Good morning. It is a cold and frosty start to the day, but for many it will be dry with sunshine, turning hazier through the day, but north and West Scotland will have some showers. Thank you, carol. Good morning. First, our main story. The childrens commissioner for england says the vast majority of young carers receive no support from local authority social services. Anne longfield says four out of five are going under the radar. The local Government Association said funding cuts meant councils were being forced to make difficult decisions. Helena lee reports. This is daniel, one of thousands of young carers in england. Hes ten and lives with his mum, florella, who has a brain tumour. Daniel is her main carer at home. When hes not at school, he helps around the house, but he constantly worries about his mum when he isnt there. I started becoming more responsible and i started doing the cleaning. Started doing cooking better. I started paying more attention to what my mum was doing. I started becoming more responsible and i started doing the cleaning. Then, because i wasnt around, i was always worried about how she was. Todays report by the childrens commissioner found of the 160,000 young carers in england, just over 128,000 children aged 5 17 may not be known to local authorities. And councils identified 160 young carers in england who are under the age of five. This is often systematic support for vulnerable Family Members who may have Mental Illness or physical disabilities. They need to be able to flourish at school, they need to be able to enjoy childhood and grow up, whilst theyre still offering the familial support that you would expect. The local Government Association says funding cuts to Childrens Services means councils have been forced to make difficult decisions about what support they are able to provide. But it says all young carers should receive an assessment to find out if they need help. Helena lee, bbc news. Englands Chief Nursing Officer has urged the nhs to invest more in caring for people at home. Jane cummings says money is being wasted on keeping elderly patients in hospital unnecessarily. She says reform is needed to make sure people dont get caught between different parts of the system. Some voters in england will have to show photo id before being allowed to cast their ballots, as part of a new trial. Its one of a number of efforts being introduced to tackle electoral fraud. 0ur Political Correspondent tom bateman is in our london newsroom. Tom, why has the government decided this change is needed . This began a couple of years ago when a man call look for rahman was elected to be mayor of tower hamlets. There were allegations of vote rigging, saying that people had been bullied intimidated into voting a particular way. An Election Court found him guilty of electoral fraud, and he was kicked out of office, and then sir eric pickles was asked by then sir eric pickles was asked by the government to look into this whole issue of electro fraud. He found that there were in his view people who were Turning A Blind Eye to this, that they were worried about being accused of discrimination because some of this was happening in pakistani and bangladeshi communities, and he recommended Voter Id Being shown in polling booths, and this morning the government has accepted most of those recommendations, and in a couple of years, at the local elections in 2018, it will trial some of this. You might have to show a passport or Driving Licence or even a bus pass a passport or Driving Licence or even a bus pass 01 a passport or Driving Licence or even a bus pass or bank card and sign something to prove who you are. Labour, for their part, say they accept anything to crack down on fraud, but they are worried that the bigger issue is about voter registration, that many of us are not registered to vote, and that affects Labour Voters in particular, they are not getting to the polling booths. So we expect is debate to go on, but more announcements from the government today. Tom, thank you. Details are emerging of George Michaels charity work, as tributes continue to pour in since his death on christmas day. For years the singer had donated money to organisations, and recently worked undercover at a homeless shelter. Nick quraishi reports. He was a huge personality, whose life played out in the headlines. But behind this onstage persona, details of George Michaels charitable donations are now emerging. He had volunteered to work in a homeless shelter, provided it was kept quiet. He paid for a Game Show Contestant to have ivf treatment. And gave sport relief £50,000 when David Walliams swam the English Channel in 2006. Children, Cancer Patients and many other charities also received donations. Last night, tributes came from those closest to him. George michaels partner, fadi fawaz, said hed never forget this christmas, having found him dead, peacefully in bed, first thing in the morning. His former long term partner kenny goss paid tribute to an extremely kind and