01/05/2014 The Papers

game, the latest from the World Snooker Championship, and a shock

for Ospreys in the Pro 12. That is all to come in 15 minutes on

Sportsday after The Papers. Hello and welcome to our look ahead

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

broadcaster Henry Bonsu and the former trade minister Lord Digby

Jones. The Metro is leading on the inquest into the death of Peaches

Geldof. The Express has decided to focus on a rise in house prices. The

Telegraph says dozens of grammar schools in England are planning to

discriminate against middle`class pupils when choosing admissions. The

housing bubble is now the brightest hazard light on the Bank of

England's dashboard according to the Financial Times. The Guardian is

leading on the refusal of barristers to represent defendants in protest

at legal aid cuts. The Mirror is reporting the apology from Jeremy

Clarkson following allegations that he used an offensive term. The Daily

Mail says Nick Clegg is blocking a crackdown on people who carry

knives. Interesting stories there. We will start with the Daily

Telegraph. Mr Jones. The new troubleshooter! We will talk about

that a little bit later. Middle`class pupils losing out on

grammar schools. What is this about? Thank you! The root out for so many.

Did you go to a grammar school? Yes. I was a scholarship boy at a

public school but much the same. It was the way out for kids who were

frankly bright, and with parents who gave them love and enthusiasm but no

money. It was the late Anthony Crossland, but the very living

Shirley Williams, both of whom dedicated themselves to destroying

this way for the not so well heeled bright kids getting a fabulous

education. So what is going on now? They have been under the cosh ever

since. For some reason, if you have done everything well in life, you

will achieve excellence, which is not true. The metropolitan elite are

saying that we can't have all these middle`class kids going to grammar

schools. Grammar schools are responding and saying, OK, we will

positively discriminate. These people will not go there. So if you

actually have moved into an area, if your parents might have bought a

house in a particular area because of a good school, if you are there

by accident of where you were born and what you do, you could be

discriminated against. It is an absolute disgrace. But why? Let's

leave the politics and socioeconomics out of it. It is just

not good for the country. The country needs as many aspiration of

the excellent pupils as they can possibly get. It has got to take on

Asia. You have been talking about poor kids and people from lower

income backgrounds. The fact is that Ofsted has said that grammar schools

in this country are stuffed full of middle`class children. Although

something like 16% of children are on free school meals, only 3% of

those that go to grammar schools are from a low income backgrounds where

the household is earning less than ?16,000 and there is a generational

waste of talent. What are we doing for those young people? The head of

this grammar school association says that people will not see much

difference, because we are not talking about huge numbers. This is

a scare story. It is the Daily Telegraph saying to its tribe, watch

out. Your kids and their aspirations will be destroyed here. We are

talking about a few hundred children. It might be factually

accurate that it is a tribal story but it could be true. So that is all

right then? It is about the skin. At the end of the day you have a kid in

a particular environment. It is not that good's fault but their parents

are middle`class and they will be denied an education because of

socialism. Hang on. Timeout! Has anyone got a mallet? ! But if the

facts are that there is such a tiny proportion of youngsters who are

from very underprivileged backgrounds, those getting free

school meals, going to grammar schools, then that has got to be

sorted out, hasn't it? So increase the number of grammar schools. That

is a big political decision. Exactly. This is about party

politics, not economics. This is about politics. Because socialism

will not allow it to happen, we are going to deny... Do we have a

socialist in the room? We do not. A libertarian in Government? Not as

libertarian as you. The better off in society have always had choice

and the poor never had. For some reason the way you give the poor

choice is to deny everybody else. It is not denying everyone. It is. If

you don't have the money to knock up a view more grammar schools, what do

you do? You have got the money but you have not got the political will

to do so. Let's move on, please, to the Guardian. Fraud trials in

jeopardy as lawyers rebel. A case has collapsed because of barristers

protesting about the cuts in legal aid. This is a big story because the

Government wants to cut the legal aid bill by a million. And

barristers taking on these cases will see their fees cut by 30%.

