Good to round off with some positive news. While the cost of living crisis continues, a beam of light has shone through the dark, rainy clouds of romania propaganda. The revised figures propaganda. The revised figures from the office for National Statistics have shown the uk economy is 2 larger than initially thought and that we outgrew the german economy. Over the past four years. All as the bbc would say in spite of brexit state of the nation starts now. State of the nation starts now. Ill also be joined by a scintillating panel this evening. Gb news is very own ray of sunshine. The historian dr. David starkey and gb news is senior political commentator nigel nelson. As always, you nigel nelson. As always, you know what im going to say . I want to hear from you. Its a crucial part of the programme. Email me. Mail mog at gbnews. Com. Now its time for the news of the day with ray addison. On addison. On thanks , jacob. Good evening. Thanks, jacob. Good evening. Our top stories. The education our top stories. The education secretary has confirmed that the list of schools affected by the concrete crisis will be published this week. It comes after Gillian Keegan was heard expressing her frustration at the situation in an unusually frank , expletive ridden hot mic frank, expletive ridden hot mic moment. Moment. At does anyone ever say , you at does anyone ever say, you know what, youve done a good job because everyone else has sat on there and done nothing . No, no signs of that . No. Well ms keegan has since apologised for her use of language. Well, for her use of language. Well, it wasnt really talked about in particular. It was off the cuff remark after the news interview had finished, or apparently after it had finished and id like to apologise for my choice language. That was unnecessary, but it was an off the cuff remark. Basically based on the interview. The interview had been pressing me quite hard why ihadnt been pressing me quite hard why i hadnt solved this issue which had been going on since 1994. Well meanwhile, the Prime Minister has attempted to bat away accusations regarding his role in the crisis while he was chancellor. Rishi sunak says its wrong to suggest that he is to blame for failing to fully fund a programme to rebuild englands schools. Of course i know the timing is frustrating, but i want to give people a sense of the scale of what were grappling with here. There are around 22,000 schools in england and the important thing to know is we expect that 95 of those schools wont be impacted by this. Around 50 schools have already been mitigated. Another 100 are in the process of being so and our expectation is, is in a matter of weeks, the bulk of the remaining schools that will have this issue will be identified as well. In other news, northern irelands police chief, simon byrne, has resigned. Byrne, has resigned. A recent court ruling deemed that mr burns disciplinary actions against two Junior Officers was unlawful pull. It follows a major data breach last month which revealed the details of 10,000 psni month which revealed the details 0f10,000 psni staff month which revealed the details of 10,000 psni staff aslef uk government sources have confirmed that the French Police have stopped more than 15,000 migrant s from reaching the uk in small boats so far this year. Gb news can reveal tougher French Police around some key migrant launch points has significantly disrupted people smuggling activities. The smuggling activities. The overall number of channel migrants is more than 20 down on the same period last year. Angela rayner is the new shadow deputy Prime Minister and levelling up secretary as sir keir starmer reshuffles his top team, she replaces lisa nandy, who becomes shadow cabinet minister for international development. Among the other development. Among the other changes, pat mcfadden takes on the influential role of National Campaign co ordinator , as well campaign co ordinator, as well as shadow chancellor of the duchy of lancaster. This as shadow chancellor of the duchy of lancaster. This is gb news across the uk on tv in your car, on Digital Radio and on your Smart Speaker by saying play gb news. Now lets get straight back to. Jacob straight back to. Jacob the governments energy bill is set for its third and final reading tomorrow before the chance of ping pong with the lords and the commons. The bill proposes a number of things as it will enable £20 billion of your money to be spent on Carbon Capture technology that Stores Carbon dioxide emissions in exhausted gas wells. But £20 exhausted gas wells. But £20 billion is a lot of your money to be spent on a Speculative Technology dodi. A recent study showed that when Carbon Capture is used for a given industrial plant when taking into account the c02 plant when taking into account the co2 emissions produced via the co2 emissions produced via the process itself , the co2 emissions produced via the process itself, emissions would only be reduced by about 10. The bill also focuses on home insulation, which is a good thing within itself but has some extreme measures. It gives the extreme measures. It gives the power to the government to criminalise people in future for not following regulations with minimal parliamentary oversight. What do i mean by this . Well, when new labour was at its height, it was creating new criminal offences day after day and the conservatives at that point and the house of lords argued that it was wrong to create criminal offences without a full parliamentary process. Now the energy bill is going to make it possible to create criminal offences by a quick route. This is constitutionally wrong. It may also make it more wrong. It may also make it more difficult for people to sell homes or rent property cars which arent at a high enough insulation standard. We have a