:00:00. > :00:11.Tonight, a secret British plan to intervene in Syria. Newsnight can
:00:12. > :00:17.reveal how the British military plan to train and arm 100,000 rebels. We
:00:18. > :00:21.ask the Foreign Office minister at the time if the west missed a chance
:00:22. > :00:26.to defeat Assad? A former Jihadi tells us about cells
:00:27. > :00:32.of insurgents already in Baghdad, waiting to take the city.
:00:33. > :00:39.I have been speaking to a man who knew the secretive leader of ISIS,
:00:40. > :00:45.for on insight into how the group operates.
:00:46. > :00:50.The man in charge of HS 2 sell Uso -- tells us why he and his
:00:51. > :00:53.executives should be paid for than the Prime Minister.
:00:54. > :01:02.Steve Smith has been to Yorkshire for a Tour de France excursion. We
:01:03. > :01:11.have only just met, have you got it the right way round, what is it? My
:01:12. > :01:15.bib shorts. Good evening, Britain did have a plan to intervene in
:01:16. > :01:21.Syria. And a highly-developed ambitious one along with its allies.
:01:22. > :01:24.Training a Syrian rebel army to defeat Assad. More than just an
:01:25. > :01:28.exercise in what might have been, the blueprint for action was
:01:29. > :01:33.designed at the highest levels of the military, and considered by
:01:34. > :01:39.David Cameron and in Washington. Our investigations correspondent has
:01:40. > :01:44.an exclusive report and contains some graphic reminders of the
:01:45. > :01:50.horrors that have unfolded in Syria since 2011.
:01:51. > :01:57.There were never going to be easy solutions to Syria. So much blood
:01:58. > :02:01.has been spilt, and so many lives lost. In a region where the
:02:02. > :02:08.credibility of the west has been shattered since the Iraq War. So it
:02:09. > :02:12.wasn't difficult to see where the west chose to sit this one out. The
:02:13. > :02:22.British military seemed reluctant to get involved. Or so it seemed.
:02:23. > :02:26.Senior defence sources have told Newsnight that Britain did, in fact,
:02:27. > :02:30.have a secret plan for intervening in Syria. It was the brainchild of
:02:31. > :02:33.General David Richard, Britain's most senior officers, who told
:02:34. > :02:37.Downing Street there were only two ways of ending the bloodshed
:02:38. > :02:45.quickly. The first was to let Assad win, the second was to defeat him.
:02:46. > :02:49.To defeat him he recommended and equipping a substantial army of
:02:50. > :02:53.Syrian rebels. The plan was not without risk, but doing nothing, he
:02:54. > :02:59.argued, was the worst of all options.
:03:00. > :03:05.The plan was called Extract Equip Train. 100,000 Syrian rebels would
:03:06. > :03:09.be vetted, recruited and taken out of the country, probably to Jordan
:03:10. > :03:15.and Turkey, for training by western countries, including the UK and gulf
:03:16. > :03:20.allies. Once the army was ready, after around 12 months, it would
:03:21. > :03:24.march on Damascus, the army would do so under western and gulf air power,
:03:25. > :03:32.a shock and awe attack that would allow the Syrians themselves to
:03:33. > :03:38.defeat Assad. Amid Kate I don'ts and carnage, this offered a middle
:03:39. > :03:42.ground between an insurgency, and the politically impossible notion of
:03:43. > :03:48.putting western boots on the ground. A veteran of many conflict, and
:03:49. > :03:54.regarded as an arch pragmatist, General Richards had a team of
:03:55. > :03:57.defence analysts fleshing out his ideas. Newsnight was told the idea
:03:58. > :04:03.was considered by David Cameron and also by counterparts in Washington,
:04:04. > :04:06.including General Martin Demsey, America's most senior officer. Over
:04:07. > :04:10.here the Attorney General was asked to consider the legalities, and the
:04:11. > :04:14.plan was sent to the National Security Council, but not formally
:04:15. > :04:18.discussed. Ultimately Downing Street decided not to support the idea.
