25/02/2013 Inside Out West Midlands

Hello, I am down on the farm pondering the future for the dairy

farmers. The year was punctuated by price cuts and protest. Also on

show. We investigate the Birmingham men convicted of plotting a

terrorist outrage. I noticed that he was very extreme in his

interpretation of Islam. Even within extremist foals he was

extreme. Tomorrow burning and -- Tomorrow,

Birmingham's 120 city councillors look set to approve next year's

budget. Depending on your political persuasion, it will lead to

swingeing multi-million pound cuts, or much-needed multi-million pound

savings. So what will it mean for the million people governed by

Politics is all matter of opinion. Whether you are a Cabinet minister.

I am cheering you on. A council boss Eric Pickles has actually put

politics into this - because he's front loaded the cuts. A religious

leader. If there's less to go round we must share it as well as we can.

Or just one of the millions of unheard voices, searching for

answers. What hope can you give young people? We're 118 miles from

Westminster. Right here, the Government's money problems mean

nothing to volunteer youth worker Dale Jukes and his friends. This

Saturday club, based at the Stonehouse Gang in Selly Oak, is

only here because of Dale. The previous one ran out of cash. Dale

took over and there are a lot of grateful parents. There is little

in the area for children on Saturday with special needs. This

is a valuable centre. Dale has been a member of the Stonehouse Gang for

more than 10 years now and has direct experience of budget cuts.

Two years ago his youth club was told it would lose a grant worth

twenty thousand pounds. Somebody has not done maths properly. We are

in a mess and somebody has to suffer. Youth leaders are very down

and the youth are suffering because of their future. For 75 years now,

the Stonehouse Gang has provided valuable support to young people

like Dale - the determination to fight on despite the cuts is

obvious. Dale is clearly doing everything he can to make a

difference, but it's hard work Dale's got a reasonable grasp of

what's going on. When you see David Cameron and George Osborne on the

national level and local politicians making decisions, do

they have any idea what it is like to be a young person today? They

don't. It is a blinkered view. Not all young people recognise that and

work like that. They need the services to guide them. I think

they need to look at our level and recognise we are here for

Birmingham as well. He has a grasp of what's going on. But he's up for

a maths lesson - and we're going to give him the chance to meet the

political powerbrokers. This is the scale of the cuts the council has

to make. By 2017, Birmingham City Council needs to save �615m. Next

year the council needs to save �102m, and the department looking

after children, young people and families will lose �24m. Put that

into context. They need to save �70m more than it cost to build the

city's new hospital. It is a lot of money. They can't cut that from

vulnerable people. It's interesting to see on which parts of that 24

million effects of the families and young people of Birmingham. It's a

big problem. Definitely. Birmingham will have to cut

services to bridge the six hundred and fifteen million pound funding

gap. Can Dale be convinced that's fair? I think local government is

fantastic. This is the man controlling the purse strings -

Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles. In 2013 is your year. We

have made sure, unlike other parts of the public sector you're not

facing an extra 1% cut. The radical, B grade. Be bold. -- the brave.

Make good our expectations. This isn't just the right way, it's the

only way to go. What do you think of what Mr Pickles says? He had

some good points but we need to get on with it and make the cuts. In

some cases it's difficult. You cannot cut everywhere and get on

with life because it is affecting society. It is a balancing act.

is a difficult job to the person who needs to make the cuts. That

person is Sir Albert Bore. He's the leader of Birmingham City Council

and controls a three point five billion pound budget. And most of

that money is given to him by Central Government. Ahead of

tomorrow's budget meeting, Sir Albert faced city residents. The

mood was clear. The people of Birmingham did not create the

deficit and the people of Birmingham should not pay for it.

am proud to be a Brummie but I am ashamed to say what we leaving the

kids? Not a lot. There is an alternative. Show courage and stand

up. Reducing society. Sir Albert describes the budget cuts as "the

jaws of doom" but knows he must balance the books. It's the law.

