14/12/2015 The Papers

And we will hear from Roger Federer, who has got big plans for next year.

That is coming up after the papers. Hello and welcome to

our look ahead to what the papers With me are the economist

Bronwyn Curtis and the broadcaster and former football

administrator David Davies. The I newspaper says

the advertising watchdog will investigate drug company claims

about over-the-counter painkillers. The FT has a special investigation

into finances of so-called 'Fox Hunt' is the Metro's headline

after the radio DJ Neil Fox was According to the an opinion poll

in the Express - the majority of voters want Britain

to quit the European Union. The Daily Telegraph also claims

voters head for the Brexit as the paper reports the results

of a separate survey. The Guardian says MPs are calling

for an inquiry into low wages The picture is of the British

astronaut Tim Peake who will blast off on a mission

of a lifetime tomorrow morning. And the Mail says the UK's top civil

servant has been attacked over plans Starting with the Telegraph. Voters

had before Brexit. A surge in support for leaving the EU. What do

you put this down to? We talked an hour ago about an Internet poll. An

hour later, we have an ICM poll. The significance is the first time since

2013 that ICM has found voters even split. It is in the middle of the

story. It is written up, that is the significance. Forgive me for saying

this, but I am not aware of an active pro- Europe campaign at the

moment. All the running is being made by the Brexit people. If the

idea of the government is to lower expectations about what he is going

to achieve in any negotiation, it used to be called a renegotiation,

but whatever he is doing in the summit and the next one in February,

he has done a successful job of lowering expectations. Do you think

this is down to the whole debate about migrants and refugees? That

has put a lot of people off the idea of staying within the European

Union? The net migration figure is still way above the tens of

thousands the government said it would fall down too. I think

migration is clearly an emotive issue. People get very upset about

this. I was thinking more of those that

came before that. Just interesting, these polls. These campaigns to

leave. It is up, it was only 40% want to leave. It is about

immigration, terrorism, who is coming in, what are we doing. And it

worries people. They feel that David Cameron is going to Europe and he is

not getting anything. If he is not getting anywhere, we will never get

anywhere. We are economically tied to Europe. How do you account that?

From where I am coming from, if he thinks that, if his aim is

ultimately to say, I have got some sort of a deal, it is interesting, I

heard on BBC radio, an interview with a former Polish Foreign

Minister, who said, why is he getting lost on these issues? In

Poland we are much tougher on people who come in than Brits. But that

would mean reducing payments to Brits as well. That is his problem.

But you can argue after months and months of this migrant issue, it is

quite remarkable. It could be worse. I expected it to be worse at this

stage. The book is kept saying, Scotland will vote no. The bookies

are saying even more strongly at this stage, the EU vote will be to

stay in. We will stay with the Telegraph. Pensioner Bonds, saving

rates are slashed by half. You are saying this is something we should

have been aware of. These were fantastic interest rates. 2.8% for a

year was very tasty. What they have done is said, one year you have got

your 2.8%. It is going to drop unless you move it somewhere else.

That is not even in the top ten rates for a one-year bond. It is

really unattractive. When it was announced, it was a great thing.

Announced as a great thing. We just had the Autumn statement. We did not

hear anything. I am disappointed, but I think we have had fantastic

rates, so we cannot complain. When some of us were drawn into this, I

could not possibly comment, we were told, you have to do it now. Because

they will close it in weeks. They did not do that. When I read this

story, I am quite surprised. Pensioners, plus poor pensioners, we

do not need to be courted quite so much this year. Something like a

general election. It slipped my mind. Anyway. You cannot get the

deal on that. Savers have not done well for a long time. But you will

get clobbered on tax. That was in the Autumn statement, but people

will still rather go for that. Margaret Thatcher will be turning in

her grave. She always used to say, Savers matter. That was her

expression. She had some difficult times. Taxes make short jihadists

have income. This is an interesting story. The front page of the

Financial Times. You think, ISIS, it must all be oil money. That is what

is funding it. But the story says they get at least as much from

taxation. They took over the second biggest city in Iraq. A lot of

taxpayers. Extortion and confiscation. There is a war spoils

offers. They pay the militants a fifth of whatever they seize. They

are quite keen to go out and this is stuff. I was really surprised by

that. You cannot bomb that. This is it. The whole thing about giving the

RAF the right to bomb in Syria. The idea was to target the oil tankers

and the oil fields. But they are getting all their cash by extorting

shopkeepers. Within hours of the BBC and everybody reporting that we were

going to bomb in Syria, we were told these oilfields, there was so much

oil being sold. Bronwyn might be able to help me with this. Who is

selling oil, who is buying the oil? Once you get into the oil market

there are a lot of brokers and middlemen. Nobody knows who they

are? They handle a lot of oil. You do not know. It is like all of these

things. Where has it come from? A lot of it would be of similar

quality. It is hard to tell. I think it will just keep happening. Saddam

Hussein lived under sanctions and he flogged barrel after barrel. There

will always be someone willing to take it, because it is cheaper than

getting it from Saudi Arabia. No wonder the problem is as deep as it

is. It will continue. You have a country with a border that is

hundreds of kilometres long. And there are Islamic State sympathisers

within Turkey. This is perhaps a naive question. An FT investigation

indicates ISIS gets as much from taxation and extortion. An FT

investigation? That is well known how they have been getting the

funding. You put FT investigation on the front. The BBC would end up

saying a BBC investigation. It all helps. On to the mail. I was

wondering what had happened to our old friend William. He has been out

of the headlines for a bit of time. Now he is back. He is saying this

government goes on like this, with my OneWorld alliance and all the

rest of it, I could refocus my operations in Ireland and Spain. The

government has not given clearance for a new runway at Heathrow. Even

after what happened last week, I have to declare an interest, the

person who came up with the report into this is a friend of mine. A

highly intelligent man. He must be asking, we still do not know why the

government has postponed this yet again, do we? Other than the London

elections. I do not know anything. Is a political hot potato right now.

They are looking at the environmental concerns highlighted

in the report. But Howard Davies, your friend, she noted all of that.

-- he noted. It is a