:04:19. > :04:22.There was a sense of exhaustion that we don't want to get involved in yet
:04:23. > :04:26.another Middle East conflict coming out of Iraq and Afghanistan, this
:04:27. > :04:30.was not the right time. There is an increasing scepticism in Downing
:04:31. > :04:33.Street to take military advice. There has been a difference between
:04:34. > :04:38.the military and the politician, I have never seen them as far apart as
:04:39. > :04:43.they now seem to be. They don't disagree with each other but they
:04:44. > :04:48.are on different plains in many cases. But if the Richards plan
:04:49. > :04:51.sounds like an extract from the "what if" manual of
:04:52. > :04:54.sounds like an extract from the history, think again, two years on
:04:55. > :05:02.and the arguments are turning full circle. Direct western involvement
:05:03. > :05:05.suddenly seems a possibility. Last week Barack Obama asked Congress to
:05:06. > :05:12.authorise a half billion dollar programme to train an army of
:05:13. > :05:15.hand-picked rebels. As newts night -- Newsnight discovered recently,
:05:16. > :05:23.the President too has been on a journey. I did advocate for limited
:05:24. > :05:27.but focussed action in Syria to try to vet, train and equip moderate
:05:28. > :05:31.opponents of Assad. And you were overruled by the President? I was
:05:32. > :05:38.overruled, in part because of the lessons from Iraq. I think President
:05:39. > :05:42.Obama's present plan has echos of what was talked about in 2012, the
:05:43. > :05:47.difference was in 2012 the conditions were more favourable to
:05:48. > :05:50.something like this having a useful influence, if not working
:05:51. > :05:55.completely. Now the plan is probably too little too late and is being
:05:56. > :05:59.enacted in a situation getting worse not better. Western policy makers in
:06:00. > :06:06.a sense have to have the courage to do nothing and to work on what comes
:06:07. > :06:09.after that Civil War. Evidence of chemical weapons attacks in Syria
:06:10. > :06:16.last year, finally persuaded David Cameron to seek Commons authority
:06:17. > :06:20.for military action. He lost. Yesterday saw the final phase of an
:06:21. > :06:24.operation to destroy Syria's chemical weapons. The handover has
:06:25. > :06:29.been a rare success for the international community. Syria
:06:30. > :06:33.remains in chaos. There is deep regret among some Syrian opposition
:06:34. > :06:38.leader who wish the west had intervened long ago and are still
:06:39. > :06:43.urging greater support. The international community did not
:06:44. > :06:49.intervene to prevent those crimes, at the same time also did not
:06:50. > :06:57.actively support the moderate elements on the ground. The huge
:06:58. > :07:01.opportunity was missed and that opportunity could have saved tens of
:07:02. > :07:10.thousands of lives actually, and could have saved also a huge
:07:11. > :07:14.humanitarian catastrophe. In Iraq and Afghanistan, the west intervened
:07:15. > :07:19.aggressively and came to regret it. In Syria, it is done doing very
:07:20. > :07:27.little, the question remain, is that a lesson learned or an opportunity
:07:28. > :07:30.lost. Alastair Burke was the Foreign
:07:31. > :07:37.Office minister with responsibility for the Middle East between 2010 and
:07:38. > :07:41.2013, and in Vienna is the adviser to the moderate opposition to
:07:42. > :07:46.President Assad in Syria. Now we have only just been able to report
:07:47. > :07:50.the existence of this plan this evening, but would it have been a
:07:51. > :07:56.good idea to do something on such a grand scale, training and arming up
:07:57. > :08:01.to 100,000 rebels? I'm not in a position to comment on the report,
:08:02. > :08:05.but I think the report you have just had accurately describes the
:08:06. > :08:09.difficulties of intervention or nonintervention. I think the scale
:08:10. > :08:14.of what you have been reporting would undoubtedly have given the
:08:15. > :08:18.Prime Minister cause for real pause. This was two or three years ago, the
:08:19. > :08:22.atmosphere about Iraq and Afghanistan was even more vibrant
:08:23. > :08:28.than it turned out to be in the vote in August last year, where even
:08:29. > :08:32.after a chemical take parliament was not prepared to authorise support
:08:33. > :08:36.for direct action. The arguments against intervention, well I know
:08:37. > :08:40.they were quite strong at the beginning of the revolt in Syria.
:08:41. > :08:44.Because it did not seem like the right thing to do, where as the
:08:45. > :08:47.right thing to do was to support those moderates who were trying to
:08:48. > :08:52.do the job themselves. Interesting, none the less, that although these
:08:53. > :08:56.details are new, that the military was at least making suggestions,
:08:57. > :08:59.looking at options of something on a much grander scale? Good, you would
:09:00. > :09:03.expect the military to be involved, to think through what options should
:09:04. > :09:07.a British Prime Minister have, and that should comprise all the options
:09:08. > :09:12.from doing nothing to considering whatever action might be appropriate
:09:13. > :09:16.and need to do a particular job. But in every case, and certainly we
:09:17. > :09:19.learned from both Iraq and Afghanistan, getting in is far
:09:20. > :09:23.easier than getting out. I would imagine had the Prime Minister even
:09:24. > :09:25.considered taking that plan to the public and to parliament it would
:09:26. > :09:30.have been very difficult to convince them. Now, of course, in hindsight,
:09:31. > :09:34.the arguments that are being made about could something have been done
:09:35. > :09:38.earlier are very stark. Because we have learned the price of
:09:39. > :09:41.nonintervention, and even more so because of the decision last August
:09:42. > :09:45.when it was much more clear what was happening and we could have and
:09:46. > :09:51.should have done something more then. Do you think that western
:09:52. > :09:56.leaders tried hard enough before we got to this terrible state of
