well this plan for the self-employed is
probably a bit more generous than some
people had been expecting the total cost
is thought to be about nine billion over
three months how many months of course
it has to roll out over is a moot point
nobody really knows the answer to that
now we know what the government is
planning to do for people affected by
the crisis I think you can see whose
worst off and it's the people who've
actually lost their jobs those people
are in the long online queue for
universal credit and those people who
have lost hours the other stuff that
happened today as you've been saying we
saw the police deploying powers on the
street stopping people checkpoints
effectively to ask people why they were
going about their business and and
should they actually be indoors and we
saw an attempt how much of one is a moot
point again at International Cooperation
the teleconference of the g20 they
resolved to do whatever it takes but it
is far from clear that they have
actually come to any hard commitments a
far cry from 2008 when the g20 played a
big role one other point on
International Cooperation
Britain was asked a while ago if it
would like to join the EU countries in
trying to procure ventilators and other
important kit for hospital staff and
Britain didn't join that there's been
some puzzlement about that some people
suggesting it was because of ideology
and today the government is saying no it
wasn't that it was just an email went
astray which is odd because the EU
announced this scheme in public it could
have had some very big impact on being
able to buy stuff if you've got 28
countries that's a very big purchaser
knocking around the system it could have
made the buying of things easier and we
have more than 100 officials sitting in
Brussels who just stare at the EU
watching what is what is going on there
so some puzzlement about that as we go
through come towards the end of the
third full day of the shutdown many of
Britain's five million self-employed
working the jobs most affected by the
kovat 19 shut down but they've been
waiting to hear how the government will
support them in this crisis it's been
very very difficult we had to close the
firm
because mainly because people don't want
you inside their house got no work
initially and no work to go on to which
is even more frightening many like
decorator Desmond cast desperately need
cash and today the government announced
what it's going to try to do to keep
these workers fed and their businesses
viable musicians and sound engineers
plumbers and electricians taxi drivers
and driving instructors hairdressers and
child minders and many others through no
fault of their own risk losing their
livelihoods to you I say this you have
not been forgotten we will not let you
behind we all stand together today I'm
announcing a new self-employed income
Support Scheme the government will pay
self-employed people who have been
adversely affected by the corona virus a
taxable grant worth eighty percent of
their average monthly profits over the
last three years up to two thousand five
hundred pounds a month this scheme will
be open to people across the UK for at
least three months and I will extend it
for longer if necessary the Chancellor
said the scheme might not be up and
running until June until then the
self-employed might have to join the
massive online queue the universal
credit the Chancellor signaled in return
for this support from the state the
self-employed might one day lose their
lower rate of national insurance but I
must be honest and point out that in
devising this scheme in response to many
calls for support it is now much harder
to justify the inconsistent
contributions between people of
different employment statuses this is a
very generous package for the
self-employed in many respects it's more
generous than for employees because they
can get up to 80 percent of 2500 pounds
a month even if they continue to earn
something this will cost a lot of money
and we don't know how much but maybe
something like 10 million pounds over
the net
three months I think it will not be so
good for those members maybe who haven't
done a full year's self-employed working
and it haven't brought a self attachment
for sending to the taxman but I think
most of the members will be quite
pleased that this support is there for
them and I'm sure that the threshold of
fifty thousand pounds will actually be
will cover the bulk of our members we
are all in this together thank you
this completes for now the emergency
economic plan the government pain wages
across the economy a world away from the
levers reached for in the last global
economic crisis of 2008 this isn't a
matter of stimulating the economy which
is languages that has been used on both
sides of the Atlantic it's to do with
preserving almost the very society and
the economy as we know it which is a
slightly melodramatic way of putting it
but I think is closer to the truth the
g20 world leaders met by video link at
midday committing themselves to a global
effort and a united response against the
virus the Ministry of Defence revealed
that president Putin's Navy has chosen
this moment of crisis to test British
resilience in English Channel and the
North Sea the Royal Navy sent nine
vessels to monitor seven Russian ships
sailing around British waters on land
the police were stopping cars in some
counties to check on whether those
out-and-about were breaching the ban on
non-essential travel it's not an
essential journey as of today police had
towers to issue on-the-spot 60-pound
fines they think they're necessary
as of today the police have enforcement
powers and those powers involve the
ability to level a fine and that fine
will increase if people do not comply do
not pay that fine on time and that'll be
based under the fixed penalty notice and
the regulations that are now coming into
place today billions were added today to
the economic cost of the shutdown how
much higher the bill goes will be
decided by the course of the pandemic
few here had heard of only three months
ago