Sacrifice their forefathers made. Not me. Im no hero, but they, like they were the raf boys who died and people like that. They dont realise that they dont know much about it. They dont even know who hitler was. Half of them. And in this sport this morning, ive got to tell you, arsenal didnt look like chokers or bottlers last night as they go back to the top by spanking chelsea. Five nil Leicester City on the verge of heading back to the premier league by also winning five nil against southampton and Ronnie Osullivan says hes not the greatest snooker player ever , greatest snooker player ever, but he goes for a record breaking eighth world title from today. Hello, its a bit chilly out today but at least for many of us it is going to be largely dry and there will be some decent spnng and there will be some decent spring sunshine too. Ill have the details in the full forecast i the biggest defence boost in ten years. The Prime Minister has vowed to increase defence spending to 2. 5 of the national budget. Thats an extra £75 billion. Well, speaking in poland yesterday, the Prime Minister stressed that the uk is not on the brink of war, but did claim the brink of war, but did claim the extra money would put the countrys Defence Industry on a war footing. Well as churchill said in 1934, to urge the preparation of defence is not to insert the imminence of war. On the contrary, if war was imminent , on the contrary, if war was imminent, preparations for defence would be too late. I believe we must do more to defend our country, our interests and our values. So today im announcing the biggest strengthening of our national for defence a generation. We will increase defence spending to a new baseline of 2. 5 of gdp by 2030. Always, im amazed how they make it look as if they are doing something as opposed to. Theyve let defence spending fall well behind. Lets get the views and Deputy Editor at spiked fraser himars defence budget. Its spiked fraser himars defence budget. Its in a real mess. You talk to anyone in the armed forces. They cant. They cant maintain even accommodation for people in the armed forces. Were in the red. As regards our bills for various munitions and things at the moment. I mean, you know, this this isnt hes not doing anything. Hes doing what he has to do and should have done a long time ago. Yeah. And i think a lot of people will be saying 2. 5 by 2030. Well, youre not going to be Prime Minister mate by 2030, correct . Thats a labour problem. Thats a labour problem. Then i think labour will probably commit to it. They certainly want to go to this 2. 5 figure, is what theyve said previously that they want to scrutinise the numbers if they see if they can get there by. Sorry to interrupt, but ben wallace was hilarious. I thought yesterday in his response to that he said, oh really . We need another defence review. D0 really . We need another defence review. Do we . He said, why dont we create a for Union Defence thatll scare our enemies . Yeah. I mean, and everyone sort of agrees that defence is becoming much more of a national priority. The world is becoming more unstable. I dont want to more unstable. I dont want to exaggerate that. Im not saying were on the brink of world war iii or anything like that, but certainly you can see tensions, you know, war breaking out in the middle east. We still have the middle east. We still have the war in ukraine, waging on tensions increasing in the far east, two between china and various other east asian countries. So, you know, we are living in a more dangerous world and defence is should be at the forefront of peoples mind. But what is suddenly triggered this change, because it was just weeks ago in the budget, when jeremy hunt and the chancellor were insisting that theyd get to 2. 5 of gdp when theyd get to 2. 5 of gdp when the Economic Conditions allowed. Well, nothings changed economically in that time. No. Thats right. I mean, i think its because its something that has, you know, dogged rishi sunak, that hes been seen as weak on defence. His other rivals for the tory leadership all pledged to reach this 2. 5 target around this kind of time , hes saying that kind of time, hes saying that he can reach it without affecting frontline services, without putting up taxes. Is without putting up taxes. Is that remains to be seen. He says he will do it by reducing the Civil Service to pre brexit levels. Now, governments always promised they can make efficiency savings without affecting your Public Services. But often 70,000 Civil Servants. Jobs. Jobs is a huge number and if there were that many to cut, surely they would have done that before they could have done that before they could have done that now youd think. And ben wallace seems to have, hinted in an interview elsewhere that these cuts could actually come from a manifesto pledge where they were going to cut taxes. Sorry. They say the money could come from not making from not making it, from not making the tax cuts going into the next election. I mean, this is this thing i mean, in many ways, as i said earlier, this is not going to be rishi sunaks decision. Realistically you know, how to how to manage this. I think, one of the problems, as you alluded to, eamonn, is that, you know, the military is degraded. We have, i think, 76,000 soldiers. Thats a third less than just two decades ago. The world was a lot safer place. Two decades ago, you could say, you know, the navy is so short staffed, they recently had to mothball, two ships. Theres a broader recruitment crisis in the armed forces. You know, whether a 0. 