24/08/2016 Newsnight

At least 120 have been killed and many are missing

after an earthquake in central Italy.

Buildings have been reduced to rubble as the rescue

TRANSLATION: I really don't know what to say.

We are living through this tragedy and we're only hoping

that there will be the fewest number of victims as possible

and that we will have the courage to move on.

Italy is all too familiar with the devastation that

As well as hearing from the area that's been hit today,

we'll look at why that region is so vulnerable.

Also tonight, the ban on the burkini - is this the problem with it?

A picture of armed police telling a woman on a beach she's

We'll ask when it's right for a state to take such a hard line.

From Stoke on Trent to Stoke Newington,

Newsnight's effort to bring harmony where there is discord.

We just happen to have contrary views.

And those are as valid as each other's.

Business leader Sir Martin Sorrell is with us to tell us how Brexit

A magnitude 6.2 earthquake does not sound that large -

in fact at that size, they occur every few days

But magnitude is often no guide to impact, and the earthquake that

struck in central Italy in the early hours of this morning

The town of Amatrice was particularly badly hit.

It's the town famous world over for its Amatriciana pasta sauce

and was due to celebrate a food festival this weekend.

The mayor said half the town isn't here any more and that was,

The scale of destruction clearest from the air.

The clocktower seems to be the only building to have survived.

The clock itself, stuck on the time the quake struck.

Sister Marianna was pulled from the wreckage of her

Some of her fellow sisters were still trapped inside.

When I realised what had happened, I tried to hide myself

And then I went outside to ask for help but no one heard me.

Moving a few miles north, to the town of Accumoli,

He had been buried under rubble for nine hours.

Here, an official talks to a woman who is trapped.

"Can you breathe?" he asks.

For the earthquake itself, it is the inevitable CCTV images

This motorway camera shows the moment it hit, just

Quite apart from the pictures of an aftermath we are all familiar

with, there have poignant accounts of rescuers dealing with those

One witness described "screaming women looking for their children".

The region was more populated than usual, with tourists

Italy is, of course, notoriously vulnerable

to earthquakes - and that Umbrian region in the centre

Today's quake was actually centred on Norcia in that province.

Back in 1997, not too far away, there was a quake that badly

affected the city of St Francis, Assisi.

The quake then was thankfully less deadly.

It killed 11 but it badly damaged the Basilica and medieval frescoes.

Then in 2009, the town of L'Aquilia was near the centre of an earthquake

I spoke to Professor Dina D'Ayala, co-director of the Earthquake

and People Interaction Centre at University College, London.

I asked why that region has so many earthquakes.

The reality is that the Apennine is an emerging mountain range that

has been created by the, let's say, the thrust of the African plate

against the Euro Asian plate and this

There are many faults along the Apennines and any of them at any

And the Apennines are basically all the way down the centre

Our reporter, John Sweeney, was nearby the earthquake when it

struck and he's been on the ground for us today.

John, you have been out and about, talking to people, tell us about

your day and what you found? Well, the day started in the middle of the

night, 3.30, and to be honest with you, Evan, I thought when the quake

hit, I was in Perugia, 90 miles from here, I thought John, you have to

give up drinking, and then I realised it wasn't me that was drunk

it was the ground was drunk and you really, really can't get across how

disorientating it is, so suddenly the ground, the earth which should

be solid is shaking, dancing, it is jelly. It was ghastly. And there was

a second shock, and this is 90 miles away and again, this fear and it is

an animal thing, it was really scary, and, so we came down here,

and we went to a village on the mountain side called Pescara, when

the earth shook, the whole village collapsed and it is desperate. You

wander round, you see bank statement, tax bill, kids's toys,

people's suitcases and the noise must have been extraordinarily

frightening, because great big boulders and rocks and houses were

coming down, people survived in that, and they must have lived

through something horrible. Nevertheless, I spoke to one woman,

who lost her auntie and uncle, at least they are missing presumed

dead, and she was, she was holding back because great big boulders and

rocks and houses were coming down, people survived in that, and they

must have lived through something horrible. Nevertheless, I spoke to

one woman, who lost her auntie and uncle, at least they are missing

presumed dead, and she was, she was holding back her grief, and I said

"What is the future for your town? Town? " He said there is no future.

