28/05/2014 The Papers

Nigeria in a friendly before the World Cup. That is all in Sportsday

in 15 minutes. Welcome to the Papers. With me are

Jenni Russell of the Times, and a writer from the Daily Telegraph. We

are going to start with an image of Maya Angelou, dominating the front

page of the Independent. The Bank of England committee that says interest

rates has told the Financial Times that the bank needs to start raising

rates sooner rather than later. The Daily Telegraph has more on the row

engulfing the Lib Dems. Vince Cable is implicated in a coup. The

Guardian has the same story, alongside a photo of Maya Angelou.

The Metro is claiming that the EU tax burden from Britain may rise by

half ?1 billion because of the crisis in Ukraine. The Daily Mail

goes with Lib Dems in meltdown. There is also a selfie taken by

Susannah Reid of herself and Tom Cruise. The Times says British girls

are now the fattest in Europe, saying peer pressure to eat fast

food was partly to blame. The Scotsman has more on the war of

words between the yes and no camps. We are going to start with the story

that is dominating a lot of the papers, Neil. The Lib Dems. The Lib

Dems in meltdown, according to the Daily Mail. This is, fortunately

perhaps will Nick Clegg, the guy whose head is on the block, it has

turned into something of a screaming match between Lord Oakeshott, the

man who commissioned these apparently terrible polls, very

disloyal thing to do, commissioning polls before an election, and Vince

Cable, whose knowledge of said polls is under consideration. So, Vince

Cable is now saying, we have researched this since last time we

were on air, he is saying that he knew a poll had been conducted in

his own constituency, and one in Wales, `` Wells, which is a

constituent of his Parliamentary Secretary, but had no idea that one

had been conducted in the Clegg's constituency. You sound sceptical

about that? Even no such direct information was given at the time,

it seems enormously unlikely that two and two wouldn't have been put

together. I don't know if it seems unlikely so much as whether Lord

Oakeshott is directly contradicting Vince Cable. Lord Oakeshott says

that he did know that the polls had been conducted, I don't know whether

he is saying that he knew about it beforehand, but also crucially that

Vince Cable you what the results were some weeks ago. Vince Cable

says he has no knowledge of the surveys, which period of time is he

referring to? This is very like " I did not have sex with that woman" ,

and " I did not inhale" . This is pointing to potentially a disastrous

election night for the Lib Dems. Why would you want to be the leader of

that party? You would perhaps want to wait or someone else to carry the

can in 2015, and then take over. You sound like a much better potential

plotter! Something like members of Gordon Brown's cabinet. There was

almost a leadership who, but then they realised... This might not look

good for Ed Miliband, but you have an article in the Times tomorrow

suggesting that he should be worried. He/she be very worried

about his own position, because no party has ended up winning if this

happens. That is the position that Labour over in right now. The party

around Ed Miliband are worried, because they think he is a good man,

a courageous leader, but he is not cutting through. They are also very

anxious that he, who is much less popular than his party on the

doorsteps, has been running what is essentially a semi` presidential

campaign, and that has paid off badly with the voters. Where is the

Shadow Cabinet? They want to be playing a part, they are the ones

who look normal. OK, but they weren't completely wiped out by the

recent elections, it wasn't as bad as some people had suggested. We

have Lord Ashcroft's own polling in his marginal constituency,

suggesting that Labour are far ahead. We also have Ukip taking

potential votes away from the Tories. There is some good stuff out

there for labour, isn't a? We also have economic growth and the year to

go before the election. They always fall behind, because there is more

good news. One shadow Cabinet member said if we carry on on this

trajectory we will lose big`time. There is no message of hope from a

relevant. He needs to learn this from the Obama campaign, hope and

aspiration. All of his policies are about state intervention for people

who can't take care of themselves, and that is not the majority of

voters, particularly in marginal constituency. Energy prices and so

on, that has resonated? People are doing OK, who can pay their

electricity bill, that is the vast majority of people, that policy

doesn't matter. It is not a question of whether the economy is doing

well, the price of their house is going up, they are feeling

prosperous, that is more important to people. There is a big part of

the electorate that it won't care for the message that is going at the

moment. The big danger for Ed Miliband, because he grew up as the

child of Marxist intellectuals, he became used to being part of an

unlike group. I think he may be too comfortable with the idea that they

are not popular now, but somehow everyone will see the light and

share labour's view as the electoral cycle proceed. People don't do that,

politics doesn't work like that. You have to make them believe `` Recep

Tayyip Erdogan labour. On to the Financial Times. Everyone

knows interest rates will rise at some point, the question is when, by

how much, and how fast? If you are going to raise interest rates, Mark

Carney, do it very slowly. Which means start very soon. That is what

someone in the Monetary Policy Committee has said. This will also

have a big effect on the election, because Mark Carney has made it

clear that he doesn't want to start raising interest rates before wages

start going up, and real wages are still not rising faster than

inflation, so the problem is, the housing market is overheating, so

perhaps they should raise interest rates. But then people can't afford

their mortgages, and you don't want a lot of repossessions before the

election, if you are this government. Exactly! It is all

political. I don't get much credit for Gordon Brown, but he did make