generous man, saying he loved him very, very much. At his home in Goring On Thames in 0xfordshire, friends came to remember their icon. There were emotional scenes at another of his houses, highgate in london, from people struggling to come to terms with his death from suspected heart failure. I know that 2016 has been a bad year, and it is very sad for a lot of artists, but it was George Michael that got me, that was. I think we grew up with him, was the main thing. George michaels career spanned nearly four decades, and these fans will make sure his music lives on. Nick quraishi, bbc news. And we will be talking a bit more about George Michael shortly. Russian media is reporting that the black box Flight Recorder has been recovered from the Military Plane that crashed into the black sea on sunday. 92 people were on board, 11 bodies have been found so far. 3000 people are involved in the search operation, including 200 divers. Liz smith, the actor Best Known For Playing Nana in the sitcom the royle family, has died at the age of 95. A spokesperson for her family announced she passed away on christmas eve. Peter ruddick has been looking back at her life. What is she . Shes a vegetarian, nana. 0hhh could you have some wafer thin ham . Could she have wafer thin ham, barbara . No 0hhh. From dotty Nana Norma Speakman in the royle family to the Eccentric Baker Letitia Cropley in the vicar of dibley, liz smith carved out a Niche Playing Scatty but hilarious older ladies. Its Chocolate Spread chocolate . Yeah, yeah. You promise . Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. All right, i will. Very. Unusual taste. Well, i put in a Little Something extra as well. She had been through a tough childhood, and an even tougher early career as a single mother of two with a series of part time jobs. It was only when she was nearly 50 that she got her breakthrough after being offered a theatre role by mike leigh. It was like a wonderful realisation that at last i was being given a chance. It had come, it had come at last. She may have started late, but she made up for lost time with Award Winning roles in tv and film, resulting in her being awarded the mbe in 2009. But it will be as nana, the queen of sheba, for which she will be most remembered. The actor liz smith, who has died at the age of 95. In other news today only about half of the families in britain own their homes, according to new analysis by the resolution foundation. 0fficial Housing statistics point to a much higherfigure, but the foundation believes the number of People Living in privately rented accommodation has been underestimated. A number of roads remain closed in scotland after the disruption caused by storm conor. Wind speeds in excess of 90 miles an hour were recorded on the island of shetland on boxing day while large parts of the north experienced heavy snowfall. The Scottish Transport minister has been chairing extra meetings of the governments Resilience Team to deal with the situation. A group of conservationists say that the worlds fastest land animal, the cheetah, is rapidly heading for extinction. The Zoological Society of london says Cheetah Numbers in the world are falling because of Human Encroachment onto their habitat. They say its crunch time for the cats, with only an estimated 7,000 left in africa and just 50 in iran. 11 minutes past eight. You are watching bbc breakfast. The death of George Michael dominates the front pages of todays papers. The times shows the tributes left outside his home. Words here from Neil Mccormick talking about him, saying it was his inner conflict that made him so compelling. And these are the words of George Michaels partner who found him on christmas day, the front page of the sun, you were someone christmas day, the front page of the sun, you were someone special, george. The news follows the deaths of other influential music stars in 2016, including david bowie and prince. Heres a look back at whats been a sad year for the world of music. Hes in the bestselling show is there life on mars . 0ur Breaking News this morning is the sad news that its been confirmed in the past half hour that the singer david bowie has died. Princes home and Recording Studio is awash with tears and tributes as fans of all generations come to pay their respects to a musical genius. You look like youre having fun open up your loving arms watch out, here i come you spin me right round, baby, right round like a record, baby, right, round, round, round. Tributes have been paid to one of the most influential singer songwriters of all time, leonard cohen, who has died overnight at the age of 82. Hallelujah. Get down, deeper and down down, down, deeperand down. George michael, one of the biggest music stars of his generation, has died at the age of 53. I need someone to hold me, but ill wait for something more Cause I Gotta have faith 0ooh, i gotta have faith beCause I Gotta have faith, faith, faith i gotta have faith, faith, faith. So, what a year it has been. What legacy have the stars we