28/02/2018 BBC News at Six

A red alert in Scotland, as heavy

snow hits large parts of the UK.

It's the highest level

of weather warning, meaning

lives could be at risk.

People are told not to travel

in the affected parts of Scotland.

We wouldn't be advocating people

going out in this kind of weather.

Stay warm, stay safe,

and let us come to you.

Sub-zero temperatures have blanketed

the whole of the UK today.

Thousands of schools

have been closed.

There've been major problems

and long tailbacks on the roads.

In Nottinghamshire, the A1

was closed in both directions,

after an accident involving 16 cars.

We'll have the latest

from our correspondents

in Glasgow and Durham,

as well as the situation

across the rest of the UK.

And there is a lot of more snow to

come.

Also on the programme tonight:

Former Prime Minister Sir John Major

urges Theresa May to put country

country before party -

and possibly a second referendum -

on a Brexit deal.

Nobody can truly know what the will

of the people may then be.

So let Parliament decide,

or put the issue back to the people.

More than 5,000 jobs at risk,

as two big High Street names -

Toys R Us and Maplin -

collapse.

The Royal Four's first

official engagement,

as Prince Harry jokes that they're

stuck together for the

rest of their lives.

And coming up on Sportsday,

on BBC News:

Heading up Wembley way

for the first time in a decade -

League One Rochdale play Spurs again

in their FA Cup fifth-round replay.

Good evening and welcome

to the BBC News at Six.

The Met Office has

issued a red alert -

its highest weather warning -

across large parts of Scotland,

as heavy snow falls and the cold

weather intensifies.

It's the first red warning issued

for snow in five years,

and people in this area -

which stretches from Glasgow

to Edinburgh and up to Perth -

are being told to avoid all travel.

This is what temperatures looked

like first thing this morning

across the whole of the UK.

Everywhere was below zero,

with Farnborough, in Hampshire,

the coldest, at minus 11.7.

Snow has fallen across large parts

too, with more than 22 centimetres

in Boulmer, in Northumberland.

And many more schools

were closed today -

thousands across England,

Wales, Scotland

and Northern Ireland.

In a moment, we'll hear

from Danny Savage.

But first, to Lorna Gordon.

In Glasgow.

Yes, when that red warning came into

force, the areas affected in central

and Southern Scotland to all intents

and purposes have been grinding to a

halt. The trains here on out off in

Scotland's big city Glasgow, there

is now no public transport services.

And most roads, including the busy

motorways, they are almost empty of

traffic. Where they are not empty on

roads like the 80, drivers have been

stuck for hours.

At the tail end of winter,

the highest alert for snow.

The driving treacherous,

the disruption widespread.

Heading out in these

conditions not advised.

This, the first time Scotland

has had a red weather

warning of this kind.

In force for a large swathe

of the country's most

heavily populated areas,

frequent showers, drifting snow

and the extremely low temperatures

means some rural

communities could become cut off.

Is it OK to come in?

Hello, Marjorie.

In the village of Bishopton,

on the outskirts of Glasgow,

the local Minister has been looking

in on the elderly and formidable.

In this kind of weather,

it's good for everyone to look out

for their neighbours?

It is indeed, that is right,

and even the smallest

gesture can be a help.

Checking in on everyone

and just checking to see

they are safe is important.

We wouldn't be advocating people

going out in this kind of weather.

Stay warm, stay safe,

and let us come to you.

The weather today is brutal.

There's freezing temperatures across

pretty much the whole of Scotland.

And when the wind blows,

it feels much colder than that.

The school here in Bishopton

shut for the day.

Across Scotland, more than 450,000

children have been missing lessons.

I was meant to be working,

but Alistair is off school,

so he came with me.

Take Your Child To Work Day,

but for weather reasons?

Yeah.

I wouldn't normally be off

but the schools got closed,

I couldn't get to work,

so my boss told me to stay at home

and work from home if I could,

but we ended up sledging.

In Perthshire, these deer

coming down from the hills

in search of shelter or food.

One measure, perhaps, of just how

extreme this weather has been.

It is pretty unusual in Scotland, we

do have some severe weather but snow

on the scale whilst not

unprecedented is unusual. We would

have to go back a number of years to

see an event like this.

At least one skier took to the

streets, not the slopes, to get

about. And with conditions so

difficult, there are warnings

tonight drivers could be stuck on

some roads for several hours with

even the gritters struggling to get

through.

The snow and ice has

caused serious problems

across most of the UK today.

