01/11/2015 The Papers

bests and four world records they have peaked at the right time. That

is all the sport for now. Here is Gavin Esler with The Papers.

morning edition of The papers. With me are Sian Griffiths, Education

Editor for the Sunday Times and Mike Walters, Sports Correspondent for

pictures of some of the 25 children who died in the plane crash in

Egypt's Sinai. But it leads with the suggestion that ministers have

U-turned on tougher school tests in the face of teaching union

opposition. The Observer leads with the government's internet

surveillance plans - it says the Home Secretary has been forced to

backtrack. The Mail's focus is the Iraq War - it claims that ministers

at the time were told to 'burn' a top-level document questioning the

legal basis of the conflict. The Sunday Telegraph carries a picture

of Prince Harry handing the Rugby World Cup to New Zealand's captain

after his side's historic victory over Australia .And finally - the

Express leads with so-called Islamic State terrorists claiming

responsibility for the crash of the Russian passenger jet - that that

killed 224 people. So let's begin...

Did Islamic Cammack state shoot down the airliner? The evidence appears

to say no but they have claimed it. But is not a ridiculous

inconceivable thing for them to say and the crash site with the plane

landed is in an area which is absolutely infested with insurgent

groups linked to Islamic State and I know the authorities are saying it

is not them that it will make people in the West very nervous about going

to Egypt. Egypt is the pivotal country in the region and the one

which most Arab people look up to two see how things are going there

and any bad news for Egypt as bad news for the whole area. It is bad

news for humanity and were talking about changing 24 lives gone like

that and 25 of them children. 300 people convened in a hotel at St

Petersburg airport who thought they were going to meet the mums and dads

are sons and daughters of brothers and sisters of a nice flight from a

family holiday in the sun and what they must be going through now is

unimaginable. They will be wondering not only what happened and why it

happened and Islamic State claims of responsibility have been initially

dismissed by Russian and Egyptian authorities but the plane came down

with the Nadir allegedly infested with insurgent groups and until we

get definitive answers those 200 people and more will be nervous

about the causes of the crash. Eyes-mac 300 people. We are told how

statistically safe air travellers and it is statistically safe but we

also see the airliner shot down over Ukraine and the German wings crash

and it does raise questions about how safe their travel really is. You

consider a number of cases this year of planes coming down and I think

more and more rewarding Sabine were issued -- more and more warnings are

being issued. There was a warning in March to avoid flying over the Sinai

Peninsula below 26,000 feet. Three major airlines have already said it

will not fly over that part of Egypt, Lufthansa Emirates and Air

France. They have decided that as a no-go zone until the cause of the

crash is been determined. You have a great story on the front page of the

Sunday Times, Tories in school test U-turn. This is a very interesting

story about the government and parents and kids and the stress of

tests. I have two kids of my own who are in their 20s now and I'm glad

they are not going through the system at the moment. This is all

about tough new tests and assessments for primary school

children in England. There are likely to be some scrapped as Nicky

Morgan on Tuesday will announce a review into all the testing of

premier school pupils. At the moment the baseline assessment is at five

and that is another teacher assessment at seven and then at 11

they face externally marked tests and as with a lot of annoyance and

uncertainty and stress caused by this framework which the government

has been trying to put in place that can measure the progress of children

between five and 11 to make sure that schools are doing enough to

teach them properly and the National union of teachers threatened to

boycott the tests at five and I think this is Nicky Morgan being

reeling practical -- really practical saying that the framework

does not seem to be working so through it all back into the pot and

let's have another look at it and it is very interesting that the review

group she will announce on Tuesday is absolutely packed with

headteachers. It's a practical or is it brave? Some newspapers will not

take that view and it was a it is typical and we should test their

children to death because that is the other will be find out if they

are working. I think it is both practical and brave because the Tory

right love testing and Michael Gove and Nick Gibb want these tests and

the idea that they are you turning a perpetual toting -- that they are

you turning our capitulating to the unions is anathema to them. I think

as a parent you want them to enjoy learning. You want them to achieve

that you want them to enjoy going to school. I moved my family into a

county where they do not do and 11 plus exam simply because I did not

want my children's feature determined by one single exam and I

think the concept of testing kits at five and seven and 11 as an absolute

nonsense and if this is a victory of sorts for trade unions then let's

hear it for the foot soldiers of the trade unions who are foot soldiers

of common-sense. It is the easy thing for politicians to do to set

standards and set tests and it is more difficult for Nicky Morgan to

say we will not do this because actually what we want is for

standards to be driven up by good teaching which presumably means a

good morale in the schools. By doing this I think she's trying to get

headteachers on board. You have to get all you people going with it and

that is how you drive things forward and I think that the sensible. I

think creating legions of stressed out screwed up kids is not good.

This is the third week in a row that has been at Tony Blair related Iran

war article. Ministers were told to destroy secret evidence showing the

Iran war was illegal. Bombshell revelation piled fresh pressure on

Blair over Chilcott probe. What do you make of this? --Chilcot. Until

the enquiry is published, hopefully in our lifetime, they will keep on

going on about it. It is alleged that officials were told to burn the

rabble dash-macro relevant correspondence. This suggests to me

that the case for war and whatever is perhaps a little bit flawed. When

a lawyer tells you this could be challenged to core is like a lawyer

telling you the sun will come up in the morning. That is what lawyers

do. Is that any meat on this? I feel I already knew part of the story and

we knew there were two opinions. Ten days later Lord Goldsmith apparently

changed his mind and said that the war is legal but apparently there

was this other opinion he had come up with ten days earlier, allegedly.

