10/01/2012 BBC News at Six

London to Birmingham in 45 minutes. The controversial high-speed rail

line gets Government approval. Ministers say it's a green light

for the biggest transport project since the start of the motorway era.

We are ready for a new chapter in Britain's transport history, one

that's designed to boost our economy and our country just as the

first coming of the railways or the motorways did for previous

generations. My decision to give the go-ahead to High Speed Two.

There is still plenty of opposition. It could be more than a decade

before the first passenger steps onboard. Initial reaction was the

shock, horror, I think. My reaction is even worse today. Also tonight:

The row over the future of the Union. Westminster says only it can

decide when Scotland holds an independence referendum. We are not

going to be dragooned by a Tory Prime Minister in London. These

days are over. A key-note speech from the Labour Leader. Ed Miliband

is ready to make a break from the Blair/Brown era.

The revolution in your living room. Forget about the computer and the

TV, it is about to become the same thing.

In sport: Mark Hughes is confirmed as the new manager of Queens Park

Rangers. He's signed a two-and-a- Good evening. Welcome to the BBC

News at Six. You would be travelling at over 200mph, getting

from London to Birmingham in 45 minutes. That is the prospect now

that the Government's given the green light to a high-speed rail

line. Eventually, it will reach Manchester, Leeds and Glasgow. It

could take 14 years before the first passengers get to board the

train. In the meantime, there are still plenty of people who want to

kill off the whole project. High Speed Two will be the longest

major new railway line since the Victorian era and it's been given

the go-ahead today. A network of faster, longer trains designed to

take the pressure off the country's busiest lines and offer some relief

to commuters. Not a single seat, overcrowded, jammed, everyone on

top of each other. Not a good start to the day. Getting a seat on the

train isn't easy. If you do have to stand, that is not great.

Transport Secretary says HS2 will change the way we travel in Britain.

Our Victorian predecessors would have had immense pride to see their

railways providing massive benefit today over 100 years later. But as

a result of today's announcement, the railway revolution they started

is happening again. Super-fast trains need straight track hence

the controversial route. Beginning at Euston Station in London where

commuters and residents face years of disruption. It travels north to

the Chilterns. Extra tunnels have been added to calm fears, but for

protesters in one pub, including a famous face, it is not enough.

Announcing my decision to give the go-ahead to High Speed Two. Initial

reaction was the shock-horror, I think. My reaction is even worse

today. The Government hasn't listened. Trains continue north

past Warwick and Coventry to Birmingham where there is more

support. Afternoon. This businessman thinks it will make the

UK more competitive. If you look at the modern railways today around

the world - I travel China and I travel in Europe - what I see there

is the ability to get from A to B in short time and that is what's

key to us here. The UK does already have a high-speed rail line linking

up Kent and London and we are doing 140mph on that train now. The new

trains will be travelling at least 85mph faster than this. Travelling

at that speed saves half an hour on a trip to Birmingham. Next stop the

Government wants to extend the line further north to Manchester and to

Leeds. Total cost? �33 billion. Stage one alone could create 40,000

jobs. The Government says for every �1 it spends, the economy could

make up to �2.50 back. But how much will a ticket be? We are concerned

that actually what will happen with High Speed Two is what happened

with High Speed One. Passengers from Kent had to pay 3% above

inflation for a number of years in fares rises. Don't start queuing

just yet, even without delays it will be 14 years before the first

passengers can board a train. Richard is at Euston Station.

Government approval, Richard, but not a done deal? It is certainly

not. MPs will spend the next two years talking to people affected by

the line. They then have to vote a Bill through Parliament. I have

been speaking to opponents. They are seriously considering legal

action, not necessarily to stop the scheme, but to try it bog it down

in the courts until an election is looming and maybe the Government

just gives up. Thank you very much.

In the last hour, the row over the future of the Union has taken a new

twist. Westminster says only it can decide to hold a Scottish

independence referendum. Scotland's First Minister, Alex Salmond, had

strong words for David Cameron. He said it was "entirely unacceptable

for Westminster to try to set conditions for a Scottish

referendum". They have been under starter's

orders since the SNP won a majority last May. The two sides for and

against independence manoeuvring for position. Much of the detail of

the referendum is still unclear, or disputed. Alex Salmond today

visiting a factory near Aberdeen said those details were for

Scotland and Scotland only to decide. He condemned what he called

David Cameron's interference. is a huge decision for Scotland.

This is potentially the biggest decision we have made for 300 years.

We will not be stampeded by a Tory Prime Minister in London. These

days are over. MPs have been hearing details of the UK

Government's plans for what it describes as a fair, legal and

decisive referendum. It insists the Parliament 400 miles away in

Edinburgh does not have the legal right to legislate for the vote.

