29/05/2014 The Papers

former midfielder. We will also have the latest from the French Open, as

Andy Murray breezes into the third round.

With me are David Davis the media commentator and former director of

the Football Association, and Anne Ashworth, the assistant editor at

the Times. We are starting with the Daily Express, which says that

doctors are winning the war against high blood pressure, saving tens of

thousands of lives every year. The government is hiring debt collectors

to chase hundreds of thousands of people whose tax credits were

overpaid, that is according to the Independent. The chief executive of

the NHS has told the Daily Telegraph there needs to be more treatment of

patients in their local communities. The Metro is reporting that members

of East drug smuggling gang have been convicted by a court, but only

ordered to repay ?24. `` a drug smuggling gang. The Guardian reports

that there is possible problems with the calculations of the cost of

independence in Scotland. The Times reports on a woman who was murdered

for marrying illegally. The Daily Mail reports on the Chilcott enquiry

into the Iraq war. The Daily Mirror shows a photograph from today's

vigil for Stephen Sutton, the teenager who raced so much money for

cancer charities. We will start with the Times. Outrage grows over woman

condemned to hang for falling in love. This is a woman in sedan who

is a Muslim, but married a Christian, and now she is being

condemned to death. She gave birth this morning in a prison, shackled,

she already has one child living with her there. Her husband is a

biochemist, she is a doctor, and they are caught up in a story of

dark retribution and punishment that would shame the Dark Ages. She is

accused of apostasy, that is, denying the fact that she was a

Muslim. She says she was raised as a Christian, her husband who is a US

citizen originally from South Sudan, and the court in Khartoum has said

that she must die in two years after she has finished nursing her baby,

for apostasy. For having denied and gone back on what they say is the

Muslim faith. One suspects, David, that the majority of Muslims around

the world would see this case and would actually be quite appalled by

it. I would assume that, and for me, I have faith, and I look at other

faiths, and I would think that anybody who has any faith, whatever

it may be, would find this almost the comprehension. Not least in the

21st century. But here is the story, those are the facts, as were

outlined, and there are some extraordinary facts here. She went

into labour after two months kept chained in a cell. The judge found

she was Muslim because of the faith of her father, was therefore guilty

of apostasy for marrying someone not a religion. He jailed her and

annulled the marriage that had taken place in a church in Khartoum. The

judge delayed her execution by two years so she could nurse her baby.

Filled with horror, and the word outrage barely describes how one can

feel. What the stories like this, do you think... How do they colour

potentially the attitude of non` Muslims to the Muslim faith? It is

not just this story, yesterday we had the woman stoned to death

outside the High Court in Lahore for marrying someone against her fathers

wishes. Stoned to death by her own family. We have this story from

Niger, where the African Union is launching a programme to try to

prevent the marriage of 14 million underaged girls across the continent

every year. These stories, what kind of a picture do you think they paint

or non` Muslims of the Muslim faith? I would think that most

Muslims would look at this in their heart would sink. They would be

horrified. The way their fate is being betrayed, and the way their

beliefs are being perverted. It seems to be, maybe there is a

pretext for the court in Khartoum, maybe they are using religion in a

way that they have decided is expedient in this case. We know that

anybody would feel horror at this. And who is going to do anything

about it, that is the question? Sitting here in a warm part of

central London, what responsibility does our government have, and who

can influence those in authority in this country, in Sudan, to do

something about what is going on? One suspects it is politicians a

long way I fear from the UK and the US, and the European Union. Haven't

we just signed off some aid to Sudan? Maybe we should be saying,

well it is dependent on human rights. These are deeply

conservative countries. Is it for us to be telling them how they should

be running their affairs in that sense? You can beat yourself up all

night on the sort of subject. It is interesting that and raises the

issue of international aid. I am involved in the international legacy

of the Olympic Games with Sebastian Coe and others, and this morning we

were discussing whether there was an argument that in the future we

should be targeting difficult countries, and Sudan would be just

that sort of country. Can Sudan so easily dispense with the Doctor?

That is what this lady is. This is how cheap it holds the life of

someone who could this much good its community. The front page of the

Times as well. David, non` apology plunges Lib Dems into fresh chaos.

It is only a week to this moment that the election pundits were

telling us, disastrous night for the Liberal Democrats! When they went a

bit deeper, they said, come the general election next year they will

lose around 21 of the 57 seats, and hang on a minute, some good news for

the Liberal Democrats, still probably hold the balance of power.

