:00:09. > :00:16.Eye It's not just one man in trouble, it is not just one bank in
:00:17. > :00:22.chaos, it is an entire political and social movement in disarray. How do
:00:23. > :00:31.you get from this: Come shop at Newcastle Co-Op. To
:00:32. > :00:37.this! The Labour politician who tried to clean up banking spent his
:00:38. > :00:45.life in the co-operative movement. He's furious. From Manchester to
:00:46. > :00:52.Aleppo. We travel with the group bringing aid to the wounded at the
:00:53. > :00:58.Syrian simple war. And... Four score and seven years ago our fathers
:00:59. > :01:05.brought forth from this continent a new nation. It took be a Hamlin done
:01:06. > :01:20.a few hundred words to lay out a vision which 150 years on isn't
:01:21. > :01:25.realised even though. We are here for you in good and bad times, we
:01:26. > :01:31.are here for life. The Co-Op's claim it is ethical and community-owned
:01:32. > :01:34.and above the usual tawdry concerns of business has always been its
:01:35. > :01:40.unique selling point. The discovery that its bank was being run by a
:01:41. > :01:46.Methodist minister, with taste for pornography and crystal meth wasn't
:01:47. > :01:49.exactly expected. It forced out the chairman of the entire group today.
:01:50. > :01:58.He was in charge of the board that appointed the bank boss.
:01:59. > :02:02.Come shop at Newcastle Co-Op. The old fashioned image of the Co-Op, a
:02:03. > :02:08.little dull, perhaps, but dependable, respectable. Today,
:02:09. > :02:12.well, it certainly isn't dull. The Sun Newspaper published more
:02:13. > :02:19.allegations about former Co-Op bank chair, Paul Flowers private life,
:02:20. > :02:33.leading to the resignation of the whole Co-operative group, who said:
:02:34. > :02:40.I think that's ?300. Paul Flowers was filmed, apparently buying
:02:41. > :02:46.cocaine from 2009 to June of this year he was responsible for a little
:02:47. > :02:52.more money than the ?300 he was seen handing over here. As chairman of
:02:53. > :02:58.the Co-Op Bank, with assets of ?47 billion. Someone who has known him
:02:59. > :03:01.for 40 years and a fellow method minister said he was always
:03:02. > :03:08.completely unsuitable to run a bank. There has been times when Paul has
:03:09. > :03:11.come up with grandiose proposals and promises and they have turned to
:03:12. > :03:15.ashes. That has happened more than once. This crash is a repeat of some
:03:16. > :03:20.earlier crashes that we have seen over the years. He's a very gifted
:03:21. > :03:26.character, lots of abilities, very generous in many ways, but he does
:03:27. > :03:31.seem to have this fatal lack of judgment at some crucial moments.
:03:32. > :03:36.Almost a kind of recklessness. The Co-Op, of course, has a long, proud
:03:37. > :03:42.history as a mutual organisation owned by the people who use it. But
:03:43. > :03:45.is this friendly rather perhaps unbusiness-like structure to blame
:03:46. > :03:50.for this scandal, allowing unqualified people to rise too high.
:03:51. > :03:54.In most organisations broadly speaking good people do better at
:03:55. > :03:57.their jobs and they get promoted to the top as a result. That's
:03:58. > :04:00.certainly true in most business, I think it is probably also true in
:04:01. > :04:05.most banks. What we have seen in the Co-Op is that the Reverend Flowers
:04:06. > :04:09.has been able to get to the top, essentially through political
:04:10. > :04:12.processes of internal committee work and machinery, and the result of
:04:13. > :04:16.that has been that someone who had virtually no understanding of the
:04:17. > :04:20.financial sector, or indeed business generally has been able to come the
:04:21. > :04:25.chairman of a clearing bank. Stand by this scandal, the new chair of
:04:26. > :04:29.the Co-Op group says their whole governance is now under review. We
:04:30. > :04:33.determined to come through it, even stronger than we came in. This is an
:04:34. > :04:38.opportunity for us to change and modernise, for us to refresh and
:04:39. > :04:42.really re-think what it is that the people of this country want from us
:04:43. > :04:45.in the future. We are really prepared to be radical, to be
:04:46. > :04:52.dramatic and to make those changes, which are necessary. Questions too
:04:53. > :04:55.for Labour, Paul Flowers was a councillor in Bradford until around
:04:56. > :05:00.a decade until he resigned suddenly in August 2011, at the time he said
:05:01. > :05:04.it was to concentrate on his Co-Op bank work. Today we heard the real
:05:05. > :05:16.reason. Bradford council said in a statement:
:05:17. > :05:21.The question is how high up in the Labour Party did the knowledge of
:05:22. > :05:26.the real reason behind Paul Flowers resignation go. Afterall, he wasn't
:05:27. > :05:30.simply just another Labour councillor, he was chairman of a
:05:31. > :05:33.major bank, he was subsequently appointed by Ed Miliband as a
:05:34. > :05:38.business adviser. And it was part of an organisation that is a huge donor
:05:39. > :05:45.to the Labour Party. Including giving ?50,000 to the office of Ed
:05:46. > :05:49.Balls the Shadow Chancellor. Tonight the Conservative Party chairman has
:05:50. > :05:54.written to Ed Miliband demanding who in Labour knew what and when. But
:05:55. > :05:59.perhaps the biggest questions of all are for the bank regulators. Paul
:06:00. > :06:03.Flowers was cleared to head a major UK clearing bank, despite having no
:06:04. > :06:07.relevant business or banking experience. I think the regulators
:06:08. > :06:10.have done much better since the crash, but they should still have
