14/03/2014 The Papers

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

bringing us tomorrow. With me are the broadcaster Alice Arnold, and

Alison Phillips, weekend editor at The Mirror. Tomorrow's front pages:

Tony Benn features on the front page of the The Independent - "Death of a

maverick" is their headline. The Daily Mirror have the missing

plane as their main story. They speculate "Hijackers flew plane

towards remote island". The Daily Express take on the same

story is "Pirates stole missing plane".

The Daily Mail lead with a story about GM crops. Their headline,

"Scientists' hidden links to the GM food giants".

The i report the Chancellor is rejecting big tax cuts for middle

earners, despite a campaign from Conservative MPs. "Osborne's Budget

snub to middle classes" is their headline.

The Times headline is "Tories offer squeezed middle a tax reprieve".

The Daily Telegraph report that non-Europeans can buy EU citizenship

entitling them to live and work in Britain. Their headline, "For Sale -

EU citizenship". And the Guardian have a picture of

Tony Benn on their front page. The main headline though refers to their

exclusive on the Co-op bank, "Co-op shambles exposed".

Perhaps predictably, we begin with tributes that have been paid

throughout the day following the death of Tony Benn, the veteran

former Labour MP who has died this morning at the age of 88. An

extraordinary man in many ways, because unlike most people he became

more radical with age. Yes, after he left the Cabinet. He was an MP for

50-year is. It was in his later life that he became a real thorn in the

side of the Labour Party as years went by. There were some amazing

tributes today but also a lot of people saying, I did not agree with

him at the time. Although I respect his convictions and sense of

principle, there are a lot of people who did not agree with what he said,

he caused all sorts of problems for the Labour Party during that period.

But is it fair to blame him for the mess the party got itself into? It

is interesting that Bob Crowe died earlier this week and similar things

were said. Different circumstances but both avid socialists from

different backgrounds. And yet they were both left of the current Labour

Party, and they caused a lot of difficulties. The Independent

headline says, death of a maverick. But was he a maverick? Some

commentators are saying that towards the end of his life many of his

ideas have become fashionable, acceptable by lots of people. When

he was first involved in the Stop the War Coalition it was

extraordinary but with the benefit of history we have seen that what he

was saying was so right. I interviewed him last August and he

was very frail by that point. But he was still absolutely extraordinary.

His real passion for the stop the War campaign was a huge part of his

life. He was a wonderful orator as well. He spoke so well. Proper

sentences, proper thought out phrases that he was saying

beautifully. At a time when we feel so many politicians are beige, all

saying the same thing, and all saying it in management-speak which

they think people want to hear. What was interesting about him was that

there was a clarity to what he was saying and he really believed it.

The Mirror has champion of the powerless. So many ways of

describing him. That was the Ed Miliband quote. Also in the mirror

there are excerpts from his diaries. He was also an extraordinary diarist

and he believed so much that what went on in parliament should be

properly recorded. He really believed in the importance of

openness. And wonderful photographs of him, with his pipe. Giles Fraser

said today he was the only man he ever let smoke a pipe in his church,

which I thought was lovely. He had that quirkiness, with his shooting

stick and carrying a rucksack. Unlike the death of most public

figures where everybody says all the right things, people like Denis

Healey have been very candid today about how much damage he felt he did

to the Labour Party. That is quite unusual, and probably something Tony

Benn would applaud. Exactly. I think he would have liked that. He would

have hated everybody to go frantic because he died. He kept his marbles

right to the end and he would have known that this was happening, and

would have expected this kind of reaction. You mentioned his

opposition to the Iraq war and how critical he was of that. He was also

critical of the Falklands conflict, wasn't he? He got that wrong and it

did the Conservatives a lot of good. He was also anti-Europe, which is

different and two where Labour is now. He was out of kilter with the

common views at the time and cause a lot of problems for a lot of people.

