Browse content similar to 15/08/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Hello and welcome to Midlands Today, with Nick Owen and Mary Rhodes. | :00:00. | :00:09. | |
Joy for thousands of A—level students across the region, but what | :00:09. | :00:12. | |
hope for teenagers where youth unemployment's a major problem? | :00:12. | :00:16. | |
We'll be finding out what's being done in a town with one of the | :00:16. | :00:20. | |
highest numbers of young jobless people in the country. | :00:20. | :00:23. | |
Also tonight, a startling admission from the new boss of Birmingham's | :00:23. | :00:26. | |
Children's Services — "children are unsafe in our care". | :00:26. | :00:30. | |
Testing how we'd react in the face of a terrorist attack — for research | :00:30. | :00:35. | |
purposes only. On the eve of the new Premier League | :00:35. | :00:39. | |
season, new boss Mark Hughes on his hopes for Stoke City. People will | :00:39. | :00:47. | |
possibly be nervous about what is ahead of us but I think we should | :00:47. | :00:50. | |
enjoy and embrace it. And however wet it's been so far | :00:50. | :00:54. | |
this week, it's tame in comparison with what's to come. Join me later | :00:54. | :00:56. | |
for all the details. Good evening. Councillors in one of | :00:56. | :01:09. | |
the UK's worst youth unemployment blackspots have promised a brighter | :01:10. | :01:12. | |
future for the hundreds of A—level students who received their results | :01:12. | :01:17. | |
today. More than one in four young people in Telford and Wrekin are | :01:17. | :01:20. | |
unemployed. That's around 3,500 still waiting to launch their | :01:20. | :01:26. | |
careers. Now the Borough Council is working towards guaranteed | :01:26. | :01:28. | |
education, training or employment for all 16 to 24—year—olds. From | :01:28. | :01:36. | |
Telford, here's Joanne Writtle. Joining us now from Telford is | :01:36. | :01:39. | |
Councillor Shaun Davies, who's responsible for employment and | :01:39. | :01:43. | |
skills. Emotional scenes as students at colleges in Wellington get their | :01:43. | :01:47. | |
A—level results. In line with national trends, those getting top | :01:47. | :01:52. | |
grades dipped by 5% compared to last year but there was still plenty of | :01:52. | :02:00. | |
success. I got an A* grade, A, A. Much better than I'd expected. I got | :02:00. | :02:11. | |
three a star grades and an A. I am going to Oxford. Someone making | :02:11. | :02:15. | |
decisions depending on finance. I wanted to raise the money getting a | :02:15. | :02:20. | |
job to go to university next year. The tuition fees are putting me off. | :02:20. | :02:28. | |
In myself, I'm not ready to go out into the big world at the minute so | :02:28. | :02:33. | |
I am just going to stay at home. It is a bit cheaper as well. We're not | :02:33. | :02:38. | |
seeing fewer students going to university but what we are seeing is | :02:38. | :02:42. | |
that they are staying more locally in terms of transport links. Just a | :02:42. | :02:49. | |
short drive, £250 million is being spent here developing part of | :02:49. | :02:53. | |
Telford town centre. It will create hundreds of new jobs, but | :02:53. | :03:02. | |
nevertheless, youth unemployment stands stubbornly at 27%. That is | :03:02. | :03:07. | |
higher than the West Midlands figure of 23% and higher than the national | :03:07. | :03:14. | |
level of 21%. Amy Spruce is one of 140 apprentices recruited by Telford | :03:14. | :03:20. | |
Council. Last year, she decided against higher education. University | :03:20. | :03:25. | |
is a big pick—up —— big commitment. I didn't want to get into debt as | :03:25. | :03:30. | |
well. I've decided I've wanted a more work —based experience. Amy has | :03:30. | :03:36. | |
a one—year apprenticeship. After that, she is hoping her work | :03:36. | :03:41. | |
experience and her NVQ will help her gain permanent employment. Joining | :03:41. | :03:50. | |
