15/03/2012 BBC Points West

Hello and welcome to BBC Points West. The headlines this evening:

The possessions of Holocaust victims being auctioned in Bristol

- MPs say it's profiting from hatred and call for sales to be

banned. I was told the one of the items sold was a passport of a

victim of the Holocaust. I think most people would think that is

quite distasteful. The school test grades that don't

add up - teachers challenge an exam board over the quality of its

marking. Also tonight: The Cheltenham Festival under scrutiny

as questions are raised about the number of horses which have died

this year. And we try out the quickest way of travelling a mile

Good evening. MPs are calling on the Government to ban the sale of

Nazi memorabilia after the armband of a Holocaust victim was auctioned

off in Bristol. They've tabled a Commons motion accusing those

responsible of glorifying hatred and violence. The auctioneers have

hit back saying they're sensitive about the artefacts they handle and

have no plans to stop the sales. Chris James reports. On sale,

documents belonging to victims of the Holocaust. This armband,

passport and symbol went under the hammer at Dreweatts in Bristol and

fetched �360. But now there are calls to outlaw this kind of

material being sold in this country. It's already banned in Germany,

France and Austria, and now MP's have tabled a Commons motion

condemning the sale. All the well- known auction houses don't take

part in this trade at all. It seems that this particular auction house

in Bristol does. I don't know whether there are any others around

the country. Maybe they will be flushed out now as a result of this

motion being tabled. It's not the first time a sale at Drewatts has

created headlines. Last year they auctioned off Adolf Hitler's

bedsheets. Exceptionally rare, they sold for �2,000 after a fierce

bidding war. It's 70 years on since World War Two, but to some seeing

this kind of history is still upsetting. I think it is

distasteful, and I find it hard to understand people's motivation.

it was purely commercial, then it seems rather unethical, because it

is a bit like digging up body parts that don't belong to you and

selling them. It is a macabre way of making money. No one from the

auction house would speak to me tonight, but I have received any

mail from the director. He says it is the firm's policy to exercise

discretion when handling sensitive items, and they respect the tabled

a motion, but as auctioneers, we act purely as agents between the

buyer and the seller, and there are no plans to stop artifacts like

this going under the hammer. MPS are now calling on the Government

to bring in immediate regulation to control what they term an abhorrent

trade. The North Somerset MP Liam Fox has

been punished for breaking Parliamentary rules regarding his

friend Adam Werritty. It's another blow following his resignation last

October as Defence Secretary. He's now been ordered to pay �3,000 and

make a written apology for letting his friend use his taxpayer-funded

second home and office. Joining us now is our political editor Paul

Barltrop. Paul, why's this come about? People will remember that

Adam Werritty was Liam Fox's best man. Mr Fox was forced to resign as

defence secretary because he broke the code of conduct. There was an

investigation as to how what Adam Werritty had stayed in Liam Fox's

flat in London, paid for by the taxpayer, and for six years had

used that the Parliamentary Office to run a charity that they were

both involved in. He has been ordered to pay �3,000 and make a

written apology. It was only last month -- Only last month he gave

the Sunday Politics his first television interview since his

departure from Government. What does this do for his prospects for

a return to the front benches? Fox has been an MP for 20 years. He

is somebody that wants to be right to the forefront. If you listen to

what he said during that first television interview, it gives you

some hint as to how keen he is. That is for me to decide. You would

like to be back one day? You come into politics to make a difference.

There are different ways of doing that. Shall I take that as a yes?

You can take it as a yes. Any hope of his returning has been dealt a

severe blow by today's news. He has had to pay money in the past and is

expensive. -- his expenses. Somerset headteacher says she's

lost faith in the exam board responsible for marking their

English GCSE papers. Pupils at the Castle School received far lower

grades than predicted in their exams taken in January. They've now

requested the scripts to be re- marked, and have called an urgent

meeting with other schools in the county to discuss the way forward.

How are we being spoken to in this poem? The English department here

at the Castle School is said to be one of the best in the country. Not

that you'd think it from their recent GCSE English results from

January. You can see the level of concern we have here is phenomenal.

The school's head teacher says she has lost all faith in the way

Edexcel, the exam board, is marking the papers. She says her concerns

are also shared by others in the county. This is happening right

across Taunton and right across Somerset, and even now we're

hearing that there are schools in Devon that have had a similar

problem if they have had Edexcel examine their children. It is

clearly not with us or our school. It must be with the exam board.

