15/11/2011 BBC News at Six

A backlash against the rise and rise of fuel prices, or than 100

MPs backed a public petition. Elite at the Proms is due to go

work by another 3p in January. Calls for the extra tax to be

scrapped. It is awful, they always hit the

motorists. The war working to pay their fuel bills, it is

extortionate. Also tonight, the Stephen Lawrence

trial, the prosecution says he was swallowed up by a group of white

youths. Border controls were relaxed 50

times in three months, the official at the centre of the row says he

did nothing wrong and comes out fighting.

I am not a rogue officer, nothing could be further from the truth.

Three men arrested after a ten- year-old boy was kidnapped and

found, hands tied in an empty flat. And, the breakthrough treatment for

liver disease that saved this toddler and could give hope to many

more. Coming up in sport on BBC News, as

England continue their preparations for Euro 2012 against Sweden, UEFA

announced they will hear Wayne Good evening. Welcome.

The public backlash against higher fuel prices reached Parliament

today come up with a vote in the next hour calling on the Government

to halt motoring costs down. The price of a litre of petrol or

diesel is due to come up by another 3p in January, adding one pan 52

the average cost of filling up. The debate was triggered by an online

petition on the Downing Street website, signed by more than

100,000 people. Take a camera on to the forecourt,

and it does not take long before drivers tell you what they think

about petrol prices. It is awful, they always hit the motorists for

everything. In this country, you are working to pay the fuel bills.

When you see the money go up, it is easy to see why many are angry,

especially when prices have trebled over 20 years. Consider this, if

prices rise by three pence, as planned in January, it will cost

the average driver one pound 50 more to fill up their car. But no

price rise could lead to a �1.5 billion loss in government revenue.

Prices have come down lately, but they are expected to rise again.

People like this man are sulphurs - - say it will put his business

under pressure. You do not know what the price will be, because it

is getting height every time. You cannot pass that onto your

government. I will not get the work. You have got to take the hit?

time. Then, those in rural communities. This woman lives in

Cumbria, and she says she needs her car for work. I am spending one

sixth of my wage on fuel, just to go to and from work, not with any

extra travelling. Consider those whose incomes of virtually fixed,

like a pensioner. Does it ever get past halfway, your tank? No, it is

too expensive. Everything is going up, white card has not go far, so I

cannot go as far. But some MPs, including many Conservatives, said

they are listening, and day-to-day called on the government to stop

the price rise. Motoring fuel has never been this expensive, except

for twice in history, during an historic crisis of supply, and this

has been driven by higher taxes, and we have to be realistic and

truthful about who pays the lion's share of the duty. It is clear that

the Government has a tough choice to make, push ahead with the rise

in duty to get much needed revenue, Strong feelings inside and outside

at Parliament, but when it changed anything? A Treasury source has

just told me they are listening to the debate that has been going on

for around three hours, even though they will not be bound by any vote

that is due to take place in an hour, and if ministers are

listening, they will have heard more than 30 MPs from all parties

and all parts of the country almost trying to outdo one another with

their tales of hardship from their constituencies, of the families and

businesses and farmers and communities that are suffering from

these high prices. As you heard, the problem for the Treasury is

that every penny cut from their duty leaves a 500 million pound

hole in the finances, they are not going to borrow more, they are

committed to reducing the debts, so the bottom line is, if there is

going to be any cut in duty, the money will have to be found from

somewhere else. That is the picture on fuel prices,

but inflation over role came down last month, from 5.2%, to 5%. What

A pensioner, a business owner and a mother, all in different ways

feeling the effects of high inflation. This man is 71, he and

his wife feel they are getting by, they sold their bungalow and moved

into a mobile home last year, because they needed the money to

live on, but inflation is eating away at the value of the cash.

we not done that, inflation would have been hurting really badly. As

it is, we are chipping away at the capital, and we are more

comfortable, but we are worried, because in the end, the capital

will run out. He wonders how the rest of his family are coping. His

daughter lives 30 miles away. She runs a website business from home.

Her husband is an accountant. She is having to think constantly about

price pressures and what that means for her spending power. This time

last year, I would have walked into a supermarket and bought whatever I

wanted to eat. This year, I am looking around and trying to find

out what is lower-priced, because the things that I want seem to be

going up all the time. Across the economy, signs that the pressures

are easing, inflation fell back slightly in October, but the cost

of living is up sharply on the year. Food prices are higher, clothes as

well, and heating and other utility bills are nearly 20% higher.

