:00:14. > :00:18.Tonight, a banquet of braced veal on a bed of spinach in Brussels,
:00:18. > :00:22.Molotov cocktail on the streets of Athens. The fate of this nation
:00:22. > :00:26.will be decided by EU bureaucrat, do they have a clue on how to
:00:26. > :00:30.prevent social breakdown. There has been a good supply of
:00:30. > :00:36.teargas on the streets today, what is in short supply is belief in the
:00:36. > :00:40.institutions of democracy. Also tonight, it is a combishambles,
:00:40. > :00:45.the Government confirms it will compel energy companies to give
:00:45. > :00:51.customers their lowest tarrif, they haven't worked out how yet. The UK
:00:51. > :00:59.has one of the worst breast-feeding rates in Europe, UNICEF says we are
:00:59. > :01:06.risk problems down the line. We have a roomful of women who for
:01:06. > :01:09.turning in the bottle has a whole new meaning. Could letters Prince
:01:09. > :01:14.Charles sent to ministers undermine his role as Monarch, if they do,
:01:14. > :01:24.isn't it a good reason for letting us see them. We speak town one of
:01:24. > :01:30.the Prince's closest aides about the importance of being frank.
:01:30. > :01:32.Good evening, as European leaders, no, let's call them Nobel Peace
:01:32. > :01:36.Prize-winning representative, converge once more on Brussels,
:01:36. > :01:40.protests raged in Greece. Today for the second time in two week, 70,000
:01:40. > :01:45.people took to the streets of Athens, where political anarchy was
:01:45. > :01:50.king. As petrol bombs and stones were thrown, police responded with
:01:50. > :01:56.teargas and stun grenades. Today at the 22nd crisis summit in two years,
:01:56. > :02:01.the EU establishment sat down to dinner. It seldom changes, talks, a
:02:01. > :02:05.photo, memorandum, and agreement to do more next time. Can anything
:02:05. > :02:08.stop the social collapse happening before their eyes. Paul Mason is in
:02:08. > :02:13.Athens tonight. They have been trying to calculate
:02:13. > :02:19.the impact of austerity, the IMF, its economists have been trying to
:02:19. > :02:22.look at how badly countries are affected when certain levels of
:02:22. > :02:26.austerity are carried out. What is happening here today and the past
:02:27. > :02:31.month adds a new dimension to that. The social dimension, you just
:02:31. > :02:35.can't calculate it on an Excel spreadsheet. What we are seeing is
:02:35. > :02:39.far right violence, far right politics, far left violence, and
:02:39. > :02:43.far left politics. And amid all that, the Greek Government is just
:02:43. > :02:46.struggling to keep control. Not just of the all-important deficit
:02:46. > :02:50.reduction plan, and the austerity measures, but of the streets. And
:02:50. > :02:54.that's what I have seen today. You mentioned the far right there, Paul.
:02:54. > :02:57.What reaction to the revelations you brought us on Newsnight last
:02:57. > :03:01.night? The revelations last night were about police connections with
:03:01. > :03:05.the far right, but in the programme, one of the leaders of the far right
:03:05. > :03:07.made the statement that there was a civil war in Greece. This has been
:03:07. > :03:13.wall-to-wall news in Greece all afternoon and this evening. It has
:03:13. > :03:23.been discussed on all the programme. He's issued a statement saying that
:03:23. > :03:24.
:03:24. > :03:28.our report was wrong, because we "paraphrased him", as you see we
:03:28. > :03:33.paraphrased him by putting words in English of what he was saying. They
:03:33. > :03:38.are not happy with what we have done. Golden Dawn 14%ed today, that
:03:38. > :03:41.is in the context of a -- Golden Dawn 14% today, that is in the
:03:41. > :03:46.context of a lot of violence and upheaval in the streets, and a
:03:46. > :03:51.general strike, as I have seen on the streets today. In Athens, two
:03:51. > :03:57.years of crisis have taken a bitter economic toll. A thousand people a
:03:57. > :04:00.day are losing their jobs. The graffiti says "love or nothing".
:04:00. > :04:04.And here on the street, the main shopping street, which I have been
:04:04. > :04:10.coming to for two years now during this crisis, there is a heck of a
:04:10. > :04:17.lot of nothing. So many of the stores are just closed, finished,
:04:17. > :04:26.boarded up, grat feetied, gone. Across Greece, 30,000 shops closed
:04:26. > :04:31.last year. Today, those still in business, were on strike.
:04:31. > :04:35.But the economic crisis is now a political crisis, today's general
:04:35. > :04:40.strike shut down much of the public sector. Protest has become a way of
:04:40. > :04:43.life for very ordinary people. As they pass, the dockers, the
:04:44. > :04:47.shopkeepers, the medical students, they have one thing in common. We
:04:47. > :04:52.feel they have no way of influencing politics through the
:04:52. > :04:58.ballot box. This Government was elected on a
:04:58. > :05:01.platform to renegotiate the bail out. They said that they would try
:05:01. > :05:06.to get an extension, and that they would try to maintain the country
:05:07. > :05:11.in the euro. In a way, though, that would be less painful and brutal
:05:11. > :05:15.for the population. What they are doing ined stead is that they are
:05:15. > :05:19.announcing now that they will cut salaries, pensions, social services,
:05:19. > :05:25.the full range of cuts, which is just a continuation of the previous
:05:25. > :05:30.policy. So people, I think, in many ways, feel betrayed.
:05:30. > :05:34.The Greek Government has to impose �13.5 billion worth of cuts in the
:05:35. > :05:42.next few week, but the cuts made already have brought from the
:05:42. > :05:45.shadows, a new political force. Golden Dawn. Its activists given to
:05:46. > :05:51.attacking migrants, with massive support amongst serving police
:05:51. > :05:56.officers. Yesterday, one of its leaders told me this. Nowadays we
:05:56. > :06:02.are not talking about some normal days in Greece, some how, we are in
:06:02. > :06:09.civil war, and people who are not, who don't see this, they are like,
:06:09. > :06:13.how do you call these animal, the ones pulling their head in the sand.
:06:13. > :06:18.Today, on Greek TV, he denied saying it. But many here believe
:06:19. > :06:23.the rise of Neo-Naziism, is just a symptom of a wider problem.
