Transcripts For BBCNEWS Newsnight 20170628

Defeating a Labour Amendment to the queens speech. It should also win the final vote on that queens speech tomorrow. So it will then have shown it can survive. But thrive . Not so clear. In the last 2a hours or so, weve seen raggedness of thought and ill discipline of purpose. We thought the goals for this government were to deliver brexit and reduce the deficit, but unity on both those looks to be disintegrating. Chancellor Philip Hammond made a thinly veiled joke at the expense of borisjohnson last night, and appeared at odds with david davis over transitional brexit arrangements. And more confusion today on austerity. There were hints that the Public Sector pay cap would be dropped, and then those hints were played down later on. When a teacher loses control of a class, its hard to get it back. Is that where mrs may finds herself at the dawn of this parliament . Well, nick watt, our political editor, is with me. First, there is Public Sector pay staff and the morning story was one thing, it changed this afternoon, what was going on behind the scenes . It is welcome to our new Minority Government and newly assertive chancellor of the exchequer so we can watch cabinet rows in technicolour we had michael fallon, jeremy hunt and Chris Grayling say the government is listening to the electorate and the time has come to take a look at the Public Sector 1 pay cap imposed in 2012. Downing street backed them until Philip Hammond insisted there was no change and the cap would last until 2020. I understand Philip Hammond has said the colleagues if there is a fiscal announcement, that is myjob. And a £4. 1 billion commitments to increase Public Sector pay in line with inflation, that would need a funding stream. These three Cabinet Ministers do not have a history of freelancing and i understand they are saying to the chancellor, we thought we were echoing your comments when you said a couple of weeks ago you were not deaf to concerns about austerity. That is one argument. Where does this leave the government, or more specifically, we are at the beginning of this parliament, where does it leave theresa may and her government . As you said, we have had Senior Ministers at odds on two consecutive days, and two defining issues of this government, Fiscal Policy and brexit. The diplomatic way to look at this is, as one westminster figure said, this is reflective of a Government Finding its way. But can a wounded Prime Minister assert her authority over cabinet, or will she be buffeted around as her weakness means traditional Cabinet Squabbles play out in the open . Downing street hopes its likely success in the main queens speech vote tomorrow will put this government and theresa may on a firm footing. So i had been looking to see whether that number 10 calculation really will play out. Enfeebled by her surprise electoral setback, the Prime Minister has lost that most precious political weapon, control of timing. In the three weeks since polling day, theresa may has watched as a mere spectator while the clock has ticked down on her premiership. Clock chimes. The likely passage of the queens speech tomorrow will give theresa may her first opportunity since the election to resume some control over the date of her exit. Allies have told newsnight that, having secured the tory grip on number 10, the Prime Minister will seek to remain in Downing Street for at least two years, the duration of the brexit talks. But one former Cabinet Minister believes theresa may should stand down by the time of the next election, if not before. It is widely accepted, as i say, across the Conservative Party, that we need to have a new leader in place by the time that the Conservative Party goes into the next election. A Leading Brexit supporter believes theresa may could yet confound her critics. Being Prime Minister, in tenancy terms, is an assured shorthold, rather than the 1977 tenancy act. Some prime mnisters who look incredibly strong and will go on forever are gone quite quickly. If you take David Cameron in august 2015, you thought he could be there for years and he is gone within 12 months. If you take Margaret Thatcher in 1981, everyone is conspiring to get rid of her and then the falklands comes along and shes in for nearly another ten years. With mrs may, its very hard to tell, but she could be there longer than people are currently speculating. With the dup, there is the basis of a parliamentary majority. Tory mps dont want an election, the dup doesnt want an election, a lot of backbench labour mps dont much want an election either. In private, Cabinet Ministers agree with the Prime Minister that she has the right to see the brexit talks through, though they wonder whether she has the stomach for a relentless fight in parliament. Other tories say that the successful passage of the queens speech will allow them to ask difficult questions about her future as Prime Minister. They say that the length of her tenure in Downing Street will depend on the answers to three questions. In the first place, does she have the authority to see the brexit negotiations through . Secondly, is there a credible alternative . And the final question is, can she rise again like a phoenix . Nicky morgan believes the brexit Timetable Points to a natural handover of power around the autumn of next year. Once that shape of brexit is concluded, once those deals are very much on the table, the Conservative Party must not miss the opportunity at that stage to think about who we want to