Fair do's

Lucy Manning

As March 29th came and went, the BBC's special correspondent Lucy Manning, attending yesterday's Leave protests outside Parliament, put it well:

Lucy Manning: They wanted it, voted for it, won it, but didn't get it. 

And Laura K put it pretty well too:

Sophie Raworth: Let's go back to Laura. We had been expecting to stand here and be counting down to 11 o'clock tonight, when the UK officially left the European Union. That hasn't happened. Who knows when it will happen? It really is quite a moment. 

Laura Kuenssberg: It is Sophie. 

And, of course, for Theresa May it was a promise that she made to the public, time and time and time again: "We will leave the European Union on the 29th of March". 

That process that she triggered was something then that Parliament itself voted for. 

And of course at the General Election not so long ago, in the long history of Britain's tangled relationships with the EU, both of the main parties committed to leaving, and then in Parliament a huge majority of MPs voted for this to happen. 

And at the very least, wherever blame lies, whoever made all of the different miscalculations, the fact is that Parliament has not been able to deliver to the country something that itself promised would happen. 

"How much more cliched and stereotypical can the BBC get?"

Last year, reviewing Mark Easton's latest 'Englishness' reports, I wrote: 

And, given that four years ago I titled one of my pieces about Mark's last pro-regionalism foray around the counties of England Mark Easton Baht 'at, I found it amusing (alarming?) that tonight's Mark Easton piece from Yorkshire featured a brass band playing On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at.

(Seriously Mark? Why didn't you go the whole hog and cuddle a ferret whilst taking your clothes off and popping on a cloth cap and walking up a steep cobbled hill with a loaf of bread humming the theme from In Loving Memory?)

And then it was onto Somerset.  

And if you (meaning me), as a non-metropolitan Northerner, felt offended (almost to the point of calling the ever-eager police) about Mark Easton employing (sackable? racist?) stereotypes by using a brass band playing On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at to represent Yorkshire, then please pray, with all your heart and soul, for our poor south-western friends in Somerset (and Sue beyond in Cornwall),.... 

....for, yes, I kid you not, Mark Easton of the BBC really did feature morris dancers from there. And talk of dragons and wassail.  

(The only thing I think he missed here - and this is truly unforgivable, especially given how hard he'd been trying to go for the tried-and-testedly stereotypical before - was to feature The Wurzels singing I Am A Cider Drinker).

Well, this week's Newswatch featured a disgruntled lady from Mansfield complaining about a BBC News at Ten report from Lucy Manning (concerning Brexit, of course): 

Angela Senior, Newswatch viewer: Dear Newswatch. I watched the Ten O'Clock News on Tuesday night with some trepidation, as it was said at the top of the programme there would be a report from Mansfield. As expected, the short report featured an evening silhouette of a disused pithead stock plus an elderly local resident, with a rich local accent to boot, in a Labour club, and - to top it all off - a rendition from a local brass band rehearsal. How much more cliched and stereotypical can the BBC get? This is so totally opposite to the Mansfield area we know. Come on, BBC, it is many years since the coal mines and hosiery mills closed and Mansfield is recovering and regenerating. Please think carefully before you portray this area in such an extreme light.

Still, in fairness to the metropolitan elite types at the BBC, the piece of brass band music being rehearsed there was one of Gustav Holst's Suites for brass band - real favourites of mine. So get your clogs on and off down t pit we go!

Update: Extra images of the colliery from the BBC report....

Labour welcomes everybody (but some are less welcome than others)

The Today Programme featured a report from Orla Geurin speaking to troops in Iraq - some of them English - fighting Daesh alongside Kurdish soldiers. They want the British government to support them much more in order to defeat Daesh there before embarking on the dreadful situation in Syria. 

The spokesperson for the select defence committee happened to be Ruth Smeeth MP, who spoke knowledgeably to Nick Robinson on the topic. It was unexpected and rather nice of the BBC to bring her in to discuss something other than you know what.

At the end of the interview Nick Robinson asked her about the abuse she’s been subjected to, which brings me to the final ‘leadership hustings’ debate between Corbyn and Smith, which took place on Sunday in front of Labour Friends of Israel and similar groups.

You can watch the whole thing on Jewish TV if you can bear it. The sound quality is abysmal; they seem to have amplified the applause coming from the auditorium and muffled the actual speakers. The whole thing was as frustrating as you’d expect it to be. Jeremy Corbyn was as reptilian as usual and he sat uncomfortably on his peculiarly designed high-stool, which I think was facing the wrong way. The others seemed to have foot-rests on theirs, whereas I think Jeremy’s was round the back and he couldn’t find anywhere to perch his feet. I almost felt sorry for him. Almost but not.  

