19/04/2017 100 Days

Hello and welcome to One Hundred Days.

It's now official - the UK will be holding a general

After a debate in the Commons - MPs overwhelmingly approved

the motion, for the third time in as many years the UK will stage

The ayes to the right 522. The noes to the left 13.

The Prime Minister says a win will strengthen her hand

But Theresa May has confirmed she will not be taking part

Every vote for the Conservatives will make me stronger when I

negotiate for Britain with the European Union.

In just four days the people the French will be

We'll be going live to France where some of the final

rallies are underway. Also...Do you happen to have

Last week Donald Trump said he was sending a US warship

to the Korean peninsula - the pictures show a different story

Liberal resistance to President Trump wasn't enough to put

a Democrat in Congress from Georgia - and yet, the party

Not another one! For gods sake, I can stand it.

If you're feeling a case of election fatigue you are NOT alone.

Going back to the ballot box isn't sitting well

I'm Christian Fraser in London, Katty Kay's in New York.

It's less than two years since Britain's last general election,

ten months since the Brexit referendum, nine months since

Theresa May entered Downing Street - and in case you are counting,

it's 49 days until Britain goes to the polls...

The opposition Labour party was never likely to turn down

an opportunity to try to eject a Conservative government.

And MPs from both sides voted overwhelmingly in favour of

The ayes to the right 522. The noes to the left 13.

Opposition MP's say they are up for the fight even though the polls

suggest Mrs May could be returned with an even greater

Let's get a flavour of that debate from the House of Commons earlier.

There are three things the country needs, a strong economy, strong

defence and strong stable leadership. That is what our plans

for Brexit and plans for a stronger Britain will deliver. And that is

what the Conservative Party will be offering at this election. And we

will be out there fighting for every vote. Whereas the right honourable

gentleman opposite would bankrupt our economy, we can add offences and

is simply not fit to lead. Mr Speaker, we welcome the general

election. But this is a Prime Minister who promised there would

not be one. A Prime Minister who cannot be trusted. She says it is

about leadership. Yet she is refusing to defend her record in

television debates. She has chosen an early election, let's not buy

this nonsense, not because she needs a mandate to deliver Brexit. The

Labour Party has given heard that mandate. She is acting on the narrow

majority of the referendum in 2016. She has chosen the selection because

she looked across the dispatch box and could not resist the temptation

of doing the political equivalent of taking candy from a baby and facing

a Labour Party in a general election.

Our Political Correspondent Rob Watson has been following today's

David Cameron's manifesto not even half implemented apart from that

referendum pledge. And Brexit will be I suppose the defining thing in

this campaign. Absolutely. And in a strange way I think it is hard to

imagine a British election where the stakes could be higher. After all

this will be about who gets to shape post Brexit Britain and its future.

Absolutely enormous stakes. But in some ways it could be as tedious as

it is exciting. We already know what the shape of the campaign will be

from the Prime Minister, absolutely Brexit all the way. Only I can

provide the strong leadership needed to give written the best steer on

Brexit. We also have a steer on what Labour will be about, not about

Brexit but austerity and the government failing to deliver on

some of those campaign promises. I imagine in your coverage of British

politics you have taken a moment to watch what is going on on this side

of the Atlantic and we've seen some extraordinary flip-flops and U-turns

on policy from the president. He does not seem to be paying a

political price for those. Do you think Theresa May risks pay any

price for her U-turn on calling a snap election? That is a good

question and not the only one commission made a U-turn on Iraq

said, she was on the remaining side but has become an enthusiastic

Brexiteer. I think it is one of the risks she takes, is there a chance

that the voters will see it not just as a U-turn but also a bit of

flagrant opportunism. The voters know the opposition in this country

is very weak. So that I think of the danger along with the other part of

the risk, just the mechanics of the referendum. Worth remembering 48% of

people voted to remain and Theresa May is the kind of Queen of Brexit,

she needs to be careful she does not alienate all those voters as well.

In a way I think that issue of opportunism, getting the message

right for remainders and livres alike is perhaps even more of a

challenge than any acts as a station is about you turning. -- livres.

