welcome to the programme. a smaller workforce represents a serious economic challenge. it makes it harder for employers to filljobs. it adds to wage pressures that drive inflation. it holds back growth. it reduces the tax revenues available to fund public services. there is an imperative in helping people back to work. the trouble is many parents in this country can t afford to because many would see their take home pay wiped out by the £15,000 average annual cost of full time childcare for a two year old. right now, uk childcare costs are double the 0ecd average. the only two countries where parents spend a higher percentage on childcare are switzerland and new zealand. when i had my daughter, who s five, i had to quit myjob because we couldn t afford childcare. i look forward to going back to nursing. my plan is to go back to nursing. if there d been more options and if childcare had been either cheaper or there was more flexibility, that would ve definitely been something
sergey karaganov in moscow, welcome to hardtalk. good afternoon. good afternoon and welcome and let me ask you a simple question, after almost a year of war in ukraine is russia ready to acknowledge that it is going badly wrong? it is a war. and we will be winning the war, there is no question about that, the question is of course, the casualties, the destruction of ukraine, ukrainians are used as cannon fodder in order war as cannon fodder in our war with the west, i sympathise with them. but it is their fate. i m surprised you say that because a month before the invasion began on the 24th of debris, on the 19th of january you actually said this. i am sure we have no plans to invade ukraine because it would be and to quote your precise words, senseless. at thatjuncture this piece was never published. iassumed. but you still wrote it? i wrote it. i accept that. i assumed it would happen later or else i thought that it should have happened earlier but it happened when it happe
welcome to the programme. there are tentative signs that inflation is coming under control, and the recession forecast last year will be shallower and shorter than expected. butjust to make sure, the central banks are raising the interest rates again. yesterday it was the fed, today the bank of england increased the base rate, half a point, to 4% the highest it has been in m years. we think inflation will come down rapidly, and a lot of that is down to energy prices, which have fallen rapidly. but i m afraid there are big risks out there which mean that it may not happen in that way. yet we re still seeing stronger pressure from price and wage setting in the economy in the question is, will that start to ease off? coinciding with the bank s decision came a profit announcement from shell and a rather blunt illustration of why we re all getting poorer. the oil and gas giant has reaped profits of £40 billion last year. the taxman has reaped far less. shell said it paid $1
of the same this weekend. a largely fine end to the day to day. there will be fine spells of weather at times this weekend. it will be blustery and quite warm when you get to see some sunshine. we have low pressure to the rest of us. also bands of wet weather and there is another one about to show its hand across south west england over the next few hours and lived northward through the night into more of england and wales by morning. north of that, a lot of dry weather. heavy showers in scotland slowly fading away, and it s a bit cooler tonight, some spots dipping into single figures. we start with rain in wales and parts of england tomorrow. and that moves north in the morning into northern england, northern ireland, southern scotland, slowly feeding further north across scotland during the day but not into northern scotland until the evening. behind it, some heavy showers for east anglia and south east england, a largely fine afternoon. hazy sunshine and warmth. saturday e
the deal involves extra money and drones for france. the i paper says that sunak s allies are calling for a purge of the tory right including according to the paper s sources calls to sack home secretary suella braverman. the times reports that rishi sunak will deny the king the opportunity to attend the cop27 climate conference. the guardian focuses on sharma s call to tax excessive oil profits. on its front, the daily mirror carries a message from 77 year old his post was demoted. hospital paitent catherine poole to the prime minister, that he should pay up and increase nurses salaries. the financial times focuses on elon musk closing his deal for twitter across a backdrop of crashing share prices across silicon valley. the daily mail looks at the submarine sex pests scandal , reporting on an inquiry that has looked at claims of bullying and harassment of women in the submarine service. james, do you want to kick us off this time? tell us more about this apparent