While Wales football fans enjoy the hospitality of France for Euro 2016, one will be sleeping rough.

Anthony Jackel, of Port Talbot, also known as 'Betty', is a veteran of Wales campaigns.
The 70-year-old Swansea City fan has bought a train ticket which allows him to follow the team throughout the championships.
He said: "[This way] I can do what I want, I can go where I want".
Of course, the Foreign Office and the Football Supporters' Federation would heavily discourage his travel arrangements - and with good reason.
But he refuses to be put off.
He got the bus to London and the Eurotunnel to Paris before sleeping outside Paris' Gare du Nord station.
Mr Jackel then caught the train to Bordeaux, where I first met him outside the Grande Theatre on Friday. He was instantly conspicuous.
He had the look of a well-weathered man and he wore an equally travelled shirt emblazoned with the Welsh flag over his fleece.
It attracted fans who stopped in the street and shook his hand, complimenting it.
"The last two nights I've slept on the tramlines," he told me. "On one of the big benches. Lovely.
"They've got all the mod cons, a portable toilet where I can go to the toilet, wash my hands and brush my teeth, and I'm up then.
"I have an early morning call: the nightclub shuts at five o'clock [am] and they wake me up."
I asked Mr Jackel why he travelled in a way many people would think was very dangerous.
He said he would rather do it his way than be "herded" around on an organised tourist trip.
"I can do what I want, I can go where I want and I can go home when I want to, I'm not stressed out if I don't get back to my hotel.
"If I'm tired I just go on the first bench or the next place."
He told me he had "followed Swansea all over the world" and had watched Wales since 1962.
"Over the years we have been so near but [also] so far," he said.
The die-hard Swans fan said that, while there are often clashes between rival supporters back home, they had to remain "together" in France.
"We are Welsh out here, we're Welsh, I don't care a monkey's...while we're here we are showing people we can behave."
I asked how excited he was that Wales had made a major finals for the first time in 58 years and he said: "You should have seen my flag, it was too big to carry."
He said he had encouraged younger supporters to come out and support the team.
"I said: 'What if we did win it? What if we did a Leicester [who recently won the English Premier League]? What if we did a Greece [who won Euro 2004]?'"
Mr Jackel pulled a bag on wheels and when I asked him what he had inside I was surprised to find a collection of brand-new Wales soft toys, and trinkets which he said he handed out when people were "nice" to him.
He spoke about football trips to Romania, Spain and numerous other countries.
Mr Jackel said he would follow the team to wherever their tournament came to an end in France.
And while he had been upbeat about his outdoor accommodation, he was less certain about his plans for future tournaments if Wales qualify.
"This might be the last tournament I sleep outside. If I get to Russia [which will host the World Cup in 2018] I'm going to have a bed."


Cornish Pirates coach Gavin Cattle says the return of captain Chris Morgan from a injury is like having a new player.

The 35-year-old dislocated his shoulder in the opening minutes of the second game of last season, and has not played a competitive game since.
"It's like having a new signing," Cattle told BBC Radio Cornwall ahead of the opening Championship game of the season at Bedford.
"To bring somebody with his wealth of experience in is a big boost."
During his year on the sidelines, back-row Morgan has assisted the club's coaching team, which has been whittled down to just backs expert Cattle and forwards coach Alan Paver, after Ian Davies left the club because of financial constraints.
"He's had a massive input not just on the playing side of things over the years, he's also been a big asset to the coaching team as well," added Cattle.
"Myself and Paves played with him for a number of years and he holds knowledge in different areas that we don't.
"His input not just as a captain, but as a member of the coaching team you could say, has been very good this pre-season."


Russia's lower house of parliament, the Duma, has passed a law imposing heavy fines for providing information about homosexuality to people under 18.

The measure was passed unanimously and will become law when approved by the upper house and President Vladimir Putin, a virtual formality.
Gay rights campaigners clashed with anti-gay activists outside the Duma.
The lower house also passed a bill imposing up to three years in jail on those who offend religious believers.
The law comes in the wake of the imprisoning of members of the punk band Pussy Riot for performing an anti-Putin protest in an Orthodox cathedral in February 2012.
Two band members, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, are currently serving two-year jail terms.
The new law on "offending religious feelings of the faithful" will also take effect after approval by the upper house and the president.
Violence between rival protesters spread onto Moscow's central street on Tuesday, reports the BBC's Steve Rosenberg in the capital.
Gay rights campaigners were attacked and there were no police to stop the violence, says our correspondent. When one group ran into a shop to take refuge, their attackers waited and then ran in to find them.
Under the new law, private individuals promoting "homosexual behaviour among minors" face fines of up to 5,000 roubles (Â£100; $155) while officials risk paying 10 times that amount. Businesses and schools could be fined up to 500,000 roubles.
Homosexuality was decriminalised in Russia in 1993, but anti-gay sentiment is high.
A recent poll found that nearly half of Russians believe that the gay and lesbian community should not enjoy the same rights as other citizens.


A man has been charged with murder after the body of a woman was found at a house in Chippenham.

Wiltshire Police were called by paramedics to the property in Charter Road just after 06:30 BST on Saturday.
Officers said Christopher Collier, 52, had been charged with murdering 55-year-old Julie Collier. Both lived on Charter Road.
Mr Collier is due to appear before Swindon Magistrates' Court on Monday.


A County Donegal postman who is as famous for predicting the weather as he is for delivering mail, is hanging up his postbag after almost 50 years of service.

However Michael Gallagher certainly won't be giving up his amateur status as an enthusiastic weather forecaster.
Now that he is retiring from the day job, he is looking forward to even more time spent researching his favourite hobby.
Mr Gallagher, 67, first got the weather forecasting bug when he started delivering letters in 1967 on his second hand bicycle - which incidentally he bought for three pounds and seven shillings.
He picked up many tips and skills from the older generation of people he met on his rounds - people who don't depend on satellites and complicated charts to predict an impending storm.
A keen eye on nature and how animals are reacting to what's in the air, is the key to what's coming up weather-wise, Mr Gallagher said.
"Nature and animals are very knowledgeable, they know what's going to happen with the weather.
"They have an instinct which we as human beings don't have.
"When good weather is coming, sheep and cattle always go up to the higher ground.
"If the weather is about to change, they'll come back down to the lower ground," he added.
Michael grew up along with his brother, Dave, on a small farm in the town of Ardlaghan.
"Down the years the older generations were always there or there about right when it came to the weather, so I noted a lot of things from them, and then took it up myself," he said.
"I was always very interested in nature and a way of life that didn't depend on television and radio for a weather forecast."
Mr Gallagher explained that he kept his eyes out for weather signs while driving his post van.
"In springtime when the sheep are coming into lambing, if you see them running and jumping about, that's a sign of a very bad storm coming.
"Studying the movements of the cattle is a good guide," he said, with animals seeking shelter being a sign of poor weather on the way.
"The cattle heading for the byres, that's a very bad sign - the good sign is when you see them coming over the mountains and going out to graze on the mountains, the pastures, that's a good sign.
"And the stork, he's a reliable animal, because when he goes up the river and starts dipping and diving, that's a very bad sign."
But it's not just farm animals and wildlife that Mr Gallagher keeps an eye on.
"You have to watch the heather coming up, if it comes up a wee bit early that's bad, but this year it started to come up nicely, at the right time," he said.
"And if a new moon comes in on a Saturday or a Sunday, be very wary of that, the month's going to be very broken," he added.
Mr Gallagher said he thought his methods were more reliable than those of professional meteorologists.
"Those forecasts are the science and the research, but I prefer to stick to my own wee corner in Donegal," he said.


Luxury yacht builder Princess Yachts will cut 172 jobs following a large-scale restructuring of its headquarters in Plymouth.

The company, which has more than 2,000 staff, initially said 350 jobs would be cut, but that number has since been reduced.
Bosses said the firm would help affected staff find other employment.
Union Unite said it was a "very bad day" and it was working to "reduce the number of compulsory job losses".
Dave Springbett, from Unite, said: "The fact the union and management together have managed to protect the number of compulsory redundancies by a big margin is good news, but that shouldn't take away from the drastic effect it's going to have on some workers."
In a statement, the firm said: "For those staff members who are affected by this process, the company is to establish an out-placement service designed to assist in securing future employment.
"Princess Yachts is now looking ahead to a successful and prosperous 2016."
The firm marked 50 years in business last year.


About 30,000 workstation computers are back online at Saudi Aramco after a virus hit the world's largest oil producer.

Remote access was still restricted "as a precaution" the group said.
Oil production was not affected by the virus which struck on 15 August, Saudi Aramco added.
The company took its website offline after the attack and now carries a message on its front page apologising for any inconvenience.
"We have isolated all our electronic systems from outside access as an early precautionary measure that was taken following a sudden disruption which affected some sectors of our network," the message reads.
Most of the damage has now been repaired, it added.
A group named the Cutting Sword of Justice has claimed responsibility for the attack in an online forum.
It blamed the Saudi government for "crimes and atrocities" in several countries. It said the state-run oil firm was hit because it was a key source of income for the government.
"This was not the first nor will it be the last illegal attempt to intrude into our systems," said Khalid al-Falih, president and chief executive of Saudi Aramco.
Last week a virus called Shamoon, which targeted companies in the energy industry, was reported by security experts. Saudi Aramco has not said whether this was the malware involved.


The anniversary of the end of a strike by women who wanted to earn a fair wage is being marked.

In 1910, women chainmakers in Cradley Heath, West Midlands, went on a strike which lasted for 10 weeks, and ended on 22 October.
The action has been credited with changing the lives of thousands of workers earning poor wages.
The anniversary is being marked with events including a procession through the town to unveil a memorial plaque.
The plaque, in honour of strike leader Mary Macarthur, will be unveiled at the Mary Macarthur Memorial Gardens.


Buskers in Truro are being asked to follow new guidelines following complaints about noise.