Eric Pickles wants local government to be bold and brave. How will you

rise to the challenge? We will do that. We look at the services in

the way we are overcoming months. People will be able to see what it

is we're spending the money on. Exactly what we spend the money on

and they can take a view over which services we can decommission. It's

the end of local government as I know it. They will be local

government but local government will have to operate differently,

it will have to operate in partnership with other services.

They would have to be more focused as to what we are delivering and

what other people should deliver. What hope can you give young people

who are vulnerable? If we continue to talk to young people, if we try

to ensure we know what they want, we listen to them and we take up

their ideas then I think we can turn that into hope for young

people, hopefully we can insure the services they are looking for, the

facilities they want to see are maintained and can be maintained.

That is where the hope lies. But is hope enough to win over Dale?

came across confident about the cuts and how he will try not to

affect society but I am not sure how he would do that. There are

large cuts. Dale's heard from the political heavyweights shaping

Birmingham's future. But not all leaders are politicians. David

Urquhart is the ninth Bishop of Birmingham - and we met him at a

new church in Sparkbrook. His vision is clear. The we need to

pull together as a community, we must make sure those who are most

vulnerable are included in any decision and their needs are met,

we must expect to take some sacrifice for those of us were

better off. And that will be painful. This is a wonderful city

to live in, a resourceful and talented and we are in a crisis

because of the national funding regime and we need to use this

guess resources to make this an even better city than it is.

journey is at an end. What is his verdict? It's been a good journey

to see the different roles to see where the money goes and to make a

difference. We except the cuts are coming, they have all reassured me

that they will be hopeful about the cuts and think about society when

they make the cuts. I am more positive from the day we had. All

we can do now is it back. You can watch my interviews on Facebook.

And you can also e-mail me. Still to come: We take eight

Staffordshire Farmer to meet the dairy farmers banding together to

drive up milk profits on the Isle of Wight and ask if it could work

in the Midlands. It is make or break. If it doesn't

work there will be few dairy farmers left.

Last Thursday and three men from Birmingham were found guilty of

plotting a bombing outrage in the UK. He were these men and how did

their extremist views develop? The three men have gone on trial at...

It's September 2011. Three men from Birmingham have been arrested over

a terrorist plot prosecutors say could have been bigger than the 7/7

bombings. I know he thought of this country as a land of war. This is

the story behind the headlines - the story of who these men are and

how extremism like this can grow in a city like Birmingham.

He was an oddball, he was delusional, he was someone really

on the edge of society. Sparkbrook in Birmingham- the small shops and

businesses are getting ready for another busy day. People here are

hardworking but times are tough. Unemployment is double the national

average. Half the children live in poverty. But along with its

neighbour Sparkhill, there's a darker statistic. From these

Birmingham streets, say the police, springs the greatest threat from

Al-Qaeda inspired terrorism outside of London. What happened here in

20th September 11 it shocked this local community as much as anyone

else in the country. The three burning and men arrested and

accused of plotting to carry out Irfan Naseer from Sparkhill was the

Emir, the leader of the plot, a university graduate in chemistry.

Along with Irfan Khalid from Sparkbrook they'd undergone terror

training in Pakistan. Ashik Ali supplied a flat in Sparkhill where

the group began to experiment with chemicals. All the time, Irfan

Naseer was urging them on to become bigger bombers than the 7/7

terrorists. But the three men were being watched by the secret

services and the police. They planned a mass suicide attack using

rucksack bombs. Seven or eight different places, with climbers on

the same time. The only thing you will achieve his suicide bombers on

your street, spilling so much bloody well have nightmares for the

rest of your life. Irfan Naseer also discussed attaching butchers'

knives to car wheels and putting poison on door handles. In five

minutes, they are dying, thousands of them. So how does someone grow

to hate so much that they want to kill? I tracked down a man who knew

the ringleader of the plot long before he was making headlines.

