about wm an" tjiflnil 3: a “a" uh» arr. ; to know about animal husbandry? they're stopping to ask themselves a question because of the costs involved and i'm sure this is something that pupils at normal state schools are doing in far greater numbers. the other thing thatis greater numbers. the other thing that is interesting is of the 452 independent schools who have submitted how many pupils are getting the text and a—levels, only 700 -- 603 of getting the text and a—levels, only 700 —— 603 of them took the text. 603 pupils in the schools is a tiny proportion, and across the country, 376,000 state school pupils are taking btecs. there may be a bit of a trend, but it is not swamping us... a trend, but it is not swamping us... the numbers are relatively small but there is a trend in that direction and i for one welcome it. for some time in our country we had a perverse belief in arbitrary numbers and saying, 50%, as the then labour government said, should go to university. there are problems at both ends of the spectrum, i went to

a normal state school and a university, by no means the cleverest person at my school, some people did not have the aspiration to go who probably should have. we do have in our country and british people have it worse than many other countries, in germany if you are an engineer, but the something of great pride but in this country, we treat those sorts of skills as slightly below the salt. we encourage people to pursue university degrees who frankly should never go. in a lot of europe, it will go to university for longer. that is the strange thing. long education. i did not go to university, didn't do me any harm. before we leave the subject, you would have thought the sort of people who can afford to send their children to posh schools would not worry too much about universities. the reason that those families have perhaps more money to dispose of it is because they are more careful. perhaps more money to dispose of it is because they are more carefulm is because they are more carefulm is not just about affording the fees, it is about whether going is the best thing to do for you and

your future and for many young people, doing a btec and going the vocational route is better for you. let's move on. eu warns britain against playing the northern ireland ca rd against playing the northern ireland card and brexit talks. please, just quickly, new viewers here and tell us quickly, new viewers here and tell us about this. interesting story from the financial times, the european union is saying do not think you can claim that your special relationship with ireland means you can somehow circumvent normal relations with the eu in the course of negotiations. the eu's point is that you have decided to leave, knowing full well you have this land border eu country, you have to play by the rules and understand that are going to not do this as an extraordinary situation with the norms are circumvented because you have a special

relationship with ireland. the united kingdom's prospective is first of all, the most vital thing is to ensure that we do not really stymie activity and cross—border trade on the island of ireland and that we are able to ensure that the peace process continues. i think those things do add up to a special circumstance and i think that not only is that the position of the uk, i think it will also be ireland's position as well. i understand that the eu is saying to the uk, do not think you can use the northern ireland situation as a bargaining chip to undermine normal processes, as reality bites and we go further down the track, i think it will come about, whether or not they think it is right. yet another complexity in this brexit business. in shorthand, the eu is accusing the uk of using the eu is accusing the uk of using the northern ireland situation as emotional blackmail, to get us the kind of brexit, the eu will agree with anything to suit us otherwise there will be some terrorism and

britain are saying to the eu, it is all very important and we do not wa nt all very important and we do not want terrorism and if there is, we will blame you. it is almost impossible to divorce the issues. you cannot say, brexit is entirely separate to what you do in northern ireland and the peace process and the border and everything and you cannot agree it separately and it is also slightly unreasonable to say that they are dependent one upon the other because if you are in negotiation, saying we would like to sell your machine pies and it all depends on what we agree over here and it is unrelated, it is madness. it isa and it is unrelated, it is madness. it is a fair point, ireland is an eu state, but the irish to more of their trade with the uk than anyone else and you could argue the brexit is more of a problem for the irish than the uk government in trade terms. i think, than the uk government in trade terms. ithink, we than the uk government in trade terms. i think, we have regulated travel between the united kingdom and ireland under common travel area, well predated the european union, we do

not need eu to tell us what to do on that and furthermore, there is a special relationship, irish citizens vote in our elections... what you will have is that northern ireland will have is that northern ireland will have is that northern ireland will have to have a sort of separate brexit arrangement to the rest of the united kingdom, because it has that land border with the republic of ireland because there is no appetite for customs checks on the border, then it will effectively maintain or continue as it is now worth scotland and wales will not. they tend to brag about with there will be systems for doing it. there are roads, border which crisscross the border of three or four times. the border is madness. some people are suggesting that the uk will have this back door into the eu or vice ve rsa . this back door into the eu or vice versa. if you wanted to come illegally into the united kingdom and you are an eu citizen, come on a

tourist visa and then overstayed legally rather than going via ireland where it will be more difficult. let us move on, the daily telegraph, they have moved very specially because we were here just this evening about events at buckingham palace. you were close to it. i was. you do not know much about it. on my way to the studio, all i saw was what is in this picture, lots of blue flashing lights, the police cordoned off the whole area and we were diverted very quickly away through west london. incredible really, the speed at which the police responded to this incident. it is one of the busiest areas of london and traffic was packed. they had very efficiently and calmly manoeuvred traffic in this incredibly busy london area, mostly calm, while they themselves propelling themselves down london street at a very high speed. that is

what they are trained for. a lot of people i know come to us at this time, just to explain what we know which is not a lot. what we know at the moment is that a man with some kind of blade, eyewitnesses say a sword and police confirm it is a knife of some kind, we do not know whether it is a pen knife or a great big samurai sword, anything in between the two, has attacked some police officers. too early to say if it is terror related, even if it is, there is a venn diagram were madmen and terrorists cross over, there is and terrorists cross over, there is a big link between the two. we know the man who has been detained