Interestingly, the anchor was from the BBC. Lucy Manning. I must admit I wasn’t familiar with Lucy, but I found out from Mr. Google that she wasn’t a popular recruit (from ITV) at a time when others at the BBC were being given the heave-ho. 

However, although I hear she has a reputation for being strident, in this debate she seemed fine, although the sound levels might have contributed to that. I don’t think you could tell which side she was batting for, Corbyn, Smith or the audience, and that’s quite a feat for a BBC staffer

There’s a summary of the questions that were submitted to the pair here.

The widely publicised quote from Corbyn: ‘I believe Israel has the right to exist in its “1948 borders”’ ‘ came from that debate as did the well-worn excuse regarding Paul Eisen. ‘I attended the events before I knew he was a holocaust denier’ - which was trotted out again to audible groans from the audience. 

Even though there was potential to put the questions some of us would have liked to ask, there was no opportunity for follow-ups due to the one and only microphone having been passed to the other end of the room by the time the original questioner might have made use of it. 

Owen Smith drew louder applause than Corbyn, from this tiny audience at any rate. Towards the end, a question from the President of Oxford University Jewish Society. ‘Why have student victims of labour anti-semitism not been apologised to, and their attackers not been dealt with?’ Waffle ensued. 

My pick of the press today. Daniel Finkelstein in the Times (£) 

Labour’s chaos over antisemitism is shameful.

It’s about about Michael Foster, still suspended from the Labour Party. I’ll post a chunk of the piece here for the benefit of those who can’t access.

There was a time when it was almost impossible to be expelled from the Labour Party. You could get a programme on Iranian state TV, vote against the party in parliament hundreds of times, and praise Hamas and they’d make you leader. 

Nowadays it seems hard to avoid being excluded. You might have purchased your membership on the wrong date, for instance. Or, like Michael, said the wrong thing without any clear rules about what the right thing is. 

Yet even though it’s not remotely apparent what rule Michael broke, I think I can guess what it was that did it. It was the word Nazi. And this would be funny if the whole thing wasn’t so tragic. 

When Ken Livingstone was suspended from the Labour Party there was a lot of comment about his inability to avoid mentioning Hitler every time he appeared on television. But this is what I call the Fawlty Towers Fallacy. The problem isn’t that he mentioned the war. It’s what he said about Jews. 

Livingstone claimed that “before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews” Hitler supported Zionism. He continues to claim that this is true (which, just to be clear, it is not). With this statement he joined other Corbyn supporters who regularly make comparisons between Israel and Nazism. 

The problem is not with mentioning Hitler, or generally using Hitler analogies, or loosely making Hitler comparisons. The problem isn’t being abusive or silly or hyperbolic. The problem is deliberately and systematically equating the Jews with their exterminators. The problem is with implying the Jews are authors of their own misfortune and as bad as their killers. 

Israel isn’t being compared to the Nazis because of a want of tact. These people don’t compare Israel to Stalin, or to Pol Pot, or to Kim Il Sung. It is a deliberate and grossly offensive attack tailored specially for the Jews. 

It is an attack that tells the survivors of the death camps that they should have learnt lessons from their suffering but haven’t. It is an attack that deliberately minimises Hitler’s genocide by comparing it to the conflict with the Palestinians. It is an attack that outrageously distorts Israeli policy and provides those who want it with a justification for the terrorist murder of Jews. It is shameful and has no place in a progressive party. 

I thought, when suspending Mr Livingstone, that perhaps the Labour Party now appreciated this. Now it is clear they do not. In the grip of the Fawlty Towers Fallacy they haven’t decided to suspend antisemites, they had decided just to suspend anyone who mentions Hitler. Never mind if they are a Jew, whose grandparents were in Dachau concentration camp. 

Instead of dealing with hatred of Jews, they are just running around in a panic. And when this leadership election is over, neither the panic nor the antisemitism will have gone away. 

The Corbyn supporters who complain of a purge, the moderates who despair that there hasn’t been one, they are both correct. Maybe you are a member, maybe you aren’t; maybe that behaviour is OK, maybe it isn’t; maybe you will be out for ever, maybe we will let you back; maybe you can have a vote, maybe you can’t. Who knows? 

