20/02/2014 The Papers


20/02/2014

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We will be looking ahead to a big weekend of Six Nations action, with

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England facing Ireland at Twickenham.

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

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us tomorrow. With me are Anne Ashworth, assistant editor at the

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Times, and Andrew Harrison, contributing editor at Esquire

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magazine. Let's take you through some of the headlines in brief. The

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Independent's headline is a bloodbath in Kiev, with an image of

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Independence Square, the scene of much of the violence between police

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and protesters. The Telegraph's front-page photo is taken in the

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thick of the action. Ukraine's bloodiest day. The Guardian uses the

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same headline. It is accompanied by a stark picture of bodies of

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protesters that the paper claims were killed today. Another image of

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Independence Square on the front of the times. It says Ukraine is on the

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brink of civil war. The UK's floods dominate the Daily Mail's

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front-page, on the day the Met Office describe this winter as the

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wettest on record. The paper claims the organisation is under fire for

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predicting drier than usual conditions. The Express leads with

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claims that statins are the route to living longer. Some very stark,

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harrowing images coming from Ukraine. Quite clearly, some papers

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have decided to be blunt with their pictures and blunt with their

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headlines about what's going on. Some of the most sombre front pages

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I've seen for a long time. People showing you very graphic images of

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bloodshed, bodies laid out. A country careering towards a Civil

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War. In carnage. These are really powerful images and stories. When we

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talk about a Civil War, as Bridget Kendall was explaining this evening,

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we are looking at a country that could be split up. There's talk of

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very pro-Russia Crimea threatening to break away. The sanctions coming

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in, the billionaires are flooding out of the country. There is an

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excellent piece in the Times by Roger boys, pointing out that their

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rock Ardron provocateurs suspected of being around, professional

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snipers being around. It has gone incredibly nasty. NEETs almost over

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a 24 hour period. There was a lull and then today it has been bloodier

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than ever, with a huge amount of fatalities. What really spells it

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out is the front page of the Guardian. A shocking picture of some

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of the bodies of protesters laid out, in what the Guardian describes

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as Ukraine's bloodiest day. The age of those protesters does vary. It's

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obviously hard to tell, but there is clearly a very young man lying among

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the dead. It demonstrates the picture editor's dilemma. You have

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to tell the story but at some point the story is too grotesque to tell.

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I'm sure this is not the worst photograph they have. It is

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exceedingly harrowing. The detail on the living surrounding these bodies,

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the expressions you can see, tells a story all of its own. It's

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incredibly distressing to read. It's fair to say that a lot of people in

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Britain thought this was something happening far away, another riot, a

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former Soviet Union. Now it seems very real and on our doorstep. We've

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got to know Ukraine very well, it was one of the host nations of Euro

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2012, a lot of Ukrainians living here in Britain. It's become a

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holiday destination for many Brits. But there will be people confused

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because we had the Orange Revolution, it got its independence,

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it started off on a new future, so people will be confused about why

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this is happening. Presumably, what a lot of analysts are saying is we

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are looking at the very young country that is still struggling to

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find its identity. And doesn't want -- know whether it wants to be a

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dependency of Russia become part of a greater EU. This is a country that

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used to be quite vibrant economically. It has seen countries

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like Poland really race ahead of it in the economic field. So they are

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wondering which path to take. Back to mother Russia or into the embrace

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of the EU? Over the next few days we will be asking, has the EU acted in

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a timely enough manner? There's a lot of frantic diplomacy happening

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this evening in Kiev, even as we speak some kind of road map to

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peace, we don't quite know what it is, is being discussed. What do you

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think we will see happen in the next few weeks? I think it would be a

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very rash person to predict. One thing we are clear about is Vladimir

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Putin has played a very wise hand. He's been very clear about what he

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wants. We, in the democracies, because the EU is a conglomeration

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of states with different interests and you have to herd cats... It's

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like 3-dimensional chess. To go back to the peace in the Times, I would

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encourage everybody to read it. On the BBC News website there is a

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brilliant 62nd explanation of what's happening in the Ukraine. In other

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stories, a bit closer to home, the Guardian, proposals to charge for

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benefits appeals have been revealed in a leak. This would be people who

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been stripped of benefits that want to appeal. They may have to pay

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charges for it. 50% of these appeals succeed. How does that work out? If

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you've got a charge for making an appeal and it succeeds, do you still

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pay the charge? Do you still pay for the appeal if it is successful? It's

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a leaked proposal. I think someone has flown a kite and the kite has

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got out of the room. The proposal is you would pay upfront for the right

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to appeal. We don't know whether you would get your money back if you win

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the appeal. According to the leaked document, its 200 to lodge a claim,

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depending on the type of case being brought forward. It doesn't explain

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if you get that money back or not. For employment tribunal is that is

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already in effect. I find it astonishing, the idea that we are

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sanctioning people for their benefits. Almost 60% of them are

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finding that the sanction was unfair, so the Government wants to

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bring in a charge simply, in a very crude way, to stop them appealing.

