08/09/2014 BBC News at Six

Today at six, we're in Edinburgh with the latest on the referendum

campaign as Labour's Gordon Brown sets out a new timetable to give

The former prime minister, backed by the Conservatives and

Lib Dems, says a new law could be in place within months.

The Yes and No campaigns are fighting for every vote.

The latest polls suggest it's now just too close to call

It means nothing less in my view than the destruction

of Britain because Britain is England and Wales plus Scotland.

You cannot lop Scotland off and expect Britain to survive.

I think those kinds of interventions from Boris Johnson

will probably only fuel support for the Yes campaign.

Five-year-old Ashya King arrives in Prague for the cancer treatment

And the women who were looking for love online,

but ended up being tricked out of ?250,000 by fraudsters.

Alice Gross, the missing teenager last seen

Tonight, two men are still being questioned.

And a promise that next year bus and tube fares will only go up

Good evening from Edinburgh at the start of the last full week

of campaigning in the Scottish referendum on independence.

The campaign has been energised, to put it mildly, by one poll over

the weekend indicating the Yes campaign might be heading for

victory and led to some nervousness on the financial markets.

The former prime minister, Labour's Gordon Brown, is setting out

his response in a short while with details of a proposed new Scotland

Act, allocating comprehensive new powers to the Scottish Parliament.

He's calling it a modern form of Scottish home rule within

But the SNP has already dismissed as a last-minute bribe.

First this evening, our political editor, Nick Robinson, reports on

the greater powers being considered for the Scottish Parliament.

Ten days to go before Scottish voters must decide between

independence and keeping Britain together. On the morning after the

poll before, the 1 that showed Yes in the lead, the pound fell 1%. ?3.7

billion was wiped off the market value of five companies with

Scottish business interests. No but get something better, that is what

the Westminster parties are saying in an effort to rescue the

referendum. Gordon Brown will say tonight he wants to see a new draft

Scottish home rule Bill agreed by the end of November. And draft laws

to be ready to be tabled by Burns Night at the end of January. We can

have the best of both worlds, a strong Scottish Parliament, without

leaving the UK. It is not the first time Labour, the Tories and the Lib

Dems have promised to give more power to the Scottish parliament as

an alternative to independence. Bespoke opportunity was back in

June. What is new is the promise of a new law -- this vote was back in

June. People have heard this before. Hundreds of thousands of people have

voted already in the postal ballot. If we want a guarantee of real

powers and real control for Scotland, we have got to vote yes

powers and real control for the referendum. This man is actually

the Prime Minister. But as an English Tory, he was not thought to

be the right man to pledge more powers to Scotland if there is a No

vote. Today David Cameron relied on symbolism, welcoming athletes from

the Special Olympics team who he said were... All competing together

as Team GB. D3 Westminster parties all agree Scotland should have more

powers even if people vote no to independence -- D3 big Westminster

parties. They agree Scotland should control more taxes. The Tories say

the whole of income tax, Labour say a part of it. They could the league

agree the Treasury should carry on running UK economic policy from

London -- they agree that the Treasury should carry on running UK

economic policy from London. Pension policy would stay in Westminster. A

power that all three big parties say should stay in Whitehall is the

responsibility for the defence of the nation, the power to wage war

exercised at the Ministry of Defence. A promise like today's of

more powers if you vote no helped swing the independence referendum in

Quebec when a poll lead for leaving Canada was transformed into the

narrowest of no votes. 35 years ago, Scots were told they would get

something better, devolution, it took 18 long years to arrive. In

just ten days time, Scottish voters now must decide whether to vote yes

or know with that promise. -- yes or Our Scotland political editor,

Brian Taylor, is here. no. This intervention, speech, call

it what you will, what is significant about it? What is not

significant is the prospect of more powers. We have the offer on the

table from the Conservatives, Lib Dems and Labour. It is a carefully

choreographed attempt to persuade the people of Scotland that there is

a detailed timetable to implement changes and that they will be

significant. Gordon Brown will speak tonight but tomorrow here in

Edinburgh the leaders of the parties in Scotland will come together and

say they back his timetable. His timetable is consultation by the end

of October, a white paper on the end of November, his opponents say it is

very ambitious. And draft legislation in January. General

election follows too closely on that for legislation to go through.

Gordon Brown and the others on the pro union side are saying it is a

guarantee, a banker of pro union side are saying it is a

alternative to independence. The supporters of independence say it is

a late bribe and is being overheated by its proponents and they say the

people of Scotland should be underwhelmed. Thank you. More later.

