hey. good morning. welcome to bed tennis today on jb news this morning we all zooming up to manchester. hey what's going on at the levelling up convention of the north—west speakers including michael gove, lisa

nandy burnham will be nandy and andy burnham will be rabble for the rights of rabble rousing for the rights of the north. but hang on a minute. don't in the north don't those living in the north have better quality of have a much better quality of life compared us overcharged life compared to us overcharged and overstretched residents in the south? what do you think? gb views gb news, uk. also, the engush views gb news, uk. also, the english channel has looked busier than 9:00 on the metrolink into deansgate this morning. at least 170 people have made the journey so far. i'm going to be talking to mark white incoming small white about the incoming small boats be joined in the boats. i'll be joined in the studio by a army studio by a former army commander to discuss controversial media star controversial social media star andrew tate and ask why he's become so influential to young men. plus, the brilliant emma webb and steven pound all after this morning's news with aaron . this morning's news with aaron. good morning. it is a minute past ten. i'm aaron armstrong in the newsroom rishi sunak is likely to come under further pressure this afternoon at pmqs oven pressure this afternoon at pmqs over. nadeem zardari's tax affairs . earlier this week, the

affairs. earlier this week, the prime minister ordered an ethics inquiry to invest to gauge how the conservative party chairman resolves a multi—million pound tax dispute with hmrc while he was chancellor, mr. zahawi says he's confident he acted properly throughout and you can watch what's likely to be a lively exchange at pmqs here on gb news from midday . exchange at pmqs here on gb news from midday. meanwhile, exchange at pmqs here on gb news from midday . meanwhile, the from midday. meanwhile, the government's plan to replace the human rights act has been criticised by mps and peers. a cross—party committee says the proposed bill of rights will make it harder for people to enforce their rights and restrict certain protections against what the government finds inconvenient. but ministers say it will strengthen freedom of speech and kerb abuses of the current system . abuses of the current system. the united states and germany are expected to make landmark pledges to supply advanced battle tanks to ukraine later , battle tanks to ukraine later, president joe biden's administration has indicated it will provide at least 30 abrams tanks with germany likely to

confirm the delivery of 14 leopard tanks later today. it could pave the way for their allies to follow suit by giving ukraine a boost as they try to counter a possible russian spnng counter a possible russian spring offensive. however, president zelenskyy says ukraine still needs more than a direction, but there's a lot of talk about tanks , about modern talk about tanks, about modern tanks that we need, about the way the shortfall can be filled . a lot of efforts were made, promises , but it's important not promises, but it's important not to lose sight of reality. it's not about five or ten or 15 tanks. the need is larger . the tanks. the need is larger. the families of two british aid workers who reported missing in ukraine have confirmed the two men have been killed. 28 year old chris parry and andrew bagshaw, who was 47, had been attempting to rescue people from the embattled town of soledar when their vehicle was hit by an artillery shell . they were last artillery shell. they were last

seen on january the sixth . a 14 seen on january the sixth. a 14 year old boy has been arrested after a teenage girl was stabbed at a school in manchester. officers arrived at password high school yesterday afternoon. the girl was taken to hospital for treatment . her injuries are for treatment. her injuries are said to be serious but not life threatening. police are appealing for information and workers are striking for the first time in the uk and a dispute over pay . gmb members at dispute over pay. gmb members at amazon's covent tree warehouse are walking out in protest against a pay rise of $0.50 an houn against a pay rise of $0.50 an hour, which the unions described as derisory. the cause of the severe conditions workers face. amazon, though , says a tiny amazon, though, says a tiny proportion of the workforce are involved and they are proud to offer competitive pay. a gmb union member has said amazon workers have had enough a pressure cooker environment that they work in any way with a target to their expected to reach. you know, they just wear a mouse. get rid of a reply. some after all. are they just

offered a $0.50 pay increase in the biggest cost of living crisis that we've had in decades 7 crisis that we've had in decades ? and i think when workers have got nothing to lose, you see them coming out fighting and scottish teachers are halfway through their 16 day strike action . staff in both south action. staff in both south ayrshire and edinburgh will walk out today . the unions claim the out today. the unions claim the scottish government has little or no interest in resolving the dispute. the government though says the pay demands are not affordable or has been restored to 100,000 properties in scotland after a major pipe burst. a 36 inch water main burst. a 36 inch water main burst in east dumbarton yesterday, causing the road to split open. children at a nearby nursery were evacuated following flooding of the nearby streets. a scottish water says around 250,000 customers were affected , including parts of glasgow classified documents have been found at the former vice president of the united states

home in indiana . they were home in indiana. they were discovered by mike pence , his discovered by mike pence, his lawyer, last week and have been handed over to the fbi . it comes handed over to the fbi. it comes as investigators are already looking into how donald trump and joe biden have handled sensitive documents . thousands sensitive documents. thousands of microsoft users around the world have been experiencing issues accessing its services this morning. the company says they're investigating problems impacting microsoft 365. that includes teams and outlook. the website downdetector shows over 5000 people across the uk have reported issues with both outlook and teams. this morning . this is gb news. we'll bring you more as it happens, of course. but now it is back to earth . earth. very good morning. welcome to

bev turner today on gb news. here's what's coming up this morning. how real is the north—south divide? well, a whole host of decision makers, including manchester mayor andy burnham, council leaders and business representatives are gathering at a conference today to call on the government to learn lessons from germany and hardwire levelling up into uk law . what is life in the north law. what is life in the north really that bad? i'm from manchester. i think arguably the quality of life up there is much better than down south. what do you think ? and we're going to be you think? and we're going to be crossing over to dover in a short while. our home security edhon short while. our home security editor, mark white, is there as a huge surge in small boat crossings is underway in the engush crossings is underway in the english channel, at least 170 people have made the journey so far. and the political commentator emma webb and former labour mp stephen pound will join me to get stuck into the possible increase in the retirement age. the chancellor being encouraged to cut taxes and of course that north—south divide. i want to know what you

think about that. gb views at gb news don't you? i'm asking you about this in my twitter poll. do you think that people in the south of england genuinely have a better quality of life than those in the north? this is just your opinion so far , 55% of you your opinion so far, 55% of you say that people in the south have a better quality of life. so it is very split. email gb views. gb news uk or tweet me at gb news to have your say . so gb news to have your say. so that convention of the north is taking place in manchester today at this very moment. later michael gove, lisa nandy and other key regional figures will speak about levelling up in the north of england . joining us now north of england. joining us now from the conference is gb news is political editor darren mccaffrey . good morning, daryn . mccaffrey. good morning, daryn. give my love to my hometown , give my love to my hometown, won't you, this morning. now, the mayor of manchester, andy burnham, will be taking to the stage moment now. what

stage at any moment now. what you expect him to say ? yeah you expect him to say? yeah yeah. good morning, bev. i have to say i am equally a big fan of manchester. what a great city it is though. today the weather here is it's dreary. i think it's the definition of dreary. i can't see the tops of buildings . it is it's pretty pretty wet. but it's interesting, isn't it. you've got all these kind of regional bars. they've gathered here in manchester. and it's not just we should say that all because andy street the weather conservative man for west midlands is here as well. but you're and say michael you're right and say michael gove , the levelling up secretary gove, the levelling up secretary lisa shadow are also lisa nandy, his shadow are also here and interesting here and that interesting comparison isn't it, with germany because actually when you at the uk, what are the you look at the uk, what are the problems also what are the problems but also what are the benefits? is london in the sense that london is by far the biggest city, the prime will city, if you like? it's one of only three super cities in europe , i would say paris and europe, i would say paris and moscow , and that puts london on

moscow, and that puts london on the map. but it's at the disadvantage potentially of cities like manchester or birmingham or newcastle or glasgow and edinburgh and elsewhere. whereas in germany of course, more disparate course, it's much more disparate system. you've got political system. you've got a political capital you've got capital in berlin, you've got the city in munich, the wealthiest city in munich, but got financial but you've got the financial capital frankfurt , you've got capital in frankfurt, you've got the capital the industrial capital in hamburg . it's sped up the hamburg. it's more sped up the same in italy, same in spain same as in italy, same in spain and elsewhere. and so that is a kind a problem that means kind of a problem that means that lots of investment and money has been consistently pumped london in the pumped into london in the south—east, to the south—east, actually to the detriment the north. what detriment of the north. and what the people saying, what the people here are saying, what the people here are saying, what the saying is the mayors are saying is actually, when you talk about levelling what don't want levelling up, what we don't want to you have a bidding to see is you have a bidding process like last week process like we saw last week for this fund of money give for this fund of money to give support to businesses and local institutions and ideas has to get off the ground. what they say is actually just give us the money, give it to us here in manchester or in leeds or in newcastle. and at that stage will spend the money because we know our local areas better than

anyone in whitehall does , and anyone in whitehall does, and that's how the future should look. if you're going to have devolution, it shouldn't just be political it should political devolution, it should be devolution well, be economic devolution as well, that should big budget that we should have a big budget in we can spend money in in which we can spend money in a local and that's the case local area. and that's the case they're trying make, if you they're trying to make, if you like, michael gove in like, to michael gove here in manchester's to the manchester's a but also to the treasury to jeremy hunt back in london well. and of course london as well. and of course this what keir starmer this is what keir starmer mentioned ago and mentioned a few weeks ago and that response to gordon that was in response to gordon brown's . this idea brown's report. this idea of devolving the regions . devolving power to the regions. do you think, darren, as political editor, that's a vote winning policy? it doesn't really matter. but i think in many ways it is what people think that actually it is better that local politicians run the local affairs. i mean , keir local affairs. i mean, keir starmer made the comparison with brexit, if you like, it's taking back control . taking back back control. taking back control shouldn't mean just all that power. being in london, in westminster with that bs, it should be, as i say, in the great cities here in the north or in scotland, wales and or indeed in scotland, wales and northern a large northern ireland to a large degree it already is. in

degree where it already is. in saying that the problem with all of is that the devolution, of this is that the devolution, slightly organic, doesn't slightly organic, it doesn't kind to all parts kind of make sense to all parts of country have got of the country that have got metro like in south metro mayors like in south yorkshire in tyneside or in yorkshire or in tyneside or in merseyside in merseyside or indeed in birmingham west midlands. birmingham in the west midlands. but large parts but then there are large parts of country have of the country that don't have any of devolution. what are any form of devolution. what are those? so shielded by parts of the south—west in the uk is the south—west in places and cornwall? places like devon and cornwall? yep. got devolution yep. they haven't got devolution that about that that when talking about devolution there and when devolution down there and when people talk about levelling up again , they think about places again, they think about places like manchester or leeds, but why don't they think of exeter or newquay or indeed along the east coast of england, whether it's large swathes of social deprivation. so again, with all of these things, it's really complex, it's really difficult. and there is a frustration, i think, in some parts of the south that we got reflected actually by rishi sunak in the leadership that you actually by rishi sunak in the leaitalking that you actually by rishi sunak in the leaitalking about that you actually by rishi sunak in the leaitalking about levelling you actually by rishi sunak in the leaitalking about levelling up,>u are talking about levelling up, can it just trying to make can it just mean trying to make the as wealthy as the the north as wealthy as the south general terms, or does south in general terms, or does it looking at the real it mean looking at the real pockets of deprivation in this

country, which not just country, which are not just finds in the north of finds here in the north of england, but actually right across the in different across the uk in different parts. this is a whether it's in the south—east, south—west or indeedin the south—east, south—west or indeed in valleys in wales indeed in the valleys in wales or , you know, in northumberland or, you know, in northumberland or, you know, in northumberland or cumbria. so it's really, really interesting. it's really complex and there is no easy answer . but complex and there is no easy answer. but on that principle point, do i think it's a vote winner? think probably is winner? i think it probably is that people out would that most people out there would think, know what, think, actually, you know what, my do know the my local politicians do know the local better than some local area better than some mandarins in whitehall. okay. thank you. darren until you day, let us how it goes let us know how it goes throughout day. what i'm throughout the day. what i'm sure dropping into sure you will be dropping into shows we through today. shows as we go through today. let me know what you think. vaiews@gbnews.uk as i say, i've got this twitter poll running today that you really today so that you really think that the quality of life in the south of the country is significantly better is significantly better than it is in the north. i go to manchester. it cost me about half i'm not half the price. i'm not exaggerating . we're treated like exaggerating. we're treated like idiots here. we idiots down here. maybe we already goes living here. already goes for living here. everything at least double everything is at least double the is. seems to be the price it is. it seems to be