Advice has been given to only play in the same place for an hour at a time - or half an hour when playing a noisy instrument, like the bagpipes or drums.
Buskers are also asked to vary the songs and conduct soundchecks to make sure they are not too loud.
Cornwall Council said the guide aims to help businesses, shoppers and buskers maintain a "happy relationship".
The council said that while it does not license street performers, it does have a "duty" to ensure street performers comply with laws around sound levels and obstruction.
"We have received complaints about street performers, particularly when the weather is good," said Kevin Bryant, from the council's environmental health team.
"There are many businesses and offices close to the popular busking spots and this guide aims to lessen the impact on them without stopping the performers and denying visitors the enjoyment, variety and flair that street performers bring to the city."
The Street Performers Guide recommends that buskers make sure their music cannot be heard more than 20m (65ft) away.
It also says they should not be a nuisance to the public by asking for money, although donations are acceptable.
Devon and Cornwall Police said the guidelines should help cut the number of complaints.
Insp Mark Richards, from Truro Police Station, said: "Buskers in the city can add a certain character and ambience to the area but the police and council do get occasional complaints sometimes when buskers are excessively noisy or overly aggressive when collecting donations."
The booklet has been produced by Cornwall Council with Truro City Council, Totally Truro and Devon and Cornwall Police.


Police have been granted extra time to question a suspect after a woman was found dead found in the West Midlands.

The 24-year-old man was arrested in Walsall on Thursday on suspicion of murder.
Walsall Magistrates' Court granted the extension on Saturday to allow police to question the suspect for a further 36 hours.
The women was found at a property on Highgate Road, Brierley Hill, on 4 May. The cause of death is not yet clear.
A post-mortem examination was carried out on Saturday, but police said it was "inconclusive" and further tests will be carried out.
Det Insp Caroline Corfield, of West Midlands Police, said: "Efforts to inform the family and formally identify the woman are currently on-going and we are not in a position to release any further details at this stage.
"I urge anyone with information which they believe could help our inquiry to get in touch."


Birdwatchers were stunned when an rare black flamingo was spotted on the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea.

The bird was spotted on Wednesday feeding with a group of the more normal pink-coloured flamingos.
Experts believe that a genetic irregularity means the bird's body produces more of a pigment, called melanin.
It's melanin that normally gives a flamingo's feathers their usual pink colour. But too much melanin could produce this dark black colour.
Bird enthusiasts say that while black flamingos are found in other parts of the world, it's extremely rare to see them in the Mediterranean Sea, and this may be only the second time one's ever been seen in this area.


Alex Salmond said the Scottish lion had "roared", after he won the Gordon seat for the SNP in the general election.

The former party leader's victory came as the SNP won all six seats in the north east of Scotland.
Callum McCaig won Aberdeen South from Labour, and Kirsty Blackman did likewise in Aberdeen North.
Stuart Donaldson won West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, Angus Robertson held Moray, and Eilidh Whiteford was re-elected in Banff and Buchan.
However, Alistair Carmichael retained Orkney and Shetland for the Liberal Democrats.
Mr Salmond, speaking after defeating the Liberal Democrats in Gordon, said: "The Scottish lion has roared this morning across the country.
"There is a swing under way in Scotland the like of which has not been seen in recorded politics.
"I look forward to representing every constituent, regardless of their political views."
Mr Salmond claimed a 47.7% share of the vote, over Christine Jardine on 32.7%, as the SNP saw a 25.5% increase.
Mr McCaig's win, with a 29.8% increase, saw Anne Begg lose her seat. He said he was "honoured and thrilled".
Ms Blackman's win was on the back of a 34.2% increase to defeat Richard Baker.
Mr Donaldson's West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine victory came after a 25.9% share increase. Lib Dem Sir Robert Smith, who lost the seat, was pushed into third behind Conservative Alexander Burnett after a 17% fall.
Mr Robertson increased his majority for a 49.5% share, as did Ms Whiteford, with a 19% vote increase and a 60.25% share.
Mr Carmichael's victory came after a 20.6% fall in his share of the vote.
He thanked the people of Orkney and Shetland for giving him the "tremendous privilege" of serving them again.


The UKIP leader Nigel Farage has claimed the forthcoming Rochester and Strood by-election is "the most important for more than 30 years".

He visited the constituency to meet the incumbent MP Mark Reckless, who left the Conservatives for UKIP last month.
Mr Farage said if his party wins the seat on 20 November, UKIP would be in a "very different place", as it ranks the seat as its "271st most winnable".
David Cameron has pledged to "negotiate a better deal for the UK in Europe".
The prime minister visited the Kent constituency on Thursday where he told audiences he was the only person who could deliver an in/out referendum.
Mr Farage said: "This is a very serious, important by-election. I think it's the most important in British politics in over 30 years.
"The result of this matters a lot and that's why the prime minister was saying things yesterday we haven't heard him say in the nine years he has led the Conservative Party."
If Mr Reckless wins it will be UKIP's second by-election victory following fellow Tory defector Douglas Carswell's recent success in Clacton, Essex.
He became the first UKIP candidate to be elected to Parliament.
Nigel Farage is becoming a very familiar face on the streets of Rochester and Strood.
He has made several visits here already to support the former Conservative MP Mark Reckless, whose defection to UKIP triggered this by-election.
He believes if UKIP can win here - number 271 on their list of most winnable seats - the Tories will be seriously concerned about the challenge UKIP poses in next year's general election.
Yesterday, David Cameron made his first of several visits - he is expected to come four more times before polling day and expects his cabinet colleagues to do the same.
Earlier in the week, Labour's shadow equalities minister Gloria de Piero lent her support to the party's candidate. So far no big hitting Liberal Democrats have taken to the campaign trail here and the party looks likely to be punished at the polls - perhaps losing their deposit again.
Mr Farage said the by-election was the most crucial since Roy Jenkins was elected for the Social Democratic Party in Glasgow Hillhead in 1982.
The Conservatives said they are holding an open primary to select a candidate for the by-election.
The full list of candidates announced so far can be found here.


A critically endangered male Sumatran rhino born in a US zoo has been flown to Indonesia to mate, as part of efforts to save his species.

Eight-year-old Harapan, born in Cincinnati, was the last Sumatran rhino in the Western hemisphere.
Conservationists hope he will mate with females in a rhino sanctuary.
The Sumatran rhino has been threatened by rampant deforestation and poaching. Researchers believe there are fewer than 100 left in the wild.
Harapan, whose name means hope, travelled more than 16,000km (9,941 miles) over land, air and sea to reach the Sumatran Rhino Sanctuary at the Way Kambas National Park.
His sister, Suci, also lived with him in Cincinnati Zoo but died from an illness last year.
Harapan's trip marked the end of a programme by his zoo to breed rhinos in captivity.
Sumatrans are the smallest of the rhino species and the only Asian rhino with two horns. They are prized by poachers as their horns are used in traditional Chinese medicine.
The rhinos natural habitat in the forest of Sumatra is being devastated illegal logging and forest fires by farmers clearing land for palm oil and pulp plantations.


The actions police took during a three-day armed stand-off with a man thought to have stockpiled petrol in his home are to be reviewed.

Officers forced entry to the house in Wood End Lane, Northolt, on Sunday night after negotiations failed.
A 46-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of explosives offences, cultivation of cannabis and affray.
About 80 people had to be evacuated from their homes for the duration of the siege.
The property was searched before neighbours were allowed to start returning, and police said officers were continuing to examine the property.
BBC London reporter Emilia Papadopoulos, who is at the scene, said residents were happy to be allowed home, with one man called Abdul saying he was relieved as he had left without his bank cards.
She added three of the arrested man's four Rottweilers had been confirmed safe, and that the final one had escaped during the raid but had turned up the following morning.
The Met's borough commander for Ealing, Ch Supt Paul Martin, said although overall he was satisfied with how the operation was conducted, the review would look at how officers responded to information they received and how they worked with others including the council and fire brigade.
"The key focus will be to make sure that we did everything to minimise the impact on the local community and to make sure that safety was paramount in our thinking," he said.


The son of Senegal's ex-President Abdoulaye Wade has been freed from prison after receiving a presidential pardon, the government has said.

Karim Wade served three years of a six-year sentence for illegally enriching himself during his father's rule.
He left Senegal immediately after his release for Qatar, a justice ministry spokesman said.
Karim Wade was charged with corruption after President Macky Sall took power in elections in 2012.
He defeated Abdoulaye Wade and pledged to tackle corruption.
Karim Wade was also fined $230m (Â£150m) for illegally accumulating a fortune of at least $200m.
He had hidden away funds in offshore companies in the British Virgin Islands and Panama, a court ruled.
The payment of the fine was not covered by the pardon, Mr Sall's office said in a statement.
The BBC's Maud Jullien reports from the capital, Dakar, that Mr Sall freed Karim Wade following pressure from influential religious leaders who felt the move would enhance national unity in the West African state.
The opposition Senegalese Democratic Party chose Karim Wade as its presidential candidate for the 2019 polls while he was in prison.
It is unclear whether he is still eligible to run for the presidency.
Karim Wade was a senior minister in his father's government, and was in charge of major infrastructure and energy projects.
His large portfolio led to him being dubbed "the minister of the earth and the sky".


Comedian Sandi Toksvig is to leave BBC Radio 4's comedy show The News Quiz after nine years and 28 series.

