Browse content similar to 07/01/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Tonight, for two-and-a-half years, it has been called everything from | :00:12. | :00:20. | |
a marriage of convience, to a bro- mance. Today it was rebranded as a | :00:20. | :00:24. | |
civil, a very civil partnership. Let me put it like this, we are | :00:24. | :00:28. | |
married, not to each other, this is a Government, not a relationship. | :00:28. | :00:32. | |
With no new major policy details and a row over benefit payments, | :00:32. | :00:35. | |
and the Government and the opposition offer different | :00:35. | :00:40. | |
scorecards on the coalition. The panel will double as agony auoints | :00:40. | :00:43. | |
on the real state of the Conservative-Lib Dem relationship. | :00:43. | :00:49. | |
What Iceland can teach Britain from going from near economic collapse, | :00:49. | :00:57. | |
to businesses bursting back into light. Don't depend on a formal | :00:57. | :01:02. | |
economy, we realised it was not real, a bubble. Protests in China | :01:02. | :01:07. | |
over newspaper censorship, -- censorship, with the state loosen | :01:07. | :01:17. | |
the grip on what the Chinese people hear, read and see. | :01:17. | :01:20. | |
Good evening, at a time of real difficulty for his Government, some | :01:20. | :01:27. | |
40 years a the then Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, told the people that | :01:28. | :01:31. | |
he knew what was going on, he was going on and the Labour Government | :01:31. | :01:37. | |
was going on. Today the single Wilson eye became the plural "we" | :01:38. | :01:41. | |
of David Cameron and Nick Clegg telling us the coalition is going | :01:41. | :01:45. | |
on until 2015. To what effect? Today is one of those crunch days | :01:45. | :01:49. | |
with the Government pushing through plans to restrict rises in benefits | :01:49. | :01:56. | |
to 1%, that is lower than inflation. Unformer Lib Dem minister said she | :01:56. | :01:59. | |
will not be -- one former Lib Dem minister she wouldn't be able to | :01:59. | :02:03. | |
vote for the move. We explore the rhetoric of the coalition | :02:03. | :02:07. | |
Government. Today was a pretty gloomy day. Not | :02:07. | :02:15. | |
so much for the weather, although that didn't help, but for the whole | :02:15. | :02:19. | |
holidays-are-over, let-down-feeling. For some it was back to work or | :02:19. | :02:24. | |
school, for others, even more gloomy today, today is the day we | :02:25. | :02:29. | |
are told that divorce lawyers expect the most new business. No | :02:29. | :02:32. | |
divorce news in Downing Street, the coalition still very much together. | :02:32. | :02:37. | |
What better way then to cheer us all up, than a mid-term review by | :02:37. | :02:40. | |
the coalition. A list of achievements made since 2010, and | :02:40. | :02:44. | |
crucially, a list of new policy ideas for the second half of the | :02:44. | :02:52. | |
parliament. This was all contained in a big | :02:52. | :02:55. | |
chunky document, a big souvenir programme for the press conference. | :02:55. | :02:58. | |
It was big on symbolism and occasion, what about new policy. | :02:58. | :03:03. | |
Since you are very busy and haven't got time, we have been through the | :03:03. | :03:08. | |
entire document to extract only the new policy details. So, if you are | :03:08. | :03:14. | |
sitting comfortably, Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg will now read them out. | :03:14. | :03:19. | |
(sound of the wind whistling) This lack of anything new didn't exactly | :03:19. | :03:23. | |
cheer up the post-festive journalists, who then had to ask, | :03:23. | :03:26. | |
instead, questions about the state of the coalition's political | :03:26. | :03:32. | |
marriage, which, in turn, didn't exactly cheer up the PM. I hate to | :03:32. | :03:38. | |
spoil the party, but, let me put it like this, we are married, not to | :03:38. | :03:42. | |
each other. We are both happily married, this is a Government not a | :03:42. | :03:44. | |
relationship. It is a Government about delivering for people, | :03:44. | :03:47. | |
because of the mess that we were left in by the previous Government, | :03:47. | :03:51. | |
because of the huge challenges that we face. And what we said to people | :03:51. | :03:55. | |
two-and-a-half years ago, was that we would come together for a five- | :03:55. | :03:59. | |
year parliament. We would tackle these problems. So, to me, it is | :03:59. | :04:03. | |
not a marriage, it is, if you like, it is a "Ronseal deal", it does | :04:03. | :04:07. | |
what it says on the tin. Today's performance was not only about | :04:07. | :04:10. | |
demonstrating a unity of purpose within the coalition, they haven't | :04:10. | :04:15. | |
run out of ideas, they tell us, but it is also to set up some useful | :04:15. | :04:18. | |
political dividing lines between the coalition, on the one hand, and | :04:18. | :04:22. | |
Labour on the other. We can see one of those coming into view tomorrow, | :04:23. | :04:28. | |
when the Commons will vote on the up-rating of benefits. | :04:28. | :04:31. | |
In the Autumn Statement, the Government announced that certain | :04:31. | :04:35. | |
benefits, claimed by working age people, would rise by only 1% a | :04:35. | :04:39. | |
year for three consecutive years, rather than in line with inflation. | :04:39. | :04:43. | |
The benefits affected include, jobseeker's allowance, Employment | :04:43. | :04:48. | |
and Support Allowance, income support, including some aspects of | :04:48. | :04:52. | |
housing benefit, maternity allowance, Statutory Sick Pay, | :04:52. | :04:55. | |
paternity, and maternity and adoption pay, it covers some part | :04:55. | :04:59. | |
of the Working Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit. Child benefit, frozen | :04:59. | :05:04. | |
for three years since 2011, will also be up-rated by only 1% for two | :05:04. | :05:10. | |
years, until 2015-2016. Labour are voting against this. Which the | :05:10. | :05:14. | |
Government is absolutely delighted with. Expect to see much | :05:14. | :05:18. | |
Conservative campaigning suggesting Labour are on the side of claimants | :05:18. | :05:22. | |
and against working people. Labour, of course, aren't having any of | :05:22. | :05:27. | |
this. More than 60% of those affected by the changes that they | :05:27. | :05:29. | |
are voting on tomorrow will be working families, that is going to | :05:29. | :05:33. | |
be handicaping and stopping working families who want to get into work | :05:33. | :05:36. | |
and do the right thing. I don't think this is a Government on the | :05:37. | :05:40. | |