up i'm not sure it's as up north. i'm not sure it's as simple just throwing money simple as just throwing money into to increase the into a region to increase the quality life . now, a huge quality of the life. now, a huge surge in small boat crossings is underway english channel underway in the english channel this people this morning as criminal people smuggling advantage smuggling gangs take advantage of a in bad weather. of a break in the bad weather. gb sources can confirm that gb news sources can confirm that at least 170 people have been taken to dover after they were intercepted in force. more boats intercepted in force. more boats in the channel overnight and this morning, that is just overnight . and this morning, gb overnight. and this morning, gb news home security editor mark white is in dover for us this morning. hi, mark. mark what are what are you hearing there ? what are you hearing there? well, sources telling us that potentially up to a thousand people could attempt to push off from the beaches of north—west france today , an attempt france today, an attempt crossing , of course, that crossing, of course, that doesn't mean that they'll all be successful. in fact, we've heard of a couple of incidents overnight where the french police around the calais area have managed to intercept a couple of these small boats

before they got into the water and puncture them. those channel migrants have run off now into the dunes. but clearly a number of boats have already made it into the water. as you mentioned, there are four already that have been intercepted . the people intercepted. the people transferred to border force vessels , the first one in just vessels, the first one in just after midnight. the border force vessel volunteer with about 44 people on board went back out to sea. after that , took another sea. after that, took another two small boat loads of almost 90 people back to dover here, and then typhoon at first light this morning, another border force vessel came in with 40 plus people on board that vessel . now, as we speak, another border force vessel, this time the border force vessel ranger is involved in transferring a number of migrants from a small boat that they've intercepted that had been escorted across by a french naval warship. this is

a french naval warship. this is a policy that the french have. they don't intervene in to try to push back the boats they say it would be too dangerous to do that. so they effectively shadow any boat in the water if it gets into difficulty , then they will into difficulty, then they will intervene then to rescue us on board, but otherwise they will just escort that vessel across into uk waters when the border force or lifeboats on this side will pick up these channel. migrants now also, bev, as we speak, we're getting reports that french patrol vessels and warships are covering italy, escorting another three small boats from the coastline of france, heading towards uk waters . so another four boats waters. so another four boats still out in the channel 4 have already landed this morning . we already landed this morning. we are in for an incredibly busy day because this is a small weather window that's opened up

in other wise continuous border weather in the channel. it's expected to close in again later today and it will be bad in the channel until at least the weekend when there might be an opportunity for more of these small boats to be pushed off . small boats to be pushed off. okay. thank you, mark. mark white, the home secretary said a sit down in dover . i've been sit down in dover. i've been asking you about whether you think this north, south divide is real. it's my twitter poll at the moment. you have been getting in touch. thank you very much . at the moment, it looks much. at the moment, it looks like only 54% of you think that people in the south of england have a better quality of life than those in the north. on twitter? absolutely not. i left the south in 2015. i've never look back. it's overpriced, overcrowded and stuffed full of insufferable green party members . and this this tweet has said it's not south versus north, it's not south versus north, it's home counties versus the rest . a levels of rural rest. a levels of rural property, poverty in south—west

england that part that government forgot decades ago are astonishing. and then andy has said on twitter, how can you compare the cotswolds with hull or harrogate? i think you can. if it is just journalists trying to start a fight so they can report on it. i promise you, randl report on it. i promise you, randi, i'm not trying to start a fight. i don't get any pleasure out of starting fights, but i do think interesting to think it's interesting to know what you think. it's all very well. lot of government well. a lot of government officials meeting up in to manchester about what they manchester talk about what they need well, tell need in the north. well, tell me, need and what do me, what do you need and what do we here in the south? we need here in the south? right. my panellists, the brilliant and emma brilliant steven pound and emma webb, a webb, will be here in just a moment after this quick break. see you in two. i have again, it's aidan mcgivern here from the office. a lot low the met office. a lot of low clouds and will affect clouds and fog will affect southern of the uk, whilst southern parts of the uk, whilst a of moves across a band of rain moves across central brightest guys central areas. brightest guys follow we've follow in the north. we've seen the rain earlier and showers push northern scotland push into northern scotland with some , hail, some heavy downpours, hail, thunder for the thunder and snow for the mountains some mountains, but otherwise some bright between those bright spells in between those showers reappearing showers and sunshine reappearing for northern ireland. southern scotland and northern england

dunng scotland and northern england during afternoon . we've got during the afternoon. we've got this of rain central this band of rain in central parts and then to the south of that it stays it stays that it stays cold, it stays gloomy . a lot of low cloud and gloomy. a lot of low cloud and fog about temperatures at 6 to 8 celsius, although it's seven or eight celsius in the north as well. now, this cold front will push south and it will clear that low cloud mist and fog dunng that low cloud mist and fog during the rest of wednesday . during the rest of wednesday. but it will bring a spell of rain for a time. that rain affecting the midlands into south wales and then southern parts of england during the evening, clearing by evening, clearing away by midnight we've got midnight. and then we've got those skies returning and those clear skies returning and this will also help this cold front will also help to clear the very cold air that we've had stuck at the surface dunng we've had stuck at the surface during recent mornings. so although there will be a touch of frost places on thursday of frost in places on thursday morning it nearly as morning, it won't be nearly as cold we've seen across cold as we've seen across southern meanwhile it southern areas. meanwhile it will be colder in the north because we've lost the southwesterly winds. and so a touch of frost for scotland, for northern ireland. but bright skies for many into thursday. the of the sunshine will be the best of the sunshine will be in a bit more cloud

in the west a bit more cloud coming in to the east along with one or two showers. but for the vast majority, actually, it is looking it's looking looking dry, it's looking bright and won't far and temperatures won't stray far from 6 to 8 celsius. by from average, 6 to 8 celsius. by and large . up and down the and large. up and down the country. so we've lost the very mild we've in the mild air that we've had in the north. and we've also lost the very cold air that's been stuck at surface in south. at the surface in the south. temperatures to temperatures mostly returning to average over the next couple of days. then we've got further showers coming into the north sea thursday evening. clear sea on thursday evening. clear spells west, another spells out to the west, another touch frost begin things touch of frost to begin things mainly north and then mainly in the north and then frosty the on saturday frosty in the south on saturday morning. that's where the best of sunshine be.

the very good morning. welcome back to bev turner. today on your tv and dab radio of course my guests are here. i'm delighted to be joined by political

commentator and leader of the common sense society . is that common sense society. is that what your titles and the uk director of the common sense society, uk director of the common society and she's common sense society and she's full common sense, emotive full of common sense, emotive and former labour mp stephen pound. that's all i've got . pound. that's all i've got. well, the uncommon sense, what we've got, we've got youth and xpena we've got, we've got youth and xperia and steve that is so beautifully , subtly put. but beautifully, subtly put. but i write. but surely you're of a youth side of the equation. well, i'm somewhere in the middle. okay i've got a bit of experience in and not quite as much youth as i'd like. but anyway. right, we're talking about up about this levelling up conference today. conference in manchester today. this are you this convention. where are you from emma? are you from originally, emma? are you southern born and bred? i am southern born bred, but half southern born and bred, but half of family bishop of my family is from bishop auckland. so i feel a auckland. so no. so i feel a very connection with the very strong connection with the north. do you think north. okay. and do you think the quality of life up north is much down here ? much worse than down here? hugely, i think. i think people's chances, if they people's life chances, if they stay north is limited. stay in the north is limited. and be nice if people and it would be nice if people could stay in their area, could stay in their local area, didn't to london didn't have to come to london

because thought that was because they thought that was the only way for them to have certain opportunities. so i do think a very, think that there is a very, very strong necessary for strong and necessary case for improving people's lives in the north, improving infrastructure, improving things like transport, economic productivity, absolutely . but i economic productivity, absolutely. but i think that this whole idea of devolution into manchester, similar to the sort of thing in scotland, i think is a terrible idea. and i frankly don't trust local authorities to destroy eu public money appropriately. i do worry about that because there's a certain type of person sometimes that works in local councils. i'm not talking about you, stephen, who i'm not sure would necessarily make the right decisions with the with the best interests of the local people. but anyway, that that is a sort of a terrible slur on people who volunteer that time to volunteer and give that time to run communities. and run local communities. and what do you you'd look to born do you think you'd look to born and yeah, have indeed. and bred? yeah, i have indeed. the you've got this the thing is, you've got this sort centripetal force you sort of centripetal force you get in every country as people move towards the capital, move down towards the capital, because capital the because the capital is the powerhouse. you know, that's where flows. and so

where the juice flows. and so you and think the you get that. and i think the government a limited government can do a limited number things. number of things. what a government do say government cannot do is to say people in bishop auckland, you know, to rise for know, are going to rise for a certain level. you can't actually buck the market on that. can do is to move that. what you can do is to move things you know, the royal things like, you know, the royal mint out francis and to mint went out to francis and to the armouries leeds the the armouries to leeds and the ability fly, you can do ability to fly, you can do things like that. but the bbc things like that. but on the bbc went manchester, of course, went to manchester, of course, you that was a great you know, that was a great success, wasn't it? i think people, you want work in people, if you want to work in the and you live in the media and you live in manchester. it's manchester. yeah, it's a provided thousands of opportunities jobs. well opportunities for jobs. well things all well things like that that's all well and i think it's where and good. but i think it's where you actually take from there. you actually take it from there. and about andy burnham and the thing about andy burnham and rotherham, they're and steve rotherham, they're actually talking about more of a political devolution. they seem to you actually to imply that if you actually have a structural, political, constitutional devolution, everything from everything else will flow from that. mean, really, that. and i mean, i really, really with really want to disagree with them, at all possible. you them, if at all possible. you can, can't this can, but i can't on this occasion. oh we've got we've got another and a half to do another hour and a half to do that. but yeah, but mean, just that. but yeah, but i mean, just simply saying, you know, let a thousand flowers bloom you thousand flowers bloom and you know, authority. well,

know, the local authority. well, you not entirely sure. you know, i'm not entirely sure. and if i choose words, and if i choose my words, we have boroughs london, have certain boroughs in london, you wouldn't you know, i mean, i wouldn't trust a run up flippin in. well, exactly yeah i know exactly so recipe. yeah i know is a recipe for corruption actually amounts of actually such huge amounts of money what the that's money and that's what the that's what one of the proposals is to send instead of allocating money to specific or to to specific projects or to specific to specific things in the north, that what the government would do is to give them one big lump sum as we do with scotland, and then for them to decide that money is to decide how that money is spent on the premise that they would be better placed to understand the local area and that's not to say that i trust the current system or that i think that that central government is particularly good allocating public money. i don't i think we waste a huge i think that we waste a huge amount , but i i think that we waste a huge amount, but i just don't think that this idea that and i think that this idea that and i think that this idea that and i think that this is absolutely right. andy burnham has written andy burnham burnham has written his guardian his article in the guardian saying we need this german saying that we need this german style system where we have a almost constitutionally a

