09/09/2014 BBC News at Six

Cameron, Miliband, and Clegg put everything on hold to

The Saltire is raised above Downing Street - an appeal,

say ministers, for Scots to embrace the best of both worlds.

In Edinburgh, Labour, Conservatives and Lib Dems insist that a no vote

can still bring significant change. A message echoed in London.

One message I'm sure we'll all have in common is it's a matter for the

Scottish people, but we want you to stay.

But the yes campaign is in a confident mood,

dismissing the latest moves as panic at Westminster.

I think this is a very significant day in the referendum campaign.

I mean this is the day that the no campaign finally fell apart

And we'll be talking to some of the many undecided voters whose

decisions will probably dictate the outcome.

The former chief constable of South Yorkshire police tells MPs he

had no idea of the scale and scope of child abuse in Rotherham.

I have had a 32 year police career and yet on this issue I have

singularly failed the victims of these criminals.

Brought down over eastern Ukraine - the first report into the Malaysia

Airlines crash strongly suggests a missile attack was the cause.

And badger culling begins for a second year in parts

of Gloucestershire and Somerset in a bid to tackle bovine TB.

The helicopter crash which killed two people -

investigators say safety warnings four years ago were ignored.

And the vicar accused of carrying out nearly 500 sham marriages.

Good evening from Edinburgh, with nine days to go

before the people of Scotland vote in the referendum on independence.

The day has been dominated by news that David Cameron,

Ed Milband and Nick Clegg will all be travelling here tomorrow to

It's a clear sign, according to Alex Salmond,

the First Minister, that the Better Together campaign is in absolute

panic and falling apart, following recent polls suggesting that the

Mr Salmond has also dismissed the fast-track timetable put forward

by Gordon Brown for new legislation allocating new

Our special correspondent Allan Little has the latest

on the campaign, with just over a week to go.

It is intended as a gesture of affection between close neighbours,

but is the hoisting of the Saltire over Downing Street also a sign of

growing desperation, even panic? For Westminster has woken up late in the

data the possibility Scotland might just vote for independence. It has

brought the three party leaders together to set their differences

aside and show a united front. There is a lot that the political leaders

disagree about, but one thing all agree about passionately is that the

UK is better off if we stay together. Tomorrow the right place

to be is not at Westminster, it is being in Scotland, listening and

talking to people. The greatest pressure is on Ed Miliband. In

Liverpool today he also flew the cross of St Andrew. He has to

demonstrate to increasingly sceptical Labour voters in Scotland

that his party still represents traditional Labour values, and that

he offers a real and credible alternative to David Cameron. A vote

for no is not a vote for no change, it is a vote for change in terms of

more devolution of power and a vote for change as far as I am concerned

in the way our economy and country works because we have heard the call

for change from the voters of Scotland. In Edinburgh the three

Scottish party leaders appeared together to reinforce the impression

of party unity. They agreed on the timetable to deliver more powers to

the Scottish Parliament, their difficulty is that they still don't

agree on what the powers should be. They agree on a combination of new

powers over welfare, borrowing and tax. Labour want to give Holyrood

the power to vary income tax by up to 15p in the pound. The

Conservatives want to grant the Scottish Parliament full control

over all personal income tax accrued in Scotland. The Lib Dems are the

most radical, offering to devolve most tax raising powers to

Edinburgh. This intervention is a risk for all three party leaders.

David Cameron and Nick Clegg know that they are unpopular in Scotland

and that interventions can often make things worse here by alienating

more people than they persuade, but it is a particular risk for Ed

Miliband. The polls show it is Labour voters who have been crossing

to the yes side in such large numbers that the polls have drawn

level. He needs to win some of them back. Is standing shoulder to

shoulder with an unpopular Tory prime minister the best way to do

that? Or will it play into the hands of the Nationalists who have been

arguing there is no real difference between any of the free Westminster

parties? We have the most unpopular Conservative prime minister in

Scottish political history joined at the hip with the most mistrusted

Labour leader of the opposition ever in Scottish politics, coming to

Scotland together, with the entire Westminster establishment in a total

panic. If I thought they were coming by bus, I would send them their bus

fare. Gordon Brown, who announced the timetable for transferring more

powers to Scotland last night, has seemed highly reluctant to appear in

public throughout the campaign with Conservative members of Better

Together. His allies say he knows the damage that such displays of

unity can do to Labour 's reputation and its message in traditional

Labour strongholds. Strongholds like his own constituency in Kirkcaldy.

