26/12/2013 The Papers

after beating Liverpool in the late kick-off. We will look back on day

one in Melbourne in the fourth Ashes Test. Andy Murray's return to action

after back surgery. And we will find out who won the King George VI

Chase. Welcome to our look ahead to what

the papers are bringing us tomorrow. With me is solicitor, Michael

Caplan, and a mince pie bearing Neil Midgley, of the Daily Telegraph.

Starting with the Telegraph. Shoppers have given retailers a

Christmas boost today in what may have been Britain's biggest one-day

shopping spree on record. The Guardian says voters are turning

away from politics, not because they are apathetic but because they are

angry. The FT finds evidence that the Boxing Day sales may not have

been as profitable as retailers were hoping. They say shoppers have been

demanding much deeper discounts from stores. The Times says civil

servants are having to rely on private sector expertise to complete

some of the Government's biggest infrastructure projects. The mirror

says the Boxing Day sales promote a frenzy on the high street, with

shoppers spending ?60,000 a second. The independent save the NHS is

accused of covering up failings at a London centre for rape victims.

Let's begin with a quick flick through the front pages of the

papers that are covering the Boxing Day sales. The Daily Mirror, an

extraordinary figure. ?60,000 a second. All sorts of records being

broken. Were you amongst them, Michael? I certainly wasn't, I

stayed at home. What I find very interesting, not so much that, but

the effect internet shopping is having at the moment. According to

one report here, people have spent almost an hour on the internet

during Christmas Day, actually shopping will stop John Lewis say

50% of all their purchases from mobile devices. It's one thing

people going to shops, I wonder how long that is going to last because I

think there's a changing landscape. The FTR group of people who really

did turn out, they weren't doing shopping online. I think the point

is you can sell anything if you sell it cheap enough. This is always Jeff

Randall's point, my former colleague in the Telegraph, what is important

for a retailer is how much profit they make. It's not how many people

they get through the doors or how much stuff they flog. If you sell

something below cost then there's not really much point in selling it

in the first place. But it does seem that it has been a very good day for

retailers, just in terms of getting people through the doors. There's a

lot... This is a great thing for news reporters, there aren't many

new facts on Boxing Day. When you are putting together the paper,

there's a lot of... Christmas Day TV ratings, lots of figures, and

there's lots of figures here about retail. 10 million people, up from

9.8 million last year, a 1.5% increase, went shopping today,

apparently. So one in six of everybody in the country. The Daily

Telegraph says they've spent ?2.7 billion. We don't know yet. Aren't

these statistics are a little bit made up? They could be misleading

because you just don't know how much is returned. With internet

shopping, people do have a cooling off period. I'm a bit dubious about

some of these figures. Even know it is your paper. In defence of the

fine reporting by paper, this is money that has been spent today. You

can get pretty good estimates of that, just from credit card

companies. Most of this money is spent on cards of one description or

another. But people are holding out for a bargain. There might not be a

lot of profit. But it's better than... For the retailers, it's

better than people not going out and shopping. I just have visions of

people all over the country sitting there on Christmas night and I feel

slightly depressed by it. They've got their new tablet, what am I

going to do with it? I'm going to go shopping. I find it revolting. I

don't know how people have time. I've been cooking! When I was

younger, it was the New Year's Day sale. And there are sales during the

summer as well. Do you really need a Boxing Day sale? It does seem like

it has got closer and closer to Christmas. A lot of sales were on

before Christmas. What happened to this so-called cost of living

crisis? Where are we finding this money to spend? The credit cards. A

lot of people do buy things on a card. If it is over the internet,

you have to do it on a card. That has revolutionised things and does

make a difference. We will see how well placed people to pay the vet

bills off in January. The Guardian, few Rebus MPs. -- view re-with MPs.

The main reason for not voting is we are not bored, but people are angry.

That is why people are refusing to engage politically. This will give

the MPs something to work on, because they are always trying to

work out how they attract the under 30 voter. This is another way to get

a story for the 27th of December. Do an opinion poll, so you've got your

own statistics to put on the front page. It's an interesting one to do.

People were asked, what was the emotion they most readily felt when

they were asked about politics and politicians. Anger came ahead of

apathy, respect, boredom and inspiration. Only 2% of people... It

was disenchantment generally. But what I do find worrying is the

Guardian do refer to a number of high-profile people who say they've

never voted and will not vote. I think that's sad, because it's one

of the rights of people. I always encourage everyone, exercise your

vote. I think that is open to some criticism of these high-profile

people saying, well, I haven't voted. Russell Brand was very

outspoken in that interview with Jeremy Paxman, he said he doesn't

vote because he doesn't think it makes any difference and doesn't

really bring about change. If we all thought that then it never would.

