Browse content similar to 26/09/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Tonight, is the deal that was supposed to save the eurozone | :00:10. | :00:15. | |
falling apart? With riots on streets in Madrid, | :00:15. | :00:18. | |
the Spanish Prime Minister says only market pressure can make him | :00:18. | :00:22. | |
take a bail out. Tonight thousands of ordinary Spaniards are once | :00:22. | :00:25. | |
again out on the streets of Madrid, ahead of tomorrow's austerity | :00:26. | :00:29. | |
budget. It could be the biggest economic and political test facing | :00:29. | :00:31. | |
the country since democracy was restored. | :00:31. | :00:35. | |
The biggest beast in the market for Spanish debt tells us how long the | :00:35. | :00:40. | |
country has got before it's forced into a boilout. | :00:40. | :00:42. | |
Newsnight investigates the treatment of hotel workers in the | :00:42. | :00:47. | |
heart of London. We are fighting for already three months, and still | :00:47. | :00:51. | |
it is not ending. That is ridiculous. I'm doing a really good | :00:51. | :00:56. | |
job, I want money for my job. Tonight, David Cameron promises to | :00:56. | :01:01. | |
hunt down Mubarak's missing millions held in Britain. | :01:01. | :01:05. | |
And at the Lib Dem conference. Admitting you can't, in fact, vote | :01:05. | :01:10. | |
blue, and go green, well, of course you can't. To make blue go green | :01:10. | :01:15. | |
you have to add yellow. Nick Clegg turns stand-up comedian, how long | :01:15. | :01:22. | |
will his party be laughing. Did the Lib Dems in Brighton rock our panel | :01:22. | :01:31. | |
of political experts. Good evening. In Madrid, clashes | :01:31. | :01:36. | |
between riot police and protestors, in Catalonia, snap elections | :01:36. | :01:39. | |
designed to be an effective referendum on the region's | :01:39. | :01:43. | |
independence. In Athens, a general strike. This was supposed to be the | :01:43. | :01:48. | |
month that the eurocrisis would be solved. But with the markets once | :01:48. | :01:52. | |
again in turmoil, Britain, once again, sees this crucial market, on | :01:52. | :01:56. | |
our doorstep, faced with the threat of disintegration. We will hear the | :01:56. | :02:01. | |
Spanish Government's latest austerity plan tomorrow. We're in | :02:01. | :02:04. | |
Madrid. Joe, what's happening? Good evening, | :02:04. | :02:08. | |
and welcome to just about 100ms in front of the Spanish parliament. | :02:08. | :02:11. | |
You cannot see it because there are about five rows of riot trucks | :02:11. | :02:17. | |
blocking the way. They are trying to prevent around 1,000 or so | :02:17. | :02:21. | |
protestors from getting anywhere near the build with the | :02:21. | :02:25. | |
announcement tomorrow. The young people here are incan Desant with | :02:25. | :02:29. | |
rage about the austerity they have had to endure and will continue to | :02:29. | :02:32. | |
be endured in the coming two years. Tomorrow that budget will arrive. | :02:32. | :02:37. | |
Tomorrow Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said he would indeed go for a | :02:37. | :02:41. | |
bail out, if the cost of borrowing remained unsustainably high. It is | :02:41. | :02:46. | |
still unsustainably high, it hit 6% today. The markets aren't exactly | :02:46. | :02:56. | |
buoyed by the sight of violence on the streets of Madrid. | :02:56. | :03:00. | |
Spain is an angry place these days, its young people, hot blooded at | :03:00. | :03:04. | |
the best of times, are now boiling with fury. They are struggling to | :03:04. | :03:07. | |
find the future that was promised them. Half of them have no job, and | :03:07. | :03:11. | |
the other half are being asked to work longer and for less. | :03:11. | :03:15. | |
Over the last few weeks the cost of borrowing for Spain has been | :03:15. | :03:18. | |
falling in the wake of a deal with the European Central Bank. But that | :03:18. | :03:21. | |
has meant very little to ordinary Spaniards who have seen their cost | :03:21. | :03:24. | |
of living and their living standards plummet. So with | :03:25. | :03:29. | |
tomorrow's budget looming and cuts also looming, the anger that you | :03:29. | :03:36. | |
can tense on the streets in Madrid is bound to grow rather than wane. | :03:36. | :03:42. | |
That was in evidence today in Bilbao, as police used rubber | :03:42. | :03:47. | |
bullets against parts of the crowd. While in Madrid, some protestors | :03:47. | :03:52. | |
were baton charged. Tomorrow the Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano | :03:52. | :03:56. | |
Rajoy, who has already raised direct and indirect taxes, is | :03:56. | :03:59. | |
expected to slash spending further, with the health services and | :03:59. | :04:06. | |
education in the firing line. Not having the possibility of | :04:06. | :04:13. | |
having a future, like finding work is impossible here right now. | :04:13. | :04:17. | |
vast majority of people on the streets tonight are calm and | :04:17. | :04:21. | |
peaceful. Most are middle-class and well educated. Social, rather than | :04:21. | :04:25. | |
trade union networks, are the driving forces behind the protests | :04:25. | :04:30. | |
this time of the We say that the democracy is kidnapped, it is | :04:30. | :04:34. | |
kidnapped because the people inside that building, they don't rule any | :04:34. | :04:39. | |
more. They don't have the power to rule, to change what's happening to | :04:39. | :04:43. | |
us. Things are ruled in Brussels. Ironically, it was a meeting in | :04:43. | :04:47. | |
Helsinki, rather than in Brussels that has driven Spanish borrowing | :04:47. | :04:53. | |
costs back over 6% today. The eurozone creditor nation, led by | :04:53. | :05:00. | |
Germany, appear to be unpicking a deal from June, about banking debt | :05:00. | :05:07. | |
and other debt. Specifically to help Ireland. This decision from | :05:07. | :05:11. | |
Spain and other counts effects us a lot more. The real problem for us | :05:11. | :05:16. | |
now, one of the main problems is financing. The protests are not | :05:16. | :05:23. | |
going to affect directly financing, unless people start to think we | :05:23. | :05:28. | |
have not got things under control. Spain is a young democracy, these | :05:28. | :05:32. | |
protests would never have been tolerated by Franco. But with | :05:32. | :05:36. | |
rampent debts, joblessness, and little prospects of growth, one | :05:36. | :05:40. | |
gets the sense that Spain is facing its biggest and economic threat, | :05:40. | :05:46. | |
since democracy was restored. Joining me down the line from | :05:46. | :05:50. | |