In Lincolnshire, the emergency

services called on the Army to help,

after dozens of road incidents.

Many police forces are urging people

not to drive tonight with problems

on a number of major roads -

some of which have been

completely closed.

The worst affected areas

in England have been Kent,

East Anglia and North-East England.

Danny Savage is in Durham.

Day three of this Siberian blast

and things just got worse.

This was Cumbria early this morning,

but it could have been virtually

anywhere in Northern

and Eastern Britain.

Hundreds of vehicles -

on many different routes -

ended up getting stuck.

The A46 Lincoln bypass was

blocked by stranded lorries.

Further south, in Norwich,

it was gridlock in rush hour,

as the journey to work took hours.

The poor night girls

are still on shift.

They've been there since

half past seven last night

and no-one can get in.

We should have just stayed

at home really, but someone's

got to keep the world

running, haven't they?

On the East Coast main line,

linking London and Scotland,

there were numerous

cancellations and delays.

The snow, the travel,

it's been a nightmare.

It's been, yeah,

it's been a journey.

It is the 2:38 train

and it has been delayed by,

like, a couple of hours.

So 17:15 is the current time.

Thousands of schools

were closed for the day.

Of course, that meant fun

in the snow, but you needed

endurance in the biting wind chill.

If you took a spin down

a country road in Yorkshire,

this is what it looked like.

Beautiful, but treacherous.

Come on!

Come on!

In rural areas, much has to be done,

regardless of the weather.

All these ewes are pregnant.

They'll begin lambing

in less than three weeks.

Farmers want this freeze

to be over by then.

Sometimes, the weaker lambs

would just freeze to death in it.

That's where most of

the problem would lie.

And the farmer himself getting

round the sheep to find

which ones are in a corner.

They don't always lamb

where you want them to.

And so you'd have to be out looking,

finding them in the snow?

Yes, yeah.

Up the road, Sunderland was

one area badly hit this morning.

All the buses stopped

running at one point,

as blizzards swept through.

On the way in, we found Steve

trying to free his car,

which ended up off the road.

There was a lorry stuck

there, so we were sort

of like stuck behind a vehicle.

And it was just like a sheet of,

well, you can see virtually

in front of you really.

A white-out?

It really was.

Even Cornwall got a covering.

An opportunity for a different kind

of boarding in the South-West.

South-East England ended up

on the receiving end as well,

adding to the accumulations in Kent

and neighbouring counties.

The capital received

its heaviest snow

for several years,

with canals freezing over.

The reality again is that the

severity of snowfall varied widely.

There is no sign of things

getting better yet.

Much of the attention over the next

24 hours is going to be on Scotland

with that red weather warning in

place. But there is still a very

serious situation in other parts of

England and Wales. The critical

incident declared by the Chief

Constable of Lincolnshire police,

calling in the Army to help with

medical work and getting people to

and from hospital. There has been a

major accident in Nottinghamshire,

on the A1, 16 vehicles involved.

Schools in South Wales, many will

not open until next week because of

the severe weather. Transport

networks not quite paralysed, but it

is really in places and the rock

last train to London from the room

was three hours late. It shows how

difficult the situation is for

people getting around in the UK at

the moment.

From Durham, thank you. And there

are warnings that the West is not

over yet. More to come in the next

two days and we will have a full

weather forecast late in the

programme.

The Prime Minister has come under

pressure over Brexit at home and in

Brussels. Sir John Major criticised

the handling of the proceedings and

a document was revealed proposing

keeping Northern Ireland in a

customs union and like the rest of

the UK if no deal can be reached.

Theresa May said the idea could not

be agreed to. We will hear from so

John Major in a moment, but first,

our Europe editor in Brussels and

her report does contain flash

photography.

In the historic process

in which the UK leaves the EU,

this is a big moment -

the first legal draft

of the UK's exit treaty.

So how is it possible,

you might ask, to have a draft

withdrawal agreement already

when Brexit negotiations

are still ongoing?

Well, this 120-page document

is the European Commission's

understanding of what has been

agreed to date with the UK and of

what it still wants to be agreed.

So in here, we see that divorce

issues which were discussed,

but not finalised, before Christmas.

The rights of EU citizens

within the UK and UK citizens

in the EU after Brexit.

Also, the financial settlement,

the so-called Brexit Bill.

And to the Irish border.

Also in here, the transition

agreement, but no details

of a future EU-UK trade deal,

because those talks

haven't even started yet.

The document's paragraphs

on Northern Ireland

are particularly controversial.

