James Beaton (Photo: Laura Lynch)

James Beaton has been playing his beloved set of bagpipes for 40 years.

The Project Manager of Scotland’s National Piping Center is a proud Scot and a natural performer.

For Robert Burns’ season he likes to play a tune called “A Man’s A Man For A’ That” which is generally played at Burns’ suppers.

Funny that he’s choosing a Burns tribute to unity at a time when much of the talk in Scotland is of separation.

Beaton knows his history and heritage well.

The pipes were played by Scottish warriors as they went into battle against the English but both nationalities have shared a government for more than three centuries.

So, while Beaton may feel separate and distinct as a Scot, particularly when it comes to his country’s cultural heritage, he’s not so sure about standing completely alone.

“Yes, I am a bit torn,” he says. “ I think culturally yes but certainly the economic uncertainty with the way the economic situation is at the minute it’s quite, quite difficult.”

Those promoting independence have long argued that revenue from the oil that’s being pumped out from under the North Sea will cushion any economic blows.

There was also past talk of joining forces with Ireland and Iceland or joining the euro but those ideas have been put aside as currencies and countries have crashed.

And yet, there is still lively debate, across Scotland, about the idea of going it alone among Scots of all backgrounds.

Preparing ingredients for haggis pakora (Photo: Laura Lynch)

It’s another busy night at Mr. Singh’s, a popular Indian restaurant in Glasgow – it’s Indian with a distinctly Scottish twist.

The waiters wear turbans – and kilts and this night, one chef is teaching a group of guests how to make one of the restaurant’s signature dishes: haggis pakora!

That’s haggis, deep fried in a coating of Indian spices and served with a dipping sauce.

Satty Singh – the third generation self-described Scottish Sikh who runs the restaurant, understands the emotional attraction of independence.

His father and grandfather still recall the celebrations that marked the end of British colonial rule in India.

And yet, Singh doesn’t want to let go.

“I’m just a big believer in ‘don’t mend something that’s not broken’ and for 300-odd years it’s happened, because it’s one island,” says Singh.

And among aspiring haggis pakora makers in the restaurant, there’s a big split.

“When it comes to the independence vote, I’ll be voting for independence. I mean look at the natural resources we’ve got here. The will to win and the determination to make it a success I think would boost Scotland forward.”

“Personally I really like being part of the bigger picture of the whole UK side of things and I reserve judgment as to how the whole independence is going to go as a state. I always think it’s always nice to have big brother there as well.”

“I’m as yet undecided. I think you’ve got to weigh up the pros and cons and I do think there will be a lot of pros and cons with it.”

The debate will continue here and across Scotland until the fall of 2014 when the vote is set to be held.

Despite the promises of a brighter future, public opinion polls have consistently indicated support for independence is frozen at about 35 percent.

That’s why the government is talking about giving voters a third choice – one that would give Scotland autonomy in all areas except foreign affairs and defense.

This day that’s dedicated to Scottish pride, poetry and cuisine, now also marks the date that the contest for Scotland’s future begins.

We start 2012 with a fantastic B-side podcast. The BBC’s Peter Curran takes us on a tour of a giant silver donut in the English countryside. Sounds yummy, right? Well, just wait until you hear about the tech and the science inside the Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchrotron. As you’ll hear, these scientists take their infra-red and x-rays very seriously. So seriously that they have their own podcast!

And we should note: with the new year comes a new way to savor the joys of the tech podcast. We have created a mobile app that can be used with most smartphones and tablet devices, including Android, iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry and Windows Phone. Just follow this link with your mobile browser, and then either download or “add to home screen” as preferred. Not only can you automagically access the latest podcast, but you can also read the show notes, and follow WTP on Twitter and Facebook. One stop shopping, as they say, for Tech That Matters.

A reminder that you can ignore us equally on Twitter, Facebook, and now Google +.

Gary Dobson will serve a minimum of 15 years and two months, and David Norris 14 years and three months.

The pair were sentenced at the Old Bailey under guidelines in place at the time of the attack and as juveniles because both had been under 18.