Nobody has a clue what they are doing or why they are doing it. The party is flailing. Accuse someone of being a stormtrooper and goodbye, support the IRA and you can be shadow chancellor. 

The only question I have for Michael now is an inversion of Groucho Marx’s famous quip. Why would he want to be part of a club that doesn’t want him as a member? 

And if a party cannot retain someone like him — enterprising, full hearted, unpredictable, passionate, successful, excitable and exciting — it is doomed. Suspend Michael Foster and you are suspending the Labour Party on a rope.

"Back on British soil..."

"Back on British soil, the last UK resident held at Guantanamo Bay is released...."

The early stages of Shaker Aamer's "homecoming parade" led BBC One's News at Six last night. 

The coverage, from BBC special correspondent Lucy Manning, included the reactions of his supporters, presenting us with his father-in-law, his lawyer (Clive Stafford-Smith) and his friend (Moazzam Begg). 

His father in law was delighted, his lawyer praised Mr Aamer as wonderful family man and his Islamist friend says he been held so long only because of what he 'has' on the US and UK government. 

They got 18 seconds, 18 seconds and 10 seconds respectively. 

The only dissenting note came from Robin Simcox of the Henry Jackson Society who got an abruptly cut-off 9 seconds.

BBC impartiality in action, it seems.

BBC bias proved, once and for all

The other thing that shocked me tonight was the astonishing contrast between the way the BBC and ITV reported the 'Trojan Horse' story - in the wake of Ofsted's report - on their respective main evening news bulletins [i.e. the news programmes that most people watch]. 

Now, if you want clinching proof of BBC bias - and blogs like this are always after that particular Holy Grail - then this, it seems to me, is finally it....

....yes, clinching proof that the BBC deliberately downplays the dangers posed by Muslim extremism.

Please take a quarter of an hour to read in full the transcripts below. 

You will see how the BBC downplays the 'hardline Muslim' threat, in contrast to ITV (which doesn't). 

The bias is not in doubt. The evidence is too strong. The case is proved. The BBC is guilty. Is the BBC biased? and Biased BBC can pack up and go home, job done. QED. 

Note, for starters, how long it takes - respectively - for the two channels to bring in the Muslim angle to the story - the angle which makes the story so highly-charged. ITV mentions it straight away (13 words in), while the BBC holds off for a good couple of minutes (175 words in). 

That's proof enough perhaps. [As is the frankly bizarre use of the unspecific phrase "hardline extremists" in the BBC's headlines, minus the obviously-informative-and-relevant word 'Muslim']. 

Immediately, ITV hits us with the main charge, quoting the head of Ofsted: 

"There's been an organised campaign to target certain schools in Birmingham in order to impose a narrow faith-based ideology". 

i.e. there is a big story here - a Muslim plot.  

The BBC's headlines, in sharp contrast, skirt around that and move on instead to the BBC's own preferred angle: The wounded feelings of offended Muslims. 

Everyone - from the newsreader to Reeta to Nick Robinson - then reinforces the message that there's no Muslim plot here, nothing to see here, move along, move along. 

Yes, 'the wounded feelings of offended Muslims' really is the BBC's preferred angle. The headlines spotlight it and Reeta Chakrabarti's report - the main report - is largely focused on it. 

ITV's first report does a good job of reporting the day's event: The report's findings, the responses. The BBC's first report, in contrast, bangs on [to a quite absurd degree] about how aggrieved some of Birmingham's Muslims feel about all this. 

For ITV the Ofsted report is 'the story'. For the BBC, however, the hurt feelings of some Birmingham Muslims is 'the story'. 

ITV's Lucy Manning and Rupert Evelyn spotlight those who agree with today's report [a 4:1 ratio]. In contrast, Reeta Chakrabarti spotlights those who disagree with today's reports [a 2:5 ratio] - a contrast that couldn't be clearer. 

Yes, the BBC did give us "Third boy pupil at Park View" (see below - good lad!) and a complaining, context-fee sick-leave-bound headteacher [huh?], but, otherwise, you might be easily forgiven (and granted absolution) for believing that Reeta & the BBC were wanting you to share the pain of those aggrieved Muslim parents, pupils, trustees, and other Muslim parents, and wanting you to dismiss the concerns that Ofsted, Michael Gove, Andrew Gilligan, Damian Thompson, and many of us, have about this. 

Were it not for Nick Robinson's very brief mention of 'wot Michael Gove said' the BBC could be convicted here of ignoring all the head-spinning evidence of Muslim malpractice in Birmingham's schools. ITV News provided yet more evidence for such Muslim malpractice tonight. The BBC chose not to. 

