So important to borisjohnson that he refused to fire him even when he was accused of breaking lockdown rules. Steve, from un sackable to being exact, what changed 7 steve, from un sackable to being exact, what changed . Boris johnsons opinion of him. When special advisers go, or indeed when they are appointed, it tells you much more about the character of the Prime Minister, the character of the special adviser. These other people Prime Ministers have the freedom to choose without any constraint. When they appoint cabinet ministers, they have to take into account all of political factors. With their advisors, it is their personal choice. And johnson thought that cummings wasa choice. And johnson thought that cummings was a genius, i think, was one of the few people that he listened to and followed. He didnt rate much of the cabinet, but he rated cummings until recently. So it raises big questions, i think, about thejudgment of raises big questions, i think, about the judgment of Boris Johnson raises big questions, i think, about the judgment of borisjohnson and his capacity for a key element of leadership, to manage a team. Because when downing street implodes, it looks like a very incestuous, parochial story. Implodes, it looks like a very incestuous, parochialstory. But it is very significant, because advisers have power, and when there is disruption, Prime Ministers, contrary to mythology in the uk about this could be a reset for johnson, actually they are quite traumatised by it. There was an implosion in number 10 when gordon brown was Prime Minister, there have been others, and it is deeply disruptive on many levels, so it is a big story and it matters because johnson gave cummings so much power. But it is aboutjohnson, not cummings. And in terms of, henry, how that affects the public, it is partly about the inability of the government during the course of this pandemic to get its message across simply, clearly and effectively in a way that enough people have confidence in. Here, the messaging here in britain has been all over the map, and i mean that literally ina sense the map, and i mean that literally in a sense that you also have the different nations, wales, scotland, england and also Northern Ireland having different rules, so it is very ha rd having different rules, so it is very hard to have some kind of unified message coming outjust from london. But as steve was also mentioning in terms of cummings, when your special adviser becomes a watchword, a byword, for breaking the very rules that you have been trying to promulgate to the rest of the public, that is not a good sign. To me it is quite stunning that cummings lasted as long as he did. The messaging now that were getting, in the beginning was a little bit easier when an entire nation was in lockdown and everyone was subject to the same rules. Then you had this tiered system that came in where some areas of the country we re in where some areas of the country were under greater restrictions than others, but even then, some of those limitations seem to very hard to follow, and to quite understand how it was that in one city these will had to be followed and then you stepped over the line and over the border into another city and they werent. So all of this has been undermined, as steve said, by the internal workings in number 10, the very highest corridors of power, and thatis very highest corridors of power, and that is not going to translate very well to the rest of the population. Celia, a lot of the message for the future which the British Government and other governments around the world will be about the vaccine. We have had the good news and everybody has been celebrating, but now the ha rd has been celebrating, but now the hard work, as if the scientists havent had enough hard work getting this far, the scientists have to have the hard work of regulating and distributing it and hopefully bringing the virus under control. It isa bringing the virus under control. It is a herculean task. Absolutely, you said everybody was celebrating and that was really good news that a vaccine might be on its way. But it has been interesting to look across the globe to see how Different Countries have been responding to this news, and some countries really havent even acknowledged it at all. For example, vietnam have done an amazing job of keeping the virus at bay, around 1200 cases across the whole country, 35 defs, but they have been very clear to say, we dont even have the money to get in line for this vaccine, we are not going to bother to try to do that. We are going to stick with containment. We are not even going to be able to administer our own home grown vaccine until the end of next year, and another country, indonesia, says, yes, we want the vaccine that they have the fourth biggest population in the world, 270 million people, so they will get it from whoever they can, including chinese vaccine makers, but the people who are going to get it first are the police, the military and hospital workers. So every country is making decisions right now about whether they are even bothering with a vaccine and if so, who gets it first. And that takes us back to this question of managing expectations. When you look at your region, asia pacific, do you think some governments have got that right better than others in terms of communicating the need for social distancing and rules, but also offering assurance and support . Absolutely, that has been a massive case study on how to communicate with your own people. We have seen example of taiwan, a self ruled island near china, and they