Motorists are paying over 15% more for fuel. Retailers like David

Jessey say they are doing all they can to hold back price rises. He

runs this clothing shop in Windsor, but he told me some of his costs

were rising so fast, he had to ask customers to pay more. We try and

absorb as much as possible, because we have to remain competitive with

the rest of the high street. But there comes a point when we cannot

absorb it, and it gets passed on. Inflation is still high, households

and businesses are facing a continuing squeeze, but there is a

sense that it may have peaked, with the 5.2% figure reported last month.

It is now heading downwards, with the trend going on throughout next

year, perhaps. The Bank of England governor says inflation will fall

sharply, assuming that fuel and energy price increases are not

repeated. On the high streets, they can only hope he is right.

The jury at the Old Bailey has heard how the black teenager

Stephen Lawrence was swallowed up by a group of white youths who

forced into the ground before stabbing him to death. The evidence

came in a trial of Gary Dobson and David Norris. They both deny murder.

The killing on the street on an April night in 1993 has been

endlessly scrutinised. The dark history of the Stephen Lawrence

case has now entered a new chapter. By opening the case, the

prosecution today described how he was swallowed up by the weight of

numbers and forced to the ground. Mark Ellison QC said he and his

friend had simply been trying to get a bus home. The court heard

that a Steven Burke for the bus, a group of young white men ran across

the road in front of 10. One shouted racist abuse, and then they

attacked. His friend was a bit further away, he escaped, but

Stephen fell to the ground, with two knife wounds. His attackers ran

off. Stevenage struggled to his feet, bleeding, he got a short

distance down this road, but he collapsed again. Stephen Lawrence

was just 18 when he died. There were eyewitnesses, but the case

against David Norris and Gary Dobson rests on their clothes,

seized by police. Four days ago, forensic scientists discovered a

half a millimetre long bloodstains soaked into Gary Dobson's jacket,

which the prosecution says matches Stephen Lawrence's DNA. In evidence

back, a tiny hair, again claimed it to match Stephen Lawrence's. Other

forensic evidence includes clothing fibres and flecks of blood, but Tim

Roberts QC, representing Gary The defendants argued the bags

containing their clothes have been contaminated by debris from those

containing Stephen's over the many years since the alleged murder. The

prosecution said there was no realistic possibility of that,

rather, these men were part of the group who attacked him. His father,

Neville, and mother, Doreen, will attend the trial every day, likely

to last six weeks. The senior civil servant at the

heart of the border controls Rowell has revealed that immigration

checks were relaxed 50 times in three months. Brodie Clark insisted

he was following health and safety guidance and was not a rogue

officer. Our national border is meant to

look like and be a barrier, to prevent the wrong people from

entering the country, but today we learned how many times this year

the normal checks have been suspended. Who is to blame? Theresa

May insists the man who was head of the border force acted without her

permission. Today, he, Brodie Clark, had a chance to answer back. He

told MPs at first at least about was not true. I have not wilfully

or knowingly sanctioned an alteration to checks that has

contravened existing Home Office policy. Why am not a rogue officer.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The man who was given a CBE

for services to security was suspended last week before

resigning in protest. I am very conscious that, over 40 years, I

have built up a repetition, and over two days, that has been

destroyed. What went wrong has descended into a plain game.

Theresa May insists her authority as the minister in charge was the

fight. She agreed to test the system of so-called of this club

cheques, which would allow border officers to focus on high risk

people and to check less on children, for example. But she

refused permission to suspend fingerprint tests. Brodie Clark,

the former head of the border force, admitted to relaxing controls,

including fingerprint checking, and said it had happened 50 times in

just three months. But he insisted it was in line with another policy,

supposed to ensure the safety of passengers arriving at overcrowded

airports at busy times. Tory MPs on the committee were desperate to

find him guilty and to prove Theresa May innocent. You suspended

fingerprint checks before you ask Home Secretary? Is that correct?

asked the Home Secretary on the fingerprint issue in respect of

discretionary judgments by frontline staff. Moments after he

claimed he had just been doing his job, a man who suspended him, the

chief executive of the UK Border Agency, Rob Whiteman, took the

stand. The role of the senior official is to advise ministers and

then to implement their direction, and it was absolutely clear to me

that ministers wanted fingerprint checks to be taken, and that that

had not been put into effect. are no fewer than three inquiries

into what went wrong at Britain's borders, but the Labour Party says

the public should not have to wait for the answers. What the Home

Secretary told us last week is now unravelling with the facts and

figures emerging this week. That is why she has to publish all the

information, including the instructions to the agency.

