21/02/2014 The Papers

Controversy in the speed skating has Elise Christie was disqualified from

her third event at the games. More on that in Sportsday after The

Papers. Welcome to our look ahead to what

the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. With me, Yasmin

Alibhai-Brown, columnist for the Independent. Also, David

Williamson, political editor of the Western mail. Thank you for joining

us, David. Some of the headlines. Big changes are coming to the Labour

Party, according to The Independent. It says that the party leader, Ed

Miliband, is promising to devolve power to ordinary members on an

unprecedented scale. And the Mail has a story about a delayed Ryanair

flight at Stansted Airport. The paper claims that furious passengers

called police from the tarmac after waiting hours without food or drink.

The Telegraph says Princess Anne has entered the debate over the need for

affordable new homes. She apparently told a conference that villages must

bear the brunt of thousands of new homes if the countryside is to be

protected from "large-scale" development.

The Express leaves on a Court of Appeal ruling on housing benefit.

The Times reports on what it calls a silent epidemic of anorexia among

teenage girls at independent schools. The Sun has the story of a

woman it claims is blaming her weight gain on benefits. Wayne

Rooney's new pay deal at Manchester United is on the front page of the

daily mirror. Ukraine is heavily featured, as you

can imagine. We start with the Independent with a picture of

Rebekah Brooks, after describing her car crash personal life. She talked

about this not being an affair with Andy Coulson but sporadic intimacy,

which is a new phrase. This will be an interesting case as it proceeds.

She denies the four chargers and it is her defence that continues at the

Old Bailey. Moving on, my changes are bigger than Claus four, says

Miliband. These are new rules for the party that will devolve power to

ordinary people. Is this Ed Miliband trying to make politics more

interesting and engage the public? It is striking that so many years

after clause four was scrapped, here we are with this image of Blair. It

shows how the Blair years, in some ways, still continue. The central

idea is interesting, of getting people to be engaged. It is a bit

like in America people talk about being a registered Democrat or

Republican. That does not mean they hand out flyers at weekends but they

have some affiliation and can vote in primary is. If it goes through

whatever procedures they have to go through, it gets through this

constant accusation that they are owned by the unions. The unions that

got him into power in the first place. I know, but fair enough.

There is this Russell Brand stuff going on, people feeling

disconnected. My worry is that too much is being promised. You might

get a million more people. Remind us about Russell Brand, because some

people might have missed the interview. He was basically saying,

I do not vote but I have political values and I represent people who do

not want to vote because they are bored. Exactly. I totally disagree

with that, I have to say. It is childish and a little bit spoiled,

because we do have a system and we should all be involved one way or

another to try and change it for the better. We have a coalition

government because people did not turn out to vote. People are bored

of politics. Do you think that is the case? I do not think people are

bored with politics, but in the internet age, everyone seems to

think that every policy has to be the one that I want. It can't work

like that, and that is my fear for this. He is making too many

promises. In the end, there has to be a collective decision about what

policies the party chooses. What is interesting is who this is going to

appeal to. Before, the Labour Party was the party of organised labour.

These are now presumably going to be people who enjoy programmes like

this, who are politically engaged and take an interest. Many of those

might be the people the Conservatives are trying to target

with the big society rhetoric, those who volunteer in the local church

and food banks and things like that. It could be a whole wedge of people

who are suffering under various policies, feel that nobody is

speaking to them because they are not the hard-working squeezed

middle. ?3 is not a lot of money. Maybe it will bring in the truly

disenfranchised. It sounds like both of you are saying that because of

the state of the economy, because of the amount of cuts people are

suffering from, because of immigration being such a fuelled

issue, turnout at the general election might not be a concern

among today's leaders right now. Indeed. This is the ultimate

referendum, really. People are saying, this is my chance to

actually expressed some indignation or excitement, perhaps, if they can

galvanise that. I hope that immigrants, who have been feeling

very angry at the way things are discussed, join the Labour Party and

change the discourse. We all need to get more involved. Too many people

have this helplessness, I think, which is not good. Speaking of

people's bad feeling about cuts, particularly to benefits, the Daily

Mail reports on ATOS wanting to pull out of the government contract to

vet those claiming disability benefits. Sickness benefit tests

firm pulls out after death threats to staff, is the headline. I am sure

it has happened. But I think ATOS has not had a very good record of

late. A lot of these tests have been criticised by various groups and

people, ministers, MPs. I think it is a way of getting out of this

thing. They don't want to be there any more, I think. Do you think that

maybe it? I think so. There were jokes in Parliament about how ATOS

had found Richard III ready to work. It was becoming a liability. In

recent weeks we have seen Westminster debates raising the fact

that so many of the cases have been overturned that it has become a

liability to the government. So I think this is a quiet divorce that

both sides will be happy about. Last night we were talking about another

story from a leaked document that was proposing chargers for those who

wanted to challenge their benefits being taken from them, that they

would be charged for it as well. Something like 58% end up being

challenged. Let's move on to Ukraine. It is in all of the

papers, as you would imagine. The Daily Express takes a slightly

unique angle on the story. Truce as protesters are told, agree, or you

will die. And there is a picture there of Yulia Tymoshenko, the

imprisoned former prime minister of Ukraine, very much seen as a symbol

of unity in Ukraine. That is an interesting take by the Express.