have done an incredible job of being able to really use Grassroots Health workers to try to communicate and keep the messaging very, very consistent, very strong. We also seeing in south korea, similar things. They have done a really good job of keeping messaging consistent. But in other countries, the philippines, for example, there has beena philippines, for example, there has been a lot of mixed messages, or malaysia, a lot of examples where government officials are seen breaking the rules, like dominic cummings, and so the government then has to quickly work to solve that problem. And so really it has been a bit all over the board when you look at the messaging. Henry, i was talking to the Vice President of taiwan and the Health Minister who was in charge during sars and is now in place to try to deal with coronavirus, and he was very diplomatic about the efforts happening elsewhere in the world, but in the end, he said it is all about Public Confidence in public faith. We have seen that writ large in the United States. Reinforced this week as well by the transition debate between joe biden this week as well by the transition debate betweenjoe biden and donald trump, donald trump finally almost sotto voce acknowledging he might not be president after the 20th of january. But biden desperate to get started on coronavirus and transition, but until transition is formally acknowledged, there is no transition money, there is no transition money, there is no transition mechanism . Thats right. Biden is being hampered by trumps obstinacy in refusing to acknowledge the results of the election and also to start that process of transition. The machinery of the Us Government is absolutely massive, and so is the security infrastructure around the world, and you dont inherit that in one day, for one day to the next dont know what is going on. You need to have the time to have a proper transition where officials from the Outgoing Administration speak to those from the incoming. And that really isnt happening. But we do see that biden, contrary to the sleepyjoe we do see that biden, contrary to the sleepy joe image we do see that biden, contrary to the sleepyjoe image that donald trump has given him, is working on this. He talked about the Coronavirus Campaign and that damage it was wreaking across the us, and about the mismanagement of the Trump Administration, and it continues to be the message he wants to hammer home. The very first thing he did as a First Step Towards an administration is to appoint this Expert Task Force dedicated solely to the coronavirus, with respected scientists and experts whose advice he says that he will follow in a way that the Trump Administration hasnt. And unfortunately, because of that kind of misinformation that has also been put out by the Trump Administration, you get a lot of distrust down at the state level, and that is something that biden will need to overcome as well. You have a state like mine, california, and also new york, two of the states with the biggest city populations, saying that they are not going to trust federal government in terms of its 0k in of a vaccine, they want to test it themselves. That is unheard of in American History that that kind of mistrust would happen between the state level and the federal level in a pandemic situation like this. And henry, we have some states that are particularly badly affected, i think south dakota is one, where even allowing for the numbers, which are pretty horrendous in terms of infections and the number of people in hospital who are needing treatment, the governor is saying, he is still not convinced by the case of things like facemasks. That debate, which in a sense has largely been won in the uk, not entirely, but most of the population accepts that these kind of restrictions are being imposed and cooperate with them, however grudgingly, it is still moot in large parts of the United States, and with large numbers of people, and again, i presume that is partly down to the tone and message that was set at the start by federal government . Thats right, and unfortunately it has become a partisan issue, it has become a partisan issue, it has become a partisan issue, it has become a red and a blue state issue. You mention south dakota, but go to north dakota, and theyre the republican governor was also denying this was a major problem or refuse to put his state into any kind of lockdown or impose any restrictions. Butjust last lockdown or impose any restrictions. But just last night lockdown or impose any restrictions. Butjust last night he has had to do a reverse on that course because the numberof a reverse on that course because the number of cases there is rising, north dakotas hospitals are woefully understaffed. He even had toissue woefully understaffed. He even had to issue a rule that said nurses who tested positive for covid could continue working as long as they didnt have any symptoms because they are so short staffed. So even some of these red states now are coming to realise that letting the virus run rampant as has been happening with these galloping rates of infection is no longer going to work in terms of their own states, the patches they have to govern. Unluckily biden can model the very behaviour that trump has so far refused to in terms of wearing a mask, which is also true throughout his campaign, and where trump used the presidency, the bully pulpit of the presidency, the bully pulpit of the presidency, the bully pulpit of the presidency is huge, and he used it more to bully, biden will use it asa it more to bully, biden will use it as