, police carried out a finger`tip search of

600 officers, from eight forces are working on the case.

It has overestimated its profits by a quarter of a billion pounds.

A new focus for Thai police looking into