Browse content similar to 06/01/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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fortunes of English critic. We will also see how Portugal said farewell | :00:00. | :00:00. | |
to a footballing legend. And bad news for British tennis ahead of the | :00:00. | :00:00. | |
Australian open next week. Hello. Welcome to our lookahead at | :00:00. | :00:23. | |
what the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. With BR broadcaster Penny | :00:24. | :00:27. | |
Smith and Randeep Ramesh, the social affairs editor at The Guardian. We | :00:28. | :00:32. | |
will start with the Express. It says the good run for the FTSE 100 means | :00:33. | :00:38. | |
pensioners are due a windfall. The Financial Times says that Britain's | :00:39. | :00:41. | |
car industry is now the most buoyant in Europe thanks to improved | :00:42. | :00:46. | |
consumer confidence. The Telegraph says speed limit will be lowered on | :00:47. | :00:51. | |
some roads to reduce air pollution. The independently each with spending | :00:52. | :00:55. | |
cuts proposed I George Osborne, which have been criticised by the | :00:56. | :00:58. | |
Liberal Democrats. The Guardian says talks of a Cabinet clash over the | :00:59. | :01:05. | |
policy. The Mail says that the Environment Secretary wants shoppers | :01:06. | :01:08. | |
to buy British food in season, instead of imports. It also pictures | :01:09. | :01:13. | |
a giant wave in south Wales, and the people risking the storm for a front | :01:14. | :01:20. | |
row seat. We're going to start with this story that has been dominating | :01:21. | :01:23. | |
the news throughout the day, the announcement by the Chancellor that | :01:24. | :01:26. | |
if the Conservatives win the next election they will have more | :01:27. | :01:30. | |
spending cuts. ?25 billion worth, and about half of that is going to | :01:31. | :01:35. | |
come from the welfare budget. Let's show you some of the front pages, | :01:36. | :01:40. | |
detailing that. There you have the Guardian. Cabinet clash over Osborne | :01:41. | :01:48. | |
welfare cuts. The Independent, happy New Year from George Osborne. That | :01:49. | :01:51. | |
is his New Year message, there are going to be more cuts. Let's have a | :01:52. | :01:57. | |
look at... Well, that is it, actually. It is on the front page of | :01:58. | :02:02. | |
the Daily Telegraph as well, welfare cuts spark fury from Nick Clegg. It | :02:03. | :02:09. | |
is on the front there, as well. Randeep, it is not the New year's | :02:10. | :02:14. | |
message that people want to hear, but the Tory half of the coalition | :02:15. | :02:18. | |
is saying it is very necessary? George Osborne is doing two things, | :02:19. | :02:24. | |
looking for votes, and secondly he is pitching the political debate | :02:25. | :02:27. | |
where he wanted, talking tough about welfare. His thing is that Labour | :02:28. | :02:33. | |
does not have an offer in that space and he is going to win the argument | :02:34. | :02:36. | |
by talking tough on welfare. You can see the reaction from his Cabinet | :02:37. | :02:41. | |
colleagues, they are gassed. Iain Duncan Smith thinks, I have | :02:42. | :02:44. | |
delivered you ?18 billion worth of spending cuts. -- they are I -- | :02:45. | :02:56. | |
aghast. I think it is an interesting political debate. It may never come | :02:57. | :03:04. | |
to pass, because we have to see who wins the election. It is | :03:05. | :03:07. | |
interesting, one assumes that the Treasury, or at least the | :03:08. | :03:11. | |
Conservatives and Mr Crosby, have told this to within an inch of its | :03:12. | :03:16. | |
life and think it is a good idea? They must do. The thing is, they | :03:17. | :03:21. | |
keep on. Nick Clegg has been talking about it as being an unrealistic, | :03:22. | :03:26. | |
unfair attack on the poor while demanding no sacrifices from the | :03:27. | :03:30. | |