More on the campaign in Edinburgh in a short while. In the meantime, back

to you, Sophie. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

have announced that they are The Duchess who is still

in the very early stages of pregnancy is suffering once

again from acute morning sickness. This time she is being treated

by doctors at Kensington Palace where we can join our royal

correspondent, Nicholas Witchell. I think the fact that she is being

treated for this sickness at home suggests that everyone is fairly

relaxed about things at the moment. I do not think we would have known

anything about this pregnancy if it had not been for a scheduled public

appearance today that Kate could not attend.

William was at a long planned visit to Oxford today. But Catherine could

not make it. Kensington Palace realised it would have to explain

the reason for her unexpected absence. She was pregnant with the

couple's second child, the palace said, but suffering from acute

sickness. William was asked, how is she feeling? OK. It has been a

tricky few days. Immensely thrilled. Great news. Early days. We are

hoping that things will settle down and she feels better. It is

important we focus on the big news and the big international and

domestic things going on. But is were my thoughts are. In 2012 early

in her pregnancy with George, she was hospitalised for a couple of

days. On this occasion, with this pregnancy yet to reach the 12 week

stage, it is hoped the sickness can be managed at home and it will pass

relatively quickly. George was a summer baby, born in July. The

chances are his younger brother or sister will be born in the spring,

perhaps next April or May. They will automatically become fourth in line

to the throne fulfilling William and Catherine's obligation to ensure the

line of succession is secure. The Queen at Balmoral at the weekend,

she is said to be delighted at the news, as is uncle Harry. Would he be

offering any advice on how to cope with an older brother? I think

George will be over the moon. He will be thrilled to have another

younger brother, sister. We will wait and see.

younger brother, sister. We will to grow. Your prospects of becoming

King are reduced. Great! News of the pregnancy is making headlines around

the world. Another royal baby is on the way. The international

fascination with Britain's royal family shows no sign of abating.

What of the mother to be? In less than two weeks, she is due to make

her first solo overseas visit to Malta. I am told the situation is

being assessed on a day to Malta. I am told the situation is being

assessed on a day-to-day basis. The chief executive of Rotherham

Council is stepping down after the report that exposed the scale of

child sexual explication in the town. A report published last month

that at least 1400 children in Rotherham were sexually exploited

over a period of 16 years, mainly by men from the Pakistani community.

Thousands of people have had travel plans thrown into chaos after a

alert at Luton airport. No flights were allowed to take off or land

after the discovery of a suspicious item in the security area. A bomb

disposal team was sent to the airport. The airport is expected to

reopen shortly after it carried out a controlled explosion.

The TUC conference has got under way today. They say the recovery has

The TUC conference has got under way been built on a big increase in the

number of low paid jobs which is hurting families, despite economic

growth. The Government said it would not take readers of its policies

from union leaders earning 6-figure salaries.

Our industry correspondent reports. Janet and her daughter are having to

move house. A nurse, this year she received a 1% pay rise. Now she is

taking drastic action to cut her outgoings. It is a smaller house. It

is not in the area I would choose to be in particularly. It is convenient

for work. I have moved to cut costs with petrol and childcare. Was there

no other option? I did not see any other option. With the rising costs

of everything, I was unable to afford the rent I was playing. I am

saving ?200 a month. Unions meeting in Liverpool say millions of workers

in the public sector and elsewhere desperately need a pay rise. The

economy may be on the mend, but the head of the TUC said there was no

sign of that in workers' wages and any quality Kholi-macro -- and

inequality was growing. Are we going to settle for a nasty and poor

Britain? They don't abbey style society in which the living

standards of the vast majority are sacrificed to pay for the high

living of the world to do? -- a downturn abbey style society.

Initially workers in the private sector saw pay settlements fall but

they have since bounced back to 2.5%. Pay deals in the public sector

fell even lower. They are now capped at 1%. That has kept them below

inflation for years, hence all the talk of a cost of living crisis.

Some who work in the private sector, like this union rep, have not fared

so well. She is a part-time shop worker but her plate has not kept up

with the cost of living. We have had a payroll is this year. It has

turned out but it was 11p per hour from the -- we have had a pay rise

this year. When the cost of the bills have gone up, I do not even

notice it. The Government insists it is taking tough decisions to address

the budget deficit and that pay restraint has protected public

sector jobs. It has left people like Janet facing difficult choices.

The former prime minister, Gordon Brown, has set out plans to give

comprehensive new powers to the Scottish Parliament in the event of

The fake identities used by fraudsters who tricked women

using a dating website out of nearly ?250,000.

