Browse content similar to 18/01/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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UK unemployment hits a 17-year high. A million of them are young people. | :00:14. | :00:18. | |
New figures show the jobless total reaches almost 2.7 million in | :00:18. | :00:22. | |
November, hard times for those looking for work. | :00:22. | :00:26. | |
It is very demoralising, sometimes you get down for a few days, but it | :00:26. | :00:32. | |
is all about keeping your morale up. You have to. | :00:32. | :00:35. | |
Tonight the Chancellor tells the BBC there could be more bad news on | :00:35. | :00:40. | |
the way. Also in the programme: The search of the Costa Concordia | :00:40. | :00:44. | |
suspended after it slips deeper into the sea. Relatives still hope | :00:44. | :00:50. | |
for a miracle. I will stay here until I have to. | :00:50. | :00:57. | |
Let's see what happens. Let's see how things are. I hope. I hope. | :00:57. | :01:00. | |
The captain is under house arrest accused of escaping the scene | :01:00. | :01:05. | |
before his passengers. He says he fell into a lifeboat. | :01:05. | :01:09. | |
A new airport for London - Ministers say they will look at | :01:09. | :01:14. | |
building a new aviation hub in the Thames Estuary. | :01:14. | :01:19. | |
60 years on - a pageant fit for a Queen - 1,000 boats will take to | :01:19. | :01:27. | |
the water to mark the Diamond Jubilee. | :01:27. | :01:32. | |
In sport: An exclusive interview with the man in the hat who denies | :01:32. | :01:42. | |
:01:42. | :01:53. | ||
any wrongdoing during Amir Khan's Good evening. Welcome to the BBC | :01:53. | :01:58. | |
News at Six. The number of people unemployed hit nearly 2.7 million | :01:58. | :02:02. | |
in the three months to November, the highest it's been for 17 years. | :02:02. | :02:06. | |
Once again, young people are being hit hard, more than a million are | :02:06. | :02:10. | |
jobless, that is a record. And there could be more bad news on the | :02:10. | :02:15. | |
way. Today the Chancellor told the BBC that figures expected next week | :02:15. | :02:19. | |
could show that Britain's economy actually shrank at the end of last | :02:19. | :02:25. | |
year. That would prompt fears of a new recession. | :02:25. | :02:29. | |
The latest news from the Jobcentres isn't good - unemployment is up | :02:29. | :02:33. | |
again though in Wales and Northern Ireland it fell and for young | :02:33. | :02:39. | |
people it is especially hard to pin down a job. John and Alex are on a | :02:39. | :02:43. | |
scheme for the young unemployed run by the Wildlife Trust near Bolton. | :02:43. | :02:47. | |
It teaches skills and team work and they found it worthwhile. But they | :02:47. | :02:52. | |
are both frustrated they can't find full-time work. It is very | :02:52. | :02:55. | |
demoralising, sometimes you get down for a few days, but it is all | :02:55. | :02:59. | |
about keeping your morale up. You have to keep optimistic and keep | :02:59. | :03:03. | |
trying. You can't say it is just this generation because every | :03:03. | :03:09. | |
generation faces problems, really. This is our problem. We will get | :03:09. | :03:13. | |
through it. The latest jobless figures dominated exchanges at | :03:14. | :03:17. | |
Prime Minister's Questions. increase in unemployment is | :03:17. | :03:21. | |
disappointing and it is obviously a tragedy for the person who becomes | :03:21. | :03:23. | |
unemployed and can lead to real difficulty for that family and that | :03:24. | :03:30. | |
is why we are taking so much action to try and help people to get back | :03:30. | :03:36. | |
into work. The Labour Leader said Government spending cuts were to | :03:36. | :03:40. | |
blame. Why is unemployment rising? He is cutting too far and too fast. | :03:40. | :03:44. | |
It is his record however much he twists and turns, it is his record, | :03:44. | :03:50. | |