wealthy. In fact, I think the big point here is, can they, if they did | :03:31. | :03:36. | |
when, if the Conservatives did win in 2015, could there be a coalition? | :03:37. | :03:42. | |
You have the death of a minister talking about how you have a | :03:43. | :03:46. | |
Conservative Party driven by two ideological impulses. One is too | :03:47. | :03:51. | |
remorselessly pare back the state for ideological reasons, secondly, I | :03:52. | :03:56. | |
think they are making a monument of the stake in doing so. -- monumental | :03:57. | :04:03. | |
mistake in doing so. When you are talking about politicians that are | :04:04. | :04:08. | |
used to pussyfooting around, being careful, that seems extraordinarily | :04:09. | :04:12. | |
strong. You obviously know more than me about that, but it seems quite | :04:13. | :04:18. | |
strong? I think it is just politics. Or economic sap best. | :04:19. | :04:21. | |
Really, the welfare budget has been pared back pretty drastically. You | :04:22. | :04:24. | |
are really talking about the disabled carers, taking it from the | :04:25. | :04:29. | |
electorally important ground the squeezed middle, which is not | :04:30. | :04:34. | |
somewhere you want to go to. I suggested that perhaps they have | :04:35. | :04:46. | |
polled this within an inch of its life, but what if they think, this | :04:47. | :04:53. | |
is the kind of thing that will get me down to rode. Russell Brand told | :04:54. | :05:00. | |
me not to! The real risk is that the numbers do not add up. He's asking | :05:01. | :05:05. | |
for ?25 billion worth of cuts, 12 billion from welfare, that is a lot | :05:06. | :05:08. | |
of money from somewhere else. Do you raise taxes? That is how he would | :05:09. | :05:14. | |
like to position Labour, a tax and spend party. What he really doesn't | :05:15. | :05:18. | |
tell people is that the economic solid is that you can change how | :05:19. | :05:23. | |
much you repay your debts at. This is all a technical argument about | :05:24. | :05:30. | |
whether you want to be in surplus. That is George Osborne's vision, | :05:31. | :05:34. | |
nobody has to agree to that. Labour could come in and say, we don't have | :05:35. | :05:38. | |
to stick to those plans in 2018 and therefore we can turn the taps on. | :05:39. | :05:41. | |
That is the problem for George Osborne. It is a long election | :05:42. | :05:46. | |
campaign. Does this argument get lost when people are struggling, pay | :05:47. | :05:51. | |
is stagnating? I think those arguments will linger in people's | :05:52. | :05:59. | |
mind. Very interesting. A warning of 60 mph motorway limits. This is all | :06:00. | :06:04. | |
too meaty EU rules on air pollution because we are not meeting those | :06:05. | :06:07. | |
roles at the moment? -- to meet EU rules. They say 60 mph on the M1, | :06:08. | :06:16. | |
and sections of the M3 in Surrey, 13 other stretches of motorway. | :06:17. | :06:18. | |
Motoring organisations are saying it is going to the lowering of the | :06:19. | :06:25. | |
speed limit through the back door. It's interesting, only last year or | :06:26. | :06:28. | |
the year before, they were about raising the speed limit. We were | :06:29. | :06:33. | |
talking about how much that could save us, the cuts to journey times, | :06:34. | :06:38. | |
it would be a brilliant idea. That is dead in the water. We are going | :06:39. | :06:43. | |
to 60 mph. I don't know about you, it says from 7am to 7pm. I don't | :06:44. | :06:48. | |
understand why, if it is about congestion, which is what they are | :06:49. | :06:52. | |
saying, about slowing down and speeding up, changing through the | :06:53. | :06:57. | |
gears, because certainly just by braking it does not cause any more | :06:58. | :07:01. | |
pollution, I can't imagine it does. I might be wrong. Cars are more | :07:02. | :07:04. | |
efficient at a slower speed, apparently. They pump out less | :07:05. | :07:10. | |
