anonymity which we are afforded in this country if it is a sexual offence. yes, and there have been scoi’es offence. yes, and there have been scores of allegations not just offence. yes, and there have been scores of allegations notjust in the ku.d, from famous and not so famous women in america this. story will run and run. to me it is about the culture of hollywood. every time i read this, i think it is about culture of powerful men and starlets who want to get ahead. he is not an abuser by himself. he has been facilitated by lawyers... he hasn't beenp found guilty, yet, does that not give you... admitted to a lot of stuff. he has not saidmeaculpa but he has used that defence, i grew up when the culture was different. that's it for the papers from now. are we doing some more now? no. stay

put, if you would, tony and caroline will be back at 11.30 for another look at the front pages. i just want to tell you, the department for education has announced all schools in northern ireland are going to close tomorrow because of the risk of high winds of storm ophelia, the irish republic also said it would be closing all schools on monday, just to keep everybody safe. now time to meet the author in which james naughtie talks to simon heffer about his book — the age of decadence. the late victorian and edwardian age was the apogee of empire and it's often been painted as a time of plenty for the british. yet it was also politically tumultuous and anxious, a time of change and decay, as well as progress. and simon heffer, in his sweeping history of the three decades before

the first world war, calls it "the age of decadence". welcome. it was a time of trouble, and yet perhaps because of what followed, we tend to think of it as a golden age. why do you think that is? well, i think many of us have grown up with the forsyte saga and downton abbey on television, which does seem to suggest that certainly if you had money it was a great time, but it wasn't such a good time for everybody else. you mustn't forget, everybody else was 90% of the population. we had a growing middle class, but there was still a working class, whose wages flat lined in the ten or so years before the war. you must remember old—age pensioners were only introduced in 1909, five shillings a week for those over 70.

most people, i think the average male death was at a8, so very few people lived to claim it. if you did live to 70 before 1909, and you were clapped—out and couldn't work, you went to the workhouse. so it was a harsh society, but it was also a society in which there were people with real issues, who wanted to take them to a liberal government elected in 1906 in the hope that they, unlike the tories before them, would sort them out — and these are notably women, who want the vote, the irish, who want home—rule, and the working class, who want more money. let's talk about a couple of things you mentioned there. what strikes me is that people who know you as a newspaper columnist, as a solid man of the right, might be surprised to find you in this book being extraordinarily sympathetic to the irish home rule pressure, and very much a gladstone man rather than a salisbury man. salisbury dominated the 18905 as a conservative prime minister.

just what is it about gladstone that you found so admirable on the irish question? i think gladstone was a man of complete integrity, who understood that the irish were, like many in england, educated people, who were entirely capable of running their own affairs, and in 1869, when he had just become prime minister for the first time, he famously said, my mission is to pacify ireland. he couldn't do it in his first administration, but when he was re—elected in 1880, he was determined to do it and of course the fenian brotherhood at this time, the progenitors of sinn fein, are causing an enormous amount of trouble. they are having terrorist attacks on the mainland, they killed the chief secretary to ireland, lord frederick cavendish in 1882 in phoenix park, and the chief civil servant of ireland, and he realises that you can't tell people who are capable of expressing their wish for the country that they can't have it.

and the political failure to move on ireland in that period is one that's haunted british history ever since. it was catastrophic, and he tried another home rule bill in 1893, which failed, and eventually asquith brought one in. he had to bring one in 1912, because he needed the support of irish mps to keep his majority in the house of commons, but it was incredible how slow we were to learn notjust that the irish were capable of governing themselves, but that there would be terrible consequences — as you say, a century really of unpleasa ntness and dissent, between two people who should really get on very well with each other. well, of course, the picture of this period is so fascinating because of course you had at that time a monarch, queen victoria, until the beginning of the century, who was intensely political. her hatred of gladstone, which emerges through the story, is quite extraordinary, and something i think that people still — although it is so well—known — people find remarkable, given what happens in our own age.

well, she famously said of gladstone, he addresses me as though i were a public meeting. and gladstone was a man who i think found it at times difficult to deal with people who were not on his intellectual planet — which was most people. but when you couple that with deference to a monarch, i think he did find it difficult, but he was unbelievably reasonable to the queen, who was vile to him in return, and he never really complains about this until 1894, when he ceases to be prime minister for the last time, and he writes a memorandum in which he says — i'm really quite hurt by the way she didn't even thank me after over 60 years of public service when i went for my final audience. that brings us to the question of empire, because at the time of the diamond jubilee, in ‘97, the british empire really was at its peak. this was the great moment. and then, within a few years there was the boer war and gladstone,

who had never really been a man of empire, was really proved right in the way he almost can see the beginning of the end. yes. i mean, gladstone saw empire much as the romans saw their empire, which was that you only added a bit to it in the interests of defence. you didn't do it for reasons of exploitation or expansion. and he didn't really understand why people wanted to have a scramble for africa. of course, people like cecil rhodes and joe chamberlain, who was the colonial secretary back in london, were very keen to get their hands on places like the orange free state and the transvaal in particular, that had huge gold and diamond reserves and they used the excuse of british settlers in those boer republics being maltreated, being denied civil rights, to start the boer war. and it was believed that because these were a bunch of rough dutch farmers, armed with carbines, that the british army would flatten them in no time at all. why they thought that, i don't know, because it was only less than 20 years earlier that we've lost

