11/09/2012 Newsnight

The examination system in England and Wales is supposed to be an

independent measure of what our young people have learned in school.

What credibility does it still have?

In Cardiff, the Welsh Education Minister says he wants GCSE exam

results regraded. The chair of the Education Select

Committee in London says he just wants to find out what's happened,

and meanwhile, the victims, or survivors of the exams, want to

know they have been treated fairly. The havoc causeded in Italy by

London banks, we reveal the way they sold almost incomprehensible

financial products to Italian local authorities, and sank them further

into debt. TRANSLATION: People need to wake up to what is going on or

nothing will change. Banks threaten to take their capital out of

countries if regulation comes in, but we need regulation, because

these banks are plundering society. Reader, I divorced him, is it time

the law was changed to limit the settlements when marriages fall

apart? It has been 50 years, but at last The Weirdstone of Brisingamen

of fantasy fiction is complete. What took the author, Robert Garner

so long. I had enough of the two main character, I loathed their

guts, because I had lived with them for eight years, and they hadn't

moved on and I had. The secondary school examination

system is a shambles, discuss. For various politicians and officials

invited to answer this question gave different answers today. The

Welsh Education Minister has ordered a regrading of the GCSE

papers, the English being the case in point. His counterpart in

England refuses to do so. The issues raised in fairness, about

the rising standards, the vested interest in teacher unions, the

regulation of the examination boards, about the nature of

Government in a devolved system, are of post-graduate level

complexity. I'm going in for my test now, it

will be my eighth time, I'm not going to say I'm going to pass, I'm

just going to say to myself I will try. Since Maureen shot to fame in

Driving School, the national pass rate for driving tests has rarely

changed, confidence in the system is high. Very different from GCSEs,

where it seems this year examers without telling students or

instructors, suddenly made the test harder to pass. Today the Education

Select Committee was trying to find out how and why. Basically you

should have had enough data and information to do this. You were

already alert to the problems. Some how, we still find ourselves

sitting here today. That must mean that you have failed somewhere to

do what you should do in order to anticipate it. That's the

allegation. I understand, the position is, as ever, a little bit

more complicated than it first appears. So the foundation teir

paper, of course it is an examination paper, an examination s

is, by their very nature, different. A GCSE is not a driving test, but

it is also testing basic skills, some would argue, the use of

language. The paper, which on the face of it seem pretty straight

forward, the marking has become complicated. Partly because of the

new exam, but also because Ofqual has demanded comparable results,

those that are on a par with previous years. It appears Ofqual

intervened this summer, telling examers where to draw the lines.

Ofqual's director of standards wrote to the Exam Board, worried

the proportion of pupils awarded a C grade, would be 8% higher than

predicted. They said it may require them to move grading boundaries

more than required. The Exam Board fought back with their own analysis.

They believed it to be compelling evidence that their award was fair.

They didn't believe a further revision of the grade boundaries

was justified. They did move their boundaries, though, as did the

other boards. Many thousands of students got D were their teachers

had predicted a C. We are, I think, in an uncomfortable position, in

fairness terms. To cut you off, we have limited time left. I'm sure

you are in an uncomfortable position, but this is about young

people who sat this exam last year, who might not have achieved the A

they received for future university prospects, or the C they needed in

order to go forward and change their next studies. So, you

actually acknowledge that it is not fair, some people got lucky, and it

was tough on the rest. I'm not saying it was tough on the rest. We

had a very careful look at June aid warding, June awarding of right.

Michael Gove has often said he wants exams to be tougher, Glenys

Stacey, whom he appointed, has denied any political interference.

In Wales everything's different, the Education Minister's ordered

GCSEs, set by the Welsh boards, to be regraded. Many in England sat

those tests too, nothing will change for them. The academic, most

critical of grade inflation, says this is dangerous deadlock. Most

people's intertation of what a GCSE grade tells you about a person,

whether they are qualified to go on to further study, or other things

that employers might interpret from those grades, are just not

consistent. You get one grade if you happen to live in England and a

different grade if you happen to live in Wales, even though you did

exactly the same exam, and it was marked the same way, and everything

else about it was the same. I just can't see it surviving that.

driving test has an absolute standard, there are no limits on

how many people can get through each year, using limits, through

comparable GCSE outcomes, is at the heart of the problems. Some say if

you want to limit achievement, raise the standard, don't limit how

many have passed. I'm sorry you have been unsuccessful. I will be

speaking to two students who took the GCSE English exam in a moment.

