Coming up. Three social media giants face a grilling. We sat in this committee, in a public hearing, and raised a clearly vile anti semitic tweet with your organisation, it was discussed, and it is still there. ello, ello, ello, whats all this then . As someone who was Police Minister when we had 21,000 more Police Officers than now, the minister needs to go back to the drawing board. Hear, hear. And the lords talk about. The lords. To put it mildly, my lords, we are not loved. But first, twitter has been strongly criticised for repeatedly failing to remove abusive tweets. The company was appearing before the home affairs committee, alongside facebook and google. The mps they faced were clearly angry and frustrated at what they saw as the failure of social media giants to deal with offensive and inflammatory content. The statistics are quite amazing. Half the worlds population use these sites every day. Its thought that 400 hours of video are uploaded to youtube every minute and every minute 6,000 tweets are sent. The Committee Chair began by asking about abuse sent to the shadow home secretary, diane abbott. If i sat and did a search on twitter with diane, are you telling me i would not find a huge series of twitter abuse at diane because you have got these systems in place . No. Right now i cant say what you would find at this minute. It is like anything. If you are cleaning a street, you can clean a street every morning, you cant guarantee it is still going to be clean at 10am. Would i only find abuse, say, for the last 48 hours and nothing before that . No, i cant guarantee that. Yvette cooper quoted some graphic anti semitic abuse posted in october last year which had been raised with another twitter executive by the committee. That tweet is still up on your platform. Why is it . I dont know the answer to that question. Im kind of wondering what it is we have to do. So we sat in this committee, in a public hearing, and raised a clearly vile anti semitic tweet with your organisation. It was discussed, and it is still there. And everybody accepted, you have accepted, your predecessor accepted, that it was unacceptable, but it is still there on the platform. What is it that we have to do to get you to take it down . I think that all of these discussions, i have already laid out the number of measures that we have taken, fuelled by conversations around this table and in many other countries across europe. We are constantly looking at these policies, looking at these processes. I will take that tweet away and i will come back to you with a definitive answer as to why it is still there. Part of the problem is its like if, even when we raise it in a forum like this, nothing happens, it is very hard for us to believe that enough is being done when everybody else across the country raises concerns. There is another one that james also raised, from the 15th of november 2014, attacking Luciana Berger with the same phrase and that was the second time that one had been raised because it was also raised by the committee previously as well. And it is also still up on your platform. Again. I dont know how many times i have to ask you to come and put the same things to you. My reading of our policies, my reading of policies as we have changed them is that that tweet would be in violation of our policies so i will come back to you with an answer as to why it is still on the platform. The Committee Also wanted to know about the recommendations made by the websites pointing people towards similar material. You are linking people once they go on one slightly dodgy thing, you are linking them to an awful lot of other similar things, whether that be racist extremism, islamist extremism, your technology is doing thatjob and you are not stopping it from doing so. I am happy to take that, given what others have said. I disagree that thats what the technology is doing but i do recognise we have a problem, which is a shared problem with the police, yourselves, Civil Society organisations. How do we address that person who may be going down a channel which can lead to them being radicalised either on the left or right, and ultimately become extremists . That is one of the reasons we have established our Online Civil Courage Initiative in the uk to really understand that phenomenon and to see what we should be doing, using our technology and our people and our expertise, but also how we can support other organisations as they use our platforms. A conservative mp quoted from twitter posts under the hastag kill a tory. Just think of the benefits if each family in the uk were to killjust one tory. That is on twitter. Your code says you will not tolerate violent threats, wishes for the physical harm, death or disease of individuals or groups. How does that comply with your code . Simple hashtag, simple search, simple takedown, or even better simply dont allow them there in the first place. I think there are a couple of elements to this. At its most practical level, we have 500 million tweets per day and 330 million users. Twitter is used in multiple, multiple languages. So we can sit here in london and talk about one hashtag relating to one political party, but if you are to proactively have technology that is proactively searching for the kind of words that youre talking about across all Political Parties in the world in