:06:23. > :06:27.political parties, all mainstream political parties, and specifically
:06:28. > :06:32.the democratic parties, have adapted the main themes of Golden
:06:32. > :06:35.Dawn, have adopted xeonophobia as a theme, and are pushing people
:06:36. > :06:42.against immigrants, probably in the hope that they will get those votes
:06:42. > :06:46.back. But what they are simply doing is encouraging Golden Dawn.
:06:46. > :06:49.But, today's biggest problem of not Golden Dawn. It was the rapid
:06:49. > :06:53.breakdown of order that took place once the demonstration reached the
:06:53. > :06:57.square. The vast majority of protestors,
:06:57. > :07:07.determined to avoid violence, but they were soon in a world of
:07:07. > :07:20.
:07:20. > :07:24.teargas, projectiles and pain. (loud explosion)
:07:24. > :07:33.This is what it feels like to be on the receiving end, when a Greek
:07:33. > :07:37.demonstration is broken up. It's OK, it's ox.
:07:37. > :07:42.Once the adrenaline subsides, you see many, very ordinary people,
:07:42. > :07:47.looking very frustrated and very scared. The Greek Government, and
:07:47. > :07:52.Greek society have sent the message that the last red lines have been
:07:52. > :07:57.crossed. And we are in the situation in the euro that we don't
:07:57. > :08:03.have the luxury of an accident of any kind of accident. And the kind
:08:03. > :08:07.of accident can be eruption of social unrest, with unpredictable
:08:07. > :08:12.results. The challenge for democracy in
:08:12. > :08:15.Greece is very clear. The people behind me are from the Syriza Party,
:08:16. > :08:20.in the last election, they came within two points of winning the
:08:20. > :08:26.election. So the people on the receiving end of the teargas, and
:08:26. > :08:30.the policing, could be the next Government. On the streets of
:08:30. > :08:35.Athens today, it felt a long way from the Nobel Prize-winning ideals
:08:35. > :08:43.the European Union was founded on. And a lot like the kind of chaos
:08:43. > :08:50.that leads to bigger chaos. Soon. Paul Mason with that thought from
:08:50. > :08:53.Athens. Joining me now from Athens is the New Democracy MP, and I'm
:08:53. > :08:58.joined by Corbett correction adviser to the President of the
:08:58. > :09:03.European Council, Herman van Rompuy, in the studio we are joined by a
:09:03. > :09:07.Greek Professor of economics, and Tracy Corrigan, editor in chief for
:09:07. > :09:11.the Wall Street Journal. Thank you for joining us, perhaps you heard
:09:11. > :09:15.the end of Paul's report there, where we see what's happening on
:09:15. > :09:18.the streets, when we look on the political spectrum of the rise of
:09:18. > :09:22.the far right, the response of the police, should people have faith in
:09:22. > :09:30.the political classes there? don't think that there is a
:09:30. > :09:37.political crisis, and I don't think that Greece is like a civil war.
:09:37. > :09:42.You know, before I was an MP, before I was elected, I used to be
:09:42. > :09:46.a world correspond dend, I covered a lot of civil war -- correspondent,
:09:46. > :09:52.I covered a lot of civil wars, the situation in Greece is not a civil
:09:52. > :09:57.war, I'm very definite about that. Do you feel confident with what you
:09:57. > :10:02.are seeing in Greece now? We are applying a very tough and very
:10:02. > :10:05.severe austerity measures. I think that these austerity measures,
:10:05. > :10:13.which are going to be introduced in the parliament in the next month,
:10:13. > :10:23.will be the last ones. So, Greece is giving a very tough fight, in
:10:23. > :10:24.
:10:24. > :10:27.order to overcome the crisis, and to win the recovery and growth. I'm
:10:27. > :10:32.sure we will make it. Of course you can see the demonstrations, people
:10:32. > :10:37.are very angry, are very angry against the Government, but they
:10:37. > :10:43.are also very angry against the European elite, who applied these
:10:43. > :10:47.austerity measures in Greece in the last three years. But, in any case,
:10:47. > :10:53.we hope, and we strongly believe, that in the coming months, the
:10:53. > :10:59.situation will change. And Greece will be back in Europe as a member
:10:59. > :11:05.of the European Union within the eurozone, and we will win this very,
:11:05. > :11:12.very difficult struggle. That European elite, Richard Corbett, is
:11:12. > :11:16.laid clearly at your feet here? the idea that Europe is imposing
:11:16. > :11:20.austerity on Greece, I think, has to be taken with a pinch of salt.
:11:20. > :11:25.Why is the Greek Government cutting spending so much? Because its
:11:25. > :11:29.levels of debts are so high, that it cannot borrow on international
:11:29. > :11:33.markets. This is an order of magnitude quite different from
:11:33. > :11:37.everywhere else, it is quite different from the too-far too-fast
:11:37. > :11:40.debate in Britain for instance. They cannot borrow. Therefore,
:11:40. > :11:45.other eurozone countries have lent Greece one of the biggest
:11:45. > :11:49.international loans ever, in history, and secured a write-off of
:11:49. > :11:52.existing debt. Without that Greece would be in far, far worse
:11:52. > :11:56.austerity than it is now. Thanks to the loans from other eurozone
:11:56. > :12:01.countries, it is bad enough, but not nearly so bad as it would have
:12:01. > :12:06.been without the solidarity from other eurozone countries. You look
:12:06. > :12:11.at Greece as an insider and outsider, which of these two bodies
:12:11. > :12:15.do you see as to blame? Neither, they are as bad as each other. The
:12:15. > :12:19.European Union has imposed the programme on the company, that is
:12:19. > :12:23.manifestity unworkable t has imposed tread mendous austerity,
:12:23. > :12:28.which has made things much, much worse, it has imposed suffering on
:12:28. > :12:35.the people. And the Greek Government are in cahoots.
