03/07/2014 Newsnight

Tonight, a secret British plan to intervene in Syria. Newsnight can

reveal how the British military plan to train and arm 100,000 rebels. We

ask the Foreign Office minister at the time if the west missed a chance

to defeat Assad? A former Jihadi tells us about cells

of insurgents already in Baghdad, waiting to take the city.

I have been speaking to a man who knew the secretive leader of ISIS,

for on insight into how the group operates.

The man in charge of HS 2 sell Uso -- tells us why he and his

executives should be paid for than the Prime Minister.

Steve Smith has been to Yorkshire for a Tour de France excursion. We

have only just met, have you got it the right way round, what is it? My

bib shorts. Good evening, Britain did have a plan to intervene in

Syria. And a highly-developed ambitious one along with its allies.

Training a Syrian rebel army to defeat Assad. More than just an

exercise in what might have been, the blueprint for action was

designed at the highest levels of the military, and considered by

David Cameron and in Washington. Our investigations correspondent has

an exclusive report and contains some graphic reminders of the

horrors that have unfolded in Syria since 2011.

There were never going to be easy solutions to Syria. So much blood

has been spilt, and so many lives lost. In a region where the

credibility of the west has been shattered since the Iraq War. So it

wasn't difficult to see where the west chose to sit this one out. The

British military seemed reluctant to get involved. Or so it seemed.

Senior defence sources have told Newsnight that Britain did, in fact,

have a secret plan for intervening in Syria. It was the brainchild of

General David Richard, Britain's most senior officers, who told

Downing Street there were only two ways of ending the bloodshed

quickly. The first was to let Assad win, the second was to defeat him.

To defeat him he recommended and equipping a substantial army of

Syrian rebels. The plan was not without risk, but doing nothing, he

argued, was the worst of all options.

The plan was called Extract Equip Train. 100,000 Syrian rebels would

be vetted, recruited and taken out of the country, probably to Jordan

and Turkey, for training by western countries, including the UK and gulf

allies. Once the army was ready, after around 12 months, it would

march on Damascus, the army would do so under western and gulf air power,

a shock and awe attack that would allow the Syrians themselves to

defeat Assad. Amid Kate I don'ts and carnage, this offered a middle

ground between an insurgency, and the politically impossible notion of

putting western boots on the ground. A veteran of many conflict, and

regarded as an arch pragmatist, General Richards had a team of

defence analysts fleshing out his ideas. Newsnight was told the idea

was considered by David Cameron and also by counterparts in Washington,

including General Martin Demsey, America's most senior officer. Over

here the Attorney General was asked to consider the legalities, and the

plan was sent to the National Security Council, but not formally

discussed. Ultimately Downing Street decided not to support the idea.

