Miserable out there. Its a picture from leicestershire, from one of our weather watchers. Look at this one from york. The river has burst its banks. Its very windy across other parts of the country. Really unpleasant weather across the uk right now. This is quite an interesting one from london, the effect of raindrops on the window. Gales and heavy rain are the story of the day across northern parts of the uk. This is spawned georgina which has been sweeping to the north west of scotland storm georgina. Even over the hills of scotla nd georgina. Even over the hills of scotland we had gusts well in excess of 100 mph. Quite scotland we had gusts well in excess of100 mph. Quite a potent scotland we had gusts well in excess of 100 mph. Quite a potent storm sweeping the far north of the country. To the south of that we are feeling the effects of the storm in terms of a breeze, really gusty weather. Many of us have experienced a short lived downpour. There have been hailstorms around as well. This is the picture around 5pm. Theres a lot of clear weather around, occasionally interrupted by heavy showers moving through. And that on the edge of the screen is storm georgina starting to fizzle out by that stage. Not completely. It will feel pretty cold this evening. The winds are quite strong. This evening many eastern counties will have clearer weather, many of the showers in the west of the uk. You can see some wintry showers there. Above freezing this sort of weather is usually above freezing. There will be quite a bit of sunshine around tomorrow for a certain period of the day. Then more showers coming through. I suspect wherever you are, i expect the morning will be better than the afternoon. In the afternoon both showers get going. And on the breezy side as well. A much better day towards the end of the week. There will be some sunshine around. Another weather system coming off the atlantic which will be in time for saturday and sunday. The weekend is looking and settled. Relatively mild with a lot of grey skies. A very changeable week, not a pretty picture. Weve had worse i guess. A reminder of our main story this lunchtime. Two childrens hospitals have given back donations following allegations of Sexual Harassment at an elite men only annual fundraiser. Thats all from the bbc news at one, so its goodbye from me, and on bbc one we nowjoin the bbcs news teams where you are. Have a good afternoon. Phil neville has apologised for past comments he made on social media about women which came to light after he was appointed as the england womens manager. Within hours of signing a three and a half year deal, comments hed made in 2012 were highlighted as one of the reasons he shouldnt have been given the job, along with his lack of managerial experience. Neville says the tweets are not a true and genuine reflection of either his character or beliefs. Theres also been some criticism around how he was appointed but england mens manager Gareth Southgate says the process was thorough. How do you get that experience without opportunity, so first and foremost i wish him well, i know that there has been a very thorough process around the applications, interviews for that role. And, he is taking over a team, a good team, they have improved enormously over they have improved enormously over the last few years. Now, for them, asa team, the last few years. Now, for them, as a team, everybody can start focusing on the football and how they progress. Southgate was speaking at the draw for the new Uefa Nations League which took place this morning. Itll replace most friendlies with competitive matches, and offer another route to euro 2020. So, england will play spain and croatia. Northern ireland have been drawn againt austria and bosnia herzegovina. Scotland have been drawn with albania and israel. Wales will face the republic of ireland and denmark. Defending champion Roger Federer is through to the semi final of the australian open. The swiss overcame an early wobble to beat Tomas Berdych in straight sets. V0|ceover voiceover one of sports most recognisable stars, five time champion in melbourne, Roger Federer, for a few moments at least, this seemed a little unfamiliar. Shots being missed, and then, umpires being challenged, it was all very unlike roger. His opponent Tomas Berdych, a great chance to beat the great man. Well, with shots like this, his luck seemed to be in but then you dont achieve what Roger Federer has, needing luck, boring back from three games behind, this was suddenly much more what his fa ns this was suddenly much more what his fans have come to expect. Roaring. Tomas berdych still providing considerable challenge but Roger Federer was back at ease, after winning the first set. Two sets up, there was to be no letup, federer was controlled and relentless. After the troubled start, the end was never in doubt, what is in doubt now is if anyone can stop him. Studio well next up for federer is south koreas hyeon chung in their semi final on friday. Chung beat american Tennys Sandgren in straight sets earlier. Hes the youngest through to the semifinals at the