:06:11. > :06:14.asked themselves the question whether or not this person with no
:06:15. > :06:16.banking experience or virtually no banking experience and no other
:06:17. > :06:24.business experience should have been in charge of one of our largest
:06:25. > :06:27.financial institutions. Without good quality service we are nothing. We
:06:28. > :06:31.are our reputation. More than a bank, more than just a supermarket,
:06:32. > :06:35.the Co-Op is also the nation's biggest funeral director. Whilst
:06:36. > :06:40.this scandal will not bury this cherished and important institution,
:06:41. > :06:48.it has ensured that it will change. Joining us now from Glasgow is the
:06:49. > :06:53.Labour Co-operative Party peer, Lord McFall, a former member of the
:06:54. > :06:57.Treasury select committee. As man who has been intimately bound up
:06:58. > :07:01.with this movement, what did you feel when you heard today? I feel
:07:02. > :07:06.great personal disappointment at this situation that the Co-Op
:07:07. > :07:11.movement has found itself in as a member of the Co-Op. But secondly as
:07:12. > :07:15.chairman of the Treasury Committee during the time of the financial
:07:16. > :07:18.crisis I'm absolutely gobsmacked that these revelations have come
:07:19. > :07:21.out. If you look at the record of the hearings that we undertook
:07:22. > :07:26.during the crisis, we were very clear with the FSA that, first of
:07:27. > :07:29.all, people had to have qualifications if they were going to
:07:30. > :07:35.be chairman or chief executives of banks. They came up with New York
:07:36. > :07:38.that neither -- Northern Rock that neither of those people had the
:07:39. > :07:42.qualifications and they had to have them. The second thing that came out
:07:43. > :07:47.is the fit and personal regime of the FSA, both Lord Turner and the
:07:48. > :07:58.chief executive acknowledged very publicly that it was nothing more
:07:59. > :08:02.than box ticking exercise. And they had to make sure that there was
:08:03. > :08:05.integrity in those appointed. Nothing has happened since then. The
:08:06. > :08:08.appointment was made by this movement of which you are a proud
:08:09. > :08:13.representative, it wasn't made by the FSA, you can question whether
:08:14. > :08:19.they should say is this bloke appropriate. The appointment was
:08:20. > :08:26.made by your movement. Listen there is no way out of that. That was a
:08:27. > :08:29.serious, serious error on behalf of the Co-Op party. What the Co-Op
:08:30. > :08:33.needs to do now is to be open and transparent about how we arrived
:08:34. > :08:36.here and how we are going to take it forward. But the second issue Jeremy
:08:37. > :08:41.is, if anyone is going to be a chairman or indeed a non-executive
:08:42. > :08:46.director of a financial institution then they have to be passed a test
:08:47. > :08:52.by the Financial Services Authority. And that was obviously a paper
:08:53. > :08:56.exercise, nothing else. So the Co-Op have got a serious responsibility
:08:57. > :09:02.here, but so has the regulator, and indeed so has the Government, when
:09:03. > :09:06.you consider that Co-Op were in for 600-odd branches of Lloyd's thank
:09:07. > :09:09.process went on for two years. Were you surprised that man like this
:09:10. > :09:14.could have been made boss of your bank? I'm surprised, particularly in
:09:15. > :09:20.the hearing or in the evidence that came out today, regarding Bradford,
:09:21. > :09:26.I would like to know who knew that and did Bradford communicate that to
:09:27. > :09:33.the Co-Op group. And in terms of being chairman of a bank one has to
:09:34. > :09:37.have not just persuasive powers, but also has to be school and rational
:09:38. > :09:41.and understanding about the business, and it is obvious that
:09:42. > :09:45.Paul Flowers from what you have heard in that little episode there
:09:46. > :09:51.had none of these qualities. Doesn't is also question the judgment of
:09:52. > :09:57.your party leader, Ed Miliband, in appointing him to this function
:09:58. > :10:01.advisory committee when he's such a dodgy bloke. Who knew he was dodgy.
:10:02. > :10:05.Let me tell you both as chairman of the Treasury Committee and a member
:10:06. > :10:08.of the parliamentary banking standards commission, sadly in terms
:10:09. > :10:11.of culture and ethics in the banking set up, nothing surprises me very
:10:12. > :10:15.much now. We were asked by the Government to look at culture and
:10:16. > :10:20.standards. We have found culture which was a rotten culture and we
:10:21. > :10:24.found standards which were abysmally low. We are right at the foot hills
:10:25. > :10:29.in terms of rebuilding the trust and the culture and ethics in banking
:10:30. > :10:34.and financial services. This again, sadly, in the Co-Op of all areas,
:10:35. > :10:44.that has been proved the case today again. Thank you very much for
:10:45. > :10:51.joining us, thank you. Coming up: From Manchester to Aleppo, with the
:10:52. > :10:55.aid convoy. A blueprint for restoring trust in the NHS was how
:10:56. > :11:01.Jeremy Hunt described his response today to the Francis Inquiry, not
:11:02. > :11:07.everyone agreed. The inquiry into the rot at Mid Staffordshire NHS
:11:08. > :11:12.Foundation Trust reported in February. It identified a failure at
:11:13. > :11:15.every level of the NHS and called for a real change in culture, a
:11:16. > :11:22.re-focussing and recommitment of all who work in the NHS on putting
:11:23. > :11:28.patients first. It put forward 290 recommendations to that end.