us now is the minister responsible for employment and skills. Great | :03:50. | :03:53. | |
news for the students who studied hard to get great results, but if | :03:54. | :03:57. | |
they're not off to University, what are the chances of them getting a | :03:57. | :04:01. | |
job locally? Well, we really need to work with that forgotten 50% who | :04:01. | :04:06. | |
aren't going to university. We need to work with colleges for further | :04:06. | :04:11. | |
education colleges —— courses. But we need to give our young people a | :04:11. | :04:15. | |
chance of employment. Youth unemployment is a problem in | :04:15. | :04:19. | |
Telford, as one in four is out of work. What are you doing to tackle | :04:19. | :04:27. | |
it? It is a massive problem and it is regrettable the Government didn't | :04:27. | :04:30. | |
put anything into their Comprehensive Spending Review to | :04:30. | :04:35. | |
tackle the issue across the country. We are working now with colleges and | :04:35. | :04:42. | |
with the private sector here to offer a jobs guarantee and jobs | :04:42. | :04:45. | |
charter and unemployment and training guarantee of to every 16 to | :04:45. | :04:53. | |
24—year—old. It is the biggest aspiration the council has put | :04:53. | :04:56. | |
forward in a generation, I would argue. It is not going to take a | :04:57. | :05:01. | |
quick fix and the council cannot do it by itself. We have to give our | :05:01. | :05:04. | |
young people a chance working with the community. We've heard in the | :05:04. | :05:08. | |
last couple of days that exports are rising. Firms in the region are | :05:08. | :05:11. | |
recruiting but they can't find people with the right skills. How | :05:12. | :05:19. | |
can you change that? We need to prepare our young people to have the | :05:19. | :05:25. | |
qualifications and skills and confidence to apply for jobs and get | :05:25. | :05:28. | |
through assessment, so we have this to track approach. There is much | :05:28. | :05:34. | |
more we can do and this will be the number one priority for this | :05:34. | :05:37. | |
Administration in Telford over the next two years. Thank you. | :05:37. | :05:46. | |
Still to come: join me later to find out how innovative designs like this | :05:46. | :05:50. | |
could help boost manufacturing in the West Midlands. | :05:50. | :05:54. | |
Police have been called to an incident in Alvechurch. A cordon has | :05:54. | :06:00. | |
been set up around a white van. It's believed to be part of a wider | :06:00. | :06:03. | |
operation involving West Mercia Police and surrounding forces, and | :06:03. | :06:06. | |
we'll have more in our news from 10pm. | :06:06. | :06:09. | |
The new head of Children's Services at Birmingham City Council has | :06:09. | :06:12. | |
described the current service as unsafe for children and needing | :06:12. | :06:15. | |
immediate action. Peter Hay's comments come just weeks before the | :06:15. | :06:18. | |
results of a Serious Case Review into the death of two—year—old Keanu | :06:18. | :06:23. | |
Williams are due to be released. Our political reporter, Liz Roberts, | :06:23. | :06:26. | |
joins us now. What else did he have to say? The comments from Peter Hay | :06:26. | :06:31. | |
were made to councillors on the scrutiny committee, who's job it is | :06:31. | :06:34. | |
to hold officers in Children's Services to account. He's reported | :06:34. | :06:38. | |
as saying the council is standing near the exit of the last—chance | :06:38. | :06:44. | |
saloon. I've spoken to the chair of that committee, Labour Councillor | :06:44. | :06:47. | |
Anita Ward, who said this is the most honest anybody has been with | :06:47. | :06:50. | |
members of scrutiny in the last year. She says they've had serious | :06:50. | :06:56. | |
concerns about the service since the Ofsted report last October described | :06:56. | :07:02. | |
it as "inadequate". And despite in their monthly meetings being told | :07:02. | :07:05. | |
