28/10/2013 Newsnight

Good evening. The woman sacked after the Baby P

case will get a small fortune in a secret payout deal, Newsnight can

reveal. Go The head of child protection services at Harringay

Council will get a ?600,000 legal payout, some of it from Central

Government simply because the proper hoops weren't jumped through before

Ed Balls announced her sacking. A defender of Sharon Shoesmith and

one of her Parliamentary critics are here to count the cost.

These pictures show Syrian rebels ambushing and killing what they

assumed were government forces. It turned out their opponents were

Iranian Revolutionary Guards. What were they doing there?

St Jude brings four fatalities and knocks over trees, but in the end

doesn't cause the chaos that was predicted. Did we over react?

And we remember Lou Reed in all his charm. I don't like journalists. I

despise them. Mainly the English, the pigs.

His friend Rufus Wainright explains his unique contribution to music and

pop culture. You will remember the killing of

Peter Connelly - Baby P as he was called. He died after being injured

for months while theoretically under the supervision of Haringey social

services in London. There was great public disquiet, and in the furore

afterwards, the head of Children's Services, Sharon Shoesmith, was

sacked. The Appeal Court later ruled that she had been unfairly

dismissed. Now Newsnight can reveal that Ms Shoesmith, who has not

worked since losing her job, is to be paid hundreds of thousands of

pounds of public money in compensation. Allegra Stratton has

the story. Sharon Shoesmith always thought it was wrong that she learnt

of her sacking from the television. To ensure venerable children in the

borough are properly protected. I have directed Haringey Council

totted to appoint Mr John Cofflin as Director of Children's services.

In 2011 the Court of Appeal agreed with Shoesmith. It ruled that her

removal from office by the then Children's Secretary, Ed Balls, and

choux myth's employers, Haringey Council had been unfair. Now, two

years on, she is to get compensation. Newsnight understands

that Sharon Shoesmith has settled for one source says is over

?600,000. Haringey Council will meet the lion's shares of this, but the

Department for Education will dump up some of it, but the whole deal is

controversial. Haringey Council has also imposed a confidentiality

clause on the deal. It means the exact sum can't be disclosed. When

contacted by Newsnight, one Government source said the Secretary

of State for education, Michael Gove, was furious at the

confidentiality clause. He is said to think it is indefensible. Baby

Peter Connolly died despite being seen 60 times by social services,

police and health services. The child's body had 50 injuries

including a broken back and broken ribs inflicted by his mother.

After the trial, an Ofsted report found failings in Sarn Shoesmith's

-- Sharon choux Smith's department. Ed Balls had not given Shoesmith a

chance to respond to the report and contravened procedure. My sorrow at

the death of Peter Connolly while I was director is something which will

stay with me for the rest of my life. But as the judges said, making

a public sacrifice of an individual would not prevent further tragedies.

Since then, she has unable to find work and has had to claim benefits.

When Shoesmith won her case in 2011 Ed Balls maintained that even had he

given her a chance to respond, he would have made the same decision.

He is joined by politicians on all sides of the House who believe

ministers must have the right to act quickly and that public servants

should be held accountable. The current Government looks like it

will pay for Shoesmith's sacking by televised press conference, but on

this occasion, you are unlikely to hear them crow about it.

With us now is Ray Jones, Professor of Social Work who is writing a book

on the Baby Peter case; and Charlotte Leslie, Conservative MP

and member of the education select committee which grilled Sharon

Shoesmith in 2010. Do you understand how angry many members of the public

will be at this news? I understand that people should be angry about

what happened to Peter Connolly. He had a terrible life and those people

who worked really hard to protect were not successful in doing that. I

understand the anger... But do you understand... I understand the DJ

that's been done to our child protection system as a consequence

of that anger. Do you understand how angry they

will be at the fact that hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money

are being given to Sharon Shoesmith? I understand the anger, but as I

said, my real concern is what is happening to the child protection

system and we have made it harder to protect children because of the

blame culture that he we cre aid and the type of vigilante action.

What do you make of this settlement? It is simple. You have got to ask

what responsibility means? When she was in her position, Sharon

Shoesmith got a very large salary. Showing leadership means showing

when something goes wrong, you take responsibility and make yourself

accountable. The thing there most people are angry is that

whistle-blowers also lose their jobs, but a lady like Sharon

Shoesmith walks away with a big pay-off and has not taken the

personal option to take personal responsibility.