These issues are not for politicians alone to consider. That

is why the consultation process that starts today will let people

express their views on when a referendum should be held, what

questions should be asked, who should be entitled to vote and how

the campaign should be run. In the papers, there is a growing

awareness about how important this issue will be to the future of

Scotland and the United Kingdom. So when the referendum is finally held,

will people really care enough to come out and vote? A lot of it is

about mobilising opinion. We have seen referendums in Wales, there

was the AV referendum where people were not mobilised to vote.

Something as fundamental as independence, I think that would

provoke a great deal of interest and high levels of turnout.

timing of a referendum is still uncertain. But both sides in this

debate are already racing to convince voters of the merits of

Scotland going it alone, or remaining part of the UK.

Let's talk to Nick Robinson who is at Westminster. The latest

intervention from London will look like Westminster throwing the

gauntlet? It is certainly something we have never seen before, that

historians will talk about today. The day this Parliament here in

Westminster sent a message to the Parliament in Edinburgh saying,

"Work with us to hold a referendum on Scottish independence or we will

see you in court." The message coming from Ministers here in this

place is, "You don't have the power, we are happy to loan you the power

for a time limited period, but if you don't work with us on the

nature of the question of when the referendum is had and even on who

gets to vote, then we will see you in court." There would be a dispute

in the Supreme Court between the Parliaments of Scotland and of the

United Kingdom. Things are moving extraordinarily fast on this story,

George. Even since Lorna filed her report a moment ago, the Scottish

Government is now telling the BBC that it wants to hold the vote on

independence in the autumn of 2014. Not soon enough to satisfy people

here, also not satisfactory to people here is the fact that they

want to involve 16 and 17-year-olds in that vote, people who don't

normally vote in elections, and they want to have a vote not just

on independence, but on increased powers. This is the beginning of a

battle that will run and run. The Labour Leader says the party

needs to make a break with the Tony Blair-Gordon Brown era. In a key-

note speech, seen by many as an answer to critics inside and

outside the party, Mr Miliband said Labour would deliver fairness even

in tough economic times when there is less money to spend.

What's Labour for if it can't spend money? That is the question Ed

Miliband set out to answer today. In Government he was able to

promise more cash for hospitals and schools. No more. He presented

himself as the man who understands that his party must change, finding

new ways to help the least well-off in a time of austerity. Whoever is

the next Prime Minister will have a deficit to reduce and less money to

spend. That has profound implications for our country and

for my party. So, if he couldn't protect the winter fuel allowance,

he would force energy firms to cut their prices for pensioners over 75.

He would make train companies keep their fares down and he would tax

banks to keep tuition fees low. He scorned David Cameron's claims that

the Government was tackling irresponsible bosses. I say to the

Prime Minister, "Who are you trying to kid? Nobody is going to believe

you came into politics to end crony capitalism." Now that he has

accepted that this is the battleground of politics, I say

bring it on! Can that message win over voters in seats like Hendon in

North London, that Labour lost at the last election and needs to win

back if it is to return to power? Ed Miliband knows that come the

next general election he won't be able to promise more money to

places like this. He will have to convince people that he can fix the

economy while also helping those struggling to make ends meet. The

question is is anyone listening? At this playgroup, mothers said Mr

Miliband was right to focus on "the squeezed middle" but can he make

things better? I hope so. I don't know that Mr Miliband is the leader

that we are looking for. You need a leader with real charisma. Tony

Blair may have had any number of issues, but he had the charisma to

lead. The message is going the right way but it is whether he can

deliver on what he says he can. recent days, Ed Miliband has faced

criticism from some in his party and his aides insisted today's

speech was no re-launch of his leadership. The polls are bleak.

Only 54% of Labour voters say they are satisfied. 83% of Conservative

voters are happier with the way he does his job. He has got a tough

wicket. Nobody has become Prime Minister as Leader of the

Opposition with these ratings. Today's speech was billed as Ed

Miliband's answer to his critics. Even he accepts he is yet to win

the argument on the economy. There are fewer jobs for British-

born workers because of immigration from outside the European Union,

that is according to a new report from the Government-backed

migration Advisory Committee. It says for every 100 migrants from

outside the EU, there are 23 fewer jobs for British workers. It also

estimates that between 1995 and 2010, 160,000 British workers lost

out. Azmat Prodger reports, the overall impact of immigration on

the British economy remains unclear. -- as Matt Prodger reports, the

overall impact of immigration on the British economy remains unclear.

