:00:14. > :00:18.Nations run boring crossing in the Golan Heights. The move fuels fears
:00:18. > :00:21.that the Civil War may be about to spill over to a wider regional
:00:21. > :00:27.conflict. The latest from our correspondent in the region. Also
:00:27. > :00:30.this lunch time: Ed Miliband promises to put a three-year cap on
:00:30. > :00:34.welfare spending if his party wins the next election.
:00:34. > :00:37.Andy Coulson, the Prime Minister's former spokesperson, pleads not
:00:37. > :00:43.guilty to phone hacking during his time at the News of the World.
:00:43. > :00:47.60 years on, Britain say it is sincerely regrets the torture and
:00:47. > :00:50.abuse suffered by Kenyans during the Mau Mau uprising. It awards
:00:50. > :00:55.compensations to thousands of survivors.
:00:55. > :01:01.That happens to be not unspeakable but illegal. We have Her Majesty's
:01:01. > :01:09.permission... And Tom Sharpe, who wrote Porterhouse Blue, hadded died
:01:09. > :01:13.as the age of 85 -- has. On BBC London, action against
:01:13. > :01:23.anti-Islamic attacks. A big rise in the number of first-time buyers in
:01:23. > :01:34.
:01:34. > :01:39.the capital. Good afternoon. Welcome to the BBC
:01:39. > :01:44.News at One. Syrian rebels have seized a border
:01:44. > :01:48.crossing in the Israeli occupied Golan Heights fuelling fears that
:01:48. > :01:52.the Civil War may be about to spill over in to e wider regional
:01:52. > :01:59.conflict. It comes after rebels withdrew from
:01:59. > :02:01.the town of Qusair. Well our world a World Affairs
:02:01. > :02:08.Correspondent, Rajesh Mirchandani has more.
:02:08. > :02:11.Smoke rising as Syria's conflict spreads to Israel's doorstep. Rebel
:02:11. > :02:15.fighters, battling with President Bashar al-Assad's forces and
:02:15. > :02:21.overtaking a checkpoint in the disputed Golan Heights. Israel move
:02:21. > :02:27.people away from the frontier as a precaution, a sign of how Syria's
:02:27. > :02:31.Civil War is having a growing impact outside of its borders. Earlier,
:02:31. > :02:36.Syrian government forces celebrated their victory in the key town of
:02:36. > :02:41.Qusair. They ousted the rebels, take control of this important point in
:02:41. > :02:46.the supply route for weapons. The town of 40,000 lies destroyed. Could
:02:46. > :02:52.this be a turning point in the Syrian regime's war with what it
:02:52. > :02:57.calls the terrorists? TRANSLATION: Wherever terrorism goes
:02:57. > :03:05.and wherever it escapes, the foot steps of the Syrian army will
:03:05. > :03:09.follow. They will make Syria the graveyard of global terror.
:03:09. > :03:16.Unverified footage shows the fierceness of the battle for Qusair.
:03:16. > :03:21.Spearheading the assault were fighters from the niece Shi'ite
:03:21. > :03:25.militia, Hezbollah. After, the BBC cameras spotted the
:03:25. > :03:30.Hezbollah fighters. Syrian rebels fired rockets from their strongholds
:03:30. > :03:35.inside of Lebanon. A Civil War spreading. The West cannot decide
:03:35. > :03:38.whether or not to arm the rebels, but the US condemned outside help
:03:38. > :03:42.for President Bashar al-Assad. It is clear that the regime is
:03:42. > :03:46.unable to contest the opposition's control of a place like Qusair on
:03:46. > :03:51.their own. That is why they are depending on Hezbollah and Iran to
:03:51. > :03:58.do their work for them. And with diplomat Massey stalled
:03:58. > :04:02.here is another spillover, more refugees fleeing the fighting.
:04:02. > :04:08.Western leaders reiterated warnings of a catastrophe unfolding in Syria,
:04:08. > :04:12.but there are no sign of peace talks, and no clue in r if and when
:04:12. > :04:18.these people can return home. Our correspondent Jim Muir is in
:04:18. > :04:22.Beirut for us. We have had concerns that the conflict can spread. Jim,
:04:22. > :04:28.how is this fighting in the Golan Heights being read? Well it is being
:04:28. > :04:32.seen as another way in which the conflict in Syria is prolife rating.