be our future leader. Thats interesting because essentially, the position is, the barnier position is that the deal should be on the table by basically october 2018, so you can allow for that ratification. So it could well be around that stage, towards the end of 2018, that the Conservative Party needs to think about who its leader should be. I think thats probably right, thats certainly one timetable. Of course, i think one of the things that the last couple of years have shown is that Making Predictions about british politics, or international politics, is incredibly difficult at the moment. But i think the point is that the Conservative Party, having started on the brexit road, really is going to own the negotiations, is going to own the shape of brexit, and thats clearly going to be something that will, if not be the issue of the next election, will be something that well be standing on that record in terms of the party going into the next election. 0ne tory, who was a Surprise Loser in the election, thinks theresa may will need to change her ways to survive. We will need a leader who can articulate a vision about where britain is and where it needs to be in the next ten years. Thats the task. And i think theresa is an excellent operator in many, many ways, but she has got to change her style in terms of setting out an agenda, talking about a vision and connecting with people. If she does not do that, i think there may well have to be a change. 0ne Tory Grandee told me simply, theresa may is finished as Prime Minister. She has no authority to conduct the brexit negotiations and she should announce immediately after the passage of the queens speech tomorrow night that she is allowing for an orderly transition to a successor. But one Cabinet Minister who is aware of the Prime Ministers flaws says that she is slowly building up her credibility around the Cabinet Table and in parliament. Theresa may is helped by strong backing from brexiteers. 0ne leading figure insists he supports her on merit. Very often, our strengths and our weaknesses are two sides of the same coin. Theresa may is strong and stable, or she is a rude word difficult woman and if you are looking at her strengths, she is strong and stable, if you are an opponent, she is, expletive, difficult woman. And that is exactly the same personality type. What we need at the moment is somebody who is resolute and carries on, has an element of stubbornness within her. That seems to me to be the leader that weve got. Jacob rees mogg believes the talk of an early leadership contest is far fetched. I think its folderol. I dont think anything is actually happening. None of these figures has tapped me on the shoulder, nor have their agents, and said, why dont you back so and so, snodgrass minor, for the leadership . A beneficiary of the troubled Tory Campaign offers some advice for the Prime Minister. She wont last as Prime Minister if she cannot build agreement across the house for a sane brexit. She wont, because people are very clear from what they heard from their constituents, that a change in approach is needed. And she really does need to understand what happened during the election, drop those slogans, focus on the same brexit, and build across party divides. By tomorrow night, theresa may will have consolidated her hold over Downing Street, giving her greater control over the timing of her next moves. But a sense that the countdown to her own exit has slowed may, ironically, embolden tory critics to speak out. Im joined now by conservative mp david jones, who was, until very recently, the Minister Of State for exiting the eu. Good evening. How long do you give theresa may . Well, i think we have to acknowledge that it was a difficult election campaign, we did not do as well as we wanted. But i think most mps were very impressed by what she did immediately after, she came to the 1922 committee and she acknowledged there had been mistakes, she put her hands up to it, and she got a great deal of support from everybody present in the room. And i think that slowly but surely, she is building up her credibility with the party and she has got quite a long time ahead of her. You say building up the credibility but today, the first vote in parliament, a vote on a Labour Amendment to get rid of the Public Sector 1 pay cap. You voted against the Labour Amendment and the Morning Briefing was you would get rid of the cap and this afternoon, it you retreated on the change on policy. It was like complete confusion. Can the next days of this parliament carry on like that . I have to acknowledge today was not one of the best days. Looking at what has happened over the last two weeks, i have seen theresa may stabilising the ship. Sorry, stabilising the ship . Since the election, which was a disaster, Grenfell Tower, she had to apologise to the nation for the reaction to that. And today, complete confusion over policy. It has been a very difficult time, i do not do neither. You said she is building up her credibility. Yes, at the end of the election campaign, that credibility was very low and the entire partys credibility was low. I do not detect an appetite within the party to see her go. Would you describe your old department, the department you were dropped from, would you describe that as chaos . No, iwould not. I would say it is an extremely flexible department and it has an extremely strong team of officials prepared for the negotiations. You were dropped and another one resigned five days before the negotiations started, that