side of the strivers, people doing the right thing. I think this is a | :05:40. | :05:43. | |
Government on the side of a few people in the country, the richest | :05:43. | :05:47. | |
and most powerful. So, how many people are affected? Well the | :05:47. | :05:52. | |
changes in the bill will affect four million families who claim in- | :05:52. | :05:54. | |
work benefits, with a further three million being affected by the | :05:54. | :06:00. | |
changes to the 1% child benefit up- rating. Of 2.8 million workless | :06:00. | :06:04. | |
households, 2.5 million will see their entitlements reduced. The | :06:04. | :06:11. | |
Government estimate that is it will save �1.9 billion in 2015-2016. | :06:11. | :06:14. | |
Let's not forget this is only one important, but not the most | :06:14. | :06:18. | |
important part of a much bigger package of tax changes and benefit | :06:18. | :06:22. | |
changes, which, across the period of the console daigs, is hitting | :06:22. | :06:27. | |
the very richest very hard -- consolidation, which is hitting the | :06:27. | :06:32. | |
very richest very hard, and those at the bottom of benefits. Those on | :06:33. | :06:36. | |
middle earnings, they are doing least badly out of all of this. | :06:36. | :06:39. | |
row between Labour and the Conservatives about who supports | :06:39. | :06:44. | |
the strivers, and who is on the side of the skivers, is pretty | :06:44. | :06:47. | |
uncomfortable for Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats, some Lib | :06:47. | :06:50. | |
Dems are supposedly minded to support Labour in tomorrow's vote. | :06:50. | :06:54. | |
I will be very clear with you, I don't think it helps at all to try | :06:54. | :06:57. | |
to portray that decision as one which divides one set of people off | :06:57. | :07:01. | |
against another, the deserving or undeserving, poor people, people in | :07:01. | :07:05. | |
or out of work. However Mr Clegg went on to challenge those opposed | :07:05. | :07:10. | |
to the 1% cap to answer a simple question. Where would you find that | :07:10. | :07:14. | |
�5 billion, what would you cut? Schools, health, defence, local | :07:14. | :07:19. | |
Government? Social care? That's the question you have got to ask | :07:19. | :07:23. | |
yourself. And Mr Clegg has, perhaps, the consolation of knowing, that | :07:23. | :07:29. | |
for now, at least, the policy seems popular with voters. Consistently | :07:29. | :07:32. | |
polls show that people in lower income groups are more likely to | :07:32. | :07:36. | |
think that people are fiddling the system more than people in higher | :07:36. | :07:42. | |
income groups. So, when you look at this from a political, from a | :07:42. | :07:45. | |
demographic perspective, it does seem to be something that appeals | :07:45. | :07:50. | |
to all different groups. But, the big caveat is what does it actually | :07:50. | :07:54. | |
mean in practice, when people start seeing their benefit levels, their | :07:54. | :07:58. | |
disposable income being whittled away over the coming years, will | :07:58. | :08:01. | |
they still be as supportive, the answer to that has got to be | :08:01. | :08:06. | |
probably no. The Commons vote is, of course, not | :08:06. | :08:09. | |
until tomorrow, you could argue that really, today's big political | :08:09. | :08:15. | |
news was, not the coalition mid- term report, but a cabinet minister | :08:15. | :08:18. | |
resigning. Yes, Lord Strathclyde, leader of the Lords, says he now | :08:18. | :08:23. | |
wants to do something else, which, of course, may be his real reason, | :08:23. | :08:26. | |
but, nevertheless, it was still rather odd to do it on the day of | :08:26. | :08:31. | |
the big show of coalition unity. Schapps Shas, the Conservative | :08:31. | :08:37. | |
Party chairman is with us, along with the Labour Party Treasury | :08:37. | :08:40. | |
shadow minister. The big thing that David Cameron, the coalition | :08:40. | :08:45. | |
promised to do, is fix the economy. That is the big thing, and you | :08:45. | :08:48. | |
haven't. To that extent, the past two-and-a-half years have not been | :08:48. | :08:53. | |
a success? I certainly would like it to be fixed faster, and for us | :08:53. | :08:56. | |
not to have a position in Europe, and America and the rest of the | :08:56. | :09:00. | |
world where economies are in difficulty. That is the | :09:00. | :09:03. | |
disappointment the last two years? We would like things to have moved | :09:03. | :09:07. | |
faster. In reality, we have cleared a quarter of the deficit, we have a | :09:07. | :09:10. | |
million people working in new jobs in the private sector, and we have | :09:10. | :09:16. | |
got the highest employment in this country ever at 29.6 million, | :09:16. | :09:19. | |
including more women in work than ever before. I think there is a | :09:19. | :09:23. | |
series of things where we can say we are starting to heal the economy. | :09:23. | :09:27. | |
I agree with you saying I would like it to be faster. Faith healing | :09:27. | :09:30. | |
some would say. In that the many successes trotted out today, there | :09:30. | :09:35. | |
was no room to mention, for instance, the botched 2012 budget, | :09:35. | :09:40. | |
there was room to mention the fiscal targets missed, and the | :09:40. | :09:43. | |
double-dip recession, the possibility of a triple-dip | :09:43. | :09:48. | |
recession, or we might lose our credit rating? All these things | :09:48. | :09:53. | |
have to be taken in the backdrop of what is going on in the world. Who | :09:53. | :09:58. | |
could have predicted 2010 that we would still be talking about | :09:58. | :10:02. | |
whether or not Greece will default or not in Europe. We have the same | :10:02. | :10:05. | |
budget deficit as Greece as a percentage of our economy back in | :10:05. | :10:09. | |
2010, now that budget deficit has reduced by a quarter. That means we | :10:09. | :10:12. | |
do have the confidence of the markets. We are borrowing at rates | :10:12. | :10:15. | |
that this country has barely ever seen. You fully expect, for | :10:15. | :10:19. | |
instance, because we want to look ahead to 2013, you do not expect, | :10:19. | :10:22. | |
given that, then, to lose the triple-A rating? I don't know what | :10:22. | :10:26. | |
will happen in the future, I'm not trying to predict the future. What | :10:26. | :10:30. | |
I do know is you cannot solve this kind of problem with your economy, | :10:30. | :10:34. | |
a problem caused by debt, by more borrowing, more spending and more | :10:35. | :10:37. | |
debt. So we cannot go down that route. So far the coalition, say | :10:37. | :10:41. | |
what you want about it, has stopped us from going to the wall. | :10:41. | :10:44. | |
