30/09/2013 Inside Out North West

Hello, and welcome to Inside Out north—west. This week we are in

shipbuilding but less well known to home —— as home to iconic World

shipbuilding but less well known to Tonight, the mother of Jade Lomas

Anderson, killed a dog attack, remembers her daughter. She was

always laughing, the cheeky sense of humour. She was very loving. We

always laughing, the cheeky sense of the Northern workers tackling bosses

who do not pay minimum wage. There is too much of a big gap between the

higher and lower earners. And the powerful verse of Wilfred Owen

changed war poetry for ever. We discover how he spent seven years of

The morning to death by dogs of Atherton schoolgirl Jade Lomas

Anderson provoked nationwide shock this year. In two weeks, MPs are

expected to pass a bill making failure to control a dog on private

hoppity a criminal offence. But failure to control a dog on private

the change in the law go far I enough? I am talking to Jade's

parents. Dogs have claimed the lives of nine children in the UK in the

Three of them from the north—west. death in March this year was the

latest tragedy. We just don't want another tragedy to happen to another

family like it happened to us. That is the main thing, to make people

aware that the legislation at the moment is not good enough. Jade

aware that the legislation at the when she was mauled by four dogs

inside a friend's house inside Wigan. The owner of the dog will not

be prosecuted because the attack happened on private property and the

dogs were not illegal breeds. It is insulting. It is insulting to us. It

is insulting, not the right signal community and their family as it is

happened to them as well. It is disgusting. In two weeks time, the

House of Commons is expected to disgusting. In two weeks time, the

a bill placing the same level of responsibility for controlling a dog

on private property as it does in public at the moment. But Jade's

parents and supporters say more needs to be done. It is fine to

prosecute people, we welcome the prosecution now of people on private

property. But we need to prevent these tragedies happening. It is not

enough to deal with it afterwards, it is about prevention. Jade was a

pupil at Fred Longworth high school in Tyldesley. She had been allowed

to go at a sleepover at a friends house as a reward for doing well in

her schoolgirl —— schoolwork. She worked really hard, she got good

grades. We just thought she had already well and she deserved to

stay out. To have a bit of time already well and she deserved to

her friends. What they did not know is that there were five dogs in

her friends. What they did not know property. Four of them are tax Jade.

She was alone at the time. The first her family knew about it was when a

neighbour came to their door. He said, something happened. Mike got

his keys. He drove round and I ran round in my bare feet. When I got

there, there was loads of police. It is all taped up. I wanted to go

there, there was loads of police. It the house. But they stopped me.

there, there was loads of police. It me to go away. I was just thinking,

it wasn't my Jade. I think all we think about every day is her. You

don't have to recall it, it is just every morning, it is the same every

day. But you have got strength from somewhere? To keep moving forward,

haven't you? We have got great family and friends, we are so proud

of our children. Jade is more than what happened to her on that day.

When you look back and think of what happened to her on that day.

happiest memories of having Jade in your lives, what is the one thing

you think about? She was always laughing. Every, was Jade. She had

cheeky sense of humour. She was laughing. Every, was Jade. She had

loving. This tedious, but not too mischievous but not missed to this

—— but not too mischievous. In July, Michael and surely handed in a

petition at Downing Street calling for a change to the law. How did it

go? It went really well, it knocked petition, so it went really well.

How do you think it went? Attic petition, so it went really well.

been good. It shows the strength of feeling around the community where

people really believe something should be done about dangerous dogs.

Nine of us will present the same petition in Parliament tonight in

legislation, there are currently just for banned breeds. Critics

legislation, there are currently this system does not work. It is far

too sadistic. It is not just about these breeds, it is also about the

owners. —— the system currently these breeds, it is also about the

far too simplistic. Today, Paul Dunne is addressing a roomful of

people who come into regular contact with dogs through their work. We are

dealing with a relatively small proportion of people who are not

responsible with the pets to which they have charge. We need specific

legislation, this doesn't work, they have charge. We need specific

need a complete rethink. We need to make sure new legislation is fit for

different reasons rather than simply characteristics of the dog. It is a

view shared by Paul Dunne. This characteristics of the dog. It is a

bull straight is going to be put down. Not because it has harmed

anyone, simply because it is a banned breed. We can make a dog

anyone, simply because it is a whatever it will be. You have got to

be very selective on which ones whatever it will be. You have got to

pull out of a letter. So what tends aggressive ones and interbreed them

to bring aggression in. So we will aggression has been built in so

to bring aggression in. So we will end up with aggressive puppies.