is madness im not second guessing the Prime Minister. Ijust said, i am not second guessing why the Prime Minister decided to dispense of my services. Any politician who takes an administerial role knows that he is much closer to leaving when he takes up an ad ministerial role. We lost two people who would be negotiating and has the brink in people who had five days notice to meet michel barnier. Two competent people who will do and extremely good job, backed up by a strong team of officials and led by the very competent state with davis. Do you think david davis and Philip Hammond can both stay in post for the next two years and agree something . Yes, and quite contrary to reports in the days newspapers, they work very closely indeed and have regular meetings and discussions. The reports today have been overblown and it is a difference of emphasis. And i think they are working extremely closely and very effectively together. What is the difference of emphasis . This morning, there was a suggestion that hammond wanted us to remain in the Customs Union and david davis saying not. It is, they both agree we will have to be out of the Customs Union and the Single Market by the end of this parliament, in five years time. Even though you were dropped from the government, you are behaving and being rude to them in a very loyal way, and you clearly think theresa may should stick it out for quite a while, youre basically with the party on of this. In a way, it seems like the Leadership Issue has become a proxy for the brexit issue. Listening to Nicky Morgan Thinking that the clock is ticking on theresa may and Jacob Rees Mogg saying she is the right person to steer us through. But is it not the case that brexiteers are putting their faith in theresa may, Soft Brexiteers or remainers are saying we might need to get rid of her . I think there is no doubt that brexit is going to be the defining issue of this parliament and we only have a very limited timetable to work through, one year and nine months. What we cannot afford if the indulgence of talking about alternative leaders or putting in place somebody else for someone who i think will do a very good job and will lead the country to these negotiations effectively. Youre making my point, the brexiteers clearly have more faith in her than any one else. You say this is no time for indulgence but it is surely the time for people to discuss and express their concern over the theresa may plan for brexit which clearly did not grab the population in the election. I dont think it was that. I think the big issues were non brexit issues, most clearly social care but others as well. As far as brexit is concerned, we are now in a position where 80 of the electorate of this country voted for parties who want to take britain out of the eu. What planet are you on . Loads of swing voters, who might have voted tory, voted forjeremy Corbyns Labour Party because they so detested the Theresa May Version of brexit. I dont see how you can possibly read that into the election result. The polls show, and i know we dont put a huge amount of weight on them, but that more people did not like her version of brexit than did. You cant say that anybody who voted labour was endorsing her version of brexit. We have already set ourselves on the course for leaving the European Union. You were saying that if somebody voted labour, they were effectively endorsing Theresa Mays Brexit and that is completely untrue, it was a protest against her brexit. I dont see how you can read that into it. They thought they would get a softer brexit from labour and stay in the Customs Union, potentially because they thought it was bonkers to leave. I think that is a complete misreading of the election. Do you accept polls that show more people believe that Theresa Mays Brexit should be amended than support it . Her brexit is clear and that is to leave the eu, but to seek the best possible relationship with the eu in terms of a Free Trade Agreement and access to the Single Market. All those mps have been honest about their views on the situation, let the mps vote on which brexit they want. Forgive me, but we have already agreed and decided to leave the European Union. There are multiple ways of leaving, it doesnt have to be the way you want. The ways of leaving are specified in article 50 of that is the process we are going through. Are you saying there is literally only one way of leaving the eu, there are no choices in that at all . The choice has been made, we have served the notice under article 50 and we are on our way out of the European Union. What were doing is attempting to seek the best possible relationship with the European Union after we have left. And i think that is something that is shared by members of parties on both sides of the house. David jones, thank you very much. The police today admitted that the final death toll from the Grenfell Tower fire will not be known until at least the end of the year. 80 people are so far known or presumed to have been killed by the fire. Now, of course, as a response to that horror, the authorities have been testing the cladding on many buildings similar to grenfell. The important finding is that all have been found unfit. Its an extraordinary result. Given that, is it time to stop testing and just get on with the removal of cladding from buildings at risk . That is the view of the National Housing federation, which represents the English Housing associations. Social housing has been particularly badly affected. David 0rr is the