But this is a who who she thinks will never work again? If she wants

to perhaps make her chances of getting a job higher, it would be to

demonstrate she understands what personal accountability and

responsibility is about and say I was carrying the can. I was head of

this department and I take responsibility. That would be the

kind of person I would be more likely to employ than someone who

says, "It was nothing to do with me. I am sorry about what happened. But

it was nothing to do with me." We have seen this not only in care, but

throughout the NHS as well. It seems endemic.

It is the size of this payment. I mean ?600,000. The biggest pay-off

last year for unfair dismissal was 236 thou. The average is about

?10,000. And Rebekah Brooks got ?10 million.

She was working for News International? When something goes

wrong, there is a tragedy, we have 50 to 70 children in England who die

because of abuse by their parents. We protect a large number of

children very well, but it is getting difficult to get people to

work in this job of protecting children, police officers,

paediatricians and social workers because when something terrible

happens, we get the blame we are hearing about today and who wants to

put themselves in that position of doing a really hard job knowing when

something terrible happens, they are out to get you.

That's a fair point, isn't it? A blame culture is not the same as a

culture where people take accountability and responsibility.

There are whistle-blowers who are trying to raise the alarm. Who are

trying to do things the right way. Kim Holt is an example. It is often

the whistle-blower. The whistle-blowers are trying to raise

the fact that there are concerns. Now that's not a culture of blame.

Someone is saying the system is covering th stuff. If someone is at

the top of an organisation covering stuff up and not performing properly

and lives put at risk, that's simple accountability.

Do you think it is as high as ?600,000? I have no idea. It is not

a figure I heard before. I don't know whether it is true or not. The

conversation we're having will do nothing to help us to protect

children better in the future. It will make it harder for people to

come into this business because they know as I say saying now, when

something goes wrong, we might talk about accountability, but it feels

like blame and that's my concern. Who wants to do a really difficult

job when you know that when it gets really hard, you will be in the

firing line? There is something of a lynch mob that comes into play at

times like this? The way to protect patients in NHS and children is a

system whereby people feel comfortable in coming forward and

saying something is not right. I am not happy about the way the system

is, working. I don't think that not whoeding people -- holding people

accountable at top is. To say yes, I was leading a dysfunctional

organisation. I myself voluntarily will do what most people would think

to be the descent thing and then you don't get this lynch mob. People are

angry because you have got someone who was earning a lot of money who

is found to be at the top of an organisation that needed reform, was

not doing that are her salary and says, "It is not my fault." The

organisation was found to be dysfunctional after all the media

attention was given and there was the hun cry. This organisation was

found by Ofsted to be doing well. It was rated as good and Sharon

Shoesmith's leadership was seen as positive. It changed quickly when

there was a petition run by The Sun seeking sackings. We had a different

picture about Haringey about that. I think there is an interesting point

here. Often our inspectorate are not doing the right job either and

people put ticking boxes before what is going on. So yes, inspectorates

need to get better, but people at the top need to take responsibility

for the organisations they head up. Thank you very much.

Coming up: The legacy of Lou Reed. Inspectors

supposed to be checking the Syrian government's stocks of chemical

weapons have been unable to get to two of the sites they want to visit,

it emerged today. Too dangerous, apparently. The war, meanwhile

continues its barbarous way with Government forces said to have

retaken a Christian town north of Damascus, part of which had fallen

to the rebels a week ago. The United Nations representative supposed to

prepare the way for peace talks reached the Syrian capital today.

Lyse Doucet is there. So what can you tell us?

Well, it is good news that he is back in the Syrian capital. He

hasn't been here since December and that's a long time when you are

trying to bring peace and an end to a war which changes shape every

month, but when I interviewed him in January, he diplomatically said that

40 years is a little bit too long as he put it for one family, the Assad

family to be in power. He hasn't been back to Damascus since then.

The fact that he is here, indicates that President Assad maybe willing

to give him a hearing or a message. The problem is few in the opposition

want anything to do with President Assad and even though there is a lot

of talk about a conference that will take place next month, 23rd

November, most of the powerful renegades said it would be an act of

treason. The main opposition groups haven't made up their minds and

President Assad says he will run for the elections next year. You can't

want peace more than the parties for the conflict want it.