There was a sense of exhaustion that we don't want to get involved in yet

another Middle East conflict coming out of Iraq and Afghanistan, this

was not the right time. There is an increasing scepticism in Downing

Street to take military advice. There has been a difference between

the military and the politician, I have never seen them as far apart as

they now seem to be. They don't disagree with each other but they

are on different plains in many cases. But if the Richards plan

sounds like an extract from the "what if" manual of

sounds like an extract from the history, think again, two years on

and the arguments are turning full circle. Direct western involvement

suddenly seems a possibility. Last week Barack Obama asked Congress to

authorise a half billion dollar programme to train an army of

hand-picked rebels. As newts night -- Newsnight discovered recently,

the President too has been on a journey. I did advocate for limited

but focussed action in Syria to try to vet, train and equip moderate

opponents of Assad. And you were overruled by the President? I was

overruled, in part because of the lessons from Iraq. I think President

Obama's present plan has echos of what was talked about in 2012, the

difference was in 2012 the conditions were more favourable to

something like this having a useful influence, if not working

completely. Now the plan is probably too little too late and is being

enacted in a situation getting worse not better. Western policy makers in

a sense have to have the courage to do nothing and to work on what comes

after that Civil War. Evidence of chemical weapons attacks in Syria

last year, finally persuaded David Cameron to seek Commons authority

for military action. He lost. Yesterday saw the final phase of an

operation to destroy Syria's chemical weapons. The handover has

been a rare success for the international community. Syria

remains in chaos. There is deep regret among some Syrian opposition

leader who wish the west had intervened long ago and are still

urging greater support. The international community did not

intervene to prevent those crimes, at the same time also did not

actively support the moderate elements on the ground. The huge

opportunity was missed and that opportunity could have saved tens of

thousands of lives actually, and could have saved also a huge

humanitarian catastrophe. In Iraq and Afghanistan, the west intervened

aggressively and came to regret it. In Syria, it is done doing very

little, the question remain, is that a lesson learned or an opportunity

lost. Alastair Burke was the Foreign

Office minister with responsibility for the Middle East between 2010 and

2013, and in Vienna is the adviser to the moderate opposition to

President Assad in Syria. Now we have only just been able to report

the existence of this plan this evening, but would it have been a

good idea to do something on such a grand scale, training and arming up

to 100,000 rebels? I'm not in a position to comment on the report,

but I think the report you have just had accurately describes the

difficulties of intervention or nonintervention. I think the scale

of what you have been reporting would undoubtedly have given the

Prime Minister cause for real pause. This was two or three years ago, the

atmosphere about Iraq and Afghanistan was even more vibrant

than it turned out to be in the vote in August last year, where even

after a chemical take parliament was not prepared to authorise support

for direct action. The arguments against intervention, well I know

they were quite strong at the beginning of the revolt in Syria.

Because it did not seem like the right thing to do, where as the

right thing to do was to support those moderates who were trying to

do the job themselves. Interesting, none the less, that although these

details are new, that the military was at least making suggestions,

looking at options of something on a much grander scale? Good, you would

expect the military to be involved, to think through what options should

a British Prime Minister have, and that should comprise all the options

from doing nothing to considering whatever action might be appropriate

and need to do a particular job. But in every case, and certainly we

learned from both Iraq and Afghanistan, getting in is far

easier than getting out. I would imagine had the Prime Minister even

considered taking that plan to the public and to parliament it would

have been very difficult to convince them. Now, of course, in hindsight,

the arguments that are being made about could something have been done

earlier are very stark. Because we have learned the price of

nonintervention, and even more so because of the decision last August

when it was much more clear what was happening and we could have and

should have done something more then. Do you think that western

leaders tried hard enough before we got to this terrible state of

affairs in Syria that continues to unfold today? Of course not we have

been very grateful to have all the political support from Britain and

France and the United States, that goes without saying, but this

political support was married with inaction which the Assad regime

correctly interpreted as a green light to keep on doing what it has

been doing. Which is a war on the civilian population. This is what we

have to remember. The initial plans to arm these so called rebels, I

remind you that the rebels were for the vast majority officers and

soldiers who had defected from the Syrian army. It would have been a

lot easier to make sure that they were a cohesive unit, that they had

their uniforms and training and that they had salaries to form a true

army to go and fight the Assad regime. I remind you today that the

Free Syrian Army, without the actual help from any of the western

Governments is fighting, not only the Assad regime but the extremist

groups of ISIS and Al-Qaeda. We have had this even without any actual

weapons or training, imagine what could have been done and how many

lives would have been saved. What kind of difference would 100,000

trained troops have made? You Alone they wouldn't have made a difference

without the weaponry. We have to be realistic and look at the situation

on the ground today. The Assad regime continues to bomb every day,

with barrel bombs and air strikes, it is impossible to achieve anything

on the ground in Syria without the appropriate weapons to neutralise

the air force of the Assad regime. This is one thing that has to be

clear. Of course the training of the rebels alone wouldn't have been

enough. What the Syrian opposition has been asking for, repeatedly, for

the past three years the right to defend itself and defend the people

of Syria. Weir' not asking for... . You worked very hard as a minister

on this, you travelled around the world trying to knit together some

kind of action. As you see now insurgency from Syria spilling over

in a terrible way to Iraq, is it matter of regret to you that we did

not do much more then? If it was a plan to intervene three years ago,

you would have had me in the studio night after night asking why is

Britain intervening, now it is clear. Nonintervention is as much a

decision as intervention. We can see the consequences. What we now have

to do is find those moderate FSA fighters, they are fight ISIS as

well Ascarate sad. We should give -- as Assad. But it is a long way from

the sort of intervention that we led the programme with.

The rapid and brutal advances of Sunni insurgents in Iraq took the

Government there by surprise. ISIS, who have now declared an Islamic

state in the areas they have seized appeared not just suddenly, but well

armed and well organised. Tonight we can reveal just how well prepared

they were, with a network of safe houses, precisely designed plans for

their attacks, and how they intend to proceed to Baghdad. We have been

speaking to a former Jihadist who has been advising the Government.