2 percentage point increase in the budget over the next six years is going to make up for those issues. I think is going to make up for those issues. I think is seems unlikely to me. This this comes at the same time as all this extra money has been released by the usa , for been released by the usa, for ukraine, for taiwan , whatever. Ukraine, for taiwan, whatever. And i know you said were not on the brink of world war three. You could have fooled me. You could have fooled me. Well, i think one of the reasons why it feels theres a sort of sense of urgency in britain and also in europe, actually, you know, hes rishi sunakis actually, you know, hes rishi sunak is doing european tours. Hes talking to polish Prime Minister and to the german chancellor. Is because of the fear of a Trump Presidency , fear of a Trump Presidency, possibly more isolationist us. Now weve had the ukraine package passed in the senate, 60 billion going towards ukraine and to other , and to other and to other, and to other conflicts. But that took so much wrangling. And that was even under a democrat president who is fully supportive of the of ukraines fight. I think trump is actually not as isolationist as many commentators make out, but he is certainly unpredictable. And he has, you know , quite famously said that, know, quite famously said that, you know, nato countries that dont pay their way, vladimir putin, come and have a go. Now, putin, come and have a go. Now, he obviously doesnt really mean that, but i think, you know, the west, the non us, you know, uk, europe, the other nato countries are starting to worry that, you know, the us is not necessarily going to be a reliable partner. And so we have to, you know, get our own house in order. Well thank you very much. Fraser myers Deputy Editor at spiked for us this morning. Appreciate it, you heard what fraser had to say there, and we what do we know . We know absolutely nothing. If youve served or are serving in the armed forces in some form or other, and you say, look, they need to spend money here. And that money may be your accommodation, very, very important. I mean, theres no point to having people serving if theyre not being housed, if theyre not being looked after properly, if theyre not being paid the right rate, as well as munitions and all sorts of technology and a change in the way that we, we police the world as well. Let us know what you as well. Let us know what you think on that. Please do get in touch this morning. This is how you do it. Its gbnews. Com forward slash tuc have your say talk to each other on that forum as well. And we will reflect that throughout the programme. This morning. That throughout the programme. This morning. So if youre this morning. So if youre serving or you have served or you have an idea , someone in you have an idea, someone in your family where the money should be spent, let us know this morning when we will reflect that. Now, researchers are warning that the damaging legacy of the pandemic will mean poorer gcse results well into the 2030s. Academics at the universities of exeter, strathclyde and the London School of economics predict that fewer than 2 in 5 pupils in england will achieve a grade five or above in english and maths gcses , and thats and maths gcses, and thats roughly equivalent to a grade c. Well, were joined by maths teacher bobby seagull. Do you recognise. Good morning to you. This prediction. Is this a fear that you share. Yeah i think its really sort of sad. Anne diamond over the last few years in terms of, covid, obviously the strikes been going on, but i think the numbers are staggering. So currently isabel and eamonn, 45 of students get a grade four, a good pass, as it were, in maths and english, and what this report by the Nuffield Foundation predicts is by 2030. So students that sort of had studied during the pandemic, that will drop by 5. And again, sometimes in the media, you know, we saw a 5 drop. Thats not very large number, but thats like 30 plus thousand students, fewer students that will get good maths and gcse english, and what this means is that one, the Job Opportunities are much more difficult, but additional to their academic, suffering , these students have suffering, these students have sort of been impacted by social and emotional skills that theyre not developed because we know that young people, they develop best with each other. Were humans, were social beings. But because of lockdown , beings. But because of lockdown, there are a couple of years where they were at home on their phones doing some work online. But the reality is classrooms are the best environments for young people socially and academically , and this impact is academically, and this impact is going to be seen for this report , things for decades to come. So actually, its something where they have made some suggestions solutions. But they said that weve got to start trying to solve this immediately rather than waiting for the fallout in a few years. Yeah, but bobby, what i dont get is that was then the pandemic. This is now, why cant a new term, new classes , a new term, new classes, everything back to normal . Not put that right. Where have we got to wait . Six, seven, eight, nine, ten years before figures readjust. Yeah , i think its because if yeah, i think its because if you look at where young people learn, they sort of learn foundation, almost like , almost foundation, almost like, almost like, almost like a pyramid style. So young people, if they missed out var sort of Foundation Learning when theyre five or 6 or 7, you might think, oh, theyll catch up with it. But that impact has a compounding impact. So by the time they get to 16, theyre missed out on so much additional learning. And again that foundations are lost. And again, i think we dont we wont see the impact of 2013. But there has to be solutions now and again this report i had a read of it. They talked about equalising policies, but understandably we are in a tough economic budget condition. So theyve got some low cost solutions. One is they said think about tutoring by undergraduates. Could undergraduates. Could undergraduates again volunteer or for reasonable costs, go and support schools with tutoring. And then secondly, this suggests a bit more radical about rebalancing the School Calendar yeah rebalancing the School Calendar year. So you know, theres lets