quality of living standards across the board. and london is completely different. i mean, because, you know, their upper house is like a is a regional. and that's one of the things the labour party is about to labour party is talking about to have a different house of lords, but the one area that but i think the one area that hasn't addressed, hasn't been addressed, it's crucially in crucially important in particularly in south wales, in northern and in glasgow, northern ireland and in glasgow, is from the is the hangover from the industrial because you industrial age. because if you look life like health look at life chances like health outcomes in belfast, in cardiff, swansea, glasgow, blackpool , swansea, glasgow, blackpool, look, it's off the scale . and i look, it's off the scale. and i think one thing that government has is to actually direct has to do is to actually direct health resources and health improvement because not improvement because it's not there fault, you that they there fault, you know, that they were brought up in were actually brought up in a toxic communities as well. so the fact that the industry left those regions perhaps , well, the those regions perhaps, well, the country did very out of country did very well out of those then the those industries and then the industry's on and the industry's moved on and the people were behind. the people were left behind. the argument burnham is argument that andy burnham is making equality making is that this equality across help to across the board would help to bnng across the board would help to bring the country together. that seems be what what him and seems to be what what him and his against a rising tide his cohort against a rising tide but think that but also but i do think that that's this is going that's what this is going to happen because seen

happen here because we've seen what's with devolution what's happened with devolution aid does not result aid to scotland does not result in it is a result of in unity. it is a result of further fracturing. so i think that we need to find a better way to level up. i hate that phrase level of i hate it because it's nothing, it's just a but also a slogan. but also it's a terrible slogan . it's it terrible slogan. it's it grammatically doesn't work . no, grammatically doesn't work. no, it's terrible. it's so common sense to come up with something better that. but it's better than that. but it's something domestic something like domestic investment something , investment or something, something a bit more. you know, it tells you just what it says on the tin. yeah of course. sorry. on the scotland argument , different germany , what's different about germany is saying is nobody is actually saying that, you certain book is that, you know, certain book is going or bavaria going to going to or bavaria are going to actually what actually split away. so what you've is very different you've got is very different from scotland. i mean, scotland is of devolution. the is a sort of devolution. the settlement originally settlement was originally supposed to actually shoot their folks wouldn't to folks so they wouldn't want to go independence . but go for full independence. but germany is different and i think germany is different and i think germany a good example. but germany is a good example. but also industrial also you have an industrial democracy. very democracy. yeah, it's a very different so i mean, different economy. so i mean, andy burnham and steve rotherham making points. making some interesting points. but perspective, but from their own perspective, i idea germany i think the idea of germany being absolute panic

being the absolute panic directly, the cure for everything, i think i know what andy burnham means, that we are going to move on that topic. but i what to me is about i know what it to me is about the fact that these local areas have go cap in to have to go cap in hand to westminster to beg for money, for we it for investments. and we saw it in the levelling fund that in the levelling up fund that was only the end of was announced only the end of last week the majority of last week that the majority of that to the tory that went to the tory constituency. yes, although a constituency. so yes, although a huge that money, no huge amount of that money, no knowledge of constituents in these countries at really . these countries at all really. well, not a lot of well, that's true. not a lot of complaints had and complaints were that it had and not enough money had gone to the north—east actually lot of north—east but actually a lot of money gone to the northwest. money had gone to the northwest. so i think we have to recognise as well with this as well that with this, this conference taking today conference taking place today that this is political, that a lot of this is political, it's political posturing . andy it's political posturing. andy burnham and lisa nandy see themselves as sort of the laws of north this is a of the north and this is a battle against westminster. so i think we all agree that think that we can all agree that what need is better living what we need is better living standards across the country . standards across the country. but it's the way that we chart one way that we do that. it starts with transport it and it

starts with transport it and it starts with transport it and it starts with not ridiculous starts with not a ridiculous getting from manchester to london. minutes quicker or london. 20 minutes quicker or whatever be. whatever it's going to be. but it with cos country it starts with good cos country tracks leeds , sheffield, tracks through leeds, sheffield, all the places that we all those are the places that we need would be vastly improved anyway. moving on. how anyway. right. moving on. how good do you think we are in this country it comes freedom country when it comes to freedom of you had to guess of speech? if you had to guess where would you read the where we would sit, you read the article. i don't know why i'm asking you, but if you had to, if before you'd read this, you thought, do we sit the thought, where do we sit in the in the globe in terms of our freedom expression? freedom of expression? where would we would would you have said we would have the top that have been at the top of that table as anybody who's table as as anybody who's familiar me knows, i think familiar with me knows, i think that state freedom of that the state of freedom of expression this country is expression in this country is absolutely slightly absolutely dire. i am slightly surprised that we're in the third tier. maybe i would have places just places around the second. just in terms of the global comparisons with other countries, are countries, because there are many, restrictive many, many more restrictive countries . but not surprised countries. but i'm not surprised really ultimately to see this story that we've been placed in the third tier in the global index of free expression because things here are bad against, are

getting worse, have gotten worse quite rapidly over the last five years. that's right. countries including israel, chile, jamaica, and virtually every other western european state were all ranked ahead of the uk in the measure compiled by the advocacy group index on census trip. do you feel you can freely say to say? say what you want to say? stephen pound i have never, ever done anything other than say exactly i want to feel, but exactly how i want to feel, but i this i'm going to use i think this is i'm going to use a word i think this is a rude word that i think this is wrong. it's perfectly okay because, you know, in jamaica, some homophobic stuff some of the homophobic stuff that out because i mean, that comes out because i mean, i used to get a lot of asylum seekers from jamaica coming to my citing what was my surgeries and citing what was said gay people and gay said about gay people and gay and lesbian people in jamaica. so, i mean, i don't think in iran can get hanged for iran you can get hanged for having opinions the having contrary opinions to the state. so i think we're pretty good this country, but good in this country, but i think perhaps a little bit think we perhaps do a little bit too much self—censorship. i think we're slightly worried. there's mean, when i there's a kind of i mean, when i was growing up london, you was growing up in london, you know, i think we used racist language almost without thinking about with the pat black kids on

the in the past. supposed the heads in the past. supposed to be lucky. yeah, but can you imagine the that the imagine the agony that must the kid to school so kid on his way to school so we've but think the we've on but i think the self—censorship is the best bit ultimately free speeches ultimately for me free speeches about good manners. i don't care what say as long it is what you say as long as it is actually said from the basis of respect and the basis of respect and from the basis of good and isn't obscene. good manners and isn't obscene. yeah, right. yeah, absolutely right. thank you, start. after you, guys. great start. after the break, tate, very the break, andrew tate, very controversial . of course, he's controversial. of course, he's been arrested in romania before he arrested. of course, he's he was arrested. of course, he's very influential. youtuber if you don't know who he is, stay tuned to find out because. he champions masculinity , but many champions masculinity, but many accuse him of being a misogynist . i'm going to be talking to an expert on this after the news with . eric it's 1032. expert on this after the news with . eric it's1032. i'm expert on this after the news with . eric it's 1032. i'm out with. eric it's 1032. i'm out arms with. eric it's1032. i'm out arms throwing the gb newsroom. the met police commissioner has apologised to the victims of former officer david carrick, who pleaded guilty to 14 lying criminal charges , including 24

criminal charges, including 24 counts of rape. sir mark rowley said carrots should not have been a police officer. he also says the force has failed to apply the same ruthlessness to guarding their own integrity as they have in confronting criminals. i think we failed investigators where we should have been more intrusive and joined the dots over his repeated misogyny over decades . repeated misogyny over decades. and as leaders , our mindset and as leaders, our mindset should have been more determined to spot and root out such misogynist . so as i say , i misogynist. so as i say, i apologised to his victims and i want to say sorry to all the women across london who feel let down by this and whose trust in policing is shaken by this. she rishi sunak is likely to be grilled about zahawi, his tax affairs prime minister's questions later as the tory party chairman faces renewed pressure to consider his position. the prime minister has resisted calls to sack the tory party chairman but has launched an inquiry after it emerged. mr. zahawi paid a penalty to settle

a multimillion pound tax dispute with hmrc . mr. zahawi says he's with hmrc. mr. zahawi says he's confident he acted properly throughout the united states and germany , poised to announce the germany, poised to announce the delivery of tanks to ukraine in a policy reversal , washington's a policy reversal, washington's expected to pledge at least 30, with germany to offer 14 advanced battle tanks , paving advanced battle tanks, paving the way for allies to follow suit. ukraine believes a possible tank coalition could be a game changer in the conflict with russia. the kremlin now says us tanks being sent to ukraine will burn like all the rest . a 14 year old boy has been rest. a 14 year old boy has been arrested after a teenage girl was stabbed at a school in manchester. officers arrived at parrs wood high school yesterday afternoon. the girl was taken to hospital for serious, but not life threatening injuries. police are appealing for information . tv, online and dab information. tv, online and dab plus radio. this is gb news. do stay with .

us welcome back to best and stay on gb news tv and dab radio now. when i say andrew tate, some of you might absolutely love him. some of you will despise him. and many of you might have no idea who he is. well, the controversial british american influencer rose to fame 2016 after being removed from the tv show big brother. social media platforms youtube, facebook, instagram and tiktok have banned him. tiktok said that misogyny is a hateful ideology that is not tolerated in his videos. andrew encourages men to be more masculine and traditionally masculine and traditionally masculine and traditionally masculine and tells them to focus on making money. he's very controversial . he's currently controversial. he's currently under arrest. is this a voice that men need in 2023? him and his brother are in tristan , in his brother are in tristan, in custody in romanian in romania, as police investigate allegations of rape and human trafficking and exploitation. so

former army commando and author of rethinking masculinity, dan stanley joins me in the studio. dan, i'm so excited that you're here. i've been dying to have this conversation because i have a teenage boy . and this name, a teenage boy. and this name, andrew tate, kept getting mentioned and occasionally he would bring it and say to me, mom, what do you think of this? which is a good start, right? because doesn't that because he doesn't ask me that about of things. and about a lot of things. and i would watch some of his videos and talking about not and what he's talking about not drinking . working hard. drinking. working really hard. living clean life. believing in yourself. brilliance and then he would go down these very dark, very , very old fashioned very, very old fashioned attitudes that women should be attitudes that women should be at home and men make all the money. but why is he so popular? what? what is he tapped into, do you think? yeah, i think with andrew, he's actually probably more intellectual. he's clever and possibly more aggressive than people realise. i think there's aspect of why him and there's an aspect of why him and why now. if we look at those two separate points, you know, he's somebody that spent decades in

the public arena. he knows how to get people's attention. and obviously nowadays attention is currency valuable to currency and it's valuable to people. he's been obviously people. so he's been obviously sports. he's in reality and sports. he's been in reality and now free to prominence of social media. he's missed a game , the media. he's missed a game, the algorithms to get to a point where he's got a significant audience. people who listen to these some of which audience. people who listen to the�*perhaps some of which audience. people who listen to the�*perhaps groundede of which audience. people who listen to the�*perhaps grounded on which audience. people who listen to the�*perhaps grounded on there's are perhaps grounded on there's some validity in some of the things that he does. but with andrew , the context of his andrew tate, the context of his delivery is what polarises people's opinion. he's very sharp . he's very articulate, as sharp. he's very articulate, as you say he's an incredible wordsmith , actually. and but are wordsmith, actually. and but are you sure ? what can you work out? you sure? what can you work out? because i can't always whether he's trying to be comedic, whether he's trying to be quite funny when he's really pushing it and saying that women should just stay at home and men go to work. i can't work out whether his joking a bit. yeah, i don't think he's joking. i think that he's hiding perhaps or masking his insecurities of form his own insecurities of form from perhaps his childhood. when

you look at his background, his father and his mother, and kind of what his upbringing was like. i think it's easy to hide his insecurities in that of insecurities in that kind of hyper masculine image that he's trying his trying to portray. wasn't his father black father the first black chess grandmaster ? right. stephen grandmaster? right. stephen powell just tell that the things that stephen powell knows. i didn't know that. so what kind of bearing do you think that's had he's always had a had on him? he's always had a had on him? he's always had a had father driven had a very driven, father driven father, obviously probably father, which obviously probably enabled in enabled him to then excel in a world of combat sports. and now he's at a place where obviously he's at a place where obviously he public persona . and he got this public persona. and kind of when there's an attachment identity, attachment and an identity, people into that and people get drawn into that and kind of put more fuel on the fire. and if you look at his messaging he was messaging before he was cancelled off social cancelled and taken off social media platforms, was not just media platforms, it was not just polarising, creating polarising, but he was creating this versus them. this sense of us versus them. it's we need stand up. we it's we need to stand up. we need to take control. we need to be this type of man in the world today. and we to fight back against big against government, big corporatism. we need to corporatism. yeah we need to push back against all of that. and there there's a there's a podcast i listened to on late

