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Chapter 1: Why is this heatwave record-breaking in the UK?
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Hello. So the first half of today's podcast is going to be about something that is happening, the heatwave, which pretty much everyone in Britain is experiencing in some form or another. And the second half is going to be about something that's about to happen, which is Andy Burnham's entrance to Number 10 Downing Street and what more we've learned about what kind of Prime Minister he might be.
So those are two things we're going to be serving you on this episode of Newscast. Newscast. Newscast from the BBC. I will resign.
As leader of the Labour Party. And what will you do?
Stare at a wall.
Humanity's next great voyage begins. You know I like my buses.
I'll come on to them. It's supposed to be me as a doctor.
Ooh la la. Thinking about it like a panther helped.
Do we play music now or what do we do?
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Chapter 2: What factors are contributing to the extreme heat?
But what's their assessment this week?
Top line is emissions continue to fall down 1.8% 2025 on 2024. Really interesting picture. They're saying on the one hand, electric vehicles, which remember the government is talking about weakening the zero emissions mandate, which is a requirement that car manufacturers sell a certain proportion of cars and get fined really quite heavily if they don't.
sell as many low-emission vehicles as they should. They're talking about watering it down at the same time. The Climate Change Committee is saying, actually, sales are doing really well. One in four cars are now fully electric, cars sold in the UK, compared to one in five. That's a significant change, 20% to 25%. Big change, going in the right direction.
They say we can see a pathway now to a kind of fully electric car fleet in the UK. Obviously, that will take many decades to happen. Mm-hmm. On the other hand, heat pumps are really quite disappointing. The rate of growth of heat pumps has fallen massively. 7% last year compared to 56% the year before. They're saying that's to do with a grant.
But when pressed, they say, look, there are some underlying issues about the cost and the returns. Because when you push them on this, even the Climate Change Committee admits that actually it's very hard to save money with a heat pump without a flexible tariff, without solar panels, without batteries, without all the other stuff. And that, of course, Adam, is expensive.
And the whole time I've even known about the existence of the Climate Change Committee, they've basically been saying the same big thing, which is that electricity is going to have to become cheaper as we all transition to using electricity for everything rather than, say, using gas for your heating in the winter, which does not seem like a comfortable subject to discuss right now.
And actually, you realise there's some pointers there for Andy Burnham taking over as Prime Minister. If he really is serious about cutting people's energy bills, then actually making electricity cheaper by putting fewer government policies on your electricity bill would be a very quick, fast way of changing the price. And animals are a very expensive thing to do. And that is the big challenge.
Because it then goes on to your tax bill as opposed to your energy bill. Right, Ed, a few science things about what we're living through right at the moment. What is the role of humidity in how this heatwave feels for us all individually?
Yes, Adam, that's right. So this heatwave is a bit different to some of the others we've experienced in recent years in that it is much more humid this time around. And a more humid heatwave is more dangerous because it feels hotter. We've got this feels-like temperature, which is often quoted
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Chapter 3: What historical heatwave comparisons are relevant today?
Because she went out there to defend her record. Two years ago, she was in front of that audience as a wannabe chancellor, shadow chancellor, promising to be pro-business, pro-growth, whatever.
Today, she was possibly her last address to that audience as Chancellor, defending her record and also saying that, you know, I think I've got more to do and that my advice to the next Chancellor would keep doing what I'm doing. So was that a subtle pitch or not a subtle pitch to keep her job and saying that stability was important? Stability in her mind, I think, meaning...
keep the same chancellor. But I think that there was, I don't think she misunderstands that, you know, the way the wind is blowing and that she's very likely to be replaced as chancellor.
And did it feel like there was a chancellor recruitment process going on at this conference and that lots of the business people there were on the imaginary recruitment panel?
Well, it was very interesting because I asked the question, obviously, because it's a very key one for business, who's going to be the next chancellor. And there's, what I can tell you is there is no consensus candidate. I had a couple of streeting votes. I saw a couple of Miliband quotes, a couple of people very anti-Miliband.
I had a couple of people saying, I don't care who it is, it's what they do rather than the person in the job that matters. And what they want is after a couple of bruising years,
where they thought a government that had a charm offensive to business, saying we are pro-growth, pro-business, feel they were slightly misled and that big increases in employment taxes, national living wage, a raft of new employment rights, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, have been actually quite anti-business.
So they're saying that we felt that we were kind of sold a bit of a pup first time round. That can't happen again.
And are the business leaders feeling that Andy Burnham is pro-business or that he might carry on in that less pro-business vein that you just mentioned there?
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