The judge, Justice Treacy, described the crime as a “murder which scarred the conscience of the nation.”

Dobson, 36, and Norris, 35, were the first people convicted over the fatal attack on Lawrence by a group of white youths near a bus stop in Eltham on April 22, 1993.

Speaking outside court, Stephen Lawrence’s mother Doreen said the minimum terms imposed “may be quite low” but she recognized “the judge’s hands were tied” and thanked him for his sentencing remarks which acknowledged the stress the family had suffered for 18 years.

Laura Lynch reports from London.

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The World’s Marco Werman speaks with Hugh Muir with The Guardian newspaper about some of the changes.

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Marco Werman: Joining me from London is Hugh Muir with The Guardian newspaper. Hugh, you’ve been following the case of Stephen Lawrence for some time. And as a black British man you’ve got firsthand insight on the arena of race relations in Britain. The attorney who represented Stephen Lawrence’s family called the case Britain’s Rosa Parks moment. Do you think that’s a fair statement?

Hugh Muir: I think it is in a way because I suppose if you look at Rosa Parks as being the incident that made mainstream American look at race relations and want to reassess race relations, in a way that’s what the Lawrence case has done here. Prior to the Lawrence case as a black Britain you faced a phenomenon whereby you would feel that you were getting unequal treatment from the authorities and from the police, and you would make complaint about that. And there would be real skepticism about it. You would actually have to make the case and to almost explain the very concept of racism, and people were very disbelieving that things could happen to you simply because of the color of your skin or that you might not get the sort of service that you expect from the police or the professionalism that you expect from the police because of your skin. And then came this case, and then came the inquiry into this case, and so much came out about exactly what had happened and just how shoddy the service was that the family got, just how the brutal the treatment that Stephen got for no reason other than the color of his skin. And that was the point at which that I think mainstream Britain became prepared to believe that perhaps there was this concept called racism, and perhaps it was something that we have to think about.

Werman: Give us a couple of examples of how you’ve seen race relations change in the past 20 years. I mean even small changes.

Muir: Well, you know, I used to drive around and you would think one, that the police would almost set a trap for you; that you know, the thing that would make their day would be if you would just do something so they could stop you and they could pick you up. And you don’t quite feel that anymore. And one of the reasons for that was because of the recruitment of a large number of black police officers. And so it does ebb and flow, but things in that regard got very much better for a while. And look at where we are now. Hey, you know, the captain of the England soccer team is facing a criminal charge because he is alleged to have been racist to another footballer on the field of play.

Werman: Right.

Muir: Now, it’s worth saying that he denies that and I’m sure he will deny that when it goes to court, but we are in a situation where you know, British society has been prepared to say to the captain of the national team, a much admired figure, we think you may have done that, here’s the criminal charge, we’re gonna take you to court and we’re gonna sort it out.

Werman: In 1992 of course we had the Rodney King case here in the US in Los Angeles. It’s not an exact parallel to the Stephen Lawrence case, but essentially the African American community felt there was a miscarriage of justice. Do you see any similarities between the two cases?

Muir: Well, only in terms of you know, a community seeing this as being the line in the sand. What was interesting about this was that I had a conversation with someone just a couple of days ago before the verdict. And they said to me, how’s it going? And in some ways that could’ve been quite a cryptic comment, but I knew exactly what she meant. She wanted me to tell her how the trial was going.

Werman: Right.

Muir: This has been something that the black community has been holding its breath for. Yesterday what you saw was almost an outpouring of relief that the jury had done what we saw to be the right thing, what we perceived to be the right thing.

Werman: So how do blacks in London regard the police now?

Muir: There’s still a lot of suspicion. I think it’s a relationship that ebbs and flows, and I think that things got considerably better in the aftermath of the inquiry into, the investigation into Stephen Lawrence. Many people will tell you now that they’ve got quite a lot worse again. We need to look at why the police now are going back to stopping and searching so many people. And to some degree the figures in terms of stop and search are as bad if not worse than they were when Stephen was murdered. And so we are actually in quite a sticky period in terms of the relationship between the black community and the police, but I think we’re having a conversation from a different starting point as a result of the Lawrence inquiry. I think there is a distinction to be made. But no one here is wanting to pretend everything is fine because we’ve learned some things because of the Lawrence inquiry, but there’s still a lot of work to do and particularly in the area of relationships between the black community and the police.

