Newsnight Review 28 April, 2006

This week

• 16 BLOCKS
• EVERYMAN
• BRADFORD RIOTS
• DIRTY PRETTY THINGS

  16 Blocks

  Bruce Willis plays Jack Mosely, a beaten and tired New York Cop with a serious drinking problem.

  He is unhappily assigned to the simple task of ferrying petty criminal Eddie Bunker (Mos Def) who is set to testify before a grand jury at 10am.

  Eddie needs to be taken from the police station to the courthouse, 16 blocks away. It should take Jack 15 minutes to drop him off at the courthouse and get home.

  But things don't go to plan. En route, Jack soon discovers that some people want this witness dead. And when Jack calls for backup, he comes to realise that these people are actually his police colleagues.

  The film is directed by Richard Donner who made the original The Omen (a remake is being released this summer), Superman, Free Willy, and the Lethal Weapon series.

• CERTIFICATE 12A
• 16 BLOCKS IS ON GENERAL RELEASE FROM 28 APRIL, 2006

  Everyman
  By Philip Roth

  Philip Roth is one of America's best known authors.

  He's published 27 books, including Portnoy's Complaint, Goodbye Columbus and The Plot Against America and he's won some of America's most prestigious awards, including the Pulitzer Prize in 1997 for American Pastoral.

  His new novel, Everyman, his fifth book in almost as many years, is an intensely personal story about regret, ageing and death.

  The title is taken from an anonymous 15th century English allegorical play, whose theme is mortality.

  Philip Roth's Everyman follows the story of an unnamed character, a retired advertising man, throughout his life from his childhood summer holidays, through his three failed marriages, to his final battle against his physical deterioration.

  Towards the end, his increasingly urgent surgical procedures become an annual occurrence and are described in detail. "Many great books treated adultery," Roth has said in interview, "but very few have treated disease. So I thought to make this man's biography his medical history – just make the medical history the narrative line – and see what happened."

• EVERYMAN IS PUBLISHED BY JONATHAN CAPE

  Bradford Riots
  Channel 4

  Written and Directed by Neil Biswas whose previous writing credits include Second Generation and In A Land of Plenty, this one-off drama marks the fifth anniversary of what has been called the worst rioting in mainland Britain for 20 years.

  Set in Manningham in July 2001, the story revolves around Karim (Sacha Dhawan) who returns from Manchester University to his home town for the summer.

  Unfortunately, racial tensions are brewing after a series of other riots in the North.

  The scripts are based on a year of intense first hand knowledge within Bradford's Pakistani community and the drama features music by anti-racist group Asian Dub Foundation.

  Neil Biswas said: "I would love this to lead to a different perception or understanding of Muslim communities in the UK – but I will settle for people questioning what they think they know already."

  Written very much from the perspective of the Muslim community, Bradford Riots attempts to explore why the violence happened, asks who was really to blame and how the sentencing of young Asian men took place.

  It asks the question, did they deserve such harsh treatment despite the majority of them handing themselves in and having no previous convictions?

  Our panel will give their verdict.

• BRADFORD RIOTS IS ON CHANNEL 4 ON 4 MAY AT 9PM

  Waterloo to Anywhere
  By Dirty Pretty Things

  Cult punk rock outfit The Libertines split up after two critically acclaimed albums.

  Co-founded by friends Pete Doherty and Carl Barât, Doherty's drug habits made him increasingly unreliable and he was expelled from the band.

  Doherty released an album with his new band Babyshambles earlier this year. In the meantime, Barat has been concentrating on touring with his new outfit Dirty Pretty Things, formed from the ashes of The Libertines with Gary Powell on drums, Doherty replacement Anthony Rossomando on guitar and Didz Hammond, ex of Cooper Temple Clause, on bass.

  Their first album Waterloo to Anywhere has been said to build on early Libertines' sound.

  Barat's thoughtful lyrics wrap around several styles from the poppy Gin & Milk, through the ska sea shanty the Gentry Cove to the exuberant punk rock anthems of the first two singles Bang, Bang You're Dead and you F***ing Love It.

