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against Islamic State targets. That is the very latest from Westminster. | :00:00. | :00:00. | |
Let's see how it's all going to be reported in tomorrow's papers. | :00:00. | :00:17. | |
Hello, and welcome to our look ahead to what the papers | :00:18. | :00:19. | |
With me are Beth Rigby, the media editor of the Times, and the writer | :00:20. | :00:24. | |
Tomorrow's front pages are dominated, as you'd expect, | :00:25. | :00:33. | |
by tonight's vote on airstrikes in Syria. | :00:34. | :00:35. | |
The Times leads with what it describes as the huge majority - | :00:36. | :00:38. | |
of 174 votes - that David Cameron won from MPs for his plans | :00:39. | :00:41. | |
The Express claims the RAF could be ready to strike | :00:42. | :00:47. | |
The Sun is even more specific, "Tornados at dawn," it proclaims. | :00:48. | :00:57. | |
The Mirror calls it "Cam's War," and reports that Labour leader | :00:58. | :01:00. | |
Jeremy Corbyn has accused the PM of rushing into battle. | :01:01. | :01:05. | |
The Telegraph carries an excerpt from Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary | :01:06. | :01:08. | |
Benn's Commons speech on its front page, we must "confront | :01:09. | :01:10. | |
The Mail looks further forward, asking the question, "After | :01:11. | :01:17. | |
And the Independent says the vote the is a step on the "road to | :01:18. | :01:25. | |
Raqqa," the unofficial capital of the self-proclaimed Islamic State. | :01:26. | :01:34. | |
Well, we are going to begin with the Telegraph, which quotes what Hilary | :01:35. | :01:43. | |
Benn had to say. Yeah, he met the Shadow Foreign Secretary and made a | :01:44. | :01:46. | |
very powerful speech in the Commons -- verse Shadow Foreign Secretary. | :01:47. | :01:55. | |
He talks about being faced by fascists, the fact that these people | :01:56. | :02:00. | |
hold us and our values in content, and he gave this very powerful | :02:01. | :02:04. | |
speech on the floor of the house, with Jeremy Corbyn sitting next to | :02:05. | :02:08. | |
him, the leader of the Labour Party, who deeply disagrees with him, and | :02:09. | :02:13. | |
sat down to the applause of both conservatives and many on his own | :02:14. | :02:17. | |
band, which is very unusual in the House of Commons, to hear applause | :02:18. | :02:21. | |
-- bench. Interesting that even at the weekend we were talking about | :02:22. | :02:24. | |
whether he could get the numbers for this vote, if he would try to whip | :02:25. | :02:29. | |
his MPs, even a month ago that he thought he could not bring ever to | :02:30. | :02:32. | |
the House of Commons because he would not be able to get the | :02:33. | :02:35. | |
numbers. And then we end up tonight, he has landed 174 majority, | :02:36. | :02:42. | |
a very definite majority. And interestingly, I don't know if this | :02:43. | :02:46. | |
was to do with Hilary Benn's speech, but in terms of Labour Tom this | :02:47. | :02:51. | |
morning we were talking about 45-50 voting with the Government to vote | :02:52. | :02:59. | |
for air strikes, up to 67 tonight -- Labour, this morning. They have to | :03:00. | :03:07. | |
be seen in the context of Labour's incredibly pained history. Labour | :03:08. | :03:10. | |
has always seen itself as an internationalist party. And Tony | :03:11. | :03:15. | |
Blair, when he came into power, fortified walls in six years. | :03:16. | :03:18. | |
Everyone thought it was just right. It wasn't. -- Fortt five wars. -- | :03:19. | :03:27. | |
fought. With regard to Bosnia, it led to Tony Blair to intervene in | :03:28. | :03:31. | |
Kosovo and Sierra Leone, then the air strikes, the original ones, in | :03:32. | :03:39. | |
Iraq and then Afghanistan. So far, relatively uncontroversial, then | :03:40. | :03:44. | |
Iraq, the dodgy dossier, all of the lies, if that is what you want to | :03:45. | :03:48. | |
call it, stretching the truth, Chilcott eventually will come out | :03:49. | :03:51. | |
with it, but pretty much everybody knows that the case was manufactured | :03:52. | :03:57. | |
a year beforehand. We see this in the context of public opinion and a | :03:58. | :04:04. | |