that things are improving, it's only now that the person in charge is | :07:05. | :07:09. | |
saying things as they are. And he's only a temporary boss? Yes, it's | :07:09. | :07:13. | |
less than a month he's been in charge. He's become the interim boss | :07:13. | :07:17. | |
since Peter Duxbury stepped down in the aftermath of the Keanu Williams | :07:17. | :07:21. | |
case. He's the little boy from Ward End in Birmingham who died aged two | :07:22. | :07:25. | |
in January 2011 after being found with 37 injuries. His mother, | :07:25. | :07:29. | |
Rebecca Shuttleworth, was convicted of his murder in June. What reaction | :07:29. | :07:36. | |
has there been to the comments? A short time ago, we spoke to the | :07:36. | :07:39. | |
British Association of Social Workers, who welcomed Mr Hay's | :07:39. | :07:47. | |
straight talking. I think it will be very hard for people to hear that | :07:47. | :07:51. | |
because we all want children to be safe. It is very, very uncomfortable | :07:51. | :07:56. | |
for us to hear that they aren't. At if you don't start with the reality | :07:56. | :08:01. | |
of what is going on, then you can't change things. —— but. Hopefully, | :08:01. | :08:05. | |
having made these comments, now people around the city, not just in | :08:05. | :08:10. | |
local authorities or social work, will be able to say, what can we all | :08:10. | :08:14. | |
do to try to change the situation for the children? Another Ofsed | :08:14. | :08:17. | |
inspection is due any day now and I'm told there are serious concerns | :08:17. | :08:25. | |
those inspectors won't be satisfied. Thank you. | :08:25. | :08:28. | |
How do you think you would respond in the event of a serious incident | :08:28. | :08:33. | |
such as a terrorist attack? That question was put to the test today | :08:33. | :08:37. | |
in a simulated exercise. A chemical was released inside the | :08:37. | :08:39. | |
International Convention Centre, where 150 volunteers were taking | :08:39. | :08:42. | |
part in a European research project, as Kevin Reide reports. | :08:42. | :08:48. | |
Birmingham's International Convention Centre and an evacuation | :08:48. | :08:51. | |
after a terrorist discharges poisonous gas in one of the halls. | :08:51. | :08:57. | |
But it wasn't for real. All these people are volunteers being used as | :08:57. | :09:05. | |
part of a mock exercise. Several people collapsed so it did seem as | :09:05. | :09:09. | |
if it was a natural thing. We did realise the exercise had started. We | :09:10. | :09:13. | |
thought people were genuinely ill. It's designed to be as realistic as | :09:13. | :09:17. | |
possible. There are observers from universities in the UK and from | :09:17. | :09:24. | |
security agencies from the EU. They'll collate the information and | :09:24. | :09:27. | |
make sure if this ever happens for real, the response will be the right | :09:27. | :09:31. | |
one. There were elso European film crews here, capturing every minute. | :09:31. | :09:35. | |
Isn't there a danger you could alarm people? We have done expense —— | :09:35. | :09:41. | |
extensive work around communication to let people know what is | :09:41. | :09:45. | |
happening. These events are extremely rare but because they are | :09:45. | :09:49. | |
it is important we exercise regularly to make sure we are | :09:49. | :09:52. | |
prepared for them, that we have officers who are skilled with the | :09:52. | :09:55. | |
right kit and the right training to deal with these things in our | :09:55. | :09:59. | |
communities. It also provided the opportunity to try out as yet unused | :09:59. | :10:02. | |
equipment, with the volunteers having to wear specialist chemical | :10:02. | :10:07. | |
attack suits. What these resources are designed for is for a mass | :10:07. | :10:11. | |
decontamination of people, so say a gas has been released or an acid, | :10:11. | :10:17. | |