thing that will interest families up and down this country, is the | :10:44. | :10:49. | |
possibility that there will be some help on childcare, and also capping | :10:49. | :10:52. | |
social care cost. It was short on detail today, people will | :10:52. | :10:55. | |
understand that, but can you at least say this is fully costed, it | :10:56. | :11:00. | |
will be revenue-neutral? What you will see in the next few weeks is a | :11:00. | :11:03. | |
series of announcements. Today's document was called a review, | :11:03. | :11:07. | |
looking back at the two-and-a-half years. What we have also signalled, | :11:07. | :11:11. | |
in areas like child cautious people who want to go back to work, | :11:11. | :11:14. | |
pensions, a fairer system there, infrastructure for transport and | :11:14. | :11:19. | |
housing, and helping people on to the market. You have something that | :11:19. | :11:21. | |
is revenue-neutral? We will see announcements that will be | :11:21. | :11:24. | |
significant and important. can't tell us now this is fully | :11:24. | :11:27. | |
costed, we are not going to have to raise the money? It will be, and | :11:28. | :11:31. | |
you won't have to wait long, these will be announcements made in the | :11:31. | :11:34. | |
weeks to come. I want to move on, one other point, there is huge | :11:34. | :11:38. | |
things ahead this year, in terms of overall welfare reform, reallying | :11:38. | :11:43. | |
the beginning the question of the NHS reform. Absolutely huge | :11:43. | :11:46. | |
questions over reforming the structure of our bureaucracy, why | :11:46. | :11:49. | |
should people have any faith that you are going to be competent in | :11:49. | :11:54. | |
doing this, when you couldn't even introduce pasty tax? Well, look, | :11:54. | :11:57. | |
the big issues like reforming welfare, frankly, that we have | :11:57. | :12:01. | |
tackled, which have been left in generations, just in welfare system | :12:01. | :12:05. | |
getting ever more expensive, so welfare and pensions together take | :12:05. | :12:10. | |
up one pound in every three spent by this Government. We have tackled | :12:10. | :12:14. | |
the big reforms. You haven't done it yet? The Universal Credit is | :12:15. | :12:18. | |
coming in this year. I'm asking will it be competent? To answer the | :12:18. | :12:22. | |
question, tomorrow, for example, we will be vote to go put a 1% cap on | :12:22. | :12:26. | |
the rise in the welfare. Now, we need to see what the opposition is | :12:26. | :12:30. | |
going to do, if they don't vote for, that they need to explain why the | :12:30. | :12:34. | |
billions will come from, cuts from the NHS budget, perhaps. Just on | :12:34. | :12:37. | |
the big picture. The one thing that guarantees that the markets look at | :12:37. | :12:41. | |
a country and think it is going OK, is if they think it has stable | :12:41. | :12:44. | |
Government, we have a stable Government and it will be here for | :12:44. | :12:48. | |
the next couple of years? The coalition have made it clear they | :12:48. | :12:52. | |
will continue to 2015. What we have heard really doesn't sit with what | :12:52. | :12:56. | |
people out there in the real world, away from the political process, | :12:56. | :12:59. | |
the day-to-day political process, will understand as what is going on | :12:59. | :13:03. | |
in their lives. What we saw today was really David Cameron and Nick | :13:03. | :13:08. | |
Clegg, patting one another on the back, at the point which order wry | :13:08. | :13:11. | |
families are feeling their income squeezed. You have to find the | :13:11. | :13:14. | |
money from somewhere, to take the issue of tomorrow, tomorrow's vote | :13:14. | :13:19. | |
will be a big watershed for you, as a party you said it is OK for | :13:19. | :13:23. | |
public servants to be limited to a 1% increase in their pay, lower | :13:23. | :13:28. | |
than the rate of inflation, but you are now saying that it is not OK | :13:28. | :13:32. | |
for benefits claimants to do it. That doesn't add up, does it? | :13:32. | :13:35. | |
important to recognise that many of the people who actually are | :13:35. | :13:39. | |
receiving these benefits are receiving in-work benefits. I will | :13:39. | :13:43. | |
put that to Grant Schapps in a second. It is very unfortunate they | :13:43. | :13:47. | |
have tried to portray this as some how it is only those out of work | :13:47. | :13:51. | |
receiving benefits. On the specific question, why is it OK to limit | :13:51. | :13:54. | |
public sector workers to a 1% increase and it is not OK to do it | :13:54. | :13:58. | |
for people out of work? We also made it very clear we wanted to see | :13:58. | :14:02. | |
that limit done in a fair way, with a tougher approach to people on the | :14:02. | :14:05. | |
highest earnings, and more protections for those on lower | :14:05. | :14:08. | |
incomes. That is why I find it astonishing that we are still | :14:08. | :14:12. | |
hearing from the Government, that they some how believe it is fair to | :14:12. | :14:18. | |
give millionaires a massive tax cut, at the point in which working | :14:18. | :14:22. | |
families are struggling. The point is you are penalising the strivers, | :14:22. | :14:26. | |
a lot of people who don't get a lot of money, they look forward to some | :14:26. | :14:32. | |
kind of benefit to help them and their family. 60% was Ed Miliband's | :14:32. | :14:36. | |
figure of those who will be hurt? That is skewed by those including | :14:36. | :14:39. | |
Child Tax Credit, those not within the employment market. It is | :14:39. | :14:42. | |
challengable on that. The strivers who you think are the good people | :14:42. | :14:46. | |
in this country and you want to help them? Governing at the end of | :14:46. | :14:48. | |
the day is all about making difficult choice, working out where | :14:48. | :14:52. | |
the money will come from. In a world where we have not had any | :14:52. | :14:56. | |
increases until this year, 1% increase in the higher threshold, | :14:56. | :14:59. | |
in a world where the public sector workers are accepting 1% pay, and | :14:59. | :15:02. | |
many people in the private sector the same, you have to make some | :15:02. | :15:05. | |
decisions about what you will do with welfare. We have made our | :15:06. | :15:09. | |
decision, we have said it is 1%, at the same time, though, for people | :15:09. | :15:16. | |
in work, we have raised the personal threshold from �6,500, to | :15:16. | :15:21. | |
�9,440 this April, this has taken two million people completely out | :15:21. | :15:26. | |
of tax and helping 24 million people pay tax. Hard choices have | :15:26. | :15:30. | |