:11:29. > :11:31.Secretary Jeremy Hunt. Today the Health Secretary Jeremy hunt issued
:11:32. > :11:37.the Government's response to the inquiry and claimed to have accepted
:11:38. > :11:41.all but nine of those emDAGSs. He -- recommendations. He announced a
:11:42. > :11:46.statutory candour on investigations, a new safety website and mandatory
:11:47. > :11:51.reporting of numbers on hospital wards. He didn't impose the national
:11:52. > :11:56.minimum staffing called for by the report. The chairman of the report,
:11:57. > :12:00.Robert Francis, has welcomed what he calls a comprehensive response, but
:12:01. > :12:10.Labour and several patients' groups say the recommendations don't go far
:12:11. > :12:15.enough. Earlier I spoke to Jeremy Hunt at the Department of Health. I
:12:16. > :12:21.put to him that this was just the top-down of the NHS that they
:12:22. > :12:26.pledged not to embark upon. This is not a structural reform, it is about
:12:27. > :12:30.changing the culture in the NHS to address the strategy we had in Mid
:12:31. > :12:34.Staffs. I think the people in this country and who use the NHS will be
:12:35. > :12:39.very disappointed if in response to something as horrific as that, we
:12:40. > :12:43.didn't come out with a plan that was actually designed to encourage the
:12:44. > :12:46.openness and the transparency that will hopefully mean these things
:12:47. > :12:51.can't happen again. When you say you are going to introduce a new
:12:52. > :12:55.criminal offence of willful neglect, can you give us an example of the
:12:56. > :13:01.sort of person who might fall foul of such a law? There are 1. 3
:13:02. > :13:05.million people in the NHS and the vast majority of them do a brilliant
:13:06. > :13:09.job, but you will have, in any large organisation, one or two people who
:13:10. > :13:13.do the wrong thing, and that's why we want to have criminal sanctions
:13:14. > :13:18.for those extreme cases. But I think it would be wrong to say that the
:13:19. > :13:21.thrust of what we are doing today is about those criminal sanctions.
:13:22. > :13:24.Because actually what we are trying to do is support people on the
:13:25. > :13:29.frontline who want to do the right thing and make it easy for them to
:13:30. > :13:32.speak out about mistakes and it is really important, and I need to make
:13:33. > :13:36.this point because it is very important. There is a very big
:13:37. > :13:40.difference between making a mistake and willfully neglecting someone.
:13:41. > :13:45.Can you give us an example? I think an example might be someone who was
:13:46. > :13:48.responsible for caring for a dementia patient who didn't give
:13:49. > :13:52.them food when they needed it and when they knew they needed it. That
:13:53. > :13:56.would be the kind of thing I'm thinking about. It is people who
:13:57. > :13:59.deliberately neglect people. It is a very small minority of people. I
:14:00. > :14:03.think that they should face the full force of the law. You say you want
:14:04. > :14:07.to get people to speak out, how is that going to make people more
:14:08. > :14:10.likely to speak out when they know that the consequence of doing so may
:14:11. > :14:15.well be to send one of their colleagues to jail? Well, what we
:14:16. > :14:21.have said today is we are changing the incentives in the system so that
:14:22. > :14:28.for the vast majority of decent doctors and nurse, who want to do
:14:29. > :14:31.the right thing, the overwhelming incentive they have is to make out
:14:32. > :14:34.about those things. We are doing that in two ways, the first is we
:14:35. > :14:39.are changing their professional codes of conduct. They say it is
:14:40. > :14:43.your professional duty as a doctor and nurse to speak about things you
:14:44. > :14:46.see that are wrong. And f you do, you will get protection if there is
:14:47. > :14:51.any subsequent professional contact here. The second thing they are
:14:52. > :14:53.doing, which is as importants and perhaps the single most significant
:14:54. > :14:59.thing that I announce today is that we're saying that if a hospital
:15:00. > :15:05.loses a litigation case, and it transpires that the hospital was not
:15:06. > :15:09.open and traps parent about something that went -- transparent
:15:10. > :15:12.about something that went wrong, then they risk paying for the
:15:13. > :15:16.litigation case themselves. They don't have to do that at the moment.
:15:17. > :15:19.The purpose of that is to get every chief executive and hospital board
:15:20. > :15:23.to send out a message loud and clear to all their staff, if in any doubt,
:15:24. > :15:27.if you think you saw something that may have been a mistake, you are not
:15:28. > :15:30.sure, report it. Write it down. Thank's the culture they have --
:15:31. > :15:33.that's the culture they have in the airline industry which has led to a
:15:34. > :15:38.dramatic improvement in their safety record, we can do that in the NHS.
:15:39. > :15:44.You are also going to require hospitals to publish staffing levels
:15:45. > :15:49.on wards. What will happen if they consistently publish reports which
:15:50. > :15:55.suggest that there aren't enough staff on? The CQC, the new Chief
:15:56. > :15:58.Inspector of hospitals which we reported this year for the first
:15:59. > :16:02.time, modelled on Ofsted, will look at all the data on an on going
:16:03. > :16:07.basis, if they think when they look at the staffing data that indicates
:16:08. > :16:10.calls for concerns, they will inspect that hospital. There are
:16:11. > :16:14.very severe consequence, one of the things we introduced early this year
:16:15. > :16:18.is a new failure regime for hospital, which means the management
:16:19. > :16:22.of the hospital lose their jobs. We have 13 hospitals now in special
:16:23. > :16:25.measures this year, it is the first time in the history of the NHS that
:16:26. > :16:31.has happened. There are real questions for the managers of
:16:32. > :16:37.hospitals who fail their CQC inspection. As the royal nursing
:16:38. > :16:40.college says, is there 30,000 unfilled nursing posts? I don't know
:16:41. > :16:44.where where they get their figures, from I do know across the system we
:16:45. > :16:48.are going to be recruiting nearly 4,000 more nurses this year. The
:16:49. > :16:52.number of hospital nurses in the country has actually gone up over
:16:53. > :16:57.the last three years. I think this is just the start. Because I think
:16:58. > :17:02.this whole change in culture in the NHS has meant that, where as before,
:17:03. > :17:05.if you wanted to be a good hospital you really had to meet your waiting
:17:06. > :17:15.times targets and make sure you balanced your books. Now, to get a
:17:16. > :17:18.good grade from the Chief Inspector Of hospitals you have to be
:17:19. > :17:23.delivering good quality care and you need the right number of nurses.