what we can do is decontaminate and clean people up and clean a lot of | :10:17. | :10:21. | |
people up very quickly. There's people lying on the floor but I | :10:21. | :10:24. | |
don't know... ! The exercise was funded by the European Union and the | :10:24. | :10:28. | |
results will be analysed over the next few months. Then there are two | :10:28. | :10:31. | |
further terror exercises in Poland and Sweden. | :10:31. | :10:35. | |
I'm joined now by Dr Brooke Rogers, senior lecturer in risk and terror | :10:35. | :10:38. | |
at King's College, London, who has been gathering information from | :10:38. | :10:42. | |
today's event. It sounds absolutely fascinating. What have you learned? | :10:42. | :10:50. | |
We have a lot of data to analyse and we'll so have what we have seen and | :10:50. | :10:53. | |
some numbers we have been collecting, and we have very much | :10:53. | :10:56. | |
seen behaviour from members of the public that was very calm and | :10:56. | :11:03. | |
cooperative and I think they enjoyed the event overall, which is what we | :11:03. | :11:07. | |
would expect to see with our theories, and that contradicts what | :11:07. | :11:11. | |
emergency planning assumptions quite often assume they will see when | :11:11. | :11:14. | |
members of the public respond. These events were obviously staged and | :11:14. | :11:17. | |
those taking part had some idea what was about to happen, so how reliable | :11:17. | :11:27. | |
will the data be? We are incredibly confident because this brings these | :11:27. | :11:31. | |
things to life with the practitioners, who are engaged with | :11:31. | :11:37. | |
the public response. We are putting real members of the public through | :11:37. | :11:41. | |
so they can engage with them and we'll so go out and collect data | :11:41. | :11:48. | |
during real events. —— we also. Some of my colleagues were involved with | :11:48. | :11:54. | |
the Alexander Lipton Inc oh incident in London as well. Once your | :11:54. | :12:05. | |
research is complete, what happens to it? We basically say, you can | :12:05. | :12:13. | |
engage with members of the public, you can help them to help themselves | :12:13. | :12:17. | |
and their families and this is what you can do in order to give them | :12:17. | :12:22. | |
some tools they can use as well. This is fascinating. Thank you. | :12:22. | :12:26. | |
This is our top story tonight — as thousands of students receive their | :12:27. | :12:29. | |
A—level results, a pledge to offer more support in one of the region's | :12:30. | :12:33. | |
youth unemployment blackspots. Your detailed weather forecast to | :12:33. | :12:36. | |
come shortly from Shefali. Also tonight, the Premier League is | :12:36. | :12:40. | |
back, and it's all—change at Stoke City, as Mark Hughes launches a new | :12:40. | :12:43. | |
era. And remembering World War II's | :12:43. | :12:45. | |
forgotten army, with a special bronze statue to honour the | :12:46. | :12:47. | |
Chindits. The Midlands has been famous for | :12:47. | :12:59. | |
developing prestigious cars over the years, such as the Aston Martin, the | :12:59. | :13:03. | |
Morgan, the E—Type Jag and many other hugely successful vehicles. | :13:03. | :13:07. | |
Now a rather different type of vehicle is being developed here. It | :13:07. | :13:16. | |
goes a bit slower! It only has a top speed of 25 miles—an—hour. But | :13:16. | :13:19. | |
designers hope the Raptor electric bike will be a major success. Orders | :13:19. | :13:23. | |
are already coming in from Australia and America, with the promise of new | :13:23. | :13:27. | |
jobs as a result, as Bob Hockenhull reports. | :13:27. | :13:29. | |
Brothers Paul and David Loomes have spent three years developing the | :13:29. | :13:33. | |
Raptor. The electric bike can be used on the roads. And the | :13:33. | :13:37. | |
production line in Dudley expects to be making at least 2,000 a year by | :13:37. | :13:44. | |