Today the Iraqi Government said there were up to 2,500 members of

what they called sleeper cells, ISIS militants already in and around the

capital, waiting for the word from their leader to begin an assault on

Baghdad. Thatalies with some of what our colleagues in the north in

Kurdistan have been hearing from Kurdish intelligence, italies with

what I have been hearing -- tallies with an interview I had a little

later. That is part of ISIS's tactic, to spread fear and

confusion, the Government says it has arrested some of the cells, we

have also heard reports of Shia militia allied to the Government and

going around and arresting them and some of whom disappear. Very little

is known about Abu Baka Baghdadi, the man who leads ISIS. I met a man

who can give insight, a senior adviser to the Government, a former

militant himself, who has given up the path of Jihad. He has been given

access to some very high-level Iraqi intelligence on ISIS, he has been

sharing his I re insights. In Baghdad they are waiting for what

they call zero hour, when ISIS sleeper cells will try to take

control of the city. The group's leader is known as "the invisible

Sheikh". Only two confirmed photographs of him exist. We have

spoken to man who says they knew him when they were both religious

scolars in the 1990s. ISIS has enjoyed a spectacular and

rapid rise to dominance. As it swept through the city of Mosul last

month, the army simply through the city of Mosul last

Just days before they were driven out of the city, Iraqi security

forces unearthed some crucial out of the city, Iraqi security

information. During a raid on a safe house they seized a number of

computer memory sticks containing house they seized a number of

treasure trove of information on the house they seized a number of

group's organisation and assets. There has been a study of the data

and a meticulous inventory of weapons and fighters.

You have seen the contents of these memory sticks, what was the most

valuable information? The leader of ISIS now has his sites

on the capital. It is estimated ISIS has put in place hundreds of sleeper

cells in the belt around Baghdad, with more inside the city itself.

They are waiting for a sign, he says, "zero hour".

Just like they did in Mosul? Yes. With revenue streams from smuggled

antiquities, to gun running, to captured oil wells, the ISIS leader

no longer has to rely on foreign money, it is morphing into a

conventional army. To the horror of the English

shiress, tracks will be ploughed through the English countryside to

knock 20 minutes or so off the journey from London to Birmingham.

