that is the kind of trick george osborne used to pull and we will be looking carefully at exactly whata decade where we have been big on rhetoric and short on delivery. this announcement around this infrastructure fund has all the hallmarks of the talent fund that was heavily criticised for the way it was administered. thank you very much. we will be speaking to sir ed daveyin much. we will be speaking to sir ed davey in a moment. your reaction, laura. it's interesting that at the beginning they wanted to keep their options open about the vote. the announcement is welcome to about the different patchwork. she was being a bit noncommittal. it is hard for mps on all sides to give a firm commitment until they see their own areas. there are frantic telephone calls and conversations going on around westminster with mps talking to health ministers and other people about exactly what will be happening to theirarea. about exactly what will be happening to their area. tomorrow might end up being just as difficult a day for the government as today is what the prime minister sets out the regional

we go back to the coalition government of course, george osborne in the northern powerhouse, but it'sust a few years after that and then theresa may did not have the same focus on it, but this now hugely important for keeping this government in power. yes it is and that increases the political imperative and also important for the economic recovery because obviously it's not as if the uk economy was in the best state before covid—19, you would see the slowest economic recoveries in history. very low productivity and one of the ways you increase productivity is through investment. and particularly some of these regents which never recovered from the deindustrialization of the 19805, i think it's smart politics and smart economics for the government to invest in them as the covid—19 crisis ends. government to invest in them as the covid-19 crisis ends. the trouble is, going back to the ft and ons report shows britain's understand little about economics. because people are much less sceptical about data i think the brexit campaign has a lot to answer for on both sides. but in the pandemi

$141000000000.00 pounds, bailout of the banks in 20082 years later, persons then finance minister george osborne, introduced austerity measures to reduce the budget deficit. the result was debt almost doubled to $1.00 trillion dollars. growth was anemic and the economy was $130000000000.00 smaller a decade later, more than 4000000 children, that's one in 4 lived in poverty, and more than 1000000, people were forced to use food banks. now there is a caveat. the end of austerity is mainly for advanced economies. her control of their own currencies and can raise money and the i.m.f. believe such countries should be able to stabilize their finances by the middle of the decade. well, joining me now via skype from london is phillip blond, a political thing can, and you can theologian and director of think tank reza publica. thank you for your, time. great to talk to you. this is interesting advice, isn't it? from the i.m.f., the advice to spend to save lives and to keep the economy going. but that is a huge change in contrast from the financial crisis in 2000. knight, isn't it? yeah, it reminds me of

last week, we spoke to george osborne.ebody who's spent a lot of time arguing with him — ed balls, former shadow chancellor and strictly co ntesta nt a nd harvard university fellow and bit of an american politics geek — am i right? and maker of programmes about donald trump for the bbc. indeed. and we're going to see some of the best bits of that documentary you've made in a minute. now, i hope somebody — if you are listening to this or watching it on iplayer in the future — you know the result of the american presidential election because we here now are still waiting. and chris, it seems to me that the story is biden is closing in on the 270 electoral college votes. trump is challenging in as many states as he can. but we're still basically waiting for some of the key ones to just declare, and then this bit of the process will be over? yeah, and ijust keep bumping into people who look absolutely rough as anything because they didn't get any sleep whatsoever over the past 48 hours, and they are beginning to wonder whether

no stranger to government, was a senior civil servant to chancellors alistair darling and george osborneho points out he is a manchester united fan, because nick and dan have both shared the terrace or the seating when man united have been playing. a new appointment and a very senior and significant appointment and downing street. somebody who won't be familiar to many conservatives and conservative mps, but will no doubt make it his business to become familiar with them as soon as he sta rts familiar with them as soon as he starts in a couple of weeks' time. was that in the job description? you have to be a man united fan chris mack thank you very much indeed. across the uk, christmas bubbles can be formed between 23rd and 27th december, with the scottish government announcing their specific rules for meeting family and friends this morning. across the five day period, people in scotland will be able to form christmas bubbles of three households. however, the bubble should contain no more than eight people. children under the age of 12 will not count towards the total number. in england

inevitable really that the chancellor is going to have to rely more on tax rises this time than george osborne to raise the amounts we need without asking all of us, or at least most of us, to pay a little more. not just those at the very top. what sort of tax rises do you mean? i will we feel that if that is what the government chooses? two thirds of government revenue comes from the three big taxes. if you want to raise big sums of money, then the most natural place to look, which is not say you cannot raise sums elsewhere, corporation tax and so on, those big three are where you have got to focus your attention. the conservative manifesto promise not to raise the rates of any of those taxes. you can still raise money by freezing income tax thresholds for example. not increasing the personal tax allowa nce increasing the personal tax allowance would be one way to raise sums in the medium term. but i think that the government might have to revisit that commitment not to raise the big three taxes if they are serious about raising the sums required. is a dispute, as far as you are aware, betwee