14/12/2011 BBC News at Six

Unemployment rises to its highest level for 17 years.

It now stands at more than 2.6 million with young people bearing

the brunt of it. I find it very hard to even come across a job I

would apply for nevermind get an interview for.

Job losses in the public sector far outnumber those created in the

private sector. The central economic claim that he made that

the private sector would fill the gap left by the public sector has

not been met. His plans are for more spending, more borrowing, more

debt, more of the mess we started with.

Also on tonight's programme: Lloyds Bank is to sell more than

600 of its branches to the Co-Op. At the Stephen Lawrence trial - the

mother of one of the accused says her son was at home the night of

the murder. The man who attacked and killed

shoppers in Belgium - police discover the body of a woman close

to his home. And the Royal family go globe

trotting for the Diamond Jubilee, visiting every country where the

Queen is head of state. I'll be here with Sportsday later

Good evening. Welcome to the BBC News at 6.00pm. Unemployment has

risen sharply to more than 2.64 million, its highest level for 17

years. Women and young people are the worst affected with the jobs

created in the private sector dwarfed by those lost in the public

sector. There is some good news among the gloom - Morrisons

supermarkets says it will create more than 7,000 new jobs next year

as it opens 25 new stores. Here's our chief economics correspondent

Hugh Pym. It's hard to find any good news in

these figures. Unemployment was up 128,000 over the three months to

October to leave a total of 2.64 million. That's equivalent to 8.3%

of the workforce, the highest since the mid 1990s. Around the UK, few

job seekers are finding the task at all easy. In Glasgow, Therese Leahy

will soon qualify as a physiotherapist. She's becoming

increasingly worried about her job prospects. It's quite competitive.

But it's the same - the problems of the job market isn't isolated to

physiotherapy. It's the same across all courses - business, education,

engineering. All students have the same difficulties we face.

Northern Ireland, unemployment fell slightly, but that didn't help

Kevin Davidson in Belfast. He has been looking for work in the

construction industry, but has had no joy, so is heading to Australia,

and he isn't the only one. Out of a master's course of 36 people, there

would be about 35 people from that one particular course going to

Australia. It's mix between architects, engineers and planners.

One of the key economic debates this year has been over the ability

of the private sector to take up the slack as the Government cuts

back employment levels because of its deficit reduction plan. The

latest figures suggest private employers aren't creating enough

jobs to compensate for losses across the public sector. There was

a big gap over the three months to September. Public sector employment

fell by 67,000 to the lowest level in eight years. The number of

private sector employees increased by just 5,000 over that time.

And that provoked fierce clashes in the House of Commons at Prime

Minister's Questions. He cannot deny that the central economic

claim that he made that the private sector would fill the gap left by

the public sector has not been met. He has broken his promise. It is

this Government that has got interest rates down to 2%. That is

why we have the prospects of growth, whereas his plans are for more

spending, more borrowing, more debt, more of the mess that we started

with. There was positive news on jobs from the Bradford headers of

the supermarket chain Morrisons. It says it will create 7,000 new posts

next year as it opens 25 new stores around the country. At least half

will be part-time. But that has to be set against more gloomy news

from travel giemt Thomas Cook. It increased its store closures to 200.

600 jobs are at risk. The economy is generating and cutting jobs

every month. Workers can only hope the balance is positive. Right now

it isn't. Hugh Pym is with me here. Are these

unemployment figures likely to get worse? Obviously, it's grim for

people looking for work out there right now. People who study the

market closely say it's not as bad as it might have been. If you look

at the narrow measure of unemployment, the so-called

claimant account of those signing up at job centres it hardly went up

the past couple of months, though it's still pretty high. Looking

into next year every forecaster says unemployment will go up. Even

the Government's forecast to the OBR says there will be possibly an

increase of a couple hundred thousand. That's based on an

assumption of some growth next year. If there is a serious eurozone

crisis that hits the UK, it could be even worse than that. One thing

is clear - unemployment isn't going to come down in a hurry. Thank you

very much. And there'll be more on the

employment situation where you are at 6.30pm here on BBC One.