Madrid is Miguel-Anxo Murado a writer and journalist, and from | :05:50. | :05:55. | |
California, Mohamed El-Erian, CEO of Pimco, the world's largest bond | :05:55. | :06:00. | |
investor, and a man with more than a trillion dollars invested in the | :06:00. | :06:04. | |
markets. Mr Murado, we are expecting Prime Minister Rajoy to | :06:04. | :06:08. | |
come up with some kind of new austerity package tomorrow, on top | :06:09. | :06:14. | |
of the 65 billion larged pledged, it is crunch time, isn't it? Yes, | :06:14. | :06:17. | |
of course, it will be another austerity budget, and actually not | :06:17. | :06:21. | |
just for next year, it will be for two years, as the mandate by | :06:21. | :06:26. | |
Brussels. Spain, at the end of this process, has to heed a very -- hit | :06:26. | :06:31. | |
a very, very difficult target, a deficit target of 3%. We started | :06:31. | :06:36. | |
this year at 8.9%, so just imagine how difficult it is, and in fact, | :06:36. | :06:43. | |
the problem is that we just learned today that Spain will not meet the | :06:43. | :06:47. | |
deficit target for this year. We will be actually wide of the mark, | :06:47. | :06:51. | |
maybe 7% deficit, for example. So it's been extremely difficult | :06:51. | :06:57. | |
indeed. And Mr El-Erian in California, Mr | :06:57. | :07:00. | |
Rogge, the Prime Minister, said today, if it gets too dear | :07:00. | :07:04. | |
borrowing for Spain on the markets, he will go for a bail out. How long | :07:04. | :07:08. | |
do you think it is before he has to do that. Before he's forced by your | :07:08. | :07:12. | |
industry to just basically go, cap in hand, and ask for the money? | :07:12. | :07:17. | |
should come now, he should go to the ECB now, and ask for it. For | :07:17. | :07:20. | |
the simple reason that already the interest rates are too high. And | :07:20. | :07:25. | |
it's just not just the interest rate on Government debt, it is the | :07:25. | :07:29. | |
fact that capital continues to leave Spain, the private economy | :07:29. | :07:34. | |
continues to implode, and oxygen is sucked out of all the job creating | :07:34. | :07:39. | |
machines. So he should apply, he should get support, and hopefully | :07:39. | :07:43. | |
he can crowd back in private capital. What if he doesn't. | :07:43. | :07:48. | |
Anybody who has had any contact with the Spanish political elite | :07:48. | :07:52. | |
knows they are telling themselves, they may not even need to ask. That | :07:52. | :07:56. | |
the European Central Bank's pledge to buy debt may have been enough? | :07:56. | :08:02. | |
Well, the pledge certainly has done a lot. In the sense that it has | :08:02. | :08:07. | |
lowered borrowing costs by almost 1.5%. But words are not enough. You | :08:07. | :08:11. | |
need actions. So, the borrowing rate will go back to 7% pretty | :08:11. | :08:15. | |
quickly if the Prime Minister doesn't apply for the money from | :08:15. | :08:22. | |
the ECB. The ECB will not disperse without an application from Spain, | :08:22. | :08:28. | |
and a "light" set of policy conditionality. Behind you we can | :08:28. | :08:31. | |
see scenes of relative calm, compared to last night, we can hear | :08:31. | :08:35. | |
the protestors chanting too. These are not just the usual suspects, | :08:35. | :08:39. | |
are they? This is a wide cross section of people we saw last night, | :08:39. | :08:45. | |
can the Spanish people take what is about to be thrown at them? This is | :08:45. | :08:49. | |
actually a hardcore group of protestors, probably representative | :08:49. | :08:56. | |
of a sector of the Spanish youth, it has to be remembered that there | :08:56. | :09:00. | |
is 50% unemployment among the young people. But, they probably don't | :09:00. | :09:05. | |
represent the wider Spanish public, which also resents the cutbacks and | :09:05. | :09:10. | |
the austerity. But demonstrates in a different way, more by sector, | :09:10. | :09:15. | |
say healthcare worker, teachers, they are already protesting in if | :09:15. | :09:21. | |
their own way. Well, they are not likely to take it very well, this | :09:21. | :09:26. | |
new as youturity package. As for what you were mentioning, the bail | :09:26. | :09:30. | |
out, well the reason why the Spanish Government is not making | :09:30. | :09:37. | |
the move, is, well, partly for political reasons, because that is | :09:37. | :09:40. | |
an original election ahead, and Mr Rajoy fears that he could lose that | :09:40. | :09:45. | |
regional election, it is a key election. If he demands, or asks | :09:45. | :09:53. | |
the bail out before that. There is the genuine belief that this could | :09:53. | :10:00. | |
be bad for the Spanish economy, if before that it is not solved the | :10:00. | :10:05. | |
way the bail out will work. If the bail out goes to the debt, certain | :10:05. | :10:09. | |
problems Spain has will actually become worse. What is your guess of | :10:09. | :10:15. | |
what they are doing to introduce tomorrow 0, a soft, papering over - | :10:15. | :10:20. | |
- is it a soft, papering over the cracks type package, will it please | :10:20. | :10:24. | |
the Germans, who want this to be a hard package? There is a police | :10:24. | :10:27. | |
charge going on now, I couldn't hear your question! What is the | :10:27. | :10:31. | |
nature of the bail out, we think Rajoy is putting to the parliament? | :10:31. | :10:38. | |
Is it a fig leaf or serious extra measures? Mr Rajoy, actually what | :10:38. | :10:42. | |
he wants is the bail out would be more or less along the lines that | :10:42. | :10:46. | |
were discussed by Mario Draghi recently. Nothing new? Nothing | :10:46. | :10:51. | |
particularly new in term of extra measures? Not really. You mean the | :10:51. | :11:01. | |
budget? ( loud bangs) Can you tell us the source of explosions we are | :11:01. | :11:07. | |
hearing gr your microphone? It is rubber -- We are hearing from your | :11:07. | :11:11. | |
microphone? It is rubber bullets, the police are charging right now | :11:11. | :11:17. | |
very close to where we are. (loud bangs) I understood you were asking | :11:17. | :11:24. | |
about the bail out or the budget. It seems like discussing the | :11:24. | :11:26. | |
political policy of the political economy might be difficult in the | :11:26. | :11:30. | |
situation you are in. I will go to Mr El-Erian for a moment. The | :11:30. | :11:34. | |
markets are signal, you know the price of those bonds signals, part | :11:34. | :11:41. | |
of that price, signals the is arek of a euro break-up, it is -- the | :11:41. | :11:47. | |
risk of a euro break-up, it is your job to put a price on that, what | :11:47. | :11:51. | |