:09:57. > :10:01.affairs in Syria that continues to unfold today? Of course not we have
:10:02. > :10:05.been very grateful to have all the political support from Britain and
:10:06. > :10:11.France and the United States, that goes without saying, but this
:10:12. > :10:15.political support was married with inaction which the Assad regime
:10:16. > :10:19.correctly interpreted as a green light to keep on doing what it has
:10:20. > :10:26.been doing. Which is a war on the civilian population. This is what we
:10:27. > :10:31.have to remember. The initial plans to arm these so called rebels, I
:10:32. > :10:35.remind you that the rebels were for the vast majority officers and
:10:36. > :10:41.soldiers who had defected from the Syrian army. It would have been a
:10:42. > :10:45.lot easier to make sure that they were a cohesive unit, that they had
:10:46. > :10:50.their uniforms and training and that they had salaries to form a true
:10:51. > :10:55.army to go and fight the Assad regime. I remind you today that the
:10:56. > :10:59.Free Syrian Army, without the actual help from any of the western
:11:00. > :11:05.Governments is fighting, not only the Assad regime but the extremist
:11:06. > :11:09.groups of ISIS and Al-Qaeda. We have had this even without any actual
:11:10. > :11:13.weapons or training, imagine what could have been done and how many
:11:14. > :11:21.lives would have been saved. What kind of difference would 100,000
:11:22. > :11:26.trained troops have made? You Alone they wouldn't have made a difference
:11:27. > :11:30.without the weaponry. We have to be realistic and look at the situation
:11:31. > :11:34.on the ground today. The Assad regime continues to bomb every day,
:11:35. > :11:39.with barrel bombs and air strikes, it is impossible to achieve anything
:11:40. > :11:43.on the ground in Syria without the appropriate weapons to neutralise
:11:44. > :11:47.the air force of the Assad regime. This is one thing that has to be
:11:48. > :11:49.clear. Of course the training of the rebels alone wouldn't have been
:11:50. > :11:54.enough. What the Syrian opposition has been asking for, repeatedly, for
:11:55. > :12:00.the past three years the right to defend itself and defend the people
:12:01. > :12:04.of Syria. Weir' not asking for... . You worked very hard as a minister
:12:05. > :12:09.on this, you travelled around the world trying to knit together some
:12:10. > :12:12.kind of action. As you see now insurgency from Syria spilling over
:12:13. > :12:20.in a terrible way to Iraq, is it matter of regret to you that we did
:12:21. > :12:24.not do much more then? If it was a plan to intervene three years ago,
:12:25. > :12:27.you would have had me in the studio night after night asking why is
:12:28. > :12:32.Britain intervening, now it is clear. Nonintervention is as much a
:12:33. > :12:38.decision as intervention. We can see the consequences. What we now have
:12:39. > :12:44.to do is find those moderate FSA fighters, they are fight ISIS as
:12:45. > :12:50.well Ascarate sad. We should give -- as Assad. But it is a long way from
:12:51. > :12:55.the sort of intervention that we led the programme with.
:12:56. > :12:58.The rapid and brutal advances of Sunni insurgents in Iraq took the
:12:59. > :13:03.Government there by surprise. ISIS, who have now declared an Islamic
:13:04. > :13:07.state in the areas they have seized appeared not just suddenly, but well
:13:08. > :13:12.armed and well organised. Tonight we can reveal just how well prepared
:13:13. > :13:17.they were, with a network of safe houses, precisely designed plans for
:13:18. > :13:23.their attacks, and how they intend to proceed to Baghdad. We have been
:13:24. > :13:31.speaking to a former Jihadist who has been advising the Government.
:13:32. > :13:35.Today the Iraqi Government said there were up to 2,500 members of
:13:36. > :13:39.what they called sleeper cells, ISIS militants already in and around the
:13:40. > :13:44.capital, waiting for the word from their leader to begin an assault on
:13:45. > :13:48.Baghdad. Thatalies with some of what our colleagues in the north in
:13:49. > :13:55.Kurdistan have been hearing from Kurdish intelligence, italies with
:13:56. > :13:59.what I have been hearing -- tallies with an interview I had a little
:14:00. > :14:02.later. That is part of ISIS's tactic, to spread fear and
:14:03. > :14:08.confusion, the Government says it has arrested some of the cells, we
:14:09. > :14:11.have also heard reports of Shia militia allied to the Government and
:14:12. > :14:19.going around and arresting them and some of whom disappear. Very little
:14:20. > :14:23.is known about Abu Baka Baghdadi, the man who leads ISIS. I met a man
:14:24. > :14:27.who can give insight, a senior adviser to the Government, a former
:14:28. > :14:33.militant himself, who has given up the path of Jihad. He has been given
:14:34. > :14:38.access to some very high-level Iraqi intelligence on ISIS, he has been
:14:39. > :14:42.sharing his I re insights. In Baghdad they are waiting for what
:14:43. > :14:47.they call zero hour, when ISIS sleeper cells will try to take
:14:48. > :14:53.control of the city. The group's leader is known as "the invisible
:14:54. > :14:58.Sheikh". Only two confirmed photographs of him exist. We have
:14:59. > :15:01.spoken to man who says they knew him when they were both religious
:15:02. > :15:56.scolars in the 1990s. ISIS has enjoyed a spectacular and
:15:57. > :15:59.rapid rise to dominance. As it swept through the city of Mosul last
:16:00. > :16:04.month, the army simply through the city of Mosul last
:16:05. > :16:09.Just days before they were driven out of the city, Iraqi security
:16:10. > :16:14.forces unearthed some crucial out of the city, Iraqi security
:16:15. > :16:14.information. During a raid on a safe house they seized a number of
:16:15. > :16:17.computer memory sticks containing house they seized a number of
:16:18. > :16:19.treasure trove of information on the house they seized a number of
:16:20. > :16:26.group's organisation and assets. There has been a study of the data
:16:27. > :16:45.and a meticulous inventory of weapons and fighters.