Please take a read of the transcripts below. Can you defend the BBC here? 

ITV EVENING NEWS

HEADLINES

Newsreaders: The damning verdict on the schools at the centre of an alleged Muslim plot. Inspectors claim there is a culture of fear and intimidation that needs to be tackled.

Sir Michael Wilshaw, Ofsted: There's been an organised campaign to target certain schools in Birmingham in order to impose a narrow faith-based ideology.

One of the schools involved rejects the claim made. Tonight the Education Secretary calls for British values to be taught in schools.  

INTRODUCTION TO FIRST REPORT

Newsreaders: Good evening. Ofsted delivered a damning verdict today on the Birmingham schools at the centre of an alleged takeover plot by hardline Muslims. It found a culture of fear and intimidation. Headteachers were forced from their jobs and at one school arts and music were removed from the curriculum. The Education Secretary, Michael Gove, said children were exposed to things they shouldn't have been exposed to. Five schools are now being placed in special measures. A sixth had already been 'failed' by Ofsted. The schools rejected today's findings saying they are simply 'not true'. Our first report today comes from our UK Editor, Lucy Manning.

LUCY MANNING'S REPORT

Lucy Manning: Across Birmingham, schools under suspicion. The fear? Islamic extremism in the classroom. The verdict? Some schools now rated inadequate and put into special measures; that there is a culture of fear and intimidation; headteachers reporting an organised campaign to target schools and impose religious views. 21 schools across the city were investigated by Ofsted and the Education Funding Authority. Five schools were placed in special measures. A sixth was  already in them. Ofsted found that headteachers has been "marginalised or forced out of their jobs" and some governors were "narrowing the curriculum, manipulating staff appointments and using school funds inappropriately to impose a narrow, faith-based ideology". Oldknow Academy was found to have organised a school trip to Saudi Arabia "exclusively for Muslim staff and pupils" and at Park View inspectors find the curriculum "restricted to a conservative Islamic perspective". 

Sir Michael Wilshaw, Ofsted: Some of our findings are deeply worrying and in some ways quite shocking. While a number of these schools are doing well and providing their children with a good, well-rounded education, there are others that give cause for grave concern. In the most serious cases a culture of fear and intimidation has taken grip since the schools were last inspected.

Ofsted found that in some schools girls and boys weren't being treated equally. Some girls at Park View, scared to be identified, said teachers were discriminating against them.

1st Girl pupil at Park View: We had a tennis tournament and they sent the girls home just because there were male instructors, and stuff. He said the girls are to..er..what was it?
2nd Girl pupil at Park View: Revealing.
1st Girl pupil at Park View: Yeah, the girls are too revealing. I don't see...There was only four of the girls, and how can you say that about us, just because there were nine boys.

But the school trust said the inspectors' conclusions were truly shocking.

David Hughes, Vice-Chair, Park View Educational Trust: The problem here is not extremism or segregation or religious indoctrination - all the things that Ofsted looked for and failed to find in our schools. The problem here is the knee-jerk actions of some politicians that have undermined the great work that we do here and undermined community cohesion.

At Oldknow Academy inspectors found it 'outstanding' for teaching but 'inadequate' overall because it was told phrases like "white prostitute" were used in assemblies and some activities were banned for being "unIslamic". The Education Secretary said Birmingham's children were exposed to things they shouldn't have been exposed to.

Michael Gove MP: We will put the promotion of British values at the heart of what every school has to deliver for children. What we have found is unacceptable and we will put it right.

But the schools insist they don't tolerate or promote extremism and that Ofsted didn't find it. In the middle of all this pupils sit their exams with questions raised over the education the received. Lucy Manning, ITV News, Birmingham

INTRODUCTION TO SECOND REPORT

Newsreaders: At the heart of Ofsted's criticisms is the serious failure by the council and the schools to protect children from extremist views. Rupert Evelyn has heard from one pupil at the Park View Academy who says such views became a regular part of school life.

RUPERT EVELYN'S REPORT

Rupert Evelyn: Consistently denied by governors and management it is now a matter of public record that Park View Academy has been delivering an 'inadequate' education. 

Rupert Evelyn [to Park View governor, Tahir Alam]: What do you make of the report into your schools? Many of your pupils say you have been segregating students. Your answer is to deny everything. Is that still the case?