Anas Zein is an old school friend of Irfan Naseer's. They were like

any other schoolboys growing up in Birmingham. We used to have a lot

of football matches here. This photo from the summer of 1996 shows

Naseer as a chubby popular schoolboy, a joker, one of the lads

studying for his A levels at Moseley School. He was quite a

charismatic guy, quite like. He had the nickname of chubby. The guys

stuck around with him because he was farmed. He always had a lot to

say, quite outspoken. Anas Zein paints a picture of Naseer as a

graduate who failed to find a career or a purpose in life. The

joker disappeared to be replaced by a religious warrior committed only

to his version of Islam. He was quite outspoken, he never had

anything. What he said to me, he would say to a stranger. He said he

wanted to be the big man. He just couldn't comprehend, he was

struggling to move on from schooldays and he wanted to prove

something. He Malik Al Abdeh is a Syrian born journalist and while

living in Birmingham met and played football with Irfan Naseer in 2009.

He saw Chubs as a Maverick. first impressions were that he

wears an avoidable, he was delusional -- he was an oddball. He

was very extreme in his interpretation of Islam, even

within the extremist fold, he was extreme. By 2009, Irfan Naseer was

becoming alienated from his friends and becoming increasingly radical

while openly making threats to Western society. Irfan was very

open about his support for Jihadists in Afghanistan. He was

very open about his approval and admiration for the Taliban. There

was no surprise in the community that he'd been arrested and not

much sympathy. I leave Moseley and drive back to White Street in

Sparkhill. This was Ashik Ali's groundfloor flat in Sparkhill. The

three men began to experiment with chemicals this could have become a

bomb making factory the police couldn't take any more chances and

swooped and arrested the three men. But what the causes of young Muslim

men like these to turned to terrorism? Jahan Mahmood has worked

in Sparkbrook for nine years running anti radicalisation

programmes for young Muslim men. What we found to be the most

prominent recruiter of young men is without a shadow of a doubt UK

foreign policy. But he says the majority of those Muslims have no

sympathy for extremists. This is not an isolated case. Many families

have expressed their concern at members of their family being

attracted to extremism. The fact that community is willing... I head

to a nearby school in Sparkhill where we've been invited to talk to

some teenagers about their views. This latest court case once again

casts a shadow on this part of Birmingham. It makes me feel angry

because not every British Pakistani or Asian almost limit is a

terrorist -- or Muslim. It is not right to kill in the Muslim society.

Young Muslims are looking for guidance and purpose, and this is

seen as purpose. I think because of certain events in the past, people

don't want to makes as much as they used to. Because of what these

young Muslims are doing, they are changing the chances for other

young Asian men. But the damage done to the perception of the

Muslim community here in Birmingham could have been much greater had

the police not foiled the plot. Their intention was to make a UDs,

suicide bombs, up to 80 of them and explode them the in crowd of places

-- I UD. They are more likely to become the forgotten men, serving a

life long prison sentences. The police were always one step ahead,

but that doesn't mean that the extremism has been defeated here in

Birmingham. I'm at the home of a farmer named

Andrew. He is fighting to drive up the price he receives the milk.

Last summer, there were blockades at milk processing plants as

farmers decided that direct action was needed. But what does the

future hold? How much do you pay for your milk? The truth is most of

us pick up a bottle without paying too much attention. In the milking

parlours they're watching every penny. Andrew is a prime example of

a lone farmer who believes the milk processor he sells to is not

getting a good enough price from the supermarkets. He's not even

covering his costs and a penny short costs his business thousands.

We are a million litre Farm, so Kenny is �10,000 we are not going

to get in a year. -- so a penny. But on the farm in Staffordshire

he's milking 130 cows twice a day every day. Surely he can't go on

like this? Well I think we do it because we don't pay ourselves

enough. Family labour, a very underestimated. We all chip in at

all times of the day. It's not good. In fact it's so bad, the number of

UK dairy farmers has halved in a decade. This is a family farm. U To

Cover for my dad and you have kids. What kind of feature do think they

will have? -- you took over. In 10 years' time, we don't know how many

dairy farms there will be. We've got about 10,000 now, is probably

going to be halved. They are fighting to save what is left, and

while it didn't feel like it for the rest of us, the summer got

pretty heated for the dairy industry. After taking one price

cut on the chin, farmers took to their tractors. The SOS Dairy

campaign forced a fairer process for setting milk prices with the

dairies, but a small group of farmers left the protests

determined to work together on a rescue plan to secure their future,

and we're taking Andrew to meet them. We've got you off the farm,

taking you to the Isle of Wight. Will be taking you to see if

farming Co-op -- to seek a farming cold. What do you think we'll find?