:16:46. > :16:57.You have seen the contents of these memory sticks, what was the most
:16:58. > :18:04.valuable information? The leader of ISIS now has his sites
:18:05. > :18:08.on the capital. It is estimated ISIS has put in place hundreds of sleeper
:18:09. > :18:12.cells in the belt around Baghdad, with more inside the city itself.
:18:13. > :18:42.They are waiting for a sign, he says, "zero hour".
:18:43. > :18:53.Just like they did in Mosul? Yes. With revenue streams from smuggled
:18:54. > :18:59.antiquities, to gun running, to captured oil wells, the ISIS leader
:19:00. > :19:08.no longer has to rely on foreign money, it is morphing into a
:19:09. > :19:57.conventional army. To the horror of the English
:19:58. > :20:01.shiress, tracks will be ploughed through the English countryside to
:20:02. > :20:06.knock 20 minutes or so off the journey from London to Birmingham.
:20:07. > :20:10.And in an attempt to spread the wealth from the south to the rest of
:20:11. > :20:14.the country. On top of the enormous price tag, the boss of the project
:20:15. > :20:21.told Newsnight he's asking the Government for permission to pay his
:20:22. > :20:26.top executives top dollar too. Expensive, late, overcrowded, the
:20:27. > :20:31.complaints are familiar. Even though three million of us use a train
:20:32. > :20:35.every single day. There have been shiny upgrades to station, attempts
:20:36. > :20:44.to deal with demand, but as more of us want to travel this way, space is
:20:45. > :20:48.running out. HS2 is meant to be the big solution, but protests,
:20:49. > :20:53.petitions and a ?50 billion price tag stand in its way. MPs have
:20:54. > :20:56.signed off the superfast link between London and Birmingham for
:20:57. > :21:00.now. The group that wants to build it today feels confident enough to
:21:01. > :21:05.start discussing the actual design. But can it be worth it? I asked the
:21:06. > :21:11.man who has the job of making sure it is. Today you are starting a
:21:12. > :21:15.discussion about the design, but are you confident that in 100 years time
:21:16. > :21:19.people will be looking at HS2 in the way we sit here and look at the
:21:20. > :21:23.grand surroundings, is there that kind of vision? We are very
:21:24. > :21:26.privileged in St Pancras, it is a masterpiece, as is King's Cross
:21:27. > :21:30.which blends old and new. What today is all about with the design panel,
:21:31. > :21:34.is having that discussion, how do we get the project to stand the test of
:21:35. > :21:40.time. That is the real challenge. The problem with that is it comes
:21:41. > :21:44.with a very hefty price tag, can you guarantee the project won't go over
:21:45. > :21:47.budget? I can't guarantee anything personally what I can do is put in
:21:48. > :21:52.place the decision-making process and the right people to make sure we
:21:53. > :21:56.make the right decisions and we can properly and adequately manage the
:21:57. > :22:00.budget. When members of the public hear it might cost as much as ?50
:22:01. > :22:03.billion and you can't guarantee it won't be more than that, there is a
:22:04. > :22:08.real fear that people are being asked to sign up to a blank cheque
:22:09. > :22:12.to a project that won't deliver for several decades? Projects take a
:22:13. > :22:16.long time. But the most important thing is to understand why you are
:22:17. > :22:20.doing it and stick to the vision. Why are you doing it? Why is it
:22:21. > :22:24.worth that price tag? It is nothing about railways, and it is nothing
:22:25. > :22:28.about trains. It is nothing about trains? It is nothing about trains,
:22:29. > :22:34.it is all about people, it is about what we are seeing is a growing
:22:35. > :22:37.disparity in wealth and jobs and opportunities between a city in
:22:38. > :22:41.London which is globally competitive and separating away from the rest of
:22:42. > :22:46.the UK. Ten million more people come into the UK in the next 20 years, a
:22:47. > :22:50.million new homes in London, it is feeding a beast. Because this is
:22:51. > :22:53.where all the best jobs are. You can't keep doing that because London
:22:54. > :22:57.will never be the London we want it to be, if that pressure cooker
:22:58. > :23:03.environment continues. So this new railway, the first one in 100 years,
:23:04. > :23:06.north of London, will then allow business and wealth to distribute
:23:07. > :23:12.across a nation. You know as well as I do the evidence on that is
:23:13. > :23:16.decidedly mixed. Some economists believe HS2 would spread health
:23:17. > :23:21.around the country, some believe the opposite. It would suck it all into
:23:22. > :23:26.London? It will do both, make motoring of the north accessible for
:23:27. > :23:35.commuters, there is no doubt about it, but it will also facilitate
:23:36. > :23:40.businesses moving north. Do you ever get up of grumpy bits being a bit
:23:41. > :23:45.glass half empty about this? No, I believe we constantly have to make
:23:46. > :23:48.the case. The Olympics were seen as overbudget, irrelevant and a
:23:49. > :23:52.complete waste of public money. And right up to a few weeks before the
:23:53. > :23:56.games. And the first three or four years constant criticism in the
:23:57. > :23:59.press. In the end everyone was very proud of what the UK could do. Do
