28/11/2012 BBC News at One

Ministers propose a minimum price of 45p per unit of alcohol in

England and Wales. It's part of a drive to tackle problem drinking

and to bing an end to heavily discounted drinks sold in shops and

supermarkets. As unemployment continues to fall,

new figures reveal more than three million people are under-employed.

That's one in ten of the workforce. As he receives his copy of the

Leveson Report, the Prime Minister repeats his call for a press

regulatory system that works. A most miserable task as hundreds

of people return to their homes to clean up after the floods.

And something of a homecoming as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

visit their name-sake city for the first time. Later on BBC London:

The out-of-town season ticket holders hit with a 6% new rail fare

Good afternoon, and welcome to the BBC News at One. The latest

proposal to tackle binge drinking and anti-social behaviour in

England and Wales is a minimum charge of 45p for each unit of

alcohol. Ministers are also considering a ban on some

supermarket deals. Health campaigners had wanted the minimum

unit price fixed at 50p, the same as in Scotland. Our health

correspondent Dominic Hughes has The days of cheap supermarket booze

could be numbered. The Government is consulting on a minimum price in

England and Wales for each unit in alcohol and a ban on multi-buy

deals. It can cost as little as 63p for a can of 4% strength own lager

but that would rise to 81p under minimum pricing, a two litre brand

- and a bottle of own brand vodka at �9.29 could cost �11.81. The aim

is to curb dangerous binge drinking particularly among younger people,

but some supermarkets say ordinary shoppers will pay the price. This

is all about customers for us, and this really - the idea of putting a

minimum unit price on alcohol is going to punish the majority of our

customers that drink responsibly just to try and affect the

behaviour of a small amount of people who misuse alcohol. Muched

of evidence for minimum pricing is based on detailed research carried

out at the University of Sheffield where they found raising the price

of alcohol can reduce the harm done by dangerous drinking. What we've

found is that the most harmful drinkers tend to buy the cheapest

alcohol. It's this alcohol which is affected by minimum pricing, so we

see that harmful drinkers' consumption gails a much greater

extent than moderate drinkers under a minimum pricing policy.

Government in Scotland is pushing ahead with proposals for a 50p

money price despite legal challenges. Ministers in London say

they're confident their measures will go through too. The public

reaction is mixed. Why take people like that do binnible drinking out

on people who have a drink of wine at home? Unfortunately, the pubs

get the backlash, so we need to put a stop to it. People are always

going to get cheap alcohol from some place. It's only going to

penalise people like me that have a glass of wine in the evening.

Generally people do seem to be drinking less. Alcohol consumption

has fallen in recent years but there are some people who drink at

dangerous levels - older, wealthier people, for example, and they seem

to be drinking more than ever, so the real test of the Government's

policy will be whether it can reduce dangerous drinking even in

these groups. Our health correspondent Branwen

Jeffreys is here. How radical a proposal is this? In many ways this

is an extraordinary step with England and Wales now saying

clearly they're going to follow Scotland to introduce a minimum

price per unit of alcohol. What that does is it links how strong

at its most basic level, so it's going to be the stronger, cheaper

alcohols where people will really notice the difference, but this

will affect everyone who buys a drink in a supermarket or goes into

a local off-licence to buy a bottle of wine on their way home from work.

It's going to have a radical effect on the population, and so is going

to divide opinion. This is likely to be deeply controversial. It's

already split the industry. We have seen some retailers like Tesco's

have said they're not against the principle. Others like Morrisons,

as we heard, are adamantly against. Similarly, some alcohol producers

are against and will plan to challenge this legally as they're

planning to do in Scotland, but some people producing a premium

product or running pubs and bars say, actually, we have had enough

of some of the retailers undercutting our prices. It's right

that alcohol should be properly priced. Health experts will welcome

it, but this is something that's going to be debated over many a

drink this evening probably. Thank you very much.

New figures show that one in ten workers in the UK are under-

employed, which is defined as being in a job, but wanting to work

longer hours. The calculation has been made by the Office for

National Statistics, which says the figure has increased by almost 50%

since the current economic crisis began four years ago. Our chief

economics correspondent Hugh Pym reports.

The world of work has changed a lot since recession began. Today a

light's been shone on one group, underemployed workers. There's been

an increase of one million since 2008 to a total of just over three

million, about one in ten of the workforce. As many as 24% of part-

timers want more work. This is the diary that I keep with all the jobs

that I've applied for. Penny Cook is one of them. She graduted this

year with a first-class degree. She's applied for hundreds of full-

time job, but not had any luck. She's currently working about 14

hours a week with a retailer. hope just keeps declining really

with every rejection or just not hearing back. You do get really

down about your job search because you wonder how long it's going to

take, and you just hope that someone can see the potential and

give you a chance. Today's figures include full-time workers who

consider themselves underemployed, the proportion who want more hours

has gone up from 4.2 to 5.5% over four years.