:04:32. > :04:37.Impinging there on the Golan Heights, it is not a border but a
:04:37. > :04:41.demarcation line with Israel. There are rockets coming across the border
:04:41. > :04:47.into Lebanon, to Baalbek, a well-known tourist destination with
:04:47. > :04:52.Roman ruins there. That after rebels threatened to hit back to Hezbollah
:04:52. > :04:58.after the key role it played in the conquest of Qusair, the key town
:04:58. > :05:03.near the border alinkside Syrian troops, fighting alongside Sunni
:05:03. > :05:07.rebels. So the repercussions, the sectarian lines and the conflicts or
:05:07. > :05:11.the tensions it is aggravating throughout the region are very
:05:11. > :05:14.serious indeed. That is why people are regarding Hezbollah's
:05:14. > :05:19.involvement as perhaps the most dangerous development since this all
:05:19. > :05:25.began two years ago it adds to the sectarian dimension that was not
:05:25. > :05:31.there before. That really irritates the sectarian faultlines that run
:05:31. > :05:34.throughout the region. So there are repercussions in Iraq, where Shi'ite
:05:34. > :05:40.militias are joining in the fight on the side of the government in
:05:40. > :05:43.Damascus. Also Turkey, thousands of refugees streaming across there.
:05:43. > :05:48.Turkey also having political problems and the Syrian government
:05:49. > :05:53.is happy about that. So the region is looking increasingly in peril,
:05:53. > :05:57.like it is being engulfed in the flames that have been raging through
:05:57. > :06:01.Syria for the last two years. Thank you very much.
:06:01. > :06:06.Andy Coulson, the Prime Minister's former superb, has pleaded not
:06:06. > :06:11.guilty to three charges including phone hacking. The former editor of
:06:11. > :06:16.the News of the World denies conspireing to intercept voicemail
:06:16. > :06:21.and two counts of conspiracy to misconduct in public office.
:06:21. > :06:25.Tom Symonds has more for us. There is a series of house keeping
:06:25. > :06:28.hearings happening here at Southwark Crown Court ahead of what is
:06:28. > :06:35.expected to be a trial of phone hacking which is due to start in
:06:35. > :06:38.September. We had a lot of pleas, not guilty pleas from a series of ,
:06:38. > :06:43.including Rebekah Brooks yesterday and today as you say, three not
:06:43. > :06:48.guilty pleas from Andy Coulson, the former editor of the News of the
:06:48. > :06:53.World. He pleaded not guilty to illegal ception of communications,
:06:53. > :06:57.in effect phone hacking of voicemails, and pleaded not guilty
:06:57. > :07:01.to conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office. That is to do with
:07:01. > :07:04.the allegations that money was paid for information from public
:07:04. > :07:12.officials used in stories for the News of the World.
:07:12. > :07:16.What we don't yet know is when those series of charges are to come to
:07:16. > :07:19.trial and the form of the trial, what it will be, but it will be a
:07:19. > :07:24.big trial, due to start in September.
:07:24. > :07:29.The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, promised to cap spending oen welfare
:07:29. > :07:35.if they win the next election. In a speech in London he said his party
:07:35. > :07:40.would be focussed about how it spent every pound to turn the economy
:07:40. > :07:46.around and build a stronger country. Ed Miliband wants to prove to you
:07:46. > :07:50.that he can spend taxpayers' money wisely. To rebuild his party's
:07:50. > :07:55.credibility on the economy. This morning he went to one of the poorst
:07:55. > :08:00.parts of London to unveil changes. The next Labour Government will have
:08:00. > :08:07.less money to spend. To turn our economy around, protect our NHS, and
:08:07. > :08:12.build a stronger country, we will have to be laze -- laser focussed on
:08:12. > :08:18.every pound we spend. Lift-off for the next general
:08:18. > :08:22.election is way off, but Labour a shift in what it would do in
:08:23. > :08:27.welfare. It wants a three-year cap on part of welfare spending to limit
:08:27. > :08:33.the amount. Ed Miliband confirmed, if he is the Prime Minister, that
:08:33. > :08:38.the reversal of child benefit cuts that was brought in for high earners
:08:38. > :08:43.would not abpriority. To increase jobseeker's allowance but going to
:08:43. > :08:47.those who worked longer. Also a possible changes on universal
:08:47. > :08:51.benefits. There will be a place for universal
:08:51. > :08:56.support in the welfare state. Like the NHS. A proper basic state
:08:56. > :09:00.pension for all who paid in, but whether in relation to pensioners
:09:00. > :09:03.and children, there is a balance to be struck between universal,
:09:03. > :09:06.contributing and means tested benefits.