say 12, 13 weeks of school houday say 12, 13 weeks of School Holiday per year. But a lot of research has shown that the six week Summer Holiday actually impacts the most disadvantaged students, because ive seen in my ten years in secondary. When you compare it with private schools, you know they actually have longer holidays than than the state sector. And yet their results are higher. I dont think its got to do with penods dont think its got to do with periods of time off. And i think actually a lot of teachers are attracted to the profession because they get these these breaks from from work essentially. I think if you were to shorten those holidays, for example, you might have an even bigger recruitment issue. Surely, though, there must be more that schools can do around Early Morning classes for those that are struggling, being able to identify as you say, maybe getting in volunteers to tutor lots of parents must be have skills as well that they could share with the kids. Share with the kids. Yeah, i think isabel, youre right. Its a combination of both. But i will say on the School Holiday, i think its not about cutting the six weeks to two weeks holiday. Its maybe taking a week off there and moving it towards the october half tum, and making that two weeks instead of one week. Because, again, i think with the independent sector generally children that are lucky enough to be in that sector over the holidays, they might go to museums or go on trips abroad, or they might, you know, the parents might sit and read to them. Whereas generally students from the states, especially the ones from the most disadvantaged backgrounds, actually the holidays, a lot of them dont do anything. They sit at home on their phones for six weeks. So again, its about one of those suggestions in this report is reducing it by maybe a week or so. But isabel, you are right in terms of other things Early Morning breakfast clubs, additional support, getting parents in so i think its about schools and the Education Sector being creative because again, with politics its all about priorities and education is important. But money is very tight for this country. So as a nafion tight for this country. So as a nation were going to have to be very creative about the solutions. We come for education because again, even mr sunak, he said that education he thinks, is the Silver Bullet that we have to improving this countrys lot generally. But bobby, not every teacher is like you and i hope there are so many, many teachers like you. You feel your energy, youre getting ready for class today and you have a spring in your step , and i hope that can be step, and i hope that can be replicated. I think i would love to be a teacher. Id love to go and teach history or something, and teach history or something, and id hate to be in your class. Well, i think id be regarded as the fun teacher, believe me, no. I think as the fun teacher, believe me, no. I think the idea of being contagious, almost with your pupils is very difficult with mathematics. You know, i cant relate to you and your. But he might have got us through maths, mightnt he . No, no, no, i cant relate to the subject of the usefulness of the subject of the usefulness of the subject of the usefulness of the subject or anything, but, you know, well agree to disagree on that. But i think the responsibility on the teachers shoulders is, is incredible. And if they do the job right and theyre enthusiastic about it, theres no finer job in the land. I would have thought, oh , land. I would have thought, oh, i agree again. In my 20s, i spent my time working in the city. I was a trader at lehman brothers. Not a good choice of bank and nomura, and i was a chartered accountant at pwc. But my time in teaching, i would say waleses, had much more ups and downs, is the most rewarding thing you can do because you have that impact on a young person that can influence them for life. And occasionally in stratford bus station i get, i get towering six three young man who say, hello, mr seagull. Im like, who is this . Im am i safe . And you say, oh, sir, you told me ten years ago. In fact, at stratford cinema over the weekend at some young mans came to me and said, oh, are you bobby seagull . I thought, oh god, is it one of those fans from tv . Hello, my name is yayan. You taught me ten years ago. Im about to do geology at university. You are a really great teacher. So again, teachers can have that lifelong impact on young people. Yeah, that makes me feel emotional. We can all remember our teachers that changed our lives. And you do every day. Youll be changing childrens lives. It is incredible. Youre talking about the kids that are spending their Summer Holidays scrolling on their phones, not doing anything, wasting all of their potential. Another teacher has been in the headlines this week, i think, a headteacher in north london saying hed like to see the School Day Extended from 7 am. Till 7 pm. Because he fears lots of kids are going home at 3 00 and just doom scrolling on their phone and wasting their lives. And theyd be much better staying at school with their peers, doing organised sport, doing extra classes. Has he got a point . Again, i would say there is a point. But again , i can imagine point. But again, i can imagine it wouldnt be very popular with teachers. But again , the school teachers. But again, the school day is six hours. And again, i think theres a limited amount of Academic Knowledge that students can take on in school, because if youre bombarded for another 2 or 3 hours, youre not going to take it in. But there is a definitely an argument for having additional different types of activities, whether its after School Cricket or whether its after School Debate club. And these can be run by external organisations that come in and run these things. Because, again, school is not just about the academic qualifications, which are i still think are the most important thing, but you need young people