The Stephen Lawrence murder trial has been told that one of the men

accused of killing the teenager was at home on the night of the murder

in south London 18 years ago. Pauline Dobson, the mother of Gary

Dobson, claimed her son was in the house all evening. Gary Dobson and

co-defendant David Norris both deny murder. Our home affairs

correspondent Matt Prodger reports. Pauline Dobson outside the court

where her son was in the dock accused of murder. She'd been

called to speak in Gary Dobson's defence. The court was told about

the moment when Stephen Lawrence was attacked by a gang of young

white men in 1993. The murder took place in the Eltham area of South

London. Stephen Lawrence and Duwane Brooks had been waiting for a bus

on Well Hall Road. When it didn't come, they walked a short distance

to look for it. It was here they were attacked by a gang which ran

across the road. Stephen was stabbed but managed to run before

collapsing and dying. Pauline Dobson told the court that at that

time she saw her son at home making toast in his boxer shorts. Gary

Dobson originally told police he'd stayed there all night, but then

admitted he'd later gone to the home of two brothers, suspects in

the original police investigation, the Acourts.

The prosecution asked Pauline Dobson why in 1996 she'd told

police that she'd seen her son in her kitchen ten or 15 minutes after

the murder, by which time the prosecution says the attackers

could have returned home. She replied that her recollection was

accurate, give or take ten minutes and that Gary Dobson had been at

home all evening. Gary Dobson's father Stephen also told the court

his son had been at home. "I'd have been aware if he'd gone out the

door", he said. Earlier Gary Dobson himself was asked about the moment

a group of white youths chanced upon Stephen Lawrence and his

Tomorrow, David Norris, the other man accused of the murder, will

give evidence in court. Lloyds Bank is set to sell over 600

of its branches to the Co-Op. It's being forced into the sale by

European competition rules, and with tens of billions of pounds

worth of deposits and mortgages, the deal is expected to make a

significant impact on high street banking. Our business editor Robert

Peston has more details. Louds is selling 632 branches

serving five million customers. The preferred bidder is the Co-op. It's

the biggest ever sale by branches of customers' savings, and unlike

big banks, the Co-op is owned by its customers, not by investors.

People talk about creating a people's bank. Look no further. We

are the people's bank. We're owned and controlled by seven million

members, and that's a very, very different business model to the PLC

model within which the current big five banks operate. If the deal

goes through it would be a bit of history because for the past 20

years, building societies owned by their members, the likes of Abbey

National, Bradford and Bingley, the Halifax and Woolwich became banks

listed on the stock market, but this big chunk of Lloyds looks as

though it's going in the other direction, to become part of what's

known as a mutual. The Co-op would get a business with �36 billion of

customer'ssive savings and with a share of just under 5% of the

current market. Adding that with the Co-op's existing bank would

give a share of 7.6%, a big enough organisation, many think, to give

the big banks a run for their money. If it goes through, it would be

good. It would be a strong challenger to the four dominant

banks on the High Street, but it would leave behind luge Lloyds Bank

with 2,500 branches and a quarter of the market. The Government must

make them go further. Among the Lloyds branches being sold are 104

Cheltenham and Gloucester branches. That'll pose many customers with a

dilemma because Lloyds will want them to transfer across to the new

owner, likely to be the Co-op, but will all those customers think

that's a great idea? To be clear, the sale to the Co-op isn't done.

There are hurdles - integration of complicated a computer systems,

approval of the regulator, the absence of revolt by customers

asked to move their accounts, but if the deal goes through, it would

change banking as we know it just a bit.

A minute's silence has been held in the Belgian city of Liege to

remember the victims of a gun and grenade attack there yesterday. The

body of a woman has been added to the death toll, discovered close to

the home of the gunman Nordine Amrani. From Liege, here's our

Europe correspondent Matthew Price. You're looking at the killer of

Liege, Nordine Amrani, a gun fanatic, now turned mass murderer.