has been detained on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and assaulting police, that is quite a serious kind of assault, it is not common. they might move the charge down from that. we also know that two male police officers sustained minor injuries to their arms. that would imply it is a defence of wind. it is not because they have been punched in the face. the queen is at sandringham at this time of year. balmoral, sorry. let us hope it was nothing too dreadful. let us move on. susie, the daily mail has the story and others do as well, the headline, police saying we may not come out if you speak english. that isa come out if you speak english. that is a wonderful bit of headline simplification. explain what this tells us. and you're not in any danger. what we are talking about, the second—in—command of the country's biggest for say callers will be prioritised. if you have a vehicle theft, perhaps a bicycle has been stolen from outside your home and the police, it happened a week ago while you are holiday, the police will not turn up and look at the empty railings, if you are perfectly able to speak to them over

the phone and file your insurance claim, that is the end of it. if however you have learning difficulties, if english is not your first language or if you are elderly, they might come out to see you and wood the person because you will need that extra face—to—face interaction. it is entirely reasonable prioritisation of calls. that sounds fine, except it says in the daily mail, last night mps and campaign groups hit out at the police man involved saying that these proposals were utterly bonkers. do you have some sympathy with that? i am about as police sceptic as you get in the political mainstream. i ran big brother watch for a couple of years, i think our police force is covered up a paedophile ring in south yorkshire, they behaved disgracefully over things like hillsboro, i am very police sceptic. this is not really a story in my view and people who have attacked it had done so on the basis that they were asked to give a quote that they were asked to give a quote that they were asked to give a quote

that they then gave without really thinking about what the story men. for me, this is a story about the police saying if you're able to expect the situation over the phone, we will take it over the phone and if you're not able to do that, we will come and see you. if you phone up and say, i speak english, iam middle if you phone up and say, i speak english, i am middle class and middle aged i appear to be being stabbed in the face, the police will still turn up. people are sceptical when you hear the word might. one mp blames it on political correctness which is insane. silly season. when the police come and arrest the householder who sat on the burglar rather than arresting the burglar, thatis rather than arresting the burglar, that is the sort of story that the daily mail should be making their meat and drink on. gates of hell, the neck story. actually, what is this. this is about heathrow. i fly a lot for business, when you come through heathrow, by the third of

the gates are working, that is true, the gates are working, that is true, the sun has spotted this and ran the story because at the same time, they point out, bank holiday cost for rail travel are going up because our transport system is trying to discourage people from travelling, even discourage people from travelling, even though everyone travels on the bank holiday to see their families and it will be busy on the roads. it isa and it will be busy on the roads. it is a bit ofa and it will be busy on the roads. it is a bit of a dog bites man story. we have more people flying, so there are increasing queue length and theresa may as home secretary was busy cutting numbers of border force agents. it is like the self—service tale nt agents. it is like the self—service talent supermarket, you need someone there to supervise because they get chewed up and they need someone to reset the whole thing. we have to leave it there. that's it for the papers tonight. don't forget you can see the front pages of the papers online on the bbc news website. it's all there for you — seven days a week at bbc.co.uk/papers — and if you miss the programme any evening you can watch it

later on bbc iplayer. thank you. goodbye. good evening. mainly quiet weekend of whether on the way here at home but across the other side of the atlantic, we have at major weather story developing. hurricane harvey which has been strengthening over the last day or two, beginning to push his way into towards the coast of texas, it is going to bring some very strong winds, the potential for a storm surge which could inundate the coast with floodwater and a huge amount of rain through the next few days. some spots could see 900 millimetres of rain which brings the risk of catastrophic life—threatening flooding. back home, things are quiet, there was some rain around today. that was

including scotland and the highlands, but others had fine weather and blue skies. for the wigan, there will be a fair amount of warm sunshine around, just a few showers here and there. showers keep going across northern ireland to lie, scotland and parts of the north of england but further south, clear spells, the default patch in one or two places and temperatures dropping to between 12 and i6 two places and temperatures dropping to between 12 and 16 degrees. into tomorrow, some showers across the east of scotland and north east england, some of them are heavy and thundery but for the west of scotland, northern ireland, and much drier day than of late, some spells of sunshine and down towards the south it will stay fine with some sunny spells. by by four o'clock, the odd heavy thundery shower in scotland, into

north—eastern and but for the west of scotla nd north—eastern and but for the west of scotland and northern ireland, mainly fine with some spells of sunshine, i9 mainly fine with some spells of sunshine, 19 degrees in belfast. as we sunshine, 19 degrees in belfast. as we push into wales and the south west, sunny spells, temperatures around 20 or 21 degrees, it could get up into the mid—20s for parts of lincolnshire, east anglia, 24 degrees or so in london. looking ahead to sunday, and other mainly fine day, some spells of sunshine, fewer showers at this stage up towards the north—east, the vast majority will stay dry, however a little bit of damp weather pushing into the far north—west of scotland, 16 degrees for stornoway, 25 for london. monday, divided forgers, cloud and rain pushing into northern ireland, north west of scotland, the rain will be heavy at accompanied by blustery winds but further south and east be spells of sunshine and in the best of that sunshine towards the best of that sunshine towards the south—east, temperatures could well get up to 27 or 28 degrees. this is bbc news.

the headlines at 11pm: two police officers have been injured after arresting a man carrying a knife outside buckingham palace. both suffered minor injuries and weren't taken to hospital. the us state of texas is bracing itself for a life—threatening hurricane, which has been upgraded to a category 3 storm and is expected to be the worst to hit the us mainland since katrina in 2005. not only are we going to be dealing with the high winds that typically come with what should be a category three hurricane, but we are also going to be dealing with immense really record—setting flooding. a leaked report accuses royal bank of scotland of the systematic abuse of its business customers. hundreds of customers complained they were mistreated. rbs denies the accusations.