:00:12. > :00:16.A third bomb ` new claims about a third explosive device planted on
:00:17. > :00:24.the night of the Birmingham pub bombings. It is fundamentally
:00:25. > :00:30.significant because it had a controlled detonation so it is
:00:31. > :00:34.nearly intact so it will have DNA on it.
:00:35. > :00:41.Commuter frustration over regular delays on London Midlands. I want to
:00:42. > :00:45.see improvements, not explanations. Six prisoners on the roof of
:00:46. > :00:52.oak`wood Jail, the second rooftop protest in weeks.
:00:53. > :00:59.And the last chance for Bulley, the Staffie who has been in kennels for
:01:00. > :01:09.nine years. And I will have the details of the
:01:10. > :01:14.weather later on. Good evening. There are new claims
:01:15. > :01:17.tonight about a third explosive device on the night of the
:01:18. > :01:20.Birmingham pub bombings, 39 years ago. It comes as police re`examine
:01:21. > :01:24.thousands of pieces of evidence. At 8:16pm in the packed Mulberry Bush
:01:25. > :01:29.pub in the city centre, the first bomb went off. It claimed ten lives.
:01:30. > :01:35.Four minutes later, at the Tavern in the Town nearby, a second device
:01:36. > :01:38.exploded, killing 11. Now a retired senior policeman has given a
:01:39. > :01:44.detailed account of a third bomb, timed to go off at 11pm in Hagley
:01:45. > :01:47.Road. It failed to explode. A more thorough investigation of that
:01:48. > :01:51.device, he says, might have kept six innocent men out of jail and helped
:01:52. > :01:55.bring the real culprits to justice. Here is our special correspondent,
:01:56. > :01:59.Peter Wilson. Heading into the past. On the night
:02:00. > :02:06.of 21 November 1974 Eric Francis was the night duty inspector for the
:02:07. > :02:11.whole of Birmingham. Two bombs had exploded in crowded pubs bringing
:02:12. > :02:15.carnage and horror to the city. But the retired policeman is guiding me
:02:16. > :02:26.to the scene of a little`known third explosive device, set just off the
:02:27. > :02:30.Hagley Road. Six Irishmen from Birmingham were jailed for the
:02:31. > :02:36.bombings. Known as the Birmingham six their convictions were quashed
:02:37. > :02:40.in 1991. Eric believes that the third bomb proves more than ever
:02:41. > :02:45.their innocence. You are convinced that the third
:02:46. > :02:52.bomb proves they could not have been responsible? That is correct. That
:02:53. > :02:57.they simply did not have time to come back out of town, plant this
:02:58. > :03:09.bomb and then go to new Street and plant up `` catch a train? No. Eric
:03:10. > :03:12.Francis claims the time is on the IRA bombs meant that the real
:03:13. > :03:15.bombers had at most an hour before their devices went off.
:03:16. > :03:18.The third bomb partially ignited at 11pm, three hours after the
:03:19. > :03:23.Birmingham Six had caught a train. He says senior officers were not
:03:24. > :03:28.interested in the third bomb. Not whatsoever. They were set on one
:03:29. > :03:32.thing. I think they genuinely thought that these were the men.
:03:33. > :03:36.But tonight campaigners for the 21 victims of the pub bombings say the
:03:37. > :03:44.third bomb is vital. Brian and Julie Hambleton lost their sister Maxine,
:03:45. > :03:46.killed in the Tavern in the Town. It is fundamentally significant
:03:47. > :03:52.because it had a controlled detonation, which means it would
:03:53. > :03:59.have been pretty much intact, so it would have DNA on it. And the fact
:04:00. > :04:02.`` as long as they can find that, it could go through the forensics
:04:03. > :04:05.team. West Midlands Police have spent 18
:04:06. > :04:08.months going through 10,000 documents relating to the case
:04:09. > :04:15.looking for new evidence which they say would mean the case could be
:04:16. > :04:21.reopened. In terms of further enquiries, once
:04:22. > :04:26.we have gone through all of the documentation and we understand
:04:27. > :04:30.exactly what is in there, what forensics opportunities there are as
:04:31. > :04:34.a result of the work being done, we will then be in a position to
:04:35. > :04:47.accurately make a decision on whether we should put resources into
:04:48. > :04:49.resuming the investigation. If the investigators can find any
:04:50. > :04:54.significant new forensic material, the police will have you decide
:04:55. > :05:08.whether or not to reopen this 39`year`old murder enquiry.