all languages, that is a much more significant task. Tim loughton then turned his attention to facebook. You are now providing technology, very advanced technology, so when i walk into a shop, it will scan my face and then analyse what buying mood i am in and pass that information to the very helpful Sales Assistant to make sure i go and buy various things. That is quite advanced technology and yet you cant even collectively come up with technology for these now 10,000 reviewers who are not going to do anything proactive to stop the sort of blatant, clear abusive stuff which we have all quoted. Just to be clear, our reviewers, the 10,000 refers to youtube, so our reviewers are involved in some proactive work. As we have explained extensively, i believe, there are certain types of content we focus on initially. The most extreme child abuse imagery is something which has been addressed for many years in a proactive way. We have all talked about terrorism and extremism. Some of the other areas youre talking about are more difficult. It doesnt mean we are going to stop of course we are going to try to do more work on our own initiative but i think when it comes to political speech this is much more difficult and you as politicians im sure would also be concerned about the prospect of us restricting political speech in an automated way without anybody ever seeing it. That is a big step to take. A labour mp didnt think twitter could cope with the situation it faced. How many staff in twitter are dealing with these issues . How many . I have already said that in terms of the figures that you have heard from the other companies that our whole population is 3,500. No figure im going to give you is going to sound like its enough. What were your revenues in the last quarter . Pardon . What were your global revenues in the last quarter . I dont have that figure off the top of my head but i can tell you. It was 574 million in the last quarter and you say you only have 3,500 staff. Do you not think that you ought to be spending just a little bit more money on proactively searching for some of this content . I can tell you that there is a significant percentage of staff, not just the agents who review content, but the people who devise and implement our policies, and huge swathes currently of our product and engineering teams working on safety issues right now, and off other projects, they are working on safety issues. Sinead mcsweeney of twitter. A potential £450 million in extra funding for police in england and wales in the next Financial Year has been announced by the home office. Police and Crime Commissioners are to be given the power to raise the portion of council tax which goes towards policing, by £12 per household annually. That would raise £270 million, while more than £100 million for national priorities, such as firearms, would come from central government. It is clear that there is a shifting pattern of demand on the police. There are more victims of high harm so called hidden crimes such as domestic abuse, modern slavery, child sexual exploitation, as well as more victims of cyber crime coming forward. The willingness to come forward is to be welcomed but it does put pressure on policing, which we have to be sensitive to. Alongside this, mr speaker, terrorist attacks in london and manchester have served as a reminder of the very real and changing threats that we face from terrorism. The public is increasingly conscious that austerity is as damaging to policing as it is to other Public Services because you cannot keep people safe on the cheap. A 35 increase in crime according to my chief constable, an 18 reduction in staff and £30 million worth of savings already met. This settlement is simply not good enough and from someone who was Police Minister when we had 21,000 more Police Officers than now, the minister needs to go back to the drawing board. Hear, hear. I suggest the former Police Minister goes and talks to his his pcc because they will explain why actually a flat cash grant from the centre is an improvement on what he or she was expecting. 0ne former police and crime commissioner said he wouldnt have been able to maintain the level of policing on this budget. The reality is, with inflationary pressures in general terms, with the need to fund a police pay rise, a legitimate police pay rise, with, on top of that, the increasing demand for policing services, it simply isnt possible to maintain public safety, and the minister really has got to stand up and tell the public the truth. This is not a fair settlement. Again, i hesitate to correct someone who knows what hes talking about but what i would refer to, he is talking as if this is something that is a settlement proposed in complete isolation. What he and the front bench are ignoring is that we work closely with Police Chiefs and the pccs and their independent review that the pccs and chiefs did independently of government, came to a very similar conclusion. What hasnt changed is the need for front line policing. What can my honourable friend be doing to make sure that more of the money that he has talked about today gets to the front line to increase the sort front line policing that constituents so badly want to see . The short answer to that question is, it is the local police and crime commissioner who is accountable for how resources