that is why unemployment is going up. The flow of people around the | :03:50. | :03:56. | |
world of work suggests that employment is less secure and is | :03:56. | :03:59. | |
more unpredictable. If you look at the number of people in work, one | :03:59. | :04:02. | |
group that has been expanding is the self-employed. Some will have | :04:02. | :04:07. | |
left other jobs to work for themselves, but others will have | :04:07. | :04:10. | |
been made redundant, struggle to find other work and ended up going | :04:11. | :04:15. | |
it alone. Between September and November, the number of self- | :04:15. | :04:20. | |
employed rose by 101,000, while the number of employees in jobs fell by | :04:20. | :04:24. | |
109,000. The total wanting full- time work currently part-time rose | :04:24. | :04:31. | |
to more than 1.3 million. This man lost his job in business in 2010. | :04:31. | :04:35. | |
He's started out as a self-employed music teacher, but only after a | :04:35. | :04:44. | |
fruitless search for full-time work. It's a common experience for a lot | :04:44. | :04:49. | |
of people. It's a leap of faith to go into self employment. | :04:49. | :04:53. | |
Chancellor may have been meeting his counter-part in Japan today, | :04:53. | :04:58. | |
but he had a warning about the UK. Figures out next week could show | :04:58. | :05:03. | |
the economy contracting. I don't know what next week's GDP number | :05:03. | :05:08. | |
will be. The OBR has warned us that it may well be a negative number. | :05:09. | :05:13. | |
That was their forecast in November. They didn't forecast a recession. | :05:13. | :05:18. | |
So while the unemployment figures weren't all bad, the number | :05:18. | :05:22. | |
claiming jobseekers' allowance has barely changed, but the news next | :05:22. | :05:25. | |
week may not brighten the economic picture. | :05:25. | :05:28. | |
Nick Robinson is in Downing Street for us tonight. It is quite | :05:29. | :05:32. | |
something when the Chancellor appears to be preparing us for more | :05:32. | :05:38. | |
bad news? It is. Twice he used the words "negative" talking about next | :05:38. | :05:43. | |
week's growth figure when he was talking to Stephanie Flanders out | :05:43. | :05:47. | |
in Tokyo today. He doesn't know the number for how the economy is | :05:47. | :05:52. | |
growing. That will be released by the Office of National Statistics | :05:52. | :05:55. | |
next Wednesday. He is preparing us all for the fact it may not be a | :05:55. | :05:59. | |
number going up, it could be a number going down, that the economy | :05:59. | :06:03. | |
will be shrinking. In one sense, it doesn't matter, it is just a | :06:03. | :06:07. | |
statistic except of course that today we saw the human side of that | :06:07. | :06:11. | |
statistic because every number on that unemployment register is a | :06:11. | :06:13. | |
human story. In addition, George, there is another bit of awkward | :06:13. | :06:17. | |
news for him when he returns home here to number 11 from the Far East, | :06:17. | :06:23. | |
it is this: The International Monetary Fund is now saying it | :06:23. | :06:27. | |
needs a half trillion more dollars to stand behind all those | :06:27. | :06:32. | |
struggling countries in the eurozone. That means that you and I | :06:32. | :06:38. | |
may have to find �15 billion or more to contribute to that IMF fund. | :06:38. | :06:42. | |
George Osborne will always stress it is money that we will probably | :06:42. | :06:46. | |
one day get back, but it is something that people won't much | :06:46. | :06:49. | |
like doing. The search of the Costa Concordia | :06:50. | :06:53. | |
off the Italian coast has been suspended today after the ship | :06:53. | :06:57. | |
slipped further into the sea. Five days on, hopes of finding anyone | :06:57. | :07:01. | |
alive have faded. The captain accused of leaving his passengers | :07:01. | :07:05. | |
