09/01/2017 BBC News at Ten

Tonight at Ten - a key NHS commitment in England

might be modified - as accident and emergency

departments come under intense pressure.

Demand over Christmas was unprecedented -

ministers say that being seen within four hours might be

restricted to the most serious A cases.

It is clear we need to have an honest discussion with the public

about the purpose of A departments.

But doctors are warning that bigger budgets are needed to free up space

We need money in order to allow patients who are fit to be

discharged from hospital, back into the community.

We'll be reporting on the latest pressures -

Theresa May makes the case for a shared society -

and promises more helps for mental health services.

The political crisis deepens in Northern Ireland -

as Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness resigns as Deputy First Minister.

A warning that many local newspapers could be forced to close -

if new proposals on press regulation become law.

And, Donald Trump's mocking of disability -

gets prime attention - at the Golden Globes.

And coming up in Sportsday on BBC News:

The Best Manager in the World -

Claudio Ranieri is honoured by Fifa for taking Leicester

An honest discussion is needed - about the way people use accident

and emergency departments - in England's hospitals.

That's the message from Jeremy Hunt - the Health Secretary -

as hospitals report unprecendented demand -

He's also suggested that patients with less serious problems -

might no longer be covered by a commitment to be

But he has denied suggestions - from the Red Cross -

that the NHS is facing a humanitarian crisis.

Our health editor Hugh Pym has the latest.

Whatever the intense pressure on the NHS there's a commitment for

hospitals to assess or treat almost all patients within four hours of

arriving at A But at a time when the service in England is creaking

under the strain that's been thrown into doubt. Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

The Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt surprised MPs by claiming that

people going to A without good reason were undermining the target.

It is clear we need to have an honest discussion with the public

about the purpose above stomach about stomach of A departments.

There is nowhere else outside the UK that commits to all patients that we

will sort out any health need within four hours. With NHS England

estimating that nearly a third of people using A don't need to be

there Mr Hunt hinted the four our target could be restricted.

