Now on bbc news adam fleming, Laura Kuenssberg and fergus walsh discuss the latest on the coronavirus crisis. I think its time to catch up with an old friend. Oh, i like the sound of that do you want me to give you some clues about who i have arranged for us to have a reunion with . Yes. Yeah. Journalistic legend. 0k. Has worked in many mediums. Whether television or newspapers. 0k. Sometimes has quite a lot of tweets, saying people wish we would get out of the way and let him come back. Oh, i know who that is its andrew neil hello, andrew. Hello to you nice to hear from you. We have called you up and tapped you up, because we want to get all your thoughts about the franco british
relationship on this special, special day, when everyone has been thinking about Charles De Gaulle. Well, i am glad you have, because the franco british relationship is actually in pretty Good Condition at the moment, which may surprise you. Brexit, you think, might have derailed it, but curiously, what is actually meant, and i will come on and talk a bit more about this, is that brexit has put more of a premium on the bilateral issue between london and paris than before and i expect we are going to see it develop a lot more in the months ahead, regardless of how the brexit negotiations go. And much more news from our south of france correspondent very shortly. On this episode of the coronavirus newscast. The coronavirus newscast, from the bbc. Hello, its adam in the studio. And its laura in the studio, but i am going to say, bon soir instead. Bon soir, laura, from christophe in le box of news. And you get to go that bit further. Well talk about Charles De Gaulles famous speech, it was
the 80th anniversary of it today, and we thought we would mark it by getting a living famous french legend to recreate it, in their living room. And we got, david ginola. No fantastic alors honour. Common sense. And in the interests of the country, we require that all free frenchmen, wherever they be, should continue the fight as best they may. Stirring stuff from david ginola. Also, not sure if you are aware, it is also the third anniversary of the first ever episode of a podcast called brexitcast. I didnt know that. That is why the elysee palace sent the president to london today. Did he not pop in and see you, chris . He didnt, no. He didnt have time, apparently. Never mind. Right, on with todays news. So, dominic raab, the foreign secretary, has made some controversial comments on the radio this morning, when he was asked about this symbol that people have been doing, of taking the knee, whether it is american footballers doing it a few years ago, or british footballers doing it in the last couple of days,
in solidarity with black lives matter campaigners. Here is what dominic raab said when he was asked about it this morning. I understand this sense of frustration and restlessness which is driving the black lives Matter Movement. Ive got to say, on this taking the knee thing, which i dont know, maybe its got a broader history, but it seems to be taken from the game of thrones. It seems to me like a symbol of subjugation or subordination, rather than one of liberation and emancipation. But i understand people feel differently about it, so it is a matter of personal choice. So, would you or wouldnt you do it . I would take the knee for two people, the queen and the missus, when i asked her to marry me. Laughter. That was Julia Hartley brewer interviewing the foreign secretary on talk radio this morning. Yes. Laura, subjugation, game of thrones . I think it is fair to say that that was not the most diplomatic choice of words from the politician who is, after all, our diplomat in chief. And, for several reasons, number one, this is an
enormously emotive and sensitive subject and i think all politicians normally try to carefully be as sensitive as they possibly can and, kind of having a bit of a laugh, was not going to go down well with lots of people. The second thing is that, taking the knee is something that has been talked about, notjust in the last couple of weeks, but a couple of years ago, there was a huge storm in the us, President Trump was furious with american football players, for doing that, as a protest about discrimination in the us. But also, if you go back even further, you know, this is also a modern echo of how Martin Luther king, sometimes prayed at protests or during court trials and even further back, there was abolitionism in the 19th century, there was a very famous image of a slave on their knees, that was a symbol of that fight at the time. So to sort of say, there might be a bit of wider history here, but maybe ill Say Something about game of thrones, was obviously seen as pretty disrespectful by a lot of people. Right at this moment. Yeah. And the criticism came pretty quick, didnt it, from david lammy, the shadow justice secretary, from lisa nandy, the opposition number, the shadow foreign secretary and anne davey from the lib dems and as you say, that diplomat in chief role, laura, there was the foreign secretary giving a whole round of interviews, the morning round, as we call it, popping up on numerous tv and radio outlets all morning, gets to the last one, before he goes off to meet his french opposite number and, you know, said something that isnt very diplomatic and becomes the news story. And i think, unfortunately, you know, the government keeps saying, they keep saying repeatedly, we understand the frustrations of people, we are going to have another review, but there have been a few little moments where people who suspect that actually they dont really get it in government, they dont really understand the frustrations of people or the depths of it or the depths of the anxiety. This adds to the impression that some people have that actually the government doesnt really get how strong the feelings are and missteps like this, whether it is that
