26/12/2016 The Papers

after already splurging on pre-Christmas discounts.

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

With me are the political commentator, Jo Phillips,

and the Political Editor of the Sunday Mirror

A picture of George Michael dominates the front page of the i -

with the paper focusing on the charitable donations made

Meanwhile, the Mirror has speculation about how

The former Wham frontman, is also pictured in the Telegraph.

But the paper's main story, is a warning from England's chief

nursing officer that the NHS should spend more money looking

And finally the Express leads with a report from a pro-Brexit

campaign group which claims that the UK will be at least

450 million pounds a week better off,

The Times's main story claims the nuclear safety regulator has

turned a blind eye to dozens of serious mistakes at power plants

The Guardian says NHS services for children with mental health

needs are so substandard they are prolonging their suffering.

And the Sun dedicates its front page to George Michael -

showing a picture of him in his heyday, the headline says

The papers, the tabloids were not always particularly kind to George

Michael but in death they What is interesting about The Sun

and the Daily Mirror is that they choose to different front pages. The

Sun shows George Michael in his heyday, the picture is some years

old. The Mirror has chosen a picture of where George Michael is looking

fat and bloated and it is all recent picture. The Sun, inside, shows that

picture also but it isn't the way they chose their front pages. Over

the years, George Michael has done enough things to keep himself in the

news. One would argue that what happens with celebrities is that

when he was finally caught by a Los Angeles police officer in a lavatory

in LA, the job until then had been beefy, heterosexual man and that

helped him to come out. From what he has said since, he was quite pleased

to come out because he worried about what would happen to his career if

people knew he was gay. The Mirror front page, they say they have

details of his death. As Nigel was suggesting, quite different... It is

veering into the not quite so a a idolising. His lover told the paper

told him how he found him dead on Christmas Day and revelations from

apparently friends saying he had been hosting wild all-night parties

before his death. The inevitable commentary of local people who

spotted him in a restaurant. And that is probably where that teacher

came from. That picture they say is George Michael in September.

Exactly. In The Mirror, from Tony Parson, who was George Michael's

higher refund but he wrote this in 2011 when George Michael was

actually dying from pneumonia in a Vienna hospital and it was about the

30 years he had known him and he says that George went from being too

fat, Ron Smart too stupid, from straight to overtly gay, from a

responsible driver to someone who crashed into a shop. It is that

celebrity and all the interviews I heard from George Michael, there was

this conundrum, this lack of self-confidence despite this amazing

talent. "In The Mirror, in his words, there is no such thing as a

reluctant star, stars are almost always people who want to make up

for their weaknesses by being loved by the public and I no exception. It

is interesting he had that tag. What he really wanted was claimed, that

he craved it, never thinking what fame brought and what it meant. With

an came a nice big house, any car he wanted. In a sense, he was quite

naive about his celebrity and then discovered some of the advantages.

He was never quite sure of himself. But he found it hard to cope with

fame, having achieved it. Yes, that's right. And a lot of the

things he kept secret. One of the interesting quote from the Daily

Mirror is that everything had been very complicated recently. We did

not know what that means. What was quite behind George Michael's death

but there seems to be something going on. The high talk about what

an amazing philanthropist he was. The Blakey did for charity without

being noticed. Again, it goes back to that being, that is the

conundrum. Someone who wanted fame, as someone who got huge wealth

through his fame and then was giving money away and millions and millions

of pounds to charities. He gave all the royalties from Jesus to a child,

a huge hit, to a charity. Apparently he gave a complete stranger, a woman

he watched on TV programme he was trying to get money for a programme

and he gave her money. He gave a lot for the NHS. Generous with text.