The 56-year-old will step down at the end of the upcoming series, which begins on Friday 15 May.
"I have decided it is time to move on and, of course, I feel sad but I think it's the right moment," said the host.
"The show is in great shape and, like a good house guest, you should always depart when people still wish you'd stay a bit longer."
Toksvig first appeared on the programme as a panellist in 1992, when the programme was chaired by Barry Took.
She took over at the helm in 2006, since when she has presided over more than 220 episodes.
In some recent editions, however, the Danish-British comedian was replaced by stand-ins Susan Calman and Jeremy Hardy.
A BBC press release said Toksvig had made the "difficult decision" to leave in order "to embark on a new and exciting stage of her career".
The News Quiz was created by producer John Lloyd in 1977 - before he went on to work on the likes of Blackadder, Not The Nine O'Clock News and QI.
Barry Norman was the first chairman, with Private Eye editor Richard Ingrams and Punch editor Alan Coren as team captains.
It is frequently among the requested radio programmes on BBC iPlayer; while a podcast edition, which alternates between The Now Show and The News Quiz, depending on which is currently on the air, has been downloaded 116 million times globally since its launch in September 2007.
Toksvig, who was made an OBE in the 2014 New Year's Honours, asked the Prince of Wales to appear on the show as he presented her with her medal.
After the investiture, she said: "I have spent too long making jokes to think that anybody would think that is worth rewarding - so I was honestly completely overwhelmed."
Gwyneth Williams, controller of BBC Radio 4, called her one of the station's "most talented and respected presenters".
"She will be hugely missed from The News Quiz and I want to thank her for her contribution over so many years. She brought her own inimitable wit, humanity and intelligence to The News Quiz - and above all that irresistible laugh."
A new host will be announced later this year.


Confidence within Scottish construction has fallen to its lowest level for three years following the outcome of the EU referendum, a survey has found.

The Scottish Building Federation's latest quarterly construction monitor saw confidence fall 22 points to -19.
It was the first negative overall confidence rating by employers since the second quarter of 2013.
SBF said employers were unsettled by the economic volatility seen following last week's vote to leave the EU.
There was also concern that investment decisions could be postponed indefinitely.
The federation's survey responses were collected during June, with firms being given the opportunity to update their confidence rating following the EU vote.
SBF managing director Vaughan Hart said: "The results of our latest quarterly survey reflect much of the informal feedback I have received from individual members.
"Construction employers are unsettled by the economic volatility we have witnessed following the vote to leave the European Union last week.
"General uncertainty about the economic outlook has prompted concern that investment decisions could be postponed indefinitely.
"The potential impact on interest rates also risks provoking a sustained slowdown of activity across different sectors of the property market."
He added: "If the current economic volatility is sustained over a longer period of time, the UK Treasury may be forced to take evasive action come the time of the autumn statement with a knock-on impact on the Scottish government's budget and on local government funding.
"There is also a more general concern that the process of negotiating the UK's withdrawal from the European Union could result in paralysis within government that means important priorities such as the delivery of more housing, the development of skills, training and apprenticeships and critical improvements to the country's infrastructure risk being sidelined."


Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd (CMAL) has said it has overall control of a new ferry for the Ullapool-Stornoway route.

The company, which owns ferries and port facilities in Scotland, commissioned a Germany yard to build the Â£41.8m MV Loch Seaforth.
There were concerns last week that the sale of the yard could affect the handover of the vessel to CMAL.
The ferry is expected to arrive in Scotland "within weeks".
Caledonian MacBrayne will operate the ferry on the Ullapool-Stornoway route.
Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft (FSG) is nearing the completion of the MV Loch Seaforth, which has already been delayed in coming into service.
A Norwegian company is in the process of taking over the yard.
In a statement, CMAL said: "Following negotiations in Germany last week, CMAL now has overall control of the MV Loch Seaforth and she will not be impacted by negotiations over the future acquisition of FSG.
"Work continues in the yard on final fitting out and preparation of systems for handover to Calmac Ferries.
"The ship will be sailing to Scotland in the next few weeks."


Flood disruption to transport, power supplies and schools has continued, as it was revealed 2012 has had the UK's wettest recorded April-June quarter.

The West Coast mainline between England and Scotland was closed for a second time, and thousands in north-east England have no power.
The Midlands, Scotland and Northern Ireland were deluged on Thursday, and a man died in a swollen stream.
Even without the latest storms, this is the second wettest June since 1910.
Up to 27 June, total UK rainfall was 130.1mm - just 6mm short of the 2007 record.
It is already the wettest June on record for Wales, with 186.3mm of rain this month, compared with the previous record of 183.1mm set in 1998.
The BBC Weather centre confirmed it has been the wettest April to June in the UK since 1910.
Polly Chancellor, the Environment Agency's national drought co-ordinator, said it meant that river and reservoir levels across England and Wales are now normal or above for the time of year.
As a result of Thursday's torrential rain, all East Coast rail services were suspended between Newcastle and Edinburgh from Thursday evening until about midday on Friday after 40 tonnes of earth fell onto the line.
Network Rail had said the section of track was unlikely to reopen before Saturday morning, but an hourly service has now resumed. A near-normal service is expected to operate between London and Leeds, and London and Newcastle.
Hundreds of engineers will be working throughout the weekend to repair areas of the track beds which were been torn away by floods at Haltwhistle on the Newcastle to Carlisle route and Scremerston on the East Coast Main Line (ECML) between Newcastle and Berwick.
The West Coast mainline between Scotland and England, which was closed in both directions because of damage to overhead power lines between Lockerbie and Carstairs, is moving again - but delays are still expected.
Services on the line were also suspended for several hours on Thursday night, with one journey for London to Glasgow passengers taking 15 hours.
First TransPennine Express and Virgin Trains are running their scheduled West Coast services on Friday, but long queues have been reported at Glasgow Central Station.
In County Durham, a number of landslips on roads mean temporary traffic control measures are in place, but by the end of the day all routes should be passable with care.
Elsewhere:
Laura Gilchrist, a BBC weather centre forecaster, said most of the areas worst hit by wet weather on Thursday were unlikely to be badly affected on Friday.
But she said heavy rain was likely in the north-west Highlands, which could cause disruption there.
On Thursday, North Tyneside Council said it had received more than 200 reports of flood-related incidents and flooding had prompted the evacuation of homes and the closure of at least eight schools.
A spokesman for Nexus, which operates the Tyne and Wear Metro, said a 100-metre stretch of wall fell onto one part of the track on Thursday evening.
"At one stage we had our workers clearing debris with their bare hands - they made astonishing progress," he added.
Power company Northern Powergrid struggled to help customers cut off from supplies.
Spokesman Roderick Stuart said: "The problem last night was that many of our substations quite literally got flooded. The rain was so torrential, the sheer amount of water was just flooding our equipment.
"And it was getting engineers to that equipment to fix it that was the initial problem. Also the roads around Tyne and Wear were completely gridlocked and our engineers were in the thick of it, they just couldn't get to the places affected."
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The flooding began with downpours in Northern Ireland on Wednesday night where many roads became impassable and about 1,000 homes were left without power.
An inch of rain (25mm) then fell in parts of Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Birmingham and the Black Country, in just two hours on Thursday.
There were also reports of hailstones the size of golf balls falling in the East Midlands.
And some Olympic torch bearers taking part in the relay from Lincoln to Nottingham were transported in vehicles because of lightning.
Despite the recent wet weather, four water companies, Sutton and East Surrey Water, South East Water, Veolia Water Central and Veolia Water South East still have hosepipe bans in place - they rely heavily on groundwater from chalk aquifers for customer supplies,
Elsewhere, levels at all but three reservoirs are classed as normal or higher for this time of year, while groundwater levels are largely improving after two dry winters in a row left much of England in drought conditions.


A red squirrel who got stuck halfway through a manhole cover thanks to his curvy hips is recovering after a lengthy rescue operation in Munich.

Initial attempts to free the animal by slathering him in olive oil failed, with his huge behind preventing him from squeezing his way out.
He was finally freed after animal rescue services lifted off the cover and eased his head through the hole.
Locals have nicknamed the squirrel "Olivio" after his oily encounter.
After the ordeal on Friday, an exhausted Olivio was wrapped in a warm towel and fed glucose, local media report.
Man rescued from inside public toilet
Squirrel causes major power cut
Staff at a local animal shelter say Olivio is recovering well and has now moved on to a diet of Christmas nuts.
"He was almost dead," Sabine Gallenberger from the Squirrel Protection Association told German media.
"Now he is eating a lot and sleeps all the time."
The BBC was unable to verify the size of Olivio's behind.


Lawrence Dallaglio has warned against picking Ben Morgan and Owen Farrell for England's opening Six Nations match.

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Interim coach Stuart Lancaster is expected to name Scarlets number eight Morgan and Saracens midfielder Farrell in his elite squad on Wednesday.
Asked if Morgan should be in the XV, Dallaglio told BBC Sport: "No, you need some experience in the squad first.
"The lad needs to experience the culture and the environment."
Leadership is really, really important. The more leaders we can get in the squad the better, the likes of Chris Robshaw, Dylan Hartley, Tom Wood
Bristol-born Morgan, 22, has opted to play for his native country rather than Wales, where he has just qualified on the three-year residency rule.
Farrell, 20, has already been mooted as the long-term answer for England at number 10, even though he has spent most of the season playing at centre outside Charlie Hodgson for Saracens.
"Owen Farrell is playing well and England have got some interesting selections at 10," former England captain Dallaglio commented.
"Jonny Wilkinson has retired, Toby Flood looks like he might be injured. Do you think putting Owen Farrell in against Scotland away [in their opening match on 4 February] is a fair baptism? I think Stuart Lancaster might look to the likes of Charlie Hodgson.
"I'd certainly have Farrell in the squad, he is definitely an England number 10 or 12 of the future. I remember Jonny Wilkinson coming into the England team and he made his debut on the wing at home, he didn't make his debut at 10 away from home."
Saracens' 20-year-old Owen Farrell is the talk of the town and sure to be included; he might start at centre if England want a 'second five-eighth' in midfield. Does Lancaster now give Farrell his head at 10? Or turn to his Saracens team-mate Charlie Hodgson, whose distribution skills are still top notch even if his Test career stalled because of defensive concerns.
Who should be in England's elite squad?
Asked who should captain the team in the Six Nations, Dallaglio said: "Leadership is really, really important. The more leaders we can get in the squad the better, the likes of Chris Robshaw, Dylan Hartley, Tom Wood.
"I'm not going to put my neck on the line, it comes down to having a number of different leaders. At the moment it looks like Robshaw and Wood might fit the bill, it's heavily intimated the captaincy is likely to come from one of those two."
Dallaglio, speaking in his role as an ambassador for the 2015 World Cup, added: "England have got a wonderful challenge on their hands.
"We were clearly very disappointed both on the field and off the field throughout the World Cup [in New Zealand in 2011] and it's a chance for us to really turn things around, get the confidence back in the public and people believing in the England team.
4 February v Scotland (away)
11 February v Italy (away)
25 February v Wales (home)
11 March v France (away)
17 March v Ireland (home)
"It won't happen overnight but England have got a great chance to build. We'd like to be a lot further ahead in terms of development but perceptions can change very quickly. Careers can be born and made.
"Of course England can win the World Cup, they've got a great chance but we've got to take it one step at a time and reconnect with the fans. In order to win the next World Cup we've got to find some new stars, some Jonny Wilkinsons of 2015 who are really going to take England forward."


