showers in the far north and wintry showers in the far north and west of scotland. away from that, a northerly breeze and plenty of sunshine. it makes it much colder. temperatures in single figures, 11 or 12 at best in their sales, into tonight, the showers continue in northern ireland, either side of that, most of us stay dry through the night with widespread frost, patchy frost towards the south and west. either way a chilly start to monday morning, wet for some, in the isle of man, most start the day sunny with sunshine turning hazy from the west. most are dry, a chilly day, quite a chilly week in store. no time for dateline. hello and welcome to dateline

london. a programme of comment, conflict and opinion, with leading journalists up against foreign correspondent to file their stories with the dateline london. this week, leadership tested and found wanting. the uk's mps found theresa may's government in contempt after a big rebellion by her own supporters. a taste of things to come in the vote on brexit tweet. carbon emissions go up in paris as protesters use fire and fury to force president macron to pause tax rises he says will make the air cleaner and the nations in the world head to a country that loves its fossil fuels to write a new rulebook to curb climate change. with me to discuss all that — agnes poirier of the french news magazine marianne, isabel hilton who writes on environment policy at chinadialogue, david aronovitch who's columns appear here in the uk in the times, and the us journalist greg katz from ap, the associate press. welcome to all of you. let's begin on tuesday of this week when mps will vote on whether or not to accept the brexit terms

negotiated with the european union by theresa may. the prospect of defeat looms large, not least after this week's vote in which the house of commons found the government in contempt of parliament. ministers had been resisting publishing the full legal advice which confirmed that, during its transition out of the eu, the uk can't unilaterally withdraw from a key part of the agreement. it took barely a handful of mps from mrs may's conservatives to rebel to ensure the government?s defeat on the contempt motion. many more than that have said they'll vote against on tuesday. david, prediction is mug's game, even more in this case. do you have any sense how this week will pan out? you havejust asked me to be a mug! welcome to the programme! i will respectfully decline. i will help you out a bit more with some form of analytical framework for this. the big question is,

is there any kind of settlement or deal or proposition for a deal which parliament could agree upon? is there such a thing? never mind theresa may's dealfor the moment, that will almost certainly be defeated on tuesday. that is one prediction i think everybody can make. the second thing, what is the form of government which we could have short of a general election which would deliver that one deal that parliament could agree about? just keep your eyes on those two questions. on the question of why it would be short of a general election, mps have tied their hands on the general election. the good old system where you voted down what the government did, they held a no—confidence vote, that was defeated, then you went to the queen and she called a general election, that option isn't there any more. that was abolished during the period

of the coalition government. now, effectively, two thirds of mps have to effectively agree that they want a general election. of course, the problem with that is, the people who think they are likely to lose a majority tend not to want to vote for it, unless somebody can convince them that they would look silly if they don't, so i might lose my seat but at least i won't look stupid. the polls don't exactly shout confidence for the conservatives or labour as to what the result would be. so that is also a dubious proposition. a waste of a good crisis to have a general election. a general election wouldn't resolve anything. you have two major parties, both non—functioning coalitions. you are saying to the electorate, would you like the other non—functioning coalition,

which will then fail to resolve the question on the table, which is brexit. i'm finding this crisis is unfolding ina i'm finding this crisis is unfolding in a promising way. i'm hoping this crisis will get deeper and even more dramatic so something might happen. when you say a promising way, what is the promise that is held at broadview? i have always thought brexit could not be delivered because it was a stupid question with a muddy answer we have spent two years not deciding what we mean by it. clearly that is politically undeliverable. it will need to go back to some other resolution which looks more likely to be another referendum, then we can possibly get back to governing the country as opposed to worrying about chasing unicorns. agnes, we heard on saturday morning from amber rudd, newly returned to the cabinet, saying she thought there was a plan b, the norway plus option. all of these variations, we don't need to get hung up on the details, but all of these variations

are effectively require a compromise of one kind or another. do you detect any willingness to compromise, is there a realisation among politicians that compromise is inevitable? the britain i know today is not the britain we have known for decades. it is behaving in a very un—british way, we don't understand what is going on. we thought you didn't do ideology. you have been doing it for 2.5 years. we were relying in europe for you to not do passion, which is so dangerous and politics. look at what has been going on in paris. you have been doing it for two and a half years. we hope that somehow you will become british again. i put my hope and faith in the british parliament, because britain is a great democracy, after all. the end of the line could come from british mps. if they decided, british mps,

to revoke article 50. i know it is wild optimism on my part. so you think anybody in brussels who thinks that theresa may could win this vote on tuesday, that is for the birds, we should look for another option, whichjeremy corbyn has said to allow for more negotiations, where he prime minister, that is an option he would consider. it would not be easier... it wouldn't be in the interests of britain. we haven't talked about the interest of britain for two and a half years. at least everybody would find closure. in two generations's time, then you would join again because it would take it that much time to realise it was a bad idea. but at least britain could go back to just doing what it should be doing, looking at the nhs, looking at so many other issues. greg, are you fascinated by this? baffled ?