?500 to one. We did not know his wishes but there is a different

picture of him. I had that dominates more than the bloated... A wonderful

singer and star who sadly died at the age of 53. The Times, their main

story is about the nuclear industry and the safety regulator they say is

accused of turning a blind I? The things they turned the blind eye to

on the surface - a torpedo going up in another. The radioactive material

involved in accidents on the roads and this stuff spilling out which

they said was not dangerous at all and everything was fine. But the

idea of a torpedo floating around does not sound that harmless but,

again, that does not know. I do not know whether it patted out or

whatever. But the Times have a lot of instances they have here that are

enough that if you were a campaigner against regulate loads being hauled

up and down the countries in trains on roads, this gives your own -- an

awful lot of ammunition. Still in the Times, you can plead guilty

online to speed the wheels of justice? This is part of the prison

reform Bill. To keep minor offenders out of the court system. Offences

like TV Licence evasion, motoring, traffic events, fare dodging, the

plan is that some of these could be Internet based administrative and

you would be able to logon, view the penalty, accepted the conviction and

pay, rather like you do, I think, for most fixed penalty parking

fines. But the association is concerned and say it is justice

being done outside public scrutiny and some offenders will plead guilty

when they should not but on the other hand, this could free up the

delays... Surely you can say that pop, guv and Payet online. -- payee

it online. But if you are not guilty... Presumably you can contest

it. Fair point. The Telegraph have a story about how Bottas in towns and

cities with large Woodland communities were there are about

electoral fraud may need to show their passport or driving licences

before they can vote? This is a scandal. First of all, targeting

Muslim areas but what they would argue is that they are targeting

areas where there is a lot of electoral fraud and they happen to

be Muslim areas. But the bit that gets to me is that people should

bring ID to vote. Voting is a bright and the right people in this country

who do not have a passport, driving licences, credit card and you cannot

say you disenfranchise these people. Having a new system of voting,

whether it is electronic and a secure, is one thing but the idea of

making people produce things they may not have two exercise of the

right to vote is not on. ID cards via the back door. It is this

targeting of particular ethnic areas that will mean an outrage. This is

not acceptable. We are reaching the end of the Brexit a year... I think

2017 will be pretty much about Brexit as well! The Express have got

the EU - Brexit is going to save us ?450 billion per week. Oh, yes and

if you read it the story is for change Britain which was Vote Leave.

They are sensible reputable people by this report is like saying I have

been to the sale, I have got this fantastic bargain look how much I

saved but not looking at how much you actually have spent. It could -

could, deliver and free burdens and regulations and allow the UK to

Fords new trade deals and they say figures are very conservatives and

GDP could be boosted by another 80.5 billion and so on and so on but none

of this talks about what we get currently from the EU in terms of

research grant... It is a wish list. If we do a deal with the Tahrir, if

we do a deal with Asian economies... We have to do the deals first. I am

sorry to sound sceptical but we saw that on the buses during the

referendum campaign. Do you think Theresa May will keep to the

timetable of triggering Article 50? I can't see why not, if they vote

then MPs will go for it. They might try to turn on the odd amendment

here and there if they can. But yes, I think she will. We will

have to see whether or not she gets forced into a general election. You

were mentioning the sales as a metaphor, but let's talk about the

real Boxing Day sales. ?4 billion bonanza as foreigners boost the

Boxing Day sales. Foreigners, we like them now! This is the Daily

Express, that's OK then! Why are foreigners coming? Because of the

pound! It is astonishing. We were talking before we came on air about

the old days when there would be a very posh person from the BBC who

would interview a young couple sitting outside a department store

somewhere and they were going to go to Safer for ?20. There's a woman

quoted here who bought two pairs of shoes that were reduced from ?630 to

?90 a pair, if you can afford to spend that on shoes then you

probably don't need to go in that crash in the sales! I find it

astonishing. But it is good for retail. You're not a salesperson? I

hate shopping, I can think of so many things I would rather do. I'm

not going to the sales. I don't know why people would want to do this

when you had so many discounts before Christmas. During the

Christmas shopping was astonished to see how much was cheaper, as if it

was a perpetual sale. Great for the retail sector if people want to go

out, but not for me. Many thanks to both of you. I guess it is the last

time we will see you this year. Bargain basement, we are! Our very

own Boxing Day sale with Joe and Nigel. Thanks and happy New Year to

both of you. Coming up next on BBC News it is time for Sportsday.