lost in 2016 left behind . Paul lester is a Music Journalist and joins us from our london newsroom. Good morning. We must start by talking about George Michael. Why do you think he has made such a big impact . He is huge. We had already experienced some of the biggest rock deaths this year with rinse and david bowie, and the more ghoulish among us david bowie, and the more ghoulish among us could possibly have been wondering who could eclipse those. George michael was one of those, apart from madonna, michaeljackson and prince, he was arguably the fourth biggest star of the 1980s. What will his legacy be . One of the few things that has come out of his death was that he has been a reclaim does a serious artist, because he was too often dismissed in his lifetime. People felt that wham was cheesy pop, and he sought credibility in his lifetime. It is a real shame he is only achieving the notion of being taken seriously after his death. And it does seem relatively young. It is incredibly young. The death of the baby boomer generation, those people born between the 40s and 60s, they are reaching that age, 50s, 60s and 70s, when people die, even given advances in science. But also these are people who work historically prodigious canis, that is not judging them, but seeking a rationale, because lets face it we are all afraid to die, and more and more we will see this happening, sadly. And does it go with the territory as well . It does. Members of the Rolling Stones who spent the 60s and 70s behaving like debauched princes, members of the who, rock stars tend to live life on the edge, and even George Michael who ostensibly was a clean cut 80s pop kid, he had his demons and he did misbehave and there were dabblings with our cortex, and we know this. He was open about it. There were darker practices behind the ostensibly Jovial Good Darker Practices behind the Ostensiblyjovial Good Time Darker Practices behind the ostensibly jovial good time up tempo p0p ostensibly jovial good time up tempo pop hits. So we guess those artists who lived on the edge now reaping the terrible dividends of that kind of lifestyle. What about the difference in the Music Industry when he and david bowie started out. And where we are now . Sorry, louise. We seem to live in an age of Digital Music age. Is that good . What will it mean for the stars of the future . People have been pondering the idea that, you know, in the future there would never be stars of the magnitude of michaeljackson and madonna and George Michael and there is no way people would be mourning the death of the current crop of celebrities. I dont know if thats true because social media and the digital age has bestowed staggering celebrity upon the likes of kanye west and taylor swift and rihanna and beyonce, they are not just household swift and rihanna and beyonce, they are notjust household names, so god for bid when stars of this generation start to die off, you know, theyre going to colonize the media injust as know, theyre going to colonize the media in just as George Michael and prince and david bowie did in 2016. Thank you for your time. Cheers. You are watching breakfast and carol is here. It is cold. It is minus four celsius at bournemouth airport, but plus nine in the outer hebrides. We have frost particularly across england and wales, but for most today, it will be largely dry. High pressure once again is in charge of our weather. Hardly a breath of wind in the south. It is breezy in the north as you can tell from the squeeze of the isobars. Not many problems with frost further north. The breeze keeping it at bay. We have got showers across parts of northern and western scotland. Through the day, for most, it will be dry. It will improve in the north and the west. We will see sunshine, but with a bit of sirius cloud coming in, the sunshine will turn hazier. So this afternoon, a fine afternoon. A nippy one if youre heading out across southern counties and the Isle Of Wight over to kent. It is the same across essex and can . T and the east midlands. A lot of sunshine and hazy at times as the cloud comes across. At times there will be more cloud across northern england, but nonetheless, today you should still see sunny nonetheless, today you should still see sunny spells. For scotland, still a chill in the air, but still thats in rural areas, still we lose the showers through the course of the showers through the course of the afternoon and then as we move into Northern Ireland, again, a wee bit more Cloud Building for you through the day. Still sunny spells at times, but it will be hazy. A fine afternoon if youre stepping out across wales. Now, through the evening, quite quickly, underthe clear skies, temperatures will drop. We will see frost and more readily tonight, we will see fog patches forming. Especially so across england and parts of wales. So tomorrow morning, there will be some dense fog to watch out for. It might well lead to some disruption to your Travel Arrangements so do keep in touch with the Weather Forecast and