last year. i was talking about taking all swords. i mean, taking all our swords. i mean, it's graphic. it's very it's very graphic. it's very assertive, aggressive assertive, almost aggressive of kind rhetoric kind of this type of rhetoric that but why does that he's pushing. but why does that he's pushing. but why does that appeal to so many men , that appeal to so many men, young have we? what young boys, what have we? what have we done to a teenage boys that mean that they're looking around of role around for these kind of role models? that's a great question to people focusing it's to me. people are focusing it's focusing on andrew tate and the way his way that he projects his message, the he shows message, the way that he shows up or is perhaps evidence in the media when if we go back and we stop being so subjective, we look objectively, it's look at more objectively, it's not issue of our not just a gender issue of our men, masculinity. it's more men, of masculinity. it's more of societal you know, of a societal issue. you know, a lot of the work i do around, obviously in my book rethinking masculinity, that the concept there's arms for there's kind of call to arms for men. there's out men. there's so many men out there now that i've become disenfranchised disengaged disenfranchised and disengaged both with this both in themselves with this loss purpose lack of loss of purpose or lack of identity also in wider identity and also in wider society , see that kind of society, see that the kind of living a life that feels very stagnant and stale. lots of middle aged men then go on to kind of suffer in silence the expectation that professional

success equals personal happiness leads them to happiness kind of leads them to a space where overly a space where they overly overwork on the lift and overwork and on the lift and sons and daughters are seeing this at home, across the country and across western world. these men are openly out the door. they're in work or they're working home or hybrid, working from home or hybrid, working from home or hybrid, working they kind of working, and they kind of committing so time, effort committing so much time, effort and sort of careers in and energy to sort of careers in the expectation deliver the expectation to deliver personal this personal happiness. and this kind for the kind of provision for the family, both financially and in terms security, that actually terms of security, that actually the seeing the of tired which vaughn looking friendship's lacking sense of purpose . and i lacking sense of purpose. and i think there's a real there's a real consolation now for us to step up and of recognise that masculinity to mature. in masculinity needs to mature. in what way though? because one of the i've always the things i've always been arguing about is that it's very much saying that once you become parents, men lose their parents, i think men lose their way a lot of the time. then i think get a hard time for think men get a hard time for going hard, looking going to work hard, looking after children, quite after children, right. quite hard. looking after babies. quite easier to go to the quite a bit easier to go to the office. but i think that now that getting little bit that we're getting a little bit more in that area, more balance in that area,

especially young especially some of the young men that to work with, i used that i used to work with, i used to run antenatal business. the younger really enjoyed younger men really enjoyed having balance, having a better balance, spending some quality time with their their toddlers. spending some quality time with thithat their toddlers. spending some quality time with thithat part their toddlers. spending some quality time with thithat part of their toddlers. spending some quality time with thithat part of what ir toddlers. spending some quality time with thithat part of what we )ddlers. spending some quality time with thithat part of what we need's. spending some quality time with thithat part of what we need to is that part of what we need to do moving forward? and that sounds emasculating, it sounds emasculating, but it shouldn't be. it shouldn't be. but the stigma and but because of the stigma and the that the conditioning that your members, their members, even in their adolescence formative years, adolescence and formative years, there's an expectation that needs strong, silent, needs to be strong, silent, successful, and obviously in spending with families spending time with our families and being nurturing and our children being nurturing and compassionate doesn't actually old actually fit into the old blueprint masculinity blueprint of masculinity that was by of was arguably handed by men of previous generations. yeah i mean, look, suicide still the mean, look, suicide is still the biggest killer men under 45. biggest killer of men under 45. that's my slowing that if that isn't some sort of emergency that needs addressing and yet it doesn't, we don't really i know we talk about mental health kind of in the round that people though you know mental health we to we hear about a to think about we hear about a lot but we all failing men almost more we're failing women. yeah i would that yeah i would suggest that there's the there's an element of the society is trying to engagement but men not giving themselves permission to accept engagement. you know, you can hold your hand

up doesn't take it. then up so he doesn't take it. then you're kind of you're still at kind of maintaining status quo. maintaining the status quo. haven't a disservice as haven't we done a disservice as well with this phrase toxic masculinity ? because i think masculinity? because i think what that has become misunderstood and bastardised into is this idea that you can't be tough. yeah, you can't be strong because actually quite you were a very attractive man down like a strong , you know, down like a strong, you know, strong masculine men are what most women want, you say sounding like, you know, and i do see as i cringe as i'm saying that because it does sound old fashioned, but we've got to somehow allow men to be who they are. primal the vast majority are. primal the vast majority are meant to be. am i falling over myself here? i'll get myself tied in knots. i think you're exactly right. you know, if i was to put that into layman's terms that masculinity is society, it's is a construct of society, it's a set of traits that we a certain set of traits that we embody that are perhaps conditioned into from conditioned into us from society, from parents and education. we're at a education. and i'm we're at a stage where perhaps some of stage now where perhaps some of those traits are that they're

not and don't not outdated. and i don't believe masculinity believe that masculinity is toxic. feelings toxic. but these feelings dysfunctional, of dysfunctional, this kind of premise kind provision for premise on kind of provision for our being the our family being the breadwinners world they breadwinners in a world they were. equality and were. there's equality and there's policy, gender moving there's policy, gender or moving towards . lots of men are towards it. lots of men are feeling lost. yeah we can't really talk too much about obviously andrew tate is has currently i think know as we say he's in custody charged with these offences. it's very difficult and if he difficult to know and but if he does step out of the public eye, what would you like to see in his place. what of man on social media that the kids will look up to? yeah i was asked this question on the podcast recently . was like, who would we say . i was like, who would we say are role models young are all role models for young boys matter of today? and boys in the matter of today? and we're looking we are, yeah. you know, i was kind of putting know, when i was kind of putting the of my book is the research out of my book is kind get some of the kind of look and get some of the personas . daddy peppa pig personas. daddy pig in peppa pig of parents of young children relate to homer simpson , you relate to homer simpson, you know, drinking away his boredom at most, who's out at most, having who's really out there and because of the way the algorithms are set up now, it's kind of an echo chamber. so as

soon as start looking at soon as you start looking at andrew or people who are andrew tate or people who are showing similar rhetoric, showing us similar rhetoric, then you then the albums follow you around before you around the internet. before you know kind be living know it, you kind of be living in states of a negative and in the states of a negative and toxic messaging. suggest toxic messaging. so i'd suggest if to look at role models, if i was to look at role models, people like johnny mercer and be veterans. yep. veterans minister. somebody minister. yep. he's somebody that at him, that for me, when i look at him, his public persona and the things i and see him things that i read and see him say and do in the way that he represents his community constituents, he's a man of value integrity. value and integrity. joe wicks he's good. yeah i like he's pretty good. yeah i like joe wicks. but then think if joe wicks. but then i think if you to a lot of teenage you said to a lot of teenage boys, wicks, they go, ooh, boys, joe wicks, they go, ooh, he's to make me do sit ups he's going to make me do sit ups that i don't want to be like him. yes yeah, yeah. integrity, honesty. yes. families, impassioned family. you know, this of zest for this real kind of zest for living a life and not just spending it stuck behind a desk or trying prove out or trying to prove out worthwhile would you worthwhile work. what would you say to work say to teachers who have to work with troublesome teens? with these troublesome teens? we've a story we're going to we've got a story we're going to be a panel about be discussing with a panel about knife and these these knife crime and how these these poor teenagers , especially after poor teenagers, especially after the years, have had the last 2 to 3 years, have had

such a hard time. what should teachers be doing more of, do you with you think, at school with bullying? i think it's more perhaps a policy piece of evidence. directly, you evidence. teachers directly, you know, very hard know, it's going to be very hard for teacher to the for a teacher to connect the resonate with a young man or young kind of having these young boy kind of having these questions can questions that nobody can answer. kind of feel it's answer. so i kind of feel it's important not from important for not just from education about big education about the big corporates to how people that can connect with their there's no point transport square in can connect with their there's n

for weeks on german chancellor olaf scholz. his government to send the tanks and allow other nato allies to do the same. ahead of expected spring offensive by both sides. that could help turn the tide of the war. germany's decision the way for other countries such as poland , spain and norway to poland, spain and norway to supply their stocks of leopard tanks to ukraine. so moving on today, scotland celebrates the 264th birthday of its national bard, robbie burns. but over the last year, the 18th century poet has faced criticism over the moral dilemmas that he faced dunng moral dilemmas that he faced during his lifetime. our reporter tony mcguire has been to glasgow to find out more . so to glasgow to find out more. so burns night is already opponents , but it's been a tough old year for the bard. discussions have been ongoing on whether or not to reference has brush with the slave trade alongside his portrait hanging in scotland's national gallery , i met one of national gallery, i met one of scotland's leading burns experts at glasgow university. to get to the bottom of this latest attempt to cancel robbie burns,

if we re went to me 1786, burns's prospect science of goods, and he seems he tells us quite clearly he is thinking of going to jamaica to work on the slave trade . but he knew find slave trade. but he knew find bookkeepers like all those would be pressed into service bonds which thinking of going but of course crucially doesn't go to emphasise that . and not to cite emphasise that. and not to cite the name instances where he speaks against slavery seems to me to be a wee bit asymmetrical , going all the way back to my schooldays and everything i can remember of it. robbie burns tells me that he was a man for, the and he abhorred and the people and he abhorred and justice. i asked professor carruthers just how fair is it that we are judging an 18th century poet by 21st century morality standard ? i don't want morality standard? i don't want to downplay any injustice. and robert bonds didn't want to downplay any injustice. and ultimately , if we look at his ultimately, if we look at his writings in the around, he has a

clear ability , honest voice. he clear ability, honest voice. he is clearly slavery. what do we do . do we whitewash history ? in do. do we whitewash history? in other words, we cancel stuff . other words, we cancel stuff. and the danger of there is that we people all over the stuff that we may rightly want to object to. okay. so we've heard the academic perspective . what the academic perspective. what do the people think? do you think we should be judging someone that lived in 18th century or 21st century standards and probably not know because like, well, he they contributed a lot to primary school . yeah. maybe like some of school. yeah. maybe like some of his poems . and like, it's always his poems. and like, it's always a big deal , his poems. and like, it's always a big deal, like dead in front of great skill. i mean, i think he's done so much for not even just scottish culture, but like global culture and literature that i mean, especially you don't even take up the job. i wouldn't say that's enough to cancel him . then i'm not sure cancel him. then i'm not sure where i stand. on whether people from the 18th century should be cancelled or not. so there we have it. both professor carruthers and members of the pubuc carruthers and members of the public gave to public gave a big no to cancelling robert barnes . i see.