is now under house arrest. He is reported to have told investigators | :07:05. | :07:11. | |
that he fell into a lifeboat. Matthew Price is at the scene again | :07:11. | :07:17. | |
for us tonight. Yes, the relatives of several of | :07:17. | :07:21. | |
the missing arrived here on the island to that news, anxious news | :07:21. | :07:25. | |
as far as they were concerned that the rescue effort had had to be | :07:25. | :07:30. | |
suspended. My report does contain some flash photography. It also | :07:30. | :07:33. | |
contains some extraordinary footage that we have obtained from | :07:33. | :07:37. | |
specialist cave divers who have been going into the heart of the | :07:37. | :07:45. | |
ship. It is slow going inside the ship, | :07:45. | :07:52. | |
moving through the floating debris of a once luxury liner. Along | :07:52. | :07:59. | |
corridors turned on their side. Specialist divers here are | :07:59. | :08:04. | |
searching for survivors but they know they will more likely only | :08:04. | :08:10. | |
find the dead. This is how they have been entering the ship, | :08:10. | :08:14. | |
through the top deck, now on the waterline. | :08:14. | :08:18. | |
TRANSLATION: At one point the glass door of a shop was above me with | :08:18. | :08:22. | |
the contents inside all pressing down. It could have shattered at | :08:22. | :08:25. | |
any moment. The rescue though was put on hold | :08:25. | :08:30. | |
today as the ship began to move slightly. Making it too dangerous | :08:30. | :08:37. | |
to look for the missing. Among them, Russell Rebello, a waiter on board. | :08:37. | :08:42. | |
Today, his brother Kevin came to the island and saw the wreck of the | :08:42. | :08:46. | |
Costa Concordia for the first time. Does he think his brother can | :08:46. | :08:51. | |
possibly be alive? It is the fifth day, it's a logical question that | :08:51. | :08:56. | |
people have been making, it is an assumption that OK five days, but | :08:56. | :09:00. | |
there have been miracles around, people have come home after many | :09:00. | :09:06. | |
days. On the mainland, the captain's wife was mobbed by | :09:06. | :09:10. | |
journalists. He's enanynumber one here, criticised for aban -- enemy | :09:10. | :09:15. | |
number one here, criticised for abandoning ship. He is said to have | :09:15. | :09:19. | |
slipped by mistake into a departing lifeboat. Few believe that. His | :09:19. | :09:24. | |
lawyer says the captain is deeply shaken by what happened. But the | :09:24. | :09:30. | |
sister of another missing crew member has no sympathy. | :09:30. | :09:35. | |
TRANSLATION: It is outrageous they have him under house arrest. It is | :09:35. | :09:39. | |
like he is a free man and the search is taking too long. | :09:39. | :09:43. | |
salvage operation is ready to go as soon as they get permission. Large | :09:43. | :09:46. | |
amounts of equipment and personnel have been brought in. Everybody | :09:46. | :09:50. | |
knows that removing the ship from its current resting place is going | :09:50. | :09:56. | |
to be a mammoth task. The long days are taking their toll on the | :09:56. | :10:01. | |
rescuers. One collapsed exhausted today. A satellite picked up this | :10:01. | :10:07. | |
image of the ship, lying peacefully against the island. While down on | :10:07. | :10:14. | |
the shore, Kevin Rebello waits for his brother. You heard him there | :10:14. | :10:18. | |
talking about the possibility of a miracle as far as his brother was | :10:18. | :10:21. | |
concerned. In a sense, there was a slight miracle today when a German | :10:21. | :10:25. | |
woman, who was on the missing list, it turned out had made it off the | :10:26. | :10:30. | |
ship, back to the mainland and all the way back to Germany, so she is | :10:30. | :10:34. | |
not dead after all, she is back home at the moment. But there are | :10:34. | :10:39. | |
still more than 20 people missing. The High Court has ordered the | :10:39. | :10:44. | |