The worry is that younger people, because one of the aspects of this

which brings it home is back in the 1960s, there were three quarters of

a population voting. Equally, to all age groups. In the last election,

less than half of 18 to 30s voted. It would be sad if in 2015 that is

repeated. But there is less difference these days between the

parties. When I was first politically sentience in the early

1980s, we had Margaret Thatcher facing Michael Foot in the Commons.

There were real differences in ideology. Talking about new killer

disarmament, socialism versus capitalism almost an almost Russian

version of socialism on one side and a very right-wing capitalism on the

other. Now Miliband and Cameron are arguing about very small economic

distinctions in particular. There are very few, very small

differences, but there are differences. People have to listen

to the debates between all the leaders and make up their own minds.

Let's move on to the picture story on the Guardian. Sinking feline

flood warning. A cat being carried to safety in Kent which was one of

the places in the south-east of England that has born the brunt of

this weather. A grim time for a lot of people. Very sad pictures in Kent

and Surrey, people having to leave their homes on Christmas Day,

flooding, no electricity. It also brings home the animal population.

Here we have a cat being rescued. This must have taken its toll on

animal throughout the whole country. I saw horses wading through

knee deep water up in the Midlands. And more to come, unfortunately.

This is the lull between the two storms. Let's look at the Financial

Times. Cameron's enterprise zones fall far short of job creation

targets. These targets hark back to the days, speaking of the 1980s,

when Michael Heseltine was up in Liverpool and creating new

opportunities and trying to encourage investment particularly in

the north. Didn't he say that Tories were supposed to be not

interventionist, but he would intervene before breakfast, lunch

and dinner? President of the board of trade, as he restyled himself in

that role. Enterprise zones are a very odd policy for the Tories to a

spouse, because the are big government. The idea of a Tory

economic policy surely should be for government backed road to get out of

the way. The idea here was to create jobs. These enterprise zones, which

create over 50,000 jobs, it's going to fall short of that. What was even

more stark and sad is that revelation that 1,000,016 to

24-year-olds are neither in training, education or working.

That's where something has got to be done by the Government. Those people

need to be getting into either training or work. There is the big

problem that David Cameron has to tackle before the next election, at

least perceived increasing divide between the haves and have-nots. The

cost of living crisis. If it's real. There clearly is a squeeze on

disposable incomes. But it's also a recovery. The Conservatives have

laid their stall out. Recovery will come through economic recovery.

Clearly, this is an indication it won't come through jobs. That is the

worry. Where will you have an economic recovery if you don't have

it through jobs, especially for the younger people? Now the

independent, Salmond hit legal reality of Scotland's EU status. The

idea that it might not be quite so simple for Scotland to be fast

tracked into membership of the EU, should it become independent from

the rest of the UK, as Alex Salmond is hoping. He certainly hoping it

would be. Fast tracked within 18 months and it would be very smooth

and quick. That clearly is not going to happen. There are seriously

unresolved issues, according to this exclusive in the app independent.

There will be problems with voting rights and opt outs. Apparently

further financial questions. The one you miss out of the list is the use

of the Euro. As far as I knew, Alex Salmond wanted to keep the pound. It

will be a sterling zone alongside the eurozone. One thing which is

guaranteed to make a lot of Scottish people think twice about voting in

favour of independence would be if they thought they were going to be

in some way hoodwinked into getting the you wrote. They've seen what

happens to other countries in the eurozone, particularly small

companies -- is. It's pretty good for lawyers. On to most things? You

make sure it is so. I try not to. But in reality, will this issue make

or break independence? No, but I think there's going to be an awful

lot more of this as we get towards the referendum in 2014. There's

going to be a lot more pulling on the thread which will unravel the

knitting that Alex Salmond is trying to do, of his perfect independent

sweater. It's a more complex issue. They are all complex. Think about

the future of the BBC, for example. It is very quickly getting into

difficult territory about what happens to the BBC north of the

border, and to BBC services which Scottish people value. Whitehall

forced to call on the experts, consultants needed to rescue

troubled projects that have proven to be riskier than expected. In the

past when consultants have been used that has ended up costing a lot of

money. My guess is we are looking across the Atlantic to Washington

and have seen the disaster that has befallen the Obama administration,

with the health care website simply not working. Those issues of

competency and can you get the business of government done? They

are very damaging if you get them wrong. They are looking at the HS2

high-speed rail line as well. ?40 million written off on universal

credit schemes. Anyone listening will think that is a huge figure

around should there not be some kind of enquiry? The hope is that the

enquiry would not cost more money but clearly there has to be some

kind of accountability. It sounds to me is that Margaret Hodge is going

to be very busy. Much more to talk about when we are back at 11:30pm

with more of the front pages. Coming up next, time for Sportsday.

Welcome to Sportsday. Coming up on the