:12:35. > :12:39.think they have imposed? manifesto was undoable. Those who
:12:39. > :12:44.worked in cahoots with them insisted on imposing it on the
:12:44. > :12:48.country, and the results are on as you see. I want to get a response
:12:48. > :12:52.to that, that this was shown to you to be unworkable before it went
:12:52. > :12:56.through, Richard Corbett? If Greece was not cutting its deficit, and it
:12:56. > :12:59.doesn't have to do it which cutting expenditure by the way, it could
:13:00. > :13:04.raise taxes, but if it weren't cutting the deficit, how would
:13:04. > :13:07.Greece still be able to pay the public sector workers? The
:13:07. > :13:13.Government cannot borrow money any more on markets, it has had to have
:13:13. > :13:21.a loan from other eurozone countries. It is through its own
:13:21. > :13:23.prove livecy of past Greece Governments who fiddled the book
:13:23. > :13:27.that Greece is in this situation, not the European Union. The rest of
:13:27. > :13:32.the European Union is help hading Greece by the biggest loan in
:13:32. > :13:38.history to a country of this kind. Is Greece a place that is open for
:13:38. > :13:44.business, is this a functioning company now? It is definitely still
:13:44. > :13:47.sliding downwards this week we had Coca-Cola Hellenic, one of the
:13:47. > :13:50.biggest companies in Greece, there are few international companies in
:13:50. > :13:54.Greece, that is the problem with the economy, saying it will leave
:13:54. > :13:57.Greece. More specifically, the problem at the moment, there is
:13:57. > :14:01.obvious low help coming from the eurozone, the other eurozone
:14:01. > :14:05.countries, but Greece just can't get out from this spiral with the
:14:05. > :14:08.current level of debt that it has got. There is an increasing sense
:14:08. > :14:12.that some of that debt is going to have to be forgiven again. One of
:14:12. > :14:16.the things that has been discussed at the EU summit, that started
:14:16. > :14:19.today, that we have been writing about today, is that there are
:14:19. > :14:23.discussions again about possibly Greece being given money to buy
:14:23. > :14:27.back some of its detect at lower prices, and then write it off.
:14:27. > :14:30.Because otherwise it just can't possibly. To talk about increasing
:14:30. > :14:35.taxes, we have got rising unemployment, 25% unemployment, and
:14:35. > :14:43.rising in Greece. When you mentioned, just at the beginning,
:14:43. > :14:48.Coca-Cola Helenic, this moves its head -- headquarters out, how much
:14:48. > :14:51.jobs go as a result of that? don't know how many, it isn't a
:14:51. > :14:55.massive employer in Greece, it doesn't just serve Greece but other
:14:55. > :15:00.countries as well. It is a sign, that not only are other companies
:15:00. > :15:03.not invest anything Greece, and it's impossible for Greece --
:15:03. > :15:06.investing in Greece, and it is impossible for Greece to attract
:15:06. > :15:09.companies because the labour costs are too high. Even those
:15:09. > :15:13.established for decades want to get out. When you hear this, and look
:15:13. > :15:17.at a blue chip company like that saying we don't think we can work
:15:17. > :15:26.in Greece any more, can you really see that there's light at the end
:15:26. > :15:32.of the tunnel? We made a lot of progress in the last three years.
:15:32. > :15:37.We managed to cut our deficit by 25% of our GDP. We applied this
:15:37. > :15:44.very, very tough and very strict austerity measures. But we still
:15:44. > :15:49.believe that we can win this fight. And I think that Greece will be a
:15:49. > :15:55.success story, as Prime Minister, Antonis Samaras pointed out
:15:55. > :16:01.yesterday in Bucharest, this Greek story will be a success story. I
:16:01. > :16:05.think that Europe will get out of this crisis much easier if Greece
:16:05. > :16:09.succeeds and if Greece can make it. We think that in the coming months,
:16:09. > :16:14.in the coming months, the situation will be much better. You have been
:16:14. > :16:17.shaking your head at this for the last minute? I admire the
:16:17. > :16:20.gentleman's optimisim, as an economist, when I look at the
:16:20. > :16:23.figures, there is not a single thing moving positively, investment
:16:23. > :16:27.has collapsed, consumption is declining, exports are going
:16:27. > :16:29.nowhere, the Government is cutting again, there is tremendous
:16:29. > :16:32.unemployment, there is nothing positive in the country, other than
:16:32. > :16:35.in the heads of the people who run the Government. This Government,
:16:35. > :16:38.incidentally, as your programme showed before, was elected on a
:16:38. > :16:43.completely different ticket to the one it is currently applying. All
:16:43. > :16:47.this talk about light at the end of the tunnel, is of the same calibre
:16:47. > :16:52.as the stuff they said before the election. Isn't it that they are
:16:52. > :16:57.tied more closely to the euro? People are very scared about
:16:57. > :17:01.exiting the euro, there has been a campaign of misinformation and
:17:01. > :17:03.terror for ordinary people, about what will happen if they left the
:17:03. > :17:07.eurozone. They are right to be scared about what happens, whether
:17:07. > :17:11.they stay in the euro, but also if they come out of euro, interest
:17:11. > :17:16.would be a massive devaluation of the kuorn circumstance people who
:17:16. > :17:22.have assets left would -- currency, people who have assets left would
:17:22. > :17:26.lose 90% of the value of them, there would be 60-70% inflation
:17:26. > :17:31.rates. This is what keeps Brussels functioning, the fact there is no
:17:31. > :17:36.alternative for Greece. But this is the 22nd summit in two years. Are
:17:36. > :17:39.you, maybe, noble -- you may be Nobel Peace Prize winners, but
:17:40. > :17:44.isn't it faintly ridiculous to discuss the banks, when there is
:17:44. > :17:48.this kind of social breakdown? is a regular summit meeting, it is
:17:49. > :17:53.not an emergency one. The European Council does meet six times a year.