The EU's chief Brexit negotiator

came out today to defend them.

We have applied imagination

and creativity, to find a specific

solution to the unique challenge

that Brexit poses for the protection

of the Good Friday Agreement.

Mr Barnier said three options had

been agreed with the UK to avoid

the reintroduction of a hard border

between Northern Ireland

and the Irish Republic,

but he said the UK hadn't yet come

forward with details.

So his backstop solution involves

Northern Ireland remaining

in a customs agreement with the EU

and in parts of the single market.

You must also be aware

of the potentially explosive

effect in the UK of this

Northern Ireland protocol.

Is this perhaps

intentional, on your part?

TRANSLATION:

I'm not trying

to provoke or create shock waves.

I want these negotiations

to be a success.

But let me remind you that it was

the UK's decision to leave and,

as I've said from the beginning,

nobody should underestimate

the consequences of this action.

But the Prime Minister

was having none of it.

The draft legal text

the Commission have published

would, if implemented,

undermine the UK Common Market

and threaten the constitutional

integrity of the UK by creating

a customs and regulatory border down

the Irish Sea, and no UK Prime

Minister could ever agree to it.

The Prime Minister and the EU

do agree a hard border

between Northern Ireland

and the Irish Republic must be

avoided, but the Prime Minister's

negotiating position is complicated

by the Government's reliance

for Parliamentary support

on Northern Ireland's Democratic

Unionist Party.

If we didn't leave the EU to oversee

the break-up of the United Kingdom,

it would be catastrophic

economically, never mind

politically, for Northern Ireland

to cut off from its biggest market.

But this is not

where the story ends.

This document is a first draft,

to be amended by EU member states,

then negotiated with the Government

- which has plenty to say about it.

Katya Adler, BBC News, Brussels.

The former Prime Minister Sir

John Major has called

on Theresa May to offer MPs a free

vote on the final Brexit

deal, with the option

of putting it to the public

in a second referendum.

Sir John, who campaigned

to remain in the EU,

criticised the UK's approach

to Brexit and said many of its red

lines are unrealistic.

But a leading Brexit-supporting

Conservative MP has described his

speech as "riddled with errors".

Our political editor,

Laura Kuenssberg, reports.

Stop Brexit! Stop Brexit. The

freezing protesters who have taken

up a permanent place in Westminster

might have a new ally. The former

Tory Prime Minister Sir John Major,

who says MPs should be allowed to

approve or to block the final Brexit

deal will give you second

referendum.

Nobody can truly know what the will

of the people may then be. What the

will of the people may then be. What

the will of the people may then be.

Or put the issue back to the people.

I don't enjoy being out of step with

so many of my party. And I take no

pleasure at all in speaking out as I

have today. But it is as necessary

to speak truth to the people as it

is to speak truth to power. This

decision is far more than a party

issue. It is about the future of our

United Kingdom and everyone who

lives in it.

His case, Theresa May

is trapped by her Brexiteers, the

current plot has a bad ending.

She is boxed in by people setting up

hurdles that it is very difficult

for her to jump and very difficult

for the European Union to jump. And

the end product of this no doubt in

the minds of those setting those

hurdles is that the European Union

will say no and it will be said, we

have no agreement because these

wicked Europeans and therefore we

leave with no agreement and a very

hard Brexit. That is not in the

interests of this country.

There is

a risk from what you have said

today, it sounds like someone who

was on the losing side of the

document and you don't want to

accept it.

That is a cheap response

to anything that is said. The 60

million people who were deeply upset

that we voted to leave the European

Union expected to be absolutely

silent and accept everything that is

said by other people even when they

believe it to be damaging? That is

not real. That is absolutely not

real. Of course they must speak up.

We are a democracy. But is democracy

not also respecting the result of

the referendum.

Nobody knew in any

detail what the outcome of the

referendum really meant.

The Prime

Minister relies on the support of a

vocal group of Brexit backers. But

she, like they, has no truck with

another vote.

The Government has given Parliament

the right to say whether they agree

with what we negotiated or not and

that will be it. And I think that is

the right thing to do. We have the

lead because the British people have

said we should leave.

Ministers may gnash their teeth at

this intervention. But it has

cheered the other Tory rest of

troops.

John Major is right, we should have

a free vote. And it is absolutely

the will of the people, then this

process that was begun by the people

of this country must be finished by

the people of this country.

But is he really helping? Did he not

complain his predecessor was a

back-seat driver?

Why should Theresa May tolerate what

you're doing this afternoon?

