05/05/2014 The Papers

championship. Tennis players have gathered to remember Elena

Baltacha, who has died at the age of 30.

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

bringing us tomorrow. With me are Fay Schlesinger, Home Editor at The

Times, and Sarah O'Connor, who's Economics Correspondent at the FT.

Let's go through the front pages first of all. The Daily Express has

news of a super pill that will save millions of lives and adds years to

life. The Daily Telegraph says hundreds of

asthma deaths could be prevented according to a national review which

is blaming GPs and health services. The Metro carries a photo of Elena

Baltacha and the tributes to, "a shining light of the game". One in

seven hospital beds are occupied by someone with diabetic ` the Daily

Mail says it's costing the NHS ten billion pounds a year. The Financial

Times frontpage is dominated by the politics surrounding the takeover

battle between the pharmaceutical giants Astrazenca and Pfizer. The

plight of asthma victims also dominates the Times which says top

doctors condemn shocking standards of care. The Guardian has details of

a ministerial letter which could mean job`seekers could lose their

benefits if they don't take 0`hours jobs. Let's go through some of those

stories. We will start with the Daily

Telegraph and the story about asthma. They are saying two thirds

of deaths from asthma could be prevented, according to statistics

they have got. This is from the Royal College of physicians. People

do die from asthma at the rate of 1002 and a year, including 40

children. I was asthmatic when I was a child. For mild sufferers you have

your inhaler and you get on with life. This is a reminder of how bad

it can be. The NHS is doing badly. The Royal College of physicians are

using the word, horrifying. Not only that, in western Europe, Britain is

doing really badly. It is not just that it is a difficult condition,

people are having an attack, going to hospital and then being sent home

again. They are laying this at the door of costs and the doctors are

not comfortable with how they should be dealing with people with asthma?

This is a story the American anti`Healthcare people would jump

on. Doctors are prescribing inhalers to the wrong kind of people. They

are trying to keep costs down. The story says there is a 10% rise in

asthma deaths, that is a big rise. It is a condition you would think we

would be adept at taking on. We all know somebody with asthma. There was

an inquest last month about a girl who had a horrible asthma attack and

the ambulance went to the wrong place. There was some stats out last

week looking at child mortality rates in Britain and showing we were

worst across the whole of Western Europe. We were on a par with Serbia

and Poland. Iceland have half of the child deaths we have. We are very

proud of the NHS, and rightly so, but what are we doing? There is a

theme to the stories, health is one of them. The other one is the issue

of ethnic identity and, " foreigners" if we say it that way.

It is to do with the ethnic make`up of England and how different ethnic

groups will change English identity. Tell us about this policy exchange

figure? It is a significant story. Policy exchange is a new think tank

but it looks like a rigorous piece of work. They said the non`white

population make up 20% of the population by 2050. That will be a

radical shift in the way this country looks and feels. Big

political implications, if you are a Conservative minister reading that,

I think you might be a little bit nervous. You can argue about this

case, whatever UKIP are saying, they are not foreigners, they will be

people living here. We will be just talking about the colour of skin.

Nevertheless, these are not foreigners, but there are

differences we should be happy about. Ethnic minorities have a

higher vertebrate and this country needs people of working age to

support the ageing population. `` higher birth rate. The study does

point out it may not help because you could get more segregation

depending on where people live. And educational attainment. Not across

the board of the Bangladeshi community is doing great as is the

Indian born community, or second and third generation Indians. Better

than young, white boys. You hope it is good news, but the impact for the

Tory party who are doing so badly among ethnic minorities, Enoch

Powell is still on their shoulder and they cannot shake it. One of the

point is this raises is political parties need to think differently.

They cannot put people into non`white Britons and white British.

They have found different ethnic groups may have different feelings

about the Conservative Party or the Labour Party. Lumping it into two

big groups is ridiculous. I am sure the parties are becoming aware of

that now, but the Tories, 2050 is a wake`up call. You say they are

realising, but the election Dureau for the Tories said targeting the

ethnic minority vote is a bad idea. I don't know whether they are

targeting it. This issue should not be confused with the issue of

foreigners. But that is what the Daily Express, on page two, have

said. This is not about the nuance of the way society is made up that

scandal of foreign rapists on our streets. The headline figure is,

4000 convicted migrants are still wondering around on our streets.