Then come forward seven days, and you suspect that here is a political

party hellbent on political suicide. Just as I observe it, I

find it quite remarkable that the situation they have got in. Any

reading of the history of the minority parties in coalitions

around Europe tells you that this can be the fate of those minority

parties. I also thought that the point that Tony Blair made the other

day, that the real problem here is that they had a manifesto in 2010 to

the left of the Labour Party, and ended up in coalition with the

Tories. So all these problems were bound to build up, not the

infighting we have seen in the past with Lord Rennard. What about the

timing of Lord Rennard's apology tonight? It confirms the

electorate's worst fears and worst suspicions about politicians. We had

huge numbers of people who stayed away from the elections last week

because they think that they are all dreadful people who can't get on

with each other, and this confirms all their worst suspicions. Does

anybody hate each other worse than the Lib Dems? I have seen some

other... They do private polling on each other? ! What a way to treat

your colleague! This is schoolboy stuff compare to what they get up to

in the US, let me tell you. Let's go to the mail. Whitewash already

appearing in relation to the Chilcott enquiry into the Iraq War,

and it hasn't even been published yet. This follows the announcement

today that just quotes and gists will be published, and they will be

radically censored. Anyone mentioned will be able to have a say as to how

they are referred to and as to whether that information or

reference can be used. So for the families of the 179 servicemen who

died in the conflict, for many of those families this is not enough,

because they want to know the full truth, and indeed the full truth was

what the Chilcott enquiry was supposed to give us. Sir John

Chilcott has seen documents, he has read them all, so he is aware of

what is in this, but he said it can't all be public. Cabinet

Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood has vetoed the release of these letters.

You sense that Tony Blair has got the blame for this, and he

vehemently denies that he has had anything to do with what should be

published and what should not. You suspect that Sir Jeremy Heywood

would come into the enquiry. If you are the father or mother of a

soldier who has lost his or her life in Iraq, you would absolutely take

the attitude that some of them appear to be taking tonight. Having

said that, I do listen. When you travel abroad, and people do follow

British army news, 24`hour news, world news, et cetera, and they say

he go the British again, saying that private conversations involving the

president of the United States should be made public. A lot of

people in America don't agree with that, and which other countries

would be open to that? It leaves the families of those who have died in

Iraq in a very difficult situation indeed. We are going to go to the

Independent. We are going to end on the Sun talking about Ed Miliband,

but we are going to the Independent. A story about debt is hounding the

poorest over tax credits. People who overpaid tax credits are being

chased by private debt collectors for this money. In many

circumstances these are very poor people who possibly can't afford to

repay the money, and in some cases these overpayments a rise from HMRC

mistakes, that they gave these people too much money, and I know

from some letters we have had at work that these families try to say

to HMRC that they are paying too much, and they say no, we don't make

mistakes. Now they are coming after them. I don't does agree with the

principle getting back overpaid money, but it is a futile attempt,

and it should be done in a decent way. This is a potential scandal

that the WGP can't allow to get any bigger. I agree with all but one

point that has been made. She just said the revenue said that we don't

make mistakes, I cannot believe that HMRC have ever said that. There are

some mistake here in this story. We are going to go to the Sun. Page

six, Ed Miliband, I don't read papers, David. He doesn't watch TV,

either! I had some England manages over the years, he used to say

publicly, I don't read the newspapers. In certain cases that

was somewhat economical with the truth, I have to say, but the

problem is, he says he relies on his aides, and they have to get

absolutely everything right because you can end up in a situation where

somebody, particularly on the election trail, says something you

know nothing about... Yes, but he says he insists he likes to follow

his own path. I'm not sure what that path is. He is not informed... You

are the leader of the party that could potentially hold power, it

could come PM, would you want to admit that you don't read the

papers? Also that you are taking your news from American websites

which follow progressive American politics. Is he not supposed to be

in touch with the cost of living and all these other crises? It is

interesting. The last person who potentially admitted they did not

read newspapers was the woman running against Mr Obama. Her name

has escaped me completely. Canada, Alaska, Sarah Palin! That's it!

Now it is time for sports. Hello and welcome to Sportsday. I'm Lizzie

Greenwood`Hughes, the headlines this evening...Still