chance to you give Europe staying 18 members in a year's time? In a | :11:51. | :11:55. | |
year's time there is a pretty high probability that the euro still | :11:55. | :12:00. | |
exists and the eurozone still exists, I'm less sure it will be 17 | :12:00. | :12:03. | |
member countries. What your cameras are showing right now is an amount | :12:03. | :12:09. | |
of rejection by the population. Were you to go to Greece, there the | :12:09. | :12:12. | |
rejection is complete by the population, it is economic, | :12:12. | :12:16. | |
financial, social and political. I do not see if you extend a year's | :12:17. | :12:20. | |
time how Greece remains in the eurozone, because everything we | :12:20. | :12:25. | |
have just talked about, multiply that by a million, and you have a | :12:25. | :12:28. | |
very difficult situation in Greece itself. I'm not sure the population | :12:28. | :12:32. | |
there will tolerate just more of the same, because it hasn't got | :12:32. | :12:36. | |
them anything, nor does it promise them a loyalty at the end of the | :12:36. | :12:41. | |
tunnel. Mohamed El-Erian sitting in the HQ | :12:41. | :12:44. | |
of a fund controlling a trillion dollars, thank you, and Miguel-Anxo | :12:44. | :12:50. | |
Murado, in the middle of what looks increasingly like a developing riot, | :12:50. | :12:54. | |
stay safe, thank you very much gentlemen. Now, low pay, long hours, | :12:54. | :12:57. | |
hard physical work, that's what you might expect to find in the hotel | :12:57. | :13:02. | |
cleaning sector. It is an industry, in London at least, now, almost | :13:02. | :13:07. | |
entirely staffed by migrant labour. In 2009, Newsnight went undercover | :13:07. | :13:11. | |
to expose exploitation at one of the most expensive hotels in the | :13:11. | :13:14. | |
capital. That investigation ultimately led to compensation for | :13:14. | :13:19. | |
13 workers involved. This summer, with rooms packed out for the | :13:19. | :13:22. | |
Olympics, has the industry itself cleaned up the act? There is some | :13:22. | :13:27. | |
strong language in this, the first of a two part report on conditions | :13:27. | :13:30. | |
into the hotel industry, and how those conditions affect east | :13:30. | :13:34. | |
European and British workers. This report contains strong | :13:34. | :13:42. | |
language. It was the summer we will never | :13:42. | :13:46. | |
forget, a six-week party, all watched by a million visitors from | :13:46. | :13:52. | |
around the world. For London's top hotels, business was booming. Room | :13:52. | :13:58. | |
prices had never been so high. Everybody had to smile, and you | :13:58. | :14:03. | |
have toe, you know, welcome the -- to, you know, welcome the guests. | :14:03. | :14:08. | |
We have to show them, everything is perfect. But amid all the Olympic | :14:08. | :14:11. | |
euphoria, what about a different kind of visitor? The person hidden | :14:11. | :14:16. | |
away in the background, keeping the whole operation going? It was hard, | :14:16. | :14:22. | |
really hard, it is not like we can have excitement because it is | :14:22. | :14:25. | |
Olympic time, for us it was a really hard job. These are the | :14:25. | :14:32. | |
staff who clean the carpets, wipe the bathrooms and make the beds. | :14:32. | :14:38. | |
This is the story of their summer, of outsourcing, low pay, and claims | :14:38. | :14:42. | |
of exploitation, of new immigrants and disgruntled British workers. | :14:42. | :14:48. | |
had had a phone call to say that if the girls didn't like the way that | :14:48. | :14:54. | |
the company was running it now, that they could, can I swear? They | :14:54. | :14:58. | |
could fuck off! And not come back, because she would have a coachful, | :14:58. | :15:03. | |
or a mini-bus full of other people to take her place, to take | :15:03. | :15:07. | |
everyone's place. The Hilton Waldorf is one of | :15:07. | :15:12. | |
London's iconic five-star hotels, it was home to VIPs like Michael | :15:12. | :15:15. | |
Phelps this summer p and the main base for the Chinese Olympic | :15:15. | :15:22. | |
delegation. A package here, with top tickets to the athletics and | :15:22. | :15:27. | |
dinner, cost �3,000 a person over the games. This summer was also an | :15:27. | :15:31. | |
unforgettable one for many of the Polish cleaners working here. Just | :15:31. | :15:35. | |
two month before the Opening Ceremony, the hotel outsourced its | :15:35. | :15:39. | |
room cleaning contract, dozens of jobs were transferred across to a | :15:39. | :15:45. | |
new company, Jani-King, one of the largest in the contract cleaning | :15:45. | :15:49. | |
business. That transfer has caused serious anger, among many of the | :15:49. | :15:52. | |
cleaners at the Hilton Waldorf. Newsnight has spoken to five people | :15:52. | :15:57. | |
working there, and seen a letter signed by another 25. They say they | :15:57. | :16:00. | |
have been left worried for their jobs and out of pocket. Some say | :16:00. | :16:04. | |
they have been left with only a few hundred pounds to pay the bills | :16:04. | :16:09. | |
each month. I was so happy that I was working for the Hilton contract, | :16:09. | :16:16. | |
because I got good money, no problems, no nothing. Anetta | :16:16. | :16:20. | |
followed her husband to the UK in 2007, she has spent more than two | :16:20. | :16:24. | |
years at the hotel. Before that she was a primary school teacher near | :16:24. | :16:29. | |
Warsaw. She says the problems started when the first wage slips | :16:29. | :16:32. | |
arrived. First the agency changed the way cleaners are paid. Instead | :16:32. | :16:35. | |
of getting wages at the end of the month, they suddenly had to wait up | :16:35. | :16:40. | |
to seven weeks to get their full pay. This wasn't a one-off, it was | :16:40. | :16:44. | |
happening every month, leaving some cleaners hundreds of pounds out of | :16:44. | :16:52. | |
pocket. When I opened my payslip was really sur pryed, because I was | :16:52. | :16:57. | |
expecting �1,400, and I received only �200, so I was asking, but I | :16:57. | :17:01. | |
work, that was my hours, it was almost 200 hours on that, because | :17:01. | :17:05. | |
it was the Olympic time. And that was his answer, you are not allowed | :17:05. | :17:10. | |
the money now. You know, I have to pay my rent, it is not possible to | :17:10. | :17:15. | |
manage with �200. Jani-King says it did offer some employees short-term | :17:15. | :17:20. | |
loans to cover a gap in their wages. The workers, though, say this was | :17:20. | :17:24. | |
just a temporary fix, and the next month they faced the same problem | :17:24. | :17:27. | |
of the I was sitting in the office and I'm crying, because you know, I | :17:27. | :17:34. | |