Today I found few here whose minds had been changed by the promise of

greater powers after a no vote. Do you not believe them about

transferring specific powers to Holyrood? No, because they do a

U-turn every time. No one believes it. If that were the case, there

would have been devolution max on the ballot paper from the start. I

am not SNP but Alex Salmond encouraged that and they no. I know

that people say it is too little, too late, but at the same time,

people are quite anxious because there are a lot of anxious people

about. That might be a reassurance to them. The three leaders won't

appear together tomorrow but they are mounting an unprecedented show

of unity, aimed at keeping Scotland inside the British fold. We will

have more on the campaign in just a moment but before that let's go to

Westminster and speak to our deputy political editor, James Landale.

What do you make of the announcement today and what can we expect

tomorrow? The party leaders at Westminster have been focusing on

facts and figures and today we are seeing an attempt to appeal more to

the hard to the head. That is why they are rushing to Scotland

tomorrow, that is why high above me the Saltire is flying above Downing

Street and other government departments. They are trying to

inject passion and emotion into their argument, their claim that

they want Scotland to remain part of the UK. Not surprisingly there are

risks involved in this, they know they are very unpopular in Scotland.

Tonight Alex Salmond said he was delighted they are coming up because

he believes this is gesture politics and a last-minute panic measure, but

the three party leaders believe that somehow by putting aside party

differences they can convince Scottish voters that they are

serious about this. One of the big campaign themes so far has been

currency and what kind of currency Scotland would use as an independent

country, and with that in mind the governor of the Bank of England has

been saying something today. Yes, Mark Carney was at the Trade Union

Congress today, and he was asked about the currency. He said that you

can only really have currency union if you have the free movement of

capital goods, some kind of banking union, some kind of shared tax

arrangements, and today he said with all that in mind, that currency

would be incompatible with Scottish sovereignty. Downing Street and

others are saying this is a toughening of his position. In the

past when he was asked about this, he simply said currency union would

require some seeding of national sovereignty, now he is saying it is

incompatible. You have the no campaign summed up, on the one hand

the party leaders trying to put out a positive message, but equally

there was continued warnings of what they see as the negative

implications of independence. Thank you. Both sides in this campaign

managed to agree on one thing, that there are hundreds of thousands of

voters who are undecided, and of course they will be voting next

week, and the factors involved are variable.

Our Scotland correspondent Lorna Gordon has been talking to

They may not have a vote but it is their future being debated, fought

over, and will soon be decided. The mothers at this toddler group are

focused on their children but also listening closely to the arguments

and promises being made, and both sides know that the female vote may

be key. I am voting yes at this referendum because I see it as an

opportunity to protect our vulnerable people - the elderly,

disabled and children. I am still undecided. I was going to vote no

but now I am undecided. I find it all quite sad and I think we should

stay together. Recent polling suggests support for independence is

increasing amongst women voters. Both sides have been targeting their

messages towards key groups of the electorate in Scotland, those voters

still think they have a chance to sway in the final few days of the

campaign. Central now to this campaign are the views of that one

third or so of people in Scotland, most of whom have an inclination of

what they are going to do but have not definitely made up their mind.

These folk are disproportionately women and younger people. There is

another part of society in which it is strong, the elderly. Better

Together are appealing to the shared history and the security of the

larger UK, so are the views of older voters firm and fixed? I like the

idea of the United Kingdom, and having come through the war when

there was so much camaraderie, that is just the way I am. If you had to

vote today, which way would it be? I am inclined to vote yes. I think the

traditional parties have had their chance and not made a very good job

of it in the past. This referendum is neck and neck.

With me is our Scotland political editor, Brian Taylor.