cancelling robert barnes. i see. tony maguire for gb news in glasgow . so welcome back. right glasgow. so welcome back. right emma webb is here. uk director at the common sense society and former labour mp steven pound . former labour mp steven pound. this is a depressing story but nothing that we couldn't coming when we were talking about the madness of locking up teenagers dunng madness of locking up teenagers during the pandemic, a surge in killings praised by american teenagers , juvenile crime had teenagers, juvenile crime had been falling across america for several decades, but federal data from 2020 said that killings committed by juveniles rose by 30% compared to the previous 12 months. and the pandemic is being blamed for this. not really a surprise , is this. not really a surprise, is that emma, know what what i find interesting about this is the headune interesting about this is the headline in the times says pandemic blamed for surge and killing sprees. but is it the pandemic or is it the public policies that america chose to implement ? well, sometimes they implement? well, sometimes they actually blame a virus for they have to draw the distinction between what was the virus and what was the decision. because if it is the case that this is

resulting the fact all resulting from the fact that all of people have been of these young people have been locked and all the locked inside and all of the consequences of that, then of course, not course, that's that's not the virus. not the pandemic. virus. that's not the pandemic. that's the way that the government to government has chosen to respond. find this respond. but i do find this a cunous respond. but i do find this a curious story. i'm not entirely sure what to make of it, because the idea blaming the pandemic the idea of blaming the pandemic or lockdown or blaming lockdown for these killing to me like killing sprees sounds to me like a not not excuse or a cop a not not an excuse or a cop out. but but it doesn't sound like it could possibly be the full reason this full and real reason for this sudden rise. of course, it might have some kind of impact on it, but obviously looking to but they're obviously looking to find for why this find kind of reason for why this has . find kind of reason for why this has. can imagine that. has. and i can imagine that. i mean , america is a very large mean, america is a very large place and different states responded in different ways to the like the pandemic. so i feel like this probably not the full this is probably not the full story. it raises the question but give us the to but doesn't give us the as to why doesn't really? i mean, why doesn't it really? i mean, you're right. what do you you're so right. what do you think, stephen? absolute cowardice. in all honesty, cowardice. look, in all honesty, i mean, if the lockdown was going to be in any way responsible for killings, it would have happened the would have happened during the lockdown up lockdown when people locked up at home. one knew how. you

at home. no one knew how. you say you've got some of the terrifying thing about this is the age some of the youth, the age as some of the youth, the age as some of the people are doing. and if you've there's guns and you've got there's more guns and there in the united there are people in the united states, that. and so states, we know that. and so you've some kid at home in you've got some kid at home in lockdown. the ira member all too well. know, say, oh, well. you know, people say, oh, god, it can't go out. and, you know, if the divorces, rows, family arguments a terrible family arguments is a terrible time lockdown, you time during lockdown, you know, god knows happening god alone knows what's happening in in in china, but certainly in london, awful. and so london, it was awful. and so if somebody was going to somebody was actually going to go actually, you know, go tonto and actually, you know, pull a nine millimetre, they pull out a nine millimetre, they would have done then would have done it. then i simply read simply don't see there's a read across or a correlation. but i tell you what, it is. i mean, in this saying that one of the leading prosecutors is saying that during covid without school being a concert and kind of stabilising structure for many of kids, has helped of our kids, that has helped lead. to the rise lead. unfortunately to the rise in crime. think this in violent crime. i think this is a reaction for these teenagers. totally teenagers. we totally destabilised i'm i lied. destabilised. i'm sorry i lied. i want to disagree with you. i'm happy to it. still be friends at the end of a lot of a lot of the killings in america pre—pandemic with school school

with school killings. school killings. just killings. i'm not just talking about just talking about sandy hook, just talking about sandy hook, just talking about whole range of very about a whole range of very often by form. and so the often by sixth form. and so the idea if education stopped , idea if education is stopped, people murderers, it people being mass murderers, it would them would have stopped them beforehand. didn't. beforehand. it didn't. i think that is aspect to that there is one aspect to this, which that it this, which is that it particularly with younger particularly with with younger children, that the interpersonal aspect of the interpersonal acts aspect of the interpersonal acts aspect of the covid policies, but also of the way that people respond to their peers when they're let loose back into their environment, they're let loose back into their environment , how they their environment, how they relate to other people. because just looking at these statistics is absolutely wild, according to this article, it says that there have been 39 mass shootings in this year alone. so i presume thatis this year alone. so i presume that is 2023. so far in january and. i mean, that 70 people have been killed and 167 wounded in these shootings in 2023. i mean, it's not even the end of january. i mean , the elephant january. i mean, the elephant gun in the room here is the availability of weapons. now you know, more people have died in

northern ireland since the good friday agreement by than die dunng friday agreement by than die during the whole of the 30 years of the troubles and in most cases, you know, it used to be used to put down accidental discharge of weapons. a lot of them police officers and them were police officers and ex—military, but it was the availability. the availability. well, one of the reasons farmers commit reasons why farmers commit suicide they have suicide is because they have shotguns. so it's the availability of weapons. now, how going how earth are you going to actually take away? remember charlton bumper sticker charlton heston's bumper sticker 7 charlton heston's bumper sticker ? way you will ? you will it only way you will take away my gun is when you buy it from my cold, dead hands. charlton heston, moses, you know, outraged. well know, guns. i was outraged. well hang on a minute. looking at these figures, federal data from 2020 show that killings committed by juveniles rose 30% compared to the previous. so it was pandemic, it was was during the pandemic, it was 2020, but it was happening before. i'm not maybe not at the same volume, 3. this is you and this story in virginia is a six year old who's who shot there , year old who's who shot there, 26 year old teacher. so this we're talking about, this six year old have spent the year old will have spent the majority their life really if majority of their life really if they're sort of cognitively the

most formative period , their most formative period, their life would have been spent, locked inside. and importantly with masks covering all of the adults faces. so this i mean, i'm not saying that that is the reason why this has happened, because we don't know the specific specifics of the case. it's obviously very complicated , but cannot overstate , but you cannot overstate impact young child of impact on a young child of spending. the majority of your formative years locked inside and being able to see if i and not being able to see if i put a revolver or a nine millimetre automatic in your hand you probably hand right now, you probably couldn't it . no, you couldn't fire it. no, but you have to. those safety catches . have to. those safety catches. okay, maybe you could, because you're hard core . so this kid you're hard core. so this kid must have been familiarised with weapons. he must have known how to fire a gun. but what? how did lockdowns did it, it led to very , very poor parenting because you had exactly that. they weren't. but that's because they weren't. but that's because they were stressed out. they were terrified. so it's. no, no, no. they were worried about that. a lot of parents worried about that. theirjobs, lot of parents worried about that. their jobs, you lot of parents worried about that. theirjobs, you know, lot of parents worried about that. their jobs, you know, they were worried about whether they were worried about whether they were going to live or die. they

were going to live or die. they were looking were constantly looking on the media what the latest was media to see what the latest was going to be about the death rates and parent kids actually got neglect and in lockdowns, even in even though they were in interestingly lot of the interestingly and a lot of the time, you know, we want to study this they were taken this article. they were taken out lost the out of school. they lost the stability school , you know, stability of school, you know, social couldn't get social services couldn't get into houses in this country to deal with it. child abuse went through the roof, head trauma, great street hospital, great ormond street hospital, head trauma children went up head trauma for children went up by something like about 500. i seem during seem to remember during lockdown, absolute lockdown, it was the absolute day. these subtle differences make huge impacts. the elderly and vulnerable . but the and vulnerable. but the availability of weaponry has to be a factor here . if you got be a factor here. if you got a 16, how did that six year old child know what a gun was? you know, you don't just see it from cartoons television. not cartoons on television. it's not just grand theft auto in san andreas. know, you've got andreas. you know, you've got actually the thing it's actually hold the thing and it's very hard is it you don't very hard thing is it you don't it's you know spray and it's not just you know spray and pray you've actually to pray it you've actually got to learn how to do it. so somehow this this child a gun in the this this child has a gun in the house and is the real

house and that is the real problem. real problem problem. the real problem because, when get because, you know, when you get people senators people in america, senators saying the answer to the school massacres to arm the massacres is to arm the teachers, that you're teachers, yeah, that all you're doing the. but i don't doing is upping the. but i don't see as a conversation about see this as a conversation about gun this as gun crime. i say this as a conversation amongst my hearing it any way you want. stephen right. that's the it. i right. that's the end of it. i could try steer it. do you could try to steer it. do you fancy working? you are 68 years of could be of age. well that could soon be happening. i'm to get happening. i'm going to get stuck that off the stuck into that off the morning's .

very good morning . welcome back very good morning. welcome back to tennis today on gb news tv on dab radio . you've been sending dab radio. you've been sending in so many messages about this north versus south debate and whether the quality of life is

better here in the south. this is because we've got this conference, this levelling up conference, this levelling up conference up north in manchester today . we're going to manchester today. we're going to be talking to somebody from there before 12:00 this morning. and as the government also moves to raise the retirement age, i mean, diack forecasts when you agree to work for an extra two years before retirement, we'll discuss all that. i'm trawling through your messages. but first, look at the latest news with. arron . thanks bev. it's with. arron. thanks bev. it's minute past 11. good morning to you. i'm arron in the gb newsroom. germany's confirmed it will supply tanks to ukraine and will supply tanks to ukraine and will authorise their re—export from other countries. the prime minister rishi sunak has welcomed the decision, saying will strengthen ukraine's defence of firepower. germany is of great to provide 14 leopard 2 to tanks and has lifted its veto on allies, sending their german made vehicles. the united states

are expected to pledge at least 30 of its abrams tanks later, providing a major boost to ukraine's ability to counter a russian spring offensive . the russian spring offensive. the kremlin has described move as a blatant provocation and says us. tanks in ukraine will burn u.s. tanks in ukraine will burn like all the rest . the met like all the rest. the met police commissioner says painful stories will emerge as work progresses to rid the force of hundreds of corrupt officers. it as sir mark rowley apologised to the victims of former officer david carrick pleaded guilty to 49 criminal charges, including 24 counts of rape. he says character should not have been a police officer and says the force has failed to apply the same ruthlessness to guarding their own integrity as they have to confronting criminals. i think we failed as investigators where we should have been more intrusive and join the dots over his repeated misogyny over decades. his repeated misogyny over decades . and as leaders , our decades. and as leaders, our mindset should have been more to

spot and root out such a misogynist . so as i say , i misogynist. so as i say, i apologise to his victims and i want to sorry to all the women across london who feel let down by this and whose trust in policing is shaken by this . policing is shaken by this. rishi sunak's likely to come under further pressure this afternoon at pmqs is over nadhim zahawi his tax affairs. earlier this week the prime minister ordered an inquiry to investigate how the party chairman resolved a multi—million pound tax dispute with hmrc while he was chancellor rishi sunak so far resisted calls to mr. zahawi, who claims he acted properly throughout. and can watch pmqs life here on gb news from midday . meanwhile, the government's plan to replace the human rights act has been criticised by employees and peers . a employees and peers. a cross—party committee says the proposed bill of rights will make it harder for people to enforce their rights and it

restricts certain that protections that the government finds in. but ministers say it will strengthen freedom of speech and will kerb abuses of the current system. a 14 year old boy has been arrested after a teenage girl was stabbed at a school in manchester. officers were called to password high school yesterday afternoon. the girl was taken to hospital for injuries , said to be serious but injuries, said to be serious but not life threatening. police are appealing for information and workers are striking. for the first time in the uk in a dispute overpay gmb members at amazon's coventry warehouse are walking out in protest against a pay walking out in protest against a pay rise of $0.50 an hour, which the union has as derisory because of the conditions workers face amazon those as a tiny proportion of the workforce are involved and they are proud to offer a competitive pay. a gmb union member, though, believes amazon workers have had enough. a pressure cooker environment that they work in any way with a target that

they're expected to reach. you know, they just wear a mouse. get rid of a reply. some after all that. they just a $0.50 pay increase in the biggest of living crisis that we've had in decades. living crisis that we've had in decades . and i think many decades. and i think many workers have got nothing to lose. you see them coming out fighting . scottish teachers are fighting. scottish teachers are halfway through their 16 day strike action . staff in both strike action. staff in both south ayrshire and edinburgh have been walking out. today the unions claim the scottish government have little or no interest in resolving the dispute. the government says the pay dispute. the government says the pay demands are not affordable and water has been restored to 100,000 properties in scotland after a major pipe burst. a 36 inch water main burst in dunbartonshire yesterday , dunbartonshire yesterday, causing the road to split open. children at a nearby nursery were evacuated following the flooding of the streets. scottish water, though, says around 250,000 customers were affected including parts of glasgow . this