:05:09. > :05:11.Coming up, independent MEP Nikki Sinclaire talks about why she has
:05:12. > :05:35.chosen to reveal her previous life as a man.
:05:36. > :05:38.Energy firm NPower is to cut 1400 jobs across the country. Unions are
:05:39. > :05:41.concerned about the Fenton base in Stoke`on`Trent, which employs 600
:05:42. > :05:43.after driver shortages caused major service problems last winter, London
:05:44. > :05:45.Midland trains are still experiencing regular delays.
:05:46. > :05:48.NPower is looking to restructure their operations in the UK. Some of
:05:49. > :05:55.it will be reason `` outsourced to India. The union concerned says it
:05:56. > :06:00.expects these job losses will lead to the closure of the base in
:06:01. > :06:06.Stoke`on`Trent, in the Fenton area. It employs around 600 people, mostly
:06:07. > :06:09.employed in the administration of customer accounts. For a while there
:06:10. > :06:15.have been concerns about the security of those jobs but it seems
:06:16. > :06:20.the announcement we are expecting tomorrow has been pre`empted by the
:06:21. > :06:25.GMB union. Has there been any reaction so far? In the last few
:06:26. > :06:34.minutes I have spoken to Tristram Hunt, the MP. His reaction is this `
:06:35. > :06:40.he says this is a real low for Stoke`on`Trent's economy, these are
:06:41. > :06:48.the kind of jobs the city needs. `` real blow. He says he will be in
:06:49. > :07:09.talks with NPower tomorrow morning. Thank you.
:07:10. > :07:11.After driver shortages caused major service problems last winter, London
:07:12. > :07:14.Midland trains are still experiencing regular delays.
:07:15. > :07:17.According to the latest official figures, in the last few weeks one
:07:18. > :07:21.in five trains have arrived late. Many commuters using the service say
:07:22. > :07:25.it is not good enough. In a moment I will be putting some of your
:07:26. > :07:27.comments to London Midland but first here is our transport correspondent,
:07:28. > :07:30.Peter Plisner. A tale of two commuters, both using
:07:31. > :07:33.London Midland services and both still suffering delays. Gary Hughes
:07:34. > :07:36.travels from Birmingham to Coventry every day. Commuting every day is a
:07:37. > :07:39.bit hellish. When it works it takes an hour but when it doesn't it can
:07:40. > :07:40.be anything up to two and a half hours.
:07:41. > :07:45.Meanwhile Nick Drew commutes from Birmingham to Worcester. There have
:07:46. > :07:50.only been a couple of times when it has been really really late or
:07:51. > :07:58.cancelled. There is just that niggling slight delay, it gets quite
:07:59. > :08:03.wearing. London Midland had a serious shortage of drivers 12
:08:04. > :08:07.months ago. Year on you would expect things to be better but according to
:08:08. > :08:10.official they are actually worse. Latest punctuality data shows that
:08:11. > :08:17.only 80.2% of trains are arriving on time, down 2.4% on the same period
:08:18. > :08:24.last year. We never even get an apology. My train was 15 minutes
:08:25. > :08:42.late because of the delays caused by the previous delays. With delays
:08:43. > :08:44.increasing we asked London Midland's managing director to meet our
:08:45. > :08:47.commuters but he refused. Instead the company said its head of
:08:48. > :08:52.communications. In the last few weeks it has not been good enough, I
:08:53. > :08:56.hold up my hands to that. A lot of that has been to do with the storm
:08:57. > :09:02.and infrastructure problems. So what did our commuters think of
:09:03. > :09:07.their meet`the`manager session? I want to see improvements, not
:09:08. > :09:11.explanations. It is a difficult franchise to run and I will wait to
:09:12. > :09:15.see how the service improves. With the worst of the winter weather
:09:16. > :09:18.still to come, many passengers will probably agree.
:09:19. > :09:24.I'm joined now by Francis Thomas, head of communications at London
:09:25. > :09:27.Midland, who we saw in that report. Thank you for coming in. We had
:09:28. > :09:30.hoped to put viewers' questions directly to the managing director.
