:00:12. > :00:16.Remember when this was the sort of thing that came to mind when
:00:16. > :00:22.someone mentioned "banking". merely the servant of the bank, to
:00:22. > :00:25.carry out the policy of the bank. Isn't that so? That's so, Sir, yes,
:00:25. > :00:28.merely the servant. How the great and the good would
:00:28. > :00:35.like to be able to make banking safe and dull again.
:00:35. > :00:40.But how? You want to know about banking, talk to a Rothschild.
:00:40. > :00:45.Could this really have been one of the last attacks on Gaza. We will
:00:45. > :00:50.explore what the ceasefire means. Revolting students protest at the
:00:50. > :00:53.cost of university education, but are fees actually remodelling ivory
:00:53. > :00:57.towers into something of practical value?
:00:57. > :01:04.And this was China at the weekend, not that they wanted us to know.
:01:04. > :01:13.We talk to three Chinese writers will sow censorship works and how
:01:13. > :01:17.they -- how censorship works and how they work around it.
:01:17. > :01:19.TRANSLATION: In this system people worship authority.
:01:19. > :01:24.worship authority. Night. As if we needed any
:01:24. > :01:28.reminding of the mess we are in. It turned out today that last month
:01:28. > :01:33.the country had to borrow �2.5 billion more than was necessary a
:01:33. > :01:36.year ago. So goes the programme of reducing the debt. This morass was
:01:36. > :01:39.created originally by a banking crisis, which has triggered a
:01:39. > :01:42.wholesale loss of affection for banking in its turn. You may
:01:42. > :01:47.perhaps know the feeling. If you have a banker in the family, it is
:01:47. > :01:50.not quite up there for being outed for having Radovan Karadzic on your
:01:50. > :01:53.Christmas card list, but the fear and loathing linger. A
:01:53. > :02:03.parliamentary commission took evidence from the Chancellor today
:02:03. > :02:06.
:02:06. > :02:11.on what might be done. We watched. The 18th century philosopher David
:02:12. > :02:15.Hum e said politicians must think every man was supposed a knave.
:02:16. > :02:20.Certain environment and groups create an atmosphere of greed and
:02:20. > :02:23.selfishness, that might otherwise not be the case for individuals. He
:02:23. > :02:30.said that as London was rapidly becoming the centre of the banking
:02:30. > :02:35.world, with a reputation for honesty and probity, and the saying
:02:35. > :02:41."my word is my bond". Now that bond is severely damaged by 21st century
:02:41. > :02:44.greed. None more so than the LIBOR scandal, where bankers willfully
:02:44. > :02:48.manipulated a key interest rate, that may have affected even
:02:48. > :02:53.mortgage rates. An all-powerful commission was established to look
:02:53. > :02:56.at why some bankers behave in such a reckless way, and how it can be
:02:56. > :03:00.mitigated. Today they were grilling the man who set up the commission.
:03:00. > :03:02.I hoped this commission can look at other issues, like the standards we
:03:02. > :03:07.expect of the profession and how, for example, in the medical
:03:07. > :03:12.profession, or the teaching profession, we expect certain
:03:12. > :03:17.standards, and those standards are you know administered by the
:03:17. > :03:20.profession, often, but how we can create something similar in the
:03:20. > :03:23.banking industry. But peers and MPs wanted to talk
:03:23. > :03:28.about the actual laws being introduced by the Chancellor, aimed
:03:28. > :03:32.at changing banking behaviour. Especially ring-fencing or the
:03:32. > :03:34.partial separation of banks' high street operations from their
:03:34. > :03:39.speculative investment banking division. The commission of worried
:03:39. > :03:44.that banks could find a way to bore under any ring-fence. There is a
:03:44. > :03:47.very clear objective in the bill. Which is is that the regulators and
:03:47. > :03:51.the Government of the day can continue the provision of core
:03:51. > :03:57.services in the banking industry, in the situation in which a bank is
:03:57. > :04:03.failing. And that, I would say, is then absolutely a crucial objective,
:04:04. > :04:07.which, by the way, my predecessor found himself unable to deliver.
:04:07. > :04:12.The Chancellor, smarting from today's disappointing Government
:04:12. > :04:15.borrowing figures, also warned the commission not to undo many of the
:04:15. > :04:19.reforms which had already been agreed over the last two years.
:04:19. > :04:23.Commission grandees didn't like that. You gave us the job of going
:04:23. > :04:28.over the ground, and I suspect if you were sitting on this side of
:04:28. > :04:31.the table you probably wouldn't take too kindly to a Chancellor or
:04:31. > :04:37.Government minister saying, I want you to look at that, but not that,
:04:37. > :04:41.and so on. I'm sure you will appreciate will we find it very
:04:41. > :04:46.convincing to be told that we should be wary of unpicking a
:04:46. > :04:51.consensus, you just something has achieved a consensus, it doesn't
:04:51. > :04:55.make it right, it is our job to take a look at it. You would agree?
:04:55. > :05:00.The LIBOR scandal may be the trigger for the latest probe, but
:05:00. > :05:04.it was the slithery head of the latest snakes. We have seen banks
:05:04. > :05:08.linked to drug cartels and banned transactions, we have seen
:05:08. > :05:11.telephone salaries, fired executives with huge pay-offs and
:05:11. > :05:16.bonuses for failure. Can the culture of greed ever been
:05:16. > :05:21.pertained whilst pursuing a profit? I think it is very difficult to
:05:21. > :05:25.actually turn knaves back into Knights, which is, in a sense, what
:05:25. > :05:28.we want to do here. We want to reinstill bankers the sense of
:05:28. > :05:31.public service, the sense that they are providing a service to the
:05:31. > :05:35.community and they are not just in it purely for making enormous
:05:35. > :05:40.bonuses or large sums of money. think you can, I think that we have
:05:40. > :05:45.been through a period of great excess in the financial markets,
:05:45. > :05:48.where the profit motive dominated everything. Clearly things have
:05:48. > :05:54.changed. We have new regulation, and there is a new mind set out
:05:54. > :05:59.there. The new COEs in some of the major banks, one of their first
:05:59. > :06:02.tasks going to be to introduce a corporate culture which has much
:06:02. > :06:06.higher ethical standards than we have seen in the past.
:06:07. > :06:10.In order to work as an investment banker in the City of London, you
:06:10. > :06:15.need to be accredited with the FSA, to show you are not a known
:06:15. > :06:20.criminal, et cetera. But there is no ethical aspect to that license.