Russian hackers are targeting the campaign of French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron, say security experts.

Phishing emails, malware and fake net domains were all being used as attack techniques, said Feike Hacquebord, from security company Trend Micro.
The attackers are believed to be part of the same group that targeted the US election.
Russia has denied that it is behind attacks aimed at Mr Macron.
In a report, Mr Hacquebord said the group behind the "aggressive" attacks was a collective of Russian hackers known widely as Fancy Bear, APT28 and Pawn Storm.
He said the group was using an extensive arsenal of high-tech con tricks to grab the login names, passwords and other credentials of staff aiding Mr Macron's bid to be the next French president.
Mr Macron got through the first round of the presidential election as did Marine Le Pen.
In particular, said Mr Hacquebord, the hacker group had registered several net domains similar to those already registered by the French politician's staff.
The fake domains were then used in phishing emails sent to key workers in an attempt to get them to visit the websites so login details could be scooped up.
The hackers were also abusing a system called OAuth that let people log into one service using the credentials they use for another.
Mr Hacquebord said telltale techniques of the group lent weight to the idea that the people involved in the French attacks were behind ones seen last year in the US.
"We have seen that phishing sites were set up, and the fingerprints were really the same actors as in the Democratic National Congress breach," he told the Reuters news agency.
A spokesman for the French national cyber-security agency, ANSSI, confirmed that it too had seen several attacks on Mr Macron's staff and back-office systems.
However, a spokesman for the agency said it was difficult to be sure that the Pawn Storm group was behind the attacks.
A spokesman for the Macron campaign said it knew about the range of attacks aimed at it and none had led to the release of sensitive data.
"These are usual cyber-attack tactics," Mounir Mahjoubi told CNN.
"We have set up a security team and every member of the staff is trained to report these attempts."
A security researcher called The Grugq, who is known as an expert on operational security, said Mr Macron's campaign was an easier target than some because of its reliance on the Telegram app for messaging.
"Its security is not particularly strong compared with alternatives, and the defaults guide users towards insecure practices," he wrote.
The Pawn Storm group is also believed to have been involved in other attacks on political organisations, including the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, the Turkish government and Montenegro's parliament, as well as the World Anti-Doping Agency and Arabic television channel al-Jazeera.


An archive of historical images of Ipswich docks, including one of the oldest photographs of the town, is being put online.

One of the photos dates from 1846 and is part of a collection compiled by the Ipswich Maritime Trust (IMT).
Stuart Grimwade, director of the IMT, said: "The wet docks were completed in 1842, which coincides with the birth of photography in the late 1830s.
"Ipswich is extremely fortunate to be on of some of the earliest photos."
A photograph of the Old Custom House was taken by local chemist and pioneering photographer John Wiggin.
It can be dated to 1846 because the clock had not yet been added to the clock tower.
Mr Grimwade said: "The Fox-Talbot National Museum of Photography in Wiltshire confirm it is the oldest photograph from a wax-paper negative to survive as well as being the one of the oldest photographs of Suffolk."
The archive project began in 2000 and has involved digitising postcards and printed photos.
Some of the photos will feature on hoardings around the waterfront area as part of the PhotoEast festival, while Mr Grimwade is giving a talk on the subject on Saturday morning at University Campus Suffolk.
"It's a fascinating archive and the trust's aim is to go on collecting as many images we can find and the online archive will help people see what we've already got," he said.


One of the key voting patterns in the EU referendum was that younger people were keener than older people on remaining in the EU.

At the same time, however, one of the persistent features of voting in any contest is that younger people are less likely to go to the polls.
Consequently, one of the key challenges facing the Remain campaign was whether it could persuade young people to turn out to vote.
There have been divergent claims about how successful they were.
Much attention was attracted by a tweet from Sky Data that seemingly implied that only 36% of 18-24 year olds had turned out to vote.
In practice, it seems the figure referred to people's likelihood of voting rather than whether they had actually voted.
In contrast, Prof Michael Bruter and Dr. Sara Harrison of the London School of Economics have suggested that as many as 70% of 18-24 year olds might have voted, only slightly below the official figure of 72% for all voters.
In truth, reliable information on the level of turnout among particular groups of voters is currently not available.
True, five polls that asked people whether they voted on 23 June have been conducted.
However, opinion polls struggle to secure the participation of people who do not vote. Unsurprisingly, the reaction of many non-voters to a request to answer a poll about politics is to say: "Thanks, but I am not interested."
In four of the five polls, on average only 11% of respondents said that they had not voted, well below the official figure of 28% (though even that figure is not 100% reliable, as some people were not registered to vote, while others may have died or be registered at more than one address).
In the fifth case the polling company in question, BMG Research, weighted their data to match the official figure.
In practice, much like the other polls, only 12% of their original sample had not made it to the polling station either.
If the polls are underestimating the overall level of abstention among voters as a whole, they will also be at risk of underestimating the differences in the level of abstention between those in different age groups.
That certainly seemed to be one of the lessons of the difficulty that the polls had in anticipating accurately the outcome of last year's general election.
However, one point does seem to be clear about turnout in the referendum. Younger voters were, once again, less likely than older voters to cast a vote.
All of the post-referendum polls find the same pattern. The older a respondent, the less likely they were to say that they did not vote.
The four polls that did not weight their data to the actual level of turnout report on average that 16% of 18-34 year olds abstained, well above the 11% figure for respondents as a whole.
Meanwhile, after weighting their data to the official result, BMG estimate that those aged 18-34 were twice as likely to abstain (40%) as those aged over 65 (20%).
A more difficult question to answer is whether young voters were more likely or less likely to have abstained in the referendum than they were in last year's general election?
To address that issue we need to compare the reported levels of abstention in polls conducted since the referendum with those in polls undertaken in the same way by the same company immediately after the general election.
Whatever the limitations of a particular poll in estimating turnout, those limitations are likely to be similar on the two occasions.
That comparison is possible for just one poll. Survation's post-referendum poll, conducted online for the Mail on Sunday, can be compared with a poll that the company undertook (also online) immediately after last year's general election.
Sources:  Survation 8-9/5/15 & 24-25/6/16
As the table shows, the differences in the pattern of abstention this year look very similar to those of last year; statistically, they are certainly too small for us to rule out the proposition that the difference between younger and older voters in their level of turnout was much the same in the referendum as in last year's general election.
When might we get more reliable information on who voted?
The best (though by no means perfect) evidence comes from academic surveys that are conducted face-to-face over a long-period of time with respondents who have been chosen for interview at random.
Such surveys are more successful in making contact with those who have little interest in politics, especially if the survey is not all about politics.
One such survey is the annual British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey conducted by NatCen Social Research.
When it asked its respondents after last year's general election whether or not they voted, the proportion saying they did so (70%) was not far adrift from the official turnout figure (66%).
However, it will be several months before the interviewing for this year's BSA is completed and the results made available.
In the meantime, the best advice is to examine critically any claims that young people were particularly likely or unlikely to have voted this time around.


The Holocaust survivor and Nobel peace laureate Elie Wiesel has died aged 87.

He died in the US, where he lived and had been a citizen since the 1960s.
He became famous after writing about his experiences as a teenager in Nazi concentration camps, where he lost his mother, father and younger sister.
He dedicated his life to ensuring the atrocities committed under the Nazis were never forgotten, and the president of the World Jewish Congress has called him "a beacon of light".
Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust remembrance centre announced his death on Saturday.
US President Barack Obama said Mr Wiesel was "one of the great moral voices of our time".
Elie Wiesel was born in Romania in 1928. In 1940 his town, Sighet, was part of a region that was annexed by Hungary. Four years later the town's entire Jewish population, including 15-year-old Elie and his family, was deported to Auschwitz.
Mr Wiesel's mother and one sister were killed in Nazi death chambers. His father died of starvation and dysentery in the Buchenwald camp. Two other sisters survived.
After the war, Mr Wiesel lived in a French orphanage and went on to become a journalist.
He wrote more than 60 books, starting with Night, a memoir based on his experiences in the death camps.
It included the lines: "For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and for the living.
"To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time."
Mr Wiesel's use of the term Holocaust helped cement the word's association with Nazi atrocities against the Jews.
In 1986, he was awarded the Nobel Peace prize for his role in speaking out against violence, repression and racism.
When accepting it, he said: "Whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation, take sides.
"Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."
After Mr Wiesel's death, the head of the World Jewish Congress said he was "undoubtedly one of the great Jewish teachers and thinkers of the past 100 years".
Ronald S Lauder said: "We have lost the most articulate witness to history's greatest crime.
"His passing leaves a void that will be impossible to fill. At the same time, his writings will live on."
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Elie Wiesel "served as a ray of light and an example of humanity that believes in the goodness of man".
The country's president, Reuven Rivlin, called him "a hero of the Jewish People, and a giant of all humanity", while Barack Obama said he was "not just the world's most prominent Holocaust survivor, he was a living memorial".
Mr Wiesel leaves a wife, Marion, who also survived the Holocaust, as well as a son, Elisha.


Role-play with ethnically diverse Playmobil figures could encourage friendships across racial divides, researchers believe.