interview this morning or matt hancock mixing up the name of Marcus Rashford earlier this week, itjust gives that sense to people who are concerned and angry and frustrated that the government is maybe not as involved in all of this as they would like to be. And the foreign secretary, obviously realised quite quickly that he had to come out and clarify his comments and a couple of hours after the interview, he sent a tweet, saying, to be clear, i have full respect for the black lives Matter Movement and the issues driving them. If people wish to take a knee, that is their choice and i respect it. We all need to come together to tackle discrimination and social injustice. A clarificationery tweet. And then he was visiting the bbc to mark the anniversary of the famous Charles De Gaulle broadcast and he was asked about it, but didnt really say anything about it, other than the story did chase him there. Yes, it did. Now, in the next in our series of government ministers saying things that make you go, hmmm, matt hancock, the health secretary, said this at the downing street briefing. I would not recommend an app, unless im confident in it. I have explained,
i hope, why the best parts of the two systems that we have been working on can be brought together, but i am confident that we will get there, we will put that cherry on didos cake. He kind of hesitated a bit, didnt he . Was it one of those moments, because i am conscious, that given the line of work that we are in, you shouldnt throw too many stones at glasshouses, because we may have been in a similar boat occasionally ourselves, when you get halfway down a sentence, in front of a camera, and realise that reversing is really not an option. No, so, chris, can you explain why that likely perplexing statement came out of the health secretarys mouth . I thought you wanted me to. 0h, right, yeah. The political bit. I thought you wanted me to talk about why that phrase was unfortunate. Some of the gaffes you have narrowly avoided. No, the programme is not on long enough for that, it really isnt. This is all about the app, isnt it . I think we said a couple of weeks ago, it is not appening, and then a week ago, it is still not appening and what have we heard in the past couple of days . Well, this app is not coming any time soon at all. One of Matt Hancocks junior ministers said yesterday that it could be the winter and matt hancock today wouldnt go anywhere near putting a timeframe on it, which is kind of proof, that it is nowhere near happening and basically that the one the nhs had been trialling on the isle of wight, this centralised app, as opposed to one that is decentralised, that is important in terms of where the data sits on the whole process, doesnt work, it isnt compatible with various systems, and so they are going to rely on the Old Fashioned stuff, the testing and tracing stuff of e mailing and phoning up people and getting e mails and phone calls out to people who you may have bumped into. But it does mean, that if youre sat next to somebody on the bus, who has coronavirus, youre not going to be told about it, because there is going to be no way that they can get in touch with you. And it has all gone into a tangle with the technology companies, too, but essentially what has happened is that the nhs is giving up on developing its own app and is instead going to be working with
the Tech Companies. There is a bit of intrigue, there was reporting in the times this morning and i have heard a few whispers this afternoon about how the Tech Companies may have been being rather, shall we say, less than helpful and perhaps notjust with the uk government, but perhaps also with other governments around the world . But why this matters is because this was meant to be a central part of how the government wants to get out of this and into the second phase, where we can all manage our lives, while trying to manage the disease as a country. And it is not happening. Cherry or no cherry. And dido of course is dido harding who is running the test and trace programme. She is the conservative peer. Right, quickly, to northern ireland, because there is more details of the unlocking under way there. Yeah. So, you can get your hair cut. Amazing but also, and this is really intriguing, and a big sign of where things might go here, which we have talked about a lot of this programme, so our viewers and listeners will know, the two metre rule is a big political point, a vexation at the moment, because if you relax the distance
that people have to be apart from each other, well then it makes it much easier to open a business, much easier to get kids back to school, etc etc. Northern ireland has today said that kids going back to school can be within one metre of each other and that is, potentially, transformational, not just there, but maybe, if different bits of the country are all seeing the same science, seeing the same advice, they are making their own decisions, devolution has been a whole core point of this, but isnt it interesting that it may be a big hint that we may get the relaxation in the rest of the uk sooner than we think . Laura, it sounds like the government is preparing to spend a lot of money in another policy area and it is schools and it is this thing that has been trialled already by the Prime Minister at various press c0 nfe re nces , a catch up service, whatever that is, for pupils who have missed out on a lot of teaching during the pandemic. Exactly. It is not iplayer, if youre thinking, what is a catch up service . So, we know how big a problem it has been
for the government and for schools and most of all, families who have had kids at home, trying to teach them at home, the take up of pupils going into schools has been pretty low, it has been very difficult, of course, for schools to get back up and running, so huge amounts of chat about, in the summer, kids getting some kind of extra help in order to try and close the gaps that we know have been widening all the time already. And tomorrow we are expecting an announcement, probably, of a pretty big chunk of change, if you think how much the government is spending on this crisis, and what we anticipate is there will be loads of money for tutoring, for kids who have been particularly at a disadvantage, but it is not clear yet what kind of thing will this be . Will it be summer camps, summer school, or will it be up to each individual school, maybe, to decide what to do with their cash . Well, lets discuss this now with a genuine, genuine expert. Its Carol Vorderman hello, carol. Hello. Thank you. Thank you for that introduction. Now, carol, youve got three hats in this conversation. One, maths super brain, two,