2015. It's primarily aimed at security, professional users, | :13:44. | :13:50. | |
shopping malls, the police. We are looking to sell in excess of 300 | :13:50. | :13:55. | |
vehicles this year, which is a little over £1.5 million turnover. | :13:55. | :13:58. | |
The rear—wheel—drive vehicle is already creating jobs on a small | :13:58. | :14:02. | |
scale. 18 people are working on designing and assembling the | :14:02. | :14:05. | |
machine. The brothers have teamed up with an established design company | :14:05. | :14:08. | |
to help realise their dreams of mass production. This area is obviously | :14:08. | :14:16. | |
renowned over the years with locomotive companies but there has | :14:16. | :14:20. | |
been nothing lately, really, and I think this is one of the new | :14:20. | :14:24. | |
innovations that has come from this area. Nobody could be sure how | :14:24. | :14:30. | |
popular the bike will become but at least it is 100% designed and | :14:30. | :14:34. | |
manufactured here in the Midlands. The question is, are innovative | :14:34. | :14:37. | |
products like this getting the backing they need? We don't think | :14:37. | :14:43. | |
there is enough government backing for this sort of thing. We are | :14:43. | :14:47. | |
exporting 100% of our product. You would think they would come in to | :14:47. | :14:51. | |
help us. One organisation has helped, though. The Manufacturing | :14:51. | :14:55. | |
Advisory Service has given money to around 50 innovators in the region, | :14:55. | :15:01. | |
including Ecospin. We look at the innovation itself, we understand | :15:01. | :15:04. | |
what the product is trying to achieve and we look to see where the | :15:04. | :15:08. | |
marketplace will be, because to commercialise is the own game and | :15:08. | :15:11. | |
without that, all the investment is for nothing. It may be a long road | :15:11. | :15:17. | |
to success. But if inventions like the Raptor can capture the attention | :15:17. | :15:20. | |
of the world's markets, it'll mean more jobs for this region. | :15:20. | :15:25. | |
The West Midlands is one of the most diverse parts of the country in | :15:25. | :15:29. | |
terms of population, but for the first time, we have a real picture | :15:29. | :15:33. | |
of just who makes up our region. The details have been revealed by Oxford | :15:33. | :15:35. | |
University. More than 5.6 million people live | :15:35. | :15:41. | |
here in the West Midlands, and 630,000, or 11%, were born outside | :15:41. | :15:46. | |
the UK. Birmingham has had the biggest | :15:47. | :15:50. | |
increase in migrants over a ten—year period — up by 77,000 to 238,000. | :15:50. | :15:56. | |
While Stoke—on—Trent had the largest percentage increase in its | :15:56. | :15:58. | |
foreign—born population — up 131% to nearly 21,000. | :15:59. | :16:06. | |
The biggest migrant group in the West Midlands is Indian, at nearly | :16:07. | :16:10. | |
100,000, followed by people born in Pakistan, Poland, Ireland and | :16:10. | :16:11. | |
Jamaica. We're joined now by Rob McNeil, from | :16:11. | :16:18. | |
the Migration Observatory at Oxford University. Good evening. | :16:18. | :16:24. | |
Significant increases in the region's migrant population. What's | :16:24. | :16:31. | |
the attraction? There are an awful lot of people who go to the West | :16:31. | :16:35. | |
Midlands to study and many who go to work, and as you said earlier, it is | :16:35. | :16:40. | |
an area with an established migrant population, so people will go to | :16:40. | :16:44. | |
areas where there are family connections or other networks where | :16:44. | :16:49. | |
they can feel comfortable and find work, find ways of doing things that | :16:49. | :16:53. | |
they might otherwise struggle with if they were somewhere with a | :16:53. | :16:59. | |
smaller migrant population. You talk about work. We have big problems | :16:59. | :17:02. | |
with unemployment here in the West Midlands so it seems surprising the | :17:02. | :17:05. | |