:09:07. > :09:11.The turn on child benefit is a significant one. They condemned the
:09:11. > :09:14.cut since day one, but Ed Miliband has taken a step towards the
:09:14. > :09:19.coalition in terms of how they deal with the deficit.
:09:19. > :09:25.There is nothing of substance in the speech. What we have are the Labour
:09:25. > :09:29.Party worried about their image on welfare. They voted against �80
:09:29. > :09:33.billion of savings in welfare. Now we get a message saying that they
:09:33. > :09:39.are in favour of an overall limit but they don't say what they will
:09:39. > :09:43.cut. Downing Street cheers for David
:09:43. > :09:47.Walliams and David Cameron, but behind the door, the Prime Minister
:09:47. > :09:51.will be cheering Labour's chain of heart on child benefit and the cap.
:09:51. > :09:55.A move he believes, is proof that the coalition got it right.
:09:55. > :09:58.Let's pick up on some points from Norman Smith in Westminster. I
:09:58. > :10:02.suppose that the question for Labour, then, is it enough to
:10:02. > :10:08.convince the voters that they are serious about tackling the deaf
:10:08. > :10:12.silt? -- deficit? That is the hope of Ed Miliband, that people will
:10:12. > :10:16.hear the cap on the welfare spending thinking that Labour is serious
:10:16. > :10:21.about getting to grips with the benefit bills, about taking
:10:21. > :10:26.difficult decisions, but the difficulty is, we got no grit, no
:10:26. > :10:31.detail, no specifics. Like if I announced to family Smith, to have a
:10:31. > :10:35.cap on household spending but I don't say if it is less money for
:10:35. > :10:39.holidays, less money for clothes or less money for the dog to have an
:10:39. > :10:44.food. They are not that convincing. It sounds more like an aspiration
:10:44. > :10:49.than a plan for saving money. Although we got a sense of where Ed
:10:49. > :10:54.Miliband wants to bare down. We know he wants to bare down on the Housing
:10:54. > :11:00.Benefit bill by getting landlords to charge rents and by getting
:11:00. > :11:04.companies to pay a living wage, those are benign savings. The cut is
:11:04. > :11:08.the one he floated about clawing back winter fuel payment from
:11:08. > :11:11.better-off pensioners. My sense is if Ed Miliband really wants to
:11:11. > :11:17.convince the voters he is serious about welfare, then there must be
:11:17. > :11:21.pain. There must be some blood on the floor. Today, we did not really
:11:21. > :11:26.get that Norman, thank you very much.
:11:26. > :11:30.Local communities in England are to be given more powers to stop on
:11:30. > :11:35.shore wind farms while being given incentives to accept them. Residents
:11:35. > :11:39.to be consulted before the planning applications are submitted. If they
:11:39. > :11:42.agree they can receive financial benefits to plough back into the
:11:42. > :11:47.community. John Moylan has the details.
:11:47. > :11:51.For some, they are the clean green answer to our energy needs, but for
:11:51. > :11:55.others, they Afghan authorities are a blot on the landscape, often
:11:55. > :11:59.foisted on the locals against their will. Now after months of wrangling
:11:59. > :12:05.within the coalition, there is a plan to put the views of the locals
:12:05. > :12:10.first. There have been inappropriately
:12:10. > :12:15.cited wind farms. People are under siege from wind farms. We have to
:12:15. > :12:23.ensure that the locals have more control over where they go.
:12:23. > :12:27.Subsidies have seen numbers soar. There are 3,859 land-based turbines
:12:27. > :12:34.across the UK. Almost 2,000 have been built within the past five
:12:34. > :12:39.years. The delible wind farm in Cornwall
:12:39. > :12:44.was the first in Britain. Some locals here receive a discount on
:12:44. > :12:48.the electricity bills. Today's plans should see a five-fold rise in the
:12:48. > :12:53.amount of cash that that the local communities get, but campaigners say
:12:53. > :13:00.that the moves do not go far enough. We want a fairer and a more open
:13:00. > :13:04.planning process. The Government to report their help with this and wind
:13:04. > :13:07.farm developers spending more money on community investment than they
:13:07. > :13:13.are at present. Until now, national planning
:13:13. > :13:18.guidance said that schemes should be accepted if renewable. Now councils
:13:18. > :13:22.are to be told that arguments for renewable energy should not override
:13:23. > :13:28.local concerns. So will this halt for the growth of renewables be
:13:28. > :13:31.helpful? We don't that I that the changes will put off wind farms.
