Today, we look at a major intervention into the debate on the assisted dying bill from former Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Writing in the Guardian, Brown says the death of his first daughter Jennifer aged only 11 days strengthened his belief that "this is not the right time to make such a profound decision". Laura and Paddy discuss whether this could impact how MPs vote, as well as looking at new polling into how the public feel about the legislation. Plus, the French Foreign Minister has spoken exclusively to Laura about the war in Ukraine, and suggests that they will allow their long-range missiles to be fired into Russia. 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 Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. It was presented by Laura Kuenssberg and Paddy O’Connell. It was made by Jack Maclaren with Adam Chowdhury. The technical producer was Jonny Hall. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The editor is Sam Bonham.
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Now, Paddy, now you've finished adjusting your quiff, we can talk about the serious business of the week.
People might remember last weekend we, shall I say, joshed about whether or not there was a Minister for spoons.
We did, however, discover that there is a Minister for Spoons.
Yes.
Sarah Jones, and she was a good enough sport to talk to.
Newscast about this as if you were paying attention.
Newscasters, you'll have learned earlier in the week, however, what is the most unusual thing there's a minister for, we wonder.
Yes, well, because I use it as a sort of soubriquet for, you know, mid bulletin issues.
Yes.
Minister for Spoons says there aren't enough spoons.
Yes.
You know, then we do an interview on the radio about it in which we normally say, I'm sorry, we haven't got enough time, we can't go on, we have to stop you there, Minister going, but I just want to make it clear that there aren't enough spoons.
And you go, no, sorry, you have to leave it there.
So my equivalent soubriquet would normally be the Minister for paperclips.
And every week I think, oh, no, are we only going to get the Minister for paperclips instead of the Foreign Secretary or the Defence Secretary or the Prime Minister?
But I don't know if there is a Minister for paperclips.
But also it gets back.
We were sort of talking about this a bit with Louise Haig.
It's not a bad thing to be a minister with a point of view or an interest in anything.