The Conservative politician John Redwood is a longstanding

supporter of Brexit, and one of the MPs who voted today

to approve the General Election on June 8th.

Good evening. There will be many people coming back to that point who

voted for the Conservative manifesto in 2015 who will feel quite cheated

only half of that enacted. I do not agree at all and the public do not

agree either. The polling taking today on Theresa May and her

decision backed by Parliament to have an early election gets a strong

endorsement by the public. They accept that the public made an

important and defining decision to leave the EU because the previous

government fulfilled his pledge to give everyone the right to make that

decision. And except that the present government needs a new

mandate to get on with it and get a better deal than we would be able to

get if the leadership of the government was constantly being

snapped up by a group of MPs who have not accepted the result of the

referendum. Some would say if Theresa May wins a bigger majority

than the UK may get a softer Brexit because the Prime Minister will be

able to compromise as she will have to do with some of the European

leaders. Without having to fear the hard Brexiteers on her own

backbenchers. And she might in some ways point to you as obviously

someone who does not really want to compromise on Brexit. That is

particularly silly analysis because if you look at the arithmetic of the

current House of Commons, there is a large remain majority. Most MPs

voted remain. And so we were not in a position to pressurise the Prime

Minister. She chose to implement Brexit fully and there is no such

thing as hard or soft Brexit. There is a good Brexit which is what she's

trying to achieve and the first thing you have to do wish some

opposition parties had not understood is you cannot stay part

of the single market without paying contributions and accepting the

supremacy of the court, accepting many European laws and freedom of

movement which go with the single market. In that respect the

government is realistic and in agreement with our European

partners. Let me rephrase this slightly differently, it looks like

the promised will have to make concessions to the Europeans in the

course of these negotiations, either any concessions you think she might

make if she expanded her majority after the election that she would

not done beforehand. Particularly thinking of the ?50 billion divorce

bill. How happy would you be with that? That is nonsense, there is no

requirement under the treaties to pay the divorce Bill, the Prime

Minister has made clear that we will pay the monies which we are owing

which basically is the continuing contributions we have to make as a

member up until the point we leave. The cable for -- offer fantastic

concessions as part of the package we are offering to our current

partners in the EU, we offers tariff free access to our market and no new

barriers in access to our market which is fantastic for them because

they sell us more than we sell them. I do not think we need to go beyond

making those kind of generous compromises which I am happy to make

as is the Prime Minister. I do not hear the Europeans say it is a

ridiculous proposition that Britain should pave the divorce Bill.

They're bound to try it on but there's no legal requirement, or

self-satisfied that. Any sensible reading of the treaty can see there

is no provision to charge a country that has exercised its right to

leave the European Union and also I must confess there is no right for

us to demand a share of the assets that the European Union has built up

during our membership. There is no right to do do that and they have no

right to levy a sport the opportunities. You are a member for

Wokingham, 56% voted remain. Does that give you some sticky times on

the doorstep # love factually inaccurate, the results were

declared by local authority area and I represent parts of Wokingham and

parts of West Berks. The fact is we gave the decision to the people to

make and now all Conservative MPs and practically all Labour MPs have

come to the same conclusion that we have to get on and implement the

wishes of the British people as determined in the referendum vote.

Thank you very much. So today the political parties

in Britain will be busy organising candidates,

reserving battle buses, But nothing compared

to what we spend here on elections I was just taking a look

through some of Donald Trump's campaign figures, from announcing

his candidacy to winning the White House -

take a look at this. So his campaign lasted 510 days,

compared to your 49 days, he took part in 14 debates -

three of them of course with Hillary Clinton and he spent -

wait for it - 332 million dollars. How much did they spend overall?

That $332 million might look with double for the price of a mass of

country like the US and its democracy. The final figure if you

include all the outside spending was a whopping $2.6 billion. I think the

UK spent something like 35 million, that is bargain basement democracy.

I have got it here. The sixth largest parties spent 39 million,

the toy spent the most at 15 million, 3 million more than Labour.

And I look and thought how does that compare so Hillary Clinton spent $36

million on advertisements in Texas alone in the last couple of couple

of weeks of the campaign. In a state that she had no chance of winning.

