tv Victoria Derbyshire BBC News March 1, 2020 3:30pm-4:01pm GMT
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another school in tetbury, gloucester, has also confirmed a member of staff has tested positive. labour calls for home secretary priti patel to attend the commons tomorrow to explain allegations from her departing civil service chief that she bullied staff. at least 500 migrants have crossed from turkey to several greek islands on small boats, after greek authorities said they've stopped almost 10,000 others from entering the country. in the u.s., democrat presidential candidate joe biden wins his first primary in south carolina, boosting his chances of being his party's candidate to take on donald trump in november's election. now on bbc news, the best of the week's exclusive interviews and reports from the victoria derbyshire programme.
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hello and welcome. for the next half an hour, we will show some of the highlights of our award—winning journalism over the last week. first, on thursday, it was revealed that the number of rough sleepers in england has fallen for the second year in a row, but there are still more than double the number sleeping on the streets than ten years ago. it comes as new research seen by this programme shows that council funding for homeless services in england has been cut by more than a quarter in a decade. we spent the night with the homeless outreach team at the charity st mungo‘s in the financial heart of london.
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one of the main roads through the city of london and we've come across some bedding and cardboard and what does this tell us about the person who is sleeping here? it's right near the rain and the road and everything. it's quite shocking, isn't it? it's pretty appalling. you can see the rain is coming in and we know the woman who sleeps here and she feels quite safe because she feels people can see her. this is the capital city and the fifth richest economy in the world. i think everybody who walks past this should feel shocked and be shocked. my teams, when they come out, that's what i ask them to do, be shocked by this and do everything they can to try to help people away from having to sleep on the pavement. petra and ed have gone down to the subway because they think there might be quite a number of people sleeping there, so they've gone down to have a look
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and check it out. to most people wandering through here, it just looks like a tonne of... rubbish. but the reality is people are living down here, sleeping down here, two to three people every night. it is dry. it is dry, light...it's cold, smells a bit of urine. in a way, it might sound harsh, but i think it should be cleared up. it should be cleared, it should be cleaned and the people who are here should be offered an alternative. of course. sometimes people look at that as cruelty. to take the stuff away? yeah. but sometimes we are not left with any option. how can we trigger a change
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in behaviour if we have tried everything else? i have been doing this for 25 years and i am pretty ashamed to still be standing here talking about the same issues. the services are no longer there. why are they not there? lack of investment. take away the money and the services, and then there is a rise. 0ne leads to the other. i think that is obvious to anyone looking at this in any meaningful way, they will understand that.
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can i sit on the edge here, daisy? yeah. yeah? thank you. hi. hello. how are you? cold. but other than that, i'm all right. i'm breathing, so i can't complain too much. can i ask why you are sleeping here? because i haven't got anywhere else to go. is there a reason you choose to sleep in this bit? i chose here because it is on the main road, but it is also sort of out of the way, so i'm safe. do you feel safe? as safe as i can be on the street. yeah. not easy. it's scary sometimes. i've been kicked.
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kissed on. people throwing things at me. it's not about the rain, the cold nights or any of that stuff. for me, the worst part about being out here is not being seen. what do you want to happen? i just want a home. have you got family? yeah. why can't you go there? i don't...|‘d rather not talk about that. i just want somewhere, somewhere that i can just be me, be safe and say that i did it,
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feel right at all, does it? it feels wrong at every level. i...it doesn't matter how long you do this, it still really deeply affects you. she's a young woman. why can't she go into a hostel now? it is a really good question. we have spaces she can go into, but they are shared and communal and she doesn't want to do that, and i have a lot of sympathy with that and i understand that. the sad truth is we do not have enough of the right type of accommodation that would suit her right now. no. it is deeply disappointing. none of this is ok. it is not ok for us to walk away. it is not ok for us to walk on by. it is just not ok that young women like daisy have to sleep on the streets of london. if any of the issues in that film affect you, you can go to the bbc action line... next, police forces in england and wales are 5,000 detectives short.