Last year this company in Somerset, which makes herbal supplements for

animals had, to cut the staff's working hours because trading was

tough, though things are back to normal now. We took the staff's

side. We asked them if they'd consider this to save their job,

and yes, they agreed to do it, which allowed us to go out and then

expand our export business, which is where we knew we could get the

new markets. Cleaners and bar staff are said to be among workers who

most want to do more hours. Experts say it highlights problems in the

jobs market. These figures show that the weakness in the UK labour

market is a lot greater than the headline unemployment figures show.

A lot of people without work at all, but clearly there are a lot of

people in work who would like to work more to get more income.

Unemployment has been falling, and today's figures cover just one

section of the workforce, but they do illustrate how the economy is

not working to its full potential. The Leveson Report into media

standards has been handed to the Prime Minister ahead of its

official publication tomorrow. There is a split among MPs. Ross

Hawkins, who followed the Leveson Inquiry for us, has this report.

Hundreds of witnesses came here for months of hearings, and now Lord

Justice Leveson's report is complete. It's decision time for

the politicians. It's right to meet with other party leaders with this

issue, I will do so. What matters most, Mr Speaker, I believe is we

end up with an independent regulatory system that can deliver

and in which the public will have confidence. I hope we can work on

an all-party base. This is a once- in-a-generation opportunity for

real change, and I hope this House can make it happen. So MPs will

talk, but what will be the conclusions for those witnesses,

for Bob and Sally Dowler, their daughter Milly was murdered and

their phone hacked by the less? For Kate and Jerry McCann whose

innocence was wrongly questioned by the papers after their daughter

went missing. I desperately wanted to shout out,

it's not true. It's not true. But when it's your voice against the

powerful media, it just doesn't have a weight. We're desperately

shouting out internally, please stop what you're doing. So now can

this judge's report really stop the worst behaviour of the press?

Campaigners say a new regulator must be backed up with the powers

of a new law, while newspapers have a plan to continue regulating

themself, but under a system that could run investigations and levy

Fiennes of up to �1 million. Anybody in any situation will

always prefer to regulate themselves instead of being

regulated. The problem is we have had this three times before - Royal

Commissions, judicial inquiries. Each time they say everything's

going to be fine, and each time they fail to do it. They haven't

kept their word. I don't want to start calling up somebody and

checking whether this is OK, that's OK. Then I have to wait for their

decision. I might not like their decision. The Prime Minister will

have to decide who he thinks is right. He's got a head start over

the rest of us - half a dozen copies of the Leveson Report were

handed into Downing Street this morning, and he'll have seen over

80 MPs and peers backing the idea of a new system of self-regulation

for the press and over 40 Conservatives who said that such a

system would be destined to fail. He'll hold talks with the Deputy

Prime Minister this evening. They could end up disagreeing and making

separate statements, both knowing that if they back a new law they'll

infuriate powerful newspapers that oppose it, and that if they don't,

they'll disappoint victims of the press who will hope for more.

Our political correspondent Norman Smith is in Westminster. Why is

this so difficult politically? Simon, the paradox of Leveson is

that it was set up by the Prime Minister in the wake of the hacking

saga as a solution to a political problem and to create political

consensus. Instead, it has had precisely the opposite effect. It

has become the political problem, and it has undermined political

consensus because the idea of a statutory regulator is one that

divides not just the coalition, but the Cabinet. It divides the

Conservative Party. It faces the Prime Minister with the invidious

choice of either alienating the press and this lunch time, one

magazine, The Spectator, has already said it won't sign up to

any regulator underpinned by the law, or the Prime Minister risks

alienating public opinion, which appears to back statutory

regulation, so David Cameron finds himself in a hole, but a hole which

many of his critics would argue is one he's largely excavated for

himself. He said at Prime Minister's Questions that the

status quo is not acceptable, but what are the changes on the table

that might work? The key issue - PROBLEM WITH SOUND

Translated into English whra, that means - whether there is legal

force to a - to regulate, supporters of the move say that is

necessary because regulators, voluntary bodies - the press has

flouted, not signed up to. Critics say if you have statutory

regulation that amounts to state licensing of the press, in other

words, if newspapers want to push lish, they'll first have to accept

the authority of this new regulator. Norman, thank you. You can get all

the background of the Leveson Inquiry on our website. Just go to

bbc.co.uk/leveson. 34 people are reported to have been

killed and dozens wounded by two car bombs in the Syrian capital,

Damascus. State television there has described the explosions as

"terrorist" attacks. The bombs went off in the main square in the

south-west suburb of Jaramana. The area had earlier seen intense

fighting between rebels and forces loyal to President Assad. The

prices of season rail tickets are going up by as much as 6%.

