27/12/2016 Midlands Today

Good evening. for the news where you are.

Voters in Birmingham could be asked to provide proof of ID before

being allowed to cast their ballots, as part of efforts to

curb electoral fraud.

The idea is to be piloted in a number of local authorities

during the local elections in 2018.

Peter Plisner reports.

Once dubbed worse than a banana republic, election fraud and

vote rigging in Birmingham rocked the political world a decade ago.

Now, the Government is taking action and

wants to pilot the idea of ID cards in polling stations.

I think that would be best, actually, ID cards, yeah.

Everyone's supposed to have an ID card that you can

present it somewhere.

If I don't have an ID and just go vote, yeah, who knows who I am?

Past issues mean that Birmingham's on a list of areas

the Electoral Commission has identified in a report

as being most at risk of allegations of electoral fraud and,

along with several other authorities,

it's to be invited to take part in pilot schemes announced today.

The report doesn't just talk about ID cards

in polling stations, it also suggests greater powers to deal with

intimidation and unwanted behaviour.

And it talks about banning the handling of completed postal ballots

by political campaigners, one of the issues here

in Aston back in 2004.

But this Birmingham MP and former member of the Commons Home Affairs

Select Committee is concerned that if ID cards are needed, some voters

could find themselves excluded.

There are elderly people in this country who've never had a passport,

they may end up losing their right to vote.

There will be young people

who haven't got a passport or haven't yet got a driving licence.

Birmingham City Council said today that it hadn't seen

any details of the proposed pilot and,

if it was to be involved,

it would only happen after full discussions

between all relevant parties.

Peter Pilsner, BBC Midlands Today, in Birmingham.

A man has been killed in a drive-by shooting in West Bromwich.

It happened on Dartmouth Street around 2.30 this afternoon.

The victim was sitting in a car when he was shot in the head.

The road remains closed while the police investigate the murder.

Scientists in Birmingham are researching a new way

to treat type one diabetes.

They're being funded by an American charity to investigate a way

of reducing the number of injections people have to have every day.

Here's our science correspondent, David Gregory-Kumar.

Could a gel like this one day drastically reduce the number

of insulin injections needed by people with Type 1 diabetes?

Well, it's the starting point for a new research project

at the University of Birmingham.

Smart insulin that responds to glucose levels in the blood.

This would mean that you could inject yourself

with our smart delivery system once a day or once a

week, and not have to check your own blood glucose level because our

system would deliver insulin when it's needed.

This gel breaks down in the presence of glucose.

In theory, then releasing the insulin stored inside it.

What's clever is, the gel's not affected by other

sugars, only glucose.

Let's put this new gel to the test.

We have two samples of the gel.

One is inside ordinary water, and one is sitting in a glucose

solution.

Let's leave them for a few minutes and see what happens.

It's tricky to see but on the left, in the water,

the gel is still there.

But in the glucose solution the gel has totally dissolved.

This is radical research in its early stages.

After a few years' research in this chemistry lab,

things move to a biology lab, then finally in around ten

years' time clinical trials if all goes well.

David Gregory Kumar, BBC Midlands Today, Birmingham.

Two football results to bring you.

And in the Premier League, a tough night for Stoke,

beaten 4-1 by Liverpool.

In the Championship, Birmingham lost 1-0 at Derby.

And one rugby result today.

In the Premiership, Gloucester were narrowly beaten

28-24 at Harlequins.

And that's all from me.

I'll leave you with the weather from Shefali.

Goodnight.

Hello and good evening.

A beautiful winter's day today - crisp, cold and

sunny, but with high pressure, we will see fog

developing overnight,

as well as frost.

There is a warning from midnight tonight till midday

tomorrow for more fog to arrive later on,

and it could be dense in

places, causing travel disruption in the morning.

We have a widespread frost tonight, with temperatures

dropping as low as minus four Celsius.

That will greet us for the start of the day tomorrow, as well

as the fog, then sunny spells.

The national forecast is next.

I'll leave you with the outlook for the

next week.