One of the tragic things is this area is littered with towns and

villages which have been abandoned this century, last century and 300,

400 years back, so there is a history of this happening but it is

frightening to see the scale of the damage and when you get to Amatrice,

it is grim. Look behind me, you can see some of it, it's a flavour of it

and it is difficult to get across just how bad things are here. You

make the point of course, there are lots of villages we haven't

mentioned, the coverage has focussed on Amatrice, what would you say the

situation is on the ground now? How much of a grip are they getting on

the rescue effort, for example? Well, to get here, it is really

difficult, the police have closed off the roads and we got a lift from

the Red Cross. I have to say, all credit to the people of Italy, and

the volunteers, who have come -- come in their hundreds, maybe their

thousands to the earthquake zone, but what was sad was as we were

coming up the mountain, down the mountain there was maybe a dozen,

maybe more ambulances going down the hill, for this reason. That when the

quake struck that is when people died, and yes, there are people

missing, and I am afraid nearly all of those are probably dead and maybe

there will be some survivor, I hope, so but nevertheless, there isn't,

you have to look after people, people are homeless and so forth,

but essentially, the, the death, the big death, that is behind us now.

The number, 120, I think lit go up, I don't know, but it feels, you look

at the damage, you think how can people survive this? I feel lit go

up. John, thank you very much. It's not always easy

being a Western liberal democracy. We like to think we are tolerant

of difference and deviance, but at the same time we do

often demand conformity. In this country we've fined people

who've burned poppies on Remembrance Day while shouting

gross remarks about British troops. We've fined people for

insulting the Welsh and, And we don't encourage people

to walk naked through the streets. Does that make us illiberal

hypocrites or simply human? Where do you draw that line

between individual rights and a constructed norm

of social decency? Well, in France right now

they are testing that line. Several towns have banned burkinis -

the full body cover used on beaches You could say it's the French way -

trying to create social harmony by imposing a national

view of shared values, in this case that women are not

expected to be too modest. The other way, perhaps more British,

is to create social harmony The problem that's emerged

with the French approach is that it has to be enforced,

which means policeman - possibly armed -

on beaches instructing women Bans on wearing the so-called

burkini, a full body swimming costume which leaves only the face,

hands and feet exposed have been making headlines for the past ten

days. The outfit has come to represent

France's internal struggling with how it relates to its largest

minority, and it is a debate taking place across Europe.

But in the last 24 hours, these photos of armed French police

appearing to force a Muslim woman to remove a long sleeved is tunic while

she sits on a beach in Nice have spread round world. She is one of at

least 16 Muslim women in France to have been fined 38 euros for

according to ticket issued to one woman not wearing an outfit

respecting good morals and secularism. You have three armed

cop, forces you to undress, fine you, because of the way you look

like. I mean, Muslim women feel even more stigmatised, but even if you

are not Muslim, it's offensive, it is degrade, it is humiliating, and I

don't think it's the job of cops to do that, I mean they are here to

ensure security not to be the fashion police. Nice where the

photos were taken is one of at least 15 French towns to enforce a ban on

access to beaches for anyone wearing improper clothing. The word buck

anyisn't mentioned. The mayor of Cannes, the first French town to

introduce the restriction said: Tomorrow, France's highest court

will decide whether the bans can stay in place. It feels like we do

not belong here, we are not welcome here, we are not part of this

country, the problem is French Muslims are French, they are part of

society, they built this society. They were part of the people who

built France, literally, so it cannot, we cannot go on like this,

and at the moment the climate is despicable. She may well have reason

to be worried. Marine Le Pen's far right party the Front National are

currently topping the polls ahead of next year's Presidential election

and everyone else is playing to their tune. Former President Sarkozy

is promising to place new restrictions on Muslim dress and

ensure French Muslims adapt to secular life if he is reelected to

his old office, in his new book that sets out this provision, M Sarkozy

takes a direct swipe at the way we do things here in Britain. We are

not Anglo-Saxons who allow communities to live side by side

while ignoring one another. The model we have celebrated by

Muslims, because it allows us, enables us to be participatory

citizens without having to have restriction on our human right, I

find it baffling that a modern, 21st century liberal democracy in Europe,

part of the European Union, an original member of the European

Union can call itself liberal democracy, with universal values of

human rights, and you know, the progressive values of feminism, when

we are dictating what women should and should not wear, in public

spaces. The idea that women can be fined

because of how they dress is baffling to many people here in

Britain, not just Muslims. After the London terror attacks in

2005, there was much talk about whether a French approach of forced

integration could be the best way to prevent further Islamist inspired

violence but today, as France grapples with its identity and

security, and when even left leaning politicians are telling women what

to wear, few in Britain are looking to the French for answers.