Passenger Focus says the companies are exercising restraint but added

the price rises will feel steep in some places. The fares go up by

just 4% on average. A man has admitted killing a toddler after

causing a massive explosion when he cut the gas pipes in his house.

Andrew Partington let his house in Oldham fill with gas overnight.

Two-year-old Jamie Heaton was watching TV next door. The

explosion destroyed terraced house and several other homes were partly

damaged. Yes, Andrew Partington appeared via

video link in court 12. On the video link you can still see the

cars on his face from the explosion he admitted causing. It didn't just

destroy eight homes. It also, as you say, took the life of two-year-

old Jamie Heaton. He was at home watching TV at the time of this gas

blast. His mother was outside hanging out the washing. It was

that that saved her life. She, Michelle Heaton, and her husband

Kenny were in court today. There were tears inside when Andrew

Partington admitted manslaughter. The judge told him he will face a

custodial sentence. He'll be It's coming up to 1.156789 our top

story this lunch time. Ministers propose a minimum price of 45p per

unit of alcohol in England and Wales to tackle problem drinking

and bring an end to heavily discounted drinks in the shops.

Coming up - buried in Burma. The Spitfires left behind by the RAF in

1945 have been located and may soon On the road to recovery but still a

0-0 result for Harry Redknapp. For hundreds of people in North

Wales, the real misery of the recent flooding is just about to

hit home. They are waiting to hear when they can return to their

properties to start the clean-up and it won't be easy. Many are

still without power and temperatures are falling.

More than 400 homes were flooded yesterday and the body of an

elderly woman was found in her home in St Asaph at the river burst its

banks. There are still 150 flood warnings in place throughout

England and Wales. Hywel Griffith is in St Asaph.

Thank you. These are some of those 400 homes in St Asaph that were

flooded yesterday. The fire crews are still working down there now to

try and pump away the water. The police are also here. They will be

investigating that death of an elderly woman at a home just across

the river. Now, we know that many people are awaiting to hear when

they can go back to their homes. It's been a difficult day and a

time to reflect on the full effect of the flood.

Nearly everyone in St Asaph has a story of what they lost in the

flood. I'm looking here now, looks like

it's wet underneath so it's possibly contaminated. For David

Richards, it was thousands of pounds worth of specialist

equipment for his disabled son. It took years for them to buy it. In

minutes, it was destroyed by raging water.

What can you saw? Just years and years of work just gone. A few

doors down, they are checking the basement. Michelle has to wait for

the water to drain before she can work out what, if anything, can be

salvaged. All my Christmas decorations, all

my photographs. Everything that I'd put in the cellar really. For many

people living in those houses, it was the speed of the rising water

that made it impossible to defend their homes. Here, it rose to four

feet within 30 minutes. From the sky, the full-scale of the

clean-up becomes clear. The Environment Agency described

yesterday as a once in a century flood, but they will have to review

their defences for the wet winter months ahead.

But many can't even get home yet. John and lily have had to come to

the refuge centre as hey wait for news of what happened to their flat.

I don't know until I go back and see what's what. They are some

valuables there, of course, there'll be clothes gone, there'll

be probably toys we bought for the grandchildren for Christmas, we

don't know whether they're safe. The worst circumstances have

brought out the best in people. Every few minutes, someone arrives

to donate food, clothes or bedding. They've obviously seen the pictures

on the news and the local radio and they think to themselves, that

could be me, what can I do to help and the response has been, we have

had people coming 60, 70 miles to offer help of support. The aid will

help people here get through the next few days, but it will take

months before normal life can be restored.

The First Minister of Wales is due to arrive in St Asaph this lunch

time. He will be talking about what the Welsh Government can do to

support people here, but what people really want to know now is

when they can go back home. Thank you very much.

Now, chances are you've received them on your mobile phone. Text

messages trying to persuade you to make compensation claim force

personal injury or misselling of PPI. Today, two men who sent

millions of spam text messages have been fined �4 40,000 as part of an

attempt to step up the fight against the illegal trade in

personal information. Here is our Home Affairs correspondent, Tom

Symonds. A warrant to execute the premises...

The law catches up with the spammers.