Werman: The Guardian newspaper’s Hugh Muir speaking with us from London. Thank you very much, Hugh.

Muir: You’re very welcome.

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The industry used to be full of high-fliers and to an extent, it still is, but this year, thanks to continuing economic turmoil and the “Occupy” protests bank bashing appears to have reached new levels.

With all the uncertainty over the Euro and the continuing economic gloom in Britain, it’s been a stressful year on the trading floors of the big banks in London’s financial district; apparently a little too stressful for one senior bank executive.

The surprising news broke at the beginning of last month.

“Shares in Lloyd’s Banking Group have fallen by almost five percent after its chief executive announced he was taking long term sick leave. Doctors say that Antonio Hortas Osorio is suffering from fatigue due to overwork”, said the BBC.

Hortas Osorio was recruited to run Lloyd’s earlier this year, after British taxpayers bailed out the banking group in 2008. His may have been the most high-profile case of banking sector stress but addictions counselor Richard Kingdon, said he’s certainly not alone.

“Especially with the climate at the moment is not helping as well, you know. A lot of people are under a lot of stress and a lot of pressure. It’s not a good time to be up here at the moment, you know. The bankers are being kicked by the media so I don’t think it’s doing much for people’s esteem,” said Kingdon.

Kingdon set up a practice, called City Beacon, in the financial district two and a half years ago to treat bankers with addiction problems. He said he has seen a steady flow of clients, those who embraced a fast paced, big spending lifestyle fueled by alcohol and cocaine.

George, a banker who asked me not to use his real name, is a client of Kingdon’s. He said when he was using, he’d be out doing drugs and drinking every night of the week. He would then spend the weekend sleeping.

George said he has been clean for two years; so he has a pretty clear-eyed take on the tumult in the City these days. He is also quick to add that there’s been much less substance abuse in recent year, but he says not everyone has the ability to handle the financial storms that are hitting them.

“Everybody’s losing money, it’s not a very happy place. There’s a lot of fear, uncertainty. I’m pretty fine with it. I don’t know how they (other bankers ) cope with it. You wouldn’t get the truth out of them anyways. They’d just tell you they were fine. The whole city’s based on fear anyway,” he said.

Those inside the bank buildings may well feel fear, but it seems many who work outside its boundaries believe it is a place where the greedy squander money: taxpayers’ money. They saw the government bail out some of the banks, then watched as bank executives were rewarded with bonuses.

Just a few weeks ago, the BBC aired a documentary called “When Bankers Were Good.” The host, satirist Ian Hislop, made special mention of the suicide of one banker back in 1856 after his bank went bust.

“You see it’s that Victorian shame again. Noone is suggesting that those responsible for the current financial crisis should do the equivalent and all go and throw themselves off tall buildings in Canary Wharf. Well not all of them obviously. But as a sign of repentance it is fairly impressive. Certainly a lot more convincing that giving yourself a bonus and saying it’s time to move on,” Hislop said.

Vilified, stressed and scared, it does not sound like a good time to be a banker, but many young people are still itching to get onto those trading floors.
A twenty-one year old intern, who refused to be identified, said he loved the work.

“The worst thing I could imagine is sitting at a desk just processing or number crunching. At the moment I’m sitting there and I’m hearing news first hand and I’m seeing how markets react first hand to some huge events in the current crisis. It’s very exciting,” he said.

He said he worked hard to get the one-year work experience. Though he hears the public anger aimed at bankers, it that does not deter him from planning a career in banking.

“I think there’s a lot of other people in this country and around the world that exploit the public and public opinion a lot more than bankers do, but people have chosen to publicize bankers as the public hate figure and almost scapegoat them for everything,” he said.

A more world weary George who has spent two decades in the business, admits to feeling the sting of the public’s condemnation.

“Yeah I do feel that. It’s not very nice is it, to be in a job where nobody likes you,” George said.

