22/11/2017 BBC News at Ten

Tonight at 10pm - the Budget

offers lower prospects

for economic growth,

but a boost for

first-time house buyers.

The Chancellor says it's a budget

to make Britain fit for the future,

but there's a sharp fall

in the forecast for economic growth,

for the years ahead.

He delivered a sobering

assessment of the economy,

as the UK tackles Brexit,

and weak productivity.

We are at a turning

point in our history.

And we resolve to look

forwards not backwards,

to build on the strengths

of the British economy,

to embrace change, not hide from it,

to seize the opportunities ahead

of us, and together to build

a Britain fit for the future.

He announced that stamp

duty for all first-time

buyers will be

abolished in England,

Wales and Northern Ireland,

for homes up to £300,000.

And he promised more cash

for the NHS in England,

And he promised more cash

for the NHS in England,

And he promised more cash

for the NHS in England,

though less than the service had

been hoping for and less

than Labour had been demanding.

Economic growth has been revised

down, productivity growth

has been revised down,

business investment revised down,

people's wages and living

standards revised down.

What sort of strong economy is that?

We'll have the detail, and reaction

to the second Budget delivered

by Philip Hammond this year.

Also tonight -

Mr Mladic, sit.

In the Hague, the former

Bosnian Serb commander,

Ratko Mladic, is convicted

of genocide and crimes

against humanity.

Zimbawe's former vice-president,

Emmerson Mnangagwa, has returned

home to succeed Robert Mugabe

as head of state.

And, we're all set for the start of

the first Ashes Test, in Brisbane.

And coming up on

Sportsday on BBC News:

Chelsea are through to the last 16

of the Champions League -

with Celtic and Manchester United

also in European action.

Good evening.

The Chancellor, Philip Hammond,

has delivered his second budget this

year, warning that the economy

is expected to grow more slowly

than previously thought.

He said the forecast

for growth this year

was being reduced from 2% to 1.5%,

with successive downgrades,

over the following years.

Despite that, Mr Hammond has found

more money for the NHS,

committing 2.8 billion over three

years, to the overstretched

health service in England.

On housing, stamp duty will be

abolished, for first-time buyers

of homes up to £300,000,

in England, Wales

and Northern Ireland.

And on Brexit, he's setting aside

£3 billion, to be spent on plans

for leaving the European Union.

The first of our Budget reports

tonight is from our political

editor Laura Kuenssberg.

Almost ready to go.

A big day for Downing Street,

whose grip for months has been

shaky, to say the least.

REPORTER:

Feeling the

pressure, Chancellor?

The priority for Number Ten

and 11, those powerful

next-door neighbours...

Is this a make or break Budget?

..Was for today's events not

to slip, to keep the Budget tightly

in their grasp.

For the Chancellor, the aim to be

the steady national bank manager,

not to tear up the rules altogether.

Knowing his own job,

as well as the Government's

fortunes, would be shaped

by what he was about to say.

Philip Hammond.

A cheerier start than Mr Hammond's

usual demeanour suggests.

I report today on an economy

that continues to grow,

continues to create more jobs

than ever before, and continues

to confound those who

seek to talk it down.

In this Budget, we express

our resolve to look

forwards, not backwards.

Yet, with Brexit hanging over him,

the risks of no deal with the rest

of the EU real and expensive.

Today, I am setting aside over

the next two years another

£3 billion, and I stand ready

to allocate further sums

if and when needed.

He wasn't gambling, though,

with his ability to get

through the speech.

Remember hers?

I did take the precaution

of asking my right honourable friend

to bring a packet of cough sweets,

just in case.

CHEERING.

But he had to reflect the worry felt

by many around the country,

and fess up to the fact

that the economy will be

sluggish for longer,

the country overall less

wealthy for years.

The first time there has been this

kind of prediction since 1983.

They revised down the outlook

for productivity growth,

business investment and GDP growth

across the forecast period.

What ministers want you to hear

is their promise to spend billions

more to get house-building going,

and to make it cheaper

to buy the first time.

Mr Deputy Speaker, when we say

we will revive the homeowning dream

in Britain, we mean it.

We do not underestimate

the scale of the challenge,

but today, we have made

a substantial downpayment.

It was one of the few surprises,

stamp duty will go for good

for first-time buyers on houses

worth up to 300,000,

that's the majority.

But it's only expected to prompt

around 3500 extra people to buy.