:09:31. > :09:35.Why wouldn't he come on the programme to answer them? I don't
:09:36. > :09:37.think it matters who from the executive team answers the
:09:38. > :09:43.questions, the important thing is that we talk to our customers.
:09:44. > :09:48.Patrick gets a lot of requests to do lots of things and sometimes he asks
:09:49. > :09:55.one of his deputies to go on a programme. We have had a lots of
:09:56. > :09:59.comments, this one from Matt Bill. It is typical of the complaints.
:10:00. > :10:04.Really terrible service, often cancelled because of lack of staff,
:10:05. > :10:11.seriously overcrowded at peak times because of cancellations. We are
:10:12. > :10:15.doing a number of things and let me reassure all of our passengers that
:10:16. > :10:20.first of all we don't like running a service that is not on time. We are
:10:21. > :10:25.getting over the problem of driver shortages. We have 53 drivers in
:10:26. > :10:30.training and we have put 17 new drivers in training this year. We
:10:31. > :10:37.have had ten months of really improving performance at the last
:10:38. > :10:50.month, the E figures were largely down to infrastructure problems,
:10:51. > :10:54.which were not helped by the storm. That is the case for all train
:10:55. > :11:02.operators but you seem to fare a lot worse for customer complaints. I
:11:03. > :11:05.don't think we do more than others. We do a lot more to talk to our
:11:06. > :11:10.customers and we are very proud about that. You can take a long time
:11:11. > :11:15.to come back on complaints according to the latest figures. You are
:11:16. > :11:19.losing drivers, you train them and then they go elsewhere because they
:11:20. > :11:26.are better paid. Wouldn't it be better to pay them more? Nobody wins
:11:27. > :11:29.in a bidding war. The drivers who run commuter services in the West
:11:30. > :11:39.Midlands eventually progress onto longer distance services. That has
:11:40. > :11:42.always been the case. Thank you for coming on, hopefully next time we
:11:43. > :11:50.can speak to the managing director and put more of our viewers'
:11:51. > :11:58.questions to him. We are always happy to answer our customers'
:11:59. > :12:01.questions. An underground cannabis farm has
:12:02. > :12:04.been found by police at Drakelow Tunnels near Kidderminster. 400
:12:05. > :12:07.cannabis plants worth up to ?650,000 were discovered. A 45`year`old man
:12:08. > :12:10.was arrested. The tunnels were used to manufacture machine parts during
:12:11. > :12:13.the Second World War and there has been a campaign to preserve them.
:12:14. > :12:17.Sutton Coldfield MP Andrew Mitchell faces a huge ill if he pursues a
:12:18. > :12:20.libel action against the Sun newspaper. The Court of Appeal today
:12:21. > :12:24.ruled he can't reclaim ?500,000 of legal fees if he wins. The libel
:12:25. > :12:27.case follows last year's incident when Mr Mitchell was involved in an
:12:28. > :12:29.angry exchange with police in Downing Street.
:12:30. > :12:31.It is just coming up to 19 minutes to seven. Our top story.
:12:32. > :12:37.New claims about another explosive device planted on the night of the
:12:38. > :12:48.Birmingham pub warming is. `` meins.
:12:49. > :12:55.`` bombings. And football coach Frank is up for
:12:56. > :13:00.an unsung hero award. He is no oil painting but Bulley
:13:01. > :13:03.would love to find a home after nine years in kennels.
:13:04. > :13:06.There are calls tonight for a privately run jail in the West
:13:07. > :13:09.Midlands to be shut down, after another day of protests by inmates.
:13:10. > :13:13.Six prisoners began a rooftop protest this morning at oak`wood
:13:14. > :13:18.Jail, just weeks after a similar protest at the jail, outside
:13:19. > :13:23.Wolverhampton. Here is Joan Cummins. More than 1600 category C prisoners
:13:24. > :13:26.are held at the privately run jail near feather stone. Today six
:13:27. > :13:34.inmates decided to stage a rooftop protest. The prisoners have been
:13:35. > :13:38.playing cat and mouse with our television cameras. They have mostly
:13:39. > :13:44.disappeared now and it is unclear exactly what AI protesting over but
:13:45. > :13:53.today's protest follows another last month and it came at the time a
:13:54. > :13:57.report said the prison was failing in virtually every aspect. The
:13:58. > :14:02.prison's mission statement says it aims to become the leading prison in
:14:03. > :14:12.the world. GE for S says it is simply experiencing teething
:14:13. > :14:15.problems. `` group for security. As with any institution there can be
:14:16. > :14:18.some early challenges in the operation of the establishment.