This is the first occasion I have

spoken on this many months. Unless

my memory serves me ill, Margaret

spoke on a weekly basis, not once in

many months.

Hard to believe now the

referendum was meant to end Tory

fights, with the year to go, the

future shape of the country at

stake, there are plenty of scores to

settle.

There was frustration at surge on

major's intervention at the moment

when Theresa May gets striving to

hold together an uneasy truce in the

Tory party, but on his point of

view, he chooses his interventions

and words carefully, and rarely.

Clearly, for those inside the Tory

party, and around the country that

don't think this whole battle is

over, they may well give some

comfort. But we will see how to read

and make answers this amount and the

rest of the very, very long list of

them being put to her door in her

own big Brexit speech on Friday.

The time is just after 6:15.

Our top story this evening:

A red alert in Scotland as heavy

snow hits large parts of the UK.

It's the highest level

of weather warning,meaning

lives could be at risk.

And still to come:

Worried about plastic pollution?

This is the first supermarket in

Europe to open a plastic-free aisle.

Coming up on Sportsday on BBC News:

Ben Stokes is back making

the difference for England.

His man of the match display helps

them to a big win over New Zealand

in the second one day international.

They've been big high street names

for more than 30 years,

but now Toys'R'Us and the electrical

chain, Maplin have both collapsed,

putting more than 5000 jobs at risk.

Toys R Us has 3000 staff.

Maplin employs two and

a half thousand people.

Both firms have been struggling

with poor sales and increasing

competition from online retailers.

Here's our Business

Correspondent Emma Simpson.

# With toys in their millions

# All under one roof

# It's Called Toys'R'Us!...#

It was a force to be reckoned with,

pulling in shoppers

with its American-style megastores.

Today, the magic's long gone.

Some stores were already

closing to cut costs.

But it wasn't enough.

It's a shame, but it's not

probably a great surprise.

It's been on the cards for a while.

And people tend to buy

online these days, I think,

because it's cheaper.

Because I've four children,

grown up now, but we always used

to come here for their toys,

so it's a shame.

So what went wrong for Toys'R'Us?

They are too reliant on

these large out-of-town stores.

But a lot of their problems

are actually self-inflicted.

They overlooked the importance

of online, where about 40%

of toy sales take place.

And perhaps more importantly,

they've neglected their stores.

Toys'R'Us has been struggling

for years, a business weighed down

by huge amounts of debt.

Its American owners filed

for bankruptcy protection

in the States last autumn.

And today, this toy story ended

with the UK chain effectively

running out of cash.

And tonight, the man tasked

with rescuing it told me

that wouldn't be easy.

Whilst we're going to make every

effort to sell the business,

I think realistically

there is a small chance that

someone will come through.

And if they do, it will be

for parts of the business,

and certainly not for the business

as a whole, and certainly not

in its existing format.

Maplin also collapsed today

with more than 200 stores.

It blamed a slowdown in

consumer spending and higher costs.

It's been a bleak winter

for many retailers.

Today, two big casualties,

and thousands of jobs on the line.

The shops are still trading,

but for how much longer?

Emma Simpson, BBC News.

Russia has been readmitted to

the International Olympic Committee

following its suspension

from the recent Winter Olympics.

Russia was banned from

the Pyeongchang Games over

state-sponsored doping,

and its athletes had to compete

under a neutral flag.

Two tested positive for drugs

but the IOC chose to lift the ban

after the remaining tests

came back negative.

Pupils have made an emotional return

to the school in Florida where 17

pupils and teachers died

in a shooting a fortnight ago.

Students were embraced by police

officers as they entered the Marjory

Stoneman Douglas High School

to resume classes.

A 19 year old former pupil

Nikolas Cruz has been charged

with 17 counts of murder.

Huge crowds have attended

the funeral of the Bollywood

superstar, Sridevi Kapoor,

who died at the weekend in Dubai.

Thousands of fans lined the streets

of Mumbai where she was cremated

with full state honours.

Police in Dubai say

the 54 year old drowned in a bath,

after losing consciousness.

She was one of India's

best known film stars,

and had appeared in about 300 films.

There is more pressure on retailers

and consumers to cut down on the

amount of plastic we use. One

supermarket in Amsterdam has become

the first in Europe to open a

plastic free I'll. And Johnson went

along to find out more.

On these shelves, all is not what it

seems. At first they claim, and I'll

wear all the packaging is plastic

free. This looks like plastic and

feels like plastic.

But it isn't.

It's just biomaterials and it will

compost completely. And quickly?