I think it is better if people are regarded in an honest context,

rather than, didn't they do a jolly good job, because people are multi

dimensional. This move onto the Daily Express. Are we moving into

the realms of fantasy? We just don't know what has happened to this

Malaysia Airlines which disappeared a week ago. Pirates stole missing

plane - experts new theory, according to the Daily Express. We

have been asking what constitutes a pirate. Probably they mean a

hijacker, don't they? They don't mean the plane went into the sea and

pirates took it. It is a bit of a confusing headline, but I think they

are trying to talk about it being hijacked, which to all intents and

purposes means it was hijacked by hijackers. I am assuming it means

people are taking it for financial benefit, rather than some kind of

political or terrorist act or cause. This has come about because it went

missing. They reckon it was giving out signals that it was moving in

the air for five hours with the engine still working, but not going

east as had been thought but West towards India, and that is where it

may have... That is why they have widened the search area. And they

say it could have landed on a secret location, like a desert island. But

planes need runways, generally, to land, you know. And wouldn't

somebody on board try and possibly. The mobile phone thing is

interesting, because they are traceable. Everybody's mobile

phones. The whole thing is quite extraordinary. I cannot imagine it

is sitting under a coconut tree on a desert island. But when we do not

know the answers, people start to fill in the blanks. There are all

sorts of people looking for it now. The United States are worn over this

and they do not seem to be able to help. But it is a huge area they are

trying to search. It seems strange in this day and age that things can

disappear. We don't like mysteries any more because normally GPS can

solve any mystery. In the Daily Telegraph, this is Michael Gove who

famously did not go to Eton, a grammar school boy. The adopted son

of an Aberdeen fish processor, says the Telegraph. He says it is a sad

fact that so many of the people surrounding David Cameron did go to

Eton. And rightly so. It is a good thing that in his position as

Minister for education he is making this point. You imagine that a lot

of young kids growing up today would think what hope do I have of getting

into government unless I go to Eton? I am not sure it is still the case

but up until recently there were more format Eton schoolboy 's than

women in the Cabinet. Anything where you have a group that is that small

and can have so much power is clearly wrong. Sense of entitlement,

anyone? I think there are about 1000 boys at Eton, roughly. It is quite a

big public school. So we are talking about 200 each year. And we are

talking about a choice between 4000 or 5000 people here, which is tiny.

That is tiny! But Michael Gove doesn't say that the reason he is

stressing this is because it Tony Hamza equipped for these jobs, is

being put patient, because there have been historic failings in the

state system. -- Eton schoolboys are equipped for these jobs. They have

this sense of entitlement and this extraordinary education funded by

very rich parents. It does help them. Other people in the state

system could be and will be very good state leaders but the system,

such as it is, where we have this emphasis on private education, does

not enable that to happen. It helps them because people like to be

surrounded by people like themselves. Whether they have a

sense of entitlement or not, they are entitled because David Cameron

went to Eton and surrounds himself with his friends. But George Osborne

did not. He went to Saint Pauls. The Tories offer the squeezed middle

eight extra preview. According to the Times, there is a conflict with

some of the headlines tonight. George Osborne is promising to help

the squeezed middle in the next manifesto, but probably not in the

next Budget. The Times says they offer a packs reprieve and the i

says a snub to middle classes which seems to be contradicting each

other. -- a tax reprieve. But the Chancellor is expected to increase

the personal allowance to ?10,500 on the Budget on Wednesday. That's what

the proposal is. Because the whole thing is about the who % tax rate

and when it kicks in -- 40% tax rate. Historically it was not

supposed to be more - it was supposed to be for the wealthy. It

wasn't supposed to be... And Lord Lawson who was the Chancellor at the

time said he didn't intend for that. And now 1 million are expected to go

into the next tax rate and that's not necessarily a good thing. But

the i is saying Osborne's Budget's snub to middle classes. The Times is

looking ahead, isn't it? To the next manifesto. The i is concentrating on

what is around the corner. What is happening is the Times has been fed

information to make everyone think, or to make middle income readers of

the Times think there is hope around the corner and if they hang on to

the next manifesto, it will get better. That's what it looks like.

And Labour will seize on this and say - yes, we are right there is a

cost of living crisis which is the phrase they have neatly slotted into

lots of our usage. We have to be very careful that we don't sort of

take it as read Tharaya is exactly what we are seeing, that's -- that,

that is exactly what we are seeing. That's what Labour is saying what we

are suffering for. And Labour sauce there should be tax reductions for

people on lowest incomes. -- and Labour is saying. There is help for

people on lower incomes on Wednesday. But on the other end of

the spectrum, the really high millionaires that have gone out of

this Government, are perhaps the ones he should really be focussing

his attention on. The Guardian has an exclusive on what is happening at

the co-op. Shambles exposed from the group's senior independent director

trying to overhaul the boardroom saying he sees reckless behaviour

which could hinder the group. It is across all of its areas of interest.

Every area of it is a disaster. The funeral home business, the pharmacy

and farming conglomerate all of it needs to be radically reformed. It

seems to be that the Co-op is ungovernable. It almost seems it is

worse with the Co-op because we are led to believe it is run by its

members for its members. It is a cooperative. It had an amazing

history but I think earlier this week with the Chief Executive

quitting so sudden will you, it certainly sent out this message that

it was in a complete shambles. And we don't know what they are going to

do. It sounds like things are going to go downhill. He is saying it'll

deteriorate further unless it is radically reformed. It is such a

popular name on the high street. It is sort of sad to think that a

cooperative with those ideals, perhaps it is saying that it can't

survive in today's economics. But John Lewis is a sort of

ethically-minded partnership. It is poor management, with the crystal

meth guy. That's the papers for this hour but

Alice and Alison will be back with us in the next hour. But coming up

next, time for Sportsday. Welcome to Sportsday.

Our main stories tonight. Nicholas Anelka's future in English football

looks over after announcing he has terminated