12/12/2016 The Papers

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

With me are the journalist Helen Croydon and the

Tomorrow's front pages, starting with...

The Times leads on the care story we've been reporting today,

saying that ageing parents are drawing up legal documents

to make clear that they would rather die than allow excessive care home

fees to eat into their child's inheritance.

The Daily Mail has the same story, but the paper is asking the foreign

aid budget to be used to tackle the crisis. The Guardian focuses on the

issue in Syria and carries a picture from Aleppo with the headline, this

is a final distress call to the world.

nightmare with strikes by postal workers and rail staff

likely to cause misery in the days before christmas.

The I leads on plans for a new network of super

selective schools to cater for the country's

The express as a daily dose of statin 's can reduce the risk of

developing Alzheimer's disease. We start with the Telegraph. Have

you posted your Christmas cards yet? I do not do Christmas cards. Well,

you are all right then. You will be laughing. The postal strike will not

be until the 20th of December, sorry the 19th, and the last post date is

the 20th. It is only for the people who are a bit last-minute like you.

But it is not actually all of the post offices, it is the crown post

offices, the main high street branches, not the little ones inside

shops. But still it is really badly timed. Not if you are a postal

worker who feels industrial action is the only way to sort out the

debate over pensions and new working practices. That is the dilemma. If

you are a trade union leader, when is the time to make an impact? If

you still believe that strike action works, and I was talking today to a

trade union leader, and we were talking about strike action in the

21st-century as a weapon, and there is an argument that if you want to

make an impact, when better to do it than now? That is not going to win

the public support. That is what they should be doing, trying to win

support from the public. As well as the post-office strikes, this story

is also mentioning the rail strikes, three days this week. That is hugely

disruptive with people coming into town to do their shopping. Everybody

is blaming Southern with this. But it is the unions, Southern have

tried to have talks with the unions. Oh! That is one view of what has

happened. But I have to tell you there is another view. But, be that

as it may, it is interesting that this is a return of what used to be

called militancy and probably should still be called militancy. It will

be interesting to see the attitude of Jeremy Corbyn in the last few

days before the Parliamentary recess. He is very quiet. Whether he

will support the postal workers, let alone the people in the southern

region. You talked about public support and you cannot have

industrial action in this day and age in a vacuum. If you have the

whole of the public on your side, that is something that can be quite

important. Is there a difference between support for postmen and

support for rail staff? Is there a sense that the postmen, good honest

working men and women who keep us all in communication... If it is

people who are not getting their presence is delivered in time, also

there have been so many post office closures recently that most of us

cannot find a post office near to us. You make the journey and it is

closed because of a strike two days before Christmas. I have a wonderful

small post office run by a wonderful single woman who works and works and

works. She is a tribute. Would she go on strike? She will confirm this,

I have sent more Christmas cards this year than ever in my life. She

has been there a few years. You have been known as Mr Scrooge, so I am

quite shocked. I am only jesting! The front page of the Guardian,

actually, no, it is not Aleppo, it is Brexit. Hammond, we need a deal,

there could be an economic cliff if we pull stake out of the European

Union as businesses have not had time to adjust. This is a

fascinating battle now developing within the government. On the one

hand Philip Hammond backing up the Governor of the Bank of England,

Mark Carney, on having this transitional deal. On the other side

my namesake without the E, David, and the likes of Liam Fox, who say

apparently they are not keen on a traditional and transitional deal.

But Philip Hammond appeared before the Treasury Select Committee today

and said two years people have talked about it, and this could take

rather longer. Some of the papers are saying he is thinking about four

years which would take us up to the official date of the next election,

in 2020. Mr Hammond had a quote that his thinking is emerging amongst

those people, among thoughtful politicians. Where that put David

Davis and Liam Fox I am not sure. We have got to two tier debate, hard

Brexit and soft Brexit, should we be in the single market or the customs

union? And now we have this other debate, is it a fast Brexit or a

slow Brexit? You have got a two-way debate with overlaps on each one.

And it is more and more confusing. I am not a betting man, but I promise

you it will not be a fast Brexit. There will be a natural transition

period, whether Philip Hammond gets what he once or not because

businesses will need to adapt. They will need new IT systems, new

training systems. If we have a customs union, will we need

barriers? All the other 27 countries are keen on it as well because their

economy has been bound up with elements of the British economy, so

they want extra time. You are forgetting our learner to friends in

all of this. Some of them want an immensely long Brexit. I do not

think there is any advantage in having a prolonged Brexit because it

leads to uncertainty. And lawyers getting a nice big fat cut. Onto

super selective schools. What I date? This is exclusive, part of

Theresa May's new grammar schools that she will be introducing. As

part of that she has plans for so-called super selective schools

which are for the brightest 2% of children. This was recommended by

her advisers who said it would bring Britain in line with countries like

the US, India, France and Russia who have a similar system. We do not

know a lot about it, we do not know what this election would be. If you

get the highest amount in your 11 plus, would you be creamed off? It

sounds very great, less reward the brightest children and give them an

opportunity, let's get rid of class elitism which we have had in the

past, but this will lead to perhaps a little bit of intellectual

elitism. We will get a situation where parents become really pushy.

It will still favour the elite. Which is what you see in Asian

countries, kids committing suicide because there is so much pressure on

them. Will somebody explain to me that how is it that my country is

moving towards a more selective system at just the time that so many

of these other countries we are meant to be a thing are moving away

from selection? I do not understand that, it is quite beyond me. There

is an argument for comprehensive education that over the last few

years it has not produced the kind of workforce that we apparently need

to take on the likes of Germany and others. Whether that is true or not

I would not argue with it, but that does not necessarily mean that

selection is correct. Or the way forward and the Labour Party say

that better comprehensive education is the way forward. A long-running

debate. Give opportunity to all. Parents calling in lawyers over

soaring care costs in the Times newspaper. It has been leading the

way on this social care scandal and I use that word deliberately. It is

a wretchedly sad story on the front page of The Times tomorrow that

ageing parents are drying up these legal documents to make clear they

would rather die than allow excessive care home fees to reach

into their child's inheritance. Whatever happened to the 2015

Conservative manifesto commitment to reform the care system for the over

65 and all that noise over a cap? Whatever happened to the idea of an

all-party commission? This must be the longest predicted crisis of any

that I can think of. The government has a responsibility to keep people

safe and sound. But this is part of it, surely, keeping people safe and

sound in my view. The government says local councils will be able to

raise the precept, a bit more on council tax towards social care. A

lot of people are suggesting this is too big a problem for that kind of

remedy. It is, the ageing population is getting worse. This is such a

tragic story, that parents are literally prepared to die for their

children's inheritance. It also taps into the idea that the children of

these parents who are now going into care either lost generation, the

ones who are suffering rising house prices and a lower standard of

living. They are the ones now who need that inheritance of the most.

This whole generation is relying still on their parents. We have to

bring it to an end. That went very quickly. It has been good to see

you. Stay with us on BBC News. The front pages are online on the BBC

News website. It is therefore you seven days a week. And you can see

us there as well with each night's edition of the programme. Thank you

for watching. Nothing too extreme on the horizon

over the next few days, but I would not rule out a white Christmas just

yet. But it is very mild and it will stay that way for the next few days

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