Westminster, the debate may be about who is telling the truth

beyond questions -- telling the truth. Beyond, the question is, why

is it so difficult to police and a border?

It is astonishing to think that, on 15 occasions, immigration checks

were relaxed. -- 50 occasions. was in just one period. The figures

do better, but that is how this story began. I never believed that

the Home Secretary would lose her job over this, and she feels more

secure tonight. But I have always believed she would face more

difficult questions about the state of Britain's borders. Those close

to pursue this simply. They said the man in charge of the borders

was told not to suspend fingerprint testing, he ignored the advice, and

he was suspended by his immediate boss, the chief executive of the

borders Agency. He -- but this is the detail. There was something

they all agreed on, the idea of intelligence led border checks. Do

not check buses full of children, focus on the people you might be

worried about. In addition, something else was going on but

they did not agree on. If the skies are full of planes because the

runways are full of planes full of passengers because the border

queues are too long, in that case, you can then suspend border checks.

The question that still remains to be answered tonight, just why does

this have to happen so many times in Britain? Why is it that the

border force cannot be organised in such a way that it never has to

A backlash against a planned rise in fuel duty, with calls in

Parliament for it to be scrapped. Coming up,...

How do you feel? Pretty good, strong.

She was shot in the head at point- blank range, now, she talks about

her ordeal for the first time. Later on the BBC News channel,

profits jumped at easyJet, despite soaring fuel prices, and Burberry

cashes in on wealthy shoppers, Doctors in London have cured a baby

boy from a life threatening disease which was destroying his liver.

They've used a ground-breaking procedure, implanting cells which

acted as a temporary leave that to allow the damaged organs to recover.

Researchers say the breakthrough could have consequences, as a

And need to medical marvel. Six months ago he was close to death, a

virus was destroying his liver. Now it is working normally. His parents

say eat their only child has been given back to them. It was great.

Once he had the treatment, after 48 hours, things started to get better

and hope came back. We are very proud of him. He is brilliant, he

is amazing. What saved his life was not a transplant, but deep frozen

human liver cells. Scientists at King's College Hospital coated the

cells with a chemical found in algae to prevent his body from

rejecting them. You can see the coated cells at the bottom of this

jar. Instead of going on a waiting list for a transplant, he was given

a single injection of liver cells. Their protective coating was porous

which allowed toxins to flow in, be processed and waste products and

vital proteins to flow out. Immune cells were too big to enter so

could not destroy the donor tissue. After two weeks, his liver had

started to recover. It looks normal. A key benefit over a liver

transplant is that he will never need anti-rejection drugs. Doctors

are delighted. It is only a few months back when I first saw this

child, he was so sick, he needed dialysis. And we think we have

given him another chance of life. And seeing him six months down the

road without a liver transplant is remarkable. Doctors are urging

caution that this world first might be a one-off so a large clinical

trial is planned. This is a lovely example of benched a bedside

bringing academic research and clinical treatment together in the

NHS. The next step is to see whether this technique could be

used to benefit other patients with failing livers who currently need a

transplant. Many patients died before receiving a liver transplant

so it is hoped treatment that saved this boy it will yet save many

others. News International's lawyer at the

Leveson Inquiry into press standards has apologised for phone

hacking carried out at the News of the World. But he challenged the

claim that The Sun newspaper had also been involved. It comes just

days after the company's executive chairman, James Murdoch, was

accused of misleading Parliament's inquiry into hacking.

In its first major test since forming a minority government in

Wales, Labour has lost a vote on its spending plans for next year.

The National Assembly was tied on the proposals, meaning the draft

budget failed to pass. Assembly members vote on the final budget

next month. West Midlands police are

questioning three men on suspicion of kidnap after a ten-year-old boy

went missing on a trip to the local shops. His disappearance in Oldbury

sparked a frantic search before he was found more than two hours later

in a flat nearby. Claire Marshall It is still a crime scene here

behind me and it has been ever since police officers called to the

boy to safety through an open window. He didn't know the three

men who were allegedly snatched him from the street and what is unclear

tonight is the motive. They had put Christmas decorations

up in the flat where they held a 10-year-old boy hostage. It was

through one of these windows that he cried out for help to a family

friend who was passing. His hands were tied. He called, can you help

me, I have been kidnapped. I did pause for three or four seconds. I

said wait there, I will get the police. I ran back to the police.

