Transcripts For BBCNEWS Newsnight 20180115

Today aged 46. In your head zombie good evening. Should the government be giving a company thats issued three profit warnings millions and millions of pounds worth of further contracts . The question sadly, is a rhetorical one. Shortly after dawn this morning, carillion declared itself bust. It had racked up debts of more than £900 million, and a pension deficit of nearly £600 million. And even though the first warning came injuly, the second in september and the third just two months ago, back in november, the government continued to ply them with work. Is it enthusiasm for the Public Private ideology, or incompetence that the financial ill health of such a huge company had been so badly misread . Carillion started out as the construction arm of tarmac in 1999. Since then it has built a lot. Gchq in cheltenham. High speed one and heathrow terminal five for example. But it also provides services managing 200 operating theatres and 11,800 beds for the nhs for example. 0r providing cleaning and meals for hundreds of schools. In short carillion is big. In 2016 had recorded £5. 2 billion in revenues, a third of which, 1. 7 billion, came from uk government contracts. It is partly those government Construction Contracts which got it into trouble with cost overruns on two hospitals and £745 million aberdeen bypass. Warning lights have been flashing for a while, injuly it had to announce an £850 million hit to its contracts and suspend its dividends. By last friday its share price plummeted by 90 . After crisis talks with bankers and the Cabinet Office over the weekend it collapsed this morning with £900 million in debt and a £587 million deficit leaving 43,000 employees globally and hundreds of subcontractors wondering what will happen next. Thats the overview. Our Business Editor helen thomas has been taking a look at the challenges ahead. Trains and planes from beautiful art to the beautiful game. Carillion had a hand in many parts of uk life. Today the big battle was how to manage the fallout from its collapse. Employees and subcontractors were asked to report for work as normal today. The government wants to make sure Crucial Services continue before contracts are passed to competitors or taken in house. Huge Public Private Construction Projects like the aberdeen bypass or work on each is too will be taken over byjoint venture partners. But some firms involved in the non government work expected take a hit. Its a shame. This boss had 30 people sent home today including from work on the new google building in kings cross. We were turned away from fourjobs, so those people had to go home. They are trying to replace them on otherjobs we have got. But if you are in the government side you are ok because they will look after you. For us personally we have payments due of £200,000 and that will be in line with the company like carillion. The collapse will also cause bigger questions about the government use of outsourcing. Critics say its another example of a private company taking its profits, paying dividends in bonuses and then leaving the Public Sector to clean up when things go wrong. The industry would disagree, they say carillion wasnt raking it in, in fact it was bidding to aggressively. Some would argue that is because the government, its biggest customer, has only cared about recent time, price. An independent report last year for the Business Services association called it a race to the bottom. Our system where aggressive price based tenders and the drive to cut costs in the time of austerity risked compromising quality of service, workers terms and conditions, corporate profits and potentially the political and commercial sustainability of the market. I think we see played out in front of us that the Construction Business model is not working and we need to address that. You look at the Profit Margins of the top ten contractors it is about 0. 8 . Those who are doing well would declare about 2 margins and that is not sustainable for the level of risk they take and we need to fix that model. It means more collaborative working, engaging the supply chain earlier. Not having individual bespoke contract which make things even more complicated. It was the Coalition Government which expanded the use of outsourcing and pushed hard to get taxpayers a better deal. The point of bringing in private companies to do something the government would otherwise do is to take advantage of the fact that private companies are often, not always, more efficient. And to try to transfer some of the risk of those projects to those companies from government and the kind of risk costs being higher than you might have anticipated and so on. I think the government has got better and better at doing this and driving down the Profit Margins of those companies for taxpayers benefit. The collapse of carillion is still likely to focus minds on what could be done better. More imagination in the commissioning process. Better oversight of the companies as they are doing theirjob. And better intelligence sharing amongst whitehall departments so that we learn from each others mistakes. Its kind of telling to me that at the last general election, i could not see a single mention of outsourcing in any shape or form in either of the party s manifesto was. Insiders told a sneak outsourcing had in some places like probation become too niche. 