11/04/2014 The Papers

concentrate on Team Sky, and we will bring you the results from rugby

league, including the top two in the rugby league. That is in 15 minutes

time after the papers. Hello and welcome to our look ahead

to what the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. With me are the writer

Dreda Say Mitchell, and Jeremy Cliffe of The Economist. Tomorrow's

front pages, starting with The Financial Times saying the

government will make it easier to prosecute people who evade taxes by

hiding money off`shore. The Independent says Parliament's

expenses watchdog will look into claims the taxpayer indirectly

funded a suite for what the paper calls a 'sex party' during a

Conservative party conference. The Telegraph says families with

stay`at`home parents pay more tax than most of their equivalents

across the developed world. The Mirror leads on the Oscar Pistorius

trial. The Mail reports on allegations that the Liberal Party,

police and MI5 covered up child abuse committed by the former MP,

Cyril Smith. The Express says there's confidence that the black

box from the missing Malaysian airliner will soon be found. A

senior Liberal Democrat MP has told the Times that his party is

'pointless'. And the Guardian says the Attorney General wants an

explanation from the Crown Prosecution Service about the failed

prosecutions of public figures for alleged sex offences. So let's

begin. Plenty to get stuck into this evening. This, at the Guardian,

let's start here. A story I have not seen in any of the others, at least

not in the front pages, that supermarket staff could win millions

in equal pay action. This highlighting, Dreda, that it is a

case brought by some 400 workers who are mainly women seeking equal pay.

I think so. It is an offshoot from women winning a landmark case with

Birmingham city workers Council. Women once again. It is about this

whole thing where in supermarkets, our `` our jobs equivalent? Women

work in the stalls, and it is male dominated distribution centres. ``

stores. It seems that the males are being paid more, it is interesting,

it always seems to be women missing out. It goes back to our earlier

story. Women coming out to work, or should they be staying at home with

their children? This is to do with local authorities also, isn't it? It

comes off the back of a series of lawsuits and local authorities. How

do you measure the differences between jobs? It is an imprecise

science. The stores say that the men who are the stalkers in question, it

``the stores. It suggests there is something wrong with how women are

paid. It is an important test case. It will affect virtually all of the

major supermarkets. And supermarket giants? It can trigger a wave of

six. Including those who own their own distribution warehouses. There

are men there who are doing the equivalent of retail jobs. We are

supportive, only one person is going to end up paying for this and this

is the customer? Every time we hear repeated stories about women not

being paid as much as men. It sounds so old`fashioned and last century,

just because a job is more manual, another job where it isn't as

manual, you get paid less. We are not doing manual work. Do we get

paid less because they are doing manual work? We are not really. It

is an interesting one. I think somebody definitely has to resolve

this. Onto the next one, we have the Daily Telegraph. Here, it's a

story, primary school children as young as ten should be taught about

illegal drugs. I think what is interesting with this story is that

it is not currently part of the national curriculum. And what we

know about the national curriculum is that education is not only about

subjects, English, maths, and science. We must look at the hidden

curriculum. We have to look at issues to do with health. If we are

not talking to children about health from an early age, how will they be

aware of the dangers? Let's be clear, when I think of schools that

I have taught in and the areas, some really hard`core areas, of course

children know about drugs. It is better that we educate them to look

after their bodies. For me, this is a health issue. Jeremy, you are

agreeing. I had to agree with you there, there is a mad objection to

teaching children about drugs and sex in schools. If a teacher sets

out the facts to a group of children, they will go out and find

the nearest drug dealer, that is completely mad. What about the odd

midweek are taking away their childhood? We are enhancing it by

getting them to think about their bodies. I was trying to put across

the other side, but I can tell that I have been completely quashed!

Jeremy, you are to explain this. This is a study by the OECD,

representing a group of developed economies, that shows all the taxes

have been falling when it comes to the UK generally, and a load of

other countries, the only exception is among families where one parent

goes out to work and the other stays at home. The article states there is

a failing on the part of the government. I look at this the other

way around, taxes have generally fallen in Britain over the last few

years, is it necessarily so bad the government has focused the benefit

of tax cuts of those in work? Maybe not. They talk about hard`working

families and people, I do not know if it is as completely negative as

the article suggests. Dreda, we were talking about some of your friends

suffering from the high cost of childcare? It is astronomical, when

I think of the people who I know, people are pulling, one person will

look after a number of people 's children. ``pooling. It goes back to

the notion of extended families. I find it interesting, often we revert

back to things that we know and it has worked well. I am pleased to see

that happening again, actually. It is typical on the continent, in the

Mediterranean, it is perfectly normal for families and neighbours

to share tasks like childcare and Britain after elderly relatives.