call them again and again and again. Ivana has been here six years, she | :17:34. | :17:39. | |
sends the money here she earns back to her husband and two small | :17:39. | :17:44. | |
children in pole land. We are fighting three month, and -- Poland. | :17:44. | :17:48. | |
We are fighting three months and it is not fair, I want money for my | :17:48. | :17:55. | |
job, I do a good job. The problems continue, payslips show cuts in | :17:55. | :17:58. | |
hourly wages from one month to the next. Just before the Olympics, all | :17:58. | :18:04. | |
the room cleaners were told to sign this confidential letter, under old | :18:04. | :18:07. | |
Hilton management, they were expected to clean two rooms an hour, | :18:08. | :18:12. | |
now that rate was increase today three. In threatening language, the | :18:12. | :18:16. | |
letter said if the new targets were not met, disciplinary action could | :18:16. | :18:22. | |
follow. That hotel is five-star hotel, 20 minutes to clean the room, | :18:22. | :18:26. | |
never, no-one can do it. Just maybe you can make the bed, and clean the | :18:26. | :18:32. | |
bathroom, a little bit. And that's The cleaners say staff were | :18:32. | :18:36. | |
pressured to skip breaks and work overtime for no extra pay to meet | :18:36. | :18:40. | |
the new targets. But, this is about more than a few missed payments. It | :18:40. | :18:45. | |
is about a whole business model. Hotels are now routinely | :18:45. | :18:51. | |
contracting out tasks, like room cleaning to outside agencies. Done | :18:51. | :18:56. | |
correctly, companies in low-wage sectors say outsourcing can cut | :18:56. | :18:59. | |
costs, bring in specialist staff, and in the end, increase the | :18:59. | :19:03. | |
quality of the service. There are laws meant to protect working | :19:03. | :19:08. | |
conditions when this happens. In simple terp, outsourcing should not | :19:08. | :19:12. | |
be -- terms, outsourcing should not be used to change anything in the | :19:12. | :19:17. | |
terms of the cleaners' contract, including the wages they are paid. | :19:17. | :19:22. | |
This man represents clients from Wayne Rooney to Andy Coulson in the | :19:22. | :19:26. | |
working sector. In the low pay sector it appears individual don't | :19:26. | :19:32. | |
know their rights. In a case of foreign workers, there may be a | :19:32. | :19:39. | |
problem with English. Other there may be an unwillingness to confront | :19:39. | :19:42. | |
authority. In the coalition agreement, the Government said the | :19:42. | :19:45. | |
labour market should be competitive but fair. The danger is, critics | :19:45. | :19:51. | |
say, that aggressive outsourcing, in low-pay sector, like hotel | :19:51. | :19:55. | |
cleaning, can just encourage contractors to drive down wages and | :19:55. | :20:00. | |
working conditions. The majority of hotels in Crawley, | :20:00. | :20:06. | |
you will find near enough every housekeeper is European. But, could | :20:06. | :20:12. | |
outsource anything this way, also be pricing British work -- | :20:12. | :20:18. | |
outsourcing in this way, be pricing British workers out of markets. A | :20:18. | :20:23. | |
veteran of hotel cleaning, she says she has seen wages and conditions | :20:23. | :20:30. | |
deteriorate. It has changed. They bring in a load of,am I allowed to | :20:30. | :20:36. | |
say, Bulgarian, Rumanian, who will work for that kind of money. They | :20:36. | :20:39. | |
will work from morning to night. Some of them don't even go home. | :20:39. | :20:44. | |
They say stay in the hotel. Stella was working until May last | :20:44. | :20:49. | |
year, when her hotel outsourced its cleaning contract, again, to Jani- | :20:49. | :20:53. | |
King. She was sacked. The firm says for misconduct, she says to make | :20:53. | :20:58. | |
way for younger, cheaper, eastern European workers. In the House of | :20:58. | :21:03. | |
Commons, last year, Stella's local MP stood up and used parliamentary | :21:03. | :21:07. | |
privilege to link her dismissal, and that of a colleague, to their | :21:07. | :21:11. | |
nationality. Mr Speak e recently I have been dealing with a case on | :21:11. | :21:17. | |
behalf of two constituents who were dismissed from their job with a | :21:17. | :21:19. | |
commercial cleaning firm called Jani-King, allegedly for being | :21:19. | :21:23. | |
British. Can we have consideration for a debate on discrimination | :21:24. | :21:27. | |
against British workers in this country. But Mr Smith's argument | :21:27. | :21:32. | |
isn't that firms like Jani-King are raceist, more than the terms and | :21:33. | :21:36. | |
conditions they now offer make the jobs attractive only to new migrant | :21:36. | :21:42. | |
workers. You can see it is a pretty cynical wage model, that some | :21:42. | :21:47. | |
companies are using. In that they not only are paying the lowest | :21:47. | :21:54. | |
possible wage, and therefore, attracting people coming into the | :21:54. | :21:59. | |
country often from economies where unemployment is even higher. But | :21:59. | :22:02. | |
also what they are doing is they are turning over staff very quickly. | :22:02. | :22:06. | |
So that they are constantly getting people at an entry level, again | :22:06. | :22:10. | |
they can only pay the absolute minimum wage that they feel they | :22:10. | :22:15. | |
can get away with. The answer, he says, is not more | :22:15. | :22:19. | |
regulation. But better enforcement of the laws meant to protect low- | :22:19. | :22:23. | |
paid workers like hotel cleaner. For Stella, though, the job hunt | :22:23. | :22:28. | |
continues. I feel bitter, I feel bitter, because I have been treated | :22:28. | :22:34. | |
badly by them. I have had it firsthand, my experience, what they | :22:34. | :22:38. | |
are like, what they want to do. They do want to get British people | :22:38. | :22:43. | |
out. And get more Bulgarians in. Because it is cheap labour. They | :22:43. | :22:48. | |
don't argue. But, there are signs that's | :22:48. | :22:50. | |
changing. Many of the eastern European workers, who arrived | :22:50. | :22:58. | |
almost a decade ago, now speak the language and know their rights. The | :22:58. | :23:03. | |
cleaners at the Waldorf, are certainly not afraid to confront | :23:03. | :23:07. | |
authority. Earlier this month, though, Ivana | :23:07. | :23:11. | |
turned up for work and was told to go straight back home, she had been | :23:11. | :23:14. | |
dismissed. The other senior cleaning staff have been told they | :23:14. | :23:19. | |
must now go through a selection process to keep their jobs. I feel | :23:19. | :23:26. | |
