Cancelled for tournament has been cancelled for the First Time Since world war ii. The all England Lawn Tennis Club chairman said its going to use the breadth of the tournaments resources to help local communities during this time. The Edinburgh Festival due, to take place this august, has also been called off for the first time in its 73 year history. The five events normally attract more than four million visitors to the scottish capital. The Champions League and Europa League have also been suspended until further notice. And with so many games cancelled, theres increasing pressure on premier League Players and managers to accept pay cuts. Both newcastle and spurs have applied to the governments funding scheme to help pay the wages of their backroom staff. But their first team players, on multi Million Pound salaries, are still being paid in full. Katie gornall reports. They are one of the worlds richest clubs with a state of the art stadium, but it seems even that doesnt make you immune at times like these. Tottenham hotspur announced 550 of its nonplaying staff will take a 20 pay cut for the next two months, and they will be
using the governments furlough scheme in order to protectjobs. But for a club with a chairman paid £7 million, an owner worth £4 billion, and players earning on average £70,000 per week, many have questioned if this is the right approach. I think it sticks in the throat, because at the moment theyre paying hundreds of thousands of pounds a week to their premier league stars, while at the same time asking the taxpayer to pay their nonplaying staff, who are maybe only on hundreds of pounds a week. And spurs are not the only premier league club struggling with the current crisis. Norwich, bournemouth and Newcastle United, owned by billionaire mike ashley, will also furlough nonplaying staff, utilising taxpayer money and topping up salaries so they will be paid in full. It was Newcastle United that became the First Premier League club to do this. They e mailed staff here on monday saying the decision to furlough had been taken in order to safeguard the clubs future, but across the football world, there are other clubs taking different steps
in order to cut costs. Barcelona players like lionel messi are taking a 70 pay cut to help nonsporting staff. Atjuventus, the players and manager agreed to freeze their pay temporarily, while eddie howe became the First Premier League manager to take a voluntary pay cut. And in the championship, Leeds Uniteds players and senior staff have volunteered to take a wage deferral. But so far theres been no collective action from premier league footballers. It would go down so much better if the players came out and said, this is what we want to do, weve had a meeting, this is what we are doing as a group, this is what were doing as a team, we are going to take a pay cut, we are going to take a reduction in our wages because we want to do it, we want to give it to the nhs, we want to give it to wherever the money is going to go. That could still happen, with the subject set to be discussed by clubs and players unions. Football will return before too long, but how it handles this crisis will not be forgotten. Katie gornall, bbc news, newcastle. One of britains most celebrated artists, david hockney, is in lockdown in france. Hes been busy drawing and has shared ten of his new works with the bbc, along with a letter to our arts editor, will gompertz. Dearwill, in 2018,jp, my assistant, and i came to normandy after the window was put up in westminster abbey. We loved it here, and i suggested tojp this would be a great place to draw and paint the arrival of spring. There are apple, pear, cherry and plum blossom, with hawthorn and blackthorn. East yorkshire only had blackthorn and hawthorn. We found this house with a large garden that was cheaper than anything in sussex. We bought it. I began straight away, drawing on a japanese foldout book. I drew all around the house, and then i drew the house itself. These were exhibited in new york in september 2019. Being a smoker, i do not care
for new york, so i never went. We came back here to normandy on march 2nd. I began drawing the winter trees on my new ipad. Then the virus started. I went on drawing the winter trees that eventually burst into blossom. This is the stage were at right now. Meanwhile, the virus is going mad, and many people said my drawings were a great respite from what was going on. Why are my ipad drawings seen as a respite from the news . Well, they are obviously made by the hand, depicting the renewal that is the spring. I intend to carry on with my work, which i now see is very important. We have lost touch with nature rather foolishly, as we are part of it, not outside it. This will in time be over, and then what . What have we learned . Im 83 years old. I will die. The cause of death is birth. The only real things in life are food and love, in that order, just like our little dog, ruby. I really believe this, and the source of art is love. I love life. All my love, david h. That was David Hockneys letter to will gompertz. Thats it. Now on bbc one, time for the news where you are. Have a very good night. Good evening from the bbc sport centre, thanks forjoining us. It was feeling increasingly inevitable. Now it has been confirmed wimbledon is cancelled for the First Time Since world war ii. It was due to start at the end ofjune but the entire Grass Court Season has now been abandoned because of the coronavirus pandemic. Wimbledon is the latest major summer sporting event to be called off with euro 2020 and Tokyo Olympics postponed for 12 months. Heres our sports correspondent, joe wilson. There is a particular poignancy to this shutdown. For many, wimbledon is not just a sporting event. It is, frankly, summer. Where one match can stretch towards five hours, well, evening sunshine is essential the fortnight is scheduled to be played over the years longest days. And trying to rearrange the championships for later in 2020 wouldnt be feasible anyway, wimbledon say, because they anticipate government restrictions continuing for many months. A statement explained. You know, it is definitely the right decision. It adheres to all the guidelines and it is about keeping people safe. So, in terms of the news, its not surprising but there is also a part of me that, you know, hopes to play, wishes to play, looks forward to play. So, on that side, its saddening and its a bit disappointing. Since 1877, theres
