lord steel, thank you for speaking to us. right, a birthday greeting now.is week. it celebrated by releasing an app, worksmart to provide younger workers with information about their rights, and to encourage them to group together to fight for them. but it is a challenge to attract the young. less than a quarter of the workforce is a member of a union now; that's skewed towards older workers. and last year was the one with the lowest number of strike days since 1891. joining me now is general secretary of the tuc, frances o'grady, and from the institute of economic affairs, len shackleton. good evening both. 150 years on, what is your view of the state of the unions that the moment? i think we are still nearly 6 million strong, 50—50 men and women nowadays. and clearly it still makes a difference, having a union card in your pocket means you are more likely to get better pay, more equal pay, family friendly, training opportunities, health and safety, so it still makes a big difference but it is not good enough. that is why we recognise that we have a genera

tonight we'll ask the real lord steel, former liberal leader, whether he thinks thorpe was guilty ofonspiracy to murder. good evening and welcome to bbc news. the catalogue of problems which led to grenfell tower being engulfed in flames has been revealed at the official start of the public inquiry into the disaster. the hearing was presented with a series of expert reports. one of them said that the fire brigade‘s policy of telling people to stay in their homes had effectively failed. another said the tower‘s cladding system didn't meet building regulations and was incorrectly installed. 72 people died as a result of the blaze in west london, that's now nearly a year ago. lucy manning's report contains images from the night which were shown at the inquiry today. you may find some of them distressing. asleep in the safety of their homes, but this building was a death trap, a majorfire hazard. devastating details revealed to the inquiry, how grenfell tower was covered in material that would burn easily, that was not properly tested and how, once covered in flames, the fire brigade‘s s

lord. that was in response to trudeau questioning trump's use of national security as justification for massive steelg to the war of 1812 which was fought against the british, the british burned down the white house, the original white house in 1814, the british. as to if trump's comment could have been a joke, cnn reports one source on the call said, quote, to the degree one can ever take what is said as a joke. which is true, joe. i remember when a bunch of talented speech writer, comedy writers, presented to him through top white house aides jokes for the alfalfa dinner and they were really great self-deprecating jokes that would have just -- >> very funny. >> would have warmed him up to a very cold washington and he didn't crack a smile and the words he said after they read him all the jokes, which were hilarious because they were read to us and we were rolling were "i don't get it." he didn't get it. >> he said i don't get. >> it i don't think he was joking. >> you know what's fascinating, though, walter, we've been talking about the tariffs, donald trump attacking canada. this, of course, comes

steel. everyone is saying it's a fudge. it is, isn't it? if you look at it, the two thinks about the original lordsnded in against the repeal of the 72 act, so what this amendment is done is recognise that people do want to see pop a discussion about a customs arrangement, many people who voted remain like myself who voted to leave, come together to say we should allow the government to get on to discuss the customs arrangements. whatever happens we have free trade arrangement in some kinds of customs arrangement which is not the same as a customs union and that's the point. the primers december notjoining and that's the point. the primers december not joining the and that's the point. the primers december notjoining the customs union because the public vote to leave the eu at a counter that if you are in the customs union. thank you are in the customs union. thank you for your time. everything is overshadowed by the resignation of phillip lee. the sentence which sticks out is if energy giant to look my children in the eye and say idid my look my children in the eye and say i did my best for them,