eviction of protesters who have been camping outside St Paul's | :10:44. | :10:47. | |
Cathedral since October. The judge said their campsite had a damaging | :10:47. | :10:55. | |
impact on one of Britain's most important public buildings. The | :10:55. | :10:59. | |
Occupy campaigners are appealing against the decision. Thousands of | :10:59. | :11:03. | |
workers at Unilever have started a series of strikes over the | :11:03. | :11:08. | |
company's plans to axe its final salary pension scheme. Unilever | :11:08. | :11:14. | |
says the changes are needed as people are living longer. | :11:14. | :11:17. | |
The clothing chain Peacocks has gone into administration. The | :11:17. | :11:25. | |
retailer employs more than 9,500 people. Nick Servini is outside the | :11:25. | :11:31. | |
headquarters. What will happen to all these jobs, Nick? George, 400 | :11:31. | :11:34. | |
people behind me were marched into a meeting this afternoon and they | :11:34. | :11:37. | |
were told that the business is going to go into administration. | :11:37. | :11:41. | |
The staff are now really left in an unenviable position because they | :11:41. | :11:45. | |
are going home tonight and will come back tomorrow and many of them | :11:45. | :11:49. | |
expect to find out whether they will have a job or not. One project | :11:49. | :11:51. | |
manager told me the expectation is that many people will find out that | :11:51. | :11:55. | |
they are out of work. That may or may not be the case. I have spoken | :11:56. | :12:00. | |
with the administrators, KPMG, who plan to sell this as a going | :12:00. | :12:04. | |
concern and say there has been a lot of interest so far. The problem | :12:04. | :12:07. | |
with this group is not the profitability of the stores, it is | :12:08. | :12:12. | |
an historic debt from a management buyout back in 2006. That should | :12:12. | :12:16. | |
give some hope at least to the thousands of staff who work for | :12:16. | :12:21. | |
Peacocks all over the UK. It's been called Boris Island and | :12:21. | :12:25. | |
it is one of the options to be considered by the Government in a | :12:25. | :12:29. | |
potential shake-up of UK aviation. The plan to build a new airport in | :12:29. | :12:34. | |
the Thames Estuary is favoured by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson. | :12:34. | :12:41. | |
Other ideas will be under the spotlight, too. | :12:41. | :12:46. | |
It's an ambitious idea, to turn a sleepy corner of Kent into an | :12:46. | :12:52. | |
airport twice the size of Heathrow. Four new runways, new roads, a | :12:52. | :12:57. | |
high-speed line, and a high-profile backer, the London Mayor. I think | :12:57. | :13:01. | |
this is something that would deliver a huge number of jobs for | :13:01. | :13:05. | |
London and for the South East of England and would help us to | :13:05. | :13:10. | |
compete in the long-term with our European rivals. London's airports | :13:10. | :13:15. | |
are running out of space. Heathrow's already full and unable | :13:15. | :13:22. | |
to expand while demand keeps rising. In 2010, 1 40 million passengers | :13:22. | :13:27. | |
flew in or out of the city, that could rise to 400 million by 2050. | :13:27. | :13:34. | |
The new airport would take 150 million passengers. More capacity | :13:34. | :13:39. | |
means more routes to growing markets like Brazil, China, India. | :13:39. | :13:44. | |
Some worry Britain is losing out. When it comes to our infrastructure, | :13:44. | :13:48. | |
when Britain dithers others do. We have seen new runways in France, | :13:48. | :13:52. | |
Germany, in Holland. Those countries could become the | :13:52. | :13:57. | |
beneficiaries of inward investment if the UK doesn't act. It is hard | :13:57. | :14:01. | |
to imagine but this spot here would be the end of one of the runways, | :14:01. | :14:05. | |