Texas is a big state of course. When Americans hear these numbers and

they get so used to it, they're so used to this kind of outside,

outsized campaign spending, the cannot believe about the British

elections that there are so cheap and so short. I kind of wish they

could not just believe it but would adopt some of those practices here

as well because it is getting out of control. And those numbers in terms

of money are only going to get bigger the next time around.

There's a dose of election fever in the Spring air,

before Britain holds its poll - the French will vote this

Sunday in the first round of their presidential election.

And the big question is whether France is heading

for the kind of seismic change we've seen both the Brexit vote

According to polling there, the main centre right and centre

There are four candidates in the running for the second round,

with Marine Le Pen of the Far Right doing well.

Our correspondent Thomas Fessy has been testing the mood

in the northern town of Amiens, where centrist candidate -

It was once a stronghold of the left but not any more.

Here in Amiens, yet another factory about to close down.

These workers feel that globalisation has passed them by.

and they blame the political establishment.

TRANSLATION: Parties of the right and left play

Laws are being passed, but not implemented.

None of the candidates talk about relocations, he says,

except for perhaps Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Melenchon,

Like Anthony and Christine, many here look to the extremes.

Four days to go before the vote, and only two thirds of French voters

Last-minute deciders may prove the current polls wrong,

and traditional parties worry they may suffer from a potentially

Evelyn has always voted for the Republicans,

but this time around, she tells me, trust is broken.

TRANSLATION: I am not going to vote for people who have been

Whether it is one side or the other, they always promised a lot

Distrust of the political elite, job losses and calls for change,

the stories from Amiens resonate across France,

and will determine the direction the country decides to take.

Hugh Schofield is in Marseille where the National Front candidate

There has been a lot of attention on that rally because the attack block

the police uncovered a few days ago. How does that affect her support

base here? Of course in a sense it plays into her speech, her

discourse. She said from the start that terrorism is one of the grave

threat is that France faces. And it is clear that when there is a

terrorist threat and it looks like it was a serious threat, that was

thwarted by police, that innocent days into the message she's trying

to get across about tougher immigration and so on. She got

herself into a bit of a pickle in the last couple of days because she

said had she been in power there would not be any of these attacks.

The Toulouse killer would not have existed in her watch. And people are

saying you may be tough on terrorism but practically speaking, there's no

way even you will have 1% rise on the kind of attacks we've seen in

France. Marseille was one of the best places in the 1980s to come out

in support of the National front. Is it, the party says it has changed

since then, has the support base changed as well, who is Marine Le

Pen reaching out to in Marseille? Well in a rally like this it is the

core, what has happened in the past week, she has been riding high in

the opinion polls for months. And she sought qualification for the

second round as a shoo-in. But she cannot feel the way tonight. The

emergence of Jean-Luc Melenchon, the resilience of Francois Fillon, that

has rattled the National front can. So the message tonight is to reach

out to the core vote, make sure that they turn out on Friday. Because all

could be decided by a small margin. Thank you so much. Let's turn to

Amiens and Thomas. I should tell viewers that you normally report

from West Africa and you have gone home to get a feel for the election.

What has surprised you about the tenor of the debate? I think what is

extremely surprising is to see the level of indecision amongst voters.