:06:20. > :06:25.Unlike in the retail banking sector. So, if you are selling mortgages or
:06:25. > :06:29.car loan, there is a far higher standard of proof and qualification
:06:29. > :06:34.needed, than if you are trading billions of derivatives or complex
:06:34. > :06:40.financial products, that could bring down an entire bank, or even,
:06:40. > :06:43.in some cases, an economy. It took a former derivatives trader,
:06:43. > :06:47.now an in coming Archbishop of Canterbury, to ask what many
:06:47. > :06:51.outside the establishment were thinking. Surely the easiest way to
:06:51. > :06:54.get lots of small banks is to break up the big ones, we might come back
:06:54. > :06:59.to that on another occasion. Despite the decadence of recent
:06:59. > :07:03.years, tough new rules are on their way to rein in bankers and banks.
:07:03. > :07:09.Some things can't be regulated. The shadow banking sector, which
:07:09. > :07:14.includes hedge funds, is worth a staggering $67 trillion worldwide.
:07:14. > :07:19.$9 trillion in Britain alone. No amount of ethical change could
:07:19. > :07:24.protect the global economy from a collapse of that magnitude.
:07:24. > :07:31.Here in the studio now is Sir Evelyn Rothschild, from the most
:07:31. > :07:39.famous banking family in the world, and John Moulton, and Jennifer
:07:39. > :07:43.Moses, former executive at Goldman Sachs, and director of Agent
:07:43. > :07:46.Provocateur. What has gone wrong with banking?
:07:46. > :07:53.personally don't think anything has gone wrong, I just think it got out
:07:53. > :08:03.of gear, due to many things. And if you want me to say so. JP Morgan
:08:03. > :08:05.
:08:05. > :08:08.made a speech, or he wasn't alone, to Congress, in 1933, complaik
:08:08. > :08:12.explaining a Select Committee that -- explaining a Select Committee
:08:12. > :08:16.that bankers needed to behave in a correct manner if they were going
:08:16. > :08:20.to carry out their duties. It is an interesting speech and something
:08:20. > :08:24.which one should pay attention to, that was in 1933. The suggestion is,
:08:24. > :08:30.that something has happened and it is about motivation? I think if you
:08:30. > :08:35.take that point, if I may say so, no-one has commented on it, but
:08:35. > :08:40.there is one thing that has transpired, that is technology.
:08:40. > :08:46.Technology has played a huge part in changing people's attitudes to
:08:47. > :08:52.banking. In the sense that traders are now quick in reaction, they
:08:52. > :08:56.take views that don't necessarily think through, you have the example
:08:56. > :09:00.of CityCorp, when you had silos, and one silo didn't know what the
:09:00. > :09:05.other of doing, and people were taking action. The other point
:09:05. > :09:10.which is very important, is that when day-to-day bankers saw that
:09:10. > :09:13.their return was half the return of investment bankers, they decided
:09:13. > :09:18.they should join up and do some of the investment banking work. What
:09:18. > :09:24.do you think has gone wrong in the way banking works? I think it is
:09:24. > :09:29.become too successful. We ended up with too few, large banks, many in
:09:29. > :09:34.the UK, of course, owned overseas, which wasn't a situation
:09:34. > :09:38.historically. You had distant owner, high leverage, and rapidly
:09:38. > :09:41.increasing remuneration, as people tried to chase the investment
:09:41. > :09:46.banking model. Things became far more complicated, and actually,
:09:46. > :09:54.ethics did take more and more of a back seat. Jennifer Moses, do you
:09:54. > :10:00.accept that ethics took a lower and lower place in the pecking order?
:10:00. > :10:04.Well, I think it's, I think we have to note that there have been
:10:05. > :10:09.financial panics, problems, ethical issues in banking, forever. This is
:10:09. > :10:14.a cyclical problem. I'm not convinced there was a golden age in
:10:14. > :10:19.which ethics and banks were perfect. But, I think what did happen is we
:10:19. > :10:23.had, not just tech nol, but, frankly, democratisation of credit,
:10:23. > :10:30.a lot more people had access to credit, and finance became a very,
:10:30. > :10:34.very large part of the economy. Excuse me cutting across you, but
:10:34. > :10:39.everyone is trying to work out looking forwards, how do you bring
:10:39. > :10:43.some sense of order, morality, and minimised danger in future? There
:10:43. > :10:47.are all sorts of ideas, there is an idea for a hypocratic oath for
:10:47. > :10:51.bangers, and an idea of something like a General Medical Council for
:10:51. > :10:55.bankers, are any of these ideas going to work, John Moul to n?
:10:55. > :11:00.don't think they will work easily. You need to change the views of the
:11:00. > :11:03.people -- -- change the people at the top. You need to change
:11:03. > :11:08.remuneration, and make sure the organisations are not so powerful
:11:08. > :11:12.that they encourage the arrogance, which encourages people to be
:11:12. > :11:17.unethical. We reached a stage where, not so many years ago, suddenly
:11:17. > :11:19.bankers became quit agrossive. If you said you weren't going -- quite
:11:20. > :11:23.aggressive, if you said you weren't going to work with them, they
:11:23. > :11:27.threatened to work with other people or they wouldn't support you.
:11:27. > :11:32.That only arose in a world where there were relatively few banks and
:11:32. > :11:35.they were very powerful. The big problem for tax-payers is some of
:11:35. > :11:40.these banks can behave like this, the traders take all the risk, and
:11:40. > :11:45.they know they will be bailed out by the taxpayer. How do we get to a
:11:45. > :11:49.position where that will never happen again? The word "never"
:11:49. > :11:53.happen again, is unlikely. We will hopefully have a better system.
:11:53. > :11:56.What you have to be aware of is the increased amount of cash in bonus
:11:56. > :12:00.hauls, given to bankers, rather than participating in the company
:12:00. > :12:05.which they work. The loyalty factor disappeared. Because if you are
:12:05. > :12:09.paid �50,000 a week, in cash, and then the next week you are paid by
:12:09. > :12:13.someone else �75,000, you will depart. But if you have shares in
:12:13. > :12:16.the business you are working in, and participation, that is a
:12:16. > :12:19.different way of looking at things. That is something that should be
:12:19. > :12:22.ruled in very strongly by the authorities.
:12:22. > :12:26.The Chancellor says we need to get to a position where bad banks can
:12:26. > :12:30.be allowed to fail. How do we get there? They shouldn't be allowed to
:12:30. > :12:36.fail, it is the question of, we have had a...Why Shouldn't they be
:12:36. > :12:39.allowed it fail? We should have proper regulation in supervision.
