Transcripts For BBCNEWS BBC News 20171229 : comparemela.com

Transcripts For BBCNEWS BBC News 20171229

Over a month to go until the Winter Olympics in south korea, i will be checking out some of team gbs biggest medal prospects on the path to pyeongchang. Passengers at Glasgow Airport faced delays after heavy snow caused flights to be suspended for a while. There was snow too across Northern England and the southern pennines. The rac has warned that driving conditions will be very difficult, if not impossible, in the worst affected areas. Our correspondent Judith Moritz reports. Grounded at glasgow flights at the citys airport were suspended after snow settled quickly overnight. The airport reopened by mid morning, but managers have apologised working from the control room to makeereihelth zt impacts not too severe. Drivers are advised only to travel if necessary, but traffic is lighter than usual, with schools closed and many off work for the holidays. Enjoying extra opportunity for snow themed entertainment. Judith moritz, bbc news, wakefield. Earlier, our correspondent lisa summers spoke to us from edinburgh and described how the conditions had been. The rest of the snow has now passed, but the worry overnight is going to be icy conditions, with temperatures dropping rapidly even here in the city. Further ahead, we have warnings of heavy rain in the south of england. In scotland, the concern will be about high winds. We have a high wind warning in place for hogmanay, and as you can see, edinburgh is busy at this time of year. 150,000 people are due to participate in a three day hogmanay festival that starts tomorrow. Things like a torchlight procession, a street party, a nine minute firework display, all those things depend on it not being too windy. Organisers will have a keen eye on the Weather Forecast over the next couple of days. I have been told they are expecting the winds to die down during the course of hogmanay, so hopefully, we can enjoy new year without too much trouble from the weather. And well find out how this story and many others are covered in tomorrows front pages at 10 40 and 11 30pm this evening in the papers our guestsjoining me tonight are jason beattie, head of politics at the daily mirror, and tim stanley from the daily telegraph. The governments infrastructure adviser lord adonis has announced he is quitting his role with a furious attack on Theresa Mays Brexit policy. In his resignation letter, he said brexit was a populist and nationalist spasm and accused the pm of pursuing a course fraught with danger. He also described the eu withdrawal bill as the worst legislation of my lifetime. The former labour transport secretary is a high profile campaigner against brexit. He has chaired the National Infrastructure commission since 2015. Our political correspondent, ben wright, joins me now. This letter is pretty scathing in his condemnation of the way the government is pursuing brexit. His condemnation of the way the government is pursuing brexitm his condemnation of the way the government is pursuing brexit. It is an excoriating ta kedown government is pursuing brexit. It is an excoriating takedown of the governments Brexit Strategy by lord adonis, who has been a very vocal critic of brexit over many months. He thinks its a catastrophe and should not be happening at all. He has called for a second referendum. That is not labours position and certainly not the government position, so he has been starkly at odds with the government over months on brexit. It has felt odd for a while that he has remained in his job as chairman of this body which advises the government on its long term infrastructure projects. It is independent of the government, but he is an adviser and that has sat uncomfortably. The government has said he has chosen tojump before he was pushed. I think it was a matter of time before he quit, but it is quite a grenade he has rolled into the debate. We can see some of the letter now. He says brexit is a populist and nationalists as u nworthy of populist and nationalists as unworthy of donald trump. He accuses the Prime Minister of pursuing a course fraught with danger, and goes onto say that brexit is causing nervous breakdown across whitehall and conduct u nworthy of across whitehall and conduct unworthy of her majestysgovernment. But as you say, he is a labour peer. How damning do you think all of this will be for the government . Not terribly, for all the reasons you say. He is a labour peer. He was a transport secretary in Gordon Browns government. For many months, he has been a vociferous critic of brexit, far more outspoken than even his own party. He says in the letter that as the eu withdrawal bill arises in the house of lords over the new year, he will oppose it relentlessly from the labour benches there. So it didnt fit well, being a government adviser. But by saying this in this letter, it is odd how it has come out because he was intending it to come out tomorrow with an article that was due to be published in the times, but it seems that perhaps number ten jumped published in the times, but it seems that perhaps number tenjumped have the gun on this and have released a d raft copy the gun on this and have released a draft copy of this letter earlier this evening, perhaps trying to dampen the impact it might have. Nevertheless, he wants to get the debate going and he is arguing that there are choices. As far as hes concerned, the government is making the wrong choices when it comes to brexit. This comes after theresa may has had some success in at least making the progress she needs in the brexit negotiations. But it is a reminder of the difficulties she could face in the house of lords. That is true. The eu withdrawal bill goes to the house of lords next. Far more unpredictable, what will happen there. There will be all sorts of amendments put down in the same way we saw in the house of commons by their peers. Lord adonis has indicated for a while that hes