:13:31. > :13:36.Developers that engage with the communities and take them with them
:13:36. > :13:40.as they bring the schemes forward, we think that is a good result. The
:13:41. > :13:46.guidance is clear it is important that ing use it sensibly.
:13:46. > :13:50.Some argue that they are giving communities financial incentives,
:13:50. > :13:55.alongside the powers to reject the farms a mixed message from what was
:13:55. > :14:04.supposed to be the greenest government ever.
:14:04. > :14:08.Up to �2 billion a year is being lost in tax on cigarettes as Her
:14:08. > :14:15.Majesty -- HM Revenue & Customs is failing to clamp down on tobacco
:14:15. > :14:22.smuggling. Figures suggest that 8 billion illicit cigarettes were
:14:22. > :14:28.ported to UK and smuggled in via Eastern Europe.
:14:28. > :14:35.This is the very edge of the EU. The frontier between Lithuania and
:14:35. > :14:40.Belarus. Customs officers pi a apart car that raises a suspicion. 1,000
:14:40. > :14:44.miles from Britain but it is the first line of defence getting the
:14:44. > :14:52.cigarette smugglers. This morning the customs officers pulled over the
:14:52. > :14:57.van, tore up the flooring and found two secret compartments and inside
:14:57. > :15:02.60,000 smuggled cigarettes. A packet bought for the equivalent of 20
:15:02. > :15:08.pence in Belarus sells for �4 on the streets of Britain. So how easy is
:15:08. > :15:12.it to buy them? We went to three shops in Kent, asking for cheap
:15:12. > :15:17.cigarettes. All sold illegal packs, though the manager said since we
:15:18. > :15:22.have filmed he has stopped. It is the same everywhere we go. Packs are
:15:22. > :15:26.kept out of sight under the counter, selling for half of the price of the
:15:27. > :15:35.real thing. This major -- may just be the worst
:15:35. > :15:41.place in Britain for illicit cigarettes. Gillingham in Kent. A
:15:41. > :15:48.survey showed that 50% of packets of cigarettes on the streets found here
:15:48. > :15:53.were either smuggled or fake. We found these in less than an hour.
:15:53. > :15:57.From honest shopkeepers, like Hitesh Pandya, it is a nightmare. He is
:15:57. > :16:04.regularly offered dodgy cigarettes by criminal gangs.
:16:04. > :16:07.I am not surprised that people are selling cigarettes for �3. 50. We
:16:07. > :16:13.are losing lots of revenue. Billions have been lost.
:16:13. > :16:18.The authorities are fighting back in this warehouse, under guard, some of
:16:18. > :16:22.the 230 million cigarettes that have been seened from Lithuania last
:16:22. > :16:27.year. It is the EU's outer frontier and
:16:28. > :16:31.Britain's front line, but closer to home, this report from the National
:16:31. > :16:41.Audit Office says that HM Revenue & Customs needs to step up its efforts
:16:41. > :16:47.
:16:47. > :16:53.here to tackle the illegal trade. The headlines. The Civil War in
:16:53. > :16:57.Syria could spill over into a wider regional battle as fierce fighting
:16:57. > :17:01.breaks out in the Golan Heights. Stephen Fry reveals how he hit the
:17:01. > :17:06.depths of depression while filming abroad.
:17:06. > :17:16.I will have all the sport on BBC News, with all change at Stoke
:17:16. > :17:24.
:17:24. > :17:27.city, where the new manager Mark British fought a bitter battle with
:17:27. > :17:30.insurgents in Kenya who were demanding an end to colonial rule.
:17:30. > :17:33.More than 5,000 Kenyans say they were mistreated, some through
:17:33. > :17:35.torture, by the then-British administration. Today, the
:17:35. > :17:42.government expressed "sincere regret" and announced compensation
:17:42. > :17:49.for some of those who took part in the Mau Mau rebellion. Our East
:17:49. > :17:53.Africa correspondent, Gabriel Gatehouse, reports.