:12:39. > :12:42.The supervision has to be well done. We have to pay the supervisers and
:12:42. > :12:45.make them understand what they are doing. Supervision will
:12:45. > :12:49.occasionally fail. We need to have more and smaller. That is really
:12:49. > :12:53.the point. The Archbishop was making that point. He made the
:12:53. > :12:57.point, and the answer came back that, we have got ring-fencing, you
:12:57. > :13:00.can still have these big banks, but effectively running separate
:13:00. > :13:05.division, will that work? Why would you bother. You have two operations
:13:06. > :13:09.under a single holding company. The chances of one tunnelling to the
:13:09. > :13:13.other, which is the phrase the Bank of England uses, is quite high. It
:13:13. > :13:16.will be quite a big regulatory burden stopping them from
:13:16. > :13:20.tunnelling across. If you just make them separate in the first place,
:13:20. > :13:27.you don't need to worry about this ring-fencing. One of the things the
:13:27. > :13:30.Chancellor hasn't done is decide where the line actually drops for
:13:30. > :13:35.ring-fencing, which is rather vague. It is not clear where the line
:13:35. > :13:40.should be. We need to make smaller banks, so they can be orderly wound
:13:40. > :13:47.down. Forcibly split them up? might have to. Jennifer Moses, what
:13:47. > :13:52.do you make of that idea, more banks, smaller? I think that is the
:13:52. > :13:55.right idea. I think there is a tension between wanting to have
:13:55. > :14:03.very successful banks that are big players on the international scene,
:14:03. > :14:08.and the reality that the retail banking side was shovelling coal
:14:08. > :14:13.into the furnace of the casino, and that became a tax-payers' problem,
:14:13. > :14:16.and we can't have that again. I'm not sure changing compensation, the
:14:16. > :14:20.horse is out of the barn already, that is happening. That is not
:14:20. > :14:26.sufficient. We need more banks, we need to separate retail operations
:14:26. > :14:30.so, they become, frankly, more of a utility. Then have a better
:14:30. > :14:36.visibility around the risk-taking shadow banking sector as well. I
:14:36. > :14:39.don't think "never" will happen. I'm sorry there is a delay on the
:14:39. > :14:45.satellite, forgive me. What about the other deno mam number, the
:14:45. > :14:50.banks can now get involved in -- phenomenon, the banks can now get
:14:50. > :14:53.involved in all sorts of transfactions, they are funding
:14:53. > :14:56.transactions that allow hedge funds 0 drive up the price of oil or food
:14:56. > :15:02.or whatever, although they are making it possible, they are not
:15:02. > :15:07.actually accountable for it. The mechanism is entirely clean? That
:15:07. > :15:13.is a very good point. You mentioned the other financial instruments. It
:15:13. > :15:16.is really unspeakable that it took so long to license hedge funds.
:15:16. > :15:24.Hedge funds have been one of the most dangerous instruments in
:15:24. > :15:28.modern times. They do not help the economy, they are not far different
:15:28. > :15:32.from being bookmakers. They are funded by banks? They are, but they
:15:32. > :15:36.act in a manner that is not constructive for the banks.
:15:36. > :15:42.So the regulation is pointless, isn't it? Now they are regulated
:15:42. > :15:47.and licensed. Not very much. In most jurisdictions, I fear. In
:15:47. > :15:50.reality we need to make sure our retail banks don't fund the casino.
:15:50. > :15:55.This crisis wasn't caused by the hedge funds. We are looking forward
:15:55. > :15:58.to the question of how you regulate banking effectively, when so much
:15:58. > :16:03.is done at arm's length, effectively, by the banks? You just
:16:03. > :16:07.have to make sure that the high street bank, the retail, the
:16:07. > :16:13.systemic bank, doesn't have large chunks of its capital exposed to
:16:13. > :16:17.the casino world, the huj fund world. The hedge fund -- hedge fund
:16:17. > :16:20.world. The hedge fund world is arguably dangerous and harmless, it
:16:20. > :16:23.is a betting activity. It doesn't make a difference to the economy
:16:23. > :16:26.unless it brings down things that matter when it fails. Where do you
:16:26. > :16:30.think the next crisis will come from? I think the next crisis will
:16:30. > :16:36.arise either in Europe, or in the current banking system, when the
:16:36. > :16:40.LIBOR class claims come home. I agree.
:16:40. > :16:46.Jennifer Moses, you have the last word, where do you think the next
:16:46. > :16:49.crisis will come from? I actually think it is going to come from Asia.
:16:49. > :16:57.Where I think we don't have very good visibility at all about the
:16:57. > :17:00.banking system. So we don't know if the banks are well capitalise, if
:17:00. > :17:05.they weren't corrupt. So I think that's where the growth and the
:17:05. > :17:11.danger lies. Thank you all very much indeed.
:17:11. > :17:16.For the last three-and-a-half hours, there has been a truce in Gaza and
:17:16. > :17:21.Israel. Earlier there had been more of this.
:17:21. > :17:24.Now, in the last eight days, Israel has killed an estimated 140
:17:24. > :17:29.Palestinians and lost five of its own citizens. The truce was
:17:29. > :17:33.announced by the Egyptians. But the American Secretary of State clearly
:17:33. > :17:38.had a significant role in the agreement. Can this ceasefire last?