affected including parts of glasgow. this is gb news set more as it happens , but now it's more as it happens, but now it's back to back . back to back. good morning. welcome back . best good morning. welcome back. best time to stay on gb news. thanks for joining. here's what's forjoining. here's what's coming up this hour. the north versus south debate is alive and well today. you've been getting in touch to let me know what you think about who has the better quality of life. a little later, levelling up. secretary gove will this at a will be speaking about this at a meeting of business leaders in manchester also manchester today. we're also going to hear from manchester mayor burnham later in the hour . the chancellor is also reportedly planning to push up the retirement age to 68 in his budget in march . the move would budget in march. the move would raise billions for the treasury but will likely spark a backlash from older voters forced to push back their retirement plans . it

back their retirement plans. it comes as tax cuts are also likely to be ruled out in the budget , likely to be ruled out in the budget, despite pressure from conservative mps and the political commentator emma webb and former labour steven pound will join to get stuck into some of the day's top news stories . of the day's top news stories. stevie will not look that surprised the whole time. i promise you . of course, this promise you. of course, this show is much improved by your views and our twitter we're asking you this morning, do people in the south of england have a better quality of life than those in the north. email me gb views at gb news news .uk . so the convention of the north is taking place in manchester right now after money was awarded by the government to various projects last week for levelling up a think tank has claimed that the north of england is being badly neglected by government, its by the government, despite its levelling up policy. meanwhile, the of manchester andy the mayor of manchester andy burnham, order provide burnham, in order to provide equal living across

equal living standards across the levelling up, he the nation, levelling up, he said, should be hard wired into law . the british government has law. the british government has previously laid foundations for a successful levelling up policy . okay, it wasn't in this country , but we did it in a country, but we did it in a different country . which is different country. which is great, isn't it? we could of post—war germany. we had a hand in creating the structure , so in creating the structure, so let's take that. but say, well, come on then , let's look at what come on then, let's look at what happened and let's do the same here and take levelling up from a powerful idea into an even better reality. we need to go further down this devolution road, but everybody is on this journey. the north is on this journey. the north is on this journey. i have the real sense at this fourth convention of the nonh at this fourth convention of the north that we're not going back to the way things were. we are getting more organised as a collection of geographies. we are working across political lines. we are increasingly speaking with one voice back to whitehall . in westminster, whitehall. in westminster, things can't as they've always

been where we have been at times treated as second class, we're saying we're requiring actually change in the in a polite way but in a pretty firm way . so but in a pretty firm way. so joining me now, that was andy burnham, of course, talking earlier today in manchester, the mayor of manchester labour. joining me now is , the chief joining me now is, the chief executive of northern powerhouse house, henry morrison. good morning, henry. you are there at the conference. what have we had? morning. what have we heard this morning? have you been impressed? is it what you want to hear ? i think. andy speaks to hear? i think. andy speaks for the north. the reality is that the north of england doesn't want handouts. so we need to do is to invest in those things that are going to raise productivity, which actually means that northerners can pay more taxes to be able to fund our services. we don't our public services. we don't want continue having this want to continue having this huge gap between what northerners pay taxes and northerners pay in taxes and what need to run our public what we need to run our public services. so the north does services. so what the north does needsis services. so what the north does needs is retain more of the needs is to retain more of the taxes raised but have taxes raised here, but also have eyes on these alluded to a

mechanism like the one between east to west germany that has ensured fair fiscal over the barnett formula for scotland to wales. but here in the northern regions of england, we've a lot less money per head than in scotland, despite having many serious to face. so serious challenges to face. so but fair deal to make sure the united kingdom can continue work for everyone is exactly what we want. it's what gordon brown was asking for in his review to keir starmer. party starmer. the labour party last yeah starmer. the labour party last year. i think michael year. and i think for michael gove we're going to hear a lot more about giving more power and responsibility mayors. so responsibility to mayors. so rather than pleading mayors actually have got the money to spend the services that will spend on the services that will and interventions will raise and the interventions will raise productivity. what productivity. that's what a central getting on central government getting on with like northern with projects like northern powerhouse rail to unlock roads not here in manchester not just here in manchester but across cities like across north in cities like sheffield, bradford , leeds, sheffield, bradford, leeds, newcastle and hull, henry . sheffield, bradford, leeds, newcastle and hull, henry. i've been asking my view is this morning as to whether they think there is this genuine divide and whether everybody the north has it has a terrible of life. and

the overwhelming feeling from a lot of our viewers and i know that we're very popular in manchester, is that actually the nonh manchester, is that actually the north has a good quality of life, largely because things are cheapen life, largely because things are cheaper. houses are cheaper. property cheaper. you can drive your car and park in a car park. there are fewer people. you have less population density. and that actually golf pretty well serviced in the in terms of how people might measure what would give them a good quality of life what would you to that . i think what would you to that. i think the challenge is that northerners despite those benefits i'm not saying there aren't benefits living north of england. i myself live at work. ichoose england. i myself live at work. i choose to live and work here is that northerners are paid on average £8,000 a year, less . but average £8,000 a year, less. but someone in london, the south—east of what that means, is in facing cost of living crisis. northern is when they get those additional bills are more likely to be in some of our poorest where they cannot necessarily afford to pay the cost of living increases . it's

cost of living increases. it's only by increasing wages and enabung only by increasing wages and enabling people to earn more money that we can deal with that problem. and that's why it's so disappointing that . a lot of disappointing that. a lot of places in the north of england, rochdale down the road from here , south tyneside towns like south and jarrow across south shields and jarrow across the north—east got nothing . the the north—east got nothing. the prime minister in that levelling up week despite being some up last week despite being some of in the country. of the poorest in the country. so i'm interested in keeping the things about the north. i mean, i deny that the i would deny that here the population density is particularly low. you've got literally almost 800,000 people now live within an walking distance of where i am right now in the centre. never mind in the wider of greater manchester. so i think what you're probably getting is a description, probably what it's like live probably what it's like to live in love cumbria. but in cumbria and love cumbria. but the is slightly more the north is slightly more complicated than that. many our big seen increasing big cities have seen increasing , price values , increasing house price values is a reflection of the demands to live in cities like manchester, which developing and doing to see doing well. but we need to see a similar benefits and similar economic in other cities in the

north to mirror what's been achieved with also rising productivity in manchester. productivity here in manchester. it is henry and it's interesting that the because that you mentioned the because i think in terms think so much in terms of whether people feel are living an easy life is not beset with difficulties when they walk out the front door is transport and i don't know about you but how hs2 it and whether you feel the nhs too is a good use of money. i'd be interested to, but in terms of the north, isn't it the cross pennines it going from east to west of this country that would really benefit the north terms rail north in terms of rail transport, particularly ? well, i transport, particularly? well, i mean the mistake made by those like andrew bridgen, the now disgraced independent mp is not conservative, but some hs2 was a waste of money. it's mistaken because actually. hs2 isn't just about getting people north to south. in the case the north of england. the new line between here and down to crewe from manchester will also a long tunnel to manchester airport , tunnel to manchester airport, the part of the line that goes east to west so hs2 and northern

powerhouse rail for years now since philip hammond actually here in manchester speaking this same sites the contents of parts of conference integrates those two networks by funding some touch points that made the two networks come together. these so i would say to you that we need local buses we need local connectivity. but in the north of england people cannot reliably get here. it's a manchester for the start of a conference many of conference like this. many of the this morning become the trains this morning become even trains do run , even when the trains do run, they and irregular and they are slow and irregular and infrequent compared what you can get in london. and i think that the challenge for the north of england is we have millions almost, 8 million people just living in the corridor that stretches m62 to try and stretches on the m62 to try and get some this morning by get some answers this morning by car, he'll be stuck in a traffic jam for many, many hours. in many and challenges many cases. and the challenges we need better rail connectivity. so people can reliably commute from where i live in west yorkshire here in manchester. so people can get to broadford where i lived for the past, north england. it's past, the north england. it's very reach bradford very hard to reach bradford pubuc very hard to reach bradford public and that isn't

public transport and that isn't good we're trying to good enough when we're trying to attract cities attract jobs to great cities like bradford . okay, well keep like bradford. okay, well keep up work . henry like bradford. okay, well keep up work. henry and it up the good work. henry and it was any consolation, i can't catch a train or sit in a car without being traffic jam without being in a traffic jam here london eighties. so i here in london eighties. so i think across the think it's bad all across the country. but i appreciate country. yeah, but i appreciate your point about crossrail. although two years don't although two years and we don't have maybe the problem on have that maybe the problem on the there is no there is no the m62 there is no there is no credible alternative. i'm not just isn't good enough and that's the message that michael gove to hear us to gove is going to hear from us to take likely to depart take just as likely to depart the we do the transport we need to do better. spent lot of my life better. spent a lot of my life on the m62. i know exactly what you're talking about, right, chief northern powerhouse, you're talking about, right, chiehenryorthern powerhouse, you're talking about, right, chie henry murison.owerhouse, you're talking about, right, chie henry murison. letrhouse, you're talking about, right, chie henry murison. letrhotknow the henry murison. let me know what gb news uk. okay, what you think gb news uk. okay, there are more strike underway this time from private workers as amazon staff are staging their first ever strike in the uk in a dispute over pay. so joining me live from coventry this morning is our west midlands reporter, jack carson, who has more on story. good morning, jack. who has more on story. good morning, jack . so we think of we morning, jack. so we think of we think of amazon and we think,

well, they aren't great working conditions, but amazon employees very little right to strike we there are a lot of them are 0 hours contracts working long i'm really surprised to hear that they actually are to strike. tell me what's going on there. this is quite surprising story. well, good morning dave. welcome to coventry where, of course, all the attention is on this amazon warehouse here. i'm joined now by stuart richards, who's a senior organiser for the gmb union to tell us a bit about, as you mentioned, why they've decided this, why they've decided this, why they've decided this, why they've decided to strike. why is that your members have is it that your members have walked out today? members walked out today? are members of walked out today? are members of walked over pay walked out in a dispute over pay . essentially since coming . so essentially since coming out of lockdown , these guys were out of lockdown, these guys were working all the way through the pandemic. the huge amount of i was doing generated a huge amount of profits for amazon. they offered a $0.50 rise at that points and the workers spontaneously themselves at that point decided that the offer

just wasn't good enough. they started protesting . since then, started protesting. since then, we've been supporting them to find a legal route that we can actually challenge that and see if we can a constructive dialogue with. amazon that hasn't happened . so we're now hasn't happened. so we're now actually striking in a dispute over pay on that issue of pay , over pay on that issue of pay, amazon say that they're proud offer between amazon say that they're proud offer betwee n £10.50 , £11.45 as offer between £10.50, £11.45 as a minimum for their workers. what's your kind of reaction to them saying they're proud to want to offer that when we know that that kind of pay is cause this industrial action , it's this industrial action, it's really telling that amazon that it's proud of offering pay that its workers think is not enough to live on. yeah that's a really telling statement what we're seeing in april the 10.50 which is what they're getting this this in coventry pay is going to be $0.09 above the minimum wage at a company that says that he's proud to a pay minimum wage proud to be a pay minimum wage is not something that we can live with. it really isn't good enoughin

live with. it really isn't good enough in terms of the impact of this strike of course. it's around 300 workers that have gone on strike here out around 1500. so some people are now it's i would say the impact's probably going to that huge. probably not going to that huge. but is kind chances but what is the kind of chances that could scale up across that this could scale up across the country? think that's bit the country? i think that's bit we do come we need to the dispute we only have 300 members at site and there are 4000 at this site and there are 4000 workers here. know that the workers here. we know that the issues widely felt that issues are widely felt that whenever we speak to any of the workers coming in out the workers coming in or out the site, telling us the site, they're all telling us the same again, 300 same story. but again, 300 workers in a site there. so yeah , potentially has a low impact. but we've seen today in the but what we've seen today in the weeks up to this is a weeks leading up to this is a massive increase in membership. we've workers going we've seen workers not going into actually signing into work and actually signing up join the union on the up to join the union on the bafis up to join the union on the basis that they want to be part of this. so that minimum disruption is to escalate disruption is going to escalate really, quickly . amazon really, really quickly. amazon actually talk to us actually decides to talk to us about this dispute. stuart, thank you so much for joining about this dispute. stuart, thank you so much forjoining me this morning. back to you, beth , because amazon strikers , because here amazon strikers workers are striking today over

rejecting that 50 p pay rise and this is different because of course this is the private sector. we've seen a lot of pubuc sector. we've seen a lot of public sector strikes, but this is now the private sector that people are taking industrial action. okay. thank you, jack. texas they're amazon, texas and they're at amazon, lowe's , all messages today. lowe's, all messages today. you've out stumping, you've been out stumping, getting in touch with the show. john i've lived in the john said, i've lived in the northeast my life. i've got northeast all my life. i've got five grown up children of them in full time employment. we enjoy lifestyle. enjoy a comfortable lifestyle. it's where it's about making cuts where necessary , not where necessary, not where unnecessary. none of us dream of living in london, which used be a beautiful city and people live here. see london as here. now see london as a cesspit of crime gangs and drugs. it's that bad, don't. drugs. it's not that bad, don't. but i know what you mean, richard said we moved from the south the north, and i have south to the north, and i have absolutely the absolutely no regrets. the quality up quality of life is way better up here. it's about the intangible things such as friendly a people. true and stunning people. that's true and stunning countryside, think countryside, jane says. i think life south of the uk is life in the south of the uk is much better, excluding violent crime frequent. we're crime is less frequent. we're always hearing about violent crime the north. live in

crime in the north. i live in the west and it's a the west country and it's a safer place to live. keep those messages won't you? and messages coming, won't you? and don't vote in our don't forget to vote in our twitter poll. now break. twitter poll. now the break. would willing to work for would you be willing to work for an extra two years before retire mantell all that? mantell explain all of that? see you .

