Transcripts For BBCNEWS BBC News 20171210

Deal with the eu. Students could save thousands of pounds on tuition fees with a proposal for shorter, two year degree courses. Good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. Heavy snowfall is causing severe disruption for travellers in parts of the uk this morning. An amber weather alert is in place for wales, the midlands and southern england. Up to 28cm of snow has been recorded in some areas. Police are warning of treacherous driving conditions, while birmingham and stansted airports have closed due to heavy snowfall. Well be live in some of the affected areas shortly and also get an update on the travel implications. But first, this report from simon clemison. It could be a scene from the snowman. White the new green, as you fly over parts of wales. Sledge down it, sculpt it, throw it. It might not look any different to the snow which has already fallen in shropshire, but it is coming from a different place, and that could mean it has a much bigger effect. A band of rain, this time persistent, is drifting in from the south west and is set to push against the cold air, potentially leading to heavy and continuous falls across wide areas of wales, the midlands, and into northern england, with the possibility of 20 centimetres accumulating in some spots. It could also go further south than originally thought. Scotland and Northern Ireland are on alert. A fair amount has already arrived on the weekend but so far it originated from showers, covering some towns but not others. This hospital is calling on people with 4x4s living nearby to help bring staff to work, with the met office urging people to be prepared. For many, for now, the snow is anything but a problem. We have been sledging down the hill and it is superfun. We dont get snow very often, we brought the kids out and it was good fun. Just having loads of fun in the snow. The met office says road, rail and air delays are likely. The hope will be that a sunday will help lessen the impact, because lots of people are not at work or school. In fact, theyre here. We are going to be talking to our correspondents. In a moment well chat to navteonhal in nottinghamshire, but first lets speak to matthew richards, whos in llangollen in north east wales. Its been snowing there all morning in wales, still snowing, what are the conditions like . Yeah, the snow is coming down thick and fast now. I tempted fate about an hur ago saying it looked like it was easing off but its been snowing continuously since five this morning. I am in denbighshire but its notjust bad here but across north and mid wales, denbighshire, flintshire, wrexham, powys, and also as far as aberystwyth, a number of incidents of cars coming off the road or spinning upside down after getting into trouble on icy patches. Wrexham council have had gritters out since three this morning. Theyve about ten priority routes which they focus on to try and keep clear. Theyve asked for people to bear with them in the less Populated Areas and will try and deal with areas where they can. They knew this was coming, we have had a lot of snow on friday, stocks of rock salt are plentiful, about 7,000 tonnes in stock in wrexham and another delivery due tomorrow. For those outlying areas, rural areas, again Agricultural Machinery is being brought in and local farmers machinery is being brought in and localfarmers are doing machinery is being brought in and local farmers are doing what they can to keep some of those minor roads open, some of the communities to stop them being isolated. Thank you very much. Thats north east wales. Lets go to nottinghamshire. We canjoin our wales. Lets go to nottinghamshire. We can join our correspondent there. It looks very pretty and picturesque behind you but again treacherous conditions. Thats right. It looks very picturesque here. Its been snowing here for the past few hours, around seven is when the snow arrived. Its been getting heavier and persistent throughout the course of the day. Snowball fights, sledding and snowmen have been the order of the day here. Despite that plenty of disruption as well. Mainly at the regions airports, Birmingham Airport has had to suspend flights after heavy snow that fell overnight. Also east midlands airport announcing this morning that there have been delays to flights in and out of the airport and the ru nway and out of the airport and the runway has also been closed temporarily too. Also Derbyshire Police in the last couple of hours have been telling people to stay at home if you can. If you are travelling take it slow as well. Its been snowing probably about five centimetres or so of snowfall so five centimetres or so of snowfall so far, we are expecting it to ease this afternoon. Plenty of people enjoying the snow here, including one family who have come down from a couple of miles down the road. Lets have a word with dad first. Why did you want to come here today . To bring the kids sledging, theyve never done it before, it was a good opportunity. Gracie, you have been very excited about the snow. What do you make of it, when you saw it what did you think . I. So excited its becoming too