04/08/2016 The Papers

Hello and welcome to our look ahead at what the papers will bring us

tomorrow, with me broadcast and former football administrator David

Davis and political commentator and former Labour director of

communications land price. Tomorrow's front pages. Starting

with the Financial Times. That headlines with the Bank of England's

decision to cut interest rates to their lowest level since it was

founded more than three centuries ago. A young woman who was stabbed

during a knife attack in central London, which also resulted in the

death of another woman, describes her ordeal in the Metro.

Interest rates falling to an historic low. The Daily Mail focuses

on the announcement of David Cameron's resignation honours list,

saying it's an insult to voters. Dame Lowell Goddard's decision to

quit as head of the public enquirer into institutional child abuse is

featured on the front of the Guardian. The Telegraph has a

picture of some of Russia's Olympic team after more than two thirds of

the athletes in the country were given the all clear to compete in

Rio. The Times headlines with the stepping down of the judge heading

the child abuse enquirer, saying the investigation is now in crisis. --

child-abuse inquiry. Starting with the Financial Times, this headline,

Mark Carney issues stark warning with package to ease the downturn.

Not just quantitative easing, not a reduction in interest rates, but a

dramatic reduction in his prediction, the bank's prediction of

economic growth. In so many ways we are in uncharted territory here.

Post Brexit. It's against that background that today's statement

from Mr Carney should be seen. The public perception, my instinct is,

is that Brexit happened, Brexit won, day has followed, Knight has

followed day. Life has gone on. Some of the papers whose aborted Brexit

previewed it last week and the beginning of this week, here comes

the bad economic news. My goodness there was plenty of it today, growth

down, unemployment up. Saving is a nightmare. Your holidays are going

to cost much more. Meanwhile there is a man sitting on a beach in

Corsica, former Prime Minister, who seems, you know, you'd think he must

feel very upset. Yet he thinks, eventually committee is going to be

vindicated. We don't know yet. He may be vindicated in his predictions

about the damage that will be done by Brexit, but his political

reputation, that'll take a lot longer to recover, because it was

his policy, his strategy, to have a referendum in the first place.