:17:24. > :17:29.People are predicting a winter of crisis in the NHS, can you guarantee
:17:30. > :17:34.there won't be a cry sis in the NHS this -- crisis in the NHS this
:17:35. > :17:38.winter? You can't say anything about something which you don't have
:17:39. > :17:41.direct control. Staff in our departments have never been better
:17:42. > :17:44.prepared, we have made preparations earlier than in previous years. We
:17:45. > :17:49.have an ageing population. There is a million more people going through
:17:50. > :17:52.the A system every year than just three years ago. We are doing
:17:53. > :17:55.everything we can to cope with the pressure. People are working hard
:17:56. > :18:00.and we are doing what we can to support staff on the frontline. One
:18:01. > :18:05.final point on this question of resources, is it right that people
:18:06. > :18:09.who should have been, who were moved on as a consequence of
:18:10. > :18:13.reorganisation should have been given very large amounts of public
:18:14. > :18:18.money. Hundreds of thousands of pounds, in the case of one couple
:18:19. > :18:24.nearly a million pounds and then reemployed by the NHS. No, and that
:18:25. > :18:28.is why we are changing the system. Why did you do that? You solve one
:18:29. > :18:32.problem at a time, this exists because of the contracts they sign.
:18:33. > :18:35.Sometimes contracts that have been in existence for a very long time.
:18:36. > :18:40.It is wrong they get those payments, that is why we have chang the system
:18:41. > :18:44.so if you are reemployed by the NHS within 12 months then you have to
:18:45. > :18:48.pay back your redundancy payment on a pro rata basis, it is a much
:18:49. > :18:52.better system. Can you recoup any of the money paid out? This is to do
:18:53. > :18:55.with contracts people have signed. We have to follow the law in that
:18:56. > :19:02.respect. I want to make absolutely sure for future contracts this new
:19:03. > :19:08.system is in place. Thank you. The former speak -- Speaker of the House
:19:09. > :19:12.of Commons called for the creation of a corridor into Syria so
:19:13. > :19:16.humanitarian can be delivered to casualties of the Civil War. The
:19:17. > :19:20.problem, as pointed out by other members of the House of Lords is who
:19:21. > :19:27.could protect such a thing. Even without a corridor some people are
:19:28. > :19:30.taking aid into Syria. BBC Asian Network reporter has travelled with
:19:31. > :19:38.one of the British aid convoys making the journey to bring help to
:19:39. > :19:43.the wounded. We are going through sniper alley, basically we have to
:19:44. > :19:47.go at a fast speed to stop getting hit by a sniper basically. This is
:19:48. > :19:56.one of the most dangerous places on earth. A sniper-lined street in
:19:57. > :20:05.Aleppo, Syria. This brother has been shot by a sniper. And we follow this
:20:06. > :20:09.charity's journey there. Five ambulances through nine countries.
:20:10. > :20:16.Pushing into areas most other charities don't go. This is the
:20:17. > :20:21.future, look at this smile. Let's get going, we are going. Late night
:20:22. > :20:32.in Manchester, these ambulances are packed with medical supplies and
:20:33. > :20:39.food collected by the volunteers. This is a 35-year-old taxi driver
:20:40. > :20:46.and family man, and this is the only woman, and a credit adviser from
:20:47. > :20:51.Leicester, and we have a 25-year-old pharmacies from Halifax. Any nerves
:20:52. > :20:55.at all? All fairly relaxed it is nice to have a break from work and
:20:56. > :20:59.do something real with your life. It sounds crazy you are not nervous
:21:00. > :21:07.that this is a break? What defines crazy, is everyone else crazy who is
:21:08. > :21:11.living 9-5 paying mortgages and not worried about 70% of the rest of the
:21:12. > :21:15.population living in dire poverty, that is crazy. This is one of a
:21:16. > :21:22.number of smaller charities missions going to Syria, independent of the
:21:23. > :21:28.big aid agencies. They had first to Dover, but they face an early
:21:29. > :21:32.setback. Are you still getting searched. Unambulance is stopped by
:21:33. > :21:35.counter terrorism officers. The police are just searching the
:21:36. > :21:39.vehicle and now they are searching the individuals. The group do face
:21:40. > :21:46.suspicion that they are going to Syria to fight. It is in terms of
:21:47. > :21:49.your religion it is names, it is where you are going. When it happens
:21:50. > :21:52.all the time it could feel like harassment, you can understand if
:21:53. > :21:57.they are doing their checks that is fine. But taking your phones off
:21:58. > :22:03.you, taking your e-mails off you. What can you do? It is estimated
:22:04. > :22:06.more than 100 Britons could be fighting with the opposition in
:22:07. > :22:19.Syria, and the evidence suggests many get there under the cover of
:22:20. > :22:24.charity mission s. How do you make sure everybody who is coming is
:22:25. > :22:28.coming in the right way? They have to know someone we know, they have
:22:29. > :22:33.an interview, a Facebook and Twitter check. Nothing is 100% foolproof, as
:22:34. > :22:37.long as we do our checks and are satisfied, everyone is vetteded. So
