BBC TV News - 5th November

With Huw Edwards as host we began the BBC News last with terrorism, MI5 chief Jonathan Evans has warned that there are 2,000 trained terrorists capable of striking at any moment and, when not planning attacks, are involving themselves in procuring children to partake in their nefarious endeavors. We heard of the internet, a fertile recruitment ground where "friendship seeking" youngsters take "their first step to jihad" by means of videos, forums, chatrooms and "stirring music". It seems that Glasgow Airport was only the "tip of the problem, al-Quaedaare seemingly regrouping in Somalia, Algeria, Iraq and"number one"Pakistan.

That brought us on nicely to the next story, the ongoing political situation in Pakistan. We saw images of besuited lawyers being beaten and dragged away from a protest and heard of house arrests whilst images of urban military operations were shown.

The warehouse fire, it seems that the search operation is still underway for the missing firemen, "painfully slow progress". Floral tributes were in abundance and we got to see the fireman's locker room back at the station, their coats still sat on the pegs beneath their name tags. There was no need really.

Barry George, the man convicted of murdering TV presenter Jill Dando, is appealing his conviction for the second time.

A long feature on further education followed, we were told that "we are one of the worst countries in the developed world" as regards this. We cut to political editor Nick Robinson who had met with what looked like the cast of Lost Boys but what was actually a group of NEET'S ( Not in Education, Training or Employment) in Birmingham, they told how they spent most of their time idling and sleeping in between drinking sessions in the park where Nick had befriended them. Gordon Ramsay appeared, grooming some young chefs, to show how there was hope and opportunity. To close, "9% of the UK population are neets", one poor neet's mother was sent to jail becuase he refused to go to school and, to close - "they wont be doing anything other than what they want".

Coming up - World economy on shaky ground

A long feature on adoption followed, first we turned to the definition of a "family unit", it seems that really any bunch of people living together can be classed as a family. The we saw a new kind of adopter, a single man, who has taken on board two teenagers. He sat in the middle of the two teenage boys as they played computer games, it was sort of like a big brother relationship. It seems that more single people will be considered for this type of role.

Babies who breast feed become more intelligent adults it seems, 6 IQ points was the quoted figure.

As promised, the global credit crunch, the "tip of an iceberg" (rather than problem), "a pretty big iceberg" to boot - we saw a backdrop of Alpine snow covered mountains and heard of British bank's exposure.

The lost children of Chad next, I have copied the link. - Watch at the start, children lying down on a mat - "in limbo" - note the black humour. This has to be seen to be appreciated, "another stranger", "not enough toys to go round". Playing on emotions.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7080000/newsid_7080200/7080243.stm?bw=bb&mp=rm&nol_storyid=7080243&news=1#

To close, "the final few", a specia week longl report on the five remaining survivors of the Great War. Tonight we saw an old man reminiscing and telling of the Western Front. He was 109 and talked of going "over the top. Wonder if he was once a NEET ?

cheers

sucking our society dry ?