party that has been absolutely traumatised by that year. And then | :04:05. | :04:10. | |
absolutely torn asunder by what's gone on over the last several days. | :04:11. | :04:16. | |
Jeremy Corbyn versus the parliamentary party that has never | :04:17. | :04:21. | |
reconciled itself. And then here comes Hilary Benn using a sort of | :04:22. | :04:29. | |
refashioning, that sort of Blairite, quasi- Churchill, we have to beat | :04:30. | :04:32. | |
the fascist, I am getting around of applause in the House of Commons. In | :04:33. | :04:38. | |
some ways it has turned full circle. It is also extraordinary to see | :04:39. | :04:45. | |
debate -- V debate ending with the Shadow Foreign Secretary and the | :04:46. | :04:50. | |
Foreign Secretary both in agreement with each other -- the debate. It | :04:51. | :04:56. | |
was incredible and actually, it says here in the Telegraph story, Philip | :04:57. | :05:02. | |
Hammond called Hilary Benn's speech one of the truly great speeches in | :05:03. | :05:04. | |
parliamentary history. It was a very painful night for | :05:05. | :05:21. | |
Labour. Those on the benches were whipped and to Jeremy Corbyn would | :05:22. | :05:26. | |
have wanted to whip that vote but he couldn't in the end corral his party | :05:27. | :05:33. | |
into backing him. We saw figures on Twitter earlier that said 11 of his | :05:34. | :05:40. | |
shadow cabinet members voted with the government. What some of the | :05:41. | :05:43. | |
shadow cabinet have said to me in the run-up to this vote was that | :05:44. | :05:52. | |
Hillary Benn had been working very hard behind the scenes to make the | :05:53. | :05:58. | |
case to colleagues to support the airstrikes where Jeremy Corbyn | :05:59. | :06:01. | |
hadn't made that case in the same way. He went on television to make a | :06:02. | :06:09. | |
public appeal and direct action has been happening where MPs have | :06:10. | :06:14. | |
reflectively been hounded and bullied by some members and Labour | :06:15. | :06:19. | |
activists. Just pausing for a moment because we have been told by the | :06:20. | :06:26. | |
Ministry of Defence that two Tornadoes have taken off from Cyprus | :06:27. | :06:30. | |
but they're not saying what their destination is. It could still be | :06:31. | :06:38. | |
the preplanned activity in Iraq. It must be said, it is very interesting | :06:39. | :06:42. | |
to me in these moments, and people who have been long enough around | :06:43. | :06:52. | |
camera member these occasions of the parliament voting on military | :06:53. | :06:55. | |
action, what didn't happen two years ago with the first voting on Syria, | :06:56. | :07:03. | |
the government hasn't always given its consent and things have gone | :07:04. | :07:07. | |
wrong. Most recently, Libya and we're not even talking about the | :07:08. | :07:11. | |
most famous intervention in Iraq. Libya, David Cameron turns up and it | :07:12. | :07:18. | |
is the first phase of intervention which often seems to carry a certain | :07:19. | :07:23. | |
amount of public opinion along with it. That was deemed OK when it first | :07:24. | :07:31. | |
happened. If it hadn't happened, would there have been a massacre in | :07:32. | :07:45. | |
Benghazi? Out and out opponents about this military action may come | :07:46. | :07:52. | |
together if Daesh gets more strongly hit but then there is the question | :07:53. | :07:55. | |
that is already being discussed tonight, what happens in six | :07:56. | :08:02. | |
months? As we move through the papers, let's just stay with the | :08:03. | :08:07. | |
Sun. It tallies what I have just said to some extent about the | :08:08. | :08:11. | |
Ministry of Defence. It is clearly not going to take along now, given | :08:12. | :08:16. | |
the vote, before some kind of military action takes place. It is | :08:17. | :08:20. | |
quite interesting the way the papers have divided. The Telegraph is very | :08:21. | :08:24. | |
much covering the political debate in the house and the Sun, the Daily | :08:25. | :08:29. | |
Mail and the Times have moved into what happens next, with the | :08:30. | :08:36. | |
airstrikes beginning. The Daily Mail is asking what happens next. Let's | :08:37. | :08:43. | |