Psychologists at Goldsmiths are set to ask pupils to imagine the figures are recently arrived children from overseas and play with them.
It is thought the role-play may help pupils overcome a fear of difference.
A similar project involving figures in wheelchairs found pupils' willingness to make friends was greatly enhanced.
"We have been doing some work over the past few years with Playmobil figures in wheelchairs," said Dr Sian Jones, a psychologist specialising in the way children cope with diversity.
"It seems to work very well in terms of getting them to think about engaging with disabled children and getting over any issues or perceived problems about playing with them.
"We are going to get them to imagine they are in 'golden time', and then to ask them to pick up the Playmobil and tell them that the figure is a recently arrived pupil and get them to imagine what playing with them would look like."
About 200 pupils in several schools will be asked to play with the figures just once for about three minutes.
The researchers from Goldsmiths, University of London, will question the children before and afterwards and also measure their anxiety levels to see how they have been affected by the experience.
The toys are expected to increase the ease by which children can imagine positive exchanges with immigrant children, and therefore their reactions to newly arrived children when they enter classrooms or the playground.


A zoo in the Netherlands is holding a "Poo Week", where visitors can learn all about animal waste.

Media playback is unsupported on your device
24 February 2015 Last updated at 07:41 GMT
Zoo keepers at Amersfoort Zoo say studying an animal's poo can tell us lots about their health.
There are special sessions where children can handle elephant poop safely.
During Poo Week kids can even measure the power of their own trumps.


Sheffield Steelers won the Elite League play-offs 6-5 in second overtime to deny Cardiff Devils a grand slam.

Media playback is not supported on this device
Guillaume Doucet gave the Devils the lead before John Armstrong levelled, but Joey Haddad and Joey Martin ensured Cardiff ended the first period 3-1 up.
The Steelers led thanks to Geoff Walker, Colton Fretter and Matthieu Roy but Haddad equalised for the Devils.
Walker put the Steelers ahead before Andrew Hotham levelled, but Levi Nelson scored to give the Steelers victory.
The two sides set up their play-off final in the semi-finals on Saturday, the Devils coming from behind to beat Dundee Stars, and the Steelers overcoming Belfast Giants.
Going into the game weeks after their regular season Elite League and Challenge Cup triumphs, Cardiff Devils had been aiming to win the grand slam before falling short.
The Welsh side could have been the first team to win an Elite Ice Hockey League grand slam since Nottingham Panthers won the play-offs, Elite League and Challenge Cup in 2012-13.


Hillary Clinton says presidential rival Donald Trump appears to have violated US laws, after a report said he broke a trade embargo with Cuba.

Newsweek reports that Mr Trump's company secretly conducted business in Cuba, violating the US trade embargo against the country.
The company allegedly spent at least $68,000 (Â£52,300) in Cuba in 1998.
Mr Trump criticised the journalist saying: "No I never did anything in Cuba. I never did a deal in Cuba."
"There's this guy who has very bad reputation as a reporter. You see what his record is," the candidate responded when asked before a rally in New Hampshire on Thursday.
Mr Trump's spokesman Kellyanne Conway said he did not end up investing in Cuba.
Mr Trump has also repeatedly said he had rejected offers to invest in Cuba.
The Newsweek report says Mr Trump's company funnelled the cash through a US consulting firm to make it appear legal.
Mrs Clinton said: "We have laws in our country, and the efforts that Trump was making to get into the Cuban market - putting his business interests ahead of the laws of the United States and the requirements that businesses were operating under with sanctions shows that he puts his personal and business interests ahead of the laws and values and the policies of the United States of America."
"This is something they're going to have to give a response to," said Marco Rubio, the Cuban-American senator from Florida who has endorsed Mr Trump. "I mean, it was a violation of American law, if that's how it happened.
"I hope the Trump campaign is going to come forward and answer some questions about this, because if what the article says is true - and I'm not saying that it is, we don't know with 100% certainty - I'd be deeply concerned about it," he told a podcast hosted by ESPN and ABC.
Trump's fortune drops $800m in one year
Who won the debate?
Don't run afoul of Florida's expatriate Cuban community. It's one of those iron-clad rules that Republican presidential nominees have obeyed since the rise of Fidel Castro - and it's now another rule that Donald Trump has apparently broken.
Cuban-Americans who fled the island after the revolution historically have been a reliable voting bloc in Florida for Republicans because of the party's hard-line anti-communist stance. While new generations of Cuban-Americans have been less rigid on the issue, Republican presidential candidates continue to pay deference to their interests in this presidential swing state, where every vote is precious.
Earlier this week, the Republican nominee was making nice with Cuban-Americans in Miami's Little Havana and ordering coffee at the famous Versailles Restaurant - much like his predecessors had before him. His efforts, however, may be undone by his past actions.
Newsweek's front-page - citing company records, interviews with former Trump executives and court filings - alleges that Mr Trump's company, then called Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts, sent a consulting firm to Havana on its behalf in search of business opportunities.
Newsweek says Mr Trump's senior officers disguised the cash by making it appear that the trip was connected to a Catholic charity.
If the consulting firm spent US money during the visit, without permission from the US government, it would have directly violated the Cuban embargo, which remains in place to this day despite a warming in US-Cuba ties.
Speaking on ABC earlier on Thursday, Ms Conway initially said: "As I understand from the story, they paid money in 1998." Later in the same interview, she said: "Did his hotel invest in 1998 in Cuba? No."
Ms Conway referred to comments Mr Trump has made in the past that were critical of the Cuban regime, and supportive of the embargo.
On Thursday night, Mr Trump briefly responded to the allegations to the NH1.com website, saying "I never did a deal in Cuba", and criticised the Newsweek journalist, Kurt Eichenwald.
In a 1999 column in The Miami Herald, Mr Trump wrote that he had snubbed chances to do business in Cuba. "It would place me directly at odds with the longstanding US policy of isolating Fidel Castro. I had a choice to make: huge profits or human rights. For me, it was a no-brainer."
1959: Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro leads a guerrilla army into Havana overthrowing the Batista regime.
1960: In response to Castro's communist reforms, US breaks off diplomatic relations with Cuba and imposes a trade embargo.
1962: Castro agrees to allow the Soviet Union to deploy nuclear missiles on the island bringing the US and the USSR to the brink of nuclear war.
April 2009: President Barack Obama lifts restrictions on family travel and the sending of remittances to Cuba.
July 2015: The US and Cuba reopen embassies in each other's capitals and restore full diplomatic ties.
March 2016: President Obama makes a three-day visit to Cuba and holds talks with President Raul Castro. He expresses hope the embargo will be ended, but it can only be lifted by the US Congress which is controlled by Republicans who oppose the move.
Aug 2016: US commercial flight arrives in Cuba for the first time in more than half a century.


The number of people out of work in Scotland climbed by 19,000 to 168,000 in the first quarter of the year, according to official figures.

Office for National Statistics data showed an unemployment rate of 6%, compared with 5.5% for the whole of the UK.
UK unemployment fell by 35,000 between January and March to 1.83 million.
Employment in Scotland went down by 3,000 over the three months, and now stands at 2,622,000.
The number of people claiming Job Seeker's Allowance fell by 1,100 to 77,500 between March and April - 25,300 lower than a year ago.
Scottish Secretary David Mundell said: "Today's figures are a stark reminder of the difficult economic situation we have come through and the work which remains to ensure our economic recovery works for everybody and every part of our country."
The Scottish government said the latest data showed the lowest youth unemployment level in Scotland for seven years.
Fair Work Secretary Roseanna Cunningham said: "While there has been a slight increase in unemployment this quarter, this will be accounted for in part by falling levels of economic inactivity, which is at an all-time low, as people join the labour market and start looking for work."
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said the job numbers were "going in the wrong direction".
"My fear is that Scottish ministers are spending their time playing power games at Westminster rather than focussing on their own day jobs," he added.
Scottish Green MSP Patrick Harvie claimed the latest figures proved that the economy was "still not working for most people".
He added: "We continue to see problems in our economy with an insecure jobs market, coupled with the threat of further cuts to public services and the stripping of workers' rights."
Responding to the figures, Scottish Chambers of Commerce chief executive Liz Cameron said: "These latest unemployment figures for Scotland are disappointing but are consistent with the weak employment trends we have been picking up from Scottish businesses in the early part of this year.
"Nevertheless, despite a fall in employment levels over the quarter, Scotland's employment rate remains high and there are reasons to be optimistic for the future."
The Scottish policy convener for the Federation of Small Businesses, Andy Willox, said:  "Scotland's small and medium-sized businesses already sustain more than a million jobs.
"If we're to dent these stubborn unemployment figures, Scotland's decision makers will need to further tap the potential of this vital resource.
"These lukewarm national figures also mask a story of uneven recovery. While the future looks bright in some localities, others aren't so fortunate.
"We need new strategies to turn around these communities, and their local enterprises need to be at the centre of these plans."


The government will find it difficult to influence productivity in the economy, according to former Chancellor, Lord Lamont.

His comments follow the allocation of £23bn in Wednesday's Autumn Statement to tackle the UK's poor record on raising output per person.
UK productivity has lagged well behind other advanced economies.
But Lord Lamont told BBC 5 live's Wake Up to Money that the government would struggle to make much of an impact.
"If you want complete honesty I do think it is very difficult for governments to influence the level of productivity. Backing science and R&D is one of the few ways in which you can do it," he said.
Spending large amounts on infrastructure projects, such as roads and railways, will not solve the problem, he said. "I don't think it's a silver bullet."
"I think infrastructure can help productivity, but it will only help productivity if it's built to time and to cost and we haven't always had a very good record in that respect in this country."
"I think the chancellor was right to concentrate a lot of what he was talking about in infrastructure on local schemes - smaller schemes that are, as people say, more shovel ready," said Lord Lamont, who was chancellor from 1990 to 1993.
Presenting his Autumn Statement, Chancellor Philip Hammond said: "In the real world, it takes a German worker four days to produce what we make in five, which means in turn that too many British workers work longer hours for lower pay than their counterparts.
"We lag the US and Germany [in productivity] by some 30 percentage points. But we also lag France by over 20 and Italy by eight."
To help the UK catch up, the chancellor announced on Wednesday a National Productivity Investment Fund which will oversee £23bn to be invested over the next five years. Areas to receive investment include:
Responding to that investment, CBI director general Carolyn Fairbairn said: "These measures must now be translated into action.  That means tarmac, tracks and telecoms being laid, and clear, deliverable timetables for major projects - only then will they act as a catalyst for investment, jobs and growth."
Some economists think that even £23bn is not enough to tackle the productivity problem.
"He [the chancellor] has correctly identified the long-term problems faced by the UK economy, and this Autumn Statement is a move in the right direction," said Aberdeen Asset Management chief economist Lucy O'Carroll.
"But there isn't really enough money being spent here to solve these long-term problems - hardly surprising, perhaps, when there is so much uncertainty around Brexit."