The non-emergency calls to people trapped in lifts costing

And an exhibition celebrates the designer who created

the blonde bombshell, one of the most successful recruiting

Ashya King, the five-year-old boy who has a brain tumour,

has arrived in the Czech Republic to receive the form of treatment

He's being examined by doctors at a hospital in Prague.

Brett and Naghmeh King were detained by Spanish police

after taking their son from a hospital in Southampton where proton

Our Correspondent Jenny Hill reports from Prague.

Another hospital, another country. The little boy whose parents

travelled across Europe to get the treatment that they want for him.

For the next five weeks, this is Ashya King's home. He is expected to

spend some time in intensive care at one of Europe's largest hospitals.

It has been proven that this treatment will help and my son has a

better chance of not being in a vegetative state. We are happy.

There is a small percentage of children who need our help, that is

all. Doctors will assess Ashya King before he can begin the therapy. For

that, he will need to travel to a private clinic, daily basis. The

proton therapy centre opened two years ago. Few Czechoslovakian

children have access to the treat in. -- treatment. It looks expensive

and it is. The therapy will cost tens of thousands of pounds. This is

what is behind the treatment room. This machine focuses the protons

into that very precise beam. The treatment which divides medical

opinion in this case targets cancer cells, but destroys less healthy

tissue than conventional radiotherapy. We will be targeting

the whole brain, and the spinal-cord. In the second phase, we

will be targeting the tumour directly. It has been a long journey

for Ashya King and his family. The treatment for which they have fought

so desperately is expected to start next week.

The EU says it is imposing further sanctions on Russia after his

continued involvement in the Ukraine. Despite Friday's fragile

cease-fire, people in eastern Ukraine are continuing to suffer.

Fergal Keane is in Marriot Paul. This is where water leads, to the

coffins of Taji and APPLAUSE children. To the neighbours, who

watched them grow up. The family want the story of Catalina, six, and

her disabled brother, ten, to be known. Shell fire killed them both

on the day that the cease-fire was declared. Their grandmother

arrived. She was taking care of them when they were killed. She cries,

God, why have you taken them? 23 children have died in this war. Like

Nikita and Catalina, they lived in places where land became something

men were willing to kill for. Children face death and displacement

with their families, driven to makeshift camps like this Soviet

holiday resort. The propaganda pictures of the forgotten heroes

yellowing outside the bunk rooms. The war has distorted their lives,

disrupted normality. I'll want to go home but there is now home to go

to, she says. A shell wrecked our house. In the crowded bunk rooms,

medical aid is being provided. Including the help of psychologists,

for traumatised children. They have been traumatised by the conflict,

keirin bombs and fleeing their homes, not being in their own

keirin bombs and fleeing their keirin bombs. It is a serious

situation. If the conflict continues, it will definitely

worsened. The cease-fire is supposed to end the random cruelty that

destroys the lives of children like Nikita Ankara Li Na. But for their

parents, it is a truce empty of meaning. -- Nikita and Catalina.

They were women who were looking for love online.

Instead they found themselves being scammed out of nearly a quarter

of a million pounds by men they'd supposedly met on

Today two men were found guilty of money laundering

and tricking around 12 women who responded to a false profile.

The women who used match.com had hoped to find friendship, not

fraud. But instead of meeting a partner for life, they were

exploited financially and emotionally. The fraud operated by

creating fake profiles of men including this one and James

Richards. He did not exist as many women thought that he did. They

produced these documents, asking women to pay fictitious legal bills

in India. Among those targeted, Suzanne Hardman, on the left. She

lost ?174,000 after the nonexistent Richards lured her into believing

they were falling in love. His private e-mails to her showed how

the fraudster cynically tried to entrap women like her. He

Using romantic language like that, fraudsters, posing as real people,

would often spend weeks playing with the emotion of the women. In all,

around a dozen were tricked into handing over nearly a quarter of ?1

million. Sarah Jane Johnson was not involved in this trial but was

subject to an identical scam on match.com. I feel stupid. How could

I be conned by someone who is not a real person? It is a group of people

creating a fantasy. For someone to believe in. And I'd totally got

caught up in it because it was what I wanted to believe. Match.com told

us that people who use the site should be careful about giving out

their private contact details. Police say that this is the type of

con that has left women feeling used and embarrassed, tricked in the

pursuit of love. and embarrassed, tricked in the

Returning to our main story, Scottish referendum campaign.

Both sides in the referendum campaign have redoubled

Both sides in the referendum efforts to gain support following

that opinion poll at the weekend. It suggested

that opinion poll at the weekend. It slightly ahead for the first time.