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politicians have warned this shortfall is allowing murderers to walk free. a new fast track programme set up by two detective inspectors is trying to tackle what the police watchdog have said is a national crisis. police now is a graduate scheme in england and wales that aims to make people with no policing experience into detectives with just 12 weeks training before they start on the job. 0ur reporter, sean clare, has had exclusive access to two of the first ever police now detective trainees as they start out on their first placement emergency 999 response. i don't want anybody to be in any doubt about the scale of the challenge to go from no policing experience to competent, effective, certified detective status over the course of two years. it is a big ask.
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i was 14 when stephen lawrence's murder happened. he was murdered by four white men and the police took little action. the investigation was flawed because of these biased attitudes. i had quite a negative perception of the police for a long time, about what they do and how they handle non—white people, essentially. being a police officer growing up, it'sjust not a position i wanted to associate myself with, or be a part of. growing up, i was very interested in football, played in a lot of the local leagues. when i was about 16, i was signed by norwich city. there was then the opportunity to represent england schoolboys. the first game that we played on sky was against scotland. in the second half, i scored. commentary: kelly's in unfamiliar territory. options in the middle... and england have got a second goal! this time by kenny reeves.
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that was something i'll rememberforever. if maybe i'd put slightly more effort in and done everything i could to make it, then things could have turned out differently. so that's what i've tried to do with this. i've worked in a fewjobs where you're working there to get money for shareholders or for other people. and it didn't really motivate me. for a number of years i was soul searching what i wanted to do. i found the fire service and took up that opportunity. after ten years ijust wanted to do something different and have more of a challenge. and the police offers that. when you put that uniform on, you know it's game time. whatever day you've had, however you feel, as soon as you get into work and put your boots on, you're there to do a job. so we're going to an rtc
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on a dual carriageway. so the car's gone into the central reservation. there's two other cars behind it. before this scheme i was a secondary school business studies teacher. i suppose when someone told me, "oh, you're teaching a gcse business studies lesson at 9am", i never got that adrenaline shooting through me, "oh, god, i'm going to go and teach a lesson." it's definitely different to a monday morning marking work. i remember the first time i was in a police car. i was thinking, oh, there's a police car coming. then i realised i was the one actually in it! so we've just had through on our radio there's been concern for welfare at an address. we've just had a message from a pcso stating that he's round at the address, the door is unlocked and he can see a body inside. with policing, you do get a real buzz in terms of, oh, someone‘s in danger, i need to go and help them. you don't know what's going to happen from day to day. and the unpredictability of it is what also keeps it exciting. and so you can go home at the end of the day thinking, hopefully i've made a difference to that person's life. my first day on response,
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i was very nervous, because ultimately i didn't want to make a mistake, didn't want to make the wrong decision, which could affect people's lives for a long time. who do people call in an emergency? it's the police when they don't know who to turn to. it's where you cut your teeth, on the front line. you don't know what you're going to. every day's different. absolutely love it. so what we've got at the moment is a burglary in progress. the objective is obviously to get there as soon as possible. it's 16 minutes, according to google maps. what reassurance can you give to members of the public? they might think, i don't want a kind of fresh graduate coming to my door. everybody‘s got to start somewhere. my focus is on making sure that we, for those officers who join the police service through police now, that we give them absolutely the very best start that we possibly can. the question is, do you feel ready
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to go out into the field after having been trained for 12 weeks? and the answer is, yes, i do. since we've turned up, we've found that they are deceased. it's the first time i've been to something like this, where they've had to do a few investigations. at the end of the day it can be life and death. and if i'm really honest, before my very first shift when we went out, i was very nervous. you know, i'm not sure that anybody who's been to any of those things, you know, as i have, you know, during my policing service, would say that there's ever enough time to prepare you for some of the things that you see. from thinking it was suspicious to start off with, i think once they've looked at the body more, it feels that she may have potentially had a fall, and then kind of been left in that position for a number of weeks. they're never — well, for me, anyway, they're never easy to get on. i don't think my height helps. does it affect you at
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all, do you think? when you're there dealing with a body, you kind of have to take the personal element away from it and then think about that after, when you're dealing with the victim or the loved ones. what you're investigating could be one of the most traumatic times of their life. so it's important to have some sense of sensitivity. so they've gone in through the house? they haven't gone in through the attic? "they've gone through the front door. it's nothing to do with me. ijust want them safe." right. 0k. all right. we'll go and visit them now and see what's happened. all right. hello. hi, are you pavel? pavel, i am. did you report a burglary to us, or somebody coming in? yeah. it was you. sorry, we're eating. oh, sorry. bad timing. just tell me what happened, basically. 0ne went upstairs. we checked the roof... i think some of the skills that are really important as an investigator are having that thoroughness. have you got a description of him at all? was he large build? yeah. nothing is missing or there's no damage or anything? so get your builder to come back tomorrow. we'll give him a ring as well.