:17:53. > :17:58.It has taken more than half a century. The compensation amounts to
:17:58. > :18:01.less than �3000 per victim, but for most of these veterans, it is not
:18:01. > :18:06.the money that matters but the recognition, of the pain they
:18:06. > :18:11.suffered. We are happy because the British
:18:11. > :18:17.government want us to come together now and start every conciliation
:18:17. > :18:22.nation to nation -- a reconciliation. Because everybody
:18:22. > :18:27.needs each other. This is one of the darker chapters
:18:27. > :18:30.in Britain 's colonial history. The Mau Mau rising began in the central
:18:30. > :18:35.highlands with the murders of white settlers. The colonial authorities
:18:35. > :18:39.responded -- reacted with ruthlessness and it took nearly a
:18:39. > :18:43.decade to crush the movement. I be end, tens of thousands of Kenyans
:18:43. > :18:49.had been killed and many more detained in overcrowded camps. The
:18:49. > :18:52.claimants in this case were all victims of brutal torture. They tell
:18:52. > :18:58.stories of beatings by colonial officers that left them on the brink
:18:58. > :19:04.of death, of rape, even castration. The offer of compensation only
:19:04. > :19:10.applies to bring survivors of that treatment. The Mau Mau Kate is took
:19:10. > :19:15.years to come to court. -- case. The government initially claimed that
:19:15. > :19:19.Nairobi should take responsibility and not London. It argued the events
:19:19. > :19:24.had occurred too long ago for justice to be done. Last year, the
:19:24. > :19:32.High Court in London rejected both those claims. These are only a
:19:32. > :19:37.handful of those who say they suffered in the Mau Mau episode.
:19:37. > :19:43.Today 's ruling will no doubt lead others to get the consent.
:19:43. > :19:48.We can speak to Gabriel in Nairobi. Regret and compensation, but a long
:19:48. > :19:52.time coming. The reaction in the hotel where this
:19:52. > :19:57.announcement was made, whether British High Commissioner echoed the
:19:57. > :20:03.words of William Hague, was muted. People seemed pleased they had got
:20:03. > :20:06.this recognition at long last at there was not the kind of
:20:06. > :20:09.celebration and dancing and singing that we saw in October last year
:20:09. > :20:14.when the High Court in London announced that the court case could
:20:14. > :20:19.go ahead. Whether that was because people had been expecting this for
:20:19. > :20:23.some days because perhaps for some here, the Foreign Secretary 's
:20:23. > :20:27.announcement was marred by the fact he said the British government still
:20:27. > :20:32.declined to accept responsibility for some of those abuses, even
:20:32. > :20:38.though it expressed severe -- sincere regret and offered
:20:38. > :20:41.compensation. But this is a big milestone for the Mau Mau veterans
:20:41. > :20:47.and for their struggle for recognition in Britain and country
:20:47. > :20:52.-- in Britain and Kenya. Stephen Fry has admitted he tried to
:20:52. > :20:58.kill himself while filming abroad era go. He has bipolar disorder and
:20:58. > :21:01.he was found unconscious on the floor by his producer after taking a
:21:01. > :21:04.combination of pills and alcohol. He said it was the first time he had
:21:04. > :21:09.said in public that he is not always happy.
:21:09. > :21:15.This woman lifted her head and she looked past me and I thought,
:21:15. > :21:19.foreigner! He has made a career out of making
:21:19. > :21:24.other people laugh. But Stephen Fry does not find personal joy quite so
:21:24. > :21:29.easy to come by. In a remarkable and frank interview,
:21:29. > :21:33.he talked about his struggles with depression and revealed that last
:21:33. > :21:38.year, he tried to take his own life. -- about how he struggles.
:21:38. > :21:43.I have a condition that requires me to take medication so I do not get
:21:43. > :21:48.too hyper or depressed to the point of suicide. And I attempted it last
:21:48. > :21:51.year. I am not always happy, this is the first time I have said this in
:21:51. > :21:54.public. He said he took an overdose but was
:21:54. > :21:59.saved by a television producer he was working with. He suffers from
:21:59. > :22:05.bipolar. You say, how can anybody who has got
:22:05. > :22:10.it all want to end it all? That is the point, there is no, why? That is
:22:10. > :22:14.not the right question. There is no reason. If there were a reason, you
:22:14. > :22:18.could reason somebody out of it. This is not the first time his
:22:18. > :22:23.battles with his imagery -- his battles with his inner Demons have
:22:23. > :22:26.been played out in public. In 1995, he was appearing in this West End
:22:26. > :22:31.theatre and he walked out after three performances and the
:22:31. > :22:35.production had to close early. It later emerged he had had a
:22:35. > :22:39.breakdown and had decided to gas himself in his car.