The boy lived on this street. On Sunday morning he left his home

just after 9am and walked this way down the road. He was expected back

soon afterwards. It was only half a mile to this shop. He bought a

drink, left and then vanished. He wasn't found for more than two

hours. This Housing Association block where he was held captive is

now being searched and is used to accommodate vulnerable people,

which could include ex-offenders. Last night local people protested,

calling for the flats to be used for something else. There is now a

real sense of fear in this community. You have children?

have a 10-year-old daughter. has it made you feel? Physically

sick. My daughter hasn't left the house since. I was sick last night,

physically sick, worrying about it. It is unbelievable. Her the

investigation goes on. The ages of the three men held have been

released. They are 49, 30 and 48. Police have until 11 o'clock

tonight to question them. The housing authority responsible

for this building have given us a statement. They said, we have

always had an excellent record with residents contributing positively

to their environment. For police have said they will interview the

boy to try to build up a clearer picture, but it seems he had a very,

very fortunate to escape. In New York, riot police have

removed hundreds of anti-Wall Street demonstrators from the

city's financial district. The encampment was the first of its

kind and led to similar tented protests around the world,

including St Paul's in London. There were at least 200 arrests

during the night-time raid, as Laura Trevelyan reports.

City of London officials are to resume legal action against anti-

capitalist protestors camped outside St Paul's Cathedral.

Demonstrators had originally been given until the new year to leave

the site - they've now been told to remove their tents within the next

24 hours or face legal action. She survived being shot in the head

at point blank range and now, with her husband at her side, the

American Congresswoman Gabriel Giffords has been speaking about

her ordeal. She said she couldn't remember much of the attack in

which six others were killed. Our Washington correspondent Ian

Pannell has this remarkable story This was Gabrielle Giffords a few

weeks after she was shot in the head. And this is her today. At

heart, this is a story of one woman's slow and painful recovery.

Her or do you feel? Pretty good. But Gabrielle Giffords is also a US

congresswoman and the attempt on her life and her struggle back to

health is captured -- has captured the popular imagination. She was

attacked during a meeting last January. Six were killed, 13

injured. Giffords was critically wounded, tissue from her brain and

part of her skull had to be removed. It was weeks before she was well

enough to be told what had happened in the attack that so many had been

injured in. And so for the last 10 months she has had to learn the

basics of life again. Captured on film by her husband as she learns

how to walk and how to talk. Songs have been used to help her recover

her speech. But it has been a long, difficult

I would say, Gabby, you have not been beaten, you have just been

beaten up and you will get through this and recover and you will come

back stronger than ever. progress has been remarkable, but

she still struggles to put thoughts She wants to get better. She was

trying to answer a question about whether she will return to Congress.

But for now Gabriel and her husband are focused on trying to get her

well again. It should -- it could take years and there's no guarantee

take years and there's no guarantee Incredible woman. Let's take a look

at the weather forecast. Some bona sunshine on offer today.

The cloud broke up a little bit more than we were anticipated and

it turned into a fine afternoon in England and Wales. The cloud was

more stock than in the north-east. At this time of year, often it

turns chilly after a sunny day and that will be the case tonight. Some

fog patches in the far north-west. Elsewhere, cloud expands overnight

and it will turn misty. Maybe some players Barlow's -- clear skies

later in the south-east corner. Most places will stay five or six

degrees above zero. On Wednesday it is a question of where we will see

the cloud. I am hopeful for more brightness in north-east England

and eastern Scotland. In the West it will stay in predominantly

cloudy, certainly in the far south- west where we are expecting some

rain in the afternoon. Eventually that rain will become more

expensive across Wales through the evening. We will also see things

turning increasingly drab across Northern Ireland. A cloudy

afternoon and a little bit of light rain and drizzle. Northern Scotland

could get some sunshine, but there could also be some stubborn fog

patches. Eastern Scotland should eventually brighten up and I am

hopeful north-eastern England will be a bit brighter than today. A lot

of question marks about where we will see the sun. Where it stays

dull, tempers have eight or nine. With sunshine, we might reach 12 or

13. Rain in the West will become more widespread across Wales and

south-west England, up to Northern needed -- Northern Ireland. Still

around in the north-west on Thursday. Rain might push back into

Northern Ireland later. Foremost Northern Ireland later. Foremost

Thursday looks bright. Temperatures on the mild side.

A reminder of tonight's main news. There's a backlash against a