0verly complicated contracts make it impossible to price work properly. 0thers argue groups like carillion are part of the problem. Not enough Companies Bidding and the government reliant on a handful of big names. This relies on the market for the services, outsourcing works well when there is a market there. Government, several government in sequence have allowed the emergence of giants conglomerates which do all kinds of services, carillion is one of those. There is not the competition and ability to pass the services onto another company that the whole thing relied on so to me that is where some of failure lies. As the sun sets on carillions business it might be the outsourcing market which needs refurbishment. A little earlier i spoke to Cabinet Office minister 0liver dowden. I asked him how the government let carillion go bust. The government when it receives its first profit warning from carillion took contingency measures. The principal measure we took was to ensure all new contracts were joint venture contracts. That means the risk is shared with other companies and on those contracts they continue to be delivered. So you knew then injuly you would need a contingency plan . Of course if the profit warning is given in respect of a company, people that contract with it have to take appropriate measures. You would not expect us to stop contracting with them as you are not expect any other company to stop contracting with them but you would expect us to take precautions. There were three profit warnings and as far as we understand eight new contract awarded despite that. It is important to understand the context. Eight new contracts but they only account for 2 of our ongoing contracts. It doesnt matter, either you are looking at the Financial Health of a company which does enormous work for our whole country you are not, you are carrying on blindly. This was a company that try to delay the payment to its contractors by three months instead of 30 days. This was a company being short sold in 2013, a company that hsbc divest it a million shares worth over the last 12 months. This is a Company Whose corporate debt was downgraded to junk, how many more signs did you need . The concern for taxpayers in respect of this was with the Company Deliver on the contracts . Reconstructed them as joint ventures and they have continued to deliver. The taxpayer has only paid out on what they have delivered on, there has not been a loss to the taxpayer as the result of structuring those joint. There has been no extra cost to taxpayers, are you sure . There is a cost in respect of the appointment of the official receiver, but all the contracts. All of these delays will cost the taxpayer more, right . Anything increased and having to bring in other contractors will cost the taxpayer more so dont say there is no extra cost to taxpayers. The additional cost has been in respect of the appointment of the official receiver. If you point an official receiver there is a cost associated with that. If you remove competition from the sector and allow the same firms to charge more for the contract how is that a good deal . Its important we have more competition and that is what we have sought to do. When the government came to power in 2010 we set a target of 25 of all government contracts being awarded to small and Medium Sized Enterprises. We set another target for this government, we are encouraging more small and Medium Sized Enterprises to bid for these contracts. Why would they go for it when they see you supporting a company like carillion which is clearly about to go bust . Those contracts have been agreed and they have been delivered upon but there are a huge number of other pfi contracts going on quite well at the moment. We have over £60 billion worth of contracts clearly there is an issue with carillion but the evidence we have seen today is that the impact on the delivery of Public Services has been minimal. Stand back and tell me in the clear light of day it made sense to carry on giving carillion almost £2 billion more of contracts when it was in such bad health . As i said those contracts first of all only accounted for 2 of the overall contract in relation to carillion and in respect of those contracts. It was still £2 billion. They have been delivered upon, taxpayers received services in respect to them. And majority are structured as joint ventures so the otherjoint venture parties are stepping up to the plate and continuing to deliver. There is a concern that you are so wedded to the ideology of using the private sector it cannot be seen to be failing, its just not allowed. I dont think this is a question of ideology. Its either ideology or incompetence. Third of these contracts were awarded under the last labour government, a third under the coalition and the third under this government. They have been proven to the liver successfully. Over £60 billion worth of contracts agreed. If you look at the picture as we speak now those Services Continued to be delivered. There has not been a disruption to the users of those Public Services. The public takes the risk and the private Companies Take all the profits. That is how this is perceived. Its hard to say that the private company has not taken the cost, those people who have bought shares in carillion are unlikely to receive the money back in respect of them. 20,000 people worrying about their job