the first boer war and there has been enormous problems with — we remember rorke's drift and all those other things in south africa, where the native armies had been incredibly difficult to beat. and people went to recruiting stations in britain in1899, 1900, to join the british army, and in large numbers were rejected because they were unfit. they were malnourished, they did no physical education in schools, and they were totally unsuitable for being in an army. so in a strange way that war was a window into the heart of the nation at that time. it tells us so much. yes, it does. it took us nearly three years to beat the boers and after it there was this huge enquiry, led by lord esher, into what was wrong with the army, but also enquiries into what was wrong with our people. but the fact it took nearly three years rather than the three months to beat these boerfarmers made a lot of people in this country think, well, what happens if we had a much more severe challenge? we started to realise that despite the esher reforms, despite reforms in the education system that made young men in particular do physical education, we were still going to have a real

job providing a proper army if war broke out. aside from the rough politics and fascinating politics of the time in peace and war, and the great figures like gladstone and salisbury, you write this book about the kind of society that people knew. its literature, its architecture, its art, and also inevitably its monarchy, and edward vii emerges as a scandal ridden, louche, really rather extraordinary, and not very admirable individual. it was really remarkable how they pulled it back after that period, wasn't it? edward vii became a very popular king. he was a man who was detested by his mother. she wouldn't even let him see state papers until he was in his 50s. he was called in the famous tranby croft libel case, where he was revealed to have not just played but instigated an illegal card game.

and of course he had a string of mistresses, so edward vii had an awful lot of baggage around him, but when he became king he became enormously popular, because unlike his mother, he was out there, he made many public appearances and people felt that they were familiar with him. where do you think in the end this period sits in our island story? i think that this will sit in our time, in our history, as a time of enormous change that prepared us as it were for the modern world, and if we hadn't had a war in 1914 i'm pretty certain there would have been massive civil unrest in this country, to try and broker that sort of new social settlement, that in fact it took two world wars to bring, in which the working class and women were properly enfranchised. that would have happened anyway, but this is the prelude to it. although the ruling class may have been rather oblivious to the fact they were going towards

the precipice, i think the working class always understood there was going to be a reckoning. it's just that the reckoning came in a very different way from the way they were expecting. simon heffer, author of the age of decadence, thank you very much. thank you. good evening, after the relative calm of sunday across the uk, things getting livelier into monday. met office has issued an amber be prepared warning for strong winds, damaging disruptive across parts of northern ireland through the second half of the day. all due to currently hurricane ophelia. away to the south of us but notice a stream of cloud out of it into the northern half of the country, producing rain in parts of northern ireland, southern scotland. through the night it turns wetter and rain pushes northwards. away from that most dry and winds strengthening towards the

north—west. mild away from the north of scotland, muggy conditions, temperatures in the teens to start the day. but this is it. the re m na nts of the day. but this is it. the remnants of hurricane ophelia, no longer a hurricane but a significant storm pushing into southern parts of ireland. southern ireland will feel the worst effects of it but around western areas winds strengthening throughout. much of england and wales after a cloudy start with a dry and dry bright day. rain in scotland, wetter in northern ireland. winds strengthening, 70 miles per hour, gusts in cornwall, and 70 to 80 in the irish sea coasts. the strongest of the winds in irish sea coast hills. big disruption to ferry services and there could be damage around. the rest of the uk looking different. the winds from eastern scotland, a chilly day with outbreaks of rain a blustery day for england and wales, nothing too significant away from western coasts, and a warm wind, temperatures could hit low to mid—20s but gusty winds in the midlands and northern england in

rush—hour. the strongest of the winds more confined to northern ireland, southern scotland and northern england where into tuesday's morning rush—hour there could be some problems, too. so monday, particularly in the afternoon, through monday night, into tuesday morning, some disruption possible, even some damage as well. keep up—to—date with the latest weather warnings online on tuesday the winds will gradually ease down, stays wet rather cool across scotland, the faer north of northern ireland. england and wales a largely dry day with sunny spells before we see splashes of rain arriving in the south later. nowhere near as warm as monday afternoon across england and wales but pleasa nt across england and wales but pleasant enough in the sunshine. overnight rain from the south will work into parts of northern england for wednesday, then into southern scotland, cool wind here, feeling a little bit warmer further south. scotland, cool wind here, feeling a little bit warmerfurther south. bye for now. this is bbc news. the headlines at 11pm: police in britain are now investigating claims of sexual assault by three women against hollywood film executive harvey weinstein. the actress lysette anthony says she was raped by him at her london home in the late 1980s.

a cabinet minister says if food prices go up because of a no—deal brexit, british farmers will produce more. police in northern ireland are investigating if an 11—year—old boy found dead with cuts to his head was attacked by the family dog. the car maker vauxhall says 400 jobs are to go at their plant at ellesmere port in cheshire by the end of the year. the company has blamed declining sales in europe. patients in england who go to see their doctor or attend a hospital appointment may be asked to declare their sexual orientation. also in the next hour: troops are mobiles as hurricane ophelia heads for ireland.