move on to the Daily Mail. It quite often takes positions that you would | :08:44. | :08:49. | |
think are atypical for a political viewpoint. It has been quite | :08:50. | :08:53. | |
sceptical of David Cameron's attempts to make the case of the | :08:54. | :09:00. | |
last several days. Interestingly, however, once the vote has been | :09:01. | :09:10. | |
declared, the results, here we just get a snippet of the leader's | :09:11. | :09:19. | |
comments praying for the safety and success of the RAF. They are | :09:20. | :09:26. | |
basically saying, now that it has happened, they will no longer | :09:27. | :09:29. | |
criticize but they have been criticizing up until now. We also | :09:30. | :09:34. | |
have people talking about the use of specialist ground forces. They have | :09:35. | :09:41. | |
some very specialist security forces who have been deployed in | :09:42. | :09:46. | |
reconnaissance missions or something. Rather than actually | :09:47. | :09:51. | |
having troops. The whole debate in the House of Commons, a lot of it | :09:52. | :09:58. | |
was about the 70,000 troops on the ground and whether they were local | :09:59. | :10:02. | |
forces. I think any sense that troops from the UK will be deployed | :10:03. | :10:12. | |
in Syria will get MPs extremely concerned. It has been hard enough | :10:13. | :10:16. | |
to bring the country around to airstrikes and what... Let alone | :10:17. | :10:21. | |
with ground troops, and I think what has been the most interesting part | :10:22. | :10:27. | |
of the Daily Mail's coverage is that the country is extremely divided on | :10:28. | :10:31. | |
airstrikes, literally split down the middle. I think that is partly why | :10:32. | :10:34. | |
they have taken a more nuanced position, because they are trying to | :10:35. | :10:41. | |
reflect both sides. It and so many papers in the road to Iraq were | :10:42. | :10:49. | |
fully behind it. So many journalists, so many newspaper | :10:50. | :10:53. | |
editors were unbelievably credulous. And again, people forget, | :10:54. | :11:00. | |
the first six months of the actual invasion in Iraq was extremely | :11:01. | :11:05. | |
successful militarily. The forces got to Baghdad incredibly quickly | :11:06. | :11:09. | |
and the first few months were pretty successful, toppling the statue 's. | :11:10. | :11:13. | |
It was only when you got to about August that things start to go wrong | :11:14. | :11:17. | |
and then they never found the WMDs that didn't exist. It was not only | :11:18. | :11:24. | |
the Daily Mail, but all of the papers at the time. I think there is | :11:25. | :11:27. | |
an element of papers having been learned, and hedging bets and being | :11:28. | :11:34. | |
more circumspect. What did you think of the debate today? I think Iraq | :11:35. | :11:40. | |
lurks in our minds. But the fundamental difference,, -- | :11:41. | :11:52. | |
difference, is that the main political and parliamentary lessons | :11:53. | :12:02. | |
learned from Iraq, are that any action needs to be endorsed | :12:03. | :12:08. | |
militarily. And there is a much greater sense of transparency and | :12:09. | :12:14. | |
process now, which certainly wasn't the case with Iraq, whether or not | :12:15. | :12:18. | |
you agreed with it on principle. The Daily Mirror are obviously saying | :12:19. | :12:24. | |
very clearly, this is now the Prime Minister's for, they are | :12:25. | :12:31. | |
traditionally not a big fan of David Cameron. It goes back to Tony | :12:32. | :12:37. | |
Blair's wars, Pjanic on him if it goes wrong -- pin it on him. The | :12:38. | :12:46. | |
point of this vote is that David Cameron was very burnt when he went | :12:47. | :12:50. | |
to the house in 2013 and asked for airstrikes in Syria and was voted | :12:51. | :12:56. | |
down. I think it's sort of scarred him in some way, that defeat. So | :12:57. | :13:01. | |
what the government have tried to do is build a coalition across the | :13:02. | :13:06. | |
House. They were clear that they were not going to come back to the | :13:07. | :13:11. | |
commons to take a vote on this unless they had cross party | :13:12. | :13:13. | |
agreement and could get that vote through. He was not going to risk | :13:14. | :13:19. | |