planes taking off and landing over my head here. I would be surrounded | :14:05. | :14:11. | |
by houses, by roads. They would build a new Thames flood barrier | :14:11. | :14:15. | |
which would double as a road crossing. The scale is incredible. | :14:15. | :14:20. | |
There is a price tag to match. Total cost then - �50 billion | :14:20. | :14:25. | |
although there is no clue yet as to who might fund it. And it could | :14:25. | :14:30. | |
take decades to build. There is also strong opposition - this crash | :14:30. | :14:35. | |
in New York's Hudson River happened after birds got sucked into the | :14:35. | :14:39. | |
engines. The incident of bird strike from trying to fly aircraft | :14:39. | :14:43. | |
through birds that have been migrating down here would be | :14:43. | :14:50. | |
perhaps up to 12 times the norm. British Airways says it will kill | :14:50. | :14:55. | |
off Heathrow and Ryanair boss has called it "absolutely nuts". There | :14:55. | :15:02. | |
is an election coming up in London. No-one standing against Boris likes | :15:03. | :15:07. | |
the idea. It will be discussed in the spring when the Government | :15:07. | :15:17. | |
:15:17. | :15:24. | ||
starts consulting on its wider plan 27-year-old Karl Whant denies | :15:24. | :15:26. | |
killing 19-year-old Nikitta Grender, who was found stabbed to death in | :15:26. | :15:35. | |
her home. Our reporter was in court. You may find parts of this report | :15:35. | :15:37. | |
distressing. Nikitta Grender was just two weeks away from giving | :15:37. | :15:43. | |
birth to her first child, when she died. A baby girl, she had named | :15:43. | :15:47. | |
Kelsey May. She told friends all she had ever wanted to be was a | :15:47. | :15:51. | |
mother. The 19-year-old's badly burned body was found in the | :15:51. | :15:55. | |
bedroom of her flat in Newport in February last year. She had been | :15:55. | :15:58. | |
raped and stabbed to death, before the home she shared with her | :15:58. | :16:06. | |
boyfriend was set on fire. Arriving at Crown Court, 27-year-old Karl | :16:06. | :16:10. | |
Whant, accused of the raper and murder of Nikitta Grender, the | :16:10. | :16:16. | |
destruction of her unborn child and arson. The night before her death, | :16:16. | :16:21. | |
he spent the evening in Newport watching a rugby match with his | :16:21. | :16:27. | |
cousin. Ryan was her boyfriend and the father of their unborn baby. | :16:27. | :16:30. | |
Nikitta Grender's parents and a large group of friends heard that | :16:30. | :16:35. | |
he was a self-confessed cocaine user and she thought he was a bad | :16:35. | :16:41. | |
influence on her boyfriend. The jury was told he came here to the | :16:41. | :16:50. | |
flat. It was a flais she should have felt safe -- place she should | :16:50. | :16:54. | |
have felt safe. He denies all charges. The trial is expected to | :16:54. | :17:04. | |
:17:04. | :17:10. | ||
Our top story tonight - UK unemployment reaches almost 2.7 | :17:10. | :17:16. | |
million. That's a 17-year high. Coming up, I'll be reporting from | :17:16. | :17:20. | |
the Somerset town where they planning to switch off every single | :17:20. | :17:23. | |
light bulb, not to save electricity, but because they are hoping to look | :17:23. | :17:32. | |
at the stars. In business on the news channel, 10,000 jobs at risk, | :17:32. | :17:35. | |
as Peacocks goes into administration and the IMF says it | :17:35. | :17:45. | |
:17:45. | :17:47. | ||
will boost lending to help weak A thousand boats, in a flotilla | :17:47. | :17:50. | |
stretching seven miles, will sail down the Thames as part of the | :17:50. | :17:54. | |
celebrations for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in June. The plan, | :17:54. | :17:57. | |
announced today, involves historic vessels, steam boats, tugs, barges | :17:57. | :17:59. | |
and passenger ships. Our Royal correspondent, Luisa Baldini, has | :17:59. | :18:09. | |