to be made, and one, which in the balance, he's suggesting, is quite | :15:30. | :15:33. | |
reasonable? I accept hard choices have to be made, we have to | :15:33. | :15:36. | |
recognise this Government has not done what they said they would do. | :15:36. | :15:39. | |
If they look again at what was outlined today in terms of | :15:39. | :15:43. | |
reviewing, they haven't met their targets in deficit reduction, they | :15:43. | :15:49. | |
are heading for more borrowing than they intended, at the same time | :15:49. | :15:52. | |
there is still a lack of fairness. It is completely unfair that those | :15:52. | :15:56. | |
on the highest incomes, the millionaires seem to be getting the | :15:56. | :16:00. | |
benefit, when ordinary working people are being hit. Is it unfair | :16:00. | :16:03. | |
that those who work, seeing no rise in living standards, pay more so | :16:04. | :16:08. | |
people out of work can get a little bit over the rate of inflation? | :16:08. | :16:12. | |
Many of the people hit by these changes are people who are already | :16:12. | :16:16. | |
in work. And I find it again astonishing that the Government | :16:16. | :16:20. | |
persists on penalising working families, particularly women, we | :16:20. | :16:23. | |
have had a whole series, a whole raft of measures, where people who | :16:23. | :16:28. | |
are in work have already seen cuts. Tax credits, Working Tax Credits | :16:28. | :16:31. | |
are really important. They are really important for family budgets, | :16:31. | :16:35. | |
this is hurting real people. Surely, a better way to run a tax system, a | :16:35. | :16:39. | |
better way to run an economy, is rather than taxing money away and | :16:39. | :16:43. | |
handing it back in tax credits s not to take the tax in the first | :16:43. | :16:47. | |
place. That is what happens when you take two million people out of | :16:47. | :16:50. | |
tax entirely. More people will lose because of the changes in tax | :16:50. | :16:54. | |
credits, particularly some of those who were in part-time work. | :16:54. | :16:59. | |
people you would care about here, let me give you one figure, it is a | :16:59. | :17:03. | |
sim one, for somebody on a minimum wage, under this Government, since | :17:03. | :17:07. | |
2010, their tax bill has halved. It is a significant picture it helps a | :17:07. | :17:12. | |
lot of people. But the problem is, that the changes that you have made | :17:12. | :17:17. | |
and are making to tax credits means many of those people are not any | :17:17. | :17:22. | |
better off. We have seen charities, we have seen third sector | :17:22. | :17:24. | |
organisations, respected think tanks, all coming out and saying | :17:24. | :17:28. | |
that these changes are hurting the lowest income families. That really | :17:29. | :17:33. | |
isn't fair. We will leave it there. It doesn't take a great predickive | :17:33. | :17:37. | |
skill to know we will come back to it -- predictive skill to know we | :17:37. | :17:42. | |
will come back to it. Let's have a look at what lies ahead in 2013 | :17:43. | :17:46. | |
with our political panel, Danny Finkelstein used to work for | :17:46. | :17:49. | |
Conservative Central Office, now working for the Times, Baroness | :17:49. | :17:53. | |
Blair worked in Downing Street, and Miranda Green used to advise Paddy | :17:53. | :17:59. | |
Ashdown. I wonder on the theatre of today, when you watch that, the two | :17:59. | :18:05. | |
of them together, do you not find it a bit yucky? These set piece | :18:05. | :18:10. | |
events have a grim inevitability about them. So does the surrounding | :18:10. | :18:16. | |
chat about the Bro-mance and the relationship, it is all wearying, I | :18:16. | :18:19. | |
find. There is a danger in doing events like this h it is because | :18:19. | :18:24. | |
the public will think why not get on with governing, why spend time | :18:24. | :18:27. | |
communicating to us about how well you think you are doing, isn't it | :18:27. | :18:32. | |
up to us decide. On the other hand there is a massive danger of not | :18:32. | :18:37. | |
taking stock at a half time point in a political experiment, a | :18:37. | :18:40. | |
coalition in peacetime. There is a big danger in not doing that, and | :18:40. | :18:44. | |
not assessing where we are, these are our achievements and our agenda | :18:44. | :18:48. | |
is still this. You allow your enemies, on the right and left to | :18:48. | :18:51. | |
describe what is happening for you. I think they really wanted to avoid, | :18:51. | :18:57. | |
that and set the tone themselves, for the -- to avoid that, and set | :18:57. | :19:02. | |
the tone themselves. I heard one journalist complain that thanks for | :19:02. | :19:07. | |
coming out to talk to us, we don't get many of these! Very few people | :19:07. | :19:11. | |
would have watched it, it won't make a difference. It was about | :19:11. | :19:14. | |
trying to create 24-hours of news coverage out of the policies they | :19:14. | :19:19. | |
have already introduced. Otherwise you keep throwing more meat off the | :19:19. | :19:24. | |
wagon to create the idea of momentum F that isn't too bad a | :19:24. | :19:27. | |
mixed metaphor. They did this to dominate the news agenda for a | :19:28. | :19:31. | |
period, showing they had a Government that was successful in | :19:31. | :19:35. | |
so far as that makes a difference. In reality people's behaviour will | :19:35. | :19:39. | |
be determined by how these policies impact on their lives. You might | :19:39. | :19:45. | |
say, rather snidely, they do get on better than Blair and Brown? | :19:45. | :19:50. | |
might say that! I thought it was a missed opportunity, I could see why | :19:50. | :19:53. | |
it was quite a good exercise, the plan was good, which was to take | :19:54. | :19:57. | |
stock, which they sort of did. To present a bit of a forward plan, | :19:57. | :20:04. | |
which, when you look at it was very bad, it had everything from peace | :20:04. | :20:10. | |
in Iran to midwives, 2,000 of them. It was a pretty bizarre list. The | :20:10. | :20:15. | |
thing that didn't work, I thought the plan was they are doing this to | :20:15. | :20:18. | |
show the interest of the country and we are running it in a | :20:19. | :20:23. | |
business-like way. Then they got into the ghastly jokey stuff, that | :20:23. | :20:27. | |
is the picture that will stick with people. It is pretty irritating. | :20:27. | :20:31. | |
They would be really lucky if anything stayed with people. It is | :20:31. | :20:36. | |
all that has been shown today, that clip. On the substance, David | :20:36. | :20:40. | |
Cameron said it is not whether you have disagreements but how you | :20:40. | :20:43. | |