much to talk about to us. Becoming too much to talk about to us. Mum as well, lets have a word with yourself. What did you make of the snow this morning bringing kids out here. They love it. She loves the snow. Its the first time we have brought sophie out in the snow. Nice opportunity to come down. Absolutely. Lets try again with gracie. You were hitting me with snowballs earlier, what did you make of the snow seeing it for the first time . Pretty. Pretty. Its pretty. You heard it there. The official word, pretty snow here. We are expecting it to ease off in the next couple of hours. Plenty of people enjoying it, its getting busier here. It has been throughout the course of the morning as well. Thank you. Well done for persevering with that interviewee now nottinghamshire. Lastly, waiting patiently in the freezing conditions isjessica parker, whats the scene there . Yes, i am stood over the m25 and as you can see clockwise its very slow and recently it was very much at a standstill because of a number of incidents reported by highways england. Just about 20 minutes ago we saw a car towed away. I think it was one of the reasons there was such disruption here. 0bviously there was such disruption here. Obviously it is snowing heavily. Perhaps more than some expected in the south of england, its been snowing in buckinghamshire, hertfordshire, gloucestershire and essex, there is severe rail disruption in parts of the south. Tube disruption as well into central london. In terms of the airports in the south, we havejust london. In terms of the airports in the south, we have just heard the ru nway the south, we have just heard the runway at Luton Airport has just reopened but obviously that means there are serious delays at Luton Airport and reported delays and problems as well at heathrow. In terms of the amount of snowfall we have had in the south of england, yesterday we werent maybe expecting some but up to 12 centimetres in high wycombe you with isnt far from here, we have seen a high level of snow and as i say there is disruption on the m25 but if you go up disruption on the m25 but if you go up the road to smaller roads off the main roads there really is heavy snow making some of the roads impassable. All right. Thank you. Many thanks to all of you for braving the snow and ice and chilly conditions here in the warmth of the studio its me and simon calder, a travel editor. We are hearing the south of england badly affected. A travel editor. We are hearing the south of england badly affectedm course we have been seeing scenes from wales, the midlands and very heavy snow there. In terms of sheer numbers of travellers affected whats happening now in london and the south east is actually new meshicly much more significant. About half an hour ago British Airways cancelled around about a0 departures to and from heathrow airport, that is now over 80. The problems they havent had a flight taken off on time since 7. A0 am this morning. We saw wherejessica parker was, not far away are the two iu nways parker was, not far away are the two runways at heathrow. Its europes busiest airport, there is little resilience in the system. Theyve slowed down the arrivals rate. As a result, all kinds of problems. Bas cancellations, swiss, brussels airlines, klm all cancelling flights to and from hubs. Ba says do not go to and from hubs. Ba says do not go to the airport unless you know your flight to the airport unless you know your flight is operating. As we heard, also problems at stanstead, luton, birmingham and east midlands airports. Lots of problems for air travellers. What about railways . Well, again, across the midlands almost nothing is running to time. Very little is running at all. West Midlands Railway and london North Western railway, first day of the new franchises today, theyve said do in the travel and now we have problems on the east coast main line, thats from edinburgh, newcastle, york, leeds, down to london kings cross. A raft of problems, including bad weather and overrunning Engineering Works is causing problems on that line. Again the message is dont travel unless you absolutely have to. On the roads, well, its getting worse by the minute. The police are putting out messages saying do not drive u nless out messages saying do not drive unless you have to. If you are driving dont speed, because many of the problems we are seeing now are due to accidents caused by excessive speed and thats jamming up the whole system. We were seeing pictures of the m25. Cars moving very gingerly, obviously, treacherous conditions on motorways. Certainly. A number of a roads com pletely certainly. A number of a roads completely blocked, for instance the a5 new shrewsbury, thats been closed. 