last time you and i chatted, linda, you said you were only having one meal a day and you were only putting the heating on for an hour. is that still the same? the heating s more or less the same, but i am eating a bit more. i ve got to, with me health. i have lost weight. for steph, a single working mum with two kids, she s now working an extra day a week, but isn t feeling a financial benefit. how much is childcare now? it s £50 a day. and then, obviously, - because i m a single mum, i have 15 hours free. so my 15 hours cover my monday and half of my tuesday. - so then i have to fund half- of tuesday and my full wednesday. so, despite working an extra day, because of the extra costs of childcare for that day, you re not really any better off, are you? no. the money that i earn for that extra day covers my childcare. it also covers the cost of living, the rise in food costs, - and it covers a rent increase. the government s announced that from september 2025, working paren
katherine, i m rishi. ..as rishi sunak prepares to set out his party s plans for another five years in government. on the eve of his manifesto launch last night, the prime minister hinted at tax cuts to come. we will have a manifesto that builds on all the things that you ve just gone through that we ve already announced in this campaign that, yes, does continue to cut people s taxes, because i believe in a country where people s hard work is rewarded. after cutting national insurance last autumn and in the spring the manifesto will promise to cut it by a further two pence for employees. it will also pledge that the state pension will not be taxed, and make permanent an existing cut to stamp duty for first time buyers, as well as promising that parents will only have to start paying back child benefit when their household income reaches £120,000. the manifesto will also contain pledges to raise defence spending, reform the welfare system, and double down on plans to se
Dont want to go back to 2003 and be watching the news again waiting for him to reoffend. I know he will reoffend full i dont want to be in that position where i will say, i was right because he will absolutely do it again. That full exclusive interview in the next 15 minutes. Security experts are warning the government needs to tackle the misuse of Artificial Intelligence. They will tell us exactly what they think that risk is and we will introduce you to the robot who is designed to mimic facial expressions in order to teach autistic children about emotions. Hello. Welcome to the programme. Were live until 11 this morning. Throughout the morning, the latest breaking news and developing stories. A little later well hear about the devastating impact endometreosis has on women and hear claims that the nhs is failing in their care. If you have endometrosis, tell us your experience. Use the hashtag victoria live and, if you text, you will be charged at the Standard Network rate. 0ur our to
Sackur. Is the way we use words changing . Most of us probably write less tha n changing . Most of us probably write less than we used to. Read less than we used to. And spend far more time staring at screens and tapping out messages. Does it matter to our relationships, our politics, our culture . Relationships, our politics, our culture . Our guest to day in skimmed is does. Howard jacobsons meditations have won him awards, including the man booker prize. But is he an artist swimming against an irresistible cultural tide . Howard jacobson, welcome to hardtalk. Irresistible cultural tide . Howard jacobson, welcome to hardtalki irresistible cultural tide . Howard jacobson, welcome to hardtalk. I am delighted to be here. Thank you for having me on. I want to ask you to reflect on a long writing career. How long, do you think, it took to you to find your own authentic writers boys. 20 years. 20 years from finishing university, and thinking i was out in the world, and ready to write, and
Voice . 20 years. 20 years from being from finishing university, and thinking im out in the world, and now im going to write, and 20 years before i could write anything that looked to me like a book. Im tempted to ask, then, what kept you. That is what many people asked. Especially those who thought i would never be a novelist anyway. And i worried, myself, about it. My father used to say, well, where is it, then . That spurred me on. That must have annoyed you. I think my problem was that perhaps a bit over educated. I had been educated to revere the classic so much, to revere dh lawrence and tolstoy and dostoevsky and dickens. If i could be them, i didnt want to be anyone. So you wanted to be literary. Perhaps you were not confident in your own take on the world and your own voice, that it was worth listening to . Dead right. If what you had been reading was the great writers, and i revered them, and you think you do not measure up to that. At 18 and 25, i did not measure up to dosto