Since it has all come out anyway, I think the Chilcott report will never

come out! We are still waiting for those weapons of mass destruction.

Don't hold your breath on that! Now, snooping on internet use. This

climb-down is just spin according to civil libertarians. On the one hand,

we want security services to protect us but on the other we are not keen

on them reading our emails. Another climb-down? Surely not! The balance

between the snooping charter and the police's right to know what we are

up to, especially in the fight against terrorism, it is not an easy

line for them to tread, and North of the Government in terms of

legislation. I don't know if this is a full-scale U-turn so much as one

or two concessions here and there. I think they are talking about

dropping contentious proposals from the investigatory Powers bill,

catchy title! Due to be published in draft form next week. They are

expected to bar police from accessing browsing histories on the

internet. And companies will not be banned from encrypting sensitive

material. I personally cannot see that either of those two things will

necessarily hinder the fight against terrorism and that is basically what

this bill is about, let's be honest. I agree, actually. This is about

making some concessions to get the bill through, and it is being

published on Wednesday. And it is a difficult balance, incredibly

difficult. We want secret services to do everything they can to catch

terrorists but against that, if you are private individual, the idea

that people are looking at your internet history, that they have

access to everything you do online, that is frightening. I am not sure

that these concessions, you know, will actually go far enough in terms

of my own feeling that I want my Civil Liberties to be protected. Who

want them to look at somebody else's emails? Is the Government

nervous with a majority of 12 with strong-minded backbenchers on this

issue, for example David Davis, and also what might happen in the Lords,

given that the Lib Dems have opposed them on an unrelated issue recently?

In other words, they could be defeated on this very issue. I think

that is right and there could be more concessions coming as the bill

goes through Parliament to keep more people on board. The head of a Civil

Liberties group says this is just a spin and people will be pushing for

more concessions. This so-called snooping charter is bill was blocked

by Nick Clegg in the coalition Government, so it is very sensitive.

You hit the nail on the head. The Government only have a majority of

12 and they had problems with tax credits last week so they have got

to tread carefully to make sure they do not stumble into a vote where

they get defeated, not good news for the Government. I thought there was

a good story in the business pages. Crisis in care homes World War

problems in the steel industry. It is talking about -- will dwarf

problems in the steel industry. It is talking about local authority

funding dropping and what we will do when they get old and we need help.

It touches a lot of people? Everybody that grows old! There are

startling factoids in this spread. The average age of the entire UK

population is now 40, which puts a spring into a step of a 52-year-old

who felt old at six o'clock this morning! And UK care homes look

after 400,000 elderly people in this country. To me, that sounds like a

tiny percentage of a population of 65 million people. It suggests that

we are talking into a care crisis further down the line. We are

sleepwalking into a diabetes crisis because of the overweight people in

the country. We all grow old but we do not all get fat. It is quite an

interesting story. It does actually hint at a large-scale problems

further down the track. I was really struck by this, because we all want

to grow old with dignity but that might cost a lot personally and to

the country. And there are interesting statistics in there. The

number of people aged over 65 will increase by more than 40% in the

next 17 years. We have this time bomb, an avalanche of people coming

through, and it looks like there will not be care homes available to

house them. Let's cheer ourselves up! I thought the best news of the

last 24 hours was the rugby and the Triumph that the Rugby World Cup has

been. Not for the home nations. Let's hear it for a World Cup final

with a record number of points scored. Over 50 on aggregate. Let's

hear it for a World Cup final where Prince Harry hands over the Webb

Ellis Trophy to a deserving team. But it was not England! Knocked out

a month ago. And not Scotland, knocked out by a referee!

Congratulations to the All Blacks, now claiming to be the greatest

rugby team in history having retained the World Cup. And

Australia. When they were down, at half I thought there was not much

point watching, but they really rallied. A spectacle deserving of

the tournament as a whole and a terrific final. Are you a fan? Yes,

I like it, but it kept the menfolk in my life happy for the weekend.

You have got the pictures on the front page with Harry handing the

Webb Ellis Trophy to the All Blacks captain. But I actually like this

picture on the front page of the Mail on Sunday. Two fans. Yes, Mr

Murdoch and his new partner Jerry Hall at the World Cup final.

Australian fans. Although Mr Murdoch is an American citizen. Two US

citizens, actually. It was a great event, wasn't it? Record TV

audiences, sometimes 90,000 people watching it live and in the

stadiums, no trouble. Even in the provincial outposts like Exeter and

Gloucester and Milton Keynes, the grounds were full, the support was

passionate, there was a great spectacle and some great stories.

Japan beating South Africa early in the tournament was a terrific hit

for the underdog. A terrific spectacle and it was a fantastic

party. Well done to the rugby football union for staging it. Just

a shame that the hosts and indeed all the home nations... The

semifinals were an exclusively southern hemisphere domain. But it

does not take anything away from the fact the two best teams in the

tournament reached the final and put on a final worthy of it. Thank you

very much. Sian Griffiths and Mike Walters. Just a reminder that we

looked at the newspapers every evening at 10:30pm and 11:30pm every

evening on BBC News.