Since as amendments to the dangerous illegal to own certain plea to that

Despite this, dog attacks have increased every year. 16 years ago,

attacks in the UK. By 2010, that Michael and Shirley are calling

attacks in the UK. By 2010, that the government to give greater

powers to local authorities so they can take action before the dog

attacks someone as they already can take action before the dog

in Scotland. In Scotland, if a dog is not under control, the local

authority has the power to serve a notice requiring specific measures

to be taken to keep that dog under specific. But at a time when local

authorities in England are making funding cuts, it is a doubt whether

many could afford this. Inside out has asked local authorities how

many could afford this. Inside out they spend on mandatory dog services

I just think there is not enough resources out there. You phone your

local dog warden, it takes three hours. The dog attack is... It is in

Downing Street with your position, how did that feel? We are just

trying to make people listen, it feels like they are listening, but

it will take a long time. We are not going anywhere. It is better to

it will take a long time. We are not something little away from it from

nothing at all. If you can take something little each time, then

eventually, we will get there. On Friday, the couple launched Jade's

campaign to help raise awareness surrounding dog control. What is the

one thing you want to come out of all of this? Something good has

one thing you want to come out of communities, the people to be more

responsible with their pet. That is their most important thing. We have

all got a role to play in that. their most important thing. We have

have, we can all help each other. Support what you are doing, support

what other people are doing. And together we can make it safer.

Coming up, how an old letter may hold a clue to war poet Wilfred

Birkenhead. Tomorrow is a red letter day for almost a million people

That is the day the minimum wage will rise from six to 19 per hour to

six, 31 for owners over 21. Is that really enough money to live on and

is everyone playing up on a basic You waste no time! Straight in.

is everyone playing up on a basic Sunderland's best shoppers and knows

the price of everything. I like Sunderland's best shoppers and knows

one but I will go for that one, Sunderland's best shoppers and knows

is 48p cheaper. What will this cost That is amazing! I at all my items

up in the head. You have got to That is amazing! I at all my items

sure you know what you are doing when you have got a big cavity ——

big family. You were getting two for the price of run here. One macro.

Shirley is just on the minimum wage so she would like tomorrow's rise of

do you think that MPs get what is like to live on this? They don't.

The 12p rise in the minimum wage will not make anyone rich. But it

will be welcomed by many. He is will not make anyone rich. But it

food for thought. The north—east has 71,000 people paid the adult minimum

wage. In Yorkshire and the Humber, it is a. The highest number is in

It is not enough for people. The cost of living has gone up, so we

sufficient enough. There is too cost of living has gone up, so we

of a big gap between the higher earner and the lower. I support

of a big gap between the higher living wage and not the minimum

wage, I think most employers should be heading that way. It is a joke.