Is there any sign of who is inwithing the war? -- winning the

war? No one is winning and no one is losing and no one has been able to

inflict the fatal blow to turn the tide. It is very difficult to say

who controls what percentage of the dertry, but the most reliable

figures I have seen from good sources is president Assad's forces

have lost 60% of Syria, but on the 40% they control, they control most

of the population and they control one of the main prizes in this war

and that's this capital Damascus. Since I was here a few months ago,

there are more checkpoints in the city, but it is relatively quiet as

was the last visit than it was say six months ago. The Government feels

very much in control in what is called the bubble of Damascus. A

different picture in the suburbs which are burning and at least one

suburb people are starving. They haven under siege. Someone told me

today, you can't get a peace of bread into some of those

neighbourhoods and the UN agencies have been calling for an end to the

siege, but the Government very much feels it has the upper hand and part

of the confidence comes from the chemical weapons deal which means it

averted a US military style strike and it has powerful friends

including Iran and Russia which are arming Assad and standing by him.

Thank you very much. From the outside it seems that most

of the world is lined up against President Assad, the regime makes

capital out of the fact. Yet we have evidence that foreign forces are in

Syria fighting alongside president Assad's men. Yalda Hakim reports. A

year ago the rebels in Syria seemed to have the upper hand.

But something has changed. Syrian Government forces are being

bolstered by Iran. If there is one country that is interfering in

Syria, it is Iran. When this secret footage shot by an Iranian fell into

rebel hands, the truth about the ayatollah's secret war in Syria was

revealed for the first time. A Government air base near Damascus in

Syria. S boarding the helicopter flight is this man, a 30-year-old

film-maker from Iran. It is his second trip to Syria and he is on a

sensitive assignment. He is making a film on behalf of Iran's elite

Revolutionary Guards. In September a group of Syrian rebels contacted the

international media saying they captured a video camera after a

battle. They said it contained footage which proved their long

stated allegation that Iranian forces were on the ground in Syria

and supporting the Assad regime. Raeds The captured footage came from

a camera. It starts in some proregime military facility in

Aleppo. The signs in Arabic warn people not to take any photographs

on their mobile phones. But such restrictions do not seem to apply to

the cameraman. The soldiers are Iranians. As are the troops and the

cleric in the prayer hall and this is a communications room. A very

sensitive location. The radio operator is Iranian too. He tries to

engage him in conversation, but the man seems uncomfortable being

filmed. This is the first time all the material shot by Iranian

film-maker has been pieced together. It is likely that it was never

intended for public broadcast, but was some internal Iranian

Revolutionary Guards project because when you watch the footage, it

becomes obvious that despite their repeated denials, Iran is secretly

playing a critical role in helping turn the tide of the war back in

favour of the Assad regime. It is not surprising to me in Syria Iran

has given training both to the regular Syrian armed forces and to

paramilitary groups and the paramilitary groups may out last the

Assad regime. It is one way that Iran keeps its options open even if

Assad falls, Iran will have a force that's committed to it.

Back on the ground in Syria. The man sitting on the right-hand side is

the main character in the film. Relaxed and humorous, he

nevertheless has a very ideological view of the Syrian conflict and

Iran's role in it. The footage shows the Iranians

training and organisationing a new grouping known as the national

defence force. The national defence force is a network of pro-Assad

militias. They are loyalists all of whom fear the consequences of a

Sunni Muslim rebel victory. But it seems the NDF are not just being

trained on the ground in Syria itself.

But the Revolutionary Guards aren't just providing training. According

to sources, their role is a very hands on one.

The sun rises over Aleppo. But this will not be a peaceful day.

Reporting are coming in that a force of rebel fighters is moving in on a

nearby regime stronghold known as the poultry farm near a pla called

Talazan. The unit gets reinforcements from

the local NDF that Englishia they are training.

There is no considerate driving style now. This is a military

emergency. The two truck loads of fighters head to the poultry farm

base as fast as they can. There are about 40 fighters gathered in this

base including at least one other squad of Iranian military advisors.