• WATERLOO TO ANYWHERE IS RELEASED ON THE MERCURY LABEL

  Round-up

  JACQUELINE WILSON

  Author of over 80 works for children including the bestselling Tracy Beaker series, Jacqueline Wilson was created Children's Laureate in 2005.

  In this role she has chosen to campaign to get more parents reading aloud to their children.

  To help this along she has compiled a list of 70 tried and tested books for parents to start with.

  With suggestions for three age groups, the chosen books range from Wilson's own favourite, Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are to classics such as TS Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.

  The book features recommendations from celebrity parents and tips on keeping children's attention.

• GREAT BOOKS TO READ ALOUD IS PUBLISHED BY CORGI PRESS ON 4 MAY, 2006
• CLICK HERE FROM MORE INFORMATION

  Newsnight Review is broadcast after Newsnight every Friday at 11pm on BBC Two.

  Don't forget that you can watch Newsnight Review online via this website. The programme is available in broadband from 1200 BST on the Saturday after originally broadcast for one week.

Parents offered NHS baby minders

First-time parents are to get "NHS minders" to help them through the first two years under a new pilot scheme.

The government has set aside £7.5m for midwives and health visitors to offer support in 10 of the poorest areas.

It is based on a US system which has been proved to help improve health and cut accidents and is being specifically aimed at single mothers.

But midwives said it was the sort of care every professional wanted to provide but could not because of cuts.

The Royal College of Midwives estimated another 3,000 midwives are needed by 2012.

This comes after 17,000 posts have been cut in the last year as the NHS struggles with its finances.

RCM spokeswoman Mervi Jokinen said: "Help like this is undoubtedly beneficial.

"But the problem is that in places where midwives are providing intensive help, their posts are being cut or are under threat.

"All midwives want to provide this sort of care and support, but we are just not able to."

The scheme is being jointly overseen by the Department for Education and Skills and Department of Health in some of the most deprived areas, including Southwark and Tower Hamlets in London, Manchester, Walsall and Derby.

It will see single mothers and other vulnerable first-time parents offered regular visits by an "NHS minder".

They will be given tips on parenting and relationship skills as well as advice about exercise and diet.

The visits could start as early as four months into pregnancy. If the scheme proves successful, it could be rolled out across England within two years.

Health Minister Ivan Lewis said: "The importance of health in the early years cannot be underestimated, pregnancy and the first few years are vital to child development, life chances and future achievement."

Back to the day job

BBC producer Stuart Hughes lost part of his right leg after stepping on a landmine in northern Iraq.

Stuart, 31, has returned to work part-time in London, after months of recuperation and getting used to his artificial leg in Cardiff.

Here's the last in his BBC News Online diary series.

I never imagined the day would come when I'd look forward to going to work.

But, more than five months after losing my foot, returning to the workaday world feels like the culmination of all those long weeks of rehab and recuperation.

I was filled with apprehension – even though my hours are only part-time to begin with.

Would I remember how to do my job? Would I be able to cope physically and mentally? Would people treat me differently as a result of what has happened?

I felt rather like a child returning to school after the long summer holiday – except that in my case the break has been almost six months long.

I needn't have worried.

Within a few hours of getting back to the office it was as though I had never been away.

It's easy to be dismissive of the 9-to-5 routine but at this stage of my recovery that's exactly what I need.

From the start I've been clear in my mind that I'm a journalist first and a landmine survivor second – and not the other way around.

Getting back to work marks another stage in moving on from my accident.

I can never forget what's happened but over time I hope it will become just another part of who I am – an important part, for sure, but not the defining characteristic.

Within a few days of returning of work I was able to test my prosthesis out "in the field" for the first time. I was sent to Rome for three days to cover a summit of European leaders.

Summit venue

It was strange to see the flight cases full of broadcasting equipment stacked up in my hallway for the first time since I left for Iraq in February. So much has changed since then.

When I arrived at the summit venue on the outskirts of Rome I quickly realised that I need to learn the words "artificial leg" in every major European language.

The entrance to the press centre was guarded by armed police officers from the Italian carabinieri and security guards manning airport-style metal detectors.