handle them that matters, big disagreements ahead. What do you | :20:43. | :20:49. | |
foresee as the really bumpy bits of the pol coalition? This whole | :20:49. | :20:52. | |
subject subject of welfare reform. We will have a little bump tomorrow, | :20:52. | :20:56. | |
because I think of some of the rhetoric that has been used about | :20:56. | :21:02. | |
this freeze for benefits. Do you that Sarah Teather is not alone in | :21:02. | :21:06. | |
the way she thinks, but she may be alone in how she votes, but there | :21:06. | :21:10. | |
are others? She represents a certain strand of Lib Dem opinion, | :21:10. | :21:12. | |
which would be happier with the fact of what Government are doing | :21:13. | :21:18. | |
with the cap, rather than the rhetoric that surrounds it. The | :21:18. | :21:21. | |
devisive rhetoric has been damaging for the coalition on this issue. | :21:21. | :21:24. | |
The arguments over welfare reform will continue. Europe, David | :21:24. | :21:28. | |
Cameron is about to, apparently, make this enormous speech, saying | :21:28. | :21:31. | |
he wants to redefine Britain's entire relationship with Europe. It | :21:31. | :21:35. | |
will be very unhappy for the Lib Dems to carry on in partnership | :21:35. | :21:39. | |
with somebody who wants to, I don't know what he wants to do, take us | :21:39. | :21:43. | |
off into the middle of the Atlantic, I don't know. What will impact on | :21:43. | :21:46. | |
politics is people's living standards. What makes people | :21:46. | :21:50. | |
uncomfortable about the benefit freeze, is not well off people | :21:50. | :21:53. | |
feeling even more squeezed. On the other hand, Nick Clegg was very | :21:53. | :21:56. | |
good on the point, where else will the money come from. Everybody is | :21:56. | :21:59. | |
going to lose money, and of course this point about people working, | :21:59. | :22:04. | |
those people are paying for this policy as well as losing, by having | :22:04. | :22:09. | |
a 1% increase. It is really about saving money from some people, and | :22:09. | :22:14. | |
those people are out of work. not strictly true, I think Miranda | :22:14. | :22:16. | |
is right about the rhetoric around this. It isn't that everybody is | :22:17. | :22:20. | |
paying for it. I understand the decision on some benefits being | :22:20. | :22:23. | |
raised and some not, from the Government's point of view. But, | :22:24. | :22:28. | |
for example, it is so clearly about trying to divide the acceptable | :22:28. | :22:34. | |
poor from the non-acceptable poor. Pensioners, of whatever kind of | :22:34. | :22:37. | |
background. It is not my way of expressing an argument. Do you | :22:37. | :22:40. | |
think Labour have got this right, it is tricky, if you are seen to be | :22:40. | :22:44. | |
getting people, who are not very well paid, to pay more, relatively, | :22:44. | :22:48. | |
for people who are not in work or claiming benefits? I think it is a | :22:48. | :22:54. | |
really difficult decision. But I think the way that they have | :22:54. | :22:57. | |
explained the decision tomorrow is right, actually. Talking to Grant | :22:57. | :23:01. | |
Schapps before the programme, he was saying Tory posters going up | :23:01. | :23:03. | |
tomorrow saying Labour have it completely wrong, and spelling out | :23:03. | :23:10. | |
why they think so, the Tories think this is a win for them? I think the | :23:10. | :23:14. | |
politics are with the Government. People are suspicious of people | :23:14. | :23:18. | |
receiving welfare benefits. They do see the fairness of public sector | :23:18. | :23:24. | |
wages going up the same as benefits. I never like revelling in anybody's | :23:24. | :23:27. | |
misfortune of any kind, so I think that they have to be careful of the | :23:27. | :23:31. | |
tone. Although, that is for me, other people maybe don't feel the | :23:31. | :23:35. | |
same way. The tone has been deliberate. This is a political | :23:35. | :23:39. | |
move. We have all seen them before, this is a clear political decision | :23:39. | :23:44. | |
to have a clear dividing line and to have a political split. That's, | :23:44. | :23:48. | |
it's been done well, it has been not accidental. I'm resolute about | :23:48. | :23:52. | |
the choice, I think you need to explain the choice, everyone has | :23:52. | :23:57. | |
their own way of earnings pressing an argument. -- Expressing an | :23:57. | :24:00. | |
argument. How can the two leaders keep a lid on the backbenchers over | :24:00. | :24:05. | |
the next two years. Very tricky on welfare reform and the NHS reforms, | :24:05. | :24:09. | |
bumps on that, that will be very difficult? I think it will be. | :24:09. | :24:13. | |
Absolutely. Actually, it has been surprising to everyone, I think, | :24:13. | :24:17. | |
how well the Lib Dems have actually hung together during the coalition | :24:17. | :24:21. | |
so far. I think they will continue to do so. Frankly, I don't think | :24:21. | :24:25. | |
there is much ofpgs for the Lib Dems, they have just got to carry | :24:25. | :24:29. | |
on marching through the mud, with all the in coming shrapnel. What | :24:29. | :24:34. | |
else can they do. The only thing they can hope for is to get credit | :24:34. | :24:38. | |
for providing stability at a very important moment, where otherwise | :24:38. | :24:41. | |
the country wouldn't have been able to borrow money at an affordable | :24:41. | :24:46. | |
rate. You have to hang on to that, you are doing a job in an | :24:46. | :24:51. | |
uncomfortable way at an uncomfortable time. Something else, | :24:51. | :24:55. | |
the prospect of David Miliband coming back into cabinet? I don't | :24:55. | :24:58. | |
know where the story is. My personal view was David was right | :24:58. | :25:02. | |
not to come in when Ed had won, it would have been pretty impossible. | :25:02. | :25:05. | |
David is a great talent, so I hope at some point he does come back. | :25:05. | :25:09. | |
You would like him back, even though it might give newspapers and | :25:09. | :25:14. | |
television programmes another thing to talk about other than a | :25:14. | :25:18. | |
bromance? It would be another soap opera, that is the dilemma. | :25:18. | :25:22. | |
Lord Strathclyde doing? It was odd to do it today. I do politically | :25:22. | :25:26. | |
that was very odd, why they didn't wait 24-hours. I understand the | :25:26. | :25:30. | |
reasons of what he said, that is what everyone thinks, that he has | :25:30. | :25:35. | |
decided to move into the private sector, he's in his mid-50s, and if | :25:35. | :25:40. | |
he doesn't do it now. It is not because he doesn't like working | :25:40. | :25:44. | |
