The Report

Around 700 people are diagnosed with diabetes in Britain every day, and the condition accounts for around 10 per cent of the NHS budget - but is enough being done to combat the effects of the disease?

The National Institute of Clinical Excellence - NICE - is the body which provides guidance and advice to the NHS. It recently published new draft guidelines which proposed increasing access to weight-loss surgery to a wider range of patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

This announcement was met with fierce criticism, especially from the tabloid press, which declared such treatment as undeserved: fat people should just stop eating instead of using up valuable resources to pay for vanity operations.

But some experts say bariatric surgery is the most important development in the history of diabetes treatment and its effectiveness can lead to full remission of type 2 diabetes. In turn, this could end up saving the NHS millions of pounds as patients are weaned off costly drugs, and are less likely to develop complications such as blindness or kidney failure.

But is this really a long-term solution? Or do we need to think more radically about how to educate the public about healthy living to really reduce the rapid rise in diabetes diagnoses?

CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE:

Simon O'Neill - Director of Health Intelligence, Diabetes UK

Prof Roy Taylor, Professor of Medicine and Metabolism, Newcastle University

Prof Francesco Rubino, Professor of Metabolic Surgery, King's College Hospital

Prof Mark Baker, Director of the Centre for Clinical Practice, NICE

Mr Andrew Mitchell, Consultant General Surgeon, Darlington Memorial Hospital

Reporter: Adrian Goldberg

An anonymous document purporting to reveal a conspiracy by Muslim activists to Islamise secular schools hit the headlines in March this year. The document, known as the Trojan horse letter, was almost certainly a fake. But a government investigation concluded this week that there had been a campaign to introduce "an intolerant and aggressive Islamic ethos into a few schools in Birmingham" and that some Muslim governors had in fact employed the underhand tactics outlined in the letter. Teachers who failed to go along with the Islamising agenda were sometimes bullied by Muslim governors and activists. Yet Birmingham City Council preferred to pay off bullied teachers rather than confront the perpetrators.

Reporter Simon Cox spends time in one of the schools inspected, meets parents and teachers and talks to two of the alleged plotters.

Producer: Ben Crighton.

How does a middle class boy from Tooting end up, in middle age, pleading guilty to terrorism offences in a US court?

British Muslim Babar Ahmad has been convicted in a court in Connecticut of providing support to terrorists. In the late 1990s, Ahmad founded the first English language jihadi website. Two years after 9/11, he was arrested and then spent nearly a decade fighting extradition to the United States. The US authorities claimed that Ahmad's actions helped garner support for al-Qaeda. Ahmad maintains that he has only ever tried to assist Muslims suffering at the hands of oppressive regimes.

BBC Home Affairs Correspondent Dominic Casciani traces Ahmad's journey from a privileged upbringing in South London to a US prison. The programme contains insights from those who witnessed Ahmad's radicalisation and an interview with Ahmad himself, recorded in prison.

Reporter: Dominic Casciani

Wesley Stephenson hangs out in the Essex district of Thurrock and tries to find out why so many of its voters deserted Labour and the Tories for UKIP. In the European and local council elections the UKIP vote jumped 163 percent in Thurrock. The council area comprises one of the most marginal Westminster seats in the country, so what will this mean for the general election and can what's happening in Thurrock tell us anything about the rise of UKIP elsewhere in the UK?

More than two million people in Britain are thought to have used electronic cigarettes. Whitehall civil servants think that e-cigarettes are one of the most significant public health success stories of our generation. In Wales however, the principality's government wants to ban their use in public places. Wesley Stephenson asks why the two governments have such different approaches.

Producer: Smita Patel.

The private investigator, Daniel Morgan, was murdered 27 years ago. He was found with an axe embedded in his skull in a south London car park. Despite five police investigations and a trial, no-one has ever been convicted of the 1987 murder. Police corruption is thought to have impeded the investigation and to have been a motive for the killing itself. And now a leading barrister suggests there may be a link with an allegedly corrupt police officer who worked on the investigation of murdered teenager, Stephen Lawrence. Adrian Goldberg first reported on this story for The Report in 2011. In this edition, he asks whether the connection between the two cases - both in south east London and six years apart - may finally bring justice for the Morgan family.

Presenter: Adrian Goldberg

Producer: Sally Abrahams.

Constance Briscoe is one of England's highest profile legal figures. She rose to prominence after publishing her memoir 'Ugly' in 2006 in which she told the story of how she overcame an abusive childhood at the hands of her mother to become a barrister and part-time judge. But earlier this month she was jailed for sixteen months for lying to the police about her involvement in the Chris Huhne speeding points story. A jury at the Old Bailey found her guilty of three counts of intending to pervert the course of justice. Clive Coleman investigates how she misled police and fabricated evidence to help her defence in the trial which followed. He also revisits the libel action her mother brought in 2008 disputing the abuse detailed in 'Ugly' and hears why police are now investigating claims Constance Briscoe may have previously fabricated evidence in court.

Producer: Phil Kemp.

Converts to Islam are far more likely to be involved in terrorist incidents than those who were born into Muslim families: converts account for around a quarter of terrorist convictions in Britain since 9/11 yet they represent only 2-3% of the UK's Muslim population.

As the anniversary of the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby by two Muslim converts approaches, the Today programme's Zubeida Malik investigates why new Muslims appear to be so vulnerable to the call of jihadi recruiters. She hears the stories of converts lured by extremists and talks to terrorism expert Professor Peter Neumann.

Producer: Anna Meisel.

Simon Cox investigates allegations of abuse of power, a culture of silence, a lack of protection for junior staff and how effective measures introduced to combat the problem are likely to be.

The Muslim Brotherhood is an Egyptian Islamist organisation with branches throughout the world - including Britain, where it has had a presence for several decades. During this time, the organisation has courted little attention and has at times been viewed by British authorities as a force for good in the fight against extremism. So why has David Cameron called for an investigation into their activities now?

In this edition of The Report, Peter Marshall hears claims that this review is less about national security, and more about appeasing the rulers of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, who are ideologically opposed to the Brotherhood. The UAE and Saudi Arabia also happen to have lucrative contracts with British businesses.

The programme also reveals how senior members of the Conservative party have been raising concerns about the Muslim Brotherhood for several years - in particular the Brotherhood's ties to Hamas - and so the new investigation is perhaps not a complete surprise. However, this is the same organisation which received the backing of the British government when Mohammed Morsi was elected president of Egypt, and so is the government now guilty of hypocrisy?

Critics of the Brotherhood say much has changed in the Middle East over the past year - especially in Egypt - and there are concerns that rogue elements of the Muslim Brotherhood will seek refuge in Britain. Already, members of the Brotherhood and its political wing, The Freedom and Justice Party, have come to London to seek asylum. The Report speaks to them about the on-going investigation into their activities and asks them why they have come to the UK and what does the Muslim Brotherhood really stand for?

CONTRIBUTORS:

Anas Altikriti - The Muslim Association of Britain & The Cordoba Foundation

Mohamed Soudan - The Freedom and Justice Party

Olivier Guitta - The Henry Jackson Society

Dr Robert Lambert - University of St Andrews & former head of the Muslim Contact Unit, Metropolitan Police Special Branch

Baroness Falkner - Liberal Democrat lead spokesperson on foreign affairs in the House of Lords

Alistair Burt - Conservative MP & former Foreign Office minister for the Middle East

Reporter: Peter Marshall