Of course, the metal in my prosthesis set off the scanners, causing the policemen to reach instinctively for their pistols.

Carabinieri

'Artificiale' I said in my best comedy Italian accent, while at the same time pointing to my right trouser leg.

I had no idea whether "artificiale" was the Italian word for "false." It just sounded like it should be.

The carabinieri looked at me suspiciously, clearly unconvinced by the one-legged Welshman gesturing wildly in front of them.

I hitched my trousers up a few inches to try to prove to the doubting cops that my leg really is 'artificiale'.

It seemed to work.

I was waved through security with a dismissive grunt.

Babysitter attacked little boys

A man has admitted violent assaults on a four-year-old boy and his toddler brother when he was babysitting them.

Thomas Leishman, from Coatbridge, repeatedly kicked and struck the boys over a six-month period, the High Court in Glasgow heard.

The judge heard that Leishman, 26, inflicted 44 injuries on the four-year-old boy and locked the younger child in a cupboard.

Sentence was deferred until next month, pending reports on Leishman.

The court was told that Leishman had twisted the older boy's leg so brutally it fractured.

He beat him up to such an extent his bladder and liver were ruptured and he kicked the boy in the groin. The child needed surgery at Yorkhill Hospital in Glasgow.

Kept in cupboard

Judge Rita Rae was told that a doctor called the injuries some of the worst she had ever seen on a child.

His brother, who was aged between 18 months and two at the time, also suffered head and body injuries.

The younger boy had been locked in a cupboard, the court heard.

A witness described how she had heard Leishman shouting in a "horrendous" way and police were told by the four-year-old that "Tam was always hitting us".

Leishman was remanded in custody.

Warning of possible job shortages

There may be a lack of job opportunities for school-leavers in Jersey with learning difficulties, a States committee has warned.

The sub-committee in the Chief Minister's Department has been set up to investigate the problem.

Deputy Ian Gorst said the group was looking at the extent of the problem and possible solutions.

Their findings will be considered by the Council of Ministers and individual States departments.

A spokesman for Jersey Mencap confirmed some people still could not find work despite a training centre recently opening.

The purpose-built Oakfield training centre for people with learning disabilities opened after a £500,000 refit.

Doubt cast on baby death verdict

Fresh evidence casting doubt on the conviction of a woman for the murder of a boy she was babysitting, has been uncovered by BBC Newsnight.

Suzanne Holdsworth, from Hartlepool, is serving life after a court was told she smashed Kyle Fisher against a banister with as much force as a 60mph crash.

The two-year-old died in hospital with a massively swollen brain but only some bruising on the outside of his head.

A leading neuro-pathologist says it is "unlikely" an impact caused his death.

Holdsworth, 37, who worked at the check-out at Asda supermarket in Hartlepool, has always said she did not commit the crime.

Her partner, Lee Spencer, and their two daughters, Lesley, 19 and Jamie-Leigh, 13, have never believed that she killed the little boy they all doted on.

The jury at Holdsworth's trial at Teesside Crown Court was told that the death took place after Kyle's mother, Clare Fisher, dropped her son off at her neighbour's in Millpool Close in July 2004 when she went clubbing.

'Meaningless'

According to the 60mph impact version of events, Kyle was left brain dead but the banister remained intact and unmarked by hair, tissue and blood.

But one of the country's most eminent neuro-pathologists, Dr Waney Squier, has dismissed the scenario as "meaningless, emotive words that have absolutely no scientific validity".

She said: "A 60mph impact of a baby's head on a banister would cause massive damage to the head, massive skull fracturing.

"Kyle had bruises, he had no scalp swelling, he had no skull fractures, so I think that is extremely unlikely.'"

Kyle's father, Jon Taylor, who is separated from his mother, told the BBC: "It just happened to be that Suzanne was babysitting him.

"I could have been babysitting him, so that would mean I'd have probably ended up in jail."

999 call

Kyle's eye is at the heart of a case which may prove to be yet another grave miscarriage of justice.

Surgeons Professor Brian Avery and Sid Marks both saw Kyle in May, 2004, and planned to operate on his face.