:22:39. > :22:46.I sat there for at least two hours in the car with my hands on the
:22:46. > :22:51.ignition key. It was a suicide attempt, not a cry
:22:51. > :22:58.for help. His condition has helped raise the profile of mental
:22:58. > :23:04.illness. He is the President of the charity Mind. For Stephen Fry, it is
:23:04. > :23:07.a particularly pertinent questions. /questions.
:23:07. > :23:17.If you are affected and want to speak to somebody about mental
:23:17. > :23:22.
:23:22. > :23:25.you make sure no-one else can see your pin number when you are
:23:25. > :23:28.entering it? If not, you are being urged to be more vigilant, because
:23:28. > :23:31.crimes involving stolen pins and cards have tripled since last year.
:23:31. > :23:34.These thefts are said to be rising every month because it is simpler
:23:34. > :23:40.than using expensive technology to copy card details, as Simon Gompertz
:23:40. > :23:44.now reports. New CCTV footage of a growing danger
:23:44. > :23:49.at cash we seems. Somebody walks over a man 's shoulder as he takes
:23:49. > :23:53.in his pin, what the police call shoulder surfing. Then he tries to
:23:53. > :23:58.take the card by distracting him with a piece of paper. And a woman
:23:58. > :24:02.is formed by the same paper trick, with a tap on the shoulder. They get
:24:02. > :24:08.the pin and the card. She had a �2 coin and she said,
:24:08. > :24:12.please, have you got some change? 80-year-old Jacqueline Fletcher said
:24:12. > :24:14.these stole her card when she was giving them change, after watching
:24:14. > :24:22.her key in her number. They took her key in her number. They took
:24:22. > :24:25.�640 from accountsNEXT it frightens me to think that I had been stupid
:24:25. > :24:31.enough that it frightens me. And to think they were attacking
:24:31. > :24:39.vulnerable people. Young or old. It was obvious they had seen me as an
:24:39. > :24:44.easy mark. The pin is on marking Vicky -- the
:24:44. > :24:48.pin is the key to unlocking your bank account. Banks are worried one
:24:48. > :24:52.in five people does not cover their pin, that is how the thieves hit the
:24:52. > :24:57.jackpot and the chances are that you do not even know that you are being
:24:57. > :25:02.watched. ATM incidents have tripled from more
:25:02. > :25:06.than 2,500 in the first four months of last year to confirm -- to over
:25:06. > :25:10.7,500 in the same period this year. Partly because criminal gangs who
:25:10. > :25:12.insert card copying gadgets like this they say challenge from better
:25:12. > :25:18.cash machines and Chip and pin technology.
:25:18. > :25:23.-- face a challenge. It is harder to get hold of and it is quite
:25:23. > :25:30.high-tech and expensive, at this is a complete return to a simple
:25:30. > :25:34.distraction or a contact tech. So it is a lot cheaper and more effective.
:25:34. > :25:38.Is secret camera shows customers making no effort to protect their
:25:38. > :25:44.numbers. Shield the pin and you have a better chance of stopping this
:25:44. > :25:49.type of crime. The novelist, Tom Sharpe, has died
:25:49. > :25:52.at his home in Spain at the age of 85. He wrote dark, often
:25:52. > :25:55.outrageously comic novels, including the Wilt series, and in others such
:25:55. > :25:58.as Riotous Assembly and Indecent Exposure he was critical of the
:25:58. > :26:01.apartheid regime in South Africa, where he had lived. His novels
:26:01. > :26:11.Porterhouse Blue and Blott on the Landscape were both made into
:26:11. > :26:18.
:26:18. > :26:22.successful television series, as The television version of Tom Sharpe
:26:22. > :26:27.smack satire about a Christie Cambridge college, porterhouse loo.
:26:27. > :26:33.It helped make him one Briton 's best loved comic writers. --
:26:33. > :26:38.Porterhouse Blue. Dead swans or unspeakable and
:26:38. > :26:45.illegal! I do have her Majesty 's permission.