:17:53. > :17:57.It is not extraordinary. Once again, Greece will be centre stage, and
:17:57. > :18:04.there is a dislocation between...Greece Is not on the
:18:04. > :18:08.agenda of this meeting. It is not even...The Remaining measures and
:18:08. > :18:11.adjustments that may need to be made for Greece is by the finance
:18:12. > :18:17.ministers. There was a great comment by Angela Merkel saying
:18:17. > :18:21."this was not a summit for making decisions", in that case, what is
:18:21. > :18:26.the difference in other summits. Indeed it is not scheduled to be
:18:26. > :18:31.taking any decision on Greece at all, that is not on the agenda of
:18:31. > :18:35.the summit. That makes you look even more irrelevant? No, the main
:18:35. > :18:38.decisions, the huge extra loan given to Greece, and the write-off
:18:38. > :18:43.of most of the private sector debt, has already been decided. There is
:18:43. > :18:47.a programme for Greece. There may need to be an adjustment, we will
:18:47. > :18:51.evaluate that when we have the reports from the IMF and the ECB
:18:51. > :18:57.and commission. Then then there may be a prolongation of it. It is not
:18:57. > :19:00.on the agenda of this meeting. Greece needs debt-write-off, and a
:19:00. > :19:04.lifting of the austerity policy, nothing will work. The social
:19:04. > :19:06.collapse you have outlined is a very real thing, caused by
:19:06. > :19:09.unemployment, and middle-class people losing their property, left,
:19:09. > :19:13.right and centre, this is what is happening in the country. The
:19:13. > :19:15.middle of the society has been crushed, that is why you get the
:19:15. > :19:19.phenomena of the right-wing becoming very powerful. This is
:19:19. > :19:23.what is emerge anything the south of Europe, it isn't just Greece,
:19:23. > :19:27.Portugal and Spain aren't far off, it is about time the European Union
:19:27. > :19:30.realised what is afoot. No-one's entirely sure what the
:19:30. > :19:34.Prime Minister meant to say yesterday in the Commons on gas
:19:34. > :19:39.prices, but by today his words had become hard policy. Although absent
:19:39. > :19:48.of any detail of how that policy will work. After cries of Labour of
:19:48. > :19:51.a shamble, accusations of a U-turn, by this evening David Cameron was
:19:51. > :19:56.confirming he will be compelling energy companies to give their
:19:56. > :20:00.lowest tarrifs. We go through a heated 24-hours. It is the time
:20:00. > :20:04.year when the metre spins faster and millions have to worry about
:20:04. > :20:07.rising bills. The first politician that promises and delivers lower
:20:07. > :20:10.energy costs, they could reap a big political prize. And that's what
:20:10. > :20:15.the Prime Minister seemed to be offering yesterday. Let's do
:20:15. > :20:19.something that, sadly, we can't do with our metres, let's wine the
:20:19. > :20:23.clock back, here is what Mr Cameron said in the Commons. I can announce,
:20:23. > :20:27.which I'm sure he will welcome, is that we will be legislating so that
:20:27. > :20:31.energy companies have to give the lowest tarrif to their customer,
:20:31. > :20:34.something Labour didn't do in 13 years. Brilliant, so instead of
:20:34. > :20:40.trying to make sense of all the different confusing tarrif, the
:20:40. > :20:45.energy company will have to put you on their best deal. Simple. Except
:20:45. > :20:49.it is not, for a start, if energy company has to put all its
:20:49. > :20:53.customers on its best tarrif, in effect, it will only have one
:20:53. > :20:59.tarrif, now, hands up who thinks the energy company is going to set
:21:00. > :21:05.that tarrif so they make less money than they do now? Anyone? No?
:21:05. > :21:08.But luckily, at 8.00am, the Energy Secretary, Ed Davey, was giving a
:21:08. > :21:13.speech. The Prime Minister's announcement is big news, of course
:21:13. > :21:16.his Energy Secretary will be able to give us some more details.
:21:16. > :21:20.Except, here is transcript of the speech, and nowhere in it does he
:21:20. > :21:23.mention the new policy at all. And, this is confusing. When he was
:21:23. > :21:27.asked a direct question about the new policy, in a brief interview
:21:27. > :21:29.that he gave afterwards, he used very different language from the
:21:29. > :21:33.Prime Minister. The Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, announced in
:21:33. > :21:37.April, an agreement that I negotiated with the Big Six, that
:21:37. > :21:40.they will have to tell their customers every year what is the
:21:40. > :21:42.best available tarrif. We have a range of other ideas we have been
:21:42. > :21:47.working on with the Deputy Prime Minister and Prime Minister, and
:21:47. > :21:50.others, to help consumers and businesses with their energy bills.
:21:50. > :21:53.The Prime Minister is referring to those, we will deliver the details
:21:53. > :21:56.over the next few weeks. Let's recap, shall we, the Prime Minister
:21:56. > :22:00.said the energy companies will have to give you their best deal. And
:22:00. > :22:03.this is a new policy. The Energy Secretary says they will have to
:22:03. > :22:07.write to you and offer you their best deal, but this is not a new
:22:07. > :22:11.policy s that is already happening. All very confusing, don't worry,
:22:11. > :22:15.parliament is on the case. The Speaker has ordered ministers to
:22:15. > :22:21.come and explain to MPs what is going on in, in response to an
:22:21. > :22:25.urgent question from Labour. This time it was the energy minister
:22:25. > :22:30.answering all, or rather not answering, really, more reading out
:22:30. > :22:33.a long-prepared reply, designed to, well not say very much, really.
:22:34. > :22:37.Following the Prime Minister's announcement yesterday, I'm pleased
:22:37. > :22:42.to enfirm we will bring forward legislation to help energy
:22:42. > :22:46.consumers get the best deal. We have already regulated, and have
:22:46. > :22:50.plans to improve competition, simplifying tarrifs through the
:22:50. > :22:55.retail market process, and we will improve liquidity and competition
:22:55. > :22:59.in the wholesale market through the energy bill, in weeks, rather than
:22:59. > :23:03.months. There are a number of options being considered. Labour
:23:04. > :23:06.clearly weren't impressed with this response? We all misspeak from time
:23:06. > :23:10.to time, and the Prime Minister of under a lot pressure yesterday, but
:23:10. > :23:14.for the Government to spend a day pretending to have a policy they
:23:14. > :23:19.have no intention of implementing, is no way to run the country. It is
:23:19. > :23:24.like something out of The Thick of It. There is one more chance to get
:23:24. > :23:28.a straight answer about what is going on. The Prime Minister's
:23:28. > :23:36.official spokeswomen answering journalist questions at the morning
:23:36. > :23:41.loby, we are found -- spokes woman, answering journalists' questions
:23:41. > :23:48.this at the morning lobby. We found out this morning, but we didn't,
:23:48. > :23:52.she wasn't answering question. They were to offer their best tarrif in
:23:52. > :23:56.writing every year, but what they already do. Let's recap. The Prime
:23:56. > :24:00.Minister said this? We will legislate so energy companies have
:24:00. > :24:04.to give the lowest tarrif to their customers. The Energy Secretary
:24:04. > :24:12.said this. They will have to he will their customer every year what
:24:12. > :24:17.is the best tarrif. The Energy Minister, this. This as complicated
:24:17. > :24:22.area. The Prime Minister surfaced at a Brussels summit, can he tell
:24:22. > :24:26.us what he said. Except he jolly well meant what he said, so there.
:24:26. > :24:32.I meant what I said in the House of Commons, I will with we will use
:24:32. > :24:35.the Energy Bill coming up this year, so we ensure customers get the
:24:35. > :24:39.lowest tarrif, that is what we will do. The Government definitely has a
:24:39. > :24:43.new policy s we don't know quite what it is or quite how it will
:24:43. > :24:50.work. But the energy bill is being published next month, that will
:24:50. > :24:54.probably make things clear, won't We did invite a Government minister
:24:54. > :24:59.to talk about the policy, but they couldn't.