First, let as talk to the Welsh Education Minister, Leighton

Andrews. You have asked for a regrading. How many students do you

believe were unfairly treated? don't know the exact figures, but

we suspect it will reach into hundreds in Wales. So, in order to

make thatle kalation, you know where you suspect the boundary --

calculation, you know where you suspect the boundary was. We had a

thorough report from officials that looked at comparative performance,

year on year, in Wales. There has been less change in terms of the

exam specifications in Wales, than perhaps there has been in England.

We think the boundary was, will have to move, we suspect it will

result in a regrading, which will lift grades by, maybe, 2.5%,

compared to what we had. How should it move, from what to what? What we

are looking at, really, is the question of what levels the

different grades should be set at. There has been too much focus on

what happened in January and what happened in June. The real issue is

what's going on around what is known in regulatory jargon, as

comparable outcomes. The idea is, if you change exam specifications

in a year, there should not be significant shift in the overall

outcomes. Now, we don't believe that this year's results have seen

that happen in Wales. We believe we have had something rather different

from that. You know perfectly what is being said, it is that you are

demanding this regrading, because, particularly under your regime, but

for several years now, education in Wales has been getting worse and

worse and worse and that is shown up in international surveys. What

you're trying to do, is to massage the figures? You could argue that,

Jeremy, if I was asking for a regrading in every Sue subject, in

every GCSE. I'm focusing on one area where there is a problem. It

is widely acknowledged there is a problem in GCSE English language.

Michael Gove says the results are probably unfair. Head teachers

throughout England and Wales say they are unfair. The Northern

Ireland Education Minister has also asked for an inquiry into what has

happened in one part of the exam system there. I think there is

general recognition, there is a specific problem with relation to

English language. But you accept that there may be other subjects in

which it may be necessary, at some point, to demand a regrading?

in this year. We think these are exceptional circumstances, it is

not just us saying this. As I said, Michael Gove has said he thinks the

results may have been unfair. But we have got head teachers in the

state sector, we have head teachers in the private sector, all saying

there is a problem with English language this year.

If the outcome at the end of all of this is separate systems in England

and Wales is that a good or bad thing? There is a separate system

in Scotland, of course. The GCSE and A-levels are a three-country

system, Northern Ireland, England and Wales much the Northern Ireland

Education Minister, and I, have written jointly to Michael Gove,

expressing our concerns about the number of statements he has made

about GCSEs and A-levels. So, my question was, is it a

desirable outcome if the end point of all of this is separate systems

in England and Wales, the implication of your answer is, no,

not necessarily? We have a proper qualifications review under way in

Wales, which we start some months ago. That will report later this

autumn. It has taken evidence from a wide variety of people throughout

the United Kingdom, including the university sector. We are building

up an evidence base, we will look at what they say. Thank you. We are

joined now about two student who is find themselves either side of the

great schism, Dakota Clarke who sat a GCSE in January, and Jack Coates

who sat in the summer, and didn't. With them is the head of the

Education Select Committee. Tell me what happened, then? We had been on

task for our Cs, we had all worked very hard, we had put a lot of

effort in, and when we opened our piece of paper and we saw we had

got a D. Were you shocked? Very shocked and disappointed. You,

sounds a bit rude, you scraped a C, effectively? Yeah. Were you

pleased? I was very pleased. what do you think would have

happened had you had to sit, that was in January, had you had to sit

this summer, what would have happened? D. Probably and D or an E.