:26:45. > :26:49.Elizabeth the first. He had had a difficult Trail Todd,
:26:49. > :26:54.the son of a Unitarian minister with unorthodox political views.
:26:54. > :27:02.Because of the first World War, I came to believe in national
:27:02. > :27:07.socialism as epitomised by Adolf Hitler. -- he came to. He
:27:07. > :27:12.philosophically flipped, you could say. So my upbringing was a bit
:27:12. > :27:19.peculiar, to say the least. From university, Tom Sharpe went to
:27:19. > :27:24.South Africa where he encountered the injustices of apartheid. He was
:27:24. > :27:30.deported and channelled his purity and discussed into his first novel.
:27:31. > :27:34.Its target was South Africa 's thuggish policemen. A poorly -- a
:27:34. > :27:41.police force who tortures as a regular routine, you cannot be cruel
:27:41. > :27:46.about such people. Is it possible to be cruel about the SS? Some of his
:27:46. > :27:50.books came easily. This was about a hapless polytechnic lecturer and his
:27:50. > :27:58.dealings with a life-sized Robert Dole! The first draft took only
:27:58. > :28:06.weeks to write. -- Robert Dole. All his books were peopled by
:28:06. > :28:14.grotesques. That although APPLAUSE Description, course, violent,
:28:14. > :28:24.Savage. -- the author 's own description of them. How do you like
:28:24. > :28:26.
:28:26. > :28:31.it? Claret for me, please! The right one!
:28:31. > :28:41.The author Tom Sharpe who has died at the age of 85. The tight -- time
:28:41. > :28:44.
:28:44. > :28:50.Midlands this time yesterday. For the rest of the day, warm and sunny
:28:50. > :28:56.for many of us. Like yesterday, we had rather stubborn cloud around.
:28:56. > :29:03.This is the satellite picture. But unlike yesterday, it will melt away.
:29:03. > :29:07.But in places like Shropshire, just 12 Celsius under the cloud. But we
:29:07. > :29:12.have already 22 degrees in Northern Ireland. That cloud is melting away
:29:12. > :29:17.and we have more sunshine around the Devon and Cornwall coast compared to
:29:17. > :29:23.yesterday. A bit of breeze around the south coast and on the North Sea
:29:23. > :29:28.coast. But inland, temperatures are responding to that sunshine. 20, 21
:29:28. > :29:32.across Cumbria. That could trigger showers through the Pennines and
:29:32. > :29:38.eastern parts of Scotland, but that is the exception rather than the
:29:38. > :29:41.rule. Some sunshine for most, temperatures already soaring in
:29:41. > :29:46.Northern Ireland which could trigger a shower. But they will be few and
:29:46. > :29:52.far between. And at last, the Welsh Marches will be joining in with the
:29:52. > :29:56.sunshine. More sunshine in the evening. Showers will hang around
:29:56. > :30:00.for a while and will be slow to fade, but we should not see as much
:30:00. > :30:05.missed as last night and low cloud. The risk of a shower for the Channel
:30:05. > :30:09.Islands and southern England, and a bit chilly in the Glens of Scotland.
:30:09. > :30:15.Another fine day tomorrow. Potentially a bit more fair weather
:30:15. > :30:20.cloud in southern areas, giving rain through the morning. It will be
:30:20. > :30:23.quite warm again into the afternoon and that could trigger heavy showers
:30:23. > :30:28.and perhaps a thunderstorm in south-west England and South Wales.
:30:28. > :30:33.But it will be fine and sunny for most of us. A bit more breeze
:30:33. > :30:37.tomorrow, but the sun is just as strong, and that would be the case
:30:37. > :30:42.this weekend. It could feel fresher by the coast, particularly in the
:30:42. > :30:47.South, but the sunshine is just as strong and is not affected by the
:30:47. > :30:52.temperature, so it will be very strong indeed. UB levels up to six
:30:52. > :30:57.or possibly seven into the weekend. As this fine spell continues, that
:30:57. > :31:02.will continue to be the case. And it should continue through the weekend.
:31:02. > :31:05.Always the smallest risk of a shower in north-western areas and not quite
:31:05. > :31:12.as warm this weekend with that fresh breeze, but not much to complain
:31:12. > :31:17.about. No, indeed! Thank you very much. A
:31:17. > :31:20.reminder of the main story this lunchtime. The Syrian army and