US regulators have rejected the plans of five big US banks for closing their operations in the event of a crisis.

Banks labelled "too big to fail" must have a so called "living will" that would allow them to close down without the help of public money.
Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon, JPMorgan Chase, State Street and Wells Fargo have until 1 October to submit improved plans.
JP Morgan said it was "disappointed with the conclusion".
"The most important thing is that we work with our regulators to understand their feedback in more detail.  And we are fully committed to meeting their expectations," said JP Morgan's chief financial officer Marianne Lake.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Federal Reserve board jointly rejected the banks' plans.
If they fail to come up with improved plans they could face "more stringent" requirements.
The FDIC said that Goldman Sach's plan "was not credible", while the Federal Reserve came to the same conclusion about Morgan Stanley's plans.
Regulators have been criticised for not providing enough information on how the plans have been judged.
On Tuesday, the Government Oversight Committee (GAO), a bi-partisan group, said financial regulators were not providing banks with enough information about how the plans were reviewed.
"Without greater disclosure, companies lack information they could use to assess and enhance their plans," the GAO report said.
The GAO recommended that "the FDIC and the Federal Reserve publicly disclose information about their assessment frameworks".


Peregrine chicks nesting in a 23-storey tower block have been ringed to help monitor their future movements.

The Mill, in Ipswich, which is 233ft (71m) high, has a specially-built nesting box that is home to five chicks waiting to fledge.
It was built in 2009 but peregrines did not nest there until 2014.
Steve Piotrowski, from the Suffolk Ornithologists Group, said: "Hopefully they will colonise other urban sites, which are becoming important habitats."
The Mill, which remains uncompleted after work building the flats halted in 2009, is believed to be the tallest residential building in East Anglia.
Mr Piotrowski added: "It's a species which is protected and it plays a role in killing feral pigeons on Ipswich Waterfront."
A webcam has also been set up by Ipswich Haven Marina to monitor the chicks' progress.
180mph (290km/h)
the top diving speed of a peregrine falcon
1,400 the number of breeding pairs in the UK, according to the latest figures
365 the number of breeding pairs in the UK back in 1961
3-4 the number of eggs a hen would usually lay in a year


A woman has pleaded not guilty to wounding with intent after a man was stabbed in Oxford.

Gemma Rees, of Stowford Road, Barton, appeared at Oxford Crown Court and denied the offence.
Police found a man in his 50s had been stabbed in his home in Henry Taunt Close, Barton, on 2 July. Ms Rees, 26, was arrested the next day.
She will go on trial at the same court on 11 January next year.


Chinese President Xi Jinping has warned against "impermissible" challenges to Beijing's authority over Hong Kong.

Mr Xi was speaking at the swearing-in of the territory's new leader Carrie Lam, as Hong Kong marked 20 years since its handover to China from Britain.
On Saturday afternoon, after Mr Xi had left Hong Kong, thousands of people took part in an annual march calling for greater democracy.
During Mr Xi's visit there was little opportunity for protest.
An earlier protest had led to clashes with pro-Beijing demonstrators.
Mr Xi's visit to the city - his first since becoming Chinese leader in 2013 - came amid tight police security.
Several people were detained in the morning, when a small group of pro-democracy activists clashed with pro-Beijing demonstrators close to the site where the lavish ceremony took place.
Organisers said 60,000 people took part in the later pro-democracy march, though police said the figure was much lower.
Heavy rain affected the march, which started at Victoria Park in Causeway Bay. Some protesters carried yellow umbrellas, a symbol of the demonstrations which gripped the city in 2014.
Lam Wing-kee, one of the five Hong Kong booksellers who went missing in 2015 and re-surfaced in detention on the mainland, addressed the march.
The Chinese leader oversaw the swearing in of Ms Lam, the newly-elected chief executive of the territory, along with the rest of her cabinet. She is Hong Kong's first female leader.
In a speech he said that Hong Kong needed to "improve its systems to uphold national sovereignty, security and development interests".
"Any attempt to endanger China's sovereignty and security, challenge the power of the central government... or use Hong Kong to carry out infiltration and sabotage activities against the mainland is an act that crosses the red line and is absolutely impermissible," he said.
He added that Hong Kong now enjoyed more freedom than ever before.
But while the territory's Basic Law guarantees wide-ranging freedoms under the "one country, two systems" formula, Beijing's refusal to grant universal suffrage has triggered sometimes violent unrest.
In Saturday morning's small-scale protests, pro-democracy party Demosisto said police had arrested five of its members, and four members from the League of Social Democrats.
Among those said by the group to have been arrested was Joshua Wong, the leader of the so-called umbrella protest movement.
It was meant to be a routine demonstration by pro-democracy protesters.
The leaders of the League of Social Democrats and Demosisto had gathered to make their way to the square in the Wanchai district where the flag-raising ceremony was taking place. They were demanding greater voting rights for Hong Kong, as well the immediate release of the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.
But without warning, scuffles began between the demonstrators and the police. Faces were slammed to the ground. And then pro-Beijing supporters turned up, waving flags and blaring patriotic music. Each side was shouting abuse at the other.
The tussle went on for more than an hour, with it ending only after the leaders of the pro-democracy demonstration were led away by police, who called it an illegal gathering.
During the ceremony, the flags of China and Hong Kong were raised alongside one another to mark the 20-year anniversary of the city's handover of British rule.
Helicopters flew overhead as onlookers cheered at the ceremony in Golden Bauhinia Square, central Hong Kong.
On Friday, an official protest zone near the convention centre where Mr Xi was guest of honour at an anniversary banquet and variety performance was heavily patrolled, as demonstrators gathered chanting "end one-party dictatorship".
There is growing concern that the Chinese central government is undermining Hong Kong's more politically liberal traditions, despite its promise to give it a high degree of autonomy.
Joshua Wong and 25 other activists were arrested on Wednesday for "breaking the 'public nuisance' law" after climbing into a golden sculpture of a bauhinia flower, Hong Kong's emblem.
The sculpture, which sits by the city's harbour front, was a gift from China and an iconic landmark symbolising the handover.


Millions of people in poverty live in UK households where at least one person works, the Living Wage Commission has said.

The situation is a "national scandal" says commission chairman Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York.
The UK government should aim to cut the number of low paid workers by one million by 2020, the commission said.
It recommended that the government should pay its own workers a "living wage".
The commission is an independent body that brings together business, trade unions and civil society.
It said that "the majority of people in poverty in the UK are working".
"Is it right somebody should work all the hours that God gives them and still be in poverty? That cannot be right," Archbishop Sentamu told the BBC.
Out of 13 million people living in poverty in the UK, 6.7 million are in a family where someone works, the commission said.
The commission's definition of a living wage is "an hourly rate of income calculated according to a basic cost of living in the UK and defined as the minimum amount of money needed to enjoy a basic, but socially acceptable standard of living".
In 2014 the UK living wage rate stands at Â£7.65 an hour, and the London living wage is set at a higher rate of Â£8.80 per hour, to take account of the higher cost of living in the capital.
By contrast, the national minimum wage currently stands at Â£6.31 an hour.
Archbishop Sentamu said that the government is the biggest employer of low-paid people, and so should look at pay levels during procurement, and that private sector companies that are capable should also pay.
In response Business Secretary Vince Cable said: "The only real way of achieving sustainable increases in living standards is by focusing on economic growth, employment and reducing taxes for the low paid. This is exactly what we are doing."
The commission's research shows that there are currently 712 employers across the UK accredited as paying a living wage.
Service industries such as accountancy, banks and construction firms could boost the pay of 375,000 workers if they agreed to pay the national living wage.
"Working and still living in poverty is a national scandal," said Archbishop Sentamu.
"For the first time, the majority of people in poverty in the UK are now in working households.
"If the government now commits to making this hope a reality, we can take a major step towards ending the strain on all of our consciences. Low wages equals living in poverty."
BBC business editor Kamal Ahmed said that the living wage, which the commission says should be voluntary for the private sector, is distinct from the statutory national minimum wage.
"The living wage is much more about what it actually costs to live," he said. "It's about 20% higher than the minimum wage."
Dr Adam Marshall, director of policy and external affairs at the British Chambers of Commerce, said many firms were returning to economic growth, looking at raising pay levels "after a tough period for business".
He said firms should be supported and encouraged to help pay their staff the living wage, but without "facing compulsion or regulation, which could lead to job losses and difficulties - particularly for younger people entering the labour market".
He added: "Some businesses simply cannot afford to pay a living wage just yet - which is why the commission rejected a compulsory living wage.
Representatives of small businesses pushed back against the recommendations of the report, saying that a higher minimum wage would add to cost pressures for small firms.
Mike Cherry, policy chairman of the Federation of Small Business, told the BBC: "At least half of our members pay at or above the living wage."
He said that some sectors such as retail, construction and care homes, can only afford to pay at or just above the minimum wage.
One small business owner, Wayne Grills of Pizza Planet, a small pizza takeaway in Devon said: "I would say that I have a moral responsibility to make sure that they [staff] take home a sensible wage that I can afford, because if I wasn't in business, they would be either working elsewhere or without a job."
Small business director Glen Miller of Antique Pine Imports in Chester said: "I think if you're able to pay, then you should. It just sends out the right message to the staff and the customers, and everybody feels more valued."