If we are going to protect our four our standard it needs to be made to

kneel we will sort out urgent health problems within four hours but not

all health problems, however minor. Labour argued this could mean a

vital pledged to patients was being watered down. Is he now really

telling patients that rather than trying to hit the four hour target

the government is now in fact rewriting and downgrading its? If

so, does NHS England support this move? Part of the Government's

thinking is to try to stop people going to A in the first place if

they are not seriously ill. Medical leaders say there has been tried for

years without success. Despite all that educational attempts for the

last 20 years attendances have only risen. I think what we need is

better designed systems and education to send patients away,

unfortunately from a historical perspective, not going to work. The

four hour waiting time targets in A is 95% of patients should be

treated in that time. Anything above the black line so shows the target

in England being missed. It has been happening consistently in the last

couple of years. The latest debate over targets comes

days after the Red Cross said there was a humanitarian crisis in the NHS

and social care, a claim rejected by the government. Mr Hunt's comments

have caused some confusion tonight. The Department of Health has

stressed there are no plans to drop the four hour waiting time target

but it has left open the possibility of alterations. It's hard to see,

though, how changing the target system will make any difference to

the underlying realities. Patient numbers rising faster than available

resources and hospitals under extreme pressure. Hugh Pym, BBC

News. The Prime Minister acknowledged

the pressures on the NHS - when she set out some

of her priorities for the year ahead in her first

policy speech of 2017. Theresa May set out measures

to improve mental health services in England -

and said she wanted government to play its part in creating

what she called a shared society. Labour says she's confronting

the effects of six years of her own party's policies -

as our political editor Six months since she walked

into the famous street. Six months since she's

been your Prime Minister. But piecing together

what Theresa May But today she made clear she

believes for millions life doesn't feel fair and her government can

be part of the answer. When you see others

prospering while you are not. When you try to raise your concerns

but they fall on deaf ears. When you feel your very

identity, all that For we know what happens

when mainstream centre The politics of

division and despair. They turn to those who

offer easy answers, who claim to understand people's

problems and always know what and It is to show that mainstream

centre ground politics A plain attempt to appeal

to Middle England. But David Cameron's dream

of a Big Society is gone. The shared society

is one that doesn't just value our individual rights

but focuses rather more on the responsibilities we

have to one another. It's a society that respects

the bonds that we share, as The bonds of family, community,

citizenship and strong institutions. And government will step up

to support and, where necessary, enforce the responsibilities we have

to each other as citizens. But although there

were promises of more help for housing in weeks

to come, controversial plans for schools,

the only new commitments today Made with passion but no

extra taxpayers' cash. For too long mental illness has been

something of a hidden Shrouded in a completely

unacceptable stigma and dangerously disregarded

as a secondary issue Yet, left unaddressed it destroys

lives, separates people from each other, and deepens the divisions

within our society. But as with all prime

ministers, whatever they say on the steps here or anywhere else

quickly rubs up with reality. But Theresa May has

an extra dilemma. As she starts to manage the most

complicated project any leader has faced in decades, there

is a risk her government becomes simply consumed with how we leave

the European Union and her political enemies

say her words ring hollow. If only we could believe

that she actually meant it. She's been part of a government

now for the last six years which has cut back

on public expenditure, And she's making the speeches

about shared society with a on trolleys waiting for care in our

hospitals. So I think there is

a credibility gap here. It's only six months,

but those days of summer Few prime ministers

in the end choose how Laura Kuenssberg, BBC

News, Westminster. The Prime Minister's decision

to highlight the issue of mental health was broadly welcomed

by charities - although some experts pointed out that money

which had already been promised - Our health correspondent

Elaine Dunkley has this assessment It's been nearly two years since

Steve Mallon's son took his own life after a short and severe

episode of depression. Today, visiting his

grave, he could reflect on a personal campaign to get

politicians to take mental health A coroner ruled that Edward Mallon,

who was 18, was let I stood next to my son in this

church and I made him a promise and the promise was that

I would investigate his tragic and And at the same time also

investigate the whole mental Like many people

I didn't know a great deal about mental health prior

to this appalling tragedy. And when you look at

what has happened in this country and the current state

of affairs it really is an To see the Prime Minister

come forward now is really quite significant

and very welcome. One of the Prime Minister's

key messages is that mental health is a

challenge for the whole of society

and not just the NHS. Schools will play a bigger role

in helping pupils dealing with problems before they

reach crisis point. Schools like this one

in Hertfordshire already employ a therapist and train sixth formers

as mental health mentors looking out for fellow students

who may be struggling. Sort of like relationships

with friends, but it's The school has welcomed

the promise of more training for staff in mental health

awareness, but says more resources In order for other schools

to pick up and do something similar to us and have in-house

therapists or counsellors there needs to be funding,