always been a wimbledon. Only the war years stopped the tennis. The championships reflect the changing trends but always in essence remain the same. Thats why missing wimbledon will feel like missing a friend. Its the familiar we long for. Commentator thats it, thats it. And the dream has come true practically speaking, there was no way to do it and be safe and guaranteed that nobody will get sick from playing even against each other. So, too many unknowns at the moment and what we do know is it is pretty scary. Well, from grass courts to grassroots, its worth remembering that all tennis is currently suspended. Even local facilities like this one are closed down on government advice. Well, waiting patiently has always been part of wimbledon, there is the queue. Right now, we stand together by staying apart but a year can fly, and the wimbledon hill is going nowhere. Joe wilson, bbc news. And the bournemouth manager eddie howe has become the First Premier League boss to take a voluntary pay cut with football on hold because of the pandemic, but his gesture comes as bournemouth joined a number of clubs like tottenham, newcastle, and norwich who are using the governments Job Retention scheme to put some non playing staff on leave with a 20 wage cut whilst players continue to earn their full salaries, something thats been heavily criticised. Everybody has to make sacrifices, footballers are no different. And itjust doesnt sit right with people that footballers can be on hundreds of thousands of pounds a week and youre getting the man and woman in the street who are making sacrifices and footballers arent doing. So, that does need to happen, it needs to happen very quickly. Otherwise, its going to be a pr disaster for the whole of football. Chris sutton talking to me earlier. Champions league and Europa League matches have been suspended until further notice by uefa
because of coronavirus. It follows a meeting earlier today. All National Team games injune have also been postponed including playoff matches for euro 2020 which is of course being Held Next Year now and qualifiers for the womens euros 202i. Now, a day after england wicket keeperjoss buttler put his growth cup winning shirt up for auction, it has already had a bid of over £65,000 to go towards the coronavirus response. World cup winning shirt. Buttler broke the stumps to run out Martin Guptill and seal englands super win over new zealand in the summer. Of course, hes put the shirt on ebay to raise money for two specialist heart and lung centres. We cant really do much to help at the moment. The doctors, nurses, the nhs and all hospitals need everyones support as much as they can. So, it seemed quite an easy thing to do and an easy idea to set up to really help those in need and those in a real emergency at the moment. And of course, an incredibly special shirt to me which now with it being able to go ahead and attempt to raise more money for this emergency appeal, it will add even more meaning to the World Cup Final and to that shirt. Great stuff from joss buttler. That is all your sport for now. Thanks for watching, good night. Hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. With me are arj singh, deputy Political Editor at huffpost uk and political commentator former conservative adviser, jo anne nadler. Tomorrows front pages starting with. Tomorrows Financial Times leads on the surge in people applying for universal credit as applicants
hit the million mark. The metro reports on the lack of Personal Protective Equipment reaching front line nhs staff calling it ridiculous. The mirror calls the governments coronaVirus Testing strategy a shambles, saying that only 0. 16 of nhs staff have been tested. The daily mail also calls it a testing scandal as only 2,000 nhs staff are tested. The i continues this theme, reporting that nhs staff are being let down on testing. And the times says the governments testing plans are in chaos. The daily express calls on the banks to do their duty as payback, after being bailed out by the public in 2008. So lets begin. Arj singh, deputy Political Editor at huffpost uk and political commentator and former conservative adviser, jo anne nadler. Could you not and wait to see you are receiving the . Could you as well . There you are both. Sometimes
in the last few weeks papers have gone off in Different Directions but i think clearly we have seen most of them are talking about testing and almost all of them have exactly the same verdict. Lets start with the times. The headline Virus Testing plans and chaos with an empty looking chesaning ten world of adventure site. Hard enough to get to in the best of times but no one was able to make it there now. Arj from huff post uk what are your thoughts . The reason why testing is so thoughts . The reason why testing is so important are two reasons the first of which you have a wad of nhs workers, front line workers at home self isolated because they either have symptoms of coronavirus, livid people have symptoms of coronavirus but we do not know whether they have coronavirus and if they could be tested and cleared than they could go back to work. And the second reason is there is another type of test which the government has talked about which is the antibody tests
which can tell you if you have hadnt and therefore are immune and can we re returned hadnt and therefore are immune and can were returned to work and that appears to be the key to getting out of this lockdown is then you can start contain cases as restrictions get lifted and better manage that peak of illness. That is why testing is so important and why we are holding the governments feet to the fire on it. Joann you were nodding along to the. The times says chaos, do you agree . nodding along to the. The times says chaos, do you agree . I think it is interesting across the board that all the papers are really angry about this. And i think throughout the crisis today, on the whole, there has been a measured tone i think in most of the main media coverage. And some considerable goodwill to the government and some of the efforts it has tried to make on the economy for instance. But i sense that the mood is turning and there is real anger about this. Its
more moderately put in the times if you like, the tabloids are definitely campaigning strongly on this because as arj says, it is so critical maintaining the effort that the nhs is making and it seems crazy that so few of the front line staff are being tested. It means many arent able to go to work because they simply dont know where that they simply dont know where that they are carrying or not, whether perhaps they havent now trying to go back to work. This really is a problem in a practical sense. And very much a political sense for the government i think. You talked about the tabloids, whats go to the daily mirror whose headline is incredibly synced. Shamble successes two more medics side, sir. 16 . Pictures of two nhs workers who have died. We
are not science reporters any of us andi are not science reporters any of us and i think it is important we say that. But nevertheless we are looking at the figures that have been given. We know that germany conducts 70,000 tests a day and britain is starting to get around 10,000. Arj in the reading you have done on the conversations you have had with colleagues, is there readily understandable explanation for the difference between germany and britain . And i think this is the problem because the government are not being straight on explaining why we are not being straight on explaining why we are not doing so many tests. If you look back a week or two ago, the message was where going to have millions of antibody tests and ramp up millions of antibody tests and ramp up testing to 10000 and 25,000, we have only hit 10,000 in the last air to and even then all those people are not nhs staff and we saw the Daily Press Briefing earlier today. The government was asked repeatedly why we are behind germany, what is going on with the testing wasnt all we going on with the testing wasnt all we got was vague platitudes and that
is now being played out in