:24:59. > :25:03.Britain has the dubious honour of being one of the worst countries of
:25:03. > :25:07.breast-feeding in the EU. One of the countries with the lowest
:25:07. > :25:14.numbers, performance doesn't come under it. A failure to breast-feed
:25:14. > :25:19.is not stigma enough. It is a suggestion that those who don't
:25:19. > :25:27.cost the NHS billions and risking illness. Is it something to feel
:25:27. > :25:34.guilty, and why do we find it so hard. As all new parents will know,
:25:34. > :25:38.Newsnight coincides with the last feed. We have three babies, I can
:25:38. > :25:44.hear them. A little bit noisy here. Thank you very much. In a moment we
:25:44. > :25:47.will be talking to the three ladies here who have joined me to chair
:25:47. > :25:55.share some of their experiences of breast-feeding what does today's
:25:55. > :26:00.report say, firstly. This is a report from the children's charity,
:26:00. > :26:05.UNICEF and (baby cries very loudly) But the report has been looking at
:26:05. > :26:10.the economic case for persuading women to breast-feed, and UNICEF
:26:10. > :26:14.said to me that, one of their aims was to use the economic argument,
:26:14. > :26:17.because the other methods for persuading women to breast-feed
:26:17. > :26:22.hadn't really been that successful. What they have done is they have
:26:22. > :26:25.asked panel of experts to look at the scientific and medical case for
:26:25. > :26:28.breast-feeding, and not surprisingly they have concluded
:26:28. > :26:33.there are benefits for both the babies and the mothers. For babies
:26:33. > :26:40.there is a reduced risk of stomach and breathing and ear infections,
:26:40. > :26:44.and for women, longer term, there can be a reduced risk of breast
:26:44. > :26:49.cancer, and all the illnesses cost money for the NHS. If you bring
:26:49. > :26:52.them down you save money. How does the UK rate when it comes to
:26:52. > :26:56.breast-feeding compare to other countries. We don't do veryle well.
:26:56. > :27:01.Especially in duration of breast- feeding. We have one of the lowest
:27:01. > :27:06.rates of breast-feeding in the world. So while 81% of women start
:27:06. > :27:16.breast-feeding, by six to eight week, rates have fallen back to
:27:16. > :27:25.
:27:26. > :27:29.That's despite Department of Health advice that babies should be
:27:29. > :27:35.exclusively breast fed, if possible, for around the first six month of
:27:35. > :27:41.life. The top line of this report is that the NHS could save at least
:27:41. > :27:44.�40 million a year, they reckon, by preventing some of these costly
:27:44. > :27:51.illnesses, if more women were persuaded to breast-feed for longer,
:27:51. > :27:55.and given help to do that. So I'm joined now by Rema, Sarah and Hazel
:27:55. > :27:59.who will tell me a bit about their experiences of breast-feeding. You
:27:59. > :28:06.are a breast-feeding support worker, was it an easy choice for you to
:28:06. > :28:09.make? It was, in a bay, I wanted to breast -- in a way, and I wanted to
:28:09. > :28:16.breast-feed, and knowing the benefit. Having done the job I
:28:16. > :28:20.wanted to do it myself and relate to how mums are feeding. Did you
:28:20. > :28:24.learn anything about the process? found out it was difficult, and the
:28:24. > :28:29.ways that mum felt, now I'm doing the job I'm finding it more
:28:29. > :28:35.enjoyable because I can relate to the mums and share the experiences.
:28:35. > :28:39.Sarah, you decided to bottle feed, what led you to that decision?
:28:39. > :28:45.just assumed most people bottle fed, my mother did, and most people I
:28:46. > :28:49.knew bottle fed, it was only when I got pregnant and started going to
:28:49. > :28:54.antenatal appointments I realised I was kind of expected breast-feed,
:28:54. > :28:57.and most people did. I felt quite a lot of pressure that this was what
:28:57. > :29:02.was expected of mothers, that we would breast-feed. Did you feel
:29:02. > :29:07.there was pressure on you to breast-feed? I had chosen to
:29:07. > :29:11.breast-feed already, I was actually welcoming a lot of the support and
:29:11. > :29:19.encouragement to breast-feed. But, it did, I was quite conscious of
:29:19. > :29:24.how little there was about bottle feeding as an alternative. Because
:29:24. > :29:26.I was always biased one way, it suited me. It was very biased
:29:26. > :29:30.towards breast-feeding. Thank you very much, back to you Emily,
:29:30. > :29:37.perhaps a little quieter for the rest of the discussion.
:29:37. > :29:39.A miracle. Here with me the policy adviser at NCT, involved in that
:29:40. > :29:44.report, Charlotte Fiarcloth, who studies parenting for the
:29:44. > :29:50.University of Kent, and Francesca Entwhistle, a midwife and lecturer
:29:50. > :29:53.in midwifery, and worked with the Department of Health to promote
:29:53. > :29:57.breast-feeding. Listening to the women, what different
:29:57. > :30:00.preconceptions of what is expected. In your mind is there a problem if
:30:00. > :30:03.we are one of the lowest breast- feeding nations in Europe? Probably
:30:03. > :30:08.what the accounts of the women there show is the current approach
:30:08. > :30:12.isn't really working. There is a huge drop off of women who are
:30:12. > :30:16.breast-feeding very, very quickly. I think probably these very one-
:30:16. > :30:20.sided accounts of the benefits of breast-feeding aren't very helpful.
:30:20. > :30:23.This approach that breast is best, actually leaves a lot of women
:30:23. > :30:29.feeling very, very guilty about what they do end up doing, that is
:30:29. > :30:35.98% of them, which is using formula milk at home stage. Broadly would
:30:35. > :30:41.you like to see women breast- feeding more? The only reason we
:30:41. > :30:48.would like to see it is that's what women want, 80 perof women start
:30:49. > :30:54.breast-feeding, of those -- 80% of women start breast-feeding, and 90%
:30:54. > :30:57.who stop would want to carry on. It is that support we need. If a woman
:30:57. > :31:01.gives birth and says I don't want to breast-feed at all? That is up
:31:01. > :31:04.to her. You wouldn't like to change people's mind? I don't think women
:31:04. > :31:08.should be under pressure, it is their decision, it is a very
:31:08. > :31:12.personal decision. There is a lot of factors that come into it. But
:31:12. > :31:17.women should make their own decisions and be supported in that.