of the first ceo is still receiving a salary and will continue to do so until october. You raise two important points, in respect of people being worried about their jobs this is a regrettable situation but those people working in respect of the Public Sector can be assured we will continue to pay out on those contracts. They should carry on going to work as normal. In respect of your concerns about the payments which i been made to the person in question. For workers to hear they should carry on going to a job and they look at richard house, former ceo still receiving a salary and will do so until october, is that fair . There are serious questions to be answered. But that has to be done by the official receiver. They are looking into this and i dont want to prejudice those independent enquiries by the official receiver into exactly the sort of points. Minister, i asked you a question, is it fair, from where you are sitting, is it fair that the ceo who fail to turn the company into something that can provide jobs and services is still getting paid a salary until october . Of course it is not fair and of course i understand peoples concerns over the rest but it is a matter which has to be considered by the process for doing it and its not helpful to prejudge it. 0liver dowden, thank you. Nick watt our Political Editor is here. What do you take away from today . We have rare agreement among senior labour and conservative people that this may well be a defining moment for this country. You were playing earlier that clip from jeremy corbyn, saying this is a watershed moment and we should end rip off privatisations. Well, i was speaking to one senior tory thinker who said this is really bad for us, the conservative party, he said. He said it plays into the metanarrative that we tories are about protecting our private sector friends, even though, as this person said, most of this process started under tony blair. So, who do you think is under pressure tonight actually . There are a lot of questions about chris grayling, because as transport secretary he approved an h52 contract for a carillion consortium just after had issued that. The transport secretary is like a cat, he always escapes, how longer can this go on . Important to say Chris Graylings department so that was a three strong consortium and the other parties in that contract will cover any cost overruns or any delay. But real pressure in the treasury. They are taking a very deep breath tonight, because as the government says, this is not a bailout of the company, but it is a lifeline to those areas where there are public contracts from carillion, and that, the treasury are saying, will cost them a lot of money. Thanks very much, nick. Labour Mp Stella Creasy has long campaigned against how the government awards its large contracts. She is with us now. Nice to see you. Your leaderjeremy corbyn, we played the clip at the beginning, called this a watershed moment, but the outsource of first dogma may now be over. Do you think it is a moment when everything changes . I hope so, i have been particularly concerned about private finance contracts for many years because i had seen the impact first hand in my local hospital at whips cross. I call them the legal loan sharks of the Public Sector. It is an incredibly expensive way to borrow. We were told the reasons for using these companies is that you would transfer the risks that might come from a Public Company to the private sector. What the carillion issue does is it blows apart that myth. But it doesnt clear up what happens next, does it . No. The government doesnt have the expertise to manage these projects, the construction knowledge. They are not really going to disentangle themselves from these companies, right . No, and it was very noticeable in the house that when the minister was pressed particularly about pfi contracts, and committing not to give a penny more to these companies and try to give these Services Back in house, he couldnt give an answer, because they dont know. You look at these contracts, there is as much powerfor the banks and the lenders as there is for the Public Sector in it. You know, outsourcing has gone up 125 under this government and it is very clear that government doesnt have the skills and the expertise to manage that volume of private contracts and now the taxpayer will pay the price. So you wouldnt want to see jeremy corbyn, where everything became within the state remit . We have to look at these contracts because a lot of the clauses would mean it would cost a hell of a lot of money to bring them in house. That is why i have been calling for a windfall tax on the pfi companies. It has been clear they have benefited from Corporation Tax being reduced. There is a very strong case for the Public Sector to try to get some value for money out of these contracts to introduce a windfall tax, and to get these companies, there are only a few of them around doing it, around the table at the treasury. I dont understand is why the treasury has not done any of this thinking . It is not as if a windfall tax would have made carillion work any better, the last thing that company needed was an extra tax, right . But it would have made carillion think about how it manages its public contracts. I am struck by the fact that injune last year the nhs must have known that there was difficulty with the Royal Liverpool hospital, yet injuly we saw the department for transport giving them a whole series of contracts even though they issued a profit warning. 