strolling open. Earlier, world number one simona halep beat Karolina Pliskova to reach the womens semifinals. Halep went 3 0 down in the first set but fought back. After saving a second break point, she won nine games in a row on her way to winning in straight sets. Halep will face Angelique Kerber in the last four, after the german thrashed madison keys. Kerber has won all 1a singles matches she has played so far this season. Sometimes it can feel like athletes are getting younger and younger, but this year one of wales representatives at the Commonwealth Games will be just 11 years old. You can go to the website to find out about that. Anna hursey has been chosen to represent her country as part of the table tennis squad making her the youngest person to represent wales at any sport at senior level. A little more information about the story that has dominated today, the fallout covering undercover story at the Financial Times, annual fundraiser in london, updates from that coming from the key young, who has been at the parliamentary lobby, downing street says the Prime Minister is uncomfortable about the reports she has read today about the charity dinner, also the lobby asked whether the conservative minister should resign, the spokesman this morning saying, he attended briefly, and he felt uncomfortable, nadim zahawi and, at what was happening, at the point the hostesses were introduced, new left the dinner, it is safe to say he will not be attending that event again. Nadhim zahawi. The organisers of the event say they are appalled, an investigation has begun, the and there has been an urgent question asked about this just after pmqs this lunchtime. This isa just after pmqs this lunchtime. This is a little of the exchanges. At this event there are allegations of inappropriate and lewd behaviour, it is quite extraordinary to me, mr speaker, that in the 21st century, allegations of this kind are still emerging. Women have the right to feel safe wherever they work and allegations of this type of behaviour are completely unacceptable. David meller has been a nonexecutive board member in the department for education and the chair of the apprenticeship delivery board. The government expect Board Members to the code of conduct for Board Members of public bodies, this quite clearly states that they should adhere to the seven principles of public life. David miller is stepping down as nonexecutive member for the department for education. David meller. I welcome that david meller is standing down. The undercover reporter in the Financial Times about the events organised by the Charitable Trust which he chairs tells more than just Charitable Trust which he chairs tells more thanjust an Charitable Trust which he chairs tells more than just an alarming story, i noticed that the organisation wishes to put it on the individual members. Actually, what happened was that women were bought as bait for men, rich men, not a mile from where we stand, as if that is unacceptable behaviour. It is totally u na cce pta ble. Is unacceptable behaviour. It is totally unacceptable. At that dinner la st totally unacceptable. At that dinner last night, there was notjustjust conservative members attending, not just conservative men, attending, they were from all political double nomination is. The problem is with the dinner itself, the fact that there are men who attend those dinners and think it is appropriate. One of the prizes on that brochure at the dinner, tastic surgery to spice up your wife Plastic Surgery spice up your wife Plastic Surgery to spice up your wife we all have a duty to make sure those dinners never happen again. |j all have a duty to make sure those dinners never happen again. I hope the secretary of state is as disappointed as i am that a board member and a minister in their department attended an event describing itself as the most un pc event of the year. Lets be clear about what that meant, mr speaker, an event where women were invited as guests, but were objects of the rich and powerful men. They are to act as hostesses and were forced to wear revealing clothes and a number of reports that they were groped and sexually harassed. Some of the exchanges in the commons this lunchtime, following on from the urgent question by laboursjess phillips. Whether telling you, David Walliams has been tweeting about this event in the last little while. He hosted the charity fundraiser, he has made the point that he hosted its last thursday, the annual charity fundraiser, he said he agreed to host it because it is one of the Biggest Charity fundraising events of the year and i was there ina events of the year and i was there in a strictly professional capacity, not as a guest. I left immediately after finishing not as a guest. I left immediately afterfinishing presenting on stage at 11 30pm and did not witness any of the kind of behaviour that allegedly occurred, im absolutely appalled by the reports. David walliams was the host at a dinner which takes place every year, took place at the dorchester hotel, in central london. We will keep you up to date with any development is on the story. The time is edging up to 1 45pm. All the latest Business News in a moment, but first, a reminder of todays headlines. Two childrens hospitals give back donations, while the bank of england denies any links to a men only fundraiser following allegations of Sexual Harassment. The number of court cases in england and wales collapsing because of failures by police or prosecutors to disclose evidence is up 70 in two years. The Finsbury Park mosque attack, the court hears from worshippers knocked down during the alleged attack last year. Wages rose at their fastest rate in almost a year, but are still failing to keep up with rising average prices. Excluding bonuses, pay packets rose by 2. 