with the Lib Dems in the Lords? That is not what he has told people | :25:44. | :25:51. | |
or what they are led to believe. Just over four years ago the tiny | :25:51. | :25:56. | |
island Republic of Iceland experienced the worst economic | :25:56. | :26:03. | |
brown yaek of any group. House prices slumped and banks folded and | :26:03. | :26:07. | |
the banks had to be nationalised. They let the banks died and growth | :26:07. | :26:13. | |
has been averaging 2%, more than the UK. The macro-economics masks | :26:13. | :26:16. | |
the pain being felt by many ordinary people. We have been to | :26:17. | :26:22. | |
learn what we can learn from their experience. | :26:22. | :26:30. | |
Iceland stuns in so many ways. Its geezers, glaciers and thermal | :26:30. | :26:34. | |
springs reward even the pickiest tourist. But beyond the beautiful | :26:34. | :26:39. | |
world heritage sites, Iceland is a bleak place for any humanity to | :26:39. | :26:44. | |
survive. Winters are cold and daylight is a precious commodity. | :26:44. | :26:54. | |
:26:54. | :26:56. | ||
In summer 13 degrees is a warm day. It means Icelandic people had to | :26:56. | :27:00. | |
develop tenacity, resilience and propenceity for hard work, which | :27:00. | :27:06. | |
they have had to draw upon to survive this very man made crisis. | :27:06. | :27:10. | |
I wanted to know whether those characteristics that helped create | :27:10. | :27:16. | |
the economic bubble, might now lift the economy? The President has been | :27:16. | :27:21. | |
in office for 16 years, he has seen boom and bust. We have a very | :27:21. | :27:31. | |
:27:31. | :27:32. | ||
strong sense of history of our culture. Mingled with that, | :27:32. | :27:37. | |
solidarity and history, there is also an entrepeneural sense that, | :27:37. | :27:42. | |
perhaps, led us astray in the years before the collapse. It has also | :27:42. | :27:46. | |
enabled a nation of farmers and fishermen to transform themselves | :27:46. | :27:53. | |
from being up to the 1960s and 1970s, among the poorest countries | :27:53. | :27:56. | |
in Europe, to having achieved now one of the highest standards of | :27:56. | :28:01. | |
living that you can find in the world, despite the difficulties | :28:01. | :28:05. | |
that follow the crisis. Fundamentally we are still a nation | :28:05. | :28:14. | |
of farmers and fishermen. But fishermen turned into fanciers | :28:14. | :28:19. | |
between 2001 and 2008, and the economy grew up 230%, as the banks | :28:19. | :28:23. | |
loaned money to everyone and anyone who wanted it, until the global | :28:23. | :28:27. | |
money markets froze. Destroying the Icelandic economy over a summer, | :28:27. | :28:31. | |
and creating the country's first- ever civil unrest. We stand | :28:31. | :28:34. | |
together and demand the Government do a better job. When the then | :28:34. | :28:39. | |
Prime Minister addressed a shocked nation in October 2008, he envoked | :28:39. | :28:49. | |
:28:49. | :28:57. | ||
the help of a higher deity. really makes me feel angry and sad. | :28:57. | :29:03. | |
Because, you know, the country is made of people, the nation is made | :29:03. | :29:10. | |
of people, and it is made for people and by people. Now it seems | :29:10. | :29:16. | |
like banks are running societies and that is horribly wrong. Theodor | :29:16. | :29:22. | |
Magnusson works in IT, he also hunds reindeer for a living. He, | :29:22. | :29:27. | |
like -- hunts reindeer for a living. He like most people took out a | :29:27. | :29:32. | |
mortgage 12 years Agatha ties inflation to the principal. It | :29:32. | :29:38. | |
means he now owes 1.5-times the original mortgage, because of the | :29:38. | :29:44. | |
spikes in the economy. I have been paying 150 months of this loan, I | :29:44. | :29:52. | |
owe much more than I borrowed. I borrowed six million krona, I owe | :29:52. | :29:59. | |
9.7 million. I have been paying around five million in these 150 | :29:59. | :30:09. | |
:30:09. | :30:12. | ||
months. As is often the case in politics, the party which inherits | :30:12. | :30:16. | |
the mess, doesn't always get much credit for cleaning it up. | :30:16. | :30:21. | |
Iceland's ruling coalition, in power since 2009, has turned things | :30:21. | :30:26. | |
around. The deficit is down from 14% of GDP, to around 1% today. | :30:26. | :30:30. | |
Unemployment has halved, and exports are up. But this has been | :30:30. | :30:36. | |
achieved, in part, by almost 100 new taxes, including a tax on | :30:36. | :30:41. | |
sugary drinks. We have closed this dramatic gap in the budget, which | :30:42. | :30:47. | |
has been very important for our economy, and so I think that we | :30:47. | :30:54. | |
have made difficult decision, but I think some were good, some were not | :30:54. | :31:00. | |
less good, but overall, I think we are well on the way in becoming a | :31:00. | :31:05. | |
very strong economy again. What the Government and Icelanders in | :31:05. | :31:09. | |
general won't do is compromise on the welfare state. Education and | :31:09. | :31:13. | |
healthcare are free for all, and many who lost their jobs simply got | :31:13. | :31:17. | |
another degree to make themselves more employable. There is also no | :31:17. | :31:21. | |
glass ceiling in this country. Participation rates by women are | :31:21. | :31:24. | |
amongst the highest in the world. From the Prime Minister to the | :31:24. | :31:29. | |
Finance Minister and to business leaders at all levels, women are | :31:29. | :31:39. | |
:31:39. | :31:42. | ||
vital to this economy. People always say that if you can see Esja | :31:42. | :31:48. | |
from any parliament the price is a million pounds higher. This woman | :31:48. | :31:52. | |
used to be the Mayor of One of Reykjavik's wealthiest suburbs, now | :31:52. | :31:56. | |
she runs a privately-owned care home service, her biggest customers | :31:56. | :32:00. | |
are local authorities. When you start a new business, and the | :32:00. | :32:08. | |
economy just like, overnight collapses, it is like wow, can we | :32:08. | :32:16. | |
really, really survive. But at the same time, I always had in mind a | :32:16. | :32:22. | |
sentence from one of my professor, when I was doing my MBA studies. | :32:22. | :32:27. | |
One I was doing my studies, he said "and then when you go out there to | :32:27. | :32:32. | |
run companies, keep in mind it is not like an exciting movie, it is | :32:32. | :32:37. | |
more like a soap opera, you do the same things over and over and over | :32:37. | :32:40. | |
again". With that in mind, we are doing a soap opera. | :32:40. | :32:45. | |
When the crisis struck in the autumn of 2008, Iceland's economy | :32:45. | :32:48. | |