a puppet to spread the message off, look, we need to wear the masks, we need to wash our hands, we need to keep social distance rather than trying to bully like trump did. Apart from maybe flourishing the bible towards the end of his presidency, i think you are probably right about the pulpit. And we know thatjoe biden makes much of his faith and his catholicism will dou btless faith and his catholicism will doubtless be in evidence, and of course that has made him also be concerned about the pandemic because of the problem of people being able to carry out collective worship. You very diplomatically pointed out rightly that i got my dakotas confused, you got that right with the governor. Steve, joe biden trying to shake off the sleepyjoe tag, but he will need his wits about him if as predicted the republicans hold on the senate seats up for run offs in georgia injanuary, which would effectively deny him control of the senate . Yes, a theme of your last conversation was really about where power lies in the United States, and different states taking different decisions in their response to the pandemic as well as the president ial role as well, and now we are going to get another example of that as to the limits of president ial power if he doesnt have control of the senate, as seems likely. That is the way america decides to do politics. I think, i know all the arguments about the constraints and so on, but at times it seems to me that it leads to a kind of depressing paralysis. I think biden will have a lot going for him in his early phase, and incidentally during this phase, of course it is an issue that trump is not acknowledging his victory and not acknowledging his victory and not giving him access to Important Information in the so called handover, but i think already as president elect, he is having the authority to make certain moves. He has made key appointments and so on. Soi has made key appointments and so on. So i dont think, authority matters a lot at this point in president ial korea, the early phase, and i think he will have space early on to make a mark. But what we tend to see in these situations is when things go wrong, the president ial self confidence starts to fall, and if he doesnt have the control in the senate, there is a big danger of all kinds of things not being done. And im told hes very skilful at working the senate and so on from his past, but he is going to have to doa his past, but he is going to have to do a lot of that as well as face this mountainous legacy of issues linked to the pandemic and other factors from the trump era. Henry, do you want to come back briefly . Just to say that i think the georgette run off races for the senate are really actually far from decided. Trump is not going to be on that ballot, and he was a big draw for republican voters, and so it still remains to be seen in terms of that outcome. But it is true that if it should go in the way that steve mentions, where the republicans maintain control of the senate, that will be harder for biden, but he was a senator himself for decades and knows the players, so hopefully there could be some better cooperation than we have seen in the past. And certainly his personal relations with Mitch Mcconnell are at least well established. Celia, in terms of the allies in the asia pacific region, and sitting in london we often tend to think of america as an atlantic nation, but it looks less and less to the atla ntic it looks less and less to the atlantic and more and more towards the pacific, and president 0bama talked about a tilt towards the pacific which never really worked itself through. Do you get a sense that there is an expectation that joe biden will have a different approach to how he treats us allies in that reach . Absolutely. I think we have already seen south korea and japan trying to make nice with each other. They fought quite a bit under the Trump Administration, and i think they are really seeing that they are going to have to work to get a little bit more. But there has beena get a little bit more. But there has been a lot of concern over this weak point that the United States finds itself in, and there are many people questioning whether some us allies, some of the more vulnerable, smaller us allies, and thinking really of whojust mentioned, us allies, and thinking really of who just mentioned, will this us allies, and thinking really of whojust mentioned, will this be the point, some are asking, where china might take the initiative to really make a move militarily on taiwan which it considers to be part of its own territory . And it is the time when beijing might decide that this is the point when it might see that window of opportunity before a Biden Administration has time to get in and really get its feet wet . That is intriguing prospect, because it is something we are going to talk about now for a few minutes, which is hong kong. Hong kong is another part of china but has distinctive status. It isnt foreigners like the british who humiliated china and took control of hong kong in the 19th century, who say beijing has abrogated the rights of hong kongers. Its members of legco, the islands law making body. The executive used powers granted to it by beijing to dismiss four opposition members. The remaining critics of chinas government say theyll resign. The chairman of the Democratic Party told journalists we can no longer tell the world that we still have one country, two systems this declares its official death. The Chinese Government continues to tell the world, its none of your business. And ina and in a sense, i