0ne arm of government is not talking to the other or we are giving these companies contracts because they cannot afford to fail. What makes you think that having the whole project under that government umbrella would be any more successful then . The first thing you have to do is develop a domesday book, and some people have talked about this, we know what it is we owe and to whom, because the treasury doesnt even hold that information century, sarita devi know how much we are in hock with. The government wants to tell you pfi has delivered £750 billion worth of investment but editors at a £200 billion cost. Thank you for coming in. Ten years ago it was fat. Now Public Health enemy one is sugar. This year marks the introduction of the sugar tax weve already seen some of the naming and shaming of companies that arent prepared to reduce sugar content. This programme has been looking into whether companies are adhering to the new rules of online sugar advertising that emerged six months ago and our enquiries have been changing corporate policy, as James Clayton reports. About 50 of all the sugar consumed in the uk comes from this, British Sugar beans, and for factories like this one behind me, well, business is booming. But the government is trying to make us eat less sugar. In april this year, the sugar tax will come into force, Public Health england will name the companies that have and havent reduced their sugar and fat content in march, and strict new rules around advertising to children came in last year. But the reaction by companies to these measures has been, well, varied. Hurry, hurry, its the crazy crocos back in the day, advertising rules were a lot more relaxed. Ten years ago, a review found that 80 of all food advertising expenditure in childrens airtime on terrestrial channels was for foods high in salt, sugar orfat. Well, everybody knows, frosties taste great in 2008, rules were brought in to stop these kind of adverts being shown on childrens tv, rules that were extended to cover Online Advertising and material six months ago. The milky bars are on me what does that mean . Well, here is the chief executive of the Advertising Standards Authority. So just be clear, if you are advertising to children, and youre advertising for sweets or junk food, you shouldnt be allowed to advertise to those children . Thats right, thats right, and children are defined as anyone whos under 16, so its children, and actually its young people, as well. But newsnight has been given examples of online material that campaigners believe push those rules to the limit. The kinder brand makes chocolate products aimed at children, and their website, magic kinder, has a series of games also aimed at children. Some have referred to these kinds of games as adver games, and questioned whether they should be allowed at all. So what weve got here is the magic kinder website, so magic is the dominant word, but kinder is there as well, and you can see their games, targeting 3 , 5 . Now you cant see very strong kinder advertising, but once you start getting into the games, and into the stories, you can see very close association, with the toys that children receive when they get kinder eggs. I think theyre not upholding the spirit of the rules. It seems to me that many of them are playing around in the grey areas of what is targeting adults or children. Adver games are caught by exactly the same ban on advertising to children, when it comes to products that are high in fat, salt and sugar, as any other form of advertising is, so you should not be, if you are a company with a brand that is high in fat, salt or sugar, you should not be producing an adver game for that brand that targets children, that appeals to children. The big question here, then, is does this constitute an adver game at all, or are they simply fun video games for kids . In a statement to newsnight, kindersaid. No products are visible, but the toys in them are. Since newsnight told kinder we were doing the story, the company has said it will now place an age restriction on the games. The Advertising Standards Authority is looking into the websites. There are other areas, too, that are difficult to police. Take the Chewits Facebook page. You have to be over 13 to have a facebook account, and here chewits arent paying for advertising, theyre just updating their home page, but what about posts like this one . The important thing here is to make sure if you are an advertiser and you are using facebook, as a communicating channel to get through to people, is to make sure that you are not you are not targeting under 16s with your advertising for your products that are high in fat, salt or sugar. And of course also to make sure that you are complying with the tougher content rules for ads, even assuming youre not doing that. Chewits told newsnight that the vast majority of people interacting with the chewits page are over 16. Theres not much doubt that advertising to children works. A yougov poll, commissioned by Cancer Research uk, and given to newsnight, found that 11 to 19 year olds with high ad exposure were almost three times more likely to have diets high in salt, sugar and fats. And where did the survey find that those young people watched those ads . Well, on daytime