Perhaps there is a positive side to this? Moving on from the Telegraph,

let's go onto this. Calls for David Cameron to face Farage a live TV

debate. Nigel Farage has done battle with Nick Clegg. Calls now that

David Cameron should go head to head. Jeremy, do you think... The

argument is that he ought to be seen to be doing battle with Nigel

Farage. Others would say you are giving Nigel Farage a platform? It

is easy to say that David Cameron is dammed if he does, dammed if he

doesn't, if he says no to the TV debate, people would say he is

running scared of Nigel Farage, but if he says yes,

running scared of Nigel Farage, but that is the case. In national

issues, I think Nigel Farage would struggle, but in debating Europe,

his favourite topic he didn't. He turned around, but with a big

national subject, he would say we do not have a good policy on this. I .

Dreda, did you watch the debate? I did not. Would you watch it? I did

not. I deliberately didn't. No interest? I felt like, as a member

of the public, I have been set up to think I should watch it, when I have

watched Nigel Farage, people say he is a good speaker, but he has not

come across as a great speaker to me. Everytime I seem to see him,

Mike on the news this week, it sounded confrontational, it sounded

loud. `` like. I wanted to switch off. In this story, I think David

Cameron's grassroots are saying they want this to happen, and he should

listen. You have to ask yourself how many people pay attention to this

sort of thing? I did not notice the pub is packed with people clamouring

to see Nick Clegg versus Nigel Farage. People have better things to

do in most cases. It matters, I think it matters to how these things

are reported in the press, it filters through, and they get the

impression that Nigel Farage is a solid baiter and knows his own mind.

It has an effect. `` solid debater. An inside story on the sun, there is

a story doing the rounds, staff at schools who go and take, it would

appear, time off work to get cheap holidays or get time off. If it was

a school pupil taking time off, they would get a fine. On page seven,

there is this headline. Dreda. This is not a normal story in a school.

It is a particular story, we do not know the full details, I am

conscious I do not know the full details, but an acting head teacher,

who has taken off time in term time, to get married, for four

weeks. There has been so much work done with schools and parents and

families to ensure that children stay in school during term time, to

the extent that I think parents can be fined. It seems odd that a

governing body would appear to give head teachers time out of school

during term time. What I am picking up from this is that she is an

acting head teacher, she has an acting deputy head teacher, and I

would suspect that is what is worrying parents. If you have them

both in the positions as acting, this school is in a transition

period, they need managers to make it sustainable and balanced. If the

head teacher is not there, how can they do that? You do not think that

anger is, because if I have done it you have got fined, but you can do

this? I am picking up what I am reading here, the governing body is

saying that the reason they gave her time off was that she was working

extremely hard, and it sounds to me that this school is maybe at a point

where it needs stability. I want to get in the circumstances, I think

parents have reasons for this. The reason why the issue has been papers

recently is that local authorities are fining parents for taking

children of school term to go on holiday. For parents struggling to

make ends meet and they want to take their children away, we know around

the period of school holidays prices of flights and hotels go up

stratospheric. It is not unreasonable for parents to think,

let's take them out in the last week of term instead. That crackdown

makes this sort of behaviour less palatable. In a statement, the

school government said normally staff take leave during holidays,

but the request was granted because the woman in question worked

extremely hard. The statement said teaching would not be disrupted,

adding the majority of parents wish her well. It is interesting, I would

say, reading into this, if she is an acting head teacher, this is not a

good time to believe in this. You would have to guide me through the

Times, page three, in its completeness. It is Sherlock Holmes,

but also game of thrones, that means nothing to me! I adore this show.

Actually, it came on, two o'clock, season four, they transmitted it at

the same time as the US aid. There are a series of academics studying

it as a serious subject `` USA. One is doing a cultural critic and the

other is looking into the climate. In Game of Thrones, there is a

kingdom where it is perpetual winter. We can never predict what it

is like, and the economy. I don't particularly like fantasy, but if

you pretend it is set in mediaeval times, are all these parallels

between game of thrones and mediaeval Europe `` Game of Thrones.

It is exciting, thrilling, and I think people should eat studying it.

Jeremy Lin completely nonplussed. I am completely new to this. When you

say perpetual winter, Blade Runner was like that as well. Only nine

episodes of Sherlock have been made so far, but they provided enough for

a day`long symposium. I think this is birds being nerds, isn't it? That

said, I think these things are not completely useless, because if this

programme is getting so much interest and attention from people,

not just fans but the national press, it must be part of the

zeitgeist. It must say something about where we are as a society.

Absolutely. I kind of understand more than I did. And you just will

not stop watching it. And there will be a lot of people thinking, we

don't want something else added into it. Thank you both for coming out

here. That's it for The Papers this evening. Thank you to my guests

Dreda Say Mitchell and Jeremy Cliffe. Stay with us here on BBC

News. At midnight we'll have more on the court appearance of Seamus Daly

over the Omagh bombing. But coming up next it's time for Sportsday.

Hello and welcome to Sportsday, I'm Hugh Ferris. Bubba breaks