suppose, celia, china might say much the same if people were to protest if it takes action against thai one, given that it has been successful in convincing so it has been successful in convincing so many countries not to treat type to asa so many countries not to treat type to as a country. Yes, china was successful in stopping taiwan acting as an observer at the World Health Organizations main annual meeting, and there were a lot of people who fought for taiwan to be included, including the United States, they felt that it had done such a good job of keeping covid 19 at bay, they wanted to hear. It was kind of perverse to ignore it. Yes, without going to lock down. I think they had eight deaths. So there was a big push to try to get taiwan included as an observer, and taiwan and the United States lost that battle, and china was able to keep taiwan at bay and to argue that it is part of china, therefore they dont need a separate spot. So china is continuing its quite strong foreign policy. And what of hong kong . Because here is some part of china which was taken as part of the kind of imperial rules of the 19th century, there was a deal to return it from the uk to china in 97, but an arrangement was supposed to last half a century and it hasnt quite lasted 25 years. Is it all over . It is not looking good, put it that way. There are two camps. There are people who would say, look, china always intended to subsume, subvert hong kong, this was always on the cards. And people in beijing argue, look, part of the deal with the uk was that hong kong would put in its own National Security law, it never did this, therefore it is within our rights to impose a natural security law on hong kong, and we have seen now that has been playing out for the past few months. Others say look, beijing were simply scared off, they saw the umbrella protest in 2014, they saw huge pushing in protest in 2019, and again they have seize their moment. They took the moment when protests were really taken moment when protests were really ta ke n off moment when protests were really taken off the streets because of covid 19, the United States really isnt in a position right now to go against beijing and speak out, therefore they seize their moment to try to do away with the legislature, and many people are saying this is the death of one country, two systems, it is really one country, one system. Henry, your thoughts on that . I agree that we are less than halfway through that 50 agreement, and yet it seems to be in tatters at this point. And in terms of the us pushing back, there is aptly one area in which there is more bipartisan agreement in the us than anything else, in terms of hardening attitudes towards china, and the Biden Administration probably wont be that different from the Trump Administration in terms of the sta nce administration in terms of the stance that it takes towards beijing, in terms of what they can actually do, we will have to see. With hong kong having been a british colony, its good that britain has spoken out, and joining with the us, australia, the eu, in terms of condemning chinas crackdown there. I think britain needs to be a little bit careful, though, because it itself is about to break in International Law when it comes to the Northern Irish records, so words can bring a little bit hollow, and towards the end of its rule over hong kong, it tried to put in some more democratic processes, but it was no beacon of democracy in hong kong up to now, but still it is very worrisome what is happening there. I have said before on this programme that hong kongs importance to china at the time of the handover in 1997 economically was much larger. It accounted for Something Like 15 of the gdp. Now it is only about maybe 296 the gdp. Now it is only about maybe 2 of gdp because the rest of china has developed so strongly. And what beijing needs from hong kong economically is no longer there. Steve richards, just in terms of hong kong, we are up against it timewise, but i wanted to pick up on that thought. Is it possible that now the uk has left the eu and the transition ends at the end of this year that we are not hamstrung by the attitudes of other European Countries for example like Angela Merkel in germany, who was keen to get along for economic reasons, that we might take a tougher line . Possibly, but borisjohnson has been quite ambiguous about china. He prefa ces all quite ambiguous about china. He prefaces all his comments with, i am not a sign of sinophobe, and that recently has changed, partly because of pressure from his own backbenches, and he will take a tough line, and that is one of the areas where i gather there was some kind of rapport when he had his conversation Withjoe Biden this week, so that is likely. But in terms of where power lies, the theme of this weeks programme, the theme of this weeks programme, the power lies with china in this dynamic. We have only a very short time left just dynamic. We have only a very short time leftjust for dynamic. We have only a very short time left just for you dynamic. We have only a very short time leftjust for you each to mark our cards about a story you think we should be paying more attention to if we havent spotted it already. Steve first. Very quickly, under normal times, in britain anyway, there would be quite a lot of focus on the labour party, traumatised by four election defeats, can its new leader keir starmer change it and turnit leader keir starmer change it and turn it into an election Winning Force . Turn it into an election Winning Force . When neil kinnock was trying to do the