i am enjoying it. i'm nervous about covering it because it is utterly unpredictable and the result of the next 72 hours, seven days, seven weeks is unknowable. parliament became much more important this week. two key votes in parliament were asserting its authority to shape the deal. the non—binding decision from the european court that gives parliament the right if it is confirmed to revoke article 50. my question for the constitutional scholars is, what happens parliament says we have made no progress, we revoke article 50, and the government decides not to do it. the revocation i think is a red herring, unfortunately. it would annul the result of the referendum by parliament unilaterally and they are very few takers for that. almost any other course of action we could imagine after theresa may's deal is defeated would require

an application for an extension of article 50, and that does require the eu to agree. it was relevant to the degree that were there to be a referendum to give parliament the ability to revoke article 50. or a general election. or a leadership election for the conservative party. i feel like that woman who said, not again! this is essentially an english problem. scotland voted the other way, northern ireland voted the other way, england and wales have an identity problem which they have to somehow address. it is also a very big northern ireland problem.

one of the interesting straws in the wind are a couple of polls that suggest that people in northern ireland might actually prefer unity with ireland than a no deal brexit. northern ireland has got itself into a position whereby it voted to remain, is represented in parliament entirely by people who are hardline brexiteers and the people who would best represent the people who wanted to stay will take up their seats in parliament. another well functioning political system! in the good friday agreement, that is the tipping point when it could reunite with the republic. a few have a majority of citizens in northern ireland saying we want to join the republic, then that would be called for. another referendum! "let them drive less" had appeared to be emmanuel macron's initial response to the giletjaune, or yellow vest, protests

which erupted across france over his plan to increase fuel taxes. the president said he was doing his bit for the environment. "those who complain about higher fuel prices also demand action against air pollution because their children are sick." it did nothing to dispel his reputation for regal arrogance. after a weekend in which paris resonated to the sound of tear gas and stun grenades, his government suspended the fuel tax increase with mr macron's prime minister conceding, "this anger is rooted in a profound injustice". agnes, how do you look on the week's events? do you think last weekend's protests and the response of the macron government represents a turning point for his government? definitely. it's his first test, really. i mean strangely, we thought last yesterday would be the first test. we had three months of strikes. transport was quite impossible. the country was quite paralysed. the protests were organised

by the trade unions and the left and right parties, well organised, unlike what is going on at the moment. we thought, ok, he has done it. onto the next reform. it is a different presidency, he can ride out the protests. this one, we did not see it coming at all. i was worried before the first day of action on the 17th of november, the first saturday, because there was something going on on social networks, the yellow vests. it is a revolt, not a movement yet. it is like in the 18805 when the trade unions were born out of revolt. you need some organisation, some delegation, some representation. some way of taking it forward. exactly.

we haven't got that yet. that is why the situation is quite volatile and dangerous for french democracy, because we are talking about who are the yellow vests? we know and we don't know. it's about 5 million people who belong to the lower—middle class, but socially, geographically or professionally, they are artisans, small shopkeepers, farmers, self—employed people. they all talk about macron having to resign, they have the head of macron rolling down the shone so lazy. macron has been in powerfor 18 months. he wasn't even born when the public policies that started the 30 years of gradual... how do you call it? you know, poison seeping through the french system. and responsible for this immense and very deep anger. and at the moment, it is the get off one's chest moment,

and in a french way, very violent. it is worrying because we are talking about people who have come to paris to actually kill the police force. we are used to the theatre of politics, but usually, it is quite safe because there is an organisation behind it. there are people to deal with. exactly. the trade unions talk to the police, the police stopped them. there is the theatre, we love a good demonstration, but this is different. hence, the danger. there is a lot for people to be angry about. from the american perspective, fuel taxes of this kind would be political unacceptable anyway. france's richest 1% controlled 20—plus percent of the country's wealth. so much for a revolution 250 years ago.

america is france's oldest ally, do you look at this and think, what on earth is going on? i look at it as, we are used to these episodic outbursts in france caused by this inequality, but usually they are at a much smaller scale and they burn themselves out after a couple of days. this one seems completely... it developed so quickly, it seems really out of control at this point. what occurs to me is the conditions in spain, parts of italy, it is not like europe is going strong. is this going to show up in england, some anger with brexit? where does the spread? it is hard tojudge. i don't see much of a comparison to the united states at this point, where the president doesn't believe in climate change. we'll talk about that in a bit. in terms of street protests of this kind, nothing you would be used to? no, we would need to go back to 1968