:24:00. > :24:04.you get fed up with politicians appearing to be a bit uncertain
:24:05. > :24:08.about backing HS2, they appear to be rather fond of, not quite changing
:24:09. > :24:13.their mind, but blowing hot and cold? We have to win both public
:24:14. > :24:18.acceptance and acceptance of both parties. I have been consistently
:24:19. > :24:21.saying we don't work for one particular party we are here to
:24:22. > :24:27.convince parliament. How much would you pay to get the right people on
:24:28. > :24:31.the project? The worst money you can save is skimping on hiring the best
:24:32. > :24:36.people. I'm determined we hire the west people. We can't pay over the
:24:37. > :24:41.odds we can't even pay what the private sector can pay, there is
:24:42. > :24:43.some attraction in working on the biggest infrastructure in the
:24:44. > :24:48.country. We have to have the flexibility to hire the right people
:24:49. > :24:52.now, rather than when it gets into trouble in years to come. As a
:24:53. > :24:55.public sector project you will have to ask permission from the
:24:56. > :25:00.Government to employ people from those kinds of salaries? That is
:25:01. > :25:04.right. We are hiring project people who will be held accountable for
:25:05. > :25:11.their performance, Thesee don't per-- if they don't perform they
:25:12. > :25:16.will go. They will not be on long-term tenure, if they survive it
:25:17. > :25:20.will be on performance. How much are you going to pay them? You are
:25:21. > :25:25.talking at senior level people above the Prime Minister's salary. In the
:25:26. > :25:30.next six months we neat 20-30 of these at least to do a project of
:25:31. > :25:34.this size. Just out of interest, you commute on the train every day as I
:25:35. > :25:37.understand it, do you get much work done on the train? I come in on
:25:38. > :25:42.western line, I think what was recorded as the most coned train in
:25:43. > :25:48.the UK. Why is that? That is because CrossRail is 20 years late. That is
:25:49. > :25:52.because at the crucial times people blinked and decided it wasn't value
:25:53. > :25:57.for money and we are desperately trying to deliver it. Every time we
:25:58. > :26:05.go on the central line and get hot and bothered it reminds us to make
:26:06. > :26:08.the decisions at the right time. Even the biggest companies in the
:26:09. > :26:12.world don't have the power to protect themselves of scandal. Not
:26:13. > :26:22.least when they are accused by one of the biggest companies countries
:26:23. > :26:25.in the world. GlaxoSmithKline are finding themselves in a lot of
:26:26. > :26:30.trouble after allegations were laid at the door of the Chinese arm. We
:26:31. > :26:41.have uncovered some of the trail of e-mails that has put GSK under such
:26:42. > :26:46.pressure. GlaxoSmithKline is one of Britain's
:26:47. > :26:49.biggest companies, and a major pharmaceutical player worldwide. In
:26:50. > :26:53.January last year executives in London began receiving a series of
:26:54. > :26:59.anonymous e-mail about its Chinese operations. Now its China boss faces
:27:00. > :27:04.the threat of prison and a sex tape scandal and London faces questions
:27:05. > :27:13.about GSK's very survival in the Chinese market.
:27:14. > :27:19.The e-mails were sent from someone called "GSK whistleblower", this
:27:20. > :27:21.person alleges in hospitals across China GSK bribed doctors and
:27:22. > :27:27.managers to buy their drugs, and to buy them at inflated prices. They
:27:28. > :27:33.alleged that GSK used travel agents to pay bribes. Chinese police
:27:34. > :27:40.believe they may total ?300 million. It seems the whistleblower had the
:27:41. > :27:46.ear of the Chinese authorities. The British chief of the GSK's China
:27:47. > :27:49.operation, Mark Rielly has been detained, along with several
:27:50. > :27:52.colleagues. Their fate unknown. British companies are subject to the
:27:53. > :27:57.bribingry act and Chinese legislation. As I mentioned foreign
:27:58. > :28:02.companies don't benefit from cover, they don't benefit from connections,
:28:03. > :28:09.they rarely, if ever will have that sort of thing to protect them. They
:28:10. > :28:14.are exposed. GIENDing the identity of the -- finding the identity of
:28:15. > :28:19.the GSK whistleblower became a priority for GSK. We managed to get
:28:20. > :28:24.hold of some of the e-mails. It appears to be a person with a solid
:28:25. > :28:28.grasp of English and the GSK operation. They are striking in
:28:29. > :28:32.their detail. The e-mails alleged that GSK China was running a
:28:33. > :28:36.pevasive cash advance bribery scheme, they said the sales
:28:37. > :28:39.personnel identified key decision makers, they attempt to build a
:28:40. > :28:44.relationship with that decision maker, first taking the person to
:28:45. > :28:48.expensive lunches and dinners, and then giving them nice gifts. When
:28:49. > :28:52.the relationship has been established and both sides trust
:28:53. > :28:59.each other the cells' employees will start to give doctors cash to win
:29:00. > :29:05.business. Payment, it is alleged can come in other forms, foreign
:29:06. > :29:08.holidays disguised as conferences. But perhaps the most damning
:29:09. > :29:17.allegation in all of these e-mails is one sent on January 16th 2013.