nitrogen, or whatever. In this case, if this is going to be the new | :07:11. | :07:15. | |
thing, shall we just stop making fast cars? Let's make cars with a | :07:16. | :07:18. | |
top speed limit of 60 malls per hour. A Ferrari with a 60 mph top | :07:19. | :07:24. | |
speed limit? Well, we could get rid of Top Gear. Some people would not | :07:25. | :07:31. | |
mind that. We were promised our way races, being able to whizz around in | :07:32. | :07:36. | |
coalition Britain at 80 mph. Now we have to go to the continent. I do | :07:37. | :07:43. | |
think it is a bit odd. If you do drive on the motorway, you often | :07:44. | :07:46. | |
have to slow down because there was lots of traffic and congestion. | :07:47. | :07:52. | |
There are 50 mph signs. This does not appear to affect HGVs, | :07:53. | :07:58. | |
apparently the worst polluters, and there is no speed limit on them at | :07:59. | :08:06. | |
the moment. I still can't believe in 2014, what is it? 2014? Just gone. | :08:07. | :08:12. | |
And you were working on New Year's Eve, not getting smashed. When I was | :08:13. | :08:19. | |
a kid and I thought about 2014, I thought there would be bubble cars | :08:20. | :08:25. | |
flying around, you programme it and they just go off, beam me up, | :08:26. | :08:32. | |
Scotty. The Independent, really dramatic picture of a huge tidal | :08:33. | :08:44. | |
surge. This is South Wales. And those people just standing there, | :08:45. | :08:48. | |
taking photographs of it. Presumably somebody standing a bit more | :08:49. | :08:51. | |
sensibly took this particular photograph. It is dramatic, scary. | :08:52. | :08:56. | |
Amazing, this winter weather. Actually, London has been really | :08:57. | :09:02. | |
quite warm. A beautiful day. But they have raised the Thames barrier. | :09:03. | :09:11. | |
Exactly. But I think that would have come over the top, possibly right up | :09:12. | :09:19. | |
to the Shard. But they are cutting the flood budget? That is the | :09:20. | :09:28. | |
decision, you have to make those decisions. That would not be stopped | :09:29. | :09:34. | |
by flood defences. But it is odd timing and the Government look | :09:35. | :09:38. | |
stupid. I think David Cameron, in his own constituency, when he had | :09:39. | :09:44. | |
his ear bent. But I'm not sure politicians can be blamed for the | :09:45. | :09:48. | |
weather. It's about climate change, the fact that the climate is | :09:49. | :09:51. | |
changing without a shadow of a doubt. They are saying these events | :09:52. | :09:54. | |
are going to happen more and more often. They are actually saying, | :09:55. | :09:58. | |
this is what we are going to be doing, so let's do... I don't know. | :09:59. | :10:04. | |
We are taking it seriously with driving slower. On to the Daily | :10:05. | :10:09. | |
Express. We mentioned a little bit, Randeep about the coalition, or at | :10:10. | :10:13. | |
least the Tory half, their calculation in perhaps not hitting | :10:14. | :10:19. | |
pensioners as hard as some people might feel they should, when it | :10:20. | :10:24. | |
comes to austerity. Millions will get pensions windfall. Now, this is | :10:25. | :10:28. | |
because the FTSE is doing very well and annuities and pension funds are | :10:29. | :10:36. | |
doing OK on shares. But is there a perception that pensioners are | :10:37. | :10:40. | |
getting a bit of a free ride when it comes to deficit reduction? Well, it | :10:41. | :10:46. | |
looks like it when you just look at the figures on the face of it, but | :10:47. | :10:50. | |
the point is that pensioners are being squeezed for years now, | :10:51. | :10:52. | |
because of course they have savings. They can't make any more money. They | :10:53. | :10:57. | |
have savings and their savings in real terms are dwindling in a huge | :10:58. | :11:00. | |
way. They've been getting less and less. Only recently, there was a | :11:01. | :11:05. | |
story on the front page of the Express, elderly steal to survive as | :11:06. | :11:10. | |