After today's events, is it right to say that for so many people after

such a long campaign, not much will change their mind now? It is coming

to a close. We talk about the undecided as a distinct group, but

many people may go from yes to know or no to yes. The no camp have

recalibrated their campaign. We have had three offers previously, one was

the idea of more powers, one was the idea of emotion, a patriotic link,

and the third was on the issue of risks saying there was a challenge

involved in independence. They are taking that third one and parking it

for a moment, stressing the upside, the offer of more powers and an

enhanced position for the Scottish Government. Alex Salmond is saying

it isn't sufficient, it isn't what Scots need. People have only just

over a week to make up their mind. We'll be back a little later

in Edinburgh and we'll be exploring views on Scottish independence

in the north of England. The police chief who ran

South Yorkshire during the time of the Rotherham sex abuse scandal

says he had no idea of the scale or scope of child abuse in the town

during the period he was in charge. The former chief constable

Meredith John Hughes has told the Home Affairs Select Committee he

had no idea it was going on and is embarrassed

at the failure to stop it. But the committee's chair said he

found his evidence unconvincing. Our Social Affairs Correspondent

Alison Holt reports. The scandal of what happened here in

Rotherham of 1400 children sexually exploited over 16 years has left

deep scars but also many questions. Today MPs challenged those in

authority in the town of why so many were failed for so long. First

before the Home Affairs Select Committee was the former Chief

Constable of South Yorkshire. Facing hostile questions under oath, he

maintained he had no idea of the scale or scope of exploitation in

Rotherham. I have had a 32 year police career and yet on this issue

I have failed the victims of these criminals, and it hurts. It is

something that I loathe, but to say that I am either misleading or lying

to this committee, I can only answer by saying I welcome the fact there

will be an independent inquiry. And for this father who doesn't want to

be identified, that inquiry will also have to explain why police

officers arrested him when he tried to get his missing daughter back. He

says they threatened to charge him with harassment. They have left

children and families at risk and devastated, and this is still

affecting all of us now. All we are asking for now is for somebody in

authority to admit what they have done. The anger of families is also

directed at the head of Rotherham's child protection services. This file

was passed to you containing a huge amount of information. The committee

was told Joyce Thacker had regular briefings on child sexual

exploitation dating back to 2006. Why have you not resigned? I worked

hard with colleagues to make sure we had a good offer today. I take my

responsibilities seriously and I don't intend to resign. The scrutiny

is far from over for those in power in Rotherham. Tomorrow another group

of MPs will close the council's chief executive, who yesterday

announced he was standing down, and the director of children's services

will face yet more difficult questions. But the victims of

exploitation in this town have waited a long time to find out why

for so many years they didn't get the protection they needed.

The Saltire is raised above Downing Street as Cameron, Miliband,

and Clegg put everything on hold to try to keep Scotland in the Union.

What do people elsewhere in the UK make of the possibility of Scottish

As another London council offers free school meals

for all primary pupils we ask, is it money well spent?

We speak to the 22-year-old from Uxbridge who's just made British

tennis history by winning all four major tournaments in a year.

It's nearly two months since a Malaysia Airlines plane came

down over eastern Ukraine, killing all those on board.

Today, the first official report into the crash was published

and it points to a strong suspicion that the plane was brought down

by a surface-to-air missile, but it stopped short of assigning blame.

298 passengers and crew died on flight MH17,

This morning, Dutch Air Accident Investigators said the Boeing 777

broke up in mid-air after being hit by "objects" that "pierced

Here's our transport correspondent, Richard Westcott.

Nearly two months on, there could still be passengers

resting in these fields, more than 100 victims haven't yet

This report doesn't mention the word "missile" it rules out

There was no mechanical problem, no alarms going off and

So what evidence is there that a weapon brought the plane down?

Well, the most interesting finding centres on these holes found all

over the front of the aircraft near the cockpit.

It says they are from a large number of high energy

objects that penetrated the skin from the outside.

That would point to this, a Buk missile launcher, apparently

Now the missile doesn't hit the aircraft,

it explodes near by peppering it with small bits of metal.

Investigators now believe they've retrieved some of that shrapnel.

We also found some fragments of, we think, the objects that

penetrated the aircraft and the bodies, especially the crew.

Still the critical question remains unanswered, both sides used the Buk,

If they could gain safe access to the crash site,

Because we know the position is in the sky,

we could then reverse engineer the flight of the missile down to

the ground and work out pretty much within 100 to 200 square meters

There were 10 Britons on board MH17, three still haven't been

Liam Sweeney was heading across the world to watch Newcastle

His dad Barry said answers won't bring him back.

I'm happy to know about the crash that they probably died instantly.

It doesn't really matter who has done it.

I know there are always people who blame everybody else.

This report includes one more so sobering fact.

Three other large, commercial airliners were flying

over the same area at about the same time as flight MH17.

The Government has announced that Britain is sending weapons to

Kurdish forces fighting the jihadist group, Islamic State,

Heavy machine guns and ammunition, worth more than ?1.5 million,

The Defence Secretary said the UK was committed to assisting the Iraqi

The Former Formula One Champion, Michael Schumacher,

has left hospital in Switzerland almost 10 months after he suffered

Schumacher will continue his rehabilitation at home.

His manager said that, considering the severe injuries he

suffered, progress has been made in the past weeks and months.

A new badger cull got underway this morning in Somerset

It will last six weeks and is designed to reduce the spread

But it's highly controversial, with critics saying culling isn't

The Government and farmers say doing nothing is "not an option."

Our environment correspondent, Claire Marshall,

joins us now from the village of Forthampton in Gloucestershire.

Everything behind me is part of the cull zone. When night falls in just

over an hour or so, you will have marksmen coming out into this area

and you will have very committed groups of anti-badger cull

protesters trying to out wit each other. Last year it was called an

"epic failure" this year the Government has six weeks to prove a

result. Something to give farmers the result they definitely most hope

for, which is some kind of solution to the spread of TB in cattle.

Footage from night one of this badger cull given to the BBC.