You are a pretty lucky guy? Yes. you think you have been unfairly

treated? Definitely. What has been the effect of not getting the C you

wanted? I'm now set back a year, I have to go back to college just to

retake my English so I can get my apprenticeship. You were going to

get an apprenticeship, dependant on getting a C in English. You didn't

get it, so you have to wait a year and retake the exam and get it then,

we hope. That is a serious consequence, isn't it? Yeah.

anyone explained to you, your teachers, about what might have

happened? The teachers said I should have had a C as well. There

was 19 kids in our school that didn't get the Cs. Your teachers

might not have known, but they were wrong. What do you feel about the

exam system now? I think it is wrong they have changed them from

January to June, I think they should have starteded it from the

beginning of this year, then it would have been fair for all the

kids in year 11, last year. You are not disputing that they had a right

to change the standards? No, I don't think they had the right to

change it. You don't? No. But you have just said the argument was

about timing? Yes. What do you make of all of this, you are having this

big inquiry? It is a good thing to bring in those at the centre of it,

young people, working hard, feeling disappointed. Trying to get to the

bottom of it, a whole series of things has come together. The

design of this exam, all the English exams this year were new,

they were designed on this modual later basis, so you could take them

in the year rather than linear events. Certain amounts of marks

were allocated by the teachers to the pupils. Because of the nature

of it, teachers thought they knew where the grade boundaries were,

the exam bodies say there was a boosting of that marking,

overmarking, perhaps informed by teachers who thought they knew

where the boundary was. They were tending to offer higher marks. You

have all this complexity. And within a system that's described

that way, you have bigger variability than normal. Some

schools have done much, much better than expected, others have done a

lot worse, and no-one this morning, we had head teachers, the

professional bodies, and the regulator coming in, nobody could

explain why there is huge turbulence and vairyabs in the

system, which has -- variables in the system, which has left young

people, still in schools, suddenly out of favour. You said your

teachers predicted a C, I said to you it is possible the teachers

were wrong. Clearly they were wrong in many cases, because of the day

of reckoning? In the end they were wrong, they were right until it was

changed at the last minute. I see, you think the teachers were

predicting on the basis of what they knew, not on what happened? Is

that possible? Ofqual said typically schools overpredict. Last

year they thought that 77% of people would get an English GCSE C

or above. It is not unheard of. It is just the number of schools and

the extent to which they were out from their expectation seems to be

higher. There is work going on to try to understand that. Overall, if

you control who took the exam this year, they do this comparable

performance stuff. If you look at who took it, and previous

achievements, actually, Ofqual, say, people on average, did better this

year than last year. Throw that into the mix and it is complicated

to work out the result. Meanwhile, you have lot of confidence in the

general public and amongst schools, and young people wondering

whether...Do You have faith in the examination system? I would not

allow this very poorly-constructed exam, which, as it happens, was

instigated by the last Government. There was warnings about the MoD

later nature of it, and warnings about the controlled assessment of

it. They preed ahead of it anyone, when the then minister was pressed

repeatedly by the current schools minister, she said Ofqual will have

to deal with it. Ofqual and the young people find themselves in the

middle of a predictable car crash, and we're trying to find out what's

really gone on. Jack could be regraded if he was in Wales, yes or

no, should Michael Gove argue for regrading in England? We need a

better understanding, first, and secondly, I would caution the

minister in Wales and elsewhere. You do not do young people a

service by allowing the careless devaluation of the currency

overtime. That is neither a yes nor a no. Now the euro crisis chapter

73. Its causes had nothing to do with us, say faintly smug-sounding

Britains. Not so fast, the Italian legal system is pouring over claims

that local authorities there were sold financial products, by banks

based in London, which they didn't, couldn't have, understood.

Newsnight has discovered that whistleblowers within those banks,

who highlight what had they felt when mis-selling, were fired. Their

complaints that the FSA routinely ignored them. This is a tragedy of

operatic proportions, of London- based banks making massive profits

on inappropriate deals in Italy. With a cast of characters speaking

exclusively to Newsnight. We reveal the role the City of London has

played in pushing Italy to the brink. On the surface it was a

great deal. The Italians thought they would get money for free.

Whistleblowers are telling Newsnight about the culture of

greed in London banks, and an Italian hero speaking in his first

TV interview, bought the British banks without any intervention from

the regulator. TRANSLATION: I saw no intervention into banks. As the

euro zone limps from crisis to crisis, the consequences of this

scandal may be more than financial for all of Europe. We will have a

The home of opera, and gel lat toe, is turning sour, its debt levels

are as high as Greece, GDP is shrinking, and a bail out looms. It

may be straut that breaks the federal back. Apart from inventing

banking, the Italians invented opera, the most famous one is here

in Milan. It needed extensive renovations about ten years a it

was funded from London investment banks. There were very good deals

to be had, too good to be true, in fact.

