27/10/2015 The Papers

coming off the back of a fifth defeat of the season on the weekend.

That's all in Sportsday in 15 minutes after the papers.

Hello, and welcome to our look ahead to what the papers

With me are France 24 journalist Benedicte Paviot,

and the author and sports writer for the Times, Matthew Syed.

The Guardian leads with the Chancellor hinting he will soften

the impact of tax credit cuts after the defeat in the House of Lords.

The Metro says a woman who lost her husband

and son in the whale boat tragedy has been recovering in hospital.

The main story in the Telegraph is a warning by

David Cameron that an exit from the European Union could cost Britain

The Mirror claims the Tories are spending millions from taxpayers'

money on Swedish steel while there have been British job losses.

The FT says personal details of more than 600,000 customers were

stolen from UK companies last year - highlighting weaknesses in the

"For your eyes only," is the splash in the Times, referring to the

access the paper has been granted to the GCHQ headquarters in Cheltenham.

The Express leads with new research suggesting cutting out sugar,

without having to reduce calories, can boost your health

And the Independent features a picture entered in this year's

So, let's kick off, and Benedict, we are talking about the front of the

Guardian first of all, and George Osborne ready to change tack on tax

credits, I wonder how far he would change tack, we don't quite know

yet. We don't bite we will find out when he gives his Autumn Statement.

-- butter. I think that is the 25th of November. It is interesting to

see across the papers the various words used, the war between the

Government and the House of Lords, and, indeed, the position of the

Government and the determination, the word is robust, determined, so,

publicly, George Osborne, the chancellor, is giving this "I'm not

changing anything, " however, it is clear there is some wiggle room. And

of course, this has damaged the image of this Government,

nevertheless a government that is democratically elected. It seems the

Treasury lives will be burning, not only tonight, but before the debate

on Thursday, which I think we can predict will be quite nasty. At we

are talking about 3 million people who will start to lose ?1000 per

year. Matthew, it is a strange story, because it is about tax

credits, which affect the poorest in the country, but it is also a story

about the House of Lords, and whether that needs to be changed and

reformed, the fact that an unelected chamber can exercise a power to

block something that came from the elected chamber. It is a double

story, but in a kind of ironic way, it is a get out of jail card for

him, it will shape into a major political controversy. I think it is

overdoing it a bit. This gives him the opportunity to soften the blow.

This was a cut to some of the hardest working and poor families.

And he can blame it on the Lords. This isn't a U-turn! You think he

wanted to soften it anywhere? There is no doubt that massive pressure

was mounting on George Osborne, not least from backbench MPs, to soften

the blow. The pitch at the general election was that they were behind

hard-working families. People who go to work on the minimum wage, going

to be hit ?1300 per year?! In an ironic way, I think this will help

the Conservatives. You are right, even though I think it is

iniquitous, I think it is ludicrous that an unelected chamber can defy

the elected will of the majority party in the Commons. Interesting.

Let's talk about the FT, the Financial Times. Now, they've got a

front-page story, a couple of stories we're gonna talk about, the

door open for lower surplus target to lessen the impact of the tax

credit cuts, tell us about that, Benedict. Yes, actually, I was

looking at that also in the Guardian, because it talks about the

fact that Mr Osborne's gonna dig deep and it could be that he will

lower his target of delivering a ?10 billion surplus by 2019 -2020, and

that the figure will be revised downwards. So, by how much? Of

course, that's what everybody's gonna way to find out, but what the

3 million are waiting to find out is, the transition between the

national living wage and losing their 1000-1300 per year, that is a

reality that they are unclear. What is slightly being lost in the

coverage of the story is the fact that what has been happening, by

these tax credits, introduced originally by Gordon Brown and the

Labour government, and Ed Balls, is very much the fact that this was

subsidising employers who are underpaying people. And that's not

acceptable. I suppose, Matthew, one of the interesting things is that

George Osborne's had a good time at the party conference, didn't he,

sort of seen widely as David Cameron's potential successor, but

things haven't quite gone his way this week, and some people in the

party blamed his handling of this, in the way it was put to the House

of Lords, because it gets a bit technical, but if he had done it as

a financial measure, the Lords couldn't have blocked it in the way

they did. It's gonna be interesting. David Cameron has preannounced he's

gonna leave Number Ten, so there will be jockeying for position.

George Osborne, everything he does, is viewed through the prism of

becoming potential Prime Minister, and almost all of that choreography,

alongside Theresa May and Boris Johnson, R -- are jockeying for this

position. He is smart in the way he is softening the blow. He could have

said, look, we're gonna lose cash if we soften it, so we will have to

renege on the commitment to cutting middle class and Inheritence Tax, he

is loosening the fiscal stance, as you say, not posting the 10 billion

surplus, so he's given himself more money to play with by being less

rigourous on the surplus. Interestingly coverage he's getting

as well, the whole image of trying to be not just the economic

chancellor, but China, we saw, of course, with the contracts as well,

but really in the headlines a lot of the time. But also some damage and

fallout from that. How he handles it will be good. Let's look at the FT

and the dark web and after the whole TalkTalk cyber attack, which was

causing a lot of alarm, now we have heard from the FT, 600,000 British

customers' data stolen, up for grabs on the dark web, we're told.

