27/01/2014 The Papers

perhaps the greatest try ever scored that happened 41 years ago today.

That is coming up in Sportsday, in 15 minutes, after the papers.

Hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the the papers will be

bringing us tomorrow. With me are Angela Knight, Chief executive of

Energy UK, the body which represents energy companies and John Rentoul,

columnist for the Independent on Sunday. Let's have a look at some of

the front pages now. We are going to start with the Independent showing

the former journalist Dan Evans who has been giving evidence in the

phone hacking trial, but its main story is on the election forms of

the Liberal Democrats, who the paper claims plan attacks raid on the

rich. Diabetes could be cured within a generation according to a medical

expert in the Daily Express. The Daily Telegraph reports that the

economy is growing at its fastest pace since the financial crisis

first struck seven years ago. The photograph is to do with the phone

hacking trial and shows Jude Law with his then girlfriend Sienna

Miller. The Metro chooses revelations from the phone hacking

trial about Jude Law for its front as well. The Financial Times leads

on news from RBS bank - that it faces an ?8 billion loss. The

Guardian carries more revelations from the whistle-blower Edward

Snowden that the UK and US spy agencies have been looking at ways

to extract personal information about individuals from their

smartphone apps. We are going to start with the phone hacking trial,

the Independent has a picture of David Evans, Dan Evans rather,

former journalist, who has been speaking today. That's right, he has

been giving evidence that he boasted about his skill at phone hacking to

Andy Coulson, the editor of the News of the World at the time, and was

hired on the basis of those skills, which is not encouraging news for

Andy Coulson who has previously said he knew nothing of what was going

on, but we have yet to hear from Andy Coulson himself as to his

defence, and Rebekah Brooks likewise. They are coming up soon I

think. Indeed, we are looking at the end of the prosecution case over the

next few days with Dan Evans, he will probably be in the witness box

again tomorrow, but Jude Law also appear today. That's right, and Jude

Law has apparently just found out that one member of his family was

telling stories -- selling stories about him. It must be awful when you

find out in your private life that somebody close to you has been

saying this, your family is one that you trust to support you, so that is

a nasty thing. In fact he found out today in the dock, a piece of paper

was passed to him with the name of the family member on it. It makes it

almost worse, how awful. Let's stick with the Independent, and Lib Dems

declare war on the rich, the manifesto for 2015. It seems

everyone is declaring war on the rich, and we may not have any! We

actually need some people who are wealthy, who contribute in the UK

and are paying their taxes here. I superficially think, yes, ?2 billion

per year, they can pay more, and if you then on picket and have a think

about it, a lot of these houses will have been bought along time ago

before we had the big house price rises that we have had. That's the

first thing. Secondly a lot of them will have retired now, so you are

saying to these people, OK, you've made money on your house but at the

same time you paid tax all your life, you are now on a pension and

somehow you have got to pay some more. It doesn't look right to me at

all. It is 2 million, isn't it? I beg your pardon, I said two billion

and I meant 2 million. Howling people have had houses that have

gone up over 2 million? Who says this is the last decade? In London

particularly is where you have got a lot of high-priced houses and in the

rest of the country I agree it looks very different, but I think there is

a principle here. How many times do we tax people? We tax them on their

income, their savings, they have paid their mortgage, their house

value has gone up, then tax them again. John? John will not agree

with me. I think there is a principle here that in times of

austerity the burden has got to be shared fairly, and Labour want to do

it by putting the top rate of tax up to 50p. The Lib Dems need something

to offset that. This is the Liberal Democrats splitting the difference

as ever. That is a valid point that times are difficult, everybody has

got to pay something, and the more you earn the more you pay. An

interesting statistic at the weekend said the top 1% earners pay 30% of

the tax. We need them here to pay the tax and all of this business

about war on new simply because you are already paying a lot of tax

because, OK, you earning it but you are not paying it, it doesn't look

right. We heard Digby Jones saying that Ed Balls' suggestion about

raising the top rate of tax to 50p in the pound was bad economics. Is

this the same? There is an opinion poll in the Independent tomorrow

which has the Labour lead down to one point. The 50p rate of tax which

was dominating the news at the weekend, either people have not

noticed it or they are moved by it. A lot of these apparently popular

policies that sound right and sound like you will get tough on a section

of society, they get the cheer at the moment they are said and then

people go away and think about how realistic it is, what the

consequences will be, and if it is just a sound bite. I worry about

signed by -- about sound bites that are worrying for investors. I am

totally neutral in this discussion, on either side of this. Let's move

on to the Daily Telegraph, the economy is moving at its fastest

pace since the crash apparently. This is where I think politics is

starting to shift under our feet. I don't know if this opinion poll is a

one-off, but if the economy starts to grow fast this year I think

politics will start looking very different, and this newspaper seems

to have advance indication about what is in the GDP figures published

tomorrow. They say it will be 0.8% which takes growth last year to

1.9%. It doesn't sound like a huge amount but it suggests the economy

is growing faster than expected. I think it is a good news story. You

are right, John. Look at the number of jobs. The huge increase in the

number of people in employment, and this is a positive. There is not

that many countries that have managed to do this, to start to grow

their economies, and as good as that. The estimate the IMF has had

to make, they are the ones with egg on their faces. Not so long ago they

said, no, you cannot do what you are doing in the UK, you will kill your

economy, and now they have had to revise their growth figures. It has

taken everyone by surprise really. The Bank of England didn't have a

clue either, never mind the IMF. The thing that has been surprising about

this recovery is just how well the job numbers have gone. The

expectation that unemployment would be much higher than it was and much

slower to recovery has been proven to be wrong. Thanks to 13 years of

the Labour government giving us a flexible labour market. You have got

your tongue in your cheek! He has not! Absolutely serious. The

Conservatives are going to gain the benefit of this. It could well be

the case. They have taken the difficult decisions. The Liberal

Democrats as well. The Queen is broke, down to her last million.

Yes, I am a great wireless. When one gets into the story, there appears

to be some real difficulty. That is the headline. What is it? It is

quite apparent that is a problem in a number of buildings in terms of

the maintenance. The story is more about their household needing to

look at the proper maintenance of the palaces. The important thing is

not that the Queen lives in them, they are a great tourist attraction.

When you have got quite such a history that they have got in this

country, a fabulous history tied up in so many of these places, and the

royalty that people like around the world, the finance is looked after

properly... This story concerns you, you are worried about the finances!

I am not! He has moved to another paper! It is on the front of the

Daily Mail, they are even more royalist and Angela, they are

concerned about the crumbling of Buckingham Palace and Windsor

Castle, it is all going to pieces! You do not want to say any more! The

republican on my left! He wants to move on! The Financial Times, RBS

faces an 8 billion loss. Come to me on this story! Angela knows about

it! Angela has said a lot! I am worried, I am not going to get my

money back as a taxpayer. This is my bank. It looks unlikely we will get

our money back. When Gordon Brown nationalised banks, I was fairly

sanguine that we would get our money back eventually, but we keep on

finding more problems coming out of the woodwork. That is a bit

alarming. I do not understand the small print. We have invested ?46

billion in this bank, we are still allowed the share price when we

bought it. We are not going to get our money back. Not for some time. I

have got nothing to add. There is a whole load of detail here, there are

more losses, you wonder, how come we still see new provisions and legal

cost issues and capital issues? It seems to go on and on. On that

depressing note, you will join us again in and our, to look at some of

the stories. Now, it is time for Sportsday.

Hello, welcome. Here is what is coming up.

Juan Mata is the man, he meets the world's media following his ?37.1

million move from