Chief Executive of the federation. Good evening. What would be the case for stopping the Testing Programme now . Our First Priority is to ensure that people feel safe and secure at home. Many people dont feel that and, having had 120 different tests from different samples from different buildings in different parts of the country, i think we can now say that, according to the tests that the government is carrying out, this cladding is not fit for purpose. We dont need to test any more of it and frankly nobody living in a property that has this cladding is going to feel comfortable because of these results. There is a lot of time and energy going into moving kit and equipment around the country to do the tests but lets not do that, lets take a step back and prioritise exactly what we do to make people safe and secure at home. Is it necessarily the case that the building that has that cladding on it is unsafe or is it possible that the cladding can be constructed in a way that is safer or the building can be fire safe in other ways, despite it . It is possible for buildings to be safe even with that cladding in certain circumstances but in a way that is no longer the point. The point is that government had initiated this testing regime, every single sample has failed, so. Were not learning anything. No, and this cladding is no longer the answer. So your priority might be buildings that might have one staircase and no sprinklers and you would start with those, get the cladding off and down the line. In a way, this is not an issue about housing, it is about cladding and how people feel about it. We have cladding on all kinds of places, hospitals, prisons, schools, Student Housing private sector, social housing, across the board, and people need to feel reassured. At the moment, activity is happening immediately following a test and we need to take a step back. This is a major systemic failure. All of the claddings had been fitted according to the ruled that were in place at the time, according to the regime presided over by government. We now have government saying, according to these tests, its not safe. So we had to prioritise which are the least safe, where we take action and the government has to pay for it. That is a very important thing. You are pointing the finger back at government. Are you clear in your head whether this cladding was specified by engineers in breach of regulations, whether it was allowed by regulations, or whether it was not specified by engineers but was simply put up by contractors saving a bob or two . What im clear about is that anybody who is commissioning a new building or these kinds of Regeneration Projects have to go through a whole process of safety, through planning, Building Control, and there are experts at each stage, architects in the design of the design, designers and people who have to say it is safe, Building Control that has to give its consent. At some point, a pass mark has been stamped to allow these buildings to be fitted with this cladding. If that regime is no longer fit for purpose, there is an urgent necessity for us to know what in future we will regard as being safe so that we can equip all of these buildings and make them safe. And in terms of cost, the government is talking about 600 buildings, assuming they all need doing, it is a couple of Million Pounds to put the cladding on grenfell and youre talking about a billion or. Were talking about a very substantial sum of money which should not have to be paid by the remaining residents. Thank you very much. 0n the subject of grenfell, the times is reporting tonight that the Prime Minister has found a person to chair the public enquiry into the grenfell fire. Nick, you have been checking this story out. Thats right, an important story and i have had it confirmed that we will have a written ministerial statement tomorrow that will announce that sir martin moore bick, a recently retired lord chiefjustice of appeal, will be appointed as chairman of the Grenfell Tower inquiry. The times is reporting he is an immensely responded figure in legal circles but it suggest there has been a hold up in the appointment because of concerns of a rolling when he upheld in favour of Westminster City Council in dispute with a single mother of five who refused to be rehoused in milton keynes, and this womans lawyers said the ruling set a terrible precedent for local authorities to engage in social cleansing of the poor on a mass scale. It would not surprise me if, tomorrow, we hear ministers saying that this appointment was made on the recommendation of the lord chiefjustice because of course theresa may as Home Secretary had experience of setting up an enquiry into child abuse, when the chair do not command the confidence of victims. Nick, thank you. 28 years after it happened, criminal charges have been levelled against six people in relation to the disaster at the Hillsborough Stadium that left 96 people dead. The charges relate both to the causes of the disaster itself, and also to conduct of various of the accused in the investigations afterward. Peter marshall was at hillsborough that day in 1989. He was working for newsnight at the time and has made Award Winning documentaries on the disaster since. This is a very important day for the families. It is, and i have been checking on my calculator and it is 10,300 days since the horrors of hillsborough for those families and the traumatised survivors. At last they have some individuals charged, so this is a big day. There is some measure of satisfaction but this abutment that the charges do not go further and there are not more senior, Junior Officers and civilians judge but the cbs have pointed out they are hamstrung because you cant charge organisations like Sheffield Wednesday Football Club or the South Yorkshire ambulance service, because they have been entirely reconstituted and are different organisations now to what they were then. So there is no legal line of responsible the remaining. Hillsborough was a long time ago, three decades of Tortuous Struggle to get here. April the 15th, 1989. 