:22:38. > :22:40.it is day 3 of the journey, we are in Switzerland, this is one of the
:22:41. > :22:44.ambulances on the convoy. It is packed all down this side with
:22:45. > :22:47.medical supplies, you have got needles, boxes and boxes of
:22:48. > :22:51.painkillers, down here. This is where four people are sleeping, so
:22:52. > :22:55.it is very cramped. If I just take you through to another one of the
:22:56. > :23:01.ambulances on the convoy. This is number two 2, at the back here you
:23:02. > :23:08.have more medical supplies, dried food, Magid and Adul are sleeping
:23:09. > :23:13.here, it is very cramped. This is the last leg before the real journey
:23:14. > :23:17.starts. The group are all British, of Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Indian
:23:18. > :23:21.heritage, they see it as a duty to help other Muslims like those in
:23:22. > :23:26.Syria. Have you thought about the prospect of people getting hurt or
:23:27. > :23:29.killed? I think every humanitarian thinks of the worst, especially when
:23:30. > :23:33.they are going into Syria. At the end of the day you take precautions,
:23:34. > :23:36.nobody is going in there to get hurt. You could argue that if you
:23:37. > :23:48.were going to die that could happen quite as easily else where I would
:23:49. > :23:53.rather it be something meaningful. This Islamic song is played
:23:54. > :23:55.throughout the trip. It is calleds I Weep For Syria and details the
:23:56. > :24:16.country's suffering. There are eight days of travel,
:24:17. > :24:20.driving in shifts. Keeping spirits up at endless service stations. And
:24:21. > :24:27.one member of the group is turned away by police before they enter
:24:28. > :24:31.Turkey. Come on guys, Syria is calling. Finally they reach the
:24:32. > :24:39.Syrian border. This is where they enter a warzone. The convoy heads on
:24:40. > :24:47.without us, they are about to take huge risks and we could put them in
:24:48. > :24:51.further danger. They head first just over the border and they are filming
:24:52. > :24:56.everything on mobile phones. Priceless, it is priceless. We get
:24:57. > :24:59.out of the vehicle, we are just handing the sweets out and they were
:25:00. > :25:07.just loving it. You could see the smiles on their faces. They are
:25:08. > :25:11.coming up to us and trying to be our friends, little children, what is
:25:12. > :25:14.your name, thank you for the sweets. Really appreciate it. You know they
:25:15. > :25:19.appreciate it. Four of the group then push into Aleppo. The dangers
:25:20. > :25:24.are so severe here that few foreign aid agencies are operating. This
:25:25. > :25:28.final journey takes them to the frontline. We went out with one of
:25:29. > :25:33.the hospital ambulance drivers, he knows the entire area, some parts
:25:34. > :25:40.were a bit hairy. More than a bit hairy? Yeah. (Gunfire) We ended up
:25:41. > :25:48.not very far from some of the frontlines where there were snipers
:25:49. > :25:50.that were sat. Come back, come back. (Gunfire) To actually be in the
:25:51. > :25:57.thick of T it was a little closer than I would have liked to have
:25:58. > :26:01.been. (Explosions) We have ended up in the back street where there are
:26:02. > :26:09.snipers on every side street, every junction in the road. And if I just
:26:10. > :26:14.turn this around there are huge sheets that have been put up to try
:26:15. > :26:17.to avoid snipers being able to see past. Survival instinct is get
:26:18. > :26:24.through the situation and get back to what we were trying to do. The Dr
:26:25. > :26:28.Is stitching up a young child. We managed to deliver the aid to the
:26:29. > :26:32.hospitals that were receiving a lot of casualties to the frontline. This
:26:33. > :26:38.brother has been shot via a sniper, the sniper bullet has exploded
:26:39. > :26:48.inside him and caused a lot of pieces of his bone to snap and
:26:49. > :26:55.break. The team tear through sniper-lined streets to get between
:26:56. > :27:06.hospitals. (Gunfire) You are kind of going in a calm KASy fashion --
:27:07. > :27:10.kamakazi fashion. S it is for me to die there that is how it is. I have
:27:11. > :27:13.got children, it is not what I want. If the world was doing what it
:27:14. > :27:17.should I wouldn't have to risk my life. The whole nation is a risk
:27:18. > :27:21.from the start. There is no point getting all the way into Syria and
:27:22. > :27:25.giving stuff where it is not needed, for example in Aleppo where we went
:27:26. > :27:34.this time they have not had aid for such a long time. Nothing but total
:27:35. > :27:37.carnage. In one hospital they find seven-year-old Mohammed. There is a
:27:38. > :27:45.tank that went and blew his house up, his mum passed away and his
:27:46. > :27:50.brother passed away, he had both his legs blown off. His new family are
:27:51. > :27:53.the doctors. Really he hasn't done nothing, these people inside Syria
:27:54. > :27:57.they live through that every single day. We really need to help these
:27:58. > :28:02.people big time. We need to help them. We have to help them. Everyone
:28:03. > :28:12.makes it home safely. The convoy plan to return to Syria next month.
