Browse content similar to 27/12/2015. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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bit about you and if I can do it, so can everyone else. That is all for | :00:00. | :00:00. | |
now. Now it is time for a review of the papers. | :00:00. | :00:13. | |
Hello and welcome to our Sunday morning edition of THE PAPERS. | :00:14. | :00:16. | |
With me are Ian Birrell and Mina Al-Oraibi. | :00:17. | :00:27. | |
The Observer has a picture of the flooding crisis, | :00:28. | :00:33. | |
showing a street submerged in West Yorkshire and reports that | :00:34. | :00:36. | |
The Sunday Express leads with the flooding, calling it | :00:37. | :00:40. | |
"The Day Britain went under" is the Mail on Sunday's take | :00:41. | :00:43. | |
on the same story - the paper reports that Britain has | :00:44. | :00:46. | |
been hit by its worst floods in decades. | :00:47. | :00:48. | |
The Human Rights Act is holding back British troops in Iraq | :00:49. | :00:51. | |
and Afghanistan, according to Defence Secretary Michael Fallon, | :00:52. | :00:52. | |
Meanwhile claims on the front page of the Independent on Sunday | :00:53. | :01:02. | |
thatthe Conservatives are set to, as the paper has it, | :01:03. | :01:04. | |
"attack local democracy" by banning councils from divesting themselves | :01:05. | :01:07. | |
And the Sunday Times says a Knighthood due this week | :01:08. | :01:13. | |
for David Cameron's election chief, Lynton Crosby, is set | :01:14. | :01:15. | |
Let's begin. No doubt about the front pages, the Mail on Sunday, the | :01:16. | :01:30. | |
day Britain went under and this extraordinary picture of streets | :01:31. | :01:34. | |
turned into rivers. The footage is amazing, a terrible thing to happen | :01:35. | :01:37. | |
this time of year, at any time of the year but to give really now. It | :01:38. | :01:42. | |
raises a lot of interesting issues given the fact that seems to be a | :01:43. | :01:46. | |
preponderance of this happening, some homes head for the second or | :01:47. | :01:52. | |
third time in a decade, rivers at record levels. Obvious issues, we | :01:53. | :01:56. | |
are told climate change will lead to extreme weather conditions, you | :01:57. | :02:00. | |
can't end .1 particular incident but there seems to be issues here, | :02:01. | :02:04. | |
whether we are building the right flood defences, the government cut | :02:05. | :02:09. | |
flood defences by 14% this year, the wider issue which for a lot of | :02:10. | :02:16. | |
people, given over ?5 billion a way to resolve climate change abroad at | :02:17. | :02:18. | |
the same time we are spending less than half of it in this country. A | :02:19. | :02:24. | |
lot of interconnecting issues, the immediate issue of getting people | :02:25. | :02:27. | |
out of their homes and making them safe and comfortable, and then what | :02:28. | :02:31. | |
should we spend the money on? Do flood defences work? Are they the | :02:32. | :02:38. | |
right type. Especially because as Ian says it is becoming more | :02:39. | :02:42. | |
frequent and we can expect more of this to happen in the coming few | :02:43. | :02:46. | |
weeks and months before the next season hits. In terms of planning | :02:47. | :02:51. | |
and spending it's about flood defences but how are the homes being | :02:52. | :02:56. | |
prepared, how much warning people being given? Surely some of these | :02:57. | :03:00. | |
evacuations should have happened in advance, 10,000 homes without | :03:01. | :03:04. | |
electric and we don't know why not service will get back. In terms of | :03:05. | :03:08. | |
government preparation, it's about the immediate but it's unclear what | :03:09. | :03:13. | |
has been planned for the next few weeks. I think one of the main | :03:14. | :03:18. | |
issues is the fact that red alerts... There are two red alerts | :03:19. | :03:22. | |
from The Met office, when they were issued, could it have been done | :03:23. | :03:25. | |
earlier and the questions are about reparation. Where do you see the | :03:26. | :03:31. | |
supposed climate change debate? Is there a debate any more? I know some | :03:32. | :03:35. | |