Principally to try and resolve difficulties within the Conservative

Party. We are seeing the cost of that. And the decision taken to vote

for Brexit. Mark Carney is in a difficult position as governor of

the Bank of England, he doesn't want to be seen to be talking down the

economy. Some have accused him of that. He says, we have levers in our

hands that can help with this. He's in no doubt about the seriousness of

the situation and individual families will be a lot poorer. They

say you can talk yourself into recession but no chance of the Daily

Express doing that. The same story but rather a different take on

exactly the same story with a headline Britain will succeed after

EU exit, and the rate cut to boost economy. What Mark Carney's saying

is we are teetering on the edge of recession, .1% away from the

possibility of a technical recession, yet the Daily Express,

who desperately wants us all to believe voting for Brexit was a good

thing, tells us this is good news somehow. It does seem to be turning

the facts on their head. Not necessarily anything new. The very

first sentence, Britain will prosper out of the EU. The Bank of England

confirms. Did they? I'm not too sure. No mention of the poor old

sailors in all of this. We shall see, too early to judge. Onto the

Guardian. A very different story but one that broke this evening a couple

of hours ago now. The chair of the public enquirer into the

institutional child abuse has resigned, Lowell Goddard from

Auckland New Zealand was the third person in the chair. A 19

resignation letter. The big question is, why? The one line resignation

letter doesn't give us the answer to that question. Normally these

letters are fairly lengthy. They explain the background to the

situation and so on. This one didn't, which convinces me there was

some pretty difficult conversations in person or on the telephone,

between the outgoing chair rant Home Secretary. She's obviously very

unhappy. All the press speculates it's because she came under

criticism for having spent time outside the country, and the amount

of money the whole thing is costing, having her as a New Zealand judge

heading it. It strikes me if she was going to take on the job, knowing

what the British media was like, she must have known this criticism would

come, she should have made it clear, and the Home Office, how many days

she was expected to work, how much it would cost. Do you really know

what it's going to be like until it happens to you? As an individual you

don't. The other interesting thing about it is she's gone immediately,

she hasn't said, I'll hang on until you find somebody else to take my

place, she's got immediately. It puts the government in a very

difficult position. Also, the survivors, and the families of these

survivors, who are feeling very let down. It's the former Home

Secretary, the current Prime Minister, in a very awkward

position. It has to be hugely embarrassing for the now Prime

Minister, the former Home Secretary. She had quite a search to find this

woman. It appears to have fantastic credentials, still has those

credentials. It's quite remarkable she seems to have gone a day after

the story broke in The Times this morning. As to the fact she had

spent 44 days out of the country in addition to her 30 days holiday

allowance. It is an extraordinary story. The sympathy there for the

families is even more so tonight for what they are going through. One

thinks there will be a lot more to come in that story. Chilcott may

seem like a very rapid inquiry. The peerage story. All those leaks we

now know were pretty much correct. David Cameron's resignation honours

list was pretty much outlined. There are some quite unusual, not unusual,

but very exceptional names. Including the chauffeur and a

personal adviser that some call a stylist, to Samantha Cameron. Yes, I

think this is another example of David Cameron's political reputation

being tarnished as he leaves office. I think it does huge damage to the

whole peerage system, the whole honours system, it does no credit to

David Cameron for wanting to give gongs of one sort or another to

people who work for him in various capacities, including his driver.

Even the woman in charge of looking after the appointment process within

Downing Street, though I'm sure she's absolutely first-class and

impartial as a civil servant. It also damages the whole honours

system more generally. People like my good friend here... David Davis

OBD? Who got his OBD for the best of reasons. All of those people have

received those. When the honour system is brought into disrepute, it

tarnishes everyone. What I would say, Lance, is who advised this

Prime Minister to go ahead with his honours list, when his two

predecessors, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, did not? There is a bit of me

that thinks, is on a beach in Corsica, I'm sure enjoying himself,

there's an element to me that thinks, does he really care about

this? I'm sure he does. It has to have been his decision to do this.

The Daily Telegraph as well just briefly, the Russian athletes being

given the all clear to complete properly. -- to compete. This is the

story it isn't the mass band that many were calling for. It's not. I

have to say there is another side to this argument than what appeared

very strongly in the British media are a couple of weeks ago. The truth

is, no one has yet established that to ban everybody would be legal.

Secondly, not much doubt that if you banned everybody, some innocent

Russian athletes would have been kept out of games which some of them

may have worked for their whole lives to take part in. That is the

other side to the argument. The other side of the story in a sense,

Lance. The Daily Express, an inside page. With Andy Murray struggling

which way to hold the flag, appearing to hold it in front of

Princess Ann. At the start. And the protests about the cost of the

Olympics within Brazil itself. It was a great comedy routine with Andy

Murray and the Princess Royal and Seb Coe on the end. Nearly getting

his eyes poked out by our wonderful Wimbledon champion. A lot of anger

on the streets of Rio about the cost of it all, and whether or not it's

in the interest of the people of the city. Interestingly on the front of

the FT, Sadiq Khan was calling into question whether or not the legacy

from 2012 had done as much for East London as it was supposed to be

doing. The whole business... It may be good for the nation itself, great

for the pride of the nation itself, but for the people living in the

cities where it happens... I was in Brazil 2013 and the World Cup in

2014, absolutely no doubt the Brazilians wanted to stage the World

Cup. The Olympics? Which is a much more convoluted, much more

complicated, much more expensive venture, than the World Cup, it

remains to be seen how keen, in the end... Because sometimes you get

these protests, there were protests in London by the way, at the start

of the games. But overwhelmingly, by the end, the general mood seems to

be, at the time, this was OK. Brazil, I regret to say, are

unlikely to win as many medals as home nations traditionally have done

so. Tell you what, for a change of heart, to end on a lighter note,

let's go back to the Financial Times. Apparently, planners have

been given the green light for a $200 million luxury retirement home

which comes with a tunnel through to Harrods. Who would have thought it?

Are you putting in a bid? David is slightly closer to retirement than

me and could afford it a little bit better. An outrageous slur! I expect

a letter from your solicitor, yes. I agree. I also think he's got much

better taste than to shopping habits. I could tell you about going

up five floors of escalators inhabiting the days of Mr Al Fayed,

the former owner. Have I time to tell the story? Kevin Keegan was the

Fulham manager, we wanted him to be manager of England. I went to see

Mohamed Al Fayed, he gave me a gold bar. The question was, could I take

the gold bar of chocolate back to the FA in Harrods bag without a

camera crew, who were always outside, noticing. You should

definitely get a discount on your retirement. That's it for the papers

this evening. Don't forget you can see all the front pages online on

the BBC News website and read detailed reviews of the papers. It's

all there, seven days a week. BBC .co .uk. / papers. A big thank you

to David and Lance.