:14:19. > :14:26.Prison campaigners showed that the prison shows private jails simply do
:14:27. > :14:31.not work. I do not think it is a safe environment for prisoners or
:14:32. > :14:37.staff. An investigation has been begun into this latest security
:14:38. > :14:41.breach, with the managing company promising lessons will be learned.
:14:42. > :14:43.West Midlands MEP Nikki Sinclaire is one of our most colourful and
:14:44. > :14:48.unorthodox politicians. Politically she has fallen out with UKIP and
:14:49. > :14:52.formed her own party. Now she has written of the threats of exposure
:14:53. > :14:56.that led her to reveal she had an operation to change from a man to a
:14:57. > :14:59.woman. I will be talking to Nikki Sinclaire in a moment but first
:15:00. > :15:06.political editor Patrick Burns has this assessment of her career so
:15:07. > :15:11.far. The Liberals, Labour and the
:15:12. > :15:14.Conservatives do not leave in democracy...
:15:15. > :15:17.A victory speech like no other. Nikki Sinclaire telling the other
:15:18. > :15:23.parties exactly what she thought of them. You are nothing better than
:15:24. > :15:26.fascists and dictators. But just six months later she had parted company
:15:27. > :15:29.with her own, over UKIP's links with the European Freedom and Democracy
:15:30. > :15:32.grouping in the European Parliament, which she said included homophobes
:15:33. > :15:35.and racists. Back home her passionate opposition to High Speed
:15:36. > :15:39.Two became one of her trademark local issues, now as an independent
:15:40. > :15:43.MEP. So too the gypsy encampment on green belt land. She stood in
:15:44. > :15:46.Meriden for the Solihull and Meriden Residents' Association at the last
:15:47. > :15:55.general election, securing 1.3% of the vote. Or so in 2010 came
:15:56. > :16:01.allegations about expenses and allowances which led eventually to
:16:02. > :16:05.Nikki Sinclaire and three others being arrested by West Midlands
:16:06. > :16:11.police on suspicion of conspiracy to do fraud the European Parliament.
:16:12. > :16:13.Almost two years after her arrest, Nikki Sinclaire remains on police
:16:14. > :16:16.bail. She strenuously denies any wrongdoing.
:16:17. > :16:18.Undaunted, she launched her campaign for an immediate referendum on
:16:19. > :16:21.Britain's future European Union membership, raising well over the
:16:22. > :16:24.hundred thousand signatures required to force a Commons debate. The
:16:25. > :16:27.motion was defeated but not before it had triggered the biggest revolt
:16:28. > :16:32.against a Conservative Prime Minister on the European issue. No
:16:33. > :16:36.wonder Nikki Sinclaire sees this as her defining theme. She plans to
:16:37. > :16:47.stand for her new We Demand a Referendum Now Party in next May's
:16:48. > :16:51.European elections. Nikki Sinclaire is here now. Good
:16:52. > :16:55.evening. We are going to get onto the politics in a moment but I am
:16:56. > :16:59.interested to know why you have chosen to reveal now that you have
:17:00. > :17:05.had this operation to change from a man to a woman. You have written
:17:06. > :17:10.about it openly in the book. There are many reasons but there were
:17:11. > :17:14.threats to disclose my medical history and I wanted to be the
:17:15. > :17:18.person to tell it and not get a call from a newspaper saying we are going
:17:19. > :17:24.to run this tomorrow, what is your quote? It took me a long time to put
:17:25. > :17:28.down in words what happened and how I felt about it from the age of
:17:29. > :17:32.three. A lot of people watching might find it quite difficult to
:17:33. > :17:36.understand what you went through and what it was inside view that made
:17:37. > :17:42.you feel you had to have this operation, that it was not a
:17:43. > :17:46.choice. It is not a choice. Probably 98% of the people watching this
:17:47. > :17:52.programme never question their gender. Unfortunately a very small
:17:53. > :17:59.minority of us from a very early age, three in my case, obviously I
:18:00. > :18:03.could not understand exactly what it was but I knew there was something