A dawn raid by police and investigators from the Information

Commissioner's office, the Guardians of our private

information. I don't send texts from here... You are wasting

everybody's time. The investigators say Tetris Telecoms was among a

growing number of companies sending thousands of unwanted messages

offering claims for accidents and payment protection misselling.

It's spreading alarm and distress, making people relive their

experiences of accidents that really did happen, it's costing

people if the mess annals come in when you're abroad, you have to pay

roaming charges to collect them. It's an absolute pest. Here is how

it works: This is a typical message sent by text spammers.

If you respond, even to stay "Stop texting me" this at least tells

them your number's working and can be sold on for around �5. But if

you're interested, your number can be passed on to what's called a

claims management company. They can sell your case to a solicitor for

around �500. The best advice is to delete the messages.

But where do the spammers get your number from in the first place?

Sometimes they dial randomly or they might pie your number from a

list available on the Internet black market.

If you've had an accident, a car accident for example, someone you

deal with may sell your number to a claims management company. After

all, you're worth something. We have got a warrant to search the

premises... Another raid by the Information Commissioner's office.

It's now investigating claims the private information of those who'd

had crashes was passed from a firm providing courtesy cars to this

claims management company, one of three ongoing cases. Meanwhile,

Tetris Telecoms plans to appeal against the fine it's been given.

There's a by-election in Rotherham in South Yorkshire tomorrow after

the Labour MP, Denis MacShane, was forced to resign for fiddling

thousands worth of expenses. Labour are defending a large majority. The

town hit the headlines at the weekend when it emerged that foster

children were taken away from a couple because they were members of

UKIP. Our Political Correspondent, Robin Brandt, has been assessing

the mood in Rotherham. This is the new face of an old town.

A brand-new stadium in New York. Before you get confused, that's the

New York area of Rotherham. This is the new face of Labour in

Rotherham, they're so desperate to move on they've chosen someone

who's only been a member for two years.

I've always supported Labour but haven't been a Labour member.

you not feel committed enough to join? I was working for the

voluntary sector so I needed to keep my politics out of my

professional life. The cloud of the man now known as Denis Macshame

hangs over Rotherham. He took thousands in fake expenses claims,

but this steel town is a Labour heartland, surely a one-horse race?

People of Rotherham have been let down for many, in year, not only by

MacShane but by previous Labour MPs, by the Labour Council and by 13

years of a Labour Government. Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg,

is an MP in neighbouring Sheffield. But that doesn't count for much in

this election. Rotherham is very much focused on what it needs for

the future and the Liberal Democrats have provided that by

helping people with things like raising the income tax threshold so

people can be better off working. It's been said that you could put a

red Labour Rosette on someone frankly anyone in Rotherham and the

people of this town would vote for them. Labour's dominated here for

almost 80 years. Now controversy over a decision from the council on

Foster care is on the front of the national nueps and people are

wondering is that dominant -- newspapers and people are wondering

is that dominance about to end? UKIP is pushing hard in Rotherham,

immigration is a key issue. We are not anti-immigration, there's good

immigration and there's bad immigration and we want to stop the

open-door policy. Respect is looking to repeat its

stunning gain in nearby Bradford earlier this year. Others are

focusing on job cuts. At the hospital, the steelworks and the

nearby coal mine. Employment in this town is a massive problem, yet

we are getting thousands of people coming for jobs and we haven't got

any. The people vote tomorrow. This time

it looks like Labour has a tough fight on its hands.

And for a full list of the 11 candidates standing in Rotherham

tomorrow, you can go to the website at www.bbc.co.uk/politics.

They were the fighter planes that captured the imagination of their

role in the Battle of Britain. And now, aviation experts believe they

are on the verge of discovering dozens of Spitfires neatly packed

in crates in as good condition as if day they were built and buried

by the RAF in a Burmese field at the end of the war. Our Defence

Correspondent, Jonathan Beale, has the story.

They're the plane that helped win the Battle of Britain, the Spitfire

that fought over the skies of Europe in the Second World War. The

iconic aircraft was also shipped to Burma in the war with Japan. And

this is the start of the story to find out what happened to them.

I would like to fly one... David, a Lincolnshire farmer, spent the last

16 years trying to track them down. His belief that more than 30 in

near pristine condition may still be buried in the ground. I knew the

aeroplanes were there, I tracked down eight eyewitnesses, they all

told me the same story. I've had professional surveys been done by

the University of Leeds, I've got ground radar images. Everything is

pointing to the fact that we have found them.