same in the 80s, he got about as much Media Attention as the then Prime Minister margaret thatcher. Because of all the other dramas that we have been discussing, keir starmer has got very little attention, but under the radar, he this week basically took control in inverted commas of the labour pa rtys inverted commas of the labour partys ruling executive, the National Executive committee, which without wanting to overstate its significance, at the very least makes his life a little easier. It isa makes his life a little easier. It is a difficult party to lead at the best of times, and a leader needs to control the levers, and quietly and without eruptions of a civil war as happened in the 80s, he is doing that. And given the disruption in number 10 that we discussed earlier, excuse methat is quite a contrast. It isa excuse methat is quite a contrast. It is a contrast that works in his favour. He has got a mountain to climb, but the Labour Party Needs a degree of control, and he very quietly is doing that. Steve, im going to have to interrupt you and bring henry in. You have about 30 seconds, henry, then i can give celia 30 seconds as well. The story we should be keeping an eye on . Worlds attention a year ago was on if the op because its Prime Minister won the Nobel Peace Prize for the reforms he wanted to put in. The attention should still be there because of what is happening in the norge and region where it looks like possible civil war could break out and the destabilisation along the horn of africa would be something that the world needs to actually really be keeping its eye on. Indeed, reports of a massacre there emerged overnight, friday to saturday. Celia . Im going to bring you a story from my native canada, where everyones been talking this week about the fate of the two michaels, Michael Crowe rickon michaels, Michael Crowe rickon michael stover, this week marked a 700 days since they were both put in detention in china, and charge subsequently with espionage. There isa subsequently with espionage. There is a little bit of hope, then, some people hope that may be because joe biden will be entering the white house, that may be he will be able to pressure china to release of the two men. That would be some good news for the transition indeed if they could finally be transitioned out of jail. Celia they could finally be transitioned out ofjail. Celia hatton, steve richards, henry chu, thank you very much for being with us. Thats it for dateline london for this week were back next week at the same time. Goodbye. Hello there. If you are planning to get out for some much needed exercise today, youre going to have to brace yourself for some cloud, some wind and some rain around. The weekend stays pretty unsettled. Low pressure is going to dominate the story. Its going to anchor itself to the north west of the uk and it is allowing these weather fronts to circulate into the south of the low and bring some rain at times. Plenty of isobars on the charts as well, it will be widespread windy. Perhaps the Northern Isles and north east of scotland staying largely dry and bright. Pulses of wetter weather, particularly in the south east and then another pulse moving through the latter stages of the afternoon. Bands of showery rain, the winds a feature, widespread gusts, 40, 45 miles an hour, maybe in excess of 50 55 miles an hour across the south west and through the irish sea. It will be mild because the wind direction is coming from a south westerly, not that you will notice it with these showers or longer spells of rain at times. Now through the evening and overnight, we will see most of the showery rain dying back to the west and south coast. A lot of cloud around. It stays quite blustery as well and it is going to continue to feel quite mild 9 to 13 degrees first thing on sunday morning. Down to the south east on sunday, we could see this weather frontjust enhancing some wetter weather for a time, the low not moving very far at all. And the winds will start to drive in plenty of showers from the west. A wet start in the south east, but then sunday should be a case of sunny spells and scattered showers. The strongest of the winds on sunday are going to be through the channel through the middle of the afternoon. We could see gusts of winds 50 60 mph plus on exposed coasts and that will drive in plenty of sharper showers here. So, sunshine and showers for sunday afternoon, top temperatures, though, still mid teens 14, 15 degrees, perhaps, the highest values. But things are going to change as we move into the week ahead. We start to move away from that south westerly flow and drag in a northerly wind direction. The blue tones start to arrive across the country. That means, as we go through the week, there is the potentialfor some rain around on monday, showers through the middle part of the week, but it gets noticeably cooler from friday into next weekend. Take care. A this this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. Conservative mps urge the Prime Minister to reset his government after the departure of his top adviser dominic cummings. Several states in the us bring in new restrictions to try to curb the surge in covid 19. The us president elect, joe biden, strongly criticises Donald Trumps handling of the crisis. President trump has insisted he wont put the us into lockdown, and comes close to admitting he could leave the white house next year. I will not go. This administration will not be going to a lockdown. Hopefully the. Whatever happens in the future, who knows which administration it will be, i guess time will tell