0ther roads i think will gradually close. You really dont wa nt to gradually close. You really dont want to get involved with any of the motorways or major roads or minor roads, if its going to be snow affected. The problem we see is just with very limited infrastructure, once things start going wrong, they go wrong very quickly and whether you are on the roads or railways or in the air. Thank you. To keep up to date with all the latest for your area go to the bbc news website and tune into your bbc local Radio Station or bbc radio wales. And well have full weather forecasts every half hour here on bbc news. The foreign secretary, borisjohnson, has left iran without an agreement on the Early Release of the british iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari ratcliffe. The foreign secretary borisjohnson has met with the iranian president , hassan rouhani, this morning on the second day of his visit to the country. Its believed that he continued to press for the release of Nazanin Zaghari ratcliffe, the british iranian aid worker whos been held prisoner in the country since april 2016. She denies charges of trying to overthrow the iranian government. But she faces the possibility of a further Court Appearance today after mrjohnson appeared last month to contradict her claim she was on holiday in iran at the time of her arrest. I have been speaking to our bbc persian correspondent who gave me this update on the foreign secretarys talks in iran. We hear he has left out an agreement for a release. We know from the british side they are saying that the whole visit they are saying it was a worthwhile visit and saying we leave tehran with the sense that both sides want to keep up the momentum to resolve the difficult issues in the bilateral relationship and preserve the nuclear deal. We also know that during the meeting with president rouhani both sides agreed that they need to make progress on all issues and remove all obstacles in the relations between the two. The short of it is that basically mrjohnson is on the plane out of tehran without an agreement and without Nazanin Zahari on the plane. Is it your reading of the situation a little progress, at least they were talking about the case . It sounds like it. It sounds like that there was substantial discussions on a range of issues. They made progress, reporting from the iranian side, from the british side, gives you the impression that indeed it has been a worthwhile visit but on many of these issues there have been no agreement yet and i presume there is more room for discussion probably here in london between the Iranian Ambassador and the foreign office. The other problem of course is talking to somebody like the president of iran, he doesnt always represent all the different factions within the government, the revolutionary guards, for example . True. President rouhani has the government and there isa rouhani has the government and there is a deeper state in iran and there is a deeper state in iran and there is also the hardliners. But the meeting he has had has been better than expected, the range of meetings he had with officials and more importantly, he met with the secretary of Irans Supreme National Security Council who speaks for the establishment in iran in a sense. So that meeting was probably the most important meeting in a sense that council can overrule the iranian judiciary, for example, over the case, if they need to do that. But dont forget that there is this huge amount of money that iran is owed by britain. Britain has got the money, the money is ready to be paid to iran but they have to find a way because there are sanctions against iran still, putting barriers in the way of paying that money. There is discussion about the interest of that half a billion dollars worth of money that iran was owed before the revolution, before 1979 and that money is one of the key issues that have to be resolved, i suppose, before all other outstanding issues are resolved. The headlines. Travel disruption on the roads and at airports because of heavy snow as an amber weather warning is issued to many parts of the United Kingdom as more snow is forecast. Boris johnson the United Kingdom as more snow is forecast. Borisjohnson has left iran after talks with the countrys president over the detention of a british iranian woman and other dual nationals. New proposals to launch two year degree courses could see students save over £5,000. All the latest sports news now. News of the two big football derbies up news of the two big football derbies up this afternoon. Yeah, manchester, the crucial game in the premier league so far this season and the Merseyside Derby happening later. Lets bring you up to date on the latest action. The early kick off is already under way. Southampton at home to arsenal who will move back to the top four if they win. Southampton have other ideas. Theyre already one up. Charlie austin with his fourth goal in four games. The score came with two minutes on the clock. So 1 0. That manchester derby. This time the sta kes a re manchester derby. This time the stakes are high. City are premier League Leaders and could open up an 11 point lead on united in second. Theres a record to break too. Win today and city will have won 1a league games in a row. Not that Pep Guardiola is thinking about that ahead of todays match. We are going to play one game just thinking record, you forget what you have to do, to win the games. Will be nice because it means we won. But that is sooner or because it means we won. But that is sooner or later the record is going to be broken. So, yeah, its