some of it wont clear. Some of it will lift into low cloud and some of it will just hang will lift into low cloud and some of it willjust hang around through the day and if youre stuck under that, it will feel cold. Temperatures will struggle to break freezing. Towards the west, we will see more in the way of sunshine. Sunshine across Northern Ireland and some sunshine across central and eastern scotland, but we have got a Weather Front not too far away. The cloud will build across north West Scotland and we will see showers with the rain coming into the outer hebrides. Temperatures 11 celsius in stornoway and ten celsius in plymouth and only four celsius in norwich. For wednesday, into thursday, we lose this high pressure, but another one is forming out towards the south west. Again, there is a good squeeze in the isobars so it will be windy, but not as windy as we have seen windy, but not as windy as we have seenin windy, but not as windy as we have seen in the last couple of days. We have got some Weather Fronts coming our way which at times will push in across parts of the north west and introduce some splashes of rain. So as we head through thursday and friday, there will be more cloud around than in the earlier part of the week. On thursday, it will be mostly dry. You are prone to seeing some dampness across the north west, with temperatures this the capitals between six and about eight celsius and as we head on into friday, a bit more cloud at times which could produce rain, but look at they temperature in belfast, were looking at 11 celsius. As we head into the weekend, which, of course is hog homany. Dress up warm if youre going out that night. Youre right. Thank you for keeping me company. For many of us, its the time of year to either be sat around the dinner table or in front of the television. But with a rise in streaming services, gone are the days of the whole country watching the same programme at the same time. Breakfasts Sean Farrington has been looking at the boom in on demand. Weve been gorging this christmas, Notjust On Food but on data. This year the average household has consumed over 130 gigabytes of data each month, the equivalent to more than 200 episodes of planet earth ii, the iplayers most Popular Programme of the year. So the way we get that data into our households is through broadband and the faster the connection the more likely we are to download our favourite programmes. The better the connection, 30 or a0 megabits a second, the more likely we are then to use online video like sky tv, amazon prime, bbc iplayer or netflix. I watch netflix and youtube. I use it for minecraft. I want to binge. I want to start at the beginning, watch it all night. I watch iplayer on the computer and sometimes on my mums phone and dads phone. In the evening i will sit here and watch netflix with my husband. I will do something on my phone and my daughter will be upstairs with her laptop and occasionally, not every night at all, and occasionally the youngest will be in this bed with this best baby sitter, the ipad, and he mayjust watch a bit of youtube to settle him down for the night. Although there has been a big improvement on 2015, the regulator, 0fcom, says that large parts of the uk are still not able to get a decent broadband connection. Over one million homes not able to download fast and offer for a modern familys needs. Broadband is so important now to families, particularly younger families, where everybody wants to be online at once doing their own thing. It is now is important to them as electricity and decent running water. The problem is that there are still frowned a thousand homes cannot stream one video will own two or three videos. Its important because the availability of faster broadband has meant were taking more control of what we watch and more particularly when it suits us. The Number Crunchers at the bbcs iplayer think theyll see traffic on their website increased by 36 around the christmas period. When its christmas time you watch more together. Because theres nothing else to do. I dont mean that. Youre around each other more. You dont go to school, you have no homework. As we enter 2017 we noticed that the kids and family space is underserviced at the moment so we will invest heavily in high Quality Content that does not patronise young audiences. On average we watch over four hours of television a day. Mostly through the familiar tv channels. There is still lots of room for growth for the likes of amazon and netflix with a particular challenge for 2017, can they get the whole family together in the same room to watch something online . Thank you to all of you watching us over christmas, we appreciate it. If youve ever bought any clothes or personal possessions second hand, have you ever wondered about the story behind them . A series currently on Bbc Radio Four is doing exactly that, and discovering some remarkable information. Lets find out more with two of the people taking part, jenni crane and proinsias 0coinn. Good morning. Thank