:00:08. > :00:16.Severe disruption across parts of the UK, as bad weather sweeps north.
:00:17. > :00:18.Over 180 flood warnings are in place, as thousands are left without
:00:19. > :00:24.power. Train travellers face cancellations
:00:25. > :00:33.and delays, as many struggle to get home for Christmas.
:00:34. > :00:40.The train got stuck in the middle of the night, it hit a tree. We have
:00:41. > :00:46.been stuck here all night until 1am. Also in the programme: Millions of
:00:47. > :00:48.patients are waiting a week or more for an appointment, according to the
:00:49. > :00:51.Royal College of GPs. And, Australian cricket fans
:00:52. > :00:52.celebrate an early Christmas, as England pledge to up their game for
:00:53. > :01:14.the fourth Test. Good afternoon.
:01:15. > :01:18.Bad weather has caused severe disruption across parts of the UK.
:01:19. > :01:21.150,000 homes are without power in southern England, and there are 154
:01:22. > :01:27.flood warnings across England and Wales. Many rail services have been
:01:28. > :01:31.suspended or delayed, and ferries between Scotland and Northern
:01:32. > :01:32.Ireland have been cancelled. Our correspondent Jon Kay has the
:01:33. > :02:09.latest. Christmas plans have been turned
:02:10. > :02:14.upside down. This is Red Hill aerodrome in Surrey this morning. In
:02:15. > :02:20.nearby Brock, it is hard to see how this Christmas -- restaurant will be
:02:21. > :02:25.serving Christmas dinner. The same story at this hotel in Bath. The
:02:26. > :02:30.hotels are set for 50 guests, but the Packers will not get pulled.
:02:31. > :02:36.From Cornwall to Kent, a second night of storms has left roads
:02:37. > :02:40.blocked and rivers swollen. In the Somerset, this lady found her car
:02:41. > :02:45.flooded after leaving it close to a river overnight.
:02:46. > :02:49.Near Taunton, a chain hit debris on the track leaving hundreds of
:02:50. > :02:54.passengers stuck on board that eight hours, leading to a mixture of
:02:55. > :02:58.exhaustion and disbelief. It has been horrible. Nightmare
:02:59. > :03:04.before Christmas! Network rail said the damage has
:03:05. > :03:08.been worse than the storm two months ago. This landslip meant the
:03:09. > :03:15.suspension of the Gatwick express service. The line between content
:03:16. > :03:19.and Asda is completely blocked. There have been some nightmare
:03:20. > :03:23.stories, chain companies said they were prepared and have been able to
:03:24. > :03:27.put alternative arrangements in place. They are helped by the fact
:03:28. > :03:32.Christmas is midweek, so generally journeys have been staggered across
:03:33. > :03:38.several days. A very taking hundreds of passengers to Spain had to anchor
:03:39. > :03:45.off the coast of Brittany four hours after hitting rough seas. We should
:03:46. > :03:49.have been in Bill Bauer by now. It was incredibly bad weather.
:03:50. > :03:51.Passengers were airlifted from the ferry who were injured during the
:03:52. > :03:58.bad weather. Trees have brought down power lines
:03:59. > :04:02.in many areas. Emergency engineering teams have been deployed across
:04:03. > :04:08.southern England to restore electricity to 150,000 homes.
:04:09. > :04:13.Gatwick Airport has also been a victim of a power outage leading to
:04:14. > :04:22.long delays. So much forgetting away from wet and windy this Christmas.
:04:23. > :04:27.Ben Geoghegan is at Waterloo station in central London for us now. What
:04:28. > :04:31.are the rail companies saying? The situation here is a handful of
:04:32. > :04:35.chains have been able to lead this station heading south over the
:04:36. > :04:41.morning, or their national rail say they expect things to improve in the
:04:42. > :04:46.afternoon, and as we heard, they have been struck by the strength of
:04:47. > :04:52.this storm, worse than the storm a few weeks ago. They have had to deal
:04:53. > :04:56.with heavy wind, landslips, and it has made it difficult for
:04:57. > :05:01.engineering teams to travel around to carry out repairs and clear the
:05:02. > :05:06.tracks of debris. They say those tracks are mostly clear, and they
:05:07. > :05:10.are hoping to run an hourly service out of this station on all of the
:05:11. > :05:15.routes that are open. They say people should turn up early, to
:05:16. > :05:20.stand a good chance of getting onto a train. They say they hope services
:05:21. > :05:27.to be around, but at least people will get home if they come to the
:05:28. > :05:31.station this afternoon. The storm is now heading to
:05:32. > :05:38.Scotland. A few moments ago, James Cook gave us the latest.
:05:39. > :05:43.You can see here from the height of the seas, and obviously you can hear
:05:44. > :05:49.the wind as well, why there have been so many problems for travel in
:05:50. > :05:53.Scotland so far today. A number of ferries were cancelled, particularly
:05:54. > :05:58.affecting those ferries travelling between the western isles, Northern
:05:59. > :06:02.Isles and across to Northern Ireland. Problems for Christmas
:06:03. > :06:06.travel. Some people are not going to get home for Christmas. There is a
:06:07. > :06:37.worry that this weather will get worse, it is worth further north and
:06:38. > :06:40.west. The concern is that it will strengthen over the next few hours,
:06:41. > :06:42.and that could mean a threat to power lines, perhaps causing power
:06:43. > :06:44.cuts overnight, into Christmas Day. So, another stormy day. Concerns
:06:45. > :06:46.about flooding, particularly in the Borders. And blizzards elsewhere in
:06:47. > :06:47.Scotland. So, the big storm, and warnings to people not to travel
:06:48. > :06:54.unless they really have too. Millions of patients in England are
:06:55. > :06:57.having to wait a week or more for an appointment at their GP's surgery,
:06:58. > :07:00.according to the Royal College of GPs. It says its members expect
:07:01. > :07:03.waiting times for appointments to get worse next year. Our health
:07:04. > :07:10.correspondent Jane Dreaper has more details.