I think it'll be really interesting. Get something kick-started. It

sounds like they're doing a really good job. To keep cows on Cowes,

the rest of the Isle of Wight farmers here are working together.

It's the first UK Co-op of its kind, but could it work the West

Midlands? In Staffordshire, it's hard to see us all getting round

the table, but we did manage to get seven or 800 farmers within 24

hours' notice at Stafford Showground, so perhaps it can be

done. On the Island, over 300 herds have fallen in 50 years, today the

last 17 standing have formed the Isle of Wight Farmers Group.

we're producing milk over here and it's going to the mainland. It

seemed ridiculous. We have got a processing plant on the island that

is capable of processing all our milk. So let's get this straight.

Isle of Wight dairy farmers send most of their milk to the mainland,

while farmers like Andrew on the mainland ship theirs to shops on

the Isle of Wight. It's costly but not a big issue the big

supermarkets. It is for Justin and his neighbours, though. They joined

the mainland protests - finding strength in numbers got results and

started their own campaign. looks like you're really making

strong inroads. A I don't think the supermarkets really care about the

suppliers. They are driven by what their customers want. By doing the

campaign, going out and getting petitions, people on the island

said they wanted Isle of Wight milk. We also produced cards that they

could take into the supermarket, demanding Isle of Wight milk. It

wasn't too long before the supermarkets were coming back to us

saying they were getting all the demand, e-mails and phone calls. So

they were asking us for it, which was the perfect situation. So the

customer is key, and as Andrew's about to find out, the farmers have

also had to shake hands with an unlikely ally to make the co-

operative work, and we're heading there next. This is the filling

process, where it gets bottled and then packed in cold store.

dairy acts as the middle man between the farmers and the

supermarkets with him on board the group has more control of the whole

process from cow to cup. The price has been driven down and down,

dairy companies have been inviting you to the. We could never supplied

the cheapest leader, so we have had to take the stand and say, this is

the best price we can be viewed -- cheapest litre. It is so far paying

off. But the group reckon it needs another 30 % grades but to seek

real returns -- growth spurt. Andrew's come to see how far the

supermarket doors have opened. On the Isle of Wight customers led the

way in, thousands signed petitions and bombarded the supermarkets with

complaint cards, demanding they stock local milk. It was the MP,

the co-operative e-mails, customer comment forms, phone calls.

Andrew wasn't going to miss an opportunity to put a supermarket

buyer on the spot. It can't be ethically right that we are

producing milk at a loss. Not only on the Isle of Wight but right

across the country. It is completely unfair. He I can't

comment. It is not just the crop, it's all supermarkets. -- the Co-op.

The Government is sold on the idea and has set aside a �5million pot

to encourage more ventures like this, but how many farmers will

take them up on it? What will happen if this doesn't work?

think there will be very few dairy farmers left. Perhaps we should be

doing some Staffordshire milk. Rather than just talking about one

farmer with a million litres of milk, you could be talking about 20

farmers with 20 million litres of milk. You go to them with that, you

can then work with them and together you have a lot more

strength to go to the supermarkets and tell them what they can pay for

the milk. They're not there yet, but Isle of Wight milk has given us

plenty to think about on the way home. What has surprised me about

all of this is how far along they are. They've not been going more

than a few months, and yet those customers were looking for the milk

and the supermarket, they were going for it. They've got big plans.

The way to save dairy farming on this island is for them to expand

and produce more milk and that is what they want to do. I was really

impressed by that, but the question I have is where that would work for

you and for Staffordshire. It took her finger on the island it is at

the bit different the mainland. -- I think on the island. Perhaps

we'll have to go round with a couple of mates and go and knock on

the doors. They've probably never been approached before and perhaps

this has given us the opportunity to do that. That is it for tonight

and for this series, but don't forget you can find more