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It's being done in the hope that the numbers of independent tribunal 's

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will be decimated if the Government introduced a charge. It seems rather

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unfair. And there could be a lot of appeals. But then 58% of appeals

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challenging benefit claims have been successful in recent months. Let's

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move on to the Telegraph. This was going to happen, it was beginning to

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brew during the floods. The front of the Daily Telegraph headline is, the

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worst flood damage could have been prevented. The buck. At the Prime

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Minister. But there's going to be a lot of people needing to answer a

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lot of questions. The blame game is happening big-time. This article is

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all about maybe when there was building on areas that could flood,

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it should have been done in a certain kind of way with things like

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the electricity sockets being further up the wall. Somehow that

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doesn't seem to have been done. Who is to blame? Is it the planning

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authorities, the developers, is it that nobody realised these were the

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regulations that should have been in place? Also, the wider concern that

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so many of these new properties in flood affected areas will be

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uninsurable. It is talking about flood prevention and flood

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management. It is interesting to me that the experts in this open letter

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to the Telegraph talk about a complete re-think of the planning

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system and they talk about measures such as replanting forests in the

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upper reaches of rivers and sustain sustainable drainage. This is left

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wing and it is in the Telegraph. Very interesting. A bit late in the

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day. If everybody knew what needed to be done to prevent the scenes and

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the... That we have seen in the last few weeks, why weren't they saying

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it before? I think a lot were before. The cuts were brought in and

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the money not made available. The other frightening thing is a lot of

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the areas under water, particularly along the River Thames have been

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marked as places to build more houses as well. Who would want to

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live there now? You cannot wish away floods. You can manage water. You

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have to look at it on a large, holistic scale. Moving plugs up the

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wall is great, but it will not save your house. We stay with the Daily

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Telegraph. Just under the flooding story - Labour pledge may leave us

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in the dark. Energy suppliers not happy about political interference.

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I am just astounded by this. It seems to be that the cost of living

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campaign, being led by Mr Miliband, may end up leaving us in the dark.

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Well, I take this as a man who runs a power company which makes ?571

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million profit from customers. Well he would say that, wouldn't he? It

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was less than last year though. Uncertainty is the enemy of

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investment. Isn't it some kind of certainty? He knows what framework

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he's in. A Conservative or a Government which may... What is the

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argument there? Energy companies say it is more expensive to produce

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energy and they have to produce more environmentally-friendly ways of

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doing that and it costs money. And they are not going to get the

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investment or so they are threatening if the City, if the

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finance industry sees these companies and there's insecure

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investment, they will not get the money they need to build new power

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stations and make the changes they need to.

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We are going to stay with the Daily Telegraph, but Scotland's version of

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the Daily Telegraph, a different front-page story. The headline,

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"Wake up to the threat to economy," sol Alex Salmond is told. He was

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told that if it becomes an independent country. He's been

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battered this week, hasn't he, Mr Salmond. Suddenly all the big guns

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have turned on this guy. This is a threat to jobs. Companies we

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associate with Scotland not wishing to be based there. We have seen the

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TSB move its HQ and there is a suggestion in this story that

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Standard Life, that great assurer we associate with north of the border

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could be thinking of taking the road south. It is early days yet, though

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Anne. There is a way to go before the vote. It is interesting to me

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that the truths be told, the more it seems to strengthen the "yes" vote.

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The yes block seems to reject hard logic like this and treat it as

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bluff and bluster and bullying from George Osborne. Those of us who want

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to see the retaining of the United Kingdom... Stay with us, Scotland,

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as David Bowie said. It says cyberpeople message David Bowie. If

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he says that, it is good enough from me. He got stick from a small pop

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star and terribly unfair. It only means if we are having this now, it

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means it will become a very interesting referendum. You will

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both be back with me at 11. 30pm. Thank you to my guests. They will

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sifting through the papers to bring you more at 11. 30pm. Coming up at

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11pm, we'll have the latest on the crisis in Ukraine. Coming up next

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though - Sportsday. Stay with us. Hello. Welcome to Sportsday, with Mr

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John Watson. Here's what's on the way. Great

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