are allocated. If it is the local view that more resources need to go into front line Police Officers then that is something that the police and crime commissioner has to respond to. The home office minister. Well, just before the Police Funding statement, another secretary of state had news about council tax. The communities secretary revealed that councils in england would be allowed to increase council tax by an additional 1 from next year. At the moment councils must get the approval of residents in a referendum if they want to raise council tax by more than 2 . Ten councils would also be allowed to retain 100 of the business rate raised in their areas. While we all want to ease growing pressure on local government services, im sure none of us want to see hard working taxpayers saddled with ever higher bills, so this settlement needs to strike a balance between those two aims giving councils the ability to increase their core Council Tax Requirement by an additional 1 without a local referendum, bringing the core principle in line with inflation. While todays announcement offers some additional support, it pays merely lip service to many of the problems facing our local councils. Mr speaker, this secretary of state has today presented himself as santa, but the details of this announcement really shows him to be the grinch. Will the secretary of state confirm the figures given to me by the local Government Association that, even if that flexibility is fully used, it will raise just £250 million next year . That compares with the lgas estimate of the shortfall in funding for social care of over £2 billion, even after the measures previously announced by the government are taken into account. Northamptonshire county council might be the local highways authority, but i have to tell the secretary of state its run out of road. It will set a legal budget for 2018 19, but its making it clear that it wont be able to finance its statutory functions in 19 20 unless something changes. Sajid javid said his decision would allow councils to raise a further £1 billion. You are watching tuesday in parliament with me, mandy baker. The governments been accused of stringing the Steel Industry along with warm words and no action. Ministers have asked various sectors to come up with ideas on how to work with government to boost productivity. The Steel Industry submitted its plan in september, suggesting state investment in research and measures to reduce energy costs. Mps were debating the future of the Steel Industry in westminster hall. Steel is too important a product for our economy and our security, for our communities and standing as a nation, for us to have to rely on others for it. He said that, after submitting a so called sector deal, the Steel Industry didnt meet a minister until november. The sad reality is the trust between the government and the Steel Industry has been shot to pieces. Warm words are no good to anyone if they are matched only by frozen actions. An industrial strategy. I will give way. I must correct him on a factual point. One of my very first acts as the minister was to go and visit the steelworks in his constituency and close by. I have met with the council formally to announce the shape of the sector deal and subsequently after the presentation of the sector deal three times, plus i have met with and spoken to the companies on numerous occasions, so he must correct the record. That is simply not true to say that i have only engaged with them after the sector deal was submitted. I thank the minister for giving way. I think conversations and visits and meetings are excellent, but the fact remains that the sector deal was submitted on the 7th of september and that no meeting was granted with the Steel Industry until the very end of november and, as the clock is ticking, the decisions about investment next yearare drying up. He said Steel Workers knew how to take bad news on the chin. Steel communities are a hardy bunch, forged in the white heat of our industry, and from parts of the country that are well used to being forgotten, neglected and ignored by successive tory governments. So they know how to take bad news on the chin. And they certainly prefer to be treated like adults, with honesty and clarity, as opposed to the obfuscation that has become the hallmark of this government. I would therefore urge the minister today to stop taking us for a ride. All the indications are that the government really could not care less about the future of the british Steel Industry. The constituency of one conservative mp was affected by the closure of the ssi redcar steelworks two years ago. We all know the consequences which were felt in redcar and which obviously also had massive impacts in middlesbrough south and east cleveland, but there is real, constructive action, money and hope now flowing into our area. I think its really important we get that part of the equation on record as well. He thought the cost of energy was a pressing issue. The simple fact is it is difficult for the industry to compete when its energy costs are 55 higher than germany and 51 higher than france, so we are looking for bridging solutions, lower costs in the short to medium term while we wait for longer Term Solutions to take effect. A labour mp said the Steel Workers had turned round their industry the last two