It's not the first time the school has complained. Last year they

contacted Edexcel about the way the poetry paper had been marked. And

the teachers now feel this recent unexpected drop in grades has

damaged the morale of the pupils. Where did we go wrong? It is not

our fault of the teachers' fault, but why have we got these results?

Leading up to the exam, I was getting an A, but in the exam, I

got the D. For the teachers themselves, well, these are also

difficult times. We have usually got a clear idea of where our top

pupils are, and these results put that all out of kilter. It is

nothing like we expected. And that knocks you confidence. Well, we

contacted Edexcel about the matter, We provided additional guidance,

support and advice to T-shirts -- teachers throughout this new exam.

We are confident that the results will be of the same standard as

other organisations, and all pupils will receive their grades they

deserve. The school will now request that a sample of the papers

be re-marked, costing �30 each. An expensive venture when budgets are

tight. They say they're confidant Edexcel got it wrong, and will meet

with other schools tomorrow to Thousands of people descended on

Cheltenham again today for the third day of the Festival. The

afternoon belonged to Somerset- trained Big Bucks, but the mood on

the Gloucestershire course was subdued after the death of five

horses so far. The British Horse Racing Authority described the

tally as "regretable", adding it would continue to work with all

racecourses to manage and reduce the risk to the animals. Well,

let's join David Passmore who's been at Cheltenham throughout. Good

evening. I think it all comes down to what we define as acceptable

risk. No one denies that horse racing is a dangerous occupation.

Animals travelling at 30 mph and jumping substantial fences were

never be safe. The British Horseracing authorities said that

every incident is fully investigated to try to find an

obvious cause, to try to find any common cause, and in the past they

have changed regulations, moved fences, altered fences. But all

along, they say it is a case of minimising risk but not removing it.

Racing as normal today, but under the closest scrutiny. Horse

fatalities are not uncommon, but at Cheltenham, there are high profile.

The risk is always there, but strikes randomly. 11 deaths

resulted from racing here in 2006. There were a total of eight in the

next five years, before five on just the first two days here this

year. Those in the industry work hard to reduce risk, but accepted.

It is part and parcel of the force. It is unfortunate for it to happen

on a high-profile day at Cheltenham, but these are jump horses. I have

lost three or four horses this year on training gallops at home. Every

time our horses lost at a race meeting, they come up with better

procedures. There are tiny numbers of horses lost at race meetings

compared to the number who are running. No course officials would

be interviewed today. A British racecourse authority issued a

statement, saying that all entered and a regrettable and all are

The RSPCA's equine consultant says they do all they can to make sure

that racecourses are up to scratch. These courses are looked after

extremely well, there is no doubt about that. But everybody has got

to try to look at the risk factor, and by all means keep looking at it

and reduce it, but you will never take all injuries and deaths out of

horse racing. To the relief of all here, today's racing past offered

no further incident or fatalities, and officials are hoping that that

will be the case tomorrow. As I say, no interview from the

British Horseracing Authority today, although they have just sent us

through some more figures in addition to the statement they gave

us earlier. They point out that in the 2007-2011 period, good years

for the Cheltenham Festival, 2381 runners ran and there were nine

fatalities, less than one half of a %. Some say that is acceptable, but

others don't. I will be back later with more on Big Bucks's big win.

You're watching BBC Points West. Still to come: The former pupils

threatened with legal action over their comments on Twitter.

And Big Bucks sends records tumbling with a fourth consecutive

Back with more from Cheltenham in a few moments, but first more news. A

nurse has been struck off after she was filmed switching off the

ventilator of a tetraplegic man then trying to switch it back on

again. A hearing by the nursing and midwifery council found Violeta

Aylward guilty of serious professional misconduct. She was

caring for Jamie Merrett in his home in Devizes when the incident

happened. Mr Merrett was left seriously brain damaged. He had

installed CCTV in his room because he was becoming concerned about the

quality of care provided by the private nursing agency, Ambition 24.