After Tory concern joined other

parties' opposition,

the Chancellor promised to smooth

the sharpest edges of

the new benefit, Universal Credit.

Universal Credit delivers a modern

welfare system where work

always pays and people

are supported to earn.

But I recognise, Mr Deputy Speaker,

the genuine concerns on both sides

of the House about the operational

delivery of this benefit.

The controversial benefit won't be

paused, but families won't have

to wait so long to receive

the payment when they first claim.

And they will be able to stay

on housing benefit for longer.

There was cash for more maths

teachers, for research

and development, but no extra money

for care for the elderly.

The health service in England,

though, will get an extra

£2.8 billion in the next couple

of years, far less than its

bosses say it needs.

But the Government will find more

money to give nurses

a pay rise next year.

With no obvious clangers so far

from the Chancellor,

the Government hopes this can steady

Tory nerves.

We are at a turning

point in our history,

and we resolve to look forwards,

not backwards, to seize

the opportunities ahead of us,

and together to build a Britain fit

for the future.

I commend this

statement to the House.

A sigh of relief from

the Chancellor, but obvious anger

from the Labour leader.

Not enough to change much,

he claimed, and not enough

for millions in need.

Economic growth has been revised

down, productivity growth

has been revised down,

business investment revised down.

People's wages and living

standards revised down.

What sort of strong economy is that?

What sort of

fit-for-the-future is that?

They call this a Budget

fit for the future -

the reality is, this is a Government

no longer fit for office.

Remember the Government barely has

a majority when it needs it,

so opposition parties can make

life extremely hard.

He is deluded.

When you look at the OBR book,

the fiscal stimulus

from this is 0.1%.

It is nothing.

Living standards will be

severely curtailed.

We have a very severe squeeze

continuing in public services.

We are pleased that this

time, because it's never

happened before, we have had

an opportunity in shaping

the thinking of the Budget.

A squeeze that will hang over

firms and families around

the country, a backdrop

that the Government at Westminster

will find hard to escape.

Laura Kuenssberg, BBC

News, Westminster.

As we've heard, today's Budget

was delivered against a backdrop

of a slowing economy,

with official predictions for growth

downgraded, significantly,

for the next five years.

So, why have the forecasts changed,

and where does it leave

the Government's finances as it

faces the challenge of Brexit,

in the years ahead?

Our economics editor Kamal Ahmed

is here with his analysis.

Well, Huw the big story of this

Budget is that significant

economic growth downgrade.

Brexit uncertainty, inflation,

falling real incomes and low

levels of productivity -

they've all come together

in a pretty unpleasant

cocktail for the Chancellor.

How unpleasant is explained

by the head of the official

economic watchdog.

The outlook for the economy over

the next five years looks weaker

than we forecast in March,

primarily because

we see less scope for

productivity growth.

Public sector borrowing is lower

today than we expected in March.

But the revisions to our economy

forecast weaken the outlook

for tax receipts and put upward

pressure on borrowing in

future years.

Let's look at those

prospects for the economy.

Last March the OBR predicted that

economic growth would

be 2% this year and then fall back

a little and recover

back to 2% by 2021.

Today a pretty aggressive cut

to that forecast, just 1.5%

growth, and remaining pretty much

around that level until 2021.

That's the lowest set

of economic forecasts

since the early 1980s.

Then there's the productivity issue.

The amount we produce

per hour and the key to

increasing the wealth

of the economy and our wages.

Let's go back to that

March forecast again.

This line shows the

hoped-for improvement.

But it hasn't happened.

And now the amount

productivity increases will

add to the economy has been

downgraded, meaning less growth and

lower tax receipts

for the government.

And that means it has less money

to spend on public services.

Productivity is just the biggest

problem that the UK faces

alongside the Brexit challenge.

The investment that

we're seeing today in

skills, infrastructure,

innovation is the way to do it.

If we get it right we can

grow our way out of austerity.

The key to next year

will be delivery.

2018 needs to be

a year of real action.

Lower growth and lower productivity

means the Chancellor

has decided to borrow more

to boost the economy.

In March this was the amount

the Government expected to

borrow, down to £16.8

billion by 2022.

Now, a very different story.

Yes, better borrowing figures

for those first two years.

Tax receipts are up.

But then, an increase.

Borrowing now forecast

to be at a much higher

£30.1 billion by 2022.

Mr Hammond needs to pay for that

extra funding for the NHS.

And the £3 billion

to prepare for Brexit.

Will the Chancellor ever reach

the point of balancing the books?