And in an attempt to spread the wealth from the south to the rest of

the country. On top of the enormous price tag, the boss of the project

told Newsnight he's asking the Government for permission to pay his

top executives top dollar too. Expensive, late, overcrowded, the

complaints are familiar. Even though three million of us use a train

every single day. There have been shiny upgrades to station, attempts

to deal with demand, but as more of us want to travel this way, space is

running out. HS2 is meant to be the big solution, but protests,

petitions and a ?50 billion price tag stand in its way. MPs have

signed off the superfast link between London and Birmingham for

now. The group that wants to build it today feels confident enough to

start discussing the actual design. But can it be worth it? I asked the

man who has the job of making sure it is. Today you are starting a

discussion about the design, but are you confident that in 100 years time

people will be looking at HS2 in the way we sit here and look at the

grand surroundings, is there that kind of vision? We are very

privileged in St Pancras, it is a masterpiece, as is King's Cross

which blends old and new. What today is all about with the design panel,

is having that discussion, how do we get the project to stand the test of

time. That is the real challenge. The problem with that is it comes

with a very hefty price tag, can you guarantee the project won't go over

budget? I can't guarantee anything personally what I can do is put in

place the decision-making process and the right people to make sure we

make the right decisions and we can properly and adequately manage the

budget. When members of the public hear it might cost as much as ?50

billion and you can't guarantee it won't be more than that, there is a

real fear that people are being asked to sign up to a blank cheque

to a project that won't deliver for several decades? Projects take a

long time. But the most important thing is to understand why you are

doing it and stick to the vision. Why are you doing it? Why is it

worth that price tag? It is nothing about railways, and it is nothing

about trains. It is nothing about trains? It is nothing about trains,

it is all about people, it is about what we are seeing is a growing

disparity in wealth and jobs and opportunities between a city in

London which is globally competitive and separating away from the rest of

the UK. Ten million more people come into the UK in the next 20 years, a

million new homes in London, it is feeding a beast. Because this is

where all the best jobs are. You can't keep doing that because London

will never be the London we want it to be, if that pressure cooker

environment continues. So this new railway, the first one in 100 years,

north of London, will then allow business and wealth to distribute

across a nation. You know as well as I do the evidence on that is

decidedly mixed. Some economists believe HS2 would spread health

around the country, some believe the opposite. It would suck it all into

London? It will do both, make motoring of the north accessible for

commuters, there is no doubt about it, but it will also facilitate

businesses moving north. Do you ever get up of grumpy bits being a bit

glass half empty about this? No, I believe we constantly have to make

the case. The Olympics were seen as overbudget, irrelevant and a

complete waste of public money. And right up to a few weeks before the

games. And the first three or four years constant criticism in the

press. In the end everyone was very proud of what the UK could do. Do

you get fed up with politicians appearing to be a bit uncertain

about backing HS2, they appear to be rather fond of, not quite changing

their mind, but blowing hot and cold? We have to win both public

acceptance and acceptance of both parties. I have been consistently

saying we don't work for one particular party we are here to

convince parliament. How much would you pay to get the right people on

the project? The worst money you can save is skimping on hiring the best

people. I'm determined we hire the west people. We can't pay over the

odds we can't even pay what the private sector can pay, there is

some attraction in working on the biggest infrastructure in the

country. We have to have the flexibility to hire the right people

now, rather than when it gets into trouble in years to come. As a

public sector project you will have to ask permission from the

Government to employ people from those kinds of salaries? That is

right. We are hiring project people who will be held accountable for

their performance, Thesee don't per-- if they don't perform they

will go. They will not be on long-term tenure, if they survive it

will be on performance. How much are you going to pay them? You are

talking at senior level people above the Prime Minister's salary. In the

next six months we neat 20-30 of these at least to do a project of

this size. Just out of interest, you commute on the train every day as I

understand it, do you get much work done on the train? I come in on

western line, I think what was recorded as the most coned train in

the UK. Why is that? That is because CrossRail is 20 years late. That is

because at the crucial times people blinked and decided it wasn't value

for money and we are desperately trying to deliver it. Every time we

go on the central line and get hot and bothered it reminds us to make

the decisions at the right time. Even the biggest companies in the

world don't have the power to protect themselves of scandal. Not

least when they are accused by one of the biggest companies countries

in the world. GlaxoSmithKline are finding themselves in a lot of

trouble after allegations were laid at the door of the Chinese arm. We

have uncovered some of the trail of e-mails that has put GSK under such

pressure. GlaxoSmithKline is one of Britain's

biggest companies, and a major pharmaceutical player worldwide. In

January last year executives in London began receiving a series of

anonymous e-mail about its Chinese operations. Now its China boss faces

the threat of prison and a sex tape scandal and London faces questions

about GSK's very survival in the Chinese market.

The e-mails were sent from someone called "GSK whistleblower", this

person alleges in hospitals across China GSK bribed doctors and

managers to buy their drugs, and to buy them at inflated prices. They

alleged that GSK used travel agents to pay bribes. Chinese police

believe they may total ?300 million. It seems the whistleblower had the

ear of the Chinese authorities. The British chief of the GSK's China

operation, Mark Rielly has been detained, along with several

colleagues. Their fate unknown. British companies are subject to the

bribingry act and Chinese legislation. As I mentioned foreign

companies don't benefit from cover, they don't benefit from connections,

they rarely, if ever will have that sort of thing to protect them. They

are exposed. GIENDing the identity of the -- finding the identity of

the GSK whistleblower became a priority for GSK. We managed to get

hold of some of the e-mails. It appears to be a person with a solid

grasp of English and the GSK operation. They are striking in

their detail. The e-mails alleged that GSK China was running a

pevasive cash advance bribery scheme, they said the sales

personnel identified key decision makers, they attempt to build a

relationship with that decision maker, first taking the person to

expensive lunches and dinners, and then giving them nice gifts. When

the relationship has been established and both sides trust

each other the cells' employees will start to give doctors cash to win

business. Payment, it is alleged can come in other forms, foreign

holidays disguised as conferences. But perhaps the most damning

allegation in all of these e-mails is one sent on January 16th 2013.

Bribery, in some form, is involved in almost every sale that GSK makes

in chine. -- China. In response we have this statement from GSK:

In April 2013 GSK China hired a local private investigator, a former

Reuters journalist, called Peter Humphrey, to try to find the

whistleblower. Glaxo briefed Humphrey that they suspected it was

a former Glaxo executive who had left the company in 2012. Humphrey

suspected her too and focussed his inquiries on her but found no hard

evidence. All our attempts to contact her have failed. But she has

denied being the whistleblower. Within days of Humphrey delivering

his report on Shu, he and his wife were arrested. They were put on

Chinese state television, their faces blurred and Peter made what

was purportedly a confession. They are to have be charged on charges of

breaking privacy. I think both are held in small cell, about the size

of the kitchen over there. And each cell consists of seven to eight

inmates. Through the consulate. Peter's son Harvey hasn't seen his

parents for a year. He his they have been left high and dry and in the

meantime his father, especially, is suffering.