56,000 people are at hillsborough, sheffield, for a fa cup semifinal. Even now on the terrace behind the goal, packed with liverpool fans, people are dying. With fans spilling onto the pitch to escape the crush, the game is abandoned. 96 people died. The match commander, South Yorkshire chief superintendent david duckenfield, had ordered a gate outside the ground to be opened, allowing fans crammed outside onto the already overcrowded terrace. Duckenfield will face charges of Gross Negligence manslaughter. The Crown Prosecution Service will allege duckenfields failure to discharge his responsibility at hillsborough was extraordinarily bad. Sir Norman Bettison faces four charges of misconduct in public office. Sir norman, who later became Chief Constable of merseyside and later still West Yorkshire an apparently glittering career was a South Yorkshire superintendent at the time of hillsborough. The cps allege he told lies about his involvement in the aftermath of the disaster and the culpability of the fans. He maintained today he was innocent and would contest the charges. Peter metcalf, the solicitor for South Yorkshire police during the original inquiry and the first, discredited, inquests, is accused of perverting the course of justice. Metcalf reviewed accounts provided by officers and, according to the prosecutor, made suggestions for alterations, deletions and amendments for which there appears to be no justification. Metcalf refused to speak today. No comment. Former South Yorkshire chief superintendent don denton and former deputy chief inspector alan foster are also charged with perverting justice. Both are said to be involved in the statement amendment process. The sixth man to be charged is graham mackrell. He was Company Secretary for Sheffield Wednesday, who owned hillsborough. As Safety Officer at hillsborough, he faces two charges alleging he failed to carry out his duties as required by law. For the bereaved families who have campaigned for nearly 30 years, this is a stage towards justice that for decades looked impossible. The announcement of charges was met with their applause. Im absolutely delighted. Weve got today everything we could have asked for. The decisions by the cps in my opinion were correct, or are correct. And we look forward to the due process through the courts of law. Ill give you a personal response if i may. A mixed bag, a couple of names we didnt expect and a few that we think have been omitted. Todays announcement is the outcome of four years of investigations by the polices Operation Resolve and the independent Police Complaints commission. And the cpss deliberations over who may or may not be charged arent finished yet. Files on West Midlands police, the force which investigated South Yorkshire immediately after the disaster, giving them what amounted to a clean bill of health, are still being considered. The Prosecutor Says investigations are continuing. Prosecutors had been considering charging 23 individuals. They have settled today on six. Circumstances may have restricted their options. That situation in law is complex, because they have to be very careful that they are taking a case, and they take major legal advice on this, they are taking a case not on the balance of probabilities but beyond reasonable doubt. And what that means is they have to be more than 50 sure that they will get a conviction before they set out. Otherwise the case will be dismissed before it starts. Six people charged. Not enough in my view, not enough. But six more than yesterday and certainly six more than a few years ago when we couldnt have even dreamt of this. It is not easy for western journalists to get much access to senior members of isis. The group has killed journalists, taken them hostage, and indeed, still holds james cantlie. But onejournalist, souad mekhennet, has gone behind the lines ofjihad. A muslim woman, born in germany, she was one of those who used her contacts to identify jihadijohn as Mohammed Emwazi. Shes written her experiences into a new book called i was told to come alone, and she is with me now. Good evening. It takes courage to leave your phone and everybody behind and going to a strange place, with people who you know have been holding journalists, yet that is what you did in order to meet them. Tell us about your meeting with the boss ofjihadi john. Well, it was during a time when we did not know what is isis, a couple of weeks after the so called caliphate was declared. Like other journalists, we were very curious to understand what the objectives of this caliphate . What do they want . How does it function . So i tried to negotiate with people within isis, to meet with somebody, somebody who had something to say, not just a foot soldier. At the beginning, they had the idea i should go into the caliphate, which my boss refused. So we found this middle ground where we decided to meet alongside the border region. Things changed constantly. We were supposed to