pensions dwindle and prices soar. Talking about they're finding | :11:11. | :11:13. | |
89-year-olds being arrested for stealing to keep going. But, | :11:14. | :11:21. | |
Randeep, winter fuel allowance and the freedom Bass, bus passes, there | :11:22. | :11:28. | |
does seem to be in the coalition's calculation the idea that these | :11:29. | :11:32. | |
people vote therefore we are not going to take some of these away? I | :11:33. | :11:35. | |
think there are two different groups. There are the poor | :11:36. | :11:40. | |
pensioners that Penny is talking about and they are get ing wiped and | :11:41. | :11:45. | |
they're having to live with a high rate of inflation. The people who | :11:46. | :11:49. | |
have a lot of money and perhaps can do without their bus pass and free | :11:50. | :11:53. | |
television licence are the people who Nick Clegg and Iain Duncan Smith | :11:54. | :11:57. | |
would like to target. The sums are trifling. Even if we got rid of the | :11:58. | :12:02. | |
entire free bus pass budget it's ?1 billion. You still need to find | :12:03. | :12:08. | |
another ?11 billion. Pensioners were historically very badly treated and | :12:09. | :12:13. | |
it's only really in the last decade that they've made anything, so I | :12:14. | :12:18. | |
think it will be difficult to make an argument to crack down, unless | :12:19. | :12:26. | |
you means test them. Let's move on to the Financial Times. Lawyers | :12:27. | :12:32. | |
having been going on strike. Some of them don't get paid very much. Some | :12:33. | :12:37. | |
people out there might think that's not the case. But actually, | :12:38. | :12:42. | |
according to the Criminal Bar Association half their members | :12:43. | :12:48. | |
earned ?27,000 a year. Yes, they are saying they earn ?27,000 and that | :12:49. | :12:52. | |
this is going to be cut by 30% and they're saying that the trouble is | :12:53. | :12:55. | |
that people will just say we don't want to do Legal Aid. Therefore, | :12:56. | :13:00. | |
they're saying that justice is at stake and this is a problem. This is | :13:01. | :13:05. | |
the first strike I think, the walk-out by the profession in 400 | :13:06. | :13:09. | |
years. It is - you look at the pictures and you just go, yes, they | :13:10. | :13:16. | |
look like they're 400 years. I know. I'm sorry, I'm not trying to make | :13:17. | :13:23. | |
light of it. But, really, it's the wig-wearing lawyers. They're saying | :13:24. | :13:27. | |
it's about British justice at stake. The Government have taken the old | :13:28. | :13:33. | |
adage crime doesn't pay to heart. If you're a criminal barrister it | :13:34. | :13:37. | |
certainly won't. Is that self-serving, the idea that they're | :13:38. | :13:41. | |
saying it's all about justice and people not having access to Legal | :13:42. | :13:47. | |
Aid and they're worried about their pay packets. The Government have | :13:48. | :13:50. | |
played a dicey game with the statistics. 84,000 was the average | :13:51. | :13:55. | |
income, but when you took out the people who earn over 500 grand to a | :13:56. | :14:00. | |
year you got down to 54,000. But that's everything. You have to pay | :14:01. | :14:05. | |
rent and VAT off that and - And there are a lot of them who are paid | :14:06. | :14:10. | |
?27,000. It's like the banking. There are still people being paid | :14:11. | :14:17. | |
?1.5 million bonuses. But many are on a quarter of that. 25 grand. Good | :14:18. | :14:26. | |
if you're at the top and bad if you're at the bottom. Thank you | :14:27. | :14:30. | |
both. We'll look at some of the stories later. Stay with us here on | :14:31. | :14:35. | |
BBC News for that. Also, coming up at 11.00pm, we'll have more on the | :14:36. | :14:39. | |
extreme weather, as storms and huge waves continue to batter western and | :14:40. | :14:46. | |
southern parts of the UK. Coming up now, it's Sportsday. | :14:47. | :14:48. |