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i'llspeakto him. if there is any more concerns, or you see anything else that's suspicious, then do give us a call back. it is a role that has got a lot of responsibility with it. taking people's liberties away. seeing people at the worst of times and making decisions based on those, it is a big ask and a big task. there's a stabbing that has just been reported in. i suspect they might send a firearms unit there. idiot. he told me, my daughter is here and he's going to stab her and my kids. it sounds like they've had some words or something, and he sort of said something along the lines of, "oh, what do you think i'm going to do, stab the baby?" so she's then said, "0h, he's got a knife, he's got a machete", and that's how it sort of escalated a bit.
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in my career, i've come across police officers, whether they‘ re uniform officers, whether they're detectives, whether they're working elsewhere, who have been absolutely fantastic, really at the top of their game. and some of those officers have had 35 years experience, and some of those officers have had 35 months experience or less. hello, it's the police. can you let us in? i'm 37 years old now and just joined the police. if i knew now what i knew then, i would have started thisjob straight from school. definitely. and i'm envious of all the other guys and girls on my course that are ten years younger than me that are just starting their careers and they get to experience this job for a lot longer than what i will.
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er, that makes me a little bit jealous. jump in, gents. er, it has been tough, it has been hard work. ultimately, by putting in that work it means you've got the knowledge when you come out the other end and now we're putting it into practice. i haven't had much downtime for the past five, six months really, which has been quite difficult. it's put a lot of strain on relationships with family and friends. and it's meant that i've seen my kids less. they understand how important it is to me, and they're willing to support me through this and help me. ijust don't know how difficult it would be if i didn't have that support of family, really, and friends. finally, families are calling on the government to change a law that allows women to abort foetuses with down‘s syndrome right up to birth.
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they've written to the health secretary asking him to amend the 50—year—old abortion act to prevent terminations after 2a weeks for all nonfatal disabilities, including down‘s syndrome, where you are born with an extra chromosome. on monday, we heard from two families campaigning to get the law changed. heidi, first of all, what do you think of the current law at the moment? i think it's... ..because of my medical condition, i find it deeply offensive. why? because i am someone with... ..the condition. i would say that it has made a difference... ..between everybody without down‘s syndrome and between people with down‘s syndrom. how does it make you feel that someone can have an abortion, can terminate an unborn pregaancy, if they find out their unborn baby has down‘s syndrome? it makes me feel unloved and unwanted. i think about the story of cats,
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all the other cats hated the character grizzabella and i feel like grizzabella. and you obviously believe that your life is as valuable as somebody‘s life who doesn't have down‘s syndrome. yes. it is. i'm going to sing memory! cheryl, david. hello. and hector. say hello, hector. what do you think of the law that allows a termination up to the point of birth for an unborn baby with down‘s syndrome? i think it's downright discrimination. it's not right at all. we think, at the end of the day, all babies, children, everybody should be treated equally. look at hector. and heidi. yep. there is no difference between any
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of us at the end of the day. we are all human. liz, what do you want the health secretary to do? we would like the health secretary to look at the law in the light of 2020, rather than 50 years ago. and change the law so all babies in the womb are treated the same, so there is no discrimination in the womb. 2a weeks is the limit that the government has set for termination and that should be for all babies in the womb, not up to birth. and if that were to happen, as you know, it would limit some women's choices when it comes to how they want to live their lives. i understand that. and obviously any termination is taken very seriously by any woman, or any couple. at the end of the day, that is their choice to do that. but most disabilities will be found before 2a weeks,