Investment banks invented something far more creative and profitable

than opera, called, "derivatives", these perfectly formed financial

policies were a great way to borrow. Some of them sought less well

protected customers, being banned from selling to the British

customer. Here is how it worked, the region would issue a bond and

borrow money, which would be bought by the investment bank, who would,

in turn, sell it on to other banks. That is the easy bit. Banks offered

to manage the repayments of that bond, by selling a derivative,

called a swap. Built into the fine print was clause that is put tax-

payers on the hook for complicated failures by the banks in London.

The banks would say customers were aware. In one case an Italian

region had been unwittingly sold a swap, the fine print would mean

that it, not the bank, would have to pay out if Greece ever defaulted

on its debts. Something that has come to pass. It wasn't just Milan,

the financial engineering spread to every corner of Italy, even

universities and hospitals. On the surface it was great deal. The

Italians thought they would get money for free. They would get

advance money to be repaid in decades to come. They didn't have

the technical capacity to analyse those deals. Often times they

depended on expert and financial advisers, who were, in fact, paid

by the banks so. Their counterparts. Who had no incentive to protect the

interests of the Italian authorities. They ended up taking

on risks that are much higher than what was appropriate for them, and

taking risk that later on, you know, could lead to even bankruptcy.

irony is, that the federal Government in Rome actively

encouraged its cities and regions to borrow directly from London-

based investment banks. Idea was to get the borrowing figure for Rome

down, in order to join the euro. Between 1997 and 2007, borrowing

from regional Italian Governments, went from zero to 111 billion euros.

The banks didn't bet on the land specialist, Alfredo Robledo. In his

first television interview, he told how he realised his city was liable

for billions to London banks, and doggedly pursued them, despite

their secretive ways. TRANSLATION: Their behaviour wasn't honest or

transparent T allowed them to make profits that orderly would never

have been possible. Afterwards, they refused to show us their

records, or what they had earned. Politicianings across Europe need

to face this challenge, and people need to wake up to -- politicians

across Europe need to face up to this challenge and people need to

wake up or it won't change. Banks threaten to take capital out of

countries if regulation comes in, but we need regulation, these

companies are plundering society. Having, at first, ignored him, the

investment banks, UBS, Deutsche Bank, and JP Morgan, changed tack,

when Robledo's team raided offices and locked staff out of buildings

they were working in. After two years of stone walling, they paid

Milan a settlement of half a billion euro, and Tory up the

contracts without -- tore up the contracts without affirming guilt.

If Milan, the most wealthy part of the country, can have these land

mines in the small print. What about the poorest part of Italy,

like kal labia and Sicily. -- Calabria and Sicily. Parts here are

like a different country, just a few metres in the main road in

Palermo, people sell their belongings, in a makeshift market

to get a few extra euros. Sicily borrowed 2.5 billion euros from

Nomura, using a risky swap to manage the repayments. Now these

derivatives have helped bankrupt the region, which needed a 400

million euro bail out in July. Unemployment in places like this is

can reach as high as 90%. The vast majority of people are dependant on

the region and the city and the state for their living. But all are

broke. It isn't helped by the fact that they unwittingly signed

contracts with London-based banks, which put tax-payers and citizens

on the hook for hundreds of millions of euros. Five miles and a

world away from the slums, the new Mayor of Palermo says he's cleaning

up after a decade of corruption, including some deals followed with

foreign banks. We are speaking of the same banks, who are responsible

for the world international crisis. They destroyed with street crime

many of the financial systems in the world. One of these street

crimes was in Sicily. The mayor doesn't hold back with criticism

over one previous officials. One is in jail for his ties with the Cosa

Nostra. He also had ties to offshore bank accounts, and

millions in "facilitation fees" were paid by Nomura bank.