Yes, and they do not do this kind of story, so that is even more

interesting. But it is true that this woman has been imprisoned for

how long now? And we have almost heard nothing, after some stories

about how she was being treated. If she has managed to survive all of

that and come out, this is her moment, perhaps. I don't know. The

memories of the Orange Revolution. It is almost as if people in the

Ukraine are saying, this is one more chance to get the house in order.

You look at the history of Ukraine, if anybody had a miserable

experience of the 20th century, going from civil war to occupation,

to... But their revolutions were very peaceful, remarkably peaceful.

That is what raised the hopes that it was possible for some ex-Soviet

countries to come through this change without violent disorder. But

now we have come to this point. And this is a very quick resolution, if

it is going to be taken seriously. It is not trusted just yet. Many

protesters still in shock and in Independence Square this evening,

not rushing to go home. Let's have a look at the daily Mirror, with a

picture of Chris Moyles the former Radio 1 breakfast show presenter. He

falsely claimed he lost ?1 million trading as a used car dealer. He

accepts full responsibility, according to the newspaper. He has

issued a statement, hasn't he. What is there to say? Why? Why do people

with money always want to not pay tax? And why do they get away with

it? We were punishing benefit scroungers, as we call them, and

here are all sorts of people. There is an organisation, a tax avoidance

organisation. We are talking about tax avoidance, not evasion, which is

different. This is something the Inland Revenue have been clamping

down on. There are a number of schemes that have been available and

they are challenging them in the courts. This feeds into the whole

narrative that if you are very clever and very wealthy, you will

not be paying tax in the way that we all are. It just adds that to the

fire. I want to read the statement Chris Moyles from. Upon advice I

signed up to a scheme I was assured was legal. My knowledge of the

scheme was naive. I am not a tax expert and acted on advice. This was

a mistake and I accept the ruling without reservation. I take full

responsibility and have learned a valuable lesson. The BBC also add

that it is not a party involved in this tribunal and they understand

Chris Mono has taken full responsible T for his tax

arrangements. -- Chris Moyles. Moving onto the Daily Mail, English

is the second language in one in nine schools. They have done a lot

of research. Yes, and what is wrong with that? The more languages we

speak, the better it is for us, our country, business interests. When

does knowing another language become a disability? It is mad. I speak for

macro languages, plus English. Does that make me a pariah. This shows

the changing population because of migration. I think Brits in

particular, and this is a big thing in Wales where they are bilingual,

but the English in particular do not learn other languages. That is going

to push us back in a lot of ways as the world changes. If we have kids

speaking some kind of language, and British kids are picking some of

that up, I can't think what is wrong with that. Do you think that

migrants should learn English? Of course, and if you don't, your own

future is held back, if for no other reason... What is amazing is how

many migrants, I have been listening to Ukrainian migrants here in

Britain today on the phone in programmes. Their English is

astonishing! I have travelled around Eastern Europe, all over the place,

and English is the second language in most countries now. And they

speak so well! There is something heartbreaking, when you go abroad

and see advertisements in English in the middle of a city, as if English

speakers find it hard to experience the other! English is the world

language, which is also making this all happen. We don't always do

this, but we will look at the back pages of the Guardian, Wayne Rooney,

one of the big headlines. I wish I was good at football, I wish. I was

always picked to be linesmen. You don't want this amount of money, you

do not want it! Is he worth it? That is the question. He's a player under

now. He will, but I guess the signal it sends out is that the golden

years and the symbols of Ferguson and so on... What do you do with

?300,000 per week? What do you do with that amount of money? There is

only so money ice cream is you can eat. You smoke the notes. I don't

know! I was distraught when I realised he will be 33 when this

contract comes to an end, it makes me feel ancient by comparison. Think

about it, this kids will never have to work. There is something quite

distorted about that. I am sure he is a very talented footballer, he

has made his money, not inherited it, but there have to be limits. He

will be, you know, in the history books as one of our greatest

players, and a lot of fans will be thinking, yes, he is worth it,

Manchester would not be the same without Rooney. But there must have

been a time when you could be a good footballer and not in this amount of

money. There was, 1960! Many thanks for taking us through the papers.

Stay with us here on BBC News. At 11 we will get the very latest from

Ukraine as the country signs a peace plan designed to end the political

crisis and hopefully the violence as well. Coming up next on BBC News:

Sportsday. Hello and welcome to Sportsday, I'm

John Watson. On the way tonight, Wales revive their hopes of winning

a record third Six Nations title with victory over France in Cardiff.

Great Britain's men's curlers settle for silver as they're beaten