Their words demonstrations earlier this week `` there were

demonstrations earlier this year. And now a landmark fraud case, it

has been stopped by Judge Leonard. He is not going to give the

prosecution any time... In fact he is closing the case because the five

men accused could not be guaranteed fair representation because no

barristers wanted to take on the case. They searched high and wide

and they could not find anyone to take it on. In fact the person who

pushed this in the court was Alex Cameron QC, who defended one of the

defendants free of charge. I was a lawyer for 20 years and I come from

the spirit that says that even somebody caught red`handed... Even

those guys that killed Lee Rigby, you could not be even more caught

red`handed than them, they are entitled in my view to free,

independent, legal representation. That is the hallmark of a good

society. I don't care who you are. You are entitled to bed. This

Government is saying it will deny people that because it will put

barristers in the position where they can't afford to do the job. Is

that really the case? It is. The public perception is that they all

owe so much `` all earning so much. The reality is that many solicitors

are not earning anything at all. They are representing the challenged

in society. There are two aspect of this that very important it is

irrelevant. I think they are appealing to their tribe, like the

Daily Telegraph, but it is irrelevant if the Prime Minister's

brother is involved. Absolutely irrelevant. It is a journalistic

point. It is appealing to the tribe. It is challenging the Prime Minister

with his own brother. But that is not relevant. The Guardian is right

and on sound ground when they say these people are not getting

representation because people are being denied justice because of

that. And also, in a very concentrated fraud trial, it is time

to look at the way we administer justice. You cannot expect 12 good

men and women to take on complicated stuff. There are several big fraud

cases down the line. Today it is fraud, tomorrow criminal cases. You

probably need to move towards two or three judges, not one, sitting there

in some sort of trial. All right. Let's go on to the Daily Express.

This is their take on rising house prices. The record rise in house

prices, rising at the fastest rate since 2007, as values soar by ?1500

per month. The way they have written that, one might think that it is a

good thing. You might think that. They have been banging on about this

since the credit crunch. About 2007. They have been trying to talk up the

market for such a long time but those of us in the housing market

who did buy in 2005 to 2007, taking a punt, many of us who bought

outside the South East bubble, are still in negative equity, in

Birmingham, Newcastle, so it is a tale of two countries. They are

trying to talk this up but I suspect we will see what happened last time.

Last time prices rose this past was June, 2007, just before the crunch

and the collapse. `` this fast. And a similar story, Bank of England

fears over property spiral. They are looking at the glass being half

empty. I did not think I would agree with Henry then! I think he is spot

on. There is one country called London, possibly a bit wider,

possibly within the M25, and both of those stories are absolutely right.

If you go outside. Out to Birmingham, Liverpool, Leeds,

Newcastle, Cardiff, Belfast, this recovery is big and sustainable and

it has nothing to do with house prices. It has everything to do with

all the other big drivers of an economy. What they are saying in the

Financial Times is that if you have property prices and if you have

information and you begin the bubble, and you are quite right,

Henry, you get to the point where you have to do something about it,

which can only mean interest rate rises. The moment you have that,

forget the housing bubble. You choke off access to capital for others.

One of them is consumers, meaning retail goes down, but the other is

business of course. And don't gloss over that. If you have got a small

business then getting back into work and suddenly being charged twice as

much for it because Mrs McGuinness's has has gone up in

Kensington, you have a problem. `` house. I agree! You have agreed on

what seems to be blatantly clear to a lot of people that there is

clearly a huge rise in housing prices in the South East and this

area is doing particularly well. It has not quite caught on in other

places. It has not. OK, but it is catching on. But if there is a crash

in London, that will affect everywhere else anyway. There will

not be a crash in London. Far too dynamic. I am not too sure. I can

not take a headline seriously when it has the... It might be a false

bottom. The false fess! I am far more worried about what the

FT is saying! That was so pompous of you!

But true! One final story ` the Metro. Peaches ` the final echo of

her mother. Very, very sad. I remember, didn't the morning after

she was found dead, the picture of her and her mother taken many years

ago. A lot of people responded by being angry with the Metro, thinking

it was tasteless. In this case people did wonder if she did take

something. Her friend are saying we should remember the former wild

child who became a responsible mother. It would appear from text

cog report that she may have taken heroin. I have two takes. Kids are

dying of heroin overdose every day. They don't get on the front of the

Metro. The reason is because who she is, not what she did. The good ` if

it is the right word out of this ` this f this is a wake`up call... But

it never is. We all hope it could be. You will be

back in an hour and look at some more of the stories behind the

headlines. Many thanks for that. Gerry Adams remains in police

custody. I will speak to Ian Paisley Junior, that will be live from

Belfast. Now time for Sportsday. Hello. Good evening welcome to

Sportsday. The headlines: Chelsea assistant manager, Rui Faria, has

been given a six`match stadium ban. Batting coach Graham Gooch becomes

the latest casualty in a new era for English cricket. Mark Selby