Joining me in the studio is Shelina Janmohammed,

author of Love in a Headscarf and Generation M.

And from our Oxford studio, Douglas Murray, associate

Shelina, you have it burkini? I have one, it looks like a long T-shirt

with a pair of leggings and a swimming cup. Did you know it was

going to be such an important statement? It looks like a wet suit

that people wear, which we need in British waters. And in the South of

France because it is hot. It is not the burkini, it is some kind of

meaning being imposed on us. Is that not what this is all about? You have

written about this, this is a tokenistic thing, about the politics

of picking on some symbol, however how arbitrary, and making a big deal

out of something relatively small? Indeed, in the last 18 months more

than 200 people have been killed in attacks in France and in the last

few days it has come out from Germany that the German government

is looking not only at advising the German people to stockpile essential

things like water in case of some mass casualty attack but talking

about conscription and here we are, with the summer's big story of

French and some German politicians competing to out idiot each other by

talking about the burkini, this is a European tradition in the face of a

genuinely serious societal problem that radical Islam poses across

Europe and has its worst demonstrations in extremist attacks

like those in Paris and Germany in recent months and in the face of

that, politicians compete with each other and the media competes about

really frivolous things and the burkini is a frivolous debate, not

one life is likely to be saved by a woman being fined on a beach for

wearing a burkini. And the reason they are doing this is

straightforward, neither politicians in France or Germany or anywhere in

Europe are able to face up to the massive issues which they have

brought about and which they now cannot answer. Let us talk about

whether you think there is cowardice, do you agree? They are

focusing on the little things because they do not want to talk a

big cultural war between Muslims and the West? I think we need to take a

moment to step back and imagine for women around the country and the

world what it is like to sit on a beach wedding sand castles with your

children and have four policemen standing around you with handguns

and make you take your top off. Everybody needs to let that sink in.

It is why we are discussing this. This is not just about Muslim women,

when we have a state and police telling women what they can and

cannot wear, we are into dangerous territory and I will tell you which

other organisations tell women what to wear at the barrel of a gun and

that is Daesh and the extremists and women everywhere should be

protesting at this time of behaviour. The Mayor of Cannes said

when I took the decision to ban people from walking topless on the

streets of Cannes nobody said anything about human rights. He

probably did not also say that women who wanted to go for a swim were

somehow pledging allegiance to a terrorist organisation. Douglas,

what is the better approach? To the problem which you think exists, the

French approach that Nicolas Sarkozy promotes or the Anglo-Saxon approach

that President Sarkozy says he does not think it is right because we

ignore each other and tolerate each other but ignore each other. One of

the things that has been said, which is, of course the parallel that has

been drawn breaks down when we remember that the French

authorities, grotesque as this is, do not do to the women what Isis

Amytal abounded, which is raped and killed them, so this parallel goes a

certain way but we have to keep this in some context. As for the

competing manners of dealing with this, the interesting thing is, in

the last 15 years we have had so many manifestations of this,

something blows up in London and people say we should maybe look to

the French model and then 130 people get gunned down in Paris and people

think, we should maybe look at the Norwegian model or the Swedish model

or the German model and the fact is, everybody realises that none of

these models have worked, they have broken down, none of them were fit

for purpose. So when Nicolas Sarkozy, for purely electoral

reasons, says the Anglo-Saxon model of people living side by side in

parallel communities, if there was no visual video evidence of this, I

would suspect that Nicolas Sarkozy has never been to the suburbs of

Paris because if he did go to them, he would see that precisely that

parallel exists and exists in France. I would argue, worse than

any other European country, but it is not a question of who has done

this really well or badly, everybody has failed in the integration,

everybody has failed because immigration at levels we have had,

particularly the levels that Chancellor Merkel has put the

continent into having, cannot possibly work. The point is

understood, I want Shelina to have her reply to that. The French or

British model? Or do you agree with Douglas that no model has worked?