prepared to do what he can to try and geta prepared to do what he can to try and get a second referendum written into the bill. The lords is a far more unpredictable body than the commons, where there was only that one rebellion in the end. It will be interesting to see if others join lord adonis for those sorts of amendments. Even brexit sceptical tories in the house of commons are quick to say that if the lords go too far on the eu withdrawal bill and start to pick it apart and add amendments that look like they are trying to unpick the referendum result, you could quickly find yourself in constitutional crisis territory. So we will see how the first weeks of the new year pan out in terms of how the house of lords decides to go about scrutinising the eu withdrawal bill. Thanks very much. The mayor of new york says a fire which killed 12 people at an Apartment Building in the bronx district of new york was started by a three year old child playing with a stove. Its the worst fire of its kind in the city in 25 years. The citys fire commissioner said the toddler who started the blaze was unsupervised at the time. Last nights tragic fire, other than 9 11, was the worst loss of life from fire in our city in almost 28 years, the fire which occurred in 1990. So were in the midst right now of the worst month for loss of life in our city forfire in the past ten years. 12 people tragically died here, seven women, five men, five children, seven adults. Four other people remain hospitalised with critical injuries and are seriously fighting for their lives right now. So this fire is. I said last night, historic. It certainly is in our city, to have a loss of life like this. Fire marshals have been here all night trying to determine the cause, and they have determined it. We found that this fire started in a kitchen on the first floor. It started from a young boy, three and a half years old, playing with the burners on the stove. The fire got started, the mother was not aware of it, was alerted by the young man screaming. She exited her apartment with her two year old and three year old and left the door open. So this fire quickly spread up the stairs. Fire travels up, the stairway acted like a chimney, it took the fire so quickly upstairs that people had very little time to react, they couldnt get back down the stairs, those that tried. A few that tried perished. Others escaped, were helped out on to the fire escapes and taken down by our members. So although our members got here in a little over three minutes and bravely entered the building and did everything they could, and did save a number of residents. Shock has spread throughout the Bronx Community weve been hearing from people in the local neighbourhood who shared their thoughts on the fire. Everybody in this neighbourhood is really tight knit. Everybody looks out for each other. And its a real tragedy. Its sad because we have the new year and now we have to deal with this tragedy. If you are asked to leave your house immediately, you are obviously not packing a bag. I have some childrens clothes here and some womens clothes here. Hopefully, every little bit can make a difference. In the city, the 100 share index has finished trading for the year on a record closing high. It ended the day up 7. 6 on last year. Joe lynam is with me people will say, we keep hearing these warnings about how the economy is being squeezed by brexit and how there is a squeeze on wages how come the stock market is doing well . All those things are true. In real terms, there has been a pay cut in the last couple of years. That continues. Wages are going down in real terms and the economy is slowing down. It is the slowest in the g7 at the moment. But there is a disconnect between the Large Companies that are listed on the London Stock Exchange and the real economy. If you look at the numbers, you can see the numbers that you just said. If you go down to the bottom briefly, you see the dow jones, which went up 26 over the year. So it is having an even bigger boom. But it is about the disconnect between these giant companies which are global players, and the health of the actual economy. In britains case, lets look at anglo american. That is basically a South African Company that has come to britain to list and it is a mining company. It drills for copper and zinc all over the world and it is paid in dollars and repatriate those dollars in e2, which magnifies the profits for them. They are earning only a sliver of their money in the uk. Glaxosmithkline, the drugs giant, people might know them, but again, they earn the majority of their money overseas. Glaxo shares were down 15 this year. Anglo americans shares were up by a third this year. Two very different companies, but the big picture is, if you want to look at the health of the uk economy, you need to look at the ftse 250 rather than the ftse100, because the companies are simply too big. Nonetheless, for ordinary people who may be seeing a squeeze on their wages, it can be good news on their wages, it can be good news on their wages, it can be good news on the stock market goes up. It is not a people who are playing the Stock Exchange will benefit . The vast majority of people out there do not have a portfolio of shares. What they do have without even knowing about it at a pension fund which invests in these shares. So if you are saving for your retirement, and most adults are, they will be invested in the ftse100. They will be invested in the dowjones and certain stocks. That means that in a few yea rs certain stocks. That means that in a few years time when they retire, they will yield some of those benefits. But for now, the majority of people will see no major benefits to the ftse100 reaching an all time record high. Joe lynam, many thanks. The headlines the met office issue is warnings for ice across parts of scotla nd is warnings for ice across parts of scotland and Northern England. The labour peer lord adonis resigned as the