meet during the day, then they pushed it further into the night. And by the end of the day, they decided i had to come alone, which is one reason the book is told i was told to come alone. They asked me to leave behind id and phones. As a journalist, we have to sometimes make a decision in terms of, is the story worth it . It was a period where we had so many questions and i thought that we have to talk to them and know what they say, who they are, and figure out who they are in order to understand how this caliphate functions. What were they like . In human terms, this guy, you meet him in the desert and he drives you into the desert, some remote part. Is he demonic . Is he perfectly ordinary and civil . This is the thing. A lot of people do not understand, some of those guys, especially this guy, turned out he grew up in europe. He had a similar background. I was able to figure out also where he grew up. I learned who he was true identity. And he did not come from a deprived family. He was highly educated and he spoke several languages. He did study. And he talked to me over politics, like most of the guys. When i meet them, whether it is isis or the taliban, they talk to me and they discuss current policy mainly and religion comes later. And i believe that a lot of people do not understand they see it very often as a war of islam against the west, but it is not that. Those guys discuss with you on Foreign Policy issues mainly. One of the striking things, a lot of us view them and think, how can you talk to isis . There are other Terrorist Groups around the world you can have a conversation with, they have a cause and a set of objectives and you can possibly negotiate over those things. We are not going to negotiate with people over their desire to impose a caliphate over the entire world, or whatever it is. Did you have a sensible conversation, to put it bluntly . Sensible is a difficult word to use here. Because you can see in the book the debate we had turned into a heated discussion at some stage because i challenged them, and i challenge any person i interview. It is not like i sit and listen, no, i challenged the ideology and i asked, how can you, this is not syria or iraq, those are not your countries, how can you come here and basically just declare a caliphate . It is the other thing people do not understand very often. It is not isis against the west, isis is going against any person if they do not stand up for the ideology. A lot of enemies. In the book, you make an enormous efforts to understand what motivates and animates causes like this, how difficult is it to avoid getting into, from understanding to apologising for and explaining away . Sorry for interrupting, this is not a book that apologises and that is an excuse for terrorism, absolutely not. I believe it is very important if people really wants to find we have to understand that radicalisation starts in our societies. Those people, jihadi john and Mohammed Emwazi and many like him, they grew up in the west and they got radicalised in the west, and there is a reason why. I believe if people want to find solutions, they have to start much earlier, before they get radicalised. The book is called, i was told to come alone. Thank you very much, souad mekhennet. Its hard to pin down exactly why some cuddly Animal Characters that are devised for children turn out to have quite such massive appeal, but among those that has captured the imagination more than most is paddington bear. His creator, michael bond, died today, at the age of 91. He sold 35 million paddington books. His daughter, karen jankel, said of him that. You can telljust by reading his books what a lovely person he was. And indeed, that was the impression that many of us who loved paddington had. Who still love paddington. Stephen smith looks at the Life And Work of michael bond. Mr and mrs brown first met paddington on a railway station, which was how he came to have such an unusual name for a bear. They were waiting for their daughter, judy, when mr brown caught sight of him sitting on an old suitcase, behind a pile of mail bags. As they drew near, he stood up and politely raised his hat. Its one of the great entrances in literature a bear on Paddington Station, in hat and duffle coat, with the Luggage Label hed worn all the way from. Darkest peru, said the bear. Im not really supposed to be here at all, im a stowaway. Well, its one of these chance encounters that one has in life sometimes. You meet somebody or turn a corner and it changes your whole life. And i happened to miss a bus one christmas evening and went into a big london store and saw this toy bear sitting on the counter and nobody had bought it. It was the only one left. So i couldnt resist it and took it home to my wife, and we lived near paddington, so we decided to call it paddington. And one day, i was sitting with a blank sheet of paper and a typewriter, knowing that nobody else was going to put any words on unless i did something, and started to write a story about it, and that was the beginning of a book. Michael bonds story was first realised in the pen and ink sketches of illustrator peggy fortnum, who herself only passed away last year, also in her nineties. As a child, you feel like hes on your side because hes going through all those same experiences that you go through when you accidentally mess something up. Mrs bird made very good stews. And if he had any complaints at all, it was that her dumplings were a little on the small side. Paddington decided that his