:28:13. > :28:20.You can hear her 30-minute radio documentary, A Road Trip To War on
:28:21. > :28:23.the BBC Asian Network website. Now the Prime Minister picked up the
:28:24. > :28:28.telephone to the President of Iran today, the first such call for a
:28:29. > :28:32.decade or more. Tomorrow in Geneva the talks between Iran and
:28:33. > :28:41.representatives of the half-a-dozen world powers will resume. And while
:28:42. > :28:45.they didn't come to the talk and a dramatic conclusion, but there is
:28:46. > :28:51.something in the air. What did David Cameron talk to the Iranian
:28:52. > :28:54.President about? We know this because Downing Street has provided
:28:55. > :28:58.us a menu of their conversation. They tacked about repairing
:28:59. > :29:02.relations between the two countries, let's remember the embassies in both
:29:03. > :29:07.countries have been closed for two years following Iranian students'
:29:08. > :29:11.raid on the British Embassy in Tehran in November 2011. We know the
:29:12. > :29:14.two men discussed Syria, bearing in mind that Iran and Britain are on
:29:15. > :29:19.opposite sides of the Syrian conflict and we also know that they
:29:20. > :29:24.discussed the prospects for success at these talks which will be held
:29:25. > :29:30.here in Geneva. Realistically is there likely to be any sort of
:29:31. > :29:35.success in those talks? There may be, in recent months Iran and the
:29:36. > :29:40.west have crossed so many rubicons that they may want to consider
:29:41. > :29:45.buying a row boat and some oars to help them get across the next few
:29:46. > :29:50.crossings. Essentially a lot has changed in the last few months. The
:29:51. > :29:53.phone conversation, and between the US President and the Iranian
:29:54. > :29:58.President conversation, that has created a different atmosphere in
:29:59. > :30:01.the talks. Ten days ago here they didn't reach a deal, they didn't
:30:02. > :30:06.reach a deal possibly because Iran insisted on the west recognising
:30:07. > :30:10.Iran's right to enrich uranium, a right that the west says does not
:30:11. > :30:14.exist. But two days ago Iran's Prime Minister said you know what we will
:30:15. > :30:17.keep that right but the west doesn't necessarily have to recognise it.
:30:18. > :30:21.That may open up and clear the way for a possible deal in the next few
:30:22. > :30:27.days. It would only be a first step and interim deal, even if it is
:30:28. > :30:31.signed it will be strongly opposed by Israel. More rubicons to come.
:30:32. > :30:34.Thank you very much. Another bunch of bankers are up
:30:35. > :30:40.before the breaks in parliament tomorrow. This time it is the people
:30:41. > :30:43.who advise the Government on the selling off of Royal Mail. Judging
:30:44. > :30:47.by the price shares are changing hands in the market was knocked down
:30:48. > :30:50.for a song. Trades unions are throwing about words like "gross
:30:51. > :30:54.incompetence" to describe the bankers who advised the Government,
:30:55. > :31:03.or even theft, they are demanding that no more money be given to what
:31:04. > :31:10.the offenders ausingly called, "professional advice". The first
:31:11. > :31:16.privatisation in eight years put a special strain on the Royal Mail
:31:17. > :31:22.sorting office, applications came in from 700,000 individuals for stake
:31:23. > :31:28.in a business they bout was bargain agains. Their shares was capped the
:31:29. > :31:39.?750, who ended up owning it. Here is the top share Holder in --
:31:40. > :31:45.shareholders in Royal Mai The first is a hedge fund. The next one is
:31:46. > :31:50.GIC, the next is a huge sovereign wealth fund investing oil money on
:31:51. > :31:59.behalf of Kuwait, with 1. 4%, behind them with more modest stakes the big
:32:00. > :32:03.city Standard Life, and Threadneedle Street. For the Government it is a
:32:04. > :32:07.mixed bag, they have got some of what they wanted but also some of
:32:08. > :32:11.what they didn't want, which could produce political problems in the
:32:12. > :32:15.future for them. At least 20 city institutions got in at the ground
:32:16. > :32:21.floor, taking in half a billion shares at a price of ?3.30, as soon
:32:22. > :32:28.as trading started the price dropped by a third. Today they closed ?5.
:32:29. > :32:34.50, up 67% on the float price. Their gain, the tax-payers' loss, the
:32:35. > :32:41.initial floatation was ?1.7 billion, if priced at today's level it would
:32:42. > :32:45.have fetched ?2. 8 billion. The taxpayer have has lost out, who did
:32:46. > :32:50.make money is the banks advising on the deal, they have commissions of
:32:51. > :32:54.millions to be paid out. Some small investors who had applied for a lot
:32:55. > :32:58.more shares than they got sold quickly and they made a little money
:32:59. > :33:05.out of it. It seems to be the two biggest investors are two hedge
:33:06. > :33:10.funds, the Singapore Sovereign Wealth Fund, is one, and there seems
:33:11. > :33:14.to be a lot of money made at the expense of the taxpayer. The
:33:15. > :33:18.Government is left with a 30% stake and serious questions to answer.
:33:19. > :33:25.City players from Citibank to JP Morgan had said Royal Mail could be
:33:26. > :33:30.worth upwards of ?6 million. Why did Vincent Cable choose Goldman
:33:31. > :33:35.satisfaction and UBS who valued it at ?3 billion. His critics say it
:33:36. > :33:39.was natural given how down he had been on Royal Mail over the years.