:17:38. > :17:41.Mark Urban is here. How did news of the ceasefire come out? Of course,
:17:41. > :17:45.for days we have had this business with the Egyptians and the
:17:45. > :17:49.Palestinian factions saying it is imminent, any minute now. It does
:17:49. > :17:52.seem it was necessary for the Americans to become engaged, with
:17:53. > :17:56.Hillary Clinton, personally travelling to Israel yesterday to
:17:56. > :17:59.deliver Benjimin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, on this
:18:00. > :18:05.deal. Therefore, when the announcement was made in Cairo, the
:18:05. > :18:09.honours were done, jointly, by the Egyptian Foreign Minister and
:18:09. > :18:14.Hillary Clinton. The people of this region deserve the chance to live
:18:14. > :18:20.free from fear and violence and today's agreement is a step in the
:18:20. > :18:25.right direction that we should build on. Now we have to focus on
:18:25. > :18:30.reaching a durable outcome, that promotes regional stability, and
:18:30. > :18:36.advances the security, dignity and legitimate aspirations of
:18:36. > :18:41.Palestinians and Israelis alike. How did the ceasefire come about,
:18:41. > :18:47.what was each side trying to gain? In a security sense, we saw them
:18:47. > :18:51.going hammer and tongs in the last 36 hours, we saw the initial target
:18:51. > :18:55.list of the Israelis, exclusively at first the rocket sites, turned
:18:55. > :18:58.into something quite different. On the Palestinian side too, there was
:18:58. > :19:02.escalation, perhaps to try to empower the negotiating process. A
:19:02. > :19:06.bus bomb in Tel Aviv this morning. That is something that hasn't
:19:06. > :19:10.happened for quite a while. Yesterday too firing another rocket
:19:10. > :19:14.at Jerusalem. Very important symbolic target and showing that
:19:14. > :19:21.new capability. From the Israeli side, the level of violence that
:19:21. > :19:26.has been dished out from air and sea, and land, in the past 36 hours,
:19:26. > :19:31.very intense. Symbolically attack significant targets. The national
:19:31. > :19:35.Islamic bank, in the centre of Gaza City, an organisation set up by
:19:35. > :19:41.Hamas to try get around various international sanctions put upon
:19:41. > :19:45.them. Another key target very near the bank in Gaza City, the Civil
:19:45. > :19:49.Administration Building, all sorts of administration goes on there,
:19:49. > :19:54.particularly going into Israel. And symbolic from the Israeli point of
:19:54. > :20:00.view. Infrastructure, a key bridge put in on the highway that connects
:20:00. > :20:04.Gaza to the south of the Gaza strip, and the Egyptian border area, and
:20:04. > :20:09.that border area, heavy bombing, on the smuggling tunnels, Israelis
:20:09. > :20:15.would say trying to prevent reply with missile, but also damaging the
:20:15. > :20:20.economy and wider community in gas za. So we don't get too -- Gaza. So
:20:20. > :20:26.we don't get too carried away, is it likely to be permanent? Both
:20:26. > :20:30.sides were seeking something that lasts not months or days, but years.
:20:30. > :20:33.They are both trying to convince the wider world opinion that it was
:20:33. > :20:38.unbowed and got the better deal. Hamas has stressed this evening,
:20:38. > :20:44.that if this ceasefire period of 24-hours persists and is solid,
:20:44. > :20:47.that border crossings will be open to Israel and Egypt, the siege in
:20:47. > :20:50.their terms, will be broken. The Israelis from their side said they
:20:50. > :20:53.didn't want a sticky plaster agreement, they wanted something
:20:53. > :20:56.that gave accountability and monitoring. The accountability, all
:20:56. > :21:00.sorts of other factions have fired hundreds of rockets into Israel
:21:00. > :21:04.before this started, Hamas was saying, not us. They now see that
:21:04. > :21:08.as being a situation where Hamas will be accountable. Monitoring by
:21:08. > :21:13.outside forces the Egyptians, and possibly others. If you look in the
:21:13. > :21:21.broader sweep, not just the past few weeks, the fascinating thing is
:21:21. > :21:26.how far Israel's security position vis a vis dwaz za, has deteriorate
:21:26. > :21:32.-- Gaza, has deteriorated. When they left before they were dealing
:21:32. > :21:37.with bombs, rockets and firearms. Now they have cities in rocket
:21:37. > :21:40.range, thousands of rockets into Gaza, hitting Tel Aviv, Hamas has
:21:41. > :21:43.maintained the rocket fire throughout the eight days, despite
:21:44. > :21:47.the intensity of the Israeli bombardment. Accountability,
:21:47. > :21:53.perhaps the key point in awful this. Israel and Hamas do not recognise
:21:53. > :21:56.one another in one sense. But now, Hamas is being asked to be
:21:56. > :22:01.accountable. In that sense, Israel has given it that form of
:22:01. > :22:04.recognition. Thousands of students milled
:22:04. > :22:08.through the centre of London protesting, what they were
:22:08. > :22:17.protesting about of rather lost in the shambles at the end of the
:22:17. > :22:20.prosession. When, beard faced beard, anorack charged anorack, and
:22:20. > :22:23.oranges were thrown. It is no question that university students
:22:23. > :22:27.are having a tougher time of it than their parents had. Of course,
:22:28. > :22:31.they don't like paying hefty fees. The bigger question is what the new
:22:31. > :22:36.system of funding is doing to higher education, which raises the
:22:36. > :22:41.familiar question, what is a university for? Vasily Grossman
:22:41. > :22:45.went to today's rally. They are no longer protesting
:22:45. > :22:50.against something that might happen, students in England face a new
:22:50. > :22:54.reality. Higher fees are with us. And they are not universally
:22:54. > :22:58.popular. A lot of my friends don't have
:22:58. > :23:02.anything to look forward to once they graduate. It is such a
:23:02. > :23:07.difficult climate to get a job, it's not fair having all that
:23:07. > :23:13.burden of debt. There is a few schemes within the uni, to try to
:23:13. > :23:17.ease it, but obviously it is tough. It is clear there is still plenty
:23:17. > :23:21.of anger about the decision to increase tuition fees. Beyond that,
:23:21. > :23:25.what has been the impact on the higher education sector as a whole.
:23:25. > :23:28.For a start, let's look at student number, there were bre dictions
:23:28. > :23:33.before the change came in, -- predictions before the change came
:23:33. > :23:37.in, that we would see a massive dropping off in the numbers of
:23:37. > :23:41.people going to university. If you lock at the graph t appears the
:23:41. > :23:45.drop off has happened. But much of this is accounted for by many
:23:45. > :23:48.students who would have come this year, foregoing their gap year and
:23:48. > :23:52.starting their degrees last year to avoid the fees. Allow for this in
:23:52. > :23:56.the graph for England where fees went up, it looks pretty similar to
:23:56. > :24:00.that of Scotland and Wales who have their own systems of university
:24:00. > :24:02.finance. So much for student numbers, what
:24:02. > :24:06.about the composition of the university population. Has there
:24:06. > :24:11.been, as some predicted, a massive drop in the numbers of students
:24:11. > :24:14.from poorer backgrounds going to university? There are some
:24:14. > :24:20.suggestions when you look at the applications this summer, it is
:24:20. > :24:23.students from richer backgrounds, more prosperous socialy economic
:24:23. > :24:27.backgrounds who have decided not to go to university. The numbers are
:24:27. > :24:30.very small, so you can't read too much into it. Certainly it looks as
:24:30. > :24:34.if students from poorer backgrounds are still going to university. That
:24:34. > :24:38.is not what many people predicted. Of course, the Government put a lot
:24:38. > :24:43.of work into making sure students from poorer backgrounds weren't put
:24:43. > :24:46.off applying, with all sorts of help available. However, one study
:24:46. > :24:50.of this help suggests that students won't know exactly what they will
:24:50. > :24:56.qualify for, until they get well into their first term. Which seems
:24:56. > :24:59.of limited value, if the purpose is to persuade them to apply in the
:24:59. > :25:03.first place. Simon Hughes advised the Government on fair access. He
:25:03. > :25:07.says we clearly have more work to do on this system. There is money
:25:07. > :25:10.given, increasing amounts for scholarships, I'm trying to make
:25:10. > :25:14.sure the decision is made by Government to move it from
:25:14. > :25:18.scholarship for fees or living costs, so scholarships for living
:25:18. > :25:21.costs F we can get that message across, there will be help for
:25:22. > :25:25.youngsters who need it, with living costs, you don't worry about the
:25:25. > :25:29.fees unless you are earning and it will come out of your salary. Then
:25:29. > :25:33.we will have really broken the back of the issue. Some universities are
:25:33. > :25:37.actually offering less help for poorer students. If we divide
:25:37. > :25:42.universities into five groups, with the most prestigious on the left,
:25:42. > :25:46.here is the help they offered last year and here is the help this year.