been finding out. The Queen has given 60 years of unwaivering | :18:09. | :18:13. | |
service to the country. What better tribute than for her to see and be | :18:13. | :18:19. | |
seen by as many people as possible in a pageant on the Thames. This is | :18:19. | :18:26. | |
what the organisers imagine it will be like. 20,000 people on thousands | :18:26. | :18:31. | |
of boats forming one enormous float till that, arrange a Royal barge | :18:31. | :18:33. | |
carrying the Queen and Prince Phillip. There are no recent | :18:33. | :18:38. | |
precedents, so it's from this 18bling century painting, which | :18:38. | :18:42. | |
will appear in the Royal river exhibition at the National Maritime | :18:42. | :18:46. | |
Museum, that the organisers have got their inspiration. I'm looking | :18:46. | :18:49. | |
forward to the river being transformed for that day. | :18:49. | :18:53. | |
Transformed with colour, with noise, with shouting and cheering people. | :18:53. | :18:59. | |
It being full. It being, if you like, reclaimed as a Royal route. | :18:59. | :19:04. | |
The Royal barge is expected to look something like this. It will be | :19:04. | :19:10. | |
clad and decorated in a secret location the month before. Moored | :19:11. | :19:17. | |
in London this is how she looks now. The Queen will be here with the | :19:17. | :19:22. | |
Duke of Edinburgh, is that right the owner has donated the boat | :19:22. | :19:27. | |
especially for the occasion. Queen wanted to be seen, so this is | :19:27. | :19:31. | |
a fantastic elevated platform and we have 64 metres of platform here, | :19:31. | :19:38. | |
so accommodate a lot of people. It can be seen from all sides. Sailing | :19:38. | :19:44. | |
in the float till that will be boats of all shapes -- flotilla | :19:44. | :19:47. | |
will be boats of all shapes and sizes. They will come from all over | :19:47. | :19:52. | |
the UK and from further afield like Australia and Canada. It is going | :19:52. | :19:57. | |
to be a huge logistical challenge. Not least because the river rises | :19:57. | :20:03. | |
and falls seven metres twice a day. At least one million people are | :20:03. | :20:08. | |
expected to watch the pageant from the banks of the river. An occasion | :20:08. | :20:18. | |
:20:18. | :20:18. | ||
that is being billed as a one-in-a- lifetime event. David Cameron has | :20:18. | :20:20. | |
accused the Argentinians of colonialism, for continuing to | :20:20. | :20:23. | |
claim sovereignty over the Falkland Islands. He said he wanted to | :20:23. | :20:25. | |
ensure the islands were well defended after Argentina's recent | :20:25. | :20:28. | |
attempts to restrict ships from the Falklands. His comments came in | :20:28. | :20:35. | |
Prime Minister's Questions in the Commons. The key point is we | :20:35. | :20:41. | |
support the islanders' right to self-determination and what the | :20:41. | :20:48. | |
Argentineans have been saying is March nor -- far more like | :20:48. | :20:51. | |
colonialism. Our deputy political editor is at Westminster. Some | :20:51. | :20:59. | |
people will say that talking about this is rather provocative? It has | :20:59. | :21:03. | |
provoked a strong response from Argentina. In the last few minutes | :21:03. | :21:11. | |
their interior minister said that the remarks were a totally | :21:11. | :21:16. | |
offensive -- were totally offensive. There was the announcement that | :21:16. | :21:19. | |
Prince William will fly helicopters out there and Argentina has | :21:19. | :21:23. | |
persuaded neighbours to close their ports to ships flying the | :21:23. | :21:26. | |
Falklands' flags and there have been the rows over fish and I think | :21:26. | :21:30. | |
today David Cameron was trying to push back against all that. Saying, | :21:30. | :21:35. | |
in his words, a clear message that the future of the islands should be | :21:35. | :21:40. | |
determined by the islanders themselves. He chaired a meeting of | :21:40. | :21:42. | |