to see this in the states. it doesn't seem to be about climate policy. the diesel tax, yes, that triggered it. as agnes says, we have had 30 years of rising inequality and it seems to me the common thread in all these movements is rage of inequality, rage at the lack of attention to those who have suffered from the global concentration of wealth. talking about the end of the world, we are talking about the end of the month. carbon taxes, diesel taxes, are in place all around the world. this is not necessarily attacks the poor. the fact that those who already felt under pressure perceived the rich being let off and the poor are being hit is really

rooted in something much deeper and more lasting. that is why withdrawing its... the irony is that there is this pressure advance, the rising inequality. the welfare system is generous. france is a champion of welfare spending. 57% of gdp is redistributed. and the health system function is much better than... superb. isn't there a classic problem of the long—term objectives of the president taking longer to feel — to come through than people's patience is likely to last. macron has done all kinds of things, let's say, let's take the example of class sizes, significantly reducing class sizes, which is partly supposed to help the educational standards and levels of ordinary people so that they can aspire to, and take the newjobs, which are likely to come up, rather than holding out, continuously, the prospect they could go back to old jobs, which have gone, because he doesn't believe those will exist, and they won't. and so, at the one level,

we always say that we want politicians that look long term and plan for the long term, but actually, such politicians are generally punished for not keeping their eye very firmly on the short term. make just one other small observation — always leave people's cars alone. it is absolutely astonishing the psychological attachment people have to their cars. as the french president said, "don't touch cars, we're the french people. "don't touch their cars." when i was a school governor, the only thing that would ever get the parents going — they didn't care about the curriculum, you can leave that to the teachers, was when you interfered with the parking. (laughs) dropping off and picking up and all of that. one last word then on macron, and, yes, do you think he has a grasp of how serious the situation is? oh, yes, completely. and also, what we haven't talked about, those yellow vests, if you compare their demands, and they are as varied as they are vague, but the french newspaper le monde actually came up

— ok, look at them. so, 50 demands going from frexit, leaving the european union, to leaving nato to having less taxes, but more public services. but they compared it with all french politicians' political programmes, and it corresponded to marine le pen's programme, and jean—luc melenchon's programmes. the diametrically opposed extremes. so, it does — we thought for 18 months that france was this isolated, wonderful paradise without any populism, or at least on this side, and it's happening, it's happening. and with of course fake news playing part and russia today playing part and we're just having... when you describe the people who were taking part, the name pierre bouchard inevitably came to mind. i mean, you really — as you better than i do, you really have been here before, but maybe not so much on the streets. well, except bouchard was really

a corporatist, you know, it was small shopkeepers. this is much wider. so, it's a bit of bouchard, a bit of the 18805. i mean, i could go on forever. it's a bit of the 193a extreme right leagues. you know, i could go on. how many hours do we have? not enough, sadly! you could do a whole program. another president, a different take on climate change. welcoming delegates to a global conference intended to draw up rules for curbing man's contribution to climate change in katowice, poland's head of state, andrzej duda, pointed to coal waiting to be extracted that could heat homes and feed industry, he said, for another 200 years. it would be hard not to use them. hard indeed. i suppose, in that sense,

it kind of perfectly illustrates the special pleading by nations, rich and poor, that always undermines attempts to draw up rules for all. how optimistic are you about katowice? ooh, medium—ish. i don't thing we're going to get a tremendous breakthrough, but as long as it doesn't go backwards, we can live to fight another day. as far as poland and coal, it's very odd to see poland clinging to that last bit of soviet—style economy, when i'm sure that they would wish to think of themselves as another country now. he says 200 years. a lot of people say 50 if you're lucky, you know, extractable coal, you know, the mining. this is really about the sort of mythology of mining, i think, although the number of miners itself has been drastically reduced in the last few years. in that sense, it's a bit like fishing, isn't it, where the economic impact is small, the numbers are small, but there's an emotional attachment. there's an emotional attachment, and to be fair, coal‘s

role in poland's energy is pretty important. but the coal—fired power stations are old, most of the mines barely break even or run a deficit, poland's having to import coal right now to run its coal—fired power stations. far better to make the leap at this point and create lots of lovely new cleanjobs in renewable energies and, you know, get all those guys working at something, which is sustainable. but there is a kind of mythological fear of very embedded union power. and there's a very practical thing facing these talks, greg, which is that the us has effectively now disavowed the whole process, it's said the paris agreement three years ago, it's not now wedded to. right, and it — it's also coal resonates in the us emotionally, and coal and coal miner votes, but more importantly, the symbolic value of it are going to play an important role in the 2020 election, when trump is seeking re—election, because really, he won because he managed to convince 200,000 or so people in the midwest that his industrial policy