4 in the three months to november according to the office for national statistics. But the average cost of goods and services is rising at 3 , meaning the squeeze on our income continues. Your round or mine . Well it seems like we were both feeling generous. The pub chainjd wetherspoon says its sales and profits were better than expected towards the end of last year into the start of 2018. The owner of more than 900 pubs in britain and ireland said like for like sales were up 6 . But the firm warned it would face significant costs relating to Business Rates and sugar tax in the near future. Wh smiths sales on the high street have continued to fall, but are up once again at its travel outlets such as those in stations and airports, especially the new branches at gatwick and stansted. The company said sales in its high Street Stores were down 5 , as per expectations. It put that down to fewer spoof humour books being sold. Clearly no laughing matter. However, total sales in travel branches were up 7 . Remember the pension freedoms . They started in april 2015 with the aim of giving people greater flexibility, allowing them more choice about how to use their Pension Savings by allowing them to withdraw lump sums. Since then almost £16 billion has been withdrawn. And while its looking like the number of people withdrawing sums of money from their pension pots is increasing, the amount they are withdrawing is falling. We can speak with the head of policy at hargreaves la nsdown. We can speak with the head of policy at hargreaves lansdown. Thank you for joining at hargreaves lansdown. Thank you forjoining us. At hargreaves lansdown. Thank you for joining us. One at hargreaves lansdown. Thank you forjoining us. One of the big concerns about the pensions freedoms, too many people would take out too much money and spend it on expensive unnecessary items, and leave themselves vulnerable, what do the figures tell us . There was a real concern, those people were moving away from buying annuities, guaranteed freedom for life, they could take money out of their pension pot, would they do that responsibly, would they manage money responsibly, would they manage money responsibly, effectively, would they spend it all . Data supports mounting evidence that that is not the case. That pension freedoms are undoubtably popular, more and more people are using them every year. The amount being withdrawn, settling down into an equilibrium, it appears that they are not continuing to escalate, in spite of several years of fairly strong stock market growth, Pension Funds doing well, the amount taken out is not escalating, this is reassuring news. What impact have the freedom sat on the pension industry, in some ways, people have more freedoms, they can access their money, have the pensions industry had to make pensions industry had to make pensions more understandable . Big challenges, annuities, the market for the guaranteed income for life arrangements has collapsed. People buy and large wants to to to have control, and flexibility, and that has been immensely popular. The challenge for the pensions industry has been to meet the demand, to come up has been to meet the demand, to come up with ways of engaging customers, communicating with them, helping them to manage investments, make sure they are not taking too much money out, that they understand the risks and tax charges involved. That is still an ongoing process, and the industry has done pretty well at thisjob but we industry has done pretty well at this job but we are continuing to find ways to help customers make the most of their pension pots. Another pension story, the high court has ruled on some pension scams that have caused victims tens of thousands of pounds, one involving truffle trees. What has been significant . This is the pensions regulator, exercising powers originally given to it back in 2004, to intervene in one of these cases, the scam that we have seen quite a number of in recent years. They have forced the scammers to give the money back to those who lost their life savings. This is one of the worries of the pension freedoms, that it has been very active to scammers, coming up that it has been very active to scammers, coming up with all kinds of is at eric investment schemes, such as truffle trees, just to try to separate people from their hard earned retirement savings. Esoteric. We will continue to see more cases like this, it is good to see the regulator intervening and coming down hard. Thank you very much. Lets see what the markets have been getting up to. The pound is up, 1 41, almost 1. 