:31:18. > :31:22.And Francesca Entwhistle, as a midwife, you see women in this very
:31:22. > :31:25.vulnerable, initial stage, a lot of women are basically not really
:31:25. > :31:30.taught how to do it. It is made to feel like something that comes very
:31:31. > :31:35.naturally and it really doesn't, it is a very technical learning curve
:31:35. > :31:38.isn't it? It is a learning curve, and women don't grow up in an
:31:38. > :31:41.environment in the UK where they see breast-feeding, they are not
:31:41. > :31:45.picking up the skills naturally from their parents. You think
:31:45. > :31:49.because it is literally out of sight? It is out of sight, in many
:31:49. > :31:55.families, two generations of bottle fed, they are not picking up the
:31:55. > :31:59.skills intuitively, it is the role of the support workers and midwives
:31:59. > :32:02.and health visitors to help them overcome the challenges in the
:32:02. > :32:06.early days. And in the antenatal period to give them information and
:32:06. > :32:09.support so they can make a real choice. What the evidence suggests
:32:09. > :32:13.is women need face-to-face support. They need to know when they will
:32:13. > :32:19.get that support. Why isn't that just built in to the very first day,
:32:19. > :32:24.when a woman's given birth, that someone comes around and shows them
:32:24. > :32:26.what to do. That is missing at the moment? It is built in to the
:32:26. > :32:31.infrastructure, and what this report and what a lot of other
:32:31. > :32:34.reports are showing, is that we need to keep training the midwives,
:32:34. > :32:38.and retraining midwives. I myself trained 30 years ago when things
:32:38. > :32:43.were very different. They have improved dramatically, but we are
:32:43. > :32:46.making progress, and we have gone from up to 81%, since the last
:32:46. > :32:50.infant feeding survey, but women are still not continuing. We need
:32:50. > :32:55.to put more infrastructure in, commission more services, so women
:32:55. > :32:58.don't feel guilty, and they can make a real choice. Do you believe
:32:59. > :33:03.it does contribute to infant illnesses, a lack of breast-
:33:03. > :33:06.feeding? My concern is that often these report, as I say, they are
:33:06. > :33:12.very one-sided, they take statistics which are actually, some
:33:12. > :33:18.of the research that is used, the data is a lot more uncertain than
:33:18. > :33:22.these reports suggest. Quantifying benefits to the NHS in ten, 15
:33:22. > :33:28.years time. The evidence around gastroenteritis infections more
:33:28. > :33:33.secure, but things like obesity and cancers is very unstable. Putting
:33:33. > :33:38.these amounts on it, and making women feel like they are costing
:33:38. > :33:42.the NHS X or kwhr., -- Y, I don't think that is helpful. I know you
:33:42. > :33:45.say it is not directed at mothers, it ends up on programmes like this,
:33:45. > :33:49.mothers watch Newsnight and mothers read newspapers. Governments need
:33:49. > :33:54.to know that investing in breast- feeding will save them money. At
:33:54. > :33:57.the moment everything is being cut back, we need the H NHS and local
:33:57. > :34:01.authorities to know. There is a lot spent on breast-feeding information
:34:01. > :34:04.in the past. Will help, babies will be sick less often, mothers will be
:34:04. > :34:08.sick less often, and more importantly they will do what they
:34:08. > :34:13.want to do. If they get the report. When you phrase it in the way of
:34:13. > :34:18.stopping a waste of money to the NHS. There are millions of ways you
:34:18. > :34:22.can save �40 million on the NHS every year. This is one thing. And
:34:22. > :34:26.it helps reduce inequalities in society. Because we know that women
:34:26. > :34:30.with the lower income and less education are less likely to
:34:30. > :34:35.breast-feed, it is those women who need the most support. I'm sorry to
:34:35. > :34:40.interrupt. That is the kind of talk you don't like? As a feminist, yet
:34:40. > :34:43.again, poor women, women with less education are being blamed for
:34:43. > :34:47.wider social inequality. Things like class, education, you know,
:34:47. > :34:53.breast-feeding is not a magic bullet, you can't breast-feed your
:34:53. > :35:01.way to being middle-class. Breast- feeding has been fits, breast fed
:35:01. > :35:09.children tend to be healthier. is a simple thing, that it costs
:35:09. > :35:13.less money to breast-feed it comes from you. Somebody else can't do it.
:35:13. > :35:18.It costs time for bottle feeding too. It is not just about saving
:35:18. > :35:22.money from the NHS, we can invest that back in for women to have real
:35:22. > :35:25.choice. At the moment women stop bread feeding and go to bottle
:35:25. > :35:30.feeding because they can't solve the problem and they are not
:35:30. > :35:33.getting the support they need. If we empowered them and gave them the
:35:33. > :35:38.self-confidence and self-efficacy to overcome those problems and get
:35:38. > :35:41.solution, if they want to go on and bottle feed and partially breast-
:35:41. > :35:44.feed that will be their choice. Would you go a step further, you
:35:44. > :35:47.talk about a woman's time, it is not just the responsibility of the
:35:47. > :35:52.mother to be the feeder? Well, yeah, and particularly, let's just
:35:52. > :35:58.imagine, I know it is a classic thing that feminists would say, if
:35:58. > :36:03.it were men would you say to them you ought to breast-feed for 18
:36:03. > :36:06.months to reduce your risk of cancer and save the NHS money.
:36:07. > :36:13.men breast fed they would get all the support they need and sit
:36:13. > :36:18.around in bed all day. I'm a feminist and I don't like that
:36:18. > :36:22.women don't get enough support, they get inconsistent advice, that
:36:22. > :36:27.is inexcusable wrecks know how to help women breast-feed, they are
:36:27. > :36:31.not getting the help. It won't come as a vast surprise
:36:31. > :36:36.that the heir to the throne holds a lot of opinions about a lot of
:36:36. > :36:39.things. Many of them have been openly and frankly expressed, many
:36:39. > :36:42.leaked. This week the Attorney General explains his reasons for
:36:42. > :36:48.not publishing letters from the Prince to Tony Blair's Government.
:36:48. > :36:53.Tonight we asked one of the Prince's closest aides for decades,
:36:53. > :36:58.if political neutrality in a Monarch matters?
