28/11/2015 The Papers

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

bringing us tomorrow. With me are Sian Griffiths, Education Editor

from the Sunday Times and James Millar, Political correspondent from

Thank you for joining us. Let's look at the front pages for tomorrow. The

Mail on Sunday is leading with the resignation of Grant Shapps and the

scandal that is engulfing the Tory party. That story also makes the

front of the times. It says the Tory party chairman faces pressure to

quit. The Telegraph reports that David Cameron has also been dragged

into the crisis of alleged bullying inside the Conservative Party. Grant

Shapps and his wife are pictured on the front of the Sunday express but

it leads with the story that up to 100 prisoners serving life sentences

could be lettered in jail for Christmas. The Observer reports that

David Cameron is to risk a Commons vote over Syrian air strikes despite

split in the Labour Party. More about that story in the Independent

on Sunday. It sends a warning to Jeremy Corbyn from his deputy that

he must back down. The Sunday Post has an opinion poll that says that

the public cautiously backs bombing raids against Isis yet 74% fear a

terrorist attack on the UK within one year. Plenty of choice. A lot

concentrating on the vote over Syrian air strikes and Grant Shapps.

The Observer has a headline about David Cameron risking a vote. James,

is this a big rift in the Labour Party and one that could lead to a

split possibly? Yes is the short answer. It's interesting that the

Observer is talking about the risk for Cameron to have this vote, we

can expected on Wednesday, maybe Thursday. Probably not a big risk

because we know that a lot of Labour MPs will vote with the government to

launch air strikes on Syria. The question is only how many and

harmony that effects, whether it affects Jeremy Corbyn's leadership

rather than Cameron 's leadership. Surely the Tory party does not want

to risk being voted down again even though the Chancellor says that they

don't want to give Isis propaganda of not agreeing on it. I think so.

David Cameron must be quite confident I should think that he

will get enough MPs to vote for air strikes because it looks now as if

it will go ahead on Wednesday. I do not think that he would call the

vote unless he was confident that he would get a majority for action. The

story in the Sunday Times is interesting it suggests that David

Cameron will order our AF air strikes within 36 hours of vote

going in favour of action, -- RAF air strikes. And that precision

strikes will be used to target the head of the international tax unit,

which masterminded the Paris massacre. I think it will be a very

interesting week. The vote will probably take place on Wednesday.

Jeremy Corbyn is likely, says the Sunday Times, to offer his MPs a

free vote after being warned that his Shadow Cabinet is ready to

defeat him. If MPs are not allowed to vote as they wish, that is. The

last paragraph says that Lord Mandelson has accused Jeremy Corbyn

of siding with Isis! Not necessarily as a prize that Lord Mandelson is

not impressed by this. The rhetoric is another step up in the rhetoric.

Ken Livingstone said some incendiary things last week about the seven

salmon bombers and terrorism in the Middle East. Rugby Sevens seven

bombers. Now we have Lord Mandelson on the other side. It shows how

bitter the battle within Labour is about this -- 7/7 bombers. It shows

how compelling the case is against the air strikes and yet Cabinet

ministers are having to phone MPs to convince them. The case cannot have

been about compelling if they are having to spend the weekend doing

that. Nuno Espirito Santo I am sure it is a case of making sure they

have enough. Don't you think so? I do, and the motion will limit

attacks to Isis targets and will rule out any attempt to commit

ground troops to Syria. -- I find it odd, this idea of attacking the

masterminds because how can Britain and point the bad guys when the

French and the Americans, already active in Syria, apparently cannot.

Apparently we have special missiles! It seems strange that we have

amazing technology that the French and the Americans do not. I am wary

of the idea that the Britons will cut off the head of the snake. The

vote, possibly on Wednesday. Will there be enough people voting for

it? It sounds like you think they will be. Yes, it doesn't need to

many Labour MPs to side with the government for it to come through.

Sir Malcolm Rifkind this week said there had to be a healthy majority.

It's got to be a big want to look good. What does the public think? It

is in the Sunday Post, your paper, James. Just run us through the main

figures. Some very interesting stuff here. The main one is that 74% of

people fear an attack on UK soil within a year. It almost shows that

the terrorists are winning, in a way. The idea is to spread terror

and it is working. There are interesting nuggets in the research.