people don't believe climate change causes global warming but is that a | :03:36. | :03:43. | |
marginal activity? In Britain and America there is a serious body of | :03:44. | :03:46. | |
opinion that doubts that despite the pattern is that we are seeing and I | :03:47. | :03:50. | |
think that's a problem. It's not a question of whether it climate | :03:51. | :03:53. | |
change but it's a question of whether it's man-made that is a part | :03:54. | :03:57. | |
of it and you can't say this is down to climate change but there seems to | :03:58. | :04:00. | |
be more extreme weather conditions which is what we were told to | :04:01. | :04:05. | |
expect. It raises issues about house-building. What way are we | :04:06. | :04:11. | |
building them? Is there a problem with farming? What about trees and | :04:12. | :04:17. | |
the higher ground? Are we doing the rights of the flood defences, or are | :04:18. | :04:22. | |
they channelling the water down. Dredging is another question, is it | :04:23. | :04:25. | |
good or bad? That's interesting. Most of us think of flood defences | :04:26. | :04:31. | |
as big walls round rivers but perhaps there is a different way, | :04:32. | :04:36. | |
more trees upstream for example. There's also the argument of pushing | :04:37. | :04:42. | |
the into other places, if you allow it to me and there is less problems | :04:43. | :04:49. | |
with flooding. You have lived in the United States for the last few | :04:50. | :04:52. | |
months, four is the debate about global warming and climate change? | :04:53. | :04:58. | |
Has it changed? It's election season, you see much more division | :04:59. | :05:03. | |
between the Democrats and the Republicans. It's changed in the | :05:04. | :05:05. | |
sense there are more and more people saying the sciences they are but | :05:06. | :05:10. | |
it's a question of what can be done. The focus is on China and India, the | :05:11. | :05:18. | |
US feels like it's the good guys, we are doing enough. We have seen crazy | :05:19. | :05:24. | |
weather. At the moment, it is so warm in London, I was just in | :05:25. | :05:28. | |
Connecticut and New York, it's incredibly warm for this time of | :05:29. | :05:32. | |
year, the changes are here. I think less people are discussing when | :05:33. | :05:36. | |
climate change comes, now it's here, what do we do? We had the Paris | :05:37. | :05:43. | |
Conference and they fail to come up with concrete action, but it was | :05:44. | :05:46. | |
encouraging people came together and recognise the scale of the problem | :05:47. | :05:52. | |
and came up with devices to work more on renewables. The Sunday | :05:53. | :05:58. | |
Times, a knighthood for a Cameron's election chief Lynton Crosby. This | :05:59. | :06:04. | |
award will provoke a fresh row over cronyism in the honours system. If | :06:05. | :06:09. | |
the story is correct, they are right, there will be a row. How is | :06:10. | :06:13. | |
this for public servers, what is the point of the honours system? This is | :06:14. | :06:18. | |
supposed to be someone who has given something the public good, | :06:19. | :06:21. | |
recognition of something towards the entire country, hard to see for a | :06:22. | :06:24. | |
Lynton Crosby comes into the argument. He ran an amazingly | :06:25. | :06:30. | |
successful campaign. I am not sure he wondered, Prime Minister one at | :06:31. | :06:36. | |
by remaining a moderately likeable figure in a fervent political | :06:37. | :06:39. | |
situation. All he did was help impose discipline, he is slightly | :06:40. | :06:44. | |
overrated for what he delivered but I think the truth is most of the | :06:45. | :06:52. | |
public knows the sleuth exists at all level of the honour system, | :06:53. | :06:57. | |
whether it's funding, are people getting political appointments. It's | :06:58. | :07:01. | |
one more reason for the corrosion of faith in politics but it's not | :07:02. | :07:04. | |
surprising. It would be more surprising if there was not a crony | :07:05. | :07:08. | |
row with the honour system whoever is in government. Maybe we should | :07:09. | :07:12. | |