governments infrastructure chief with a scathing attack on theresa may for her handling of brexit. The uk stock market which is a record high, as we havejust heard, on the years final day of trading. Anti government protests have spread to more cities in iran despite a crackdown by the authorities. Thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest over rising prices, corruption and the cost of irans military involvement in regional conflicts. Wyre davies reports. These are extremely rare sights. Cities across iran hit by large and sometimes violent Anti Government protests. This is the western city of kermanshah, and despite the repressive action taken against demonstrators by police, the protests have quickly grown, and spread across the country. Iranians have suffered tremendous hardship, with a huge fall in Living Standards over the last decade. But what started as a protest against rising prices has grown into much wider anger against strict clerical rule and irans supreme leader, ayatollah ali khamenei. Demonstrators are demanding that Political Prisoners should be freed, and the government should stop spending millions on foreign wars. There is seething discontent with iranian spending money on wars abroad, on spreading shiism abroad, on supporting hezbollah abroad, and that has changed the character of the demonstration into a political one, undermining the whole clerical regime. Irans relatively moderate president Hassan Rouhani has promised the benefits of Economic Growth after an International Deal to limit its nuclear activities, but those promises have so far failed to materialise. Britain will be watching developments closely. On a recent visit, the foreign secretary borisjohnson raised the detention of the british woman Nazanin Zaghari ratcliffe, held in an iranianjailfor more than 600 days. Its become a serious issue between london and tehran. Its too early to say if the regime is under serious threat. These are the biggest protests in iran for almost a decade and the government will use greater force if it feels its losing control. Police say a woman found murdered in north london had been stabbed and beaten. The body of Iuliana Tudos who was 22 and originally from moscow, but had lived in london for some years was discovered on wednesday in finsbury park. Police say she died of a stab wound to the abdomen and a head injury. Its thought she might have been attacked on christmas eve. No arrests have been made and a crime scene remains in place at the location. The independent Police Complaints Commission Says a former Surrey Police officer who investigated jimmy savile would have faced questions of professional misconduct over his role, had he still been a serving officer. Savile, who died in 2011, was revealed to have abused hundreds of mainly women and girls. The report into Surrey Polices investigation of allegations of Sexual Offences byjimmy savile at Duncroft School in the 1970s found that the officer had failed to pass on details of an alleged indecent assault by the star at Stoke Mandeville hospital. Two men have been charged with terrorism offences by police who had been investigating a suspected christmas attack plot. 31 year old andi sami star, from chesterfield, and 22 year old farhad salah from sheffield have been detained by detectives on charges of engaging in the preparation of an act of terrorism. They appeared by video link before londons westminster magistrates court. The nhs in england is considering the routine use of so called drunk tanks dedicated units for people to recover from excess alcohol in order to reduce hospital admissions. Up to 70 of visits to a e departments on friday and saturday nights are by people whove drunk too much. Adina campbell reports. At this time of year, britains binge thinking culture is exposed with its burden on emergency services. But having more of these mobile vehicles, or drunk tanks, on a permanent basis could be a solution an idea now being considered by nhs england. Alcohol Recovery Services a re potentially successful in reducing pressure on a e services, which is potentially important in winter. And so if there are ways that we can safely look after people in alternative settings, then its really worth looking at these alternatives, and thats what were doing at the moment. The reality is that people whove overindulged with alcohol can be a big problem for the nhs. Up to 70 of attendances to a e departments in the uk at this time of year are alcohol related. These friends enjoying their annual festive get together are divided. I think its a good idea. I mean, if it helps the nhs and all that. But the thing that annoys me a bit is that it seems to be our generation thats being targeted. It also costs money. I dont think sitting down in a van with a bottle of water is going to sober you up that quickly. If you are in that sort of a state, you want to either go home or go to hospital. The uks first drunk tank was introduced in bristol three years ago, and since then more have been operating in cardiff, newcastle, manchester and belfast. Rather than dumping those who have gone way over their limit in a police cell or hospital bed, here theyre given a chance to recover. But some doctors say this kind of safety net shouldnt have to be offered in the first place. I think the solution is people understanding that they should not be getting themselves into the state that they need to have a facility to sober up in. People need to take responsibility for getting themselves home safely, making sure that their friends get home safely, that they have a plan and that they know when to stop drinking before it becomes a problem. Nhs england will make a decision early next year, which could ease the pressure on police, ambulances and hospital services. Adina campbell, bbc news. The Royal College of gps is asking patients to consider alternatives before making an appointment with their Family Doc

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