and his ability to bring back some of these coaljobs that had been lost was a reason to vote for him. and so that's going to be tested in fouryears' time, and it could well be that same mythological 200,000 people or so that decide our next election. 50, coal is important and the idea of bringing it back, certainly in the us, is not deemed very credible. well, no—one's investing in it because it doesn't have a future. are and the irony of trump's position is that on the one hand, he's in a kind of knock—down, drag—out fight with china over advanced technologies and who owns the future and who sets the standards. on the other hand, he's desperately trying to prop up a 19th—century technology, which everybody knows is moribund and which won't create jobs, it'll be done by robots anyway. and what impact, if any, is the decision having on china's attitude to this process? it takes the pressure off. but unlike the united states, you don't have a big denialist problem in china. well, you have a lot of vested interests and process trouble, but china has bet its future on advanced technologies

and low—carbon technologies because they understand basic physics, essentially, and they know what the risks are, and they see it, you know, certainly, threat of climate change, but also, the next iteration of the chinese economy is moving up that value chain. so, for them, it's also a huge opportunity. david, this whole process is supposed to be about getting — moving beyond sort of voluntary status, like in indonesia one, which says, "well, we're going to improve on our business as usual case," but actually, is vague about what that means and how you apply it. we're in an environment where we're told nationalism is on the rise. presumably, that mitigates against these kinds of international... nationalism, and the kind of sentiment, which both isabelle and greg were talking about, which is a sort of — a location almost of the masculine past, really, in things like mining. actually, the same, funnily enough, applies to fishing, which is these notions of these kind of hard status jobs, kind of rugged people have done over the years, which has given them some kind of place in society, which we then take out. and there is, of course, a degree of truth in that. in the end, the question always

was whether you were prepared to pay the costs in the immediate term that you would have to pay in order to prepare for the long term. and actually, this is the second time now that this theme's come up on this programme, and climate change is that in spades. unless you are a denialist, you know that you have got to do it for the future of humanity and for our grandchildren, etc. to decide that you do not know it is a real decision. now, in the end, very, very few politicians will take the decision not to know it. you really have to be perverse. and even in the states, as greg was saying, quite a number of states and governors and so on have wanted to welcome in that new technology and want to be part of that. and a lot are doing — because, of course, they have a lot more political power — are doing it on a local or city or regional level. but the question is always quick enough — do the indonesians know that in a way which solves their current problems and so on? that's always the tricky bit.

and if "advanced countries", certainly developed economies can do it and can say they're doing it, it's harder in developing countries, but those countries have to carry because they're, what, 60% or something, they estimate, of the current climate changing problem is coming from the developing world. but it's also having the people on board, and that's what you're seeing in france, is that you must make the transition just and fairfor everyone. and for instance, there is this eco—tax that was adopted before president macron was elected. it's interesting — if you look at the revenues, so about 32 billion euros, only a fourth was was going to be reinvested in helping people to actually adjust. i think it's probably now we have the answer, it should be more! you should help people who rely on their cars to go about their day, to switch to electric cars, with real incentives. and make it so that everybody actually feel that they can afford doing it. it's a wicked problem, this, though,

because the consequences are in the future and the action needs to be now. essentially, we've got 12 years to bend that curve. paris came about with a combination of an agreement between china and the united states, the energy that the obama administration put into it, and the french diplomatic corps doing a brilliant job. none of these things apply in poland, and so it's always going to be slower and trickier. but i think it won't go backwards at this point, itjust won't go forwards fast enough. we'll know on friday. thank you all very much. that's dateline london. thank you forjoining us. i'll be back next week, unless theresa may decides to appoint me ambassador to the un, of course. from all of us on the programme, goodbye. hello.

fewer showers around this afternoon compared to this morning so some sunshine around. some showers in northern ireland and into the west. some wintry showers in northern scotland. the winds will be lighter and with more sunshine around it will feel easily pleasant out of the breeze. the breeze will be noticeable enough and it is quite chilly, with temperatures for most in single figures. winds coming from a more northerly direction by the end of the day. showers overnight in northern ireland and putting into the north of england. coldest in parts of scotland and eastern england with some widespread frost into the commute on monday. widespread frost out to the west. tomorrow there will be showers in north west england and into the midlands and later on as the sunshine turns hazy, a few spots of rain in south—west england, wales and northern ireland. most will get through monday dry, but still chilly in eastern areas. see you soon. this is bbc news.

the headlines at midday. no delay to the vote — downing street insists tuesday's crucial commons vote will go ahead as the prime minister warns the uk will be in ‘uncharted waters' if the commons rejects her brexit deal. leading brexiteer boris johnson tells the bbc the vote should go ahead — but insists the uk can negotiate a better settlement with the eu. we have to change it. it's a relatively simple job. we can have a withdrawal agreement that doesn't contain a backstop. we can do better than this. police in new zealand investigating the murder of british backpacker grace millane say they have found a body. this brings the search for grace to an end. it is an unbearable time for the millane family and our hearts go out to them.