we put that to bbc news and they told us: when it came to that afternoon's budget the bbc‘s live coverage and analysis was extensive, with economics editor kamal ahmed crunching the numbers for the news. philip hammond tried to change the economic story of this government. away from cuts and controlling the nation's debts, and towards spending and tax cuts. the ending of austerity, he said. next year he said the

government would spend £2.3 billion on public services. that figure would rise to 30.6 billion by 2024. but some viewers have taken exception to the bbc‘s reporting of economics. one wrote: this week's budget was the last for kamal ahmed as the bbc‘s economics editor. on thursday he started a newjob as editorial director for bbc news and he is with me now. let's start with the

criticism, are you offering opinion rather than facts when you're covering economics and being too negative. no, we don't offer opinion. my opinion doesn't matter. we look at what the data say and try and explain to our audience what is the figures are showing, what the government is attempting to do. i said in the news at ten that the public finances were in a lot better shape than expected that borrowing was lower. so we were showing what the good parts of the government's economic story was. but i think it is important for us to set out the risks, set out some of the criticisms. as economics editor, my opinion doesn't matter, but i do make judgments on what the data is telling us about how the economy is performing. what is interesting is unlike most science, where there is a consensus, economists often disagree or as in the 2008 crash, didn't seem to know what was going on, is it

fair to say viewers are right to feel wary of the experts the bbc wheem on. it is important to understand what economics is and what a forecast is. it is a spread of possibilities and there is a central possibility, but there are outlying possibilities. it is not like a pure science, not like gravity, if you drop a ball it goes down. it doesn't mean the viewer should think i shouldn't listen to experts. these people look at how economies work and respond to interest rate rises. there are ideologies too in how they approach economics? there could be political effects on how some people approach it. that is now how we approach the facts and figures. we look at the models put together by the bank of england and the international monetary fund and try and explain what the models are saying to our viewers and our audiences. and tell them that this

is a possible path. it is not a definite and that is the issue around forecasts. politicians did try and use some forecasts to say this will definitely happen. that is not what forecasts are for. often you're dealing with macro economics and the big numbers and viewers feel the coverage doesn't focus enough on the human impact? when we did the tenth anniversary of the financial crisis, we started it off with a young single father from manchester and what happened to his income over the last ten years. and so we do very deliberately try and tell a lot of those big macro stories about how our incomes have been affected through individual stories. you're right we need to get out there and talk to real people about their experiences.

we have pushed ourselves to do that. more generally, you spoke about areas of bbc news coverage that might benefit from a fresh approach and you said of confrontational debate, studio ding—dongs don't explain the news. that wasn't a direct criticism of the bbc, i said some coverage general can be driven by the controversy, by a versus b and the idea there are two sides in battle. sometimes it will be the role ofjournalist and the bbc to explain there are nuances to the arguments and not everything is a controversy and part of my newjob will be about promoting the idea of explaining journalism, so the bbc reports the news and also explains the news and gives context and background and depth and that is an important part of the news reporting. because we get a lot of evidence from our audience research that the news makes people feel anxious and that is all it make them feel.

everything is a row. we want to change some of that. you have started a new managerial job. given there are other editorial manager, viewers may wonder what you will be doing. they might! my newjob is going to be about two or three things. first, the big challenge for the bbc — the bbc is an organisation built around the big, great news programmes such as news at ten, the today programme, all those things. but they are appointment to view moments. you have to tune in at ten o'clock. how does the bbc change in three to five years when our audiences want the news on their phone, on their tablet, want it when they want it on the go. that is a big change for this organisation. i'm going to be looking at the challenges of that. there is the day—to—day role of helping us choose the type of stories that engage our audiences and avoid the complaints you get on this programme, that will be part of myjob. also there is an internal bit of it about the culture of the

bbc, are we the best place to work and promoting the best talent through the organisation, the next generation who will run the bbc when i'm long gone. it does feel like the bbc news decision—making is constantly under attack, such as how the bbc reports brexit. how should the bbc deal with that. we are more than ever before, i think a function of that is there are more platforms to attack the bbc. the fact is we have a huge amount of output and we have thousands ofjournalists and loads of great products and of course people don't like everything we to. that is absolutely reasonable and we will listen and react when its of substance, but we won't be overwhelmed by it. we produce news and current affairs a and myjob is to help us think about the future, new audiences, younger audiences in particular.