dumplings would be the biggest ever made i think basically, its the small man up against lifes problems. In many ways, hes what i would like to be in life. I mean, he has a strong sense of right and wrong, which i may have, but whereas he does the right thing, i dont always do that. Hes got his feet or his paws very firmly on the ground. Yes, i think hes what id like to be. Paddington is partly a story of fathers and sons. The bears rescued by the father figure, mr brown, and michael bond himself took inspiration from his own dad. Hes very polite, a polite bear. Rather based on my father. My father was a very polite man and always wore a hat, in case he met somebody, and had to have something to raise. And paddingtons got a lot of him in him. Im singing in the rain. Just singing in the rain. What a glorious. Paddingtons creator didnt really enjoy writing, he admitted, but in rainy old london, he dreamt up a classic childrens story and an international bestseller, in the twinkling of an eye. The suns in my heart and im ready for love. I didnt intend to write a book at all. I wrote it to please myself, and i wrote it very quickly. And i put in things like a duffle coat that i was wearing at the time, and an old government surplus hat. In ten days, i had what turned out to be a book on my hands. London is the place for me. Michael bond never wanted for the price of a Marmalade Sandwich again. And when they made the paddington movie, he even had a cameo, toasting the bears good fortune. And hes right up there in the great pantheon of bears, isnt he . With yogi and winnie the pooh. 0h, hes right up there i mean, you only have to go to Paddington Station and now theres a statue and theres the pop up shop, because people love it and they love him. So, yeah, i dont think hes going to go away. I love writing about paddington because the nice thing about writing his books is, he makes me laugh sometimes when im doing a chapter because hes so optimistic. Im dancing and singing in the rain. I shall carry on writing the books as long as i can. And i think one of the nice things about being a writer is that, er, it keeps you young. Michael bond. Thats it for tonight. I will be back tomorrow, until then, good night. Hello there. There were plenty of opportunities to polish up your gene kelly impersonation today across the british isles. If you missed the chance today will come back over the next few days. A sense of the 12 hour Rainfall Totals here and there was plenty more than some and that is just 12 hours. Was plenty more than some and that isjust 12 hours. For some of you it has been raining much longer than 12 hours. Our Weather Watchers were not daunted either, at least on the right side of the glass of this picture. It was not grey everywhere. It hardly parasol whether in North West Scotland and release it did not have all the rain that was on offer. As i say, it was not all doom and gloom. You had to be a long way north to avoid the worst of the rained and still it rains widely across southern, central and eastern parts of scotland. There are bits and pieces that we had as well across the western side of wales down into the south west. Anything positive . Not a cold night. 12 1a a coveted but it will be a fairly dank star to the new day on thursday across the south west of england, the cloud sitting right down on the moors. It is dry across the midlands and east anglia and 1a degrees here as well. Northern wales and england, patchy with leaden skies and patchy rain. Hailand fog patchy with leaden skies and patchy rain. Hail and fog again. Patchy with leaden skies and patchy rain. Hailand fog again. Hill fog. Widely across the heart of scotla nd fog. Widely across the heart of scotland is rain. Areas north of the great blend fare quite nicely. Great blend fare quite nicely. Great glen. South eastern corner of scotla nd great glen. South eastern corner of scotland has rain and at the end of the day, 18 millimetres of rain in some spots there. You need to be away from there to see anything like away from there to see anything like a reasonable temperature. Possibly 20 with some brightness in the South East Underneath the cloud, wind and rain, you are closer to 12, 13, 14. The wind and rain, you are closer to 12, 13, 1a. The pattern is very much same on friday at, patchy rain with brightness in the south east. This may spark some patchy showers on its own right. The start of the weekend in the south eastern quarter could be down to say the least. But to get rid of the weather front and then we look to the atlantic to see a supply of whether for the weekend. Not all of whether for the weekend. Not all of which is doom and gloom. Decent spells of whether in their. We have Weather Fronts coming through primarily overnight for many of us so primarily overnight for many of us so the weekend is warmer, drier and brighter. This is newsday on the bbc. I am rico hizon in singapore. Xijinping is making his first visit to hong kong, 26 pro democracy protesters are kong, 26 pro democracy protesters a re rested kong, 26 pro democracy protesters are rested ahead of his arrival. More countries are hit by the latest wave of Cyber Attacks which could be more dangerous than the previous attacks. Also in the programme they came at him with machetes, we hear from the policeman who tackled the London Bridge attackers. |j from the policeman who tackled the London Bridge attackers. I took my pattern with my right hand, i took a deep breath and i went on. And, what difference does a michelin star make . We