All these men know an attack is coming. The squad is led out of the

poultry farm base on a mission to secure the reasoned flank of the --

right-hand flank of the battlefield. At first glance, this Iranian led

group looks well equipped for a fight. Then there is movement on the

horizon. What the Iranians can't see is there are more than three rebels.

What you are seeing now is footage filmed by the rebel's own cameraman

as their fighters advance towards the combat zone. They outnumber the

squad and have heavier weapons including a tank. The Iranians are

heading into an ambush. With bullets supplies slicing

through the corn field and mortar rounds, the group is pinned down.

The others try to retreat. But it is too late. These are the last images

filmed. Two days later, Revolutionary Guards

commander is buried with military honours in Iran. It is final

confirmation of his important role in the Revolutionary Guards.

And this is one of the members from the Syrian war. He never made it

home to his wife, or three-year-old daughter. Even after all this, the

Revolutionary Guards continue to deny their activities in Syria.

The story shines a light on to Iran's covert war in Syria, but the

Iranians are not the only foreigners interfering in the Syrian conflict.

With weapons and fighters now pouring in on both sides, there is a

very real danger that this crisis will spin further out of control.

You can see a full half an hour version of that report on Our World

on the BBC News Channel on Saturday and Sunday evening at 9.30pm.

He was the elusive figure rarely photographed behind David Cameron's

canny media strategy. She was the flame haired executive to exchanged

text message with her friend and neighbour, Cameron. That was how the

Associated Press ne agency explained two of the people in the dock at the

Old Bailey today. Eight people are on trial on charges arising out of

the phone hacking affair. Steve Hewlett has dainty feet. How big a

deal is this case? It is bill. Eight defendants after a two year police

inquiry. Charging relating to phone hacking, corrupt payments to public

officials and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice which relates

to allegations that boxes of documents were removed from News

International. Not all eight are charged with all of them, but all

eight are denying the it charges against them, but by way of scale,

the prosecution opening is due to start tomorrow afternoon and last

for two days. It is reckoned the prosecution case in total could last

until Christmas. And the case overall is scheduled to last until

next Easter. Until Easter? It is big. Yes,

Easter. Some big institutions involved? Yes, when you look at it.

This is the first time the public will get to hear in detail what it

is alleged occurred and there is big players and big institutions with

skin in this game. You might say. So you have got the press. You are busy

fighting the post Leveson settlement, the atmospherics that

are going to come out of it and you have got the Metropolitan Police

looking on anxiously. This is a case that they declined to investigate

until forced to it. You have got the political class, David Cameron, made

the big speech after the Milly Dowler revelations which led to the

News of the World being closed who said, "We the political class had

turned a blind eye." And there is Rupert Murdoch and his company

turned inside out by the whole thing. Costs of half a billion,

suggestion from one senior executive secretly recorded sometime ago, that

it could be ?1 billion. There is this trial to Easter. There are

other trials going on reckoned to be the end of 2015 and then brewing

nastily in the undergrowth is and the fact that News International,

News Corporation have been told they are suspects in an ongoing inquiry

into a corporate criminal liability. Corporate criminal liability?

Corporate criminal liability which will have the FBI sniffing around

it, but means that if the company were to be found guilty of that,

they become criminally liable. For Rupert Murdoch, it really couldn't

be much worse and the stakes here really are very high, indeed. I

should say all eight of the defendants on trial now deny the

charges. One of the most enigmatic and

influential figures in pop music is dead. Most of us would probably

recognise Lou Reed's Perfect Day, but you certainly couldn't measure

his significance in sales. Lou Reed said he didn't give a damn about his

legacy except he used a much stronger word than "damn". Much of

his music was almost unlistenable to. But for all that he could

genuinely have the word "legendary" attached to his name. Stephen Smith

has five things you didn't know about Lou Reed. Because we are

saluting Lou Reed on Newsnight, we have decided to break with tradition

and feature a man being grumpy on camera! Is that a good opportunity?

What do you mean authenticity from whom? It is funny having someone

from TV asking that question. It is like the lowest medium there is.