:07:11. > :07:17.Patients value being able to see their GP quickly. But the latest
:07:18. > :07:21.figures suggest this is getting harder in some practices. And the
:07:22. > :07:26.Royal College of GPs said family doctors expect the situation to get
:07:27. > :07:30.worse next year. GP leaders have looked at the results from a large
:07:31. > :07:34.official survey of patients in England. Most patients said they had
:07:35. > :07:39.a good experience in making their appointment, but there was a slight
:07:40. > :07:46.rise up to 15% in patients who had to wake -- wait a week or more for
:07:47. > :07:50.an appointment. The Royal College says this represents a problem for
:07:51. > :07:55.millions of people in England. We are worried the situation will
:07:56. > :08:00.get worse, because we have had three years of falling funding for general
:08:01. > :08:05.practice. And we haven't got a lot more GPs in the pipeline. We are
:08:06. > :08:10.training three or four hospital doctors for every GP we are training
:08:11. > :08:15.at the moment. That balance isn't right. Labour are calling for the
:08:16. > :08:21.return of a target guaranteeing a GP appointment within 48 hours. They
:08:22. > :08:26.say this would help patients. If it is for a normal consultation, it can
:08:27. > :08:33.take up to a week. Not too bad actually, probably I can have the
:08:34. > :08:37.next day if urgent. GP 's sake the growing and elderly population is
:08:38. > :08:40.keeping them busy. The government wants more consultations over the
:08:41. > :08:45.phone so fewer patients have to go to the waiting room. The government
:08:46. > :08:51.says it is already recognising the need to increase the numbers of GPs
:08:52. > :08:55.and is finding extra training places. Ministers point out the
:08:56. > :08:57.survey shows most patients are happy with their family doctor.
:08:58. > :09:02.Over 200 people are reported to have been shot by security forces in
:09:03. > :09:05.South Sudan, after more than a week of fighting in the capital, Juba.
:09:06. > :09:08.This comes ahead of a vote later today by the UN Security Council on
:09:09. > :09:10.almost doubling the peace-keeping force in the country. 45,000
:09:11. > :09:13.civilians have sought UN protection from the fighting between tribes
:09:14. > :09:21.linked to the president and his former deputy.
:09:22. > :09:24.The authorities in Russia have dropped criminal charges against the
:09:25. > :09:27.first of 30 people, including six from the UK, accused of taking part
:09:28. > :09:31.in a Greenpeace protest at an offshore oil rig in the Arctic. The
:09:32. > :09:34.campaign group said one man had been told his case was now closed, and
:09:35. > :09:41.the others were expected to receive notice soon.
:09:42. > :09:44.A posthumous royal pardon has been given to Alan Turing, regarded as
:09:45. > :09:47.the father of computer science. Dr Turing was a senior code breaker
:09:48. > :09:50.during the Second World War. He worked at the famous Bletchley Park
:09:51. > :09:52.in Bedfordshire. But, in 1952, he was convicted of homosexual
:09:53. > :10:02.activity. Today's pardon follows a long campaign.
:10:03. > :10:07.Cricket. And England have pledged to up their game ahead of the fourth
:10:08. > :10:10.Test against Australia in Melbourne on Boxing Day. Batsman Kevin
:10:11. > :10:13.Pietersen has been speaking about the team's troubles on what's turned
:10:14. > :10:16.out to be a disastrous tour in Australia so far. Our chief sports
:10:17. > :10:24.correspondent Dan Roan sent this report.
:10:25. > :10:31.You know things are going well when even Santa is on your side. For
:10:32. > :10:35.Australian cricket fans, Christmas is early, gifted the Ashes by an
:10:36. > :10:40.England team who have given their fans little to feel festive about.
:10:41. > :10:43.We want to turn things around, we owe it to ourselves and the people
:10:44. > :10:52.who have paid a lot of money to support us. We have let a lot of
:10:53. > :10:56.people down. We now need to turn ourselves on and starts today.
:10:57. > :11:01.Boycott says you are a mug and you should be dropped, how do you
:11:02. > :11:05.respond? I have the greatest admiration for Geoffrey Boycott. But
:11:06. > :11:09.the way he played and the way I play are totally different. It is the
:11:10. > :11:13.Barmy Army rather than wise men who have made their pilgrimage to
:11:14. > :11:19.Melbourne. Somehow, they remain faithful. How painful has it been?
:11:20. > :11:25.It has not been great, we have been gutted. But, we are here to turn
:11:26. > :11:30.things around. A dead rubber but we are here for the cricket. We will
:11:31. > :11:35.show them we have got something left. England are having to prepare
:11:36. > :11:40.for the fourth Test without the man who was their best spinner. Graeme
:11:41. > :11:47.Swann has pity -- retired mid series. His parting shot was to
:11:48. > :11:51.accuse certain unnamed players of arrogance. He denied suggestions it
:11:52. > :11:57.was aimed at former team-mate Kevin Pietersen, but the batsmen doesn't
:11:58. > :11:59.seem convinced. Was he referring to you?
:12:00. > :12:04.You should come to field with me on Friday and see what I get called on
:12:05. > :12:10.the boundary, there are a lot worse things. In the middle, the batsmen
:12:11. > :12:12.have struggled with Australian barrage all talk, let's hope this
:12:13. > :12:17.guy has more success with his deliveries.
:12:18. > :12:21.-- all tour. You can see more on all of today's
:12:22. > :12:23.stories on the BBC News Channel. We'll be back with more from the
:12:24. > :12:24.newsroom