The family are pleased with the decision, and am glad to see that

the nurse will no longer be able to practise as a nurse. But they don't

feel she is the only one to blame for what happened to Jamie. Why

didn't the nursing agency check on her competence beforehand to make

sure that she had the ITU experience that she needed to care

for him? Mr Merrett's solicitor is now considering taking legal action

against Great Western Ambulance Trust because of concerns of a

further delay in giving his client Three former pupils and one still

studying it at the school in Gloucester have been threatened

with legal action over comments made on Twitter. The Commons have

now been removed, but Twitter users have said they will not pay the

legal costs, as demanded by the school.

Twitter has over 300 million users. It works by people publishing their

thoughts in 140 characters or less. But three former students and one

still at Crypt went too far. They posted what have been described as

highly offensive and libelous comments about members of staff.

Following advice from the police and their lawyers, the school

threatened the users with legal action and asked for costs of �680

each. The pupil still at the school was suspended for a day. The

headteacher told me his actions were proportionate. The letter we

send them was a warning letter. It said, remove the tweeds, and

refrain from posting things such as that again, or we will take legal

action. But when you involve lawyers, that brings costs, so we

are seeking to recover the costs of There's understandably been a lot

of reaction to the story on Twitter. But communications experts say

writing comments on the internet are subject to the same laws as

journalists. Those of us who work in the media

have been given Trainee legal issues of the sensitivities around

writing stories. Not everybody has that. Suddenly you have all these

thousands a citizen journalist who can write whatever they want, or

think they can, and there are repercussions. I have spoken to the

three former pupils, and they say they feel hard done by by the

school, saying a simple phone call is all it would have taken to get

them to delete the Commons. They also say they will not be paying

the legal costs, because they say they can't see how the school could

justify that when an informal approach is all it would have taken.

"Now that we have seen what consequences have arisen from our

comments we do realise what we put was a mistake in hindsight. We have

apologised to the school." Back to one of the country's top sporting

events - the Cheltenham Festival. And today belonged to one horse -

Somerset's Big Bucks. He made history by winning his fourth

consecutive World Hurdle, to the delight of his trainer, Paul

Nicholls. Our sports editor David Passmore saw it all happen and

joins us again now. Dave, this was quite a feat.

It was an absolutely wonderful atmosphere in the winner's

enclosure behind me, and after two days, when the favourites fail to

deliver, Big Bucks proved he was the horse for the big occasion.

Before the race, he looked so calm, he appeared half asleep. That was

in marked contrast to a thrilling finish. It was his 16th successive

win, his 4th successive victory in this prestigious race. He has not

lost in three years, and today added another �100,000 prize-money

to more than a million in his career so far. He is awesome. He is

such a fantastic horse to have done that. It was brilliant. You can't

describe it. He is very good, stays very well. All class. He is magic.

Let's hope we can come back next year and make it five. Well, from

one trained legend to another, because tomorrow, Finn will try and

put himself right at the top of the history books of National Hunt

racing -- Kauto Star. He is one of the best-loved horses in the sport,

as Alastair Durden now reports. is the horse of a lifetime. You

could never get another like him. The first horse ever to regain the

Cheltenham Gold Cup. He was one of the rarest horses that have ever

been. Bred in France, Kauto Star was known as the extra-terrestrial,

and his career record is certainly out of this world. He has won 16

top-grade races, including two Cheltenham Gold Cups, and was the

first horse to win over �2 million in prize money over jumps. His

fearless attitude has won him a legion of fans. He is a star, and

all of our racegoers hearts go to him. I hope he can do it, I really

do. Unfortunately, I am in work, so I will have it on the radio.

want him to come back and win, that is what you want to see. Some high-

profile defeats last season prompted talk of retirement, but

instead, he has come back stronger to beat his rival Long Run twice in

the last four months, meaning tomorrow's clash is hotly

anticipated. To win, lose, come back and win a Gold Cup, it takes

unbelievable resolution to do that. He has been to the Cheltenham

Festival six times now. To run against the best and keep coming

back and being competitive takes some doing. Owner and trainer admit

this will be his last shot at winning the Gold Cup. But then

again, this is one star that just The comeback Kid, fingers crossed

for tomorrow. We will be back here watching Kauto Star, and we will be

down in the village where his supporters will be watching him,

and they all know him personally. I bet they do! Thank you, David.