The problem is, when we try to stitch together ideas about

immigration and what women should and should not wear on the idea that

there is some kind of security and terrorism problem, we are

approaching the issue the wrong way and that is how we end up with

policemen telling women to take off their clothes. We need to think

about how we can enforce the rule of law to allow citizens to flourish

and that has to be by allowing people to express their values and

participate in society and if Muslim women want to do that by the way

they dress, but by being part of public society, we have to allow

them to express that, that is a fundamental of living in a liberal

democracy. Thank you both. It's not just the EU

that is facing its challenges A wave of anti-establishment

politicians have been questioning some of the basic precepts

of the organisation. Donald Trump is fairly blase

about Nato, and has suggested he'd only help members who pay their fair

share towards defence. And then here, of course,

there is Jeremy Corbyn, He's called it an engine

for the delivery of oil Would you get involved

militarily, if.... I would want to avoid us getting

involved militarily by building up the diplomatic relationships,

and also trying to not isolate any Everyone would want to avoid

it, but would you get I don't wish - I don't wish to go

to war, what I want to do is achieve a world where we don't need to go

to war, where there Well, I spoke to

Anders Fogh Rasmussen. He was once the Prime Minister

of Denmark, and then became Secretary General

of Nato until 2014. Well, I think his refusal

to clearly state that, as a Prime Minister,

or possible Prime Minister of the UK, he would not be sure

that he would defend Nato allies, has really, really undermined

the credibility of Nato, and if he were to carry out

what he has said, it would tempt Mr Putin to aggression,

to test the resolve of Nato. You really believe that,

that the word of a British Prime Minister, assuming he was elected,

would President Putin to do what, to invade Poland,

or what are you thinking? I don't think that Mr Putin

would conduct an open attack on a Nato ally,

but what we might see is what we call hybrid warfare,

this mix of small green men, and sophisticated disinformation,

as we saw when he illegally annexed I mean, one of the things that

Mr Corbyn has said - not on the occasion we have been

talking about, but on other occasions - he has said that Nato

should have basically aestablished itself in 1990, the Cold War

was over, but instead of doing that, it expanded, it expanded both

to the east and centre of Europe, which obviously Russia thought

was perhaps something of a threat, I mean, he used this phrase

"Afghanistan is not part of the north Atlantic,

so what is Nato going in and working That it has overreached itself

massively from its Cold War days As far as I know, Mr Corbyn said

that Nato should give up, go home, go away, and almost

word-by-word, that's the message I receive from President Putin,

who was then a Prime So there's no doubt that

if Mr Corbyn were to be elected Prime Minister of the UK,

there will be a big, It will really play

into the hands of Mr Putin. Well, Corbyn would play

into the hands of Putin. Let's talk about the other character

elected, potentially electable politician,

President Donald Trump. What do those words,

President Donald Trump, do to you, Donald Trump has also raised doubts

about the credibility of Nato. He has said that the American

commitment to defending a Nato ally would be very much dependent

on these allies' financial contributions to Nato,

and of course, this also plays So, if in a hypothetical situation

you would have a President Trump and a Prime Minister Corbyn of the UK,

it would significantly weaken Nato. I would say it would weaken

the whole western civilisation, I just wonder whether this

new politics is terrifying you, because it is a threat

to the established order that you have enjoyed and you like,

but whether maybe the public are just fed up with what was

going on before? There is no doubt that this

is an anti-establishment policy, but returning to Mr Corbyn,

I know that the Labour Party fancies the basic principles

like solidarity, collectivity, None of these principles

are fulfilled by Mr Corbyn in his statement, so actually

I think he has betrayed the fundamental principles

upon which Labour Party usually Thank you very much,

Anders Fogh Rasmussen. And a spokesperson for Jeremy Corbyn

told us this evening: "Britain's membership

of Nato is not in dispute. The aim of both Britain and Nato

should be to prevent conflict, and Parliament must have the final

say on any military action. Those were the points

Jeremy was emphasising Two months ago today,

we were adjusting to the news It was not the decision

that business wanted - indeed, the Leave campaign tried

to turn big business support for Remain into

an argument for getting out. Business, meanwhile,

warned of some awful Well, among the big beasts

of the British business landscape is Sir Martin Sorrell,

chief executive of WPP, the world's biggest advertising

and communications company. Their results released

today are mainly driven by the rest of the world,

but were up. And even the UK post-Brexit

seemed to have perked up. You are big beast! Were getting

mixed signals, April to June, we saw some softening in the UK which we

attribute to the pre-Brexit concerns and July, one month, it was better.