very old Housing Stock in this country, lots of listed buildings building things in conservation areas where one side of the government wont give you permission to make them more environmental friendly, to insulate them more. And the other saying, well, you may not be able to sell you be able to sell them if you havent insulated them , so havent insulated them, so youll on effects on youll have knock on effects on the market youll the Housing Market and youll take away peoples major asset, your major asset could be at threat. The bill allows the threat. The bill allows the government to regulate electrical appliances and the way the european does. You way the European Union does. You remember all these stories about how powerful a kettle could be or a hoover, a vacuum cleaner. This bill will allow us to do the same. But this is about greening the greens and for concern of a government to ignore the market is surely a mistake because as sensible consumers and i assume consumers consumers and i assume consumers are consumers and i assume consumers are sensible, will always choose more Energy Efficient appliances because in the long run it will save them money, but they will judge for themselves the efficiency of the product against its energy use rather than it being laid down by bureaucrats who think they know best. The market should be left to do its work, but the overarching intention is clear it priority cases net zero at a timetable that was set randomly without being properly thought through rather than reducing the cost of energy. Thats why Craig Mckinley and i tabled an amendment that would prioritise as the lower cost. It says in its glorious parliamentary language that the secretary of state will have a duty to ensure the lowest possible cost of energy to businesses and households in exercising any function under or in connection with this act. It is the duty of the secretary of state to ensure the secretary of state to ensure the lowest possible cost of energy to businesses and households. Now, if the households. Now, if the government accepted our amendment tomorrow, it would at least amelia, rate some of the worst elements of the bill. Its time for cost of living crisis. Its the governments role to make life easier for people to lift burdens off their shoulders. The bill should be reversing the ban on oil boilers set to affect 1. 7 million homes across the country. It should be reversing the boiler ban on all new builds in 2025, taking away one of the lowest cost of heating. It should be reversing the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel cars. It should be making it easier to rent or sell homes to ease the housing crisis, not harder. The bill does the opposite and for that reason it ought to be scrapped or at least entirely defanged , which is what entirely defanged, which is what i was trying to do in my brief penod i was trying to do in my brief period as energy secretary. I obviously wont be supporting this bill tomorrow, but of course. Vox populi vox day, the voice of the people is the voice of god. Today we ask the people of god. Today we ask the people of hull producing energy bills or net zero should be the priority. We and the people putting it down to make it affordable for people to have their heating on. Well, its the whole thing or whatever carbon impacts something or other, but its the Energy Prices and the prices it takes to make electric cars and to benefit. Everything costs more than it does to actually just yeah, obviously just use gas. Yeah, obviously everyone bills in the Everyone Wants less bills in the short personally short term, but im personally im somebody who to think im somebody who likes to think that government is looking that the government is looking more in the future. Itll be more in the future. Itll be more beneficial over over time to be country thats proud to to be a country thats proud to be net zero. You know, i think they should bring do to they should bring do more to bnng they should bring do more to bring Energy Prices down. Bring the Energy Prices down. I dont think they seem to be trying to bring about trying very hard to bring about net zero. Yeah i think they need to put down the price, the electricity, the gas, because now were very difficult to live off the population. Off the population. I tell the government, the police just to work very hard and put the energy down. Im joined now by ali warrington, Campaign Director for we are possible, the Climate Action group. Ali, thank you so action group. Ali, thank you so much for joining action group. Ali, thank you so much forjoining me. In action group. Ali, thank you so much forjoining me. In a action group. Ali, thank you so much forjoining me. In a cost of living crisis is shouldnt the government be ensuring that people have access to low cost energy as the priority . Absolutely ali. The government should be doing that. And the cost of living crisis and the energy cost crisis have been driven by the cost of gas power, which has been soaring over the past 18 months. Want lower energy months. We all want Lower Energy Bills for people across the uk, and the only way to achieve that is end use of gas, power is to end the use of gas, power and high cost associated and the high cost associated with getting on with that and start getting on with that and start getting on with of delivering with the job of delivering clean, cheap energy like onshore wind because wind and solar power. Because that will cut costs for that is what will cut costs for ordinary people. Technology has helped and technology has helped bnng and technology has helped bring down price of solar bring down the price of solar panels but panels very considerably. But you still need gas power for when the sun doesnt shine and when the sun doesnt shine and when the sun doesnt shine