they will sack me. Because I'm, all of us are expensive for them. So, | :23:26. | :23:30. | |
they are going to just wait for that moment when they can sack us | :23:30. | :23:36. | |
from the work. And we know that, one day that will come. We are just | :23:36. | :23:41. | |
waiting for that. Many low-paid British workers were | :23:41. | :23:44. | |
making exactly the same complaint when the UK opened its doors to | :23:44. | :23:49. | |
Eastern Europe. Now it's these Polish workers who feel threatened, | :23:49. | :23:58. | |
exploited, worried, and above all, vulnerable. | :23:59. | :24:02. | |
In a statement, Jani-King has said it has taken all legal measures | :24:02. | :24:06. | |
with the contract at the hotel. It claims all cleaners will be trained | :24:06. | :24:09. | |
to work more efficiently, and denies any staff will automatically | :24:09. | :24:13. | |
be made redundant. It has apologised for any inconvenience | :24:13. | :24:16. | |
caused with regard to their salaries. Hilton said that | :24:16. | :24:19. | |
outsourcing is one part of its business model. And all its | :24:19. | :24:23. | |
suppliers must comply with existing laws and conditions of employment. | :24:23. | :24:27. | |
It says Jani-King will now review staffing at the hotel, but, the | :24:27. | :24:34. | |
agency remains a key supplier. In the second part of our series, | :24:34. | :24:38. | |
Jim Reid investigates the loopholes employment agencies use to hire | :24:38. | :24:43. | |
migrant workers from Romania and Bulgaria. Just a copy of the | :24:43. | :24:48. | |
contract for my records. Can you bring records downstairs. That's | :24:48. | :24:52. | |
not a contract. That is a provision of the service. But just to have it | :24:52. | :24:56. | |
for my records. You can't have that one darling. You will be pleased to | :24:56. | :25:00. | |
know, later in the programme, we are trying to go back to Madrid, on | :25:00. | :25:07. | |
the developing situation there. You heart the start of a rub bet bullet | :25:07. | :25:11. | |
fussilade in the middle of the interview. Earlier David Cameron | :25:11. | :25:13. | |
finished speaking to the United Nations General Assembly in New | :25:14. | :25:18. | |
York. He flayed the UN for the inaction over Syria, saying the | :25:18. | :25:22. | |
blood of slaughtered children there was a stain on the UN's reputation. | :25:22. | :25:27. | |
And during a spirited defence of the Arab Spring, he announced a new | :25:27. | :25:30. | |
initiative in London to trace the millions of dollars Egypt's | :25:30. | :25:35. | |
President, Hosni Mubarak, is said to have salted away here. While on | :25:35. | :25:39. | |
the subject of stolen assets, we have a responsibility to help these | :25:39. | :25:44. | |
countries get back the stolen assets that are rightly their's. | :25:44. | :25:47. | |
Just as we have returned billions of dollars of assets to Libya. It | :25:48. | :25:51. | |
is simply not good enough that the Egyptian people continue to be | :25:51. | :25:55. | |
denied these assets, long after Mubarak has gone. And today I'm | :25:55. | :25:58. | |
announcing a new British task force to work with the Egyptian | :25:58. | :26:02. | |
Government, to gather evidence to trace assets, to work to change EU | :26:03. | :26:07. | |
law, and to pursue the legal cases that will return this stolen money | :26:07. | :26:12. | |
to the rightful owner, the Egyptian people. You have been investigating | :26:12. | :26:16. | |
the story, what is the background to this? Immediately after the | :26:16. | :26:19. | |
Egyptian revolution in February of last year, Britain promised to do | :26:19. | :26:24. | |
all it could to try to trace the billions of dollars suspected to | :26:24. | :26:30. | |
have been stolen by the old regime, and hidden abroad. But very little | :26:30. | :26:35. | |
action followed, about �85 million worth of suspected asset was frozen | :26:35. | :26:41. | |
in London. That was already 40 days after the revolution. And a BBC | :26:41. | :26:46. | |
News night investigation, and BBC Arabic investigation a couple of | :26:46. | :26:49. | |
weeks ago, found some really obvious assets that had apparently | :26:49. | :26:53. | |
been completely overlooked by the UK authority. For example, a very | :26:53. | :26:59. | |
substantial house, just off Knightsbridge, the main London gom | :26:59. | :27:04. | |
of Gamal Mubarak, also a company very associated closely with him. | :27:04. | :27:09. | |
This is what an expert in asset recovery had to tell you about that. | :27:09. | :27:13. | |
There you are, you have an active business through which he was | :27:13. | :27:16. | |
trading. You might have thought that the company would have been | :27:16. | :27:22. | |
added to the list of entities, affected by the sanctions, that has | :27:22. | :27:27. | |
happened. Why do we think the British Government has moved now? | :27:27. | :27:33. | |
What sources have said is removing an irritant in anglo-Egyptian | :27:33. | :27:38. | |
relations. There has been a meeting between David Cameron and Prime | :27:38. | :27:42. | |
Minister Morsit has been an irritant for a long time. There was | :27:42. | :27:45. | |
legal action launched against the UK back in the spring. It is hard | :27:45. | :27:47. | |
to believe, as part of our investigation, the Foreign Office | :27:47. | :27:52. | |
said to us they thought Britain was already doing all it could. It is | :27:52. | :27:56. | |
quite hard to believe this apparent change of heart isn't part of the | :27:56. | :28:00. | |
really big impact that the British investigation, our investigation, | :28:00. | :28:03. | |
particularly the Arabic version, had in Egypt, I think it was really | :28:03. | :28:06. | |
embarrassing. What is likely to happen, what is the task force, | :28:06. | :28:10. | |
what will they do on the morning they start? Exactly, we still don't | :28:10. | :28:14. | |
know. The Foreign Office say details are partly to be worked out. | :28:14. | :28:20. | |
Really I think it is about some kind of co-ordination between all | :28:20. | :28:22. | |
the different agencies that are dealing with this. We are talking | :28:22. | :28:25. | |
about the police, the Treasury, the Home Office and the Foreign Office, | :28:25. | :28:29. | |
it is the multipolicity of organisations, and lack of co- | :28:29. | :28:33. | |
operation, that has been so frustrating. I think the problem is | :28:33. | :28:36. | |
the proof will only come in the question of what further assets | :28:36. | :28:41. | |
actually are frozen, so far Britain has set the legal barrier, the | :28:41. | :28:45. | |
burdenen of proof, very high. We don't yet know whether that will | :28:45. | :28:52. | |