Iraqi forces have fought their way into the outskirts of the city of Tal Afar, one of so-called Islamic State's last remaining strongholds in the country.

Counter-terrorism units entered the south-western Kifah district on Tuesday, the military said.
IS militants responded by firing rockets and deploying suicide car bombs, according to one commander.
Iraq's prime minister launched the assault on Tal Afar on Sunday, a month after declaring victory in Mosul.
Haider al-Abadi told the estimated 2,000 jihadists holed up inside the city, along with between 10,000 and 40,000 civilians, that they should "surrender or die".
Tal Afar, which had a predominantly ethnic Turkmen population of 200,000 before it fell to IS in June 2014, sits on a major supply route between Mosul, about 55km (35 miles) to the east, and the Syrian border, 150km (90 miles) to the west.
The city was cut off from both during the nine-month Mosul offensive by troops and allied militiamen from the Shia-dominated paramilitary Popular Mobilisation (Hashd al-Shaabi) force. But they did not attempt to retake it until this week.
In the first 24 hours of the operation, pro-government forces captured 235 sq km (90 sq miles) of territory from IS, according to the US special envoy to the multinational coalition against IS that is providing air and ground support.
By the second day, the troops and militiamen had reached the edge of the city.
On Wednesday, they shelled IS defensive lines along the edges of the Kifah area before storming it from the south and east, commanders said.
Later, the Popular Mobilisation announced on its website that units from its 11th Brigade, the Federal Police's Rapid Response Force and the Iraqi Army had taken "full control" of the Kifah and Nour districts. However, there was no immediate confirmation from the military.
Special forces commander Brig Gen Haider Fadhil told the Associated Press that his forces had not faced tough resistance, but that he expected the fighting to be fiercer as they pushed towards the city centre.
The general said civilians had not been seen fleeing the area, but the United Nations has warned that it is preparing for thousands to attempt to escape in the coming days and weeks.
Its humanitarian co-ordinator in Iraq, Lise Grande, said on Sunday that conditions were "very tough" inside Tal Afar. Food and water were running out, and people lacked the basic necessities to survive, she added.
More than 30,000 civilians have fled the Tal Afar area since the end of April, many of them arriving at Iraqi government mustering points exhausted and dehydrated after trekking for 10 to 20 hours in extreme heat, according to Ms Grande.


Plans to connect Manchester's two biggest railway stations have received High Court backing despite claims they will damage a key part of rail history.

The Ordsall Chord will link Piccadilly and Victoria but has 30 "heritage assets" on the route.
Critics focused on the former Liverpool Road station - a terminus on the world's first passenger railway which opened in 1830 - which will be cut off.
A judicial review of the government's backing of the scheme was unsuccessful.
Ministers had decided the public benefits associated with the Ordsall Chord outweighed any harm to the site.
And the judge said she could find "no flaw" in the government planning inspector's conclusions.
As a result of the new rail link, Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) will lose its connection to the main line.
The museum's site is part of the former Liverpool Road Station, the original Manchester terminus of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.
The station, the house in which the station master once lived and a warehouse building dating to 1830 are all Grade I listed and sites of pilgrimage for railway buffs.
Construction of the line will also involve the demolition of the Girder Bridge and the Cast Iron Bridge.
Mark Whitby, a former president of the Institution of Civil Engineers, said in his challenge that running the new line further to the west, across Middlewood Locks, would cause far less damage to the historic buildings.
Not enough account had been taken of the serious harm that would be caused, he warned.
But Mrs Justice Lang said the governmentinspector, Brendan Lyons, had given "considerable weight and importance" to the desirability of preserving them.
The viaduct will enable an extra two fast trains per hour between Manchester Victoria and Liverpool and Leeds and Manchester, plus a direct service through Manchester city centre to Manchester Airport.
The scheme is part of the multi-million pound Northern Hub upgrade for rail services across the North of England.


She began 2015 on maternity leave - now her goals could help clinch the Women's Super League Two title.

The past 13 months have been quite a journey for Reading and Wales striker Helen Ward, following the birth of her daughter.
Now she has found some of the best form of her career, scoring seven goals in her last five games, at the perfect time for the Royals.
The WSL 2 leaders could win the title on Sunday, when they travel to Aston Villa, in their final game of the season.
"Personally, it would top off a bit of a mad year for me," the 29-year-old told BBC Sport.
"We've earned this chance. We deserve a shot at the title. Promotion was our first target, but it would be a huge achievement for the club."
But has being a mother changed the former Arsenal and Chelsea striker?
"I've gained a new perspective on everything. It changes your world, having a child," she said. "I appreciate football more. If we don't win, I know it's not the end of world now.
"There are other important things in life, other things can keep me sane."
Yet winning has been the norm for Reading this season, especially away from home.
One more away victory on Sunday would not only see the Royals finish the year with a 100% away league record, but also - barring a significant swing in goal difference - be enough to secure the league.
Reading and second-placed Doncaster Rovers Belles are both already promoted to WSL 1, and are level on points ahead of the final weekend, but Reading have scored more goals and conceded fewer.
"Winning titles - it's what we play football for," Ward added. "Aston Villa will be tough to face. They're a physical side, with youngsters with a lot of pace.
"We will go there fully expecting a big test."
If Reading seal the title on Sunday, a lot of credit will rightly go to manager Kelly Chambers, the only female boss in the second tier.
"Kelly has done a great job and you can see that from the results we've had," Ward said. "As a former player, she understands the feelings and emotions at this level. That definitely helps.
"She is not afraid to make decisions for the best of the team. I think she'd also say that she has good coaching staff around her."
In attack, Ward has supplied 11 goals in 22 appearances in all competitions this term.
But she found her best form after the international break for the Women's World Cup - the crucial period when she says she returned to fitness.
"After having my little girl, it was tough to come back from zero fitness," Ward continued.
"I was really starting again, fitness-wise, and I'd never really done that before. I've been lucky not to have any bad injuries or anything like that.
"Then during the World Cup break I managed to get myself in shape. Now I feel fitter than before.
"That's something I think we can be proud of at Reading actually - the fitness work. Teams in the top league train more than us so we've done well in terms of fitness."


Fraudsters are targeting UK schools, demanding payments of up to Â£8,000 to unlock data they have encrypted with malware.

The online criminals are initially cold-calling schools, claiming to be from the Department of Education.
Once they have email addresses, they forward documents which include file-freezing malware.
UK police issued a warning, urging educational establishments to be vigilant.
The fraudsters claim that they need to send forms directly to the head teacher rather than to a generic school inbox, claiming that the documents contain sensitive information.
The type of forms vary from ones offering exam guidance to mental health assessments, according to Action Fraud, the UK's fraud and cybercrime centre which issued the alert.
The email will include a zip file, potentially masked as an Excel or Word document. The attachment will contain ransomware that, once downloaded, will encrypt files and demand money to unlock them.
Last year was dubbed the year of ransomware by security experts. Kaspersky Labs estimated that in the third quarter of the year a ransomware infection occurred every 30 seconds while Intel Security said that the infections had risen by more than a quarter in the first three months of the year.
Police departments, hospitals and companies have all been targeted, with the FBI declaring  ransomware to be on track to become a "billion-dollar criminal enterprise".
The latest warning shows the threat is not going away, said security consultant Graham Cluley.
"This clearly indicates that there are considerable amounts of money to be made by online criminals through ransomware attacks.  If  there weren't, they wouldn't be prepared to go to such extreme efforts - such as making bogus phone calls - to increase the likelihood that their poisoned email attachments will be opened."
He said that schools, as well as always being on the lookout for suspicious emails and keeping security software up to date, should also regularly back up critical data.
"If you aren't backing up your data, it's you who needs to go back to school," he said.


Danny Alexander has told multinational firms that paying tax is an obligation, not "a voluntary choice" they can make to please their customers.

The chief secretary to the Treasury was speaking in regard to Starbucks, which last week said it would voluntarily pay more UK corporation tax.
Mr Alexander told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show that the government was continuing efforts to tackle tax avoidance.
He said this work was taking place both in the UK and abroad.
"Taxation for big companies, or for anyone in society, can't be, and mustn't be, a voluntary arrangement," said Mr Alexander.
"Thinking of the tax system as if it is like the church plate going around on a Sunday morning is completely the wrong way to think about it."
He added: "Paying tax is not a voluntary choice, it is not something you can just chose to do willy nilly because you think it will please your customers, it is an obligation."
Coffee chain Starbucks announced on Thursday of last week that it would pay about £20m in UK corporation tax [tax on its profits] over the next two years, following a public outcry over how little it pays.
The company has paid just £8.6m in corporation tax in its 14 years of trading in the UK, and nothing in the last three years, despite UK sales of nearly £400m in 2011.
Two other multinational companies which have also been criticised for paying too little corporation tax - Amazon and Google - both said they would not be following Starbucks' voluntary contribution lead.
London Mayor Boris Johnson on Sunday defended companies, such as Starbucks, for seeking to minimise the level of tax they paid in the UK.
In an interview on Sky News, he said: "Imagine that you are the corporate finance director of one of these companies.
"Your job is to look at the law as it stands. Your fiduciary duty to your shareholders is to minimise your tax exposure."
Mr Johnson added that Starbucks should be praised for announcing that going forward it would voluntarily pay UK corporation tax.
"Now that Starbucks has stepped up to the plate and announced they are going to be making this payment I think rather than everybody sneering at them, people should welcome that," he said.
"My point is it is a bit unfair to bash the companies and then sneer at them when they try to do good."
Mr Alexander also reiterated that the government had announced in last week's Autumn Statement that it was giving HM Revenue & Customs more funds to tackle tax avoidance and evasion.
He said the aim was to get an additional £9bn in tax revenues per year.
Mr Alexander added that the government, together with Germany and France, was putting additional funds into the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, to aid work on establishing global agreements to prevent companies avoiding tax by moving profits from one country to another with a lower tax rate.
"At a time of austerity, everyone has an obligation to to play by the tax rules," he added.