tv, sports channels, reality tv, and, most commonly, on entertainment shows. So if you look at viewing figures of the programmes most popular with children, it is that saturday night family viewing slot. Those advertising breaks are absolutely crammed full ofjunk food adverts, so we found in a study where we looked at adverts around the voice, and hollyoaks and the simpsons, that of the food and drink in the adverts, 60 of them were forjunk food. So what we would like to see is a nine oclock watershed on junk food marketing. But for some, this is a step too far. You know, a lot of these foods appeal to adults, and these companies have a right to advertise their foods to adults. These programmes, the saturday night programmes, are watched by massive adult audiences, and i think it is perfectly fair that they should be allowed to advertise to them. It is notjust family shows that are in the cross hairs of sugar campaigners. The rules on advertising to children on tv havent changed for ten years, and some believe those rules should be tightened. Coco pops is not allowed to be advertised on childrens tv, but coco pops granola, a less sugary variant of coco pops, can be. This kind of falls into a grey area, because, on one hand, kelloggs have created a product, and reformulated a product, which reduced the amount of sugar so that it is ok to be advertised on kids tv, and we want to encourage big corporations like kelloggs to reformulate their products. 0n the other hand, it allows them to get the coco pops brand in front of children, on childrens tv, and coco pops are one of the unhealthiest Breakfast Cereals on the market. Hey, want to try my new coco pops porridge . But how do we heat up the milk . Kelloggs is changing its cereals, though. Coco pops will see a 40 reduction in sugar this year, and the company says it is completely appropriate for coco pops granola to advertise in kids airtime. Half the sugar us kids eat and drink each year comes from snacks and sugary drinks. Public Health England will publish its updated nutrient profile later this year, and theyre expected to tighten rules on sugar. That would mean products like coco pops granola, in its current formula, may not be able to advertise in kids media in the future. Youll be hearing a lot more about sugar this year, and its notjust in advertising. Unsurprisingly, industry doesnt like the sugar tax or stricter advertising rules. The food and drink federation prefers a voluntary sugar reduction target. It sounds like a lot of where you guys are is, actually, you quite like the status quo, and you dont want anything to change, is that fair . I would love the status quo, but it is not what we have got, what we have got is a world of constant change. I mean, we have had endless new initiatives on Public Health the last few years. So you want nothing to change . What i want is a little bit of stability to complete the work that we are currently on. So its just, trust us, well do it . Well, the government set us a challenge, its given us a deadline, it said if we dont hit that, it will consider doing more. Thats a perfectly reasonable position for government to take. So lets see where we get to in 2020 before we start doing other new things. But the lesson from advertising is clear companies are reluctant to change until they are told to do so. Unless the food and drink industry Shows Progress on reducing sugar, the government may well look to get even tougher. Mario testino and bruce weber are the latest names to be shunned by fashion magazines after allegations of sexual abuse. They both deny the claims but conde naste publications including vogue has said it will not be working with them in the foreseeable future. Once again, it shines a spotlight on an industry that has often seemed closed. It raises a more visceral and fundamental question, how does the fashion industry operate and how much protection is there for those who work in it . Im joined by Caryn Franklin broadcaster, fashion commentator and former fashion magazine editor. Nice to have you here. Does any of this surprise you, any of the allegations or the response to it so far, allegations which are denied of course. Not of the latest names, i have been writing about predatory behaviour since 2013. A lot later than some had been talking about it. In the fashion industry specifically . Yes, by photographers. I was receiving stories on social networking from models who told me there are stories and they named photographers who are now being talked about. That was 2013, five years ago. Why has this been such a slow burn . There is a real struggle i think in the fashion industry, recognition of high status professionals overstepping boundaries when there is getting the shot that everybody thinks they want. We have a culture that hypersexual eyes is young people and thinks nothing of it. Not all of us agree with that sober is countercultural conversation around that. But campaigns, multi billion pound campaigns are often created around that sort of arousal factor, the excitement factor which involves objectification of women and increasingly young men. Is it the same set of circumstances that weve seen in the movie industry, vulnerable figure at the centre and huge amounts of money and power on the top or is it something even less overt . There is a similarity of course but what you have got as an extra imbalance is you have got