It's looking increasingly

unlikely that

we're going to get balanced books,

even by the mid 2020s.

The point at which we're

supposed to have got to

balance has been pushed

back and back and back,

and actually, just to get there,

in the mid-2020s, we'd

have to have another

round of spending cuts

over the early 2020s.

Given how hard it's been to get

where we are I think that's going to

be pretty tough.

Pretty tough indeed.

Two final thoughts -

Britain's growth downgrade comes

as growth picks up across much

of the rest of the world.

And today's Budget did little to fix

that problem that affects so many

millions of people -

the fall in real incomes and that

living standards squeeze.

Kamal Ahmed, thank you, our economic

Senator.

Housing was one of the main policy

initiatives in the budget,

with the abolition of stamp duty,

for first-time buyers,

on properties up to £300,000

in England, Wales and Northern

Ireland.

That was part of a wider package,

which the Chancellor said was aimed

at reviving the home-owning

dream, across the UK.

Mr Hammond set a target

of building 300,000 new homes

a year, by the mid 2020s.

Our home editor Mark Easton

looks at the likely

impact of the measures.

It was billed as a watershed budget

to fix the broken housing market.

So we've come to

a new development in

Newbury in West Berkshire.

Today we set out an

ambitious plan to tackle

the housing challenge.

Watching the Chancellor

in the show house here

we've got young house-hunters

in the bedroom, the council

in the study, a worried resident

in the dining room,

and a housing association in the

living room.

The headline announcement

was the abolition of

stamp duty for first-time buyers

on sales of up to £300,000.

So, has the Chancellor

put a smile on the face

of working couples like Charlie

and Sophie who have a baby

coming and need somewhere

to start the family?

Well, removing stamp

duty seems like a nice

gesture but on the face

of it

it seems like it might

push up house prices.

I think certainly it's just a token

gesture because when

you're in a position like ours it's

actually saving the deposit that's

the difficult thing.

The Office for Budget Responsibility

tonight warned the

stamp duty change will only lead

to an extra 3500 first-time buyer

purchases, and will push up prices.

The Chancellor's big ambition

is to build 300,000 homes

in England every year.

The last time 300,000 homes

were built in a year in England was

back in 1969 when councils and

housing associations built almost

half of them.

Is this a game changer in terms

of social and affordable housing?

No, I don't think so.

We knew about the 2 billion

for social housing already.

Some councils will benefit

from the opportunity to

increase their borrowing.

But, game changer,

no, I don't think so.

The Chancellor spoke

of £44 billion in

loans and other support

to increase housing supply.

But Treasury documents

show less than half of

that is new money.

The headline of 44 billion

is good news but the

devil is in the detail, I think.

The main two takeouts

for me are around

employment training,

so we've got the people

there to build the new homes.

And it's welfare reform and enabling

our residents to pay their rent.

Just up the road is the other side

of the housing story.

Appropriately the inspiration

for the book Watership Down, these

fields had been due to become 2000

desperately needed homes.

But after local

protests and rows over

infrastructure the council

has pulled the plans.

So, how do those worried about

new development view this budget?

We welcome the protection

of green belt.

We welcome the emphasis

on brown field

development high-density housing

for towns and cities.

But worry about the 300,000

target as to the

pressure this puts on councils

to push forward unsuitable schemes.

The Prime Minister says

fixing the broken housing

market is her mission.

This budget was billed as the day

she began to deliver.

The challenge can

perhaps be counted in

the 120,000 children

who are homeless in England tonight.

Mark Easton, BBC News,

West Berkshire.

As expected, the Chancellor

responded to concerns

about the implementation

of the Government's major welfare

reform, universal credit,

by promising a number of measures.

Mr Hammond said the

£1.5 billion package,

over five years, would help to cut

waiting times and make it easier

for claimants to receive an advance.

Our social affairs correspondent,

Michael Buchanan, reports

from Peterborough.

Recent Budgets have tended to mean

ill winds for benefit claimant,

but today there was less of a chill

in the air as the Chancellor

changed direction.

In Peterborough, universal credit

was rolled out last week, leading

many to fear the consequences.

So from those who were moved

on to the new benefit, a broad

welcome for today's announcement.

I think it's a good idea that

they've listened to people

and they're prepared to make changes

so people don't have

to worry about not having

anything to live on.

Yeah, it's great that they're

putting things in place,

but it should have been a long,

long time ago.

The changes to universal credit

will cost the Treasury £1.5 billion

over the next five years.