The velvet Underground in one of their first appearances. We haven't

got to the end of the effect they had on rock'n'roll. It is like that

famous early Sex Pistols gig in Manchester. Everyone supposedly

there went into the music business, but without Lou Reed there may not

have been any Sex Pistols. # Plucked her eyebrows on the way

# Shaved her leg # She said take a walk on the wild

side # I said honey, take a walk on the

wild side. # Reed sang about he being a she, that

was from life. Reed said his parents made him have electric shock

treatment as a boy to cure homosexual urges. You are a man of a

few words, why is this? I have little to say. Do you like press

interviews in general? No. Lou Reed put the pop into pop art

and it was the art he was really interested in. He was a friend and

associate of Andy Warhol. Lou Reed saw himself as a writer. It is a

little known fact that Lou Reed toppled communism, not on his own.

# Just a perfect day # Drink sangria in the park." When

Prague was behind the Iron Curtain, underground albums inspired

reformers not least their leader and their movement was dubbed the Velvet

Revolution. #

just a perfect day. # # Feed animals in the zoo #

On tour, in fancy hotels, Lou Reed would find himself sleeping on the

floor because of a bad back as he used to do through lack of funds

when he was just starting out. Ill health became a problem. Four months

ago, he had a liver transplant claiming, "I am a triumph of modern

medicine." It was aironic. -- ironic. I don't like journalists. I

despise them. Why? They are disgusting. With the

exception of you! With the exception of tu! -- of you! Mainly the

English, the pigs. It might have gratified Lou Reed to

see how those journalists toiled to praise him today.

The singer Rufus Wainwright was a friend of Lou Reed. He joins us from

Seattle. When did you first meet him, please?

Well, I actually met Lou before I made my first album. I was a waiter

at a restaurant in New York City, the Lion's Head and he was my first

ever customer! And I was very afraid and he ordered French toast with no

butter. What was he like as a human being?

As a friend? Yes. Of course, there is a lot of talk about his, you

know, grumpy nature and his critical outlook and slightly, you know,

negative ambiance, but really behind that, he was such a kind and gentle

and soleful man. -- soulful man. Part of the reason he might have

been so pug nacious, it was a defence mechanism. Like a great

chocolate or something, he was hard on the outside and very, very soft

on the inside. So he was a lovely guy.

Is it possible to be precise about what his contribution to music was?

Well, I think, I mean, you can never, he invented cool in terms of

the music industry and when I say cool, I mean real cool. I am not

talking Elvis cool or Marvin Gaye cool, I am talking about completely

cutting edge. Completely, I don't know, just the coolest kid in the

class and so I think, you know, much like someone like other people from

that era, he just, he cre critted a benchmark -- created a benchmark.

But this was not just a question of style, was it? I mean he had

encountered cultural terms, I guess, a political stick about him, didn't

he? Yes. He seemed to - he was not - he didn't believe in full hit.

Whether it was a political party or, you know, or a social movement or

art or anything, he just told it as he saw it and it was always

opinioniated and very, very refreshing, but, you know,

disturbing as well if you were on the other side of that, you know,

pointed argument. What was he like to work with? He

was hell to work with! Utter hell. At the end of the day, we would get

it done. We did a few shows together. We did Christmas shows

together. I had to sing Blue Christmas with Lou. He with had to

do one song and the last time we did this and it took three hours to get

what he wanted! Why? Oh, I don't know. He enjoyed torturing, you

know, the musicians and doing it over again and then, of course, when

we got up to do it on stage, it was completely different. I don't think

he wanted anything set and the minute people started to get their

heads around something, that was when it was time to throw the wrench

in it! Which is great. Do you have a favourite song of his?

Well, I mean, I was listening a lot to Pale Blue Eyes recently and also

there was a song that I loved. I can never remember the title, but the

one that starts, "Because if you close the door." Can you sing us a

phrase or two? I will sing you a little bit of it, sorry!

I am going to take from the bridge down to the end.

# Shiny cadillac cars # People on subways looking grey

# Other people look well in the dark # If you close the door

# The night could last forever # Leave the sunshine out and say

hello to never # All the people who dance and they

are having so much fun # I wish it could happen to me

# Because if you close the door, I would never have to see the day

again # I would never have to see the day

again # One more time

# I would never have to see the day again #

Thank you very much indeed. Good night. Thank you.

Thank you. Farewell then, Jude.