The court heard that Kyle suffered an eye injury in 2003 after he fell from a buggy while he was being looked after by his mother.

Dr Squier told the BBC that Kyle's brain had two separate abnormalities, a congenital brain condition that can cause fits and the eye socket injury.

She said: "The brain had started to push down through that fracture into the eye socket and displacing the eye. The brain was scarred.

"So Kyle in fact had two abnormalities in his brain that would predispose him to having seizures. And seizures can kill."

The investigation into Kyle's death was led by Det Supt Tony Hutchinson of Cleveland police, an officer with 50 murder inquiries under his belt.

Det Supt Hutchinson said after the trial that Holdsworth "very calmly applied her mind as to how she would explain the injury to the authorities".

In Holdsworth's 999 call, she told the operator Kyle was "not breathing… his eyes are rolling and everything…"

The operator asked if Kyle had had a fit. Holdsworth said he had.

The operator then asked Holdsworth if Kyle had any pre-existing injury.

She replied: "He's got a hole in his head, a hole in his eye and they're going to have take his skin off to get to it. You know, his face."

No comment

The police did not take written statements from either of the two surgeons who saw Kyle in 2004.

Prof Avery, who is a dean of the Royal College of Surgeons, told the BBC: "I had potentially useful information and I was surprised that the police did not contact me."

Newsnight put a number of questions to Det Supt Hutchinson but he declined to comment. Asked how she was going to get through her third Christmas inside, Holdsworth said: "I go on the phone, pretend I'm fine because my babies and my partner are having Christmas. I go back to my room and I cry and I cry and I cry."

Since making that call, Suzanne Holdsworth has been disciplined by the prison authorities for talking to the BBC and her ability to talk to her family restricted.

John Sweeney's report is on BBC2's Newsnight at 2230 GMT on Thursday, 6 December.

Art college merger promises jobs

Two design institutes are to merge, eventually forming a specialist university for arts in the South East.

Former students at Kent Institute of Art and Design (Kiad) include artist Tracey Emin, fashion designer Karen Millen and TV personality Tony Hart.

Now Kiad has said a merger with Surrey Institute of Art and Design will shape specialist art education and provide more job opportunities for students.

Professor Vaughan Grylls said: "It will be a better gateway to the industries."

The director of Kiad said preparation for work was partly through links with the staff who worked in the creative industries themselves.

"What it means is greater opportunities certainly in terms of employment for our students by sharing our expertise," he said.

The colleges' different specialisms currently include architecture at the Kent institute and broadcasting at Surrey, and the two institutions say they plan to combine existing strengths and build on similarities in size, focus and reputation.

A legal agreement to merge has been signed and the arts university college is to be established on 1 August this year, supported with a grant of £2.3m from the Higher Education Funding Council.

'No ivory tower'

Professor Elaine Thomas, director of the Surrey institute, said support for the project "further enhanced belief that the goal of achieving university status by 2007 is possible".

Professor Grylls said the colleges intended to keep existing campuses across Kent and Surrey, which currently include Canterbury, Epsom, Farnham, Maidstone and Rochester.

"We are against the idea of the ivory tower university," he said.

"Having campuses in the centre of a town is important because artists, designers and architects are very much to do with the urban environment.

"It's a question of having a creative art institute that actually brings something extra to the town, for example each campus has its own art gallery."

Odd jobs at the Edinburgh Fringe

With the annual launch of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe comes a bizarre array of short-term job opportunities attracting theatre lovers eager to experience the world's biggest arts festival.

The traditional festival job involves long hours, poor accommodation and very little money, and this year is no exception.

THE RICKSHAW DRIVER

Will Roper's job is not easy. He drives a cycle rickshaw – and Edinburgh's relentless hills do not make life easy.

"This is my fourth day and I'm shattered. Cycling up The Mound is an absolute nightmare," says Will, from Lyme Regis.

The average rickshaw driver cycles up to 30 miles per day in and around the city.

Fares depend on the length of journey, how many hills and, more interestingly, the weight of the person taking the ride.

Will can charge as little as £1 for a downhill trip, but if you want a city tour then the fare is more likely to be about £25.