and when the wind doesnt blow. So were still going to need access to considerable quantities of gas. So i actually dont think thats the case. Know, thats the case. You know, theres thats been theres research thats been done renewables done on a 100 Renewables Electricity grid. You electricity grid. If you have enough Renewables Capacity and you and you you have storage and you have interconnectors , then it is not interconnectors, then it is not only possible have that very, interconnectors, then it is not only lowsible have that very, interconnectors, then it is not only low carbon have that very, interconnectors, then it is not only low carbon grid, that very, interconnectors, then it is not only low carbon grid, butt very, interconnectors, then it is not only low carbon grid, but itery, very low carbon grid, but it actually billions for actually saves billions for consumers as well because it is much cheaper to use our own domestic Renewable Energy resources to keep relying resources than to keep relying on expensive, volatile imported gas. But actually weve got our own domestic sources of gas and we could get more if we were to invest in fracking, which would provide us with a cheap and secure supply of gas. So any gas that the uk extracts domestically, not only will it contribute to emissions that are pushing up dangerous climate extremes , it will be climate extremes, it will be sold on international markets. It will be sold at the going rate. Not domestic rate. It will not cut Domestic Energy by one penny. Energy bills by one penny. If you have more supply but if you have more supply in global market, that in the global market, that reduces prices. The reason the price up the russian price went up is the russian supply taken out of the supply was taken out of the market. Supply and demand functions way. So any functions in that way. So any extra supply reduces global pnces extra supply reduces global prices , but not necessarily prices, but not necessarily because very volatile market. And as we saw during the past 18 months, the oil and gas companies, the bps and the shells, theyve been cashing in. Theyve been raking in billions profits. Billions in excess profits. Have. But bear in well, they have. But bear in mind, during the mind, in 2020, during the pandemic , the price of crude oil pandemic, the price of crude oil was below zero. So actually, you had to pay people to take your oil because there wasnt sufficient when demand sufficient storage when demand collapsed. So oil companies, yes, theyre affected by the cycle and sometimes they make profits , sometimes they make profits, sometimes they make losses. Thats how an economy works. But that volatility in oil pnces but that volatility in oil prices and Energy Prices is not doing any good. You doing anybody any good. You dont volatility dont get that volatility volatility onshore wind and volatility with onshore wind and solar, get cheap, reliable , solar, you get cheap, reliable, secure energy. That is, you get a different form of volatility because you cant be sure that the wind will blow the sun the wind will blow or the sun will shine. The wind will blow or the sun wiliand1e. The wind will blow or the sun willand if. The wind will blow or the sun wiliand if youre going to have and if youre going to have Battery Storage, thats very inefficient uses lot inefficient and also uses a lot of metals and so on of rare earth metals and so on that are themselves quite dirty. Sure so, you know, these Renewable Energy sources are variable, but thatis Energy Sources are variable, but that is something that is able to be addressed by things like Energy Efficiency measures, by storage. You know, this is storage. You know, this is something that the National Grid has for long has been looking at for a long time. Government should time. And the government should be with delivering them. But smart metres, which is part the bill, is not an part of the bill, is not an Energy Efficiency measure, is it . About trying to price it . Its about trying to price People Energy when people into using energy when its whereas with gas its available. Whereas with gas you have secure supply of you have a secure supply of energy so you can have it day in, day out. You can meet peaks and which cant and troughs, which you cant do with inflexibility of with the inflexibility of renewables. Renewables. But just not the case. But thats just not the case. But thats just not the case. Have enough different if you have enough different types energy. Types of Renewable Energy. So not solar, also onshore not just solar, but also onshore wind, offshore wind storage , wind, offshore wind storage, then actually are able to then you actually are able to storage. Storage. Talking about battery youre talking about Battery Storage and there are other types of storage. What other storage are you thinking about . Pumped hydro. I mean, theres a limited amount of that, thats very significant. There are limits as well. But if enough different if you have enough different types capacity and if you types of capacity and if you have interconnectors. Its have interconnectors. So its not uk has to not just that the uk has to supply all its own energy and it can balance with countries in europe. So if this is so economic and so low cost, why isnt the market doing this as well . Know, one problem well . You know, one problem is the regulations set by the regulations that are set by central things like central government, things like the on onshore which the ban on onshore wind, which they lift. And they are refusing to lift. And its difficult for the its very difficult for the market get with delivering market to get on with delivering the Energy Supply that we the clean Energy Supply that we need we have these need when we have these ridiculous planning blocks in