:25:46. > :25:49.The higher up the pecking order, the more is being done. Another
:25:49. > :25:53.thing that we can say has changed are the kinds of courses that
:25:53. > :25:58.students are opting for. For vocational courses like
:25:58. > :26:02.medicine, dentistry, engineering, physical science and law, have only
:26:02. > :26:07.seen small declines in applications from last year. However, the big
:26:07. > :26:12.hit has been taken by courses that less obviously lead to a job, like
:26:12. > :26:17.creative arts and design, social studies, and non-European languages.
:26:17. > :26:20.Each suffering a double-digit drop. Blunt low, the universities that
:26:20. > :26:24.are -- bluntly, the universities that are not delivering courses
:26:24. > :26:27.that do well for students. Where the student feedback says it is not
:26:27. > :26:30.well taught or the buildings aren't good, and they don't get enough
:26:30. > :26:34.seminars or lecture, those courses are go. The finances of
:26:34. > :26:39.universities will not, in the end, be able to fund, courses that
:26:39. > :26:43.aren't seen to be good by the people going to them.
:26:43. > :26:48.Politically determined that these protestors won't get near
:26:48. > :26:54.parliament, however, -- police are determined that protestors won't
:26:54. > :26:58.get near parliament. MPs will say victimisation was not the plan. The
:26:58. > :27:02.purpose of increasing tuition fees was to shore up the future of
:27:02. > :27:06.higher education funding. In that context, how successful have the
:27:06. > :27:10.changes been. If we look at the projections for university finance
:27:10. > :27:14.going forward, this line shows what the Government is putting in,
:27:14. > :27:19.falling off rapidly. But this is more than offset by the rise in
:27:19. > :27:24.fees, and the increase in foreign students. On paper, this all looks
:27:24. > :27:27.healthy enough. But it is dependant on keeping enrolment stable. And
:27:27. > :27:30.that the Government doesn't put more barriers in the way of foreign
:27:30. > :27:34.students. Clearly, it is a very difficult
:27:34. > :27:39.issue, with the immigrations and visa reforms going on at the moment.
:27:39. > :27:43.It is something we are acutely aware of, that we need to make sure
:27:43. > :27:46.we have a coherent policy in terms it of immigration in international
:27:46. > :27:52.students, I'm not sure that is the case at the moment. These students
:27:52. > :27:55.have clearly made up their minds about I hooer fees, and we can't --
:27:55. > :28:02.higher fees, and can he can't getting students to relish paying
:28:02. > :28:06.more. Although it is early days, we are appearing to see the start of
:28:07. > :28:09.reevaluation of university as a choifplts some deciding to change -
:28:09. > :28:15.- choice. Some deciding to change what they are studying and some not
:28:15. > :28:25.going at all. My guests are we me.
:28:25. > :28:30.
:28:30. > :28:35.-- my guests join me now. Alice Swift is a student on the
:28:35. > :28:42.marched today. What is wrong with the reevaluation
:28:42. > :28:49.of what universities are for today? I don't think anyone would deny
:28:49. > :28:52.that universities need to be incrementalally added to. What are
:28:53. > :28:57.you against? The fundamental overhaul of universities. It is one
:28:57. > :29:01.of the asset of the country. It is one of the finest things around the
:29:01. > :29:03.world regarded that Britain does. It should be overhauled in new
:29:03. > :29:07.economic circumstances is undeniable, the Government hasn't
:29:07. > :29:11.set out to do that. From the moment the Brown review was published and
:29:11. > :29:14.the White Paper, the Government was talking about a fundamental,
:29:14. > :29:18.radical shake-up of education in England. It seems to many people
:29:18. > :29:21.inside of universities, that is a very imprudent thing to do, in an
:29:21. > :29:23.era where the universities have never been more important to the
:29:23. > :29:27.knowledge economy, and our competitive advantages have never
:29:27. > :29:33.been more difficult to obtain, to fundamentally overhaul one of the
:29:33. > :29:38.best things we have. This is an epitaf you have for your
:29:38. > :29:42.Government? I took the evidence on committee. I wish Howard was there.
:29:42. > :29:47.He's getting stuck on language. The reality is students are at the
:29:47. > :29:51.heart of the system. That is a God thing. That means that stew -- good
:29:51. > :29:56.thing. That means students are able to compare and contrast which
:29:56. > :30:00.courses are right for them. More engagment with employers, not just
:30:00. > :30:06.business, third sector, service sector, with business. Before I
:30:06. > :30:11.finish. The old system, if you are earning �21,000 today, you would
:30:11. > :30:17.pay �470 a month back. Under the new system, if you earn over
:30:17. > :30:22.�21,000, you start paying. If you earn �22,000, you pay �90 a year.
:30:22. > :30:27.There is so much misinformation about the fees. There is less
:30:27. > :30:32.concern about fees being paid back than what it is doing to
:30:32. > :30:36.universities, what is your job? Director of Employer Engagment.
:30:37. > :30:39.What does that mean? We are looking all the time at how employers are
:30:39. > :30:44.involved in the relevance of what students are learning. We are
:30:44. > :30:47.working with employers on co- creation of courses to make sure we
:30:47. > :30:51.are meeting the needs of employers. You are churning out a work force
:30:51. > :30:55.for them? We would regard in our education that we are providing is
:30:55. > :30:58.so much more than just equipping them for their work. But they have
:30:58. > :31:08.knowledge, the ability to think creativity, critically, an
:31:08. > :31:10.