When you speak to people around town they tell you they might just decide

at the last minute, that they will look at the programmes and also see

what the candidates are saying in the last few days and that will help

them decide. I think it has never happened before that we have such an

unpredictable election where we have four candidates really that could

actually make it to the run-offs. I was thinking back five years and I

covered the election and I was thinking about Francois Hollande and

the promises he made and it was change now, he was going to change

the country and there was this uplifting mood. And then he promised

he would reduce unemployment, down below the 10% and he failed. It took

him four years to do that. So many broken promises and in a town like

Amiens were traditionally they voted Socialist, they must be sick and

tired of politics. Exactly and the level of distrust in the political

class is huge. As you said we are in the heart of the rust belt here and

it used to be a bastion for the left parties. Over the last few years

Marine Le Pen and the National front have been able to scoop up the

disappointed votes amongst the working class that used to vote

socialist or Communist years ago. And again I think there is a concern

this time around that the region might turn to a populist insurgency

like Marine Le Pen. I think a lot of people here are telling us that they

are pessimistic about the future and that is what strikes me a lot. The

only people, I think there was a survey two weeks ago saying that

surprisingly the voters who are sure to vote for Emmanuel Macron of the

most optimistic but if you look into the statistics of these voters there

are also the more well off people, the kind of middle to upper class

people of France who have safety in their jobs and their lives. And the

working class feel kind of let down by years of socialist party

government that has not changed their daily life. There are

similarities between what is going on there and here and also the

United States. Thank you very much. And we will be in Paris tomorrow,

looking forward to that. Four days of the elections. One thing that is

different is what young voters are doing because we saw young voters in

the UK vote against Brexit, young voters vote against Donald Trump in

the US. It looks increasingly like young voters might be looking at

Marine Le Pen and saying you know what, we think that is a good

option. That could be a reflection of the high youth unemployment rate.

But I think it will be fascinating to watch how the young voters cast

their ballots this weekend and in the second round as well. As Thomas

said, looking at unemployment rates which are stubbornly high in France

of course it is the young people who have suffered the most. And the

surprising thing, you see people on university campuses campaigning for

Marine Le Pen. When I first went there in 2010 it was not the done

thing to put such posters up in the university. But that is changing,

she's taken the party a little bit in a softer direction and people are

prepared to go out and campaign for her. We will be there over the next

few days and we have an action packed programme tomorrow with many

people coming to speak to us. And we will be there of course on Sunday

night with the results programme and a special edition of 100 days on

Monday from Paris with the result. Let's turn our attention

to North Korea now and China says it's seriously concerned

about Pyongyang's nuclear programme - but - is opposed to talk of action

that could raise tensions China's foreign ministry

spokesman was probably by the American Vice President,

Mike Pence in Japan earlier today. Addressing troops on the huge

American aircraft carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan,

Mr Pence told troops At the destruction of the president

of the policy United States will be continue to work diligently with

Japan, our allies across the region, China and the wider world, to bring

economic and diplomatic pressure to bear on the regime in North Korea.

We will do so until they abandon their nuclear and ballistic missile

programmes. As all of you know readiness is the key and use the

instrument of American policy should know, all options are on the table.

Mike Pence addressing the naval staff on the Ronald Reagan -

all options currently on the table but I would say Katty that

if you are trying to convince people of your resolve,

and you are serious about projecting a military deterrent,

then it really does help if you know where your ships are?

It's emerged that another aircraft carrier -

the USS Carl Vinson - and other warships that

were supposedly sailing towards North Korea were in fact

Last week President Trump said an "armada" was being

sent to the coast off the Korean Peninsula,

But the strike group was instead off the coast of Indonesia moving

Well because the US Navy posted images on its website which show

the Carl Vinson transiting through the Sunda Strait at

the weekend, between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra -

en route to exercises with the Australian navy.

I am distressed about this because I had the idea that in the plotting

room at the Pentagon, pushing their ships around the world map but

clearly not, they do not know where they are. The politics are

interesting, the White House dampness in the lap of the Pentagon

and said they were briefed by the Pentagon that this was happening.

The head of the Pentagon was speaking in Saudi Arabia and gave

the bumbling answer. Basically trying to say do not worry, it is

heading to Korea but not just quite yet. Maybe I think it is about

Donald Trump and that comedy made about sending the Armada and his

desire to project American strength and power but it did not work so

well. You're watching One Hundred

Days from BBC News. Still to come for viewers on the BBC

News Channel and BBC World News: Nail-bitingly close in Georgia,

where the Democrats almost take a congressional seat

from the Republicans. And, from Greece, we'll hear

from the child migrants who've been settled into local schools,

as their families begin to put down That's still to come

on One Hundred Days, from BBC News. Another quiet evening and for the

remainder of the week the weather is going to remain unsettled. If

anything just a touch warmer especially across some southern and

eastern areas. But it stays pretty cloudy and in fact a lot of cloud

across the Atlantic out there ready to swing in our way. Most of the

cloud has been across more northern parts of the country. But the cloud

is now moving further south. Tonight it is not going to be especially

cold, a lot of cloud across the UK and even some spots of rain.