Tahir Alam chairs the Park View Trust. Ofsted says he has an inappropriate role in the school. He refuses to respond. Many are afraid to speak out but one pupil told us the culture inside the school favoured Islam. 

Boy pupil at Park View: In one assembly, like, a year ago, they told us that they're going to get rid of all the Christian...not Christian but, like, non-Muslim teachers and replace them with Muslim teachers because, somehow, it helps us learn better, or something like that.

Evidence of radical thinking has been found inside a student newsletter shown to ITV News. It says,

With major terrorist events like 9/11 and 7/7...these so-called Muslim bombers are just scapegoats for Western media to persecute or instigate persecution. 

As soon as the headteacher saw it it was destroyed. The promotion of an Islamic agenda, using derogatory words for non-believers, some of many concerns for one former member of staff.

Ex-Park View staff member: The children feel pressured into praying...you know, all these posters going up on the wall: 'If you do not pray you're worse than a kaffir'. But, you know, how does that make the non-Muslims there feel about themselves?

Despite everything, many in this community still support the school.

Sheraz Chohan, parent: I've spoken to most of the teachers and I've haven't come across any issues. They've always been helpful for the children.

Park View is still run by those who Ofsted investigated. The status quo is unchanged. For now. Rupert Evelyn, ITV News, Birmingham.

DISCUSSION WITH LUCY MANNING

Newsreaders: OK, let's return then to our UK editor, Lucy Manning. So, Lucy, what does the Education Secretary want done about these findings?

Lucy Manning: Well, Michael Gove's answer to this is to cut funding, to replace the governors at the schools they have concerns about, also to have inspections without giving warning. At one school it's thought that a lesson on Christianity was put on because they knew the inspectors were coming. And there is this potentially more controversial issue of 'promoting British values in schools', which begs the question, 'Just what are British values?' Speaking with some of the pupils here at the gates today they ask me, 'Well, what do people mean by 'extremism'?' And I think that is the key question. Now the inspectors didn't find any evidence that extremist views were being taught in the classroom. What they did find is that there was a narrow, religious view being imposed, and I think they there is an acceptance nationally and locally that this hasn't been dealt with quickly enough.

BBC NEWS AT SIX

HEADLINES
Newsreader: The Chief Inspector of Schools in England delivered a damning verdict on the way some schools are run in Birmingham. Five in the city are placed in special measures after claims of infiltration by hardline extremists.

Sir Michael Wilshaw, Ofsted: In the most serious cases a culture of fear and intimidation has taken grip since the schools were last inspected.

But at one of the schools parents say inspectors came looking for extremism and found absolutely no evidence of it:

Arshad Malik, parent: There is a failing in the process of Ofsted or they've come back here with a political agenda to look for certain things to fit a narrative.

Tonight the Education Secretary says that he wants all schools in England to promote British values to tackle the problem.

INTRODUCTION TO FIRST REPORT

Newsreader: Good evening and welcome to the BBC News at Six. The Chief School Inspector for England has issued a damning verdict on how some schools in Birmingham has been run. Five have been put into special measures today as the Chief Inspector reported back from his investigation into claims of hardline Muslim takeovers. He said there was evidence of an organised campaign to 'target certain schools and change their character and ethos'. He pointed to 'a culture of fear and intimidation' in some schools where some headteachers have been marginalised or forced out of their jobs. He also said that there had been a 'sudden and deep decline' in some school standards. The claims have been firmly rejected by leaders of one of the schools. Well, Reeta Chakrabarti is in Birmingham for us now. Reeta?

REETA CHAKRABARTI'S REPORT

Reeta Chakrabarti: Well, Sophie, I'm here at Park View School, one of the schools at the centre of the allegations. It's all quite quiet here now but all day feelings have been running very high. This is a community that never invited the spotlight, and there are many here who feel they've been unfairly judged. But not all.

Birmingham's schools have endured months of leaks and rumours about radicalisation and extremism. Today, a damning verdict for five of them, with Ofsted condemning a 'culture of fear and intimidation' that was 'quite shocking'.

Sir Michael Wilshaw, Ofsted: Some headteachers, including those with a proud record of raising standards, have been marginalised or forced out of their jobs. This has left a vacuum in which schools previously rated 'good' or 'outstanding' have suffered enormous staff turnovers, a collapse in morale and a rapid decline in their overall effectiveness.

Ofsted said there'd been a deliberate attempt to change the ethos of the schools, with the curriculum being narrowed and an exclusively Muslim culture in non-faith schools. Outside one of them today, Park View, opinions were sharply divided as to what was going on.