:31:10. > :31:14.litically, work in teams. That is what stew -- Anwar that litically.
:31:14. > :31:20.-- analytically. That is what students want? Yes, but the way the
:31:20. > :31:24.education system is now being made to be beholding to the market is
:31:24. > :31:27.very dangerous. Why? At the University of Birmingham, loads of
:31:27. > :31:33.departments that are seen as something that can't contribute to
:31:33. > :31:37.the dictate of a market economy, things like archaeology,
:31:37. > :31:43.antiquities, sociology, all of these subjects are very much under
:31:43. > :31:47.threat. They are not beholding to the markets. Is that not because
:31:47. > :31:51.students don't want to study them? No that is not it. How are they
:31:51. > :31:55.under threat? In the University of Birmingham there are threats to
:31:55. > :32:00.close these departments down as we speak. If lots of students wanted
:32:00. > :32:06.to study the subjects and pay the fees, I suspect they will be kept
:32:06. > :32:09.aon? Lots of students want to study the subjects, sociology, the
:32:09. > :32:13.University of Birmingham has tried to close sociology down, when there
:32:13. > :32:17.is a huge demand for sociology, that is why it can't close it down.
:32:17. > :32:20.Perhaps you could engage with that? If the University of Birmingham is
:32:20. > :32:23.closing down courses where there is massive demand there is something
:32:23. > :32:27.wrong at the university. I don't think that is happening. If you
:32:27. > :32:30.look at the evidence, and we saw it in the programme, the Russell Group
:32:30. > :32:38.University, this is the same in America, where you see place like
:32:38. > :32:43.Harvard do well in attracting students from lower socialy
:32:43. > :32:49.demographic backgrounds into their -- socialy demographic backgrounds
:32:49. > :32:59.into their sources. That is happening with the Russell Group
:32:59. > :33:03.Universities. We will monitor this thing. If you are saying the market
:33:03. > :33:07.is a bad thing because employers, the third sector and the service
:33:07. > :33:11.sector engage with universities, that is a good thing.
:33:11. > :33:17.University of Birmingham have departments beholden to fossil fuel
:33:17. > :33:23.companies, and teach such a wide variety of oil--based practices, in
:33:23. > :33:29.30 years time what do we do when we reach a climate catastrophe, the
:33:29. > :33:32.market works on short-termism, and it doesn't consider these aspects,
:33:32. > :33:36.we are beholden to it, the whole regime. There is a question about
:33:36. > :33:43.the broader social context. Frankly, I don't want to be rude, what is
:33:43. > :33:46.the point of people paying their taxes, and you are, what, early
:33:46. > :33:51.modern intellectual history aren't you, a subject most of us don't
:33:51. > :33:56.really understand. Why should the taxpayer support that sort of
:33:56. > :33:59.activity? There is a huge range of answers to that question. The
:33:59. > :34:03.public, market face of the university is crucially important,
:34:03. > :34:05.but what universities fundamentally do. What is your contribution to
:34:06. > :34:10.the market? I'm here discussing it with the programme. You are not
:34:10. > :34:14.getting paid much for this, I will tell you? As a matter of fact, the
:34:14. > :34:17.project which I direct at the Oxford University has raised $2.5
:34:17. > :34:20.million of American money. If you are asking for a direct
:34:20. > :34:25.contribution to the market, there you have it. This is more money I'm
:34:25. > :34:29.going to make in a very substantial fraction of my career, OK. But if
:34:29. > :34:35.you are asking a more general question, which I presume you are,
:34:35. > :34:43.which is about why every modern, western, prosperous, democratic
:34:43. > :34:46.country, for the last 50 years, has supported a publicly subsidised
:34:46. > :34:54.university system, then there are all kinds of reasons for that.
:34:54. > :34:57.There is the fact that a democratic quality depends on an educated
:34:57. > :35:01.electorate, and innovation is fundamentallinessry for the economy.
:35:01. > :35:06.There is the fact that our cultural industries as well, very vital and
:35:06. > :35:09.an important part of our economy, depend directly on universities.
:35:09. > :35:13.Come on? But the really extraordinary thing, this is
:35:13. > :35:18.something that hasn't been picked up in the media, this is the first
:35:18. > :35:21.time, in modern history, that a publicly-funded university system
:35:21. > :35:26.has been eliminated with the stroke of a pen. It is not a stroke of the
:35:26. > :35:31.pen, students don't want to study a lot of these subjects? Jo that is
:35:31. > :35:34.not true. In every other -- That is not true. In every other country, a
:35:34. > :35:37.university system exists directly funded by tax-payers' money.
:35:37. > :35:40.England has just done something that is radical and unprecedented.
:35:40. > :35:44.Which is to remove, overnight, at the stroke of a pen, the direct
:35:44. > :35:47.funding of universities. I would like to make the point about
:35:47. > :35:54.innovation. It is essential to our economy that we innovate. We have
:35:54. > :35:58.just done a study through our Think And Do Tang, at Birmingham
:35:58. > :36:03.University, showing the enormous value of design and education to
:36:03. > :36:06.our economy in the Midlands. This is all about encouraging radical
:36:06. > :36:09.innovation and lateral thoughts. Probably the sort of things that
:36:09. > :36:13.come very natural in your sort of area. I don't think it is one or
:36:13. > :36:18.the other. Do you think he's a luxury? No, I don't. Do you think
:36:18. > :36:22.society is, in any way, harmed, if as, let as say for the sake of
:36:22. > :36:26.argument, that Alice is right, let's say certain subjects stop
:36:26. > :36:30.being caught in universities. It doesn't matter if it is ark kolg or
:36:30. > :36:33.something else. But something that is -- archaeology, or something
:36:33. > :36:37.else, does society suffer with that? It is about understanding
:36:37. > :36:41.where the value is of these different subjects. I would say
:36:41. > :36:47.society does suffer, absolutely. Why? Because education is a public
:36:47. > :36:51.good, it is a social good, and it can't be beholden to whatever the
:36:51. > :36:56.short-term prospects of the market. That is in your assertion.