but also to help us make the right decisions day—by—day. thank you. as anyone with small children will know, wednesday night was hallowe'en. an event marked by some item on bbc news. not to everyone's liking. that morning carol kirkwood presented the weather from an unusual location — a cemetery in london. good morning, it is the first time in 20 years in breakfast i have been in a cemetery on hallowe'en. but it has undergone a four—year restoration. julia said this: finally evan davis has been presenting newsnight for four years. but now he is going off to present the pm programme and he signed off

like this. if your one of people who have written to me to say you would prefer me to wear a tie. you can watch me on the pm programme on radio four, where of course i shall be wearing a tux! as he dusts after his tux, he can enjoy these words: thank you for all your comments. if you want to share your opinions with us, you can call us: that is all from us. we will be back to hear your thoughts about the bbc next week.

hello. friday was a chilly day, a sunny day for many, generally speaking quite a quiet day. but the weekend sees things turning a little bit more lively, in fact they have already started to liven up over recent hours, the wind has been strengthening and through the weekend we will see some rain at times. this is the satellite picture from a little earlier, you can see this swirl of cloud here, this was a hurricane, hurricane oscar, not a hurricane any more it still a deep area of low pressure pushing to the west of the uk, bringing a surge of mild air from the south—west. a milder start to saturday compared with recent mornings, particularly in the west where we will see outbreaks of rain continuing across northern ireland, scotland, 50—80 millimetres of rain

across parts of western scotland, later in the day that spills down into north—west england and parts of wales. and it will be windy, wind gusts of 60—65mph at times close to the western isles of scotland, but north—east scotland with some shelter from that south—westerly wind and some sunshine, you could get to 17 or 18. quite gusty winds for northern ireland, but brightening up here through the afternoon as rain slides into north—west england and parts of wales, flirting with the west of cornwall. but for the midlands, east anglia and the south—east it will be breezy but not as windy as further west and it will be mild. as we go into saturday evening it will be this central slice of the country that will continue to see outbreaks of rain, so for fireworks displays in cardiff and perhaps edinburgh are likely to see some rain. rain tending to clear away from belfast, london mostly dry, mild for all and quite windy as well. deeper into saturday night, into sunday morning, that front will fizzle away. it will be some clear spells either side, but minimum temperatures, 8—11, considerably more mild that it has been of late. this is the weather set—up going into sunday morning, still with this slow—moving weather

front providing rain across some central parts of the uk, rain quite light and patchy initially and picking up later across the south—west, particularly as a new area of low pressure spins inwards. elsewhere, some spells of sunshine, still windy in the north—west but not as windy as it will have this is the weather set—up going into sunday morning, still with this slow—moving weather front providing rain across some central parts of the uk, rain quite light and patchy initially and picking up later across the south—west, particularly as a new area of low pressure spins inwards. elsewhere, some spells of sunshine, still windy in the north—west but not as windy as it will have been on saturday, temperatures still doing well for this time of year, 11—14. into the new week, most of the rain will be found in western areas, more dry weather further east, it will be often windy and it will stay mild. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. i'm lewis vaughan jones. our top stories: president trump hits the campaign trail ahead of tuesday's midterm elections, amid claims social media's being used to spread fake news discouraging democrats from voting. donald trump warns iran to prepare for sweeping

new sanctions, sounding the death knell for diplomacy and the 2015 nuclear deal. following mass protests in pakistan, a christian woman cleared of blasphemy charges could be banned from ever leaving the country. and why did this paraplegic athlete end up dragging himself along the floor at a uk airport? if i didn't have my wheelchair, my legs had been taken away from me.