pence? It is not going to change anyone's life really. When the

previous Government set up the minimum wage the idea was that was

the absolute basic that an employer could pay. It is the law. But in the

last two years there have been no prosecutions for breaking the rule,

so you might think that everyone is Well, let us find out. How you? Hop

Abbeytown well. She used to drive a minibus. Basically we would pick up

disabled children and take them minibus. Basically we would pick up

school. Was it a good job? It was. She was offered the job by a family

friend and was offered £80 a week. After a while things didn't add

friend and was offered £80 a week. So you were on a flat rate, the

hours went up but your money didn't really. No. How did that compare to

what would be the minimum wage? I think it was a lot below the minimum

wage. One point we worked out I should have been getting £135 a

week. Fed up with being exploited tribunal. What happened then? You

couldn't afford one? No, we went on the internet and Googled everything

we needed to know. Goodness, and you won We did. So you had a case. Yes

interviewed but said it had been paid What do you make of the minimum

wage as a concept? It is a good paid What do you make of the minimum

but it needs to be enforced better. Next up a man whose early business

career looked promising. David Meyers knows all about clinching a

deal I have six appointment with BT business customers. He was voted

Yorkshire's young apprentice of business customers. He was voted

year after setting up Access Telecom and another company in Hull. Perhaps

learning from his own experience he I find it odd it was only £100 a

week. But I obviously kept on going because they mentioned bonuses to

me. Alan and Lewis were employed at Access Telecom, being apprentices

they were below the full minimum wasn't much money and that is how

they motivated us, they would say £100 a week is nothing, you need to

make the sales to have anything £100 a week is nothing, you need to

live on really. Actually Alan and Lewis did come into some money but

only after the Kane was taken to an. Employment tribunal. He was ordered

to pay more than £100,000 after underpaying his staff. Alan got

about £1200 and Lewis £500. At the time I was like I've won it, it

about £1200 and Lewis £500. At the as if you have won it, but it was my

money any way. It has made me more aware of the way employers may try

and cheatout of money and thij things. It was a good learning

experience. David Meyers December line —— declined to be interview but

Now there is one thing all these people have in common. Although

Now there is one thing all these imemployers broke the law, the cases

were brought in employment tribunal, not the criminal court, today that

means there have only been eight prosecutions for non—payment since

it was introduced and none in the Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs

police the system. So are they tough enough? A couple of years ago, we

did try to use the revenues and custom to enforce the minimum wage

consuming, they were slow, they custom to enforce the minimum wage

reluctant to enforce it and our client was getting on our back

because they weren't doing anything, employment tribunal route. Six

months ago the Government scrapped legal ament for employment advice,

there is more, many people will legal ament for employment advice,

You are the victim yet you have legal ament for employment advice,

pay. You just have your case heard. It is absurd. What is more plo

foundly unfair, is that there is no guarantee even if they win the case,

that they will get temperature tribunal fees back. —— profoundly.

Who is in charge? I am off to see Vince Cable, the Business Secretary

and the man who has promised action. People can't afford to get it to the

tribunal. That is what I want the enforcement activity to be more

proactive. We are looking at how we can toughen up the processes, to

make it easier for the authorities to initiate. It strikes me as an

employer it is easy, because the fines aren't great, the person they

are paying below the minimum wage can't afford to take it further

are paying below the minimum wage we haven't had much of a naming

are paying below the minimum wage shaming either. That is why I have

been trying to move the system shaming will be a bigger part of the

action. So we will see that? Yes, it should do and if it doesn't, I shall

want to know why. If an employment law firm is turning away hundreds of

people, that tells you there is law firm is turning away hundreds of

problem. If that is the case. I law firm is turning away hundreds of

surprised, but why don't they bring them to the HMRC, why don't they

bring them to me and I will headache sure we take more action on them.