change. Thank you very much. Today of the final day of the Lib | :28:52. | :28:55. | |
Dem conference. Nick Clegg made a speech lasting 38 minutes, in wit | :28:55. | :29:01. | |
three most used words were "country", "people", and for some | :29:01. | :29:08. | |
reason, "half" as in half time or wait for the second half of the | :29:08. | :29:11. | |
Government. Allegra Stratton had to be draged kicking and screaming | :29:12. | :29:16. | |
away from this riveting experience, with half time analysis in a moment. | :29:16. | :29:26. | |
:29:26. | :29:26. | ||
First, the highlights. For 30 month Lib Dem foot soldiers have endured | :29:26. | :29:29. | |
cruel elements, looking out from inside Government they have been | :29:29. | :29:33. | |
pitched to the right and left, and unable to fix on the horizon. | :29:33. | :29:37. | |
Although they can't see how, their loader today told them where he | :29:37. | :29:41. | |
wants them to get. From the middle of this parliament and the middle | :29:41. | :29:45. | |
of Government, by 2015's general election, Nick Clegg wants his | :29:45. | :29:49. | |
party firmly in the middle of the voters' view. The trouble with this | :29:49. | :29:53. | |
being in the middle thing, is illustrated by my very crude | :29:53. | :29:58. | |
profiling. Apologies for doubtless offence about to be caused. He is a | :29:59. | :30:05. | |
mate of Gordon Brown's on the left. She's on left and proud of it. | :30:05. | :30:11. | |
I'm not sure but wouldn't be surprised. He's Clegg's PPS, he | :30:11. | :30:16. | |
will say whatever is in the speech. We are wileing away time waiting | :30:16. | :30:22. | |
for a speech so important, that Nick Clegg apologised for an error | :30:23. | :30:26. | |
seven days ago, so people would concentrate on the speech and not | :30:26. | :30:32. | |
mutter on it. He wants to drag them to place philosophically where they | :30:32. | :30:37. | |
are not now electorally. We are an hour from when Nick Clegg tells | :30:38. | :30:47. | |
:30:48. | :30:48. | ||
them they want to re-think their image. This is Joe Grimmand, he was | :30:48. | :30:53. | |
on the centre left. That is how most people see him. There is David | :30:53. | :30:56. | |
Lloyd George, Nick Clegg would get some sucker from him, and that is | :30:57. | :31:00. | |
who Clegg often quotes. Another one, Asquith, this is a help hadful | :31:00. | :31:06. | |
phrase, "neither to the left nor to the right, but keep straight on". | :31:06. | :31:12. | |
We found a Cleggite, what is going on? I take all sorts of abuse from | :31:12. | :31:16. | |
friends and colleagues, because everybody is tellsing me they are - | :31:16. | :31:19. | |
- telling me they are finished. I don't think they are. There is a | :31:19. | :31:24. | |
problem, if you have suits in the north but saying you are a party of | :31:24. | :31:27. | |
the centre and in coalition with the Government, you are handing all | :31:27. | :31:32. | |
the seats in the north back to the Labour Party? When people Israelise | :31:32. | :31:37. | |
what the liberal contribution to the economy has been, all the | :31:37. | :31:45. | |
people reduced from paying tax, I think, the students are better off. | :31:45. | :31:50. | |
He wants to shake his hand, others don't. There are constituents | :31:50. | :31:56. | |
outside the south-east where Labour is strengthened. A dash for the | :31:56. | :32:01. | |
centre ground has stopped that. A gamble that it mitochondrial not. | :32:01. | :32:07. | |
The taxing wealth and unleashing income might help tackle the | :32:07. | :32:11. | |
spectrum. This man doesn't quite accept the definition. You are | :32:11. | :32:15. | |
centre right not centre left. are a liberal progressive party. | :32:15. | :32:19. | |
better go, or I will end up on the stage. | :32:19. | :32:25. | |
The Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg. | :32:25. | :32:30. | |
Conference, I tell you this, the choice between the party we were, | :32:30. | :32:37. | |
and the party we are becoming is a false one. The past is gone and it | :32:37. | :32:40. | |
isn't come back. If voter want a party of opposition, a stop the | :32:40. | :32:45. | |
world I want to get off party, they have got plenty of options. But we | :32:45. | :32:51. | |
are not one of them. APPLAUSE. Le | :32:51. | :32:57. | |
There is a better, -- there is a better, more meaningful future | :32:57. | :33:01. | |
waiting for you, not as a third party, but one of three parties of | :33:01. | :33:05. | |
Government. He turned deficit reduction, | :33:05. | :33:08. | |
opposition to which has driven Liberal Democrats into labour's | :33:08. | :33:14. | |
arms, into an argument of social justice. So to those who ask, | :33:14. | :33:19. | |
incredulously, what we, the Liberal Democrats, are doing cutting public | :33:19. | :33:26. | |
spending, I simply say this, who suffers most when Governments go | :33:26. | :33:32. | |
bust. It would be the poor, the old, the infirm, those with the least to | :33:32. | :33:40. | |
fall back on. And caricatures for his opponents, both ace lunatic | :33:40. | :33:44. | |
fringes. The -- both as lunatic fringes. The truth is only the | :33:44. | :33:48. | |
Liberal Democrats can be trusted on the economy and relied upon to | :33:48. | :33:51. | |
deliver a fairer society too. My experience, if you are being | :33:51. | :33:56. | |
attacked by Liam Fox from one side, and Ed Balls on the other, you are | :33:57. | :34:05. | |
in the right place, by the way. A speech placing him firmly in the | :34:05. | :34:10. | |
liberal tradition, a proud intellectual tradition, the problem | :34:10. | :34:14. | |
is turning into votes, enough votes in the right part of the country, | :34:14. | :34:18. | |
votes that are right at the front of the coalition cuts. If the | :34:18. | :34:21. | |
economy doesn't turned around, it is dark times ahead for the Lib | :34:21. | :34:24. | |
Dems? The crucial part of going into Government was to sort out the | :34:24. | :34:26. | |
economic mess. It is really important that we are able to show, | :34:26. | :34:31. | |
as we will be able to in 2015, that we have turned the corner and got | :34:31. | :34:35. | |
the economy growing again, and we have made a massive step in | :34:35. | :34:38. | |
reducing the huge levels of borrowing that we inherited from | :34:38. | :34:47. | |
labour last time round. The economy coming right, and then | :34:47. | :34:52. | |
the next bit too, strategists think the way to realign politics will | :34:52. | :34:55. | |
take a generation. Economic recovery will not be swift either. | :34:55. | :35:00. | |
