appropriately, from the artificial intelligence summit at bletchley park. the other big story this week, though, has been the quite eye popping testimony at the public inquiry into how the government handled various phases of the covid epidemic. and, i mean, it has massively, massively taken me back to those scary, uncertain days in early spring 2020. and i spent a lot of those days sat in this very studio and the person sat across from me and being very reassuring at all times was laura k, who s back in the studio. not in the studio. no, i m not. but i m logistically distanced today, not socially distanced. and i m very pleased to hear that i was reassuring back in those early days of march 2020. you were one of the only people i saw! well, i m pleased. well, it was very nice. we were a tiny little band of people, carrying on, trying to do ourjobs as everybody wondered what on earth was going on. and it s been a very strange experience watching this, hasn t it? because i was
craig williams and laura saunders, on the date of the general election. on the campaign trail, labour is setting out changes to the process for someone to legally change their gender. the party is also offering to provide hundreds of thousands more dental appointments on the nhs. the lib dems release their analysis on hospital waiting times. leader sir ed davey claimed the country has ten days to save the nhs. the snp sjohn swinney will give a speech on brexit. while the dup is launching its manifesto in northern ireland. so it is a busy day for all of the parties today. we ll touch on all of the above in this programme, but let s start with the election betting investigation. here s tobias elwood speaking to the bbc radio 4 today. this betting saga has been deeply unhelpful, self inflicted distraction, and in what world they thought this was acceptable is beyond belief. the prime minister has expressed his anger, he said that at the leaders s question time debate. it has bee
hello, i m christian fraser in london. laura trevelyan is in new york. the queen has expressed her concerns over race allegations made by the duke and duchess of sussex. the world has been waiting for some response since the interview with oprah winfrey first aired on sunday. it is a short statement, and in it the royalfamily said they were saddened to learn exactly how challenging the couple had found life as working royals. it doesn t address all the allegations that were made. far from it. but it does point to the most damaging claim made by the duchess, the issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning, says the statement. it goes on to say that while some recollections may vary, it adds, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately. it concludes with the message that harry, meghan and archie will always be much loved family members. our royal correspondent nicholas witchell is with us. as we say it is a short statement,