:36:58. > :37:04.It could be decades away. But at some point we will see a different
:37:04. > :37:07.face on our stamps and bank notes. What do we know about the future
:37:07. > :37:11.King Charles III, about his political views, the way he plans
:37:12. > :37:15.to use his power and influence. problem is that I can't resist
:37:15. > :37:22.trying to find a way of doing something about many of the
:37:22. > :37:26.problems that I come across. If you want a quieter life, lock me up.
:37:26. > :37:31.This week, the Attorney General stepped in to block the publication
:37:31. > :37:35.of 27 of the Prince's memo, sent to Labour ministers some years ago.
:37:35. > :37:39.The called Black Spider letters, named after his distinctive
:37:39. > :37:43.handwriting, are said to be particularly frank and full of
:37:43. > :37:48.deeply-held personal beliefs. But, after a seven-year fight by the
:37:48. > :37:52.Guardian newspaper, the full contents will remain secret. That
:37:52. > :37:54.veto overturned a decision last month by a High Court judge. The
:37:54. > :37:59.Attorney General said the publication of those memos could
:37:59. > :38:03.stop ministers talking openly with the Prince, as he prepares to
:38:03. > :38:06.become king. And it could undermine his position of political
:38:06. > :38:11.neutrality. Unofficially we already know about the Prince's views on a
:38:11. > :38:15.number of subjects. This former special adviser to two Labour
:38:15. > :38:20.ministers says he had firsthand experience of some of those letters.
:38:20. > :38:21.I remember one particular incident from when I was working at the
:38:21. > :38:29.Department for Communities and Local Government. The Secretary of
:38:29. > :38:33.State had given a speech about model communities, and had
:38:33. > :38:37.mentioned Poundbury, Charles's model village in Dorset. She was a
:38:37. > :38:43.bit disparaging about it in a throw-away remark. Within a day or
:38:44. > :38:52.two, a handwritten letter arrived into the office, with the fleur de
:38:52. > :38:56.lis in the corner, inviting her to visit Poundbury and see for herself.
:38:56. > :39:01.That was particular taken up afterwards. If you or I had written
:39:01. > :39:05.a letter to the Secretary of State to visit our pet scheme, it is
:39:05. > :39:10.unlikely it would go to the top of the pile or get a visit so fast.
:39:10. > :39:16.The Prince has been ayes cuesed in the past for using his influence to
:39:16. > :39:19.interfere in other areas of public life. He wrote to the Qatari owners
:39:19. > :39:24.of this development in Chelsea, calling for the whole original
:39:24. > :39:27.design to be scrapped, the man behind that design, Lord Rogers,
:39:27. > :39:30.ayes cuesed the Prince of abusing his power, and wrecking two years
:39:30. > :39:34.of his work. Then there have been forthright
:39:34. > :39:39.views, publicly expressed, or quietly leaked, on topics from
:39:39. > :39:44.hunting to youth unemployment, to environmental policies. He says
:39:44. > :39:47.it's his duty to communicate some of those views, privately, to
:39:47. > :39:51.public official. I could have, couldn't I, have sat doing very
:39:51. > :39:57.little indeed. And I would have been got at just as much by people
:39:57. > :40:00.saying what a useless idiot he is. You know, what contribution is he
:40:00. > :40:05.making. I would rather, at the end of the day, if one has to go
:40:05. > :40:10.through all this, be criticisedor doing things, rather than not --
:40:10. > :40:14.criticised for doing things rather than not doing them. Some say some
:40:14. > :40:19.of the Prince's actions look like direct lobbying, designed to change
:40:19. > :40:22.Government policy, that, they say, is undemocratic. I don't think
:40:22. > :40:28.anyone doubts that there is anything wrong with Charles having
:40:28. > :40:32.a range of political views and causes he cares a great deal about.
:40:32. > :40:35.The question is the secrecy is the way he lobbies on behalf of these
:40:35. > :40:38.causes and campaign, and the letters will be kept secret, and
:40:38. > :40:42.the public will never know whether or not the Government changed the
:40:42. > :40:45.mind, whether public money was spent, whether decisions were
:40:45. > :40:49.altered, as a result of Charles's lobbying.
:40:49. > :40:54.A recent change to the law means royal letters written today are
:40:54. > :40:58.even less likely to get into the public domain. So, any more of
:40:58. > :41:05.those private thoughts, scrawled in black handwriting, are likely to
:41:05. > :41:09.remain just that, private. We can speak now to Dame Julia
:41:09. > :41:12.Cleverdon, special adviser to the Prince's charities. She has worked
:41:12. > :41:16.for Prince Charles for the last 20 years, and Nick Cohen, the
:41:16. > :41:22.columnist for the Observer. Thank you both for coming in. I guess he
:41:22. > :41:28.is clearly a man with plenty of views, and proudly so. Do you think
:41:28. > :41:32.we want an heir to the throne with views? I think we want an heir to
:41:32. > :41:35.the throne who has spent most of the last 35 years trying to
:41:35. > :41:40.understand some of the key issues which face Britain in the
:41:40. > :41:43.communities that he will seek to serve. So I think if we look at his
:41:43. > :41:47.work across an absolute range of issues, whether we are talking
:41:47. > :41:50.youth unemployment, or responsible business behaviour, or what do we
:41:50. > :41:56.do with 100 redundant hospitals, this man has given his life,
:41:56. > :42:00.actually, to understanding what the issues are, that he can do. At what
:42:00. > :42:03.point is that meddling? You can organise if it is meddling or
:42:03. > :42:07.mobilising. I would suggest that most of what the Prince of Wales
:42:07. > :42:13.has done, has been to try to mobilise to make things happen,
:42:13. > :42:16.through charities, through the business world, through communities
:42:16. > :42:21..% of all young people, who are not in education, employment and
:42:21. > :42:24.training, are going through the -- 7% of all young people who are not
:42:25. > :42:29.in education, employment and training are going through the
:42:29. > :42:34.Prince's Trust this year, that is a contribution to the nation. You can
:42:34. > :42:39.call him a useless idiot, he says, but he would prefer to be somebody
:42:39. > :42:42.who did something than didn't? depends what you mean by do. What
:42:42. > :42:46.happened was the Information Commissioner, who fully accepts
:42:46. > :42:49.that Prince Charles's private views and business should be kept out of
:42:49. > :42:53.the public domain, was looking at direct lobbying of the Government.