the National Security Council yesterday and discussed plans for | :21:42. | :21:46. | |
the 30th anniversary of the conflict, but they also made sure | :21:46. | :21:56. | |
:21:56. | :22:06. | ||
that Britain was prepared to defend. After days of hearing After days of | :22:06. | :22:08. | |
hearing evidence from the editors of national newspapers, today it | :22:09. | :22:11. | |
was the turn of some of the celebrity magazines. The editors of | :22:12. | :22:14. | |
OK, Hello and Heat told the Leveson Inquiry they worked very closely | :22:15. | :22:17. | |
with the stars they featured and were not in the business of | :22:18. | :22:26. | |
printing salacious gossip. Nicholas Witchell reports. I'm Lucie Cave | :22:26. | :22:34. | |
and I'met editor of Heat. I'm Rosie Nixon and the editor of Hello. | :22:34. | :22:38. | |
Lisa Byrne. First, a definition of what they do. The editor of Hello | :22:38. | :22:43. | |
recalled a favourite phrase of their Spanish founder. He had a | :22:43. | :22:48. | |
lovely phrase, which means the frong of life. The -- froth of life. | :22:48. | :22:52. | |
It is served up straight from the people. We work directly with the | :22:52. | :22:56. | |
stars every step of the way. It is a serving which is deliberately | :22:56. | :23:04. | |
sweet rather than sour. We are not in the business of printing | :23:04. | :23:07. | |
salacious gossip. Lord Justice Leveson had Heat spread out in | :23:07. | :23:15. | |
front of him. It's a different sort of journal to my normal, but fair | :23:16. | :23:19. | |
enough. Why, the inquiry wanted to know, did it matter so much to | :23:20. | :23:23. | |
celebrities to be in their magazines? It's because they want | :23:23. | :23:27. | |
to share that they know that there is an interest in their lives. | :23:27. | :23:37. | |
There was more. It his been an excursion into celebrity journalism. | :23:37. | :23:40. | |
Where, according to the editors, privacy is respected and harassment | :23:40. | :23:50. | |
:23:50. | :23:54. | ||
Millions of BBC viewers have been glued to the Stargazing Live | :23:54. | :23:57. | |
programmes this week. One town has decided to get involved in a new | :23:57. | :24:00. | |
way. Tonight, Dulverton in Somerset is switching off all its lights so | :24:00. | :24:04. | |
people there can get a better view of the night sky and our | :24:04. | :24:13. | |
correspondent, Jon Kay, is there for us now. The church bells will | :24:13. | :24:17. | |
ring out and that will be the cue for the 2,000 people to switch off | :24:17. | :24:21. | |
every single light in their homes, businesses and street light, that | :24:21. | :24:27. | |
they will all go off. Let me show you the shot from the top of the | :24:27. | :24:30. | |
church tower. Later tonight, hopefully all you will see from up | :24:30. | :24:36. | |
there is complete darkness. Dulverton, at sunset. But tonight | :24:36. | :24:42. | |
things in this part of Britain will look rather different. At a time | :24:42. | :24:46. | |
when light would normally be coming on, this evening they'll be | :24:46. | :24:52. | |
switched off. The aim is zero light pollution, so the skies are as | :24:52. | :24:58. | |
clear as possible. It's going to be really cool, so we can look up into | :24:58. | :25:02. | |
the sky and see planets that we have never seen before. What will | :25:02. | :25:10. | |
it be like when all the light go out? Scary. A bit nervous? It will | :25:10. | :25:14. | |
certainly be a change. These pictures from NASA show just how | :25:14. | :25:19. | |
much light there is around the world at night. Preventing us from | :25:19. | :25:23. | |
getting a clear view of the stars. Here in the south-west of England, | :25:23. | :25:27. | |
Dulverton is part of Exmoor, Europe's first dark sky reserve. | :25:27. | :25:31. | |
This might be a small town, but there are still tens of thousands | :25:31. | :25:36. | |