you very much for joining good morning. Thank you very much forjoining us. Good morning. Jenny, i think it started with you and a suitcase which we have here. Yeah. You bought this suitcase because. More my Shoe Collection of course. Ive got loads of shoes and i thought i wanted something to keep my shoes in and i wanted Something Like a vintagy old suitcase with fairy lights and feathers, and shoes and when i got it home and saw the name on the front there, it never had a shoe in its life. You saw the name and you were fascinated . Fascinated. I got it home and it was really faded and i didnt know what cf stood for which is chaplain forces. I typed the name into google which has been fantastic. Up popped a grave. I thought oh my goodness, thats not what i thought, that i would find and yes, i found out that he was an army chaplain, attached to the seventh airborne battalion and was killed on d day. The only british chaplain to have died on d day. British chaplain to have died on dday. Thats an extraordinary journey to be on. You did a bit more digging and what did you find . Ah, so digging and what did you find . Ah, so much. Where do i begin . So he was chaplain to the forces. He was welsh. He was of welsh decent. From near you . 20 minutes away from my mum and dads. For me, you know to, suddenly found this man, ifound the suitcase and then to be connected back to south wales was bizarre. Then i found out the way in which he was killed on d day and i just thought wow, he is a real unsung hero and i have got to find out more about him. You have done something similar with a different object. I got that when i was 15 or 16. Myjourney has been about 12 or 13 years long. It looks like a military jacket. You 13 years long. It looks like a militaryjacket. You found out what it is . When i bought it, i didnt think there was any kind of history or story connected to it. It stood out amongst all the other military jackets that was in the shop at the time. But jackets that was in the shop at the time. But i tried the jacket on on the train on the way home, put my hand in the pocket and found this letter. Oh my gosh. This was the cat catalyst to the story. The uniform was given. I cant read it now. Tell us the story. It turns out that David Griffiths who the uniform was given to, he was actually from belfast. So i searched for George Nelson Coco Beach Florida for years and could never find him. It clearly says gorge nelson and you have the address. Whenever i was searching for hill, i couldnt find him and i tried to get in contact with the motel and no correspondence back and i tried to look for different George Nelsons in the cocoa beach area. In august, we started properly looking for him and the storyjust unfolded amazingly. I couldnt believe it. He left belfast when he was eight and he went to america in 1930 and thats where he grew up with his family and then his belfast family, but they all became close in his later life and he gave the jacket to a young David Griffiths. He was also a young David Griffiths. He was also a championship roller skater. L championship roller skater. Him and his wife, they went all over america. They entered competition, he choreographed Roller Skating Routines for films, all this here, all this here kind of stuff that was so all this here kind of stuff that was so far removed from the military story that i had invested time into trying to find out, so he was also served in world war ii. He was tasked with landing the boats on to the beach for the soldiers to get off. So he served mostly in the philippines. So he had this massively interesting life that i just felt honoured to own a part of his story. Whats lovely about both of you. We all probably own things that have Amazing Stories behind them, but we dont make the effort. Were nosey people by the sounds of it. And stubborn and refused to give |we it. And stubborn and refused to give up we have been looking for these people for a long time and we knew eventually we would find them. Thank you very much indeed. The next episode of the series, the chaplains suitcase, is on radio 4 this afternoon at four oclock. And yours has been on, so people can find it on iplayer. Thank you. Stay with us. Headlines are next. Hello, this is breakfast with louise minchin. Coming up weve got a review of what came out at the movies over the past year, but first a summary of this mornings main news. The childrens commissioner for england says the vast majority of young carers receive no support from local authority social services. More than 160,000 young people in england are carers, but Anne Longfield says four out of five of them are going under the radar. The local Government Association said funding cuts mean councils are being forced to make difficult decisions. Some voters in england will have to show photo id before being allowed to vote, as part of a new trial. Its one of a number of schemes being introduced by the government to reduce electoral fraud
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