As we have heard they are, with slightly ahead for the first time.

markets, and days slightly ahead for the first time.

campaign, our special correspondent has joined those who have been out

on the campaign trail. At campaign headquarters, they are

undaunted by the value of the At campaign headquarters, they are

or shaky share prices. Here, you say that Dundee is yes city, so great

has been the defection of Labour voters to the independent scores.

But what difference has yesterday's poll, giving them a narrow lead

But what difference has yesterday's the first time, made? Would give yes

voters pause? Might be a last-minute loss of nerve? I would say the

contrary. As people are starting to realise that we cannot do this, they

are starting to find the nerve. People who might have been sitting

on the fence before, not totally convinced that we would do it, now

they understand that we can do this and they are finding their nerve.

What will win it or lose it for the yes campaign is the ability to

maximise the boat in places like this on working Scotland, where

people's natural inclination in the past has been to vote for Labour. To

do that, they will have to reassure people that negative reaction in the

international markets and the global economy will be short lived. The yes

campaigners say that it is Westminster that is stalking

uncertainty and nervousness. If there is uncertainty here, the blame

for that has to lie with the UK government. They are refusing to

have sensible discussions with the Scottish government about a currency

union and the kind of things that would help give reassurance to those

markets. Yesterday's Paul gave the yes campaign a 2-point lead. The

first time they have forged ahead since the beginning of the campaign.

An aggregate of recent polls suggest that the once commanding lead of the

prounion site has almost vanished. I think we are winning the argument.

We will win the referendum next week because people will see that the

stakes could not be higher as we approach polling day. We do not have

to break up the country to make Scotland better and stronger. Are

they reassured by that in the other Scotland, the Scotland that still

feels British? At Kelso, in the Borders, some are dismayed that the

no campaign seem to have lost their lead in a month. I'm worried about

what will happen. If Scotland goes independent, what will happen to my

pension and my health care? And also, what will happen to my family

who live here? It is a worrying time. It is a huge decision. It is

the biggest that we will ever make. You can change the government from

time to time, if you wish, but this, this is forever. But the momentum is

with the yes campaign now. Prounion leaders must hope that action on

more powers for the Scottish Parliament, however late in the day,

will halt that. Picking up on Alan's last point, in just over half

an hour, Gordon Brown will be making that speech not far from Edinburgh.

A new timetable for legislating, very soon, to propose new powers for

the Scottish Parliament. What is the significance of that? Nick

Robinson, your thoughts? Significance, first and foremost, is

that it is being made by Gordon Brown, not the Prime Minister. Why

not? He is to English and to Tory. But not Ed Miliband, the leader of

the Labour Party, who was shown to be as little trusted as Mr Cameron

by voters in Scotland. And not by Alistair Darling, who has had a bad

couple of weeks when he confronted Alex Salmond. But like Gordon Brown,

Scottish, labour, trusted more than any other figure on that side of the

campaign. The promise of new powers to the Scottish Parliament is far

from new. The no campaign has been saying it repeatedly. They are

trying to energise it by making a timetable. Voters have a choice. Do

they believe the Westminster parties will deliver on the promise, reach

agreement and passed new laws sometime soon, or do they say, no,

we want a complete guarantee and therefore we will vote yes to

independence? Nick Robinson, thank you very much. A quick reminder that

there will be coverage on the BBC News Channel of that speech by

Gordon Brown. Back to you, Sophie. Time for a look at the weather. It

is looking pretty good over the next few days. A large area of high

pressure dominating things. It will be dry all week long with very

little cloud and some sunshine. Here is the area of high pressure

drifting in from the Atlantic. Through the day, it will become

firmly established. Plenty of opportunities for getting out and

about. Will we see the sunshine, clear skies overnight and with clear

skies, we will sea mist and fog forming. North-western areas the

most prone to that. Turning cold in major towns and cities. In rural

spots, down to three and four. In rural spots, it could get close to

freezing. Chilly to start the day. The fog is most likely to be found

in north-western parts of the UK visibility could get low. -- but

visibility. Poor visibility, so bear that in mind if you are heading out

on the roads or to the airport. The fog will lift readily through the

morning with good spells of sunshine to be found. For the southern half

of the UK, more cloud around that if you see more cloud, it will be

bright and that. Still lengthy spells of sunshine. It looks like a

decent day across the board. Light wind, and temperatures getting into

the low 20s. Feeling pleasant. Probably warmer in the North of

Scotland. Chilly to start the day on Wednesday with mist and fog. The

best of sunny spells further north and west. Thursday and Friday, dry

and bright with variable amounts of cloud. Where you get the sunshine,

it will feel pleasantly warm. That's all from the BBC News at Six.

So it's goodbye from me,