in two. welcome back . in two. welcome back. tennis today on gb news. it's 1123. welcome back. tennis today on gb news. it's1123. so welcome back. tennis today on gb news. it's 1123. so the chancellor jeremy news. it's 1123. so the chancellorjeremy hunt is chancellor jeremy hunt is reportedly drawing up plans to raise the state pension age to 68 in his march budget. and that's 11 years earlier than was alicia planned the move could save billions for the treasury but will risk backlash from older voters forced to push back their retirement ambitions. now joining me for more on this is the chief economic adviser at the chief economic adviser at the centre for economic and business research, becky price. good morning, vicki. and we're

paying good morning, vicki. and we're paying the price here for poorly run government . is that what's run government. is that what's happening in terms of people's life and their expectations of , life and their expectations of, how they might live out their older years ? well, you can look older years? well, you can look at some of the term pressures that exist, of course, in public finances. and you can draw that conclusion positively. but this is a longer term issue. this is one that has to do with the that people live longer, but also course a pension system course that a pension system costs an awful lot of money. so the state pension costs about 100 billion a year to support. and the way in which most countries are trying to address it because this is not a uk phenomenon , is by increasing the phenomenon, is by increasing the retirement age. and there's been a lot of work that's been done on how do you reduce this welfare cost . you can do it in welfare cost. you can do it in all sorts of different ways. i mean, make people pay much more about own pensions, of about their own pensions, of course, which can be quite helpful generally, the helpful. generally, the best measure to increase the retirement age, which is the way in which it brings a little bit

more of a relief to the welfare spending than one does, because pensions, of course, are very, very significant part of the overall spending. it overall welfare spending. so it makes that of view. makes sense from that of view. but course, it's a message , but of course, it's a message, quite of planning that quite a lot of planning that anyone over the age of, well, probably under the age of 54. now in the uk , particularly, now in the uk, particularly, women would be needing do so. it will a bit of a shock to the system, if you like , to bring it system, if you like, to bring it forward as much as they to, but not of other countries. as we know in france they're striking because increasingly intend to increase the pension age from 62 to 64. so we are way ahead of a number other countries in that respect looking at some of the statistics, vicki , 1920, the statistics, vicki, 1920, the average age expectancy, life expectancy of british men was 56 and 59 for women. fast forward to 2023 and it's nearly 82 for men. i mean, it's just the most extraordinary, very improvement, isn't it, with public health and nutrition and saferjobs that

people are now doing. so that does seem to be a level of common sense behind this decision to raise the pension age and. but do you think it will be a vote loser, particularly for conservative voters . well, i mean, certainly voters. well, i mean, certainly for the older generation, it isn't going to make very much difference. and as we know, quite a lot of conservative party members tend to be slightly older than the average for labour party members or any other party. so it's not going to make much difference in the short term. but for the younger onesit short term. but for the younger ones it definitely will. and that's an issue. but you've got to think ahead. i mean, we're not talking about anything happening something not talking about anything haprobviously something not talking about anything haprobviously you're something not talking about anything haprobviously you're going �*nething not talking about anything haprobviously you're going to thing that obviously you're going to have a different government. they or or they may reverse it or or rethink it might take quite rethink and it might take quite some time for this to go through parliament anyway. that's parliament anyway. so that's the sort issue which i think sort of issue which i think matters hugely for the long term finances the country , but i finances of the country, but i don't think it makes huge of difference in the short term .

difference in the short term. yes, some of the younger generation will worry about it. okay. all right. thank you, vicky. vicky pryce there now staying with with finance and economics levelling up. is it just a slogan? well a liam halligan say. just a slogan? well a liam halligan say . you're just going halligan say. you're just going to tell me what you hate to talk about? no. point me doing all that. oh, are you? so what? i'm. i'm very well, thanks. a bit bit warmer this morning. only minus two. and got on my motorbike two. and i got on my motorbike to the station than minus to the station rather than minus seven nearly every time. to the station rather than minus sevei nearly every time. to the station rather than minus sevei join nearly every time. to the station rather than minus sevei join you nearly every time. to the station rather than minus sevei join you live. .y every time. to the station rather than minus sevei join you live. thanks time. to the station rather than minus sevei join you live. thanks for|e. and i join you live. thanks for that, do you want do you that, beth. do you want do you think about this? is it of obvious? just just evolving or evolving? as a culture, we are economic has to reflect that . economic has to reflect that. absolutely. age is have absolutely. pension age is have to go up life expectancy when i was born was 68 for a man and 72 for a woman. it's now well above , 80 for both . and, you know, , 80 for both. and, you know, that has to be the pension system wasn't designed to keep people in cases more years than they actually worked. yeah. and yet a lot of this these pension

costs fall on taxpayers and another another workers. and, of course a lot of people, of course, who don't have pensions . but what i wanted to mention is you today's that there's a conference on in manchester conference on up in manchester i've been talking about it almost that yeah. at this conference we've had michael there leeson and is there his labour shadow. they're going to be talking. the vision of levelling up is . it really is it levelling up is. it really is it just a slogan ? the ip pr which just a slogan? the ip pr which is the public policy research, the northern branch. it's a it's a kind of central, a think tank. they've come out with some interesting numbers. they that the north of england, if it was treated as a country per head of all the oecd countries , that the all the oecd countries, that the sort of 38 advanced industrial countries around the world, only would have a lower level of investment than the north of england. they're talking about investment in transport, investment in transport, investment in transport, investment in social infrastructure public spaces and so on. that's a pretty number. the ipp all talk about inequalities across the uk and systemic under investor . and of

systemic under investor. and of course, i was up in the north—east last week checking what's going on at that britishvolt factory and chemists near the deep water port of blythe. and i said to you a couple of days ago , i think new couple of days ago, i think new bidders will for that site because it's such a great site. it's got huge potential blythe means you can export the batteries you've got lots of renewable coming in off the nonh renewable coming in off the north sea . the site used to be north sea. the site used to be where a power plant was is all hooked up the national grid. hooked up to the national grid. lots of that expensive stuff is already done and overnight from australia, bidder has australia, a new bidder has emerged and this will be huge news up in the north—east and it really feeds into the levelling up debate and the new bidder is called recharge industries. it's a an australian company from a new york based parent . it's new york based parent. it's a company that's saying it can provide the battery in the north—east of england with a lot of the rare earths and the other minerals that you need to make these lithium ion batteries which otherwise come from china

or africa. yeah. so they saying there's a kind of strategic fit going. coming going. we're not just coming in with just coming in with money, not just coming in with money, not just coming in with but coming in with with money, but coming in with actual industry expertise actual sector industry expertise . have to see. i mean, . so we'll have to see. i mean, i do think this factory will be built in camas, not least because the government really wants it to built. it is, you know, it will be only the uk's second gigafactory. i'm told by industry sources we need six, eight, ten giga factories to make these car batteries if we are going to fulfil the government's pledge to ban petrol and diesel cars, new cell sales of new petrol, diesel cars by 2030. well that's good news . by 2030. well that's good news. it is good news, but also i think there's a kind of high stakes of poker going on. again, as said to you before, any new bidder will want the government to up the amount of government support that it's giving the plant the government previously committed to 100 million for british volts , but britishvolt british volts, but britishvolt had to get certain amounts of private sector investment to unlock that 100 million quid.

anyone that looks at this. it looks a british politics knows looks a british politics knows look at this conference today the tory government has to prove that levelling up really means something. we have that round of levelling up funding last week huge rounds 4.6 billion lots of it's going to tory seats and the tories deny that so they want to show that they can make big happen and this plant at camas would be the biggest investment in the north—east since nissan in the north—east since nissan in the north—east since nissan in the mid 1980s. huge. wow huge. it's a £36 billion plant. yeah. so the government desperately wants it to happen and any private sector bidder knows that. so i think there's going to be a lot of gamesmanship as. it were waiting for the government to put money in in order to get private sector investment as election approached. yeah, i'm sure just one last thing. this isn't on our agenda to talk about. yesterday you were me about how my electricity company might have lost my money. that is mine. they have. went back and mine. they have. i went back and i well, didn't my i checked. well, didn't my

mother all yesterday mother spent all yesterday inspired by you on the to my go vida and got about 1500 vida and they've got about 1500 quid money. yeah they owe quid of my money. yeah they owe me because paid by the me because i've paid by the direct just somewhat for direct debit just somewhat for people to what people what's happened to what they about the they could do about well the electricity companies particularly if you got a smart metre they say oh it's all metre they they say oh it's all about smoothing your bills and making your finances easier to manage. no, it's all about you. electricity company . having my electricity company. having my money that i might need and i'm not charging you interest as people need it right now. people the money but the electricity are sitting on millions and millions of pounds of money. and you know they'll deny that there's a problem . course they there's a problem. course they will. what if they go bust ? will. what if they go bust? yeah, that says, does that money come? yeah. but even just if few struggling to pay meet your mortgage payments . that's right. mortgage payments. that's right. that's right. energy. and so we're getting energy prices coming down on the wholesale market it's but direct debits going up . yeah and that's partly going up. yeah and that's partly because electricity companies

are taking extra to money try and smooth your bills in the future. i mean, i think this whole again, the electricity companies deny any wrongdoing. i think ofgem , the regulator, think ofgem, the regulator, should be all over this. right. and in the meantime, get in touch with your energy provider and find out what is and and find out what balance is and whether you some money. whether they owe you some money. now, trans now, after the break, a trans woman of two rapes whilst she , a woman of two rapes whilst she, a man could be sent to female jail. do you support that? i'm going to be discussing it with my panel after your morning news . it's 1133. i'm out my panel after your morning news . it's1133. i'm out in the gb newsroom germany's confirmed it will supply tanks to and will authorise their re—export it from other countries. prime rishi sunak welcomed the saying it will strengthen ukraine's defence of firepower . berlin's defence of firepower. berlin's agreed to provide 45 leopard 2 tanks and has lifted its veto on allies , sending their german allies, sending their german made vehicles. allies, sending their german made vehicles . the allies, sending their german made vehicles. the united allies, sending their german made vehicles . the united states made vehicles. the united states is also poised to supply tanks,

at least of its abrams , at least of its abrams, providing a boost to ukraine's ability counter a potential russian spring offensive. the kremlin, though, has described it as a blatant provocation and says western tanks in ukraine will burn like all the rest . the will burn like all the rest. the met commissioner says painful stories will emerge as work progresses to rid the force of hundreds of corrupt officers. speaking this , sir mark rowley speaking this, sir mark rowley also apologised to the victims of former officer david carrick who pleaded guilty to 49 criminal charges, including four counts of rape. he says carrack should not have been a police officer . i should not have been a police officer. i think we failed to investigate us where we should have been intrusive and join dots over his repeated misogyny over decades and as leaders, our mindset should have been more determined to spot and root out such a misogynist . so as i say, such a misogynist. so as i say, i apologise to victims and i want to say sorry to the women

across london who feel let down by this , whose trust in policing by this, whose trust in policing , shaken by this . rishi sunak is , shaken by this. rishi sunak is likely to be grilled about what he knew concerning nadhim zahawi. his tax affairs and when at pmqs later the prime minister has resisted calls to sack the conservative party chairman but has launched an inquiry. it emerged mr. zahawi paid a to settle a multi—million pound tax dispute with hmrc . mr. zahawi dispute with hmrc. mr. zahawi says he's always acted properly and you can watch pmqs live on gb news. in about 25 minutes, scottish teachers are halfway through their 16 day strike action. staff both south ayrshire and edinburgh are walking out today . the unions walking out today. the unions claim the scottish government has little or no interest resolving the dispute. the government says the pay demands are not tv online and dab plus radio. this is gb news news.