Temperatures no lower than around eight or 9 degrees for most city

centres. In the south just a bit fresher because those guys will be

clear for longer. -- skies. Tomorrow morning lots of sunshine across the

South as we had today. The wind is light and the Sun strong, and then

central areas, Wales, the Midlands come into Yorkshire and

Lincolnshire, a little bit more cloud and some spots of rain.

Generally speaking the rest of the country moving north a fair bit of

cloud through Thursday morning. The rest of Thursday morning and into

the afternoon, some of the cloud syncing South Sophie are not quite

so sunny tomorrow. More cloud than blue sky on Thursday and

temperatures more or less the same. Perhaps a little higher across some

northern areas at around 14, 15 degrees. Then on Friday a subtle

difference in the north, a bit of a change, we expect some rain moving

in to the Western Isles. Not so much across eastern parts of Scotland. To

the south of that didn't cloud for most of us but temperatures getting

up to 17 degrees. Then the weekend, high pressure across the UK, not

seeing clear blue skies but settled weather and light wind. And if the

clouds break up it should feel fairly pleasant. But the far north

of the country starts to see Chile air coming in behind this cold

front. Early next week, Sunday into Monday, we will see low-pressure

sweeping across Scotland. That is something that we are watching but

this forecast could change. Welcome back to 100 Days. Christian

Fraser is in London. Our top story: Eyes to the right, 522, nose to the

left, 13 -- noes to the left, 13. Every vote for the Conservatives

will make me stronger when I negotiate with the European Union.

And we will find out from Greece how child migrants are being settled

into local schools as their families realise they won't be able to travel

further into Europe. Let's take a look at Georgia,

Georgia in America. The southern state is where a Democrat has come

within a whisker of taking back a congressional seat that has been

held by the Republicans the decades. He took just over 48% of the vote

against 17 candidates. He needed 50% to secure the set. He was just 3000

votes short and well now face a run-off against his Republican rival

who won just under one fifth of all the votes cast. The set was left

vacant when Congressmen Tom Price resigned to join the Trump

administration as Secretary of Health and Human Services. So, a

challenge for the Republicans, not that you would know it, judging by

Mr Trump's tweet. He was in a fairly bullish mood.

I love he said that he would was glad to be of help. He has said he

will go down in campaign in Georgia, but who knows if that will help? The

White House had this reaction? This was a big loss for them. They went

all in on it, they said their goal was to get over 50% and they came up

short. Jon Sopel is in Washington for us. Jon, if this was a

performance review, it might sound something like, you can keep your

job but you've got to do a lot better than you have been doing. Is

that fair? Yes, except if you are Donald Trump who wouldn't accept

that at all, he would say as a result of his intervention we won,

we stopped getting what he wanted! When the play-off comes in June we

will win the seat and show that the Republicans are still doing really

well, all thanks to me. But I think the more sober reflection would be,

my goodness, there was a 24% swing against the Republicans to the

Democrats in this special election in Georgia, and that is a wake-up

call which says we cannot rely and take our base for granted. There are

some real serious issues out there, and people maybe I'm not that happy.

That may be the conclusion Donald Trump will reach, but there are many

Republicans who are taking the view. I guess the counterargument might be

that this is an area of Atlanta that is well-heeled suburban types, this

is a state where you and I even spoke during the course of the

election campaign about the possibility of Georgia becoming a

democratic state, and actually you can't read too much into this one

district, and Republicans might well be safe in the more conservative

areas. It is certainly true that you should never read too much into one

special election, whether it is being held in Georgia or in Britain

during the course of Parliament, wherever it happens to be, you can

over interpret. But there are things you can take out for both sides. The

Republicans will be massively relieved that he didn't get over 50%

and win, because that would have change the narrative about from

failure and what has gone wrong in these 100 days. They have been able

to push it away, the Democrats did well but not quite well enough, and

they have been questions about how they campaign in the seat and could

they really start winning these kind of places in Kansas as well that was

an election recently. If Donald Trump popularity slides, then these

seats could fall the Democrats' way with consequential outcomes for who

controls the House of Representatives, but how much more

difficult it would make governing for Donald Trump. Jon, Katty Kay and

I have been comparing election spends, we sped 39,000,020 15, and

the Americans spent something over 2 billion, but I imagine is when it

comes to Georgia, they will throw the kitchen sink at this. Yes, and

the Democrats already have. This was a special race for one congressional

district, and $7 million was spent in the campaign, so he raised a lot

of money. And the money is almost inexhaustible. The huge difference

with the British election is you don't have paid TV advertising,

whereas in America it is saturation bombing by 32nd advert spots.