region still seems a popular destination. As we were saying, | :17:05. | :17:08. | |
there are other areas apart from work that attract people, but the | :17:08. | :17:12. | |
other thing is, migrants to the West Midlands, while they are obviously | :17:12. | :17:18. | |
still proportionately a large part of the population, they are now | :17:18. | :17:25. | |
smaller as a group than in other parts of the country. For example, | :17:25. | :17:29. | |
London, the south—east and east of England have a larger migrant | :17:29. | :17:32. | |
population. How much of a challenge are these growing numbers to local | :17:32. | :17:38. | |
authorities? Clearly, it is extremely important local | :17:38. | :17:41. | |
authorities have local data to allow them to plan and make sure there are | :17:41. | :17:46. | |
adequate places at schools and hospitals for the growing | :17:46. | :17:49. | |
population. So it is important there is local information popular. —— | :17:49. | :17:57. | |
available. We have been seeing the increased numbers potentially coming | :17:57. | :18:04. | |
from remaining and Bulgaria. What do you say about that? The numbers from | :18:04. | :18:08. | |
those countries have been increasing for several years now regardless of | :18:08. | :18:11. | |
the labour market restrictions preventing them from doing several | :18:11. | :18:19. | |
things. There will be a larger number —— whether there will be a | :18:19. | :18:22. | |
larger number of people coming or not is hard to know. We have to plan | :18:22. | :18:26. | |
for uncertainty because even if we had a precise number of people, we | :18:26. | :18:29. | |
would not know whether they were going to go to London, the West | :18:29. | :18:35. | |
Midlands or elsewhere. Thank you. And if you want to find out more, | :18:35. | :18:39. | |
we've put the full report on West Midlands migration on our Facebook | :18:40. | :18:42. | |
page. The richest football league in the | :18:42. | :18:45. | |
world kicks off on Saturday, with the return of the Premier League, | :18:45. | :18:49. | |
and the first game involves Stoke City. The Potters travel up the M6 | :18:49. | :18:52. | |
to Liverpool on Saturday lunchtime with new manager Mark Hughes, | :18:53. | :18:55. | |
looking to rebuild his own reputation and that of his new club. | :18:55. | :18:59. | |
Today he's been talking to Laura May McMullan. | :18:59. | :19:02. | |
It's a new era at Stoke City Football club and a challenge new | :19:02. | :19:05. | |
manager Mark Hughes is determined to make a success of. You have to work | :19:05. | :19:14. | |
exceptionally hard to make sure you remain a Premier League manager. I | :19:14. | :19:18. | |
know to my own cost it is not easy but I think there is a quality of | :19:18. | :19:24. | |
people they have found here and brought here that means I think we | :19:24. | :19:28. | |
can be successful. Hughes knows the pressure is on to climb the ranks of | :19:28. | :19:32. | |
the Premier League. He's confident the squad can adapt to his style of | :19:32. | :19:40. | |
play. I would say my stylist setting up a team that is dynamic, that | :19:40. | :19:48. | |
wants to be on the front foot and dictate. —— I would say my style is. | :19:48. | :19:53. | |
It'll be welcome news to Stoke City supporters, who've made no secret | :19:53. | :19:57. | |
during the last couple of seasons of their desire to have more | :19:57. | :20:00. | |
entertaining football. And they want a top—ten finish. After the Potters' | :20:00. | :20:04. | |
first season in the Premier League under former manager Tony Pulis, the | :20:04. | :20:05. | |
club finished 12th. The next three seasons, they | :20:05. | :20:13. | |
established themselves in the top flight but finished in the lower | :20:13. | :20:17. | |
half of the table. And the theme continued last season again, with a | :20:17. | :20:19. | |
13th—placed finished. Hughes has brought in an experienced | :20:19. | :20:25. | |
