BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts.

Hello, you can now contact Newscast through your smart speaker if you have one.

You just say, ask BBC Sounds to send a comment to Newscast.

I know I had experience of this last week when I was presenting Five Live,

and the downside of this amazing technological innovation is the messages tend not to have very much punctuation.

So you're not quite sure how to read them when you first see them on the screen.

So I don't know if you can fix that by saying, ask newscast, comma, how do they feel about inserts, question, question mark?

I guess it's up to you to find out.

Anyway, let's find out what's been happening in the world of news on this latest episode of News.

Newscast from the BBC.

Fat boy sliver me in the classroom doing our violin lessons.

I was the tattle tail in the class.

Can I have an apology, please? I trust almost nobody. Then daddy has to sometimes do strong language. Next time in Moscow. I feel delulu with no salulu. Take me down to Downey Street. Let's go have a tour. Blimey. Hello, it's Adam in the newscast studio. And it's Darshini in the Newscast Studio. And it is Chris at Westminster.

And here we are talking about the budget again. But we're not talking about what taxes are going up when or what public spending is increasing. We're all talking about who knew what in the Treasury when, about how the public finances were looking. And then just as we were getting ready to record this episode of newscast at Tea Time on Monday, we got the news that the head of the Office of Budget Responsibility, the watchdog at the centre of a lot of this, Richard Hughes, is resigning. This is because people could get access to their take on the budget, which is meant to be released after Rachel Reeves spoke in the House of Commons.

It was available on their website before.

So, Chris, which one would you like to start with first?

Well, I reckon for newscasters, we should start with the resignation, because that's come most recently, hasn't it, in what, in the last couple of hours, as we record it, 20 to 7 on Monday evening.

So I reckon go with that, which is very much Darshini's wheelhouse rather than mine. But I reckon we go with that first. Darsini, take it away. Well, this is fascinating, isn't it? This is Richard Hughes, who has been in post many years, you know. Five years. Five years, thank you very much. just has time renewed the summer as well

so looking forward to another stretch

but he has resigned over what effectively

isn't Five years. Five years, thank you very much. Just has time renewed the summer as well. So looking forward to another stretch.

But he has resigned over what effectively is an issue of operational resilience rather than being one about his fiscal judgment.

...