Trains were halted for a bit at least. One should not take too light

of it because there were several tragic fatalities, but St Jude

didn't cause the mayhem we were warned about. Perhaps the reason

that we got off lightly compared to the great storm of 1987 was because

we were well warned. Zoe Conway reports.

Storm Jude arrived as predicted. It hit the south-west of England at

around midnight. Hurricane Force winds moved north-east wards. It

caused death and injury and cut power to hundreds of thousands of

homes. But because of advances in science and technology, this storm

didn't take us by surprise. It is 3am here in Exmouth, but this storm

has only got going. It is an unusual weather event when storms cross the

Atlantic, they burn themselves out, but this one kept on going. Falling

trees proved deadly. The bodies of a man and a woman were pulled from the

wreckage of their home. It exploded when a tree fell on to the gas

mains. A 17-year-old woman was crushed to death when a tree crashed

on had to her caravan. A bus was also toppled injuring the driver and

several passengers. At this Devon county council incident room, they

watched Storm Jude's every move. We have had a report of a tree falling.

It is a large tree. Hundreds of cameras monitored the

roads and the rivers. Twitter provided rumours and facts about the

damage the storm was causing and there were meteorological maps.

Tracking the storm as comes in and the intensity as well. We will keep

an eye on it. We have guys on the ground who are also eyes and ears.

Travellers out there would be seeing trees falling. Maybe some isolated

flooding. They will be passing that on. When they get that information

in here, we contact our local agents and they can send teams tout to deal

with it. We might have to close roads.

Six days ago, storm Jude didn't exist. Yet here at the Met Office in

Exeter, they knew it was coming and accurately predicted its path. This

is where the storm started. As it came towards the UK it really began

to develop strongly and brought some strong gusts of wind across the

southern half of the UK especially where we have this hook of cloud and

now it is tracking in towards the North Sea and going towards the low

countries and northern Germany where we will see strong winds, if not

stronger winds than we have seen across the southern UK this morning.

The science and technology has been transformed since the Great Storm of

1987 which the weathermen failed to warn us about. Behind me is the Met

Office's super computer. It is like a giant calculator. It takes the raw

weather data out there like temperature, air pressure and

humidity. Gravity, the laws of motion and it does its sums at a

rate of 100 trillion calculations per second.

It is so much better than it was those years ago. It enables us to

have a detailed picture of weather over the world at any particular

time. Then the scale of super computing which allows us to analyse

the satellite da data. So in 30 years, in any technology, you would

expect a lot of change. 30 years in meteorology has been a world of

difference. Because of the accuracy of the

forecasting, emergency workers in Devon were ready. The highway has

been proactive this evening. They have come out and they are clearing

away which is great. They were out within five minutes of us calling

them. They have been really good clearing the drains and any of the

issues that we have had. But this was still a deadly weather

event. Science might be able to predict the weather. The authorities

might feel they can organise and manage it, but we can't control it.

Before we go, we return to our main story, the financial settlement

reached between Haringey Council and Sharon Shoesmith, the head of

children's services sacked after the Baby Peter case. The payout we

understand involves six figures. We have learned the figure reflects the

total payment and Ms Shoesmith may receive a lower sum.

The Sun has news that Jimmy Savile's driver, who was due to appear in

court has been found dead. The Daily Mail, mother's agony, a report of

one of the unfortunate fatalities caused by the storm.

And the Daily Mirror goes with some of the unfortunate stories of what

happened as a consequence of the storm.

That's it. Emily is here tomorrow. What may turn out to be the last

poem written by the great Irish poet, Seamus Heaney who died in

August has been published. It is called In A Field. It pictures

a soldier returning from the war. The actor Gabriel Byrne read it for

us. And there I was in the middle of a

field. The furrows once called "scores"

still with their gloss. The tractor with its hoisted plough

just gone. Snarling at an unexpected speed out

on the road. Last of the jobs.

The windings had been ploughed, furrows turned. Three ply or four

round each of the four sides of the breathing land to mark it off and

out. Within that boundary now step the

fleshy earth and follow the long healed footprints of one who

arrived. From nowhere, unfamiliar and de-mobbed. In buttoned khaki and

buffed army boots. Bruising the turned-up acres of our

back field to stumble from the windings magic ring and take me by a

hand to lead me back. Through the same old gate into the

yard where everyone has suddenly appeared all standing