These are people who have served their time and been let out and have

been given leave to stay here. It is not as if they are evading the

authorities. But 4000 is at the top, but it concedes later on only eight

of these are murderers and 48 rapists. They have been through our

courts to have decided they are exceptional circumstances. Will we

endorse the idea of somebody who has committed an horrific crime in

Britain to be sent back to his country to be killed in that

country? We are complicit in that. There are interesting issues on

human rights when you hear about the government taking on the legal

system. We have had Theresa May saying on more than one occasion, "

I don't like the decision that has been taken". We are meant to have an

independent judicial system. This is a misleading story because they are

not just free to roam the streets, it has been decided in a court of

law. But this kind of territory makes people cross in a run`up to a

general election. How come if people have done dreadful things can evade

deportation by saying, what about my human rights. They cannot marry the

two together. We have not said the word, " UKIP" yet. AstraZeneca

calling on the Prime Minister to be neutral over Pfizer. Elements of

caution emerging? AstraZeneca are saying to the Prime Minister, can

you just be quiet. Your comments are not helpful. The Prime Minister is

saying, I am not trying to interfere, it is a big deal for the

UK. AstraZeneca has rebuffed Pfizer's approach. It is endorsing

what Ed Miliband said over the weekend, which was David Cameron was

in danger of sounding like a cheerleader for the Pfizer

acquisition. Last week I was taking the view, white is the government

getting involved in a private deal between two big drug companies. When

you think there is this public interest test for some deals. Deals

involving financial stability and national security, there is a public

interest test the government steps in for. Why wouldn't they get

involved in a deal that could cost a lot of jobs and the back story from

Pfizer on jobs is not great. You cannot keep adding a new industry

every time something comes up you might get upset about. We need a

foreign policy of what we think about foreign takeovers and I think

the lines are a bit blurred. This takeover has stuttered, but not yet

stopped. And this 26th of May deadline, also talks of a hostile

takeover bid? It is almost certain that Pfizer will come back with a

higher offer. AstraZeneca has a point. If you value all of their

savings, I think they need to offer a bit more. Whether it goes hostile,

I don't know, but it will be an interesting story to watch. Let's

stay with the business world every move to the Daily Telegraph, people

at home will be interested in this. It is about Amazon linking with

Twitter. We see the commercial opportunities with Twitter. If you

have a product advertised on Twitter, and you want to buy it, you

just have to do a tweet with a hash tag and that product will be put

into my Amazon basket. That is a small step but it is the world

Amazon and Internet shopping needs to conquer. The ease at which we can

buy products just makes us more likely to buy them. I shop so much

on Amazon because it is easy and in one place. With the choice the

Internet offers, I find myself more streamlined. If I was on the high

street I would go into a few shops to try it on shoes or whatever. But

online I use Amazon. It is to go to place. There is a study showing that

we are so flummoxed by choice it is too much for us. Simplify the

offering. There's is a feature, add it now, buy it later. So you are not

hitting a button and then parting with a lot of cash. This idea is

bizarre. It is so easy. One click and you have bought it. It is great

and Amazon always does it. It adds an extra step. Then you have to go

into Amazon and then buy it. Not sure how many of my followers on

Twitter would keep following the if they had to clicking into other

things to see what DVD I have wrought. It is a way of telling your

friends you have just bought this. Who wants to know? Amazon would.

Twitter is a forum where your daily life, your boring walk to work

becomes public knowledge. You can say, that Granny is their feeding

her cat. Private lives have become external, so why not our shopping

lives. The Daily Express ` super pill adds years to life. We're

talking not about asthma, this is heart disease, talking of

simplifying the offering. This is about getting four drugs into one

magic pill. It's the most obvious thing in some ways, and yet really

important. So it's a polypill, which contains two blood pressure drugs,

aspirin and statins and the combination of those drugs is proven

to reduce your risk of heart attack and strokes. Brilliant. We know that

already. They're saying when you put them into one pill, you're more

likely to stick with it, because sitting and having to take four

pills a day is annoying, so taking one is easier, so the adherence to

the pills is higher. It's important because we don't have unending

streams of money. Our NHS budget is through the roof. We need to get

control on that. A way to do that is by influencing people's behaviour

around drugs, not just doing what Pfizer and AstraZeneca do,

developing the drugs, but saying we have the drugs in place, how can we

make people take them? It's a simple thing but it works. Will talk more

in an hour. For now, thanks very much. That's it from the papers for

now. We'll be back as we say 11. 30, for another look at the stories

making the news. More front pages coming in between now and then. Stay

with us. At 11, we have the latest on the abduction of the 200 girls in

Nigeria. Now it's time for Sportsday.