:33:40. > :33:43.The Government were down on the business saying the traditional
:33:44. > :33:48.source revenues were haemorrhaging and could fall off the CLICHLT
:33:49. > :33:53.saying the business was short of cash and had severe industrial
:33:54. > :33:57.relations problems. This isn't a promising prospectus to take the
:33:58. > :34:02.business forward. It is like trying to sell a car by announcing it is
:34:03. > :34:06.failing its MOT and the engines are going to fall out. You will not get
:34:07. > :34:09.a good price, and people will say it is not running for long I will give
:34:10. > :34:14.you a few quid. What happened to this dusty old building not far from
:34:15. > :34:18.Tottenham Court Road is one piece of evidence that suggests Royal Mail's
:34:19. > :34:23.important portfolio is worth more than previously estimated. Its
:34:24. > :34:27.owners Great Portland Estates have celebrated getting planning
:34:28. > :34:35.permission to turn it into offices, shops and retail, turning it into a
:34:36. > :34:42.half a billion. For cities agencies they say it was massively
:34:43. > :34:47.undervalued. Thousands of investors, with ?750 to invest, made a bit of
:34:48. > :34:51.soft with hedge funders the buyers. The shares yielded 5% in the second
:34:52. > :34:54.market price, people found that attractive. You have many people
:34:55. > :34:58.finding that attractive and buying, yet many speculators taking their
:34:59. > :35:02.profit on the first day. The called stags taking their money out making
:35:03. > :35:07.that short-term profit, the quick buck. Who was buying? Long-term
:35:08. > :35:13.investors, people who want the dividend, people who see the
:35:14. > :35:19.attraction in in the assets. Just in Bond Street off the West End are the
:35:20. > :35:23.Children's Investment Fund Management, despite the name it is
:35:24. > :35:28.called one of the most aggressive hed funds in the country. It has a
:35:29. > :35:32.stake in Royal Mail worth ?300 million. The reason I wanted to
:35:33. > :35:38.speak to this man so much, the man who runs the hedge fund is known as
:35:39. > :35:41.a corporate activist, he takes big stakes in companies and tries to
:35:42. > :35:45.make changes happen. I wanted to know his intentions at the Royal
:35:46. > :35:50.Mail, he wasn't available for interview and hedge funds like to be
:35:51. > :35:52.discreet. Vincent Cable initially said Royal Mail's high price was
:35:53. > :35:56.froth. He also revealed something else. We now know that at the last
:35:57. > :36:00.minute the Business Secretary, Vincent Cable did consider setting a
:36:01. > :36:04.higher price for Royal Mail, but the institutional investors who he so
:36:05. > :36:09.wanted on board said that in that case they might not buy as much of
:36:10. > :36:15.the stock. And UBS and Goldman Sachs advised against it. Mr McCabe said
:36:16. > :36:21.that in sticking -- Mr Cable said in ticking with the advice he was
:36:22. > :36:25.following advice from Goldman Sachs and UBS. Tomorrow MPs will ask them
:36:26. > :36:29.if they were giving firmly held opinions or telling their client
:36:30. > :36:34.what he wanted to hear. Now on an old Civil War battlefield in the
:36:35. > :36:39.state of Pennsylvania 271 words were read out today. Even 150 years after
:36:40. > :36:46.they were first delivered they retain the capacity to send a shiver
:36:47. > :36:51.down the spine. The Gettysburg address was intended by Abraham
:36:52. > :36:54.Lyndon to end one of the -- Lincoln, to end one of the cruellest wars of
:36:55. > :36:59.all time. It took a few minutes to deliver but it has taken much longer
:37:00. > :37:01.to deliver on the promise of the birth of freedom of a nation under
:37:02. > :37:17.God. At Gettysburg in 1863, 51,000 men
:37:18. > :37:22.were killed or injured in three days of battle. It was a fight between a
:37:23. > :37:30.conservative slave-holding south and a north determined to impose change.
:37:31. > :37:33.To honour the dead Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address, the
:37:34. > :37:43.most important speech in American history. The Civil War reaches into
:37:44. > :37:48.our own age, the divisions it exposed are still part of the
:37:49. > :37:56.American political discourse. On these damp autumnal fields in 229
:37:57. > :38:04.brief blistering words Lincoln rededicate the -- rededicated the
:38:05. > :38:08.Republic. "Four score and 20 years our fathers brought forth a new
:38:09. > :38:12.nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that
:38:13. > :38:15.all men are created equal. We here highly resolve the Government of the
:38:16. > :38:20.people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the
:38:21. > :38:24.earth." For them the American revolution was unfinished what he
:38:25. > :38:29.called "a work only thus far advanced". Well 150 years on, it is
:38:30. > :38:33.still unfinished. Americans are still arguing about how to live the
:38:34. > :38:46.ideals that their Republic is founded on. Still bitterly divided
:38:47. > :38:52.about precisely what "Government for the people by the people and of the
:38:53. > :38:58.people". It is uncanny that the anniversary of John F Kennedy and
:38:59. > :39:02.the address are connecte Both are connected, both sought to use the
:39:03. > :39:05.power of federal Government to enforce change on federal states.