make it over at, you pay half a million, you get a million -- you | :07:13. | :07:17. | |
get a peerage. Maybe we should just do that? I thought it was pretty | :07:18. | :07:23. | |
overt Don Reading. Not peerages. There is another way you could let | :07:24. | :07:29. | |
people get perks. The story is amazing, they referred to David | :07:30. | :07:32. | |
Cameron's her dresser forgetting an MBE, we missed that. Every year we | :07:33. | :07:37. | |
have something. It keeps the newspaper is busy. I suspect the | :07:38. | :07:44. | |
public will be more interested in Barbara Windsor getting a Dem heard. | :07:45. | :07:50. | |
She has cheered a sub for decades. The Telegraph, two interesting | :07:51. | :07:54. | |
stories. Ministers suspend the Human Rights Act, troops being held back | :07:55. | :07:57. | |
in the fight against terrorists, says the Defence Secretary. He talks | :07:58. | :08:05. | |
about fixation claims being taken out against soldiers. This also | :08:06. | :08:12. | |
focus on shoot to kill and for protection the police have this is a | :08:13. | :08:14. | |
tricky area regardless of what you think of the Human Rights Act. It's | :08:15. | :08:19. | |
one of those issues that has different facets. Partly it's about | :08:20. | :08:26. | |
what the government thinks about being part of the European Union, | :08:27. | :08:30. | |
the Bill of Rights. That is one issue. I think this is being | :08:31. | :08:35. | |
politicised in that sense, the troops and the army are hugely | :08:36. | :08:38. | |
porting to the contrary. It is an argument that can win over support | :08:39. | :08:44. | |
to get out of the European Convention. Having said that, we are | :08:45. | :08:47. | |
witnessing around the world, especially when it comes to | :08:48. | :08:51. | |
countries like the UK and US, questions about rules of engagement | :08:52. | :08:55. | |
and what happens in times of war so I think it's important to have | :08:56. | :08:59. | |
accountability and raise questions. The problem is when you have certain | :09:00. | :09:04. | |
investigations, the UK spend ?100 million since 2000 and four and | :09:05. | :09:10. | |
investigations in compensation elated to misconduct during war. | :09:11. | :09:13. | |
Some people say this is about money and lawyers but at the same time we | :09:14. | :09:19. | |
have to have these questions, we have to have public enquiries and we | :09:20. | :09:22. | |
have to keep holding those that hold the guns to account. I think it's | :09:23. | :09:28. | |
one of those arguments that need to be made, if you have a British bill | :09:29. | :09:33. | |
of rights how does that secure whoever is the innocent person or | :09:34. | :09:37. | |
civilian... How different would it be from European legislation, given | :09:38. | :09:41. | |
that the British was one of the driving forces behind the | :09:42. | :09:45. | |
legislation in the first place. Not just the British but the | :09:46. | :09:48. | |
Conservative Party, it was Conservative backed, inspired | :09:49. | :09:51. | |
Churchill and pushed forward by the Conservatives. The British Bill of | :09:52. | :09:56. | |
Rights would probably have many of the same protections within it. What | :09:57. | :10:01. | |
it wouldn't have... Compare the money spent on the investigation | :10:02. | :10:05. | |
into Bloody Sunday, this is not a huge summer and it's right that | :10:06. | :10:08. | |
people should be held to account, you have to be able to hold people | :10:09. | :10:13. | |
to account, it's like the culture in the NHS, if people make mistakes | :10:14. | :10:17. | |
they should be dealt with. It's the same here, the question is how do | :10:18. | :10:23. | |
you have the best system to do it? Whether they should be | :10:24. | :10:27. | |
accountability? That brings us to my favourite story, the Sunday | :10:28. | :10:29. | |
Telegraph, British couple first cloned hobby from dead dog. An | :10:30. | :10:37. | |
estimated ?76,000 to a South Korean company. What do you think? You are | :10:38. | :10:44. | |
dog lover. You know... Will be tied anyone who said they weren't. It's | :10:45. | :10:49. | |