:18:04. > :18:09.fundamentally wrong with me and it looks `` it took me many years to
:18:10. > :18:15.solve that Rob Lunn. At what stage did you decide to do something about
:18:16. > :18:20.it? I could not do anything about it until I was 16 and I went to see a
:18:21. > :18:26.doctor and she told me to go away and grow up, she said you will end
:18:27. > :18:41.up living in London as a drug addict and a prostitute. In the 1980s they
:18:42. > :18:48.said they could not see me until I was 21, which seemed like a life
:18:49. > :18:55.sentence. Having gone through the operation, did you feel that you had
:18:56. > :18:59.come home in some way? I just felt like myself. Probably people won't
:19:00. > :19:04.understand it but until changing at 203I was pretending to be someone I
:19:05. > :19:09.wasn't. When I get up in the morning I am myself and the only things I
:19:10. > :19:18.think about are, what are my objectives today? What reaction have
:19:19. > :19:27.you had since you came out with this revelation? We have had actually
:19:28. > :19:32.know reaction, not a single question. Twitter and social media
:19:33. > :19:40.has been fantastic, hundreds of wasn't of messages. I have only had
:19:41. > :19:46.two or three even slightly negative. There is a you go of poll in the
:19:47. > :19:51.book saying that 60% of people would see it as no difference but in the
:19:52. > :20:05.West Midlands that goes up even further. `` YouGov. Without the
:20:06. > :20:08.backing of a major party you don't stand much chance in the European
:20:09. > :20:17.elections. I don't agree, I am the only Emmy `` the only MEP in the
:20:18. > :20:23.country who has a mobile surgery. I have met many thousands of people in
:20:24. > :20:29.the mobile surgery and in the European Parliament I am listed as
:20:30. > :20:35.the most active of all seven MEPs so I have really been representing them
:20:36. > :20:40.and I think that will show. I was the one, not UKIP, that forced that
:20:41. > :20:49.debate in Parliament. With food banks, with HS2, with debt belief,
:20:50. > :20:53.or roll affairs I have been at the forefront, International human
:20:54. > :21:05.rights, which does not get in the media. `` rural affairs. I have
:21:06. > :21:11.visited prisoners of conscience in Bahrain, for example. Thank you very
:21:12. > :21:15.much for coming in. All this week we have been hearing
:21:16. > :21:18.from the finalists in the search for the BBC Midlands Sports Unsung Hero.
:21:19. > :21:22.Today we meet Frank Holliday, who helped form Droitwich Spa Football
:21:23. > :21:24.Club 34 years ago. As Dan Pallett has been finding out, he is still
:21:25. > :21:31.going strong. He is in his element. Frank Holliday
:21:32. > :21:36.loves his football club. You can see they are all enjoying
:21:37. > :21:39.it, so it is good. It is good to see the friendships and the success the
:21:40. > :21:43.club has. Frank helped to form Droitwich Spa
:21:44. > :21:46.Football Club 34 years and has been involved ever since. And it's grown
:21:47. > :21:50.to boast 450 players across 27 squads. He just loves his sport. But
:21:51. > :21:54.Frank's involvement goes far beyond the football. He's opening up the
:21:55. > :21:58.car parks at 8am every Saturday morning. And once he's got
:21:59. > :22:01.everything underway in the kitchen he's sorting out the kit bags and
:22:02. > :22:12.then inspecting the pitches he marked out earlier in the week.
:22:13. > :22:14.A dog or an animal has decided to bury something in the middle of the
:22:15. > :22:17.ground. In fact nothing much gets done
:22:18. > :22:23.without Frank's help. He's even built a link with a German club and
:22:24. > :22:29.introduced a boot recycling scheme. He has dedicated his life to the
:22:30. > :22:35.football club and everything going on around here is testament to Frank
:22:36. > :22:41.because not only is he coaching people he is organising the whole
:22:42. > :22:44.thing. It was grey and miserable when I visited Frank but it didn't
:22:45. > :22:48.bother him or the players. But just how long can he carry on?