The problem for Lib Dem MPs is they don't have that long. | :35:00. | :35:04. | |
What were they trying to do both there and throughout the week? | :35:04. | :35:08. | |
have a really interesting argument, which we talked about on the | :35:09. | :35:13. | |
programme bf. Wealth taxes rather than income -- before. Wealth tax | :35:13. | :35:16. | |
rather than income taxes. It is fascinating philosophy and politics. | :35:16. | :35:19. | |
They have this difficulty where the people who are their voters right | :35:19. | :35:23. | |
now are turned off already. And to get them back, even though the | :35:23. | :35:28. | |
argument might make sense to some voters on the left, they are | :35:28. | :35:31. | |
already hurt and in anguish and won't come back. They are trying to | :35:31. | :35:34. | |
make this argument which is they have green policies and education | :35:34. | :35:38. | |
policies, and they have this income tax, wealth tax switch. But they | :35:38. | :35:41. | |
have offended and hurt so many people it is impossible to see how | :35:41. | :35:46. | |
their numbers will add up. For me it is a weird mismatch of | :35:46. | :35:49. | |
interesting philosophy and policy. And then there is this terrible | :35:49. | :35:53. | |
numbers for them. You have to give them credit for having stuff you | :35:53. | :35:58. | |
can get your teeth into. Everyone is laughing, but, equally, it is | :35:58. | :36:03. | |
just fiendish on the doorstep. it riveting for you as a | :36:03. | :36:09. | |
correspondent? You know, we have some light relief, that no-one can | :36:09. | :36:14. | |
explain. But "Liberal Democrats for Romney"! Was it riveting, party | :36:14. | :36:21. | |
conferences are a dying animal, and this was an example of an animal | :36:21. | :36:26. | |
twitching. Anything else? I have a present for you, it cost 35p at the | :36:26. | :36:30. | |
start of the week by the end it was �5. I thot you could write another | :36:31. | :36:40. | |
:36:41. | :36:43. | ||
book about it. It is -- It is a Vince Cable, "I am a pleb" badge. | :36:43. | :36:48. | |
The on going ridiculous row about Andrew Mitchell of there, and lots | :36:48. | :36:57. | |
of correspondents leaving to go to London. Joining me now are Baroness | :36:57. | :37:01. | |
Lara Morgan, Tony Blair's right hand in Downing Street, the | :37:01. | :37:05. | |
journalist, Miranda Green, who used to advise the Liberal Democrats, | :37:05. | :37:11. | |
and Sean Worthh, who until downwas special adviser to David Cameron. | :37:11. | :37:15. | |
Mirand -- Until June was special adviser to David Cameron. Miranda, | :37:15. | :37:19. | |
do you think it went well? thought he did well in the | :37:19. | :37:24. | |
circumstances. It was said that they have they were overshadowed by | :37:24. | :37:32. | |
the Mitchell plebgate affair. I thought this week was a circling of | :37:32. | :37:37. | |
the wagon, the polls are desperate for Clegg and party. It was an | :37:37. | :37:43. | |
inward looking week. The speeched today, some of the imagery was | :37:43. | :37:47. | |
amazing, "we the Lib Dems are the burning building", we are engaged | :37:47. | :37:52. | |
in national renewal and party renewal. From raised earth position, | :37:52. | :37:57. | |
is basically what he was saying. I think it was a very serious speech | :37:57. | :38:02. | |
about the predicament the party and the country is in. This theme of | :38:02. | :38:08. | |
resilience being a vir due, I think that is quite a good mess -- virtue, | :38:08. | :38:12. | |
I think this is a good message for him. Tough give him credit for | :38:12. | :38:21. | |
still being standing. He looked as if he had made some head way. We | :38:21. | :38:27. | |
had head bangers being described on the platform from coalition | :38:27. | :38:31. | |
partners. Having the aphrodisiac effect on sacking workers. We can | :38:31. | :38:36. | |
imagine how it is going down on the membership, on the leadership and | :38:36. | :38:39. | |
the machine how will it play? you look at Clegg's speech, I | :38:39. | :38:46. | |
talked to a he had lo of delegates at my first--- to a lot of | :38:46. | :38:49. | |
delegates at my first ever conference. There was Tory bashing, | :38:49. | :38:54. | |
and it was in good tumour, there was a joke about Boris and Dave, a | :38:54. | :39:00. | |
few gags. I thought he gave a very workman-like performance, in term | :39:00. | :39:05. | |
of the coalition partner, he can't be seen to be having a go at the | :39:05. | :39:09. | |
partners in Government. It is smack in the middle of a fixed term | :39:09. | :39:14. | |
parliament, effective low, it will just communicate fractious -- | :39:14. | :39:17. | |
effectively, it will communicate fractious divisions in a Government | :39:17. | :39:21. | |
that isn't getting on with the tough job that he actually is | :39:21. | :39:24. | |
talking about. There must absence, that Conservatives watching that | :39:24. | :39:28. | |
live on rolling news -- a sense that Conservatives watching that | :39:28. | :39:33. | |
live on rolling news, that we are feeling the pain and look at them, | :39:33. | :39:37. | |
is there an element of Tories locking at them and saying, at | :39:37. | :39:42. | |
least we're not the Lib Dems? thought Clegg did a speech that | :39:42. | :39:47. | |
showed signs of real improvement for the liberals. He stops talking | :39:47. | :39:50. | |
about weird stuff like the alternative vote and constitutional | :39:50. | :40:00. | |
reform, and all these strange lrd issues. -- Lib Dem issues. He talks | :40:00. | :40:03. | |
about growth, schools, jobs, he had a very tough message for Labour. | :40:03. | :40:08. | |
That was the key thing for me. He clearly had to communicate | :40:08. | :40:12. | |
differenciation from the Tories. Ownership of some key policy areas, | :40:12. | :40:17. | |
and start moving on to issues that people care about. Ten out of ten | :40:17. | :40:21. | |
for substance, delivery as I said not setting the world on fire. | :40:21. | :40:26. | |
Sally Morgan, there is a huge sofa in Ed Miliband's office, is he | :40:26. | :40:29. | |
tonight cowering behind it after watching the speech? I couldn't | :40:29. | :40:34. | |
have thought so, it is indicative that you came to it so late tonight, | :40:34. | :40:38. | |
and it didn't lead the news. That is a pretty big problem, I thought | :40:38. | :40:41. | |
what was interesting about the speech is it was the Deputy Prime | :40:41. | :40:44. | |
Minister speaking to the country. I think it was what he should have | :40:44. | :40:50. | |
done. It was correct. He didn't tickle the tummies in the hall very | :40:50. | :40:53. | |