He does not thing the criticism is justified.

“I don’t’ think I’m educated enough to really comment on it, but I don’t think it is. We’re good for the economy, but it’s easy to point the finger at us, I suppose and maybe it should be the politicians.”

In the runup to Christmas, thousands of city workers flocked to bars and restaurants, celebrating the season, perhaps toasting their survival and relative good fortune, but Geroge said the uncertainty lingers.

“2008 was hard, but then 2009 was good because of it so – and now? Same sort of thing is happening, we’re weathering the storm as we did in 2008 but the next couple of years will be good because of it. It’s tough these day.”

The New Year is not likely to change much for those who work and worry on the trading floors and the executive offices of what is still is one of Britain’s most important sectors.

They also know it’s unlikely many in Britian here will spare them a vote of sympathy.

“The Iron Lady” stars Meryl Streep. The film has already stirred considerable debate in Britain where Thatcher and her legacy remain controversial.

Margaret Thatcher’s rise to power in the macho world of British politics seems a perfect fit for the silver screen and an admitted challenge for Meryl Streep.

Streep, mastering yet another accent, steps into Lady Thatcher’s pumps, dons her pearls and takes on the critics.

Streep has admitted she was not a fan of Thatcher during her time in power. The actor says taking on the role gave her a chance to challenge her own prejudices

“I wanted to capture whatever it was that drew people to her and whatever it was that made people just have a special venom for her as a public figure,” Streep said in an interview with the BBC.

Streep may have been talking about the past, but the fact is, more than two decades after Thatcher left office, she still sparks strong feelings among the British.

“I don’t think she was a woman I would have ever wanted to meet,” said Liz Hoggard, a columnist and as a self described left wing feminist who is no fan of the former Prime Minister. So Hoggard was more than a little surprised to receive a very special invitation a few weeks ago.

“It was the dinner party of the year, I’ll never stop talking about it,” Hoggard said. “It was incredible. We all got this email saying would you like to come to see an early screening of “The Iron Lady” and then have a private supper with Meryl Streep? Twitter just went crazy as the women that were invited compared notes.”

Hoggard said it was a clever idea to gather together some of the country’s best known female journalists, show them the film and then subject them to Streep’s charm and even her home made baking. Hoggard said Streep baked her guests an “American apple cake.” It may have been enough to win them over to the actor and her performance, but Hoggard said most of them – lifelong critics of Thatcher – were not about to change their views.

“And around that table there were some very strong left wing political voices who loved her portrayal who found the film fascinating but who were fundamentally worried or dissatisfied by it because they felt it was going to end up in complete Thatcher worship.”

Richard Vinen of King’s College in London has chronicled the history of Britain under Thatcher. Vinen was quick to list what she would consider her policy successes such as breaking the power of unions, privatizing government enterprises and deregulating the financial sector. He argues it is a legacy that her successors on the other side of the aisle – Labor party’s Tony Blair and Gordon Brown – embraced.

But Vinen says there was a social cost to Thatcher’s rule.

“Britain does become a more divided society under Thatcher. There it is relevant to talk about very long term legacies,” Vinen said.

That division played into what Vinen called an outright hatred of Thatcher.

“And sometimes hatred for her has replaced any serious reflection. So it’s almost like she has become a voodoo doll a kind of fetish that the left can use they can say I’m still left wing because I hate Mrs. Thatcher without having to do anything that is actually left wing,” he said.

The movie does not just portray Thatcher in her prime, it also shows her in the grip of dementia, as she holds conversations with her long-dead husband.

Those scenes have upset her supporters.

But columnist Liz Hoggard, who never spared much sympathy for Thatcher before, was moved to admire a woman who broke through so many barriers.

“I brushed away a tear let’s put it that way,” Hoggard said.

If the film toys with the British psyche, if it tears the bandages off the old wounds from the Thatcher era, it may be at least partly because Britain’s only female prime minister herself was never one for sentimentality.

Just recently, her personal secretary told an interviewer that Thatcher always loved being called The Iron Lady.

What is the first word or phrase that comes to mind when I say the name Margaret Thatcher?