especially if staff are going to be expected

to The question then is

what do you do with You need to do something

with them immediately. The Prime Minister has

outlined her commitment. But the reality is that

mental health trusts in England are under

serious financial pressure. Analysis by The King's Fund

think tank found 40% of the 58 trusts saw budget cuts

in the last financial year. Six were cut three years

in a row and 63% of mental health trust leaders thought

they would miss out on the full NHS spending increases

which have been pledged. It's very worrying because we've had

a number of commitments in the past around increasing spend

on mental health but that doesn't seem to be then translated

into extra It's great having ministers

make commitments to mental health but if it's

then not translated into extra spend then,

to be frank, the commitments

are worthless. For the Mallon family,

today is an important step on a journey leading towards high-quality

mental health care and fewer tragic But Steve says his campaign

is far from over. And there is still much

more work to be done. Our political editor

Laura Kuenssberg is here. What has today's speech by the Prime

Minister told us about her ambitions for the year ahead? There is a new

mantra, this phrase the shared society, but there was no dramatic

departure either Prime Minister today, no dramatic measures in her

plans for mental health. It was the beginning of what her team describe

as a lot of activity in the coming weeks and a very deliberate effort

to show that No 10 under her charge will not, they hope, be completely

consumed by trying to get us out of the European Union. She is

determined to try to do things to intervene in the country to try to

make society fairer for everybody. As that rather unflashy speech

progressed, a drama in the NHS in England appeared to be unfolding

with Health Secretary speaking as he did in the House of Commons. The

Tories struggled for years all the time through David Cameron's

leadership while he was in charge to detoxify their reputation when it

comes to the National Health Service. There is significant strain

on the health service, nobody can argue with that and Jeremy Hunt

admitted that today. With that comes a significant political risk and the

idea of a shared society might not get that far if what so many people

are experiencing in sharing their experiences in the NHS are

increasingly dire as the months go on. Laura Kuenssberg, thank you very

much. The political crisis

in Northern Ireland has deepened - with the resignation

of Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness as Deputy First Minister -

raising the prospect of new Assembly elections - just seven months

after the last ones. The crisis was prompted

mainly by the mishandling of a controversial energy scheme -

which has cost hundreds of millions Sinn Fein blamed

the First Minister - the DUP's Arlene Foster -

for the problems and wanted her to step aside

while an investigation took place. Our correspondent Nicholas Witchell

reports from Belfast. It was the most improbable of

alliances. The party which was the political face of the provisional

IRA sitting down and working with the party of hardline unionism then

led by The Reverend Ian Paisley. Yet for ten years the power-sharing

government at Stormont has brought peace stability to Northern Ireland.

Now it is on the brink of collapse and ostensibly it's all over heating

scheme. Martin McGuinness, the IRA man who turned to politics and

became Deputy First Minister, is in very poor health. He's had enough of

what he calls the arrogance of deep Democratic Unionists. I have

tendered my resignation effective from five o'clock today. -- the

Democratic Unionist. I believe now is the time to call a halt to the

DUP's arrogance. So, what is it that threatens to wreck a decade of

political progress? It's something called the renewable heat incentive

scheme. Suffice it to say it's likely to cost the Northern Ireland

taxpayer ?500 million more than expected. The minister who set up

the scheme was Arlene Foster. Now DUP leader and First Minister of

Northern Ireland. Tonight, via social media, she responded to Mr

McGuinness's departure. I am, of course, disappointed Martin

McGuinness has chosen to take the position he has today. His actions

have meant that at precisely the time when we need our government is

to be active we will have no government.

Martin McGuinness's resignation by possibly brings to an end the career

of a man who was once a committed and active republican paramilitary.

In the 1970s he was second in command of the IRA in Derry. Can you

say whether the bombing is likely to stop in the near future in response

to any public demand? Well, we will always take on the considerations

and feelings of people of Derry and these feelings will be passed on to

the HQ in Dublin. The man who helped to lead the IRA

to violence ultimately help to bring Northern Ireland to peace. He

recognised that there could never be a so-called military victory in

Northern Ireland and something that had seemed inconceivable became a

reality. Republicans and Unionists found that they could work together.

Martin McGuinness and Ian Paisley got on so well they were nicknamed

the chuckle Brothers. But in recent times the atmosphere has soured.

There have been disagreements on a number of issues. Now the way

forward is uncertain. Under the power-sharing system the first and

Deputy First Ministers have to work together. If one resigns the other

cannot continue. In effect, the political institutions have

collapsed. For year after year many people here in Northern Ireland and

elsewhere have marvelled at what political leaders here have achieved

in the past decade. Those achievements are in jeopardy now and

it's not, as might have been expected, over a constitutional

issue or a security crisis, it's over a heating scheme. Political

leaders here have overcome so many problems. But if they cannot find a

solution to this in the next seven days, there will have to be

elections to a new Northern Ireland Assembly. Nicholas Witchell, BBC

News, Belfast. Our Northern Ireland political

editor Mark Devenport How serious a threat is this

to political stability Is this sequence of events?