:29:18. > :29:26.Bribery, in some form, is involved in almost every sale that GSK makes
:29:27. > :29:57.in chine. -- China. In response we have this statement from GSK:
:29:58. > :30:06.In April 2013 GSK China hired a local private investigator, a former
:30:07. > :30:11.Reuters journalist, called Peter Humphrey, to try to find the
:30:12. > :30:15.whistleblower. Glaxo briefed Humphrey that they suspected it was
:30:16. > :30:21.a former Glaxo executive who had left the company in 2012. Humphrey
:30:22. > :30:25.suspected her too and focussed his inquiries on her but found no hard
:30:26. > :30:31.evidence. All our attempts to contact her have failed. But she has
:30:32. > :30:38.denied being the whistleblower. Within days of Humphrey delivering
:30:39. > :30:44.his report on Shu, he and his wife were arrested. They were put on
:30:45. > :30:50.Chinese state television, their faces blurred and Peter made what
:30:51. > :30:56.was purportedly a confession. They are to have be charged on charges of
:30:57. > :31:02.breaking privacy. I think both are held in small cell, about the size
:31:03. > :31:08.of the kitchen over there. And each cell consists of seven to eight
:31:09. > :31:12.inmates. Through the consulate. Peter's son Harvey hasn't seen his
:31:13. > :31:16.parents for a year. He his they have been left high and dry and in the
:31:17. > :31:21.meantime his father, especially, is suffering.
:31:22. > :31:26.Both mental and physical health have taken a huge downturn. But now he
:31:27. > :31:32.has been kept in such a cramped condition for so long his arthritis
:31:33. > :31:37.has gotten a lot worse and he's suffering from major mental
:31:38. > :31:43.condition such as memory loss, sleep deprivation. Peter Humphrey's office
:31:44. > :31:48.in Shanghai has been closed down. We managed to locate an e-mail, which
:31:49. > :31:52.he wrote after he had finally seen the GcmK whistleblower e-mails with
:31:53. > :31:57.his own eyes. What he had been told was a smear campaign he now believes
:31:58. > :32:15.it was the truth. But nothing yet has been proved. And
:32:16. > :32:21.GSK does seem to be the target of attempts to discredit the company.
:32:22. > :32:26.This flat belongs to Mark Rielly, someone hit a camera in his bedroom,
:32:27. > :32:31.filming him and his partner having sex and then sent the film to
:32:32. > :32:36.company HQ in London. But it is the corruption allegations that will
:32:37. > :32:40.most trouble the board in the UK. Some reports suggest GSK's license
:32:41. > :32:45.to operate in China may be under threat. GSK's chief executive faces
:32:46. > :32:52.something of a crisis in the country. Prosecutors are preparing a
:32:53. > :32:58.case against Mark Rielly and other senior executives, they could face
:32:59. > :33:07.years in prison, here in London the Serious Fraud Office has opened up
:33:08. > :33:10.an investigation into GSK and in Washington the state department is
:33:11. > :33:16.asking questions. The company is in trouble, China is one of the
:33:17. > :33:22.fastest-growing markets for pharmaceuticals, but for GSK China
:33:23. > :33:30.is the biggest headache. Not cop tent with cycling smiles and smiles
:33:31. > :33:36.throughout the alps, with lycra burn and God knows what else. The
:33:37. > :33:41.competitors in the Tour de France decided this year going up and down
:33:42. > :33:45.the Yorkshire Dales would make it more special. The Opening Ceremony
:33:46. > :33:49.was there this evening, and Smith no stranger to cycling shorts himself,
:33:50. > :34:07.went earlier this week to have a go at the course.