Within 12 weeks.

This is the

supermarket boss opening plastic

free aisles across the Netherlands.

It is what the consumer wants. What

you want as a citizen and for your

children for the next generation. It

should be just as simple as that.

This is the future...

Back in

Britain, Iceland has taken a lead,

promising to cut out plastic within

five years, starting with paperboard

ready meal trays. At that is still

not entirely plastic free.

Not

entirely plastic free because we

have a lining on this material to

protect it, and also for sealing it.

We are determined to remove that

quickly.

But the packaging industry,

there is the plastic free I'll, but

it is a chance to catch up with

supermarkets.

There are huge changes

in all sorts of things. I'm not

sure.

Plastic free implies stripping

it all away. And as we found with

the Dutch situation today, plastic

is still there, it's just comes in a

different name.

They are talking

about reducing plastic, there are

plenty of targets, but there is a

big debate about the best way to

kick our habit.

Meghan Markle has joined

Prince Harry and the Duke

and Duchess of Cambridge

for their first official

engagement together.

They were setting out

their charitable vision

for the future through the work

of their personal

charitable organisation -

the Royal Foundation -

amd Ms Markle will officially

join after her wedding

to Prince Harry in May.

Our Royal Correspondent

Nicholas Witchell reports.

They are the foursome who will

take the Royal family forward

for decades to come.

And on stage together

for the first time,

they talked

about their mission.

William said it was to

build on what his parents

and grandparents had achieved.

Hold on to the values that have

always guided our family,

but seek to engage in public life

in a way that was updated

and relevant for our generation.

Attention inevitably

focused on the newcomer,

Meghan Markle underlined

the relevance of her agenda

talking about female empowerment.

You'll often hear people say,

"You're helping women

find their voices."

And I fundamentally disagree

with that, because women don't

need to find a voice.

They have a voice, they need

to feel empowered to use it,

and people need to be

encouraged to listen.

And I think, right now,

in the climate that we're seeing

with so many campaigns,

I mean, Me Too and Time's Up,

there's no better time

than to really continue to shine

a light on women feeling empowered,

and people really helping to

support them, men included in that.

Meghan said she was looking forward

to hitting the ground running

after her wedding.

Sitting next to her,

her future sister-in-law.

So how is it working as a foursome?

Working as family does have

its challenges, of course it does.

The fact that everyone's laughing

means that everybody knows

exactly what it's like.

LAUGHTER

But, look, you know,

we're stuck together

for the rest of our lives, so...

LAUGHTER

This is true.

Togetherness at its finest.

Togetherness, yeah, yeah.

Together and seeking

to make a difference.

Nicholas Witchell, BBC News.

Time for a look at the weather.

Here's Louise Lear.

Subzero temperatures across the

whole of the UK first thing this

morning but it feels colder.

It has been really miserable,

temperatures on your thermometer

felt like this, 1 degrees, but

factor in the wind chill, the beast

from the East we have been talking

about, and it probably felt like

more -6, wind gusts 30-40 mph, so it

is miserable and will spay cold for

the next few days. You can find

these on the BBC weather Web page,

issued by the Met office, the

weather warnings which we don't talk

about national, that means to be

aware four issues. The Amber weather

warnings, be prepared, some

disruption and the red warning, we

only get one or two of these issued

a year. The last time we had a

weather warning, red warning, full

slow was in 2013, this means take

action. Take note that the weather

forecast is going to be really

hideous. We are likely to see more

snow as well in these areas, 10-20

centimetres, perhaps, as we go

through the night. Don't travel in

these areas unless you have to. It

will be a bitterly cold start to the

day with temperatures well below

freezing, any lying snow will freeze

over. Through the day, we run the

risk of showers across parts, and

down into the south-west, cloudy

with outbreaks of snow developing as

well across the Channel coast into

Wales and may be behind it and we

have freezing rain. It will develop

into Friday, with significant snow

across the south-west into Wales and

Northern Ireland. You need to keep

abreast of the forecast for the end

of the working week if you have

significant travel plans. The

emphasis could still change

slightly. Amber weather warnings, be

prepared for some disruption across

the south-west, the snow will

continue to track north and east as

we go through the day. That said, it

should be a slightly quieter story

across much of eastern Scotland,

still a few showers but not be

significant showers we see in

comparison, and a better day across

the north-east of England. Still

wintry grip across the country in

the next few days, keep watching the

weather forecast. We will update

you.

That's all from the BBC News at Six

-- so it's goodbye from me -