Afternoon briefing Wednesday 2nd September

0:00This episode of the Times Radio News Briefing is sponsored by PwCWC. Staying competitive means getting ahead, not just keeping up. So how do business leaders cut through the noise and focus on what really matters? PwC takes you further with tech, from optimising the systems that put your data to work, to scaling AI from proof of concept to competitive edge. PwC helps you meet tomorrow's tech demands so you can compete at a speed that rewrites the rules. Discover more at pwc.co.uk. Welcome to The Times Radio News Briefing on Wednesday, the 2nd of September. An economic advisor to Andy Burnham says the Prime Minister needs to cut public spending to avoid a potential debt crisis.

0:45Lord O 'Neill says that rather than raising capital gains tax, the government should look at what he calls the excesses of the triple lock or of welfare spending. It's got into this psychology where they're sort of regarded as sacred cows that no politician dare touch. but if you have the markets carrying on doing what they're doing globally and here then eventually they're going to have absolutely no choice because the penalty of the debt servicing cost and the knock-on effect to other markets including mortgage rates will be too severe for a government to resist. The number of children going to A &E with a mental health concern has increased by 36 % since 2019.

1:27NHS England says that figure was more than 75 ,000 last year. Children as young as six are among those getting crisis supports for their mental health in England. Dr Sam Jones from the Royal College of Paediatrics says these figures could have long-term implications. Whatever the cause is, it's here, it's real and if we don't intervene now, these young people, they've got their childhood affected and they're not that far off adulthood. So we know that this is storing up problems for the future if we don't start addressing it and looking what is truly happening right here and now. The Department of Health says it's opening more than 150 new mental health facilities.

2:04Spanish prosecutors say there have been 23 sexual assaults in the city of Ceuta in North Africa since the end of July, when about 72 ,000 migrants crossed from neighbouring Morocco. They say nine assaults were on children. The Times' Spain correspondent David Sharrock explains how the government is dealing with tensions between communities. They're trying to create camps for the migrants to get them off the streets. Basically, at the moment, they're everywhere. They're in the streets, they're on the beaches, they're in squares. So they're trying to create these camps where they can be contained and looked after.

2:40But the pace of it is so slow that you have this difficulty where things are being promised and they're not being delivered. Pharmacies have reported that they've run out of pepper spray because a lot of people have been stockpiling it because they're so scared. And the historic Royal Palaces charity says schools should teach far more detail about Henry VIII's six wives. It says their marital status or their demise are nowhere near enough. It also says the Tudor king wouldn't be nearly as well known without them. The group's chief historian, Tracey Borman, has told Times Radio that Anne Boleyn is a clear example of what can be missed out.

3:16Without Anne Boleyn, I don't think we'd have had the Reformation. She was a leading light in religious circles. She was very passionate about bringing England into the reformed religion. And her daughter Elizabeth would then go on to firmly establish this new religion known as Protestantism in England. So she was a mover and shaker politically and religiously. You can follow the Times Radio News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

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