backroom staff. His assistant manager, Mark Bowen, and first team | :20:25. | :20:28. | |
coach, Eddie Niedzwicki, have also worked with him at Blackburn, | :20:28. | :20:36. | |
Manchester City, Fulham and QPR. Would you say a top ten finishes | :20:36. | :20:42. | |
realistic? We know long—term that is certainly where we want to be. | :20:42. | :20:46. | |
Whether it happens this year or not, time will tell. But the | :20:46. | :20:50. | |
intention is to be a successful Premier League side in the top half. | :20:50. | :20:55. | |
The manager's aim is to bring in a striker before the transfer window | :20:55. | :20:59. | |
closes in two weeks. He knows it's imperative to make a strong start | :20:59. | :21:02. | |
and he'll be backed by more than 3,000 fans at Anfield on Saturday. | :21:02. | :21:10. | |
And one of those fans is Martin Smith, editor of the Stoke City | :21:10. | :21:13. | |
fanzine The Oatcake, who joins us now. Martin, how are Stoke fans | :21:14. | :21:17. | |
feeling as the new season approaches? Good evening. I think | :21:17. | :21:27. | |
everyone's feeling excited and maybe a bit anxious because it is a big | :21:27. | :21:32. | |
step into the unknown, but, yeah, I think everybody is really looking | :21:32. | :21:36. | |
forward to it. It's the new chapter in the Stoke City story and we are | :21:36. | :21:39. | |
kind of ready to embrace what we hope is a new era for the club. | :21:39. | :21:43. | |
What's the feeling among fans about Mark Hughes. Is it fair to say he | :21:43. | :21:47. | |
wasn't universally welcomed when appointed? Has that changed? I think | :21:47. | :21:56. | |
so. Everybody had their idea of who they wanted to see at the club but | :21:56. | :22:00. | |
in the cold light of day, the board knew what kind of manager we could | :22:00. | :22:04. | |
get. What really is a proven track record apart from one spell at QPR, | :22:04. | :22:11. | |
means he will be a good fit for the club and many fans have realised | :22:11. | :22:16. | |
that. You've made a couple of signings over the summer and Hughes | :22:16. | :22:19. | |
says he wants to sign a striker before the transfer window closes. | :22:20. | :22:22. | |
Is there anything else on your shopping list? We are thinking along | :22:23. | :22:26. | |
the same lines. A striker! I think it is known that we have struggled | :22:26. | :22:32. | |
to score goals most seasons, especially the last two, and it has | :22:32. | :22:36. | |
held us back. We must resolve that and we might be able to do that | :22:36. | :22:39. | |
through a different style of playing or, in all likelihood, we will | :22:39. | :22:44. | |
problem you need a fresh face or two to invigorate the team. And, you | :22:44. | :22:48. | |
know, we have until the 2nd of September, but the sooner the | :22:48. | :22:52. | |
better. Have a good season and enjoy it. | :22:52. | :22:59. | |
Do you know who the Chindits were? They were the largest of the allied | :22:59. | :23:02. | |
Special Forces of the Second World War, operating deep behind enemy | :23:02. | :23:06. | |
lines in North Burma in the war against Japan. For many months, they | :23:06. | :23:10. | |
lived in and fought the enemy in the jungles of Japanese occupied Burma. | :23:10. | :23:18. | |
ARCHIVE: You've heard of these men before. Their origin goes back to | :23:19. | :23:26. | |
the late Colonel. Their history has captured the imagination of the | :23:26. | :23:30. | |
Allied world. Here they are in close up for the first time. The | :23:30. | :23:35. | |
Chindits. Take a good look. Not that it will help you to recognise any of | :23:35. | :23:39. | |
them. Their own mother couldn't. But now, more than 60 years later, the | :23:39. | :23:45. | |
Chindits are not forgotten. At the National Memorial Arboretum in | :23:45. | :23:48. | |
Staffordshire today, Burma veterans attended a special service which was | :23:48. | :23:50. | |