much, which is what Vince Cable and others were doing this week. He was | :40:53. | :40:55. | |
trying to talk to the country, but I don't think they are listening. | :40:55. | :41:02. | |
That is the real problem. It is a risky strategy for Labour to go on | :41:02. | :41:06. | |
hoping for two-and-a-half years that the country goes on not | :41:06. | :41:10. | |
listening, and despising Clegg over the issue of the student fees and | :41:10. | :41:15. | |
the turn around. It wouldn't take much for, the 10% lead Labour has | :41:15. | :41:20. | |
got, to drop back and for them to turn up again. Are Labour aware of | :41:20. | :41:28. | |
it? I think the Labour Party will be mad if they sit around and are | :41:28. | :41:31. | |
complacent. I don't think they are complacent and I don't think think | :41:31. | :41:34. | |
people are stupid. I can remember being involved with the Labour | :41:34. | :41:38. | |
Party when we have had large leads before elections and not won | :41:38. | :41:41. | |
general elections. People have long enough memories to realise you | :41:41. | :41:45. | |
don't win elections by watching others fail. There is a very clear | :41:45. | :41:50. | |
subtext to the whole speech as well. Which is let's differentiate | :41:50. | :41:54. | |
ourselves from Tories in fairness and labour on the economy. There | :41:54. | :42:00. | |
are nasty characters and we choose we can personify that. Fans of The | :42:00. | :42:07. | |
Thick Of It, will identify these as The Twiners, how long can they get | :42:07. | :42:11. | |
away with the inbetweeners strategy? It was very interesting | :42:11. | :42:13. | |
also this announcement that Paddy Ashdown, my old boss, would come | :42:13. | :42:17. | |
back and fight the next election. Or be in charge of fighting the | :42:17. | :42:21. | |
next election. What does that tell us about where they think it is | :42:21. | :42:25. | |
going to be fought? This is the point we made many times here, | :42:25. | :42:29. | |
which is the Lib Dems can't go back to the territory they fought on | :42:29. | :42:35. | |
before. They can't go back to the same old messages. But, pady is a | :42:35. | :42:38. | |
very respected fighter, he will give the party half of the fight. | :42:38. | :42:42. | |
They do need to think very, very hard about this position, they | :42:42. | :42:45. | |
can't divorce themselves from their coalition partners going into the | :42:45. | :42:53. | |
fight. On the other hand they need to look distinctive. | :42:53. | :42:58. | |
Differenceation is one of the worst words I have heard it is worse than | :42:58. | :43:04. | |
maths. They have to talk ahead in a way people will understand. | :43:04. | :43:14. | |
For the Conservatives, how will this play. The fill love kal -- | :43:14. | :43:20. | |
philosophical distance, is this a new tone, is Clegg 2.0 what we are | :43:20. | :43:25. | |
going to see for two years? If it is, it will benefit them. Two | :43:25. | :43:30. | |
things struck me, one of the fact that they ignored the strange Lib | :43:30. | :43:33. | |
Dem obsessions and they focused on stuff that really matters to people. | :43:33. | :43:37. | |
The second was, as I said earlier, I didn't think the speech set the | :43:37. | :43:42. | |
world on fire. But where it did get good was where he got passionate | :43:42. | :43:45. | |
and angry. He is communicating that he is standing up on key issues, | :43:45. | :43:50. | |
that will be their strategy for the longer term in the parliament. What | :43:50. | :43:55. | |
was key to me, just coming back to the Labour position, is he really | :43:55. | :44:00. | |
had a go at Labour on the economy. But very careful not to say | :44:00. | :44:04. | |
Miliband, he attacked Balls, he has to keep the court open for the | :44:04. | :44:09. | |
prospects. Is Balls quaking in his boots? I wouldn't say, it is part | :44:09. | :44:13. | |
for Labour to start putting forward a stronger alternative next week. | :44:13. | :44:16. | |
Plenty more where that came from in the party conference season. Right, | :44:16. | :44:26. | |
:44:26. | :45:01. | ||
Before we go our team in Madrid said after the police shot at the | :45:01. | :45:06. | |
crowd with rubber bullets the crowd dispered. We play out with the | :45:06. | :45:12. | |
voice of Andy William, who died today at the age of 84. Whose | :45:12. | :45:17. | |
unmistakable sound once cauldron nald Regan to call him a national | :45:17. | :45:20. | |
treasure sure. This is why they call it easy listening. | :45:21. | :45:25. | |
# I need you baby # You want a lonely nationwide | :45:25. | :45:31. | |
# I love you baby # Trust in me when I say | :45:31. | :45:36. | |
# Oh pretty baby # Don't bring me down I pray | :45:36. | :45:40. | |
# Oh pretty babe # Now that I found you | :45:40. | :45:45. | |
# Oh pretty baby # Trust in me within I say | :45:45. | :45:55. | |
:45:55. | :46:08. | ||
Good evening, we have had some very disturbed weather. Severe flooding, | :46:08. | :46:10. | |
nasty storms across England and Wales. Continued through the | :46:10. | :46:14. | |
evening overnight as well. Still with us first thing across southern | :46:14. | :46:17. | |
and eastern areas, local flooding in that. Thursday is looking like a | :46:17. | :46:21. | |
dryer and brighter day. Morning mist and fog for the rush hour. | :46:21. | :46:25. | |
Scattered showers in the afternoon. It is not all all together dryer | :46:25. | :46:28. | |
picture, it is dryer than it has been. Nasty showers through the | :46:28. | :46:32. | |
evening and overnight, but clearly away first thing in the morning. | :46:32. | :46:36. | |
The mist and fog clears away. More sunshine and a scattering of | :46:36. | :46:39. | |
showers. It looks dry compare with the south west and also across | :46:39. | :46:43. | |
Wales with just a scattering of showers here and there. Fairly | :46:43. | :46:47. | |
gentle breeze, but coming down from the North West, not a particularly | :46:47. | :46:50. | |
warm direction. There are showers over the saturated ground of | :46:51. | :46:53. | |
northern England. Not great news, and through the Midland flood | :46:54. | :46:58. | |
warnings as well. A number in force. For Northern Ireland and the | :46:58. | :47:02. | |
western Scotland, cloud overhead. The eastern side of Scotland seeing | :47:02. | :47:07. | |
the best of a sunny weather. What about Friday, we will see a band of | :47:07. | :47:11. | |
cloud and rain initial low, and sunshine and showers, a and brisk | :47:11. | :47:15. | |
winds, gales later, they will blow for cloud in across the southern | :47:15. | :47:19. | |
part of the country. Not as windy on Friday, but a few showers around. | :47:19. | :47:23. |