Here they will never forget the day he entered their world, the day he

ended several lives and ruined dozens more. Jean Michelle is one

of many school children caught up in the attack. He was shot in the

hip. His friend Pierre was killed. TRANSLATION: Everybody ran, ran,

ran. Everybody was panicking. I heard gunshots. I fell. I'd been

hit, shot through my hip, but I managed to get on to the bus.

were the scenes moments after one of his grenades had exploded. At

least one teenager died on the spot. More than 120 people were injured.

This is the vantage point that just 24 hours ago Nordine Amrani chose

for himself. He would have known that he had the potential to kill

and injure vast numbers of people. He threw three grenades towards the

bus shelters and then started firing upon the crowds below, and

then just up there, the police say he shot himself. His killing spree,

though, had started even earlier. Today the police said they'd found

the body of a cleaner in his garage. He'd shot her. Up the road, his

home, with a string of weapons, drug and sex offences, the police

knew him well. The bullet scars now are a source of fascination and

horror. The glass will be repaired. The buses are moving again. Life

goes on, but not for 17-month-old Gabrielle. His mother heard a bang

and saw his eyes roll back in his head. "I wish I'd died instead of

him," she said. The Government has confirmed it's

going ahead with controversial plans to let farmers shoot badgers

in an effort to combat the spread of TB among cows. Two six-week

trials will begin next year, before a decision is made on whether to

roll out the slaughter of badgers more widely across England.

Opponents of a cull say there should be more focus on developing

TB vaccines. In England up to 24,000 people with

diabetes are dying unnecessarily every year according to new

research. Young women who have the disease are nine times more likely

to die than those who don't, and experts say the mortality rate will

increase unless there are changes in the way diabetes is managed. Our

health correspondent Jane Hughes is here with the details. Jane, these

are alarming figures. Aren't they? Yes, they are. Diabetes can be a

devastating condition, and this study makes it clear just how much

an impact it's having. It affects 2.3 million people across the UK.

Complications can include heart disease, stroke, kidney damage and

even blindness if patients don't control their insulin levels. The

side effects can be deadly. In England alone there are 24,000

preventable deaths linked to diabetes every year. Jenna was

nearly one of them. This was her in Intensive Care earlier this year

after falling into a potentially deadly coma. It happened because

she wasn't managing her type one diabetes properly. She now makes

sure she sees her specialist regularly. Since being in hospital,

I test four times a day. I eat proper meals, and I make sure that

my blood sugar is in a decent reading. It's unusual for someone

of her age to die, but this study shows the increased risk of

diabetic 15 to 34-year-olds is much greater than it is for younger

patients. Young women with type one diabetes are more nine times more

likely to die than of the same age. Young men are four times more

likely to die. To prevent complications, patients should have

regular health checks and watch their blood sugar levels, but

that's not happening everywhere. Some worry that the NHS

reorganisation in England will make diabetes care less coordinated. The

Department of Health says that mustn't happen. We need to make

sure we maintain integrated care that we help commissioners

commission it properly and that we work with doctors and nurses and

others delivering diabetes care to link up with each other so that

care does not become fragmented and disintegrated. That's a challenge

right across the UK, though this study concentrates on England.

Rising levels of obesity mean diabetes is a greeing problem

Unemployment hits 2.6 million. Its highest level for 17 years. The

jubilee tour. Senior Royals will head for the Queen's 15 realms.

Later on the BBC News Channel, worries over the eurozone debt

crisis continue pushing the euro down to a low against the dollar.

More on grim results from the tour operator Thomas cook. Surgeons at a

hospital in Wales have been forced to suspend operations after thieves

stole 100 metres of copper cables from a generator. It happened on

the very Day police launched a crackdown to curb the rise in metal

thefts across the country. Dozens of patients arrived at this

hospital in south Wales today to find their operations were

cancelled, including two waiting for vital treatment, all because

thieves had taken the copper from a backup generator. There were two

breast cancer patients for whom we have had to defer their surgery.