Extraordinary, and you can buy a set of people's details for $30 each, it

is just extraordinary, it would allow you to take somebody's

identity. Very scary stuff, and done not just by, possibly, allegedly, a

15-year-old in a bedroom, but actually, when we are told all the

time there are not just deals but the majority of the week in which we

connect with companies now is not only just giving security

information that involves your date of birth, address, et cetera, it is

all up for grabs. We've got to learn to be more careful? Frightening!

What worries me, imagine we skilled ourselves on precisely the best way

to protect our personal security, obviously we want to trust Corp is

when we trust them with our identity, but what about

ourselves?! This is an arms race. You could have the most

sophisticated tool and at some point a young teenager, who understands

his or her way around the security firewalls, and you're gonna get

caught. On that, there is a rather nice cartoon, isn't there, Benedict,

in the Daily Mail. Fabulous, page five, and -- he looks like a

four-year-old, oh, look darling, he has just hacked into his first

company! What is worrying, also, is it is not just be companies, and

this has been said by not just people who have been flogging or

selling antivirus software, but by a lot of security experts, the UK's

very exposed, it is not just the only country, but it's not just

companies, because what criminals are targeting is lower down, in a

sense, the food chain, so it is small and medium-sized companies as

well who have a lack of resilience. It doesn't surprise me in some ways,

though this is just a 15-year-old under suspicion, it doesn't surprise

me that teenagers are over it with the Internet. I look at my three and

one-year-old children and they are better on the iPad, I mean, my

daughter calls it the I-are-pad. My younger daughter just watches Peppa

Pig. I wonder if your three-year-old is reading the pages on the European

Union...? I suspect no. But it will affect him or her. David Cameron

talking about sort of starting their stay in campaign for the EU, warning

about it not being a land of milk and honey outside the EU. And up

until this point he hasn't come out with that level of emphasis, because

he is playing a dual role, he wants to visit his European partners

saying he thinks there is a risk we're gonna leave, yet he wants

people in this country to think we are not getting out of here. It is

extremely difficult. He is walking a difficult tightrope. He has said -

this is fundamental - if you are not a member of a club but you have to

obey the rules of the club but have no say in what they're gonna D,

that's problematic. Interestingly, the Norway Foreign Minister has said

it would work for the UK. This would be disastrous. We are still gonna

have immigration and these kinds of things. Benedict, what would France

think if we left the EU? The official position, whether they are

conservatives or left-wing socialist, they think it would be

very sad and a big mistake for Britain to do that, so they want the

UK to remain in. Obviously, it can't be what a lot of French people think

is by a sort of black mailing or dictating that Britain will dictate,

it has to play its role. You know, I think in France, as you go to

certain things that remind people of where certain things have come from,

I know it is decried in this country sometimes, I think it is a useful

reminder, because so many of the EU stories are negative stories. And

actually, it kind of amuses me but doesn't, when British people say

they're going to Europe, no, you are in Europe, I don't know if it is

breaking news to people but it is a huge economic market and an

interesting one at that. Stay in! Lots of people Tour Europeans in the

world of premiership football, including a certain Portuguese

gentleman, Jose Mourinho, have another defeat for Josie -- lots of

Europeans in the world of premiership football. Jose Mourinho

on the ropes and the i, well, they have, Jose Mourinho loses again. You

have a comment in the Times tomorrow, you have a minute to give

us your thoughts. I am so glad. Truly... A truly explored return

around, Jose Mourinho considered to be perhaps the greatest football

manager in the world, they were languishing in the Premier League

table with another defeat in the League Cup tonight. To my mind, this

goes to the heart of a big problem in his management style, he tries to

create a sense of permanent crisis. Everybody's against us, the

referees, the Doctor... The journalists and media! I think this

has progressively diminishing returns. After a while, it is like

having too much sugar, I think he is beginning to lose the players. The

column I write tomorrow... Is it right? The players say they love

him! The PR people are told to say that. It is off the record briefings

when they say they have had enough. In my column, people have said that

he is shaping Chelsea and the owner, but my argument is the manager isn't

easy to shame, because if you look at his history, his part of the

dubious privatisations in the Yeltsin era, his litigation with

Berezovsky to deal with Yeltsin, to get the mineral wealth of the

Russians, in exchange for TV coverage, it is a real mess. The

special one. Neither Robin. We will see whether it happens or not.

Benedict and Matthew, thank you so much. Coming up next, it's time for

Sportsday -- neither of them. Hello and welcome to Sportsday,

I'm Azi Farni. The headlines this evening:

More Pressure on Mourinho, as holders Chelsea lose at Stoke

in the Capital Cup. Arsene Wenger's side are outgunned

by Championship club