Is it worth being a city of culture . Ill be chatting to businesses all morning about how things have changed for them this year. Good morning. In sport, liverpool net seven goals, making england the first country to have five teams through to the Champions League knockout stages in the same season. And carol has the weather. Good morning. Storm caroline will make its presence felt in the north of scotla nd make its presence felt in the north of scotland today. 90 Miles Per Hour gusts. Blizzards as well. A mild and a wet start to the day away from that. It will be noticeably windy. I will have more details in 15 minutes. Thank you, carol. Good morning. First, our main story the number of patients experiencing long waits in accident and Emergency Departments in the uk has more than doubled in the last four years. Research by the bbc found that more than three Million People waited longer than the four hour target in the last year. Doctors say it shows the nhs can no longer cope. The dep
The foreign secretary, borisjohnson, is in iran to press for the release of the british iranian woman, Nazanin Zaghari ratcliffe, and other dual nationals, on humanitarian grounds. Mrs Zaghari Ratcliffe is serving a five year prison term on charges of trying to overthrow the iranian government which she denies. Her mp, tulip siddiq, says shes been told by the Foreign Office that mrjohnson probably wont secure her imminent release. We had a conversation with the Foreign Office yesterday and we were very clear to stress that borisjohnson was not going to iranjust to release her and there should be no expectations of him coming back with her. But i asked whether he would be raising the fact that she needs to be released in humanitarian rows. And he will be raising it with the authorities but we should not expect any miracle. What we should ask is whether he can arrange for a visa for Richard Ratcliffe to go to iran. Bear in mind he has not been able to go to iran to see his daughter or wi
Prices have increased at their fastest rate in nearly six years. Inflation rose to 3. 1 per cent in november as the squeeze on households continued. Consumers are facing pressure from rising food prices in the lead up to christmas with Grocery Price rises reaching the highest level since 2013. The governor of the bank of england mark carney will now have to write a letter to the chancellor to explain how the bank intends to bring inflation back to its two per cent target. Our economics correspondent andy verity has this report. At this baker on the outskirts of barnsley, its not just at this baker on the outskirts of barnsley, its notjust the bread rolls that are on the rise, its buns, loads and mince pies end up in pubs and restaurants and as far afield as the middle east and asia. Ingredients like butter and flour have shot up in the past year and a half, so it has had to do everything it can to make sure its costs are covered. One thing we have done with suppliers is to take a radic
Tightening is set to hasten . While disney is said to be near a deal for a big chunk of the murdoch empire as comcast drops out of the race. How will sky shares react . Were less than half an hour away from the start of european trading. Taking a look at futures. We are looking at gains here in the ftse about a quarter of a percent. Much on the continent. It is the oil stocks that are going to be the interesting thing to watch. A big gain, highest level we have seen in 2. 5 years. You will want to watch the producers as well. Gain is due to the crack in the pipeline and the shutdown. Taking a look at treasuries, u. S. Treasuries, if you look at the Bigger Picture is not as interesting. They have not moved that much. 2. 38. We are stuck in a range but it does look like investors are buying treasuries today. They are doing the same with gilts and that could mean they might not be to have the cash to put to use of the equity markets. We will see in 28 minutes time. Anna lets have a look a