Strong character, really very strong character.

Loathsome. Hated, hated everything about her political philosophy.

It was my era and she was brilliant, absolutely. If we had another woman prime minister like her I think we’d be put on the right road.

What is the first word or phrase that comes to mind when I say her name Margaret Thatcher. That awful woman, yeah that awful woman. It’s not often in my lifetime that you’ve had a nasty vindictive person as a head of government.

Respect, commanding, dominance but with respect. Did a good job.

This summit was billed as the Eurozone’s last chance to stave off impending economic doom. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said they wanted tough new budget guidelines for the eurozone countries, and they wanted the power to punish any country that couldn’t keep its economic house in order.

Given the scale of the problem, and the scope of the solution, Sarkozy and Merkel pushed for a European Union wide agreement, one approved by all 27 members of the EU — even the ten that don’t currently use the euro.

But Friday morning, Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron said no, in fairly blunt terms.

“We’re not in the euro, and I’m glad we’re not in the Euro,” Cameron said. “We want the eurozone countries to come together and to solve their problems. But we should only allow that to happen if there are proper protections for the single market and other key British interests. Without those safeguards, it is better to have those countries make their arrangements separately.”

That’s exactly what France, Germany and the rest of the eurozone say they will do.

They don’t have much choice; in the European Union, treaty changes have to be approved by all member states. So they’ll forge ahead without Britain, said France’s Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday.

“Our British friends — this is not a criticism – say not only are we not in the euro, but we’re glad we’re not in it,” Sarkozy said. “And we who defend the euro, who are changing the way the euro functions and are learning from the crisis, we’re not going to apologize for doing everything we’re doing to save our currency.”

Germany’s Angela Merkel also praised the agreement.

“I’m very happy with the result because we managed not to make a useless compromise for the euro,” Merkel said. “Everybody in the world will see that we’ve learned from the mistakes in the past.”

The plan now is to adopt an “inter-governmental treaty” that would ensure tougher budget guidelines and the power to enforce them.

That kind of treaty wouldn’t require every member of the EU to sign on, according to Herman van Rompuy, president of the European Council.

“An intergovernmental treaty can be approved and ratified much more rapidly than a full fledged treaty change,” van Rompuy said, “And I think speed is also very important to enhance credibility.”

Speed is not a word many would use to describe the eurozone’s actions to stem the financial crisis up to this point. And while tighter, more centralized budget controls were on many longer-term wish lists, some say that today’s agreement doesn’t tackle the urgent issues; that Greece is all but bankrupt, and that Italy and Spain may soon follow and drag the rest of the eurozone down with them.

David Rennie, political editor at The Economist, said there’s been a disturbing lack of realization that the markets are already losing faith in the euro and a single currency.

“That kind of market panic can only be stopped with massive intervention,” Rennie said, adding that European leaders “are still, unfortunately, dragging their feet.”

In Friday’s agreement, the eurozone countries have agreed to speed up the creation of a stability or bailout fund for troubled countries. They also said they would look at boosting the amount of money in that fund.

Some experts say it will take something on the order of $5 trillion to calm the markets.

The eurozone pact also calls for providing more money to the International Monetary Fund to be used to help ailing economies.

What many were hoping for, though, was some indication that the European Central Bank would be allowed to step in and buy up government debt from countries in trouble.

Germany, however, remains firmly against that.

The government disputed that two million people had joined the action, with Prime Minister Cameron saying “it looks like something of a damp squib” at Prime Minister’s Questions.

“Our rigorous contingency planning has been working well,” Cabinet Minister Francis Maude said later in the day.

“Throughout the day it has limited the impact of the strikes significantly and as a result the majority of key public services have remained open.”

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber accused the government of “rhetoric today … as predictable as it has been shallow.”

“The biggest strike in a generation cannot be dismissed as a damp squib,” he said.

“Uniting so many people in such strong opposition to their pension plans should give the government pause for thought. They now need to give the negotiations real content. Unions wants to achieve a fair settlement, but it takes two to reach a deal.”

In the Commons, Prime Minister Cameron said he thought the government had made a “very reasonable, very fair offer to public sector workers.”