The value of advance payments

will be doubled and people will get

longer to repay them.

That crucial first payment

will be made quicker,

typically after five weeks

rather than six.

And while all benefits

currently stop when someone

claims universal credit,

in future housing benefit

will continue to be paid.

This announcement is a major climb

down by the Government

who for months insisted that

universal credit was working,

but in the face of mounting evidence

that claimants were building up rent

arrears and forced to go to food

banks and widespread opposition

from everybody from the Labour Party

to charities, they've

been forced to act.

While the new rules should alleviate

a few of the problems

with universal credit,

some say the Chancellor

should have gone further.

Universal credit is rolling out

a system were people are being made

essentially worse off,

and there was nothing today

to improve that situation.

We wanted to see structural change

to universal credit,

so that people kept more

of the rewards from work.

Today's changes won't come

into effect until next year.

So over the coming weeks,

thousands of people will be moved

on to a benefit that ministers now

explicitly acknowledge

is creating hardship.

Michael Buchanan, BBC

News, Peterborough.

The NHS in England is to get more

money, nearly £3 billion over three

years, and £350 million

is to be made available

immediately to relieve

the pressures this winter.

Sir Bruce Keoch, the medical

director of NHS England,

called the level of funding

"worrying" and is warning

of longer waits for treatment.

Our health editor,

Hugh Pym, has the details.

The neonatal intensive care unit

at Birmingham Women's Hospital.

Here, they have a clear view

what future generations

will need from the NHS.

The chief executive says

the Chancellor's new funding falls

short of what's required.

I feel quite sad about it.

If I'm honest, I was really looking

for the Government to make

a commitment to what the NHS needs

in the long term.

She told me the money

for this winter has come too late.

It's very difficult to think

what we can do now.

The only thing we could really try

is to get additional locum staff

or to pay existing staff overtime,

but it's the same pool

that we're asking to do

extra work all the time.

NHS England had called

for a major fudging increase,

the Budget deal fell

short of that, but health

commentators said it

was

a step in the right direction.

It's less than we need,

but it's more than we expected.

There are huge challenges out

there on the front line,

not just for acute hospitals

but also for mental health,

community and ambulance services.

NHS employers say the Government's

pay cap policy has made it

increasingly difficult to recruit

and retain staff.

Significantly today,

the Chancellor said he would find

the extra money to cover any wage

increase recommended

by the independent pay review body.

These nurses told me

they had something to look

forward to after many years

of pay restraint.

It's massive, it's massive

financially for everybody.

You know, you struggle every month.

Every month, you're

in your overdraft.

There's not very many

nurses have a savings fund

and things like that.

It's very positive, but I just worry

that it still leaves some

uncertainty about what it means

for the future, how much

the pay rise will be.

The Trust running this hospital has

got new Budget funding

to expand its A&E unit,

but a senior NHS England official

has said the Chancellor hasn't

plugged all the funding gap

and longer waits for care are now

unavoidable, which is worrying.

Hugh Pym, BBC News, Birmingham.

Let's have a brief look at some

of the other measures

announced in today's Budget.

They include the personal tax-free

allowance rising to £11,850

and for higher rate tax payers

the threshold rises to £46,350.

Duty on beer, wine, spirits and most

ciders will be frozen,

but duty on high-strength ciders

will go up.

Duty on tobacco will rise

by 2% above inflation.

Car tax for all but the cleanest

diesel cars will go up from April,

but there'll be no increase

for diesel vans.

And the VAT threshold for small

businesses will stay

the same at £85,000.

A few of the other measures Mr

Hammond introduced today.

In a moment, we'll speak

to our political editor,

Laura Kuenssberg, in Westminster.

First though, I'm joined

by our business editor, Simon Jack.

I suppose, really, Simon, the sense

of the business world's reaction to

the Budget?

The brief is don't stand

on any landmines when he went after

the self-employed trying to put up

national insurance. He didn't put

fuel duties on diesels. He didn't

lower that VAT threshold. When you

have to register. He didn't ditch

the 17% corporate tax. There were

arguments for doing that. He did

bring forward a lowering of the rate

at which business rates go up. There

has been a big bear for business.

That will be worth £2.3 billion.

They were pleased about that. He put

some more money in this mega fund

for productivity enhancements he has

talked about from £23 billion to £31

billion. There was a plan to sell

off the Government's stake or a big

chunk of the Government's stake in

RBS that will give them £15 billion

to play with. That will be sold as a

big loss. It was a rescue rather

than investment. He hopes it will

give a better return than the RBS

shares and improve the long run

performance of the economy.