of bulbs. We take lighting for granted so we turn them on and off | :25:36. | :25:40. | |
without thinking. What we want to show, even a small place like this | :25:40. | :25:46. | |
can make a big difference. It seems everyone in this rural community is | :25:46. | :25:51. | |
getting involved. Later tonight, traffic will be banned and the | :25:51. | :25:57. | |
council will switch off every street light. Despite appearances, | :25:57. | :26:01. | |
the pub is staying open, although it won't be business as usual. | :26:01. | :26:06. | |
Serving in the dark will present some new challenges. There might be | :26:06. | :26:11. | |
a bit of spilt beer on the floor, but hopefully not too much! It will | :26:11. | :26:16. | |
be worse in the kitchen, I think! Hopefully nobody will get burnt | :26:16. | :26:20. | |
food. After weeks of planning, tonight Dulverton finally gets its | :26:20. | :26:24. | |
moment in the spotlight. Until, of course, that spotlight is also | :26:24. | :26:31. | |
switched off. One thing you can't plan for is the weather. It's not | :26:31. | :26:38. | |
looking great. When this goes live on BBC Two, between 8 and 9pm, I'm | :26:38. | :26:42. | |
not sure you will see a huge amount in the skies, but for BBC Two, they | :26:42. | :26:45. | |
have the special night-vision cameras which should at least be | :26:45. | :26:50. | |
able to bring the skies to life, so they've installed them here and | :26:50. | :26:53. | |
they should help people see something at least. It will be | :26:53. | :26:58. | |
light off at 8.15, telescopes out, but sadly it looks like umbrellas | :26:58. | :27:04. | |
but sadly it looks like umbrellas up as well. Now, a look at the | :27:04. | :27:11. | |
weather. Will we see the stars? Some will, but in Dulverton is a | :27:11. | :27:21. | |
:27:21. | :27:21. | ||
case of don't shoot the messengerer, -- messenger, but it will be cloudy. | :27:21. | :27:25. | |
It will be so across much of Wales, but in the north there will be | :27:25. | :27:30. | |
clearer skies and one or two showers to go with it. Under the | :27:30. | :27:33. | |
showers and the rain, temperatures will hold up. The further north we | :27:33. | :27:37. | |
go, the colder the air will be and with temperatures very close to | :27:37. | :27:43. | |
freezing there is a risk of ice around, particularly with the | :27:43. | :27:47. | |
overnight showers. In the morning, dry, crisp and clear. Showers will | :27:47. | :27:50. | |
arrive later. Northern Ireland, you will see one or two breaks here, | :27:50. | :27:55. | |
but there will be plenty of cloud. As will be the case in northern | :27:55. | :27:58. | |
England. Best of the breaks will be to the east of the high ground in | :27:58. | :28:03. | |
England, but it will be a case of as you were. Similar start to this | :28:03. | :28:07. | |
morning. Grey and misty in the south, but with the added bonus of | :28:07. | :28:11. | |
even heavier rain. That will clear, unlike today. Things will brighten | :28:11. | :28:14. | |
up. Some sunshine through the afternoon and continue to see sunny | :28:14. | :28:16. | |
spells further north, but showers will get going through the second | :28:16. | :28:19. | |
half of the day, particularly in the north of England and Scotland. | :28:19. | :28:23. | |
Gusty winds with them. Showers turning to snow not just to higher | :28:23. | :28:28. | |
ground and it will feel cold in that wind. Showers for a time | :28:28. | :28:31. | |
during tomorrow night, but temperatures will rise again from | :28:31. | :28:34. | |
the south-west later to see more cloud and rain spill in to Northern | :28:34. | :28:38. | |
Ireland. Eventually parts of southern and western Scotland and | :28:38. | :28:41. | |
northern England and Wales. For Friday, may be the brightest | :28:41. | :28:44. | |
conditions in the south and to the north-east, but generally it's | :28:44. | :28:52. |