We saw a little perking up in the UK but having said that, we have the

Bank of England correction on interest rates, they had to try to

correct the concerned about the economy and of course the pound

devalued from 1.5 to the dollar to 1.3 and the euro, and that gives us

a huge tailwind with -- with foreign currency in the second half of this

year. Your profits will go up as a result of the fall in the pound

because you burn stuff in dollars? That is what we were clever enough

to do, Eddie 6% of our business, 14% in the UK. That is not something I

want to profit from, the weakness of the pound, it is basically the

country's stock and it does not augur well unless we get our act

together and act like the Germans. The Germans managed to export

extremely effectively with the euro even strengthening historically

although it has weakened against some currencies so it is really a

question of behaving like the Germans. What do you want to happen?

There is a dilemma about business certainty, quick or take a long time

and work it out? We want certainty, I cannot speak for everybody but the

general tone is wanting certainty, a quick fix and let us get on with our

lives... The problem is the government wants to lengthen the

process and I have been in the US for three weeks and reading the

newspapers digitally, you read one weekend, we're not going to trigger

Article 50 until the end of 2017, denied by Downing Street, the next

week it is April, denied, will it end up somewhere between April

and... They are thinking about it! It is a difficult situation. If I

told you there was no chance of that never happen, if we slowed

everything down, that would be a real dilemma for you! Were on the

horns of a dilemma, you are right, I hope we do not fall through but

having said that, my personal hope is that the process is so

complicated and the results, frankly, are tepid over this

two-year period because none two years from triggering Article 50,

then we have to get 20 of the 27 member states to approve the terms

so we will end up in front of the election, the comments of Owen Smith

this morning were interesting. We will end up just before the election

in 2020 with the terms agreed, the economy questioning whether it will

do better, probably having a tough time because it will try to sort out

these trade treaties, we outsource capability to Brussels and then one

civil servant telling me before the vote it would take ten years to sort

out these trade negotiations and maybe the Prime Minister, Theresa

May, what say before the election we need another referendum to confirm

what you voted for in 2016... You have seen the deal. Life is not as

good as we thought! The Leave campaign managed to turn

big business into a disadvantage, the Government thought, the support

of big business is going to scare people away? It is not dissimilar to

what we have seen on the left-wing Bernie Sanders in America and the

right-wing with Donald Trump, and in lots of other, the Five Star

Movement in Italy, what we have seen in Spain, what we have seen in

Greece, the rise of populism which includes the rise against the

factors and the institutions. Do you ever ask yourself, and you are the

best paid person in Britain, basically, do you ask yourself

onliness on the basis of performance. You said to yourself,

have I got something to answer for here, it is partly we didn't share

the proseeds of growth, we didn't listen to the parts of the country

that haven't kept up with the advertisers in London. I take a bit

of exception to that. I am talking about WPP I can't talk for everybody

else. We started in 1985 with two people in a room. We have 200,000

people directly or indirectly employed in the company in 113

countries. We are talking about 600 to 800,000 people. I am very proud

of the fact that 600-800,000 people rely for their livelihood on WPP.