42. Highest level since the brexit vote. The pound is up, so the ftse is down. Huge amount of companies in the ftse are Global Companies with international earnings. A strong pound will reduce the value in dollars and euros. It is up because of the annan plan in figures we were talking about wage figures showing that more people are at work in the uk than expected. Whsmith and wetherspoon s, wetherspoon s is up, whsmith is down. Wednesday means it was Prime Ministers questions at lunchtime. The Prime Minister has faced further questions this afternoon about funding for the health service. Labour are accusing theresa may of being in denial over the state of the nhs, claiming people are dying unnecessarily because its not getting enough money. Lets get an assessment of everything that went on. Our assista nt everything that went on. Our assistant Political Editor norman smith is in westminster. As ever, he was listening, he can tell us what im up. Some days does not take a genius to work out whatJeremy Corbyn will go on and today was a lwa ys corbyn will go on and today was always going to be the nhs because we have had grim news. The latest figures for nursing vacancies show they are at an all time high. Also, that boris intervention yesterday suggesting some brexit dividend, to go towards the nhs, so this was a lwa ys go towards the nhs, so this was always going to be something that Jeremy Corbyn would go on and he did not disappoint. It needs money, needs support, and it needs it now. The Prime Minister is frankly in denial about the state of the nhs. Even the absent foreign secretary recognises it but the Prime Minister is not listening. People using the nhs can see from their own experience, it has been starved of resources. People are dying unnecessarily in the back of ambulances and in hospital corridors. Gp numbers are down, nurses are leaving. The nhs is in crisis. Mr speaker, tory mps might not like it, but i ask this question of the Prime Minister, when is she going to face up to the reality, and ta ke going to face up to the reality, and take action to save the nhs from death i a thousand cuts as for theresa may, familiar set of artemis, comparing the nhs in england to the nhs in labour run wales, also suggesting the nhs is better prepared this winter than ever before. There is only one part of the nhs which has been cut and seen a cut in its funding, the nhs in wales, under Labour Government familiar set of arguments. This is a government backing the nhs plan, putting more money into the nhs, recruiting more doctors and nurses, seeing new treatments come on board that ensure people are getting the best treatment they need. Because this is a government that recognises the priorities of the british people, priority is to ensure the nhs remainsa remains a World Class Health care system, indeed, the best health care syste m system, indeed, the best Health Care System in the world. Plenty of rough and tumble of the nhs. Is the nhs and is eu can never win on . I think no government can ever win win on . I think no government can everwin on win on . I think no government can ever win on the nhs, everwin on the nhs, i have been here 20 years and every year, every leader of the opposition says it is crisis, not enough money, this government has put 11. 2 extra in real terms in 2010, another 12. 5 billion, a record amount, and still we have these problems, and we will need more money and we need to spend that money better. I rather resent the way that every weekJeremy Corbyn takes delight in coming up with these serious cases of people who have suffered under the system. For whom we need to be better, but thatis for whom we need to be better, but that is not typical of the great work the nhs is doing under difficult circumstances. A danger thatJeremy Corbyn gets into the default position of denigrating the nhs, endlessly talking about problems, talking about death by a thousand cuts . We do have to be careful, my husband is one of those anc consultants, who last week took the unprecedented step of signing a letter to theresa may, he runs a a e department. A e. He is working tirelessly, as are all his colleagues, to sort out what is happening. Fundamentally, the nhs needs the social care system being sorted out. Very old people, very poorly, complex needs, coming into hospitals, who should be looked after better, in care homes in the community, and huge cuts to social care, having a knock on effect. Community, and huge cuts to social care, having a knockon effect. That is the question, camera that is the question, caroline lucas. Is there any appetite among mps to sit back and have a long term look at the nhs and social care, as some people are now suggesting, absolutely essential. People are now suggesting, absolutely essentiallj people are now suggesting, absolutely essential. I think it is essential that we look at the nhs and social care together, resourcing of