years. It is now time for government to act with the industry to help create a strong, innovative business that is needed to help build britains future, as it moves into a world outside the eu. The sector steel deal bid from the industry shows the necessary commitment to deliver for the future. The government has welcomed this. Both sides must now forge a future together. All i want for christmas, sir henry, is a sector steel deal. The minister said the government was committed to solving the industrys challengers. And i have every intention and every expectation that we will bring forward an attractive sector deal and, indeed, we have held many meetings when the deal is in a good enough place, where we have commitments on both sides to actually drive the transformation. These deals are not, give us some money. These deals are, what can we do together, government and industry and unions and apprenticeships and education institutions, and our brilliant academic institutions, to really create the industry of the future . If i may have one christmas wish, sir henry, it would be that we have an end to the outdated Party Politics around what is such a Vital Foundation industry for the uk, we build a cross party partnership, we work with the industry, who are in a transformational place, to protect and grow these vital industries, not for the next 12 months or two years but for the generations to come. Claire perry. Now, peers had to set their alarm clocks a little bit earlier than usual on tuesday, because the main debate was scheduled to begin at the ungodly hour of 11am, a full three and a half hours before their usual start time. Why . Well, one of their favourite subjects was up for discussion. Yes, themselves. Nearly 100 ennobled names were on the list of speakers. Fixed terms are the only solution which is going to provide a steady stream of vacancies in a way which is fair to all groups. Therefore, a key pillar of our recommendations is that all new members should serve a single, nonrenewable fixed term of 15 years. They would be offered a peerage on that basis and they would make an undertaking to retire after 15 years when joining the house. House of lords reform is a complex, difficult and constitutionally significant area, into which anyone must be advised to tread with caution, having learned the lessons of history and unintended consequences. I believe that this is our best shot at reform for a generation, and we need to grasp this opportunity, despite it not being everyones perfect vision. Until we do that, as lord burns has said, the prime minister, number ten, the government, the leadership of the Political Parties in the country will not hear their prompt to step onto the stage with us and be part of our reform future. We should be proud of the detailed scrutiny we do in this house, yet that is often not as the public and the media see us. To put it mildly, my lords, we are not loved. They produced an elegant set of proposals which fulfil their remit, and have done so by proposing a very british way forward constitutional form by informal agreement. They deserve our thanks. Weight watchers has shown that the best way to tackle a problem of excess is to combine personal responsibility with collective resolve and mutual support. The alternative of drastic surgery involves unnecessary risk, no guarantee of success and an unpredictable outcome. I confess that i would like to see a cap on this house of about 400. I shall be content to go, my lords, when the time comes, but i shant go alone. I intend to take others with me. And neither shall i go to make way for another tranche of prime ministerial appointments for Services Rendered to number ten or payments to party funds. I see no reason why we couldnt have an automatic clear out at the end of every parliament of every member who is over 80 years of age. I see no difficulty about doing that. The house of commons has a clear out at a general election. Why shouldnt this house have a clear out . While consensus dominated the house, not everyone supported the proposals. I fear, my lords, this is yet another piecemeal effort to tackle the fundamental issue of lords reform as, following strictly their remit, they have reported on the size of the house, while ignoring its functions as a Legislative Assembly for the whole of the united kingdom, and the points made by lord hope. The house is, of course, much too large, with 798 peers. How did this come about . It is substantially through the political incontinence of prime ministers blair and cameron in their exercise of patronage. I disagree that the problem is overcrowding in this house. At some key moment, particularly at question time, it feels overcrowded, but that has been true for most of the last 40 years. 