production act to speed up the coronavirus vaccine. he's promising to deliver 100 million shots of the vaccine in his first 100 days in office. the uk has registered another record—breaking surge in coronavirus cases, up by more than 53,000 in a single day. health officials say they're extremely concerned. english hospitals are now treating more covid patients than at the peak of the first wave. croatia has been hit by its strongest earthquake for decades. latest reports say seven people died in the quake, which had a magnitude of 6.4. attempts to increase us government aid for those hit hardest by the pandemic appear to have been blocked by republicans in the senate. the increase was approved on monday by the house of representatives and is backed by president trump.

hello, and welcome to our look ahead to what the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. with me are former pensions minister, baroness ros altmann, and the writer and broadcaster mihir bose. tomorrow's front pages, starting with. .. "$125 billion for the world's biggest banks" is the lead story for the finanacial times. it says investment banks across the world generated record fees as companies raced to raise cash in order to survive the pandemic. "a new chapter in our story," the telegraph quotes the prime minister, who issues a rallying call to mps as they prepare to back brexit trade deal with the eu tomorrow. that deal, says the yorkshire post, is likely to get through both the house of commons and the lords after the labour leader and conservative eurosceptics agree to support the bill. the express also say the bill is likely to be passed. they carry a picture of the prime minister, who believes his government has done

the impossible in securing a deal, a "horrendous choice" for our health workers. the guardian say hospital staff will soon have to choose who gets care and who doesn't as the nhs faces what they call "cataclysmic" pressure from coronavirus. amid the surge in cases across the uk and increasing hospital numbers, the times says millions of people in england will hear they are to face tougher curbs in an announcement by ministers tomorrow. and in the mirror, a call from the front—line. they say care home bosses are pleading for the vaccine weeks after being promised it by the government. so, let's begin. before we get to the papers, it has been bugging me. this week between christmas and new year does not have a name. we need to give it a name. do you have any suggestions?” a name. we need to give it a name. do you have any suggestions? i think it should be called the time when we worry about what is going to happen

to our wage and what our football tea m to our wage and what our football team is doing, so i suppose football plus weight week. not bad but i been given a suggestion of betwixt mess. i would call it restful week. that is it so let's get onto the guardian. hospitals face horrendous choices of who care. pictures of a hospital in london. it is what we we re hospital in london. it is what we were told the government did not wa nt to were told the government did not want to happen at any point during the pandemic, that everyone who needed care would get care. how do you see this? if you like to is a replay of what happens when the first lockdown happened back in march. we have this horrendous picture from italy and we did not wa nt picture from italy and we did not want a re—enactment of italy in our country and we had the lock down and then this story says that we have

now got 53,135 cases and some very alarming things in this guardian story, that intensive care units in london are so overloaded that some patients have been moved as far away as to yorkshire to get a bed and the example they give is of the royal free hospital in london, where children's inpatient facilities have been moved to another hospital. and this is exactly what you have been saying, the first lockdown and the measures that were taken was supposed to stop this. and really what we cannot get an explanation for is why has this happened, why has this failure taken place. she we put that question to you, why has it not taken put that question to you, why has it not ta ken place? put that question to you, why has it not taken place? nobody quite knows what the explanation is. there is talk of a new strain of the virus. there is also of course the hope of

the vaccine coming along, but at the end of the day, we still have these nightingale hospitals which are not being used at all. there is talk of opening them up. we need extra staff to run them. but we do have the capacity and we are also still able to move people around to the hospitals where there is space. sol think we need to be careful. this is a very serious moment. clearly we have got an issue with the numbers of people in hospitals. we tend to have a problem in hospitals at this time of year over the last few years in any case. i'm not saying that this is not a big deal, of course it is. but what i think we need to remember is that we have had lockdown. we have had an ongoing series of lockdown. we have destroyed some of the economy in order to try and deal with this

virus. so the idea that more and more lockdowns are the answer is not necessarily one that makes much sense given the experience we have had. and we have to really i think focus on getting the vaccine rolled out as quickly as possible and also of course more test and trace and more protection for people who are most vulnerable. those who are attending to get ill with the coronavirus, lots are getting it but they are not getting ill, the ones that are getting really seriously ill tend to have underlying health conditions. and are already vulnerable in other ways. so we know who is most lovely to get it and i think perhaps we need to do a lot more to try and protect those people. should we just have a think about those nightingale hospitals? i remember in march and april when

they were being not built but converted and we were told this would bring the extra capacity and 110w would bring the extra capacity and now it's become much more clear that the problem is not bad. you can get as many beds if you want but the problem is staff. did we know that at the time? dear member? note, we did not. this is the whole problem. but not if disagree with her in getting the care for the right people who are affected by the fact is throughout this whole pandemic, throughout this whole emergency, the government has always promised that we are about to go out of the tunnel and see the bright sunlight. and nightingale was presented to us as this british exceptionalism. look what we can do. 0pen this british exceptionalism. look what we can do. open up these hospitals. look at the one in london. there are no beds there. everything has been moved away, it is equally empty now. and the problem is as you rightly say we cannot get staff. 40,000 retired medics, doctors and nurses have

