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14/03/2015

Morning news and current affairs. Including Yesterday in Parliament, Sports Desk, Thought for the Day and Weather.

2 hours

Last on

Sat 14 Mar 2015 07:00

Today's Running Order

0710

A cyclone described by weather forecasters as one of the most powerful storms ever recorded in the South Pacific is battering the island nation of Vanuatu. Cyclone Pam is bringing winds of up to 250 kilometres per hour, torrential rain and wild seas. Alice Clements is a spokeswoman for relief agency UNICEF.

0715

On Wednesday the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, delivers his sixth Budget, the last one before the General Election. There has been much speculation about what will be included and one thing that has emerged this morning is a Lib Dem pledge for extra funding for mental health services in England and Wales. Ross Hawkins is our political correspondent.

0720

Jeremy Clarkson has written a column in the Sun suggesting he is ready to walk away from the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ. The Daily Mirror claims the producer who was involved in what the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ has called a β€œfracas” had to go to hospital after the incident. Ian Morris is a former member of the Top Gear team.

0730

The number of anti-Semitic incidents reported in the UK reached a record high last year, according to figures published last month by the Community Security Trust. There's been concern across Europe about the rise in attacks on Jewish individuals and institutions, highlighted by the attacks in Paris after the Charlie Hebdo murders. Lord Weidenfeld is a publisher and philanthropist who arrived in this country having fled the Nazis in Vienna in 1938.

0740

It now seems almost certain that the three British schoolgirls who travelled to Syria last month to join Islamic State militants are now living in IS's so called 'capital' of Raqqa. Much of what happens there is hidden from the eyes of the world because IS have threatened to kill any resident who talks to the foreign media. Our correspondent Mike Thomson has managed to talk to a member of a local anti-IS campaign group called 'Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently'.

0750

A new one-woman show paints a vivid picture of how dear the causes of human rights, the future of the United Nations and the role of women in society were to the First Lady and human rights pioneer Eleanor Roosevelt more than seventy years ago. The show, Mrs Roosevelt Flies to London, uses her own diaries, letters and daily newspaper columns to look at her remarkable life, from her marriage to FDR to her crowning achievement, the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Alison Skilbeck is the writer and performer of Mrs Roosevelt Flies to London.

0755

An internal investigation by Greater Manchester Police has concluded that there were significant failures in its handling of child sex abuse allegations in Rochdale. It found that the force failed to recognise the scale of the grooming and abuse of vulnerable young girls by a network of men that took place between 2008 and 2010.Β  More than 40 girls were thought to have been subjected to grooming. Elise Noblet is a project worker at the Children's Society

0810

A committee of MPs has come up with a series of measures to tackle the problem of litter in England. The Communities and Local Government Committee says litter levels have barely improved in the past twelve years and cost as much as Β£850 million a year to clean up. Recommendations include giving any increases to taxes on tobacco companies to local authorities to pay for the cost of clearing cigarette butts, increasing the number of on the spot fines for littering and putting warnings on chewing gum packets. Labour MP Clive Betts chairs the committee, Neil Sindon is policy director at the Campaign to Protect Rural England.

0815

This week Ed Miliband was filmed by the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ with his wife Justine in an austere-looking kitchen in their London home earlier this week. It subsequently emerged that the Milibands have a second, bigger kitchen in their home: a revelation which prompted accusations from some quarters that he'd used the smaller room for the filming to try and evoke a more humble sort of family life. Mr Miliband denies this saying his family use the smaller room. But it's not the first time that party leaders have chosen to portray themselves on home turf in their kitchens. We've dug out a few examples.

0820

The Prime Minister has committed to spending two percent of the GDP on defence until the end of this Parliament but there has been no commitment beyond that from either Labour or the Conservatives. It raises questions about whether there will be more cuts, something the American Ambassador to the United Nations said this past week was 'concerning'.Β  As part of our 100 constituencies in 100 days coverage, our reporter Sima Kotecha went to Aldershot, a Conservative held constituency in Hampshire indelibly connected with the Army.

0825

Earlier this week, a court in LA ruled that Pharrell Williams and Robin Thicke's 2013 hit Blurred Lines did breach copyright. Jurors decided that the track was too similar to Marvin Gaye's 1977 hit Got To Give It Up and ordered Williams and Thicke to pay nearly five million pounds in damages. Although Thicke is credited as a writer, it later emerged Pharrell wrote the song on his own. Gary Osborne is a singer-songwriter and Chairman of the Ivor Novello Awards and Michelle Escoffery is singer-songwriter who has written for Tina Turner, Beverley Knight and All Saints among others.

0835

Further analysis of the Budget (see 0715). John Redwood is a former Cabinet Minister and Conservative MP for Wokingham, Sir Malcolm Bruce is Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats.

0845

On Tuesday England's rugby women beat Scotland 42-13. The women's six nations has been running alongside the other one, reaching its climax next weekend. But compared with the expanding coverage for women's football and cricket, not to mention netball, rugby union seems to be off the pace. Yet England's women were rugby union world champions last year. Sara Orchard is a ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ reporter.

0850

Today is a date that only comes around once every 100 years. PI day is celebrated annually on 14th March, because the American formulation of the date β€œ3/14” forms the first three digits of Ο€, or pi, which is 3.14. But today isn’t just any Pi Day. This year is the first time in a century that the date is 3/14/15, which describes the first five digits of pi. Gareth Roberts is a mathematician, Β Professor Sarah Hart is a lecturer at Birkbeck University.

Broadcast

  • Sat 14 Mar 2015 07:00