another defeat. You can call it his war, he is the Prime Minister, and | :13:20. | :13:23. | |
ultimately he brought the vote but ultimately, this has been a cross | :13:24. | :13:28. | |
party decision and to the fact that 67 Labour MPs have voted for it | :13:29. | :13:33. | |
against the shadow of Iraq and against the wishes of their leader | :13:34. | :13:38. | |
makes it feel more cross party, and also the Lib Dems backed as well. | :13:39. | :13:43. | |
But the much more recent piece of history or present news where the | :13:44. | :13:51. | |
bombings in Paris, -- were. If they had not happened, this would not be | :13:52. | :13:59. | |
happening today. It seems terrible to say, but there would have been | :14:00. | :14:04. | |
something somewhere else because that just seems to be what is | :14:05. | :14:07. | |
happening at the moment. It would have been in Belgium or Germany, it | :14:08. | :14:14. | |
could have happened in Britain. Seven were foiled in 12 months | :14:15. | :14:19. | |
according to David Cameron. It could have happened in any major European | :14:20. | :14:22. | |
city but it was the catalyst for all of this and the fact that the French | :14:23. | :14:29. | |
were absolutely involved. That UN resolution was very important to the | :14:30. | :14:33. | |
Labour Party. I thought Margaret Beckett gave a very powerful speech | :14:34. | :14:36. | |
as well and the Daily Telegraph quote her where she said, they had | :14:37. | :14:42. | |
been asked to agree precisely because that is what Daesh do. She | :14:43. | :14:50. | |
asked how we could turn our back on the French when they asked for our | :14:51. | :14:56. | |
help. The Independent have called it the Road to Raaqa. They have a | :14:57. | :15:05. | |
strange picture. It is a picture of a demonstrator who has rolled under | :15:06. | :15:12. | |
a lorry. It doesn't quite capture the drama of the evening. Although | :15:13. | :15:17. | |
it certainly gets marks for being different. But that is the other | :15:18. | :15:23. | |
part of it, which we have mentioned. The extent of the | :15:24. | :15:32. | |
opposition. Protests are likely to be daily or very frequent all the | :15:33. | :15:39. | |
way through. If I had been a picture editor, I would've taken a picture | :15:40. | :15:42. | |
of the people physically lying down on the road outside Parliament with | :15:43. | :15:46. | |
all the cars being stopped but that was quite a spontaneous moment, | :15:47. | :15:51. | |
where these protesters basically completely blocked Parliament | :15:52. | :15:56. | |
Square. One other story to mention. Sadly this is the one that has been | :15:57. | :16:00. | |
emerging throughout the evening here. The front of the Times | :16:01. | :16:06. | |
features it. A photograph of one of the victims being wheeled away to to | :16:07. | :16:15. | |
an ambulance from California. Very strange phenomenon of the elasticity | :16:16. | :16:19. | |
of news on any day of the week. This would have been blanket coverage in | :16:20. | :16:25. | |
every single paper, but the only paper that gives that any coverage | :16:26. | :16:28. | |
at all in the first additions we have seen is the Times. Obama has | :16:29. | :16:38. | |
been on the airways in the past hour, grim faced again over another | :16:39. | :16:44. | |
massacre, saying this sort of gun violence has no parallel anywhere | :16:45. | :16:48. | |
elsewhere in the world. Every time this happens, he comes out, grim | :16:49. | :16:54. | |
faced, and appeals to his citizens to deal with it and it just keeps | :16:55. | :16:58. | |
happening. When two people died in a recent massacre in Oregon in | :16:59. | :17:04. | |
October. Colorado was just a few days ago. Really sad. You get the | :17:05. | :17:11. | |
feeling that it is his one piece of unfinished business before he goes | :17:12. | :17:14. | |
and he knows he is not going to make any progress. On that note, thank | :17:15. | :17:20. | |
you very much indeed. Coming up, the latest headlines but before that the | :17:21. | :17:22. | |
weather. Wright good evening. It has been | :17:23. | :17:37. | |
very mild across southern parts of the evening | :17:38. | :17:38. |