Both mental and physical health have taken a huge downturn. But now he

has been kept in such a cramped condition for so long his arthritis

has gotten a lot worse and he's suffering from major mental

condition such as memory loss, sleep deprivation. Peter Humphrey's office

in Shanghai has been closed down. We managed to locate an e-mail, which

he wrote after he had finally seen the GcmK whistleblower e-mails with

his own eyes. What he had been told was a smear campaign he now believes

it was the truth. But nothing yet has been proved. And

GSK does seem to be the target of attempts to discredit the company.

This flat belongs to Mark Rielly, someone hit a camera in his bedroom,

filming him and his partner having sex and then sent the film to

company HQ in London. But it is the corruption allegations that will

most trouble the board in the UK. Some reports suggest GSK's license

to operate in China may be under threat. GSK's chief executive faces

something of a crisis in the country. Prosecutors are preparing a

case against Mark Rielly and other senior executives, they could face

years in prison, here in London the Serious Fraud Office has opened up

an investigation into GSK and in Washington the state department is

asking questions. The company is in trouble, China is one of the

fastest-growing markets for pharmaceuticals, but for GSK China

is the biggest headache. Not cop tent with cycling smiles and smiles

throughout the alps, with lycra burn and God knows what else. The

competitors in the Tour de France decided this year going up and down

the Yorkshire Dales would make it more special. The Opening Ceremony

was there this evening, and Smith no stranger to cycling shorts himself,

went earlier this week to have a go at the course.

The excitement is amazing, people are getting into it. Every single

house on the roof had a bike stuck to the fends and ban -- fence and

banners everywhere. And pork pies in the shape of Bradley Wiggins side

burns. I would love to try one of those. Everyone is getting in the

mood for the Tour de France Yorkshire, or bikes and tights for

short. It is a great national event of France coming to Yorkshire, one

noted for its cuisine and people who can be a bit chauvinist, and the

other is France. We have only just met, this is Indian Wells mit, but

have you got it on the right way around? Yeah, yeah. What is it

exactly? My bib and shorts, fastening everything together. I

couldn't help but notice you applying something to legs? It is

lubrication to loosen the legs applying something to legs? It is

before the start. What has happened to cycling in the past few years,

are we right in I think it has enjoyed something of a boom? Yeah,

it is exploding I would say. We started at our club two years ago

and it has grown to 170 mens members in two years. It is great. My young

lad has started racing and a bike of ?300 has got him into racing and

last him two or three years. Maybe not ?4. # 9 for a football, but it

is not the most expensive sport in the world. We have been on the

lookout for like where widows whose husbands spent their weekends packed

into tight clothes and cycling. Not my husband. Chance would be a fine

thing? Yes! Robinson wins a stage in the Tour de France, something no

British rider has done before. It is almost 60 years since Bryan Robinson

became the first Brit to finish the tour. Now 83 he still gets on his

bike. Nowadays he fires up an electric motor for the steep bits

around his home outside Huddersfield. It isn't a poor man's

sport any longer. When I came into it you bought a secondhand bike or

you managed to get a new frame and put the secondhand bits on it. You

just had the one bike really. And when you went to race you took the

mud guards off, raced and put them back on again and came home. It is a

lot different. Going to my grandson's garage now and he has a

bike for this day and that day, he's amazing, and clothing galore. And

that clothing is worth millions. This is called a Shammy! Not only

the one-piece racers with intergrel cod piece, but also this cunningly

adapted work jacket for the cyclist on his way to the meeting. Is this

firm catering to the called "mammals", middle-aged men in lycra.

There is a new group of people coming to the sport. It is viewed in

isolation, it is a little bit reductive, because cycling in the UK

has a history going back 150 years, it started as a mode of

transportation that was then popularised. It just feels like we

have had since the early 1990s almost a re-focus on the athletic

side of the sport. Writer Tim kitted out like an old time continental

racer, and bottles for water and red wine. Hello, handsome beast, talking

about the bike of course! Underneath the wool jersey he's all mammal! It

could be a lot worse, in terms of mid-life crisis, the more

traditional demonstration of it mid-life crisis, the more

would not be good for your health and look more silly. You mean a red

sports car and younger wife and that kind of thing? Very much, dying the

hair and adopting idiotic fashion, as opposed to this. On the eve of

the tour coming to Yorkshire, it is a departure for the old race and for

onlookers of a certain age, a big moment in their life cycle.