:34:08. > :34:12.The excitement is amazing, people are getting into it. Every single
:34:13. > :34:19.house on the roof had a bike stuck to the fends and ban -- fence and
:34:20. > :34:25.banners everywhere. And pork pies in the shape of Bradley Wiggins side
:34:26. > :34:32.burns. I would love to try one of those. Everyone is getting in the
:34:33. > :34:38.mood for the Tour de France Yorkshire, or bikes and tights for
:34:39. > :34:44.short. It is a great national event of France coming to Yorkshire, one
:34:45. > :34:47.noted for its cuisine and people who can be a bit chauvinist, and the
:34:48. > :34:50.other is France. We have only just met, this is Indian Wells mit, but
:34:51. > :34:59.have you got it on the right way around? Yeah, yeah. What is it
:35:00. > :35:04.exactly? My bib and shorts, fastening everything together. I
:35:05. > :35:06.couldn't help but notice you applying something to legs? It is
:35:07. > :35:12.lubrication to loosen the legs applying something to legs? It is
:35:13. > :35:16.before the start. What has happened to cycling in the past few years,
:35:17. > :35:20.are we right in I think it has enjoyed something of a boom? Yeah,
:35:21. > :35:32.it is exploding I would say. We started at our club two years ago
:35:33. > :35:37.and it has grown to 170 mens members in two years. It is great. My young
:35:38. > :35:42.lad has started racing and a bike of ?300 has got him into racing and
:35:43. > :35:46.last him two or three years. Maybe not ?4. # 9 for a football, but it
:35:47. > :35:52.is not the most expensive sport in the world. We have been on the
:35:53. > :35:59.lookout for like where widows whose husbands spent their weekends packed
:36:00. > :36:12.into tight clothes and cycling. Not my husband. Chance would be a fine
:36:13. > :36:19.thing? Yes! Robinson wins a stage in the Tour de France, something no
:36:20. > :36:24.British rider has done before. It is almost 60 years since Bryan Robinson
:36:25. > :36:28.became the first Brit to finish the tour. Now 83 he still gets on his
:36:29. > :36:32.bike. Nowadays he fires up an electric motor for the steep bits
:36:33. > :36:38.around his home outside Huddersfield. It isn't a poor man's
:36:39. > :36:42.sport any longer. When I came into it you bought a secondhand bike or
:36:43. > :36:45.you managed to get a new frame and put the secondhand bits on it. You
:36:46. > :36:51.just had the one bike really. And when you went to race you took the
:36:52. > :36:56.mud guards off, raced and put them back on again and came home. It is a
:36:57. > :37:00.lot different. Going to my grandson's garage now and he has a
:37:01. > :37:08.bike for this day and that day, he's amazing, and clothing galore. And
:37:09. > :37:15.that clothing is worth millions. This is called a Shammy! Not only
:37:16. > :37:20.the one-piece racers with intergrel cod piece, but also this cunningly
:37:21. > :37:30.adapted work jacket for the cyclist on his way to the meeting. Is this
:37:31. > :37:37.firm catering to the called "mammals", middle-aged men in lycra.
:37:38. > :37:42.There is a new group of people coming to the sport. It is viewed in
:37:43. > :37:46.isolation, it is a little bit reductive, because cycling in the UK
:37:47. > :37:51.has a history going back 150 years, it started as a mode of
:37:52. > :37:56.transportation that was then popularised. It just feels like we
:37:57. > :38:01.have had since the early 1990s almost a re-focus on the athletic
:38:02. > :38:07.side of the sport. Writer Tim kitted out like an old time continental
:38:08. > :38:16.racer, and bottles for water and red wine. Hello, handsome beast, talking
:38:17. > :38:21.about the bike of course! Underneath the wool jersey he's all mammal! It
:38:22. > :38:24.could be a lot worse, in terms of mid-life crisis, the more
:38:25. > :38:27.traditional demonstration of it mid-life crisis, the more
:38:28. > :38:32.would not be good for your health and look more silly. You mean a red
:38:33. > :38:41.sports car and younger wife and that kind of thing? Very much, dying the
:38:42. > :38:46.hair and adopting idiotic fashion, as opposed to this. On the eve of
:38:47. > :38:51.the tour coming to Yorkshire, it is a departure for the old race and for
:38:52. > :38:58.onlookers of a certain age, a big moment in their life cycle.
