Thursday, 5 July, 2007
- 5 Jul 07, 05:11 PM
Tonight's programme is presented by .
INTEREST RATES
The cost of borrowing is going up again. The Bank of England has raised the interest rate by a quarter of one per cent to five and three quarters percent. Why have interest rates gone up now and who or what is responsible? Our Economics Editor, Stephanie Flanders will give us the benefit of her analysis. We hope to be joined by senior politicians from all main parties to discuss the state of the UK economy and whether we can cope with a record 拢1.3 trillion level of personal debt.
FLOODS
The government has made clear that it's considering, "as a matter of urgency", extra funding for those areas hit by last week's floods. In Hull, thousands of people are struggling to cope with what has been described by the local authority as a 鈥渉umanitarian disaster鈥 after the city was deluged with two months of rain in just 12 hours. The local council says its resources have been overwhelmed and it's accused ministers of ignoring their plight. Our Science Editor Susan Watts is on the case. The Department of Environment says it鈥檚 responsible for sorting out the damage. But Susan is finding that it's difficult to pin down who out of the agencies and local authorities on the ground is really in charge. We hope to bring together the Leader of Hull City Council and a government minister to discuss what should be done.
SCHOOL SWAP
Earlier this year on Newsnight we teamed up with our colleagues at 成人论坛 Look North in Yorkshire and started a project called Bradford United - with two groups of 15-year-olds reporting on life at two different schools in the city. At one school called Laisterdyke most pupils are Asian. At Hanson School most are white. This week, we got the two groups together for the first time to tell us about their experiences with a different community - and at a different school.
QUARRYMEN
It's 50 years this week since a very young Paul McCartney first met John Lennon and his band The Quarrymen. As Liverpool celebrates, Peter Marshall reports on a day that changed music for ever.