applied to come back. 30,000 are qualified to come back, and yet only 5000 have so far been able to come back because of the bureaucracy involved in coming back. and that is the whole problem. we really did not look at the complete picture. we promise to people the moment the vaccine comes, this probable all be sorted out and it will be bright and sunny morning. and i think that has been the problem. throughout this whole pandemic, the government has been overpromising as to when we are going to turn the corner and the whole thing will go away. looking at the summer, there was that let's get back to work, let's eat out to help out, let's make sure that central london revives. in retrospect and of course we have to say that, she more ever have been done to prepare for the possibility or possibility of the possibility or possibility of the second wave? i think there were

efforts made to prepare. unfortunately they don't seem to have done the trick. i was certainly did not disagree with opening up again for the summer. and part of what is happening is possibly weather— related. what is happening is possibly weather—related. across europe, as the cold weather has come to the fore once again, we have seen a shocking rise in the number of cases. and of course the number of cases. and of course the number of cases is not necessarily indicative always of the number of people who are going to be in hospital and the number who are going to be in hospital and the numberwho are going are going to be in hospital and the number who are going to sadly passed away. so what we are seeing is a winter surge away. so what we are seeing is a wintersurge in away. so what we are seeing is a winter surge in illness which we always tend to see, but i don't think anyone realised perhaps quite how virulent this virus would become at that time of year. and as i say it, that's happening across europe.

what we have not done and what we still need to do as media as —— as he rightly said, is ensure we can bring back the medics who are volunteering to come back out of retirement absolutely as quickly as possible. both medical staff, nursing staff and care staff are all desperately needed in different parts of the country and have been saying that they would like to come back. in addition to which, we have got the vaccine coming. we were the first country in the world to start the vaccination programme. you need to do so so we are not through the first phase yet and then we have to have the second one, but we are talking a matter of weeks when many of these vulnerable people who were most likely to succumb to coronavirus to get vaccinated and be in much better protection. we have got some light but in the meantime

we have got to get through this period. we will do and we look at the yorkshire post next which in addition to the cold and rising headline, below you see the whole of ill and could move into tier 4 as patient numbers increase. good does that make sense? yes commit because this is something that an announcement that matt hancock if likely to make tomorrow morning and of course for the yorkshire post it isa of course for the yorkshire post it is a particularly relevant one because you're sure the moment, part of it is tier 2 and part of it is tier 3. and clearly what is likely to emerge is that almost the entire country, that is england, will go into tier 4. the paper does not say so but there are other stories saying we might even have a new tier, in essence what we are getting to isa tier, in essence what we are getting to is a government is hesitant it seems to use the word lockdown. that was the word that was used in march

and boris johnson did was the word that was used in march and borisjohnson did not want a second lock down and did not want a second lock down and did not want a second wave and so on and we have 110w second wave and so on and we have now gone into basically what seems to be like a third wave and we are getting a lockdown under some other name. and tier 4 will be very much the new tierfor name. and tier 4 will be very much the new tier for that matt hancock will announce would be very much like the original lockdown we had in march. let's pick up that point. if we are told to stay at home and if we are told to stay at home and if we are told we can only see one person outside and if there is that possibility that schools might close which we can talk about and a bit and if there is a possibility that sports grind to a halt to can we not call that a lockdown?” sports grind to a halt to can we not call that a lockdown? i hope that this will not all be necessary. i really do. children's schooling is vital and children themselves do not get particularly ill even if they get particularly ill even if they get covid—19. many of them are a somatic. actually that might spread to other members of society but that

is where i feel that we do need to focus on those who are most vulnerable rather than locking everyone down and taking away people posit businesses and livelihoods. we cannotjust posit businesses and livelihoods. we cannot just keep doling posit businesses and livelihoods. we cannotjust keep doling out money to everyone forever. and it's not as if the previous restrictions and lockdowns appear to have worked. there is something else going on... what do you mean nothing else?” think thatjust having lockdowns is not enough. not enough to stop what is happening in terms of the spread of the iris. you are not seeing that in other places in europe. it is not necessarily the best way, and we have not seen the evidence which suggests for example that closing all the restaurants and shops or stopping spore overall is going to save lives. it is certainly going to

disrupt lives and we've got problems with family life... but you do other than the principal, if you stop these things can be stopped people moving around and that is proven scientifically that if you stop contact there is much less chance to transmit, so you do see that?” contact there is much less chance to transmit, so you do see that? i do see that but what i think is really important here is notjust to stop every body necessarily. if somebody is not at risk, if somebody is a somatic and is not in touch with somebody else who is vulnerable, the dangers are completely different. i know that none of this is easy, but ido know that none of this is easy, but i do think that we have to be very careful. and bear in mind the other health issues that are associated with these kinds of draconian restrictions on people's freedom. the loneliness, mental health problems, the stopping of cancer

treatment, the stopping of other treatments that could save other lives. we must i think see some kind of cost— benefit analysis lives. we must i think see some kind of cost—benefit analysis which we have not yet seen... can ijump in here and ask mihir, we think about school and sport? if we get a lockdown can we have to ask about school and sport. school was totally stopped in the first lockdown and football has carried on. there have been covid—19 cases among premier league teams and yesterday a premier league teams and yesterday a premier league match was called often everton and city. so there was the whole question of whether the premier league and the major sporting institutions would have to be stopped. and even with schools, she says we have got to look at it more carefully but the point is other countries like sweden which try to different approach have not worked there. the only