Kauto Star is a wonderful horse, but so is Long Run, so we will find

Lord Coe says he intends to watch more Chelsea football matches after

the Olympics! That was his answer to a question from Ryan, a school

pupil from the Bridge Learning Campus in South Bristol. It was

during a special press conference at the Olympic Park today as part

of the BBC's School Report day. As a former Olympic runner, Lord Coe

might be interested to know that young athletes in North Somerset

are having to travel miles just to get to a proper track. So for our

School Report, we sent some pupils to investigate. I'm Maddy. And I'm

Sol. And we are both students at Nailsea School. Many people come

here to enjoy the facilities such as North Somerset Athletics Club.

As you can see, children of all ages gather here to receive

professional training in all types of athletics. You get to go on a

podium. The hurdles. Why would it be good to have a new athletics

track? It would mean that we could go to one set place rather than

having to travel to lots of different schools. Currently there

are over 300 members competing from the age of eight and up. However

they have no fixed base for their training. Lots of stuff going on,

lots of things happening, but I wonder where we could go up we had

the right facility, because this is so restrictive. We have 14-year-

olds doing sprints been a sports centre with a big wall at the end

of it. They did because they are well disciplined, but it is not as

good as it could be. North Somerset Council have found a potential site

for the track in Weston-super-Mare. However the track is estimated to

cost over a million pounds, and the problem is that there is no funding

available. We just want somewhere we can train and not worry about

lack of space, too many kids, not enough coaches, whatever. 2012 -

the year of the London Olympics, and everyone is talking about

Olympic legacy. But it looks like it will be some time before North

Somerset gets the track it needs. This is Maddy and Sol for BBC New

School Report in Nailsea School, North Somerset. Goode report. Well

done, guys. Now, it's nearly time for this year's Sport Relief! The

idea is to "go the extra mile", so we challenged our very own Andrew

Plant to get the ball rolling here at Points West.

From up here, it all seems so small. That's the ground two miles below.

There's the back of a plane which I'm reluctantly leaving. That's me

- in the Biggles hat - looking worried. When they asked me to do a

mile for Sport Relief, they never said it would be at 120 miles an

hour - straight down. More sheer terror in a minute. First back in

the plane, and jump back half an hour.

The first thing that will happen, you get a nice red jumpsuit.

Welcome to the training ground of the famous Red Devils display team,

in demand across the world. And Nathan here, veteran of more than

2000 jumps. So, into my honourary Red Devil jumpsuit, Which goes

nicely with the Sport Relief T- shirt. You get about 50 seconds of

freefall, so you probably do about a mile in 20 seconds, 25 seconds.

Helmut Cech, sued Cech, reinforced underwear, Cech. -- helmet, yes.

Suit, yes. And ten minutes later: The curvature of the earth outside

the window at almost 14,000 feet. When someone opens the door, you

think, what am I doing? But then you see that it is the Red Devils,

and you feel A funny old sport - and a relief to be down. Now - over

Well done, Andrew. Would you do it? Yes, I would. But I always thought

he had his head in the clouds. There is still time to sign up for

the Sport Relief Mile. Now, it has been a bit of a foggy day.

Persistently, in fact, across some district. At least it brightened up

district. At least it brightened up Andrew's skydive yesterday.

Tomorrow will bring a different story, mind you. There will be

variable amounts of cloud around. It will remain dry until late into

the evening, when the rain will start which will dominate through

Saturday. It is a right mess on the weather charts, with further heavy

rain at times. By Sunday it will clear a way, and as we get into the

start of next week, high pressure builds from the Azores again. It

will become increasingly dry again, which is a problem given the water

shortages. These jet stream winds curving around allow cruellest heir

to come in, particularly for Sunday. -- allow cool the macro heir to

The wind will start to pick up tonight. As we head into tomorrow,

things are starting to brighten up. Through the rest of this evening

and tonight, a few balloon pilots watching the skies will have seen

the fog begin to lift. There will be some low cloud draped on to

Uplands, but most places will escape fog at lower levels.

Tomorrow, a good deal of cloud around. As we get things under way,

the cloud will start to break-up. As we get later into the evening,

some patchy rain will begin to come through. Temperatures tomorrow,

particularly -- typically between 10 and 12 Celsius. Heavy rain

around on Saturday, less on Sunday, and back to square one for next

Interesting conditions for the Gold Cup at Cheltenham tomorrow. We will