This is where he thinks they are buried, an old RAF airbase outside

the capital Rangoon. Geophysicists have already spotted metal objects

lying under the mud, but no-one's yet certain as to whether they are

the lost Spitfires of Burma. What I can say, as well as the geophysics,

we have photographs, witness statements, information from a

range of experts and opinions from a range of experts. But in the end,

I can't emphasise this enough we are going into this without

assumptions. The dig which begins early next year has been made

possible by a thaw in relations with Burma, David Cameron paving

the way for the work to begin. It's being funded by a wealthy

businessman from Belarus. This is once in a lifetime

opportunity to participate in this, probably one of the last great

adventures of the century. It's Indiana Jones, if you look at it

closely, so we just jumped in. than 20,000 Spitfires were built

during the Second World War. Some have ended up in museums, but just

35 are still flying, each worth more than �1 million. So this dig

could unearth buried treasure or turn out to be an expensive wild

goose chase. They are confident of finding more to join the few still

flying. The city of Cambridge gave its Duke

and Duchess a warm welcome this morning as the Royal couple toured

the city for the first time. Hundreds of people lined the

streets around the Guildhall to greet William and Kate who're

spending the day celebrating Cambridge's university at schools

and charities. Luisa Baldini reports.

Stepping off a commuter train at Countryside Agency station, this

was the Duke and Duchess's first viz to it the famous university

city from which their title comes. In spite of the bitter cold, there

was a warm welcome for them at the city's Guildhall where hundreds of

people had been patiently waiting. After meeting dignitaries inside,

they made an appearance on the balcony, an opportunity for

everyone to see them. People here in Cambridge have been

waiting for this moment for a long time, ever since William and

Catherine's new title was announced. There's been an expectation that

they should come here, more recently a sense of anticipation.

Now finally, kinl's Duke and Duchess have arrived -- Cambridge's.

They took their time to meet as many in the crowd as possible.

you freezing cold... One Royal fan gave William a baby

grow for any future heir. She'd designed it with a picture of a

helicopter and the caption "Daddy's little co-pilot".

Why did you give them that? So when their little one comes along, they

can be very proud of their daddy because he does a very good job

being a helicopter pilot, as well as all this. At the senate House,

the Duke and Duchess attended a reception with 400 guests. The

Royal Family have a close connection with the university,

William's father Prince Charles and uncle Edward attended, his

grandfather Prince Philip served as Chancellor. We both feel immense

pride at being associated with Cambridge, a place renowned the

world over for its dynamism, beauty and learning. And it's lovely for

us to be here together today. The couple went on to visit a

homeless shelter and will later visit a school before heading to

Peterborough to open a hospital, a busy first official visit to

busy first official visit to Cambridgeshire for the Cambridges.

Let's get our weather update. A cold day for all of us but it's

drier. That said, there is still over 100 flood warnings out at the

moment. There is the floodline number for you because sum rivers

still haven't peaked. It's looking a lot drier, not just today but for

the next few days. It's colder and you will have noticed that if you

have been outside so a frost and ice risk over the next few nights.

It hasn't been dry all together everywhere. Nor the north York

moors, still showers rattling in. The ground is still saturated and

very little sunshine to be found between the showers. It feels

colder than yesterday with the keen wind. Further south, more sunshine

around. Temperatures still struggling at below average and it

will get colder over the coming days. Showers knocking on the door

of Cornwall and Pembrokeshire. They are likely to come in tonight and

impose an increased ice risk. It's a dry picture with good spells of

sunshine around for the next hour or two, meaning clear skies and a

very cold night. A few showers pestering the north and Western

Isles of Scotland. It's cold enough for some of the showers to be

wintry, giving a light dusting where they hit the hills. Overnight,

the easing in the winds a little and also the showers. You can see

the main story tonight is a widespread frost, much colder than

last night. In towns and cities where temperatures are above

freezing, on the ground there it's cold enough for frost and ice which

could wash off the salt with the showers continuing. The potential

tomorrow morning across Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, for

some freezing fog to add to the problems for travellers first thing.

The main difference tomorrow is we'll see slightly fewer showers

and lighter breezes. For Northern Ireland, more cloud comes in on the

weather front and rain and hill snow later in the day. Just where

the fog lingers, it could be quite cold. It's getting colder.

Certainly so tomorrow night, another widespread frost. That

weather front coming to Northern Ireland and western Scotland could

give some wintry weather across Scotland first thing on Friday.

Very icy with snow at lower levels. Look at the chill. Ice could be a

widespread problem t. Given all the rain we have had, it will be a

problem when we get frost overnight. By Saturday, close proximity to

eastern England, we could have a dusting of snow. It's not as wet as

it has been but it's certainly cold at the moment with the potential

taste of winter. Thank you. At 1.30, a reminder of

our top story: Ministers propose a minimum price of 45p per unit of