especially poignant for one Birmingham man, as Sarah Falkland | :23:50. | :23:52. | |
reports. The statue is of a Chinthe. You find | :23:52. | :24:03. | |
them guarding the entrances to the temples. And it was from this | :24:03. | :24:07. | |
creature the Chindits took their name. This bronze has been moulded | :24:07. | :24:11. | |
from a wooden statue created by computer repair man Roger Neal. He'd | :24:11. | :24:14. | |
never carved anything before. It took him two and half years. I see | :24:15. | :24:21. | |
this stone being just that thing. The sole of all Chindits. —— the | :24:21. | :24:30. | |
sore. Roger's father, Ted, was alongside the Chindits in Burma. The | :24:30. | :24:35. | |
special force was formed to put into effect a new guerilla warfare | :24:35. | :24:37. | |
tactic, operating long distances behind enemy lines. | :24:37. | :24:45. | |
ARCHIVE: Approaching the village, they prepare for action. They look | :24:45. | :24:49. | |
casual. It is the Japanese who are worried. | :24:49. | :24:52. | |
Veterans came to a consecration ceremony for Roger's Chinthe at the | :24:52. | :24:57. | |
National Memorial Arboretum today. The fight against the Japanese may | :24:57. | :25:01. | |
have been 70 years ago, but for them, Burma has never gone away. I | :25:01. | :25:12. | |
was a 12 stone young man of 19 and I came out at eight stone for. —— | :25:12. | :25:24. | |
four. Plenty of marching, walking. Bad memories? Yes.Of the 20,000 | :25:24. | :25:28. | |
Chindits in Burma, 3,000 were killed and the same number injured. And of | :25:28. | :25:34. | |
those who survived, many have to spend weeks and even months in | :25:34. | :25:37. | |
hospital that they were —— because they were so starved and disease | :25:37. | :25:44. | |
ridden. Roger's own father never lived to see the Chinthe complete. | :25:44. | :25:48. | |
This labour of love wasn't for his dad, but for all those lost their | :25:48. | :25:53. | |
lives in Burma. Goodness. How very moving. | :25:53. | :25:56. | |
It's time for the weather forecast, with Shefali. | :25:56. | :25:59. | |
it was nice to see the warmth return today. What we are hoping to match | :25:59. | :26:12. | |
tomorrow is today's temperatures, which reached 24 degrees, but | :26:12. | :26:15. | |
generally speaking, temperatures were into the low 20s. However, if I | :26:15. | :26:20. | |
was going to highlight anything this week, the wettest of periods is | :26:20. | :26:25. | |
likely to be tonight and Saturday. Tonight, we have an active front | :26:25. | :26:30. | |
pushing in from the West and once that is cleared by the weekend, we | :26:30. | :26:34. | |
then have a very deep area of low pressure pushing in from the | :26:34. | :26:38. | |
Atlantic. This will not only dumped a whole lot of rain over us, but it | :26:38. | :26:43. | |
will also turn things very windy. This evening, we have this lump of | :26:43. | :26:47. | |
cloud over us which will produce fairly heavy rain through the night, | :26:47. | :26:52. | |
through this evening and overnight. It has already started over parts of | :26:52. | :26:57. | |
Shropshire. It will be a wet night and cloudy with mist and Merck | :26:57. | :27:01. | |
developing over the northern part of the region once the rain clears over | :27:01. | :27:09. | |
the region in the early hours. Quite warm and muggy tonight. Tomorrow, a | :27:09. | :27:15. | |
reasonable day once the rain has cleared this southeastern corner and | :27:15. | :27:18. | |
we are looking at a largely dry picture with decent spells of | :27:19. | :27:22. | |
sunshine, and hoping to match today's values. As I've said, on | :27:22. | :27:29. | |
Saturday, wet and windy and dryer on Sunday. | :27:29. | :27:35. | |
Two men have been arrested after a robbery at services on the motorway. | :27:35. | :27:44. | |
West mercy of police say one man was detained in Alf Church and another | :27:44. | :27:46. | |
in Birmingham. More detailed | :27:46. | :27:46. |