to win the game, thats my concern now. |j dont want us to feel any kind of pressure. I want us to feel it as a match like we are going to have another one two days later against bournemouth. We want to win. We want to play well. We are going to try. And lets see the direction of the game. Before that showdown there are a couple of other tasty looking games. Southampton and arsenal a big one and the small matter of the Merseyside Derby with Sam Allardyces Merseyside Derby with sam alla rdyces everton making Merseyside Derby with Sam Allardyces everton making the short trip across stanley park. The whole occasion is a great test for the players that we have. I think that they need to rise to the occasion. However good liverpool are playing it isa however good liverpool are playing it is a derby match, anything can happen. All i can ask the players to do is give their best, play their best game. Still might not be good enough because of the form liverpool are in. Theyve got five at brighton and seven in the champions league. Ronnie 0sullivan will look to equal steve davis record of six uk snooker championship titles when he faces shaun murphy in this years final later today. 0sullivan beat Stephen Maguire in his semifinal yesterday 6a. Maguire in his semifinal yesterday 6 a. Murphy saw off ryan day. 0sullivan says reaching the final is all down to a positive mental attitude. Tom curran has boasted his chances of a place in the england tea m chances of a place in the england team ahead of the third ashes test starting in perth on thursday. The surrey fast bowler took five wickets in englands latest tour match. He also scored an unbeaten 77. It was a slow it was nice to just get a bit of rhythm going and i have had good chats with a couple of ex coaches about how i am going to try to go about the next test if selected. Yeah, from my point of view its nice to get away from everything a little bit and concentrate on my own game. Great britains Andrew Butchart has won bronze at the european Cross Country championships in slovakia. The scot, who finished fourth last year, led the men to a bronze medal in the tea m the men to a bronze medal in the team standings. Britains senior women struck gold in the team event. Charlotte taylor was the first athlete home in 6th place. Time to tell you that european champions cup match with sash asebs saracens and clermont has been called off due to adverse weather conditions. I am assuming that means snow i think it might mean that, thank you very much indeed. Students in england are being encouraged to study for undergraduate degrees in two years rather than three. The universitys ministerjo johnson says these shorter courses will save thousands of pounds in tuition fees even though universities would be able to charge nearly £2,000 more per year. Andy moore reports. It was a conservative manifesto promise to introduce more 2 year degree courses. Implementing that plan has proved tough going. The universities say it will mean major changes to their schedules, with the prospect of the same or less money in income. By the governments own admission, the pickup so far has been pitiful, with only 0. 2 of students on fast tracked degrees. The new scheme would see students paying more for each individual year of their course, but more than £5,000 less than they would have done if it had lasted three years. It is a fantastic offer. The same quality degree, quality assured in exactly the same way, provided in a more intensive way. So instead of 30 weeks a year studying over three years, a really driven student, a highly motivated student, could pack in a5 weeks over two years. The government says each student on a 2 year course will save at least £35,000 if you add in saved living costs and a years extra earnings to the equation. And they say demand from students will persuade universities to offer the new courses. The brexit secretary, david davis, has said the breakthrough deal reached by theresa may with the European Union in brussels on friday, is conditional on getting a transitional and trade agreement. Meanwhile, labours shadow brexit secretary, sir keir starmer, has insisted that the uk must stay close to the Single Market. Earlier, i spoke to our Political Correspondent susanna mendonca about the brexit secretarys denial that he misled parliament back in february over whether the government had carried out Impact Assessments on the effect of brexit. When david davis was asked whether or not was there a work Impact Assessment being done at that time he said the government was looking at the impact on 58 different sectors. However, last week at the select committee he was asked again about it and he said basically there were no Impact Assessments at all being done. Today he was challenged about that on the Andrew Marr Show and he was, i suppose, it was more about the terminology. He was saying it was not Impact Assessments in the sense of looking at whether or not there would be a cost for us leaving the eu, instead he was talking about sectoral analysis which is basically looking at different aspects, like the size of an industry and that type of thing, that that work had been