This man is Albanian. Some British workers feel a bit lazy. Foreign

workers do give 110%. He is not alone in that view. His boss, who

is British-born, reckons 1% of the job applications he receives come

from his fellow countrymen. We get a much higher number of

applications from foreign workers. Then furthermore, it tends to be

the foreign workers that possess the skills we are looking for.

they work harder than British workers? They have a far stronger

work ethic. Government policy is focused on cutting non-EU migrants.

They have a short-term negative impact on the work prospects of

British people. Today's report says that while the economy has a whole

may benefit from immigration, that is no consolation to British-born

workers. So why a hotel like this may seem migrant workers as its

lifeblood, there is resentment elsewhere. There is too many coming

from abroad to do what the English youngsters should be doing. There

are no jobs for anybody. The more people they keep bringing over to

the country, it is making it harder for everybody else. Today another

respected research group said immigration has almost no effect on

unemployment. There is no association between the number of

immigrants coming to an area and what happened to unemployment

benefit claimants. Areas which got more immigrants didn't see a faster

rise in the number of people claiming jobseekers' allowance.

What is apparent is that when times are good, immigration can help.

When times are bad like now, it is Our top story - London to

Birmingham in 45 minutes. The controversial high-speed rail line

gets government approval. Come On Up, it is make-or-break

tonight for the British men's gymnastics team hoping to qualify

for London 2012. Later on the BBC News Channel, a

last-minute rush boosts Christmas sales at M&S and Debenhams. And RBS

prepares to cut 3000 jobs as it Now, most of us have a TV just for

watching programmes like this, and a computer somewhere else to go on

the internet. Well, that is all about change. You will do it all,

from watching your favourite soap to doing your online shopping, on

the same screen. Our technology and correspondent reports from

California on the revolution in your living room. His report

contains flash in images. San Francisco, the gateway to

Silicon Valley, where so much of the technology which has changed

our lives has been born. I have come to see how the software firms

here plan to transform another industry. The internet revolution

has been slow to hit television. Silicon Valley believes it can now

change our relationship with TV. One small San Francisco software

company, Dijit, has a big idea. Here is the problem. Today's TV

user has almost too much choice - lots of material in the form of

movies, programmes, sport and so on, lots of set-top boxes and all of

these remote controls for access to that material. What if we took them

away and replaced them with one screen which would allow us to

control access to all of this television? Dijit believes this

second screen, whether it tablet computer or a smartphone, can make

choosing what we watch and sharing it with friends easier. But it was

when I headed to Google's HQ that I found the firm with the biggest

ambitions. Google TV brings the where and applications like those

on a smartphone to your living room. So far, it has struggled to attract

an audience, but now it will be built into many new televisions.

People classic estate television is a lean back experience. The

internet is a lean forward experience. What do you know about

TV? Google is very good at helping users find what they want. That is

what we believe in. We can use technology to help users find what

they want when they want. I left Silicon Valley and the software

firms and set off to Las Vegas to get another view on the future of

television. This week, every big TV manufacturer is in town for the

consumer electronics show, and the battle is on between the likes of

Samsung and Sony to be the big players in smart TV. They believe

that Connecting your set to the net will soon come naturally. Just as

when a consumer goes out and buys a PC, they don't think twice about

having to connect to the network, when you buy a TV and bring it home,

you should connect it to the internet. The screens get ever

bigger and slimmer, the pictures ever sharper. Now television is

getting smarter, and hoping that viewers will come along on the

journey. Syria's President Assad has

delivered a defiant speech as violent protests continue against

his regime. He said there was a foreign conspiracy behind the

unrest, and he promised to use an iron fist to deal with it. But the

speech has been dismissed by the opposition groups behind the ten-

month uprising. Business as usual in Syria.

President Assad's speech promised more of the same, an iron fist, he

called it. So today, this latest amateur video, apparently shows a

suburb of the capital, Damascus, with tanks on the streets. It is

only the fourth speech by Syria's leader in 10 months of this crisis.

He said the country was facing terrorism, and he blamed a

conspiracy on foreign powers. The dark aims of warmongers outside our

clear now, he says. He went on to attack the foreign media. They want

to shake Syria's stability, he says. They are stoking fear, pushing us

to collapse. At the start of this crisis, President Assad was seen

almost as above the fray. The street protesters pinned their

hopes on him to bring in reforms. Now they just want him to go. The

opposition accuses him of pushing the country close to civil war. The

regime has learnt nothing from the past 10 months, said the head of

the main opposition group. It is more extreme now than ever. Arab

League monitors have failed to calm things. President Assad attacked

them. The opposition want foreign military intervention, but help is

not on the way. Syria is at the heart of the Middle East. What

happens in Syria is unlikely to remain in Syria. There are any

number of scenarios where there are significant spillover effects

towards Israel, Turkey and the Gulf. So on the ground, both sides now

seem to be expecting an escalation in the violence.

