Afternoon briefing Thursday 29th October

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0:16This is your Times Radio News Briefing for the afternoon of Thursday, the 29th of October. Think tanks and financial institutions are warning of a debt problem in the next five years, with debt interest spending reaching 4.2 % of GDP in 2031 to 32. Following the Chancellor's budget, the Office for Budget Responsibility published its forecast saying debt is high by both recent historical and international standards. Professor David Miles from the OBR's committee told Times Radio the government can stop it getting worse though. If, as we all hope, I think, that there isn't a big further negative shock on the scale of those things, I think that there's, with enough determination, the government will be able to do what our central forecast suggests they do do, which in three years' time, at least they've done enough to stop the debt carrying on going up.

1:07But it's not easy. Meanwhile, the Chancellor's facing criticism that he hasn't set out concrete plans on defence spending nor reducing the welfare bill. John Healy has committed the country to increasing money for defence, but not specified where cuts will have to be made. Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Emma Reynolds, told Times Radio that will come. We will set that out at the spending review. That will require further difficult choices across government, but we've shown by the decisions we made yesterday, as I said, to reprioritise spending across government departments, to put that additional£15 billion into the defence investment plan, that we can take the tough choices that we need to in order to provide that major boost in defence spending, building on the progress that we've already made.

1:53Russell Brand's wife has told a court it was difficult for the former comedian to be monogamous during their first relationship. Laura Brand has been giving evidence for his defence at Southwark Crown Court. Times Newsroom reporter Olly Cole has been watching proceedings. Laura Brand recalled making it clear to Russell Brand at the time that she was not interested in a relationship with him if he was sleeping with others. And when they met years later, he was a very different man. The jury has also heard statements from ex-girlfriends of the former comedian, one calling him promiscuous and unfaithful, and the other saying he was undoubtedly promiscuous, but never in front of me and never when I was around.

2:31It brings to an end the evidence for the defence. Russell Brand denies all seven charges against him. The president of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, has announced her resignation. Lagarde was appointed by Nicolas Sarkozy to be France's finance minister in 2007, the first woman to hold the post in any G7 nation. 69 people have now died as a result of a train crash in Spain yesterday. Protests have taken place in Madrid, campaigning against the transport minister's oversight of the rail network. The Times' correspondent in Spain, David Sharrock, says the crisis could bring down the government.

3:06It is a massive problem for them because the government just called a snap election. This is the sort of event that completely changes the course of an election campaign. We have a situation where a transport minister who's very close to the prime minister, one of his closest allies, has now been in charge of a train network system which has basically delivered more than 100 deaths in one year. So the atmosphere in Spain today, it's moved from incomprehension and grief to rising anger. For more stories like this, listen throughout the day to Times Radio. For investors at the highest level of sophistication, those with strong advisory support, the natural outcome is two distinct portfolios, one public, one private.

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