We have a guest presenter of the Cycle Show, otherwise known as Lady

Velo, and Daniel Nolls has talked about the psychology behind it. We

are seeing a boom or a buzz around cycling. What is it really all

about. Has it got a bit of an image problem if it is all middle-aged

lycra house? There is a real thing in British cycling, and there has

been a growth in the number of people cycling. But if you dig down

deep into it you have middle-aged white men well off. If you look at

where people cycle it is where they live, Cambridge, Hackney, that,

yeah, that I think adds to a sort of image problem. Is it a problem

because some people, myself cycling in London, you sometimes see people

behaving pretty badly. Boarish people cutting people up, scaring

grannies on pavements, has the culture become too aggressive? You

see a lot of people in the morning. I cycle to work, you see 20-minute

cycle work in full lycra gear, cycling shoes on. Every traffic is a

pitstop to charge away. It is unsettling for people who just want

to cycle to work. Is that fair, you are fond of your bike? I am fond of

my bike, I don't think that is a fair representation of the cycling

demographic and culture in Britain at all. I appreciate what you are

saying about called "mamales" middle-aged men in lycra, and they

might be the ones cycling, I would be the antithesis of that with the

cycling that I do. But on the other side I have a road bike so I'm

getting into road cycling. It is such a complex mix, it is such a

diverse mix of cyclists within Britain, there is so many different

scenes as well, I appreciate what you are saying about it being

aggressive. I think is this a cycling scene, people say the

cyclist. The scene, it is a fashion

statement? In a lot of countries we ought to emulate, Holland and

Denmark, places where a lot of people cycling, cycling isn't

something that you are, it is just what you do. You wouldn't say that

you are a trained commuter if you get the train to work. We have this

thing with cycling. I'm all for recreational cycling but it clouds

out the getting around aspect of thing. If there is a cycling scene,

whether there is a East London or whether it is Charlton in Manchester

or Cambridge. It is about something else, it is about making a personal

statement, not just getting from A-to-B, is it not just weird? Not at

all, I don't seem to think there has to be different sets and scenes,

then it is devisive and talking about it in that sense, you are the

roady or the MTB or computer. What is an MTB? The mountain bike! We all

learned something here. It should be inclusive and we should encourage

people to cycle and embrace it. My personal opinion is cycling is

growing in Britain. And the Olympic legacy will have motivated people

and it is aspirational seeing that. Is it being captured by the

middle-aged man spending more than ?1,000 on a bike. It is like golf,

if you want to buy a bicycle in some countries it is hard to get hold of

a decent second hand one. There are places we have a cycling culture

that work, Cambridge is one of these places. A lot of the country it is

this niche thing and expensive. Why say it is difficult to get a hold of

a decent secondhand bike, or there are safes available to you even if

you wanted to get a decent bike. Will you cycle home? I am actually!

Thank you both very much indeed. Time for a look at the papers, the

front page of the Telegraph tomorrow:

That's it for the front pages. Finally, 50 years ago some BEEP-er

decided they had the God given right to BEEP everything up for people

like me who just wanted to make decent, interesting -- TV, they were

worried about upsetting the kids at home little BEEP-eres, so they came

up with the ideas of the watershed, before 9.00 you got super BEEP like

quiz shows swearing no sex. After 9.00 you can get BEEP more, we are

well after the watershed, before you complain. Here is a pile of the good

stuff the TV police didn't want you to see. It is by today's standards

weak, so don't be BEEP-ing offended. We saw a programme at 6. 35 and it

was the dirtiest programme. You dirty Fukofuka-er. What a BEEP-er

rotter. It was the hottest day of the year

so far in the south-east corner, it looks as if we could see a similar

story for Friday, sunshine and different story for the west. Cloud,

rain and wind gathers, and some of that rain tense as it pushings in

across the western side of Scotland. 16 or 17 degrees the high, it will

feel disappointing, heavier pulses of rain across the Lake District as

well, clouding over the north of England into the Midland. East

Anglia, much of the south-east corner could see temperatures into

the high 20s, that is the low 80s Fahrenheit. A promising day. As we

push to the west of the Isle of Wight, across to Devon, the cloud,

rain and wind remain a