:22:49. > :22:55.I am 69 and three quarters at the moment so I am still in my 60s,
:22:56. > :23:00.just. As long as I can. Everyone at Droitwich Spa Football Club will be
:23:01. > :23:03.glad to hear it. Getting on a bit, not the
:23:04. > :23:06.best`looking and hardly a great mixer. Bulley the Staffordshire bull
:23:07. > :23:09.terrier cross is the dog it seems nobody wants. Staff at the rescue
:23:10. > :23:13.kennels where he lives have been trying to find him a home for nine
:23:14. > :23:20.years. And now is probably his last chance, as Sarah Falkland's been
:23:21. > :23:28.finding out. There are over 80 an unwanted dogs
:23:29. > :23:34.at Hillbrae Kennels but none have been overlooked as often as Bulley.
:23:35. > :23:38.He has spent nine years here. He used to go to the front of the cage,
:23:39. > :23:43.take me, take me, but now he doesn't bother to get out of bed. It is as
:23:44. > :23:51.though he senses that nobody is going to take him, which is quite
:23:52. > :23:56.sad, really. But could his own dog blog be his saviour? It is the
:23:57. > :24:02.brainchild of Julia Kaminski, the dog walker. She has been compiling
:24:03. > :24:08.daily blogs the Bulley in the hope of finding him a home. Everybody
:24:09. > :24:13.loves the idea of Bulley being in front of a fire for Christmas with a
:24:14. > :24:17.roast chicken dinner. If it does not come for Christmas, as long as it
:24:18. > :24:25.comes some time, that is the main aim. He has a huge character, he is
:24:26. > :24:29.a really unusual dog, full of fun, he loves toys. He is quite happy dog
:24:30. > :24:36.considering he has been in kennels such a long time. Bulley now has
:24:37. > :24:41.nearly 2000 followers who log on every day to wish him good morning
:24:42. > :24:45.and good night. For weeks all kinds of gifts and toys have been arriving
:24:46. > :24:51.from all around the world, even from Australia. Look on it is a new
:24:52. > :25:00.winter coat, but I don't think it will fit you, mate. Maybe one day,
:25:01. > :25:14.though, Bulley's blog will read like this. Can you believe it? I am so
:25:15. > :25:18.excited. I have finally got a new home.
:25:19. > :25:20.And you can find out more about Bulley and his blog on Facebook `
:25:21. > :25:24.it's at www.facebook.com/bulleysblog. And if
:25:25. > :25:26.you are thinking you could give him a home, remember, Bulley doesn't mix
:25:27. > :25:44.well with other dogs. Although the cold is returning
:25:45. > :25:50.temporarily I think we could see them rising by the end of the
:25:51. > :25:57.weekend. You can see what is going on at a glance by looking at our air
:25:58. > :26:03.mass charts. Come Friday the cold air replaces the warm and then we
:26:04. > :26:10.see the return of the milder air by the end of the weekend. We are
:26:11. > :26:16.grappling with the cloud at the moment. The thickest cloud will be
:26:17. > :26:21.to the southern counties, parts of Worcestershire and Gloucestershire.
:26:22. > :26:30.Light at wrecks of rain or drizzle later in the night and also fog
:26:31. > :26:33.patches. `` light outbreaks. This cloud is still with us through the
:26:34. > :26:37.course of tomorrow but the winds are very light so there was not much to
:26:38. > :26:42.stir it up. We hope for an improvement by the afternoon.
:26:43. > :26:48.Temperatures are still up to nine or 10 degrees so still fairly mild.
:26:49. > :26:53.Under the thickest cloud there could be a spot of rain. Then we see this
:26:54. > :27:03.cold front sweeping in on Friday, bringing colder air, rain and
:27:04. > :27:09.showers and wind. The headlines from the BBC ` 35 days
:27:10. > :27:12.to go before Bulgarians and Romanians can start looking for work
:27:13. > :27:17.here. New claims about another explosive
:27:18. > :27:21.device planted on the night of the Birmingham pub bombings.
:27:22. > :27:24.Now, a final chance to get your hands on a ?12 million fortune. An
:27:25. > :27:28.unclaimed Euromillions raffle ticket, bought in Ladywood in May,
:27:29. > :27:31.will expire in just over four hours. Camelot went in search of the owner
:27:32. > :27:34.in Birmingham this week but say nobody has yet come forward. The
:27:35. > :27:37.winning ticket holder has until just 11 o'clock tonight to claim the life
:27:38. > :27:44.changing prize. That was Midlands Today. I'll be
:27:45. > :27:46.back at ten o'clock with more on the continuing problems with London
:27:47. > :27:47.Midland trains.