What Can The Government Actually Afford?

Can the government afford everything it wants to do? Adam is joined by BBC economics editor Faisal Islam and BBC health editor Hugh Pym to discuss the news that resident doctors, who used to be called junior doctors, have announced strike dates for later this summer. The government says it won’t reopen negotiations with the British Medical Association, which represents resident doctors. Plus, the chair of the inquiry into the infected blood scandal says that victims have been harmed by delays to the compensation scheme. The government announced £11.8 billion pounds to fund compensation at the autumn budget, but the inquiry’s chair, Sir Brian Langstaff says there are “obvious injustices” in the way the compensation scheme has been set out. You can now listen to Newscast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Newscast”. It works on most smart speakers. You can join our Newscast online community here: https://tinyurl.com/newscastcommunityhere Get in touch with Newscast by emailing newscast@bbc.co.uk or send us a WhatsApp on +44 0330 123 9480. New episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bit.ly/3ENLcS1 Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. It was presented by Adam Fleming. It was made by Chris Flynn with Shiler Mahmoudi and Anna Harris. The technical producer was Michael Regaard. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.