Long may it last, long may it increase, in the UK, we have gone up

from 14,000 people to 18,000 people in the last four or five years when

the Government and other people have been worried about employment. So

the service sector of which we are a crucial part, I would argue, have

been successful. So we have in that sense, shared it. The rewards for

the company are based on performance. We went from ?1 million

capitalisation to over ?22 billion. 50 percent bigger than any other

competitor in our sector. Thank you. You can go back to great

divisions of the past 15th century Lancastrians

versus Yorkists, 16th century protestants versus catholics,

17th century royalists versus roundheads, 19th century free

traders vresus corn law supporters. The EU debate has felt

like the 21st century equivalent. No civil war as yet,

but are we getting over Katie Razzall has been to Stoke -

actually to two Stokes - to talk to those on either side,

who were out of sync What's it like to be squeezed out

of the political debate To be out of kilter with most

of the people you meet? On Referendum Day in Stoke-on-Trent,

nearly 70% of voters It is one of many parts of Britain

that voted overwhelmingly But in all of those places,

there were some who formed I found it very difficult coming

to work, because I was in tears. I felt like I had woken up

to a world I didn't Based in one of Britain's last

working Victorian potteries, Lisa Slinn specialises in ceramics,

many of which are inspired by Europe On the actual day of the referendum,

we had a small discussion around here, and I was basically

the only Remainer. It was an incredible feeling

being that much of To turn around and say

we want to operate in isolation, that is not my view of myself

as a European, it is not how My feeling about why people voted

to leave here is overwhelmingly I am marrying an immigrant myself,

in a couple of weeks' time. People didn't want

to listen to anybody. People were so entrenched

in their gut feelings and point of view they didn't listen

to experts any more. There's happiness around

you that you can't share in? I feel like I have this

knowledge of doom, really, 150 miles south of Stoke-on-Trent

is Stoke Newington, in the heart This is a place of Remainers,

somewhere Lisa might feel at home. Hackney overwhelmingly supported

Britain's staying in the EU. But even here, some voted

against the status quo. Like I'm aware of being in a huge

minority and have been ever since I realised how

I was going to vote. Out is not the cool choice

in Stoke Newington. No, it isn't, but I've never

been cool, so... If there are prejudices

about people who voted Leave, He is a gay, former restaurant

manager, with an open world view. A lot of people who I don't know

well, who I have met socially, That is because they think

of you as the kind of person... They perceive me to be a person

who would vote Remain, because they see me

as someone who is literate, who can show an argument,

and therefore they think what is this person who can string

two words together doing voting out? And I think there are a lot

of people who can string two words I had a conversation

with a young waiter. He was patently a Remainer,

and had nothing but disdain to say. I suspect he knew by the end

of our conversation, What are you worried

about people thinking? You are worried people will think

you're a racist for voting out? And of course, my whole life

experience is so contrary. I have been blessed by the people

I have met, from Europe They make our country

so incredibly diverse, and it saddens me so much that

people think automatically that we are racist because we believe

in the end of the EU. I do feel that the sadness

of a a number of Londoners doesn't let them think

about the possibilities We brought our Remain voter

from Stoke-on-Trent to meet our Stoke

Newington Outer. Could these Brexit minorities

find any common ground? I hope it is nice to

meet each other. I would love to share your wonderful

view of the future, and your very optimistic view that you feel

you have been liberated, that this Unfortunately, my gut instinct

tells me it is only going to get For me, it is a no-brainer,

that we can deal with the world, rather than just Europe,

which has become What I hate is the fact my identity

can be framed with either Every single person that I have

spoken to, who I have asked for facts around why they voted

to leave, the first thing they say They do not talk about

the economics. Money has no relevance

to me, I don't have any. I would like to look at it not

through race, not through immigration, not through money,

but through people. And the people who enrich our

society - our borders are open. The fact you might have to jump

a few hoops to go through them I think a lot of people

are bewildered now. I think talking to people yesterday,

I went back in to speak to some people and they said "We never

thought it was really going Quite a few people said "I wish

I hadn't voted to leave now." That seems to be the narrative,

that people on the outside were misled, and they didn't -

they weren't really informed and that therefore they

made the wrong choice. Well, I don't think it is right

at all to say about anyone's choice I am not an ogre, you're not an ogre

we just happen to have contrary views, and those

are as valid as each others'. He has made me feel a lot more

reassured about people who very seriously thought about this

life-changing decision, He very measured, he is very

positive, he is a great believer in humanity,

and I feel that I can relate to him Just one constructive conversation

out of thousands that will need That's it for tonight, I'll be back

in the seat tomorrow. But before we go, it's the Newsnight

Prom now. Each day we are playing

out with an artist from Tonight, soprano Lucy Crowe

is singing for us. She is performing Mozart on Friday

night at 7.30, and will be live on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Four then,

but she's live for us now, not with Mozart, but with a folk

song, She Moved Through the Fair. # My own love said to me

My mother won't mind # And my father won't slight

you for your lack of kind # Then she lay her hand on me

And this she did say # It will not be long,

love till our wedding day # She stepped away from me

and she moved through the fair # And fondly I watched her move

here and move there # And she went her way homeward

with one star awake # As the swan in the evening

move over the lake # Last night she came to me,

my dead love came in # So softly she entered,

her feet made no din # She came close beside me

and this she did say # It will not be long, love, till

our wedding day. # A few flashes and bangs coming from

the skies overhead overnight. There will still be a few thunderstorms

round on Thursday. A humid start, with low cloud on eastern coasts.

More heavy thundery rain dropping in northern England a few showers

drifting into Northern Ireland, later