:42:53. > :42:59.He said the Prince's attempts to say this wasn't political weren't
:42:59. > :43:04.credible, whatsoever. He said they made no sense. These were political,
:43:04. > :43:09.often on party political matters. We know what little that has leaked
:43:10. > :43:14.has been his attack on the Human Rights Act. Although I agree very
:43:14. > :43:21.much with Julie that some of the work he does is fine, and non-
:43:21. > :43:26.political and very good. Some are pernicious, and on alternative
:43:26. > :43:28.health, quack medicine, which he is constantly bombarding the
:43:29. > :43:32.Department of Health to keep homeopathic hospital over. I can't
:43:32. > :43:38.see the objection to knowing about this? I think it is absolutely
:43:38. > :43:42.clear that Governments of all persuasions have decided that the
:43:42. > :43:45.Queen's letters, the Prince of Wales's letters, and the Duke of
:43:45. > :43:51.Wales's letters should not be in the public domain. The Prince of
:43:51. > :43:56.Wales does 600 engagments a year. He wants to change mind, that is
:43:56. > :44:00.the point of the letter is to change the mind of those with
:44:01. > :44:04.influence? It is to take the views and experience he has picked up, as
:44:04. > :44:07.he moves around this country and other countries, on things that he
:44:07. > :44:11.believes to be the interests of Britain. He has an absolute right,
:44:11. > :44:15.I would have thought, to use that experience, to pass that
:44:15. > :44:18.information on, to do, where he can, the things he can to make more
:44:19. > :44:22.difference to Britain. Do you really think that Tony Blair would
:44:22. > :44:25.have changed a policy on the back of something that Prince Charles
:44:25. > :44:28.wrote to him in a letter? We are not allowed to know, that is the
:44:28. > :44:31.first point. And the Government has gone to great efforts to make sure
:44:32. > :44:34.we don't know. On the whole politicians are rather frightened
:44:35. > :44:38.of Royals. They are frightened of having an argument with them. They
:44:38. > :44:43.are frighten the media will take the Royal Family's side. There was
:44:43. > :44:47.an example this week, when Jeremy Hunt makes a perfectly civil
:44:48. > :44:51.comment to the Queen and they were rather rude to them. How do you
:44:51. > :44:54.know that, talk to David Blunkett and many of the ministers who know
:44:54. > :45:00.the Prince of Wales and worked with him, they would say, actually they
:45:00. > :45:04.value his views. You see it is a bit, Baroness. I'm not a Baroness.
:45:05. > :45:09.Nothing like one. Nothing like one. It is a bit odd of you to support a
:45:09. > :45:14.system of secrecy and say how do you know that, prove it. He's one
:45:14. > :45:20.of the least secretive people there is, he is frank what he believes,
:45:20. > :45:23.he founded 20 charities, what more can he do. Would he publish his
:45:24. > :45:26.views himself? Read the speeches. They are very clear what the Prince
:45:26. > :45:33.of Wales believes about how they can make a greater difference.
:45:33. > :45:36.wouldn't have a problem, if they are all in the speech, he wouldn't
:45:36. > :45:41.have a problem that they come out? It is a Government responsibility
:45:41. > :45:44.and decision, this is not the Prince of Wales's, he didn't take
:45:44. > :45:48.the case. Let's get the fact on the record, you are saying as one of
:45:48. > :45:53.the Prince of Wales's advisers he would be happy for the Black Spider
:45:53. > :45:56.to be released. I have a fantastic -- Black Spider letters to be
:45:56. > :45:59.relyed. I have a fantastic number of Black Spider memos from the
:45:59. > :46:03.Prince of Wales, four this morning. What is talked about, particularly
:46:03. > :46:07.between the Monarch herself, and the Prime Minister, whatever goes
:46:07. > :46:10.on, in that conversation, something intensely private, and gives the
:46:10. > :46:14.person in power, the Prime Minister of the day, enormous confidence, do
:46:14. > :46:18.you not respect that? If you look back to the present Queen, when she
:46:18. > :46:22.was the heir to the throne. There is nothing like what has been
:46:22. > :46:27.happening with the Prince of Wales. She was on the throne at the age of
:46:27. > :46:32.23. If you look at the information commissioner's website, I hope do
:46:32. > :46:36.you it, they are so concerned about his behaviour, they have produced a
:46:36. > :46:41.20,000 history of political interventions going back to the
:46:41. > :46:45.1970s. Not party political. In an interview with Vanity Fair, they
:46:45. > :46:49.say his parents might have brought him up to stay out of politics, he
:46:49. > :46:53.said he wouldn't listen to it. this something the Queen wouldn't
:46:53. > :46:56.do? The Prince of Wales is the longest-serving Prince of Wales we
:46:56. > :46:59.have ever had. He has spent the last 35 years trying to prepare,
:46:59. > :47:02.support and understand the things he can do to mobilise and make a
:47:02. > :47:06.greater difference to the things he believes are important to Britain.
:47:06. > :47:09.Thank you both so much. We have run out of time. That's all from us
:47:09. > :47:19.tonight, I will be back with another round of delights tomorrow.
:47:19. > :47:24.
:47:24. > :47:29.Good evening, one way another, Friday could potentially get off to
:47:29. > :47:32.a grey start across many parts of the UK. We are looking at some
:47:32. > :47:36.stubborn mist and fog for northern England, the Midlands and the south
:47:36. > :47:38.west of England. Cloud bringing further outbreaks of rain into
:47:38. > :47:41.Scotland and Northern Ireland. East Anglia and the south-east of
:47:41. > :47:44.England will struggle with thicker cloud and outbreak of rain for much
:47:44. > :47:50.of the day. Perhaps not just for Friday, but on into the weekend as
:47:50. > :47:52.well. Thanks to a weather front that never quite clears off into
:47:52. > :47:57.the continent. The south west of England and Wales should brighten
:47:57. > :48:02.up nice low for Friday afternoon, eventually temperature -- nicely
:48:02. > :48:05.for Friday afternoon, temperatures reaching 14. Cooler where mist and
:48:05. > :48:11.fog linger. After a grey start, Northern Ireland should see the
:48:11. > :48:16.cloud breaking through the second half of the day. Highs of 11 or 12
:48:16. > :48:20.in the sunshine. The far North West of Scotland gets sunshine, but the
:48:20. > :48:25.central lowlands will struggle with cloud and rain. Sunshine for Friday
:48:25. > :48:29.in Inverness, Edinburgh rather cloudy, school at 9 degrees. The
:48:29. > :48:34.prospects for Saturday look dry and brighter for Scotland and Northern