Supposedly to make Italy sign these lucrative contracts. Politicians

and middlemen and bankers, could, in Italy, according to mayor

Orlando, have far-reaching consequences. If we don't counter

with a real strong activity, with a great intervention of the national

Government, there is a risk we will have a social revolt, and the civil

# Why didn't anyone do something in the face of what appears to go

obvious mis-selling. Some people did put their heads above the

parapet, one senior banker told Hes are also informed the FSA,

after he was forced out of his job. But the bank and employment

tribunal refused to rk him as a -- recognise him as a whistleblower,

which would have been recognised under UK law. Despite the laws to

protect whistleblowers, Newsnight has revealed a startling fact, not

saiingle bank has been published for forcing out individuals for

highlighting concerns within his or her bank. The FSA has form, this

man, John, also blew the whistle on a London investment bank on a

different matter, he too was fired. Speaking exclusively to Newsnight,

he was portrayed as a malcontent by his bank for highing problems with

them. You got hired for blowing the whistle, what kind of modus opprand

da do banks have with a whistleblower? Nobody wants to

admit they didn't do their job, an unholy alliance will kick in, want

to go bad mouth the whistleblower as a poor perform former.

John wrote to the FSA and the watchdog wrote back saying they

wouldn't act on the information and saying never contact again. The FSA

say inaction has been the central theme of the financial crisis, many

accuse it of being too close to banks a watchdog who slumbered,

instead of barking or biting. TRANSLATION: The role of the FSA

has been very much in the spotlight, I think the banks, if they were

able to, would reduce the FSA's powers. In terms of the

surveillance of the FSA of London banks, I saw no evidence of them.

The FSA conceded that no bank had been ever sanctioned for firing a

whistleblower, and they couldn't comment on individual cases.

Back in Italy, the banks at the centre of the derivative story face

civil and criminal action against them from several cities and

regions. Some of these regions have stopped repaying the banks until

the cases are settled. All the banks approached by Newsnight

refused to answer any of our questions, many didn't wish to

comment in light of on going criminal proceedings. All deny

wrongdoing. There can be few more painful

experiences than divorce and the acceptance of failure. The American

actor Robin Williams once remarked that the word comes from the Latin

for "to rip out a man's genitals through his wallet". But who is

entitled to expect from it? What are they entitled to it. The body

who is supposed to keep the law up- to-date is wondering whether there

might not be better ways of dealing with the financial aspects of the

end of a marriage. There was a time when the happy

couple said "till death do us part" on their wedding day and meant it.

The stigma of divorce ensured there was little option. But the number

of divorces really began to rise in the early 1970, and by the mid-

1990s, a third of couples were untying the knot before their 15th

anniversary. The latest figures show there were 120,000 divorces in

2010. It is only recently the divorce

settlements of the superrich and stars making the headlines. Former

spouses have a legal responsibility to each other's financial needs. It

is not clear what on earth that means. The Law Commission for

England and Wales compares divorce judges to, a bus driver who has

been told how to drive the bus, but has not been told where to go, nor

why he's to go there. The commission proposes three main

options for reform. Compensating people until they reach the kind of

standard of living they would have been enjoyed had they not made the

career and childcare decisions The commission says it doesn't like

the Scottish system, where support after divorce only lasts for three

years. To discuss the whys and where fors

of divorce law, I'm joined by Baroness Ruth Deech, chair of the

bar standards board, and Jeremy Levison a practising divorce lawyer,

who has acted in many high-profile divorce cases. What has gone wrong?

I have been writing about this for 35 years, the message has finally

got through. The current law is unfair, unjust, uncertain,

expensive, and causes enormous bitterness. It has no principled

basis to it at all. Ever since divorce was changed to be, in

theory, without fault, and men and women are equal, tough ask yourself

why should one support the other when it has broken down. Every time

I have lectured on this, I have had hundreds of letters from members of

the public, pouring out their hearts, and protesting on how their

life savings have been taken away and the bitterness that has

accompanied what is a very easy divorce law. Is it unfair to one

gender rather than another? theory the law is equal, but the

courts bend over backwards to favour women, to such an extent

that arguably it undermines women's independence in the world of work.