done and there were 850 pages of that work that had been done. But the sectoral analysis, the more detailed analysis, had not been done. Trying to defend his position but there will be those who still think he perhaps misled parliament. He was also asked about the breakthrough deal that the Prime Minister managed to get in brussels after looking like maybe that was going to fall apart after the dups intervention at the beginning of the week and finally it happened on friday. What did he say about that . There is a question around what full alignment means. People are saying you cannot have full alignment and britain effectively sticking to the rules, the Customs Union and the Single Market. He made the point we would stay out of the Customs Union and the Single Market and he said in terms of the full alignment it is about the outcomes rather than the methods that you get. For example, you can have different structures in terms of the way you work with the eu, but have the same outcomes. This is what he said. We are not looking to create a circumstance where Animal Welfare is worse in britain than elsewhere. We are not looking to create a circumstance where safety of food is worse or indeed pollutions and waterways. We will meet the outcomes but not do it byjust copying or doing what the European Union does. In terms of the deal he said that britain would look for in terms of the next stage in the negotiation, he wants something called canada plus, plus, plus, the deal that canada has. Canada does not have services included in its deal. That is a key stage for britain because of our Financial Services industry. If you look at the canada deal that took between 7 10 years to pin down so there will be people asking questions about whether or not he can do it in the timeframe. He said it was not that difficult to do a trade deal. I guess we will find out. Canada plus, plus, plus. That is a new one. His opposite number, sir keir starmer was appearing on the show as well, what did he say . He was talking about the deal labour wants and what they want is to be as close as possible to the way the Single Market and the European Union works. As far as labour is concerned, they would want to have a close relationship. They talk about the relationship the eu has with norway. A lot of people will remember back to the Eu Referendum campaign and people are talking about the norway relationship where they have to pay in but they do not have any say over the rules made. People will be thinking perhaps that is not the deal we want. Certainly that is the kind of model keir starmer was suggesting labour might pursue. Do you really think the agreement theresa may struck this week means that britain in perpetuity will stay very close to the Single Market and the Customs Union . Yes, and i think that is the right thing and we should hold her to that. That goes to the heart of the question what sort of britain do we want to be . Do we see europe as our Major Trading partner or do we want to rid ourselves apart from that . This week we have got the eu summit and we will get more information about the deal done on friday and the process of moving things forward. We have also got parliamentarians who are putting forward amendments to the eu withdrawal bill. What they really want is to be able to have it set in stone that parliament will have a meaningful vote at the end of all of this on the deal that britain finally comes to. Breaking news coming to us that the disgraced former celebrity publicist max clifford has died in hospital at the age of 7a. This was after collapsing at prison in cambridgeshire. Thats a spokeswoman for the ministry ofjustice telling us for the ministry ofjustice telling us that. Max clifford the disgraced former celebrity publicist has died. He collapsed in his cell at prison in cambridgeshire. He had been treated in a Critical Care unit of a local hospital. This was in the middle of serving an eight yearjail sentence for historic sex offences, its understood he collapsed in his cell on thursday and was, as he was trying to clean his cell and then again he collapsed again the following day when he was transferred to hospital and suffered a cardiac arrest. Max clifford a celebrity publicist who helped publicise many kiss and tell stories in the tabloids over many years and then was convicted in march 201a and found guilty of eight counts of indecent assault on four girls and women aged between 1a and 19 and sentenced in may to eight years in prison and had been serving out that sentence at littlehay prison in cambridgeshire. He has died at the age of 7a. More on that throughout the afternoon. First a lot of snow around in much of the country. Now the latest forecast. Is very Severe Weather across wales and central england. Needing to disruption. Amber warnings and be prepared warning is in place. Very widespread snow. Gradually easing down in the afternoon wears on. Severe Gale Force Winds across the south and south west easing down across the afternoon. Across the north, fine, dry weather continuing to scotland and Northern Ireland, the north of england colour bar if you showers across the north of scotland. Snow