Our programme lasts about half an hour, so when we looked a at how

much you earn, you have earned just over £32 in this half hour, someone

are in a society where there are substantial inequalities, and there

are a lot of people get paid more than me, those differentials are

enormous, I want to see an upward movement in the minimum wage, but we

don't at the same time want to bring so much pressure on small firm,

don't at the same time want to bring survived through this very difficult

period and pitch people out of work. That wouldn't be helpful. Last week

the Labour Party said it would increase the £5,000 fine for firms

not paying the minimum wage to £50,000. Vince Cable didn't promise

he would follow suit he said he £50,000. Vince Cable didn't promise

see tougher action against rogue employers in the future. Watch this

Not many people realise that our greatest war poet, Wilfred Owen

Not many people realise that our up in Birkenhead. Little is known

about his time here. But now an up in Birkenhead. Little is known

letter has been discovered which sheds new light on those years the

Gas, gas, quick boys, an ecstasy of fumbling. Fitting the clumsy helmets

on. Someone still was yelling out an stumbleling. Dim through the misty

pence a as under a green sea I saw The words of Wilfred Owen, whose

powerful verse changed war poetry, and our perception of war forever He

writes about things that are hugely evoketive, hugely angry, hugely

writes about things that are hugely is not how things should be. All the

great critics say that Owen would have been the next poet after Keats,

he was the greatest English poet in waiting. It is not widely known

he was the greatest English poet in grew up in Birkenhead but as he

lived there, are the longest period he spent anywhere in his tragically

From is a memorial stained glass window to him in the library but the

town's role in his story remains doesn't shout about its heritage or

culture very loudly. More genteel places like Shropshire where he

culture very loudly. More genteel born, it fits in nicer there it

culture very loudly. More genteel Like Owen musician Dean Johnson

culture very loudly. More genteel he is on a mission to have his home

town's part in Wilfred's life fully acknowledged. He has written a

musical about the poet, and has opened a museum in the town centre,

which hopes will help regress the balance. Birkenhead, it is a tough

like dynamic place, his words were tough and dine mini—Mick, in the 19

hundreds when they arrived it must have sent their heads reelings. They

had fall on the hard times and were transported from rural Shropshire to

one of the busiest industrial towns in the country. Wilfred's most Susan

Owen has consistently been portrayed at deeply unthat y in Birkenhead,

and described by biographers as at deeply unthat y in Birkenhead,

big of a snob who turned her nose up at her new neighbours. This is the

house in Elm Grove they first lived. Academics have described their time

here as unhappy but new evidence In is Mal Robinson who grew up in

Birkenhead and lives in London now. He was shocked to discover his

family had a connection with Wilfred Owen. This is the letter that Susan

Owen sent to my grandmother, on Owen. This is the letter that Susan

grandmother's 21st birthday. In Owen. This is the letter that Susan

she mentions the fact she had weaned My dear Susie, fancy, your 21st

longering a to me than that, for we mother, and the Sunday, it was

Easter Sunday I think that I carried when you were a few days or a week

old. I remember the nights you kept me awake but it was a work of love

Having been born in Birkenhead and brought up in Birkenhead, it is

Having been born in Birkenhead and to read something like this, which

indicates that the Owens had a good time in Birkenhead. It seems to

indicates that the Owens had a good in the face of a lot of Muir and

things you read about Susan Owen. And to be honest, Susan Owen did a

lot for my grandmother, and that, that gives an impression of a woman

who cares. The little girl on the right is Mal's grandmother, her

mother was clearly a woman in need, and it was Susan Owen who helped

However, Mal had another surprise. My grandmother's mother was called

Magged lean. She was of German —— Maguted lain. Her German name you

Schmid. German families were common on Merseyside at the turn of the

century. As war approached many on Merseyside at the turn of the

forced to leave or change their names as tensions mounted. But it

still seems extraordinary that our great war poet grew up with German

friends. This revelation that they were a German family, when you

juxtapose that to Owen's war poetry, it is devastating. I just wanted to,

you know, to phone the original biographers and gonna, that, that,

that. How significant is this letter in terms of what it says about the

overturns 100 years of myth—making of their time in Birkenhead, and it

greatest war poet of all time. Geoffrey Walsh is another son of

expert. For him, the letter confirms Susan Owen's role in the Wilfred

What it does show, I think, is very caring loving family, with a mother,

think she was remarkable. They say that writers have a strong mother,

and I think she was, if you like, the perhaps the main person who

influenced Owen and developed his It seems certain that the two women

became friends through their shared faith. Practises at ciet church

became friends through their shared Birkenhead. As far as I'm aware

Susan Owen taught my nan's brother. —— Christchurch. She also taught

Wilfred Owen. So we think that Christchurch being the kind of

community hub, that is how they Christchurch being the kind of

This church is central to the story. It was here that Dean premiers his

Wilfred Owen musical, bullets and daff #2ki8s. Will freed father was a

graduated to being a choirboy. The # Bloodstained against the yellow

# The wind of war is never still The musical has been staged twice in

the West End. The man who played James her yo —— James Herriot in all

creatures Great and Small starring and then directing I think it is

beautiful, it comes from Dean's passion for Owen, and Birkenhead,

story, it taught me about my home town, telling his story taught me

about the First World War, because his story is the story of the war.

Wilfred Owen's extraordinary poetry during next year's centenary of

world war one. Now don't forget during next year's centenary of

can catch us again on the iPlayer but we are back next Monday, so

Next week, remembering the summer Coming towards me then, was a wall