the nhs and social care properly is crucial, we need to make sure we are treating staff much better and paying them more, we started the section by saying corbyn did not disappoint but where he disappointed was not making the link with brexit, the irony is that brexit will make this worse, not only in reduction in services but we already know the number of nurses from eu countries to work in your nhs is going down, people leaving the nhs who are from eu countries. The brass neck Boris Johnson to be the one going out there saying, give the nhs more funding, while at the same time he is pursuing a damaging brexit which will undermine the nhs further, should not be permissible. Im not going to mention brexit but i will ask what followed pmqs, a certain question about this charity dinner, at the dorchester club, where young women bluntly seem to have been groped and harassed by male diners. A lot of anger and outrage expressed, but does more need to happen . I have never heard of this club, i knew nothing about the dinneruntil club, i knew nothing about the dinner until reports this morning. It is not male diners, it sounds like male dinosaurs it is a ordinary that sort of behaviour can go on in an official high level dinner in aid of charity. And people expect to go along for a lads night out, behaving like that . Not acceptable, people in senior positions behaving like that, unacceptable, bad example, right to be called out. It was billed as this, sticking two fingers up to the so called pc brigade, where women we re so called pc brigade, where women were freely groped and harassed by rich and powerful men, thinking they are on a lads night out. It is good that officially, the dfe official who has organised it has gone, but must be done. Sexism is still endemic in the society, every time you go on to social media and use the word feminism, an onslaught of people saying feminists have gone too far. This shows we have not gone far enough and we need an urgent Charity Commission investigation. There is where we have deleted, rather than pmqs i think that will be the issue that dominates pmqs. There is where we have to leave it. The weather is pretty grim out there for some of us, grey skies, look at this, loan in best artist clouds. And some flooding in some parts of the country, this is the river ouse, which has burst its banks, a lot of show which has burst its banks, a lot of snow melt in the last few days, which has helped as well. And we have some other interesting pictures, raindrops on the window. The other hazards today, the strong wind, very strong wind in the north west of scotland, raging gale is thanks to storm georgina, rattling through, gusts in the outer hebrides have been in excess of 80 mph, even in the hills over western scotland, gusts of 120 mph. Extremely strong wind across this pa rt of extremely strong wind across this part of the world, that storm will be pulling out into the Norwegian Sea as we go into this evening. This is what it looks like around the rush hour, at 5pm. Rain, clearing south eastern parts, excuse me. Some rain in south eastern parts of the uk, rain showers across western areas, white strong wind around, wind will continue for a time through the course of the evening, you can see, this is the storm, storm georgina, pulling away. 9 degrees in london this evening, 6 degrees in london this evening, 6 degrees in london this evening, 6 degrees in the north. Tonight, eastern areas will have clear spells, western parts of the country will have showers. Temperatures never fall to low, four or 5 degrees. Into tomorrow, showers across western parts of the uk, across western parts of the uk, across eastern and central areas, at least in the morning, some sunshine, for many of us, could actually be a beautiful start of the day, on the breezy side, look what happens, showers get going. I think that the morning is looking fine for most of us morning is looking fine for most of us and then the afternoon is going to bring showers. Friday, much better day for most of the uk, you can see some better day for most of the uk, you can see some sunshine. Another weather system meeting us, not reaching us until saturday, and then into the afternoon, that weather front pushes through. This low will pass to the north of us. This is what it looks like on the weekend, a lot of cloud, temperature into double figures, it is relatively mild at least. That is the latest from me. Hello, youre watching afternoon live im simon mccoy. Today at 2 have your money back charities return money raised at a prestigious men only charity dinner, after allegations of Sexual Harassment at this years event. Multiple women told me that they had been touched inappropriately, and that ranged from holding their hands to touching their stomachs, to hands near the bottom of their back. Women have the right to feel safe wherever they work, and allegations of this type of behaviour are completely unacceptable. 70 rise in the number of prosecutions collapsing in england and wales because of issues over sharing evidence
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.