of his journalism called dispatches from the diaspora. gary younge, welcome to the media show. let s go back to some of where it all began. you studied french and russian at heriot watt university in edinburgh, and then in yourfinal year you received a scott trust bursary from the guardian to study journalism. and i think you were quite clear at that point that you wanted to be a columnist. why? because i had been very politically involved and my entry into writing was partly because i d studied languages and studied to be an interpreter and i like to manipulate words, but it was also because i had been very involved politically, almost precociously, and that i thought i had things to say. and what i didn t realise at the time was the degree to which reporting, running out, talking to people, finding out, all of that, is the nuts and bolts of everything, including column writing. so as someone who hadn t done an awful lot ofjournalism and heriot watt didn t have a student new
of us. ahead of that a band of rain, some of that heavy, accompanied by squally, gusty winds but for much of england and wales this afternoon there will be some bright eclipses. the winds really starting to strengthen particularly in western scotland. those were the wind gusts and these are the temperatures, 9-14 , and these are the temperatures, 9 11; , above where we should be in early january. 9 11; , above where we should be in earlyjanuary. as 9 11; , above where we should be in early january. as we go into this evening this band of rain, this active weather front, will push southwards and eastwards with squally winds and as the low passes to the north west of scotland there will be some really strong winds, gusts of 60 70 mph for exposed western parts and strong winds funnelling through the central belt for a time. it s going to be a mild night generally, 6 10 the minimum temperatures. tomorrow, a plus to restart particularly in scotland where there will be some showers
pope francis leads mourners for his predeccessor benedict xvi at an open air funeral mass at the vatican. upset for emma raducanu after she retires from her second round match at the asb classic in auckland with an ankle injury. and coming up this hour hear more from the girl group flo, who are the winners of the bbc s sound of 2023 award. sir keir starmer has promised that a labour government would devolve more power out of westminster by giving local authorities more say in areas such as transport and housing. the labour leader said in a new year speech that taking back control borrowing from the brexit slogan would be central to his party s agenda if it won the next election. it s not unreasonable for us to recognise the desire of communities to stand on their own feet. it s what take back control meant. the control people want is control over their lives and their communities. so we will embrace the take back control message, but we ll turn it from a slogan in
on, whether it is the nhs, more gps, more nhs dentists, things that people really carabao, our approach to getting the economy back on track or our campaign on the environment. we are here in the beautiful lake district to campaign on the issue of sewage, it has been the liberal democrats who have been campaigning hard to clean up our rivers and beaches and likes and it is the liberal democrats leading on that. so i am focused on getting more liberal mps elected and defeating the conservatives. can liberal mps elected and defeating the conservatives. liberal mps elected and defeating the conservatives. can i get a yes or no on whether the conservatives. can i get a yes or no on whether keir the conservatives. can i get a yes or no on whether keir starmer - the conservatives. can i get a yes i or no on whether keir starmer would make a good prime minister but which i am really focused on the labour campaign, ithink i am really focused on the labour campaign, i think peopl