20/12/2013 The Papers

appearances. All that and much more coming up in Sportsday in 15 minutes

after The Papers. Hello and welcome to our look ahead

to what the the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. With me are

the former State Department official Colleen Graffy and Kate Devlin,

political correspondent at the Herald. Good to have you with us.

The Independent reports that David Cameron has threatened to veto the

admission of new members to the EU unless they accept controls on their

citizens moving to the UK. The Mirror claims Nigella Lawson has

reacted furiously to her former aides being cleared of fraud.

It's going to be a white Christmas, according to the Daily Express.

The Financial Times is calling the festive period a tale of two

Christmases, comparing buoyant consumer spending with declining

incomes and savings. And the Telegraph's top story is The Met

Police Commissioner's decision not to investigate Nigella Lawson's

confession to taking class A drugs. The paper questions whether it

amounts to a drugs amnesty for the middle class.

And the Sun reports on Nigella's funerary after the court case

involving her former assistance. -- her funerary. And it is with the

Nigella story that we will begin. There are a couple of strands to it

in different newspapers. The Mirror says the TV star is furious over a

sustained campaign, as her aides are cleared of fraud. It seemed at times

that we had a mine ourselves while the case was going on that it was

about fraud and it was not my Jell-o was on trial. -- we had to remind

ourselves. It was not my Jell-o that was on trial. Absolutely. I think

she has not really understood what the British public has thought of

the trial. She is saying it was part of a sustained campaign to attack

her. I think most people came out of the trial on her side, even the

Prime Minister. Much to the annoyance of the judge, having the

Prime Minister making any comments while the trial was underway.

Americans have a new series coming on ABC that Nigella Lawson is part

of, a second series in January. And the view appears to be that they

like her and it will be fine. It has been surprising that this was a

trial for fraud that turned into a trial on Nigella Lawson. She spent

as much time in the witness stand as the sisters. One of the ironies is

that the idea of a cross examination on bad character that the judge

eventually allowed, he had initially not agreed with, but it was the

e-mail from Charles Saatchi that came out that changed his mind. And

we later learned that Charles Saatchi never heard of her taking

drugs for ten years and did not believe it. It is unfortunate that

she ends up the victim. I agree that this is how she will be seen. She

lost her sister, her mother, her first husband. I think there is a

big sympathy vote for her, and it looks like her marriage to -- it

looked like her marriage to Charles Saatchi was brilliant, but it looks

like the marriage was not the best and it looks, perhaps out of spite,

that he sent this e-mail which allowed her bad character to be

introduced. He said he regretted that the e-mail had come to light.

Is there not a certain naivete that it would not get nasty? You will

throw whatever you need to at a case, if you are being charged with

something. This is part of the problem. The criminal justice system

is not easy, not simple, not smooth. Even the witnesses, as she was in

this case, will find that lots of things that perhaps they do not want

to come to light will come to light. It is unfortunate. I am not

sure there is any way to make sure, in this kind of case, when it is

about fraud and these kind of allegations, that you can not have

this kind of thing happen. Also, I doubt Charles Saatchi knew there was

section 100 of the criminal Justice act in 2003 that allows for this bad

character aspect of the case. I am sure he had no idea of what that

would cause. But certainly it seems he regrets it. And it will be

interesting, but at the moment the public seems to be rallying around

her. She is beautiful, talented, she has been through a lot in her life.