a very young, inexperienced model who is not given a voice, who is expected to be compliant and remain silent and serve the shoot with their body and do as they are told. Monetarily you are in a very precarious position as you dont know when the next contract is coming as a model. A young male model i spoke to said he suspected his agent had sent him to the photographer specifically to be preyed upon, under the guise that he was going for a test at his home. Nothing was happening at the studio but the photographer wanted to see him and this could lead to a big campaign. The conversation is on the part of model agents that this could be a big money earner not just for you but for us. So when you see conde naste publications singly will no longer take the work of Mario Testino for example who has denied these allegations, how long does this last . I dont know the answer to that. What has changed is the fashion industry is not riding the crest of big budgets in the way it was. All brands are looking to make sure they can survive. The expansion plans. So this is about ethics at all . Its about the brand not being damaged. I believe people dead because the story was rife and being passed around. You believe important figures in the industry, the heads of magazines, editors, knew this was going on . There has been a lot of conversation and generally people felt powerless. It took independents like me and others to be talking about it but also to be ignored because we dont have that kind of power to action change. You raised it in 2013, how easy was it to name names . I raised the appalling spectre of Terry Richardson who was creating situations where young women felt hugely coerced to behave in a sexualised way. But he was also documenting himself engaging in a range of behaviours that were very unprofessional. That, to a certain extent, was deemed to be edgy and out there and was supported despite the fact that many young women were saying they felt appalled and unprotected when they walked into the situation. This was a conversation that took place over quite a few years and i even resorted to pressure rising art directors not to work with Terry Richardson. I would have one on one conversations with them. You understand i have to say he has denied all those allegations but thank you very much for coming in, Caryn Franklin. The irish president has tonight paid tribute to the cranberries Singer Dolores 0riordan following her death in london. He called her the voice of a generation for anyone who grew up in ireland in the 1990s, and for all those who loved her overseas. But im in so deep, you know im such a fool for you, youve got me wrapped around yourfinger, do you have to let it linger . Do you have to, do you have to, do you have do let it linger . The cranberries sold a0 million records worldwide and became best known for their album, no need to argue, which went to number one in australia, france and germany, and number six in the united states. Eoghan mcdermott worked on the irish version of the voice with dolores 0riordan. It is nice of you tojoin us, this must have come as a huge shock and i am wondering how you are thinking of her tonight . It is a shock first and foremost. I think we covered a lot on the radio show the news as it broke and i think the overwhelming sentiment from people coming in was exactly that, shock because she was so young and a mother and now the focus is on the music and the cranberries and the legacy but she is a mother of three children as well. So, sorrow but also a lot of people, particularly women reaching out and seeing how amazing they found dolores, how great it was in the 90s, pre the internet being so dominant just to have a feisty and frustrated angry and intelligent, flawed but brilliant header went to so it reflects on the music and the person simultaneously. It was her voice, known for their mix of rock and folk but predominantly it was that voice which resonated with the public wasnt it . Yeah, and again i think the reflection today was on the cranberries and dolores as they voiced of the cranberries, people have paid tribute to the big songs like linger and zombie, songs which reached across political and cultural lines and these days bands like cranberries would be played on indie rock or alternative stations but at the height of their powers they were on the present. They also broke america which is the holy grail for any band which has english as theirfirst language. An extraordinary thing to be able to look back on. You worked with her at the the voice, tell us how you will remember her, what she was like . I think when she was announced as a coach on the voice nobody could believe it. Everyone was genuinely shocked, we got to know her a little. She admitted she had never seen the show, the irish, any of the shows anywhere in the world so we asked why she did it and she said my girl likes it and said i should do it so i did it. The other coaches, we had sharon from the corrs, other irish acts who have sold millions of records but when dolores was announced people were flabbergasted, she had that legacy and that weight. As a person very low key, very warm, unproducible the producer of the programme said on the radio today but in the best possible way. She took direction from nobody and was a liability in the warmest way. A real coup for them to get her. We often think of the massive worldwide