the Bank of England independent. Their mandate is to keep inflation

at 2%, that is their only mandate. If inflation doesn't go above that,

I know he winged addresses, but his actual mandate is inflation at 2%,

and that is roughly where it is `` window dresses. One of the things he

took over was that he would make sure that unemployment fell below 7%

and that wage rates were rising higher than inflation. He has a

broader perspective, which is a help of the economy on the whole, and how

it affects everyone. He must have agreed that with George Osborne

before he took the job. I think it will be difficult for rates to rise

while inflation is 1.7%. We have all this talk about house prices racing

out of control in London. That should be addressed by mortgage

prices and inflation. A lot for Mark Carney to ponder. Let's go to the

Independent. We discussed the widening gap between rich and poor.

I would like to focus instead on Maya Angelou. If you are always

trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be. That is

a quote from Maya Angelou. Obviously an incredibly inspirational figure.

I think mercifully it seems that she didn't suffer a great deal at the

end. She was posting on Facebook as late as Monday as this week, so

mercifully the end came quite quickly when it came. Obviously, a

figure who has bestrode so many different areas. Obviously a poet, a

serial autobiographer, starting with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, but

going on to be an actress, reading poetry and Bill Clinton's

inauguration. Barack Obama said she is one of the brightest lights in

his life. It is interesting, I was interviewing Bonnie Greer, and I

asked what Maya Angelou's legacy was. And she said, she was proud of

being a woman, in black Hummer she was proud of her past and overcoming

that. She was proud to be who she was. Basically, she celebrated

humanity, and that is part of her brilliance. It is amazing that you

can go from being raped at the age of seven by her mother's boyfriend,

who was killed in retaliation, and then she stayed mute for the next

five years because she thought her voice had killed her rapist. To go

from that to being everything that she was, Jesse Jackson said she was

a Renaissance woman, and that is literally true. She had a rebirth,

and she went on to lead such a flourishing life after a devastating

start up of poverty and segregation. Can you imagine not seeing a word

for five years when you are a kid, and then going on to write these

amazing: , and seven autobiographies! A remarkable

woman. We are going to go on to The Times. British girls have become the

fattest in Europe. Neil and I read this and we immediately put away the

chocolate bar we were eating. 29.2% of British girls under the age of 19

now or overweight. We have one of the worst records in the entire

world. It is only marginally better for boys, a quarter of them are

overweight as well. We absolutely have to do something, and it has to

be about the food industry, which pumps sugar into everything. I think

this I think we do so much, that so many messages these days about the

food industry or about peer pressure to eat fast food, but really just we

have spineless parenting. People need to take responsibility for how

they raise their children. If 30% of them are overweight or obese by the

time they are 19 that is principally a problem with parenting. I really

have for a start, I have had teenage children, and I can tell you you

have very little control over what they eat by the time they are 12. My

daughter is slender, but the second thing is they are surrounded by an

environment where almost anything that they eat at any time is going

to be bad for them, I was in hospital the other day. What you see

when you walk into the hospital? WHSmith. 300 different kinds of

chocolate bar, and not a single thing that you could describe as

healthy. In your household, my guess is that there was fruit and

vegetables, and you took care to make sure there were meals that are

balanced. I can afford expensive food, and eating well is

expensive... Eating well is more expensive than eating unhealthily?

Yes it is. Get a lot more calories out of a Mars bar than you do out of

an apple and a stick of celery. There seems to have been some kind

of leak from the government. This is to replace Lord Patten. I worry that

yet again, we will have somebody at the helm of the BBC who has no

experience in broadcasting. This is what I write about and those of us

who are friendly critics of the BBC and want the BBC to be strong, I

worry that the dot this is where Patten came unstuck. It was not

political affiliation, it was that he didn't get how the news

operation, particularly when the stable problem was at large. And

understanding the pressures that specifically affect the BBC in the

wake you don't see with other broadcasters. Let's get the final

story that is the Telegraph. Cynics are more likely to develop all

timers. Which means everyone who has been on this programme, including

me, is in trouble. I'm acidic! I am a sceptic. It is completely

different. This is the most important new story today. It is

absolutely riveting. 1500 people filled out a questionnaire and those

who agreed with statements like, I think most people would like to get

ahead, it is safer to trust nobody and most people will use you aren't

fairly worth three times more likely to develop dementia than those

others. You'll make it means that we have to start being nice and we will

live long and happy lives. I am not a clinical psychologist. Really?

There are different pathways in the brain. If you focus with mindfulness

meditation, at which I am a great advocate, meditation reinforces the

approach pathways which are key to mental health. My guess is that

these people, the cynics, have been doing their fight or flight version

pathways just a little bit too much. Very interesting. We will have to

edit there, unfortunately. We will all be positive on this programme

from now on. It has been great having you in. Thank you. Stay with

us now, it is time for Sportsday. Hello and welcome to Sportsday. Our

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