“I don’t want to see any strikes, I don’t want to see schools closed, I don’t want to see problems at our borders, but this government has to make responsible decisions,” he said.

But union leaders accused the government of failing to engage in proper negotiations in recent weeks.

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said that the last time unions met Treasury ministers was Nov. 2, adding that “this idea that negotiations are continuing is just not true.”

Maude disputed that, saying formal discussions with the civil service unions took place on Tuesday and that talks would take place with teaching unions on Thursday and with health unions on Friday.

A TUC spokesperson responded: “There have been informal exchanges but nothing that could be described as negotiations at the national level.”

Chris Keates, head of the teachers’ union NASUWT, said: “We’re in this position today simply because the government had not entered into genuine negotiations at an earlier stage.”

Labor leader Ed Miliband said he had “huge sympathy” for people whose lives were disrupted by the strike.

But he said he was “not going to condemn the dinner ladies, nurses, teachers who have made the decision to go on strike because they feel they have been put in an impossible position by a government that has refused to negotiate properly”.

For two and a half hours, the British actor revealed the downside of being famous to a judicial inquiry examining media ethics in the wake of the widening tabloid phone-hacking scandal.

Hugh Grant’s wry humor belied his frustration with journalists who he believes have gone too far. As one of the first witnesses before the inquiry, Grant recounted his efforts to keep the paternity of his newborn daughter a secret even as her mother was trailed by paparazzi. He finally released a statement after a quick chat with his publicist.

“We had a hasty conversation on the phone while I was filming in Germany. It was no ideal circumstances, I was dressed as a cannibal at the time,” Grant said to laughter.

Grant has become an outspoken critic of the British tabloids. He insists negative articles are fine with him – it’s the stories that portray falsehood as fact that he can’t abide.

“They are based largely on a lot of misreporting, but for the parts that are not based on misreporting, it is perfectly fine to hate me. I have become very accustomed to that. It’s been extremely fashionable for a long time. That is what I expect in this country,” Grant said.

Ever since he became a star in 1994 with the release of the movie, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Grant says he and those close to him have been victims of nasty, questionable journalistic practices.

But Grant reserved his harshest criticism for newspapers that have turned their sights on those people who never sought out the spotlight — not to mention the politicians who have failed to stand up to them.

“The licence that the tabloid press has had to steal British citizens’ privacy for their commercial profit – very often vulnerable British citizens – is a scandal that weak governments for too long have allowed to pass,” he said.

For all of Grant’s colorful testimony, the most powerful words came from the parents of murdered schoolgirl, Milly Dowler. It was the news that her cellphone was hacked after her abduction that led to this inquiry.

Someone at the now-defunct News of the World newspaper deleted messages from Dowler’s previously full voice mailbox.
That meant her mother, Sally Dowler, was suddenly able to get through to it – and it gave her false hope.

“I rang her phone and it clicked through onto her voicemail and I heard her voice and I was it was just like I jumped “She’s picked up her voicemails, she’s alive,” Sally Dowler told the inquiry.

The cruel truth was that Milly Dowler was already dead.

In the coming days and weeks, the inquiry will hear from other phone hacking victims, including the actress Sienna Miller and Harry Potter author, J.K. Rowling.

Illegal phone hacking by British tabloids has sparked a national scandal, which led to these hearings.

With more dark tales of journalistic excesses to come, new harsh regulations on the British media are likely to follow.

New documents show the newspaper engaged in what some are calling “industrial scale spying.”

Following someone is legal and in London, a lot of celebrities are pretty used to being trailed by paparazzi looking for scandal, a perfect shot, or both.

But new revelations about who News of the World’s private investigator was following and why are raising new concerns.

“I’m very scared and nervous now when I go out of the house. I’m looking around, seeing if anybody’s there.”

You don’t know this woman. And that’s the point.

“It’s absolutely terrifying to think that someone can be watching you, following you around doing your everyday things and you haven’t got a clue that they’re there. And if it happened then, it could be happening now,” the woman said.

Derek Webb – a former police officer – was hired by the now defunct newspaper in 2010 to follow her.

