Evening briefing Monday 3rd November

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 evening briefing on Monday, the 3rd of November. Cambridgeshire Police says it's investigating three more knife incidents that may be linked to the man accused of a mass stabbing on a train.

0:44They include the stabbing of a 14-year-old boy in Peterborough on Friday evening. 32-year-old Anthony Williams has appeared in court charged with attempted murder. The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has paid tribute to a member of train staff who tackled the suspect. He put himself in harm's way, suffered grievous injuries as a result and remains in hospital today in a critical but stable condition. On Saturday, he went to work to do his job. Today, he is a hero and forever will be. Nigel Farage has reset Reform UK's economic policy. He's gone back on a manifesto pledge to cut£90 billion in taxes.

1:27He also reckons there could be a general election in 2027. My own view is that in two budgets' time, the markets will actually force the Chancellor into what will be a genuine austerity budget, at which point the left in the Labour Party won't buy it. And it's why I still stand by my prediction that there will be a general election caused by economic collapse that will happen in 2027. A train which derailed in Cumbria this morning is thought to have hit a landslide. No one's been seriously hurt after the front carriage of the Avanti West Coast Glasgow to London service came off the tracks near Shapp.

2:07Tony Miles, who writes for Modern Railways magazine, has told Times Radio he thinks a landslide is a plausible scenario. The driver certainly would have felt the way that the front leapt up as it hit it probably and came off the rails. So using their experience, first of all, they would have known that they'd hit something on the track. and I'm certain that if it was a landslide it will still be there behind the train probably a quarter of a mile back and they'll have seen where the train ploughed through it so there'll be some quite obvious evidence there for them to examine. And a 150 year old bottle of beer is going to be opened and used to brew a new concoction.

2:44Allsop's Arctic Ale, brewed in 1875, was formulated to 45 Victorian explorers against the chill of the Arctic. It's 9 % ABV. Dougal Gunn Sharp, master brewer at Innocent Gunn, bought a bottle for just over£3 ,000 more than a decade ago. He's told Times Radio he expects the flavour of the original to be deep and complex. I haven't personally tasted it yet. I'm really looking forward to trying it. But you can see online where people have opened and tried bottles in the past and apparently it tastes like a strong sherry or a Madeira. I guess that's what happens if you age a beer for 150 years. And you can follow The Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio online.

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