welcome back to bev turner. thank you for joining welcome back to bev turner. thank you forjoining us. let me introduce my panel to you. if you've only just joined us, where have you been? emma webb is here, uk director of the common sense society and former labour pow writes labour mp stephen pow writes retirement age raising rises to 68 by the end of the 2030s. that's about ten years away for you , isn't it? 68? the parts of you, isn't it? 68? the parts of my body considerably older than that. my body considerably older than that . what do you make of this that. what do you make of this story common sense? not in many ways. it's a reflection of reality, you know , the good book reality, you know, the good book says you've got three school years and ten. well, that means i'm or certainly past it. but the reality is people are working. and it's also a different i mean, one of the

problems with the national health service, it was predicated people, you know, leaving 15, working leaving school at 15, working till was and dying till i was 65 and then dying when they're people are when they're 75. people are working partly because working longer, partly because of health protocols, medical improvements, partly because it's of working. but it's a different of working. but are so many, many jobs, which are so many, many jobs, which are manual still physical manual . and i weep for those people. you know, you cannot expect someone to be carrying hod full of in their seventies, of bricks in their seventies, yet can expect someone to be yet you can expect someone to be sitting at computer them. so that talk about that really really talk about levelling levelling levelling up. we're levelling down here and divide but it's real for you real implications for you youngsters . for you know, youngsters. as for me, you know, i just sit on sidelines i can just sit on the sidelines and say got my bus pass and say i've got my bus pass yet. well, last time you were here, emma, we established that you're for a pension you're not saving for a pension because spending too much because you're spending too much on takeaways. now, that that on takeaways. now, now that that is an accusation that is that was an accusation that was established. said, was not established. you said, i feel now. so what do you feel seen now. so what do you make of this? because it feels doesit make of this? because it feels does it just feel like just ages away not something you have away and not something you have to about? no, because to worry about? no, because i think is true of most people, think as is true of most people, you have older people in your family that you care very much

about. and i think that that's a really important point, which is there's partly because the sorts of people who make policies are the sorts of people who work desk people will be desk jobs is that people will be able work . they are advanced able to work. they are advanced in age. but actually the truth is there are a lot of people around the country who would not working jobs that could do working jobs that you could do into old age with health problems all of things problems and all of the things that that. i think the that come with that. i think the government think that this is a quick because can get quick fix because they can get quite literally billions from from making just a small change, which seems like a very small change. i think to some degree. it's probably a slippery slope because once once you do get that quick fix, it will just pushit that quick fix, it will just push it back by another year another year. we do push it back by another year another year . we do expect that another year. we do expect that the population is living longer. and so that seems to be justifiable. the assumption is people will be healthier until much older ages. and i know that there are a lot of young people who do make a good case that that the younger of our that the younger part of our population in a really bearing

the burden of our top heavy society top heavy population with so many older people. but our birth rates are so low. so we have this sort of triangle system that doesn't make any sense. we keep having to import people in order to try and pay for the everybody else's pensions . i understand that pensions. i understand that there are some people that feel done think that making to done by and think that making to the benefits that older people get could be some kind of quick fix. but i don't think that this is fair on a population that are the we have the reason why we have retirement because it's retirement is because it's because old age is what old because old old age is what old age and it's difficult to age is. and it's difficult to remember waspi remember the waspi women retirement concept of retirement was the concept of retirement was the concept of retirement has become almost, though, hasn't it? oh, very much 68 is new age, is it now ? 68 is 68 is new age, is it now? 68 is what used to be 78 in a way. we all unhealthier living longer. i always like to wake up in the morning and thinking juno, i'm still than jagger . still younger than mick jagger. you know . but you still younger than mick jagger. you know. but you remember the waspi women . they when the waspi women. they when the government decided that they'd had equalised at the age of

retirement men and women. retirement for men and women. you sensible, you know, eminently sensible, very, have very, very logical. should have happened 15 happened years ago. it took 15 years bring in an even then years to bring in an even then the women you know, the women who are. were absolutely fortunately lost out because women had actually of women had actually opted of paying women had actually opted of paying insurance paying national insurance contributions. you could do contributions. but you could do it. it's a very i mean, i have to say, maybe that's why i haven't been thinking about my pension it's not because i'm young. it's because a woman. young. it's because i'm a woman. you know , i think might have you know, i think i might have done i'm i don't know. i mean , done i'm i don't know. i mean, but that's that's it, isn't it? we need to forward plan, particularly i think we particularly women. i think we do to focus right. this do need to focus right. this really story. i'll really ridiculous story. i'll bryson who was previously known as adam graham . although in the as adam graham. although in the court they call that her dad's name was the q has been convicted on tuesday of two counts of rape in glasgow committed while she was a man. she's now a woman . she's going she's now a woman. she's going to a women's emma works this out for me i so for i this is awful.

i know i have no words strong enough to express how completely mad and dangerous i think this is . i mad and dangerous i think this is. i instead what i'll do is i'll just read this quote because this is from from the trial itself a comment on the trial itself a comment on the trial itself a comment on the trial itself saying we now have the utterly perverse situation where a scottish court refers someone who says he identifies as female using her penis to rape two vulnerable women . i rape two vulnerable women. i mean, it's unfair to the victims of the rape. everybody is always talking about lived experience. but what about the experience of the victims being raped by a man but the scottish government are very lackadaisical . it comes to very lackadaisical. it comes to self—identification. the prison policy again. it makes it easy for inmates to be put in in prisons in this way. for inmates to be put in in prisons in this way . and the prisons in this way. and the scottish parliament actually , scottish parliament actually, according to the story , during according to the story, during deliberations over their recent

gender identification bill, members of the scottish parliament actually voted down amendments that were designed to stop males sex offenders and those accused of sexual offences from legally women. so from legally becoming women. so it's mad where you can it's mad situation where you can have somebody currently have somebody who is currently on trial for sex offences against women then identifying as a woman and being put in a women's prison with other women. it's crazy . scottish bills go it's crazy. scottish bills go through then you all you have do is identify as that person as a different gender. for three months, three months. and then you can either modernise. there's few questions have there's a few questions you have to not there, to ask yourself, if not there, where you know, what prison would she be in? and i mean , the would she be in? and i mean, the thing is, i've been to visit people in prison down in portsmouth, which is a prison adapted over the of adapted people over the age of 70. because 70. it's a friendly because you're elderly . you can i think you're elderly. you can i think instead of making the prisoners fit the prison nowadays , we seem fit the prison nowadays, we seem to be making the prisons fit. the prisoners. ultimate the prisoners. the ultimate dependency, say this, dependency, if i can say this, whether know meeting to whether you know the meeting to register in place register will be in place because she's completely because if she's completely transitioned not saying transitioned, i'm not saying that say oh you mean

that you can say oh you mean whether they are post operative that's i had you said yeah yeah , whether they are post operative. no i think they are not post—operative . have you not post—operative. have you seen the pictures of it today. because i mean she does look very, very female. and i think just imagine her in a male. i think it would be very difficult. she has a very well this which she covers with the sheet she said, i didn't sheet which she said, i didn't know was the know that all i saw was the lauren bacall blonde wig over there. she's i she's she's there. yeah she's i she's she's she said that she'll take any any any treatment, any medical transition procedures that the nhs will offer. so i'm presuming she is not she i'm, she is not post—operative . we don't know, post—operative. we don't know, you know . well she's motivations you know. well she's motivations for doing that but you can going to be in the segregation, you can easily imagine a situation where not not to say not to say this is this particular person's motivation but you can easily imagine a situation where someone's motivation would simply to get this prison her in

the mail prison or to protect the mail prison or to protect the prisoners in the female in the prisoners in the female in the segregation unit. oh, just stop the world at once. get tough, we've been doing a tough, right? we've been doing a twitter whether the twitter poll about whether the nonh twitter poll about whether the north south, who has north and the south, who has a better quality of life while you've spoken, 2% of you say that people in the have that people in the south have a better life, whilst better quality of life, whilst 48% of you disagree . the brexit 48% of you disagree. the brexit vote is wholly a brexit vote . vote is wholly a brexit vote. no, quite as controversial . no, quite as controversial. thank you to emma webb and stephen pound . come to the end stephen pound. come to the end of our show. thank you for sticking with us. next up, it's gb live with mark gb news live with mark longhurst. i'm bev turner. see you morning ten. you tomorrow morning at ten. hello again , it's aidan mcgivern hello again, it's aidan mcgivern here office a lot here from the met office a lot of low cloud drizzle and fog will affect southern parts of the the rain the uk whilst the band of rain moves across central bryce's guys moves across central bryce's guys follow in the north. we've seen the rain earlier and showers into northern showers push into northern scotland with some heavy downpours hail, thunder and snow of the mountains , but otherwise of the mountains, but otherwise some spells between some bright spells in between those showers and sunshine reappearing for northern ireland, scotland and ireland, southern scotland and northern england during the

afternoon band afternoon. we've got this band of central parts and of rain in central parts and then the south that stays then to the south of that stays cold, stays gloomy. a lot of cold, it stays gloomy. a lot of low cloud fog about temperatures 6 to 8 celsius, although it's seven or eight celsius in the north as well. now, this cold front will push south and it will clear that low cloud mist and fog during the rest of wednesday . but it will and fog during the rest of wednesday. but it will bring a spell of rain for a time that rain affecting the midlands into, south wales and then southern parts of england during the evening, clearing away midnight. then we've got midnight. and then we've got those skies and it's this those clear skies and it's this cold front will also help to clear the very cold air that we've had at the surface during recent mornings. so although there will be a touch of frost in places on thursday morning, it won't be nearly as cold as we've seen across southern areas. meanwhile will be colder in because . we've lost in the north because. we've lost the southwesterly winds and so a touch of frost for scotland, for northern but bright northern ireland. but bright skies for many into thursday, the best the sunshine will be in the best the sunshine will be in the a bit more cloud coming the west a bit more cloud coming in the along one or

in to the east along with one or two but for vast two showers. but for vast majority, these majority, actually, these looking looking bright looking dry. it's looking bright and temperatures stray far and temperatures won't stray far from average, 6 to 8 celsius. by and large update of the country. so we've lost the very mild air that we've had in the north and we've also lost the very cold air that's been stuck at the surface the south. surface in the south. temperatures mostly returning to average over next couple of average over the next couple of days. got further showers days. then got further showers coming north sea on coming in to the north sea on thursday evening. clear spells out west and of touch out to the west and of a touch of frost to begin things mainly in the north and then frosty in the on saturday morning. the south on saturday morning. that's where best that's where the best the sunshine will be.

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