Because the judges, they are trying to be helpful, they see women as

housewifes who have sacrificed an awful lot, and couldn't possibly --

housewives who have sacrificed an awful lot and couldn't fend for

themselves. When you look at the proposal, I suppose you are against

them because it is bad for business? I don't think they are of

any great relevance at all in the context of what we are talking

about. I thought I might start by reading you two-and-a-half very

short passages from this report, which extends to 131 pages. "this

project is not a full review of this area of the law. Our task now,

in addition to our work on marital property agreements" the Law

Commission has been looking at prenups in the venacular for some

time now. "it is therefore to consider needs in the law and

financially generally, and to consider also of the status of the

non-mat moanal property". Is there much more? "whether there is

widespread dissatisfaction with outcomes is unclear." So the report

itself, quoting from it, really, already, raises doubts as to

whether we have a problem to deal with. You wouldn't deny we have

become the divorce tourism capital of the world? I would deny that. We

have of a divorce law that in its present form, more or less. Is it

true? Women come here because they know they will get much, much more

here than elsewhere. By and large, until very recently, they have been

able to rip up the prenups. What is going on is really bad. People are

very unhappy. My main fear now is the Law Commission will shy away

from it. Governments don't like to touch this, because it brings up

all the moral arguments. They are making very heavy weather of it, we

could easily move to the Scottish model, quickly, which isn't bad at

all. Main thing is to avoid expense, there is lots of cases where the

assets are worth, say, �1 million, half of that is spent on legal fees.

The formula in the report today is working it out on the Internet and

get an idea of what you might get. Saving fees. Putting people out of

business? Too bad. The Government might like it, because Legal Aid is

being removed, and the courts will be clogged up with self-

representing litigants if we don't sort the law out.

That is not what the report is doing, it is very, very narrowly

based. It suggests there might possibly be a formula to calculate

how needs can be assessed on an on going basis. It is worth trying,

isn't it? The problem with any formula is if has tried before and

failed. It doesn't work. Take Germany, for example, they codified

their law, they thought 100% in the civil code. They then had to

provide exception after exception, now they rely on case law to sort

out the gaps. In Canada it work, in America it has been proposed and

all over continent nepbl Europe, they have a straight forward --

continental Europe, it they have a straight forward way of dividing

assets. It wouldn't matter if you had a brilliant lawyer like Mr

Levison here, or a less brilliant lawyer, it wouldn't depend on that,

it would be a straight forward form la, saying you were married for X

number of years. That is one of the -- formula, saying you were married

for X number of years. I would love if he was on my said, point is you

would get certainty, you wouldn't wait tens of thousands fighting

over assets that aren't worth that much. This report isn't dealing

with assets, but on going needs. For the most part it is dealing

with maintenance requirements, after a divorce breaks down. Why

should a woman who divorces someone be supported for the rest of her

natural life in figures of hundreds of thousands or millions of pounds?

The present law, it says in section 25 of the 1973 act, it says a wife

is entitled to receive maintenance for as long as she needs it. Until

she can adjust to having her maintenance removed from her,

without suffering undue hardship. Within the whole thrust of the

divorce law it is fairness, that can take a million different forms

and circumstances. It is as argued by lawyers like? No, let me read

you another small bit. No, don't, please. The report says itself, we

cannot guarantee that the provision of a formula would work in practice.

It says that. But it is the average woman who goes to work, will wonder

why, as in one case, after three years of a childless marriage, a

woman walks away with �5 million, or Heather Mills McCartney �28

million, after very few years, another lady left her marriage with

�48 million. The average woman doesn't earn that in a lifetime. If

you marry banker you are quids in for the rest of your life. If you

marry a poor man, you get next to nothing.

We have all heard of writers block, but a 50-year hiatus is something

else, the third part of the Weirdstone, trilogy, has just been

published. The first part was in 1960, JK Rowling hadn't been born.

The author is described by another children's writer as better an

Toilken. -- better than Toilken.

Caspeo. A flame hissed upwards filling the room with light, shape

shifter opened the book and began to read. What's she up to, said

Susan, it's giving me goose flesh. I remember as a child scrambling up

the slopes, and thinking, why don't I live in an interesting place,

nothing ever happens here. I read a lot of books and I like

fantasy. I thought this was just normality. As I grew older I

realised it was not normality. It was very strange, and I was so

amazed by this place, that I inherited it. Newsnight tracked

writer Robert Garner down to a secluded corner of the Cheshire

countryside, where archaeologists are digging up part of an 18th

century barn, right beside his house.