incredible, I think, you spend six to ?7,000 to get a cloned version of | :10:50. | :10:52. | |
your dog. I have had a dog and much as I loved it, when it went, you | :10:53. | :11:01. | |
just wait and then get another one. -- ?67,000. I am sure they are happy | :11:02. | :11:07. | |
with the new puppy. It is a cute puppy. It is called Dylan, nice | :11:08. | :11:12. | |
name. I find this difficult because I believe in the soul. Even if you | :11:13. | :11:16. | |
have physical attributes you cannot ring the soul back. I think this | :11:17. | :11:23. | |
puppy is gorgeous and cute... I don't know, the South Korean | :11:24. | :11:27. | |
company... Of course don't have a soul. Disturbing bill-macro Dylan | :11:28. | :11:39. | |
have a soul? -- does Dylan? Now to a long-running story... Christian | :11:40. | :11:44. | |
genocide warning, dozens of MPs and peers calling on the government to | :11:45. | :11:49. | |
talk about the persecution of Christians in Surrey as genocide, | :11:50. | :11:52. | |
something that religious leaders of all faiths have touched on in the | :11:53. | :11:57. | |
past few days. Of course, it comes around Christmas time, we are | :11:58. | :12:03. | |
thinking about Christians and this is where Christianity came from and | :12:04. | :12:06. | |
we see Christians under attack but it's not just in Syria, we have had | :12:07. | :12:11. | |
it in a rack and let's not forget Bethlehem and what happens in | :12:12. | :12:14. | |
Palestine. There is something to be said about the right place of | :12:15. | :12:18. | |
Christians in the Arab world and the Middle East and the protections that | :12:19. | :12:23. | |
they need. Having said that, what is happening in Syria, there is mass | :12:24. | :12:26. | |
killing on many fronts and many different sides are responsible. I | :12:27. | :12:31. | |
think the use of the term genocide itself has to be used delicately. | :12:32. | :12:35. | |
What is this are doing is not just attacking Christians and the Yazidi | :12:36. | :12:42. | |
people, they are attacking others. We have to be cautious about not | :12:43. | :12:45. | |
saying we need to protect the script and not another group because that | :12:46. | :12:49. | |
feeds into what extremists from all sides want. It's a kind of equal | :12:50. | :12:55. | |
opportunity slaughter to anyone who gets on the way but the Archbishop | :12:56. | :12:59. | |
of Canterbury said Christianity might become a stranger to the land | :13:00. | :13:03. | |
of its birth in the Middle East and that is something that worries | :13:04. | :13:06. | |
people, not just the Christian faith but other faiths. I get slightly | :13:07. | :13:13. | |
uncomfortable focusing on one community, given the horrors that we | :13:14. | :13:15. | |
have seen unleashed on various communities. There is a | :13:16. | :13:18. | |
casualisation of the word genocide which we have seen in recent years, | :13:19. | :13:24. | |
community leaders and church leaders jumping up and down further | :13:25. | :13:27. | |
favourite cause and using this word which should be used carefully. | :13:28. | :13:33. | |
There have been huge, historic atrocities that are unanswerable. I | :13:34. | :13:38. | |
think it's too easy to call things genocide and again... Here it is, | :13:39. | :13:44. | |
not divisive at focusing on one section, when there is horror | :13:45. | :13:47. | |
perpetuated on so many communities from atheists through to gay people, | :13:48. | :13:51. | |
through to all the different religions, moderates, even within | :13:52. | :13:59. | |
the Sunni Muslim faith. There are atrocities all round and it's wrong | :14:00. | :14:02. | |
to focus on one group, however horrid and horrific some of the | :14:03. | :14:07. | |
things have been. Let's move on to the Observer, a troubling story, | :14:08. | :14:12. | |
mental health patient sent to accident and emergency, troubled | :14:13. | :14:15. | |
children added to the burden and concerns about lack of out-of-hours | :14:16. | :14:20. | |
care. How those with mental health issues are treated differently from | :14:21. | :14:26. | |
those with physical health problems and it's become a long-running sore. | :14:27. | :14:31. | |