:36:56. > :37:00.doesn't need to be a trade-off. We don't needing to purely market-
:37:00. > :37:04.driven. The evidence does seem to suggest that students are voting
:37:04. > :37:07.with their feet? Some are, some of the very successful universities
:37:07. > :37:10.will continue to subsidise courses that they think are for the social
:37:10. > :37:15.good. They are good things to have in a society. There is nothing
:37:15. > :37:18.wrong with that. Do you think it matters then that fewer people wish
:37:18. > :37:23.to study non-European languages? think it matters that we make sure
:37:23. > :37:27.that there is enough courses, enough diversity, in the economy,
:37:27. > :37:34.so there is choice for everyone. That is not what your system is
:37:34. > :37:38.allowing to happen. This is fundamentally important point, the
:37:38. > :37:41.ascendant economies in the world are not in Europe. If we want to
:37:41. > :37:45.engage with the ascendant economies in the world we have to maintain a
:37:45. > :37:49.capacity to teach young people non- European languages. If the market
:37:49. > :37:52.signals seem to be suggesting to student that this is not a
:37:52. > :37:56.profitable activity, then we are dealing with market failure. The
:37:56. > :38:02.market signal are failing to convince students to study things
:38:02. > :38:06.we desperately need. Can I make a more general point. Be quick.
:38:06. > :38:09.real point is, although engaging directly with the market is one of
:38:09. > :38:13.the very important things that universities do, really,
:38:13. > :38:16.fundamental, crucial and unique things that universities do,
:38:16. > :38:21.staying way back from the short- term cycle of journalism and
:38:21. > :38:26.politics and business, engaging people's minds with the really big
:38:26. > :38:29.problems. We're entering a century in which we are being faced by the
:38:29. > :38:32.most enormous problems, it is vitally important that universities
:38:32. > :38:36.not be swallow up by the short- termism of the political cycle on
:38:36. > :38:40.the one hand or the economic one on the other. Thank you very much all.
:38:40. > :38:44.In China, hundreds of activists have rallied to the defence of a
:38:44. > :38:47.blogger, who made the mistake of making a joke about the Communist
:38:47. > :38:50.Party Congress, which has just closed. It wasn't very funny, I
:38:50. > :38:55.won't trouble you with it. The Congress is supposed to have mapped
:38:55. > :38:59.out a bold new future for China. What happens to people who have the
:38:59. > :39:03.temerity to think outside the orthodoxy, will provide a very
:39:03. > :39:06.early test of whether the country is really taking a new direction.
:39:06. > :39:16.From Beijing, Paul Mason reports on writers who work under a repressive
:39:16. > :39:20.
:39:20. > :39:27.The Chinese invented writing, paper and the printed book. But from the
:39:27. > :39:31.early days of pen and paper, there were also pioneers of censorship,
:39:31. > :39:35.book-burning and propaganda. Today, many Chinese novelists and
:39:35. > :39:38.historians are seeing their work censored or simply banned. I have
:39:38. > :39:48.been speaking to three of them. About what it is like to have your
:39:48. > :39:49.
:39:49. > :39:59.thoughts suppressed. In this village of 800 people, a
:39:59. > :40:03.
:40:03. > :40:08.dozen blood collection stations Yan Lainke's novel, the The Dream
:40:08. > :40:12.of Da, ne Village, is the true story of an AIDS epidemic that
:40:12. > :40:17.happened when the Government encouraged people to sell their
:40:17. > :40:21.blood to get rich. Blood banks opened in the village market, the
:40:21. > :40:28.village crossroads, and the empty rooms of private homes. They even
:40:28. > :40:33.opened up in converted cow sheds. Throughout the village, blood
:40:33. > :40:37.filled plastic tubing, hung like vines. And bottles of plasma, like
:40:37. > :40:42.plump, red grapes. Everywhere you looked there were broken glass
:40:42. > :40:47.vials and syringes, discarded cotton bud, used needles and
:40:47. > :40:54.splashes of congealed blood. All day long the air was filled
:40:54. > :40:58.with the stench of fresh blood. Yan's novel about the scandal was
:40:58. > :41:06.published in China, but disappeared after three days. It is now banned
:41:06. > :41:10.there. TRANSLATION: In China today, one type of writing that is deemed
:41:10. > :41:13.unacceptable, is when a writer looks too closely at China's
:41:13. > :41:17.reality. Another kind of writing that is unacceptable here is,
:41:17. > :41:21.writing that brings back to life moments in China's history that are
:41:21. > :41:25.supposed to be forgotten. Also, if a piece of writing is too
:41:25. > :41:29.imaginative, then it is also deemed not suitable for readers. It is for
:41:29. > :41:39.these three reasons that books are seen as controversial, or are
:41:39. > :41:41.
:41:42. > :41:46.consistently banned. The dream of the village does not just show a
:41:46. > :41:52.scandal, it shows how mania can take hold in a place where one
:41:52. > :41:56.party is determined to force the pace of growth. TRANSLATION: At the
:41:56. > :42:00.beginning of the 90s, the whole country needed to develop very
:42:00. > :42:05.quickly. Everywhere needed money. We must acknowledge that the people
:42:05. > :42:08.who sold blood were organised by the Government to do this. More
:42:08. > :42:12.importantly though, the environment at the time in China ignited
:42:12. > :42:15.people's desires and people's inner darkness. People desired money,
:42:15. > :42:25.they needed money, they earned money, they went crazy about
:42:25. > :42:26.
:42:27. > :42:30.becoming rich, and so they sold their blood. China's new leaders
:42:30. > :42:35.have come to power, pledging a crackdown on corruption.
:42:35. > :42:39.But the book-buying public are ahead of them, Chinese readers are
:42:39. > :42:44.devouring crime novel, with stories of official skullduggery, by the
:42:44. > :42:48.million. I felt as though a heavy stone were
:42:48. > :42:58.pressing on my chest, choking off my breath. The boulder was
:42:58. > :43:00.
:43:00. > :43:06.corruption itself, and everyone who hated and fought it was cisofice.
:43:06. > :43:12.This man's crime novel, The civil Servant's Notebook, tells the story
:43:12. > :43:17.of bureaucrats selling their soulss and losing their minds in the
:43:17. > :43:19.system. TRANSLATION: In China we have a very bad tradition, in this
:43:20. > :43:24.system people worship authority. Worshiping authority has become
:43:24. > :43:34.part of our way of thinking, our way of life. Like a religion. To
:43:34. > :43:35.
:43:36. > :43:40.give up a way of thinking, a way of life, a religion, is very difficult.