Laura Kuenssberg is in Westminster.

What does the Budget tell us about

the challenges ahead for the

Government?

In terms of the big

picture if the forecast, the forest

of statistics in today's Budget

prove to be right from the O brvp,

it else us this Government is going

to be in charge of a country that is

going to feel poorer for longer than

expected. A country were voters are

going to be still feeling the pinch

in their wage packets for longer and

the likely impact will be that

voters will feel grumpier for longer

about the kind of country that they

are living in and the fact that

after years and years they are still

feeling the pinch. It certainly

means for this Government the

original Tory dream of balancing the

books in 2015 is now far, far, far

in the distance. Those George

Osborne of Philip Hammond's

redcressor are dead and buried. The

short-term politics of this feels

something rather different. Given

how tumultuous the last six months

have been, almost every time the

Government ministers have gone out

of the House it seems as if

something has gone wrong for them.

In the short-term, Philip Hammond

has achieved something today, there

has been so far no big mistake that

suddenly emerged. There has been no

glaring error. There may be some

gremlins buried at the back of the

red book, but so far it seems that

the Chancellor, who don't forget was

under a lot of pressure today, has

managed to get through this Budget,

a big set-piece, relatively mistake

free. It was not the radical reboot

that some Tories had hoped for. It

certainly does not make the

Government's long-term problems

disappear, but given the scale of

the drama here at Westminster, the

sense of chaos there has been

sometimes around the Government, at

least getting through a Budget

without a big mistake does feel in,

in some senses, a win. Not

necessarily a win for people around

the country, but something like

political peace.

Laura, many thanks

once again for those thoughts there

at Westminster. Laura Kuenssberg.

You can explore the impact

of today's Budget on households

by going to our Budget calculator.

Just go to bbc.co.uk/budget

and follow the links.

You will find the calculator there

for you.

Let's turn to the day's

other main news.

The former Bosnian Serb Army

Commander, Ratko Mladic,

has been found guilty of genocide

and crimes against humanity

committed during the Bosnian

war in the 1990s.

A tribunal in the Hague ruled

that he bore significant

responsibility for the killing

of 8,000 Muslim men and boys

at Srebrenica and the siege

of Sarajevo, during which more

than 10,000 civilians were killed.

From the Hague, our special

correspondent, Allan Little,

sent this report, which does contain

some distressing images.

Mr Mladic, sit.

It has been the most emotionally

charged of all the trials

this court has heard.

Mr Mladic, if you...

Mladic demanded a halt

to the hearing because of his

high blood pressure.

When the judge refused, Mladic

was led out yelling obscenities.

Curtains down, Mr Mladic will be

removed from the court room.

In his absence,

the judge carried on.

The crimes committed rank among

the most heinous known to human kind

and include genocide

and extermination as

a crime against humanity.

Mladic committed genocide

at Srebrenica in 1995,

there his men rounded up or hunted

down 8,000 men and boys, some

as young as 12, and murdered them.

The sniping and bombardment

of the capital Sarajevo

was designed to terrorise

the civilian population.

A member of the SRK shot

a Bosnian Muslim woman walking

on the street with her children.

He's talking about the woman

in the white coat, her name

is Dzenana Sokolovic.

The bullet passed through her

abdomen and hit her seven-year-old

son in the head, killing him.

Last year I went to see her,

she told me why she'd gone

to the Hague to give evidence.

TRANSLATION:

It meant a lot to me,

I went for the sake of my child.

I know that nothing will bring him

back, but I would go again

tomorrow if they asked me.

I can't tell you how important

it was for me to testify.

Across Bosnia, Mladic's forces drove

hundreds of thousands

of non-Serbs from their homes.

Thousands of men were held

in detention camps,

were hundreds died.

For this, Mladic was convicted

of murder, extermination

and forced deportation.

This is Vikrit in 1982,

today he welcomed the verdict.

"This should send a signal

across the world", he told me,

"that in future war criminals

will be punished.

There will be justice."

Ratko Mladic was not the architect

of ethnic cleansing,

but he was its ruthless enforcer.

He didn't just fight a war,

he carried out a huge and violent

criminal enterprise.

Allan Little, BBC News, The Hague.

The former vice-president

of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa,

has returned to the country two days

before his installation

as president.