Someone wasn't suggesting that one of the things Americans love is

transformation, someone who says, yes, I did drugs but I have stopped

that and I am clear cut again. Do you think that would go down well in

the US? I think it is more, what did she call it, intimate terrorism,

something along that line. I think there will be an understanding of

being trapped in this marriage that was not fulfilling perhaps to either

one of them. That will also be an angle. A final thought on this, she

made the point that her children were effectively put on trial. That

idea that, hang on, I am not the guilty party, not the person on

trial, because the Grillo sisters have been found not guilty. But many

people who have been through the court system will feel they have

been through the ringer, even though they were only a witness. This was

supposed to be a fraud trial. I am sure she did not expect to be on the

witness stand. She did not have council to come back with. Some are

suggesting that for a section 100 ad behaviour, bad character, rather,

that there is a counsel for the witness that is allowed in to cross

examine on her behalf. Let's move onto the Telegraph macro. Nigella

legacy, drugs amnesty for the middle class. This is after Britain's most

senior police man said there would not be an investigation following

Nigella Lawson's confession to taking class a drugs. Does it amount

to an amnesty for the middle class? Would it be different if you were

not beautiful, successful and not known to everybody on TV? I think it

absolutely would be different. To be honest, if you were not middle aged

as well. If you were a teenager, and perhaps you do not have a job yet,

or you are wearing a hardy, these things do tend to influence it. I

think there does need to be a much more honest discussion about trucks

policy in the UK, about what we want our drugs policy to do. At the

moment, to my mind, it is not unlike the Vatican policy on contraception,

where something is decreed from the pulpit but the flock is not quite

agreeing on most of it. I think a lot of people would not be surprised

that a television presenter does drugs, but whether they want them to

or not is a different matter. This is also at odds with Sir Bernard

Hogan-Howe's normally tough stance on drugs. It will smack of double

standards if they are not careful. Much of it has to do with the fact,

where is the evidence, what has happened recently, who will testify

against her? She has said so herself, but that is not something

you prosecute someone on. That would be tough for them. I like the

cartoon. This year, I am doing a Nigella Lawson Christmas. Whatever

that means. Moving on to the Independent, talking turkey, a

seasonal headline but nothing to do with what will be on our tables. It

is Cameron's biggest EU gamble yet, the idea that David Cameron will use

a bit of a threat, will only allow expansion of the EE you if numbers

of people who can migrate from those countries is curbed. -- expansion of

the youth. He has to have something in his

promised referendum, and in-out referendum on Europe. He needs to

show that he has got them to change something. So far, he has not really

got anything. This seems to be the kind of thing he is going for. What

this seems to be as well, and I do not know if you would agree, is a

failure of diplomacy. According to the Independent, there was silence

whenever he suggested this. No one came to his aid saying, we will

agree. He said quite a similar thing in Lithuania two weeks ago, so it

should not come as a surprise. Obviously they are not particularly

keen to get behind him at the moment. But the European Union needs

to solve this problem somehow. They need to keep this ship on the seas.

The problem is that he is going against the foundation of the

European Union, free movement of goods, services and people. If you

start saying, free movement of some people, some time, that will be

difficult to sustain. On the other hand, it looks like Germany,

Netherlands and Austria are also saying, we have sympathy with this,

and we are potentially online. But how do you do that when it goes

against a main principle of the European Union? The potential new

members they are talking about, Albania, one of the poorest

countries in the region, which is something David Cameron has

highlighted, that we should only allow unfettered movement once your

economy has reached 75% health of the recipient country. Also, Serbia,

Turkey and the Ukraine. Turkey will not be that much of a hard sell,

because there has always been disquiet about Turkey joining. The

United States is very supportive of Turkey being a member. The US does

not have a vote, but it is seen as the linchpin between the Middle East

and Europe. That could be an ongoing influence towards the Middle East. I

think the rest of the European Union is not so keen on that. In any

case, I think the idea of saying that there will be a certain period

of time before you can accrue for benefits, other European Union

countries do that I am not sure why the UK cannot do that. That would be

one aspect. The other is that the economy 's reach a certain standard.

Unless they do it with support from other members, and there is radio

silence from many, they are open to legal challenge. The EU is a strange

organisation. On the one hand, everybody has to agree - on the

other hand, well, actually on the same hand, if one person or one

leader of one country says he is going to veto something, that really

is that. The other leaders may not like what with David Cameron has

said but they can't ignore T The other thing is, they might agree but

they are staying sigh epted for political reasons. They might be

hiding behind the skirts of David Cameron in saying - we agree with

this, but politickedically... Let's move on to the FT - Britain's tale

of two Christmasses, people have been spending money but incomes and

savings going down. Does that sound like people are wracking up debt? A

good Christmas for George Osborne, Britain's economy roared into the

Christmas holiday on the back of stronger spending and faster growth.

Ed Miliband and Balls perhaps will be a little glummer. But I also like

the fact of what people are expecting now are sales. So - I

couldn't believe going into the shops now, everything has 50% off,

60% off. Usually you will have to wait until the new year. You will be

kicking yourself if you did your shopping early. Exactly. A different

type of spending one, we look for the deals and the other, is foe

cousin on children, electronics, headphones, and away from clothing.

And people easing off in the last three or four Chris masts and

feeling they can be more optimist why about how they can spend. --

Christmases. They are a bit more, not very. And probably right. We saw

unemployment figures which suggested unemployment was going down, more

people in jobs, you would think that's a good thing but Mark

Kearney, the Bank of England governor has suggested if it gets to

a certain level, which we are not far off, he might look at interest

rates and a lot of people have managed to keep their household

economies going because their mortgage has been pretty low for the

past couple of years. A lot of people are close to that margin f

that starts to go up, even just a little bit, they are starting to not

be able to make their monthly payments. Let's lack at the Daily

Express - Christmas day, snow is on the way. We know the Express loves a

weather story and we like the idea of a white Christmas, or do we?

Would you welcome it? I would absolutely love a white Christmas

day, as long as it is not a white Christmas Eve or white Boxing Day. I

think it's part of the problem with this, the UK infrastructure just

grinds to a halt if we have any kind of snow at all. Not something you

are going to have to worry B I will be missing that in Santa bar,

California, where we have palm trees and walking around with spray snow

on windows. I would enjoy a white Christmas. I think the last one was

'76. I can't remember that. I should be able to. I think it is beautiful

with the snow. I will miss it. We feel jealous you are having to two

Santa bar a bra for Christmas. It must be awful. A hardship -- Santa

Barbara. We'll have more later on the

controversy surround surrounding Nigella Lawson as a witness in a

fraud trial. Now coming up it's Sportsday.

Welcome to Sportsday. Our headlines: It's crunch time for