BBC TV News Review - Wednesday 11th July

We commenced on the BBC News at 10 with politics and as such, it was straight over to chief political editor, Nick Robinson for his rundown on the days events.






Nick Robinson - Illuminati ?

Gordon Brown has broken with tradition in announcing 23 new bills of legislation, most of which seem to revolve around housing, education and health. Normally, these bills would be announced in the Queen's speech which opens our governmental year in November, however Gordon has broken with this one hundred and fifty year tradition and has released his plans early.

Nick then told us how only months ago, Gordon was loyal to Tony Blair over the super casinos, now he has reversed the decision. Furthermore, "he has done the Queen's job for her" in releasing details of the "23 brown bills". We saw clips of David Cameron and Menzies Campbell, putting in their tuppence worth and then Nick reminded us of how the casino story was announced on the BBC News some months ago. A brief clip of this old news report was shown and we were told that "the plans are dead in the water".

We went to Manchester to see some locals who are not happy about the governments change of heart over the casinos. We saw images of inside a super casino, with the all the flashing fruit machines and roulette tables. We saw a man who was going to invest in the casino project, he advised he would simply "move into other areas of Europe".

Wokingham next, where residents are fed up with the relentless housing development which has gone on for the last thirty years. All the brownfield sites have been utilised and now there is talk of building on green areas. Obviously the locals are not happy, they say that there are not enough facilities as it is in terms of schools, doctors etc. We were told that we need more homes though - "how and where are the burning questions".

Terror - The four men convicted of the twenty one eleven terrorism offences were all given life sentences. We saw images of the raid on the house and the men on the balcony again. We saw an interview with a fireman who had intervened on the tube, when the would be bomber had attempted to detonate his device and then we saw images of the seventy year old man; the one trained in unarmed combat; chasing the suspect along the platform.

Coming up - New images of our earliest Galaxies

Next up was a feature on the annual bonfires in Northern Ireland which are constructed in order to celebrate the "sectarian" Battle of the Boyne which is meant to have taken place on the 1st July 1690. The anniversary is celebrated on the 12th due to the change from the Julian to Gregorian calender.

The battle is today used as a sectarian tool and as such, we saw massive, six storey high, masonic bee-hive shaped bonfires, constructed from rubber tyres and pallets. Local lads were shown climbing up and down in the manner of monkeys. More monkeys were shown, these ones wearing black paramilitary uniforms including balaclavas, and shooting handguns in the air. This was the UDA we were told. Curiously, the report was not on whether there was a need for this type of behaviour any more but was in fact on whether the burning of the tyres would have an impact in terms of green issues, not the catholic green, but the environmental green.

20 children in a coach crash, two are critical. In the next sentence we were told they are "poorly but stable".

Iraq and America next and there is "an effort to tackle the violence". 523 Americans have died since February. Is this right? Anyway, we went to America and travelled round with a staff sergeant Baloo (phonetic spelling). Mr Baloo's job is to travel round in his van and break the news of relatives dying at war. It seems like the ice is already broken though before he even has to speak because Baloo advised us "when they see the white van and we knock on the door, they know its not good news". This was confirmed when we travelled to an area where "the patriotism is measured in the height of flagpoles" and met a lady who told us when she saw three marines at her door it was obvious her son was dead.

This lady, who's phonetically pronounced name was Mrs Deli (one near you?), told us how the news-breaking marines were "so gentle". We got to see round her house as well, and saw the array of photographic memories which are all that is left for the poor lady. Mr Baloo was summed up as being "like a delivery man, with many more miles to go."

Genital mutilation next, we saw images of a girl being held down while family members attempted to remove her clitoris with a razor blade. This is a "prerequisite for marriage" in some African cultures. The story seems to be that "in our communities you must abide by our rules" and so, to comply with the rules, UK based Africans are in fact commuting their daughters to Africa during the school holidays, in order that this "surgery" can be carried out. A victim told us that "Man is to blame". Do we really need to see this type of report ?

Red Mosque in Pakistan - 73 killed.

Time for the promised new galaxies. These have been "discovered" some 13 million light years away and we were told of how much more there is still to discover in space. Some cute schoolchildren told how this was all really cool and we saw images of space. New space ?

cheers