That is a draw mat -- traumatic impact for those patients.we will

re-schedule them as quibblingly as possible. I don't underestimate the

trauma associated with that. Thieves taking advantage of the

high price of metal have put lives at risk. It was the theft of copper

that caused this explosion in Yorkshire earlier this year.

Despite the dangers, the trade continues. Some dealers aren't

apparently concerned about where the Metal comes from. This

investigation by BBC London found scrap dealers willing to buy what

they believe to be stolen cables. Even one willing to give advice.

there is anyway you Coburn it, pull your copper out, they don't know

different. This scrapyard accepted responsibility for taking the cable.

It said the man filmed didn't know what he was doing. Metal theft is

costing the economy millions of pounds every year. Today, as part

of a crackdown across England and Wales, police forces were searching

scrapyards. They didn't find anything stolen here, this is what

as man was carrying nearby. account was differing about where

he got it. He told us he finding it lying around. The right and proper

thing to do isn't to take it your local scrapyard and weigh it in,

it's to hand it to your local police. The Home Office is looking

at strengthening the legislation that governs this industry. People

may need identification. We checked on vehicle registration numbers.

Some people's names don't exist and the vehicles aren't in existence

either. Businesses are looking into what can be done to trace metal

that can only be traced to back of lorries. Angela Merkel has sought

to calm nerves in the European Union after last week's summit. She

says Britain will remain a strong partner in the EU. Signs of growing

dissent are emerging among some EU countries about what might be in

the new treaty. We can talk to Nick Robinson at Westminster. There is

always a chance that tensions among the 26 countries might emerge,

wasn't there? There was a chance. The Prime Minister is trying to

encourage those tensions and is talking them up. He has been

talking to his backbench MPs at a private meeting upstairs from here.

He told his MPs that there was a chance that this would not be 26

against 1. Britain, other countries might shift their positions.

Earlier today he talked to the Swedish Prime Minister. They have

doubts about this. They described it as a blank piece of paper and

have worries about whether they can get their Parliament to support. It

he talked to the Irish Prime Minister who has worries in the

European Union has taxes and the British don't that may help us,

rather than hinder he might have to have a referendum. There is a long

way from where we are now, which is the agreement of 26 countries to

try to form a new treaty, and actually getting one which we won't

know until next mafpb March. subject of Europe was the subject

of lively exchanges at Prime Minister questions this afternoon?

It was always going to be lively after a big week like this and

lively in the last Prime Minister's Questions before Christmas. It will

be lively when Ed Miliband is able to mock the coalition for being so

obs obviously split on this issue of Europe. The Labour leader

welcomed Nick Clegg back into the House of Commons. He wasn't there

of course on Monday for the big statement on Europe. Then read out

a quote about how the coalition would bring a more "Coe league it

approach" he thought it was a great joke. The joke ended up on him.

bound to ask, what's gone wrong? will answer. Look, no-one in this

House is going to be surprised that Conservatives and Liberal Democrats

don't always agree about Europe. Let me reassure him, he shouldn't

believe everything he reads in the papers. It is... No, it's not that

bad. It's not like we're brothers or anything! There could have been

a word in the think bubbles above the heads of members of Parliament.

It would have been this "ouch" Ed Miliband discovered this week,

despite this terrible economic news, despite this isolation in Europe

Labour has gone behind in the opinion polls. Politics is a team

game. It's partly about moral. The truth is, the Tory moral is good,

Labour's is bad. Now, Labour says what matters are judgments, not

jokes. That is what you always say when you are the butt of one. Thank

you. The former legal manager of the News of the World said today

that he told James Murdoch there was "source of great controversy"

that phone-hacking at the paper extended beyond a single reporter.