It's been underfunded, the Cinderella of the National Health | :14:32. | :14:35. | |
Service, what's quite good in the last two or three years is | :14:36. | :14:39. | |
politicians, to give them credit, they have woken up to this. On all | :14:40. | :14:44. | |
sides, you see people raise the issue of mental health as being one | :14:45. | :14:47. | |
of the real failings of British health care and social care. It | :14:48. | :14:52. | |
shows the story underlining it, there is too little money going into | :14:53. | :14:56. | |
it, simply for the Vic TPC Sawgrass, too little on offer, too many | :14:57. | :15:02. | |
frequent closures but I get the impression that within society we | :15:03. | :15:05. | |
are beginning slowly to wake up to the fact that mental health is as | :15:06. | :15:09. | |
big a problem as physical health and needs to be treated in that way. One | :15:10. | :15:16. | |
of the interesting things is how many people, politicians, | :15:17. | :15:18. | |
entertainers, have talked about their own mental health issues, like | :15:19. | :15:23. | |
depression... It's now part of the conversation. The issue of stigma | :15:24. | :15:28. | |
with illnesses, further physical or mental... Politicians and | :15:29. | :15:34. | |
celebrities can raise the profile. You remember a time when people | :15:35. | :15:39. | |
would not use the word cancer. It's the same thing with mental health, | :15:40. | :15:44. | |
if you said you had any form of depression, it's almost like a | :15:45. | :15:47. | |
handicap and people don't want to talk about it. What is important | :15:48. | :15:52. | |
about this story is that increasingly, honourable young | :15:53. | :15:55. | |
people under the age of 18 field they have nowhere to go except A | :15:56. | :15:59. | |
and they are being pushed their under -- after 5pm. Anyone in a | :16:00. | :16:06. | |
distressed state suffers enough, think about being under 18 and going | :16:07. | :16:12. | |
through that, what about those who shy away and will not go there? It's | :16:13. | :16:18. | |
about community support, what sort of support can we give through the | :16:19. | :16:24. | |
NHS but also not three A? Quite a complicated story in the | :16:25. | :16:27. | |
Independent, the Tories planning an attack on local DeMarco C, local | :16:28. | :16:32. | |
authorities diverse team themselves of unethical funds, -- local | :16:33. | :16:44. | |
democracy. It's a bit of a generic headline but there is something | :16:45. | :16:47. | |
interesting, the government has the right to tell local authorities and | :16:48. | :16:51. | |
communities that they can cannot invest in certain companies that | :16:52. | :16:56. | |
they see as unethical and of course, for the anti-apartheid movement, | :16:57. | :16:59. | |
this was such a big part of the campaign, an important part of | :17:00. | :17:04. | |
recognising that taking money out of anyone who helped a business problem | :17:05. | :17:10. | |
the apartheid regime, we saw some things going on with arms companies | :17:11. | :17:14. | |
and tobacco companies but what this is about particularly is Israel, | :17:15. | :17:18. | |
Palestine and the Middle East. That is why it's an interesting story and | :17:19. | :17:21. | |
it will be very contentious if it goes through. It's hugely important | :17:22. | :17:29. | |
because of the apartheid message. Local people who care about these | :17:30. | :17:36. | |
issues, they want to have a voice feel the government is not listening | :17:37. | :17:40. | |
but this be local councils are. -- the anti-apartheid message. This is | :17:41. | :17:48. | |
going to be a big story. There's also an interesting philosophical | :17:49. | :17:50. | |
issue, whether they have the right to to the community in that area and | :17:51. | :17:56. | |
that way. Should they be involved in foreign policy debates? A lot of | :17:57. | :18:00. | |
interesting issues. Interesting. Thank you both. A reminder that we | :18:01. | :18:06. | |
will take a look at tomorrow's front pages every evening at 10:30pm and | :18:07. | :18:09. | |
11:30pm right here on BBC News. | :18:10. | :18:14. |