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so if they were to make that decision, that very hard decision for them, then ultimately it is their choice and i would hope they would get support and up—to—date and correct information about down‘s syndrome before they make their decision. in terms of other disabilities, where it is not found out until later in the pregnancy, it is still a very hard decision to make. i have met and heard of couples who have carried on with pregnancies where the baby has been incompatible with life, with a life limiting condition, and they have chosen to carry on. they have had maybe a few hours, a few days, a few weeks with their baby. there was a lady my friend met last week who was diagnosed with being incompatible for life
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and the child is now eight years old. so, i would say that doctors are not always right. the effect of your campaigning would be to limit the choice of some women, who perhaps according to antenatal organisations, results and choices, who say that there are some babies with conditions that are not detected until the third trimester. that is true, definitely. so in those cases are you saying a woman should give birth, should be forced to give birth? i think late term abortion is so abhorrent, it is so... maybe that is not the right word. but it is so horrible a thing to do. it's painful for the baby and the woman. it is. and doctors are sometimes wrong. and also, women who have given birth
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who i have heard speak, they have had those four weeks with that child and have been able to bond with that child. but that was their choice. i am suggesting that if your campaigning is successful, it will take away some women's choices. but we are not here about those choices, we are here about the discrimination. about treating everyone equal. that's why we are here today. that is it for this week. contact the problem any time on twitter and ——programme. e—mail your story to our address. we are back live on monday morning at 10am on bbc two and the bbc news channel. thank you for watching. i know our weather has been extreme of late, but rewind a couple of yea rs of late, but rewind a couple of years and you will find a very different extreme that we were in the grip of, and that was the beast from the east, where the temperature on this he day two years ago in
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south wales could only reach a high of —4.7 degrees. that was our cold est of —4.7 degrees. that was our coldest march day on record. it has been chilly in the breeze today, but nowhere near that cold. we have still got storm jorge close to north scotland. it has been a blustery day, but they winds are easing a bit now. we still have some rain and hill snow affecting parts of scotland, but for many others it has been a fine afternoon. some showers affecting us, and they will continue to be around as we go through this evening and into night, particularly across north scotland, north—west england and northern ireland and wales. a bit icy tomorrow morning, some rain held sleet and snow as well. don't be surprised if there is something wintry around for you first thing in the morning, temperatures keeping up for us in the south though. the last of that rain and held so clear the on monday, some heavy showers with
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thunder on the hills. ganging up in western scotland, the biggest part of wet weather pushing and for the afternoon. temperatures for the most pa rt afternoon. temperatures for the most part are afternoon. temperatures for the most partare in afternoon. temperatures for the most part are in single figures, but i do bit of sunshine around for many of the show is and not as windy as it has been. this week there will be some sunshine, showers, not as windy oi’ some sunshine, showers, not as windy or as wet for a time, but it will be quite chilly, temperatures a bit below average for the time of year, with some frosty and icy nights. a selection of places as we go through this week. most of the showers will be towards the north and west at the uk. parts of the southern england and the channel islands are still seeing a bit of rain, and then towards the end of the week it looks like low pressure is going to be coming back, meaning the return of some spells of wind and rain, the weather front moving south thursday night into friday and another area of low pressure coming in for next weekend. we are getting a bit of a respite, but it doesn't look like it is going to last very long. of course, while the weather is turning
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this is bbc news. i'm lukwesa burak. the headlines at four... another 12 people in the uk test positive for coronavirus — bringing the total number of cases in the country to 35. the government insists it's prepared to do all it can to contain the virus. we don't take anything off the table at this stage because you got to make sure you have all the tools available if that is what is necessary. it comes as an infant school in berkshire closes, after one of its staff tests positive for coronavirus. another school in tetbury, gloucester, has also confirmed a member of staff has tested positive. labour calls for home secretary priti patel to attend the commons tomorrow to explain allegations from her departing civil service chief that she bullied staff.
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