0ur daily attendance is about 480. There have only been three divisions in the entire history of the lords where over 600 members have voted. Lord strathclyde. The health secretary, jeremy hunt, has admitted there is a very big problem with the number of gps in england. The nhs has lost 1,300 full time gp equivalents in the last two years and 200 gp partners during the same period. Given that 20 of the gp workforce is aged over 60, it is clear there is a retirement time bomb looming. What steps does the secretary of state intend to take to address the growing workforce crisis in general practice, because his efforts so far have failed and patients are waiting longer than ever for a surgery appointment . Well, i would respectfully say i think the figures that shes pointed out dont actually take account of locum doctors, but there is nonetheless a very big problem and she is right to draw that the attention of the house. I think there are two things. First, we need to encourage more medical School Graduates to go into general practice as a specialty, and our objective is that half of all medical School Graduates should choose general practice as their specialty, and we are making Good Progress on that. But retention is also extremely important, and thats why we are putting in place a number of programmes that will make it easier for gps who want to work a limited period of time to work flexibly, and make it easierfor people who have Family Responsibilities to potentially work from home, and those programmes, we hope, will make a difference. Our Research Today has revealed there are vacancies for 100,000 staff across the nhs. There is a National Crisis in workforce. Not my words, but the words of the Royal Surrey Hospital trust in his own constituency. So, with bed occupancy at royal surrey hitting a peak of 98. 7 this winter already, and across the nhs bed occupancy already at an average of 94. 5 , can he tell us how he expects the nhs to cope this winter, when its understaffed, overstretched and underfunded . Mr speaker, if you decide you want more nurses, following mid staffs, that creates vacancies. If you want to transform Mental Health provision, that creates vacancies. Thats why we announced a workforce plan, which i notice the government in wales hasnt had time to do yet, but i would like to finish by wishing you a Merry Christmas and, if he wants to take a bit longer off and stay away forjanuary, we are happy to hold the fort. A lovely festive spirit there. And thats it from me for now, but do join me at the same time tomorrow for another round up of the day here at westminster, including highlights from the final prime ministers questions of the year. Hello. 0ur quiet spell of weather continues apace across many parts of the British Isles at the moment. Thats not to say that its completely dull by any means at all. A glorious end to the day captured by a number of our weather watchers. But elsewhere, well, it was one of those. The cloud sat there, so did the fog in some locations. But there is a sign of a change on the way. Already were seeing the cloud and rain associated with this weather front moving into the northern and western parts of scotland. It will continue its journey a bit further south during the course of the night. First thing on wednesday, quite a variety to the temperatures. Where the cloud pops away, two degrees or so in the east. 0ut towards the west, fully exposed to the moist south westerlies coming in from the atlantic, well, its nine, ten or 11 degrees. Here we are first thing on wednesday. Hill fog to be had if the cloud is broken overnight. There is the chance of the odd patch of fog. So bear that in mind. And enough about some of the cloud across the western facing hills and coasts for there to be the odd bit and pieces of rain or drizzle, especially near that weather front. To the north of that, a scattering of showers, not many of them, by any means at all. Much of scotland getting away to a dry start. I think its here, north of the weather front, that you get the best chance of seeing meaningful sunshine, and eventually that prospect extends into northern ireland, too. Near that frontal system, youve got the prospect of some hill fog and a wee bit of rain and drizzle. That goes into the north and west of wales. To the south, pretty leaden skies, im afraid. The odd bit of brightness, perhaps. Here we are on thursday. The orientation of the front has changed here somewhat. The westerly portion, having come south, is starting to move back north. Best of the brightness, away from that, where you get the lowest of the temperatures, but best chance of sunshine. South, a lot of cloud, some hill fog around. Not a great deal changes as i take you out of thursday, pushing into friday. Weve still got the remnants of a weather front, still clouding things up and producing the odd bit and piece of rain, especially across western and south western parts. So, again, get away from the remnants of those fronts out towards the east and up into the north of scotland, the lowest of the temperatures again, but at least you get to see a wee bit of sunshine. Here we are into the weekend before christmas and many will still be stuck with that relatively mild flow coming in from the atlantic. But youll notice, come christmas eve, were not a million miles away from seeing quite a dramatic change, with some cold and brighter weather coming in. But in the run up to christmasm generally mild, often really rather cloudy and the chance of some rain, particularly in the north. Welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. My name is mike embley. Our top stories the most radical tax overhaul in decades is on course to pass the us Congress Despite a last minute hitch. In her first tv interview, Harvey Weinsteins former assistant tells the bbc why shes breaking a non disclosure agreement to speak out about him. 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