Undoubtably the most serious threat to storm and since the government

was able to piece together devolution under the dominant

parties of the DUP and Sinn Fein. Over this green energy scandal

they've very quickly run out of road and whilst the government wants to

try to avoid a fresh election, it seems tonight there will be no way

they can do that. Once they have the election, if things, as seems

likely, that two main players will be facing each other again across

the table, but it will be hard to know how they can piece things

together. Not only this deep rift over this heating scandal but a

whole other issues on which Sinn Fein believes they've been treated

as second-class citizens by their partners in government. Difficult

terrain here instrument. Thank you for bringing us up to date. Mark

Davenport at Stormont. A brief look at some of the day's

other other news stories: Millions of commuters in London have

been struggling to get to and from work

because of a strike, forcing the closure of large

parts of the underground system. Members of two unions have been

staging a 24-hour walk-out in protest at job cuts

and the closure of ticket offices. The pound sterling has

fallen to its lowest level The pound dropped by 1% against both

the Euro and the US dollar. Many analysts linked it

to Theresa May's apparent suggestion yesterday,

that the UK would withdraw from the single market

when it left the EU. Scotland's First Minister,

Nicola Sturgeon, has made clear that a second referendum on independence

won't be held this year. The Scottish government has drafted

legislation for a referendum, after Ms Sturgeon said the UK voting

to leave the EU made another President Obama will deliver his

farewell address in the city of Chicago tomorrow -

the city where he claimed victory 8 years ago -

in the historic election which put the first African-American

in the White House. But as his second term comes

to a close what will his legacy be? In the first of two reports looking

back at his time in office, our North America editor Jon Sopel

looks at the domestic issues, which have defined

the Obama presidency. It wasn't just the hope

when Barack Obama came to office, That the country's problems

would be solved at a stroke, that the first African-American

president would usher No more black America

or white America, But the lingering vestiges

of that dream disappeared in the summer of 2014,

in clouds of tear gas, in a nondescript suburb of St Louis,

Missouri, called Ferguson. An unarmed black man had been shot

by a white police officer. It was a pattern that

would become all too familiar. In Charleston, South Carolina,

Walter Scott had been pulled over Footage captures the

white police officer who stopped him, shooting him

in the back several times At his trial, which ended

last month, the jury The court, therefore,

must declare a mistrial... Another symbol for the

black community that I think his legacy to him is more

important right now, to paint a picture that he did

a real good job in America. But most black folks are very

disappointed, because we feel The issue of race and another

of America's great intractable social problems, gun violence,

came together in horrific effect inside this famous African-American

church in Charleston. A white supremacist who,

with his string of drug convictions, should never have been able

to purchase a gun, walked inside a Bible study group

and killed eight worshippers Barack Obama had always seemed

reluctant to define himself as a black president,

preoccupied by racial issues, but after these shootings that

changed, as he came to Charleston and showed how he felt

the community's pain. SINGING: # Amazing grace,

how sweet the sound, Obama's two terms

in office were punctuated You've dialled 911, what's

the location of your emergency? ...I think there's

somebody shooting here. Then a series of random mass

killings that started with the slaying of 20 children

and six of their teachers that The President's famously cool

demeanour was gone after this. Every time I think about those

kids, it gets me mad. And by the way, it happens

on the streets of Chicago every day. I refuse to act as if this

is the new normal. This is not something

I can do by myself. Such violence, such

evil, is senseless. Again and again he wanted tougher

legislation on gun-control. But he failed, to his

evident consternation If you ask me where has been the one

area where I feel that I've been most frustrated and most stymied,

it is the fact that the United States of America is the one

advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient

common sense gun safety laws. But there have been some

legislative successes. Millions more Americans now

have health insurance than was previously the case,

although Obamacare has And the economy, which was flat

on its back eight years ago, is starting to boom,

and people are spending We have not just come back stronger

from the great recession, we have actually built an economy

that's the envy of the world. That is an important part

of President Obama's legacy. But it proved to be a voterless

recovery where it mattered. They'll be no Democrat

succeeding him in the White House, and so, one of his final acts

was to make a last journey to Capitol Hill, to urge his party's