She’s the ex-wife of a lawyer who was representing victims of the newspaper’s illegal practice of hacking into people’s voicemail. The lawyer, Mark Lewis, says the surveillance was aimed at his entire family in an attempt to find a way to discredit him.

“It’s horrific but it’s more horrific that it was my family my children, my daughters were being infiltrated that people were watching them, taking pictures of them,” Lewis said. “It shouldn’t happen. It just shouldn’t happen.”

Derek Webb told the BBC that over the past several years, he followed more than a hundred people for the paper. They include Princes Willam and Harry, their girlfriends, politicians, sports stars even the parents of actor Daniel Radcliffe.

“They employed my services more and more,” Webb said. “So I was getting work from them and they were very satisfied with the work. I chose to go down this route because they actually asked me. I was never going to stop doing this work. The only stop came when the News of the World closed.”

Let go without compensation, Webb is now telling his story.

And his targets are only now discovering they were being followed, filmed and photographed. Also on the list is member of parliament Tom Watson.

Documents obtained by the BBC show Watson became a target in 2009.It was just days after he questioned an executive from News International about phone hacking during a parliamentary committee hearing.

“I think it shows an utterly relentless and ruthless organization, clearly highly politicized who would stop at nothing to cover this case up and I think it’s yet another revelation that I think will shock people when they get to know what it means,” Watson said.

Former News of the World features editor Jules Stenson doesn’t deny what happened.
But he thinks there’s more to the story.

“Investigative journalism is messy,” Stenson said. “The first sort of goal of a big investigation is actually to find the people you’re chasing. The crooks and villains aren’t on the electoral roll. All we’re getting is one side of this from Derek Webb. I’ve never spoken to him, I don’t know him but he’s clearly a man with a grudge who ‘s got a grievance against the company for not getting any compensation.”

But few, if any, of the people Derek Webb followed could be labeled as crooks or villains. That doesn’t make it easy for News International to defend itself. It has released a short statement admitting to the surveillance and noting that it is legal.

Still, it concedes last years spying on lawyers and their families is deeply inappropriate and not condoned by any current company executives. That would seem to include James Murdoch.

He’ll be before members of parliament tomorrow, recalled over apparent inconsistencies in earlier evidence he gave about phone hacking. Now, Murdoch is likely face even more pointed questions about whether and how his employees tried to discredit anyone they considered an enemy.

For days, there have been questions about Fox’s judgment in allowing a friend unwarranted access to official government activities – activities that included meetings with American defense officials.

And so, Liam Fox has spent a lot of time apologizing in recent days. Last weekend, he thought these words would save his reputation and his job.

“I accept that mistakes were made and I should not have allowed the impression of wrongdoing to arise. And I am very sorry for that,” Fox said.

On Friday, Fox said he was very sorry again – in his resignation letter. He admitted to blurring the lines between his personal interests and government activities. Blurry lines in a department like defense can be risky – even dangerous – to a nation’s security.

The controversy centered on Fox’s friend, Adam Werritty.

Despite having no official role in government, Werritty repeatedly attended meetings in Fox’s office. He also traveled abroad with him 18 times – including a visit to Tampa where both men dined with senior officers of the United States Central Command.

Werritty handed out business cards introducing himself as an advisor to the minister.

And there were more questions about just who was financing Werritty’s work and travel and what they expected to get in return.

When Fox offered to step down Friday, Prime Minister David Cameron accepted and tried to turn the page.

“I quite understand why Liam Fox has decided to resign,” Cameron said, “and obviously I’m sorry to see him go because he did a good job at the Ministry of Defense, clearing up the mess left by the last government and giving good leadership to that department particularly while we’ve been in action in Libya and also of course in Afghanistan as well so I wish him well.”

For the government’s opposition though, this isn’t the end of the matter. Labor member of Parliament Kevan Jones is still demanding answers about Fox’s conduct.

“He fell foul of the rules; sorry, the standards we expect of ministers and broke the rules,” Jones said. “You can’t have a minister ignores the rules that were put in place not to just to protect him, but also the civil service and government.”