:38:59. > :39:09.We have a guest presenter of the Cycle Show, otherwise known as Lady
:39:10. > :39:15.Velo, and Daniel Nolls has talked about the psychology behind it. We
:39:16. > :39:19.are seeing a boom or a buzz around cycling. What is it really all
:39:20. > :39:25.about. Has it got a bit of an image problem if it is all middle-aged
:39:26. > :39:28.lycra house? There is a real thing in British cycling, and there has
:39:29. > :39:35.been a growth in the number of people cycling. But if you dig down
:39:36. > :39:40.deep into it you have middle-aged white men well off. If you look at
:39:41. > :39:45.where people cycle it is where they live, Cambridge, Hackney, that,
:39:46. > :39:50.yeah, that I think adds to a sort of image problem. Is it a problem
:39:51. > :39:56.because some people, myself cycling in London, you sometimes see people
:39:57. > :40:01.behaving pretty badly. Boarish people cutting people up, scaring
:40:02. > :40:05.grannies on pavements, has the culture become too aggressive? You
:40:06. > :40:14.see a lot of people in the morning. I cycle to work, you see 20-minute
:40:15. > :40:20.cycle work in full lycra gear, cycling shoes on. Every traffic is a
:40:21. > :40:26.pitstop to charge away. It is unsettling for people who just want
:40:27. > :40:31.to cycle to work. Is that fair, you are fond of your bike? I am fond of
:40:32. > :40:34.my bike, I don't think that is a fair representation of the cycling
:40:35. > :40:42.demographic and culture in Britain at all. I appreciate what you are
:40:43. > :40:47.saying about called "mamales" middle-aged men in lycra, and they
:40:48. > :40:53.might be the ones cycling, I would be the antithesis of that with the
:40:54. > :40:58.cycling that I do. But on the other side I have a road bike so I'm
:40:59. > :41:01.getting into road cycling. It is such a complex mix, it is such a
:41:02. > :41:05.diverse mix of cyclists within Britain, there is so many different
:41:06. > :41:15.scenes as well, I appreciate what you are saying about it being
:41:16. > :41:17.aggressive. I think is this a cycling scene, people say the
:41:18. > :41:21.cyclist. The scene, it is a fashion
:41:22. > :41:25.statement? In a lot of countries we ought to emulate, Holland and
:41:26. > :41:29.Denmark, places where a lot of people cycling, cycling isn't
:41:30. > :41:34.something that you are, it is just what you do. You wouldn't say that
:41:35. > :41:39.you are a trained commuter if you get the train to work. We have this
:41:40. > :41:43.thing with cycling. I'm all for recreational cycling but it clouds
:41:44. > :41:48.out the getting around aspect of thing. If there is a cycling scene,
:41:49. > :41:53.whether there is a East London or whether it is Charlton in Manchester
:41:54. > :42:00.or Cambridge. It is about something else, it is about making a personal
:42:01. > :42:08.statement, not just getting from A-to-B, is it not just weird? Not at
:42:09. > :42:11.all, I don't seem to think there has to be different sets and scenes,
:42:12. > :42:18.then it is devisive and talking about it in that sense, you are the
:42:19. > :42:25.roady or the MTB or computer. What is an MTB? The mountain bike! We all
:42:26. > :42:31.learned something here. It should be inclusive and we should encourage
:42:32. > :42:37.people to cycle and embrace it. My personal opinion is cycling is
:42:38. > :42:41.growing in Britain. And the Olympic legacy will have motivated people
:42:42. > :42:47.and it is aspirational seeing that. Is it being captured by the
:42:48. > :42:56.middle-aged man spending more than ?1,000 on a bike. It is like golf,
:42:57. > :42:59.if you want to buy a bicycle in some countries it is hard to get hold of
:43:00. > :43:03.a decent second hand one. There are places we have a cycling culture
:43:04. > :43:08.that work, Cambridge is one of these places. A lot of the country it is
:43:09. > :43:13.this niche thing and expensive. Why say it is difficult to get a hold of
:43:14. > :43:23.a decent secondhand bike, or there are safes available to you even if
:43:24. > :43:28.you wanted to get a decent bike. Will you cycle home? I am actually!
:43:29. > :43:32.Thank you both very much indeed. Time for a look at the papers, the
:43:33. > :43:54.front page of the Telegraph tomorrow:
:43:55. > :44:04.That's it for the front pages. Finally, 50 years ago some BEEP-er
:44:05. > :44:09.decided they had the God given right to BEEP everything up for people
:44:10. > :44:15.like me who just wanted to make decent, interesting -- TV, they were
:44:16. > :44:22.worried about upsetting the kids at home little BEEP-eres, so they came
:44:23. > :44:32.up with the ideas of the watershed, before 9.00 you got super BEEP like
:44:33. > :44:37.quiz shows swearing no sex. After 9.00 you can get BEEP more, we are
:44:38. > :44:41.well after the watershed, before you complain. Here is a pile of the good
:44:42. > :44:51.stuff the TV police didn't want you to see. It is by today's standards
:44:52. > :44:59.weak, so don't be BEEP-ing offended. We saw a programme at 6. 35 and it
:45:00. > :45:04.was the dirtiest programme. You dirty Fukofuka-er. What a BEEP-er
:45:05. > :45:29.rotter. It was the hottest day of the year
:45:30. > :45:34.so far in the south-east corner, it looks as if we could see a similar
:45:35. > :45:39.story for Friday, sunshine and different story for the west. Cloud,
:45:40. > :45:47.rain and wind gathers, and some of that rain tense as it pushings in
:45:48. > :45:51.across the western side of Scotland. 16 or 17 degrees the high, it will
:45:52. > :45:56.feel disappointing, heavier pulses of rain across the Lake District as
:45:57. > :45:59.well, clouding over the north of England into the Midland. East
:46:00. > :46:05.Anglia, much of the south-east corner could see temperatures into
:46:06. > :46:10.the high 20s, that is the low 80s Fahrenheit. A promising day. As we
:46:11. > :46:13.push to the west of the Isle of Wight, across to Devon, the cloud,
:46:14. > :46:14.rain and wind remain a