San Francisco voters have rejected a proposal to limit short-term rentals offered by AirBnB and similar services.

The US city is facing a housing crisis, exacerbated by landlords renting out their property to visiting tourists rather than residents.
Under the rejected Proposition F, landlords would have been fined if they rented out their homes short-term for more than 75 days a year.
The result of the poll was closer than anticipated.
AirBnB lets landlords advertise property for short-term rentals, often undercutting hotels.
Proposition F would have seriously affected its operations in San Francisco, so the company spent $8m (Â£5.2m) on a "No on Prop F" campaign.
The "Yes" campaign, which lost by about 13,500 votes had just $1m (Â£650,000) funding.
Proposition F has been defeated, but despite the huge amount of money invested by AirBnB, the result was still pretty tight.
In fact, the result was closer than the "Yes" camp had imagined.
Dale Carlson, the "Yes" spokesman, had expected to be "completely blown out" in the vote.
In the end, the No supporters only won with 55% of the vote, and that isn't by much.
Given that regulators here now plan to use different legislative methods to limit AirBnB in San Francisco, this result may actually play in their favour.
Read more: San Fran votes on â€˜AirBnB law'


After the anxiety and drama of the past few days in Nigeria, it is tempting to get carried away by the impact of this ballot - what it represents for both Africa's largest democracy and for those countries on the continent still wrestling with the notion that power can change hands without the world coming to an end.

The significance of General Muhammadu Buhari's victory should certainly not be underestimated.
An electorate that has savoured the rich experience of ousting an incumbent by the mere act of voting cannot easily be persuaded to forget it.
And that must surely be a contagious experience on a continent where, it is often said, roughly one in five people are Nigerians.
Besides, this was no "people's revolution" - something that the continent's remaining strongmen could loudly dismiss as a dangerous threat to the natural order of things.
Instead Nigeria's election was something much more prosaic, and more subtle - a challenge to entrenched autocracy.
It was, despite the disruptive efforts of a few, a very ordinary thing: A peaceful, modern, well-monitored, uncontestable transfer of power.
Nothing to be feared. A casual precedent that should echo loudly around the region.
"It establishes a link between performance and accountability - knowing that if you don't perform you can be thrown out of power by the electorate, not by the military," Adekeye Adebajo, from the Centre for Conflict Resolution in Cape Town, told me by phone.
"It's an incredibly powerful incentive for better governance in the future.
"It sends a strong signal to the rest of the continent. There will be autocrats in Khartoum, in the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda, who are thinking of staying on in power. They won't welcome this."
The election also gives Nigeria more credibility and clout within the West African grouping Ecowas, at the African Union, and internationally, as the continent seeks to shrug off the enduring influence of former colonial powers like France.
Nigeria's leaders can no longer be dismissed as hypocrites when they lecture neighbours like Mali, Niger, Guinea and Guinea Bissau, on the need to keep the military out of politics. That can only be a good thing for African democracy.
On a more nuts and bolts level, these past few days have been a valuable reminder of quite how difficult it is becoming to rig an election.
Social media, fingerprint scanners, and an army of young volunteer observers armed with mobile phones have all played their role - as they have done in other recent African elections - in limiting the possibilities of ballot stuffing and other shenanigans.
That's not to say people didn't try to rig this election - and won't in the future.
But once the data is out there - posted online - it becomes much harder for the backroom cheats to cook the books.
Five reasons why Goodluck Jonathan lost
Profile: Muhammadu Buhari
Then there's President Goodluck Jonathan's abrupt decision to accept defeat - a move made, I'm told, without consulting some key officials and against the wishes of many in his party.
It was a bold, selfless move that may well have saved many lives in Nigeria.
It will go down as a new milestone for African democracy, and may help redeem Mr Jonathan's presidency, at least partially, in the eyes of his many critics.
Does that mean Nigerian democracy is safe? Perhaps not.
A new man may be coming to power.
But Gen Buhari is not young, and he presides over an untested coalition.
He is inheriting an empty treasury - broken by falling oil prices, the cost of supporting the national currency, and now threatened with more looting by sticky-fingered officials heading for the door.
Boko Haram's insurgency in the north-east remains a huge challenge to a corrupt and humiliated army.
Perennial frustrations in the oil-rich south of Nigeria could well begin to boil over. The list goes on.
And now comes a six-week period of administrative limbo - another new experience for Nigeria - as the old regime prepares to empty its desks, and a new team is formed.
Gen Buhari has much to do, and to prove, in a short time.
Who will he chose to run the economy? How can he prevent any last-minute looting? Can he get the army to secure, and build on the territorial gains it has made against Boko Haram in the last few weeks?
And how will he balance the need for a smooth transition against what must surely be his instinct to make an example of those public officials who have been greedily stealing from Nigeria's oil revenues for years?
Nigeria, by all accounts, is not an easy country to run.
As we saw on Tuesday night with the state television's reluctance to even broadcast news of an election upset, there are entrenched interests here that will struggle to adapt.
After a political earthquake, aftershocks are almost inevitable.
But for now it is the optimists both in Nigeria and around the continent who must, surely, have the upper hand.
The uncontestable fact of a democratic transfer of power trumps any legitimate, but unrealised concerns about whether a different president, and a different party, will actually make life better for the people of Africa's most important nation.


Lee Johnson got off to a winning start as Bristol City boss as Aden Flint's double gave them victory over Ipswich.

The centre-back rose highest to head in off the post from Luke Freeman's pin-point corner to open the scoring.
It was 2-0 when, in similar fashion, Flint nodded in Freeman's delivery for his fourth league goal of the season.
Ex-Robin Brett Pitman scored for Ipswich with a low finish, but City held on for back-to-back wins and moved five points clear of the drop zone.
Johnson played for the Robins from 2006 to 2012 and will be delighted with his start after joining from League One side Barnsley on 6 February.
The first half could have yielded more goals for the hosts as Ipswich goalkeeper Bartosz Bialkowski made an excellent one-handed reaction save from Korey Smith's deflected shot.
Ipswich also had chances, with home goalkeeper Richard O'Donnell saving well from Daryl Murphy's six-yard header midway through the second half.
The hosts nearly extended their lead but Bialkowski made a low finger-tip save from substitute Kieran Agard to keep it 2-1, before Tommy Smith's late drive flew wide.
Bristol City manager Lee Johnson:
"There is still work to do, but it was a good start. A lot of what I saw really pleased me.
"We have some big lads to attack set-pieces and Luke Freeman's quality of delivery makes it easier for them.
"Aden Flint was brave with his headers. At half-time he told me he wanted to take a penalty if we got one - but I wouldn't have let him!
"The atmosphere created by the fans was tremendous and I really appreciated that. Now we have to maintain focus in and out of possession. If we do that we have the quality to hurt opponents."
Ipswich manager Mick McCarthy:
"We didn't defend the set-pieces well enough, but credit where it is due because the delivery and movement at the two corners was an example to any young players.
"Having gone behind, it was needs must and we switched back to 4-4-2, which I felt made us more effective.
"Brett Pitman wants more starts and he made us better when he came on. He doesn't like the tag of super-sub, but it was a great finish.
"We have been hit hard by injuries in midfield, which is not an excuse. I expect us to be challenging at the top of the table and can understand the fans' frustration."
Match ends, Bristol City 2, Ipswich Town 1.
Second Half ends, Bristol City 2, Ipswich Town 1.
Corner,  Bristol City. Conceded by Christophe Berra.
Richard O'Donnell (Bristol City) is shown the yellow card.
Attempt missed. Tommy Smith (Ipswich Town) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the left. Assisted by Jonas Knudsen following a set piece situation.
Kevin Bru (Ipswich Town) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Kieran Agard (Bristol City).
Substitution, Ipswich Town. Larsen Touré replaces Kevin Foley.
Substitution, Bristol City. Scott Wagstaff replaces Joe Bryan.
Offside, Bristol City. Aaron Wilbraham tries a through ball, but Kieran Agard is caught offside.
Attempt blocked. Joe Bryan (Bristol City) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Kieran Agard.
Offside, Ipswich Town. Luke Chambers tries a through ball, but Daryl Murphy is caught offside.
Attempt missed. Joe Bryan (Bristol City) left footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the left.
Foul by Freddie Sears (Ipswich Town).
Mark Little (Bristol City) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt missed. Tommy Smith (Ipswich Town) left footed shot from outside the box misses to the left.
Tommy Smith (Ipswich Town) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Nathan Baker (Bristol City).
Corner,  Bristol City. Conceded by Jonas Knudsen.
Attempt missed. Aden Flint (Bristol City) header from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Marlon Pack with a cross following a corner.
Corner,  Bristol City. Conceded by Kevin Foley.
Attempt blocked. Kieran Agard (Bristol City) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Kevin Foley (Ipswich Town) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Foul by Kevin Foley (Ipswich Town).
Kieran Agard (Bristol City) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Corner,  Ipswich Town. Conceded by Marlon Pack.
Christophe Berra (Ipswich Town) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Aaron Wilbraham (Bristol City).
Attempt missed. Korey Smith (Bristol City) right footed shot from the right side of the box is close, but misses to the left following a corner.
Corner,  Bristol City. Conceded by Bartosz Bialkowski.
Attempt saved. Kieran Agard (Bristol City) right footed shot from the left side of the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Scott Golbourne.
Substitution, Ipswich Town. Luke Varney replaces Ben Pringle.
Hand ball by Aaron Wilbraham (Bristol City).
Attempt missed. Nathan Baker (Bristol City) header from very close range misses to the right. Assisted by Marlon Pack with a cross following a corner.
Substitution, Bristol City. Kieran Agard replaces Lee Tomlin.
Substitution, Bristol City. Aaron Wilbraham replaces Jonathan Kodjia.
Corner,  Bristol City. Conceded by Ben Pringle.
Foul by Kevin Foley (Ipswich Town).
Luke Freeman (Bristol City) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Goal!  Bristol City 2, Ipswich Town 1. Brett Pitman (Ipswich Town) left footed shot from the left side of the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Daryl Murphy.