"Tinkering around the edges" will not be enough to solve the problems

in the newspaper industry. That's according to Lord Leveson, the

judge in charge of the media ethics inquiry. He has today been hearing

evidence from editors and chief executives of broadsheet newspapers.

Most agreed that substantial reform is needed. They are titles at the

top - what used to be the broadsheet end of the market,

anxious about recent failings, but as concerned about their tabloid

colleagues about what they see as the threat to the freedom of the

press. This was the assertion from Lionel Barber, editor of the

Financial Times. I strongly believe that there is a public interest in

freedom of expression itself. after the phone hacking scandal, he

said the industry had to change. This was a shocking episode. All of

us, and I speak for myself, believe that as a result, we need to change

the way we do business. Them from the Lord Justice Leveson, some

clues about how his mind is thinking. First he doubts the

durability of wake-up calls. will understand my concern. But

there have been wake-up calls in the past and everybody has woken up,

and then it all just appears to have drifted off again. No justice

Leveson suggested that the press's problems might require a

substantial remedy. It will not be good enough, in my present view,

although I am listening and will continue to listen to everything

everybody is saying, but it will not do just to think that one can

tinker around the edges. Other editors from the Independent and

Telegraph stressed the importance of a free press. In the Telegraph's

case, it had exposed corruption by MPs with its stories about their

expenses, points which Lord Justice Leveson was at pains to recognise.

As well as recognising its strengths, Lord Justice Leveson has

to recommend remedies for the industry's problems. Judging by his

comments today, he favours an organisation which is independent

from the media and independent from government to regulate the industry

effectively. It's make-or-break tonight for the

British men's gymnastics team who are hoping to qualify for London

2012. The athletes need to secure a place in the top four of the

Gymnastics International competition to get through. If they

don't, it will be the first major blow for Team GB. Let's go live to

the O2 Arena and our sports correspondent. A lot is at stake,

then? Absolutely. But for the North Greenwich arena, as the O2 Arena

will be learnt -- known as this week and during the Olympics

themselves, it is crunch time for a female gymnasts. It is all ready

one of London's most iconic buildings.

Today it became an Olympic landmark. This may be the latest in a series

of 2012 dress-rehearsal us, but as the first Test event of the year

got under way, this felt like the real thing. For those competing

today, it mattered, a last chance to qualify for the London Games and

returned in the summer. We have had a fantastic cycle over the last

four years. We have had medals in the European Championships. Louis

Smith's bronze medal in 2008 raised expectations, but a surprise series

of mishaps at the world championships last year saw the

men's team failed to secure an Olympic berth. Tonight only a top

four finish will do. The girls managed to get through into a cure

and the boys just missed out. But they have had a good run up to this

competition. So hopefully, they will do the job tonight. This arena

will hold 60,000 spectators, come the Olympics. There are those here

today, an early taste of London 2012. I think it brings it to life.

Have you got tickets for the real thing? No. We put in a bid, but did

not get any. It is the first time we have put on an event here. Our

teams are here. It is a real thrill to be here and see it in Olympic

mode. A events like this make London 2012 seem closer than ever.

Now the hosts need to make sure they are back here are the main

event. After last week's embarrassing suspension of the

Olympic tickets resale website, organisers needed some good news.

In less than an hour, Team GB's male gymnasts will take to the

floor and try and provide it by booking a place in the Games. We

And some gymnastics from the weather over the next few days. Big

changes coming up. It has been yet another mild day, and it will stay

mild overnight tonight for most of us, courtesy of a lot of cloud.

Northern parts of England and Wales will see drizzle from time to time.

Across parts of southern England, then maybe a touch of frost. But

generally, temperatures are well above freezing. The wind will be

picking up across the far north. Rain clouds will arrive. Further

south across the country, more brightness. The cloud will thin

across parts of the Midlands, East Anglia and southern England to

allow some wintry sunshine. Temperatures are still high.

Pleasant enough across south- western parts of England. The winds

are light. The further north you go, the breezier it will be. Some

dampness will hang around across parts of Snowdonia. Northern

Ireland sees some drier spells. For Scotland, it will turn increasingly

windy and wet, particularly across the far north. This cold front will

slide south during tomorrow night and into Thursday. Most of the rain

will die out, but it is an important dividing line between the

mild conditions across the South and something a lot brighter and

chillier across the northern half of the UK. As we end the week,

these colder conditions will spread to the whole of the UK. Sunshine by

day, but frost by night. Winter as we used to know it.

A reminder of tonight's main news: London to Birmingham in 45 minutes

- the controversial high-speed rail line get government approval. The