:43:40. > :43:43.Whout challenge, the boulder of corruption would grow larger and
:43:43. > :43:47.larger, someone would need to continue to role the boulder up the
:43:47. > :43:52.hill, even though it was bound to roll back down every time. So long
:43:52. > :43:55.as we persisted, we might find a new meaning within our lonely,
:43:55. > :44:02.painful, absurd and despairing lives.
:44:02. > :44:08.In real life, the author was a civil servant, and his real-life
:44:08. > :44:12.boss was sentenced to death for gambling away $3.6 million of the
:44:12. > :44:18.public's money in the casinos. The book has not been banned, but in
:44:18. > :44:23.the wake of the Boshili scandal, China's most prominent scandal for
:44:23. > :44:28.decades, he fears a book like this would not be published today.
:44:28. > :44:36.TRANSLATION: I think the system creates officials like Boshli, one
:44:36. > :44:46.may have fallen, but if the system does not change, there will be L
:44:46. > :44:48.
:44:48. > :44:53.iOS hili, Xianshili and Maoshili. The background to the censorship is
:44:53. > :44:57.rising discontent. These pictures, shot on Saturday in one of the
:44:57. > :45:02.provinces, and uploaded secretly to the internet, show thousands of
:45:02. > :45:09.demonstrators and police vans overturned. The spark, a police car
:45:09. > :45:18.chase that injured bystanders, the underlying issue, corruption.
:45:18. > :45:22.It's not just the present that exercises China's censures, one of
:45:22. > :45:30.their key obsession -- censors, one of their key observations is the
:45:30. > :45:35.past. None so much about Mao's overthrow, triggering one of the
:45:36. > :45:40.biggest famines in history. Homes were dismantled, and woks, basins
:45:40. > :45:50.and bowls were requisitioned. Grain supplies were centralised. By the
:45:50. > :45:52.
:45:52. > :45:56.summer of 1959, the famine was intense. Yang Jisheng's book, Tomb
:45:56. > :45:59.stone, has sold half a million copies on the black market. It is
:45:59. > :46:09.acclaimed in the English version, but it can't be published
:46:09. > :46:10.
:46:10. > :46:15.officially in China itself. TRANSLATION: Tombstone has four
:46:15. > :46:19.levels, one is to remember my father, the second is a tombstone
:46:19. > :46:23.to the 36 million Chinese people who starved to death. The third is
:46:23. > :46:26.a tombstone for the system that caused the familiar anyone, the
:46:26. > :46:31.fourth is a tombstone for myself, if anything happens to me, writing
:46:31. > :46:35.this book has put me at risk, politically.
:46:35. > :46:38.Yang, a veteran journalist for the state news agency, spent years
:46:38. > :46:42.secretly compiling data on the familiar anyone, whose cause and
:46:42. > :46:47.scale were denied then by the propaganda, and still are denied by
:46:47. > :46:51.the Communist Party today. TRANSLATION: The basic reason why
:46:51. > :46:57.tens of millions starved to death was, totalitarianism, in this type
:46:57. > :47:00.of system, once a calamity occurs, ordinary people have no means of
:47:00. > :47:04.saving themselves. TRANSLATION: During the Great Leap Forward, I
:47:04. > :47:06.was active in the communist youth league, when my father died of
:47:06. > :47:11.starvation, I thought it was something just happening to my
:47:11. > :47:15.family. I thought his death was my fault. Because I hadn't gone home
:47:15. > :47:19.to pick wild plants for him. Only later I discovered that it wasn't
:47:19. > :47:23.just a provincial problem or local problem, it certainly wasn't just
:47:24. > :47:29.my family's problem, it was a national problem. I'm still a party
:47:29. > :47:32.member. Although now I think communist is a fantasy. I do
:47:32. > :47:37.believe the party wants to do good for the people and the workers. I
:47:37. > :47:41.want to speak for the people, that is why I'm still a party member.
:47:41. > :47:46.We know Chinese culture is a mixture of the ancient and new. If
:47:46. > :47:49.China's people could read their own great modern literature, it would
:47:49. > :47:52.be richer still. But the new is controversial, and the Government
:47:53. > :47:55.has no intention of freeing it up right now. What's happening in
:47:55. > :48:00.Chinese literature is important, because it mirrors what is
:48:00. > :48:04.happening on the internet, and in millions of private conversations.
:48:04. > :48:09.There's a parallel universe of ideas out there, just waiting to be
:48:09. > :48:13.expressed in the open. TRANSLATION: My aim is to speak the truth. To
:48:13. > :48:21.act honestly and to be a real person. A writer should constantly
:48:21. > :48:24.pursue the truth. I want to tell my readers what really happened.
:48:24. > :48:30.regime in history has managed to suppress its own literature forever.
:48:30. > :48:36.But China's leaders intend to give it a go. Whether they succeed
:48:36. > :48:39.depend, in large part, on the power of writing.
:48:39. > :48:49.Paul Mason, we must have talked too much earlier, I'm told that's all
:48:49. > :48:51.
:48:51. > :48:54.much earlier, I'm told that's all we have time for. Good night.
:48:54. > :48:58.Good evening. We have more atrocious weather for Thursday.
:48:58. > :49:02.More very heavy rain falling another inch or two of rain in
:49:02. > :49:05.areas completely saturated already. The likes of south-west Scotland,
:49:05. > :49:08.western Scotland, we have an amber warning out here. Across parts of
:49:08. > :49:11.the south-west of England. And Wales too. Southern Wales, it is
:49:11. > :49:16.where we have seen the most serious flooding this week. We could see
:49:16. > :49:21.another inch or two of rain. Damaging gusts of wind. 50-60 miles
:49:21. > :49:24.an hour inland, 70 miles an hour in the coast. With the ground so
:49:24. > :49:29.saturated could bring the trees down. After the rush hour, with the
:49:29. > :49:35.rain across Northern Ireland and the winds t eases some what into
:49:35. > :49:37.the afternoon, and before it clears the potential for snow across the
:49:37. > :49:41.Scottish mountains wet weather into northern England and the afternoon.
:49:41. > :49:45.It looks largely dry in the south and east, that said the winds get
:49:45. > :49:48.strong into the afternoon, that gives problems for the wind itself
:49:48. > :49:52.in the rush house across the home counties and the south-east of
:49:52. > :49:55.England. It looks pretty miserable with heavy rain on Thursday, a
:49:55. > :49:58.dryer day across the northern half of the UK on industry. Showers
:49:58. > :50:02.around, after a chilly start. A slightly dryer day for some parts
:50:02. > :50:06.of southern Britain as well. But the rain slow to clear from the