He fled to South Africa

when he was sacked by Robert Mugabe,

starting a train of events

which culminated in Mr Mugabe's

resignation yesterday.

This evening, Mr Mnangagwa has told

crowds in Harare that the country

was witnessing the start

of a new democracy.

Our Africa editor, Fergal Keane,

sent this report from Zimbabwe.

This was a man who owned the moment,

in front of a crowd that greeted him

as a conquering hero

and with a message of contempt

for those he'd vanquished.

"Down with the traitors",

he chanted.

He said the ZANU-PF train would keep

rolling, but tempered that

politicking with an affirmation

of this extraordinary moment

in Zimbabwe's history.

Today we are witnessing

the beginning of a new

democracy in our country.

CHEERING.

The crowd had gathered since early.

"The crocodile is

coming", they chanted.

All day they waited

for Emmerson Mnangagwa,

he of the legendary ruthlessness,

reinvented now as an

apostle of liberty.

They were the happy and the hopeful.

This MP was cast out

by Robert Mugabe, now his

faction is triumphant.

The country's pleased.

It's all about the people.

If the people are happy, I'm happy.

We did this for the people,

the people did this.

But there were reminders of

Mr Mnangagwa's more sinister legacy.

This is Air Marshal Perence Shiri,

who led the notorious Fifth Brigade

during massacres in Matabeleland

soon after independence.

How do you feel today,

General Shiri?

Do you have anything to say?

Are you happy?

He's a close ally

of the new President.

What's very clear to me is that this

is a welcoming party,

not made up of old Zimbabweans,

but very much hardcore

ruling party supporters.

They celebrate together,

but the ruling party

is no longer a momolith,

there are factions within

factions and loyalty

to the new leader will be dependent

on him delivering change.

Well, let me ask you, if this

President doesn't meet your needs,

will you challenge him?

Everyone now is very awake.

If he doesn't do what we want,

we're going to take him down again.

These are days of questions.

What will happen to the deposed

Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace,

the military isn't saying.

Will the new leader

bring the opposition

into a unity government?

One leading activist told me

the international community now had

to engage with Zimbabwe.

Well, we expect the international

community to be our underwriters

and guarantors, to make sure

that there is the holding

of credible, legitimate,

free and fair elections.

Tonight's speech was an appeal

to a divided party,

not a wounded nation.

Zimbabweans are waiting

for Mr Mnangagwa to outline a vision

that breaks with the repressive

politics of his past.

Fergal Keane, BBC News, Harare.

In just under two hours' time

in Brisbane, the England

cricket team will walk

out to face Australia,

at the ground called the Gabba,

in the first Test match

of the Ashes series.

It can be an intimidating venue,

where Australia haven't lost

to England since the 1980s.

Live to Brisbane and our sports

correspondent, Andy Swiss.

Yes, Huw, welcome to Brisbane where

it's very nearly the moment that

cricket fans have been waiting for.

40,000 supporters deaccepteding on

the Gabba for the late latest chap

term of one of sports most famous

sagas. England are the holders,

Australia the favourites, the Ashes

are at stake.

REPORTER:

Up a bit higher, guys.

For now they both have

their hands on the Ashes.

Steve Smith and Joe Root,

but which captain's grip

will prove the stronger?

England's preparations have been

overshadowed by memories

of a thrashing on their last trip

here and by the absence

of their star player Ben Stokes,

but for all that there

is a quiet confidence.

I'm sure there'll be a few

nerves flying around

underneath the surface,

but as a whole there's a really calm

atmosphere in the dressing room.

I think that's a really good place

for us to be as a side.

But Brisbane is a picture

of Australian bullishness.

Their familiar weapon, pace.

Mitchell Starc testing the speed gun

before he tests England's courage.

And if Australia need any

extra confidence, well,

they only have to look around them.

This is the Gabba, nicknamed

the Gabbatoir because Australia

haven't lost a Test match

here for nearly 30 years.

And without their talisman, even

England's optimists are worried.

Ben Stokes is the best

cricketer in the world

full-stop at the moment.

I think with him in the side

undoubtedly they'd be favourites,

even away from home,

but I think it's evened it up a lot.

It's a shame Ben's not here,

I personally think he should

be, but there we go.

I think the Aussies will be

delighted that he's not in the team.

The travelling fans,

though, remain hopeful.

England's Barmy Army winning

the pre-Ashes supporters' match.

But as every one of them knows,

it's now down to serious business.

Andy Swiss, BBC News, Brisbane.