We have asked what people think of various leaders and how they are

coping with the crisis and the message is clear that people think

Jeremy Corbyn is a dead loss as far as this stuff is concerned. Also

does everything in Scotland is seen through the prism of the

independence referendum -- because everything is seen through that

prison, two to one say that they feel safer as part of the UK than

they would have been as a separate Scotland. Your comments about Jeremy

Corbyn related to people in Scotland? It is a general

perception, if you have heard what people are saying on the doorsteps

in Oldham, where there will be a by-election this week, if you say

the name of Jeremy Corbyn at the doorstep, it isn't going down well,

people do not think much of the way that he has handled the Syria

crisis. Do you think that is fair, Sian? I think Corbyn is a man of

principle. That has always been his position. I think you should allow a

free vote. I think that is very important. But for him to change his

own personal position would be seen among his only young supporters in

particular as hypocritical. He's a party leader now. And all his MPs

disagree with him. He's written to the grassroots. Is still time to

consult or does the leader need to read on this issue? It could cost

him his position. I have written a column saying that if he loses this

by-election this week he'll be on a sticky wicket. Will he magnanimously

say, have a free vote? If he doesn't, he is in trouble, one way

or another, whichever way he tries to whip his MPs. This by-election,

the seat has a majority of 15,000, it would huge loss. Certainly a lot

of MPs would think about their positions if he remains leader and

that is generally what triggers elections, MPs looking out for their

own jobs somewhere down the line. And the Sunday Post and its cautious

backing for Syrian air raids against IS? That slightly goes against

another opinion poll which said that 48% of people think that the UK

should join in with the French, Americans, and other allied forces

against Isis. I am splitting hairs yet it is by no means decisive. It

is not. The public is rightly cautious, when you think about Iraq

and the past. The opinion poll is interesting in that the readers is

very strongly that they don't want to put troops on the ground in

Syria. -- they say this very strongly. Budget the legacy of Iraq,

people do not want troops in the Middle East. The other big story of

the day. In the Daily Mail. The headline Resigned, exposed, and then

doomed? This is all about Grant Shapps, who quit his ministerial

post earlier today, they are talking about an alleged new blackmail plot,

and then they are talking about whether Lord Feldman, the Tory

chairman, will stay in his post, or whether his days are also numbered.

We need to be careful of the details yet this suggests a very murky

world. It does. I think actually this is a very moving interview

given to the Guardian newspaper that the parents of Elliott Johnson. He

is the young conservative activist who apparently committed suicide

after allegedly being bullied by a senior election aid. Denies that, of

course. When I read the interview I felt so sorry for the parents of

this 21-year-old who seemed to have been caught up in a culture where

bullying, ambition, alleged blackmail... It is a rather horrible

set of allegations swirling around the youth wing of the Conservative

Party. What I felt was complete sympathy for the parents of this

young man. Not only are they faced with having to deal with the death

of their son in terrible circumstances, but now with taking

on and changing an apparent culture that led to his death. I think that

they are being incredibly brave about standing up and saying, look,

this is wrong, do something about it. James, this is rather like one

of these TV programmes. House Of Cards. Some of the people involved

in this scene to watch these programmes and think that they are

real and this is the way that you behave in politics. It doesn't have

to be. Absolutely not. A couple of things are worth saying. It is a bit

like Syria. A lot of political shenanigans around it. A human story

about human suffering. Someone has died. It is worth paying tribute to

the Mail on Sunday. And the first to slack them off sometimes but they

have gone at this week after week and nobody paid attention but the

pressure has been building and strangely enough it is the Guardian

interview that seems to have broken it down. Yet you have two paid

tribute to the Mail on Sunday, Simon Walker in particular who has really

been sticking at this, good journalism. Taking nothing away the

individual tragedy of this, do people outside the Westminster

closet really care about things going on inside a party? I think

they possibly do because of the human heart to this story. Any

parent can appreciate that their son has died for whatever reason. And if

people have mistreated him along the way, any parent can understand that.

It is the Tory party, they are in government, so if there are in

question is, they need to be answered. The Sunday Telegraph now.

The story says that Army medical staff are expected to be drafted

into NHS hospitals to cover for striking junior doctors. The first

of those planned industrial action stoppages takes place on Tuesday. It

is reassuring that, in a way, that there will be doctors there! It

shows that the level of crisis, we are used to the idea of the Green

goddesses turning up when the firemen go on strike, but Army

doctors in hospitals is something quite new, as is a doctors strike!

Talks with a have been adjourned until Monday, Sian, it has gone on

for a long time. This is the first of three strikes, another one will

be on eight December and a third on 16th December. I think it is a mark

of how strongly the junior doctors feel that they are prepared to go on

strike three times to make their point. They say they are taking

action to make the NHS safe in the future. So I think, again, I would

love to see a poll on what the public think about this action by

junior doctors. Do they support it or not? Do they feel that junior

doctors, on whom we do rely for cover, should strike? The government

argues that it is part of a seven-day NHS and contracts have to

be renegotiated and most of them will be better off.

LAUGHTER I'm not convinced. I talked to a lot

of medical students and junior doctors in my job and they are

working incredibly hard, such long hours. You think life is a junior

doctor is rosy, it is not. You've got five years of medical training

to do, then a one-year posts, more exams, they have a really tough

time. At the end of it, they get well paid. Eventually! We will come

back to that one later. That is it to the papers. Thank you, James and

Sian. They will be back at 11th Udupi and other stories making the

news tomorrow, we will probably come back to that debate about junior

doctors. Stay for the news because doctors. Stay for the news because

at 11pm as Grant Shapps resigns over claims that he failed to act over

claims of bullying of young Tory party volunteers. We will have the

latest. Coming up, the film