In Garner's books too, what is ancient and underground is never

far away. Wizards, dwarves, tunnels under hills, children with magical

bracelets. Grimia unhooked a pouch from his brace belt, and from it

drew her bracelet, the drops hidden beneath a milky veil. The Morigan

took the bracelet and placed it in the middle of the circle on the

floor. She pulled the curtains over the windows and dors, and went to

stand -- doors, and went to standby the brazier, who couldn't push back

the darkness. The medieval buildings behind us, and the one

that's been excavated, they are only the newcomers. Because the

site has been occupied since the end of the last Ice Age. Which is

10,000 years of people sitting on top of that little hill.

I said it was secluded here, but Garner's storyed home, is

overlooked by the telescope, of which, more later.

Robert Garner is a writer of fantasy, but like Hardy, Orly Lee,

he's also a writer of place. A very specific place, Alderley Edge, and

that place alone. It is what I knew when I was growing up. It is where

I learned what grass was, what rocks were. The trees in of tree.

Wilmslow is over there that is out of bounds, you have never felt

compelled to write the great Wilmslow novel? It is only half an

hour away and I loathe it. I always have. They are God folk with tea

shops and nice hedges? I knew it before then. What have you got

against Wilmslow? It is not here! In the rock above, up there, there

is a face, and that is the face of the which is standard of the legend

of alderlee. It was carved by my great -- Alderly, it was carved by

my great, great, great, great grandfather. That is almost as

fantastical as your story? It is more fantastic, it is true. Is your

story true, is the wizard true? but not in the little sense, would

you never photograph him. believe in him, if that is the

phrase I want? He's there. Robert Garner has continued to

write, including for television. This was an adaptation of his book,

The Owl Service. Which didn't exactly lack for backstory. Keeping

the house for him are Nancy and her son, Gwn, and the gardener, Huw

Halfbacon. She as furious when she finds that she has discovered a

dinner service hidden in the roof of the house. Alison has traceded

the pattern and rearranged it to make paper owls. She grows obsessed

by the need to make them. Now, 50 years on, there have been

fresh sightings of the characters in Garner's first children's book,

Colin and his sister. Alan, good toe talk to you this way. It is

very good to speak and listen to you this way, it means I don't have

to look at you. Bless you for that, a lot of people feel that way. Why

have you put these whispering dishes into your new novel. They

work on the same principle as the radio telescope does, collecting

information from the gam galaxies. The character who works here -- the

galaxies. The character who works here in the novel, is an

astrophysicist rb, who may or may not be going mad when you are using

them. It is very close to a sigh otic voice inside the head. -- a

psyche cotic voice inside the head. In Boneland a woman is reading a

story about a witch to a child in a doctor's surgery. Young man, do not

go into the witch's house, and whatever you do, do not go upstairs,

you must not go upstairs. The receptionist came from her desk,

Professor Worchesterfield. You must not geo. Professor whister field, I

have been upstairs, they are not hens' legs, they are not the legs

of hens. They are not gallos domesticus. "the man is funny, he

makes me laugh. Why has Ganna left it so long to complete -- Garner

left it so long to complete the trilogy. I had enough of the two

main character, I loathed their guts, I lived with them for eight

years, and they hadn't moved on, and I had.

The thought of spending any more time with them, I couldn't abide.

Also, I had more ideas in my head. So it wasn't a publishers phone

call, I suspect you wouldn't respond too kindly to that? I say

in all humility, publishers should learn not to make phone call. I

can't do it if it isn't there. If it is there, I can't stop it.

You only have to wait until tomorrow for Newsnight when Kirsty

will be here, until then, good Good evening, we had a bit of

sunshine today. But for tomorrow a bit of change, a lot more cloud

around. Some early brightness to the south and eastk but cloudier

skies arriving for the afternoon -- easily, but cloudier skies arriving

in the afternoon. Brighter across the North West England, still the

risk of showers, plenty of showers for the Midlands, East Anglia and

the south-east corner rb temperatures are 13 degrees, a cool

afternoon. The south west corner, slightly milder, 16, with some

brightness for the afternoon. Not a completely dry picture, with a

scattering of showers, and a similar story across Wales. We are

keeping the cool and blustery north-westerly breeze across much

of the country. Noticable for Northern Ireland, despite it being

fine and dry with sunny spells. Temperatures on the north coast 13.

In Scotland, the occasional brightness and showers scattered

across the north-east corner. That should increase in brightness as we

go through the afternoon. Edinburgh seeing something brighter, but more

cloud around through the day on Thursday. The winds strengthening