lawmakers to fight off Republican attempts to dismantle Obamacare,

and the rest of his domestic legacy. Hundreds of local newspapers

could be forced to close, if new proposals on press

regulation become law. That's been the warning

from editors during a public consultation on how newspapers

should be regulated. Change is essential,

according to victims of press intrusion,

but newspaper editors say the Our media editor Amol

Rajan has the story. Britain has had robust and raucous

newspapers free of state control for more than 300 years,

but now the majority of the industry believes that a form of government

interference is set to return. Ian Murray is the editor in chief

of the Southern Daily Echo and other titles on the south

coast of England. We've got files that goes

back to 1776, the time Like many editors,

he fears centuries of press This is a principle,

the principle of free speech - a free press, which has existed

for 300 years. This paper was founded,

as a weekly paper, in 1823, and those founders would be

absolutely horrified to think that we were now being bullied,

bullied by the state to giving up the freedom that they

basically founded. Their concern is over new proposals

for press regulation. At the heart of it is Section 40

of the Crime and Courts Act 2013. This says newspapers

would have to pay legal costs of anybody who sues them,

unless the newspaper joins But editors fear that any such

body would ultimately be It's getting harder for newspapers

to keep the presses rolling, but while Bob Battle for press

freedom is often cast as a fight between big newspaper tycoons

and victims of newspaper mischief, there are hundreds of publications

who see this legislation as a threat One publication that knows

all about legal action is the satirical magazine,

Private Eye. Its editor believes

Section 40 would be fatal I mean it is completely

mad, as a proposition. Anyone looking at it from outside

would think, what is this about? I mean dictators will love it,

it will be very popular in Turkey. I'm sure Syria will incorporate it

any day now, but really it is a punitive attack

on the freedom of the press. This proposal came out of

the Leveson Inquiry five years ago. Madeleine McCann's family gave

evidence, so did the parents And the businessman Max Mosley,

whose private life was exposed Mr Mosley's family

trust is now funding We need this new Section 40,

to give access to justice. The problem at the moment

is unless you're rich, if you are turned over by a big

newspaper, there's nothing you can do, because the lawyers say to you,

well, you have a good case, you can sue, but you do

realise if you lose, we don't think you will lose,

but if you do lose it will be Protesters today calling

for tighter regulation. But the newspapers are digging

in for a bitter fight and Leveson's recommendations,

which aimed to bring back trust, are still causing division

nearly five years on. The Golden Globes ceremony

in Los Angeles became a platform for some of Hollywood's biggest

names to criticise the policies and attitudes of Donald Trump,

though the President-elect was not Meryl Streep attacked

Mr Trump's actions in mocking a disabled reporter

during the election campaign, but the three-time Oscar

winner was later dismissed James Cook reports on the winners

on and off the stage. Nowhere is more horrified

by the election of Donald Trump than the liberal bastion

of Hollywood, and no one commands Receiving a Lifetime Achievement

Award, the actress spoke for many of her peers

when she delivered an impassioned There was one performance this year

that stunned me. It sank its hooks in my heart. It was that moment when

the person asking to sit in the most respected seat in our country

imitated a disabled reporter, someone he out ranked in privilege,

power and the capacity to fight back. It kind of broke my heart. The

poor guy, you should see this guy, I don't know what I said, I don't

remember. Mr Trump denied mocking the reporter's disability and went

to twitter. A British invasion, and what could

be more British than playing the Queen?

She has been at the centre of the world for the past 63 years,

and I think the world could do with a few more women at the centre

Won three awards. I did not expect to win a Golden Globe tonight, and I

was sat next to Hugh Laurie when he won and I thought, I can go home

happy. Then when it came to my category, up against some real

legends. Coming of age movie moonlight had been tipped to win

quite a few but won just one, Best drama. But the biggest was...

There were a record seven Golden Globes for the old-fashioned

musical, with both Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone waltzing

This is a film for dreamers, and I think that hope and creativity

are two of the most important things of the world, and that's

Well, Hollywood can be fun and frivolous, but it also prides

itself on tackling serious subjects, and many stars here on the red

carpet are predicting a surge in political films this year,

following the most divisive of elections.

James Cook, BBC News, at the Golden Globes in Los Angeles.

A quick reminder Newsnight is about to begin on BBC Two.

Tonight: Can a Prime Minister ever define her own legacy?

Theresa May set out the soul of her premiership today.

Here on BBC One, it's time for the news where you are.