# I wonder whether it drives the

electorate of thing, I am going to go on holiday to a state where there

is no spending. But yes, they will throw the kitchen sink at this,

because there is so much symbolic prestige.

The UK voters will need a time-share, there are six weeks

still to go! And the takeaway from this one is

that the Republicans can't afford to lose this. Donald Trump can't afford

to have the Republicans lose their seat because then all of the

headlines will be about how Republicans are doing badly and his

presidency is doing badly, it will be seen as a direct referendum on

how he is doing, so I think you are right. A lot of money will pour into

Georgia. Our thanks to Jon in Washington.

Let's get some other news from around the world -

and a young protester in Venezuela has been shot and seriously injured

The demonstrators are calling it "the mother of all protests".

They are demanding new presidential elections take place and blame

President Maduro for Venezuela's serious economic crisis.

Aaron Hernandez has been found dead in prison, where he was serving

Prison officials say he killed himself.

27-year-old Hernandez was convicted for murdering

another football player, Odin Lloyd, in 2013.

Now to Greece - there are around 60,000 refugees and migrants

And many have been there for months on end.

Instead of quickly passing through the country as they did some

years ago, many of them bound for Serbia and the EU

beyond, they have been stranded in the camps.

And among those most severely impacted are the children.

Some have been attending their first day of school in Greece -

it's supposed to be an exciting time for a child - but for some

the day was ruined by Greek demonstrators who were

And what is this? S it is a hard thing when you don't know the

language. At first we had someone to translate. But now is the time

passes by, things are better, and the children learn more words in

Greek, so it is easier for us. It means a lot for the children to come

here to Greek school. They are very happy and they finally have routine

in their lives. The Greek children are very happy

with the Syrians, because it is something different. They want to

learn their names, and they have a magic way to communicate without

words, by playing. Sako here is a school. We can give

the education, to educate the children, the students. Difficult if

they come from Syria, but we are teachers, we educate our students,

only that, nothing more. A difficult situation for many

families in Greece. There will be a lot of focus over the summer on

those migrant routes. 21st-century Fox says after a review of sexual

abuse allegations, Bill O'Reilly will not be returning to the Fox

News channel. He was a real tub thumper for Donald Trump. This is a

huge story in the United States, because he is the biggest staffer

Fox News, the highest ratings of any programme on the channel. For them

to have decided to cut their ties with him has a huge economic impact

is Fox News and they wouldn't have done so unless they were really

concerned about these allegations. There are allegations by five

different women, reports in the New York Times that Fox has already paid

out $13 billion, and focus on Rupert Murdoch as he is trying to have a

takeover purchase of Sky News the UK, the organisation clearly the

families decided they don't want this cloud of sexual allegations.

But we discussed a few weeks ago but Donald Trump had weighed in on this

was defending Bill O'Reilly without really knowing the facts of the

case. It looks like Fox News is not going to do that any more.

Interesting. More development on that, no doubt.

So election fever grips the nation - or does it.

This is the third national vote in as many years.

There was a cartoon I spotted yesterday in the Telegraph newspaper

which perhaps captures the mood for many in the UK.

It's a parliamentary candidate on the doorstep talking to a voter,

and the voter says we have got to stop meeting like this.

Yes not everybody wholly enthused by another campaign -

one or two feeling a little bit like Brenda of Bristol?

Not another one?! There is too much politics going on at the moment I

can't stand it. Why do she need to do it? Brenda, it keeps us in a job!

She captures the news -- she captures the mood of the moment. We

will be in Bristol tomorrow.