Tom Crone told the Leveson Inquiry into press ethics that he showed

the News International Chairman a printout of a key e-mail at a

meeting three years ago. James Murdoch has always claimed he

didn't know that phone-hacking was rife. This report contains flash

photography. Tom Crone told the inquiry that James Murdoch was

briefed about the extent of phone- hacking. The Chief Executive of

News International claimed he wasn't told the full story.

Yesterday he conceded he was sent e-mails which he didn't fully read.

Mr Crone recalled a meeting with Mr Murdoch last sum tore which he said

he took copies of documents and e- mails and in which he claims they

discussed the severety of the situation. This document clearly

was direct and hard evidence. inquiry also heard from the News of

the World's former editor, Colin Myler, the paper's last editor. He

was asked about the publication of Kate McCann's diaries. He thought

the McCann's representative had given them the go-ahead.

Acknowledgeed they subsequently printed an apology and paid a

significant sum into the Madeleine McCann fund. In it was an

acceptance and acknowledgment that there had been a misplaced

understanding that we had Kate's permission. We made that very clear

that the last thing we wanted to do was to cause her any more distress.

Another bereaved family was spoken of, the dhowers. Following

revelation that the News of the World may not have been responsible

for deleting voicemail's on their daughter's phone, council for the

victims told the inquiry: This journalist asked Mr Lewis whether,

and I quote "in view of these revelations will the dhowers be

giving thaifr money back?". Daily Mail issued a statement

saying they refute the allegation they attacked the Dowler family and

said the call to the family solicitor was a "perfectly

legitimate journalistic inquiry". The Royal Family will maubg the

Queen's Diamond Jubilee by touring the globe. Buckingham Palace said

even senior royals will visit the 15 nations where the Queen is Head

of State. The Golden Jubilee of 2002 brought out the crowds and

took the Queen and her husband to many different parts of the United

Kingdom notwithstanding by next summer she will be ten years old

the programme for the Diamond Jubilee is said by the Palace to be

more extensive. The Queen will concentrate on the UK. Members of

her family visit the 15 other countries of which she is Head of

State and other Commonwealth Commonwealth countries. This is how

the Diamond Jubilee programme looks for Britain. The Queen's visit will

It will undoubtedly be a test of stamina. She has been doing it for

60 years. That is what keeps her going. Also, her entire devotion to

duty. This is what she gave her life for. She really has given her

life for it. It will be 115 years since Britain last witnessed a

Diamond Jubilee. That was in 1897 for Queen Vic tore ya. More than a

century later, Britain will have another opportunity to express its

feelings for another long-lived Queen. The programme for next year

will be carefully paced, but the Palace say it's the Queen's express

wish to visit as much of the country that she can. Let's take a

look at the weather now. John look at the weather now. John

Hammond is here. We are closing in on the storm. Shall I say, the

storm is closing in on us. Watch this space. We are firming up on

ideas as I speak. Ahead of that a whole cluster of showers this

evening through South West England. Some very, very strong winds. Guss

of 70mph to 80mph. The Channel Islands badly affected. They will

brush on to the south coast of England as well. The main hazard

over night will be ice and fog. Ice almost anywhere as temperatures

fall, close to freezing. Fog across Northern Ireland and central and

southern Scotland and northern England as well. Wintry start to

Thursday. Another cold day. Many of us will enjoy a fine enough day,

the calm before the storm. There will be some showers around.

Through the afternoon I think we can trace one particular band

running from Northern Ireland down through the Irish Sea ahead of that

some brightness in Scotland and north-east England. Maybe sleet and

snow up over the high ground. Some sunshine before trouble looms to

the South West. It will turn increasingly wet and windy across

the South West of England. A taste of things to come. Snow is of most

concern across parts of Wales, Midlands and northern England. A

real mixture of severe weather out there. It looks as if the storm

will track close to the south coast and into southern parts of East

Anglia. The risk of damaging winds is limited, we think. There is an

alternative, the low moves further northwards. If that happens we

could well see damaging winds across the far south-east. We are