entered an apparent death spiral, spluinging for ten straight | :32:48. | :32:52. | |
quarters, but by letting its currency collapse and its bloated | :32:52. | :32:57. | |
banks simply die, things turned around rapidly, so since 2011, | :32:58. | :33:01. | |
Iceland has seen seven straight quarters of growth, averaging at | :33:01. | :33:07. | |
around 2.5% per an number. But the macro-economic picture | :33:07. | :33:11. | |
hides the reality for many ordinary Icelandic people. Thousands have | :33:11. | :33:15. | |
had to emigrate in search of work, that has artificially kept the | :33:15. | :33:18. | |
unemployment rate down. For those who have stayed, many of them have | :33:18. | :33:23. | |
taken on second or third jobs, in order to maintain living standards. | :33:23. | :33:26. | |
They are still amongst the highest in the world. | :33:27. | :33:36. | |
:33:37. | :33:40. | ||
The question is, how long can Iceland maintain this facade. | :33:40. | :33:44. | |
Neil McMahon has been living here 38 years, he's a full-time teacher, | :33:45. | :33:49. | |
but also translator and tour guide. He and his daughter met me in a | :33:49. | :33:56. | |
restaurant in the reinvigorated area Marina area. For an outsider | :33:56. | :34:01. | |
reading articles in the newspaper, or following a brief TV coverage of | :34:01. | :34:06. | |
Iceland, they might be fooled into believing that Icelanders have | :34:06. | :34:11. | |
managed to extricate themselves very effectively from this crisis. | :34:11. | :34:16. | |
However, there is still a lot of problems, people have lost their | :34:16. | :34:24. | |
homes, particularly perhaps the younger generation, people who had | :34:24. | :34:30. | |
huge mortgages and are now having to try and deal with this situation. | :34:30. | :34:36. | |
I work as a teacher, and after 35 years in the profession as a | :34:36. | :34:43. | |
secondary teacher I come out with �24,000 annually. It would be | :34:43. | :34:48. | |
rather difficult to make ends meet on that. Icelanders know many | :34:48. | :34:52. | |
countries, including Britain, are watching their economic recovery | :34:53. | :34:56. | |
very closely. Certainly, when this crisis broke, | :34:56. | :35:02. | |
Reykjavik didn't abide by the usual rules. Apart from letting the | :35:02. | :35:06. | |
bloated banks collapse, Iceland also imposed strict capital | :35:06. | :35:09. | |
controls. Even today companies and individuals need permission to take | :35:09. | :35:14. | |
money out of the country. So what can the UK, with its still dominant | :35:14. | :35:22. | |
banking sector learn from Iceland's experience? Don't defend on a | :35:22. | :35:26. | |
formal economy. It was not real, -- on a phoney economy. It was not | :35:26. | :35:30. | |
real. We understand in Iceland if we look back, we see very clearly | :35:30. | :35:36. | |
this was not real. This was completely a bubble. The financial | :35:36. | :35:42. | |
business is very necessary, don't get me wrong, but it is very, it is | :35:42. | :35:46. | |
very dangerous as a business, because it sucks the best, it is | :35:46. | :35:54. | |
not real. This business is very real, they make the bionic legs, | :35:54. | :35:58. | |
which the called Blade Runner, Oscar Pistorious, has made so | :35:58. | :36:01. | |
famous. They help many people, including soldiers who have lost | :36:01. | :36:05. | |
limbs in Afghanistan, to abandon their wheelchairs, and vastly | :36:05. | :36:12. | |
improve their quality of life. They struggled to find engineers during | :36:12. | :36:15. | |
the regin of the banks, because they couldn't match the salaries, | :36:15. | :36:22. | |
not any more. Like so many Icelandic firms, engineers work in | :36:22. | :36:30. | |
engineering since the crash. Of course, they are the lucky ones, | :36:30. | :36:34. | |
well-paid specialists rarely have their homes repossessed. But it is | :36:34. | :36:38. | |
a reality facing thousands of Icelanders tethered to thousands of | :36:38. | :36:42. | |
mortgages that never get paid off. It is an intergenerational conflict | :36:42. | :36:46. | |
as grandparents have to pass their debts on. What is so serious is | :36:46. | :36:51. | |
those who had their houses with no debts, like elderly people, they | :36:51. | :36:56. | |
gave the mortgage to their children or grandchildren. It is like their | :36:56. | :37:01. | |
eating up our homes. It is very important for us now to just take | :37:01. | :37:05. | |
the status on where are we, and where do we want to go, what kind | :37:05. | :37:10. | |
of society do we want, into the long-term future. That is the big | :37:10. | :37:15. | |
question we should be asking at the moment. And one part of this | :37:15. | :37:18. | |
question is whether we should be a member of the European Union, | :37:18. | :37:25. | |
whether we should be a member of the eurozone. I have answered this | :37:25. | :37:35. | |
question on, for me personal, and my answer is yes. | :37:35. | :37:40. | |
Over all, I think, that we are just typical islanders, with hopes and | :37:40. | :37:49. | |
dreams. You could also saying, maybe we have been a little bit | :37:49. | :37:58. | |
arrogant in the past. Hopefully we are evolving into a more humble | :37:58. | :38:05. | |
nation after what we have been through. Now, Google today admitted | :38:05. | :38:10. | |
that users in China were no longer being warned when their internet | :38:10. | :38:13. | |
searches were being censored, the news appeared a victory for the | :38:13. | :38:17. | |
authorities in Beijing who had frequently sabotaged Google's | :38:17. | :38:22. | |
attempts to warn of censorship. But 2,000kms south of the capital, the | :38:22. | :38:27. | |
city of Guangzhou was experiencing rare genes of public defiance | :38:27. | :38:31. | |
against censorship, as people rallied behind journalists of the | :38:31. | :38:36. | |
Southern Weekend newspaper, after it was forced to change an | :38:36. | :38:43. | |
editorial calling for reform, into a tribute in praise of the | :38:43. | :38:48. | |
Communist Party. TRANSLATION: You can speak, he can | :38:48. | :38:55. | |
speak, I can speak, let us discuss. Protestors want the local censor | :38:55. | :39:02. | |
dismissed and more political freedoms. On the Twitter-style | :39:02. | :39:05. | |
blogging site, one Chinese activists with 30,000 followers, | :39:05. | :39:09. | |
appeared to intimate her support for the protests. Ever since the | :39:09. | :39:13. | |
violent crackdown on protestors in Tiananmen Square in 1989, China has | :39:13. | :39:18. | |
bought off some political protests, through the Communist Party's | :39:18. | :39:22. | |