Protesters come across this badger in the kill. The cull contractor

release it is back Into The Wild. For some, this is the right thing to

dochl others think it's madness. The debate is as bitter as ever. Born

over night, these twin calves, their father, earny, tested mostive for TB

and was killed in April. Their mother faces the same fate. David

online video has been watched tens of thousands of times. I understand

better than most what culling is about. I understand people get upset

about culling badgers. It's an essential part of controlling TB in

cattle and wildlife. We must get our countryside free of TB. To do that,

you have to take the disease reservoir out being which is, in

this area, badgers. Last year 1,800 badgers were killed in the pilot

areas. It wasn't effective or humane, according to the

Government's own independent panel. Apparently, though lessons have been

learned. Many protesters believe there is another way. They point to

Wales, the number of cattle slaughtered due to bovine TB has

dropped to almost half down to increased cattle. Sick cattle are

identified and not moved around. It's a hideous disease. A lot of us

live in rural communities. A lot of people from the cull zone. We see

every day what happens to farmers whose cattle come down with BTB.

Killing badgers isn't the way to deal with it. So what it? People

still can't agree. More now on the referendum campaign,

with Huw, in Edinburgh. Just nine days to go until the

referendum on independence, there's a real sense of momentum in this

campaign, both sides fighting to win But the campaign is also raising

questions for tens of millions of people in England, Wales

and Northern Ireland, who won't have a say next week, on whether

the United Kingdom survives. My colleague, Reeta Chakrabarti,

has been talking to people It's not just people who have the

vote who have strong views on Scottish independence. Here in

Chesterfield, people have been both emotional and engaged about what the

vote might mean for them, despite being many miles outside Scotland.

Chesterfield market bustling beneath's the Crooked Spire. No-one

living here can vote in the Scottish referendum, but they have strong

political leanings when the issue is discussed. Three generations out

shopping. The adults don't want Scotland to leave the UK and wish

they had the vote. They are part of us. Part of the United Kingdom.

Therefore, we should have a say in what happens. It years to come it

will affect him and his future children and on and on as not having

the United Kingdom as a whole. Market trader Nick says it's up to

the Scots to decide their own future. He is strongly against

offering them more powers if they vote No. I don't think they have a

bad deal, as things go. Why should they get more because they are

threatening to break away from us. Why should they be given cherries on

the cake, so to speak? This is the deal, either they want in or want

out. The tourist village in the Peak District attracts people from all

over the country, among them Ian Whitehead from Nottingham who

sympathies with Scots who want independence. I see the centre of

gravity, the political establishment, the political elite

favouring the south. Where can we go to create a fairer and more just

society? If the Scots decide to take that into their own hands, I will

take my hat off to them, to be honest. Others bemoan the exclusion

of the rest of the UK from the debate. English people have been

largely ignored, their opinions. I personally think that Scottish

people don't really care what English people feel. Or what Welsh

people or people from Northern Ireland what they feel about going

their own way. This is untrodden territory for both Scotland and the

other nations of the UK. Those powerless to influence events can

only watch and wait. Reeta Chakrabarti, BBC News, Chesterfield.

There's more coverage of the referendum campaign on the BBC News

Don't forget there's plenty of analysis and latest developments

on the BBC News website, bbc.co.uk/scotlanddecides.

Now it's time for the weather with Jay Wynne.

A lovely day across most parts of the United Kingdom. This large area

of high pressure has become firmly established. It will stick around

well on into the weekend. It will keep things fine and settled. A lot

of dry weather in the forecast. Variable amounts of cloud. Most of

us will see sunshine in the coming few days. Over night dry virtually

every where. Rain to the north of Scotland. Elsewhere, dry with clear

spells. We will see mist and fog forming, mainly in the north and

west. 11-12 degrees, in the countryside two or three degrees.

The north of Scotland will have rain in the morning to the far north. The

mainland, patches of fog, it could be misty and murky for the morning

commute. Patches of fog in northern England, Northern Ireland, through

Wales and the south-west. They are patches of fog. Not everywhere will

see them. The Midlands, East Anglia and south-east will be clear of fog.

A dry, bright start to the day with light winds and sunshine. There will

be subtle differences compared with today, the eastern side of England

will see more cloud around. It will be fine and dry. Here there will be

spells of sunshine. The north-will see less cloud. With light winds and

sunshine the temperatures will be up 20 degrees in Glasgow, 21 for

Cardiff and London. Thursday looks like a decent day for most areas.

Cloud for eastern parts of England, staying dry. North and west lots of

sunshine, light winds and 20 degrees for Belfast and Glasgow. Friday and

Saturday a bit more in the way of cloud, it should stay fine and dry.

Even if it is a bit cloudy we should see sunshine coming through. All in

all looking pretty good. Sophie. Thank you very much indeed. That is

it from Edinburgh we will be back good.

That it from Edinburgh,