:39:06. > :39:10.Both trying to force America to live up to its founding ideals as they
:39:11. > :39:16.saw them. Both made fierce enemies as a result. What the war was doing
:39:17. > :39:21.was preserving this unique system of democracy, of republican rule, you
:39:22. > :39:26.see. It is testing whether this can survive and Kennedy, the parallel
:39:27. > :39:30.is, what does he speak of in his inaugural address? And focus during
:39:31. > :39:34.his administration? It is the struggle for freedom, for liberty,
:39:35. > :39:45.to preserve the democracy that we have here and around the globe. But
:39:46. > :39:52.black America was excluded from the Gettysburg promise. The post slavery
:39:53. > :39:57.south upheld segregation for a century. That century separates
:39:58. > :40:02.Lincoln from John F Kennedy. When Kennedy began to challenge white
:40:03. > :40:07.supremacy, the white south revolted. That revolt is what brought John
:40:08. > :40:15.Kennedy that fateful day 50 years ago, when he drove past the Texas
:40:16. > :40:19.Book DePOSry. In the 1960 presidential election Kennedy lost
:40:20. > :40:21.Dallas by the largest majority of any constituent in the United
:40:22. > :40:26.States. He was not particularly popular here. Mainstream
:40:27. > :40:32.conservatism had long since be Dallas's reality, but the activities
:40:33. > :40:35.of fringe, right-wing extremists dominated the political atmosphere
:40:36. > :40:45.of the city at that time. The sixth floor of the Book DePOSry, is now a
:40:46. > :40:50.you -- dePOSry, Kennedy was a year away from the election, he had to
:40:51. > :40:54.win text Sarks but his supporters were deserting him. His challenge
:40:55. > :40:59.had re-opened the fault line in America. Conservative fears over a
:41:00. > :41:05.federal Government. Right-wing extremists did not kill Kennedy, but
:41:06. > :41:08.his visit to Dallas to try to appease them did. It appears
:41:09. > :41:12.something has happened in the motorcade route. There has been a
:41:13. > :41:16.shooting. The hospital has been advised to stand by for a severe
:41:17. > :41:20.gunshot wound. The presidential car coming up now, we know it is the
:41:21. > :41:24.presidential car, we can see Mrs Kennedy, there is a Secret
:41:25. > :41:29.Serviceman spread eagled over the car. We understand that the
:41:30. > :41:32.President and Mrs Kennedy is in the car, apparently something is wrong
:41:33. > :41:36.here, something is terribly wrong. At this point it looks like it could
:41:37. > :41:39.have been one or two or all of the people in the car, they have been
:41:40. > :41:48.the victim, they have been struck by shots. We don't know. It was
:41:49. > :41:52.definitely the President's car. The violent shock of it echos down the
:41:53. > :41:56.decades even now. It is easy to forget that in life Kennedy, like
:41:57. > :42:01.Lincoln, was a highly devisive figure. Both men perceived by
:42:02. > :42:06.conservative Southerners to be imposing an unwanted and alien
:42:07. > :42:09.northern liberalism. They begin with lines such as "the first remark that
:42:10. > :42:14.I heard after hearing about the shooting of the President was "he
:42:15. > :42:19.asked for it" ". Another person said why was he seeking admiration and
:42:20. > :42:21.not in Washington where he belongs. This extraordinary collection of
:42:22. > :42:25.letters written to the Mayor of Dallas in the days after the
:42:26. > :42:29.assassination, is helped by the library in the city. They reveal the
:42:30. > :42:33.simmering intensity of public sentiment. What was the nature of
:42:34. > :42:38.the anti-Kennedy sentiment in the south? It is better to understand it
:42:39. > :42:41.less as anti-Kennedy sentiment than anti-Washington and federal
:42:42. > :42:45.Government sentiment. The two driving elements of American
:42:46. > :42:48.political history, going all the way back to the revolution s how are we
:42:49. > :42:51.going to deal with race and what roles Governments should play in
:42:52. > :42:54.telling individuals how to live their lives. This was the exact
:42:55. > :42:58.cause of the Civil War, it is the same argument that animates civil
:42:59. > :43:01.rights throughout the 60s and actually it is really one of the
:43:02. > :43:07.tensions I think that drives American politics today. Public
:43:08. > :43:20.sentiment still simplers in Dallas, at this RUP - simplers in Dallas.
:43:21. > :43:26.This is the latest manifestation of the long American argument. Today it
:43:27. > :43:30.is about federal healthcare reforms, but it points to the same enduring
:43:31. > :43:37.themes, individual LIB toe and the I will legitimacy of state intrusion.
:43:38. > :43:41.As the pendulum swings to a more statist point of view, where the
:43:42. > :43:45.Government is in control, then they are approaching a time of tyranny.
:43:46. > :43:49.That is a really strong word, the rest of the world sees this as the
:43:50. > :43:54.most securely entrenched democracy in history, and yet you use the word
:43:55. > :43:59."tyranny" is it really that bad? I see what our Government is doing in
:44:00. > :44:05.the redistribution of wealth that it is exercising. As only perhaps
:44:06. > :44:10.semantically different than if I were to put a revolver at your head
:44:11. > :44:14.and tell me to give me your wallet. There is an unbroken line of
:44:15. > :44:19.continuity that runs from Gettysburg to Dallas and on into our own age.
:44:20. > :44:23.It is a struggle for ascendancy between two Americas, conservative
:44:24. > :44:26.America, that seeks to champion the sovereignty of the individual
:44:27. > :44:29.citizen against the state. And another America, that claims to
:44:30. > :44:34.speak for progress and seeks to harness the power of the state to
:44:35. > :44:44.impose it. It is an argument about what it means to be a true American.
:44:45. > :44:49.What it means to be a true American was the issue at Gettysburg, who was
:44:50. > :44:57.embraced by the founding ideals, and who was excluded? Does the politics
:44:58. > :45:02.of race still shape the country's discourse? Americans remain divided
:45:03. > :45:07.about what it really means to be a new nation conceived in liberty. And
:45:08. > :45:14.how to advance that proposition that all men are created equal. That's
:45:15. > :45:19.all for tonight. We learned today that the surviving members of Monty
:45:20. > :45:25.Python are to reform for a new stage show. We couldn't bear to play you
:45:26. > :45:31.the dead parrot sketch yet again, instead here is the most obscure
:45:32. > :45:36.thing we could find, Monty Python, a German television programme from
:45:37. > :45:39.1972 and an interview in the finest Newsnight tradition with man who
:45:40. > :45:43.claims to have written all the works of Shakespeare.