Now out of cabinet, Fox remains a member of parliament and one of the most pro-American voices in British politics. He even set up a charity more than a decade ago to promote ties between the two countries.

It recently shut down after regulators deemed it too political.

It was another case of blurry lines.

Perhaps it was also a foreshadowing of the troubles to come for the now former defense minister.

Read tweets about the Fox resignation

Pangolins are nocturnal mammals, and they resemble armadillos. They mostly like to eat ants.

Unfortunately, pangolins are also an endangered species. In some parts of the world, they’re hunted for use in traditional remedies or sex potions.

Authorities in Thailand say they just rescued a whole truckload of pangolins that were being smuggled out of the country. The question is, where did the bust take place?

It was in a province of Thailand that borders Myanmar, or Burma. This province is also the narrowest part of Thailand.

So what’s the name of that province?

The answer is the Thai province of Prachuap Khiri Khan Anchor Marco Werman gets more on pangolins from researcher Dan Challender at the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology based at the University of Kent, England.

This trip even more significant for another reason.

It marks the first time in more than four years that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has spoken to anyone in the British government. The two countries have had troubled relations since 2006. That’s when a former KGB spy was assassinated in London.

But some Americans are claiming the British shouldn’t be so quick to repair ties with Moscow.

The long, excruciating death of Alexander Litvinenko from radioactive poisoning still casts a shadow over UK Russia relations. Britain has long demanded the extradition of a prime suspect. The Kremlin has refused.

Litvinenko’s widow, Marina says she still wants justice.

“I think it is very important, it is important not even (just) for me, it’s important for the two countries, for Russia and England because before this case is sorted out we will not have a normal progress of the relationship between these countries,” Cameron said in a message Monday.

Visa restrictions against some Russian officials after Litvinenko’s murder remain in place as does a refusal to work with Russian security services. But Cameron also brought an entourage of business people with him, and he seemed ready to move forward.

“So we face a choice — we can settle for the status quo, where in too many areas we’re in danger of working against each other, and therefore both losing out, or we can take another path — to cooperate and therefore both win,” Cameron said.

Still, there are many – American politicians and business leaders alike who are urging Cameron to get even tougher with the Russians. And they’re focused on one case in particular.

Bill Browder was once one of the biggest foreign investors in Russia. In 2006, he was blacklisted by the Russian government.

“I complained about corruption,” Browder said. “They expelled me from the country, they raided my offices, they expropriated my investment companies, (and) stole $230 million of taxes that we paid. A young lawyer named Sergei Magnitsky stood in the way and tried to stop this whole corruption scheme. He was arrested, tortured for one year and killed at the age of 37. It’s a terrible, terrible place to do business.

Magnitsky did die in 2009 in a pre-trial detention center from a heart attack after being accused of tax fraud.

Earlier this year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton introduced a US travel ban and froze the assets of 60 Russian officials implicated in Magnitsky’s death.

Other politicians on Capitol Hill are wondering why the British government isn’t applying more pressure, since Magnitsky worked for a firm based in the UK Monday, after meeting with Cameron, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev seemed to suggest corruption was an unfortunate part of doing business – everywhere.

“Maybe I am revealing a secret to you, which you probably do not know, but (corruption exists) in Britain, too,” Medvedev said in a statement. “Nevertheless, we are trading with Britain and ready to invest in the British economy. This does not mean that we should not combat corruption.”

Sir Rodric Braithwaite, former British ambassador in Moscow, is skeptical about efforts by both the Americans and the British to pressure Russian leaders.

“The question is — what effect will it have on the Russian system to express these views,” Braithwaite said. “I’m all in favor of change — it’s desirable for us and of course it’s even more desirable for the Russian people. The question is how is it going to come about? I don’t think foreigners lecturing the Russian leadership is going to make it come about any quicker.”

That seemed clear later Monday after Cameron finally had his formal meeting with Prime Minster Putin.

Putin did not speak publicly of corruption or human rights. Instead, he highlighted the fact that British business has become the top foreign investor in the Russian economy – to the tune of nearly $41 billion.

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