First boy pupil at Park View: In 2001, the people achieving A star to C was only 57% but now, in luck, it's 76%, so that's a real achievement, so the haters, the people who are against the school, they don't want us to do well in this deprived area.
Second boy pupil at Park View: We do have Islamic assemblies but they, like, just teach lessons like 'be nice to one another', 'be nice to your parents', and so on. It's not like we have some courses on how to make bombs and all sorts of stuff.
First boy pupil at Park View: In this school they say, 'If you sit with the girls you will be lucky to work better'.
Reeta Chakrabarti to third boy pupil at Park View (not previously seen): He says you could sit with the girls.
Third boy pupil at Park View: You can, you can. But you can't, like, have a girlfriend or have a boyfriend. You can't do any of that.
First boy pupil at Park View: Yeah, that's true, and in Islam you can't have a girlfriend and boyfriend either, so...
Third boy pupil at Park View: Yeah but it's not an Islamic school!
Reeta Chakrabarti to third boy pupil at Park View: And it feels like one does it?
Third boy pupil at Park View: Yeah, it does feel like an Islamic school but it's not supposed to be an Islamic school. It's an academy.
Arshad Malik, parent: There is something wrong that two years ago a school that has been rated as outstanding in all the different sections of the report 18 months later has been classed as inadequate. There is is failing in the process of Ofsted or they've come back here with a political agenda to look for certain things to fit a narrative.

Earlier their teachers expressed anger their school, which was found to be 'outstanding' by inspectors two years ago, was now graded 'inadequate'. 

David Hughes, Vice-Chair, Park View Educational Trust: Ofsted inspectors came to our schools looking for extremism, looking for segregation, looking for proof that our children have religion forced upon them as part of an Islamic plot. The Ofsted report found absolutely no evidence of this because this is categorically not what is happening in our schools. 

At this school, Oldknow, Ofsted said a small group of governors has been promoting a 'narrow, faith-based ideology' with staff afraid to speak out, but it left one parent almost speechless with rage.

Shabina Bano, parent: Where do I start from? Last year this was 'outstanding', a "Trojan Horse" document that is now exposed as a hoax. You know, a baseless document has caused so much hysteria, and this school has just been dragged into it.

The school principal, currently on sick leave, said she had been targeted by a hostile governing body. 

Bhupinder Kondal, headteacher, Oldknow Academy: I am upset because I'm the principal of Oldknow Academy and I've been treated in this manner. It's disgraceful.

The Education Secretary today said that he would take decisive action. 

Michael Gove MP: Schools that are proven to have failed will be taken over, under new leadership, and taken in a fresh direction. Any school could now be subject to rigorous, on-the-spot inspections, with no advance warning and no opportunities to conceal failure. And we will put the promotion of British values at the heart of what every school has to deliver for children.

On today's evidence schools in Birmingham have been subject to an organised attempt, in some places, to entrench a conservative form of Islam, but whether or not that amounts to extremism will be hotly debated. 

Well, here in Birmingham we can now expect action to be taking...to be taken, including probably a change of management and leadership in those schools in special measures, but that isn't the end of the matter. There are two other major investigations still underway, including one led by a former counter-terror chief. So that question about how much of a threat these events really pose has still to be fully answered. Sophie.

DISCUSSION WITH NICK ROBINSON

Newsreader: Thank you very much. Well, our Political Editor, Nick Robinson, is in the Houses of Parliament for us now. Nick, what do you make of Michael Gove's response to this?
Nick Robinson: When he read out some of the allegations made by Ofsted - that girls were referred to as "white prostitutes", that a Saudi trip was done only for Muslim parents, that school funds were used to set up a madrasa - you could sense shock around the House of Commons, and yet Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, did not come up with evidence of...Ofsted have not come up with evidence for the original allegation, that there was a city-wide 'plot' by Muslim extremists to take over schools in Birmingham. Now, he says that there is still an enquiry going on by the former head of counter-terrorism for the Metropolitan Police - a man called Peter Clarke - into those allegations but it seems unlikely they will be fully proven. So he found himself guilty, his own department, of not doing enough and said he'd look at it. He found the city council guilty. He found the school inspectors Ofsted guilty as well. What now seems to be agreed in government is that not enough is being done to deal with what he calls 'non-violent extremism'. Labour are clear. It's a result, they say, of government reforms that give less control to local authorities. The government say, no, that isn't the problem but, as yet, they are not entirely clear what the solutions are.