founder of the maths factor, which is an online maths tutoring service, so very relevant to this discussion and also, a few years ago, you helped out David Cameron when he was was Prime Minister, by doing a review about numeracy, so there are loads of things we can ask you go ahead. First of all, have you been in touch, or have the government been in touch with you, about helping out with this massive tutoring effort . Could we be using your website . No, they havent, which is interesting, really, because the maths factor, we made freely available, as soon as lockdown started. And over that time, we now have just over half a million children who we have been teaching, that is primary age children, and they are doing fantastically well. As they always do with us. Normally, we are kind of an after school, online service, where i teach them and then auntie carol is there, you know, teaching away. I am seriously, seriously, seriously concerned and i am sure parents are and people in education, because i really do see the children who are in private education being
given daily, you know, massive daily learning and online tutoring and so on and the disparity between what the state school and the private Education System are providing is enormous. Now, that is not having a go at the state system, but the government has to step up here, because even in the normal world, there is a thing called the summer dip and it is known. It is one of those things that is known. Now, the key one for me, and i really feel for these kids, is that primary to secondary transition, it makes me quite angry, this one, because it is known as the transition time and in both english and maths, 42 , the latest statistics said, 42 of children in a normal world, who go up from year six to year seven,
dont improve at all in english or they regress. That is almost half of them who dont improve in year seven at all in english and it is about 37 in maths. And, you know, it is like, this isnt right. So, carol, do you expect that when the system is announced, because we hear rumours that it will be money for local authorities and schools, for them to spend on tutoring in a way that they see fit. Do you expect or would you like it that schools get the vouchers that they could potentially spend on your website . Well, i am not here to talk about my website, i mean, we have hundreds of schools that use our system as well as parents and schools that have been given the free schools version. I am not here to sell that. I am just here to say that i hope, because these children are wonderful, you know,
and when they come back and when they get it. Obviously, i am talking about maths here, when they go, i get it, it is like they are given a superpower. And you see them walking taller and prouder. And also, you know, the problems with parents with maths is often the Education System has changed the methods used, again, and so you get people all over the country, mum, you dont do it like that at school any more laughter am i right . Its not even called Long Division any more. I mean, for goodness sakes is it not . Whats it called . Parents who are probably not happy with the maths anyway. Its like, no, no i dont want to do it wrong so, you know, there has to be a way forward. Carol, im just trying to get to the bottom of where the blame lies, and i know that sounds like quite
a negative way of framing the question but i suppose that has to be identified if the system is going to improve. Is it the department for education, the education secretary . Is it local authorities, the Academy Trusts . Is it individual schools, their leadership . Individual teachers . Whats causing this problem . I think education is in a transition itself, where you have to accept. Of course children, of all ages now, but all the children in school are so used to touching the screen if something happens. Its how they live their life outside of school. And many schools have embraced technology, obviously. But i think we are now onto the next stage of it. Its a new chapter. And im not one to. That yourjob, to apportion blame, not mine. Im an online educator, and have been for many, many, many years, so we have a lot of data and factual evidence about what can be done. Thank you very much, auntie carol. She laughs
as they call you on your website. Carol vorderman is not my aunt, just to be clear to the nation there. We are not related. Apparently. Have you got some sums for us . Well, i thought. This was something that came up on twitter today, so i thought it was apt. And its a simple one. Well, i hope its a simple one. Oh, no. I dont have a pen so im going to have to type it on my phone, which makes it look like im using the calculator. Ive got a pen. Im feeling distinctly nervous so if we have a fraction which is three over four, or three quarters as we would know it, what would that be as a percentage . A percentage is only a special kind of fraction, where. Phew . The denominator is 100, underthe line. So what is it as a percentage . Im pretty relieved because im pretty sure that 75 . Yay well done. Thank goodness. I cant resist showing you my working in kind of countdown style. She laughs carol, weve got to leave it there, but thanks very much. My pleasure. Thank you for sharing your
passion for maths with us. Well done, everybody on your fractions. Thank you very much, carol. Now, today, somebody slipped into the uk from france without having to do the 14 day quarantine. But it wasnt against the rules because there is an exemption for heads of state. It was president Emmanuel Macron of france, who was here to see borisjohnson, and they were commemorating the 80th anniversary of Charles De Gaulles famous broadcast to the french people from ex