Will rents his bike from the council at a cost of £120 for the day shift. He is keen to do the more lucrative night shift, but he can't get access to a rickshaw at the moment.

"The more experienced guys seem to get the nights. Maybe later in the festival I'll get something".

THE SHOW ANNOUNCER

Standing in a busy courtyard outside one of the key Fringe venues, May Cox shouts details of the impending show and tells the audience when it is time to take their seats.

"It's a fun job, but it does have its moments," says May.

"I announced the children's show Silly Billy Bum Breath the other day and got some very strange looks!"

"The worst scenario is when you announce a show and there isn't a single audience member – now that can be embarrassing."

May gets food vouchers, accommodation and small amount of money for her 12-hour daily shifts.

"I'm not here for the money – I just love the social experience of the Fringe."

THE BANNER MAN

This is Wayne Garnett's third festival – he treats it as a working holiday.

A theatre technician by trade and a keen rock climber, Wayne has found a way of making some extra cash by combining his skills.

On any given day, he can be found scaling the varied heights of the Edinburgh skyline, mounting advertising banners on the side of city buildings.

"They call it the windy city – and they're not wrong," says Wayne, precariously balanced midway up a building on the Royal Mile.

THE LEAFLETEER

Jane Gourlay works for a leafleting agency; she hands out about 500 flyers each day for some 25 different shows.

She gets paid £6.50 per hour, and works up to 12 hours each day.

"I tend to chat to the person about the show, so it's more of a marketing service really," explains Jane.

"Some people just hand them out and say nothing".

THE COLLECTOR

Kim Harfitt picks up the flyers which other people throw away.

The 20-year-old student spends her day wandering around the festival courtyards collecting up hundreds of flyers and disposing of them in recycling bins.

She is paid £5.35 per hour and has a discount card for drinks and food.

"I quite often just follow the person handing out the flyers and collect the flyer when they are discarded – often just a few seconds later!"

THE PRESS OFFICER

Tracey Fisher works at the Fringe press office and expects to spend up to 14 hours a day in the office during the three week festival.

The job has plenty of variety. One minute she'll be on the phone to the New York Times, and the next dealing with disgruntled students desperate to sell tickets for their show.

"I suppose we guide people through the process of trying to get an audience," says Tracey.

Like most Fringe workers, Tracey is on a short-term contract. She certainly isn't in Edinburgh for the money.

Her advice to fellow Fringe job seekers: "Just don't work out what you get paid an hour!"

Russia limits jobs for immigrants

Tough new laws limiting job opportunities for immigrants have been introduced in Russia.

The number of non-Russians working in the retail trade is now being limited to 40%, but by the end of the year that number is supposed to be zero.

Police raid the country's markets on a daily basis, enforcing quotas on the number of foreign workers – mainly from central Asia and the Caucasus.

The new law was proposed after race riots in northern Russia last summer.

President Vladimir Putin spoke of the need to defend the interests of the native population.

Markets – often a source of employment for Russia's army of immigrant workers – were singled out.

Immigration officials say that the new laws have encouraged more foreigners to apply for legal residency status even if they will remain barred from working in retail.

Human rights groups fear that police officers may try to abuse their authority as they carry out their duties.

Immigrant workers share those fears. They also question who would actually do their often difficult, dangerous and dirty jobs if they did not.

Pupils flock to annual jobs event

More than 5,000 teenagers are due to attend the annual Gloucestershire Skills Festival, to consider their future career options.

Forty local employers have booked stands at the event, which is under way at the GL1 leisure centre, Gloucester.

The festival gives 14 to 19-year-olds and business bosses the chance to meet and discuss job opportunities.

It has been divided into 'zones' to make it easier for youngsters to find the jobs they are interested in.

These include construction and engineering, hair and beauty, sport and leisure, the media and agriculture.

Pauline Bailey, from the Learning and Skills Council which is organising the festival, said: "For some students it's the first time they've had the opportunity to really understand what some jobs and careers entail.

"Each year I talk to young people at the festival who say they've been inspired by seeing 'the real thing' on show."