greatest achievement, increased prosperity. The new leadership | :39:22. | :39:25. | |
promises reforms. But retains a strong grip on what Chinese | :39:25. | :39:30. | |
citizens can see, read and hear in the media. The official Global | :39:30. | :39:37. | |
Times said in an editoria that, "in China's current social reality, | :39:37. | :39:41. | |
there cannot be the free media these people hope in their hearts | :39:41. | :39:45. | |
for". Perhaps not, so far the protests have remained very small. | :39:45. | :39:49. | |
But Beijing knows the great political movement of the Arab | :39:49. | :39:53. | |
Spring began with one tiny protest by a single fruit seller in Tunisia, | :39:53. | :39:59. | |
fed up with police harassment. What is certain is educated outward | :39:59. | :40:03. | |
looking ambitious young Chinese, are far less prepared than a | :40:03. | :40:08. | |
generation ago, to accept the bargain of prosperity at the | :40:08. | :40:14. | |
expense of freedom. We have the Editor in Chief of the | :40:14. | :40:20. | |
paper that tries to bring stories about the real China. What are your | :40:20. | :40:24. | |
thoughts on the significance of the protests, given they are quite | :40:24. | :40:30. | |
small? It started big, and now it is getting even bigger. When I said | :40:30. | :40:37. | |
big, it is because Southern Weekend is not just a newspaper, or any | :40:37. | :40:44. | |
provincial newspaper. It is a most reputable newspaper, nationwide | :40:44. | :40:51. | |
newspaper, for over a decade. It has millions and millions of loyal | :40:51. | :40:58. | |
readers across the country. It is a party newspaper, but it is a very | :40:58. | :41:02. | |
reformed-minded newspaper. It often pushes the envelope. Particularly | :41:02. | :41:10. | |
on this event, the Southern Weekend had the tradition which put a very | :41:10. | :41:18. | |
elaborate new year's letter, an editorial with a fancy rhetoric | :41:18. | :41:25. | |
full of hope and inspiration that every year it tried to inspire the | :41:25. | :41:32. | |
people to move forward to progress. At the back of that value is always | :41:32. | :41:36. | |
justice and freedom. This year, it is on that very important message | :41:36. | :41:40. | |
of the nationally respected newspaper, something went badly | :41:40. | :41:46. | |
wrong. In that sense, then, how big a challenge is this for the new | :41:46. | :41:49. | |
leadership, for Xi Jinping and the others, how difficult will it be | :41:49. | :41:55. | |
for them to handle? This is something we have yet to see. I | :41:55. | :42:04. | |
think it is a real test. First of all, since Mr Xi Jinping took his | :42:04. | :42:09. | |
party secretary position, and the chairman of the military | :42:09. | :42:14. | |
commitmenty, that he is officially head of the country, but not | :42:14. | :42:17. | |
President of the People's Republic of China, that won't be until the | :42:18. | :42:25. | |
spring. He has already given a very strong speech about China's dream. | :42:25. | :42:28. | |
He's trying to build some kind of consensus and public support, both | :42:28. | :42:34. | |
inside the country and outside, and in the general population, under a | :42:34. | :42:38. | |
slogan of "China's dream", and he will be the leader to lead the | :42:38. | :42:42. | |
country towards it. But what is exactly the Chinese dream? He gave | :42:42. | :42:47. | |
some kind of definition in his speech, and the Southern Weekend, | :42:47. | :42:53. | |
the new year's editorial, had a title, which was censored later, | :42:54. | :43:01. | |
had a title called "China's dream, dream of constitutional rule", that | :43:01. | :43:04. | |
precise message was censored by the propaganda department. That is | :43:04. | :43:11. | |
where the conflict starts. Do you see this as some kind of watershed | :43:11. | :43:15. | |
moment. I said the Arab Spring began with one fruit seller and one | :43:15. | :43:21. | |
protest and it got very big. Is it something like that, because the | :43:21. | :43:26. | |
bargain of we will make you more prosperous if you keep quiet about | :43:26. | :43:32. | |
human rights s that bargain changing? It is changing. There is | :43:32. | :43:37. | |
a small level of street protest in Guangzhou right now, but I don't | :43:37. | :43:44. | |
know how that will spread. An entire society, on the street | :43:44. | :43:46. | |
movement, requires many other conditions, and I cannot see that | :43:46. | :43:50. | |
in China at the moment. In terms it of a message, there is a similarity, | :43:50. | :43:57. | |
because the event, at this point, is no more just about one newspaper, | :43:57. | :44:04. | |
with its party propaganda chief, it is a nationwide, participated, | :44:04. | :44:08. | |
public protest, through the Internet, not anywhere else. It is | :44:08. | :44:16. | |
nationwide. Let me give you another very concrete example on this, | :44:16. | :44:23. | |
talking about China's dream, the Mr Xi Jinping's dream, when he was | :44:23. | :44:28. | |
giving the speech, he touched upon material, the food, the safety, | :44:28. | :44:32. | |
retirement, medical assurances, healthcare and those things people | :44:32. | :44:36. | |
care about, then he jumped from materialism to collective national | :44:36. | :44:42. | |
pride, which the rejufisation of Chinese society in the world. There | :44:42. | :44:46. | |
is something badly missing in the definition of the dream, is | :44:46. | :44:52. | |
individual dignity, that is exactly where the Southern Weekend news | :44:52. | :44:58. | |
editorial, which was later censureed, touched upon. On that | :44:58. | :45:08. | |
:45:08. | :45:42. | ||
note thank you for joining us. A That's it for us from tonight. We | :45:42. | :45:52. | |
:45:52. | :46:17. | ||
will have more tomorrow. Until then, Hello, we have had the cloud over | :46:17. | :46:21. | |
Hello, we have had the cloud over the last couple of days. More to | :46:21. | :46:25. | |
come on Tuesday. Much of the country with grey skies, still rain, | :46:25. | :46:28. | |
tomorrow it begins to move further south and east, allowing brighter | :46:28. | :46:34. | |
skies as part of Scotland and Northern Ireland. 3.3030am, we have | :46:34. | :46:44. | |
:46:44. | :46:51. | ||
patchy rain in northern England and Clearing away through the afternoon. | :46:51. | :46:54. | |
Up towards Anglesey, we are looking at brighter weather to finish off | :46:54. | :46:58. | |
the day. Much brighter, for Northern Ireland, but it will turn | :46:58. | :47:03. | |
colder, temperatures at 3.3030pm, 9 degrees, a similar story for | :47:03. | :47:07. | |
Scotland, a dryer, brighter afternoon, but a colder feel to | :47:07. | :47:11. |