success and the a0 million records but coming back to her irish identity was absolutely crucial to her wasnt it . Yeah, she was from limerick which very wrongly had a Bad Reputation in the 90s which it has now outgrown, it is a beautiful and vibrant city. As well as being, its great to celebrate hometown heroes doing well but i think she really lifted a city which had gotten an unfair rap. Some of the songs from the cranberries will forever be included in the pantheon of great songs, their legacy forevermore is sealed which makes it all the more tragic because she was only 46 and as people know was in london for a recording session so there must have been new music on the horizon. She was back with the cranberries and she had a side project. There was a lot more to come and its just really sad. Thank you for talking to us tonight, we really appreciate it. Just before we go. Nicks back nick, a word on a momentous day for momentum nick, tell us. The founder of momentum and supporter of tony ben led a landslide victory on to the National Executive committee of the labour party will stop three of his supporters are on that committee and its a historic day for the labour party because they left for so long written off as a marginal force now effectively are in the majority on the body. Interesting story in the times tomorrow seeing the so called centrist labour mps, if you can go ahead and deselect some of these mps then they would resign the labour whip and set as their own bloc in parliament but we will see. They have made these threats in the past, they are not in the ascendancy in the labour party so we will see how it goes. Thank you. Thats it for today, which is of course blue monday, the saddest day of the year. The mathematics behind the concept was created in 2005 by a psychologist called cliff arnall, after a travel Company Commissioned him to prove that everyone should cheer up by booking their Summer Holidays round about now. Cliff proved it all a bit too convincingly, and a pseudo science legend was born. We got in touch with him today to see what he now thought about his discovery and he told us quote dont believe a word of it. But of course we do. And so we leave you with this cliff arnalls immortal blue monday proof equation. Goodnight. Hello. Last week many of us had some uneventful weather will stop it was dull, dismal, grey, on the upside is looking uneventful. It is coming from the arctic. It will bring us gale force winds. Feeding plenty of showers into our shores. Some will be wintry. Sarge 80 between the next few days. Across the northern parts of the country there will be plenty of the country there will be plenty of showers, falling on the hills, wintry in the lower levels. Fewer showers south and east. A cold one where ever you are. Watch with stretches across parts of scotland into Northern Ireland and north west england has been in the morning. Plenty of having showers from the north west. Snow on the hills. Also the risk of ice across northern and western parts of wales. Mainly rain. East anglia, the midlands, and the south east, fairly dry. The showers will rattle through. Bondar and hail mixed into them. The winds will be touching gale force. Thunder. Best of the sudden across the south east. 2 7 degrees is the temperature. It will feel more subzero. Many could catch the sunshine. That will compensate. Wednesday, fewer showers for england and wales. More in the way of sunshine, central, southern, eastern parts. Most of the showers across the north and west, serving the higher ground. The temperatures 3 seven celsius. To the west, this is where things get interesting. The deep area of low pressure expected to come through wednesday night. Could bring severe gales to england and wales and the northern flank could see some significant snow through central and southern scotland. Either way you get the gales or the snow through wednesday night, first thing thursday morning there is likely to be disruption from this. Tune into your Weather Forecast or local radio. That storm 01 area forecast or local radio. That storm or area of low pressure should move through quite quickly. Into thursday it will be brighter quite quickly through the morning, the afternoon further showers the northern and western areas. The best of the sunshine further east. Chilly. Friday and into saturday it looks like vinston quieter. Fewer showers around. Best things will turn quieter. We will start to see a return to overnight frost and i swear we catch showers. That is how it is looking. Good night. Coming up next on the bbc news channel newsday looks at the latest international news. Morning, businesslike for Global Business news at 8 30 a. M. , followed by lively debate and breaking news in the Victoria Derbyshire programme from nine a. M. Im rico hizon in singapore. The headlines growing up in the worlds biggest refugee camp, kutupalong in bangladesh, home to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who fled violence in myanmar. The two countries are discussing their repatriation, but there are grave concerns about their safety if they are sent back. We have a special report. Im Babita Sharma in london. Also in the programme. And its official. Baby brain is a real thing according to an australian study. Well find out what causes mental fogginess in some pregnant women. And simon biles says she was sexually assaulted by her team doctor